The Decline Effect

[sglanz]

Have you ever noticed that an experiment goes well at the beginning, and then trails off as you try to replicate it over and over? In Parapsychology, this is called the Decline Effect. It can apply to ITC. 

https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/decline-effect-parapsychology

Here is just the abstract. The link includes the whole article:
"The term ‘decline effect’ in parapsychology refers to a decline in experimental performance over time. This can be in the context of a single experimental run or over a series or runs. Declines in effect sizes have also been spotted across the lifetime of a particular mode of research, for example in ESP card guessing experiments. This article reviews various ways in which the decline effect manifests - mainly in the context of experimental psi research, but with some reference to its appearance in spontaneous phenomena - and the reasons that have been proposed to account for them."

[Andres Ramos]

That matches my experience also in other ways. I don't have much lucid dreaming even though I would like to have more of them, but when they occur it's generally in the period between May and September with May being the most active month in spiritual terms. Maybe it has something to do with the time around Pentecost.

[sglanz]

The article reviews several explanations for the decline effect, but does not address the seasonal declines that Andres and Dr. Jeffers report.  Although there may be some personal astrological considerations, I suspect it has more to do with seasonal variations in etheric energy, or seasonal electrostatic shifts. In astrology and some mystical traditions, it is said that the human biofield is more body-centric in the spring and summer, and more head-centric in fall and winter. There are ITC studies on seasonal and atmospheric determinants, also in ghost research. I need to look them up. 

[Keith J. Clark]

Thank you Steve for the info.

In my experience the harder audio is to understand the more pronounced this technique may be.

Mind states also play a large role.

For EVP environmental energy also has an impact.

For radio this is even more true, subject to changes in the ionosphere, the radio equipment, weather (even loghtning, electrical interference and of course...

The energy field built by the experimenter built in tandem with spirit communicators.

The more I develop personally, and the more the experiments advance, the less I find this effect to hold true, for myself.

But that's only after 15 years of experimentation. 

The messages I receive from Spirit seem to indicate that focusing on the outcome helps create the end result. As in, at least for now- it is necessary.

There is also a psychic element.

Keith

[sglanz]

Keith, you observe that the decline effect is correlated with audio clarity. This would tend to favor the "motivation" theory of the decline effect. That is, if people have to struggle to hear an EVP, their failure breeds dis-motivation for subsequent trials, and decline follows. 

Yes, the obvious environmental factors with radio. But I'd like to know more about non-radio environmental factors. In another post of mine, we are discussing the use of Tesla coils to raise the local atmospheric dielectric, which seems to correlate with better quality ITC, for example. 

Mind state, repetition, and building a good contact field - all classical components of the operator effect. Now we need to discover how to do get good results without the operator effect, to make the phenomenon more universal. 

[Andres Ramos]

The influence of the experimenter still is an open question to me. Sure it sound logical, the experimenter's mood should play a role because his psi field is supposed to be an important part for opening channels to the hereafter.

On the other hand after some time to swing in, I observed that continuously running ITC devices hooked up to a stream are producing constant results over time except from some 'portal' days with exceptional results. At least in the past my mood changed a lot with the days and depending on stress factors from the outside. I could not see this reflected back to me in terms of signal quality.

In my eyes the experimenters mood and his role in the ITC receiving process still is open to deeper investigations.

[Lance Reed]

Hi all, 

Yes I have also notice the Decline effect in my experiments, I sometimes find that this can last for weeks, but then pick back up???    Interesting topic! 

[sglanz]

11 hours ago, Andres Ramos said:

The influence of the experimenter still is an open question to me. Sure it sound logical, the experimenter's mood should play a role because his psi field is supposed to be an important part for opening channels to the hereafter.

On the other hand after some time to swing in, I observed that continuously running ITC devices hooked up to a stream are producing constant results over time except from some 'portal' days with exceptional results. At least in the past my mood changed a lot with the days and depending on stress factors from the outside. I could not see this reflected back to me in terms of signal quality.

In my eyes the experimenters mood and his role in the ITC receiving process still is open to deeper investigations.

We know that in mediumship circles, techniques are used to build up the psi field, which is thought to generate better contact. Those techniques include raising the vibrations through group singing, etc.  So it stands to reason that a lone experimenter's mood would make a difference. Do you have access to Kirlian photography and similar bio-field measuring tools? Or even simple biofeedback devices to measure mood. Other than that, surveys of mood correlated to ITC results. 

When you talk about Portal Days, what do you mean? In pagan lore, for example, Halloween is thought to be a day where the veil between life and afterlife is thin. Is this what you mean by Portal Day? 

[Andres Ramos]

2 hours ago, sglanz said:

We know that in mediumship circles, techniques are used to build up the psi field, which is thought to generate better contact. Those techniques include raising the vibrations through group singing, etc.  So it stands to reason that a lone experimenter's mood would make a difference. Do you have access to Kirlian photography and similar bio-field measuring tools? Or even simple biofeedback devices to measure mood. Other than that, surveys of mood correlated to ITC results. 

When you talk about Portal Days, what do you mean? In pagan lore, for example, Halloween is thought to be a day where the veil between life and afterlife is thin. Is this what you mean by Portal Day? 

Yes Steve, this is what I meant. However I'm using this term more generally. Halloween is a fixed date like Christmas Eve or Pentecost. Furthermore I observed more 'floating' portal days where I experience lucid dreaming and increased ITC communication independently from the technique I use. These days are not fixed. I just can say that they generally do occur between April and May and sometimes in November.

No I don't have access to kirlian photo techniques but what you said reminds me of a biofeedback experiment based on galvanic skin response. I don't know if we actually can evaluate the mood by measuring skin conductivity. At least I know that relaxation and stress are influencing the conductivity of the skin.

Thanks for the hint Steve.

[sglanz]

Andres, your floating portal could be due to environmental factors. Or it could be related to astrological forces. For environmental, a good starting point is to look at simple things like humidity during April, May and November where you live. I believe low humidity has been correlated with increased psi phenomena and ITC. Another possibility is storm activity, especially lightning. Do you have more storms in April, May and November. There may also be magnetic field shifts that time of year where you live. There are probably tables online that give localized magnetic field data.  For astrological forces, refer to your natal horoscope, and if you are not living in the place you were born, the relocation chart. Some things may pop out that sensitize you every year during those months. 

[Andres Ramos]

25 minutes ago, sglanz said:

Andres, your floating portal could be due to environmental factors. Or it could be related to astrological forces. For environmental, a good starting point is to look at simple things like humidity during April, May and November where you live. I believe low humidity has been correlated with increased psi phenomena and ITC. Another possibility is storm activity, especially lightning. Do you have more storms in April, May and November. There may also be magnetic field shifts that time of year where you live. There are probably tables online that give localized magnetic field data.  For astrological forces, refer to your natal horoscope, and if you are not living in the place you were born, the relocation chart. Some things may pop out that sensitize you every year during those months. 

A good idea Steve. Reminds me I constructed some magnetometers myself. But it's much easier to use the survey data provided from different organizations to make up a daily view on the complete environment data. All I need to do is to log those days and analyze the data. I could do this right away since I made some notes on the portal days I observed this year.