Anomalous information reception by mediums: A meta-analysis of the scientific evidence

•Research on the accuracy of mediums aims to determine whether mediums can anomalously receive information about deceased persons.•Meta-analysis of modern experimental research on medium accuracy is conducted.•Results indicate that some mediums can anomalously receive information about deceased pers...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Explore (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2021-09, Vol.17 (5), p.396-402
Main Authors: Sarraf, Matthew, Woodley of Menie, Michael A., Tressoldi, Patrizio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anomalous information
Bayes Theorem
Communication
Humans
Mediumship
Meta-analysis
Sitter
Survival hypothesis
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Summary:•Research on the accuracy of mediums aims to determine whether mediums can anomalously receive information about deceased persons.•Meta-analysis of modern experimental research on medium accuracy is conducted.•Results indicate that some mediums can anomalously receive information about deceased persons. Background and purpose Mediumship is the ostensible phenomenon of human-mediated communication between deceased and living persons. In this paper, we perform a meta-analysis of all available modern experimental evidence, specifically from 2001 to December 2019, investigating the accuracy of apparently anomalously received information provided by mediums about deceased individuals. Methods 14 papers passed our selection criteria, for a total of 18 experiments. Both Bayesian and frequentist random effects models were used to estimate the aggregate effect size across studies. Results The overall standardized effect size (proportion index), estimated with a frequentist and a Bayesian random effects model, yielded a value of .18 (95% C.I. = .12 - .25) above the chance level. Furthermore, these estimates passed the control of two publication bias tests. Conclusions The results of this meta-analysis support the hypothesis that some mediums can retrieve information about deceased persons through unknown means.
ISSN:1550-8307
1878-7541
DOI:10.1016/j.explore.2020.04.002