Psi
may look like luck: Perceived luckiness and beliefs about luck in relation to
precognition
Dr.
David Luke, Prof. Deborah Delanoy & Dr. Simon Sherwood
Smith (1998) has shown that different people use the term
“luck” to mean different things, some of which might be used euphemistically to
account for psi experiences. However, previous luck-psi experiments have only
measured perceived personal luckiness (PPL) without investigating what
participants actually mean by the term luck when they say that they are lucky,
so luck beliefs were also investigated in relation to psi in this study using
the Questionnaire of Beliefs about Luck (QBL). The literature on psi and luck
indicates that luck might best be understood by Stanford’s model of
‘psi-mediated instrumental response’ (PMIR). A non-intentional, PMIR-type,
precognition experiment with static fractal images as decoys and targets was
run with 100 participants and utilised erotic images as a psi incentive, and a
boring vigilance task as a psi disincentive. The degree of
incentive/disincentive changed incrementally in proportion to psi task
performance. The results seemingly indicate an overall precognition effect and
the significant correlation of several luck belief variables with psi. The
findings support the suggested relationship between luck and psi but further
investigations should consider beliefs about luck not just perceived
luckiness.