The Anticipation Of Telephone Calls: A Survey In California - Statistical Data Included

Journal of Parapsychology, The, June, 2001 by David Jay Brown, Rupert Sheldrake

RUPERT SHELDRAKE [1]

ABSTRACT: A sample of 200 randomly selected people was surveyed in Santa Cruz County, California, to investigate the frequency and nature of anticipations of telephone calls. Of those surveyed, 78% said that they have had the experience of telephoning someone who said that they were just thinking about telephoning them; 47% said that they had had the experience of knowing who was calling them when the phone rang without any possible cue; and 68% said that they had thought about a person whom they have not seen for a while, who had then telephoned them that same day. A higher proportion of women than men gave positive answers to these questions. These results are in general agreement with 2 previous surveys in England, although there were several significant differences, which are discussed. These surveys reveal that seemingly telepathic experiences in connection with telephone calls are remarkably common. The authors suggest ways that this phenomenon can be investigated empirically.

It is not uncommon for people to telephone friends or relations who say that they were just thinking of calling them. Likewise, many people have had the experience of thinking of a particular person, with whom they have not spoken to for a while, who then calls them on the telephone later the same day. Some domestic animals, notably dogs and cats, also seem to anticipate telephone calls from particular people, such as their owners, while ignoring calls from other people (Sheldrake, 1999).

Some of these experiences might be explicable in terms of chance coincidence, but others might depend on telepathy, which is what many people who have had these experiences believe. Surprisingly, this well-known phenomenon has been almost completely neglected by psychical researchers and parapsychologists.

To find out how common this type of experience is, we conducted a telephone survey of randomly selected households in Santa Cruz County, California. Two previous telephone surveys in England, one in London and the other in Greater Manchester, indicated that this type of experience occurs quite frequently (Sheldrake, 2000). In both surveys, more than half of the respondents said they had felt that someone was about to telephone them just before they did so. We wanted to find out if this phenomenon was similarly common in an American population. We also asked respondents if they had had other kinds of seemingly telepathic experiences.

In a previous survey in Santa Cruz about perceptive pets, we found that significantly more pet owners said they had had a psychical experience than people without pets (Brown & Sheldrake, 1998). Also in the English surveys, there was a tendency for more pet owners to say they had anticipated telephone calls than people without pets (Sheldrake, 2000). To find out whether these observations were repeatable, in the present survey we also asked people whether or not they had a pet.

We conclude by discussing ways in which seemingly telepathic telephone calls can be investigated empirically.

METHOD

Data were collected by means of telephone interviews conducted by David Brown (D.B.) and Sherry Hall (S.H.), following a standard questionnaire format. D.B. conducted 173 of these interviews and S.H. 27. The pattern of responses obtained by the two interviewers was very similar, and there were no statistically significant differences between them.

The households surveyed were in and around Santa Cruz (population 52,700) in northwest California. Santa Cruz was chosen because it is where D.B. lives, and calling within the local area helped to minimize the cost of the study. Also, we have already surveyed this area for another study (Brown & Sheldrake, 1998) regarding the unexplained powers of animals, and we are building up a database from this region about people's experiences of unexplained phenomena.

A random sample of households was selected from the Pacific Bell Santa Cruz County 1999 telephone directory (area code 831), using an electronic random number generator to determine the page and column number, as well as its position on the page (Brown & Sheldrake, 1998).

D.B. and S.H. introduced themselves as follows: "Hello, my name is David Brown/Sherry Hall. I'm conducting a very brief telephone survey. I was wondering if you had around two minutes to answer a few quick questions? I am not selling anything. The survey is about telephone calls." Approximately 20% of the people reached by phone agreed to participate in the survey. This relatively low participation rate was similar to that in a previous telephone survey in the same area (Brown & Sheldrake, 1998) and may reflect a reluctance of people there to be bothered with such surveys. There was no mention of anything telepathic or psychic at this stage, so the respondents' agreement to take part could not have been influenced by any bias for or against psychic phenomena.

When a cooperative participant was found, D.B. or S.H. then asked a series of questions and recorded the answers on a standard form as follows: