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Study procedure
Location and ArrangementsTwo separate locations are required for the study, referred to as location-1 and location-2in this procedure. This is so that the volunteers are gathered at and fill in their healthforms at a location that the claimant (Anita Ikonen) can not see, so to reduce theavailability for the claimant to receive clues about what the volunteers have answered or from their behavior pattern or movement. The locations need only be places where peoplecan have a seat and there are currently no special requirements on the location.The claimant has received notice from six members of the Skeptics Group of Winston Salem North Carolina who have expressed interest in participating in the study.The involvement of skeptics is crucial in order to raise the quality of the outcome of thestudy. This study procedure requires the participation of four skeptics. Each havedifferent assignments in this study as described under reference to skeptic-1, skeptic-2,skeptic-3, and skeptic-4.A sign is prepared for the study and placed at location-1. It introduces the studyand asks for persons 18 years and older to volunteer for the study. The claimant preparesthe sign and also prepares the information page and health forms that are required for thestudy. The claimant may decide to place out ads in the city to attract people to volunteer for the study.Study ProcedureParticipating skeptics are assigned the assignments of skeptic-1, skeptic-2, skeptic-3 andskeptic-4 respectively. The sign is placed at location-1. Skeptic-1 remains at location-1 atall times. Packets of papers are stapled together in fours, they contain: an information page, a volunteer’s form, a claimant’s form, a skeptic’s form. The volunteer’s form,claimant’s form, and skeptic’s form are the health questionnaires and all contain the samehealth questions in the same format, and in a packet of four all three health forms havethe same identification number on their top margin with which they are to be matchedlater after the study as pertaining to the same volunteer. People are not approached or asked to volunteer. For those that are interested skeptic-1 detaches the information pagewith the volunteer’s form from a packet and hands these two to the person while holdingon to the associated claimant’s form and skeptic’s form. The information page givesadditional information about the study. Those who have read the information page anddecide to volunteer remain at location-1 and fill in their health form. Skeptic-1 isavailable to answer any further questions that the volunteers may have.Once the volunteer has filled in their health form they are ready to be taken byskeptic-2 to location-2 one at a time. Location-1 and location-2 are very nearby oneanother but one can not be seen from the other. Skeptic-1 double-checks that the numbersof the three forms match with each other, then takes the filled in volunteer’s form, folds itin half and places it in his/her possession, and hands the associated claimant’s form andskeptic’s form to skeptic-2. Skeptic-2 goes with the volunteer and with the claimant’sform and skeptic’s form to location-2.Skeptic-3 is at location-2 and remains there at all times. The volunteer takes a seatat location-2. Skeptic-2 double-checks that the identifying numbers on both claimant’s1
 
form and skeptic’s form match with one another. Claimant and skeptic-4 are allowed toenter location-2 once the volunteer has settled in. Skeptic-2 hands the claimant’s form tothe claimant and the skeptic’s form to skeptic-4.Both the claimant and skeptic-4 check the identifying terms on their forms to seethat these match with the volunteer that they are to see, and the claimant checks that her form says “claimant’s form”, and skeptic-4 checks that his/her form says “skeptic’sform”. There will be no speaking between the volunteer and claimant and skeptic-4during the time of the viewing. Skeptic-2 remains at location-2 until this particular viewing is finished. There is no interaction between the claimant and the volunteers other than that the claimant looks at the volunteer.The claimant and skeptic-4 look at the volunteer and answer their health forms based on their impressions or perceptions, and they both fill in their forms at the sametime. Claimant and skeptic-4 can not see each others’ answers. Skeptic-4 is encouraged toattempt any skills of cold reading or guessing to form his/her answers, or even to producerandom answers, so that a very rough estimate of the type of correlation between theanswers of someone who is not a paranormal claimant and the answers of the volunteerscan be estimated at the end of the study and somewhat “subtracted” from the apparentcorrelation with the claimant’s answers. The claimant estimates that it would take from 5and up to 15 minutes to view each volunteer. The volunteer is of course free to leaveearly and at any time.At the end of a particular viewing, the claimant and skeptic-4 fold their forms inhalf and conceal their answers and hand these over to skeptic-3 who ensures that he/shereceives both forms and checks that their identification numbers match and keeps these inhis/her possession. The volunteers will never find out what the claimant or skeptic-4answered regarding them, and none of the forms or answers can be related back to theinvididual volunteer.Once a viewing is over the claimant and skeptic-4 leave location-2 again so thatthey can not see the next volunteer arriving, and this is to again reduce some of the possible external clues that might be available based on a volunteer’s movement. Skeptic-2 returns to location-1 and either remains at location-1 until the next volunteer is ready to be taken to location-2 at which skeptic-2 follows the next volunteer to location-2, or if thenext volunteer is not ready yet skeptic-2 remains at location-1 until then. When the nextvolunteer is taken to location-2 the procedure is repeated as above.This practical part of the study is considered finished either when the claimant hasa reason for it, or when participating skeptics all agree that there is reason to end thestudy, or if no volunteers can be found and it is mutually agreed to end the study, or for any other unforeseen reasons such as weather.DocumentationThe study will be documented in writing. The claimant brings a notebook and takes noteson various things relating to the study.All participating skeptics are encouraged to write down their observations andthoughts on how the study takes place. There is no formal format to what needs to bewritten and each is free to use their own discretion at that. Skeptics are encouraged totake notes on for instance what cold reading might have been available and what procedures need to be changed or implemented if there is to be a second study or a test2
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