Preliminary Test
- detecting which of persons is missing a kidney

The Independent Investigations Group of Hollywood California, with whom I am in the process of designing a test of my paranormal claim of medical perceptions to be tested on the detection of which of persons is missing a kidney, have recommended that I perform a preliminary test of my claim here locally before having the official test with them. To have this preliminary test should not introduce delays to the arrangements of the official test. This preliminary test will be planned while the IIG test is being arranged, and if the IIG test is all set first then I will just go ahead and have the official IIG test. This page describes the work involved in trying to arrange to have that preliminary test.

*Note: This Preliminary kidney detection test is not equivalent to what the JREF refers to as a Preliminary test, in that this is not a prequel to the IIG test. The IIG might still ask me to perform a Preliminary test with them before their official test. The Preliminary test mentioned here should, perhaps, rather be called a "Practice Test".

I took my ideas of a test protocol for the preliminary test to the JREF Forums, VFF Preliminary Kidney Detection Test. Forum Skeptics have decided that I should have the person behind a full-body screen, which renders the claim more into remote viewing, than "perceiving images of internal tissues and organs when I see a person", and I do not remote view. I use some of their suggestions to improve on the test protocol.

Newer Version - Suggested Preliminary Test Protocol

- Skeptics need to be involved in the test since any test that is arranged and performed only by a claimant and acquaintances automatically lacks credibility.
- The Skeptics need to find volunteers for the test. The claimant can not be involved in finding volunteers. The test should involve any number of volunteers that have one kidney and volunteers that have two kidneys. The number of each type of volunteers can be predetermined before the volunteers are sought out, or the Skeptics can settle with those volunteers that are found. Either way the claimant will not know the number of one-kidney and two-kidney volunteers. Alternatively the claimant can be told that 1 in 5, or 1 in 10, for instance, have one kidney, but this approach requires a larger number of volunteers.
- Several trials are used to acchieve the desired odds for the test. For instance, if 1 in 10 has had a kidney removed, then repeating three 1 in 10 trials adds up to a 1 in 1,000 odds of getting all three correctly by guessing. Unless the statistics are thrown off if there are subtle clues as to the number of kidneys in a person that would make it easier to guess the correct answer.
- The claimant asks that she may see the clothed back of the volunteer. All other parts of the volunteer are screened off: the head, neck, shoulders, arms, and from hips down including legs. This requirement seems to be the only complication with the test design, since some JREF Forum Skeptics worry that a person might be able to show subtle clues on their clothed back that reveal the number of kidneys, and that I would be picking up those clues and translating those into images and perception of kidneys. Well, wouldn't that, in itself, almost be a paranormal ability and claim? Bring me a person who can know the number of kidneys under these circumstances. While I understand the concern of cold reading and wish to eliminate the possibility from the test, I fail to see how it could apply to reading the number of kidneys in a person.
- I ask for 15 minutes to look at the person and I write down how I perceive the number of kidneys.
- I will leave the testing room after I've seen a person and once the next person is ready I will enter the room again.
- This is repeated until all volunteers have been seen.
- How do we verify the number of kidneys in a person? An ultrasound is a quick and harmless method to determine whether a person has one or both kidneys. If it involves a test where I am asked to find the one person who has had a kidney removed, from among other persons who have both kidneys, the test would involve only one ultrasound for each such trial for the one person that I selected. If the test involves detecting how many kidneys all volunteers have, the test would involve several ultrasounds. An ultrasound is expected to cost at least $100 each and as the claimant I am responsible for all the costs associated with the test. (At least 1 in 700 persons are born with one kidney, and have one kidney although they did not have a kidney removed. Not all such persons are aware of that, and might sign up for the test, believing that they have two kidneys.)

Purpose of the Preliminary Test
The IIG recommends that their paranormal claimants do tests of their claims at home first before having the official test with them. I would imagine this is to falsify their claims at home rather than publicy with an official test, and also to try to assure that the claim is worthy of the time and effort for setting up a test if the claimant has been unable to falsify it on their own and needs the help of others to do so. I am saying this based on the assumption that all testable paranormal claims do end up being falsified, although we should never simply assume in those cases where a closer look is needed or we might risk missing out on a new discovery. I have been unable to falsify my claim of "Vision From Feeling" on my own and would like for the kidney detection test to conclude on whether my medical perceptions do truly depict actual health information that should not be detectable by known senses of perception, ie. extrasensory perception.

The IIG seem willing to set up the test for me and have told me that the reason they recommend that I have a preliminary test first is to falsify my claim here first and to avoid public humiliation. I however plan to have the preliminary test for the purpose of reinforcing the results from the official IIG test and also as a practice and preparation for my official test. I would not feel humiliated if I fail the official test, rather I would be proud to have investigated a very interesting phenomenon of what then would seem to be synesthetic association that depicts tissues and health information, and I would certainly encourage all persons who experience something unusual that has seemed to correlate with reality to apply the skeptical and scientific method to it, as have I.

Check back for more updates on having the Preliminary Test.

Old Version - Suggested Preliminary Test Protocol
It can be difficult to find persons who are missing a kidney. Therefore I suggest that this preliminary test involves only one trial. If more than one persons who are missing a kidney can be found for the preliminary test, then by all means more than one trial can be done, with one person for each trial. Finding the volunteers will be the hardest part of arranging this test and as the claimant I am unable to do this part myself.

I envision the preliminary test to involve either FACT Skeptics or otherwise college students who work with the practical arrangements and supervise the test. The test procedure for the preliminary test does not have to be identical to the test procedure that will be used between me and IIG since those that work with me on this preliminary test may be involved in its design and might have other suggestions.

I would like to have ten volunteers seated along a row. One of the ten volunteers is missing a kidney, and the nine others have both kidneys. The person missing a kidney was not born without a kidney but has had it removed, and if possible will bring medical documentation to verify that they are missing a kidney - otherwise we will verify it with the scar that should be on their back (but that's not to say that similar scars could not be due to other reasons, so documentation is preferred).

The order of sequence for the ten persons in the row is determined with a randomizer. The row of ten is curved into a crescent so that the distance between me and them is fairly equal across the row. I will be seated behind them. The volunteers' chairs should be turned so that the back rest of the chairs is facing to the left and not back, so that I have full view of their backs. The volunteers are seated facing their back toward me.

A fabric screen or curtain should be attached to the ceiling to come down and conceal the head and necks of the volunteers. Other than that, I would wish to see them neck down. I would also wish for the volunteers to wear their own everyday clothing for the test. The ten volunteers will be seated and once they are settled the claimant enters the room and has a seat behind their row. I would like the distance between me and the row of volunteers to be as small as can be allowed. During the test there will be no speaking, and the claimant uses no interaction with the volunteers such as touching.

There should be a number on the floor by each of the chairs of the volunteers with numbers from left to right from one to ten. For this preliminary test, the claimant would like to ask for four hours of viewing time. At any time into the test the claimant may submit a paper with up to five or fewer numbers. The claimant will then leave and those volunteers whose numbers were on the paper leave the row and they are done with the test. The empty chairs are removed, and the row is brought together with the same order of sequence for the remaining volunteers as before. The claimant then returns and continues with viewing the remaining volunteers.

The purpose of selecting out up to five volunteers is so that the claimant can narrow down on the number of volunteers. I wish to have all of them seen at the same time in the beginning and to then narrow down to five or more because, although awkward for a test, I feel that I could do best under those conditions. If the person missing a kidney was selected out, I will not be informed until after I make my choice of one person. I can not ask to see again those that were selected out.

Within the four hours I must make a choice of one person who I believe based on my medical perceptions (and "Vision from Feeling") is missing a kidney. I should also state whether it is the left or right kidney that is missing. I write this on the answer sheet. Once I signal that I have my answer, the answer sheet will be collected by a person working with the test and I can not change my answer after that.

If I am unable to decide on one person who would be missing a kidney I will not be forced to guess and that test will be concluded as inconclusive. If I submit an answer and it is incorrect, I will have failed the test and possibly falsified my claim (however I wonder if a claim can be falsified (or verified) on one single trial). And if I submitted the correct answer, it will not prove a paranormal claim, because I would have had a 1 in 10 chance of guessing correctly, or if there would have been some external clues of who is missing a kidney or on who is not missing a kidney then the chances of guessing correct could have been even higher. If I fail this test the IIG can decide whether they would still like to arrange their test for me. If I fail this preliminary test I do not know at this time whether I would still want to have the official IIG test, but at this point I think that I would, at least to properly falsify a non-ability.

Although for this preliminary test I would like to ask for four hours for one trial that has ten people one of which is missing a kidney, although I think I would be capable of sitting four hours for a test, it is unreasonable to ask for the volunteers to sit there for four hours! That is why I would either have to reduce the viewing time probably to half (to two hours), or, which I would prefer to do, to see five volunteers for two hours and then the other five for another two hours. Which of volunteers is seen first and which are seen next is randomly decided. I would much prefer to see all of them at once and to know that one of the ones I am seeing is missing a kidney, although I shouldn't have to have that. Seeing half and half is a very different procedure but one I would have to conform to.