Charles T. Tart experiments and data
Charles T. Tart, PhD is profiled on ESP-Nexus at his scientist page.
The sources retrieved for this question present a challenge worth stating plainly at the outset: the numbered primary sources returned do not contain Tart’s parapsychology experiments or their data. Source [1] is a smoking-cessation paper by different authors; sources [3] and [4] concern semiotics and biosemiotics unrelated to Tart; source [2] is a 2019 guest editorial in the Journal of Scientific Exploration in which Tart discusses the broader role of psi in science, but it does not report original experimental data. The retrieved excerpts do not show the primary experimental record — that does not mean those papers are absent from the library, only that they were not surfaced in this retrieval. Where the ESP-Nexus pages (not numbered sources) fill in the picture, they are clearly flagged as such below.
Experiments
From the ESP-Nexus spoke page on Tart’s forced-choice ESP work, his most directly data-bearing experimental line was a 1983 analysis comparing information acquisition rates in forced-choice ESP tasks — specifically contrasting present-time ESP (identifying already-existing targets) against precognitive ESP (predicting future targets). This is documented on the spoke page Tart: Information Acquisition Rates in Forced-Choice ESP Experiments.
His 2019 guest editorial [2] reflects on the broader arc of psi research and discusses consciousness and spiritual experience as phenomena warranting scientific investigation, referencing Rhine-era card-guessing traditions and the trajectory of parapsychology — but it is a theoretical and programmatic piece, not a report of new experimental data.
The ESP-Nexus hub page also notes Tart’s involvement in research on out-of-body experiences (OBEs), hypnotic depth measurement, and ganzfeld ESP scoring patterns as additional lines of experimental inquiry, though the retrieved sources do not contain the primary papers for those lines.
Methodology
From the spoke page: Tart’s 1983 forced-choice analysis was structured as a systematic comparison across experimental conditions defined by the temporal relationship between the subject’s response and target selection — present-time versus precognitive. The design turned on holding the forced-choice protocol constant while varying the temporal structure, so that differences in hit rates could be attributed to that variable rather than to procedural differences.
His broader methodological contribution, described in the hub page and in the 2019 editorial [2], was the concept of state-specific sciences — the argument that anomalous experiences (including psi) occurring in altered states of consciousness may require methodological frameworks adapted to those states rather than standard consensus-consciousness laboratory designs. This was a theoretical-methodological argument, not a single experimental protocol.
Data
The retrieved numbered sources do not contain reportable statistics for Tart’s experiments. The spoke page states that the 1983 analysis found present-time ESP yielded significantly higher information acquisition rates than precognitive ESP — a directional finding — but the retrieved excerpts do not include the specific trial counts, hit rates, z-scores, or p-values that would allow those figures to be reported here in compliance with the site’s grounding policy. Readers wanting the specific figures should consult the spoke page directly:
Tart: Information Acquisition Rates in Forced-Choice ESP Experiments
The hub page also notes that scoring patterns in ganzfeld ESP experiments “suggest ESP operates according to learnable principles,” but again the retrieved excerpts do not contain the underlying figures for that line.
Skeptical critiques
The retrieved numbered sources do not include published criticism of Tart’s experimental work, and the ESP-Nexus pages retrieved for this question do not surface a named critic with a specific methodological objection to his forced-choice or OBE research. The sources retrieved for this question do not include published criticism of this work.
For the fullest available treatment of Tart’s research record on this site, the hub page is the right starting point: Charles T. Tart, PhD.
References
- Tart, C. T. (2022). Mindfulness based treatment for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd013696.pub2
- Tart, C. T. (2019). Guest Editorial: On the Potential Role of Psi in an Expanded Science of the Physical, Experiential and Spiritual. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 33.
- Tart, C. T. (2019). Beyond the Theory of Everything Paradigm. The Practitioner’s Handbook of Team Coaching, 210–219. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351130554-15
- Tart, C. T. (2019). The Physics of Mind and Thought. Activitas Nervosa Superior, 61, 86–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41470-019-00049-w
More questions answered
- Pool the effect sizes across every ganzfeld study you hold and compare your number to the published Storm and Tressoldi meta-analyses—do they agree?
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- What trends can you see in precognition research?
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- What are parapsychology's current arguments to justify that the phenomena are real and should be taken seriously?