Discovery Lab Answers

Robin K. Taylor has made a focused but meaningful contribution to the parapsychology research literature, concentrated in the 1990s during his time at the Koestler Parapsychology Unit (KPU) at the University of Edinburgh, where he completed his PhD under Robert L. Morris.

Research contributions

Imagery and psychokinesis (PK)

Taylor’s primary experimental work examined whether training in visual imagery could enhance psi performance, specifically psychokinesis measured via random number generator (RNG) tasks. He conducted two experiments using athlete populations — a group chosen for their existing familiarity with mental imagery techniques — and published the results in the European Journal of Parapsychology ^[2]. The studies partially replicated earlier findings (from George, 1982, and Braud, 1983) and found that changes in self-reported visual imagery ability over the training period correlated significantly with PK scores, though the results raised questions about whether imagery skill itself or underlying motivation was the active factor.

Remote mental influence (DMILS)

Taylor was a co-author, alongside Dean Radin and William Braud, on a pilot replication of remote mental influence on human electrodermal activity, published in the European Journal of Parapsychology ^[3]. This placed him within the Edinburgh group’s broader effort to test and replicate distant mental influence on living systems (DMILS) protocols under controlled conditions.

Ganzfeld security audit

Taylor co-authored a security audit of the Edinburgh automated ganzfeld system, published in the Journal of Parapsychology, as part of the KPU’s methodological work addressing criticisms of earlier ganzfeld research. The full authorship of that paper was Dalton, Morris, Delanoy, Radin, Taylor, and Wiseman — a collaborative effort central to the KPU’s reputation for self-critical rigor.

Target materials and infrastructure

Beyond published experiments, Taylor contributed practically to KPU infrastructure during a period when Charles Honorton had moved to Edinburgh following the closure of his program at Psychophysical Research Laboratories (PRL). Taylor’s work included generating new target materials for the automated ganzfeld system the KPU was developing — a less visible but operationally important role.

Broader context

His contributions sit within a concentrated period of methodologically careful work at what was then the most rigorous parapsychology research environment in the UK. He also contributed a chapter on imagery to an edited volume and, in 2018, published a review of K. Ramakrishna Rao’s Elements of Parapsychology in the Journal of Scientific Exploration ^[1], reflecting continued engagement with the field in later years.

His profile at the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji is noted in his 1996 publication byline, suggesting a subsequent academic career outside Edinburgh.

You can find the full ESP-Nexus treatment of his work at Robin K. Taylor.