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Physiosocial Connectivity and Information Biology™:
Empirical Tests of a New Model

Principal Investigator: Harald Walach, PhD,
Director of Research, Institute of Environmental Medicine and Hospital Epidemiology

Affiliation: University Hospital Freiburg, Germany

Background: Macroscopic entanglement, derived from algebraic quantum theory, postulates that physical connectivity occurs on a macroscopic scale when certain restricted parameters exist within a system. In sufficiently closed systems, where one observable describes the whole system, another observable describes one part of the system and the two observables are complementary, entanglement between the systems’ components occurs, no matter what the scale. The model speaks to holism in a system.

Hypotheses: 1) A measure of experimenter expectation correlates, across blinded clinical trials, with the amount of placebo response in both the treatment and control groups;  2) in blinded experimental homeopathic remedy provings, symptoms specific for the remedy will be also seen in the placebo group;  3) under conditions of strict physical isolation, evidence of entanglement will be seen in patterns of correlated activity in EEGs of separated individuals;  4) the degree of placebo effect will differ in trials performed with and without the presence of active components depending on the information given to the subjects and investigators.

Methods and materials: This large research effort studies four different approaches to entanglement or connectivity: assessing non-classical experimenter effects in conventional clinical trials; specific homeopathic proving symptoms in a placebo group; measuring transferred EEG potentials in the brains of stimulated and passive research partners in separated chambers; and a method for testing the contribution of instruction on the effects of placebos in comparison with active chemical treatment. Measures include cognitive performance, cardiovascular parameters, and subjective well being.

Anticipated results: This study will reproduce preliminary research that indicates that investigator expectations can impact outcomes in both placebo and treatment groups in clinical trials.

Relationship to SIIB mission and healing: Macroscopic entanglement could provide a bridge between the causal hypotheses of conventional medicine and acausal hypothesis in complementary medicine. Entanglement and transmission of intent may emerge as key mechanisms of Information Biology™, and may yield a new explanation for the placebo effect.