But critics said that the effect was more likely to result from flaws in Dr Sheldrake's methods. In one set of studies, the subjects lifted the received before making their choice, allowing possible clues to the caller's identity from the quality of the line.
It was also possible that people got clues from the time of the call. "If the subject knows four people well, they will know who tends to be on time, who tends to be late and who early," said Richard Wiseman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. "If they call me at 11.02 not 11, I'd likely guess it was going to be my late friend."
"He is reporting results that are far higher than those usually found by parapsychologists, and there is good reason to be sceptical. The design of the experiments are more messy than most in the field, and so the results could be due to participants picking up subtle cues from the callers - it is important that other scientists attempt to replicate the alleged effect."
