Contemporary psi research often advances through methodological testing rather than dramatic single findings. Italian consciousness researcher Patrizio E Tressoldi has pursued that path across presentiment, psychokinesis, remote viewing, mediumship and meta-analysis, combining exploratory study with repeated attempts to refine statistical practice and experimental design.
- Tressoldi’s presentiment work tested physiological measures such as pupil size and cardiac response for signs of anticipation before stimuli appeared.
- He has also explored psychokinetic effects, brain-to-brain communication, out-of-body experience and afterlife-related claims.
- Meta-analyses form a major part of his contribution, especially in areas where single studies remain small or methodologically contested.
Summary
Patrizio E Tressoldi is an Italian psychologist and consciousness researcher leading the Science of Consciousness Research Group and affiliated with the Università di Padova | University of Padova, Italy. He has a long-term interest in psi phenomena, and began experimentation in the early 2000s, starting with exploring the presentiment response and making notable progress in developing new methodologies. More recently he has designed novel experiments to investigate psychokinetic influences. He has also contributed several meta-analyses of the evidence for various forms of psi. In addition, he has contributed to studies of consciousness independent of the body and of post-mortem survival.
Life and Career
Patrizio Emmanuele Tressoldi was born in Italy on 31 March 1953 in Mira, Venice province, Italy. He trained as a psychologist at the University of Padova, where he has spent the whole of his academic career. He holds an Assistant Professorship in the Department of General Psychology. His early research focused on clinical and educational psychology, and he spent several decades studying learning disabilities – in particular developmental dyslexia – producing a substantial body of peer-reviewed work on assessment and intervention that helped to establish his reputation within mainstream Italian psychology.
Tressoldi’s interest in consciousness and anomalous cognition developed alongside his mainstream career. In the early 2000s, he began running experiments on the presentiment response, testing whether physiological measures could detect anticipatory reactions to future stimuli. This inaugural research exposed Tressoldi to the wider parapsychological community outside of Italy. Tressoldi has collaborated extensively with Australian parapsychologist Lance Storm on meta-analyses and methodological papers, and with Italian researcher Luciano Pederzoli at EvanLab in Florence, and the Italian Research Group on Mediumship.1See https://www.grim.science. He has also worked with Debra Lynne Katz and Rupert Sheldrake on remote viewing and telepathy research respectively. Over his career he has published more than a hundred peer-reviewed papers spanning both his mainstream psychological work and his parapsychological investigations. He maintains a personal research website at patriziotressoldi.it and a Google Scholar profile that documents his full publication record.
Psi Research
Presentiment and Precognition
Pupillary Responses
Tressoldi experimented to discover whether human pupillary responses could accurately predict future stimuli. Eighty volunteers were exposed to twenty sounds, of which half were neutral and the other half alerting, while their pupil size was being measured. Pupillary responses before target presentations were found to correctly predict alerting stimuli, but not neutral stimuli, at a level 10% above chance, an extremely significant result (p = 4.2 x 10-9), calculated both with established and emerging statistical approaches.2Tressoldi et al. (2011). A somewhat lower, but still significant result was obtained in a conceptual replication using a different type of test: 2.5% above chance level; an exact replication only gave chance results.3Tressoldi et al. (2014).
Cardiac Responses
Tressoldi investigated the potential of the brain to anticipate random negative events, using a portable heart-monitor (CardioAlert). The device sends an alert when heart-rate activity indicates the imminence of a negative event, providing an interval for the user to make a different choice.
In an exploratory experiment, one hundred individuals were asked to take part in a binary game of chance, choosing one or other of two alternatives, with a random chance of leading to a ‘winning’ outcome. Using the CardioAlert, participants achieved winning outcomes 52.5% of the time, compared with 48.2% when they were not using it – a marginally significant result. The findings were confirmed by a pre-registered confirmatory experiment, in which volunteers achieved winning outcomes 52.7% of the time when they used the CardioAlert. A conceptual replication experiment that allowed the CardioAlert to automatically avoid negative outcomes gave a yet higher winning outcome of 56.3% – an extremely significant finding (p = 10 x 10-6).4Tressoldi et al. (2015).
Driving with Intuition?
Probing brain activity for presentiment effects, Tressoldi and colleagues used a simplified driving simulation that randomly presented either a car crash or no car crash at the end of each trial. Forty participants wired to EEG monitors were asked, first to passively watch the driving simulation, as the baseline condition, then to try to exert control of the car’s speed by using the computer keyboard spacebar to avoid crashing. Tressoldi found statistically significant differences in participants’ EEG readings in car crash trials compared to those in no-car crash trials a second before the car crash, providing more potential evidence of an ‘anticipation effect’.
Tressoldi speculates on mechanisms involving quantum mechanics, citing the theoretical proposal by Hameroff and Penrose centring on microtubules in the brain. He goes on to suggest that a fuller understanding might eventually offer the potential for ‘smart cars’ to be fitted with machine-integrated EEG software that alerts drivers to the presence of forthcoming dangers.5Tressoldi, Mento et al. (2017).
Precognitive Dreaming
Tressoldi and Scala’s 2025 study in the International Journal of Dream Research compared a dreaming condition with a non-dreaming baseline. Dream reports were recorded before the corresponding target events were revealed, and both human and artificial judges scored the degree of correspondence. Five experienced dream recorders took part. Target-identification rates in the dreaming conditions reached 28.6% (artificial judges) and 31.4% (human judges) against a nominal chance rate of 25%; the non-dreaming baseline yielded 13.8%.6Tressoldi & Scala (2025).
The authors presented the findings as exploratory indications of correspondence between dream content and later events. The small sample size renders the results highly tentative, and the below-chance finding complicates interpretation. A larger, carefully preregistered replication would be required before firmer conclusions about precognitive dreaming could be drawn.
Machine Learning of Presentiment Data
A paper published in 2021 by Tressoldi and colleagues described using machine learning to predict emotional responses in the brain following the presentation of a stimulus, analyzing EEG data before stimulus presentation.7 Bilucaglia (2021). Data from a previous statistically significant presentiment study employing 28 subjects was used. In that experiment, subjects’ EEGs were recorded while they were exposed to either high arousal visual and auditory stimuli, or low arousal auditory and visual stimuli. In the present investigation, those EEG data were processed by artificial intelligence – referred to as ‘classifiers’ – to train on both static and temporal (time evolving) features of the EEG data. Temporal features found in the pre-stimulus EEG region gave the most accurate classifier predictions (63.68%, p = 0.001). It was concluded that the results show a clear increase in classification accuracy with temporal features rather than static features of the EEG.
Understanding Presentiment
In an attempt to understand if presentiment is detecting actual future or probable future events, Tressoldi ran four experiments, two measuring heart rate and two measuring pupil dilation. In all four experiments, Tressoldi found that both neutral and alerting stimuli were predicted at a level 7–10% above chance, regardless of whether the stimuli were presented to the subject or not, supporting the hypothesis that it is the probable future that is responded to.8Tressoldi, Pederzoli, et al. (2014).
Telepathy
Tressoldi investigated the possibility of brain-to-brain communication over distance without any normal means of connection. He experimented with twenty pairs of subjects, in which one individual received both visual and auditory stimulation while the other’s EEG was being monitored for synchronous signals indicating telepathic transfer of information. Analysis of results revealed an overall increase in the correlation among the EEG channels of the isolated distant partners to a statistically significant degree. Additionally, Tressoldi found a correlation in the strength of EEG signals between sender and receiver volunteers.
Psychokinesis
Random Event Generator
Tressoldi and colleagues selected participants who exhibited strong motivation and mental control and asked them to try to influence the output of a distant random event generator above pre-stated chance limits of 1 in 20. This was achieved in 78% of fifty experimental sessions compared to 48% of the control sessions – a significant finding. In a pre-registered confirmatory experiment, 82.3% of thirty-four people participating in 102 sessions achieved the pre-stated cut-off limit, compared to 13.7% of the control sessions – an extremely significant finding. The researchers suggest potential practical applications, transforming remote influence on a random event generator over a very short period into a binary acoustic or visual signal associated with a message, one signal standing for ‘call me’, two signals for ‘be alert’, and so on.9Tressoldi, Pederzoli, et al. (2014).
In a further test of remote influence of random number generators, more equivocal effects were found, mainly in the control data not the influence trials.10Tressoldi, Pederzoli, et al. (2019).
Remote Biophoton Emission?
‘Working with Luciano Pederzoli of Evanlab in Florence, Italy, and John Kruth of the Rhine Research Center in the USA, Tressoldi investigated the possibility of long-distance biophoton detection. Two studies were completed to discover whether focused intention by five subjects located over 7,000 km away could increase the number of photons detected each half second by a photomultiplier in the Rhine Research Center biophoton lab. In each experiment the intention condition occurred between two control sessions in which no influence was attempted. Analysis showed little effect during the intention condition, but unexpectedly there was a clear-cut difference in counts between the first and second control sessions. Tressoldi and his US colleagues hypothesized that they were seeing an accumulative effect commencing during the first control session and developing through to the second control session.11Tressoldi, Kruth, et al. (2012). In the second experiment, this cumulative effect of mental intention was not found, however.
An overall analysis across both experiments found an increase of approximately 5% for instances of extreme photon counts, that is, above 100,000, from the first to the second control session – a very unlikely finding (p = 2.1 x 10-4). Tressoldi and co-authors discuss potential mechanisms for such distance effects, including geophysical influences, experimenter psi and entanglement between detector and subject.12Tressoldi, Kruth, et al. (2015).
Digital Photography
A paper published in The Journal of Parapsychology in 2022 describes explorations into the possibility of producing images onto photographic sensors by mental intention alone.13Pederzoli et al. (2022). Three participants who are experienced in mentally influencing physical systems completed a total of 49 trials. Each trial consisted of one participant mentally sending an image during 36 camera shots. The photographs were then converted into digital negatives, following which a measure of correspondence with the mentally transmitted images – formally referred to as the structure similarity index (SSIM) – was calculated. When all three SSIM parameters – contrast, brightness and structural features – were considered, no target SSIM values exceeded any of the other potential target SSIM values, equating to no evidence of a PK effect on photographic sensors. However, when brightness was removed from the analyses, there was some evidence of a PK effect. This exploratory study therefore suggested some potential for a more formal investigation.
Meta-Analyses
Presentiment
Tressoldi has helped evaluate the evidence base for presentiment. In 2012,14Tressoldi et al. (2012). he co-authored a major meta-analysis of 26 presentiment studies conducted between 1978 and 2010 that utilized a wide range of measures, including heart rate, skin conductance and brain imaging techniques. The overall results were astronomically significant (fixed effect: p < 2.7 x 1012); there was no clear evidence of a possible conventional explanation in terms of poor methodology, selective reporting practices and expectancy effects; the authors took measures to counteract the expected ‘file-drawer’ effect. Also, the successful results could not be attributed to one or two unusually successful investigators: the results were distributed across all of them. Duggan and Tressoldi repeated the meta-analysis in 2018, reaching the same conclusions.15Duggan & Tressoldi (2018).
Dream-ESP
Tressoldi and colleagues meta-analysed dream-ESP studies for the period 1966 to 2016. The studies fell into two categories: the Maimonides Dream Laboratory (MDL) studies of which there were 14 and independent (non-MDL) studies of which there were 36. The Maimonides experiments achieved much larger effects than other studies, possibly because participants were awoken during REM sleep and asked to record their impressions, while in most non-Maimonides they recalled impressions only after waking. A homogeneous dataset of fifty studies gave highly significant effects (p = 5.19×10-8), suggesting that dream content can be used to identify target materials correctly, and more often than would be expected by chance.16Tressoldi et al. (2017).
Remote Viewing
Tressoldi and Debra Katz carried out a meta-analysis of remote viewing studies conducted between 1974 and 2022. They retrieved 36 studies that produced an average effect size of 0.34, which is very strong by parapsychological standards and astronomically significant (p = 8×10-10), corresponding to a hit rate 19% above chance – more than double that of other free-response paradigms such as ganzfeld telepathy.
The authors uncovered research issues, notably a scarcity of data pertaining to variations in RV techniques, such as Associative Remote Viewing (ARV), controlled remote viewing (CRV), and comparisons between self-judging and independent judging protocols. But they concluded that its experimental protocols appear to be the most efficient in ESP research for experiments and also practical applications ranging from military and intelligence gathering to archaeology and finance.17Tressoldi & Katz (2023).
In 2026, Tressoldi and colleagues published Remote Viewing Guidelines in the Journal of Scientific Exploration.18Akin et al. (2026). The publication was based on the performances of 11 experienced remote viewers. From their collective performance a recipe for successful outcomes was produced that covered training, blinding and the laboratory environment. The guidelines offer a set of expert-informed recommendations for both experimental and applied work but the authors caution that further research is still needed to determine whether any particular procedure reliably improves performance.
Forced Choice ESP
Tressoldi together with Australian parapsychologist Lance Storm reviewed forced-choice studies conducted between 2011 and 2022. This review was motivated by previous meta-analysis in 2012 that produced strong evidence in favour of psi. Inclusions were experiments reporting hit rates and those reporting reaction times, with the latter generally of the Bem-type experiments. Of the 38 studies that reported actual hit rates, the findings indicated a substantial mean effect size (ES) of 0.02 (p = 1.43 × 10-8). Of the 23 new studies focusing alternatively on reaction time as a measure, findings revealed a slightly weaker mean ES of 0.01 (p = 1.90 × 10-8). When combined, the two datasets merged into 141 studies producing a mean effect size of 0.02 (p < 10-16) showing no difference in outcomes from other studies measuring precognition, clairvoyance and telepathy.
The authors found no decline in effect size over a 36-year period, indicating that forced-choice testing remains a reliable way to probe psi ability.19Storm & Tressoldi (2023).
Ganzfeld Telepathy
In 2024, Storm and Tressoldi reported on the status of the Ganzfeld telepathy paradigm in a review article of 78 studies comprising 113 effect sizes from 1974 to 2020, carried out by 46 principal investigators. A frequentist random-effects model produced an overall effect size of 0.074 (p-value 0.0009). There was no clear decline with publication year, suggesting that has experiments improved, there was no detectable reduction in psi-scoring, as sceptics would predict. Selected participants yielded a larger effect (ES ≈ 0.13) than unselected participants (ES ≈ 0.04), and protocols that included a sender outperformed pure clairvoyance designs. The authors treated the findings as solid evidence for anomalous perception in the ganzfeld and argued for continued use of preregistration and registered reports.20Storm & Tressoldi (2024a).
Telecommunication Telepathy
By 2025, a sizeable number of replications of the Telephone Telepathy protocol – so famously developed by Rupert Sheldrake in the early 2000s – had been conducted. Tressoldi, Sheldrake and Stedall reviewed 26 experiments in the Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition conducted between 2003 and 2024. In the typical design, participants attempted to identify which of four known callers was about to telephone them; caller identity was blocked (chance = 25%). A minority of studies used email or text messages instead.
The pooled result was highly significant (p value = 1 × 10⁻⁷). Precognitive trials, in which the caller had not yet been selected at the moment of the guess, performed at chance. Higher hit rates were associated with close emotional relationships and with the use of selected participants. Results obtained by Sheldrake himself did not differ from those of independent groups. Effect sizes were larger than those typically reported in other successful telepathy testing paradigms: ganzfeld and dream telepathy, leading the authors to regard telecommunication telepathy as a promising line of research, possibly in combination with automated intuition-training methods whose practical utility has yet to be established.21Tressoldi et al. (2025).
In a preregistered replication, Stedall and Tressoldi employed a two-caller design with 117 participants and 604 trials.22Stedall & Tressoldi (2025). The overall hit rate was 48.6%, slightly below the 50% chance level. An exploratory split indicated that participants who relied on intuitive impressions scored at 56%, whereas those who adopted deliberate analytical strategies scored notably below chance at 35.4% (p value = 0.0003). The primary result was negative and the subgroup difference requires confirmation, but it raises the distinct possibility that cognitive strategy markedly modulates performance – a hypothesis that could be tested in a further preregistered study.23Stedall & Tressoldi (2025).
Decline Effect and Publication Bias
Two papers co-authored with Lance Storm addressed recurring methodological criticisms. The first examined the claim that psi effect sizes systematically diminish as research programmes mature and found the data inconsistent with a general decline effect.24Tressoldi & Storm (2024b).
The second paper in the same issue of the Journal of Scientific Exploration probed the assertion that psi journals predominantly publish only positive studies – the so-called file-drawer effect. Tressoldi and Storm analysed 165 published studies (243 experiments) drawn from recent ESP meta-analyses together with 40 preregistered confirmatory experiments from the Koestler Parapsychology Unit registry. Against sceptical claims, parapsychologists reported non-significant outcomes more frequently than mainstream psychology in both data sets. The authors interpreted this as evidence against selective reporting.25Tressoldi & Storm (2026a).
Associated Remote Viewing
To investigate the contributing factors in associated remote viewing success, Tressoldi and colleagues completed 86 trials, comprising 220 remote viewing transcripts.26Katz et al. (2021). Three teams of judges working under blinded conditions repeated the process of judging, scoring and predicting sporting events, while keeping all other variables stable. Judges were only in complete agreement on six (6.9 percent) of 86 trials, while experienced judges obtained statistically significantly higher hit rates than those that were less experienced. The results indicate the need to develop more consistent and reliable judging protocols, preferably using experienced individuals.
Mind-Brain Relations
Tressoldi and colleagues have contributed to theoretical attempts to frame the accumulated experimental evidence within a model of mind functioning. They discussed a quantum-like model,27Walach et al. (2016). a cognitive psychological model28Tressoldi (2013). and a neuropsychological model.29Tressoldi, Facco, & Lucangeli (2016).
In a 2022 preprint, Tressoldi considers eleven materialist explanations of how brain activity generates conscious awareness that are based on identity theory (the idea that brain states are identical with mental states). Tressoldi dismisses all eleven explanations as involving the ‘miracle’ of converting brain activity into first-person experience. Tressoldi then considers panpsychism – the philosophy that matter possesses a degree of consciousness – as the most promising materialist candidate, but expresses scepticism that it can explain ‘top-down’ mental phenomena such as the placebo effect, hypnotic analgesia and other psychoneuroimmunological influences (the interaction of mental states on immune and nervous system function).
In another paper, Tressoldi and Facco expand the range of phenomena that are difficult to reconcile within a materialist framework, to include non-ordinary mental expressions: NDEs, psi abilities and mystical experiences. Tressoldi and Facco conclude that the bulk of this evidence points towards consciousness as being fundamental (idealism) and not secondary to brain function (epiphenomenal).
OBEs and NDEs
Out of Body Experiences
Tressoldi has explored anomalous or non-ordinary states of consciousness, recently taking part in a multi-author investigation of out-of-body experiences (OBEs) induced through hypnotic suggestions.30Tressoldi, Facco, et al. (2018). In this study, fifteen highly hypnotizable subjects were encouraged to have an OBE, either through hypnosis or during normal resting consciousness while a 32-channel EEG monitored their brain activity. At the end of each session, the phenomenology of consciousness inventory (PCI) was administered to check the phenomenological aspects of their experience. Significantly higher scores were found for the altered states, positive affect, altered experience and attention sub-dimensions of the PCI for hypnotically induced OBEs over resting OBEs. Additionally, significant decreases were found in beta and gamma EEG activity in certain brain regions for the hypnotically induced OBEs.
The researchers conclude that the features of the hypnotically induced OBE are comparable to more transcendental OBEs that occur spontaneously or as a result of trauma, and that experiments using hypnosis can be used to investigate the phenomenon.
In a study reported in 2020, Tressoldi and coworkers tested the ability of four participants, chosen for their ability to attain an out-of-body state of consciousness via hypnotic induction, to describe five different locations, initially in an ordinary state of consciousness using remote viewing and then in an out-of-body state.31Ballati et al. (2020). According to independent assessment, ordinary state remote viewing gave a hit rate of 55 percent, and performance during an out of body state gave a hit rate of 54 percent (p = 0.06). Interestingly, 14% of descriptions were exactly identical between the two consciousness states, suggesting a commonality between them. Overall, these results indicate the effectiveness of out of body states of consciousness to attain information from a distance that is on a par with ordinary state remote viewing.
Depictions of God in NDEs
A study co-authored with Jeffrey Long compared descriptions of God and Jesus in near-death experiences (NDEs) with conventional portrayals of these figures in major religious traditions. They found terms for God that are frequently used by NDE experiencers, such as ‘light’, love’, ‘oneness’, and ‘non-judgment’, contrast with attributes such as ‘perfection’, ‘omnipotence’ and ‘omniscience’ that dominate in monotheistic religions. The religious backgrounds of participants did not strongly influence their descriptions of God in NDEs. The presence of love is more commonly reported by those who do not identify with a specific religion. 32Tressoldi & Long (2023).
Veridical Near-Death Experience Scale
In October 2025 an international team that included Tressoldi, Bruce Greyson, the late Titus Rivas, Pim van Lommel and Marjorie Woollacott published a standardised scale for rating the evidential quality of veridical near-death experience reports in the prestigious Frontiers in Psychology. Thirteen NDE specialists refined the instrument through a two-round Delphi process (a structured and anonymized questionnaire-based approach that develops new methodologies from expert consensus) settling on eight criteria that addressed the timing of the investigation, medical and physiological conditions, third-party corroboration, and the number, type and quality of the reported perceptions. Each criterion is scored on a four-point scale.33Greyson et al. (2025).
Eleven human raters and three large-language-model (LLM) raters applied the scale to seventeen candidate cases. In fourteen of the seventeen cases (82.3 %), human and AI ratings agreed in more than three-quarters of paired comparisons when adjacent levels were counted as agreement. Overall inter-rater reliability was more modest (Krippendorff’s alpha = 0.49). The scale offers a structured framework for evaluating case material, yet residual variation among raters indicates that judgements are not yet fully consistent. Importantly, agreement between human and AI raters impacts only the classification of the reports; it does not demonstrate that the perceptions themselves were veridical.
Post-mortem Survival
Mediumship
In 2020, Tressoldi and coworkers published a review of studies that tested the ability of mediums to gather information about a deceased individual under controlled conditions.34Sarraf et al. (2020). They analyzed fourteen papers published between 2001 and 2019, describing eighteen experiments. The overall outcome was strongly supportive of anomalous cognition by mediums (p < 10-9). Furthermore, two tests of publication bias – the tendency of some researchers to publish only significant results – found no evidence of such practices. Tressoldi and coauthors concluded that the results of their meta-analysis supported the hypothesis that some mediums can retrieve information about deceased persons through unknown means.
Readings Accuracy
A study published in 2022 by Tressoldi and an Italian mediumship research group describe testing of 28 self-described mediums in which they performed 100 readings under blinded conditions.35Tressoldi et al. (2022). Sitters were asked to choose which readings were related to a known deceased individual among dummy (control) readings. They were far more successful in identifying the actual intended readings than chance would predict (p = 0.000048). Tressoldi and colleagues concluded that the results support the survival interpretation rather than the psi interpretation, based both on both the experiment design of the and the quality of the results.
Mediums and Hypnotic Inductions
In a paper published in 2021, Tressoldi and Pederzoli describe an attempt to glean information of the afterlife by means of hypnotic induction of four selected participants while in contact with the spirits of the dead.36Pederzoli & Tressoldi (2021). The purported channelled entities were interviewed on topics ranging from spiritual evolution, after-death experiences and the idea of a supreme being. Information given from the channelled spirits seemed to converge on these and more questions. It was concluded that hypnotic induction during channeling holds promise and the ease and flexibility of design encourages replication by sceptic groups.
Channelling
Tressoldi participated in a multi-author study of channelling, which aimed to assess the utility of channelled information. Independent judging revealed little consistency in responses across channellers for each question, and scant evidence of a shared source of information. However, some consistent themes emerged in some of the responses, highlighting the potential value of channelling for specific questions.37Wahbeh et al. (2023).
Living in the Afterlife
Tressoldi and colleagues published a qualitative synthesis of afterlife testimony in 2026, by drawing on 37 sources that comprised interviews, reports from direct experiencers, expert analyses and books. Recurring themes included the persistence of self-awareness, personality and memory after death; an environment responsive to inhabitants’ thoughts, expectations and emotions; multiple realms ordered by spiritual development rather than moral judgement; a personal life review; and movement toward a realm matching one’s inner state. Some accounts also described communities of similar orientation, occasionally termed group-souls.38Tressoldi et al. (2026). The authors presented the material as a preliminary groundwork for future empirical investigation. The themes reflect patterns in the source literature rather than independent evidence for survival.
Bigelow Essay Contest
In 2021, the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS) – funded by aerospace billionaire Robert Bigelow – launched a $1,000,000 essay competition on the cumulative evidence for an afterlife. The twenty-nine winning essays (out of 204 submitted) were examined by Tressoldi, Adam Rock and James Houran on the strength of scientific evidence described, its reproducibility and replicability.39Tressoldi et al. (2022). Out of 29 essays, six (20.5%) were categorized in the highest evidential band. Four essays (1%) were classed as having medium scientific value and the remaining 19 (65.5%) were placed in the category with the lowest level of scientific evidence. Overall concordance between Tressoldi and the essay judges’ scientific criteria was 48.8% – indicating significant disagreement. This difference is explained by higher evidential weighting given by the Bigelow judges to NDE research; possibly influenced by the fact that such research is often published in mainstream medical journals. Conversely, Tressoldi and coauthors gave more weight to well-conducted research on reincarnation phenomena, shared death and after-death communication experiences. Despite the failure to reach consensus, the strength of the evidence in favour of post-mortem survival is celebrated in the paper.
Scientists and Spiritual Experience
With neuroscientist Marjorie Woollacott, Tressoldi presents an analysis of spiritually transformative experience accounts of forty scientists.40Tressoldi & Woollacott (2022). They found that 85% described ego dissolution, while pure unconditional love was experienced by 4%. Sixty percent described reality as unitive and 47.5% described its essence as unconditional love. These accounts indicate that spiritually transformative experiences are not restricted to scientifically illiterate people but are shared by those of all educational levels.
In a 2026 paper in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Tressoldi and Mattiussi explored how advanced meditators understand death and the end of life. Thematic analysis of interviews with 45 experienced practitioners examined their beliefs, emotional responses and views on the possible continuation of consciousness. Forty per cent expressed the belief that consciousness survives physical death, while 28.9% regarded death as a natural process to be met without fear or attachment. The study documents the frameworks of this particular sample; it supplies no direct evidence for survival after death and should not be generalised beyond the group interviewed.41Tressoldi & Mattiussi (2026).
Michael Duggan
Works Cited
Akin, J., Tressoldi, P., & Katz, D.L. (2026). Experts’ remote viewing guidelines. Journal of Scientific Exploration 40/1, 11–29.
Ballati, A., Prati, E., Pederzoli, L., & Tressoldi, P.[E.] (2020). Remote viewing with and without controlled out-of-body consciousness. Advanced Research in Psychology. [PDF Download.]
Bilucaglia, M., Duma, G.M., Mento, G., Semenzato, L., & Tressoldi, P.E. (2021). Applying machine learning EEG signal classification to emotion-related brain anticipatory activity. F1000Research 9, 173. [Full paper.]
Duggan, M., & Tressoldi, P.E. (2018). Predictive physiological anticipatory activity preceding seemingly unpredictable stimuli: An update of Mossbridge et al.’s meta-analysis. F1000Research 7, 407. [Full paper.]
Duma, G.M., Mento, G., Manari, T., Martinelli, M., & Tressoldi, P.E. (2017). Driving with intuition: A preregistered study about the EEG anticipation of simulated random car accidents. PLOS ONE 12, e0170370. [Full paper.]
Duma, G.M., Mento, G., Semenzato, L., & Tressoldi, P.E. (2019). EEG anticipation of random high and low arousal faces and sounds. F1000Research 8, 1508. [Full paper.]
Facco, E., Casiglia, E., Alkhafaji, B.E., Finatti, F., Duma, G.M., Mento, G., Pederzoli, L., & Tressoldi, P.E. (2019). Neurophenomenology of out-of-body experiences induced by hypnotic suggestions. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 67/1, 39-68. [Abstract.]
Giroldini, W., Pederzoli, L., Bilucaglia, M., Prati, E., & Tressoldi, P.[E.] (2018). Exploring brain-to-brain interaction at a distance. SSRN Electronic Journal. [PDF Download.]
Greyson, B., Long, J., Holden, J.M., Jourdan, J-P., King, R.A., Mays, S., Mays, R., Rivas, T., Tassell-Matamua, N., van Lommel, P., Woollacott, M., & Tressoldi, P. (2025). The veridical near-death experience scale: Construction and a first validation with human and artificial raters. Frontiers in Psychology 16, art. 1661390.
Katz, D., Grgić, I., Tressoldi, P., & Fendley, T. (2021). Associative remote viewing projects: Assessing rater reliability and factors affecting successful predictions. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 85/2, 65-90. [PDF Download.]
Laythe, B., & Houran, J. (2022). Adversarial collaboration on a Drake-S Equation for the survival question. Journal of Scientific Exploration 36/1, 130-60. [Full paper.]
Mossbridge, J., Tressoldi, P., & Utts, J. (2012). Predictive physiological anticipation preceding seemingly unpredictable stimuli: a meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology 3, 390. [Full paper.]
Pederzoli, L., Bilucaglia, M., Prati, E., Matteoli, M., & Tressoldi, P. (2022). A pilot study of distant ‘mind-matter’ interaction with digital photography. Journal of Parapsychology 86/1, 125-34. [Full paper.]
Pederzoli, L., & Tressoldi, P. (2021). Is human consciousness eternal? Let’s ask those in the hereafter to tell us. ResearchGate. [Full paper.]
Rock, A.J., Houran, J., Tressoldi, P.E., & Laythe, B. (2023). Is biological death final? Recomputing the Drake-S Equation for postmortem survival. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 42, 9-26. [Full paper.]
Sarraf, M., Woodley of Menie, M.A., & Tressoldi, P.E. (2021). Anomalous information reception by mediums: A meta-analysis of the scientific evidence. EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing 17/5, 396-402. [PDF Download.]
Stedall, T., & Tressoldi, P. (2025). Who is calling? An independent replication of a telephone telepathy test.[Abstract.] Journal of Scientific Exploration 39/2, 203–206.
Storm, L., Sherwood, S.J., Roe, C.A., Tressoldi, P.E., Rock, A.J., & Di Risio, L. (2017). On the correspondence between dream content and target material under laboratory conditions: A meta-analysis of dream-ESP studies, 1966-2016. International Journal of Dream Research 10/2, 120-40. [PDF Download.]
Storm, L., & Tressoldi, P.E. (2017). Gathering in more sheep and goats: A meta-analysis of forced-choice sheep-goat studies, 1994-2015. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 81/2, 79-107.
Storm, L., & Tressoldi, P.E. (2023). Assessing 36 years of the forced choice design in extra-sensory perception research: A meta-analysis, 1987 to 2022. Journal of Scientific Exploration 37/3, 517-35. [Full paper.]
Storm, L., & Tressoldi, P.E. (2024). Anomalous perception in a ganzfeld condition: A meta-analysis of more than 40 years investigation (Stage 2 Registered Report). F1000Research 10, 234.
Storm, L., Tressoldi, P.E., & Di Risio, L. (2010). Meta-analyses of free-response studies 1992-2008: Assessing the noise reduction model in parapsychology. Psychological Bulletin 136/4, 471-85.
Storm, L., Tressoldi, P.E., & Di Risio, L. (2012). Meta-analysis of ESP studies, 1987-2010: Assessing the success of the forced-choice design in parapsychology. Journal of Parapsychology 76/2, 243-73. [PDF Download.]
Tressoldi, P.E. (2013). Does system 1 process both local and nonlocal information in intuitive judgment and decision making? Available evidence and a research agenda proposal. Psychology 4/11, 798-803. [Full paper.]
Tressoldi, P.E. (2022). Miracles in the brain: how brain activity generates phenomenological first-person experiences according to some neuroscientists. MindRxiv. [Full paper.]
Tressoldi, P., Abbondanza, B., Gallo, J., Garofano, M., Gershman, N., Liberale, L., Sinesio, F., & Stapel, J. (2026). Living in the afterlife: Clues from direct experiencers. [Preprint.]
Tressoldi, P.E., & Facco, E. (2021). Why consciousness is primary: epistemological and scientific evidence. MindRxiv. [PDF Download.]
Tressoldi, P.E., Facco, E., & Lucangeli, D. (2016). Emergence of qualia from brain activity or from an interaction of proto-consciousness with the brain: Which one is the weirder? Available evidence and a research agenda. ScienceOpenResearch. [Full paper.]
Tressoldi, P.E., & Katz, D.L. (2023). Remote viewing: A 1974-2022 systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Scientific Exploration 37/3, 467-89. [Full paper.]
Tressoldi, P.E., Liberale, L., & Sinesio, F. (2022). Is there someone in the hereafter? Mediumship accuracy of 100 readings obtained with a triple level of blinding protocol. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying 91/2, 955-63. [Abstract.]
Tressoldi, P.E., & Long, J. (2023). God’s characteristics as reported by near-death experiencers. Qeios 5/9. [PDF Download.]
Tressoldi, P.E., Martinelli, M., & Semenzato, L. (2014). Pupil dilation predictive anticipatory activity: A conceptual replication. F1000Research 2, 262. [Full paper.]
Tressoldi, P.E., Martinelli, M., Semenzato, L., & Cappato, S. (2011). Let your eyes predict: Prediction accuracy of pupillary responses to random alerting and neutral sounds. SAGE Open 1/2, 1-7. [Abstract.]
Tressoldi, P.E., Martinelli, M., Semenzato, L., & Gonella, A. (2015). Does psychophysiological predictive anticipatory activity predict real or future probable events?. EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing 11/2, 109-17. [PDF Download.]
Tressoldi, P.E., Martinelli, M., Torre, J., Zanette, S., & Duma, G. (2015). CardioAlert: A heart rate based decision support system for improving choices related to negative or positive future events. SSRN Electronic Journal. [Abstract.]
Tressoldi, P.E., & Mattiussi, F. (2026). Advanced meditators’ meaning, sense, and emotions related to the end of life. Journal of Humanistic Psychology. Advance online publication.
Tressoldi, P.E., Pederzoli, L., Caini, P., Ferrini, A., Melloni, S., Richeldi, D., Richeldi, F., & Duma, G. (2014). Mind-matter interaction at a distance of 190 km: Effects on a random event generator using a cutoff method. NeuroQuantology 12/3, 337-43. [PDF Download.]
Tressoldi, P.E., Pederzoli, L., Caini, P., Ferrini, A., Melloni, S., Richeldi, D., Richeldi, F., & Kruth, J.G. (2014). Mental interaction at distance on a photomultiplier: A pilot study. SSRN Electronic Journal. [Abstract.]
Tressoldi, P.E., Pederzoli, L., Ferrini, A., Matteoli, M., Melloni, S., & Kruth, J.G. (2015). Can our mind emit light? Mental entanglement at distance with a photomultiplier. SSRN Electronic Journal. [Abstract.]
Tressoldi, P.E., Pederzoli, L., Prati, E., & Semenzato, L. (2020). Mind control at distance of an electronic device: A proof-of-concept preregistered study. Journal of Scientific Exploration 34/2, 233-45. [Full paper.]
Tressoldi, P.E., Rock, A.J., Pederzoli, L., & Houran, J. (2022). The case for postmortem survival from the winners of the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies essay contest: A level of evidence analysis. Australian Journal of Parapsychology 22/1, 7-29. [PDF Download.]
Tressoldi, P., & Scala, V.F. (2025). Dreaming precognitively: A comparison with a non-dreaming condition and with human and artificial judges. International Journal of Dream Research, 18(2).
Tressoldi, P., Sheldrake, R., & Stedall, T. (2025). Telecommunication telepathy: A meta-analysis. Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition, 5(1), 47–69.
Tressoldi, P., & Storm, L. (2024b). The myth of the decline effect in psi research: The empirical evidence. Journal of Scientific Exploration 38/3, 461–465.
Tressoldi, P., & Storm, L. (2026a). The myth of publication bias in psi research: A comparison between parapsychology and mainstream psychology. Journal of Scientific Exploration 40/2, 232–240.
Tressoldi, P., & Storm, L. (2026b). Response to Bierman and Spottiswoode (2026). Journal of Scientific Exploration 40/2, 274–277.
Tressoldi, P., & Storm, L. (2026c). Outcomes of preregistered studies related to extra-sensory perception and mind-matter interaction: A systematic review. [Manuscript submitted for publication.]
Tressoldi, P.E., & Woollacott, M. (2022). Who are we, and what is the nature of reality? Scientists’ spiritually transformative experiences. MindRxiv. [Full paper.]
Wahbeh, H., Speirn, P., Pederzoli, L., & Tressoldi, P. (2023). Channelers’ answers to questions from scientists: An exploratory study. Journal of Scientific Exploration 37/3, 348-69. [Full paper.]
Walach, H., Tressoldi, P., & Pederzoli, L. (2016). Mental, behavioural and physiological nonlocal correlations within the Generalized Quantum Theory framework. Axiomathes 26/3, 313-28.