Has the sheep-goat variable had its day? Testing transliminality as a Psi predictor

Abstract

When multiple independent variables and the sheep-goat variable (SGV) are examined, eight methodologically-selected predictor variables (i.e., Absorption, Fantasy-Proneness, Hyper sthesia, Dream- Interpretation, Mystical Experience, Magical Ideation, Creative Personality, and Manic Experience) not only correlated significantly with the SGV, but all eight correlated significantly with each other. Factor analysis revealed a single underlying factor which was named "transliminality". In this paper it is argued that transliminality is a variable that is both an index of the SGV (transliminality and the SGV are more-or-less interchangeable) and, moreover, the former may be superior to the latter because it takes into account the eight variables mentioned above that are positively correlated with the SGV, some of which have been found to predict psi performance independently. Statistical comparisons between groups of studies using the transliminality measure and the SGV are encouraging - transliminality is fairly successful at predicting psi outcomes/experience. It is argued that in future studies, the SGV and transliminality should be administered concurrently in order to determine which of the two is superior at predicting psi.