---
category: Skeptics & Critics
created: 2026-09-22
died: 1984
location: Dunedin, New Zealand
summary: University of Otago psychologist who with David Marks failed to replicate
  the SRI remote-viewing experiments, co-wrote the 1978 Nature critique and The Psychology
  of the Psychic, and died in 1984.
tags:
- Person
- RichardKammann
- Skeptic
- RemoteViewing
- Otago
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Richard Kammann was associate professor of psychology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. From 1975 he and [David Marks](/people/david-marks/) attempted to replicate the remote-viewing experiments of [Russell Targ](/people/russell-targ/) and [Hal Puthoff](/people/hal-puthoff/) at the [Stanford Research Institute](/organizations/stanford-research-institute/); their letter to Nature of August 17, 1978, reported that "we have carried out duplicate experiments, but our results do not verify their conclusions," and their book *The Psychology of the Psychic* (Prometheus, 1980, with a foreword by [Martin Gardner](/people/martin-gardner/)) divided the work: "David Marks undertook to examine the SRI remote viewing experiments, while Dick Kammann undertook to review psychological experiments that might help explain the origins of psychic beliefs." Kammann visited SRI in December 1975, where "he was told by Puthoff that the results didn't always depend upon the on-site experimenter(s) actually looking at the source of information relayed on to the subject. According to Puthoff, each observer was like a 'beacon.'" His chapters set out "subjective validation," which "occurs when two unrelated events are perceived to be related because a belief, expectancy, or hypothesis demands or requires a relationship."[^1][^2]

He was a fellow of the CSICOP until his resignation in 1981 over the "Mars Effect" controversy, on which his paper "Statistical Numerology in the Skeptics' Response to the Mars Effect" appeared in *Zetetic Scholar* in December 1982 after *The Humanist,* *Psychology Today* and the *Skeptical Inquirer* declined it. He published on the measurement of happiness from Otago in 1984 and died that year (a library catalogue record gives his years as 1934 to 1984); the university founded the Richard Kammann Wellbeing Prize in his memory in 1986.[^3]

[^1]: Marks, David, and Richard Kammann. "Information transmission in remote viewing experiments." *Nature,* vol. 274, August 17, 1978, pp. 680-681, received July 2, 1977, accepted May 31, 1978. https://www.nature.com/articles/274680a0 (abstract and dates only; the text is behind a paywall).
[^2]: Marks, David, and Richard Kammann. *The Psychology of the Psychic.* Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1980, pp. 12-41, 129, 151, 177, 185, read through the archive.org search index of the item psychologyofpsyc0000mark_j8m3 (page fragments only).
[^3]: Lippard, Jim, editorial note to Kammann, Richard, "Statistical Numerology in the Skeptics' Response to the Mars Effect," *Zetetic Scholar,* no. 10, December 1982, pp. 50-65, reprinted at discord.org/lippard/kammann.html (Wayback Machine copy); University of Otago, "Wellbeing at heart of annual prize" (Wayback Machine copy); Kammann, R., M. Farry and P. Herbison, "The analysis and measurement of happiness as a sense of well-being," *Social Indicators Research,* vol. 15, 1984, pp. 91-115; Howard, Bernard, "Ah Yes! I Remember It Well," NZ Skeptics, February 1, 1999, and "A Classic Updated," February 1, 2002, articles.skeptics.nz; Skeptical Inquirer author page for David F. Marks, skepticalinquirer.org/authors/david-f-marks/; MARC record of the archive.org item psychologyofpsyc0000mark_j8m3 ("Kammann, Richard, 1934-1984").