Page 19 - 201205 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - May 2012

Looking for Proof of ESP Looking for Proof of ESP “Unless there is a gigantic conspiracy involving some 30 university departments all over the world...the only conclusion the unbiased observer can come to must be that there does exist a small number of people who obtain knowledge existing wither in other people’s minds, or in the outer world, by means yet unknown to science.” Dr. Hans Eysenck The most remarkable long-distance eSP experiment was performed in 1971, with the sender and subject nearly 240,000 miles apart. While walking on the moon during the Apollo 14 space mission, American astronaut Edgar Mitchell tried sending a series of numbers to a psychic on earth. The results were said to have been above those predicted by chance, but a single experiment of this kind is not proof of ESP. Science requires experiments that can be repeated over and over again. And for more than a century, parapsychologists have been trying to the early investigators Rene Warcollier. He cards, Rhine asked 24 subjects to guess which create reputable tests, with varying degrees of conducted a series of tests in the 1920’s, symbol was on a card that was face down. Out success. attempting to transmit feelings and visual of 800 guesses, the subjects managed 207 One of the first scientists to conduct ESP images by telepathy. Some of Warcollier’s correct answers. Since there was a choice of five experiments was Sir William Barnett, professor experiments were carried out in his native symbols, Rhine calculated that the results would of physics at the Royal College of Science in France and the United States. In fact, instead of have been about160 hits if only chance were Dublin. He made a 13-year study of hypnosis, having just one sender and one receiver, he used involved. The chance of achieving this sort of during which he became convinced that he had groups of people concentrating on the same success rate were calculated at more than a observed psychic phenomena. Barrett presented image or emotion. Many sensations were million to one against. his findings to the anthropological department supposedly transmitted successfully, and the of the British Association for the Advancement results over long distances were reported Impromptu testing of Science in 1876. impressive. But there was little evidence to During the early 1930’s, Rhine and his team suggest that ESP worked more effectively with began refining their experiments and Secret image a group than with individuals. controlling them more stringently. They also Most of the early work on ESP research decided to concentrate on particularly high- involved individuals with extraordinary talents, Experimental structure scoring subjects, such as psychology students such as Polish engineer Stephan Ossowiecki, Meanwhile, a well-known British psychologist, 52> ":?J>2I6B 2?5 92B=6C K)DE2BD who could apparently “see” hidden objects. In William McDougall, had been appointed to the Linzmayer achieved the best results when one test with Ossowiecki, an English psychical chair of psychology at Harvard University in distracted while making his guesses; so Rhine researcher, Dr. Eric Dingwall, drew a flag with 1920, where he began a program of extensive sometimes took him out for a drive, stopping a bottle in the upper left-hand corner of a piece psychic research. McDougall had become occasionally for impromptu ESP tests. On one of paper. Underneath the drawing he wrote the interested in the paranormal while a student at occasion. the young student was correct on all date: “Aug 23 1923.” Cambridge University in England, and by the 15 cards. Such uncontrolled experiments may The drawing was placed in three sealed time he moved to Harvard he was president of have convinced Rhine but, as a scientist, they envelopes, one inside the other, and sent to Britain’s Society for Psychical Research. Once knew that they would have little value in another eminent investigator, Baron Albert von in the U.S. he soon found funds to start research circles. However, Linzmayer Schrenck-Notzing, a German pathologist, who experimental telepathy work. Among the continued to produce impressive scores in the was attending an international conference on psychologists who carried out these tests was Duke lab. psychical research in Warsaw. Neither the baron Garner Murphy, who had worked ti Rene Faced with Rhine’s claims, skeptics nor two other researchers who conducted the Warcollier in the France-E.S. experiments. By looked for weaknesses in his experimental experiment knew what Dingwall had placed in 1926 the Harvard researchers were joined by a procedures and errors in his statistical analysis. the sealed envelopes. But when Ossowiecki young Chicago botanist, Joseph Banks Rhine. One critic was Bernard Riess, a psychologist, held the envelope, he reportedly was able to tell He joined the psychology department as a who apparently questioned Rhine so that it did not contain a written message, and he research assistant and went to Duke University aggressively after a lecture that the Duke said that there were several envelopes, with McDougall when he moved there a year University researcher protested that he was something green (cardboard) and a little bottle. later. being called a liar. But rather than be defensive, He then drew an almost identical version of the Within eight years Rhine had coined the Rhine encouraged Reiss to conduct his own target image, with the figures “1923” below, phrase “extrasensory perception” (ESP) and ESP experiments, using all the controls he and said that something else was written before made it a household word, with the publication believed were required. Urged by his own this, but that he could not read it. Such of his controversial book of the same title. In his students to accept the challenge, Reiss carried demonstrations have led any researchers to book he claimed that experiments at Duke out a series of card-guessing experiments with a come to accept the reality of clairvoyance. University had produced overwhelming proof young woman who claimed to eb psychic. In 74 Yet if some individuals perform so well, of the existence of ESP. According to Rhine, it runs of 25 cards (1,850 guesses) she produced it is at least theoretically possible that other was not until his third set of experiments that he an astonishing average of 18 hits out of 25 people may also have psychic powers. Among began to encounter positive results. Using Zener attempts. Continued on Page 20