THROUGH THE PAST…DARKLY… A HISTORY OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH INDEX
Psychical research refers to the investigation of phenomena that appear to be contrary to
physical laws and that suggest the possibility of mental activity existing apart from body.
The Society for Psychical Research was founded in London in 1882. Its formation was the first
systematic effort to organize scientists and scholars to investigate paranormal phenomena. Early
membership included philosophers, scholars, scientists, educators and politicians, such as Henry
Sidgwick, Arthur Balfour, William Crookes, Rufus Osgood Mason and Charles Richet (l-r, below).
Areas of study included telepathy, hypnotism, Reichenbach's phenomena, apparitions, hauntings,
and the physical aspects of Spiritualism such as table-tilting, materialization and apportation. The
Society for Psychical Research published a Census of Hallucinations, which researched apparitional
experiences and hallucinations in the sane. The census was the Society's first attempt at a statistical
evaluation of paranormal phenomena, and the resulting publication in 1886, Phantasms of the Living
is still widely referenced in parapsychological literature today. The SPR became the model for similar
societies in other European countries and the United States during the late 19th century.
Early clairvoyance experiments were reported in 1884 by Charles Richet. Playing cards were
enclosed in envelopes and a subject put under hypnosis attempted to identify them. The subject
was reported to have been successful in a series of 133 trials but the results dropped to chance level
when performed before a group of scientists in Cambridge. J. M. Peirce and E. C.
Pickering reported a similar experiment in which they tested 36
subjects over 23,384 trials which did not obtain above chance scores.
Largely due to the support of psychologist William James (left), the
American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) opened its doors in
Boston in 1885, moving to New York City in 1905 under the leadership
of James H. Hyslop (right). The SPR and ASPR continue research in
parapsychology.
In 1911, Stanford University became the first academic institution in
the United States to study extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK) in a laboratory
setting. The effort was headed by psychologist John Edgar Coover, and was supported by funds
donated by Thomas Welton Stanford, brother of the university's founder. In 1930, Duke University
became the second major U.S. academic institution to engage in the critical study of ESP and
psychokinesis in the laboratory. Under the guidance of psychologist William McDougall, and with the
help of others in the department—including psychologists Karl Zener, Joseph B. Rhine, and Louisa E.
Rhine—laboratory ESP experiments using volunteer subjects from the undergraduate student body
began. As opposed to the approaches of psychical research, which generally sought qualitative
evidence for paranormal phenomena, the experiments at Duke University proffered a quantitative,
statistical approach using cards and dice. As a consequence of the ESP experiments at Duke,
standard laboratory procedures for the testing of ESP developed and came to be adopted by
interested researchers throughout the world.
George Estabrooks conducted an ESP experiment using cards in 1927. Harvard students were
used as the subjects. Estabrooks acted as the sender with the guesser in an adjoining room. In total
2, 300 trials were conducted. When the subjects were sent to a distant room with insulation the
scores dropped to chance level. Attempts to repeat the experiment also failed.
The publication of J. B. Rhine's book, New Frontiers of the Mind (1937) brought the laboratory's
findings to the general public. In his book, Rhine popularized the word "parapsychology", which
psychologist Max Dessoir had coined over 40 years earlier, to describe the research conducted at
Duke. Rhine also founded an autonomous Parapsychology Laboratory within Duke and started the
Journal of Parapsychology, which he co-edited with McDougall.
Rhine (below, left), along with associate Karl Zener (below, center), had developed a statistical
system of testing for ESP that involved subjects guessing what symbol, out of five possible symbols,
would appear when going through a special deck of cards (below, left) designed for this purpose. A
percentage of correct guesses (or hits) significantly above 20% was perceived as higher than
chance and indicative of psychic ability. Rhine stated in his first book, ExtraSensory Perception
(1934), that after 90,000 trials, he felt ESP is "an actual and demonstrable occurrence".
Eileen Garrett (right) was tested by Rhine at Duke University in 1933
with Zener cards. Certain symbols that were placed on the cards and sealed in
an envelope, and she was asked to guess their contents. She performed poorly
and later criticized the tests by claiming the cards lacked a psychic energy called
"energy stimulus" and that she could not perform clairvoyance to order. The
parapsychologist Samuel Soal and his colleagues tested Garrett in May, 1937.
Most of the experiments were carried out in the Psychological Laboratory at the
University College London. A total of over 12,000 guesses were recorded but
Garrett failed to produce above chance level.In his report Soal wrote "In the
case of Mrs. Eileen Garrett we fail to find the slightest confirmation of Dr. J. B.
Rhine's remarkable claims relating to her alleged powers of extra-sensory perception. Not only did
she fail when I took charge of the experiments, but she failed equally when four other carefully
trained experimenters took my place."
The parapsychology experiments at Duke evoked much criticism from academics and
others who challenged the concepts and evidence of ESP. A number of psychological departments
attempted to repeat Rhine's experiments with failure. W. S. Cox (1936) from Princeton University
with 132 subjects produced 25, 064 trials in a playing card ESP experiment. Cox concluded "There is
no evidence of extrasensory perception either in the 'average man' or of the group investigated or in
any particular individual of that group. The discrepancy between these results and those obtained by
Rhine is due either to uncontrollable factors in experimental procedure or to the difference in the
subjects." Four other psychological departments failed to replicate Rhine's results.
In 1938, the psychologist Joseph Jastrow wrote much of the evidence for extrasensory
perception collected by Rhine and other parapsychologists was anecdotal, biased, dubious and the
result of "faulty observation and familiar human frailties". Rhine's experiments were discredited due
to the discovery that sensory leakage or cheating could account for all his results such as the
subject being able to read the symbols from the back of the cards and being able to see and hear
the experimenter to note subtle clues
Illusionist Milbourne Christopher wrote years later that he felt "there are at least a dozen ways a
subject who wished to cheat under the conditions Rhine described could deceive the investigator".
When Rhine took precautions in response to criticisms of his methods, he was unable to find any
high-scoring subjects. Another criticism, made by chemist Irving Langmuir, among others, was one
of selective reporting. Langmuir stated that Rhine did not report scores of subjects that he
suspected were intentionally guessing wrong, and that this, he felt, biased the statistical results
higher than they should have been.
Rhine and his colleagues attempted to address these criticisms through new experiments
described in the book Extrasensory Perception After Sixty Years (1940). Rhine described three
experiments the Pearce-Pratt experiment, the Pratt-Woodruff experiment and the Ownbey-Zirkle
series which he believed demonstrated ESP. However, C. E. M. Hansel wrote "it is now known that
each experiment contained serious flaws that escaped notice in the examination made by the
authors of Extra-Sensory Perception After Sixty Years". Joseph Gaither Pratt was the co-
experimenter in the Pearce-Pratt and Pratt-Woodruff experiments at the Duke campus. Hansel
visited the campus where the experiments took place and discovered the results could have
originated through the use of a trick so could not regarded as supplying evidence for ESP.
In 1957, Rhine and Joseph Gaither Pratt wrote Parapsychology: Frontier Science of the Mind.
Because of the methodological problems, parapsychologists no longer utilize card-guessing studies.
Rhine's experiments into psychokinesis (PK) were also criticized. John Sladek wrote:
His research used dice, with subjects 'willing' them to fall a certain way. Not only can dice be drilled,
shaved, falsely numbered and manipulated, but even straight dice often show bias in the long run.
Casinos for this reason retire dice often, but at Duke, subjects continued to try for the same effect
on the same dice over long experimental runs. Not surprisingly, PK appeared at Duke and nowhere
else.
The Ownbey-Zirkle ESP experiment (below) at Duke was criticized by parapsychologists and
skeptics. Ownbey would attempt to send ESP symbols to Zirkle who would guess what they were.
The pair were placed in adjacent rooms unable to see each other and an electric fan was used to
prevent the pair communicating by sensory cues. Ownbey tapped a telegraph key to Zirkle to inform
him when she was trying to send him a symbol. The door separating the two rooms was open during
the experiment, and after each guess Zirkle would call out his guess to Ownbey who recorded his
choice. Critics pointed out the experiment was flawed as Ownbey acted as both the sender and the
experimenter, nobody was controlling the experiment so Ownbey could have cheated by
communicating with Zirkle or made recording mistakes.
The Turner-Ownbey long distance telepathy experiment was discovered to contain flaws. May
Frances Turner positioned herself in the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory whilst Sara Ownbey
claimed to receive transmissions 250 miles away. For the experiment Turner would think of a symbol
and write it down whilst Ownbey would write her guesses. The scores were highly successful and
both records were supposed to be sent to J. B. Rhine, however, Ownbey sent them to Turner. Critics
pointed out this invalidated the results as she could have simply written her own record to agree
with the other. When the experiment was repeated and the records were sent to Rhine the scores
dropped to average.
A famous ESP experiment at the Duke University was performed by Lucien
Warner and Mildred Raible. The subject was locked in a room with a switch
controlling a signal light elsewhere, which he could signal to guess the card.
Ten runs with ESP packs of cards were used and he achieved 93 hits (43 more
than chance). Weaknesses with the experiment were later discovered. The
duration of the light signal could be varied so that the subject could call for
specific symbols and certain symbols in the experiment came up far more
often than others which indicated either poor shuffling or card manipulation.
The experiment was not repeated.
The administration of Duke grew less sympathetic to parapsychology, and
after Rhine's retirement in 1965 parapsychological links with the university were broken. Rhine later
established the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man (FRNM) and the Institute for
Parapsychology as a successor to the Duke laboratory. In 1995, the centenary of Rhine's birth, the
FRNM was renamed the Rhine Research Center. Today, the Rhine Research Center is a
parapsychology research unit, stating that it "aims to improve the human condition by creating a
scientific understanding of those abilities and sensitivities that appear to transcend the ordinary
limits of space and time".
Rhine Research Center
The affiliation of the Parapsychological Association (PA) with the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, along with a general
openness to psychic and occult phenomena in the 1970s, led to a decade
of increased parapsychological research. During this period, other related
organizations were also formed, including the Academy of Parapsychology
and Medicine (1970), the Institute of Parascience (1971), the Academy of
Religion and Psychical Research, the Institute of Noetic Sciences (1973),
the International Kirlian Research Association (1975), and the Princeton Engineering Anomalies
Research Laboratory (1979). Parapsychological work was also conducted at the Stanford Research
Institute (SRI) during this time.
The scope of parapsychology expanded during these years. Psychiatrist Ian Stevenson (pictured,
right) conducted much of his research into reincarnation during the 1970s, and the second edition of
his Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation was published in 1974. Psychologist Thelma Moss
devoted time to the study of Kirlian photography at UCLA's parapsychology laboratory. The influx of
spiritual teachers from Asia, and their claims of abilities produced by meditation, led to research on
altered states of consciousness. American Society for Psychical Research Director of Research, Karlis
Osis, conducted experiments in out of body experiences. Physicist Russell Targ coined the term
remote viewing for use in some of his work at SRI in 1974.
The surge in paranormal research continued into the 1980s: the Parapsychological
Association reported members working in more than 30 countries. For example, research was
carried out and regular conferences held in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union although
the word parapsychology was discarded in favor of the term psychotronics. The promoter of
psychotronics was Czech scientist Zdeněk Rejdák. Rejdák kept enforcing the psychotronics as a
physical science on the world-wide scale and for many years, he organized conferences on research
in psychotronics. The psychotronics of this era is being understood as a new science in the terms of
human bionics. The main objectives of psychotronics were to verify and study distant interactions
human organism and its information and energy expressions and subsequently the phenomena of
telepathy, clairvoyance and psychokinesis, to discover new principles of nature.
In 1985 a Chair of Parapsychology was established within the Department of Psychology at the
University of Edinburgh. Robert Morris, a respected experimental parapsychologist from the United
States took up the position, and with his research associates and PhD students pursued a
comprehensive research program. Since Professor Morris' death in 2004 the Chair of Parapsychology
has remained vacant.
Since the 1980s, contemporary parapsychological research has waned considerably in the United
States. Early research was considered inconclusive, and parapsychologists were faced with strong
opposition from their academic colleagues. Some effects thought to be paranormal, for example the
effects of Kirlian photography (thought by some to represent a human aura, left), disappeared
under more stringent controls, leaving those avenues of research at dead-ends. Many university
laboratories in the United States have closed, citing a lack of acceptance by mainstream science as
the reason; the bulk of parapsychology research in the US is now confined to private institutions
funded by private sources. After 28 years of research, Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research
Laboratory (PEAR), which studied psychokinesis, closed in 2007.
Two universities in the United States currently have academic parapsychology laboratories. The
Division of Perceptual Studies, a unit at the University of Virginia's Department of Psychiatric
Medicine, studies the possibility of survival of consciousness after bodily death, near-death
experiences, and out-of-body experiences. The University of Arizona's Veritas Laboratory conducts
laboratory investigations of mediums. Several private institutions, including the Institute of Noetic
Sciences, conduct and promote parapsychological research.
Over the last two decades some new sources of funding for parapsychology in Europe have seen
a "substantial increase in European parapsychological research so that the center of gravity for the
field has swung from the United States to Europe". Of all nations the United Kingdom has the
largest number of active parapsychologists. In the UK, researchers work in conventional psychology
departments, and also do studies in mainstream psychology to "boost their credibility and show that
their methods are sound". It is thought that this approach could account for the relative strength of
parapsychology in Britain.
As of 2007, parapsychology research is represented in some 30 different countries and a
number of universities worldwide continue academic parapsychology programs. Among these are
the Koestler Parapsychology Unit at the University of Edinburgh; the Parapsychology Research
Group at Liverpool Hope University (this closed in April 2011); the SOPHIA Project at the University
of Arizona; the Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology Research Unit of Liverpool John Moores
University; the Center for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes at the University of
Northampton; and the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Research and professional organizations include the Parapsychological Association; the Society
for Psychical Research, publisher of the Journal of Society for Psychical Research; the American
Society for Psychical Research, publisher of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical
Research (last published in 2004); the Rhine Research Center and Institute for Parapsychology,
publisher of the Journal of Parapsychology; the Parapsychology Foundation, which published the
International Journal of Parapsychology (between 1959 to 1968 and 2000–2001) and the Australian
Institute of Parapsychological Research, publisher of the Australian Journal of Parapsychology. The
European Journal of Parapsychology ceased publishing in 2010.
Parapsychological research has also been augmented by other sub-disciplines of psychology.
These related fields include transpersonal psychology, which studies transcendent or spiritual
aspects of the human mind, and anomalistic psychology, which examines paranormal beliefs and
subjective anomalous experiences in traditional psychological terms
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