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C
ASE
#
1:
Late.
oDe anemoon a
s.even~
teen-year-old boy oat at
ru..
typewritér
in
bis
pareots' Miebla•• home.
M
the
SIID
swted
to
Jet
and
the 100m
da<k·
lled,
he reached ror the li&ht
$Witcb.
But
hefore
bis
hand oould tolleh
i~
he sensed a
voice sayin& ..-Do-n•t tum on tbe light." Tbe
i:mpression was
JO
eerie and
oul
of the
ordinatY. that the young typl$1 feh oompelled
lO retum .lo bis
WO~k
wlthou/
lhe benefit of
additiol)al U¡ht.
A few minul0$latet
lt
was getting
too
dark
lO
work. and be reach.ed a second time for
lhe
&witcb..
A¡ain tbc waminSt "Don't
tu.rn
on the
U¡hl"
lt was only
I<COnds
la
ter
that a
utility Uneman came
to
the froo.t poreh
warning the family oot to
toueh
any
elecui–
cal
switch<$
t>ec:.~.
hiah
vol~·
wire–
dowo.
ocross
the
lirie
to
the
house.
This
happened in 1915, and the youo.g .
mon, Harold Sherman, WC!It on
to
beoome
oae of thc tweotietb ccotu.ry's most famous
~psychi<:s."
But in 1915, and for mo<l of lhe
time since, aoy sott of interest in the psycbic
or paraoormal
wat
con.sidcred ttrangct
weird. and above""aJJ, uns,:ientific. Sure therc
wcre koob, nur.s., and a potpourri of
tocen·
t¡ics
wbo helieved in such
things.
But !he
!"•eral
publie wasn't oboutto elevate telep–
athy, daHvoyance and
the
like
to
the status
of reality. And meo of sá<:oce were even
more adaman
t.
CASE #2:
Before
critica!
onlookeu a
ynung lsraeU psycbic demonstrata bis ap–
parent ability lo telepathic:ally pereeive
tbousbts by reproducing diagrams drawn by
othcrs. He conJistently and correctly
'"guesses" lhe position or objecu inside a
steel box. He displays whot seemhlo be the
meatal power
ro
erue infonnation storcd oo.
.:Ovi.deo ...
ra~
.
,.
~
·
Theóe feats are oot performed on a oight·
dubsugeorOJ
alightJ.cljfseana:.The..uiogisthe
respeded Stanford
Researeh
lostitute. The
psychic is participating in ClOntrOUed. and as
far
as
poosible, clleat·ptOOf 01<periments
ono–
ducted by <O$pecled physicists.
Unlike many weU·publicized past .J<On·
tures into the p¡¡ranormal, the res\JI!s of
tbese experiments will probably stimulate no
ooc to radicaUy change Hfe-styles or em–
brace cultic oew reUgious mOdO$. The scicn·
tists simply reported their findinp: "We
h.a:ve observed ce:na1n
phenomeu.a
. .•
for
whic:h
we bavc no scíentiftc cxpla.nation"
(Hew Scimli.n.
Mareh
22,
1913, p.
6TT).
The psychic lsrae!J •upentar mentioaed
above is, of
c:ourse.
Un Gellcr.
His
eerie
repertoiro
aJso
indudO$ bending metal ob–
jects (forks, spoona and keys seem to he bis
favorito itcms), by touching them lightly or
not at
~U.
He abo allcsedly repain watebes
and small clectrOnic devices by merely hold–
ing tb.cm - or, again. whhout touching tbem
at all. Some observera claim
lO
bave seen
him ''dematcrializ.e.. and "re.materia.li:ze"
small objects.
Only ten years ago senous
talle
of
utra.·
sensory pen:cption, precognition, or
out~f·
the-body
expenenc:cs would bave been
ClOD·
sidered inteUcctual heresy. But today,
a
fuo·
damental knowledgc of psychic phenomeo.a
{and
tH:st
of aU an experience or two your–
sell)
seem.s
to
be prerequisite for one hoping
to
converse
in
crudíte circlcs. And a small
but significan! cadre of scieotists devotes
fuiJ-IÚile attenliOn lO tbe Study or lhe para•
normal, Geller
oot
heíng the !irst of
their
specimens.
CASE #3:
The
time
u
thc early 1930's. A
Ouke UDiver>ity theolo¡y student sits at a
desk ll)'ÍD& to tdepatlueally
~guess"
the
lhou&hts of a seoond StudenL The seoond
studeot oonceotratcs on speáally shullled
eards takcn one at a time rrom
wbat
is:
caUed
a Zenar deck.
On eaeb
Zenar
card
is
a
sym·
bol - a circle,
tquatCt
cron, sta.r, or wavy
lines. There are only 6ve
~ymbols,
eaeb ap•
peariog on exacto/ onc
tlnh
of the cards. The
ehaoce of correc:tty "guessing" eaeb symbol
is one inJiye.
10
bav~
IO$ted for telepathy (miod 10 mind
communication witboin use or tbe ftvc
senscs), clairvoyance (the ability
10
"see"
ao
• object biddeo from view), prec:ognitioo (the
ability
to
oorm:tly
¡mdia
minor future
oc.
cum:oces
sueh
aa
!he lightiog of
a
parocular
bulb), aod psychokin0$is (thc abllity
to
move
h-t.G-"d –
PSYCH/C
C.rro/1 Jay puts
wil• OoiOt'IJ
ínto
11 hypnotlc trance The ,.,.d husband·wife
t•sm
ttom
Elliton.
t(.J.•
IIM~among
thous1nd1 n'ding
th•
wsve of intenst
In
the occult.
ANCIINT SPIRITS·HAUNT
MODIRN SCIINCE
by
Ron Horswell
But the theolo¡y studcnt dOO$ oonsid·
erobly heller tban one in
ñve.
Aod he ma•o·
taina
biS
higher-than-ehance scorc ovcr
thousands of"guesses.u
Tbc experirnent and many others li.k.e
it
are being condueted by Qr.
l
8 . Rhine and
bis wife, Dr. Louisa Rhioe,
in
their oewly
established parapsychology laboratoiy at
Duke.
Later, in 1934, Dr. Rhine !irst publishes
bis resultS coverin& some ei¡hty-live lhou·
aancl
card-calling
tries
oonducted W1th
a
oumber -or subjccts. The overall average or
c:ornct
c:alls
is
twenty-eight out of one
bu.n–
dred IOSle&d
o(
!he
ebance
Olt.pectancy,
twenty out or one buodred (one in ftve) .
Ovcr
so
great a number of tries (cighty-ftve
thousaod) thc odds agaiost sueh a largo de·
viation rrom chance
~merges
as a.stronomi–
cal, manymiiUons
lO
one.
R.hlne's oonclu.sion: some form
ot
extra·
sensory perception
exists.
A
scienútlc aod
reügious bombshell is dropped.
Formal investiga!ion of paraoormal
ea¡»
rieocea
goes
hac:k at least
to
the
early 1880's
and the founding of
tlrst
the Brit.ilb and theo
thc American Soc:ietiea for P<ycbical
Re–
tcareh.
Thcir basic fuoc:tion
was
to
gather
information about alleged prychlc occur·
reocea and then aJlempt to discover if eacb
occurrenee truly oould not be expl1ined
witbln thc boundaries of s.:ience. Altbough
many mcmbcn raJll<ed quite prominently
(e.g., p•ycbologist·pbilosopber Wllllam
James aod physicistJ. J. -!homson, dlseov·
erer of the clc<:tron). the tociebO$ bad reta–
tively little inlluence on the ¡eneral pubUc
..
attitude or on scientidc thinting.
h wasn't until Dr. Rhine inaugu:rated lhe
classic trad.ition or ngorou.s., scientific. and
downright tedious lovcstigation of ESP (a
term Rhinc coined) that general disbelief
began ernding into skepticism and accep–
tance. Rhine's basic metbods or baviog sub–
jects make '*guesses" or ...caUs" have been
refined
to
al.alost uncanny preeisioo.
For eumple, pbyslcist Hel.alut Sehmidt
ClOnducted recen! experimentS in the Rhine
tradition haviog sub¡ec<s try
to
predictwbieh
of four small Lamps would light up uexL The
illumination order of the lamps wu oontrol–
led by strontium
90
radioaetive decay. Sueh
decay pr<><:eS$0$ ore thcoretically random,
and perhaps may be, as Schmidt put it, "aa–
ture's most elemcntary source of random.–
ness.''
Schmidt's work deeply impr0$$ed lhe
tra·
ditional sci.entific oommunity not only
be–
cause of bis r0$ults, but olso heeause of the
ultrasopbisticated techníques he utiliud
in
obtainiog
the
resultS. Scicnce
writer
Arthur
Koestler summarize • 1be impact of
Schmidt's !irst experiments: "••. the subjects
m-ade
oor-re!'t
predictivc gu0$$ea
at
the out–
oomc of theoretic:ally unpredictable sub–
atomic processes with a probability against
cba.nce of ten lhousand million against onc"'
(Roots
of
Coincfdenco,
pp.
44-'IS).
In the four decades
••oce
th001e fint card·
calling IO$lS, Rhino and many othet seientills
~
or ioftucnce
a.n
object undet CÍI'Qlmstancet
that aonnaUy makeo sueb inftuenee bumanly
imposslble). Evidence
has
been fouod for
each. Altbough' experimental results wcre
al
first
oommonl,y labeled both unscientine and
• frauduleot, eventually it could only be ad–
mhted that elle experiments wcrc: well done
and thtt there definitdy was something 10
tbis "ESP bllSioess.-
Thot
was -
and
still
is -
almos!
too
big o
scientiftc pill for many
to
swallow.
M
math·
e.matic:ian Warren Weavc:r put it. ..18.nd
thls
[ESP)
a
subjcct
that
is
10
iot<:Ucctually
un–
oornfortable as 10
be
almos!
paintw. lend by
ooncluding that
1
canoot explain away Pro·
fessor Rhine•s evidence, aod that 1also can–
not aoocpt
ru..
intcrprctation"
(Lady
Lllck
011dtht Thtory ofProbabi/11)1,
p.
361).
Wbat is
to
pain!ul about
uhis
intct·
pretatloo"? 8asicaUy that
if
ESP
is
a reality,
it represents
a
human ability
to
gaio iofOr·
mation
and i.nftucnoe events
without use or
tbc dve utemal sensea. That would meao
there eaist yet uncharted dimensiona to the
mind.
or levels of "rcalil)"' in !he u01venc
about whieh seience prcsenúy knows vir·
tually nothing.
In rac:t. psychic experiences seem
to
occur
in
direct oontrtdic:tion to
what
we commonly
call scienti.ftc laws.
Some scientins doo't see this as much ora
problem. They point out lhat everything
science now undent.ands was once in r.hc
unexplainoble file. Afler all. when Kepler
!irst $UI30$l<:il lhat
tide$
wtl'e~a.~-to ~t&i~
•
úvc
ron:es
emao.atiog from
tb ..
e mooo.
it
was
Galileo himself wbo
shrugged
it
otr
as
an
"ooeult fancy" heeause such a<:tion·at·a--dis·
ta.nce
contradicted
the
"laws
ornature."
Present r0$Careb includes not only testing.
in lhc Rhinc ttadition, for the cxistence
Qf
psychic phenomena, but
also
laboratory ob·
servation óf known-but-stiU·disputcd psy·
chics such
as
Uri Geller:
M
lhe 11artling
results ftlter out of tl)e laboratorios, leu aiti–
cal
obscrvers envision psychic power
a.s
a
wbole new human potcntial into whieb man
ean develqp. Olhers see it as the civiliution·
uviog catalyst that Wll16JW!y stimulate meo
to abandon the gods of acquisition
and
m
a·
teriatism
in
exebange for
a
bi¡her St.ate Of
awareness. Some, of
course,
<lron&Jy caution
•8•inst
any
excursion jnto
psychic
pbenom–
ena, eitin& tbe very real da.nger of concact
with
an active and of'len malicious •pirit
world. Still others argue that
a
burgeonin¡
Aquarhan a¡e will. like the atomic age, force
upon societies a choice between peaceful
and criminal uses
of
a
new power souree.
A
more
oonservative forecast secs o.n tHe
homon
o
change in seientiftc
lhinktn¡.
Afler
deeades or dis¡waging
a1J
that appears out·
side iu
realm.
science may allow oew respect
and toleranc:e for dimensioos or reality
bcyond itS borden.
..,.o usert tbat there is
only matter
aod no
mind/'
wrote astronomer V. A. Firsoft',
••iJ
the most illogical of propositioos. quite apart
Crom
the 6ndings of modem physic:s, which
show that there i.s no matter in Lhe ttadi·
tional
m~aning
of the
term"
(Lift,
Mlnd and
GaiOJtltl,
p.
S2).
We onen mistakenly
tbiolt
that knowing
more makea !he formulation of explaootions
easier. But that's not necessarily
$0.
11
seems
pro~ble
that severa! branehes of seience
oow koow
too
mueb -
too
mueh to be able
to
cxf~ain
the spiritual uoiverse in purely
"phys•cal" tcrms.
At aoy rate, rest assured that you're no
longer ao ignoran! dolt- if you oontemplatc
Ood or spírits. Ao_d it's not a plebelan
Jaux
pos
to
muse of man's spiritual potcatial or
pooder
u
re ancr dcatb.
o
WEEK ENDINO
MAY
3,
1975