It has, I think, been a unique and noteworthy feature that, from the sympathetic and enlightened interest of the President of Duke University, Dr W. P. Few, and of Mrs. Few, down to the hundreds of students who kindly served as subjects, a very gratifying spirit of co-operation and open-mindedness has marked the trail of these three years of research, this spirit centering chiefly in the contributions and attitudes of the colleagues already mentioned, in the valuable work of certain of the graduate assistants of this Department, namely. Miss. Sara Ownbey (Miss. Ownbey has been married since the above writing, and is now Mrs. George Zirkle.) Mr. C. E. Stuart and Mr. J. G. Pratt, who have been my principal assistants, and of the major subjects who have spent hundreds of laborious hours in monotonous experimentation. At every point we have met only with friendly encouragement and willingness to give assistance. Thus the scope of the work was greatly broadened. It is with pleasure and gratitude that I acknowledge this help, the extent of which will be very apparent through the chapters to come.
The financial assistance given me from the Department Budget and the University Research Fund is also gratefully acknowledged.
To Dr Walter Franklin Prince, whom I am proud to recognize as my principal teacher in Psychic Research, I am grateful for help and criticism, especially from the standpoint of publication, and for his generous acceptance of this work for the Boston Society Series. My wife, Dr Louisa E. Rhine, has given me great assistance and encouragement throughout, but especially in the writing of this report. I cannot over-appreciate her share in whatever of merit it may have.
ABOUT THIS BOOK
From the Author in 1964
This is the book that started all the hullabaloo that for more than twenty-five years has been going on around the world over the subject of ESP, or extrasensory perception, and related topics. Its publication in 1934 started the movement that has brought parapsychology into the university laboratories in various countries and is leading to its acceptance as a proper branch of science, slow and irregular though this later development is in some countries especially.
Moreover, this is the only book that gives a blow-by-blow account of the early explanatory efforts of the group of workers at Duke University, who gave the subject its first permanent foothold in the academic world. I have written other more general reviews covering the program in the large, such as that in my book. The Reach of the Mind, but those first three strenuous, exciting, venturesome years of the Duke work have had no other ac- counting. We at the Laboratory have been too busy to go back. I had not even read this book in the last twenty-five years, and the world itself, that is, that part of it that pays attention to the new science of parapsychology, has been focusing attention on current developments. This is all as it should have been.
Why, then, turn back now? And whom should we expect to be interested? Is the book, indeed, mere history? I can at least give my own judgment.
I should place the main value of the book in the fact that it reports a unique situation that needs to be re-examined by the student and worker in parapsychology today, young or old. It seems clear, to me at least, and all the more so from a re-reading, that we had in those early years at Duke a very special situation and it was largely responsible for the unusual and unequalled production of results in ESP experiments. Where has there ever been such teamwork, a comparable spirit, a similar atmosphere?
Here was a young pair of scientists, man and wife, who had, with some determination, pulled up stakes in another university and another field, and had come to Duke University to set up under the distinguished founder of the Psychology Department, Professor William McDougall, a research center for work in the field known as psychical research. Here was a favorable university administration, and even some modest research funds, with working space, with the cooperative interest of the departmental staff, with the active cooperation of five and, later, twice as many graduate students in psychology, and the eager, enthusiastic assistance of large numbers of undergraduates, a tolerant university community that allowed, even in that day, the added attraction of the liberal use of hypnosis, the admission of interesting personalities, such as mediums, to the Department of Psychology; and, over it all, the protective sponsorship of departmental and administrative approval and personal interest. It was just about ideal. The enthusiasm was of course directed along scientific lines, the invention of new methods, the design of new test programs, but there was balance, too, judicious restraint, avoidance of sensationalism and publicity. The program was accepted, welcomed. It gave research training, intellectual excitement, and scientific adventure to hundreds of students. It was all in great good spirit and those who took part still look back upon those early days and retain a common bond.
It is true that probably no one who was not "there" will easily catch this spirit from reading between the lines in the book that follows; but I think it will not be hard for anyone to see that there must have been such an integrative influence, as I have suggested, to have kept these numerous young workers going through thousands of card-calling tests which, in some situations, can become boring in a few minutes. But for all of us concerned, this was a big thing we were doing, and every fresh score was a reminder of the magnitude of what we were discovering. We knew we had something by the tail that was too big for all of us, but we were having riotous fun pulling and holding on, twisting and prying, to get a better hold, a further advantage, a more complete capture.
The sober, reflective parapsychology worker of today well knows how important this kind of motivation can be; first, on the part of the one who administers the tests, because he needs to arouse it in the persons he tests if he hopes to motivate them to the effort and patience and persistence needed to bring out the elusive ESP ability. In the early 1930^ we hardly knew how fortunate we were in the atmosphere we had helped to create. There are glimmers of this realization to be found in the book, but the appreciation of it was easily lost when, following the publication of the book, other investigators undertook to do some sort of repetition. Arguments began, controversy followed, and aspects of the research came into prominence that over-shadowed the importance of the psycho- logical atmosphere of testing. Attention concentrated on disputes over experimental precautions, interpretation of results, and the like; and, in the years of tension and contention, the wonderful good fun of the early Duke days was lost and forgotten. It never came back to the Duke Laboratory, where the ramparts had to be "manned for defense" for so many later years. Only in recent times have the older workers begun to call attention to the importance of the psychological atmosphere of testing, the prime importance of strong motivation in the subject, and to recall what has been lost over the years of shifting emphasis.
But can we take these early tests of the 1930 seriously? If there has been this long period of debate over the adequacy of test procedures, may not these early experiments have been so loosely conducted from today's point of view as to be relatively worthless? No, and I say it with emphasis! There have, of course, been many advances made since. In fact, it was through these early explorations that the advances were made possible. They were necessary steps, and the step-by-step advances can be seen. It is true, as I think every reader will see when all the details are given, those advances were made slowly. As one looks back, he wonders continually, "Why did we not see such and such a weakness?" Perhaps others in the same situation would have seen it. No one will ever know.
But here is just where the value of this early report comes in. It tells me, l:or one, what I want to know today—how in spite of the monotony of the procedure, how well the long we were able to keep those early subjects scoring well subjects responded to the new conditions introduced, and what sort of program we had that kept so many so productive for so long. What would we not give today for the like of that? I think any worker in the field today would say the same.
The point is, then, we do not read this book to see how good