Extra-Sensory Perception After Sixty Years: A Critical Appraisal of the Research in Extra-Sensory Perception

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EXTRA-SENSORY PERCEPTION AFTER SIXTY YEARS

A Critical Appraisal of the Research in Extra-Sensory Perception

BY

J.B. RHINE, Instructor in Psychology

J.G. PRATT, Professor of Psychology

CHARLES E. STUART, Prince Memorial Fellow

BURKE M. SMITH, Graduate Research Assistant

of the

PARAPSYCHOLOGY LABORATORY

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

DUKE UNIVERSITY

AND

JOSEPH A. GREENWOOD

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS

DUKE UNIVERSITY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

PREFACE 5

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 9

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 10

PART I—THE QUESTION OF THE OCCURRENCE OF ESP 11

Chapter I—ORIGIN AND FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM 11

Chapter II—THE MATHEMATICAL METHODS 22

Chapter III—THE EXPERIMENTAL METHODS 40

Chapter IV—A SURVEY OF THE RESULTS OF ESP TESTS 53

Chapter V—THE COUNTER-HYPOTHESES: I. CONSIDERED SINGLY 81

Chapter VI—THE COUNTER-HYPOTHESES: II. CONSIDERED JOINTLY 112

PART II—THE CRITICISM AND THE EVIDENCE 129

Chapter VII—A SURVEY OF PUBLISHED CRITICISM 129

Chapter VIII—CRITICAL COMMENTS INVITED FOR THIS VOLUME 147

Chapter IX—CONDENSATION AND CONCLUSION 165

PART III—THE NATURE OF ESP 168

Chapter X—INTRODUCTION: RELATIONS AND EVIDENCE 168

Chapter XI—GENERAL RELATIONS OF ESP TO THE INDIVIDUAL SUBJECT 171

Chapter XII—TEST CONDITIONS THAT AFFECT PERFORMANCE 178

Chapter XIII—PHYSICAL RELATIONS OF ESP 195

Chapter XIV—ESP AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENON 208

PART IV—THE PRESENT SITUATION 219

Chapter XV—UNSOLVED PROBLEMS 219

Chapter XVI—METHODS ON TRIAL AND UNDER CONTEMPLATION 225

Chapter XVII—STATISTICAL PROBLEMS RECENTLY SOLVED OR STILL UNSOLVED 232

Chapter XVIII—A GENERAL VIEW OF THE PRESENT SITUATION 235

Appendix 1—APPLICATION OF STANDARD DEVIATION TO THE BINOMIAL SITUATION 241

Appendix 2—THE CHI SQUARE GOODNESS OF FIT TEST 244

Appendix 3—TEST OF VARIANCE 249

Appendix 4—CHI SQUARE TEST ON GROUPED DATA 250

Appendix 5—CONTINGENCY TEST OF INDEPENDENCE OF ATTRIBUTES 252

Appendix 6—CORRELATION METHOD 254

Appendix 7—EVALUATION OF A DIFFERENCE—PARAMETERS UNKNOWN 256

Appendix 8—DEVIATION FREQUENCY ABOUT THEORETICAL MEAN—WISHART AND HIRSHFELD 257

Appendix 9—MULTIPLE CALLING OF ONE DECK OF CARDS—STEVENS’ FORMULAS 258

Appendix 10—A METHOD OF EVALUATING CLAIRVOYANT DRAWINGS 259

Appendix 11—JOINT EVALUATION FOR VARIOUS PROBABILITIES OF SUCCESS ON EACH TRIAL 261

Appendix 12—COMBINATION OF SERIES 262

Appendix 13—EMPIRICAL CHANCE DISTRIBUTION 264

Appendix 14—COVARIATION 265

Appendix 15—A MEASURE OF SEQUENCES OF SIMILAR SCORING TENDENCY 267

Appendix 16—PROBABILITY OF OCCURRENCE OF INDEPENDENT AND COMPLETE SERIES WITH CERTAIN LEVELS OF SIGNIFICANCE 268

Appendix 17—TABLE 29 270

Appendix 18—SOURCES OF ITEMS OF TABLE 6 286

Appendix 19—PUBLISHED CRITICISM OF ESP RESEARCH 289

Appendix 20—ORIGINAL RECORDS OF TELEPATHY SERIES 291

Appendix 21—ESP QUOTIENT 294

GLOSSARY 296

REFERENCES 299

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 318

PREFACE

The phenomena called thought-reading and lucidity, and later known as telepathy and clairvoyance, have in recent decades come to occupy a place in the scientific literature and laboratory under the name of extra-sensory perception (ESP). Although a great deal of work has been done in the field during this period and much has been written in controversy over the subject, there has been hitherto no attempt to present a thorough survey of the whole attack on the problem; scientists as well as lay readers have lacked an opportunity to examine the evidence as a whole.

This book is intended to afford just such a complete review of the recent research in extra-sensory perception, in the light of all of the criticisms that it has drawn. It is the purpose of the authors to include in this survey everything that is of importance to know in deciding whether ESP occurs, and what it is like if it does occur. It is their hope that the presentation will be clear enough to permit a view of the work in proper perspective, and yet technical enough to answer all the relevant questions as far as they have been answered by the results of experiments. How far this intention, this purpose, and this hope have been achieved is, of course, another matter; the best efforts of the many collaborators who have taken an active part in the preparation of this volume may not have been adequate to the size of the undertaking.

However, it seems best to submit now a summary of what has been achieved so far, even though it may mean that the accumulation of items for revision will have to begin before the ink is dry on this paper. The reason for this action is the evidence from many quarters of the urgent need for a monograph of this character.

First, interest in the subject of ESP has found its way into the psychology classroom and laboratory. Tests for extrasensory perception have been introduced in many courses in experimental psychology, courses in general science, and in connection with certain other subjects. Since there has been no reference work available covering the field as a whole, and since the data are scattered and not always easy to come by, this volume may be found to be a convenient source-book both to teachers and to students of psychology.

Second, general public interest in the research in extrasensory perception has developed to such a point that a treatment of all the evidence is badly needed, if for no other reason than to help the interested layman in coming to a conclusion regarding the question of the occurrence of ESP. Quite apart from the psychological profession, there has been active interest in the ESP work among scientific and professional men. The attention of physicists, engineers, biologists, clergymen, physicians, teachers, and also many groups among the lay public has long warranted a serious work which could be regarded as authoritative.

Third, the appeal which the ESP research has made to other experimenters, amateur and professional, as a challenge to active investigation has created another urgent need. These potential investigators of extra-sensory perception need a guide to the literature of the field, particularly a condensation of the great bulk of it to the convenience of a single volume. At the same time a handbook of methods, a survey of problems, and convenient access to the critical literature are essential guides to the prospective explorer in these problems. Rhine’s monograph, Extra-Sensory Perception, 1934, and Stuart and Pratt’s Handbook for Testing Extra-Sensory Perception, 1937, are both outmoded by that rapid development of methods and problems which has been taking place from year to year and even from month to month.

Fourth, it is rare that a research movement in science stirs as much critical discussion as the recent activity in the ESP field has done, and although this wave of criticism and controversy has been subsiding during the last few years almost as rapidly as it arose, there are still—particularly among professional psychologists—a large number of persons who may be called critics of the ESP research, whether or not they have expressed themselves in publication on the subject. In general their criticisms have shown the effect of the unavailability of much of the literature on the subject. The recent attempt by Dr. John L. Kennedy to provide a review of the literature of ESP will be found incomplete in many respects and inadequate for correct judgment. The present review, though itself far from perfection, will at least offer the critic an opportunity to come to grips with much more of the evidence with which he has to deal before rendering a decision.

Finally, there is in other quarters an active demand for some indication of what the results of the ESP research really mean, what their bearing is, what is indicated in the research about the nature of the process. These questions mainly come from persons of philosophical and religious tendencies, though the question is arising with increasing frequency among the more interested of the members of the psychological profession.

Anticipation of the needs that a book is to fill determines the character of its content. In the case of this one, therefore, the authors have attempted to condense into a reasonably compact form: (a) all the experimental and evaluative methods by which the research has been done and by which its adequacy must be judged; (b) all of the results obtained—grouped, classified, and analyzed so as to enable them to be assayed critically from the point of view of all possible alternatives; (c) a thorough digest of the criticisms, both constructive and otherwise; and (d) all of these as they bear upon the clarified question about which the research is concerned, with as much of an answer to that question as the assembled material permits. In addition—and assuming that ESP occurs—there is given here a summary of all the established and partially established relations of ESP to better-known processes, indicating the relations between ESP and the individual, the relation of ESP to the conditions under which it is tested, indications of its place in the physical and mental worlds, as far as these are shown by the results. And last, for the student, the experimenter, and the forward-looking follower of these experiments, there is a sketch of the outstanding problems that still remain unsolved, the methods under contemplation by which they may possibly be solved, and the further needs and prospects which confront investigators now dealing with ESP and associated problems. Material too technical or otherwise unreadable for the general reader is offered in the appendices. A list of literature cited is given on p. 425, to which the reader is referred by number when there is need to identify one of several publications by the same author or combination of authors.

Since the subject of ESP has engendered so much disputation it is probable that many of the persons reading this volume will be strongly partisan on the issue. It is difficult to avoid showing some effect of the controversy in preparing such a summary as this, though a determined effort has been made to be impartially accurate. To correct any undue bias, obvious or hidden, the more debatable material, summarized in Chapters IV, V, and VI, has been made available in advance of publication to the seven principal psychologist critics of the ESP work, and their comments on it were invited for publication in this volume. Their responses, with brief remarks by the authors, make up Chapter VIII. A short summary of the case for the occurrence of ESP follows as Chapter IX.

The authors began this book with some division of labor in mind, but soon found that every chapter needed the collaboration of the group as a whole. So it is in every sense the product of joint labor. The only reservation that might be made to this statement would be that Dr. Greenwood should not be held responsible for such points as are not mathematical.

The members of the secretarial staff of the Parapsychology Laboratory, Miss Marion S. Barber and Mrs. Dorothy H. Clark, and the record librarian, Mr. Edmond P. Gibson, have done an enormous amount of work over a strenuous six-month period of compilation, and deserve more than ordinary recognition for the quality and the spirit of their contribution to the monograph. In the criticism of the manuscript, Dr. Louisa E. Rhine and Mr. J. L. Woodruff have been most helpful. In reading the chapters most likely to be debated, IV to VI inclusive, a number of persons have rendered great service to the undertaking: Dr. Vernon W. Lemmon, of Washington University, Dr. Chester E. Kellogg, of McGill, and Dr. Robert H. Thouless, of Cambridge, whose comments are printed in Chapter VIII; Dr. Eugene T. Adams, of Colgate; Dr. T. N. E. Greville, of the University of Michigan; Dr. Gardner Murphy of Columbia; Mr. Charles E. Ozanne; and Dr. D. K. Adams, Dr. Karl F. Muenzinger, and Dr. Karl E. Zener, of Duke University. Their comments were of real value and their generosity is gratefully acknowledged.

It is especially appropriate for this work to have a publishing house with the tradition of Henry Holt and Company. Its founder, Henry Holt, was one of the philosophers of the pioneer period of psychical research, and two of the great philosophers whose names are on the roster of the house, William James and Henri Bergson, fearlessly broke lances for the subject of this volume in the days when such great authority was essential to a hearing.

Finally, grateful acknowledgment is made of the help of generous friends of the ESP research who have contributed to it financially through the trying period of the last six years—a period when its value and its claim for support were considerably less than they are today.

J.G.P.

Duke University.

Feb. 8, 1940

J.B.R.

B. M.S.

C.E.S.

J.A.G.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1 Diagram of Pratt and Woodruff Experimental Room

2 Photographs of the Pratt and Woodruff Experimental Situation

3 Diagram of Distance Set-Up in Warner Test Case

4 Diagram of Distance Set-Up in Pearce-Pratt Experiment

5 Diagram of Riess Distance Set-Up

6 Photographs of ESP Cards Used in Various Experiments

Graph

1 Comparison of Scoring Rates in Trance and Normal States

2 Comparison of Test Procedures

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to make the following acknowledgments for permission to use quotations:

To E. P. Dutton and Company for a quotation from Lévy-Brühl’s Primitives and the Supernatural.

To W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. for quotations from Freud’s New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis.

To The Macmillan Company for quotations from Frazer’s The Golden Bough; Radhakrishnan’s Indian Philosophy; and Behanan’s Yoga, A Scientific Evaluation.

To Longmans, Green and Company for a quotation from Lewes’ History of Philosophy.

To the Clarendon Press for a quotation from The Works of Aristotle, translated under the editorship of W. D. Ross.

To G. P. Putnam’s Sons for a quotation from Plato’s Timaeus, translated by R. G. Bury.

To the editors and publishers of the following journals for quotations from articles for which they hold the copyrights: Journal of Psychology, Journal of General Psychology, League Journal, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.

PART I—THE QUESTION OF THE OCCURRENCE OF ESP

Chapter I—ORIGIN AND FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM

The question of the occurrence of an extra-sensory mode of perception (i.e., one beyond the range of the known sensory processes) is an ancient one. The phenomena of human experience which have given rise to it have been common to all times and peoples. These unusual cognitive experiences, such as the unexplainable awareness of a distant friend’s predicament, the dream or hallucination of events beyond reach of sense or inference, and the spontaneous coincidence of thought between separated individuals, have been widespread among all groups who have left historical records.

A problem such as extra-sensory perception, arising as it does from the daily life experiences of people, presents a number of features that are different from the more common research problem derived from current psychological theory and modern laboratory methods. Its long history, extending back into cultures preceding psychology’s furthermost date, and its widespread representation today in current occult, semi-religious, and philosophical beliefs are themselves unusual. The need to disentangle real problems from a welter of claims and that of finding methods to explore where psychology has seldom before ventured are the first requisites of its study. And finally, there is the special problem of securing an impartial investigation of a field long regarded as superstition and outside the boundary of legitimate psychology.

While a complete history of the ramifications of this problem would call for a volume of its own, the background is of sufficient importance to warrant a brief outline in the interest of clearer orientation. This outline is more relevant perhaps to the significance of the problem than to its methodology, but it is nonetheless warranted on that score.

ESP IN PRE-SCIENTIFIC SYSTEMS OF THOUGHT AND PRACTICE

ESP in Magic. Belief in a mode of extra-sensory perception has a natural place in the naive animism and magical practices of primitive man. Frazer comments: This belief in the sympathetic influence exerted on each other by persons or things at a distance is the essence of magic. Whatever doubts science may entertain as to the possibility of action at a distance, magic has none; faith in telepathy is one of its first principles. A modern advocate of the influence of mind upon mind at a distance would have no difficulty in convincing a savage; the savage believed in it long ago, and what is more, he acted on his belief with a logical consistency such as his civilized brother in the faith has not yet, so far as I am aware, exhibited in his conduct. For the savage is convinced not only that magical ceremonies affect persons and things afar off, but that the simplest acts of daily life may do so too (83: pp. 119–120).

ESP in the Religions. As will be expected, the role of unusual perceptual phenomena in religious writings is relatively large. The prophets and leaders of the Old Testament are represented (for example, in their role of dream interpreters) to have known things which were unavailable to the individual with ordinary endowments. The story of Daniel’s recalling and interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s forgotten dream is a typical example. The dream, which Nebuchadnezzar could not remember, was revealed unto Daniel in a vision of the night.

The New Testament, and, in general, sectarian church histories, are replete with instances of the belief that Jesus, the apostles, and most great religious leaders were possessed of unusual powers of acquiring direct knowledge. Even in modern Christian doctrines the efficacy of prayer, the acceptance of mystic experience, and belief in an effective existence of metaphysical souls or spirits denote instances of systems of thought which require an implicit conception of communication separate from the sensory processes amenable to physiological study.

The extra-sensory perceptive strain runs through the other religious records as well—with hardly any substantial variation. The role of priest and prophet, the endowment of deities, the capacities attained by the selected individual, the holy man, and the devout follower, are much alike in various parts of the world, though outward forms may vary. The ancient Hebrew went to the temple to learn if he could have a son. According to Herodotus, King Croesus sent to the various oracles in the Eastern Mediterranean world in order to find out whether to go to war with the Persians. In the eleventh century the Mohammedan Arab Algazzali wrote: "And what is Prophetism? The fourth stage of intellectual development...when another eye is opened by which man perceives things hidden in others—perceives all that will be—perceives things that escape the perceptions of Reason (162: p. 55). To the eastward the religions of India gave similar place to the supposed phenomenon of extrasensory perception. Both Hindu and Buddhist teachings are rich in reference to this mode of cognitive function. In Yoga doctrine, to quote Radhakrishnan: Heightened powers of the senses (hyperaesthesia), by which the yogin can see and hear at a distance, follow as a result of concentration....Transmission of thought from one individual to another without the intervention of the normal communicating mechanisms is quite possible (227: p. 366). Again, according to Behanan: It is, therefore, worthwhile to point out that Yoga has held that such phenomena [as the above] are not only possible, but also that they have been confirmed by the experiences of yogins..." (21: p. 180).

The modern doctrine of Theosophy is closely associated with the Yoga teaching. The Theosophical writer, J. H. Dewey, states: The development and exercise of the mental powers on this super-sensuous plane in the sphere of the occult, through the awakening of the all-inclusive sixth or psychometric sense, is as normal and legitimate as is the corresponding activity on the outward plane of the purely physical senses (83: p. 58).

ESP in Philosophy. In the more classical fields of philosophy, there has been a division of attitude on the extra-sensory mode of perception, both trends beginning with the ancient Greeks. The affirmative view of the capacity in question—usually referred to by the term divination—is fairly represented in Plato, who in writing on the subject of the organ of divination (the liver) adds, And that God gave unto man’s foolishness the gift of divination a sufficient token is this: no man achieves true and inspired divination when in his rational mind, but only when the power of this intelligence is fettered in sleep or when it is distraught by disease or by reason of some divine inspiration (210: p. 187).

Among the modern philosophers who have incorporated in some degree the concept of an extra-sensory mode of perception into their philosophical systems the names of Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and von Hartmann stand out especially. Others have recognized the occurrence of such phenomena but have not dealt with the subject so explicitly. Of these, Kant and Goethe may be mentioned.

Fichte was led to infer a new and inner sense organ which, though not yet attaining its highest development, plays an essential role for mankind (78: pp. 4–5).

Schopenhauer ascribed the capacity in question to the Will as he conceived it, and even held that these phenomena themselves were factual proof of the reality and efficacy of the Will (272: p. 331).

Hegel, for whom human experience was not simply mechanical but was rather formed around a spiritual (i.e., nonphysical) core, found rational need and use for a postulated clairvoyance by which in spite of its dim and turbid vision, at the mercy of every private contingency of feeling and fancy and foreign suggestions, makes the individual [a monad] inwardly aware of its actuality (117:p. 185).

Edward von Hartmann, who gave unprecedented emphasis to the role of the Unconscious and to the Absolute, also felt that there is required a super-sensory capacity (clairvoyance and presentiment) to account for mystical knowledge which is a part of experience. This arises through involuntary emergence of the same from the Unconscious (116: p. 363).

In still more recent times, the theoretical systems of the person as outlined by McDougall (172) and by Balfour utilize the Hegelian usage of inner perception that assumes an extra-sensory mode of perception. The rational system of Driesch has likewise a place for this hypothetical ability. Others, among them Lundholm and Reiser, have adjusted their theories to accommodate it.

Philosophical Trends Opposed to ESP. So far as the records show, Aristotle was the first to express a critical attitude on the question of divination, though this priority is likely a matter merely of availability of records. Doubtless there were both skeptics and experimenters (like Croesus) before records began.

In his De Divinatione per Somnum, Aristotle wrote:

As to divination which takes place in sleep, and is said to be based on dreams, we cannot lightly either dismiss it with contempt or give it implicit confidence. The fact that all persons, or many, suppose dreams to possess a special significance, tends to inspire us with belief in it [such divination], as founded on the testimony of experience; and indeed that divination in dreams should, as regards some subjects, be genuine, is not incredible, for it has a show of reason; from which one might form a like opinion also respecting all other dreams. Yet the fact of our seeing no probable cause to account for such divination tends to inspire us with distrust (12: § 462).

The dictum, Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius in sensu,{1} stems from Aristotle’s treatment of the senses and became fundamental to later psychological theory. The speculations of the British Associationists, Hobbes and Locke, based as they were on the supposition that knowledge consists of the summation and organization of discrete sensations, rejected the possibility of extra-sensory perception. The French natural philosophers, beginning with Descartes, and particularly Condillac, for whom a statue endowed with sensation was the epitome of man, developed a mechanistic theory of perception that left no place for an extra-sensory mode of perception. Many philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who speculated about mental processes (doubtless, like Aristotle, seeing no probable cause to account for such divination) were likewise unable to find a place for the phenomena in their systems. The association of the phenomena with superstitions already discarded by the growing natural sciences facilitated this dismissal.

INCIDENTAL APPEARANCE OF ESP IN SCIENTIFIC FIELDS

Before entering upon a review of the direct scientific approach to the problem of the occurrence of extra-sensory perception, it will add something to the general perspective if some of the many incidental associations of the problem are outlined. Evidence seeming to bear upon the question has been frequently observed incidentally in the course of the study of other phenomena. This upthrust of the problem in other fields has never led to a serious and thorough study of the field, but it does show the many roots of the problem and their wide lateral penetration into the culture of the race.

One of the fields with which the occurrence of apparent extra-sensory perception is associated is that of hypnosis and its antecedents. Many instances of these phenomena (i.e., extra-sensory perception) appear in the reports of the early mesmerists and hypnotists. Mesmer and his followers made incidental observations of what appeared to be extrasensory perception, such as the subjects’ seeing with their finger tips and having veridical visions. Puységur, one of Mesmer’s followers, made similar observations with his French patients. Esdaile in India and Elliotson in England noted numerous instances of thought-transference among their patients, and the latter even attempted an experimental approach by having his mesmerized subject try to name the substance (sweet, bitter, salt, etc.) tasted by the experimenter.

Although travelers through the ages have brought back marvelous tales of the prowess of savage medicine men and witch doctors in divining and in feats of clairvoyance, telepathy, and prophecy, these tales have usually been freely discounted. Their modern counterparts, the reports of field anthropologists, continue, however, to be replete with unusual anecdotes of parapsychical phenomena. Laubscher, a psychiatrist who spent many years in South Africa, relates one of his own tests of a native who claimed such abilities, in which he buried a purse at a place sixty miles distant from the native’s home, drove directly there, and requested a séance dance, during which the native described in minute detail the purse and its place of burial (154: pp. 43–44). Lévy-Brühl, the well-known anthropologist, discusses in his Primitives and the Supernatural several instances of apparent thought-transference and clairvoyance. Among such widely separated tribal groups as the Iglulik Eskimo and the Bushmen, the natives of Torres Straits and New Guinea and those of Guiana, he reports, we find an exact replica of the facts already related (161: p. 63).

Another field in which phenomena that may involve extra-sensory perception have been frequently observed is that of hydro-geology; and the phenomena in question are those known as water-divining, water-witching, or dowsing. In a summarizing treatise on the subject, The Divining Rod, Barrett and Besterman discuss the history of these phenomena. Originally (seventeenth century) the method seems to have been used for the location of underground minerals with some degree of success, and later became adapted to the locating of water, especially in situations where the structure of the terrain made geological estimates unreliable. There is naturally a great deal of controversy concerning the matter among geologists: some maintain the point of view of a priori absurdity; others are non-committal; and still others are explicit in their statements that dowsing is a successful and useful method, in the hands of an experienced person, for locating water where geological methods have failed. Army engineers of certain European countries are reported to have used dowsers for the location of water supplies in unfamiliar territory—with what success, and against what degree of improbability, cannot be said.

Incidental observations of extra-sensory perception appear also to occur in the clinical reports of modern psychiatrists. Janet, Stekel, and others have encountered this type of occurrence in one form or another, clinically or experimentally. The most noteworthy example of the incidental appearance of extra-sensory perception in the clinic is that reported by the late founder of psychoanalysis, Freud. In his Psychopathology of Everyday Life, he attempted to explain away apparent cases of telepathy. Eighteen years later (according to German publication dates), however, he came to a different point of view in his New Introductory Lectures. Although maintaining a guarded attitude, he seems to be personally convinced of the extra-sensory character of the phenomena. He explains: I am sure that you will not be satisfied with my position with regard to this problem—not completely convinced and yet ready to be convinced....If one has humbled oneself all one’s life in order to avoid painful conflict with facts, one tends to keep one’s back bowed in one’s old age before any new facts which may appear. No doubt you would far prefer that I should hold fast to a moderate theism, and turn relentlessly against anything occult. But I am not concerned to seek any one’s favor, and I must suggest to you that you should think more kindly of the objective possibility of thought-transference and therefore also of telepathy. Later, after describing an incident, he remarks, ...but I must confess that here too I feel that the balance is in favor of thought-transference (84: p. 78). Freud also mentions some analyses by Hélène Deutsch, reported in 1926, which seem to bear out his own view of the subject.

DIRECT, BUT NOT EXPERIMENTAL, APPROACHES TO ESP

The rise of spiritualism during the middle of the nineteenth century produced (or at least drew attention to) a number of individuals purporting to possess unusual perceptual powers. A study of mediums afforded opportunity for direct, if not experimental, investigations of the abilities in question. The London Dialectical Society Committee report in 1870, which was a study of mediumistic phenomena, was one of the first of these. The conclusions of the Committee were favorable to the claims of spiritualism. In one part of its investigation, the Committee tested the medium’s ability to guess numbers of coins, but the failure of this embryonic experiment led to its being discontinued.

Another direct, but not experimental, attack is that typified by the collection and study of spontaneous experiences of unusual and unexplainable cognition. A number of these collections have been made. The best known is that of Gurney, Myers, and Podmore, of the Society for Psychical Research. They collected and reported 702 cases, in the majority of which there were apparent perceptual experiences coincidental and identifiable with an occurrence such as death, accident, or other notable event, connected most commonly with relatives or friends of the percipients. These writers realized the difficulties and sources of error of conclusions from such evidence; for example, errors of observation by the reporter of the case, errors of narration due to a natural tendency to unify an account, errors of memory, and the general unreliability of individual testimony. They realize the further difficulty of excluding the explanation of these cases as simple coincidences. To allow a study of this possibility, a census of hallucinations was made in which over five thousand people were canvassed in an attempt to find out how frequently hallucinations occurred among the general public. In comparing this study with their reports of veridical cases, they concluded that the frequency of veridical parapsychic experiences was much larger than could be explained as chance coincidence. Walter Franklin Prince (224) of the Boston Society for Psychic Research sent a questionnaire to ten thousand persons listed in Who’s Who in America, asking if they had ever had a veridical unexplainable experience or could testify to the authenticity of such an experience. Of 2,263 answers, 430 answered affirmatively. Prince proceeded to analyze and discuss the cases reported with the affirmative answers.

Another approach to the problem of extra-sensory perception is that of the studies with mediums who practice psychometry; that is, free association about an object. Conspicuous among studies of psychometry is the work of Pagenstecher and of W. F. Prince with Señora Maria Reyes de Z. of Mexico. The subject was not a professional medium. Many successful descriptions of the past history of objects were obtained in these experiments.

These observations may be considered semi-experimental in that frequently excellent controls were devised to rule out all alternative sensory explanations for the results. But here again, however, the question of accidental or chance coincidence as an explanation cannot be answered because of the lack of appropriate mathematical measure, and the range of inference cannot be circumscribed because of the nature of the test material.

Another condition under which cognition of events is reported to occur without known sensory means—one that has been studied also in a semi-experimental fashion by many scholarly and respected investigators—is that of medium-ship. Dating mainly from the work with Mrs. Piper, begun by William James in 1885 and continued by the Society for Psychical Research of London, chiefly by Myers and Lodge and, later, by Hodgson, the study of mediums has occupied the main energies of the psychical research societies until the present time. The spiritistic hypothesis gives these phenomena very great importance, and the more experimental (but less impressive) tests of extra-sensory perception were for a time completely crowded out. Whether or not the extra-sensory character of mediumistic utterances is to be attributed to the incorporeal agencies required by the spiritistic hypothesis cannot be decided on the present experimental evidence; in fact, this hypothesis could not be regarded as subject to crucial test with the methods now available.

EXPERIMENTAL WORK IN ESP

In 1882 the Society for Psychical Research (abbreviated as S.P.R.) was founded with the express purpose of making an organized and systematic attempt to investigate the large group of phenomena designated by such terms as mesmeric, psychical, and Spiritualistic (297).

The high intellectual and moral caliber of the distinguished founders of the S.P.R. presaged the competent and scientific approach they made to their program. Under the chairmanship of Professor W. F. Barrett, the committee on thought-transference was the first to make a report of experimental work to the Society—the experimental investigation of the Creery sisters.

The fortunate combination of able scholarship and of social and professional eminence in the early S.P.R. personnel led to the relatively successful launching of a most difficult and hazardous series of investigations. In fact, in no other country was there comparable progress made by similar organizations.

Most of the S.P.R. leaders were associated with academic institutions, but their work in psychical research was a thing apart—and so it has largely remained in England to this day. However, in America and on the continent there were, even before 1934, but especially since that date, many experimental investigations of extra-sensory perception conducted in the college laboratory. In fact, it was one of the special objectives of William McDougall (186), himself one of the leaders of the Society for Psychical Research, to introduce the problems of psychical research to the university laboratory, and more than anyone else he achieved that goal. It is a part of the task of this volume to assemble and appraise the experimental work of the field, much of which he was instrumental in initiating—work which will determine whether the experimentation in extra-sensory perception will continue to warrant the extensive university attention it has received in recent years.

RESTATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM FOR EXPERIMENTAL ATTACK

From the foregoing review of the general historical position and perspective of the question of the occurrence of extra-sensory perception, it will be noted that the exact nature of the problem has been left somewhat vague. The experimental approach,