Lecture 2: A Brief History of
Parapsychology
1. Introduction and basic terminology
 2. Evidence from antiquity
 3. The rise of spiritualism
 4. The Society for Psychical Research
 5. 1930-1960s: The Duke University
Period
 6. Fraud within parapsychology

Precognitive Dreams
Miraculous Healing
Strange Powers
Divination
Telepathy
Historical Perspective

Shows that ostensibly paranormal
experiences are an important part of
human experience
– Either paranormal forces exist
– Or we learn something useful about human
psychology

Makes us question our own
assumptions
Do you believe in fairies?
Fairies in Folklore
Cottingley Fairies (1917)
Elsie Wright (13)
Cottingley Fairies (1917)
Frances Griffiths (10)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Cottingley Fairies: Articles
Phrenology
Basic Terminology

Psychokinesis (PK): "the influence of
mind on external objects or processes
without the mediation of known
physical energies or forces" (Wolman,
1977)
Psychokinesis (PK)
Nina Kulagina
Basic Terminology

Psychokinesis (PK): "the influence of mind on

Extrasensory Perception (ESP): "knowledge of
external objects or processes without the
mediation of known physical energies or
forces" (Wolman, 1977)
or a response to an external event or
influence not apprehended through known
sensory channels" (Wolman, 1977)
ESP includes:

1) telepathy (transference of thoughts
between two people)
Telepathy?
ESP includes:
1) telepathy (transference of thoughts
between two people)
 2) clairvoyance (awareness of remote
objects or events)

Clairvoyance?
ESP includes:
1) telepathy (transference of thoughts
between two people)
 2) clairvoyance (awareness of remote
objects or events)
 3) precognition (knowledge of events
before they occur, other than as a result
of inference)

Precognition?
Psi
“a general term to identify a person's
extrasensorimotor communication with the
environment” (Wolman, 1977).
NB: Strict definition of the paranormal, as used
by parapsychologists, limits subject matter to
PK, ESP, and (possibly) issues relating to lifeafter-death.
Oracles in Ancient Greece
The Delphic Oracle
King Croesus of Lydia
(c. 550 BC)
Biblical examples:
Precognitive dreams
Apparitions
Healing
Physical Phenomena
Prophetic Visions
The Rise of Spiritualism:
Hydesville, NY, March 1848
The Fox Sisters
Rapping Sounds in the
Bedroom …
Communicating with the
Spirits?
Typical Seance
Other Strange Phenomena:
Levitation
Playing of Musical Instruments
by Unseen Hands and Lips
Lights in the Dark
Apports
Materialisation of Spirit Forms
Ectoplasm
Spirit Photographs
Written Communications
“Table Tilting”
Michael Faraday
Robert Hare,
American Chemist
Alfred Russell Wallace,
Cofounder Theory of Evolution
Sir William Crookes,
Discoverer of Thallium
Florence Cook
“Katie King”
More than a passing
resemblance?
All down to trickery?
The Society for Psychical
Research
Founded in UK in 1882
 American Society for Psychical Research
founded in 1885
 One major aim was to scientifically
prove that the soul survived bodily
death

Response to Darwin’s Ideas
Daniel Dunglas Home
Harry Houdini
The World’s Greatest Conjuror
Houdini and Conan Doyle
Luminous Faces Effect
Bells rung by spirits?
Houdini’s “Ectoplasm”
Houdini’s Slate Writing
Fox Sisters Confess (1888)
Noises produced in various ways
including cracking of toe and ankle
joints
 Schoolgirl prank had got out of hand
 Spiritualists simply refused to believe
confession

A Time of Transition for Psychical
Research
Phenomena most researched:

1. mental phenomena of psychics
and mediums
Leonora Piper (as a child)
Gladys Osborne Leonard
Eileen Garrett
A Time of Transition for Psychical
Research
Phenomena most researched:
1. mental phenomena of psychics
and mediums (e.g. Leonara Piper,
Gladys Osborne Leonard, Eileen
Garrett)
 2. physical phenomena of the type
produced by Home

Eusapia Palladino
Eusapia in Action
A Time of Transition for Psychical
Research
Phenomena most researched:
1. mental phenomena of psychics and
mediums (e.g. Leonara Piper, Gladys
Osborne Leonard, Eileen Garrett)
 2. physical phenomena of the type
produced by Home (e.g. Eusapia
Palladino)
 3. investigations of hauntings and
poltergeists

Poltergeist Activity
A Time of Transition for Psychical
Research
Phenomena most researched:
1. mental phenomena of psychics and
mediums (e.g. Leonara Piper, Gladys
Osborne Leonard, Eileen Garrett)
 2. physical phenomena of the type
produced by Home (e.g. Eusapia
Palladino)
 3. investigations of hauntings and
poltergeists
 4. the evolution of controlled
experiments (e.g. ESP studies of card
guessing)

The Duke University Period
Joseph Rhine
Louisa Rhine
Joseph Rhine’s Approach
Large scale investigations of presumed
psychic ability of ordinary people
 Easily controlled simple tests
 Statistical evaluation of results
 E.g., use of Zener cards

General Extrasensory
Perception (GESP)
Cannot rule out possibility of
clairvoyance in telepathy studies
 Cannot rule out precognition in
clairvoyance studies
 Cannot rule out PK in precognition
studies
 So Rhine preferred GESP!

Rhine’s Dice PK Studies
Rhine’s Book (1934)
Response to Rhine (1934)

Attempts at replication
– Some claimed success
– Many failures (especially in Britain)

Statistical criticisms
– Technically correct, but insubstantial

Methodological criticisms
– More serious

Led to improvements in methodology
Samuel George Soal
British Mathematician
Soal’s Attempted Replication
Around 160 participants
 128,350 trials
 Attempted to remove all flaws and
weaknesses from Rhine’s design
 No deviation from chance expectation
 But then found displacement effects for
Gloria Stewart and Basil Shackleton

New Series of Studies
Shackleton’s performance at MCE for
direct hits
 But p-value with respect to next card in
series at 1 in 1035!
 Stewart obtained a direct hit rate with
p-value of 1079!

George Price’s (1955) Critique

Review of Soal and Bateman (1954)
Modern Experiments in Telepathy in
Science

Results in favour of psi must be due to:
– "clerical and statistical errors and
unintentional use of sensory clues" or
– "deliberate fraud or mildly abnormal mental
conditions."
Exposing Soal’s Fraud
Mrs Gretl’s allegations
 Published in 1960 by Soal and Goldney
 Medhurst’s (1971) analysis
 Scott & Haskell’s (1973, 1974) analyses
 Markwick’s (1978) analysis
 J G Pratt still maintains Soal’s innocence

Fraud Within Parapsychology
Historical evidence of fraudulent
mediums
 S G Soal
 Walter Levy in 1970s
 Circumstantial evidence against Uri
Geller
 “Geller kids”
 Are parapsychologists easy to fool?

James Randi’s (1980)
Project Alpha
Steve Shaw and Michael Edwards
 McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical
Research, Washington University
 Over two year period, performed all
standard tricks: metal bending, mind
reading, divining contents of sealed
envelopes, etc
 Described as “gifted psychic subjects”

Acknowledgement
With thanks to Hilary Evans, proprietor of
the Mary Evans Picture Library, for
permission to use illustrations featured
in this presentation. These illustrations
must not be reproduced in any form
without permission from the Mary Evans
Picture Library.