Extra-Sensory Perception After Sixty Years

Book excerpt: Extrasensory Perception After Sixty Years: A Critical Appraisal of the Research in Extra-Sensory Perception, which was first published in 1940, represented the follow-up to parapsychologist Joseph Banks Rhine’s 1934 book, Extrasensory Perception. In Extrasensory Perception After Sixty Years: A Critical Appraisal of the Research in Extra-Sensory Perception, Rhine and his colleagues endeavor to present a complete review of the recent research in ESP and to include in their survey “everything that is of importance to know in deciding whether ESP occurs. and what it is like if it does occur.” Using three experiments that they believed demonstrated ESP, namely the Pearce-Pratt experiment, the Pratt-Woodruff experiment, and the Ownbey-Zirkle series, the book’s first two parts deal with the question of whether ESP does occur. The formulation of the problem is presented, the mathematical and experimental methods used in attempting its solution, a survey of results obtained, and a consideration of the adequacy of some 35 hypotheses proposed as explanations alternative to ESP. Part II presents a survey of published criticisms and critical comments invited for this volume, whilst Part III considers the nature of ESP; the incidence of ESP ability; conditions that affect ESP performance; physical relations of ESP; ESP as a psychological process. The final part sketches “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.” The present volume includes 21 appendices, a detailed glossary, as well as a list of 361 references.