1. Lecture 2: A Brief History of Parapsychology n 1. Introduction and basic terminology n 2. Evidence from antiquity n 3. The rise of spiritualism n 4. The Society for Psychical Research n 5. 1930-1960s: The Duke University Period n 6. Fraud within parapsychology

2. Precognitive Dreams

3. Miraculous Healing

4. Strange Powers

5. Divination

6. Telepathy

7. Historical Perspective n Shows that ostensibly paranormal experiences are an important part of human experience –Either paranormal forces exist –Or we learn something useful about human psychology n Makes us question our own assumptions

8. Do you believe in fairies?

9. Fairies in Folklore

10. Cottingley Fairies (1917) Elsie Wright (13)

11. Cottingley Fairies (1917) Frances Griffiths (10)

12. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

13. Cottingley Fairies: Articles

14. Phrenology

15. Basic Terminology n Psychokinesis (PK): "the influence of mind on external objects or processes without the mediation of known physical energies or forces" (Wolman, 1977)

16. Psychokinesis (PK) Nina Kulagina

17. Basic Terminology n n Psychokinesis (PK): "the influence of mind on external objects or processes without the mediation of known physical energies or forces" (Wolman, 1977) n n Extrasensory Perception (ESP): "knowledge of or a response to an external event or influence not apprehended through known sensory channels" (Wolman, 1977)

18. ESP includes: n 1)telepathy (transference of thoughts between two people)

19. Telepathy?

20. ESP includes: n 1)telepathy (transference of thoughts between two people) n 2)clairvoyance (awareness of remote objects or events)

21. Clairvoyance?

22. ESP includes: n 1)telepathy (transference of thoughts between two people) n 2)clairvoyance (awareness of remote objects or events) n 3)precognition (knowledge of events before they occur, other than as a result of inference)

23. Precognition?

24. 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 life- after-death.

25. Oracles in Ancient Greece

26. The Delphic Oracle

27. King Croesus of Lydia (c. 550 BC)

28. Biblical examples: Precognitive dreams

29. Apparitions

30. Healing

31. Physical Phenomena

32. Prophetic Visions

33. The Rise of Spiritualism: Hydesville, NY, March 1848

34. The Fox Sisters

35. Rapping Sounds in the Bedroom …

36. Communicating with the Spirits?

37. Typical Seance

38. Other Strange Phenomena: Levitation

39. Playing of Musical Instruments by Unseen Hands and Lips

40. Lights in the Dark

41. Apports

42. Materialisation of Spirit Forms

43. Ectoplasm

44. Spirit Photographs

45. Written Communications

46. “Table Tilting”

47. Michael Faraday

48. Robert Hare, American Chemist

49. Alfred Russell Wallace, Cofounder Theory of Evolution

50. Sir William Crookes, Discoverer of Thallium

51. Florence Cook

52. “Katie King”

53. More than a passing resemblance?

54. All down to trickery?

55. The Society for Psychical Research n Founded in UK in 1882 n American Society for Psychical Research founded in 1885 n One major aim was to scientifically prove that the soul survived bodily death

56. Response to Darwin’s Ideas

57. Daniel Dunglas Home

58. Harry Houdini The World’s Greatest Conjuror

59. Houdini and Conan Doyle

60. Luminous Faces Effect

61. Bells rung by spirits?

62. Houdini’s “Ectoplasm”

63. Houdini’s Slate Writing

64. Fox Sisters Confess (1888) n Noises produced in various ways including cracking of toe and ankle joints n Schoolgirl prank had got out of hand n Spiritualists simply refused to believe confession

65. A Time of Transition for Psychical Research Phenomena most researched: n 1. mental phenomena of psychics and mediums

66. Leonora Piper (as a child)

67. Gladys Osborne Leonard

68. Eileen Garrett

69. A Time of Transition for Psychical Research Phenomena most researched: n 1. mental phenomena of psychics and mediums (e.g. Leonara Piper, Gladys Osborne Leonard, Eileen Garrett) n 2. physical phenomena of the type produced by Home

70. Eusapia Palladino

71. Eusapia in Action

72. A Time of Transition for Psychical Research Phenomena most researched: n 1. mental phenomena of psychics and mediums (e.g. Leonara Piper, Gladys Osborne Leonard, Eileen Garrett) n 2. physical phenomena of the type produced by Home (e.g. Eusapia Palladino) n 3. investigations of hauntings and poltergeists

73. Poltergeist Activity

74. A Time of Transition for Psychical Research Phenomena most researched: n 1. mental phenomena of psychics and mediums (e.g. Leonara Piper, Gladys Osborne Leonard, Eileen Garrett) n 2. physical phenomena of the type produced by Home (e.g. Eusapia Palladino) n 3. investigations of hauntings and poltergeists n 4. the evolution of controlled experiments (e.g. ESP studies of card guessing)

75. The Duke University Period Joseph Rhine

76. Louisa Rhine

77. Joseph Rhine’s Approach n Large scale investigations of presumed psychic ability of ordinary people n Easily controlled simple tests n Statistical evaluation of results n E.g., use of Zener cards

78. General Extrasensory Perception (GESP) n Cannot rule out possibility of clairvoyance in telepathy studies n Cannot rule out precognition in clairvoyance studies n Cannot rule out PK in precognition studies n So Rhine preferred GESP!

79. Rhine’s Dice PK Studies

80. Rhine’s Book (1934)

81. Response to Rhine (1934) n Attempts at replication –Some claimed success –Many failures (especially in Britain) n Statistical criticisms –Technically correct, but insubstantial n Methodological criticisms –More serious n Led to improvements in methodology

82. Samuel George Soal British Mathematician

83. Soal’s Attempted Replication n Around 160 participants n 128,350 trials n Attempted to remove all flaws and weaknesses from Rhine’s design n No deviation from chance expectation n But then found displacement effects for Gloria Stewart and Basil Shackleton

84. New Series of Studies n Shackleton’s performance at MCE for direct hits n But p-value with respect to next card in series at 1 in 10 35 ! n Stewart obtained a direct hit rate with p-value of 10 79 !

85. George Price’s (1955) Critique n Review of Soal and Bateman (1954) Modern Experiments in Telepathy in Science n 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."

86. Exposing Soal’s Fraud n Mrs Gretl’s allegations n Published in 1960 by Soal and Goldney n Medhurst’s (1971) analysis n Scott & Haskell’s (1973, 1974) analyses n Markwick’s (1978) analysis n J G Pratt still maintains Soal’s innocence

87. Fraud Within Parapsychology n Historical evidence of fraudulent mediums n S G Soal n Walter Levy in 1970s n Circumstantial evidence against Uri Geller n “Geller kids” n Are parapsychologists easy to fool?

88. James Randi’s (1980) Project Alpha n Steve Shaw and Michael Edwards n McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research, Washington University n Over two year period, performed all standard tricks: metal bending, mind reading, divining contents of sealed envelopes, etc n Described as “gifted psychic subjects”

89. 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.