————————
What Is
By WILLIAM C. UTLEY
A ISTER, have you ever
‘A “played a hunch’? Trans-
acted a business deal against
your better judgment because
“something told you to”?
Moved over to a new fishing
spot because you ‘had a feel-
ing" the bass would be there—
and they were?
Lady, has your “intuition” ever
told you anything your eyes and
ears could never discern?
Almost everyone has experienced
these things or known someone else
who has. Some tell of the most
startling experiences with a sincere
conviction that cannot be denied:
Of dreaming that a dear relative
has died, and finding upon investi-
gation that it is true; of writing on
sudden impulse to a friend who has
not been heard from in years, only
tc receive a letter,
friend on the same kind of impulse
in the next mail; or experiencing
an inexplicable premonition while
visiting that there is a fire at home,
and rushing there just in time to
rescue the baby from a flaming
death.
What is the explanation? Chance
coincidence? Or ‘sixth sense’ . ..
“mind reading" . . . telepathy?
Is there any means of reaching the
mind other than through the five
recorded physical senses? Science
has scoffed in the past. But today
a controversy fanned by newspaper
stories, popular books and radio pro-
new boom of interest in telepathy.
Scoffers are still in the majority . ..
but few of them can explain away
the amazing implications of certain
have fascinated millions.
What Is the Mind?
These are the experiments con-
ducted by Dr. J. B. Rhine and sev-
eral associates in the department of
psychology of Duke university, at
Durham, N. C. Of late an adapta-
tion of these experiments has been
employed by the Zenith Foundation
in a weekly Sunday night radio pro-
gram which invites listeners to be-
of science,
|
experimenter took a shuffled pack
of ESP cards, in unknown order,
and laid them before him, face
down. The subject was asked to
concentrate upon the cards while
the experimenter removed them
from the pack, one at a time,
without looking at them. The sub-
ject called for each card the symbol
which first flashed into his mind.
The call was recorded. When the
entire pack had been disposed of
(and the original order maintained)
the actual order of the cards would
be observed and checked against
the order called by the subject.
Since there were five cards each
of five different symbols in a pack,
pure chance would permit a correct
call of 1 card in 5, or § cards in
25. But more than a few of Dr.
Rhine's subjects were found to be
able to call consistently an average
of far more than 5 right out of every
packs. Some of the consistent high
scorers at times scored 21 and even
25 hits out of a possible 25. The
chance odds against such perform-
ances, even in thousands of runs
through the cards, are so enormous
as to be of astronomical propor-
tions!
Subjects who, under the right con-
ditions, could consistently call from
6.5 to 10 or 12 cards per 25 offered,
were not highly unusual. The ‘right
conditions’’ were a feeling of con-
fidence in their ESP ability, interest
in the work and physical and mental
wakefulness. Even the best sub-
jects were found
the chance average when they were
self-conscious, skeptical of their
ability at the time of growing bored.
Such subjects found little appre-
ciable differences in their averages
when they called the cards ‘‘down
through'' the pack, that is, without
til the whole 25 had been called.
Convinced ESP Is Answer,
In fact, it made little difference
whether or not they were in the
same room with the recorder. Tests
exhaustively
subject and experimenter in rooms
drawn by the experimenter from
gw
yy
r
}
fe
the age-old questions: What is the
human mind? Where does it belong,
knowledge as a whole?
!
the nature of the mind still so pro-
foundly obscure,” he writes in “New
Frontiers of the Mind,” his book
is not easy to go on hoping that
beating the same pathways of re-
search, even for another hundred
years will bring us to the goal.
« + . If the recognized and the usual
in our search have so far failed us,
it is time to turn, in the matter of
our method, to the UNrecognized
and the UNusual.”
Thus he explains why Duke uni-
versity’'s psychology department
seven years ago began a long and
laborious investigation of what he
calls “‘extra-sensory perception’ —
the ability of certain persons to per-
ceive through some channel other
than the senses as we know them,
Students, faculty members and
their families, in fact almost any-
one who could be interested, were
sought as the subjects of the tests,
Preference was given to those who
could recall some “psychic” expe-
rience in their lives or in their fam-
ilies, on the assumption that they
might be better subjects for ESS
(“extra-sensory perception”) exper-
iments.
How Tests Were Made
Dr. Rhine and his associates de-
vised a special deck of 25 cards as
standard equipment for the tests.
The deck contained five cards each
of five different characters: a
square, a cross, a circle, a star and
a series of wavy lines,
Here is an example of how one
of the earliest tests worked: The
the actual order of the pack. Some
with this method than when they
were seated in the same room
with the experimenter.
To Dr. Rhine and his staff such
“extra-sensory perception.” They
are convinced that cheating, con
sciously or unconsciously, has been
ruled out, by their methods, and
that the odds against such sustained
performances are far, far tdo great
to permit their explanation on the
grounds of coincidence.
One recent series of scientific
articles purporting to ‘“‘debunk’ the
Duke experiments offered several
explanations, among them that cues
were being given, probably uncon-
sciously, to the subject by the ex-
perimenter. But this could hardly
be possible when the experimenter
did not know himself the order of
the cards until the pack had been
examined AFTER the subject had
finished calling.
Another explanation is that the
results are simply lucky. But the
odds against the kind of scoring that
is being done, they say at Duke, are
$0 enormous as to rule this hypothe-
sis out,
“Dr. Rhine assumes,” says one
scientific writer, ‘“‘that this same
chaice (1 to 5) holds straight
through the 25 guesses. It would
if each card were returned to the
deck after the call and the deck
shuffled. Actually, as a star is re-
moved, the chances on that suit are
lessened slightly and the chances
on other guesses increased.”
Criticizes Duke Mathematics.
But this can hardly hold water
when the subject does not know
Dr. J. B. Rhine, whose
sensory perception”
the scientific world,
ing.
“The assumption has also been
result in an average score
guesses right out of 25. But mathe-
maticians point out that
sumption is not necessarily correct.
Five may be the most likely score
on any one run through the deck,
but it may not be the average over
a large amount of runs because pos-
sible scores may extend on one side
down to zero but no lower—a varia-
tion of only five points. In the other
direction, possible scores range all
the way up to 25-20 points above
the most likely score.”
Still, in hundreds of thousands of
mechanical selections, in which the
cards were admittedly called by
pure chance, the Duke researchists
found the average to be almost ex-
actly 5 hits per 25 cards selected.
Now the experiments with which
we have dealt here include only
clairvoyance — the extra-sensory
perception of objects, characters on
cards. Dr. Rhine has also conduct-
ed exhaustive experiments in
telepathy—the extra-sensory percep-
tion of mere thoughts, Here is how
is tested:
No cards are used. The “sender,”
in one room, gives the ready signal
to the subject, in another room-—or
miles away, for that matter. He
then concentrates upon the first
symbol (the same symbols are used
mentally as those appearing on the
chosen at random. The
subject records what he believes the
symbol to be. After ten seconds
is repeated; and
through 25 calls. At the
the run the subject's
checked against the order
80
finish
on,
of
is
the
record
of
Some subjects actually made
higher scores the ‘“‘telepathic”
tests than they did in the objective
tests. In three daily trials, one sub-
in
in her first experience in ESP work
And she was stationed 250 miles
from the sender, with ranges of
wuntains separating them!
Radio Telepathy Test,
It is telepathic tests simil
some ways to these which are
employed on the Zenith Founda-
tion's radio program. In the first
program, listeners were told that
a selecting machine in the studio
would be operated seven times dur-
ing the test, each time selecting a
color—black or white (if, indeed,
they may be called colors). A com-
mittee of ten scientific observers
would, after each selection, concen-
trate upon that selection for a period
of ten seconds. Listeners were also
asked to concentrate and keep a
record of what they believed the se-
lections to be. The observers were
sworn to secrecy and the machine
was operated in a closed booth. Se-
lections were recorded, but kept un-
der lock and key, not to be opened
for a week, when listeners’ records
would have time to reach the studio.
Unbeknownst even to the sponsors
or to the studio attaches or listen-
ers, the observers purposely left the
third and seventh trials blank, to
determine whether the public at
large naturally has a preference for
either black or white which might
affect its choice in the other trials,
in which the machine actually se-
lected a black or white space.
Approximately 20 per cent of
those who replied called four of the
five actual trials correctly, a mark
one-third over ‘chance expecta-
tion.”
But most interesting of all
is the fact that a sizable num-
ber of listeners who sent in all
five answers correctly also desig-
nated blanks on the third and sev-
enth trials, although they were not
told that these trials were blanks!
Dr. Rhine does not attempt to ex-
plain what “extra-sensory percep-
tion’ is —whether it is akin to radio
waves (a theory he rejects for rea-
sons too detailed to recount here)
or some other transference of ener-
gy. He will be content if he proves
to the world of science that there is
some door to the human mind oth-
er than through the recognized
senses. And he would, of course,
like to discover just where the hu-
man mind fits into the general
scheme of things—in fact, what the
mind really is, after all.
But at present he will continue
his amazing work and follow the ad-
vice of Sir Isaac Newton:
“Let hypotheses alone until tia
facts require them.”
© Western Newspaper Union,
ge ——————————
a
It was
native to America.
AROUND
THE HOUSE
To Roll Corn Flakes.—lLay a
clean towel on the table and put
the corn flakes in the center. Fold
each side of the towel over the
flakes, turn both ends over to the
center and crush with a rolling
pin.
>
Storing Summer Garments. —All
garments in the summer ward-
robe should be cleaned before
storing. Soil and stains allowed
to remain in such garments when
put away may cause permanent
discoloration,
» * *
Touches of Stitching. — The
vogue for embroidery gives the
home dressmaker a chance to de-
sign some pretty, interesting and
distinctively individual costumes.
On the shoulder or at waistline of
a black crepe dinner dress, one
might put a loose, informal-looking
spray of white wool flowers and
leaves. A black street dress, seen
recently, has two long pointed
breast pockets covered with red
wool flowers. The matching jacket
has red wool Y across
the back.
embroider
To Raise the Pile on Velvet. —
Cover a n with a wet cloth,
and hold the vel: it. Brush
1
it quickly while
hot iro?
't over
To Prevent Rugs From Slipping.
rubbers securely fastened
by sewing on the under side will
prevent throw or scatter rugs
—Jar
Ye Council Eats
Right Well After
Ye Slick Barter
Deer Is Thanksgiving Meal
and Indian Is Goat.
F AMERICANS this Thanks-
giving are well able to ap-
pease both their consciences
and their appetites, their moral
dexterity is no better than that
of their forebears on the town
council at Danvers, Mass., in
the year 1714. Venison, rather
than turkey, made up the piece
de resistance on a Thanksgiv-
ing feast there, but religious
complications arose, as record-
ed by Rev. Lawrence Conant,
of that city:
“After ye blessing was craved by
Mr. Garrich of Wrentham, word
came that ye buck was shot on ye
Mr. Shepard's conscience was len-
Lord's day by Pequot, an Indian,
|
i
sidering this a just and rightful sen-
tence on ye heathen, and that a
blessing had been craved
meat, ye council all partook of it
but Mr. Shepard, whose conscience
was tender on ye point of ye veni-
son."
In nearby Boston a few years lat-
er the l] of autumn with its
arrival
storing of the winter supply of salt
Bear meat is no longer generally
available for the Thanksgiving din-
ner.
pork brought mingled thanksgiving
and chagrin to a boy named Benja-
min Franklin, who often became
restless during the long graces
which accompanied Massachusetts
meals. So one day after the pork
had been dutifully stored away, he
suggested that if his father would
only ‘'say grace over the whole
cask, once for all, it would be a
vast saving of time."
In the latter half of the same
century, whenever a feast was in
order in the back country of Vir-
Boone or some other hunter
|
“We thank thee, Lord.
“We thank thee. Lord.
/
rayer
J
$
Whe thank thee.
OF all thy gifis the
Lord.
rvest’s yields,
mbly our prayer to
hat we've ry
our journeys end,
ond.”
from slipping on smooth floors.
JF
oy
LL NEVER GO TO
DINNER WITH A
BOY AGAIN UNLESS
3 | HAVE
SOME
PHILLIPS’
TABLETS
IN MY
PURSE
Often “@cid indigestion™ is dis-
tressing do you — and offensive to
others. But now there is no excuse
for being guilty.
You simply carry your alkalizer
with yea — and use it at the first
sign of “upset” stomach. Simply
take two tiny tablets of Phillips’
Milk of Magnesia when out with
othery Or — if at home — you
can take two teaspoons of liquid
Phillips’. Both act the same way.
Relief is usually a matter of
seconds. “Gas,” nausea, “heart-
bursa.” acid breath — all respond
quickly, Just make sure you ask
foe “Phillips.”
Firmness
It is only those who possess
firmness who can possess true
gentleness. —La Rochefoucauld.
HOW OFTEN
CAN YOU KISS AND
pi
wd
ay
>
i
=
|
|
i!
yu
|
I
i
i
i
i
i