Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory

by Stacy Horn

A fascinating, eye-opening collection of “Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory,” Unbelievable by Stacy Horn explores science’s remarkable first attempts to prove—or disprove—the existence of the paranormal. A featured contributor on the popular NPR program “All Things Considered,” Horn has been praised by Mary Roach, bestselling author of Spook, for her “awe-fueled curiosity [and] top-flight reporting skills.” Horn attacks a most controversial subject with Unbelievable—a book that will appeal to armchair scientists as well as fans of TV’s Medium, The Ghost Whisperer, and Crossing Over with John Edward.

Genres: Nonfiction, Paranormal, Science, History, Psychology, Ghosts, Biography

289 pages, Hardcover

First published March 10, 2009

About the author

I've just finished up my seventh non-fiction book, the Killing Fields of East New York, followed by a very long subtitle. First I thought I was telling the story of why a particular neighborhood in Brooklyn had the highest number of unsolved murders in New York. Then I realized I was also telling the story of white collar crime and how it is more destructive than street crime. In the end, I saw that the core of the story went even deeper and was far more terrible.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horn looks into parapsychology with a journalistic bent. What is there to it, really? Her focus is the work done at Duke University from the 1930 to 1980, with a particular look at Dr. J. B. Rhine, who headed that program. So, are there ghosts, poltergeists, ESP, telepathy? There is certainly a lot of skepticism and a lot of fakery, but it would appear that there are enough unexplainable events to suggest that there really is a there there.

The subject matter is intriguing, and the history of scientifically-based investigations of such things was news to me, which is always fun. I won’t be giving away too much by saying that there are things our there which have not yet found satisfactory scientific explanations.

Personally, I believe it does not take excessive gullibility to accept that there are things that exist in the natural world for which we do not yet have adequate science to fully understand. That does not make them mystical, just undiscovered territory. Wouldn’t a pilgrim faced with a 21st century group of people chatting with each other on their cell phones fear that their means of communication was witchcraft? I believe, with Fox Mulder, that the truth really is out there, and it is heartening that there are scientists who dedicate their lives to trying to map our way.

For those with an interest in this area of exploration, Unbelievable is a worthy addition to one’s library. But it reads a bit dry. Although we learn about Rhine and others involved in this research, and learn of some history regarding scientific approaches to parapsychology, Horn does not succeed in making these real people come to life. The value of the book is in the information it imparts and not so much in the manner of its telling.


You might also find SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable of interest, and one of my favorite writers, Mary Roach, in Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife has an observation or two to add

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this an absorbing treatment. To some degree, it covers ground similar to the combined territories of Dennis Brian’s book Enchanted Voyager (a biography of J.B. Rhine, 1895-1980) and D. Scott Rogo's sweeping Parapsychology: A Century of Inquiry, both of which I’ve learned from and still value. This more recent take by Stacy Horn is written in a more lively and expressive way than were those books, making for a warmer read by comparison.

To the extent that any prudent skeptic allows that psychic phenomena may occur, biologist-turned-psi-investigator Joseph Banks Rhine's work deserves much credit. Rhine developed a laboratory-based investigative approach during a 40-year career (for the most part at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and afterwards in his own institute in the same city).

Horn weaves-in paranormal-occurrence stories that people sent to Rhine in letters, as well as information from newspaper and media reports, and from the explorations, findings, and theories of other parapsychologists. For a short while, some of Rhine's colleagues at Duke were dispatched to investigate poltergeist incidents, elaborately described here; however, J.B. himself gave but slight attention to most of these things.

Rhine's open curiosity steered an avoidance of being immured in a materialist mindset; yet, with materialistic "scientism" having begun an emphatic upswing by the 1920s, he sensed he could wind up with a seat in the eye of a hurricane. By the beginning of his investigations and academic role (in the early 1930s), Rhine was aware his work would face fierce criticism and recurrent ridicule. If he was out on a limb, he'd make sure it was well buttressed. Once he’d set his cautious course, he became ever more single-minded and intransigent about it.

Stacy Horn opts for making a wide-ranging survey and inquiry. (She constructs her book interestingly: she references Rhine’s empirical, conservative work similarly to the way a jazz player uses a “tonal center” when playing in “modes,” rather than in more familiar scales, when improvising.) Horn chose to devote about 18 pages to a debunking of the renowned self-styled "psychic sleuth" Peter Hurkos. Yet always she returns to the anchorage of the staid personal program that Rhine pursued to establish as convincing a body of evidence for ESP and psychokinesis as the available finances and strict scientific procedures would allow.

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a completely absorbing read, about the history of the Duke University parapsychology lab referred to in a zillion 1970s movies about paranormal researchers. This is also the biography of J.B. Rhine, one of the few who tried to apply rigorous scientific principles to this area of inquiry. Horn tells us where he got with his researches, where he found dead ends and which areas of inquiry he wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole -- and there were several of those. Horn paints a rather sad picture of a stolid scientist trying to do straightforward statistical analysis as hundreds and hundreds of bereaved, terrified, or deranged people wrote to him daily, asking for help with everything from missing their dead relatives to rocks falling out of the sky onto their rooftops.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This jumped into my arms from the shelf at the Trails End Bookstore in Winthrop WA (small indie bookstore with a great selection, highly recommended.) It's a quick read and a fun one. The Duke Parapsychology Laboratory got going in the 1930s and persisted despite continuous opposition from the established scientific community until the 1980s, when its founder, J.B. Rhine died and the lab transmorgrified into what is now called The Rhine Center: An Institute for Consciousness Research and Education. In between, the lab's staff and scientists ran millions of tests for what they called extrasensory perception--essentially, the ability of the human mind to know something through unexplained means. According to Horn, at least some of their tests were conclusive in showing a mild ESP aptitude among some people--and those tests were never successfully debunked. That didn't mean that Rhine's work, or ESP itself, has ever been accepted. Instead, the results of the lab's work seem to linger in some kind of scientific limbo, not disproven but widely ignored and disparaged.

The book goes into more detail about the tests themselves (many of them done using the now-famous Zener cards) as well as the lab's tentative forays into tests for psychokinesis and other unusual mental aptitudes. (They apparently also substantiated PK in some small measure.) It also describes the tension between Rhine and his financial supporters, many of whom wanted him to devote energy to the "survival question," i.e., proof of life after death. Horn also briefly discusses Electronic voice phenomenon, or EVP (one of the creepier phenomena I've heard of) as well as possession, poltergeists, and hauntings. Rhine declined to involve the lab in most of these areas, but he and other researchers considered at least some of the reported cases to be at least possibly genuine--and they all make for interesting reading.

Horn does a good job of exposing the inextricably linked nature of belief and skepticism. Parapsychology is a perfect test case for the scientific method--if research can produce legitimate results suggesting the existence of ESP, but scientists refuse to accept those results, are they practicing skepticism or simply another belief system? Science has repeatedly opened up previously invisible, unforeseen worlds from the subatomic to the neurological to the cosmological. If quarks behave in ways we can't align with our understanding of the atomic world, there may be justification for supposing that there are other aspects of the physical or cognitive world that we don't yet understand either.

All that said, Horn seems to write with a slight bias toward accepting the claims of parapsychology, or at least toward remaining open-minded where traditional science does not. At times she obfuscates her own methods with the passive voice (i.e., "a call was made" to a surviving test subject, etc.) but overall her research is substantial and impressive. Without reading farther I'm not sure she's always delivering the full story, but I wasn't expecting this book to prove or disprove ESP or the survival question anyway. It's enough that it asks interesting questions about the limits of our willingness to accept facts that we don't like.

[Carley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ms. Horn included extraneous information and stories in this book, I presume in an effort to punch up the book's entertainment value, but the book lost something with those additions. If this was to be a book specifically about the Duke Parapsychology lab I think the inclusion of this information didn't add to the book.

My thoughts mid-read:
This book is turning out to be painful. Alternately boring and dark and disturbing. The last chapter I read had nothing to do with the Duke Parapsychology lab and was just added for sensatonalism. I'm kind of disgusted that childhood murders would be needlessly and illogically placed in a book about a lab whose pursuits were largely based on very dry ESP experiments. Shame on Stacy Horn.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I had an ability to understand science and all of its mysteries. Unfortunately, as much as I try, and I try often, i just...don't.

Also, I really thought the book would be more about the supernatural and less about Dr. Rhine and all of his titillating correspondences.

Considering I did get more than halfway through, I felt it was fair to rate it. If you dont like it, well...who cares? What are you, my teacher?!!

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book about The Duke Parapsychology Laboratory, but it's mostly about the esp cards. It talks about all the intersting cases (the original exorcist case) that weren't investigated. Skip it.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting details on the experiments, controls, parameters, subjects, results. Nope. Hardly a word. Very little about the actual experiments. Mostly a history of the lab and its boring members.

[abby paige · Rating 1 out of 5]

technically dnf, but i got close enough that im counting it. incredibly dry, boring, and the actual book does not match the title or cover blurb whatsoever.

[Cavak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps there will never be a time when we let go of ESP, the strange, the paranormal. I know someone who believes in auras, I know someone who insists they used to live in a haunted house. I used to believe there's some sort of divinity out there somewhere, but it's not in the way every religion (or fictional work I'm aware of) says. I regularly enjoy romps into that area of the unknown with Aaron Mahnke's audio works and Buzzfeed's Unsolved , but I noticed I haven't satisfied my ongoing curiosity in literature. So I picked up this one to indulge myself.

Unbelievable is an analytical summary of the studies conducted by Duke's former Parapsychology Laboratory. Visits to the orthodox psychic and paranormal are in order, with exhaustive research from Horn. From the pace of her writing, you can probably gleam the hours she has spent reading through personal letters and the lab's reports, ripping out their cores to compile into the book. Impressive considering the many letters mentioned in one day of correspondences.

Like Horn's other journalistic books that I have read, this approach is a double-edged sword. Either you will be drawn into all the events and people interwoven into the book or you will find the experience dry and lacking a sense of spontaneity. Either you will be taken away by the wealth of research or bored to tears by the "textbook" approach.

I'm straddling along the middle. I liked the many attempts to test parapsychology through the scientific method and snippets of letters, but the objectivity I desired paradoxically pulled me a little too far back at times. I wanted to feel for the stressed family suffering from a supposed poltergeist, but the only emotion I felt was chortling at Rhine's cohorts for flashing Zener cards to the family's two spooked kids. There's snippets of actual letters included in the book, but the rest are summarized in single sentences. Drama between disagreements in the field are downplayed to the main talking points, but most of them end with Rhine reiterating the importance of the scientific method. It's interesting whenever he takes a staunch opinion on something, like when Horn retorts on Rhine's technical truth to avoid working with LSD, despite testing it twice in a laboratory setting. When Rhine dismissed the certain studies of "fantasy", I couldn't help going "awww" in disappointment. Even if Horn was clear from the start her focus, it still tickled me when she also introduced the cultural interest of a phenomena.

To me, Unbelievable was an informative first step into the paranormal that avoids the "you must be a true believer to understand" bias. Far from boring or poor, it is an entertaining glimpse into the wonderful with a clear eye and dry humor. Mainly, I liked learning that there were serious attempts to scientifically research and employ ESP and so forth through many colorful decades of America's history. Wondering if I can find anything in English about the Russian parapsychology laboratory mentioned in the book.

[St Fu · Rating 3 out of 5]

E.S.P., the short form of "extra-sensory perception" has been part of the language for so long, it's hard to believe it was coined by Dr. J. B. Rhine (whose degree is in botany) not all that long ago because it sounded like something Psychologists would study--after all, they study perception, right? Dr. Rhine, "Banks" to his friends, wanted to make the paranormal respectable--a subject studied by real scientists. He tried to avoid the more flashy subjects--haunted houses, reincarnation, poltergeists, and the like because they couldn't be brought into the lab and studied in a systematic fashion. He used controlled experiments and statistical analysis to demonstrate that E.S.P. exists and yet today, his work is virtually ignored.

Feller, who wrote my favorite text on Probability Theory thought Rhine's experimental methods faulty but Feller's own students disagreed and found flaws in Feller's reasoning. Warren Weaver, whose name was given to the building in which I went to grad school, found the statistics valid but didn't like what they proved. The scientific community doesn't like E.S.P. but can't seem to explain away Rhine's results. Hence the title "Unbelievable"

The underlying argument is that it ought to be believed since it is scientifically established to be a valid phenomenon. I would like to offer my counter-argument here. Something is "scientifically established" but that something having no supporting theoretic framework can't be just given a name and said to exist, There are in fact multiple ways to characterize the observed facts (Dr. Rhine often choosing his favorite, E.S.P. to explain them all) and in the end all we can say is something exists and needs to be explained.

But I would further argue that not all knowledge is good. In particular, I'm pleased that my government irrationally chooses not to pursue, say, "remote viewing" because I would prefer not to be remotely viewed. Perhaps "unseen forces" which failed to keep nuclear bomb technology from becoming a thing and which has made the world a worse place has drawn the line at keeping the easily misused technologies of psychic phenomena from also becoming a thing. And if there really aren't any "unseen forces" then of course it's also good not to waste time studying them.

Ms Horn wrote this book before widespread knowledge of the abuses of power became known throughout our culture so she naively assumes the more "we" learn, the better off we'll all be.

But back to the book itself. Though generally a good overview of the topic, it is at times rambling, sometimes going into great detail and other times ignoring details that should have been included. One of the latter is the, to me pretty convincing debunking of the Bridey Murphy phenomenon (see my other review of the Bernstein book in which I even quote J. B. Rhine) Still, it remains a solid 3 star book.

[Bill FromPA · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is nominally a history of the activities of the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory under its founder J. B. Rhine, but goes into a lot of areas of the paranormal that Rhine declined to or otherwise did not investigate. By Horn’s account, Rhine’s research consisted mostly of having subjects identify cards drawn by a researcher they could not see (telepathy) or trying to affect the result of the toss of a die or flip of a coin (psychokinesis) . Horn claims that after a very large number of trials, Rhine’s results were slightly better than could be accounted for by chance, though she doesn’t say exactly how much better or give details about the design of the experiments. I did learn that the set of “ESP cards” containing five different images (circle, star, wavy lines, square, cross) were designed when trials with regular playing cards showed that subjects had a tendency to favor one of the four suites in the answers.

Horn had access to a large archive of letters that were sent to the laboratory over more than thirty years and she mines these for more spectacular subjects than card drawing and dice tossing. Even though Rhine declined to investigate just about every paranormal phenomena that couldn’t be somehow brought into the lab and re-created experimentally, that doesn’t stop Horn from going into great detail on a number of cases that the letters brought to Rhine’s attention: poltergeists, hauntings, the case of demonic possession that inspired The Exorcist, and many others. This makes the book in large part simply a compendium of supposedly true cases of weird events, much like Frank Edwards’ series of “Strange” books of the 1960s. Horn has a general tendency toward going off on tangents; for instance, during a discussion of “electronic voice phenomena”, where unknown voices show up on audio recordings (yet another paranormal area Rhine declined to investigate), we learn of Leopold Stokowski’s favorable opinion of the Roger Wagner Chorale, a fact relevant to absolutely nothing else in the book.

One poltergeist case described by Horn was actually investigated and partially witnessed by parapsychological researchers from Rhine’s laboratory. Though they were unable to detect fraud, they also felt unable to totally rule it out, and reached no conclusion as to whether the phenomena were genuine. Beyond the data accumulated in his laboratory experiments, Rhine himself comes across as equally reluctant about giving any seal of approval to psychics or accounts of paranormal phenomena. Early in his career he failed to be swayed by the sexy Boston medium “Margery” and later on by psychic Peter Hurkos, a figure whose failures as a “psychic detective” Horn documents, though she never indulges in anything like a full debunking expose. (Curiously she never mentions what I think of as Hurkos’ signature shtick, the creation of “psychic photographs”, a grift James Rand fully exposes in Flim-Flam!: Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions).

Horn seems more credulous than her subject, though her reports on the various paranormal incidents are fairly objective, citing contemporary sources and occasionally interviewing surviving witnesses. One oddity is that Horn seems to think the validity of “remote viewing” is established. The paperback edition I read included supplementary articles added after the index. In one of these, “Meet Stacy Horn”, the author tells about a childhood encounter with a friendly old woman in her neighborhood who turned out to be a ghost; the story struck me as unbelievable, and, as told, difficult to explain except as a fabrication.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was more of a history of J.B. Rhine and the Duke University Parapsychology Lab yhan what the title suggests. The work that was done, and the continual push by other researchers to mark that work as useless and non-scientific was eye-opening. When I was a very young woman, I was very interested in J.B. Rhine and his work. I believed in the idea of ESP, mind reading, remote viewing and clairvoyance. I was so surprised to hear how much struggle Rhine experienced trying to legitimize the study of parapsychology. Maybe if Rhine had been less rigid in his overall thinking, and had embraced all aspects of the ethereal mind, maybe he would have learned so much more than he did, and maybe he would have had more support overall.

[Tyler Buckwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend for anyone who has an interest in the paranormal, the power of the mind, psychology, or science in general!

I’ll be honest, I have not picked up a book in several years and this was the one that began my journey back into reading. I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal and this book took a scientific and psychological approach through the works of J. B. Rhine. It’s pretty fast paced, keeps you wanting more, and extremely detailed.

I’ll quote on the the most thought provoking lines from Horn, “What looks significant today can disappear in a moment, supplanted by an even better idea; what is ignored now may turn turn out to be the key to a revolution.”

[Katherine Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory by Stacy Horn, Not what you might expect as far as case studies but interesting enough. Horn takes you through the formation of the department, notable cases, and the department’s struggle to be recognized as legit. More about academic politics than anything. Interesting read but you might be disappointed if you only care about the cases of paranormal.

[Nellie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This rating is biased as it was a well written book, but not what I wanted it to be. Too much science and not enough of the fantastic, which is fair and completely reasonable given the description of the book. I made it half way before I lost interest, as I find I was looking for a ghost story and not a scientific experiment regarding ESP and PK. Give it a try if this is up your alley.

[Mike]

I never knew the paranormal was researched and studied in academia. I found that very interesting. And the institution still exists! I enjoyed the stories, which provided a mixture of entertainment and historical narrative. I'd recommend it but it's nothing I would keep for reference for later.

[Paulette Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent volume on the Duke Parapsychology Lab and the work of Dr. J.B. Rhine and his colleagues. Read as research for an upcoming novel, and there was much that surprised me. A fascinating book.

[Jim Nirmaier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun read and had never heard of the official Duke Parapsychology Laboratory that operated for 30+ years.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very scientific, fast paced.

[rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed a quick refresher on the history of Duke’s Parapsychology Lab & this fit the bill nicely.

[Arete · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cool to hear about the paranormal being tested scientifically. I'm really interested to read her other books.

[Jules · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first I really got into it, but then by the last 3 chapters, I was ready for it to be over with.

[najlaa al-matar · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED IT

[Mindy Gough · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was ok, but really it could have been an article rather than a book. There was a lot of repetition and not a lot of it was terribly interesting.

[Alyssa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf

[Jim Leckband · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rationality: "conformity of one's beliefs with one's reasons to believe". I couldn't put it better, Mr. Anonymous Wikipedia author. Rationality is a kind of belief that depends on reason. As we go through this world we make decisions based on this belief. That the sun will rise tomorrow (and parse that statement to uncover a big pile of observer-dependent, history of science and philosophy thicket). That this Newtonian cause and effect, reaction/opposite reaction is what rules what happens.

But what if what we think is solid melts into air? What if solid material is a bunch of vacuum held together by localized quantum wave-functions? Is it "solid" or is it "air". Depends on how we think about it, don't it. Thinking of it as a man leaning against a brick wall - the wall is definitely solid. Thinking of it as a Ph.D. candidate in his oral exam where a professor asks "What is probability that I will walk through that wall?" Then, a rational man (myself, as it happens) estimates the quantum tunneling probability that Dr. Polyzou will walk through that wall if he (the rational man) wants to continue in the Ph.D. program.

So, we've established that "rationality" depends on the observer and the conditions, and a healthy dose of considering the odds as being so low that something "irrational" like walking through a wall will happen in all the time from the birth of the universe to now. But it is like that old canard of the wily guy asking the upstanding woman "Would you sleep with me for a million dollars?" The woman pauses to consider and hesitantly says, "Yes, I suppose I might do that." The wily guy then says "How about 50 bucks?" He gets a slap and the retort "No, I am not a prostitute!" The wily guy says, "Oh no, we've already established that earlier. Now we are haggling." My point being, if on the quantum level, "rationality" is suspended, why should it be so hard to believe (there's that word again) that occasional irrational things happen - as we established, it is only a matter of odds.

That is what the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory tried to do. Horn very admirably reconstructs the battles that the main people of the Laboratory fought to keep their research into ESP, clairvoyance, psychokinesis and etc., on a basis governed by the scientific method. Of course, the belief in straightforward, Newtonian cause and effect rationality is almost always going to be the belief that wins when the other side has a track record of charlatans and mystics. But they kept it going for over 40 years, establishing some experimental protocols and some data that cannot be rationally explained as all other explanations fall short. This data is kind of boring, not the "Dead Uncle Al told me what stock to pick to make a fortune" kind, but rather the "this event happens at the level of 2% above chance, but is statistically significant and repeatable."

I think Horn does become a little non-skeptical on some things, but generally she keeps a good balance between having an open mind and not accepting all the stories at face value. This kind of research is very interesting and of course the irrational part of being a human would love that there is a get-out-of-rationality-jail free card to play.

But when space-time is governed by matter, and matter is governed by quantum mechanics, and quantum mechanics depends on the observer, then the obvious conclusion to these predicates is that it isn't entirely unreasonable to say consciousness could influence events in space-time. Of course, the odds (as far as we know) are extremely low in any given case, but isn't that just haggling?

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 3 out of 5]

For 50 years a laboratory operated at Duke University that studied extra-sensory perception (ESP), ghosts, and other paranormal activity. Today one would be hard pressed to explain how an academic laboratory could survive being devoted to paranormal activity, especially at such a prestigious university. Horn's book takes one through the life of this lab. It describes phenomena debunked as either fraud or poor methodology, but it also discusses events and outcomes that have remained unexplained.

The central character in the book is J.B. Rhine, Director of the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory. Rhine was a botanist by training, but he developed an interest in parapsychology-- eventually becoming the foremost expert in the, albeit dwarf, field.

When the lab opened in 1930, the universe of unknowns was much greater than when it closed in 1980. This is exemplified by Albert Einstein's correspondence with Rhine, and the author of relativity's attendance at a seance on one occasion. By 1980, having recorded some unexplained phenomenon, but having produced neither well-validated results nor explanations, the lab was looking more like a boondoggle.

The phenomena studied included some that could be easily studied systematically in the laboratory, as well as others that could only be observed outside the lab. The former is exemplified by the use of cards with shapes on them to study telepathy (as depicted by Bill Murray's character in Ghostbusters.) The latter included the study of poltergeists or interviews of children about the lives of people who lived before them (e.g. as Tibetan lamas are selected), which were often linked to a specific physical location.

One of the questions confronting the investigators was whether those phenomena that could be studied in the lab were best studied there. While telepathy studies sometimes showed a weak but positive result, some thought that more robust results could only be attained under real world conditions.

In the 60's, Timothy Leary came to call on Rhine. Leary, of course, thought hallucinogenics were the key to unlocking the hidden powers of the mind. Rhine apparently took LSD on a couple of occasions before concluding that there was nothing but vivid chaos coming out of the experience. Still, there remained support for the notion that mind-altering drugs might unlock hidden potentials. Horn devotes several pages to the work of Sidney Gottlieb, the head of the CIA parapsychology program. It should be noted that the government programs were not stopped until the mid-90's, fifteen years after Duke's Parapsychology Lab shut down.

The last gasp of parapsychology was an attempt to determine if quantum entanglement might have any ramifications for ESP. Quantum entanglement is the notion that two particles separated at great distance can influence each other instantaneously. Could the particles in two minds behave accordingly, and, if so, to what result.

[Dimitris Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

There used to be a Parapsychology lab at Duke University. It started working during the Interwar period and closed down sometime in the '70s. Its figurehead was a man named J.B. Rhine. His goal was to scientifically prove the existence and significance of ESP and psi phenomena. Unbelievable is a journalist-style investigation into the story of that lab, the people who manned and womanned it and its discoveries.

We all know today that no such concrete proof exists. That, however, is not so because there are no cases that could suggest their existence. Rhine's work included many interesting cases, most featured in this book, that seem to have been truly paranormal, in the sense that they're still inexplicable in the conventional sense. For example, take the case of Hubert Pearce, who scored so consistently highly in the card tests, the only explanation barring ESP would be fraud -- and that is, of course, what critics insist all this amounts to. The math checks out, the guidelines were followed, but the research was scarcely taken seriously. It is understandable, however. The effects of telepathy, ESP or psychokinesis were detected in multiple instances, but no kind of underlying theory was ever properly produced. But wow, imagine what kind of shit that would've got.

My opinion is that, ultimately, sadly but inevitably, no kind of evidence would have convinced the critics. Rhine's life work was a doomed effort, as many people at his side also concluded by the end. How can you recreate the conditions, usually emotionally charged situations together with other highly subjective variables, to consistently produce ESP-related phenomena in the lab? Until we (somehow) change scientific methodology to include what's left outside the lab, in order to make it more lifelike and less sterile, science will have very little room reserved for ESP and related effects. That, and it needs a theory.

In any case, apart from the fact that this book is a handy reference for the studies that were the foundations for the scientific inquiry into the paranormal, it was a book that tells a story. A story that is still valuable today, because for all that's changed from the middle of last century, little really has. The paradigm hasn't shifted as much as other kinds of progress could warrant. But remember, half a century or seventy years really isn't such a long period of time. Who knows what science, physics and consciousness studies in a few centuries will have to say about the matter.

[Jessi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great follow-up to the "Thoughts through Space" book (Sir Hubert Wilkins and Harold Sherman), which simply "is what it is" -- an account told through the lens of the cultural/historical timeframe (1940's) of one experiment on ESP/telepathy conducted independently by an author/journalist and arctic explorer....
This book is the story of the Parapsychology Lab at Duke University that flourished from the '30's to the '80's under the leadership of Dr.J.B.Rhine and associates. Horn's journalistic style gives a great, objective overview of the studies conducted by the lab during this time. The main paradox is that the experiments performed there do consistently show evidence of the existence of ESP. The same statistical methods used to evaluate these experiements are used today by pharmaceutical companies to determine the safety of their drungs and products, and have been carefully reviewed by mathmaticians for inconsistencies. The problem with consistently proving that ESP and telepathy occured in these experiments is that Dr. Rhine and company never figured out HOW or WHY these abilities were presenting. Rhine and his labmates went to great lengths to focus mostly on ESP related cases and not associate themselves with embellished "supernatural" claims. Rhine and the lab seemed to be constantly at odds with the scientific community and seemed to spend as much time defending their results to the scientific and medical community as they did actually experimenting -- it was an added complication that they never figured out how to explain the results they clearly got. One of the important themes raised by this story is the constriction and limitations built around the so-called scientific method of thinking -- specifically how much resistance there is to new thinking, new ways of viewing the world within the "scientific" community. How are we supposed to discover a new understanding of human nature when "science" is opposed to it before it even leaves the gate?!
Rhine and his partners at the Duke Lab suceeded in establishing the fact that "the more we know, the more we know we don't know" - especially in terms of the nature of consciousness. Perhaps their research will be revisited someday as cast a new light of understanding on the matter. Perhaps not.