Obituaries
Journal of the Society for PsychifMppp©\fe(\ For Release 200D?d&/l
8P^ CIA
Randi and others. Another remarkable psychic investigated by Benson Herbert
was Suzanne Padfield, the British clairvoyant whose ability in psychometry
led
to
the
discovery
of
a
child-killer 1700 miles away m Moscow. In the
Paralab an experiment involved the displacement of a polarised light beam.
Miss
Padfield,
together
with
the
designer
of much
of
the
experimental
equipment (Brian Baily), placed her hands around the collimating tube and
sucessfully ‘distorted’ the light path in a consistent manner.
...
More
recent
projects
at
the
Paralab
have included an investigation into
psychic
healing,
experiments
with
bacteria and
viruses and
the
study
of
dermo-optics, including the
ability to sense colours and writing through the
fingers
This
latter work in collaboration with Yvonne Duplessis (Pans) may
assist
blind and
colour-blind people
in
their daily
lives. Over the
last ten
years
I have been involved with the Paralab
as a member of technical and
experimental support teams, designing and building equipment when necessary
which would be used for the biophysical measurement of subjects during a
variety of clairvoyance and PK psi-related experiments.
It
is paradoxical,
I think, that such a character as Benson Herbert should
provoke controversy from the spiritualist and physicist ends of the paranormal
investigation community
alike. He would
be
pleased perhaps to
think
so.
Benson’s quest, I believe, was not to explain away paranormal phenomena in
terms of physical-particle
theories or cause- and- effect
relationships, but to
investigate the nature of psi phenomena in the hope that his findings, together
with the problems left by classical and theoretical physics, could be combined
to allow a fuller understanding of the Universe around us.
The
quarterly
International Journal of Paraphysics
has been
publis
e
from
1968
into
the
1990s and
has
included
Paralab
reports
periodical y.
Over the years much correspondence on behalf of the SPR has been taken up
by the Paralab staff.
Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience
University of Edinburgh
7 George Square, Edinburgh. EH8 9JZ
Tony Dickinson
HANS BENDER: “FRONTIER SCIENTIST” — A PERSONAL TRIBUTE
Professor Bender’s death-he died in Freiburg on 7th May at the age of 84
-
has closed an important chapter of German post-war parapsychology. In my
opinion, any future historian who finds
it worthwhile to pay a closer look at
parapsychology in general will surely rank Hans Bender among the pioneers
of German
psi
research who,
like Albert von Schrenck-Notzmg or Rudolf
Tischner (among others), spent most of their professional lives struggling
or
the advancement and recognition of our field.
,
.
So, let me
first recapitulate some data of Bender’s biography and then give
an impression of Bender’s personal ‘ausstrahlung’, his special ‘aura
.
Hans Bender was born
in
1907
in
Freiburg.
In 1987 he wrote a short
autobiographical note
for Rosemarie Pilkington’s book, Men and Women in
Parapsychology, which
124
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-u
asaseventeen-
r
.
.
,
T „ that niece Bender describes how, as a seven it
that he was able to finish ^ that piece
spiritualist leanings, he
p-~*
Thi
primary experience mfluenced my h^
French literature
In
the
years between
192
Heidelberg and Bonn. It was especiall
philosophy and psychology
’
French psychiatrist Pierre Janet
c
after attending the lectures given by
Jren^
P Y
s
classic work o
the
College de France m Pans an ^f^
deJde| to study experimental!
L’Automatisme Psychologique
Psychological Institute
(he dynamics
of
of
pWlo^pJ-
Bonn University,
Bender was intrigued by the observatu
and psychologist Erich R
tQ
exFlibit
‘intelligent’
activities on
that some
of
his
subjects
thejr automatic writing) while th<
‘subconscious’ level
(as docT
e“
such complicated processes. In su
‘conscious’ self was seemingly
automatic productions included traces
a state of dissociation, some of the autom
P^ ^ ^ acquired throu
information which
their produce^^
^ phD . degree with a the
conventional means. In 196
Automatisms], in which he successfu
on Psychische Automatismen [Mcntd'A ^
^
of
ES P. A
seco
linked
subconscious
production
d
D f
clairvoyance
urn
contribution
devoted
exclumdy
to «*£*'^
pul)lished
j
•
laboratory
conditions ^ °T
hologig
[Journal
of
Psychology]
in
prestigious
Zeitschnft
fur Psycholog
U
CT Gerda Walther, acting
s
lust before he finished his paper,
P
t him the recently-publiSi
dearing-house
for relevantinformat ^d
Bender always stressed
book
Extrasensory
Perception by J •
desire to introduce parapsycl
importance of that book
an institutionalised form-a de
ogical research into a German un
Y
.
professor
of philosophy
vigorously
supported by
a F°™
who had published
in 1932
the
those
years,
namely Hans
Dries
,
b is well-known b
German
methodological
^troduction^^
<°kkulten
> Encheinungen. In o
Parapsychology : die Wissens
f
such an ambitious project, Bei
to be as well equipped as
“
d began training as a psychia
finished his additional^
edSisation. After the outb
without, however, completing
a
Nation’ hi 194l with experimental v
of war, he had to finish off h s
hab
^ ^ awarded a professorsh
on eidetic imagery and crystal-g
g,
d
<Institutc for Psychology
Strasbourg
University, whm: J«J:oun
kal as wdl as the Me
Sy.
1944 when Sriaabomg »aa *b— *
Allied forces.
p
DOst-war parapsychology can be ti
T„e
.official; begmn'n^of, G-
p
P ^^ Bend„ „„ ableto_op
back with
beginning «'
i some justification to 19bU.
y
somewhat miracuh
his native town of Freiburg im Breisgau tW
und Psychohyg
ownofFr^imB^^^-^ und Psychohyg
financed
‘Institut
fur
Grenzgebie
d
Y
Mental Health]) whicl
,
[Institute
for
Fringe Areas
of Psychology
RPP96-00792R000700650007-3
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125