Evening star., 1937-12-12
SCIENCE TURNS CLAIRVOYANT|
Book New Frontiers of the Mind Dscloes Fascinating
Profound Experiments in Telepathy and Presents New
Parlor Game the Public
By Mary.Carfer Roberts:

By Mary.Carfer Roberts:
NEW FRONTIERS OF THE MIND.
BY j. 3. Rhine. New York:
Farrar & Rinehart.
-HIS book, which for some weeks
has been best seller, seems
likely to alter the whole course
L of the reviewers life. There
Wis q time, she remembers, when
nothing could induce her to play par
lor games. She was the spoilsport
crossword puzzles; she vas the old
meanie who cast lacklISter eye On
anagranls and ask me another. And
now she seems to have fallen for Just
that kind Of innocent diversion, and
IN the biggest way. Nobody has put
. nose inside her apartment for the
past week without being instantly
ordered to join in a game of ESP.
Stop watches have been installed and
screens set up. The place is exactly
like q laboratory except that it does
not smell. ESP is the order when
ever an unfortunate can be made to
join in.
And what is ESP2 Well, it seems
to be that well known old phenomenon
called queer feeling" You re-
member-you were going to write to
Aunt Hattie last Wednesday because
you had queer feeling about her;
you hadn't written to the dear old lady
in Is years, but suddenly, just as you
were reaching for the comb, you had
a distinct yen to remedy the omission.
II will write to Aunt Hattie this very
day." you said. "or anyway, I'll send
her post card"
And then on Friday you got let
ter from Aunt Hattie's housekeeper
saying that your relative had caught
her foot in the fringe of the hooked
rug which you once gave her and had
fallen and gotten bad bump Fall
ing, Aunt Hattie had remarked that
she had always hated tn, rug and
wished that you had never inflicted
1t upon her. All this happened early
wednesday morning, at just the time,
indeed, when you were reaching for
the comb. At that very moment Aunt
Hattie was rubbing her bruises and
heartily execrating your memory.
Well, you did not know it, but that
proves that both you and your aunt
have extraordinary perception or, if
you prefer, ESP.
DR.. J. B. Rhine of the faculty of
Duke University is the man who has
reduced the old fashioned queer feel
ing" to the dignity of an alphabetical
appellation, making it therefore-as
who needs to be told-a scientific af-
fair and an old wives tale no longer.
DR.. Rhine has worked for seven years
to bring this transformation about,
and now in New Frontiers of the
Mind" he publishes his report of his
endeavors. All spoofng aside, it is a
breathlesSly interesting book
1t is a record of serious experiments
carried on under laboratory conditions
to determine, if possible. whether the
human mind does or does not have
ability to receive communications or
Impressions by other means than the
f1ve senses. Tests were made both for
clairvoyance and telepathy. According
to the statements of this book, they
showed highly significant results.
DR.. Rhine, indeed, has no hesi-
fancy in saying that definite evidence
exists that the mind can receive
sensory impressions without use of the
fve known senses and also that it can
receive thoughts dispatched to it
from other minds without the aid of
any physical means of transmission.
The reception of sensory impressions
he calls "clairvoyance The recep-
ton Of thoughts he calls "telepathy."
The clairvoyance tests were made
more extensively than those for te-
lepathy, as the record reveals, so that
the greater part of the book deals
with them. They were made by the
use Of cards. Experimenters were
asked to try to name, without looking
1T these cards, the emblems which
appeared on them. Elaborate checks
were employed to avoid any possi-
bic cheating, even though those who
worked on the project were without
other motive in their endeavor than
to discover the truth.
1t was found that while some in
dividuals are devoid of extrasensory
ability others possess it to a
marked degree. Some of the expert
menters were able to name the rs
cards in the deck with no assistance
or cooperation whatsoever. They
simply sat before the deck, as it lay
face down on the table, and named
the cards in the stack from top to
bottom, the deck remaining undis-
turbed the while. They also were
able to perform this astonishing feat
at distance of several hundred yards
from the deck It seems conclusive
Of something, although Dr. Rhine says
himself that he Is not sure what is
being proved.
The telepathy tests were even more
sensational. Two young women were
asked to work on this. Separated by q
distance Of $50 miles, they sent and
received thoughts at flve-minute in
tervals, using synchronized watches.
The percentage of success was amaz-
ing. DR.. Rhine had already calcu-
lated the percentage which might be
relied on to occur from chance. The
hits. however, exceeded this by
wide margin.
The book is without doubt breath
Iessly interesting reading. 1t touches
on the universal human love for
occult and mysterious happenings,
and 1t holds the thrilling challenge
that these dark pathways are at last
to be invaded and conquered by un-
derstanding.
DR.. Rhine, to be sure, does not
claim that his work has thrown clar-
flying light on the mystery of the
process which it has investigated.
On the contrary, he points out that he
has found out chiefly what cannot be
believed-that is, that no theory Of
brain radiation" can be held respon-
sible; that the possibility Of certain
people having super-keen senses must
Be ruled out, and that the distance