Evening star., 1938-09-25
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associated Press Seienre Editor.

DURHAM. N. c., Sept. 24.-The
strange story Of boy who could
read his mothers mind was made
public here today.
He is exhibit A in new. Nation
wide search for an explanation of
mind-reading inauguratea two weeks
ago by doubling psychologists at the
annual meeting Of the American
Psychological Association at Columbus,
Ohio.
The boy is case of oddly strained
nerves. The significance of this fact
is that it was another story Of nerves,
dropped like q bombshell into the
Columbus debate. that seemingly broke
down the scientific reticence to 60
ahead with the Investigation into al
legged sixth sense"
The boy is identified only by his
nickname, "Bo," by Raleigh NJ Drake,
professor of psychology at Wesleyan
College. Macon. Ga. DR.. Drake tells
the story in the Journal Of Parapsy-
chology.
Bo is II. his Il. g." IS. DR.. Drake
heard Of him as child prodigy in
lightning" mathematical calculations.
This is what his family thought
until discovery was made that Bo
didn't make any calculations except
those in his mothers mind. She
taught him at home because. even at
IL. he was unable to do second grade
school work
Laboratory Tests Made.
With his mother he went to DR..
brakes laboratory for tests. There
he was nervous. fidgity, apparently
unable to keep his attention on any
thing, halting in walking, unable to
run, roller skate or ride biclcle.
Before making experiments, the
scientists proceeded to eliminate GER
tain possibilities that without either
of them knowing it, mother and child
were communicating in other ways
than by words. One was lip move
ments by the mother another uncon-
scious whispering by her.
The boy was blindfolded, and did
better then than when he could see.
The pair we're separated by Is feet
while keen-eared scientists listened for
whispering sounds and heard none.
The experiments stated with tasks
familiar to Bo
His mother" DR.. Drake says, would
look at word. sentence or number and
ask the child to tell us what she was
thinking Of On one occasion the
mother read from book which
selected as new to her Germans Con-
densed ManuaD and the boy repeated
a large majority of the words"
At another time DR.. Drake wrote IL
numbers, which were seen only by the
mother The boy was asked one at
time to give the number on which, the
mother was concentrating.
This he did with only IS attempts.
or with only three errors" DR.. Drake
reports "At no time could hear any
auditory cues from the mother and
when I held a piece of paper directly
in front of the boys eyes, 50 that he
could not see the mother at all, he
seemed to respond even quicker"
Tests are Changed.
On January 5, this year, the Sclen-
fists changed to an unfamiliar test
whose results mystified every one. They
had him guess the faces Of a deck Of
cards. He never seen the cards, nor
any cards like them. For they were
not playing cards, but the E. S. P.
cards used at Duke University to find
out whether there is a sixth sense.
The faces of these cards bear five
different symbols-cross, star. circle,
rectangle and wavy lines. Bo was
not told what kind of cards his mother
had when she took up q pack.
The first card pulled by the mother,
and seen by both the mother and the
experimenter." DR.. Drake says. was
q star, which the boy Immediately
called star The second card pulled
was a cross, which he could not call
after much hesitation and repeating
What card, mother?'
Finally the mother asked him to
spell the word, which was done in the
following way: The first letter he gave
as c. after which the mother said C
what?' And he replied 'Cr.' The
mother then said Or what and he
responded with o.
The mother questioned him fur
ther with Gro what?' And he re-
sponded with hve errors in succession
Of R. w, N. A and E. He got the first
S, but was never able to get the last s
because his mother gave up the at
tempt at this point"
Afterward with his mother looking
ut these E. 8. p cards when Bo knew
what the symbols were in the packs,
he made averages of is right In each
deck and Of Is cards for % decks; 10
right in n decks, and once with IA
decks he averaged 81 right. In one of
these calls he got all Is cards correct.
Treated BY Physician.
Most Of this happened in the spring
of this year. Then, for his nerves,
Bo was given doubled doses Of thyroxin
by his physician. This remedy is q
thyroid extract, given when the nat
ural secretion Of the thyroid gland is
insufficient.
With the added dosage Of medicine,
s0 lost much although not al. his