Evening star., 1938-01-20
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,

Under spasmodic scientific fire for
months. the Duke University expert
menters In clairvoyance and telepathy,
led by DR.. Joseph B. Rhine, have just
fired counter barrage.
Any evaluation Of the results reported
in the current issue Of their Journal of
Parapsychology is for experts. Some of
these. on their faces, are most astound-
ing. Topping them all is the extraordi-
nary report of DR.. Bernard F. Riess of
Hunter College, New York City, an as
sistant professor of psychology and
pronounced skeptic.
DR.. Riess conducted an experiment
with young woman music teacher, with
alleged telepathic ability and a some
what neurotic record. who lived about a
quarter Of mile from his own home in
New York suburb. The card reading
was done upon an agreed time schedule
between the two houses. The professor
IN room alone with q pack of ESP
cards face down on the table before him.
would turn one over and make a note
OF the symbol on the face. The girl, in
room alone in her own home, would
simultaneously record her guess" After
an interval of one minute DR.. Riess
would turn over the second card and
repeat the same procedure The pack
of Is was gone through twice each night,
until there was a total of 1850 cards
turned over.
The girl herself never knew, and will
not know until she reads DR.. Riess' re.
port, whether she was having any luck
or not. She scored, unbelievable as it
seems, an average Of slightly better than
18 hits out of each run of Is cards. Al
together in this part OF the experiment
the pack was gone through "a times
The probability Of such a result from
pure chance was about one in a uuintil-
lion.
The experiments were suddenly in
terrupted when the girl had a nervous
breakdown. She could not participate
in the experiment again for three
months. When it was resumed her re-
suits were only slightly better than
average. Assuming the complete hon.
esty of the experiment, something hap
pened in the young woman's brain dur
ing the nervous upset which erased anv
telepathic power she may have had.
She suffered, her physician reported.
from hyperthyroidism. She was a girl
Of high intelligence, DR.. Riess reports.
but badly adjusted in her home life.
When he repeated the experiment with
81 college girls he got no significant re-
suits.
The second experiment is reported by
DR.. Lucien Warner of Springfield, Mass.
One Of the criticisms of the ESP ex.
periments has been that the evidence is
obtained spuriously through post facto
selection Of data. He selected his sub
ject deliberately beforehand, a woman
who was reputed to have had better
than average luck at uncontrolled card
reading experiments.
She was locked in a room on the bot
tom floor Of the house, with the KEY on
the outside. DR.. Warner was in room
on the second floor, with the door closed.
An electric signalling system was set up.
The experimenter turned the cards over
at regular intervals, one by one. The
subject flashed her guess"
She made SO hits out Of $50 trials, or
q above chance expectation. The prob
ability of such result, DR.. Warner
calculates. was about one In $4,000, ,00o.-
600.
g. ons q ths criticisms e tho work has