The Wilmington morning star., 1947-08-07
mind MAY Be ABLE
TO CONTROL DICE
Scientist Believe Mind Con-
trolls Dice With
Willpower
BY FOSTER
United Press Staff Corresponde]

United Press Staff Correspondent
DURHAM, N. c. U.R)-A young
gambler who found his dice too
obedient started DR.. j. B. Rhine
OF Duke University on a study
which the scientist thinks confirms
the idea of mind over matter.
Stripped of scientific language,
charts, tables and equations, the
tall, gray-haired researchers the
DRY boils down to this: Some peo-
pie seem to be able to get an edge
on the law OF averages by sheer
effort of will.
Without touching them, they
can control dice - and possibly
other inanimate objects. DR.. Rhine
has the records and figures which
he thinks backs up his case.
DR.. Rhine is head Of Dukes de-
partment of parapsychology, ex-
ploring the extraordinary and IN
explainable powers of the human
mind. He has experimental for
years in extra-sensory perception,
sometimes called telepathy.
Gambler Gives Clue
So the young gambler came to
him in 1884 to talk about crap
shooting. He said he and many
other gamblers believed they could
influence their dice-not by load
ing the cubes but with a fright
mental attitude. Sometimes they
would 'just know" they would
make their point, and it happened
too often to be mere chance.
Here was a chance to test a
theory which had been interesting
DR.. Rhine. If the mind could per-
ceive things beyond the k o W n
senses, could it also exert unknown
powers to influence physical OBJ
jects?
The professor, his wife and his
staff set up one Of the greatest sci
entific dice : rolling experiments
ever undertaken.
They rolled the cubes with a
strong mental effort to make them
come up "high dice" some COM
bination of 8 Or higher. Those
numbers should fall five times out
of IL.
Dice Obedient
But in the first 6,744 rolls, they
hit 8 OF higher $50 times out of
IL.
The results are Enthusiastically
significant Of some agency beyond
chance" DR.. Rhine reported.
He continued his study for years.
He tried to eliminate all physical
means of control by releasing the
dice down corrugated boards or
spinning them in an electrically
rotated cage.
He first used ordinary dime-store
dice, then tried cubes of various
materials from balsa wood to lead.
Still they beat the law of aver
ages when the person controlling
them concentrated on "high dice"
Maybe, thought DR.. Rhine, there
was some flaw in the dice them
selves. So instead of trying for
high numbers the experimenters,
using the same dice, started root
ing for the numbers OF 6 or lower.
The dice obediently switched to
the low figures the operators were
roofing for.
Success Varies
DR.. Rhine found another proof
that mere chance was not con-
trolling the dice. Looking over old
records of the experiment he no.
ticed that the success his subjects
had with the dice was not con-
slant. The ones who could control
the dice-and some could do it
much more than others-started
off strong. Sometimes their results
were twice as good as chance.
Then their power faded. 1t fell
off sharply after the first dozen
rolls of the dice. Sometimes it rose
slightly after the first fall, but
never during that session to its
original height.
Later studies showed that the
pits drilled in the dice to show
the numbers made the high-num-
bered sides slightly lighter and a
little more likely to land on top
but not enough to explain the
strange behavior of the dice.
1--WE have established the exist
ence of the phenomenum," DR..
Rhine said. 1.-THE dice are not be-
having according to physical laws"