Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-01-29
Continued From First Page

Continued From First Pag'
placed on any kind of scientific
basis-it is one of the most i'm
portant developments in history
DR.. Rhine himself. who believes
his results are unbeatable. has
made some tall claims.
THE consequences for world
affairs" he wrote recently would
be literally colossal. War plans
and crafty designs of any kina
anywhere in the world could be
watched and revealed. It would
seem unlikely that war ever could
occur again Any scheming STRAIT
egg or secret weapon would be
subject to exposure. Crime or
any scale hardly could exist with
the cloak of invisibuity removed
Graft, exploitation and suppress
sion could not continue if the
dark plots Of wicked men were
to be laid bare"
Transcendent Results
There might even be results
which would transcend these in
Importance. But the Utopia OF
DR.. Rhine Is projected into ar
indeterminate future. He claims
no practical application what
soever for his work now DR.
Price, Of course, went far beyond
this in applying it to the present
> It Is difficult TO follow hi;
argument. He combines sta
tistics. cooling and the new
highly mathematical. ,well-nigf
incomprehensible information
theory"
Information theory" he says
sis unequivocal in showing thai
any system with finite capacity
for transmitting information
can. If we employ the proper
coding. transmit with any de-
gree Of accuracy we desire, as by
Q telegraph-only very slowly"
DR.. Price. the man who started
the present ruckus. himself once
was a convert to DR.. Rhine's
claims, but has changed his
mind. AS he explained it. DR.
Rhine's results transcribed the
laws Of nature. They might be
explained by fraud, conscious OF
subconscious. 1t was easier ano
more in accord with common
sense, he said. to believe that
the results were fraudulent than
that the established laws Of ma
ture were wrong.
No Staff Fraud Seen
DR.. Price did not say that DR.
Rhine himself or any of his as
sociates- were fraudulent. He
intimated that they might have
been taken in by designing per-
sons. He said nothing about the
possibility of misinterpretation
Of honestly obtained results,
which seems a far more likely
field for criticism.
A few weeks ago DR.. Rhine
and DR.. Soal, the chief British
investigator, replied defending
their procedures and protesting
against the fraud implication
The net result has been to bring
the whole question very much
into the open. For years, as DR.
Price himself pointed out, there
had been almost no overt criti-
cism of the work and the thesi:
seemed likely to be accepted b.
science by default.
Is there room for an honest
difference of opinion? To gel
the answer to this question.
have just spent three days with
DIR. Rhine and his associates al
Duke University.
There certainly is no genera
agreement, even in high scientific
circles. The importance of the
work. even now, hardly can bt
overestimated if DR.. Prices anal.
ysis is right and the likelihood
Of fraud eliminated.
Here is no attempt to pas
Judgment. But one would have
to be an extreme skeptic indeed
after mingling for three day.
with the young enthusiastic
extremely self-critical group o.
workers here at the Duke para.
psychology laboratory to suspec
anything underhanded on tn,
part OF anyone of them. Thi
Is especially true after attend,
ing a few Of their daily sem.
mars at which they tear dow
each others evidence like dis
trict attorneys trying to convic
criminals.
Some Of them may be some
what naive. They may suffe1