J.B. Rhine Letters 1923 -1939

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The Beginnings of ESP Research at Duke University in the 1930s

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Available from McFarland Books
SKU: 9781476684666
Categories: Body & Mind, Parapsychology
Tags: Duke University, J.B. Rhine, letters

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J.B. Rhine: Letters 1923-1939: ESP and the Foundations of Parapsychology – Kindle edition by Rhine, J.B.. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

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Just a quick note to tell you I’m really enjoying reading JB’s letters. Of course I got the answer to the question I asked in the last e-mail – “Did JB get an answer from the ASPR?” I loved his writing back then – it doesn’t seem as stilted as I thought it would be, but well stated, well-reasoned and thoroughly engaging. It reads like a detective novel (the better ones) in a way and I keep looking forward for more. I’m almost to up to 1928 when Mom’s diary begins and look forward to matching her writing to his letters, because in some ways one reflects upon the other. It’s hard to realize how truly courageous they were during this time, isn’t it? Going about their quest with very little money but plenty of enthusiasm and drive. Venturing into an unknown world among ‘important people’ with little but their own confidence in their quest for the truth of man’s nature. And my own interest in these two folks reminds me how interesting it was to listen to Doris Kearns Goodwin talk about both Teddy Roosevelt and William Taft but also describe the lives of their wives and how much (or how little) they had an impact on their men (and vice-versa). And at the same time, the world of the Roosevelts and Taft is only a few decades before the adventures of JB and Louie – both times very much a simpler time then today, despite the wars going on at the same time. ~Rosie

In December 1935: “… if space and time are intimately related (as per Einstein), then prophecy or prevision ought to be possible to our E.S.P. subjects in :like degree. By our tests they have been! Nearly 100,000 tests have been made to investigate the matter. I anticipate that a great “fuss” or stir will follow upon publication.”

Rhine with colleagues

J. B. Rhine to a fellow botanist, February 1936: “I can safely say that the whole adventure, looking back now over a period of nearly ten years, has worked out well and I have no regrets. Instead, I look forward to the future with strong faith in it. The work started will now go on, I think, regardless.”

November 1936: “You remember our study of precognition by means of packs of cards? The subject’s task is to call the cards as they will be after they have been shuffled, and any period of time can be set ahead for the time of shuffling. It has been, I think, the greatest adventure of our whole experience to see this thing through all the complications and ramifications into which it leads. Precognition is, I think everyone agrees, the most revolutionary concept that could possibly come up in the scientific world.”

Hubert Pearce is tested by J.B. Rhine. Hubert Pearce was one of Rhine's earliest, and top scoring, subjects at Duke.

February 4, 1937, to the Science Editor of The New York Herald Tribune:
“The implications of telepathy and clairvoyance go so far that it is hazardous for one to risk his reputation in speculating too far upon them. They are throwing new light upon the place of mind in space and time, as well as other properties of our universe.”

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