The laboratory founded by J.B. Rhine, The Institute for Parapsychology, has been conducting experiments on extra-sensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK) for over 65 years. Although it is no longer a part of Duke University, the Institute for Parapsychology is located across from East Duke Campus in Durham, North Carolina and is the research division for the non-profit organization, Rhine Research Center (RRC), formerly known as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man.
When most people think of an ESP experiment, they think of the card guessing experiments in which a subject tries to identify a star, circle, square, cross, or wavy line symbol. Indeed, these experiments used by J.B. Rhine in the 1930's and 1940's (and even into the 1960's) helped to establish the groundwork for the scientific testing of psychic phenomena or psi (as it is commonly referred to). Now, however, laboratory experiments have evolved to imitate a more natural setting to facilitate ESP as it might occur in everyday life. Perhaps the best example of this type of experiment is the ganzfeld, a widely acclaimed method pioneered by the late Charles Honorton at the Psychophysical Research Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey, which has produced significantly positive psi results in the laboratory.
In the mid 1980's, the Institute for Parapsychology began testing using the ganzfeld technique and research of this type is ongoing. You may be wondering, what exactly is the ganzfeld technique and how does the experiment work? Ganzfeld is a German word which means "uniform field." This is accomplished by the participant viewing a red light through translucent eye covers and listening to "pink noise" over headphones. The ganzfeld technique then is this combination of a uniform visual and auditory field which creates a mild form of sensory isolation. The creation of this relaxed state imitates naturally occurring altered states of consciousness, such as deep relaxation. This is why the ganzfeld technique is so important; it is in these altered states that people most often report psychic phenomena.
So how is the ganzfeld technique used to test for ESP ability? The experiment works like this. Usually, two people participate - one person is the "receiver" who undergoes the ganzfeld and tries to gain information by ESP from the other person who is the "sender." [Note- we also conduct clairvoyant trials where a sender is not present and the receiver tries to gain information from the target itself.] Both the receiver and sender relax in recliner chairs in separate rooms which are located on opposite sides of the building. After they both listen to a fifteen minute relaxation tape, the sender is shown one target which has been randomly selected from a pool 156 different targets. The targets consist of either static pictures (still photos) or dynamic pictures (short film clips). The sender is the only person who views the target, knows which target was chosen from the pool and whether it is a dynamic or static target (this is using a double-blind procedure). The sender has a large pad of paper for writing and sketching a description of what they see. This is to aid them in trying to telepathically relay the information to the receiver.
Meanwhile, the receiver who is experiencing the ganzfeld, verbalizes any thoughts, feelings, or images that come into their mind. The receiver is asked not to censor their thoughts, but to report everything as it may in some way relate to the target. After a scheduled amount of time the pink noise ends and the experimenter reviews with the receiver their mentation (their thoughts, feelings, etc.). At this point the receiver removes the eye covers while the red light is faded off and the regular light is faded on. On a TV screen in the receiver's room, the receiver is shown four different pictures, one of which is the target viewed by the sender while the other three are "dummy" pictures.
The receiver is asked to rate each of the pictures by marking a graph with a percentage that represents the degree of correspondence between their ganzfeld mentation and each of the four pictures. Since no two pictures can receive the same rating, this method also ranks the pictures from one through four. The picture given the highest percentage of correspondence with the receiver's mentation also receives a rank of one indicating that this picture is their first choice. After the receiver's choices are entered into the computer, the experimenter and the sender join the receiver and the target is revealed. If the receiver correctly identifies the target (by assigning this picture the highest percentage, a rank of one) then a "direct hit" was scored.
Since one picture must be identified from a set of four pictures, by chance alone there is a 25% probability that the receiver would correctly identify the target and thus score a direct hit. To determine if anything beyond chance is occurring, a large number of sessions with a variety of participants are collected and the scoring rate is calculated. If say, over 100 sessions the scoring rate is around 25%, then it can not be concluded that anything beyond chance occurred. However, if the scoring rate is significantly above or below 25%, then it can be concluded that something other than chance is affecting the scoring rate.
Since the fall of 1993, when our current series of ganzfeld sessions began, I have conducted almost 200 trials. The first 100 sessions have been analyzed and presented in a paper I coauthored with the Director of the Institute for Parapsychology, Dr. Richard Broughton (after data for all 200 trials has been collected, a summary report will be written). Our overall scoring rate for these trials was 33%, which is statistically significant and indicates that this result is not a chance occurrence. This scoring rate also mirrors closely the scoring rate of 32% that was achieved by Charles Honorton at the Psychophysical Research Laboratories. The results thus far are very encouraging for demonstrating not only the existence of ESP, but the ability to replicate these findings in the lab.

Cheryl Alexander is a Research Assistant at the RRC/Institute for Parapsychology and Faculty member of the SSP program, Institute for Parapsychology. She may be reached at Cheryl@rhine.org.

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