Psychical Research 1880-1940 05/11/1998 19:35:00

I. MARGINAL SCIENCE? Pyschology and spirits: the puzzle. Origins of psychology ca. 1880-1920. II. ORIGINS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH (1880-1900)

A. Medicine & the spirit medium - (1) legacy of early modern medicine: melancholy & women: roots of mental disorders in womens physiology. (2) Idea continued into 19th century, informing physiological view of trance (mid-19th century). Frederic R. Marvin (N. Y. Free Medical College for Women): extensive medical research on mediumship in 1870s. Mediumship = pathology (mediomania). Cause: disturbance in menstrual processes created abnormally organized brain. Disorders of uterus cause of women joining socialism, mesmerism, mormonism, spiritualism, etc. Treatments: diet, discipline, strychnine, quinine. (3) New directions: Pierre Janet (1859-1947) & Jean Charcot (182593) - contributed to the modern concept of mental and emotional disorders (anxiety, phobias, abnormal behaviour; neurological sources of psychomotor disorders; treatments with hypnotism.

B. Psychical research - alternative line of approach: mediumship evidence of paranormal powers of the mind? Experience grounded not in physical states, but in mental states. But what were they? Profile of the English scientists: (1) Sociological profile: (a) religious upbringing; faith shaken by materialist science. (b) Not neutral regarding spiritism; supporters & skeptics; condemned narrow mindedness of materialist science, e.g. Henry Sidgwick: empirical evidence of spiritual order. (2) Leading figures: scientists (Alfred Russell Wallace, William Crookes); clergy & bishops; writers (Tennyson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll); politicians (Gladstone). Crookes: discovered thalium, cathode ray studies (critical in development of atomic theory); Point: powerful men, leaders. (3) Society for Psychical Research (1882). Goal: scientific investigation of spirit phenomena.

C. American scientists - more hostile reception. American Society for Psychical Research 1880s: troubled & weak. Predisposed to skepticism about psychical phenomena, confirming known natural laws. (1) William James (1842-1910). Son of Henry James; Swedenborgian atmosphere at home. (a) Psychology achievement: assimilated mental phenomena to biology. Critical of contemporary view of mental phenomena as simply expressing physiological states. Broadly critical of science as too mechanistic & materialistic in assumptions. Principles of Psychology (1890). (b) Interest in religious & psychical experience ( Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)). Grounded religious experience in mental life of humans as natural, not extraordinary or abnormal. Power of belief to shape experience. (c) Investigations of medicum Leonora Piper 1890s medium extraordinaire. No fraud found. Theory: evidence of subconscious mind with powers the conscious mind not aware of. (2) James Hervey Hyslop: dominant figure in American psychology ca. 1900. Psychical research after 1886. Crisis & American Institute for Scientific Research. Goal: balance abnormal psychology (Section A) with psychical research (trance states, altered states of consciousness) (Section B).

D. Dilemmas ca. 1900-1920 - Research issues for psychical science: (1) Separating spirits from psychological states. Telepathy? Spirt communication? Abnormal psychological state? What does the medium experience really provide evidence for? Spirits or mental states? If mental states: what kind? Normal ones? Abnormal ones? Extraordinary ones beyond known laws of nature? Example: problem of precognition. (2) Evidence & methods: evidence not repeatable, or easily verified. Mediums & psychics not easily investigated. Research protocols: must be controlled experiments, all variables accounted for; repeatability of experiments; also: verify the results. Key problem: what is the mechanism in nature at work to explain anomalous experiences? (3) Behaviorism: doubted mental states as causes of phenomena. Hostility to Freud. physical explanations of mental states. Experimental psychology came to predominate: methods & problems drawn from natural sciences (not spirit medium experience). Focus on mental processes involving sensation, perception, memory, cognition: processes studied through behavioral responses. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) (professor at Leipzig, Germany): Grundzge der physiologischen Psychologie, 2 vol. (1873-74) (Principles of Physiological Psychology, 1908-11): provided experimental basis for investigating broad range of sense experiences. III. J. B. RHINE & PARAPSYCHOLOGY (1928-40)

A. New direction Joseph Banks Rhine & Louisa Rhine: background & early experiences. Biologist, but with religious background & interested in survival after death. Established first parapsychology laboratory at Duke 1930s as branch of psychology. Difficulties of research. Approach: (1) Concentration on ESP (telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition). Narrowing of psychical research to small area. Large nos. of phenomena unexplored, e.g. spirit communication. (2) Method - laboratory testing with repeatable & verifiable experiements. Set aside anecdotal evidence. Subjected phenomena to laboratory testing. (3) Average people (Duke students!) - not mediums.

B. Early achievements - (1) Zener card experiments (5 cards: wavy lines, star, circle, cross, square) as test for telepathy. Procedures. Outcomes: Pearce-Pratt experiments. (2) Extra-sensory Perception (1934). Journal of Parapsychology (1943- ) By 1943 psi proven. (3) Public interest.

C. Problems - (1) Results not verified elsewhere. ASPR attempted to duplicate results without success. Rhine claims psi proven in response. Problems with controls on experiments. (2) Peer review problems. Statistical methods sharply criticized by experimental psychologists. (3) Resistance within Duke. Disestablishment 1960s. (4) Narrowness of parapsychology: rejected integrative approach with abnormal psychology & research on altered states of consciousness. (5) New science outside parameters of known causation, concepts of time, space. No effort to integrate with 20th century physics. Established fields of science: acquire legitimacy through grounding in closely related disciplines. Parapsychologys failure to become more than marginal science.