Episode 4: The Empire Strikes Back Alarmed by intelligence that the Soviets are using “psychic spies,” the CIA inaugurates its own distance-spying program, Project Stargate in 1972. Stargate’s key researchers, physicists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, coin the term “remote viewing.” The controversial program, whose subjects include psychic-artist Ingo Swann, lasts more than 20 years and wins over President Jimmy Carter. For skeptics, however, it’s knives-out. Disgusted with the popularity of parapsychological themes in American life—and resiliently unwilling to distinguish between serious efforts like the Rhine Lab and Stargate versus the media showmanship of psychic Uri Geller and like performers—in 1976 a cohort of ideological skeptics, including stage magician James “The Amazing” Randi, organize Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal or CSICOP. Unconcerned with scientific verities, data replication, or meta-analyses, the professional skeptics grease a soundbite machine that disparages academic parapsychologists and misleads the public through misrepresentations of psi research and suppression of the skeptics’ own confirmatory retrials. Media fallout leaves parapsychology in near-tatters and starved for funding. This signal has been transmitted by SpectreVision Radio Written and Narrated by Mitch Horowitz Produced by Jim Perry and Jon McEdward Original Music & Sound Design by Dean Hurley Cover Artwork by Jake in Colour Selected References “The Crisis of Professional Skepticism: Leading skeptics fail the test of ‘extraordinary evidence’” by Mitch Horowitz, Medium, February 27, 2023 “The Man Who Destroyed Skepticism: Scourge of psychics James Randi was no skeptic; our culture is poorer as a result” by Mitch Horowitz, Boing Boing, October 26, 2020 “Anomalous Experiences and the Crisis of Skepticism: Why we need better skeptics” by Mitch Horowitz, Medium, October 24, 2022 “Is Precognition Real?: Skeptics Eviscerated a Cornell Psychologist Whose Published Evidence Said Yes. A Decade Later, His Data Has Stood Up” by Mitch Horowitz, Boing Boing, August 17, 2022 “Has Science Developed the Competence to Confront the Paranormal?” by Charles Honorton, Extrasensory Perception, Vol. 2, edited by Edwin C. May and Sonali Bhatt Marwaha (Praeger, 2015) “Rhetoric over substance: the impoverished state of skepticism” by Charles Honorton, Journal of Parapsychology, June 1993 “The Experimental Evidence for Parapsychological Phenomena: A Review” by Etzel Cardeña, American Psychologist, 2018, Vol. 73, №5, 663–677 “Does Psi Exist? Replicable Evidence for an Anomalous Process of Information Transfer” by Daryl J. Bem and Charles Honorton, Psychological Bulletin, 1994, Vol. 115, №.1 “Replication and Meta-Analysis in Parapsychology” by Jessica Utts, Statistical Science, Vol. 6, №. 4, 1991 “Federal research funding for psychology has not kept up with inflation” by Luona Lin, MPP, Peggy Christidis, PhD, and Jessica Conroy, BA, apa.org “Rationalists are wrong about telepathy” by Rupert Sheldrake, Unherd, Nov 22, 2021 “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” by Chris Carter, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 74, 2010 “A new case of experimenter unreliability” by J.B. Rhine, Journal of Parapsychology, 38, 1974 “Comments: A second report on a case of experimenter fraud” by J.B. Rhine, Journal of Parapsychology, 39, 1975 Psi Wars by Craig Weiler (White Crow Books, 2013/2020) “Postscript: Skeptics at Cal Tech,” Travels by Michael Crichton (Knopf, 1988) “ESP Debate: Is Belief in ESP Irrational?” by Steven Pinker vs. Brian D. Josephson, Skeptic Magazine, Reading Room, July 26, 2022 “The Case Against Psi” by Douglas M. Stokes, Parapsychology: A Hand- book for the 21st Century edited by Etzel Cardeña, John Palmer and David Marcusson-Clavertz (McFarland, 2015) Archive Clips The Case of ESP Uri Geller on Johnny Carson James Randi Talk Back to NOVA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Episode 3: Mushroom X The Age of Aquarius intermingles uneasily with the Parapsychology Revolution. The two cultural currents, like many in the Western world, both interweave and repel. This symbiosis and friction appears within the relationship of J.B. Rhine and the young scientist who seems his natural protégé: Charles Honorton. But J.B. and the researcher clash, resulting in Honorton departing the Rhine lab to pioneer an extraordinary series of trials testing for telepathy. They are called the ganzfeld experiments. Honorton’s findings prove so remarkable that, for a time, he even bridges the seeker-skeptic divide. The new comity is short-lived. Struggling with lifelong health issues, Honorton dies at 46, leaving the parapsychology field rudderless and easy prey for media skeptics. In other facets of psi research, dreams, psychedelia, magick mushrooms, and the Grateful Dead come together. This signal has been transmitted by SpectreVision Radio Written and Narrated by Mitch Horowitz Produced by Jim Perry and Jon McEdward Original Music & Sound Design by Dean Hurley Cover Artwork by Jake in Colour Selected References Extrasensory Perception, Vols. 1 & 2, edited by Edwin C. May and Sonali Bhatt Marwaha (Praeger, 2015) The Enchanted Voyager: The Life of J.B. Rhine by Denis Brian (Prentice-Hall, 1982) Daydream Believer: Exploring the Ultimate Power of Your Mind by Mitch Horowitz (G&D Media, 2022) “Federal Grant Supports ESP Dream Research at Maimonides” by Gordon T. Thompson, New York Times, November 25, 1973 “What Is the Link Between Hallucinations, Dreams, and Hypnagogic-Hypnopompic Experiences?” by Flavie Waters, et al., Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2016 Sept, 42(5) “Neuro-hypnotism: prospects for hypnosis and neuroscience” by John F. Kihlstrom, Cortex, vol. 49, 2, 2013 “Does Psi Exist? Replicable Evidence for an Anomalous Process of Information Transfer” by Daryl J. Bem and Charles Honorton, Psychological Bulletin, 1994, Vol. 115, №.1 “Chapter 4: Experimental Research on Extrasensory Perception,” An Introduction to Parapsychology, fifth edition by Irwin and Watt (McFarland, 2007): “In an assessment of the literature by Honorton (1978), 23 of 42 experiments conducted in ten different laboratories had yielded significant ESP performance under ganzfeld conditions; this success rate of 55% was far beyond that expected by chance.” “A Joint Communiqué: The Psi Ganzfeld Controversy” by Ray Hyman and Charles Honorton, Journal of Parapsychology, vol. 50, December 1986 “Replication and Meta-Analysis in Parapsychology” by Jessica Utts, Statistical Science, Vol. 6, №. 4, 1991 Archive Clips One Step Beyond: The Sacred Mushroom (January 24th, 1961) The Case of ESP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Episode 2: Institute for Experimental Religion As the twentieth century dawns, parapsychology is divided between ghost hunters—like Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle—and psi seekers—like a young Sigmund Freud, who takes deeper interest in ESP and telepathy than is commonly understood. Early parapsychologists made strides with the British and American branches of the Society for Psychical Research. William James and colleagues probe mysteries, expose fakes, and generate controversies. But they function largely on mediums’ own turf: lace-curtain settings of Victorian séance parlors. Enter two young, driven, and deeply ethical clinicians: J.B. and Louisa Rhine. “It would be unpardonable,” J.B. announces in 1926, “for the scientific world today to overlook evidences of the supernormal in our world,” Wooed to Duke University, the Rhines in the late 1920s inaugurate the Institute for Experimental Religion, later called the Parapsychology Laboratory. The lab formally introduces psi research into academia. The Rhines’ efforts—involving “guess” hits on Zener cards—prove simple, rigorous, and extraordinary. They make extrasensory perception or ESP a household term. Stats and studies from the Parapsychology Lab, including evidence for psychokinesis, withstand decades of withering scrutiny. This signal has been transmitted by SpectreVision Radio Written and Narrated by Mitch Horowitz Produced by Jim Perry and Jon McEdward Original Music & Sound Design by Dean Hurley Cover Artwork by Jake in Colour Selected References The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud by Ernest Jones, Vol. 3 (Basic Books, 1957) The Future of the Body: Explorations Into the Further Evolution Of Human Nature by Michael Murphy (Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1992) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. XVIII (1920-1922) edited by James Strachey, Anna Freud, Alix Strachey and Alan Tyson Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory by Stacy Horn (Ecco, 2009) Something Hidden by Louisa E. Rhine (McFarland, 1983) J.B. Rhine: Letters 1923-1939: ESP and the Foundations of Parapsychology by J.B. Rhine edited by Barbara Ensrud and Sally Rhine Feather (McFarland, 2021) “Chapter 6: Psychokinesis,” An Introduction to Parapsychology, fifth edition, by Harvey J. Irwin and Caroline A. Watt (McFarland, 2007) Extra-Sensory Perception by J.B. Rhine (1934, Boston Society for Psychic Research) Extra-Sensory Perception After Sixty Years by J.G. Pratt, J.B. Rhine, Burke M. Smith, Charles E. Stuart, and Joseph A. Greenwood (Henry Holt, 1940) “Telepathy: Origins of Randomization in Experimental Design” by Ian Hacking, Isis, Sept 1988, Vol. 79, №3 “J. B. Rhine’s Extra-Sensory Perception and Its Background in Psychical Research” by Michael McVaugh and Seymour H. Mauskopf, Isis, June 1976, Vol. 67, №2 J.B. Rhine: On the Frontiers of Science edited by K. Ramakrishna Rao (McFarland, 1982) “Who Was J.B. Rhine?” by Rick Berger, Ph.D., February 14, 2020, at parapsych.org, website of the Parapsychological Association ESP and Parapsychology: A Critical Reevaluation by C.E.M. Hansel (Prometheus Books, 1980) “Rhetoric over substance: the impoverished state of skepticism” by Charles Honorton, Journal of Parapsychology, June 1993 The Enchanted Voyager: The Life of J.B. Rhine by Denis Brian (Prentice-Hall, 1982) Daydream Believer: Exploring the Ultimate Power of Your Mind by Mitch Horowitz (G&D Media, 2022) Archive Clips Fairytale (1997) Ghostbusters (1984) Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (TV Series) Charles Tart on The Case of ESP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Episode 1: Moonrise For millennia, humanity has pursued higher knowing. In antiquity, soldiers and statesmen turned to oracles such as the prophetess at Delphi and pictogrammatic language of the I-Ching. Seen from a certain perspective, nearly all religion predates science as the wish to know first causes. In that vein, nineteenth-century séances treat gawkers to floating pianos, viscous “ectoplasm” spilling from the orifices of (mostly female) mediums, and ghostly figures materializing. Even Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln host table-rappings in the White House. Is any of it real? One moonlit night at Cambridge University in 1870 a handful of scientists determine to find out. Their efforts become the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), which attracts Victorian luminaries such as William James, Sigmund Freud, and Arthur Balfour, Britain’s prime minister. Some of the finest scientists and philosophers of the era begin probing the verity of the supernatural. This signal has been transmitted by SpectreVision Radio Written and Narrated by Mitch Horowitz Produced by Jim Perry and Jon McEdward Original Music & Sound Design by Dean Hurley Cover Artwork by Jake in Colour Selected References The Elusive Science: Origins of Experimental Psychical Research by Seymour H. Mauskopf and Michael R. McVaugh (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980) TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information by Erik Davis (Harmony, 1998) The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry by Henri F. Ellenberger (Basic Books, 1970) From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychoanalytic Healing by Adam Crabtree (Yale University Press, 1993) Abnormal Hypnotic Phenomena, vols. 1–4, edited by Eric J. Dingwall (J. & A. Churchill/ Barnes & Noble, 1968) Modern Occultism: History, Theory, and Practice by Mitch Horowitz (G&D Media, 2023) Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz (Bantam, 2009) Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in 19th Century America by Ann Braude (Beacon, 1989) Phantasms of the Living by Edmund Gurney, F.W.H. Myers, and Frank Podmore, 2 vols. (1886) “Charles Richet” by C.S. Alvarado, Psi Encyclopedia, London: The Society for Psychical Research, 2015 Archive Clips JB Rhine | 70 years at The Rhine Carrie Chapman Catt on Suffragism Russel Targ on The Case of ESP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Coming This Fall - Extraordinary Evidence | ESP Is Real is a limited series on the history, struggles, and proofs of parapsychology and the science of studying the supernatural. Mitch Horowitz—today’s leading independent scholar of the occult—uses revealing, stringently documented historical and scientific data, interviews, and archival recordings to explore the dramatic rise, attacks on, and revolutionary findings of parapsychology in areas from ESP and precognition to after-death survival and reincarnation. Original Score by Dean Hurley, Produced by Jim Perry & Jon Mcedward for SpectreVision Radio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices