Free Mediums Rare by Richard Matheson Page B

he claimed, was mostly the continent of Lemuria.

    Regarding Cayce’s amazing record of healings—especially those at great distances—it has been questioned as to whom he was referring when he used the word “we” while diagnosing and prescribing cures for illnesses.
    Was it the so-called “editorial we”?
    Or did “we,” in fact, refer to the so-called “spirit doctors” who were ostensibly conferring with him?
    This interpretation seems the most acceptable.
    The alternative is that he utilized some incredibly complicated telepathic and/or clairvoyant hook-up to the brains of hundreds of living doctors and the—often remote—locations of hundreds of exotic balms and medications.
THE NEW APPROACH
    Psychical research—now formally given the name of Parapsychology is, today, part of the curriculum at major colleges and universities.
    Harvard. Yale. Columbia. Duke. Cambridge. Oxford.
    While not given the extensive respect it received at the turn of the century, psychical research has, nonetheless, achieved a plateau of genuine acceptance by part of the scientific world.
    Part of this acceptance is due to the laborious work of one man at Duke University: J. B. Rhine
    For the first time in the history of psychical research, telepathy was studied by serious investigators as the primary aspect of psychic ability.
    This was a calculated extension of earlier tests which discovered that patients, in mesmeric trances, often responded to unspoken thoughts.

    Tests were given by Janet and Gurney establishing the correct ident
ification of pain by telepathy.
    Often, when the hypnotist pinched himself (or herself) the subject “felt” the pain.

    Experiments were conducted by Professor and Mrs. Henry Sidgwic in which two-digit numbers selected at random and “visualized” by the hypnotist, were transferred telepathically to entranced subjects in adjoining rooms.
    A vital aspect of these experiments was the adoption of mathematical evaluation of the test results.

    The introduction of statistical methods for evaluation became standardized, using playing cards as “targets.”

    Important test results were obtained with the use of a board divided into 48 squares.

    Three series of telepathy tests were conducted, using the color and suit of playing cards exclusively.
    A success ratio of more than eight million to one was achieved by these tests.

    Tests were introduced to examine clairvoyance as a phenomenon differing from that of telepathy.
    Special testing cards known as Zener cards were developed by Rhine.
    Five simple shapes were utilized, one on each card, five cards with each symbol for a pack total of twenty-five.
    Every known aspect of psychic ability was examined with the use of these cards.

    In 1934, Rhine’s monograph entitled
Extra-Sensory Perception
first coined the term ESP and replaced the term “Psychical Research” with “Parapsychology.”

    In 1933, and ’34, Rhine initiated tests to study the phenomenon of precognition (the prediction of future events) and psychokinesis (the power of mind over matter).

    While none of this could, in any way, match the drama and/or flamboyance of the great nineteenth century mediums, it did endow the field with a definite aura of academic respectability.

    The difference between the era of mediumship and the establishment of parapsychological testing was a simple but profound one.
    In the nineteenth century, special mediums were examined and tested.
    In the twentieth century, with few exceptions, only so-called “ordinary” people were examined and tested.
    It is now generally believed that everyone has some psychic ability.
    The testing procedure inaugurated by J. B. Rhine and his wife indicated that one in five persons demonstrated these abilities.
    Rhine was quoted as saying, “The most experienced investigators have come more and more to accept the view that, while individuals differ greatly in their potentialities, most people—probably all—possess some of