{"collection":"Parapsychology","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_psi_esp_esp06_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_psi_esp_esp06_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_psi_esp_esp06_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/psi/esp/esp06.htm","summary":"This is the preface to J. B. Rhine's 1934 scientific monograph *Extra-Sensory Perception*, the foundational text of modern parapsychology, published through Duke University's psychology department. Rhine reports on nearly 100,000 controlled trials testing whether humans can perceive information through means outside the recognized senses \u2014 what he coins \"E.S.P.\" \u2014 and argues the accumulated evidence is now strong enough to warrant formal publication and broader scientific scrutiny. He distinguishes E.S.P. carefully from competing terms like \"supernormal perception,\" \"metagnomy,\" and \"cryptesthesia,\" settling on his coinage because it frames the phenomenon as a natural psychological process rather than implying a supernatural explanation or a hidden sensory organ. A distinctively ambitious claim runs throughout: Rhine presents this research not merely as curiosity about anomalous mental phenomena but as potentially foundational to a new understanding of human personality and its place in nature, explicitly linking it to what he sees as the collapse of religious and ethical frameworks in modernity. He situates the work within an emerging climate of cautious scientific openness \u2014 citing endorsements from figures including Einstein, Freud, and Whitehead \u2014 while anticipating hostility from those who reject the possibility without experiment. The preface also credits Duke University's unusual institutional tolerance for the research, supervised under psychologist William McDougall.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Extra-Sensory Perception: Preface","tradition":"Parapsychology","translated_text":null,"word_count":1780}