Parapsychology

Extra-Sensory Perception: Part III. Explanation and Discussion: Chapter 12. The Psychological Conditions and Bearings of the Results

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This is a chapter from J. B. Rhine's 1934 scientific monograph on extrasensory perception, the foundational text of modern experimental parapsychology, written in the style of empirical psychology. Rhine argues that the key mental conditions enabling ESP are a specific combination of sensory abstraction (withdrawal of attention from the physical senses) and heightened, non-sensory attention — what he calls "concentration" in a technical sense. He supports this with observational evidence from named laboratory subjects, noting that many enter light trance states during successful trials, that performance drops sharply under distraction or fatigue, and that stimulants like caffeine improve scoring rates by restoring alertness. A distinctive claim is that motivation and personal interest function causally through attention: the highest ESP scores in his dataset came from a couple (Zirkle and his fiancée Ownbey), while a subject pushed to work against his will scored below chance — which Rhine interprets as unconscious negative volition actively misdirecting the faculty. He also reports that one subject's scores declined monotonically over 7,500 trials, which he attributes to waning interest rather than chance regression. The chapter is notable for treating ESP as a genuine but fragile cognitive function governed by the same psychological laws as ordinary perception, while methodically dismissing rival explanations like sensory leakage or a "sixth sense" organ.

Extra-Sensory Perception: Part III. Explanation and Discussion: Chapter 12. The Psychological Conditions and Bearings of the Results

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