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Order out of Chaos in Survival Research

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Order out of Chaos in Survival Research Order Out of Chaos In Survival Research ARTHUR S. BERGER A few weeks before Joseph B. Rhine died in ^^1980, I visited him at his big old house I \in Durham, North Carolina. As we talked, with his wife, Louisa, silent but attentive in the room, it was plain that in spite of his failing hearing and near blindness his mind was still active. During our conversation, he talked about his desire to see action during World War I and how he tried to enlist in the Army. He was turned down because of his defective hearing and poor eyesight. He applied to the 1% Research into Navy and was again rejected. When the Marine Corps refused him because of his hammertoes, reincarnation and he challenged the Marine doctor to a hike—and survival is confused a Marine uniform was his. and chaotic. When I wrote my biography of Rhine (Berger Investigative and 1988a), I included this story, because to me it judicial bodies made illustrates Rhine's enormous determination and his iron will, the very qualities he needed to up of respected introduce parapsychology to America. He gave members of the parapsychology its terms, its concepts, its psychical research theories, and its test procedures, and he endeavored, against much incredulity and and skeptical skepticism, to endow his work with scientific communities have status. Because of Rhine, parapsychology has now been formed to become a household word in the United States, bring some order to and mistakenly and through misunderstanding, has come to be used interchangeably with, or the situation. in preference to, the term psychical research. This usage implies a failure to realize that each discipline occupies a different investigative area. To impress scientists, Rhine established parapsychology as an experimental and quan- titative inquiry into psi in the laboratory. Psychical research, on the other hand, is a qualitative inquiry and includes the collection and evaluation of reports of spontaneous cases, including mediumship. Today, Rhine's succes- 390 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 sors, who share his hope of impressing element has been missing that there science with laboratory experiments is a wide difference of opinion con- and statistics, have largely ignored this cerning the true worth of previous qualitative side. But it should not be investigations and evaluations. The ignored. Spontaneous cases provide a vast majority of the most important natural field of study of alleged investigations that seem to have telepathic and related phenomena as supplied evidence for, or at least that compared to the artificial conditions have been suggestive of, survival after of the laboratory. And only the spon- death or reincarnation have been taneous cases—apparitions, dreams, mainly one-man shows. The past gives hauntings, out-of-body experiences, us plenty of examples and they still mediumship, and claims of reincarna- abound today: Sir William Crookes's tion—bear upon the intriguing, highly investigations of the physical medi- emotional, and still absolutely unre- ums Florence Cook and D. D. Home- solved question of whether human Richard Hodgson's investigation of consciousness continues beyond bod- the mental medium Leonora Piper; ily death in discarnate or reincarnated James H. Hyslop's investigation of the form. mental mediums Mrs. Chenoweth and It is important, therefore, that Mrs. Smead; the Reverend C. Drayton reports of spontaneous cases be Thomas's sittings with the mental investigated and evaluated, but with medium Gladys Osborne Leonard; the proviso that such investigation Gustav Geley's experiments with the and evaluation be done in a way that physical medium Franz Kluski; Harry will discover if they give convincing Price's investigation of Borley Rec- evidence of the survival of the con- tory, which has been called "the most sciousness of, or the reincarnation of, haunted house in England." a deceased person. The key word is The Golden Age of mediumship convincing. It is because this essential ended more than 50 years ago, and fcavJywrt—:» Summer 1990 391 haunted houses like Borley Rectory each asks us to trust in his statements are not much in fashion anymore. implicitly and to rely on his proce- Nevertheless, the parade of modern dures, observations, and conclusions. investigators and their different But we don't know whether any claims of telling evidence continues: particular investigator is sane, honest, L. Stafford Betty wrote of his inves- objective, or competent, or whether tigation of a poltergeist case in which he is fraudulent or has been deceived. he concluded that a deceased person The history of parapsychology and was the agent (Betty 1984); I reported psychical research contains several an experiment of the cross- chapters in which the real character correspondence type that was sugges- of the investigators has been un- tive of survival (Berger 1987b); Karlis masked. In parapsychology, Walter J. Osis claimed that experiments in out- Levy, whom Rhine made director of of-body experiences supported the his Institute for Parapsychology, was hypothesis that the human being has discovered doctoring data (Rhine an ecsomatic aspect capable of sepa- 1975). S. G. Soal, a respected mathe- ration from the body and independent matician and experienced experimen- operation outside it (Osis and McCor- ter, was also shown to have mick 1980); George Meek claims to manipulated data (Markwick 1985). In have electronic proof of survival of psychical research, Crookes, the death based on instrumental com- eminent scientist, has been accused of munication with the dead (Meek using Florence Cook's fraudulent 1982); D. Scott Rogo maintains that seances in order to cover up and phone calls from the dead have been maintain a sexual liaison with her (Hall received (Rogo and Bayless 1980). All 1962). Geley, a medical doctor, has these claims relate to discarnate been charged with suppressing the survival. medium Eva C.'s fraud (Lambert Because of the work of Ian Steven- 1954). Harry Price was taken to task son, some people think there is proof for deliberate fraud in the Borley of another form of survival—reincar- Rectory investigation (Dingwall, nation. Belief in reincarnation is a vital Goldney, and Hall 1956). Even Hodg- element of Hinduism and is accepted son, whom I have held up as an by the great majority of the people excellent example of the critical and of India; and although apparent cases careful psychical researcher (Berger of the phenomenon have been re- 1988a), has been accused of emphas- ported in India for centuries, they izing evidence that favored his con- were never empirically investigated clusions and underemphasizing that until Stevenson's pioneering efforts. which did not (Thouless 1968). In As a result of his studies of young Stevenson's case, no accusation of children in India and elsewhere who wrongdoing has ever been made. Yet claim to remember prior lives, Steven- some personal bias may have crept son claims that the most probable into his investigations; there may have explanation of many of these cases is been a judicious selection and presen- not ESP or possession, but reincarna- tation of positive data in order to tion. support a personal belief in life after death. Other defects in his investiga- Now, although each of these inves- tions exist as well (Berger in press). tigators differs from the others in the methods he uses and in the kinds of It seems clear that no marvelous phenomena with which he deals, all phenomena uncovered through the have one thing in common. In effect, work of any one investigator are 392 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 14 acceptable unless verification has been Since scientific and academic circles received from other independent refuse to waste time on survival and investigators. Repetition or confirma- reincarnation, little notice has been tion of a phenomenon or conclusion taken of the fact that in psychical can provide the power to convince that research the situation is no less has been missing by vastly increasing confused and chaotic than it is in the chances that it is valid and un- parapsychology. Confusion and end- tainted. less and pointless disagreement run Although Rhine tried with all his rampant. In case after case, old as well might to make ESP and PK acceptable as new, armchair critics who review to science, he admitted to me that he them find all sorts of defects in the had failed. Indeed, the situation is even way investigators have conducted worse today than when I spoke with investigations, from poor methodol- him, because attacks against parapsy- ogy to poor, distorted, or dishonest chology have mounted steadily since reporting. the founding of the Committee for the Even when two researchers are Scientific Investigation of Claims of working together to investigate the the Paranormal. I have written else- same facts in the same reincarnation- where that parapsychology is "an out- type case, they cannot agree. For post under siege" (Berger 1988a). It example, Rakesh Gaur was born in is in a confused and chaotic state, as 1969 in Rajasthan, India. When he was both external critics, such as C. E. M. five years old, he told his parents that Hansel (1966; 1980) and Ray Hyman he had lived a prior life as a carpenter (1986), and internal ones, such as in a place called Tonk, some 225 Charles Akers (1984) and Susan J. kilometers away, that he had been Blackmore (1986), attack its experi- married to a woman named Keshar, ments in extrasensory perception and and that he had been electrocuted. psychokinesis on grounds ranging When the child was taken to Tonk, from methodological and statistical he recognized the widow and son of flaws and failure to preclude sensory Bithal Das, a carpenter who had been cues to the charge that subjects and electrocuted in 1955. Two investiga- experimenters have cheated.
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