nor Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-,RDP96-00787ROO0200080029-3 y@hological iation PSI News Vol. 2 No. 4, Oct., 1979 McDONNELL ESTABLISHES McDONNELL ESTABLISHES LABORATORYFOR LABORATORY FOR YCHICRESEARCH YCHIC RESEARCH ,v c n er s Dsvc 010L A Daa @be a been A parapsychology cen er as been established at Washing-ton University, St. Louis, through the support of James S. McDonnell, Chairman of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation. Dr. Peter R. Phillips, Professor of Physics, has been appointed Director of the Laboratory. In making the $500,000 grant which established the new psi facility, McDonnell said, "Man is approaching the evolutionary point %@here he is beginning to realize there is a possible merging of matter and mind, and a priority item for current scientific research is the under- standing of human consciousness. The exploration of the deep inner space of humankind can challenge intellectually adventurous men and women for gen- erations to come. From these explora- tions will surely come countless discoveries which in time can make possible human life at higher levels of health, happiness, and creativity." McDonnell has a life-long interest in psi and is an Honorary Member of the PA. Phillips, who was educated at Cambridge University (BS), Princeton and StanforcAb&oVedKFcJ@la*L:f#e the 1978 PA C60vention which was held at Washington University. ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES Diana Robinson Innovations and claims in healing practices combined with growing public acceptance of parapsychology have spawned a plethora of supposed psychic healers. How far is the professional core of parapsychology able to test the claims? Should the PA propose a basis for professionalization of psychic healing with implementation of appropriate controls?. These and other issues were brought up in a roundtable discussion at the PA Convention sponsored by John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, Cali- fornia, August 14-18. The roundtable was chaired by Dr. Ralph Locke of the University of North Carolina and the Psychical Research Foundation. Dr. Arthur Hastings of JFK Universi- ty spoke on the popular programs which claim to develop psi abilities. He pointed out that laboratory tests do not indicate that students' abilities have been much enhanced and went on to discuss the pros and cons of such courses. The cons include misinformation about the proper controls needed to test psi, the possibil- ity of negative use of psi abilities if they are developed, and psychological prob- lems arising from students' belief that they have psi abilities when in fact they do not. On the positive side are the arousal of public interest in psi, which may transfer to parapsychology, the possibility that students from these courses may become subjects in parapsychological tests, and the techniques of the programs, which could be tested by researchers and perhaps used to establish psi conducive conditions during testing. Hastings urged parapsychologists to investigate and even take part in such courses. Barbara Honegger of the Washington Research Center in San Francisco gave a report on government involvement in psi research. She commented that many individual legislators prefer to use cover terms, referring to holistic health, transpersonal psychology, etc., rather than naming parapsychology as the object of their interest. Although a recent survey by C. T. Tart suggests that the U.S. government rarely has approached PA members, Honegger cited reports which indicate %tWolt/SW2@@ 101AsRVW%" Agency are evaluating Eastern Euro- pean research in parapsychology (see abstract by Hoyt Edge in this issue of PSI NEWS). In a period when research funding is difficult to obtain, the issue of military and intelligence relevant re- search is especially serious. It raises again the moral and ethical questions which science has to confront in the world of today. On the subject of psychic healing, Dr. Stanley Krippner pointed out that a great responsibility is placed on the parapsychologist who is asked to recom- mend a healer. There are three alternatives in such a situation: one can give no recommendation, give a recom- mendation and hope that it is accurate, or take the course that Krippner suggests. This is to give a list of certain healers, but point out that the fact that a healer is on the list is not an assurance of his healing ability, only of his apparent sincerity. Krippner explained that he does not include on his list healers who make high charges, recommend that their patients stop medical treatment, or who seem to be publicity seekers. Some of these on his list cooperate with researchers. Dr. Lendell Braud Williams said it is important to find out how the public feels about psi so that parapsychologists can know in what ways psi can be presented helpfully as far as everyday life is concerned. She suggested a questionnaire to help answer this. Most importantly, she felt that parapsycholo- gists' concern over frequent criticisms should not be allowed to cast a negative pall over the field. Positive thinking, she emphasized, would be more helpful to both parapsychologists and the public. After Dr. Locke's summary of the contributions, the need for better communication with scientists and lay- people 'Was discussed. The media and entertainment industry often stretch the public's image of parapsychology to- wards occultism and away from the research scene. In this way parapsychol- ogy becomes something which facinates at the same time as it repels-and not something which contributes to the understanding of human nature. There is a need for better education of the public and also for better understanding of a culture in which occult ideas grow so easily. The matter of a more relaxed attitude by parapsychologists to critics was also emphasized. A siege mentality may also tion o a research environment favorable to psi. PETER R. PHILLIPS Approved For Release 2001/03126: CIA-RDP96-00787ROO0200080029-3 monkeys may react to Research -started in the same sound Fl 1969 when the 1,064 id P t quite differently. uor children were in first reven or second grade. e: s The vervets are not After the original check-up, absolutely consist- i they were re- l ent about what intrudercar examined at intervals triggers an alarm es of 30 months, 55 onger call, so the scientists months and six years. in the field kept track Following the six- of the "mistakes." TheyTooth decay may not be year check-up, the fluoride/placebo found that the the most seri- adult monkeys seldom ous or painful health treatments were stopped. err, juveniles err problem in the Then in 1977, more frequently and United States, but is after one and a half infants err most fre- probably the most treatment-free years, quently of all. The common and certainly 354 children who had juveniles, for instance,the most enduring. also been checked give the eagle call Most - but not all - after six years were on occasion at the dental researchers re-examined. This ex- sight of an innocuous bird consider fluoridation amination showed, that such as a stork or the most effective "... cariostatic a spoonbill. Infants carrymeans of preventing dental[anti-caries] benefits their caution even caries (SN: continue to be ap- further; one gave the 9/l/79, p. 152). Now, parent for both [one eagle alarm at the in the most recent and two] tablet sight of an airborne follow-up of a clinical treatment procedures leaf. study started in at the end of seven "Although they make 1969, it looks as if and one half years .... mistakes, there is fluoride's protective Thus, the caries pre- ef- an order to the errors,"fects continue after ventive benefit did Marler says. The treatment with fluo- not diminish as a result young monkeys, for instance,ride tablets ceases. of discontinuing such may give an A year and a half after treatment." eagle call at the sighttreatments were discontinued,The study examined not of a pigeon, but they the chil- only the pro- never mistakenly give dren in the Wayne County,tective effects of fluoride the eagle call in re- North Carolina tablets, but also sponse to a leopard. Public Health Service looked at the cost-effectiveness "It's as though they study who had re- of using have a generally preordainedceived one or two fluoridethe treatment on large mechanism, tablets daily for numbers of chil- which specifies that six school years had dren. Overall, the fluoride ' the eagle alarm call fewer dental caries treatments cost should be given to somethingthan those who had receivedabout $25 per child that may be a flavored for six school years defined as 'moving up placebo tablet. Both and - if the post-treatment above' of a certain during and after period is in- size and with a certaintreatment, the fluoride cluded - prevented 3.65 trajectory," he pro- group had between "decayed, miss- poses. Initially for 32 and 35 percent fewer ing or filled" tooth the young monkey, caries than the surfaces from occurring many stimuli satisfy control group, in each child during that requirement. seven and a half years. Gradually, however, The study - conducted This means that it cost the animals' percep- by William S. about $7 to prevent tion becomes more discriminating,Driscoll, Stanley B. each decay, compared like Heifetz and Janet A. with the $10 to $20 children sharpening Brunelle of the Nationalit costs to have a decayed their semantic sense, Institute of Dental tooth filled. El Marler says. , Marler suggests that these animal TIME' studies offer a glimmerDean of hope for ex- ustifies perimental elucidation j of the process by which a child brings sychic research IBASE "innate knowledge" P to the task of developing understanding. "We blind ourselves to the Many respectable scientists, prospect of new from Ein- .v OWUI,h @Wd am discoveries if we insiststein on down, have speculateda on treating animals on the . @ AN as though they were credibility of so-called automata. The "psychic" . knowledge they have phenomena and on how PK of companions and they can be their surroundin s is studied scientifically. probably as intricate Generally such ef- 9 and complex as our own,forts to legitimize this though with an study have been emphasis that is uniquethwarted by the obvious to each species," presence of char- Marler says. In other latans and fools among work Marler observes reputed psychics among songbirds a complexand by open hostility mix of innate from the scientific tendency, imitation, community at large. Perhaps modification and in- worst of all, BASE vention (see p. 362). few new theoretical or In discussion at the experimental ap- recent meeting in Atlantaproaches to the subject of the Society for have been gen- Neuroscience, James erated. CALIBRATION L. Gould of Prince- NOM1111A ton University challengedNow a fresh set of "psi" the idea that experiments % complexity of a behaviorinvolving sophisticated necessarily im- technology has plies cognition. He been designed by Princeton says that what appears University's PK to be animal awareness dean of Engineering and Aiin and intentions Applied Science, may just be preordained,Robert G. Jahn, and his preprogrammed co-workers. Al- learning routines combinedthough Jahn is not yet with scien- ready to publish any tists' ignorance of conclusive results, he how complicated such has offered some programs can get. His thoughts on a theoretical work with bees approach to (SN:11/17/79, p. 342) psychic phenomena and Chart produced by physical indicates that appar- has concluded changes in a ently complicated featsthat "once the overburdenFabry-Perot interferometer of communication of illegitimate clearly shows can be described by activity and irresponsibledifferent effects when simple rules that criticism is re- a subjectjust relaxed could be genetically moved, there is sufficient(base) or tried to influence determined. residue of valid the instrument Donald R. Griffin of evidence to justify continuedthrough psychokinesis Rockefeller Univer- research." (PK). sity emphasizes the Jahn, best known for importance of gather- his pioneering ing information about work with plasma discharges,experiments, results whether nonhuman summarized of which can be animals have intentionshis two-year experience scrutinized but not or are aware of with psychic re- clearly interpreted. themselves in relation search during a recent What the Princeton researchers to their surround- science writers' have tried ings. "A cognitive ethologymeeting in Palo Alto. to do is design experiments can thus hope in which the to illuminate the fundamental diUlen6ions )A)@Hc to statis- 20008MMe l %@t 78"11 ft, T0 99 n@A L W ft . of those aAppromedsEPAIMIRi , ( tical ana ysis . r e e h 1 and which, in their tion, of anecdotes of The work started when most versatile manifes-spontaneous events, an undergradu- tations, are the sourceswhich tend to be spectacularate, Carol K. Currvasked of our most pro- but unverifi- inhn in QI1nPrX7;.P lata proc-@@sing skills, power levels." The researchers A But, he adds, ' 6A2 "this band aram" ' has A CIA E -RD RO"0707IR0002000800294 n 1 0a t h _-@gan wi !;@ some w al )erception exercises ta.t ogy has not been widely -"to establish that developed for use @ve were indeed capable in the United States." of generating ef- The agency will be =ects to study"- then studying multi-beam moved on to design- antennas, on-board Nig equipment to measure signal-switching and psychokinesis other technologies, I but there is far more -a palpable disturbance to the satellite com- of a physical -system by thought alone. ations problem than the opening of munic The psychokinesis experiments additional frequencies. fflus- trate well why such As the SAB committee's research can be both report empha- sized, there are many ntalizing and frustrating.0 potential satellite Rather than try IS reproduce spectacular, communications users "macroscopic" who are too small i_,@fects, such as spinning or widely scattered a compass with- to form a feasible ut touching it (which commercial market. The has been reported Ka band is poorly documented studies), primarily relevant to Jahn and large-scale, wide- arry concentrated on easily observed band traffic, while the small users often nicroscopic" phenomena. can use narrow-band, In one exper. lower-frequency ient, a subject was equipment - which is to raise the tempera- also less costly. ..ire of a thermistor Some Of NASAs new technologies by a few thousandths will be a degree. In another, applicable there, but the goal was to much of the small- cliange the separation of two mirrors in a user activity is being studied amid a 1@abry-Perot interferometer thicket of other agencies by a hundred- and organi- 'housandth of a centimeter. The observa- zations. The matter is thorny - and far tions were specific from solved. Cl and even dramatic. Subjects did, indeed, seem capable at times of raising the RCA thermistor tempera- Satcorn Lasker Awarids Ill., Due soon, but then what? ture or changing the : optical pathlength of the interferometer at Satellite will. But neither ex- communications, DNA and ffie brain " more " inti- periment was fully mately reproducible woven in the into contemporary life than scientifically acceptedperhaps sense, The effects any other aspect of Space Age varied unpredictably technology, The 1979 Albert Lasker from person to per-, owes Basic Medical much of its solid footing son and from day to to Research Awards were day. Because of this years presented to three of research and development by unpredictability, Jahn the scientists whose basic prefers to call the National research has po- Aeronautics and Space Ad- results of work so far ministration, tential for clinical "tutorial" rather than which as well as laboratory was ultimately able to technically conclusive.pass use. Roger W Sperry That is, they on of the California Insti- most of the effort to private indus- should be used as modelstry tute of Technology received for more exten- as a $15,000 a self-sustainiDg enterprise. In 1973, sive research rather prompted award for his investigations than as any sort of by into the work- tight budgets, NASA virtually "proof" of the validitydropped ings of the brain's of psychic its hemispheres, and Walter R and D program in the field. phenomena. Nevertheless,NOW Gilbert of Harvard University analysis of NASA and Freder- is back in the game, with a these experiments has five-year ick Sanger of the Laboratory offered two impor- program of Molecular "aimed at retaining U,S. tant insights that can world Biology in Cambridge, be further testedin leadership England shared in satellite communica- future research. tions another $15,000 for research their independent de- and technology." First, the ability to Several velopment 'of n 'ew produce measurable factors methods of rapid have contributed to the psychic effects appearsrestored sequencing Of DNA. - to be trainable. effort: Early in 1977, a special Neither Jahn nor Curry committee In 1953, Sperry developed was aware of any of the technique the National Research initial psychic abilityCouncil's of "split brain" research, and both got better Space in which he se- Applications Board as they went along. strongly vered the bundle of An important element recommended nerve fibers that con- just such action in such training appears(SN: nects the two halves to be feedback 4/9J77, of the brain. He dis- p. 231). A year later, President that is "visible and Jimmy covered that the two attractive," Jahn says.Carter's hemispheres func- reorganization plans pro- Second, Jahn speculatesduced tion independently in that psychic the this situation; the National Telecommunications phenomena may have an and right brain does not inherently statis- Information know what the left Administration, charged tical nature. If so, in brain is learning. Sperry theories dealing with part found that the two with easing the way for NASA com- such phenomena are likelymunications halves of the brain to involve experiments govern two sets of into ac- commer- abstruse concepts relatedcial tivities; there is no to the for- use. one "dominant" hemi- Further support came from vari- malism of quantum mechanicsous sphere for all mental or statisti- federal processes. agencies and industries in the cal mechanics, rather form The second Basic Research than some easily of Award was responses to a questionnaire from grasped intuitive explanation.the presented jointly to In particu- White Sanger and Gilbert House's (a Office of Science and lar, psychokinesis appearsTechnology 1949 Westinghouse Science to involve a re- Policy. Talent Search The satellite-allocated duction of entropy -a portions winner)j,whose rapid statistical measure of sequencing tech- the communications spectrum of disorder-and the have niques will allow molecular equivalence of phys- become biologists to increasingly crowded, and, ical "information" and NASA discover the sequence energy. points Of DNA COMPO- out, the U.S. is facing more An ad hoc committee foreign neDtS in a few days, of the university technology instead of months. competition. has established a charterThe Gilbert's method uses for Jahn's work new chemical reagents NASA effort, based at the agen- on psychic phenomena cy's to break the DNA molecules to proceed and he Lewis into frag- Research Center in Cleveland, is has brought in developmentalconcentrated ments, and Sanger's psycholo- on employs an enzy- the high-frequency, 20- gist Brenda Dunne to to-30-gigahertz matic reaction in its work full time on the portion sequencing proce- of the spectrum program. In an interviewknown dure. Dunne said that a as the Ka band. Lower frequencies growing number of reputableare The Lasker Special 'Public scientistsi fast Service approaching saturation, and, says are becoming active NASA's Award was presented in psychic research, Donald to Sir John Wilson, K. Dement, "this Ka-band but that "the field allocation President of the International as a whole is strugglingis Agency for the last potential opportunity for recognition as a for the Prevention of Blindness. legitimate science."O significant 0 new capacity to be devel- NOVEMBER 24,14pproved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787ROO0200080029139