If extrasensory perception is a common human ability, why can't we all score high on ESP tests? This book answers the question by describing psychological determinants of success and failure in extrasensory perception. Some of the most signifi cant points raised in the editor's enlightening introduction are developed in greater detail in the nine essays that follow, all of them important statements giving a clear picture of research into ESP and the debate that surrounds it. Each essay is followed by a comment relating the essay to the field as a whole. In essays on the debate about ESP, an attack (by C. E. M. Hansel) is followed by a rebuttal (by J. B. Rhine and J. G. Pratt), offering the reader insight into the peculiar tension surrounding the ESP controversy. The book also includes a balanced overview of problems in the field by J. C. Crumbaugh, and six other essays on the psychological factors that influence research on ESP. Controversy over ESP is of special interest also because the questions critics raise relate closely to problems within psychology itself. In addition, the essays reflect a quality common to much research: the excitement of uncovering results that advance our knowledge. This book is intended for supplementary course use. Because of the fundamental problems it addresses, it also offers richly rewarding reading for all teaching and practicing psychologists as well as for the interested generalist. A substantial number of research reports are cited throughout, so that any reader seeking further information will find the cited references invaluable.

Extrasensory Perception After Sixty Years: A Critical Appraisal of the Research in Extra-Sensory Perception, which was first published in 1940, represented the follow-up to parapsychologist Joseph Banks Rhine’s 1934 book, Extrasensory Perception. In Extrasensory Perception After Sixty Years: A Critical Appraisal of the Research in Extra-Sensory Perception, Rhine and his colleagues endeavor to present a complete review of the recent research in ESP and to include in their survey “everything that is of importance to know in deciding whether ESP occurs. and what it is like if it does occur.” Using three experiments that they believed demonstrated ESP, namely the Pearce-Pratt experiment, the Pratt-Woodruff experiment, and the Ownbey-Zirkle series, the book’s first two parts deal with the question of whether ESP does occur. The formulation of the problem is presented, the mathematical and experimental methods used in attempting its solution, a survey of results obtained, and a consideration of the adequacy of some 35 hypotheses proposed as explanations alternative to ESP. Part II presents a survey of published criticisms and critical comments invited for this volume, whilst Part III considers the nature of ESP; the incidence of ESP ability; conditions that affect ESP performance; physical relations of ESP; ESP as a psychological process. The final part sketches “the outstanding problems that still remain unsolved, the methods under contemplation by which they may possibly be solved, and the further needs and prospects which confront investigators.” The present volume includes 21 appendices, a detailed glossary, as well as a list of 361 references.

Laboratory tests of extrasensory perception have been going on for over 50 years, attracting international interest within the scientific community. Some scientists believe that these studies are well-conducted, and that positive results obtained support the existence of ESP. In contrast, critics have argued that there are serious methodological errors in such experiemnts and that their results should be ignored.