{"id":117,"date":"2009-02-23T15:49:42","date_gmt":"2009-02-23T19:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stacyhorn.com\/unbelievable\/?p=117"},"modified":"2009-04-01T09:16:34","modified_gmt":"2009-04-01T13:16:34","slug":"life-at-the-parapsychology-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/?p=117","title":{"rendered":"Life at the Parapsychology Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"

The presence of the women in the Lab changed everything.\u00a0 The affection that had always been there, but largely repressed, blossomed.\u00a0 Gaither Pratt and Charlie Stuart, for instance, had always addressed their letters very formally to \u201cDr. Rhine.\u201d\u00a0 Betty Humphrey, however, addressed hers with appellations like, \u201cDear Puny, I mean Bully,\u201d or \u201cYou Poor Little Folks.\u201d\u00a0 The 1940’s was when the small group at the Lab truly became a family.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The was from chapter four in Unbelievable. \u00a0After I wrote my book I couldn’t wait to talk to Robert Jahn and Brenda Dunne at the PEAR laboratory at Princeton, where they came up with different experiments to look at the same effects. \u00a0I wanted to see how much their experiences matched the Rhine’s (very). \u00a0The thing I picked up on immediately was their description of life in the lab in\u00a0The PEAR Proposition<\/a>. \u00a0One section reads:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point let us again interrupt the technical reportage to weave in a few of\u00a0the softer interpersonal fibers of the composite PEAR tapestry that in our opinion\u00a0have not merely embellished, but significantly strengthened it, and very possibly\u00a0have enabled our continuing progress in constructing this intellectual web. We\u00a0refer here to the cheery, relaxed, even playful ambience that has characterized\u00a0the laboratory operations from its beginning. Under the intuitive conviction that\u00a0the anomalous phenomena being sought are somehow nurtured in the childlike,\u00a0limbic psyche and therefore could well be suppressed or even suffocated by\u00a0an excessively clinical or sterile research environment, the facility has been\u00a0decorated with homestyle furniture, symbolic and entertaining visual art,\u00a0including many cartoons, and an exponentially expanding assortment of stuffed\u00a0animals, most of which have been gifts from our operators and visitors. Most of\u00a0the experimental devices themselves embody attractive, stimulating, sometimes\u00a0whimsical features, not only in their feedback characteristics, but in the\u00a0operational apparatus, as well. Casual reading material, background music, and\u00a0light snacks are available for the operators, who are frequently invited to\u00a0participate in the ongoing technical, philosophical, and social conversations\u00a0among the staff. In short, the laboratory presents itself more as a scientific salon\u00a0than as a clinical facility, and many of its operators, interns, and visitors have\u00a0remarked on the comfort, sense of welcome, and resonance they feel with the\u00a0place and the work that is being pursued therein.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The picture above is a group shot of the\u00a0Parapsychology Lab\u00a0staff at one of their many weekend softball games. \u00a0It wasn’t dated, but because one of the men is in uniform I’m guessing it was taken sometime in the 40’s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The presence of the women in the Lab changed everything.\u00a0 The affection that had always been there, but largely repressed, blossomed.\u00a0 Gaither Pratt and Charlie … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piV6u-1T","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}