{"id":2810,"date":"2014-06-15T14:53:14","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T18:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/?p=2810"},"modified":"2014-06-15T14:55:36","modified_gmt":"2014-06-15T18:55:36","slug":"missed-opportunity-alexander-imich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/?p=2810","title":{"rendered":"Missed Opportunity: Alexander Imich"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was immediately filled with regret when I read in the Times about the passing of Alexander Imich:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Alexander Imich, a Polish-born psychic researcher who was certified the oldest man on earth, died Sunday morning at a senior residence in Manhattan. He had turned 111 on Feb. 4.&#8221;  (He&#8217;d actually died the previous Wednesday, June 4th. To read the rest of the article <a href=\"http:\/\/nyti.ms\/1kSQrQ6\">click here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>I remember coming across Alexander Imich&#8217;s name while I was down at Duke University researching my book about the Parapsychology Laboratory.  He&#8217;d corresponded occasionally with J. B. Rhine, the head of the lab.  Since then, over the years several people have encouraged me to interview him.  The first time this was suggested I said, &#8220;He can&#8217;t possibly still be alive!&#8221;  But he was. He was amazingly still alive, sharp, and in living NYC.  I could have so easily hopped onto the subway and talked to the man.  And I just didn&#8217;t.  I&#8217;m a jerk.<\/p>\n<p>Rest in peace, Alexander Imich.<\/p>\n<p>The picture below is actually of J. B. Rhine and Robert Van de Castle who died on January 29th.  While looking for a picture to include in this post I found this one, which I had scanned on one of my trips to the Rhine Research Center (formerly the Parapsychology Laboratory of Duke University). It&#8217;s not dated, but I&#8217;m guessing it was taken some time in the 1950s.  Both men are smiling, but the relationship did not end on such a happy note, alas.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/VDCastle.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/VDCastle.jpg\" alt=\"VDCastle\" width=\"527\" height=\"447\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2811\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/VDCastle.jpg 527w, https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/VDCastle-300x254.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 527px) 100vw, 527px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was immediately filled with regret when I read in the Times about the passing of Alexander Imich: &#8220;Alexander Imich, a Polish-born psychic researcher who &hellip; <\/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":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piV6u-Jk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810"}],"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=2810"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2818,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810\/revisions\/2818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echonyc.com\/~horn\/unbelievable\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}