Writing Examples

Blind Sight: A Look at Extrasensory Perception

This example was written as the final paper for my Advanced Placement English course in high school. I used numerous resources as I attempted to understand the theories behind extrasensory perception and other paranormal phenomena and even conducted a test of my own using multicolored cards to determine how many of my fellow students exhibited psychic tendencies. This is an early research paper, but an interesting read for any who are fascinated by events not readily explained by science.

Blind Sight: A Look at Extrasensory Perception

Outline

1. Forms of esp
   1. Telepathy
      1. Joicey Hurth
      2. Upton and Mary Craig Sinclair
   2. Clairvoyance
   1. Croesus of Lydia
   2. Joan of Arc
   3. Precognition
   1. Samuel Clemens
   2. Abraham Lincoln
   3. Julia Grant
   4. Winston Churchill
   5. Malcolm Bessent
2. Theories of esp
   1. Electromagnetism
   2. Multidimensional geometry
   3. Quantum mechanics
3. Testing esp
   1. Joseph Banks Rhine
   2. Zener cards
   3. Faraday cage
   4. Twin experiment
   5. Rabbit experiment
   6. Kirlian photography

Blind Sight: A Look at Extrasensory Perception

Since Biblical times, stories have told of extraordinary people gifted with mental powers that seem to surpass any of those quantified by our science today. Native Americans communed with ancestor spirits, crusaders witnessed startling visions and voices, and oracles prophesied events to unfold in the future. These examples of a "sixth sense," a "third eye," or a "second sight," all transcend the five familiar senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell and have aroused both superstition and skepticism for centuries. In a recent movement, researchers have attempted to codify and study these paranormal experiences, deemed "extrasensory perception" (ESP) by Joseph Banks Rhine, in a scientific manner. Because past tests used to research ESP have proven themselves scandalous and due to the fact that the results of procedural tests are generally irreproducible, parapsychology has attracted much heat from many critics. Though a recent poll shows that 50% of the American public believes in some form of ESP (Myers, 1998), 96% of the scientists at the National Academy of Sciences remain skeptical (Myers, 1998) when confronted with the possible existence of such a fanciful and mystical idea. How can modern scientists begin to put faith in an elusive force that is not only directly immeasurable, but which also does not obey the basic law of physics that states that all forces decline as the distance between the objects of influence increases? To answer these questions, parapsychologists have categorized ESP into three distinct branches; telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition, and have modified many early theories over time as they continue to search for a valid test that will solve the riddle of ESP and indicate its true predominance in our society today.

Telepathy is the most familiar form of extrasensory perception. Scientists describe telepathy as direct mind-to-mind communication between two people, one who sends information and one who receives the data. This form of ESP allegedly occurs most often between people who have significant emotional ties to one another, such as identical twins. Telepathy can also supposedly manifest itself in a mother-daughter link, such as in the case of five-year-old Joicey Hurth of Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Young Joicey returned home from a birthday party one day in 1955 to find that her father and brothers had gone to see a movie, and since the theater was only a block and a half away, she ran to catch up with her family. In her haste, Joicey ran into the path of a moving car just outside the theater, and the vehicle struck the young girl and flung her to the pavement, frightened, but not badly injured. Joicey's mother, involved in her daily routine of washing dishes at home, felt suddenly that trouble had befallen her daughter and telephoned the theater just moments after the event had occurred, much to the surprise of the baffled employee. Another famous example of telepathy has occurred between renowned muckraking novelist Upton Sinclair and his wife, Mary Craig Sinclair, who preferred to use the name Craig. The experiences he shared with his wife led him to write "I say it with all the emphasis I can give to words. There is another and supernormal way of getting knowledge" (Time-Life Books, p. 20). Indeed, Craig's telepathic ability consisted of receiving and reproducing any random picture that came to her husband in another room of the house several doors away. In three years, Craig had 290 drawings of projected images to share, 65 of which were surprisingly accurate to her husband's original sketches and 155 of which contained some elements familiar to the original. Taking mathematical probability into account, one can truly consider the success rate of the Sinclairs' trials extraordinary. Such documented evidence of the existence of telepathy is hard to ignore, though a lack of controlled scientific procedure makes the results easy to refute.

In addition to telepathy, the ability to perceive events or objects from remote locations is termed clairvoyance, or "second sight." Clairvoyants may perceive prolonged and profound visions of happenings at great distance, such as the burning of a house or a murder taking place, but more frequently this form of ESP is characterized by brief mental flashes of knowledge. World history literally bursts with examples of clairvoyance dating back even as far as ancient Greece. King Croesus of Lydia visited the Delphic oracle after she correctly perceived him boiling lamb and tortoise stew in a brass cauldron at a particular time to divine the outcome of a war he wished to wage on a neighboring territory. Nearly 2000 years later, in a form of clairvoyance known as clairaudience, Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl of Orleans, claimed to hear the voices of Saints Michael, Margaret, and Catherine. These voices bore messages and commands from the Christian God, directing her to lead a campaign against the English soldiers occupying French territory and to seat the Dauphin on the throne. The voices even directed her to a rusted sword that, when cleaned, bore five crosses on the blade as the saints had claimed. In time, the English were forced from France and the Dauphin was crowned just as Joan foretold. Furthermore, the peasant girl foretold her own subsequent imprisonment and martyrdom at the hands of the English. These predictions defy our science and our understanding. Many question the validity of the sources and fear that details have been embellished over time, but such vivid portrayals of ESP are tantalizing clues to its existence.

The third category of extrasensory perception is known as precognition. In this form of ESP, a person can sense an event before it actually occurs, either in a dream or in a conscious state. Samuel Clemens, better known under his pen name of Mark Twain, experienced a precognitive dream in which he saw his younger brother Henry laid out in a metal coffin set on two chairs, a bouquet of white flowers with a single red flower in its center resting on the corpse's chest. Soon after this startling revelation, Samuel's brother was scalded badly when four of the boilers of the ship he worked on exploded. Samuel stayed with Henry until he died and was horrified when his brother's funeral appeared exactly as it had in his dream. Abraham Lincoln also foretold his own assassination in a dream similar to that of Samuel Clemens's where he saw his own shrouded body and mourners weeping his loss. Furthermore, upon viewing a double image of himself in a mirror after his election in 1860, Lincoln foretold that he would enjoy election to a second presidential term in office but would perish before its end. Likewise, Julia Grant, the wife of General Ulysses S. Grant also reported precognitive experiences. Mrs. Grant awoke on the 14th of April, 1865 with an eerie sense that she and her husband and child needed to leave Washington and return home to Burlington, New Jersey immediately. Her husband promised to leave as soon as he took care of his prior commitments, but Mrs. Grant's urgent pestering increased as the day wore on. The general finally relented and agreed to catch the evening train to Burlington instead of attending a play with President Lincoln, and in relief, Mrs. Grant stated to a friend "I am glad I am going away tonight. Do you know, I believe there will be an outbreak tonight or soon. I just feel it" (Time-Life Books, p. 20). Indeed, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln that evening and had intended the general as a victim as well. Finally, Winston Churchill also operated on premonitions, especially during wartime. In one case, during the nightly Nazi bombing raids, the leader unexpectedly moved the guests of a party he was hosting from the dining room to the bomb shelter. Moments later, a shell obliterated the back of Churchill's house but missed both the staff and the diners. In another case, Churchill shifted his weight to a different seat in his car from usual and kept the vehicle from rolling when a bomb exploded nearby and rocked the car up onto two wheels. More recently, in 1969, renowned psychic Malcolm Bessent of London prophesied the Watergate scandal of 1972 and 1973 with his telling words "Starting with 1972-73, it will be a crucial year for the U.S.A. Water everywhere, resulting in social upheaval, anarchy, and political confusion. The people will be looking for a new leader, but none forthcoming" (Time-Life Books, p. 16). Clearly the effects of precognition have proven this ability very prominent in our culture though once again our science can only refute these startling claims.

The elusive nature of extrasensory perception truly baffles scientists. Parapsychologists who have devoted themselves to the pursuit of this area must prove that such powers exist before they can even begin to analyze ESP, a seemingly insurmountable task for the present. Critics draw attention to the fact that this field lacks a sound theorem to explain the faster-than-light speeds indicated by precognition or the messages undiminished by extraordinary distances received through telepathy. Some feel that psi is so unlikely from a scientific standpoint that all other explanations for these phenomena, including fraud, must be taken into consideration first. In response to the valid questions posed by such skeptics, parapsychologists have attempted to find a common link between contemporary physics and ESP and to prove that psychic powers do not in fact transcend science, but rather exist on a level different from that which is understood. Researchers speculate that the universal models of electromagnetism, multidimensional geometry, and quantum mechanics may serve as metaphors to the behavior of ESP.

One of the earliest theories of ESP was born from the nineteenth-century discovery of electromagnetic waves. Based on the fact that humans can only sense a very small portion of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, including visible light and infrared heat, early researchers predicted that psychic communication occurred invisibly in the form of such waves and that, like radio waves, only people who can tune in their innate "psychic receivers" have access to ESP. These scientists speculated that "psi waves" are low-frequency electromagnetic waves similar to radio waves and television broadcasts to account for the extreme distances encompassed by clairvoyance and telepathy. To this day, however, scientists have failed to produce evidence of "psi waves," and this model does not recognize the undiminished strength and faster-than-light velocities of telepathy and precognition. In effect, most parapsychologists today discount the electromagnetic model as unsophisticated and pursue more modern theorems.

Another speculative model to the nature of ESP is the dimensional model. According to this hypothesis, humans perceive four known dimensions. A basic line forms the single dimension of height, and if this line moves through space perpendicular to its orientation, one can perceive the second dimension of width. Again, if this second dimension travels through space at right angles to its position, it gains depth, the third dimension, and forms a cube. Humans also experience the effects of time, the fourth dimension, though they cannot see this particular dimension. Thus said, mathematics dictates that the existence of a three-dimensional cube over time creates a four-dimensional shape called a hypercube. With the realization of the possible existence of these theoretical shapes, a few mathematicians suggest that as many as twenty-six dimensions may compose our universe, and some psychic researchers theorize that human consciousness itself may possess one of these additional dimensions. In this case, a plane of psi could intersect the current model of time and space and the transference of information outside of natural laws might be explained. Unfortunately, scientists can only speculate on this theory, as no hard evidence exists to prove the concept of dimensions beyond those now known.

In opposition to both the electromagnetic and the dimensional models of ESP, the theories of quantum mechanics offer yet another possible explanation for psychic phenomena. A modern branch of science, quantum mechanics attempts to describe the behavior of matter at a subatomic level where the units of study act neither as waves nor as particles, but display traits characteristic to both. At this level, one cannot even say that matter truly exists but must instead express the units' "tendencies to exist" as a mathematical probability. The perplexing laws that govern the micro world of subatomic particles may perhaps hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of extrasensory perception. For example, if a positron and an oppositely charged electron collided in space, the encounter would destroy both particles and release two photons in two different directions. Oddly enough, quantum mechanics does not recognize such properties as velocity or spin in either of these photons until one of the particles is observed. The very act of measuring the photon "collapses its wave function" (Time-Life Books, p. 73) and attributes random values to the unit including a random rotation. At the exact instant in which the observed photon gains its spin, the second photon that was released from the collision between the positron and the electron acquires an opposite spin. Verified in multiple laboratory experiments, this phenomenon occurs without regard to the distance separating the pair of photons or to the fact that no physical bond connects the two particles. Some scientists believe, then, that the universe is connected in a way humans have not detected until the present, and that this connection may even include a subatomic stream of consciousness. Therefore contemporary parapsychologists feel that perhaps this quantum link gives plausibility to the instantaneous transmission of visions or knowledge to clairvoyants, telepaths, and those gifted with precognition.

Clearly, the theories explained here consist mainly of hypotheses and speculation without firm proof to serve as a strong foundation to the erection of the paranormal as a legitimate science. These hypotheses, however, are a testament to the attempts of psychic researchers to follow the rest of the world on a path of reason and rationale. Despite the field's recognition of recent scientific discovery and new technology, parapsychologists continue to battle for widespread acceptance in both the areas of science and psychology. The words of psychologist David Mark sum up the viewpoint of many critics:
Parascience has so far failed to produce a single repeatable finding and, until it does, will continue to be viewed as an incoherent collection of belief systems steeped in fantasy, illusion, and error (Time-Life Books, p. 74). This negative attitude is not surprising considering the antics and fraud that took place in earlier research, but parapsychologists have attempted to organize their experiments to test varying effects on extrasensory perception.

The main problem in studying ESP lies in the phenomenon's irregularity and tendency to shift in intensity depending on the subject's mood. Indeed, anxious or excited subjects may temporarily perform better on standard ESP tests, but those who perform the best are in a relaxed and semi-dreamy state. The first tests on ESP were poorly prepared and consisted of an interrogation method in which researchers asked the subject to describe psychic experiences. The tests generally took place in a tiny laboratory, and scientists observed very little scientific procedure, if any at all. The first controlled experiments took place in 1934 under the supervision of Joseph Banks Rhine, a young man originally from Pennsylvania. Rhine developed a deck of twenty-five cards that he used to test clairvoyance and telepathy in his subjects. These tools, known as Zener cards after the artist, each had a simple black design on a white field and each card shared its design with four other cards. In the testing of telepathy, Rhine drew a card from the top of a shuffled deck and asked the subject to predict whether he held a cross, a star, a circle, a square, or a set of wavy lines in his hand. For testing clairvoyance, Rhine laid the cards in front of his subjects in a five by five card grid and asked the subject to predict the order of the cards. The simple Zener card experiment produced some compelling results, including a noted experiment carried out under Rhine's supervision in 1939 in which a Dr. Pratt obtained results of 1,700,000 to one against chance with a man named Woodruff. These results attracted much scientific attention including heavy fire from skeptics of the statistical method used by Rhine. The criticisms included faulty analysis of the trials, which proved incorrect; inadequate experimental conditions that allowed cheating, which Rhine countered by firming up his procedure; as well as the suggestion that humans can never truly randomize a deck of cards, a problem overcome by the use of mechanical shufflers and random number tables that determined the positions of Zener cards. Subsequent tests turned up another anomaly in ESP that has applied to most subjects with psychic capabilities. The subjects generally begin testing with a low score that increases as their confidence level builds. After thousands upon thousands of predictions, however, their extrasensory perception seems to deteriorate and then vanish completely. Though this process usually takes a number of years, these results imply that even the most promising subjects are available for study for a limited time only. Rhine's perseverance and dedication to the field of psi has led many scientists to accept the paranormal as a legitimate field of study. Deemed the "father of parapsychology," Rhine has thus paved the way for more modern parapsychologists to test the elusive phenomena associated with extrasensory perception.

Even though parapsychology has progressed astoundingly in the last half-century, modern experiments may baffle parapsychologists rather than shed light on some of the mysteries of psychic activities. Until recently, scientists assumed ESP was the effect of an electrical or a magnetic force. However, as electrical energy weakens with distance, parapsychologists ruled that possibility out after instances of senders transmitting data across the Atlantic or even, in the case of astronaut Ed Mitchell, from orbit around the moon. The use of a Faraday cage in the testing of ESP has proven even more contradictory to the electromagnetic force idea. This cage, a charged wire box, theoretically prevents all radiation from reaching the subject inside, but instead of hindering ESP, the shielded cage blanketed the outside electrical "noise" and notably enhanced the subjects' performance. Other experiments have provided some evidence as to the existence of mental links. In one experiment, parapsychologists wired a pair of twins to an electroencephalograph machine that measured brain activity. When one twin relaxed, producing a particular pattern on the machine, the other twin in another room matched the electrical pattern of the first. This experiment points to the telepathic nature of emotions and mood swings. Mothers also seem to have an imperceptible link with their children and can instinctively sense the distress of their young. In certain Russian experiments, scientists separated young rabbits from their mother and took them aboard a submarine where they slaughtered the young at regular intervals. Miles away, the brain waves of the mother rabbit distinctly altered at the moment each baby died. This mother-child link certainly seems to exist, though it remains hard to demonstrate and disappears as time wears on. Perhaps, then, such telepathic bonds are more unreliable than other human faculties and are surrendered in favor of speech and physical sight when the young are capable of managing on their own.

Another modern area of interest in the pursuit of ESP lay in Kirlian photographs. In these novel photographs, developed by Soviet scientist Semyon Kirlian, an object to be photographed is placed in between two metal plates. An electric potential is applied to the plates, oscillating at a rate of up to 200,000 cycles per second. When scientists develop the film, the object's image appears surrounded by a dazzling aura and sparkling patterns. These effects are known to be associated with the corona effect, the effect that produces the Aurora Borealis and the ghastly glowing balls of light known as St. Elmo's fire, which sailors witness sometimes during thunderstorms. The Kirlian effect, however, has unique implications. The colors of the auras that this technique produces of a human finger vary according to the emotional state of the subject. Drugs, alcohol, and psychiatric disorders have all produced distinct variations in the produced effect. A photograph of Ethel de Loach, a healer, showed patterns of blue light that transformed into a brilliant orange glow when she used her healing ability. Researchers puzzle over the implications of the even stranger results of tests of inanimate objects. Researchers carried out very early Kirlian experiments on plants that had undetectable early-stage viruses. The leaves of these plants manifested discolorations when photographed. Furthermore, Kirlian found that if scientists cut part of a plant leaf away and then photograph it, a ghost aura of the missing portion sometimes appears in the picture. Some feel that Kirlian photographs reveal the electrical fields around the living body that some occultists claim to sense. Critics state that variables such as finger pressure, skin temperature, and perspiration all can affect the colors of the auras produced using the Kirlian method, though parapsychologists feel this technique offers an incomparable chance for research into the paranormal, as it records psi in a method that cannot fall prey to deliberate cheating.

Clearly, the accounts of witnesses over time indicate that three branches of extrasensory perception, telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition; have a place in our society today. Parapsychologists continue to make stunning breakthroughs as to the nature of ESP as they attempt to unravel the many mysteries of the paranormal. The public acceptance of psychic phenomena is at an all-time high, as demonstrated by the movies and series concerning the unexplainable that have swamped television sets and movie theaters alike in the past few years, as well as the booming Dial-a-Psychic hotline industries, which rake in $100 million annually. Americans tend to freely accept the possibility of such phenomena, and in fact, over 50% of the American population (Myers, 1998) believes in ESP and 67% of all adult Americans (Hefner, 2001) believe they have had at least one psychic experience, an increase of 9% in the past eleven years. Research does indicate that all humans are born with the capability of extrasensory perception, though some people may possess more ability or may be able to focus their power more than others. In a study of clairvoyance involving a variation on Rhine's Zener card experiment, Schaeffer (March, 2001) found that at least 44% of the small town Michigan residents she tested demonstrated greater than chance results in predicting card order. ESP will never truly be accepted until physical proof of its existence can be provided, but stunning coincidences over countless years seem in themselves to prove the existence of at least minute psychic powers in our universe. As Professor Hans Eysenck, a Professor of Psychology at London University commented:
Unless there is a gigantic conspiracy involving some 30 University departments all over the world, and several hundred highly respected scientists in various fields, many originally hostile to the claims of the psychical researchers, the only conclusion the unbiased observer can come to must be that there does exist a small number of people who obtain knowledge existing either in other people's minds, or in the outer world, by means as yet unknown to science (Ward, 1980, p.14).

 

Reference List

Clark, C. et al. (1996, March 29). Pursuing the paranormal. CQ Researcher, pp. 277- 280.

Cohen, D. (1986). ESP: the new technology. New York: Julian Messner.

Edgar Cayce Foundation. (2000). About edgar cayce- edgar cayce on... e.s.p. Microsoft Internet Explorer. Retrieved February 4, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.edgarcayce.org/about_ec/cayce_on/targetindex.html

Hefner, A.G. (January 31, 2001). ESP [26 paragraphs]. ESP (extrasensory perception) [On-line]. Retrieved February 4, 2001 from: http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/e/esp_extrasensory_perception.html

Klein, A.E. (1973). Beyond time and matter: a sensory look at esp. Garden City: Doubleday & Company Inc.

Myers, D.G. (1998). Is there perception without sensation? [24 paragraphs]. ESP [On- Line]. Retrieved February 4, 2001 from: http://www.davidmyers.org/social/esp5e/esp1.html

Rhine, J.B. (1964). Extra-sensory perception. Boston: Bruce Humphries.

Rhine, L.E. (1970). Mind over matter: psychokinesis. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

Schaeffer, K. (March, 2001). Personal experiment: clairvoyance in Mason.

Time-Life Books. (1987). Mysteries of the unknown: psychic powers. Alexandria: Author.

Ward, B. (1980). ESP the sixth sense. Milwaukee: Ideals Publishing Corporation.

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