By Sean Leviashvili, News staff
Author Stacy Horn’s work almost exclusively revolves around death. Her latest book is no exception. ‘Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory,’ which was released Tuesday, elaborates on the research conducted by Joseph Banks ‘J.B.’ Rhine and his colleagues at the Duke Parapsychology Lab. That lab now operates separately as The Rhine Research Center, in North Carolina.
J.B. Rhine and his wife were professors at West Virginia University before they both transferred to Harvard to further pursue post-doctoral research on parapsychology.
‘Harvard was the place to be for any type of research then,’ Horn said.
In 1930, Rhine founded the Duke Parapsychology Lab, sponsored by Duke Professor William McDougall. At the lab, researchers, which included graduate students, conducted experiments using dice and cards, to test hypotheses on ESP, telepathy and kinesis, Horn said.
‘I’ve always been fascinated with death, and frankly, I don’t understand why more people aren’t,’ she said. ‘It’s something we’re all going to face one day, and I don’t mean that in a morbid way.’
Last night, Horn visited the Brookline Booksmith to read from ‘Unbelievable’ and field audience questions about her work in the paranormal. Beforehand, she fielded questions from The News, too.
Huntington News:’ Tell me about your newest book.
Stacy Horn:’ Originally, I had pitched this as a ghost story, then an editor told me about the Duke Parapsychology lab and I loved the idea of writing about this. I thought this would be fun, like literally finding Ghostbusters.
I thought it would be a break from the more serious stuff I’ve written. Then, the very first day I started researching, all those dreams were shattered. Ghostbusters went right out the window.
HN:’ What are poltergeists?
SH:’ Different people have different opinions on what they are. They’re considered noisy, active spirits that can make objects fly around a room and fall over.
The Duke Parapsychology Lab had a theory that when this occurred, someone in the area had psychokinetic abilities.
HN:’ What kind of research took place at the Duke Parapsychology Lab?
SH:’ The Duke Parapsychology Lab was brought into being to try and prove if there is life after death. They conducted double-blind experiments that tested telepathy, psychokinesis, clairvoyance and precognition.
Over and over again, their experiments produced evidence that people had these abilities, but they had no way to explain how it operated. This was an obstacle in gaining acceptance from the mainstream scientific community.
Through my research, I found no reason to dismiss their findings. I end my book by saying there seems to be another source of mental information that exists. Sometimes people know things that they have no way of knowing.
HN:’ What are some of these unnatural means of obtaining information?
SH:’ At the Duke Parapsychology Lab, they discovered many mediums in which people received information that they had no way of obtaining [under normal means].
Psychics can read people and pull information out of you and with telepathy, many people think they’re receiving information from dead people, but they could be receiving it from someone in the same room.
They key thing is to find out if there is something that can operate out of our mind.
HN:’ Do you continue to research these subjects?
SH:’ It’s a mystery, and I’m still very curious. If I’m in a position to speak to a scientist in another area about this, I do.
I have spoken to physicists who have told me that telepathy and psychokinesis don’t violate the laws of physics, and may be possible someday.
