The Cavalier daily :: Wednesday, November 1, 1972 :: University of Virginia Library

Following the suggestion of
the above advertisement which
appeared in last Tuesday's
Cavalier Daily, I recently
visited the U.Va. Division of
Parapsychology with the intent
to donate my mind to science,
as I interpreted the ad's strange
request.

However, I imagine the
source of any initial
apprehension on my part
stemmed from my visions of a
dingy, basement laboratory
staffed with little, old men in
long white coats hypnotizing
their subjects with pocket
watches, while convincing
them to perform all sorts of
abnormal stunts.

I was not only proven wrong,
but I also gained insight into
and a genuine respect for the
research of the parapsychologist.

I introduced myself to Dr.
Rex G. Stanford, whose
patience with my
misconceptions and enthusiasm
to provide the basic facts for a
better understanding have
prompted me to tell others
what I have learned.

Asked about the general
response which the department
has received to this ad, Dr.
Stanford replied, "it's one of
the best we've ever had,
although we haven't as of yet as
many volunteers as we would
like. But even if we should get
more than we need,"
continued Dr. Stanford, "there
are going to be other
experiments."

"The interesting thing about
it is that the ad is completely
on the level. We find that ESP
is a general human ability, and
so it's interesting to people to
see what they can do in a
specific ESP test."

Dr. Stanford was also quick
to point out that this is not a
department, but rather the
Division of Parapsychology
within the Department of
Psychiatry in the Medical
School. They do not teach
courses but are engaged strictly
in research.

"Parapsychology," explained
Dr. Stanford, "is a branch of
science which attempts to
investigate and to scientifically
understand some little
understood phenomena that
seem to occur with regard to
organisms, that is human
beings, animals and possibly
even plants."

He assured me that this
definition was very
non-specific, and that
parapsychology was actually
the study of a number of
things, among them: ESP,
psychokinesis and
reincarnation.

Dr. Stanford informed me
that ESP is normally studied as
telepathy, clairvoyance or
pre-cognition. He further
explained that they do not
know whether these are one in
the same or whether they are
different things.

ESP or extrasensory
perception is the gaining of
knowledge without the aid of
any known senses. If you do
this in a way that has to deal
with future events it is called
pre-cognition.

When a person has
knowledge of something going
in another person's mind, it is
referred to as telepathy or
thought transference. And
when a person possesses
extrasensory knowledge of
objects or objective events,
physical events or physical
objects, it is called
clairvoyance.

Telepathy

"For example," said Dr.
Stanford, "if we do an
experiment where somebody
had something going on in his
mind and there is no other
record of it, if someone seems
to pick it up, presumably by
ESP, we call this particular
form of ESP, telepathy. We
don't know what the mind is
or whether there even is a mind
that exists dependent of the
brain. We don't get into
problems like that."

"Most parapsychologists,"
continued Dr. Stanford,
"would say that we have
scientifically established the
occurrence of ESP. The big test
how is to understand it
scientifically. How is it possible
that information can be

CD/Rick Eckhard

Dream Lab:

Doctors Rex C. Stanford And R. L. Van de Castle Study A Genuine Human Ability

obtained between two people
without any sensory contact or
between a physical object and
a person without any known
types of contact?"

Psychokinesis or PK was the
second area of study which Dr.
Stanford discussed. "Some
people call it mind over
matter," he said. "We don't
like to put it that way. But if
movement for changes in a
physical system can occur
without any known sensory
contact, but in accord with the
will, wishes and desires of a
living organism, then we call
this psychokinesis."

Dr. Stanford went on to
describe one such case he
personally observed of a person
in this country who has been
studied because he can make
things move on table tops.

"I can't say that it's
absolutely proven," he
concluded, "but we do think
we have pretty good evidence
of the occurrence of PK."

Traditionally,
parapsychology has also looked
into cases of reincarnation or
as Dr. Stanford expressed,
"the question as to whether
some aspect of or the total
human personality survives
after the death of the body."

This is an area, he
contended, that very few
parapsychologists are still
concerned with today.
However this is a problem with
which Dr. Ian Stevenson of this
division is presently researching
in London and an area in
which he has published
numerous articles.

"Some people," observed Dr.
Stanford approach these
so-called psychic phenomena
from a religious or an occultic
standpoint. However no one in
this field, in short, thinks these
things to be supernatural; but
rather, in that they are a part
of nature they are very
mysterious, and we have a long
way to go to understanding
them."

"When we recognize the fact
as we pretty well have," he
continued, "that there is good
evidence the psi (a short word
to designate psychic
phenomena) is a general human
ability,– that doesn't mean
you can turn it on and off like
a faucet – we have to ask
ourselves, what is it used for,
what is its place in life
experience. We want to know
things like, does ESP happen
once or twice in a lifetime, or
is it something that is relatively
pervasive in life experience but
perhaps unconscious in nature.

Dr. Stanford indicated that
most of his time involves
research with volunteers. This
research must of course be
written up. "All in all," he
says, "this is a pretty time
consuming task."

One of the things Dr.
Stanford is presently working
on is the question of altered
states in ESP performance. One
of the experiments he will be
doing, as mentioned in the ad,
has to do with inducing a
changed or altered state of
consciousness in individuals to
see if they can perform better
with ESP. "We have found, for
instance," said Dr. Stanford,
"that hypnosis facilitates
ESP.

"I am going to be doing an
experiment," he continued,
"which doesn't involve hypnosis
but does involve inducing a
very profound state of mental
and physical relaxation in
individuals which we think
may influence ESP
performance positively. We
have evidence that it will."

Another area of research in
which Dr. Stanford has been
working is what he calls
"response bias in ESP." In one
specific ESP test in which the
person guessing cards has more
right than just the number
permitted by chance, Dr.
Stanford asks; "are these extra
hits due to ESP, and
specifically which hits are the
extra hits due to ESP?"

"Traditionally," says Dr.
Stanford, "we have had no way
of telling that. Suffice it to say
that we now believe we have a
way of pinpointing at least
some of the trials in ESP tests
which are due to ESP on the
basis of the response alone. We
think we can pinpoint which
responses are fairly likely to be
due to ESP and which are caused
just by chance factors."

Volunteers

Most of the experiments
which will involve volunteers as
requested in the ad will last
from one to two hours. They
have not yet begun as
volunteers are still being lined
up. Dr. Stanford stated that
they may have other
experiments coming up–such
as ESP dream work–which
may require staying over night.

When people come to the
parapsychology lab they will
initially be told of the
particular experiment and then
asked if they would like to
partake in it. Said Dr.
Stanford, "we try to get people
in experiments that interest
them. Basically what you get
out of these experiments is
that you learn something about
your own ESP and how it will
perform in a particular ESP
type situation."

"It's an exciting field," said
Dr. Stanford in summary. "The
phenomena are definitely
there and are very mysterious.
But it's a challenge to try to
understand it. When we come
to this understanding then
we're going to have some very
important new insights into
comprehending how things
happen in the world."