Rhine Center researches the paranormal

Joyce Daniel sees ghosts.

Daniel, who recalls multiple experiences with the paranormal, is a volunteer at the Rhine Research Center Institute for Parapsychology, an independent organization located just off the edge of West Campus.

Formerly known as the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University, the center attempts to foster a better understanding of the paranormal through scientific research. Topics under investigation include telepathy, precognition, psychokinesis and clairvoyance.

Daniel saw her mother, who had recently passed away from a stroke, while in the kitchen. "I saw her like a picture on the refrigerator. She just sat there and smiled," Daniel said. "She comes back occasionally now. I smell her perfume."

Like Daniel, those who work at the center hope that their studies will help provide credibility for a field often treated with skepticism and disbelief.

Although parapsychological research is no longer conducted by the University, Duke was a pioneer in the field for several years thanks to the existence of the center.

The center was established on campus in 1935, a few years after founder J.B. Rhine came to Duke to consult with William McDougall, a famous British psychologist.

"The science part, which wants to see if there's anything to this, started at Duke when my father came down here," said Sally Rhine Feather, Rhine's daughter and current director of development for the center. "I grew up in the field."

"People write to me every day with remarkable stories," Rhine Feather said.

In a 2001 Gallup poll, 65 million Americans reported that they had personally experienced extra sensory perception. ESP is currently being studied at the Rhine Center.

"We've just completed a study of the ganzfeld research," Rhine Feather said. "It's a telepathy study where one person is sending messages to a person in another room."

In the experiment, two subjects are placed in separate, red-lit rooms, where they sit in chairs while wearing earphones, Rhine Feather said. They have ping pong balls placed over their eyes.

"It's as much like being asleep and being in the dream state as we can get in a laboratory, and that's where we think it's the most conducive for ESP to operate," Rhine Feather said.

The study found that participants who are emotionally or biologically close to one another perform significantly better on the tests than strangers.

The ganzfeld study does not prove the existence of ESP, but researchers hope that it will help them validate psi experiences and expand their knowledge of the process.

For Daniel, the comfort provided through ESP has helped her through several trying times. While one of her sons was serving in the Navy, he spent a year on a submarine, causing Daniel distress.

"One evening when I was meditating, I suddenly found myself in a black, black place and I knew I was under the ocean," Daniel said. "I went through the water and I saw this long oval shape. I knew that was his submarine. I went through the wall and floated by the ceiling until I found him."

Daniel added that her son recalled seeing her at the same time.

For the center, disassociating from the University has proved both beneficial and burdensome to its ability to conduct studies.

A decline in funding has put a damper on research, Rhine Feather said. Current efforts have focused more on outreach through lectures and seminars held at the center. "I'd like to see us coming back into the mainstream," Rhine Feather said.

That time may be distant-but for now, believers such as Daniel will continue to support the field.

"They're afraid of it," Daniel said of skeptics. "It's really scary when you think about it. We depend on knowing that what we know and see and hear and feel is real-and you get into the paranormal, and you find out that it's not real. There's so much other stuff there."