Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory [Hardcover]

Stacy Horn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2009

From The Sixth Sense to Medium, Ghost Whisperer to Ghost Hunters, the paranormal stirs heated debate, spawning millions of believers and skeptics alike. Nearly half of us say we believe in ghosts, and two-thirds of us believe in life after death.

What would you make of rain barrels that refill themselves? Psychic horses? Mind-reading Cold War spies? For a group of scientists at the Duke Parapsychology Lab under the leadership of Dr. J. B. Rhine—considered the Einstein of the paranormal—such mysteries demanded further investigation. From 1930 to 1980, these dedicated men and women attempted to test the bizarre, the frightening, and the unexplainable against the rigors of science, ultimately finding proof that the human mind possesses telepathic powers.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This is a fond look at J. B. Rhine and his colleagues and protégés in the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory, which, no longer affiliated with Duke University, lives on as the Rhine Research Center Institute for Parapsychology. Rhine and the lab were dedicated to scientific study and quantification of ESP and related phenomena. They got results such that, in the 1930s, the head of Duke’s psychology department declared Rhine’s work to be “the first hard evidence that the elusive proof of life after death might be out there.” Rhine’s results weren’t universally accepted, though, and the academic warfare over the lab and Rhine constitutes a major plotline here. Writing crisply and fairly objectively, Horn sympathizes enough with Rhine and his work to give her account a perhaps unjustified sunniness. But then, as many incidents she reports indicate, hardly anyone approaches the paranormal without bias. A dandy sources list and frequent references to Rhine’s colleagues and rivals point the way to more information. --Mike Tribby

Review

“Some of the explanations here, backed by scientific fact, will send shivers up readers’ spines.” (Bust Magazine )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Ecco (March 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061116858
• ISBN-13: 978-0061116858
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #312,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm currently working on a book about singing for Algonquin Books. "I believe in singing. I believe in singing together." - Brian Eno. My book is about the history and science of singing together, and about about the world of choral singing.

My most recent book is about the former Duke Parapsychology Laboratory and it's called Unbelievable. Scientists have always disdained parapsychology, but there was a time, from the 30s to the 60s, when the scientific community thought, well, okay, ectoplasm, seances and table rappings aside, maybe there is something going on. Duke opened a lab to study the various phenomena, and for a few decades, a group of serious scientists and graduate students tried to find if there was anything there. My book is about the result of their experiments and investigations.

I grew up on Long Island, got a B.F.A. from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and a graduate degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, April 16, 2009

By 

D. Dodd (coastal GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book. I've read quite a few books on the paranormal, and this is one of the best. Ms. Horn manages to present a smart and fair overview of decades worth of research in an entertaining and readable way. She reports - but leaves it to the reader to draw their own conclusion about Rhine's work. She's also included a number of stories from the Duke case files from people who reported some pretty weird experiences (a number of which appear to have a reasonable amount of corroboration). While I consider myself to be an open-minded skeptic regarding claims of ghosts, I have to confess that at a couple of points in the book the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Bottom line, whether you are interested in the science or just looking for fun and creepy, this book has it covered. Highly recommended!

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Believe it..., March 11, 2009

By 

Teresa Carpenter "cafe reader" (New York,NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory (Hardcover)

I don't believe in ghosts, but I wouldn't want to offend one. If you suffer from a similar ambivalence, you should check out Unbelievable by Stacy Horn. An indefatigable reporter, Horn, takes a hard-nosed look at the research done over five decades by scientists at Duke University into the paranormal. The team, headed by Dr. J. B. Rhine, seemed to conclude that telepathy, at least, is quantifiable, leaving it it open to strafing from colleagues in more conservative disciplines. Along the way, Horn produces a trove of fascinating anecdotes, the jewel in the crown being the case of Eliza Jumel, prostitute turned heiress, who was accused, unjustly Horn feels, of having killed her wealthy French husband in order to marry Aaron Burr. Her unquiet soul purportedly haunts their former New York domicile, the Morris-Jumel mansion. Well, I won't give away the story and spoil a jucy read. Beyond entertaining, Unbelievable, poses thoughtful questions about the soul and the form it might take in an afterlife, one of the most trenchant observations on the subject being rasied the British Anthropologist Ashley Montague. In an editorial published by Time Magazine he castigated the hubris of humans clinging to the idea of reincarnation."Not knowing what to do with themselves on a rainy afternoon...[they] nevertheless, want to live forever." (Good point. I for one, will settle for oblivion.) If you enjoy Unbelievable, you should also check out Horn's Restless Sleep: Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad and her darkly hilarious memoir, Waiting for My Cats to Die.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Captivating History, November 3, 2010

By 

G. Poirier (Orleans, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory (Hardcover)

I stumbled upon this book in the science section of my favourite bookstore. When I saw the words "ghosts", "poltergeists" and "telepathy" in its subtitle, I thought that it had simply been misplaced from another section. But upon browsing it, it became clear to me that this was really a history of serious scientific research into the paranormal. So, out of curiosity, I bought it and read it - and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book's main focus is the professional life of Dr. J.B. Rhine, a botanist by training, who, along with his associates, performed decades of serious scientific research into the psychical abilities of humans. In particular, he and his team concentrated on ESP/telepathy, but they also delved into psychokinesis and, to a much lesser extent, various ghostly phenomena (although these are also extensively discussed). The book follows Dr. Rhine from the mid 1920s to his death in 1980, and concentrates on his work before, especially during, and after the creation (and his directorship) of the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory (which existed from 1935 to 1962).

Thanks especially to the author's clear, friendly and engaging prose, but also due to the interesting social climate of the period covered and the subject matter itself, I found this book to be absolutely fascinating and very difficult to put down. This book should be of great interest to anyone fascinated by the history of serious, scientific research into the paranormal. Since the author does not "take sides" in this controversial subject but reports the events in a seemingly very objective manner, the book should prove to be quite enjoyable to both "sceptics" and "believers" alike.