Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The PSI of Solving Crimes


Last Friday, one of the world's most well known psychic detectives was a guest speaker at the Stedman Auditorium. Noreen Renier started out years ago as a single mother working in public relations and advertising, with no interest in the paranormal. She was totally unaware that she might have any special abilities. And then, quite unexpectedly, one night while visiting friends, she claims that she "connected" with one of their deceased grandmothers!

This was the remarkable beginning to her unconventional career as a psychic! And although there are not an abundance of real world applications for work in this area (not yet,anyway!) Noreen began working with law inforcement helping them to solve crimes. By her report, she has now been involved in more than four hundred cases in the United States and six foreign countries. She has been featured in numerous television programs, and has authored two books.

In person, Noreen appears to be about as open and down to earth as a person can be. She says she is as astonished by the dimension of her capabilities as are the clients who utilize her services. While apparently she has located missing persons, and led police and FBI agents to criminals they were seeking, she admits that, left to her own devices, she can hardly find her way around the supermarket!

In her talk, Noreen intrigued the audience when she presented cases and discussed various aspects of her work. While she omitted many of the more graphic and disturbing details, it is clear that what she does is quite serious and involves situations that fortunately most of us will never have to deal with. These include murder, abduction, tragic accidents, and mysterious disappearances.

The method she uses to obtain her knowledge is known as Psychometry. This involves her holding an object, such as a piece of jewelry, or an article of clothing , belonging to someone and accessing information. For reasons we don't entirely understand, these revelations come to her through visions or impressions. While this is happening, she often goes into a trance state, and when finished, often has no recollection of what she said.

While there are a known number of people who appear to have this gift---of being what is called a psychometrist----Noreen feels that anyone is capable of it. When recounting her first experiences, which as stated, were quite a shock to her, she then made an effort to develop her skills by learning different techniques, and ongoing practice.

Now, in addition to her forensic work, Noreen gives courses and workshops to help others develop their own psychic abilities. It is her belief that one's sixth sense can be trained ,just as any of the other five senses, to evolve to greater levels of mastery. She recounts that her students have been able to produce amazing results.

As with all areas of PSI, the underlying mechanisms of psychometry, need to be subjected to much more scientific research. At the Rhine, we are planning to commence controlled studies with many gifted individuals to assess their abilities. We hope that in doing so, we might not only illuminate the mysterious capabilities of the mind, but also put an end to the ongoing controversies in the scientific world with regard to the paranormal.
-- Cynthia Nigro, Ph.D.

Monday, September 5, 2011

A Letter From Hubert E. Pearce

Here below is an excerpt from a letter to my father JB Rhine from Rev. Hubert Pearce written in 1956 on Pearce's stationery as Minister of First Methodist Church in Wynne, Arkansas. I stumbled across this letter by accident when searching in the Duke Special Collections Library for JB's correspondence with Norman Vincent Peale, a well-known religious figure of bygone days with whom JB corresponded. (In fact Peale prints a fascinating article about JB's work and it's importance for religion in his Guidepost publication in 1958).

Background: Hubert E. Pearce was the one of most outstanding high-scoring subjects of the early 1930's Duke card-calling tests, particularly important for his role as subject in the Pearce-Pratt experimental series that is generally considered the definitive experiment for ESP in those early days in terms of tight conditions conducted with two experimenters at a distance across the Duke University campus. Hubert also correctly guessed 25 cards correct in an informal test that JB conducted with him after a challenge to test his ability.

But in 9/27/56 my father receives this message from Hubert that refers back to the Pearce-Pratt work of 20 years earlier, as follows,

"Just before we moved into our new church in Bentonville, I received a letter from a Martin Gardner in New York who was evidently writing a critique of Parapsychology. My office was moved into the new building while I was out of the city and the letter was lost. When I returned from our trip (in which he visited JB in North Carolina), I had another letter in which he asked if it hadn't been long enough that my conscience was bothering me to where I was ready to confess that the work there was not well controlled etc. etc. I am enclosing my reply to him."----Hubert E. Pearce

Hubert's reply to Martin Gardner reads as follows:

Dear Mr. Gardner:

Upon my return from a trip to Durham and Washington I found your interesting letter. I will have to admit that it is a new approach and I wish that I might have had it to send to Dr. Rhine. Of course, you realize that it isn't deserving of a respectable reply. There are a lot of things that might be said to express my opinion of it--and probably of you.

May I say simply that I am as much interested in the project now as I was when I was in the University and the longer I live the more I become convinced of its reality.

Those of us who have worked with Dr. Rhine have never once doubted his ability as a scientist and research director, his devotion to the Truth, his brilliance, or his integrity.
You are simply beating again the path that was beat by Experts in the 1930's.

The day will come when Dr. Rhine's name will be among the Immortals -- and the name of his critics forgotten.

Sincerely,
Hubert E. Pearce.

-- submitted by Sally Rhine Feather