HANS BENDER: 'FRONTIER SCIENTIST' - A PERSONAL TRIBUTE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00792R000700650007-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 24, 2000
• Sequence Number: 7
• Content Type: OPEN

Journal of the Society for PsychiA 1 OVed
For Release 2DOO1O81 CIA-RD96b &2R000700650007-3 seventeen-
a
Randi and others. Another remarkable psychic investigated by Benson Herbert
was Suzanne Padfield, the British clairvoyant whose ability in psychometry
led to the discovery of a child-killer 1700 miles away in Moscow. In the
Paralab an experiment involved the displacement of a polarised light beam.
Miss Padfield, together with the designer of much of the experimental
equipment (Brian Baily), placed her hands around the collimating tube and
sucessfully `distorted' the light path in a consistent manner.
More recent projects at the Paralab have included an investigation into
psychic healing, experiments with bacteria and viruses and the study of
dermo-optics, including the ability to sense colours and writing through the
fingers. This latter work in collaboration with Yvonne Duplessis (Paris) may
assist blind and colour-blind people in their daily lives. Over the last ten
years I have been involved with the Paralab as a member of technical and
experimental support teams, designing and building equipment when necessary
which would be used for the biophysical measurement of subjects during a
variety of clairvoyance and PK psi-related experiments.
It is paradoxical, I think, that such a character as Benson Herbert should
provoke controversy from the spiritualist and physicist ends of the paranormal
investigation community alike. He would he pleased perhaps to think so.
Benson's quest, I believe, was not to explain away paranormal phenomena in
terms of physical-particle theories or cause- and- effect relationships, but to
investigate the nature of psi phenomena in the hope that his findings, together
with the problems left by classical and theoretical physics, could be combined
to allow a fuller understanding of the Universe around us.
The quarterly International Journal of Paraphysics has been published
from 1968 into the 1990s and has included Paralab reports periodically.
Over the years much correspondence on behalf of the SPR has been taken up
by the Paralab staff.
Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience
University of Edinburgh
7 George Square Edinburgh E118 9JZ
that he was able to finish. In that piece, Bender describes now, as
or old boy ayingin Lonon with a family sng by using the Ouijalboardirit "I was impressed,'
took part in automatic pelli
sk Thi
their alleged 'intelligent'
wrote, " to obvious
origin, namely 'discarnate' entities.
skeptical l in regard primary experience influenced my life."
the ybetween
and Bonn. It waslespeciall
in Pa i, 1933
philosophy and psychology
iven by the French
k
o
after attending
de Francetlin sPa is and after studying Janet's classic sic wor
the College ge
L'Automatisme Psy ?t processes at the tut al](
subconscious y
the dynamics of
Bonn University, supported by the head of the Institute, the philosoph
and psychologist E ub RotWeker ablentorewxhibit t intelligent't actiivit es on
that some of his sects
nted
automa `consci se level em ly men ware oy ft such comp' cated processes.lIn su(
subconscious' `consciousus' self was g
a state of dissociation, some of the automatic productions included traces d information which In1193r3 Bender obtained his Ph.D degree wi h a hrou the
conventional means.
on Psychische Automatismen [Mental Automatisms], in which he success fu
study problem
of of
clairvoyance seco
the the
linked subconscious
" devoted productions
exclusively to with
contribution ung
published in
laboratory conditions followed shortly after and was prestigious Zeitschrift fur Psychologie [journal of Psychology] in 19
Just before he finished his paper, the philos penher t Gerda actingsa
clearing house for relevant information, had s him
Rhine. Bender always stressed
par
book Extrasensory Perception by J. s des
sycl importance of that book
German strengthening
university ginlan nstitutionalissed form pa de
ogical research into of philosoph}
vigorously supported by a prominent German p
those years, namely Hans Driesch, who had published s well 1932 theb -known
to the field,
i
on
German methodological introduct
Parapsychologie: die Wissenschaft von den `okkulten' Erscheinungen. In o
possible
d began training asra psychia
SONAL TRIBUTE to be as well equipped as
i
ne an
of medic
HANS BENDER: "FRONTIER SCIENTIS - PER
studies
finished his additional the Professor Bender's death-he died in Freiburg on 7th May at the age of 84-- without, however, d fin h off hishat m bilitati edical spnc1941tion. exA f per mental b
h
has closed an important chapter of German post-war parapsychology. In my of war, he had to 'haon' i with
anwas awarded
a Psychology e for
opinion, any future historian who finds it worthwhile to pay a closer look at on eidetic imagery and whstal,ga found and
parapsychology in general will surely rank Hans Bender among the pioneers Strasbourg LTniversityin to the Philosophical as well as the Me
of German psi research who, like Albert von Schrenck-Notzing or Rudolf Clinical Psychology, belong g
ischner among others ,sent most of their professional lives struggling for faculty, which he directed until 1944 when Strasbourg was liberated b}
T ( ) p
the advancement and recognition of our field. Allied forces. y can be ti
The `official' beginning of German post-war paB Bender was able to op
So, let me first recapitulate some data of Bender's biography and then give back with some justification to 1950. In that year,
an impression of Bender's personal `ausnti his special `aura'. au th
and Psychohye
somew Hans Bender was born in 1907 in Freiburg. In 1987 he wrote a short his native town of imren gebiete deerdoorsPsycho
autobiographical note for Rosemarie Pilkington's book, Men and Women in financed 'Institut
r s cholo which re esents in a se his last contribution to the field [Institute for Fringe Areas of Psychology and Mental Health], whit
a ap y ~', pdpprovedePor Release 2000/08/11: CIA-ROP96-00792R000700650007-3 125
124
 Approved For Release 2000/08/11: CIA-RDP96-00792R000700650007-3
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