1212. KRECHMAL, ARNOLD. FIREWALKERS OF GREECE.

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1210. Warner, Lucien. Is "extra-sensory perception" extra-
sensory? Journal of Psychology, 1939, 7, 71-77. -- The'reluctance
of many scientists to accept the evidence submitted in support of
"extra-sensory perception" arises from two distinct and unrelated
causes. The first concerns the authenticity of the data themselves.
The second relates to the interpretation which is currently placed
upon these data. It is within the realm of possibility that the
evidence may prove to be genuine, even though an extra-sensory
interpretation is eventually abandoned as unsuitable.
A person may occasionally respond to a stimulus which does not
affect sensory end organs in a way now understood. In fact, it is
highly probable that this is true. It is far less probable that a person
can react to a stimulus without the mediation of a sensory process.
Unless redefinition of these terms is permitted, this appears
logically impossible. In any case, the evidence for the existence of
phenomena now grouped under the heading of ESP, is far more
weighty than the argument that these phenomena are not sensory
in nature. - DA
IV. ARTICLES ON PARAPSYCHOLOGY IN
GENERAL INTEREST MAGAZINES
1211. A conversation with Keith Harary: "Almost everyone has
psychic abilities." U.S. News and World Report, 1984 (May 7),
96(18), 73. 3 illus. Harary gives his views of the nature of psychic
functioning, and describes the basic procedure involved in remote
viewing. He also touches briefly on U.S. and Soviet government
interest, research at SRI International, and military implications
of psi. - R.A.W.
127a 7,'A ~`--Travel, 1957
rechm 1, rnold. Firewalkers of G reece.
(Oct), 108, 46-47. 4 illus. - While in Greece as a Fulbright
professor, the author heard of a village in Northern Macedonia,
Langedah, where firewalking was still practiced in a three-day
ceremony in the spring. After some difficulty with the authorities,
he managed to gain entrance. He reports on his observations,
including several pictures he took. Some people, in a trance-like
state, were able to walk barefoot on the hot coals, which the author
tested periodically, finding them unbearably hot. - R.A.W.
1213. Lang, Andrew. Psychical research. Harper's, 1905 (Nov),
109(654), 878-882. 1 ref. - Psychical research is a more sophisti-
cated field than the public might think. It is more involved than
merely collecting and swapping ghost stories. The study of
psychical phenomena actually reaches back to anthropology, as
primitive people refer to psychic phenomena and other expressions
of the psyche. Modern psychical research, however, began with the
founding of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882. The main
problem today is in sifting the genuine phenomena from spurious
psychological events which can mimic them. Current research is
being devoted to the study of thought-transference, mediumship,
and apparitions - which in themselves might be expressions of
telepathy. Proof of life after death has not thus far been demon-
strated. - D.S.R.
1214. Truzzi, Marcello. China's psychic savants. Omni, 1985
(Jan), 63-64, 66, 78-79. 1 illus. - Quite detailed account of
exceptional human functions in China, such as seeing with the ear
or the armpit, beginning with the story of the 11-year-old Tang Yu,
the first of the many so-called psychic children of China to receive
public attention. Truzzi describes the reception of these children,
officially and by Chinese researchers. A first-hand account is
provided of his visit with a group of parapsychologists who went to
China to study the children. They were not able to do so under
good conditions. Those they did observe were unable to demon-
strate the phenomena. Although the Chinese research is sanctioned
Jy the government, more recently the Communist Party has
ordered that the research be done quietly. - R.A.W.
Summary of recent evidence for psi. The author discusses the
problem of repeatability and the experimenter effect in parapsy-
chology. He emphasizes remote viewing and the majority vote
technique and other methods of psychic consensus, illustrated by
the psychic archaeological work of Stephan Schwartz and the
Moebius Group in Alexandria, Egypt. The problem of funding,
including government funding, is discussed. In closing, he deals
with the critics, singling out John Wheeler and the Committee for
the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, empha-
sizing the positive effects criticisms have had on the field. -
R.A.W.
V. CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
1216. Warcollier, Rene. A new test for studying the psi-missing
problem in ESP. In Proceedings of the First International
Conference of Parapsychological Studies. New York: Parapsy-
chology Foundation, 1955, 112-113. - Psi-missing appears not to
be an exclusively parapsychological phenomenon, but seems also
to be psychological, physiological, and even physical. Low scores
reached with Zener cards may often result from preferences or
aversions felt by the subjects towards one or more of the figures. To
eliminate emotional content from images, we have created a test
constituted of a series of similar but slightly varying figures. All are
visible to the subject constantly, in heterogeneous sequence. He
does not realize exactly which of them he crosses out, so that the
process remains unconscious. One stimulus is used, as compared
with five in the Zener cards. This test is intended to determine
whether ESP is an accumulative process, whether repetition of the
same stimulus in eight lines manifests itself by an accumulation of
hits at the end of the test. The subjects are told only that they will be
taking a psychological test. The stimuli of this "crossing" test,
although apparently similar, are evidently not so to the unconscious
or subconscious, which is affected by the rest of the figure.
Use of a single symbol seems to exclude pre- and post-cognition,
since there is no accumulation of hits at the beginning or end of the
test, but quite the contrary. Not informing the subjects that they
are being examined for ESP, however, is unfavorable, because
directing the subject's thoughts toward the stimulus or the agent is
an indispensable condition. And the ease and speed with which
group trials can be made fails to demonstrate "polypsychism."
Consciousness can undoubtedly prevent the working of sub-
conscious activities, including the supernormal. Gardner Murphy
has rightly observed that it is in dreams, hypnosis, and automatism
that the paranormal appears because normal inhibitive functions
have disappeared. In certain intermediate states, however, the
subconscious opposes conscious activities, and may oppose the
supernormal. Yet in certain passive moods the separation between
the conscious and unconscious states is not clear-cut. This may
lead to a mingling of introspective effort and imaginative projection.
Subtle fluctuations in states of consciousness between waking and
waking-sleep are sufficient to influence ESP favorably or un-
favorably. - DT/ R.A.W.
1217. Walther, Gerda. A plea for the introduction of Edmund
Husserl's phenomenological methods into parapsychology. In
Proceedings of the First International Conference of Parapsy-
chological Studies. New York: Parapsychology Foundation, 1955,
114-115. - Phenomenology was developed by Edmund Husserl
and is essentially a gnoseological method characterized by two
fundamental steps: (1) the so-called eidetic reduction; and (2) the
phenomenological reduction. By the eidetic reduction everything is
reduced to its essential, irreducible content, quite independent of
its genesis in the outer world, its existence, etc., e.g., Tyrrell's
classical analysis of apparitions or H.H. Price's "Idea of Another
World." According to Husserl, by this method we can establish
many kinds of so-called regional ontologies, containing the
fundaments of all kinds of sciences.
1215. Vaughan, Alan. Toward a technology of psi. Analog In the phenomenological reduction, every "object" in the widest of th
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