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THE COMPLETELY NEW

Thought transference over a distance — Professor Joseph Rhine of Duke University, after four years of experimentation, has stated that he is a decided supporter of the possibility of thought transference over a distance.

"He has performed over 100,000 experiments. A staff of young scientists at Duke University was placed at his disposal, and he was assisted by the well-known American Professor of Psychology, William McDugall.

"Prof. Rhine's early experiments consisted in working with students who guessed his thoughts. He succeeded in choosing a group of thirty young men who possessed a special telepathic receptivity".

"Later, with this chosen group he began systematic experiments whose complexity increased in the course of time. From guessing simple thoughts the group went to the solving of various mathematical problems suggested by Rhine, who kept them secret from the students".

"The early period of experimentation dealt with a special pack of cards — Rhine prepared a pack of twenty-five cards with a series of different designs. Taking any card, Rhine instructed a student who was sitting in the next room to draw the design of that card on paper. When the students began to pass this test, Rhine went to the next series; he mixed the cards and placed them on the table face down. A student behind the door was supposed to tell the order in which the cards were placed on the table; in a short while all thirty students began to name the order of all twenty-five cards without an error. Later, these experiments were repeated with students who were not in the next room, but in another house a few blocks away. The experiments took place in the presence of a controller, so that there could be no tricks.

"Later, still at a distance, the reading of thoughts began, and it went so far that poets, invited by Rhine to his laboratory, wrote poems, and the students, at the same time, from another part of town, read them aloud over the telephone to the professor."

From another source the following is related:

"The leader of a recent expedition to the Himalayas, Prof. Dyhrenfurth1, returned from Tibet to Berlin.

"Each one of the-participants of the expedition, so the professor relates, felt upon himself all the time the influence of some hostile power, the influence of a demon who, according to the beliefs of the local inhabitants, guards the peaks of the Himalayas and punishes with death those daring ones who venture into forbidden parts.

"Further on the professor told about the unusual sharpness of receptivity of the inhabitants of Tibet. "Telepathy", says the professor, is as widely spread in Tibet as is the telephone in Europe. One of our porters died in the mountains. We sent a messenger to his village. He had to travel for twelve days. But before he reached that village, a messenger from it reached us — he had left on the day of the porter's death. He told us that they already knew out there about the death of the man from their village. Appropriate prayers were being held there, and he was dispatched to tell us that we should bury the dead man in the mountains".

The inhabitants of the Himalayas, according to Prof. Dyhrenfurth, can increase their body temperature through autosuggestion, during the most powerful frosts. Thus, for instance, they are capable of sleeping upon the snow without any garment, at any degree of frost, and all they need to feel warm is to cover themselves with a shirt. The temperature of their body is so high that the wet garments which Prof. Dyhrenfurth covered them with became completely dry in a few hours.

It is also related that, "In the Swedish Parliament a special electrical apparatus for the counting of votes was recently installed. As soon as a member presses the green button, a green light appears on a corresponding board, which means "yes". A red light means "no". When voting takes, place; as many lights appear on the board as there are members in the hall; the mechanical calculator makes an exact accounting of red and green lights, and on another board corresponding figures appear while an automatic photographic camera instantly takes a snapshot. The photographs are kept in the archives as the actual proof of voting. After the voting is completed, the Speaker presses his own button and all lights on the board are extinguished.

"The members of Parliament used this perfected apparatus with full confidence for some time. But recently a question was discussed which seemed practically incontestable. Forty-six green lights and forty-two red ones unexpectedly were lit on the board. A dispute arose in the Parliament. Then the Speaker announced: "Our robot is apparently out of order. Maybe he calculated incorrectly. We had better return to the old means of voting by name".

"The Parliament followed the advice of the Speaker and it appeared that fifty-three men voted for the resolution and thirty-four against it".

"Then arose the problem of checking all the results of voting, beginning with the day of installation of the "robot". It may well be possible that a whole series of laws was accepted by the "robot", perhaps contrary to the wishes of the members."

What is there new about it? In all three communications, it seems there is nothing new. It is already well known that the robot-machine cannot replace a human organism. The communication about thought transference over a distance is not new. It was known long ago. Also equally known is that which is related by Prof. Dyhrenfurth. And yet, at the same time, one does rejoice at all such communications. For some they may be very old, but the repetition of the old is always useful. For others these communications will be newer than new. And perhaps, for the first time they will compel one to ponder about the power of thought.

Many people find it necessary that the information come from a person with a diploma in science. So much the better if the professors, among whom are so many incorrigible, narrow materialists, will begin in the name of justice to pay attention to real facts. It would also be quite useful if the readers of such communications would not be too lazy to write, either to the authors of such statements, or to the editors of newspapers, the facts that they came across in their own lives. We urgently request. Do not be too lazy to write conscientiously, even if briefly, about the facts which you have observed. With your observations you may draw the attention of the most unexpectedly useful people. Besides, owing to such observations, the very mechanics of life will find their due place.

One should not deny, but one should always co-measure and apply in accordance with justice. Let us not forget that even such a great mind as that of Napoleon did not understand, and rejected, the first presentation of a steamboat and torpedo, because he could not understand the power of steam. Many errors have taken place, but it does not follow that these errors should continue so that one might later feel ashamed of them.

Let honest reality, in all its abundance, in all its loftiness, become the convincing, guiding concept.

Tzagan Kure

May 13, 1935

1 Prof. Guenter Oscar Dyhrenfurth, Swiss geologist and explorer.

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