347-to-5

On many a U. S. psychologist the letters "ESP" have the effect of a red rag on a bull. "ESP" means extrasensory perception, i.e., telepathy and clairvoyance. Dr. Joseph Banks Rhine of Duke University believes that his card-guessing experiments (TIME, Dec. 10, 1934) prove the existence of ESP. The various criticisms aimed at him boil down to the charge that he has not maintained the rigorous objectivity and experimental control demanded of serious research.

The state of U. S. psychological opinion on ESP was clarified last week by the results of a questionnaire published in Duke University's Journal of Parapsychology. Physicist Clarence C. Clark of New York University and a collaborator questioned 603 members of the American Psychological Association, got replies from 352. Of these, five agreed with Rhine that ESP was "an established fact." Of the remaining 347 who did not regard it as such, 142 voted it "merely an unknown," 51 "an impossibility," 128 "a remote possibility," 26 "a likely possibility."

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