Dr. Louisa Rhine's letters revisited: The children

Journal of Parapsychology, The, Dec, 2002 by Athena A. Drewes

However, since the publication of Psi: What Is It?, the rich file of letters from children and teenagers remained dormant. They had not been analyzed for any patterns or trends, unlike the adult letters. I am, therefore, indebted to Dr. Sally Feather and Dr. John Palmer at the Rhine Research Center for their support and willingness in making the entire Rhine collection available to me, which fortuitously allowed for the rediscovery of the children's letters. It was my intention in analyzing the children's spontaneous experiences to see if similar patterns occurred as had been reported by Schouten and LER with the adult spontaneous cases. Little focus has generally been given to children's spontaneously reported precognitive, telepathic, and clairvoyant experiences, and they are an underutilized population for study. These letters allow for a rich insight into their personal psychic experiences and, it is hoped, will help further the work of Dr. Louisa E. Rhine.

TYPES OF LETTERS SUBMITTED

Age Ranges and Topics

A total of 216 acceptable letters were received from 1961 to 1977, with the majority received in the 1960s. The writers' ages ranged from 10 to 18 years, with the mean age at 14 years. Female writers accounted for 65% of the letters, with male writers accounting for 35%. As mentioned previously, letters were received from across the continental United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, and one from Australia. Out of the 216 letters, 68, or 31% of the total, dealt specifically with general questions about ESP, ghosts, out-of-body experiences (OBEs), poltergeists, use of Ouija boards, parapsychology research, as well as career information questions about becoming a parapsychologist and wanting book lists and research experiments for high school science projects. The remaining 148 letters contained enough information of 157 recounted experiences that could be categorized and analyzed. Females accounted for 57% of the general information letters, with 61% of those females in the 14-16-year-old range. Males accounted for 43% of the letters, with 48% of the males in the 14-16-year-old range.

General Information Letters

Types of questions asked (e.g., general information vs. research/career specific) were evenly distributed across ages and gender. The following are typical examples. Randy, 10, from New Jersey, wrote:

I am very interested in the field of Parapsychology. I know a bit about it but not to [sic] much, so I was wondering if you would be so kind enough to send me some information on supernatural phenomenon. I am in the sixth grade and am ten years old. I have been interested in Parapsychology only for a little while, but I know more about it than most kids my age.

Howard, from Georgia, wrote:

I am an eighth-grade junior high student and I am doing a science project on Extra-Sensory Perception. My Science teacher showed me the article in Science Digest of November 1965, and suggested I write to get more information. I would appreciate any information regarding the history of ESP, past studies, simple ESP tests, the different forms of ESP, and the pros and cons on whether it is fact or fiction, in either pamphlet or paperbound book form.