Episode 3: Mushroom X

The Age of Aquarius intermingles uneasily with the Parapsychology Revolution. The two cultural currents, like many in the Western world, both interweave and repel. 

This symbiosis and friction appears within the relationship of J.B. Rhine and the young scientist who seems his natural protégé: Charles Honorton. But J.B. and the researcher clash, resulting in Honorton departing the Rhine lab to pioneer an extraordinary series of trials testing for telepathy. They are called the ganzfeld experiments.  

Honorton’s findings prove so remarkable that, for a time, he even bridges the seeker-skeptic divide. The new comity is short-lived. Struggling with lifelong health issues, Honorton dies at 46, leaving the parapsychology field rudderless and easy prey for media skeptics.

In other facets of psi research, dreams, psychedelia, magick mushrooms, and the Grateful Dead come together. 

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Written and Narrated by Mitch Horowitz

Produced by Jim Perry and Jon McEdward

Original Music & Sound Design by Dean Hurley

Cover Artwork by Jake in Colour

Selected References

Extrasensory Perception, Vols. 1 & 2, edited by Edwin C. May and Sonali Bhatt Marwaha (Praeger, 2015)

The Enchanted Voyager: The Life of J.B. Rhine by Denis Brian (Prentice-Hall, 1982)

Daydream Believer: Exploring the Ultimate Power of Your Mind by Mitch Horowitz (G&D Media, 2022)

“Federal Grant Supports ESP Dream Research at Maimonides” by Gordon T. Thompson, New York Times, November 25, 1973

“What Is the Link Between Hallucinations, Dreams, and Hypnagogic-Hypnopompic Experiences?” by Flavie Waters, et al., Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2016 Sept, 42(5)

“Neuro-hypnotism: prospects for hypnosis and neuroscience” by John F. Kihlstrom, Cortex, vol. 49, 2, 2013

“Does Psi Exist? Replicable Evidence for an Anomalous Process of Information Transfer” by Daryl J. Bem and Charles Honorton, Psychological Bulletin, 1994, Vol. 115, №.1 

“Chapter 4: Experimental Research on Extrasensory Perception,” An Introduction to Parapsychology, fifth edition by Irwin and Watt (McFarland, 2007): “In an assessment of the literature by Honorton (1978), 23 of 42 experiments conducted in ten different laboratories had yielded significant ESP performance under ganzfeld conditions; this success rate of 55% was far beyond that expected by chance.”

“A Joint Communiqué: The Psi Ganzfeld Controversy” by Ray Hyman and Charles Honorton, Journal of Parapsychology, vol. 50, December 1986

“Replication and Meta-Analysis in Parapsychology” by Jessica Utts, Statistical Science, Vol. 6, №. 4, 1991

Archive Clips

One Step Beyond: The Sacred Mushroom (January 24th, 1961)

The Case of ESP

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