My special guest, Dr. Collum Cooper, is here to discuss a frightening phenomenon concerning phone calls from paranormal entities. Pick up his book  'Telephone Calls From The Dead' at your local bookshop or anywhere books are sold.         Rhine era  In 1911, Stanford University became the first academic institution in the United States to study extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK) in a laboratory setting. The effort was headed by psychologist John Edgar Coover and was supported by funds donated by Thomas Welton Stanford, brother of the university's founder. After conducting approximately 10,000 experiments, Coover concluded that "statistical treatments of the data fail to reveal any cause beyond chance."[40]  In 1930, Duke University became the second major U.S. academic institution to engage in the critical study of ESP and psychokinesis in the laboratory. Under the guidance of psychologist William McDougall and with the help of others in the department—including psychologists Karl Zener, Joseph B. Rhine, and Louisa E. Rhine—laboratory ESP experiments using volunteer subjects from the undergraduate student body began. Unlike psychical research approaches, which generally sought qualitative evidence for paranormal phenomena, the experiments at Duke University proffered a quantitative, statistical approach using cards and dice. As a consequence of the ESP experiments at Duke, interested researchers worldwide developed and adopted standard laboratory procedures for ESP testing.[37]  George Estabrooks conducted an ESP experiment using cards in 1927. Harvard students were used as the subjects. Estabrooks acted as the sender, with the guesser in an adjoining room. In total, 2,300 trials were conducted. When the issues were sent to a distant space with insulation, the scores dropped to chance level. Attempts to repeat the experiment also failed.[34]  J. B. Rhine's book, New Frontiers of the Mind (1937), published the laboratory's findings to the general public. In his book, Rhine popularized the word "parapsychology," which psychologist Max Dessoir had coined over 40 years earlier to describe the research conducted at Duke. Rhine also founded an autonomous Parapsychology Laboratory within Duke and started the Journal of Parapsychology, which he co-edited with McDougall.[37]  Early parapsychological research employed Zener cards in experiments designed to test for the existence of telepathic communication or clairvoyant or precognitive perception.  Rhine, along with associate Karl Zener, had developed a statistical system of testing for ESP that involved subjects guessing what symbol, out of five possible symbols, would appear when going through a unique deck of cards designed for this purpose. A percentage of correct guesses (or hits) significantly above 20% was perceived as higher than chance and indicative of psychic ability. In his first book, Extrasensory Perception (1934), Rhine stated that after 90,000 trials, he felt ESP was "an actual and demonstrable occurrence."[41]  Irish medium and parapsychologist Eileen J. Garrett was tested by Rhine at Duke University in 1933 with Zener cards. Certain symbols were placed on the cards and sealed in an envelope, and she was asked to guess their contents. She performed poorly and later criticized the tests by claiming the cards lacked a psychic energy caDo you frequently miss episodes of Mysterious Radio? Don't worry; here are some tips to ensure you never miss out again:1. If you haven't already, follow or subscribe to the show to receive updates on new episodes. Even if you have already done this, it's a good idea to click the option again to ensure that you are still subscribed. This is especially important!2. Turn on notifications for new episodes in your podcast app.3. Make sure that your device allows notifications from your podcast app.4. If your app has the option, swipe down to refresh the list of episodes. Do you frequently miss episodes of Mysterious Radio? Don