Early Studies in Parapsychology at Duke

Beyond the Laboratory

A horse running through open pasture with words advertising services of the mind-reading horse

A flyer advertising Lady Wonder, the Educated Mind Reading Horse. Provided courtesy of the Rhine Research Center. Not for distribution

While those representations of laboratory research in popular media were captivating by themselves, another thing that got the laboratory attention was its more sensational cases.

As seen in the physical exhibit, one of those phenomena was Lady Wonder the Psychic Horse. After receiving letters about this horse, J. B. Rhine himself went out to test her and found her to be surprisingly good at testing. She was seemingly able to spell out the answers to basic questions as well as answer questions about the future. The testing process was difficult and went through many iterations. If you're interested, you can request to see the reports and data that were generated about Lady in the Parapsychology Laboratory Records. Ultimately, it was found that Lady was very well-trained and that her handler was the mastermind behind it, but this high profile case got the attention of many. 

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