Early Studies in Parapsychology at Duke

Laboratory Letters

This page features a small sample of the incoming and outgoing letters of the laboratory. You can navigate to each letter either from the sidebar or at the links below.

The Parapsychology Laboraty Records collection has over 350 boxes of correspondence to browse (complete with an index) and includes letters from students, enthusiasts, and some famous names like Carl Jung, Upton Sinclair, and Aldous Huxley.

Three of the letters show some of the many conversations in the collection between J.B. Rhine and Carl Jung. The first, from December 1934, shows Rhine asking for a photograph of the famous knife and for Jung's professional opinion on paranormal phenomena.

The other two letters in this snapshot are from April and July 1946. The knife makes another appearance in the letter from July, but instead of asking for another photograph Rhine makes an even bolder request of his friend.

The last letter featured here is a short note from Upton Sinclair to Rhine from 1937. As you might expect, there were many skeptics of the Laboratory's work. In this letter, Sinclair gives some friendly advice to Rhine on how to deal with some recent unconstructive criticism.

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