Online Talk · Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory with Author Stacy Horn
Monday, April 14, 2025
7pm ET (NYC Time)
PLEASE NOTE: A link to a recording of this talk will be archived for our Patreon members. Become a member HERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanayomy.org. A temporary streaming link will be emailed after the event concludes.
Ghost stories are great, but scientific evidence that there really is life after death is better. The scientific community has always been disdainful of accounts of the paranormal, but there was a moment when science discovered a kaleidoscope of invisible forces, waves, and particles underneath a now thinner veil of reality. In this brief window of opportunity, Duke University opened the Parapsychology Laboratory. The lab was headed up by a man named J. B. Rhine. In his time, Rhine was the Einstein of the paranormal.
The problem was how to scientifically demonstrate that life and all the feelings that go with it survive death. A medium relaying messages of continuing love from a dead wife might be enough for an inconsolable widower, but it would never be enough for the scientists who demanded not only more convincing evidence but also experiments that could be reliably repeated to produce consistent results.
Between 1930 and 1980, the public would bring thousands of supernatural events to the lab’s attention to study. The scientists at the lab were flooded with mail and visitors, legendary and otherwise, including Albert Einstein, Upton Sinclair, Richard Nixon, Aldous Huxley, and Carl Jung. Rod Sterling, who really wanted to believe in the supernatural and ESP, kept an eye on their progress. The Army and the Navy gave the lab contracts to study extrasensory perception in animals, and the Air Force built an “ESP machine.” Defense industry contractors stopped by at the request of the government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency to see what the lab was up to, and the CIA would eventually spend millions exploring mind control.
When Stacy Horn visited North Carolina to research the lab's work, she knew that no one has definitely proven that there is life after death, but Rhine and his colleagues conducted lots of experiments over the years. What if one of them worked? What she discovered, among many other things, is that one of them did.
This talk will tell the story of this fascinating lab and its experiments, as explored in the speaker’s book Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory.
Stacy Horn is a journalist and author of nonfiction books, including Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory, Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad & Criminal in 19th Century New York and The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City’s Cold Case Squad. Her last book was described on The Bowery Boys podcast as “your page-turning horror read for the summer.” Mary Roach has hailed her for “combining awe-fueled curiosity with topflight reporting skills,” while others have described her work as "immaculately researched" and "several notches above the typical reporter's insights." She lives in New York City.
Monday, April 14, 2025
7pm ET (NYC Time)
PLEASE NOTE: A link to a recording of this talk will be archived for our Patreon members. Become a member HERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanayomy.org. A temporary streaming link will be emailed after the event concludes.
Ghost stories are great, but scientific evidence that there really is life after death is better. The scientific community has always been disdainful of accounts of the paranormal, but there was a moment when science discovered a kaleidoscope of invisible forces, waves, and particles underneath a now thinner veil of reality. In this brief window of opportunity, Duke University opened the Parapsychology Laboratory. The lab was headed up by a man named J. B. Rhine. In his time, Rhine was the Einstein of the paranormal.
The problem was how to scientifically demonstrate that life and all the feelings that go with it survive death. A medium relaying messages of continuing love from a dead wife might be enough for an inconsolable widower, but it would never be enough for the scientists who demanded not only more convincing evidence but also experiments that could be reliably repeated to produce consistent results.
Between 1930 and 1980, the public would bring thousands of supernatural events to the lab’s attention to study. The scientists at the lab were flooded with mail and visitors, legendary and otherwise, including Albert Einstein, Upton Sinclair, Richard Nixon, Aldous Huxley, and Carl Jung. Rod Sterling, who really wanted to believe in the supernatural and ESP, kept an eye on their progress. The Army and the Navy gave the lab contracts to study extrasensory perception in animals, and the Air Force built an “ESP machine.” Defense industry contractors stopped by at the request of the government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency to see what the lab was up to, and the CIA would eventually spend millions exploring mind control.
When Stacy Horn visited North Carolina to research the lab's work, she knew that no one has definitely proven that there is life after death, but Rhine and his colleagues conducted lots of experiments over the years. What if one of them worked? What she discovered, among many other things, is that one of them did.
This talk will tell the story of this fascinating lab and its experiments, as explored in the speaker’s book Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory.
Stacy Horn is a journalist and author of nonfiction books, including Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory, Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad & Criminal in 19th Century New York and The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City’s Cold Case Squad. Her last book was described on The Bowery Boys podcast as “your page-turning horror read for the summer.” Mary Roach has hailed her for “combining awe-fueled curiosity with topflight reporting skills,” while others have described her work as "immaculately researched" and "several notches above the typical reporter's insights." She lives in New York City.
Monday, April 14, 2025
7pm ET (NYC Time)
PLEASE NOTE: A link to a recording of this talk will be archived for our Patreon members. Become a member HERE.
Ticketholders: A Zoom invite is sent out two hours before the event to the email used at checkout. Please check your spam folder and if not received, email hello@morbidanayomy.org. A temporary streaming link will be emailed after the event concludes.
Ghost stories are great, but scientific evidence that there really is life after death is better. The scientific community has always been disdainful of accounts of the paranormal, but there was a moment when science discovered a kaleidoscope of invisible forces, waves, and particles underneath a now thinner veil of reality. In this brief window of opportunity, Duke University opened the Parapsychology Laboratory. The lab was headed up by a man named J. B. Rhine. In his time, Rhine was the Einstein of the paranormal.
The problem was how to scientifically demonstrate that life and all the feelings that go with it survive death. A medium relaying messages of continuing love from a dead wife might be enough for an inconsolable widower, but it would never be enough for the scientists who demanded not only more convincing evidence but also experiments that could be reliably repeated to produce consistent results.
Between 1930 and 1980, the public would bring thousands of supernatural events to the lab’s attention to study. The scientists at the lab were flooded with mail and visitors, legendary and otherwise, including Albert Einstein, Upton Sinclair, Richard Nixon, Aldous Huxley, and Carl Jung. Rod Sterling, who really wanted to believe in the supernatural and ESP, kept an eye on their progress. The Army and the Navy gave the lab contracts to study extrasensory perception in animals, and the Air Force built an “ESP machine.” Defense industry contractors stopped by at the request of the government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency to see what the lab was up to, and the CIA would eventually spend millions exploring mind control.
When Stacy Horn visited North Carolina to research the lab's work, she knew that no one has definitely proven that there is life after death, but Rhine and his colleagues conducted lots of experiments over the years. What if one of them worked? What she discovered, among many other things, is that one of them did.
This talk will tell the story of this fascinating lab and its experiments, as explored in the speaker’s book Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory.
Stacy Horn is a journalist and author of nonfiction books, including Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory, Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad & Criminal in 19th Century New York and The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City’s Cold Case Squad. Her last book was described on The Bowery Boys podcast as “your page-turning horror read for the summer.” Mary Roach has hailed her for “combining awe-fueled curiosity with topflight reporting skills,” while others have described her work as "immaculately researched" and "several notches above the typical reporter's insights." She lives in New York City.