Most peoples only experience of the ESP test is from Ghostbusters

Most people in the know regard Professor Joseph Banks Rhine as the granddaddy of Parapsychology. Way back in the 1930's at Duke University, along with associate Dr. Karl Zener, the pair were amongst he first to seek evidence of Extra Sensory Perception using the 'scientific method'.

The method revolved around the use of Zener cards, or ESP cards as they are more commonly known. There are a total of 25 cards each bearing one of the five symbols, repeated five times. The cards would be mixed and then 'the sender' would select the cards one at a time. In turn 'The receiver' would attempt to name the card said person was thinking of.


What makes this so interesting is that because there are only five to choose from the chances of guessing correctly are one in five or 25%. But the tests show that, against probability the participants were able to achieve a much higher score. 1850 trials were taken. Probability would expect a 20% sucess rate, or 370 hits. The total number of successes actually scored for the series is 558, which is better than 30%

Many people in the scientific community doubted the results of J.B Rhine's E.S.P test citing flaws in the experiment, cheating or bias as reason for inaccuracy. To their amazement though when the tests have been reproduced by sceptics of E.S.P, such as the famous Richard Wiseman the results have been similar.

I've said it before and I will say it again: By the standards applied to any other science ESP has been proven to exist.