An investigation of a "mind reading" horse.

Abstract

DtTKE UNIVERSITYSES of telepathic sensitivity in animals have been reported from time to time during the last quarter century, but on the whole have been granted little recognition from students of science. In some instances they have been so completely settled negatively in the minds of investigators in advance of any study that the investigations have frequently been superficially made or not even considered necessary for the formulation of a conclusion. This attitude of "credulous skepticism", however, is plainly unfair and unscientific, regardless of the nature of the case, and has never served to demonstrate either the truth or the error of such claims in any field. In other words, there are no a priori grounds for a conclusion on such a problem as telepathy, and the "hard and irreducible facts" should be resorted to.One of the earliest cases claimed to be animal telepathy was that of the dog "Dodgerfield", owned by a Mr. Davies. This case was reported by Thoradike (11) in 1898. The dog could bring its owner the correct one out of four cards without any observed signal. The owner sat with closed eyes, hands concealed behind a newspaper, and silent except for the command, "Attention,Dodger! Bring it!" Thorndike, apparently in the absence of any decisive evidence either way, felt that it was a case of delicate association, the reading of cues in the owner's facial expression.In 1904, Krall (5) took up the study of William von Osten's horse, Clever Hans, at Munich. This horse was said to possess not only telepathic powers but also independent thinking and calculating ability. Krall himself tried to train other horses and other animals to do similar feats, and was successful with a few horses, one of them blind. Many people, scientific and otherwise, observed these horses perform. Among them was a committee of academic scientists headed by Stumpf, of Berlin. Most of the observers agreed, with the committee, that unconscious signals from the investigator guided the horse. Some suspected that a stable man, whom they supposed was hidden about the place, gave the signals. Pfungst (6) claimed to be able to guide the horse by signals himself. A few observers, on the other hand, were convinced that the

In Dogs We Trust? Intersubjectivity, Response‐Able Relations, and the Making of Mine Detector Dogs

“…In 1928, accompanied by his mentor William McDougall, Rhine was invited to attest to the paranormal abilities of Lady Wonder, a “mind reading” horse. Though initially convinced that this was an authentic case of cross-species telepathy, Rhine later concluded that Lady Wonder was actually responding to subtle unconscious physical cues (Rhine, 1929a , 1929b ). The problem of unconscious communication, the so-called “Clever Hans effect,” was particularly challenging for parapsychologists because communication was not restricted to subtle physical cues.…”

Atendimento a uma criança que relatava ver o espírito da avó

“…Vários psicólogos estudaram questões relacionadas à espiritualidade e ao sobrenatural (Goodwin, 2005, Jung, 1939, McDougall, 1927, Rhine, 1934, J. B. Rhine & L. E. Rhine, 1929, Rhine & McDougall, 1934.…”

The responses of horses to the situation of a closed feed box.

“…She could be awakened by a sharp command or a touch of the whip and become quickly a normal active colt again." 3 This striking behavior and the large number of correct responses even under controlled conditions, led the investigators to the conclusion, that "There is left then, only telepathic explanation, the transference of mental influence by an unknown process. Nothing was discovered that failed to accord with it, and no other hypothesis proposed seems tenable in view of the results."…”