Rhine Research Center - Revision history

GaryJJSpate at 21:46, 4 August 2026

2026-08-04T21:46:56Z

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	{{~~OrganisationInfobox~~		{{InfoboxOrganisation
	\|name=Rhine Research Center		\|name=Rhine Research Center
	\|image=Rhine_Research_Center_logo.jpg		\|image=Rhine_Research_Center_logo.jpg
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	\|status=Closed (2025) — seeking new premises		\|status=Closed (2025) — seeking new premises
	}}		}}
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	The '''Rhine Research Center''' is an American non-profit organisation devoted to parapsychological research and public education, and the direct institutional successor to [[J. B. Rhine]]'s original Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University.<ref name="~~wiki~~">{{cite web \|title=Rhine Research Center \|url=https://en.~~wikipedia~~.~~org~~/~~wiki~~/~~Rhine_Research_Center~~ \|website=~~Wikipedia~~}}</ref> Under its own mission statement, the centre describes its purpose as advancing the science of parapsychology, providing public education, and fostering a community for those with a personal or professional interest in psi.<ref name="rhineonline">{{cite web \|title=About Us \|url=https://www.rhineonline.org/about-us \|website=Rhine Research Center}}</ref>		The '''Rhine Research Center''' is an American non-profit organisation devoted to parapsychological research and public education, and the direct institutional successor to [[J. B. Rhine]]'s original Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University.<ref name="psi-rrc">{{cite web \|title=Rhine Research Center \|url=https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/rhine-research-center/ \|website=Psi Encyclopedia (Society for Psychical Research)}}</ref> Under its own mission statement, the centre describes its purpose as advancing the science of parapsychology, providing public education, and fostering a community for those with a personal or professional interest in psi.<ref name="rhineonline">{{cite web \|title=About Us \|url=https://www.rhineonline.org/about-us \|website=Rhine Research Center}}</ref>

	== Founding ==		== Founding ==

	Rhine began his experimental work into extrasensory perception in the early 1930s, joining Professor William McDougall at ~~the newly founded~~ Duke University in 1927 and establishing the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory in the East Duke Building by 1935.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Rhine Center \|url=https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rhine_Center \|website=SourceWatch}}</ref> Duke provided Rhine a salary and lab space but no direct funding for his research, which instead came from outside grants.<ref name="indy">{{cite news \|title=Durham's Rhine Research Center, one of the country's last parapsychological institutes, seeks to quantify the ethereal \|url=https://indyweek.com/news/culture/durham-s-rhine-research-center-one-country-s-last-parapsychological-institutes-seeks-quantify-ethereal/ \|work=INDY Week}}</ref>		Rhine began his experimental work into extrasensory perception in the early 1930s, joining Professor William McDougall at Duke University in 1927 and establishing the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory in the East Duke Building by 1935.<ref name="sourcewatch">{{cite web \|title=Rhine Center \|url=https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rhine_Center \|website=SourceWatch}}</ref> Duke provided Rhine a salary and lab space but no direct funding for his research, which instead came from outside grants.<ref name="indy">{{cite news \|title=Durham's Rhine Research Center, one of the country's last parapsychological institutes, seeks to quantify the ethereal \|url=https://indyweek.com/news/culture/durham-s-rhine-research-center-one-country-s-last-parapsychological-institutes-seeks-quantify-ethereal/ \|work=INDY Week}}</ref>

	When Rhine reached Duke's mandatory retirement age in 1965, he left the university and, with the help of benefactors including Xerox founder Chester Carlson, established an independent non-profit organisation, the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man (FRNM), based in buildings on Buchanan Avenue directly across from Duke's East Campus.<ref name="sourcewatch"~~>{{cite web \|title=Rhine Center \|url=https:~~/~~/www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rhine_Center \|website=SourceWatch}}</ref~~> Carlson's gift took the form of a multimillion-dollar matching endowment that would go on to fund much of the centre's operations for decades.<ref name="indy" />		When Rhine reached Duke's mandatory retirement age in 1965, he left the university and, with the help of benefactors including Xerox founder Chester Carlson, established an independent non-profit organisation, the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man (FRNM), based in buildings on Buchanan Avenue directly across from Duke's East Campus.<ref name="sourcewatch"/> Carlson's gift took the form of a multimillion-dollar matching endowment that would go on to fund much of the centre's operations for decades.<ref name="indy"/>

	For the next three decades, FRNM served as parent body to the Institute for Parapsychology, its research arm, and Parapsychology Press, its publishing arm — continuing to issue the ''[[Journal of Parapsychology]]'', founded by Rhine in 1937.<ref name="sourcewatch" />		For the next three decades, FRNM served as parent body to the Institute for Parapsychology, its research arm, and Parapsychology Press, its publishing arm — continuing to issue the ''[[Journal of Parapsychology]]'', founded by Rhine in 1937.<ref name="sourcewatch"/>

	Rhine resigned as director in 1973; neither his resignation nor his death in 1980 affected the ongoing work of the institute he had built.<ref name="~~wiki~~" /> In 1995, on the centenary of Rhine's birth, FRNM was renamed the Rhine Research Center in honour of Rhine and his wife, Louisa E. Rhine, whose own research had focused on collecting spontaneous, real-world psychic case reports rather than laboratory testing.<ref name="sourcewatch" />		Rhine resigned as director in 1973; neither his resignation nor his death in 1980 affected the ongoing work of the institute he had built.<ref name="psi-rrc"/> In 1995, on the centenary of Rhine's birth, FRNM was renamed the Rhine Research Center in honour of Rhine and his wife, Louisa E. Rhine, whose own research had focused on collecting spontaneous, real-world psychic case reports rather than laboratory testing.<ref name="sourcewatch"/>

	== The Levy affair ==		== The Levy affair ==

	In the summer of 1974, Walter J. Levy Jr. — a medical graduate in his mid-twenties who had risen quickly to become director of the Institute for Parapsychology and Rhine's expected successor — was exposed as having fabricated data in an ESP/psychokinesis experiment involving rats.<ref>{{cite news \|title=Science: The Psychic Scandal \|url=https://time.com/archive/6878080/science-the-psychic-scandal/ \|work=TIME \|date=26 August 1974}}</ref> Colleagues had grown suspicious at how consistently strong his results were and secretly wired his recording apparatus to detect tampering, catching him manually interfering with the equipment to manufacture positive outcomes.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Notes on a Case of Scientific Fraud in Parapsychology \|url=https://jeksite.org/psi/fraud.htm \|website=J.E. Kennedy}}</ref>		In the summer of 1974, Walter J. Levy Jr. — a medical graduate in his mid-twenties who had risen quickly to become director of the Institute for Parapsychology and Rhine's expected successor — was exposed as having fabricated data in an ESP/psychokinesis experiment involving rats.<ref name="time">{{cite news \|title=Science: The Psychic Scandal \|url=https://time.com/archive/6878080/science-the-psychic-scandal/ \|work=TIME \|date=26 August 1974}}</ref> Colleagues had grown suspicious at how consistently strong his results were and secretly wired his recording apparatus to detect tampering, catching him manually interfering with the equipment to manufacture positive outcomes.<ref name="kennedy">{{cite web \|title=Notes on a Case of Scientific Fraud in Parapsychology \|url=https://jeksite.org/psi/fraud.htm \|website=J.E. Kennedy}}</ref>

	Confronted with the evidence, Levy admitted to falsifying the study in question but maintained that his other, already-published research was sound and had been independently replicated elsewhere; he resigned shortly afterward.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Fraud in Parapsychology and Other Sciences \|url=https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/fraud-science-and-parapsychology/ \|website=Psi Encyclopedia}}</ref> Rhine himself wrote in the following issue of the ''Journal of Parapsychology'' that the single confirmed violation nonetheless cast reasonable doubt over all of Levy's work during his time in the field.<ref~~>{{cite web \|title~~=~~Fraud in Parapsychology and Other Sciences \|url=https://~~psi-~~encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/~~fraud~~-science-and-parapsychology/ \|website=Psi Encyclopedia}}<~~/~~ref~~> The case remains one of the most significant confirmed instances of fraud in the organisation's history, and one frequently cited by critics of parapsychology as a whole.		Confronted with the evidence, Levy admitted to falsifying the study in question but maintained that his other, already-published research was sound and had been independently replicated elsewhere; he resigned shortly afterward.<ref name="psi-fraud">{{cite web \|title=Fraud in Parapsychology and Other Sciences \|url=https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/fraud-science-and-parapsychology/ \|website=Psi Encyclopedia}}</ref> Rhine himself wrote in the following issue of the ''Journal of Parapsychology'' that the single confirmed violation nonetheless cast reasonable doubt over all of Levy's work during his time in the field.<ref name="psi-fraud"/> The case remains one of the most significant confirmed instances of fraud in the organisation's history, and one frequently cited by critics of parapsychology as a whole.

	== Later leadership and mission ==		== Later leadership and mission ==

	Rhine's eldest daughter, Sally Rhine Feather, went on to sit on the centre's board and direct much of its research and public programming, continuing her parents' work and providing what colleagues described as a living connection to the institute's founding.<ref>{{cite web \|title=My Return to the Rhine Research Center \|url=https://carlossalvarado.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/my-return-to-the-rhine-research-center/ \|website=Parapsychology (Carlos S. Alvarado)}}</ref> Feather is also credited, alongside researcher Charles Brier, with first identifying the "checker effect" — an anomaly in which the person first checking a psi experiment's results appears to influence the outcome — in a 1968 study.<ref~~>{{cite web \|title~~=~~Rhine Research Center \|url=https://~~psi-~~encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/rhine-research-center/ \|website=Psi Encyclopedia}}<~~/~~ref~~>		Rhine's eldest daughter, Sally Rhine Feather, went on to sit on the centre's board and direct much of its research and public programming, continuing her parents' work and providing what colleagues described as a living connection to the institute's founding.<ref name="alvarado">{{cite web \|title=My Return to the Rhine Research Center \|url=https://carlossalvarado.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/my-return-to-the-rhine-research-center/ \|website=Parapsychology (Carlos S. Alvarado)}}</ref> Feather is also credited, alongside researcher Charles Brier, with first identifying the "checker effect" — an anomaly in which the person first checking a psi experiment's results appears to influence the outcome — in a 1968 study.<ref name="psi-rrc"/>

	John Kruth was hired by the centre in 2009 at Feather's urging and promoted to executive director in 2011, a period during which the organisation leaned heavily on the aging Carlson endowment to stay afloat before that fund was eventually depleted.<ref name="indy" />		John Kruth was hired by the centre in 2009 at Feather's urging and promoted to executive director in 2011, a period during which the organisation leaned heavily on the aging Carlson endowment to stay afloat before that fund was eventually depleted.<ref name="indy"/>

	Under its modern mission statement, the Rhine Research Center describes its purpose as advancing the science of parapsychology, providing public education and resources, and fostering a community for those with a personal or professional interest in psi, alongside its original research work into ESP and psychokinesis.<ref name="rhineonline" /> The centre also maintained the Alex Tanous Research Library, a collection of more than 3,000 volumes of parapsychological and occult literature — among the five largest collections of its kind in the United States — established with support from the Alex Tanous Foundation of Portland, Maine.<ref name="indy" />		Under its modern mission statement, the Rhine Research Center describes its purpose as advancing the science of parapsychology, providing public education and resources, and fostering a community for those with a personal or professional interest in psi, alongside its original research work into ESP and psychokinesis.<ref name="rhineonline"/> The centre also maintained the Alex Tanous Research Library, a collection of more than 3,000 volumes of parapsychological and occult literature — among the five largest collections of its kind in the United States — established with support from the Alex Tanous Foundation of Portland, Maine.<ref name="indy"/>

	== Recent history ==		== Recent history ==

	The centre operated from premises on Campus Walk Avenue near Duke University for nearly 25 years before closing in 2025; as of the most recent available information, it has not yet secured a new physical location.<ref~~>{{cite web \|title=Rhine Research Center \|url~~=~~https://~~psi-~~encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/rhine-research-center/ \|website=Psi Encyclopedia}}<~~/~~ref~~>		The centre operated from premises on Campus Walk Avenue near Duke University for nearly 25 years before closing in 2025; as of the most recent available information, it has not yet secured a new physical location.<ref name="psi-rrc"/>

	~~== EERIE Files assessment ==~~

	{{~~VaultResearchAssessment~~		{{VaultResearchBrief
	\|discipline=Parapsychology		\|discipline=Parapsychology
	\|research_type=Institutional research organisation — experimental and archival (ESP, psychokinesis, spontaneous case collection)		\|research_type=Institutional research organisation — experimental and archival (ESP, psychokinesis, spontaneous case collection)
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	* [[Extra-Sensory Perception (book)\|''Extra-Sensory Perception'' (1934 book)]]		* [[Extra-Sensory Perception (book)\|''Extra-Sensory Perception'' (1934 book)]]
	* [[Journal of Parapsychology]]		* [[Journal of Parapsychology]]
	* [[~~:Category:Parapsychology\|~~Parapsychology]]		* [[Koestler Parapsychology Unit]]

	== References ==		== References ==
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	== External links ==		== External links ==

	* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Research_Center Wikipedia — Rhine Research Center]
	* [https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/rhine-research-center/ Psi Encyclopedia — Rhine Research Center]		* [https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/rhine-research-center/ Psi Encyclopedia — Rhine Research Center]
	* [https://www.rhineonline.org/about-us Rhine Research Center — About Us]		* [https://www.rhineonline.org/about-us Rhine Research Center — About Us]
			* [https://indyweek.com/news/culture/durham-s-rhine-research-center-one-country-s-last-parapsychological-institutes-seeks-quantify-ethereal/ INDY Week — Durham's Rhine Research Center]

	[[Category:Parapsychology]]		[[Category:Parapsychology]]
	[[Category:Organisations]]		[[Category:Organisations]]
	[[Category:Durham, North Carolina]]		[[Category:Durham, North Carolina]]

GaryJJSpate at 21:41, 4 August 2026

2026-08-04T21:41:48Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:41, 4 August 2026
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	[[Category:Parapsychology]]		[[Category:Parapsychology]]
	[[Category:Organisations]]		[[Category:Organisations]]
	[[Category:North Carolina]]		[[Category:Durham, North Carolina]]
	~~[[Category:Duke University~~]]

GaryJJSpate at 20:56, 3 August 2026

2026-08-03T20:56:03Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:56, 3 August 2026
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	[[Category:Parapsychology]]		[[Category:Parapsychology]]
	[[Category:Organisations]]		[[Category:Organisations]]
	~~[[Category:1965 establishments]]~~
	~~[[Category:2025 disestablishments]]~~
	[[Category:North Carolina]]		[[Category:North Carolina]]
	~~[[Category:Non-profit organisations]]~~
	[[Category:Duke University]]		[[Category:Duke University]]

GaryJJSpate at 10:32, 31 July 2026

2026-07-31T10:32:16Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:32, 31 July 2026
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	{{OrganisationInfobox		{{OrganisationInfobox
	\|name=Rhine Research Center		\|name=Rhine Research Center
	\|image=~~Rhine Research Center logo~~.jpg		\|image=Rhine_Research_Center_logo.jpg
	\|image_caption=Logo of the Rhine Research Center.		\|image_caption=Logo of the Rhine Research Center.
	\|type=Non-profit parapsychology research organisation		\|type=Non-profit parapsychology research organisation

GaryJJSpate at 10:31, 31 July 2026

2026-07-31T10:31:42Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:31, 31 July 2026
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	{{OrganisationInfobox		{{OrganisationInfobox
	\|name=Rhine Research Center		\|name=Rhine Research Center
			\|image=Rhine Research Center logo.jpg
			\|image_caption=Logo of the Rhine Research Center.
	\|type=Non-profit parapsychology research organisation		\|type=Non-profit parapsychology research organisation
	\|founded=1965 (as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man)		\|founded=1965 (as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man)

GaryJJSpate at 23:05, 30 July 2026

2026-07-30T23:05:52Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:05, 30 July 2026
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	{{OrganisationInfobox		{{OrganisationInfobox
	\|name=Rhine Research Center		\|name=Rhine Research Center
	~~\|image=Rhine Research Center.jpg~~
	~~\|image_caption=The Rhine Research Center's former premises near Duke University.~~
	\|type=Non-profit parapsychology research organisation		\|type=Non-profit parapsychology research organisation
	\|founded=1965 (as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man)		\|founded=1965 (as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man)

GaryJJSpate at 22:37, 30 July 2026

2026-07-30T22:37:56Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:37, 30 July 2026
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	{{OrganisationInfobox		{{OrganisationInfobox
	\|name=Rhine Research Center		\|name=Rhine Research Center
			\|image=Rhine Research Center.jpg
			\|image_caption=The Rhine Research Center's former premises near Duke University.
	\|type=Non-profit parapsychology research organisation		\|type=Non-profit parapsychology research organisation
	\|founded=1965 (as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man)		\|founded=1965 (as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man)
	\|founders=J. B. Rhine		\|founders=J. B. Rhine
			\|location=Formerly Campus Walk Avenue, Durham, North Carolina, USA (near Duke University)
	\|known_for=Successor to Duke University's Parapsychology Laboratory; publisher of the Journal of Parapsychology		\|known_for=Successor to Duke University's Parapsychology Laboratory; publisher of the Journal of Parapsychology
	\|status=Closed (2025) — seeking new premises		\|status=Closed (2025) — seeking new premises
	}}		}}

	The '''Rhine Research Center''' is an American non-profit organisation devoted to parapsychological research and public education, and the direct institutional successor to [[J. B. Rhine]]'s original Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University.		The '''Rhine Research Center''' is an American non-profit organisation devoted to parapsychological research and public education, and the direct institutional successor to [[J. B. Rhine]]'s original Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University.<ref name="wiki">{{cite web \|title=Rhine Research Center \|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Research_Center \|website=Wikipedia}}</ref> Under its own mission statement, the centre describes its purpose as advancing the science of parapsychology, providing public education, and fostering a community for those with a personal or professional interest in psi.<ref name="rhineonline">{{cite web \|title=About Us \|url=https://www.rhineonline.org/about-us \|website=Rhine Research Center}}</ref>

	== Founding ==		== Founding ==
	When Rhine reached Duke's mandatory retirement age in 1965, he left the university and, with support from benefactors including Xerox founder Chester Carlson, established an independent non-profit organisation, the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man (FRNM), based in buildings on Buchanan Avenue directly across from Duke's East Campus. For the next three decades, FRNM served as parent body to the Institute for Parapsychology, its research arm, and Parapsychology Press, its publishing arm — continuing to issue the ''[[Journal of Parapsychology]]'', founded by Rhine in 1937.

	Rhine resigned as director in 1973; neither his resignation nor his death in 1980 affected the ongoing work of the institute he had built. In 1995, on the centenary of Rhine's birth, FRNM was renamed the Rhine Research Center in honour of Rhine and his wife, Louisa E. Rhine, whose own research had focused on collecting spontaneous, real-world psychic case reports rather than laboratory testing.		Rhine began his experimental work into extrasensory perception in the early 1930s, joining Professor William McDougall at the newly founded Duke University in 1927 and establishing the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory in the East Duke Building by 1935.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Rhine Center \|url=https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rhine_Center \|website=SourceWatch}}</ref> Duke provided Rhine a salary and lab space but no direct funding for his research, which instead came from outside grants.<ref name="indy">{{cite news \|title=Durham's Rhine Research Center, one of the country's last parapsychological institutes, seeks to quantify the ethereal \|url=https://indyweek.com/news/culture/durham-s-rhine-research-center-one-country-s-last-parapsychological-institutes-seeks-quantify-ethereal/ \|work=INDY Week}}</ref>

			When Rhine reached Duke's mandatory retirement age in 1965, he left the university and, with the help of benefactors including Xerox founder Chester Carlson, established an independent non-profit organisation, the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man (FRNM), based in buildings on Buchanan Avenue directly across from Duke's East Campus.<ref name="sourcewatch">{{cite web \|title=Rhine Center \|url=https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rhine_Center \|website=SourceWatch}}</ref> Carlson's gift took the form of a multimillion-dollar matching endowment that would go on to fund much of the centre's operations for decades.<ref name="indy" />

			For the next three decades, FRNM served as parent body to the Institute for Parapsychology, its research arm, and Parapsychology Press, its publishing arm — continuing to issue the ''[[Journal of Parapsychology]]'', founded by Rhine in 1937.<ref name="sourcewatch" />

			Rhine resigned as director in 1973; neither his resignation nor his death in 1980 affected the ongoing work of the institute he had built.<ref name="wiki" /> In 1995, on the centenary of Rhine's birth, FRNM was renamed the Rhine Research Center in honour of Rhine and his wife, Louisa E. Rhine, whose own research had focused on collecting spontaneous, real-world psychic case reports rather than laboratory testing.<ref name="sourcewatch" />

	== The Levy affair ==		== The Levy affair ==
	In 1974, Walter J. Levy — a medical graduate who had risen quickly to become director of the Institute for Parapsychology and Rhine's expected successor — was ~~found to have manipulated equipment during animal~~ psychokinesis ~~experiments, after colleagues grew~~ suspicious of how consistently strong his results were and secretly wired his apparatus to detect tampering. The case remains one of the most significant confirmed instances of fraud in the organisation's history.
			In the summer of 1974, Walter J. Levy Jr. — a medical graduate in his mid-twenties who had risen quickly to become director of the Institute for Parapsychology and Rhine's expected successor — was exposed as having fabricated data in an ESP/psychokinesis experiment involving rats.<ref>{{cite news \|title=Science: The Psychic Scandal \|url=https://time.com/archive/6878080/science-the-psychic-scandal/ \|work=TIME \|date=26 August 1974}}</ref> Colleagues had grown suspicious at how consistently strong his results were and secretly wired his recording apparatus to detect tampering, catching him manually interfering with the equipment to manufacture positive outcomes.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Notes on a Case of Scientific Fraud in Parapsychology \|url=https://jeksite.org/psi/fraud.htm \|website=J.E. Kennedy}}</ref>

			Confronted with the evidence, Levy admitted to falsifying the study in question but maintained that his other, already-published research was sound and had been independently replicated elsewhere; he resigned shortly afterward.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Fraud in Parapsychology and Other Sciences \|url=https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/fraud-science-and-parapsychology/ \|website=Psi Encyclopedia}}</ref> Rhine himself wrote in the following issue of the ''Journal of Parapsychology'' that the single confirmed violation nonetheless cast reasonable doubt over all of Levy's work during his time in the field.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Fraud in Parapsychology and Other Sciences \|url=https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/fraud-science-and-parapsychology/ \|website=Psi Encyclopedia}}</ref> The case remains one of the most significant confirmed instances of fraud in the organisation's history, and one frequently cited by critics of parapsychology as a whole.

	== Later leadership and mission ==		== Later leadership and mission ==
	Rhine's eldest daughter, Sally Rhine Feather, went on to ~~direct~~ the centre, continuing her parents' work. Under its modern mission statement, the Rhine Research Center describes its purpose as advancing the science of parapsychology, providing public education and resources, and fostering a community for those with a personal or professional interest in psi, alongside its original research work into ESP and psychokinesis. The centre also ~~maintains~~ the Alex Tanous Research Library, ~~supported by~~ a ~~gift~~ from the Alex Tanous Foundation of Portland, Maine.
			Rhine's eldest daughter, Sally Rhine Feather, went on to sit on the centre's board and direct much of its research and public programming, continuing her parents' work and providing what colleagues described as a living connection to the institute's founding.<ref>{{cite web \|title=My Return to the Rhine Research Center \|url=https://carlossalvarado.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/my-return-to-the-rhine-research-center/ \|website=Parapsychology (Carlos S. Alvarado)}}</ref> Feather is also credited, alongside researcher Charles Brier, with first identifying the "checker effect" — an anomaly in which the person first checking a psi experiment's results appears to influence the outcome — in a 1968 study.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Rhine Research Center \|url=https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/rhine-research-center/ \|website=Psi Encyclopedia}}</ref>

			John Kruth was hired by the centre in 2009 at Feather's urging and promoted to executive director in 2011, a period during which the organisation leaned heavily on the aging Carlson endowment to stay afloat before that fund was eventually depleted.<ref name="indy" />

			Under its modern mission statement, the Rhine Research Center describes its purpose as advancing the science of parapsychology, providing public education and resources, and fostering a community for those with a personal or professional interest in psi, alongside its original research work into ESP and psychokinesis.<ref name="rhineonline" /> The centre also maintained the Alex Tanous Research Library, a collection of more than 3,000 volumes of parapsychological and occult literature — among the five largest collections of its kind in the United States — established with support from the Alex Tanous Foundation of Portland, Maine.<ref name="indy" />

	== Recent history ==		== Recent history ==
	The centre operated from premises on Campus Walk Avenue near Duke University for nearly 25 years before closing in 2025; as of the most recent available information, it has not yet secured a new physical location.
			The centre operated from premises on Campus Walk Avenue near Duke University for nearly 25 years before closing in 2025; as of the most recent available information, it has not yet secured a new physical location.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Rhine Research Center \|url=https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/rhine-research-center/ \|website=Psi Encyclopedia}}</ref>

			== EERIE Files assessment ==

			{{VaultResearchAssessment
			\|discipline=Parapsychology
			\|research_type=Institutional research organisation — experimental and archival (ESP, psychokinesis, spontaneous case collection)
			\|primary_claim=That psi abilities such as extrasensory perception and psychokinesis exist and can be demonstrated under controlled scientific conditions
			\|key_researchers=J. B. Rhine; Louisa E. Rhine; Sally Rhine Feather; Walter J. Levy Jr.; John Kruth
			\|organisation=Successor to the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory; independent non-profit since 1965
			\|academic_status=Contested — parapsychology is regarded by most mainstream scientists as lacking reliable empirical support, and the centre's own history includes a confirmed case of researcher fraud
			\|importance=The Rhine Research Center is as close as this field gets to an establishment institution — nearly a century of continuous, deliberately scientific attempts to test claims this archive otherwise documents anecdotally. That makes both its findings and its failures unusually instructive: the Levy affair stands as one of the clearest, best-documented cases of fraud ever caught inside a parapsychology lab, while the centre's survival for sixty years on donor goodwill says almost as much about enduring public appetite for these questions as any single haunting file does. Its 2025 closure, with no new premises yet found, is itself a small case study in how fragile even the most established parapsychological institutions can be.
			}}

	== See also ==		== See also ==

	* [[J. B. Rhine]]		* [[J. B. Rhine]]
	* [[Extra-Sensory Perception (book)\|''Extra-Sensory Perception'' (1934 book)]]		* [[Extra-Sensory Perception (book)\|''Extra-Sensory Perception'' (1934 book)]]
	* [[Journal of Parapsychology]]		* [[Journal of Parapsychology]]
	* [[:Category:Parapsychology\|Parapsychology]]		* [[:Category:Parapsychology\|Parapsychology]]

			== References ==

			{{Reflist}}

	== External links ==		== External links ==

	* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Research_Center Wikipedia — Rhine Research Center]		* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Research_Center Wikipedia — Rhine Research Center]
	* [https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/rhine-research-center/ Psi Encyclopedia — Rhine Research Center]		* [https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/rhine-research-center/ Psi Encyclopedia — Rhine Research Center]
	* [https://www.rhineonline.org/about-us Rhine Research Center — About Us]		* [https://www.rhineonline.org/about-us Rhine Research Center — About Us]

			[[Category:Parapsychology]]
	[[Category:Organisations]]		[[Category:Organisations]]
			[[Category:1965 establishments]]
			[[Category:2025 disestablishments]]
			[[Category:North Carolina]]
			[[Category:Non-profit organisations]]
			[[Category:Duke University]]

GaryJJSpate: Created page with "{{OrganisationInfobox |name=Rhine Research Center |type=Non-profit parapsychology research organisation |founded=1965 (as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man) |founders=J. B. Rhine |known_for=Successor to Duke University's Parapsychology Laboratory; publisher of the Journal of Parapsychology |status=Closed (2025) — seeking new premises }} The '''Rhine Research Center''' is an American non-profit organisation devoted to parapsychological research and publi..."

2026-07-28T22:25:22Z

Created page with "{{OrganisationInfobox |name=Rhine Research Center |type=Non-profit parapsychology research organisation |founded=1965 (as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man) |founders=J. B. Rhine |known_for=Successor to Duke University's Parapsychology Laboratory; publisher of the Journal of Parapsychology |status=Closed (2025) — seeking new premises }} The '''Rhine Research Center''' is an American non-profit organisation devoted to parapsychological research and publi..."

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{{OrganisationInfobox
|name=Rhine Research Center
|type=Non-profit parapsychology research organisation
|founded=1965 (as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man)
|founders=J. B. Rhine
|known_for=Successor to Duke University's Parapsychology Laboratory; publisher of the Journal of Parapsychology
|status=Closed (2025) — seeking new premises
}}

The '''Rhine Research Center''' is an American non-profit organisation devoted to parapsychological research and public education, and the direct institutional successor to [[J. B. Rhine]]'s original Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University.

== Founding ==
When Rhine reached Duke's mandatory retirement age in 1965, he left the university and, with support from benefactors including Xerox founder Chester Carlson, established an independent non-profit organisation, the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man (FRNM), based in buildings on Buchanan Avenue directly across from Duke's East Campus. For the next three decades, FRNM served as parent body to the Institute for Parapsychology, its research arm, and Parapsychology Press, its publishing arm — continuing to issue the ''[[Journal of Parapsychology]]'', founded by Rhine in 1937.

Rhine resigned as director in 1973; neither his resignation nor his death in 1980 affected the ongoing work of the institute he had built. In 1995, on the centenary of Rhine's birth, FRNM was renamed the Rhine Research Center in honour of Rhine and his wife, Louisa E. Rhine, whose own research had focused on collecting spontaneous, real-world psychic case reports rather than laboratory testing.

== The Levy affair ==
In 1974, Walter J. Levy — a medical graduate who had risen quickly to become director of the Institute for Parapsychology and Rhine's expected successor — was found to have manipulated equipment during animal psychokinesis experiments, after colleagues grew suspicious of how consistently strong his results were and secretly wired his apparatus to detect tampering. The case remains one of the most significant confirmed instances of fraud in the organisation's history.

== Later leadership and mission ==
Rhine's eldest daughter, Sally Rhine Feather, went on to direct the centre, continuing her parents' work. Under its modern mission statement, the Rhine Research Center describes its purpose as advancing the science of parapsychology, providing public education and resources, and fostering a community for those with a personal or professional interest in psi, alongside its original research work into ESP and psychokinesis. The centre also maintains the Alex Tanous Research Library, supported by a gift from the Alex Tanous Foundation of Portland, Maine.

== Recent history ==
The centre operated from premises on Campus Walk Avenue near Duke University for nearly 25 years before closing in 2025; as of the most recent available information, it has not yet secured a new physical location.

== See also ==
* [[J. B. Rhine]]
* [[Extra-Sensory Perception (book)|''Extra-Sensory Perception'' (1934 book)]]
* [[Journal of Parapsychology]]
* [[:Category:Parapsychology|Parapsychology]]

== External links ==
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Research_Center Wikipedia — Rhine Research Center]
* [https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/rhine-research-center/ Psi Encyclopedia — Rhine Research Center]
* [https://www.rhineonline.org/about-us Rhine Research Center — About Us]

[[Category:Organisations]]