In the past month I had the opportunity to connect with the work of J. B. RHINE and ERVIN LASZLO, two great men in the field of consciousness research and theory; and it gave me pause to reflect on how far we have progressed over the last century.

While on vacation last month I stopped at Duke University in Durham, NC to visit the
Rhine Research Center, founded by J. B. RHINE (1895-1980). Rhine is the father of scientific research of psi phenomena, a parapsychologist who coined the term extra sensory perception or more commonly known as ESP. He started his work at Duke in 1927 after listening to a lecture on spiritualism by Arthur Conan Doyle.
In the center’s small museum are the early machines and tools used to test telekinesis and copies of the publications that reported on his ground breaking work. You’ll also find the Zenar cards he developed and used to test precognition. Zenar cards are the five card set of star, circle, wave, square and cross you may have experimented with yourself. Rhine founded the institutions necessary for parapsychology's continuing professionalization in the U.S., including the establishment of the Journal of Parapsychology and the formation of the Parapsychological Association. He took psi from seance parlor to laboratory, establishing it as a branch of experimental psychology. Rhine showed the phenomena was real, but he could only speculate on how it happened.

Last weekend I attended a lecture by
ERVIN LASZLO in Milford, CT sponsored by The Graduate Institute. Laszlo is not a household name either, but has become for me one of the most important people in the field. Laszlo, now 77, has written over 80 books and was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. His current work focuses on bringing attention to the sustainablility crisis and the need to shift if we want to survive for another generation. His arguments come from science more than spirituality, but with all the focus on 2012 it’s a convenient focal point for urging people and governments to take action now.