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BAFFLING WORLD OF ESP, THE (TV)

Summary

A documentary about the psychic phenomenon known as extra-sensory perception, or “ESP,” narrated by Basil Rathbone.

ESP, or “extra-sensory perception” is a psychic phenomenon involving people supposedly obtaining information about people or objects without using any of their five senses. It is a mysterious phenomenon inspiring scientists the world over, such as J.B. and Louisa Rhine of Duke University, or Dr. Gardner Murphy of the American Institute for Psychical Research, to conduct formal studies of its occurrence and application. The potential impact of ESP is of great interest to many fields of study, and physicist Dr. Henry Margenau of Yale University believes that psychic phenomena will redefine what people believe they know to be true about the universe at large. Dr. Rhine conducts experiments at Yale involving special cards to test people for ESP potential. In Germany, Dr. Hans Bender, a psychologist studying the occult and paranormal, works with children he believes to exhibit psychic abilities. One child appears to have the ability to move and break objects with his mind, an ability known as psychokinesis which is usually linked with ESP. He is concerned that only certain conditions may activate such abilities, such as the frustration of the child at his unhappy living situation.

At Maimonides Hosptial in Brooklyn, New York, a study in telepathy headed by Dr. Montague Ullman and Dr. Stanley Krippner is conducted. In it, a sleeping subject’s brainwaves are monitored via EEG for dream activity, while another telepathic subject concentrates on a photograph and tries to project the image into the first subject’s dreams. The experiment seems to produce results when the sleeping man is awakened and describes a dream containing elements from the photograph, and later he selects the photograph from a number of others. In Great Britain, Spiritualism, a religious practice believing in the immortality of individual spirits and their ability to communicate with the living, has some prominence. People often seek to communicate with these spirits via mediums, who channel the spirits of the dead in what has been called another application of ESP. The 19th Century saw the height of the Spiritualist movement and the beginnings of genuine psychic research in Great Britain, such as the founding of the British Society for Psychical Research, or SPR, in 1882. The SPR conducts a number of experiments in ESP research, including with Douglas Johnson, a noted English medium. He earns a living by conducting séances, and demonstrates by apparently communicating with the spirit of the dead father of a woman he has never met before. He also channels his “spirit guide,” the deceased spirit of a Chinese man, whom he genuinely believes to be real and present within him.

In Utrecht, Holland, local legend Gerard Croiset makes his living with ESP, notably using his abilities to locate missing persons and as a psychic healer, alleviating ills using only his mind. He has garnered a reputation as a sort of “oracle” and is noted for his ability to locate drowned children in particular. Police recount working with him to solve the baffling disappearance of a young boy. Wilhelm Tanhaeff, director of the Parapsychology Institute of the State of Utrecht, conducts ESP experiments with Croiset, and firmly believes in his abilities. He notes that Croiset’s particular affinity with finding drowned children stems from having nearly drowned himself when he was a boy. Croiset believes that his abilities are divine in origin, particularly his psychic healing, which continues to elude scientific explanation. In Prague, physicist, chemist, and parapsychologist Milan Ryzl claims to have instructed a number of people on how to activate their latent ESP abilities, including one woman who was able to determine the contents of several boxes without the use of her senses. Murphy and Margenau discuss the potential impact and implications of what ESP could mean for the world at large, including the need to find a way to quantifiably define its parameters in a scientific sense. Includes commercials.

Details

  • NETWORK: ABC
  • DATE: June 16, 1966 10:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:58:35
  • COLOR/B&W: B&W
  • CATALOG ID: B:47142
  • GENRE: Public affairs/documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Public affairs/documentaries; Extrasensory perception; Psychic phenomena and the occult
  • SERIES RUN: ABC - TV, 1966
  • COMMERCIALS:
    • TV – Commercials – B.F. Goodrich tires
    • TV – Commercials – Geon vinyl

CREDITS

  • Stephen Fleischman … Producer
  • Susan Garfield … Associate Producer, Director, Writer
  • Amanda Pope … Researcher
  • Susan Garfield … Interviewer
  • Basil Rathbone … Narrator
  • Gerard Croiset … Interviewee
  • J.B. Rhine … Interviewee
  • Louisa Rhine … Interviewee
  • Gardner Murphy … Interviewee
  • Henry Margenau … Interviewee
  • Hans Bender … Interviewee
  • Montague Ullman … Interviewee
  • Stanley Krippner … Interviewee
  • Douglas Johnson … Interviewee
  • George Joy … Interviewee
  • Wilhelm Tanhaeff … Interviewee
  • Milan Ryzl … Interviewee
  • Magdalene Kelly
  • Heimal Schultz (audio id only)