Something Hidden

by Louisa E. Rhine

Foreword-Sally Rhine Feather
Introduction
Childhood & Youth
The Marines & Marriage
Graduate School & Botany
Change in Direction
Explorations in a New Field
28 Photographs
Early Years at Duke University
Parapsychology: A New Science
Precognition
Growing Pains at Home & Laboratory
Facing the Critics: A Heresy Trial
The War Years
Psychokinesis
Nonretirement
Psi Experiences
The Continuing Quest
Index-Dorothy H. Pope

303 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1983

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have an interest in the original work Duke Parapsychology Laboratory (now the Institute for Parapsychology) or in convincing proof of ESP, then you ought turn to the books by Joseph Banks and Loisa Ella Rhine or the Journal of Parapsychology. Although Ms. Rhine does give some information about their work there and does offer some opinion about the subjects of their research, this is primarily a biography of the two of them. I found it very heartwarming, their's having been an exceptionally fruitful and wholesome relationship.

Ms. Rhine is no great stylist. She writes like the University of Chicago botany researcher she was, matter-of-factly. But the facts of their humble upbringings, of their earnest adolescent debates about philosophy, of their unlikely romance, of their struggle to obtain their doctorates and of her emotional states through all of this are moving in their simplicity. Throughout, she loved and admired her friend, then husband and colleague, "Banks", and it appears that the feelings were mutual.

This book is unique in that it draws on Ms. Rhine's personal journals and the correspondence maintained by her and her husband between themselves and with others. She appears to have saved everything and to have checked her recollections against what she wrote at the time. The only failing of the book is its lack of a bibliography.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a smooth narrative but some interesting info about the Rhines, via Louisa's diaries and letters. It's odd,though--you'd never know from reading this how very exciting some of their telepathy experiments were. As the forward by her daughter says, she just wanted to write down some of her earlier memories. The Rhines show what a true meeting of the mind can be. They were truly life partners.

As an aside, Louisa Rhine had a doctorate in botany, in fact both Rhines did. She is therefore skilled in reporting minutiae, yet cannot really be called a stylist. Something Hidden should most likely be read only by die-hard parapsychology fans who would like to know more about the personal life of this pioneering couple.