Content area
Full Text
E. (Eric) Douglas Dean, one of parapsychology's most brilliant innovators, died on August 15, 2001. Douglas was a gentle, charming man, so modest that few in parapsychology knew his varied accomplishments, or recognized the profound implications of his research.
Consider, for example, his most recent major work, a series of experiments on PK (Dean, 1983). It combined two of his lifelong interests: electrochemistry and psychic healing. He had the insight to see an important possible meaning in what Grad (1964) had reported but dismissed as a probable artifact. Water held by a healer may have shown an unusual reaction to infrared light at a very high frequency, but these hints of an effect were disregarded because the measuring instrument was inaccurate at that high frequency. Dean decided to investigate whether the effect was authentic.
Instruments sensitive at that high frequency existed but were too expensive for him to buy. The first task Dean set himself was obtaining the use of one. He encountered a series of frustrating difficulties, but after years of effort found one that he could borrow for a limited time. His next task was implementing the procedure that would make best use of its measurements. This demanded that he secure the full cooperation of powerful healers.
His years of devoted work on healing gave him access to powerful healers. To enlist their cooperation, he showed what is (unfortunately) a rare sensitivity to the way they use their abilities. How would they be at their best? When healing someone who needed them, and when working under the conditions natural for them. This precluded taking them to a laboratory or imposing other restrictions, such as preset timing. Douglas instead brought the laboratory to them. He had them, while engaged in their usual healing, wear a flask of water that he provided. The flask was unobtrusive; healing could be conducted as it would ordinarily be. It...