Joseph Banks Rhine - Definition and Overview

Joseph Banks Rhine (September 29, 1895 - February 20, 1980) was a pioneer of parapsychology. He was educated at Ohio Northern University, the College of Wooster, and at the University of Chicago, where he received his master's degree in 1923 and Ph.D. in 1925, both in botany. In 1927 he moved to Duke University to work under Professor William McDougall. There he began the studies that helped develop parapsychology into a branch of science, today recognized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

He almost single-handedly developed methodology and concepts for parapsychology as a form of experimental psychology and founded the institutions necessary for its continuing professionalization — including the establishment of the Journal of Parapsychology and the formation of the Parapsychological Association, and the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man (FRNM), a precursor to what is today known as the Rhine Research Center.