White, Rhea A(melia) (1931-)

Prominent American parapsychologist. Born May 6, 1931, in Utica, New York, she studied at Pennsylvania State University (B.A., 1953). After graduation she spent four years as a research fellow at the Parapsychology Laboratory, Duke University (1958), became a research assistant at the Foundation for Integral Research (1959), and worked as a research and editorial associate at the American Society for Psychical Research (1959-63).

She was a charter member of the Parapsychological Association and held the offices of secretary (1958, 1962), council member (1958, 1960-63), and president (1984). She was the director of information of the American Society for Psychical Research beginning in 1965. She published a series of bibliographical articles for the successive editions of Advances in Parapsychological Research, and was editor of the Parapsychological Association's Research in Parapsychology from 1981-1985. She also edited Theta for the Psychical Research Foundation from 1981-1986. Her background in library science led to the first of a series of bibliographical publications with her 1973 Parapsychology: Sources of Information.

In 1981 she founded the Parapsychology Sources of Information Center, an organization with bibliographical control over the vast and ever-growing body of parapsychological and related material. The Psi-Line Database System was the first computerized database of the literature on psychical research and parapsychology. The center publishes Parapsychology Abstracts International, providing brief summaries of periodical literature from English, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, Polish, Japanese, and Russian researchers. The center's other important publications include bibliographies on specific paranormal topics and reading lists for students, the general public, and specialists. In 1992 White published Parapsychology: New Sources of Information and in 1994, with Michael Murphy, she wrote In the Zone: Transcendent Experience in Sports.

White also has direct involvement in parapsychological research, and quite apart form her bibliographical work, she has published on a wide variety of topics. Address: EHE Network, 414 Rockledge Rd., New Bern, NC 28562. Website: http://www.ehe.org.

Sources:

Anderson, Margaret L., and Rhea A. White. "A Survey of Work on ESP and Teacher-Pupil Attitudes." Journal of Parapsychology 22, no. 4 (1958).

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Murphy, Gardner, and Rhea White. Challenge of Psychical Research: A Primer of Parapsychology. New York: Harper & Row, 1961.

Murphy, Michael, and Rhea A. White. The Psychic Side of Sports. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1978.

Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.

White, Rhea. "Comparison of Old and New Methods of Response to Targets in ESP Experiments." Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 58 (1964): 21-56.

——. "Depth Perspectives and Experimental Parapsychology." International Journal of Parapsychology 2, no. 2 (1960).

——. "ESP Score Level in Relation to Students' Attitudes Toward Teacher-Agents Acting Simultaneously." Journal of Parapsychology 22, no. 1 (1958).

——. "The Relationship Between Changes in Student Attitude and ESP Scoring." Journal of Parapsychology 22, no. 3 1958.

White, Rhea, and Laura A. Dale. Parapsychology: Sources of Information. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1973.