GW Fisk (1882-1972) was a British experimental parapsychologist who made a notable contribution to ESP research.
Life and Career
George William Fisk was born in Liverpool and studied at London University and Victoria University, first in medicine, then in divinity. He taught in China for the China Inland Mission, and lectured in physics at Chi-lu University, Shantung, between 1908 and 1915. For the remainder of World War I he served as British vice-consul at the Chinese Emigration Bureau Centre in North China. He was labour superintendent of Kailan Mining Administration from 1919 to 1930.
In 1930 Fisk returned to the UK and began carrying out ESP research with the Society for Psychical Research, which he had joined while in China. During the 1940s he worked at the Ministry of Aircraft Production, returning to research activities in 1949.
Psychical Research in China
In China, Fisk became fascinated by the ESP capabilities he observed in some Chinese people. He carried out rough experiments, with results that he said were sometimes ‘remarkable’. He was also struck by people who could correctly indicate the points of the compass, even in complete darkness. He experimented successfully with ‘some dozens’ of his Chinese students but when he used Europeans as controls they failed.1
Fisk was also impressed by the many tales of poltergeist activity that seemed to occur in China.2
ESP Research
He returned to England in 1930 and in 1934 was asked by GNM Tyrrell to take part in ESP tests with Gertrude Johnson. He later stated that ‘…her scores were of a significance sufficiently high to undermine my persistent lingering doubts as to the genuineness of ESP phenomena’.3 He devised an electronic machine which according to Tyrrell seemed to facilitate significant results.4
The following year he published a critique of radiation theory as an explanation of telepathy and clairvoyance,5 citing information he had gained while in China.
Fisk believed that quantitative research was more likely to produce tangible results than working with ‘gifted’ individuals and looked for innovative ways of boosting positive scores. Collaborating with Fraser Nicol and Donald West, he introduced into his ESP experiments a new technique of scoring with ‘clock-cards’ that allowed the assessment of near-misses as well as direct hits.6 Another innovation was the use of erotic symbols as ESP targets, following Freud’s suggestion that ‘repressed emotional complexes provide good material for telepathy’.7 (This approach has since often been used by parapsychologists, for instance Daryl Bem, on the premise that erotic material has a stronger impact than ordinary images.)
Fisk continued his ESP experiments with a vigour that was only limited by his other work as a member of the SPR council (from 1950) and the editor of the SPR Journal and Proceedings from 1957 until 1965. He was a vice-president of the SPR from 1963 until his death in 1972.
Donald West, bewailing the state of parapsychology in Britain, wrote: ‘The yield in the last few years would have been poor indeed but for the work of one individual in particular, Mr G.W. Fisk’.8 In 1958 he received the McDougall Award for distinguished work in parapsychology (jointly with West) for their paper ‘Psychokinetic Experiments with a Single Subject’.
Fisk was tentative about the reality of ESP at first but became convinced of it by his experiments. He considered that the faculty for it is widely, if sparsely spread, and that
the mood of a percipient is an important factor in success; that some sort of sympathetic rapport between agent and percipient is of value; and also, although it cannot be considered proved, it appears likely that the mood [and] personality … of the experimenter himself, apart from the agents and percipients employed, has some bearing on the success or failure of the experiments performed.9
All of these views, now commonplace in parapsychology, were at the time just beginning to become established.
Selected Publications
Articles
Correspondence: The Ear of Dionysius (1924). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 21, 335.
Correspondence: The psychology of testimony (1932). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 27, 291.
Correspondence: Spirit Photography (1933). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 28, 45-46.
Correspondence (1934). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 28, 241.
Criticism of a radiation theory as an explanation of telepathy or clairvoyance (1935). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 29, 35-36.
Note on Mr Tyrrell’s remarks (1938). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 30, 226-27.
Correspondence (1950). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 35, 198-99.
Home-testing ESP experiments: A preliminary report (1951). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 36, 369-70.
ESP experiments with an infant as subject (1951). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 36, 502-504.
Home-testing ESP experiments second report (1951). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 36, 518-20.
An ESP experiment with a double target (1951, with D.J. West). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 36, 520.
ESP experiments with clock cards: A new technique with differential scoring (1953, with A.M.J. Mitchell). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 37, 1-14.
The application of differential scoring methods to PK tests (1953, with A.M.J. Mitchell). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 37, 45-61.
Experimental work (1953). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 37, 65-67.
ESP experiments with clock cards: A correction (1953, with A.M.J. Mitchell). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 37, 95.
A dual ESP experiment with clock cards (1953, with D.J. West). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 37, 185-97.
ESP tests with erotic symbols (1955, with D.J. West). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 38, 1-7.
ESP tests with erotic symbols corrections (1955, with D.J. West). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 38, 134-36.
Poltergeists: Some simple experiments and tests (1956). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 38, 201-11.
ESP and mood: Report of a ‘mass’ experiment (1956, with D.J. West). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 38, 320-29.
Towards accurate predictions (1957, with D.J. West). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 39, 157-62.
How primitive is ESP? (1957). Tomorrow. Spring.
We card-guessers (1957) Tomorrow. Winter.
Psychokinetic experiments with a single subject (1957, with D.J. West). Parapsychology Newsletter, November-December.
Correspondence (1958, with D.J. West). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 39, 257.
Dice-casting experiments with a single subject (1958, with D.J. West). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 39, 277-87.
Book Reviews
The Rhodes Experiment: Linkage in Extra-sensory Perception by M.C. Marsh (1960). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 40, 219-39.
Training the Psi Faculty by Hypnosis by Dr Milan Ryzl (1962). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 41, 234-52.
Hidden Channels of the Mind by Mrs Rhine (1961). Journal of Parapsychology 25, December.
Psychodynamic Experiments in Telepathy by Berthold E. Schwarz (1964). Reprinted from Corrective Psychiatry and Journal of Social Therapy. 9 April 1963. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 42, 309-16.
Parapsychology from Duke to F.R.N.M. by J.B. Rhine and Associates and Ten Years of Activities by the Parapsychology Foundation Inc. (1966). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 43, 367-70.
The Unexplained: Some Strange Cases of Psychical Research by Andrew MacKenzie (1967). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 44, 38-41.
The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin by P.D. Ouspensky (1967). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 44, 207-208.
Parapsychology Today. New Writings on ESP, Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Precognition, PK, Mind over Matter edited by J.B. Rhine and R. Brier (1969). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 45, 179-82.
The Evil Eye: The Origins and Practices of Superstition by Frederick Thomas Elworthy (1971). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 46, 195-97.
Melvyn Willin
Literature
Fisk, G.W. (1935). Criticism of a radiation theory as an explanation of telepathy or clairvoyance. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 39, 35-36.
Fisk, G.W. and Mitchell, A.M.J. (1953). ESP experiments with clock cards: A new technique with differential scoring. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 37, 1-14.
Fisk, G.W. and West, D.J. (1955). ESP tests with erotic symbols. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 38, 1-7.
Heywood, R. (1973). G.W. Fisk and ESP. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47, 24-30.
Tyrrell, G.N.M. (1936). Further results in extra-sensory perception. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 44, 99-167.
West, D.J. and Fisk, G.W. (1953). A dual ESP experiment with clock cards. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 37, 185-97.
West, D.J. (1954). Experimental parapsychology in Britain. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 37, 323-45.