Administrative Board of the Rhine Research Center

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Rhine Research Center Board of Directors

Officers:

President: Bonnie Albright, BA

Bonnie Albright holds a B.A. in philosophy/religious studies with a minor in psychology from The College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York. Her background includes study and participation in workshops on meditation, yoga science, Native American and Eastern thought. Interest in spirituality, the process of death and dying, and research on near-death experiences led to bereavement study at Maria College and work as a Community Hospice volunteer at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany. She worked for over twenty-five years in college administration and served on committees as varied as governance, accreditation, communication, fund-raising, social, and administrative searches.

Bonnie also has two years certification for paranormal studies at the Holistic Studies Institute, where experiential learning was emphasized. Her primary areas of interest are meditation, sound/chanting effects on states of consciousness, telepathy, reincarnation, OBEs and NDEs. In early 2007 she retired and relocated to Durham, NC, in order to be close to the Rhine Research Center and be actively involved. During that time, she has served as a volunteer for programs and serves on the Institutional Review Board.

Vice-President: William F. Higgins, B.S.

Mr. Bill Higgins is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, a retired Naval Reserve Captain and former FBI agent. He is a successful businessman, developer and former realtor in the New York - New Jersey area. He is very knowledgeable about and interested in the practical applications of psi. He has been an investor in psi research at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory. Mr. Higgins is a Director and Vice President of the IRVA (International Remote Viewers Association) and the SSE (Society for Scientific Exploration). As former Director of PEAR Inc, he assisted in the funding of their process patent on the effect of intention on random events. He is also a founding Director for a Charter School in the South Bronx.

Executive Director: John Kruth

John G. Kruth is the founder of the Rhine Education Center and has used his extensive technology background to help make the Rhine more accessible to a world-wide audience. He has informally studied parapsychology and PSI for over 35 years and has formally been studying research and evaluation techniques since 2008. He is completing a Masters of Science in Psychology specializing in research methods and analysis techniques and is using this knowledge to contribute to the research efforts at the Rhine including work on precognition and healing energies. He has worked in large and small organizations as a manager and an operations specialist and is bringing this expertise to the Rhine.

"The Rhine is a community of people dedicated to educating the public and to supporting the advancement of the science of parapsychology. The Rhine has always been the gold standard for scientific research in the field, and now, it has expanded to help develop a community of individuals to support scientists, academics, and those who have anomalous experiences. Through the sharing of experiences with all members of the community, the scientists can focus their efforts on practical applications for their work within the community, and experiencers can gain more knowledge about their experiences and approach them with a clearer understanding of the science."

Treasurer: Benton Bogle

Benton has taken his interests in technology, consciousness and personal growth and applied them first to a Masters degree in Education, and then into many years of work as a counselor, teacher and computer technician. Currently employed as an IT technician and trainer, he also enjoys a long relationship with the Rhine Center as a volunteer, assisting with computer and software needs. He's worked for many years with online Remote Viewing groups to help others learn about remote viewing and other PSI related interests. He helps facilitate a monthly Remote Viewing group at the Rhine Center. The group was founded to give local folks the opportunity to experience and practice their skills with like minded individuals since Benton believes that it is the relationship of the participants that is essential to PSI events.

He has done technical/computer training for a number of businesses in the Southeast, and has taught Psychology and Sociology courses at the undergraduate level in colleges in NC. He's written software for binaural-beat brain entrainment technology. He has worked in webpage design, database design and implementation, as well as project management. Enthusiastically dedicated to the science of parapsychology he continues to explore the variables involved in anomalous human experience.

Secretary: Thomas Hardison

Thomas Hardison is a Financial Advisor in the Durham, NC office of Merrill Lynch. Tom is a Durham native and graduate of NC Wesleyan College where he received a BA in English. Prior to entering the investment field he held positions as US National Marketing Director of Pirelli, an international radial tire maker and as vice president of a family-owned retail firm. Tom's relationship with the Rhine dates back to his junior high days when he prepared a science report on Parapsychology with the assistance of the Rhine staff. Since then, Tom has harbored a keen interest in the field and in The Rhine, particularly. He is especially interested in the Rhine's work on business intuition. Tom is also active in the American Heart Association and is a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow.

Barbara Ensrud

Barbara is a freelance journalist and author whose work has appeared in numerous national publications, including the Wall St. Journal, Vogue, GQ, Garden & Gun, Gastronomica, Smart Money, and Parade. She has had a lifelong interest in philosophy, art, religion, human potential and parapsychology. Since 2005 she has been a volunteer at the Rhine and co-chair of the Alex Tanous Library.

Dr. Bill Joines, PhD

Dr. Bill Joines has a B.S. and M.S. degree from N.C. State University and a Ph.D. from Duke University in electrical engineering, where he is now a Professor in the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in technical journals and numerous book chapters. Currently he has a BIAL grant for measuring and analyzing mentally induced optical photon emission from the body and electrical charge accumulation on the body of practiced healers and volunteers (shams). In the 1960's and 1970's Dr. Joines served as a consultant-investigator at the Psychical Research Foundation (PRF) with William Roll on poltergeist and haunting events, as well as in investigations of channeling or mediumship, where the goal was to record as much data using instruments as the situation allowed. Dr. Joines continues to seek a clearer understanding of the conscious and non-conscious mechanisms that drive paranormal events.

Dr. John Palmer

Dr. John Palmer received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Texas in 1969. He was on the staff of the Rhine Research Center (formerly Foundation of Research on the Nature of Man) from 1984 to 2004, serving as Director of Research from 2000 to 2004. He was Director of Education from 1988 to 2004, in which capacity he was in charge of the 8-week Summer Study Program. He has been Editor of the Journal of Parapsychology since 1994. He was President of the Parapsychological Association in 1979 and 1992. He has published numerous research articles in professional journals and is co-author of the book Foundations of Parapsychology. His research has focused primarily on psychological factors associated with ESP performance in the laboratory, and in 1979 he published a random survey of psi experiences in an American city.

Pamela St. John
Pamela has experiential learning in meditation, yoga, energy healing, shamanistic journeying, OBE’s, inter-species communication, and various other psi experiences. In the late 1970’s she volunteered at the Durham Parapsychology Research Foundation, led by Dr. William Roll. She has been doing volunteer work at the RRC since 2007, and facilitates the monthly PEG (Psi Experiences Group). She is presently working with members of the Rhine Center on a PEG Network program to spread and help facilitate such groups in new areas.

Pamela received a Bachelor in Music from Indiana University. Over the next 30 years, she proceeded to perform, teach Piano & Composition, and compose works for solo piano, chamber groups, and orchestra. Her compositions have been published and heard in various concert series, including performances by the Ciompi Quartet of Duke University in Durham, NC. She founded and directed a concert series, ComposerWorks, in Carrboro, NC, and an annual student workshop, Compose-A-Thon, for CHMTA. She was a member of the Music Advisory Panel of the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC, and later became President of the nonprofit NC Composers’ Alliance. As President, she reorganized the bylaws and introduced her pattern of ComposerWorks concerts, helping to spread them throughout cities in NC.

Nancy L. Zingrone has a PhD in psychology (University of Edinburgh), obtained doctoral candidacy in history (Duke University), an MSEd in community college education with a teaching specialty in psychology (Northern Illinois University), and a BA in psychology (Mundelein College). She has conducted experimental, historical and survey research and published widely in English, Spanish and Portuguese, mainly on the psychological characteristics of psychic experiencers, in such journals as the Australian Journal for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Imagination, Cognition and Personality, the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, as well as in the such parapsychological publications as the European Journal of Parapsychology, the Journal of Near-Death Studies, the Journal of Parapsychology, the Journal of Scientific Exploration, the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, and the Revista Argentina de Psicología Paranormal. She has received research grants from the Bial Foundation, the Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene, the Parapsychology Foundation, the Parapsychological Association Research Endowment, the Perrott Warrick Fund, and the Society for Psychical Research, and was a co-recipient of Duke University’s Anne McDougall Award. A long-time consultant, employee and now volunteer of the Parapsychology Foundation, she remains the Director of Publications and Executive Editor of the International Journal of Parapsychology. Active with the Parapsychological Association for more than twenty years including two terms as President, she was a first a Research Fellow and then a Visiting Scholar and Summer Study Program instructor at the Rhine Research Center from 1982 through 1993. Currently, she holds a joint appointment, as the Director of Academic Affairs at Atlantic University and as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Science at the University of Virginia.