Overview

John G. Kruth has established himself as a multifaceted contributor to contemporary parapsychology, combining empirical investigation, methodological critique, and editorial leadership. His research spans three primary domains: applied remote viewing with financial applications, poltergeist and electronic anomalies, and the theoretical foundations of parapsychological practice. Kruth’s work is distinguished by attention to practical constraints (such as the role of judges in remote viewing protocols) and by engagement with phenomena that sit at the boundary between parapsychology and adjacent fields such as electromagnetic bioeffects and possession studies.

Based at the Rhine Research Center, Kruth has contributed to the field through peer-reviewed research articles, book reviews, and editorial leadership in major parapsychology journals. His publications reflect a commitment to both rigorous experimental design and openness to qualitative and exploratory methodologies when quantitative approaches reach their limits. This balance has positioned him as a voice for methodological pluralism within parapsychology at a time when the field faces pressure to adopt exclusively quantitative standards.

Life and career

Kruth’s career in parapsychology has centered on the Rhine Research Center in Durham, North Carolina, an institution with deep historical roots in experimental psi research. The Rhine Research Center, formerly known as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man, was established by J. B. Rhine and continues to serve as a hub for parapsychological investigation and archival preservation.

Within this institutional context, Kruth has pursued both original empirical research and scholarly engagement with the field’s literature and history. His work with the archives at the Rhine Research Center has given him access to historical documentation that has informed his investigations into landmark cases in parapsychology. Notably, his engagement with archival materials led to the discovery and analysis of previously unpublished documents related to the 1949 Mount Rainier possession case, a pivotal moment in the intersection of parapsychology and popular culture.

Kruth has also assumed editorial responsibilities, serving as editor or associate editor for major journals in the field. Through editorials published in the Journal of Parapsychology, he has articulated positions on evolving methodological and theoretical questions facing the discipline, including the role of experimenter psi in research outcomes and the changing institutional and cultural landscape of parapsychology in the 21st century.

Research

Associative Remote Viewing and Applied Psi

Kruth’s most extensively documented empirical work concerns associative remote viewing (ARV), a protocol in which remote viewers attempt to predict future events (typically financial market movements) by generating descriptions or drawings that are later matched to target images by an independent judge. The judge’s task is to determine which of the viewers’ descriptions best matches the actual target image that was randomly selected after the viewing session.

In a 2021 study, Kruth examined the role of the judge and the investment instrument in ARV protocols designed to generate financial returns.¹ The research involved three viewers making weekly predictions about stock movements. Two images were selected to represent different market states (value increase or decrease), and a judge reviewed the viewers’ information to determine investment direction. The study included three protocols: the first with an experienced judge, the second with a second judge blinded to the study’s hypothesis, and the third with a mock investment instrument also blinded to participants.

The results demonstrated that the second judge performed at a significantly lower accuracy level than the first judge (p < .05) and performed significantly below chance expectation (p = .02; effect size = –1.498; power > .80).¹ Both judges showed significantly different performance on target investments compared to control investments, suggesting that judges’ decisions are systematically influenced by the nature of the target rather than responding uniformly to all investment scenarios.¹ Although the study was limited by small sample size and a restricted number of sessions, Kruth concluded that judge selection is as critical to ARV success as viewer qualification, and he recommended that future ARV projects implement formal qualification procedures for judges comparable to those used for viewers.

This work addresses a practical gap in ARV methodology: while considerable attention has been devoted to viewer selection and training, the judge’s role (which is equally determinative of outcome) has received less systematic scrutiny. By demonstrating that judge performance can vary dramatically and can even fall below chance, Kruth highlighted a potential source of failure in applied remote viewing projects that had not been adequately controlled in prior research.

Poltergeist Phenomena and Electronic Anomalies

Kruth has also investigated poltergeist phenomena, particularly cases involving apparent electronic disturbances. In collaboration with W. T. Joines, he developed an approach toward addressing what he terms “apparent electronic poltergeist activity.”³ This work integrates electromagnetic measurement with phenomenological observation, recognizing that poltergeist cases often involve reports of electrical or electronic malfunctions alongside more traditional physical phenomena.

Kruth’s engagement with poltergeist research extends to theoretical and philosophical dimensions. In a 2023 editorial, he examined the relationship between archetypes, psi, and poltergeist phenomena, situating 21st-century poltergeist cases within both historical context and contemporary psychological frameworks.⁶ This work reflects his broader commitment to integrating parapsychological phenomena with adjacent theoretical domains, including depth psychology and systems theory.

Methodological and Qualitative Approaches

Kruth has contributed to parapsychology’s methodological toolkit by articulating the value of qualitative research approaches. In a 2015 publication, he examined five qualitative research methodologies and their applications within parapsychology.² This work is significant because parapsychology has historically been dominated by quantitative, statistical approaches, and qualitative methods have sometimes been marginalized as insufficiently rigorous. Kruth’s systematic treatment of qualitative approaches (including case study, phenomenological, grounded theory, and other methods) provides parapsychologists with frameworks for investigating phenomena that may not yield readily to quantitative standardization, such as spontaneous cases, witness interviews, and complex multi-factor phenomena like poltergeists.

Electromagnetic Bioeffects and Human Intention

In collaboration with W. T. Joines and S. B. Baumann, Kruth investigated electromagnetic emission from humans during focused intention.⁷ This work bridges parapsychology with bioelectromagnetics, exploring whether intentional mental states are associated with measurable electromagnetic signatures. Such research is relevant to understanding potential mechanisms by which psi effects might operate and to investigating claims of electromagnetic sensitivity in poltergeist cases.

Historical and Archival Research

Kruth’s engagement with parapsychological history has yielded significant contributions to understanding landmark cases. His review of Sergio Rueda’s book on the Mount Rainier possession case documents how Rueda, while researching poltergeist activity at the Rhine Research Center, discovered a previously unpublished document (the Jesuit Report) that contained detailed observations of the 1949 case that inspired William Peter Blatty’s novel The Exorcist.⁴ This case is historically significant because it represents one of the few instances in which parapsychological researchers (including J. B. Rhine) were involved in investigating a claim of demonic possession, and because it later became the basis for one of the most culturally influential horror narratives of the 20th century.

Kruth’s review of this work highlights the importance of archival preservation and the potential for historical documents to illuminate both the nature of anomalous phenomena and the history of parapsychology’s engagement with extraordinary claims.

Influence and reception

Kruth’s contributions to parapsychology have been recognized through publication in peer-reviewed journals and through his editorial roles. His ARV research has direct implications for practitioners attempting to apply remote viewing to financial prediction, a domain in which parapsychology has long sought practical validation. By identifying judge qualification as a critical variable, his work provides actionable guidance for future applied psi projects.

His methodological work on qualitative approaches has contributed to an ongoing conversation within parapsychology about the appropriate balance between quantitative rigor and exploratory investigation. As parapsychology has faced pressure to conform to mainstream scientific standards, voices advocating for methodological pluralism (such as Kruth’s) have helped preserve space for investigation of phenomena that resist easy quantification.

Through his editorial work, Kruth has shaped discourse within the field on evolving questions. His editorials on experimenter psi and on the changing institutional and cultural landscape of parapsychology have provided platforms for reflection on how the field understands its own practice and its place within broader scientific and cultural contexts.⁵⁸

Kruth’s engagement with historical cases and archival materials has also contributed to parapsychology’s self-understanding as a discipline with a significant history. By bringing attention to previously undisclosed documents and by situating contemporary phenomena within historical context, he has helped maintain the field’s connection to its own past and to the broader cultural narratives, such as The Exorcist, that have shaped public perception of parapsychological phenomena.

His work remains active and ongoing, with recent publications addressing contemporary questions in parapsychology and continuing investigation of phenomena at the intersection of psi research, electromagnetic effects, and anomalous psychology. The Rhine Research Center, where Kruth is based, continues to serve as a locus for such research, maintaining the institutional continuity that has characterized parapsychology since Rhine’s foundational work in the early 20th century.