He was from then on, just the director of the private Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie and Psychohygiene at the Eichhalde. I contacted Professor Bender for the first time in March 1954 to ask him whether his institute published a journal. But this was then not yet the case. A loose connection with him has not been severed since. In 1961 I began to prepare experiments in regards to the psychokinetic influence during random processes. This refers to the mental, spiritual influence on processes of coincidence. A so-called random generator is for instance the known six-sided dice with numbers 1 to 6. Attempts to influence the process of throwing a dice has been undertaken successfully in the USA by the then well-known biologist and parapsychologist Professor Joseph B. Rhine (1895 – 1980) with numerous test subjects. Attempts were made, through purely mental effort, to preferably throw the number 5 for instance, that is to say, to go beyond the probability of 1/6. This actually succeeded with some of the test subjects. This made Rhine very famous in relevant circles. In the 50s, I professionally developed an electronic cube for telex encryption purposes that produced random numbers from zero to 31 by utilising the radioactive decay of Caesium. As this apparatus was produced for military purposes and used by NATO, I constructed a smaller electronic cube for private purposes, one that didn’t utilise radioactivity and therefore could only randomly produce the numbers zero or 1. The cube utilised a not too frequency-constant multi vibrator whose vibration frequency was prompted to produce even or odd numbers at intervals. I used this small apparatus to experiment with psychic and non-psychic people to see whether they could mentally influence the random number distribution. I reported these experiments to Professor Bender, because he planned to carry out similar attempts at his institute and therefore showed an interest for my test arrangement. My attempts unfortunately remained unsuccessful, because I could not find sufficient numbers of suitable test subjects or find the time to carry out this massive series of tests. Whether Bender’s Institute succeeded escapes my knowledge. They apparently succeeded in the USA. As Bender became publicly extremely well-known, the opponents of everything paranormal had their sight set mainly on him. They also shone a light on his past to see whether they could find a skeleton in his cupboard. – And they found it. They couldn’t actually find his medical PhD thesis. The German magazine Der Stern, issue 10/1977 published the following article: “The doctor from the hereafter? The spook professor Hand Bender from Freiburg must deal with a new enigma: Where does he get his second doctor title from?” This report asserts with tongue in cheek that no medical dissertation or doctoral certificate could be found in regards to Bender. The reports ends with: “The fact that Bender is also listed as a doctor of medicine and possible isn’t one does actually verify: The paranormal does really exist! The supporters of the supernatural will rub their hands together, because spook, witchcraft and miracles are therefore not figments of imagination from mankind’s dark periods, but facts. One is finally able here to grasp the ungraspable, even if doubters impertinently assert: It cannot be grasped!” This was extraordinarily embarrassing for Bender and I also found it largely incomprehensible. If he had actually graduated, he would have carefully saved his graduation papers and also made sure that his PhD thesis was duly registered at all German universities or published in newspapers. His PhD supervisor should also have ensured that this was happening. He did indeed not graduate in
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI1MzY3