InPresence 214Reflections on The PK Man (Jeff interviews himself)
…Well, I don't think it's well understood that Ted Owens had quite a deep relationship with J.B. and Louisa Rhine. I hope I'm pronouncing it correctly. I believe it is “Louisa” not “Louisa.” In any case, he describes how they held seances in their home when he first moved to Durham, North Carolina and that he himself was the center of those seances. He said he didn't go into trance but he was able to create raps or noises. He said it was perhaps the heating system, the radiators. Then he would say, “Okay, two raps for yes, one rap for no.” And they were getting these raps or these clanging sounds. This happened on a number of occasions. I don't think this sort of thing has ever been reported. He also claimed that while he was working for J.B. Rhine they had a conflict, a minor conflict really because Ted Owens was acting as a typist and a part-time researcher, really a research assistant type of stenographer. He was taking dictation, he was typing, he was preparing the book. He was upset that Rhine wouldn't give him any credit in the book itself. Of course, that was Rhine's decision. And he asked for a raise to boot because he said he was working like twelve hours a day and being paid for eight hours and he didn't get a raise. So, a conflict developed there. But overall he found Rhine to be a wonderful loving man. Both J.B. and Louisa rRhine he described as sort of substitute parents to him. They invited him to dinner at their house often. He would eat with the family. He said when he went on dates there in Durham he actually... well, I'm tripping over my words because there's so much to the story. He went on dates and Louisa said to him, “Look, I know most of the students at Duke here,” which was a rather expensive university. They have their own cars. They take their dates out in their cars. She said, “We know you don't. If you'd like to you can bring your dates over to our house. You can sit in our parlor with your dates.” And he would do that.…
