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Here is a list of past presentations at ICCH. The most recent presentation is at the top. Click on each listing to reveal more information below, including the speaker, presentation description and to access recordings.
Note: Effort has been made to ensure that the information on each presentation is accurate and up-to-date. To suggest a correction please contact the ICCH webmaster Patrick Hayes at .
Dr. Robert Thouless (1894-1984) was a psychologist with an interest in parapsychology. He wrote multiple books and coined the term “psi” (and as a note, his son, Dr. David Thouless, was a Nobel prize-winning physicist). In 1948, Robert Thouless started an interesting experiment: He published an encrypted text, while keeping the key (i.e., a password) secret. His plan was to channel the key from the beyond after his death, with the hope that if somebody in the earthly existence received this information and was able to decrypt the message with it, that this would be strong evidence that there is life after death and that the dead can communicate with the living. For redundancy, Thouless even created two different messages for the test. One was broken immediately (through non-paranormal means), so he created a third one as well. The experiment proved unsuccessful, as after Thouless’s death in 1984 nobody received a correct key from the realm of the dead. However, the three messages led to notable research works in the field of codebreaking. In this talk, Klaus and Elonka will go over Thouless’s messages and how they were broken, as well as covering the efforts of some other individuals who were or are trying to create similar experiments.
March 11, 2022
Here is a list of past presentations at ICCH. The most recent presentation is at the top. Click on each listing to reveal more information below, including the speaker, as well as the presentation date and description. Presentation recordings are available separately, in the ICCH Portal.
To view upcoming ICCH presentations, click here.
Note: Effort has been made to ensure that the information on each presentation is accurate and up-to-date. To suggest a correction please contact the ICCH webmaster Patrick Hayes at info@cryptologichistory.org.
Dr. Robert Thouless (1894-1984) was a psychologist with an interest in parapsychology. He wrote multiple books and coined the term “psi” (and as a note, his son, Dr. David Thouless, was a Nobel prize-winning physicist). In 1948, Robert Thouless started an interesting experiment: He published an encrypted text, while keeping the key (i.e., a password) secret. His plan was to channel the key from the beyond after his death, with the hope that if somebody in the earthly existence received this information and was able to decrypt the message with it, that this would be strong evidence that there is life after death and that the dead can communicate with the living. For redundancy, Thouless even created two different messages for the test. One was broken immediately (through non-paranormal means), so he created a third one as well. The experiment proved unsuccessful, as after Thouless’s death in 1984 nobody received a correct key from the realm of the dead. However, the three messages led to notable research works in the field of codebreaking. In this talk, Klaus and Elonka will go over Thouless’s messages and how they were broken, as well as covering the efforts of some other individuals who were or are trying to create similar experiments.
March 11, 2022
