The Psychic Horse: Lady Wonder

There are two distinct types of people. Those who feel there can be some sort of ‘psychic’ connection between pets and owners – and – those who think there cannot be any sort of ‘telepathic’ connection between pets and owners because there is no such thing as telepathy or psychic abilities. There are those who understand that many animals can experience thoughts and emotions not dissimilar to what we feel as people – and – there are those who feel there is no proof animals can experience emotions or possess intelligence such as humans posses.

Those who believe that animals can exhibit psychic-like awareness (especially pets with whom we form a special bond) usually feel defensive about their beliefs. They are often confronted with skeptical questions like, "What possible proof is there that pets can know what we’re thinking?". Ah! Glad you ask! There is the true story of Lady Wonder, at one time called the ‘mind-reading horse’. Lady Wonder also exhibited what can only be called psychic-like talents. Many have sought to bury, erase the story of this remarkable animal because the story is just too inconvenient to categorize. However, the story of Lady Wonder (and her guardian Claudia Fonda) just doesn’t want to go away. It is likely the most documented case of an animal exhibiting telepathic and psychic abilities in modern history.

lady wonder and claudia

Lady Wonder with loving handler and guardian Claudia Fonda

Lady Wonder’s Story Begins

The story of Lady Wonder has actually been around a long time. She is a small legend in the equestrian community. Likely because the story of Lady Wonder reveals the kind of intelligence (and even humor) that horse lovers know horses can possess. Lady Wonder was born in Chesterfield County, Virginia, in 1924. Within a few weeks her mother died. The infant horse would still need to wean three to six months in order to survive. Lady Wonder was lucky, she became a gift to Claudia D. Fonda from her husband Clarence Fonda. Claudia was familiar with horses having raised and trained Shetland ponies, but she was far from an expert on horses. Claudia Fonda would bottle feed Lady Wonder, let the colt follow her everywhere and interact with the horse much as a mother would with a child.

Acquiring some large block with letters on them, Claudia Fonda and Lady Wonder would play games, not unlike with any child. Sometimes Claudia Fonda would spell out words and tell Lady Wonder what they meant. At two years old, Lady Wonder would play with other children, sometimes engaging in a game called ‘hide the thimble’ (ah, those simpler times before TV and computers when kids and animals actually played outside together). Lady Wonder not only understood the game, she would always find the thimble. Clarence and Claudia Fonda also began to notice Lady Wonder would come running just before they would call her. Both began to feel there was something very special about Lady Wonder.

Clarence Fonda worked at the local ironworks and by all accounts was good at working with his hands. He devised and built a contraption that would allow Lady Wonder to communicate. Basically, Clarence built a horse typewriter. The letters and numbers faced Lady Wonder and she could nudge up a matching letter/number facing outwards towards a person asking a question. One day Lady Wonder typed out E-N-G-I-N-E and a few minutes later a tractor came by. When friends or relatives visited, everyone wanted to see Lady Wonder and her strange typewriter. Word traveled and it wasn’t long before visitors came by and asked if they could ‘talk’ with Lady Wonder. Most were flat out amazed. Here was a horse who seemed to speak English.

Teaching a horse to communicate with English is, in itself, a remarkable accomplishment. Yes, horses can learn basic commands. But, it is another thing for a horse to answer questions. Such a thing hadn’t been seen since Beautiful Jim Key (1889-1912), the ‘educated horse’, who entertained millions following the Civil War. Like Lady Wonder, the horse named Beautiful Jim Key is largely forgotten in history. Just as most ‘serious’ scientists were unwilling to accept Beautiful Jim Key’s intelligence as a horse during his time, so were ‘serious’ scientists unwilling to examine Lady Wonder in her time.

Even today, scientists are still arguing over whether KoKo the Gorilla who learned American Sign Language and began ‘talking’ with her handler was really communicating. Such intelligence was (and largely still is) taboo for animals to have. The leading theory when KoKo first began to communicate with her handler was that the animal was just mimicking her handler. Animals only operate on instinct, incapable of reasoning or thought. Many still hold that position, today, despite overwhelming evidence that KoKo the Gorilla not only was capable of conversing in sign language, but capable of complex emotions such as happiness, sadness, depression, grief and so forth. In the case of Lady Wonder, the talking horse, things would become even more challenging to understand. It’s bad enough to have talking animals, but when animals begin to exhibit paranormal abilities … it’s like Disney taking control of reality … a terrifying prospect to many people on many levels.

The Talking Horse Becomes the Mind Reading Horse

What started out as an entertaining diversion, Lady Wonder the Talking Horse, quickly became a more compelling story. Many of Lady Wonder’s first visitors just ask simple questions, such as, "Where is the woman in the pink dress?", at which Lady Wonder would gesture with her head towards a woman with a pink dress. It wasn’t long before visitors began asking trick questions like, "what am I holding in my pocket?", to which Lady Wonder responded by typing out K-N-I-F-E, which was correct. Another time a gentleman pulled a coin from his pocket and ask Lady Wonder, "What is the date on the coin I am holding", to which Lady Wonder nosed-out 1-9-1-4, which was the correct answer. Another time a woman ask Lady Wonder the name of the child next to her, to which Lady responded by typing out L-E-R-O-Y … again, correct. This is not to say Lady Wonder was always correct. Nor was her spelling always perfect. But her ‘hits’ were too numerous to be chance and impressive enough to keep the people coming back and telling others of this amazing horse.

lady wonder psychic horse ad By 1927, Lady Wonder had caught the attention of Joseph Banks Rhine, a professor at Duke University, who had a serious interest in studying what was then called ‘telepathy’. J. B. Rhine would go on to be called the ‘father of parapsychology’, in fact he coined the term ‘parapsychology’. He would also coin the term ‘extrasensory perception’, or, ESP for short. Rhine had actually debunked other supposedly ‘talking animals’ by revealing that owners and/or handlers were (consciously or unconsciously) cueing animals on how to respond to questions. He also had investigated/debunked several psychics, which in one case drew the ire of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who called Professor Rhine and "Ass" for doing so. Still, Rhine felt there seemed to be something to the phenomena called ‘telepathy’ and began applying science towards to better understanding of this phenomena.

Between December 1926 and January 1927, J. B. Rhine PhD, his wife Louisa Rhine PhD, William McDougall (Professor of Psychology at Duke University who’d also taught at Oxford University and Harvard) made the brave decision to formally test Lady Wonder for telepathy and ESP – something for which the scientific community would never forgive them. The results were published in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol. 23, 1929. The conclusion of the researchers was that Lady Wonder exhibited telepathic ability. J. B. Rhine and company ran experiments and tests using blindfolds (as best as a horse could tolerate); eliminating Claudia Fonda as an influence by keeping her still and largely out of sight; they used sets of random numbers and letters for Lady Wonder to guess; they used cards with pictures/designs which a researcher held and Lady Wonder had to identify.

In Rhine’s research he and his team showed that Lady Wonder’s correct responses to questions were above statistic coincidence. In April 1928, J. B. Rhine and some of this team returned to see the Fonda’s and Lady Wonder for some additional testing (additional controlled tests to further remove Claudia Fonda as a possible influence in Lady Wonder’s answers). In Rhine’s final notes he expresses the notion Lady Wonder appeared to have a great telepathic connection with Claudia Fonda, and could exhibit an almost telepathic connection with others, there were limits. With some people Lady just didn’t seem to make the same connection. As any pet owner can attest, sometimes a pet can make great connections with some of a pet owner’s friends, but not all.

Rhine also describes an almost trace-like state the Lady Wonder enters when answering questions. At this time, 1928, Lady Wonder was still a youngster, and as such sometimes a bit rebellious. Rhine wonders, in his notes, what Lady might display in ESP at a later age with more training. When Rhine’s results were published he took considerable criticism from skeptics and the scientific community for even attempting to test an animal for telepathic ability. Rumor has it that Rhine would later be forced to revisit Lady Wonder and write that it was possible Claudia Fonda was cueing Lady Wonder, but refused to withdraw his original study. Go HERE to obtain copy of original research.

It would seem Lady Wonder didn’t care if people disbelieved or believed in ‘telepathy’. What she would do is begin displaying even more impressive psychic talents, as impressive as any noted human psychic.

Mind Reading Horse Becomes Psychic Horse

Around July 1927 other groups of interested scientists came to visit Lady Wonder. Among them was Dr. Franklin Johnson, professor of psychology at the University of Richmond accompanied by Dr. R. F. Gayle, Neurologist and Dr. H. D. C. Machlachlan. Dr. Johnson wanted to remove Claudia Fonda as much as possible from the equation in testing Lady. What better way to do that than asking questions that Claudia Fonda didn’t know answer. Part of Dr. Johnson’s experiments also involved not allowing Claudia Fonda to have any physical contact with Lady as he asked his questions, and, having Claudia Fonda turning her back and close her eyes while questions were put to Lady Wonder.

Dr. Johnson also wanted to test a theory put forth by critics that Lady Wonder was ‘reading’ people’s facial expresses as she gave her answers. Many skeptic felt Lady Wonder was just a recreation of the ‘intelligent’ horse called Clever Hans. It has been theorized that Clever Hans was able to provide the correct answers to questions because the horse could read small changes in people’s facial and bodily expressions called ‘visual cues’ (based on a concept called ideomotor reaction). One of Dr. Johnson’s tests involved not allowing Lady Wonder to see anyone’s expressions before answering questions. Rhine seems to have run a similar test mentioned in his report. After his testing Dr. Johnson would comment that he felt it was possible Lady Wonder was reading people for visual cues, but, how she could give correct answers when she could not see the questioner, or, when no one knew the correct answer at the time implied there were mental influences involved not well understood. "The indications are that purely mental influence may be the cause of this phenomena. … I am convinced the owner and trainer are honest"(REF: The Index-Journal Newspaper, South Carolina, July 1927).

It wasn’t long before a number of newspapers began reporting on this remarkable clairvoyant horse. This resulted in many people wanting to ‘talk’ to Lady Wonder. Suddenly this equine marvel was becoming a must-see tourist attraction and Virginia’s most famous horse. For a time, Claudia Fonda never asked for payment. She eventually decided that if the public wanted to talk with her horse, they need to compensate her and her husband for their time, effort and hospitality. So, Claudia Fonda began collecting $1 for 3 questions for adults (with a special discount for children).

Eventually, Claudia began traveling Lady Wonder to various events, if for no other reason than to get all the strangers out of her front yard. Claudia would call Lady Wonder her ‘educated horse’, likely a nod to the remarkably intelligent horse Beautiful Jim Key, a horse who became a champion for the American Humane Society and American Society for the Cruelty to Animals during the late 1800s. It is fair to say that the horse called Beautiful Jim Key, and his handler, William Key, were the first nationally recognized advocates for animal rights (way ahead of their time).

lady wonder in the newsDuring one of Lady Wonder’s performances, in April 1930, at the Pimlico horse race track in Baltimore, Maryland, the ‘psychic horse’ was asked to pick that day’s winning horses. After the races were run, bookmakers figured out that with a $6 bet a person could have won $151.90 based on Lady Wonder’s predictions. The main complaint about Lady appeared to be she sometimes had trouble correctly spelling the winning horse’s names (REF: Amers Daily Tribune Newspaper, April, 1930).

After a time, Claudia Fonda stopped taking questions that involved gambling. She would on occasion allow questions about major sporting events. For example, over 17 years Lady Wonder correctly picked the winner of the World Series 14 times. She picked Jack Dempsey would defeat Jack Sharkey in a championship fight, as well as picking the winner in 3 other prominent heavyweight fights.

When asked what the most common question Lady Wonder received, Claudia Fonda replied that questions about love were most typical (whether human or animal psychic love readings are always the most popular. It was with one such question Lady Wonder displayed her sense of humor. When asked by a gentleman if his wife was faithful, Lady snorted and typed out, "Are you!". Another time Lady annoyed a couple by appropriately pointing out that they were not married, although they had been ‘pretending’ that they were for some time.

In 1932 Lady Wonder picked Franklin Roosevelt to win the Presidency of the United States before Roosevelt was even nominated. She would go on to pick Roosevelt to win all 3 of his re-elections. On the flip side, Lady did pick Dewey to beat Truman in 1948, but then, so did everyone else. When asked how she could be wrong about Dewey winning over Truman, Lady Wonder responded "Funny, he too sure!". Lady predicted that the United States would enter World War II a year before the U.S. declared war on Germany and Japan in 1941.

In 1946 more psychic ‘investigators’ arrived at the Fonda’s little farm interested in testing Lady Wonder. Dr. Thomas Garrett (a noted New York psychologist) and Lesley Kuhn, had investigated and exposed a number of mind reading and fortune telling acts across the country. They wanted to ‘test’ Lady and publish their results in a monthly psychology digest called ‘Your Mind’. Dr. Garrett was best known for working with WW II veterans, sometimes using hypnosis. But, he also had private clients.

During an exchange with Lady Wonder, Dr. Garrett inquired if Lady knew who tried to reach him with a long distant phone call. All Dr. Garrett knew was that someone named ‘Murphy’ was trying to reach him from New York. Lady typed the name P-A-T. When Dr. Garrett asked why Pat had called, Lady indicated it was about Pat’s wife, Diane Ross. When Dr. Garrett investigated later, he discovered there was and actress named Diane Ross who’s husband’s name was Pat Murphy. After several visits with Lady Wonder, Dr. Garrett would comment, "I find Lady Wonder perfectly amazing. There is unquestionably a genuine phenomena on the part of the horse. No trickery is involved". More info, go HERE.

As well known as Lady Wonder was by the late 1940s, she was about to take it to an entirely new level.

Lady Wonder Becomes Psychic Crime Solver

In January of 1951 a little boy named Danny Matson went missing in West Quincy, Massachusetts. Multiple searches of the area failed to turn up any evidence of what happened to Danny. The search for Danny Matson became almost national news and theories abound as to how the child could have disappeared without a trace. By late 1952, after nearly two years, it seemed the mysterious disappearance of Danny Matson was never going to be solved.

lady wonder typewriter

Lady Wonder and her ‘horse typewriter’

Out of ideas and leads, Edmund R. Dewing, the district attorney of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, decided, out of desperation, to try asking a supposedly psychic horse: Lady Wonder. Dewing was familiar with Lady Wonder. Back in the spring of 1952, Dewing had stopped by the Fonda’s farm, paid his dollar and asked Lady a question: "What is my father-in-law’s first name?". Lady typed out M-A-R-I-O-N. Edmund Dewing was astounded. That was correct. After returning home, Dewing began to wonder if he had made a mistake. Maybe the question he should have asked was, "Where is Danny Matson?".

Dewing arranged for someone to go to visit Lady Wonder and ask a question: "Where can Danny Matson of West Quincy Massachusetts be found". Lady typed out "pittsfield water wheel". The message is perplexing. There is no water wheel near where Danny went missing. However, Dewing dutifully sent a detective to Pittsfield, Massachusetts where the investigator found two water wheels, but no body. On night, as Police Chief William Ferrazzi was lying in bed, it hit him "just like a boot in the rear end" that Lady Wonder had just gotten her words a little garbled. What she likely meant was ‘Pit Field Wilde Water’ (there was a Field & Wilde’s water pit in an old, abandoned, local quarry). The area around the quarry had been search but no sign of Danny was found. After Ferrazzi reported to Dewing his thoughts on Lady Wonder perhaps misspelling Danny’s located, the two decided to drain and fully search the water pit. On Dec. 5th, with the quarry largely drained, the body of Danny Matson was found. (REF: Time Magazine, Dec. 15, 1952).

With all the ‘buzz’ about Lady Wonder, a reporter for Associated Press, Paul Duke, decided it was time to go do a formal interview with this supposedly clairvoyant horse. Duke was basically skeptical. He did his homework about how Lady Wonder and Claudia Fonda were performing their ‘tricks’ and went fully prepared to do an exposé about this psychic horse. He came away with an entirely different opinion.

In a nationally released article with headlines like, "Writer Changes Mind About Lady Wonder After ‘Talk’" told his story of meeting Lady Wonder. What Paul Duke found was a gracious, little-old-lady and a horse with remarkable talents. Paul Duke arrived with some prepared questions, some of which were intentionally meant to stump this ‘clairvoyant’ horse. Duke asked if Lady knew his name – Lady Wonder typed out his name. Duke asked if Lady knew where he was born – Lady typed out Bethlehem, PA. Then Duke delivered his knock-out punch,"how much money do I make weekly?". Lady Wonder typed out the exact amount. At that point, the skeptic reporter felt he was, indeed, dealing with a unique phenomena.

Of the 15 questions Duke asked, Lady got nearly all of them right. His impression was that he was really talking with a horse. Most skeptics had put forth that Claudia Fonda was ‘cueing’ the horse with shakes of her whip. So, as soon as Claudia Fonda stepped away for a time, Duke took the opportunity to ask some additional questions. He asked Lady, "How do you do it?". The horse hesitated a moment then typed M-I-N-D. Not a bad answer for an unmonitored horse. Then Duke asked if she wanted to be human? Y-E-S was Lady’s response. Hardened, national reporter Paul Duke was moved from skeptic to someone who felt there was something genuinely unique about Lady Wonder and her handler, Claudia Fonda (REF: Denton Record-Chronicle Newspaper, Denton, Texas, Dec. 12th 1952). From today’s perspective, Lady Wonder’s ability to access correct, little known information (in a time before the Internet) does seem impressive.
Lady Wonder Headline
With the media coverage of Lady Wonder’s apparent ability to find missing persons, Claudia Fonda was flooded with requests by both private individuals and law enforcement officials that she finally had to set a general: She would not to take phone requests for Lady Wonder’s help. On Dec. 7th 1952, with news breaking about Lady locating the body of Danny Matson, the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper sent a reporter to ask Lady about another high profile case of a missing child, Gary Hayman of Providence Rhode Island, who’d vanished in September of 1952. Lady typed out the boy was hurt, in a truck, in Kansas and with good people. Everyone jumped on the conclusion, logically, that the missing boy was in the truck in Kansas.

Tragically, this didn’t turn out to be true. Gary Hayman’s skull (but not his body) was found in a remote bog not far from the school where he disappeared. It would have been interesting if someone would have considered that Lady’s message was ‘garbled’ (as in the Danny Matson case) and searched locally for a truck with Kansas license plates, or possibly searched the trunks of cars with Kansas plates, maybe someone posing a minister?

lady wonder psychic horse

The Daily Courier, Connellsville, PA, June 3, 1955

By 1955 Lady Wonder was 30 years old which made her an elderly lady. The life expectancy of a modern domestic horse is between 25 to 30 years. The shows, travel and demonstrations began to tapper off. Still, Lady Wonder had one more splash to make, this time in the newest form of media: Television. There were no televisions when Lady Wonder began her career as a mind reading horse. In 1947 just over 50% of homes had a television. By 1955 a whopping 80%+ homes finally had at least one TV. Television was quickly becoming the preferred medium to get one’s news. Claudia Fonda had already begun a policy of keeping information private regarding those who came to ask Lady personal questions or questions involving law enforcement, meaning, she did little talking with the newspapers anymore. Still, she maintained a good relationship with the news media, provided they came to the farm and asked their own questions and not questions about other people’s business.

On October 11th 1955, a 3 year old boy named Ronnie Weitcamp wandered away from three playmates while in the yard of his home in Bloomington, Indiana. The playmates told Ronnie’s mother the little boy had went into the woods nearby. Since the nearby woods comprised thousands of acres of undeveloped lands, Ronnie’s mother immediately notified authorities. Within a few hours, one of the state’s largest search parties began to assemble with sheriff’s deputies, Indiana state police and over 1,000 employees of the local navy depot. With temperatures falling, there was great concern the toddler could not survive the night. After days of searching, no sign of Ronnie was found.

New theories began emerge about Ronnie’s disappearance. Was Ronnie kidnapped? After all, thousands of searchers should have found something covering the small area a 3 year old could travel in a few hours. Soon, the F.B.I. also became involved. Frank Edwards, news director for WTTV, a local TV station in Bloomington, was asked to periodically broadcast Ronnie’s picture in the hope someone would recognize him.

By Oct. 22, authorities were running out of leads. That night Frank Edwards’ wife remembered a strange story of a psychic horse who’d assisted in finding another lost child. Frank, having an interest in the paranormal, remembered the incident. Given that the authorities were at a dead end, having followed every lead no matter how questionable (such as the drunken veterinarian in New Jersey who claimed the missing child was buried in the Weitcamp’s backyard), Edward’s thought why not try a psychic horse. Problem was, Lady Wonder was nearly 700 miles away and Claudia Fonda no longer accepted calls to ask Lady Wonder questions.

Edwards contacted some friends in Washington, D.C., asking if they would drive to Chesterfield county, Virginia and ask a horse some questions about a missing child. Needless to say, they thought Edwards was kidding. Really? Drive 175 miles to talk to a horse? It took some convincing, but Edwards sincerity pushed his contacts in D.C. to go to Virginia.

Lady Wonder prediction

Anderson Herald, Anderson, Indiana, Dec. 6, 1955

When Edwards’ friends reached the home of Claudia and Lady Wonder, Lady was not taking visitors. Now it took additional convincing of Claudia Fonda by these out-of-state visitors that their mission was important and sincere. Taking the visitors to the barn, the dialogue with Lady went like this:
Visitors: "Do you know why we are here?"
Lady: "B-O-Y".
Visitors: "Do you know the boy’s name?"
Lady: "R-O-N-E,"
Visitors: "Is he dead or alive?"
Lady:"D-E-A-D".
Visitors: "Was he kidnapped?"
Lady: "N-O."
Visitors: "What is near him?"
Lady: "E-L-M."
Visitors: "Will he be found?"
Lady: "Y-E-S"
Visitors: "Where?"
Lady: "H-O-L-E"
Visitors: "Is he more than a quarter of a mile from where he was last seen?"
Lady: "Y-E-S"
Visitors: "More than a mile?"
Lady: "N-O"
Visitors: "What is near him?"
Lady: "E-L-M"
Visitors: "What kind of soil?"
Lady: "S-A-N-D"
Visitors: "When will he be found?"
Lady: "D-E-C"
And, with that final answer, the elderly horse pulled away. The interview was over.

The visitors were a bit dumbstruck. They rushed off to telephone Frank Edwards and provide the full details of their interview with Lady Wonder. Frank Edwards found himself in a difficult position. Perhaps he had hoped for a tip to finding Ronnie alive. Now, he had to decide if he should broadcast that a psychic horse said the boy was dead. In Edwards own words,"It was a difficult decision for me to make, but I finally decided to broadcast the replies just as Lady Wonder had given them . . . for what they might be worth, if anything. All other avenues which might have led to the missing Ronnie Weitcamp had dwindled to nothing. Anything that might lead to his recovery was worth trying at that stage of the search". On October 24, 1955, Edwards broadcast the story. Almost immediately, Frank Edwards and station WTTV took heated criticism from around the state of Indiana. It ranged from ridicule to personal insults.

Then, on December 4, as predicted, Ronnie’s body was found. Authorities concluded Ronnie had been dead when Lady Wonder provided her answers. Ronnie had not been kidnapped. He had died of exposure not long after he got lost. The boy’s body was located in thick brush in a sandy gully a little over a mile from where he wandered away. There was an elm tree about 30 feet away. Whether Frank Edwards broadcast was the right or wrong thing to do, what he did accomplish is producing rather unique record of animal psychic detective work. Read Frank Edwards account HERE

Everyone’s a Critic

By 1956, Lady had achieved nearly legendary status, especially in her home state of Virginia. Many people in Chesterfield county and the city of Richmond were actually proud of her. With this status naturally came many detractors, many hoping to make a name for themselves at Lady Wonder and Claudia’s expense. To Claudia Fonda’s credit, she allowed believers and skeptics alike to pay their 50 cents and ask their questions.

One ‘psychic debunker’ arrived in 1956, Milbourne Christopher, a noted magician. He showed up, asked a few questions, then ‘revealed’ that Claudia and Lady Wonder were frauds because Claudia moved her whip to cue Lady. Christopher also claimed he faked writing the number 9 to fool Claudia, then strongly "visualized" the number 1 (because he was not suppose to think about the number 9) and asked Lady what number he wrote down. When Lady nosed up the number 9, it all proved an elderly woman (who must have had excellent eye sight) and an elderly horse were remarkable con artists.

John Scarne also showed up, also asked a few questions and similarly determined Lady Wonder was a fraud from his brief encounter. This seems rather ironic since Scarne’s claim to fame was being an authority on gambling and being able to cheat at cards through card manipulation. He was, again, a magician, not a scientist, and as such, offered no evidence of fraud beyond his own opinion. Apparently, Scarne visited Lady Wonder because he didn’t like Rhine’s conclusions which contradicted Scarne’s own opinion on how the universe works.

It’s surprising how certain people just completely dismiss J. B. Rhine’s tests and experiments back in 1927. Those tests took place over the course of a year, and ran for a total time of over a week. One such test involved Rhine secretly writing down the words ‘Mesopotamia – Hindustan – Carolina’, then asking Lady Wonder what words had he written on the pad in his hand. Lady typed out all three words correctly. Also, Rhine had the collaboration of other University professors (as did Franklin and Garrett) during testing. Christopher, as Scarne, seems to have asked a few question, not liked the answers or the behavior of horse and/or trainer, then and offered up themselves and their opinions as all the proof one needed that everything was a fraud.

psychic Crystal

Would you like to try a psychic pet reading? Give Psychic Crystal a call at: 1-866-407-7164

In the psychic ‘debunking’ world there is no such thing as ‘psychic’ – and – one magician always trumps any number of scientists and reporters because the general public is just to slow to reach the correct conclusion (which is there is no such thing as ‘psychic’). Check out Are Mentalists Psychics? for how this all started. Also, none of the ‘debunkers’ ever adequately addressed how Lady Wonder provided answers that Claudia Fonda didn’t and couldn’t know. Or, how Lady sometimes provided predictions that proved accurate. It would have been far more fruitful if, instead of debunkers taking an interest in Lady Wonder, that more scientists would have taken an interest and performed additional research into animal intelligence, possible telepathic phenomena, and human-animal communication.

Lady Wonder Moves On

On March 19, 1957 Lady Wonder passed on from heart failure. In her time she would meet with over 150,000 visitors. The vast majority came away impressed. Locally, people still share stories of visiting Lady. Lady Wonder would type ‘I love you’ when she liked a visitor and type ‘no like me’ when she thought a visitor didn’t like her. Lady Wonder would create national and international controversy over animal intelligence and psychic abilities; be tested by a number of scientists and experts; do some crime solving; and would receive press coverage from as far away as Singapore.

lady wonder grave stoneNewspapers would report Lady’s passing from New York to California, making front page news in Richmond, Virginia. Some of the neighbors whispered that it was Claudia who was the real psychic and Lady Wonder was just her prop, but few bought into that conspiracy. There was a small gathering of 30 people at Lady’s funeral where a minister read the poem, An Arab’s Farewell to His Horse. Part of the poem reads:

Yes, thou must go! The wild, free breeze, the brilliant sun and sky,
Thy master’s home-from all of these my exiled one must fly;
Thy proud dark eye will grow less proud, thy step become less fleet,
And vainly shalt thou arch thy neck, thy master’s hand to meet.
Only in sleep shall I behold that dark eye, glancing bright;
Only in sleep shall hear again that step so firm and light …

Lady Wonder is buried in Michael’s Road Pet Cemetery, now known as Pet Memorial Park in Henrico County. But, her legend continues, especially within the equestrian community, and rightly so.

Need a little help communicating with your pet? Give Psychic Crystal a call at 1-866-407-7164. Crystal is a noted clairvoyant who loves working with clients and their pets. You may also appreciate working with Psychic and Tarot Reader Amber who does clairvoyant and fun tarot readings for pets and animals. You can call Amber at 1-866-327-9032. Also, check out online, psychic pet chat at http://www.psychicsdirectory.com/pet-psychics.html

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