J.B. Rhine and his wife had a single sitting with the medium Margery in July 1926. Their skeptical report of this experience was published in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. Rhine met with both William McDougall and W.F. Prince before the seance. Rhine's skepticism heightened tensions between the ASPR and the Boston Society for Psychic Research and helped delay the merger of these societies, with important historical consequences for parapsychology.

The formative years of J.B. Rhine were the formative years of modern parapsychology. Rhine originally intended a career in botany but became sidetracked by psychical research. In the summer of 1926, he left Morgantown, West Virginia, for Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they became associated with Walter Franklin Prince of Boston Society for Psychic Research. In 1927, they followed William McDougall to Durham, and soon thereafter Rhine and McDougall established the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University.

Rhine initially intended to study mediumship, but his skepticism of mediums like Margery lead him to explore the workings of psi in the laboratory instead.