PostSecret founder Frank Warren

Secrets and paranormal phenomena are the subjects of two author visits to campus this month.

Frank Warren, the founder of PostSecret, an online blog, will speak at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18 in Page Auditorium.

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project featuring postcards with personal secrets that people have anonymously submitted. Filled with compelling designs and witty observations, the cards can be seen online at postsecret.blogspot.com.

During his presentation, Warren will share some of the inspirational and funny stories behind the quarter-million cards submitted to the site. His presentation will include a slideshow showcasing past secrets and provide students with opportunities to share their own secrets.

"A lot of people have secrets that they don't talk about, especially on college campuses," says sophomore Will Benesh, chair of the Duke University Union's Major Speakers committee, the sponsor of Warren's talk. "PostSecret, which is one of the most popular blogs in the U.S., gives people a chance to share their secrets and read about others."

The event is part of a campaign aimed at addressing social exclusivity on campus, breaking social barriers and finding commonalities among students, Benesh said. Tickets are free and will be available at the door or at dukeunmasked.com.

Shifting the focus from secrets to the unbelievable, author Stacy Horn will read from and sign her new book, Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, at noon on Thursday, March 19 in the Rare Book Room at Perkins Library.

The book looks at the Duke Parapsychology Lab, led by Dr. J. B. Rhine, where scientists "attempted to test the bizarre, the frightening and the unexplainable against the rigors of science" from 1930 to 1980. Horn reviewed more than 700 boxes of laboratory records held at Duke's Special Collections Library.

"I knew that no one has definitely proven that there is life after death, but Rhine and his colleagues conducted lots of experiments at Duke. What if one of them worked?" Horn writes in the book's introduction. "What I discovered, among many other things, is that one of them did."

Her talk is free and open to the public.

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Author Discussions

Frank Warren, PostSecret
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 18, Page Auditorium
Information: dukeunmasked.com

Stacy Horn, Unbelievable
12 p.m., Thursday, March 19, Rare Book Room, Perkins Library
Information: 660-5816, ilene.nelson@duke.edu