Founded in 1882, The SPR was the first society to conduct organised scholarly research into human experiences that challenge contemporary scientific models.
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Psychical research will not attain scientific respectability until it has some agreed theoretical basis. But the subject impinges on many disciplines, so various levels of explanation have been proposed – physical, biological, psychological, philosophical and mystical. A full theory of psi must surely involve all of these.
In this Study Day leading representatives of each of these fields, all sharing an interest in an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, will come together to address these issues and discuss whether such an all-embracing theory of psi is conceivable. The day will end with a general discussion, including audience participation. After the meeting, all participants are invited to a reception, kindly hosted by Rita Leek at her nearby home. This will be after the Society’s Annual General Meeting, which will follow the Study Day at 5.15 p.m. and is not usually very long. PLEASE SELECT THE APPROPRIATE OPTION IN THE ONLINE BOOKING PAGE TO LET US KNOW IF YOU WISH TO ATTEND THE RECEPTION AFTER THE MEETING - OR CONTACT OUR OFFICE on 020 7937 8984 or secretary@spr.ac.uk
Latest news
The Life, Adventures and Tragedy of Harry Price
Talk by Sarah Sparkes to the London Fortean Society on Thursday, March 29, 2012 at the Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX, 7:30pm until 10:30pm. read more >>
Call for Papers: Psychical Research in the History of Medicine and the Sciences
Psychical Research in the History of Medicine and the Sciences: 14-15 September 2012, University College London. read more >>
- Community Events
'Spooks and Spoofs: Relations Between Psychical Research and Academic Psychology in Britain in the Inter-war Period'
The British Psychological Society’s History of Psychology Centre, in conjunction with UCL’s Centre for the History of the Psychological Disciplines, has organized a seminar series. A paper will be presented by Elizabeth Valentine on Monday 26 March, 2012 on 'Spooks and Spoofs: Relations Between Psychical Research and Academic Psychology in Britain in the Inter-war Period' read more >>
- Community Events
Recent Publications
The Reality of ESP: A Physicist’s Proof of Psychic Abilities, by Russell Targ
From the publisher’s website: On February 4, 1974, members of the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped nineteen-year-old newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst from her Berkeley, California apartment. Desperate to find her, the police called physicist Russell Targ and Pat Price, a psychic retired police commissioner. As Price turned the pages of the police mug book filled with hundreds of photos, suddenly he pointed to one of them and announced, “That’s the ringleader.” The man was Donald DeFreeze, who was indeed subsequently so identified. Price also described the type and location of the kidnap car, enabling the police to find it within minutes. That remarkable event is one reason Targ believes in ESP. Another occurred when his group made $120,000 by forecasting for nine weeks in a row the changes in the silver-commodity futures market.
As a scientist, Targ demands proof. His experience is based on two decades of investigations at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), which he cofounded with physicist Harold Puthoff in 1972. This twenty-million dollar program launched during the Cold War was supported by the CIA, NASA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Army and Air Force Intelligence. The experiments they conducted routinely presented results could have happened by chance less than once in a million. Targ describes four types of experiments:
read more >>The Reality of ESP. Quest Books, April 2012. ISBN-978-0-8356-0884-8
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