The New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) is an American paranormal investigation organisation founded in 1952 by Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren, based in Monroe, Connecticut, and widely described as the oldest continually operating paranormal group in the United States.
Founding
The Society grew directly out of the Warrens' early practice of touring New England, with Ed painting reportedly haunted houses and offering the paintings to residents in exchange for their accounts of the property's history — a method that connected the couple with a steady stream of cases and led to NESPR's formal founding in 1952.
The Occult Museum
Over the following decades, the Warrens amassed a large personal collection of objects associated with their investigations, displayed in a private Occult Museum at their Monroe home. Its best-known item is "Annabelle," a Raggedy Ann doll the Warrens said was linked to the spirit of a young woman who had died nearby, and which the Society took into its possession following a claimed exorcism in the early 1970s. The museum was closed for some years following the Warrens' deaths, with plans announced around 2025 to reopen it at a new commercial location.
Notable cases
Through NESPR, the Warrens investigated well over 10,000 claimed cases of paranormal activity over more than five decades, building an extensive archive of case files, witness interviews, photographs, and correspondence. Its best-known investigations include the Amityville haunting and the Perron family case in Harrisville, Rhode Island, later dramatised as The Conjuring and its sequel, The Conjuring 2.
Today
Following Ed Warren's death in 2006 and Lorraine Warren's in 2019, NESPR has continued under the leadership of the couple's son-in-law, Tony Spera, who is married to the Warrens' daughter, Judy. The organisation continues to conduct paranormal investigations and public events.