GaryJJSpate (talk | contribs) Created page with "{{OrganisationInfobox |name=American Society for Psychical Research |type=Psychical research organisation |founded=1885, Boston, Massachusetts |founders=William Fletcher Barrett, Simon Newcomb, William James, G. Stanley Hall |known_for=Oldest psychical research body in the United States; investigations of Mina "Margery" Crandon |status=Largely inactive }} The '''American Society for Psychical Research''' (ASPR) is the oldest organisation in the United States dedicated t..." |
GaryJJSpate (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| (3 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{ | {{Disambiguation | ||
|this=the American paranormal research organisation founded in 1884 | |||
|other1_desc=its British counterpart, founded two years earlier | |||
|other1_link=[[Society for Psychical Research]] | |||
}} | |||
{{InfoboxOrganisation | |||
|name=American Society for Psychical Research | |name=American Society for Psychical Research | ||
|type=Psychical research organisation | |type=Psychical research organisation | ||
| Line 7: | Line 12: | ||
|status=Largely inactive | |status=Largely inactive | ||
}} | }} | ||
{{tick}} | |||
The '''American Society for Psychical Research''' (ASPR) is the oldest organisation in the United States dedicated to the scientific investigation of psychic and paranormal claims. Founded in Boston in 1885 following a visit from British physicist [[William Fletcher Barrett|William Barrett]], it modelled itself on the [[Society for Psychical Research]] in London, though the two bodies have followed largely independent, and at times conflicting, paths. | The '''American Society for Psychical Research''' (ASPR) is the oldest organisation in the United States dedicated to the scientific investigation of psychic and paranormal claims.<ref name="psi-encyclopedia">{{cite web |title=American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) |url=https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/american-society-psychical-research/ |publisher=Psi Encyclopedia (Society for Psychical Research)}}</ref> Founded in Boston in 1885 following a visit from British physicist [[William Fletcher Barrett|William Barrett]], it modelled itself on the [[Society for Psychical Research]] in London, though the two bodies have followed largely independent, and at times conflicting, paths.<ref name="occultworld">{{cite web |title=American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) |url=http://occult-world.com/ghost-societies/american-society-for-psychical-research-aspr/ |publisher=Occult World}}</ref> | ||
== Founding == | == Founding == | ||
The push to establish an American counterpart to the SPR followed Barrett's 1884 visit to Boston; the ASPR formally organised in January 1885, with astronomer Simon Newcomb elected as its first president and psychologist G. Stanley Hall among its vice-presidents.<ref name="encyclopedia-founding">{{cite web |title=American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/american-society-psychical-research-aspr |publisher=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref> Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James was closely involved in getting the society off the ground, though its early leadership drew from a wider circle of Boston-area scientists and scholars.<ref name="psi-encyclopedia"/> | |||
The push to establish an American counterpart to the SPR | |||
== Absorption and reconstitution == | == Absorption and reconstitution == | ||
Financial strain led the ASPR to become a branch of the London SPR in 1889, its research work carried out largely by Richard Hodgson until his death in 1905, after which the branch was dissolved.<ref name="encyclopedia-proceedings">{{cite web |title=Proceedings of the Old American Society for Psychical Research |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/proceedings-old-american-society-psychical-research |publisher=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref> Following a year of preparation, the ASPR was reconstituted as an independent body in 1906 under [[James H. Hyslop|James Hyslop]], initially operating out of his New York residence, and it has remained based in New York since.<ref name="encyclopedia-proceedings"/> | |||
Financial strain led the ASPR to become a branch of the London SPR in 1889, its research work carried out largely by Richard Hodgson until his death in 1905 | |||
== Margery and the Prince resignation == | == Margery and the Prince resignation == | ||
The ASPR's most notorious episode centred on Mina "Margery" Crandon, a Boston medium investigated by the society's research director, [[Walter Franklin Prince]], through the 1920s. Prince concluded Crandon was fraudulent; the ASPR board did not agree, and in 1925 appointed ''Scientific American'' writer J. Malcolm Bird — a Margery sympathiser — as co-research officer alongside him. Prince resigned in protest, joined by other disaffected members including psychologists Gardner Murphy and William McDougall, and together they founded the rival [[Boston Society for Psychic Research]], intended as a home for the ASPR's original, more sceptical principles.<ref name="encyclopedia-founding"/> | |||
The ASPR | == Later history and decline == | ||
The Boston Society for Psychic Research merged back into the ASPR in 1941.<ref name="encyclopedia-founding"/> Gardner Murphy later served as ASPR president for roughly two decades, bringing renewed prestige and recruiting notable researchers during a period when laboratory parapsychology, led by J. B. Rhine at Duke University, had become the field's cutting edge.<ref name="encyclopedia-founding"/> | |||
== | The organisation's finances deteriorated substantially in subsequent decades: net assets fell from roughly $3 million in 1991 to a reported negative $7.5 million by 2015, driven in part by accumulated mortgage debt against its longstanding townhouse headquarters at 5 West 73rd Street, acquired in 1966.<ref name="grokipedia">{{cite web |title=American Society for Psychical Research |url=https://grokipedia.com/page/American_Society_for_Psychical_Research |publisher=Grokipedia}}</ref> A foreclosure action was initiated in 2020, and the building was sold at a court-ordered auction in 2023, with the sale formally recorded in June 2024 for $11.75 million — an amount reported to be less than the ASPR's outstanding debts, leaving no surplus for the organisation.<ref name="skepinquirer-demise">{{cite web |title=The Demise of the American Society for Psychical Research |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/the-demise-of-the-american-society-for-psychical-research/ |publisher=Skeptical Inquirer |date=2025}}</ref><ref name="psi-encyclopedia"/> | ||
By late 2024, the ASPR's listed address had become a rented mailbox at a shipping company on Columbus Avenue, and independent researchers attempting to contact the organisation or access its archives reported long silences and no functioning staff contact beyond a phone number.<ref name="skepinquirer-demise"/> The society's website nonetheless continued to accept paid membership fees ranging up to several hundred dollars through late 2025, alongside a December 2024 fundraising appeal describing the organisation's archival holdings — reportedly including correspondence from William James, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Harry Houdini — as secure.<ref name="unexplained">{{cite web |title=Inside the Fall of the American Society for Psychical Research |url=https://www.unexplained.ie/article/1237-inside-the-fall-of-the-american-society-for-psychical-research-aspr/ |publisher=Unexplained.ie |date=2025}}</ref> Researchers Tom Ruffles and Barry Conrad have separately called on the New York Attorney General's Charities Bureau to investigate the organisation's finances, and launched a public petition urging intervention to preserve its archives.<ref name="unexplained"/> | |||
== Relevance == | == Relevance == | ||
Whatever its present state, the ASPR's archive and back catalogue of published Proceedings and Journal issues remain a significant primary source for the history of American psychical research, documenting more than a century of investigations into mediumship, apparitions, and thought-transference — the same territory much of modern parapsychology continues to work. | Whatever its present state, the ASPR's archive and back catalogue of published Proceedings and Journal issues remain a significant primary source for the history of American psychical research, documenting more than a century of investigations into mediumship, apparitions, and thought-transference — the same territory much of modern parapsychology continues to work. | ||
| Line 35: | Line 39: | ||
* [[Boston Society for Psychic Research]] | * [[Boston Society for Psychic Research]] | ||
* [[Medium]] | * [[Medium]] | ||
== References == | |||
{{Reflist}} | |||
== External links == | |||
* [https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/american-society-psychical-research/ Psi Encyclopedia — American Society for Psychical Research] | |||
* [https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/the-demise-of-the-american-society-for-psychical-research/ Skeptical Inquirer — The Demise of the American Society for Psychical Research] | |||
[[Category:Organisations]] | [[Category:Organisations]] | ||
Latest revision as of 01:15, 4 August 2026
|
This article is about the American paranormal research organisation founded in 1884.For its British counterpart, founded two years earlier, see Society for Psychical Research. |
The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest organisation in the United States dedicated to the scientific investigation of psychic and paranormal claims.[1] Founded in Boston in 1885 following a visit from British physicist William Barrett, it modelled itself on the Society for Psychical Research in London, though the two bodies have followed largely independent, and at times conflicting, paths.[2]
Founding
The push to establish an American counterpart to the SPR followed Barrett's 1884 visit to Boston; the ASPR formally organised in January 1885, with astronomer Simon Newcomb elected as its first president and psychologist G. Stanley Hall among its vice-presidents.[3] Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James was closely involved in getting the society off the ground, though its early leadership drew from a wider circle of Boston-area scientists and scholars.[1]
Absorption and reconstitution
Financial strain led the ASPR to become a branch of the London SPR in 1889, its research work carried out largely by Richard Hodgson until his death in 1905, after which the branch was dissolved.[4] Following a year of preparation, the ASPR was reconstituted as an independent body in 1906 under James Hyslop, initially operating out of his New York residence, and it has remained based in New York since.[4]
Margery and the Prince resignation
The ASPR's most notorious episode centred on Mina "Margery" Crandon, a Boston medium investigated by the society's research director, Walter Franklin Prince, through the 1920s. Prince concluded Crandon was fraudulent; the ASPR board did not agree, and in 1925 appointed Scientific American writer J. Malcolm Bird — a Margery sympathiser — as co-research officer alongside him. Prince resigned in protest, joined by other disaffected members including psychologists Gardner Murphy and William McDougall, and together they founded the rival Boston Society for Psychic Research, intended as a home for the ASPR's original, more sceptical principles.[3]
Later history and decline
The Boston Society for Psychic Research merged back into the ASPR in 1941.[3] Gardner Murphy later served as ASPR president for roughly two decades, bringing renewed prestige and recruiting notable researchers during a period when laboratory parapsychology, led by J. B. Rhine at Duke University, had become the field's cutting edge.[3]
The organisation's finances deteriorated substantially in subsequent decades: net assets fell from roughly $3 million in 1991 to a reported negative $7.5 million by 2015, driven in part by accumulated mortgage debt against its longstanding townhouse headquarters at 5 West 73rd Street, acquired in 1966.[5] A foreclosure action was initiated in 2020, and the building was sold at a court-ordered auction in 2023, with the sale formally recorded in June 2024 for $11.75 million — an amount reported to be less than the ASPR's outstanding debts, leaving no surplus for the organisation.[6][1]
By late 2024, the ASPR's listed address had become a rented mailbox at a shipping company on Columbus Avenue, and independent researchers attempting to contact the organisation or access its archives reported long silences and no functioning staff contact beyond a phone number.[6] The society's website nonetheless continued to accept paid membership fees ranging up to several hundred dollars through late 2025, alongside a December 2024 fundraising appeal describing the organisation's archival holdings — reportedly including correspondence from William James, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Harry Houdini — as secure.[7] Researchers Tom Ruffles and Barry Conrad have separately called on the New York Attorney General's Charities Bureau to investigate the organisation's finances, and launched a public petition urging intervention to preserve its archives.[7]
Relevance
Whatever its present state, the ASPR's archive and back catalogue of published Proceedings and Journal issues remain a significant primary source for the history of American psychical research, documenting more than a century of investigations into mediumship, apparitions, and thought-transference — the same territory much of modern parapsychology continues to work.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR)."Psi Encyclopedia (Society for Psychical Research).
- ↑ "American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR)."Occult World.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR)."Encyclopedia.com.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Proceedings of the Old American Society for Psychical Research."Encyclopedia.com.
- ↑ "American Society for Psychical Research."Grokipedia.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "The Demise of the American Society for Psychical Research."Skeptical Inquirer.2025.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Inside the Fall of the American Society for Psychical Research."Unexplained.ie.2025.