Walter Franklin Prince

Walter Franklin Prince (22 April 1863 – 7 August 1934) was an American parapsychologist and former Episcopal minister, best known for his rigorous, often sceptical investigations of claimed mediums, and as co-founder and research officer of the Boston Society for Psychic Research.

Early life and ministry

Prince graduated from Maine Wesleyan Seminary in 1881 and went on to earn a B.A. from Yale University in 1896, alongside a B.D. from Drew Theological Seminary the same year, later completing a Yale Ph.D. in 1899 with a doctoral thesis on multiple personality. He served as a Methodist Episcopal minister before joining the Protestant Episcopal Church, holding parishes in Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, and San Bernardino, California. His interest shifted from church social work toward abnormal psychology, and from 1916 to 1917 he directed psychotherapeutics at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in New York City.

The American Society for Psychical Research

While at St. Mark's, Prince met and became assistant to James H. Hyslop, who had re-established the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR). Following Hyslop's death in 1920, Prince became the Society's research officer and editor of its Journal and Proceedings, a position he held until 1925.

The Margery controversy and the founding of the Boston Society

Prince served on a Scientific American committee investigating the claimed mediumship of Mina "Margery" Crandon, and personally witnessed evidence of fraud during a 1926 séance, having observed her manipulating a luminous object in the dark. Despite Prince's findings, the ASPR board strongly supported Margery, and matters came to a head in January 1925 when editor J. Malcolm Bird — a vocal defender of Margery — was appointed co-research officer specifically to oversee physical mediumship research. Prince resigned in protest, and alongside Elwood Worcester, William McDougall, and Lydia W. Allison, founded the rival Boston Society for Psychic Research the same year, becoming its research officer under Worcester's presidency.

Research at the Boston Society

Under Prince's direction, the Boston Society ran an active investigative and publishing programme, issuing a regular Bulletin alongside standalone books. Prince's own works from this period include The Psychic in the House (1926), The Case of Patience Worth (1927) — examining a purported spirit communicator channelled through medium Pearl Curran — Noted Witnesses for Psychic Occurrences (1928), and The Enchanted Boundary: A Survey of Negative Reactions to Claims of Psychic Phenomena, 1820–1930 (1930). He also investigated the multiple-personality case of Doris Fischer, achieving what was described as a notable cure, and the Antigonish poltergeist case. In 1934, the Boston Society published J. B. Rhine's landmark monograph Extra-Sensory Perception.

Presidency of the Society for Psychical Research

Prince's standing in the field culminated in his election to the presidency of the London-based Society for Psychical Research in 1930 and again in 1931, making him the first American to hold the position since William James.

Death and legacy

Prince's wife, Lelia, died in 1924, shortly before the ASPR split. He died on 7 August 1934 at his home in Hingham, Massachusetts. He is remembered as one of the most methodologically careful investigators of the early 20th-century psychical research movement, particularly noted for applying the same critical scrutiny to fraudulent claims as he did to the cases he took seriously.

See also

• Boston Society for Psychic Research
• American Society for Psychical Research
• Society for Psychical Research
• Extra-Sensory Perception (1934 book)
• J. B. Rhine

External links

• Wikipedia — Walter Franklin Prince
• Occult World — Walter Franklin Prince
• Encyclopedia.com — Prince, Walter Franklin