American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) Organization founded in late 1884 in Boston under the auspices of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) of England, and dedicated to the advancement of psychical research (now called parapsychology). The society became formally active in 1885; astronomer Simon Newcomb was elected the first president. Other major figures in the formation of the society were English physicist Sir William Barrett, and Harvard philosopher William James.
The early ASPR operated independently of the SPR, but organized itself along the same lines, with investigative committees to research and collect data on thought transference, telepathy, hypnosis, apparitions, mediumship, and other phenomena. Its membership included many scientists who considered psychical research of secondary interest. As a result, in 1889, less than five years after founding, the society was forced for financial reasons to dissolve and reorganize as the American Branch of the SPR. Richard Hodgson, a member of the SPR, moved to America and directed the branch’s activities until his death in 1905.
In 1906 the American Branch was dissolved and the ASPR reestablished itself as an independent organization with headquarters in New York City. James H. Hyslop served as secretary until his death in 1920; most of the new leadership was comprised not of scientists, but of other professionals who had an avocational interest in psychical research and Spiritualism. During this period the ASPR suffered from a shortage of funds and did a modest amount of collective research. Hyslop was more interested in publishing, and devoted a great deal of time to fund-raising.
Following Hyslop’s death the ASPR went through a strained and divisive period in which many members were extremely dissatisfied with the leadership’s neglect of experimental parapsychology in favour of mediumship and seance phenomena. The division was exacerbated by a controversy over a fraudulent medium known as “Margery” (Mina Stinson Crandon) of Boston, to whom the ASPR devoted much attention and money. In 1925 a group of academically oriented opponents of Margery split off and formed the Boston Society for Psychic Research, which did little but publish. In the 1941 ASPR elections, a “palace revolution” occurred and the key Margery supporters were voted out of office. The ASPR terminated official involvement with Margery, who died later the same year. The Boston group returned to the fold.
Under the presidency of Hyslop’s son, George Hyslop, and the leadership provided by eminent psychologist Gardner Murphy, who became chairman of the Research Committee, the society reinstated research as its primary function. Prior to the “palace revolution,” the ASPR had been run to appeal to the lay public, not academics or scientists. The first sign of a change in this orientation occurred in 1938, when Murphy conducted the first systematic ESP experiments under the auspices of the ASPR, using American parapsychologist ]. B. Rhine’s ESP cards. Under the new administration, the organization returned fully to a scientific purpose. It benefited from the experimental work of Rhine, who saw parapsychology as an emerging scientific discipline, and from the academic approach of Murphy, who sought to integrate the paranormal with psychology and philosophy. Murphy’s stature as a psychologist-he served for a time as president of the American Psychological Association-did attract Rhine, Margaret Mead, Henry James (son of William James), and other luminaries to the board of directors. However, he did not achieve the great integration he desired.
From the 1940s until 1971, eight years before his death, Murphy served as key leader of the ASPR; he served as president from 1962 to 1971. In 1948 a “Medical Section” was established to research the integration of psychiatry and depth psychology to the paranormal; one outgrowth was the dream research of Montague Ullman and others. See Dreams. The Medical Section ceased operation in the 1950s, when a key member of the group, Jule Eisenbud, left New York for Denver.
In the mid-1950s Murphy directed ASPR attention to spontaneous psi, which he thought would yield more information on the nature of psi than did laboratory experiments. He encouraged research on creativity, altered states and psi, meditation and transpersonal factors of psi, deathbed observations, and survival after death. Laboratory equipment to induce altered states was purchased in the 1960s. See Altered states of consciousness; Deathbed visions; Meditation.
Membership and lecture attendance began to increase in the 1940s, and reached a peak in the 1960s and 1970s, fueled in part by the counterculture’s interest in the paranormal. Liberals, however, were squeezed out by conservatives, and membership and interest then began to decline. Without Murphy factions again developed in the ASPR, between “reductionists,” those who sought to define all phenomena as either ESP, PK, or chance, and more liberal researchers interested in out-of-body experiences, neardeath experiences, behavioral medicine, dreams, and reincarnation. The ASPR has sought a balance of interests.
Scientific articles are published in a quarterly Journal, while informal articles appear in a quarterly ASPR Newsletter. The ASPR maintains one of the most comprehensive parapsychology libraries in the world, and offers symposia and lectures. Membership is international.
SEE ALSO:
- Ghost Societies
- Ghosts
- James, William
- Parapsychology
- Society for Psychical Research (SPR)
REFERENCES:
- Roger I. Anderson. “The Life and Work of James H. Hyslop.” The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 79 (April 1985): 167-200;
- Nandor Fodor. An Encyclopedia of Psychic Science. 1933. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1966;
- James G. Matlock. “The ASPR in 1888.” ASPR Newsletter 14, no. 3 (July 1988): 23;
- James G. Matlock. “The ASPR in 1913.” ASPR Newsletter 14, no. 4 (October 1988): 29;
- James G. Matlock. “The ASPR in 1938.” ASPR Newsletter 15, no. 1 (Winter 1989): 8;
- Seymour H. Mauskopf. “The History of the American Society for Psychical Research: An Interpretation.” The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 83, no. 1 (January 1989): 7-32;
- Karlis Osis. “The American Society for Psychical Research 1941-1985: A Personal View.” The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 79, no. 4 (October 1985): 501-29.
SOURCE:
Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience – Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley Copyright © 1991 by Rosemary Ellen Guiley.