Soal, S. George

Soal, S. George (1890?–1975) From the 1930s until his death in 1975, S. George Soal was one of the leading psychic researchers in England. Originally a mathematician, he first became interested in the paranormal in 1919, when he began visiting mediums in an attempt to contact his brother, who had been killed in battle the year before. He eventually became an expert on the work of parapsychologist J.B. Rhine and started conducting experiments with extrasensory perception (ESP) similar to Rhine’s, investigating both telepathy and precognition. In 1950 he gave a speech to the Society for Psychical Research in which he argued it was time to stop attempting to prove, through research project after research project, that telepathy was a real phenomenon; instead, he suggested, psychical investigators should put their efforts into determining how ESP worked. In the 1960s and 1970s, Soal endured a flurry of criticism by those who did not believe in precognition and/or accused him of using flawed methodology in his ESP tests, though he also had many supporters.

SEE ALSO:

• Extrasensory Perception
• Precognition
• Rhine, J.B.
• Telepathy

SOURCE:

The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Paranormal Phenomena – written by Patricia D. Netzley © 2006 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning