The_Info_Web/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/American Society for Psychical Research.md

created	updated	title	tags	description	category	summary	start	location	relations
2025-07-22	2025-07-23	American Society for Psychical Research	Organization Private Research Parapsychology USA	The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States, dedicated to the scientific study of psychic phenomena.	Private Organization	The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States, organized in 1884-85 by a Boston committee of nine that included the philosopher and physician William James.	1885	New York City	type with reverse role start fn head_of Simon Newcomb true first president, 1884-85 1884 2

The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States, organized between September 1884 and January 1885 by a Boston committee of nine that included the philosopher and physician William James, with Simon Newcomb as its first president. It is dedicated to the scientific study of Psi phenomena, including Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Precognition, and Psychokinesis.¹

In the early 1970s, the ASPR was one of the institutions where Ingo Swann participated in psychic experiments before his involvement with Stanford Research Institute. Karlis Osis, a parapsychologist at the ASPR, conducted experiments on Out-of-Body Experience (OBEs) with Swann, where Swann claimed to be able to "float up" and perceive hidden objects. Osis also conducted a psychokinesis experiment with Pat Price, where Price, from a distance, appeared to affect an infrared sensor in a sealed copper box.¹

Formation

At a meeting in Boston on September 23, 1884, the question of a society for psychical research in America was placed in the hands of a committee of nine, including James, G. Stanley Hall, Edward C. Pickering, Henry P. Bowditch, Charles S. Minot, Samuel H. Scudder, Alpheus Hyatt, William Watson and N. D. C. Hodges.² About eighty scientific men replied favorably to its invitation. The society's first meeting was held in Boston on December 18, 1884, and its organization was completed on January 8, 1885, with Newcomb as president.² The first circular describes the English Society for Psychical Research as "formed in the beginning of 1882."² The Epsilon person record for Sir William Fletcher Barrett, who convened the 1882 London conference, states that in 1884 he "founded the American equivalent," and the April 24, 1885 presidential address to the Society for Psychical Research says Barrett had informed it of the American society.³

Footnotes

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1. Schnabel, Jim. Remote Viewers. Dell, 1997. ↩︎

2. "Formation of the Society" and "Circular No. 1, Issued by the Council," Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research, vol. I, no. 1 (July 1885), pp. 1-2, with secretaries' records for December 18, 1884. https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofame18589amer ↩︎

3. Epsilon, person record for Sir William Fletcher Barrett (1844-1925); address of the president, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, April 24, 1885. https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/person/PERSON68 ↩︎