Current activities
Members receive the annual peer reviewed journal Anomaly and a bi-annual magazine, as well as invitations to a weekly Thursday evening webinar series where experts discuss anomalous phenomena and borderline science. The tone of the group is skeptical and scientific but it holds no corporate beliefs and instead embraces a Fortean openness to anomalies of all kinds. Members have unlimited use of the Mary Evans picture library because Hilary Evans was one of the founders.
Carrie Searley explained to paranormal researcher Ben Radford that "fake ghost photography is in the minority, however, it does occur...It is purely down to us to educate ourselves with the up and coming new photo apps that are being offered on the market". ASSAP asked the public for its help to catalogue the known fake images for smartphones. [15] Though the charity still analyses ghostly photographs, in 2011 it ceased to study smartphone pictures, as apps became available for the specific purpose of faking ghostly figures. The charity asked members to send before and after pictures using the applications to help weed out fakes. [16]
In 2013 the organisation staged a one-day "Summit on the Future of Ufology", stating that a possible crisis in the world of UFO researchers, as well as recent sightings, required examination. [17] They held a similar conference in 2012 at the University of Worcester. [1] They had earlier hosted the Paranormal Olympics at the University of London. [18]
Since 2006 the charity launched Project Albion, creating a database with the goal of recording every Fortean event in the country. [19]
Extrasensory perception or ESP, also called sixth sense, is a claimed paranormal ability pertaining to reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind. The term was adopted by Duke University botanist J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities such as intuition, telepathy, psychometry, clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, empathy and their trans-temporal operation as precognition or retrocognition.
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Notable paranormal beliefs include those that pertain to extrasensory perception, spiritualism and the pseudosciences of ghost hunting, cryptozoology, and ufology.
The National Laboratory of Psychical Research was established in 1926 by Harry Price, at 16 Queensberry Place, London. Its aim was "to investigate in a dispassionate manner and by purely scientific means every phase of psychic or alleged psychic phenomena". The honorary president was Lord Sands, K.C., LL.D., acting president was H. G. Bois, and the honorary director was Harry Price. In 1930 the Laboratory moved from Queensberry Square, where it had been a tenant of the London Spiritualist Alliance to 13 Roland Gardens. In 1938, its library was transferred on loan to the University of London.
Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing, I Feel Good Publishing, Dennis Publishing, and Exponent (2021), as of December 2021 it is published by Diamond Publishing, part of Metropolis International.
Fate is a U.S. magazine about paranormal phenomena. Fate was co-founded in 1948 by Raymond A. Palmer and Curtis Fuller. Fate magazine is the longest-running magazine devoted to the paranormal. Promoted as "the world's leading magazine of the paranormal", it has published expert opinions and personal experiences relating to UFOs, psychic abilities, ghosts and hauntings, cryptozoology, alternative medicine, divination methods, belief in the survival of personality after death, Fortean phenomena, predictive dreams, mental telepathy, archaeology, warnings of death, and other paranormal topics.
Christopher (Chris) Charles French is a British psychologist who is prominent in the field of anomalistic psychology, with a focus on the psychology of paranormal beliefs and anomalous experiences. In addition to his academic activities, French frequently appears on radio and television to provide a skeptical perspective on paranormal claims.
Proof Positive is a reality television paranormal investigation show broadcast by the SciFi Channel beginning on October 6, 2004, through December 8, 2004. It was shown as part of the "SciFi Wednesday" evening schedule line up in the United States along with other reality television programs as Scare Tactics and Ghost Hunters. Proof Positive ran for ten episodes.
Joe Nickell is an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal.
Spirit photography is a type of photography whose primary goal is to capture images of ghosts and other spiritual entities, especially in ghost hunting. It dates back to the late 19th century. The end of the American Civil War and the mid-19th Century Spiritualism movement contributed greatly to the popularity of spirit photography. Photographers such as William Mumler and William Hope ran thriving businesses taking photos of people with their supposed dead relatives. Both were shown to be frauds, but "true believers", such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, refused to accept the evidence as proof of a hoax.
Loyd Auerbach is a parapsychologist, paranormal investigator, and mentalist. He has appeared on numerous television shows that profile ghost hunting and other paranormal topics. He develops and teaches online courses on parapsychology.
Ghost hunting is the process of investigating locations that are purportedly haunted by ghosts. Typically, a ghost-hunting team will attempt to collect evidence supporting the existence of paranormal activity.
Benjamin Radford is an American writer, investigator, and skeptic. He has authored, coauthored or contributed to over twenty books and written over a thousand articles and columns on a wide variety of topics including urban legends, unexplained mysteries, the paranormal, critical thinking, mass hysteria, and media literacy. His book, Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Enchantment, was published in the summer of 2014 and is a scientific investigation of famous legends and folklore in the state of New Mexico. In 2016 Radford published Bad Clowns, a 2017 IPPY bronze award winner, and he is regarded as an expert on the bad clowns phenomenon.
Rudi Schneider, son of Josef Schneider and brother of Willi Schneider, was an Austrian Spiritualist and physical medium. His career was covered extensively by the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, and he took part in a number of notable experiments conducted by paranormal researchers/debunkers, including Harry Price, Albert von Schrenck-Notzing and Eric Dingwall. Some of these researchers declared him to be a fraud while others were unable to find evidence of trickery.
Hilary Agard Evans was a British pictorial archivist, author, and researcher into UFOs and other paranormal phenomena.
United Kingdom charity Paranormal Site Investigators (PSI) is dedicated to advancing education, research and heritage in the area of anomalous experience. The charity has a membership of around 1400. The charity patron is Peter Underwood.
In psychology, anomalistic psychology is the study of human behaviour and experience connected with what is often called the paranormal, with few assumptions made about the validity of the reported phenomena.
T. Peter Park is an historian, a former librarian, and a prolific Fortean commentator on anomalous phenomena. According to Chris Perridas, Park is "a foremost Fortean authority on H. P. Lovecraft and the cultural impact his writing has had on our culture through folklore."
Barry Karr is an American skeptic and paranormal researcher, currently the executive director of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He has been consulted by the media on the paranormal. Karr has been involved in many investigations including faith healing, UFOs, firewalking, ghosts and others. He is a published author in two anthology publications, and as an editor of two others. Karr is a proponent of scientific skepticism and a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
Kenny Biddle is an investigator of paranormal claims. He is chief investigator at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a fellow of the same organization.
