Boston Society For Psychic Research

Founded in May 1925 by Elwood Worcester, William McDougall, Lydia W. Allison, and Walter Franklin Prince. Worcester, a distinguished Episcopal minister and founder of the healing movement in that church, served as the first president. Prince, having resigned as research officer of the American Society for Psychical Research, became the new society's research officer. Allison oversaw the publications program. The occasion for the break was the ASPR's strong advocacy of the mediumship of Mina S. Crandon ("Margery"). Under Prince's direction, the Boston Society carried on an active research program, the results of which were published in a set of books and a series of bulletins.

After the death of Walter Franklin Prince in 1934, the Boston SPR began to flounder, and because the issue that brought it into existence had faded in importance, it was formally reunited with the ASPR in 1941.

Sources:

Allison, Lydia W. Leonard and Soule Experiments in Psychical Research. Boston: Boston Society for Psychical Research, 1929.

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Prince, Walter F. The Case of Patience Worth: A Critical Study of Certain Unusual Phenomena. Boston: Boston Society for Psychical Research, 1927.

——. Noted Witnesses for Psychic Occurrences. Boston: Boston Society for Psychical Research, 1928. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1963.

Thomas, John F. Beyond Normal Cognition. Boston: Boston Society for Psychical Research, 1937.

——. Case Studies Bearing on Survival. Boston: Boston Society for Psychical Research, 1929.