Leo Ruickbie Steps Down as Editor of the Magazine for the Society for Psychical Research It is the end, my friends. After nine years at the helm, I am steppingdown as editor of our Magazine. It has been a wonderful nine years,but not without its lows as well as highs. Since the first terrifyingmoment I…
Tag: Chris Roe
Bigelow Contest Winners Announced
The Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies has announced the prize winners for its contest to find the best evidence for life after death. And three people have found it. I had known for five days that I would get a phone call on Monday the 1st of November, the day of the announcement – five…
The $1,500,000 Question: Is There Life After Death?
Shook up the world of psychical research At the beginning of 2021, an American businessman shook up the world of psychical research by unexpectedly announcing an essay competition to present the best evidence for proof of life after death. Robert T. Bigelow, property developer and aerospace entrepreneur, offered $1.5 million in prize money to try…
Elves, Erlendur
Tribute Issue to Erlendur Haraldsson Bringing the Paranormal Review to an end seemed the sensible thing to do, after all, I always had to preface it as ‘the magazine of the Society for Psychical Research’. The simplest thing, then, was just to call it that. And now, along with the Journal of the SPR and…
26 Reasons Why the Evidence Has Been Ignored or Rejected
The Magazine of the Society for Psychical Research, 1 (2021) The global pandemic has re-focused attention on the ultimate questions. The new year has crept slowly out of its hole, only to be greeted with more of the same. A raven has forsaken the Tower of London prompting suspicions that the old prophecy is fulfilling…
Paranormal Review 96
Parapsychology in the Far East The Paranormal Review has been more than a magazine for me, it has been a journey through all that is going on in the world of psychical research. And so, the magazine itself has been something like a documentary project. It can never be a pure documentation because I am…
Paranormal Review 93
Everyday Psi My children looked at this issue’s cover picture and asked ‘how do they do that?’ Still young enough not to be quite sure if it is a trick or real magic, they nevertheless see that it is extraordinary, if not impossible. This, in a sense, is how we often encounter the ‘paranormal’, in…
Is There Life After Death?
Call for Chapters Is There Life After Death? Arguments, Theories, Evidence Edited by Dr Leo Ruickbie and Robert McLuhan for the Society for Psychical Research
Paranormal Review 91
The Roots of Reality This issue we turn to the problem of theory in parapsychology. Following a ‘Workshop on Psi Theories’ in Paris in 2019, SPR President Prof. Chris Roe addresses the question directly on pp. 4-5, with my report on the workshop on pp. 22-24. Dr Charles Whitehead takes the matter into his own…
Psi Theories
For the Love of Theory: A Report on the Paris Workshop on Psi Theories With funding from the Society for Psychical Research and other organisations, a special meeting held before the 2019 Parapsychological Association Convention sought to bring together twenty-nine invited speakers and participants from a diverse range of the sciences to address the problem…
Psi on the Tyne
The 42nd Annual International Conference of the Society for Psychical Research, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2018 Newcastle made a singular impression on me as I stepped off the train. The familiar Victorian station led out into a strange landscape. The Lady Boys of Bangkok had encamped before the rearing block of Jury’s Inn, the venue for…
Paranormal Review 88
The SPR at War Following up on my new rallying cry of ‘document or disappear’, discussed in the last issue, I am publishing the results of my research into the Society for Psychical Research’s activities during the First World War. Having recently commemorated the Centenary of the Armistice, it is a fitting time to reflect…
Paranormal Review 87
Guy Lyon Playfair: His Life and Work It is always satisfying to do a retrospective of a great psychical researcher’s life and work, and Guy Lyon Playfair’s contributions to the field were many and of lasting importance, but it is a satisfaction tempered by sadness and an awareness of loss. Although I corresponded with Playfair,…
The Society for Psychical Research at Horsley Towers
The Society for Psychical Research’s 41st International Annual Conference Of course Horsley Towers is haunted. Dating from 1558, but rebuilt in a neo-Gothic style in the nineteenth century, the building has connections with Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, mathematician and only daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron, Sir T.O.M. Sopwith, the man responsible for…
Paranormal Review 85
Back to the ‘Lilly’ Pond: Flotation Tank Experiments From historical re-evaluations and current experiments, this issue of the Paranormal Review brings a wide range of psychical research topics to your attention. The Society’s President, Prof. John Poynton, continues his philosopher-president series with a re-examination of Hans Driesch. Dr Peter Hewitt of the Museum of Witchcraft…
Lucid in Leeds
The SPR’s 40th International Annual Conference at the University of Leeds, 2016 The intense white light suddenly changed to blue, orange, yellow, then back to white. ‘Are you sure this is just white light?’ I asked. ‘Yes, just white light,’ replied a calm voice with the hint of an Austrian accent. When the change came…