The National Laboratory of Psychical Research was established in 1925 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.
In 1934 the Laboratory was replaced by the University of London Council for Psychical Investigation (not an official body of the University) under the Chairmanship of C. E. M. Joad with Harry Price as Hon. Secretary. Price suspended the operations of the Council in 1939 after severe criticism of Joad's investigations in psychic research was published in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. It was never revived.
Publications
- British Journal for Psychical Research, Bimonthly, discontinued in 1929
- Proceedings of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, volume I, discontinued in 1929
- Bulletins of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research:
- I. Regurgitation and the Duncan Mediumship, by Harry Prince, 1932
- II. Fraudulent Mediums, an essay by Prof. D. S. Fraser-Harris, repr. from Science Progress, January 1932
- III. The Identification of the "Walter" Prints, by E. E. Dudley, 1933
- IV. An Account of Some Further Experiments with Rudi Schneider, by Harry Prince, 1933
- V. Rudi Schneider; the Vienna Experiments of Prof. Meyer and Prizibram, 1933
Famous quotes containing the words national, laboratory, psychical and/or research:
“In my public statements I have earnestly urged that there rested upon government many responsibilities which affect the moral and spiritual welfare of our people. The participation of women in elections has produced a keener realization of the importance of these questions and has contributed to higher national ideals. Moreover, it is through them that our national ideals are ingrained in our children.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“We are able to find everything in our memory, which is like a dispensary or chemical laboratory in which chance steers our hand sometimes to a soothing drug and sometimes to a dangerous poison.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“My whole working philosophy is that the only stable happiness for mankind is that it shall live married in blessed union to woman-kind—intimacy, physical and psychical between a man and his wife. I wish to add that my state of bliss is by no means perfect.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble. Both are immensely practical-minded affairs.”
—Peter B. Medawar (1915–1987)