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The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is an organisation dedicated to parapsychology based in New York, where it maintains offices and a library. It is open to interested members of the public to join, and has a website. It also publishes the quarterly ''Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research''.〔(American Society for Psychical Research ) website〕 ==History== The American Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1884 in Boston, Massachusetts. Among other founding members were the psychologists G. Stanley Hall, James Mark Baldwin, Joseph Jastrow, and Christine Ladd-Franklin.〔Wade Pickren, Alexandra Rutherford. (2010). ''A History of Modern Psychology in Context''. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-27609-9〕 Among the first vice Presidents were Hall, William James and the philosopher Josiah Royce. The mathematician Simon Newcomb was the first President.〔Eugene Taylor. (2009). ''The Mystery of Personality: A History of Psychodynamic Theories''. Springer. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-387-98103-1〕 The early members of the society were skeptical of paranormal phenomena.〔John Melton. (1996). (''Psychical Research )'' in ''Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology''. Gale Group. ISBN 978-0-8103-9486-5〕 Hall and Jastrow took a psychological approach to psychical phenomena. By 1890 they had resigned from the society.〔 Hall and Jastrow became outspoken critics of parapsychology.〔Paul Kurtz. ''A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology''. Prometheus Books. p. 551. ISBN 978-0-87975-300-9〕 Other early members from the society including Morton Prince and James Jackson Putnam left the ASPR in 1892 to form the American Psychological Association.〔Steven Ward. (2002). ''Modernizing the Mind: Psychological Knowledge and the Remaking of Society''. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-0-275-97450-3〕 Richard Hodgson joined the ASPR in 1887 to serve as its secretary.〔Rosemary Guiley. (1994). ''The Guinness Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits''. Guinness Publishing. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-85112-748-4〕 In 1889 a financial crisis forced the ASPR to become a branch of the Society for Psychical Research, and Simon Newcomb and others left.〔Deborah Blum. (2006). ''Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death''. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-303895-5〕 It achieved independence once more in 1906.〔Seymour Mauskopf. (1982). ''Psychical Research in America'' in Ivor Grattan-Guinness ''Psychical Research: A Guide to Its History, Principles & Practices''. Aquarian Press. ISBN 978-0-85030-316-2〕 Following the death of Richard Hodgson in 1905, James H. Hyslop took up the position as secretary of the recreated organization, with the work being done at his residence in New York. He once wrote his son, "My work is missionary, not mercenary." The intended name for the new organization was, "The American Institute for Scientific Research" which Hyslop had organized into two sections for the investigation of two separate fields: "A" was to deal with psychopathology or abnormal psychology. Its Section "B" was to be concerned with what Hyslop called "supernormal psychology" or parapsychology. Section "A" never got off the ground. But Section "B" became the new and reorganized ASPR. One of the Institute's aims was to organize and endow investigations into telepathy, clairvoyance, mediumship, and kinetic phenomena. This work was to be carried out by "B." 〔 The society remained in New York, where it remains as of 2015. During this period the ASPR was heavily involved in the investigation of medium Leonora Piper about whom William James would famously declare in 1890: "To upset the conclusion that all crows are black, there is no need to seek demonstration that no crow is black; it is sufficient to produce one white crow; a single one is sufficient." Since his proclamation of Piper as his "one White Crow", the concept of the single "White Crow" has become a cliché in psychical re-search. After evaluating sixty-nine reports of Piper's mediumship William James considered the hypothesis of telepathy as well as Piper obtaining information about her sitters by natural means such as her memory recalling information. According to James the "spirit-control" hypothesis of her mediumship was incoherent, irrelevant and in cases demonstrably false.〔Francesca Bordogna. (2008). ''William James at the Boundaries: Philosophy, Science, and the Geography of Knowledge''. University Of Chicago Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-226-06652-3〕 However, G. Stanley Hall believed Piper's mediumship had an entirely naturalistic explanation and no telepathy was involved. Hall and his student Amy Tanner, who observed some of the trances, explained the phenomena in terms of the subconscious mind harboring various personalities that pretended to be spirits or controls. In their view, Piper had subconsciously absorbed information that she later regurgitated as messages from "spirits" in her trances.〔Amy Tanner. (1910). (''Studies in Spiritism'' ). New York: Appleton.〕 On June 20, 1906, the ASPR had 170 members and by the end of November 1907, it had 677.〔Arthur Berger. (1988). ''Lives and Letters in American Parapsychology: A Biographical History, 1850–1987''. McFarland & Company. pp. 51–55 ISBN 978-0-89950-345-5〕 Hereward Carrington became a member of the ASPR in 1907 and an assistant to James Hyslop until 1908, during which time he established his reputation as an ASPR investigator. However his connection with the ASPR ceased due to lack of funds.〔 Carrington was the author the book ''The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism'' which exposed the tricks of fraudulent mediums.〔Hereward Carrington. (1907). (''The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism'' ). Herbert B. Turner & Co.〕 According to Arthur Conan Doyle, Carrington was not popular with spiritualists.〔Massimo Polidoro. (2001). ''Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle''. Prometheus Books. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-57392-896-0〕 James Hyslop died in 1920, and immediately strife broke out between the membership as the Society divided into two factions, one broadly pro-Spiritualism, indeed often Spiritualists, and the other 'conservative' faction favoring telepathy and skeptical of 'discarnate spirits' as an explanation for the phenomena studied, or simply skeptical of the phenomena's existence.〔Clément Chéroux. (2005). ''The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult''. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11136-1〕 In 1923 a prominent Spiritualist, Frederick Edwards, was appointed President, and the conservative faction led by Gardner Murphy and Walter Franklin Prince declared that the Society was becoming less academic.〔Rosemary Guiley. (1994). ''The Guinness Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits''. Guinness Publishing. pp. 48–50. ISBN 978-0-85112-748-4〕 In the same year the ASPR lost 108 members.〔David Hess. (1993). ''Science In The New Age: The Paranormal, Its Defenders & Debunkers, (Science & Literature)''. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-299-13824-0 "A sharp divide between Spiritualists and psychical researchers had already occurred in 1923, when pro-Spiritualist forces gained control of the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR), ousted President William McDougall, and demoted Hyslop's chosen successor, the psychologist Walter Franklin Prince, who resigned in 1925. The ASPR lost 108 members in 1923, and the controversy over the claimed physical effects of the medium named "Margery" sealed the division."〕 New members joined the society and William McDougall a past President and Prince both became alarmed at the number of "credulous spiritualists" that joined the ASPR.〔Robert Laurence Moore. (1977). ''In Search of White Crows: Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and American Culture''. Oxford University Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-19-502259-9〕 In 1925 Edwards was reappointed President, and his support of the mediumistic claims of 'Margery' (Mina Crandon) led to the 'conservative' faction leaving and forming the rival Boston Society for Psychical Research in May, 1925. From this point on the ASPR remained highly sympathetic to Spiritualism until 1941, when the Boston Society for Psychical Research was reintegrated into the ASPR.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「American Society for Psychical Research」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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