American Society for Psychical Research

I was a bit puzzled by a news item on the SPR Facebook page, saying the American Society is putting its headquarters in New York up for sale, with the comment "Worrying."

I must admit I had assumed the American society was effectively defunct. There is a website, but the only sign of activity since the year 2000 that I can see is a copyright notice on the main page dated 2009. Though if they still own a building, I suppose the society must still be in existence.

Does anyone know anything?

George Hansen wrote about the decline of the ASPR some time ago. 

http://paranormaltrickster.blogspot.com/...keane.html

This page seems to tell us that there costs outweigh their revenue by $1million.

https://www.citizenaudit.org/organization/131655205/ (under the tab "financial")

So I guess they have to offload their assets so that their only paid staff member can continue to enjoy a six-figure salary for doing almost nothing. This article (linked to by the SPR) includes the line: "Calls and emails to the society, which is open to the public, were not immediately returned." Yep, that sounds about right.

George Hansen wrote about the decline of the ASPR some time ago. 

http://paranormaltrickster.blogspot.com/...keane.html

This page seems to tell us that there costs outweigh their revenue by $1million.

https://www.citizenaudit.org/organization/131655205/ (under the tab "financial")

So I guess they have to offload their assets so that their only paid staff member can continue to enjoy a six-figure salary for doing almost nothing. This article (linked to by the SPR) includes the line: "Calls and emails to the society, which is open to the public, were not immediately returned." Yep, that sounds about right.

Thanks. That explains things. Perhaps the connotation of the "Worrying" comment on the SPR page is different from what I'd assumed!

I look after the SPR's Facebook and Twitter accounts, and posted the link to the article.  The ASPR has certainly continues to exist, and I'm told that occasionally individuals have managed to use the library, though it is a lengthy and difficult process gaining permission, granted in the manner of a personal favour.  But in other respects the Society is dormant, apart from paying the large salary as mentioned above.

My reason for writing 'worrying' was three-fold: first, saying they did not need as much space as before is an explicit acknowledgement they do not intend to carry out the functions they had in the past; secondly, there is the real danger of asset stripping; and thirdly, there is a risk to the library and archives, which could be dispersed on the grounds there is no space for them - technically the ASPR could function from a small office to maintain the pretence on paper that it exists, while the rest of its assets are gradually milked.

What I find particularly shocking about the business is that it has been going on for a long time and not been a secret - as well as the Hansen article, Guy Lyon Playfair wrote a forum piece for Fortean Times - but there has been an astonishing lack of interest, let alone action.  It's probably too late to do anything now short of an expensive legal challenge, but perhaps a more concerted action to expose what has been going on in the APSR could have prevented this point being reached.  I think we can now consider the ASPR dead, but we should be concerned about its archives, the dispersal of which would be a tragic loss to the subject.

PS I'm pleased that the SPR's Facebook page is performing a useful function in generating debate!

I look after the SPR's Facebook and Twitter accounts, and posted the link to the article.  The ASPR has certainly continues to exist, and I'm told that occasionally individuals have managed to use the library, though it is a lengthy and difficult process gaining permission, granted in the manner of a personal favour.  But in other respects the Society is dormant, apart from paying the large salary as mentioned above.

My reason for writing 'worrying' was three-fold: first, saying they did not need as much space as before is an explicit acknowledgement they do not intend to carry out the functions they had in the past; secondly, there is the real danger of asset stripping; and thirdly, there is a risk to the library and archives, which could be dispersed on the grounds there is no space for them - technically the ASPR could function from a small office to maintain the pretence on paper that it exists, while the rest of its assets are gradually milked.

What I find particularly shocking about the business is that it has been going on for a long time and not been a secret - as well as the Hansen article, Guy Lyon Playfair wrote a forum piece for Fortean Times - but there has been an astonishing lack of interest, let alone action.  It's probably too late to do anything now short of an expensive legal challenge, but perhaps a more concerted action to expose what has been going on in the APSR could have prevented this point being reached.  I think we can now consider the ASPR dead, but we should be concerned about its archives, the dispersal of which would be a tragic loss to the subject.

PS I'm pleased that the SPR's Facebook page is performing a useful function in generating debate!

Thanks for the further commentary. It does seem a surprising and disturbing situation.

I can't help wondering what the constitution of the ASPR says, and whether the members - or potential future members - would be in a position to influence what is happening.

It's worth adding that the SPR Facebook page provides us with a lot of our news about parapsychology and regularly stimulates debate here!

Here's a blog post by Tom Ruffles, discussing more fully the concerns about the American Society (and including a reference to the discussion here):
http://tomruffles.blogspot.com/2019/07/m...ciety.html

There's a more detailed account of the Society's decline since the 1980s and its current state in a new article for the SPR's Psi Encyclopedia:
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...l-research

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/...0005-6.pdf

If anyone gets an "access denied" message (as I did), they can view the paper here 

https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP96-00792R000400300005-6

Ignore the title "China". Not sure what that's there for.

Thanks Max, I hadn't read this before.