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THE
P ARAPSYCHOLCG XCAL MSBOC TA'i'T.Op
BECOMES AFFILIATE!.' VUT a: WF
f-
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVAl'CAMEF'C 'OF SC MINCH'
;
Parapsychology
is now
s.
Recogtii »&d Science.
• How
it wa«
fk;n°,
Newark College of Engineering
by:
E.
Douglas
CPYRGHT
In
1.93?
the British and
In
1958 the Amari can Medical
Aweoclshiois voted
to make hypnosis
rtii->eareh
a respectable
field of science.
Hypnosis has
nvsoa
fti-eat advances sines
then.
For
a decade and -even longer
ths parapsycho lo* is
t
a
have
yearned for their field
to become
legitimate;
than they would not be made
to
feet
Iocs of sell -respect,
or forced
to lose
their University positions
if
they contributed
Co gaining knowledge
in parapsychology.
So little
Is known
definitively of human nature and personality and some scientists felt
that
n
study o£ parapsychology could help our understanding
so
that they w«r* vUl*
ing
to suffer censure end accusations of
1'roudulenee from their colleagues,
until tuch time as opinion changed.
That
thee
is starting twro,
now,
in the
U. S.A
.
In 1937
the Parapsycho logical Association vns formed with members from
«li
ov«i
the world:
this was
a first step
in creating
pi. ofess Serial
ebi in
the
parapsychologleal area.
The Medical Associations
n't&. not
the
correct. Author I -
ties from whom to seek recognition;
rather tbio falls
to
the Associations
for
Mw. Advancement of
Science. (AAAS' in the U.S A.).
The AA AS
has
about 300 affU-
iftttd socle tier, composed of
all
the scientific, medical and engineering socie-
t:,en
in
th‘* u *
s *
ThG delegates,
numbering about 530. make up
the Counci i of
tae AAAS *'hich votes. Constitution changes
and additions
to society affiliations
Afcer
tins
P. A.
had been going
the minimum Ove
yea-'.e
in
1963,
Dr.
Cen.oll
Masli,
President, made
the first attempt
to affiliate vi th
the. AAAS hut
it
was
rejected,
la
1966 Dssa promised
to
r.1:y again end vns
z.lez ted
P.A.
Frer.idsut.
Hi 3
1967 attempt passed the first hurdle which was recoa^udat ion by
thv AAAS
Cornu t tee on Affiliation in
Novornbev.
It contained
the statement
that
Ufa
tomtit tea. wished
to sn courage scientific research
in parcpicycholony
but. not
to
K «y that ESP was tboreby proven
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CPYRGHT
liot-'sver the second hurdle
is
the Board o £ Directors
of
the AAAS
on.
December 26,
mid here some VIP scientists considered
it preposterous
that
p&ra.psyc hology be regarded as scientific.
So they did net put
the affili-
ation of
the
P. A.
to the
third hurdle -"the AMS Council vote on December
30.
A storm of controversy produced
a motion by Council
that
the matter
roust be
brought
to
a vote,
yes or no,
in
1968.
The Council also abolished the AAAS
Committee on Affiliations,
officially end actually for other reasons.
Thing;
looked dark
for
the. P.A.*s
chances.
Non- scientific people find this action
of scientists vary hard
to understand.
Yet
in
1968,
Sir Alistair Hardy,
President of the
S.P.R.
,
and Fellow of
the Royal Society
(mainly a society
of Nobel prise -winning scientists
in England) stated
that perhaps
12 of
his
1,00 F.R.S.
colleagues believed
in ESP;
88 did not accept ESP's existence.
In
1.968 Bean became Secretary of the P.A.
and submitted another appli-
cation,
this time
to the AAAS Committee on Council Affairs.
The AAAS Presi-
dent*
Dr,
Walter Orr Roberts, was favorable
to our causa and spoke for us
on the committee.
Yet
he was overridden and
the application was voted down
at
the first hurdle.
Not* only that but the criteria for affiliation were
to
be rewritten for future years,
officially for other reasons.
Things
looked
vary dark for P.A.
affiliation.
In
1969 Dean was elected
to P.A.
Council on a tie vote with Dr.
John
Be Hoff.
Beloff
lost on a toss-up.
So Bean became Secretary of the
P.A,
again.
He decided
to
lay
low and not submit
in
1969;
this was
in hope
that
by removing
the pressure the criteria for affiliation would not be changed
too adversely for
1970 when the new criteria vere
to be released.
However
Dr n
.
A.
McCotmo.il
(Biophysics,
Pittsburgh,
and first P.A.
President.)
told
Dean that the criteria change was supposed to help the P.A.
and that
v;e
should try again
in 1969.
This was
a kind of reverse, logic but Dsan was
only
too willing, especially as McConnell knew Dr.
A.
Spillhaua, AMS
President-elect,
and chairmen of
the first committee hurdle, was favorable
to us.
Dean's decision change was also reverse
logic,
since
a letter coma
from the Washington AAAS office
to
say that even if we submitted
in
1969
the committee would moat, probably table the application pending the new cri-
teria due
in
1970.
Things
looked, very dark and rough for
the P.A.
Mover the less
the P.A.
Council backed up the decision
Co mount another
application in
1989,
the fourth.
'These applications are no easy matter.
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CPYRGHT
-
-
They cost' about
$1.50 each.
To each of
cwaXva scientists cn
the AAAS Com-
mittee- is sent aoout %
pounds; weight of materials.
These are reprints of
tn®
beer., most recent psrapsychological research papers,
copies of the P.A.
Constitution and By-laws,
and articles
in encyclopaedias.
Thanks are due
*
to P.A.
members who sent
in dozens of their valuable papers.
Very hard-
noaud decisions hod
to ba made on which
to- include and which
to
leave cut,
as
this
n
itsei.j.
is
a test of scientific ae'w-n
.
Pi
.
riCocuiliC /. j, was
SKfcra-
ord i nav i ly he 1 pf
u
l here
.
/.n addition,
about
typewritten pages were included
in answer
to
reasons why the P.A. wanted affiliation, whether
the
P.A.
satisfied sax
procedural matters,
snrl seven points concerning
the criteria of affiliation.
Results
of
a poll
of P.A. members Dean conducted were included
to chow that
about
two- thirds of
those replying ware AAAS members and nine
P.A.
members
ware also AAAS Fellows.
The membership list showed that two-thirds
had a
Ph.D. degree.
A
list of about 50 master's and Ph.D.
theses at Universities
around
the world showed
that degrees
had been given
(by some top-flight
Universities)
for research in parapsychology.
Dr.
R, Van de Castle
(1970
P.A ..President) was very helpful
here.
A Met of recent notices of Symposia
on Parapsychology, given at the New York Academy of Science,
New York Uni-
versity,
MIT,
UCLA,
A.
Psychological Assn.,
A.
Psychiatric Assn.,
and ASPR,
was also presented.
The 20 -pages were exquisitely typed and flawlessly Xeroxed with the
Xerox repair man present to ensure
it
so.
Than they were separated
into
transparent plastic folders.
Dean had to disappear
from, life for
three weeks
to get
this done each year.
It
is human to err,
and on
the
1969
one he was
completing the packets with one hour
to go before
the Post Office closed;
suddenly he realized he had Xeroxed
the wrong article,
leaving
it out and
submitting
two of another.
So
he raced across town to
the Xerox machine be-
fore
it closed,
and then to
the Post Office with five minutes
to spare
to
bargain for another hour which was granted
to meet
tua deadline.
_
_
appUcaUon was considered by the first committee
in the second
haU
° f
Novetnbor
-
, Dafm could not find out until mid-December that
it had
passed.
The
P.A.
application, was then on
the agenda of
the AAAS Council
'
feting cent
to delegates
as
Item,
7.
But
there was
a mistake.
Only four
'
'
A ‘
nu
'tnb3rs
V70re
lint«d
AAAS Fellow*,
not nine.
So Dean went up to
the
•W..,
Annual
Convention,
held this year
in Boston,
and sought out
Dr.
Roberts
jUnt
*fter hc
c#sne off
° TV sh™*
K(i
agreed
to have
the typing mistake
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ch.ringed
and gave
ths goad news
that
the Board of Directors
on December
had passed
the P.A
application.
So nev
thare remained the vote
ox MAS
Council on December 30, whan
a, strange event occurred on the 29th.
!V-vm
Jo
a addict of Polynesian restaurants and goes
in
to admire
the South
S'-a
Is land decor,
hear
the Hawaiian music,
and order tea and fortune cookies.
He
must, have eaten j00 ouch cookies over the years
and. reed the fortunes
.
O.i
the
2:h,h.j
in the KOiUlKl,
at
p.m. ,
hs was given the fortune
’’SUCCESS
WILL COME TO YOU SOON,"
Did soon mean just
hovers?'
The AAAS Council meeting was held
in the ‘ItaMerdHitcn ballroom which,
uns so vast
that
an Observer’s Gallery was roped off
at
the back.
Thus Dean
could get
a first-hand account of what happened.
The Chairman should have
been
to.
SpUJ.haus but
he could not be present.
Neither could
Dr.
Roberts,
bo
it fell
to the
1969 AAAS President,
Dr,
Bentley Glass.
About
3.2 noon
Dl
*
Giws® brought up Item
/ on
the agenda- -the. application of
tha American
Orthopsychiatric Association and
the Parapsycho logical Association for
axf illation.
Dr.
Glass:
r I will
put each organization separately
to
a vote.
The A.
Or othopsy cla 1 a fcr 1 c Assn,
do
r hear
a motion?
Yes.
Second?
Yes,
Any
discussion?
Silence.
All
those
in favor of
the motion say Aye?
Ays.
Against?
Silence.
The motion
is passed by voice vote.*
’Now tha
Parapsycho3.og.ical Association.
Do
1 hear
a motion?
Silence.
(Dean cringed,
since he had tried
to arrange
a friend but could not and per-
haps
it was
as well.
The next
ten seconds were
interminable. )
Then a soft
voice spoke up and said
’Yes.’
Dr.
Glass:
»Ie there
a
second?
Silence.’
(Again Dean nearly died.
Do we
lose
it because there
is no second
to the
motion?)
But after five seconds
someone, said
’Yes,’
»Xs
there any discus-
fiion?’
Several members tried
to get
to the microphones.
A man whose name
Dean could not hoar said:
"In our agenda
it states
that
'the
aims
of
the
P.A.
ere
to advance parapsychology as
a science,
to disseminate knew ledge of
the
L i eld,
m-id
to integrate
the findings with those of other branches of
science.’
The so-called phenomena of parapsychology do not exist and
it
is
impossible
to cj
‘-C„enti.cic work
?.n this area,
so
that wa have a null
science.
X
there-
fore will
vote against this motion."
A woman member said:
"he are
not
f aTn-
-
3 .ir
>.l-h what parapsychology
is and so
tv?, arc not qualified
to make
a vote
OR
this association.”
(This was not quite
correct,
since
Dr.
McConr.c-U
hnd
fc._l.-_n
the
huge
task of mailing several
items of
literature describing
P
apuycho 3.ogy
to all 330 delegates during
the
fall.)
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