It was inevitable that in the drive to develop 鈥榮cientific鈥 approaches to the supernatural, the Spiritualists would face the prospect of formal academic research. From the obvious 鈥榙ebunkings鈥 of nineteenth century spiritualists came the desire for a formal disciplinary codification, on the boundaries between science and what could quickly become show business.
Psychical Research was first undertaken in 1882, with the foundation of the Society for Psychical Research (S.P.R.) led by Henry Sidgwick, Frederic Myers and Edmund Gurney, aiming to measure psychic phenomena听 by scientific standards听. Its stated aim was to conduct research into the veracity of such phenomena as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition and psychokinesis. Writing in 1980, C.E.M Hansel was adamant that 鈥楧uring the past 50 years鈥psychic phenomena] have been demonstrated in the laboratory by means of rigorously controlled experiments.鈥 These experiments, however, were in doubt, because they 鈥榓ppear to have established鈥he reality of phenomena which conflict with well-established principles鈥.
