My Library

Although I did not realize it at the time, this was ultimately to mean that new and innovative ideas were not welcome. I also did not realize that the position of Dr. Karlis Osis as Director of Research was a thorn in the side of certain other parapsychologists who may have wanted themselves to obtain it. Had it been possible to remove him without undergoing several legal disruptions, it's quite likely he would have been long gone. * To help make all this more clear, the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) had been founded in 1885, in emulation of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in London. Since its founding the ASPR was composed of the traditional pyramidal power hierarchy typical of most human institutions. There was a very narrow top to this pyramid, and a very broad bottom. At the top was the board of trustees and officers who made all the decisions, or at least tried to do so, and just beneath those was a curious mix of officers and committees sometimes composed of trustees themselves. Those officers, also as trustees, of course voted for themselves and their projects. Throughout its long history, the ASPR had produced a lot of good work -- and a chain of scandals and palace revolutions inside its hidden machinery.