My Library

The whole of this involved intense politicking. And so to render the whole system more equable, a strata of "voting members" had been set up and who were to consider issues more objectively. But this had long resulted in convincing the voting members to vote this way or that, with the result that the ASPR was often characterized by what equated to internecine warfare. And it was this particular fearsome activity which the members of Buell Central referred to as the "cesspool." * Beneath all this were the hired managerial people, and beneath those were the "members of the ASPR" consisting of the public who paid a yearly subscription fee to be a member. In 1971, the membership was alleged to consist of some 8,000 strong. Beneath the members was the raw public, from which the ASPR hoped to solicit contributions, funds and bequests. To acquire its non-profit status, the ASPR proposed to educate the public regarding its own work and as regards psi in general. This noble goal was the sole purpose of the ASPR NEWSLETTER, which in 1971 was managed and produced by Mrs. Marion Nester. Along more scientific lines, the ASPR also published a JOURNAL to which parapsychologists as a whole could submit papers. These were then given over to peer review and if found suitable were then published. The JOURNAL, produced quarterly, was overseen by a publishing committee. By far and large it was a very good publication -- but the scientific papers published in the JOURNAL were somewhat inaccessible to the raw public which found it a boring read.