It is with an extremely heavy heart that I must share that Parapsychology Foundation will run entirely out of money next month just a few months shy of celebrating 72 years of productive operation in December.
Our Board of Trustees, The late Eileen Coly our Second President, and I have long realized since we have had no major financial support since the death of our co-founder and benefactress, The Honorable Frances P. Bolton in 1977 coupled with no more assets to leverage, this end would be inevitable even while we tried our best to do all in our power to continue our remit as envisioned by my Grandmother, our Founder, Eileen J. Garrett. We have held to trying to help further the science of parapsychology and find answers to the questions raised by psychic functioning and the question of survival after death.
The decision was made to pass on and thus preserve the future of our magnificent Garrett Research Library within a highly respected seat of learning which we thankfully accomplished with its donation to Special collections of the Albin O. Kuhn Library of the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). We made what we felt was the correct decision even aware that through its sale in its entirety or being broken up it would provide much needed funds, the life blood of the organization, for the continuation of our activities. Leaving such a carefully crafted resource for future students of the paranormal was of overall greater import than the life of a non- profit organization.
I am very proud of PF’s legacy having touched so many researchers, students, and organizations through our various programs. An article which appeared in our International Journal of Parapsychology Vol 12, no 2 on the occasion of our 50th anniversary in 2001 will help illustrate our contribution acknowledging that we have continued on for an additional twenty two years until present day. I have seen firsthand during my close to 55 years working within the PF in different capacities how PF has had a hand in shaping the field and supporting its workers while educating the public at large.
With all this gloom and literal doom I fully intend to personally continue the PFs aims and act as best I can as we have always done as a clearing house for quality information on a complex and often misunderstood field providing direction and contacts for as long as I can. I plan to maintain PF’s presence on Facebook and continue adding content to PF’s growing YouTube channel. I will attempt to personally fund the continuation of the websites and the costs to continue the foundation’s standings as a viable organization in hopes PF can one day rise from the ashes.
It pains me that, Anastasia Damalas, who has worked steadfastly with me in recent years, will have to find a new path but she assures me that she stands ready to continue to support the organization in whatever way is open to her in the hopes that perhaps the PF’s story is not yet concluded if we find financial assistance. I now beg, not ask, that all those who have benefited by our support through the years consider paying it forward by making a tax free donation, an endowment or passing this appeal along to someone who might be able to help. Donations can be made through Paypal or via snail mail to Parapsychology Foundation at P.O. Box 1562 New York, NY 10021.
So there you have my sad news but also our pledge that we are not about to “give up the ghost” intending to hang on as long as possible in hopes of more good works. I intend to continue my work with Garrett’s what I refer to as “mystery boxes” full of correspondence and unpublished works by her and others. There has been a recent query as to where they are and what will become of them. I assure you that as befell the fate of the Garrett Library they will be similarly eventually preserved for future research.
We join with Garrett when she wrote and published in the PF Newsletter of November/December 1959 Vol 6 no.6:
‘The Parapsychology Foundation was established in 1951 as a non-profit educational organization to support impartial scientific inquiry into the total nature and working of the human mind, and to make available the results of such inquiry. The Foundation’s area of interest includes laboratory experiments such as those concerned with extrasensory perception and psychokinesis, as well as alleged spontaneous phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition…
Our foundation has since it began functioning, supported the work of individual scientists and of groups of scientists; it has organized conferences and symposia; it has established its own research division, and publications; it has extended its offices to include a European research center; and it has drawn on scientists active in many fields of study to contribute ideas and develop new approaches to areas of common interest.
Not every effort has borne fruit; indeed, much remains to be done, even in such basic matters as terminology, the delineation of subject matters; the development of hypotheses and methods. Even the meaning of the concept of ‘parapsychology’ itself might gain from further definition.
Eventually, I hope, the work begun by the Parapsychology Foundation Inc., will be taken over and continued on a much larger scale by other foundations and institutions of higher learning. Until such time, we hope to expand our activities to the best of our ability and knowledge, always ready to try the untried, always prepared to venture on roads as yet unexplored.”
