Auld Lang Syne

Yet another year is waning and what a year it has been for Parapsychology Foundation.  My mother, Eileen Coly,  PF’s second President, often admonished me while growing up to  not  rush through my life experiences which  she cautioned would pass by over the coming  years with ever increasing speed.  I should take care to be fully in the moment while in my rush to move forward she counseled.   Good advice which was hard to follow but now I appreciate.

This past year has been overwhelmingly fraught with despair but ultimately exhilaration.  We were faced with the unthinkable and for years inevitable need to preserve the future of our Garrett library due to our poor financial condition coupled with the loss of our lease where we had happily served the parapsychological community in Greenport, New York since 2005 and since 1951 in various other Manhattan locations.   We are eternally grateful to Suzanne Clores who in March authored and facilitated a clarion call to save the library within the pages of the New York Times Sunday Style section along with stunning photos by long time PF Rogo Award winner and grantee, Shannon Taggart who herself has just released a second edition of her award winning book Séance.  

Thanks to Shannon who made the introduction to Dr. Beth Saunders at UMBC,  our prayers were answered and our crisis averted.  As difficult as it was to contemplate the loss of the library and execute its transfer ultimately we are convinced that the Garrett is in far more capable hands, poised to reach more patrons and students of the paranormal than we could provide in our present poor financial state.  Truly please consider your fully tax deductible donation if you want to see PF’s contributions to the science of parapsychology continue. Rather than looking at our glass half empty we are now with great excitement looking at a glass not merely half full but brimming to the top with potential –the library’s future bright!  The transfer was quite an undertaking which included an army of library moving specialists and 5 huge vans not to mention visits by Dr. Saunders to Greenport and Anna’s and my visits to UMBC.  But I am happy to report the books are safely on the shelves and the catalog being overhauled with all manner of library science being applied. Be sure to check with UMBC that all is accessible before planning a visit.  Once safely out of our hands the tremendous work of dismantling shelves and furniture and moving PF files was undertaken. A new nearby location was acquired which now houses PF’s office and a small but very fine reading room. Our new address:  218 Front Street, Suite 3, Greenport, NY 11944 with our post box 1562 in New York, New York 10021 is still available as Anna and I continue to commute between Greenport and Manhattan. Our Board of Trustees and I want to most especially offer our sincere gratitude to Joseph St. Pierre, Joel Daly and Rod Stankewicz who without their expertise, muscle and generosity the cleanout and move would never have been possible leaving Anna and I floundering.

Around such time consuming and expensive events the normal work of the PF continued.  Our 2022 Rogo Award for Parapsychological Media went to Dr. Nancy L. Zingrone who is preparing with her late husband, Dr.  Carlos S. Alvarado “The Hidden and Fragmented Mind (1880-1900: the Society for Psychical Research)” while organizing his papers and library.  This is no mean feat as Carlos was such a prolific author and friend to so many students the world over.  It was a privilege to have worked closely over the years with them before and after they were on staff at PF as they enriched the productivity of the PF as they did my life personally but our relationship aside the book will be of great value to scholars when published.

Another PF grant provided boxing and shipment of 2000 books duplicates already on the shelves of the Garrett consisting of the Frank Tribbe Library to Dr. Jim Matlock who is growing his fine library thereby saving more of our resources for various students.

I was personally overjoyed to learn that “The Journal of Anomalistics/Zeitschrift fur Anomalistik “(JAnom/ZfA)  saw fit to revisit the theme of PF’s 39^th International Conference held in Dublin in 1991 that was devoted to “Women and Parapsychology.”   That conference was crafted to celebrate PF’s 40^th anniversary all the more shocking to me in the realization that on December 14th PF is celebrating 72 years of existence.  A zoom meeting of “Women and Parapsychology Revisited” was held on November 19, 2022 chaired by Dr. Gerhard Mayer, the Editor-in-Chief of ZfA with a special issue devoted to it in the December issue.   One of the benefits of age if you are so lucky to survive is the realization that what you have done previously has consequences.  For me this is a positive consequence and I am overjoyed that Rhea White and I who conceptualized the PF conference planted seeds now coming to fruition.  Of course I could ask why it took so long to recognize the value of Women in Parapsychology but that is another blog for sure.  

Believe it or not I was able to meet with several colleagues in person in the midst of all this sturm and drang such as old friends Dr. Ed May and new ones, Morgan Knudsen.  Email and zoom kept me in contact with the field despite being hard to catch vis a vis all my machinations.  If this “ laundry list” of a blog is not long enough I am gratified to add that Afterworlds Press with Editor Dr. Gregory Shushan himself a noted author has seen fit to just last month publish “CALL ME LUCIFER Dialogues with a Noble Stranger” a manuscript I put together of written transcripts some of which I typed up “hot off the press” when Garrett held conversations with an entity who told her she could call him “Lucifer”.  How I had time for that and writing a lengthy foreword is a mystery in itself apart from the subject matter.  Please take a read and if you are so inclined please leave a positive review in Amazon.

So my friends and colleagues if you are still attempting to continue to read this please know I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a Happy Healthy New Year.  So many of you reached out to me personally to lend support which I gratefully appreciate as professionally and personally this has been very difficult.  Myself, I know a lot of doors have closed this year but I am eager to open new ones in the New Year.   I take heart from some of the wisdom imparted by Lucifer when he counseled “The Past is the past.  The things of the past have served their purpose.  It is in the system of evolution that you move on …The past has been important.  It has been useful.  Throw the echoes of the past out into the universe with the greatest kindliness. Let them be useful to somebody else.  They are the frills of yesteryear.”  No wonder my grandmother’s motto for PF was always Onwards and Upwards like the PF spiral.  Till Next Year…