Library

• The New Home
• The Library Itself
• The Fifth Garrett Library Fellow, Dr. James G. Matlock
• The Fourth Garrett Library Fellow, Andreas Sommer

The New HomeThe Eileen J. Garrett Research Library has moved to its new home at UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery Special Collections , Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation Collection is open by appointment only. To obtain an appointment, email speccoll@umbc.edu.

The Library ItselfEileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation Collection is located within the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery within UMBC’s campus at1000 Hilltop Cir, Baltimore, MD 21250. Click on the button “Library Basics” above for more information, including directions to the library.

When the Library was located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the New York Times (June 5, 2000) had this to say: “The Eileen J. Garrett Library of the Parapsychology Foundation … is stocked with more than 10,000 volumes on matters ranging from ghosts and poltergeists, psychic spies and healing research to spiritualism. It is a place where just about any assumption might be contemplated, and where psychic phenomena are accorded the respect that they have yet to receive in the material world beyond the tastefully appointed brownstone on East 71st Street.”

For more information on the Library’s collections, click on the buttons above.

The Fifth Eileen J. Garrett Library Dr. James G. MatlockThe Fifth Eileen J. Garrett Library Fellow, Dr. James G. Matlock, conducted research in the archives of the Garrett Library this past May. Matlock, who is also a Fellow of the Parapsychology Foundation, is researching the life and work of Dr. Ian Stevenson (1918-2007) who founded the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia in 1967.Jim Matlock is a scholar of reincarnation research. He obtained a BA in English from Emory University in 1977 and a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale in 2002. Over his long career in the field, he worked at the American Society for Psychical Research in New York City, and at the Rhine Research Center in Durham, North Carolina before becoming a Research Fellow at the PF. He is a regular contributor to the Society for Psychical Research’s online Psi Encyclopedia with ten entries on the topic, the co-author (with PF International Affiliate Dr. Erlendur Haraldsson) of the recent book, I Saw a Light and Came Here: Children’s Experiences of Reincarnation, as well as the author of dozens of academic papers concerning reincarnation and related areas.

While at the Garrett Library, Matlock accessed correspondence between Garrett and Stevenson, as well as used other resources of the library and its archives. For more information on his stay, click here.

The Fourth Eileen J. Garrett Library Fellow Andreas SommerThe Fourth Eileen J. Garrett Library Fellow, Andreas Sommer, conducted research in the Garrett Library from July 6th to July 12th, 2009, in preparation for his Ph.D. work in Science Studies and History of Medicine at University College London, UK, commencing in September 2009.

Since completing his Ph.D., Sommer’s work has contributed, from an historical perspective, to current discussions in Science Studies that touch on the problem of intellectual freedom, the impact of contributions by academic outsiders on scientific and medical knowledge, and the demarcation problem (i.e., philosophical arguments discussing the difference between science and pseudo-science).

While at the library, his project centered on the making of university psychology in Germany and the USA in response to proponents of late-nineteenth century psychical research, such as Johann Friedrich Zöllner in Germany, Frederic W. H. Myers in Britain, and William James in the US.

Andreas used the example of German philosopher Carl du Prel (1839—1899) to tap into a wider international network of actors in psychical research who previously have been neglected or studied in isolation by historians of science and psychology. The research also scrutinized historical and current knowledge claims about the intrinsic psychopathology, or cognitive deviance, of alleged exceptional experiences and unorthodox belief systems related to psychical research and its objects of investigation.

Sommer used the Foundation’s extensive collection of old Spiritualist and Psychical Research periodicals, especially issues of Light.

For more information on previous Library Fellows, click here.