2022-09-30-accounts

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The Incorporated SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

ANNUAL REPORT AND STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS

1st October 2021 to 30th September 2022

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|||| |---|---|---| |Council, Officers, Staff and Advisers ……………… 2| |President’s Report ………………………….…….... 3| |Research …………………………………………… 4| |Research Grants Committee …………………..….. 4| |Buckmaster Oversight Committee ……...……….... 4| |Spontaneous Cases Committee ……………..……... 5| |Survival Research Committee ……………,…....... 5| |Library …………………………………………….. 6| |Archives ……………………………….………...... 6| |Education and Publicity …………………………… 7| |Website Manager ………………………………….. 8| |The|Journal|……………………………………….. 8| |The|Magazine|……….................................………. 8| |Annual Conference ……………………………..... 9| |Secretary’s Report ……………………………….. 9| |Data Protection Officer’s Report ............................ 9| |The Financial Position .......................................... 10| |Annual Report and Accounts|…………………. 12| |Agenda for 2023 A.G.M. ……………………...… 29| |Minutes of 2022 A.G.M. ……………………...…. 30| |Notes on Candidates for Election to Council ……. 31|

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A Company Limited by Guarantee

Registered No. 44861 England Registered Charity No. 207325

COUNCIL, OFFICERS, STAFF AND ADVISERS as at 30[th] September 2022

President: Prof. A. D. Parker, MA, PhD

Vice-Presidents

Dr R. S. Broughton, BA, PhD Prof. B. J. Carr, MA, PhD Prof. D. L. Delanoy, BA, PhD

Dr A. O. Gauld, MA, PhD, DLitt Prof. J. C. Poynton, MSc, PhD Prof. C. A. Roe, BSc, MSc, PhD, AFBPsS

Elected Members of Council

Mrs M. E. Barton

Dr R. S. Broughton, BA, PhD Prof. B. J. Carr, MA, PhD Dr B. G. Colvin, BSc, PhD Dr C. E. Cooper, BSc, MRes, PhD, CPsychol., FHEA Mr C. J. Farrell, BSc, GRSC Mr J. Fraser, BA

Dr G. T. B. Kidd, MBBS, Dr T. H. Ruffles, BSc, BA, MA, PhD, MRCPsych ARPS Mr R. G. McLuhan, BA, BLitt Dr L. Ruickbie, BA, MA, PhD, Assoc. Mr A. D. Murdie, LL B of King’s College Prof. C. A. Roe, BSc, MSc, Mr A. P. Ryan PhD, AFBPsS Dr M. J. Willin, BMus, MMus, PhD, Dr D. N. Rousseau, BSc, PhD LRAM Mrs J. A. Rousseau, BSc

(for the purpose of the Companies Act 2006 the elected members of Council are directors)

Co-opted Members of Council

Mr D. R. Bury, AFBPsS., CPsychol, BA (Theol), MA, Dip Psychol, Dip Couns Dr D. L. Erickson, MBA, PhD Mr S. T. Parsons

Dr M. B. Schofield, BSc, MRes, PhD Dr D. J. Vernon, BSc, PhD Dr Z. Weaver, BA, PhD

Council Appointments

Officers:

Hon. Secretary – Dr Kidd

Hon. Treasurer – Dr Broughton

Other appointments:

Hon. Editor, Journal & Proceedings – Dr Schofield Editorial Assistant – Dr Tammy Dempster Associate Editor – Dr Weaver Hon. Editor, Paranormal Review – Dr Ruickbie Hon. Communications Officer – Dr Ruffles

Hon. Archives Liaison Officer – Dr Willin Hon. Website Manager – Dr Erickson Website Content Manager – Mr Nemo Mörck Data Protection Officer – Mr Farrell Hon. Book Review Editor, JSPR – Mr Nemo Mörck

Secretary: Mr Peter Johnson

Librarian: Mrs Karen Patel

Council Committees

Committee Chairman Members Education & Publicity Prof. Carr Dr Erickson, Mr McLuhan, Mr Nemo Mörck, Prof. Roe, Dr Ruickbie, Dr Ruffles Research Grants Mr Ryan Dr Broughton, Prof. Carr, Prof. Delanoy, Dr Gauld, Prof. Caroline Watt Buckmaster Oversight Dr Broughton Prof. Carr, Mr Fraser, Mr Murdie, Dr Kidd, Mr Ryan, Dr Weaver Library Dr Ruffles Dr Kidd, Mr McLuhan, Mr Mörck, Dr John Newton, Mrs Patel, Prof. Poynton, Dr Willin Spontaneous Cases Dr Kidd Dr Colvin, Dr Cooper, Mr Paul Cropper, Ms Beth Darlington, Mr Farrell, Mr Fraser, Mr Ashley Knibb, Mr Murdie, Dr John Newton, Mrs Claire O’Malley, Dr Ruickbie Survival Research Mrs Barton Mr Bury, Dr Matthew Colborn, Dr Cooper, Dr Gauld, Dr Rousseau, Dr David Saunders Editorial Board Prof. Parker Prof. Stephen Braude, Dr Broughton, Prof. Carr, Prof. Delanoy, Dr Gauld, Dr James Houran, Dr Harvey Irwin, Dr Julia Mossbridge, Prof. Roe, Prof. Poynton, Mr Ryan, Dr Stefan Schmidt, Prof. Caroline Watt, Dr Robin Wooffitt Conference Programme Dr Cooper Prof. Carr, Dr Gauld, Mr Murdie, Prof. Parker, Prof. Roe, Dr Ruffles

Professional Advisers

Auditors & Accountants PK Audit LLP Chartered Accountants Investment Manager Newton Investment Management Ltd.

ANNUAL REPORT

Report of the President - Professor Adrian Parker

This year’s annual report for the period 1 October 2021 until 30 Sept 2022 covers the difficult time of slow recovery from the Covid restrictions and their impact. There were however some uplifting events in the year, one of which was that several SPR members received awards in the form of prize money from the aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow. In fact, of the 30 or so prize winners, many. perhaps close to half were SPR members including the third prize winner Leo Ruickbie. The Zoombased meetings also contributed to maintaining a level of enthusiasm in enabling us to meet leading experts in this this area who otherwise would have been inaccessible for financial reasons. David Vernon continued his successful recruitment of many leading academic experts to give Zoom talks, but he also dared to deviate by including someone, who spoke of his own personal experiences: Graham Nicholls gave insights as to the failures as well as successes with OBEs. Zoom webinars have spread to other European SPRs and one of my ambitions has been to make these talks more accessible to our membership. For instance, the Swedish SPR hosted with free access for SPR Members, to talks by the comedian John Cleese and the Edward Kelly, the recipient of the Myers Medal for his series of edited books on Consciousness. Most recent were the inspiring lectures by Cal Cooper and Chris Roe on ADEs, Michael Nahm on materialisations and Bernard Carr on Bridging Mind Matter and Spirit. These and others are freely accessible via the website parapsykologi.se. The Freiburg Institute holds a regular colloquium on Tuesdays (sometimes in English) with guest speakers. Although we endeavor to advertise such talks via the SPR website, in order to be notified in advance of such talks members because of confidentiality must update their communications preferences in order to be informed of external events via email.

There was inevitably a drawback to Zoom meetings in that it became harder to justify arranging physical meetings but there appears to be now a growing desire for direct interaction. Nevertheless, the consensus in 2022 was for the Annual Conference for 2022 to be in the form of a Zoom-based webinar, with audience participation via the Chat and Q&A functions. The conference, chaired by the socially gifted Cal Cooper (now Professor Cal Cooper), was a success with about 100 participants. There were four outstanding invited speakers: the skeptic David Marks who now sees a deeper meaning in his personal synchronicities, Bigelow essay prize-winners Leo Ruickbie and Jeffery Mishlove, and the internationally well-known clinical psychologist and philosopher Harald Walach, author of many reports and books including The Galileo Commission Report .

Despite the gains that were linked of zoom technology, the importance of direct social contact is

recognised, so like many organisations, we are attempting to more forward and arrange hybrid sessions for conferences some study days and some study days. Major change take time and we are most thankful for the continued membership support especially during this transitional period when the SPR has also had to deal with major leadership changes. The editor of the Magazine of the SPR, Leo Ruickbie accepted employment from the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies. The muchvalued input and the skills of Leo in developing this magazine have not been easy to replace and as consequence there has been a delay in maintaining the flow of issues in the intervening period. Bernard Carr after nearly 40 years of enabling an enormous and rich output in the educational role of the SPR and, not least, arranging our Study Days, decided to stand back and will be succeeded by a collaborative effort from David Vernon and Cal Cooper. The SPR is most grateful for the Herculean services of Bernard during these years. I will alert readers to the rich treasure house of recorded Study Days and Conferences that is available on the SPR website. David Vernon’s very popular SPR Web Events can also be found here.

A further demand on resources concerned the JSPR which changed its type setters creating delays in publication. The high standard of the content is being maintained by the Hon. Editor, Malcolm Schofield and our Hon. Book Review Editor, Nemo Mörck (although I am told there is a shortage of expert book reviewers).

Another positive aspect of this period is that the work of investigating spontaneous cases has proceeded with energy and enthusiasm. I recommend the essay in the 2022 issue 5 of The Magazine of the SPR by Graham Kidd, chairperson of the Spontaneous Cases Committee. describing its aims, purposes, and current activities. The SPR website has become a rich source of information, which I suspect are not readily discovered by the membership, so I mention here a just a couple of examples: the reviews and blog activities of Tom Ruffles and Nemo Mörck. Nemo who, alongside Deborah Erickson, is the Website Content Manager, has made valuable contributions towards updating the website.

Much of work at the SPR goes unnoticed or without due recognition. I have been recently impressed by the competence shown by our Treasurer, Richard Broughton, and SPR Secretary, Peter Johnson, in administering and overseeing our finances and web platform activities such as membership and event management, and in continuing to stay updated on digital developments. These activities demand both technical and social competence and deserve recognition. Also, Melvyn Willin continues to work tirelessly maintaining the SPR’s archives held at

Cambridge University Library as well as the audiovisual material held at his own home; and the Psi Encylopedia continues to develop under the editorship of Robert McLuhan.

make active and meaningful contributions during this transition period to normality or hopefully to what will become an enhanced perception of what is considered normality.

The reports here from the various committees, especially Survival Research Committee, Research Grants Committee, Buckmaster Oversight Committee, the library Committee, all evidence how the society has continued to

I commend this report to the Society’s members and other interested bodies.

RESEARCH

Report of the Research Grants Committee Chairman: Adrian Ryan

At the start of the period Prof. Deborah Delanoy stepped down as chair of the committee and I was elected to take over this role. I’d like to thank Deborah for her many years of service as chair and I’m delighted that she continues to serve as a committee member and offer the committee her considerable experience. Deborah has done an excellent job of documenting the committee’s Terms of Reference and processes, which makes my job that much easier.

I am delighted to announce that we have a new committee member, Prof. Caroline Watt. Caroline of course has enormous experience in our field, with a particular focus on methodology, and I’m very happy to have her on board. Dr Alan Gauld, whilst still a committee member, was not able to contribute to the assessment of grant applications this year due to failing health.

We received ten grant applications in the period, and after careful deliberations the committee decided to fund five of these. We send our congratulations to the successful applicants and wish them every success with

their research. The successful applicants are as follows: Chris Roe - Testing the theory of 'First Sight' using the Bem 'feeling the future' paradigm - £7,041.90 Etzel Cardena - Participant versus independent judging: an empirical evaluation of two Ganzfeld/hypnosis datasets. - £6,500.00

Steve Parsons - Examination of a potentially new type of visual phenomena which has appeared in photographs and video predominantly taken using cameras fitted to mobile phones and similar devices. - £3,600.00

Marc Wittmann - VR video game induced psi experiences in red and green Ganzfeld - £3,543.00 Samantha Treasure - The role of spontaneous and deliberate out-of-body experiences in Korean shamanism - £1,051.05

The total value of grants awarded this year is £21,735.95.

I would like to encourage SPR members to consider making donations and/or bequests specifically to the SPR’s Research Fund, so that we can continue to support this important work far into the future.

Report of the Buckmaster Oversight Committee (BOC) Chairman: Dr Richard S. Broughton

The role of the Buckmaster Oversight Committee is to oversee the projects approved by Council that are funded by a legacy from Mr Nigel Buckmaster. During the past year the committee has continued to monitor the two projects remaining in its portfolio.

The SPR’s online Psi Encyclopedia, the flagship project of the Buckmaster fund continues to provide an unmatched online information source for Psychical Research under the direction of Editor Robert McLuhan. Details of its activities this year are in the report of the Education and Publicity Committee.

The Systems Methodology for Exploratory Science project under Dr David Rousseau is finally nearing completion but continues to experience delays due to family matters. The remaining and final product of this project is a practical handbook for applying Systems Methodology to the problems of psychical research, and this is now expected early in 2023. A collection of published and unpublished papers arising from this project is now available in the SPR Library.

The BOC is pleased to report that the projects are proceeding satisfactorily and that benefits of Mr Buckmaster’s generosity are being realised by our scientific colleagues as well as by our members and the general public.

Report of the Spontaneous Cases Committee Chairman: Graham Kidd

Applications to join the SCC has been gratifyingly plentiful, and we are in the process of considering four. Ashley Knibb has re-joined bringing with him his usual enthusiasm. We are pleased to have two new members of the SCC, both experienced in the field, Claire O’Malley and Beth Darlington. We have four more to consider. The aim is to have as many members as possible that are well qualified, committed and available to carry out what may be termed routine work on a regular basis, other longstanding members hopefully being available for consultation. Prof Dieppe incidentally found himself unable to continue membership but has been available for consultation.

The past year otherwise has been relatively uneventful until, it so happens, recently. The “Have You Had a Paranormal Experience?” inbox continues to register a steady stream of experiences of all conceivable types, most of which may be classified as two or three out of five on the “Subjective Unit of Evidentiality” scale, as measured by the Case Coordinator. Few have no value, being either clearly medical in nature, or wanting to advertise a book or share a pet theory, which may occasionally be of interest. All cases which have some value, whether fully investigated, are in the process of being downloaded to a digital database, provided the appropriate permission box has been ticked. Four cases in 2022 were offered to the Magazine for publication, and hopefully will be published this year.

The membership of the SCC has proffered their specialisms and are allocated cases accordingly for further investigation. The aim is to formulate hypotheses concerning each type of case, with the hope of accumulating a sufficient number of similar cases over time to be able to draw conclusions. We have been meeting to discuss cases every four to six weeks via Zoom but are intending to meet in person at Vernon Mews in March.

The past year there have been some 114 submissions. A rough breakdown of basic classifications of experiences are as follows: JOTTs 4, PK ability 5, Spiritual experiences 2, Levitation 1, After Death Communication 3, orbs 5, telepathy 10 , clairvoyance 4, UFO 1,

poltergeists ( including historical and transient) 10, past life 1, NDEs 3, OBEs 1, premonitions 18, healing 2, apparitions, including several of dead pets, 6, Time slips 3, Possessed 8, voices 2, hauntings 6, mediumship 8, and media ( odd photos, possible EVPs etc) 6. One particularly intriguing photo was of the bottom half of what could be a Victorian ladies dress and shoes, taken at a modern wedding at the home of a Victorian author, Margeret Munthe, a painting of which matches accurately the perceived dress.

All members are naturally keen to do field research with ongoing hauntings and poltergeists, which are of course relatively rare. However, as with busses, four possibly worthwhile cases have turned up this January. One involves a family of six, who have been experiencing apports of small coins, some 400 to date, appearing suddenly, a phenomenon I am inclined to dub “Pennies from Heaven”, but their experiences have been frightening at times, including being pushed, and held round the throat, and such like, and having objects thrown at them. The size and makeup of the household make this a complicated case to clarify reported experiences, but videos via CCTV have demonstrated an apparent assault on the cheek of the adult male of the household by an invisible entity, and the sudden appearance of a small coin on the carpet of the landing, precede by a rap which caught the attention of the person who had just walked past. There was no indication of any flight path of the coin. The video and sound are being analysed.

The case was first brought to the attention of the SCC in January 2021, but investigation stalled because of the lockdown. It was reintroduced to us by a member whose attention was drawn to it by the householder in his capacity as a member of ASSAP, Tony Hayes, who has kept a detailed diary of events and observations. He sought help from us, with the permission of the experiencer, and arrangements have been made for Ciaran Farrell and Tony’s ASSAP colleague, Caroline McKendrick, also an SPR member, for a weekend visit with appropriate devices at end of January. We hope for an interesting report that may increase our understanding of these mysterious phenomena.

Report of the Survival Research Committee Chairman: Marian Barton

I would like to offer my appreciation to the Survival Research Committee members Mr Dennis Bury, Dr Matthew Colborn, Dr Callum Cooper, Dr Alan Gauld, Dr David Rousseau and Dr David Saunders for their help and support this year. They have very carefully considered the applications we have received for grants and whether they

are appropriate for support.

The following are the awards we have made this year to those in the UK, Brazil, Switzerland and Germany:

Professor Chris Roe £7,637 for ‘Investigation of phenomenology and impact of perceived direct

and spontaneous after-death communications’.

Dr Eric Vinicius Avila Pires and Associate Professor Alexander Moreira-Almeida £5,000 for ‘Assessment of adults who claimed past-life memories when they were children: a ‘retrospective cohort’.
Dr Callum Cooper £4,313.28 ‘Binding and Preservation of SPR (and related material) of concern to survival’. For the use of students of the Library of Northampton University.
Adrian Weibel and David Garcia £2,500 for ‘Project MedSty’.
We wish them every success in their research.

We have not held a Gwen Tate Lecture this year. However, we continue to give some support to the valuable work of the Hon. Archives Liaison Officer. We also respond to survival-related enquiries referred to us by the Hon. Communications Officer which come into the SPR via the Contact Us link on the SPR website.

Report of the Library Committee Chairman: Dr Tom Ruffles

The Library Committee approves acquisitions for the Vernon Mews library. The Committee members are Graham Kidd, Robert McLuhan, Nemo Mörck, John Newton, Karen Patel (librarian and committee secretary), John Poynton, Tom Ruffles (chair) and Melvyn Willin.

During the current reporting year, 83 loans were made (compared to 73 the previous year). Fourteen books were purchased at a cost of £260.54. A book collection was received from the estate of Robin Foy, and a further 11 books were donated. We are very grateful to donors for

their generosity. The librarian continues to operate a sale of second-hand books, available via the website as well as in the library.

The library is open each Wednesday afternoon. For those members unable to visit in person, the postal loan service has proved useful; details are available from the librarian. The library catalogue, as well as details of our archive held at Cambridge University Library, can be viewed on the website.

Hon. Archives Liaison Officer’s Report Dr Melvyn Willin

The work of cataloguing and conservation has continued unaffected by Covid and visits to institutions including Cambridge University Library have re-started albeit with more difficulty than before because of access. Correspondence and meetings with a number of academics, members of the SPR and the general public have been undertaken when they have had a variety of queries.

Archive material has continued to be acquired, sorted, conserved and catalogued. This includes a collection or original handwritten scripts which would seem to be part of the cross-correspondences from the granddaughter of Lady Kremer; a number of A.C. Clarke’s films; Serena Roney Dougal’s substantial archive; and a large collection of books and magazines which were donated by the Robin Foy estate and the Oxford Psychophysical Society.

I have had various meetings with film companies who are interested in filming aspects of the SPR’s work and was instrumental in setting-up a forthcoming Enfield poltergeist series of documentaries which resulted in a substantial donation being made to the SPR for the use of our archive material.

Regular contact has been made with the College of Psychic Studies concerning the borrowing of archive material for a proposed exhibition and possible purchase of artwork in need of restoration.

After I contacted Lord Rayleigh, I received a positive reply from him concerning psychical research material that may be held on the estate and his archivist will be in touch should anything arise with a view to donating it to the SPR.

I finish with a request repeated from previous years and tinged with disappointment at the lack of response. Some members receive financial and archival support from the SPR. Could they PLEASE send me copies of their dissertations, photographs, correspondence and articles for inclusion in the archives when they are of relevance to psychical research. We need more contemporary material to add to the enormous amount of research deposited in the past. Items given to the SPR archives will then be available in the future for the education of the public and academics alike.

Education and Publicity Committee Chairman: Professor Bernard Carr

The Education and Publicity Committee (EPC) coordinates the SPR’s educational activities and develops strategies for publicising these. The promotion of our events is now primarily via the internet and our website, so our members include Robert McLuhan (chair of the former Electronic Communications Committee), Deborah Erickson (Honorary Website Manager) and Nemo Mörck (Website Content Manager). Deborah also covers some of these activities in her individual report. Other members in the period of this report were Tom Ruffles (Honorary Communications Officer), Leo Ruickbie (editor of The Magazine ) and Chris Roe.

This year has seen a continuation of the change in our educational activities due to the pandemic, with online rather physical meetings. In particular, we now hold regular evening webinars, organised and chaired by David Vernon. In the reported period, webinars were given by Gary Schwartz, Diane Hennacy Powell, Julia Mossbridge, Rupert Sheldrake, Graham Nicholls, Jerry Kroth, Marco Bastos, Eric Dullin, David Orme-Johnson and Jan Holden. Although we miss meeting physically, webinars have the advantage of attracting speakers and participants from all over the world and it also reduces the expenses involved.

Our educational role includes overseeing evening forums and study days. After a break due to the pandemic, Dennis Bury and Ciaran Farrell restarted the forums but in virtual form. There was one in May 2022 on poltergeists, with a presentation by John Fraser, and another in September 2022 on precognition. There was no study day in Autumn 2021 because of the pandemic but an online study day, “The SPR after 140 years: Looking to the Future”, was held in May 2022 to mark the 140[th] anniversary of our founding. It was was chaired and introduced by Bernard Carr and featured talks by Richard Noakes, Leo Ruickbie, Zofia Weaver, Melvyn Willin and Adrian Parker. There was a follow-up study day In November 2022 but that was after the year being reported.

The Committee plays a key role in the annual conference, with three of our members (Carr, Roe, and Ruffles) serving on the Programme Committee under the chairmanship of Cal Cooper. This year’s conference was held online in September 2022 and included three plenary speakers (Harald Walach, David Marks, Leo Ruickbie) and a panel discussion on the impact of the Bigelow initiative on survival research, with Adrian Parker, Bernard Carr and Jeffrey Mishlove.

Steve Parsons’ excellent Guidance Notes for the Investigation of Spontaneous Cases and Using Equipment:

Guidance Notes for Investigators of Apparitions, Hauntings, Poltergeists and Similar Phenomena , financed by Buckmaster Fund, are re-establishing the SPR’s crucial role in this area. Both booklets are now in the ‘required reading’ list for students of the Rhine Education Center. Steve has also been working closely with the Ghost Club and ASSAP to promote a common approach across the three major UK organisations. ASSAP have agreed that every member undergoing their investigation training will receive copies of the two Guidance Notes, these setting the standard for their investigators. Ghost-hunting workshops were postponed due to the pandemic but will take place in the coming year. Plans to provide field investigation skills to undergraduate students are also underway, with the first workshop planned to take place at the University of Northampton. Once our website upgrades are complete, it should be possible to download the ‘Quick Guides’ for free.

As part of the publication activities funded by the Buckmaster bequest, the Psi Encyclopedia continues to grow, now with 600 articles and a total of nearly 1.9 million words. A new emphasis is on improving and updating existing articles to take account of the latest research and developments, while also creating new entries on people and topics that have not yet been covered. Particular attention is being given to matters of style, with articles being revised to create consistency throughout. As always, the editor Robert McLuhan is keen to hear from members with comments and suggestions. A second project that was begun in 2020, to create two volumes of essays on aspects of survival research, is also making progress, with the second volume nearing completion and negotiations beginning with academic publishers.

Tom Ruffles regularly responds to enquiries via the website and social media. Frequent references to the SPR, both in print and online, can be followed on our Facebook page and Twitter feed, all of which are overseen by Tom. At the end of the reporting year the Facebook page had 17,782 'likes', and the general Twitter feed had 10,131 followers. These sites publicise SPR events and carry news about the field in general. Tom also runs a Twitter feed dedicated to Psi Encyclopedia, which had 2108 followers. Posts on all three are circulated by readers and thereby reach a very large audience. Significant information relating to the SPR appears on our website as news items posted by Nemo Mörck, who also adds information about new books and their reviews. SPR members frequently make media appearances and these are mostly reported on our website. We continue to build bridges with other organisations since this allows news of our activities to reach a wider audience

Report of the Hon. Website Manager Dr Deborah Erickson

The SPR website has continued smooth operations this reporting period. Website Content Manager, Nemo Mörck has continued his excellent work with content maintenance, book reviews, publications, etc. In March our website host, Circle Interactive, advised us our three sites (SPR, Psi Encyclopedia and Psi Open Data) all needed to be migrated to the latest version of the content management platform software. Circle’s estimates and

planning continued through the year, and it was agreed the SPR site would be migrated first. SPR review of the migrated test site began in September and Circle corrected issues as they were discovered in testing. The SPR upgraded site went live February 21, 2023. Planning will continue for the Psi Encyclopedia and Psi Open Data sites.

The Journal of the Society for Psychical Research Editor: Dr Malcolm Schofield

This is my second full report as the editor of the JSPR , and it covers the period from the 1st of October 2021 to the 30th of September 2022. Three of the four issues have been published. The July 2022 edition will be published shortly. Once again, we had a good spread of articles in the journal: seven peer-reviewed research articles, 17 book reviews and seven letters. Plus, several obituaries and notices. Please note that these figures included the unpublished July 2022 edition. The types of articles were quite diverse, featuring topics such as poltergeists, psi research, and near-death experience. There has also been lively debate on the letters pages, which was good. I am glad the Journal has continued to present high-quality articles, although it has been complex sourcing content in the current climate. However, submissions are coming in, and I am confident we will have plenty to go into the subsequent issues.

This year has not been without its challenges. After our original typesetters quit last year, the new typesetters only

produced one issue (July 2021) before also quitting. The Journal was already considerably delayed and having to find a new typesetter and get them used to producing the Journal extended this delay to nearly ten months. However, working with the new typesetters on multiple issues at once, thankfully, we are now only delayed by a couple of months. This gap should also be closed shortly.

Once again, my biggest thanks go to Associate Editor Dr Zofia Weaver and the Editorial Assistant Dr Tammy Dempster for their constant support and guidance. I am grateful that we have such a strong team. Whilst it has been inconvenient, to say the least, to lose another typesetter, I must thank Julie Gorman from our new typesetters for her dedication and interest in the subject area. Also, thanks go to the Book Review Editor, Nemo Mörck, for his help and guidance. Thanks to Peter Johnson and the Council for their continuing advice. Finally, thank you to all the reviewers and people who provide articles, book reviews and all the content for the Journal .

The Magazine of the Society for Psychical Research Editor: Dr Leo Ruickbie

During the reporting period, I tendered my resignation as Hon. Editor of the Magazine . The reasons behind this, the search for a replacement and other factors led to inevitable disruption of the usual publishing schedule. All four issues for this period have been produced, but only three have so far been printed and distributed to members. I was asked to remain in position until a suitable replacement was found, with the understanding that my time would be limited in this capacity due to the change in my circumstances. As such, I continued to field correspondence , solicit future articles and conduct the usual business of the Magazine .

Despite the difficulties, many noteworthy articles were published, including Dr Tom Ruffles on ‘Forty Years of the Society for Psychical Research’s Magazines’, Prof. Adrian Parker’s essay review of a new book by Luis Portela, Chairman of the BIAL Foundation, Dr Graham Kidd on the work of the Spontaneous Cases Committee, of

which he is Chair, and Michael Jawer wrote about the role of emotion in psi phenomena. Prof. Bernard Carr gave us his reminiscences from a life in psychical research, including marking his fiftieth anniversary as a member of this Society. To mark the Society’s 140[th] anniversary, Dr David Rousseau and Julie Billingham provided an analysis of our history, and I contributed an article on the Society’s most recent achievement: the success of five Council Members in winning prizes in the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies essay contest on the evidence for life after death. My regular contributor Brandon Hodge supplied his usual informative and well-illustrated articles on the history of spirit communication devices.

Once again, it is my pleasure to thank David Ellis for his valuable contribution as proof-reader. The usual marketing activities were also undertaken, with welcome support from the Society’s Hon. Communications Officer Dr Tom Ruffles and the website’s Content Manager Nemo Mörck. The Magazine continued to save the Society

considerable software licensing fees by using open-source solutions.

It has been an honour and a great pleasure these past years to have had the opportunity of serving the Society in the capacity of Hon. Editor.

Annual Conference

Programme Chairman: Dr Callum Cooper,

Peter Johnson

The 45th SPR International Annual Conference took place 9-11th September 2022, online as a Zoom meeting.

The Annual Conference programme included presentations on many areas of research, split into Survival Issues, Spontaneous Cases, Consciousness Studies and Laboratory work. There were also invited talks from Harald Walach, David Marks and Leo Ruickbie, as well as a Panel Discussion on each day of the meeting. We had a total of 110 attendees at this conference.

Speakers came from around the UK, across Europe and also from the United States, Canada and South

America.

Video recordings and printed abstracts of the conference proceedings are now available on the SPR’s website.

A thank you is due the SPR Conference Programme Committee (Prof. Carr, Dr Gauld, Mr Nemo Mörck, Mr Murdie, Prof. Parker, Prof. Roe & Dr Ruffles), with special thanks to Peter Johnson for dealing with all the technical difficulties. I want to express heart-felt thanks to the invited speakers for so generously giving their personal time.

Secretary’s Report Peter Johnson

In the table below, you will be able to see that our membership numbers have increased again this year,

continuing the trend from last year, with a 4.5% increase in the total number of members at year end.

	Members & Associates	Members & Associates	Members & Associates	Student Associates	Student Associates	Student Associates		Totals
	2022	2021	Change	2022	2021	Change	2022	2021	Change
UK	556	575	-3.3%	44	51	-13.7%	600	626	-1%
USA	198	170	16.5%	23	19	21.1%	221	189	16.9%
Other	181	150	20.7%	27	20	35.0%	208	170	22.4%
TOTAL	935	895	4.5%	94	90	4.4%	1029	985	4.5%

Audio recordings of all our events are available free of charge for members only, and for purchase by nonmembers. Thanks to David Vernon for finding so many interesting speakers for our online Web Events during the year. Thanks to Melvyn Willin for maintaining our archive catalogue of recordings. Please note that, in addition to borrowing physical recordings, members may also listen to recent talks directly from our website.

The Office and Library have continued to operate mainly from home with Karen Patel (Librarian) attending the SPR Library to open it up again on Wednesday afternoons.

We held our 2022 Annual General Meeting in person at Vernon Mews in July.

Data Protection Officer’s Report Ciaran Farrell

The last reporting year has been a difficult one as we have continued to emerge from Covid 19 restrictions and have begun to live with the disease. Therefore, the SPR’s operations continued to be largely carried out remotely. This made it difficult to carry out the detailed work which needed to be done in relation to examining the SPR’s entire operation to ensure that the systems that had been

put in place were the correct ones and that they were functioning as they were intended to do.

During the reporting year the SPR’s General Data Protection Implementation Team, GDPRIT, carried out a review of the operation of Spontaneous Cases Committee, SCC. The DPO assisted the SCC and the Chair of the

committee to adjust and align the customs and working practices of the SCC in order to satisfy the requirements of the GDPRIT review. In particular two documents were produced, the SCC Process and Protocol, P & P document and a Data Process Agreement, DPA. The DPA was drafted by the DPO in consultation with the SCC.

The SCC approved these documents and forwarded them on to GDPRIT for our consideration as part of our review of the SCC’s operation. We concluded that the SCC had more than amply satisfied the requirements we had set down in our review document and thanked the SCC for all their hard work.

GDPRIT considered that the SCC’s DPA might be used in a more generalised form for use by other SPR committees and across the SPR in general. The DPO is currently working on this in liaison with GDPRIT.

The GDPRIT review of SCC operations and the P & P document as well as the development of a potential cross cutting policy in the form of a generalised DPA have had implications for the full review of the SPR’s overarching over-arching Privacy and Data Protection policy. This work was born in mind during the development and liaison that went into the production of these policy documents. It was recognised that a full revision of the Privacy and Data Protection policy should take account of these developments. Therefore, work on the Privacy and Data Protection policy had to be placed on hold.

The previous chair of the SCC commissioned a legal opinion on the operation of GDPR principally in relation to the work of the SCC but also on the work of the SPR in general. The P & P document and the DPA go a long way to address a number of points made in the consultant’s report. There are however some issues that remain which are largely of a cross cutting nature. These will need to be addressed before the Privacy and Data Protection policy can be fully reviewed and revised.

During this year, the DPO and GDPRIT have reviewed the operation of the SPR’s website in conjunction with the SPR’s events Email mailing list. This was to ensure SPR members can take up the benefits of SPR membership by way of the information services the SPR has to offer, and to publicise SPR events.

During the course of the year the Government acting through the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, DCMS, have been carrying out a post Brexit review of the operation of UK GDPR in the form of the Data Protection Act 2018. The Government are reviewing the provisions of the Act, and its attendant guidance, with a view to relaxing some of the more onus restrictions and requirements of GDPR in general. In particular, they want to reduce the burden of red tape for small companies and charities like the SPR.

One specific area in which this might be very helpful to us is that the Government have recognised that the legislation and guidance for research organisations like the SPR is unduly unwieldy and onus, so they are looking to streamline it.

A consultation exercise was carried out by the DCMS which was completed by the end of April 2022. The Government have responded to it by flagging up the points they will be taking further action on. It was anticipated that a Bill would be introduced into Parliament in the autumn of 2022, but this is likely to be delayed due to the change of Prime Minister.

Our Policy Working Group, PWG was wound up this year and a new Policy Advisory Panel was set up. The PAP is led by Ciaran Farrell and will take on the job of drawing up a number of policies, including one on Safeguarding. Therefore, as DPO I can ensure that key policy documents were drawn up with GDPR in mind which will be of mutual benefit to GDPRIT and the PAP.

During the reporting period the DPO had made regular reports on all relevant aspects of data protection work within the SPR and in general to the SPR Council. This is in keeping with the requirement under the Data Protection Act 2018 for corporate boards of Trustees/Directors to be kept informed and involved with the requirements of data protection work as it applies to their own organisations.

The DPO looks forward to working with GDPRIT and the SCC and the PAP in the future as well as the SPR Council over the forthcoming year.

The Data Protection Officer would like to thank the other members of GDPRIT for all their hard work. They are Mr Johnson, Dr Broughton and Mr Ryan.

The Financial Position

Honorary Treasurer: Dr Richard Broughton

The global and domestic economic situations continue to present challenges for the Society. The relief of having emerged from the pandemic in relatively good shape was tempered this year by sharply rising inflation, looming recession, and a general sense of economic uncertainty brought on by erratic government policy and the war in Ukraine.

Over the course of the year the Society effectively emerged from the pandemic restrictions, however, as with many organisations and businesses, it was determined that there were advantages to the ways of operating and offering services that emerged to deal with the pandemic. We continued to make all our offerings to members online because they have been attracting larger numbers of participants from around the world and have been very popular. We have also found that our adjusted office hours

and working from home arrangements seem to fit our members’ needs. In the coming year we expect to start offering some of our events, such as study days, in hybrid form merging ‘real’ participation in our lecture room with ‘virtual’ participation online.

At the operations level our expenses continue to exceed our income, but we managed to narrow the gap this year thanks in large part to a substantial film rights contract secured by our Honorary Archives Liaison Officer, Melvyn Willin. The long overdue dues increase approved at the November EGM took effect in January and has increased our income from membership fees. We are happy to report that there seems to have been no adverse effect on our membership numbers which are up slightly over last year. Unfortunately, the sharply rising prices for printing, mailing, and other services that we were seeing as the year ended will largely erode these gains in the coming year.

After a good previous year, our investments this year followed the global trend and lost about six percent of overall value, however the yields from the funds that underly our grant-giving programs enabled us to fund several important research projects as reported elsewhere.

The Society has concluded a challenging year in relatively good financial shape thanks to the continued hard work of our staff and volunteers to provide our services as economically as possible. Currently the

country is enduring one of the most severe cost-of-living crises in a generation, and the Society must expect its consequences on membership retention and uptake of our offerings. More than ever, it remains vitally important that the Society receives donations to the general fund that can provide the additional income required to offer our scientific and educational services at the lowest possible costs to our members. Those who are in a position to be generous now can help future generations of psychical researchers develop into productive scientists.

As we have seen this year, income from bequests is another important means of supporting the Society and I would like to take this opportunity to remind our members of the importance of maintaining the SPR’s services for the future when they are reviewing their charitable giving plans. Remember that your Will can be an important way to support the work of the SPR and we would be happy to discuss this and other ways of making substantial contributions.

Following a decision of Council, the accounts have been subject to an Independent Examination, replacing the very costly full Audit of previous years and which is not required of the Society. Please note that in the Report, included with the Accounts, references to “members” is a technical usage to refer to members of the Corporation, i.e., the Directors of the Society.

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

A company limited by guarantee and without a share capital

DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES The members of Council – Page 2 COMPANY SECRETARY P M Johnson COMPANY NUMBER 00044861 (England and Wales) CHARITY NUMBER 207325 REGISTERED OFFICE 1 Vernon Mews London W14 0RL BANKERS CAF Bank Ltd 25 Kings Hill Avenue Kings Hill West Malling Kent ME19 4JQ NatWest Bank plc 55 Kensington High Street London W8 5ZG INVESTMENT MANAGERS BNY Mellon Fund Managers Ltd PO Box 366 Darlington, DL1 9RF ACCOUNTANTS PK Group Ventures Limited 1 Parkshot, Richmond Surrey TW9 2RD INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS PK Audit LLP Chartered Accountants Registered Auditors 1 Parkshot, Richmond Surrey TW9 2RD

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS - 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Pages: 13-17 Report of the Directors and Trustees 17 Independent examiner ’ s report Accounts, comprising: 18 Statement of Financial Activities 19 Balance Sheet 20 – 28 Notes to the accounts

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

The directors and trustees present their report and accounts for the year ended 30 September 2022.

Objects of the charity, principal activities and organisation of work for the public benefit

The Incorporated Society for Psychical Research (the Society) was incorporated in 1895 and is governed by a memorandum and articles of association, being both a company limited by guarantee without a share capital and a registered charity.

The Society is controlled by a Council whose elected members are directors of the Society, and all of whose members, elected and co-opted, are trustees of the Society. The names of members of Council and subsidiary committees are listed in the Annual Report of Council preceding these accounts. The day-to-day administration of the Society is managed by a full-time administrator supported by a part time librarian.

The objects and principal activities of the Society during the year continued to be the investigation of psychic and other paranormal phenomena, including awarding grants, and other services to further such investigation, the publication of research findings and related matters in its journal and magazine, the maintenance of a library and archives, the maintenance of an information website and an online library of the Society’s publications, the holding of public lectures, symposia and an international conference, and the reception of and due response to enquiries and requests for information from the Society’s members and the general public.

The trustees confirm that they have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the Society's aims and objectives and in planning future activities and settling the grant making policy for the year. Specific details of how these objectives have been achieved and maintained during the year can be found in the preceding individual reports of the various Committees and Officers.

Development, activities and achievements this year and future developments

These matters are addressed in the attached Annual Report of Council preceding these accounts.

Transactions and financial position

The Statement of Financial Activities shows a net deficit before gains or loss on investments of £113,984 (2021: £265,627). Gains on investments changed from an increase of £404,173 in 2021 to a decrease of £155,009 (2021: £404,173) in the current year. This was as a result of the movement on markets during the year. The net movement in funds for the year was a decrease of £268,993 (2021: increase £669,800).

The closing balance on reserves, representing the net assets of the Society, decreased by this amount from £4,083,819 as at 30 September 2021 to £3,814,826 as at 30 September 2022.

Tangible fixed assets for use by the Society

Details of movements in fixed assets are set out in note 11 to the accounts.

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Reserves available

The planned use of the SPR Reserves is as follows. The use of the General Fund (GF) is unrestricted, and it is invested in a medium-risk portfolio to provide income for the payment of the SPR’s operational expenses, and such expenditure is reported in the Accounts under “Charitable Activities Costs” (Note 6). The SPR Research Fund (RF) is restricted for use towards research, as described in Note 16 of the Accounts. This fund is invested in a medium-risk portfolio, and the dividend earnings from this investment are made available for grants to be awarded by the Research Grants Committee. Such awards are reported in the Accounts (Note 16) and in the annual report of the Chairman of the Research Grants Committee. The Survival Research Fund (SRF) is restricted for promoting activities that might lead to a scientific theory of life after death. This fund is invested in a medium-risk portfolio, and the annual increase in portfolio value is made available for grants to be awarded by the SPR Council on recommendations from the Survival Research Committee. Such awards are reported in the Accounts (Note 16) and in the annual report of the Chairman of the Survival Research Committee.

The Buckmaster Fund is restricted in accordance with the Will of the donor, Nigel Buckmaster, for collating and presenting the best evidence for anomalous phenomena relevant to Psychical Research and related work, and allowing a portion to be used for securing a freehold premises for housing the SPR headquarters and library. In 2014, the SPR Council approved that £250,000 of the legacy be reserved for use in purchasing new premises, and the remainder be reserved for project use. In 2015, the capital of the Buckmaster Building Fund was applied to the purchase of a long leasehold on the 1 Vernon Mews property for the Society’s offices resulting in a zero balance and the Buckmaster Building Fund was wound up. The Buckmaster Projects Fund is invested in medium risk portfolios. The capital and earnings of the Buckmaster Projects Fund is available for spending on appropriate projects approved by the SPR Council, and these projects are managed by the Buckmaster Oversight Committee. Such expenditure is reported in the Accounts (Note 16) and the report of the Chairman of the Buckmaster Oversight Committee. The earnings on the investment of the Buckmaster Funds will be transferred for use to the SPR Research Fund and Survival Research Fund at the beginning of each fiscal year in equal parts.

All three restricted funds are assessed a small administration charge to defray the costs of administering the funds, and this transfer to the general fund is shown in Note 16.

Plans for the future

With well over a century’s experience in providing reliable information on psychical research to the public and high quality professional research reports to the scientific community, as well as financially supporting new research, the Society plans to continue its work as described in the accompanying Annual Report of its activities. Near term plans including continuing the Society’s policy of keeping costs low for membership, conferences, and other educational activities in order to encourage greater participation by students and academics from around the world. Recognising that this places a considerable burden on the general fund of the Society efforts are ongoing to attract benefactors and develop new sources of funding that can provide additional support to the General Fund following the acquisition of the Society’s new headquarters.

Investment policy and returns

Council is empowered to direct the investment of surplus funds of the General Fund and the capital of the restricted funds in whichever way it sees fit, subject to the investment guidelines of the Charity Commission. The Society’s portfolios of listed investments is now managed by its investment managers, BNY Mellon Fund Managers, the parent company of its former investment managers Newton Investment Management Limited. The investment performance is monitored on a regular basis by the Hon. Treasurer.

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Grants

Research grants are awarded on an annual basis by the Research Grants Committees and are sourced from the SPR Research Fund and the Survival Research Fund.

Directors and trustees

All of the elected members of Council are directors of the company and trustees of the charity and there are a further seven co-opted members who are also trustees. All the members listed in the attached Annual Report of Council served throughout the year. No remuneration is paid to the Society’s officers in their capacity as trustees or directors.

The Society’s Articles of Association stipulate that 23 trustees are elected by the voting members of the Society. Co-opted trustees are appointed by the Council and are recruited primarily through coming to the attention of existing trustees through their interest in the goals and work of the Society. Co-opted trustees are sought who can bring to the Society particular talents, expertise and experience not only in science but also in other professions such as can enhance and facilitate its operations and future direction.

Risk management

The trustees review as part of their regular Council meetings all potential areas of risk which may affect the Society. Procedures are in place to identify and mitigate risk.

Trustees’ responsibilities in relation to the financial statements

The trustees (who are also the directors of the company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing a trustees’ annual report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the charity trustees to prepare financial statements for each year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the company for that year. In preparing the financial statements the trustees are required to:

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
make judgments and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable UK accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to assume that the Society will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Society and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Society and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Statement as to disclosure to our auditors

In so far as the trustees are aware at the time of approving this report, there is no relevant information of which the company’s auditor is unaware. Additionally, the trustees, individually, have taken all necessary steps that they ought to have taken as trustees in order to make themselves aware of all relevant audit information and to establish that the company’s auditor is aware of that information.

This report was approved by Council representing the board of directors and trustees on 20th July 2023 and signed on its behalf:

A. D. Parker - President

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Association for the year ended 30 September 2022 set out on pages 18 to 28.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees of the company (and also its directors for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 (‘the 2006 Act’).

Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the company are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of your company’s accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’). In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner's statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

accounting records were not kept in respect of the company as required by section 386 of the 2006 Act; or
the accounts do not accord with those records; or
the accounts do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view’ which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
the accounts have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed:

Date: 24 July 2023

Monika Trzcinska FCCA PK Audit LLP Chartered Accountants 1 Parkshot Richmond TW9 2RD

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES INCLUDING INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Notes INCOME Donations and legacies 2 Membership and journal subscriptions Investment income Charitable activities income 3 Other income 4 TOTAL INCOME RESOURCES EXPENDED: Cost of generating funds: Activities for generating funds 5 Charitable activities costs 6 Governance costs 7 TOTAL EXPENDITURE Net (outgoing) resources before gains/(losses) on investments Transfers between funds Net gain/(loss) on investments 8 Net movement in funds for the year Funds brought forward 1 October 2021 Funds carried forward 30 September 2022	Unrestricted £ 5,815 38,973 21,715 3,626 2,137 72,266 16,560 103,423 22,083 142,066 (69,800) (21,334) (56,918) (148,052) 2,342,304 2,194,252	Restricted £ 2,138 - 37,787 - 323 40,248 500 83,932 - 84,432 (44,184) 21,334 (98,091) (120,941) 1,741,515 1,620,574	Total 2022 £ 7,953 38,973 59,502 3,626 2,460 112,514 17,060 187,355 22,083 226,498 (113,984) - (155,009) (268,993) 4,083,819 3,814,826	Total 2021 £ 333,062 34,495 51,274 6,109 85,312
				510,252
				22,206 199,719 22,700
				244,625
				265,627 - 404,173
				669,800 3,414,019
				4,083,819

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH BALANCE SHEET

AS AT 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

				Total	Total
	Notes	Unrestricted	Restricted	2022	2021
		£	£	£	£
FIXED ASSETS:
Tangible assets	11	6,510	-	6,510	8,058
Leasehold property	11	1,264,610	-	1,264,610	1,264,610
Investments	12	927,780	1,582,996	2,510,776	2,747,770
		2,198,900	1,582,996	3,781,896	4,020,438
CURRENT ASSETS:
Stocks	13	3,143	-	3,143	3,283
Debtors	14	7,420	526	7,946	87,364
Cash at bank and in hand		39,264	54,276	93,540	32,083
		49,827	54,802	104,629	122,730
CREDITORS:
Amounts falling due within one year	15	(54,475)	(17,224)	(71,699)	(59,349)
NET CURRENT ASSETS /(LIABILITIES)		(4,648)	37,578	32,930	63,381
NET ASSETS		2,194,252	1,620,574	3,814,826	4,083,819

ACCUMULATED GENERAL
RESERVE		2,194,252	-	2,194,252	2,342,304
RESTRICTED FUNDS	16	-	1,620,574	1,620,574	1,741,515
		2,194,252	1,620,574	3,814,826	4,083,819

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions relating to companies subject to the small companies regime within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 and in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)

This report was approved by Council representing the board of directors and trustees on 20th July 2023 and signed on its behalf:

A. D. Parker – President

R. S. Broughton - Honorary Treasurer

Registered number: 00044861

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

1 ACCOUNTING POLICIES

The principal accounting policies adopted, judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows:

1.1 BASIS OF PREPARATION

The accounts (financial statements) have been prepared under the historical cost convention with items recognised at cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant note(s) to these accounts. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019) – (Charities SORP (FRS102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006. The trust constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102.

The company is a private company, limited by guarantee and incorporated in England and Wales. The company’s registered office is 1 Vernon Mews, London W14 0RL. The accounts are prepared in sterling and monetary amounts are rounded to the nearest £.

1.2 PREPARATION OF THE ACCOUNTS ON A GOING CONCERN BASIS

The trustees have carried out a detailed review of the company’s financial position including a review of cash flow forecasts taking into account the increasingly broad effects of cost crisis as a result of its negative impact on the global economy and major financial markets.

At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus, the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

1.3 INCOMING RESOURCES

Legacies are included in the Statement of Financial Activities when the charitable company is legally entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy.

Income from membership and journal subscriptions, conferences and sales of publications and other items is accounted for in each case as the amount due for the year. Provision is made against a proportion of outstanding subscriptions on the basis of non-recoveries experienced in previous years.

Other income is accounted for when received. Government grants are accounted for when receivable and included in Other Sales.

1.4 RESOURCES EXPENDED

Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis as a liability is incurred.

Charitable expenditure includes expenditure associated with the delivery of activities meeting charitable objects and comprises direct costs relating to these activities. Governance costs include those costs associated with the governance of the charitable company and include audit fees and costs limited to the strategic management of the charitable company.

All costs are allocated between the expenditure categories of the Statement of Financial Activities on a basis designed to reflect the use of the resource. Costs relating to a particular activity comprise costs that can be allocated directly to such activities to support them. The company makes grants to individuals for research which furthers the charity’s objects and as agreed by the Trustees.

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

1.5 TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

Tangible assets are measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.

Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:

Leasehold property over 100 years Furniture and equipment 15% p.a. on written down value. Computer equipment 25% p.a. on cost.

At each balance sheet date, the company reviews the carrying amount of its tangible fixed assets to determine whether there is any indication that any items have suffered an impairment loss and if so the extent of the loss

1.6 STOCKS

Stocks of publications and other items for resale are valued at the lower of cost and net realisable value, due allowance being made for slow-moving and obsolete items.

1.7 INVESTMENTS

Investments are a form of basic financial instrument and are initially recognised at their transaction value and subsequently measured at their fair value as at the balance sheet date using the closing quoted market price. The statement of financial activities includes the net gains and losses arising on revaluation and disposals throughout the year. The Trust does not acquire put options, derivatives or other complex financial instruments. The main form of financial risk faced by the charity is that of volatility in equity markets and investment markets due to wider economic conditions, the attitude of investors to investment risk, and changes in sentiment concerning equities and within particular sectors or sub sectors.

All gains and losses are taken to the Statement of Financial Activities as they arise. Realised gains and losses on investments are calculated as the difference between sales proceeds and their opening carrying value or their purchase value if acquired subsequent to the first day of the financial year. Unrealised gains and losses are calculated as the difference between the fair value at the year end and their carrying value. Realised and unrealised investment gains and losses are combined in the Statement of Financial Activities.

1.8 FOREIGN CURRENCY TRANSACTIONS

Assets and liabilities in foreign currencies are translated into sterling at the rates of exchange ruling at the balance sheet date. Transactions in foreign currencies are translated into sterling at the rate of exchange ruling at the date of the transaction. Exchange differences are taken into account in arriving at total net income.

1.9 LIBRARY

The Society owns a library of books which have been acquired over a considerable period of time since the Society was founded. Since there is no reliable cost information, and any conventional valuation would either lack sufficient reliability, or the costs involved in valuing the library would be onerous compared with the additional benefit to the users of the financial statements in assessing the directors’ and trustees’ stewardship, no valuation has been carried out and the library is excluded from the balance sheet.

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

1.10 FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

The charity has only financial assets and liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognized at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value.

1.11 JUDGEMENTS AND KEY SOURCE OF ESTIMATION ENCERTAINTY

In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the directors required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.

Residual value of the leasehold property

Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives. As at 31 December 2022 the estimated residual value of the leasehold amounted to £1,264,610 (2021: £1,264,610).

2 VOLUNTARY INCOME

Gifts and donations Bequests and legacies	Unrestricted £ 315 5,500 5,815	Restricted £ 2,138 - 2,138	Total 2022 £ 2,453 5,500 7,953	Total 2021 £ 1,244 331,818
				333,062

3 CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES INCOME

ARITABLE ACTIVITIES INCOME
Conferences Lectures Study days	Unrestricted £ 2,133 843 650 3,626	Restricted £ - - - -	Total 2022 £ 2,133 842 650 3,626	Total 2021 £ 2,721 838 2,550
				6,109

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

4 OTHER INCOME

Unrestricted £ 1,446 421 225 - 12 33	Restricted £ 318 - - - - 5	Total 2022 £ 1,764 421 225 - 12 38	Total 2021 £ 1,549 860 245 3,833 78,825 -
2,137	323	2,460	85,312
	Restricted £ 500	Total 2022 £ 17,060	Total 2021 £ 22,206 -
	500	17,060	22,206
		Total 2022 £ 74,166 - 489 - 214 72,212 6,824 3,711 615 12,883 202 2,486 12,005 - 1,548 - 187,355	Total 2021 £ 107,483 (21) 189 - 641 66,852 5,509 4,436 530 4,941 257 1,470 5,690 - 1,742 -
			199,719

No member of staff was paid over £60,000. Apart from the payments set out in note 9, the average number of employees in the year was 7 (2021: 7). Staff costs includes £5,082 (2021: £4,885) social security costs.

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

7 GOVERNANCE COSTS

GOVERNANCE COSTS
Legal and professional fees Council meetings Audit fee Bank and credit card charges	Unrestricted £ 13,648 - 6,000 2,435 22,083	Restricted £ - - - - -	Total 2022 £ 13,648 - 6,000 2,435 22,083	Total 2021 £ 7,936 - 12,600 2,164
				22,700

8 NET GAINS/ (LOSSES) ON INVESTMENTS

Unrealised gain/ (loss) on investments Realised gain on investments Net gains/ (loss) on investment	Unrestricted £ (65,934) 9,016 (56,918)	Restricted £ (142,909) 44,818 (98,091)	Total 2022 £ (208,843) 53,834 (155,009)	Total 2021 £ 234,497 169,676
				404,173

9 TRUSTEE REMUNERATION AND RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

No trustee or member of Council received remuneration during the year in their capacity as trustees or directors. Travel and other expenses amounting to £917 (2021: £299.45) were reimbursed to Council members.

The following Council members received honoraria in recognition of specialised services rendered to the Society and in accordance with the company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association:

Prof A. D. Parker: £550 (2021: £nil) for council meeting expenses and £nil (2021: £5,000) as a grant to his partner, Annekatrin Puhle , from the Survival Research Fund.

Dr C. Cooper: £nil (2021: £nil) for travel expenses and £4,313 (2021: £9,000) as a grant from the Survival Research Fund.

Mr Robert McLuhan £9,860 (2021: £8,647) as a grant from the Buckmaster Projects Fund for work done for the PSI Encyclopedia project.

Mr Malcolm Schofield £3,180 (2021: £2,880) as Editor of Journal and £nil (2021: £5,481.30) as a grant from the SPR Research Fund.

Mr David Rousseau and Mrs Julie Rousseau £nil (2021: £19,500) as a grant to C-FAR (a non-profit company owned by Dr and Mrs Rousseau) from the Buckmaster Projects Fund.

Prof. C. A. Roe: £7,638 (2021: £5,042) as a grant from the Survival Research Fund, £7,041 (2021: £nil) as a grant from the SPR Research Fund and £550 (2021: £410) as a grant from the Buckmaster Projects Fund for work done for the PSI Encyclopedia project.

Dr T. H. Ruffles: £5,300 (2021: £4,800) as Hon Communications Officer.

Dr M. J. Willin: £nil (2021: £1,911.40) from the General Fund, £3,000 (2021: £3,000) from the Survival Research Fund for his work on the archives, £2,404 (2021: £nil) as a grant from the Survival Research

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Fund, £917 (2021: £299.45) for travel expenses and, £4,884 (2021: £5,440) as a grant from the Buckmaster Projects Fund for work done for the PSI Encyclopedia project and £40 (2021: £nil) for books purchased.

Dr L Ruickbie £4,417 (2021: £3,999.96) as Editor of the Paranormal Review, £nil (2021: £1,200) for typesetting costs, £nil (2021: £nil) for travel expenses and £1,400 (2021: £5,000) as a grant from the Buckmaster Projects Fund.

Mr S T Parsons £3,600 (2021: £nil) for research grant and £400 (2021: £nil) for SPR Guides.

Dr D J Vernon £325 (2021: £nil) for his editorial work on the SPR Journal.

Other than these payments and receipts no trustee or other person related to the charity had any personal interest in any contract or transaction entered into by the charity during the year.

10 TAXATION

As a charity, the Society is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 or section 256 of the taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objects. No such tax charges have arisen in the charity.

11 FIXED ASSETS– Tangible assets Leasehold Property £ COST OR VALUATION At 1 October 2021 1,264,610 Additions - At 30 September 2022 1,264,610 DEPRECIATION At 1 October 2021 - Charge for the year - At 30 September 2022 - NET BOOK VALUE – 30 September 2022 1,264,610 NET BOOK VALUE – 30 September 2021 1,264,610	Furniture & equipment £ 32,403 - 32,403 25,043 1,104 26,147 6,256 7,360	Computer equipment £ 14,304 - 14,304 13,606 444 14,050 254 698	Total £ 1,311,317 -
			1,311,317
			38,649 1,548
			40,197
			1,271,120
			1,272,668

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

12a FIXED ASSETS – Investments

Investments are shown in the balance sheet at market value. The movement in market values during the year is as follows:- Market value at 1 October 2021 Net additional funds invested/ (funds withdrawn) Increase/(decrease) in market value during the year Market value at 30 September 2022 UK listed investments Cash balances on deposit and awaiting investment Historical cost of listed investments on 30 September 2022	Unrestricted £ 1,004,698 (20,000) (56,918) 927,780 927,780 - 546,027	Restricted £ 1,743,072 (61,985) (98,091) 1,582,996 1,582,996 - 1,067,926	2022 £ 2,747,770 (81,985) (155,009) 2,510,776 2,510,776 - 1,613,953	2021 £ 2,144,742 198,855 404,173
				2,747,770
				2,747,770
				-
				1,642,103

Investments at 30 September 2022 comprise 1,665,302 (2021: 1,716,135) units held in Newton Growth and Income Fund for Charities.

12b FIXED ASSET INVESTMENTS

At 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022

Unlisted Investment £1

The Society has a 20% beneficial interest in Vernon Mews Management Company Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, under the company number 01791332. The company is dormant and holds the freehold of 30 to 36 (even) North End Road and 1 Vernon Mews, London, W14 0RL.

13 STOCKS

Stock of publications etc. 14 DEBTORS Other debtors Prepayments		Unrestricted £ 3,143 Unrestricted £ 3,412 4,008 7,420	Restricted £ - Restricted £ 526 - 526		Total 2022 £ 3,143 Total 2022 £ 3,938 4,008 7,946		Total 2021 £ 3,283 Total 2021 £ 85,080 2,284


							87,364

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

15 CREDITORS: Amounts falling due within one year

Trade creditors Deferred income – Memberships and subscriptions VAT liability Other creditors and accruals	Unrestricted £ - 15,479 12,687 26,309 54,475	Restricted £ - - - 17,224 17,224	Total 2022 £ - 15,479 12,687 43,533 71,699	Total 2021 £ 1,813 16,233 - 41,303
				59,349

Other creditors and accruals includes grants payable of £16,094 (2021: £18,936).

16 RESTRICTED FUNDS

The Society’s restricted funds include:

SPR Research Fund

Under the terms of its Trust Deed the fund’s assets are to be applied solely for investigations, experiments and other research activities appropriate to the purposes of the Society.

S urvival Research Fund

The funds of the Survival Research Fund are to be applied for the pursuance of such activities as may lead to the establishment of a theory of survival after death.

Buckmaster Fund

The Buckmaster Fund was donated by Mr. Nigel Buckmaster for the purpose of collating and presenting the best evidence for each class of anomalous phenomena relevant to Psychical Research, and related work. Movements in the restricted funds during the year were:

Balance at 1 October 2021 Investment income Allocation of 2020 investment income Other income Grants awarded Lecture expenses Website & other expenses Net Movement in investments Transfers between restricted funds Transfers between funds Administration fees Balance at 30 September 2022	SPR Research Fund £ 729,886 16,137 (14,896) (41,107) 7,299 (7,299) 690,020	Survival Research Fund £ 793,996 19,154 323 (20,263) (45,590) 11,228 (7,940) 750,908	Buckmaster Projects Fund £ 217,632 4,633 (28,855) (1,369) (11,394) 2,807 (3,808) 179,646	Total £ 1,741,514 39,924 323 (64,014) (1,369) (98,091) 21,334 (19,047)
				1,620,574

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

The SPR Council has made a prudent and reasonable assessment of the costs involved in relation to the SPR’s stated aims and objectives in order to strike a fair and reasonable balance between the SPR’s general administration and running costs and the SPR’s priority for the vital research and educational work conducted through the application of these Restricted or Designated funds. The assessments for the SPR Research Fund and the Survival Research Fund amounts to 1% of the respective fund’s closing balance at the end of the previous fiscal year and is taken from the fund’s capital and placed in the General Fund. For the Buckmaster Fund, a short-term fund with higher operational costs, the assessment amounts to 1.75%. Any funds created in the future shall enter the scheme at the 1% level pending review of the operational costs associated with the fund. The levels of assessment may be subject to review and revision as necessary.

17 RETIREMENT BENEFIT SCHEMES

Defined contribution schemes

Charge to profit or loss in respect of defined contribution schemes	2022 £ 2,896	2021 £ 2,633

The Company operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the company in an independently administered fund.

18 COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE

The Incorporated Society for Psychical Research is a private company limited by guarantee and accordingly, does not have a share capital. In accordance with the Articles of Association, each member of the company undertakes to contribute an amount, not exceeding £1 each, to the assets of the charitable company in the event of it being wound up.

19 COMPARATIVE INFORMATION

The charitable company’s Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 30 September 2021 are available in full on the Charity Commission’s website.

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

1 Vernon Mews, London, W14 0RL

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of The Incorporated Society for Psychical Research to be held at

1 Vernon Mews, London, W14 0RL on Saturday, 29[th] April 2023 at 5.15 p.m.

AGENDA

1) To approve and sign the Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 30[th] July 2022.
2) To receive the Report of the Council and the Annual Statement of Accounts made up to 30[th] September 2022.

3) To elect six members to the Council

Six members of the Council are due to retire from office and all six offer themselves for re-election. No further nominations having been received, there is no requirement to hold a vote on this matter:

R. S. Broughton, B.A., Ph.D. T. H. Ruffles, B.Sc., B.A., M.A., D. N. Rousseau, B.Sc., Ph.D. Ph.D., A.R.P.S. B. J. Carr, M.A., Ph.D. G. T. B. Kidd, MBBS, MRCPsych A. D. Parker, M.A., Ph.D.

4) To re-appoint PK Audit LLP Chartered Accountants as Reporting Accountants for the period prescribed by the Companies Act 2006.

5) To authorise the Council to determine the remuneration of the Reporting Accountants.

No other business will be transacted at this meeting.

For item 1

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON SATURDAY 30[th] JULY 2022

Prof. Adrian Parker (President of the Society) opened the meeting at 3.00 p.m., welcoming 11 voting members to the Annual General Meeting of the Society.

1) To approve and sign the Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 24[th] April 2021.

The President proposed that the Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 24[th] April 2021 should be approved. This was carried unanimously.

2) To approve and sign the Minutes of the Extraordinary General Meeting held on 20[th] November 2021 and adjourned to 27[th ] November 2021.

The President proposed that the Minutes of the Extraordinary General Meeting held on 20[th] November 2021 and adjourned to 27[th] November 2021 should be approved. This was carried unanimously.

3) To receive the Report of the Council and the Annual Statement of Accounts made up to 30[th] September 2021.

The President summarised the contents of the Annual Report for the year ending 30[th] September 2021.

Dr Broughton, Hon Treasurer, spoke on the matter of the Annual Accounts for the year ending 30[th] September 2021. He summarised his report contained in the Annual Report and recommended that the Annual Statement of Accounts should be received. He also took the opportunity to encourage all members to consider including the Society in their Will.

The President proposed that the Report of the Council and the Annual Statement of Accounts made up to 30[th] September 2021 should be received by the meeting. This was approved unanimously.

4) To elect six members to the Council

Six members of the Council were due to retire from office and all six offered themselves for reelection. No further nominations having been received, there was no requirement to hold a vote on this matter.

All six candidates, Mrs M E Barton, Dr B G Colvin, Mrs J A Rousseau, Dr L Ruickbie, Mr A D Murdie & Dr M J Willin were duly re-elected.

5) To re-appoint PK Audit LLP Chartered Accountants as Reporting Accountants for the period prescribed by the Companies Act 2006.

The Hon. Treasurer proposed the motion to re-appoint PK Audit LLP Chartered Accountants as Reporting Accountants for the period prescribed by the Companies Act 2006. This was seconded by Mr Bury and was carried unanimously. PK Audit LLP Chartered Accountants were duly re-appointed as Reporting Accountants

6) To authorise the Council to determine the remuneration of the Reporting Accountants.

The President proposed the motion for the Council to determine the remuneration of the Reporting Accountants.

The meeting was closed at 3.15 p.m.

For item 3

NOTES ON CANDIDATES FOR ELECTION AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING TO BE HELD ON 29[th] APRIL 2023

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

RICHARD BROUGHTON

Richard is the author of numerous scientific papers and a critically acclaimed popular book on parapsychology, and in the past he has been a frequent commentator on parapsychology in the media. He is a twice-past-President and former Board member of the Parapsychological Association. He has been on the SPR Council since 2004, serving as President from 2011 until 2015. Since then he has served the SPR as the Honorary Treasurer, working closely with the management team to shepherd the Society’s finances so the SPR can continue to serve both scientific community and the public well into the future.

DAVID ROUSSEAU

David Rousseau joined the SPR in 1994, was co-opted to Council in 1997, and became an elected Member of Council in 2003. He has served as secretary to the Finance Committee (2004–2006) and to the Image and Publicity Committee (1995–1999) and was a member of the IPPC until 2007. He was Chairman of the Research Activities Committee (2007–2014, a member since 1997), Honorary Treasurer (2010–2015) and a member of the e-Communications Committee (2008–2015). He was a member of the Research Grants Committee (2006-2017) and serves on the Survival Research Committee (since 2003). He co-founded the online Library of Exploratory Science and is currently Director of the Centre for Systems Philosophy. He has conducted academic research into the mind–body relationship and into the nature of spiritual experiences, presented at SPR Conferences and Study Days, and published numerous scientific and philosophical papers. He is currently developing systems-science-based methodologies for exploratory science, with support from the SPR, the Centre for Systems Studies (University of Hull), the Bertalanffy Centre for the Study of Systems Science (University of Vienna), the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), and the School of Engineering in Oregon State university (OSU). He is a Fellow of INCOSE, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA), and a Trustee of the Alistair Hardy Trust. He is a Trustee, past President and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), a Trustee and past Chair of the International Network for the Study of Spirituality (INSS), and a Research Associate in OSU.

BERNARD CARR

Bernard Carr joined the Society in 1972, was co-opted to Council in 1975, and became an elected Member of Council in 1977. He was the SPR Education Officer from 1985 to 2000 and Chairman of the Research Activities Committee from 1994 until 2008. He is currently Chairman of the Education and Publicity Committee and serves on the International Conference Programme Committee. He also co-organizes Study Days and serves on the Research Grants Committee and the Editorial Board. Formerly a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, he is now Emeritus Professor in Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London. He was President of the Society from 2000 to 2004 and is now a Vice-President.

TOM RUFFLES

Tom joined the Society in 1987 and Council in 1990. He was a member of the Publicity sub-committee (later the Image and Publicity Committee) from 1988-1994 – during which time he co-designed the SPR logo – and was Hon. Appeals Secretary 1989-90. In 1991 He served on Professor Robert Morris’s working party which led to the setting up of the now-defunct Research Activities Committee and was Hon. Testing Officer 1992-2007. In 2005 he joined the Image, Publicity and Publications Committee and when it split into the Education and Publicity and e- Communications Committees he joined both. He is still a member of the former and was of the latter until it disbanded in May 2017. While on the e-CC he was involved in developing the Society’s website.

He has refereed papers for JSPR and was its book reviews editor from January 2009 to January 2018. Having joined the Library Committee in 2010, he became its chair in August 2016. Since 2011 he has served on the Conference Programme Committee. Also, in 2011 he became the SPR’s Communications Officer. In that capacity he responds to general emails received through the website, as well as looking after the SPR’s Facebook page (from February 2010) and Twitter accounts – general (from July 2013) and Psi Encyclopedia (from October 2019). He added content to the website until the appointment of a dedicated content manager in March 2018. He has been instrumental in obtaining several collections of material for the SPR’s archives and was involved, with Prof. David Fontana, in lobbying for the reissue of the 1999 Scole Report as a mass circulation paperback in 2011.

For some years he was a coordinator of the Anglia Paranormal Research Group and investigated a number of spontaneous cases. He has contributed to JSPR and Paranormal Review (and its predecessors) as well as Fortean Times and online publications; blogs at http://tomruffles.blogspot.co.uk/; and is the author of Ghost Images: Cinema of the Afterlife. He is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society by research, was an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, 2014-2019, and is a member of the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena and a Supporting Member of the Parapsychological Association. He holds two PhDs: one on – Life After Death in the Cinema, from the University of East Anglia, the other on George Albert Smith (1864 1959): From Stage to Screen, from Anglia Ruskin University, about a significant figure in the early history of the SPR.

GRAHAM KIDD

Dr Kidd has been a member of the SPR since 1969, on the Spontaneous Cases Committee since 2009, and a member of the Council since 2014. He also joined the Library Committee in January 2019. Trained at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, he was medical officer to 10th Gurkha Rifles, subsequently training in psychiatry at St Thomas's Hospital. He was a Consultant in Old Age and General Psychiatry in Surrey, and on retiring from the NHS, worked in private practice at the Priory and the Cardinal

Clinics, before retiring to do purely psychotherapy, specialising in psychological trauma using Ego state and EMDR techniques. He teaches occasionally at St George's Hospital. He has studied dissociation and was a member of the ISSTD for many years. He has contributed to SPR study days, to the JSPR and the Paranormal Review/The Magazine of the SPR. Dr Kidd joined the Spontaneous Cases Committee as its Chairman in 2021 and continues to serve in this role.

ADRIAN PARKER

After qualifying in clinical psychology at the Tavistock Clinic, Adrian Parker was the recipient of the Perrott-Warrick Studentship in psychical research, Trinity College, Cambridge becoming the first to gain a UK doctorate with a thesis on altered states and ESP from the University of Edinburgh. His doctoral work co-innovated (with Charles Honorton and William Braud) the technique known as the psi-ganzfeld of reproducing psychic-like experiences in the laboratory. He is author of the book States of Mind and recently together with the philosopher Annekatrin Puhle published the book Shakespeare's Ghost Live showing how forgotten knowledge found in Shakespeare works is relevant to the deeper understanding of transpersonal experiences. He has well over a hundred publications mainly on altered states of consciousness and psychic experiences. He has published on a diversity of topics in psychical research and parapsychology including hypnotic states, dream states, psychic experiences amongst twins, spontaneous experiences, mediumship, and psychokinesis.

Adrian has studied medicine degree courses and worked in the child clinical psychology service before accepting a position at Gothenburg University, when a major award from the Swedish Bank Jubilee Fond enabled the development of the “Real Time Digital Ganzfeld”. This can be regarded as a benchmark procedure for studying high quality psi (psychic) events in the laboratory. His current interest concerns lucid dream states and recently he is the joint recipient together with Annekatrin Puhle of a BIAL grant to study Near-Death Experiences followed extended cardiac arrest. He received the 2014 teaching award from the Gothenburg Students.

Adrian Parker is emeritus professor at the University of Gothenburg and Board member of the Scandinavian International University, Vice President of the Swedish Society for Psychical Research, and President of the Society for Psychical Research.

The Incorporated SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

ANNUAL REPORT AND STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS

1st October 2021 to 30th September 2022

Contents

Vice-Presidents

Elected Members of Council

Co-opted Members of Council

Council Appointments

Council Committees

Professional Advisers

ANNUAL REPORT

Report of the President - Professor Adrian Parker

RESEARCH

Report of the Research Grants Committee Chairman: Adrian Ryan

Report of the Buckmaster Oversight Committee (BOC) Chairman: Dr Richard S. Broughton

Report of the Spontaneous Cases Committee Chairman: Graham Kidd

Report of the Survival Research Committee Chairman: Marian Barton

Report of the Library Committee Chairman: Dr Tom Ruffles

Hon. Archives Liaison Officer’s Report Dr Melvyn Willin

Education and Publicity Committee Chairman: Professor Bernard Carr

Report of the Hon. Website Manager Dr Deborah Erickson

The Journal of the Society for Psychical Research Editor: Dr Malcolm Schofield

The Magazine of the Society for Psychical Research Editor: Dr Leo Ruickbie

Annual Conference

Programme Chairman: Dr Callum Cooper,

Peter Johnson

Secretary’s Report Peter Johnson

Data Protection Officer’s Report Ciaran Farrell

The Financial Position

Honorary Treasurer: Dr Richard Broughton

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS - 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Objects of the charity, principal activities and organisation of work for the public benefit

Development, activities and achievements this year and future developments

Transactions and financial position

Tangible fixed assets for use by the Society

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Reserves available

Plans for the future

Investment policy and returns

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Grants

Directors and trustees

Risk management

Trustees’ responsibilities in relation to the financial statements

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS AND TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Statement as to disclosure to our auditors

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Responsibilities and basis of report

Independent examiner's statement

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES INCLUDING INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH BALANCE SHEET

AS AT 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

1 ACCOUNTING POLICIES

1.1 BASIS OF PREPARATION

1.2 PREPARATION OF THE ACCOUNTS ON A GOING CONCERN BASIS

1.3 INCOMING RESOURCES

1.4 RESOURCES EXPENDED

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

1.5 TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

1.6 STOCKS

1.7

INVESTMENTS

1.8 FOREIGN CURRENCY TRANSACTIONS