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Perrott-Warrick Project
| Putting the psycho in Parapsychology |
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| Men who stare at goats |
| By the powers of tinfoil |
The Perrott-Warrick Project is a fund established in the early twentieth century to fund research into parapsychology. The original funding came at the bequest of Frank Duerdin Perrott in 1937. In 1956, Frederic Walmsley Warrick bequeathed more funds to the project.
When Warrick died, The Times death notice described him as a "retired manufacturing chemist"[1]. His estate, which was reportedly valued at £29,036, was, minus legacies, "To be used to supplement the work which is now being done with the aid and at the expense of the Perrott Studentship and Lectureship Fund towards the existence of mental and physical phenomena which seem prima facie to exist: (a) the existence of supernatural powers or cognition or action of human beings in their present life or (b) the persistence of the human mind after bodily death, and also in the direction of what is known in that sphere of investigation as 'pictorial memory[2]'."
The fund itself has funded experiments by both advocates of psi and skeptics such as Susan Blackmore (who really does have cool hair) and Richard Wiseman
(who, unfortunately, doesn't have much hair at all).
The fund is administered by Trinity College, Cambridge, but that's where the association with Trinity ends. The Fellows of Trinity have no say over how the money is spent, and anyone funded doesn't automatically get a place on the Trinity Faculty. This doesn't stop woomeister Rupert Sheldrake from suggesting that he's still associated with Cambridge however.
Somewhat incomplete list of researchers[edit]
- G.S. Brown, 1951[3]
- Stephen I. Abrams, 1964[4]
- Anita Gregory, 1966[5]
- Susan Blackmore
- Rupert Sheldrake, until 2010
- Caroline Watt, 2010-2014[6]
References[edit]
- ↑ The Times, Monday, Dec 17, 1956; pg. 1; Issue 53716; col A Deaths Category: Deaths
- ↑ The Times, Friday, May 17, 1957; pg. 15; Issue 53843; col D Deaths Category: Deaths
- ↑ The Times, Tuesday, Jun 19, 1951; pg. 6; Issue 52031; col C University News Oxford Category: Official Appointments and Notices
- ↑ Psychical research student at Cambridge The Guardian (1959-2003) [London (UK)] 06 July 1964: 1.
- ↑ The Times, Monday, Jul 12, 1965; pg. 6; Issue 56371; col E Cambridge Awards Category: Official Appointments and Notices
- ↑ Caroline Watt at the University of Edinburgh.