University of Northampton academics win funding for research into life after death

Three members of the University of Northampton’s Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes (CSAPP) have successfully received funding from the Society for Psychical Research’s (SPR) Survival Research Committee.

The award will fund several projects, including the archiving of paranormal research material kindly donated to the University from a second-hand book dealer in Leicester.  The archival material contains reports, journals, correspondence, video tapes, slides, cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes on various aspects of parapsychological research, including ghosts, hauntings, spontaneous healing, and UFO sighting reports.  It is intended for this material to be integrated into the University’s library for wider research use and availability. This archiving process is intended to take place within the next couple of months.

The bid will also fund David Saunders, Rachel Evenden and Cal Cooper of CSAPP to travel to New York to hold a study seminar at the Parapsychology Foundation’s Eileen J. Garrett library. It is intended for Professor Chris Roe(director of CSAPP) and Dr Elizabeth Roxburgh to also attend this trip and present on their research.  David Saunders and Rachel Evenden will be exploring research suggestive of survival of bodily death from their own research interests of dreams and mediumship.

David Saunders commented:  ”We are greatly indebted to the SPR’s Survival Research Committee for their acceptance of our bid. We greatly look forward to the opportunity to archive these materials for posterity and wider access. We also look forward to travelling across the pond to liaise with our colleagues at the Parapsychology Foundation where we will host a symposium highlighting our current research on-going within CSAPP. This will provide us with a rare opportunity to discuss collaborative projects and to have access to the rare materials held within the Eileen J. Garrett Library. Again we would like to take this opportunity to thank the SPR’s Survival Research Committee for providing us with the means to engage in this worthwhile and fruitful endeavour.”

The research trip is intended to take place in mid-2015.