The Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP) is a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

-based learned society, education and research charity, dedicated to scientifically investigate alleged

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

and anomalous

phenomena A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried W ...

, with a view to approaching the subject in its entirety rather than looking into the psychology of individual phenomenon. They also hold training days for would-be investigators and provide research grants. ASSAP's refusal to accept populist explanations for

ghosts A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

and its focus on recording of experience rather than phenomena has garnered cautious praise from

skeptics Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

. The first part of their investigative process, which is used to detect obvious fraud, is kept a secret from the public.

History

The ASSAP was founded on 10 June 1981 by council members of the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...

who were modernisers; its current president is

Lionel Fanthorpe Robert Lionel Fanthorpe, FCollP, FRSA, FCMI (born 9 February 1935) is a retired British priest and entertainer. Fanthorpe also worked as a dental technician, journalist, teacher, television presenter, author and lecturer. Born in Dereham in Norfol ...

. The previous president was

Michael Bentine Michael Bentine, (born Michael James Bentin; 26 January 1922General Register Office for England and Wales – Birth Register for the March Quarter of 1922, Watford Registration District, Reference 3a 1478, listed as "Michael J. Bentin", mother ...

who had a long-term interest in the subject of the paranormal. Founding members included well-known authors

Hilary Evans Hilary Agard Evans (6 March 1929 – 27 July 2011) was a British pictorial archivist, author, and researcher into UFOs and other paranormal phenomena. Biography Evans was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, United KingdomErnest Kay ''The Internati ...

and

Jenny Randles Jenny Randles is a British author and former director of investigations with the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA), serving in that role from 1982 through to 1994. Career Randles specializes in writing books on UFOs and paranormal phe ...

as well as ''

Fortean Times ''Fortean Times'' is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (2001 to 2005), Dennis Publishing (2005 to 2 ...

'' editor

Bob Rickard ''Fortean Times'' is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (2001 to 2005), Dennis Publishing (2005 to 2 ...

Vernon Harrison Vernon George Wentworth Harrison (14 March 1912 – 14 October 2001) was a president of the Royal Photographic Society, and a professional "research worker of disputed documents". Biography Harrison was born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwicks ...

and Hugh Pincott (previously secretary and treasurer of the Society for Psychical Research). The charity has had sub-committees such as the Circles Research Program, who investigated crop circles. In the 1990s, they held an average of 1,000 investigations a year.

Current activities

Members receive the annual peer reviewed journal ''Anomaly'' and a bi-annual magazine, as well as invitations to a weekly Thursday evening webinar series where experts discuss anomalous phenomena and borderline science. The tone of the group is skeptical and scientific but it holds no corporate beliefs and instead embraces a Fortean openness to anomalies of all kinds. Members have unlimited use of th
Mary Evans picture library
because Hilary Evans was one of the founders. Carrie Searley explained to paranormal researcher

Ben Radford Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, � ...

that "fake ghost photography is in the minority, however, it does occur...It is purely down to us to educate ourselves with the up and coming new photo apps that are being offered on the market". ASSAP asked the public for its help to catalogue the known fake images for smartphones. Though the charity still analyses ghostly photographs, in 2011 it ceased to study smartphone pictures, as apps became available for the specific purpose of faking ghostly figures. The charity asked members to send before and after pictures using the applications to help weed out fakes. In 2013 the organisation staged a one-day "Summit on the Future of Ufology", stating that a possible crisis in the world of UFO researchers, as well as recent sightings, required examination. They held a similar conference in 2012 at the

University of Worcester , motto_lang = la , mottoeng = ''Aspire to Inspire'' , established = 1946 – Worcester Emergency Teacher Training College 1948 – Worcester Teacher Training College 1976 – Worcester College of Higher Education 1997 – ...

. They had earlier hosted the ''Paranormal Olympics'' at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. Since 2006 the charity launched Project Albion, creating a database with the goal of recording every Fortean event in the country.

Chairs

Notes

External links

Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena Learned societies of the United Kingdom Organisations based in Somerset Paranormal organizations