Walter Franklin Prince (22 April 1863 – 7 August 1934) was an American parapsychologist and founder of the

Boston Society for Psychical Research The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States dedicated to parapsychology. It maintains offices and a library, in New York City, which are open to both members and the gener ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

.Berger, Arthur S. (1988). ''Walter Franklin Prince: A Portrait''. In ''Lives and Letters in American Parapsychology: A Biographical History, 1850-1987''. McFarland. pp. 75-108.

Career

Born in

Detroit, Maine Detroit is a New England town, town in Somerset County, Maine, Somerset County, Maine, United States. The population was 885 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a to ...

, Prince graduated from Maine Wesleyan Seminary in 1881 to become an Episcopal minister. He earned a BD in 1886 from

Drew Theological Seminary Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three scho ...

and a PhD from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1899. His doctoral thesis was on multiple personality. In 1910 he was the rector of All Saints' Church in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

and in 1916 the director of psychotherapeutics at St. Marks's Episcopal Church in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 1885, Prince married Lelia Madora Colman, they had no children but adopted a daughter. Lelia died in 1924. Prince authored several works on the study of human

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

abilities, among them ''The Psychic in the House'' (Boston 1926), ''The Case of Patience Worth'' (Boston 1927), ''The Enchanted Boundary'' (Boston 1930). He was fiercely critical of the claims of the physical medium Margery

Mina Crandon Mina "Margery" Crandon (1888–November 1, 1941) was a psychical medium who claimed that she channeled her dead brother, Walter Stinson. Investigators who studied Crandon concluded that she had no such paranormal ability, and others detected her ...

. In 1908, Prince joined the

American Society for Psychical Research The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States dedicated to parapsychology. It maintains offices and a library, in New York City, which are open to both members and the gener ...

(ASPR). In 1915 he left the clergy and became an assistant for his friend James H. Hyslop. When Hyslop died in 1920, he became the research officer and editor for the ASPR Journal and Proceedings. Prince was a friend to Harry Houdini and

Hereward Carrington Hereward Carrington (17 October 1880 – 26 December 1958) was a well-known British-born American investigator of psychic phenomena and author. His subjects included several of the most high-profile cases of apparent psychic ability of his times, ...

and they all had exposed the tricks of fraudulent mediums, however, unlike Houdini, both Carrington and Prince believed that some mediums were genuine. Houdini and Prince wrote many letters to each other. According to the psychical researcher Robert Ashby " rinceremained highly skeptical of PK and other physical phenomena, but felt that there was no doubt at all of telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition." In 1927, Prince contributed to the book ''The Case For And Against Psychical Belief'' (1927) which contains essays by both believers and skeptics of psychical phenomena. Prince was a close friend with the parapsychologist

Joseph Banks Rhine Joseph Banks Rhine (September 29, 1895 – February 20, 1980), usually known as J. B. Rhine, was an American botanist who founded parapsychology as a branch of psychology, founding the parapsychology lab at Duke University, the ''Journ ...

. He published and wrote the introduction for Rhine's book ''

Extrasensory Perception Extrasensory perception or ESP, also called sixth sense, is a claimed paranormal ability pertaining to reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind. The term was adopted by Duke Universi ...

'' (1934). Prince was a member of the ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'' Committee to examine paranormal claims. He became one of its editors for articles on parapsychological phenomena. He was the only American, other than

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

, who occupied the position of President 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 co ...

in London, which he did for two years 1930 and 1931.

Investigations

Walter Franklin Prince with Mina Crandon and Houdini

Prince was skeptical of the claims of physical

mediums Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...

. To help expose fraud, he familiarised himself with the tricks of conjurors and became a member of the

Society of American Magicians The Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world. Its purpose is "to advance, elevate, and preserve magic as a performing art, to promote harmonious fellowship throughout the world of magic, and ...

. He discovered that many physical mediums had utilized sleight of hand trickery. He authored the paper ''A Survey of American Slate-Writing Mediumship'' which was almost 300 pages. In this paper he exposed the fraudulent methods of the slate-writing medium Pierre L. O. A. Keeler. He later became a believer in psychic phenomena but remained skeptical of

spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and Mind-body dualism, dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (w ...

. In 1921, Prince travelled to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and collaborated with the German physician Gustav Pagenstecher on experiments with the

clairvoyant Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...

Senora Maria Reyes de Zierold in psychometry. Prince came to the conclusion that she possessed genuine

ESP ESP most commonly refers to: * Extrasensory perception, a paranormal ability ESP may also refer to: Arts, entertainment Music * ESP Guitars, a manufacturer of electric guitars * E.S. Posthumus, an independent music group formed in 2000, ...

ability. He told

Hans Driesch Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch (28 October 1867 – 17 April 1941) was a German biologist and philosopher from Bad Kreuznach. He is most noted for his early experimental work in embryology and for his neo-vitalist philosophy of entelechy. He has also ...

that the experiments with Zierold had converted him, that he had gone to Mexico a skeptic but came back a "psychist". In 1922, Prince investigated an alleged poltergeist occurrence at a farm in Caledonia Mills. He concluded that the phenomena was produced by Mary-Ellen the adopted daughter of the owners of the farm. Prince supported the mediumship of

Pearl Curran Patience Worth was allegedly a spirit contacted by Pearl Lenore Curran (February 15, 1883 – December 2, 1937). This symbiotic relationship produced several novels, poetry and prose which Pearl Curran claimed were delivered to her through chan ...

who he had visited in 1924 and experimented with in 1926, but did not come to any definite conclusion. By 1925 due to the investigation of Mina Crandon the

had been taken over by a spiritualist faction. The ASPR championed Crandon and suppressed any reports unfavourable to her.Chéroux, Clément. (2005). ''The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult''. Yale University Press. p. 219. Prince was alarmed at the number of "credulous spiritualists" that joined the ASPR. In response, Prince who was the Society's research officer resigned to establish the Boston Society for Psychical Research with the help of his friend William McDougall. Prince and other critics were accused by supporters of Crandon of being biased against paranormal phenomena. Prince in a letter to magician

Joseph Rinn Joseph Francis Rinn (1868–1952) was an American magician and skeptic of paranormal phenomena. Career Rinn grew up in New York City. He coached Harry Houdini as a teenager in running at the Pastime Athletic Club. He remained a friend to Houdin ...

on February 1, 1934 described the Crandon case as "the most ingenious, persistent, and fantastic complex of fraud in the history of psychic research." Prince exposed the medium

Maria Silbert Frau Maria Silbert (1866–1936) was an Austrian spiritualist medium. Biography Silbert was born in Waltendorf, Graz and claimed powers of apportation and psychokinesis as well as the ability to produce "spirit raps". Her famous trick was to ...

. She had developed the ability to maneuver a stiletto using only her feet and was thus able to write names on cigarette cases when they were held under the table. Prince attended a series of séance sittings with

Rudi Schneider Rudi Schneider (July 27, 1908 – April 28, 1957), son of Josef Schneider and brother of Willi Schneider, was an Austrian Spiritualist and physical medium. Underwood, Peter. (1978). ''Dictionary of the Supernatural''. Harrap. Roach, Mary. (2005) ...

and no

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. Not ...

phenomena was observed. In his notes in the Bulletin VII of the Boston SPR published under ''Experiments with Physical Mediums in Europe'' (1928) he wrote "despite my studied and unremitting complaisance, no phenomena have occurred when I had any part in the control, save curtain movement which were capable of the simplest explanation." He also attended séances with the medium

Jan Guzyk Jan Guzyk (1875–1928), also known as Jan Guzik was a Polish spiritualist medium known for his alleged ability of psychokinesis.Brower, M. Brady. (2010). ''Unruly Spirits: The Science of Psychic Phenomena in Modern France''. University of Illino ...

and came to the conclusion he had no paranormal ability.

Reception

Prince's research and writings were influential amongst parapsychologists. He has been described as one of the "great masters" in the history of parapsychology. Prince drew criticism from both skeptics and spiritualists. Those in the spiritualist community considered him an opponent of spiritualism, whilst skeptics such as psychologist

Joseph Jastrow Joseph Jastrow (January 30, 1863 – January 8, 1944) was a Polish-born American psychologist, noted for inventions in experimental psychology, design of experiments, and psychophysics. He also worked on the phenomena of optical illusions, ...

accused Prince of being naïve and not applying the same level of skepticism he had towards other psychical phenomena.Samuel, Lawrence. (2011). ''Supernatural America: A Cultural History''. Praeger. p. 18.

Publications

Books *''The Psychic in the House'' (1926)
''The Case of Patience Worth''
(1927)
''Noted Witnesses For Psychic Occurrences''
(1928)
''Leonard and Soule Experiments in Psychical Research''
(1929) ith_Lydia_W._Allison.html" ;"title="Lydia_W._Allison.html" ;"title="ith Lydia W. Allison">ith Lydia W. Allison">Lydia_W._Allison.html" ;"title="ith Lydia W. Allison">ith Lydia W. Allisonbr>''The Enchanted Boundary''
(1930) Papers * — . (1915)
''The Doris Case of Multiple Personality, Part 1''
Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 9: 23-700. * — . (1916)
''The Doris Case of Multiple Personality, Part 2''
Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 10: 701-1419. * — . (1917)
''Psychological Tests for the Authorship of the Book of Mormon''
''

American Journal of Psychology The ''American Journal of Psychology'' is a journal devoted primarily to experimental psychology. It is the first such journal to be published in the English language (though '' Mind'', founded in 1876, published some experimental psychology ea ...

'' 28: 373-389. * — . (1919)
''A Critical Study of "The Great Amherst Mystery"''
Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 13: 89-130. * — . (1919)
''A Footnote: "Authorship of the Book of Mormon"''
''

'' 30: 427-428. * — . (1919)
''Supplementary Report on the Keeler-Lee Photographs''
Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 13: 529-587. * — . (1921)
''A Survey Of American Slate Writing Mediumship''
Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 15: 315-592. * — . (1921)
''Psychometric Experiments with Senora Maria Reyes de Z''
Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 15: 189-314. * — . (1922)
''An Investigation of Poltergeist and Other Phenomena Near Antigonish''
Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 16: 422-441. * — . (1924). ''Testing

Rafael Schermann Rafael Schermann (1879–1945) also known as Raphael Schermann was a Polish graphologist, self-proclaimed psychic and writer. Schermann was born in Kraków. From a young age he had a fascination with handwriting and collecting envelopes. He se ...

''. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 18: 537-561. * — . (1925)
''My Doubts About Spirit Photographs''
''

'' 133: 370-371. * — . (1926). ''A Review of the Margery Case''. ''

'' 37: 431-441. * — . (1928). ''Experiments with Physical Mediums in Europe''. Bulletin of the Boston Society for Psychic Research 7: 3-107. * — . (1932)
''A Sitting with Bert Reese''
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 27: 249-254. * — . (1933)
''The Case Against Margery''
''

'' 148: 261-263. Other *Foreword to Gustav Pagenstecher. (1922)
''Past Events Seership: A Study in Psychometry''
American Society for Psychical Research 16: 1-136. *Foreword to Marietta Minnigerode Andrews. (1922)
''The Darker Drink''
The Gorham Press. *Chapter ''Is Psychical Research Worth While?'' In

Carl Murchison Carl Allanmore Murchison (1887–1961) was an American psychologist and an early promoter of the discipline of psychology. Unlike most psychologists who became prominent in the history books, Murchison was not an influential theorist or researche ...

. (1927)
''The Case For And Against Psychical Belief''
Clark University. *Chapter ''The Sinclair Experiments for Telepathy''. In

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in seve ...

. (1930)
''Mental Radio''
Charles C. Thomas Publishers. *Introduction to

. (1934)
''Extra-Sensory Perception''
Boston Society for Psychic Research.

Career

Investigations

Reception

Publications

References

Further reading