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The Ghost Club
The Ghost Club is a paranormal investigation and research organization, founded in London in 1862. It is believed to be the oldest such organisation in the world, though its history has not been continuous. The club still investigates mainly ghosts and hauntings.
The club has its roots in Cambridge in 1855, where fellows at Trinity College began to discuss ghosts and psychic phenomena. Launched officially in London in 1862, it counted Charles Dickens among its members. One of the club's earliest investigations was of the Davenport brothers and their "spirit cabinet" hoax, the club challenging the Davenports' claim of contacting the dead.
The group continued to undertake practical investigations of spiritualist phenomena, a topic then in vogue, meeting to discuss ghostly subjects.
The club was revived on All Saints Day 1882 by the medium Stainton Moses and Alaric Alfred Watts, initially claiming to be the original founders, without acknowledging its origins. In 1882, the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), with whom there was an initial overlap, was founded at a similar time.
While the SPR was a body devoted to scientific study, the Ghost Club remained a selective and secretive organization of convinced believers for whom psychic phenomena were an established fact. Stainton Moses resigned from the vice presidency of the SPR in 1886 and thereafter devoted himself to the Ghost Club. Membership was small (82 members over 54 years[citation needed]) and women were not allowed, but during this period it attracted some of the most original and controversial minds in psychical research. These included Sir William Crookes Sir Oliver Lodge, Nandor Fodor and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The archives[clarification needed] of the Club reveal that the names of members, both living and dead, were solemnly recited each November 2. Each individual, living or dead, was recognized a member of the club. On more than one occasion deceased members were believed to have made their presence felt.[citation needed]
Also involved were the poet W. B. Yeats (joined 1911) and Frederick Bligh Bond (joined 1925), who became infamous with his investigations into spiritualism at Glastonbury. Bligh Bond later left the country and became active in the American Society for Psychical Research. He was ordained into the Old Catholic Church and re-joined the Ghost Club on his return to Britain in 1935.
The Principal of Jesus College, Cambridge, Arthur Grey, fictionalized the Ghost Club in 1919 as "The Everlasting Club" in a ghost story that many still believe to be true.
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The Ghost Club
The Ghost Club is a paranormal investigation and research organization, founded in London in 1862. It is believed to be the oldest such organisation in the world, though its history has not been continuous. The club still investigates mainly ghosts and hauntings.
The club has its roots in Cambridge in 1855, where fellows at Trinity College began to discuss ghosts and psychic phenomena. Launched officially in London in 1862, it counted Charles Dickens among its members. One of the club's earliest investigations was of the Davenport brothers and their "spirit cabinet" hoax, the club challenging the Davenports' claim of contacting the dead.
The group continued to undertake practical investigations of spiritualist phenomena, a topic then in vogue, meeting to discuss ghostly subjects.
The club was revived on All Saints Day 1882 by the medium Stainton Moses and Alaric Alfred Watts, initially claiming to be the original founders, without acknowledging its origins. In 1882, the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), with whom there was an initial overlap, was founded at a similar time.
While the SPR was a body devoted to scientific study, the Ghost Club remained a selective and secretive organization of convinced believers for whom psychic phenomena were an established fact. Stainton Moses resigned from the vice presidency of the SPR in 1886 and thereafter devoted himself to the Ghost Club. Membership was small (82 members over 54 years[citation needed]) and women were not allowed, but during this period it attracted some of the most original and controversial minds in psychical research. These included Sir William Crookes Sir Oliver Lodge, Nandor Fodor and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The archives[clarification needed] of the Club reveal that the names of members, both living and dead, were solemnly recited each November 2. Each individual, living or dead, was recognized a member of the club. On more than one occasion deceased members were believed to have made their presence felt.[citation needed]
Also involved were the poet W. B. Yeats (joined 1911) and Frederick Bligh Bond (joined 1925), who became infamous with his investigations into spiritualism at Glastonbury. Bligh Bond later left the country and became active in the American Society for Psychical Research. He was ordained into the Old Catholic Church and re-joined the Ghost Club on his return to Britain in 1935.
The Principal of Jesus College, Cambridge, Arthur Grey, fictionalized the Ghost Club in 1919 as "The Everlasting Club" in a ghost story that many still believe to be true.