The Koestler Parapsychology Unit is a research group established in 1985 at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
, in Scotland, to teach and conduct research concerning various aspects of
parapsychology
Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry (paranormal), psychometry) and other paranormal cla ...
.
It hosts the only endowed chair of parapsychology in the UK, established by a bequest following the suicide in 1983 of internationally acclaimed intellectual, writer and journalist
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...
.
The first person to hold the chair, beginning in 1985, was
Robert L. Morris.
[ John Beloff and Joshua Snyder were instrumental in setting it up.][ Its focus is primarily on understanding why people believe they have psi experiences, and on how to improve the scientific rigour of studies.
The unit includes the Koestler Parapsychology Library.Koestler parapsychology library]
University of Edinburgh School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences. 31 May, 2022.
References
External links
Caroline Watt
interview, ''Brainwaves'', BBC Radio Scotland (2015). (retrieved 18 February 2022).
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Parapsychology
1985 establishments in Scotland
Research institutes of the University of Edinburgh