People Profiles

By Paul Adams

Harry Price – An Appreciation of his Life and Times: All fields of human activity have their pioneers in whose footsteps the next generations follow, and by laying down the foundations of their particular disciplines they enable these future colleagues to build their contributions and discoveries. Psychical research is no exception. In its modern terms as ‘parapsychology’ it has been defined by the work of the American Joseph Banks Rhine (1885-1980), indeed the ‘Father of Modern Parapsychology’ who began carrying out experiments in telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition at Duke University in North Carolina in the 1930s.

Before Rhine, psychical research as it was still termed continued to be quite a mixed bag which the investigators of the time attempted to study and evaluate - séance room phenomena, spontaneous cases of haunting, crisis apparitions, dream cases and so on. During the early decades of the 20^th century, exponents on both sides of the Atlantic continued the study of phenomena that was the staple fare of the Victorian scientists and academics that had founded institutions such as the Society for Psychical Research at Cambridge and the American Society for Psychical Research in Boston. In particular some of these notables acted as popular educators in bringing the subject of the scientific study of the paranormal before the general public.

In America, British born Hereward Carrington (1880-1958) was a prolific writer who personally carried out much work with spiritualist mediums before the First World War and continued this on into the 1920s and 1930s. His most famous association was with the great Italian medium Eusapia Palladino. Carrington was to be followed by Hans Holzer (born 1920) who began to produce a series of popular guides to the supernatural chronicling his investigations in the 1960s. In England notable Victorian scientists Sir Oliver Lodge (1851-1940) and Sir William Crookes (1832-1919) carried out extensive work with the mediums of the day, Crookes famously with Florence Cook with whose ‘spirit’ entity Katie King he was photographed...

Historians believe that the remains of the man who inspired Father Christmas, St Nicholas, are buried in Ireland. He lived during the 4th century and gained sainthood for his tendancy to leave gifts for the poor. He died in the year 346AD."The remains of St Nicholas, the man who inspired Father Christmas, are buried at Jerpoint Abbey in County Kilkenny, Ireland, historians believe.

Experts claim that the philanthropist St Nicholas of Myra is entombed at the 12th century abbey after his body was moved there 800 yearsago."

View: Full Article | Source: Telegraph News storysuggestion by: Still Waters

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has said that he saw a ghost 20 years ago at Wellington"s Courtney Place. He had woken up one morning to see the figure of a woman standing in his room that glided over andvanished through a wall."His sighting was in an apartment he and his wife had in Wellington"s Courtney Place opposite the St James Theatre, when they first met 20 years ago.

"I woke up one morning and there was a figure in the room, she was very scary, she had a screaming face, veryaccusatory, she was a lady about 50 years old," Jackson said."

View: Full Article | Source: Stuff.co.nz

A 33-year-old student has revealed a cigar that he was given by his grandfather at the age of 12 that would have been smoked by Winston Churchill during a historic meeting at which the D-Daylandings were planned."A cigar smoked by Prime Minister Winston Churchill as he planned D-Day has been discovered in a small market village - after being hidden for over 50 years.

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View: Full Article | Source: Telegraph Newsstory suggestion by: Still Waters