The Ghost Club
The world's oldest organisation in the world associated with psychical research
The Ghost Club is the oldest organisation in the world associated with psychical research. It was founded in 1862 but has its roots in Cambridge University where, in 1855, fellows at Trinity College began to discuss ghosts and psychic phenomena.
Past members include Charles Dickens, Siegfried Sassoon, Harry Price, Donald Campbell, Peter Cushing, Peter Underwood, Maurice Grosse, Sir Shane Leslie and Eric Maple.
The Ghost Club quickly earned the nickname of a sect because of its few members, just 82 in 54 years of activity. Among them it is worth mentioning the scandalous William Crookes, linked to several mediumistic frauds, the physicist Oliver Lodge, Nandor Fodor, psychologist and former follower of Sigmund Freud; and finally Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the most famous detective in literature: Sherlock Holmes. Already in the 20th century, the Ghost Club continued to receive notable followers, such as the poet W.B. Yeats in 1911.
The Ghost Club files reveal some curiosities. For example, the names of all its members were recited with all solemnity on November 2, All Souls’ Day. Even his dead adepts were recognized as an active part of the group, and their places were held for any assistance of supernatural order.
In the first decades of the 20th century, the Ghost Club became an anachronistic society, far removed from the new forms of scientific research. Parapsychology, still in its infancy, was gaining ground among followers of the paranormal. Harry Price, the famous ghost hunter of the 1930’s joined the Ghost Club in 1927 and renewed its archaic foundations. Among other changes, he approved the inclusion of women as active members of the organization. However, the Club’s popularity had fallen out of favour. In 1936 it was decided to close its doors forever after 485 official meetings. The last meeting, naturally, took place on November 2; and the confidential archives and investigations were deposited in the British Museum with the condition that they could not be made public until 1962.
For many, the last stage of the Ghost Club was the most interesting. As has been said, women were eventually admitted, and with them other personalities, such as Sir Julian Huxley and Algernon Blackwood, both keen to discuss paranormal topics in an arena open to all genders.
Today the Ghost Club is a non-profit, social club run by an elected Council of volunteers and its purpose remains true to its roots; the Ghost Club offers open-minded, curious individuals the opportunity to debate, explore and investigate unexplained phenomena with like-minded people and record the results for posterity.
