It does not, however, since its inception in 1882, hold any corporate opinions: SPR members assert a variety of beliefs with regard to the nature of the phenomena studied.

The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) originated from a discussion between journalist Edmund Rogers and the physicist William F. Barrett in autumn 1881.

[1] The committee included Barrett, Rogers, Stainton Moses, Charles Massey, Edmund Gurney, Hensleigh Wedgwood and Frederic W. H.

[17] It publishes the peer-reviewed quarterly Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (JSPR), the irregular Proceedings and the magazine Paranormal Review.

It holds an annual conference, regular lectures and two study days per year[7][18] and supports the LEXSCIEN on-line library project.

Nonetheless, Freud did respond, contributing an essay titled "A Note on the Unconscious in Psycho-Analysis"[29] to the Medical Supplement to the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research.

In 2021, several council members were awarded prizes in the high-profile Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies essay contest on the best evidence for life after death.

[33] However, in 1985 the original finding of fraud was questioned and reinvestigated by the SPR researcher Vernon Harrison, president of the Royal Photographic Society and an expert at detecting forgery.

"[34] In 1886 and 1887 a series of publications by S. J. Davey, Hodgson and Sidgwick in the SPR journal exposed the slate writing tricks of the medium William Eglinton.

Davey gave sittings under an assumed name, duplicating the phenomena produced by Eglinton, and then proceeded to point out to the sitters the manner in which they had been deceived.

[36] Eleanor Sidgwick responded with a critical paper in the SPR which cast doubt on the subject and discussed the fraudulent methods that spirit photographers such as Édouard Isidore Buguet, Frederic Hudson and William H. Mumler had utilised.

[41][42] Myers stated that “[T]he Society for Psychical Research was founded, with the establishment of thought-transference—already rising within measurable distance of proof—as its primary aim.”[43] Defenders of the SPR have stated in reply that “a ‘will to believe’ in post-mortem survival, telepathy and other scientifically unpopular notions, does not necessarily exclude a ‘will to know’ and thus the capacity for thorough self-criticism, methodological rigour and relentless suspicion of errors.”[44] The skeptic and physicist Victor J. Stenger has written: The SPR ... on occasion exposed blatant cases of fraud even their own credulous memberships could not swallow.

"[46] Trevor H. Hall, an ex-member of the Society for Psychical Research, criticised SPR members for their "credulous and obsessive wish... to believe."

"[47] Writer Edward Clodd asserted that the SPR members William F. Barrett and Oliver Lodge had insufficient competence for the detection of fraud and suggested that their spiritualist beliefs were based on magical thinking and primitive superstition.

"[49] A 2004 psychological study involving 174 members of the Society for Psychical Research completed a delusional ideation questionnaire and a deductive reasoning task.

Eric Dingwall resigned and wrote "After sixty years' experience and personal acquaintance with most of the leading parapsychologists of that period I do not think I could name half a dozen whom I could call objective students who honestly wished to discover the truth.