International Club for Psychical Research


The International Club for Psychical Research was a short-lived psychical organization that was formed in May 1911 by Annie Besant.

History

The ICPR was considered a rival organization to the Society for Psychical Research. The headquarters of the club were situated in Regent Street, London near Piccadilly Circus.
The club held a séance room for testing spiritualist mediums, a lecture hall, library, dining room and two kitchens. Its membership was open to any belief system but mainly consisted of occultists, spiritualists and theosophists. The International Psychic Gazette was a monthly periodical founded in 1912 as the official organ of the ICPR but ceased after a few months. It was revived as an independent publication, the Psychic Gazette by Scottish businessman and editor John Lewis. It survived for over twenty years, 1913–1935. Continental editors were Pascal Forthuny and Felicia Rudolphina Scatcherd.
The first westerner, Frank Humphreys met Ramana Maharshi in 1911 and wrote articles about him which were published in the International Psychic Gazette in 1913. According to Arvind Sharma his account "has been widely viewed as an excellent summation of Ramana Maharshi's teachings."
Contributors to the Psychic Gazette included Arthur Conan Doyle, Horace Leaf, James Martin Peebles and Lilian Whiting. In 1911, the club was reported to have had six hundred members. Known members included Lyman J. Gage, Lord Edward Gleichen, Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick, Alfred Edward Turner and Francis Younghusband.

Notable members