Walter Franklin Prince

Walter Franklin Prince (22 April 1863 – 7 August 1934) was an American parapsychologist and founder of the Boston Society for Psychical Research in Boston.

Career

Born in Detroit, Maine, Prince graduated from Maine Wesleyan Seminary in 1881 to become an Episcopal minister. He earned a BD in 1886 from Drew Theological Seminary and a PhD from Yale University in 1899. His doctoral thesis was on multiple personality.

Prince was a friend to Harry Houdini and Hereward Carrington and they all had exposed the tricks of fraudulent mediums, however, unlike Houdini, both Carrington and Prince believed that some mediums were genuine. Houdini and Prince wrote many letters to each other.

According to the psychical researcher Robert Ashby "[Prince] remained highly skeptical of PK and other physical phenomena, but felt that there was no doubt at all of telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition." In 1927, Prince contributed to the book The Case For And Against Psychical Belief (1927) which contains essays by both believers and skeptics of psychical phenomena. Prince was a close friend with the parapsychologist Joseph Banks Rhine. He published and wrote the introduction for Rhine's book Extrasensory Perception (1934). Prince supported the mediumship of Pearl Curran who he had visited in 1924 and experimented with in 1926, but did not come to any definite conclusion. Prince was alarmed at the number of "credulous spiritualists" that joined the ASPR. In response, Prince who was the Society's research officer resigned to establish the Boston Society for Psychical Research with the help of his friend William McDougall.

Prince exposed the medium Maria Silbert. She had developed the ability to maneuver a stiletto using only her feet and was thus able to write names on cigarette cases when they were held under the table. Prince attended a series of séance sittings with Rudi Schneider and no paranormal phenomena was observed. In his notes in the Bulletin VII of the Boston SPR published under Experiments with Physical Mediums in Europe (1928) he wrote "despite my studied and unremitting complaisance, no phenomena have occurred when I had any part in the control, save curtain movement which were capable of the simplest explanation." He also attended séances with the medium Jan Guzyk and came to the conclusion he had no paranormal ability.

Publications Books

The Psychic in the House (1926) The Case of Patience Worth (1927) Noted Witnesses For Psychic Occurrences (1928) Leonard and Soule Experiments in Psychical Research (1929) [with Lydia W. Allison] The Enchanted Boundary (1930)

Papers

— . (1915). The Doris Case of Multiple Personality, Part 1. Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 9: 23-700. — . (1916). The Doris Case of Multiple Personality, Part 2. Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 10: 701-1419. — . (1917). Psychological Tests for the Authorship of the Book of Mormon. American Journal of Psychology 28: 373-389. — . (1919). A Critical Study of "The Great Amherst Mystery". Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 13: 89-130. — . (1919). A Footnote: "Authorship of the Book of Mormon". American Journal of Psychology 30: 427-428. — . (1919). Supplementary Report on the Keeler-Lee Photographs. Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 13: 529-587. — . (1921). A Survey Of American Slate Writing Mediumship. Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 15: 315-592. — . (1921). Psychometric Experiments with Senora Maria Reyes de Z. Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 15: 189-314. — . (1922). An Investigation of Poltergeist and Other Phenomena Near Antigonish. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 16: 422-441. — . (1924). Testing Rafael Schermann. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 18: 537-561. — . (1925). My Doubts About Spirit Photographs. Scientific American 133: 370-371. — . (1926). A Review of the Margery Case. American Journal of Psychology 37: 431-441. — . (1928). Experiments with Physical Mediums in Europe. Bulletin of the Boston Society for Psychic Research 7: 3-107. — . (1932). A Sitting with Bert Reese. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 27: 249-254. — . (1933). The Case Against Margery. Scientific American 148: 261-263.

Other

Foreword to Gustav Pagenstecher. (1922). Past Events Seership: A Study in Psychometry. American Society for Psychical Research 16: 1-136. Foreword to Marietta Minnigerode Andrews. (1922). The Darker Drink. The Gorham Press. Chapter Is Psychical Research Worth While? In Carl Murchison. (1927). The Case For And Against Psychical Belief. Clark University. Chapter The Sinclair Experiments for Telepathy. In Upton Sinclair. (1930). Mental Radio. Charles C. Thomas Publishers. Introduction to Joseph Banks Rhine. (1934). Extra-Sensory Perception. Boston Society for Psychic Research.