40+ Leading Researchers of the Paranormal

Below is a table listing alphabetically some of the leading researchers of paranormal phenomena. The list includes many scientists and physicians. Pressing the links in the right column will take you to relevant works by such persons, or articles about their work, almost all of which can be read online for free, without any login difficulties.  

Some of the links below go to URLs at www.archive.org, which has been restored after a service outage. If you have trouble using a link, try one of the links marked Alternate Links, which go to an entirely different repository. 

 

Name	Description	Involvement	Link for  more information
Barrett, Sir William	A physicist	Researched ESP and authored the book Deathbed Visions reporting deathbed apparitions	Link
Bem, Daryl	Professor of psychology	Author of a widely noted "Feeling the Future" paper documenting precognition	Link
Brittan, S. B.  MD	A medical doctor	Author of a classic of parapsychology "Man and His Relations"	Link Link Alternate link
Bozanno, Ernest	Psychologist and psychical researcher	Pioneered the study of deathbed visions in his paper "Apparitions of Deceased Persons at Death-beds." Also wrote one of the first books documenting out-of-body experiences.	Link
Cahagnet, Louise Alphonse	Psychical researcher	His The Celestial Telegraph documented the most impressive clairvoyance in the subject Adele	Link Link
Carrington, Hereward	Psychical researcher	His Eusapia Palladino and Her Phenomena is a classic of psychical research	Link Alternate link
Chastanet,  Armand-Marc-Jacques de,   the Marquis de Puységur		A pivotal figure in psychical research but little known, he  essentially discovered artificial somnambulism, later called hypnotism, inspired by the work of Franz Anton Mesmer. His work opened the door to later robust experimental evidence for clairvoyance (read here for an example).
Crawford, W. J	A mechanical engineer, which made him well-qualified for devising devices capable of testing whether paranormal phenomena were occurring at seances where levitation was reported	In three books published around 1920, he documented the most thorough and careful evidence of levitation occurring at seances	Link Link Link Link Alternate link Alternate link
Crookall, Robert	A geologist and psychical researcher	One of the first scholars to  write books documenting out-of-body experiences	Link Link Link
Crookes, Sir William	A leading physicist who discovered the element thallium, and invented the Crookes tube that was the forerunner of all TV sets.	Supervised successful tests of paranormal phenomena with the medium Daniel Dunglas Home and Florence Cook.	Link Link Alternate link Alternate link
Crowe, Catherine	Psychical researcher	Her 500-page The Night Side of Nature was a deep dive into mysterious phenomena	Link Alternate link
Deleuze, Joseph-Philippe-François	A naturalist and botanist	Documented clairvoyance under hypnotism (then called animal magnetism)	Link Link
Esdaille, James	Physician and surgeon	Achieved the most enormous success in performing very many painless surgeries in India by using only hypnosis for pain relief. Documented the paranormal in his book Natural and Mesmeric Clairvoyance.	Link Alternate link
Flammarion, Camille	Professional astronomer and psychical researcher	Author of the monumental three-volume work Death and Its Mystery (which you can read here, here  and here), as well as the massive tome The Unknown	Link Link Alternate link Alternate link
Fukarai, Tomokici	Professor and President of the Psychical Institute of Japan	Author of Clairvoyance &  Thoughtography documenting paranormal effects	Link
Geley, Gustave	Physician	Author of From the Unconscious to the Conscious documenting the paranormal	Link Alternate link
Greyson, Bruce	Physician	A leading researcher of near-death experiences	Link
Gregory, William	Professor of chemistry at the University of Edinburgh (founded in 1582, and the sixth oldest English university)	Documented very carefully dramatic cases of clairvoyance, in his book Letters to a Candid Inquirer, on Animal Magnetism.	Link Link  Alternate link
Gully, Dr. J. M.	Physician	Attested to the reality of the Florence Cook/Katie King materialization phenomenon	Link
Gurney, Edmund	Psychologist and psychical researcher	One of the three authors of the monumental two-volume work Phantasms of the Living, the first major study of apparitions	Link  Link Alternate link
Haddock, Dr. Joseph	Physician	His book Somnolism and Psycheism documented astonishing clairvoyance in his patient Emma	Link  Alternate link
Haraldsson,  Erlendur	Psychologist and psychical researcher	Co-author (with Karlis Osis) of At the Hour of Death, a major work studying deathbed visions	Link
Hare, Robert	Professor of chemistry at Harvard University	Authored the book Experimental investigation of the Spirit Manifestations asserting the reality of dramatic paranormal phenomena	Link Link Alternate link
Hodgson, Richard	Psychical researcher	One of the main investigators of Leonora Piper, eventually becoming convinced she provided evidence of life after death	Link
Hyslop, J. W.	Professor of Logic and Ethics in Columbia University	Author of the book Contact With the Other World documenting evidence for life after death	Link Alternate link Link (p. 585) Link (p. 627)
James, William	Sometimes called the founder of American psychology	A noted contributor to psychical research, and one of the main investigators of Leonora Piper	Link
Joire, Dr. Paul	Professor at the Pstcho-Physiologioal Institute of France, President of the Sooiete Univbbselle d'Etudes Pstchiques	Wrote a 633-page book "Psychical and Supernormal Phenomena, Their Observation and Experimentation."	Link Alternate link
Kerner, Justinus	A physician	Pioneered the serious study of apparitions, and documented clairvoyance in  Frederica Hauffe	Link Link Alternate link
Lodge, Sir Oliver	A physicist	Author of the book Raymond, or Life and Death documenting successful encounters with mediums	Link Link Alternate link
London Dialectical Society	A society with no doctrinal predispositions  that made an elaborate investigation of paranormal phenomena beginning in 1869	Its investigators took direct testimony from very many witnesses, and published a 400+ page report documenting the reality of many types of paranormal phenomena.	Link Link Alternate link Alternate link
Lombroso, Cesare	A physician and extremely influential criminology theorist	Author of the book After Death, What? documenting the paranormal, including observations of inexplicable events at seances of Eusapia Palladino	Link Link Alternate link
Maxwell, J. MD	Physician	Author of Metaphysical Phenomena: Methods and Observations, documenting many paranormal phenomena	Link Link Alternate link
Moody, Raymond	A psychiatrist and psychical researcher	Wrote the first widely-read book on near-death experiences	Link
Myers, F. W.	One of the main founders of the Society for Psychical Research	Author of the monumental two-volume psychology and psychical research work Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death	Link Link Alternate link Alternate link
Ochorowicz, Julien	Psychology professor	Ran successful levitation experiments with medium  Stanislas Tomczyk. Documented the paranormal in his 1891 book Mental Suggestion.	Link Link Link Alternate link
Osty, Eugene	Medical practitioner and director of the Institut Métapsychique International in Paris	Author of the book Supernormal Faculties in Man	Link Link Alternate link
Owen, Robert Dale	Once a US congressman	Author of two classic works documenting the paranormal	Link Link Alternate link
Radin, Dean	Physicist	Has done experiments  showing psi effects	Link
Rhine, Joseph Banks	Professor of Psychology, Duke University	Did many years of experimental tests showing the reality of ESP	Link Link Alternate link
Rhine, Louisa		One of the leading collectors of accounts of spontaneous telepathy and spontaneous precognition.	Link
Riess, Bernard F.	Professor at City College, CUNY	Despite a lack of enthusiasm for the topic, he ran the most successful ESP test ever, getting "smoking gun" evidence	Link
Richet, Charles	Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1913	Author of the long book "Thirty Years of Psychical Research." Documented paranormal phenomena occurring with mediums.	Link Alternate link
Schrenck-Notzing, Albert von.	Physician	Author of the long work Phenomena of Materialization documenting paranormal phenomena	Link Link Alternate link
Sheldrake, Rupert	Biologist	Did experiments supporting the reality of ESP	Link
Tweedale, Charles L.	Minister	Author of a  long book (Man's Survival After Death)  that includes many cases from the annals of the Society for Psychical Research, as well as many fascinating first-hand cases of paranormal observation by Tweedale and his family.	Link Link Alternate link
Wallace, Alfred Russel	Co-founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection	Documented the reality of paranormal phenomena in works such as On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism	Link Link Link Alternate link
Zollner, Johann	Professor of physical astronomy	Author of the book Transcendental Physics documenting paranormal phenomena	Link Link Alternate link