This section of the Scole Archive is currently undergoing continuous digital curation. Please visit this page regularly to view updates as we continue to process, correlate, and release primary source data from the 464 historical sessions.
The Scole "Participants" | Group & Guest
The Scole data shows there were hundreds of participant witnesses at Scole Experiment sessions in six countries during the five years between Session #1 on 4 October 1993 and Session #464 on 6 November 1998.
Some of these many and varied Scole Participants were highly experienced and well qualified to participate as organisers, contributors, observers, and witnesses in the Scole experiment sessions. They included (by Group or Guest category and alphabetically):
Group Participants
For the purposes of the Scole Archive, between three and seven of the attendees of the Scole sessions were Scole "Group Participants".
Scole Group in 1996 | L to R: Robin, Diana, Alan, Sandra
|
BENNETT: Alan Bennett | Carpenter with psychic abilities and experiences since birth relevant and essential to creating the necessary conditions for Scole-type physical and non-physical anomalous phenomena to be observed and recorded during experimental sessions.
BENNETT: Diana Bennett | Professional healing practitioner and teacher with psychic abilities and experiences since birth relevant and essential to creating the necessary conditions for Scole-type physical and non-physical anomalous phenomena to be observed and recorded during experimental sessions.
FOY: Robin Foy | Former RAF pilot, paper sales representative, and business owner with long term and wide experience, with wife Sandra Foy, in creating the setup and ongoing conditions for, and recording the results of, Scole-type physical and non-physical anomalous phenomena.
FOY: Sandra Foy | Business owner with long term and wide experience, with husband Robin Foy, in creating the setup and ongoing conditions for and recording the results of, Scole-type physical and non-physical anomalous phenomena.
|
Guest Participants
All the rest are in the category of "Guest Participants". There were hundreds of invited Guest witnesses during the five years the 464 Scole experiment sessions were conducted...
Stewart Alexander
|
ALEXANDER: Stewart Alexander | A British physical medium; spent over 50 years practicing and documenting spiritualism; is widely regarded by both peers and psychical researchers as one of the least controversial and most authentic modern figures in the field of physical mediumship; his life’s work, including rare recordings and historical documentation, is now preserved in the Archives of the Impossible at Rice University in Houston, Texas; unlike mental mediums who report receiving internal messages, his demonstrations of anomalous phenomena mediumship focus on physical, observable events witnessed by groups; researchers, such as investigative journalist, Leslie Kean, have documented various striking examples of anomalous phenomena in his presence.
|
Bernard Carr
|
CARR: Bernard Carr | A prominent British cosmologist, astrophysicist, and Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL); widely recognised for his foundational research into the early universe, dark matter, and primordial black holes, a concept he pioneered alongside his PhD advisor, Professor Stephen Hawking; beyond his mainstream achievements, Carr maintains a deep interest in bridging science, philosophy, and religion, viewed through the lens of psychical research; as documented in the Psi Encyclopedia, his work centres on developing a groundbreaking "psycho-physical paradigm" that treats consciousness as a fundamental, rather than incidental, feature of the universe; to make rigorous mathematical room for both normal and paranormal mental experiences, he utilises hyperspace theory (the physics of higher-dimensional spaces); instead of treating extra dimensions merely as abstract computational tools for string theory, Carr adapts them to construct a structural model of the mind and mental space; serves as the President of the Scientific and Medical Network (SMN) and is a past President of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), having led the organisation from 2000 to 2004.
|
|
CONAN DOYLE: Arthur Conan Doyle | A British knight, writer, and physician; best known for four novels and fifty-six short stories about the fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson, which are milestones in crime fiction, and for his first work featuring Professor Challenger, The Lost World (1912), which gave its name to a sub-genre of speculative fiction; a prolific writer who produced over 200 stories and articles, four volumes of poetry, and a number of works for the stage; knighted by King Edward VII in the 1902 Coronation Honours; embraced anomalous phenomena, including psychics, telepathy, mentalism and spirit photography; supporter of Spiritualism.
|
|
|
DOYLE: Arthur Conan Doyle | See CONAN DOYLE
|
Rosemary Dinnage
|
DINNAGE: Rosemary Dinnage | A distinguished British journalist and critic; named by The Observer newspaper in 2011 as one of Great Britain’s top 300 intellectuals; had an active interest in parapsychology and was a long-standing and active member of the SPR governing Council; came to psychical research through historical and psychological interests rather than through specialist scientific training; helped expand the SPR library and reported many lectures and discussions for the Society’s publications; "her writings linked psi with wider intellectual concerns, including religion, psychoanalysis, and the critical assessment of controversial cases such as the Scole Circle"; see Psi Encyclopedia for more.
|
Arthur Ellison
|
ELLISON: Arthur Ellison | Distinguished British electrical engineer, academic administrator, and parapsychologist; achieved prominence as the Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at City University, London; equally known for extensive Scole-relevant research into altered states of consciousness; twice elected President of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR); co-author of The Scole Report, which was published as a peer-reviewed, refereed Proceedings of the SPR.
|
David Fontana
|
FONTANA: David Fontana | A prominent British psychologist, academic, and author known for bridging mainstream academic psychology with transpersonal psychology and psychical research. Over his distinguished career, he published more than 45 books, many Scole-relevant, that were translated into over 25 languages; first academic in the UK to hold a professorship in Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University; held invited Visiting Professorships at two prominent Portuguese institutions: The University of the Algarve and The University of Minho; conducted parapsychological research with Dr. Anabela Cardoso, a prominent Portuguese researcher and diplomat; investigated Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) and Instrumental Trans Communication (ITC); served as Associate Editor for the ITC Journal; served as founding Chair of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Transpersonal Psychology Section; Fellow of the BPS; deeply interested in consciousness and spiritual survival; served as elected President of the SPR from 1995 to 1998; co-author of The Scole Report.
|
Montague (Monty) Keen
|
KEEN: Montague Keen | An agrarian scientist; prominent British parliamentary journalist at the House of Commons: served as a senior official for the National Farmers Union; served on the SPR Council for 55 years, acting as secretary of its Survival Research Committee; strongly preferred real-world field investigations of mediums, healers, and hauntings over laboratory-based statistics; a passionate advocate for real-world fieldwork and case studies regarding the survival of human consciousness after death; investigated crop circles in the 1980s; co-evaluated the Jacqui Poole murder-mediumship case with Guy Lyon Playfair; alongside professors David Fontana and Arthur Ellison, spent years in the 1990s investigating the Scole Experimental Group; co-author of The Scole Report, in which he, and professors Ellison and Fontana, claimed no evidence of deception was found regarding the physical and non-physical anomalous phenomena.
|
Nick Kyle
|
KYLE: Nick Kyle | Past President of the Scottish Society for Psychical Research (SSPR); former schoolteacher; encountered profound physical phenomena during the Scole Experiment that he could not explain; has given numerous recorded witness testimony interviews confirming how, alongside wife Sarah, he observed inexplicable darkroom occurrences such as rapidly moving spheres of light, disembodied voices, and materialised objects such as a self-illuminating, miniaturised, levitating, room-orbiting UFO/UAP; see future Scole Archive data releases for more.
|
Professor Ivor Grattan-Guinesss (right) gives witness testimony to Scole Archive curators before The Scole Debate in London in 1999
|
GRATTAN-GUINNESS: Ivor Grattan-Guinness | A British historian of mathematics and a council member of the Society for Psychical Research who edited the influential reference book Psychical Research: A Guide to its History, Principles and Practices, which featured contributions from prominent figures in the field and is frequently cited as a foundational text in the Psi Encyclopedia managed by the Society for Psychical Research; served as a mathematics reader at Middlesex Polytechnic and focused much of his scholarly work on the history of science, mathematics, and psychical research; beyond mainstream mathematical history, he explored the relationship between parapsychology and established science, writing papers on phenomena like coincidences; spent his career at Enfield College of Technology (later Middlesex University) until retiring in 2002; founded History and Philosophy of Logic, led the British Society for the History of Mathematics (1986–1988), and edited mathematics for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; notable works include: Development of the Foundations of Mathematical Analysis from Euler to Riemann, Convolutions in French Mathematics, 1800-1840; Edited Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics, 1640-1940; provided filmed witness testimony to the Scole Archive curators whilst attending The Scole Debate in London in 1999, confirming his experience of, and interaction with, glowing spheres with mass.
|
HURST: Brian Hurst | A retired British-born schoolteacher, medium, author, and parapsychology lecturer; gained television recognition in the U.S. during the late 1990s and early 2000s, appearing on programmes like The Other Side, Hard Copy, A&E's Beyond Death, and TLC's Best Kept Secrets of the Paranormal; spent decades working as a medium, studying parapsychology, traveling to India, and hosting prominent physical mediumship groups (such as the Scole Experimental Group) at his home in California; wrote Heaven Can Help: The Autobiography of a Medium, which details his spiritual journey, encounters with psychic phenomena, and experiences with other notable mediums like Leslie Flint.
Brigitte Rix
|
RIX: Brigitte Rix | The co-author of the BBC educational book, Get by in French; a mediumship specialist from France with Scole-relevant knowledge, skills, and experience who lives in the UK; author and channel of several Scole-relevant books exploring the afterlife and human potential, including Worlds Beyond the Spirit World and I'm Not Dead, I'm Alive... Without a Body!
|
Archie Roy
|
ROY: Archie Roy | A Scottish astronomer who devoted most of his life to scientific discovery and psychical research. He was a president of the Society for Psychical Research and the founder and president of the Scottish Society for Psychical Research. His psi interests mainly centred on hauntings and mediumship. He argued that some mediumistic and cross-correspondence material deserved attention from scientifically minded readers; see future Scole Archive data releases for more.
|
SCHAER: Hans Schaer | A Swiss lawyer and psychical researcher; donated equipment to support Scole Group's experiments; present when a videotape he had loaded into the videocamera he provided for the experiment recorded a human face in a bubble and other anomalous phenomena; see future Scole Archive data releases for more.
SCHNITTGER: Walter Schnittger | A German consultant automotive engineer who, with his wife, Karin Schnittger (a German-English translator), attended 30 Scole sessions; gave video-recorded witness testimony to Scole Archive curators, Grant Solomon and Jane Solomon, at the Scole Debate, London, in 1999; testified to being present during the Scole session in which Rapa Nui (Easter Island) messages in the unique Rongorongo script and an obscure German poem were transmitted to and received in panoramic format on the same factory-sealed roll of 35 mm photographic film; see future Scole Archive data releases for more.
Russell Targ
|
TARG: Russell Targ | An American engineer and specialist scientific researcher who has received NASA recognition for his contribution to laser communications and optical systems; his early research into high-power gas lasers and frequency control laid the foundational physics for modern military electro-optics and directed-energy research; served as a co-founder, lead scientist, and principal investigator for remote-viewing (psychic spying) operations during Project Stargate, the umbrella code name for the US government's, multi-million dollar, 23-year, military psychic research program; author of numerous Scole-relevant peer-reviewed papers and books.
|
James Van Praagh
|
VAN PRAAGH: James Van Praagh | A prominent American author, television producer, and spiritual medium who is widely recognised as a pioneer of the modern mediumship movement; refers to himself as a "clairsentience" medium, which generally means a "sensitive" with the ability to sense the emotional states, energy, or hidden dynamics of people, rooms, or situations without any normal explanation; also refers to himself as a "survival evidence" medium, which generally means a "sensitive" who focuses on providing highly specific details from the spiritual realm as a means to provide evidence for the continuation of life after death and often the nature of the deceased human afterlife environment; over a career spanning more than three decades, Van Praagh has published numerous international bestsellers and heavily influenced how the paranormal and afterlife are portrayed in mainstream entertainment.
|
|
WEBSTER: James Webster | An experienced stage-magician and long-term member of the Magic Circle in the UK specialising in investigations of anomalous physical phenomena; found no evidence of trickery during Scole Experiment sessions; provided detailed, written and filmed specialist witness testimony.
|