Classes on Parapsychology

You know, I still incline to think that places in Europe, especially England, are doing far better than America is in this subject. The "hey-day" of psychical research seems to be long past, even in countries where the subject matter is a little less taboo (again, England; Scotland with the Koestler Unit; etc). The ASPR seems to have experienced a drastic recession in prominence since the 90s and I don't think other places are doing much better; that's just the harsh truth of the situation that, I feel, parapsychology faces in the academic world.

Now, with the SPR's suggested steps (taken with the Buckminster Fuller funds), I think that psychical research and parapsychology might just be getting more mainstream exposure in the coming years; also, their idea of creating an online encyclopedia to combat the sometimes (transparently) biased Wikipedia entries could potentially have some use (I would include a link, but I can't seem to find one using a Google search; if one is unaware, the SPR recently received a large sum of money and they have some interesting ideas on how to best use it). Additionally, in the past few years, I think I've noticed a shift in public awareness toward more eccentric and exploratory topics (like the ones parapsychology seeks to address); I first noted this with the Sheldrake controversy, when instead of experiencing large-scale public ridicule for his TED presentation, he received far more support, with TED facing the most forceful criticisms. It may be that another "era" of pioneering work with these topics is on the horizon -I myself remain hopeful, but unconvinced. Whatever the case, I tend to think that the controversy that anomalous subject matter inspire have been with us for a long time and there is no clear resolution in sight. But we press on.