J. Gordon Melton, the organization's founding secretary,
proposed operating in the areas where parapsychology and religion overlap in
1971, and the organization was created in 1972.
It has been a part of the Spiritual Frontiers Fellow programas an academic affiliate (SFF).
The academy promotes communication, idea exchange, and
collaboration between clergy, philosophy and religion academics, and
parapsychology and allied field researchers and scientists.
It runs educational programs for students, members of the
Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship, and the general public, and collaborates with
other organizations.
Soon after its creation, the academy held many significant
conferences, the first of which was held at Garrett Theological Seminary in
1972, but its activity halted in the mid-1970s as SFF went through a period of
organizational turmoil.
The academy, which was reorganized by the end of the 1970s,
now holds an annual conference and occasional seminars, usually in conjunction
with the annual meeting of SFF.
It has an annual competition for the Robert H. Ashby
Memorial Award, which is given to the best paper on a certain topic.
The Journal of Religion and Psychical Research is published
quarterly, as are the Proceedings (issued from time to time).
P.O. Box 614, Bloomfield, Connecticut 06002-0614, is the address for the academy.
http://www.lightlink.com/arpr/ is the URL for the website.
Further Reading:
The Academy of Religion and Psychical Research. http://www.lightlink.com/arpr/. March 8, 2000.
You may also want to read more about parapsychology and occult sciences here.