New Horizons Research Foundation Occasional Papers

Following the deaths of his parents A.R.G. (George) Owen and Iris M. Owen Robin E. Owen transferred to the Survival Research Institute of Canada the remaining records relating to the psychical research experiments that the Owens conducted in Toronto, Ontario, during the early 1970s. Included among his parents’ papers were a collection of 53 research reports, papers, proposals, briefs, notes and reviews. The Owens had numbered the main series of papers from 1 through 46, with numbers 23a and 31a interpolated. There are also five unnumbered papers.

As a non-profit organization based in Toronto, Ontario, the purpose of the New Horizons Research Foundation (NHRF) was “to promote research on the frontiers of science and disseminate information.” The closely affiliated Toronto Society for Psychical Research (TSPR) was a voluntary society and non-profit organization; its purpose was “to explore and interpret those presumptively paranormal events commonly described as extrasensory perception and psychic phenomena.” George and Iris Owen were the principal researchers in both those organizations. It is hoped that a historical sketch of those organizations might be prepared at a later date.

The majority of the NHRF occasional papers were written by George and/or Iris Owen. Canadian artist Katherine C. Verschaeve contributed one paper. Five reports dated 1985-1986 were prepared by students Susan M. Intner, Jeremiah A. Farrington, A. Jensine Andresen, and Mark Bonchek, working under the auspices of the PEAR Laboratory at Princeton University.

To make the occasional papers more generally accessible for research and educational purposes, the Survival Research Institute of Canada has undertaken to digitize and make them freely available, consistent with the Owens’ wishes as confirmed by their son Robin E. Owen. As Directors of the PEAR Laboratory project, Robert Jahn and Brenda Dunne have approved inclusion of the reports prepared by the Princeton University students.

George and Iris Owen’s cerlox bound copies of the occasional papers, from which the copy presented here was digitized, have been deposited in the Department of Archives & Special Collections at the University of Manitoba.

Following is the list of NHRF occasional papers that may be downloaded for educational and research purposes only.

List compiled by Walter Meyer zu Erpen, Archivist (February 2013)

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