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)
AUTHOR(S) | NUMBER | PAPER TITLE, DATE, PAGINATION & NOTES ABOUT ANY PAGES EXCLUDED |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | none | The New Horizons Research Foundation: A Brief History, 1970-1984 (unpublished report, January 1985; 24 pages) |
Iris M. Owen, SRN, NHRF | 01 | The UFO Phenomenon and its Relationship to Parapsychological Research (A New Horizons Paper, September 1984; 14 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 02 | Lunar Influences? (A New Horizons Review, October 1984; 10 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 03 | Joseph Glanvill and the Demon Drummer (A New Horizons Paper, December 1984; 17 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 04 | Strange and Anomalous Phenomena: Anomalistics (A New Horizons Monograph, January 1985; 73 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 05 | The Ghosts of Galloway (A New Horizons Paper, April 1985; 15 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 06 | The Rise and Decline of Behaviourism: In Honour of Arthur Koestler (A New Horizons Review, April 1985; 30 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 07 | Creativity (A New Horizons Research Foundation Paper, April 1985; 25 pages (not all included in download)) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 08 | Men across the Sea: Possible American Contacts before 400 AD (A New Horizons Paper, July 1985; 38 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 09 | Animals, Plants, and Men in the Americas before Columbus (A New Horizons Survey, August 1985; 27 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 10 | Unknown Forces?: Problems of Geomancy, Animal Navigation and Dowsing (A New Horizons Research Foundation Paper, October 1985; 33 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 11 | Sleep, Dreams, and Associated Paranormal Phenomena (A New Horizons Paper, November 1985; 34 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 12 | Vision and Perception, Auras and Illusions (A New Horizons Paper, January 1986; 38 pages (not all pages included in download)) |
Iris M. Owen, SRN, NHRF, and A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 13 | Holistic Health (A New Horizons Research Foundation Paper, February 1986; 34 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 14 | Formative Causation: The Sheldrake Hypothesis (unpublished paper, February 1986; 40 pages (not all pages included in download)) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 15 | More Men Across the Sea: Pre-Columbian American Contacts, Real or Imaginary, 400 AD to 1492 AD (A New Horizons Paper, February 1986; 23 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 16 | Fraud, Folly, and Fallibility (A New Horizons Research Monograph, May 1986; 118 pages) |
Iris M. Owen, SRN, NHRF | 17 | “Scratching Fanny”: The Ghost of Cock Lane (A Report by New Horizons Foundation, October 1986; 26 pages) |
Iris M. Owen, SRN, NHRF, and A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 18 | Teleportation (A New Horizons Research Paper, October 1986; 33 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 19 | Borley Rectory: “The Most Haunted House in England” (A Report by New Horizons Foundation of some Investigations made into this alleged Haunting, October 1986; 77 pages). Includes a copy of two issues of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research relating to Borley Rectory: Vol. 51 (1956) by Eric J. Dingwall, Kathleen M. Goldney, and Trevor H. Hall; and Vol. 55 (1969) by Robert J. Hastings. |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 20 | Poltergeists in Canada (A New Horizons Research Paper, October 1986; 28 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 21 | The Evidence for Survival (A New Horizons Research Paper, November 1986; 32 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 22 | The Functions and Physiology of Memory (A New Horizons Research Foundation Paper, January 1987; 46 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 23 | Miracles (A New Horizons Paper, March 1987; 13 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 23a | Parapsychological Method and Miracles: Invited Lecture delivered to the Parapsychological Association 36th Annual Convention, Toronto, Canada, 1993 (lecture not published in PA Proceedings, 1993; 25 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 24 | Stigmata and Physiological and Other Phenomena of Mysticism: In Honour of Father Herbert H. Thurston, SJ (A New Horizons Review, March 1987; 71 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 25 | Morphogenetic Fields and Children (A New Horizons Note, April 1987; 20 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 26 | Subjective Biases and Parapsychological Phenomena: The Magetism of Emotions (A New Horizons Research Paper, September 1987; 25 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 27 | Probability: Puzzles and Paradoxes (A New Horizons Note, October 1987; 31 pages (not all pages included in download)) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 28 | Parapsychology and Sociology (A New Horizons Research Foundation Paper, October 1987; 43 pages (not all pages included in download)) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 29 | Notes Introductory to a Conference on Parapsychology and Physics (unpublished notes, October 1987; 85 pages (not all pages included in download)) |
Iris M. Owen, SRN, NHRF | 30 | Modern Urban Legends (A New Horizons Note, November 1991; 24 pages) |
Iris M. Owen, SRN, NHRF | 31 | Child Abuse and Satanism (A New Horizons Note, November 1991; 25 pages) |
Iris M. Owen, SRN, NHRF | 31a | Satanism and Child Abuse: Invited Lecture to the Division of Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Assocation in Toronto, Canada, 1993 (??unpublished?? lecture, 1993; 11 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 32 | The Mysterious Crop Circles (A New Horizons Note, December 1991; 64 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 33 | On the Cutting Edge of Research (A New Horizons Research Paper, Summer 1992; 18 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 34 | The Evolution of Theories of Dreaming (A New Horizons Paper, November 1992; 19 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 35 | Cryptozoology: “Animals which live in dark and hidden places” (A New Horizons Paper, November 1992; 44 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 36 | The Mysterious Crop Circles: An Update (A New Horizons Note, January 1993; 15 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 37 | Mysterious Fires: Spontaneous Human Combustion (A New Horizons Paper, January 1993; 52 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 38 | False Memory Syndrome and Dreams (A New Horizons Research Paper, January 1994; 19 pages) |
Mrs. Katherine C. Verschaeve | 39 | Creativity in Painting (Circulated with permission of the Author by the NHRF, March 1987; 6 pages) |
Susan M. Intner, Jeremiah A. Farrington, and A. Jensine Andresen | 40 | The Glastonbury Zodiac (A New Horizons Research Report, January 1985; 45 pages) |
A. Jensine Andresen, and Mark Bonchek, both of Princeton University | 41 | Proceedings of the Ley Hunter’s Moot: Saturday and Sunday, 19 and 20 July 1986, Manning Hall, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1, England, UK (Report prepared for the New Horizons Research Foundation by A.J. Andresen and M. Bonchek of Princeton University, 1986; 10 pages) |
A. Jensine Andresen, Princeton University | 42 | Notes on Aspects of Geomancy (Limited circulation by permission to New Horizons Research Foundation associates, 1986; 23 pages) |
A. Jensine Andresen and Mark Bonchek, both of Princeton University | 43 | Magnetometer Surveys of Prehistoric Stone Circles in Britain, 1986 (Report on a New Horizons Research Project, November 1986; 39 pages) |
A. Jensine Andresen and Mark Bonchek, both of Princeton University | 44 | Studies on Presumed Ancient “Zodiacs” in Britain (Report on a New Horizons Research Project, November 1986; 31 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | 45 | Dr. Robert Thouless and His Test for Human Survival of Death (A New Horizons Research Brief, August 1987; 64 pages; not yet released on SRIC website, pending copyright approval) |
Iris M. Owen, SRN, NHRF, Joel L. Whitton, MD, Raymond Bayless, and Frank J. Riley | 46 | Papers on the “Philip” Experiment and Audio Phenomena (Reprinted from the New Horizons Journal, 1975-1977; 24 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | none | The New Horizons Research Foundation: Proposals for Activities in the Period commencing 1 July 1983 (A typical annual proposal of work, 1983; 17 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | none | The New Horizons Research Foundation: Report for the year 1 July 1983 to 30 June 1984 (A typical annual report, 1984; 14 pages) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF | none | A Research Brief on Experiments to be Conducted by the Toronto Society for Psychical Research in 1987 and 1988 (September 1987; 16 pages (not all pages included in download)) |
A.R.G. Owen, MA, PhD, Vice-President, NHRF, and Iris M. Owen, SRN, NHRF | none | Society for Scientific Exploration: Third Annual Meeting, Princeton University, Oct. 29-31st 1984 (November 1984; 4 pages) |
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