Psychical Reseach in Greece

Abstract

The Greek Society for Psychical Research (GSPR), which flourished for 35 years in the 20th century, is currently not well recognized within parapsychology circles, either in its name or in its activities. Possible reasons may be its relatively short life almost entirely driven by the continuous efforts of one person, its co-founder and only president Dr. Angelos Evangelidis Tanagras (1875–1971). The current article pays a tribute to the many contributions of the Greek Society for Psychical Research to the international parapsychology, triggered by a recently recovered old manuscript, the typed German text of the renowned lectures that Tanagras delivered in Europe in year 1935. Tanagras had showed a film of Cleio performing telekinesis on a compass needle and had discussed the psychical research activities of the GSPR. He included in the lecture his theory of psychobolia, of which a summary is presented here. The content of these lectures is presented in the form of excerpts building the basis for the examination of the past research activities of GSPR. In a second part of the article, the mysterious case of the telekinetic medium Cleio will be further investigated, and finally the possible reasons why the GSPR has not survived until our current time are examined.