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| Ghost Club album on display at the College of Psychic Studies |
The Ghost Club claims to be – as its website banner puts it – ‘The world’s oldest organisation associated with psychical research. Established circa 1862.’ The 1862 date is frequently repeated in articles (not to mention in the Club’s Twitter handle); however, the ‘circa’ gives pause for thought as it suggests a lack of precise information. The brief history on the Ghost Club website provided by its chairman, Alan Murdie, is similarly vague about the early days when it says ‘The Ghost Club seems to have dissolved in the 1870s following the death of Dickens but it was relaunched in 1882.’
The reason for the vagueness is
that the 1862 incarnation of the Ghost Club left few traces, but what is clear
is that there was a break of some years after its dissolution in the following
decade (number unspecified). A new Ghost
Club was formed in the same year the Society for Psychical Research was founded
(the SPR in February, the Ghost Club in November, 1882). This time the Club did leave records, and
when it folded again in 1936, they were deposited at the British Museum.
Some months later Harry Price
launched it once more, this time as a dining club rather than an investigatory
body, and thus it remained until his death in 1948, when it ceased to function. Later, some of the members of the previous
committee decided to have yet another go.
These included Peter Underwood, the dominant figure in the post-Price
period until the schism caused by his autocratic manner in 1993, when he left
to start the Ghost Club Society. The Ghost Club continued in parallel and outlasted
its rival.
So we can see that, rather than a
single entity, there have been a number of separate organisations using the
name of Ghost Club: from ‘circa 1862’ to some point after the death of Charles
Dickens in 1870; from late 1882 to 1936; from 1938 to 1948; and from 1954 to
the present day. It is hard to argue the
Ghost Club has existed since 1862 when all that binds the various organisations
is the name. As I have said elsewhere, ‘It is like me resurrecting the London
Dialectical Society’s name and claiming my organisation was founded in 1867.’
Even if one is generous and argues
there was some continuity of personnel linking the various incarnations (which
still does not mean the organisation is continuous), one cannot reasonably push
this back further than 1938, as is indicated by the new organisation not taking
over the records of the one that ceased to exist in 1936. And if one does want to argue there is still
some continuity there, the gap between the ending of the first Club in the
1870s and the formation of the new one in late 1882 is just too long for it to
be considered a single organisation.
Support for a 1954 date for the
origin of the present Club is provided by one of those behind the post-Price
revival, Philip Paul. He devotes a
chapter to his book Some Unseen Power:
Diary of a Ghost-Hunter (1985) to his brief involvement before he fell out
with the committee. Tellingly, he refers
to the Ghost Club as ‘a body of socially minded inquirers founded in 1862,
recreated by Harry Price and made defunct by his death in 1948.’ The key words are ‘recreated’ and ‘defunct’.
One institution which does not appear
to consider the Ghost Club the oldest organisation etc. is the College of
Psychic Studies (founded in 1884 as the London Spiritualist Alliance, but
despite the name change definitely the same entity). On a recent visit to see the Art and Spirit: Visions of Wonder
exhibition they had put on, I came across an album displayed in a bookcase
captioned ‘Ghost Club Album circa 1880’.
Unfortunately, there was no information about its contents or provenance,
but the description begins unequivocally, ‘The Ghost Club was founded in 1882…’ I would still take issue with that, but at
least it does not endorse the 1862 date.
To conclude, it is incorrect to say that the Ghost Club, venerable as it is, can claim to be ‘The world’s oldest organisation associated with psychical research.’ That distinction must belong to the SPR, which can boast an unbroken existence, with the records to prove it, back to the beginning of 1882. The Ghost Club is a fine organisation I’m sure, but it should not arrogate to itself honours that are rightly due elsewhere.
Update 1 November 2026:
On 20th October 2026, Guinness
World Records (GWR) published an article by Jasmine Selbie on its website,
‘"Welcome, Ghosts and Bodies": Inside the Oldest Paranormal
Investigation Group’, referring, naturally, to the Ghost Club. It starts: “With
over 170 years of history, the Ghost Club has been verified as the oldest
paranormal investigation group.”
The article explains that the club
developed out of a discussion group at Trinity College, Cambridge, which began
in 1855, and was formally launched in 1862. It continues: “The original group
was dissolved during the 1870s but was later revived on All Saints’ Day in 1882
by A A Watts, a former member of the original club, and the Reverend Stainton
Moses, a clergyman and prominent spiritualist. Since then, the club has regularly
held meetings and conducted investigations.” This is a misleadingly simplified account
of the Ghost Club’s (or rather, Ghost Clubs’) history.
I hadn’t appreciated that the Ghost
Club had been “officially verified as the record holder for the oldest
paranormal investigation group” as long ago as 5 November 2025, so this article
is probably taking advantage of the increased interest in such matters during
the run-up to Hallowe’en. To my surprise, when examining the record, I found
the Society for Psychical Research included in the text:
“There are two British
organisations that lay claim to being the oldest extant paranormal
investigation group. The first is the Ghost Club, founded in London in 1862
(though it has its origins in a Cambridge University student society from the
mid 1850s). The second is the Society for Psychical Research (or SPR), founded
in 1882. While the former is older, it has had several periods of inactivity
and [sic] over the course of its history (roughly 1870–82, 1936–38 and
1948–52). The SPR, on the other hand, has operated without interruption since
its founding although the nature of its activities has shifted during that
time.”
Why the SPR is included in a record
for another organisation is puzzling, but at least GWR recognises that the
Society has a strong claim. However, while GWR acknowledges the continuity of
the SPR from 1882, and includes the periods in which the Ghost Club was not
operational, in awarding the Ghost Club the accolade it interprets being
defunct as merely a state of “inactivity”.
The assertion that the SPR’s
activities have shifted implies it now deals with different, or substantially
different, subject matter from that with which it was concerned in 1882, and
was perhaps included to weaken its case for the record. Certainly, the
Reichenbach phenomena and mesmerism are no longer at the forefront of the
Society’s concerns, as they once were, but a glance at the ‘Objects of the
Society’, published in the SPR’s Proceedings in 1882, will demonstrate the
continuity of its aims and activities.
While I concede I am not impartial
in this matter, based on the evidence I would definitely award the palm to the
SPR. There is enough, I feel, to lay the Ghost Club’s claim to rest. Yet sadly
it will not die, and GWR has further amplified it. And as I discovered when I
linked to Selbie’s article on the SPR’s Facebook page with a comment on its
inadequacy, there are individuals happy to accept uncritically what the Ghost
Club says at face value, and unhappy when they see it challenged.
References
‘Objects of the Society’ (1882).
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 1(1), pp. 3–6.
Guinness World Records (2025)
‘Oldest Paranormal Investigation Group’. 5 November. Available at:
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/783343-oldest-paranormal-investigation-group
(Accessed: 24 October 2026).
Selbie, J. (2026) ‘“Welcome, Ghosts
and Bodies”: Inside the Oldest Paranormal Investigation Group’. Guinness World
Records, 20 October. Available at:
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2026/10/welcome-ghosts-and-bodies-inside-the-oldest-paranormal-investigation-group
(Accessed: 22 October 2026).
Links:
https://www.spr.ac.uk/book-review/ghost-club-history-peter-underwood
