Harry Price Harry Price (1881–1948) was a British
parapsychologist, psychic researcher and author who gained public prominence for his investigations into psychical phenomena and his exposing of fraudulent
spiritualist mediums. He is best known for his well-publicized investigation of the purportedly haunted
Borley Rectory in
Essex, England. Price's exploits were given wide exposure in a 1950 book,
Harry Price: Biography of a Ghost Hunter by Paul Tabori. He was also a longstanding member of
the Ghost Club based in London. Price joined the
Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1920, and used his knowledge of
stage magic to debunk fraudulent mediums. In 1922, he exposed the
"spirit" photographer William Hope. In the same year he traveled to Germany with
Eric Dingwall and investigated
Willi Schneider at the home of Baron
Albert von Schrenck-Notzing in
Munich. In 1923, Price exposed the medium
Jan Guzyk. cameras, tools for sealing doors and windows, apparatus for secret electrical controls, steel tape, drawing instruments, a bottle of mercury and powdered
graphite for developing fingerprints. Price wrote that the photographs depicting the
ectoplasm of the medium
Eva Carrière taken with Schrenck-Notzing looked artificial and two-dimensional, made from cardboard and newspaper portraits and that there were no scientific controls as both her hands were free. In 1920 Carrière was investigated by psychical researchers in London. An analysis of her ectoplasm revealed it to be made of chewed paper. She was also investigated in 1922 and the result of the tests were negative. In 1925, Price investigated
Maria Silbert and caught her using her feet and toes to move objects in the
séance room. He also investigated the "direct voice" mediumship of
George Valiantine in London. In the séance Valiantine claimed to have contacted the "spirit" of the composer
Luigi Arditi, speaking in
Italian. Price wrote down every word that was attributed to Arditi and they were found to be word-for-word matches in an Italian phrase-book. In 1926, Price formed the
National Laboratory of Psychical Research as a rival to the SPR. Price made a formal offer to the
University of London to equip and endow a Department of Psychical Research, and to loan the equipment of the National Laboratory and its library. In 1936, he transferred his equipment to the University of London Board of Studies in Psychology. Price had a number of public disputes with the SPR, most notably regarding professed medium
Rudi Schneider. Price exposed
Frederick Tansley Munnings, who claimed to produce the independent "spirit" voices of
Julius Caesar,
Dan Leno,
Hawley Harvey Crippen and
King Henry VIII. Price also invented and used a piece of apparatus known as a "voice control recorder" and proved that all the voices were those of Munnings. In 1928, Munnings admitted fraud and sold his confessions to a
Sunday newspaper. In 1933,
Frank Decker was investigated by Price at the
National Laboratory of Psychical Research. Under strict scientific controls that Price contrived, Decker failed to produce any phenomena at all. Price's psychical research continued with investigations into Karachi's
Indian rope trick and the
fire-walking abilities of
Kuda Bux. In 1936, Price broadcast from a supposedly haunted manor house in
Meopham,
Kent for the
BBC and published
The Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter and ''The Haunting of Cashen's Gap''. This year also saw the transfer of Price's library on permanent loan to the
University of London (see external links), followed shortly by the laboratory and investigative equipment. In 1937, he conducted further televised experiments into
fire-walking with Ahmed Hussain at
Carshalton and
Alexandra Palace, and also rented
Borley Rectory for one year. The following year, Price re-established the Ghost Club, with himself as chairman, modernizing it and changing it from a spiritualist association to a group of more or less open-minded skeptics that gathered to discuss paranormal topics. He was also the first to admit women to the club. Price drafted a bill for the regulation of psychic practitioners, and in 1939, he organized a national telepathic test in the periodical ''
John O'London's Weekly. During the 1940s, Price concentrated on writing and the works The Most Haunted House in England
, Poltergeist Over England
and The End of Borley Rectory'' were all published. Price's friends included other debunkers of fraudulent mediums such as
Harry Houdini and the journalist
Ernest Palmer.
Ed and Lorraine Warren Edward Warren Miney (1926–2006) and Lorraine Rita Warren (née Moran, 1927–2019) were American paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent reports of haunting from the 1950s to the present. Edward was a
World War II United States Navy veteran who became a self-taught and self-professed
demonologist, author, and lecturer. Lorraine professed to be
clairvoyant and a light trance
medium who worked closely with her husband. In 1952, the Warrens founded the
New England Society for Psychic Research, considered by some the oldest ghost hunting group in
New England, and allegedly the United States. They authored numerous books about the paranormal and about their private investigations into various reports of paranormal activity. They claimed to have investigated over 1,000 cases during their career, and have been involved with various supernatural claims such as the Snedeker family haunting, the
Enfield Poltergeist and the
Smurl haunting, as well as claims of demonic possession in the
Trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson. The Warrens are best known for their involvement in the 1976
Amityville Horror case in which
New York couple George and Kathy Lutz claimed that their house was haunted by a violent,
demonic presence so intense that it eventually drove them out of their home.
The Amityville Horror Conspiracy authors
Stephen and Roxanne Kaplan characterized the case as a "hoax". Lorraine Warren told a reporter for
The Express-Times newspaper that the Amityville Horror was not a hoax. The reported haunting was the basis for the 1977 book
The Amityville Horror, which was adapted into the
1979 and
2005 movies of the same name, while also serving as inspiration for the
film series that followed. The Warrens' version of events is partially adapted and portrayed in the opening sequence of
The Conjuring 2 (2016). According to
Benjamin Radford, the story was "refuted by eyewitnesses, investigations and forensic evidence". In 1979, lawyer William Weber reportedly stated that he,
Jay Anson, and the occupants "invented" the horror story "over many bottles of wine". Ed and Lorraine Warren were among the most prominent figures in modern ghost hunting and paranormal investigation. As described by Michael Dale, the Warrens helped popularize ghost hunting through their high-profile investigations, lectures, and extensive media appearances. They claimed to have investigated thousands of hauntings, including famous cases such as the Amityville Horror and the Perron family haunting depicted in
The Conjuring film series. While celebrated by many within paranormal circles, the Warrens' work has also been criticized for a lack of empirical evidence and allegations of embellishment. General criticism of the Warrens include those by skeptics
Perry DeAngelis and
Steven Novella, who investigated the Warrens' evidence and described it as "blarney". Skeptical investigators
Joe Nickell and
Ben Radford also concluded that the more famous hauntings, such as Amityville and the Snedeker family haunting, did not happen and had been invented. Stories of ghosts and hauntings popularized by the Warrens have been adapted as or have indirectly inspired dozens of films, television series and documentaries, including 17 films in the
Amityville Horror series and six films in
The Conjuring Universe including
Annabelle,
Annabelle: Creation, and
Annabelle Comes Home, spin-off prequels of
The Conjuring. ==Belief statistics==