A History of the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis (SORRAT), 1961—2015, with Shannon Taggart

In 1961, the American Poet John G. Neihardt, best known for the book Black Elk Speaks, began directing students from the University of Missouri in experiments to increase scientific understanding of the paranormal. The Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis, known as “SORRAT,” would endure for over half a century, becoming one of the strangest cases in the history of psychical research.

The group’s extraordinary claims shocked onlookers, incited scandal and baffled investigators worldwide, including the Scottish parapsychologist John Beloff. SORRAT’s saga was painstakingly documented by a founding member, an aspiring science fiction writer named John Thomas Richards. The Richards archive represents a singular collection of psychic media, including the first purported example of spirit cinema.

This presentation will use the Richards materials, recently rescued and largely unseen, to tell SORRAT’s story.