Deborah L. Delanoy, Ph.D.
University of Northampton
John Beloff's legacy to parapsychology is profound and wide-ranging. Via personal memories, this presentation will highlight some of his educational, research and scholastic accomplishments. Also it will consider what is arguably John's greatest contribution to the field, namely serving as the architect behind the establishment of the Koestler Chair of Parapsychology.
John Beloff was the first parapsychologist I ever met, and it is because of him that I'm still working in the field. Undoubtedly my life, like so many of his students, would have been very different if not for his considerable influence and seemingly limitless knowledge of the field.
While John played a significant role in his student's lives, his contributions to parapsychology went far beyond those related to education. The breadth of his philosophical and experimental work is most impressive. While he may be best remembered for his philosophical writings, his experimental work was also wide-ranging, with his research including the application of the decay of radioactive material (uranium) to provide a truly random source in an early micro-PK study (with Evans, 1961), attempts to replicate Ryzl's ESP training method (with Mandleberg, 1966), as well as a variety of other forced-choice and free-response ESP research examining issues such as the impact of hypnosis, the sheep/goat effect; psycho physiological responses to remote stimuli, the experimenter effect and the agent-percipient relationship.
But perhaps his greatest contribution is the pivotal role he played in shaping the future of British parapsychology. He not only created the environment in which parapsychology was able to flourish at Edinburgh University, but also designed it's future via his role as the executor of the Koestler bequest and his critical involvement in the selection process that determined the holder of the Koestler Chair. The success of the Chair's selection process is well attested. While the ultimate impact of the Koestler bequest and Chair will be for historians to determine, there can be no debate that John indelibly changed the face of British parapsychology. John forged a strong future for parapsychology, leaving us all in an improved, richer and far more secure position.