CPSG History
Chesterfield Psychic Study Group was brought to life in 1982 by a small group of people from the Chesterfield area who had the vision to provide an ongoing local forum for the dissemination of information relating to psychic phenomena. The founder members were:
Harry Hunt, a Hypnotherapist by profession, who took on the role of Chairman of the Group until 1989. Harry was an amazing gentleman, who put a tremendous amount of effort into ensuring the success of the Group and who was still enthusiastically practising hypnotherapy well into his eighties. His particular interests included the use of hypnosis to research past lives.
Ian Fraser-Martin, who acted as President for the first few years of the Group's history.
Other early members who helped to get things going included:
Linda Hicklin, who was the first ordinary member,
Ken Green, undoubtedly the Group's longest serving member, who occupied the Treasurer's position until failing health caused him to step down in 2001.
The main activity of the Group has always been a monthly programme of lectures, demonstrations, discussions and videos, with most meetings featuring an invited speaker or demonstrator. The scope of the Group's syllabus increased, as time went by, to include all aspects of Parapsychology, Spiritualism, UFOlogy, New Age and Alternative Medicine.
As the group expanded, Sub-Groups, each consisting of a smaller number of members, sprang up in order to pursue specific aspects of the subject in greater depth. A flavour of the specialisms catered for over the years by the various Sub-Groups may be found on the site's Research page.
One of the sub-groups, the Paranormal Research Bureau, was set up in the 1980s by Ray Pearson and Linda Hicklin to carry out investigations into spontaneous psychic phenomena and resulted in the publication of two books. Unfortunately Ray died before the third book reached the printers and as a result of Mrs Pearson being unwilling to hand over the research that had been carried out, all the case histories were lost. This shows the importance of such investigations being carried out under the umbrella of a national paranormal research organisation and most investigations carried out since 1992 have been conducted by the Group's members in conjunction with ASSAP and all such case reports have been filed within ASSAP's archives, from where other ASSAP researchers may retrieve them to assist with their own researches.
To begin with, while there were only a few members, the Group met at Harry Hunt's Hypnotherapy Clinic on Saltergate. Before long, numbers increased and consequently the Group moved downstairs to the Oddfellows Lodge for its meetings. A transfer was made to the Scout Hall for a while but a return was made to the Oddfellows Lodge. Within a few years of the Group's formation, its popularity had increased to the extent that an attendance at a main meeting was typically about 60 members and it was decided to hold the meetings at Chesterfield Community Centre on Tontine Road. By the late 1980s, with numbers attending becoming more moderate, a switch back to the Oddfellows Lodge was made, where there was ample accommodation for the main lecture meetings, the smaller Sub-Group meetings, and for housing the Group's library of books on paranormal subjects. In the Spring of 1990, it was decided to relocate the Group back to the Community Centre, which has been found to be a good venue ever since, in terms of accessibility, facilities, low cost and comfortable accommodation. By the early 1990s it was decided to wind up the Group's library, owing to there no longer being anywhere suitable to store the books and to the decreasing number of borrowings.
Examples of some of the most popular meetings that the Group has organised over the years include:
Occasional outings have been organised, e.g. a visit to the allegedly haunted Carnfield Hall (see photo on the Activities page), a trip to visit John Wesley's house (the site of the first documented poltergeist case) and outings to Derbyshire's stone circles in order to dowse the sites.
The most demanding post within the Group has always been that of Secretary, as this involves locating and booking speakers and demonstrators for the meetings. Linda Hicklin was the first person to hold this position, followed by Gladys Brieldon. From 1990-96 William Eyre held this position, briefly followed by Joan Horvath. Between 1997 and 2003 Vivienne Brocklehurst carried out the bookings. Vivienne was a real stalwart of the Group, even continuing in this role after her increasingly severe arthritic handicap forced her to miss the meetings herself. The role was then ably managed by Sue Campbell until 2011 when it was passed on to Cherill Royce-Dexter.
In October 2003, CPSG celebrated its 21st Anniversary by holding a Psychic Supper. Twenty members and four mediums enjoyed a pie-and-peas supper, followed by short mediumistic readings for all members present.
Harry Hunt, a Hypnotherapist by profession, who took on the role of Chairman of the Group until 1989. Harry was an amazing gentleman, who put a tremendous amount of effort into ensuring the success of the Group and who was still enthusiastically practising hypnotherapy well into his eighties. His particular interests included the use of hypnosis to research past lives.
Ian Fraser-Martin, who acted as President for the first few years of the Group's history.
Other early members who helped to get things going included:
Linda Hicklin, who was the first ordinary member,
Ken Green, undoubtedly the Group's longest serving member, who occupied the Treasurer's position until failing health caused him to step down in 2001.
The main activity of the Group has always been a monthly programme of lectures, demonstrations, discussions and videos, with most meetings featuring an invited speaker or demonstrator. The scope of the Group's syllabus increased, as time went by, to include all aspects of Parapsychology, Spiritualism, UFOlogy, New Age and Alternative Medicine.
As the group expanded, Sub-Groups, each consisting of a smaller number of members, sprang up in order to pursue specific aspects of the subject in greater depth. A flavour of the specialisms catered for over the years by the various Sub-Groups may be found on the site's Research page.
One of the sub-groups, the Paranormal Research Bureau, was set up in the 1980s by Ray Pearson and Linda Hicklin to carry out investigations into spontaneous psychic phenomena and resulted in the publication of two books. Unfortunately Ray died before the third book reached the printers and as a result of Mrs Pearson being unwilling to hand over the research that had been carried out, all the case histories were lost. This shows the importance of such investigations being carried out under the umbrella of a national paranormal research organisation and most investigations carried out since 1992 have been conducted by the Group's members in conjunction with ASSAP and all such case reports have been filed within ASSAP's archives, from where other ASSAP researchers may retrieve them to assist with their own researches.
To begin with, while there were only a few members, the Group met at Harry Hunt's Hypnotherapy Clinic on Saltergate. Before long, numbers increased and consequently the Group moved downstairs to the Oddfellows Lodge for its meetings. A transfer was made to the Scout Hall for a while but a return was made to the Oddfellows Lodge. Within a few years of the Group's formation, its popularity had increased to the extent that an attendance at a main meeting was typically about 60 members and it was decided to hold the meetings at Chesterfield Community Centre on Tontine Road. By the late 1980s, with numbers attending becoming more moderate, a switch back to the Oddfellows Lodge was made, where there was ample accommodation for the main lecture meetings, the smaller Sub-Group meetings, and for housing the Group's library of books on paranormal subjects. In the Spring of 1990, it was decided to relocate the Group back to the Community Centre, which has been found to be a good venue ever since, in terms of accessibility, facilities, low cost and comfortable accommodation. By the early 1990s it was decided to wind up the Group's library, owing to there no longer being anywhere suitable to store the books and to the decreasing number of borrowings.
Examples of some of the most popular meetings that the Group has organised over the years include:
- a panel consisting of an Astrologer, a Tarot Reader and a Clairvoyant giving comparative readings for a sample of members
- demonstrations of past-life hypnotic regression
- a talk by a member of the SPR on the haunting of a disused East Anglian aerodrome, with cassette recordings played of the paranormal sounds that were recorded during the investigation
- a transfiguration seance.
Occasional outings have been organised, e.g. a visit to the allegedly haunted Carnfield Hall (see photo on the Activities page), a trip to visit John Wesley's house (the site of the first documented poltergeist case) and outings to Derbyshire's stone circles in order to dowse the sites.
The most demanding post within the Group has always been that of Secretary, as this involves locating and booking speakers and demonstrators for the meetings. Linda Hicklin was the first person to hold this position, followed by Gladys Brieldon. From 1990-96 William Eyre held this position, briefly followed by Joan Horvath. Between 1997 and 2003 Vivienne Brocklehurst carried out the bookings. Vivienne was a real stalwart of the Group, even continuing in this role after her increasingly severe arthritic handicap forced her to miss the meetings herself. The role was then ably managed by Sue Campbell until 2011 when it was passed on to Cherill Royce-Dexter.
In October 2003, CPSG celebrated its 21st Anniversary by holding a Psychic Supper. Twenty members and four mediums enjoyed a pie-and-peas supper, followed by short mediumistic readings for all members present.
CPSG enjoy a psychic supper to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the group.
Today, the group is still going strong, with an average attendance of about 22 members at main meetings, and typically one or two Sub-Groups holding separate meetings to pursue practical aspects of the subject. We find a medium sized group like this works well, as the attendance is sufficiently high to finance visiting speakers but sufficiently low to facilitate discussion on the topic of the lecture during the latter part of the meeting.
