The situation is similar in Britain. Mail-order shops supplying books and objects used in occult practices are experiencing a business boom. One of Britain’s leading suppliers reportedly processes “hundreds of orders each week and has some 20,000 regular clients on his books.”

“Five years ago,” reports London’s Guardian of March 6, 1985, “there were thought to be some 60,000 witches in Britain: today the number is estimated by some witches to have grown to 80,000.”

For a long time, mainstream science spurned this research. But, then, in 1882, the Society for Psychical Research was founded in London. Its express purpose was “to examine without prejudice or prepossession and in a scientific spirit those faculties of man, real or supposed, which appear to be inexplicable on any generally recognized hypothesis.”

The image of psychical research has improved in recent times as scientists of high reputation have pursued investigations of the paranormal. Interestingly, on May 18, 1985, Edinburgh University announced the appointment of an American psychologist, Dr. Robert Morris, as Professor of Parapsychology. The Sunday Telegraph dubbed him professor of the unknown. Although the idea of giving such prominence to parapsychology drew criticism, New Scientist noted:

“It is not as if parapsychology is a new subject in British universities. The Society for Psychical Research (SPR), Britain’s leading body in the field, celebrated its centenary a couple of years ago, and has always had strong academic associations. The first president of SPR was Henry Sidgwick, professor of moral philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Since then 28 of the 50 or so presidents have been university professors, and two of them Nobel prizewinners. Eight of the 44 British universities are currently carrying out parapsychological research.”