The Toronto Society for Psychical Research (TSPR) was founded in the early 1970s “to explore and interpret those presumptively paranormal events commonly described as extrasensory perception and psychic phenomena” (New Horizons 1, no. 1 (Summer 1972): inside cover). Psychical researchers Alan Robert George Owen and Iris May (Pepper) Owen, and author Allen Spraggett, were among the founders.
Between 1972 and 1977, TSPR members were involved in experiments that resulted in the creation of the imaginary ghost “Philip” that was able to communicate through raps in the surface of a card table and cause the table to move about the room. The Toronto experiments were described by the group’s leader, Iris Owen, and another participant, Margaret (Sue) Sparrow, in Conjuring up Philip: An Adventure in Psychokinesis (Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1976).
Additional material may be found in the Transactions of the Toronto Society for Psychical Research that were published as part of New Horizons: Journal of the New Horizons Research Foundation (1972–1978). For digital copy, see: http://www.islandnet.com/~sric/NHJ.php