Editing Parapsychology (section)

===Establishment of the Parapsychological Association===
The [[Parapsychological Association]] (PA) was created in [[Durham, North Carolina]], on June 19, 1957. J. B. Rhine proposed its formation at a parapsychology workshop held at the Parapsychology Laboratory of Duke University. Rhine proposed that the group form itself into the nucleus of an international professional society in parapsychology. The aim of the organization, as stated in its Constitution, became "to advance parapsychology as a science, to disseminate knowledge of the field, and to integrate the findings with those of other branches of science".<ref>{{cite web |title=History of the Parapsychological Association |url=http://www.parapsych.org/history_of_pa.html |website=The Parapsychological Association |access-date=2007-06-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221213451/http://www.parapsych.org/history_of_pa.html |archive-date=2008-12-21 }}</ref>

In 1969, under the direction of [[anthropologist]] [[Margaret Mead]], the Parapsychological Association became affiliated with the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] (AAAS), the largest general scientific society in the world.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|last=Melton |first=J. G. |title=Parapsychological Association |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology |publisher=[[Thomson Gale]] |year=1996 |isbn=978-0810394872}}</ref> In 1979, physicist [[John A. Wheeler]] said that parapsychology is pseudoscientific and that the affiliation of the PA to the AAAS needed to be reconsidered.<ref>{{Cite journal| last=Wheeler | first=John Archibald | author-link=John Archibald Wheeler | title=Drive the Pseudos Out of the Workshop of Science | date=January 8, 1979 | journal=[[New York Review of Books]] | publication-date=May 17, 1980}}</ref><ref name=Wheeler>{{Cite book| last = Wheeler | first = John Archibald | author-link = John Archibald Wheeler | title = Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics | publisher = [[W. W. Norton]] | year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0393046427 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Yk5cth-oZmQC&q=aaas+meeting+parapsychology&pg=PA343}}</ref>

His challenge to parapsychology's AAAS affiliation was unsuccessful.<ref name=Wheeler /> Today, the PA consists of about three hundred full, associate, and affiliated members worldwide.<ref name=Harvey>{{Cite book|last=Irwin |first=Harvey J. |title=An Introduction to Parapsychology| edition=4th |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jB88qA7C9oYC&q=An+Introduction+to+Parapsychology.&pg=PP1 |isbn=978-0786418336 |access-date=2007-07-31}}</ref>