Chari, C(adambur) T(iruvenkatachari) K(rishnama) (1909-)

Professor and chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology at Madras Christian College in India. Chari was born June 5, 1909, in Trivellore, India, and received both his M.A. (1932) and Ph.D. (1953) degrees from Madras University. He served as lecturer in philosophy at American College, Madurai (1933-40), and as assistant professor (1940-56) and associate professor (1956-58) at Madras Christian College before becoming chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology in 1958. He was also a consulting editor of the Indian Journal of Psychology.

Chari became interested in psychical research as a teenager when he read the works of Stainton Moses. A Christian, he was also somewhat critical of yoga and the belief in reincarnation and emerged as a critic of the research of Ian Stevenson. Over the years he published numerous articles on the wide range of subjects covered by parapsychology from a philosophical perspective. In 1958 he became a corresponding member of the Society for Psychical Research, London. He also edited the volume Essays in Philosophy Presented to Dr. T. M. P. Mahadevan in 1963.

Sources:

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Chari, C. T. K. "The Challenge of Psi; New Horizons of Scientific Research." Journal of Parapsychology 38 (1974).

"An Evaluation of Some Field-Theoretical Approaches to Psi." Psychocosmos 1 (1970).

——. "A Postscript to 'Quantum Physics and Parapsychology.' " Journal of Parapsychology 21 (1957).

——. "Regurgitation, Mediumship, and Yoga." Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47 (1973): 156.

——. "Some Generalized Theories and Models of PSI: A Critical Evaluation." In Handbook of Parapsychology. Edited by B. Wolman. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1977.