Gregory, Anita (Kohsen) (1925-1984)

British parapsychologist with a background in psychology; her late husband, C. C. L. Gregory, was also a parapsychologist. Anita Gregory was principal lecturer in education at the Polytechnic of North London, where she taught psychology and philosophy. Gregory was born Anita Kohsen on June 9, 1925, in Berlin, Germany. Because her parents were Jewish, it was soon necessary for her to leave Germany. For a time she was entrusted to a Belgian convent before eventually moving to England, where she studied at Birkbeck College, University of London, taking an honors degree in languages before studying politics, economics, philosophy, psychology, and physiology at St. Hugh's College, Oxford University. In 1949 she became interested in psychical research through Dr. William Brown, a reader in mental philosophy at Oxford, who discussed with her the phenomena of the Austrian medium Rudi Schneider.

In 1954 Kohsen married Clive Gregory, emeritus director of the University of London Observatory, and the two formed the Institute for the Study of Mental Images at their home in Hampshire and published various joint papers on psychology and cosmology. Between 1961 and 1964 they issued their own journal, Cosmos, which included contributions on Clive Gregory's concept of the "O-Structure," a theory of psychophysical cosmology.

In 1962 Anita Gregory translated a study of ESP by the Russian parapsychologist L. L. Vasiliev, which was published the following year by the Institute for the Study of Mental Images under the title Experiments in Distant Influence. An expanded edition was published in 1976. Gregory also edited a collection of the writings of Sir Cyril Burt on psychical research, published as ESP and Psychology. Her own study of the Rudi Schneider case occupied a full issue of the journal Annals of Science in 1977 and was later published as a separate book. She also contributed various articles to Psychic News, using the pseudonyms "Zebedee" and "John Barnes."

She was an active member of the Society for Psychical Research, serving on the council and becoming honorary secretary for a period. While with the society, Gregory conducted a series of experiments with British psychic Matthew Manning, resulting in an 85-page report in 1982. This included some valuable observations on the role of the experimenter by Manning himself. In 1981 Gregory participated in the Parapsychology Foundation 's Thirtieth Annual International Conference in New York, presenting a paper on "Investigating Macro-Physical Phenomena."

In August 1983 she was awarded a doctorate by the Council for National Academic Awards. She taught a course on psychical research at the School of Education in the North London Polytechnic. She suffered from illness for a long period after the death of her husband in 1964 and died November 7, 1984.

Sources:

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

Gregory, Anita. "London Experiments with Matthew Manning." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 56 (1982).

——. "Psychical Research as a Social Activity." Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 51 (1981).

——. The Strange Case of Rudi Schneider. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1985.

Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.