Koestler Parapsychology Unit(KPU)

The Koestler Parapsychology Unit (KPU) is an academic research group founded in 1985 at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, funded by a bequest from writer Arthur Koestler and his wife following their 1983 suicide. It is civilian and academic, hosted in the Psychology Department, and holds the UK's only endowed chair in parapsychology, first occupied by Robert L. Morris (1985-2004). Key activities include research on the psi hypothesis (e.g., telepathy, precognition), pseudo-psi explanations for anomalous experiences, paranormal beliefs, and historical studies of anomalies. Notable achievements: building a respected program integrating parapsychology into university life, supervising over 30 postgraduates and 100 undergrad projects, influencing global psi research via collaborations (e.g., Bem & Honorton 1994 meta-analysis), and seeding similar units elsewhere. Currently active with staff like Caroline Watt, it investigates spontaneous experiences as potential psychological distress indicators and promotes rigorous anomaly studies.