Soal, Samuel George

Soal, Samuel George (1889–1975)

Samuel Soal was an author, lecturer, and mathematician who became a well known figure in British parapsychology. His image was later tarnished when it seemed evident that some of his results were fraudulent.

Soal was born in Kirby Moorside, Yorkshire, England, on April 29, 1889. He studied at London University where he obtained a bachelor degree in mathematics, with first class honors in 1910. He received his M.A. in mathematics in 1914, and D.Sc. in Psychology in 1945. He held a number of prestigious teaching posts, and he was President of the Nottingham University Society for Psychical Research in 1938. He was a Perrott Student in Psychical Research at Cambridge from 1948 to 1949, and Fulbright Research Scholar in Parapsychology in 1951.

From 1919 onward, Soal conducted parapsychology studies, collaborating in quantitative research with Mrs. K.M. Goldney, Frederick Bateman, and J.G.Pratt. He lectured widely both in England and the United States. He was able to duplicate many of the results obtained by Dr. Joseph Banks Rhine. He wrote numerous articles and books, incluing Modern Experiments in Telepathy (with F. Bateman, 1954), and The Mind Readers (with H.T. Bowden, 1959).

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