Dean, Eric Douglas (1916-)

British physical chemist and parapsychologist. He was born June 21, 1916, at Rock Ferry, Cheshire, England. He was educated at Liverpool University (B.S., 1937; B.S., 1938; M.S., 1939) and did graduate work at Cambridge University. He moved to the United States in 1951 as a fellow of the American Electrochemical Society at Princeton University.

Dean conducted research at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey (1954-59), and then became the assistant director of research for the Parapsychology Foundation (1959-62). In 1962 he became a research associate at Newark College of Engineering in Newark, New Jersey. There he and his associate John Mihalasky initiated the PSI Communications Project, out of which a number of papers were generated concerned with different ways that psychic communications can be monitored and measured. The major product of the research, however, was a volume describing how psychic activity supports successful businesspeople. Executive ESP appeared in 1974. While at Newark College, Dean also served a term as president of its Parapsychological Association (1967-69) and oversaw the affiliation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

He left Newark in 1976 and held several positions in industry. He served as head of the Parapsychology/Paraphysics department of the International College in Montreal, Canada. Dean also served as president of the International Kirlian Re-search Association, which focused on kirlian aura photography (a line of research that has proved a dead end). His interest in kirlian effects was part of a larger interest in psychic healing that led him to assume the presidency of the American Healers Association in 1976. In 1977 he was elected vice president of the World Federation of Healing. The Mystery of Healing, which Dean authored, was published in 1993. He was also a board member and also active in the Academy of Religion and Psychical Research. Dean strives to make reiki- type healing more accepted and used in U.S. hospitals.

Sources:

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

Dean, E. Douglas, John Mihalasky, Sheila Ostrander, and Lynn Schroeder. Executive ESP. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974.

——. The Mystery of Healing: Still a Mystery after 60,000 Years. New York: Search, 1987.

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