William G. Roll was a noted
psychologist and
parapsychologist on the faculty of the Psychology Department of the
University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia, in the United States died he was 85..
(July 3, 1926 – January 9, 2012)
Early years
Roll was born in 1926 in
Bremen,
Germany
where his father was American Vice-consul. At the age of 3 after his
parents divorced, he moved to Denmark with his mother, Gudrun Agerholm
Roll. According to Roll whilst he was in his childhood in Denmark he
began having
out-of-body experiences at night.
[1]
His mother died in 1942 and in 1946 he went to America with his father,
who had come to Denmark with the American Allied forces. During the
last year of the war, Roll participated in the Danish resistance
movement against the Germans.
Career
Roll enrolled at the
University of California, Berkeley in 1947 where he received his BA majoring in philosophy and psychology. A year after graduating he went on to
Oxford University
where he did parapsychology research for eight years. During this
period, he was president of the Oxford University Society for Psychical
Research. At Oxford, he wrote his thesis which earned him his
M. Litt. degree, "Theory and Experiment in Psychical Research". His thesis was later published in the United States by Arno Press.
Sometimes credited as William Roll, or informally, Bill Roll, he was a
parapsychologist since the 1950s and authored or coauthored many
investigation research papers, articles, and four books:
The Poltergeist (1972),
Theory and Experiment in Psychical Research (1975),
Psychic Connections (1995, with co-author Lois Duncan), and
Unleashed: Of Poltergeists and Murder: The Curious Story of Tina Resch (2004, with co-author Valerie Storey). He is also notable for making several appearances in the television show
Unsolved Mysteries, among them an episode discussing disturbances on the
RMS Queen Mary. (In this episode he was mistakenly credited as being Danish-born.)
Roll was invited by J. B. Rhine to join the Parapsychology Laboratory
of Duke University, where he worked from 1957-1964. In 1964 he became
president of the
Parapsychological Association. In 1958, he coined the term "recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis" (RSPK)
[2] in a research paper written with
J. G. Pratt that dealt with their investigation of objects moving in a home in
Seaford, Long Island, New York USA, that was centered around a 12-year old son of an affected family.
[3] It was Roll's first case.
[4]
In 1961, Roll became Project Director of the Psychical Research Foundation (PRF), an off-shoot of
J. B. Rhine's
Laboratory. After Rhine's retirement from Duke, the PRF left the Duke
campus, but in 1969 it returned to Duke as a sponsored program of the
School of Electrical Engineering.
[5][6] The connection between Duke and the Foundation ended in the late 1970s.
[7]
Roll received a
Ph.D. in psychology from
Lund University
in 1989 for a thesis entitled, "This World or That: An Examination of
Parapsychological Findings Suggestive of the Survival of Human
Personality After Death".
In the 80s and 90s, Roll held various positions at
University of West Georgia,
including Professor of Psychology and Psychical Research, assistant
professor, and instructor. In later years, Roll retired from teaching,
though he taught a course in parapsychology at the University of West
Georgia in 2007, and continued to write, speak at conferences, and
conduct occasional investigations. He was awarded the Parapsychological
Award for a Distinguished Career in Parapsychology in 1996 and the
Dinsdale Memorial Award from the Society of Scientific Exploration in
2002.
Roll's most famous case was as the lead investigator on the 1984
"Columbus Poltergeist" case, in which remarkable color photos were taken
by a veteran newspaper photographer for the
Columbus Dispatch
newspaper, Fred Shannon, which allegedly showed spontaneous telekinesis
events in action occurring in the home of Columbus, Ohio teenager
Tina Resch.
Roll's research and published writing concerning psychic phenomena
focused on theorizing about and testing for scientific explanations, but
some of his theories postulated concepts that extend beyond mainstream
science.
[7][8]
Roll's last research, as presented to the American Psychological
Association, claimed that the root cause of psychic phenomena is a
combination of modern physics (i.e., quantum mechanics) and
neuroscience. According to Roll all objects and individuals have "
psi fields" around them which are the carriers of psi information.
[9]
Roll died at the age of 85, in a nursing home in
Normal, Illinois.
William G. Roll last resided in the state of Georgia, and is survived
by his adult children (Lise, Leif, and Bill), and his wife Lydia.
[10]
Selected publications
- Roll, W. G. (1968). Some physical and psychological aspects of a series of poltergeist phenomena. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 62, 263-308.
- Roll, W.G., Burdick, D., & Joines, W.T. (1973). Radial and tangential forces in the Miami poltergeist. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 67, 267-281.
- Roll, W.G., Burdick, D., & Joines, W.T. (1974). The rotating beam theory and the Olive Hill poltergeist. In W.G. Roll, RL. Morris & J. Morris (Eds.), Research in Parapsychology, 1973, (pp. 64–67). Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow.
- Roll, W.G., & Gearhart, L. (1974). Geomagnetic perturbations and RSPK. In W.G. Roll, RL. Morris & J. Morris (Eds.), Research in Parapsychology, 1973, (pp. 44–46). Metuchen, N.J: Scarecrow.
- Roll, W.G. (1986) Theory and Experiment in Psychical Research (Perspectives in psychical research). Ayer Co. Pub. (reprint of 1975 publication of M. Litt. thesis).
- Roll, W.G., Maher, M., & Brown, B. (1992). An investigation of reported haunting occurrences in a Japanese restaurant in Georgia. The Parapsychological Association 35th Annual Convention, Proceedings of Presented Papers, August 9–13, 151-168.
- Radin, D.I., and Roll, W.G. (1994). A radioactive ghost in a music hall. Proceedings of the 39th Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association, 337-346.
- Duncan, Lois & Roll, W.G. (1995) Psychic Connections. Delacorte Books for Young Readers.
- Roll, W.G. & Persinger, M.A. (1998). Is ESP a form of perception? Contributions from a study of Sean Harribance. Journal of Parapsychology, 62, 116-118, abstract.
- Roll, W.G. & Persinger, M.A. (1998). Poltergeist and nonlocality: Energetic aspects of RSPK. Proceedings of Presented Papers: The Parapsychological Association 41st Annual Convention, August 6–9, 1998, 184-198.
- Roll, W.G. (2000). Poltergeist and space-time: A contemplation on Hans Bender's Ideas About RSPK. The Parapsychological Association, 43rd Annual Convention, Proceedings of Presented Papers, August 17–20, 316-332.
- Roll, W.G. & Nichols, A. (2000). Psychological and electromagnetic aspects of haunts. The Parapsychological Association 43rd Annual Convention, Proceedings of Presented Papers, August 17–20, 364-378.
- Roll, W.G. (2003). Poltergeists, electromagnetism and consciousness. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 17, 75-86. Online
- Roll, W.G. (2004). The Poltergeist. New York: Paraview (reprint of 1979 edition).
- Roll, W.G. & Valerie Storey (2004). Unleashed: Of Poltergeists and Murder: The Curious Story of Tina Resch. Paraview Pocket Books.
- Roll, W.G. (2006). On Apparitions and Mediumship. In L. Storm
and M.A. Thalbourne (Eds.) The Survival of Human Consciousness
(pp. 142–173). Jefferson, NC. McFarland & Company, Inc.
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