The Society for Modern Parapsychology is based out of the south suburbs of Chicago. We have been loosely organized since early 2000. In earlier years we mostly involved ourselves working with other organizations in the field. In 2003 we decided to formally organize to better promote our goals. Membership into the society itself is by invitation only. Invitations are generally granted to those with some area of expertise we desire and to those with a similar outlook into our field of study.

The primary goal of the Society is a better scientific understanding and acceptance of phenomena that we today consider, perceive or describe as being paranormal; and arguably real or nonexistent.

When envisioned, The Society for Modern Parapsychology had three sub goals that we believe will help us to achieve the primary goal of the organization.

• The first was Education. We believe it is very critical to our goal of better scientific study of paranormal events that more investigators be given better skills in scientific research. This has two benefits. First it produces better results that are more likely to betaken seriously. Secondly, it promotes in the cultural perception and image of a more professional researcher which adds credibility and may help reduce stigma associated with paranormal study.

• The second of these goals was Legitimacy. We believe that parapsychology must be viewed more seriously by the media, scientific community and public in general. Good parapsychological research has been stifled by the more traditional scientific communities lack of wiliness to cooperate when such was needed and by poor funding resulting form public perception. The only way to rectify these problems is by shoring up the general credibility of paranormal researchers and giving people reason to want to support us.

• The third of these goals was promoting a new Cultural Perspective. Today discussion of paranormal topics can be seen in newspapers, tabloids, radio, television, movies and the internet. For all of the quantity out there, there is remarkably low quality. Like so many things in our society, the paranormal is not respected as a topic, but rather a theme product to be sold to consumers. This media representation which forms much of public opinion takes what are already incredible events and inflates them into the utterly fantastically completely unbelievable representations. These inflated representations of paranormal reports make even the most open minded researchers laugh and no right minded person could take them seriously. Furthermore they desensitize the public in general to real paranormal phenomena and hurt real researchers when there findings can't live up to Hollywood expectations.