Recognition and Ongoing Role

The Association's standing shifted in 1969, when it applied for affiliate status with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the leading general scientific body in the United States. The application drew public objection from some AAAS members who considered parapsychology pseudoscience unworthy of the association's imprimatur, but it was defended at the annual meeting by the anthropologist Margaret Mead, who argued that refusing recognition to a field pursuing its questions with normal scientific method, whatever the merit of its conclusions, was itself unscientific.

The AAAS council approved the affiliation, and the Parapsychological Association has remained an affiliate ever since, a fact its members have long cited as evidence the field meets ordinary standards of scientific organization even where its specific findings remain rejected by most working scientists. Affiliation did not end the field's marginal status: parapsychology continued to struggle for space in mainstream psychology departments and federal funding, and the Association has periodically had to defend its standing against renewed skeptical challenges. It continues to hold an annual convention, publishes the Journal of Parapsychology in cooperation with the Rhine Research Center, and functions today as the principal professional and credentialing body for academic parapsychologists worldwide.