ISARTOP

	International Scientific Association for Research into Transcendental Objective Phenomena
	I.S.A.R.T.O.P

	HOW I.S.A.R.T.O.P. CAME ABOUT I.S.A.R.T.O.P. - the new research and educational organisation, is a natural and logical expansion of the humanitarian and scientific project started by Dr. Emanuel A. Toriello in 1989, who submitted it via fax to the U.N. organisation requesting the latter to consider the possibility of the recognition of an official scientific team, whose aim should be the research in the field of the transcendental objective phenomena. Since 1989 he worked and is still working to realise this project. Having said that, its foundation came about in an unusual way. Its roots were planted, initially, when Dr. Toriello became involved with the EVP research project of Marcello Bacci, at Grosseto in Italy . The Direct Radio Voices, received for many years by Bacci at his laboratory, have been studied and researched extensively by prominent scientists from all over the world, whose conclusions as to the humanitarian value of the voices and their ultimate source have proved to be extremely positive. After reading the book "The Scole Experiment", by Grant and Jane Solomon - about the pioneering experiments (and amazing results) in controlled physical and objective psychic phenomena of a group in Scole, Norfolk , England from 1993 to 1998, Bacci felt that he had enjoyed similar results to the Scole group during his researches. Furthermore, during his experiments in early 2004, the Direct Radio Voices he was receiving at Grosseto started to refer to Scole in a favourable light; some purported to be from communicators who had been prominent during the Scole Experiment themselves. Overall, Bacci and some of his colleagues were encouraged by these DRV voices to visit Scole, and there was talk of a joint venture. I will take up the story here from a personal point of view, when I.S.A.R.T.O.P. became inaugurated through a series of meetings and escalating 'coincidences' that began in May last year (2004) when, on a particular day, I had an unexplained feeling that I needed to get home early from work. Always one to act on such 'hunches', I arrived home at Street Farmhouse, Scole (home to my wife and I - Robin and Sandra Foy), at about 4pm. I was quite amazed to discover what seemed to be a large group of totally unknown Italian people on the doorstep - about to knock on the door. Since Sandra - my wife - was still in bed (she works nights), I was unable to invite them in, but suggested that we went next door to the Scole Inn for a coffee and a chat, since they had come such a long way. Although the visitors were all strangers to me at that time, they were very friendly, and seemed to know a lot about the well-known six year long 'Scole Experiment' in which I participated. I discovered that the party included the elderly Marcello Bacci and his wife, and that he was a veteran researcher into EVP and DRV (his speciality, since he had been getting these Direct Radio Voices through an old-fashioned valve radio at his centre in Grosseto , Italy ). Bacci demonstrates these voices weekly to around 70 or 80 people (mostly bereaved mothers, who are often able to speak to their 'dead' children) without ever charging a penny for his work. At this first meeting, which was also attended by Dr. Emanuel A. Toriello, Alex Zampieri and Amerigo Festa - amongst others - with their wives, somebody asked me for a business card with my telephone number on it. I put my hand into my pocket and, as I took the card out, three glass apports fell off my hand, having materialised on it in full light! At that point, I started to take the meeting more seriously, and listen more carefully to what they had to say. Sandra and I were invited out to Italy as a result. We flew out there in September last year, and were greatly impressed by the people at Bacci's centre (his close research group included) and by the powerful DRV voices we witnessed, communicating through his radio. Many of the Italian contingent have now become firm friends, and I re-visited Bacci at Grosseto in Italy during early December. Also there as researchers at that time - amongst others - were Paolo Presi the researcher, Dr. Anabela Cardoso (a major EVP/DRV researcher, who is also the Portuguese Consul at Vigo in Spain), and Professor David Fontana (an ex president of the Society for Psychical Research who was one of the main scientific investigators of the 'Scole Experiment' and co-author of 'The Scole Report). The impressive experiment that we witnessed at Grosseto at that time was subsequently reported in "The Psychic News". Through my new Italian friends (in particular, one of these – Dr. Emanuel A. Toriello - who is currently based in the UK and who suggested that his long-running project could form the ideal basis for such an organisation), together with a number of serious researchers all over the world who I knew from my previous connections, the idea gradually came together to incorporate into Emanuel's project a fully international association that can co-operate with researchers and active experimenters internationally, helping one another in every aspect of development and demonstration of the various phenomena (sharing - in a word) and acting as a forum for discussion and education regarding the latest and most successful techniques of scientific research - keeping an open mind at all times, and educating the public at large in a humanitarian way regarding the realities of the different types of phenomena involved in our researches. I was personally asked by Dr. Toriello to help in the co-ordination and administration of I.S.A.R.T.O.P. because of my 32 years experience of all types of transcendental phenomena, plus the advantage of the many international contacts I have made over the years of my research involvement. I was happy to agree and become involved. The name I.S.A.R.T.O.P. was agreed and approved at a preliminary meeting in London on February 6th this year and, as a consequence, I.S.A.R.T.O.P. has been inaugurated as an association, with its initial officers as announced on website www.isartop.net