An in-depth history of psychical research and spiritualism, accompanied by period illustrations. Is spiritualism a religion or a racket? How does it differ from psychical research? What went on in the world of séances, mediums, and the scientists who investigated them in the early decades of the twentieth century? This fascinating account, first published in the 1930s, brings to life an era when spiritualists gripped the public imagination and researchers fought to determine what was and wasn’t real. Fifty Years of Psychical Research is part of The Paranormal, a series that resurrects rare titles, classic publications, and out-of-print texts, as well as publishes new supernatural and otherworldly ebooks for the digital age. The series includes a range of paranormal subjects from angels, fairies, and UFOs to near-death experiences, vampires, ghosts, and witchcraft.
Mainline science rejects the paranormal because it cannot be proven by the classical methods of controlled experiments. But sciences such as geology, astronomy, and anthropology also don’t rely on laboratory testing for repeatable results. Moreover, psi concerns consciousness, which is by definition nonquantitative. "Psi researchers must stop acting like science’s poor relations," says author Lawrence LaShan, "limiting themselves to controlled experiments such as analyzing statistics of people guessing cards being flipped in the next room" This provocative book outlines the principles of making a real study of the large, exciting events — clairvoyance and precognition; mediumship and spirit controls; psychic healing — that would bring mainline science into and revitalize the whole field. "And the issue is not just academic," says LeShan. "The old, materialistic worldview has not worked. Psychic research," he argues, "can transform our sense of reality itself to offer a new and more hopeful picture of ourselves and of the world."
Winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Best Biographical Work, this is "an excellent biography of the man who created Sherlock Holmes" (David Walton, The New York Times Book Review) This fresh, compelling biography examines the extraordinary life and strange contrasts of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the struggling provincial doctor who became the most popular storyteller of his age. From his youthful exploits aboard a whaling ship to his often stormy friendships with such figures as Harry Houdini and George Bernard Shaw, Conan Doyle lived a life as gripping as one of his adventures. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written, Daniel Stashower's Teller of Tales sets aside many myths and misconceptions to present a vivid portrait of the man behind the legend of Baker Street, with a particular emphasis on the Psychic Crusade that dominated his final years--the work that Conan Doyle himself felt to be "the most important thing in the world."
Claimants of paranormal abilities have always attracted controversy and fascination, and sometimes rigorous study by scientists. Charles Bailey, an Australian medium, was seemingly able to materialize different objects--animate and inanimate--under conditions which made it difficult to conceive how they could have been normally produced. Sumitra Singh, a woman of Northern India who in 1984 became subject to epileptic-type seizures, claimed to be possessed by spirits of the dead. Franck Kluski was a Polish poet, banker and physical medium who specialized in both human and animal materializations. This biographical dictionary contains profiles of 330 psychics worldwide from Tony Agpaoa to Elenor Zugun, each accompanied by a bibliography listing the primary sources consulted. The primary focus is on those claimed psychics who have figured prominently in the history of the subject, though some lesser-known figures are included to show how rich, varied, and colorful that history has been. The aim throughout is to present each case as fairly and dispassionately as the facts allow, with a particular eye for accuracy in details and presentation. The approach is historical, not apologetic or accusatory, making the work ideally suited as a permanent reference.
An innovative collection of essays examining the sometimes paradoxical alignment of Realism and Naturalism with the Gothic in American literature to highlight their shared qualities Following the golden age of British Gothic in the late eighteenth century, the American Gothic’s pinnacle is often recognized as having taken place during the decades of American Romanticism. However, Haunting Realities explores the period of American Realism—the end of the nineteenth century—to discover evidence of fertile ground for another age of Gothic proliferation. At first glance, “Naturalist Gothic” seems to be a contradiction in terms. While the Gothic is known for its sensational effects, with its emphasis on horror and the supernatural, the doctrines of late nineteenth-century Naturalism attempted to move away from the aesthetics of sentimentality and stressed sobering, mechanistic views of reality steeped in scientific thought and the determinism of market values and biology. Nonetheless, what binds Gothicism and Naturalism together is a vision of shared pessimism and the perception of a fearful, lingering presence that ominously haunts an impending modernity. Indeed, it seems that in many Naturalist works reality is so horrific that it can only be depicted through Gothic tropes that prefigure the alienation and despair of modernism. In recent years, research on the Gothic has flourished, yet there has been no extensive study of the links between the Gothic and Naturalism, particularly those which stem from the early American Realist tradition. Haunting Realities is a timely volume that addresses this gap and is an important addition to scholarly work on both the Gothic and Naturalism in the American literary tradition.
With ovear 3000 cross-referenced entries this is an invaluable reference to the mystical and esoteric traditions. It gives succinct definitions in the fields of magic hermeticism, alchemy, spiritualism, parapsychology, eastern and western mysticism, mind and consciousness research divination, tarot, and a variety of less welll-known subjects. It also features biographies of leading figures in the field with details of their lives, philosophies and writings- from astrologer Evangeline Adams to the prophet Zarathustra.
Throughout history, people have been intrigued with spirits, angels, or devas as sources of wisdom and guidance. They are not only interesting as those who possess an insight into events and circumstances, but also as proof of life after death. In this clear and useful reference guide, Bjorling presents a listing of the literature on the various ways in which people of different cultures have consulted spirits—through shamans and oracles, magic, mediums, Voodoo, and psychics. Each chapter contains a general introduction to the respective topic as well as a listing of pertinent books, articles, and dissertations. His survey also includes early spirit contacts in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
Spiritualism and mediumship are often regarded as the product of lingering superstition in the Victorian era, and as having limited relevance in modern Anglo-American society. Scholarship to date which has considered Spiritualism as a distinct religious tradition has focussed on analysing the phenomenon in terms of spirit possession only. This volume analyses the development of shamanism (communication with the spiritual world) as a concept within North American English-speaking scholarship, with particular focus on Mircea Eliade's influential cross-cultural presentation of shamanism. By re-examining the work of Sergei Shirokogoroff, one of Eliade's principal sources, the traditional Evenki shamanic apprenticeship is compared and identified with the new Spiritualist apprenticeship. The author demonstrates that Spiritualism is best understood as a traditional shamanism, as distinct from contemporary appropriations or neo-shamanisms. He argues that shamanism is the outcome of an apprenticeship in the management of psychic experiences, and which follows the same pattern as that of the apprentice medium. In doing so, the author offers fresh insights into the mechanisms that are key to sustaining mediumship as a social institution.
"I do not conceal from myself the consequences of such sincerity. It requires a good deal of boldness to insist on affirming, in the name of positive science, the POSSIBILITY of these phenomena (wrongly styled supernatural), and to constitute one's self the champion of a cause apparently ridiculous, absurd, and dangerous, knowing, at the same time, that the avowed adherents of said cause have little standing in science, and that even its eminent partisans only venture to speak of their approval of it with bated breath. However, since the matter has just been treated momentarily in fugitive writings by a group of journalists whose exacting labors wholly forbid a study of the psychic and physical forces; and since, of all this multitude of writers, the greater part have only heaped error upon error, puerility upon extravagance; and since it appears from every page they have written (I hope they will pardon me) that not only are they ignorant of the very a, b, c of the subject they have so fantastically treated, but their opinions upon this class of facts rest upon no basis whatever,—therefore I have thought it would serve a purpose if I should leave, as a souvenir of the long wrangle, a piece of writing better based and buttressed than the lucubrations of the above-mentioned gentlemen. As a lover of truth, I am willing to face a thousand reproaches. Be it distinctly understood that I do not for a moment deem my judgment superior to that of my confrères, some of whom are in other respects highly gifted. The simple fact is that they are not familiar with this subject, but are straying in it at random, wandering through a strange region. They misunderstand the very terminology, and imagine that facts long ago well authenticated are impossible. By way of contrast, the writer of these lines will state that for several years he has been engaged in discussions and experiments upon the subject. (I am not speaking of historical studies.) "Moreover, although the old saw would have us believe that 'it is not always desirable to state the truth,' yet, to speak frankly, I am so indignant at the overweening presumption of certain polemical opponents, and at the gall they have injected into the debate, that I do not hesitate to rise and point out to the deceived public that, without a single exception, all the arguments brought up by these writers, and upon which they have boldly planted their banner of victory, prove absolutely nothing, NOTHING, against the possible truth of the things which they, in the fury of their denial, have so perverted. Such a snarl of opinions must be analyzed. In brief, the true must be disentangled from the false. Veritas, veritas!"
