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Studies In Psychical Research
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1897 Edition.
470 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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August 16, 2024
A SUMMARY (circa 1910) OF MEDIUMS, AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
Frank Podmore (1856-1910) was an English author, and founding member of the Fabian Society; he was also a member of the Society for Psychical Research, as well as the author/co-author of books such as 'Mediums of the 19th Century,' and 'Phantasms of the Living.'
This reprint of the original 1910 book contains an Introduction which provides a useful overview of theories (particularly Myers' Human personality and its survival of bodily death); then individual chapters on mediums such as Daniel Dunglas Home; Eusapia Palladino; Leonora Piper; a "Mrs. Thompson," etc.
The first third of the book deals with "The Older Spiritualism" (e.g., Home, Palladino), before moving on to "The Most Recent Evidence" (from the early 20th century).
He concludes on the note, "If we reject... the explanation suggested by many of the utterances themselves, that of communication from the dead, we must seek for some other cause adequate to the effects. There remains only the agency which has been provisionally named telepathy, but which no one has yet ventured to define in other than negative terms, as communication apart from the recognized sensory channels. The establishment of such a faculty, if only as the vestige of a primitive mode of sensibility, now superseded by articulate speech, would surely be a result worth all the labour spend in the vineyard; a fruitage which would go far to compensate for the loss of that, perhaps visionary, gold." (Pg. 316)
This book will be of definite interest to anyone studying the history of the psychical research/Spiritualist movement.
Frank Podmore (1856-1910) was an English author, and founding member of the Fabian Society; he was also a member of the Society for Psychical Research, as well as the author/co-author of books such as 'Mediums of the 19th Century,' and 'Phantasms of the Living.'
This reprint of the original 1910 book contains an Introduction which provides a useful overview of theories (particularly Myers' Human personality and its survival of bodily death); then individual chapters on mediums such as Daniel Dunglas Home; Eusapia Palladino; Leonora Piper; a "Mrs. Thompson," etc.
The first third of the book deals with "The Older Spiritualism" (e.g., Home, Palladino), before moving on to "The Most Recent Evidence" (from the early 20th century).
He concludes on the note, "If we reject... the explanation suggested by many of the utterances themselves, that of communication from the dead, we must seek for some other cause adequate to the effects. There remains only the agency which has been provisionally named telepathy, but which no one has yet ventured to define in other than negative terms, as communication apart from the recognized sensory channels. The establishment of such a faculty, if only as the vestige of a primitive mode of sensibility, now superseded by articulate speech, would surely be a result worth all the labour spend in the vineyard; a fruitage which would go far to compensate for the loss of that, perhaps visionary, gold." (Pg. 316)
This book will be of definite interest to anyone studying the history of the psychical research/Spiritualist movement.
Displaying 1 of 1 review