Events COPY COPY

Question 1

Andrew Jackson Davis

Answer 1

• Discovered ability to connect w spirit world after magnetic trance, 1843
• Toured New England as trance lecturer and healer
• 1844 had vision of Swedenborg and Galen on mountain near Poughkeepsie

Question 2

1845

Answer 2

Davis begins dictating his work ‘The Principles of Nature: Her Divine Revelations and a Voice to Mankind’ whilst in a trance - this continues over 15 months and attracted to small crowds.

Question 3

1848

Answer 3

Fox Sisters - Hydesville Rappings. Supposedly murdered man, at farmhouse.

Question 4

1852

Answer 4

Maria Hayden, a medium, brings the practice to England

Question 5

1853

Answer 5

tables tournantes began in earnest on April 20, when the Constitutionnel published a story describing a strange German fad.

Question 6

1858

Answer 6

Revue Spiritualiste journal founded by Zéphre-Joseph Piérart (former editor in chief of Journal du Magnétisme).

Question 7

1859

Answer 7

Commission d’Enquête formed by mesmerists to investigate the ‘truth’ of the tables tournantes et parlantes… Séances conducted by Honorine Huet - most prominent French medium.

All eight of the men on the committee agreed that these two séances were unconvincing as proof of spirit intervention

Question 8

1888

Answer 8

Fox sisters admit their rappings had been fraudulent.

Question 9

November 1889

Answer 9

Margaret Fox recants her confession in interview conducted in presence of Newton, president of the First Society of Spiritualists of New York and a fellow of the New York Academy of Science

Maggie said decision to recant came from spirit guides. Admitted she hoped to resume lecture tour in support of Spiritualism

Question 10

1882

Answer 10

Society for Psychical Research founded.

Not break w naturalistic science: the poss reality of Spiritualism and other occult phenomena wld not constitute a break w a naturalistic worldview, but rather indicate that our picture of the natural world had to be radically expanded.
Psychical research thus predicated on an open-ended naturalism

Question 11

1869

Answer 11

London Dialectical Society special commission to investigate Spiritualism and psychic phenomena

Commission’s report concluded bulk of evd concerning Spiritualistic phenomena cld not at present be discounted as fraudulent. Advised more research on topic.

Question 12

1875

Answer 12

lawyer Edward Cox established Psychological Society of Great Britain.

Establishment of psychology as wholly ‘secular’ academic discipline was still decades away

Question 13

Sidgwick Circle

Answer 13

• Henry Sidgwick. Utilitarian moral philosopher. Advocate of educational reform
• Eleanor Sidgwick
• Arthur Balfour - SPR President 1892-5
• Lord General Balfour - in charge of cross-correspondences experiments early 20th C
• Classicist Edumnd Gurney
• Classicist Frederic Myers
• Richard Hodgson

Question 14

SPR output

Answer 14

14,000 pages of research reports, theorizing and experimental notes published by the SPR’s journal and proceedings 1882-1900

Question 15

US reaction to uses of probability in Phantasms of the Living (1886)

Answer 15

amateur uses of probability sparked sharp debate in first volume of Proceedings of the American branch of the SPR, where philosopher, logician and mathematician Peirce lashed out at the SPR researchers: ‘I shall not cite these numbers, which captivate the ignorant, but which repel thinking men, who know that no human certitude reaches such figures of trillions, or even billions, to one’

Question 16

Hodgson’s expositions

Answer 16

Exposé of methods of Blavatsky 1884-5

Hodgson accused Richet, Myers and Lodge of being fooled by Palladino
Hodson exposed her fraud in trials at Myers’ house in Cambridge, 1895

Question 17

SPR generational shift (Asprem)

Answer 17

W exception of Eleanor Sidgwick, all mems of the Sidgwick circle - first generation of SPR - were dead by 1905

Question 18

SPR presidents 1900-39

Answer 18

• Nobel laureates Bergson, Rayleigh
• Famous politicians, Gerald Balfour, chief secretary for Ireland 1900-5
• Biologist/ philosopher, Driesch
• McDougall
• Broad

Question 19

1925, stage magician Harry Price

Answer 19

convinced University of London to support him in establishing the National Laboratory for Psychical Research which was to act as a more scientific counterpart to the SPR. Turned out to be used more for debunk ing tho

Question 20

1924, US (Asprem)

Answer 20

institutional schism

controversy that had erupted over tests run with famous Boston physical medium Mina Crandon (‘Margery’). McDougall, Houdini etc investigated. When the comte’s report concluded Margery was fraudulent, the American SPR took a curious course of action - disregarded the verdict, fired critics from positions of power in the society. Started circulating apologetic articles, books and pamphlets defending Margery

• One of orchestrators of this devel = Le Roy Crandon, Margery’s husband
• Prince, who had been editor of the ASPR journal and on Margery comte, was fired

Question 21

1925, US, Prince

Answer 21

established Boston Society for Psychical Research (BSPR to act as a scientific counterpart to the American SPR

Ceased operations 1934

Last thing the BSPR did was publish Rhine’s Extra-Sensory Perception (1934) - paradigmatic text of experimental parapsychology. Initiated new phase in history of psychical research - new institutions, oft connected to mainstream research universities, pursued the scientific track through what became professional parapsychology. Emergence of professional parapsychology marked the end of the SPR as an institution of any serious scientific promise

Question 22

Carrington

Answer 22

journalist and member of the American SPR

authored more than one hundred books, primarily on psychical research, spiritualism, magic and magical traditions, and occult phenomena such as astral projection.2 By the 1920s, those who presumed to know something about psychical research were quite likely to have their knowledge from Carrington’s writings. (Asprem)
e.g. 1909, Eusapia Palladino and her phenomena

Question 23

Cross-correspondences

Answer 23

By 1906, some of the most prominent first-generation figures had returned from the afterlife

Verrall, Holland, and Piper would produce hundreds of messages in total, with the major breakthrough occurring during Piper’s stay in England

First systematic reports on cross-correspondences published in the SPR Proceedings, 1908

1910 the research was made available to a broader public through the concise exposition in Helen Alexandrina Dallas’ Mors Janua Vitae?

Through reliance on the cross-correspondences the SPR seems to have abandoned their earlier attempts to emulate strictly naturalistic methods, and instead developed an increasingly esoteric form of hermeneutics (Asprem)

Question 24

Latin Experiment

Answer 24

1906:

a specific question with instructions intended for “Myers” had been translated into dense and difficult Ciceronian Latin, and read to Mrs Piper in one of her “trance states”.

researchers spent the next months attempts to draw significant references out of the mediums’ statements. In the quest to find what they were looking for, the psychical researchers seized increasingly abstruse methods of interpretation, where hidden anagrams and secret symbols were considered for clues, down to the letter.46 While they were ultimately convinced by the evidence thus produced, in the form of symbolic and thematic correspondences across a wide set of séance notes, it is hard for the outsider to avoid observing that they also stretched their interpretations to the limits in order to get to that conviction

Question 25

1891

Answer 25

Annales des sciences psychiques founded - Richet = a key driving force

Question 26

Quantitative studies of isolated effects of telepathy in SPR’s early yrs (Asprem)

Answer 26

Richet appears to have been the first to apply probability calculus to the guessing of playing cards in a larger population, for which he found some very slight evidence of thought-transference

Following Richet’s publications, the economist F. Y. Edgeworth, an expert on statistics, contributed a series of papers to the SPR journal that explained the use – and misuse – of probability calculus.113 For example, Edgeworth warned that even when probabilities seemed to rule against a pure chance result, and thus indicating that there is some agency involved, ‘[t]he calculus is silent as to the nature of that agency – whether it is more likely to be vulgar illusion or extraordinary law’.

The development of probabilities introduced a new and popular rhetorical tactic to the psychical research literature of the 1880s and 1890s, in which probabilities against chance were liberally invoked for any kind of phenomenon that was being discussed

these figures were, however, given without any standardised method of control, and we find some utterly ridiculous numbers put on the most unfitting type of material. Gurney et al.’s Phantoms of the Living is exemplary

Question 27

McDougall

Answer 27

crucial role in the formation of British psychology over the first two decades of the 20th century; he had occupied positions at both Cambridge and Oxford, and worked as an explicit counterweight to the popularity of Freud and the psychoanalytic movement. (Asprem)

1920, professor of psychology at Harvard

1921, president of the SPR

1922 Boston lecture, and his

1926 lecture at the conference “For and Against Psychical Research” held at Clark University.

How did McDougall try to convince his audience that committed sceptics and spiritualists were both wrong?

Against the hard-nosed sceptics, he used arguments resonant with what is considered good scientific conduct.22 A true man of science, McDougall argued, is obliged to scrutinise all opinions held by sophisticated people, even popular opinions.

Whether or not the phenomena will be found to be authentic was less important; the crucial thing was to not reject a whole field of research out of hand.

attack on convinced spiritualists was perhaps the most important aspect of McDougall’s 1922 polemic.23 It can be seen as an exercise in internal boundary-work, aimed at exorcising elements in the field that were deemed to be a liability

McDougall’s main problem with the spiritualists was their strong and apparently unshakable conviction, which appeared dogmatic and wholly counterproductive.

The divisive Boston lecture was, in the end, a call for organised, scientific psychical research on a big scale with the aim of convincing a group that was getting ever more significant in modern society: the professional scientists

In the picture that McDougall painted, psychical researchers became “more scientific” than their “dogmatically agnostic” opponents

Arriving at Duke university in the summer of 1927, William McDougall finally found himself in a position to develop policies and administer budgets.

Inspired by McDougall’s repeated pleas for the institutionalisation of psychical research, the Rhines eagerly wanted to conduct such work in a university setting.

Their cooperation with McDougall would lead to the foundation of the first autonomous research institute for parapsychology at an American university.

Question 28

William Lloyd Garrison, séance w Leah Fox

Answer 28

1854

Spirit, Jesse Hutchinson - mem of the famous fam of reform singers - spirits beat time in raps - another spirit rapped out by the alphabet that Spiritualism will work miracles in the cause of reform

Question 29

1890 census

Answer 29

5,000 Spiritualists in 39 states and territories, but this included only those formally affild w an organized soc

Question 30

Braude, Spiritualism support base/ geographical spread

Answer 30

Movement enjoyed support among both rural poor and urban labourers. Lydia Maria Child, 1862 - Spiritualism is undermining the authority of the Bible in the minds of what are called the common people faster than all other causes put together

Assoc w abolition generated substantial antagonism to the movement among southerners of European descent. Spiritualism flourished in New Orleans

In general, southern Spiritualists identified themselves as Christians more consistently than did nothern Spiritualists. They tended to focus on comunication w the dead while ignoring both the reform agenda and the heterodox theology

Mediums hailed from varied class backgrounds. Mediumship sometimes served as vehicle of upward mobility

Question 31

Braude, Achsa Sprague

Answer 31

Sprague’s life as medium lecturer cld not have contrasted more starkly w her former confinement when had rheumatic fever

Attained remarkable degree of independence.

Lecture fees.

Received 88 requests to speak in 1860

1854-61, Sprague traveled as a trance lecturer

Question 32

John Ellis

Answer 32

Opponent of American Spiritualism.

Attacked Spiritualists over alleged support of free love

Question 33

Rutland Free Convention, 1858 (Braude)

Answer 33

infamous for its free love dabates.

Medium Mrs Branch presented the antimarriage position - woman’s privelege to accept or refuse any love that comes to her.

Question 34

First US national Spiritualist convention

Answer 34

Chicago 1864

Question 35

3rd national convention

Answer 35

1866

first of the American Association of Spiritualists, included no trance speakers on the program

Question 36

American Association of Spiritualists

Answer 36

Victoria Woodhull’s election marked the demise of the American Association of Spiritualists. By the time she resigned the presidency 1875, no one thought of trying to keep the assocation alive.

. Lists of convention officers, delegates and committee members show a marked decline in female leadership with the advent of organization. Ohio sent one woman in its 21 member delegation to the 1869 meeting of the American Association of Spiritualists.

Believers voted w their feet, flocking to picnics and camp meetings while they boycotted the American Association of Spiritualists

Question 37

Camps

Answer 37

1874, Massachusetts hosted a three-week camp meeting at Silver lake back to back with the two-week Lake Pleasant Camp Meeting, preceded by a two-day picnic near Salem

Triumph of camp meetings over organisation marked a triumph for mediumship.

Question 38

1878

Answer 38

appalled by the increasing sensationalism and magical Spiritualism of Madame Blavatsky, Davis attempted to sever Harmonial Philosophy from spiritualism

Question 39

1878, Vermont State Spiritualist Association

Answer 39

Thomas Middleton spoke forcibly on the apparent reluctance of the female portion of the audience to speak in conference

Question 40

Braude, California suffrage

Answer 40

California suffragists relied almost exclusively on trance speakers during 1870. Mrs Brown, one speaker, was on salary as missionary of the American Assoc of Spiritualists. 5 other Spiritualist speakers at least. Women of California selected mediums Gordon, Smith and Spear to present the first woman suffrage petition to the California

Question 41

American SPR founded in Boston (later New York)

Answer 41

1884

Despite the enthusiasms of James, the Boston society was a great deal more skeptical than its London counterpart

By 1889 it had concluded (with Richet) that there was no sound statistical support for telepathy.

• First president of the ASPR ridiculed phenomena the Society had been set up to address, in Science
• Ruthless in exposing fraud. Letter to Banner of Light (1886) on Mrs Hannah Ross, a physical medium. Used dummy slung around neck to give impression of child spirit in darkness

Question 42

Institut Général Psychologique, Brower

Answer 42

1900-33

• Organisation founded summer 1900 (from meetings in anticipation of Fourth International Congress of Psychology)
• Included Y, Murray, Janet, Bergson, Richet
• Ribot characterised as most cutting edge and adventurous part of psychology. Supra-normal phenomena
• 1902, found definitive title: institut Général Psychologique (IGP)

As originally conceived, the institute’s mission was to respond to a public call for a scientific study of spiritism and to vulgarize the results of its research for the benefit of interested laymen.

Institut s had 400 mems by 1901, but little financial support

Janet promoted the institute as a means of transcending the ideological disputes that had stunted devel of psychology in France
Inclusive approach

Janet quietly cringed over the populist nature of the organisation.

transformed the institute into public façade for another research organisation: the Société de Psychologie - this one to be made up only of scientists and academics whose credentials and motives in the sci study of psychology were above suspicion

De Vesme, editor of the Revue des Études Psychiques

Janet and Dumas founded separate publication by 1904, Journal de Psychologie Normale et Pathologique

Janet’s defection from the institute sparked primarily by desire to make of mediumism an object of psychological study and not a set of facts to be proven or disproven

Janet’s effective departure, then institute legally reconstituted in 1902 as the IGP

President of honour, Léon Bourgeois. Role fulfilled by friend Herbette. Broad membership, individuals belonging to army, navy, diplomatic service, for real-world experiences they cld bring to the study of ‘Man’.

4 diff research sections of the IGP:
- Zoological psychology
- Collective psychology
- Moral psychology
- Smallest - psychical phenomena - Groupe d’Étude des Phénomenès Psychiques (GEPP). E.g. Branly, Duclaux, Weiss. Predominance of physiologists physicists, neurologists and chemists
Testing reality of phenomena.
Hope that new physical force might be discovered.

1898, experiments in France with Palladino.
lights remained lit in séance room.
Sounds produced from untouched violin appeared not to be fraudulent.
43 seances for GEPP mems

1908, IGP published findings
Courtier’s report.
Experiments costly - by 1908, GEPP = most important of the IGP’s research groups

Used equipment to record/ corroborate effects most often witnessed

Measured physiological status of the medium (fulfilling interests of physiologists Marey and Richet) - circulation, blood pressure, respiration, secretions

Need to maintain productive working relationship with Eusapia.
Scientists oft obliged to yield to E’s refusals concerning methods of control and observation

Uncertainty bc of subjective nature of observations
Certainty cld only be achieved by procuring more pliable research subjects willing to submit to more severe methods of control and by eliminating subjective errors of observation through the introduction of more sophisticated equipment

Sought to implement controls of purely physical nature - reducing/ removing role of observer

In d’Arsonval’s prescription, capital of the scientist was no longer to reside in his intellectual autonomy and social independence. Rather, the production of value was to come to rest more and more on the material means by which the scientist could realize an objective knowledge of the world without leaving traces of his own, ultimately unreliable subjectivity. In the ideal passivity of the medium the scientists found the mirror image of the ideal subjectlessness of science. But where this absence of subjectivity could not be fully realized, where the continued operation of desire was suspected, the accounts of the séances continued to be framed by a frustrating uncertainty.

Question 43

Institut Métapsychique International (IMI)

Answer 43

founded 1919

at its inception the IMI was closely tied to Spiritist circles: Delanne served on its board; Geley, the director, was sympathetic to the cause; and the bulk of the Institute’s money came from the wealthy wine wholesaler and devoted Spiritist Jean Meyer

1921 - first of several International Congresses of Psychical Research held in Copenhagen.

1922 - Richet’s Traité de la métapsychique = standard text

Utopian message - sought to establish means by which living and dead might establish communion.

Link w spiritism damaged scientists’ credibility

Idea of Santoliquido for international organisation. Corresponded with Richet
Richet provided IMI with cultural capital

Gustave Geley = IMI director

Sudre, became involved in administration of the IMI in 1921.
Argued that psychical projection constituted a form of energy.
Separated psychical research from widespread interest in spiritism (which he assoc w widespread mental pathology following war)

Was in this spirit that Richet joined in 1919 as president of honour
Lodge joined directing comte 3 yrs later
Roche, Calmette, Teissier, Flammarion = on comte

Dedicated lab w advanced lighting and photographic apparatus.

J’ai Vu, pictorial magazine - noted tall coachway door opening into a courtyard of hewn stone and marble, a large stairway, the banisted of scuplted wood

Concerns over influence of Meyer’s largesse.
Geley died in plane crash in 1924 shortly after requesting that Meyer drop all references to the survival hypothesis from the written desciption of his office.

Sudre = ostracized in 1926 by mems of the directing comte who worried his vocal opposition wld compromise relations with Meyer.

Santoliquido departed unexpectedly in 1929 over concerns about direction the institute was taking.
Death of Jean Meyer 1931.
IMI continued. Fortunes wld never again reach lvls enjoyed in decade following FWW

IMI suffered from the paradox that had plagued earlier efforts to institutionalize the field in France.

Drawng support from individs w clear ties to world of spiritism, the institute wld enjoy financial stability and social prestige that came w it.
Wld also, by this same strategy, compromise its independence and raise doubts about its ability to provide the transparency necessary if it was to uphold a democratic ideal of science.

Three mediums = main focus of 1st 5 yrs of IMI activity: Kluski, Guzik, Carrière
Kluski - produced ectoplasm from his nose, mouth, area below his waste. Circulated room, touching observers.

Scientists developed method to use ectoplasm to make plaster casts

Geley secretly added chemical to the paraffin, later ident, to prove not tampered w/ switched before the experiment

Nordmann, sci ed of La Revue des Deux Mondes - questioned process by which final castings were made - something none of the accounts considered relevant enough to specify

IMI responded to Nordmann in polemical fashion.

Question 44

Mesmer’s arrival in Paris

Answer 44

1778

Question 45

Académie Royale des Sciences organized commission to test the phenomenon as demonstrated by Mesmer’s adept, Charles Deslon.

Answer 45

1784

Question 46

Brower on Puységuir

Answer 46

Lasting influence of Mesmerism in France oft attributed to writings and teachings of French nobleman, Amand-Marc-Jacques de Chastenet, marquis de Puységuir

Treated peasants in his service

Instead of crises, he produced sleeplike state - somnambulism

Puységuir’s pastoral and quasi-mystical version of mesmerism moved into foreground during postrevolutionary efforts to restore ancient terms of legitimacy to social order

Filled gaps in underdeveloped science and techniques of medicine

Question 47

pro-Mesmerists vs the Academy

Answer 47

Another round of investigations in 1825 by Académie Nationale de Médecine

Few practitioners still claimed existence of the pervasive natural fluid and instead emphd Puységur’s notion of rapport, now understood mainly in psychological terms

Menri-Marie Husson’s report, 1831 - found evd of changes in pulse, respiration, levels of physical sensitivity, memory, levls of strength, clairvoyance, internal sight, prevision.

Academy did not support. Focused on aspects most difficult to prove - 1837 trials, testing clairvoyance and double sight. Resulted in repeated failures

1840, communications to Académie des Sciences dealing with animal magnetism were formally prohibited.

Question 48

1846, Maginot

Answer 48

somnambule Maginot was facilitating regular dialogues between magnetist, Alphonse Cahagnet, and spirit of 18th-C scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg

Question 49

1836, Poyen

Answer 49

Puységuir’s acolyte, Poyen, brought news of somnambulism to New England during an 1836 tour.

Demonstrated somnambulism to Andrew Jackson Davis - the Pughkeepsie Seer.

Question 50

Kardec’s La Revue Spirite

Answer 50

Monthly journal

1st in Jan 1858

struck a balance between long articles on philosophical questions and shorter, more entertaining pieces. These shorter articles tended to be either automatic writings or transcribed dialogues between a spirit and a human interlocutor. Both stressed the emotional aspects of Spiritism and the tangible comforts it could provide.

In the first issue, for example, Kardec published a dialogue between a bereaved mother and the spirit of Julie, her deceased daughter, who communicated through a medium by automatic writing: Julie: I no longer have the body that made me suffer so, but I have the same appearance. Aren’t you happy that I no longer suffer, since I can speak with you?

Question 51

1867, Catalogue général de la librairie française depuis 1840

Answer 51

listed 123 titles under the topic heading “Spiritisme,”

107 titles listed under “Socialisme” produced in the same period

Question 52

1st regularly convening spiritist society

Answer 52

April 1858, Société Parisienne des Études Spirites

Emphd democratic principles of the movement.
Spiritism remained decentralised

Question 53

Buguet.

Answer 53

Spirit photographer

answered Leymarie’s appeal for a local spirit photographer in the final months of 1873.

Leymarie loaned the photographer 3,500 francs from the Caisse générale to expand his spirit photography concern

commercial success - charged 20 francs per sitting

trial, 1875
Confessed
Second, hidden studio, in which he made the preliminary exposures.
He used wooden dolls wrapped in gauze to simulate the bodies of the spirits

Created a series of images to demonstrate how he fooled his clients
Despite this, Over one hundred former clients came forward to assert their belief in the veracity of Buguet’s work

Convicted of fraud

Leymarie (then co-leader of SPES along w Kardec’s widow) had financed Buguet’s studio - fined 500 francs and sentenced to yr in prison

Buguet sent letter to the Revue spirite from Belgium, where he had fled after his conviction. In it, he admitted to falsifying images late in his career but insisted that the earlier “two thirds” of his output had been authentic, something the skepticism of the parquet had made him loath to mention at the trial

Question 54

Pierre Janet

Answer 54

unconscious activity with its own volition, independent of that exhibited in conscious processes. Will, fundamental to Cousin’s philosophical psychology, was preserved by Janet within a subject divided into multiple selves, conscious and unconscious

Question 55

Fourth International Congress of Psychology

Answer 55

1900

• Was through assoc w somnambulism and hypnotism that research on spiritism claimed presence in the 1900 congress.
• Denis, Delanne, Encausse, Baradux, Dariex - discussed variety of supranormal phenomena e.g. exteriorization of sensibility, measurement of the life force, clairvoyance, mental suggestion, movement of objects w/o physical contact, telepathy

Vogt, Against Spiritism - regretted that spiritists invade our section and compromise it with their antiscientific presentations.

anatomophysiological group.
At head of group = clinical psychologist Paul Valentin - reiterated that scientific psychology cld only be study of functions of the brain. Psychology = branch of biology, whose only place is between physiology and sociology

Hartenberg concluded by demanding, along with Ebbinghaus, that the questions connexes be excluded from the section on hypnosis in subsequent congresses. Hippolyte Bernheim, who presided over the session, agreed that the discussion of these issues should be cordoned into their own subsection.

Ochorowicz anticipated the complaint of the anatomophysiological group by tying the research of the institute to the positive science of Auguste Comte and assured the congress participants that the methods of the new organization were to be marked by their absolute independence from the metaphysical tradition that had “eschewed experience” and “ignored shared scientific method.” 29 The institute was to be equipped with a conference room, a library, a museum, a clinic, a journal, and, most important, a laboratory

In the aftermath of the “stormy” session of the section on hypnosis and questions connexes, several participants had grown concerned that “behind the word psychique there was the dreaded phantom of études psychiques [psychical studies]!” 34 As a concession, the name was changed to Institut Psychologique International just before the congress convened

Question 56

Marthe Béraud, 1905

Answer 56

Algerian villa of a retired French army officer and his wife.

the Villa Carmen became the scene of astonishing events in which spirits took on physical form, breathed, walked, talked, touched observers, posed for photographs, and then vanished like vapor. Richet’s testimony, which appeared alongside photos of a phantom in Les Annales des Sciences Psychiques and, in an abbreviated version, in Le Figaro, detailed these experiences and confirmed that the phenomena had not been produced by fraudulent means.

Magnetized in a curtained corner of the room, Béraud remained visible during the materializations through an
opening in the fabric. At her feet formed what was described as a ball of tissue, a substance that gave Richet occasion to coin the term ectoplasme, a substance he suspected was physiological in origin. From this ball developed the head of Bien-Boa, which lifted vertically from the floor to achieve full stature, complete with cloak, helmet, and beard

Richet also dismissed the suggestion that some duplicitous role had been played by two other women who frequented the séances (the négresse Aïssa and a palmist called Ninon) on the basis that the collusion of the socially respectable Marthe with such persons was unthinkable, given her “purity” and the “simplicity of [her] soul.”

Richet’s most esteemed colleagues, including Théodule Ribot, Pierre Janet, and Théodore Flournoy, would tend to echo this sentiment by reaffirming his reputation as a perspicacious man of science. 64 More skeptical readers were, however, less inclined to give Richet the benefit of the doubt and wasted no time constructing an alternative version of events

clinical psychologist Valentin complained Richet= inadequately trained to study spiritism.
Phenomenon belonged to domain of mental pathology. Not subject to the experimental methods of the physiologist

B’s acceptance of gifts of jewelry from both Gabriel Delanne and Richet was deemed inappropriate by the matronly Noël, as was the physical contact between them occasioned by the séances.

newspaper article in 1906 revealed that an Arab coachman known as Areski, who had previously worked at the villa, had been hired to play the part of Bien Boa and that the entire thing was a hoax. Areski wrote that he made his appearance into the room by a trapdoor. Béraud also admitted to being involved with the hoax

Question 57

Charles Richet

Answer 57

Physiologist

Nobel Prize 1913, for his research on the causes of certain sudden deaths, which proved to be due to an unhappy combination of antigens. (He named this anaphylaxis.)

Question 58

Flournoy

Answer 58

Grandson Oliver Flournoy - Flournoy’s discovered but doesn’t manage to say that the subjectivity of the observer is also part of the scientific domain

Question 59

Meyer

Answer 59

• wealthy wine wholesaler
• revived La Revue in 1916 after 2 yrs out of print
• Revived the foundering Union Spirite Française in 1919 as means of coord w smaller regional organizations to better diffuse Kardecist doctrine.
• In 1923, Meyer estabd the Maison des Spirites in Paris - complex of offices to serve as HQ of Union Spirite
• 1919 provided principle financial support for IMI

Question 60

Eva Carrière (Marthe Béraud)

Answer 60

Bisson pre-war experiments. Checked rectum and vagina to see if using these to smuggle ectoplasm

Made eat blueberry jam to stain her insides

Most photogenic medium.

Le Matin - said spirit faces were clipped from Le Miroir

Schrenck-Notzing argued in response that the resemblance of the images might just as easily be accounted for by the phenomenon of “ideoplasty,” in which the medium gave ectoplasmic form to images that she had recently seen and whose traces (the letters of the title, the creases of the paper) had been registered in her memory and reproduced in exact detail in the materializations.
Produced photos by same method claimed by skeptics - much lower resolution, showed half-tone linescreen typical of the newsprint photo

Question 61

1922, Sorbonne

Answer 61

Eva C experiments at the Sorbonne in 1922
Disappointing results.

Popular press hailed as definitive blow against psychical research

Heuzé exposed Eva C as Marthe Béraud, woman of the Villa Carmen affair

Richet was accordingly baffled by the popular reaction to the 1922 report on Eva C., which for him revealed a stupefying inclination of the public to wildly exaggerate the meaning of the facts actually recorded. In reality, Richet noted, “my eminent friends at the Sorbonne” made no mention of fraud in their report and, on the contrary, concluded that Bisson at least had acted with undisputed good faith.

Geley suggested that in 2 of the 15 seances scientists had not ‘seen nothing’ as the report concluded. Also, unimpressive nature of the phenomena lay w the comte’s mediocre committement to the investigation

Bisson made excuses for Eva - poor health during many séances, poor lab conditions e.g. noise in neighbouring lab. Argued Eva’s sense of physical and emotional well-being was essential to production of phenomena.

Question 62

Guzik

Answer 62

Guzik séances in response to Eva C failure.
Geley described conditions under which demonstrations took place as ‘most severe conditions of control’

Prévost signed (along w 33 others) to attest to authenticity of phenomena. Opened pages of La Revue de France to thorough discussion of psychical research

Question 63

William Mumler

Answer 63

1861, Boston, produced the first photograph with “extras” - a spirit photograph

1863, Gardner (having been supporter of Mumler) returned to studio for portrait, spirit appeared. However, Gardner recognised this ‘spirit’ as someone v much alive - woman who had sat for Mumler few weeks earlier. Gardner led crusade to reveal Mumler as fraud - wrote letter to The Banner of Light.

Mumler’s reputation suffered and he had to return to previous work as jewelry engraver. 1868 moved to NYC. Charged w fraud + larceny and jailed

On trial in New York, 1869
During the Mumler trial, the character and doings of Mumler himself seemed at times a secondary consideration. Instead, prosecuting attorney Gerry spent much of the hearing arguing against the verac- ity of the photographs Mumler had produced. Gerry had expert witnesses attempt to recreate Mumler’s work to show possible ways to manipulate the camera, thus illustrating that he saw the need to prove the camera’s - and technology’s - fallibility. Witness after witness for the defense remained unconvinced, how- ever, testifying to their belief that Mumler’s photographs contained images of their depart- ed loved ones. Gerry, in cross-examining these witnesses, kept the focus of the trial on their faith, equating it with naivete.

Mumler’s case dismissed on grounds of insufficient evd, tho judge morally convinced there had been trick and deception

Two weeks after the judgement, the mems of the Photography Seciton of the American Institute - voice of the scientific establishment - unanimously adopted statement denouncing spirit photog as trickery

Question 64

Henry Slade (Sommer)

Answer 64

Zöllner, inspired by Crookes, in 1877-8, conducted series of experiments w American Henry Slade, who specialized in slate-writing (direct spirit writing)

caused major public and academic scandal

Wundt argued that even eminent scientists shld not be considered authorities, and that true experts in study of mediums were prestidigitators.
Spiritualism = inherently reprehensible and dangerous. Argued Spiritualism based on same phenomena as Early Modern witch craze

Question 65

Frederic Myers

Answer 65

English classical scholar, school inspector, poet (1843-1901). Remained school inspector through SPR work

• Evangelical environment of upbringing
• Personal extinction idea horrified him
• Quest became increasingly personal: suicide of Annie Marshall, cousin’s wife. Death of intimate friend, Gurney, 1888
• unpublished memoirs - Secretly wished that closer assoc w Spiritualists might give him access to private home circles, where most interesting events said to take place
• tirelessly explained the SPR’s position in the SPR Journal and Light (Spiritualist weekly)
  SPR position: not hostile to Spiritualism. Sole concern was dispassionate examination of evidence.
• In early papers of Society’s Proceedings, Myers categorized apparitions into 57 groups
• developed theory of ‘subliminal self’ - The Subliminal Consciousness (1889–95)
• pattern late 1880s, 1890s: work on his theoretical papers trying to establish clarity in the field with regard to canons of evidence and some initial explanatory framework, then to examine a medium in detail when the conditions of control appeared adequate.
  Did this with Piper, Palladino, Thompson
• inching towards accepting Spiritualist hypothesis late 1880s.
• 1893, Myers stated in autobiographical draft that he had received messages from deceased Gurney which convinced him of postmortem survival
• For Myers, crowning glories = sittings w Mrs. Piper in James’s house in Cambridge, Massachusetts 1893, and sittings w Mrs Thompson from 1898. By this time, his position virtually indistinguishable from conventional Spiritualist
• contact with Theosophical Soc. Absorbed many religious influences
• distorted and misinterpreted modern psychology in the interests of upholding ancient wisdom. Wanted psych to be science of the soul. Science always remained a highly malleable discipline for Myers (Oppenheim)
• His mind may have imagined itself at home in a scientist’s laboratory, but Myers’ heart always yearned for a church (Oppenheim)
• Myers, subliminal self = boldest and best-known of contributions that psychical research made to psychology before WW1.
• M, not original experiments, but propounded theories that seemed to unify diverse phenomena into coherent patterns. Flournoy praised.

Question 66

William James

Answer 66

Harvard psychologist and philosopher, 1842-1910

Founding member of the American SPR, 1884

discovered Leonora Piper and introduced her to psychical research community, late 1880s

President of the SPR, 1894-6

Question 67

Lead-up to SPR

Answer 67

1870s investigations = tedious, expensive, disappointing. Mediums: Wood, Fairlamb, Petty family, etc.
Cambridge group found the observational standards of Spiritualists v low

Investigations guttered out. Enthusiasm of Cambridge gorup revived when William Barrett brought to their attent his investigations into mesmerism, thought-transference, clairvoyance, end of 1870s

Barrett w Rogers summoned the two-day conference Jan 1882 that led to setting up of SPR following Feb

Question 68

Arthur Conan Doyle

Answer 68

• Joined SPR 1893
• Public acceptance of Spiritualism declared 1916
• Lecturing tours - Australia and New Zealand 1920 and 1921
• 1922 tour of US and Canada
• 1933 another US tour
• 1928-1929 - Africa
• Europe, 1929
• Enormous audiences
• 300 letters a day
• McCabe debate 1920
• essentially liberal Christian
• His targets were dogmatism and materialism, and the bleak prospect that the latter offered in denying the possibility of some form of spiritual dimension beyond limits of physical world
• What was innovative was Doyle’s use of the Great War as a cipher for spiritual reform. War = cataclysmic rupture.
  Doyle’s Spiritualism = reformist doctrine that claimed the war as a moment of social, religious and political transformation
  (French)

Question 69

Cahagnet

Answer 69

• Spiritualist mesmerist
• Parisian cabinetmaker

The Celestial telegraph, 1850:

• Many séances
• Maginot (somnambulist) most productive

Education clouded the mind to new realizations.
Somnambules spoke the truth.

Cahagnet used what somnambules reported to construct full-fledged theology. Afterlife = described in markedly Catholic terms

Points where somnambules contradicted Catholic dogma, e.g. no hell

Cahagnet edited Le Magnétiseur Spiritualiste, journal of the Société des Magnéteusers Spiritualistes de Paris, 1849-51.

Question 70

Allan Kardec

Answer 70

Formerly Rivail

died 1869

studied Mesmerism in the 1820s

devoted himself to popular education when the idealism of the Second Republic was in full bloom.

had a middle-class respect for dignified and educated men, a strong faith in the authority conferred by objective inquiry, a Positivist’s suspicion of metaphysical speculation, and a republican’s belief in the inevitability of progress

throughout 1849, he lectured on physiology, astronomy, chemistry, and physics at the Lycée Polymathique

Late in 1853, Mesmerist friend, Fortier, told him about uncanny events that had occurred in his experimental séances

decisive encounter that led to his eventual conversion occurred in May 1855, when he called on Fortier in the apartment of a somnambule, Mme Roger.

spirit Zéphyr, for his part, communicated his approval of the project through the Mlles Baudin. He also suggested a pseudonym for Rivail to use

1856, to accelerate the process of information gathering, Kardec began to frequent the somnambulist Mlle Célina Japhet and her magné- tiseur, M. Roustan.

Argued for use of word ‘spiritisme’ rather than ‘spiritualisme’ - which had been used, and meant ‘opposite of materialism’ rather than referring 2 movement itself specifically. Spiritisme entered general language

insisted on medium employing technique of automatic writing rather than ouija boards or planchettes.

Did not employ the rapping and table turning associated with American Spiritualism

Kardec’s decision to take the word of one group of spirits, and discount that of another, might seem all too subjective.

Kardec addressed this objection by appealing to the truth-determining power of rigorous logic

Question 71

Catholic opposition to Spiritist phenomena

Answer 71

situation changed with the emergence of tables parlantes, and the growth of visionary speculation that accompanied it

Church could no longer remain mute

bishop of Viviers’ pastoral letter

many other prelates issued injunctions of their own. Between December 1853 and March 1854, the archbishops incl of Paris, Rouen, along with bishops incl of Le Mans, Marseille all condemned experiments with the new phenomena

July 1856, Pope Pius IX supported these proclamations with the encyclical Adversus Magnetismi Abusus, which prohibited Catholics from undertaking any experiments that involved, or seemed to involve, conversation with the spirit world.

Question 72

Marc Séguin and the Académie

Answer 72

one of the most eminent corresponding members of the Académie, inventor of the wooden railway tie and the suspension bridge

Arago, the secré- taire perpetuel, read Séguin’s paper to the Académie during the meeting of May 19, 1853, and designated a commission of three members, Ernest Chevreul, Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, and Jacques Babinet, to study the new phenomena.

Arago - tables turned because séance participants pushed them

Question 73

Faraday

Answer 73

Late June 1853, published an account of his own experiments with the tables tournantes and concluded that the physical pressure séance participants unwittingly exerted on the table-top caused the mysterious rotation.

Question 74

1853, Isle of Jersey

Answer 74

Victor Hugo and Auguste Vacquerie were in exile

experiments with tables tournantes began at the urging of the salonnière and writer Delphine Gay de Girardin

rapped the name of Hugo’s favorite daughter, Léopoldine

Victor Hugo: Do you have a commentary for us? The Table: Republic. VH: When? Strike the floor as many times as there are years from now until the Republic. The table struck two blows. The animated table, here, became a powerful source of reassurance, not only in matters of metaphysics but in worldly affairs as well.

Question 75

Kardec’s influence

Answer 75

In 1861 alone, he claimed to have received between 1,200 and 1,500 visitors eager to discuss his new doctrine.

by 1863, had amassed a backlog of 3,600 spirit communications from various mediums or societies, submitted for his consideration and approval

1860-2 lecture tours through south of France.
Printed pamphlet, Le Spiritisme à sa plus simple expression, 25 centimes

Question 76

Spiritism and gender

Answer 76

Of the 116 mediums who contributed to the Revue Spirite between 1858 and 1869, 46 were women

Question 77

Camille Flammarion

Answer 77

French astronomer.

After his conversion, one of the most visible apologists for Kardec’s doctrine. He published three books on the subject between 1862 and 1865, and contributed a long series of articles on Kardec’s ideas to the literary journal La Revue Française

became increasingly skeptical of the way in which Kardec used spirit communications as the basis for philosophical speculation.

In the early 1860s, he had produced several automatic writings that he had believed were dictated by the spirit of Galileo and had submitted them to Kardec

Now, though, Flammarion doubted the authenticity of the signature. These communications, he argued, were merely “the reflection of what I knew, of what we thought at that time, about the planets, the stars, cosmogony, etc.”
His alleged Galileo had told him, for example, that Saturn had eight moons, when by 1899 astronomers had discovered a ninth.

Question 78

Honorine Huet and Spiritism

Answer 78

By 1860, she had become the exclusive voice of Saint Louis, the Société Parisienne’s spirit guide.

In exchange for this loyal patronage, Kardec extended Saint Louis considerable power over the conduct of the society’s meetings. The spirit, always writing through Huet, came to serve as a final arbiter, particularly in contentious or awkward situations

When disputes arose about the conduct of meetings or the resolution of disagreements, Kardec would ask Saint Louis for advice; the distinguished spirit, in turn, seems to have felt no qualms about contradicting the society president

Huet was not able to sustain this remarkable influence, however. Communications credited to her ceased appearing in the Revue spirite after 1861

A certain number of mediums, he told his audience, had recently withdrawn from his group because “they wished to stand before the Society as exclusive mediums, and as infallible interpreters of the celestial powers.”

Question 79

Vatican, 1864

Answer 79

issued a decree placing works by Kardec and other Spiritist authors on the Index, the Church’s list of forbidden books

Question 80

Leymarie

Answer 80

a lower-middle-class autodidact and radical

an exuberant, pugnacious activist.

new position as editor of the Revue spirite allowed him to abandon his old trade, close his shop, and devote himself to the life of the mind in a way that would ordinarily have been beyond the means of someone of his class

By the end of 1882, Leymarie’s flamboyant political radicalism, enthusiasm for novel spiritual systems, and un–self-conscious pursuit of material opulence had created a considerable amount of discontent in the Société de la caisse générale

Question 81

Cesare Lombroso

Answer 81

• Italian Criminologist
• had been an outspoken critic of psychical research.
• After his first séance with Palladino, however, June 1891, Lombroso pronounced himself “quite ashamed” of his earlier resistance and reversed his opinion

Question 82

Léon Denis

Answer 82

chief benefits of Spiritism were its popular appeal and its capacity to provide consolation in a manner consistent with anticlerical republican ideals

used the trope of empiricism to indicate the modernity and universality of Spiritism

also readily acknowledged “the immense role that woman has played” in Spiritism. Where Kardec had striven to emphasize the movement’s masculine character, Denis feminized it

As he told a large audience in Paris in 1898, women benefited from a “refined and delicate organization,” which gave them “the privilege of vibrating more intensely to the breath of the ideal.”
for Denis it was the moral authority of women that gave Spiritism its true power.

Denis admitted that the medium’s own mind could exert a subconscious influence on spirit communications. At the same time, however, Denis insisted that authentic communications were common and easily recognizable

Mediums frequently revealed intimate details known only to the deceased and his or her family

Dénis’s approach came to dominate:

In the final analysis, the palpable experience of the sacred that Spiritism offered its believers proved more attractive than any promise of full acceptance by the mainstream scientific community.

Question 83

Gabriel Delanne

Answer 83

Delanne sought to accomplish this goal by drawing on psychical research.

In 1896, he established a new journal for this purpose, the Revue scientifique et morale du spiritisme

o give his journal an appropriately rigorous tone, Delanne self-consciously avoided the automatic writings that featured so prominently elsewhere in the Spiritist press; instead, he published articles that bore a closer resemblance to those in the Annales des sciences psychiques

He also established an organization devoted to the objective study of supernormal phenomena, the Société française d’étude des phénomènes psychiques

Most communications, in other words, were not the work of spirits, but instead were of either unconscious or telepathic origin. A few exceptional messages, however, did come from the beyond: Those written in languages unknown to the medium or those that far exceeded the medium’s normal intellectual capacity, for example, could still logically be ascribed to spirit intervention

transformed authentic spirit communication from something quite common into a marked rarity

Reconciliation with psychology, therefore, came at a tremendous price: To preserve the possibility of otherworldly intervention, Delanne had to deprive ordinary believers of the experience of personal consolation that made Spiritism attractive in the first place.

Question 84

Spiritualist phenomena first reported in NYC

Answer 84

December 1848

Question 85

1850, Rev Burr

Answer 85

attempt to expose tricks of the Spiritualists - gave series of demonstrations in which he produced ‘rappings’ by cracking toe joints

Question 86

1854, ‘Spiritualists Memorial’

Answer 86

15,000 signed petition to Congress to set up a Commission to investigate their claims

Question 87

Dr Gardener of Boston

Answer 87

1849 voyage to California. Got together circles of interested ppl in San Francisco

Question 88

Fox sisters spreading the message

Answer 88

1851 visited Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Daily Times reported 3 yrs later that at least 59 seances were held regularly every night in the city, and hundreds of circles were held occasionally, and at least 310 practicing mediums. Circles not restricted to one class of soc, nor a partic religion - ‘Christians, Jews and Infidels.

Question 89

Socialist Spiritualist community

Answer 89

Mountain Cove, Virginia, led by Scott and Haris

Question 90

Spiritualism’s organisation in America

Answer 90

Permanent national organisation not formed until 1898.

New state associations. New York State Association - the first, founded in 1867.

1869, first instance of ordination of a Spirituailst Minister

Question 91

First English Spiritualist paper

Answer 91

The Spirit World

Produced by Hayden, May 1853

Question 92

Lyon vs Home

Answer 92

Home became assoc w Mrs Lyon, who later sued him. Charged him with obtaining money from her by extortion and undue influence. Case was heard April 1868, went against Home, left in considerable debt

Question 93

Spiritualist organisations in Britain - trials and tribulations

Answer 93

late 1860s, St John’s Association

1865, national Convention of Progressive Spiritualists held at Darlington. Attended by 25 ppl.

Not attended by Christian Spiritualists. Meeting ignored by the Spiritualist press. James Burns was incensed by this, made speech accusing Spiritualist press of being sectarian.

Conventions set up a permanent organisation - The Association of Progressive Spiritualists of Great Britain

1866, British Association of Progressive Spiritualists held second convention at Newcastle

The Spiritual Magazine condemned the Progressive Spiritualists for being too narrow and favouring the anti-Christian type of Spiritualism then prevalent in America

June 1873, Liverpool Psychological Society held annual conference. Formed itself into National Association. James Burns opposed national organisation.

Spring 1874, British National Association of Spiritualists begam holding social meetings for members.

May 1875, membership had risen to 403, with societies at Brixton, Dalston, Cardiff, Brussels and Budapest allied. Spanish and South American organisations later became allied. Leadership develd into oligarchy.

Atempt to rig proxy votes at Council meeting and get control was exposed by Harrison in his journal, The Spiritualist. Rogers atacked him at next council meeting

Harrison’s continuing criticisms. Harrison (a Council mem) pressed for more democratic proceedings. His proposals rejected. Council passed resolutions which declared the proceedings of comtes shld be only open to inspection by persons who were not mems of the Council if they had obtained the express permission of the Council

Feb 1879, Harrison, Massey and Gregory resigned. Many spiritualists left the National Assoc

Oct 1883, special conference decided to liquidate the affairs of the society and form new soc. This became the London Spiritualist Alliance

1st district association in 1875 - Lancahire Assoc for the Promotion of Spiritualism in New Districts. Missionary-style organisation

Yorkshire District Committee was the only one of the early organisations to have an extended existence. Late 1880s, diff type of district organisation arose, based on aim of promoting common interests and furthering expansion and work of existing societies

By 1912, 15 Unions and District Councils in existence

Question 94

Mediums’ Unions

Answer 94

Lancashire Mediums’ Union formed 1900. Open to semi-professional and unpaid mediums, public speakers and all mems of Spiritualist societies. 60 mems in 3 months.

1906, Scottish Mediums’ Union.

Lancashire Union into British Mediums’ Union in 1906 - May 1906, membership= 130. Worked to raise the standards of mediumship and protect mediums. Opposed fortune-telling and wld not support any mediums who resorted to fortune telling

Question 95

Spiritualists’ National Union

Answer 95

formally est 1901

Grew slowly at 1st and largely restricted to the north. Propaganda meetings and arranging speakers

National Union formed. Controversial. Devised scheme for examination and certificaiton of exponents and demonstrators. .

Move towards control and routinisation of charisma - met with opposition from within the movement

Principle of examination of platform workers became accepted as part of the work of the national body.

1909 National Union set up General Building Fund.

Question 96

National Union in 1910

Answer 96

had 120 affild societies and 12 district unions or committees.

1913, 141 societies in affiliation

Question 97

Mediums convicted

Answer 97

March 1916, a medium, Mrs barnes, was convicted on a charge of fortune-telling for having acted as a medium at a service at the Spiritualist Hall, and two other persons were also convicted of aiding and abetting

Spiritualists set up United Spiritualists’ Defence Fund. Appeal failed.

SNU opened fund July 1916 to fight for amendment to the Witchcraft and Vagrancy Acts, but this not secured until after WW2

Question 98

Geographical distribution of formal Spiritualist organisation

Answer 98

By 1919, 309 Societies affild to the SNU and many unaffild societies in the country. Majority of SNU societies in the north, only 46 in the South, 45 in Midlands, 5 in Scotland, 5 overseas, 1 Ireland

Question 99

1919 Conference of the SNU

Answer 99

approved New Memoranda and Articles of Association - main points = that subscriptions of each Soc = per capita of its mems. Council elected. 1919, Jewish Spiritualist Society established

Question 100

Hope

Answer 100

accused of fraud in 1922, leading to mass resignation of 84 mems of the SPR

Question 101

Spiritualist organisation in 1930s

Answer 101

1934: 562 societies affild to the GWCSL and 496 to the SNU
1938: 539 churches affild to the SNU

Summer of 1939 the Spiritualist movement was still growing

Question 102

Lyceum movement

Answer 102

founded by American seer Andrew Jackson Davis on 25th Jan 1863. Ppl who die in childhood have to be educated bc they grow to maturity in the next world. Idea not of cramming in knowl, but of developing child’s own potential

James Burns introduced Lyceum movement to Britain = 1st one in Nottingham in June 1866. Only 4 Lyceums by October 1880.

Kitson = father of British Lyceums

57 Lyceums by 1889, estimated membership of 640 officers and 4352 members.

Lyceum Union (BSLU) formed.
1931, 263 Lyceums. 

Lyceum movement declined by 1934 - 230 Lyceums.
Main decline after WW2

Question 103

William Benjamin Carpenter

Answer 103

distinguished Victorian physiologist, medical practitioner, and zoologist.

anti-Spiritualist

staunch Unitarian, Carpenter believed that the laws of the material universe were direct expressions of God’s will and that natural laws could not be broken without His will (Noakes)

Building on the researches on bodily and mental reflexes of such early Victorian physicians as Marshall Hall and Thomas Laycock, the associationist psychology of David Hartley, and his own extensive studies of mesmerism, table-turning, spirit-rapping, somnambulism, and hysteria, Carpenter developed the notion that all mental activity was, in the first instance, automatic or spontaneous, and that the more developed the species, the more unconscious mental reflexes could be regulated by the will.

‘epidemic delusions’ were propagated by individuals who, under the influence of erroneous ‘dominant ideas’ from within or suggestions from without, had become the sorry victims of their automatic mental reflexes and thus experienced sensations and motor responses (‘ideomotor’ actions) that were entirely dependent on false ideas and stimuli.

Their interpretations could not be trusted because they usually entered séances already possessed by the ‘dominant idea’ of disembodied spirits, a strong expectation that severely weakened their ability to control unconscious mental and physical responses with educated judgement

• Definition of rigorous scientific education varied w intended victim, so everyone who rejected spiritualism was sufficiently educated, whereas everyone who did not lacked adequate (Oppenheim)

Question 104

William Crookes

Answer 104

chemist

discovered thallium 1861

Edited the Quarterly Journal of Science in the 1860s and 70s

began investigating Spiritualism in 1867

1870, séances with Home.

summer of 1871 he constructed several mechanical instruments for registering the power that seemed to emanate from Home’s body

Satisfied that Home had not secretly manipulated the apparatus or performed any other trickery, Crookes was confident that his apparatus had registered the existence of a ‘new force.
Psychic force

Knighthood 1897, Order of Merit, 1910, presidency of Royal Society 1913-5

Psychic researches occupied small span of time - 5 yrs of active investigation 1870-5

Sat with Home, Kate Fox, Fay, Morse, Moses, etc. Crookes’ séances with Home, 1871-3

Crookes recounted investigations w Home in the Quarterly Journal of Science, July and Oct 1871. Emphd the mechanical contrivances devised to test the medium’s powers

galvanometer test with Cook, believed this had advantage of absolute certainty since the medium has hands or body removed from the wires

Séances with Cook, 1874-5. Fully materiaized form of Katie King. Spiritualist Newspaper, 5 June 1874 - noted Katie’s perfect beauty

Faith in Cook shaken after Showers’ exposure.

Katie King had in 1874 promenaded arm in arm with Maple, Mary Showers’ materialized spirit. Crookes served on SPR council and president in late 1890s

Crookes briefly subscribed to Spiritualist views, then attitude changed by mid-1870s and suspended judgement on subject until 1916

After wife’s death 1916, convinced that Hope captured his wife’s spirit on film

exerted an important influence on a number of prominent British physicists during the 1870s, including William Barrett, Lord Rayleigh, and later, Oliver Lodge, all of whom became active in spiritual research. (Shortt)

Question 105

Famous audiences for Spiritualism

Answer 105

Lady Waldegrave, Lady Hastings

Question 106

Daniel Dunglas Home

Answer 106

celebrated medium

Ashley House levitation, London, December 1868. Lord Adare, Master of Lindsay, Wynne - Home floated out of one room overlooking Victoria Street, and entered through window of adjacent room

Crookes séances 1870. Retired early 1870s

Question 107

Florence Cook

Answer 107

matrializations, 1870s

June 1871 Blyton published article on Florence Cook in the Spiritualist, and other believers became aware for 1st time of new and promising young medium

As Cook’s powers progressed, spirit faces became more animated and she began to materialise arms and hands

Daily Telegraph account of Cook séance. Materialisations complete w medium being secured inside the cabinet by spirits put Florence marginally ahead of competition

‘Katie King’ - Britain’s first full spirit materialisation, recorded in Daily Telegraph 1873 - novelty value

exposure:

Sir George Sitwell, grabbed alleged full-form materialization in 1880 séance. Transgressed bounds of good behaviour expected of séance participants, but certainly proved to all that most blindly faithful that Cook was cheat

Question 108

Maskelyne

Answer 108

Magician

from 1865, reproduced manifestations of the Davenports. Ridiculed spiritualism

Question 109

WT Stead

Answer 109

1892 Stead discovered his ability to write automatically.

Published Letters from Julia 1905 (Julia Ames, temperence reformer, dead)

the principle of growth, of evolu-
tion, of endless progress toward ideal perfection,
continues to be the law of life

The evidence may be briefly summarized under
the following heads:

(2) The giving of
a test in the first message of an affectionate sobri-
quet bestowed by her on her death-bed, which was
known to her friend but unknown to me. (3) The
minute description of an incident which had oc-
curred in or about 1885, of which I had never
heard, and which Ellen herself had entirely for-
gotten until her memory was revived

(4) The writing out with my hand
of names. Christian and surname, entirely unknown
to me, who were her friends in her native land.
(5) The intense personal and affectionate interest
taken by the user of my hand in persons and move-
ments in which my interest was by no means so
deep as was Julia’s

Question 110

Robert Owen

Answer 110

Conversion in 1853. Helped to convert working-classes

Question 111

Rogers

Answer 111

founding mem of the British National Association of Spiritualists in 1873.

1881, when body on lazt legs, Rogers took initiative in founding weekly Spiritualist paper, Light. Played central part in organising the SPR.

1884 joined London Spiritualist Alliance, founded by Stainton Moses.

President of the Alliance on Moses’s death in 1892.

Question 112

James Burns

Answer 112

catered to popular spiritualism. ‘progressive’ spiritualism, of Burns’s variety, became synonymous with non-Christian spiritualism. Exuberant reformist aspect was far more characteristic of the movement on a popular than a fashionable lvl

Burns = principal spokesman for anti-Christian spiritualism in Br. His point of view relatively obscure. Lacked prominent publicists

Question 113

Spiritualist newspapers in Britain pre-WW1

Answer 113

Before WW1, well over a dozen Spiritualist newspapers and magazines

Spiritualist Newspaper, 1869-82, wrote chiefly in connection with scientific subjects

Light, published from 1881, became affiliated with the London Spiritualist Alliance. Two Worlds published in Manchester from 1887. Appealed to provincial readers
Two worlds became leading organ of reform-minded and ‘progressive’ - non-Christian - Spiritualism

Question 114

William Stainton Moses

Answer 114

When the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded, Moses was part of the organizing group and was made a vice-president. However, he took little interest in the purely scientific objectives of the SPR and resigned in 1886 in protest at what he considered unreasonable and inappropriate controls in the SPR’s study of the medium William Eglinton.

president and autocrat of LSA until death in 1892.

Question 115

Reverend Haweis

Answer 115

Dynamic style of presentation made him one of most effective and popular preachers in London 2nd half of 19th C.

Endorsed Spiritualism

tales of unexpected manifestations of dead friends, lovers, relatives, became ‘tiresomely common’ in the 1890s

Question 116

Henry Sidgewick

Answer 116

• Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge. Remained so throughout SPR
• unlucky as psychical researcher
• SPR president 1882-92, except 1885-7
• was in Metaphysical Society, founded 1869
• died of cancer 1900

Question 117

Eleanor Sidgwick (maiden name: Balfour)

Answer 117

• sister of the PM
• Henry’s wife
• continued G’s inquiries into relationship between hypnosis and telepathy, using Smith as hypnotist
• 1832, Lord Balfour announced to SPR that Mrs. S was a spiritualist

Question 118

SPR precursors

Answer 118

Ghost Society, Benson, 1850.

Oxford Phasmatological Society, originated among group of University College undergraduates in 1879, lasting until 1885.
Sidgwick had joined Ghost Society when undergraduate

Myers, Gurney, Sidgwick - Saw diff mediums - Fay, Showers, Slade. W exception of Myers, they realized skepticism ws reasonable and optimism generally misplaced in a field where error, self-delusion and potent motives for fraud flourished abundantly

Question 119

Edmund Gurney

Answer 119

Classisist

By 1883, G had abandoned attempts to estab career in music, med and law, and had begun to dedicate all talents to SPR

• G was only one for whom SPR became professonal commitment - only source of (unpaid) employment.
• contributions to the Society’s investigations during the 1880s concentrated partic on hypnotism and telepathy. Believed they cld be tested in way the highly suspect and erratic physical phenomena of spiritualism cld not
• Death 1888. Chloroform O.D. Suicide?
• Gurney wanted to expose inability of neurological reductionism to probe the human mind in all its intricacies. He displayed his familiarity with man’s material aspect, not only because he acknowl the inseparability of body and mind, but because he sought to demonstrate his scientific credibility. Found evd of memory in hypnotic states, so attempted to demonstrate that it was not just state of unconscious automatism. Hypnotism prompted behaviour at once conscious and reflex. His work more focused on the conscious
• Notion of secondary intelligence
• G - in hypnotism, whatever force was at work required both a physical and mental foundation in order to function properly. Recognition of multiple levels of consciousness
• G’s approach to psychology shared by Janet, James, Binet, Jung. Mind = dynamic entity. Psychology not neurophysiology

Question 120

SPR’s illustrious membership

Answer 120

Presidents incl - Balfour brothers, William James, Eleanor Sidgwick, Andrew Lang, W Boyd Carpenter, Henri Bergson, Arthur Balfour, John Robert Hollond (Liberal MP for Brighton).

Clientele became even more illustrious in following yrs - num of mems surpassed 900 by 1895 Honorary mems in 1887 - Gladstone, Ruskin, Lord Tennyson

Question 121

Eglinton, and divisions between Spiritualists and non-Spiritualists in SPR

Answer 121

1883-6 tensions between SPR and spiritualism thrown into sharper relief. 1886, SPR investigation of Eglinton, one of the most renowned physical mediums of the late 19th C. Mrs Sidgwick investigated, supported by Hodgson

Spate of articles in SPR Journal and Proceedings 1886 and 7 punctured Eglinton’s reputation - Mrs Sidgwick, Hodgson and Davey all stressed the fallibility of human observation and memory. Eglinton took offense, urged admirers in SPR e.g. Massey, Moses, noel, wedgwood, wyld, wyndham, to abandon the Society forthwith.

No mass exodus of spiritualists. Departure of Moses with a handful of loyalists e.g. Speer and Watts.

Question 122

Work of Gurney and Myers for SPR

Answer 122

On the Literary Comte

Over 10,000 letters from the comte in 1883. Hundreds of cases categorized and analyzed in the famous study by Gurney, Myers and Podmore, Phantasms of the Living

Question 123

Eusapia Palladino

Answer 123

Italian Medium, peasant background

notorious for her erratic and vulgar behaviour inside and outside her seances and trance states. For example, apart from displaying a diva-like behaviour, she would, apparently merely to entertain herself, tell obvious lies and openly flirt with some of her distinguished male investigators, sometimes jumping on the horrified savants’ laps

• sittings for SPR periodically between 1894 and 1910
• first sittings w SPR 1894, south of France
• invited her to Cambridge 1895
• Palladino’s phenomena not remarkable by mediums’ standards, but profile raised by fact scientists unable to find evd of trickery
• Hodgson ‘exposed’. declared 1895 that she jst had ability to wriggle hands and feet free from control of sitters through variety of deceptive movements
• Hodgson, ed of SPR publications, barred Myers from publishing lengthy discussion of later sittings and supported Sidgwick in attemtp to put that vulgar cheat Eusapia beyond the pale

1910, séances in America = fiasco. Palladino behaved erratically and cheated blatantly

Question 124

Richard Hodgson

Answer 124

• Australian. Law Degree. Studied poetry
• became convinced of human survival, thanks to the American
  Trance medium Mrs Piper
• language that he used to convey his deep satisfaction with the universe echoed not the scholarly scientist but the intense Nonconformist he had once been before his crisis of faith in young adulthood.

Question 125

SPR international suppporters

Answer 125

Bernheim, Janet, Richet, Lombroso, William James = corresponding members. Freud. Was Myers who had first publicized in England the Breuer-Freud studies of hysteria. Robertson, editor of the Journal of Medical science during the 1860s, joined SPR

Question 126

George Romanes, Crichton-Browne and the SPR

Answer 126

Romanes seems to have joined the SPR in 1882

He unaffild by decemb 1883.

Disillusioned when participated in the Society’s thought-transference tests w Smith and Blackburn early 1883

Perhaps what shocked him most - not that he had discovered two charlatans practicing ‘patent imposture’, but that SPR officials present did not seem partic grateful for his acuity. In Crichton-Browne’s memory, Myers said it must be allowed that this demonstration has been a total failure, and I attrib that to the offensive incredulity of Dr Crichton-Browne

Question 127

Alfred Russell Wallace

Answer 127

co-discoverer of the theory of natural selection in the 1850s and its most ardent champion.

Argued for a distinct process of mental growth in man, entirely separate from the rest of the natural world.

Once attended séances in 1865 he seems quickly to have attained unquestioning belief. Wallace extended mediums benefit of the doubt.
Cook emerged as paragon of probity. Kate Fox = exemplar of lifelong sacrifice to her calling.

For Wallace, formal sceintific training or adequate knowledge was irrelevant to the pursuit of spiritualist truth. Trusted his eyes and ears, sense of touch and smell.
Refused to believe his senses cld be deceived

300) Wallace's dislike/ distrust of ppl who practiced philosophy at the séance table kept him from an active role in the SPR. Wallace became one of the Soc's honourary members - a position he retained despite increasing distaste for the tenor of its investigations

When offered post of presidency of SPR by Barret at least twice, said that the Society wld not rise in the public esteem under the leadership of such a widely known ‘crank’ and ‘faddist’ as himself

Wallace believed in Spiritualism bc of his social conscience. Worried about social imbalance he saw all around.

received numerous medals from sceintific societies, an honourary degree from Oxford, Fwllowship in the Royal Society. President of the Biology Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1876.

Wrote prolifically for Spiritualism in the scientific press, tho did not mention the word itself in his sci writing

Attempted to convince other scientists to study Spiritualism. E.g. invited Huxley to study a new branch of Anthropology. Pressured Carpenter and Tyndall also

Always stressed
Spiritualism appealed to his reason

Question 128

Scientist supporters of psychical research

Answer 128

SPR mems included Prof Stewart of Owens College, Marie Curie (honorary mem)

also, Rayleigh and Thomson (sceptics)

Question 129

Barrett

Answer 129

made transition from cautious psychical researcher to outspoken Spiritualist

paper on thought transference and Spiritualist phenomena for presentation at the Glasgow meeting of the BAAS in September 1876.

Was courageous step - had recently been appointed prof of physics at Royal College of Science in Dublin. ‘On Some Phenomena Associated with Abnormal Conditions of Mind’. Cautious. Dealt mostly w mesmeric experiments and w spiritualist phenomena only towards the end. Not prepared to accept the phenomena on evd he had seen

By 1876, working towards theory of thought transference (convinced by aspects of clairvoyance/ thought reading)
July 1881, published in Nature a provisional announcement of his findings, which emphd the inadequacies of Carpenter’s theories on thought transference. Strongest part of evd focused on the Creery household. The daughters/ servants appeared to be able to read thoughts

Oct 1887, Sidgwicks and Gurney caught two of the Creers cheating during experiments at Cambdige. Barretr was himself convinced that enough trustworthy experiments with the Creers existed to make it unwise to expunge whole of their evd (letter to Sidgwick, October 1887)

Election to Royal Society 1899

Barrett’s ‘Reminiscences’ 1924 - proclaimed certainty the evd published by the SPR demonstrated existence of spiritual world, survival after death and occasional communications from those who have passed over

son of clergyman

Barrett abhorred contemp science’s role as censur - its assumption of the authority to dictate what was, or was not, within the possible realm of supernatural law, and its exclusion of what he insisted were not supernatural, but merely supernormal, phenomena.

Question 130

Oliver Lodge

Answer 130

Physicist

joined SPR in 1884

Council mem for yrs. President from 1901-3

Only believed in communication w dead after séances with Leonora Piper, trance medium from Boston

Provided detailed info about sitters’ lives, habits, friends, relatives

winner of Royal Soc’s Rumford Medal, president of the Physical Society, principal of the University of Birmingham since 1900

saw no sharp distinction between physical and psychical research. Believed methods of the physical sciences were applicable to the psychical realm. Mentioned this in presidential address to the British Association

Lodge’s call for an expanded physics (e.g. in first presidential address to the SPR, March 1901. Lodge had come close to discovering electromagnetic radiation during his yrs at Liverpool

Lodge was one of grandfathers of theory of relativity

Lodge felt physics became too abstract in 20th C

Stubborn opponent of contemp physics after WW1

Abhorred notion of gaps in the fabric of the universe.

In face of modern tendency to stress discontinuous or atomic tendency of everything, Lodge waved banner of continuity

Little of the detached, impartial scientist in the older Lodge’s psychical research (Oppenheim)

Question 131

Hudson

Answer 131

First spirit photographer, London

1872, 1st spirit photog

Unlike Mumler’s ghosts, Hudson’s seemd to have v material density, which aroused suspicion.

John Jones accusations against Hudson

Arguments raged, splitting spiritualist movement into Hudsonists and anti-Hudsonists

Question 132

Kate Fox and Horace Day

Answer 132

Horace Day, wlthy American manufacturer, paid Kate Fox annual sum of $1200 in mid-1850s to give public séances

Question 133

Medium/ Spiritualist incarcerations

Answer 133

Louisa Lowe:

claimed she had been incarcerated by her husband on account of her Spiritualistic views, released on probationary certificate Decemb 1871. Harrison was sympathetic and allowed her considerable access to the pages of the Spiritualist. Lowe became honourary Sec of new Lunacy Law Reform Association, formed 1872

Georgina Weldon:

• Forbes Winslow’s attemptd incarceration of her
  166) Jury found against Winslow on 2 counts - libel and assault. Mrs Weldon awarded £500 damages. Georgina scored even more astounding success against Dr Semple, one of the certifying physicians. In a legal action brought the previous yr, she showed that Semple had gained unlawful entry to her house and had incorrectly declared her to be a person of unsound mind on the lunacy certificate. Jury awarded her £1000 damages, and further £20 on count of trespass

(Owen) Georgina’s behaviour, partic as viewed by antagonistic husband and family, was disruptive of the social and gendered order. Posed overt threat to patriarchal law. This was what differentiated her from the many Spiritualist women who operated w/in sympathetic milieu and w family sanction. Was in an effort to contain and silence his wife that Mr Weldon turned to the lunatic asylum

Question 134

Chandos Hunt

Answer 134

medium and hlth reformer

Undesirable spirit of a swaggering drunken sailor complete w coarse laughter and language I cannot repeat cld subsequently be fielded by Chandos Hunt as an object lesson in the brutalising effects of alcohol.

Question 135

Cottingley fairies

Answer 135

photographs of supposedly real fairies that were taken in 1917 and 1920 by two young girls - Elsie Wright, Frances Griffiths

1980s confessions of the two photographers, by then old ladies of seventy-six and eighty-two, that the photographs, with the possible exception of one, had been faked

technique had required no tampering with cameras or photographic plates; she had drawn the fairies, cut them out, painted them with water-colours, and secured them to the ground with hat pin

The Celtic revival and the establishment of the Folk-Lore Society in London in 1878 each contributed in different ways to the growing field of fairy studies

Arthur Conan Doyle chose to bring the Cottingley fairies before the British public in an article written for the Christmas edition of the Strand Magazine, beginning of December 1920

Conan Doyle, clearly intrigued, was relieved to discover that Gardner had already sought to verify the authenticity of the photographs, and that it was the original negatives, and not the prints made from the second set of negatives, that he had submitted to the scrutiny of photographic experts. At least one experienced photographer (Conan Doyle cites two) had formed favourable conclusions as to ‘the genuineness of the pictures’. This was Mr Snelling of Harrow, Middlesex, a photographer who owned his own studio business.14 Now, apparently at Conan Doyle’s urging, experts from Kodak, Ltd, were consulted. These, a studio chief and photographers from the firm, could find no evidence of faked work but were not prepared to supply a written guarantee of authenticity. Snelling, on the other hand, was prepared to commit himself in writing.

1922, Coming of the Fairies

Conan Doyle represented the old-fashioned virtues of honesty and decency, gentlemanly behaviour, and the honourable code

Question 136

Taylor, editor of the British Journal of Photography

Answer 136

revived general interest in spirit photography 1890s.
Prevented fraud - own camera and unopened packages of plate

Compared and analyzed their photographic phantasms at public meetings.

Skeptics who challenged authenticity of spirit photography knew little about modern photographic techniques and theories - they therefore cld not engage the expert Taylor on technical lvl

Question 137

The Shakers

Answer 137

Established in 1770s by Mother Ann Lee. Followers believed her to embody feminine side of dual-natured God.

late 1830s, experienced episode of spiritual frenzy.

Question 138

Fox sisters appearing before public

Answer 138

Corinthian Hall, Rochester, November 1849

Maggie and Leah

Women of Rochester failed to find evd of duplicity

Question 139

Growth of Spiritualism US

Answer 139

One newspaper ed. Estimated 12000 mediums emerged in Cincinnati in wake of the Fox sisters’ visit there

Question 140

WW1 British death toll

Answer 140

over 700,000 British soldiers died

Question 141

Elliotson’s somnambule, O’Key

Answer 141

Not only did O’Key invert the processes of experimentation and diagnosis with respect to herself, she began to extend them to the rest ofthe hospital. She began, while entranced, to diagnose the diseases of other patients in the hospital, to prescribe therapies, and to take a pivotal role in mesmeric experiments which were carried out on other patients. In short, she established herself as adjudicator of the other mesmeric subjects, that is, the one who could decide whether they were truly entranced, or just faking

Question 142

Boston Courier 1857

Answer 142

offered 500 dollars to any medium who cld prove existence of spirit communication to panel of 4 distinguished Harvard professors, incl Peirce, Agassiz.
Fox sisters took challenge

Harvard professors and the reporter found the mediums unconvincing. Mediums included the Davenport brothers. At conclusion of the 2-day investigation, reporter wrote only the Fox sisters had produced manifestations, but he and professors chose to dismiss these as just a little rapping by the Foxes, easily traceable to their persons… so ends this ridiculous and infamous imposture

Mediums claimed the manifestatiosn had been predictably weak because of the investigators’ hostility. Organised 2nd set of demonstrations for diff group of reporters, who turned out to be more enthusiastic