William F. Barrett

William James

by Robin M. Strom-Mackey

William James, brother to the novelist Henry James, was a vastly popular, Harvard professor and author. James actually started out teaching in the area of Physiology, but found he was much more fascinated by  the newly emerging science of psychology. He made his fame by authoring the first college textbooks (a two-volume set) on the newly emerging science, The Principles of Psychology published in 1890. The textbooks which had taken James a decade to write, won him international acclaim and redefined the newly emerging field of psychology. James’ theories in Psychology are relevant to this day, and included the idea of conscious thought as a continuous river of thought, better known as the stream of consciousness. He is also credited with founding the first, U.S. psychological demonstration laboratory, although he quickly abandoned the laboratory setting as being too narrow, returning to, "the broader realms of free observation, reflection, and speculation which philosophy allowed (PBS.org)."

Later in his career James changed directions again. Following a mental and physical breakdown in 1899, he spent a year recovering, and when he returned to the lecture circuit he returned with a fresh view to the psychology of religion. He published, in 1902, the book The Varieties of Religious Experience, which centered on the similarities of individual, human, spiritual experiences across religions and centuries.

(Picture: William James attending a seance) James brought the Society of Psychical Research to the United States, helping establish the American branch in 1885. He and wife Alice became more avid in their pursuit of the spiritual and supernatural, however, after the loss of their six-month-old son. James' main concern became proving or disproving the existence of life after death. In this capacity James attended seances with the talented Leonora Piper, a strong medium the society concluded was authentic and every bit as salient as claimed. James, looking for evidence of an after life, was never completely satisfied with the results of these sittings. While Piper’s conjured spirits were uncanny in ferreting information from the sitters, often the spirits lacked knowledge of their own lives. James felt he could not conclude satisfactorily that spirits existed, but could be comfortable claiming the existence of extrasensory perception. James became president of the Society for Psychical Research from 1842-1910.

References

Blum, D. (2006). Ghost Hunters; William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death. Penguin Books, New York, NY.

Wolf, A., Census in the Family: Cameo Biography William James www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/american/genius/william_bio.html retrieved August 11,2010.

Famous People & the Supernatural Part IV: Myers

Frank Myers

by Robin Strom Mackey

Frederic Myers was a professor of Classics at Cambridge University in England. An essayist and poet, he is known for such works as the poem St. Paul and Essays, Classical and Modern and Science and a Future Life. Myers' true passion appears to have been in quest of the meaning of it all.

Oddly, Myers didn’t turn to the classics in philosophy or literature for his answers, nor search it out in mainstream religion. Instead he sought out answers through the meticulous examination of human paranormal experiences. As a scholar, Myers was described as a man of “enormous energy” and “great intellectual ability.”

He is probably best remembered as being the founding father of the Society of Psychical Research and for publication of his life’s search which culminated in the book, Human Personality and It’s Survival of Bodily Death which became a classic book on the subject. Pooling all of his studies into one final book of essays didn’t satisfy Myers’ quest however. After studying the paranormal for most of his adult years he was no closer to admitting his evidence complete or irrefutable.

After countless hours studying mediums and their performances he was in little doubt of the medium’s abilities but was in severe doubt of just what that ability entailed. He had attended séances that seemed to insinuate that the dead were speaking through the medium. The medium would adopt a voice that sounded like a dead person, and that voice would list an impressive array of facts about that person’s life. At times, however, he’d found that the supposed departed was very much still alive. Sometimes it seemed that the mediums were gathering their information from the minds of the people in the room. Still worse, he conducted case studies, sending in subjects who were instructed to concentrate on fictitious persons. The medium seemed to read the mind of the subject and report through the voice that false identity.

Sadly, Myers concluded that it wasn’t a simple to determine from whence the information was coming. In fact the mediums could not determine the source of information, whether from a spirit or the minds of the subjects in the room. After a lifetime's worth of study he wasn't to know the answer to his most troubling question, not at least until he passed over himself.

Resources

Blum, D. (2006). Ghost Hunters; William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death. Penguin Books, New York, NY.

Currie, I., Edited by Sherpherd, P. Excerpts about the life of Frederic Myers; You Cannot Die: The incredible Findings of a Century of Research on Death
http://www.trans4mind.com/spiritual/myers1.html Retrieved August 5, 2010.

Rogo, S.D. Psychical Research and the Survival Controversy (Part 3) Apparitions and the Case for Survival. www.survivalafterdeath.org.uk/articles/rogo/
Retrieved August 5, 2010.

Famous People & the Supernatural Part III: Gurney

Edmund Gurney
By Robin M. Strom-Mackey

Edmund Gurney, the tall, mercurial, handsome, gentleman-scholar was one of the first three founders of the SPR, along with Henry Sidgwick and Frank Myers. Gurney was educated at Black Heath and Trinity Colleges where he obtained a fellowship. He then studied medicine at Cambridge, devoting himself to physics, chemistry and physiology, though apparently had no intention of ever practicing medicine. He professed an interest in the paranormal, “looking for an unexplored region of human faculty transcending the normal limitations of sensible knowledge (Anonymous Essay, 2010).” He intended to approach psychical research through observation and experimentation, with a special interest in the fields of hypnotism and telepathy.

He is probably best remembered for being one of the three authors of the two-volume set of books, Phantasms of the Living. Based on years of data collection the books detailed the phenomenon of crisis apparitions; apparitions of the newly dead that often present themselves to the living directly following their demise. This work is undoubtedly the most intensive study ever conducted of the phenomena, and it should be noted that Gurney did the bulk of the field work, collecting, analyzing and interviewing the witnesses.

Excerpt from: Phantasms of the Living, Gurney, E, Myers, F.W.H, Podmore, F. (1886)

"I sat one evening reading, when on looking up from my book, I distinctly saw a school-friend of mine, to whom I was very much attached, standing near the door I was about to exclaim at the strangeness of her visit when, to my horror, there were no signs of anyone in the room but my mother. I related what I had seen to her, knowing she could not have seen, as she was sitting with her back towards the door, nor did she hear anything unusual, and was greatly amused at my scare, suggesting I had read too much or been dreaming.

A day or so after this strange event, I had news to say my friend was no more. The strange part was that I did not even know she was ill, much less in danger so could not have felt anxious at the time on her account, but may have been thinking of her; that I cannot testify. Her illness was short, and death much unexpected. Her mother told me she spoke of me not long before she died ... She died the same evening and about the same time that I saw her vision, which was the end of October, 1874."

Shortly after the publication of Phantasms of the Living, Gurney himself passed on; dying of a narcotic medicine drug overdose in June 1888. Having suffered through most of his adult life with episodes of deep depression, many of Gurney's friends suspected the brilliant, troubled young man had taken his own life.

Resources
Anonymous (2010). Edmund Gurney. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Gurney
Retrieved August 5, 2010.

Blum, D. (2006). Ghost Hunters; William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death. Penguin Books, New York, NY.