Spiritualism and Psychical Research

Spiritualism

  • Emerged as a new "religion" from religion-science debates.
  • Became popular in America and later in Europe due to:
    • Civil War
    • World War I
    • These events led to loss and a desperate need to connect with loved ones and find meaning.
  • Christianity was seen as insufficient because:
    • It requires faith alone.
    • Science became a dominant paradigm, demanding proof.
  • Spiritualism offered:
    • A rational form of Christianity.
    • Belief in an afterlife and meaning of life.
    • Physical evidence of the spirit world through:
      • Table scrying
      • Automatic writing
      • Seances
      • Ouija board messages
      • Apparitions

Psychical Research

  • Emerged as a reaction to spiritualism's growing popularity.
  • Driven by public demand to investigate the afterlife scientifically.
  • Victorian Era (1882):
    • Scientists felt obligated to debunk the supernatural.
    • Some scientists considered paranormal experiences as:
      • Hallucinations
      • Overactive circulatory systems
      • Mentally defective brains
    • Mainstream scientists were reluctant to acknowledge or study the paranormal.

Society for Psychical Research (SPR)

  • Founded in 1882 by Cambridge scholars.
  • Arose from within the scientific community.
  • American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) founded in 1885.
  • Early "ghost hunters" were scientists from top-tier universities (Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard).
  • Founded by forward-thinking scientists reacting to:
    • Increasing materialist bias in science.
    • Growing moral anxieties.
  • Tension:
    • Hardcore scientists: only material things deserve investigation (things we can see, touch, smell, taste, or hear).
    • Public: anxious about the afterlife, unsatisfied with Christianity and science.
    • SPR/ASPR researchers: in the middle, trying to understand what was happening.

Objectives of SPR

  • Systematic experimentation with hypnotic subjects and clairvoyants.
  • Formation of committees on:
    • Haunted houses
    • Poltergeists
    • Moving objects
  • Collection of evidence on apparitions and haunted houses.
  • Application of scientific techniques to study exceptional mental states and spiritualism.
  • Use of statistics to analyze paranormal encounters and find patterns.
  • Fieldwork to collect data.
  • Double-blind testing and controlled laboratory settings.

ASPR Committees

  • Hypnotism
  • Mediumistic phenomena
  • Haunted houses
  • Statistical analysis on the census of hallucinations (data from over 17,000 individuals).

William James

  • Founder of the American Society for Psychical Research.
  • Famous American philosopher and psychologist.
  • Founded pragmatism (unique American philosophy).
  • Founded psychology in America and wrote the first textbook on psychology.
  • Spent his career at Harvard (where his manuscripts and letters are located).
  • Studied the paranormal as part of the committee for mediumistic phenomena.

Case Study: Lenora Piper

  • Question: What is the source of a medium's supernormal knowledge?
    • Medium's subliminal mind?
    • Survival of spirits?
  • William James studied Lenora Piper for over 25 years.
  • James' three-year-old son, Humpster, died, leading his mother-in-law to suggest consulting Piper.
  • Alice James was convinced of Piper's abilities.
  • Piper was not a typical medium charging for seances; she was the wife of a baker.
  • James tested Piper with a book containing locks of hair; she correctly identified their sources.
  • She knew the nickname of James' son, "Humster," which was not widely known.
  • Piper entered a deep trance in broad daylight in her living room.
  • James tested her trances by pouring salt and chemicals into her mouth, but she didn't wake up or remember anything.
  • James considered the possibility of a subliminal consciousness.
  • Piper's psychic abilities were attributed to a spirit medium named Doctor Phineas, a war surgeon from Paris.
  • Doctor Phineas proved unreliable; he couldn't speak French.
  • Richard Hodgson took over the investigation and then died of a heart attack.
  • After Hodgson's death, he became Piper's spirit guide.
  • Piper provided extraordinary details about Hodgson's life but couldn't answer basic questions about his background.
  • After 25 years:
    • James was convinced of Piper's gifts.
    • He was not able to prove definitively whether or not consciousness exists after death.
  • Early experiments established the existence of a subliminal mind but couldn't prove the survival of consciousness.
  • James died, and Piper lived on, never revealing the source of her knowledge.
  • The Society of Psychical Research eventually dropped the study of mediums due to the difficulty of proving anything and embarrassment over ectoplasm mediums.

Decline of ASPR

  • Headquarters were located near Central Park in New York City.
  • The building was later sold, and the number of members dwindled.
  • Still in operation but less active.

Key Dates

  • Society for Psychical Research (SPR): 1882
  • American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR): 1885

Review

  • William James did NOT discover the source of hyperpsychic ability was supernatural in nature.
  • Trend: spiritualism is a more rational form of Christianity. Psychical research is a more rational form of spiritualism. New age is a more rational form of psychical research.