‘Report of the Committee on Mediumistic Phenomena’, by William James (1886)

Abstract

Mediumship was a topic of great interest to some nineteenth-century students of mental phenomena. Together with the phenomena of hypnosis and other manifestations, mediumship was seen by many as a dissociative phenomenon. The purpose of this Classic Text is to present an excerpt of an article about the topic that William James (1842-1910) published in 1886 in the Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research about American medium Leonora E. Piper (1857-1950). The article, an indication of late nineteenth-century interactions between dissociation studies and psychical research, was the first report of research with Mrs Piper, a widely investigated medium of great importance for the development of mediumship studies. In addition to studying the case as a dissociative experience, James explored the possibility that Piper's mentation contained verifiable information suggestive of 'supernormal' knowledge. Consequently, James provides an example of a topic neglected in historical studies, the ideas of those who combined conventional dissociation studies with psychical research.

The epistemologies of research on the survival of consciousness after death in the golden era of the Society for Psychical Research (1882–1930)

“…Its various committees worked actively in several European countries and in North America. Their work included: cataloguing almost everything that was published about phenomenology; collecting hundreds of cases that had been reported both at first or second hand; and investigating varied mediums, both those known to the public and the unknown, as well as other individuals who allegedly possessed uncommon abilities (Alvarado, 2016;Gauld, 1968Gauld, /2018.…”

Meaningful Life

“…One strategy was to show that many prominent founders of scientific psychology and psychiatry not only were interested in but also actively involved in psychical research. Among these were Charles Richet (Evrard et al, 2021), Cesare Lombroso (Alvarado & Biondi, 2017), Theodore Flournoy (de Oliveira Maraldi & Alvarado, 2018), Alfred Binet (Alvarado, 2010), William James (Alvarado, 2015), Ambroise August Liébeault (Alvarado, 2009), andWilliam McDougall (Alvarado &Zingrone, 1989). A complementary approach that Carlos took was to present relevant contributions to scientific psychology and psychiatry by authors most known for their psychical research such as Frederic Myers (Kelly & Alvarado, 2005) and James Hyslop (Alvarado, 2014).…”

Cesare Lombroso on mediumship and pathology

“… 10. James’s involvement with psychical research has been discussed by many, e.g. Alvarado, 2016; Alvarado and Krippner, 2010; Bordogna, 2008: Ch. 3; Junior, Araujo and Moreira-Almeida, 2013.…”