History of psychical research and parapsychology

Metapsychics in Spain

by Annette Mülberger

This is only a draft. The paper coauthored by Monica Balltondre has been published in the journal: History of the Human Sciences (volume 25, number 2, pages 108-130)

The present paper deals with a kind of parapsychology called metapsychics (metapsíquica) as conceived and practiced in... more The present paper deals with a kind of parapsychology called metapsychics (metapsíquica) as conceived and practiced in Spain between 1923 and 1925. First we focus on the reception of a treatise by Richet that evoked both support (Ferran) and criticism (Mira). Then we examine some experiments on clairvoyance performed at the Marquis of Santa Cara's home, dealing chiefly with the rise and fall of a case of prodigious vision. The analysis gives special attention to the question of how metapsychics was understood and to which discussions it gave rise. The authors argue that the project of metapsychics must be understood within a frame of two tendencies, namely, the increasing popularization and the demarcation of science that were underway in modern society.

Modern Art Revisited: A Fascination for the Occult. Review of the exhibition L’Europe des esprits ou la fascination de l’occulte, 1750-1950.

by Tessel Bauduin

Bauduin, T.M. ‘Modern Art Revisited: A Fascination for the Occult’. [exh.rev.] all-over Magazin 2 (March 2012): 44-51.

Pondering Imponderables: Occultism in the Mirror of Late Classical Physics

by Egil Asprem

Aries 11.2 (2011): 129-165.

A Short History of Superimposition: From Spirit Photography to Early Cinema

by Simone Natale

Early Popular Visual Culture 10.2 (2012): 125-145

Free download in the Francis&Taylor site (only available for a limited time):
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9ZVBXSfGTn7xhzsTdMmw/full

As several scholars have noted, the use of superimposition effects in cinema to conjure such apparitions as ghosts,... more As several scholars have noted, the use of superimposition effects in cinema to conjure such apparitions as ghosts, fairies, devils, and other fantastic creatures finds a significant precedent in spirit photography, a spiritualist practice by which the image of one or more spirits was ‘magically’ captured on a photographic plate. However, arguing for a relationship of direct filiation between spirit photography and the tricks employed in film remains problematic, especially given that spirit pictures were entangled with matters of religious belief. This article calls for a more solid insertion of spiritualism’s visual culture into the pre-history of film practice, giving three main cases in support of the relationship between spirit photography and early cinema. Firstly, the commercial use of spirit photographs within the spiritualist movement suggests that the circulation of these images was not exclusively informed by matters of belief. Secondly, the popularization of exposures of spirit photography operated by numerous stage magicians in the late nineteenth century can contribute towards explaining the insertion of multiple-exposure techniques in the technical expertise of early filmmakers. Thirdly, a documented case in which spirit photographs were presented to a paying public in the vein of magic lantern entertainments demonstrates that the spiritualist visual culture intersected the nineteenth-century tradition of the projected image, too. Thus, by sketching a history of superimposition effects in photography, stage magic, magic lantern, and cinema, this article claims that visual representations of ghosts in the nineteenth century constantly wavered between religion and spectacle, fiction and realism, and still and moving pictures.

Uwe Schellinger: Kaum zu fassen: Die spezifische Problematik der historischen Überlieferung paranormaler Erfahrungen im 20. Jahrhundert, in: Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 11 (2011) Nr.1+2+3, S. 166-196.

by Uwe Schellinger

Forscherinnen und Forscher aus den Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften sehen sich bei historisch orientierten... more Forscherinnen und Forscher aus den Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften sehen sich bei historisch orientierten Forschungen zu paranormalen Erfahrungen im menschlichen Alltag spezifischen Problemen bei der Quellenrecherche gegenüber. Da entsprechende Berichte über außergewöhnliche Erfahrungen in der Vergangenheit in überwiegendem Maße an Personen und Institutionen vermittelt wurden, die aufgrund ihres wissenschaftlichen Standorts keine Anbindung an etablierte Strukturen des nationalen oder internationalen Archivwesens hatten, hat sich für diese Quellen eine spezifische, zumeist jedoch wenig transparente Überlieferungssituation entwickelt. Die Recherchen nach und vor allem der Zugang zu entsprechenden archivalischen Quellen zu paranormalen Erfahrungen erweisen sich deshalb noch immer als verhältnismäßig kompliziert. Für das 20. Jahrhundert kommt hinzu, dass größere Teile der vorhandenen Textquellen, die oft sehr persönliche und private Sachverhalte enthalten, besonderen Schutz etwa durch langfristige archivische Sperrfristen erfordern. Somit ist zu fragen, wie sich dennoch forschungsfördernde Lösungen finden lassen. Die Ausführungen dieses Aufsatzes verstehen sich folglich als Beitrag zur bislang noch kaum geführten Diskussion, wie im Forschungsfeld der Anomalistik und der Parapsychologie Fragen der Archivierung relevanter Quellenbestände professionell behandelt werden sollten.

Schlüsselbegriffe: Archiv – Archivwesen – Archivierung – Historische Anthropologie – Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene e.V. – Spontanfälle –
Wissenschaftsgeschichte


Transmission of Paranormal Experiences in the 20th Century
Abstract – In history and cultural history, researchers are confronted with particular problems when they inquire about the historical sources needed for their research into spontaneous paranormal experiences. In the past, reports of exceptional experiences were entrusted predominantly to indi
viduals and institutions that, due to their locations, did not have any connections to the established structures of national or international archives. This created a peculiar and almost intransparent situation for those original sources and the researchers interested in them. Inquiries for, and especially access to these archival sources of paranormal experience reports still prove to be relatively difficult. And there is an additional problem concerning major parts of 20th-century sources: they often contain information on very private issues and therefore require particular protection such as long-term archival retention periods. Hence the question is how research-promoting solutions can be found nevertheless. This paper is intended as a contribution to the discussion on how to deal professionally with issues of archiving relevant original sources in the field of anomalistics and parapsychology.

Keywords: archive – archive studies – archiving – historical anthropology – Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene e.V. – spontaneous cases – history of science

Evidence for Elevated Cortical Hyperexcitability and its Association with Out-of-Body Experiences in the non-clinical population: New Findings from a Pattern-Glare Task.

by Dr Jason J Braithwaite

New paper investigating degrees of corticial hyperexcitability in those who hallucinate out-of-body experiences.

Individuals with no history of neurological or psychiatric illness can report hallucinatory Out-of-Body Experiences... more Individuals with no history of neurological or psychiatric illness can report hallucinatory Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs) and display elevated scores on measures of temporal-lobe dysfunction (Braithwaite et al., 2011). However, all previous investigations of such biases in non-clinical populations are based on indirect questionnaire measures. Here we present the first empirical investigation that a non-clinical OBE group is subject to pattern-glare, possibly as a result of cortical hyperexcitability (Wilkins et al., 1984). Fifty-nine students at the University of Birmingham viewed a series of square-wave gratings with spatial frequencies of approximately 0.7, 3 and 11 cycles/degree, both black/white and of contrasting colours. The illusions and discomfort reported when viewing gratings with mid-range spatial frequency have been hypothesized to reflect cortical hyperexcitability (Wilkins, 1995; Huang et al., 2003). Participants also completed the Cardiff Anomalous Perception Scale (CAPS: Bell et al., 2006) which included experiential measures of disruptions in ‘Temporal-lobe Experience’. Participants who reported OBEs also reported significantly more visual illusions / distortions and significantly greater discomfort as a result of viewing the mid-frequency gratings. There were no such differences with respect to gratings with relatively lower or higher spatial frequency. The OBE group also produced significantly elevated scores on the CAPS measures of Temporal-lobe Experience, relative to controls. Collectively, the results are consistent with there being a neural ‘vulnerability’ in the cortices of individuals pre-disposed to some hallucinations, even in the non-clinical population.

Spiritualism Exposed: Scepticism, Credulity and Spectatorship In End-of-the-Century America

by Simone Natale

European Journal of American Culture 29.2 (2010): 131-144

In recent years, the study of spiritualism and occultism has been proposed as a key to understand the political,... more In recent years, the study of spiritualism and occultism has been proposed as a key to understand the political, social and cultural issues of nineteenth-century America. While the position of spiritualism's supporters has been the subject of most accounts, however, sources that critically questioned the spiritualist claims have been usually left aside. In this article, I will rely on this extremely rich body of sources, in order to understand how the debate about spiritualism played an essential role in the shaping of sceptical perspectives in nineteenth-century America. Focusing in particular on anti-spiritualist performances played on the stage by professional magicians and on psychological writings that questioned the phenomena of the spiritualist seances, I will argue that in both contexts the ‘spirit medium’ came to be understood as a performer, and the sitters as spectators. As a critical reading of texts such as film theory pioneer Hugo Münsterberg's 1891 ‘Psychology and Mysticism’ may suggest, the exposure of spiritualist trickery shaped a discourse on perception and sensorial delusion that anticipated in many ways later debates on cinematic spectatorship.

Clairvoyance, Class and Convention

by Sophie Louise Drennan

Quella sensibilità esagerata della lastra. Raggi X e revival del mesmerismo nella fotografia di fine Ottocento

by Simone Natale

AFT – Rivista di Storia e Fotografia, 48 (2008): 53-61

The Medium on the Stage: Trance and Performance in Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism

by Simone Natale

Early Popular Visual Culture 9.3 (2011): 239-255

Free download in the Francis&Taylor site (only available for a limited time):
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/gqUsqrF3zfVir2srnGYS/full

While historians of spiritualism have been eager to focus on its political and social implications, less attention has... more While historians of spiritualism have been eager to focus on its political and social implications, less attention has been given to the fact that spirit communication was also a matter of visual spectacle. This article aims to analyse spiritualist séances as a form of spectacular entertainment. Relying on a wide array of spiritualist sources, it argues that séances were meant not only as moments of religious and scientific inquiry, but also as a brilliant amusement where theatrical effects embellished an exciting shared experience. The intermingling of religion and entertainment can thus be seen as one of the defining characteristics of the spiritualist experience. After sketching the history of the presence of spiritualist mediums on the stage and discussing the involvement of professionalism in mediumship, the article will then focus on the trance as a specific performance strategy. It will examine how the trance combined issues of automatism, theatricality and absorption, and contributed to the coexistence in spirit séances of spectacular features and claims of authenticity.

Irreducible Mind? (Review of E. Kelly et al., Irreducible Mind)

by Thomas Sturm

With M. Ash & H. Gundlach. Published 2010 in: American Journal of Psychology 123(2), 246-250.

See also the reaction by Edward F. Kelly: "Yes, irreducible", published 2011 in: American Journal of Psychology 124(1), 111-112. http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.5406/amerjpsyc.124.1.0111

And our response: "A cross-disciplinary misunderstanding", published 2011 in: American Journal of Psychology 124(1), 112.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.5406/amerjpsyc.124.1.0112

This is a review of a book that tries to re-establish mind-body dualism by using (a) empirical research on near-death... more This is a review of a book that tries to re-establish mind-body dualism by using (a) empirical research on near-death experiences, placebo effects, creativity, claiming even that parapsychology should become a respected part of science, and (b) Frederic W. H. Myers' (1843-1901) metaphor of the brain as a kind of receiving device that records what the irreducible mind sends as messages. Among other things, we criticized the lack of philosophical clarity about mind-body relation, and questioned the book's tendency to refer to past and current parapsychological literature as reliable. You bet the authors did not like our review.

Full disclosure: In the same issue of the journal, Edward F. Kelly reviewed our book "Psychology's Territories" - a collection of new essays on the philosophy and history of psychology, not dealing with parapsychology - , and did so pretty positively. See http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.5406/amerjpsyc.123.2.0240

It is common in such a case that the reviews are exchanged between the authors before the publication. So we knew about Kelly's review, and he knew ours. Given our reasons, we did not give up our objections.

Kelly responded sharply to our review in the following issue in the same journal. I included our response at the end of this pre-print version. (For obvious reasons, I cannot post Kelly's response.)

A Nice Arrangement of Heterodoxies: William McDougall and the Professionalization of Psychical Research

by Egil Asprem

Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 46:2 (2010), pp. 123-143.

Joseph Banks Rhine (1895–1980) is usually considered the founder of modern professional parapsychology. Through his... more Joseph Banks Rhine (1895–1980) is usually considered the founder of modern professional parapsychology. Through his work at Duke University in the 1930s, he established a working research program (in the Lakatosian sense) for the controversial discipline, setting down various methodological standards and experimental procedures. Despite Rhine’s clear and important influence on modern parapsychology, this article argues that he came to a stage that had already been set.
Adopting recent theoretical advances in the study of scientific professionalization, it is argued that Rhine’s mentor, the controversial British psychologist William McDougall (1871–1938), has a stronger claim to the parenthood of modern parapsychology than is typically recognized. Following McDougall’s attempts to carve out and establish an institutional space for professionalized psychical research in the 1920s America, furthermore, takes us to little explored connections between psychical research, Lamarckism, neo-vitalism and policies of eugenics.

A Cosmology of Invisible Fluids: Wireless, X Rays and Psychical Research around 1900

by Simone Natale

Canadian Journal of Communication 36.2 (2011): 263-275

On December 28, 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen disclosed his discovery of X rays to the public. Just a... more On December 28, 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen disclosed his discovery of X rays to the public. Just a few months later, Guglielmo Marconi successfully demonstrated his wireless system at Salisbury Plain, England. This article traces the relations between the early histories of wireless and X ray technology. It does so by highlighting the role played by psychic research to open the connections between different technologies and knowledges. The disclosure of occult connections between them contributes to locate the cultural reception of wireless around 1900 in a wider cosmology of rays and invisible forces.

French Version
Le 28 Decembre 1895, le physicien allemand Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen révélait au monde sa découverte des rayons X. Quelques mois plus tard, Guglielmo Marconi faisait une démonstration de son système de télégraphie sans-fil en Angleterre, à Salisbury Plain. En examinant la parapsychologie comme un champ propice à la mise en relation entre les technologies et les connaissances les plus hétéroclites, cet article reconstruit les liens entre la télégraphie sans-fil et les rayons X. L'étude de ces liens occultes permet de situer la reception culturelle de la transmission sans-fils autour de 1900 dans une cosmologie des rayons et forces invisibles.

Andreas Anton, Uwe Schellinger, Michael Schetsche: Schwingende Feindaufkärung. Die Pendelortungsversuche der Deutschen Kriegsmarine 1942, in: Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies 4 (2010) Nr. 1, 46-63.

by Uwe Schellinger

http://www.acipss.org/newsletter_archiv/JIPSS_extract_7.pdf

Uwe Schellinger, Geburtsstunde eines Sterndeuters. Der Astrologe und Okkultist Karl Brandler-Pracht (1864-1939) in seiner Ortenauer Zeit, in: Geroldsecker Land. Jahrbuch einer Landschaft 51 (2009) 92-105.

by Uwe Schellinger

Uwe Schellinger, Der Fall Kahn: Die erste universitäre Debatte über "Hellsehen" und "Telepathie" am Ende des Kaiserreichs, in: Barbara Wolf-Braun (Hg.): Medizin, Okkultismus und Parapsychologie im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert, Wetzlar 2009, 100-122.

by Uwe Schellinger

Uwe Schellinger: Telepathie im TV? Das Zuschauerexperiment von 1968 in wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher Perspektive, in: Wladimir Velminski (Hg.): Sendungen. Mediale Konturen zwischen Botschaft und Fernsicht, Bielefeld 2009, 167-189.

by Uwe Schellinger

http://www.transcript-verlag.de/ts1113/ts1113.php

Uwe Schellinger, Trancemedien und Verbrechensaufklärung: Die 'Kriminaltelepathie' in der Weimarer Republik, in: Marcus Hahn/Erhard Schüttpelz (Hg.): Trancemedien und Neue Medien um 1900. Ein anderer Blick auf die Moderne. Bielefeld 2009, 311-339.

by Uwe Schellinger

http://www.transcript-verlag.de/ts1098/ts1098.php

Michael Schetsche/Uwe Schellinger, "Psychic detectives" auch in Deutschland? Hellseher und polizeiliche Ermittlungsarbeit, in: Die Kriminalpolizei 25 (2007) Nr. 4, 142-146.

by Uwe Schellinger

http://www.kriminalpolizei.de/articles,psychic_detectives_auch_in_deutschland,1,175.htm?PHPSESSID=8a607fb052fb3945e2e4b7ae76e4319c

Uwe Schellinger, Hellseher, Medien und Wunderheiler: Wirken und Wahrnehmung von Personen mit "paranormalen" Fähigkeiten im regionalen Kontext (Beispiel: Mittelbaden und Ortenau im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert). Ein Forschungsaufruf des Instituts für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene e.V. Freiburg (IGPP), in: Die Ortenau. Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Mittelbaden 87 (2007), 536-541.

by Uwe Schellinger

http://www.igpp.de/german/chs/HellseherMedien.htm