Science and Spiritualism in an Irish Context

William Fletcher Barrett (1844–1925) has long been recognised for his key role in the foundation of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882, but this came after years of working as a physicist and psychical researcher between Ireland and Britain, conducting mesmeric experiments, maintaining correspondence, and sharing research ideas at forums like the British Association for the Advancement of Science. This article re-evaluates Barrett’s career by focusing on his networks, projects, and organisations in Ireland. These acted as bridges connecting his work as a teacher of physics with his work as a psychical researcher and investigator of spiritualism. In doing so, this article also contributes to the history of spiritualism in Ireland by demonstrating the rich connections which existed between scientists, intellectuals, and amateur investigators in the area of spiritualism and psychical research.

Arthur Conan Doyle in Mesmeric Edinburgh and Hypnotic London

Arthur Conan Doyle's spiritualist interests are often viewed today as idiosyncratic for a medical professional and anachronistic for the late Victorian era. However, historians of the era recognise that there was widespread fascination at this time in the possibility of communicating with the dead and the development of extraordinary mental powers like telepathy. Conan Doyle studied medicine in Edinburgh where the study of mesmerism and its role in therapy continued for much longer than the rest of Britain. The university and medical school produced most of the major names of British medical mesmerism including the physician James Braid, who coined the term hypnotism. By the late nineteenth century, there were many distinguished physicians and scientists who shared Conan Doyle's spiritualist views. The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was the elite London association that investigated these possibilities using a scientific methodology. Hypnotism and the trance state were important tools in this study. Over the course of his thirty-six-year membership, Conan Doyle's convictions strengthened. The backdrop of Edinburgh and mesmerism is key to Conan Doyle's story ‘ John Barrington Cowles’ (1884) , while the scientific investigation of hypnotism described in The Parasite (1894) relies upon his experiences with London's SPR based in Dean's Yard, Westminster, and Hanover Square in Mayfair.

Joseph John Thomson investigates the paranormal

Joseph John Thomson is best known for detecting two isotopes of neon within cathode ray tubes that lay the foundation of the field of mass spectrometry. He was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the electron and for his work on the conduction of electricity in gases in the same devices. He is less known for his strong religious beliefs and his interest in psychical research and the paranormal. Thomson served as a member of the Society for Psychical Research for over 50 years and even became its Vice President. During this time, he attended a number of séances and demonstrations by professed psychics and mediums. This article traces those who influenced his interest in the paranormal, from Balfour Stewart to Lord Rayleigh and William Crookes. It reports and illustrates his beliefs and experiences investigating the paranormal in his own words.

Erlendur Haraldsson: An Appreciation

Erlendur Haraldsson, a prolific researcher who made a number of major contributions in various areas of parapsychology and survival research, died in Reykjavik on November 22, 2020 at the age of 89. Born near Reykjavik, Erlendur studied philosophy in college, but his interest in understanding more about the world began before that. When he was 15, he had an experience during a heavy storm when the sun suddenly shone through the clouds and lit up pebbles on the banks of the nearby shore. As the light reflected off the pebbles, Erlendur sensed being filled with light himself in a way that was immense and beyond words. In an interview with Michael Tymn (2015), he said that a vivid trace of that feeling stayed with him forever and that after that, he never doubted that there was a superior reality. Following college, he worked for three years, mostly as a journalist, before returning to school to study psychology, eventually earning a PhD under Hans Bender in Freiburg. After that, he spent a year working at J. B. Rhine’s parapsychology center in Durham, North Carolina, followed by an internship in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia, where he met Ian Stevenson. He and Stevenson studied an Icelandic medium together, introducing Erlendur to the topic of mediumship which he would return to in subsequent decades. Following his internship, he entered the field with a bang. Karlis Osis, the director of research of the American Society for Psychical Research, invited Erlendur to join him in a large study of deathbed visions. They surveyed hundreds of doctors and nurses in both the United States and India about events they had witnessed in their patients. What resulted was a landmark study, one that exemplified the best the field has to offer—detailed statistical analysis along with compelling individual reports. One striking example involved a two-and-a-half year old boy whose mother had died six months before. The respondent wrote, “He was lying there very quiet. He just sat himself up, and he put his arms out and said, ‘Mama,’ and fell back [dead]” (Osis and Haraldsson, 1977, p. 53). Osis and Haraldsson found that the data did not support known medical or psychological causes of hallucinations. Likewise, the influences of religious or other cultural factors could not be used to explain away the phenomena.

A History of the (Attempted) Institutionalization of Parapsychology

In addition to an introduction, the present book contains 14 chapters. Most of them represent elaborated text versions of contributions that were presented by the authors at a (nearly) eponymous conference held in Freiburg, Germany, on the 17.10.2014. As the book title announces, the chapter authors trace the development of parapsychological research in different countries. Usually they focusing on the more or usually less successful attempts to academicize and institutionalize parapsychology as a legitimate scientific discipline, but sometimes they cover also related aspects. The chapters include historical parapsychological treatises for Germany (Ulrich Linse, Anna Lux, Uwe Schellinger, Martin Schneider, Bernd Wedemeyer-Kolwe) including the GDR (Andreas Anton, Ina Schmied-Knittel, Michael Schetsche), France (Renaud Evrard), Great Britain (Elizabeth Valentine), Hungary (Júlia Gyimesi), the Netherlands (Ingrid Kloosterman), Russia in the Soviet and post-Soviet area (Birgit Menzel), and the USA (Eberhard Bauer, Anna Lux). The four chapters covering France, Great Britain, Hungary, and the Netherlands are written in English, the others in German. In the following, will briefly touch upon topics I found most interesting. Anna Lux from the university in Freiburg, Germany, identified several characteristic aspects of academic parapsychological work in Germany and compared them with those in the USA, which took place at about the same time and were more strongly focused on the experimental paradigm. She shows how different social circumstances and also private predilections of the main actors involved resulted in different developments. This also applies to the fate of parapsychology in the other countries mentioned, which is surprisingly multifaceted: While in the Netherlands the situation with official professorships at the University of Utrecht can be compared most closely to that of Germany where Hans Bender (1907-1991) held a professorship at the university of Freiburg, the academization of parapsychology in Hungary was hindered by an influential spiritualist and religious social current. In France, however, comparable efforts were mainly impeded by continued opposition of established scientists. After all, the private research institute “Institute Métapsychique International” (IMI) was founded in France in 1919, which has survived to this day despite adverse circumstances. Great Britain has always played a special role in Western parapsychology, mainly due to the foundation of the “Society for Psychical Research” as early as 1882, which is still considered an international figurehead for a constructive and critical examination of parapsychological topics. However, in Great Britain existed several other societies and “institutes”, which were often small and short-lived. It was not until 1985 that parapsychological research was able to gain a foothold at a British university for the first time through an endowed professorship in Edinburgh, held by Robert Morris (1942–2004) until 2004. From here, numerous graduates were able to carry the work on parapsychological research questions further to other universities.

A Parapsychological Naturalist: A Tribute to Mary Rose Barrington (January 31, 1926 – February 20, 2020)

Mary Rose Barrington was born in London; her parents were Americans with Polish-Jewish roots who decided to settle in England. By her own account (she very considerately left a biographical note for her obituary writer), her childhood was idyllic, mostly spent riding her pony and playing tennis, as well as reading her older brother’s science fiction. Later she became interested in classical music (she was an accomplished musician, playing cello in a string quartet and singing alto in a local choir) and in poetry, obtaining a degree in English from Oxford University. She then studied law, qualified as a barrister and a solicitor, and spent most of her professional life as a lawyer; her duties included acting as charity administrator for a large group of almshouses. Having a career in the law helped in pursuing two interests of special significance to her, animal protection and the right to voluntary euthanasia. She was responsible for drafting three parliamentary Bills relating to these subjects; none of them passed, but they produced some useful discussions. However, her main interest was in psychical research. When she was 15 she read Sir Oliver Lodge’s Survival of Man, and at Oxford she joined the Oxford University Society for Psychical Research, at that time headed by the philosopher H.H. Price and ran by Richard Wilson, later physics professor at Harvard. The society was very active and hosted knowledgeable invited speakers such as Robert Thouless, Mollie Goldney, and Harry Price. Eventually Mary Rose herself became the Oxford society’s President.