The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914

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Cambridge University Press, 1985 - 503 pages
An examination of the public fascination with spiritualism and psychical research in Britain from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century. The book explores the variety of social background, education, and professional expertise that characterized the men and women who attended seances and investigated psychic phenomena, and places them in the context of their times without ridiculing their beliefs.
 

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Contents

Mediums
7
Daniel Dunglas Home
10
Fullform materialization
16
Spiritwriters and magicians
21
Membership
28
The industrious working class
39
The spiritualist press
44
Organizations and societies
49
Theosophical science
193
A pseudoscience
199
Concepts of mind
205
Phrenology and mesmerism
207
Partners in unorthodoxy
217
Psychology and Physical research
236
The work of Gurney and Myers
249
The problem of evolution
267

A surrogate faith
59
Spiritualism and Christianity
63
Christian spiritualism
67
AntiChristian spiritualism
85
A common ground
103
Psychical research and agnosticism
111
Forerunners of the SPR
123
Early tensions within the SPR
135
Inconclusive inquiries
141
The preamble of all religions
152
Theosophy and the occult
159
Affinities with spiritualism
162
HP Blavatsky and the SPR
174
Prominent British Theosophists
178
Robert Chambers
272
Romanes and colleagues
278
Wallace and the spiritualist faith
296
Wallace and the evolution of man
302
Physics and psychic phenomena
326
The openminded
330
William Crookes
338
William Barrett
355
Oliver Lodge
371
Conclusion
391
Notes
399
Index
487
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