Mental mediums occupied much of the Society's attention in the first three decades of the twentieth century. The principal subjects of investigation were Leonora Piper and Gladys Osborne Leonard. Papers relating to these and others are grouped under single sub-headings.
This work sometimes produced scripts that cross-referenced with each other in significant ways, the so-called Cross Correspondences. Papers that analyse this phenomenon are grouped separately.
keywords: mental mediumship, cross correspondences, automatic writing, telepathy, survival, altered states, personality
Myers, Frederic. ON A TELEPATHIC EXPLANATION OF SOME SO-CALLED SPIRITUALISTIC PHENOMENA (AUTOMATIC WRITING 1), Proceedings 2, 1884, pp. 217-37. A psychological analysis that builds on the author’s interest in the subliminal workings of human consciousness. In this first of several papers on the subject Myers identifies the workings of the unconscious mind in messages received through automatic writing which may however appear to come from ‘spirits’. In cases where no facts are given that are demonstrably unknown to the writer there is no reason to invoke external intelligences, even when an anagram is given that the writer has to unravel. Where facts unknown to the writer are given, telepathy with other living minds can be seen to be at work. mental mediumship/automatic writing/consciousness/telepathy/theory
Myers, Frederic. AUTOMATIC WRITING (2), Proceedings 3, 1885, pp. 1-63. Presents cases where written messages appear to convey information unknown to the writer but known to some other living person. Myers argues that the writer receives this information indirectly through some secondary form of consciousness. Discusses anagrams (39), mirror-writing (41), swearing (44), repetition (46), word-blindness (47). An analysis of the link between automatic and ordinary writing is attempted (50). mental mediumship/automatic writing/theory
Myers, Frederic. AUTOMATIC WRITING (3), Proceedings 4, 1886-7, pp. 209-61. Continues the theme of automatic writing as a psychological puzzle offering clues about the complexity of human personality that may lead to an understanding of potentially supernormal phenomena. Draws attention to persistence of the communicating personalities, and their strong impression of individuality (212). Includes a detailed report of planchette writing (216). Discusses related phenomena arising from states of dreaming (225), drugs (227), epilepsy (229), possession (232), brain damage (234) and hypnosis (236), the last including a detailed discussion of two cases reported by the French psychologist Pierre Janet. mental mediumship/automatic writing/consciousness/theory
Myers, Frederic. AUTOMATIC WRITING, SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL ANALOGIES, Journal 3, 1887, pp. 68-9. Summary of a reading. mental mediumship/automatic writing/theory
Myers, Frederic. AUTOMATIC WRITING (4): THE DAEMON OF SOCRATES, Proceedings 5, 1888-9, pp. 522-48. Further general analysis of automatic writing is followed by a discussion of the ‘divine sign’ habitually heard and trusted by Socrates, also of the voices heard by Joan of Arc that encouraged heroic behaviour. A summary of Myers’s reading of this paper is in Journal 3, 1987, pp. 130-32. mental mediumship/automatic writing/theory
Myers, Frederic. AUTOMATIC WRITING, Journal 2, 1886, pp. 224-9. Myers present more cases suggesting the transference by automatism of facts unknown to any of the sitters. He goes on to speak on attributes of personality in the two brain ‘hemispheres’, with reference to to a French hysteric patient whose personality underwent a striking change under certain conditions. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Wedgwood, Hensleigh & Myers, F.W.H. PLANCHETTE WRITING, Journal 2, 1885-6, pp. 189-94. Exchange of views on the motion of planchette and the source of communications given. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Anon. AUTOMATIC WRITING, Journal 2, 1885-6, pp. 404-6. Brief report of communications in various languages received through table-tilting and planchette. See also Journal 3, p. 44. mental mediumship/automatic writing/psychokinesis
Power, H. INTELLIGENT AUTOMATISM, Journal 3, 1887, pp. 167-8. A planchette session leads to an embarassing indiscretion. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Anon. AUTOMATIC MESSAGES, Journal 3, 1887-8, pp. 298-302. Report of a table-tilting case in California, in which a communicator claiming to be the sister of an English servant begs help for her young daughter. In subsequent communications she reveals the child has died. The circumstances are found to correspond accurately to actual facts in England; but the communicator is not dead, as supposed, but living. mental mediumship/psychokinesis
Myers, F.W.H. REMARKABLE INSTANCES OF AUTOMATIC MESSAGES, Journal 3, 1888, pp. 214-21. Describes two cases of automatic writing suggestive of survival. In one a communicator, who the medium visited in his lodgings shortly before his death, denied that he died there. Believing this to be untrue she starts to doubt his genuineness, but later learns that he had actually been moved to a private house, believing he would be better nursed there. More cases: pp. 230-33. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Anon. THE CONNECTION OF HYPNOTISM WITH THE SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM, Proceedings 5, 1888-9, pp. 279-87. Short paper showing how appropriate suggestion in a state of hypnotic trance can produce messages appearing to come from spirits. hypnosis/mental mediumship
Babington-Smith, H. ON A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS AT PESARO, Proceedings 5, 1888-9, pp. 549-65. Experiments in automatic writing and spirit-rapping by an Italian head teacher, Professor Rossi, with friends and associates. In an example of automatic writing, Ross receives a message seemingly from a deceased friend who is in an unhappy state. A similar message is received, again from the same source, by a friend. Later messages are received by both, independently, saying that the deceased individual’s circumstances have greatly improved (550). A number of documents are produced that corroborate the circumstances. Descriptions of seances follow, offering apparent evidence of telepathy. telepathy/mental mediumship/psychokinesis/automatic writing
LEONORA PIPER
Myers, Frederic et al. A RECORD OF OBSERVATIONS OF CERTAIN PHENOMENA OF TRANCE, Proceedings 6, 1889-90, pp. 436-660. Introduces Mrs (Leonora) Piper, a Boston medium investigated by William James and Richard Hodgson and endorsed by them as genuine. This paper is the record of investigations undertaken during a ten-week visit to England in 1889-90. An introduction by Myers (436-42) gives brief details of Hodgson’s work, his clandestine surveillance of the medium (which produced no evidence of fraud), and impressions of the ‘Phinuit’ personality who manifested in her trance at this time. Oliver Lodge (443-557) describes the arrangements made to accommodate the medium at his home in Liverpool, the precautions taken against her picking up information from casual contact, the character of ‘Phinuit’, and the quality of his utterances, which include much veridical as well as much inaccurate information and ‘fishing’. He gives a general report of encounters between ‘Phinuit’ and various sitters, including their impressions. He describes a successful attempt to get veridical information concerning a long-dead relative, which had never been known to him and could not therefore be attributed to simple thought-transference (458). Detailed reports of the sittings are given. In Part 2 (558-646) Walter Leaf takes a more sceptical view in sittings in Cambridge and London, accepting the trance as genuine but emphasising ‘Phinuit’s ‘low moral tone’ and fishing. He rejects any spiritualistic hypothesis, concluding that the personality is a figment of the medium’s consciousness with a powerful, but incomplete, ability to read the minds of sitters (567). Detailed reports of the sittings are given, with short notes added by the Sidgwicks and Charles Richet (615). Lodge provides a list of exchanges during the sittings that are difficult to explain in terms of thought-transference or sensory contact with the sitters (647). The paper concludes with a brief contribution from William James, describing his contacts with the medium and his favourable impression of her abilities (651-59). DISCUSSION, Journal 4, 1890, pp. 267-8, 319. mental mediumship/telepathy/survival/personality/altered states
Lodge, Oliver. NOTE ON ‘ A RECORD OF OBSERVATIONS OF CERTAIN PHENOMENA OF TRANCE, Proceedings 31, 1921, pp. 103-4. An item of evidence, meaningless at the time, is found in fact to refer accurately to an incident in the life of the communicator. mental mediumship
Hodgson, Richard. A RECORD OF OBSERVATIONS OF CERTAIN PHENOMENA OF TRANCE, Proceedings 8, 1892, pp. 1-168. A sequel to an earlier investigation in England, this paper deals with sittings in Boston between 1887, when Hodgson first started his work with Piper, and 1891 during the ‘Phinuit’ phase of Piper’s mediumship. The author begins by describing characteristics of the trance state, rejects the idea of fraud, and gives evidence tending to discount thought-transference from sitters as a full explanation. Experiments for clairvoyance and prophecy are described (27). Other trance personalities are described through the experiences of sitters (28). ‘Phinuit’s origins are discussed with reference to the earliest trance sittings at which he appeared (46) and his account of himself is given (50). In conclusion Hodgson argues that the evidence is far from sufficient to establish the contact with the deceased that ‘Phinuit’ claims, but that his early view of him as a secondary personality of the medium has been shaken by increased familiarity with him and other aspects of Piper’s trance state. A detailed report of sittings follows. mental mediumship/telepathy/survival/altered states
Anon. M BOURGET’S IMPRESSIONS OF MRS PIPER, Journal 7, 1895-96, pp. 28-9. Reactions of a French sitter. mental mediumship
Ermacora, G.B. TELEPATHIC DREAMS EXPERIMENTALLY INDUCED, Proceedings 11, 1895, pp. 235-308. Extensive record of Italian experiments, in which a medium, at the prompting of an investigator, appears to succeed in inducing specific dream images in the mind of her four-year-old cousin. The experiment follows evidence that the child has on one occasion been able to see the form of the personality, also a child, that communicates with the medium through automatic writing. In writing sessions various images and scenes involving the personality are suggested as material for dream images, which appear to be closely reproduced in the child’s actual dreams. mental mediumship/dreams/telepathy
Anon. CORRESPONDENCE: THE ‘SPIRIT HYPOTHESIS’ AND MRS PIPER, Journal 8, 1897-8, pp. 184-6. See also pages 203-7, 224-6, 231-2, 255-9, 273-7, 296-7. Summary not given. mental mediumship
Baron, Albert Le & James, William. A CASE OF PSYCHIC AUTOMATISM, INCLUDING ‘SPEAKING WITH TONGUES’, Proceedings 12, 1897, pp. 277-97. Describes a case of apparent temporary possession or ‘channelling’, with religious overtones. mental mediumship/multiple personality/altered states
Hodgson, Richard. A FURTHER RECORD OF CERTAIN PHENOMENA OF TRANCE, Proceedings 13, 1897-8, pp. 284-582. This paper introduces two new developments: the appearance of automatic writing during Piper’s trances and the emergence of a new communicator providing strong evidence of post-mortem survival. A brief introduction is followed by a description of a process whereby Piper’s writing hand takes on the appearance of personality and writes messages, sometimes while ‘Phinuit’ continues to communicate orally. The life and accidental death of ‘George Pelham’ (‘G.P’) is briefly described ( 295) with extracts from trance utterances claiming to come from his deceased spirit. Evidence of this hypothesis is adduced from ‘G.P’s’ characteristic utterances in communications with friends, which indicate striking continuity with the memories and concerns of the living individual. Some failures are also discussed (331). Accounts of other communicators are briefly given (335). In a general discussion Hodgson offers support for his new conviction that genuine spirit communication is taking place. He draws attention to the contrast with the earlier, ‘Phinuit’ phase, with a number of individual communicators talking with different sitters on different subjects through two channels of communication, sometimes at the same time (358). Regarding apparent failures, he points out possible limitations to the deceased’s ability to communicate (366). Successes suggestive of survival rather than telepathy are discussed (370), notably ‘G.P’s’ ability to correctly identify sitters known to the living Pelham and corresponding lack of recognition of those whom Pelham had not known (390). Other factors arguing against telepathy are given (392). Finally Hodgson briefly describes the appearance of yet another phase in the trance state, with the appearance of William Stainton Moses as a communicator together with the various figures involved in the automatic writings received by him while living. These undertake a period of ‘repair’, claiming that as an ‘instrument’ Piper has been badly used by inexperienced communicators; the result is clearer communications, and better enjoyment of the trance state by the medium. Verbatim notes of sittings are given in appendices (413). ABSTRACT & DISCUSSIONS, Journal 7, 1895, pp. 233; Journal 8, 1897, pp. 150-51; Journal 8, 1898, pp. 166-70, 214-222; Journal 9, 1900, pp. 162-9, 223-5. mental mediumship/automatic writing/telepathy/survival/personality
Newsbold, W. Romaine. A FURTHER RECORD OF OBSERVATIONS OF CERTAIN PHENOMENA OF TRANCE 2, Proceedings 14, 1898-9 pp. 6-49. Fourteen episodes in Piper sittings are presented, and their importance as evidence discussed. Notable is the appearance of a communicator claiming the identity of William Stainton Moses, whom the author confronts with certain contradictions between ‘G.P’s’ ideas about afterlife and those put forward in automatic writings received by the living Moses (36). DISCUSSION, Journal 9, 1899, pp. 3-4. mental mediumship/automatic writing/personality/altered states
Podmore, Frank. DISCUSSION OF THE TRANCE-PHENOMENA OF MRS PIPER 1, Proceedings 14, 1898-9 pp. 50-78. A thorough consideration of the possibility that the medium practised fraud, with reference to the same question in relation to William Stainton Moses and the French clairvoyants Alexis Didier and Adèle Maginot. Podmore concludes that pecuniary advancement was an issue in the case of Didier, and subconscious memory in the case of Moses, while telepathic ‘filching’ explains the appearance of spirit communication in the case of Maginot. But he argues that few possibilities for cheating presented themselves in the case of Piper, whose work was rigorously controlled by investigators. mental mediumship/cheating
Wallace, Alfred R, & Mirville, J.E. de. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 9, 1899, pp. 22-30. See also pages 37-45, 57, 72, 94. Wallace attempts to rebut Podmore by introducing a passage from a book by Mirville in which the conjurer Robert Houdin supervises feats of clairvoyance by Didier. mental mediumship/cheating/magic
Sidgwick, Mrs Henry (Eleanor). DISCUSSION OF THE TRANCE PHENOMENA OF MRS PIPER 2, Proceedings 15, 1900-01, pp. 16-38. Sidgwick draws attention to a number of weaknesses in the medium’s trance utterances when considered as evidence of direct communication by deceased humans: the variability of the personation; inconsistencies and contradictions in the communicators’ account of themselves and the evidence they offer of their identity, particularly ‘Phinuit’; the tendency to prevaricate, ‘fish’, and evade responsibility for mistakes; ‘Phinuit’s intellect failing to exceed the medium’s; etc. She also notes that the quality of a sitting can depend on the abilities of the sitters themselves. She speculates (37) that if the deceased are present they are communicating through the minds of the sitters, while the medium extracts the information from them and dresses it up with other material she finds there to create plausible impersonations. mental mediumship/personality/altered states/theory
Lang, Andrew. DISCUSSION OF THE TRANCE PHENOMENA OF MRS PIPER 3, Proceedings 15, 1900-01, pp. 39-52. A spirited denunciation of the vulgarities, evasions and deceptions of secondary personalities, among whom the author includes ‘Phinuit’. The author voices strong suspicions of Piper and raises the possibility of ‘muscle-reading’ (44). The possibility of telepathy, the author’s preferred hypothesis, is discussed at greater length. mental mediumship/telepathy/personality/cheating
Lodge, Oliver. FURTHER ‘REFLECTIONS ON MRS PIPER AND TELEPATHY’, Journal 9, 1899-1900, pp. 212-20. Reply to Andrew Lang’s criticisms of Mrs Piper’s mediumship. Lang replies pp. 228-31. mental mediumship/telepathy/cheating
Hyslop, James H. PROFESSOR HYSLOP ON MRS PIPER, Journal 9, 1899-1900, pp. 131-4. Extracts from an article by the American researcher comparing the spiritist and telepathic interpretations of Piper’s trance utterances. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy/theory
Hyslop, James H. A FURTHER RECORD OF OBSERVATIONS OF CERTAIN TRANCE PHENOMENA, Proceedings 16, 1901, pp. 1-649. Report and analysis of 17 sittings by an American researcher, in which he accepts that he has been in direct communication with the deceased spirits of his father and other members of his family. The author gives the background to Piper and explains briefly why he rejects fraud as an explanation. Statements by the communicator claiming to be his father are given at length; their correspondence to his father’s concerns and to actual events in his life is analysed and found to be considerable. Statements from others are considered more briefly. A statistical summary shows the number of true incidents and factors in the communications to greatly outweigh the false and uncertain. The author discusses the telepathic hypothesis (124) and enumerates objections, including: the long range of the medium’s telepathic reach (139); the incompatibility of the power apparent in the telepathic faculty with the tendency to make simple mistakes (142); the inconsistent clarity of different communicators compared with the uniform nature of the sitter’s memory (146); the spontaneity of communication (149); the failure to transcend the limits of the communicator’s memory (151); the need to evoke corresponding abilities of dramatic representation (152). Defending the ‘spiritistic’ hypothesis, Hyslop emphasises the unity of consciousness exhibited by individual communicators (158); the dramatic play of personality (176); mistakes and confusions that suggest the failures typical of an individual memory (214); the evidential value of involuntary statements not intended as communications (238). Objection of concern to sceptics, but not on the whole to the author, are then discussed (242): the need for scientific proof (244); the triviality of incidents communicated (248); unconvincing aspects of the earlier ‘Phinuit’ communications (251); the predominance among communicators of people known to the sitter (256); the failure of sitters to describe their conditions of existence (258). The weak evidence of identity of certain trance controls is considered (262). The histrionic abilities required by any hypothesis based on secondary personalities are discussed at length (268) and the tendency to hold a priori ideas about spirit communication more briefly (285). A short conclusion reaffirms the author’s acceptance of the spiritist hypothesis. Appendices give detailed notes of the sittings and brief results of certain experiments. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 10, 1901-2, pp. 172-5, 212-22, 236-8, 272. mental mediumship/telepathy/survival/altered states/theory
Carrington, Hereward. DISCUSSION OF THE TRANCE PHENOMENA OF MRS PIPER (and reply by James Hyslop), Proceedings 17, 1901-2, pp. 337-73. This sceptical view of Piper focuses on the weaknesses of the data as evidence of survival, mostly acknowledged by earlier researchers, and finds an explanation in telepathic communication between the medium’s secondary personality and the sitter, helped along by chance and ‘fishing’. Hyslop offers a point by point refutation (360). mental mediumship/telepathy/survival/theory
Podmore, Frank. ON PROFESSOR HYSLOP’S REPORT ON HIS SITTINGS WITH MRS PIPER, Proceedings 17, 1901-2, pp. 374-88. Analysis of evasions and inaccuracies in the communications described in Hyslop’s report convinces Podmore that the spiritist interpretation is unjustified, and that telepathy or ordinary intuition suffice to explain apparently veridical information. Podmore also suggests that the possibility of common fraud by the medium has not been eliminated. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy/cheating
Hyslop, James. REPLY TO MR PODMORE’S CRITICISM, Proceedings 18, 1903-4, pp. 78-102. Hyslop refutes Podmore’s individual points relating to Mrs Piper’s mediumship and argues that fraud cannot be considered in isolation from a number of other factors arguing against it (90). mental mediumship/cheating
Anon. THE NEWSPAPERS ON MRS PIPER, Journal 10, 1901-2, pp. 142-3. See also pp. 150-2. A discussion of certain statements made by the medium to the New York Herald, with a view to getting her so-called ‘confession’ into proper perspective. Her remarks favouring the telepathic over the spiritistic hypothesis are seen as valid, but it is pointed out that she may not be in as good a position as investigators to make a judgement, while talk of her abandoning her work with them is said to be groundless. mental mediumship/telepathy/survival
Richet, Charles et al. XENOGLOSSIE: L’ÉCRITURE AUTOMATIQUE EN LANGUES ÉTRANGÈRES, Proceedings 19, 1905, pp. 162-266. An unnamed woman sees Visions’ of an old man and subsequently starts writing sentences Greek in trance writing, although she knows no Greek. Oliver Lodge, Everard Fielding, and Alice Johnson comment on the case and Margaret Verrall provides the close analysis of a Greek scholar. Alternative explanations are considered, but none definitively. mental mediumship/xenoglossy
Bayfield, M.A. & Smith, Arthur H. DISCUSSION OF MME. X’S GREEK SCRIPT, Journal 12, 1906, pp. 233-42. Bayley discounts fraud, but Smith feels Richet may have under-estimated the ability to remember visual impressions (ABSTRACT & DISCUSSION, pp. 271-4). mental mediumship/xenoglossy
Anon. PIPER, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 222-3. Note on the duration of the medium’s trances. mental mediumship
Solovovo, Count P-P. REVIEW OF ‘NATURALISATION OF THE SUPERNATURAL’ BY FRANK PODMORE, Proceedings 21, 1908-9, pp. 525-32. Takes issue with the doubts of the Society’s most noted sceptic concerning survival. The discussion refers to Leonora Piper, particularly his ‘G.P’ control. mental mediumship/survival/theory
Carrington, Hereward. THE TRANCE STATE, Journal 13, 1908, pp. 204-8. Suggests that oxygen be administered to a medium when in a trance state to see if this facilitates communication. mental mediumship/methodology
James, William. REPORT ON MRS PIPER’S HODGSON CONTROL, Proceedings 23, 1909, pp. 2-121. A contribution by the Harvard psychology professor responsible for bringing the medium Leonora Piper to the attention of the SPR. Richard Hodgson, the SPR researcher who investigated her mediumship over a period of 13 years, died in 1905; subsequently a personality claiming his identity communicated through the medium. James’s paper evaluates the evidence, giving full verbatim extracts from a number of sittings that give clear indications of Hodgson’s boisterous personality. James concludes that the evidence is no more veridical than earlier material and contains much that is useless, mistaken and rambling; but he seems, with reservations, broadly sympathetic to the possibility of Hodgson’s survival. mental mediumship/survival/altered states/personality
Sidgwick, Eleanor & Piddington, J.G. NOTES ON MRS PIPER’S HODGSON-CONTROL IN ENGLAND IN 1906-7, Proceedings 23, 1909, pp. 122-26. In this short appendage to William James’s assessment, the Hodgson-control appearing in Piper’s trances while in England is found to give strong appearance of personality, but gives a poor performance in terms of evidential information, unable to recognise friends or recall incidents in the life of Hodgson. mental mediumship/survival/personality/altered states
Verrall, Helen de G. REPORT ON THE JUNOT SITTINGS WITH MRS PIPER, Proceedings 24, 1910, pp. 351-664. Lengthy record of sittings in 1899-1905 in which a communicator claiming the identity of a recently-deceased 17-year-old boy talks to his family. The report consists almost entirely of verbatim statements, with little analysis. It is interesting for the high degree of interaction between communicator and sitters, with domestic incidents in their lives being recalled naturally and conversationally. mental mediumship
Bayfield, M.A. REVIEW: ‘THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM’ by Frank Podmore, Proceedings 25, 1911, pp. 70-89. Discussion of the non-supernormal explanations for mediumship held by the sceptical researcher. See also Journal 15, 1911-12, p. 53. mental mediumship/methodology/theory
Lang, Andrew. OPEN LETTER TO DR STANLEY HALL, Proceedings 25, 1911, pp. 90-101. A highly sceptical discussion of mediums by two American psychologists, following six sittings with Leonora Piper, here receives trenchant criticism for claimed contradictions, inaccuracies and misrepresentations. mental mediumship/methodology
Sidgwick, Mrs Henry (Eleanor). ‘STUDIES IN SPIRITISM’ BY DR TANNER, Proceedings 25, 1911, pp.102-8. A highly sceptical discussion of mediums by two American psychologists, following six sittings with Leonora Piper, here receives trenchant criticism in separate reviews for claimed contradictions, inaccuracies and misrepresentations. mental mediumship/methodology
Sidgwick, Mrs Henry (Eleanor). A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MRS PIPER’S TRANCE PHENOMENA, Proceedings 28, 1915, pp. 1-652. A major and much-quoted analysis, confirming Sidgwick’s earlier contention that although the spirits of deceased humans may indirectly communicate through Piper, the so-called controls - Phinuit, O.P., Rector and others - are fictitious creations of the medium’s own consciousness. A summary of Hodgson’s role in investigating Piper and the unfinished state of his work is followed by general background and confirmation of the author’s belief in the supernormality of the trance utterances. Inconsistencies in the control’s statements are analysed and their general relationship to the medium’s brain and senses discussed (29). The failure of all the controls apart from ‘G.P’ and ‘Hodgson’ to give evidence of identity is noted, also the concern of the latter to guarantee the genuineness of the former, who include the Imperator band, ‘Julius Caesar’, ‘George Eliot’ and others (75). Artificiality in language and common concerns among the different controls are noted (130). Statements by the controls concerning the process of communication are viewed with scepticism (159). The medium’s utterances during the transition stages of going into and coming out of trance are analysed and found to offer useful clues (205). Possible relationships between the medium’s various states of consciousness are suggested, with reference to the views of other researchers (258). The role of the sitters in helping to shape the trance utterances is considered (294). Sidgwick concludes that the controls are fragments or phases of the medium, but that this is not incompatible with their having access to supernormal information from the living and probably also from the dead (315). An appendix gives extracts from sittings to illustrate points in the text. A detailed synopsis can be found at the front. mental mediumship/telepathy/survival/altered states/personality/theory
Constable, F.C. PSYCHOLOGY OF MRS PIPER’S TRANCE, Journal 17, 1915-16, pp. 195-9. Comment on Sidgwick’s theory of ‘background’ communicators making contact through dream creations of the medium’s own consciousness. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 170-74 See also Journal 17, 1915-16, pp. 238-40. mental mediumship/consciousness/theory
Philpott, Anthony, J. THE QUEST FOR DEAN BRIDGMAN CONNER, Journal 17, 1916, pp. 238-40. Describes in detail a case mentioned in Sidgwick’s study of Leonora Piper, involving the futile search in Mexico for a young man officially reported dead. The author’s investigations conclude that the boy did in fact die. mental mediumship
Schiller, F.C.S. A CASE OF APPARENT COMMUNICATION THROUGH A MEDIUM BY A PERSON LIVING, BUT SUFFERING FROM SENILE DEMENTIA, Journal 21, 1923-24, pp. 87-92. Piper communications show veridical awareness of facts beyond the medium’s knowledge. mental mediumship/altered states/personality
Anon. ‘HEAD-SNAPS’, Journal 22, 1925, pp. 6-8. Correspondents describe a phenomenon frequently mentioned by Piper: an audible click or snap at the moment of returning to full consciousness. See also pp. 77-9. mental mediumship
Trethewy, A.W. MRS PIPER AND THE IMPERATOR BAND OF CONTROLS, Proceedings 35, 1926, pp. 445-65. Discusses the claim of certain of Leonora Piper’s ‘controls’ to the identity of the deceased British spiritualist William Stainton Moses and various personalities who communicated through his mediumship. Their unreliable and unlikely statements, together with inconsistencies between the religious teachings of both groups, strongly suggest that the claim is false. However, the author does not discard the possibility that, rather than emanations of the medium’s own consciousness, the personalities may be regarded as spirits impersonating known individuals. mental mediumship/personality/altered states/survival
Trethewy, A.W. ANCIENT OR UNKNOWN CONTROLS, Journal 27, 1931-32, pp. 178-82. Discussion of the control personalities of Piper and Stainton Moses, sympathetic to the possibility that they were genuine entities independent of the medium’s consciousness. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 224-5. mental mediumship/personality/survival
Sidgwick, Eleanor. REVIEW: THE CONTROLS OF STAINTON MOSES BY A. W. TRETHEWY, Journal 21, 1923-24, pp. 143-7. Study of the medium’s phenomena, fully discussed by Sidgwick. mental mediumship/personality
Anon. OBITUARY: MRS LEONORA PIPER, Journal 35, 1949-50, pp. 341-4. No summary given. mental mediumship/tribute
Trethewy, A.W. PERSONALITIES OF CONTROLS AND COMMUNICATORS BEARING ANCIENT OR UNKNOWN NAMES, Journal 27, 1931-2, pp. 178-82. Considers those communicators such as Grocyn, John Dee and Imperator in the mediumship of Stainton Moses and Leonora Piper, and whether they can be considered genuine entities apart from the medium’s personality, capable of communicating through both. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 224. Suggests that names such as Imperator may refer to different individuals speaking under one name. mental mediumship/personality/altered states
Munves, J. G P’s YOUNGER BROTHER: A NOTE, Journal 60, 1994-5, pp. 401-4. This recent article discusses criticisms of communications by ‘George Pelham’ through Leonara Piper which were regarded as highly evidential by her investigator Richard Hodgson. The criticisms were made by Pelham’s surviving brother in order to dissociate himself and his family from any belief that his brother had in fact survived death. The author points to factual errors tending to discredit the brother’s testimony. mental mediumship/personality/cheating
Munves, James. RICHARD HODGSON, MRS PIPER AND ‘GEORGE PELHAM’: A CENTENNIAL REASSESSMENT, Journal 62, 1997-8, pp. 138-54. Offers biographical background to the ‘GP’ communications reported and analysed by Richard Hodgson, who held them to be evidence of survival. The author argues that Piper was able to acquire the information produced by the GP control through normal means and suggests that Hodgson, and also William James who first brought the medium to the SPR’s attention, were misled by their personal feelings to be less critical than they ought to have been. He also throws doubt on the circumstance’s of GP’s death and suggests that the communicator’s confirmation of the false version weakens the case for survival. mental mediumship/survival/cheating
END LEONORA PIPER ROSALIE THOMPSON
Lodge, Oliver, et al. REPORTS OF SITTINGS WITH MRS THOMPSON, Proceedings 17, 1901-2, pp. 61-244. Accounts by different researchers of sittings with Rosalie Thompson, a 3 3-year old unpaid trance medium living at Hampstead, London. Short introductions are given by Oliver Lodge and Frederic Myers, in which the latter reveals his conviction that many of the messages given through the medium come from spirits (73). Dutch member Frederick van Eeden describes a series of sittings in which he is given true information leading him to accept the genuineness of spirit communicators, together with false information which later causes him to change his opinion in favour of unconscious playacting by the medium. After further sittings the author concludes that spirits really are present, although to a lesser degree than is often thought, but considers that the so-called ‘control’ Nellie is an artificial creation of the medium involving a large degree of deception. Notes of the sittings follow (88). An acquaintance of J.G Piddington describes two sittings in which he appears to be in contact with the spirit of his fiancée who had recently been killed in an accident (116). The writer acknowledges the accuracy of much of the information, but feels that nothing was communicated that could not be accounted for by telepathy between himself and the medium (129). (See also DISCUSSION, Journal 11, 1904, pp. 167-9 and CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 255-60). Richard Hodgson discusses six sittings with the medium which produce little of interest and lead him to doubt whether the medium was in a trance at all (138). Opportunities for the fraudulent acquisition of information are fully discussed and considered to have been taken advantage of. Alice Johnson adds a note confirming Hodgson’s impression that information acquired by normal means is later presented by the trance control as coming from another source (162). A series of 22 sittings is described by Mrs A.W. Verrall (167). The author classes 238 statements as true (59 percent), unidentified (27 percent) or false (14 percent). She discusses facts not available to the medium (173); those known to the sitter but not at the time being thought of, the majority (174); and a small number of facts unknown to the sitter and therefore tending to argue against telepathy (176). ‘Nellie’ and other communicators are discussed (184). An incident is described in which facts given to the medium in ordinary conversation are reproduced in trance, but with additional information unknown to her (186). Failures and omissions are described (193), also certain suspicious circumstances (197). Detailed notes follow (223). ABSTRACT & DISCUSSION, Journal 9, 1900, pp. 294-6. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 10, 1901-2, pp. 283-8. mental mediumship/personality/altered states/survival/telepathy
Piddington, J.G. ON THE TYPES OF PHENOMENA DISPLAYED IN MRS THOMPSON’S TRANCE, Proceedings 18, 1903-4, pp. 104-307. Description and analysis of sittings with reference to a wide range of topics: the controls, their personalities and behaviour; relationship between the medium’s trance and normal consciousness; apparently supernormal incidents occurring out of trance; automatic writing, etc. The emergence of a control claiming the identity of Henry Sidgwick is described (passim, 233), also Edmund Gurney. Possible cross-correspondences between the medium’s trances and automatic scripts by her and other mediums are given. Chapter headings are listed at the front of the article. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 11, 1903-4, pp. 255-60. mental mediumship/personality/altered states
Anon. THE TRANCE PHENOMENA OF MRS THOMPSON, Journal 11, 1903-4, pp. 74-76. Explains why Myers decided to omit his work with the medium from his book. mental mediumship
END ROSALIE THOMPSON GLADYS OSBORNE LEONARD
Lodge, Oliver. RECENT EVIDENCE ABOUT PREVISION AND SURVIVAL, Proceedings 29, 1918, pp. 111-69. Lodge offers what he regards as decisive evidence of survival in incidents concerning the death in battle of his son Raymond. Some days before news of the death is received, a statement from a Piper sitting, apparently intended for him, alludes to a well-known passage from Horace in which a blow to the poet is lightened by the intervention of the god Faunus. The deceased Myers is said to be preparing to play the part Faunus to Lodge’s Horace, suggesting that he will help him bear some personal misfortune. News of Raymond’s death follows, and in subsequent sittings with mediums a communicator claiming his identity implies he is being helped by Myers. As part of evidence of his survival, ‘Raymond’ describes a group photograph taken shortly before his death, with a number of details which prove to be accurate when it is finally received by Lodge some time later. Versions of the photograph are given in full plates. Other incidents relating to the ‘Horace’ allusions are also recorded, with a detailed consideration by J.G.Piddington (160-69). See also brief, mainly sympathetic comments by Eleanor Sidgwick in her review of Lodge’s best-selling book Raymond, Or Life And Death, which attracted considerable notice and established his position as a leading academic supporter of survival (404-9). Also Journal 18, 1917-18, pp. 7-8. mental mediumship/survival/altered states
Rogo, D. Scott. ‘THE FAUNUS MESSAGE’: A REVIEW AND NEW INTERPRETATION, Journal 46, 1971-72, pp. 223-7. A new interpretation of a communication originally thought to be a warning by the deceased Frederic Myers to Oliver Lodge concerning the death of his son Raymond. The author suggests it has a deeper meaning relating to the ending of Leonora Piper’s mediumship. See also NOTE, p. 106 (back}. mental mediumship/survival
Radclyffe-Hall, Miss & Troubridge, Una. ON A SERIES OF SITTINGS WITH MRS OSBORNE LEONARD, Proceedings 30, 1920, pp. 339-554. Detailed report on a series of evidential sittings with a paid medium who was to become a focus of the Society’s research. This paper deals with communications, mostly through the medium’s ‘control’ Feda, of a deceased friend of one of the authors. An introduction describes the methods of the sittings and the precautions taken, including the failure of private investigators to discover evidence of fraud. Individual chapters give accounts of Feda’s ability to correctly describe the communicator’s personal appearance; details of intimate matters in the communicator’s life; knowledge of contemporary events; the communicator’s attempts to control the medium directly; knowledge of matters unknown to the sitters. mental mediumship/survival/altered states/methodology
Radclyffe-Hall, M. A NOTE ON ? SERIES OF SITTINGS WITH MRS OSBORNE-LEONARD, Journal 19, 1919-20, pp. 183-6. The authors give the medium their report to read, reluctantly as this reduces the evidential quality of future utterances by the communicator it describes. But they are interested in Leonard’s comments about her lack of personal involvement in the material, which it appears does not always apply. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 190-6, 234-5. See also Journal 21, 1923-24, p. 130-6. mental mediumship/methodology
Sidgwick, Mrs Henry (Eleanor). AN EXAMINATION OF BOOK-TESTS OBTAINED IN SITTINGS WITH MRS LEONARD, Proceedings 31, 1921, pp. 241-416. Analysis of records of book-tests performed in sittings with different communicators. The tests involved the communicator giving information through Feda concerning words or ideas to be found on a certain page of a certain book at some other location. Accurate correspondence would point to some other channel than telepathy between the sitter and the medium, since the information would be unknown to the sitter. Of 532 tests, 92 were classed as successful, 100 approximately successful and the rest either failures or doubtful (246n). mental mediumship/experiments/methodology
Anon. CORRESPONDENCE: ON CHANCE COINCIDENCE IN BOOK-TESTS, Journal 20, 1921-22, pp. 143-4. A random test produces a spectacular hit, suggesting that the effect of chance coincidence should not be underestimated. See also Journal 26, 1930, pp. 98-9, 122. mental mediumship/experiments/methodology
Anon. ON THE ELEMENT OF CHANCE IN BOOK-TESTS, Proceedings 33, 1923, pp. 606-20. Three series of sham book tests are analysed and compared with the genuine book-tests of the Leonard sittings in order to form an estimate of the chance factor. Combined successes and partial successes in the sham tests are found to total less than five percent, compared with totals of 38, 47 and 68 percent for three of the most successful Leonard communicators. BOOK-TESTS, Journal 21, 1923-24, pp. 50-54; Journal 23, pp. 163-7 (back); Journal 24, pp. 4-11, 70-74. mental mediumship/experiments/methodology
Besterman, Theodore. FURTHER INQUIRIES INTO THE ELEMENT OF CHANCE IN BOOK-TESTS, Proceedings 40, 1931-2, pp. 59-98. Experiments with artificial book-tests again ‘strongly indicate the presence of some extra-chance factor in the book-tests given by Mrs Leonard’ (98). mental mediumship/experiments/methodology
Besterman, Theodore. A NOTABLE BOOK-TEST OBTAINED AT A SITTING WITH MRS LEONARD, Journal 27, 1931-32, pp. 59-69. The investigator is Irving, in communication with his wife. A statistical analysis is attempted, demonstrating a result ‘immensely far above chance’ (67). ADDENDUM, p. 108. mental mediumship/experiments/survival/methodology
Thomas, C. Drayton. NEWSPAPER TESTS, Journal 20, 1921-22, pp. 89-107. A communicator whom the investigator accepts as being his deceased father accurately forecasts the appearance of certain names in the following day’s newspaper, also indicating their location. Successes in these tests are given as 73, with 12 indefinite and 19 failures, the proportion in random tests conducted for establishing the mean chance incidence being almost exactly reversed. See also Journal 22, 1925, pp. 18-23. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 94-5. mental mediumship/experiments/survival/precognition
Trethewy, A.W. THREE NEWSPAPER TESTS, Journal 23, 1926, pp. 118-36. Three more cases involving the medium Leonard and the investigator Drayton Thomas. mental mediumship/experiments/methodology
Anon. SOME INCIDENTS IN SITTINGS WITH TRANCE-MEDIUMS, Journal 20, 1921-22, pp. 122-32. Also pages 152-72. Episodes where veridical information is given that is unknown to the sitter at the time. The mediums are Mrs Brittain (122, 162) and Mrs Leonard (128, 153, 166). See also TWO BOOK-TESTS, pp. 376-81; Journal 21, pp. 40-41. mental mediumship
Anon. CORRESPONDENCE: ON THE DIFFICULTY OF GETTING NAMES THROUGH IN ALLEGED SPIRIT COMMUNICATIONS, Journal 20, 1921-22, p. 132. Comment on a persistent feature of mental mediumship. mental mediumship
Anon. NOTE ON ‘THE CASE OF ABRAHAM FLORENTINE’, Journal 20, 1921-22, pp. 148-52. Cryptomnesia is suspected in certain communications to Stainton Moses. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 223-6, 258-9. mental mediumship
Anon. [OUIJA EXPERIMENTS], Journal 20, 1921-22, pp. 191-8. Instances of veridical information given concerning deceased persons, also the contents of closed books, unknown to those present. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Anon. CASES [VERIDICAL INFORMATION IN LEONARD SITTINGS], Journal 20, 1921-22, pp. 394-400. Report of three incidents in sittings. mental mediumship
Salter, Mrs W.H. (Helen Verrall). A FURTHER REPORT ON SITTINGS WITH MRS LEONARD, Proceedings 32, 1922, pp. 1-143. Following an agreement with the medium to work exclusively for the Society, this reports on 73 sittings with 25 new sitters. Topics include: descriptions by the trance personality Feda of the personal appearance of communicators (13); circumstances and physical symptoms associated with a communicator’s death (23); names and initials of communicators (24). A good sitting offering much evidential information with little padding is described (28), including Feda’s inability to correctly determine whether an individual reported missing is alive or dead. Especially evidential points in earlier sittings are also considered (44). An appendix (73) gives extracts to illustrate: descriptions of personal appearance; circumstances of the communicator’s death; description of articles belonging to the communicator; description of places associated with a communicator; references to anniversaries; two sittings involving the same communicator; apparent communication from a living person. mental mediumship/experiments/survival/altered states/personality
Troubridge, Una. THE ‘MODUS OPERAND!’ IN SO-CALLED MEDIUMISTIC TRANCE, Proceedings 32, 1922, pp. 344-78. Takes a closer look at Mrs Leonard’s control personality Feda, comparing her with multiple personality cases such as Doris Fischer’s Margaret. Antagonism by Feda to the medium is described, including attempts to give away Leonard’s jewellery and refusal to appear at sittings if annoyed, jeopardising the medium’s livelihood (353). Other characteristics of Feda’s described include: infantilism (355), conscientiousness (356), knowledge of the medium’s doings (357), lack of human sentiment (358), enjoying being in Occupation’ of the medium (359). Automatic writing in semi-trance states are considered briefly (360). The difficulty apparently experienced by other personalities besides Feda in communicating directly is described (360), also the dramatic representation of deceased persons unknown to the medium (362). Other differences are also enumerated (365). The question is considered of how Feda becomes aware of the information she presents (370). mental mediumship/survival/personality/altered states
Baddeley, C.E. ON ‘THE ‘MODUS OPERAND!’ OF SO-CALLED MEDIUMISTIC TRANCE’, Journal 20, 1921-22, pp. 238-44. More on the nature and identity of Mrs Leonard’s ‘control’ Feda and other trance controls. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 266-7, 290-91. mental mediumship/personality/altered states
Irving, W.S. THOUGHTS ON TRANCE PHENOMENA, Journal 21, 1923-24, pp. 82-7. A Leonard sitter suggests that trance utterances are prepared beforehand by the communicator; that the material is received telepathically by the medium apparently through ordinary sense mechanisms; and that the communicator may not be aware to what extent the message has been correctly received by the medium. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 118-20. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy/altered states
Anon. CORRESPONDENCE: CONCERNING THE TRANSMISSION OF NAMES IN TRANCE-MEDIUMSHIP, Journal 22, 1925, pp. 126-7. Comments on the methods by which Mrs Leonard’s ‘control’, ‘Feda’, appears to receive impressions from communicators. mental mediumship
Anon. VERIDICAL INFORMATION GIVEN BY A COMMUNICATOR UNKNOWN TO THE SITTER, Journal 24, 1927-28, pp. 193-200. A Leonard-Drayton Thomas case. mental mediumship
Anon. CASE: SOME EVIDENCE OBTAINED AT RECENT SITTINGS WITH MRS LEONARD AND MRS BRITTAIN, Journal 24, 1927-28, pp. 243-7. No summary given. mental mediumship
Anon. INFORMATION OBTAINED AT A TRANCE-SITTING ON MATTERS UNKNOWN TO THE SITTER, Journal 24, 1927-28, pp. 303-7. Report of a Leonard sitting. mental mediumship
Salter, Mrs W.H. A REPORT ON SOME RECENT SITTINGS WITH MRS LEONARD, Proceedings 36, 1928, pp. 187-332. Incidents are described that suggest variously telepathy from persons other than the sitter, clairvoyance, and communication from the dead. Feda gives accurate information about events taking place in other places beyond the knowledge of the sitter. Conventional book tests are described, also certain ‘picture tests’, in which a communicator gives details of a picture which the sitter will shortly see. mental mediumship/telepathy/clairvoyance/survival/precognition
Irving, W.S. MORE THOUGHTS ON TRANCE PHENOMENA, Proceedings 36, 1928, pp. 555-72. Discusses aspects of Leonard sittings that may throw light on the functioning of communications. The author draws attention to the interference of the medium’s subconscious mind, introducing extraneous influences. mental mediumship/survival/altered states
Thomas, C. Drayton. THE ‘MODUS OPERAND!’ OF TRANCE-COMMUNICATION ACCORDING TO DESCRIPTIONS RECEIVED THROUGH MRS OSBORNE LEONARD, Proceedings 38, 1928-9, pp. 49-100. Conversations with communicators believed to be the sitter’s deceased father and sister seem here to throw light on the methods and restraints involved in mediumistic communication. The communicators discuss their ideas of what occurs, the role of the control, their dependence on power apparently generated by the medium and sitters, method by which ideas are transmitted, the difficulty with names, etc. The communicators’ idea of how they convey messages to Feda is examined (53), also her idea of how messages reach her (60) and various difficulties encountered (63), such as problems with memory (65) and with specific words as opposed to general ideas (71). The part played by the mind of the medium is discussed. (78), also the influence of the sitter (91). mental mediumship/survival/methodology/altered states/personality
Trethewy, A.W. ‘LIFE BEYOND DEATH WITH EVIDENCE’, Journal 25, 1929, pp. 50-59. Considers the claims for Leonard’s mediumship made in a book by SPR researcher C. Drayton Thomas, with reference to the rival ‘spiritist’ and ‘animist’ theories. Comparisons are made to E. Osty’s book Supernormal Faculties Of Man. Book review, Journal 24, 1928, pp. 398-9. mental mediumship/survival
Anon. AN AUDITORY PREMONITION, Journal 26, 1930, pp. 1-3. Feda warns Leonard not to use a certain room for sittings, but does not say why and her advice is disregarded. During a sitting the ceiling collapses and the medium and others present have a narrow escape. mental mediumship/precognition
Walker, Nea. THE TONY BURMAN CASE, Proceedings 39, 1930-31, pp. 1-46. A sitter at a regular private circle is killed in a motorcycle accident and subsequently appears to communicate through Mrs Leonard and other mediums. mental mediumship/survival
Irving, W.S. & Besterman, Theodore. EVIDENTIAL EXTRACTS FROM SITTINGS WITH MRS LEONARD, Proceedings 40, 1931-2, pp. 129-61. Record of experiments in which a communicator claiming to be the sitter’s deceased wife accurately describes books and objects in houses unknown to the sitter. mental mediumship/survival
Salter, Mrs. W.H. (Helen Verrall). SOME INCIDENTS OCCURRING AT SITTINGS WITH MRS LEONARD WHICH MAY THROW LIGHT ON THEIR ‘MODUS OPERAND!’, Proceedings 39, 1930-31, pp. 306-32. Follows up suggestions by earlier commentators that Feda’s description of apparently sensory perceptions in ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’ communicators are not to be taken at face value. The author quotes material from her own sittings with Mrs Leonard at which her parents, A.W. and Margaret Verrall, appeared to communicate. Booktests are included. mental mediumship/survival/altered states/methodology
Thomas, C. Drayton. A CONSIDERATION OF A SERIES OF PROXY SITTINGS, Proceedings 41, 1932-3, pp. 139-185. A new type of evidence is examined in which information of an evidential kind is given for people who are not present and who are not known to the medium. Of 24 cases from Leonard sittings a third are found to show good or fair evidence of identity; others are poor, inconclusive or failures. Examples of each category are given and various hypotheses discussed: telepathy (149); direct mental or psychic activity by the medium (156); or discarnate communication (162). Also discussed are the difficulties of communication (169) and explanations offered by the communicators (172). mental mediumship/survival/methodology
Besterman, Theodore & Heard, G. NOTE ON AN ATTEMPT TO LOCATE IN SPACE THE ALLEGED DIRECT VOICE OBSERVED IN SITTING WITH MRS LEONARD, Journal 28, 1933-34, p. 84. Brief note on an unsuccessful experiment. mental mediumship
Grondahl, Illit. NOTES ON SITTINGS, Journal 28, 1933-34, pp. 102-4. Evidential material from sittings with Leonard and the Norwegian medium Sophie Wereide. mental mediumship
Irving, W.S. REPORT OF PICTURE TESTS, Journal 28, 1933-34, pp. 280-83. Also pages 299-309. Sittings with Leonard. mental mediumship
Thomas, C. Drayton. THE WORD ASSOCIATION TEST WITH MRS OSBORNE LEONARD, Proceedings 43, 1935, pp. 371-96. A regular investigator of Leonard involved in collecting data for the word association tests looks for relationships revealed in the words offered by the controls and communicators. He finds a close relationship between the two regular communicators, but some distance between Feda and the medium; no interpretations are attempted. mental mediumship/altered states/survival/methodology
Thomas, C. Drayton. A PROXY CASE EXTENDING OVER ELEVEN SITTINGS WITH MRS OSBORNE LEONARD [‘BOBBIE NEWLOVE’], Proceedings 43, 1935, pp. 439-519. Regular communicators offer repeated references to ‘pipes’ in relation to the death of a ten-year-old boy of diphtheria. The reference leads to the discovery of an infected water outlet where the boy played, of whose existence the family had not previously known. Reflections on telepathy, clairvoyance and the modus ope randi of spirit communication follow. Other evidential material is included in this seemingly successful proxy case. A summary of the series of proxy sittings is given in Journal 28, 1934, pp. 229-36. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 29, 1935-36, pp. 171, 215, 234-5, 246, 257, 262-4. See also NOTE concerning the publication of Drayton Thomas’s book on the Newlove case, Journal 30, 1937-8, p. 32. mental mediumship/survival/altered states/telepathy
Thomas, C. Drayton. A CONSIDERATION OF A SERIES OF PROXY SITTINGS, Proceedings 41, 1932-3, pp. 139-185. A new type of evidence is examined in which information of an evidential kind is given for people who are not present and who are not known to the medium. Of 24 cases from Leonard sittings a third are found to show good or fair evidence of identity; others are poor, inconclusive or failures. Examples of each category are given and various hypotheses discussed: telepathy (149); direct mental or psychic activity by the medium (156); or discarnate communication (162). Also discussed are the difficulties of communication (169) and explanations offered by the communicators (172). mental mediumship/survival/methodology
Richmond, Kenneth. CASE: A NEW COMMUNICATOR ASSOCIATED WITH ‘DORA’, Journal 30, 1937-38, pp. 111-22. Material arising out of Leonard sittings is analysed in terms of the ‘mental energies’ required to give form to certain ideas and images presented as evidence of survival. mental mediumship/survival/theory
Anon. A STUDY IN EVIDENCE, Journal 30, 1937-38, pp. 243-56. Discusses evidences of paranormality put forward by Irving from Leonard sittings. mental mediumship
Newton, Isabel. A STUDY OF CERTAIN LEONARD PHENOMENA, Proceedings 45, 1938-9, pp. 103-26. Statements by Leonard’s trance personalities giving details of people, situations and places unknown to the medium are compared with the facts and found to be substantially accurate. The personalities are the chief control Feda and a communicator claiming to be the deceased wife of a regular sitter. mental mediumship/survival/altered states
Thomas, C. Drayton. A PROXY EXPERIMENT OF SIGNIFICANT SUCCESS, Proceedings 45, 1938-9, pp. 257-306. An avowed sceptic suggests an experiment in which the deceased relative of a friend, unknown to either sitter or medium, be invited to communicate evidence of his survival. The communicator duly appears, and in four sittings gives 94 items, of which 70 are considered by his daughter to be accurate, well beyond chance levels. Further sittings also produce accurate evidential information. The author finds the hypothesis of survival to be more weighty in this case than the possibility of telepathy between the medium and the daughter (290). The sceptic acknowledges that the medium either had supernormal access to the minds of people unconnected with her or to ‘a mind or minds other than that of a living person’ (295), preferring the former. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy
Thomas, C. Drayton. A NEW TYPE OF PROXY CASE, Journal 31, 1939-40, pp. 103-6. (Also pages 120-23). Communicators tell the author that he is about to receive letters from individuals asking for advice, with other details which prove to be accurate. mental mediumship/precognition
Thomas, C. Drayton. A DISCOURSE GIVEN THROUGH MRS LEONARD AND ATTRIBUTED TO SIR OLIVER LODGE, Journal 33, 1943-6, pp. 134-56. Statements about afterlife conditions by a communicator claiming the identity of the scientist and SPR researcher are given at length and found to compare, at least in terms of meaning, with the opinions published in his books. The exception is reincarnation, about which the living Lodge was previously non-committal but which the communicator now says actually occurs. The author and sitter, an ordained Christian and spiritualist, finds the communicator’s mannerisms bear a convincing likeness to Lodge’s but is distressed by the remarks about reincarnation. See also NOTE by W.H Salter on Myers’s views about reincarnation, pp. 170-71. mental mediumship/survival
Thomas, C. Drayton. A NEW HYPOTHESIS CONCERNING TRANCE-COMMUNICATIONS, Proceedings 48, 1946-49, pp. 121-63. Describes the occasional break-through during Leonard sittings of ‘direct voice’ speech, words apparently uttered by communicators in the course of giving messages for ‘Feda’ to repeat. A number of examples are given where words are heard and understood by the sitters, but not immediately by Feda herself. Thomas argues that this encourages a literal view of the communicators being present in a quasi-physical sense, possessing ‘bodies’, visible to Feda and occupying definite places in the séance room. He believes this supports their claim of a psychic ‘emanation’ from the medium, shaped to provide some quasi-material organism. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 34, 1947-48, pp. 97-8. mental mediumship/survival/altered states
Thomas, C. Drayton. FORECASTS AND PRECOGNITION, Proceedings 48, 1948, pp. 306-29. An examination of several accurate predictions received through the medium Gladys Osborn Leonard. These fall into six classes which are described and illustrated: (1) Forecasts based on plans perceived in human minds, or on circumstances unknown to the recipients; (2) forecasts based on plans perceived in human minds, to which communicators add plans of their own and carry out the combined plan by influencing human action; (3) forecasts made by communicators, for the carrying out of which they request human cooperation; (4) forecasts made by communicators based on plans made by themselves; (5) forecasts in the nature of experiments which discarnate beings undertake for purposes of their own; (6) forecasts which look like pure precognition, i.e., veridical cognition of the future obtained by some means other than rational inference. Concludes that in such forecasts of the future we have a body of evidence for the existence of intelligent action in minds other than those of earth. PsiLine CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 34, 1948, pp. 308-9. mental mediumship/altered states/survival/precognition
Thomas, C. Drayton. THE VOLUME OF BYRON: A SIGNIFICANT BOOK TEST, Proceedings 48, 1946-49, pp. 230-38. Communicators at Leonard sittings demonstrate knowledge both of the physical proximity of volumes by different authors in a distant location, and of certain intentions of their owner, together with other details. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 34, 1947-48, pp 230-31, 248-9. mental mediumship/survival/experiments/methodology
Heywood, Rosalind et al. MRS GLADYS OSBORNE LEONARD: A BIOGRAPHICAL TRIBUTE, Journal 45, 1969, pp. 95-115. A short biography of and tribute to Gladys Osborne Leonard (1882-1968). Tells of her youth, early adulthood, and introduction to spiritualism. Reviews the history of her mediumship and the various classes of evidence for survival she produced. Concludes that even if survival were proved a myth, mediumship of the quality of Mrs. Leonard’s in a person of her integrity would still be of the greatest psychological interest. PsiLine Hankey, Muriel. MRS. GLADYS OSBORNE LEONARD: SOME REMINISCENCES, pp. 105-11 (illus). A few personal recollections of the supremely fine sensitive, Mrs. Leonard. Describes her initial meeting with the medium in 1915 as the first of many hundreds of sittings she attended over the next 45 years in various capacities: personal sitter, proxy sitter, or just recorder. Recounts a number of personal anecdotes illustrating the peculiarities sometimes expressed in Leonard’s mediumship. PsiLine Richmond, Zoe. MRS. GLADYS OSBORNE LEONARD: A TRIBUTE, pp. 111-5. An account of the author’s relationship with Mrs. Leonard since their first meeting in 1916. Cites several letters from the medium and others which illustrate her remarkable psychic gifts. PsiLine mental mediumship/tribute
West, Donald J. THE AVB COMMUNICATIONS VIA MRS LEONARD: LOOKING BACK AT A HISTORIC CASE RECORD, Journal 64, 2000, pp. 233-41. Author’s abstract: Reviewing classic cases from the past can guide contemporary approaches. The AVB communications through Mrs. Leonard [where Radclyffe-Hall and Troubridge acted as sitters attempting to contact a deceased friend] featured prominently in SPR publications and included much material considered highly evidential. The social context in which the sittings took place and the motivations of those involved, which are now more widely known, are of more than psychological interest. They have a bearing on how the evidence is evaluated. Making maximum allowance for this information does not exclude evidence for paranormality. mental mediumship/personality
END GLADYS OSBORNE LEONARD BLANCHE COOPER
Soal, S.G. A REPORT ON SOME COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED THROUGH MRS BLANCHE COOPER, Proceedings 35, 1926, pp. 471-594. This report on a direct voice medium contains the ‘Gordon Davis’ incident, in which communications from a person later discovered to be living contain indications of precognition. The report is sometimes cited in arguments against the survival hypothesis. The author establishes that he is concerned with the utterances themselves rather than the question of whether the voices heard during sittings are independent of the medium’s own. The first section describes sittings in which the author’s brother, killed in the war at the age of nineteen, appears to communicate, with accurate personal information relating to their early lives. Veridical communications containing information unknown to the sitter are described: in one incident the communicator gives information regarding a buried medallion, unknown to anyone, which is later discovered where indicated (511). The second section (523) concerns a communicator named John Ferguson, whom the author at first associates with a genuine personality but later realises is reproducing in sittings ideas and incidents which have their origin as conjectures in his own mind. The personality is therefore regarded as fictitious and the case for telepathy between medium and sitter much stronger than is normally admitted. A third case (549) suggests cryptomnesia, the unconscious use by the medium of information gathered from a newspaper obituary. In the final case a school acquaintance who the author had thought to be dead communicates briefly but strongly, confirming his decease and giving evidential information about his house. The friend is found to be alive, however, and convincing parallels are found with the communicator’s personality and mannerisms. The details about the house are found to have been unknown to the friend at the time of the sitting. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy/altered states
Bradley, D. & Soal, S.G. CONCERNING MR S.G. SOAL’S REPORT ON SITTINGS WITH MRS COOPER, Journal 23, 1926, pp. 29-64. Criticisms of the Gordon Davis case, and a reply by the investigator concerned. CORRESPONDENCE, 91-2. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy
West, Donald. THE GORDON DAVIS PRECOGNITIVE ‘COMMUNICATIONS’, Journal 64, 2000, pp. 252-4. Discusses notebooks belonging to S.G. Soal containing the researcher’s original notes on experiments with the voice medium Blanche Cooper in 1926, that have recently come to light. West looks for any indication to support claims that Soal, who was found to have falsified score sheets in ESP experiments, also altered these records, but finds none, while accepting that ‘there are many suspicious features’ about Soal’s report of the sittings. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy/cheating
END OF BLANCHE COOPER
Wedgwood, Hensleigh. INFORMATION GIVEN BY PLANCHETTE-WRITING, Journal 4, 1889-90, pp. 208-10. A communicator explains that a mysterious crash heard upstairs has been caused by an ‘adverse influence’. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Wedgwood, Hensleigh. AN INTERESTING CASE OF PLANCHETTE-WRITING, Journal 4, 1889-90, pp. 174-9. A soldier responsible for editing Wellington’s despatches from the Peninsula appears at a planchette sitting, with details that correspond to the historical events. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Barkworth, T. et al. GENERAL MEETING, Journal 4, 1890, pp. 318-9. Brief report of a discussion on automatic writing, including a reference to a woman who ‘wrecked her whole fortune’ by following a planchette’s advice on investments, and comments by Oliver Lodge on a paper by William James on L. Piper, read by his brother Henry. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Ravaldini, Silvio, et al. THE CASE OF GIUSEPPE RICCARDI, Journal 56, 1989-91, pp. 257-65. A drop-in communicator in Italy in 1948 identifies himself as a priest who was killed by a crazed gunman after saying mass in church in Ohio, USA. An investigation in 1987 finds the details to be correct. The authors think it unlikely that the medium saw either of two short and inaccurate news items on the case published in Italy, and conclude that he obtained knowledge of it paranormally. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 57, 1991, pp. 434-7; Journal 58, 1991-92, pp. 113-6, 401-3. mental mediumship/survival
Anon. THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE OBTAINED THROUGH TABLE-TILTING, Journal 6, 1893, pp. 112-5. Record of veridical information in table-tilting in Brazil. mental mediumship/psychokinesis
Lang, Andrew. THE VOICES OF JEANNE D’ARC, Proceedings 11, 1895, pp. 198-212. Describes contemporary testimonies of the voices heard, and for the most part heeded, by Joan of Arc, with doubts as to the adequacy of the diagnosis of ‘hysteria’. The author draws attention to the general appearance she gave of health and sanity, evidence in her pronouncements of supernormally acquired information (209), and comparative lack of miraculous legends surrounding her (211). He concludes that the hypothesis of voices as externalisations of her own ideas needs to be stretched to involve some abnormal element. mental mediumship/personality/altered states
Hill-Tout, Charles. SOME PSYCHICAL PHENOMENA BEARING UPON THE QUESTION OF SPIRIT CONTROL, Proceedings 11, 1895, pp. 309-16. The author describes his own experiences as a reluctant trance medium, gained while investigating spiritualism, which include apparently being ‘controlled’ by the spirit of his deceased father. He concludes that the experiences are concerned less with the agency of departed spirits than with the power of suggestion, to which he is particularly susceptible. mental mediumship/personality/altered states
Anon. Miss X. SOME RECENT EXPERIENCES APPARENTLY SUPERNORMAL, Journal 8, 1897, pp. 3-7. Describes mediumistic communications received by Lady Burton and purporting to come from her deceased husband Sir Robert Burton. The communicator urges her to make the best of the eight months of life left to her and at the bequest of the author submits to test questions to provide evidence of his genuineness. However these can only be validated by Lady Burton, who unfortunately dies shortly afterwards (abstract and discussion). mental mediumship/personality
Anon. A CASE OF ‘SPIRIT’ IDENTITY, Journal 8, 1897-8, pp. 281-95. A 12-year-old girl, newly arrived to work as a domestic in Brazil, is hypnotised and appears to communicate with the spirit of her employer’s mother. Information is passed on concerning a sum of money concealed in a locked room which, when investigated, is discovered to be accurate. The case is investigated, certain inaccuracies and additional information being discovered which, in the investigator’s opinion, do not diminish the case as evidence of survival. mental mediumship/hypnosis/survival
Myers, Frederic W.H. ‘LETTERS FROM JULIA: LIGHT FROM THE BORDERLAND’, BY W.T. STEAD, Proceedings 13, 1897-8, pp. 612-3. Review of automatic writings by a journalist, purporting to have been received from a deceased friend and concerning the conditions of afterlife. Myers attests to the author’s sincerity but argues that evidence of the communicator’s independence of his own mind is slight. mental mediumship/automatic writing/survival
Anon. EXTRACT FROM J.E. DE MIRVILLE’S ‘DES ESPRITS ET DE LEURS MANIFESTATIONS FLUIDIQUES’, WITH INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY ALFRED R. WALLACE, Proceedings 14, 1898-9, pp. 373-81. Wallace complains of Podmore’s accusations of fraud against Alex Didier, and by way of refutation presents testimony by the French master-conjurer Robert Houdin endorsing the clairvoyant as genuine. mental mediumship/cheating
Anon. AN AUSTRALIAN WITCH, Journal 9, 1899, pp. 69-71. An illness is revealed by a spirit medium to have been caused by offended spirits: she effects a cure. mental niediumship/healing
Solovovo, Michael Petrovo. AN AUTOMATIC MESSAGE CONVEYING INFORMATION PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN, Journal 9, 1899-1900, pp. 65-8. A Russian soldier communicates details of his death by drowning which sitters find convincing as evidence of survival. See also NOTE ON SOME AUTOMATIC MESSAGES, Journal 10, 1901. Attempts to establish whether séance messages are veridical are inconclusive. (A minor correction is added on page 84). mental mediumship/survival
Anon. MIND-READING AND ALLIED PHENOMENA, Journal 10, 1901-2, pp. 177-92. See also pp. 199-208, 230-32. Report of telepathic phenomena in Brazil with a section on ‘telepathy from the dead’ (204). mental mediumship/telepathy/survival
Anon. THE AUTOMATIC DRAWINGS OF MRS WATTS, Journal 11, 1903, pp. 95-7. A woman experiences recurrent visual images which take form in automatic drawings, seemingly inspired by the artists Fra Angelico, Raphael and Blake. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Anon. UNIDENTIFIED NAMES IN MRS VERRALL’S AUTOMATIC WRITING, Journal 11, 1903-4, pp. 147-8. Appeal to readers to identify unrecognised names. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Anon. TESTS OF PERSONAL IDENTITY, Journal 11, 1904, pp. 272-3. Suggestions concerning the preparation of envelopes confirming messages given through mediums following the individual’s decease. mental mediumship/survival/experiments/methodology
Lodge, Oliver. A CASE OF AUTOMATIC INTELLIGENCE, Journal 11, 1904, pp. 309-15. Automatic text by a planchette demonstrates a knowledge of mathematics beyond the capability of the experimenters. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Richet, Charles. XENOGLOSSIE: L’ECRITURE AUTOMATIQUE EN LANGUES ETRANGERES, Proceedings 19, 1905-7, pp. 162-194. Richet describes a case of a French clairvoyant who started to produce sentences in Greek, both classical and modern, in the original Greek script, although herself entirely ignorant of that language. The sentences seemed to be prompted by a deceased relative of Richet, of whose genuineness Richet was unconvinced. The phrases were traced to various extant sources in print; however Richet rejects the hypotheses of fraud and unconscious memory. He concludes that the automatist is copying something she sees, as it were in a vision. mental mediumship/automatic writing/xenoglossy
Richet, Charles. QUELQUES OBSERVATIONS DE CLAIRVOYANCE, Journal 12, 1905, pp. 91-5. No summary given. clairvoyance
Lodge, Oliver, et al. DISCUSSION ON PROFESSOR RICHET’S CASE OF AUTOMATIC WRITING IN A LANGUAGE UNKNOWN TO THE WRITER, Proceedings 19, 1905-7, pp. 195-266. Oliver Lodge offers a survivalist interpretation, suggesting that a discarnate intelligence embarking on this kind of demonstration might need to rely on extant sources rather than communicating original ideas, which would probably be rendered by the medium in her own language. Margaret Verrall (205-44) provides a thorough analysis of the character of the scripts, especially as regards mistakes and irregularities. Against fraud, she points out that the scripts show none of the increased familiarity that a copyist would be expected to show in the course of a deliberate deception (227); other obvious explanations are likewise ruled out (242), although survival is not seriously considered. Everard Feilding and Alice Johnson (245-61) criticise Richet’s precautions against fraud, arguing that it would be possible for a person ignorant of Greek to learn the characters sufficiently to be able to pick out phrases from a dictionary and learn them by heart. Alternatively, the automatist might have read the information from scraps of paper. Richet makes a brief reply (262-6). mental mediumship/automatic writing/xenoglossy
MYERS POSTHUMOUS MESSAGE
Anon. OPENING OF AN ENVELOPE CONTAINING A POSTHUMOUS NOTE LEFT BY MR MYERS, Journal 12, 1905-6, pp. 11-13. Margaret Verrall believes that certain statements in her automatic scripts may correspond to the message left by Myers in a sealed envelope as a test of his survival. The envelope is opened in the presence of Society members but no correspondence is found. mental mediumship/automatic writing/survival
Anon. THE SPR AND THE MYERS ‘SEALED PACKET’, Journal 38, 1955-6, pp. 18-20. Answers an attack on the Society for allegedly concealing positive information about Myers’s attempt to demonstrate his survival. The point is made that the positive view taken of the experiment by Lodge and others was too complex to be totally convincing, and depended moreover on extensive quotations from papers not in the Society’s possession. mental mediumship/survival/SPR matters
Salter, W.H. F W H MYERS’S POSTHUMOUS MESSSAGE, Proceedings 52, 1958-60, pp. 1-32. Qualifies the perception that the deceased Myers failed to accurately communicate the contents of his sealed message. Salter here reveals that literary references in scripts by Margaret Verrall convinced her and other leaders of the SPR that Myers was in fact making indirect allusions to the message. The paper contains some details of Myers’s ill-fated affair with Annie Marshall, whose purported communications through mediums helped to convince him of the reality of survival. mental mediumship/survival/SPR matters
Gauld, Alan & Salter, W.H. FREDERIC MYERS AND ‘PHYLLIS’, Journal 42, 1963-64, pp. 316-24. Defences of Myers against an attack on his integrity regarding his relationship with Annie Marshall. See also Journal 43, pp. 277-81. mental mediumship/survival
END MYERS POSTHUMOUS MESSAGE
Anon. TABLE-TILTING CASE, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 35-40. A case of table-tilting that revealed the recent death of the editor of a psychology Journal, giving details that were wholly or partly accurate and that were unlikely to have been known to the sitters. mental mediumship/psychokinesis/survival
Anon. THE TRANCE STATE, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 204-8. Discussion of the methods by which external intelligences may be said to communicate through mediums. mental mediumship/altered states/theory
Anon. OUIJA WRITING, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 211-7. A woman receives messages apparently from a deceased son, with details unknown to her and later shown to have been accurate. mental mediumship/automatic writing/survival
Bullough, Edward. MENTAL TYPES: A SUGGESTION FOR EXPERIMENTS, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 84-9. Suggested methods of identifying the controls of mental mediums. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 111-2. mental mediumship/methodology
Mattiesen, Emil. THE PHENOMENA OF FRIEDA GENTES, Journal 16, 1913-14, pp. 210-23. Report of a medium who produces high-quality drawings during trance states. The claim of the ‘artist’ to be a deceased spirit is dismissed when he evades questions about his former identity. Includes a case of precognition of a fatal accident. mental mediumship/alteredstates/precognition
Jacks, L.P. THE PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF THE DEPARTED AS DESCRIBED BY CONTROLS, Journal 18, 1917-18, pp. 187-91. Suggests that the appearance of spirits is governed not by their idea of themselves but rather by the ideas others had of them in life. CORRESPONDENCE & COMMENT, pp. 211-25; Journal 19, pp. 24-9, 60-66. mental mediumship/survival/theory
Smith (Carington), Whately. SUGGESTED NEW TEST FOR EVIDENCE OF SURVIVAL, Journal 19, 1919-20, pp. 163-4. (See also Journal 20, pp. 226-7). Proposal for the word-association test to establish the identity of communicators, subsequently taken up by the author as a line of investigation. mental mediumship/survival/altered states/experiments/methodology
Anon. THE CASE OF WILLIAM GILLAM, Journal 19, 1919-20, pp. 112-24. An automatist receives communications from a personality claiming to be her nephew, recently killed in battle. The communicator gives various hints that his personal servant, also a soldier, is shortly also to be killed and exploits the event as evidence of survival. mental mediumship/survival/automatic writing
Anon. A RECORD OF SOME EXPERIMENTS IN AUTOMATISM, Journal 19, 1919-20, pp. 241-7. A Norwegian ouija circle produces exchanges with a personality obsessed with hatred for her husband’s second wife. The episode also provides possible evidence of the sitters’ telepathic involvement. mental mediumship/automatic writing/telepathy/survival
Barrett, W.F. EVIDENCE OF SUPER-NORMAL COMMUNICATIONS THROUGH MOTOR AUTOMATISM, Proceedings 30, 1920, pp. 230-50. Describes cases of mediumistic communications that produced veridical information. The first concerns an individual who was not only alive but was able to confirm that what the communicator described himself as doing at the time was precisely accurate in most details. In a second case (236), a young soldier gives evidence of survival which is at first rejected by his family but is later found to refer precisely to incidents in his private life of which they had been ignorant. In a third case (238) a friend of the sitters communicates his death by drowning, following the sinking of the Lusitania but before they knew that he had been a passenger on the ship. Other messages are seen as dream-creations (247). mental mediumship/survival/automatic writing
Anon. THE READING OF CLOSED BOOKS APPARENTLY BY CLAIRVOYANCE, Journal 20, 1921, pp. 179-88. Experiments emulating the Leonard book tests bring striking results, the percipient being able to record almost verbatim extended passages, rather than simple ideas and fragments. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 20, 1922, pp. 249-51. mental mediumship/experiments/clairvoyance
Sidgwick, Eleanor. ON HINDRANCES AND COMPLICATIONS IN TELEPATHIC COMMUNICATION, Proceedings 34, 1923, pp. 28-69. Examines the statement by ‘Myers’ in a a script by Mrs Holland, that communicating is like ‘standing behind a sheet of frosted glass.. .dictating feebly... to a reluctant and somewhat obtuse secretary.’ Sidgwick concludes that there are many stages in the process of telepathic communication and a corresponding number of difficulties in achieving success. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy
Piddington, J.G. FORECASTS IN SCRIPTS CONCERNING THE WAR, Proceedings 33, 1923, pp. 439-605. A preponderance of battle imagery in pre-war scripts is thought with hindsight to show possible foreknowledge of the coming event. The most direct references are contained in scripts by ‘Mrs King’, the pseudonym of Dame Edith Lyttelton, and include possible indications of the sinking of the Lusitania (499). Four classes of predictions are recognised: in general terms, the close imminence of war, particular incidents, the future of the world (599). mental mediumship/precognition
Anon. [OUIJA SURVIVAL MESSAGE], Journal 21, 1923-24, pp. 10-16. A man receives messages from his deceased father conveyed through a third party and showing knowledge of intimate circumstances in his life. mental mediumship/survival/automatic writing
Anon. A GIFT OF LINEN, Journal 21, 1923-24, pp. 280-84. A housewife in dire need of new sheets and towels for her family receives a letter from a friend. The friend, who knows nothing about the problem herself, has had a communication through a medium from her deceased mother who is apparently aware of it and who asks that her own household linen, now no longer in use, be used to resolve it. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy
Anon. A FICTITIOUS COMMUNICATOR, Journal 21, 1923-24, pp. 306-14. A promising case of communications from table-tilting breaks down when hoaxing is discovered. mental mediumship/psychokinesis/cheating
Alrutz, Sydney. THE MECHANISM OF THE SO-CALLED MEDIUMISTIC TRANCE, Proceedings 34, 1924, pp. 166-80. The author, a psychologist, compares aspects of the trance state of Piper, Leonard and other mediums with what is known about hypnosis. He argues that accurate knowledge of the behaviour and physiological symptoms during a trance can enable judgements of the hypnotic level to be reached, in turn enabling further assessments of the degree of suggestibility and telepathic sensibility. mental mediumship/hypnosis/altered states/personality
Lodge, Oliver. BRAIN AND SPEECH, Journal 21, 1924, pp. 264-9. Lodge is struck by neurological findings on soldiers suffering brain damage, who are unable to remember names or find the right words to convey impressions. He compares this to the similar difficulty experienced by mediums, who will say France when they mean Paris, or opening when they want to say door. Myers was particularly impatient of their circumlocutions and inexactness with times, Lodge reports. He argues that in communications purporting to originate with Myers’s spirit these are hardly evident, and suggests that the deceased researcher has addressed the problem both in his own communications and those of others. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 299-300; pp. 353-8; Journal 22, 1925, pp. 8-12, 79. mental mediumship/survival
Troubridge, Una. SOME FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF THE ‘MODUS OPERAND!’ IN MEDIUMISTIC TRANCE, Proceedings 34, 1924, pp. 298-309. Points raised by Sydney Alrutz in connection with Troubridge’s work with Leonard are here answered. Includes more on Feda’s behaviour and on the A.V.B. personality discussed in Troubridge’s original paper. mental mediumship/hypnosis/altered states
Sidgwick, Mrs Henry (Eleanor). REVIEW OF ‘THE OSCAR WILDE’ SCRIPT, Proceedings 34, 1924, pp. 186-96. Sidgwick’s interest is aroused by the publication and analysis of a series of automatic and ouija scripts purporting to originate with the deceased spirit of Oscar Wilde. She comments on the likeness of the handwriting in the scripts with that of the living Wilde, the mix of Wilde’s interests with those of the automatists, the automatists’ accurate description of incidents in Wilde’s life found in biographies not read by them, and certain inconsistencies in the scripts, arguing that they raise more questions than they answer. See also NOTE Journal 23, 1926, pp. 110-12; BOOK REVIEW, Proceedings 34, 1924, pp. 186-96. mental mediumship/survival/automatic writing
Findlay, Arthur. AN INVESTIGATION INTO PSYCHIC PHENOMENA, Journal 22, 1925, p. 64. Account of successful sittings over a period of six years with the Glasgow medium John Sloan. mental mediumship
Anon. BRAIN AND SPEECH, Journal 22, 1925, pp. 73-5. Describes the difficulty the researcher James Hyslop experienced in uttering names, seen as a good illustration of a problem that frequently occurs in mediumistic sittings. mental mediumship
Anon. CASES: AUTOMATIC WRITING, Journal 22, 1925, pp. 117-20. Veridical information unknown to the automatist given in scripts. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Anon. BOOK-TESTS, Journal 22, 1925, pp. 136-43. Tests obtained in ouija sessions by two mothers ostensibly communicating with sons killed during the war. mental mediumship/survival/automatic writing
Anon. AN ATTEMPT TO GIVE INFORMATION CONCERNING THE CONTENTS OF A SEALED PACKET, Journal 23, 1926, pp. 144-8. Attempts by five people fail to divine the contents of a sealed packet, whose contents were known only to a deceased person, yet show an interesting agreement with each other, suggesting the existence of some telepathic rapport. survival/telepathy/experiments
Anon. DR ? W MITCHELL’S PAPER AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION, Journal 24, 1927, pp. 113-4. Brief record of a reading on the phenomena of mediumistic trance. mental mediumship
Jones, Lawrence J. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, Proceedings 38, 1928, pp. 17-48. LINK TO JOURNAL SEPT 1927, WHICHREVEALS THAT MISS WINGFIELD IS THE MISS A MENTIONED FREQUENTLY BY MYERS IN PROCEEDINGS AND HUMAN PERSONALITY. Provides details of sittings with Kate Wingfield, who features as ‘Miss A’ in writings by Frederic Myers in the Proceedings and Human Personality. Jones first describes several episodes involving the communicator Semirus, supposed to have been a doctor in ancient Egypt, in which accurate diagonoses and effective practical remedies are offered to sitters and others. Then follows an episode involving communications from the victims of a murder and subsequent hanging (25), another similar case, and comments by communicators on aspects of their awareness (34). Apports are described (37), also an explanation of raps (39), spirit guides (42), the failure of’prophecies’ (44), disillusion with other mediums consulted (47). mental mediumship/survival/physical mediumship/altered states
Anon. THE REV ARTHUR FORD, Journal 24, 1927-28, pp. 357-61. Dubious experiences with an American platform clairaudient medium. mental mediumship/cheating
Solovovo, P-P. ON SOME CRITICAL METHODS, Journal 24, 1928, pp. 361-8. Detailed criticism of the methods of a German investigator of trance mediums, Emil Mattiesen, said by the author to be lacking in critical objectivity. Mattiesen replies, Journal 25, 1929, pp. 27-32. mental mediumship/methodology
Schiller, F.C.S. REVIEW: DR WALTER FRANKLIN PRINCE’S ‘THE CASE OF PATIENCE WORTH’, Proceedings 36, 1928, pp. 573-6. Provides a brief summary of an American case in which a housewife with no obvious literary talent received mediumistically poems and stories which were published, sometimes to critical acclaim. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Salter, W.H. et al. SOME AUTOMATIC SCRIPTS PURPORTING TO BE INSPIRED BY MARGARET VELEY, POET AND NOVELIST (1843-1887), Proceedings 38, 1928-9, pp. 281-374. Analysis of scripts in which it appears that a little-known Victorian writer communicates evidence of her survival. Many of the memories described in the scripts are found to correspond accurately to actual events in the writers’ life, but such are also available in printed sources. Evidential details that would be persuasive to members of her family are lacking, and the personality is not seen by them as convincing. The possibility of fraud, cryptomnesia, telepathy, clairvoyance and survival are all discussed. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 25, 1929, pp. 136-8,145-6. mental mediumship/survival/automatic writing
Prince, Walter Franklin. REVIEWS: DR BURN’S ‘ A CASE OF APPARENT OBSESSION’, Proceedings 38, 1928-9, pp. 388-98. Review of a medical case, in which voices are heard by a patient and more than 40 ‘entities’ apparently associated with him communicate through a medium. The possibility is discussed that the entities had some existence beyond the creative consciousness of the patient or medium. mental mediumship/hallucinations/personality/altered states
Anon. INFORMATION RECEIVED AT A SITTING CONCERNING MATTERS UNKNOWN TO THE SITTER, Journal 25, 1929, pp. 81-8. Evidential information concerning a deceased army officer are received in ouija communications in the presence of the medium Geraldine Cummins. mental mediumship/automatic writing/survival
Anon. THE CASE OF A DAMAGED GRAVESTONE, Journal 26, 1930, pp. 93-5. A woman receives a mediumistic message, apparently from her deceased husband, advising her not to pay for his gravestone until a defect in it has been seen to. The work has not been seen by her but is later independently examined and the defect discovered. mental mediumship/survival
Thomas, Ernest S. NOTES ON A SITTING WITH MRS BRITTAIN, Journal 26, 1930, pp. 135-7. Mixed results with a medium. mental mediumship
Wilson, S.R.W. NOTES ON THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS MASON, Journal 26, 1930, pp. 74-5. Brief report of weak sittings. mental mediumship
Prince, Walter F. THE AETIOLOGY OF A ‘PSYCHICAL’ LEGEND, Journal 26, 1930, pp. 148-156. Demolishes the claim that Abraham Lincoln was moved by a message from the spirit world to publish his proclamation of emancipation. mental mediumship
Saltmarsh, H.F. REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF SOME SITTINGS WITH MRS WARREN ELLIOTT, Proceedings 39, 1930-31, pp. 47-184. An experiment: details from sittings in which a young pilot killed in action purports to communicate are sent to families who have suffered a similar loss, in order to determine the degree to which apparently veridical information could actually apply equally to other people in broadly similar circumstances. The average real score is shown to be four to five times over chance, and in another case six to seven times (50). However, chance correspondences occasionally approach those of the real sitting. mental mediumship/survival/experiments/methodology
Saltmarsh H.F. & Soal, S.G. A METHOD OF ESTIMATING THE SUPERNORMAL CONTENT OF MEDIUMISTIC COMMUNICATIONS, Proceedings 39, 1930-31, pp. 266-73. This later statistical analysis confirms that the hypothesis of chance producing the degree of veridicality achieved here is ruled out. The article contains material and analysis from sittings, including the role of the control ‘Topsy’. mental mediumship/survival/experiments/methodology
Irving, W.S. THOUGHTS ON MR SALTMARSH’S REPORT ON A SERIES OF SITTINGS, Proceedings 39, 1930-31, pp. 333-42. Reservations expressed by an earlier investigator in regard to Warren Elliott sittings are found to apply less to the author’s own experience with Mrs Leonard and Feda, for instance in regard to the difficulty with names (334) and discontinuity in communications (335). CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 27, 1931-32, pp. 4-6. mental mediumship/survival
Anon. A SERIES OF MEDIUMISTIC STATEMENTS MADE TO FOUR SITTERS, Journal 27, 1931-32, pp. 74-84. A record of evidential incidents chiefly involving the medium Annie Brittain. mental mediumship
Walter, W.H. THE RELATION BETWEEN PARAPSYCHICAL AND PARAPHYSICAL PHENOMENA, Journal 27, 1931-2, pp. 268-74. Probes the quality and character of the evidence from two types of mediumship, the physical and the mental. physical mediumship/mental mediumship
Besterman, Theodore. PRELIMINARY NOTES ON THE TRANCE MEDIUMSHIP OF FRU INGEBORG KOBER (NEE DAHL), Journal 27, 1931-32, pp. 338-45. The trance of a Norwegian medium is described, with ouija messages, sealed envelopes and book tests. mental mediumship/clairvoyance/survival
Gibbes, E.B. COMMUNICATIONS OF A PERSONAL KIND, Journal 28, 1933-34, pp. 53-7. Discussion of sittings with the Irish medium Geraldine Cummins, at which two close relatives of the sitter, deceased, appear to communicate. ADDENDUM, p. 130. mental mediumship/survival
Carington, Whately. REVIEW, HEREWARD CARRINGTON: AN INSTRUMENTAL TEST OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF A ‘SPIRIT CONTROL’, Proceedings 42, 1934, pp. 241-50. Discussion by the instigator of the word association tests of similar work by his namesake. Carrington’s application of the test to the medium Eileen Garrett led to his conclusion that the medium and her control ‘Uvani’ should be considered separate entities. Here the author draws attention to complexities unsuspected by his colleague. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 28, 1933-34, pp. 288-9. mental mediumship/survival/altered states/experiments/methodology
Carington, Whately. THE QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF TRANCE PERSONALITIES. PART 1: PRELIMINARY STUDIES - MRS GARRETT; RUDI SCHNEIDER; MRS LEONARD, Proceedings 42, 1934, pp. 173-240. Attempts a new scientific approach to the study of trance using Jung’s word association test. Responses from trance personalities are analysed for reaction times and physiological reflexes and compared to those for the medium during a normal state, in order to determine the status of communicating personalities as individual entities in their own right or aspects of the mediums’ own consciousness. The paper describes the method and its complexities, drawing attention to the different conditions involved with each medium. No conclusions are attempted. mental mediumship/survival/altered states/experiments/methodology
Carington, Whately. THE QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF TRANCE PERSONALITIES II, Proceedings 43, 1935, pp. 319-61. Modifies and expands earlier work, concluding from the inverse relationship revealed in word association tests that Feda and Uvani are in fact secondary personalities of Mrs Leonard and Mrs Garrett respectively. However, regarding certain communicators claiming to be recently deceased, the lack of a comparable relationship between them and the mediums is considered possible evidence of their genuineness. Much of this paper is taken up with statistical analysis. COMMENT, pp. 362-70, 520-41). mental mediumship/survival/altered states/experiments/methodology
Balfour, Gerald. A STUDY OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF MRS WILLETT’S MEDIUMSHIP, AND OF THE STATEMENTS OF THE COMMUNICATORS CONCERNING PROCESS, Proceedings 43, 1935, pp. 41-318. Gives the background to one of the most productive of the mediums studied by the Society. Stages of development are described: automatic scripts, so-called ‘daylight impressions’ (non-trance communications), light and deep trance. Comparisons with other mediums are made and the lack of any ‘control’ like Feda or Phinuit is noted (59). The experimental activities of communicators claiming to be Edmund Gurney and Frederic Myers are described (passim), especially as regards combining the various types of communication. Aspects of the various states of consciousness are analysed, including the medium’s recall (67); dictation from visual impressions (70); handwriting (74); visual perception of presences (78). Succeeding chapters deal with types of communications (90); conditions involved in simultaneously receiving impressions and giving out messages (117); and evidence of dissociation (141). In the second part the focus shifts from observers to the communicators, analysing their views about the psychology of mediumship and the methods and processes involved (158). Topics covered are: telepathy by the medium (164); telepathic possession by the communicator (180); other telepathic processes instigated by the communicator (185); characteristics of scripts (229). The paper ends with a discussion of Myers’s ideas of the soul and the subliminal self and the extent to which these are reflected in the material (263). COMMENT AND CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 29, 1935-36, pp. 118-9, 195-200. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy/altered states/experiments
Anon. NOTES OF A SITTING WITH MISS FRANCES CAMPBELL, Journal 29, 1935-36, pp. 74-9. A communicator offers evidence of survival. mental mediumship/survival
Thomas, C. Drayton. ‘THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BOOK TESTS’, Journal 29, 1935-36, pp. 304-7. Report of a paper describing an experimental method. mental mediumship/experiments/methodology
Richmond, Kenneth. PRELIMINARY STUDIES OF THE RECORDED LEONARD MATERIAL, Proceedings 44, 1936, pp. 17-52. Explores the psychology of the communicating process in Leonard sittings, starting from the assumption, partially confirmed by Carington’s work, that ‘Feda’ is a secondary personality and that a dramatising process employing telepathy is at work. The author points out differences of behaviour in the ‘Feda’ personality and the communicators and investigates the way these appear to be organised, with references to sittings described by Nea Walker and Drayton Thomas. In the second part of the paper the author discusses book tests, focusing on the La Vita Nuova case described by other researchers. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy/altered states
Carington, Whately. QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF TRANCE PERSONALITIES III, Proceedings 44, 1936, pp. 189-222. Further statistical analysis is applied to a comparison of Leonard sittings with that of another medium. The controls of each are found to be very alike, and are highly stable over long periods, suggesting that they are derived from relatively permanent strata of the total personality. mental mediumship/survival/altered states/experiments/methodology
Thouless, Robert H. REVIEW OF MR WHATELY CARINGTON’S WORK ON TRANCE PERSONALITIES, Proceedings 44, 1936, pp. 223-78. Detailed analysis of Carington’s word-association tests and the statistical results obtained. Concludes that the approach does not provide evidence of genuinely autonomous communicators able to appear through different mediums. NOTE, pp. 276-7. mental mediumship/survival/altered states/experiments/methodology
Herbert, C.V.C. REPORT ON A SERIES OF SITTINGS WITH MISS FRANCES CAMPBELL, Journal 30, 1937-38, pp. 2-16. Nine sittings with the medium, attended by, among others, the philosopher C.D.Broad, produce evidence more clearly attributable to telepathy between sitters and medium than to survival. Information is produced concerning an individual thought by the medium to be dead but who turned out to be living. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 28-9. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy
Palmstierna, Erik. THE THEORY OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND IN RELATION TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE SCHUMANN CONCERTO AS REPORTED IN ‘HORIZONS OF IMMORTALITY’, Journal 30, 1937, pp. 132-6. Answers criticisms made of a mediumistic case first reported in another publication. REVIEW, pp. 147-8. Record of spiritual teaching received through a mediumistic circle. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 152-3, 202-3. Palmstierna, Baron Erik Kule. ‘HORIZONS OF IMMORTALITY AND THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND’, p. 192. ‘This paper comprises an earnest attempt to discredit the subconscious mind and its potentialities...’. mental mediumship/survival/consciousness/theory
Solovovo, P-P. TWO SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS IN AUTOMATIC WRITING, Journal 30, 1937-38, pp. 177-9. Description of early experiences in Russia with automatists. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Anon. COMMUNICATIONS REFERRED TO THE THREAT OF EUROPEAN WAR, Journal 30, 1937-38, pp. 262-4. Automatic scripts appear to show foreknowledge of political events concerning Chamberlain’s flight to Munich to meet Hitler. See also pp. 283-4. mental mediumship/precognition/automatic writing
Carington, Whately. THE QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF TRANCE PERSONALITIES. NEW SERIES, Proceedings 45, 1938-9, pp. 223-51. Statistical analysis of reaction-times in word association tests performed during trances reinforce the impression of a parnormal factor operating in trance tests. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 30, 1937-38, pp. 142-3, 167-9, 187-8. mental mediumship/survival/altered states/experiments/methodology
Goldney, K.M. REPORT ON A SERIES OF SITTINGS WITH MRS EILEEN GARRETT, Proceedings 45, 1938-9, pp. 43-68. Physiological changes to the metabolism of a well-known medium are not, in the opinion of medical experts, evidence of abnormal functioning. mental mediumship/altered states
Soal, S.G. A REPETITION OF DR. J.B.RHINE’S WORK WITH MRS EILEEN GARRETT, Proceedings 45, 1938-9, pp. 69-87. Report on a failed attempt by researchers to confirm the spectacular results in telepathy and clairvoyance achieved in America with a well-known medium. The medium comments on differences of approach in the experiments (86). mental mediumship/telepathy/clairvoyance/experiments/methodology
Herbert, C.V.C. A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF THE PLATFORM CLAIRVOYANTE MRS HELEN HUGHES, Proceedings 45, 1938-9, pp. 199-209. An introduction to the work of a well-known platform medium, with some examples. mental mediumship/clairvoyance
Goldney, K.M. A CASE OF PURPORTED SPIRIT-COMMUNICATION DUE ACTUALLY TO SUB-CONSCIOUS OR TRANCE MEMORY POWERS [HELEN HUGHES], Proceedings 45, 1938-9, pp. 210-16. Report of an incident which dramatically extends the feats of memory achievable by trance mediums. A sitter pretends to recognise various names given out by the platform medium Helen Hughes which in fact have no known basis in fact, as well as other fictitious details concerning their situation. Nearly two years later at a public meeting the medium spontaneously offers the same names, apparently under the impression that they are genuine spirits. The author concludes that the incident, while not invalidating the hypothesis of clairaudient communication with the dead, demonstrates subliminal powers well beyond the possibilities of conscious memory. mental mediumship/survival/clairvoyance/altered states
Cummins, Geraldine. EXPERIMENTS IN AUTOMATIC WRITING, Journal 31, 1939-40, pp. 62-75. These incidents suggestive of survival described by the Irish medium include a communicator whose widow is traced from an address he gives, and who corroborates many of his statements (69). Another case is referred to, together with anecdotes demonstrating the occasional stupidity and confusion of sitters. mental mediumship/survival/automatic writing
Anon. A COMMUNICATOR INTRODUCED IN AUTOMATIC SCRIPT, Journal 31, 1939-40, pp. 91-5. An unknown communicator appears, his conscience uneasy at having tried to save his own life at another’s expense. A man answering to his name and details is discovered to have been drowned when the ship he was travelling in sank. mental mediumship/survival/automatic writing
Zorab, G. A CASE FOR SURVIVAL?, Journal 31, 1939-40, pp. 142-52. A communicator gives his address and messages for his family. Investigations show the details to correspond accurately to the facts concerning a 19-year-old boy who died in an accident. Deceit, cryptomnesia, telepathy and survival are considered, with survival preferred. mental mediumship/survival
Salter, W.H. SITTINGS WITH A GLASGOW MEDIUM , Journal 32, 1941-2, pp. 109-13. An account of sittings with a Glasgow medium Edith Thompson. mental mediumship
Anon. GREEK SCRIPT BY A CHILD OF FOUR, Journal 32, 1941-2, pp. 116-9. A four-year-old girl, unable to write, draws the Greek characters of a word which her father finds meaningful and interprets as a message from his (deceased) father. mental mediumship/survival/xenoglossy
Anon. SOME EVIDENCE OF PRECOGNITION BY COMMUNICATORS, Journal 32, 1941-2, pp. 158-9. Statements through mediums show foreknowledge of the wounding in battle and recovery of the sitter’s nephew. mental mediumship/precognition
Anon. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 33, 1943-6, pp. 54-5. Comment on a ouija experiment. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Anon. SOME RECENT COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED THROUGH MISS GERALDINE CUMMINS, Journal 33, 1943-6, pp. 126-30. Evidence of survival offered by a regular sitter. mental mediumship/survival
Anon. REFLECTIONS ON MEDIUMSHIP, Journal 33, 1943-6, pp. 166-9. Mediums are able easily to identify a close relative of a sitter, although one erroneously considers her to be dead. The sitter concludes that mediums have a telepathic gift and this leads her to doubt that they are in touch with the dead. See also A CASE OF PREDICTION OF ILLNESS, pp. 177 CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 200-201. mental mediumship/telepathy/precognition
Anon. VERIDICAL MESSAGES OBTAINED THROUGH AUTOMATIC WRITING, Journal 33, 1943-6, pp. 236-9. A lost wedding ring is recovered following indications as to its whereabouts given in automatic writing. Three book-tests are then described. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Parsons, Denys. ON THE NEED FOR CAUTION IN ASSESSING MEDIUMISTIC MATERIAL, Proceedings 48, 1946-49, pp. 344-52. Vague statements made by a medium and accepted by a sitter as veridical information relating to a deceased relative are found to be equally applicable to other people. COMMENT AND CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 35, 1949-50, pp. 81, 160-64, 197-9. mental mediumship/methodology
Anon. VERIDICAL INFORMATION OBTAINED THROUGH AN OUIJA BOARD, Journal 34, 1947-48, pp. 70-71. No summary given. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Anon. VERIDICAL INFORMATION GIVEN BY A MEDIUM OF MATTERS OUTSIDE THE SITTER’S KNOWLEDGE, Journal 34, 1947-48, pp. 22-5. A recently-deceased communicator gives convincing evidential information. See also p. 124. mental mediumship/survival
Anon. SOME RECENT COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED THROUGH MISS CUMMINS, Journal 34, 1947-48, pp. 32-43. Information given in automatic script by a communicator unknown to anyone involved is found to correspond in the main with the facts. The hypothesis of telepathy is considered to be strained in this case (42). See also p. 143. mental mediumship/survival/telepathy
Anon. EMERGENCE OF AN APPARENTLY PSEUDO-COMMUNICATOR, Journal 34, 1947-48, pp. 175-7. An attempt through a trance medium to trace an individual, feared by the sitter to be dead, produces an apparent success yet marred by groping and suspicious inaccuracies. The individual is subsequently found to be alive and well. The sitter believes the medium to be innocent of the deception, which he attributes instead to telepathic knowledge of the facts and suppositions in his own mind. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 231-5. mental mediumship/telepathy
Anon. INVESTIGATION OF A CASE OF XENOGLOSSY, Journal 34, 1947-48, pp. 267-9. Reports that certain entranced mediums speak African and Asian languages are found to have no basis in fact: the sounds are unintelligible to native speakers of those languages. mental mediumship/xenoglossy
Anon. THE ? J LODGE POSTHUMOUS PACKET, Journal 34, 1947-48, pp. 269-71. A committee set up to deal with the results of the researcher’s plan for demonstrating his survival following his decease reports on its inability to proceed: the test depends among other things on his being in regular communication with a medium, which so far has not happened. mental mediumship/survival/experiments
West, D.J. THE IDENTITY OF ‘JACK THE RIPPER’: AN EXAMINATION OF AN ALLEGED PSYCHIC SOLUTION, Journal 35, 1949, pp. 76-80. Finds the claim that a medium psychically identified the murderer unreliable. mental mediumship
West, D.J. SOME PROXY SITTINGS: A PRELIMINARY ATTEMPT AT OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT, Journal 35, 1949-50, pp. 96-101. The failure of several attempts at psychometric tests with mediums is briefly discussed. mental mediumship/clairvoyance/experiments
Evans, C.C. & Osborn, Edward. AN EXPERIMENT IN THE ELECTRO-ENCEPALOGRAPHY OF MEDIUMISTIC TRANCE, Journal 36, 1951-2, pp. 588-96. Factual account of preliminary tests carried out on Eileen Garrett. mental mediumship/altered states
Gay, Kathleen. A PUNNING AUTOMATISM, Journal 37, 1953-4, pp. 61-3. A communication during a ouija sitting with Geraldine Cummins involves references to a ‘pip’, apparently to do with a fruit farm once owned by the sitter, but clearly also an allusion to her grandfather, whose nickname was Pip. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Anon. REPORT ON THE OLIVER LODGE POSTHUMOUS TEST, Journal 38, 1955-6, pp. 121-34. Several mediums are able partially to divine the contents of the sealed packet left by the deceased researcher as a test of survival. The closest hit comes from Geraldine Cummins who, in an automatic script two weeks before the envelope is opened, correctly writes that it concerns Lodge’s habit of drumming with his fingers in particular rhythms. However, various clues given in earlier envelopes, and intended to help the deceased communicator remember, have been made known to some researchers and mediums, which tends to reduce the evidentiality of the exercise. COMMENT, pp. 172-5. mental mediumship/survival/experiments
Gay, Kathleen. THE CASE OF EDGAR VANDY, Journal 39, 1957-8, pp. 1-63. A highly evidential case involving the death by drowning of a young engineer and the apparent success of his two brothers in establishing contact with his deceased spirit through different mediums. The communicator is able to describe the exact circumstances of his death, also his work on a new printing process, including details that were unknown either to the mediums or sitters. The impression of continuity established between sittings given by different mediums is thought to be especially significant (63). mental mediumship/survival
Balfour, Jean. THE ‘PALM SUNDAY’ CASE: NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD LOVE STORY, Proceedings 52, 1958-60, pp. 79-267. This celebrated episode combines many features of the cross correspondences and centres on a romance in the early life of A.J.Balfour, brother of Eleanor Sidgwick and one-time Conservative Prime Minister. The lady involved died at the age of 24 of typhoid fever on Palm Sunday 1875. From 1912 communications appeared to come from her surviving spirit, addressed to Balfour and containing evidential material. Symbolic references to the theme of their relationship were then found to have been given in the writings of various automatists over the previous years. The paper is a full description and analysis of the case, with the early history, the relevant trance utterances by the medium Mrs Willett, and the passages in the automatic scripts. The part played by Balfour, who eventually came to regard the case as evidence of her survival, is also described. mental mediumship/survival
Salter, W.H. THE PALM SUNDAY CASE: A NOTE ON INTERPRETING AUTOMATIC WRITINGS, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 275-85. Reflections on one of the most striking cases of cross-correspondences and their general character. The author has no doubt that they represent a deliberate ‘scheme of the utmost complexity’ (284). mental mediumship/survival
Heywood, Rosalind. THE PALM SUNDAY CASE: A TANGLE FOR UNRAVELLING, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 285-91. Review of the case published in the Proceedings. mental mediumship/survival
Heywood, Rosalind. REPORT ON A SITTING WITH A MEDIUM, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 360-2. A recently-married woman decides to wear a ring that belonged to one of her husband’s dead relatives. A few nights later she dreams of having met this woman. Her mother-in-law, who is told nothing of this, subsequently reveals that at a sitting with a medium a communicator whom she recognised as her deceased husband insisted that the meeting had taken place and was occasioned by the wearing of the ring. See also NOTE Journal 41, p. 51. mental mediumship/survival
Chari, C.T.K. ON QUANTATIVE EVALUATIONS OF ‘MEDIUMISTIC COMMUNICATIONS’, Journal 42, 1963-64, pp. 215-23. Argues that statistical analaysis of mediumistic material may contribute to understanding, but cannot replace the highly complex, individual methods of recognising persons. mental mediumship/methodology
Heywood, Rosalind. THE LABYRINTH OF ASSOCIATIONS, Journal 42, 1963-64, pp. 227-9. The author notes the rapid chain of associations that can occur under the influence of mescalin, and suggests that this has relevance to the seemingly disconnected statements that mediums sometimes make. altered states/mental mediumship
Lambert, G.W. STUDIES IN THE AUTOMATIC WRITING OF MRS VERRALL, 1: WHO WAS RALPH NEVILE?, Journal 42, 1963-64, pp. 389-99. A brief communication appears in a script apparently from an individual who died near the end of the seventeenth century. The case is investigated and an historical figure is discovered who corresponds closely to the name and other details given in the communication. Given the unusually long interval between death and communication the author hypothesises that the automatist has been in contact with some ‘persisting dispositional basis’ of the deceased, along the lines proposed by C.D.Broad in his Lectures on Psychical Research (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962) (397). See also Journal 43, 276-7. 2: ON THE BANKS OF THE DERWENT, Journal 43, 1965-66, pp. 62-77. References to Keswick and the River Derwent are investigated. 3: SOME DWELLERS ON THE DERWENT, Journal 43, 1965-66, pp. 169-81. Continues the study of associations in automatic scripts, thought to be deliberate. WHO WAS JOHN COLLINS?Journal 44, 1967-68, pp. 19-24. A significant degree of correspondence is discovered between a communicator in an automatic script and a deceased individual bearing his name. 4: FROM THE DERWENT TO THE CAM, Journal 44, 1967-68, pp. 373-89. Scenes and reminiscences are found to be more relevant to Frederic Myers than to the automatist and suggest his influence. 5: Journal 45, 1969-70, pp. 220-29. SOME PLACE NAMES AND SURNAMES RELATING TO SHESHIRE AND WALES. Study of names thought to reflect the memories of Edmund Gurney. 6: SOME ESSEX PLACE NAMES, Journal 45, 1969-70, pp. 286-94. More analysis of details mentioned in automatic scripts, and associated with the life of deceased researchers including Edmund Gurney. 7: SOME PERSONS AND PLACES ASSOCIATED WITH HENRY SIDGWICK, Journal 45, 1969-70, pp. 371-81. Analysis of names and incidents thought to be associated with the deceased co-founder of the Society. 8-9: SOME MORE ASSOCIATES OF HENRY SIDGWICK AND EDMUND GURNEY, Journal 46, 1971-72, pp. 113-24, 173-183 (front). 10: STUDIES IN THE AUTOMATIC WRITING OF MRS VERRALL: CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS, Journal 46, 1971-72, pp. 217-22 (front). CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 50-51. mental mediumship/automatic writing/altered states/survival
Anon. WRITINGS BY THE ALLEGED COMMUNICATOR, Journal 43, 1965-66, pp. 263-7. Statements from a communicator through the medium Geraldine Cummins are shown to correspond closely to his published writings. See also pp. 333-7, 381-2, 439-40, 211-2. mental mediumship/personality/altered states
Barrington, M.R. SWAN ON A BLACK SEA: HOW MUCH COULD MISS CUMMINS HAVE KNOWN?, Journal 43, 1965-66, pp. 289-300. Veridical communications purporting to come from the deceased Mrs Willett are analysed for possible means by which Cummins might have obtained the information normally. The author concludes that such sources exist, but that they are not proved and that the episode may still have value as evidence of survival. See also pp. 378-81; Journal 44, pp. 45-8, 164-5. mental mediumship/survival
Lambert, G.W. JOHANNES, THE MONK: A STUDY IN THE SCRIPT OF J.A. IN ‘THE GATE OF REMEMBRANCE’, Journal 44, 1967-68, pp. 271-80. Details about communicators in the automatic scripts that led to Glastonbury excavations are compared to known historical facts. See also Lambert, G.W. THE GLASTONBURY QUEST, Journal 43, pp. 301-19. mental mediumship/automatic writing
Cleobury, F.H. THE THEORY OF SELECTIVE TELEPATHY, Journal 44, 1968, pp. 326-33. Examines the notion that a medium’s ‘unconscious mind’ is capable of selecting from living minds the information it needs to create an impersonation of the departed. Analyses the various ways by which such a transference of ideas might occur, finding it most plausible that thoughts are mediated by means of a superconsciousness in which we all unknowingly participate. The medium’s apparently amazing ability to select just those people possessing the required information is thus explained by postulating that he or she is put in touch with them by a supermind. Concludes that this theory does not force a choice between selective telepathy and genuine messages from the deceased, it being conceivable that the dead make use of the machinery already in place to effect their communications. mental mediumship/telepathy/altered states/theory
Berendt, H.C. A CASE OF CRYPTOMNESIA IN A MEDIUM AND SOME PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS, Journal 45, 1969-70, pp. 281-6. Cryptomnesia is found to be the likely explanation for veridical information concerning a family tragedy. A report of two visits to a well-known London medium, which took place within two years of each other. The conscious approach of the medium at the second sitting was that to a newcomer, while the opening of this sitting showed a clear continuation of the theme touched upon during the first meeting on the unconscious level, making cryptomnesia the most likely reason for this fact. In spite of the dramatic expressions for the presence of a spirit, the author was unable to follow the medium in this aspect of the sitting. The results achieved were very specific in some points. Not diminishing the value of success of these details, the author tends to assume that the results were those of a very good telepathic rapport and he gives the background for his personal emotions as the most probable explanation. mental mediumship/telepathy/theory
Pearce-Higgins, J.D. & Heywood, Rosalind. THE BLUE DRESS CASE, Journal 45, 1969-70, pp. 237-44. A medium receives evidential information from an airman killed in a flying accident who is apparently attempting to convince his wife of his survival. mental mediumship/survival
Heywood, Rosalind. NOTES ON THE MEDIUMSHIP OF GERALDINE CUMMINS, Journal 45, 1970, pp. 396-406. Obituary of the Irish medium. mental mediumship/tribute
Hankey, Muriel. MRS EILEEN GARRETT, Journal 45, 1970, pp. 406-8. Obituary of the medium. mental mediumship/tribute
Gauld, Alan. A SERIES OF ‘DROP-IN’ COMMUNICATORS, Proceedings 55, 1971, 273-340. Analyses records of a series of communications, ostensibly from people recently deceased but unknown to anyone present, received by a home circle experimenting with ouija board and automatic writing. Details given by 13 communicators cannot be checked; the author is unable to verify a further 15 cases; but in ten cases statements made by the communicators about themselves are wholly or partly verified. The latter include: an RAF pilot killed in action; a laboratory worker who killed himself; a navy crewman whose ship was torpedoed; and a German psychologist and noted rationalist. The author concludes that the information given is beyond the normal reach of the subscionscious memory of any of the people involved in the sittings, particularly as at least some of it has probably never been recorded in print (329). He briefly discusses the respective merits or super-ESP and survivalist theories, inclining towards the latter. ADDENDUM, Proceedings 57, 1989-93, pp. 311-6. mental mediumship/automatic writing/survival
MacKenzie, Andrew. AN ‘EDGAR VANDY’ PROXY SITTING, Journal 46, 1971-72, pp. 166-73. Extracts from notes of proxy sittings held by C. Drayton Thomas with Mrs Leonard, with remarks on the difficulties of communicating (169). OBITUARY GEORGE VANDY, Journal 49, p. 659. mental mediumship/survival
Heywood, Rosalind. NOTES ON ROSEMARY BROWN, Journal 46, 1971-72, pp. 213-17. Background to a medium who claims to channel new musical works by dead composers. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 5/-2(back/ W2-3(back). mental mediumship
Lambert, G.W. A FIFTH STUDY OF THE MAC SCRIPTS, Journal 46, 1971-72, pp. 59-69. Discussion of evidence that communicators had access to Henry Sidgwick’s memories. mental mediumship/survival
Heywood, Rosalind. [PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES], Journal 46, 1972, pp. 220-22. Records two psychic experiences described in a biography of Sir Lewis Namier by his wife, including an apparent communication after death via automatic writing. CORRECTION, Journal 47, 1973, pp. 60-61. mental mediumship/survival/automatic writing
Anon. CORRESPONDENCE: OLIVER LODGE AND THE EVEREST CLIMBER IRVINE, Journal 47, 1973-4, pp. 279-80. Describes communications received by Lodge through an amateur medium and purporting to come from the colleague of Leigh Mallory, both of whom disappeared during an ascent of Everest. Irvine is said to have communicated the fact that they reached the summit but died while they were resting. See also pp. 45-6; Journal 48, pp. 318-20: Communications through automatic writing seem to forecast certain psychic episodes experienced by climbers on Mount Everest. mental mediumship/survival/precognition
Owen, A.R.G. [‘PHILIP’], Journal 47, 1973-4, pp. 391-2. Brief description of a Canadian experiment, in which sittings for physical phenomena are held and communications are received through raps from an entity called ‘Philip’. However, the communicator conforms in most respects to the identity of a fictional entity dreamed up by the experimenters. The experiment has been widely quoted both as support for the reality of PK and damaging to claims of spirit survival. physical mediumship/psychokinesis/altered states/mental mediumship/experiments
Stevenson, Ian. ON DROP-IN COMMUNICATORS. Journal 48, 1975-6, pp. 123-5. The originator of the term ‘drop-in’ clarifies its meaning. mental mediumship/survival
Nisbet, Brian C. GRACE ROADS: AN ACCOUNT OF A ‘DROP-IN’ COMMUNICATOR, Journal 48, 1975-6, pp. 148-58. (Also pages 197-208). Detailed description of a table tilting communicator whose details were sufficiently clear for her son to be traced. However, the discovery of an obituary in a local paper raises the possibility of cryptomnesia as an alternative to survival. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 357-8. psychokinesis/mental mediumship/survival
Anon. CORRESPONDENCE: [THE THOULESS CIPHER TEST OF SURVIVAL], Journal 48, 1975-6, pp. 184-5. No summary given. mental mediumship/survival/experiments
Sherrard, Carol. THE EVEREST MESSAGE: ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS AND THEIR STATUS, Journal 49, 1977-78, pp. 797-804. Points out that exhausted mountain climbers are particularly prone to ordinary hallucinations that might wrongly be interpreted as paranormal. mental mediumship/survival/precognition
Anon. HAS DR THOULESS SURVIVED DEATH? Journal 53, 1985-86, pp. 135-6. The cipher codes for the recently-deceased researcher’s survival test are published. mental mediumship/survival/experiments
Stevenson, Ian. THE OPENING OF ROBERT THOULESS’S COMBINATION LOCK, Journal 61, 1996-7, pp. 114-16. A computer expert correctly identifies the first six letters of the phrase ‘black beauty’ as the key to open the combination lock left by the deceased researcher as a mediumistic test of survival. mental mediumship/survival/experiments
Oram, Arthur. THE ORIGINAL THOULESS TWO-WORD CODE, Journal 61, 1996-7, pp. 116-19. Gives the background to the test and failed attempts by mediums to transmit the code. mental mediumship/survival/experiments
Anon. CORRESPONDENCE: A DROP-IN COMMUNICATOR, Journal 50, 1979-80, p. 420. Brief description of a case. mental mediumship/survival
Stevenson, I. & Beloff, J. AN ANALYSIS OF SOME SUSPECT DROP-IN COMMUNICATIONS, Journal 50, 1979-80, pp. 427-47. A series of automatic writings by an amateur medium produce evidence of more than 100 communicators of the ‘drop-in’ type. Investigation shows that the communicators share recurrent features that would not be expected in a widely diverse group; that the descriptions may have been embellished by the automatist; that they repeat errors found in printed sources; and that they differ markedly from communications thought to be more reliable. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 51, p. 183, 393-7. mental mediumship/automatic writing/survival
Sheargold, Richard K. A DROP-IN COMMUNICATOR, Journal 50, 1979-80, p. 420. The author’s attention is drawn to a cassette recording of a Leslie Flint direct voice séance seven years earlier at which his mother had appeared to communicate, accurately naming the road where he then lived. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 551-2; Journal 51, 1981-82, p. 33, 196. mental mediumship/survival
Stevenson, Ian, et al. TWO TESTS OF SURVIVAL AFTER DEATH: REPORT ON NEGATIVE RESULTS, Journal 55, 1988-89, pp. 329-36. Describes the failure of attempts through mediums to discover the keys to cipher and combination lock tests of survival left by Gaither Pratt and Robert Thouless. Authors’ abstract: Two eminent scientists with a strong interest in the question of survival after bodily death participated in tests of survival that are, in principle, more rigorous than any previously devised. Robert Thouless proposed a test with enciphered passages for which he alone would know the key words, and he enciphered two such passages. J.G.Pratt reset the combination to a padlock using random numbers (from which he devised a mnemonic) that he alone knew. Pratt died in 1979 and Thouless in 1984. Since their deaths numerous trials have been made with key words (possibly relevant to Thouless’s enciphered messages) and with numbers (thought to be the combination of Pratt’s lock). None of these has enabled the passages left by Thouless to be decoded or the lock set by Pratt to be opened. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 56, p. 187. mental mediumship/survival/experiments
Stevenson, Ian. THOUGHTS ON THE DECLINE OF MAJOR PARANORMAL PHENOMENA, Proceedings 57, 1990, pp. 149-62. Draws attention to the decline of research of major paranormal phenomena, arguing that it continues to be at least as important as experimental parapsychology in gaining acceptance of the paranormal. Stevenson speculates on the relative paucity of material for study, suggesting changing economic conditions; fear of the phenomena; conditions prevailing in the early years of research (frequency of sudden death, slow communications); contemporary Western materialism; atmosphere of scepticism. He refers to his own work in Asia where reincarnation is regarded as normal and reports of it are abundant, recommending that researchers look for material in the developing world. He also suggests that subjects of the quality of Piper and Palladino can be found if they are sought. Finally he criticises the tendency of psychical research to fragment into separate categories, many of them no longer covered by the Society. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 57, 1991, pp. 376-8. psi/theory/methodology
Cross, Tom. THE MISSING FINGERS CASE: CORROBORATED EVIDENCE OF SURVIVAL, Journal 59, 1993-94, pp. 109-13. Five mediums independently produce evidence relating to an acquaintance of the author, last seen thirty-two years earlier. See also Journal, 60 p. 64. mental mediumship/survival
Cross, Tom. THE NOAH’S ARK CASE: CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE OF SURVIVAL, Journal 60, 1994-5, pp. 95-7. Accurate information is given out by a medium relating to a wooden model made by a communicator during life. mental mediumship/survival
Harrison, Vernon. THE SIGNATURES ON THE WALLS OF QUEEN’S HOUSE, LINTON, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, AND SOME OF THE AUTOMATIC SCRIPTS AND DRAWINGS OF MATTHEW MANNING: AN APPRAISAL, Proceedings 58, 1994, pp. 1-104. Study of signatures and writings which were produced, apparently paranormally, through the agency of a 16-year-old boy in 1971. The author, a professional handwriting expert with experience of legal cases, draws attention to the variety, complexity and authenticity of the six hundred signatures that appeared on his bedroom wall, many of them dated. He considers the likelihood of a hoax small, since opportunities to study and perfect the calligraphy would not have been available in the normal way. However, many are considered to be the work of Robert Webbe, an eighteenth-century inhabitant of the house who communicated with Matthew through automatic writing. Some appear authentic, notably the signature of the post-war Labour minister Stafford Cripps. Analysis of certain automatic writings shows a mixture of the banal, the inaccurate and the apparently genuine, with examples from famous personalities and others. Drawings of high artistic merit received automatically in the style of Albert Durer and Aubrey Beardsley, copies of existing works by these artists, are analysed and found to show significant variations to the original. The author considers fraud, cryptomnesia, multiple personality and other possibilities and concludes that the writings are genuinely paranormal. Concerning the identity of the main communicator he prefers a theosophical explanation, suggesting that ‘Robert Webbe’ is a kâma, a shell of the deceased individual which has been reactivated by the psychic energy from Matthew. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 60, 1994-5, p. 344, 413-4. For background and experimental research see Gregory, Anita, éd., LONDON EXPERIMENTS WITH MATTHEW MANNING, Proceedings 56, 1973-82, pp. 283-365. mental mediumship/psychokinesis/automatic writing/survival
Mulacz, W. Peter. CAN COMBINATION LOCK TESTS PROVIDE ANY PROOF OF SURVIVAL, Journal 61, 1996-7, pp. 330-33. Argues against Ian Stevenson that an encrypted message is a more secure test of survival than a combination lock. mental mediumship/survival/experiments
Cross, Tom. CONFIRMATORY EVIDENCE OF SURVIVAL FROM ACCOUNTS OF A BRAIN TUMOUR, Journal 61, 1996-7, pp. 317-9. Details are received from a communicator claiming to be a deceased friend of the author, through different mediums and ten years apart. mental mediumship
Willin, Melvyn J. MUSIC AND SPIRITUALISM, Journal 62, 1997-8, pp. 46-57. Author’s Abstract: A substantial study of the place of music in Spiritualism was carried out with special reference to twentieth-century musical mediums. Documentary information was sought for deceased persons’ abilities in this field, and direct contact was made with the living via a questionnaire, letters, telephone conversations and recorded interviews. Although some mediums produced music that seemed to be beyond their ‘normal’ capabilities, none of them provided authenticated evidence of having been contacted directly from the spirit world. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 186-9. mental mediumship/survival
Cross, Tom. THE HIMALAYAS CASE: STRONG EVIDENCE THROUGH THREE MEDIUMS, Journal 62, 1997-8, pp. 347-52. Author’s abstract: Early in 1991 the son of friends living here in Audlem was reported to be missing whilst trekking in the Himalayan mountains. Enquiries and searches were made in Nepal but his body was not found until late in May. Evidence pointed to his probably having succumbed to altitude sickness. In August of the same year his parents sat separately with a visiting medium who gave particularly satisfying evidence to his mother. In 1993 they moved home to live in Somerset and later had sittings with ladies in Torquay and Bournemouth. Both give particularly precise evidence on two occasions. The writer, impressed after listening to the recorded mediumship, sat with the lady in Bournemouth in 1996, when a rather remarkable dialogue appeared to establish his knowledgeable presence and survival. mental mediumship/survival
Thalbourne, Michael A. THE EVIDENCE FOR SURVIVAL FROM SIR OLIVER LODGE’S RAYMOND, Journal 63, 1998-9, pp. 34-8. Author’s abstract: Raymond, son of Sir Oliver Lodge, was killed in 1915. Sir Oliver claimed mediumistic evidence of Raymond’s survival. This evidence is brought forward and evaluated in the light of modern parapsychological thinking. It is found to be in some places evidential of the paranormal, but ambiguous as regards survival. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 63, 1998, pp. 189, 254-5. mental mediumship/survival
Huby, Pamela. ZENO IN THE MANNING SCRIPTS, Journal 63, 1998-9, pp. 46-7. Points out that a line attributed to the Greek philosopher Zeno in an automatic script by Matthew Manning is artificial and badly spelled, calling its origin into question. mental mediumship/automatic writing/psychokinesis
Decuypere, J.M. CHANNELLING: SICK OR SCIENTIFIC?, Journal 63, 1998-9, pp. 193-202. Author’s abstract: From the very earliest times people have claimed that in certain special circumstances they were in communication with ‘entities inhabiting a higher dimension of reality than our own.’ Nowadays this phenomenon is called channelling. Modern psychology is interested in the dissociation involved. The messages are usually regarded as unconscious fantasies of the channel that merely appear to be channelled from outside the self. Most of the channelled information does not elicit much enthusiasm. Nevertheless we see that the social phenomenon of channelling attracts numerous disciples. I have a strong impression that certainly at least some channels have more to offer than is usually admitted. This calls for further investigation. mental mediumship/altered states
Robertson, T.J. & Roy, Archie E. A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE ACCEPTANCE BY NON-RECIPIENTS OF MEDIUMS’ STATEMENTS TO RECIPIENTS, Journal 65, 2001, pp. 91-106. Authors’ abstract: A test was made of the sceptical hypothesis that the statements made by mediums to recipients are so general that they could as readily be accepted by non-recipients. A two year study involving 10 mediums, 44 recipients and 407 non-recipients ostensibly falsified that hypothesis. The average fraction of the set of statements accepted by the recipient was significantly larger than the average fraction of the same set of statements accepted by non-recipients, the probability of the results being due to chance being 5.37x10-11 . Details are given of the procedure of data collection and analysis and an objective method of weighting the statements is described. A number of non-paranormal factors are listed and assessed as possible reasons for the seeming falsification of the hypothesis. mental mediumship/survival/experiments/methodology
Roy, Archie E. & Robertson, T.J. A DOUBLE-BLIND PROCEDURE FOR ASSESSING THE RELEVANCE OF A MEDIUM’S STATEMENTS TO A RECIPIENT, Journal 65, 2001, pp. 161-74. Authors’ abstract: In a previous study, it was shown that a significantly higher percentage of a set of statements given by a medium to a recipient was accepted by the recipient compared with the percentage of the same set accepted by non-recipients. A number of non-paranormal factors were identified that might diminish the large gap between the acceptability levels of recipients and non-recipients. In the present paper a hard protocol is described that may be used to assess the effect of each factor separately. The protocol’s single, double and triple blind nature in testing each factor is discussed. mental mediumship/survival/experiments/methodology
Schwartz, Gary E.R. et al. ACCURACY AND REPLICABILITY OF ANOMALOUS AFTER-DEATH COMMUNICATION ACROSS HIGHLY SKILLED MEDIUMS, Journal 65, 2001, pp. 1-25. Authors’ abstract: When multiple mediums attempt to receive After-Death Communications (ADCs) for a single individual (the sitter/subject) who has experienced multiple losses, will accurate and replicable ADC information be obtained? Five highly skilled mediums were flown to the Human Energy Systems Laboratory for research on ADC. An Arizona woman, unknown to all of the mediums, who had experienced six significant losses over the past ten years, served as the primary subject. She filled out detailed pre-experimental questionnaires about her losses. Each medium met individually with the sitter. There was no communication between the mediums about the sessions. Two chairs were placed side by side, a few feet apart, separated by a screen that eliminated visual cues. Except for an initial greeting, the only communications allowed from the sitter were simple yes or no responses to possible questions from the mediums. Nineteen channels of EEG and the ECG were recorded simultaneously from both the mediums and the sitter. Two video cameras recorded the sessions. Verbatim reports were obtained from complete transcripts of the sessions. A second sitter was tested with two of the mediums. The mediums average accuracy was 83% for sitter one and 77% for sitter two. The average accuracy for 68 control subjects was 36%. In a replication and extension experiment, medium’s average accuracy in an initial ten minute period that did not allow yes/no questioning was 77%. The data suggest that highly skilled mediums are able to obtain accurate and replicable information. Since all possible measures were taken to eliminate the factors of fraud, error, and statistical coincidence, other possible mechanisms should be considered in future research. These include telepathy, super psi, and survival of consciousness after-death. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 65, 2001, pp. 223-4. Rebuts sceptical comments by Richard Wiseman and reported in press articles. mental mediumship/survival/experiments
Schwartz, Gary E., Russek, Linda G. & Barentsen, C. ACCURACY AND REPLICABILITY OF ANOMALOUS INFORMATION RETRIEVAL: REPLICATION AND EXTENSION, Journal 66, 2002, pp. 144-56. The study investigated the ability of three research mediums to obtain information regarding the deceased loved ones of five research "sitters" (subjects). The mediums were kept completely blind to the identity of the sitters. The mediums sat behind a floor to ceiling screen, with their backs to the screen facing video cameras. The mediums were not allowed to ask any questions, and the sitters never spoke. Transcripts were made from the recordings. The sitters scored all initials, names, historical facts, personal descriptions, and temperament descriptions (n=528 items for 15 readings) using a -3 (definite miss) to +3 (definite hit) rating scale. When the sitters rated their own readings, the average percentage of+3 scores was 40%. When the sitters rated the readings of the other sitters (control readings), the value was 25% (p<0.03). The findings appear to confirm the hypothesis that information and energy, and potentially consciousness itself, can continue after physical death. mental mediumship/survival/experiments
Keen, Montague. THE CASE OF EDGAR VANDY: DEFENDING THE EVIDENCE, Journal 66, 2002, pp. 247-59. The Edgar Vandy case (JSPR 39, 691) published in 1957 has long been considered by proponents to be among the more impressive pieces of evidence for the survival of post-mortem intelligence. It relates to the supposedly paranormally inspired statements made about a brilliant young inventor, the circumstances of whose death by drowning aroused the doubts of his two brothers who sought the help of four mediums. Kenneth Oldfield, a professor of public administration in the University of Illinois, in an article in the Skeptical Inquirer (Nov/Dec 2001) argues that, where the statements were not wrong, the correct ones could all be explained as "cold readings", luck, preparatory research or common parlour tricks. The present article shows that this verdict is entirely inconsistent with the facts, and examines the methods employed by Professor Oldfield to arrive at his conclusion. mental mediumship/methodology
CROSS CORRESPONDENCES
Verrall, Mrs. SOME RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN AUTOMATIC WRITING, Journal 10, 1902, pp. 291-5. The author describes how over a period of many years she succeeded in obtaining by automatic writing sentences in Latin, Greek and English, of which the greater part consisted of ‘adjurations to persevere, reproaches to the writer for stupidity in interpretation, and exhortations to patience [with no] general ethical discourses nor any attempt at theological discussion]. (Summary of reading and discussion). automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Verrall, Mrs. A FURTHER ACCOUNT OF EXPERIMENTS IN AUTOMATIC WRITING, Journal 11, 1903, pp. 71-4. Describes the genesis of the cross correspondences in which Verrall’s husband, without her knowledge, attempted to transmit to her telepathically a Greek phrase carrying the idea One-horse Dawn’, and other incidents. Summary of reading followed by short discussion. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Verrall, Mrs A.W. (Margaret). ON A SERIES OF AUTOMATIC WRITINGS, Proceedings 20, 1906, pp. 1-432. This full account by a Cambridge classics teacher of her experiences in obtaining automatic writing is in introduction to the cross-correspondences. In the first of two sections Verrall describes the script’s general characteristics: many passages in Latin and Greek, but not French or other languages she knew; allusions, quotations, puns and verse; conversations, dialogues, signatures; the imitation of the handwriting of deceased acquaintances, including Frederic Myers and Henry Sidgwick; the tendency of the script to exhort, persuade, give instructions and to refer to personal matters; references to unverifiable people and events, etc. The second section deals with topics broached by the script that relate to verifiable material: reference to incidents in the writer’s life; to acquaintances including SPR researchers known to be interested in the phenomena; to past and future events, etc. An apparently successful attempt by her husband to transmit ideas telepathically to the scripts is described in the One-Horse Dawn’ episode (156) (see also NOTE, Proceedings 25, 1911, pp, 109-12). Cross-correspondences with the lives and work of other mediums, including Thompson and Piper and Forbes, are described, also the outcome of a collaboration with another automatic writer, Mrs Forbes, which produced much seemingly evidential material. Extracts are given in an appendix and there is a detailed contents-synopsis at the front. See also ABSTRACT & DISCUSSION, Journal 11, 1904, pp. 296-8. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Piddington, J.G. & Lodge, Oliver. FRESH LIGHT ON THE ONE-HORSE DAWN’ EXPERIMENT, Proceedings 30, 1920, pp. 175-305. References to an old man in white in the Verrall’s original experiment are thought by Piddington to relate to allusions to Oedipus which occur among much automatic material discarded by Mrs Verrall as meaningless. Responding to the obvious obscurity in Piddington’s paper, Oliver Lodge (291-5) suggests that its intention is to show that the deceased Myers was taking advantage of Prof. Verrall’s experiment with his (Verrall’s) wife in order to develop the process that later became known as the cross-correspondences. In his reply (296-305) Piddington offers qualified confirmation (300) and more details. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Salter, W.H. & Piddington, J.G. ELUCIDATION OF TWO POINTS IN THE ONE-HORSE-DAWN SCRIPTS’, Proceedings 34, 1924, pp. 153-65. More interpretations of allusions in the original Verrall scripts are put forward, concerning ‘the herb moly’ and ‘the precocious olive’. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Johnson, Alice. A SERIES OF AUTOMATIC WRITINGS, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 98-102. A discussion of apparent links between automatic scripts produced independently by Mrs Holland and Mrs Verrall. This early conversation about what would become one of the Society’s chief activities reviews the phenomenon in terms of its importance as survival evidence. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Anon. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 13, 1907-8, pp. 330-33. Note on relation between certain communicators. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Johnson, Alice. ON THE AUTOMATIC WRITING OF MRS HOLLAND, Proceedings 21, 1908-9, pp. 166-391. One of the earliest papers on cross-correspondences. This introduces ‘Mrs Holland’, the pseudonym of Mrs Fleming, a sister of Rudyard Kipling living in India, and who practised automatic writing and formed a productive association with SPR researchers. It describes the appearance in her scripts, following her reading of Frederic Myers’s Human Personality, of messages apparently from the deceased Myers and addressed to Mrs Verrall in Cambridge, and the subsequent development of this and other controls, including Edmund Gurney, apparently attempting to demonstrate their survival. Seven chapters cover different aspects of the experiment: Mrs Holland’s early experiences; the Verrall messages; development of Myers and Gurney controls; comparisons between scripts by Mrs Holland and Mrs Verrall appearing to show cross-corrrespondences; literary allusions; aspects of the trance; Mrs Holland interviewed by the author; the Hodgson control; theories and assessments. See also Proceedings 24, 1910, pp. 2-10. Answers various criticisms. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Piddington, J.G. A SERIES OF CONCORDANT AUTOMATISMS, Proceedings 22, 1908, pp. 19-416. Book-length report and analysis of experiments conducted during sittings given by Mrs Piper during a visit to England in 1906-7. The sittings were used by SPR investigators to develop certain of her trance controls, especially those claiming the identity of deceased researchers - Myers and Hodgson. The experiments took the form of cross-correspondences, 18 of which were suggested by the investigators and over 100 by the trance personalities, most of them by Myers and Hodgson. Note: the subscript letter is used by the authors of papers to identify the medium through whom the personality is communicating, ie, Myersp=Myers speaking through Leonora Piper; Hodgsonv = Hodgson in automatic scripts by Mrs Verrall, etc. 1.’ST PAUL’, pp. 31-5. Experiment arranged with the Hodgsonp control, with a possible correspondence subsequently appearing in scripts by Mrs Holland and Helen Verrall, Margaret Verrall’s daughter, later Mrs Salter. See also Journal 18, 1917-18, pp. 71-83, 98-9, 112-21, 140-44. 2.’FRANCIS AND IGNATIUS’, pp. 35-6. Minor coincidence involving Myersp control, regarded as probably accidental. 3.’TRIANGLE WITHIN A CIRCLE’, pp. 36-8. It is suggested to the Myersp control that he produce a simple drawing in a script by Mrs Verrall, and one closely corresponding to the suggestion subsequently appears. 4.’STEEPLE’, pp. 38-46. References centering on the word ‘steeple’ apparently motiovated by the Prudensp communicator and involving another medium, Mrs Thompson, appear in scripts by Mrs Holland and Mrs Verrall. 5.’LIBRARY, MY OWN NAME, AND MRS SIDGWICK’S’, pp. 46-59. Myersp shows awareness of reference made earlier by Myersyto Mrs Sidgwick. This episode is treated by E. Sidgwick at greater length in a separate paper, AN INCIDENT IN MRS PIPER’S TRANCE, pp. 417-40, below. 6.’HOPE, STAR AND BROWNING’, pp. 59-77. Regarded as one of the most successful of the early cross-correspondences and one that has been frequently referred to by commentators. Involves anagrams and a complex association of ideas around a Browning poem ‘Abt Vogler’. The episode is further discussed in the report of the Latin Message, at the end of this paper. 7.’ARROW’, pp. 77-86. The drawing of an arrow appears in a script by Mrs Verrall. The following day during a Piper sitting the Hodgson control says he has given ‘arrow’ to Mrs Verrall and a few days later an arrow also appears in a script by her daughter Helen. 8. GIANT AND DWARF, pp. 87-94. An investigator during a Piper sitting proposes ‘Giant and Dwarf as a theme to impress on the automatists. The Piper communicators subsequently refer frequently to their attempts to get Mrs Verrall to write it, but nothing appears in her scripts. However, some references are seen as indirect effects of this experiment. 9. LAUREL WREATH, pp. 94-103. References to ‘Laurel wreath’ in Piper sittings are compared to a passage in a script by Mrs Verrall in which this theme is explored. 10. ‘CELESTIAL HALYCON DAYS’, pp. 103-7. Slight correspondences to themes suggested by the Myersp control are found in Mrs Verrall’s script. 11. ‘CROSSING THE BAR’, pp.107-72. A phrase by Plotinus that also recalls themes by the poet Tennyson is chosen by Mrs Verrall as the basis of an experiment involving the Myers communicator. A series of communications by Myersy suggest complex parallels between the two writers that Mrs Verrall had not been aware of. See also Proceedings 26, 1912-13, pp. 245-50. 12. ‘VIOLETS’, pp. 172-8. The word ‘violets’ uttered by the Hodgsonp communicator and apparently intended as the subject of a cross-correspondence experiment is found to occur more than once in a script begun by Mrs Verrall two hours earlier. 13. ‘CUP’, pp. 179-92. ‘Cup’ is mentioned by the Hodgsonp communicator, apparently as the subject of an experiment, and the word, in one case accompanied by a drawing, appears in the following day in the scripts of both Mrs Holland and Mrs Verrall. See also NOTE, Proceedings 25, 1911, pp. 304-19. 14. ‘DIANA’, pp.193-208. A mention of ‘Diana’ as the subject of an experiment follows a passage about the Greek goddess in a script by Mrs Verrall three weeks earlier. Other possible allusions follow in a later script. 15. ‘HEAVEN LIES ABOUT US IN OUR INFANCY’ AND ‘FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY’, pp. 209-10. Brief extract from Piper sittings relating to earlier reports by Mrs Verrall in Proceedings 20, pp. 73, 297. 16. ‘EURIPIDES’, pp. 210-20. The word ‘Euripides’ mentioned by the Myersp communicator corresponds with allusions to the Greek playwright in the scripts of both Mrs Verrall and Mrs Holland during the same period. 17. ‘SPIRIT AND ANGEL’, pp. 220-30. A phrase that the Myersp communicator claims to be trying to give to Mrs Verrall appears to relate to classical allusions in the scripts of Mrs Verrall and Mrs Holland. 18. O’ER MOUNTAINS, SEAS AND LAKES AND RIVERS’, pp. 230-41. Corrrespondences on the theme of Wordsworth’s poem ‘Daffodils’. 19. ‘LIGHTS IN THE WEST’, pp. 241-81. Complex correspondences arising out of episodes 16-18 with diagrams and chronology. 20. ‘AZURE’ AND ‘HORIZON’, pp. 281-93. More cross-correspondences, some straightforward and some complex. 21. ‘THANATOS’, pp. 295-304. Cross-correspondences around the idea of death. 22. ‘LAUS DEO’, pp. 304-7. A Latin phrase written by Mrs Verrall emerges during a Piper sitting some months later, but this coincidence is regarded as an insignificant. 23. ‘MUSIC’, pp. 307-11. A cross-correspondence relating to the Latin Message, described in the following section. THE LATIN MESSAGE, pp. 312-416. A lengthy description of the investigators’ attempt to introduce a more complex - and potentially more evidential - method into the experiments. Rather than merely finding visible relationships between allusions in the various scripts, the investigators conceived the idea of apparently unrelated ideas in the scripts of two mediums being shown to be connected by means of a communication through a third, giving more obvious indication of an intelligence beyond the minds of the living. The suggestion was made to the Piper communicators by means of a short message set in difficult Latin, which Myers and Hodgson would understand but Piper would not. The analysis describes the investigator’s attempt to get convincing recognition from Myersp that he has understood the message. This appears to come when Myers points to the Hope, Star and Browning case (6, here above} as at least partly fulfilling the conditions set in the message. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Podmore, F., Dickinson, G. Lowes & Constable, F.C. [COMMENT], Journal 12, 1909, pp. 3-30. Comment. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Wales, Hubert. ‘CLOUDLESS SKY BEYOND THE HORIZON’, Journal 18, 1917-18, pp. 203-9. Comment. See also Proceedings 24, 1910, pp. 11-30. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Sidgwick, Mrs Henry (Eleanor). AN INCIDENT IN MRS PIPER’S TRANCE, Proceedings 22, 1908, pp. 417-40. Describes a largely successful attempt to get from Myers evidence that he remembers a conversation that the living Myers had had with Eleanor Sidgwick at the time of her husband’s death. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Pigou, A.C. PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND SURVIVAL AFTER BODILY DEATH, Proceedings 23, 1909, pp. 286-304. Pigou offers a logical analysis of the cross-correspondences concluding that they are evidence of subliminal activity of the living rather than of discarnate minds. DISCUSSION, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 134-6, 161-2; Proceedings 25, 1911, pp. 38-56; Journal 15, 1911-12, pp. 52-6, 66-70, 75-80, 83-7. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Anon. FURTHER EXPERIMENTS WITH MRS PIPER IN 1908, Proceedings 24, 1910, pp. 31-200. Brief introduction to three papers on experiments carried out during a series of 21 sittings. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Verrall, Mrs A.W. (Margaret). CLASSICAL AND LITERARY ALLUSIONS IN MRS PIPER’S TRANCE. Proceedings 24, 1910, pp. 39-85. An experiment that takes advantage of Piper’s lack of any classical education, trying to revive the Myers and Hodgson communicators’ literary memories and thus establish their independence of the medium’s consciousness. Several examples were chosen, mainly from classical literature. The experiment was successful, eliciting knowledge normally well beyond the medium’s range. The author also notes other incidental features tending to confirm the genuineness of the communicators’ identity. Comparisons of the scripts to the medium’s utterances during her ‘waking stage’ (the period coming out of the trance) are also made. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Piddington, J.G. THREE INCIDENTS FROM THE SITTINGS, Proceedings 24, 1910, pp. 86-169. Describes three series of allusions in the Piper sittings. The first in particular, the ‘Lethe’ case from Ovid, demonstrates a depth and complexity of knowledge by the Piper-Myers personality that are considered incompatible with the medium’s level of education. The communicator’s answers are also demonstrated to be probably beyond what any of the investigators involved might have telepathically supplied. (See also postscript, pp. 327-8). automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Sidgwick, Mrs Henry (Eleanor). CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES BETWEEN MRS PIPER AND OTHER AUTOMATISTS, Proceedings 24, 1910, pp. 170-200. Details of some successful minor cross-correspondences between utterances in the Piper sittings and the automatic scripts of Mrs and Miss Verrall and Mrs Holland. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Johnson, Alice. SECOND REPORT ON MRS HOLLAND’S SCRIPT, Proceedings 24, 1910, pp. 201-63. Analysis of scripts written automatically by Mrs Holland in India in 1906-8. Various correspondences with the scripts of the Verralls are noted and described. The author concludes that in at least one case the appearance is of one mind, not two or three, working to a plan (256). She concludes by criticising the claim put forward by critics Pigou and Podmore that Mrs Verrall’s subliminal consciousness is responsible for creating the phenomenon. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Podmore, Frank. DISCUSSION OF THE SECOND REPORT ON MRS HOLLAND’S SCRIPT, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 317-21. Criticism of the survivalist interpretation of certain cross-correspondences, particularly the ‘Browning, Hope and Star’ case. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Johnson, Alice. SOME POINTS IN THE RECENT REPORTS ON AUTOMATIC SCRIPTS, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 345-53. The author accepts Podmore’s earlier criticisms of the ‘Browning, Hope and Star’ case but takes issue with his general argument that the coincidences in the cross-correspondences can be attributed to living persons. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Podmore, Frank. ON THE RECENT AUTOMATIC SCRIPTS - A FURTHER COMMENT, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 363-5. Reply to Alice Johnson. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Verrall, Mrs A.W. (Margaret). A NEW GROUP OF EXPERIMENTERS, Proceedings 24, 1910, pp. 264-318. A Scots family experimenting with automatic writing receive messages from a communicator claiming the identity of Henry Sidgwick, with copious literary allusions. The communicator persuades the family to send the scripts to Mrs Verrall, who finds in the Sidgwick script allusions to Ruskin’s Sesame and Lilies that coincide with similar references in scripts written by herself and her daughter. See also Proceedings 25, 1911, pp. 320-37. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Johnson, Alice. SEQUEL TO THE ‘SESAME AND LILIES’ INCIDENT, Proceedings 24, 1910, pp. 319-326. Ideas relating to the ‘Sesame and Lilies’ cross-correspondence are later found in scripts by Mrs Holland, although the time-lag suggests that telepathy between the living automatists may be responsible. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Anon. CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 3-30. Report of papers and discussion by members. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Piddington, J.G. A DISCUSSION OF CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES, Journal 14, 1909-10, pp. 400-402. Comment in support of the survivalist explanation. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Lodge, Oliver. EVIDENCE OF CLASSICAL SCHOLARSHIP AND OF CROSS-CORRESPONDENCE IN SOME NEW AUTOMATIC WRITINGS, Proceedings 25, 1911, pp. 113-75. Introduces Mrs Willett, the pseudonym of a new medium posthumously revealed to be Mrs Winifred Coombe-Tennant, who was to contribute greatly to the SPRs work on mediumship and cross-correspondences. Researchers were impressed not only by her mediumistic abilities but also by her scrupulousness as a witness. They also found her lack of classical education an asset, since it removed a potential obstacle to acceptance of communicators claiming Myers’s and others’ identities. This paper deals with a question about Lethe given by the author to the new Willett-Myers control and aimed at discovering whether or not he had access to the same knowledge that the Piper-Myers and Verrall-Myers had demonstrated earlier (Proceedings 24 above). This intention is quickly caught by Willett-Myers, who provides an abundance of relevant material. The author concludes that the communicator’s handling of these allusions shows the unmistakeable hand of a classical scholar far beyond Willett’s abilities, most probably Frederic Myers. See also NOTES Journal 15, 1911-12, pp. 101-7. SPR members try to identify literary sources of passages in the scripts. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Verrall, Mrs A.W. (Margaret). NOTES ON MRS WILLETT’S SCRIPTS OF FEBRUARY 1910, Proceedings 25, 1911, pp. 176-189. More significant correspondences are found and analysed. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Johnson, Alice. THIRD REPORT ON MRS HOLLAND’S SCRIPT, Proceedings 25, 1911, pp. 218-303. Analysis of correspondences to Piper material of 1908 found in Mrs Holland’s automatic scripts. A number of classical allusions in the scripts are described in detail. A summary reviews the state of the cross-correspondences experiment and defends the possibility of it revealing the actions of discarnate intelligences. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Johnson, Alice. AN INCIDENT IN MRS HOLLAND’S SCRIPT, Journal 15, 1911-12, pp. 70-75. Concerning Oliver Lodge and experiments in wireless technology. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Verrall, A.W. CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES AS A VEHICLE FOR LITERARY CRITICISM, Journal 15, 1911, pp. 98-100. Abstracts of a paper that attempts to determine some characteristics of the directing intelligence in cross correspondences. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Verrall, Helen de G. THE ELEMENT OF CHANCE IN CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES, Journal 15, 1911-12, pp. 153-72. Consciously created imitations of automatic scripts fail, according to this experimenter, to produce any random correspondences, throwing doubt on a key claim by sceptics. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Johnson, Alice. COINCIDENCES IN PSEUDO-SCRIPTS, Journal 15, 1911-12, pp. 291-6. Further discussion of accidental coincidences occurring in imitations of cross-correspondences. See also Journal 16, 1913-14, pp. 34-41. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Anon. DREAM, Journal 15, 1911-12, pp. 337-9. A friend of Helen Verrall has a dream which appears to relate to a script produced by Verrall some weeks earlier. See also Journal 16, pp. 14-15. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Verrall, Mrs A.W. (Margaret). A MONTH’S RECORD OF AUTOMATISMS, Proceedings 26, 1912-13, pp. 24-56. Account of minor cross-correspondences in the scripts of Mrs Verrall and her daughter, with supplementary material from table-tipping sessions. The Myers communicator is principally involved. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 15, 1911-12, pp. 326-8. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Maxwell, Joseph. CORRESPONDANCES CROISEES, Proceedings 26, 1912-13, pp. 57-146. An attack on the cross-correspondences as evidence of survival. The author argues that researchers have not paid sufficient attention to the possibility of conscious and unconscious fraud, suggestion, neuropathology, cryptomnesia, hasty and biased conclusions by the researchers, the possibility of telepathy over spirit survival, etc. An editorial note argues that the author has misunderstood the intentions of the researchers in representing a wide range of their work, including much which is not evidential. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Sidgwick, Mrs Henry (Eleanor). A REPLY TO JOSPEH MAXWELL’S PAPER ON ‘CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES AND THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD’, with appendices by Mrs A.W.Verrall, Alice Johnson and J.G.Piddington, Proceedings 26, 1912-13, pp. 375-418. Sidgwick defends the cross-correspondence research against earlier criticisms, with points about the inevitability of the investigators’ dual involvement as subjects of their work, their awareness of cryptomnesia, the character of the quotations, the reason for symbolism and obscurity, the individual style of the communicators, etc. She criticises the sceptic for superficial understanding and ends by arguing that while telepathy may explain the simpler episodes, that explanation is strained in the more complex cases.In appendices, three other researchers answer Maxwell’s criticisms of certain passages.See also NOTES, Journal 15, 1911 -12, pp. 318-21. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Hude, Mrs Anna. THE LATIN MESSAGE EXPERIMENT, with note by J.G.Piddington, Proceedings 26, 1912-13, pp. 147-173. Agrees with critics that Piper-Myers never properly understood the Latin Message, but argues that the communicator’s answers nevertheless show a high level of intelligence. Piddington briefly defends his original conclusion. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Piddington, J.G. A HITHERTO UNSUSPECTED ANSWER TO THE HORACE ODE QUESTION, with observations by G.W.Balfour and a reply by Piddington, Proceedings 26, 1912-13, pp. 174-244. Picks up a case which originated with the Latin Message experiment. The case involves the Myers communicators, testing their knowledge and memory of a passage from Horace. The author finds the results significant. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Johnson, Alice. AN EXPERIMENT IN INTERPRETATION, Journal 15, 1911-12, pp. 321-4. More replies to criticism on coincidences in cross-correspondences. See also NOTES, Journal 15, 1911 -12, pp. 318-21. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Johnson, Alice. A RECONSTRUCTION OF SOME ‘CONCORDANT AUTOMATISMS’, Proceedings 27, 1914-15, pp. 1-156. Detailed discussion of cross-correspondences, informed by the growing conviction that discarnate intelligences are performing experiments with the explicit purpose of eliminating the counter-explanation of telepathy among the living. Johnson begins with an explanation of the principles involved in the attempt of ‘authors’ to make the allusions in the automatists’ scripts unintelligible individually but meaningful when compared. Episodes mostly already referred to are reconsidered in the light of this idea, some introducing new material that makes the process clear. Johnson is particularly struck by the ‘Alexander’s Tomb’ case, where a reference in a Verrall script, first assumed to be to Alexander the Great, was later found in fact to relate to Alessandro de Medici buried in the Michael Angelo tomb in Florence. A basic theme was thereby uncovered that now made sense of references to tombs in other scripts. Johnson concludes that the obscurity is a deliberate attempt to keep individual automatists unaware of the connections. Other cross-correspondences considered include: ‘Ave Roma Immortalis’; the Latin Message; ‘Hope, Star and Browning’; ‘Crossing the Bar’; ‘the Clavigers’. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Balfour, Gerald W. SOME RECENT SCRIPTS AFFORDING EVIDENCE OF PERSONAL SURVIVAL, Proceedings 27, 1914-15, pp. 221-43. ‘The Statius Case’: an analysis of passages in automatic scripts by Mrs Willett pointing to the survival of A. W. Verrall, the husband of the automatist and psychical researcher. Allusions in the scripts are traced to an obscure essay by Verrall and whose sense it is claimed Willett could not have understood. M.A. Bayfield (244-9), a friend of Verrall, draws attention to personal aspects of the scripts, notably a family joke, which likewise could not have been known to Willett and which suggest Verrall’s personal influence. Bayfield here reveals that this episode, combined with Alice Johnson’s description of the ‘Alexander’s Tomb’ cross-correspondence, has convinced him of the reality of survival of death. In a further article (318-32), Bayfield returns to alternative explanations to survival noted but rejected by Balfour, involving clairvoyance by Willett or telepathy involving other living persons. He concludes that there is a lack of positive evidence and of reasonable probability to justify them. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Carrington, Hereward, et al. A DISCUSSION OF THE WILLETT SCRIPTS, Proceedings 27, 1914-15, pp. 458-91. Two short, predominantly hostile critiques of Balfour’s and Bailey’s arguments by writers who find the correspondences in the scripts to be slight, coincidental and largely meaningless. The papers highlight the limited effectiveness of the cross-correspondences to those unversed in its erudite subject-matter. Carrington in particular regards the material as inferior to more direct evidence of survival such as that provided by the Piper ‘G.P’ sittings. Bayfield briefly replies. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Verrall, Helen de G. A FURTHER STUDY OF THE MAC SCRIPTS, Proceedings 27, 1914-15, pp. 250-78. Common allusions to classical and contemporary poets are found in scripts by the Verralls and another group of automatists, known as the Macs, apparently controlled by the deceased Henry Sidgwick. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Piddington, J.G. CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES OF A GALLIC TYPE, Proceedings 29, 1918, pp. 1-45. An ironic response to the claim by a French researcher that five simple cross-correspondences published by him in France compare favourably to the Society’s voluminous and complex material. This paper provides some elementary examples from scripts, mainly of the Verralls and Mrs Willett. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Balfour, Gerald. THE EAR OF DIONYSIUS : FURTHER SCRIPTS AFFORDING EVIDENCE OF PERSONAL SURVIVAL, Proceedings 29, 1918, pp. 197-244. A well-known case, in which scripts of Mrs Willett allude to the Ear of Dionysius, a grotto in Syracuse once used as a prison and shaped roughly like a donkey’s ear. The deceased A.W.Verrall appears to be addressing his wife in the script; an experiment is proposed in which the one ear is to be linked with one eye. Various other allusions are made, apparently as part of a literary puzzle set as survival evidence by the deceased Verrall and his friend, also a deceased classics scholar, Henry Butcher. The word ‘Philox’ eventually provides the essential clue: the allusions, seemingly disparate and disconnected, are discovered all to belong to a poem by the poet Philoxenus called Cyclops , no longer extant but described in a book with which Verrall was familiar. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Stawell, F. Melian. THE EAR OF DIONYSIUS: A DISCUSSION OF THE EVIDENCE, Proceedings 29, 1918, pp. 260-69. A critique of the case as evidence of survival. The author draws attention to the eighteen-month gap between the first allusion and its continuation, and asks whether the medium Mrs Willett might not have built up the case from her own latent memories, influenced by the sub-conscious mind of Mrs Verrall. DISCUSSION, Journal 18, 1917, pp. 43-9. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Balfour, Gerald. THE EAR OF DIONYSIUS: A REPLY, Proceedings 29, 1918, pp. 270-86. Balfour offers an explanation for the gap and argues against the possibility of Mrs Verrall subconsciously directing the incident. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 21, 1923-24, pp. 335-6. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Anon. A CROSS-CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN STATEMENTS MADE THROUGH TWO DIFFERENT MEDIUMS, Journal 21, 1923-24, pp. 104-7. An apparent attempt by a communicator to refer to the same topic through two different mediums, Leonard and Brittain. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Piddington, J.G. ONE CROWDED HOUR OF GLORIOUS LIFE’, Proceedings 36, 1928, pp. 345-75. Cross-correspondence in the scripts of Helen and Margaret Verrall and Mrs Willett. A.F.Hall (455-70) argues that the relevant passages provide no evidence of survival and only weak evidence of telepathy. Piddington replies (471-6), as does Lodge, Journal 24, 1927-28, pp. 151-2, with further discussion pp. 155-6. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Piddington, J.G. THE MASTER BUILDER, Proceedings 36, 1928, pp. 477-505. Cross-correspondence in scripts by ‘Mrs King’ (Dame Edith Lyttelton) and Helen Verrall. CORRESPONDENCE, Journal 24, 1927-28, pp. 174-7. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Salter, W.H. AN EXPERIMENT IN PSEUDO-SCRIPTS, Proceedings 36, 1928, pp. 525-54. Imitations of automatic scripts are provided by a number of experimenters, using specific literary allusions as a starting point. However, attempts to find cross-correspondences among them are no more successful that in the Society’s earlier experiment, weaking the claim by sceptics that cross-correspondences traced in scripts by the Verralls, Mrs Willett and others are spurious. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Besterman, Theodore. THE MARGERY CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES, Proceedings 38, 1928-9, pp. 399-408. A critique of experiments that seem to demonstrate successful links among sittings with Margery and other mediums. The author argues that collusion has not in fact been ruled out. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Saltmarsh, H.F. NON-VERIDICAL CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES, Journal 25, 1929, pp. 159-72. Investigation of parallels in sittings with Mrs Warren Elliott in London and Mrs Dowdall in Cardiff. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Salter, Mrs W.H. (Helen Verrall). A SERMON IN ST. PAUL’S, Proceedings 45, 1938-9, pp. 25-42. A member of the Society involved in psychical experiments is ‘impressed’, against her normal practice or inclination, to go to a service at St Paul’s Cathedral. There she hears a sermon that mentions Statius, a subject of interest to the author’s father, A.W. Verrall, and the topic of an earlier cross-correspondence. This paper explores a web of connections which the author finds suggestive. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Salter, W.H. J C PIDDINGTON AND HIS WORK ON THE ‘CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES’, Journal 36, 1951-2, pp. 708-16. Obituary. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival/tribute
Salter, W.H. F W H MYERS’S POSTHUMOUS MESSSAGE, Proceedings 52, 1958-60, pp. 1-32. A return to the theme of the cross-correspondences, strongly qualifying the perception that the deceased Myers failed to accurately communicate the contents of his sealed message. Salter here reveals that literary references in scripts by Margaret Verrall convinced her and other leaders of the SPR that Myers was in fact making indirect allusions to the message. The paper contains some details of Myers’s ill-fated affair with Annie Marshall, whose purported communications through mediums helped to convince him of the reality of survival. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Balfour, Jean. THE ‘PALM SUNDAY’ CASE: NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD LOVE STORY, Proceedings 52, 1958-60, pp. 79-267. This celebrated episode combines many features of the cross-correspondences and centres on a romance in the early life of A.J.Balfour, brother of Eleanor Sidgwick, and a Conservative Prime Minister. The lady involved died at the age of 24 of typhoid fever on Palm Sunday 1875. From 1912 on, communications appeared to come from her surviving spirit, addressed to Balfour and containing evidential material. Symbolic references to the theme of their relationship were then found to have been given in the writings of various automatists over the previous years. The paper is a full description and analysis of the case, with the early history, the relevant trance utterances by Willett, and the passages in the automatic scripts. The part played by Balfour, who eventually came to regard the case as evidence of her survival, is also described. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Salter, W.H. THE PALM SUNDAY CASE: A NOTE ON INTERPRETING AUTOMATIC WRITINGS, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 275-85. Reflections on one of the most striking cases of cross-correspondences and their general character. The author has no doubt that they represent a deliberate ‘scheme of the utmost complexity’(284). automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Heywood, Rosalind. THE PALM SUNDAY CASE: A TANGLE FOR UNRAVELLING, Journal 40, 1959-60, pp. 285-91. Review of the case published in the Proceedings. CORRESPONDENCE, pp. 324, 374-5. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Salter, W.H. J C PIDDINGTON AND HIS WORK ON THE ‘CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES’, Journal 36, 1952, pp. 708-16. Review of the late researcher’s investigations. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Salter, W.H. THE ROSE OF SHARON, Proceedings 54, 1963-66, pp. 1-24. Literary allusions in automatic scripts by the ‘Mac’ family in Glasgow are found to refer suggestively to the death of the infant daughter of Mrs Willett, an intimate event of which the writers can have known nothing. Other automatists involved in this case are Mrs Holland and the Verralls; the main communicator is thought to be Henry Sidgwick. The episode is publicised for the first time owing to the death of all the principals involved. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Lambert, G.W. THE BLUE VASE, Proceedings 54, 1963-66, pp. 233-48. Further analysis convinces the author that Salter’s conclusions are correct and that evidence of some independent agency is confirmed. A possible connection with the Macs’ reading about Mrs Holland’s scripts in the Proceedings is considered, also the possible involvement of the deceased Myers (247). automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival
Aldcroft, Christopher C. IS THE ‘HOPE, STAR AND BROWNING’ CROSS-CORRESPONDENCE A PROPHECY OF AUSCHWITZ?, Journal 53, 1985-86, pp. 31-7. Another possible meaning of the famous cross-correspondence is explored. automatic writing/cross correspondences/survival