PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH - 1923-1924, Volume 34
Book Details + Condition: Robert MacLehose & Company (Glasgow, Scotland). First Edition, 1924. Four (4) original softcover volumes comprising Volume 34: October 1923 (Part LXXXIX); May 1924 (Part XC); July 1924 (Part XCI); December 1924 (Part XCII). Pagination: 106 pp; 21 pp; 69 pp; 140 pp. Illustrated. Contents of this volume include: Telepathic Communication; Presidential Address (Camille Flammarion); Possibility of Survival from the Scientific Point of View (Sir Oliver Lodge); Mechanism of the So-Called Mediumistic Trance; Method of Scoring Coincidences in Tests with Playing Cards; Reminisces of 50 Years' Psychical Research (Sir William Barrett); and much more. Please see our other listings for more first editions of THE SOCIETY OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, as well as information about the organization below. Light wear to original softcovers, with fading / discoloration present, mainly to December issue; top right corner of one volume is dog-eared (as are pages therein); text is clean and free of markings.
The Society for Psychical Research was created in 1882, with Henry Sidgwick serving as its first president. Its stated purpose was to apply scientific methods to the investigation of psychic phenomena and the paranormal. Areas of study included hypnotism, dissociation, thought-transference, mediumship, spirit possession, apparitions and haunted houses and the physical phenomena associated with séances. The SPR were the first to introduce a number of neologisms which have entered the English language, such as 'telepathy', which was coined by Frederic Myers. Much of the early work involved investigating, exposing and in some cases duplicating fake phenomena. Among its most renowned members were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Price, and William T. Stead.
