PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH - 1926, Volume 36 - "Marjorie the Medium"- SIGNED BY E.J DINGWALL
Book Details + Condition: Robert MacLehose & Company (Glasgow, Scotland). First Edition, 1926. One (1) original softcover volume comprising Volume 36: June 1926 (Part 98). Pagination: 91 pp. Illustrated. Inscribed and signed by British anthropologist, author, and psychical researcher E.J. Dingwall on the first page. Light wear to original softcovers, with fading / discoloration; small mark to front, and small tear to rear edge; collection sticker to inside rear cover; text is clean and free of markings. Contents of this part include a thorough "Report on a Series of Sittings with the Medium Margery" known as " Marjorie the Medium". The issue details the original investigation by Dingwall and others including photographs of the seance seance and purported photographic evidence of "ectoplasm", ghost energy residue which froths from a spirit medium's mouth. These investigations attracted the attention of the famous magician Harry Houdini who helped to expose this psychic fraud. Please see our other listings for more first editions of THE SOCIETY OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, as well as information about the organization below.
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.
