PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH - 1884, Volume 2
Book Details + Condition: Trübner and Co. (London). First Edition, 1884. Hardcover. 340 pages, with Index to front. Illustrated. Very scarce first edition, original copy of the second volume of PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH from 1884. Publisher's original green cloth boards with gilt title, etc. to spine. Firm binding; lightly rubbed corners and edges; some minor foxing to first few front & rear pages; text is clean and free of markings. Contents of this volume include: Thought-Transference; Stages of Hypnotism; The Divining Rod; Mesmerism; Theories of Apparitions; and much more. Notable authors include Oliver Lodge W.F. Barrett; Edmund Gurney; and others.
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.
