PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH - 1898-1899, Volume 14
Book Details + Condition: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. (London). First Edition, 1899. Hardcover. 436 pages, with Index to rear. Illustrated. Scarce first edition, original copy of PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH from 1898-99. Publisher's original green cloth boards with gilt title, etc. to spine. Contents of this volume include: Observations on Trance; Study of Hysteria and Hypnosis; Psychology of Hypnotism; Hypnotism in Organic Disease; The Making of Religion; "Hours with Ghosts"; Apparitions in West Africa; Experimental Studies in Vision and much more. Notable contributing authors include: Morton Prince, Frank Podmore, Andrew Lang, F.W.H. Myers and others. Please see our other listings for more first editions of THE SOCIETY OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, as well as information about the organization below. Firm binding; rubbed corners and edges; some discoloration and aging to boards; buckling to spine cloth; old cataloguing sticker to bottom of spine; text is clean and free of markings. On the front free endpaper is a slip from the London Spiritualist Alliance Library (this one being blank); the same stamp to upper corner of inside front board, and another sticker stating "Not to be taken out. Presented by Mrs. Home and the late Col. L.E.M. Taylor."
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.
