PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH - 1885, Volume 3
Book Details + Condition: Trubner and Co. (London). First Edition, 1885. Hardcover. 500 pages. Illustrated. Very scarce first edition, original copy of PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH from 1885. Publisher's original green cloth boards with gilt title, etc. to spine. In 1884, Richard Hodgson was sent by the SPR to India to investigate Helena Blavatsky and concluded that her claims of psychic power were fraudulent. In this volume, his findings are published. Through astral projection, Blavatsky claimed that she could appear and intelligently communicate at a place where her body was in another location. Also, claims were made where physical objects could be made to teleport from a faraway location. The evidence provided by Blavatsky were letters which are printed in this issue. The committee's conclusion stated that Blavatsky was a fraud, and that no evidence of astral projection was produced. Other topics covered in this volume include: Automatic Writing; Notes on Evidence for Phantasms of the Dead; Reports on Thought Transference; and more.
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; old cataloguing mark to bottom of spine; text is clean and free of markings, save occasional discoloration. On the front free endpaper is a slip from the London Spiritualist Alliance Library; with a check-out slip to the inside front board.
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.
