Synopses & Reviews
What if a world-renowned professor of psychology at Harvard University, a doctor and scientist acclaimed as one of the leading intellects of the time, suddenly announced that he believed in ghosts? At the close of the nineteenth century, to great public and professional astonishment, William James the great philosopher, a founder of the American Psychological Association and brother of Henry James did just that and embarked on a determined, lifelong pursuit of scientific evidence to prove it.
James came together with two other brilliant and charismatic thinkers of the day Richard Hodgson, a converted skeptic, and James Hyslop, a natural grandstander who would often visit mediums unannounced, a hooded mask covering his face to form the core of the American Society for Psychical Research. They eventually merged with the British Society for Psychical Research, adding to the group the Cambridge philosopher Henry Sidgwick and his tiny, ferociously smart wife Eleanor, as well as the mythically handsome Edmund Gurney and others. While studies of ESP and ghostly visitations have occurred since the days of the society, at no other time have scientists of the caliber of James and his colleagues devoted themselves in such an ambitious and driven way for evidence of a life beyond. James and his band of brothers staked their reputations, their careers, even their sanity, on one of the most extraordinary (and entertaining) psychological quests ever undertaken, a quest that brought its followers right up against the limits of science.
This riveting book is about the investigation of the ghost stories the instances of supernatural phenomena that could not be explained away and it is about the courage and conviction of William James and his colleagues to study science with an open mind. At the heart of the story is the ongoing tension between empiricism and spiritualism between a way of explaining the world that is grounded in the purely tangible and a way that is grounded in a mixture of the evident and the hidden. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Deborah Blum uses her extraordinary storytelling skills and scientific insight to explore nothing less than the nexus of science and religion. It is a territory as fascinating to us now as it was to William James and his colleagues then.
Review
"[C]ompulsively readable....After reading Blum's mesmerizing account, you might be tempted to dust off that Ouija board. (Grade: A)" Entertainment Weekly
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"Blum seems content to relate rather than to analyze; her text lacks analysis. She ends with the patent observation that the conflict between science and the supernatural endures. A useful but oddly uncritical summary." Kirkus Reviews
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"[Blum] keeps the story moving and fleshes out each character. Her clearly written presentation of the history, frauds, and personalities involved in this unique slice of Victorian life is recommended for all history of science collections." Library Journal
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"The best pages of Ghost Hunters are filled with strange tales of people who seem to know things they should not be able to know....[A] sympathetic account..." Los Angeles Times
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"[S]killfully organized and felicitously written, lays out the facts like a good, extended piece of newspaper writing and lets the reader decide." Seattle Times
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"Blum's book radiates sympathy for these hapless ghost researchers, because their plight is an old and honorable one." San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
When William James and a handful of other brilliant and eccentric thinkers of the time came together to found a society dedicated to finding scientific proof of the existence of the supernatural world, they embarked on what would become a lifetime obsession for them all, and launched the greatest ghost hunt ever undertaken in the history of science.
Synopsis
At the close of the 19th century, William James, the great philosopher, a founder of the American Psychological Association and brother of author Henry James, proclaimed his belief in ghosts and embarked on a determined, lifelong pursuit of scientific evidence to prove it.
Synopsis
A Pulitzer Prize?winning author tells the amazing story of William James?s quest for empirical evidence of the spirit world What if a world -renowned philosopher and professor of psychiatry at Harvard suddenly announced he believed in ghosts? At the close of the nineteenth century, the illustrious William James led a determined scientific investigation into ?unexplainable? incidences of clairvoyance and ghostly visitations. James and a small group of eminent scientists staked their reputations, their careers, even their sanity on one of the most extraordinary quests ever undertaken: to empirically prove the existence of ghosts, spirits, and psychic phenomena. What they pursued? and what they found?raises questions as fascinating today as they were then.
About the Author
Pulitzer Prize-winner Deborah Blum is a professor of science journalism at the University of Wisconsin. She worked as a newspaper science writer for twenty years, winning the Pulitzer in 1992 for her writing about primate research, which she turned into a book, The Monkey Wars (Oxford, 1994). Her other books include Sex on the Brain (Viking, 1997) and Love at Goon Park (Perseus, 2002). She has written about scientific research for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Discover, Health, Psychology Today, and Mother Jones. She is a past president of the National Association of Science Writers and now serves on an advisory board to the World Federation of Science Journalists and the National Academy of Sciences.
Table of Contents
Ghost Hunters Prelude
1. The Night Side
2. A Spirit of Unbelief
3. Lights and Shadows
4. Metaphysics and Metatrousers
5. Infinite Rationality
6. All Ye Who Enter Here
7. The Principles of Psychology
8. The Invention of Ectoplasm
9. The Unearthly Archive
10. A Prophecy of Death
11. A Force Not Generally Recognized
12. A Ghost Story
Acknowledgments
Notes and Sources
Index