Haunted Histories: Trinity and the Search for Life after Death, 1850-1950

Trinity College, Cambridge, has long been associated with psychical research (as indeed has Cambridge University more widely). In a paper based on a talk given at the Second International Society for Psychical Research Conference, held at Trinity College in March 1978, Alan Gauld began by stating that “There was a time – just about within living memory – when Cambridge, and particularly Trinity, was the undoubted centre of the parapsychological world.” Four years later the SPR was back at Trinity for its Centenary Jubilee Conference, held in conjunction with the Parapsychological Association, reinforcing the relationship between the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) and Cambridge.

Significant members of the SPR associated with Trinity who will be well known to psychical researchers, and some more widely, include Henry Sidgwick, F W H Myers, Edmund Gurney, Richard Hodgson, Arthur Balfour, John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, Walter Leaf, Arthur Woollgar Verrall, Gerald Balfour, Everard Feilding, J J Thomson, W H Salter, Robert Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh, C D Broad, A R G Owen, Peter Fenwick, Brian Josephson and Bernard Carr. Of these, Sidgwick, Myers and Gurney are particularly notable as the driving force of the SPR in its early days.

As an indication of the influence of this group, of these members the following served terms as president of the SPR:  Henry Sidgwick 1882-1884 and 1888-1892; Frederic Myers 1900; Arthur Balfour 1893; 3rd Baron Rayleigh 1919 (plus the Nobel prize for Physics in 1904); Gerald Balfour 1906-07; W H Salter 1947-48; 4th Baron Rayleigh 1937-38; C D Broad 1935-36 and 1958-60; and Bernard Carr 2000-2004. J J Thomson never served as president, but as a consolation he was awarded the Nobel prize for Physics in 1906.

Now there is a small exhibition at the Wren Library, Trinity College, from 24 June to 18 September, Haunted Histories: Trinity and the Search for Life after Death, 1850-1950. Entry is free, Monday-Friday, 12.00-2.00 pm. It has been put together by Zoe Zimmer as a trainee librarianship project, and although occupying only four cases it is worth a visit if one is in the area. The contents draw on Trinity’s library and archive (the main SPR paper archive is held at Cambridge University Library) to highlight its holdings on Spiritualism and psychical research. Some of the publications have been selected as much for their attractiveness as for their historical value (and are guaranteed to make the bibliophile salivate), but those on display represent a tiny fraction of the college’s collection.

The first case looks at nineteenth-century Spiritualism. As well as contextual information on the rise of modern Spiritualism after 1848, and noting the facilitation of its dissemination by the spread of print media, there are copies of a number of representative books from the period: Benjamin Coleman’s Spiritualism in America (1861), Samuel Guppy’s Mary Jane; or, Spiritualism Chemically Explained (1863), J H Powell’s Spiritualism: Its Facts and Phases (1864), Edward Cox’s Spiritualism Answered by Science (1872), Allan Kardec’s Experimental Spiritism: The Medium’s Book (1876), and N B Wolfe’s Startling Facts in Modern Spiritualism (1883).

Case two contains more manuscript material than books. It covers SPR founders Sidgwick, Myers and Gurney, all fellows of Trinity, charting their developing interest in examining Spiritualism prior to the establishment of the SPR in 1882. They were towering figures in the history of the Society, whose like we will probably not see again, though I doubt they would have appreciated the caption title ‘supernatural scholars’. Nor would they have been pleased to see a copy of Trevor Hall’s hatchet job The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney (1964), open at Gurney’s portrait. A folding double frame contains two portraits of Myers at different stages of life, the wild young romantic clutching his head contrasting with the staid serious middle-aged thinker staring into the distance. A photograph of Sidgwick with his large unkempt beard completes the triumvirate.

An 1867 letter from Sidgwick to his mother discusses the importance of the study of Spiritualism, and another of his to her from 1874 describes staying with Lord Rayleigh (i.e. the third Baron) to meet one of the Fox sisters, who were such important, if controversial, figures in the development of Spiritualism. An 1874 letter from Sidgwick to Myers discusses Gurney’s willingness to participate in an investigation of Spiritualism, and an 1875 letter from the Master of Trinity, W H Thompson, to Sidgwick, on mourning stationery, says he will not obstruct Sidgwick’s investigations. The case is completed by a copy of J J Thomson’s 1936 autobiography Recollections and Reflections, open at the chapter devoted to psychical research. Thomson had been persuaded by Myers to attend séances in the 1890s, but had found the results disappointing – either nothing happened, or there was a strong suspicion of fraud.

The third case mostly focuses on the SPR, though it fits in a pair of spirit photographs, taken at a séances attended by Myers, showing crudely executed extras. A handwritten account of a séances Myers attended, probably in 1875, is written up in Sidgwick’s hand. Often popular histories of the SPR focus on the Cambridge connection and omit those outside that circle who also made a contribution to the SPR’s formation, in order to downplay the Spiritualist element present in the Society’s first years. Chief among these were Edmund Dawson Rogers and William Barrett. Here, Rogers is not name-checked but Barrett is, with a form letter sent by Barrett in December 1881 to Trinity alumnus Lord Houghton proposing to hold a meeting to discuss the feasibility of an organisation devoted to the subject; Lord Houghton became a member, one of a number of eminent individuals.

A caption describes the foundation, though it states that Sidgwick held the presidency for 18 years. He died 18 years after the SPR was constituted in February 1882, in 1900. The first volumes of the SPR’s Proceedings and Journal (the latter distributed to members only) are shown, and finally the first volume of the book that immortalised the names of Gurney, Myers and Frank Podmore: Phantasms of the Living (1886). Gurney died two years later, robbing psychical research of one of its most significant contributors. A QR code links to the Cambridge University Library catalogue, mentioning that the library holds the bulk of the SPR archive (still owned by the SPR).

The final case brings the story up to the mid-twentieth century. It begins with the papers of William Henry Salter which he donated to Trinity, dealing with automatic writing, notably the cross-correspondences. These are interrelated messages received through mediums working independently, frequently containing classical allusions. They appear to form a coherent whole only when combined, indicating the presence of a guiding personality communicating through the mediums. A 1963 letter from Salter to Broad says he is writing to the Master of Trinity asking if the college would take charge of his set of volumes of the printed scripts and papers (it did, fortunately). A 1901 automatic script produced by Margaret Verrall (the wife of a Trinity fellow and Salter’s mother-in-law) is shown, along with the portrait of Salter accompanying Broad’s obituary of him, published in a 1970 issue of the SPR’s Journal. An early volume dealing with the cross-correspondences, Herbert Saltmarsh’s Evidence of Personal Survival from Cross-Correspondences (1938) is displayed, along with one of Broad’s psychical research notebooks.

A label describes the Perrott-Warrick Fund, administered by Trinity, which supports psychical research from bequests made by Frank Perrott in 1937 and Frederic Warrick in 1956. It addresses the areas also covered by the SPR’s two funds: general psi and the continuation of consciousness after death. Additionally, both Broad and Warrick donated books to Trinity. Cumulatively, the bequests and donations made Trinity a significant presence in psychical research. The exgibition concludes with a long 1945 letter from Warrick to Broad, and two photographs: a group photograph taken during an invitation-only psychical research conference held at Newnham in 1955, relevant because of the presence of Broad, though presumably the college has images taken during the conferences held at Trinity (one from the 1982 centenary conference would have been nice), and a portrait of Broad standing in the Great Court at Trinity.

Folder from the 1982 conference. Author’s collection

If contemplating a visit, it is worth bearing in mind that the Wren Library is a tourist attraction, and numbers entering are limited – it is after all a working library – so there may be a wait to get in. However, for those not able to attend the exhibition, Zoe Zimmer is planning to digitise it for the library’s website. To anyone who has not been I can recommend the experience, both because it is a beautiful library, and reaching it involves a short walk along the Trinity side of the Cam running along the Backs.

 

Coincidentally, a couple of days after my visit I came across an online article by Lydia Wilson, ‘Parapsychology Is Coming in From the Cold’, with the optimistic subtitle, ‘The University of Cambridge is home to an archive and a fellowship for psychical research – an area gaining ground, even in the mainstream’. This refers to the SPR’s archive held at Cambridge University Library (CUL), and Wilson covers, in a positive manner, a variety of topics relating to the SPR and psychical research. However, I took issue with one statement: ‘There was already a substantial archive [in CUL], and it was gradually growing as the society [i.e. SPR] sorted through their own holdings.’

The phrase ‘their own holdings’ implies that the collection held at CUL no longer belongs to the SPR, whereas it has to be emphasised that the SPR still owns it. Authors occasionally make this mistake, and it seems that sometimes the University does little to disabuse them, so that it has been known for books using SPR material to include thanks to the Syndics of Cambridge University Library for permission to reproduce it, rather than the SPR. This does not apply to the Wren Library, which is the owner of its holdings in psychical research.

 

References

Gauld, Alan. (1978) 'Psychical Research in Cambridge from the Seventeenth Century to the Present', Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 49(778), pp. 925–937.

Wilson, Lydia. (2026) 'Parapsychology is Coming in from the Cold', New Lines Magazine, 17 July. Available at: https://newlinesmag.com/essays/parapsychology-is-coming-in-from-the-cold/ (Accessed: 18 July 2026).

A New Editor of the Society for Psychical Research’s Psi Encyclopedia

A New Editor of the Society for Psychical Research’s Psi Encyclopedia

I’ve reported a couple of times on the Society for Psychical Research’s online Psi Encyclopedia (PE), designed to be a more reliable guide than Wikipedia to subjects which fall within psychical research.  Under the able guidance of its first editor, Robert McLuhan, it grew in size until, as chair of the Education and Publicity Committee Bernard Carr stated in his contribution to the SPR’s 2024/25 annual Report, it contains almost two million words (and is still growing).

It was recently given a makeover as the original platform, inaugurated in 2014, was creaking with age.  The new version offers a more up-to-date look and enhanced accessibility of topics, both within the PE and to articles in the SPR’s Journal and Proceedings via a ‘links library’.  Unfortunately, the ability to download files as PDFs and epubs has disappeared, but I have been told that it requires a plug-in which will be reinstalled shortly.  I personally like to transfer articles to an e-reader, so will be pleased when that happens.

Bernard Carr added in his report that “The founding editor, Robert McLuhan, is moving on and the name of his successor will be announced shortly.”  A new editor has now been appointed, but the transfer was low-key and no announcement was made.  The current ‘About’ section of the PE states:

“The PE was created by Robert McLuhan, who edited it until April 2026, when he was succeeded by James G Matlock as General Editor and a team of Associate Editors (Nemo Mörck, KM Wehrstein, Melvyn Willin and Nancy L Zingrone). The site was developed by Ian Rons and Circle Interactive and is currently under the management of James Matlock and Hugh Matlock. Its initial funding came a bequest [sic] from Nigel Buckmaster, a long-time member of the SPR.”

Jim Matlock is a Research Fellow at the Parapsychology Foundation and is best known for his work on reincarnation.  He has gathered a useful group of associates, which acknowledges that the size and scope of the project are too great for one person to manage with only ad-hoc assistance.  Nemo Mörck is the SPR’s website content manager and Journal reviews editor; Karen Wehrstein has been a prolific contributor to the encyclopaedia, mostly in, but not confined to, the field of reincarnation (she wrote the PE entry on Matlock); Melvyn Willin is the SPR’s archives officer, custodian of the Society’s AV collection, and a frequent PE contributor; Nancy Zingrone is an eminent parapsychologist with a longstanding connection to the Parapsychology Foundation, and also with a PE page devoted to her (co-written by Matlock).

One obvious point is that, of the new team, only one member is based in the UK, while two are in the United States, one is in Canada and one is in Sweden.  The style guide for contributors states that the PE adheres to British English standards – with the minor exception of most hyphenated words – so one hopes Americanisms will not creep in (though the paragraph following this reassurance begins with the word “Organize”).  However, the expertise assembled bodes well for the future of the project as a dependable source of information, provided that no difficulties arise from perceived conflicts of interest, such as the one that occurred during the final weeks of McLuhan’s tenure.

This concerned the PE entry on Eileen Garrett, founder of the Parapsychology Foundation, which was written by Matlock.  There have been two recent books critical of some of the assertions Garrett made about herself (their very titles alluding to deception), but one of these, by Lis Warwood, was only listed in the bibliography and not referred to in the text, while the other, by Julie Coyle, was mentioned briefly in passing, with no elucidation of her claims.  Any rounded portrait of Garrett should have included discussion of these authors’ findings, though it is understandable there might be discomfort in the Parapsychology Foundation camp at having them aired.  After disquiet about potential bias was raised on Facebook the article was withdrawn, and a revised version is awaited with interest.  In the meantime, there is an article in the PE about the Parapsychology Foundation, co-written by Matlock.

 

Update 6 May 2026:

The new Psi Encyclopedia regime has now been announced to the world on social media, so it has not been quite as quiet a transfer as I had thought it would be, and to mark the changing of the guard the website has some additions.  Firstly, in recognition that the funds from the Buckmaster bequest used to support the project have now diminished substantially, a page soliciting donations has been introduced.  This is an excellent idea, and I hope some of those who benefit from its information will feel moved to give something, though as the regular Wikipedia appeals indicate, obtaining money from users is not always easy.

Another innovation is a bi-weekly ‘Editors’ Blog’, the first instalment of which was penned by Jim Matlock and dated 4 May, which I think gives a good idea of his vision for the PE.  For a start, he doesn’t seem to be in sympathy with the term psychical research, referring to “academic parapsychology, which until the 1930s was better known as psychical research.”  This suggests that psychical research as a term is redundant and has been completely superseded by parapsychology, whereas in practice the two co-exist, albeit uneasily.

Before stressing the continuity in aims for the Encyclopedia, he announces two more names on the editorial team.  In addition to the Associate Editors, there are two “staff writers”: Courtney Block and Roberto R Narváez.  This brings the total of personnel working on the editorial side of the PE to seven, definitely a multinational group, but with three in the US, one in Canada, one in Mexico, one in Sweden, and only one in the UK.  Hugh Matlock is a software developer, which will be useful in keeping the look of the PE up to date.

Matlock refers to the SPR as the “PE’s sponsor” rather than owner, suggesting an element of autonomy (whereas the PE falls within the remit of the SPR’s Education and Publicity Committee).  Furthermore, the new Facebook page and Bluesky feed headers refer to ‘Psi Encyclopedia’ rather than ‘The SPR’s Psi Encyclopedia’, downplaying the association.  These moves suggest a desire to create some distance between the Society and the PE, though when I raised the issue of the abbreviated title, Matlock pointed out that there were multiple references to the SPR within the PE, so the link was firmly visible to readers.

An alternative view is that no opportunity should be lost to emphasise the relationship.  I have looked after the Psi Encyclopedia Twitter/X account since 2019 (shortly to be handed over to the editorial team) and was careful there, and in my other SPR social media activities, to ensure it was always referred to as the SPR’s Psi Encyclopedia.  The connection may be shown within the PE, but when people are discussing its articles, that connection can become severed, so stressing the SPR at every opportunity is important.  However, it is early days and the new team is still bedding in, so there may be refinements as it gains experience and obtains feedback on its efforts.  The reservations above aside, there is a vigorous programme of new entries, and that is to be welcomed.

 

References

Carr, Bernard (2026) ‘Report of the Education and Publicity Committee’, Society for Psychical Research Annual Report 2024/25. Available at: https://www.spr.ac.uk/node/19834 (Accessed: 1 May 2026).

Coyle, Julie (2024) The Early Life of Irish Psychic and Trance Medium Eileen J. Garrett: Fact or Fabrication? Independently published.

Matlock, James G. (2026) ‘New Team, Old Direction’, Psi Encyclopedia.  Available at: https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/2026/05/04/new-team-old-direction/ (Accessed 5 May 2026).

Psi Encyclopedia (no date) ‘About’. Available at: https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/about/ (Accessed: 1 May 2026).

Warwood, Elizabeth J. C. (2025) Behind the Medium's Mask: Eileen Garrett's Shadow Self. New Directions Network.

 

Alan Gauld: An appreciation

Recently I was asked to provide an appreciation of Alan Gauld for the Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition, which has now been published – ‘In Memoriam: Alan Gauld (1932-2024)’:

https://journals.lub.lu.se/jaex/article/view/28220

Unfortunately, I was limited to about 1,000 words, and was requested to focus on his publications.  Space and structure precluded the inclusion of more personal snippets that perhaps help to round out a little the portrait of Alan as an individual.  So here are some bits and pieces that didn’t make the cut.

I was told by a third party that Alan’s dedication to psychical research prevented him from achieving a professorship at Nottingham.  I don’t know if this is true, but it sounds plausible.  He certainly had the ability and the credentials.  In his Journal of the Society for Psychical Research obituary (April 2025, pp. 114-115), Cal Cooper notes that the university awarded Alan a DLitt, and Alan said they had made a fuss of him, so perhaps this was a belated attempt to make amends, rather like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences giving a general honorary Oscar after failing to do the right thing at the right time.

With Tony, in 1961 he investigated G W Lambert’s geophysical theory, which posited that poltergeists could be attributed to vibrations caused by the action of underground water.  Their “house shaking experiments,” using electric motors (recounted in their 1979 book Poltergeists), resulted in a film featuring the entertaining spectacle of Tony leaning out of an upstairs window while a house scheduled for demolition was being hammered.  They found the theory inadequate to account for the scale of reported poltergeist activity.

We corresponded over the years on various aspects of psychical research, as he did with many colleagues, and he was always ready to help with requests for information, particularly after I started looking after the SPR website’s general enquiries inbox in 2011.  When he was unable to attend meetings he would ask me for reports of anything noteworthy that had occurred.  In later years he became somewhat disillusioned, as evidenced for example in this plea:

“Tell me, tell me (if you can do it without your fingers crossed behind your back) that there is something really interesting going on in psychical research!” (Personal communication, 21 March 2012)

Unsurprisingly, many of my memories of Alan involve books.  He was famous for his bibliophilia, though his passion undermined his general amiability on at least one occasion.  Tony Cornell recounted how he and Alan were in a bookshop one day and Tony asked Alan’s opinion about a particular book.  Alan dismissively said it wasn’t very good so Tony put it back, whereupon, Tony ruefully told me, Alan immediately picked it up and bought it.

There are not many who can say, as Alan was able to, that they had read the complete run of both the SPR’s Proceedings and Journal, amounting to many thousands of pages, as well as the bulk of the American SPR’s publications.  Added to his familiarity with numerous archives and the psychical research literature generally, he put this knowledge to good use in his books and articles, and all who knew him can testify to his erudition.

It was fitting that when the SPR’s paper archive and rare books were transferred to Cambridge University Library (CUL) in 1989, it was Alan, as President, who signed the agreement on behalf of the SPR.  When CUL had a number of rare volumes belonging to the SPR stolen, they offered to replace them with similar volumes from their own collection.  Alan was the person in the SPR best qualified to advise, and he was able to discourse on the merits of different editions of antiquarian books, and whether what was offered was as good as what had been lost.

After Alan Wesencraft, the long-serving custodian of the Harry Price Library at Senate House, University of London, finally retired in 1998 at the age of 86, Alan Gauld told me that when he was writing A History of Hypnotism (1992), Wesey (as Wesencraft was affectionately known) had allowed him to take items home, including rare pamphlets on mesmerism.*  This privilege was, I think, a mark of the esteem in which Alan was held and the trust he engendered.  I cannot imagine it would happen now, whatever a scholar’s merits; different days.

In more recent years he invariably signed off emails to me “KBO” – keep buggering on – which I took to mean he thought I was doing OK.  Coming from Alan it meant a lot.

*Kate Wesencraft, Alan Wesencraft's widow (with whom I stayed in touch), told me after I wrote his obituary for the SPR Journal (July 2008, pp. 188-90) that his body was donated to the University of Leicester for use in medical research.  That summed up his general approach to life: one of kindness and help to others.

Update 19 April 2026: Alan’s library sold

On Tuesday 14 April, Alan Gauld’s remarkable – and extensive – library went under the hammer at auctioneers Mellors & Kirk in Nottingham, Alan’s home city.  The online catalogue listed 129 lots, testament to his dedication as a bibliophile.  There were absolute rarities, and many scarce titles, some of which were unfortunately batched so that anyone wanting a particular book had to bid for several that might not be required.  At the other end of the scale commoner books, and journals, were sold by the shelfful.

On the day, Society for Psychical Research representatives attended, along with other SPR members.  I wasn’t able to go, but submitted a few commission bids, none of which was successful.  Once I saw the results, I could see why: all the lots fetched high prices.  In particular, anonymous online bidders from Australia and the United States put in substantial bids on a large number of items.  As far as I can tell, all the lots sold fetched more than their upper estimates, with choicer items reaching four figures (on top of which buyers had to pay a 24-25.5% premium, depending on how they had bid).

I concluded that some of the lots perhaps went for more than they were worth, which was to be expected when there was so much competition.  By my estimate, after auctioneers’ fees and VAT, the estate netted a cool £50,766.20.  The prices achieved indicate the popularity of the subjects covered by Alan’s collection.  I was disappointed not to obtain any of the books, as I would have liked to own something that had belonged to him.  More generally it was sad to see such a fine library and archive dispersed, with items vanishing overseas.  I thought of all the time and effort he had devoted to assembling it, and how much it reflected his personality.  Like him, it has now gone.

The SPR, with a limited budget to cover both the London library and the Cambridge archive, only managed to secure a single lot consisting of a quantity of rare journals, which will be housed at the library in Vernon Mews, Kensington.  One very substantial lot of Alan’s private papers, which would have been invaluable to have in the SPR’s archive at Cambridge, was purchased by a bidder in the United States.  What should have been made available to scholars has probably vanished into a private collection.

There had been hopes that Alan’s entire collection would be donated to the SPR, but it is understandable that his heirs would wish to realise its significant financial value.  As a consolation, the Society was given a large quantity of his psychical research material, consisting, in the words of Dr Melvyn Willin, the SPR’s archives officer, of 132 boxes of “correspondence, articles, reviews, photos, magazines, cassettes, videos, etc.,” and these will be sorted, catalogued, and incorporated into the paper archive at Cambridge University Library and the AV collection, which Dr Willin looks after in Norfolk.  So, while Alan’s books and many of his research files were lost to the SPR, at least much of his legacy will be made available to scholars.

The American Society for Psychical Research has a new address

Last July I received some news about the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR), an organisation the shortcomings of which James A. Conrad and I have previously reported.  The information was that the ASPR, homeless after losing its prestigious headquarters, was going to move into the Interchurch Center, a building near Columbia University in Manhattan shared by a number of non-profits.

I was told the move of the library (presumably including the archive) and apparatus, complete with Faraday cages, was scheduled for late September or early October 2025.  No announcement was made by the Society, but in the past couple of weeks the address on its website has changed from the mailbox at Manhattan Express Shipping.  It has indeed taken a unit in the Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 730, New York 10115.  The telephone number is (212) 799-5050.

We do not know whether the ASPR’s collections, previously kept in an expensive storage facility, have been moved in; the photograph of the library on the website clearly shows a section of shelving as it was when the ASPR was at 5 West 73rd Street.  Also, having a physical address does not necessarily mean there is a staffed office.  Patrice Keane (Executive Director) and Nancy Sondow (President), the two most closely associated with the organisation, are now in their late sixties and seventies and may not want to be bothered with the day-to-day running of the Society.  The website provides no information on opening hours, or names of staff.

The Center’s website describes the 1950s building: “Nestled on New York City's Upper West Side, The Interchurch Center is a distinguished 19-story, 600,000 square-foot landmark that proudly houses a vibrant community of ecumenical, educational, and philanthropic organizations.”  The units are clean and pleasant but functional, and lacking the character of the beautiful Strasburger House the ASPR was forced to vacate.

The Center’s mission statement suggests that the ASPR will be expected to do more than use their unit as for storage.  It reads in part:

“Welcome to The Interchurch Center where we are more than just an office space – we are a dynamic workplace designed to enhance your tenant experience. Our state-of-the-art building offers superior accessibility and a range of tenant-focused services….

“...we foster a welcoming environment that respects diverse perspectives while promoting collaboration and connection. Our dedicated programs and networking opportunities empower tenants to thrive professionally and build meaningful relationships.”

Just how dynamic, collaborative and connected the ASPR will be in its new home remains to be seen.  While it is good news that progress has been made in establishing a base of operations, there are still unanswered questions about the organisation’s financial prospects and intentions.  If someone in New York with an interest in the ASPR could pop along to see if there are staff present and what is on offer, I would be happy to hear from them.

It will be a service to psychical research if the library and archive become accessible again, though there is a lingering doubt as to whether there will be enough space to accommodate it all in a single unit; those Faraday cages may have to go.  But at least the officers and trustees have made a start, and perhaps they will eventually resume the activities of a vibrant membership organisation, with a journal and lecture programme.  It would be useful if they deigned to tell those interested in the ASPR’s wellbeing what their plans are.

 

D D Home was accused of being a werewolf?!

In a section dealing with nineteenth-century Spiritualism in Chasing the Dark: Encounters with the Supernatural (2025), Ben Machell makes the startling claim about the medium Daniel Dunglas Home that “among other things he faced accusations of being a werewolf” (p. 30).  He does not elaborate, and as there are no references in the book he does not indicate where he obtained this information.

However, the section detailing which books and online resources he found useful cites Deborah Blum’s Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death (2006) as a major source for his information on the early years of the Society for Psychical Research.  In it, Blum refers to “a proposal by an anthropologist that Home was actually a werewolf ‘with the power of acting on the minds of sensitive spectators’” (p. 46).

Like Machell, she does not name the source or the anthropologist, but she was referring to an 1872 article in Nature by Edward Burnett Tylor, ‘Ethnology and Spiritualism.  Tylor, who had sat with a number of mediums, including Home (see Stocking, 1971; Kalvig, 2017), was not someone likely to suggest that a human could literally transform into a werewolf.  So, what did he actually say?

‘Ethnology and Spiritualism’ was a tart reply to Alfred Russel Wallace’s review in The Academy (15 February 1872) of Tylor’s two-volume Primitive Culture (1871).  Wallace had taken issue with Tylor’s discussion of werewolves.  In Primitive Culture, Tylor argued that what we would call paranormal beliefs – such as magic, witchcraft, animism, sorcery and mediumship – were not genuine supernatural events but misinterpretations of natural experiences.  He addressed the belief that humans could transform into creatures such as werewolves and suggested two explanations: it was consistent with notions of the transmigration of souls; alternatively, it was a delusion, individuals erroneously believing they had transformed into one:

“It may be noticed, however, that such a notion [i.e. of werewolves] is quite consistent with the animistic theory that a man's soul may go out of his body and enter that of a beast or bird, and also with the opinion that men may be transformed into animals; both these ideas having an important place in the belief of mankind, from savagery onward. The doctrine of werewolves is substantially that of a temporary metempsychosis or metamorphosis. Now it really occurs that, in various forms of mental disease, patients prowl shyly, long to bite and destroy mankind, and even fancy themselves transformed into wild beasts. Belief in the possibility of such transformation may have been the very suggesting cause which led the patient to imagine it taking place in his own person.” (Primitive Culture, vol. 1, p. 279)

Among other criticisms of the book, Wallace’s review argued that Tylor had overlooked the possibility of mesmerism, with mesmerists implanting the idea in susceptible individuals’ minds that they had seen werewolves.  Wallace wrote in The Academy:

“We find at times great looseness of statement when Mr. Tylor attempts to account off-hand for superstitions … A recognition of the now well-established phenomena of mesmerism would have enabled Mr. Tylor to give a far more rational explanation of were-wolves and analogous beliefs than that which he offers us. Were-wolves were probably men who had exceptional power of acting upon certain sensitive individuals, and could make them, when so acted upon, believe they saw what the mesmeriser pleased; and who used this power for bad purposes. This will explain most of the alleged facts without resorting to the short and easy method of rejecting them as the results of mere morbid imagination and gross credulity.” (p. 70)

In his reply, perhaps stung by the charge that his method was “short and easy” and insufficiently rational, Tylor dismissed Wallace’s suggestion as inadequate to meet his twin explanations, though he added that Wallace had helpfully addressed an aspect not dealt with in the book, in which Wallace was “possibly on the track of explaining much of the power belonging to sorcerers, savage and other.”  Tylor added that he had never disputed the role of mesmerism in medical practice; thus, he was not dismissing the reality of mesmerism per se.  He continued:

“Now, without committing myself to Mr. Wallace's idea, beyond saying that it is plausible and worth pursuing, I proceed to apply it somewhat farther. Granting that a were-wolf, in virtue of being a person capable of exerting mesmeric influence, can delude people, and even assemblies of people, into fancying that they perceive monstrous unrealities, the question arises, Was any one with this were-wolf-faculty present in the room when Mrs. Guppy made her celebrated aerostatic entrance? Is Mr. D. D. Home a were-wolf? Is a professional ‘medium’ usually or ever a person who has the power of acting on the minds of sensitive spectators, so as to make them believe they see what he pleases?”

Further on, he fairly jeers at Wallace’s contention:

“Mr. Wallace, as the most eminent scientific man who has taken up what are known as modern ‘spiritualistic doctrines,’ no doubt has the ear of all who hold these doctrines. I think it may bring about investigations leading to valuable results if Mr. Wallace will inform spiritualists with the weight of his authority that he believes in the existence of a class of men who, in his words, have exceptional power of acting upon certain sensitive individuals, and can make them, when so acted upon, believe they see what the mesmeriser pleases, and who use this power for bad purposes.”

Where in this dispute about werewolves did Home come in, not to mention Mrs Guppy’s famous “aerial transit”?  Wallace wanted mesmerism to be taken seriously when explaining extraordinary phenomena such as werewolves, crediting it with extensive capabilities.  Tylor was not describing the werewolf as someone undergoing a literal transformation, but rather as someone possessing the ability to exercise a massive mesmeric influence of the kind Wallace had indicated.  Could it, Tylor asked, be applied to the dramatic accounts of mediums like Home and Mrs Guppy to explain their alleged achievements?  Given he chose to publish his response in Nature, he would have been confident of his readers’ sceptical assessment of the proposition.

Tylor pushed Wallace’s approach to the point of absurdity: if one accepted the idea that mesmerism could account for extreme tales of werewolves, by the same logic one could treat the remarkable modern stories told about Home and Mrs. Guppy in the same way.   Obviously, he wasn’t accusing Home of being a werewolf, he was posing a rhetorical question and expecting the answer to be negative.  This would have included Wallace’s, as someone who considered mediums to be genuinely communicating with spirits, not making sensitive individuals believe they saw what the medium, or someone else present, pleased.  In Tylor’s view, Home could not possess the degree of mesmeric power necessary to account for the werewolf, therefore the explanation had to be found elsewhere.

Tylor’s Nature response defended his interpretation of werewolf beliefs having developed from ideas about soul-body transformations and delusions due to mental illness.  His analysis was based on individual psychology and cultural traditions that reflected a pre-scientific attempt to understand the world, rather than on mesmerism’s insufficient power to explain the phenomenon.  If mesmerism could not explain physical mediumship, it could not explain the werewolf.

If Tylor thought this was the end of the matter, he was mistaken, because Wallace replied in the 7 March 1872 issue of Nature (pp. 363-4).  He disputed the association of mesmerism and mediumship, distinguishing them in two respects.  Firstly, the person in a mesmeric trance was completely unaware of the physical surroundings and did not doubt the suggestions made by the mesmerist.  Unlike the “mesmerised patient,” however, “the assistants at the séances of Mr. Home or Mrs. Guppy are not in this state … they do not lose memory of the immediately preceding events; they criticise, they examine, they take notes, they suggest tests – none of which the mesmerised patient ever does.”  Secondly, the mesmerist could influence “certain sensitive individuals” (not “assemblies”), and these were few in number; but there was no such limit to those who could witness mediumistic phenomena: “The visitors to Mr. Home or Mrs. Guppy all see whatever occurs of a physical nature, as the records of hundreds of sittings demonstrate.”

The inference could be drawn that it was illegitimate to suggest, as Tylor had, that for mesmerism to account for the werewolf, it should be used as an explanation for the reported achievements of Home and Mrs Guppy, and that if it was not suitable in one case, the other could be dismissed.  Wallace could still argue that mesmerism explained the werewolf without having to concede that it had to account for the events reported to have occurred in the presence of Home and Mrs Guppy.

For some reason, Blum misunderstood what Tylor was saying when he referred to Home, and Machell followed suit without checking the original articles (which would have been easy to do), despite the assertion being bizarre.  Machell relied heavily on secondary sources and perhaps placed too much reliance on Blum for the nineteenth-century background, which led him to reproduce her error.  Home was credited with some remarkable feats, but was not accused of being a werewolf.

 

References

Blum, D. (2006) Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death. New York: Penguin Press.

Kalvig, A. (2017) ‘“Necromancy Is a Religion”: Tylor’s Discussion of Spiritualism in Primitive Culture and in His Diary’, in Tremlett, P-F., Harvey, G. and Sutherland, L.T. (eds.) Edward Burnett Tylor, Religion and Culture. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 49–64.

Machell, B. (2025) Chasing the Dark: Encounters with the Supernatural. London: Abacus Books.

Stocking, G.W. (1971) ‘Animism in Theory and Practice: E. B. Tylor’s Unpublished “Notes on Spiritualism”’, Man, 6(1), pp. 88–104.

Tylor, E.B. (1871) Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom. 2 vols. London: John Murray.

Tylor, E.B. (1872) ‘Ethnology and Spiritualism’, Nature, 5(116), pp. 242–244.

Wallace, A.R. (1872) ‘[Review of Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom, by Edward Burnett Tylor]’, The Academy, 15 February, pp. 69–70.

Wallace, A.R. (1872) ‘Ethnology and Spiritualism’, Nature, 5(121), pp. 363–364.