Chauncy Hare Townshend (1798 1868), poet and collector, was a well-connected friend of Robert Southey and Charles Dickens. He became fascinated with Mesmerism while in Germany and went on to popularise it in England. This book, first published in 1840, was his passionate defence of Mesmerism. Developed in the late eighteenth century by Franz Mesmer, Mesmerism was a kind of hypnosis based on the theory of animal magnetism. With its spiritual associations and uncanny effects, it was an extremely controversial topic in the nineteenth century and its practitioners were widely considered...

First published in 1886, this comprehensive analysis of nineteenth-century spiritual experiments questions our long tradition of encounters with the supernatural, and why it appeared to have declined in influence in the writer's era. Maudsley (1835 1918), a medical psychologist and pioneer psychiatrist, sets out to bring such alleged spiritual phenomena under scientific investigation. Emphasising the natural defects and errors of human observation and reasoning, as well as the prolific activity of the imagination, this inquiry into the causes of belief in the supernatural suggests that much...

For most of his life a clerk in the post office, Frank Podmore (1856 1910) was a prolific author on psychical research. As an undergraduate Podmore became interested in spiritualism, and he joined the British National Association of Spiritualists. Eventually disillusioned by that society, Podmore co-founded several organisations: the Progressive Association (in 1882); the Fellowship of the New Life (1883); and, spurred by his desire to see political change, the Fabian Society (1884). Podmore's membership in the Society for Psychical Research influenced his activities and interests, and he...

William Newnham (1790 1865) was a general medical practitioner, also qualified as an apothecary, who played a prominent role in his profession and was widely recognised for his skill. His particular medical interest lay within the fields of gynaecology and obstetrics, although he also published several papers on topics including phrenology and human magnetism. This 1830 publication contains a series of essays he had recently written for The Christian Observer. In them, Newnham argues that dreams, visions, apparitions and other apparently spiritual manifestations, whether good or bad, arise...

Joseph Ennemoser (1787 1854) was born in Tyrol and, after fighting in the Tyrolean rebellion and the Napoleonic wars, qualified as a physician in Berlin. He later became professor at the recently founded University of Bonn, and eventually opened a successful medical practice in Munich. Ennemoser was a leading figure in the then highly fashionable field of 'animal magnetism' (popularised by Mesmer in the later eighteenth century) and hypnosis, and his emphasis on the connection between the mind and physical health foreshadowed Freud's development of psychoanalysis. The holistic views of the...

Although famous throughout Europe for his mind-reading skills, Stuart C. Cumberland (1857 1922) was a staunch critic of the 'rascality' of some spiritualist practices and their practitioners. He claimed that many of the seances and other events which he had experienced were merely fraudulent money-making impostures. He wrote several books on his life as a thought-reader, in which also he revealed the techniques of fake mediums and psychics. (His That Other World, of 1918, is also reissued in this series.) In this 1888 work, Cumberland narrates his own history and career and describes some of...

Henry Christmas (1811 68) was a scholar of very wide interests and a fellow of both the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. He wrote extensively about many subjects including philosophy, religion, literature, mythology and numismatics. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and soon afterwards became the librarian and secretary of Sion College. Between 1840 and 1860 he edited a number of books and journals, including The Literary Gazette. He also translated Calmet's Phantom World, and Wieland's Republic of Fools into English. Published in 1849, this two-volume set examines...

Henry Christmas (1811 68) was a scholar of very wide interests and a fellow of both the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. He wrote extensively about many subjects including philosophy, religion, literature, mythology and numismatics. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and soon afterwards became the librarian and secretary of Sion College. Between 1840 and 1860 he edited a number of books and journals, including The Literary Gazette. He also translated Calmet's Phantom World, and Wieland's Republic of Fools into English. Published in 1849, this two-volume set examines...

This two-volume history of the supernatural, first published in 1863, is a staggering feat: extending his work across almost a thousand pages, William Howitt attempts to describe the engagement with the supernatural in all ages and all parts of the world in order to identify a common link between them. Howitt (1792 1879), a well-known writer in his day, published over fifty books in his lifetime, some in collaboration with his wife, writer and translator Mary Howitt. His interest in the supernatural was precipitated by the untimely deaths of two sons. Beginning with a chapter on magic and its...