The Definitive Account of Early Mediumship: A Review of The Heyday of Mental Mediumship: 1880s-1930s: Investigators, Mediums and Communicators

Abstract

Following his acclaimed earlier study on mediumship and survival, Alan Gauld provides a more complete account of about 50 years of early studies on mediumship with a select group of mediums (e.g., Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Leonard, Mrs. Dowden). He describes in detail why many if not most of the criticisms against extraordinarily accurate accounts by these mediums do not hold water when analyzed in detail. Gauld does not provide easy answers, but in his masterwork does something much more important by offering a justification to those who may want to base their belief of potential survival on empirically defensible grounds.

Keywords

• mediumship
• channeling
• psychical research
• history of psychical research
• parapsychology
• survival
• society for psychical research
• anomalous cognition
• society for psychical research