Although Stuart Cumberland (1857 1922) was renowned for his mind-reading skills, he was a staunch critic of related spiritualist practices. He claimed that many s ances and other events that he had seen confirmed his suspicions that 'the chief basis of the movement was money-making'. So he decided to launch his own campaign to uncover the truth about the methods of spirit-mediums, and in this work, published in 1918, he explains many mediums' tricks, such as making tables move using special silk thread, not spiritual aid. He lectured about the subject in places ranging from Cambridge University to Lambeth Palace, and attributed his own success to his ability to read muscle movement, rather than any supernatural communication. Providing a fascinating picture of the changing spiritualist movement, this work illustrates the extent of the social and political influence of some spiritualists, but also how credibility about their practices was being challenged.

Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan (1809-1892) was the wife of the mathematician and logician Augustus De Morgan and mother of the celebrated ceramicist William De Morgan. In this book, published in 1863, De Morgan, writing as 'CD' - with a preface by her husband signed as 'AB' - acknowledges that alleged spirit manifestations have faced much criticism and scepticism, but argues that it was a little-understood phenomenon that merited further investigation. She spent a decade on this research, and focused on the role of the mediums, people who were believed to communicate with the spirit world. She was aided in this by the arrival of a medium who lived with the De Morgan family for six years. Her chapters also examine in depth the process of dying and ideas about the afterlife. A first-hand account of the nineteenth-century spiritualist world, this book provides a fascinating glimpse into Britain's changing religious landscape.

Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan (1809-1892) was the wife of the mathematician and logician Augustus De Morgan and mother of ceramicist William De Morgan. In Threescore Years and Ten, completed in 1887, edited by her daughter Mary, and published in 1895, De Morgan recounts her formative early years and the influence of her father, the social reformer William Frend. She followed in his footsteps and fought for many causes, including higher education for women and prison reform. She was also an early animal rights activist and campaigned against vivisection. Throughout her life, De Morgan encountered some of the leading writers and thinkers of the time - she was introduced to William Blake when she was a child and many years later found herself the neighbour of Thomas Carlyle. De Morgan's reflections on her life offer an insight into the intellectual world of a Victorian social reformer.

James Van Praagh is a spiritual medium--someone who is able to bridge the physical and spiritual worlds. Unaware of his spiritual gifts until he was in his twenties, he slowly came to terms with his unique abilities. In addition, many of his sessions with grieving people who came to him looking to contact the spirits of deceased loved ones are explored. From a devastated mother recieving a message of hope from her deceased little girl to communicating with a young man, killed in Vietnam, who doesn't realize he's dead, the theme of hope and peace in the afterlife is affirmed. Van Praagh also helps the reader recognize and positively deal with the pain of grief in a healthy, honest manner. Part spiritual memoir, part case study, part instrumental guide, Talking to Heaven will change the way you perceive death...and life.