The Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) is best known for his creation of the character Sherlock Holmes. Trained as a medical doctor, Doyle - like many Victorian intellectuals - became fascinated by spiritualism and its promise of communication with the afterlife. Doyle was a firm believer in the movement, claiming as evidence 'sign[s] of a purposeful and organized invasion' from the spirit world. In 1926, towards the end of his life, he published this influential two-volume history. Volume 1 covers the background and origins of spiritualism, beginning with Swedenborg before turning to the 'supernatural' events in upstate New York in 1848 that are generally regarded as the beginning of modern spiritualism. It then focuses on key individuals including D. D. Home, and on scientific investigations of spiritualist phenomena. The History provides valuable insights into Victorian and early twentieth-century culture and the controversies generated by spiritualism at that time.

The Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) is best known for his creation of the character Sherlock Holmes. Trained as a medical doctor, Doyle - like many Victorian intellectuals - became fascinated by spiritualism and its promise of communication with the afterlife. Doyle was a firm believer in the movement, claiming as evidence 'sign[s] of a purposeful and organized invasion' from the spirit world. In 1926, towards the end of his life, he published this influential two-volume history. Volume 2 focuses on celebrated mediums from 1870 to World War I and explores topics such as 'ectoplasm', 'spirit photography' and 'voice mediumship'. Doyle also discusses spiritualism as practised in Europe and the religious aspects of the movement. The History provides valuable insights into Victorian and early twentieth-century culture and the enthusiasm and controversies generated by spiritualism at that time.

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 spent the next twenty years investigating and writing on psychical phenomena. Podmore's two-volume Modern Spiritualism (also reissued in this series) is a source for this 1909 work, which 'constituted the most scholarly history of mesmerism and its offshoots to that date', according to one reviewer. This work will interest historians of science and medicine, and scholars of Victorian religious movements.

Written by folklorist Andrew Lang (1844 1912), this 1894 publication examines the ambivalent relationship the living have attempted to forge with the dead throughout history. Nicknamed 'the Wizard of St Andrews', this prolific polymath also worked as an anthropologist, classicist, historian, poet, mythologist, essayist and journalist, producing over a hundred publications in his lifetime. Largely ignored by scholarship, this book suggests expanding the study of folklore to include contemporary narratives of supernatural events. Taking its title from the legends of the notorious Cock Lane ghost, the work considers the survival of ancient beliefs such as hauntings, clairvoyance, and other phenomena believed to transcend the laws of nature, and how such beliefs have persisted through great social upheaval and change. It includes chapters on savage and ancient spiritualism, comparative psychical research, haunted houses, second sight, crystal gazing, and Presbyterian ghost hunters, among others.

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 of it can be explained though hallucination, mania, and delusion. The book is divided into three parts: the first section concentrates on the causes of fallacies in the sound mind, while the second considers unsound mental action. The focus of part three is theopneusticism, or the attainment of supernatural knowledge by divine inspiration. This second edition appeared in 1887.

This book by the Russian novelist Vsevolod Sergeyevich Solovyov (1849 1903), translated and abridged by Walter Leaf (1852 1927) and published in 1895, reflects on the life of Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831 1891), co-founder of the theosophy movement in the United States. Originally published over eight months in literary magazine Russy Vyestnik ('Russian Messenger'), the book considers the controversy that engulfed Blavatsky in her final years over displays of her 'phenomena'. Solovyov was living in Paris in 1884 and researching spiritualist literature when he met Blavatsky (whose work was known in Russia), but he became disillusioned with both her and her movement. Leaf, a classical scholar and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, undertook the translation for the Council of the Society for Psychical Research, which had investigated Blavatsky's work. This account now provides a window on to the life of one of Europe's most controversial nineteenth-century spiritual leaders.

Ukrainian-born Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a powerful and controversial member of the spiritualist world and for a time famous for her powers as a medium. She was a co-founder of the theosophy movement in the United States, which she later extended to Europe and India, drawing from her extensive global travels and her familiarity with a broad range of belief systems, from Asian religions to New Orleans voodoo, as well as secret societies such as the Freemasons. Drawing from Hinduism and Buddhism, theosophy aimed to understand the mystic powers of the universe and promote the study of other religions. In The Secret Doctrine, published in 1888, Blavatsky aims to explain the spiritual origins of the world. Volume 1 looks at the world's 'cosmic evolution', the mystical symbolism that developed throughout this process, and scientific criticism.

Ukrainian-born Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a powerful and controversial member of the spiritualist world and for a time famous for her powers as a medium. She was a co-founder of the theosophy movement in the United States, which she later extended to Europe and India, drawing from her extensive global travels and her familiarity with a broad range of belief systems, from Asian religions to New Orleans voodoo, as well as secret societies such as the Freemasons. Drawing from Hinduism and Buddhism, theosophy aimed to understand the mystic powers of the universe and promote the study of other religions. In The Secret Doctrine, published in 1888, Blavatsky aims to explain the spiritual origins of the world. Volume 2 looks at the creation of humans and animals, and considers the lost world of Atlantis.

Ukrainian-born Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a powerful and controversial member of the spiritualist world and for a time famous for her powers as a medium. She was a co-founder of the theosophy movement in the United States, which she later extended to Europe and India, drawing from her extensive global travels and her familiarity with a broad range of belief systems, from Asian religions to New Orleans voodoo, as well as secret societies such as the Freemasons. Drawing from Hinduism and Buddhism, theosophy aimed to understand the mystic powers of the universe and promote the study of other religions. The first two volumes of The Secret Doctrine were published in 1888, but this third volume was published in 1897 by spiritualist Annie Besant from Blavatsky's notes. It looks at some ancient spiritual teachings and mysteries, and the development of the practice of magic.

Frederic William Henry Myers (1843 1901) was a classical scholar who in mid-career turned to the investigation of psychic phenomena. After studying, and later teaching, Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge he resigned his lectureship in 1869, became an inspector of schools, and campaigned for women's higher education. With the encouragement of former colleagues he began a scientific investigation of spiritualism and related phenomena, and in 1882 he helped to found the Society for Psychical Research. This volume, first published in 1893, is a collection of essays that Myers had previously published in journals. Their topics include Charles Darwin's religious beliefs, the capacity of contemporary scientific methods to investigate the existence of the soul after death, and an unusual interpretation of Alfred Tennyson's poetry. These fascinating essays show how Myers engaged with the scientific developments and intellectual currents of his time as he developed his theory of the 'subliminal self'.

Robert Dale Owen (1801 1877) was born in Scotland and emigrated to the United States in 1825 to help his social reformer father Robert Owen set up an experimental community in New Harmony, Indiana. He was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1842, and appointed US minister at Naples in 1853. In addition to his political career, Owen was a follower of spiritualism. In Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World, published in 1860, he draws from his own observations of supernatural phenomena as well as published research in fields such as psychology. Owen's comprehensive study addresses six thematic areas. He starts by comparing attempts to navigate uncharted spiritual waters to Christopher Columbus' voyages of discovery, and then moves on to examine themes such as dreams, disturbances and apparitions.

The Anglican clergyman and founding member of the Society of the Holy Cross, Charles Maurice Davies (1828 1910), published Mystic London in 1875. The work is a collection of Davies' observations and researches into urban spiritualism. It includes descriptions of London mesmerists, mediums and s ances, and discussions of Darwinism, secularism and the non-religious. Davies, who discovered spiritualism in Paris in the mid-1850s, and became a committed spiritualist after the death of his son in 1865, argued in this work that the principles and practices of spiritualism did not pose any threat to Christianity and that the two movements had much in common and could peacefully coexist. The work is an indispensable source on the presence of alternative religion in London and for the beliefs and practices of nineteenth-century spiritualists. It offers a fascinating insight into Victorian experiences and attitudes towards the occult and the supernatural.

Daniel Dunglas Home (1833 1886) was a charismatic medium whose seances were attended by European royalty and eminent Victorians like Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Thrown out by his aunt because of the paranormal events which plagued him since childhood, Home became a 'professional house guest' and medium at the age of 17. During seances he purportedly levitated, handled hot coals and channelled the voices of the dead. This volume, first published in 1877, is an evocative examination of spiritualism which explores the history of the practice via the Greeks, the Romans, and Joan of Arc. Simultaneously attacking fraudulent mediums while celebrating 'true' spiritualist practitioners, this fascinating work details both the criticism and support received by Home and features reproductions of numerous fan letters. Although colourful and impassioned, Home's polemic is written in an amiable style and provides fascinating insights into the life and work of the self-proclaimed 'Grandfather of English Spiritualism'.

Harry Houdini (1874 1926), whose real name was Erik Weisz, was one of the most famous magicians and escapologists of all time. He was highly sceptical of the many claims made concerning psychic and paranormal phenomena, which were very popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He attended hundreds of s ances for the purposes of his study, and never experienced one he believed genuine. In this book, published in 1924, he described the mediums and psychics whom he revealed as fraudulent, exposing the tricks which had convinced many notable scientists and academics. These included spirit writing, table rapping, spirit manifestations, and levitation. Among those he revealed as frauds was the famous medium Mina Crandon, and his exposures led to a public split with his former friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a firm believer. The book is a fascinating account of superstition and gullibility.

The novelist and children's author Catherine Crowe (c.1800 1876) published The Night Side of Nature in two volumes in 1848. This lively collection of ghostly sketches and anecdotes was a Victorian best-seller and Crowe's most popular work. Sixteen editions appeared in six years, and it was translated into several European languages. The stories are intertwined with Crowe's own interpretations and commentaries which attack the scepticism of enlightenment thought and orthodox religion. Crowe seeks instead to encourage and re-invigorate a sense of wonder and mystery in life by emphasising the supernatural. The stories in Volume 1 centre on dreams, psychic presentiments, traces, wraiths, doppelgangers, apparitions, and imaginings of the after-life. Crowe's vivid tales, written with great energy and imagination, are classic examples of nineteenth-century spiritualist writing and strongly influenced other authors as well as providing inspiration for later adherents of ghost-seeing and psychic culture.

The novelist and children's author Catherine Crowe (c.1800 1876) published The Night Side of Nature in two volumes in 1848. This lively collection of ghostly sketches and anecdotes was a Victorian best-seller and Crowe's most popular work. Sixteen editions appeared in six years, and it was translated into several European languages. The stories are intertwined with Crowe's own interpretations and commentaries which attack the scepticism of enlightenment thought and orthodox religion. Crowe seeks instead to encourage and re-invigorate a sense of wonder and mystery in life by emphasising the supernatural. Volume 2 probes the mysterious phenomena of troubled spirits, haunted houses, spectral lights, apparitions and poltergeists. Crowe's vivid tales, written with great energy and imagination, are classic examples of nineteenth-century spiritualist writing and strongly influenced other authors, including Charles Baudelaire, as well as providing inspiration for later adherents of ghost-seeing and psychic culture.

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 the ideas of spiritualism, and he joined the British National Association of Spiritualists. Eventually disillusioned, Podmore co-founded several organizations: 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 spent the next twenty years investigating and writing on psychical phenomena. His second book (of 1897) discusses a range of topics, from spiritualism to poltergeists to telepathy. Podmore seeks to ascertain the truth about psychical phenomena, and this work will be of great interest to scholars interested in the history of science, psychical research, and Victorian scientific and spiritualist movements.

Frank Podmore (1856 1910) was a paranormal researcher and socialist who co-founded the Fabian Society. He became interested in spiritualism while studying at Oxford and joined the Society for Psychical Research. Forced to leave his employment at the Post Office amid rumours of a homosexual scandal, Podmore was later found drowned in suspicious circumstances. This 1894 volume is a detailed and comprehensive study of a variety of unexplained phenomena. The author reviews numerous scientific tests of telepathic ability involving the transmission of thoughts, tastes and images (illustrated by reproduction of sketches purportedly sent between psychics). Also reported are researches into clairvoyance, automatic writing and even attempts to induce sleep using telepathy. The author explores a variety of rational explanations for the phenomena, including fraud and the influence of hypnosis and suggestibility. Diligent and carefully argued, Podmore's examination of the scientific study of the supernatural is also colourful and enthralling.

In 1872, D. D. Home (1833 1886), the famous spiritualist and medium, published this sequel to his controversial autobiography Incidents in My Life (1863). In it, Home responds to the criticism levelled at him by reviewers, sceptics and detractors including William Thackeray and Robert Browning. He describes his expulsion from Rome in 1864 owing to the authorities' fear of 'sorcery', opposition from French and American clergy in 1865, a visit to Russia, and the opening of the 'Spiritual Athenaeum' in London in 1867. He also reports numerous s ances and spiritual manifestations. The book ends with documents relating to an 1868 lawsuit over a large sum of money given to Home by a wealthy widow, Jane Lyon. Although a promised third volume never appeared, the present book provides fascinating insights into the phenomenon of spiritualism and its attendant controversies during the Victorian period.

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 fraudsters. Townshend describes in detail the mental states Mesmerism induces, which he identifies as similar to a state of sleepwalking. Perhaps most fascinating are the eye-witness accounts describing experiments carried out by Townshend on the continent, in which he hypnotised his subjects into feeling his own sensations and knowing things they could not know.

Friederike Hauffe (1801-1829) suffered throughout her short lifetime from severe spasms and nervous fevers, and in her semi-conscious state she allegedly saw spectres and spoke and wrote predictions in an unknown, 'innate' language. When physically well, Hauffe could communicate with spectres of the dead, and created a complex diagram of circles to explain the nervous energy of a person and its changes throughout the year. The flow of consciousness and one's waking state in the spirit world, or 'sun sphere', was individual and seasonal. After continued illness, she was finally taken into the care of Dr Justinus Kerner for the last few years of her life. His use of magnetic treatment apparently gave her some relief, and she was able to use her 'spiritual sight' to aid others. Kerner's 1829 account of her life, depicting a woman with unusual psychic gifts, was published in English translation in 1845.

First published in 1888, this biography relates the remarkable life of Scottish-born medium Daniel Dunglas Home (1833 1886). Descended from a long line of reputed seers, Home was easily the most well known and sought-after of the spiritualists of his day. Famous for his ability to levitate and communicate with the deceased, Home carved out an illustrious career for himself, conducting s ances for Napoleon III, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (whose husband Robert lampooned Home as 'Mr Sludge the Medium'), Tolstoy, and Queen Sophia of the Netherlands among others. Written by Home's second wife, Julie de Gloumeline, this book seeks to set the celebrated medium apart from his contemporaries by outlining the truth and purpose behind Home's supernatural exploits. D. D. Home provides a fascinating and personal insight into an enigmatic figure who, in the twenty-five years he worked as a medium, was never exposed as a fraud.

Jung's psychology describes the origin of the Gods and their religions in terms of the impact of archetypal powers on consciousness. For Jung this impact is the basis of the numinous, the experience of the divine in nature and in human nature. His psychology, while possessed of a certain claim to science, is based on depths of subjective experience which transcends psychology and science as ordinarily understood. Jung and his Mystics: In the end it all comes to nothing examines the mythic nature of Jung's psychology and thought, and demonstrates the influence of mysticism and certain religious thinkers in formulating his own work. John P. Dourley explores the influence of Mechthild of Magdeburg and fellow mystics/Beguines, and traces the mystic impulse and its expression through Meister Eckhat and Jacob Boehme to Hegel in the nineteenth century. All of these mystics were of the apophatic school and understood the culmination of their experience to lie in an identity with divinity in a nothingness beyond all form, formal expression or immediate activity. Dourley shows how this is still of relevance in our lives today. The book concludes that Jung's understanding of mysticism could greatly alleviate the conflict between faiths, religious or political, by drawing attention to their common origin in the depths of the human. Jung and his Mystics: In the end it all comes to nothing is aimed at scholars and senior research students in Jungian Studies, including religionists, theologians and philosophers of religion, especially those with an interest in mysticism. It will also be essential reading for those interested in the connection between religious and psychological experience.