Common Phantoms - An American History of Psychic Science (Hardcover)

Seances, clairvoyance, and telepathy captivated public imagination in the United States from the 1850s well into the twentieth century. Though skeptics dismissed these experiences as delusions, a new kind of investigator emerged to seek the science behind such phenomena. With new technologies like the telegraph collapsing the boundaries of time and space, an explanation seemed within reach. As Americans took up psychical experiments in their homes, the boundaries of the mind began to waver. Common Phantoms brings these experiments back to life while modeling a new approach to the history of psychology and the mind sciences. Drawing on previously untapped archives of participant-reported data, Alicia Puglionesi recounts how an eclectic group of investigators tried to capture the most elusive dimensions of human consciousness. A vast though flawed experiment in democratic science, psychical research gave participants valuable tools with which to study their experiences on their own terms. Academic psychology would ultimately disown this effort as both a scientific failure and a remnant of magical thinking, but its challenge to the limits of science, the mind, and the soul still reverberates today.

General

Imprint:	Stanford University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Spiritual Phenomena
Release date:	August 2020
First published:	2020
Authors:	Alicia Puglionesi
Dimensions:	229 x 152mm (L x W)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth / Cloth
Pages:	336
ISBN-13:	978-1-5036-0837-5
Categories:	Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Parapsychological studies Books > Humanities > History > World history > 1750 to 1900 Books > Humanities > History > American history > General Books > History > American history > General Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900 Promotions
LSN:	1-5036-0837-9
Barcode:	9781503608375

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