Carlos S. Alvarado, Ph.D.
Atlantic University
In my article “The History of Psychical Research in the Journal of Scientific Exploration,” published online in the Psypioneer Journal (http://www.woodlandway.org/PDF/PP6.12December2010.pdf), I mentioned articles that have been published in the “Historical Perspective” section of theJournal of Scientific Exploration(http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/), as well as book reviews that I have commissioned in my capacity of Associate Editor, or written myself, about important publications from the old spiritualist and psychical research literatures. It is my hope that these papers and reviews will help newcomers to parapsychology and others to realize the value and richness of the old literature. In these comments I would like to present an update of what has appeared in the JSE after the publication of my article.
Only two papers have appeared since the article was published. Both focus on gifted individuals.
The most recent one did not appear in the Historical Perspective section, but covers a relevant topic. In is entittled “An Important Subject at the Institut Métapsychique International: Jeanne Laplace: The 1927–1934 Experiments,” and was authored by Giullio Caratelli and Maria Luisa Felici (JSE, 2011, 25, 479-495). The other one is my paper “Eusapia Palladino: An Autobiography” (JSE, 2011, 25, 77-101;http://www.intuitive-connections.net/2011/EusapiaPalladino.pdf).
Several reviews of old and important books have been published. These include, in order of the publication of the original work: Catherine Crowe’sThe Night-Side of Nature (1848, by Guy Lyon Playfair, JSE, 2011, 25, 177-181), Robert Hare’s Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations (1855, by Michael E. Tymn, JSE, 2011, 25, 172-177), Edmund Gurney, Frederic W.H. Myers, and Frank Podmore’s Phantasms of the Living (1886, by Bryan J. Williams, JSE, 2011, 25, 367-384), René Warcollier’ La télépathie (1921; by Djohar Si Ahmed, JSE, 2010, 24, 767-778), and Charles Richet’s Notre Sixième Sens (1928, by Djohar Si Ahmed, JSE, 2011, 25, 583-590).
In addition there have been essay reviews of several other works. In “Extreme Phenomena and Human Capacity” Michael Grosso discussed Father Herbert Thurston’sThe Physical Phenomena of Mysticism(1952, JSE, 2011, 25, 131-152). I have discussed 16 other works in three essays. In “Unorthodox Concepts of Force and Psychic Phenomena” (JSE, 2011, 25, 121-129) I commented on Raoul Montandon’s Les Radiations Humaines (1927), Hereward Carrington’s Laboratory Investigations into Psychic Phenomena (n.d., ca 1939), Alexandre Baréty’s Le Magnétisme Animal (1887), Albert de Rochas’L’Extériorisation de la Sensibilité (5th ed. 1899), Hippolyte Baraduc’s L’Ame Humaine(1896), and Gabriel Delanne’sL’Evolution Animique (1897).
This was followed by “Apparitions of the Living: The Views of William H. Harrison and Gabriel Delanne” (JSE, 2011, 25, 365-374), an overview of Spirits Before Our Eyes (1879), by William H. Harrison, and Les Apparitions Matérialisées des Vivants & des Morts. Vol. 1: Les Fantômes de Vivants(1909), by Gabriel Delanne.
Finally, I discussed the topic of “doubles” and out-of body experiences in an essay entitled “On Doubles and Excursions from the Physical Body, 1876-1956” (JSE, 2011, 25, 561-578). This consists of comments about the following articles and books: “On the Trans-Corporeal Action of Spirit,” by William Stainton Moses (under the pseudonym M. A. Oxon, Human Nature, 1876); Posthumous Humanity (1887), by Adolphe D’Assier; Le Fantôme des Vivants (1909), by Hector Durville;The Case for Astral Projection(1936), by Sylvan J. Muldoon;Les Phénomènes de Bilocation (1937), by Ernesto Bozzano;The Phenomena of Astral Projection (1951), by Sylvan J. Muldoon and Hereward Carrington; “ESP Projection: Spontaneous Cases and the Experimental Method,” by Hornell Hart (Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 1954); and “Six Theories about Apparitions” by Hornell Hart and collaborators (Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 1956).