Memories and Studies

by William James

1911 · New York, Longmans

"William James (1842 1910) was an American psychologist and philosopher. Topics of his books included psychology, religious psychology, educational psychology, mysticism, and pragmatism. James played a major role is the transition from 19th century European philosophy to American philosophy. James wrote "True ideas lead us into useful verbal and conceptual quarters as well as directly up to useful sensible termini. They lead to consistency, stability and flowing human intercourse" but "all true processes must lead to the face of directly verifying sensible experiences somewhere," Shortly before his death William James expressed the desire to collect some of his addresses and essays into one volume. Topics included are: Louis Agassiz, Address to the Emerson Centenary in Concord, Robert Gould Shaw, Francis Boott, Thomas Davidson a Knight-Errant of the Intellectual Life, Herbert Spencers Autobiography, Frederick Myers Services to Psychology, Final Impressions of a Psychical Researcher, On Some Mental Effects of the Earthquake, The Energies of Men, The Moral Equivalent of War, Remarks at the Peace banquet, The Social Value of the College Bred, The University and the Individual, and A Pluralistic Mystic." --

Essays in Occultism, Spiritism, and Demonology

by William Richard Harris

1919 · McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart

As far back as history goes, at all times, in all lands, and among all peoples materializations of spirits have occurred. The spirit manifestations to-day are but a repetition of those which took place in pre-Christian times. The war and the publications of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge, W. J. Crawford, and Emile Boirac have given to Spiritism a popular vogue and impetus. By a singular coincidence books on Spiritism, published in Germany, France, and Italy have appeared almost simultaneously with English and American publications on this weird subject. Many of these have given a quasi-scientific endorsation to Spiritism, and have contributed official support to the current belief in the reality of Spiritistic phenomena. Catholic students of these phenomena have never doubted their reality. While admitting and conceding the impositions, frauds, trickery and deceptions of many professional mediums. Catholic psychologists and theologians, who for nearly two thousand years have investigated the subject, hold that materializations have always taken place and are occurring to-day, and that no theory of fraud or delusion can account for them.

Phantasms of the Living

by Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, Frank Podmore

1886

"A large part of the material used in this book was sent to the authors as representatives of the Society for Psychical Research; and the book is published with the sanction of the council of that Society ... Mr. Myers is solely responsible for the Introduction, and for the Note on a suggested mode of psychical interaction ... Mr. Gurney is solely responsible for the remainder of the book ... the collection, examination, and appraisal of the evidence--has been a joint labour, of which Mr. Podmore has borne ... a share ..."--Pref.