Mental mediumship is a complex process involving a variety of factors in need of further study before we can increase our understanding of the phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to offer ideas and topics for further research--mainly from the psychological perspective and with emphasis on the old psychical research literature. The topics discussed are mediumistic trance (e.g., function, stages, and depth, mediumistic mentation (e.g., imagery, symbols), the dramatic capabilities of the subconscious mind, the relationship between mediumship and psychopathology, (...) the variety of experiences reported by mediums outside their performances (e.g., dissociative and ESP experiences), and the changing aspects of mediumship over time. It is argued that in-depth single case studies of specific mediums and interdisciplinary studies will greatly help us to understand mediumship more fully. Keywords: mediumship--mediumistic mentation--personation--iatrogenesis--trance--dissociation. (shrink)

The development of psychology includes the rejection of concepts and movements some groups consider undesirable, such as psychical research. One such example was the way psychologists dealt with phenomena such as telepathy and mediumship in the first five international congresses of psychology held between 1889 and 1905. This included papers about telepathy and mediumship by individuals such as Gabriel Delanne, Léon Denis, Théodore Flournoy, Paul Joire, Léon Marillier, Frederic W. H. Myers, Julian Ochorowicz, Charles Richet, Eleanor M. Sidgwick, and Henry (...) Sidgwick. These topics were eventually rejected from the congresses, and provide us with an example of the boundary-work psychologists were engaging during the period to build their discipline. The height of such presentations took place at the 1900 congress, after which there was a marked decline in discussion on the topic that mirrored the rejection science at large showed for psychical research during the period in question. (shrink)

Autobiographies are one of the sources we have to learn about past developments in psychical research. While powerful in terms of presenting a personal perspective, such documents can be problematic and may present incomplete perspectives. I will discuss this in the context of a translation of an autobiographical essay French physiologist Charles Richet wrote about his involvement in psychical research in his Souvenirs d’un Physiologiste (1933). In the essay Richet presented an outline of aspects of his psychic career, including aspects (...) such as: Early interest in hypnosis and hypnotic lucidity, encounters with gifted individuals such as Eusapia Palladino and Stephan Ossowiecki, contact with the Society for Psychical Research, his Traité de Métapsychique, and his lack of belief in survival of death. Richet’s account will be of particular interest for those who are not acquainted with his career. However the essay is very succinct and lacks important events that need to be supplemented with other sources of information. An examination of this autobiographical essay illustrates the limitations of autobiographies to reconstruct the past. (shrink)