Phantasms of the Living

This 1886 publication investigating the connection between ghost-seeing and telepathy is a key source on Victorian psychical research.

This 1886 book was a pioneering attempt to explain ghost-seeing through the idea of telepathy, by analysis of over 700 case studies. Volume 2 presents data for auditory, visual, reciprocal, and collective hallucinations. It is a key source for the history of Victorian psychical research.This two-volume work, co-authored by Edmund Gurney (1847–1888), Frederic W. H. Myers (1843–1901) and Frank Podmore (1856–1910), all leading members of the Society for Psychical Research, was first published in 1886. This collection, containing over 700 case studies of sensory phantasms and hypnotic experiments, was one of the first attempts to deal scientifically with the hypothesis of psychic thought-transference and to catalogue and provide a body of evidence in its support. Volume 2 presents data and analyses of auditory, visual, and tactile hallucinations, and those of a reciprocal or collective nature. It contains addenda and a conclusion for the two volumes. This pioneering study is an indispensable source for the history of psychical research and nineteenth-century attitudes to the idea of telepathy. It provides detailed insights into the Victorian fascination with the occult and the supernatural.