The Genesis of Psychical Research and the Search for the Paranormal Domain (1850-1914)
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BEYOND FAITH AND REASON: THE GENESIS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND THE SEARCH FOR THE PARANORMAL DOMAIN (1850-1914) Name: Robert Radaković Degrees Held: BSc Financial Economics MA Western Esotericism Submission for degree of: PhD Religious Studies Institution: Lancaster University, Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion Date of Submission: May 2019 I declare that the thesis contains 79,834 words (including all footnotes), and does not exceed the permitted maximum of 80,000 words. I declare that the thesis is my own work, and has not been submitted in substantially the same form for the award of a higher degree elsewhere. Signed:............................................................................... Name: Robert Radaković Degrees: BSc Financial Economics, MA Western Esotericism Title of thesis: Beyond Faith and Reason: The Genesis of Psychical Research and the Search for the Paranormal Domain (1850-1914) Submission for degree of: PhD Religious Studies Institution: Lancaster University, Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion Date of Submission: April 2019 Abstract The late-Victorian period was characterised by rapid social, cultural, and intellectual changes, with all domains open to challenge from numerous and diverse directions. This thesis focusses on a short period in ‘the Age of Enlightenment’, from the mid- nineteenth century to 1914, during which many groups and individuals wanted to try to answer the ultimate questions about the nature of the universe and humanity’s place within it. For them, the well-established fields of science, religion, and philosophy each proved to be inadequate individual tools with which to attempt to answer these questions. Consequently, many members of the cultural and intellectual elite turned to the paranormal domain, within which they saw the potential to answer some of their fundamental questions. Psychical research was a nascent intellectual field that investigated strange phenomena which existed at the borders of orthodox thinking, sitting precariously between the acceptable and the unacceptable. This thesis investigates the cultural, evidential, and sometimes personal motivations of the early paranormal researchers, all of which were members of the Society for Psychical Research, and some of the first theories developed by them. The thesis thus establishes the significance of paranormal research during this period. It discusses, in an intentionally eclectic way not done before, several of the key thinkers of the time. It posits a typology to help understanding of the period. This ‘paranormal domain’ represents a combination of an intellectual mindset, an investigative methodology, and a spiritual perspective, particular to the early psychical researchers of the SPR. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the staff of the Wren Library, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, in aiding with the navigation of the myriad papers of Henry Sidgwick and Frederic Myers. I would also like to recognise the staff of the British Library for their unerringly efficient retrieval of many of the publications referenced in this thesis. Similarly, I would like to thank the administrators of the library and archives of the Society for Psychical Research for maintaining such an important and useful physical and online presence. On a more personal level, I would like to recognise the significant influence of the late Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, who was an immense inspiration for me to explore unusual fields in a scholarly manner. I would also like to thank his wife, Clare Goodrick-Clarke, for her sharp academic insights and unfailing support over a number of years. I must similarly express enormous gratitude to my supervisor for this thesis, Christopher Partridge. He has intellectually challenged and inspired me throughout the entire process of researching and writing, always maintaining a calm and balanced approach from which I have gained so much. Lastly, I would like to thank my wife Sarah, and my daughters Emily and Isobel, who have provided so much support and shown unflinching patience during this journey. Beyond Faith and Reason: The Genesis of Psychical Research and the Search for the Paranormal Domain (1850-1914) CONTENTS Introduction 6 Part I THE HISTORICAL AND SCHOLARLY CONTEXT Chapter 1 The Society for Psychical Research 13 Formation of the Society for Psychical Research 14 The Sidgwick Circle 19 Concluding Remarks 31 Chapter 2 Existing Scholarship 33 Esoteric Classification and Analytical Methodologies 34 The Esoteric and the Occult as Cultural Norms 44 Scholarship on Psychical Research 45 The Analytical Framework 49 Part II THE RELIGIOUS THEMES Chapter 3 The Dilution of Mainstream Religion 51 Declining Influence 51 Secularization and Religious Doubt 54 Liberalism and the Modernisation of Christianity 60 The Progress of Science and University Education 66 Concluding Remarks 74 Chapter 4 The Spiritual Revival 76 Re-Enchantment 76 Esoteric Spirituality 79 Early Psychical Researchers 95 Concluding Remarks 112 Part III THE SCIENTIFIC THEMES Chapter 5 Science and Technology in the Victorian Era 115 Materialism, Rationalism, and Specialization 116 The Normalization of Scientific Method 120 The Scientific Methodology of Psychical Research 123 Physical Sciences 137 Concluding Remarks 151 Chapter 6 Psychology and Consciousness 153 Phrenology, Mesmerism, and Hypnotism 154 Normal, Abnormal, or Paranormal? 159 Consciousness and the Paranormal 164 Concluding Remarks 191 Chapter 7 Summary and Conclusions 194 Summary of Themes 194 The Late-Victorian Paranormal Domain 203 Bibliography 215 5 Introduction The Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Milieux of the Nineteenth Century Victorian Britain in the late-nineteenth century was a society caught up in the turbulence of many rapidly evolving advances in science, religion, society, and culture. This intellectually energetic period, also prevalent in the United States and Europe, has continued to influence Western culture ever since. Numerous intertwined currents, such as rationalism, interest in ghosts, and the concept of life after death, both influenced and were influenced by Spiritualism and psychical research. It was unsurprisingly a time of many contradictions, which both the ordinary person in the street, as well as members of the intellectual and cultural elite, tried to make sense of, often by ever more restrictive religious doctrine or the increasingly materialistic and progressively more specialist physical sciences. For some, this further widened the growing chasm between these two intellectual domains, with some theologians and scientists becoming more entrenched in their own philosophical camps. However, there was also a backlash against both realms by some, with religion perceived as overly dogmatic and science as overly materialistic and reductive. Consequently, there were those of faith who appreciated the necessity for scientific endeavour and sought to use it to validate their own religious beliefs, much like the seventeenth-century Puritan intellectuals had done two centuries earlier.1 Also, there were many thinkers, primarily from the established intellectual elite, who had either lost their faith or were questioning it more critically, for whom science provided a secular means to help explain their own view of the world around them. The period could be described as operating via a complex network of intellectual themes, rather than simply a series of polarized battles, such as between faith and reason.2 Intertwining with the complex scientific advances, religious changes, and the increasing willingness to delve into new intellectual and themes, much social and 1 Charles Webster, The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine and Reform 1626-1660 (London: Duckworth, 1975), p. 2. 2 Tatiana Kontou and Sarah Willburn, ‘Introduction’, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism and The Occult, ed. by Tatiana Kontou and Sarah Willburn (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012), p. 2. 6 political transformation was also taking place in this period. Liberal politics in Britain was declining, while socialism and feminism in particular were becoming more prominent, reflecting the growth of more radical thinking. As Matthew Beaumont has noted, much less has been written about the interplay between socialism and the occult, than about the links between feminism and the occult.3 Social, political, and literary scholars have often overlooked the importance of the occult and the interest in the paranormal at this time, whilst writers on feminism and the occult have perhaps downplayed the influence of socialism.4 There are more easily discernible links between socialism and feminism, and between feminism and the occult, but not so clear connections between socialism and the occult. As such, the links are naturally more interdisciplinary and perhaps more tenuous, and therefore have been investigated to a lesser extent by scholars. For some, the mood of transformation had inputs from both ancient and more modern traditions of the apocalypse and millenarianism, suggesting a universal reformation driven by a democratic and technocratic brotherhood.5 This eclectic mix of attitudes both hindered and helped the progression of thinking about the paranormal, by providing a framework within which the commonalities and discontinuities between science and religion were highlighted. Further, as will be shown in this thesis, structured eclecticism shaped psychical researchers’ attempts to reconcile religion and science.