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Modernscience 386 Book Reviews Modern Science Annette Müllberger (ed.) Los límites de la ciencia. Espiritismo, hipnotismo y el estudio de los fenómenos para- normales (1850–1930). Madrid: Consejo superior de investigaciones científicas, 2016, 346 pp., 30€, ISBN: 978-84-00-10053-7. In the last few years, the history of science has been showing a particular inter- est in the field of psychical research, metapsychics and all that today is defined as parapsychology. The works of historians of science like Ruth Brandon, John Cerullo, Alex Owen and most recently those of Sofie Lachapelle, Régine Plas, Christine Blondel, Heather Wolffram and Andreas Sommer, only to name a few, have overcome the initial historians’ mistrust towards to this complex and var- iegated range of phenomena, thus considering it as a proper epistemic object. Less rigid definitions of “science” and “rationality” have been provided, which have called into question the structure of an allegedly real and objective knowl- edge. Even the debate among those who declared themselves interested in rethinking and expanding the limits of science and those who, on the contrary, were claiming that the study of the paranormal should be left out from the def- inition of “science”, has become the subject of these investigations of historical nature. Science is indubitably the result of a complex process. The outcome of this process is a totality of statements about reality that calls for trust and faith. Science creates convictions and beliefs. Spiritualism wished to generate convictions too, and the believer who welcomed such convictions found itself part of the epistemological process of creation of belief, in addition to being receptor of the “truths” in question. The variety and heterogeneity of interests of those who adhered to Spiritualism favored, in fact, the diversification of the interpretative proposals. But what about the relationship between those beliefs delivered by science and those born out of Spiritualism? Are they really so dis- tinct and separate from each other? The effort of those who worked hard for a compromise between these two worlds was to point out a new model capable of suggesting a series of shared points between scientific convictions and the beliefs borrowed from Spiritualism. There is no doubt that the discipline of the history of science has the task of shedding light on intentions and beliefs which were considered “scientific” and “rational” by some group of people between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. By undertaking this project, Annette Mülberger, historian of science and professor of History of Psychology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, wishes to make up for the absence of a such a work in Castilian. Far from being addressed to specialists only, this book also appeals © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi:10.1163/18253911-03302008 Book Reviews 387 to a wider audience; in fact, it is an introduction to the debate on the limits of science and consequently the history of Spiritualism and parapsychology. Nonetheless, the book wishes to avoid repeating those choices that proved to be problematic, such as the insistence on a strictly national reconstruction. Incidentally, this choice, shared by numerous historians aiming at retracing the emergence of Spiritualism in their own country has led, in the author’s opinion, to overlook its international nature. It is indeed necessary to locate the debates and the orientation of the local spiritualist associations within a wider context, also by taking note of transnational influences promoted by the movement of the mediums, works on Spiritualism, and personal contacts among investiga- tors. Therefore, this book, while paying close attention to the national Spanish setting, uses it only as a starting point of a debate that moved beyond national borders. Another thing that this book tries to avoid is to separate the history of Spiritualism from parapsychology – a distinction that was not considered as such in the historical context taken into account. In order to complete her project Annette Mülberger was assisted by experts who for quite some time have contributed to shed light on the Spanish side of this history. Researchers such as Andrea Graus, Angel Gonzalez de Pablo and Monica Balltondre, but also Nicole Edelman and Michael Gordin, wrote wide- ranging reflections deepening the topic of clairvoyance and the investigations of St. Petersburg’s committee. The first chapters, signed by Mülberger herself, retrace the early history of modern Spiritualism, its birth in the United States, its arrival in Europe, and its transformation around the middle of the 19th cen- tury into an important social and cultural movement. These chapters linger on the role played by Allan Kardec and on the acceptance of his doctrine in France and afterwards in Spain, thus showing its consequences on a social and polit- ical level. Furthermore, these chapters contextualize the interest of scientists like William Crookes for parapsychological phenomena, underlining how Spir- itualism itself insistently pushed its own followers to ask for empirical proofs, unlike dogmatic religions requiring absolute and blind faith. The extensive propagation in Europe of investigations focused on these phe- nomena becomes more understandable page after page. Metapsychic, psychi- cal research, and parapsychology are not mere synonyms, but rather different styles of investigations. Other chapters cover other phenomena. They focus on mediumship, paying particular attention to the Spanish context, in order to show the different ways to interpret the role of the medium either as passive agent, a mere tool to communicate with the spirits (according to the spiritu- alist tradition), or as active protagonist, a maker of these phenomena naively ascribed to the action of the spirits. The following pages then deal with the problem of hypnotism and how in the early 1880s its role has grown increas- Nuncius 33 (2018) 379–396.
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