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Mrs. Leonora Piper (1859-1950) was one of the most famous mediums who ever lived. She attracted a large following, and even aroused the curiosity of the renowned psychologist and skeptic William James. Avoiding the more obvious tricks of levitating tables and floating trumpets, Mrs. Piper would go into trances, during which she was allegedly taken over by spirits who controlled her voice and directed her hand to write messages.
“Studies in Spiritism” is the verbatim record of six seances which psychologist and psychic researcher Dr. Amy Tanner attended with Dr. G. Stanley Hall in 1909, when Mrs. Piper was at the height of her fame. Although they went in with open minds, Tanner and Hall came away convinced that, while Mrs. Piper may well have been a classic case of a person with multiple personalities who emerged from her unconscious mind during these sittings, she was not above using deliberate deception. This monumental study still stands as a classic skeptical account of mediums and their methods.
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Copyright^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT;
,
IN
STUDIES SPIRITISM
STUDIES SPIRITISM
IN
BY
AMY
E.
TANNER,
Ph.D.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY G.
D.
STANLEY HALL,
Ph.D.,
LL.D.
NEW YORK AND LONDON APPLETON AND COMPANY 1910
r\0*
"*-
Copyright, D.
Published, September,
1910,
by
APPLETON AND COMPANY
1910
©CI.A2719
IS
PREFACE When
I entered
upon the study of the work of the
Psychical Research Society assistant to Dr.
Gr.
was
it
in
my
capacity of special
Stanley Hall in his investigation of Spir-
and not with the expectation of publishing anything of my own. But as the work progressed, and as it became evident that Dr. Hall's other writings and duties would itism,
make
impossible for
it
him
to publish
subject for some time to come,
anything on this
seemed best that
it
I
should
work in hand myself, because now seems
to be
the psychological
of the
case of
moment to present the reverse side Spiritism. Though my name is appended
to the
take the
book,
and though
I
therefore,
lie,
am
I
responsible alone for
under the greatest obligations
my
opinions,
to Dr. Hall,
not only for his encouragement, but for the opportunity to have sittings with Mrs. Piper,
and for the unpublished
manuscripts of his which have been at
my
disposal, to say
nothing of the extensive citations from his notes which ap-
pear in the book, and of his Introduction. I wish also to express
B. Dorr,
my
who arranges Mrs.
sense of obligation to Mr. G.
Piper's sittings for her, and
to Mrs. Piper herself for their unfailing courtesy
desire that Dr. Hall
the controls.
The
and
I
fact that
and
their
should have a free hand with
my v
findings are unfavourable
PREFACE to t