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Libra Esoterica

Common Phantoms

an American history of psychic science

by Alicia Puglionesi & Walter de Gruyter & Co

  • First published:
  • 21st century
  • Language: English

Description

Description from SUDOC — French university and research library union catalog (opens in a new tab)

"Modeling a new approach to the history of psychology and the mind sciences, this book brings to life the seances, deathbed communions, flashes of clairvoyance, and telepathic experiments that captivated the American public from the 1860s well into the twentieth century. The book contextualizes psychical research, an unorthodox "science of the soul," within a long history of citizen science in the United States. Rather than a superstitious impediment to the progress of laboratory psychology, psychical research belongs to a continuous tradition of knowledge production by ordinary people in everyday settings. The book reveals how an eclectic group of investigators tried to capture the most elusive dimensions of human consciousness. They formed a far-flung network devoted to gathering evidence and making the study of experience an "in vivo" field science. And they persisted despite growing marginalization in the 1920s and 30s, as psychology asserted its professional and laboratory-based status. Each chapter delves into the vigorous experimental culture of amateur psychical researchers, challenging readers to discern whether this was a pseudo-science, a failed science, or a phantom science-one impossible yet persistent, the faint rapping of a curiosity that refuses to be extinguished."

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Consciousness, mysticism, and metaphysics, Parapsychology and psychical research, and Telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.

  • Parapsychology and psychical research

    Controlled discovery queries from harvard and sudoc matched “parapsychologie” and “parapsychology”. Retained metadata contains “Psychical research” in the description, “parapsychologie” in the subject metadata, “Parapsychology” in the subject metadata, and 1 additional metadata match(es).

    • “parapsychology”· via Harvard LibraryCloud
    • “parapsychologie”· via SUDOC — French university and research library union catalog
    • “Psychical research”· in description
    • “parapsychologie”· in subject
    • “Parapsychology”· in subject
    • “Psychical research”· in subject
  • Telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition

    Controlled discovery queries from openalex matched “clairvoyance”. Retained metadata contains “Clairvoyance” in the description and “Telepathy” in the subject metadata.

    • “clairvoyance”· via OpenAlex
    • “Clairvoyance”· in description
    • “Telepathy”· in subject
  • Consciousness, mysticism, and metaphysics

    Retained metadata contains “Consciousness” in the description and “Consciousness” in the subject metadata.

    • “Consciousness”· in description
    • “Consciousness”· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

Read & download

Where a scan or ebook exists, it is listed here.

No public full text is known for this record.

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Buy or borrow

Links to ISBN 1503608379; other editions may be cheaper. WorldCat shows libraries near you that hold a copy.

Editions

2 editions cataloged here.

OpenAlex scholarly book record

2020-08-25Stanford University Press eBooksEnglish—Unknown

an American history of psychic science

SUDOC union-catalog record

1 volume (xi-319 pages); 23 cm; Bibliogr. p. 279-316. Notes bibliogr. Index; illustrations

C 2020Stanford University PressEnglish
  • 9781503608375
  • 9781503612778
  • 9781503612785
  • 1503608379
  • +2 more
Catalog record

Subjects

31 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Cataloged from

Catalog id
openalex:W4250909602
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
Retrieved