The book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, authored by William James, a Harvard professor of both philosophy and psychology, first published in 1902, and republished many times since, is considered a classic in the field. According to the back cover of my1961 copy, the book is a culmination of Professor James’s interest in the psychology of religion and approaches the study of religious phenomena in a new way – through pragmatism and experimental psychology. To substantiate his own observations and beliefs, James calls upon many great thinkers from the past, including Voltaire, Whitman, Emerson, Luther, Tolstoy, John Bunyan, and Jonathan Edwards. The publishers refer to it as one of the great intellectual achievements of our century.
Strangely and curiously, the book makes no mention of the survival (of consciousness) concern, the very crux of religion. Moreover, there is no mention of Leonora Piper, the Boston medium James discovered in 1885 – the medium he called his “white crow,” the one who proved that all crows are not black. He did his own investigation of her and then arranged for Richard Hodgson, who had been teaching law and philosophy in England, to move to the United States and continue studying her. Hodgson had gained a reputation as a debunker of fake mediums. Hodgson began studying Piper in 1887 and continued studying her, on the average of three times a week, until his death from a heart attack in December 1905.
“During the first few years I absolutely disbelieved in her power,” Hodgson, who earned his doctorate in law at the University of Melbourne, wrote some 12 years into his 18-year investigation of Piper. “I had but one object, to discover fraud and trickery…of unmasking her. Today, I am prepared to say that I believe in the possibility of receiving messages from what is called the world of spirits. I entered the house profoundly materialistic, not believing in the continuance of life after death; today I say I believe. The truth has been given to me in such a way as to remove from me the possibility of a doubt.”
It wasn’t Piper’s integrity or character he questioned during the first few years. It was whether the communications coming through her were from spirits of the dead, as they claimed to be, or from a secondary personality in her subconscious that had the ability to read the minds of others and even tap into a theoretical cosmic reservoir or universal mind for the information coming through her, first by trans-speaking and later by trans-writing. Hodgson and other researchers leaned toward James’s theories. The telepathy theory extended to reading the minds of people not even in Piper’s presence as well as people not known to her. It seemed that any explanation other than “spirits of the dead” was preferred and more appealing to science, which had seemingly impeached religious ideas about a spirit world in the preceding decades.
It was the communication coming from George Pellew (GP), who had died at age 32, that convinced Hodgson, as well as other dedicated researchers, including Frederic Myers, Sir Oliver Lodge and Professor James Hyslop that spirits of the dead were involved. The “GP” personality brought a more complete fullness of personality than other communicators. It was one thing for a medium to tap into another mind or cosmic reservoir for information, quite another for that other mind or reservoir to dialogue with the fullness of a personality rather than just fragmentary bits of information as was the case with most “spirits.”
Over the period of time during which GP communicated, Hodgson brought 150 sitters, 30 of whom were known to GP when he was alive. GP immediately recognized 29 of those 30, the only one not recognized being a woman who was a young girl when he met her. GP greeted each of the 29 by name. The non-recognition of the other 120 was contrary to the telepathic and cosmic soul theories. That is, if GP, or Mrs. Piper’s secondary personality, had been reading minds or searching in some cosmic reservoir, he (she) would have known the names of all of them.
Much Give & Take
“The continual manifestation of this personality – so different from Phinuit or other communicators – with its own reservoir of memories, with its swift appreciation of any references to friends of G.P., with its ‘give and take’ in little incidental conversations with myself, has helped largely in producing a conviction of the actual presence of the G.P. personality, which it would be quite impossible to impart by any enumeration of verifiable statements,” Hodgson explained. “It will hardly, however, be regarded as surprising that the most impressive manifestations are at the same time the most subtle and the least communicable.”
Nevertheless, Professor James continued straddling the fence, mentioning none of it in his 1902 book – absolutely no mention of the Piper phenomena. As the story goes, James asked Hodgson to read the rough draft of his book, and when Hodgson did so he was perplexed that James did not once mention Mrs. Piper or even address the survival issue, and he let James know of his concern. Whether to appease Hodgson or to correct his oversight, James then added a postscript to the book in which he said he felt facts were still lacking for “spirit return,” though he was impressed by the research of Hodgson and other strongly pointing in that direction. “I am baffled as to spirit return,” he wrote. He also admitted that he was willfully taking the point of view of the so-called “rigorously scientific” disbeliever, and making an ad hominem plea, stating that tactically, it is better to believe too little than too much. He further stated that he had said nothing in his book about immortality because “for me it seems a secondary concern.”
Hodgson died on December 20, 1905, at age 50, while playing handball. Although he apparently did not anticipate a premature death, he jokingly told friends that if he were to die early enough he would communicate through Mrs. Piper much more effectively than others had because of his familiarity with the modus operandi. However, it wasn’t as easy as he had anticipated. On January 8, 1906, he communicated with a friend through Mrs. Piper but explained that he was still in the awakening process and it was much more difficult to communicate than he had realized. He needed more time to figure it all out before he could communicate effectively. He was still struggling on June 27 and July 3, 1906 when he communicated through Mrs. Piper with Professor William Newbold, a professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Hodgson greeted Newbold as “Billy,” just as he called him when alive. “I find now difficulties such as a blind man would experience in trying to find his hat,” Hodgson told Newbold. “And I am not wholly conscious of my own utterances because they come out automatically, impressed upon [Mrs. Piper’s brain].” He explained further difficulties that he had not anticipated when he was studying Mrs. Piper.
Hodgson told Newbold that he was present (in spirit) behind him when he was carrying on a conversation with William James a week earlier. He heard James tell Newbold that he (Hodgson) was very secretive and careful. Newbold responded that he did have a talk with Professor James a week or so earlier, but that he didn’t recall James making such a comment. Newbold later asked James about it and James recalled so describing Hodgson in that conversation. As James saw it, there was no way Mrs. Piper could have known about that conversation and therefore the only plausible explanation was supernormal.
Guess Who?
James also sat with Mrs. Piper and heard directly from Hodgson. In an attempt to prove his identity, Hodgson mentioned an incident that took place when he and James were at the Putnam Camp in the Adirondacks. Hodgson was sitting in a chair before the fireplace when little Martha Putnam crept up behind him and put her hands over his eyes, asking him to guess who was there. Hodgson replied, “It sounds like Martha but it feels like Henry Bowditch (a much heavier person).” James remembered the incident. Hodgson asked James if he remembered how he used to play leap-frog and bear with the boys and James definitely remembered those games.
Although Hyslop, a professor of logic at Columbia before becoming a full-time psychologist and psychical researcher, was introduced to psychical research by James and remained friends with him over the years, he wrote, in the November 1919 issue of the ASPR Journal, that “James seem to have confused means and ends in the method of determining ethical truth, and also have wholly missed the basis of scientific truth which may be wider than ethical truth.” He pointed out that James leaned toward polytheism and seemed to have preferred the doctrine of Spiritualism but “he could not openly avow such a doctrine.”
Hyslop does not explain why James couldn’t “avow such a doctrine,” but it is not difficult to infer that it would have invited much disdain from the majority of his colleagues who had already subscribed to the materialistic mindset.
Hyslop continued: “The fact is that he never clearly understood the problem of psychic research. This is clearly proved by his anomalous and paradoxical position in the Ingersoll lecture on the immortality of the Soul, delivered at Harvard University. He had very little to do with the Society’s work, tho (sic) the public thought he had much more to do with it, and after he had rejected the spiritual body doctrine of Swedenborg it was hard to make him see just what the tendencies of psychic research were. He returned to what he ought to have regarded as wallowing in the mire of Hegelianism when he felt a leaning toward the cosmic reservoir theory. But this aside, the main point is that he could never boldly decide between the respectable philosophy of pantheism or monism and the logical tendencies of pluralism which should have taken him with less reverence into spiritism than would be required to convert the materialist.”
William James is one of my favorite people from history, but it seems to me that he continually straddled the fence because he lacked the boldness that Hodgson, Lodge, Myers, and Hyslop displayed.
Michael Tymn is the author of The Afterlife Revealed: What Happens After We Die, Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife, Dead Men Talking: Afterlife Communication from World War I. and No One Really Dies: 25 Reasons to Believe in an Afterlife. His latest book Consciousness Beyond Death: New and Old Light on Near-Death Experiences is published by White Crow books.
Next blog post: November 9
