There have been important mediums and researchers throughout the history of psychical research in many parts of the world, but the period from the 1880s to the 1930s saw a coming together of outstanding scientific minds in Europe and the USA who probed the phenomena of mental mediumship with a diligence, intellectual discipline and degree of enthusiasm not encountered on such a scale before or since.

This period saw the establishment of the Society for Psychical Research in Britain (1882), followed swiftly by the American Society for Psychical Research (1884), which resulted in close collaboration between people who, apart from their intellects, also had the financial means and the time to devote to the subject.

In this book Alan Gauld, whose works on mediumship, psychical research and psychic phenomena have become classics in the genre, offers important insights into aspects of the early days of mediumship research that over the years have largely gone off the radar. Here we see the great names of psychical research as real people in personal relationships, and we learn about the informal beginnings of serious investigations and explore their cultural context.

The Heyday of Mental Mediumship is destined to become Gauld’s magnum opus.

Contents

Introduction by Zofia Weaver
1: Leonora Piper: William James and Richard Hodgson
2: Mrs Piper: Background, Personality and Mediumship
3: Mrs Piper and G.P.
4: Mrs Piper and William Romaine Newbold
5: Mrs Piper, Hodgson and the ‘betwixt and between’ (Perry and Barber) sittings
6: After Hodgson (the cross-correspondences)
7: Hyslop and his mediums
8: Mother of Doris
9: Prince’s sittings with Mrs Soule
10: Mrs Allison’s sittings
11: John F. Thomas
12: “Survivalism” – a summing up

Praise for The Heyday of Mental Mediumship.

“For anyone with a serious interest in mediumship and the possibility of post-mortem survival, this book is an absolute must-read!”

~ Edward F. and Emily W. Kelly, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences University of Virginia School of Medicine.

“The appearance of Alan Gauld’s The Heyday of Mental Mediumship is a major event. No one is better qualified to tackle this material.”

~ Stephen Braude, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy,
University of Maryland Baltimore County.

“In rediscovering and highlighting the core evidence for this, the book is not mere history but is pivotal to further research on this topic.”

~ Adrian Parker, Clinical Psychologist,
University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

“This new book from him represents a modern, careful, and critical, examination of a time when the greatest minds corresponded and studied the phenomenon of mediumship, to the greatest of lengths.”

~ Callum E. Cooper, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Psychology,
University of Northampton.

Alan Gauld (b 1932) is a British psychologist who taught biological psychology and neuropsychology at the University of Nottingham. He is author of the critically-acclaimed A History of Hypnotism (1992). 
Gauld is well-known in the psi research community for his investigations and commentary, notably in the areas of poltergeists, mediumship and the early history of psychical research. He is a past president of the Society for Psychical Research, and is author of Mediumship and Survival and The Founders of Psychical Research.
Source: PSI Encyclopedia.