In my recently released book, Consciousness Beyond Death, published by White Crow Books, I offered a number of near-death experiences that preceded Dr. Raymond Moody’s 1975 book, Life After Life, in which he gave a name to the phenomenon and prompted much research into it, all of it supporting the dualistic belief that we have two bodies – a physical one and a spiritual one, the latter separating at the time of death. Some of the older NDEs are more intriguing than the later ones as the skeptic finds it more difficult to argue that the experiencer had read about NDEs and was simply drawing upon ideas stored away in the subconscious from having read about them. One that I neglected to include in the book is that of Dr. Richard Hodgson (upper left photo), as reported on January 1, 1908. However, I did summarize it in my 2013 book, Resurrecting Leonora Piper. For those who are not familiar with it, I’ll summarize it again here.
While teaching poetry and philosophy at University Extension and Cambridge in England, Hodgson had gained a reputation as a keen investigator of mediums, debunking a number of them while representing the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). He was recruited by Professor William James of Harvard (upper right and lower right, old and young) to manage the newly created American branch of the SPR and his first and primary assignment was to study the mediumship of Leonora Piper, a Boston housewife who had impressed Professor James, one of the founders of modern psychology, with her ability to bring through messages from deceased loved ones. James called her the “white crow,” the one who proved that all crows aren’t black. Hodgson was certain that he would expose Mrs. Piper as a charlatan, but he soon realized that she was the real deal. While in a trance state, she (or the spirit communicating through her) told him many things about his past and about deceased loved ones that Hodgson was certain she could not have known. In fact, he initially visited her under a false name to rule out research into his youth in far-off Australia.
Although Hodgson was converted after several visits, he continued studying her an average of three times a week for some 18 years. He would bring many others to sit with her, observing and recording what took place. “I had but one objective, to discover fraud and trickery,” he wrote. “Frankly, I went to Mrs. Piper with Professor James of Harvard University about twelve years ago with the object of unmasking her…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.”
Like a Blind Man
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 (lower left). Communicating through Piper, 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.
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.
Seeing Stars
On January 1, 1908, Mrs. R. Bergman, a former friend of Hodgson’s, sat with Mrs. Piper. Hodgson reminded her of his experience when falling off a horse. “Oh, I told you about the experience with the fiery horse,” Hodgson communicated through the entranced Mrs. Piper. “You remember he dismounted me. It was the first experience I had in seeing stars. I lost consciousness. I experienced passing into this life. I remember my being unconscious and recovering consciousness. I remember telling you about this at the hotel.” Bergman definitely recalled how Hodgson had related this experience to her at the Parker House in Boston in 1904. She remembered Hodgson saying he was in a “spiritual universe” during the time he was unconscious.
“Do you remember how they used to talk about the canopy?” Hodgson asked her. “It is an ethereal veil. If your spiritual eyes were open you could see through this veil and see me talking to you perfectly.” Bergman definitely recalled Hodgson discussing the canopy with her when he was alive.
After Hodgson’s death, Professor James Hyslop, a psychologist (top middle), took over the research with Mrs. Piper. Hodgson also communicated with him, discussing what they had talked about during their last meeting.
Back to Professor Newbold. After a lengthy conversation with Hodgson, Newbold said,
“Dick, this sounds like your own (old?) self. Just the way you used to talk to me. Hodgson replied: “Well if I am not Hodgson, he never lived.”
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: June 30
Michael, thanks for this excellent evidential piece. I mentioned Hodgson & Piper in my first-ever doc entitled This Life, Next Life. But that was back in 2009 and I had not thought of Hodgson for a long time. But a couple of your quotes in this piece brought back my memory of making it – ‘a blind man seeking his hat’, and ‘The truth has been given to me in such a way as to remove the possibility of a doubt’. But there is so much more here and for any skeptic it must be ground-shaking material. I particularly liked your last sentence “Well if I am not Hodgson, he never lived”. How does anyone dismiss that!
I just made a 5 minute video joining together all the thumbnails I’ve made for the whole 56 playlist. It is accompanied by a nice relaxing rendition on piano of a Chopin lullaby. Keith C in Florida has it now to upload when he is ready to do it. And that is it – me finished. Then I read your excellent blog and thought how easy it would be to turn this tale into a short video !
All for now
kp
Michael,
Excellent article but you missed some important details.
Richard Hodgson (1855-1905), psychical researcher, was born on 24 September 1855 at Melbourne, son of Richard Hodgson, importer and later unsuccessful mining speculator, and his wife Margaret, née Hyde. He attended the Central Common School and in 1871 matriculated to the University of Melbourne (B.A., 1874; M.A., 1876; LL.D., 1878). He was intended for the law but his interest was fixed on philosophy. While an undergraduate Hodgson became interested in the contemporary debate about immortality and supernatural phenomena: his student crony, Alfred Deakin (second Prime Minister of Australia), introduced him to spiritualist literature and took him to his first seance.
Henry Bournes Higgins was a foundation member of the university debating society . His closest friends were Alfred Deakin, Alexandrer Sutherland and Richard Hodgson: Catherine Deakin was to recall them as ‘a brilliant quartet’.
Australian Dictionary of Biography,
I recently came across a book on NDE written by someone with LDS Church. This was interesting as if you have a NDE and you have a religious framework how do you merge the two?
Richard through Alfred was connected with a very strong Spiritualist Church in Melbourne. Thomas Welton Stanford (brother of Leyland Stanford) was involved in the Motherwell Circle which operated for twenty years and was the main influence for Alfred. This circle was for the high end of Melbourne society and was mainly trance. From memory it was Motherwells sister in law.
Richard had both the knowledge and connections to understand trance mediums.
Thanks
Bruce
Thanks, Bruce, for the additional information on Hodgson. There’s much more about him in my book, “Resurrecting Leonora Piper.” As for the conflict religions have with NDEs, I think most Christian denominations have accepted the phenomenon as consistent with their teachings, i.e., a physical body and a spirit body. Perhaps there is still a conflict with those who believe in a long sleep before Judgment Day. I haven’t seen or heard anything on this concern in many years.
Mike
Michael,
I have been fascinated for many years with those afterlife investigators who have then crossed the veil. The roles of the medium and the investigator are quite separate. Mediums are useful for their ability but their opinions are mostly discarded. The separation of the investigator and the subject of the investigation continues. However, sometimes lab rats have breakthroughs.
My thoughts are on those investigators who move to spirit and who then quickly connect using those same mediums to now communicate (Hodgson is a classic, but also Gurney Myers and Lodge). They are different to the Spiritualists who cross the veil (Doyle). Spiritualists are less scientific in their messages. The spirit version of the SPR focus on the various mechanisms
I look at after-death communications from those investigators familiar with the process to convey the more important information. I explain this information as qualitative rather than quantitative. The messages of love between relatives are these quantitative ones and are critical to a few people. (The old saying is that when you hear about 1,000 people killed, it’s a tragedy but when you lose a friend, that’s a catastrophe) These qualitative messages are of wider interest and are often contradictory. Do we place complete faith in Stainton Moses (plus corrections)?
A technique is to weight the evidence. If mediums pass the various tests (no fraud, well educated, etc ) then they have higher weight. Dr Richard Hodgson was one of the fiercest investigators and would have a high weight. (I hope that since we are both Australians that I am not thought of as biased). Where Dr Hodgson attended university it is in the top twenty of the world. I was asked a few years back if any medium was in contact with Hodgson as the Theosophical Society wanted a retraction.
To recap, Dr Hodgson was a well educated investigator of survival on both sides of the veil.
Thanks,
Bruce
Bruce,
I suspect that Hodgson didn’t understand the physical phenomena of Madame Blavatsky. At that point in time, the “ectoplasmic arms” carrying on phenomena at some distance from the medium was not recognized. However, I am not aware of Hodgson having ever admitted a mistake with Blavatsky. Clearly, he became focused on mental mediumship and to my knowledge had little experience with physical mediums after coming to the United States. As an “honorable man” he should have admitted to his mistake on Blavatsky, but it may be that he was too busy with Piper to have recognized discoveries in physical mediumship.
Mike
Michael,
I must respectfully disagree with you about Richard’s lack of expertise in dealing with the tricks of physical mediums. He would have not only have investigated trance mediums. The artifacts that arrived in Stanford’s house in Melbourne are now stored in the Stanford University Library (I have tried twice for access, but I was unable to access). Investigators investigate mediums for fraud, and Richard was one of the best using privileged access to top home circles . I shall turn to a private letter where the investigator (who rarely endorses mediums) gave a rare reveal of his understandings. At the end of this memoir was a phrase Meum est propositum in Taberna mori which translates “My intention is to die in a tavern”. With an Australian heritage, this would make sense.
A Memoir of Richard Hodgson 1855- 1905 By M.A. DeW. Howe. Read at the Annual Meeting of the Tavern Club 6 May 1906
(Richard was a member of the Tavern Club and was an active sporting member. His Memoir was by those who knew and loved him. I have taken a relevant section which ties in with questions d’existence.)
The general and the personal significance of his work were so inextricably twined together that it is hard to discuss it at all without seeming to invade the inmost sanctities. Yet in this company it is no sacrilege to quote from a private letter of 1901 a passage which reveals at once the intense conviction of Richard Hodgson’s belief and the pure spiritual faith of which it was the embodiment: “I went through toils and turmoils and perplexities in ‘97 and ‘98 about the significance of this whole Imperator regime, but I have seemed to get on a rock after that, —I seem to understand clearly the reasons for incoherence and obscurity, etc., and I think that if for the rest of my life from now I should never see another trance or have another word from Imperator or his group, it would make no difference to my knowledge that all is well, that Imperator, etc., are all they claim to be and are indeed messengers that we may call divine. Be of good courage whatever happens, and pray continually, and let peace come into your soul. Why should you be distraught and worried? Everything, absolutely everything, —from a spot of ink to all the stars, —every faintest thought we think of to the contemplation of the highest intelligence in the cosmos, are all in and part of the infinite Goodness. Rest in that Divine Love. All your trials are known better than you know them yourself. Do you think it is an idle word that the hairs of our heads are numbered? Have no dismay. Fear nothing and trust in God.”
I also tracked down my copy of the book Glimpses of Eternity by Arvin S. Gibson written within the LDS framework. It traces LDE books written before Moody’s on NDE. I have books like this as I find that some religions are more friendly to mediums than others.
Thanks,
Bruce
Bruce,
In my haste to respond, I neglected to mention the synchronistic aspect of the phenomenon. That is, when the third hand was doing something 12 or more feet away, the medium could be seen making movements similar to that of the third hand. In effect, the spirit controlling the movement was carrying out the phenomenon, but that wasn’t cheating. It’s just the way it worked. It has been suggested that many mediums were supposedly debunked because such movements were noted by observers who had no knowledge of the invisible ectoplasmic link between the medium and the moving object. I’m suggesting that Hodgson may have debunked Madame Blavatsky because of such a movement. It’ just speculation on my part.
I am aware that Hodgson investigated trance mediums, but at some point both Hodgson and Hyslop decided to focus on mental mediumship and avoid physical mediumship. I’m not prepared to dig into my files to give you a reference on this right now, but I think it is clear that when Hodgson died in 1905, no scientist had yet advanced the theory that the “third hand” had an ectoplasmic link to the medium, who was some distance from the hand. Many mediums were supposedly debunked because this link was not understood. I believe Dr. William Crawford and Dr. Filippo Bottazzi were the first to discuss it, but it was Dr. Karl Gruber of Germany who confirmed it in two 1926 issues of the ASPR, discussing the mediumship of the Schneider Brothers. I’m 95% certain that this was not understood in 1905, when Hodgson died. I’m just speculating on the possibility that Hodgson debunked Madame Blavatsky because he didn’t understand this ectoplasmic link between medium and the phantom hand. I shouldn’t have suggested that he should have admitted his error, because it still wasn’t understood when he died in 1905.
Thanks for your input on this matter.
Mike