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Tuesday, October 8, 2024

40+ Leading Researchers of the Paranormal

Below is a table listing alphabetically some of the leading researchers of paranormal phenomena. The list includes many scientists and physicians. Pressing the links in the right column will take you to relevant works by such persons, or articles about their work, almost all of which can be read online for free, without any login difficulties.  

Some of the links below go to URLs at www.archive.org, which has been restored after a service outage. If you have trouble using a link, try one of the links marked Alternate Links, which go to an entirely different repository. 

 

Name

Description

Involvement

Link for 

more information

Barrett, Sir William

A physicist

Researched ESP and authored the book Deathbed Visions reporting deathbed apparitions

Link

Bem, Daryl

Professor of psychology

Author of a widely noted "Feeling the Future" paper documenting precognition

Link

Brittan, S. B.  MD

A medical doctor

Author of a classic of parapsychology "Man and His Relations"

Link

Link

Alternate link

Bozanno, Ernest

Psychologist and psychical researcher

Pioneered the study of deathbed visions in his paper "Apparitions of Deceased Persons at Death-beds." Also wrote one of the first books documenting out-of-body experiences. 

Link



Cahagnet, Louise Alphonse

Psychical researcher

His The Celestial Telegraph documented the most impressive clairvoyance in the subject Adele

Link

Link


Carrington, Hereward

Psychical researcher

His Eusapia Palladino and Her Phenomena is a classic of psychical research

Link

Alternate link


Chastanet, 

Armand-Marc-Jacques de,   the Marquis de Puységur


A pivotal figure in psychical research but little known, he  essentially discovered artificial somnambulism, later called hypnotism, inspired by the work of Franz Anton Mesmer. His work opened the door to later robust experimental evidence for clairvoyance (read here for an example).



Crawford, W. J

A mechanical engineer, which made him well-qualified for devising devices capable of testing whether paranormal phenomena were occurring at seances where levitation was reported

In three books published around 1920, he documented the most thorough and careful evidence of levitation occurring at seances

Link

Link

Link

Link

Alternate link

Alternate link


Crookall, Robert

A geologist and psychical researcher

One of the first scholars to  write books documenting out-of-body experiences

Link

Link

Link


Crookes, Sir William

A leading physicist who discovered the element thallium, and invented the Crookes tube that was the forerunner of all TV sets.

Supervised successful tests of paranormal phenomena with the medium Daniel Dunglas Home and Florence Cook. 

Link

Link

Alternate link

Alternate link

Crowe, Catherine

Psychical researcher

Her 500-page The Night Side of Nature was a deep dive into mysterious phenomena

Link

Alternate link

Deleuze, Joseph-Philippe-François

A naturalist and botanist

Documented clairvoyance under hypnotism (then called animal magnetism)

Link

Link

Esdaille, James

Physician and surgeon

Achieved the most enormous success in performing very many painless surgeries in India by using only hypnosis for pain relief. Documented the paranormal in his book Natural and Mesmeric Clairvoyance.

Link

Alternate link

Flammarion, Camille

Professional astronomer and psychical researcher

Author of the monumental three-volume work Death and Its Mystery (which you can read herehere 

and here), as well as the massive tome The Unknown

Link

Link

Alternate link

Alternate link

Fukarai, Tomokici

Professor and President of the Psychical Institute of Japan

Author of Clairvoyance &  Thoughtography documenting paranormal effects

Link

Geley, Gustave

Physician

Author of From the Unconscious to the Conscious documenting the paranormal

Link

Alternate link

Greyson, Bruce

Physician

A leading researcher of near-death experiences

Link

Gregory, William 

Professor of chemistry at the University of Edinburgh (founded in 1582, and the sixth oldest English university)

Documented very carefully dramatic cases of clairvoyance, in his book Letters to a Candid Inquirer, on Animal Magnetism

Link

Link 

Alternate link

Gully, Dr. J. M. 

Physician

Attested to the reality of the Florence Cook/Katie King materialization phenomenon

Link

Gurney, Edmund

Psychologist and psychical researcher

One of the three authors of the monumental two-volume work Phantasms of the Living, the first major study of apparitions

Link 

Link

Alternate link

Haddock, Dr. Joseph

Physician

His book Somnolism and Psycheism documented astonishing clairvoyance in his patient Emma

Link 

Alternate link


Haraldsson, 

Erlendur

Psychologist and psychical researcher

Co-author (with Karlis Osis) of At the Hour of Death, a major work studying deathbed visions

Link

Hare, Robert

Professor of chemistry at Harvard University

Authored the book Experimental investigation of the Spirit Manifestations asserting the reality of dramatic paranormal phenomena 

Link

Link

Alternate link

Hodgson, Richard

Psychical researcher

One of the main investigators of Leonora Piper, eventually becoming convinced she provided evidence of life after death

Link

Hyslop, J. W. 

Professor of Logic and Ethics in Columbia University

Author of the book Contact With the Other World documenting evidence for life after death

Link

Alternate link

Link (p. 585)

Link (p. 627)

James, William

Sometimes called the founder of American psychology

A noted contributor to psychical research, and one of the main investigators of Leonora Piper

Link

Joire, Dr. Paul 

Professor at the Pstcho-Physiologioal Institute of France, President of the Sooiete Univbbselle d'Etudes Pstchiques

Wrote a 633-page book "Psychical and Supernormal Phenomena, Their Observation and Experimentation."

Link

Alternate link


Kerner, Justinus

A physician

Pioneered the serious study of apparitions, and documented clairvoyance in  Frederica Hauffe

Link
Link
Alternate link

Lodge, Sir Oliver

A physicist

Author of the book Raymond, or Life and Death documenting successful encounters with mediums

Link

Link

Alternate link

London Dialectical Society

A society with no doctrinal predispositions  that made an elaborate investigation of paranormal phenomena beginning in 1869

Its investigators took direct testimony from very many witnesses, and published a 400+ page report documenting the reality of many types of paranormal phenomena. 

Link

Link

Alternate link

Alternate link

Lombroso, Cesare

A physician and extremely influential criminology theorist

Author of the book After Death, What? documenting the paranormal, including observations of inexplicable events at seances of Eusapia Palladino

Link

Link

Alternate link

Maxwell, J. MD

Physician

Author of Metaphysical Phenomena: Methods and Observations, documenting many paranormal phenomena

Link

Link

Alternate link

Moody, Raymond

A psychiatrist and psychical researcher

Wrote the first widely-read book on near-death experiences

Link

Myers, F. W. 

One of the main founders of the Society for Psychical Research

Author of the monumental two-volume psychology and psychical research work Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death

Link

Link

Alternate link

Alternate link

Ochorowicz,

Julien

Psychology professor

Ran successful levitation experiments with medium 

Stanislas Tomczyk. Documented the paranormal in his 1891 book Mental Suggestion. 

Link

Link

Link

Alternate link

Osty, Eugene

Medical practitioner and director of the Institut Métapsychique International in Paris

Author of the book Supernormal Faculties in Man

Link

Link

Alternate link

Owen, Robert Dale

Once a US congressman

Author of two classic works documenting the paranormal

Link
Link
Alternate link

Radin, Dean

Physicist

Has done experiments  showing psi effects


Link

Rhine, Joseph Banks

Professor of Psychology, Duke University

Did many years of experimental tests showing the reality of ESP

Link

Link

Alternate link

Rhine, Louisa

One of the leading collectors of accounts of spontaneous telepathy and spontaneous precognition.

Link

Riess, Bernard F.

Professor at City College, CUNY

Despite a lack of enthusiasm for the topic, he ran the most successful ESP test ever, getting "smoking gun" evidence 


Link

Richet, Charles

Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1913

Author of the long book "Thirty Years of Psychical Research." Documented paranormal phenomena occurring with mediums.

Link

Alternate link

Schrenck-Notzing, Albert von. 

Physician

Author of the long work Phenomena of Materialization documenting paranormal phenomena

Link

Link

Alternate link

Sheldrake, Rupert

Biologist

Did experiments supporting the reality of ESP

Link

Wallace, Alfred Russel

Co-founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection

Documented the reality of paranormal phenomena in works such as On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism


Link

Link

Alternate link

Zollner, Johann

Professor of physical astronomy 

Author of the book Transcendental Physics documenting paranormal phenomena

Link

Link

Alternate link


crossing over to the other side

1 comment:

  1. You did a lot of work on this list. I would like to offer a few for your future consideration.

    I am a NSAC Certified Spiritualist Teacher. One of my issues with the Morris Pratt "Course on Modern American Spiritualism" is that it teaches about "Pioneers" as if learning ended a hundred years ago. In fact, we have many "Contemporary pioneers" who bring more useful information. Other people will surely have other names to contribute.

    My test is whether the person has moved our community toward understanding. Simply studying a subject or giving it a new name seldom adds to our understanding.

    Robert Monroe who established hemispheric synchronization and frequency following as a technique for mental entrainment. monroeinstitute.org/

    James Carpenter for developing First Sight Theory drjimcarpenter.com

    Ernst Senkowski who coined the term Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC) His book by the same name has been an important contribution to our understanding of physical phenomena. victorzammit.com/articles/senkowski.htm

    Friedrich Jürgenson and Konstantin Raudive who are credited with introducing Electronic Voice Phenomena to the public. google.com/books/edition/Breakthrough/tQKjzgEACAAJ?hl=en

    Walter von Lucadou for his introduction of
    The Model of Pragmatic Information which helps us understand the relationship between the phenomena and witnesses. api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:42524853

    They are the thinkers I often reference in my writing.

    By the way, I think Rupert Sheldrakes major contribution to consciousness studies is his Hypothesis of Formative Causation (aka Morphic Resonance). sheldrake.org/research/morphic-resonance/introduction?

    Thanks for the list

    ReplyDelete