Abstract
IT was suggested in a leading article in NATURE of December 23, that investigations in the field of abnormal psychology, and the alleged physical phenomena said to accompany particular states of mental dissociation, might appropriately be taken up by a department of a university or other responsible scientific institution as subjects of post-graduate research. Since then we have received a circular relating to the formation of-a body with the title of the International Institute for Psychical Research, “for the furtherance of knowledge in regard to psychic phenomena”. The president is Prof. Elliot Smith, and two of the vice-presidents are Prof. Julian Huxley and Prof. E. W. MacBride. The chairman of the executive committee is Mr. J. Arthur Findlay, a well-known business man in Glasgow, whose book “On the Edge of the Etheric”, published last year, described a series of sittings with a Scottish “direct voice” medium. Judging from this book, Mr. Findlay has little conception of the critical attitude of science towards the evidence which he presents and the explanations he gives of the phenomena he describes. In the words of our reviewer of his book: “But from reading Mr. Findlay's records the scientific method might be thought not to exist. He seems to have no appreciation of the implications underlying many of his remarks; no desire to see the phenomena described in accurate and scientific terminology.”
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Science and Psychical Research. Nature 133, 18–19 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133018d0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133018d0
This article is cited by
-
Interaction by Resonance of Radio Waves
Nature (1937)