On the Threshold of the Unseen
An Examination of the Phenomena of Spiritualism and of the Evidence of Survival after Death

First published in 1917, this book attempts to prove that many spiritualist activities should be regarded as scientifically respectable.

William Fletcher Barrett (Author)

9781108028509, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 June 2011

362 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2 cm, 0.46 kg

In this 1917 publication English physicist Sir William Fletcher Barrett (1844–1925) purports to rescue psychical research from the scorn of his colleagues and provide indisputable evidence for the existence of psychic phenomena. A successful scientist (he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society and was honoured with a knighthood), Barrett was better known for his psychical work and his attempts to reconcile it with his scientific pursuits. Certain that the human spirit could linger after bodily death, in this book Barrett examines a wide range of spiritualist practices including levitation, spirit photography, mediumship, automatic writing, the ouija board, clairvoyance, and telepathy, carefully considering the evidence for each phenomenon in the hope that they will in time be recognised as scientifically established facts. This book is a much-revised edition of Barrett's 1908 publication On the Threshold of a New World of Thought, republished to include more 'trustworthy' evidence.

Preface
Part I: 1. Introduction
2. Psychical research and public opinion
3. Conflicting objections of science and religion
Part II: 4. Physical phenomena of spiritualism
5. Ditto
6. Levitation and immunity from fire
7. On certain more disputable phenomena of spiritualism: ectoplasms, direct voice, materialization, spirit photography, the aura
Part III: 8. The canons of evidence in psychical research
9. Theories
10. The problem of mediumship
11. Human personality: the subliminal self
Part IV: 12. Apparitions
13. Automatic writing. The evidence for identity
14. Proof of supernormal messages. The ouija board
15. Further evidence of survival after death
16. Evidence of identity in the discarnate
17. Evidence from abroad of survival
Part V: 18. Clairvoyance, psychology of trance phenomena
19. Difficulties and objections considered
20. Cautions and suggestions
Part VI: 21. The lesson of philosophy in the interpretation of nature
22. The mystery of human personality
23. The divine ground of the soul, reincarnation
24. Telepathy and its implications
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]