This is the first systematic exploration of the intriguing connections between Victorian physical sciences and the study of the controversial phenomena broadly classified as psychic, occult and paranormal. These phenomena included animal magnetism, spirit-rapping, telekinesis and telepathy. Richard Noakes shows that psychic phenomena interested far more Victorian scientists than we have previously assumed, challenging the view of these scientists as individuals clinging rigidly to a materialistic worldview. Physicists, chemists and other physical scientists studied psychic phenomena for a host of scientific, philosophical, religious and emotional reasons, and many saw such investigations as exciting new extensions to their theoretical and experimental researches. While these attempted extensions were largely unsuccessful, they laid the foundations of modern day explorations of the connections between physics and psychic phenomena. This revelatory study challenges our view of the history of physics, and deepens our understanding of the relationships between science and the occult, and science and religion.
Author(s): Richard Noakes
Series: Science in History
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 418
City: Cambridge
Cover
Half-title page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Contents
List of
Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
List of
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 New Imponderables, New Sciences
Animal Magnetism as Physics
The Oddity of Od
Outdoing the Electric Telegraph
‘Scientific Men’ and Spiritualism
Extending the Boundaries of Physics
2 A Survey of Physical–Psychical Scientists
Inventing Psychical Research
Identifying Physical–Psychical Scientists
Connecting Physical–Psychical Scientists
Gold Mine of Science, Handmaid to Faith
Changing Attitudes to Psychical Investigation
3 Physical Theories and Psychical Effects
Removing Scientific Stumbling Blocks
Challenging Materiality
Dim Analogies
Maxwellian Psychics
Doubts and Criticisms
4 Psychical Investigation as Experimental Physics
From Psychic Force to the Radiometer
Tying Mediums with Electricity
Magnetic Sense or Nonsense?
Physical as Psychical Laboratories
Wanting Opportunities?
5 Expertise in Physics and Psychics
Scourging Spiritualists and Scientists
Tricky Instruments of Psychics
Tricky Instruments of Physics
Psychical Researchers and Conjurors
N-rays and Psychical Expertise
6 Modernising Physics and Psychics
Busy Men
Applied Psychical Research
Lodge’s Etherial Body
Interpreting Lodge’s Physics and Psychics
Interwar Transitions
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
