| A Credible Interest in Spooks |
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| Written by Jeff Francis | |
“Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death” by Deborah Blum
Penguin Press, 384 pages, $26 The time following the American Civil War and the beginning of World War I was a period with a power to tease the imagination like no other. This is primarily so because of a pervasive and seemingly credible interest in spooks. The superstitions of the 19th Century seemed to merge with the scientific advances that would mark most of the 20th Century. For a while, belief in the spirit world was common among the educated and the intellectual, and the mission to establish empirical proof of those beliefs gained surprising momentum.Books within the last couple years—both fiction and nonfiction—have explored this phenomenon. Pynchon’s “Against the Day” and Erik Larson’s “Thunderstruck,” respectively, come to mind. However, the real bones of séances, hauntings and mediums get their most thorough study in Deborah Bloom’s “Ghost Hunters: Williams James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death.” Blum details the formation of the Society for Physical Research, a team of scientists as well as philosophers and psychologists (at the time not viewed much differently than a superstition) dedicated to finding empirical proof of life after death. Foremost among the SPR alumni was William James, a professor of psychology at Harvard University. James clearly saw the scientific interest in studying ghosts and the spirit world, but he and others were haunted by fairly obvious questions, such as: When people describe seeing ghosts, why are the ghosts always fully dressed? Through the hard facts and Blum’s verve in relating them, James comes off as an intellectual hero. As a philosopher and psychologist, James flexed his brain muscles against the multitudes of critics who belittled his dedication to studying the paranormal. Why waste your gifts on such hogwash? went the ubiquitous bromide. Turns out, James and other members of the SPR likely satisfied their critics by expending much of their time DISproving claims of mediums and séances. However, there was one supposed medium, Leonora Piper, a young American woman who claimed to go into trances and channel the spirits of the dead. Of all the charlatans the SPR exposed, Piper basically remained an unsolved mystery. Some claim to have found chinks in the armor, but she was reportedly the toughest customer. Doubts and kudos were aimed at her supposed otherworldly abilities. As an interesting aside, Bloom explores the schism that arose accompanying Darwinism. While it’s supremely tempting (and let’s face it: fun) for modern sophisticates and undergrads to mock the resistors of evolution, a quick survey of 19th Century thought may not necessarily inspire identification with creationists, but at least a less scornful assessment of their motives. Consider Blum’s portrayal of Alfred Russell Wallace, a speaker who traveled England initially in support of Darwin, but eventually having misgivings. “Wallace thought that science was precipitating a loss of faith. And it was also possible that a faithless society might find itself in a state of backward evolution. It might be that without a God – or at least a belief in one – there could be no reinforcement of right and wrong, no bracing assurance of punishment and reward.” In a time in which most consumers of “thinking” books choose ones that merely reflect their already held beliefs, there’s a certain education in reading one that may also challenge them. Share        | |
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