The Parapsychological Association

Carlos S. Alvarado, Ph.D.

Atlantic University

As I mentioned in my article "The History of Psychical Research in the Journal of Scientific Exploration" (Psypioneer Journal, 2010, 6, 335-338; Online:http://www.woodlandway.org/PDF/PP6.12December2010.pdf), several reviews of old books have been published in the JSE. The last issue of the journal (2011, Vol. 25, No.1), published by the Society for Scientific Exploration (http://www.scientificexploration.org/), included several additional reviews of books from previous eras.

In an essay review entitled "Extreme Phenomena and Human Capacity," Michael Grosso discussed Herbert Thurston's The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism (1952). I authored another essay review entitled "Unorthodox Concepts of Force and Psychic Phenomena" in which I discussed six books about concepts of force related to psychic phenomena. The books were Raoul Montandon's Les Radiations Humaines: Introduction à la Démonstration Expérimentale de l’Existence des Corps Subtils de l’Homme [Human Radiations: Introduction to the Experimental Demonstration of the Subtle Bodies of Man] (1927), Hereward Carrington's Laboratory Investigations into Psychic Phenomena (n.d., ca 1939), Alexandre Baréty Le Magnétisme Animal: Étudié sous le Nom de Force Neurique Rayonnante et Circulante dans ses Propriétés Physiques, Physiologiques, et Thérapeutiques [Animal Magnetism: Studied Under the Name of Radiant and Circulating Neuric Force in Its Physical, Physiological, and Therapeutic Properties] (1887), Albert de Rochas' L’Extériorisation de la Sensibilité: Étude Expérimentale & Historique [The Exteriorisation of Sensibility: Experimental & Historical Study] (5th updated edition) (1899), Hippolyte Baraduc's L’Ame Humaine: Ses Mouvements, ses Lumières, et l’Iconographie de l’Invisible Fluidique [The Human Soul: Its Movements, Its Lights, and the Iconography of the Fluidic Invisible], and Gabriel Delanne's L’Evolution Animique: Essais de Psychologie Suivant le Spiritisme [Animic Evolution: Essays on Psychology According to Spiritism] (1897).

Two other books reviewed were Robert Hare's Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations: Demonstrating the Existence of Spirits and Their Communion with Mortals (1855), by Michael Tymn, and Catherine Crowe's The Night-Side of Nature: Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers (1848), by Guy Lyon Playfair.