Introduction

Following the spread of spiritualism in Britain in the 1850s and 1860s, rationalist groups and circles of friends with ambitions to the ‘scientific method’ sprung up, chiefly interested in investigating the veracity of the phenomena emanating from the spiritualist seances. The impetus for the ‘scientification’ of the psychical research movement came from the controversial experiments of two prominent scientists: William Crookes, the pioneering chemist, and William Barrett, professor of experimental physics at the Royal College of Science for Ireland, Dublin. In terms of modern culture, the Society for Psychical Research is perhaps best known for its late-Victorian investigations into telepathy, comprising a remarkable series of surveys, experiments and theoretical explorations which defined the field for most of the twentieth century.