Jim Marrs - PSI Spies - Amazon S3

The Past is Prologue 61Mesmer’s hypnotism and Denton’s psychometry werejoined by spiritualism and mediumship to create a greatpublic interest in psychic phenomena during the latter 19thcentury and early 20th century. And as with any topic of publicinterest, charlatans and hoaxers abounded.Paranormal research moved into the realm of modernscience in 1882 when a group of scientists and scholars metin London to form the Society for Psychical Research (SPR).For the first time, the techniques of modern science—standardized descriptions and methodology, disciplined experiments,and so forth—were applied to psychic phenomena.Among the accomplishments of the SPR was the exposureof fraudulent mediums and spiritualists. In 1884, followingan investigation of Elena Hahn, better known as MadameBlavatsky, founder of the mystical Theosophical Society, theSPR caustically termed her “one of the most accomplished,ingenious, and interesting impostors in history.” 36But the SPR did much more than chase hoaxes. Its researchinto psychic experiences was prodigious and laid thefoundation for all psychical study to follow.One of the SPR’s more notable researchers was CharlesRichet, professor of physiology at the University of Parismedical school and a future Nobel Prize winner. Richet studiedclairvoyance by having subjects identify playing cardsplaced in opaque envelopes, thus pioneering the methodsthat were later used by the well-known psychic researcherJ.B. Rhine. 37Joseph Banks Rhine (always known to his friends as simplyJ.B.) and Louisa Weckesser had been companions since