PROFESSOR CHRIS ROE 14th AUGUST Scientific Approaches to Mediumship.

Charminster Spiritualist Church

are delighted to welcome Professor Chris Roe

for a lecture on “Scientific Approaches to Mediumship”

Saturday 14th August

7pm – 8.30pm

£6 members £7 non-members

“In this talk I shall give an historical sketch of the relationship between the scientific and mediumistic communities, and overview the kinds of research that are being conducted today”

The oldest scientific organisation for the study of parapsychological phenomena, the Society for Psychical Research, was founded in 1882 in a collaboration between Cambridge University scholars and spiritualist mediums such as William Stainton Moses. It’s purpose was to “examine without prejudice or prepossession and in a scientific spirit those faculties of man, real or supposed, which appear to be inexplicable on any generally recognised hypothesis”

Researchers were drawn particularly to reports of abilities and experiences that suggested that some aspect of personality could survive bodily death.

These phenomena seemed robust enough for them to believe humankinds fundamentally spiritual nature could be demonstrated using kinds of scientific methods that had been so successful when applied to other aspects of the natural world.

Researchers had been impressed by the phenomena of mediumship, particularly the demonstrations of D.D. Home and arranged hundreds of apparently very successful sittings with mediums such as Mrs Piper and Mrs Leonard.

They also identified a number of supposed mediums who engaged in fraud, so that they gave the impression to some that they were primarily sceptical debunkers. Work with mediums fell out of favour in the 1930s with the advent of laboratory research, prompted in part by the controversy surrounding Mina Crandons’ physical mediumship.

However, over the last quarter of a century there has been a resurgence of interest in mediumship phenomena, particularly taking advantage of technological advances such as brain monitoring.

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