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Hyslop in his book ''Life After Death. Problems of the Future Life and Its Nature'' argued for survival after bodily death. A review in ''[[The Monist]]'' wrote that he seemed too readily accepting of a spirit's personal identity from an alleged case of [[spirit possession]] and "his attitude throughout is uncompromising."<ref>Life After Death. Problems of the Future Life and Its Nature by James H. Hyslop. (1920). ''[[The Monist]]''. Vol. 30, No. 4. pp. 639-640.</ref>
Hyslop in his book ''Life After Death. Problems of the Future Life and Its Nature'' argued for survival after bodily death. A review in ''[[The Monist]]'' wrote that he seemed too readily accepting of a spirit's personal identity from an alleged case of [[spirit possession]] and "his attitude throughout is uncompromising."<ref>Life After Death. Problems of the Future Life and Its Nature by James H. Hyslop. (1920). ''[[The Monist]]''. Vol. 30, No. 4. pp. 639-640.</ref>

[[Joseph McCabe]] has written "Professor Hyslop, who in 1915 wrote me most critical letters about Spiritualism in general and the credulity of
Sir Oliver Lodge in particular, became in his later years an enthusiastic Spiritualist and much less critical writer."<ref>Joseph McCabe. (1920). ''Spiritualism: A Popular History From 1847''. Dodd, Mead and Company. p. 198</ref>


In his book ''Science and a Future Life'', Hyslop wrote of his séance sittings with the medium [[Leonora Piper]] and suggested they could only be explained by spirits or [[telepathy]]. Hyslop favored the spiritualist hypothesis.<ref>Henry W. Wright. (1907). ''Some Interpretations of the Supernatural. Le divin experience et hypothèse by Marcel Hébert; L'infinité divine depuis Philon le Juif jusqu'à Plotin by Henri Guyot; Science and a Future Life by James H. Hyslop; Borderland of Psychical Research by James H. Hyslop; The Spirit World by Joseph Hamilton''. ''[[The Journal of Religion|The American Journal of Theology]]''. Vol. 11, No. 2. pp. 358-362.</ref> [[Ivor Lloyd Tuckett]] criticized Hyslop's interpretation and gave the example of a mistake Piper's control had made which was alleged to be the spirit of Hyslop's father. The control when asked if he had remembered a "Samuel Cooper" responded that he was old friend in the West, and that they used to discuss philosophy on long walks together, but the statement was proven to be false. Tuckett came to the conclusion that Piper's controls were fictitious creations and her mediumship could best be explained without recourse to the paranormal.<ref>[[Ivor Lloyd Tuckett]]. (1911). ''The Evidence for the Supernatural: A Critical Study Made with "Uncommon Sense"''. K. Paul, Trench, Trübner. pp. 321-395.</ref>
In his book ''Science and a Future Life'', Hyslop wrote of his séance sittings with the medium [[Leonora Piper]] and suggested they could only be explained by spirits or [[telepathy]]. Hyslop favored the spiritualist hypothesis.<ref>Henry W. Wright. (1907). ''Some Interpretations of the Supernatural. Le divin experience et hypothèse by Marcel Hébert; L'infinité divine depuis Philon le Juif jusqu'à Plotin by Henri Guyot; Science and a Future Life by James H. Hyslop; Borderland of Psychical Research by James H. Hyslop; The Spirit World by Joseph Hamilton''. ''[[The Journal of Religion|The American Journal of Theology]]''. Vol. 11, No. 2. pp. 358-362.</ref> [[Ivor Lloyd Tuckett]] criticized Hyslop's interpretation and gave the example of a mistake Piper's control had made which was alleged to be the spirit of Hyslop's father. The control when asked if he had remembered a "Samuel Cooper" responded that he was old friend in the West, and that they used to discuss philosophy on long walks together, but the statement was proven to be false. Tuckett came to the conclusion that Piper's controls were fictitious creations and her mediumship could best be explained without recourse to the paranormal.<ref>[[Ivor Lloyd Tuckett]]. (1911). ''The Evidence for the Supernatural: A Critical Study Made with "Uncommon Sense"''. K. Paul, Trench, Trübner. pp. 321-395.</ref>

Revision as of 17:23, 25 May 2014

James H. Hyslop
BornJames Hervey Hyslop
(1854-08-18)August 18, 1854
Xenia, Ohio, US
DiedJune 17, 1920(1920-06-17) (aged 65)
Upper Montclair, New Jersey, US
OccupationProfessor, philosopher, psychical researcher, parapsychologist, writer
EducationWooster College, Ohio (B.A., 1877)
University of Leipzig (1882–84)
Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D., 1877)
SubjectEthics, logic, psychics, mediumship, afterlife
SpouseMary Hall Hyslop (nee Fry)
ChildrenGeorge H. Hyslop
Mary Winifred Hyslop
Beatrice F. Hyslop

James Hervey Hyslop, Ph.D, LL.D, (August 18, 1854 – June 17, 1920) was a professor of ethics and logic at Columbia University, a psychologist, and a psychical researcher. From 1906 until his death he was the secretary-treasurer of the American Society for Psychical Research. He was one of the first American psychologists to connect psychology with psychic phenomena.[1]

Education and academic career

Hyslop was educated at Wooster College, Ohio (B.A., 1877), the University of Leipzig (1882–84), and Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D., 1877).[1]

He served as an instructor in Philosophy in Lake Forest University in Illinois during 1880–82 and 1884–85, as the head of Department of Philosophy in Smith College in Massachusetts during 1885–86, and as a faculty member in Bucknell University in Pennsylvania during 1888–89.[2] From 1889–91 he worked as a tutor in philosophy, ethics and psychology. From 1891–95 he worked as an instructor in ethics and from 1895–1902 as the professor of logic and ethics in Columbia University.[2]

During his years at Columbia University Hyslop wrote several textbooks, including The Elements of Logic (1892), Elements of Ethics (1895), and Problems of Philosophy (1905), and also became deeply involved with psychical research.[1]

In 1902 he received an honorary degree (LL.D) from the University of Wooster.[2]

Psychical research

Originally an agnostic and materialist,[3] Hyslop's interest in psychic investigation increased after sessions with the Boston medium Leonora Piper, whom he first met as early as 1888.[1] He believed that through her he had received messages from his father, his wife, and other members of his family, about which he reported in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (London, 1901).[2] He became an active member of the Society for Psychical Research and of its American branch, working closely with the secretary of the American group, Richard Hodgson, and with William James.

After retiring from his teaching post due to ill health, Hyslop founded the American Institute for Scientific Research in 1904 to stir interest and raise funds for psychical research. He had initially planned one section of it to be devoted to the study of abnormal psychology and another section to psychic research, believing, as he said, that "at certain points the two fields tend to merge and at others they are widely separated".[2] However, the year following Richard Hodgson's death in 1905, the American Society for Psychical Research was dissolved. Hyslop revived ASPR as a section of his institute, and it soon absorbed and replaced the institute altogether.[1]

Hyslop was the secretary-treasurer and director of the organization from 1907–1920.[2] He assumed Hodgson's role as chief investigator of Leonora Piper's mediumship. He issued the first Journal in January 1907. He recruited both Hereward Carrington and Walter Franklin Prince to assist in the work.[1]

Hyslop's first book on psychical research, Science and a Future Life, was published in 1905, and many more followed,[4] including Enigmas of Psychic Research (1906), Borderland of Psychical Research (1906), Psychical Research and the Resurrection (1908), Psychical Research and Survival (1913), Life After Death (1918), and Contact with the Other World (1919). He wrote for the Journal and Proceedings of the ASPR and the SPR and for such publications as Mind, The Philosophical Review, and The Nation.[1] He became convinced in the existence of afterlife.[1]

"I regard the existence of discarnate spirits as scientifically proved and I no longer refer to the skeptic as having any right to speak on the subject. Any man who does not accept the existence of discarnate spirits and the proof of it is either ignorant or a moral coward. I give him short shrift, and do not propose any longer to argue with him on the supposition that he knows anything about the subject."

— James H. Hyslop, Life After Death (1918)

Beginning in 1907, he worked with different mediums to investigate spirit possession and obsession.[4] He made a deep study of multiple personalities and of obsession, and came to the conclusion that in many cases it could be attributed to spirit possession.[1] Hyslop investigated the alleged case of spirit possession of Doris Fischer. After investigation, Hyslop began to believe that the personalities of Fischer were discarnate spirits. Hyslop claimed that a spirit known as "Cagliostro" was the leader of the possessing spirits and performed an exorcism. Hyslop quit the case hoping Fischer had been cured, however, she died in a mental hospital years later.[5]

Although a believer in mental mediumship, Hyslop is said to have found the physical phenomena of spiritualism "repulsive".[6] In a review for the Journal of American Society for Psychical Research in 1917, Hyslop wrote that various occurrences of levitation could have been faked by trickery. Hyslop also reviewed the psychical researcher W. J. Crawford's experiments with the medium Kathleen Goligher and came to the conclusion that fraud was likely to have occurred in the séance room where physical phenomena was involved.[7]

Personal life and family

Hyslop's twin sister died at birth and an older sister died a few years later; a younger brother and a sister both died of scarlet fever when Hyslop was ten.[8] His parents were devout Presbyterians. As a youth he intended to enter the ministry as his parents expected, but while in college he went through a crisis of faith and became a materialist.[4]

In 1891 he married Mary Fry Hall (1860–1900), an American woman who he had met while in Germany. A year after her death he suffered a nervous breakdown.[4] They had one son, George H. Hyslop, and two daughters, Beatrice Fry Hyslop[9] and Mary Winifred Hyslop.[10] Hyslop was a friend of psychologist William James.[2]

Hyslop died of thrombosis on June 17, 1920 at age 65, after several months of illness.[3]

For some time after his death his research assistant and longtime secretary, Gertrude O. Tubby, received what she believed were communications from Hyslop through many mediums in the United States, France and Britain. These messages, frequently containing apparent cross references to one another, were published in her collection entitled James H. Hyslop - X His Book (1929).[2][11]

Reception

The philosopher Josiah Royce in a review for Hyslop's The Elements of Ethics wrote "[His] conscientious and detailed analysis do honor to his fairness, and make his work an extremely thoughtful one; but in matters that concern speculative skill of a constructive type this book is often, to the present reader's mind, distinctly unsatisfactory."[12]

The psychologist Joseph Jastrow criticized Hyslop's book Enigmas of Psychical Research as he was not "in any scientific sense investigating the residual phenomena of psychology" but searching for "another world" beyond the realm of science.[13]

Hyslop in his book Life After Death. Problems of the Future Life and Its Nature argued for survival after bodily death. A review in The Monist wrote that he seemed too readily accepting of a spirit's personal identity from an alleged case of spirit possession and "his attitude throughout is uncompromising."[14]

Joseph McCabe has written "Professor Hyslop, who in 1915 wrote me most critical letters about Spiritualism in general and the credulity of Sir Oliver Lodge in particular, became in his later years an enthusiastic Spiritualist and much less critical writer."[15]

In his book Science and a Future Life, Hyslop wrote of his séance sittings with the medium Leonora Piper and suggested they could only be explained by spirits or telepathy. Hyslop favored the spiritualist hypothesis.[16] Ivor Lloyd Tuckett criticized Hyslop's interpretation and gave the example of a mistake Piper's control had made which was alleged to be the spirit of Hyslop's father. The control when asked if he had remembered a "Samuel Cooper" responded that he was old friend in the West, and that they used to discuss philosophy on long walks together, but the statement was proven to be false. Tuckett came to the conclusion that Piper's controls were fictitious creations and her mediumship could best be explained without recourse to the paranormal.[17]

According to Arthur Berger, Hyslop's writings were "criticized not only for their inadequacies but for his convoluted style." Psychical researchers such as William James, Richard Hodgson and Oliver Lodge had all complained that Hyslop could not express himself in clear and simple English and some of his psychical reports were ill written.[18] There was also hostility towards Hyslop from other psychical researchers. The historian Robert Laurence Moore has written that "In large measure Hyslop had only himself to blame. He found it almost impossible to cooperate with people who could not be made to share his point of view."[19]

Bibliography

  • The Elements of Logic: Theoretical and Practical (1892) (2009 reprint ISBN 1-115-80047-7)
  • Hume's Treatise of Morals: And Selections from the Treatise of the Passions (1893) (2010 reprint ISBN 1-163-90299-3)
  • Anomalies in Logic (1894)
  • Freedom, Responsibility and Punishment (1894)
  • The Elements of Ethics (1895)
  • Elements of Psychology (1895) (2010 reprint ISBN 1-167-06373-2)
  • Logic and Argument (1899) (2010 reprint ISBN 1-147-54700-9)
  • Democracy: A Study of Government (1988) (2010 reprint ISBN 1-178-16951-0)
  • Syllabus of Psychology (1989) (2005 reprint ISBN 1-4179-6252-6)
  • The Wants of Psychical Research (1900)
  • A Further Record of Observations of Certain Trance Phenomena (1901)
  • The Ethics of the Greek Philosophers: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle (1903) (2010 reprint ISBN 1-176-46651-8)
  • Problems of Philosophy: Or, Principles of Epistemology and Metaphysics (1905)
  • Science and A Future Life (1905) (2005 reprint ISBN 1-4179-7235-1)
  • The Mental State of The Dead: A Limitation to Psychical Research (1905)
  • Enigmas of Psychic Research (1906) (2010 reprint ISBN 1-142-68324-9)
  • Borderland of Psychical Research (1906) (2005 reprint ISBN 1-4179-7497-4)
  • Psychical Research and the Resurrection (1908) (2005 reprint ISBN 1-4179-7498-2)
  • A Record and Discussion of Mediumistic Experiments (1910)
  • President G. Stanley Hall's and Dr. Amy E. Tanner's Studies in Spiritism (1911)
  • Psychical Research and Survival (1913) (2006 reprint ISBN 1-4286-1248-3)
  • The Thompson Case (1913)
  • The Doris Case of Multiple Personality (1915–1917) (with Walter Franklin Prince)
  • The Smead Case (1918)
  • Poems, Original and Translations (1915) (2010 reprint ISBN 1-141-53838-5)
  • Life After Death: Problems of the Future Life and Its Nature (1918) (2006 reprint ISBN 1-4254-8371-2)
  • Contact with the Other World: The Latest Evidence as to Communication with the Dead (1919) (2010 reprint ISBN 1-161-39587-3)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i J. Gordon Melton, ed. (2001). "Hyslop, James Hervey". Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. Vol. Vol 1: A–L (Fifth ed.). Gale Research Inc. ISBN 0-8103-9488-X. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Helene Pleasants (1964). Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. Garret Publications.
  3. ^ a b "DR. JAMES H. HYSLOP DIES OF BLOOD CLOT; Noted Psychologist and Author Expires at 66 in Montclair After Long Illness. EX-COLUMBIA PROFESSOR Called by Sir Oliver Lodge the Leader of Psychical Research in America". The New York Times. Jun 18, 1920.
  4. ^ a b c d Rosemary Ellen Guiley; Troy Taylor (2007). "Hyslop, James Hervey". The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits (Third ed.). Facts On File. ISBN 0-8160-6737-6.
  5. ^ Rosemary Guiley. (2009). The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology. Checkmark Books. p. 69. ISBN 0-8160-7314-7.
  6. ^ Jenny Hazelgrove. (2000). Spiritualism and British Society Between the Wars. Manchester University Press. p. 163. ISBN 0-7190-5559-8.
  7. ^ Peter Aykroyd. (2009). A History of Ghosts: the True Story of Séances, Mediums, Ghosts, and Ghostbusters. Rodale. p. 124
  8. ^ Raymond Buckland (2005). The Spirit Book: The Encyclopedia of Clairvoyance, Channelling, and Spirit Communication. Visible Ink Press. p. 195. ISBN 1-57859-172-4.
  9. ^ Barbara Sicherman; Carol Hurd Green (1980). Notable American Women: The Modern Period: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 4. Harvard University Press. p. 367. ISBN 0-674-62733-4.
  10. ^ "DR. HYSLOP'S ESTATE SMALL; Will of Noted Psychologist offered for Probate Yesterday". The New York Times. Jun 23, 1920.
  11. ^ Gertrude O. Tubby and Weston D. Bailey, James H. Hyslop - X His Book: A Cross Reference Record (1929) (2006 reprint ISBN 1425483534)
  12. ^ Josiah Royce. (1895). The Elements of Ethics. by James H. Hyslop. International Journal of Ethics. Vol. 6, No. 1. pp. 113-117.
  13. ^ Joseph Jastrow. (1906). Enigmas of Psychical Research by James H. Hyslop. The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods. Vol. 3, No. 18. pp. 498-500.
  14. ^ Life After Death. Problems of the Future Life and Its Nature by James H. Hyslop. (1920). The Monist. Vol. 30, No. 4. pp. 639-640.
  15. ^ Joseph McCabe. (1920). Spiritualism: A Popular History From 1847. Dodd, Mead and Company. p. 198
  16. ^ Henry W. Wright. (1907). Some Interpretations of the Supernatural. Le divin experience et hypothèse by Marcel Hébert; L'infinité divine depuis Philon le Juif jusqu'à Plotin by Henri Guyot; Science and a Future Life by James H. Hyslop; Borderland of Psychical Research by James H. Hyslop; The Spirit World by Joseph Hamilton. The American Journal of Theology. Vol. 11, No. 2. pp. 358-362.
  17. ^ Ivor Lloyd Tuckett. (1911). The Evidence for the Supernatural: A Critical Study Made with "Uncommon Sense". K. Paul, Trench, Trübner. pp. 321-395.
  18. ^ Arthur S. Berger. (1988). Lives and Letters in American Parapsychology: A Biographical History, 1850-1987. McFarland. p. 62
  19. ^ Robert Laurence Moore. (1977). In Search of White Crows: Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and American Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 161

Further reading

  • Anderson, Roger I. "The Life and Work of James H. Hyslop". The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 79 (April 1985): 167–204.
  • Anderson, Roger I. "Autobiographical Fragment of James Hervey Hyslop". The Journal of Religion and Psychical Research 9 (April 1986): 81–92.
  • Anderson, Roger I. "Autobiographical Fragment of James Hervey Hyslop Part III". The Journal of Religion and Psychical Research 9 (July 1986): 145–60.
  • Berger, A. S. Lives and Letters in American Parapsychology: A Biographical History, 1850–1987. Jefferson, N.C.: Scarecrow Press, 1988.
  • Rogo, D. Scott. The Infinite Boundary. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1987.

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