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The '''cross-correspondences''' refers to a series of [[automatic writing|automatic scripts]] and trance utterances from a group of automatic writers and [[Mediumship|mediums]], involving members of the [[Society for Psychical Research]] (SPR). According to psychical researchers the correspondences when put together convey intelligible messages either from [[spirit]]s of the dead or [[telepathy]].<ref name="Edmunds 1966">Edmunds, Simeon. (1966). ''Spiritualism: A Critical Survey''. Aquarian Press. pp. 178-180. ISBN 978-0850300130</ref><ref name="Booth 1986">[[John Booth (magician)|Booth, John]]. (1986). ''Psychic Paradoxes''. Prometheus Books. pp. 170-178. ISBN 0-87975-358-7</ref>
The '''cross-correspondences''' refers to a series of [[automatic writing|automatic scripts]] and trance utterances from a group of automatic writers and [[Mediumship|mediums]], involving members of the [[Society for Psychical Research]] (SPR). According to psychical researchers the correspondences when put together convey intelligible messages either from [[spirit]]s of the dead or [[telepathy]].<ref name="Edmunds 1966">Edmunds, Simeon. (1966). ''Spiritualism: A Critical Survey''. Aquarian Press. pp. 178-180. ISBN 978-0850300130</ref><ref name="Booth 1986">[[John Booth (magician)|Booth, John]]. (1986). ''Psychic Paradoxes''. Prometheus Books. pp. 170-178. ISBN 0-87975-358-7</ref><ref>[[Massimo Polidoro|Polidoro, Massimo]]. (2003).''The Lost Messiah: Secrets on Psychical Research Emerge form a Stack of Forgotten Documents''. Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 27, n. 5.ref>


Skeptics have written the correspondences can be explained by [[Randomness|chance]] or self-[[delusion]] and is a case of researchers looking for [[Apophenia|connections in random or meaningless data]].<ref name="Booth 1986"/><ref name="Tuckett 1911">[[Ivor Lloyd Tuckett|Tuckett, Ivor Lloyd]]. (1911). ''The Evidence for the Supernatural: A Critical Study Made with "Uncommon Sense"''. K. Paul, Trench, Trübner. pp. 380-383</ref>
Skeptics have written the correspondences can be explained by [[Randomness|chance]] or self-[[delusion]] and is a case of researchers looking for [[Apophenia|connections in random or meaningless data]].<ref name="Booth 1986"/><ref name="Tuckett 1911">[[Ivor Lloyd Tuckett|Tuckett, Ivor Lloyd]]. (1911). ''The Evidence for the Supernatural: A Critical Study Made with "Uncommon Sense"''. K. Paul, Trench, Trübner. pp. 380-383</ref>

Revision as of 23:21, 10 December 2014

The cross-correspondences refers to a series of automatic scripts and trance utterances from a group of automatic writers and mediums, involving members of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). According to psychical researchers the correspondences when put together convey intelligible messages either from spirits of the dead or telepathy.[1][2]Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

History

Mary Catherine Lyttleton fell in love with Arthur James Balfour in 1875, but fell ill and died on Palm Sunday, 21 March 1875, before Balfour could declare his intent. According to the SPR, in the next 30 years thousands of fragmentary messages from numerous mediums, when considered as a whole, seem to indicate Lyttleton was trying to communicate with Balfour, aided by members of the SPR Edmund Gurney, Henry Sidgwick and Frederic W. H. Myers.

In 1891, Myers wrote a message on a piece of paper then sealed it in an envelope. Myers gave the envelope to Oliver Lodge with instructions to open it before witnesses after his death if the message from the paper should be received through a medium.[3] Myers died in 1901, and various mediums were organised into concurrent sittings at locations very far apart, and notes were made of the words and phrases, and the automatic writings thus obtained. The messages were unintelligible individually and to individual mediums, but over a long period and many seances, it was claimed by the SPR that there was purpose in the correspondences, indicating an intelligent entity was behind them. The principal recipients of the messages included Mrs Margaret Verrall and her daughter Helen; Mrs Winifred Coombe Tennant, who practised as a medium under the name "Mrs Willett" and Mrs Alice Fleming, sister of Rudyard Kipling, who practised as "Mrs Holland".[1][4]

It was alleged Myer's spirit communicated through Mrs Verrall on 13 July 1904 by producing a manuscript which made reference to Myers' message. When the manuscript was examined the message was incorrect and it also referred to the place where the envelope was kept which was completely wrong. On 13 December 1904, Oliver Lodge arranged a meeting for members for the Society for Psychical Research. The contents of the envelope were made known to those present. A report was published by the Society's journal in 1905 which stated, "It has, then, to be reported that this one experiment has completely failed and it cannot be denied that the failure is disappointing."[3]

Other mediums involved in cross-correspondences have included Mina Crandon, Leonora Piper and George Valiantine.[5] Both Crandon and Valiantine were exposed as frauds.[6]

Criticism

The psychical researcher Eric Dingwall wrote that the Society for Psychical Research refused outside investigation with relation to the cross-correspondences and researchers not connected with the case could not examine the original documents. The identity of some of the mediums was kept secret and the public was only permitted to know who Mrs. Willett was after she had died.[7]

Edward Clodd wrote that the explanation for the cross-correspondences was the subconscious mind of the medium not spirits. According to Clodd many of the messages were "inconsequential rubbish". Mrs Verrall was a well educated classicist who had studied Latin and Greek with her husband. Clodd suggested that Mrs Willet had communicated with Verrall and looked up references in classical lore.[8] Ivor Lloyd Tuckett noted that "in practically every cross-correspondence, there is vagueness and incorrectness of detail, allowing plenty of room for biased interpretation."[9]

In 1986, the magician John Booth who examined the cross-correspondences suggested that they could be explained by chance, law of averages, deliberate fraud or self-delusion.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Edmunds, Simeon. (1966). Spiritualism: A Critical Survey. Aquarian Press. pp. 178-180. ISBN 978-0850300130
  2. ^ a b Booth, John. (1986). Psychic Paradoxes. Prometheus Books. pp. 170-178. ISBN 0-87975-358-7
  3. ^ a b S. Ramsay Blackley. (1986). As In Adam All Die. The Book Guild. pp. 94-96. ISBN 978-0863321344
  4. ^ Beddoe, Deirdre. "Tennant, Winifred Margaret Coombe". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/70091. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ "Cross-Correspondences". Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology.
  6. ^ Edmunds, Simeon. (1966). Spiritualism: A Critical Survey. Aquarian Press. pp. 112-113. ISBN 978-0850300130
  7. ^ Dingwall, Eric. (1985). The Need for Responsibility in Parapsychology: My Sixty Years in Psychical Research. In A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology. Prometheus Books. pp. 161-174.
  8. ^ Clodd, Edward. (1917). The Question: A Brief History and Examination of Modern Spiritualism. Grant Richards, London. pp. 242-249
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Tuckett 1911 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Further reading

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