The Carlos S. Alvarado Archives

Essays in the History of Parapsychology and Psychology (1800–1899)

Carlos S. Alvarado, Nancy L. Zingrone, Sonali Bhatt Marwaha

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781538198537
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, psychical research and parapsychology have emerged from the same foundational roots of Euro-American philosophy and science. Dr. Carlos S. Alvarado's work presents a unique glimpse into the pre-history, foundations, and evolution of these disciplines, before developing their distinctive identities as we know them today. These volumes are of immense relevance to research scholars and students of psychology and parapsychology, as well as those of philosophy, history, theology, and psychoanalysis.

The prolific work of Dr. Carlos S. Alvarado has centered on studies about the history of psychical research and on survey research of various psychic experiences in a career spanning from 1976 to 2021. Curated from a publication list of over 500 publications in multiple languages, The Carlos S. Alvarado Archives is a collection of Dr. Alvarado's peer-reviewed articles covering the European-American history of parapsychology and psychology. Arranged in the order of the content date, the papers present a systematic evolution of the history of parapsychology from the 1800s to the present, including the early foundations of psychology and parapsychology and the changing perspectives in the field.

Spread out over three volumes, the 142 papers cover historical topics that include mesmerism, hypnosis, somnambulism, dissociation, consciousness, hysteria, Spiritualism, Spiritism, and mediumship. Many of these papers cover the work of European and American stalwarts such as William James, Charles Richet, Alfred Binet, Allan Kardec, G. Stanley Hall, F.W.H. Myers, Michael Faraday, William Stainton Moses, and Albert de Rochas, and several others from the 19th to 21st century.

These volumes are of immense relevance to research scholars and students of psychology and parapsychology, as well as those of philosophy, history, theology, and psychoanalysis.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• 1 Parapsychology and the Study of the Mind: Changing the Historical Record
• 2 The Role of Fraud in the Development of Parapsychology
• 3 Historical Aspects of Parapsychological Terminology
• 4 “The Dying Mother”: Historical Citations of Mary Goffe’s Seventeenth-Century Near-Death Apparition
• 5 The Ether and Psychic Phenomena: Some Old Speculations
• 6 Some Forgotten Mesmeric Phenomena
• 7 Human Radiations: Concepts of Force in Mesmerism, Spiritualism and Psychical Research
• 8 Further Notes on Historical Ideas of Human Radiations: On Electricity and Other Forces, Od and Psychometry, The Perispirit and Mediumistic Forces, and Mental Phenomena
• 9 Altered Consciousness from the Age of Enlightenment Through Mid-20th Century
• 10 Mediumship and Psychical Research
• 11 Psychic Phenomena and the Brain Hemispheres: Some Nineteenth-Century Publications
• 12 Notes on Early Interpretations of Mediumship
• 13 Spiritist Delusions and Spiritism in the Nosography of French Psychiatry (1850–1950)
• 14 Historians of Science Explore Psychical Research: A Review of Los Límites de la Ciencia: Espiritismo, Hipnotismo y el Estudio de los Fenómenos Paranormales (1850–1930),
• 15 Mesmeric Mediumship: The Case of Emma
• 16 Early Spiritualist Discussions About the Distortions of Mediumistic Communications
• 17 Introduction to Michael Faraday’s Essay on Table-Moving
• 18 Frederic W. H. Myers, Psychical Research and Psychology: An Essay Review of Trevor Hamilton’s Immortal Longings: F. W. H. Myers and the Victorian Search for Life After Death
• 19 Table Turning in the Early 1850s: The Séance Reports of Agénor de Gasparin
• 20 The Influence of Reichenbach’s Concept of Od
• 21 On First Volumes and Beginnings in the Study of Psychic Phenomena: Varieties of Investigative Approaches
• 22 Dissociation and the Unconscious Mind: Nineteenth-Century Perspectives on Mediumship
• 23 Psychical Physics: On the Borderland of Physics and Psychic Phenomena
• 24 Early Studies of Psychic Phenomena: The Contributions of Psychologist and Psychiatrists
• 25 Classic Text No. 90: ‘The Pathology and Treatment of Mediomania’, by Frederic Rowland Marvin (1874)
• 26 Note on the Intellectual Work of William Stainton Moses
• 27 Supernormal-Pathological Ideas About Mediumship: The Case of Francis Gerry Fairfield
• 28 Experimenter and Other Effects in the Historical Séance Literature
• 29 ESP Displacement Effects: A Review of Pre-1940 Concepts and Qualitative Observations
• 30 Historical Notes on Doubles and Travelling Spirits
• 31 On Doubles and Excursions from the Physical Body, 1876–1956
• 32 Nineteenth-Century Hysteria and Hypnosis: A Historical Note on Blanche Wittmann
• 33 Dream ESP Studies Before Maimonides: An Overview, 1880s–1950s
• 34 Modern Animal Magnetism: The Work of Alexandre Baréty, Émile Boirac, and Julian Ochorowicz
• 35 Note on an Early Physiological Index of ESP: John E. Purdon’s Observations of Synchronous Pulse Rates
• 36 Mediumship, Psychical Research, Dissociation, and the Powers of the Subconscious Mind
• 37 The Concept of Survival of Bodily Death and the Development of Parapsychology,
• 38 Note on Charles Richet’s “La Suggestion Mentale et le Calcul des Probabilités” (1884)
• 39 Review of Andrea Graus’ Historical Views of Spiritism and Mediumship in Spain, 1880–1930
• 40 Introducing and Situating Psychical Research: Eleanor M. Sidgwick’s Perspective
• 41 Classic Text No. 105: ‘Report of the Committee on Mediumistic Phenomena,’ by William James (1886)
• 42 Unorthodox Concepts of Force and Psychic Phenomena
• 43 Ambroise Auguste Liébeault and Psychic Phenomena
• 44 Nineteenth-Century Suggestion and Magnetism: Hypnosis at the International Congress of Physiological Psychology (1889)
• 45 Panoramic Memory, Affect, and Sensations of Detachment in the Dying: Discussions Published in France, 1889–1903
• 46 Nineteenth Century Pioneers in the Study of Dissociation: William James and Psychical Research
• 47 The Psychic Sciences in France: Historial Notes on the
• 48 Gifted Subjects’ Contributions to Psychical Research: The Case of Eusapia Palladino
• 49 Théodore Flournoy on Veridical Hallucinations: A Reprint and Historical Note
• 50 Telepathic Emissions: Edwin J. Houston on “Cerebral Radiation”
• 51 Classic Text No. 119: Jules Bernard Luys on Magnetic Pathology
• 52 Classic Text No. 84: ‘Divisions of Personality and Spiritism’ by Alfred Binet (1896)
• 53 Eusapia Palladino Anthologized
• 54 Psychical Research in the Psychological Review, 1894–1900: A Bibliographical Note
• 55 On Psychic Forces and Doubles: The Case of Albert de Rochas
• 56 Nineteenth Century Psychical Research in Mainstream Journals: The Revue Philosophique de la France et de L’Étranger
• 57 Mesmerism Online: A Bibliographic Review
• Index
• About the Editors and Contributors
• eCopyright