Eminent People Interested in Psi

Já no terceiro milénio, dispondo de informações e métodos de observação como nunca houve na História da Humanidade, a ciência académica institucionalizada continua a gerir-se de forma muito fechada, oferecendo exclusivamente o ponto de vista materialista para esclarecimento do mundo e da vida.

Sentimo-nos por isso no dever de continuar a apresentar documentos importantes de abertura cultural e científica, no sentido de alargar esses horizontes, hoje em dia ultrapassados e empobrecidos.

A muito conhecida e prestigiada Psi Encyclopedia, apresenta-nos uma lista fabulosa de intelectuais, cientistas, escritores e homens da arte e do pensamento que, já de há muito tempo, têm prestigiado e feito progredir todo o género de saberes que nos tornam mais capazes de compreender o passado e o presente, e muito melhor habilitados para vencer o futuro.

Como forma concreta de documentar a visão do que é eterno e fundamental durante toda a vida de milhares de milhões de pessoas, junto anexamos o prodigioso elenco de individualidades que, nos mais diversos ramos do conhecimento intelectual e da sensibilidade ESPIRITUAL, dão testemunho fundamental do seu elevado ENTENDIMENTO das suas, e das nossas VIDAS.

Com esta apresentação, confiamos no conhecimento bastante alargado da língua inglesa para que o artigo se torne perfeitamente elucidativo.

Many more eminent scientists, thinkers, writers, politicans and artists of various kinds than is generally relized took the possibility of psychical phenomena seriously. Here is a list of more than two hundred of them. Contents

1. Introduction
2. Nobel Prizewinners
3. Other Eminent Figures: Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, Invention
4. Mathematicians
5. Psychologists and Social Scientists, Neuroscientists, Biologists, Physicians
6. Humanities, Philosophers
7. Writers, Artists
8. Politicians, Explorers, Others
9. Literature
10. References

Nobel Prizewinners

Henri Bergson (1859-1941), philosopher, 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature, president of the Society for Psychical Research and theoretician of consciousness and psi.29

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832-1910), 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote an article about a person said to be psychic.30

Pearl S Buck (1892-1973), 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature, visited JB Rhine’s parapsychology meetings.31

Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947), 1931 Nobel Prize in Peace, President of Columbia University, philosopher and diplomat, wrote about psi32 and helped organize the American Society for Psychical Research.

Alexis Carrel (1873-1944), 1912 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, discussed anomalous healing in a book.33

Arthur Holly Compton (1892-1962), 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics, was supportive of psi in his correspondence with JB Rhine.34

Marie Curie (1867-1934), 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, participated in séances with Eusapia Palladino and wrote of the importance of research in parapsychology.35

Pierre Curie (1859-1906), 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, participated in séances with Eusapia Palladino and wrote of the importance of research in parapsychology.36

John Eccles (1903-1997), 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, edited a book discussing psi and participated in related conferences.37

Albert Einstein (1879-1955), 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, wrote the preface to a telepathy book38 and commented, ‘We have no right to rule out a priori the possibility of telepathy. For that the foundations of our science are too uncertain and incomplete.’39

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature, a major figure in poetry and essay, ‘regarded highly’ the theory of precognition by Dunne and reprinted his An Experiment with Time while he was director of Faber and Faber. He described a similar view of time in his poem Burnt Norton. ’40

Brian Josephson (1940-), 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics, has written about psi and been a staunch advocate of psi research for decades.41

Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), 1911 Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote on ostensible psi phenomena.42

Thomas Mann (1875-1955), 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature, attended and reported on séances.43

Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics, developer of radio and radio telegraphy, interested in spiritualism, he wanted to invent a technology to communicate with the deceased. 44

Kary Banks Mullis (1944-), 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has participated in psi research and spoken in support of it.45

Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958), 1945 Nobel Prize in Physics, discussed with Carl Jung the notion of synchronicity and was believed, by himself and by colleagues, to have an interfering psychokinetic effect on machines.46 (See Otto Stern, below)

Jean Perrin (1870-1942), 1926 Nobel Prize in Physics, was a member of the Institut Général Psychologique’s (IGP) Group of Study of Psychic Phenomena.47

Max Planck (1858-1947), 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics and author of quantum theory, expressed his interest in psychical research in his correspondence.48

Sully Prudhomme (1839- 1907), 1901 Nobel Prize in Literature, participated in the Société de Psychologie Physiologique’s committee for the study of telepathy.49

Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934), 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, researched hypnosis and psi phenomena and wrote a book about them (destroyed during the Spanish Civil War).50

Sir William Ramsay (1852-1916), 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, discoverer of the noble gases, collaborator of Lord Rayleigh, was a member of the SPR and corresponded with Rayleigh on the SPR’s research activities51

Charles Richet (1850-1935), 1913 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, founded the Annales des Sciences Psychiques, president of the Society for Psychical Research (1905), and of the Institut Métapsychique International (1923).

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature, best known for his very influential plays, including Pygmalion and Arms and the Man. He attended with psi researcher Frank Podmore meetings of the (British) Society for Psychical Research and mentioned incidents of ostensible psi.52

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), 1925 Nobel Prize in Peace, reported the paranormal phenomena he observed in Africa and remarked that he would like to carry out psi research.53

Glenn Seaborg (1912-1999), 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the investigation of traunsuranium elements, co-wrote with Margaret Mead a praising statement about a book on parapsychology. 54

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1908-2008), 1970 Nobel prizewinner in literature, mentions precognition as a fact in his work.55

Otto Stern (1888-1969), 1943 Nobel Prize in Physics, is said to have banned Pauli from his lab, for fear that Pauli’s involuntary PK effect would interfere with the machinery there.56

John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh (1842-1919), 1904 Nobel Prize in Physics, discovered of argon, collaborator of William Ramsay, president of the Society for Psychical Research.57Eugene Wigner (1902-1995), 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics, encouraged research on physics and psi.58

JJ Thompson (1856-1940), 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics, member of the governing council of the Society for Psychical Research for 34 years.59

WB Yeats (1865-1939), 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature, member of the Society for Psychical Research, wrote extensively about psi and esoterism.60

Other Eminent Figures: Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, Invention

Jacques-Arsène d’Arsonval (1851-1940), physician, physicist, and inventor, led the IGP and carried out research with a spirit medium.61

John Logie Baird (1888-1946), engineer and inventor of television, attended spiritist séances and was persuaded by them.62

Sir William Barrett (1845-1925): Chair of physics at the Royal College of Science in Dublin, Fellow of the Royal Society, and founder and president of the Society for Psychical Research.63

Olivier Costa de Beauregard (1911-2007), quantum physicist, published on parapsychology, first under the pseudonym E. Xodarap, and considered psi phenomena as to ‘be expected as very rational’.64

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), inventor of the telephone, thought that the device might allow communication with the dead.65

John Stewart Bell (1928-1990), physicist, developer of the Bell theorem, employee of the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN), originator of the Bell theorem, wrote about keeping an open mind regarding psi.66

David Bohm (1917-1992), quantum theoretician, sought to integrate his theory with psi.67

Édouard Branly (1844-1940), physicist, inventor of a component of wireless telegraphy, member of the French Academy of Sciences, was a member of the IGP’s Group of Study of Psychic Phenomena.68

Alexander Butlerov (1828-1886), chemist, pioneer of the theory of chemical structure and discoverer of various elements, researched ostensible psychic manifestations and wrote articles about them.69

Chester Carlson (1906-1968), physicist and inventor of electrophotography, donated money to and was interested in psi research.70

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008), fiction and science writer and inventor, discussed psi in his novels and non-fiction, becoming increasingly, but not completely skeptic, about the paranormal.71

Gérard Cordonnier (1907-1977), mathematician, engineer, winner of the Arts, Sciences and Letter Silver Medal, wrote on psi.72

Sir William Crookes (1832-1919), chemist, physicist, and inventor, carried research on DD Home and spiritualism, president of the Society for Psychical Research.73

JW Dunne (1910-1949), aeronautical engineer, wrote An Experiment with Time, a book about precognition.74

Freeman Dyson (1923-2020), theoretical physicist and mathematician who made fundamental contributions to various areas of science, wrote a foreword to a book on psi phenomena in which he stated: ‘ESP is real, as the anecdotal evidence suggests, but cannot be tested with the clumsy tools of science.’75

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), inventor of electric light and sound recording, among other things, was convinced by some psi demonstrations and proposed that instruments could be developed to communicate with the deceased.76

Harold Eugene Edgerton (1903-1990), professor of electrical engineering at MIT, participated in research on remote viewing.77

Gerald Feinberg (1933-1992), physicist, worked at Columbia and Princeton Universities, considered precognition to be at the base of most, or perhaps all, psi phenomena.78

Camille Flammarion (1842-1925), astronomer and writer, founder and first president of the Société Astronomique de France, wrote on psi and mediumship.79

J. T. Fraser (1923-2010), engineer and inventor, founded the multidisciplinary study of time. In his most important book, he refers positively to the naturalistic and experimental work on precognition by the Rhines.80

Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), systems theorist, inventor, talked about the reality of telepathy.81

George Gamow (1904-1968), physicist, wrote on the ostensible macro-PK effect called the Pauli Effect.82

Arnaud de Gramont (1861-1923), physicist, member of the French Académie des Sciences, founding member of the Institut Métapsychique International.83

Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894), physicist, showed the existence of electromagnetic waves, was a member of the Society for Psychical Research.84

Robert Jahn (1930-2017), dean of engineering at Princeton University, pioneer of deep space propulsion, founded the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab to study mind-machine interactions and other psi phenomena.85

Ernst Jordan (1902-1980), quantum physicist, wrote on quantum mechanisms and psi.86

Sir Oliver Lodge (1851-1940), physicist and mathematician, developer of wireless telegraphy, principal of Birmingham University, president of the Society for Psychical Research, wrote on mediumship and survival.87

Henry Margenau (1901-1997), Higgins Professor of Physics at Yale and staff at Princeton and MIT, philosopher of science, wrote favorably about parapsychology.88

James Smith ‘Mac’ McDonnell (1899-1980), engineer and chair of the McDonnell-Douglas corporation, supported research in parapsychology.89

Edgar Dean Mitchell (1930-2016), aeronautical engineer, 6th person to walk on the moon. He founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, in which research on psi is conducted, and published a psi study himself.90

Edward Pickering (1846-1919) astronomer and physicist, director of the Harvard College Observatory, wrote on psi.91

Sir Alfred Pippard (1920-2008), Cavendish Professor of Physics, Cambridge, gave an address to a joint SPR/Parapsychological Association on his mother’s telepathic experiences.92

Michael Polanyi (1891-1976), made important contributions to various fields including chemistry, economics, and epistemology, including the concepts of personal and tacit knowledge. He was cognizant of JB Rhine’s work and remained open to it, mentioning the parapsychological explanation as the simplest one.93

Archie E. Roy (1924-2012), Professor of Astronomy, University of Glasgow, SPR president, wrote on psychical research.94

Giovanni Schiaparelli (1835-1910), astronomer, historian of science and senator, researched Eusapia Palladino.95

Richard Shoup (1943-2015), computer scientists, innovator in digital animation and winner of an Emmy and an Academy Award, proposed a time symmetric theory of psi. 96

Balfour Stewart (1828-1887), physicist, member of the Royal Society, president of the Society for Psychical Research.97

F J M Stratton (1881-1961), Professor of Astrophysics and Director of Solar Physics Observatory at Cambridge, president of the Society for Psychical Research.98

Julien Thoulet (1843-1936). Professor of Mineralogy at the University of Nancy, oceanographer99, described a psi event in a letter to Charles Richet.100

Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (1828-1883), engineer and developer of telegraph technology, conducted physics experiments with mediums.101

Evan Harris Walker (1935-2006), physicist and inventor, developed a quantum explanation of psi.102

Arthur M Young (1905-1995), polymath, helicopter inventor, sought to integrate parapsychology with other branches of science.103

Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834-1882), astrophycist who provided a measure of the Sun’s radiance and created optical illusions. He was a psychical researcher and wrote on his experiments with medium Henry Slade, who very likely was fraudulent.104

Mathematicians

Burton H Camp (1880-1980), president of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, wrote that the statistical analyses conducted by Rhine and his team were ‘essentially valid’.105

Augustus de Morgan (1806-1871), mathematician and logician, advanced the study of induction. His wife Sophia, under a pseudonym, wrote a book reporting their investigations on psychic phenomena, with a pseudonymous preface by De Morgan, in which these phenomena were not considered per se precluded by science and a truly agnostic view about psychic phenomena was proposed.106

Sir Ronald A Fisher (1890-1962), statistician and geneticist, corresponded with JB Rhine and published articles on statistical analyses in parapsychology.107

Thomas Greville (1910-1988), statistician, Professor at the University of Wisonsin-Madison, editor of the Journal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, developed statistical techniques for psi experiments.108

Irving Good (1916-2009), statistician and cryptologist, colleague of Alan Turing, suggested a physiological method to study nonconscious psi.109

Hans Hahn (1879-1934), mathematician and philosopher, was Vice-president of the Austrian Society for Psychical Research and collaborated in research on psi. 110

John Littlewood (1885-1977), Ball Professor of Mathematics, Cambridge, fellow of the Royal Society, conducted card guessing experiments and wrote on their statistics.111

Eleanor Sidgwick (1845-1936), mathematician, principal of Newnham College, president of the Society for Psychical Research.112

Alan  Turing (1912-1954), mathematician, pioneer of computer science and artificial intelligence, wrote of the ‘overwhelming’ statistical evidence for telepathy.113

Psychologists and Social Scientists, Neuroscientists, Biologists, Physicians

Roberto Assagioli (1888-1974), psychiatrist, pioneer of humanistic and transpersonal psychology, wrote a book on psi.114

David Bakan (1921-2004), professor of psychology at the Universities of Chicago and York, discussed Biblical prophecy and contemporary psi research in his courses115

Vladimir Bekhterev (1856-1927), neurologist and reflex psychologist, studied psi in humans and animals.116

Hans Berger (1873-1941), neurologist, created the electroencephalogram, inspired by a telepathic event with his sister.117

Filippo Bottazzi (1867-1941), physiologist, biochemist, wrote a book on mediumistic phenomena.118

Henry Pickering Bowditch (1840-1911), physician, dean of the Harvard Medical School, founding member of the Society for Psychical Research, wrote on psi.119

William Brown (1881-1952), director of the Institute of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, supported psi research.120

Luther Burbank (1849-1926), botanist, creator or developer of many species, founder of agricultural science. He described his own and his family’s telepathic abilities in his autobiography.121

Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham (1891-1979), pioneer of child psychoanalysis and co-founder of the Hampstead Clinic in London (currently the Anna Freud Centre). Wrote a paper positing psi processes among mothers and children. 122

Rémy Chauvin (1913-2009), biologist, honorary professor at La Sorbonne, researched and wrote on animal psi.123

Irvin L Child (1915-2000), chair of psychology at Yale University, wrote a supportive meta-analysis of the Maimonides dream research program.124

Frederik Willem van Eeden (1860-1932), psychiatrist, writer, and progressive thinker, participated in séances and wrote about lucid dreaming.125

HJ Eysenck (1916-1997), psychologist, researcher in personality, intelligence, and psychotherapy, supported the validity of some psi phenomena and criticized scientistic dogmatism.126

Gustav Fechner (1801-1887), physicist, one of the founders of experimental psychology, participated in séances and wrote about the possibility of survival after death.127

Sándor Ferenczi (1873-1933), central theorist in psychoanalysis, wrote on psi phenomena in development and therapy and communicated with Freud about it.128

Théodore Flournoy (1854–1920), psychologist, professor at the University of Geneva, wrote important books on dissociation without discarding the possibility of psi processes.129

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), founder of psychoanalysis, wrote a number of papers on psi in psychotherapy.130

Hans Driesch (1867-1941), biologist and philosopher, wrote a book on psi,  president of the Society for Psychical Research.131

Sir Ronald A Fisher (1890-1962), statistician and geneticist, corresponded with JB Rhine and published articles on statistical analyses in parapsychology.132

William Hewitt Gillespie (1905-2001), President of the International Psychoanalytical Association, Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis at University College, London, wrote supportively of psi phenomena.133

Karl Gruber (1881-1927), zoologist, professor at Munich Polytechnic, conducted psi research on animals.134

Guðmundur Hannesson (1866-1946), physician, founder of the Icelandic Scientific Society and rector of the University of Iceland, investigated  the medium Indriði Indriðason.135

Sir Alister Hardy (1896-1985), Linacre Professor of Zoology at Oxford, founder of the Religious Experience Research Unit at Oxford, President of the Society for Psychical Research, wrote on psi and religion.136

Raúl Hernández-Peón (1924-1968), neurophysiologist of sleep, sought to integrate psi and neurophysiology137

James Hillman (1926-2011), psychologist, Jungian author, wrote on psi and depth psychology.138

Sir Julian Huxley (1887-1975), evolutionary biologist and first director of UNESCO, mentioned psi supportively in his writing.139

Aniela Jaffé (1903-1991), psychologist, Jungian author, wrote on psi and synchronicity.140

William James (1842-1910), psychologist and philosopher, president of both the British and the American Societies for Psychical Research.141

Pierre Janet (1859-1947), pioneer in the study of dissociation, had success on experiments on hypnosis and psi (but later became cautious about psi).142

CG Jung (1875-1961), founder of analytical psychology, wrote on synchronicity and ostensible psi phenomena.143

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross (1926-2004), psychiatrist, proponent of the hospice care movement, wrote on near-death experiences and the possibility of survival. 144

A N Leontiev (1903-1979), head of the psychology department at Moscow University, investigated remote viewing.145

Jacques Jean Lhermitte (1877-1959), neurologist and neuropsychiatrist, clinical director at the Salpêtrière hospital, member of the Institut Métapsychique International.146

Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), criminologist and physician, wrote a book on spiritualism and psi.147

Alexander Luria (1902-1977), neuropsychologist, wrote about parapsychology.148

Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer (1947-2005), psychoanalyst, professor at the University of California, investigated psi in depth after a psychic traced a valued stolen possession.149

William McDougall (1871-1938), psychology professor at Harvard and later at Duke, president of both the American and the British Societies for Psychical Research.150

Margaret Mead (1901-1978), cultural anthropologist, helped the Parapsychological Association become a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and wrote a supportive introduction to a remote viewing book.151

Paul Meehl (1920-2003), psychologist and philosopher of science, wrote on the likely compatibility of science and ESP.152

Thomas Walter Mitchell (1869-1944), physician, for many years editor of the British Journal of Medical Psychology, president of the Society for Psychical Research.153

John Muir (1838-1914), geologist and naturalist, recounted in a letter having an accurate premonition of encountering an unexpected friend in a valley.154

Gardner Murphy (1895-1979), president of the American Psychological Association and of the Society for Psychical Research,155 wrote extensively on human potentials and on psi.156

Traugott Konstantin Oesterreich (1880-1949), psychologist and philosopher, professor in Tübingen, wrote on spirit possession and psi.157

Sir Alan S Parkes (1900-1990), researcher at University College, London, on reproductive biology, organized and participated in a symposium on psi.158

Candace Pert (1946-2013), neuropharmacologist, chief of the Section on Brain Biochemistry of the Clinical Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, was interested in psychokinetic effects on living systems and subtle energies.159

Théodule-Armand Ribot (1839-1916), psychologist, professor at the Collège of France and La Sorbonne, published papers on psychical research in his journal Revue Philosophique.160

Sante de Sanctis (1862-1935), doctor, psychologist, and psychiatrist, investigated ostensible psi phenomena.161

Hans Schäfer (1906-2000), professor and director of the department of physiology at the University of Heidelberg, epidemiologist, wrote about psi.162

Rocco Santoliquido (1854-1930), physician and Director General of Public Health, investigated a medium, and was founder and president of the Institut Métapsychique International.163

Pitirim Sorokin (1889-1968), founder and director of the department of sociology at Harvard, wrote an introduction to a book on psi.164

Mabel St Clair Stobart (1862-1954), founder of the Women’s Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps (1912) and the Women’s National Service League (1914), wrote about spiritualism.165

Wilhelm Stekel (1868-1940), one of the first associates of Freud and prolific writer, authored a book about telepathy in dreams.166

John R Swanton (1873-1958), president of the American Anthropological Association and editor of American Anthropologist, endorsed parapsychology.167

Leonid I Vasiliev (1891-1966), professor of physiology at Leningrad University, researched extensively psi and suggestion at a distance.168

Alfred Russel Wallace (1826-1923), co-creator of the theory of evolution, investigated and was a supporter of spiritualism.169

William Grey Walter (1910-1977), neurophysiologist and robot inventor, wrote on the use of the EEG to investigate psi.170

Humanities, Philosophers

Bhikhan L Atreya (1897-1967), professor of philosophy at Banaras Hindu University, expert on Hinduism, carried out research and wrote on parapsychology.171

Samuel Bergman (1883-1975), philosopher of physics, dean of the Hebrew University, wrote a book on telepathy.172

Émile Boirac (1851-1917), philosopher, president of the Grenoble and Dijon universities, researched Eusapia Palladino, wrote a book on psychical research.173

Kenneth E Boulding (1910-1993), economist, systems scientist, philosopher, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, declared to the Washington Star in 1979: ‘The evidence of parapsychology can’t just be dismissed out of hand’.174

CD Broad (1887-1971), Knightsbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge, president of the Society for Psychical Research.175

Kenneth Burke (1897-1993), literary theorist, discussed psi phenomena in the context of creativity.176

Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970), philosopher and member of the Vienna Circle, wrote on the importance of researching psi.177

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), philosopher and palentologist, wrote on the evolution of psi abilities in The Phenomenon of Man.178

CTK Chari (1909-1993), head of the department of philosophy at Madras Christian College, wrote on philosophy of physics and psi.179

Ernesto de Martino (1908-1965), historian of religion and anthropologist, wrote on the link between ethnology and parapsychology.

Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), philosopher, founder of deconstructionism, wrote an essay discussing the nature of telepathy and its relation to psychoanalysis.180

Max Dessoir (1867-1947), philosopher, psychologist, professor at the University of Berlin, coined ‘parapsychology’ and other psi terms.181

ER Dodds (1893-1979), classical scholar, Regius Professor of Greek (Oxford), president of the Society for Psychical Research.182

CJ Ducasse (1881-1969), professor of philosophy at Washington and Brown Universities, wrote on parapsychology and was a Board member of the American Society for Psychical Research.183 

Mircea Eliade (1907-1986), Professor at the University of Chicago, historian of religion and fiction writer, asserted that real paranormal phenomena were at the base of some religious beliefs.184

Antony Flew (1923-2010), philosopher of religion, while not convinced about psi phenomena, opined that there was ‘much interesting and suggestive evidence’.185

Isaac K Funk (1839-1912), lexicographer, editor, founder of Funk & Wagnallis, wrote on psi phenomena.186

Maurice Garçon (1889-1967), lawyer, writer, conjurer, member of the Académie Française, researched psi phenomena.187

James H Hyslop (1854–1920), philosopher, psychologist, professor at Columbia University, wrote extensive on psi.188

LP Jacks (1860-1955), professor of philosophy and principal at Manchester College, Oxford, president of the Society for Psychical Research.189

Andrew Lang (1844-1912), writer and anthropologist, president of the Society for Psychical Research.190

Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973), philosopher, member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, honorary president of Institut Métapsychique International.191

Gilbert Murray (1866-1957), classicist, professor at Oxford and Harvard universities, vice president of the League of Nations Society after World War I, president of the Society for Psychical Research.192

Frederic Myers (1843-1901), classical scholar and poet, president and one of the main authors of the Society for Psychical Research.193

Haraldur Níelsson (1868-1928), theologian and spiritualist, first rector  of the University of Iceland, investigated the medium Indriði Indriðason. 194

HH Price (1899-1984), philosopher, Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford, president of the Society for Psychical Research.195

Adolf Reinach (1883-1917), pioneer phenomenologist and language and law theoretician, documented and discussed instances of soldiers’ foreboding (precognition) in WWI of their impending death.196

Josiah Royce (1855-1916), philosopher, professor at the University of California and Harvard, member of the American Society for Psychical Research, wrote on psi.197

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), linguist and semiotician, attended séances of Hélène Smith (Catherine-Elise Müller) and analyzed her created languages.198

FCS Schiller (1864-1937), professor of philosophy at the Universities of Oxford, Cornell, and Southern California, president of the Society for Psychical Research, supported the epistemological foundation of parapsychology.199

Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900), Knightsbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge, President of the Society for Psychical Research.200

Kees van Peursen (1920-1996), philosopher and theologian, professor of philosophy at Groningen and Leiden U, wrote on psi.201

AW Verrall (1851-1912), classics scholar and first King Edward VII Chair of English, was interested in psi along with many others in his immediate family.202

Johannes Maria Verweyen (1883-1945), philosopher, anti-Nazi resistance fighter, poet, wrote on parapsychology and occultism.203

Gerda Walther (1897-1977), philosopher, pioneer phenomenologist with important contributions as well to parapsychology and the study of schizophrenia.204

Aloys Wenzl (1887-1967), philosopher, dean and president at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, was an official observer at a 1954 conference on psi.205

Writers, Artists

Jelly d’Arányi (1893-1966), violinist, participated in  séances and chanelled various messages. Sister of Adila Fachiri.206

L  Frank Baum (1856-1919), writer, creator of the Oz series, attended spiritist séances and wrote about them.207

Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007), film and theatre director and author, recounted autobiographical ostensible psi phenomena208

Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951), writer, declared that his interest in psychic matters was ‘in questions of extended or expanded consciousness’ and saw ‘the rapprochement between Modern Physics and so-called psychical and mystical phenomena’.209

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), writer, published an appreciative foreword to a Spanish version of JW Dunne’s An Experiment with Time.210

Victor Brauner (1903-1966), surrealist painter, considered himself also a visionary.211

André Breton (1896-1966), founder of surrealism and knowledgeable of the psi literature, researched experientially and wrote extensively on psi and automatisms, often in collaboration with other surrealists.212

John W. Campbell, Jr. (1910-1971), writer of science-fiction (SF) and editor of Astounding Science Fiction during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. He discussed psi phenomena in his magazine and encouraged its inclusion into SF literature213

Gilbert Keith (GK) Chesterton (1874-1936), writer, best known perhaps for his Father Brown series, advocated an open investigation and consideration of psi phenomena.214

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) (1835-1910), writer, member of the American Society for Psychical Research, described various autobiographical psi events.215

Michael Crichton (1942-2008), writer, physician, and filmmaker, wrote about his personal experiences with psi.216

Rubén Darío (Félix Rubén García Sarmiento) (1867-1916), writer and diplomat pioneer of the modernismo literary movement. He referred to psychical researchers in his work (eg, in his short story El caso de la señorita Amelia) and was interested in parapsychology, dreams, and spiritualism.217

Robert Desnos (1900-1945), surrealist poet and automatist, claimed to have been in telepathic contact with another artist, Marcel Duchamp and to see into other people’s future.218

Philip K Dick (1928-1982), writer, described various ostensible psi phenomena in his autobiographical works, including xenoglossy and an accurate diagnosis of his son’s hernia.219

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), writer, member of The Ghost Club, organization devoted to psychical research.220

Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (1832-1898), author of Alice in Wonderland, mathematician, member of the Society for Psychical Research.221

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), creator of Sherlock Homes, unflinching defender of ostensible psi phenomena and spiritualism.222

Theodor Dreiser (1871-1945), writer and journalist, corresponded with psi researcher Hereward Carrington.223

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (1819-1880), writer, corresponded with psychical researchers and premised her The Lifted Veil on psi. She wrote to George Combe in 1852, ‘But indications of clairvoyance witnessed by a competent observer are of thrilling interest and give me a restless desire to get more extensive and satisfactory evidence.’224

Adila Fachiri (1886-1962), violinist, participated in séances and chanelled various messages. Sister of Jelly d’Arányi.225

Anne Francis (1930-2011), actress, winner of a Golden Globe and nominated for an Emmy, described her interest in psychic phenomena in her autobiography.226

Maxim Gorky (1868-1936), writer, was convinced of the existence of telepathy.227

Graham Greene (1904-1991), novelist shortlisted for the Nobel Prize, was convinced that Dunne’s view of precognition was correct and explained some of his vision.228

Alec Guiness (1914-2000), actor, wrote that he precognized the fatal accident of James Dean.229

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), writer, claimed to have had a telepathic and other psi experiences.230

Victor Hugo (1802-1885), writer, creator of Les Misérables, experimented with automatic writing and drawing, participated in séances.231

Ted Hughes (1930-1998), British Poet Laureate, described psi phenomena in his life.232

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), writer, proponent of a Mind at Large, advisor to the Parapsychology Foundation.233

James Joyce (1882-1941), writer, his sister claimed that she and he had seen the ghost of their mother. He read and was influenced by Myers’s Human Personality, and its Survival of Bodily Death.234

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), painter and art theoretician, wrote about direct transmission of art.235

Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), painter, pioneer of abstractionism, worked as a medium with automatic writing, drawing, and painting.236

Arthur Koestler (1905-1983), author, provided funds for what became the Koestler Unit for the study of parapsychology at the University of Edinburgh, wrote on psi.237

Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999), film director, screenwriter, producer, etc., discussed psi positively as an inspiration for his film The Shining.238

Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran (1859-1938), writer, editor, and spiritualist, participated in the investigations of Icelandic mediums including Indriði Indriðason and Hafstein Björnsson.239

František Kupka (1871-1957), one of the founders of abstractionist art, proposed a direct mind-to-mind transmission of the artist’s inner world.240

Dame Edith Sophy Lyttelton (1865-1947), playwright, recipient of various awards including Dame Commander of the British Empire, wrote books about psi phenomena.241

James Merrill (1926-1995), poet, winner of the Pulitzer among other prices, some of his works derives from sessions with a ouija board during more than two decades.242

Robert Musil ( 1880-1942), writer, author of one of the foremost novels of the 20th century, The Man without Qualities, mentioned the possibility of psi phenomena during séances.243

Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), writer, author of Lolita and other prose classics, kept a diary to test whether his dreams could anticipate future events, inspired by Dunn’s An Experiment with Time.244

JB Priestley (1894-1984), writer, supported the notion of precognition in his essays and plays.245

Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall (1880-1943), writer, pioneer of lesbian literature with The Well of Loneliness. She co-authored an important study of the medium Gladys Osborne Leonard.246

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), one of the foremost poet in German language, attended séances and experimented with automatic writing.247

George Rochberg (1918-2005), composer, discussed psi phenomena in the context of his creative work.248

Gene Rodenberry (1921-1991), writer and Star Trek creator, was convinced of the reality of psi phenomena.249

Jules Romains (Louis Henry Jean Farigoule) (1885-1972), writer, member of La Académie Française, wrote a book on sightless vision and alluded to psi in other writings.250

John Ruskin (1819-1900), influential art critic, member of the Society for Psychical Research.251

George William (AE) Russell (1867 –1935), writer, painter, activist, claimed he was clairvoyant.252

Sigfried Sassoon (1886-1967), WWI poet, member of The Ghost Club.253

Victorien Sardou (1831-1908), writer, best-known for the libretto to Tosca, experimented with automatic writing and drawing.254

Alvin Schwartz (1916-2011), fiction writer and essayist, discussed ostensible psi phenomena in his life.255

Upton Sinclair, Jr. (1878-1968), Pulitzer prizewinner, wrote a detailed account of psi experiments with his wife in his book Mental Radio.256

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (1887-1964), poet and critic, helped direct some research with mediums. 257

Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950), writer and philosopher, was interested in and recommended the scientific study of psi phenomena.258

William Thomas Stead (1849-1912), pioneer of investigative journalism and progressive activist who battled, among other topics, child prostitution. He published Borderland, a quarterly on psychic topics, described using automatic writing and telepathy, and repeatedly wrote about shipwrecks and himself as drowning after one, before perishing during the sinking of the Titanic. It was also claimed that he had communicated post-mortem. (See William T Stead.)259

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), philosopher, theoretical founder of the Waldorf education, wrote about personal psi experiences.260

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), author of Treasure Island, member of the Society for Psychical Research, corresponded with FWH Myers.261

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007), one of the most influential classical electronic and avant-garde music, in an interview he mentioned “telepathy and telekinesis” as facts.262

August Strindberg (1849-1912), writer, painter and playwright, discussed personal experiences that he interpreted as parapsychological in his writings.263

Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986), film and theatre director and writer, discussed ostensible psi phenomena as sources for his films.264

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland, member of the Society for Psychical Research.265

Jacques Tourneur (1904-1977), director of various acclaimed horror films, including Cat People. He was considered to be a psychic himself.266

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007), author of Slaughterhouse Five, artist, described ostensible psi phenomena that occurred in his life.267

Florizel von Reuter (1890-1985), violinist and composer, professor at the Vienna Musical Academy, wrote on his experience as a medium.268

H(erbert) G(eorge) Wells (1866-1946), writer of fiction and non-fiction, and futurist, President of PEN, author of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds. His multi-volume summary of biology, co-authored with Julian Huxley and G. P. Wells, included a sympathetic and well-informed discussion of psychical research in Book 8, ‘Man’s Mind and Behaviour’ in Voume 3.. 269

Politicians, Explorers, Others

Alexander Aksakov (1832-1893), Russian State Councilor, writer, researched, contributed to and edited publications on psi.270

Arthur Balfour (1848-1930), philosopher, British prime minister, president of the Society for Psychical Research.271

Gerald Balfour (1853-1945), scholar, Chief Secretary for Ireland, president of the Society for Psychical Research.272

Donald Campbell CBE (1921-1967), speed record breaker in land and water, member of the Ghost Club.273

Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding (1882-1970), commander of the RAF during the Battle of Britain, author of various books on survival and member of the Ghost Club.274

Winifred Coombe Tennant (1874-1956), suffragette, politician, representative at the League of Nations, practised as a medium.275

Alexandra David-Néel (1868-1969), explorer, writer, expert on Tibet, declared that psychic phenomena should be studied ‘just like any other science’.276

Willliam Gladstone (1809-1898), served as British prime minister four different terms, member of the Society for Psychical Research, commented  that psi research ‘is the most important work in the world’.277

Claiborne de Borda Pell (1918-2009), six-term US Senator, head of the Senate Foreign Relation Committee, supported psi research.278

William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950), longest serving prime minister of Canada, spiritualist.279

Loren McIntyre (1917-2003), photojournalist, discoverer of the source of the source of the Amazon River. He described communicating telepathically with the chief shaman of a Majoruna tribe.280

Dame Edith Lyttelton (1865-1948), British delegate to the League of Nations, author, president of the Society for Psychical Research, wrote on psi.281

Francisco I Madero (1873-1913), provided the intellectual basis to the Mexican revolution and became its first democratically elected president, practised automatic writing and mediumship.282

Erik Kule Palmstierna (1877-1959), Swedish politician and diplomat, wrote books based on chanelled material.283

Sir Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904), explorer and journalist, wrote about psi phenomena in his autobiography.284

Cort van der Linden (1846-1935), progressive Prime Minister of The Netherlands, was a member of the (British) Society for Psychical Research.285

Henry A. Wallace (1888-1965), progressive Vice President of the United States, besides occupying other important posts. He was a sponsor of the Round Table Foundation, which sponsored research on parapsychology.286

Etzel Cardeña

Barz, C. (2010). Scientific spirit, spirituality, and spirited writing: Spiritualism between science, religion and literature. Tijdschrift voor Skandinavistiek 31, 1.

Bjørnson, B. (1909). Wise-Knut. New York: Brandu’s.

Butler, N.M. (1886). The progress of psychical research. Popular Science Monthly 29.

Doyle, A. C. (1926). The History of Spiritualism.

Dyson, F. (2014). One in a million. New York Review of Books, 25 March.

Fechner, G.T. (1904). The Little Book of Life after Death. Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Little, Brown, & Company. [Originally published 1836.]

Flammarion, C. (1907). Mysterious Psychic Forces. Boston, Massachhusetts, USA: Small, Maynard and Company.

Goff, H. (2005). Science and the seance. BBC News.

Lodge, O. (1916). Raymond, or Life and Death. New York, NY: George H. Doran.

Lorenzato, J. (1978). La lévitation est-elle prouvée? (Is levitation proven?). Revue Psi International 4.

Sommer, A. (2013). The naturalisation of the “poltergeist.” http://forbiddenhistories.com/tag/albert-von-schrenck-notzing/ [Unplished ms.]

NOTA
Para colheita de muito mais referências e informações (em língua inglesa, é claro), é favor consultar os sites respectivos, nomeadamente no seguinte endereço:
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/

Artigo visto em:
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/eminent-people-interested-psi?fbclid=IwAR2tSyyw6BU3s7ZwuxIKqhe9HVGu7WTdxXDl26mzcrcrUyIyd1JSK8WWf7c

References