GHOST HUNTERS: WILLIAM JAMES AND THE SEARCH FOR SCIENTIFIC PROOF OF LIFE AFTER DEATH.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1.] NFINE/NFINE.Neat blue ink,assumed female's(?) gift presentation inscrptn (2nd anniversary to male partner) to ffe,and no price-clip to dw/dj.Matt, monochrome photographic illustrated dw/dj,with white, yellow and green lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no major nicks or tears present.Both head+foot of dw/dj's spine/backstrip minimally bumped with reciprocal creasing,and some minimal,minor and light superficial scoring+indents to dw/dj - without affecting the boards beneath.Top+fore- edges slightly aged and minimally marked; contents bright,tight,clean - solid and sound - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - would appear unread? Publisher's generally bright and clean,sharp-cornered, original,plain black cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip,and immaculate plain white endpapers - presentation inscrptn excepted.UK,8vo HB+ dw/dj,1st edn,2-370pp [paginated] includes prelude,12 chapters,acknowledgements,notes and sources,and an index.Plus [unpaginated] half-title page,list of author's other titles,title page,a dedication,a contents list/table,a title separator page,and a note about the author to rear,as the last page. In Victorian Britain,a group of eminent scientists got together to found a society expressly to prove the existence of ghosts.
The age of Darwin represented the greatest scientific advances known to man.The tension between science and religion was exposed by Darwin's 'On the Origin of the Species' in 1859,which challenged the basic tenets of belief.
Yet many of those in the forefront of the scientific revolution could not give up the idea of a higher reality. Life after death was the unknown frontier.Victorian society was full of mediums claiming they could communicate with the spirits of the dead.Baffling psychic phenomena occurred every day at seances: mysterious rappings were heard, furniture moved,ghostly forms appeared,the mediums spoke in the altered voices of the dead with information only their nearest could possibly know. Psycometry involving locks of hair and watches and children's toys; ouija boards,apparitions; astral projection: all were commonplace.
In 1882 the Society of Psychical Research was founded in London to investigate all these phenomena,it was a group led by some of the greatest scientists of the age but it's membership also included Alfred, Lord Tennyson,Leslie Stephen,Virginia Woolf's father,John Ruskin,the Reverend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).Six months later William James,Professor of Psychology at Harvard,and the brother of Henry James, visited London and went on to set up an American branch,
Their experiments went on for years.Many mediums,like the notorious Madame Blavatsky,were exposed as charlatans yet there were some mediums who continued to communicate directly with another world, who despite every rigorous scientific test seemed to prove that souls survived death. This is the story of this group of forward thinkers: many of whom were driven to the spirit world by personal tragedy, some whose feeling of loss lead to their own suicides.It is the story of the greatest ghost hunt of any age.
Please contact seller @ rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!
N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch, especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE.
** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **