Edmund Gurney: Difference between revisions
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| image = Edmund Gurney.png |
| image = Edmund Gurney.png |
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|birth_date = 23 March 1847 |
|birth_date = 23 March 1847 |
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|birth_place = [[Hersham]] |
|birth_place = [[Hersham]], England |
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|death_date = 23 June 1888 |
|death_date = 23 June 1888 |
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|death_place = [[Brighton]] |
|death_place = [[Brighton]], England |
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| occupation = [[Psychologist]], [[parapsychologist]] |
| occupation = [[Psychologist]], [[parapsychologist]] |
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}} |
}} |
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'''Edmund Gurney''' (23 March 1847 |
'''Edmund Gurney''' (23 March 1847{{snd}}23 June 1888) was an [[England|English]] [[psychologist]] and [[parapsychologist]]. At the time the term for research of paranormal activities was "psychical research".{{sfn|Lang|1911|p=732}} |
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==Early life== |
==Early life== |
||
Gurney was born at [[Hersham]], near [[Walton-on-Thames]]. |
Gurney was born at [[Hersham]], near [[Walton-on-Thames]].{{sfn|Hall|1964|p=27}} He was educated at [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]] and at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], from 1866, where he took fourth place in the classical tripos and obtained a fellowship in 1872.{{sfn|Hall|1964|p=28}}<ref>{{acad|id=GNY864E|name=Gurney, Edmund}}</ref> His work for the tripos was done, said his friend [[Frederic William Henry Myers|F. W. H. Myers]], in the intervals of his practice on the piano. Dissatisfied with his own executive skill as a musician, he wrote ''The Power of Sound'' (1880), an essay on the philosophy of music.{{sfn|Hall|1964|pp=29-30}} |
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He then studied medicine with no intention of practising, devoting himself to physics, chemistry and physiology. In 1880 he passed the second M.B. Cambridge |
He then studied medicine with no intention of practising, devoting himself to physics, chemistry and physiology. In 1880 he passed the second M.B. Cambridge (medical science).{{sfn|Hall|1964|pp=34-35}} In 1881 he began the study of law at [[Lincoln's Inn]].{{sfn|Hall|1964|p=35}} |
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In relation to [[Parapsychology|psychical research]], he asked whether there is an unexplored region of human faculty transcending the normal limitations of sensible knowledge. Gurney's purpose was to approach the subject by observation and experiment, especially in the [[hypnotism]] field. He wanted to investigate the persistence of the conscious human personality after the death of the body. |
In relation to [[Parapsychology|psychical research]], he asked whether there is an unexplored region of human faculty transcending the normal limitations of sensible knowledge. Gurney's purpose was to approach the subject by observation and experiment, especially in the [[hypnotism]] field. He wanted to investigate the persistence of the conscious human personality after the death of the body.{{sfn|Lang|1911|pp=732–733}} Three of his sisters died when their barge overturned in the [[Nile River]] during a tour of [[Egypt]] in 1875. Their passing profoundly affected him and his research was partially fueled by a desire to find some meaning to their deaths.{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}} |
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==Experimental work== |
==Experimental work== |
||
Gurney began at what he later saw was the wrong end by studying, with Myers, the [[séance]]s of professed spiritualistic mediums (1874–1878). Little but detection of imposture came of this. In 1882 the [[Society for Psychical Research]] was founded. Paid mediums were discarded, at least for the time, and experiments were made in [[telepathy|thought-transference]] and hypnotism. Personal evidence as to uninduced [[hallucination]]s was also collected. |
Gurney began at what he later saw was the wrong end by studying, with Myers, the [[séance]]s of professed spiritualistic mediums (1874–1878). Little but detection of imposture came of this. In 1882 the [[Society for Psychical Research]] was founded. Paid mediums were discarded, at least for the time, and experiments were made in [[telepathy|thought-transference]] and hypnotism. Personal evidence as to uninduced [[hallucination]]s was also collected.{{sfn|Lang|1911|p=733}} |
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The first results are embodied in the volumes of ''[[Phantasms of the Living]]'', a vast collection ([[Frank Podmore]], Myers and Gurney), and in Gurney's essay, ''Hallucinations''. Evidence for the process called telepathy was supposed to be established by the experiments chronicled in the ''Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research'', and it was argued that similar experiences occurred spontaneously, as, for example, in the many recorded instances of deathbed [[Wraith (entity)|wraith]]s.<ref>[[Edward Burnett Tylor|Tylor]], ''Primitive Culture'', i. chapter xi., especially pp. 449-450, 1873. [[Andrew Lang|Lang]], ''Making of Religion'', pp. 120-124, 1898.</ref> The dying man was supposed to convey the hallucination of his presence as one living person experimentally conveys his thought to another, by thought-transference. |
The first results are embodied in the volumes of ''[[Phantasms of the Living]]'', a vast collection ([[Frank Podmore]], Myers and Gurney), and in Gurney's essay, ''Hallucinations''. Evidence for the process called telepathy was supposed to be established by the experiments chronicled in the ''Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research'', and it was argued that similar experiences occurred spontaneously, as, for example, in the many recorded instances of deathbed [[Wraith (entity)|wraith]]s.<ref>[[Edward Burnett Tylor|Tylor]], ''Primitive Culture'', i. chapter xi., especially pp. 449-450, 1873. [[Andrew Lang|Lang]], ''Making of Religion'', pp. 120-124, 1898.</ref> The dying man was supposed to convey the hallucination of his presence as one living person experimentally conveys his thought to another, by thought-transference.{{sfn|Lang|1911|p=733}} |
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Gurney's hypnotic experiments were undertaken in the years 1885 to 1888. Their tendency was, in Myers's view, to prove that there is sometimes, in the induction of hypnotic phenomena, some agency at work which is neither ordinary nervous stimulation nor suggestion conveyed by any ordinary channel to the subject's mind. These results, if accepted, would corroborate the idea of [[telepathy]].<ref>See Gurney, ''Hypnotism and Telepathy'', ''Proceedings S. P. R.'' vol. iv.</ref> Experiments by [[Joseph Gibert]], [[Paul Janet]], [[Charles Richet]], Méricourt and others were cited as tending in the same direction. |
Gurney's hypnotic experiments were undertaken in the years 1885 to 1888. Their tendency was, in Myers's view, to prove that there is sometimes, in the induction of hypnotic phenomena, some agency at work which is neither ordinary nervous stimulation nor suggestion conveyed by any ordinary channel to the subject's mind. These results, if accepted, would corroborate the idea of [[telepathy]].<ref>See Gurney, ''Hypnotism and Telepathy'', ''Proceedings S. P. R.'' vol. iv.</ref> Experiments by [[Joseph Gibert]], [[Paul Janet]], [[Charles Richet]], Méricourt and others were cited as tending in the same direction.{{sfn|Lang|1911|p=733}} |
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Other experiments dealt with the relation of the memory in the hypnotic state to the memory in another hypnotic state, and of both to the normal memory. Gurney's research into psychic matters was respected by contemporaries. However, it has since then been argued to be deeply flawed: Gurney trusted in the assistance of one [[George Albert Smith (inventor)|George Albert Smith]], a theatrical performer and producer. Smith was the one handling the actual experiments into telepathy, hypnotism, and the rest, and Gurney fully accepted his results. According to Hall, in the spring of 1888 Gurney discovered that Smith had used his knowledge of theatrical trickery and stage illusion to fake tests and results; so that the value of the tests (with which Gurney was building up his reputation) were worthless. [[Douglas Blackburn]], Smith's principal partner in the mentalist performances |
Other experiments dealt with the relation of the memory in the hypnotic state to the memory in another hypnotic state, and of both to the normal memory.{{sfn|Lang|1911|p=733}} Gurney's research into psychic matters was respected by contemporaries. However, it has since then been argued to be deeply flawed: Gurney trusted in the assistance of one [[George Albert Smith (inventor)|George Albert Smith]], a theatrical performer and producer. Smith was the one handling the actual experiments into telepathy, hypnotism, and the rest, and Gurney fully accepted his results. According to Trevor Hall in his study ''The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney'', in the spring of 1888 Gurney discovered that Smith had used his knowledge of theatrical trickery and stage illusion to fake tests and results; so that the value of the tests (with which Gurney was building up his reputation) were worthless. [[Douglas Blackburn]], Smith's principal partner in the mentalist performances{{sfn|Hall|1964|p=81}} and experiments, publicly admitted fraud in 1908 and again in 1911,{{sfn|Hall|1964|pp=120-121}} although Smith denied it.<ref name=oppenheim144/>{{sfn|Hall|1964|pp=122-123}} |
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==Death== |
==Death== |
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He died at [[Brighton]] on 23 June 1888, from the effects of an overdose of [[chloroform]]. At the inquest, [[Arthur Thomas Myers]], the brother of F.W.H. Myers, testified to having prescribed chloroform for [[neuralgia]],<ref name=oppenheim144>Oppenheim (1985) p. 144</ref> and a verdict of accidental death was recorded.<ref name=doctorz/> It was widely thought at the time that Gurney might have committed suicide,<ref name=doctorz>{{cite journal | title=Hughlings Jackson's Dr Z: the paradigm of temporal lobe epilepsy revealed | first1=David C. | last1=Taylor | first2=Susan M. | last2=March | journal=[[Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry]] | year=1980 | volume=43 | issue=9 | pages=758–767 | url= | doi=10.1136/jnnp.43.9.758 | pmc=490665 | pmid=6999129}}</ref> and [[Alice James]] recorded this in her diary.<ref>{{cite book | title=William and Henry James: selected letters | author1=William James | author2=Henry James | editor1=Elizabeth M. Berkeley | editor2=Ignas K. Skrupskelis | publisher=[[University of Virginia Press]] | year=1997 | isbn=0-8139-1694-1 | page=200 }}</ref> |
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Trevor Hall has argued the case that Gurney's death was suicide, resulting from disillusionment after discovering the frauds of Blackburn and Smith.<ref name=oppenheim144/> Gordon Epperson argues against this hypothesis and [[Janet Oppenheim]] concludes that "the mystery is not likely to be resolved".<ref name=oppenheim145>Oppenheim (1985) p.145</ref> |
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==Works== |
==Works== |
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In addition to his work on music and his psychological writings, he was the author of ''Tertium Quid'' (1887), a collection of essays, |
In addition to his work on music and his psychological writings, he was the author of ''Tertium Quid'' (1887), a collection of essays,{{sfn|Hall|1964|p=2}} the title a protest against one-sided ideas and methods of discussion.{{sfn|Epperson|1997|p=20}} |
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==Personal life== |
==Personal life== |
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In 1877 Gurney married Kate Sara Sibley. |
In 1877 Gurney married Kate Sara Sibley.{{sfn|Epperson|1997|p=20}}{{sfn|Hall|1964|p=33}} They had one daughter, Helen, born in 1881.{{sfn|Hall|1964|p=35}} After Gurney's death, Kate married [[Archibald Grove]], a journalist and politician, in 1889.{{sfn|Epperson|1997|p=146}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Men and Women of the Time. A Dictionary of Contemporaries |edition=15 |last=Plarr |first=Victor G |page=456 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[London]] |year=1899}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Marriages |newspaper=[[The Daily News (UK)|Daily News]] |location=[[London]] |date=18 November 1889 |page=1}}</ref> |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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==Sources== |
==Sources== |
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*{{cite book |last=Epperson |first=Gordon |title=The Mind of Edmund Gurney | publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press | year=1997 | isbn=0-8386-3720-5}} |
*{{cite book |last=Epperson |first=Gordon |title=The Mind of Edmund Gurney | publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press | year=1997 | isbn=0-8386-3720-5 }} |
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*{{cite book|last=Hall |first= Trevor H. |year=1964 |title=The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney |location=London |publisher=Gerald Duckworth & Company }} |
*{{cite book|last=Hall |first= Trevor H. |year=1964 |title=The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney |location=London |publisher=Gerald Duckworth & Company }} |
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* {{cite book | title=The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914 | first=Janet | last=Oppenheim | publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] | year=1988 | isbn=0-521-34767-X }} |
* {{cite book | title=The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914 | first=Janet | last=Oppenheim | publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] | year=1988 | isbn=0-521-34767-X }} |
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'''Attribution:''' |
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*{{ |
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Gurney, Edmund|volume=12|pages=732–733||first=Andrew|last=Lang|authorlink=Andrew Lang}} |
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==Further reading== |
==Further reading== |
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*{{cite book| |
*{{cite book|first1=E. |last1=Gurney |first2=F. W. H. |last2=Myers |first3=F. |last3=Podmore |title=Phantasms of the Living| orig-year=1886|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2011 |isbn=978-1-108-02734-2}} |
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* |
* {{cite journal | last1 = Sommer | first1 = Andreas | year = 2011 | title = Professional Heresy: Edmund Gurney (1847–88) and the Study of Hallucinations and Hypnotism | journal = Medical History | volume = 55 | issue = 3| pages = 383–388 | pmc=3143882 | pmid=21792265 | doi=10.1017/s0025727300005445}} |
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{{Parapsychology|state=collapsed}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
{{Authority control}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurney, Edmund}} |
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurney, Edmund}} |
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[[Category:1847 births]] |
[[Category:1847 births]] |
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[[Category:People from Hersham]] |
[[Category:People from Hersham]] |
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[[Category:People from Brighton]] |
[[Category:People from Brighton]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:British parapsychologists]] |
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[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]] |
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]] |
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[[Category:Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge]] |
[[Category:Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge]] |
Revision as of 21:31, 31 May 2023
Edmund Gurney | |
---|---|
Born | 23 March 1847 Hersham, England |
Died | 23 June 1888 Brighton, England |
Occupation(s) | Psychologist, parapsychologist |
Edmund Gurney (23 March 1847 – 23 June 1888) was an English psychologist and parapsychologist. At the time the term for research of paranormal activities was "psychical research".[1]
Early life
Gurney was born at Hersham, near Walton-on-Thames.[2] He was educated at Blackheath and at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1866, where he took fourth place in the classical tripos and obtained a fellowship in 1872.[3][4] His work for the tripos was done, said his friend F. W. H. Myers, in the intervals of his practice on the piano. Dissatisfied with his own executive skill as a musician, he wrote The Power of Sound (1880), an essay on the philosophy of music.[5]
He then studied medicine with no intention of practising, devoting himself to physics, chemistry and physiology. In 1880 he passed the second M.B. Cambridge (medical science).[6] In 1881 he began the study of law at Lincoln's Inn.[7]
In relation to psychical research, he asked whether there is an unexplored region of human faculty transcending the normal limitations of sensible knowledge. Gurney's purpose was to approach the subject by observation and experiment, especially in the hypnotism field. He wanted to investigate the persistence of the conscious human personality after the death of the body.[8] Three of his sisters died when their barge overturned in the Nile River during a tour of Egypt in 1875. Their passing profoundly affected him and his research was partially fueled by a desire to find some meaning to their deaths.[citation needed]
Experimental work
Gurney began at what he later saw was the wrong end by studying, with Myers, the séances of professed spiritualistic mediums (1874–1878). Little but detection of imposture came of this. In 1882 the Society for Psychical Research was founded. Paid mediums were discarded, at least for the time, and experiments were made in thought-transference and hypnotism. Personal evidence as to uninduced hallucinations was also collected.[9]
The first results are embodied in the volumes of Phantasms of the Living, a vast collection (Frank Podmore, Myers and Gurney), and in Gurney's essay, Hallucinations. Evidence for the process called telepathy was supposed to be established by the experiments chronicled in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, and it was argued that similar experiences occurred spontaneously, as, for example, in the many recorded instances of deathbed wraiths.[10] The dying man was supposed to convey the hallucination of his presence as one living person experimentally conveys his thought to another, by thought-transference.[9]
Gurney's hypnotic experiments were undertaken in the years 1885 to 1888. Their tendency was, in Myers's view, to prove that there is sometimes, in the induction of hypnotic phenomena, some agency at work which is neither ordinary nervous stimulation nor suggestion conveyed by any ordinary channel to the subject's mind. These results, if accepted, would corroborate the idea of telepathy.[11] Experiments by Joseph Gibert, Paul Janet, Charles Richet, Méricourt and others were cited as tending in the same direction.[9]
Other experiments dealt with the relation of the memory in the hypnotic state to the memory in another hypnotic state, and of both to the normal memory.[9] Gurney's research into psychic matters was respected by contemporaries. However, it has since then been argued to be deeply flawed: Gurney trusted in the assistance of one George Albert Smith, a theatrical performer and producer. Smith was the one handling the actual experiments into telepathy, hypnotism, and the rest, and Gurney fully accepted his results. According to Trevor Hall in his study The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney, in the spring of 1888 Gurney discovered that Smith had used his knowledge of theatrical trickery and stage illusion to fake tests and results; so that the value of the tests (with which Gurney was building up his reputation) were worthless. Douglas Blackburn, Smith's principal partner in the mentalist performances[12] and experiments, publicly admitted fraud in 1908 and again in 1911,[13] although Smith denied it.[14][15]
Death
He died at Brighton on 23 June 1888, from the effects of an overdose of chloroform. At the inquest, Arthur Thomas Myers, the brother of F.W.H. Myers, testified to having prescribed chloroform for neuralgia,[14] and a verdict of accidental death was recorded.[16] It was widely thought at the time that Gurney might have committed suicide,[16] and Alice James recorded this in her diary.[17]
Trevor Hall has argued the case that Gurney's death was suicide, resulting from disillusionment after discovering the frauds of Blackburn and Smith.[14] Gordon Epperson argues against this hypothesis and Janet Oppenheim concludes that "the mystery is not likely to be resolved".[18]
Works
In addition to his work on music and his psychological writings, he was the author of Tertium Quid (1887), a collection of essays,[19] the title a protest against one-sided ideas and methods of discussion.[20]
Personal life
In 1877 Gurney married Kate Sara Sibley.[20][21] They had one daughter, Helen, born in 1881.[7] After Gurney's death, Kate married Archibald Grove, a journalist and politician, in 1889.[22][23][24]
See also
References
- ^ Lang 1911, p. 732.
- ^ Hall 1964, p. 27.
- ^ Hall 1964, p. 28.
- ^ "Gurney, Edmund (GNY864E)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Hall 1964, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Hall 1964, pp. 34–35.
- ^ a b Hall 1964, p. 35.
- ^ Lang 1911, pp. 732–733.
- ^ a b c d Lang 1911, p. 733.
- ^ Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. chapter xi., especially pp. 449-450, 1873. Lang, Making of Religion, pp. 120-124, 1898.
- ^ See Gurney, Hypnotism and Telepathy, Proceedings S. P. R. vol. iv.
- ^ Hall 1964, p. 81.
- ^ Hall 1964, pp. 120–121.
- ^ a b c Oppenheim (1985) p. 144
- ^ Hall 1964, pp. 122–123.
- ^ a b Taylor, David C.; March, Susan M. (1980). "Hughlings Jackson's Dr Z: the paradigm of temporal lobe epilepsy revealed". Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. 43 (9): 758–767. doi:10.1136/jnnp.43.9.758. PMC 490665. PMID 6999129.
- ^ William James; Henry James (1997). Elizabeth M. Berkeley; Ignas K. Skrupskelis (eds.). William and Henry James: selected letters. University of Virginia Press. p. 200. ISBN 0-8139-1694-1.
- ^ Oppenheim (1985) p.145
- ^ Hall 1964, p. 2.
- ^ a b Epperson 1997, p. 20.
- ^ Hall 1964, p. 33.
- ^ Epperson 1997, p. 146.
- ^ Plarr, Victor G (1899). Men and Women of the Time. A Dictionary of Contemporaries (15 ed.). London: Routledge. p. 456.
- ^ "Marriages". Daily News. London. 18 November 1889. p. 1.
Sources
- Epperson, Gordon (1997). The Mind of Edmund Gurney. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 0-8386-3720-5.
- Hall, Trevor H. (1964). The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney. London: Gerald Duckworth & Company.
- Oppenheim, Janet (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-34767-X.
Attribution:
- public domain: Lang, Andrew (1911). "Gurney, Edmund". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 732–733. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Gurney, E.; Myers, F. W. H.; Podmore, F. (2011) [1886]. Phantasms of the Living. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-02734-2.
- Sommer, Andreas (2011). "Professional Heresy: Edmund Gurney (1847–88) and the Study of Hallucinations and Hypnotism". Medical History. 55 (3): 383–388. doi:10.1017/s0025727300005445. PMC 3143882. PMID 21792265.