Richard Hodgson

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Richard Hodgson (born September 24, 1855 in Melbourne , Australia , † December 20, 1905 in Boston , Massachusetts , USA ) was an Australian researcher and critic in the field of parapsychology . His fame was based primarily on the Hodgson Report , named after him , which portrayed Helena Petrovna Blavatsky as a fraudster and heavily burdened the Theosophical Society .

Hodgson studied at the University of Melbourne Law , completed these studies in 1878 with the doctorate (LL.D.) from, acquired in 1882 in the UK St John's College in Cambridge a Bachelor of Arts degree, he in 1893 by the Master of Arts from the University of Cambridge Advanced . In 1882/83 he completed a semester at the University of Jena . From 1883 to 1884 he taught as a professor ( lecturer ) law at the University of Cambridge.

With the founding of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in London in 1882 , he became a member of this society and from 1885 took over duties on the management board of the SPR. From 1887 until his death in 1905 he was general secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) in Boston, which at the time was affiliated with the SPR. In 1902 he co-founded the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Hodgson died on December 20, 1905 in Boston of complications from a heart attack . After his death, a chair in parapsychology named after him, the Hodgson Fellowship in Psychical Research , was established at Harvard University .

On behalf of the SPR or ASPR, Hodgson examined numerous paranormal phenomena, in which he came to a negative result in most cases. Important investigations concerned the medium Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918), whom he declared in 1894 as a fraud . However, other researchers, such as Hereward Carrington , Wladyslaw Rybka or Howard Thurston, described what Palladino presented as real. The only known case in which Hodgson came to a positive result was the medium Leonora Piper (1857–1950). For a total of 15 years he investigated the phenomena presented by Piper and confirmed their authenticity in 1897. He continued his research and planned to publish another report on Piper before it came to that, but he died.

The Hodgson Report

His first case, the Hodgson Report named after him from 1884/85, brought him fame. On behalf of the SPR, he was supposed to investigate the paranormal phenomena that Helena Petrovna Blavatsky , one of the founders of the Theosophical Society (TG), had been carrying out for several years . The result was the report of the committee of inquiry into the phenomena in connection with the Theosophical Society , later called the Hodgson Report for short , and this was downright devastating for Blavatsky, whom he portrayed as a fraudster and forger. In 1893, Hodgson published a justification for critical objections to his report, but it did not end the criticism. For example, Vernon Harrison called the 1986 and 1997 report unjustified.

Publications

  • HP Blavatsky and the SPR. An examination of the Hodgson report from 1885. Theosophischer Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-930623-21-8 .

literature

  • Alexander T. Baird: Richard Hodgson, the story of a psychical researcher and his times . Psychic Press, London 1949.
  • Mark Antony De Wolfe: A memoir of Richard Hodgson, 1855-1905 . Boston 1906.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald Lamprecht : New Rosicrucians. A manual. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-56549-6 , p. 168.
personal data
SURNAME Hodgson, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Parapsychologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Melbourne , New South Wales, Australia
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1905
Place of death Boston , Massachusetts , USA