Mediumship and Survival: A Century of Investigations

Alan Gauld examines the evidence used in psychical research to argue for, or against, survival after bodily death. His discussion centres on mediumship, with attention to investigations involving Leonora Piper and Gladys Leonard, as well as reports of ‘drop-in’ communicators: apparently deceased individuals unknown to the people present at sittings.

The book also considers competing explanations, including super-ESP or living-agent psi, and asks how far such theories can account for the available evidence. Further chapters address obsession and possession, reincarnation, memory and the brain, out-of-body experiences, and apparitions. Accounts of apparitions of the dead are examined alongside questions of purpose, identity and the possible relationship between these reports and survival.