The Elusive Science: Origins of Experimental Psychical Research.

Hardback octavo, dustjacket, good plus condition (in very good dustjacket), rear flap creased jacket, edges & endpapers foxed, minor edgewear, protected by removable semiarchival plastic sleeve. 368 pp. Professors Seymour Mauskopf and Michael McVaugh examine the history of the controversial science of parapsychology, initially termed 'psychical research'. They track the evolution of this discipline from amateurish and disorganised investigations to professional experimental research. They concentrate on the period from 1920 to 1940 when psychical researchers first made a sustained attempt to gain acceptance from mainstream science. Both authors are historians of science, and they make no claim about the validity of the philosophical foundations of the field. This history is based on records from the British and American Societies for Psychical Research, and the parapsychology laboratory of J. B. Rhine at Duke University. In an afterword, J.B. and Louisa Rhine offer a parapsychological perspective.…