Thought Transference – Northcote W. Thomas (1905) (1st ed)

S$82.00

Thought Transference – Northcote W. Thomas (1905) (1st ed)

S$82.00

A book about telepathy, based on the author’s experiments as part of the Society for Psychical Research.

Title: Thought Transference: A Critical and Historical Review of the Evidence for Telepathy, with a Record of New Experiments 1902-1903

Author: Northcote W. Thomas

Publisher: Alexander Moring, London, 1905. First edition.

Condition: Hardcover, fair. Slight tanning to pages and some rubbing to covers. Sporadic and light pencil marks to  pages, not affecting text. Ffep slightly soiled. Binding tight. 214pp., app 7″ by 5″.

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Contents include, but not limited to:

Introductin

Telepathy A Designation, not a Theory

The Subliminal – Clairvoyance

Visions and Hallucinations – Automatic Writing

The Magnetizers

Experiments at a Distance

Telepathic Hypnotism – Telepathic Dreams

Experiments in 1902

and more

About the author (from Wikipedia):

Northcote Whitridge Thomas (1868-1936) was a British anthropologist and psychical researcher.

In 1909, Thomas became the first Government Anthropologist to be appointed by the British Colonial Office. In this capacity he conducted a series of anthropological surveys in Nigeria and Sierra Leone. He studied the Edo and Igbo people in Southern Nigeria, and worked mainly with Temne and Limba communities in Sierra Leone. In the course of his survey work, Thomas assembled large collections of artefacts, took thousands of photographs, made sound recordings of speech and music, and even collected botanical specimen. His artefact collection is now stored at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge.

In Nigeria, Thomas was described as an eccentric and undiplomatic individual. His superiors transferred him to Sierra Leone in 1913, after two years he was sent home. He was once described by a Colonial Office clerk as “a recognized maniac in many ways. He wore sandals, even in this country, lived on vegetables and was generally a rum person.” Despite criticism of his methods the Colonial Office requested the Royal Anthropological Institute to examine Thomas’s anthropological research of Nigeria. They declared that they were “impressed with the thoroughness of his enquiries.”

It was alleged by historian Henrika Kuklick that Thomas had investigated the cannibalistic Human Leopard Society in Sierra Leone but in his report “refused to divulge the identities of the murderers he had interviewed, arguing that the anthropologist’s code of professional ethics required him to maintain the confidentiality of the relationship he had with his informants.” However, anthropologist Paul Basu who examined archival evidence has disputed this statement noting that Thomas never wrote a report on the Human Leopard Society.

Thomas was a member of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), he was also interested in the occult and collaborated on psychical research with his friend Andrew Lang. He authored works on crystal gazing and telepathy. His book on crystal gazing was criticized by anthropologist Edward Clodd as non-scientific.