Date of Award

2009

Thesis Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Liberal Studies

Advisor(s)

Dr. J. Thomas Cook

Abstract

The purpose of the first part of this paper is to present various suggestions for diverse sources regarding mediumship from the beginnings of research in the 1860’s to the present day. The second section of the paper is divided into several chapters exposing the best cases of evidence for survival beyond bodily death, such as Mrs. Piper’s trance mediumship with automatic writing, Palladino’s physical mediumship, the cross-correspondence material in the first half of the 20th century and three reincarnation cases suggestive of survival-- plus my own training and experience as a professional mental and seance medium. The paper’s last chapter draws conclusions from the evidence presented as to the basis of mediumship, and two main theories that attempt to explain the unusual phenomena presented here, the ESP-PSI theory and the survival theory. There are those who would dismiss all the evidence as just so much smoke and mirrors, but based on my experience and all the research and writing that has been done on the subject, I think that hypothesis can be left behind. The two competing hypotheses that are left are considered by the debunkers to be strange also. The intention of this paper is to show where the research has taken us, even though all the questions are not yet totally settled, and a lot of work remains to be done.

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