Paranormal Investigations – Is There Anybody Out There?
About this episode
This episode explores the history of paranormal investigations and the complex relationship between evidence and belief.
Welcome to Origin Story. This week we’re doing something different: the history of paranormal investigations and what it says about the relationship between evidence and belief. In 1848, two sisters in Hydesville, New York claimed to be contacting the spirit world. Within a couple of years spiritualism was a popular craze on both sides of the Atlantic, with seances attracting luminaries from Queen Victoria to Charles Darwin. But could it be proven beyond doubt? In 1883, a group of scientists and intellectuals launched the Society for Psychical Research to find out, but from its inception there was tension between the genuine sceptics and the instinctive believers. However many hoaxers they debunked, even the sceptics encountered things they could not rationally explain. The mass grief of the First World War created a new appetite for spiritualism, spearheaded by the world-famous author Arthur Conan Doyle. Meanwhile in North Carolina, J.B. and Louisa Rhine proposed that these uncanny goings on were not evidence of ghosts but of untapped powers in the human brain: Extra-Sensory Perception. Concepts like telepathy and telekinesis swept through popular culture while scientists…
People in this episode
Host: Podmasters
Topics covered
- paranormal investigations
- spiritualism
- evidence and belief
- psychical research
- extra-sensory perception
- cultural history
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Society for Psychical Research
Places: Hydesville, New York
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