Abstract

James\' writings on psychical phenomena are presented under the following headings: "Early Impressions"; "General Statements"; "Clairvoyance, Levitation, and \'the Astral Body\' "; "William James and Mrs. Piper"; "William James and Frederic Meyers"; "Religion and the Problems of the Soul and Immortality"; and "The Last Report." In the last, originally published shortly before his death, James wrote that "there is a continuum of cosmic consciousness, against which our individuality builds but accidental fences, and into which our several minds plunge as into a mother-sea or reservoir." An introduction and essay in retrospect are contributed by Gardner Murphy.