Abstract

Traces trends in British parapsychological research. 19th-century researchers encountered disbelief and anger from a scientific community that refused to acknowledge even the existence of inexplicable happenings such as levitation. Later scientists continued to ignore the occurrence of poltergeists, and a geophysical theory of poltergeists--complete with weather charts--was proposed. Psychokinesis has more recently returned as a fashionable topic of parapsychological research. Mesmerism and ectoplasm are other topics that, once fashionable, have since lost their popularity.