Natural Causes and Supernatural Seemings [Paperback]

First published in 1886, this largely sceptical account of Victorian spiritualist interests attempts to find natural explanations for supernatural occurrences.Written by pioneer psychiatrist Henry Maudsley, this 1887 publication presents a largely sceptical account of nineteenth-century spiritual encounters and experiments with the supernatural. Dividing his work into three parts, Maudsley suggests that such beliefs stem from errors in human observation, overactive imaginations, and delusions caused by mental illness.Written by pioneer psychiatrist Henry Maudsley, this 1887 publication presents a largely sceptical account of nineteenth-century spiritual encounters and experiments with the supernatural. Dividing his work into three parts, Maudsley suggests that such beliefs stem from errors in human observation, overactive imaginations, and delusions caused by mental illness.First published in 1886, this comprehensive analysis of nineteenth-century spiritual experiments questions our long tradition of encounters with the supernatural, and why it appeared to have declined in influence in the writer's era. Maudsley (18351918), a medical psychologist and pioneer psychiatrist, sets out to bring such alleged spiritual phenomena under scientific investigation. Emphasising the natural defects and errors of human observation and reasoning, as well as the prolific activity of the imagination, this inquiry into the causes of belief in the supernatural suggests that much of it can be explained though hallucination, mania, and delusion. The book is divided into three parts: the first section concentrates on the causes of fallacies in the sound mind, while the second considers unsound mental action. The focus of part three is theopneusticism, or the attainment of supernatural knowledge by divine inspiration. This second edition appeared in 1887.Statement of the argument; Part I. Fallacies Incident to the Natural Operations of Sound Mind: 1. The natural defects and errors of obselã¶