Casting a 'Cold Light'? Psychical research and the haunting of popular culture in Britain, 1918-1948

Abstract

This thesis explores the popularisation of psychical research in Britain between 1918 and 1948, focussing specifically upon the organised investigation and presentation of, and public response to, ghosts and poltergeists. Scholars of occult history generally juxtapose the elite 'intellectualism' of psychical research against the popular 'egalitarianism' of spiritualism, consequently overlooking the important popular aspects of psychical research. This thesis suggests that between 1918 and 1948, there were two forms of psychical research in Britain: academic psychical research, as undertaken by the socially well-connected intellectuals of the British Society for Psychical Research 9SPR); and public psychical research, as practised by scientifically unqualified but popular press- endorsed 'ghost hunters' such as Harry Price and Nandor Fodor. The 'double' identity of psychical research in this period raises a number of significant questions about the discourse of psychical research and its malleability, and the role of the press and the discipline's prominent practitioners in thematically reshaping psychical research to generate public interest.