William James on Psychical Research

Awkward and unclassifiable facts are the bugbear of scientific orthodoxy. They challenge its authority; the easy course is to ignore them. William James, deeply committee throughout his life to the spirit of science, insisted with passionate intensity that there is no place in science for rigid orthodoxy. It was precisely in the awkward facts of experience that he looked for clues to an enlargement of science and of our understanding of the very strange universe in which we live. Psychical phenomena caught his attention at an early age: telepathy, clairvoyance, faith healing, reports of communications from the dead. No one of these subjects had any standing in the eyes of orthodox scientists. To take them seriously, to propose scientific investigations of them, was to lay oneself open to suspicion. James the psychologist saw no unbridgeable gap between normal and paranormal experience. What he did see in the shadowy border region was an unexplored aspect of the human spirit. The whole force of his increasing prestige was put at the service of psychical research. If there were facts to be investigated, James the pragmatist would help ferret them out and appraise them. The record of his search and of the conclusions he came to is contained in these pages. With the detachment of a scientist and the fervor of a pioneer he sought out his elusive material wherever it was to be found. The great problem remains unsolved today, but James's definition of it - and his research - help us to understand its significance. (from the dust jacket)