People From the Other World

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title People From the Other World
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Henry Steel Olcott
SeriesCambridge Library Collection - Spiritualism and Esoteric Knowledge
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:504
Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 140
Category/GenreSpiritualism
Occult studies
ISBN/Barcode 9781108072656
ClassificationsDewey:133.9
Audience
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Illustrations 58 Halftones, unspecified

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 19 May 2011
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

The lawyer and journalist Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907) published People from the Other World in 1875. Part 1 of the work is a careful account of Olcott's 1874 investigations into the famous Eddy brothers of Chittenden, Vermont, and their claimed psychic powers. Part 2 is a report into two Philadelphia mediums who claimed to be able to call up two spirits called John and Katie King. The account includes descriptions of seances, healings, levitation, teleportation and the famous Compton transfiguration. Olcott, a founding member of the Theosophical Society and its first president, was a pioneer of psychical research. This work, deeply influenced by Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), who he met at Chittenden, is one of his most popular. It offers an important insight into the nineteenth-century fascination with the occult and is a classic example of a Victorian attempt to approach the supernatural with the rigours of scientific investigation.