Census of Hallucinations
Census of Hallucinations
An early survey of public encounters with paranormal apparitions, occasioned by the publication of Phantasms of the Living, by Edmund Gurney, F. W. H. Myers, and Frank Podmore (1886), expanded on in 1889 by a committee of the Society for Psychical Research, London. Under Henry Sidgwick 's chair-manship the committee consisted of Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, Myers, Podmore, and Alice Johnson. The report of the committee, drawn up by Mrs. Sidgwick, was published in 1894. Seventeen thousand people were canvassed, of which 1,684 answered claiming to have seen apparitions.
Sources:
Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.
Gurney, Edmund, F. W. H. Myers, and Frank Podmore. Phantasms of the Living. 2 vols. London: Society for Psychical Re-search, Trubner & Co., 1886.
"Report of the Census of Hallucinations." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 10 (1894): 25.