Hart, Hornell (Norris) (1888-1967)

American professor of sociology and parapsychologist. Hart was born August 2, 1888, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He studied at Oberlin College, Ohio (B.A., 1910), the University of Wisconsin (M.A. sociology, 1914), and the State University of Iowa (Ph.D. child welfare and sociology, 1921). He was a faculty member successively at Bryn Mawr College (1924-33), Hartford Theological Seminary (1933-38), Duke University (1938-57), Centre College of Kentucky (1957-60), and Florida Southern College (1960-67). He developed an early interest in parapsychology and was a charter member of the Parapsychological Association and a member of the American Society for Psychical Research and the Society for Psychical Research.

Hart was a widely published and respected scholar in sociology. Also, as early as the 1930s he began to publish in parapsychology. His special concerns were apparitions and the evidence for survival, the latter topic being the subject of his major book, The Enigma of Survival: The Case For and Against an After-Life (1959). He discusses the question of out-of-the-body travel or "astral projection" in his article "Man Outside His Body?" (Tomorrow, winter 1954). His culminating statements about his explorations are presented in his final book, Toward a New Philosophical Basis for Parapsychological Phenomena (1965). He died in 1967.

Sources:

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Hart, Hornell N. The Enigma of Survival: The Case For and Against an After-Life. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1959.

——. "ESP Projection: Spontaneous Cases and the Experimental Method." Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research (1954).

——. Living Religion. New York: Abingdon Press, 1937.

——. "The Psychic Fifth Dimension." Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research (1953).

——. "Psychical Research and the Methods of Science." Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research (1957).

——. "Six Theories About Apparitions." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (May 1956).

——. Skeptic's Quest. New York: Macmillan, 1938.

——. Toward a New Philosophical Basis for Parapsychological Phenomena. New York: Parapsychological Foundation, 1965.

——. "Visions and Apparitions Collectively and Reciprocally Received." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (May 1933).

——. Your Share of God: Spiritual Power for Life Fulfillment. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1958.

Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.