Johnson, Alice (1860-1940)

Prominent figure in British psychical research. Johnson was organizing secretary of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), London, from 1903 to 1916, research officer from 1908 to 1916, and editor of the society's Proceedings from 1899 to 1916. Born in Cambridge, England, she was educated at Newham College, Cambridge University (Bathurst student 1882). From 1884 to 1890 she was a demonstrator in animal morphology at the Balfour Laboratory.

Johnson became interested in psychical research through her association with Eleanor Sidgwick and became her personal secretary. Johnson participated in the first sittings in England with the American medium Leonora Piper in 1889 and assisted in the SPR Census of Hallucinations between 1889 and 1894. In 1901 she collaborated with Richard Hodgson on the preparation of the F. W. H. Myers book Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death, which was published after Myers's death. Johnson also reported on the SPR group of mediums investigated in connection with automatic phenomena (writing and trance messages). She died January 13, 1940.

Sources:

Johnson, Alice. "The Education of the Sitter." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (1908-09).

——. "Mrs. Henry Sidgwick's Work in Psychical Research." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (1936-37).

——. "On the Automatic Writing of Mrs. Holland." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (1908-09).

——. "Report of Some Recent Sittings for Physical Phenomena in America." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (1908-09).

——. "Second Report on Mrs. Holland's Scripts." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (1910).

——. "Supplementary Notes on Mrs. Holland's Scripts." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (1910).

——. "Third Report on Mrs. Holland's Scripts." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (1910).

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