Alan Gauld
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Alan Gauld (born 1932) is a British parapsychologist, psychologist and spiritualist writer best known for his research on the history of
hypnotism Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychological ...
and
mediumship Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or ghost, spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or ...
.


Biography

Gauld was born in Portland, Dorset. In the late 1950s, he attended
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. He obtained an M.S. in 1958 and a PhD in 1962 from
Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...
. He taught psychology at the
University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...
and was the President of the
Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...
from 1989 to 1992. Gauld has generally been skeptical of physical
mediumship Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or ghost, spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or ...
. He has claimed that ectoplasm materializations seem to "smack very strongly of fraud and conjuring", such as made from
cheesecloth Cheesecloth is a loose-woven gauze-like carded cotton cloth used primarily in cheesemaking and cooking. The fabric has holes large enough to quickly allow liquids (like whey) to percolate through the fabric, but small enough to retain solids lik ...
or net curtain. He states however that he believes there is genuine evidence for movement of objects during séances including the phenomena produced with the medium Daniel Dunglas Home. This is in opposition to other researchers who have declared that Home was fraudulent. He has criticized the Scole experiment, a series of séances that members of the Society for Psychical Research investigated. During one of the séances there was "spontaneous appearance of images on film", though Gauld discovered that the locked box was "easily opened in the dark, which allowed for easy substitution of film rolls." In 2022, Gauld authored ''The Heyday of Mental Mediumship'', published by the spiritualist company White Crow Books which revealed he has spiritualist beliefs.


Reception

Gauld's ''The Founders of Psychical Research'' (1968) documents early investigations into
paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...
phenomena. The book received a mixed review by Robert Kent Donovan who praised the research but complained that Gauld was biased in support of the authenticity of the findings from the psychical researchers. Psychologist C. E. M. Hansel has criticized ''The Founders of Psychical Research'' for ignoring certain historical sources. Hansel noted that when discussing spiritualist mediums such as the Fox sisters or Eusapia Palladino, Gauld failed to "report important observations that suggest physical rather than psychical explanations." He has drawn criticism from historian Ruth Brandon for disputing the confession of the Fox sisters. Gauld's book ''A History Of Hypnotism'' (1992) documents the history of hypnosis. It was positively reviewed by medical historian Roger Cooter in the ''
British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world ...
'' who recommended it as a "useful reference tool." The book was also positively reviewed by philosopher Peter G. Sobol who wrote that "with its broad coverage and attention to detail, this is an indispensable book for any future work on the history of hypnosis." Psychologist Geoffrey Blowers also praised the book commenting that "he steers a clear path through the large, diverse literature and avoids a partisan stance on the findings to present a lively and informative account of this baffling phenomenon." Psychiatrist Melvin A. Gravitz described the book as a "significant contribution to the field, which will stand as a hallmark of scholarship for many years."Gravitz, Melvin A. ''A History of Hypnotism by Alan Gauld''. '' American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis'', 1993. Volume 36: 63–66.


Selected publications

* ''The Founders of Psychical Research'' (1968) * ''Human Action and its Psychological Investigation'' ith John Shotter(1977) * ''Poltergeists'' (1979) ith Tony Cornell">Tony_Cornell.html" ;"title="ith Tony Cornell">ith Tony Cornell* ''Andrew Lang as Psychical Researcher'' (1983) * ''Mediumship and Survival: A Century of Investigations'' (1983) * ''A History Of Hypnotism'' (1992) *''The Heyday of Mental Mediumship: 1880s – 1930s: Investigators, Mediums and Communicators'' (2022)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gauld, Alan 1932 births British male non-fiction writers British psychologists English writers on paranormal topics Living people British parapsychologists Academics of the University of Nottingham