Structure and abstract of the book:

The limits of science: Spiritism, hypnotism and the study of paranormal

phenomena (1850-1930)
Edited by: Annette Mülberger

PREFACE: SCIENCE, DOCTRINE, BELIEFS AND PROFESSIONALIZATION

Antoni Roca Rosell (Univ. PC)
INTRODUCTION Annette Mülberger (UAB)

PART ONE: FROM SPIRITISM TO PARAPSYCHOLOGY

CHAPTER 1: THE BEGINNINGS OF THE SPIRITIST MOVEMENT Annette Mülberger (UAB)
CHAPTER 2: SPIRITISM ARRIVES IN SPAIN: THE CLASH WITH THE CHURCH AND THE
FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Annette Mülberger (UAB)
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH INTO THE PARANORMAL Annette Mülberger (UAB)

PART TWO: THE PRACTICE OF MEDIUMSHIP, HYPNOSIS AND CLAIRVOYANCE IN

SPAIN
CHAPTER 4: DISPELLING THE SPIRITS: THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF MEDIUMSHIP
Andrea Graus (U. of Antwerp)
CHAPTER 5: CONSOLIDATE, COLONIZE, EXCLUDE: STRATEGIES TO LEGITIMIZE
MEDICAL HYPNOSIS Ángel González de Pablo (UCM)
CHAPTER 6: THE PRACTICE OF METAPSYCHICS: A MARQUIS RESEARCHING
CLAIRVOYANCE Mónica Balltondre (UAB)

PART THREE: CLAIRVOYANCE AND SPIRITISM IN EUROPE AND RUSSIA

CHAPTER 7: CLAIRVOYANCE IN WESTERN EUROPE (1900-1939) Nicole Edelman
(Univ. of Paris)
CHAPTER 8: RUSSIAN SPIRITISM, SCIENCE AND PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE Michael D.
Gordin (Princeton University)
EPILOGUE Annette Mülberger (UAB)

This book is about the spiritist practices that emerged in the United States and Europe from
the middle of the nineteenth century. Motivated by curiosity and a desire to be entertained, many
people gathered together at night to watch tables shake or hear strange knocking sounds that seemed
to contain intelligible messages. Once these practices reached European countries, they were to take
on a more specific significance. They were established as a form of rational philosophy, based on
mediumship, with religious and scientific aspirations. As a social movement, they acquired certain
popularity; although the movement was always of a highly disjointed nature. Some scientists soon
found themselves involved in putting the paranormal phenomena exhibited during the night-time
sessions to the test. That was the start of the creation of a space for both conflict and negotiation
between the two camps, as well as within science itself; following a dynamic of the defining of
competencies and the demarcation of professions.
The work is structured in three parts and has eight main chapters. The first three deal, from a
general perspective, with the evolution of spiritism and how this led to the emergence of
parapsychology (in the form of “psychical research” and metapsychics). The next chapters are about
mediumship, hypnotism and clairvoyance, showing how these practices were first introduced into
Spain and then spread. In the last parte there is a chapter on different forms of clairvoyance and
their relationship with psychoanalysis, art and the popular press in Europe. And, finally, the last
chapter examines in detail the research into spiritist phenomena undertaken in Saint Petersburg by a
commission set up by the famous Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev.