Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death

_Human Personality And Its Survival of Bodily Death_, first published in 1903 and republished here by Dover Publications, by psychical researcher and psychologist F. W. H. Myers is a classic text in parapsychology, telepathy, and the role of the unconscious in human psychology. F. W. H. Myers (1843 - 1901) was a lecturer in classics at Cambridge University who became disillusioned with traditional religion. This process of disillusionment led him to feeling profoundly unsatisfied and ultimately he was to form the Society for Psychical Research (S.P.R.) together with Henry and Mrs. Sidgwick and Edmund Gurney. Later he was also involved with the famous American psychologist and philosopher William James in exploring the realms of psychical research. At the time this book was written, there was much discussion of Darwinian evolution and much of the scientific world held to a strict dogmatic materialism, denying that man had a soul. It required great courage for Myers to maintain that the human being had a soul and that it was indeed possible for that soul to survive bodily death. Further, Myers also considered extra-sensory perception to be something natural and not unnatural, thus challenging much scientific orthodoxy. The relationship between Myers and traditional religion is more problematic however. He did not denigrate traditional religion but rather instead decides to turn to science as a means for investigating such phenomena of the "World Unseen". This book is presented in a format that includes many case studies and anecdotal evidence to make its point regarding the survival of human personality after bodily death. This edition of the book is an abridgement of the original 2 volume edition which is rightly regarded as an esteemed classic in the field of psychical research. This edition includes a Foreword by Aldous Huxley and a Preface by the editor Susy Smith. The book begins with an Introduction by Myers in which he explains his methods for investigating the "World Unseen". As stated previously, Myers maintains that he will rely on science to investigate these phenomena and relates this to traditional religion and the Christian churches. Myers further explains the idea of a threshold of consciousness and relates this to a subliminal consciousness. Myers also explains how the classical conception of a "ghost" arises and that such phantasms may appear both at and after a man's bodily death. Myers also discusses telepathy, lays out his plans for the book, and mentions the work of Sir William Crookes and D. D. Home. Following this, Myers turns to a discussion of the "Disintegration of Personality", where he examines the possibilities of post-epileptic states and multiple personalities. Myers quotes extensively from the works of Janet regarding multiple personalities and examines several case studies as such. Myers also provides some examination of cases including dreams, ecmnesia, hypnosis, and "personality splits". Follow

_In 1903 the Society for Psychical Research published this classic work- and effectively proved to any reasonable reader that man's true essence survives bodily death. However, the world of the early 20th century was obsessed with materialism and effectively ignored this finding. Those few scientists that did review the work came away convinced, more often than not. The problem was that most "reputable" scientists wouldn't even consider it- a problem that continues to this day. _The author of this pioneering volume was F.W.H. Myers, the cofounder of the Society of Psychical Research. Myers was not some fringe crank, for he was a recognized classics scholar, platonic philosopher, poet, and son of a clergyman. It was Myers who first translated and introduced Freud to the British public. He was also the originator of the term "telepathy." He was a meticulous and conscientious investigator. That is what strikes you about the vast compendium of cases included here- they were painstakingly documented, all witnesses were carefully interviewed, and sworn affidavits were obtained. In no way can this be considered a book of "heresay." Myers covered a wide variety of phenomena from hypnotic trance, dreams, possession, mystic ecstasy, telepathy, mediumship, clairvoyance, automatic writing, phantasms of the dead, to actual evidence of the survival of the subliminal elements of personality after death- because he correctly considered them all to be in some way interrelated. _So, in life, Meyers effectively proved survival of the personality after death. But that was only half of his work. Starting a few years after his death his spirit started communicating with widely separated mediums in England, the United States, and India. The result was a huge body of interconnected messages called the "Cross Correspondences." This work consisted of over 3000 messages delivered over 30 years, and of such a complexity- and consistency- that they provide absolute proof of the survival of Meyers and several of his colleagues. _You see, the case for survival of the spirit was effectively made over 100 years ago, but it is still effectively ignored by a mainstream materialist society with its own agenda. But that doesn't make it any less true.

_In 1903 the Society for Psychical Research published this classic work- and effectively proved to any reasonable reader that man's true essence survives bodily death. However, the world of the early 20th century was obsessed with materialism and effectively ignored this finding. Those few scientists that did review the work came away convinced, more often than not. The problem was that most "reputable" scientists wouldn't even consider it- a problem that continues to this day. _The author of this pioneering volume was F.W.H. Myers, the cofounder of the Society of Psychical Research. Myers was not some fringe crank, for he was a recognized classics scholar, platonic philosopher, poet, and son of a clergyman. It was Myers who first translated and introduced Freud to the British public. He was also the originator of the term "telepathy." He was a meticulous and conscientious investigator. That is what strikes you about the vast compendium of cases included here- they were painstakingly documented, all witnesses were carefully interviewed, and sworn affidavits were obtained. In no way can this be considered a book of "hearsay." Myers covered a wide variety of phenomena from hypnotic trance, dreams, possession, mystic ecstasy, telepathy, mediumship, clairvoyance, automatic writing, phantasms of the dead, to actual evidence of the survival of the subliminal elements of personality after death- because he correctly considered them all to be in some way interrelated. _So, in life, Meyers effectively proved survival of the personality after death. But that was only half of his work. Starting a few years after his death his spirit started communicating with widely separated mediums in England, the United States, and India. The result was a huge body of interconnected messages called the "Cross Correspondences." This work consisted of over 3000 messages delivered over 30 years, and of such a complexity- and consistency- that they provide absolute proof of the survival of Meyers and several of his colleagues. _So you see, the case for survival of the spirit was effectively made over 100 years ago, but it is still effectively ignored by a mainstream materialist society with its own agenda. But that doesn't make it any less true. _This new edition has an introduction by Jeffrey Mishlove, Ph.D; the foreward by Aldous Huxley; and the introduction to the 1961 edition by Susy Smith. There is a full index.

(Paperback edition) In the 1890's, when F.W.H. Myers wrote Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death, people didn't believe they necessarily had souls, much less that the soul would survive their death. After Myers experienced communication with his deceased wife, he set out to prove his contemporaries wrong. Myers was a scholar who became a scientist when he began investigating paranormal phenomena. He conducted research and experiments in a variety of fields, including personality disintegration, genius, sleep, hypnosis, and trances. His goal was to "break down that artificial wall between science and superstition." He believed that questions of the soul should be subjected to the same open mind and critical analysis used in other scientific inquiries. His landmark investigations set the standards for subsequent research into human consciousness. In his interpretive introduction to the book, Jeffrey Mishlove says that Myers's "classic synthesis of nineteenth century field research [is regarded] as the most important single work in the history of psychical research." He adds that it is still "fresh, vigorous, and contemporary." Like many of the classic metaphysical texts, Myers's book has been out of print for years. Hampton Roads Publishing Company has begun to reissue the classical texts in their new series, Studies in Consciousness/Russell Targ Editions. Their current edition of Myers's book is an abridgement of the original, "prepared to make its major content more readily accessible to the modern reader." Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death documents Myers's extensive experiments and conclusions that personality does, in fact, continue after death. Readers will discover that he achieved his goal of proving that the human personality is not limited to material life.

This is THE seminal work by THE premier researcher of the heyday of psychical research. It was originally published around 1900. If you don't own this, there is a huge gap in your library. It is basically the only thing in the field of psychical research that Myers ever published because he died at age 50, but he was truly one of the gods of psychical research. He was a classical scholar, and this is reflected in the quality of this work. His theories as to "What Its All About" do not make for easy reading, but they have greatly influenced all subsequent thinking in the field of personal survival. Myers is perhaps best known for what he accomplished after death: communicating from the "other side" through Piper, Verrall and other mediums, he was the source of the "cross-correspondences" which are widely regarded as some of the best evidence for personal survival. Anyway, if your reading concerning life after death has been confined to works published in the 1980s and 90s (George Anderson, Rosemary Altea, et al.), your mind will be blown by the quality and seriousness of the work done by researchers like Myers 100 years ago.