E X T E N S I O N THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH Henry James wrote many of his novels at a time known as The Heroic Age , when the natural sciences challenged traditional religious views, and there was a huge interest in the paranormal and spiritualism , that is to say, stories of visions, apparitions, miraculous events and communication with the dead. Henry s brother William, who studied psychology and Freud s theories of the subconscious mind, founded the American Society for Psychical Research in 1885, a group The Master in an anxious moment. of people who shared the vision to explore the unknown realms1 of human consciousness. It still exists today. The society s honorary members included Sigmund Freud (psychiatrist), Carl Jung (psychiatrist), Harry Houdini (illusionist), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes) and of course, Henry James himself. Both brothers were also members of the equivalent British society and William was President of this from 1894 to 1896. The society had many discussions with fellow members about the nature of reality, and they investigated dubious2 psychic and spiritualistic phenomena in, as they wrote, a spirit of exact and unimpassioned enquiry which has led science to solve so many problems. Edward Gurney wrote the book Phantasms of the Living at this time, which remains a classic if you are interested in spiritualism. During their research, they found that the majority of mediums (people who claimed they could contact and speak with the dead) were fake3, and used many tricks4 to make people believe it was true. However, by chance, William James met an American woman, Leonora Piper, who made it impossible for the researchers to explain 1. realm: an area of interest or knowledge. 2. dubious: not certain and slightly suspicious. 3. fake: not genuine. 4. trick: something done to deceive. 5. apparent: seems to be real or true but may not be. 6. deceased: dead. 48