Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (Perspectives in Psychical Research) [Hardcover]

F. W. H. Myers (Author)

Book Description

Series: Perspectives in Psychical Research | Publication Date: June 1975

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Frederic W H Myers --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 2 pages
• Publisher: Ayer Co Pub (June 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0405070381
• ISBN-13: 978-0405070389
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,559,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely essential, March 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (Perspectives in Psychical Research) (Hardcover)

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.

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Human Personality and Its Survival
Human Perof Bodily Death, April 11, 2003

By 

Cassandra Barnes "Cassandra" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (Studies in Consciousness) (Paperback)

(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.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest work of the Society for Psychical Research, October 5, 2005

By 

OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (Studies in Consciousness) (Paperback)

_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.