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George Wyld

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For other people with similar names, see George Wilde.
George Wyld
Occupation(s)Physician, spiritualist, Theosophist, writer

George Wyld (1821–1906) was a Scottish homeopathic physician and Christian Theosophist.

Career

Wyld became interested in homeopathy in 1851 after discovering the work of Samuel Hahnemann whilst a medical student at Edinburgh. After he obtained his M. D. with the thesis 'The liver: the hydrogenator in animals' [1]he moved to London where he taught homeopathy and in 1876 became president of the British Homeopathic Society.[2]

Wyld was interested in mesmerism, spiritualism and Theosophy. He has been described as one of the "oldest mesmerists in England".[3] Wyld was also a proponent of phrenology. He 1844 he joined the London Phrenological Society.[4] He was a convinced spiritualist, in 1854 he met the medium Daniel Dunglas Home.[5]

In October 1876 he defended the fraudulent slate-writing medium Henry Slade at his trial. He help to organize a spiritualists defense fund to cover Slade's legal costs. Because of this he received great criticism from the medical community.[2]

Wyld was a vice-president for the British National Association of Spiritualists and an early member of the Society for Psychical Research.[2][6]

Theosophy

In the 1879 he joined the British Theosophical Society and was its president during 1880-1882. He resigned in 1882 due to Madame Blavatsky's opposition to Christianity.[7]

Wyld was originally impressed by Blavatsky, believing her to possess mediumistic powers but later fell out with her, describing her without knowing who she really was. He resigned after she had written an article in The Theosophist claiming "there is no personal or impersonal God." However, he did not abandon Theosophy altogether, he formed his own hybrid version of Christianity with Theosophy known as Christo-Theosophy.[8]

Publications

References

  1. ^ Wyld, George (1851). "The liver: the hydrogenator in animals". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ a b c Oppenheim, Janet. (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914. Cambridge University Press. pp. 231-232. ISBN 978-0521347679
  3. ^ Thomson, Thomson. (2006). Psychological Subjects: Identity, Culture, and Health in Twentieth-Century Britain. Oxford University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0199287802
  4. ^ Oppenheim, Janet. (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0521347679
  5. ^ Pert, Alan. (2007). Red Cactus: The Life of Anna Kingsford. Books & Writers. p. 90. ISBN 978-1740184052
  6. ^ McCorristine, Shane. (2010). Spectres of the Self: Thinking about Ghosts and Ghost-Seeing in England, 1750-1920. Cambridge University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-0521747967
  7. ^ Guttierez, Cathy. (2015). Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling. Brill. p. 132. ISBN 978-9004263772
  8. ^ Oppenheim, Janet. (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0521347679
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