Henry C. McComas
Henry Clay McComas (born 1875) was an American psychologist and skeptic.
McComas worked as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Princeton University, he was also an editor for the Psychological Index.[1][2]
McComas was a member of the American Society for Psychical Research, and took interest in exposing the fraud and trickery of mediums.[3][4] He investigated William Cartheuser and Mina Crandon and concluded they were both fraudulent.[5][6]
In his book Ghosts I Have Talked With (1937), McComas described his experiences in investigating spiritualism. His results were entirely negative. He found that chance, fraud or malobservation could explain all the phenomena.[7][8]
Publications
- Some Types of Attention (1911)
- The Psychology of Religious Sects: Comparison of Types (1912)
- Apparatus for Recording Continuous Discrimination Reactions (1917)
- The Aviator (1922)
- Ghosts I Have Talked With (1937)
- The McComas Saga: A Family History Down to the Year 1950 (1950)
References
- ^ A Memorial for National Prohibition: With the Names of One Thousand Signers. Pilgrim Press, 1917. p. 23
- ^ The New Department of Psychology. Princeton Alumni Weekly, Volume 20, 1919. p. 414
- ^ Polidoro, Massimo. (2001). Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle. Prometheus Books. p. 198. ISBN 1-57392-896-8
- ^ Moreman, Christopher M. (2013). The Spiritualist Movement: Speaking with the Dead in America and Around the World. Volume 1: American Origins and Global Proliferation. Praeger. pp. 240-241. ISBN 978-0-313-39947-3
- ^ Christopher, Milbourne. (1975). Mediums, Mystics & the Occult. Thomas Y. Crowell. pp. 216-217. ISBN 0-690-00476-1
- ^ Anderson, Rodger. (2006). Psychics, Sensitives and Somnambules: A Biographical Dictionary with Bibliographies. McFarland & Company. p. 221. ISBN 978-0786427703
- ^ D, K. M. (1936). Reviewed Work: Ghosts I Have Talked with by Henry C. McComas. American Journal of Psychology. Vol. 48, No. 1, p. 192.
- ^ Krout, Maurice H. (1936). Reviewed Work: Ghosts I Have Talked With by Henry C. McComas. Social Science. Vol. 11, No. 2. p. 167.