Mikhail Petrovo-Solovovo
Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo | |
|---|---|
 Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo (right) with psychical researcher Rudolf Lambert | |
| Occupation | Psychical researcher |
Count Mikhail Mikhailovich Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo (граф Михаил Михайлович Перовский-Петрово-Соловово; 1868-1954) was a Russian diplomat, psychical researcher and skeptic.
Career
Mikhail Petrovo-Solovovo, a scion of an ancient aristocratic family that owned a Neoclassical palace on Nevsky Avenue, inherited the comital title from his maternal grandfather, General Boris Perovsky, in 1907. He held the rank of chamberlain at the imperial court and, for some time, was the first secretary of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Empire.
Solovovo joined the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1890.[1] He published several controversial papers in the SPR Journal arguing that many spiritualist mediums had been caught in fraud. In 1936 he moved to London.
In 1912, Solovovo described a letter written by Dr. Barthez, a physician in the court of Empress Eugenie, which claimed the medium Daniel Dunglas Home was caught using his foot to fake supposed spirit effects during a séance in Biarritz in 1857. The letter proved controversial within the parapsychology community and has become a source of debate between Home's defenders and skeptics.[2][3][4]
Selected publications
- Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo, Count. (1909). The Hallucination Theory as Applied to Certain Cases of Physical Phenomena. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 21: 436-482.
- Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo, Count. (1912). On the Alleged Exposure of D. D. Home in France. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 15: 274-288.
- Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo, Count. (1922). Concerning D. D. Home Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 32: 18.
- Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo, Count. (1927). Note on an Early Exposure of Guzik. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 24: 368-370.
- Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo, Count. (1930). Some Thoughts on D. D. Home. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 39: 247-265.
- Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo, Count. (1907). The Slate-Writing of Mrs. Francis. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 13: 293-295.
- Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo, Count. (1937). My Experiments with S.F. Sambor. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 30: 87-90.
References
- ^ "Count Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo". Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology.
- ^ Casey, John. (2009). After Lives: A Guide to Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. Oxford University Press. pp. 373-374. ISBN 978-0-19-509295-0
- ^ Stein, Gordon. (1993). The Sorcerer of Kings: The Case of Daniel Dunglas Home and William Crookes. Prometheus Books. pp. 99-100. ISBN 0-87975-863-5
- ^ Lamont, Peter. (2005) The First Psychic: The Peculiar Mystery of a Notorious Victorian Wizard. Abacus. pp. 90-94. ISBN 0-349-11825-6
