Phantasms of the Living
Edmund Gurney, Frederic W. H. Myers, Frank Podmore · 1886 · Trübner and Co. for the Society for Psychical Research, London
This source is used as supports evidence across 2 linked claims and 2 related evidence hubs. Its citation record is marked verified; that verifies the source trail, not the truth of any linked claim.
Summary
Foundational two-volume Society for Psychical Research case collection of more than 700 spontaneous experiences — including precognitive impressions and dreams, crisis apparitions, and apparent telepathic episodes — gathered with structured interviews and corroborating witnesses.
How this source is used on the map
The canonical historical case base for spontaneous precognition and related psi-style experiences; cited across the field as the starting point for spontaneous-case methodology.
Citation record
- Authors
- Edmund Gurney, Frederic W. H. Myers, Frank Podmore
- Year
- 1886
- Publication
- Trübner and Co. for the Society for Psychical Research, London
- Source type
- Book
- Map role
- supports
- Credibility level
- primary
- Citation status
- Verified
- DOI
- Not recorded
- PubMed
- Not recorded
- Not recorded
Editorial note
Stable Internet Archive scan for volume 1; Open Library also lists the 1886 two-volume edition.
Linked claims
Given how many dreams we have, occasional 'matches' are statistically inevitable and powerfully memorable.
The reported experience of knowing, sensing, dreaming, or picturing a future event before it happens — sometimes called premonition, presentiment, future sensing, or anomalous anticipation. Real as a common human report; controversial as evidence the future is being directly perceived.
Related evidence hubs
Related research reports
A balanced synthesis of telepathy, precognition, remote viewing, presentiment, psychokinesis, and skeptical methodological objections.
A balanced synthesis of the strongest and weakest evidence across afterlife, consciousness, reincarnation, mystical, psi, and practice claims.
Related sources
The most-cited modern meta-analysis on presentiment; central to debate about whether physiology can show anticipatory responses to future stimuli.
The most-discussed modern empirical paper claiming evidence for precognition; directly triggered the Wagenmakers et al. critique and helped catalyse psychology's broader replication-crisis conversation.
Reference for any claim involving the cognitive nature of dreams, especially claims that dreams are spiritually revelatory or anomalously predictive.
Major reference for the sceptical / cognitive-explanation side of psi-style claims.
Foundational sceptical reply — also helped trigger the broader replication-crisis conversation in psychology.
Useful general-audience anchor for psi-related claims; gives both the field's self-description and the standard sceptical critique.