Carrington, Hereward (Hubert Lavington)(1880-1958)

Psychical investigator and author of many popular books on psychic subjects. Carrington was born October 17, 1880, in St. Heliers, Jersey, Channel Islands, Britain. He was educated in London and Cranbrook, and immigrated to the United States in 1899. His Ph.D. was obtained later at William Penn College, in Iowa. His interest was in psychical research and he followed an anti-Spiritualist line until the book Essays in Psychical Re-search by "Miss X" (Ada Goodrich Freer) shook his skepticism. In 1900, at age 19, he joined the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research and devoted the rest of his life to such studies. He became known for his intellect and knowledge and was a delegate to the First International Psychical Congress in Copenhagen in 1921 and to subsequent congresses in Warsaw (1923), Paris (1927), Athens (1930), and Oslo (1935).

After Richard Hodgson (1855-1905) died and the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research was reestablished as the American Society for Psychical Research under James H. Hyslop 's leadership, Carrington became Hyslop's assistant and worked in that capacity until July 1908. Then, on behalf of the English Society for Psychical Research, and in company with Everard Feilding and W. W. Baggally, he went to Naples to investigate the phenomena of the medium Eusapia Palladino. His experiences, as described in Eusapia Palladino and Her Phenomena, moved him even further into the camp of believers. Summarizing his new stance, he stated,

"My own sittings convinced me finally and conclusively that genuine phenomena do occur, and, that being the case, the question of their interpretation naturally looms before me. I think that not only is the Spiritualistic hypothesis justified as a working theory, but it is, in fact, the only one capable of ratio-nally explaining the facts."

This view was shaken after Palladino, on his invitation, visited America in 1909 and was exposed as a fraud on two occasions. Carrington stuck by his earlier opinions and did not publish the record of the sittings, which remained in his possession until 1954. In his Personal Experiences in Spiritualism (1918), he speculated that the phenomena were specifically of biological origin.

In 1921, with an interested group behind him, Carrington founded the American Psychical Institute and Laboratory, which was in active operation for about two years.

In 1924 he sat on a committee of the Scientific American investigating the phenomena of Spiritualism. He attended many sittings with Mina Crandon ("Margery") in Boston and initially considered her mediumship genuine. Then in 1932, following some revelations of probable fraud, his faith was again shaken. He wrote in the Bulletin of the Boston Society for Psychic Re-search, "Certainly this throws a cloud over the whole Margery case." Carrington also found fraud in his investigation of William Cartheuser.

Carrington believed in the strong pull of the positive evidence for human survival, yet as he grew older, he became far less committed to it. Summarizing his own researches in The Story of Psychic Science (1930), he states:

"I may say that I have never, in all that time, witnessed any phenomena which have appeared to me undoubtedly spiritistic in character—though I have, of course, seen many unquestionably supernormal phenomena. At the same time, I realize very fully that other very competent investigators have seen and reported manifestations far more striking than any it has been my good fortune to witness: and these findings have duly impressed me. I, therefore, maintain a perfectly open mind upon this question, while continuing my investigations and shall probably continue in this state of mental equilibrium until some striking and convincing phenomena turn the scales in one direction or in the other."

Those striking and convincing phenomena came Carrington's way with the visit of Eileen Garrett at the American Psychical Institute three years later. Having subjected her to psychoanalytic "association tests," combined with an electrical recording apparatus to decide whether the "communicators" were personalities distinct from the medium, he concluded, "I can now say that our experiments seem to have shown the existence of mental entities independent of the control of the medium, and separate and apart from the conscious or subconcious mind of the medium."

Throughout his active life Carrington wrote numerous books, some notable for their sharp perceptions and insightful observations, and others filled with incredible and unfounded opinions. In his later years he moved on to investigate astral projection and wrote a series of classic books with Sylvan J. Muldoon. He died December 26, 1958, in Los Angeles.

Sources:

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Carrington, Hereward. The Case for Psychic Survival. New York: Citadel Press, 1957.

——. Loaves and Fishes. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935.

——. Modern Psychic Phenomena. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1919.

——. The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism. New York: Herbert B. Turner, 1907.

——. The Problems of Psychic Research. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1921.

——. The Story of Psychic Science. London: Rider, 1930. Re-print, New York: Ives Washburn, 1931.

——. Your Psychic Powers, and How to Develop Them. New York: A. L. Burt, 1920.

Carrington, Hereward, and Sylvan J. Muldoon. The Phenomena of Astral Projection. London: Rider, 1951.

——. The Projection of the Astral Body. 1929. Reprint, New York: Samuel Weiser, 1970.

Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.