PSYCHIC RESEARCH

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 83, 10 April 1939, Page 9

PSYCHIC RESEARCH

R. L STEVENSON'S INTEREST!

MEMBER OF SOCIETY

(By Air Mail, from "Th» Post's" Londol

Representative.)

LONDON, February 16,

A little-known aspect of Robert Louis Stevenson—namely, his interest in psychic research—was discussed by Mr. J. W. Herries, Edinburgh, before the Robert Louis Stevenson Club ia Glasgow.

There was little or nothing in the biographies of Stevenson, said Mr. Herries, about that aspect of his interests and activities. Stevenson was the first secretary of the ■ Psychological Society of Edinburgh, founded about 1869 by Dr. Gavin B. Clark, for psychic research. That society was inaugurated by a club of medical men, artists, students, and others. Some of the meeting were held in the Royal Maternity Hospital, to which Dr. Clark was house surgeon. The society held direct investigations.

On one occasion a seance was.held with David Duguid, the famous medium of Glasgow. Among the sitters was Mrs. Hill, sister of Sir Noel Paton, the famous painter. Stevenson was secretary of the society for only a short period. He was succeeded by his cousin, W. J. Praser. Stevenson, however, conducted the correspondence through which a well-known Manchester medium appeared before the society. Stevenson was then about 19 years of age.

A friend and contemporary of the novelist, who was still living, had recalled to Mr. Herries how he had sat beside Stevenson at some of the meetings held in a room in St. Andrew's Square, when they tried for tabletapping and other psychic manifestations.

Stevenson's works where he introduced, the abnormal or supernatural showed a close acquaintance with results of psychic research. He became a member of the London Society for Psychic Research, and contributed to its publications from his Home in Samoa.