Alan Gauld

Alan Gauld is a British psychologist and parapsychologist.

Paranormal
Gauld was born in Portland, Dorset, England, and attended Harvard University in 1956-57. He later earned an M.S. in 1958 and a Ph.D. in 1962 from Emmanuel College. He taught psychology at Nottingham University, he was also President of the Society for Psychical Research from 1989 until 1992. His works as an editor include Poltergeists, co-edited with Tony Cornell (1979), and Human Action and its Psychological Investigation, co-edited with John Shotter (1980).

He is most well known for his book Mediumship and Survival: A Century of Investigations (1984).

Gauld has written that physical mediumship such as ectoplasm is the result of fraud, but has been gullible and fallen into the trap of believing that other Victorian mediums were actually genuine. According to Gauld, Leonora Piper had supernatural abilities when in reality the "spirit" controls of Leonora Piper were alternate personalities.

Publications

 * A History of Hypnotism (1992)
 * Mediumship and Survival: A Century of Investigations (1984)
 * The Founders of Psychical Research (1968)