Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

38492

Title

Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

F. W. H. Myers explores the survival of personality after bodily death through an exposition of psychical phenomena. This edited abridgment examines disintegrations of personality, genius, sleep, hypnotism, sensory and motor automatism, and phantoms of the dead. Written with a tone of rigorous yet open-minded inquiry, the work appeals to readers seeking a systematic understanding of evidence regarding the soul's endurance beyond physical limits.

Summary up to 500 words

In *Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death*, F. W. H. Myers presents a comprehensive investigation into the nature of human personality and its potential endurance after physical death. Edited and abridged by his son, Leopold Hamilton Myers, the work serves as a provisional systematization of a rapidly expanding field of research. Myers explicitly frames the book not as a definitive proof, but as an exposition designed to render complex knowledge more assimilable for the general reader. The text is structured into ten chapters, beginning with an introduction and proceeding to analyze the disintegration of personality, often manifesting as dissociated states or multiple personalities. Myers explores the phenomenon of genius, suggesting it may involve access to a subliminal consciousness. Subsequent chapters delve into the states of sleep and hypnotism, examining how these conditions reveal hidden faculties. The work extensively covers sensory automatism, including visual and auditory hallucinations, and motor automatism, such as automatic writing and trance utterances. A significant portion is dedicated to the phantoms of the dead, analyzing cases where individuals perceive deceased relatives or friends. Myers also examines trance, possession, and ecstasy, often distinguishing between genuine supernatural events and psychological explanations like cryptomnesia or hysteria. Throughout the text, he cites numerous case studies, including those involving mediums like D. D. Home and phenomena observed in spiritualist séances, to illustrate his points. Myers acknowledges the skepticism of the scientific establishment but maintains that the evidence, while difficult to interpret, points toward a reality that challenges conventional materialist views. The book concludes with an epilogue and extensive appendices containing detailed case analyses, aiming to provide a clear and intelligible form for this complex knowledge. Myers dedicates the work to his friends Henry Sidgwick and Edmund Gurney, acknowledging their essential support in an enterprise that faced significant disapproval from the intellectual world of his time.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

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Categories

• Psychology
• Philosophy