Richard Hodgson (parapsychologist)
| Richard Hodgson | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
24 September 1855 Melbourne, Australia |
| Died | 21 December 1905 (aged 50) Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Occupation | Psychical researcher |
Richard Hodgson (1855–1905) was an Australian-born psychical researcher.
Hodgson was born in Melbourne, Australia on 24 September 1855 to Mr. R. Hodgson, leather merchant of Melbourne. He received a doctor of law degree in 1878 from the University of Melbourne. In the 1880s he moved to England to study poetry at St John's College, Cambridge. Hodgson met Henry Sidgwick his professor at Cambridge and became a member of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1882. Hodgson joined the American Society for Psychical Research in 1887 to serve as its secretary.
Hodgson was sent by the SPR in 1884 to India to investigate Helena Blavatsky and concluded that her claims of psychic power were fraudulent. Among the phenomena that Hodgson investigated was the supposed miraculous Theosophical letters from the Mahatmas which were said to magically appear over a four-year period in a cabinet in the Shrine Room at the Theosophical headquarters in Madres. Hodgson in his report wrote that the letters were frauds and had been written by Blavatsky herself who had put them in the cabinet from an opening in her bedroom located behind the Shrine room. Although a believer in mental mediumship, Hodgson was a critic of physical mediumship which he claimed was fraudulent. Some of the mediums that he exposed as frauds were William Eglinton, Eusapia Palladino, Henry Slade and Rosina Thompson.
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