George Nugent Merle Tyrrell (23 March 1879 - 29 October 1952), best known as G. N. M. Tyrrell, was a British mathematician, physicist, radio engineer and parapsychologist.[1][2]
George Nugent Merle Tyrrell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 23 March 1879 |
| Died | 29 October 1952 (aged 73) |
| Occupation(s) | Mathematician, Parapsychologist |
Biography
editTyrrell was born in Frome, Somerset to Nugent and Margery Tyrrell. His father was a civil engineer, and his grandfather, George Nugent Tyrrell, was the first "Superintendent of the Line" for the Great Western Railway.
Tyrrell was a student of Guglielmo Marconi and a pioneer in the development of radio.[1][3] In 1908 he joined the Society for Psychical Research. He conducted numerous experiments in telepathy and was interested in apparitional experiences. He attempted to explain ghosts by a psychological theory.[4]
Tyrrell proposed that ghosts are a hallucination of the subconscious mind of a person, to explain collective hallucinations for more than one person, he proposed it as a telepathic mechanism.[2][5] Tyrrell was the president of the Society for Psychical Research 1945-1946.[1]
Although a believer in telepathy, Tyrrell was a critic of physical mediumship. He stated that it has been the "happy hunting ground of tricksters and charlatans."[6]
Tyrrell created the term out-of-body experience in his book Apparitions.[7]
A review in Nature for Science and Psychical Phenomena praised Tyrrell for his "obvious sincerity" but suggested the book was "full of flaws" which aroused suspicion of Tyrrell's critical faculties.[8]
Published works
edit- Grades of Significance (1931)[9]
- Science and Psychical Phenomena (1938)
- Apparitions (1943)
- The Personality of Man (1946)[10]
- Homo Faber: A Study of Man's Mental Evolution (1951)
- Man the Maker: A Study of Man's Mental Evolution (1952)
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c "Past Presidents of the Society for Physical Research". Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
- ^ a b Blom, Jan Dirk (2009). A Dictionary of Hallucinations. New York: Springer. pp. 109. ISBN 978-1441912220.
- ^ "George Nugent Merle Tyrrell". Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology.
- ^ Drury, Nevill (2004). The Dictionary of the Esoteric: 3000 Entries on the Mystical and Occult Traditions. United Kingdom: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 314. ISBN 8120819896.
- ^ Willin, Melvyn (2005). Music, Witchcraft and the Paranormal. United Kingdom: Melrose Books. p. 99. ISBN 1905226187.
- ^ Tyrrell, G. N. M. (1954). Physical Mediumship: Is there Anything Besides Fraud in the Physical Séance Room? In The Personality Of Man. Penguin Books. p. 217
- ^ Tyrrell, George (1943). Apparitions. London: Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd. p. 149. ISBN 9781446358269.
- ^ Anonymous. (1939). Academic Psychical Research. Nature 143 (3615): 223.
- ^ Russell, L. J. (1931). Review of G. N. M. Tyrrell Grades of Significance. Philosophy 6: 273-273.
- ^ Finger, Frank. (1948). Reviewed Work: The Personality of Man: New Facts and Their Significance by G. N. M. Tyrrell. The Quarterly Review of Biology 23 (1): 93-93.