Mostyn Gilbert (1924-1992) was an American historian, living mostly in England, who pursued interests in physical mediumship and survival phenomena.
Psychical Research
Mostyn Gilbert joined the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1962, and was also later involved with Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP).
As secretary of the SPR’s Survival Joint Research Committee Gilbert was instrumental in bringing together spiritualists and scientists, notably Maurice Barbanell, a trance medium and the founding editor of Psychic News, and Alan Mayne, a scientist and mathematician, for the purposes of investigating survival.
He published commentary in the SPR’s journal on controversies relating to William Crookes’s research with mediums,1 also on other mediumship matters, table turning, electronic voice phenomena, and the history of nineteenth-century spiritualism. His unpublished articles and extensive correspondence can be found in the SPR archives housed at Cambridge University Library. These include files devoted to the Trevor Hall court case in 1966; the mediums Annie Eva Fay, George Valiantine, William Eglinton and Rosina Mary Showers; and correspondence with James Randi, Arthur Koestler, ER Dodds and Eric Dingwall.
Gilbert wrote and collected articles on spiritualism in Brazil, ESP in the American airforce, precognition, and the ‘Seaside Palmists’.2
Gilbert also helped his friend and fellow SPR council member Eric Dingwall in the preparation of his book The Critic's Dilemma.3
Archive Work
Gilbert edited the SPR archives index, supervised by Mollie Goldney and ER Dodds,4 although this work had not been completed when he resigned from the SPR in 1973.
He also catalogued the collection of the Britten Memorial Library in Manchester, which was later transferred to the Spiritualists’ National Union headquarters in Stansted, Essex.
Selected Articles
Obituary: R. Warcollier (1962). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 41, 393-94.
Correspondence: Trevor Hall (1962). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 41, 438.
Correspondence: The promotion of research (1963). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 42, 38 -39.
Correspondence: Crookes and the physical phenomena of mediumship (1964). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 42, 373-75.
Correspondence: The Crookes controversy (1964). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 42, 419-20.
Correspondence: Further light on the Anderson testimony (1966). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 43, 283.
Correspondence: The houses at Usk (1966). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 43, 441.
Book review: The Psychic Reader, ed. by M. Ebon (1970). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 45, 308-309.
Book review: The Conquest of Time, by H. Harwood (1973). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47, 121.
Correspondence (1973). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47, 279-80.
Correspondence: Survival Joint Research Committee Trust (1974). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47, 470-71.
J. Fraser Nicol: An appreciation of his dedication to psychical research (1990). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 56, 113-24.
Book review: Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth Century America, by Ann Braude (1992). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 58, 275-78.
Melvyn Willin
Literature
Anon. (1976). Report. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 48, 424-25.
Dingwall, E.J. (1966). The Critic’s Dilemma. Dewsbury: Stanley Press.
Gilbert, M. (1964a). Crookes and the physical phenomena of mediumship. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 42, 373-75.
Gilbert, M. (1964b). The Crookes controversy. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 42, 419-20.
Pincott, H. (1992). Obituary: Mostyn Gilbert. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 58, 413.