Renée Haynes

Renée Haynes (1906-1994) was an English historian and psychical researcher who wrote extensively about psi phenomena. Haynes coined the term ‘boggle threshold’, which is widely used in parapsychology to indicate the point at which tolerance of an anomalous claim turns to disbelief, and which varies from one person to another.

Life and Career

Renée Oriana Haynes was born in London on July 23, 1906. Her father was a lawyer, her mother a granddaughter of TH Huxley. She read law and history at St Hugh’s College, Oxford and subsequently worked for the publishers Geoffrey Bles in London. She married Jarrard Tickell, a journalist and novelist in 1929 and started writing books at around this time. In the 1940s she worked for the British Council. She converted to Catholicism in 1942. In 1946 she became a member of the Society for Psychical Research.

Psychical Research

Haynes’s interest in psychical research began with vivid precognitive dreams. Some of these she described in her 1961 book The Hidden Springs: An Enquiry into Extra-sensory Perception, a study of spontaneous experiences. She was less interested in mass experiments and statistical evaluations, stating that ‘there is undue reverence for that sacred object the computer’[1] - a stance that was criticized by some of her colleagues.[2] Some also disagreed with her tendency to dismiss the objections of psi-sceptics.[3] Haynes’s account of the SPR’s century of research, The Society for Psychical Research 1882-1982: A History, was praised for acquainting the general public with its existence and activities, but was also criticized for being poorly documented.[4]

Haynes served on the SPR council from 1957. In 1970 she became the editor of its quarterly Journal, holding the post until 1981.

Boggle Threshold

Haynes coined the colloquial term ‘boggle threshold’, the point at which the mental discomfort caused by a new idea or claim causes a person to reject it as untrue. This has been widely used in parapsychology to refer to the variation in personal levels of resistance to paranormal claims. See Boggle Threshold.

Selected Publications

Books

Neapolitan Ice (1929). London: Chatto & Windus.

Pan, Caesar and God (1938). London: William Heinemann.

Hilaire Belloc (1953). London: Longmans, Green and Company.

The Hidden Springs: An Enquiry into Extra-sensory Perception (1961). London: Hutchinson.

Philosopher King: The Humanist Pope Benedict XIV (1970).London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

The Seeing Eye The Seeing I: Perception, Sensory and Extrasensory (1976). New York: St Martin’s Press.

The Society for Psychical Research 1882-1982: A History (1982). London: Macdonald.

Book Reviews

Doubles in Literary Psychology by R. Tymms (1949). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 35, 88-89.

Acquainted with the Night by N. Price (1950). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 35, 195.

Our Lady of Fatima by W.T. Walsh (1950). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 35, 217-19.

The Message of Fatima by C.C. Martindale (1951). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 36, 376-78.

Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History of Religion with Special Reference to the XVII and XVIII Centuries by R.A. Knox (1951). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 36, 402-4.

The Stuff of Dreams by A. Uttley (1954). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 37, 289-90.

The Letters of Aldous Huxley, ed. by G. Smith (1970). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 45, 302-5.

Periodical Literature I: American (1970). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 45, 354-57.

Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty and his Expectations by W. Grey Walter (1970). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 45, 363-64.

Superstition and the Superstitious by E. Maple (1971). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 46, 251-52.

Parent and Child Telepathy. Five Hundred and Five Possible Episodes in a Family: A Study of the Telepathy of Everyday Life by B.E. Schwarz (1972). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 46, 43-45.

The Psychic World of Peter Hurkos by N.L. Browning (1972). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 46, 213-14.

Unfinished Man by R. van Over (1973). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47, 55-56.

Les Domaines de la Parapsychologie by H. Larcher and P. Ravignant (1973). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 47, 117-20.

The Lake and the Castle by A. Guirdham (1977). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 49, 466-67.

The Search for the Full Human Being by L. LeShan (1977). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 49, 540-42.

Dracula Country: Travels and Folk Beliefs in Romania by A. MacKenzie (1978). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 49, 760-61.

Ruskin, Lady Mount-Temple and The Spiritualists. An Episode in Broad-Lands History by Van Akin Burd (1983). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 52, 133-35.

Something Hidden by L.E. Rhine (1984). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 52, 390-91.

Our Three Selves: A Life of Radclyffe Hall by M. Baker (1986). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 53, 241-43.

Queen Victoria’s Other World by P. Underwood (1988). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 55, 37-38.

Translations

Psychical Phenomena by Réginald-Omez (1959, translated by R. Haynes). London, Burns and Oates.

Our Pioneers VII Charles Richet (1850-1935) by R. Warcollier (1959, translated by R. Haynes). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 40, 157-62.

Correspondence

[Psi activity] (1959). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 40, 198-99.

An ‘ether imprint’? (1960). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 40, 429-30.

‘Out of the body’ experiences (1961). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 41, 52.

ESP ability and sex (1962). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 41, 442-43.

ESP and pains (1967). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 44, 49-50.

[Edmund Halley] (1983). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 52, 153.

[Cross correspondences] (1983). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 52, 220-21.

[St Francis of Assisi] (1984). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 52, 399.

[Ian Stevenson] (1989). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 55, 312.

Articles

From Carl Gustav Jung: 1875-1961, ‘Exploring uncharted territory’, The Tablet, 17 June 1961 (1961). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 41, 169-71.

Catholic views of parapsychology (1964). International Journal of Parapsychology VI/4, 389-406.

Postscript to The Roots of Coincidence by A. Koestler (1972). London: Hutchinson.

Some Christian imagery in Life after Death by A. Toynbee, A. Koestler et al (1976). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Obituary: Letitia Fairfield (1978). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 49, 753.

Obituary: Gardner Murphy (1979). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 50, 132.

Obituary: Rosalind Heywood (1980). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 50, 521-22.

The trees and the wood: The importance of historical and legal evidence in psychical research (1980). Parapsychology Review, 77/3, 17-21.

In search of Harry Price (1982). The Unexplained 99, 1974-77.

The price of fame (1982). The Unexplained 101, 2014-17.

Obituary: Arthur Koestler (1983). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 52, 159-60.

Tribute: Anita Gregory (1985). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 53, 132-33.

In Memoriam: Alister Hardy (1985). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 53, 198-200.

What do you mean by a ghost? (1986). Parapsychology Review 17/4, 9-12.

Tribute: John Cutten (1990). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 56, 191-92.

Renée Haynes [personal reflection] in Esprit: Men and Women of Parapsychology, Personal Reflections, Volume 1, ed. by R. Pilkington (2010), 99-100.

Melvyn Willin

Literature

Alvarado, C. (1983). Comments on The Society for Psychical Research 1882-1982: A History by R. Haynes (1983). Journal of Parapsychology 47, 145-61.

Beloff, J. (1983). Book review: The Society for Psychical Research 1882-1982: A History by R. Haynes. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 52, 139-41.

Beloff, J. (1993). Obituary. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 59, 77-78.

Berger, A.S. and J. (1991). The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House.

Price, H.H. (1961). Book review: The Hidden Springs by R. Haynes. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 41, 93-97.

Endnotes

Footnotes

- 1. Cited in Berger (1991), 176.

- 2. Beloff (1993), 78.

- 3. Beloff (1983), 140.

- 4. Alvarado (1983), 156.

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