Richard Hodgson

Richard Hodgson

Richard Hodgson (September 24, 1855 - December 20, 1905) was an Australian attorney who investigated psychic phenomena. He became a member of the English Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1882, and secretary of American Society for Psychical Research in 1887. He is best known as author of the "Hodgson Report", in which he declared that Madame Blavatsky used fraudulent means to produce phenomena. The report was re-examined by Dr. Vernon Harrison, an expert on forgery, who discredited Hodgson's methods and conclusions.

"The psychologist and psychical researcher James Hyslop dedicated his 1905 book Science and a Future Life, a study of the mediumship of [Leonora] Piper, to Hodgson, writing that Hodgson's research led him to the conclusions defended in the book."

Additional resources

• Baird, A. T. Baird. Richard Hodgson. London: Psychic Press Limited, 1949. Biography.
• Mercier, Charles Arthur. Spiritualism and Oliver Lodge. 2nd edition contains a letter by Hodgson which portrays him as over-zealous and an unreliable witness.
• Smith, F. B., "Hodgson, Richard (1855–1905)", Australian Dictionary of Biography Volume 4. MUP, 1972. See Australian Dictionary of Biography.
• "Hodgson, Richard" in Theosophy World website.
• 'Richard_Hodgson_(parapsychologist" in Wikipedia.
• "OBITUARY: MR. RICHARD HODGSON.: AN OLD MELBOURNIAN." |The Advertiser [Adelaide] 48.12, #722. (December 23, 1905), 9.
• "THE LATE DR. HODGSON." The Express and Telegraph 44.12, #679 (December 26, 1905), 3.