John Arthur Hill (4 December 1872 – 22 March 1951), best known as J. Arthur Hill, was a British psychical researcher and writer.
Hill was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and was educated at Thornton Grammar School. He worked as a business manager until he suffered ill health. He was a member of the Society for Psychical Research (1927–1935) and was known for his writings on parapsychology and spiritualism. [1] [2]
In 1914, Hill wrote an article Is the Earth Alive? which was later expanded into a chapter in his Psychical Miscellanea (1920). Influenced by Gustav Fechner he speculated that the earth is a living spirit being. [3] [4] Reviewers ridiculed this belief. [5]
Hill greatly admired the philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1919, he wrote a book on the subject. [6]
Hill's most known work was his Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine (1919). [7] [8] Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a supportive introduction to the book but later commented in 1926 that it was "written from a strictly psychic research point of view, and is far behind the real provable facts." [9] Psychical researcher Hereward Carrington described the book as a "fair and impartial summary." [10]
His books were criticized by skeptics. Psychologist Millais Culpin wrote that Hill was gullible in trusting the word of mediums and did not know anything about dissociation. [11]
Media related to
J. Arthur Hill at Wikimedia Commons
John Arthur Hill (4 December 1872 – 22 March 1951), best known as J. Arthur Hill, was a British psychical researcher and writer.
Hill was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and was educated at Thornton Grammar School. He worked as a business manager until he suffered ill health. He was a member of the Society for Psychical Research (1927–1935) and was known for his writings on parapsychology and spiritualism. [1] [2]
In 1914, Hill wrote an article Is the Earth Alive? which was later expanded into a chapter in his Psychical Miscellanea (1920). Influenced by Gustav Fechner he speculated that the earth is a living spirit being. [3] [4] Reviewers ridiculed this belief. [5]
Hill greatly admired the philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1919, he wrote a book on the subject. [6]
Hill's most known work was his Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine (1919). [7] [8] Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a supportive introduction to the book but later commented in 1926 that it was "written from a strictly psychic research point of view, and is far behind the real provable facts." [9] Psychical researcher Hereward Carrington described the book as a "fair and impartial summary." [10]
His books were criticized by skeptics. Psychologist Millais Culpin wrote that Hill was gullible in trusting the word of mediums and did not know anything about dissociation. [11]
Media related to
J. Arthur Hill at Wikimedia Commons