Deborah Blum

Biography:

Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer-prize winning science writer and professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of four books, most recently, Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death. She has written for numerous publications, ranging from The New York Times to Discover Magazine. She is a past-president of the National Association of Science Writers and currently serves on an advisory board to the National Academy of Sciences.

Past Shows:

	Vintage Psychical Studies
	Wednesday August 30, 2006

Science journalist Deborah Blum discussed her new book Ghost Hunters which deals with psychical studies that took place at the turn of the 20th century. She focused on the work of three prominent academics of that time period--- William James, the founder of the study of psychology in the U.S., Richard Hodgson, a Cambridge scholar, and James Hyslop, a Professor at Columbia University. All three started off skeptical, said Blum, but eventually ended up believing that psychic or spiritual abilities do exist.A highly regarded philosopher and psychologist, James' initial interest in the subject lent it a legitimacy that opened it up for academic study. All three became fascinated by a Boston medium named Leonora Piper who was able to relay uncanny details such as what was inscribed on a long-lost ring. Hodgson even had her followed by detectives at one point, to see if she was somehow getting information from living sources, Blum reported. While James said Piper had "supernormal" a ... More
Host: George Noory