Feilding, (Francis) (Henry) Everard(1867-1936)

A barrister and pioneer psychical researcher, Feilding attended Oxford and received a degree in law. His interest in psychic phenomena was sparked by a visit to Lourdes in 1892 and deepened by the death of his sister three years later. The evidence for survival of death presented by his Catholic faith proved insufficient in the face of his personal loss.

Feilding became an early member of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in London and served as its secretary from 1903 to 1920. He investigated the phenomena of Florence Cook, the famous materialization medium also investigated by Sir William Crookes. Feilding also reported on the phenomena of the Italian medium Eusapia Palladino with whom he sat in Naples in 1908. His reports on the sittings with Palladino were among the most important of the various articles he contributed to both the Proceedings and the Journal of the SPR.

In 1919 Feilding married the Polish medium Stanislawa Tomczyk. He gradually withdrew as an active member of the SPR but followed with interest the investigations of Rudi and Willi Schneider and Mina Crandon (Margery). He died February 8, 1936.

Sources:

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Feilding, F. E. Sittings with Eusapia Palladino and Other Studies. New York: University Books, 1963.

Feilding, F. E., W. W. Baggally, and Hereward Carrington. "Report on a Series of Sittings with Eusapia Palladino." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 23, no. 59 (1909); 25, no. 62 (1911).

Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.