Jacks, L(awrence) P(earsall) (1860-1955)

British author and professor of philosophy who investigated psychical phenomena. He was born on October 9, 1860, at Nottingham, England. He was educated at University School, Nottingham; London University (M.A., 1886); Manchester College; and Harvard. He became a professor of philosophy at Manchester College, Oxford, in 1903, and for many years served as principal (1915-31).

Jacks served as president of the Society for Psychical Research, London (1917-18), and as vice president (1909-55). He was particularly concerned with the relationship of psychical research to philosophy. He also sat with a number of mediums, including Gladys Osborne Leonard, one of the outstanding British trance mediums. After an active life that included writing several books and a number of articles, Jacks died February 17, 1955.

Sources:

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

Jacks, L. P. All Men Are Ghosts. London: Williams & Norgate, 1913.

——. The Confessions of an Octogenarian. N.p., 1942.

——. "Dramatic Dreams, an Unexplored Field for Psychical Research." Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 17 (1915).

——. Elemental Religion. New York: Harper, 1934. ——. The Inner Sentinel. New York; London: Harper & Brothers, 1930.

——. My American Friends. London: Constable & Co. Ltd, 1933; New York: Macmillian, 1933.

——. My Neighbour the Universe. N.p., 1928.

——. Near the Brink. London: Allen & Unwin, 1955.

——. "Presidential Address: The Theory of Survival in the Light of Its Context." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 29 (1918).

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