The Seybert Report ― Rhetoric, Rationale, and the Problem of Psi Research

This book is a rhetorical analysis of the "Seybert Report," based on the findings of the Seybert Commission formed in the nineteenth century at the University of Pennsylvania and tasked with investigating the paranormal phenomena alleged to arise in Spiritualist séances. The findings of the report are significant because they provide a historical benchmark for how “paranormal” research--or psi--has been addressed by academics for well over a century. Elizabeth Schleber Lowry examines academic discourse with respect to psi from such approaches as the rhetoric of science and scholarship in the history and philosophy of science.

Elizabeth Schleber Lowry is a lecturer in Rhetoric and Composition at Arizona State University, USA. Her work has been published in The Rhetoric Review, Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism and in edited collections. She is the author of Invisible Hosts: Performing the Nineteenth Century Spirit Medium’s Autobiography, 2017.