Hornell Hart

1888-1967

          PROFESSOR HORNELL Hart was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and enjoyed a most distinguished academic career in the United States.

He received his Ph.D. degree from the State University of Iowa in 1921, and for nineteen years was Professor of Sociology at Duke University, North Carolina. During this period he also served on the Advisory Board of The Journal of Parapsychology, and in this capacity worked in close association with Dr. J. B. Rhine. He has held a number of other important university posts, and written several major books on social and psychological problems. He was also Professor of Sociology at one of the leading academic institutions in Kentucky.

In addition to his vital work in the field of sociology, Professor Hart devoted a great deal of his attention to psychical research, and has contributed a number of significant articles on the subject. Also in this connection he has been a university lecturer on the subject of 'Psychical Research and the Methods of Science'.

In 1959 Hart first coined the term "super-ESP" in his classic The Enigma of Survival (London: Rider & Co., 1959).

He also coined the term 'ESP Projection' to refer to a type of OBE in which the person “projecting” their consciousness out of their body actually feels that they are out of their body, may be seen by other people at a distant point, and afterwards reports a veridical description of what he or she observed at that point.

Prof. Hart, after weighing up all the pros and cons came to the conclusion:

"Human personality does survive bodily death. That is the outcome which I find emerging when the strongest anti-survivalist arguments and the strongest rebuttals are considered thoroughly, with passionate open-mindedness.

Some of his papers and books included:

1933: Hart, Hornell & Hart, E. B. 'Visions and apparitions collectively and reciprocally perceived'. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 41:205-249.

1953: Hart, Hornell. 'Hypnosis as an aid in experimental ESP projection'. Paper given at First International Conference of Parapsychological Studies, Utrecht.

1954: Hart, Hornell. 'ESP projection: Spontaneous cases and the experimental method'. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 48(4):121-146.

1955: Hart, Hornell. 'Travelling ESP'. In Proceedings of the First International Conference of Parapsychological Studies (pp. 91-93). Parapsychology Foundation, New York.

1956: Hart, Hornell & collaborators. 'Six theories about apparitions'. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 50(185):153-239 (May).

1957: Hart, Hornell. 'ESP projection: A prolegomenon to experimental research [summary]'. Proceedings of Four Conferences of Parapsychological Studies (pp. 114-116). Parapsychology Foundation, New York.

1957: Hart, Hornell. 'Man outside his body?' In L. Margery Bazett, Beyond the Five Senses, J.B. Lippincott (New York) [384p.]

1965: 'Toward a New Philosophical Basis for Parapsychological Phenomena', by Hornell Hart. 68 pp. (1965). Monograph No. 6.

1967: Hart, Hornell. 'Scientific survival research'. International Journal of Parapsychology, 9:43-52.

Articles by Hornell Hart on this website:

• Dodds and Murphy versus Drayton Thomas

• Survival Versus Super-psi
 

Source: "The Enigma of Survival" by Hornell Hart (London: Rider & Co., 1959.)