George Nugent Merle Tyrrell
British mathematician, physicist, radio engineer and parapsychologist
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George Nugent Merle Tyrrell (23 March 1879 – 29 October 1952), best known as G. N. M. Tyrrell, was a British mathematician, physicist, radio engineer and parapsychologist.[1][2]
George Nugent Merle Tyrrell | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 23 March 1879 |
| Died | 29 October 1952 (aged 73) |
| Occupations | Mathematician, Parapsychologist |
Biography
Tyrrell was born in Frome, Somerset to Nugent and Margery Tyrrell. His father was a civil engineer, and his grandfather, George Nugent Tyrrell, was the first "Superintendent of the Line" for the Great Western Railway.
Tyrrell was a student of Guglielmo Marconi and a pioneer in the development of radio.[1][3] In 1908 he joined the Society for Psychical Research. He conducted numerous experiments in telepathy and was interested in apparitional experiences. He attempted to explain ghosts by a psychological theory.[4]
Tyrrell proposed that ghosts are a hallucination of the subconscious mind of a person, to explain collective hallucinations for more than one person, he proposed it as a telepathic mechanism.[2][5] Tyrrell was the president of the Society for Psychical Research 1945-1946.[1]
Although a believer in telepathy, Tyrrell was a critic of physical mediumship. He stated that it has been the "happy hunting ground of tricksters and charlatans."[6]
Tyrrell created the term out-of-body experience in his book Apparitions.[7]
A review in Nature for Science and Psychical Phenomena praised Tyrrell for his "obvious sincerity" but suggested the book was "full of flaws" which aroused suspicion of Tyrrell's critical faculties.[8]
Published works
- Grades of Significance (1931)[9]
- Science and Psychical Phenomena (1938)
- Apparitions (1943)
- The Personality of Man (1946)[10]
- Homo Faber: A Study of Man's Mental Evolution (1951)
- Man the Maker: A Study of Man's Mental Evolution (1952)