Hart, Hornell (Norris) (18881967)
American professor of sociology and parapsychologist. Hart
was born August 2, 1888, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He studied at
Oberlin College, Ohio (B.A., 1910), the University of Wisconsin
(M.A. sociology, 1914), and the State University of Iowa (Ph.D.
child welfare and sociology, 1921). He was a faculty member
successively at Bryn Mawr College (192433), Hartford Theological
Seminary (193338), Duke University (193857), Centre
College of Kentucky (195760), and Florida Southern College
(196067). He developed an early interest in
parapsychology and was a charter member of the Parapsychological
Association and a member of the American Society
for Psychical Research and the Society for Psychical Research.
Hart was a widely published and respected scholar in sociology.
Also, as early as the 1930s he began to publish in parapsychology.
His special concerns were apparitions and the evidence
for survival, the latter topic being the subject of his
major book, The Enigma of Survival The Case For and Against an
After-Life (1959). He discusses the question of out-of-the-body
travel or astral projection in his article Man Outside His
Body (Tomorrow, winter 1954). His culminating statements
about his explorations are presented in his final book, Toward
a New Philosophical Basis for Parapsychological Phenomena (1965).
He died in 1967.
Sources
Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of
Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York Paragon
House, 1991.
Hart, Hornell N. The Enigma of Survival The Case For and
Against an After-Life. Springfield, Ill. Charles C. Thomas, 1959.
. ESP Projection Spontaneous Cases and the Experimental
Method. Journal of the American Society for Psychical
Research (1954).
. Living Religion. New York Abingdon Press, 1937.
. The Psychic Fifth Dimension. Journal of the
American Society for Psychical Research (1953).
. Psychical Research and the Methods of Science.
Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research (1957).
. Six Theories About Apparitions. Proceedings of the
Society for Psychical Research (May 1956).
. Skeptics Quest. New York Macmillan, 1938.
. Toward a New Philosophical Basis for Parapsychological
Phenomena. New York Parapsychological Foundation, 1965.
. Visions and Apparitions Collectively and Reciprocally
Received. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research
(May 1933).
. Your Share of God Spiritual Power for Life Fulfillment.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice Hall, 1958.
Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology.
New York Helix Press, 1964.
