Mars and the Paranormal
Science Fiction Studies November 1, 2008 Robert Crossley
The late nineteenth century saw modern Martian studies and psychical research emerge together, blending literary imagination with spiritualist practices. Astronomers Percival Lowell and Camille Flammarion were drawn into this association, with Flammarion more deeply committed. The Swiss medium Hélène Smith, who claimed to have traveled to Mars and learned its language, exemplifies this link between Mars and the paranormal. Telepathy and astral projection also appear in science fiction narratives such as Wells's The War of the Worlds, Burroughs's A Princess of Mars, Stapledon's Last and First Men, and Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet. Lesser-known works by Henry Gaston, Flammarion, George DuMaurier, and others further reveal the persistent interweaving of science or pseudoscience with romance in fiction about Mars.