Research in the Field: Ada Goodrich Freer and Fiona Macleod

In the 1890s, the Society for Psychical Research investigated second sight—a claimed extrasensory perception—led by Ada Goodrich-Freer, who asserted her own 'Celtic' heritage. This chapter draws a parallel between her desire for cultural proximity and the contemporaneous Celtic Revival, a movement that rediscovered folk culture and mysticism. It also examines William Sharp, a Scottish lawyer and poet who wrote under the female pseudonym 'Fiona Macleod' and belonged to the occult Order of the Golden Dawn. The analysis shows how second sight was entangled with psychical research, occultism, and revivalist narratives at the fin de siècle.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This chapter examines the investigation into second sight undertaken by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in the closing decade of the nineteenth century. Focusing on its chief researcher, Ada Goodrich-Freer, and on her claim to possess ‘Celtic’ blood, Richardson finds a corollary for this desire for identification and proximity in the contemporaneous Celtic Revival. Reading the SPR’s inquiry alongside the rediscovery of folk culture and mysticism at the fin de siècle , it spends time with William Sharp, a Scottish-born lawyer, published poet and member of the occultist Order of the Golden Dawn, who also wrote under a female pseudonym ‘Fiona Macleod’. This chapter examines second sight in relation to the interconnected narratives of psychical research, occultism and revivalism.