This book is a edited volume consisting of reproductions of two historical papers accompanied by a new forward written by me, along with historical images and list of further resources for interested readers. I first came across Richard Hodgson and S. J. Davey’s experimental report while conducting my doctoral research on the relationships between magicians and scientific researchers. Their first paper, originally published in 1887, describes on the first ever examples of how magic trick methods can be adapted to conduct novel psychological research. It’s a study of eye-witness testimony where the researchers used magic tricks to simulate spiritualistic phenomena and then examined how these phenomena were perceived and remembered by their participants.
From my Publisher
Originally published in 1887 by researcher Richard Hodgson and amateur magician Samuel John Davey, The Mal-Observation Report is a classic of psychical research that remains startlingly relevant to modern psychology. This 292-page volume brings together two seminal papers that revealed how performance magic methods can be used to reveal surprising limits and eccentricities of human minds.
In "The Possibilities of Mal-Observation and Lapse of Memory from a Practical Point of View" and "Mr. Davey's Imitations by Conjuring of Phenomena Sometimes Attributed to Spirit Agency," Hodgson and Davey described a series of carefully staged fake séances designed to simulate the alleged wonders of the Spiritualist movement-phenomena such as "independent slate writing." Their unsuspecting participants, asked to describe what they had witnessed, consistently misremembered, omitted, or invented details, showing how easily simple deceptions can lead people to form false beliefs about their extraordinary experiences.
Their results were so controversial that Hodgson later issued a follow-up clarification in 1892, detailing the conjuring methods used in the experiments to reassure readers that no supernatural forces had been involved. Together, these papers form a fascinating early example of an experiment on the psychology of illusion, anticipating concepts like inattentional blindness and reconstructive memory decades before modern psychology gave them names.
This new edition features several historical images and a lengthy foreword by magician and experimental psychologist Dr. Matthew L. Tompkins, who situates Hodgson and Davey's work within the growing field of cognitive science. Tompkins draws connections between their 19th-century experiments and his own psychological research using magic to explore human attention, awareness, and belief-reminding readers that the same tricks that fooled audiences in the 1880s remain just as effective today.
Praise for the Mal-observation Report
“Matthew Tompkins has performed a great service for experimental psychologists and, indeed, for all curious minds by drawing attention to these two papers, largely forgotten gems from the early days of psychical research. As his Foreword clearly spells out, Richard Hodgson and S. J. Davey’s investigations of recall for faked séances foreshadowed psychological insights into the nature of perception and memory that were not fully appreciated by the scientific community until around a century later. Full recognition of the significance of this groundbreaking work is long overdue.”
— Professor Chris French, Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Founder of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London, Author of The Science of Weird Shit (MIT Press, 2024)
“A wonderful, and much needed, celebration of a pioneering study. Hodgson and Davey’s work is often overlooked, but provides pioneering and important insights for anyone interested in eyewitness testimony, the paranormal and magic. This timely book will help to extend their readership and shows why looking back is essential to moving forward.”
— Professor Richard Wiseman, Professor of Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, Member of the Inner Magic Circle, Author of Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There (Macmillan, 2011)
“The experience of ‘magic' and belief in magical explanations often rests on mistaken beliefs about how much of our world we notice and how accurately we remember our experiences. In this remarkable book, Matt Tompkins re-introduces what might well have been the first 'experimental' study of how such mistaken beliefs can lead people to accept the impossible—mediums communing with the dead—as true. This early study of the psychology of magical thinking anticipated experimental work on these topics in cognitive psychology by nearly 100 years.”
— Professor Daniel J. Simons, Professor of Psychology at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Co-Author of Nobody's Fool: Why We Get Taken In And What We Can Do About It (Basic Books, 2023) and The Invisible Gorilla: How our Intuitions Deceive Us (Crown, 2010).
“Every paranormal enthusiast, parapsychologist, ghost hunter, and skeptic needs The Mal-Observation Report on their bookshelf. Understanding perception and misperception, as well as issues with witness testimony, is key to separating what is psychic/paranormal from what is not, and this book provides a great foundation. The foreword alone is worth the price of the book!”
— Loyd Auerbach, M.S., President of the Rhine Research Center Board of Directors and Director of the Office of Paranormal Investigations; Author of A Paranormal Casebook: Cases from a Parapsychologist’s First 25 (or so) Years.
“The Mal-Observation Report stands as one of the most important—yet too often overlooked—scientific contributions to our understanding of false memory. Its insights reshaped how we think about spiritual séances and the malleability of human experience, and they are as powerful today as when they were first revealed. In his thought-provoking foreword, Dr Tompkins not only brings this landmark research vividly to life, but reminds us why its lessons remain urgently relevant in the modern world. Beautifully written and richly illustrated, this book makes a classic study feel both alive and indispensable.”
— Professor Gustav Kuhn, Director of the MAGIC Lab at the University of Plymouth, author of Experiencing the Impossible (MIT Press, 2019) and co-author of Psychology of Magic: From Lab To Stage (Vanishing Inc., 2022).
"An old, obscure, scientific investigation by Hodgson and Davey (HD) is worth remembering today. HD used magic trick methods to fool people and then recorded what people remembered seeing. HD saw long ago that people frequently fail to notice things that did happen, but they also report events that did not happen. Matthew Tompkins — himself a magician and experimental psychologist — helps place this early work in historical context, brings us up to date, and connects the early work to modern research on memory, attention, and magic. His clear and engaging writing is a pleasure to read and reminds us of valuable lessons about the workings of the human mind.”
— Professor Elizabeth F. Loftus, Past President of Association for Psychological Science