Link to the online finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Research files, interview materials, correspondence, class materials, presentations, conference papers, and photographs related to Jane Roberts, a spiritualist who claimed to channel a spirit known as Seth. This material details Dillman's research into Jane Roberts and Seth and documents Dillman's relationships with the larger network of Seth researchers. Also included are materials created by members of the community that surrounded Roberts, Seth, and Roberts' husband, Robert Butts. 

Collection material used in class session:

• Series III, Box 12, Folder 9: Seth conference brochures, approximately 1990-2005.

Link to the online finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Correspondence, manuscripts, and research materials related to Hapgood's research projects and publications on earth science, archeology, ancient history, parapsychology, and spirit communication. The bulk of the material is letters from and to a wide array of people interested in Hapgood's work and theories, or, in some cases, those in whom he hoped to create an interest.

Collection material used in class session:

• Series II, Box 29, Folder 583: Spirit communications, Sigmund Freud, 1967.

Link to the online finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Collection contains letters to Jordan from Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, H.D. and Bryher, as well as manuscripts of poems by Pound and Williams and a small quantity of personal papers. 

Collection material used in class session:

• Series I, Box 1, Folder 28: Letters from the poet H.D. to Viola Jordan regarding a tarot reading, February 12-March 10, 1930.

Link to the online finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Writings, correspondence, photographs, audiovisual material, artwork, printed material, computer disks and other papers by or relating to James Merrill and documenting aspects of his work as a poet and writer. Some of the material was created and accumulated by J. D. McClatchy, who served as executor of Merrill's estate and who co-edited several volumes of Merrill's works.

Collection material used in class session:

• July 2006 Acquisition, Box 12: Spiral-bound notebook with Ouija Board session transcripts, and drafts of poems and essays, circa 1983.
• July 2006 Acquisition, Box 37 (Oversize): Ouija board, homemade, undated but likely circa 1960s-1970s.

Link to the online finding aid

Overview: The George Miller Beard Papers provide limited but valuable information on the life and work of Beard from 1865 to 1883. Though incomplete, they do provide a sampling of his work on nervous diseases, electrotherapeutics, insanity, and spiritualism.

Collection material used in class:

• Series III, Box 3, Folder 9: Newspaper clippings and notes regarding Molly Fancher, a woman with "second sight," c. 1878.

Link to the online finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Correspondence, addresses and writings, papers relating to the Yale School of the Fine Arts, and other papers of John F. Weir, artist, painter and first director of the Yale School of the Fine Arts, serving from 1869-1913. Correspondents include many persons prominent in the art world between 1870 and 1920. There is also much material on the origins and development of art education in this country and at Yale.

Collection material used in class session

• Accession 1978-M-003, Box 2, Folder 50: Notebook documenting mesmeric experiments and seances, 1880-1881.

Link to the online finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: The Jean Toomer (1894-1967) Papers contain correspondence; multiple drafts of unpublished books, essays, and other writings; and personal papers documenting the life of Jean Toomer. The papers span the years 1898-1963, but the bulk of the material dates from 1920-1954. Unfortunately, few manuscripts from Toomer's Harlem Renaissance period are preserved. Instead the papers are primarily drafts of his later, philosophical writings. Related papers written by his first wife, Margery Latimer, and transcripts of lectures given by his spiritual mentor, Georges Gurdjieff, as well as typescript drafts of Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson can also be found in the collection.

Collection material used in class session

• Series II, Box 46, Folder 955: Outline of lecture introducing the teachings of Georges Gurdjieff.

The following published items are from the collections of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (BRBL), the largest of the Yale Library's six special collections. These items do not circulate and must be requested and used in the BRBL reading room at 121 Wall St.

• Testimony of the authenticity of the prophecies of Richard Brothers, and of his mission to recall the Jews / by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed / London: H.D. Symonds, (1795). Bound with 8 other pamphlet publications. Call number: Mhc9 B795 R4
• Spirit rapping unveiled! : an exposé of the origin, history, theology and philosophy of certain alleged communications from the spirit world, by means of "spirit rapping," "medium writing," "physical demonstrations," etc. : with illustrations / by H. Mattison / New York: Mason Brothers (1853). Call number: College Pamphlets 2060 3
• Supernal theology and life in the spheres : deduced from alleged spiritual manifestations / by Owen G. Warren / New York: Fowlers and Wells (1852). Call number: College Pamphlets 2052 1
• Return of Frank R. Stockton : ... stories and letters which cannot fail to convince the reader that Frank R. Stockton still lives and writes through the instrumentality of Miss Etta de Camp / Frank Richard Stockton (Spirit) / Call number: Shirley 8084

The following published item is from Yale's general collections housed off-site at the Library Shelving Facility (LSF) in Hamden. These items do not circulate and must be requested and used in the Manuscripts and Archives (MSSA) reading room in Sterling Memorial Library.

• Spirit drawings: a personal narrative / by W. M. Wilkinson / London: Chapman & Hall (1858). Call number: Ktk3 858w

The following published items are from Yale's general collections housed off-site at the Library Shelving Facility (LSF) in Hamden. These items do circulate and you can request them for delivery to any Yale campus library pickup location.

• Oscar Wilde from Purgatory : psychic messages / edited by Hester Travers Smith ; with a preface by Sir William F. Barrett / New York: H. Holt and Co. (1926). Call number: Ip W644 S926S
• Life and labor in the spirit world : being a description of localities, employments, surroundings, and conditions in the spheres / by members of the spirit-band of Miss M.T. Shelhamer / Boston: Colby & Rich (1891). Call number: WB 8288
• Letters from a living dead man / written down by Elsa Barker / New York: Mitchell Kennerley (1916). Call number: Kth 914b
• Seth speaks : the eternal validity of the soul / [channeled] by Jane Roberts ; notes by Robert F. Butts / Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall (1972). Call number: BF1301 R595
• Hafed, prince of Persia : his experiences in earth-life and spirit-life / being spirit communications received through David Duguid, the Glasgow trance-painting medium ; with an appendix, containing communications from the spirit artists, Ruisdal and Steen / London: W. Foulsham (1935). Call number: WB 22022
• Crusade of the faithful / by Henry Nathan / Guildford: England (approximately 1956). BF1286 N36
• The life and sufferings of Jesus Anointed, our Holy Savior and of our Blessed Mother Ann : in two parts / written by inspiration, envolved thru the inner consciousness of William Leonard, in the Church at Harvard, Mass., October 1841 ; prepared for publication, with notes and appendix / by A.G. Hollister. / Published anonymously in Mount Lebanon, N.Y. (1904). Call number: BX9778.S7 J47 1904

Link to the online finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Correspondence, writings, professional papers, research files, personal papers, photographs, audiovisual materials, and electronic media documenting the lives and work of American writers Kevin Killian and Dodie Bellamy.

Collection material used in class session:

• August 2015 Acquisition, Box 28, Folder: Ouija poem: Fine press production of a Ouija poem written by Kevin Killian and 36 others, printed by Convulsive Editions Studio, Chicago, 2013.

Link to the online finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: P. D. Ouspensky was a journalist based in Russia, and travelled extensively in Europe and the Near East. He met George I. Gurdjieff in 1915 and became his follower. Ouspensky broke with Gurdjieff in 1918, left Russia in 1920 and went to Constantinople, and then went to London in 1921 where he founded the Historico-Psychological Society. The collection consists of reports of meetings of P. D. Ouspensky with his followers in London (1921-1947) and his manuscripts of books and articles in Russian, French, and English.

Collection material used in class session:

• Series II, Box 41, Folder 1742: "Occult stories. 2. Talks with the well-meaning devil," annotated typescripts, undated but probably prior to 1916.