Frederic William Henry Myers (6 February 1843 – 17 January 1901) was a British poet, classicist, philologist, and a founder of the Society for Psychical Research.William James. Frederic Myers's Service to Psychology The Popular Science Monthly, August 1901, pp. 380–389. Myers' work on psychical research and his ideas about a "subliminal self" were influential in his time, but have not been accepted by the scientific community.Oppenheim, Janet. (1985). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914. Cambridge University Press. pp. 254–262. Hazelgrove, Jenny. (2000). Spiritualism and British Society Between the Wars. Manchester University Press. pp. 194–195.

Early life Myers was born on 6 February 1843 at St John's parsonage, Keswick, Cumberland, the son of Revd Frederic Myers (1811–1851) and his second wife Susan Harriet Myers nee Marshall (1811–1896). He was a brother of poet Ernest Myers (1844–1921) and of Dr. Arthur Thomas Myers (1851–1894). His maternal grandfather was the wealthy industrialist John Marshall (1765–1845).Gauld (2004)

Myers was educated at Cheltenham College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1864,Catherine W. Reilly (2000). Victorian poetry, 1860–1879: an annotated biobibliography Continuum International Publishing Group, p. 332. and university prizes, including the Bell, Craven, Camden and Chancellor's Medal, though he was forced to resign the Camden medal for 1863 after accusations of plagiarism. He was a Fellow of Trinity College from 1865 to 1874 and college lecturer in classics from 1865 to 1869. In 1872 he became an Inspector of schools.

In 1867, Myers published a long poem, St Paul, which includes the words of the hymn Hark what a sound, and too divine for hearing. This was followed in 1882 by The Renewal of Youth and Other Poems. He also wrote books of literary criticism, in particular, Wordsworth (1881) and Essays, Classical and Modern (in two volumes, 1883), which included an essay on Virgil.

Personal life As a young man, Myers was involved in homosexual relationships with Arthur Sidgwick, the poet John Addington Symonds,H.G. Cocks. (2009). Nameless Offences: Homosexual Desire in the 19th Century. I. B. Tauris. p. 185. and possibly Lord Battersea.Hamilton, Trevor Immortal Longings: FWH Myers and the Victorian Search for Life After Death, Imprint Academic, 2009, p181,184 He later fell in love with Annie Eliza, the wife of his cousin Walter James Marshall. Myers' relationship with his cousin's wife has been questioned by different researchers to be sexual or Platonic.Alan Gauld. (1968). Founders of Psychical Research. Schocken Books. Janet Oppenheim. (1985). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 429. Annie committed suicide in September 1876 by drowning.Raymond Buckland. (2005). The Spirit Book: The Encyclopedia of Clairvoyance, Channelling, and Spirit Communication. Visible Ink Press. p. 276.

The British writer on the occult Richard Cavendish commented: "According to his own statement, he [Myers] had very strong sexual inclinations, which he indulged. These would seem to have been mainly homosexual in his youth, but in later life, he was said to be wholly heterosexual."Richard Cavendish. Man, Myth, and Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion, and the Unknown. Marshall Cavendish. p. 1800. In 1880, Myers married Eveleen Tennant (1856–1937), daughter of Charles Tennant and Gertrude Tennant. They had two sons, the elder the novelist Leopold Hamilton Myers (1881–1944), and a daughter. English author Ronald Pearsall suggested that Myers had sexual interests in young lady mediums, writing "[I]t is certainly true that Myers's interest in young lady mediums was not solely due to their spiritualistic talents."Ronald Pearsall. (1972). The Table-Rappers. Book Club Associates. p. 50.

The researcher Trevor H. Hall argued that Myers had an affair with the medium Ada Goodrich Freer.Trevor H. Hall. (1980). The Strange Story of Ada Goodrich Freer. Duckworth. pp. 35–37. However, Trevor Hamilton dismissed this and suggested that Freer was simply using her acquaintance with Myers to gain status in the psychical research movement.Hamilton, Trevor. (2009). Immortal Longings: F.W.H. Myers and the Victorian Search for Life After Death. Imprint Academic. p. 231. John Grant has suggested that Myers was a womaniser who was easily duped and "probably seduced" by Freer."Grant, John. (2015). Spooky Science: Debunking the Pseudoscience of the Afterlife. Sterling Publishing. pp. 46–49.

Biographer Bart Schultz wrote that "Myers was suspected of all manner of sexual quirks and it was alleged that he looked upon psychical research as giving him opportunities for voyeurism." He also noted the odd behaviour of Myers, such as insisting to be with Edmund Gurney with his bride on their Honeymoon even against strong protest from the bride.Schultz, Bart. (2004). Henry Sidgwick – Eye of the Universe: An Intellectual Biography. Cambridge University Press. pp. 93–94.

A relationship between eroticism and Myer's interest in psychical research was examined by Professor of Philosophy Jeffrey J. Kripal.Kripnal, Jeffrey J. (2010). Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred. University of Chicago Press. pp. 81–91.

Biographer Trevor Hamilton has defended Myer's against the allegations of sexual misconduct.Hamilton, Trevor. (2009). Immortal Longings: F.W.H. Myers and the Victorian Search for Life After Death. Imprint Academic.

Psychical research

Myers was interested in psychical research and was one of the founding members of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1883. He became the President in 1900.Society for Psychical Research:Past Presidents Myers psychical ideas and theory of a subliminal self did not impress contemporary psychologists. Psychologists who shared an interest in psychical research such as Théodore Flournoy and William James were influenced by Myers. However, according to historian Janet Oppenheim "not even all Myer's colleagues at the SPR accepted his hypotheses."

Early SPR members like Myers and Henry Sidgwick hoped to cling to something spiritual through psychical research. Psychical researcher Eric Dingwall wrote regarding the early formation of the Society for Psychical Research, "Myers, among others... knew that the primary aim of the society was not objective experimentation but the establishment of telepathy."Grant, John. (2015). Spooky Science: Debunking the Pseudoscience of the Afterlife. Sterling Publishing. pp. 23–24. Dingwall, Eric. (1985). The Need for Responsibility in Parapsychology: My Sixty Years in Psychical Research. In Paul Kurtz. A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology. Prometheus Books. pp. 161–174. "When the British SPR was founded, the public was led to believe that at least a scientific survey was to be made, and I have no doubt that even some of those closely associated with the early days thought so too. But Myers, among others, had no such intention and cherished no such illusion. He knew that the primary aim of the Society was not objective experimentation but the establishment of telepathy. To understand why this was so it is necessary to realize the position in which so many educated and intelligent people found themselves during the 1870s and later in Victorian England. With the emergence of new scientific concepts touching the origin of man and his place in the universe, the very foundations of their religious beliefs began to give way."

British historian G.R. Searle described Myers as "having lost his Christian faith, sought a new kind of religion that could reassure him that death did not lead to extinction."Searle, Geoffrey Russell. (2004). A New England?: Peace and War, 1886–1918. Oxford University Press. p. 640.

Mediums and psychics

In opposition to Richard Hodgson and Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick who held the view that many physical mediums were fraudulent, Myers believed that although many of these mediums cheated they could also produce genuine physical phenomena.Moreman, Christopher M. (2013). The Spiritualist Movement: Speaking with the Dead in America and around the World. Praeger. pp. 98–103. According to Trevor Hamilton "Myers had no direct involvement in the exposure of physical fraud."

In the late 19th century Douglas Blackburn and George Albert Smith were endorsed as genuine psychics by Myers and Edmund Gurney. Smith even became an SPR member himself and the private secretary to the Honorary Secretary Gurney from 1883 to 1888.Trevor Hall. (1964). The Strange Case of Edmund Gurney. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. However, Blackburn later confessed to fraud.Andrew Neher. (2011). Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination. Dover Publications. p. 220. Blackburn called Gurney and Myers a "couple of credulous spiritualists" and wrote "we resolved that we should be doing the world a service by fooling them to the top of their bent, and then showing how easy a matter it was to 'take in' scientific observers."Barry Wiley. (2012). The Thought Reader Craze: Victorian Science at the Enchanted Boundary. McFarland. p. 213.

Myers' 1884 essay Visible Apparitions with Gurney claimed a "personal experience" by a retired Judge Edmund Hornby involving a visitation from a spirit was true, but Joseph McCabe wrote that the story was a "jumble of inaccuracies" and "Sir E. Hornby was compelled to admit, that the story was entirely untrue."Luckhurst, Roger. (2002). The Invention of Telepathy, 1870–1901. Oxford University Press. p. 149McCabe, Joseph. (1920). Is Spiritualism based on Fraud?: The Evidence Given by Sir A.C. Doyle and Others Drastically Examined. London: Watts & Co. p. 98

In July 1895, Eusapia Palladino was invited to England to Myers' house in Cambridge for a series of investigations into her mediumship. According to reports by the investigators such as Richard Hodgson and magician John Nevil Maskelyne, all the phenomena observed in the Cambridge sittings were the result of trickery.Brandon, Ruth. (1983). The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 138. Brower, M. Brady. (2010). Unruly Spirits: The Science of Psychic Phenomena in Modern France. University of Illinois Press. pp. 62–63. Her fraud was so clever, according to Myers, that it "must have needed long practice to bring it to its present level of skill."McCabe, Joseph. (1920). Is Spiritualism Based On Fraud? The Evidence Given By Sir A. C. Doyle and Others Drastically Examined. London, Watts & Co. p. 14 However, despite the exposure of her fraud, Myers was convinced some of her phenomena was genuine.

Clinical neurologist Sebastian Dieguez has commented that Myers "was seriously duped by many people".Dieguez, Sebastian. (2008). The Soul of the Gaps. (Review of Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century by Edward F. Kelly, Emily Williams Kelly, Adam Crabtree, Alan Gauld, Michael Grosso, and Bruce Greyson). Skeptic 15: 75–77.

Phantasms of the living