Charles Carleton Massey (1838–1905), most well known as C. C. Massey, was a British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

, Christian mystic and psychical researcher. Massey was born at Hackwood Park,

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

. He was the first president of the British Theosophical Society and a founding member of the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...

in 1882. His father was

William Nathaniel Massey William Nathaniel Massey (3 June 1809 – 25 October 1881) was a British barrister, author and Liberal Member of Parliament. Early life Massey studied law, being admitted as a student at the Inner Temple in November 1826, and was called to the ...

. His main interest was

Christian Theosophy Christian theosophy, also known as Boehmian theosophy and theosophy, refers to a range of positions within Christianity that focus on the attainment of direct, unmediated knowledge of the nature of divinity and the origin and purpose of the unive ...

; he was influenced by the writings of Jakob Böhme. Massey, a convinced

spiritualist Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century The ''long nineteenth century'' i ...

, was associated with the medium

Stainton Moses William Stainton Moses (1839 – 5 September 1892) was an English cleric and spiritualist medium. He promoted spirit photography and automatic writing, and co-founded what became the College of Psychic Studies. He resisted scientific examination ...

. He was also a member of the

British National Association of Spiritualists The College of Psychic Studies (founded in 1884 as the London Spiritualist Alliance) is a non-profit organisation based in South Kensington, London. It is dedicated to the study of psychic and spiritualist phenomena. History British National Assoc ...

and

The Ghost Club The Ghost Club is a paranormal investigation and research organization, founded in London in 1862. It is believed to be the oldest such organization in the world, though its history has not been continuous. The club still investigates mainly gho ...

. Massey had defended the medium

Henry Slade Henry Slade (1835–1905) was a famous fraudulent medium who lived and practiced in both Europe and North America. Biography Slade was most well known as a slate-writing medium. During his séances he would place a small slate with a piece ...

against the accusations of fraud from

Ray Lankester Sir Edwin Ray Lankester (15 May 1847 – 13 August 1929) was a British zoologist.New International Encyclopaedia. An invertebrate zoologist and evolutionary biologist, he held chairs at University College London and Oxford University. He was th ...

. In 1880 he translated

Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (8 November 1834, Berlin25 April 1882, Leipzig) was a German astrophysicist who studied optical illusions. He was also an early psychical investigator. Biography From 1872 he held the chair of astrophysics at Leip ...

's ''Transcendental Physics'' into English.Fichman, Martin. (2004). ''An Elusive Victorian: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace''. University of Chicago Press. p. 186.

Publications

*C. C. Massey. (1909). ''Thoughts of a Modern Mystic. A Selection from the Writings of the Late C. C. Massey'', ed. William F. Barrett (London: Regan Paul, Trench & Co).

Publications

References

Further reading