Eugene Osty

1874-1938

          FRENCH DOCTOR and Director of the Institut Métapsychique International from 1924 until 1938.

First became convinced of 'metapsychic' phenomena in 1910. On his return of the war, Gustave Geley invited him to join the Management Committee of the Institut Métapsychique International and in 1921 he settled in Paris and collaborated with Charles Richet, Camille Flammarion, Henri Bergson and Boirac. Following the tragic death of his friend Gustave Geley, Richet invited Osty to succeed at the post of Director of the Institut Métapsychique International. He accepted Richet's offer and was to remain its Director until his death in 1938.

From 1924 to 1931 Osty gave up his activities as a doctor, to devote himself entirely to the Institut Métapsychique International and the study of 'metapsychic' phenomena. He organized, animated and supervised experiments, in particular with Jean Guzik, then with the Austrian medium, Rudi Schneider. 

Towards the end of the 1920's, in collaboration with his son Marcel, an engineer, he constructed an experimental device making it possible to objectify the existence of an opaque substance during ectoplasmic productions. Osty undertook his experiments in a purely scientific manner, rejecting both the popular but dogmatic views of orthodox science and also the uncritical attitude of spiritualism. He wrote his widely known book Supernormal Faculties in Man in 1923.

Source (with minor modifications): An Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science by Nandor Fodor (1934).

Articles by Eugene Osty on this website:

Errors Originating with the Experimenter