Théodore Flournoy was a professor of psychology at the University of Geneva

University of Geneva

The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...

 and author of books on spiritism and psychic phenomena. He is most known for his study of the medium Helen Smith (or Hélène Smith

Hélène Smith

Hélène Smith was a famous late-19th century French psychic. She was known as "the Muse of Automatic Writing" by the Surrealists, who viewed Smith as evidence of the power of the surreal, and a symbol of surrealist knowledge...

 - a pseudonym for Catherine Muller) who relayed information about past lives through a trance state, entitled From India To The Planet Mars (1899). He proposed this information as 'romances of the subliminal imagination,' and a product of the unconscious mind

Unconscious mind

The unconscious mind is a term coined by the 18th century German romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge...

 (Stevens 1994). Flournoy was a contemporary of Freud

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...

, and his work influenced C. G. Jung's study of another medium - his cousin Héléne Preiswerk - which was turned into Jung's doctoral dissertation in 1902. Flournoy was also one of the few scholars of his time to embrace William James

William James

William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...

' view of the prime reality of non-dual consciousness (which he dubbed "sciousness

Sciousness

Sciousness, a term coined by William James in The Principles of Psychology, refers to consciousness separate from consciousness of self. James wrote:...

") as expressed in his essay, Radical Empiricism.