author
1830–1903
A 19th-century New York surgeon with a curious, wide-ranging mind, he also became an early American writer on hypnotism, telepathy, and the study of unusual mental experiences. His work sits at an unusual crossroads of medicine, education, and early psychical research.
by R. Osgood (Rufus Osgood) Mason
Born in Sullivan, New Hampshire, in 1830, Mason studied at Dartmouth College and later earned his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City in 1859. During the American Civil War, he served as an assistant surgeon in the United States Navy, including service aboard the USS Santiago de Cuba, before building his medical career in New York.
Alongside his work as a physician and surgeon, he wrote for a broader public about hypnotism, suggestion, telepathy, and what was then called psychical research. He is remembered as an early American popularizer of these subjects, especially through Telepathy and the Subliminal Self and Hypnotism and Suggestion in Therapeutics, Education, and Reform.
What makes him interesting today is the mix of disciplines in his life: trained doctor, teacher, Civil War-era medical officer, and explorer of ideas that stood at the edge of mainstream science in his time. That blend gives his writing a distinct place in the history of both medicine and early psychological thought.