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Charles Carleton Massey (1838–1905), most well known as C. C. Massey, was a British barrister, Christian mystic and psychical researcher.

Massey was born at Hackwood Park, Basingstoke. He was the first president of the British Theosophical Society and a founding member of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882. His father was William Nathaniel Massey. His main interest was Christian Theosophy; he was influenced by the writings of Jakob Böhme.

Massey, a convinced spiritualist, was associated with the medium Stainton Moses. He was also a member of the British National Association of Spiritualists and The Ghost Club.

Massey had defended the medium Henry Slade against the accusations of fraud from Ray Lankester. In 1880 he translated Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner's Transcendental Physics into English.

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).

References

1. Brock, William Hodson. (2008). William Crookes (18321919) and the Commercialization of Science. Ashgate Publishing. p. 208. ISBN 978-0754663225
2. Luckhurst, Roger. (2002). The Invention of Telepathy, 1870–1901. Oxford University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0199249626
3. Pert, Alan. (2007). Red Cactus: The Life of Anna Kingsford. Books & Writers. pp. 90-91. ISBN 978-1740184052
4. Versluis, Arthur. (2007). Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esoteric Traditions. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 120. ISBN 978-0742558366
5. Lavoie, Jeffrey D. (2012). The Theosophical Society: The History of a Spiritualist Movement. Brown Walker Press. pp. 73-74. ISBN 978-1612335537
6. Lavoie, Jeffrey D. (2014). Search for Meaning in Victorian Religion: The Spiritual Journey and Esoteric Teachings of Charles Carleton Massey. Lehigh University Press. pp. 135-136. ISBN 978-1611461848
7. Slotten, Ross A. (2004). The Heretic in Darwin's Court: The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace. Columbia University Press. p. 342. ISBN 978-0231130110
8. Fichman, Martin. (2004). An Elusive Victorian: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace. University of Chicago Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0226246130

Further reading

• Jeffrey D. Lavoie. (2014). Search for Meaning in Victorian Religion: The Spiritual Journey and Esoteric Teachings of Charles Carleton Massey. Lehigh University Press. ISBN 978-1611461848

• 1838 births
• 1905 deaths
• English barristers
• English Theosophists
• British parapsychologists
• People from Basingstoke
• English spiritualists
• 19th-century English lawyers