Psychometry: The ability to perceive the past by touching an object

Do you or someone you know have the ability to touch an object and feel you know something about it? If so, you, or they, may be operating in Psychometry. This word comes from the Greek psukhē, which means "spirit, or soul" and μέτρον, which is metron, or "measure". It is also known as psychos copy or token-object reading. This is a form of extrasensory perception that has been characterized as perceiving a truth by touching an object. There have been television shows where psychics hold a photo and can tell how the person died. Those who support psychometry assert that an object's past history.

There is no scientific evidence that psychometry actually exists and the concept has often been criticized. There is only the word of those for whom this ability has been realized. The term psychometry was coined by Joseph Rodes Buchanan in 1842 when he expressed his sentiment that "all things give off an emanation". The term emanation indicates the action or process of issuing from a source. We can understand light radiating or gases being exposed because light can be seen and gas smelled. Emanation is from feeling and sensing and cannot be proven.

Buchanan asserted that his particular psychism was going to supersede empiric science. In 1885 he wrote a comprehensive treatise, "Manual of Psychometry: the Dawn of a New Civilization". This detailed how the direct knowledge of psychometry was going to be applied to and affect the many various branches of science. It also would affect wide social change by elevating the various schools of the arts and philosophy. Buchanan believed his theory was going to change and enlighten humanity but it never caught on.

I'm a believer that people are born with special gifts because I have seen them in operation. I have not, however, had the pleasure of meeting a psychometrist. I have only watched reenactments on television programs such as Hauntings and Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction. If someone says they operate in this gift then who am I to say they are mistaken.

Joseph Buchanan based his theory on the following: A barometer measures the weight of the atmosphere; A thermometer measures caloric (thermo temperature). An electrometer measures electric conditions and a psychrometer measures the psyche or soul. Regarding Psychometry, the the object that is measured and the measuring instrument are the same psychic element. Buchannan asserted that this measuring power is not limited to the psychic alone. He says that it was developed in the first experiments, but has "appeared by successive investigation to manifest a wider area of power, until it became apparent that this psychic capacity was really the measure of all things in the Universe".

Joseph Buchanan continued to promote his views of psychometry throughout his life. Those who followed him believed that science would be revolutionized and the world would experience the dawning of a new day. Geologist William Denton continued Buchanan's studies of psychometry and published a book on the subject in 1863 titled The Soul of Things. The two men's work was criticized by psychologist Joseph Jastrow who considered it to be based on "delusion and wishful thinking". During the later nineteenth century demonstrations of psychometry was used in séances and stage acts. Participants would provide a personal object to be used in a "reading" by a psychic or medium.

There is no scientific evidence that psychometry even exists. Skeptics explain it away by saying that any alleged successes of psychometry are based on cold reading and confirmation bias. Robert Todd Carroll, author of "The Skeptic's Dictionary" described psychometry as nothing more than pseudoscience, (beliefs and practices that are falsely claimed to be based on science). For every person who thinks psychometry is not real, there is probably someone else who has experiences that indicate this is legitimate but there is no way to prove it. Someone reading may have been searching for answers regarding a special ability they have and now they at least have some idea of what they are dealing with.