Heywood, Rosalind (Hedley) (1895-1980)

Prominent British researcher in the field of psychical science. She was born February 2, 1895, at Gibraltar, and she attended London University. During World War I, as a nurse's aide, she had some initial and intense psychic experiences. She would be given an "order" for unusual treatments for dying patients that would lead to their recovery. She had several deathbed visions and began to experience telepathic contact with a man, Frank Heywood, whom she married during the war.

It was not until 1938 that Heywood joined the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), but she was an active member for the rest of her life, including a tenure on the council. She experimented with Whateley Carington on ESP, and was also a subject for physicians studying the effects of mescaline. She contributed a number of articles to the Journal of the SPR, including many memoirs of deceased members, but is most remembered for her two books, The Sixth Sense (1959) and her autobiography, The Infinite Hive (1964). She died June 27, 1980, in England.

Sources:

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Heywood, Rosalind. The Infinite Hive. London: Chatto & Windus, 1964. Reprinted as ESP: A Personal Memoir. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1972.

——. The Sixth Sense: An Enquiry into Extrasensory Perception. London: Chatto & Windus, 1959. Reprint, London: Pan Books, 1971. Reprinted as Beyond the Reach of Sense. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1974.

Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.