The Seeress of Prevorst

Record summary

Physician Justinus Kerner presented Friederike Hauffe, known as the Seeress of Prevorst, as a sensitive who experienced visions, apparitions, altered states and communications with purported spirits. Kerner’s book, published in German in 1829, became influential in nineteenth-century European occult and psychical traditions. The lead is valuable for comparing medical interpretation, somatic illness, religious vocabulary and spirit testimony before the Society for Psychical Research. It is not a neutral case report: Kerner selected, interpreted and organized the material within his own mesmerist framework.