Charles Arthur Mercier (21 June 1851 – 2 September 1919) was a British psychiatrist and leading expert on forensic psychiatry and insanity.

[3] In 1917 Mercier wrote to the Mind Association denouncing politician-philosopher Lord Haldane and philosopher Bertrand Russell as traitors.

"[7] Mercier who spent most of his career studying insanity and mental disorders did not believe human personality could survive death.

[11] The book was positively reviewed by the British Journal of Psychiatry which described it as a well written parody of spiritualist phenomena.

[12] David Robert Grimes has noted that "Mercier had spent a great deal of time debunking trance mediums, painstakingly dismantling their claims".