[2] He is given credit for coining the term "Psychometry"[3] (soul-measuring) as the name of his own "science" whereby knowledge is acquired directly by the "psychometer" (the instrument of the soul).

[5] Though himself a physician in lectures he denounced contemporary schools of medicine as "educated ignorance" while promoting Psychometry and appealing to Spiritualists.

[6] In his Manual (1885) he defined psychometry as "the development and exercise of the divine faculties in man, a demonstration of the old conception of poetry and mystic philosophy as to the Divine interior of the human soul, and the marvelous approximation of man toward omniscience.” It has been suggested that his ideas may have been related to the contemporary fascination with photography, particularly the daguerrotype.

He claimed that psychometrically-gifted individuals could identify substances without physical contact, read letters inside sealed envelopes by merely placing them on the psychometrist's forehad and so on.

[7] Psychologist Joseph Jastrow criticized Buchanan's work on psychometry as based on delusion and wishful thinking.