Psychic Paleontology -- Robert Broom
Robert Broom (1866--1951) was a Scottish paleontologist who specialized in ancient mammals. He lived in South Africa for most of his career and did many field expeditions. He believed that humans were the pinnacle of evolution and that there was a spiritual power dictating the course of evolution. In 1933, he wrote, "...the evolution of man must have been deliberately planned by some spiritual power.”
He also believed that spirits could guide him to where he should excavate to find fossils. In 1947, during one of his digs, he found an australopithecines skull, the earliest known human ancestor. He nicknamed it Mrs. Ples and when asked how he knew where to dig to find it, he said that spirits led him to it. There are no accounts of him engaging with mediums; his interactions with spirits were done through his own intuition.
Robert Broom and Mrs. Ples
Further reading:
Robert Broom - Wikipedia
Design and Dissent: Religion, Authority, and the Scientific Spirit of Robert Broom on JSTOR
(PDF) Robert Broom's theory of evolution
Mrs. Ples - Wikipedia
