Occultism And Modern Science

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An open mind is the gate-way to philosophy.

Plato

OCCULTISM AND
MODERN SCIENCE

BY

T. KONSTANTIN OESTgRREICH

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TUBINGEN

TRANSLATED
FROM THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION

METHUEN & CO. LTD.

36 ESSEX STREET W.C.

LONDON

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

THE present book is concerned with a
field of knowledge which is not much
cultivated in Germany, but which has
for a number of years been academically recog-
nized by the English-speaking and the Latin
races. At the publisher's request it is addressed
to the general public, including therein such of
my colleagues as have not been more closely
concerned with the subjects dealt with. I have
tried to describe from a non-partisan p^int of
view the scientific position as it seems to me to
exist. That this position is as yet far from clear
in many respects will be obvious as I proceed.
But it follows that it is obvious that we have to
do to a considerable extent with a new field of
knowledge which is not yet ripe, and which
German science is called upon to join in culti-
vating, so that at last certainty may be reached
as to what is actually true and the proper
philosophical consequences deduced therefrom.

ORSELINA, LOCARNO
Stptemhr, 1920

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

^ AHIS book, the first edition of which was
JL exhausted in six months, has accomplished
what I hoped it would, and directed the
interest of persons capable of scientific thought
to the problems of parapsychology. At last there
is movement in many places, though it need
hardly be said that in many others dogmatic
slumber still prevails. The reception of the
book by the general public also goes to prove
that we live in a time of mental freedom,
which ia not governed by dogma, and should be
ready to make a great advance, if it were not
that the general conditions of life make German
scientific work nowadays difficult even in this field.
The theoretical interpretation which I have
attempted of the facts recorded must for the
present remain in details hypothetical, and my
meaning would be wholly misunderstood if the
various lines of thought which I have developed
were taken to be positive dogmatic conclusion*.

TUBINCBN

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PACU5

INTRODUCTION - - I

I. HELENE SMITH STATES OF IMPERSONA-

TION - - - 17

II. MRS. PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY - 37

III. CROSS-CORRESPONDENCE - '59

IV. EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS - 71

V. EVAC. PROCESSES OF MATERIALIZATION 99

VI. THEO3OPHY RUDOLF STEINER - 129

CONCLUSION. THE SCOPE FOR NEW

INVESTIGATIONS - - ' J 54

LITERARY APPENDIX - - - 170

OCCULTISM AND MODERN
SCIENCE

INTRODUCTION

CIVILIZATION (Kultur), nowadays, is
undergoing a series of critical transforma-
tions. We daily witness political changes,
the gravity and completeness of which surpass
any events known to history. For the first
time, all nations are linked up into a causal
whole, and the world has become one single
political unit. The international means of ex-
change enhanced by the increased facilities in
material and intellectual communication which
was the result of the nineteenth century
have brought to an end former conditions under
which conflicts only broke out between adjoining
countries.

During the world war, nearly all the civilized
nations, together with f tl^e majority of their
dependent peoples^ we^e 'drawn into combat.
All the seas 'and the grjUter- .part of the surface
of the continent becapi a theatre of war. But
while the fires of this general conflagration still
smoulder, a new catastrophe of- international
character threatens trf overwhelm the globe.

2 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

Russia, which only two years ago showed every
indication of utter collapse and appeared to have
dwindled to a mere shadow of itself, has now
spread civil war and wholesale terrorism through-
out the rest of the world.

The downfall of civilization which took place
in Russia is in danger of engendering universal
collapse, throwing back the civilized nations in
particular to more primitive conditions than
those which characterized ancient history. The
situation, however, is much more serious to-day
than when the invasion of the German hordes
heralded the advent of the middle ages with its
retarded civilization. For at that period, the
invading tribes had no definite object in view
beyond youthful enthusiasm for war, conquest
and adventure whereas Russian Bolshevism is
intent on destroying the very framework of
" Kultur," as well as the structures of society
an intention carried through with ruthless
determination wherever Bolshevism takes root.

But while the foundations of mankind sway
under the impact of this torrent, and none can
safely predict whether he may not be engulfed
by this aftermath of the world war, we visualize
on the horizon of pure thought phenomena such
as precede the end of a cosmos. The red flush
of a setting sun already casts its dying reflection
over the whole body of knowledge of the modern
world. All is changed. The scientific work of

INTRODUCTION 8

the three last centuries has been proved one-
sided and incomplete. It originated with the
study of phenomena of movement in Nature,
initiated .by Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and
Newton ; but these were the product of dead
matter, and formed but part of a system which
cannot be taken as representing the whole.

The widening of our intellectual horizon and
the consideration of other branches of reality
have already produced far-reaching alterations in
our mechanical conception of the world. They
have brought about revolutionary changes in
theory, even in the realm of dead matter. It is
enough to mention in proof of this the dissolution
of the elements and the principle of relativity.
But far more fundamental are the changes
wrought in our conception of the universe by
reason of the introduction of facts from the
mental and organic worlds. These two sections
represent independent spheres of study. When
they are given due weight to in our theories,
the world of our conception assumes a still
more changed appearance.

The advance of the analysis of the life of the
mind has made clear the essential difference of
its behaviour from that of matter. All the im-
portant deductions of modern psychology during
the last two centuries have but widened the
breach between psychology and natural science.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the

4 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

world lived under the delusion that the principles
of a fundamental science that of elementary
mental phenomena had been discovered in
experimental psychology. It was assumed that
this science could be used for the study of the
mental world in the same way that mechanics
are employed to investigate the conformation of
inorganic bodies. This strange delusion is over.
No serious student would now allow that ex-
perimental psychology, operating within the
sphere of the science of mind, can even approxi-
mately be compared to that of mechanics, as
considered in relation to the natural science.
All hope of discovering laws of like structure in
the life of the soul, to those that control the
domain of mechanics, has remained unfulfilled.

No lasting factor exists in mental life apart
from the centre of consciousness to which we
ascribe all mental acts and conditions whereas
all the mechanics of natural science presuppose
the existence and continuity of their elementary
physical component parts. In the life of the
soul no law of conservation of energy exists
similar to that which governs the laws of
mechanics. Herbart's attempt to establish a
mechanics of the life of the soul on the assumption
that perceptions were separate elements con-
stituting mental matter, has met with no greater
success when repeated by experimental psychology
on a more advanced scale. If we wish to make a

INTRODUCTION 5

true comparison between the material world and
the world of mind, we find that the material
elements do not correspond one by one to
separate individual moments in the life of the
mind, but rather that each individual psych
taken separately as a whole in itself corresponds
to a separate material element. On the other
hand, however, while mechanical laws alone
govern the relationship between the separate
material elements, all the so-called psychological
laws are based on the distinctions within the
individual soul each separate mind being for
itself a separate mental universe.

But the state of psychology, together with
that of the mind itself, becomes further com-
plicated through the fact that all minds so far
as we know are in close communication with
the physical world. Natural science is concerned
with objects which represent an independent
sphere of reality (or at least can be treated as
such). The experiences of the mind are corol-
laries of events in the material world. We take
each mind to be allied to a physical organism.
It gets into touch with the outer world through
the medium of the senses, and it is only cognizant
of the existence of other minds through its per-
ception of foreign bodies connected with these
other souls. On the other hand, the mind is
able partly by its own conscious action though
mainly unconsciously to modify its own or-

6 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

ganism, thus conveying to other minds signs
of its own existence. The whole of the
action of the mind, as shown by its effect upon
the material world, entirely destroys and shatters
the mechanical conception of the world, which
believed itself entitled to consider consciousness
as quite isolated without outward influence of
any kind upon material things. The theory of
parallelism was a desperate attempt to establish
this isolation without admitting the influence of
consciousness on the physical sphere. 1

Of an equally fundamental character is the
upsetting of the mechanical conception of the
universe which results when we consider the
construction of organisms which take their
material from the physical world. Whether
this process is attributed to the act of God or to
vital forces of a special kind whether one
hypostatizes the unconscious functions of the
individual mind or constructs special laws for
organic life in every and any case the facts
cannot be explained unless some new factor is
presupposed.

Modern psychology and New Biology have
joined together to uproot the older materialistic
conception of the world, though they have not
succeeded in replacing it by any other definition,
It is but too evident that the development of
the organic world and the appearance and dis-

1 Theism does not admit that the Material world represents an
independent sphere.

INTRODUCTION 7

appearance of minds from the ken of our im-
mediate experience remain wholly unexplained
and unexplainable. The world of experience
presents us with the picture of a cosmos, in which
ever new factors become active, only to vanish
into nothingness, leaving as little traces of their
disappearance as of their previous inception.

If the actual world of experience is to be
regarded as the whole of Reality, nothing is of
more frequent occurrence than the creatio ex
nihilo and its antithesis entire annihilation.

But the crisis in present-day views of the uni-
verse has not yet reached its final stage. On the
contrary, we are confronted with the prospect
of a much more serious upheaval, which will
result in a new conception of the universe. A
still further revolution is once again to widen the
horizons of thought by bringing into considera-
tion hitherto unnoted realms of reality.

There are volcanic signs of disruption under
the superficial layer of official culture. As a
matter of fact, conceptions which are in clear
contradistinction to science have always con-
tinued to exist. Superstitions of every sort
have remained ingrained in civilized nations ;
magic and witchcraft exercise their influence
as of yore, only to be opposed by the thin veneer
of education. It is, however, indisputable that
the situation at present indicates change to no
inconsiderable degree.

8 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

Mid the lumber of superstition and delusions
of every sort there are occasional psychic and
psychophysical phenomena of a peculiar nature
of their own which has made them the real
foundation of, or rather the focus round which,
phantasies formerly eluding scientific research
have crystallized. They are phenomena of so
strange a nature, that they are qualified to
influence in decisive fashion our entire concep-
tion of the universe, and even of life itself. The
whole subject is summed up in the word :
OCCULTISM an unfortunate appellation, for
it is not only things called " occult " which
are mysterious. We designate as mysterious
anything which is not clear to us, and of which
it is not easy to find the explanation. And as a
matter of fact very few things are perfectly
clear ; all the real facts of life have their mys-
terious side even the simplest and those of daily
occurrence. We do not know actually why a
stone falls to the ground, why a pane of glass
breaks when hit, or how it is that we see when the
light-rays reach our eyes. And when we ascribe
these events to a cause as formerly to the pres-
'sure or shock of the ether-atoms or, as at
present, to the circulation of electrons round a
positive nucleus we have again to accept another
fact, just as inexplicable, in place of the one last
established. For we do not know why this is so
why electrons exist and move in this or that

INTRODUCTION 9

definite way, producing this or that effect. The
child is right when it demands an explanation
for every new fact brought to its notice. We are
often forced to answer " It is so," and cannot
help ourselves except by forbidding any further
questions. In spite of this, the child is right to
question us. His thirst for information is not yet
blunted by a continuous repetition of events.
For, so far as we are concerned, it is nothing less
than intellectual laziness when we think that all
that we experience, all that we know, has become
clear and unenigmatical. The grown-up has
merely become accustomed to facts and questions
no longer. Everyday happenings have lost for
him the sense of the mysterious, the unintelligible.
It takes something unexpected and new to make
him desire an explanation. Every great dis-
covery in the realm of natural science therefore
fills him with feelings of awe and mystery.
Among these can be classed the X-rays ; the Hert-
zian waves ; the radioactive emanations, and
numerous others. But after a while they all
enter the category of natural phenomena. The
same applies to " occult " problems. Only so
long as telepathy, clairvoyance and materializa-
tions appear as something out of the ordinary,
are they surrounded by an aura of mystery.

Swedenborg, who communicated with the
spirits as though they were still in the flesh (as
he believed), found nothing out of the way even

10 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

in this. In the same way the relationship of the
innumerable automatic writers of the present day
to the spirits with which they claim to be in
communication (through the Planchette) is also
treated by them as quite in the ordinary course
of things.

The debated facts of occultism are only
different from many others in the world because
of their comparative rarity, but this does not
mean that they are unique in their nature, for it is
possible to arrange them in groups or classes.
They may be compared to works of a creative
nature in art or science, which also like occult
facts cannot be produced artificially, but can only
be observed after they have come into existence.
The appellation " occultism " is consequently
extremely inapposite. Despite this, it may be
accepted provisionally as an accepted designation
as many other words are accepted, if it is under-
stood that it does not possess any other signi-
ficance except the conventional designation of a
certain definite sphere of problematic matter.
After all, the actual word used is of no importance.

In recent times the word " scientific " has
been added to " occultism," and by this is meant
scientific research into the problematic realm
of the facts under discussion. A better and
more trenchant term is " Parapsychology "
or also as Richet puts it, " Metapsychology."
It stands to reason that the most competent

INTRODUCTION 11

investigator for the major part of this domain
should be the psychologist, an assertion beyond
dispute. With regard to the remaining part of
the facts to be investigated, the question might
well be raised as to whether naturalists and
biologists are not the best investigators ; though
as one delves deeper into the subject, it becomes
obvious that this work, too, cannot be accom-
plished without the psychologist, and that what
is really required is collaboration.

What makes Occultism so repellent to the
professional scientist is the mental milieu in
which the problematic facts under observation
are so often presented. The parapsychologic
problems exercise a peculiarly fascinating
influence on all half-educated individuals, whose
inherited conceptions of the universe have been
uprooted, but who long, nevertheless, for more
complete knowledge. They are drawn to them
as moths to the light of arc-lamps. In the case
of decided hysterical or neuropathological types,
they soon come to believe that they are in mys-
terious contact with the transcendental world,
and they then develop a peculiar spiritual
fanaticism which makes all discussion with them
as hopeless as it is unrefreshing. They look
down on science with ineffable disdain, meet
every critical objection with instinctive enmity,
filled as they are with the secret fear that they
may find themselves to have been mistaken.

12 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

This general mental predisposition tends to
make them the easy victims of astoundingly
impudent frauds, I have noticed with amaze-
ment how women who were both educated and
intelligent allowed themselves to be duped in
the most transparent fashion by a woman medium
at a spiritualistic stance. So crass were the
means employed, that I could not resist the
temptation of competing with the medium, and
in my turn giving an exhibition of the same
methods, in order to prove the absolute lack of
critical analysis reached by these women in their
search for the miraculous.

But even the individuals under examination
the mediums are not infrequently of similar
mental constitution. It is possibly a mistake
to assume that all mediums are hysterical,
although many of them are. But, after all, with
hardly an exception, they take their stand on
their spiritistic convictions. In dealing with
them, therefore, tact is required to an unusual
degree. The psychical researcher has, further-
more, to adapt himself to strange and often quite
repellent opinions. This is essential. Mediums
are extremely sensitive in regard to a sceptical
attitude towards spiritualism. The experience
of Flournoy with Helene Smith is a case in point,
though his book made her famous all over the
world. Their connection was broken off after
it had lasted for several years simply because he

INTRODUCTION 13

could not commit himself to countenance the
phenomena she presented by the desired spiritistic
explanation. I myself have tried in vain to
maintain my relations with an automatic writer.
These too came to an abrupt end when I,
though admitting the fact of automatic writing,
refused to agree to its spiritistic interpretation.
But even when the investigator manifests the
utmost care and caution, he is not immune from
disillusion and unpleasant surprises. And yet
despite all this it is impossible any longer to
refuse to discuss the problems of occultism.

A large part of the more serious occult litera-
ture is contributed by authors who have devoted
themselves exclusively to this domain. We
approach their work with a natural scepticism
and reserve, for the absence of any other scientific
productions on their part deprives us of other
standards by which to judge the quality of their
parapsychological investigations or the mental
value of their occult publications. In some
cases the impression left on our minds is such that
we cannot refuse them credence, though in
others we do not get beyond a nonliquet. The
more curious and astounding the result of their
deductions, the more we are inclined to reserve
our judgment, even in the event of a general
favourable impression of a given work.

However, for some time past, parapsychological
investigations have not been exclusively confined

14 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

to convinced occultists. To-day there is a
considerable increase in the number of com-
petent investigators who have proved their
ability in other departments before turning their
attention to Occultism. This already started
in the eighties and nineties of last century.
Those of the older generation have vivid recol-
lections of the sensation when the founder of
Astralphysics, C. F. Zoellner, his friend the
originator of Psychophysics, G. Th. Fechner,
and the distinguished English Physicist, Crookes,
occupied themselves with the mediums Slade
and Home, all three affirming the reality of
phenomena hitherto regarded as definitely re-
futed by all physical experiments. Although
it was possible to contend successfully against
Zoellner, Fechner and Crookes, that they placed
too much faith in their mediums, and did not
take sufficient precautions against possible decep-
tion, this contention holds less and less with
regard to more recent investigators, more
especially as it has become the rule to keep the
possibility of fraud well in mind. Formerly
the whole problem could be waived aside. Zoell-
ner could be called insane (and also erroneously
accused of having committed suicide), and Crookes
met with no better treatment. But is it really
admissible to accuse every fresh student of being
half-witted or unscientific, for the simple reason
that having taken up Occultism, and remaining

INTRODUCTION 15

equally competent in his own sphere, he deduces
certain definite though quite abnormal facts
from his later study ? Surely the probability
is greater, that their unanimity expresses the real
hate of affairs, and that Occultism in conse-
quence really deals with new facts of a peculiar
character.

True, we are not dealing with happenings that
can be observed at any time anywhere. They
are peculiar to certain persons, to be made use
of wherever they are to be found. But in
psychology this situation is not rare. It has
already been mentioned, that all creative work
which is of any importance in the history of
intellectual development has been confined to
certain individuals only, and in their case even
has not at all times been in evidence.

The scepticism brought to bear on such
subjects in Germany at the present day goes
much too far. Those familiar with foreign
literature are forced to the conclusion that it is
simply based on ignorance of the information
already available. It is characteristic enough
that until a few years ago the chief periodical on
the subject, containing the most important and
essential work and data, the " Proceedings of
the Society for Psychical Research," was (so far
as I know) only procurable at the Munich State
Library (though now it can also be found in
the Berlin State Library). We are merely behind

16 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

the times in this respect, and this attitude is a
reversion to Materialism, and not the only one
at that. The present state of affairs is more and
more unworthy of German science, and my
object in this book is to put an end to it.

The best and shortest way is to give a summary
of the results of the examination of several
contemporary mediums. For that purpose I
have chosen those who demonstrate the
phenomena under consideration in a peculiarly
distinct and clear-cut fashion. These are the
Swiss medium, Helene Smith ; the American,
Mrs. Piper ; and the Italian, Eusabia Palladino
the three most famous mediums of modern
times. No others have been so thoroughly and
continuously examined as they, for they remained
for years in succession under scientific observa-
tion. Once acquainted with the facts estab-
lished through their mediumship, we shall be
in possession of the best proofs by which to judge
Occultism as a whole. We shall, however, not
content ourselves with the examination of these
three special cases, but occupy ourselves either
in conjunction with them or separately with
other more recent cases.

CHAPTER 1

HELENE SMITH STATES OF
IMPERSONATION

I WILL begin with Helene Smith, a medium
through whom some forms of parapsychic

phenomena are demonstrated with particular
clarity, though many or the most characteristic
of them are only found occasionally.

Helene Smith is the pseudonym of a mediumis-
tically inclined Swiss lady, whose acquaintance
was made by Th. Flournoy, Professor of Philo-
sophy at the University of Geneva in the winter
of 1894. She was then thirty years of age, of
middle-class origin an employee in a business-
house in Geneva, where, thanks to her intelli-
gence, her position improved gradually. At the
age of 14 her first abnormal experiences began.
They took the form of nocturnal apparitions.
Later on, new phenomena manifested themselves ;
and finally, after she had joined spiritistic circles
in 1892, and had herself become one of their
disciples, she developed into a regular medium,
experiencing while awake phenomena previously
only experienced by her at night. Thus, in her
writing, written characters differing from her

a 17

18 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

own began to appear here and there. To these
were added, later, acoustic phenomena and
rapping. Finally the somnambulistic dream
stage was attained. These conditions recurred
with increasing frequency, thus rendering
Helene Smith one of the most remarkable
subjects for analytic observation in connection
with the so-called " Phenomena of Impersona-
tion " the modern form of " Possession." At
such times her mind seemed to leave her body
altogether, and to be replaced by another. So
at least it appeared.

For five years, 18941898, Flournoy was
able to observe her in the course of innumerable
stances, during which period she derived no
material benefit from the proceedings, and
received no pecuniary remuneration in her
capacity of medium. Nor were the greater
part of her performances of a character to invite
deception. She laid no claim to prophecy, nor
did she excel in the usual telepathic or param-
nestic performances to say nothing of giving
any special demonstrations in the way of physical
phenomena.

Inspirational phenomena predominated. These
were shown with the greatest ease and abun-
dance, and there is no other medium, through
whom under equally close observation such
phenomena were obtained with greater fre-
quency.

HELENE SMITH 19

The spirits which apparently declared them-
selves through Helne Smith fall into two
categories historical and non-historical person-
ages ; or, rather, in order to avoid any precon-
ceived theory, those with which it is possible
to connect a prototype in history, and those with
which it is not. The former are confined to a
few cases, such as Victor Hugo, Leopold Cag-
liostro, the famous magician of the eighteenth
century, and Marie Antoinette. The latter is
infinitely the richer group. These spirits did not
all declare themselves through Helene Smith
at the same time. On the contrary ; her medial
life may be divided into varying periods, or, more
correctly speaking, cycles. Victor Hugo was
the first to appear. His impersonation lasted
five months, and then gradually diminished.
His place was increasingly taken by Leopold
Cagliostro, of whom a visual apparition proceeded
the actual impersonation. As a matter of fact,
it should be noted that in the case of Helene
Smith there existed in general some peculiar
connexion between visual and inspirational pheno-
mena which has still to be explained in detail.
From now onwards, Cagliostro became Helene
Smith's actual " control." He appears to have
been present according to the observations
made by Flournoy throughout her entire
further development. The impression received
Is that he never leaves her he is conversant with

20 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

her whole life. His conversation and writing,
including the orthography, appear to date from
the eighteenth century, and his physiognomy
bears distinct resemblance to a historical portrait
of Cagliostro. We have here a case where the
physiognomy of the medium is subjected to
considerable changes during the state of trance,
taking on a resemblance to the features of the
spirit which may happen to appear to be in
control of the medium a very telling proof of
the magnitude of the transformation in the
mind of the medium while in a state of impersona-
tion. All her impersonations have this charac-
teristic. Flournoy describes again and again the
ineffable art with which Helene Smith portrays
the character of the moment.

" Helene should be seen when the ' royal ' trance is full and
complete : grace, elegance, distinction, at times majesty in pose
and gesture the actual demeanour of a queen. The most subtle
shades of expression charming amiability, queenly condescension
indifference and withering contempt, are shown in rapid succes-
sion on her countenance and bearing as the defile* of her courtiers
pass before her in her dream. The play of her hands with a real
handkerchief and fictitious appurtenances fan, lorgnette, smelling-
salts with a screw-top in a little bag attached to her girdle her
curtseys, her movements full of careless grace, as she never omits
to throw back her imaginary train at every step every thing, every
smallest detail is perfectly and naturally worked out.

Seen under these conditions, she must impress
us as a finished actress, except that, in contra-
distinction to the real artist, she is entirely
merged in her role, and retains no consciousness

HELENE SMITH 21

of her own real personality. On the other hand,
however, these conditions cannot be accepted
as proof of the conclusion that real impersona-
tion through the spirits which have passed over
actually exists.

" Possession," by Leopold Cagliostro, betrayed
certain imperfections only too clearly. Helene
Smith has no knowledge of Italian, neither had
her Leopold ! Moreover, comparison of the
two handwritings proved that there was no
resemblance between that of the pseudo-Cag-
liostro and the real one ; but that it was simply
and solely the distorted handwriting of Helene
Smith.

It is not different with the impersonation of
Marie Antoinette. The old-fashioned ortho-
graphy and handwriting are also shown in this
case, but so are the same defects. The real
handwriting of the French Queen was different,
and her accent was German and not English.
It is equally significant that Helene Smith's
Marie Antoinette should use such modern words
as tramway and photography, of which the
historical queen could not have heard. These
circumstances prove that there can be no question
of actual " possession," however finished the
imitation of strange personalities may otherwise
be. To this must be added the fact that there
are stages of transition between Helene Smith
and those ostensibly impersonated. At certain

22 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

moments Helene Smith feels herself becoming
Cagliostro. Her own normal existence is mergec
in that of the foreign personality which at that
moment begins to live and stir within her mind
and consciousness. She feels herself at one and
the same time to be Helene Smith and Cagliostro ;
just as the poet, in moments of inspiration, may
feel himself at one with the creatures of his
brain. This would seem impossible, had the real
Cagliostro taken possession of Helene Smith's
organism. Still more convincing proof of the
non-identity of these personages presumably
impersonated in Helene Smith's trances is the
occasional appearance of characters from novels
which she had read. They too lay claim to be
taken seriously.

In the cases quoted so far, we have only been
concerned with copies of characters which Helene
Smith had met in fiction or in historical tradition.
But her imagination was capable of far greater
flights. Whole cycles of fictitious persons and
situations were evolved by her. They all bear
an exotic stamp, headed by an Indian cycle.
Just as the impersonation of Leopold was preceded
by his apparition, so did the Indian cycle begin
with the visions of Indian landscapes, and was
followed by Helene Smith's impersonation of
visionary Indian figures apparently semi-
historical personalities of the fourteenth century.
From now on impersonations and visions began

HELENE SMITH 28

to intermingle in odd fashion. At the very
moment that Helene Smith is metamorphosized
into an Indian woman, she visualizes a little
monkey in hallucination and plays with it.

The Mars-cycle is still more imaginative.
Here, too, there was an intermingling of visions
and impersonations. Helene Smith " acts " the
inhabitants of Mars, and at the same time
visualizes the imagined countryside, houses,
plants, etc., of Mars. This cycle is further
characterized by the introduction of a " Mar-
tian " language. The Martians impersonated
speak no language known on earth only Martian ;
and their written characters differ entirely
from any " earthly " alphabet. Flournoy has
examined both languages and script most min-
utely. The very melodious speech vowel sounds
being estimated at seventy-three per cent
and e's and i's preponderating was proved by
him to be a thoroughly grammatically-grounded
language ; but no independent tongue, merely
a somewhat transformed French. The language
was a specious production, constructed and used
with amazing skill, but nevertheless a faked
transformation of a European tongue; in fact,
no new independent language. It was really
wonderful how Helene Smith used this speech,
which was evidently invented by her, with no
opportunity of practising it out of her trances.
It is as remarkable as if some one read through a

24 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

foreign grammar, and forthwith began to speak
in that language. This is the only comparison
which can be made to Helene's power of using
the newly invented script and of writing it
fluently. Invention and mastery followed close
upon one another, to the apparent exclusion of
the usual practice necessary under normal
circumstances.

Her abnormal memory and facility of repro-
duction when in a trance has been established
through two other facts. One day Helene
Smith wrote in entirely unknown characters.
Investigation proved these to be Arabian letters,
and after further observation they were recog-
nized as copied from a dedication, which a Geneva
physician had written several years previously in
his book, " En Cabylie." It was at least six
years since Helene had seen that particular
volume. Characteristically enough, these were
the only Arabian letters ever traced by her hand.
The second proof of her trance hypermnesie is
demonstrated by her use of several genuine
Sanscrit words when presumably speaking " Sans-
crit " in her trance. Closer investigation dis-
closed the fact that she had formerly held
spiritualistic stances at the house of a person who
dabbled in Sanscrit, where she may possibly
have seen a Sanscrit grammar.

Given such prodigious feats of memory,
Helene Smith's invented language and alphabet

HELENE SMITH 25

can well be understood. When the true nature
of her trances was established beyond doubt,
Flournoy made a bold move, and told the
" Control " of the medium, Leopold Cagliostro,
the truth to his face. The latter withdrew
from the contest with the pointless phrase, " II y
a des choses plus extraordinaire*" The incident,
however, did not end here ; but it had further
consequences for Helene Smith. New cycles
were evolved in attempts to outbid the previous
ones, with a view to giving a still more striking
proof of the genuine character of the impersona-
tions. In the place of Mars and the Martians
appeared Asteroid and Uranus, to which later was
appended a Moon cycle. New languages and
newer and still more phantastic alphabets were
evolved.

We have here, therefore, clear evidence of an
effort to create belief in an imaginary intercourse
with a higher world. Have we the right to
accuse Helene Smith of deception ? It does not
seem so. In any case the question does not
arise in connexion with Helene Smith in her
waking state, in her normal everyday sur-
roundings, but can only refer to her state in
somnambulistic trance.

Helene Smith, in a waking state, can only be
held responsible for such actions to the same
extent as a person who commits them in a som-
nambulistic trance. But in the latter case

2 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

responsibility is not usually attributed. We do
not say that a person is responsible merely
because he or she acts in a certain way, unless he
or she has also complete control at the time of
the normal mental faculties, and is not in an
anomalous psychic state. Matters, however, are
further complicated with regard to Helene Smith
by the fact that her strange somnambulistic
condition as well as her visions themselves were
both occasioned by an impulse to prove the truth
of her intercourse with supernatural spheres.
All the same, Helene Smith cannot be held
responsible for this when she is awake. Or are
we to accept the explanation that Helene, while
in a normal frame of mind, lends herself sub-
consciously to such considerations ? Given such
a hypothesis, even so she should not be held
responsible, for there is no apparent sense in
making a person accountable for thoughts and
actions of which she is unconscious, while giving
vent to them.

Helene Smith did not always enter into a
complete trance ; the abnormal psychic processes
often only manifest themselves in a semi-somnam-
bulistic or even still vaguer state. Automatic
writing was frequently produced, representing
as it does, possibly, the most oft-recurring
phenomenon of mediumship of the present day.
We are here concerned with a most remarkable
phenomenon, though so recurrent a one that it

HELENE SMITH 27

can be produced at any moment in spiritual-
istic circles. Its explanation alone remains
problematic.

Completely developed automatic writing con-
sists according to the mediums in that their
hands write purely mechanically, without know-
ledge on their part of what they write. According
to accounts by such authors as P. Janet and A.
Binet, cases have occurred in which it was possible
to converse with the mediums without dis-
turbing them in the least in their writing. Cases
have even been known in which the medium
wrote with both hands simultaneously on different
topics. There is no point in questioning these
assertions as assertion of mere fact. But all
cases are not of equally well-marked character.
On the contrary, we find every possible grade
and transition, ranging from normal voluntary
active writing to these extremes.

According to the classic Anglo-French theory
attributed to Taine, we are dealing with " dis-
sociated psychic processes," or, when another
ego appears to express itself in writing, with
"secondary personalities." This theory is in
complete harmony with that of the conception
of the mind by Wundt, which until lately
practically dominated German Psychology. Ac-
cording to this theory the individual ego is no
more than a synthesis of separate psychic parts,
and there is no permanent element which can be

28 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

called the soul. According to this view mediums
possess two or more of such mental syntheses,
whereas in the normal human organism all mental
processes are united in the form of one single
unit. This conception is irreconcilable with
that of the modern monadic view of the mind
propounded by me in my " Phenomenology of
the Soul." My view, however, is also able to
deal with the automatic processes of mediumistic
phenomena without having to resort to the
hypothesis of purely physiological " Reflex Pheno-
mena. " This moreover is a hypothesis which
cannot be sustained, for automatic documents
are often so completely coherent that something
more than reflex action must be presupposed.
To my mind there are only two possibilities :
either the writing-motions of the medium are
controlled by intellectual activities and thoughts,
which do not reach his conscious apperception,
and of which he is as oblivious as we are oblivious
of words addressed to us when we are otherwise
engrossed, or else the medium is at fault when
he professes unconsciousness of such thoughts.
This again invokes a dual possibility : either
the medium forthwith forgets what has been
thought or written, or merely imagines that he
does not know what he is writing about. The
latter supposition, strange and improbable though
it appears, is not unlikely. Innumerable cases
have been established through the examination

HELENE SMITH 29

of Psychaesthenics, where the latter complained
that they wrote absolutely mechanically and did
not know what they wrote, despite proof on
investigation that they were entirely aware of it.
It seems that such persons lack the normal
complement of emotional feeling in intellectual
as well as in other directions. And inasmuch as
they are painfully conscious of their deficient
sensibility, so that their own sensations appear
to themselves either strange or non-existent, it
is possible that a similar result in a more marked
manner may take place in intellectual matters,
particularly as the process of thought are in
themselves so unsubstantial. It is, therefore,
hardly surprising if they feel as though they had
lost the power of independent thought. From
this the further deduction might be made that,
when the mediums write automatically, the
emotional consciousness which accompanies
thought is suspended, and they are not therefore
conscious of thinking. This explanation may
apply to some cases and sufficiently explain them ;
though it fails when the " personality " who has
been writing automatically is incapable, when
asked, of giving the sense of what has been so
written. Upon this view it is impossible to
determine experimentally whether retrograde
amnesia supervened, or whether the act of
thought in question did not penetrate to the
conscious apperception ; for the effect is the

80 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

same In either case. The individual concerned
cannot indicate the contents of what was written
either during or after the act of writing.

It is quite wrong from the monadic point of
view to speak of " Subconsciousness." We
speak of consciousness in all cases where we are
cognizant of the psychic processes within us.
" Subconsciousness," however, would imply that
we possess such knowledge " below " our con-
sciousness. This would mean that at one and
the same time we have and have not such know-
ledge, and consequently contains a complete
inner contradiction. We may assume the ex-
istence of as many subconscious processes as we
please, but we must not talk of " subconscious

consciousness."

Automatic writing presents no specific qualities.
It may consist of meaningless lines ; on the other
hand, it may also have a quite coherent meaning,
either commonplace or full of interest. Poems
of considerable beauty have even been evolved
in this fashion. With Helene Smith the auto-
matic writing appears to be derived from the
same functional psychic combination as that
which fills the whole consciousness in her som-
nambulistic impersonations.

But such automatic phenomena are not only
confined to mediums. The best known case in
connexion with a non-medium is that of Miss
Beauchamp, examined by Morton Prince. In

HELENE SMITH 81

this instance, too, we are concerned with a whole
crowd of so-called " personalities " who purport
to be independent subjects, but who are, with-
out doubt, only special modifications of Miss
Beauchamp. Their relationship to each other
is the same as that of the spirits to the medium,
and they too make their presence manifest even
in Miss Beauchamp's presumably normal state
by means of automatic writing, hallucinations,
etc. Here too, as in the case of Helene Smith, it
might be argued that these strange phenomena
are the result of suggestions made by the in-
vestigator himself; but at any rate, they do
exist, and are worthy of more minute study ;
at least, as much as cases of hysterical anaesthesia,
which it may be are also sometimes provoked by
the treatment itself and caused by an intentional
misdirection of the attention.

Such phenomena are, for the greater part,
closely connected with the action of suggestion
in hypnotic cases, the precise psychological
nature of which we still do not know. The
only experimental scientific German work which
shows understanding of, and seeks connexion with,
these problems is to be found in Ach's book on
" Willing Experiments."

Apart from the phenomena of impersonation,
Helene Smith seems to have evolved, though in a
lesser degree, other phenomena of supernormal
character in a narrower sense. She seems to

82 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

have the gift of telepathy. Thanks to this gift,
she is said to have had such an intimate knowledge
of the private life of one of her fellow-clerks at
her office that he was forced to give up his work
there in consequence. On another occasion,
for instance, she had a vision of Flournoy, said
to be clairvoyance, when the latter was ill. How-
ever, these facts are less completely established
than are the phenomena of impersonation, since
they are necessarily based on the reports of the
medium herself or on the testimony of others.
Even so, they can not always be completely
explained. For instance, one day the medium
automatically put down the signature of a priest,
who, it was discovered later, had lived in a
small hamlet in Savoy in the beginning of the
nineteenth century. This signature absolutely
corresponded with the original as recorded on
ancient documents. It was, however, not proved
that Helene Smith had ever seen this signature,
which had been entirely forgotten. It was only
found possible to prove that she had once passed
through the village. It is, therefore, impossible
to say how this automatic copy of the signature
should be regarded.

Equally vague in the case of Helene Smith are
the reports on physical mediumistic phenomena.
It was stated that a piano, violin and bell
produced spontaneous sounds in her presence.
Further, she informed Flournoy that once,

HELENE SMITH 88

after the visit of a man who was unsympathetic
to her, a couple of oranges lying on the piano
precipitated themselves in his direction im-
mediately on his departure as the expression of
her distaste of his presence. But the sole wit-
nesses for the truth of this story are Helene
Smith and her mother ; we are therefore unable
to gauge the probabilities of this assertion.

Finally, we should like to discover the exact
importance of her mediumistic faculties to
Helene Smith's general existence. Did they
impair or advance the course of her life ? This
question is answered by the fact that the chief
phenomena only took place during spiritistic
seances, consequently only with assent of the
Medium. It is true that she was unable to
produce them at her will in the ordinary sense of
the word, but Helene Smith created or refused
to create the atmosphere in which they spon-
taneously developed. The only disturbances of
her normal life were to be found in occasional
semi-somnambulism, insignificant hallucinations,
and illusions of compulsion. It also occasionally
happened that an ordinary letter was replaced by
one of her invented characters in the midst of
her usual handwriting, or that the distinctive
script of Marie Antoinette suddenly appeared
altogether in its stead. Such occasional, though
insignificant impediments to her normal mental
existence were counter-balanced by many helpful
3

34 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

mediumistic phenomena. Among these must be
reckoned the useful counsels of Leopold Caglios-
tro, conveyed by automatic writing, acoustic
hallucinations, and other means. He advised her
on her health, and his recommendations, con-
cerning her participation in spiritualistic seances,
invariably proved sensible and correct. This
relationship between Helene and Leopold is
nothing out of the common ; indeed it is of quite
usual occurrence between the mediums who
write automatically and the spirits which osten-
sibly control them. The mediums are in closest
sympathy with the spirits, who constitute them-
selves their most faithful and intimate friends,
to whom the mediums refer in all the great and
small happenings of life ; and it is not uncommon
for them to receive really valuable advice and
instruction in this guise. This mental mechanism
does not differ essentially from that of normal
human beings. When we ponder over certain
matters, the most valuable thoughts are some-
times conveyed to us passively in the form of
inspiration. The mental life of the medium is
characterized by the fact that these same in-
spirations appear at once in the glorified present-
ment of thought and advice, emanating from a
different personality. In the case of Helene
Smith these thoughts are presented through
automatic writing and acoustic hallucinations.
We are obliged to assume that the medium does

HELENE SMITH 85

not possess an immediate apperceptive con-
sciousness of these mental happenings but is
only apprised of them through automatic writing
or hallucinations. It is impossible meanwhile
to determine the reason why such mental processes,
which do not even reach apperception, should
so easily set the writing-muscles in motion, or
produce hallucinations. Sometimes the " un-
conscious " processes in Helene Smith lead to
more varied phenomena. One day as she was
in the act of reaching from a cupboard an object
too heavy for her physical strength, her arm
suddenly stiffened, and Cagliostro explained
later that he had been responsible for this to
prevent her health from being impaired.

In other cases, when she wished to remember
something, the answer presented itself in hallucina-
tory form. She recovered a brooch in a similar
fashion, which she had lost one Sunday during
a country walk. Again, on another occasion, she
was assisted by her mediumistic faculties in
placing the order of a client who wrote to ask
for a material No. 13459. No one in the whole
house knew to what he referred, neither did
Helene Smith, who also hoped to find it. Sud-
denly she placed her hand quite mechanically
on a roll of material, and when she looked closer
she found it bore the number required. In all
such instances her mediumistic faculties were
of great use to her. But the greatest advantage

86 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

gained thereby lay in their ultimately freeing her
from her cramped material position. A rich
American lady, who took a fancy to her, con-
ducted her to a bank one day, and there made
certain financial arrangements, which secured
her independence for life. Her firm conviction
that she was ordained for something better than
that of a warehouse clerk was thus realized. She
at once severed her connexion with her employers,
but at the same time unfortunately with
Flournoy, whom she had unsuccessfully tried to
convert to spiritualism. Nothing further is
known about her later medial development,
though, considering how restricted Geneva
circles are, inquiries on this point should not be
difficult. 1 It is greatly to be desired in view of
the interest presented by the observation of the
psychic development of every Medium, that this
omission should be rectified at the earliest
opportunity.

1 Note by translator, Professor Oesterreich is misinformed.
She took to psychic (inspirational) painting. Cf. " Annales des
Sciences psychiques," pottfm up to 1914.

CHAPTER II

MRS. PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY

^ | AHE case of the medium, Helene Smith,
I did not present any special problem in its
main manifestations. The strictly super-
normal phenomena were not sufficiently frequent
to be either understood or admitted. It is a
different matter when we come to the American
medium, Mrs. Piper. Mrs. Piper, at an earlier
date than Helene Smith, produced supernormal
phenomena with such regularity and under such
unimpeachable conditions that they can, with
the greatest probability, be regarded as estab-
lished facts. For decades she was under scientific
observation and the result never varied. Thus
we have here a case of which the supernormal
character is above all suspicion. It is therefore
no longer a question of the problem of the
existence of supernormality ; the problem lies in
the ways and manners of its evolution.

Mrs. Piper was a married woman of the Boston
middle-classes. Her scientific discoverer was W.
James, whose attention was drawn to her in 1885.
The manner of his discovery was both unromantic
and unscientific in character ; in fact, it sounds

37

88 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

more like an old wives' tale. James's sister-in-law
told him one day of an unknown woman who
had been able to give details about the writer
of an Italian letter, who was a stranger to her,
simply by placing the letter on her forehead.
James was sceptical, but sufficiently curious and
interested to look Mrs, Piper up for himself.
At her first sitting, however, his former sus-
picious attitude was replaced by the conviction
that Mrs. Piper was producing supernormal
psychic phenomena. In her trance she was able
to give detailed information regarding James's
relatives, though none of these lived in the
neighbourhood. Some had settled in California,
others in Maine, some were already dead.

She knew that one of James's children was
dead. " Your child," said the spirit which
claimed to be talking through Mrs. Piper to
James, " has a playfellow here in our world, a

boy named Robert Fr " ; and this name was

found to be the actual name of a child who had
died. James himself believed the information to
be incorrect, and that the child referred to had
been a little girl. Inquiries proved, however,
that it was not the spirit which was wrong, but
James it was a boy. The medium made correct
assertions about James " You have just killed a
grey-white cat by means of ether." James's
mother-in-law lost a cheque book ; it was found
through her indications.

MRS, PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY 89

Curiously enough, though he visited Mrs.
Piper several times, James did not undertake any
further personal examination of the medium for
quite a time, though he kept himself permanently
informed about her through his friend Hodgson,
the Secretary of the American Society for Psy-
chical Research. The latter, except when away
on a journey, instituted regular sittings several
times weekly over a period of twenty years, from
the date of his arrival in America (1887) until
his death in 1906. He carried out this duty,
if not always in the best of tempers, yet with the
utmost conscientiousness and in a most business-
like fashion. He also undertook to introduce to
Mrs. Piper all the visitors who came to see her,
as she considered it to be her religious duty to
place her strange gift at the service of science.

Shorthand reports of the automatic statements
of the medium were taken down at innumerable
sittings. In later years automatic writing came
to the fore, and voluminous records emanating
from the supposed spirits were the result. In
1900 the proceedings of the Society for Psychical
Research had already published 1,500 pages on
Mrs, Piper alone, of which half was devoted to
the minutes of her sittings. Since then, further
comprehensive publications have been printed,
so that the present material in hand comprises
some 3,200 pages, though many records of the
sittings and inspirational writings have not been

40 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

printed. To these must be added other material
on the subject published elsewhere. No other
medium, with the exception of Eusapia Palladino,
has been examined so often.

As time went on, Mrs. Piper's mediumistic
faculties became fainter. She found increasing
difficulty in falling into a trance, and indeed this be-
came impossible after the middle of 1911, owing,
possibly to the after-effects of a shock experienced
at certain experimental sittings with the psycho-
logist, Stanley Hall, and his assistant, Miss Tanner.
Despite this, she was still able to produce auto-
matic writing in a state of normal consciousness.

The manner in which the supernormal pheno-
mena manifested themselves through Mrs. Piper
during a lifetime is common to all mediums.
She fell into a trance, and the spirits then spoke
through her. At least so it happened at first,
though, later on, automatic writing was more
prevalent. But even so, for many years Mrs.
Piper remained in a state of trance when writing.
In order to attain this state at first she merely
held some one's hand ; after a few minutes'
spasmodic movements set in, resembling a slight
epileptic attack, with a lessening of the cutaneous
sensibility. Then came the state of impersona-
tion. Mrs. Piper apparently withdrew from her
organism, and other individualities took her
place. Their number is a very considerable one,
certain of them recurring often, Phinuit,

MRS. PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY 41

George Pelham, Rector, Imperator, and others ;
and later; after their death; Myers and
Hodgson. The "controls," or impersonating
spirits, however, were not always themselves the
communicators on their own behalf. It not
infrequently happened that one or the other of
the impersonating spirits volunteered the in-
formation that other spirits were present who said
certain things (" communicators "). The life-
like resemblance of those impersonated must,
according to the reports, have been unusually
strong; character, voice and demeanour were
almost uncannily accurate.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Piper is not distinguished
by any specific peculiarities from numerous other
mediums of lesser qualifications. The interest of
her manifestations rests in the first place on the
knowledge shown by the impersonated indi-
viduals, or rather by Mrs. Piper in the impersona-
tion trance. This knowledge was not infre-
quently of supernormal nature not so much as
regards its subject as in the manner in which
that Mrs. Piper was able to obtain it.

The character of supernormal phenomena
always remained the same. When Mrs. Piper in
trance was apparently controlled by certain
personalities, she often gave information concern-
ing the name, character and past of those present
as well of others known to them, either alive or
dead. These details were always quite unin-

42 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

teresting : the description of some one's cane,
what sort of cuff-links he wore, and from whom
he had received them as a present, etc. She
made a point of reminding those present of
various little details of their past, of which she
was quite unlikely to have heard. Such in-
formation was mainly forthcoming when objects
belonging to those interested were placed before
Mrs. Piper (Psychometry). The knowledge
which she had of deceased persons was so astound-
ing that many a sceptic, entirely opposed to
spiritualism, became a convert. The immediate
impression produced by the automatic writing
or conversation and the seemingly direct inter-
course with spirits, who declared themselves by
questions and answers, were apparently much
more convincing than is the subsequent reading
of the minutes of the sittings. This explains
how it was that even an investigator of such
strength of mind as Hodgson, who originally
belonged entirely to the positivist school of
thought, was converted to spiritualism. His
friend, George Pelham, was apparently im-
personated after his recent death in Mrs.
Piper, and reminded Hodgson of the varied details
of their former philosophical conversations.
Further, the " spirit " greeted all his old ac-
quaintances. His parents were presented to him
under an assumed name; but in vain, for he
recognized them nevertheless. All this made

MRS. PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY 43

such a profound impression on Hodgson that he
came to the conclusion that the spiritistic
interpretation was justified. The craving to
learn more about life after death from his own
experience became overwhelming, and he is
reported shortly before his death to have said
that he could hardly contain his impatience :
" I can hardly wait to die."

James had a similar experience after Hodgson's
death, with the latter's impersonation. The
resemblance to the deceased and the super-
normal nature of the information volunteered
was so great that " I felt a slight shiver down my
spine, as though I really had been talking to my
old friend." And he too, who had for years
defended the anti-spiritistic standpoint against
Hodgson, now no longer felt able to reject
entirely the spiritist explanation.

There is no doubt that Mrs. Piper did not
obtain her knowledge by normal methods. Those
who have studied but a few passages of the
shorthand notes of the minutes must be certain
of this. True, it is dry reading (at least, for
those who are not greatly interested in such
problems), for the notes are very trite and ordinary
for the main part. The chief interest invariably
centres in the question how Mrs. Piper could
have known of these intimate details. And even
Stanley Hall, who apparently possesses the typical
positivistic scepticism of the average experimental

44 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

psychologist, admits that " the control seems to
possess faculties that appear supernormal."

The problem no longer runs : " Do super-
normal phenomena occur in the case of Mrs.
Piper ? " but " Which hypothesis is the more
likely to explain them ? "

Disciples of the spiritistic interpretation draw
attention to further considerations. For instance,
spirits who are impersonated in a medium soon
after death make extremely confused statements,
as if they had not yet completely found them-
selves. This is particularly noticeable with regard
to the spirits of those who died from mental or
similar diseases, tending to prove that they still
bear traces of their mental deficiencies. It also
happened that one of the " spirits," who was
impersonated in Mrs. Piper, explained to a lady
present at the stance, that he had just appeared
to one of her relatives who had died immediately
afterwards. It was proved later that the person
in question had actually died and that the
" spirit " had actually appeared to him shortly
before death. The very words, which appear
to have been heard by the dying man, were
repeated by Mrs. Piper. And yet none of these
arguments are incontrovertible. Every one of
the evidential cases might be explained as an
elaboration by the creative imagination of Mrs.
Piper 's^telepathically acquired knowledge and by
her telepathic faculty working in conjunction

MRS. PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY 45

with the minds of others in the instance given
with that of the dying man. Without the
hypothesis of telepathy, all attempts at explana-
tion are abortive. And in addition to the tele-
pathic perception of the immediate actual mental
processes of those present at the seance we have
also to assume that the medium could read
thoughts which were latent. When Mrs. Piper
informs Professor James that he has just killed a
cat with ether, there is a possibility that he might
have given a casual thought to this fact at that
precise moment. When, on the other hand, she
gives him information about distant relatives or
a dead child the above theory appears improbable.
It must therefore be assumed that she was herself
able to reproduce even mere latent memories of
those present.

A special difficulty arises in those cases where
Mrs. Piper made correct statements in contra-
diction of the thought of the person who was
apparently the telepathic source of her informa-
tion, that person making a mistake. This applies
to the case where Mrs. Piper indicated the correct
sex of the child, while James was wrong. If,
however, the origin of her assertions is to be
found in James's memory, it must be assumed that
there are, so to say, deeper strata of subcon-
sciousness, otherwise her declaration would have
agreed with his erroneous opinion. That such
deeper strata do exist is proved by the fact that

46 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

under certain artificially induced conditions it is
possible by narrowing the circle of consciousness
to improve the memory and correct mistakes.
Mrs. Piper's telepathic power seems to have gone
direct to such latent memories.

But how is it that Mrs. Piper, when shown an
object belonging to a person unknown to all
those present, was yet able to give information
about it later proved to have been correct ?
Or when she disclosed matters even unknown to
the latent memory to those present at the seance ?
These psychometric manifestations have so far
been considered inexplicable.

In order, however, to attempt to explain them,
it has been assumed that all objects are surrounded,
so to speak, by a psychic aura or by the " Life-
spirit " of their owner. (" Influences.") Either
conception, particularly the latter, is quite
nebulous. The additional hypothesis deduced
from them, that, for instance, it is not right to
place articles which were the property of different
owners close to each other, as they infect each
other and give bad psychometric results, has not
been verified. Stanley Hall on one occasion
showed Mrs. Piper an object which was not the
one originally chosen to be shown to her, but
only bore a marked resemblance to the original.
She was nevertheless enabled to make correct
communications applicable to the owner of the
original " real " object, in spite of the fact that

MRS. PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY 47

it possessed neither " psychic aura," nor was it
steeped in " nerve spirit." She had apparently
been duped.

Another explanation lies in the assumption
that the survival of personality is so limited that
only shreds of memory are left in the world,
and it is of these shreds that the mediums are
able to take advantage. This conception implies
an exceedingly strange misconception of the
nature of the mind, as indeed of memory in par-
ticular, and results in a reversion to the ideas of
Herbart. Just as Herbart materialized the indi-
vidual acts of perception into permanent atoms,
so upon this theory acts of memory are regarded
as concrete facts : and this, though individual
acts of memory, even when repeated with
reference to the same object, cannot by any means
be considered as identically the same. Further-
more this theory is at fault in assuming that if
two different people remember the same event
it must be the case of an identical remembrance.
On the contrary, there would be two distinct
acts of memory, as each person has his own
individual memory, even though applied to the
same event. If this hypothesis is to be adopted
at all, it must be applied consistently and clearly.
We shall then need an entirely new foundation
for psychological theory. In exact opposition to
the monadic conception of the soul, it will be
necessary to assume that the psyche, like the

48 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

body, is also composed of individual parts,
capable either of a permanent, independent
existence, or at any rate of a continued existence
for a certain length of time. These separate
parts may find themselves combined at certain
times, just as the body is composed of atoms,
which, if placed in a different juxtaposition to
each other, would produce other bodies. Dis-
memberment and materialization would not only
be true of the memory, but of all other mental
phenomena. And the result would be unless
we go on to assume the existence of separate
specimens of the same mental phenomenon
that we should have to say that to some degree
different individuals are actually constituted from
the same parts. For instance, a colour noticed
by another person and myself would be actually
the same identical perception in both of us.
The same thing would apply to an emotion or
manifestation of will power. For the theory,
if it is right for memory, is right also for all other
mental acts, and thus demonstrates its own
absurdity.

In my opinion, all psychometric manifestations
alike can be traced back to Telepathy, and this
I have pointed out in my " Fundamental Notions
of Parapsychology." It must be assumed that
Mrs. Piper was in unbroken subconscious tele-
pathic nexus with almost everybody, so that much
of their actual experiences or memories was

MRS. PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY 49

telepathically transferred to her, and at her
disposal while she was in a trance and able to
recall it. If this is so she would, on being shown
a watch, remember its owner, to whom certain
associations would necessarily be attached, in the
same way that we, on receiving a gift, may think
of the donor and possibly of his relatives or
other common acquaintances. For this reason
I should like to suggest the term " Paramnesy "
or " Metamnesy " for psychometric phenomena.
The supposition that spurious spirits and not
Mrs. Piper are responsible for such communica-
tions would merely be an explanation created
by the imagination, and it is of daily occurrence
in modern occultism by reason of traditions and
beliefs which are passed on from one medium
to another.

That the spiritistic interpretation actually
presents difficulties to spiritists themselves has
been clearly proved by the recent attempt made
to explain Mrs. Piper's trance, not as genuine
impersonations, but as founded on a telepathic
nexus not only with the living but also with the
spirits of those who had passed over and were
continuing their existence transcendentally. It
is true that it is not possible to refute this any
more than the usual spiritistic interpretation ;
but it is still true that all positive proof of spiritism
is unjustified, for whatever the communications
may be by which spirits prove their existence,

50 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

they must themselves be verified, in order that
their validity may be accepted. But verification
is only possible when the facts are vouched for
by living people or proved by documents. And
where this is possible, it is also possible in principle
to ascribe the knowledge of the medium to
Telepathy or Clairvoyance.

That Mrs. Piper was in possession of telepathic
and possibly clairvoyant faculties also seems to be
confirmed by various data. On one occasion a
sitter was informed by her through a " spirit "
that there was a defective place, a crack under a
certain window in her (the sitter's) house.
Another time it was directly arranged with one
of the " spirits " (G. Pelham) that he should
observe the doings of a certain person and report
at the next seance what had happened in the
meantime. This actually was done. The
" spirit " reported that the person under observa-
tion, who lived far away in Washington, had
taken a photograph to an artist on a certain day
with a request to paint a portrait from it- This
was quite correct. Not even the man's wife
was aware of the incident.

There are, however, various positive considera-
tions which militate against the spiritistic charac-
ter of Mrs. Piper's state of trance. For instance,
Dr. Phinuit, who lay claim to being a French
doctor at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, speaking through her, had no knowledge

MRS. PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY 51

whatever of the medicines used at that time.
Mrs. Piper's most outstanding failure lay, how-
ever, in being unable to communicate the contents
of a letter, unknown to all who were then alive,
left by a stranger who had died. The attempt
was twice repeated, to fail in both instances.
Once, too, there was the question of a letter left
by Hodgson, which he had promised to com-
municate to his friends if possible after his death,
through Mrs. Piper, as proof of his continued
existence. Even though Hodgson was apparently
impersonated soon afterwards in Mrs. Piper, his
attempts to give the contents of the letter proved
quite abortive. This led to the conclusion that
Mrs. Piper's efforts as a whole were only con-
nected with her telepathic nexus with the living ;
though possibly this conclusion may go too far.
It is only certain, either that she is not in con-
tinuous telepathic nexus with everyone, or that
her memories are not always entirely within her
control, otherwise she would have received tele-
pathic news of this letter during Hodgson's
lifetime when it was written, and remembered
it later. She was not gifted with equal param-
nestic faculties with regard to all the sitters.
These abortive attempts also prove that Mrs.
Piper was not always capable of clairvoyance, or
she would have been able to decipher the letter
by that means. And despite her supernormality
there are ojher errors and gaps in her manifesta-

52 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

tions. At times, for instance, she gropes in
doubt after a name, and occasionally does not
get beyond similarities in sound. Thus Gibbons
was pronounced as Kiblin, Giblin, and so forth.
And the definite impression left is the same as
that when we ourselves are half unable to recall
a name, a result which is much in favour of the
explanation already given in regard to " Psycho-
metry." Half-true, inaccurate, and totally false
communications have also been given ; as, for
example, the wrong date of the delivery of the
photograph to the painter in the episode above
mentioned. In other cases, it was not possible
to establish the exact truth.

But all these inaccuracies, defects and negative
results cannot shake the positive material. Its
wealth is overwhelming.

So far as I am aware, no one who came into
personal contact with Mrs. Piper, or who was
concerned in first-hand reports about her, had
any doubt as to the supernormal nature of her
mind, and her supernormality is as securely
established as any historical event. It has been
proved scientifically, and there can be no further
discussion as to the fact. Most of the investiga-
tors fared just as James did. Those who grew
up in the atmosphere of the departing nineteenth
century necessarily brought scepticism and
rationalistic prejudices to bear on the preliminary
*tudy of parapsychological problems, but the case

MRS. PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY 53

of Mrs. Piper could not in spite of all their
scepticism be lightly dismissed. In order to be
quite certain steps were taken to place her and
her relatives under continuous supervision by
detectives, and nothing in the least suspicious was
ever discovered. She was several times sent to
England, to stay as a guest in a private house,
in totally strange surroundings. Her luggage,
and practically the whole of her limited corre-
spondence she never wrote more than three
letters a week were examined, with equally
fruitless results. What paraphernalia she would
have needed had her demonstrations been founded
on fraud ! She was fully informed, so to speak,
on each person who came to her ; and not only
on the person himself, but also on his friends and
relatives, both alive and dead. And as she never
knew who was likely to come to her, she should,
by rights, have possessed a register or family
record of everyone under the sun. Though even
the most comprehensive index would have been
useless without her supernormal faculties, for
she would not only have had to memorize this
index in its entirety, but also to identify each
visitor, even when, as repeatedly happened, he
was introduced to her under an assumed name.

As a matter of fact she only learnt of her
peculiar condition through the reports of third
parties. She had herself no recollection of her
trance. Unlike Helene Smith, she appears to

54 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

have had herself no consciousness of a dual
personality when she was passing slowly from her
normal condition to her trance state.

While Helene Smith became aware of her
abnormal psychic processes through automatic
writing and semi-somnambulistic conditions, Mrs.
Piper was either in a complete state of impersona-
tion and trance-somnambulism or entirely normal.
There was no transition through intermediate
stages. Consequently it was only through the
testimony of others that she became aware of
anything remarkable about herself. She per-
sonally was more inclined to the telepathic
interpretations than to the spiritistic, and she is
the only one of the three great mediums with
whom we are concerned who shows definite
reserve with regard to spiritism.

Bearing in mind the fanatic devotion evinced
by such individuals towards spiritism on the
whole, it is decidedly refreshing to come across
a medium of such remarkable powers who
adopted such a critical attitude : " My opinion
is to-day (1901) as it was eighteen years ago.
Spirits of the departed may have controlled me
and they may not. l confess that I do not know."

However unusual the interest created in Mrs.
Piper's case by the wealth, abundance and, above
all, the careful scientific control to which it was
so long subjected, her case does not stand alone.
She has not only been rivalled by English-speaking

MRS. PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY 55

mediums, but by Germans also. Tischner re-
ports on them, and the psychologist, Professor
Baensch, was repeatedly present at such experi-
ments. In one instance, the latter himself
handed the medium, X, a small silver Turkish
coin, which could not be felt through its wrapping
of tissue paper, and which he carried about with
him in his purse together with two fifty-centime
pieces, several stamps, a trunk-key, and a ribbon
of the Iron Cross. The medium made some
striking assertions with reference to these articles
and their history. On closer examination of
the reports of these experiments we find a jumble
of visions and acoustic phenomena (the medium
hears a voice saying something to him), and
finally we get purely intellectual perception, as,
for instance, the declaration " from a strange
country, without a doubt." Acoustic phenomena
may possibly be explained as an alternative ex-
pression of conscious knowledge, though this
can surely not be asserted with regard to visual
phenomena. The paramnestic theory is also
applicable to Tischner ? s case of B, where the
situations remembered were not due to " know-
ledge," but to sensation of " sight " (not to say of
" hearing "). In this case we must assume that
the original telepathic perceptions themselves
were reproduced, just as we ourselves in some
cases remember events, in others, recall an actual
concrete sensory picture of them.

56 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

We conclude, provisionally, that Mrs. Piper's
achievements were confined to her intercourse
with the living (including those who passed over
while her memorizing powers were still un-
exhausted). It is, however, most desirable that
further research should be undertaken to see if
this conclusion is correct. Another medium
reported on by Osty is said to have visualized
prehistoric landscapes and catastrophes on being
handed a fossilized animal's tooth, and on
touching an antique jewel. This same medium
described facts of ancient Greece, though here,
of course, verification is extraordinarily difficult.
Some one was aware that the objects in question
were a fossilized tooth and an antique Greek
jewel. And there are enough sources, " con-
scious " and otherwise, on which a medium of
some education can draw for descriptions of
geological and historical events. It is only if
the visions of the medium exceed these limits
and disclose facts which have to be verified after-
wards that we should be justified in assuming
that psychometry differs specifically from an
elaborated telepathy as described above. As
I have already indicated in detail, it is, however,
possible to ascribe all "historical psychometry"
to telepathy. It is only necessary to assume
the existence of a subconscious telepathic nexus
between all, or at least most, of the medially
disposed individuals. In this manner the

MRS. PIPER AND PSYCHOMETRY 57

experiences and knowledge of these people would
be inherited from generation to generation, and
a perfect medium would thus be able to recount
the adventures of Rameses the Great or of
Alexander. He might become the spiritual
witness of the erection of the Pyramids and of
the invocation of Jupiter Ammon. History
would thus have direct connexion with the past
by reawakening in the souls of men the actual
traces of past ages through the intermediary of
the great mediums. What a perspective is
opened out by the thought that the day may
come when the battle of Marathon or the appear-
ance of Socrates before his judges might be
described to us by a person in a trance. We
should learn everything : how Greek was pro-
nounced, and how Socrates and Plato conversed
together ; for the voice and physiognomy of the
medium of genius is as malleable as wax.

But how would it be if the medium were
capable of still greater efforts, and could describe
events of the prehistoric age ? If the whole of
the past were to be unrolled before us ? The
thought is too phantastical, but we are not aware
of the bounds of psychometry. The possibility
must be recognized and investigated. It is
obvious that the truth will take long to establish.
If the result of the investigation were to establish
the theory as fact, it would mean that psycho-
metry cannot be founded (or at any rate not

58 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

alone) on a telepathic nexus of humanity. Its
causes would be deeper and still more wonderful.
Either those would be right who are of opinion
that all events leave traces on the object under
observation, and that these traces produce
corresponding thoughts or manifestations in the
psychometric medium, or it must be accepted
that these mediums get their telepathic know-
ledge from the memory of God or that of another
superhuman spirit (the Earth Soul of Fechner).
Anna Katherina Emmerich, who was canonized
by the Catholic Church, was accredited with
supernormal faculties, and in her case what
appears to be historical paramnesia has been
proved with comparative accuracy. The poet
Clemens Brentano has collected a good deal of
material about her. She left whole cycles of
visions about Jesus and Mary, purporting to
contain information on archaeological details in
Palestine, which were still unknown in her
lifetime, but which are said to have been
verified lately. Should these assertions really
be confirmed but I confess that I have felt so
sceptical about them that I have not even
troubled to examine them closer they would
be of the greatest interest for the further
development of Parapsychology.

CHAPTER III

CROSS-CORRESPONDENCE

THE store of mediumistic phenomena was
further increased some ten years ago by
a new development, hitherto unknown,
that of Cross-Correspondence. It was dis-
covered by the distinguished secretary of the
British Society for Psychical Research, Alice
Johnson, who, while studying the automatic
writings, of the different mediums, became aware
of a strange relationship between them. In
some cases this consisted of striking allusions made
by one written communication to the other,
in the use by both mediums of the same strange
expressions, in a common reference to a certain
literary quotation, and so on. This relationship
was of too frequent and systematic a character
to be merely due to chance, and did not neces-
sarily exist between two mediums only, but
between several. For instance, on April 8,
1907, Mrs. Piper uttered the words " Light
in the West " while in a trance in London. On
the same day, three hours later, Mrs. Verrall,
a medium in Cambridge, wrote automatically
among other things : " Rosy is the East, etc.

59

60 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

You will find that you have written a message for
Mr. Piddington, a message that you have not
understood, but that he has. Tell him this."
Moreover, on the same day, a little later, a third
medium, in Calcutta, Mrs. Holland, wrote :
" This exceptional sky, beneath which dusk
renders the East as beautiful and shining as the
West, Martha became Mary and Lea Rachel."
Closer analysis of these expressions and of their
contrast proved that all three scripts were
related to each other.

A second instance : On August 6, 1906, Mrs.
Holland wrote in India at the end of a fairly long
communication, separated by a wider space and
in an altered hand :

"Yelo" (scribbled).

"Yellowed Ivory."

Two days later Mrs. Verrall wrote in Cambridge
on August 8 :

" I have done it to-night y yellow is the
written word
yellow
yellow
Say only yellow/

And her daughter also wrote automatically
at the same time, without her mother's know-
ledge :

" Camomile and resin the prescription is old
on yellow paper in a box with a sweet scent."

CROSS-CORRESPONDENCE 61

In other cases automatic writings supplement
each other, and only make coherent sense when
added together. It is to use a metaphor
almost as though a manuscript had been cut
into scraps and handed to various compositors
who would only be able to make sense of the
whole after joining the fragments together.
Oddly enough, cross-correspondence first showed
itself suddenly among a number of mediums,
including Mrs. Verrall, Mrs. Holland, Mrs.
Piper, and others.

Spiritistic interpretation sees in cross-corre-
spondence the best of all proofs of its teaching
that mediumistic phenomena emanate from
spirits, arguing that the relationship between
the various automatic scripts can only be the
outcome of an intelligence beyond the ken of the
mediums, which uses the latter to prove its own
independent existence through the cross-corre-
spondences. Only an intelligence, it is argued,
would be capable of meting out a consecutive
idea into distinct parts and then directing the
pen of the various mediums so that each should
write separate fragments of the whole. Spiritism
further points to the strange coincidence that
cross-correspondence appeared for the first time
after the death of Myers, one of the most eminent
scientific English-speaking spiritists, who was
expected to furnish a conclusive proof of spiritism.
In the first cross-correspondence, the " spirit "

62 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

purporting to be Myers draws direct attention
to the new development and the prospect of its
further continuance. As a matter of fact, it is
not possible not to regard certain cases of cross-
correspondence as evidence of the most remark-
able and difficult parapsychic phenomena. It
is easy to understand that when confronted with
cross-correspondence, scepticism should lose its
assurance, and that those spiritistically inclined
should become definite converts. It is obvious
that cross-correspondence must be attributed to
a reflecting mind. There can be no question of
chance, for the varied inspirational utterances
are too numerous, too striking in character, and
fit into each other too well. Despite this, they
need not be regarded as any incontrovertible
proof of spiritism. The hackneyed contention
that the various mediums concerned have come
to an understanding with regard to a common
deception cannot, of course, be maintained.
There is no cause for suspicion here. The
possibility, however, is not to be denied that
there may be an unconscious telepathic under-
standing of that kind. We have gradually
collected so many proofs of the highly developed
intelligence of the subconscious mediumistic
psychic life that such a hypothesis cannot be
excluded. We know of automatic riddles and of
anagrams of such artistic conception that we
cannot reject such possibilities. A certain Mr.

CROSS-CORRESPONDENCE 63

A., for instance, while experimenting with
automatic writing, at his third attempt to obtain
a reply from the supposed spirit to his question :
" What is Man ? " received the automatic answer,
" Tefi Hasl Esble Lies," of which the solution is
" Life is the less able."

It must not be forgotten that the majority of
the mediums are confirmed spiritists, so that a
tendency or a desire to testify as to the genuine
nature of spiritism is ever prevalent. In the
same way, in the case of Helene Smith, this
tendency was concentrated on the invention of
faked languages. Mrs. Piper, however, lacked
any such tendency while awake, as her attitude
towards spiritism remained neutral. But it
must be noted that in her case, the parapsychic
manifestations were evolved in trance, in a state
of transmuted personality. She was then ap-
parently transformed into other personalities.
These " spirits " i.e. the somnambulistic Mrs.
Piper were, however, as such, naturally con-
vinced as to the truth of spiritism, and their
whole activity was concentrated on evolving
proofs of their belief. Is it surprising that she
was bent on making use of her telepathic faculties
to this effect ? Even the fact that the pheno-
menon of cross-correspondence was manifested
with comparative suddenness by the various
mediums, is no proof for the spiritistic conten-
tion that the spirits agreed to make common use

64 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

of this new channel. It is a quite sufficient
explanation that, once cross-correspondence has
been discovered, innumerable mediums should
employ it.

No difficulty is encountered in interpreting the
cases in which the cross-correspondence confines
itself to connexions between automatic script
in the way in which a certain word is repeated
or referred to. Such similarities must be ex-
plained as due to the mediums writing being
possessed of telepathic or clairvoyant faculties.
It is another matter when one fragment only
makes sense when joined to another, each scrap
consisting of one sentence. Then it is necessary,
unless the connexion between the two scripts is
to be regarded in the light of mere coincidence
resulting from a purely hypothetical completion
of one fragment by another, that a mutual
understanding or convention should be assumed
to exist between the two mediums to settle
which words of the sentence should be written
by either. If, however, telepathic possibilities
of communication actually exists between them,
it is equally admissible to contend that all these
various mediums are alike imbued with their
desire to add to the proofs in favour of spiritism.
It might also be that one medium simply trans-
mits telepathic suggestion to another " dis-
tance," in which case there need be no question
of any previous agreement.

CROSS-CORRESPONDENCE 65

A conscious suggestive influence of one trance
personality on other individuals would represent
a positive novum. A priori there is no reason
why a person in a somnambulistic state or in a
similar condition should not be subjected to
suggestion from others, and also subject others
thereto. Experimentally, we only know at the
present time of suggestion " Jt distance " (based
on the tests of Richet, P. Janet, and others), in
the form of suggestions by a conscious individual.

It would be extremely interesting (if it were
possible) to persuade the trance personalities
themselves to make suggestions either to con-
scious or to other hypnotized persons. Suggestion
on suggestion might also be contrived, by in-
fluencing a person under hypnosis, so that he should
distribute his own suggestions even at a distance.

Cross-correspondences are from the point of
view of logical proof at a disadvantage when
compared with other parapsychic phenomena,
in so far as we are, in their case, mainly obliged
to rely on the veracity of the mediums them-
selves. Many among them, notably those to
whom the most important experiments are due,
as also the authors of the reports published in the
" Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Re-
search," have themselves supplied the material in
full cognisance of the stage reached in the
problem at issue. The assumption that the
writers must be regarded as common frauds is

5

66 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

in contradiction to what is known of their
character on the whole ; besides which, in Mrs.
Piper's case, the phenomena of cross-corre-
spondence were carried out under a system of
strict control.

ADDITIONAL REMARKS

In response to several requests I will give
below a few more examples of cross-corre-
spondence.

One of the most famous, which occurred right
at the beginning of the cross-correspondence,
is as follows :

Mrs. Verrall, lecturer in classics at the
University of Cambridge, writes :

"On January 31, 1902, I had been lunching
with Mr. Piddington in town, and after the
arrival of Sir Oliver Lodge from Birmingham
was about to walk with them to the S.P.R.
Council Meeting at 3 p.m., when I felt suddenly
so strong a desire to write that I came down and
made an excuse for not accompanying the
gentlemen, saying I would drive later. As soon
as they had started I wrote automatically in the
dining-room the following words :

" Panopticon 0<t>aipas (mroXXci ovvMypa PVOTMOP

ri OVK cdidw; volatile ferrum pro telo impinget."
A few more words were added, when I was
interrupted by Mr. Piddington, who had re-
turned, in order to drive with me to the meeting.

CROSS-CORRESPONDENCE 67

All the rest of the day I felt a wish to write, and
finally, in the train on the way home to Cam-
bridge, more script was produced. That script
contained no verifiable statement but was signed
with two crosses, one of them being the Greek
cross, definitely stated elsewhere in the script to
be the sign of Rector (one of Mrs. Piper's trance
personalities). . . .

So far for what happened in England. In
Boston, as I subsequently learned, the following
took place. At Mrs. Piper's sitting on January 28,
1902, after the reference to my daughter's
supposed vision, Dr. Hodgson suggested that the
same " control " should try to impress my
daughter in the course of the next week with a
scene or object. The control assented. Dr.
Hodgson said : " Can you try and make Helen
see you holding a spear in your hand ? " The
control asked : " Why a sphere ? " Dr. Hodgson
repeated " spear," and the control accepted the
suggestion, and said the experiment should be
tried for a week. On February 4, 1902, at the
next sitting, and therefore at the very first
opportunity, the control claimed to have been
successful in making himself visible to Helen
Verrall with a " sphear " (so spelt in the trance
writing)."

This example is also an instance of the curious
and baffling confusion which prevails in much
of the automatic writing which contains cross-

68 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

correspondences. Instead of an (actively con-
ditioned telepathic ?) vision which we might
have expected after the seance with Mrs. Piper,
we get at Mrs. Verrall's end (as was so often the
case with her) script mixed up with broken bits
of Latin and Greek (she was a classical scholar),
or, as in the present case, so far as it is published,
script consisting of nothing but bits of Latin
and Greek, in which very clear allusions, obvious
at once, strike us to the seance in Boston (vfaipa
= sphere ; volatile ferrum, telum spear).

A second example. On March II, 1907, at
about eleven o'clock, Mrs. Piper, who was in her
normal waking consciousness, said " Violets.
Dr. Hodgson (said) violets." In accordance
with previous experience marked utterances of
this kind might be expected to have reference
to a cross-correspondence. In fact, on the same
day about the same time Mrs. Verrall wrote
automatically :

" With violet buds their heads were crowned,

" Violaceae odores.

" Violet and olive leaf purple and hoary.

" The city of the violet "

It is hardly necessary to emphasize here the
marked way in which the word violet is stressed.
The whole script seems really to be simply built
up round this word. (This example is taken
from A. Hude's " The Evidence, etc.," p. 283).

To conclude with an example in which several

CROSS-CORRESPONDENCE 69

days elapsed between the cross-correspondence.

On April 8 the Myers' personality speaking
through Mrs. Piper, said to Mrs. Sidgwick :
" Do you remember Euripides ? " " Do you
remember Spirit and Angel ? I gave both.
Nearly all the words I have written to-day refer
to messages I am trying to give through Mrs.

V ." Mrs. Verrall had already on March 7

done a long piece of automatic writing in which
the word " Hercules Furens," and " Euripides "
are found.

And on March 25 she had written : " The
Hercules play comes in there, and the clue is in
the Euripides play if you could see it." Also
she wrote on the same day a separate piece of
script in which the word " shadow " occurred
several times : " Let Piddington know when
you get a message about shadow. The shadow
of a shade. That is better umbrarum umbras
(TKtas eitaXov was what I wanted to get written."
The word " spirit," however, was not used. On
April 3 an effort was clearly made to reach a
satisfactory conclusion, although the word
" Angel " could not be reached. " Flaming
swords wings or feathered wings come in
somewhere Try pinions of desire. The wings
of Icarus Lost Paradise regained his flame-clad
messengers (she draws an angel with wings) that
is better F W H M has sent the message through
at last."

70 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

The cross-correspondence, moreover, was ex-
tended to include Mrs. Holland. On April 16
she wrote automatically a passage in which were
found these words : " Lucus Margaret To fly
to find Euripides Philemon." The names Lucus
and Philemon seem to be derived from Browning's
translations of Euripides' Hercules Furens.
(A. Hude, p. 285).

Many other cross-correspondences, some of
them extremely striking ones, cannot be quoted
here because of their complexity and of the space
which they require for interpretation and com-
ment. The peculiarity of the cross-correspon-
dences from English sources is that they are
mostly of an especially contorted kind. Some
French cross-correspondence to which I am
unable to refer, are (as I am told) much easier
to see through. (G. Geley, " Contribution &
Petude des Correspondances Croisees." Docu-
ments nouveaux, Paris, 1914).

CHAPTER IV

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS

Physical Mediumsbip

ANEW group of phenomena which is now to
be examined, and which is quite distinct
from those just discussed, upsets our tradi-
tional conceptions still more completely. I refer
to the so-called physical manifestations of Medium-
ship. They also like the phenomena already
described, are not found for the first time in the
surroundings only of modern occultism. We
already find descriptions of such phenomena in
ancient literature for instance, in Josephus.
The account of Christ's " walking on the sea "
must be included in this category, together
with the legends of the middle-ages describing
the appearances of persons floating in mid-air
wrapt in ecstasy. Similar cases are also to be
found amongst primitive men and savages.

It stands to reason that we are much more
suspicious of physical phenomena than of the
purely psychic. The stability of our conventional
scientific conception of the universe appears
possibly erroneously to be much more seriously
jeopardized by them than by new facts of

71

72 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

conscious life. Consequently our instinctive op-
position to the recognition of abnormal physical
phenomena is far stronger than it is to that of
psychic supernormal phenomena. Only two of
the older mediums connected with such mani-
festations are still remembered in the present
generation, and even so, they are remembered,
not so much for the singularity of their pheno-
mena, as for the reason that the phenomena were
vouched for as real by scientific investigators of
the highest standard.

One of these mediums was Slade, an American.
The astro-physicist, C. F. Zoellner, spent much
time in experimenting with him, and was helped
upon occasion by scientific friends such as
Wilhelm Weber and Fechner. Both these
scientists declared themselves convinced of the
reality of the phenomena as recorded by Zoellner.
Unfortunately the plan conceived by the astro-
physicist Vogel was never put into execution.
He intended to hide in a cupboard and watch
Slade closely through a hole in it. On the other
hand, we have a report by Dessoirs on sittings
with Slade, in which he states that he was fully
convinced of the objectivity of the manifestations.
These were very varied in character. For
instance, Zoellner is stated to have taken two
slates, and, after putting a little slate-pencil
between them, to have tied them tightly together
with string. When Slade then held them under

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 78

the table in the presence of the sitters, a curious
scraping sound was heard. He then moved the
package from beneath the table, and after loosen-
ing the string, writing was found on the slates.
In other similar experiments, it was stated that on
a soot-covered surface the imprint of a bare,
or only partly, clothed human foot appeared,
differing in size to that of Blade's. Moreover,
Slade did not always hold the slates himself, and
this fact is confirmed by Dessoir.

Other tests consisted, according to Zoellner,
in abstracting certain articles from locked, un-
opened receptacles, or again replacing them
there. Then knots were tied in a string of which
both ends had first been sealed together, and
finally Zoellner describes how two wooden rings,
each turned from a single piece of wood, were
placed by Slade round the foot of a centre table
without unscrewing the top, which was balanced
on a column ending in three legs, none of which
also were unscrewed. All these assertions are
illustrated with photographs, which Zoellner
prints in his report.

The objections made against Zoellner 's reports
from the present-day standpoint are based, in the
first place, on the absence of any minutes of the
experiments a> most regrettable omission ; and
next, on the supposition that sufficient care was
not taken to prevent deception on Slade's part.
For instance, Slade may have had an opportunity

74 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

of abstracting the string with seals attached, and
substituting for it at the next sitting a second
sealed string with knots in it. Again, with
regard to the slates : Zoellner has been blamed
for not taking sufficient precautions to make an
exchange impossible, or to prevent the knots
being loosened sufficiently to introduce some
sharp, thin object between the slates with which
written characters might have been traced.
These explanations are not, however, applicable
when it becomes a question of emptying sealed
boxes; still less so when it comes to placing
wooden rings round the legs of a table. It is a
significant sign of the weakness of the criticisms
against Zoellner, that no reference is made to
the facts which are hardest to account for.

I have often made vain attempts to discover
whether the table with the ring still exists. A
relative of Zoellner, his eminent biographer, Fr.
Koerber, my former mathematics master at my
" Gymnasium," could only tell me that the
table still existed up to a short time ago, but as
he could not indicate its present whereabouts it
has not been possible for me to ascertain whether
the ring actually did only consist of one piece ;
also, the exact details of the construction of the
table, whether the top was easily removable, etc.
In my opinion there is only one possibility of
fraud with regard to the table experiment : that
Slade hypnotized Zoellner, who was alone with

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 75

him when the feat was accomplished, unscrewed
the top, placed the ring round the foot, and then
awakened Zoellner, possibly under the influence
of the definite suggestion that the latter should
not remember anything that had taken place.
Given such conditions he would indeed have had
the opportunity of carrying out the most astound-
ing feats. But if this explanation is approved
with regard to the table experiment, it would
also apply to all the others ; and upon this view
none of the tests described by Zoellner, and of
which he was the sole observer, can be looked
upon as conclusive. The only question is whether
such an explanation is acceptable.

Tp answer this question in the affirmative is
made extremely difficult by the facts that, in the
first place, the wooden rings were suspended on
a sealed cord ; that guests were waiting in the
adjoining room, and that, according to Zoellner,
the whole proceedings did not last more than
five minutes. Consequently, Slade must either
have replaced the cord, on which another ring
was also suspended, by one exactly similar, or
renewed the seals with Zoellner's cipher or a
facsimile thereof.

Again, what view are we to take with regard
to those cases where there were other witnesses,
such as Weber, Fechner, Wach, etc. ? Here we
are bound to admit that so far no precedent has
been found whereby it has been proved possible

76 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

to put the company present, consisting of several
individuals, into a hypnotic state so easily without
their consent, as must (it is necessary to assume)
have here been the case. It could only be done
by telepathic suggestion. This has been proved
to be possible in some instances, but only in
connexion with individuals who had already been
under the hypnotic influence of the " suggestor,"
or, in the case where both persons showed signs
of parapsychic structure. Upon this view, then,
a parapsychic phenomenon at any rate took
place. Attempts have also been made to suggest
that reputed performances of Indian Fakirs, who,
in the sight of many spectators, claim to throw a
rope into the air, and make a boy climb up and
disappear with it, are the result of mass hal-
lucination produced by telepathic suggestion.
It must, however, not be forgotten that this, too,
is but a hypothesis, and that a hypothesis is not
strengthened by being applied to many cases
instead of limited to one.

Zoellner's reports have repeatedly been sum-
marily dismissed on the ground that Slade was
" as all the world knows " discovered cheating
in America. But this rumour still lacks con-
firmation. Koerber made every effort to clear
this matter up, but was unable to procure more
definite information. It is, therefore, not justi-
fiable to regard it as an established fact that Slade
was a cheat. On the other hand, there is the

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 77

highly suspicious circumstances that at a sitting
with Slade in London, a slate which was supposed
to have nothing on it was found to have had
letters already written on it, when it was forcibly
snatched away from him a moment or so after
he had held it under the table.

Unfortunately, Helmholtz refused to examine
Slade, despite repeated invitations to do so. His
testimony would have been of the greatest value,
and the case of Slade would be much the clearer
for it to-day. As it is, we only know that
Helmholtz's opinion a priori was that it was all
a fraud, though a priori judgments have no
significance so far as science and psychology are
concerned. The case of Zoellner-Slade must
in consequence be left in suspense. But what-
ever one's opinion may be, the brilliancy and
interest of Zoellner's theoretic interpretation
of the experimental results, based on the hypo-
thesis of the Fourth Dimension, which he con-
sidered proved, remain unimpaired. Its sim-
plicity savours of genius.

The experiments of the physicist Crookes
made less of a stir in Germany than in England.
He believed he had established the fact that the
medium, Home, was able at will to decrease or
increase his weight. And in the case of another
medium, Florence Cook, he even claimed to have
observed and photographed genuine materializa-
tions (Katie King). Unfortunately the experi-

78 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

ments with Home were not repeated by anyone
at the time, despite their great interest, and the
comparative ease with which they might have
been carried out. Quite recently, a young
Berlin engineer, Grunewald, is said to have
achieved the same result with another medium,
though this has not yet been verified.

Some years after Slade, Home, and Florence
Cook had been forgotten, a new medium began
to awaken the interest of the European spiritualist
world Eusapia Palladino. Her fame remained
undiminished to the day of her death. Dragged
through all Europe and half America, surrounded
by a galaxy of savants and dillettanti, she has
been the theme of a whole literature in every
civilized land. And yet, no complete unanimity
appears to exist even to-day between the different
observers. Opinions are not only divided as to
how far the phenomena were genuine, but also
as to whether the whole thing was or was not
a fraud. All the same, it is only fair to say that all
those who observed her for any consecutive length
of time are agreed that the major part, and par-
ticularly the most striking of her phenomena,
were genuine. It is due to this circum-
stance that the case is of such surpassing
interest.

Eusapia Palladino was born in 1854 ^ n a 8ma ^
village in the Abruzzi Mountains the only child
of an inn-keeper. Her mother died at her birth,

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 79

and when she was eight years old she also lost her
father, who was murdered by brigands. Eusapia
was put in charge of her grandmother, who
brutally ill-treated her. Later on she became a
sempstress. After her marriage she gradually
relinquished her former occupation for that of a
professional medium.

I do not know what her regular income was,
but she was repeatedly invited to undertake
lengthy journeys to Munich, Paris, London,
Petrograd, and she also gave sittings in America.
She died in Naples in 1918, a great loss to
psychic research. Her medial faculties are said
to have developed during her puberty. Between
the age of 13-14 she first saw visions, and objects
are said to have been moved in her presence
without her touching them.

Her temperament and this is borne out by
her portraits is said to have been joyous, gre-
garious and inclined to emotionalism. She had
no schooling whatever, and could hardly write
her name. Nevertheless she was gifted with
great natural intelligence, and evinced great
knowledge of character in her intercourse with
the people with whom she came in contact. In
this respect she showed faculties which it is
preferable not to find in a medium. To get a
sitting with her does not seem to have been too
easy. She was fully aware of the part she played
in the world. " E una Palladino," she was wont

80 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

to say of herself , "and she insisted on being
treated as a great lady in spite of her want of
culture. She did not always submit to the
conditions of control to which attempts were
made to subject her, but sometimes autocratic-
ally imposed her will with regard to the manner
in which she wished the sitting to be held. For
this reason, sittings with her were more often
confined to mere observations than devoted to
actual experiments. For, whenever pressure was
put upon her or she was contradicted however
substantial or well-considered the reason might
be the investigator took the risk of having the
sitting abruptly broken off, and the case was of
such interest, and as a rule so much expense had
been incurred in obtaining the phenomena at all,
that it was usually preferable to be content with
mere observation, as soon as Eusapia began to
remonstrate. The impression left by her own
high opinion of herself was counterbalanced by
her kind-heartedness. Her own early fate, at
the remembrance of which she often shed tears,
made her charitable, particularly to orphans.
Having been given the choice of a present, at a
sitting one day, she begged for an artificial limb
for a child whose own was about to be amputated.
She avoided solitude, and loved to have company
around her always, as she was often made uneasy
by her own phenomena. She was in actual fear
of darkness, and always kept a night-light burning ;

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 81

she even preferred not to have all the lights
extinguished during the sittings.

Though other mediums, of whom there are
similar reports, such as Mdme. d'Esperance, Frau
Pribytkoff, etc., never, or but rarely, emerged
from the spiritistic sphere in which they had
been discovered and which they looked upon as
their spiritual home, Eusapia Palladino was
examined by a considerable number of scientists
in whose rank, Germans were but sparsely repre-
sented.

The examinations carried out in 1905-08 in
Paris at the Institut General Psychologique
were distinguished by the presence of the great
number of eminent investigators who took part
in them. The report published by Courtier,
Professor of Psychology at the Sorbonne, re-
peatedly mentions the names of Perrin, Poincare,
Curie, Bergson. The investigations (there were
forty-three sittings in all) were conducted
in the manner usual, not only with Eusapia,
but also with other psychical mediums.
A corner of the room was partitioned off
from the rest by a black curtain fixed with
metal rings to a pole. Eusapia sat just in
front of the centre of the curtain behind a
table, with a sitter on either side of her who had
instructions to watch her hands and feet. They
were each told to hold her hand preferably by
the thumb and to place their left on her right

6

82 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

foot and their right on her left foot respectively.
Unfortunately, it was she who often placed her
own foot on that of the observer. Then, a so-
called " chain " was formed by all the participants
of the seance by joining hands right and left
round the table. Eusapia refused to be bound,
no matter how lightly, as she declared that this
reminded her of a lunatic asylum, and gave her
the feeling of being mentally afflicted and forcibly
tied down. Neither would she permit any flash-
light photographs, though as a matter of fact the
lights were said to have been so bright at times,
that it would have been possible to read by them.
In the interior of the cabinet, behind the curtain,
was a light table for bric-ci-brac, some smoke-
blackened articles or papers, a jar filled with
modelling clay or putty, and a zither.

The sittings usually started in a bright light
which gradually was made fainter. According to
the minutes, the manifestations began with various
sounds of unknown origin on the table raps
as if by a finger, scraping as by a nail, etc. As
the lights grew fainter, the objects in Eusapia's
vicinity began to move about spontaneously.
The table rose (" levitations ") and the various
objects in the cabinet were heard to change place.
With a still dimmer light, it is asserted that
vague outlines of hands and other parts of the
human body, such as a head and bust, became
visible near Eusapia, appearing through the

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 83

central and side folds of the curtain. Brilliant
dots or sparks resembling electricity were some-
times seen. A phenomenon which often recurred
was that the curtain behind and next to Eusapia
billowed out, and to the touch felt as if it was
pushed forward by something tangible. Pheno-
mena of other description were also reported by
the observers. Equally remarkable were the
imprints left upon the modelling clay, for instance
of human veil-covered hands, greatly resembling
those of Eusapia, or occasionally of a human face.
Part of the records were obtained by a register-
ing apparatus, but the most important are based
on the evidence of the sitters. The report of
the result of the investigations is summarized in
the ten following points :

{i) Displacements (backwards or forwards) and
the (complete or partial) levitation of certain
heavy objects (ordinary small tables) in Eusapia's
vicinity were evidenced by registering apparatus.

(2) Some of the said movements of objects
appear to have been caused by the mere touch
of the hands or clothes of the medium, and
even without her touching them at all. During
the complete levitation of the table before which
she sat, or of the smaller table placed near her,
her muscles were strongly contracted. But she
did not seem to will to elevate the objects in the
same way that we ordinarily will things.

(3) The supporting point of the force which

84 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

raised the objects seemed to be centred in the
medium, as the scales on which she was placed
during the elevations marked an increase and
decrease in weight which corresponded to the
laws of mechanics.

(4) It was shown that she could discharge
electroscopes from a distance.

(5) It was shown that she could cause mole-
cular oscillations from a distance (rapping, sound-
vibrations).

(6) Lights of unexplained origin were seen
near the medium during the sittings. Some of
these phenomena were like electric sparks.

(7) Those present said that they observed
human forms and felt themselves touched. But
it must also be noted that fraud has been proved
with regard to some manifestations of this kind.

(8) In the course of some of the sittings,
Eusapia passed into a secondary condition of an
unstable type. She complained of hyperaes-
thesia to the touch during the greater part of the
sittings, and for some time after them also. She
complained further of partial amnesia with regard
to the seance phenomena.

(9) The ideas and the will of Eusapia influenced
the nature and the course of the phenomena.

(10) Fraud was possible, but to what extent
it was practised is hard to determine.

This brief synopsis can certainly not take the
place of the detailed report in the original. But

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 85

it proves conclusively that the above-mentioned
eminent investigators, who had Eusapia again
and again under their observations were con-
vinced of the objectivity of part of the phenomena.
Their testimony is naturally of far greater value
than the judgment of some obscure minor
scientist of Frankfort or elsewhere, who delivers
judgment on Eusapia without personal ex-
perience.

On the other hand, according to Courtier's
report, any conclusions about Eusapia are neces-
sarily to some extent vitiated by the certainty
that some of her manipulations were fraudulent.
On one occasion, shortly before a sitting, she was
seen tampering with a pair of scales, which she
was manipulating with the aid of a white hair.
On another, a little nail fell to the ground,
apparently from Eusapia's left hand, who evinced
great surprise. The nail could be used to make
marks on blackened paper similar to those found
at the sittings. In the total darkness of one of
the seances, while the sitters felt various touches,
Eusapia freed her hand with lightning speed
from that of Courtier, and immediately after,
as Courtier recovered from his surprise, Eusapia's
hand lay once again in his. In short, there is
not the slightest doubt that she practised fraud,
a fact of which other investigators were also
convinced. At the first investigations under-
taken by the British Society for Psychical Re-

86 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

search, who make a rule of never continuing
experiments with a medium convicted of fraud,
the investigations with Eusapia were abandoned
on that ground. The only surprising part
consists in the repeated assertions of investigators
that Eusapia's deception was of so childish a
nature that it could not be taken seriously, when
we have regard to her intelligence, and remember
that phenomena often occurred at the same time
which could not possibly be due to fraud. True,
such phenomena always took place in Eusapia's
immediate vicinity. Once during the Paris
seances, when a flashlight photograph was taken
of her against her will, it showed her with an
extremely crafty expression. And yet these
incriminating circumstances are again outweighed
by others of such importance that scepticism
must of necessity cease. Thus the Paris report :
" Eusapia made a movement of her hand, and
the zither sounded from within the cabinet.
Eusapia scratched the hand of M. d'Arsonval
with hers, and again the zither was heard, as
though plucked by fingers." " Another time
a small board which had been nailed to an inner
corner of cabinet was torn from its founda-
tion." Many far heavier objects were moved,
lifted and transported, for instance : a stool was
raised one metre high, and a dish full of putty
placed on top of it. This stool stood in the
cabinet, and through a gap in the curtain it

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 87

was seen to advance and retreat several times.
The wish was expressed that the dish with putty
should be lifted on to the table. Eusapia
requested that all should concentrate their will
on this idea and it would be realized, and realized
it was. The stool was then hoisted on to
Monsieur Curie's shoulder. The receptacle with
the putty weighed seven kilos, and it took con-
siderable strength to lift and hold with one hand.
The dish was 30 cm. long and 24 cm. wide
(Controllers left : Mr. Komyakoff ; right : Mr.
Curie)." " She was able to depress a letter-
weight in full light without touching it ; but
when the scales was placed under glass so that
Eusapia could not possibly touch them with a
thread, they did not move. On the other hand,
the balance was again depressed after the glass
cover had been removed under conditions of
observation which certainly seemed quite ade-
quate. Her hands lay to the right and left of
the scales ; on lowering them the scales sank in
sympathy."

We ask in vain how such phenomena could
have been achieved by fraud, without detection
by the sitters. This explains how it was that the
Society of Psychical Research made an exception
in the case of Eusapia, and arranged for a renewed
examination of the medium through several
of its most experienced members in Naples*
These investigators were convinced of the

88 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

genuineness of the phenomena, Carrington among
them, who was so well known for having shewn
up innumerable pseudo-mediums.

I exclude the reports of Lombroso and
Flammarion from the others. The latter may
be called a Visionary; and in many of the
works of Lombroso, particularly in his book
on Genius, inaccuracy and superficiality are so
conspicuous, that he must be taken with a certain
reserve. But there are still the experiments
made by Botazzi in Naples, who was the
Professor of Physiology at that University, and
who collaborated with five other professors at
the university and polytechnic. According to
this report, the reality of the phenomena was
definitely proved under good conditions ; for
instance : " Both of us, Mr, Scarssa (Lecturer of
Physics at Naples University) and I, kept our eyes
fixed on the mandoline, and we can definitely
assert that the instrument, clearly illuminated by
the lamp above it, was not touched by the
visible hands of Eusapia. The latter was sixty
cms. away from it, but the mandoline moved as
though set in motion by magic. It is impossible
to describe the impression made by the sight
of an inanimate object moving in dead silence,
not only for a second, but for several minutes,
without being touched by anyone, under the
compulsion of a mysterious force, among other
inanimate objects."

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 89

On another occasion, Botazzi (who weighed
eighty-nine kilos) was propelled along the ground
with the chair on which he was seated.

During a sitting in Munich, at Schrenck-
Notzing's house, the table before which Eusapia
sat was elevated, while her right hand was con-
trolled by Professor G., and her left by Dr.
Albrecht, while Schrenck-Notzing lay under the
table in order to keep her legs and feet under
observation. Another time there was even a
lamp under the table. At a seance at Rome,
while the hands of the medium were controlled
by the physiologist Professor Luciani and the
alienist Sante de Santis, the curtain of the cabinet
behind Eusapia was inflated some twenty times
in succession. It was possible to touch the
curtain, lift it up and also put one's hand between
Eusapia and the curtain. And when, in the
course of independent experiments connected
with active telekinesis the light was suddenly
switched on, Eusapia was discovered to be in a
deep trance, her hands held by her neighbours.

Flournoy reports further : " It is to Richet
that I am indebted for the privilege of having
taken part in several seances with Eusapia
Palladino last year (1898). The conditions of
control then were such that there is no room for
doubt, unless we are to distrust the combined
testimony of sight, hearing and touch, as well
as that modicum of critical sense and astuteness,

90 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

in the possession of which every person of ordinary
intelligence prides himself. The only other
alternative is to assume that there were secret
doors in the walls of Richet's work-room, and
that he, together with his learned assistants, were
the wicked aiders and abettors in the farce enacted
by this charming Neapolitan lady."

According to the material at my disposal, the
following university professors, among others,
made experiments with her : the physiologists
Richet (Paris), Luciani (Rome), Botazzi (Naples),
the alienists and neurologists Sante de Santis
(Rome), Morselli (Genoa), Lombroso (Turin), the
anatomist Pio Foa (Turin), the scientists M. and
Mdme. Curie, Perrin, Poincare (Paris), the
astronomers Schiaparelli (Milan), Flammarion
(Paris), the psychologists and philosophers
Courtier and Bergson (Paris), Flournoy (Geneva).
All these investigators are convinced of the
genuine nature of certain supernormal pheno-
mena as demonstrated by Eusapia Palladmo.
Is there really any sense from a scientific point
of view in those who have not been observers
persisting in face of this evidence in considering
the non-existence of the phenomena in question
as more probable than their objectivity ?

Only those investigators who casually attended
only one or two sittings as, for instance, Dessoir,
Lipps, Munsterberg, Moll, were still sceptical.
But their evidence that of Dessoir is very

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 91

shaky is of little importance, as their investiga-
tions were very slight in comparison with those
of investigators who were able to follow the case
at length and in detail.

It should also be noted that Eusapia's
mediumistic faculties were obviously variable.
The same English investigators, who, in 1908,
came to positive conclusions, were present at
various quite negative sittings in 1910 in Naples,
in which Eusapia did nothing but cheat. This
circumstance really is in favour of the justice and
objectivity of their first report.

Those who put the whole thing down to fraud
support their case by the outcome of two
American seances. At one of them, Munster-
berg arranged that some one should crawl along
the floor towards Eusapia without her knowledge,
and seize hold of her suddenly in the darkness
during the seance. This resulted in an ear-
piercing scream from Eusapia and the abrupt
breaking-off of the sitting. The person under
the table declared that he had seized " an unshod
foot." When the light was turned on, Eusapia
was seen to be fully clothed. During another
sitting with Professor Lord at Columbia Univer-
sity, two observers claim to have noticed how the
objects in the cabinet were set in motion by
Eusapia herself, who had managed to free one
foot from control.

Important though these assertions may be,

92 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

they do not explain the Paris observations, as
well as many others, and the uncertainty is
increased by the divergent opinions of the
conjurers who were consulted. An English
conjurer declared that Eusapia's manifestations
were absolutely genuine, and that certainly
could not be reproduced by conjuring. On
the other hand, two of his American colleagues
pronounced very unfavourably against them,
and insisted that her performances were all
faked. The point argued by Eusapia's partisans
is that, like all mediums, she was greatly irritated
by the ostentatious display of mistrust, which
caused a considerable diminution of her psychic
faculties, and it is also emphasized that she was
never equally consistent in her performances.

Another American investigation undertaken
at Columbia University can also be set against
the arguments of Munsterberg and Lord. An
onlooker was able to watch the whole time
through a hole in the top of the cabinet, and so
discover whether Eusapia moved the objects
contained therein by means of a hook or other
fraudulent contrivances. His report is that
at every sitting a new organic member a
pseudopodium appeared from under the curtain
behind the back of Eusapia with the aid of which
apparently the mechanical effects were produced.
But similar reports also had already been pub-
lished during the 'nineties concerning the pseu-

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 98

dopodia which apparently emanated f romEusapia's
body. Consequently those who are opposed to
the theory of fraud insist that in the case of the
Munsterberg exposure, the foot was not
Eusapia's own, but a pseudopodium.

These observations which until lately seemed
highly problematical, and more or less a subter-
fuge, have received further support in the con-
clusions arrived at quite recently by the English
physicist, Crawford, by Ochorowicz, late pro-
fessor of philosophy in Warsaw, and by Schrenck-
Notzing. Crawford declares that in the case
of an Irish medium, he has repeatedly proved the
presence of certain " rod-like " projections of
varied lengths and thicknesses which, though
invisible, were perceptible to the touch and felt
cold, sticky, and like reptiles. Schrenck-Notzing
and Ochorowicz were able, in the case of another
medium, to photograph similar projections on
some occasions, though on others they remained
invisible. Thus, another explanation of the
cases where Eusapia was charged with the
fraudulent manipulation of what looked like
threads, might lie in the assumption that
these were actually composed of fine organic
rays.

The telekinetic movement of objects, the
levitations, as well as the strange touches ex-
perienced by the sitters, particularly in the dark,
are said to be produced by these pseudopodia ;

94 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

they are able to become quite rigid, and by a
purely mechanical process fasten themselves on
to the objects moved. During levitations
accordingly the weight of the medium is in-
variably increased by that of the objects raised
by the pseudopodia, as has been repeatedly estab-
lished.

Upon this hypothesis there is no question of
the direct working of the mind of the medium
upon distant things, and if the working of her
mind is regarded as confined to her own organism,
physical mediumistic phenomena are easier than
formerly to fit into our normal conception of the
universe. Distant objects may be treated as set
in motion by means of pseudopodia, which
themselves behave in a quite normal mechanical
manner. The problems of telekinesis and
levitation is thus relegated almost entirely to
the organic sphere, in so far as the so-called
pseudopodia are of organic nature. The observa-
tions of the above-mentioned investigators are,
when taken in conjunction with those of older
date, of such a momentous character that it
becomes imperative to verify them still further
objectively. We are possibly confronted by an
entirely new category of psycho-physical pheno-
mena, which makes the dependence of material
or semi-material events upon the action of the
mind far greater than was ever dreamed of in the
past. Though even so, I should like to remark

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 95

that the theory of pseudopodia does not in all
cases suffice.

It is noteworthy that the medium possesses
the sensation of touch through the pseudopodia.
It is from them that Eusapia derived her power
of perception. Innumerable references in the
reports of Botazzi and others indicate that she
knew when she moved an object at a distance or
made an impression on clay. It is therefore no
proof that she was cheating because she emitted
a piercing scream when her foot or the pseudo-
podium's was seized ; it is equally possible that
she actually did feel the pain of the vigorous
grasp on the foot and Crawford with his medium
claims to have shown that this is true.

It is still quite uncertain of what substance the
curious efflorescences are composed and how they
are actually formed. The main difficulty con-
sists in the fact that the pseudopodia are able
partly to penetrate clothing. An analogy to
their power of becoming stiff might be found in
the sexual organs of mammalia.

But when all is said, the mind of the medium
is still apparently the deciding factor the sole
means through which all the strange phenomena
of physical mediumship are evolved. In some
cases this fact stands clearly out and Eusapia
herself was conscious of it. In such cases she
could predict what was going to happen. For
instance she made a gesture of striking or twanging

96 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

strings, and the sound of rapping or of the
mandoline was heard. Botazzi paid particular
attention to these connexions, though reference
thereto is also found elsewhere. It must remain
an open question whether conscious mental
processes in all cases so far as Eusapia was con-
cerned preceded the phenomena, but it is obvious
that normal ideas, thoughts, and acts of will, etc.,
cannot alone produce these remarkable effects.
There must be also other conditions still unknown
to us which have to be fulfilled. To invoke the
" subconsciousness " of Eusapia as the deciding
factor, is to make use of an entirely insufficient
conception. Subconscious processes have no
more influence on material things than conscious
ones, and if these other unknown conditions
were unfulfilled, the subconscious processes would
have no more effect in Eusapia's case than with
other people. The real motive for coming back
to the explanation of the " subconscious " lies
in the assumption that the actual " vital factors "
which differentiate organisms from purely
physico-chemical formations, are not to be
found in special independent faculties of any
land, but are to be identified with the un-
conscious acts of the soul itself. If, therefore,
there are unconscious mental processes which
build up the organism by their influence upon
inorganic processes, the inference is that the
efflorescences, pseudopodia, etc., are constructed

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS 97

by similar, or at any rate, similarly unconscious
acts of the mind. This assumption may be
correct, yet these temporary limbs, as well as
our ordinary members, appear to be nothing but
the tools used by the ego in its conscious acts.
rr he fact that Eusapia was able to determine in
advance the nature of the phenomena and rap
out a given number of knocks on the table in the
cabinet in accordance with the wish of a sitter,
does not alter the explanation. It is of no matter
whether we are concerned with genuine mani-
festations of will power or not. Eusapia denied
it and we cannot disprove her denial. As a
matter of fact, however, there are many happen-
ings which seem to be the result of the will and
yet are not so. For instance some people perspire
with supernormal facility ; they are able by
concentrating their minds on perspiration to
produce drops of sweat on the palm of their
hand, and yet this cannot properly be called the
result of an act of will. The solution of the
physical phenomena of mediumship will possibly
be found in studying such cases.

The outward form in which the psycho-
physical phenomena were produced by Eusapia
was spiritistic. She^ herself was convinced of
the truth of spiritism and ascribed the phenomena
to a certain spirit, " John King." In certain
cases he " controlled " her and spoke through her
in a voice somewhat altered from her usual one.

98 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

Eusapia also upon occasions produced inspira-
tional phenomena. As, however, all the attention
of the investigators was invariably focussed on
the physical phenomena, the reports regarding
Eusapia's psychic condition are unfortunately
rare, and I have not been able to obtain an
accurate account of the changes which took
place in her personal condition. As she was
very uneducated and certainly had no original
tendency to introspective self-analysis, even were
she still alive, there would be but small hope of
getting more precise particulars of how she
perceived and felt things from her own (sub-
jective) point of view. And even so, whatever
might have been possible, her character was not
such that we should have been able to rely very
much upon her word.

CHAPTER V

EVA C.
PROCESSES OF MATERIALIZATION

/TT^HE phenomena of telekinesis mostly
I found in the case of Eusapia Palladino
are not the most striking manifestations
of which physical mediums are capable. Another
group, which even two years ago seemed to me
quite incredible, consists in Processes of Materiali-
zation. In this group are comprised those cases
where, in the presence of a medium, formations
of material or semi-material nature are pro-
duced in the shape of organic or semi-organic
structures of a supernormal kind. Such pheno-
mena were numerous in the case of Eusapia
Palladino also.

The problem of mediumistic materializations
has again come to the front, by reason of the
publication of Schrenck-Notzing's book on
" teleplastic " materialization processes in the
case of a French medium, Eva C. A parallel,
and almost as voluminous a publication was
issued simultaneously by a French lady, Mme.
Alexandre Bisson, in whose house the medium
lives, and who has apparently constituted herself
the latter's psychological impresario, inasmuch

99

100 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

as the organization and supervision of Eva C.'s
trances remain nearly always entirely in her
hands.

The phenomena of Eva C., according to the
reports of the two authors whom for the
moment we take as our authority consist in a
quasi-organic substance extruded from her or-
ganism generally through the mouth capable
of independent movements in the form of strange
shapes. These shapes sometimes resemble parts
of the human body, though more frequently
they take the form of human faces or figures
enveloped in floating veils. The shapes are then
said to dissolve before the eyes of the spectator . . .
that is to say, to re-enter the organism of the
medium.

The flat surface of these formations is their
oddest characteristic. The hand which purports
to be materialized looks like a fake ; the faces or
figures seem to be cut out of paper and sub-
sequently veiled. Sometimes it looks as though
there were actual folds and wrinkles in the paper
itself. I found this impression confirmed by my
examination of the stereoscopic prints kindly
forwarded to me by Schrenck-Notzing. Nobody
who looks at these pictures without further
explanation could think that they are anything
else than drawings on paper or material, possibly
sketches from illustrated papers brought with her
by Eva C. ; yet this hypothesis is denied both by

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 101

Schrenck-Notzing and Mme. Bisson. According
to the former, Eva C., at each seance was clad
in tights which he had bought himself and^into
which she was sewn ; furthermore, she was
carefully searched each time from head to foot,
to preclude the possibility of any objects being
smuggled in hair, ears, mouth in fact, her
whole body was examined. She was also sub-
mitted to a gynaecological examination. Some-
times she was even entirely unclothed during
the seance. The cabinet, too, was overhauled
before and after the sittings. In addition to
this, very important phenomena and spontaneous
movements of the " teleplastic " substance and
of the materializations have been observed with
the curtains open.

Two doctors Gulat-Wellenberg and Mathilde
von Kemnitz set up the " Rumination Hypo-
thesis." According to this, Eva C. be-
longed to those rare people who are not only
able to swallow objects whole, but also to bring
them up again when they want to do so. Thus,
she might have smuggled portraits painted on
muslin into her oesophagus, and brought them
up again during the seance, when her head was
behind the curtain of the cabinet. Schrenck-
Notzing's reply to, and criticism of, this theory,
has so completely demolished it, that there is no
real necessity for further discussion of it. He
even examined the contents of the medium's

102 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

stomach one day, and it is impossible to explain
how Eva C., whose hands according to the
reports were continuously under control, could
have been able to unfold the tightly packed
scraps of pictures which she is supposed to have
brought up aga,fai, and finally drape them in
veils. On the other hand, it would not be
right to assert that Eva C. had no interest to
tempt her to fraud, for this would not be in
accordance with the real facts. For years she
has lived in easy surroundings, as a guest in Mme.
Bisson's house, where she feels herself to be the
centre of interest to an ever-increasing scientific
circle. This applies with equal force to Mme.
Bisson, who has also been suspected by some
people of being engaged in fraud. She it is who
is usually responsible for the putting of Eva C.
into a state of trance, and who generally controls
and influences the medium. As Mme. Bisson's
voluminous book on Eva C. was published
simultaneously with that of Schrenck-Notzing,
literary ambition and desire for notoriety may
well be the explanation of her participating in a
fraud. The only question is whether her
character is such as to make it likely. Schrenck-
Notzing, says it is not ; and mere suspicion is
no proof. On the other hand, it may be that
Schrenck-Notzing too, cannot be considered
quite impartial. It is much more important
to note that seances held in the absence of Mme.

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 103

Bisson have been productive of positive results.
It is all the more amazing though, that Mme.
Bisson should not have insisted of her own accord
on being subjected to the most searching investi-
gations once suspicion against her was openly
voiced though it is only fair to say that she has
permitted a limited examination to be made of
her person.

So far, it is clear that the pros and cons are
evenly balanced. The impression given by the
innumerable photographs taken by Schre^k-
Notzing and Mme. Bisson make us incline towards
the theory of fraud, though on perusing Schrenck-
Notzing's reports the scale tilts the other way.
A definite decision is only possible if in the first
place we make up our minds whether Eva C.
was adequately controlled both before and during
the seance, and secondly, whether Mme. Bisson
had no opportunity for fraud, and was unable
to pass on objects to Eva C. It is of lesser im-
portance for the moment, to ascertain how much
reliability can be placed in the reports and
minutes of the sittings, as in this case the photo-
graphs supply all requisite information. On the
other hand these photographs cannot be taken
as proofs of the objectivity of the phenomena,
as they are only momentary reproductions, and
there is no film which reproduces simultaneously
the ejection of the substance from the body of
Eva C., together with its spontaneous movement

104 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

and the further phenomena. It must, however,
be added that even if the physical control
exercised over Eva C. were sufficiently strict,
and Mme. Bisson is not a cheat, never was a
medium subjected to so many precautions as
was Eva C. by Schrenck-Notzing. A further
point of great importance lies in the use of a
number of cameras at the same time from different
angles, and in the taking of stereoscopic prints.

It is, of course, impossible to prove the ob-
jectivity of the minutes of the sittings ; their
importance depends on our opinion of Schrenck-
Notzing. The fragmentary character of the
notes is sometimes regrettable, but a change in
this respect is hardly possible, in view of the
suddenness and rapidity with which phenomena
occur.

As I have already mentioned, the most pro-
nounced characteristic of the actual phenomena,
consists in their peculiar flatness ; but it is also
noteworthy how clearly they^are dependent on
the mind of the medium. It is as though these
materializations were pictures of the imagination
or of the memory, for in some cases they are
strikingly like published photographs, and in
one case even a few letters from the pages of a
periodical were reproduced. This circumstance
which so strongly favours the assumption of fraud
might, if fraud is not at work, almost be regarded
as proof that these materializations 1 are no more

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 105

than some physically objective transformation of
Eva C.'s memory pictures. 1

Are there any other circumstances which
might definitely influence judgment, either for
or against ?

As a matter of fact, these do exist as the result
of the new investigations to which Eva C. has
been subjected. She has since the first series of
experiments been examined for a whole year in
Paris, by a psychologist, Dr. Geley, at the rate
of two sittings a week, the sittings taking place
for three months in his own laboratory. As he
was given the opportunity of lecturing on the
subject in January, 1918, in the College de
France, it is clear that in the philosophical and
scientific circles of Paris he must be looked
upon as a serious and reliable investigator.

His observations sweepingly confirm the
striking reports of Schrenck-Notzing. It even
appears that the phenomena concerned had still
further developed and were more easily observed.
In his opinion fraud is not only highly improbable,
but actually impossible, owing to the stringent
conditions of supervision. " I do not say : * No
fraud took place in these sittings, but there was
no possible chance of its perpetration/ I cannot
repeat this often enough : the materializations
were invariably formed before my eyes ; I have

1 Another possibility is that these pictures are conveyed to her
telepathically from another source.

106 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

observed their origin and development with my
own eyes." And more than a hundred other
men of science have had the opportunity of
witnessing the same phenomena as well. Promi-
nent among them are the names of Richet,
Courtier, and Clarapede.

It is of equal interest that Eva C. was examined
by a Committee of the Society for Psychical
Research in the spring of 1920. Not less than
forty sittings took place. Of these a considerable
number produced results. The conditions im-
posed and the measures taken to control the
examination were very strict. The conclusion
of the committee was that upon the basis of
their own observations they were unable to reach
an absolutely positive decision ; but that if the
earlier observations of Schrenck-Notzing, Mme.
Bisson and Geley were brought into account, the
verdict must be in favour of the genuineness of
the phenomena. The phenomena observed were
mostly similar to those previously observed by
Schrenck-Notzing and Mme. Bisson, only smaller.
This is shown by the photographs. Whilst the
photographs of Schrenck-Notzing and Mme.
Bisson often show heads as big as life, and some-
times forms upon a scale larger than life, those of
the committee are in all cases of quite small
objects, apparently of the size of a few centi-
metres only. In these circumstances the com-
mittee was unable to come to a conclusion

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 107

recognizing the phenomena as genuine without
any reservations ; at least, the committee as a
committee, was unable to do so unanimously.
But it is clear, as is often the case with committees,
that the final conclusion is a compromise. The
final summing up especially is anything but
consistent. It is balanced, very clearly, between
recognition and non-recognition. The report
has no reservations in its statement that there
was upon no occasion any suspicion or trace of
fraud. On the contrary, Eva C. made the control
easy in every way, and never made difficulties.
The control of the medium during the sittings
was so good that it was completely impossible
for her to have smuggled objects in with her to
the sittings and then manipulated them with her
hands. If fraud is still admitted to be possible,
then the only possible explanation must lie in the
regurgitation hypothesis. The phenomena were
not big enough for the committee to be able to
rule this hypothesis out altogether as impossible.
Upon one occasion the " substance " coming out
of the mouth of the medium forced its way
through a veil which covered the head of the
medium, and took a definite shape outside it.
This shape was then dissolved, and the " sub-
stance " retreated through the veil into the
medium's mouth. It would, therefore, be
necessary to assume upon the hypothesis of
regurgitation that the medium had got posses-

108 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

sion of a wax-like substance which could easily
be melted and become hard again. Geley, in
his acute criticism of the report, has rightly
pointed out that it is quite impossible to believe
that no trace of such a wax-like substance would
have been left upon the veil. It is not, therefore,
surprising to hear that Dingwell, when recently
at Munich for the purpose of experiments with
Schrenck-Notzing's medium, Willy Sch., de-
clared that he only put forward the hypothesis
of the existence of such a substance to make clear
the complete absurdity of the whole explanation.
This may remind us of Galileo's conduct when,
considering that the time was not yet ripe for
openly supporting the views of Copernicus, he
composed a dialogue between supporters of the
old and new point of view in which he allowed
the supporters of the old view to prevail by the
use of such contradictory arguments that every
reader was inevitably convinced of the Tightness
of the newer Copernican conceptions.

Quite a number of the phenomena and the
circumstances under which the sittings took
place, make it very difficult to explain why the
committee refused to come to a positive con-
clusion in favour of genuineness, except by an
instinctive disinclination on the part of the
majority to allow anything to be accepted as
proof, except perfectly obvious brute facts upon
an overwhelming scale.

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 109

This remainder of prejudice acted, as is well
known, like a heavy drag upon the sensitiveness
of the medium and was, with other disturbing
factors, the reason why Eva C.'s phenomena in
London were markedly not so strong as in France
or at Munich.

Considered by themselves the very careful
reports of the individual sittings (when regard
is had to the conditions of control and of the
unsatisfactory nature of the regurgitation hypo-
thesis) furnish a further proof of the genuineness
of the phenomena and are in themselves scientific
material of especial importance. The diminutive
size of the phenomena, which the committee
quite naturally did not desire, itself raises a whole
host of interesting theoretical considerations as
to the nature of the processes which are in play.

These surprising new discoveries with regard
to materialization-mediums affect the question
of the connexions between materializations and
the pseudopodia by which telekinesis is occa-
sioned. Schrenck-Notzing assumes that they
are different stages of one and the same process.
This begins with the radiation of the finest
thread-like or even shapeless effluvia from the
organism. The next step consists in their fusion
into more solid formations, and the following
one in their transformation into the flat, sketch-
like forms, which have been photographed in
considerable number in the publications con-

110 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

cerning Eva C. With further progress, the
materialization develops into plastic forms, which
at first sight are indistinguishable from normal
organisms. The materializations are usually in-
visible in their first stage, although " palpable " ;
but it is impossible to lay down any hard and
fast rules, as even effluvia of the lowest grade
have been photographed. The formations are
mostly unable to stand exposure to light, though
there are exceptions.

Geley has set up the hypothesis that the
substance emanating from the materialization-
mediums is connected with the yet undifferen-
tiated fundamental organic matter, and that it
takes on shape under the eyes of the spectators,
and appears to them as a genuine head, a real
hand, etc. He compared this process to the
metamorphosis which takes place in the cocoon
of the chrysalis or a caterpillar when it turns
itself into an almost homogenous primitive
organic substance, in order to build itself up
again into a new formation the butterfly.
Even were we to admit the existence of such an
undifferentiated primitive organic substance
which can be fashioned by vital factors, it would
only represent one side of the discovery, the other
side of which would be the power of the vital
force of the medium herself to change its own
direction. These changes clearly take place in
the medium under the influence of intellectual

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 111

processes. The construction of hands and feet
is evolved according to their conception. On the
other hand, it cannot be a question of direct
influence of the medium's imagination on organic
matter, for the medium has no knowledge of
the finer microscopic and ultra-microscopic
structure of a hand or a foot. Her conceptions
we must assume work through the medium of
the vital factors.

That the human mind has some power over
vital forces, has, apart from the arguments from
materialization processes, been undoubtedly
proved. It is well known that it is possible in
the case of some people to produce blisters,
haemorrhage, and other phenomena through
hypnotic suggestion. However trifling these
experiments may appear, great metaphysical
significance is to be ascribed to them inasmuch
as they afford proof of the action of mental
processes on the vital forces. These physiological
results would not be possible, if the hypnotic
expectation of the formation of a blister or
haemorrhage did not effect a corresponding
alteration in the tissues involved. The con-
struction of the organism, however, is the work of
the vital forces, and the production of a blister
or haemorrhage is not possible without interfering
with the work of the atoms which compose the
organism. This interference can hardly be re-
garded otherwise than as a procedure to which

112 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

the vital factors so adapt themselves that they
rearrange the molecules in the way in which they
are arranged in a burn, or in the loosening of the
cells which causes the blood to flow. The mere
idea of a blister or of a haemorrhage can hardly
be regarded as sufficient by itself to produce
either of them, for the idea in itself contains
nothing but a representation in thought of a
visual image. We must, therefore, interpose
factors between the idea and the physical effects
I mean those vital factors which regulate the
various processes of the organism. In the cases
of the blister and the haemorrhage we are not
concerned with the production of results, which
cannot be brought about by normal means.
Blisters are ordinarily produced by outward
burns, though haemorrhage of course might take
place in certain illnesses without outward in-
fluence. A better illustration perhaps may be
found in cases where under the influence of
auto-suggestion, pseudo-pregnancy is occasioned
with the attendant changes in the organism,
which normally are only produced by the vital
factors after conception.

The real mystery of the influence of thought
and imagination on the organic material does
not only lie in the fact that the mind produces
effects on physical things, but also in the fact
that milliards of atoms are immediately dis-
placed in a completely orderly manner while the

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 113

individual himself is totally unaware of all the
movements which are necessary to obtain the
result arrived at. It is just as though we imagine
that an entirely ignorant monarch gives instruc-
tions for the execution of some great undertaking,
and has no idea how it will be carried out.
Suddenly engineers, architects, technical ad-
visers, mechanics and workmen start up to begin
and complete the work. In like fashion, neither
the person under hypnosis, nor the waking auto-
guggestor, nor the materialization-medium know
how their ideas are actually being put into
execution. Despite this, the acting vital forces
immediately set intelligently to work in order
to achieve the result.

The recent developments have thrown a certain
light on earlier reports about mediums, who had
not been so thoroughly tested or who had not
been tested under scientific control. I am
thinking above all of Crookes' medium, Florence
Cook, Mme. d'Esperance, and several others.
Mme. d'Esperance is the more interesting by
reason of the detailed autobiography left by her
probably the only autobiography of a material-
ization-medium. To be sure, she, too, takes her
stand on spiritism. The resemblance in type
between all these cases is obvious, despite the
individual peculiarities of each of them. Of
course, this does not tend towards a strict proof
of their objectivity, though the probability is

114 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

enhanced thereby. If we accepted this proba-
bility, we should find in one chapter of Mme.
d'Esperance's autobiography a detailed descrip-
tion of a sudden abrupt interruption of
her state of trance during a complete " act of
materialization." The ostensible reason appears
to have been the wish to catch her cheating,
while according to her own account, a case of
" dedoublement de personnalite " which went
further than in any other known case, and which
actually brought about the biological splitting of
her body was taking place. Remarkably enough,
she was conscious of her own individuality
simultaneously with that of the supposed ma-
terialized spirit, just as Helene Smith was in her
semi-somnambulism, and this might be looked
upon as an extraordinarily strong proof for the
anti-spiritistic interpretation of the whole process
of materialization. The interpretation of this
case given in my " Phenominology of the Ego,"
should be consequently somewhat altered. Un-
fortunately I do not for the moment possess
Mme. d'Esperance's book, which would enable
me to go into the matter further.

The mind of Mme. d'Esperance " animated "
her own body as well as that of the " material-
ized " spirit. The explanation resulting from
Botazzi's observations of Eusapia, i.e., that a
materialization-medium feels through its pseudo-
podia, can thus be extended to the forms material-

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS

ized. Their psychic life belongs in reality to the
mind of the medium. Unfortunately, the sudden
interruption of Mme. d'Esperance's trance were
fraught with such consequences to her health,
that it would not be advisable to encourage
anyone to repeat such an experiment.

If I am right in these suppositions, stages may
be constructed in the materialization phenomena,
starting with the most elementary visions and
ending with the perfected forms which, to the
uninitiated, can, perhaps, be hardly distinguished
from normal organisms. The higher the degree
of materialization, the harder the distinction,
the more perfect and stable the new formation.
Whether these can be of permanent character
remains to be proved. Crookes says that he was
allowed to take a lock of hair and scrap of clothing
from the materialized form. (If so, where are
they, and who possesses them now ?) Probably
in the higher stages of materialization some
dissolution of the material form of the medium
ensues.

A close comparison can be made between
materialization processes and creations by God.
The former almost seem to be a faint reflection
of the divine creative power, which is able to
evolve forms of far greater consistency and
duration. The creations of God are not tran-
sient, but remain until He Himself recalls them
into non-existence. The creations of the

116 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

materialization-mediums are quite fleeting and
do not last longer than the state of trance of the
medium, whether we assume that they are com-
posed of the matter of which the organism of the
medium is itself composed or that they are " new
creations " of matter or material substance.
Whichever view is true, it may be that they
afford us a glimpse into the creative power of
God, for we cannot help imagining that the
creation of the world originated from the thought
of God in just the same way as materializations
are evolved by the thoughts of the medium.
What remains problematic is the part played by
the vital forces. From whence do they come ?
Are they an independent group of world factors,
or are they also creations of God which are misused
by the mediums in the materialization process,
or is it more reasonable to assume that they too
only come into existence through the creative
action of God and of the mediums ?

ADDITIONAL REMARKS

The publication of a second edition has in-
duced me once again to examine exhaustively
Schrenck-Notzing's first great publication, the
criticisms of Matilda von Kemmitz and von
Gulat-Wellenburg, and Schrenck-Notzing's reply.
I do not doubt that every reader, who (as is so
often the case) has only seen Kemmitz's pamphlet,
will be convinced that the whole thing is a fraud,

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 117

and that Schrenck-Notzing is a man utterly
devoid of all critical faculty. But if anyone
takes the trouble to work through Schrenck-
Notzing's book and his reply to his critics, he will
be compelled to shake his head over what can
only be described as the indescribable super-
ficiality of the pamphlet of this lady doctor,
who had, indeed, but just taken her degree.

It is also not correct to say as Dessoir does,
that except Schrenck-Notzing, I can only refer
to Geley as vouching unreservedly for the
genuineness of the phenomena. This has been
done also in printed statements by Professors
Richet and Boirac, as well as by Dr. Bourbon
and de Fontenay, who was an expert on his own
account, and they did so as the result of sittings
in which they took part. Also Professor Courtier,
Clarapede, Bennet, Flammarion, etc., have
publicly declared that their conviction is the
same.

("Psych: Studien." May, 1920).

Schrenck-Notzing has sent me, upon my
request, the letters which he received about the
investigations of the Committee of the Psychical
Research Society from Fielding, Fournier d'Albe,
Mme. Bisson 1 and Eva C. The essential parts
of these letters are printed lower down.
Fournier d'Albe declares that he is himself

1 It has not beep possible to obtain leave to publish these letters
in this English edition Editor.

118 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

completely convinced of the genuineness of
the phenomena, and that an amateur conjurer
who took part in the sittings said that it was
impossible to imitate them by trick methods.
Fielding holds that a convincing proof of the
genuineness of the phenomena was not achieved.
The only possibility for fraud lay, in his opinion,
in regurgitation, but this he regards as very
unlikely. W. Whately Smith also says that the
phenomena which he witnessed at six sittings in
London could only have been produced by
rumination ; that it is not easy to see how
rumination was the reason, and that he, upon
the whole, has come in consideration of all the
evidence for the case to the conclusion that it is
genuine. (" The Psychic Research Quarterly " I,
3, 1921.) Since the sittings Schrenck-Notzing
reports that a radiographic examination of the
oesophagus and stomach of Eva C. has been
made. The result is to show a normal condition
of these organs unlike that of persons gifted with
the power of rumination. Ruminants have
always a distension of the stomach and, in order
to achieve their results, have to swallow liquids
in quart quantities.

Mme. Bisson, whose letters do not leave an
unfavourable impression, complains that the
methods of investigation in London were not at
all adapted from the psychical point of view to
the results which were desired. Instead of being

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 119

content with taking necessary precautions, con-
versation went on continually without any
restraint in the presence of the medium about
possibly undiscovered methods of cheating, and
the medium, as well as Mme. Bisson, naturally
became increasingly irritated. Moreover, right
from the beginning an unfavourable predisposi-
tion clearly prevailed in the minds of the com-
mittee, and this could not fail to have had an
unfavourable effect on the medium, and to
prevent the phenomena from reaching their
proper development.

It is a very common fact, which again and again
recurs, that persons who have taken part in an
investigation are convinced of the reality of the
phenomena during the sittings and immediately
after them, and record their opinions to this
effect in writing, and then after more or less of
an interval, as memory becomes fainter, they
begin to doubt again and explain the whole thing
just as decidedly in the opposite sense.

In the same way everyone on first making
acquaintance with parapsychological literature
undergoes a similar experience. As long as he is
under the impression of the recorded observed
facts he is more or less convinced, and then as
time goes by he becomes uncertain again, and
ends up by regarding the whole thing as a swindle.
If he again takes up the literature on the subject
he repeats the process, and this happens so often

120 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

that we at last become conscious of it and have to
resolve to hold fast afterwards to the judgment
which we have formed whilst actually engaged
in considering the facts. This seems the only
methodological point of view which is tenable
in the circumstances.

From the theoretical point of view it would
be extremely important, if the theory of observa-
tion could only be more closely worked out with
the object of laying down rules for saying when
an observed fact can be regarded as really super-
normal and when the possibility of deception is
excluded. The discussion about observed facts
still continually breaks down over the impossi-
bility of coming to an agreed decision of the
question whether, given the conditions, the possi-
bility of fraud was left open or not. It is
necessary to lay down fixed criteria on this subject,
or we shall never make any advance. The mere
statement that " very probably there was fraud,
after all," can always be made, but it cannot all
the same claim to be always accepted as a valid
argument, for if it were, the positive ascertainment
of facts would be impossible.

In the same way explanations which are
obviously impossible must not be allowed to
stand. There is a kind of criticism, which is
not criticism^which would rather admit the most
senseless hypothesis than the existence of a
parapsychic fact. One of the crassest examples

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 121

of this may be found in Lehmann's well-known
book on superstition and magic. He " ex-
plains " a report of Seiling about a partial de-
materialization of Madame d'Esperance, by
supposing that that medium " stuck her legs
and, perhaps, the whole of the lower part of her
body, through the opening of the back of the
chair on which she was sitting," and he, him-
self, gives the measurements of this hole as
nineteen cm. high by twenty-nine cm. broad.
If you compare this measurement with that of a
grown woman with her clothes on, you can only
be astonished that a reputable investigator
regards the proceeding as possible, and goes on
to assume that the people sitting near-by noticed
in no way how the medium got up and forced her
legs and lower body with her clothes backwards
through the opening of the chair.

The phenomena observed with Eva C. have
recently received indirect confirmation through
similar phenomena recorded in Crawford's posthu-
mous work, " The Psychic Structures of the
Goligher Circle" (Watkins, London, 1920),
which reached me for the first time as I was
correcting those additional remarks. (Schrenck-
Notzing has given an account of the book in
" Psych : Studien," August, 1921). These pheno-
mena have upon occasion the same web-like
formation as many of the structures produced
by Eva C.

122 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

The genuineness of Crawford's work is vouched
for, not only " by this one man," as Dessoir
says. As regards the levitation phenomena,
Professor Wm. Barrett has given a confirmatory
statement. (In proceedings of S.P.R., Vol. 30,
page 334). Crawford, in 1920, explained his
unwillingness to allow the presence of witnesses
as due to his fear that they might spoil the
development of his medium by subjecting her
to a bad psychical influence.

Moreover, Fournier d'Albe, who took over
the further investigation of the medium soon
after Crawford's death, has declared in favour
of the genuineness of the phenomena. He writes
to Schrenck-Notzing : " The phenomena are
very strong and begin after 10-20 minutes.
I have taken some photographs which show a
quite regularly webbed-woven structure like
chiffon. How it is produced future investiga-
tion must show." 1 F. M. Stevenson in the same
way has confirmed Crawford's conclusions as the
result of his own investigations and of the photo-
graphs which he took. (" The Psychic Research
Quarterly," Oct., 1921.)

1 Fournier d'Albe went back on this as the result of further
investigation, and concluded emphatically that the phenomena
were due to fraud. Editor.

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 123

Extracts from letters about the London sittings
with Eva C.

Fournier d'Albe to Schrenck-Notzing.

" London, June 24, 1920.

" I was present at six sittings, of which four
were negative. This seems about the usual
proportion in London. The best sitting was
last Thursday. Eva had the veil on, and not
less than four different phenomena showed them-
selves one after the other in front of her face,
but inside the veil a finger, a kind of veil,
a cravat with some lines upon it and a (paper)
surface upon which the lines of a face were
drawn. This last was grey and flat, and was
fastened to her nose. All the phenomena were
shown for some seconds. Mr. Dingwell the
amateur conjurer of the committee assures me
that the phenomena could not have been pro-
duced by trickery.

" Yesterday the result was similar, although
Eva, shortly before the sitting, had had a cup of
tea and a cake a precaution directed against
the regurgitation hypothesis. I was not present.

" The psychological effect upon the com-
mittee is the usual one. All the conditions,
one after the other, were complied with, but,
instead of being content they go on thinking out
new ones. Whatever the reason, the phenomena
are all of small measurements, and I think it

124 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

probable that in London the larger phenomena
will not be forthcoming."

"June 30, 1920.

" The London sittings are at an end, and the
ladies journeyed back this morning to Paris. A
total of about thirty (really forty) sittings took
place and I think only about eight (really thirteen)
were positive. I attended ten. Of these four
were positive. The best was last Saturday from
four to seven o'clock.

" We felt the cold wind (for the first time) and
saw (i) a black string between the hands, (2)
which changed itself into a grey membrane,
(3) and then into a flat surface of grey felt (which
was examined with an electric torch), (4) a mass
which hung from the mouth like a stalactite ;
(5) later (2 minutes) a face drawn in natural
colours upon a thin substratum (this was sub-
mitted to the light and photographed), (6)
fibrous substance between the two hands which
were held by D. This vanished suddenly before
our eyes after I had examined the medium's
mouth, (7) a finger ' coming out of the mouth
(photographed).

" This I am told was the best sitting. Since
it took place two sittings were held on Monday
and Tuesday without result. Mrs, Feilding was
present at them. She seems to hinder the pheno-
mena by her too critical attitude. Although

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 125

Mr. Feilding says that nothing took place which
could not throughout have been produced by
a conjurer, yet the personal judgment of all who
took part is thoroughly favourable to the two
ladies. We had hoped for phenomena on a
larger scale, but the circumstances, especially
from the psychological side, were not favourable
enough for that."

Feilding to Schrenck-Notzing.

" London, July 17, 1920.

" Madame Bisson left over a fortnight ago,
after a stay of more than two months, during
which we had about thirty seances. The results,
although very interesting, were, unhappily, not
as important as previous reports had led us to
hope for. That is to say that, inasmuch as the
regurgitation theory is the only theory that can
hold the field in opposition to that of super-
normal ideoplasm, it is a pity that we never got
phenomena big enough to warrant us in declaring,
as a matter of scientific certainty, that this
theory is insufficient, however great its improba-
bility may be. I am extremely sorry that Madame
Bisson seems very dissatisfied with our way of
running things. All the same, I assure you most
positively that her dissatisfaction is really base-
less. We felt from the outset that it would be
impossible that in a short series of experiments
we should be able to add anything of value to

126 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

the study of the phenomena from a scientific
point of view. Madame Bisson has a far better
installation in Paris than we have here for a study
of this kind. We limited ourselves, therefore,
to trying to confirm your and her opinion about
the authenticity of the phenomena ; that is,
to establish the absence of any trick or fraud of
any kind, so as to prepare the English public
for the forthcoming appearance of the transla-
tion of your book, the interest in which will
obviously depend on the confidence which this
public will have, that the facts described in it
really deserve serious attention. There has
already been a considerable polemic in the
reviews and in certain books tending to show
that it is all nothing but the merest humbug.
At the least, therefore, a favourable report by
the S.P.R., which is known for its caution in
matters of this kind, would have a far greater
practical value than an incomplete study of the
nature of the * substance ,' which is apparently
what Madame Bisson wanted. Madame is wrong
in thinking that we began the experiments with
the conviction that it was all merely a trick to be
shown up. But as we knew that the chief thing
would be to be able to give an effective answer to
the question * trick, or genuine phenomenon ? 7 we
included in our committee certain members also,
who, from their knowledge of conjuring, would
be able to speak as experts from that point of

EVA C. MATERIALIZATIONS 127

view. They were not, however, in any way con-
jurors by profession."

Feilding to Schrenck-Notzing.

" Rockport, Ireland, August 28, 1920.

" I think I must have expressed myself badly
when speaking about the regurgitation theory.
I never intended to say that we had adopted this
as the most probable theory. I only said that
the phenomena that we saw in London were
not large enough for us to be able to say that
they, taken alone and without considering what
had been observed by our predecessors, rendered
the regurgitation theory impossible."

Eva C. to Schrenck-Notzing.

" London, May 5, 1920.

" The sittings here seem likely to go well.
Out of five, three have produced something. I
very much hope that the results will be alto-
gether satisfactory. After this I believe that
I shall have done my duty as regards these
sciences. At all events I shall have done all that
was humanly possible for me. I have often
needed courage, for all these questions are very
distasteful and not always very considerate for
the medium. The control is always very painful
to me, for I am really a bit of a savage, and all these
exhibitions of my person are really hateful. I
accept every condition, and desire to do so, as
I understand that the whole interest in these
ph^liomena is based on control before and after.

128 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

Madame Bisson has recently^ published the
following statement in " Psychica," 1921, May 15,
No. 3 :

" The first five sittings in London gave excel-
lent results. But the experimenters were not
used to materialization phenomena and the room
for the sittings adjoined a very noisy room, from
which strong disturbing noises made by mes-
sengers kept coming so that the medium was
woken up and made nervous. The hour of the
sittings was changed to later in the day, and
this was very inconvenient for the medium who
only got home late after tiring sittings.

" Yet in spite of all distracting causes we got
some good and interesting manifestations. One
day, both hands of the medium being held by
one of those present (a conjurer) a parcel of
substance appeared between this gentleman's
hands and Eva's. This substance grew bigger
on their hands and then developed. A small
woman's face appeared. Mr. D., the conjurer,
cried out : ' She has blue eyes and red lips
she is smiling to me.'

" I do not yet know the report of the S.P.R.,
and I shall avoid commenting on it. I got a
letter to say that Mr. D. had delivered a lecture
on our work in which he is said to have declared
that he could not admit that there was any fraud,
for fraud would seem to him more extraordinary
than the phenomena itself."

CHAPTER VI

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER

THE superabnormal psychical and physical
phenomena which we have so far reviewed
form to-day the field of research for the
initial stage of parapsychology, the newest branch
of philosophy. The beginnings of these investi-
gations not yet recognized by many of us as
an independent scientific branch correspond
roughly to the beginnings of hypnotic research,
a further point of resemblance consisting in the
fact that though inaugurated some decades ago,
they were forgotten later, only to be revived once
again towards the end of the last century.

Just as the phenomena of hypnotism are prime-
val and are to be found right through history down
to the present day, so, too, are the supernormal
phenomena with which we are concerned in this
book, even if we are still unable to distinguish
between truth and fiction with regard to the
traditions about them in history. To make
this distinction will only be possible when we are
on a firmer footing all round than is the case at
present. It is certainly probable that, ten years
hence, we may look upon much in history
9 129

130 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

particularly in the history of religion with
very different eyes, though even so, there will be
quite enough errors, fraud and superstition left.
Parapsychic phenomena have at all times served
as the starting point for an immense amount of
premature metaphysics about the soul. The
first and easiest interpretation of many of the
phenomena is the spiritistic. It consists in the
assumption that it is not the psyche of the
medium which develops supernormal faculties,
but that departed spirits establish themselves in
the organism of the medium, manifesting their
presence through it, and even substracting
organic substance from the medium, in order to
be reincarnated or materialized. This spiritistic
conception which the latest observations of
materializations have rendered so extremely im-
probable makes so great an appeal to the naive
observer, that it has existed ever since para-
psychic phenomena became known, though the
same significance was not always attached to it.
The last great upheaval started towards the
middle of the last century, when so-called
" table-turning " came over from America. This
was the birth of modern Spiritism, which soon
spread over the whole world, and even to-day has
its circle of adherents everywhere. But as every
new wave of thought whether high or low
sooner or later loses its native force, so, too,
spiritism saw its strength wane.

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 181

As a matter of fact, spiritism to-day is no
longer the most modern form of occultism.
The strong religious tendency of the present day
working on occultism has produced a new move-
ment, which in contradistinction to Occultism
shows a decided religious bias, namely that of
Theosophy. In theosophy spiritism has to a
certain degree been merged, for spiritism has no
tenets which Theosophy does not recognize.
Theosophy, however, goes beyond spiritism,
accepting second sight, telepathy, visions of
spirits and materializations as of ordinary, every-
day occurrences manifestations of a lower grade,
which, indeed, it treats as real facts, but no
longer as of primary importance.

Theosophy desires to offer more. Its aim is
to be able to unveil those mysteries of the universe
into which spiritism dared not probe. Theo-
sophy believes it will be able to make the higher
knowledge, by which time and space cease to
exist, accessible to all. Theosophy considers
itself as a sort of godhead, above all philosophic
thought, which is but a preliminary step, and
which it contemplates from a higher angle
like Hegel when he, from the philosophic
point of view, looked down on mere rational
discursive thought. Theosophy believes itself
to possess a more advanced knowledge, though
despite this, it professes no close relationship
with traditional religious beliefs which depend

182 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

upon revelation. It is much more like a religion
in its initial stages than like a creed, which has
existed for ages and already follows a steady
course. For long confined to a comparatively
small, exclusive circle of adherents, it has grown
considerably of late years, particularly since the
German revolution, as is indicated by the con-
siderable increase in theosophic publications.

Theosophy is not a spiritual movement of a
kind peculiar to the present day. In earlier
epochs, similar movements existed which sought
for loftier religious understanding, beyond the
limits of philosophy and traditional religion.
Throughout the Middle Ages this tendency lay
hidden beneath the religious life. It was known
as Mysticism. It held that an unmediated
elevation of the soul to God is possible, which
would lead to the unification of the human
personality with the Divine Being, to a unto
mystica or deificatio, or as German mysticism
terms it, a " Vergottung." As compared with
this older form of Theosophy, which still lives
on in Catholicism to this day, modern Theosophy
emphasizes the intellectual side. It is based on
knowledge although inner religious depths are
not lacking in it either.

The whole movement originated in India and
England, and even to-day the English Theo-
sophical tendency is the dominant one. At its
head stood the Russian Blavatsky, possibly herself

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 188

a medium, though at the same time an extremely
cunning impostor and as fascinating a personality
as only a hysterical Russian of that class can be.
The report upon her by the psychologist Hodgson,
who was deputed to make investigations on
behalf of the Society for Psychical Research,
was as unfavourable to her as it could be.

At the present day also, as at its origin, English
Theosophy is dominated by the mind of a woman,
that of Mrs. Annie Besant. Morally, she must
be considered much higher than her predecessor,
who at one and the same time seems to have
fulfilled the functions of Russian political agent,
and mediatress of the higher revelations. Mrs.
Besant is no impostor, and makes no pretensions
to an exalted position among her fellows as did
Mme. Blavatsky. She must be an imposing
personality, and not only as a public speaker.
According to her own confession to James, years
ago, she is characterized by extreme diffidence
in personal intercourse, though recklessly brave
in public, but Keyserlinck, who visited her in
India, was quite differently impressed. " Of one
thing I am convinced," he writes : " this woman
controls her person from a centre in a way that
I have seldom seen equalled. . . . Mrs. Besant
has her abilities, sensations, will-power, so in
hand, that she appears capable of greater efforts
than those who are more highly gifted." The
literary productions of Annie Besant have

184 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

nothing distinguished about them. To a scienti-
fically inclined reader her books are quite unpalat-
able. As a critic once put it : " Should an
exhibition ever be held of the malformations of
human thought, there would be a rush to be the
first to get her books for it."

The centre of English Theosophy must be
looked for in India, where the speculations of the
old Indian Theosophy are deliberately renewed.
The reader is overwhelmed in Annie Besant's
books by a mass of Indian expressions, and
doubtless the effect on half-educated people is
often to create a curious haziness of mind, an
atmosphere of mystery, full of wondrous thoughts,
favourable to any kind of auto-suggestion. Not
only do the ideas of English Theosophy emanate
from India, but the close relationship with that
country is proclaimed by the fact that the
headquarters of the movement is in India itself,
in Adyar, where Mme. Blavatsky founded her
Indian Theosophist Society in 1875. Annie
Besant is now its president, and has made India
her permanent home for many years past. The
fusion of race and the ideal of indiscriminate
brotherly love have in this movement not been
confined to mere expression, and the British
members of the Society are even in sympathy
with the Indian national movement. Mrs. Besant
took a leading part in the last Indian National
Congress, and the Anglo-Indian authorities have

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 185

been faced with difficulties as a direct consequence
of her action.

The Theosophical movement has extended
from England to Germany, and Annie Besant
herself came over to give a series of lectures.
Some of her voluminous writings as well as those
of her disciple Leadbeater have been translated.
The prophet-in-chief of German Theosophy
to-day, however, is Rudolf Steiner of Stuttgart.
He is the son of a small railway official, and was
born in Hungary in 1861. Even now, he still
feels himself to be the " son of the proletariate,"
and the " proletarian " seems to him the greatest
historical reality of the present, whose mission
it is to lead humanity on to a higher level. I
once heard him lecture on state reform : " The
Three Limbs of the Social Organism." He is a
tall, dark person, with an intelligent expression.
He enlarged for two or three hours, in a voice of
remarkable carrying power, on very few ideas ;
or, rather, he actually bellowed as though he
meant to drown any possible contradiction. His
lecture was extremely monotonous, and at the
same time very vague, a typical German revolu-
tionary programme of reform. The enigma as
to the why and wherefore of his hold on his
following, and how it is that hundreds, nay,
thousands, believe in him, is still unsolved.
Neither is it easy to understand how it is that a
group of women are said to have pursued him from

186 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

place to place at that time, in order to hear him
speak again and again.

The fundamental idea of Theosophy is ex-
pressed in the belief that the world of our senses
does not represent the whole of reality ; but that
higher spheres exist, and that mankind is enabled
to gain insight into this higher world by reason
of second sight or " clairvoyance." That which
to us is the world forms but a small section of the
actual universe of being.

The world is not alone in possessing unknown
spheres and gradations ; what is true of the world
is true also of mankind. This new interpretation
of man's constitution is considered by Steiner
to be of such importance that he calls his whole
train of thought Anthroposophy instead of
Theosophy. This change of name synchronizes
with a slight change of emphasis from the
religious to the intellectual sphere. Steiner
repudiates the dominant conception that man
is composed of two parts : the body and the soul.
He admits of no less than four component parts.
Over and above the physical body, which is made
of the same consistent parts as the inanimate
world, is (2) the " living or aetheric body," which
is practically represented in neovitalitism, by
entelechy, psychoid, vital factor or the like.
The word " aether" (body) has no connexion
with the "aether" of physics. The (3) third
" member of the human being " is the " sensitive

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 187

or astral body," and transmits suffering and
desire, joy, lust, passion, etc. The (4) fourth
factor, mankind's own peculiar prerogative, is
the " ego," the " body of the ego," where,
again, the word " body " is not to be taken
literally. Plato would have called it " reason "
instead. The sensitive body is said to be formed
in the shape of a " longish egg," in which both
the physical and setheric bodies are embedded !
It ranges over them in every direction like a
" form of light:" We meet here correct opinions
strangely transformed and intermingled with
phantastic ones. The semi-materialism is charac-
teristic, for though Steiner is at pains to speak
of " body," he is still quite aware that he is
employing a false term.

The belief held by all Theosophists in reincar-
nation is of the greatest significance. The idea
of the transmigration of the soul is alien to the
European spiritual world with but few excep-
tions Pythagoras, for instance. It has never
gained ground in Europe to any great extent.
This idea, too, originated in India, like all other
fundamental Theosophist teachings, and there,
for thousands of years, it has formed the main
part of all religions. It is a thought which, if
taken in a deeper sense, can markedly increase the
sense of responsibility in man by the belief that
his future fate is dependent on his present life.
It also confers a strange peace of mind onjsome

188 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

individuals, when combined with other beliefs.
When life is regarded as lasting for a very long
time, time ceases to be precious ; there is no
necessity for a hurry ; in future existences there
will be opportunity for everything now
denied.

The whole development of culture is visualized
by Steiner as dependent on the ever-increasing
influence of the ego on the remaining parts of
man. Indeed the secret teaching of Theosophy
consists in an ever greater control 'of the ego over
those parts. Man becomes master of his charac-
ter, his passions, and, at the highest stage, even of
his physical body. He controls the circulation
of the blood, as well as his pulse. In this it is
easy to recognize the influence of the ancient
Indian Theosophy in which, on reaching the
highest stage of development, man attains
mastery over his organic functions.

But this is not yet the heart of the new secret
teachings. The final aim is the achievement of
a higher knowledge that of so-called " second
sight," the contemplative observation of all the
profundities of reality. All mankind can attain
this understanding, when, through unceasing
mediation, they release those higher faculties
which lie dormant within them. To the " seer "
nothing would remain hidden.

It is amazing in the extreme to hear of the
results attained by means of the higher mental

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 189

faculties, which, though dormant in most, appear
thoroughly awakened in Steiner. We learn of
the most tanheard-of things concerning the
happenings of the universe. What are all the
attainments of geology and astronomy in com-
parison to the visions of the Theosophists ? The
past of the solar system and of the earth are
relentlessly unveiled to us. We hear of new
ages of which no one knew anything. We learn
how mankind was formed in the " lemuric "
period on that continent which existed between
Australia and India. Further, Steiner alludes
to powerful spirits who wandered about earth
before mankind existed, and he knows of whole
cycles of culture which existed in prehistoric
times. All Plato's descriptions of Atlanta read
like a dry and harmless report when compared to
Steiner 's clairvoyant visions. Even Helene
Smith's Martian and ultra-Martian apparitions
pale before them. Every now and then are
interspersed glimpses of angelic figures, higher
spirits, which were active in the earlier stages
of the solar system. Even a pre-historic Christ
is not missing from the cosmic birth of the world,
when earth and sun parted. This Christ, or
Sun-Man, is said to have instructed seven great
teachers the teachers of the ancient Indies,
though these ancient Indies must not be con-
founded with the present geographical conception
of India. There is said to have been a " higher "

140 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

pre-historic India. But in that case, one asks in
vain why it is still called India ?

Even Schilling's later reckless Theosophical and
cosmogonic speculations are child's play in
comparison to Steiner's "inspirations," which
might better be thought to bear an analogy
to the philosophy of later classical times. In my
opinion, however, even this comparison is too
pale. I can find nothing better to compare than
the Apocalyptic Scriptures the Revelations of
St. John or, better still, the apocalyptic visions
of David of Lazareth. True it is that Steiner
lacks the touch of power which is found in them,
but like them he sweeps grandiosely above all the
probabilities, and like them deals with the
milliards of years, aeons and super-epochs. The
question arises if the analogy be pursued is
Steiner then also mentally deranged ? The
contents of certain of his writings certainly seem
to suggest this. Or how otherwise can these
emanations of the spirit be understood ? It
must be admitted as an " extenuating circum-
stance " that Steiner is not unique in this regard.
One need only examine the recent publications
in German of the works of Annie Besant, and of
her disciple, 'Leadbeater. Here, too, allusions
are found to whole series of realities of which the
rest of us are entirely unaware; and in another book
an attempt is made to unravel the secrets of the
construction of the atoms by means of clairvoyance.

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 14,1

Who will take the trouble to compare all these
conflicting revelations ? I fear they would prove
as full of contradictions as the scriptural Apo-
crypha, though this fact would cause no dis-
couragement to the Theosophists. They would
merely say that some of the revelations were
genuine others only pseudo-revelations. Even
if they were not full of contradictions, that
would not prove them objective ; it would still
be simpler to assume that they are relatively
interdependent. ' The point so much against
them is that they fail to show any interconnexion
with the ordinary sciences. And yet any claim
to objectivity which they might have must at
least entail some sort of connecting link with
established knowledge. A " clairvoyant " de-
scription of prehistoric facts, if genuine, should by
rights have some connexion with prehistoric
science, and reveal to persons interested in early
history steps and stages of development which
would bring to light the interconnexion of
historically recorded facts. In short, it would
do what genius does. We find nothing of all
this in Steiner's conceptions. Further, the
reader who is versed in psychology feels the
absence of detailed descriptions of the nature of
this process of revelation. We are overwhelmed
by a mass of assertion mere assertion nothing
else. And when the question is raised : Will the
student of Theosophy himself reach the stage of

142 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

personal inspiration, the answer is bewildering,
for the reader is told that he is on the threshold
already of spiritual enlightenment as soon as he
begins to hear and understand Steiner's revela-
tions. From the time when these revelations
are received and believed, we are told that we
have part in them and have ourselves received
them. This is surely a dubious assertion, and
might even be regarded as hallucination ; for
Steiner must surely know the great difference
between mere belief in something and an act of
higher intuition.

Steiner writes quite differently when he is on
neutral ground. For instance, his essays on the
earlier philosophers are thorough and impressive.
We should expect him, therefore, to show a
keener appreciation of the value of some psycho-
logical analysis of the insight which he claims to
possess.

The path to second sight is reached by way
of strange exercises of mental concentration
exercitia spiritualia which are directly derived
from the Indian school of spiritual training. In
the first place, Steiner advocates a contemplative
study of certain flower-like drawings. These
are alleged to have a highly symbolical significance.
Thus a black cross is the symbol of the baser
passions and lusts ; therefore, during meditation
seven red roses are placed in the centre of a
black cross to denote passions and lusts under

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 148

control. After continued contemplative exer-
cises, the student is stated gradually to get
outside his own ego and to become conscious of
the higher spiritual world. Unfortunately,
records in literature of the effect of such con-
templation and of its gradual increasing power
are extremely rare. It is obviously a question of
generating auto-hypnotic conditions, which create
a favourable basis for auto-suggestions of every
description. The suspicion arises, that the
student of Thedsophy experiences nothing be-
yond an auto-suggestive strengthening of his
faith in his Master and possibly a few correspond-
ing hallucinations. But nothing much is achieved
by such a conclusion. According to numerous
reports from India, there can be no doubt that
a protraction of such contemplative exercises
has a peculiarly strengthening effect on the
human mind. We are continually reminded of
the fact that the Indian Yogi are renowned for
their complete control over their psyche.
Keyserlinck is also of opinion that Mrs. Annie
Besant's self-mastery is attributable to her Yogi
exercises. And surely the deep satisfaction which
has been attained by many adherents of the
Theosophical movement, and which I am sure
exists from the statements which they themselves
have made to me, is attributable to these con-
templations. A closer study of the whole subject
has become a pressing duty, and may have

144 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

important results for the self-education of mature
minds.

A deeper study of these conditions of spiritual
concentration is, however, hardly possible in
Europe. I am almost inclined to believe that
all that has been achieved by exercises in con-
centration as practised in Europe has reached only
to the fringe of what has been done in India.
The whole mind of the European is far too
active and too engrossed with worldly affairs.
The European is not able to devote himself to
spiritual exercises in the way the Indian can.

The study of Indian self-absorption must be
carried out in India itself. That is why it is of
such great parapsychical importance, for, if we
are to believe the accounts of travellers to that
land, it represents a method which systematically
obtains complete mastery over those parts of the
organism which are not subjected to the conscious
will, as well as also furthering mediumistic
faculties. European mediumship is the gift of
chance certain persons evince abnormal para-
psychic phenomena, we know not how or when.
In India the problem of the methodical pro-
duction of such faculties has apparently been
solved for centuries. This assertion might have
been ignored so long as there was any question
of the reality of the parapsychic phenomena.
To-day, when doubt is no longer possible, the
Indian reports have also become of interest to

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 145

us. Whatever the outcome, they deserve to be
investigated, even at the risk that the mystery
may remain unsolved.

Indian Theosophy has this in common with
European Theosophy : the majority of its
adherents are believers only very few have real
knowledge. " The majority of those that I have
talked to," said Keyserlinck, " believe only,
though a few are convinced that they also know,
and report to me as naturally and calmly about
unheard-of events, as a naturalist on his latest
discovery."

All that we have so far heard about Steiner and
his teachings does not, however, solve the problem
of his ever-increasing influence even on many
people who are of a superior moral character.
It is evident that these weird occult teachings,
which promise an insight yet undreamed of, must
have a mysterious attraction for many. But the
deeper satisfaction found by so many in Theo-
sophy is surely attributable to the high moral
tendency which permeates Steiner's teachings
(though it easily is lost sight of by persons who
stand outside Theosophy in the face of his
strange metaphysical teachings) ; which pervades
his whole theories ; and which brings Theosophy
into closer relationship with Christianity than
seems apparent at first sight. The real reason
for Steiner's great influence, therefore, lies in
the higher values interspersed in his metaphysics

10

146 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

which ensure him respect, confused though his
speculations seem. To this must be added the
fact that Steiner rejects certain forms of older
Christianity, e.g. its contempt for health and
strength which are alien to the modern mind.
In this, again, he concurs with Indian views, by
which Yogism and the highest condition of
concentration are confined to those in perfect
mental and physical health. Steiner's writings
insist on inner mental health, and he requires
this condition from the students' of Theosophy.
In far-seeing guise, Theosophists believe that a
religious conception of life is essential to the
healthy life of the soul. Work and devotion
are for them the pivots of life.

But all this does not prevent the rest of
Steiner's writings from being extraordinarily
confused and muddled quite apart from the fact
that little reliance can be placed on his ter-
minology and expressions. He does not consider
it necessary to confine himself to the use of words
in their ordinary sense and what is still worse, his
own terms are themselves hopelessly jumbled
together.

ADDITIONAL REMARKS

Since the first edition of this book was pub-
lished, the Theosophical movement has spread
still further. Its claims are greater than ever,
and the number of its opponents is also increasing.

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 147

I have avoided taking any part in the platform
campaign about it. The effort to find the truth,
in which I should like to help, will not be for-
warded it will rather be hindered by |, the
controversies of public discussion. As I * am
told, Steiner in his new form of polemics has
attacked me personally, but I do not know how
or when and I shall take care not to be tempted
to answer insult with insult.

The two main points, which most urgently
ought to be cleared up, are first as to the nature
of Steiner 5 s so-called " second sight " (Hell-
sehen), and secondly as to the question (which
is not without connexion with the first) how
meditation is practised in the inner anthropo-
sophical circles, and how in Steiner's own case
it first came to fulfilment, for Steiner (as is
known) comes from the school of Mrs. Besant
a fact which anthroposophical circles generally
rather markedly avoid mentioning, as they prefer
to regard Steiner as a man who has never been
spiritually indebted to any other.

It is further worth noting that the expression
" second sight " is used by Steiner in an unusually
wide sense. Generally the word is used to denote
the capacity of perceiving a thing although the
normal condition of sight are not present, that
is although no light waves from the thing can
reach the eye because the thing is too far away
or hidden somewhere. Steiner, however, means

148 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

by " second sight " the pretended higher
functions of the soul which are dependent on
the so-called astral body, through which the
Theosophist is able to read the " Akasha Record,"
that is to see the impressions which are retained
by a higher actuality of all the events of our
homely earth. Yet all this must, he says, be
treated merely as a use of metaphors, both when
we speak of " impressions " or of " reading " them.
If this is so, it would be better not to use the
word " second sight " at all But we have to
reconcile ourselves as best we can to Steiner's
habit, not of coining new words which could be
used in a definite and recognizable sense, but of
taking old words and using them in a new and
altered meaning.

The deciding question, with which his whole
standpoint stands or falls, is the question whether
"second sight," in Steiner's sense, is a fact
which actually occurs or not, and whether he
himself possesses it. If this is answered, then the
question of the existence of the Akasha Record
or at least, the question whether it is capable of
being proved to exist will also be settled.

The obvious idea of making experiments in
the ordinary sense of the word with the faculty
of second sight leads to no result, since the
reading of the Akasha Record is not a second sight
of the land which permits of experiments. The
higher degree of second sight has got to be

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 149

tested by itself. This test can naturally not be
carried out by any proof of the truth of Steiner's
deliverances on the subject of the early history
of the sun's system or of mankind. We have no
methods of verification which are not dependent
upon the usual scientific considerations about
the sun or mankind. We cannot help from the
scientific point of view regarding most of his
stories as bottomless imaginings, and the most
that we can possibly do is perhaps to discuss one
or two of them*, for instance, the question of the
Atlantes, or of the Lemurians. To this Steiner
retorts that our own scientific interpretations
are merely uncertain hypotheses. A decision
can therefore only be reached if Steiner is himself
so kind as to help us ! He must give us informa-
tion from the Akasha Record about past events,
which we do not yet know, but which we should
be able to verify with reasonable certainty by
the use of the normal channels of knowledge.

Accordingly, I hereby challenge Steiner
personally to give us an opportunity of verifying
in this way his assertions about his superhuman
capacities. And since according to views current
in Theosophical circles, which Steiner also shares,
as the mind rises to higher levels which are still
levels common to clairvoyant faculties in the
ordinary sense, it develops a power of getting
free from the body as well as other capacities,
it is desirable that the opportunity for verification

150 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

should extend to the whole of the phenomena
under consideration and especially to the capacity
which Rittelmeyer maintains is possessed by
Steiner of seeing the contents of other people's
minds. Steiner is said to have already once put
himself at the disposal of Kulpe in Munich for a
psychological examination, but Kulpe unfortu-
nately declined the task for want of time. I
may, therefore, very naturally express the wish
that he will again make the offer especially as
he declares that he has himself a theoretical
interest in psychology.

Some of Steiner's supporters have been very
much offended because I said that according to
Steiner, his followers share in his revelations as
soon as they take his assertions to themselves and
believe in them. It is (according to these sup-
porters) characteristic of Steiner that he does not
demand belief but only that we should follow
his thoughts. On the other hand it should be
noted that he expressly declares that the study
of his revelations is itself a means of " reaching
knowledge on one's own account," indeed, that
it is indispensable thereto. " In all esoteric
training such study acts as a preparation. If a
man tries every other means and does not take to
himself the teaching of his esoteric guide, he will
not reach his goal." For this teaching is not
mere words, but a " living force." This can only
be described as meaning that the esoteric student

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 151

has got blindly to trust himself to the truth of
Steiner's revelations so that they may become his
own living convictions.

Moreover, the requirement of humility and of
the denial of the self naturally works in the same
direction to produce a credulous acceptance of
the doctrine.

Again, how did Steiner, or whoever was the
first and original " clairvoyant/ 5 attain to his
capacity of higher vision, if the study of his
revelations is indispensable ? There must have
been a time when revelations did not exist which
could be studied. And we should like to know
what is the actual result in the circles of Steiner's
followers of the practice of concentration with a
view to achieving " second sight." I have not
yet been able to find out that any clairvoyant
worth mention has arisen among all his numerous
followers, some of whom are adepts of dis-
tinguished ability.

I should further regard it as extraordinarily
important to establish once for all, by a special
investigation, how far the contents of Steiner's
clairvoyant revelations correspond in detail with
those of the English Theosophists, especially
Mme. Blavatsky and Annie Besant. I have not
so far being able to find leisure to make the com-
parison and can only urge others to do so. Such
a comparison is necessary for the purpose of
explanation. The correspondences between the

152 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

revelations go so far that after a renewed con-
sideration of all the factors I no longer think it
probable that we have to do with some mental
derangement in Steiner's case. It seems much
more probable that the principal cause is not
madness, but merely ideas derived from Mme.
Blavatsky. The delusion of madness and of
suggestion cannot be at once distinguished. Both
have this in common, that the person holding them
does not hold them for logical reasons and with-
stands and is unaffected by all arguments to the
contrary. It is only by tracing them to their
origin that we can decide definitely whether such
delusions are due to madness or suggestion. I
will hazard the conjecture provisionally that
with anthroposophists the fundamental con-
ceptions become implanted in the mind during
states of meditation which are very like hypnotic
states. That the motive power is suggestion
seems very clear from the statements of Frohn-
meyer of the school of Annie Besant, for he
implies that both definite hypnotic suggestion
as well as telepathy are employed. It is true
that he means by this the employment of tele-
pathic suggestion, and it is unfortunately true
that of this there are so far very few properly
recorded observed instances, although it seems
true that it is a fact and, from the psychological
standpoint, badly needs closer investigation,
since it probably makes possible a not incon-

THEOSOPHY RUDOLF STEINER 158

siderable part (which has so far been ignored), of
deceptive pseudo-mediumistic performances. The
fact that in Mrs. Besant's following unquestioning
mental obedience of the kind demanded by the
Jesuits is required, makes it doubly probable that
Steiner found his fundamental conceptions in
this way. This, of course, does not exclude the
possibility that he possesses parapsychological gifts,
either by natural endowment or as the result of
self-education by way of meditation. But if
we are to believe that this is true, it is for him to
furnish us~with proof.

CONCLUSION

THE SCOPE FOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS

WE have now concluded our investigation
of some of the domains of modern
Occultism. Many may be disillusioned
who hoped to see the portals of the higher world,
that of life after death, flung wide before them
at last. This hope has not been fulfilled. The
strange, impenetrable wall, which hinders us
from casting a glimpse into the reality beyond
the grave, will not permit itself to be opened,
not even by means of the phenomena of Cross-
correspondence. It is as though we are deliber-
ately meant to be kept in the dark with regard
to what awaits us. There are no proofs whatever
which force us to the belief that there is any
spirit responsible for the productions of medium -
ship other than the spirit of the medium him or
herself. No matter how high or low the pro-
ductions of mediumship may be, they must still
be ascribed to the medium, for the unconscious
or somnambulistic productions of the mind may
very well be above or below that of the conscious-
ness. In the same way, however great may be
the resemblance between the character of the

154

THE SCOPE FOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS 155

mediumistic reproduction and the character of the
individual alive or dead portrayed, mere like-
ness cannot be taken to be a proof of identity.
We know of no limits to the faculty of impersona-
tion which some people possess. Lastly, a
medium's knowledge of facts can never be taken
as a conclusive proof of the presence of a dead
person, for the statements made have in the first
place to be verified, and if verification is possible,
it is itself a proof that these facts can be ascer-
tained by other means than the direct memory
of the dead person. The same, too, applies to
materializations. Spiritism, therefore, cannot be
proved by incontrovertible reasons. On the other
hand, neither can it be disproved by incontro-
vertible reasons. A conclusion can only be
arrived at, based on general impressions, which
will be the more correct the less bias there is
either of sympathy with or of antipathy to the
fundamental idea of spiritism. And yet it is
true that we cannot do otherwise than to see and
judge of the spiritistic hypothesis by its rela-
tionship to our general conception of the universe.
In the absence of conclusive proof, we can neither
accept nor reject it without inquiry into its
consequences.

Although, then, we have to conclude that the
main metaphysical expectation, which is closely
connected with occultism, is proved to be
fundamentally impracticable, the further scien-

156 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

tific results are all the more important. Amid
the waste matter of vulgar spiritism, most re-
markable psychic and psychophysic phenomena
of supernormal character have been discovered.
We are now on new scientific ground. Many
things are still veiled in clouds, vague, and only
recognizable in outline ; others are still com-
pletely hidden ; others, again, have been
established with comparative certainty. It is
no longer an open question whether we have firm
ground under our feet with regard to these
problems, or whether all is illusion, deception,
and fraud. The assertions of eminent investiga-
tors some among them scientists of world-wide
renown are too numerous and too decided.
All 1 who have gone in for a systematic study of
the phenomena have arrived at a positive con-
clusion to a greater or less degree. To ignore
their combined testimony would be but unscien-
tific, dogmatic prejudice. No other scientific
attitude is possible than that of taking in hand
the examination and verification of the results
already obtained.

A criticism that goes so far as to refuse to make
a closer investigation of facts which have been
asserted, becomes pseudo-criticism, and no longer
impartial, when the facts have been asserted by
reliable observers. The attitude of a con-
siderable number, particularly of the older pro-

1 Including A. Lehmann, Henning, and Desioir.

THE SCOPE FOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS 157

fessors of philosophy and psychology, is strongly
reminiscent of those Florentine savants who
denied the astronomical discoveries of Galileo,
and refused to look through the telescope for
fear of being convinced. It is crassly untrue to
assert that all clairvoyants and mediums refuse
to submit themselves to scientific examination.
The scientific superficiality and general lack of
principle, which characterizes some authors when
it becomes a question of the real facts, is alone
responsible for such an assertion. Equally super-
ficial, and probably only due to lack of knowledge
of the literature upon the subject, is the state-
ment by Hopp to the effect that science has no
means of investigating the problem of telepathy,
but must confine itself to the examination of
such cases as chance may offer.

It is a test of the intellectual worth of a
scientist if he is ready and willing to investigate
problems which, if true, may open up wide
issues, or if he retreats with diffidence from all
that might bring with it in its train a revolutionary-
change in his existing theories.

German research has in the first place to
ascertain what has already been accomplished.
It is now no longer admissible to regard the
entire parapsychic problem as terra nova, on
which no man's foot has stepped yet.

When Wundt declared that if parapsychology
were justified there must be two worlds the

158 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

first, that which exists in accordance with the
laws of Galileo and of classic mechanics ; the
second, that of the gnomes, rapping spirits and
magnetic mediums, in which the laws which
prevail in the first are not in use it must un-
reservedly be admitted (apart from the language
in which his idea is clothed) that this " second
world " lacks that transparent and reliable
structure which is possessed by organically dead
nature, taken by itself. This is not only applic-
able to parapsychic phenomena, but is equally
true both of normal psychology and of organic
physiology. Biology, also, is incapable of in-
dicating in advance the progress of organic
development. This unreliability is peculiar to
all non-inorganic parts of reality, and it is very
doubtful whether it should only be attributed,
as it usually is, to the complication of the pheno-
mena. Such an explanation is hardly true of
mental phenomena, and does not very well
apply at all to the vital factors. The reason
really consists in the fact that there is no question
here of a number of separate entities, and their
connexion to each other, as in the case of the
atoms which go to build up the elementary
entities of the inorganic world. The mechanical
conception of the universe, on which Wundt
and all the other Parallelists base their philosophy,
has been found to be fundamentally false. It is
necessary to make a clean break with the mechani-

THE SCOPE FOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS 159

cal conception, not only for the purposes of theory,
but also for that of practical investigation, and
no longer to shut one's eyes to the metapsychical
complexity of the problems in which we are
engaged.

There should soon be no lack of suitable
mediums with whom to experiment. There are
many indications that individuals with para-
psychical constitutions are not so rare as is
generally imagined, though it may be true that
they are a little 'scarcer in Germany than among
the English-speaking and Latin races. On the
other hand, a whole number of mediumistically
inclined individuals have been discovered recently.
It is to be hoped that at least a proportion among
them those of the greatest value from the point
of view of the renewal of scientific investigation
will place themselves at the disposal of a science
which no longer need assume that it only has to
do with fraud, and which is ready to investigate
on critically objective lines. It is for this reason
that I insist on the need for further investigation.
One of these mediums, on whom v. Wasielewski
and Tischner have made their chief experiments,
does not even appear to base her work on the
spiritistic theory, so that the tests in her case
could be carried out in entire freedom from the
spiritistic atmosphere.

It is greatly to be desired that we may soon
have the luck to get physical mediums to place

160 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

themselves at our disposal in the earlier stages
of their development, so that they may be with-
drawn from the influences of spiritism. It
might then, perhaps, be possible to obtain
parapsychic and paraphysical phenomena in a
form which does not clothe itself in the spiritistic
garb, and is thus divested of the distasteful
atmosphere which surrounds such phenomena
at present. The possibility exists, however, that
the further development of these phenomena
may be dependent on the necessity for the very
favourable auto-suggestive influences which
emanate from the spiritistic beliefs of the
mediums. If this be, indeed, the case, we
must needs resign ourselves to the acceptance
of parapsychic manifestations in this strange
guise.

A serious difficulty in investigation is the
aversion manifested in spiritistic circles to scien-
tific research. This circumstance is not only due
to the indifferent and uninterested attitude
hitherto adopted by science in Germany with
reference to parapsychological problems, but is
also caused by an instinctive fear that a closer
investigation might prove the claims of the
spiritistic interpretation to be unfounded.
Mundus vult decipi. In the summer of 1919, one
of my audience in Tubingen informed me of a
writing medium who seemingly appeared to be
capable of quite interesting phenomena, and he

THE SCOPE FOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS 161

promised to put me into touch with this person
a servant girl. His uncle, however, with whom
the girl was in service, declined to allow a scien-
tific investigation. I was not even permitted
to obtain a glimpse of the voluminous automatic
writings. Nothing could show more strongly
how necessary it is that the medium's scientific
interest should be trained, or that the mediumistic
faculties of persons who have some scientific
interest should be developed.

The proper 'attitude towards the spiritistic
hypothesis can only be that of critical examina-
tion. It is clear that this theory can only be
regarded as proved when all the probabilities
attendant on it are also proved. On the other
hand, a refusal to associate with persons who
accept the theory might lead to the exclusion
of such investigators as Myers and James. The
fact by itself, that anyone accepts the spiritistic
theory must not however unsympathetic it may
be to us lead us to condemn that person generally
as unreliable so far as he is not shown to be guilty
of unreliability by his manner of dealing with
mere facts. This point of view should lead us
to a modus vivendi with supporters of spiritism
in Germany, just as a modus vivendi already
exists in England.

|. A more minute analysis of parapsychic pheno-
mena is the great need. To accomplish this the
analytical methods of normal psychology must

iz

162 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

be invoked in full measure. The number of
fundamental psychological conceptions which the
parapsychologists have hitherto used is far too
small. I miss, above all, the distinction between
acts of representation and acts of thought ;
to say nothing of the omission of the analysis of
parapsychic acts of thought. How, for instance,
does a medium distinguish psychometric or
telepathic thoughts from his " own " normal
ideas ? Or does he not make any distinction ?
Neither do the reports show clearly as a general
rule whether the visions of the mediums, with
which we are dealing, are, in their nature,
hallucinations or only representations. In short,
analysis is still in its infancy. What is really
required is Parapsychologic Experiments com-
bined with introspection. In all cases where
parapsychic phenomena occur without the more
profound trance conditions, this cannot offer
very great difficulties. Tests must also be made
with mediums in a state resembling hypnotic
trance. Attempts must be made, where possible,
to persuade them to practise introspection, and
they must be trained in it. Above all, Vogt's
method of artificially narrowing the consciousness
must be applied, in order to obtain the greatest
number of statements based on retrospection.
In short, all possible means must be employed.
In parapsychology, all efforts must increas-
ingly be centred on the attainment of greater

THE SCOPE FOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS 168

objectivity in methods. The ideal would be to
register mechanically the phenomena throughout
their whole development, so that subsequent
study in complete leisure might be possible.
Too often the outward conditions in which the
sittings take place make observation very
difficult.

In this way only will the sceptic be convinced
and compelled to accept the objective proofs
afforded by photography and the registering
apparatus. The extensive use which Schrenck-
Notzing made of photography, the several
exposures taken from different angles at once,
and the use of stereoscopy mark a considerable
advance in methods. But it would be desirable
to have more cinematographic exposures. A
complete cinematographic record of the sittings
would have the advantage of determining later
what had or had not taken place. 1 We should
often like to know a good deal that an author does
not tell us in so many words, though undoubtedly,
he might have done so. For instance, A.
Lehmann when referring to the experiments of
Zoellner, asks with regard to the cords used
during the sitting, whether Slade had had no
opportunity of annexing one of them. Only an
uninterrupted cinematographic film taken of
the medium to include even the time outside the

1 This could best be determined by means of stereoscopic
cinematography. An apparatus of that kind should not be hard
to construct.

164 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

sittings themselves could ensure a definite answer
though this is, of course, impracticable by
reason of the expense.

Photography with ordinary light is, unfortu-
nately, of no avail, when, as in the case of Eusapia,
the medium forbids the use of it, or when light
impedes or destroys the mediumistic phenomena.
In the future, therefore, it would be advisable to
take photographs with invisible ultra-violet
lights ; though it is, of course, impossible to
predict whether the mediumistic phenomena
will be able to stand these rays. The attempt,
however, should be made. Attempts should
also be made to keep the limbs of the medium
under constant control, by means of numerous
stereoscopic X-ray exposures. Should, however,
it be found that all these rays act destructively
on the mediumistic phenomena, it will be im-
possible in many cases to prove the objective
existence of the phenomena with the present
means at our disposal. We should then have
definitely to content ourselves with the reports
of witnesses based on the observations made
during the sittings by the ordinary five senses.

We cannot eliminate altogether the importance
of the question of the good faith of the person
who makes the experiments. We must accept
his word that the photographic exposures were
in order; that the instruments were properly
installed, and that the data on the registering

THE SCOPE FOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS 165

apparatus tally with the curves published and have
not been faked, etc.

A most interesting connexion exists between
the supernormal phenomena and the spiritual
worth taken on the whole of the life of a
given individual. Many cases have been cited
in both the Indian and Christian history of
religion which, if true, would tend to prove
that once a certain height of spiritual develop-
ment is reached, parapsychic and paraphysio-
logical phenomena are bound to follow as a matter
of course. The biographies of the Indian and
Christian saints are full of such happenings ;
they are recorded also of Christ and his Apostles
in the New Testament ; and the Catholic
Church in consequence make canonization abso-
lutely dependent on the testimony that such
" miracles " have actually taken place. We are
not yet in the position to be able to take a satis-
factorily reasoned position on the question of the
reality of these miracles. The whole question
is closely interwoven with the other namely
to what extent parapsychic phenomena are
determined by the mode of life of the individual
concerned. With regard to the outstanding
mediums of modern occultism, such as Helene
Smith, Mrs. Piper, Eusapia Palladino, etc., it is
impossible to establish any superiority of mind
which would confer on them a reputation for
" saintliness." But we must not lose sight of

16 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

the fact that in the case of these mediums we are
concerned with individuals who were born so to
speak, with a parapsychically endowed personality.

The question of the connexion between para-
psychic faculties and the mode of life of an
individual, can only at the present time be
solved in India, for modern Europe relegates
ascetic " saints " to the confines of monastery
or convent, where they are beyond the reach of
scientific investigation. 1

The consideration of the Indian sphere is of
further urgent necessity because of the many
reports with regard to the manifestations of the
mediums of that country. Unfortunately these
reports so far have no claim to be considered as
other than the usual travellers' tales, and, there-
fore, are not of sufficient value to be used as
material for psychology. Further, it is not at
all easy to get copies of them, and as they are
mostly compiled in the English language, they
mostly cannot be found at all in German
libraries. Despite the urgent necessity we are
still without any really scientific investigation
of the Indian ascetics, fakirs, and other abnormal
personalities. It is hard to understand, and
regrettable in the extreme, that the Society for
Psychical Research, which seems to have a special
call to take the lead in this direction, has not yet

1 Although even to-day, supernormal manifeitations have been
aicribcd to them there.

THE SCOPE FOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS 167

made any effort to do so. It is obvious that the
expenses entailed by a psychological expedition
of such description would be considerable, but
even so, much less than those of any other ex-
pedition, even on a modest scale, connected with
natural science. It is no less astonishing that
Indian doctors have not yet devoted themselves
to the study of these problems. As universities
exist in India, we might naturally have expected
them to do so. Or can it be that such investiga-
tions lie hidden in Indian periodicals ? It must
not be forgotten that all such investigators are,
in the first instance, bound to meet with serious
obstacles in getting into touch with the persons
concerned. The reports of travellers often record
the distrust and reserve evinced by such persons
in the presence of Europeans, and their violent
opposition to any prying into their secrets.
Should these obstacles prove unsurmountable,
it would be as well if the work were undertaken
by natives who have had the benefit of a European
education, and it would appear that there is no
time to be lost in this respect. There is no
doubt that the progress of European civilization
on the one hand, and the growth of the Young
India propaganda on the other, must needs
diminish these manifestations to an ever greater
degree, and make them of ever rarer occurrence.
It gives one food for reflection when one learns
that Pierre Loti, who travelled to India in order

108 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

to study the occult and theosophical under-
world and its secrets on the spot, returned to
Europe with his object unachieved, and without
having made any discovery of importance. But
despite this, it is not possible to doubt the
existence of mediums and occult circles in India,
well worthy of study by philosopher and psycholo-
gist. Certain psychic happenings, which merit
investigation, can surely be found in the circles
of Mrs. Annie Besant's " Theosophical Society/'
Some isolated cases of minor significance, such as
those of the professional beggars who keep an
arm continuously outstretched before them, or
who spend their nights on a bed of thorns or
prickles, appear to be of daily and common
occurrence. And yet all closer examination of
their psychic and physical condition is lacking,
despite all the interest it would represent. We
have no opportunity in Europe for the study of
such types.

As can be seen, the field of parapsychological
problems is of the widest magnitude and im-
portance. We are treating of discoveries which
are of equal value to the greatest discoveries of
the day in the domain of the natural science.

As a supplement to this book, I have submitted
some of the principal ideas with which we are
here concerned to closer analysis in an essay,
entitled, " Grundbegriffe der Parapsychogie "

THE SCOPE FOR NEW INVESTIGATIONS 169

(Fundamental conceptions of Parapsychology),
Pfullingen, Baums Verlag, 1921. There is some
danger of this essay being overlooked because of
the rather remote place of its publication, and
I think it worth while therefore to refer to it
here. It is not a mere repetition of the present
book, but both book and essay are complementary
to each other. I have tried in the book to call
attention to the reality of parapsychical pheno-
mena and in the essay to analyze critically the
resulting new conceptions.

LITERARY APPENDIX

A FEW of the more important publications
on the subject are mentioned in this
Appendix for the information of those
interested.

The most valuable material since 1882 is con-
tained in the " Proceedings of the Society for
Psychical Research/' London a periodical which
in Germany can only be obtained in the State
Libraries of Berlin and Munich. This Society
also publishes another journal, for circulation
among its subscribers, which does not appear
to be available for the general public. These
publications must not be confused with the
" Proceedings of the American Society for
Psychical Research/' which cannot be found in
any German Library, and which, despite all
efforts on my part, I have not been able to
obtain.

F. W. Myers contributed valuable information
from data which appeared in the " Proceedings
for Psychical Research " up to 1905, in two
volumes, published after his death, in London,
1907: "The Human Personality and its
Survival after Death." The French transla-
tion, however, only comprises Myers' own text,

170

LITERARY APPENDIX 171

leaving out all data from which the book emanates.
So far as I know, this volume is not available at
any large German Library. I have had the use
of the copy belonging to the Neurobiological
Institute of Berlin University. The author's
theoretical point of view is that of spiritualism.

A French publication which may be compared
to that of the " Proceedings " is the " Annales
des Sciences Psychiques," edited by Richet.
The German " Psychischen Studien " (1920,
47th year) cannot be compared to the above,
as apart from some serious articles, so much that
is worthless has been published in it. The
occasional valuable contributions which it con-
tains are swamped by this rubbish. This
periodical must either be relieved in the future
of this worthless ballast, or a purely scientific
journal should be founded to take its place. This
might be the "Journal fur Psychologic und
Neurologic " (the continuation of the Journal
of Hypnotism : " Zeitschrift fur Hypnotismus "),
of which a considerable portion would have to
be ear-marked for this purpose.

For Chapter /.The book, " Des Indes k la
Plante Mars: Etudes sur un cas de somnam-
bulisme avec glossolalie," Geneva, 1900, 4th ed.
1909; first appeared after Th. Flournoy's in-
vestigations on Helene Smith. A second part
followed later, entitled, " Nouvelles Observa-
tions sur un cas de Somnambulisms avec

172 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

solalie," in Archives de Psychologic, Vol. I,
December, 1901 separately published at Geneva
1902. A German translation of the first book,
with extracts from the second publication,
appeared under the title " Die Seherin von
Genf" (The Seer of Geneva), Leipzig, 1914.
Second Edition, 1921, under the title, " Spiritism
and Experimental Psychology."

For Chapter IL A criticism of the investiga-
tions on Mrs. Piper is contained in a volume by
Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, entitled, " A Contribution
to the Study of the Psychology of Mrs. Piper's
Trance Phenomena," in the Proceedings of the
S.P.R., Vol. 28, 1915. The following are also
of special value :

R. Hodgson, " A Record of Observations of
Certain Phenomena of Trance," Vol. 8 (1892).
"A Further Record," etc., Vol. 13 (1898).

W. James, "A Record of Observations of
Certain Phenomena of Trance," Part III, in
Vol. 6(1890).

W. James, " Report on Mrs. Piper's Hodgson
Control," Vol. 23 (1909).

A useful insight into circumstances connected
with Mrs. Piper is given in the little German
book of M. Sage, " Die Mediumschaft der Frau
Piper" ("The Mediumism of Mrs. Piper"),
Leipzig, 1903. If a new edition of this book is
brought out, it would be necessary to include the
results of the medium's later development. It

LITERARY APPENDIX 173

seems that we have now in Germany a medium
like Mrs. Piper, who has been discovered and
described by Dr. Joseph Bohm, of Nuremberg, in
a "Collection of Essays," Pfullingen, 1921.

For Chapter III. A whole series of articles
have appeared in the S.P.R. since 1908, in con-
nexion with the Cross-Correspondence. Alice
Johnson (First Report) on "The Automatic writing
of Mrs. Holland/' in Vol. 21 (1909) ; Alice Johnson
(Second Report), etc., in Vol. 24(1910); and
Third Report,' etc. (Alice Johnson), in Vol. 25
(1911).

J. G. Piddington, " Three Incidents from the
Sittings " (Fragment from the Report compiled
by several authors : " Further Experiments with
Mrs. Piper in 1918"), in Vol. 24 (1910).

For Chapters IV and P.W. Crookes, " Der
Spiritualismus und die Wissenschaft " (Experi-
mental Investigations on Psychic Force), Ger-
man 2nd Edition, Leipzig ; also " Notes on
Seances with D. D. Home," by W. Crookes.
Proceedings of S.P.R., Vol. 6, 1889. Carl
Friedr. Zoellner, " Wissenschaftliche Abhand-
lungen," Vol. 1-3, Leipzig, 1878-79 (Experiments
with Slade). Fritz Grunewald, " t)ber eine
Wiederholung des Wageversuches von Crookes,"
in "Psychische Studien," 1920, Books 4, 5, 8.

After the proofs had been passed I received
valuable additional information which was con-
tained in articles of Grunewald, " Physical-

174 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

Mediumistic Investigations," Pfullingen, 1920*
which afford a closer insight into the modern
technique for the examination of physical
mediumism.

The most comprehensive volume on Eusapia
Palladino is that by Enrico Morselli, entitled,
" Psicologia e Spiritismo : Impressioni e note
critiche sui fenomeni medianici di Eusapia
Palladino," in two Vols., Turin, 1908 (with a
bibliography of the entire literature written round
Eusapia). The investigations of* Botazzi were
published in the " Annales des Sciences Psychi-
ques," of which an extract appeared in German
under the title of " The Scientific Investiga-
tions of the Phenomena of Eusapia at Naples
University," by Joseph Peter, Leipzig, 1918.
The report on the investigations in Paris is
compiled by Jules Courtier : Rapport sur les
Seances d'Eusapia Palladino a Hnstitut General
Psychologique en 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918;
Bulletin de 1'Institut General Psychologique,
VIII annee, Nr. 5-6, Nov., Dec., 1918. The
periodical in question has long been available
at the Neurobiological Institute of Berlin Univer-
sity, and is now obtainable in the State Library
in Munich also. The official accounts of the
investigations undertaken by the Committee of
the Society for Psychical Research, are by : E.
Feilding, W. W. Baggally, and H. Carrington,
Report on a series of Sittings with Eusapia

LITERARY APPENDIX 175

Palladino, in the Proceedings, Vol. 23 (1909) ;
E, Feilding, W. Marriott, Count Perovsky-
Petrovo-Solovovo, Alice Johnson, W. W. Bag-
gaily, Report on a further series of Sittings with
Eusapia at Naples, in the Proceedings, Vol. 25
(1911). Camille Flammarion, " Les Forces
Naturelles Inconnues," Paris, 1907. There have
also been a few observations on Slade and Eusapia
Palladino by Max Dessoir, " Vom Jenseits der
Seele," Stuttgart, 1917, 3rd Edition, 1920.

For Chapter V. Works on Eva C. " Pheno-
mena of Materialization," a Report on the in-
vestigations of mediumistic teleplasma, Munich,
1914 ; " The Controversy about the Phenomena of
Materialization," 1914. " Sittings with Eva C.,"
in May and June, 1914 ; " Psychischen Studien,"
Vol. 41, 1914 all by A. Freiherr von Schrenck-
Notzing. His book on the phenomena of ma-
terialization has now been published in English,
under the title, " Phenomena of Materializa-
tion, a Contribution to the Investigation of
Mediumistic Teleplasma," translated by E. E.
Fournier d'Albe, London, 1920. This English
edition is considerably more complete than the
German original. The author enlarges in detail
on the attacks made on him since his book was
published, particularly with regard to the
rumination hypothesis. Furthermore, the ac-
counts of the case of Eva C. have been supple-
mented by reports from other investigators

ire OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

down to the time of writing. The number of
illustrations, too, have been increased from 180
to 225, among which a few photographs of
materializations are included and the result of
Schrenck-Notzing's observations of an Austrian
boy on the borders of Bavaria (a case which will
surely be of great significance, as the author is
at present engaged in its close investigation).
" Les Phenomenes dits de Materialization,"
Etude experimentale, by Juliette Bisson, Paris,
1914; and "So-called Supernormal Physiology
and the Phenomena of Ideoplasma " (German),
Leipzig, 1920 (also "Psychischen Studien," May,
1920).

A. Freiherr von Schrenck-Notzing's, " Physical
Phenomena of Mediumism," " Studies on the
Investigation of the Processes of Telekinesis,"
Munich, refer in the first instance to the
processes of Telekinesis, as does W. J. Crawford in
his books, " The Reality of Psychic Phenomena "
(Raps, Levitation, etc.), 2nd Edition, London,
1919, and " Experiments in Psychical Science
(Levitation, Contact and the Direct Voice),
London, 1919, and "The Psychic Structures
at the Goligher Circle," London, 1921, a highly
interesting volume with numerous illustrations.
[In W. Fournier d'Albe's book, " The Goligher
Circle" (Watkins, London), the author concludes
against genuineness Editor.] A summary, by
Schrenck-Notzing, of the twenty-six articles by

LITERARY APPENDIX 177

J. Ochorowicz, which were published in the
" Annales des Sciences Psychiques " (vide 1st
ref.), is useful also for its account of Crawford's
work.

A few other recent investigations compiled in
the German language with regard to other
mediums are :

" Experimental Investigations in the Domain
of Clairvoyance a Distance," by A. N. Chowrin
(German), Munich, 1919. " On a Case of
Voluntary Clairvoyance," by W. V. Wasielewski,
contained in the " Annals of Natural Philosophy,"
Vol. ii (1913) ; also reprinted in "The Super-
natural World," 24th year, 1916, No. 5. And
" Telepathy and Clairvoyance : Experiments
and Observations on unusual Psychic Faculties,"
also by W. V. Wasielewski.

" On Telepathy and Clairvoyance : Experi-
mental-theoretic Investigations," by Rudolf
Tischner, Munich, 1920.

" Fundamental Conceptions of Parapsycho-
logy," Study on Philosophy, by T. K. Oesterreich,
Pfullingen, 1920.

Alfred Lehmann's " Superstition and Witch-
craft from Ancient Times Until To-day," which
has been twice revised, and the enlarged edition
of which was published in a German translation
with references in Stuttgart, 1908, is most com-
prehensive, historically speaking, and instructive
in a general sense. The biased point of view of

178 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

the author has, however, since been superseded.
His estimate of what is real must be much enlarged.

The theory of spiritism must still be looked
for in the classic work on the subject, " Le Livre
des Mediums," by Allan Kardec, which has
appeared in very many editions. The first
German translation was published under the
title, "The Book of Mediums," 4th Edition,
Leipzig, 1907. Carl du Prels is best informed
on the subject so far as German literature is
concerned, and his books, " The Riddle of Man-
kind," and " Spiritism," were published in the
Reklams Universalbibliotek.

Amidst all that I have read in books and in
innumerable communications sent to me from
literature which is hard to obtain, A. N. Aksakow's
chief work, " Animismus und Spiritismus," re-
mains the most valuable. It is an attempt to
test critically mediumistic phenomena with par-
ticular reference to the hypothesis of hallucina-
tion and the unconscious mind (2 Vols., 5th
Edition, Leipzig, 1919). This book was written
as a counter-volume to E. V. Hartmann's book,
"Spiritualism," Berlin, 1885, which claimed to
relegate all mediumistic phenomena in so far
as they are authentic to the domain of telepathy
and clairvoyance. In contradiction to this
theory, Aksakow attempts to prove that^ the
spiritualistic interpretation is the right one.
Karl Kiesewetter's "History of the Newer

LITERARY APPENDIX

Occultism," 2nd Enlarged Edition, Leipzig,
1909, is no less valuable. The author had
received many personal communications from
Fechner Weber, etc.

Among the mass of spiritualistic literature, I
would cite as examples the following volumes :
" My Experiences in the Realm of Spirit-
ualism," 2nd Edition, Leipzig, 1919, by M.
Seiling, " The Mediumship of Mme. Elizabeth
von Pribytkoff," by W. v. Pribytkoff (German),
Leipzig, 1903. " What I Have Seen," by M. T.
Falkomer ; my own investigations in the bright
fields of the lesser-known human faculties (Ger-
man), Leipzig, 1901.

A new book, which has had a wide circulation
in England, was published during the war by the
physicist, Sir Oliver Lodge, whose spiritualistic
tendencies are well known. The book is en-
titled, " Raymond, or Life and Death," London,
1916, and is mainly concerned with the automatic
writings which, according to the author's con-
viction, emanate from his son Raymond, an
English officer, who was killed in action, >

" The Evidence for Communication with the
Dead," by Mrs. Anna Hude, London, 1913, is
of value by reason of its numerous references to
the more recent English investigations. The
book itself is entirely based on the results attained
by the mediums, Mrs. Verrall, Mrs. Holland,
and Mrs. Piper.

180 OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE

The Autobiography of the medium, Mrs.
d'Esperance, is entitled "In the Realm of
Shadows " (German), Berlin, 1892.

Finally, W. James' last word in regard in
Parapsychology must be included : " Final
Impressions of a Psychical Researcher," in
" Memories and Studies," London, 1911 (former-
ly published in "The American Magazine,"
October, 1909, under the title, "Confidences
of a Psychical Researcher."

Chapter VI. The innumerable writings of
Mme. Blavatsky, Mrs. Annie Besant, as well as
Leadbeater, have all appeared in German
(Leipzig, Theosophisches Verlaghaus. The
voluminous works of Mme. Blavatsky, entitled,
"The Secret Teaching" (3 Vols.), and the
" Veiled Isis " (2 Vols.), form the basis for all
subsequent Theosophy, in so far as it is not to be
ascribed to older Indian teachings. We would
mention A. Besant's " Change in the World "
(1910), and " The Inner Life," by Leadbeater
(2 Vols., 1910), as examples. The report on
Mme. Blavatsky, by Hodgson, after his investiga-
tions in India, is published in the Proceedings of
the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 3,
1885.

A good insight into R. Steiner's thought is
obtained by the perusal of his " Theosophie,"
" How does one Obtain Cognition of the Higher
Spheres \ " " Secret Science in Outline " (til

LITERARY APPENDIX 181

published in Berlin, Philosophisch-Antroposo-
phischer Verlag).

Fr. Rittelmeyer's " The Life Work of Rudolf
Steiner," Munich, 1921, gives a survey of Steiner's
work.

A good description of the whole development
of modern Theosophy is to be found in L.
Johannes Frohmeyer's book on the Theosophical
movement, Stuttgart, 1920.

In conclusion, I may refer to R. Schmidt's
" Fakirs," Berlin, 1908.

" The report of the Committee of the Society
for Psychical Research will be found in its
** Proceedings," Vol. 32, January, 1922. A very
acute criticism of this report, by Dr. G. Geley,
was published in the " Revue Metapsychique,"
1922, No. 2 (Paris).

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