On the threshold of the unseen : an examination of the phenomena of spiritualism and of the evidence for survival after death

ILLIAMF. BARRETT, F.R.5.

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ON THE THRESHOLD OF

THE UNSEEN

ON THE THRESHOLD OF

THE UNSEEN

AN EXAMINATION OF THE PHENOMENA OF

SPIRITUALISM AND OF THE EVIDENCE

FOR SURVIVAL AFTER DEATH

BY

Sir WILLIAM F. BARRETT, F.R.S.

With an Introduction by
JAMES H. HYSLOP, Ph.D., LL.D.

Secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research

" Men are wont to guess about new subjects from those they are
already acquainted with, and the hasty and vitiated fancies they have
thence formed : than which there cannot be a more fallacious mode of
reasoning.''— Bacon "Novum Organum," Bk. i, par. cix.

NEW YORK

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

68 1 Fifth Avenue

EDUC.

PSYCH.

LIBRARY

COPYKIGHT, 191 8

By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

First printing, November, n)ij
Second " May, 191S

Printed in the United States of America

©ebtcatton

TO THE DEAR MEMORY
OF ONE WHOSE RADIANT FAITH GAVE HER " THE AS-
SURANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR " AND NEEDED NOT
THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS UNSEEN WHICH THIS BOOK
MAY POSSIBLY GIVE TO SOME STRICKEN SOULS AND
OTHER SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH.

385022

PREFACE

"A mind unwilling to believe, or even undesirous to
be instructed, our weightiest evidence must ever fail to
impress. It will insist on taking the evidence in bits and
rejecting item by item. The man who announces his
intention of waiting until a single absolutely conclusive
bit of evidence turns up, is really a man 720/ open to
conviction, and if he be a logician he knows it. For modern
logic has made it plain that single facts can never be
'proved' except by their coherence in a system. But
as all the facts come singly anyone who dismisses them
one by one is destroying the conditions under which the
cpnviction of new truth could ever arise in his mind."*

During the greater part of the last century, and
that which preceded it, the learned world as a
whole treated with scorn and contempt all those
obscure psychical phenomena which lie between
the territory already conquered by science and
the dark realms of ignorance and superstition.
Many causes have in recent years contributed to
lessen this aversion, which is not only passing
away but giving place to an earnest desire to
know what trustworthy evidence exists on behalf
of super-normal, — often, but erroneously, called
super-natural, — phenomena.

Although many eminent scientific men in the
past and present generation, both in England and
abroad, have testified to the genuineness and im-
portance of these phenomena official science still
stands aloof. This no doubt is largely due to the
essential difference between physical and psychical
phenomena, a difference by no means clearly

* Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
Research," Vol. XVIII, p. 419.

vii

viii Preface

recognized and which can never be broken down.
The main object of physical science is to measure
and forecast, and from its phenomena free will
must be eliminated. Psychical states on the con-
trary can neither be measured nor forecast, and
from them the disturbing influence of life and will
can neither be eliminated nor foreseen.

The association of ideas and methods of in-
vestigation in physical research are therefore
widely different from those in psychical research.
Accordingly minds working in the former line of
thought become more or less impervious to facts
belonging to the other line of thought, however
well attested those facts may be. The new asso-
ciation of ideas is foreign and uncongenial and
has apparently no harmonious relation to ac-
cepted scientific truths. I Nevertheless, as I have
endeavoured to point out in the introductory chap-
ters, when these differences are realized, and the
rapidly accumulating weight of evidence on be-
half of phenomena, hitherto unrecognised by offi-
cial science, is critically and fairly examined, the
general acceptance of these phenomena by science
can only be a question of time.

That this is likely to be the case is seen from
the fact that all enduring additions to our knowl-
edge of the universe rest upon a similar basis.
They are the result of prolonged and cautious
enquiry, the investigation and discussion of a num-
ber of circumstances, each of which by itself may
appear to be insignificant, but taken collectively
point to some wide generalization. Such evidence
though conclusive to a trained observer makes
little appeal to the popular mind, which lias no
time nor inclination to master the necessary de-

Preface ix

tails, and asks for some one piece of conclusive
evidence, — some "knockdown blow," — to compel
its attention and assent. This however cannot be
given, — as that acute thinker Dr. F. C. S. Schiller
has pointed out in the quotation at the head of
this Preface, — and there is nothing for it but a
tiresome study of detailed evidence, the strength
of which rests on its cumulative character.

In the following pages I have given some of
this evidence with as little tedium as possible, and
also ventured to touch, perhaps too daringly, upon
many subjects which need fuller exposition than
was possible in a small volume, the history of
which is as follows.

More than twenty years ago an address on the
phenomena of spiritualism, which I delivered in
London, was expanded into a little book, — the
nucleus of the present volume, — entitled "On the
Threshold of a New World of Thought." Al-
though an edition of that book was printed off in
1895 its publication was delayed for more than
a dozen years for the following reason. Consid-
erable public interest was at that time being taken
in a well known Italian medium, Eusapia Pala-
dino; several eminent continental savants, and
subsequently a few distinguished members of the
Society for Psychical Research, after a searching
investigation in 1894, had attested the genuine-
ness of many remarkable phenomena occurring
with this medium. Their report was quoted in
my former book, but just before it was issued an
opposite opinion was arrived at by others, equally
competent, after a subsequent investigation in
1895. It seemed wiser therefore to delay the
publication of the volume until more conclusive

x Preface

evidence, one way or the other, was forthcom-
ing. Moreover I felt that if Eusapia were really
nothing more than a clever and systematic im-
postor, able to deceive several eminent investiga-
tors, both English and foreign, this fact would
certainly shake the value of other scientific testi-
mony to the supernormal, and undermine the
stability of many of the conclusions reached in
my book.

As will be seen by referring to the history of
this case, which I have given on pp. 65-67 and in
Appendix C of the present work, repeated critical
investigation in later years showed that this no-
torious medium really possessed genuine super-
normal power, albeit, like so many professional
mediums of a low moral type, she sometimes
lapsed into fraudulent practices, which however
were quickly detected by trained observers.

Accordingly "On the Threshold of a New
World of Thought" was issued in 1908 and the
edition quickly sold out. The remarkable series
of experiments, carried out by the Society for
Psychical Research, on the evidence for survival
after death was then in progress and I postponed
the publication of a new edition until further
trustworthy evidence on this vital question was
attainable. This, in my opinion, has now been
obtained; my early book was therefore recast, an
outline of some of the evidence on survival in-
cluded, and the present volume is the result.
Meanwhile the editors of the Home University
Library had asked me to write the volume on
"Psychical Research" for their series, and after
this was published, various circumstances pre-
vented the completion of this book until the pres-

Preface xi

ent year. Now, alas, the war has rendered print-
ing and paper a great difficulty for the publishers,
to whom my readers will I trust extend their in-
dulgence for any shortcomings in this respect.

It will thus be seen that the conclusions reached
in this book are not the result of hasty and super-
ficial examination. Upwards of forty years ago
I began the investigation of alleged super-normal
phenomena with a perfectly detached and open
mind. The urgent need for a Society which
should preserve continuity of records of investiga-
tion and a high standard of experimental work
became apparent, and with the co-operation of
one or two friends the Society for Psychical Re-
search was founded early in 1882. Forty-six
volumes of its Proceedings and Journal have now
been published, and in addition its sister society
in America, — which through the assistance of
some eminent friends in Boston and Harvard I
was enabled to initiate in 1884, — has also pub-
lished a large library of its Proceedings and
Journal, under the indefatigable editorship of
Professor Hyslop. Thus a vast collection of
sifted evidence is Iieing accumulated and printed,
which will be of immense value for future ref-
erence and study.

As regards the so-called "physical phenomena"
of spiritualism, given in Part 2, bizarre and some-
times repellant as such manifestations are, — and
meaningless except as affording illustrations of
the operation of some unknown intelligence and
power, — the evidence cited seems to me indis-
putable, though some of my readers may hesitate
to accept it. [A wholesome scepticism is desirable, "\
but to attribute imbecility or hallucination to emi- '

xii Preface

nent and cautious scientific investigators, or fraud
to men of high intelligence and probity like the
Rev. Stainton Moses ("M.A. Oxon") is simply
puerile. Nevertheless, in the British Weekly, the
writer of a lengthy review of Sir Oliver Lodge's
book "Raymond" expresses amazement that Sir
Oliver refers "without a word of caution to the
record of Stainton Moses." He justifies this
stricture by quoting from the writings of the late
Mr. F. Podmore, who did useful work in connec-
tion with psychical research, but was chiefly known
for his ingenuity in discrediting, or attributing to
telepathy, any psychical phenomena outside his
limited range of view. Those who, like myself,
knew both the Rev. S. Moses and Mr. Podmore
would be indignant if the latter attributed wilful
deception to the former, but the writer in the
British Weekly is mistaken and has no adequate
grounds for thinking this was the case. It was
necessary to refer to this matter, as the evidence
of phenomena associated with Mr. Stainton
Moses, which I have quoted in Part 2, might
otherwise be regarded with suspicion by those
who do not know the facts.

In selecting some illustrations from the grow-
ing mass of trustworthy evidence on behalf of
survival after death, given in Part 4, it will be
noticed that I have refrained from citing any
such evidence obtained through paid professional
mediums, who are naturally regarded by the pub-
lic with more or less distrust. Nor can the love
of notoriety, or other inducement to deceive, be
brought against those through whom the evidence
for survival given in this book has come.

The question has naturally and olten been

Preface xiii

asked, — if communication with those who have
passed into the unseen be possible, why should it
be necessary to have a connecting link in a so-
called medium, usually a perfect stranger and of
another order of mind? Surely our loved ones
who have recently entered the spiritual world
would try to communicate directly with those
dearest to them! a father or mother would be
more likely to be sensitive to the spiritual pres-
ence of their beloved child than an uncongenial
stranger. This question I have discussed in Chap-
ter X., and would also beg my readers to refer to
the Cautions and Suggestions given in Chapter XX.

Those who like St. Thomas cannot believe in
survival after bodily death, without some material
demonstration, will probably find in continued
sittings with one or two friends, in the manner
described in Appendix D, a response to their
yearnings and an aid to their faith.1 Having at-
tained this assurance I do not advise them to pur-
sue the matter further, but rather learn more of
the spiritual world and spiritual communion from
the Christian mystics of all countries; especially
would I commend a book by the late Mr. J. H.
Spalding, where the teaching of that gifted seer
Swedenborg is luminously and dispassionately set
forth.2

None will find in automatic writing, or other

1 Anyone wishing to make experiments on, and a study of,
automatic writing, are advised to read the late Mrs. Verrall's
account of her own experience and method given in the "Pro-
ceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," Vol. XX, and
also Mr. Myers' paper in Vol. IV, p. 209, etc.

2 "The Kingdom of Heaven," by J. H. Spalding (Dent & Co.,
3/6 net; my little book on "Swedenborg" (J. H. Watkins, 1/-
net), may also interest the reader.

xiv Preface

spiritualistic phenomena, the channel for the
"communion of saints," which is independent of
material agency and attained only in stillness and
serenity of soul. For the psychical order is not
the spiritual order; it deals, as I have said else-
where, only "with the external, though it be in
an unseen world; and its chief value lies in the
fulfilment of its work whereby it reveals to us the
inadequacy of the external, either here or here-
after, to satisfy the life of the soul."

The paramount importance of psychical re-
search is found in correcting the habit of West-
ern thought, — of the average men we meet, —
that the physical plane is the whole of Nature,
or at any rate the only aspect of the universe
which really concerns us. Under this false and
deadly assumption all wider views and spiritual
conceptions wither and die as soon as they are
born. This vast and dcvasting war has, however,
brought certain spiritual tendencies and aspirations
into the lives of a multitude of men and led many
to the conviction, which Lowell expresses, that —

"We see but half the causes of our deeds,
Seeking them wholly in the outer life,
And heedless of the encircling spirit world,
Which though unseen, is felt, and sows in us
All germs of pure and world-wide purposes."

My warmest thanks are due to my friend the
Rev. M. A. Bayfield, M.A. for kindly reading
the proof sheets of this book and for many valu-
able suggestions.
31 Devonshire Place,

London, W.

March, 191 7.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

PREFACE Vil

Part I

I. INTRODUCTION I

II. PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC OPINION 1 5

III. CONFLICTING OBJECTIONS OF SCIENCE AND RE-

LIGION 25

Part II

IV. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM . . 35
V. DITTO 51

VI. LEVITATION AND IMPUNITY TO FIRE 69

VII. ON CERTAIN MORE DISPUTABLE PHENOMENA
OF SPIRITUALISM ; ECTOPLASMS ; DIRECT
VOICE; MATERIALIZATION; SPIRIT PHOTO-
GRAPHY ; THE AURA 8l

Part III

VIII. THE CANONS OF EVIDENCE IN PSYCHICAL RE-
SEARCH 95

IX. THEORIES I03

X. THE PROBLEM OF MEDIUMSHIP 1 13

XI. HUMAN PERSONALITY; THE SUBLIMINAL SELF 127

xvi Contents

CHAPTER t-ACE

Part IV

XII. APPARITIONS I40

XIII. AUTOMATIC WRITING. THE EVIDENCE FOR

IDENTITY l6l

XIV. PROOF OF SUPERNORMAL MESSAGES; THE

OUIJA BOARD 1 76

XV. FURTHER EVIDENCE OF SURVIVAL AFTER

DEATH I90

XVI. EVIDENCE OF IDENTITY IN THE DISCARNATE 207
XVII. EVIDENCE FROM ABROAD OF SURVIVAL .... 222

Part V

XVIII. CLAIRVOYANCE, PSYCHOLOGY OF TRANCE

PHENOMENA 235

XIX. DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED 246
XX. CAUTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 253

Part VI

xxi. the lesson of philosophy in the inter-
pretation of nature 267

xxii. the mystery of human personality . . 278
xxiii. the divine ground of the soul; rein-
carnation 284

xxiv. telepathy and its implications 292

Appendices

a. superstition and the supernatural;

miracles 30i

b. note by the late prof. balfour stewart,

F.R.S 308

C. EUSAPIA PALADINO 3 IJ

D. SUGGESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATORS

INTRODUCTION

I FEEL that it is somewhat presumptuous on
my part to introduce a work by Sir William
Barrett to the American public. He should
be well enough known in this country to make
an introduction by a much less qualified person
unnecessary. But if it will help any one to
read his book I shall gladly send it on the
mission for which it was written. Sir William
Barrett was for many years Professor of Expe-
rimental Physics in the Royal College of
Science for Ireland, and also spent many years
investigating psychic phenomena, having
worked in the subject long before the English
Society for Psychical Research was organized.
Hence this work is the ripe fruit of many
years of investigation. It is the best work of
the kind that has ever appeared in English and
readers may study it without offense at either
its data or its manner. It is thoroughly scien-
tific in method and spirit, and practices no
evasions or subterfuges in the discussion of its
problems. The manner is calm and tolerant
of scepticism, perhaps because the author
came to the subject as a sceptic himself, and

xviii Introduction

he selects all his facts with reference to the
objections which sceptics and believers in
other theories than the spiritualistic one
would bring forward. The author faces
issues boldly and makes no concessions to mere
respectability, though not attacking or shun-
ning it. In many writers there is fear of
compromising one's standing by telling the
truth. There is nothing of the kind in this
book, and that characteristic makes it refresh-
ingly frank and clear. Every aspect. and dif-
ficulty of the subject is canvassed and evidence
produced for the claims made in the book.
Readers cannot fail to find in it the light they
desire on this complicated subject.

James H. Hvslop.

New York,

December 21st, 19 17.

ON THE
THRESHOLD OF THE UNSEEN

$art 1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

"If anyone advances anything new which contradicts,
perhaps threatens to overturn, the creed which we have
for years repeated, and have handed down to others, all
passions are raised against him, and every effort is made to
crush him. People resist with all their might; they act
as if they neither heard nor could comprehend ; they speak
of the new view with contempt, as if it were not worth the
trouble of even so much as an investigation or a regard,
and thus a new truth may wait a long time before it can
make its way."1

THERE are many people, and their number is
rapidly increasing, who feel, as the late
Professor Henry Sidgwick has said, "it is a
scandal that the dispute as to the reality of
the marvellous phenomena of Spiritualism3

1 "Conversations of Goethe" (Bohn's Library, p. 47).

2 Spiritism is a better term, see p. 9.

2 Chapter I

should still be going on,— phenomena of
which it is quite impossible to exaggerate the
scientific importance, if only a tenth part of
what has been alleged by generally credible
witnesses could be shown to be true." Taking
an unprejudiced view of the subject, such
persons are anxious to know what amount of
truth underlies the alleged facts. To these
this little book may be of service.

There are others who, whilst not denying
that the subject may possibly be a legitimate
object of scientific investigation, prefer to give
the whole matter a wide berth; contending
either that it is a worthless will-o'-the-wisp,
luring its victims, by an imaginary prospect
of knowledge, into a miserable morass, or that
it is distinctly forbidden by the Scriptures
and condemned by the Church, so that its
practice, and some would even add its investi-
gation, is unlawful.

On the other hand, the popular habit of
thought, whether lay or scientific, regards the
whole thing as too contemptible for any
inquiry, that it recks, not of the bottomless
pit -4MAflMHMlMgl&iH ; superstition, fraud,
and tomfoolery amply accounting for all the
alleged "phenomena." Hence they regard
with complacency the many shallow quid-
nuncs, ever on the look-out for something new,
who find in fourth-hand stories of "spooks"

Introduction 3

abundant material for the entertainment of
their friends. In a busy world, occupied
with other things— where the fierce struggle
for material existence, wealth, and position
dominates everything — such a state of mind
is very natural. But I have failed to find
that a single person who ridicules Spiritualism
has given to the subject any serious and patient
consideration; moreover, I venture to assert
that any fair-minded person who devotes to
its careful and dispassionate investigation as
many days, or even hours, as some of us have
given years, will find it impossible to continue
sitting in the seat of the scornful, whatever
other position he may take up.

No doubt the popular hesitation in accept-
ing unseen intelligences as a cause of these
phenomena arises not so much from inability
to explain the modus operandi, but from a
preconceived theory that such an explanation
is impossible, and perhaps also from the fear
of being laughed at as unscientific or super-
stitious in adopting it.

There are, however, some able thinkers
who decline to accept or even investigate
these phenomena on the ground that with
our limited faculties successful investigation
is impossible, and with our present limited
knowledge, whatever results are obtained
would probably be misinterpreted by us, so
that any conclusions drawn as to the super-

4 Chapter I

normal character of the phenomena are worth-
less, or, at any rate, to be distrusted.

Even those who do not go so far as this,
regard psychical research, whether it be
telepathy or Spiritualism, as unworthy of
serious attention, because the phenomena are
either impossible or utterly trivial; therefore
in either case a sheer waste of time.

There are some things, I admit, which it
would be utter folly to waste our time upon,
such as "circle squaring," or "perpetual
motion," &c. These things are beyond the
pale of rational investigation at the present
day on account of- the extent of our knowledge
in those particular regions. But there are
other things which to-day appear impossible
only from the extent of our ignorance in those
directions. Such, for example, as, say, the sea
serpent, thought-transference, or Spiritual-
istic phenomena; a few years ago we should
also have included the telephone and wireless
telegraphy. The essential difference between
these two classes of improbable events is^ that
the first involves a contradiction of experience
or of laws well established, the second involves
an unforeseen extension, but no contradiction,
of existing knowledge and experience.

To assert that mind can act upon mind
independently of any recognised channel of
sense, or that mind can exist associated with an

Introduction £

imperceptible form of matter, is a consider-
able extension of our knowledge, — if true as I
believe it to be — but involves no rejection or
contradiction of other knowledge equally true.
On the other hand, to assert that 2 and 2
makes 5, and also make 4, would involve
intellectual confusion; similarly, to believe in
materialism, as now understood, and also in
these phenomena, would involve a contradic-
tion of thought and consequent intellectual
confusion; hence one or the other must be
rejected. So that the "impossibility" that is
urged refers, not to the phenomena themselves,
but only to certain popular theories or con-
ceptions about those phenomena.

But it is urged that the utterly trivial
character of the phenomena renders them too
contemptible for serious inquiry. "Even if
true, we don't care for the results you obtain,"
is a common observation. This was doubtless
the feeling that prompted the illustrious
Faraday to decline any further investigation;
for he stated in his well-known letter to Sir
Emerson Tennant1 that he had found in the
phenomena "nothing worthy of attention,"
or capable of supplying "any force or inform-
ation of the least use or value to mankind."
With all deference to one whom I knew and
revered so highly, this surely was a wrong

1 Pall Mall Gazette, May 19th, 1868. The whole corre-
spondence is given in Light, February and March, 1888.

6 Chapter I

position to take up. Long ago Benjamin
Franklin, most practical of men, disposed of
that argument; but the whole of Faraday's
great career showed he valued truth for its
own sake, irrespective of any commercial
consideration, and supplies the best answer
to the words of his I have quoted. Never-
theless, we still find some scientific men of the
highest eminence taking precisely the same
ground. Thus Professor Huxley replying to
Mr. A. R. Wallace, O.M. (who had described
some spiritualistic phenomena he had wit-
nessed), said "It may be all true for anything
I know to the contrary, but really I cannot
get up any interest in the subject."

Some time ago, in 1894, tne distinguished
physicist and courageous investigator Sir
Oliver Lodge answered such objectors in the
columns of the official scientific journal
"Nature," as follows: —

"This attitude of 'not caring' for the results of
scientific investigation in unpopular regions, even if
those results be true, is very familiar to some of us who
are engaged in a quest which both the great leaders in
the above-remembered controversy [Lord Kelvin and
Professor Huxley] agree to dislike and despise. It is
an attitude appropriate to a company of shareholders,
it is a common and almost universal sentiment of the
noble army of self-styled 'practical men,' but it is an
astonishing attitude for an acknowledged man of science,
whose whole vocation is the discovery and reception

Introduction J

of new truth. Certain obscure facts have been knock-
ing at the door of human intelligence for many centuries,
and they are knocking now, in the most scientific era
the world has yet seen. It may be that they will have
to fall back disappointed for yet another few centuries;
it may be that they will succeed this time in effecting a
precarious and constricted right of entry; the issue ap-
pears to depend upon the attitude of scientific men of
the present and near future, and no one outside can
help them."

But fifty years ago Professor A. De Morgan,
with inimitable satire, had already exposed
the unphilosophical and illogical position still
taken up on these questions by such honoured
leaders of science as Lord Kelvin and Profes-
sor Huxley. Nothing more brilliant or amus-
ing has ever been written on the whole subject
than De Morgan's preface to his wife's book,
"From Matter to Spirit," and I earnestly
commend its perusal to the scientific men of
to-day. And to those who prefer Bishop
Butler to De Morgan for their guide let me
quote the following words from the "Anal-
ogy"; "After all, that which is true must be
admitted; though it should show us the
shortness of our faculties, and that we are
in no wise judges of many things, of which
we are apt to think ourselves very competent
ones."

Nevertheless the argument is sometimes

8 Chapter I

heard that if these super-normal psychical
phenomena are true they ought to be re-
produced and demonstrated at pleasure. This
was urged by that eminent physiologist Dr.
Carpenter, speaking in reply to my paper at
the British Association in 1876, when for the
first time evidence on behalf of thought
transference and other psychical phenomena
was brought before a scientific society. That
able publicist Mr. R. H. Hutton in his journal
the Spectator showed the absurdity of such an
argument, remarking that if it were valid we
should have to reject as imaginary many of
the psychological and pathological facts given
by Dr. Carpenter and other writers on mental
physiology.1 And as the late Professor Henry
Sidgwick said, "I have never seen any serious
attempt to justify this refusal [to accept the
evidence of rare and fitful phenomena] on
general principles of scientific method." We
do not know at present all the conditions of
success, and it is to be expected they may
be sometimes present and sometimes absent.
Moreover, whether the phenomena originate
in the unconscious self of the medium, or the
operation of some unseen intelligence, in
neither case can we control the exercise of
the will.

Before proceeding further it is desirable to

1 Sec Spectator for September 30, 1876.

Introduction 9

define the exact meaning of the word Spiritu-
alism. On the Continent this word is often
replaced by the term "Spiritism" to dis-
tinguish it from the broad sense of the word
as used by philosophical writers, to denote a
metaphysic opposed to materialism. But the
generally accepted sense in which the word
is used to-day is defined (1) by Mrs. Henry
Sidgwick, in the article "Spiritualism," in
the last edition of the "Encyclopaedia
Britannica," as "a belief that the spiritual
world manifests itself by producing in the
physical world effects inexplicable by the
known laws of nature," or (2) by Dr. A. R.
Wallace, in "Chambers' Encyclopaedia," as
"the name applied to a great and varied
series of abnormal or preter-normal pheno-
mena, purporting to be for the most part
caused by spiritual beings," or (3) by a writer
in the "Spiritual Magazine," whose definition
I curtail, as "a belief based solely on facts
open to the world through an extensive
system of mediumship, its cardinal truth,
established by experiment, being that of a
world of spirits, and the continuity of the
existence of the individual spirit through the
momentary eclipse of death."

These definitions, it will be noticed, are
somewhat progressive; the last is doubtless
the usual meaning attached to the word by
Spiritualists. I see nothing to dissent from

IO Chapter I

in it, and, speaking for myself, I do not
hesitate to affirm that a careful and dis-
passionate review of my own experiments,
extending over a period of forty years, to-
gether with the investigation of the evidence
of competent witnesses, compels my belief in
Spiritualism, as so defined.

There can be little doubt that the impa-
tience with which orthodox science regards
spiritualism and psychical research in general
arises from the difficulty of finding any ex-
planation of the phenomena which is related
to existing scientific knowledge. Hence, as
Goethe remarked, in one of his conversations
quoted at the head of this chapter, "a new
truth may wait a long time before it can make
its way." My friend the late Mr. C. C.
Massey has well pointed out: —

"When we see how a thing can have
happened we are much more ready to give a
fair hearing to evidence that it has happened,
than when the material offered is quite in-
digestible by our intelligence. And thus an
explanatory hypothesis is hardly less neces-
sary for the reception of facts of a certain
character, than are facts for the support of a
hypothesis."1

So also more recently the late Professor

1 Preface to Du Prcl's "Philosophy of Mysticism."

Introduction II

William James has said: "It often happens
a fact is strenuously denied until a welcome
interpretation comes with it, then it is ad-
mitted readily enough."

The insistence of the demand for some
explanation of these phenomena which we
find within us, is only a special case of that
"continuous pressure of the causal instinct"
which characterises our reason; and it is
because of the difficulty of finding any
adequate explanation of them in known and
familiar causes, that science distrusts the ex-
istence of the phenomena themselves. The
reasoning faculty, in rejecting every known
cause as inadequate, satisfies its unrest by
rejecting the occurrences as improbable or
unproved. In truth, there is, strictly speaking,
no scientific explanation of the higher pheno-
mena of Spiritualism. Secondary causes,
with which science deals, are only antecedents
or previous states of a phenomenon, and have
more remote antecedents or previous states,
which, in turn, need to be accounted for, and
so on in an endless chain; thus to the scientific
materialist God necessarily becomes an in-
finite et cetera.

With a real or true cause — still less with
the ultimate cause of things — science cannot
grapple.1 A real cause, though of limited

1 See on this subject the remarkably suggestive and able
work, "Personality, Human and Divine," by the late Canon
Illingworth.

12 Chapter I

range, we find in ourselves, in our personality;
and such a cause, perhaps of wider range, we
find in the intelligence that lies behind many
of the phenomena here discussed. But the
operation of unseen intelligences — who, in
some unknown manner, can affect us, and also
affect material things around us, just as our
personality can affect the grey matter of our
brain, and through it things outside ourselves
— this, although it may be a true cause, is
as far beyond scientific explanation, as the
phenomena of consciousness itself. Until
science can explain how consciousness is re-
lated to the brain, — which, although a fact
of daily experience, is wholly incomprehen-
sible,— we cannot expect from it any explan-
ation as to how discarnate intelligences can
operate upon matter, or whence the energy is
derived. (See Note at end of chapter.)

But a change of thought on this subject is
coming over the educated world. Some of the
most cultured minds and acute investigators
of recent years have satisfied themselves of the
genuineness of the phenomena of Spiritual-
ism, or at least that there is a strong prima
facie case for serious investigation, and are
profoundly impressed with the issues opened
up and the vast movement of thought the
general acceptance of these phenomena would
create. Some, it is true, desire to suspend
their judgment as to the explanation of the

Introduction 13

facts, whilst a surprisingly large number unre-
servedly accept the facts as an "assurance of
things hoped for, the proving of things not
seen." "When we last met," said Holman
Hunt to Ruskin, "you declared you had given
up all belief in immortality." "I remember
well," replied Ruskin, "but what has mainly
caused the change in my views is the un-
answerable evidence of spiritualism. I know
there is much vulgar fraud and stupidity
connected with it, but underneath there is, I
am sure, enough to convince us that there is
personal life independent of the body, but
with this once proved, I have no further in-
terest in spiritualism."1

Many stricken men and women in this
gigantic and devastating war have found
similar solace in the dark hours of their be-
reavement. They have seen in it a ray of
heavenly light falling —

"Upon the great world's altar-stairs
That slope through darkness up to God."

Note. — There are of course various philosophical
theories to account for consciousness and its relation to
brain processes; in Chapter X I have briefly referred to
this subject. Ultimately, as Dr. W. McDougall, F.R.S.,
has shown, we are compelled to choose between Material-

1<(The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood," by Holman Hunt, O.M.,
Vol. II, p. 271.

14 Chapter I

ism and Spiritualism, using this latter word in its true
metaphysical sense, "the soul theory." This theory in-
volves psycho-physical interaction, and the argument that
such interaction is impossihle because it is inconceivable,
has been answered by Lotze as follows: — "It is easy to
show that in the interaction between body and soul there
lies no greater riddle than in any other example of causa-
tion, and that only the false conceit that we understand
something of the one case, excites our astonishment that
we understand nothing of the other." I quote tin's from
Dr. McDougall's masterly and well-known work, "Body
and Mind." It is a significant fact — although Prof. W.
James said some time ago, "Souls have gone out of fashion"
(in science and philosophy) — that to-day not only Dr.
McDougall, but many other distinguished psychologists
and metaphysicians, support the soul theory.

CHAPTER II

PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC
OPINION

"Wherever there is the slightest possibility for the mind
of man to know, there is a legitimate problem for
science." — Professor Karl Pearson.

It will I think be generally admitted that
public opinion has taken a new departure
with regard to the large class of important
and interesting phenomena which lie on the
boundary of an unseen world. We are on
the Threshold of a new World of Thought,
and the existence of the Society for Psychical
Research, with the long list of distinguished
men who are members of the Society or have
'given it their cordial support, is of itself a
proof that a profound change of thought has
taken place in recent years. Among the past
presidents of that Society is a former Prime
Minister of this country, the Right Hon. A.
J. Balfour, who in his presidential address to
the Society in 1894 spoke as follows1: —

1 "Proceedings Society for Psychical Research," Vol. X, p. 6,
et seq. The lapse of time since the foundation of the Society in
1882 has left Mr. Balfour and myself the sole survivors of the
original Vice-Presidents of the Society.

'5

1 6 Chapter II

"I think the time has now come when it is desirable
in their own interests, and in our interests, that the
leaders of scientific thought in this country and else-
where should recognise that there are well attested facts
which, though they do not easily fit into the framework
of sciences, or of organised experience as they conceive it,
yet require investigation and explanation, and which it
is the bounden duty of science, if not itself to investigate
at all events to assist us in investigating. . . . All
arbitrary limitations of our sphere of work are to be
avoided. It is our business to record, to investigate, to
classify, and if possible to explain, facts of a far more
startling and impressive character than these modest cases
of telepathy. Let us not neglect that business. . . .
If many are animated by a wish to get evidence, not
through any process of laborious deduction, but by direct
observation, of the reality of intelligences not endowed
with a physical organisation like our own, I see nothing
in their action to criticise, much less to condemn. . . .
If I rightly interpret the results which these many years
of labour have forced upon the members of this Society,
and upon others not among our number, who are associated
by a similar spirit, it does seem to me that there is at least
strong ground for supposing that outside the world (as
we have, from the point of view of science, been in the
habit of conceiving it), there does lie a region . . .
not open indeed to experimental observation in the same
way as the more familiar regions of the material world
are open to it, but still with regard to which some experi-
mental information may be laboriously gleaned. Even if
we cannot entertain any confident hope of discovering
what laws these half-seen phenomena obey, at all events
it will be some gain to have shown, not as a matter of

The Psychical Research Society 17

speculation or conjecture, but as a matter of ascertained
fact, that there are things in heaven and earth not hitherto
dreamed of in our scientific philosophy."

These are the words of a statesman not of
a dreamer or a fanatic; they express the
opinion moreover of a singularly acute and
philosophic mind, accustomed to sift and
weigh evidence, and experienced in the errors
and illusions as well as in the knowledge and
thought of his fellow men.

Another famous Prime Minister, the Right
Hon. W. E. Gladstone, also gave his great
name to the support of the Psychical Re-
search Society, and for many years before his
death was an Honorary Member. So also
was the poet Laureate, Alfred Tennyson, the
great painters G. F. Watts and Lord Leighton,
as well as the famous writers John Ruskin and
R. L. Stevenson.

Foremost men of science both in England
and abroad have shown their hearty approval
by joining the Council or becoming members
of the Society. Among these are to be found
the recent Presidents of the Royal Society, on
all of whom have been conferred the Order of
Merit: Lord Rayleigh, Sir Arch. Geikie, Sir
W. Crookes, and Sir J. J. Thomson. Another
past president of the Royal Society, also given
the O.M., Sir William Huggins, assured me
of his support, when I issued invitations to

18 Chapter II

the conference which led to the foundation
of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882.1
Sir Wm. Huggins, however (like Archbishop
Benson, who was also in hearty sympathy),
for various reasons did not wish to become a
member of the Society, though he had been
convinced of the genuineness of certain
super-normal phenomena he himself had wit-
nessed.

The active wTork of Sir Oliver Lodge in
connection with the Society, of which he has
been President, is well known to everyone.
On the Continent and in America many
eminent savants have given their valued
adhesion to the Society, e.g. Professor Charles
Richet of Paris and Professor William James
of Harvard, both of whom have been Presi-
dents of the Society, and among other foreign
members are to be found the names of
Professors Janet, Bernhcim, Lbmbroso,
Schiaperelli, Flammarion, and that most
strenuous worker Dr. Hyslop; nor must we
forget the late Professor Hertz, "the lustre
of whose name," as Mr. Balfour remarked in
his presidential address, gave an added dignity
to our proceedings. Nor have the more en-
lightened clergy held aloof, such as the late
Bishop of Carlisle, the Rev. R. J. Campbell,

1 I may mention here that in the foundation of the Society my
friends the late Mr. Dawson Rogers and Mr. P. W. Myers
co-operated.

The Psychical Research Society 19

and Bishop Boyd Carpenter, who has been
a recent President of the Society, his suc-
cessors being Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, D. Litt,
Dr. Schiller of Oxford, and Professor Gilbert
Murray, D. Litt., who was in 1916 the Presi-
dent of the Society.

There can be little doubt that much of the
success the Society has won is due to the
jtvise guidance and indefatigable labour so long
given by the first President, Professor Henry
Sidgwick, — work most ably and zealously
continued by his widow. It is almost needless
to mention the immense service rendered to
psychical research by the well-known names
of those brilliant and gifted men — both Fel-
lows of Trinity College, Camb. — Mr. Ed.
Gurney and Mr. F. W. H. Myers, who were
the first Honorary Secretaries of the Society.
Some of us know the disinterested courage,
the eminent fairness, and the self-sacrificing
labour which Sidgwick, Myers and Gurney,
brought to bear on the study of these difficult
problems, and there can be little doubt that in
another generation or two the names of these
eminent pioneers will be held in honour
throughout the educated world.

Some think, not unnaturally, that the
S.P.R., as its title is usually designated,
proceeds too slowly and cautiously and has
not shown a sufficiently open mind towards
the physical phenomena of spiritualism.

20 Chapter II

There is no doubt some truth in this latter
criticism, but we must remember that the
caution with which the Society for Psychical
Research proceeds is characteristic of all
scientific investigation, and is doubly necessary
in a region where there are so many pitfalls
for the unwary. But if it builds up slowly
it builds securely, and next to the addition
of fresh knowledge within its domain, it wel-
comes most heartily that investigator who can
prove that any of the conclusions at which it
has arrived are incorrect. It has no retaining-
fee on behalf of telepathy or of ghosts, no
vested interest in the super-normal. Theories,
however plausible, that do not cover the whole
of the facts observed must be rejected ; super-
stition reverses this process, but science should
know nothing of prejudices and preposses-
sions. As Sir John Herschel has well said:
"The perfect observer will have his eyes, as
it were, opened, that they may be struck at
once with any occurrence which, according to
received theories, ought not to happen, for
these are the facts which serve as clues to new
discoveries."1

It was this openness of mind which led the
brave pioneers in the investigation of spir-
itualistic phenomena, to risk their reputation
and encounter ridicule and obloquy by their

1 "Discourse on Natural Philosophy," sec. 5

The Psychical Research Society 21

enquiry; and when they had obtained what
appeared to them conclusive evidence of the
genuineness of the phenomena, they published
their opinions with what then required rare
courage. Foremost amongst these was our
own great exposer of fallacies and para-
doxes, the eminent mathematician, Professor
A. De Morgan, who wrote in 1863: "I am
perfectly convinced that I have both seen and
heard, in a manner which should make
unbelief impossible, things called spiritual
which cannot be taken by any rational being
to be capable of explanation by imposture,
coincidence, or mistake."1 Similar testimony
has been borne by Dr. A. R. Wallace, O.M.,
and others of note, whilst Sir W. Crookes'
famous researches in Spiritualism are known
to all.

But not only these and other eminent men
have been convinced of the facts, multitudes of
men and women in all parts of the world have
come to a similar belief. Long ago Dr. A. R.
Wallace stated in an article in "Chambers'
Encyclopaedia," "Spiritualism has grown and
spread continuously till, in spite of ridicule,
misrepresentation, and persecution, it has
gained converts in every grade of society and

1 Preface to "From Matter to Spirit" (Longmans'). An ad-
mirable summary of the statements made by distinguished in-
dividuals who have been led to a belief in Spiritualism, is given
by Dr. A. R. Wallace in his "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism."

22 Chapter II

in every civilised portion of the globe." They
have had in their own experience indubit-
able evidence of the existence of phenomena
entirely new to the science of to-day —
phenomena which receive their simplest solu-
tion upon the hypothesis of a spiritual world
and of intelligent beings therein, able through
certain channels at times to communicate
with us. Neither the blazing light of public
opinion, nor the rogues that have too often
duped the credulous, have shaken a faith
which stretches back to a remote past,1 and
wThich has grown in strength with the accumu-

1 Cf. Myers' "Classical Essays," p. 83, ct seq. See also
Howitt's "History of the Supernatural," Vol. I, Chapter IX.

Delitzsch, in his "Biblical Psychology," Sect. XVII, shows
that "table turning" was practised in many Jewish circles in the
seventeenth century; the "table springs up even when laden with
many hundredweight." In a work published in 1614 this is de-
nounced as magic. Zebi, in 1615, defends the practice as not due
to magic but to the power of God, "for we sing to the table
sacred psalms and songs, and it can be no devil's work where
God is remembered."

But, going back 2,000 years, I am informed a prominent
feature in the enlightened creed of the early Esscncs was their
belief in Spiritualism, tending to angel worship. In fact, the.
tenets of this mystic sect resembled in several other things the
views held by many modern Spiritualists.

The early Church Councils, e.g. of Elvira, A.D. 305, — a little
later of Ancyra, — warned Christians against augury and spirit-
ualistic phenomena as the work of the devil and his demons, but
in the Ancyra "Canon Episcopi" about 900 A.D., these phenomena
were denounced as pure illusions. This was not, however, the
opinion of St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century nor of the
Roman Catholic Church then and now. See Canon McCIurc's
brochure on Spiritualism published by S.l'.C.K.

The Psychical Research Society 23

lating evidence forthcoming from time to time
and place to place.

Now the philosopher Fichte has said:
"Everything great and good upon which our
present existence rests, and from which it has
proceeded, exists only because noble and wise
men have resigned the enjoyments of life for
the sake of ideas."1 What a man affirms is
the idea he has made his own, and this is
always interesting and generally worth listen-
ing to; and what a number of men affirm
and continue unshaken to affirm through
years of opposing prejudice, or may be of
persecution, is certainly a matter to which
every honest lover of truth should give some
heed.

On the other hand, what men deny is either
valueless, or evidence of the rarity or novelty
of the occurrences denied, — unless indeed the
denial be a mode of affirming another truth,
like the denial of perpetual motion. Thus for
anyone to deny the possibility of the electric
telephone, as some scientific sceptics did in
my hearing in 1877, is of no importance com-
pared with competent witnesses who have seen
and heard the telephone.

How comes it then that the denials of the
ignorant or the prejudiced as regards spiritu-
alistic phenomena have had more weight in

1 "Fichte's Works," Vol. VII, p. 41.

24 Chapter II

scientific and popular estimation than the
affirmative evidence of the many witnesses
we have referred to? The consideration of
this question must be deferred to the next
chapter.

CHAPTER III

CONFLICTING OBJECTIONS OF SCIENCE
AND RELIGION

"Is anything of God's contriving endangered by in-
quiry? Was it the system of the universe or the monks
that trembled at the telescope of Galileo? Did the cir-
culation of the firmament stop in terror because Newton
laid his daring finger on its pulse ?" — Lowell.

Why, we may well ask, in an age pre-
eminent for its fearless inquiry, and for the
daring advance that has been made in regions
where ignorance has for centuries reigned
supreme, has there not been much more
advance in a direction which would appear
to be so important? Surely the supreme
problem for science to solve if she can, is
whether life, as we know it, can exist without
protoplasm, or whether we are but the
creatures of an idle day; whether the present
life is the entrance to an infinite and unseen
world beyond, or "the Universe but a soulless
interaction of atoms, and life a paltry misery
closed in the grave." And although the
province of religion is the region of faith, yet,
surely, as a handmaid to faith, the evidence
afforded by Spiritualism ought to be wel-

25

26 Chapter III

corned by it. Yet, strangely enough, it is these
two great authorities, Science and Religion,
which have largely blocked the way. And
when we ask the leaders of thought in each to
give us the ground for their opposition, we
rind their reasons are mutually destructive.

Our scientific teachers of the last generation,
largely influenced by German materialism,
denied, and many still deny the possibility
of mind without a material brain, or of any
information or knowledge being gained ex-
cept through the recognised channels of sen-
sation. But our religious teachers stoutly
oppose this; they assert that a spiritual world
does exist, and that the inspired writings
contain a system of knowledge supersensibly
given to man. Both views cannot be true, yet
both are urged in antagonism to Spiritualism.
Their common ground is that all extension
of our existing knowledge in their respective
departments must only come through the
legitimate channels they prescribe; in the one
case the channel is that bounded by the known
senses, and the known properties of matter,
and in the other the channel is that sanc-
tioned by Authority. Everything outside these
channels is heresy, and must be discredited.
I am, of course, speaking generally, for we
all know eminent men, both in science and
theology, who take a broader and more ra-
tional view.

Scientific Objections 2J

At the same time there is much to be said
on behalf of orthodoxy. The inertia of Con-
servatism is useful, nay, even necessary, in
helping to suppress rash or hasty deviation
from the recognised order of things; hence
mere aberrations of intellect meet with a
steady resistance, but that which is true, how-
ever novel it may be, has a resiliency which
grows stronger the greater the resistance it
encounters, and finally wins its way among
our cherished and enduring possessions.

There are some cogent reasons which both
science and religion might give for their op-
position to this subject. The effect of their
opposition has not been by any means an un-
mixed evil. In the address already referred
to Mr. A. J. Balfour has well stated one of
these reasons. He says: "If we took it by
itself we should say that scientific men have
shown in connection with it a bigoted in-
tolerance, an indifference to strictly scientific
evidence, which is, on the face of it, discredit-
able. I believe that although the course
they pursued was not one which it is very
easy rationally to justify, nevertheless there
was a great deal more of practical wisdom in
it than might appear at first sight."1 He then

1 "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," Vol. X,
p. 4. Mr. Balfour is here speaking of mesmerism, but the re-
marks equally apply to Spiritualism.

28 Chapter III

proceeds to show that as no nation or age
can do more than the special work which
lies before it at the time, so natural science,
during its comparatively short life, has had
enough to do in building up the whole body
of the natural and experimental sciences,
which within the last century have been re-
constructed from top to bottom. "If science
had at first attempted to include in its survey
not only physical but psychical phenomena,
it might for a century have lost itself in dark
and difficult regions, and the work of science
to-day would then have been less, not more,
complete."

I quite agree with this. Not only had our
knowledge of nature to be first learnt, but the
foundation of our scientific faith in the tin-
deviating order of nature had also to be laid
by the investigation of the laws of matter
and motion and the discovery of the orderly
evolution of life. What science has now
established, and holds as eternally true, is that
the universe is a cosmos, not a chaos, that
amidst all the mutability of visible things
there is no capriciousness, no disorder; that in
the interpretation of nature, however en-
tangled or obscure the phenomena may be, we
shall never be put to intellectual confusion.

The magnificent procession of phenomena
in the midst of which we stand; the realms
and magnitudes above us, too vast for the mind

Scientific Objections 29

to grasp; the molecules and movements
around us, too minute or too rapid for the
eye to see or the mind to conceive, are all
marching to the music of a Divine and Eternal
order. On this system of the orderly govern-
ment of the world, our faith in a Supreme
Being is rooted; and the progress of modern
science has made this faith an integral part
of our daily life, whether we regard the
Supreme as an impersonal power or as a
beneficent Father. Now, if instead of invest-
igating natural phenomena (I use that term
in its common meaning, all phenomena are,
strictly speaking, natural, only the Deity is
supernatural)1 science had first grappled with
supernormal phenomena, I doubt whether it
would have yet emerged from the abyss; cer-
tainly it would not have reached its present
assured belief in a reign of law. For psy-
chical phenomena are so elusive, the causes so
obscure, that we need the steadying influence
of the habit of thought engendered by science
to enable us patiently and hopefully to pursue
our way.

A similar argument holds good in relation
to religion. The seers and prophets of the
Old Testament were the statesmen and men
of science of their day: they were in advance

1 See Appendix A.

30 Chapter III

of the people, because their thinking was
based upon a philosophy illuminated with the
Divine idea, — the idea that through all the
strife of nature and men one eternal purpose
runs. And from Moses to Isaiah we rind
them united in warning the people against
any attempts to peer into and forecast the
future, or to meddle with psychical pheno-
mena for this or any lower purpose. Divina-
tion, enchantment, witchcraft, astrology, and
sorcery were various methods of augury, or
of attempts to inflict injury on an enemy,
veiled in a cloud of mystery to impress the
beholder; and necromancy, or the attempt to
hold communication with the dead, seems to
have been resorted to chiefly for the same
purpose.

These practices were condemned in un-
measured terms by the Hebrew prophets,
and this irrespective of any question as to
whether the phenomena were genuine or
merely the product of trickery and supersti-
tion. They were prohibited — as a study of
the whole subject undoubtedly shows — not
only, or chiefly, because they were the prac-
tice, and part of the religious rites of the
pagan nations around, but mainly because they
tended to obscure the Divine idea, to weaken
the supreme faith in, and reverent worship
of, the One Omnipotent Being, whom the
nation was set apart to proclaim. And the

Religious Objections 31

reason was obvious. With no knowledge of
the great world-order such as we know pos-
sess, the intellectual and moral sense of the
people would only have been confounded by
these psychical phenomena.

Still worse, a sense of spiritual confusion
would have ensued. Not only might the
thought, the industry, and the politics of the
nation have been hampered or paralysed by
giving heed to an oracle rather than to the
dictates of reason, but the calm unwavering
faith of the nation in an infinitely wise and
righteous Ruler of all might have been shaken.
Instead of the "arm of the Lord" beyond and
above them, a motely crowd of pious, lying,
vain, or jibbering spirits would have peopled
the unseen; and weariness, perplexity, and,
finally, despair would have enervated and
destroyed the nation. As a learned and
suggestive theologian has said: "Augury and
divination wearied a people's intellect, stunted
their enterprise, distorted their conscience.
Isaiah saw this and warned the people:
'Thy spells and enchantments with which
thou hast wearied thyself have led thee
astray.' And in later years, Juvenal's strong
conscience expressed the same sense of the
wearisomeness and waste of time of these
practices."1

1 Principal G. A. Smith's "Isaiah," Vol. I, p. 199.

32 Chapter III

With these feelings many of us can sympa-
thise, as we have felt much the same in the
quest of these elusive phenomena. But be-
yond this weariness, which in the search for
truth we must endure, the perils which beset
the ancient world in the pursuit of psychical
knowledge do not apply to scientific investiga-
tion to-day, which is based on the acknowl-
edged omnipresence of order.

The aversion that undoubtedly still exists
among many Christian men and women to the
whole scope of these enquiries is based, I be-
lieve, partly upon the warnings contained in
the Scriptures, to which I have alluded, and
partly upon the more general ground that our
investigations are an attempt to force an
illegitimate entrance into the spiritual realm,
a presumptuous effort to draw aside the veil,
which both Scripture and our most sacred
feelings have closed over the portals of death.

What can we reply to this? I think the
feeling largely arises from a misconception of
the position. I have already dealt wih the
ground upon which those magnificent men,
the Jewish prophets, so strenuously forbade
all psychical inquiry — grounds most wise and
rational then, but inapplicable now. In the
New Testament the condition, to some extent,
changes; unmistakable warnings are uttered
of the spiritual dissipation ami danger which

Religious Objections 33

the early Christians would sutler if they
allowed their religion to be degraded by the
spiritual thaumaturgy still prevalent among
neighbouring nations.

The civilised world at that time believed
in the existence of spirits in the air, and the
illuminated spiritual insight of the Apostles
saw (and I, for one, believe we shall all see
this more clearly as our knowledge grows)
that the unseen around us is tenanted by many
spiritual creatures whose influence is some-
times good and sometimes evil. Hence the
apostolic injunction 'to try the spirits,' i.e.
use our moral judgment and not be led astray
by the foolish but common notion that every
communication that comes from the unseen
is good and worthy of credence. In fact the
messages often spring from, and are invariably
influenced by, the medium's own sub-conscious
life.

Moreover, the Apostle saw clearly, as every
Christian sees, that the foundation of religious
life, which consisted of faith in a risen Lord,
is seriously imperilled when the seen is sub-
stituted for the unseen, the phantasms of the
spiritualistic seance for the realities of the
Kingdom of Heaven, which cometh not with
observation.

The same peril exists to-day, and always
will exist. This every thoughtful and reverent
mind must admit, and it is a distinct warning

34 Chapter III

against making a religion of Spiritualism —
But this is not an argument against the study
of the phenomena as a braneh of psychical
or psychological science. Whatever be the
power or intelligence behind these phenomena,
the fact that it manifests itself to us — that,
directly or indirectly, it impinges on our
senses, and so affects our perceptive faculties,
or can leave some permanent record of its
presence — this fact not only places Spiritual-
ism within the pale of legitimate experimental
inquiry, but invites and demands the attention
of science.

It may be that these psychical phenomena
are so elusive, depend so largely on conditions
beyond our control, such as the activities of
the subliminal self, or the volition of dis-
carnate agents, that we shall never arrive at
the laws that underlie them. But that need
not prevent our observing, recording, and
classifying the phenomena, noting the physi-
cal and psychical conditions most favourable
to their production, and the variations induced
by a change in these conditions. Only thus
can we hope to link the unknown to the known,
and so to correlate these obscure phenomena
with the general body of recognised knowl-
edge. Until this is done they will remain an
outstanding puzzle, and the educated world
will continue to shun them.

CHAPTER IV

THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA
OF SPIRITUALISM

"Science is bound by the everlasting law of honour to
face fearlessly every problem which can fairly be presented
to it." — Lord Kelvin.

It is now time to turn from the somewhat
lengthy discussion in the preceding pages, and
submit some of the evidence which has come
under my own observation and has convinced
me of the genuineness of the phenomena
themselves. It is however hardly possible to
convey to others who have not had a similar
experience an adequate idea of the strength
and cumulative force of the evidence that has
compelled one's own belief.

Unfortunately, where there is good coin
there is also false, and Spiritualism has suf-
fered from a fraudulent imitation trading on
the credulity of the ignorant or uncritical.

35

36 Chapter IV

In a paper1 I contributed to the proceedings
of the Society for Psychical Research in 1886
I stated that "reviewing the numerous seances
I have attended with different private and
professional mediums during the last 15 years
I find that by far the larger part of the re-
sults obtained had absolutely no evidential
value in favour of Spiritualism; either the
condition of total darkness forbade any trust-
worthy conclusions, or the results were nothing
more than could be explained by a low order
of juggling. A few cases, however, stand out
as exceptions." These I proceeded to cite,
and will here give the substance of two of
them, as they offer, in my opinion, unexcep-
tionable evidence of what has been called the
"physical phenomena" of Spiritualism, — that
is to say, the movement of objects, raps and
other sounds displaying an unseen intelli-
gence, for which no normal explanation can
be found.

For these manifestations Mr. Myers has
suggested the term telekinetic, as spiritualistic
is a question-begging expression, for they
afford in themselves no evidence of the sur-
vival of human personality after death. As
a rule they are grotesque and meaningless, it

1 "Proceedings, Society for Psychical Research," Vol. IV, p. 28.

See Appendix B, where I have reprinted a note on this paper
which was written by that distinguished and far-seeing scientific
man the late Professor Balfour Stewart,

Physical Phenomena 37

is only when the content of some of the mes-
sages that are conveyed by telekinesis are ex-
amined, that any slight and dubious evidence
is found of another personality than that of
the medium. The main question is the gen-
uineness of telekinesis itself.

It is therefore important to note that not
only did the phenomena I am about to de-
scribe take place either in broad daylight or
in sufficient artificial light to enable me to
detect any fraud, had such been attempted,
but there were no paid or professional medi-
ums present, and the sittings were held in any
place I selected and even in my own house;
notes were taken at the time of the sittings, or
shortly after.

The first case I will cite occurred when I
was writing an article giving reasons for the
opinion- expressed in a paper I read before
the British Association in 1876, that where
fraud did not explain these physical pheno-
mena, and the observers were men of unim-
peachable integrity and competence, such as
Sir W. Crookes and Professor De Morgan,
the witnesses thought they saw what they
describe, owing to mal-observation or some
hallucination of the senses such as occurs in
incipient hypnosis. In fact I began the whole
investigation of these phenomena convinced
that this was their true explanation, and it

38 Chapter IV

was not until after stretching this hypothesis
to illegitimate lengths that I found the actual
facts completely shattered my theory.

An English solicitor of high standing,
Mr. C, had taken for the summer season the
suburban residence of a friend of mine, not
far from my own house in Kingstown, Co.
Dublin. Upon making Mr. C.'s acquaintance
I was surprised to find that he had in his
own family what appeared to be spiritualistic
phenomena then and there going on. They
were not spiritualists and were puzzled and
somewhat annoyed by the raps and other
inexplicable noises that frequently occurred
when their daughter Florrie was present — a
frank, intelligent child at that time about
ten years old. They naturally thought their
young daughter was playing some childish
tricks, but they soon convinced themselves this
was impossible. The governess complained
of rappings in different parts of the school
room whenever Florrie was idle, and the
music mistress asserted that often loud raps
would come inside the piano, when Florrie
was listlessly playing her scales.

Mr. and Mrs. C. gladly acceded to my
request for a personal investigation, and I
came the next day after breakfast. It wis
10 o'clock and a bright summer morning —
Mr. and Mrs. C. with Florrie and myself, no
one else present, sat at a large dining table,

Physical Phenomena 39

with no cloth on, and the French windows
opening on to the lawn, let in a flood of
sunlight, so that the sitter's hands and feet
could be perfectly well seen. A scraping
sound was soon heard, then raps, sometimes
on the table, sometimes on the backs of our
chairs. Florrie's hand and feet were closely
watched, they were absolutely motionless
when the sounds, which rapidly grew in loud-
ness, were heard. The noise was exactly
such as would be made by hammering small
nails into the floor, and my first thought was
that some carpenters were in the room above
or below, but on examination no one was
there. We found the raps grew in intensity
when a merry song was struck up, or music
was played; the raps in a most amusing way
keeping time with the music, occasionally
changing to a loud rhythmic scraping, as if
the bow of a 'cello were drawn on a piece of
wood. Again and again I placed my ear on
the very spot whence this rough fiddling
appeared to proceed and felt distinctly the
rhythmic vibration going on in the table, but
no tangible cause was visible either above or
below the table.

Doubts have been suggested as to the possi-
bility of localising sounds; with some kinds
of sounds this is difficult, but direct experi-
ments which I made for this purpose showed
that when blindfolded most people can pretty

40 Chapter IV

accurately locate the position of sounds such
as I heard on this occasion.

Sometimes the raps travelled away and
were heard in different parts of the room out
of reach of anyone present. On one occasion
I asked for the raps to come on a small table
near me, which Florrie was not touching,
they did so; I then placed one of my hands
on the upper and the other on the under sur-
face of the table, and in this position I felt
the slight jarring made by the raps on the
part of the table enclosed between my hands.
It made no difference whether Florrie and I
were alone in the room, as was often the case,
or other observers were called in. This latter
was done occasionally when the raps were go-
ing on, to test my hallucination theory, but
everyone heard the sounds.

The alphabet was slowly repeated and
questions were answered by the unseen in-
telligence giving a rap when the right letter
was arrived at. In this way we were told
the communicator was a lad named 'Walter
Hussey,' and Mrs. C. later on told me that
frequently when she went to her child's bed-
room to say good-night to her daughter, she
heard raps going on and Florrie having an
animated conversation with her invisible com-
panion, the alphabet being rapidly spelt over
and raps occurring at the right letters. I took
down some of the answers obtained by means

Physical Phenomena 41

of the alphabet, they were just such as the
child herself would have given, merry and
meaningless, the unseen intelligence corre-
sponded to that of the child and to my surprise
the spelling was also that of the child! For
upon asking Florrie to write down some words
that occurred in the messages, the same child-
ish mis-spelling occurred.

Of course the sceptic will say the whole
thing was due to a clever child, who enjoyed
bamboozling a professor. The sceptic is
quite welcome to hold this opinion if it pleases
him. All I can say is that after some weeks
searching investigation every theory pro-
pounded by myself and by sceptical friends —
some of whom were allowed to join in the
enquiry — caused me and my friends likewise,
to abandon all preconceived theories of fraud
and illusion and mal-observation. The pheno-
mena were inexplicable except on the suppo-
sition of an unseen intelligence like or actually
that of the child. But the force that was
sometimes exerted far exceeded that which
the child could exert. Movements of furni-
ture occasionally took place. On one occasion
in full sunlight when seated with Mr. and
Mrs. C. and Florrie at the large mahogany
dining table, big enough to seat twelve at
dinner, all our fingers visibly resting on the
top of the table, suddenly three legs of the
table deliberately rose off the floor to a height

42 Chapter IV

sufficient to enable me to put my foot beneath
the castors. Let anyone try to imitate this
by using all the muscular force he possesses,
and he will find, as I did, that even allowing
the hands to grasp the table, which those
present did not attempt to do, the feat can only
be done with difficulty and practice by a strong
man.

To test a favourite anatomical theory that
the raps were due to a trick which the medium
might have acquired of slipping the toe or
knee joints partially in and out with a click,
I asked Florrie to put her hands Oat against the
wall and to see whether, when I did the same,
she could stretch out her feet away from the
wall as far as I could, pretending it was a new-
game between us. When we were both in
this strained position, and any muscular move-
ment of the limbs impossible, I asked 'Wal-
ter' if he was amused at our game; instantly
a brisk pattering of raps came in the room,
the child's hands and feet being absolutely
motionless, while no one but Florrie and my-
self were present in the room. Trickery by
the servants was out of the question, in fact
Mr. C. told me that when he was out of doors
with his daughter he had obtained raps on the
handle of his umbrella.

After the family had returned to England
Mrs. C. informed me that the phenomena died
away and they were very glad as they feared

Physical Phenomena 43

the health of their daughter might have suf-
fered, but so far no injury whatever had
occurred. "Of the genuineness of the pheno-
mena (Mrs. C. wrote) I never had the slight-
est doubt, then or now." The manifestations,
they informed me, were often more violent
than any I had witnessed and always of a
meaningless or frivolous nature.

Let me now narrate a second case where
the medium was an adult, a lady who lived
with the family of her cousin, a leading
photographer in Dublin. I will call her
Miss L. ; needless to say she was neither a
paid nor a- professional medium, and I was
greatly indebted to Mr. and Miss L. for giv-
ing me every opportunity to investigate the
phenomena, often at considerable inconveni-
ence to themselves. None of the sittings were
in darkness; when held in the evening there
was sufficient gas light to enable me to read
small print, and of course to see any move-
ment on the part of those present. On one
occasion, only Mr. L., Miss L. and myself
being present, loud raps which quite startled
me, were given on the table at which we sat,
and when I asked the unseen visitor to rap
the number of fingers I held open, my hand
being held out of sight and the opened fingers
unseen by anyone, the correct number was
rapped out; this was done twice. Knocks

44 Chapter IV

came in answer to my request, when we all
removed our hands and withdrew a short dis-
tance from the table.

Whilst the hands and feet of all were clearly
visible and no one touching the table it sidled
about in an uneasy manner. It was a four-
legged table, some 4 feet square and heavy.
In obedience to my request, first the two legs
nearest me and then the two hinder legs rose
8 or 10 inches completely off the ground and
thus remained a few moments; not a person
touched the table the whole time. I with-
drew my chair further, and the table then
moved towards me, — Mr. and Miss L. not
touching the table at all, — finally the table
came up to the arm chair in which I sat and
imprisoned me in my seat. When thus under
my very nose the table rose repeatedly, and
enabled me to be perfectly sure, by the
evidence of touch, that it was quite off the
ground and that no human being had any part
in this or the other movements. To suppose
that the table was moved by invisible and
non-existent threads, worked by an imaginary
accomplice, who must have floated in the air
unseen, is a conjecture which sceptics are at
liberty to make if they choose.

Subsequently at my request Mr. and Miss L.
came to my house at Kingstown, which they
had never visited before, and we three had
a sitting in the afternoon, with plenty of

Physical Phenomena 45

daylight enabling me to see everything in the
room. After a short time raps, varying from
faint ticks to loud percussive sounds, were
heard, not muffled sounds as would be made
by the feet in the carpeted room, but clear
and distinct, and not the slightest movement
of the hands or feet of any of the three present
could be seen. Suddenly, the tips of our
fingers only being on the table, the heavy
loo table at which we sat began a series of
prancing movements; so violently did the
claws of the table strike the floor that I had
to stop the performance fearing for the safety
of the chandelier in the room below. I tried
ito imitate this movement afterwards and found
it could only be done by a person using both
hands and all his strength.

As in the previous case the messages that
were spelt out were just such as the medium,
who was a Methodist, would have given,
serious and pious platitudes.

The foregoing were among my earliest
experiences of the physical phenomena of
Spiritualism, and taken along with my later
experience and the evidence of others to which
I will refer presently, left no shadow of doubt
on my mind of the super-normal character
of the manifestations. I will now briefly nar-
rate my latest experience which occurred only
a few months ago, Christmas 1915.

46 Chapter IV.

In the following case I was indebted for
my introduction to the sitting to Dr. Crawford
— lecturer on Mechanical Engineering at the
Queen's University and at the Technical
College, Belfast, a trained scientific man hold-
ing the D.Sc. degree. Dr. Crawford had for
some months been investigating the remark-
able physical phenomena that occurred in a
small family circle of highly respectable and
intelligent working people in Belfast. The
medium was the eldest daughter of the family,
a girl, Kathleen, of some 17 years. The
family had become interested in Spiritualism
and had sat regularly one or two evenings a
week for a year or more, to see if they could
obtain any evidence of survival after bodily
death. They made a sort of religious cere-
mony of their sittings, always opening with
prayer and hymns, and when at last pheno-
mena came, their unseen visitors were greeted
with delight and respect. Obviously they
were uncritical, simple, honest, kind hearted
people; Dr. Crawford having assured himself
they had no pecuniary or other motive such as
notoriety to gain, was allowed and indeed
welcomed to make a searching and critical
investigation. This he did, devising elaborate
and ingenious apparatus to test the pheno-
mena, which he is describing in a work he is
about to publish. Inter aha he found that
the weight of the medium increased as the

Physical Phenomena 47

amount of the weight of the table or other
object which was levitated had decreased.

I was permitted to have an evening sitting
with the family, Dr. Crawford accompanying
me. We sat outside the small family circle;
the room was illuminated with a bright gas
flame burning in a lantern, with a large red
glass window, on the mantelpiece. The room
was small and as our eyes got accustomed to
the light we could see all the sitters clearly.
They sat round a small table with hands
joined together, but no one touching the table.
Very soon knocks came and messages were
spelt out as one of us repeated the alphabet
aloud. Suddenly the knocks increased in
violence, and being encouraged, a tremendous
bang came which shook the room and re-
sembled the blow of a sledge hammer on an
anvil. A tin trumpet which had been placed
below the table now poked out its smaller end
close under the top of the table near where
I was sitting. I was allowed to try and catch
it, but it dodged all my attempts in the most
amusing way, the medium on the opposite side
sat perfectly still, while at my request all held
up their joined hands so that I could see no
one was touching the trumpet, as it played
peep-bo with me. Sounds like the sawing of
wood, the bouncing of a ball and other noises
occurred, which were inexplicable.

Then the table began to rise from the floor

48 Chapter IF

some 1 8 inches and remained so suspended
and quite level. I was allowed to go up to
the table and saw clearly no one was touching
it, a clear space separating the sitters from
the table. I tried to press the table down,
and though I exerted all my strength could
not do so; then I climbed up on the table and
sat on it, my feet off the floor, when I was
swayed to and fro and finally tipped off. The
table of its own accord now turned upside
down, no one touching it, and I tried to lift
it off the ground, but it could not be stirred,
it appeared screwed down to the floor. At
my request all the sitters' clasped hands had
been kept raised above their heads, and I
could see that no one was touching the table;
— when I desisted from trying to lift the in-
verted table from the floor, it righted itself
again of its own accord, no one helping it.
Numerous sounds displaying an amused in-
telligence then came, and after each individual
present had been greeted with some farewell
raps the sitting ended.

It is difficult to imagine how the cleverest
conjurer with elaborate apparatus could have
performed what I have described; here were
a simple family group of earnest seekers, on
whose privacy I had Intruded and who had
suffered Dr. Crawford for 6 months or more
to put them to the greatest inconvenience
without any remuneration whatever.

Physical Phenomena 49

But it is the cumulative force of the evi-
dence coming from different places and differ-
end witnesses, some of which will be given in
the next chapter, that carries conviction. The
objection as to the foolish and meaningless
character of the phenomena will be met later,
here I will only ask my readers to imagine
how a dumb and invisible visitor coming to
a house at night would try to attract the
attention of the inmates; his efforts to com-
municate would be not unlike the knockings
and sounds made by these unseen visitants.
That there is an unseen intelligence behind
these manifestations is all we can say, but that
is a tremendous assertion, and if admitted de-
stroys the whole basis of materialism.

I am not so foolish as to suppose anything
I can say will make an appreciable difference
in public opinion, or that my testimony is
superior to, or ought to have more weight
attached to it, than that of several other
observers. But it will, I hope, lead other
witnesses to come forward and relate any
unexceptionable evidence they possess, until
"we drive the objector into being forced to
admit the phenomena as inexplicable, at least
by him, or to accuse the investigators either
of lying, cheating, or of a blindness or for-
getfulness incompatible with any intellectual
condition except absolute idiocy."

It is true that much of what passes as evi-

50 Chapter IV

dencc among certain Spiritualists has no claim
to this distinction, and is only evidence of
the difficulty of preserving a sound judgment
and uninterrupted attention when dealing with
these obscure phenomena. Nor is this to be
wondered at. When any of us have obtained
what we deem conclusive proof of some amaz-
ing occurrence, and are thereby convinced,
we are all apt to relax the stringency of our in-
quiry, and accept as corroborative evidence
what to an unconvinced outsider may seem
capable of quite a different and more familiar
explanation. At the outset we all start from
very much the same level; some, of course,
are worse observers than others; some jump
to conclusions too readily, their judgment is
less valuable; but the uniformity of the laws
of nature is the common experience of man-
kind, and the man who tells us his gooseberry
bush is bearing cucumbers does not expect to
be believed until he can verify so outrageous a
statement.

CHAPTER V

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA CONTINUED

"In saying that a marvel is contrary to experience we
can mean no more than that it is unlike previous exper-
ience ; or rather that it is unlike that portion of experience
which has been collected, handed down, and systematised
by competent persons. But this only means that it is
entirely novel and strange: and the greater the marvel
the better must be the testimony [on its behalf]." — Henry
Sidgwick.

Let us now turn to some of the undeniable
evidence of similar super-normal phenomena
that has been obtained by other witnesses.
In the most searching examination of this
subject which has ever been undertaken,
Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, Litt.D., in a paper
published in the Proceedings of the Psychical
Research Society for 1886,1 states her own
conviction that "notwithstanding the absence
of what may be called crucial evidence for the
existence of these physical phenomena beyond
the recognised laws of nature, there is still
some evidence which ought not to be set

1 "Proceedings S. P. R.," Vol. IV, p. 72, e t seq.
Si

52 Chapter V

aside, and affords a prima facie case for
further investigation." Mrs. Sidgwick then
cites in illustration the Count de Gasparin's
careful experiments with his own family and
friends on the movement of tables without
contact, published by him in Paris in 1854;
also the evidence for similar phenomena ob-
tained by a committee for the Dialectical
Society in 1870; Sir W. Crookes experiments
with D. D. Home, published in the Quarterly
Journal of Science, London, 1874, and the Rev.
Stainton Moses' account of phenomena occur-
ring through his own mediumship about the
same period.

Mrs. Sidgwick has been unfortunate in
her own proctracted experience with pro-
fessional mediums, but nevertheless states "it
is not because I disbelieve in the psychical
phonemona of spiritualism, but because I
think it more probable than not that such
things occasionally occur, that I am interested
in estimating the evidence for them." There
is not a single sceptic in the world who has
devoted as many hours to this enquiry as
Mrs. Sidgwick has given years, and I doubt
if there exists a more competent critical and
cautious investigator than this distinguished
lady. Had she been fortunate enough to
witness what I have described in the previous
chapter, or to have had any sittings with
D. D. Home, her opinion, I venture to think,

Physical Phenomena, continued 53

would have been not very different from my
own.

The London Dialectical Society consisted
of some well-known professional men, and in
1870 they published the report of a special
committee appointed to investigate these so-
called physical phenomena. They state no
paid mediums were employed, the psychics
tested being persons of good social position
and integrity who had no pecuniary interest
to serve. The Committee report the frequent
occurrence of raps showing unseen intelli-
gence, and the movement of solid objects
without any visible or known cause. On one
occasion the committee knelt on chairs placed
around, and about a foot away from, a large
mahogany dining table, the hands of each
person held behind their backs; under these
conditions in full light distinct movements of
the table occurred several times and swayed
about in one direction or another without
contact or the possibility of contact with any
person present. Raps also occurred on the
floor and on the table in answer to request.1

This report mentions many other remark-
able super-normal phenomena, but it is
needless to go into further detail, for these
results, and those that I have witnessed, came
far short of what Sir W. Crookes obtained in

1 "Report of the Dialectical Society" (Burns & Co., London),
p. 391.

54 Chapter V.

his own laboratory, under the most stringent
conditions that his unrivalled experimental
skill could devise.

Sir Wm. Crookes asserts that his experi-
ments demonstrate the occurrence of the fol-
lowing phenomena inexplicable by any known
agency: —

(i) Raps and percussive sounds varying in loudness
from a mere tick to loud thuds, which appeared to
be caused by an unseen intelligent operator.

(2) The movement both of small and light, as well as
large and heavy, bodies without visible cause or
the contact of any human being.

(3) The alteration in the weight of bodies.

(4) The levitation of heavy objects without contact
with any person; on three occasions he saw the
medium, D. D. Home, raised completely off the
ground in good light no one touching him.

(5) Musical instruments played without human inter-
vention, and under conditions rendering them im-
possible to be played by normal means.

(6) Luminous appearances; more than once he affirms
that under strict test conditions he has seen a lum-
inous cloud appear, which condensed into the shape
of a perfectly formed hand, that presently faded
away.

(7) Intelligent messages written by unseen hands, — -
"direct writing" as it is termed.

(8) Handling red hot coals and placing the hand in a
blazing fire without any injury.

(9) Most astonishing of all, phantom forms and faces
have appeared, and, under elaborate test conditions

Physical Phenomena, continued 55

a materialized and beautiful female figure several
times appeared, clothed in a white robe, so real that
not only was its pulse taken but it was repeatedly
photographed, sometimes by the aid of the electric
arc light, and on one occasion simultaneously with
and beside the entranced medium, who was plainer,
darker, and considerably smaller than the preter-
natural visitant, the latter coming into and vanish-
ing from a previously searched, closed, locked room
in Mr. Crookes' own house.

' Since these almost incredible phenomena
occurred (many of them witnessed not only
by Mr. — now Sir Wm. — Crookes' own family,
but also by other persons) I have been assured
by Sir William that no subsequent criticism
has failed to shake his opinion of their super-
normal character, the elaborate precautions
he took preventing the possibility of any
fraud. Moreover, Sir Wm. Crookes in his
Presidential address to the British Association
in 1898 had the courage to state in reference
to these investigations he had nothing to re-
tract and that he adhered to the statements he
had published.

What can be said of these miracles? They
are so foreign to ordinary experience that one
naturally thinks the observer was a victim
of hallucination or of some clever trick. In
a paper I published jointly with Mr. F. W.
H. Myers in 1889 we said that on general
principles the testimony of no single savant,

56 Chapter V

however eminent, could compel general belief
in phenomena so incredible, if they remained
unattested by other trustworthy investigators.
Now as regards nearly all the phenomena
described by Sir W. Crookes this additional
testimony has been forthcoming.

For example, an able investigator, Professor
Alexander of Rio de Janeiro, published in the
"Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
Research" for July, 1891, the details of some
carefully conducted experiments he had made
which authenticate some of the things attested
by Sir. Wm. Crookes. In Professor Alex-
ander's case the medium was one or other of
two little girls, daughters of a friend of his,
and here, not only did the movement of heavy
objects by unseen intelligences occur, but
"direct writing," under test conditions, took
place in full lamplight; an unseen hand wrote
messages on a slate, touched by the child's
fingers only, the writing being far superior
in execution to the childish caligraphy of the
medium. Then luminous appearances pre-
sented themselves, at first a Hitting, playful
light, then growing in definiteness till a form
was said to be seen by the little mediums,
though not by others present. The clairvoy-
ance was apparently shared by a dog, who
gazed upward and barked at the figure, and
at another time shared by a baby, who, gazing
with astonishment, and pointing to an unseen

Physical Phenomena, continued £7

figure, called, "Man, man," and at last said,
"All gone!" Unseen hands were felt by
all the sitters, caressing those present, and
eventually the imprint of a tiny baby foot,
far smaller than that belonging to any of the
sitters present, was obtained on a school slate,
over which a coating of flour had been spread.
This brief narrative gives an imperfect de-
scription of the phenomena obtained and the
precautions taken, by Professor Alexander,
but it is enough to show that independent and
able investigators in different parts of the
world, with different psychics, have obtained
similar extraordinary results.1

By far the most remarkable psychic or
'medium,' whose powers have ever been in-
vestigated was Mr. D. D. Home, with whom
many of Sir W. Crookes' experiments were
made. Both Mr. F. W. H. Myers and myself
devoted considerable time to examining the
evidence on behalf of his super-normal gifts,
and also the charges of fraud brought against
him; we found plenty of rumours of trickery

1 The question whether the whole of the phenomena may not be
explained away by ascribing to every witness gross and per-
sistent exaggeration may be dismissed, as it cannot be seriously
maintained; neither is it possible to sustain an explanation
founded on a system of laborious and disinterested deception,
though isolated cases of this kind are known. Professor Sidgwick
has dealt with this point ("Journal of the Society of Psychical
Research," July, 1894), and, moreover, such actors not only
shrink from scientific scrutiny, but sooner or later get tired of
their motiveless deception, or their fraud comes to light.

58 Chapter V

but no conviction of fraud. Robert Brown-
ing's poem "Sludge the Medium," which was
supposed to express his opinion about Home,
may possibly have been written to discount
Mrs. Barrett Browning's enthusiastic con-
version to Spiritualism. Mr. Myers knew
Browning personally, and he asked the poet
what foundation there was for his bad opin-
ion of Home; Browning replied that he once
heard a lady (since dead) tell him that another
lady, also deceased, told her, that Home was
once found in the act of experimenting with
phosphorus in order to produce 'spirit lights.'
Of this third hand story we could find no
written or any other confirmation whatever,
it was an old story when Browning heard it,
and probably originated, — like other gossip
we have traced to its source, — in someone
saying "Home must have produced these
spirit lights with phosphorized oil rubbed on
his hands," a pure assumption for which we
could not find a particle of evidence.1

1 Another charge against Home's character was that he had by
fraudulent means persuaded a Mrs. Lyon to leave him her
property, a case which led to litigation that went against Home.
This case we submitted to a high legal expert, who wrote that
whether it was to Home's discredit or not rests on one's belief
in the reality of the communications purporting to come from
Mrs. Lyon's deceased husband, who urged the gift. Mr. \Y. M.
Wilkinson, an eminent and upright lawyer, and oiher witnesses
in the case declared that Mrs. Lynn made the gift to Home of
her own free will, and independent of any unfair influence from
Home. But in any case this litigation has no bearing on the
reality of Home's piychic powers.

Physical Phenomena, continued 59

In fact, Home courted the fullest enquiry,
and made no objection to the stringent tests
often imposed. I quite agree with what Sir
William Crookes has said, though I never had
the opportunity of meeting Home: —

"I think it is a cruel thing that a man like D. D.
Home, gifted with such extraordinary powers, and al-
ways willing, nay, anxious, to place himself at the dis-
posal of men of science for investigation, should have
lived so many years in London, and with one or two
exceptions no one of weight in the scientific world should
have thought it worth while to look into the truth or
falsity of things which were being talked about in so-
ciety on all sides. To those who knew him Home was
one of the most lovable of men, and his perfect genuine-
ness and uprightness were beyond suspicion."

In the report which Mr. Myers and the
present writer published in the "Journal of
the Society for Psychical Research" for July,
1889, we gave several first-hand accounts of
the marvellous phenomena witnessed by our
informants in the presence of Home.

I will first quote the evidence given to me
by my friends the late General and Mrs.
Boldero, neither of whom were Spiritualists.
Notes of what took place had been written
down by my friends and the evidence was
given to me verbally and independently by

60 Chapter V

each observer. Home had been staying with
the late Lord Dunraven, — who published for
private circulation a small book giving an
account of the marvellous phenomena he had
witnessed in Home's presence, — and had
never before visited the house where General,
then Colonel, Boldero was staying in Scotland,
where he held a high military appointment.
Here is the account given to me by General
Boldero: —

"It was at the end of February, 1870, that Home
came to visit me by invitation, at my house in Coupar,
Fife. He arrived immediately before dinner, and after
dinner we, Mrs. Boldero, Home, and myself, sat in the
drawing-room for any manifestations that might occur.
The room was quite light, the gas being lighted, and a
bright fire burning. Home sat with his back to the
fire, at a small table, with a cloth on it. I was opposite
to him, and Mrs. Boldero was on his right hand. A
piano and Mrs. Boldero 's harp were at the end of the
drawing-room some 10 feet or 12 feet away.

"Almost immediately some remarkable manifestations
occurred ; in a little while the table moved towards the
piano. I saw a hand come out on my side from under
the table, pushing out the tablecloth and striking notes
on the piano. Afterwards 1 saw a whole hand as tar
as the wrist appear without the tablecloth and strike the
notes, playing some chords on the piano. At this time
Home was some distance off, and it was physically im-
possible for ] 11 111 tn have struck the piano. It was
equally impossible for him to have used his foot for the

Physical Phenomena, continued 61

purpose. I was perfectly confident at the time and am
now that trickery on the part of Home was out of the
question. After that some chords were faintly struck
on the harp standing immediately behind me. We asked
for them to play louder, and a reply came by raps, 'We
have not power.' Then voices were heard speaking to-
gether in the room, two different persons, judging from
the intonation. We could not make out the words
spoken as Home persisted in speaking to us all the time.
We remonstrated with him for speaking, and he replied,
'I spoke purposely that you might be convinced the
voices were not due to any ventriloquism on my part,
as this is impossible when anyone is speaking in his
natural voice.' Home's voice was quite unlike that of
the voices heard in the air."

The differences and similarities in the
account given by husband and wife are
instructive. On my reading to him the fol-
lowing account given me by Mrs. Boldero, the
General said that where there was a difference
his wife's account was probably the more
correct. Mrs. Boldero said: —

"On February 28th, 1870, Home arrived at our
house shortly before dinner. After dinner we agreed
to sit in the drawing-room at a square card-table near
the fire. In a few minutes, a cold draught of air was
felt on our hands and knockings occurred. Several
messages of no consequence came, questions being asked
and answered. I was exhorted to pray more. A rust-
ling of dresses was heard, as of a stiff silk dress in the

62 Chapter V

room. [General Boldero recollects this also.] My gold
bracelet was unclasped whilst my hands were on the
table, and fell upon the floor. [General Boldero agrees
to this.] My dress was pulled several times. I think I
asked if the piano could be played; it stood at least 12
feet or 14 feet away from us. Almost at once the soft-
est music sounded. I went up to the piano and opened
it. I then saw the keys depressed, but no one playing.
I stood by its side and watched it, hearing the most
lovely chords; the keys seemed to be struck by some
invisible hands; all this time Home was far distant
from the piano. Then a faint sound was heard upon
my harp, as of the wind blowing over its strings. I
asked if it could be played louder; an answer came, there
was insufficient power.

"Later on in the evening, we distinctly heard two
voices talking together in the room; the voices appeared
to come from opposite corners, near the ceiling, and
apparently proceeded from a man and child, but we
could not distinguish the words. They sounded far
off. Home was talking the whole time the voices were
heard, and gave as his reason that he might not be ac-
cused of ventriloquism. During the whole of this
seance, the whole room seemed to be alive with some-
thing, and I remember thinking that no manifestation
would surprise me, feeling that the power present could
produce anything. Home himself remarked that he
had rarely had so satisfactory a seance. Throughout,
Home seemed to be intensely, and very genuinely, in-
terested in the whole seance. I am perfectly sure that
Home could not possibly have played the piano him-
self; his touching it was wholly out of the question.
General Boldero saw a hand playing on the piano, but
1 did not see this."

Physical Phenomena, continued 63

General Boldero also informed me that
at another seance with Home he saw a large
round table, on the top of which the sitters'
hands were placed, rise completely off the
ground to a height as great as the upstretched
arms of the sitters would allow and then the
table gently descended. At another time
the table, on which were glasses and a lamp,
tilted to such an angle that ordinarily every-
thing would have fallen off, but they remained
undisturbed. A similar incident has been
witnessed at other places by other persons;
thus the Rector of Edmonthorpe, Rutland,
the late Rev. H. Douglas, a man of acute and
scholarly mind and keen intelligence, writes
that at a sitting with Home in Lady Poulett's
house in London: "We all saw the supper
table on which there was a quantity of glass
and china full of good things, rise to an angle
of 45 degrees, I should say, without anything
slipping in the least, and then it relapsed to
its normal position." My friends the late
Lord and Lady Mount Temple were present
on this occasion and they confirmed not only
the story, but gave me an account of many
other weird phenomena they had witnessed
with Home.

The late Major-General Drayson, R.E.,
gave me in writing some of his experiences
with Home: he said he had had more than
50 sittings with Home, and though at first

64 Chapter V

absolutely incredulous, was soon convinced of
the genuineness of the amazing phenomena
he had witnessed, as Home gave him every
opportunity for close investigation. General
Drayson says: "I have seen tables, chairs,
boxes, etc., suddenly rise in the air, or move
from distant parts of the room to positions
close beside me; I have heard a locked piano
in my own house play a piece of music. I
have seen in Home's presence, at the late
Sir W. Gomm's house, an accordion carried
round the room, playing a tune when no
visible hand held it." General Drayson re-
lates many other things he has witnessed and
adds, "it is of course impossible to give in
detail all circumstances which convinced me
that imposition or delusion was impossible, —
the seances being mostly in my own house, —
and finally led me to abandon my former be-
lief in materialism."

It would be wearisome to quote further
from the abundant first-hand evidence of
Home's powers attested by men of probity
and intelligence. There are however two or
three extraordinary phenomena which Home
occasionally exhibited that are worthy of more
than a passing notice; these will be discussed
in the next chapter.

This little book would extend beyond its
limits if I were to quote even selections from
the mass of first-hand evidence given by

Physical Phenomena, continued 6^

numerous critical observers of these physical
phenomena, and obtained through trust-
worthy mediums both in England and abroad.
I would refer specially to the able work of
Mr. Maxwell on meta-psychical phenomena
for further evidence. Before closing this
chapter it is desirable to refer to another and
less satisfactory aspect of this subject as illu-
strated by the psychic Eusapia Paladino, a
paid professional medium of a very different
and much lower type than D. D. Home.

In 1894 Sir Oliver Lodge read a paper
before the Society for Psychical Research
in which he described the phenomena that
took place in his presence, and that of Pro-
fessor Charles Richet of Paris, when Eusapia
was secluded in a small island in the Mediter-
ranean (ile Roubaud) on which Professor
Richet had a summer residence. After a
searching and prolonged investigation, both
of these savants were convinced of the gen-
uineness of the phenomena that occurred, and
Sir Oliver published the following summary
of the results witnessed : —

"The things for which I wish specially to vouch, as
being the most easily and securely observed, and as
being amply sufficient in themselves to establish a
scientifically unrecognised truth, are (always under
conditions such as to prevent normal action on the
part of the medium) : —

66 Chapter V

( 1 ) The movements of a distant chair, visible in the
moonlight, under circumstances such as to satisfy me
that there was no direct mechanical connection.

(2) The distinct and persistent bulging and visible
movement of a window-curtain in absence of wind or
other ostensible cause.

(3) The winding-up and locomotion of the un-
touched chalet. [A musical cigar-box, shaped like a
chalet.]

(4) The sounding of the notes of the untouched
accordion and piano.

(5) The turning of the key on the inside of the
sitting-room door, its removal on to the table, and
subsequent replacement in door.

(6) The audible movements and gradual inversion
of an untouched heavy table, situated behind the
medium and out of the circle; and the finding it in-
verted afterwards.

(7) The visible raising of a heavy table under con-
ditions in which it would be ordinarily impossible to
raise it.

(8) The appearance of blue marks on a surface
previously blank, without ostensible means of writing.

(9) The graspings, pattings, and clutchings of my
head and arms, and back, while the head, and hands,
and feet of the medium were under complete control
and nowhere near the places touched."1

It is needless to add that the observers satis-
fled themselves that no other person had any
part in these oceurrenees.

Subsequently, a series of experiments were

1 "Journal of the S. P. R.," Vol. VI, November, 1894, p. 310.

Physical Phenomena, continued 6j

made with Eusapia at Cambridge in 1895,
in which Dr. Hodgson, Professor Hy. Sidg-
wick, Mr. Myers (all alas now deceased), and
others took part, the result being that the in-
vestigators found what seemed to them clear
evidence of trickery on the part of the
medium. Still further experiments a little
later on by Professor Richet and Mr. Myers,
after taking special precautions against fraud,
led to their conviction that Eusapia had un-
questionably super-normal powers. She was
further critically and independently tested by
several notable scientific men in Italy, — in-
cluding the eminent criminologist Professor
Lombroso, and the neurologist Professor
Morselli of Genoa; these and other compe-
tent investigators were convinced of the gen-
uineness of the extraordinary phenomena they
witnessed. Finally, three members of the
Society for Psychical Research specially
qualified to detect imposture, were com-
missioned by the Society to investigate this
notorious medium, and they unanimously re-
ported in favour of the genuineness of the
supernormal phenomena they obtained.

Nevertheless, although Eusapia appears to
have these super-normal powers, she is a
medium of a low moral type, who has been
convicted of imposture both in England and
America and with whom therefore I should
not care to have any sittings. My reason

68 Chapter V

for referring to her at all is the notoriety
she has gained, and the instructive psycho-
logical and moral considerations her career
affords.

I will only add that in fairness to Eusapia,
and also in corroboration of Sir Oliver Lodge's
original report, I have given in Appendix C
a more detailed account of the favourable re-
sults obtained through her mediumship by the
Italian investigators and others, together with
some remarks on this case which is, I fear,
too often typical of paid professional mediums
who sit for physical phenomena.

CHAPTER VI

LEVITATION AND IMPUNITY TO
FIRE

"There is nothing that need hinder Science from dealing
successfully with a world in which personal forces are the
starting point of new facts. . . . The systematic denial
on Science's part of personality as a condition of events
. . . may conceivably prove to be the very defect that
our descendants will be most surprised at in our own
boasted Science." — Professor W. James.

Among the many amazing phenomena which
numerous credible, and indeed eminent,
witnesses assert that they have seen in
connection with the medium D. D. Home,
is that of his levitation or floating in the air,
like the miracle recorded of St. Teresa and
others in still more remote times. As late as
1760, Lord Elcho states that he heard, when
in Rome, witnesses swear to the levitation
of a holy man about to be canonized. The
same fact is recorded, Mr. A. Lang tells us, in
Buddhist and Neoplatonic writings and later
among the Red Indians, and in Tonquin,
where in 1730 a Jesuit priest asserted he saw
this phenomenon, which he describes.

69

yo Chapter VI

In 1871 the Master of Lindsay (the late
Lord Crawford and Balcarres, F.R.S.) gave
the following evidence, which was corrobo-
rated by the two other spectators, the late Earl
of Dunraven (then Lord Adare) and Captain
Wynne : —

"I was sitting on December 16th, 1868, in Lord
Adare's rooms in Ashley Place, London, S.W., with
Mr. Home and Lord Adare and a cousin of his. Dur-
ing the sitting, Mr. Home went into a trance, and in
that state was carried out of the window in the room
next to where we were, and was brought in at our win-
dow. The distance between the windows was about
seven feet six inches, and there was not the slightest
foothold between them, nor was there more than a
twelve-inch projection to each window, which served
as a ledge to put flowers on. We heard the window in
the next room lifted up, and almost immediately after
we saw Home floating in the air outside our window.
The moon was shining full into the room ; my back
was to the light, and I saw the shadow on the wall of
the window sill, and Home's feet about six inches above
it. He remained in this position for a few seconds, then
raised the window and glided into the room feet fore-
most and sat down.

"Lord Adare then went into the next room to look
at the window from which he had been carried. It
was raised about eighteen inches; and he expressed his
wonder how Mr. Home had been taken through so
narrow an aperture. Home said, still entranced, 'I
will show you,' and then with his back to the window
he leaned back and was shot out of the aperture, head

Levitation 71

first, with the body rigid, and then returned quite
quietly. The window is about seventy feet from the
ground. The hypothesis of a mechanical arrangement
of ropes or supports outside has been suggested, but
does not cover the facts as described."

In an article in the "Contemporary Review"
for January, 1876, Dr. Carpenter,#the eminent
physiologist, commenting on the foregoing
says it illustrates how differently a believer
and a sceptic view the same incident: "A
whole party of believers will say they saw
Mr. Home float out of one window and in at
another, while a single honest sceptic declares
Mr. Home was sitting in his chair all the
time." As the only person present whose
testimony was not published was Captain
Wynne he was written to, and when asked if
he had contradicted Lord Crawford's state-
ment, he replied: "The fact of Mr. Home
having gone out of one window and in at
another I can swear to : anyone who knows me
would not for a moment say I was a victim to
hallucination or any other humbug of the
kind." Like many other controversialists Dr.
Carpenter drew on his imagination for his
facts in order to support his case.

One naturally supposes, however, that the
witnesses must have been mistaken, or suffer-
ing from some excitement or hallucination of
the senses. But it is not easy to suppose

72 Chapter VI

that three educated men, to whom nothing
was said beforehand of what they might ex-
pect to see, could all have been hallucinated
exactly in the same way: for the accounts
given by each are alike. Nor is it easy to
believe that the numerous witnesses of the
levitation of saints and others in past times
and in different countries, knowing nothing
of each other, were likewise all hallucinated;
nor, as Mr. A. Lang says, is it "very easy
to hold that a belief — to which the collective
evidence is so large and universal, as the
belief in levitation, — was caused by a series
of saints, sorcerers and others, thrusting their
head and shoulders out of a window where
the observers could not see them as one sceptic
has suggested."

Another singular phenomenon reported in
connection with Home, as bizarre as it is
unaccountable, is the enormous elongation
of his body, which sometimes occurred when
he was in a trance. The numerous witnesses
to this took every precaution to prevent them-
selves being deceived and they are unanimous
in their statement that this amazing pheno-
menon actually occurred. My friend the late
General Boldero, when Home was staying
with him in Scotland, saw this occur several
times, took exact measurements and assured
me that neither deception nor hallucination

Levitatton 73

were possible. The Neo-platonists report that
a similar thing occurred in their day to certain
'possessed' men.

Bewildering and inconceivable as were
some of the phenomena associated with
Home's mediumship they were not all unpar-
alleled. For the Rev. Stainton Moses to
whom I have already referred, experienced
levitation no less than ten times. Of Mr.
Moses' high character, of his sanity and prob-
ity, Mr. W. H. Myers says, "neither I myself,
nor so far as I know any person acquainted
with Mr. Moses, has ever entertained a
doubt." I knew Mr. Moses personally for
many years, and like other of his friends, I be-
lieve he was wholly incapable of deceit. Mr.
Sergeant Cox, not himself a Spiritualist, re-
lates that on one occasion when Mr. Moses was
in his house, in broad daylight a large, very
heavy mahogany dining table, — which re-
quired the effort of two strong men to move, —
suddenly and violently rocked to and fro, then
it rose, or tilted up, several inches from the
floor, first on one side and then on the other.

Frequent loud rappings also came upon the
table, on which there was no cloth, and the
light fell under it so that they could see no
one was concealed beneath the table. In
fact Sergeant Cox and Mr. Moses were the
only persons present in the room, they were
both standing some two feet distant from the

74 Chapter VI

table, one on each side of it, their hands not
touching the table but held some 8 inches
over it. The whole incident was published
by Sergeant Cox, and described by him to
Mr. Fred. Myers, whose detailed report of the
marvels that occurred through Mr. S. Moses'
mediumship is worth careful perusal.1

On another occasion, when Mr. Moses was
in a friend's house, a child's organ on the table
was lifted up, and floated round the room,
playing all the time by some invisible agency.
The chair on which Mr. Moses sat was sud-
denly drawn across the room, turned round so
as to face the wall, no one touching the chair;
then, Mr. Moses himself, by the same invisible
agency, was steadily lifted up from the chair
and raised till his head was near the ceiling;
as he was close to the wall he made a pencil
mark on it, level with his chest; he was then
lowered into his chair again; the height of
the mark when measured was found to be over
six feet from the floor. All the facts were
noted at the time, and even more striking cases
of his levitation are described; Mr. Moses
discouraged these manifestations which how-
ever continued for some time.

To return to Home, like the youths in the
Babylonian fiery furnace, Home in his trance

1 "Proceedings, S. P. R.," Vol. IX, pp. 245-35S.

Impunity to Fire J$

was uninjured by fire. Here I will quote Mr.
A. Lang, who has given much attention to
the subject of the Tire-walk' : —

"Many persons in many ages, are said to have
handled or walked through fire, not only without suf-
fering pain, but without lesion of the skin. Iamblichus
mentions this as among the peculiarities of his 'pos-
sessed' men; and in 'Modern Mythology' (1897) I nave
collected first-hand evidence for the feat in classical
times, and in India, Figi, Bulgaria, Trinidad, the Straits
Settlements, and many other places. The evidence is
that of travellers, officials, missionaries, and others, and
is backed (for what photographic testimony is worth)
by photographs of the performance. To hold glowing
coals in his hand, and to communicate the power of
doing so to others, was in Home's repertoire. Lord
Crawford saw it done on eight occasions, and himself
received from Home's hand the glowing coal unharmed.
A friend of my own, however, still bears the blister of
the hurt received in the process. Sir W. Crooke's evi-
dence follows: —

"At Mr. Home's request, whilst he was entranced I
went with him to the fireplace in the back drawing-
room. He [the influence controlling Home] said : 'We
want you to notice particularly what Dan [i.e. Home]
is doing.' Accordingly I stood close to the fire, and
stooped down to it when he put his hands in. . . .
Mr. Home then waved the handkerchief about in the
air two or three times, held it above his head, and then
folded it up and laid it on his hand like a cushion. Put-
ting his other hand into the fire, he took out a large
lump of cinder, red-hot at the lower part, and placed

76 Chapter VI

the red part on the handkerchief. Under ordinary cir-
cumstances it would have been in a blaze. In about
half a minute he took it off the handkerchief with his
hand, saying, 'As the power is not strong, if we leave the
coal longer it will burn.' He then put it on his hand,
and brought it to the table in the front room, where
all but myself had remained seated."

Not only have we Sir W. Crookes' evidence,
but a former President of the Royal Society,
the late Sir W. Huggins, O.M., witnessed the
same feat with Home and gave me a detailed
account of it. So also did Mr. S. C. Hall,
who was present on another occasion, when a
white-hot coal was put on his head and his
white hair gathered over it, but he told me
he felt no heat and his hair was wholly un-
injured.

Various other eye witnesses have informed
me that they have seen Mr. Home handle
with impunity red-hot coals; among others
a shrewd and able solicitor, the late Mr. W.
M. Wilkinson, writing to me from Lincoln's
Inn Fields, London, states that in the winter
of 1869:—

"I saw Mr. Home take out of our drawing-room
fire a red-hot coal, a little le^s in size than a cricket-
ball, and carry it up and down the room. He said
to Lord Adare, — now Earl Dunravcn, — who was pres-
ent, 'Will you take it from me? It will not hurt you.'
Lord Adare took it from him and held it in his hand

Impunity to Fire

for about half a minute, and before he threw it back
in the fire I put my hand close to it and felt the heat
like that of a live coal."

It is impossible to explain this by some
fire resisting substance, surreptitiously put
over the skin by Home, for Sir W. Crookes,
than whom no higher authority on chemistry
can be cited, tells us he knows of no chemical
preparation that will accomplish this; more-
over, he says he examined Home's hands care-
fully, after he had carried a live coal about
and he could see no burning nor any prepara-
tion over the skin, "which (he remarks) was
soft and delicate like a woman's."

Now these phenomena are too gross and
palpable to be explained by misdescription or
lack of attention on the part of the observers.
They must have thought they had seen what
took place, — a collective hallucination, — or
else some miraculous manifestation actually
occurred. For all attempts to explain the
occurrences as due to clever conjuring on
Home's part have signally failed. Experts in
conjuring whose opinions have been taken,
however little they believe in Home's preten-
sions, prefer to reject the testimony wholesale
rather than attempt to explain these remark-
able records.

Can we reject the testimony, — not because
the witnesses told conscious falsehoods, that is

78 Chapter VI

impossible to believe, but because they were
hallucinated? Now at Nancy and other
medical schools, where hypnotic suggestion
is used therapeutically, it is invariably found
that even the best subjects exhibit marked
differences in suggestibility, one subject sees
the suggested object more clearly and not
quite the same as another. But in these
marvels recorded with Home, the witnesses
were not hypnotic subjects and all perceived
the same thing, and only occasionally did they
receive from Home any suggestion as to what
was about to occur. The manifestations are
recorded by those present as having been sud-
den, startling and usually unannounced.

If suggestion on Home's part be the explan-
ation, it must have been purely mental; and
difficult as it is to suppose all present are
equally susceptible to verbal suggestion, the
difficulty is vastly intensified when we assume
unspoken mental suggestion, acting equally
upon all the spectators.1 Nor must we for-
get that the witnesses in some cases were
entire strangers to Home, and fully aware of,

1 In the "Proceedings, S. P. R.," Vol. XII, p. 21, an inter-
esting paper by Mr. Harrows shows that mental suggestion, with-
out hypnosis, can operate at a distance upon different individuals;
but only a single person is affected, and in Home's case we must
assume a collective hallucination created by an unspoken sugges-
tion, of which we have no experimental proof, though I admit
this is the most plausible hypothesis of the phenomena described
in this chapter.

Poltergeists 79

anrf on their guard against, any possible
hallucination.1

Nor is it likely that the sporadic cases of
levitation recorded in history can all be
explained away. Teresa was not the only
saint of whom levitation is recorded. In the
Acta Sanctorum similar phenomena are attri-
buted to more than 40 saints or other persons,
and said to be attested by crowds of their
contemporaries. The Bishop of Valencia was
believed to have been miraculously suspended
for some hours and was thus seen by his
clergy and a multitude of others. In fact
unless we deny the whole of the past and
present records of these phenomena, attempted
explanations are as difficult to accept as the
miracles themselves.

Then again both in ancient and recent times
we have first-hand evidence of the spontaneous
occurrence of many of the physical pheno-
mena such as were described in the last
chapter. Without warning, pieces of furni-
ture and crockery are thrown about a room,
bells are constantly rung, disturbances of all
kinds are produced, without any visible cause,
and all attempts to catch the supposed prac-

1 The reader who wishes for more information on Home's
marvellous record should read the two volumes "Incidents in my
Life," by D. D. Home, or the excellent narrative by Madame
Dunglas Home called "The Gift of D. D. Home" (Kegan Paul,
Trench & Co.).

80 Chapter VI

tical joker have signally failed. In fact
numerous witnesses, whom I have personally
cross-examined, have assured me they have
seen these things take place in broad daylight
or in abundant artificial light, and no person
had touched or even come near the things
that were moved or thrown about the room.
I have published a lengthy paper on the
evidence for these Poltergeist phenomena, as
they are called; and no doubt whatever rests
on my own mind as to the reality and super-
normal character of these utterly meaningless
phenomena.1

All we can do at present is to collect addi-
tional evidence and refrain from speculating
on the object of these preposterous and futile
occurrences, which appear not to have the
smallest ethical or religious value. Scientific
and philosophical value they have undoubt-
edly, as must be obvious to any thoughtful
reader.

1 See "Proceedings, S. P. R.(" Vol. XXV, p. 377, and Psychical
Research (Home Univ. Series), chapter 13.

CHAPTER VII

ON CERTAIN MORE DISPUTABLE PHENOMENA
OF SPIRITUALISM

ECTOPLASMS; "direct" voice and writing;

MATERIALIZATION ; ALLEGED SPIRIT
PHOTOGRAPHY; THE AURA

"By cherishing as a vital principle an unbounded spirit
of enquiry and ardency of expectation reason unfetters the
mind from prejudices of every- kind . . . guarding only
against enthusiasm and self deception by a habit of strict
investigation. . . The character of the true philosopher
is to hope all things not impossible and to believe all
things not unreasonable."1

THERE are certain other aspects of spiritual-
istic phenomena to which I have not referred
in the preceding pages because the evidence
on their behalf is less conclusive. The opinion
of some psychical researchers is indeed ad-
verse to their genuineness, or at least their
super-normal character. I refer to the alleged
"Direct voice" and "Direct writing"; that
is the speaking and writing of the soi-disant

1 Sir John Herschel, Discourse on Natural Philosophy, § 5.
Si

82

Chapter VII

spirit without controlling the medium's
muscles, or using them in any way. To this
may be added the transport of material ob-
jects without human agency, "apports" as
they are termed. Further, there are alleged
cases of "spirit photography," where impres-
sions of persons both deceased and living, and
of luminous patches, are said to occur on a
photographic plate without any corresponding
objective or known cause. All these pheno-
mena,— like that of the alleged materialisation
of part of the whole of the spirit form, (to
which reference was made in Chapter V) —
are comparatively rare and hence less access-
ible to critical investigation.

So far as my own experience goes I have
repeatedly witnessed all these rare pheno-
mena, but they were nearly always with paid
professional mediums, and the usual condi-
tions were such as to prevent conclusive evi-
dence being obtained. Nevertheless I have a
perfectly open mind on these disputed pheno-
mena; and will go even further, for in some
cases, which I investigated, their genuine
super-normal character was very diilicult to
deny.

As regards the "direct voice" and "direct
writing," many years ago I had some sittings
at the house of my friend the late Mr. Dawson
Rogers, with a lady medium, a friend of his,

"Direct" Writing 83

where both these phenomena were produced.
The results were remarkable, and obtained
under conditions which would have been
perfectly satisfactory had there been enough
light (which there was not) to form a conclu-
sive opinion.

Reference has been made on p. 56 to the
direct writing obtained by Professor Alex-
ander, who was well known to Mr. Myers.
In this case the sitting was in full light, and
the medium was the young daughter of a
personal friend of the Professor, who says
"it was impossible that anyone could have
written without being immediately detected" ;
nevertheless writing by an unseen hand came
several times on a slate on which a small
piece of slate pencil had been placed. ("Proc.
S.P.R.," Vol. VII, p. 181.) It is very difficult
to explain away other cases of direct writing,
such as those quoted by Dr. Walter Leaf
"Proc. S.P.R.," XIX, p. 400, and the numer-
ous cases in which it occurred with the Rev.
Stainton Moses, cited in Mr. Myers' record
of the experiences of this gifted medium,
which were published in the "Proceedings of
the S.P.R.," Vols. IX and XL

Sir W. Crookes records a remarkable at-
tempt at "direct writing" by an unseen hand,
which took place through the mediumship of
Mr. D. D. Home. The sitting was in the
light at his own house, and only a few private

84 Chapter VII

friends present. Sir W. Crookes, having
asked for a written message, says: —

"A pencil and some pieces of paper were lying on the
centre of the table; presently the pencil rose on its
point, and after advancing by hesitating jerks to the
paper, fell down. It then rose and again fell. A third
time it tried, but with no better result. After this a
small wooden lath, which was lying upon the table, slid
towards the pencil, and rose a few inches from the table;
the pencil rose again, and propping itself against
the lath, the two together made an effort to mark the
paper. It fell and then a joint effort was again made.
After a third trial, the lath gave it up and moved back
to its place, the pencil lay as it fell across the paper, and
an alphabetic message told us, 'We have tried to do as
you asked, but our power is exhausted.' Ml

As this took place in the light, under the
close inspection of Sir W. Crookes and in his
own room, neither fraud nor hallucination can
reasonably explain the occurrence.

With the well-known professional medium,
Slade I had many sittings 40 years ago, and
obtained what was alleged to be direct spirit
writing on my own marked slate, in full
daylight, and under conditions which certainly
rendered any explanation by fraud or mal-
observation difficult to conceive. I believe
Slade had genuine super-normal powers;

1 "Researches in Spiritualism," by Sir W. Crookes, p. 93.

The "Direct" Voice 8$

this can hardly be doubted after reading the
reports given by "M.A." (Oxon), in his book
Psychography, or by Zollner in his Tran-
scendental Physics. Nevertheless, like so many
other professional mediums, it is equally true
he resorted to trickery, and was convicted of
cheating in a notorious case tried in London.

Whilst the evidence against Slade in this
case was biased and weak, yet it is obvious
we must regard with the gravest doubt all
phenomena obtained through any medium
who has not a perfectly clean record. More-
over, as Dr. Hodgson and Mr. S. J. Davey
have shown conclusively in the "Proceedings
of the S.P.R.," Vol. IV, it is very easy for an
expert conjurer to simulate what many have
considered to be genuine super-normal pheno-
mena, such as occurred with Slade, Eglinton,
and other professional mediums. The same
volume of the Proceedings also contains a
critical paper by Mrs. H. Sidgwick on her
spiritistic experiences which, with the discus-
sion thereon, should be read by all enquirers.

As regards the "direct voice," this was
the usual form in which communications came
from a well-known American medium, with
whom I had several sittings. Here however
there was complete darkness, although this
was not always resorted to by her. Some re-
markable evidence professedly came through
the communicating voice, identifying the

86 Chapter VII

speaker with deceased friends utterly un-
known to the medium, and in some cases in
languages unknown to the medium. But here
also the medium was not free from suspicion,
hence to a critical outsider the evidence can-
not have the value which many sitters have
attached to it.

More remarkable are the luminous appear-
ances accompanying the mediumship of D. D.
Home, the Rev. Stainton Moses and others,
which have been observed under such strin-
gent conditions that they cannot be set aside
as fraudulent. Points of light darting about
the room and floating luminous patches, I
have frequently witnessed, and once also,
in the late Mr. W. De Morgan's studio, a
"materialized" bust, under what appeared
to be excellent conditions, but the inevitable
darkness of the room compelled me to regard
the evidence as inconclusive. Here however
is a record by Sir W. Crookes, who, needless
to say, took every precaution to prevent being
imposed upon by phosphorized oil or other
means; moreover, with all his chemical knowl-
edge and skill he failed to imitate the appear-
ance artificially. "Under the strictest test
conditions" Sir W. Crookes says: —

"I have seen a solid self-luminous body, the size ami
nearly the shape of a turkey's egg, float noiselessly about
the room, at one time higher than anyone present couhl

reach standing on tiptoe, and then gently descend to

Ectoplasms 87

the floor. It was visible for more than ten minutes, and
before it faded away it struck the table three times
with a sound like that of a hard solid body. During
this time the medium was lying back, apparently in-
sensible, in an easy chair."

The still more astonishing results recorded
by Sir W. Crookes of the "materialization"
of spirit hands or the whole body (see p. 54),
remain to this day absolutely inexplicable.

All these phenomena have been termed
ectoplasms by Mr. Myers adapting a word
suggested by Professor Ochorowicz of War-
saw, whose valuable and confirmatory re-
searches in spiritism I have not space to de-
scribe.1 By Ectoplasy is meant the power of
forming outside the body of the medium a
concentration of vital energy, or vitalised
matter, which operates temporarily in the
same way as the body from which it is drawn;
so that visible, audible or tangible human-like
phenomena are produced. This is very much
like the psychic force hypothesis under a new
name (see p. 107).

As regards "apports," those I have wit-
nessed with professional mediums were not
convincing, and one well-known medium, now
dead, I caught in flagrant trickery. But a

1 Those who wish for fuller information on these phenomena
may consult "Human Personality," Vol. II, p. 544 et teq. or
Mr. Henry Holt's "Cosmic Relations," Vol. I, p. 149 et teq.

88 Chapter VII

friend of mine, sitting with a few friends in
the country, and no professional medium, gave
me the detailed account of an "apport"
brought from his own house in London which
was so convincing to him and so inexplicable,
that I gave a detailed account of it in Light.
This formed one of a series of articles I wrote
for that Journal in 1 88 1 , entitled "Pieces
Justificatives," for the formation of a Society
for Psychical Research.

I will now turn to the debateable subject of
alleged "spirit photography." Mrs. Henry
Sidgwick, who made a careful examination of
this question, came to the conclusion that the
alleged cases of the appearance of a deceased
person on a photographic plate, were either
wilfully fraudulent or capable of a normal
explanation.1

Since Mrs. Sidgwick's investigation other
cases have occurred which prima facie seem
inexplicable in either of these ways. For
example, Dr. Hyslop has published a lengthy
paper on this subject in the "Proceedings of
the American Society for Psychical Re-
search," giving the reproduction of numerous
photographs which appear to afford evidence
of a super-normal origin, though 1 think he

1 Sec "Proceedings, S. P. R.," Vol. VII, also "Journal S. P. R.,"
Vol. V, for a discussion on die subject.

"Spirit" Photographs 89

will agree with me the evidence is far from
conclusive.

While professing, for my own part, to leave
the question of spirit-photography an open
one, I may here relate a very curious and in-
teresting case of a supposed spirit photograph
which some years ago I submitted to searching
examination and experiment. Lady C, the
relative of a friend of mine, had taken for the
summer the late Lord Combermere's country
house, Combermere Abbey, in Cheshire. The
library in the house was a fine panelled room,
and Miss C. (as she then was) was anxious
to secure a photograph of it. Accordingly,
placing her half-plate camera on its stand in
a favorable position, — fronting the unoccu-
pied carved oak arm chair on which Lord
Combermere always used to sit, she opened
a new box of photographic plates in the dark
room, put a plate in the dark slide, and after
focussing the camera, inserted and exposed the
plate. On developing the plate by herself, she
was amazed to find the figure of a leg-less old
man seated in the carved oak arm chair.

Shortly after this they found Lord Comber-
mere had died from an accident he met with
in London, and was being buried in the family
vault, a few miles from his country house,
at the very time the photograph was taken.
This curious coincidence came out after the
photograph had been developed and led to a

90 Chapter VII

surmise whether the ghostly figure resembled
the late nobleman.

At this point the facts were communicated
to me, and I received a print of the photo-
graph. I wrote to the members of Lord
Combermere's family and sent them the
photograph. The figure was somewhat in-
distinct and opinions differed as to the
likeness; on the whole it was considered to
be like him, especially in the peculiar attitude
which was habitual to him when seated in his
chair.

In reply to my enquiries Miss C. informed
me the exposure of the plate was lengthy
some 15 minutes, and that she had for a
short time left the empty room during the
exposure of the plate. I thought it possible
one of the men servants had come in and
seated himself in the chair until he heard
Miss C. returning. Accordingly I made a
photographic test of this surmise. Exposing
a half-plate in the panelled library of the
house of my friend the late Mr. Titus Salt,
where I happened to be staying, I asked his
eldest son, then a youth, to walk into the room,
sit down in the oak arm chair, cross ami un-
cross his legs, move his head slightly, and then
walk out of the room.

This was done and we developed the photo-
graph together; when lo! there came out
almost a duplicate of the Combermere photo-

"Spirit" Photographs 91

graph, a shadowy rather aged man with no
legs seated in the chair, and no signs of anyone
coming into or leaving the room. I wrote a
paper on the whole matter and published it,
with a reproduction of the two photographs,
in the "Journal of the Society for Psychical
Research" for December, 1895.

There I thought the matter ended, with a
young footman as the soi-disant Lord Comber-
mere; but I found that Miss C. and some
others of the family strongly dissented from
my view. They had closely examined their
servants and had reason to believe that the
denial, by the footman and others, — of any
visit to the room at the time when the ex-
posure took place, — was perfectly correct and
straightforward.

Some time later an article of mine, which
appeared in the Westminster Gazette, and
contained a reference to this photograph,
brought me the following letter from one of
Lord Combermere's married relatives, which
disclosed a fact of which I was previously
unaware.

"Dear Sir, — Having read your interesting article on
the supernormal in the Westminster Gazette of the 9th
inst., I cannot resist adding one detail to the account of
Lord Combermere's supposed spirit photograph.

"You say he had not lost his legs, but he died from
an accident in which they were so much injured, he
could never have used them again. He was run over

92 Chapter VII

by a wagon at Knlghtsbridge, crossing the street, and
only lived a few weeks.

"Lord Combermere was my father-in-law and I
lived some years at the Abbey with him, and was much
interested in Miss C 's written account of the photo-
graph, which she gave me. The face was always too
indistinct to be quite convincing to me, though some of
his children had no doubt at all of the identity. I may
add, none of the men servants in the house in the least
resembled the figure and were all young men ; whilst
the outside men were all attending the funeral, which
was taking place at the Church four miles off, at the
very time the photograph was being done. I give you
the pour et contre quite disinterestedly, as I am not my-
self persuaded one way or the other. — Yours very truly,

"Jane S. C ."

There I leave the matter sharing Mrs. C.'s
opinion.

Both the late Mr. A. R. Wallace, O.M.,
and Mr. W. T. Stead, with some other in-
vestigators in England and abroad, have been
convinced of the genuineness and veridical
character of spirit photography; but it is so
easy to fake a photograph by double exposure
and otherwise, and there are so many acci-
dental causes that give a vrai semblance to
ghostly impressions, that we need much more
conclusive evidence on this subject than has
yet been obtained.

In conclusion I may allude in passing to
Baron Reichenbaeh's "odic lights" and

Luminosity of Magnetic Field 93

"aura" round the human body. There is
nothing inconceivable in such phenomena, in
fact some experiments I made in this direction
years ago led me to think Reichenbach was
not mistaken. But I was more interested in
the alleged luminosity which Reichenbach de-
clared his sensitives saw round the poles of
a magnet and which in 1883 I set myself to
examine.

For this purpose it was necessary to
construct an absolutely dark room, to try a
large number of people, each of whom had
to remain at least half an hour in this dark-
ened chamber to render their eyes sufficiently
sensitive to any faint luminosity. When this
was done two or three sensitives were found
who distinctly saw the luminosity and were
able to discover the position of an artificial
magnet which, unknown to them, I had
secreted in the dark room. Then a powerful
electro-magnet was tried and careful pre-
cautions were taken to avoid any unconscious
suggestion of telepathic influence, or detection
of the faint sound that accompanies magnet-
isation, the sound being by proper means
suppressed.

The sensitives immediately drew what they
had seen on their return to daylight, their
drawings, made independently, agreed, and
I published the results both in the official
scientific journal, the Philosophical Magazine

94 Chapter VII

for April 1883, and in the Proceedings of the
Society for Psychical Research for the same
year. Nevertheless, though I myself am
perfectly satisfied of the existence of this
luminosity, the evidence needs further corro-
boration before it can be accepted by the
scientific world.1 No trace of any photo-
graphic impression of this alleged luminosity
was obtained even after long exposure with
extremely sensitive plates, nor after following
the suggestions made to me by the late Sir
Wm. Huggins, O.M., who took much interest
in the matter.

In all these curious and debateable psychical
developments the difficulty consists in finding
the sensitive whose organization has the
peculiar and necessary idiosyncrasy which
enables them to become in some cases (like
the dowser or water-finder) clairvoyant, in
others a medium for physical phenomena or
automatic writing. This leads us back to the
interesting psychological problem of medium-
ship, which is discussed in another chapter,
and which will form a fruitful field for experi-
mental psychology in the next generation.

1 The late Ear] Crawford, then Lord Lindsay, tried similar
experiments, at first with doubtful success; but with the medium
Home, in 1871, Lord Lindsay states he obtained clear proof of
the existence of this luminosity emanating from the poles of a
large permanent magnet he had secreted in a dark room.

$art 3

CHAPTER VIII

THE CANONS OF EVIDENCE IN PSYCHICAL
RESEARCH

"Nothing can destroy the evidence of testimony in any
case but a proof or probability that persons are not com-
petent judges of the facts to which they give testimony,
or that they are actually under some indirect influence in
giving it in such particular case. Till this is made out the
testimony must be admitted." — Bishop Butler.1

It is more or less unlikely that those who have
never witnessed any of the phenomena we
have been discussing will be able to believe
in them fully or at all. A natural and proper
reservation of mind always accompanies the
reception of evidence which is opposed to the
general experience of mankind. Even Sir
W. Crookes writes that, in recalling the details
of what he witnessed, he finals an antagonism
in his mind between his reason on the one
hand, and on the other the evidence of his

1 "Analogy," part II, chap. 7.
95

96 Chapter VIII

senses, corroborated as it was by that of other
witnesses who were present. Yet, as Reid
states in his essay on "Mind," and as jurists
know, no counsel would venture to offer as
an argument that we ought not to put faith
in the sworn testimony of trustworthy eye-
witnesses because what they assert is in-
credible; few judges would listen to such
pleading.

But, in spite of all logic, we are conscious
that

"Events may be so extraordinary that they hardly can
be established by testimony. We should not give credit
to a man who should affirm that he saw an hundred
dice thrown in the air ar.d they all fell on the same
faces. If we had ourselves been spectators of such an
event, we should not believe our own eyes till we had
scrupulously examined all the circumstances, and assured
ourselves that there was no trick or deception. Alter
such an examination we should not hesitate to admit it,
nothwithstanding its great improbability, and no one
would have recourse to an inversion of the laws of
vision in order to account for it. This shows that the
probability of the continuance of the [recognised] law j
of nature is superior, in our estimation, to every other
evidence. One may judge, therefore, of the weight of
testimony necessary to prove a suspension of those law ,
and how fallacious it is in such cases to apply the ujiii-
mon rules of evidence."1

1 Laplace, Essai P/iilosop/iiqur sur Us ProbabilitSs, p. 76.

Canons of Evidence 97

Hence Bertrand, in his "Traite du Som-
nambulisme," says, with regard to kindred
amazing phenomena, that though by listening
to weighty evidence we may conclude there
are sufficient reasons for believing them,
"yet one really does believe them only after
having seen them." We may entertain a
limited belief, one tempered with scepticism,
but unreserved assent to miracles, ancient or
modern, requires actual experience of similar
marvels, or absolute faith not only in the
wisdom, but also in the strict accuracy and
moral worth of the person who attests them;
in fact, the inner witness of our spiritual
nature to what would otherwise be incredible.
Albeit the position taken up by St. Thomas
in the Gospels does not justify the scornful
attitude of many sceptics. ,' It is utterly
unphilosophical to ridicule Or deny well-
attested phenomena because they are inex-
plicable. J Laplace, Abercrombie, Herschel,
and many others might be quoted to this
effect, but it is needless to verify so obvious
a proposition. Only "in proportion to the
difficulty there seems of admitting the facts
should be the scrupulous attention we bestow
on their examination."

This brings me to the perfectly legitimate
position which many take up, and which is
justified by the caution that characterises all
sound advance in knowledge. It is that the

98 Chapter Fill

antecedent improbability of these phenomena
is so great, they are so far removed from the
common experience of mankind, and, more-
over, they involve ideas so unrelated to our
existing scientific knowledge, that, before we
can accept them, we must have, not only
evidence, but incontestable evidence, on their
behalf.1

This is common sense and obviously neces-
sary. Such undeniable evidence I have en-
deavoured to place before my readers, though
it may not be adequate to carry conviction of
some of the amazing phenomena related, such
as the "materialization" of a spirit form, —
on this indeed I reserve my own opinion. On
the real objective existence of most of these
super-normal physical phenomena the evi-
dence appears to me to be overwhelming.

1 In a paper, "On the Value of Testimony in Matters Extraor-
dinary," Mr. C. C. Massey, following Dr. A. R. Wallace, has
urged that the antecedent improbability of an event is simply
equivalent to the improbability that affirmative evidence, reaching
a certain standard of intrinsic value, will be forthcoming, and
therefore vanishes with the occurrence of such evidence; so that
adverse presumption ought never to prejudice the reception and
estimation of evidence on behalf of some fact outside our experi-
ence. Hence (according to this view) we must dissent from the
proposition commonly adopted that "improbability" legitimates
the demand for an extraordinary amount of evidence, and have
regard rather to the positive presumption which experience
affords, that the best human testimony, after taking account of all
elements of fallacy in the particular case, is only to be found
co-existing witli the actual fact testified to.

In his presidential tddretl to the S. P, K. in 1889, Professor H.
Sidgwick fully discussed, and s.iiil the last word on, " 1 he
Canons of Evidence in Psychical Research."

Canons of Evidence 99

Surely it is the business of science to extend
its domain in these fruitful fields of research,
and it is only because the trained scientific
investigator has, until quite recently, turned
his back on these phenomena, that the humble
spiritualists have had to try and do the
neglected work of science in this very difficult
region of enquiry; and now having done it
to the best of their ability, they are scorned
and pelted by the educated world and told
they are guilty of "intellectual whoredom,"
whilst their painstaking effort to enlarge the
sum of human knowledge is stigmatised as the
"recrudescence of superstition"; and this by
the leaders and organs of scientific thought,
where one would have expected a welcome
even to the humblest seeker after truth.1 I
heartily agree with our great logician, De
Morgan (if I may be excused quoting him
again), who says: —

"The Spiritualists, beyond a doubt, are in the track
that has led to all advancement in physical science;
their opponents are the representatives of those who have
striven against progress. ... I say the deluded
spirit-rappers are on the right track; they have the
spirit and method of the grand old times when those
paths were cut through the uncleared forests in which
it is now the daily routine to walk. What was that

1 This was written many years ago; happily such ferocious
hostility is now rarely found except amongst those steeped in
German ways of thought.

IOO Chapter VIII

spirit? It was the spirit of universal examination
wholly unchecked by fear of being detected in the inves-
tigation of nonsense. When the Royal Society was
founded the Fellows set to work to prove all things,
that they might hold fast that which was good. They
bent themselves to the question whether sprats were
young herrings. They made a circle of the powder of a
unicorn's horn and set a spider in the middle of it ;
'but it immediately ran out'; they tried several times
and the spider 'once made some stay in the powder.'
Then they tried Kenelm Digby's sympathetic powder,
and those members who had any of the powder of sym-
pathy were desired to bring some of it at the next
meeting."

But these childish researches, as we now
see them, showed that the enquirers had really
been enquiring. Then De Morgan proceeds
to show that "Spiritualists have taken the
method of the old time," that they have
started a theory and seen how it works, for
without a theory facts are a mob, not an army.
This was the method of Newton; he started
one of the most outrageous ideas that ever
was conceived and tried how its consequences
worked. For Newton's theory was, "that
there is not a particle of salt in the salt-cellars
of the most remote star in the Milky Way
that is not always pull, pull, pulling every
particle of salt in the salt-cellars of our earth
— aye, the pepper in the pepper-boxes, too —
our pepper and salt, of course, using retalia-

Canons of Evidence ioi

tory measures."1 So the great law of gravi-
tation came to be our heritage; rigorous in-
vestigation and overwhelming evidence on
behalf of this most improbable idea has
established it as a universal truth.

Again, it has now become a scientific heresy
to disbelieve in an imperceptible, imponder-
able, infinitely rare and yet infinitely elastic
all-pervading kind of matter, the so-called
luminiferous ether, which is both interstellar
and interatomic, a material medium of a
wholly different order of matter from any-
thing known to our senses, and the very exist-
ence of which is only known inferentially.
For it is to be noted that this staggering but
fruitful idea is based not upon direct but in-
direct evidence, and this notwithstanding
its "antecedent improbability." Moreover,
modern science has taught us that there are
myriads of waves in the ether which are too
short or too long to affect our unaided senses.
They might for ever have been falling on us,
bringing a constant stream of energy from the
sun to the earth, and still we could never have
become aware of their existence, or of the
medium which carried them, had we trusted
solely to the direct evidence of our senses.

A recognised authority has said in a standard
text-book, "in earlier times the suggestion
of such a medium by anyone would probably

1 Preface of "Matter to Spirit," p. xix, et seq.

102 Chapter VIII

be looked upon as strong evidence of insanity.
Even with the evidence which we now have
in favour of a space-filling ether, there are
many who would rather doubt such evidence
than believe in a thing which they cannot
taste or smell [or of which we have no direct
sense perception]. However, considering the
medium as only hypothetical, the fact that
it might certainly exist and fill important
functions in the life of the universe and still
never be detected or suspected by us, is a
strong reason why the postulation of such a
medium for the explanation of natural pheno-
mena should not be branded as irrational or
unphilosophic."1

This leads us to ask is there any theory "not
irrational or unphilosophic" that can be sug-
gested to account for the startling and bizarre
phenomena described in these chapters. To
that let us now turn our attention.

1 Trrstnn's "Theory of Heat," p. 56.

CHAPTER IX

THEORIES

"Hypotheses have often an eminent use; and a facility
in framing them, if attended with an equal facility in
laying them aside when they have served their turn, is one
of the most valuable qualities a philosopher can possess."

— Sir John Herschel.1

Let us now consider what hypothesis can
be framed to account for the amazing pheno-
mena we have been considering.

The popular view that all mediums are im-
postors and all the manifestations associated
with them are due to fraud, is a convenient
explanation for those who will not take the
trouble to enquire. But I have never yet
met with anyone who has seriously studied
the evidence, or engaged in prolonged invest-
igation of this subject, who holds that view,
however strongly he may have held it before-
hand.2 Apart from the investigations of the

1 "Discourse on Natural Philosophy," p. 304.

2 A reviewer of Sir O. Lodge's book "Raymond" recently said,
"There never yet, we believe, was a medium, unless perhaps it
was D. D. Home, who was not sooner or later convicted of gross

103

104 Chapter IX

Psychical Research Society, — the most notable
instance of a body of able enquirers, — with
no bias in favour of spiritualism, — who proved
40 years ago that the phenomena could not
be explained by imposture, is the Committee
of the Dialectical Society already referred to.
No doubt fraudulent paid mediums exist,
just as bad coins do, and their existence is
due to the fact that there are genuine ones
to imitate. Sir W. Crookes, O.M., whose
high position in the scientific world shows
him to be one of the most exact and accom-
plished of experimental investigators, — has
said that he began his enquiry into the pheno-
mena of Spiritualism, believing the whole
affair was superstition and trickery, but he
ended by "staking his scientific reputation"
that his preconceived ideas were wrong and
that a class of phenomena wholly new to
science did really exist.

Putting aside the imposture theory, what
reasonable hypothesis can we entertain?
Hallucination naturally suggests itself, and
I have already referred to this in an earlier

and deliberate fraud." Such a sweeping statement is simply
ludicrous, when the word medium includes men of such probity
as the Rev. Stainton Moses and many others, as well as dis-
tinguished ladies such as the late Mrs. Verrall and others to be
named in later chapters. Moreover, we must remember tti.it
what appears to be fraud may not always be so (see p. 12 3), and
further, that it is to Spiritualists themselves we mainly owe the
exposure of dishonest mediums.

Theories 105

chapter. I was at one time disposed to think
it was an adequate explanation. In fact, in
a paper read before the British Association
in 1876 on "Abnormal conditions of mind,"
which is printed in the "Proceedings of the
Psychical Research Society" (vol. 1, p. 238),
I detailed some experiments I had made,
showing that by suggestion it was easy to
lead a subject, when in a light hypnotic trance,
to hold the most extravagant beliefs, e.g.,
that he had floated round the room, and this
for some days after complete waking. But
hallucination cannot account for the perma-
nent records Sir William Crookes obtained,
even if it extended to all the numerous wit-
nesses who were sometimes present with him
on these occasions. Hence, though admitting
that it is of great importance to be on one's
guard against hallucination and mal-observa-
tion, as well as fraud, I am fully satisfied that
these causes are quite inadequate to explain
all the phenomena before us.

Let us therefore consider what other
hypotheses can be framed to account for the
phenomena under discussion. A provisional
theory which physiologists might be disposed
to accept, when they admit the genuineness
of the simpler physical phenomena of spiritu-
alism, is that of an Exo-neural action of the
brain. But this must be a sub-conscious

106 Chapter IX

action, an effect of the subliminal self to which
we shall refer later on. Moreover, this must
ibc supplemented by a store of available energy
in the unseen, which can not only be con-
trolled and liberated by the subliminal self,
but also, in some unknown way, can be made
to act directly upon lifeless matter.

So far as I am aware, the first person to
suggest an exo-neural action of the mind was
Dr. Mayo, F.R.S., in his admirable little book
on the "Truths contained in Popular Super-
stitions," published in 1851. He says in
explanation of mesmeric clairvoyance or
lucidity, "I hold that the mind of a living
person in its most normal state is always, to
a certain extent, acting exo-ncurally or beyond
the limits of the bodily person, and in the
lucid state this exo-neural apprehension seems
to extend to every object and person around."
The high position held by Dr. Mayo as Pro-
fessor of Physiology in King's College and the
Royal College of Surgeons, London, entitled
his suggestions to greater consideration than
they received.

A theory of this kind was indeed proposed
by Count de Gasparin, in 1854, to explain the
physical phenomena of Spiritualism, as the
result of his prolonged experiments, and a
little later by Professor Tinny, of Geneva,
and again later by Sergeant Cox. This may
be called the theory of "ectenic" or "psychic

Theories 107

force/' and it attributes the phenomena to
some extension in space of the nervous force
of the medium, just as the power of a magnet,
or of an electric current, extends beyond itself
and can influence and move certain distant
bodies which lie within the field of the mag-
netic or electric force.

It is, however, worth noting that the
"psychic force," theory, often adopted at the
outset by enquirers, is usually abandoned by
them later on as it is inadequate to explain
the phenomena we shall discuss subsequently,
where an intelligence apart from those present
is manifested; hence advanced enquirers
usually fall back upon the spirit theory as the
simplest explanation of all the manifestations.
Thus Professor Lombroso, in an article pub-
lished in the "Annals of Psychical Science"
for 1908, states he advocated the psychic
force theory until he found it impossible to
explain by that hypothesis many of the
phenomena which he proceeds to detail.
Nevertheless some such theory, as an exo-
neural action of our organism, which covers
the simpler physical phenomena of Spiritual-
ism, may be enunciated in the future by
physiologists who wish to escape from the
implications involved in the theory of a dis-
carnate intelligence.

There is another hypothesis, somewhat

io8 Chapter IX

allied to that of psychic force, which is worth
consideration. It may be that the intelligence
operating at a seance is a Thought-projection
of ourselves — that each one of us has his
simulacrum in the unseen. That with the
growth of our life and character here, a
ghostly image of oneself is growing up in the
invisible world; nor is this inconceivable. As
thought, will, and emotion can affect, and to
some extent mould, the gross matter of which
our bodies are composed, —

"For of the soule the bodie forme doth take,
For soule is forme and doth the bodie make."1 —

a more perfect impress is quite conceivable
upon the finer matter of the unseen universe.
The phenomena of telepathy show either that
thought can powerfully affect an unseen
material medium, or else project particles of
thought-stuff through space, or that telepathy
is the direct operation of our transcendental
or intuitive self, as Mr. Constable has said in
his suggestive work on Personality and Tele-
pathy. Physics teaches us that light, heat,
electricity, and magnetism affect the matter
of an invisible world, the all pervading ether,
more perfectly than they do the matter of
the visible world. Suns and stars, as well as
much of the world in which we live, would

1 Spenser. "Hymnc in honour of Bcautie," line 13;.

Theories 109

have no existence for us but for the influence
they impress upon the unseen ether.

May not thought be able to act in like
manner? In fact it has been suggested by
two profound and distinguished scientific men,
Professors Balfour Stewart and P. G. Tait,
"that thought conceived to affect the matter
of another universe simultaneously with this
may explain a future state."1

The ancient Buddhist doctrine of Karma
also teaches that our future state is the result
of our thoughts and actions, the sum of our
merit or demerit, —

"All that total of a soul
Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had."

Karma is thus the relentless operation and
spiritual embodiment of the law of cause and
effect, from which none of us can escape. In
modern Theosophy we find the same idea,
developed in connection with the doctrine of
re-incarnation. The thoughts of each in-
dividual life, generate a thought-body in the
unseen, which becomes the next dwelling
place of our soul on its return to earth.

1 The whole passage runs as follows: "If we now turn to
thought, we find that inasmuch as it affects the substance of the
present visible universe, it produces a material organ of memory.
But the motions which accompany thought must also affect the
invisible order of things, while the forces which cause these
motions are likewise derived from the same region, and thus it
follows that thought conceived to affect the matter of another
universe simultaneously ivith this may explain a future state."
—"The Unseen Universe," p. 199. (Fourth Edition. )_

no Chapter IX

Hence the innate dispositions of a child is
the result of its own unconscious past, the
character it has moulded for itself during a
previous existence on earth.

If, in a more concrete manner than Long-
fellow meant,

"No action whether foul or fair
Is ever done but it leaves somewhere
A record written by fingers ghosth ,"

if our thoughts and characters are faithfully
and indelibly being written on the unseen,
we are, in fact, involuntarily and inexorably
creating not only in our own soul, but possibly
in the invisible world, an image of ourselves,
a thought-projection, that embraces both our
outer and our innermost life. And it may be
that during a seance a quasi-vitality is given
to these conceivable thought-bodies which
disappears when the sitting is over: there is,
as we all know, some drain on the medium's
vitality during a successful seance. But
whatever explanation we adopt, there appears
to be some sympathetic response, something
analogous to resonance in the unseen, occur-
ring in these psychical phenomena. Possibly
it is this which so often causes the manifesting
intelligence to appear but a reflection of the
mind of the medium, and leads to the danger,
of which investigators are well aware, de-
ceptive communications.

The Super-sensible World ill

Or we may reverse this hypothesis and hold,
with Plato, that the world of sensible things
is only an image of the world of ideas existing
in a super-sensible world, that objects of
sense have only a borrowed existence received
from the eternal realities, or ideas in the
unseen. This was very much Swedenborg's
view, that the objects in the natural world
are merely ephemeral counterparts and effects
of things and causes in the more real spiritual
world into which we pass after this life. We
are thus incarnate ghosts of our true selves,
fleeting material phantasms of our true and
enduring personality.

To return from this digression, — What
other theory can be proposed to account for
the physical manifestations of what appear to
be active and unseen intelligences? The usual
theory of Spiritualists is that the phenomena
are due to the action of discarnate human
beings, who thus seek to make their continued
existence known to us. But although these
manifestations show intelligence, they afford
no proof whatever of the continued existence
of human beings after death. Evidence of
this, derived from other psychical phenomena,
we shall consider later on, and, if the spiritual-
istic theory be accepted, it may then seem
to be the simplest solution of all the pheno-
mena, albeit some of the marvels connected

112 Chapter IX

with the medium Home will remain an out-
standing puzzle.

Meanwhile it is not a very incredible thing
to suppose that in the luminiferous ether (or
in some other unseen material medium) life of
some kind exists; and that the law of evolu-
tion— the Divine law of progress — has been at
work, maybe for aeons prior to the formation
of a habitable earth. If the grosser matter we
are familiar with is able to be the vehicle of
life, and respond to the Divine spirit, the finer
and more plastic matter of the ether might
more perfectly manifest and more easily
respond to the inscrutable Power that lies
behind phenomena. There is nothing ex-
travagant, nothing opposed to our present
scientific knowledge, in this assumption.

It is, therefore, in harmony with all we
know to entertain a belief in an unseen world,
in which myriads of living creatures exist,
some with faculties like our own, and others
with faculties beneath or transcending our
own; and it is possible that the evolutionary
development of such a world has run on
parallel lines to our own.1 The rivalry of

1 Isaac Taylor, in his well-known and suggestive book, "Physi-
cal Theory of Another Life," chap. 17, which 1 have read since
the above was written, has a similar conjecture, and maintains
that the Scriptures support the existence of an entire order of
both good and evil beings around us; he holds that "one well-
attested instance of the presence and intelligent agency of an in-
visible being would be enough to carry the quotum of an invisible
ttuiioniy pervading the visible universe" (p. it>\).

Life in the Invisible 113

life, the existence of instinct, intellect, con-
science, will, right and wrong are as prob-
able there as here. And, in course of time,
consciousness of our human existence may
have come to our unseen neighbours, and
some means of mental, or even material,
communication with us may have been found.
For my own part, it seems not improbable
that many of the physical manifestations
witnessed in a Spiritualistic seance are the
product of human-like, but not really human,
intelligences — good or bad daimonia they may
be, elementals some have called them, which
aggregate round the medium; drawn from
that particular plane of mental and moral
development in the unseen which corresponds
to the mental and moral plane of the medium.
The possible danger of such influences I will
refer to in a subsequent chapter (see page 250) .
But if such unseen intelligences have for
ages past existed in our midst, may they not
have had some share in the history of life on
this earth? We know how largely man can
modify both organic and inorganic nature by
the exercise of his intelligence and will; if we
can even alter the varieties of plants and
animals by artificial selection, is it unreason-
able to suppose that the psychical operation
of unseen intelligences may have influenced
the course of evolution through the ages?
Is it possible that some of the unsolved

114 Chapter IX

problems in the doctrine of evolution may
have to be shifted from the world of sense
and gross matter to the unseen world around
us, just as in physics we are gradually shift-
ing our penultimate explanation of perceptible
things to the imperceptible ether? The great
First Cause must ever lie beyond our ken, but
science, which deals with secondary causes,
is finding that to many obscure questions the
visible world appears to offer no intelligible
solution.

The existence of a fourth dimension in space
is not an explanation of the origin of the
phenomena of Spiritualism, but a mathe-
matical conception that shows the possibility
for some of those phenomena to four-
dimensional beings, provided they could,
under certain circumstances, produce effects
visible to us three-dimensional beings. Some
of these effects, we can theoretically predict,
e.g. the passage of matter through matter, or
the knotting of a single endless cord, or loop,
or ring of leather. An intelligent being,
having the power to produce on this cord
four-dimensional bendings, would be able to
tie one or more knots on it without Loosening
the scaled ends of the cord or cutting the ring
of leather. Though this feat is to us, of
course, impossible, it is asserted that it was
successfully performed in a few minutes, in

Zollner's Experiments 115

full light, in December, 1877, through the
instrumentality of a well-known medium, and
in the presence of some distinguished and
critical German men of science, Professors
Zollner, Weber, Fechner, and Scheibner. The
full account, with the precautions taken to
avoid deception, is given in Mr. Massey's
translation of Zollner's "Transcendental
Physics." Nor was this a unique experience;
for a similar experiment, a knot tied in an
unseamed ring of leather, is reported to have
been successfully made in Russia, and vouched
for by the Hon. A. Aksakof. On the other
hand, I am not aware of any corroboration of
these experiments in recent years, and whilst
it seems impossible to explain them away by
deception, or gross exaggeration or mal-
observation, it is wiser to suspend our judg-
ment on these, and some other of the rarer
spiritualistic phenomena and regard them as
"not proven" until more abundant and con-
clusive evidence is forthcoming.

This long discussion of various theories has
I fear wearied my readers, but psychical
researchers are cutting a path through un-
cleared forests, and all conjectures regarding
the right way are useful. To change the
simile we are laying the foundations of a new
and spacious annex to the temple of knowl-
edge, and we must be prepared to see a forest
of scaffolding — in the shape of theories and

Ii6 Chapter IX

working hypotheses — arise. Only thus can
the solid stones of fact be laid and the temple
upbuilt, then in course of time, "the facts will
tell their own story and supply their own ex-
planation; at present we have to labour and
to wait."

CHAPTER X

THE PROBLEM OF MEDIUMSHIP

"Whose exterior semblance doth belie
The Soul's immensity."

It may be asked, and many have asked scorn-
fully, why should a medium be necessary in
these Spiritualistic manifestations?

As we are all aware, the production of the
phenomena appears to be inseparably con-
nected with some special living organisations
that are called "mediumistic." And it may
well be, granting the existence of a spiritual
world, that a medium is as necessary there as
here; in fact, there seems evidence in all the
communications purporting to come from
deceased persons that they find an inter-
mediary between themselves and the medium
on earth is necessary to them as to us. Looked
at from a purely scientific standpoint, there
is nothing remarkable in this. Certain
persons, happily not all of us, are subject to
abnormal states of body and mind, and the
alienist or pathologist does not refuse to

117

n8 Chapter X

investigate insanity or epilepsy because
restricted to a limited number of human
beings.

Furthermore, physical science affords abun-
dant analogies of the necessity for a medium,
or intermediary, between the unseen and the
seen. We know nothing of any of the physical
energies, such as electricity, magnetism, light,
gravitation, etc., except through their effects
on material bodies. They are unseen and
unknowable until manifested by their action
on matter. We do not see electricity in a
lightning flash, only atmospheric particles
made white-hot through the resistance they
offer to the electric discharge. In like manner
the waves of the luminiferous ether require a
material medium to absorb them before they
can be perceived by our senses; the inter-
mediary may be the photographic plate, the
rods and cones of the retina, a blackened
surface, or the electric resonators of wireless
telegraphy, according to the respective length
of those waves; but some medium, formed
of ponderable matter, is absolutely necessary
to render the chemical, luminous, thermal,
or electrical effects of these waves percep-
tible to us. And the more or less perfect
rendering of these effects depends on the
more or less perfect synchronism between
those ethereal waves and their mundane
receiver.

Problem of Mediumship 119

Thus we find certain definite physical media
are necessary to enable operations to become
perceptible which would otherwise remain
imperceptible. Through these media, energy
from the unseen physical world without us
enters the seen, and passing through the seen
affects thereby the unseen mental world within
us. The extreme ends of the operation are
unknown to us, and it is only during the
transition stage that the flux of energy
appeals to our senses, and therefore it is
only with this stage of appearances, that
is to say with phenomena, that science can
deal.

This is also true of life itself; for life of
any kind, however lowly it may be, is unseen
by and unknowable to us per se; we only
know life through its varied manifestations in
organic matter, that is in living phenomena.
This is, of course, equally true of our mind,
which reveals itself through the brain, and in
like manner a discarnate mind requires a
medium for its manifestation. And we may
take it as unquestionable, whatever shrinking
our religious instincts may at first feel, that
anything and everything that enters the world
of phenomena becomes thereby a legitimate
and promising subject of scientific investiga-
tion. As Sir Oliver Lodge has well said:
"The least justifiable attitude is that which
holds that there are certain departments of

120 Chapter X

truth in the universe which it is not lawful to
investigate."

The nexus between the seen and the unseen
may be, as we have shown, physical, physio-
logical, or psychical, but whichever it may be,
it is a specialised substance, or organ, or
organism; in many cases it is a body in a
state of unstable equilibrium, and in that
case, therefore, of a delicate nature, a body to
be handled carefully, and its behaviour or
idiosyncrasies needing to be studied and
known beforehand.

It is doubtless a peculiar psychical state
that confers mediumistic power, but we know
nothing of its nature, and we often ruin our
experiments and lose our results by our
ignorance. Certainly it is very probable that
the psychical state of those present at a
seance will be found to react on the medium.
We should get no results if our photographic
plates were exposed to the light of the room
simultaneously with the luminous image
formed by the lens. In every physical pro-
cess we have to guard against disturbing
causes.

If, for example, the late Prof. S. P, Langlcy,
of Washington, in the delicate experiments he
conducted for so many years — exploring the
ultra red radiation of the sun- had allowed
the thermal radiation of himself or his

Problem of Mediumship 121

assistants to fall on his sensitive thermoscope,
his results would have been confused and un-
intelligible. We know that similar confused
results are obtained in psychical research,
especially by those who fancy the sole function
of a scientific investigator is to play the part
of an amateur detective; and accordingly
what they detect is merely their own in-
competency to deal with problems the very
elements of which they do not understand
and seem incapable of learning. Investigators
who, taking an exalted view of their own
sagacity, enter upon this enquiry with their
minds made up as to the possible or impossi-
ble, are sure to fail. Such people should be
shunned, as their habit of thought and mode
of action are inappropriate, and therefore
essentially vulgar, for the essence of vulgarity
is inappropriateness.

Inasmuch as we know nothing of the
peculiar psychical state that constitutes
mediumship, we ought to collect and record
all conditicns which attend a successful seance.
Mediumship seems in some points analogous
to "rapport" in mesmeric trance, and it
would be interesting to know whether a
mesmeric sensitive is more open to medium-
ship that the rest of mankind. Again, are
those who are good percipients in telepathic
experiments also percipients in spontaneous
telepathy, such as apparitions at the moment

122 Chapter X

of death, and are these again hypnotic
sensitives? Similar questions also arise as
to somnambulists; in a word, is there any-
thing in common between the obscure
psychical states of these different classes of
sensitives? Very probably there is, for all
psychical phenomena, as we shall see directly,
involve to a greater or less extent the operation
of an unconscious part of our personality, a
hidden self which in a medium emerges from
its obscurity, as the normal consciousness and
self-control subsides. This fact does, indeed,
afford some clue to the peculiar psychological
condition of mediumship.

Here we may remark that our conscious
life expresses itself in voluntary muscular
movements, such as speech or gesture;
whereas our sub-conscious life expresses itself
in involuntary muscular action, such as auto-
matic writing or speaking or the motion of a
planchette or the "dowsing rod," etc. Such
instrumental appliances for revealing our
hidden, sub-conscious self, I have called
autoscopes. If the will or reason concerns
itself with any of these automatic actions,
the motion becomes voluntary and passes
from the control of the sub-conscious to that
of the conscious self. Hence under such
circumstances those psychical phenomena
which spring from the sub-conscious self,

Problem of Mediumship 123

will either yield a confusing result or fail
entirely.

All I wish to point out here is that medium-
ship depends on the emergence of the sub-
conscious life and therefore the ordinary
waking consciousness must be more or less
passive. It is the lack of the normal conscious
control of his thoughts and actions that renders
the medium so liable to the influence of any
inimical suggestion from the sitters. For a
medium is eminently a suggestible subject,
and may sometimes unconsciously be the
victim, and not the conscious originator, of
the fraud which dominates the opinion of
those sceptical investigators who believe all
mediums are impostors. In fact, as Dr.
Hyslop and many European psychiatrists have
shown, an entranced medium is not in a nor-
mal condition but shows evidence of hysteria.

It must be borne in mind that the medium
understands the phenomena as little as the
investigator, or even less if possible, for he
has less experience of what goes on, being
very often in a trance; hence the medium's
opinions or explanation of the manifestations,
in his normal state, is quite valueless. The
medium should, in fact, be treated as has been
already said, and as Sir Oliver Lodge has also
said, "as a delicate piece of apparatus where-
with we are making an investigation. The
medium is an instrument whose ways and

124 Chapter X

idiosyncrasies must be learnt, and to a certain
extent humoured, just as one studies and
humours the ways of some much less delicate
piece of physical apparatus turned out by a
skilled instrument maker."

This is quite consistent with taking all
needful precautions against deception. The
stricter methods which, I think wisely, the
Society for Psychical Research have adopted,
have no doubt eliminated much that passed
as evidence amongst Spiritualists, and also
cleared off a number of those detestable
professional rogues who prey on the grief and
credulity of mankind.

The word "medium" is certainly an
objectionable one. In the public mind it is
usually associated with various degrees of
rascality, and so long as paid mediums
and dark seances are encouraged, and rogues
and fools abound, the evil odour which sur-
rounds the name "medium" is likely to
remain.

But there is another objection to the word.
A "medium" is too often taken to imply an
intermediary between the spirit-world and our
own; whereas, many so-called Spiritualistic
communications are nothing but the un-
conscious revelation of the medium's own
thoughts, or latent memory, or "subliminal
self." I agree, therefore, with my friend

Problem of Mediumship 125

the late Frederick Myers, who calls the word
medium "a barbarous and question begging
term," and suggests the use of the word
('automatist" ; others have suggested, and
some have used, the word "psychic." Either
of these words is preferable, if usage were
not against them, until a wider interest in,
and knowledge of, the whole subject leads to
a new terminology.

I have thought it better to keep to the
common phraseology, disclaiming, however,
the common implication, namely, that the
word medium always implies an agent be-
tween ourselves and a spiritual world, or a
personality, external to the medium. It may
be, and very often is, only the unconscious
world or unrecognised personality within the
medium. For the whole of our personality,
as is well known, is not included in the normal
self with which we are familiar in our waking
life.

There is in each of us an outer as well as an
inner court to our personality. The outer
being our conscious ego and the inner our
sub-conscious ego. To this latter, this self
below the threshold (limen) of consciousness,
a new significance and importance has been
given by Mr. Myers, and the wider term he
suggested, the subliminal self, is now familiar.
It may here be useful for those of my readers
who have not studied psychology to consider

126 Chapter X

the subject of Human personality and Con-
sciousness more closely, as it throws some light
on the nature of mediumship and the pheno-
mena we are discussing.

Note. — It has been pointed out on p. 123 that the
medium belongs to that class of persons whom Prof. P.
Janet in his masterly work "L'Automatisme Psycholo-
gique" terms les individus suggestibles; persons controlled
by an idea or suggestion either self-originated (auto-sug-
gestion) or coming from without, it may be from the un-
seen. Something typical of this suggestibility of certain
individuals, and not of others in their order, is seen even in
lower forms of life, in the way their coloration is affected
by the colour of their surroundings, etc. (see p. 156).

CHAPTER XI

HUMAN PERSONALITY:

THE SUBLIMINAL SELF

"What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! ... in apprehension how like
a god!" — Hamlet II., 2.

Our consciousness is the fundamental fact,
the most real thing, of which we are aware,
and although it consists of a succession of
states of mind, no two of which are exactly
alike, it is nevertheless combined into a
continuous personal identity which we call
"ourself." Even when there are interrup-
tions of our self-consciousness, as in sleep, we
recognise the self that wakes up in the morn-
ing as the same self that went to sleep over-
night. So also throughout our life we are
conscious of the same identity, the same self,
albeit the whole material of body, brain and
sensory organs has been repeatedly swept away
and renewed.

Hence our personality is not a mere bundle

137

128 Chapter XI

of loose sensations: no succession of states of
mind, no series of thoughts or feelings can
fuse themselves into a single resultant con-
sciousness, with a knowledge and memory of
all the other states.

Everyone is now familiar with the rapid
succession of instantaneous photographs seen
in the cinematograph, where, for example,
a series of pictures of a man running swiftly
gives us the appearance of a single moving
figure. But the photographs remain distinct;
the combination is effected by something
external to the pictures, our own perception.
And so there must be something lying in the
background of our consciousness which com-
bines the series of impressions made upon us,
or the states of feeling within us; this unifying
power we may call our Ego or soul.

Even if the stream of consciousness be, as
some believe, an epi-phenomenon, a series of
shadows cast by the motion of brain processes,
or if consciousness be an attribute of the
molecules of organic matter, matter preceding
mind, there must be some transcendental and
permanent nexus, a soul which unites
successive sensations and perceptions into a
coherent self-conscious personality; some-
thing which gives a meaning to and holds
together the stream of manifold ideas.

It is a remarkable fact, that a multitude
of impressions are constantly being made

Human Personality 129

upon us, to which this Ego appears to pay no
heed. Either because they are not strong
enough to pierce our consciousness — for a
certain intensity must be reached before an
impression can stir our Ego, — a relatively
feeble stimulus, such as the light of the stars
in daytime, cannot cross the threshold of our
consciousness and gain an entrance to our
mind — or because among the crowd of strong
impressions which do enter, the Ego exercises
a selective power. We direct our attention
upon a few, chiefly because they interest us;
these we are conscious of and can afterwards
recall by an effort of memory. The will,
moved in the first instance by desire — that is,
by what interests us, our ruling love — deter-
mines the attention we give to particular im-
pressions; thus we become conscious of, or
alive to, thoughts or sensations excited by
certain impressions, and let the rest go by
unheeded. Our choice thus determines our
experience, what we include in our material
and mental possessions, our conscious "ine";
the "me" being the known, the "I" the know-
ing, self: all else we regard as the "not me."
Furthermore, this process of selection, if
we do it regularly, soon becomes habitual or
automatic; the effort of attention is no longer
required, and the will is set free for some other
purpose ; for instance, we walk, or we combine
the letters in reading instinctively without

130 Chapter XI

being conscious of the steps in the process.1
And so with the world within ourselves, we
do not perceive the regular and continuous
beating of the heart, hence the processes of
respiration, circulation, and nutrition go on
unconsciously in a healthy body. And to
some extent this is also true of the nutrition
of the mind, for the character is built up, in
part, by the stream of unconscious impressions
made upon us.

Again, consciousness is not aroused by a
continuous succession of uniform impressions.
We should be utterly unconscious of warmth,
however hot things might be, if everything
were at one uniform temperature, and we
should be equally unconscious of light if the
universe and all material objects were illumin-
ated with a continuous and uniform bright-
ness. It is differences of state that we perceive,
or the ratio of the strength of one sensation to
another. The actual span of our conscious-
ness is, therefore, very narrow. As the late

1 Education is, in great part, the training to do automatically
and unconsciously what would otherwise have to be done with
conscious effort. Genius is a still more striking example of the
power of unconscious acts. And what is done by the unconscious
self is more easily and better done than by the conscious self;
hence it would seem as if the summit of attainment would lead to
the absence of any conscious effort at all. This, indeed, is the
logical outcome of all Naturalistic hypotheses of human lite. In
a striking passage in the second chapter of "Foundations of
Belief," the Right lion. A. J. Balfour has dealt with this very
question,

Human Personality 131

Professor W. James, of Harvard, remarks in
his valuable text-book on Psychology: —

One of the most extraordinary facts of our life is
that, although we are besieged at every moment by im-
pressions from our whole sensory surface, we notice so
very small a part of them. The sum total of our im-
pressions never enters into our experience, consciously so
called, which runs through this sum total like a tiny
rill through a broad flowery mead. Yet the physical
impressions which do not count are there as much as
those which do. Why they fail to pierce the mind is a
mystery, and not explained when we invoice die Enge
des BewusstseinSj "the narrowness of consciousness," as
its ground.

All these impressions, whether we are
conscious of them or not, leave some mark
behind; they weave a visible, or invisible
thread into the fabric of our life; like every
trivial act we perform, they make a percepti-
ble or an imperceptible indent on our per-
sonality. We know that this is the case, that
impressions not perceived when they were
made have, nevertheless, effected a lodgment
within us, for although we cannot recall them
at pleasure, they often emerge from their
latent state in a fragmentary and disconnected
manner. This is the case when the attention
is withdrawn from things around us in reverie
or "crystal gazing," or often in illness or
dream, and still more in somnambulism or in

132 Chapter XI

hypnotic trance, and in many cases of auto-
matic writing, or other so-called Spiritualistic
phenomena.

Our Ego or soul is therefore not merely
co-extensive with those things of which we
are or have been conscious; the range of our
personality must be extended to include some-
thing more than our normal self-consciousness.
Not only are there, as it were, horizontal
strata in our personality, from the material
or lowest "me" up to the spiritual or highest
"me," but there is also a vertical division
which runs through all. On one side of this
vertical plane of cleavage lie all those im-
pressions which have penetrated our con-
sciousness, all those states of thought and
feeling which in our waking life memory can
restore; on the other side lie the vastly greater
number of impressions made upon us of which
we were unconscious at the time, or, being
conscious, have completely forgotten. One
part of our Ego is, therefore, illuminated by
consciousness, and another part lies in the dark
shadow of unconsciousness.

Thus the outer or conscious self, as said, is
not our entire self, any more than the visible
or earth-turned face of the moon is the whole
moon. Mr. Frederick Myers lias well com-
pared our normal self-consciousness to the
visible spectrum of sunlight; beyond it on
either side is a wide tract, imperceptible to

Human Personality 133

the eye, yet crowded with radiation. Each
pencil of sunlight embraces these invisible, as
well as the visible, rays, and so each human
personality embraces the unconscious as well
as the conscious self. And just as experi-
mental physics has within the present century
revealed the existence of ultra-violet and
infra-red portions of the spectrum, and shown
us how we may, in part, render these obscure
rays visible, so with the growth of experi-
mental psychology we are beginning to dis-
cover the complex nature of our personality,
and how that part of our Ego which is below
the threshold of consciousness may be led to
emerge from its obscurity. As the bright
light of day quenches the feebler light of the
stars, so the vivid stream of consciousness in
our waking life must usually be withdrawn or
enfeebled before the dim record of unheeded
past impressions, or the telepathic impact of
an extraneous mind, becomes apparent.

Hence, as we have already pointed out, a
state of passivity is favourable to the emerg-
ence of the subliminal consciousness, and this
is one of the characteristics of mediumship.
It is true that in many cases of automatic
writing by planchette or otherwise, long
coherent messages are given whilst the
thoughts of the medium are engaged on other
matters, but the effort of attention is relaxed,
and if it be directed to the writing, or any

134 Chapter XI

conscious effort made to assist it, the spell is
broken, and the inner self sinks again into
obscurity.1 Furthermore, and singularly
enough, this secondary or subliminal self
never identifies itself with the ordinary wak-
ing self. Another person seems to have taken
control of the hand or voice of the medium,
a distinct intelligence that has its own past
history, but with little, if any, knowledge of
the past of the other self. The foreign nature
of the "control" naturally suggests the
agency of an external intelligence, a spirit
or demon, "possessing" the medium, or of
another personality that alternates with the
normal soul.

The well known facts of "double conscious-
ness" illustrate the latter;2 a remarkable case
of this kind I was personally acquainted with
and investigated some years ago. The subject,

1 A similar sensitiveness to conscious attention is seen in experi-
ments in thought-transference, and even in the pseudo thought-
reading of the "willing game"; and ignorance of this fact is
what usually leads to failure. The intrusion of the will, of con-
scious effort, is therefore prejudicial in all such experiments. The
well meaning endeavours of those who tell the percipient "to try
earnestly" to guess the thing thought of, defeat the object in
view. If the percipient does try, his will comes in and prevents
the emergence of the hidden and responsive part of his person-
ality. In fact, "psychical research" in general deals with the
varied manifestations and operations of the unconscious part of
our personality.

■ A possible, though only partial, explanation of dual conscious-
ness is the separate action of the two lobes of the brain CftUted
by an alternating inhibition of the functions of each lobe.

Human Personality 135

since dead, was the son of a London clergy-
man, and the duration of the abnormal state
became so extended that it was difficult to call
it by that name, but however many days had
elapsed since the transition from one state to
the other, — a brief period of insensibility
separating the two, — on the return to the
previous state, the old conversation was
resumed precisely at the point where it was
interrupted; in the abnormal state consider-
able musical knowledge was possessed, of
which the subject appeared to be quite ig-
norant in the other state; the life, the inter-
ests, the conversation were quite distinct; even
the parentage and family were regarded as
different in the two states.1 These cases of
alternating personality resemble some of the
delusions of the insane, and from time im-
memorial have led to the belief that the right-
ful owner of the body has been temporarily
or permanently displaced, and another soul
has taken "possession," like a cuckoo, of a
nest that is not its own.

The whole subject of the dissociation of
personality has in recent years received care-
ful study by eminent psychologists, and the
reader will find an admirable discussion of
this question in Chapter 2 of Mr. F. W. H.
Myers' great work on "Human Personality."

1 This case is given in full in "Proceedings S. P. R.," Vol. IV,
pp. 230-232.

136 Chapter XI

Multiple, as well as secondary, personalities,
sometimes are exhibited by the same subject.
Such for example are the well known cases of
Leonie, investigated by Professor P. Janet;
Louis Vive; Sally Beauchamp, investigated
by Dr. Morton Prince, of Boston, U.S.A.;
and other instances known to psychologists.

More recently a remarkable case of multiple
personality in an American girl named Doris
Fischer has received minute and continuous
study by Dr. Walter Prince. His report fills
two bulky volumes of the Proceedings of the
American S.P.R., to which Dr. Hyslop has
contributed a lengthy and valuable addition.

The classical case of Miss Beauchamp,
fully described in Dr. Morton Prince's work
The Dissociation of a Personality1 is briefly
as follows: —

A mental shock which Miss Beauchamp received at
College in 1893 produced the first disintegration of
consciousness, she became modified into what Dr. Prince
terms B 1. This personality alternated with another
B 2, at first induced by hypnotic treatment. In course
of time a new and wholly different personality appeared
B 3, which called itself "Sally." Whilst B 1 was cul-

1 Also in "Proceedings S.P.R.," Vol. XV, and "Human Per-
sonality," Vol. I, p. 360 ft seq. Mr. Norman Pearson in his
recent able and suggestive work, "The Soul and its Sum,"
(to which I am glad to draw attention), also gives an abstract
of this case. But the most important discussion of the whole
subject is by Dr. W. McOougall, F.R.S., in "Proceedings S.P.K.,"
Vol. XIX.

Human Personality 137

tivated, quiet and deeply religious, B 3 was the reverse
and full of mischief. Later on another personality ap-
peared B 4, proud, selfish and dignified. B 1 and B 4
knew nothing of the others, B 2 knew only B I, but
B 3 (Sally) knew all the others, was always awake
and alert to annoy Miss Beauchamp, B I.

Dr. Morton Prince calls B 1 the Saint, B 4 the
Woman, and B 3 the Devil. For Sally made B 1 tell
lies, sent her things she detested, and constantly morti-
fied and distressed the truthful and good B I. No won-
der Miss Beauchamp wrote, "Oh, Dr. Prince save me
from myself, from whatever it is that is absolutely
merciless; I can bear anything but not this mocking
devil."

Eventually by hypnotic suggestion, and with the help
of Sally, all except B 3, became merged into what was
the original Miss Beauchamp. Sally, B 3, now tended
to sink out of sight, going back, as she said, "to where
I came from." Where was that? According to Dr.
Prince it was the subliminal self of Miss Beauchamp
for a time developed into an independent personality,
her other personalities being cleavages from the primary
conscious self.

But I agree with Dr. McDougall that Dr.
Prince's explanation of Sally is unsatisfactory.
It is using an hypothesis, the subliminal self,
not even accepted by all psychologists, as a
mere cloak for our ignorance. Dr. McDougall
inclines to the view that Sally was a distinct
psychic being controlling the body of Miss
Beauchamp. The case of Doris Fischer,
which in many respects resembles the fore-

138 Chapter XI

going, lends support to this view, that occa-
sionally a human body may be the seat of a
real invasion from the spirit world, a case of
obsession. If we admit the spirit hypothesis
there is nothing improbable in this view. In
Doris, the invading spirit, if such it were,
assisted, like Sally, in the cure and ultimate
restoration of the subject to a normal condi-
tion, after many years of suffering and peri-
odical alternations of personality.

One of the most extraordinary cases of
changed personality is the following: —

Lurancy Vennum was an American girl who, at the
age of 14, became controlled apparently by the spirit
of Mary Roff, a neighbour's daughter, who had died
at the age of 19, when Lurancy was only 15 months
old. The two families lived far apart, except for a
short time, and had only the slightest acquaintance
with each other. Nevertheless Lurancy, in her new
personality, called the Roffs her parents, knew in-
timate details of their family life, recognised and called
by name the relatives and friends of the Roffs, knew
trivial incidents in the life of Mary Roff, and for
four months really seemed to be a re-incarnation of
Mary Roff.

This brief summary gives an inadequate
idea of the whole story,1 which rests upon

1 Given in Dr. Stevens' brochure "The Watscka Wonder,"
published at Rochester, U.S.A., and also in "Human Person-
ality," Vol. I, p. 360 ft srq.

Human Personality 139

excellent testimony. Dr. Hodgson, who per-
sonally investigated this case, was of opinion
that Lurancy was really controlled by the
spirit of the deceased Mary Roff.

Probably few psychologists to-day would
accept this conclusion, but the vital import-
ance of an unbiased discussion of cases of
multiple personality, such as Sally Beau-
champ, has been pointed out by Dr. W.
McDougall, F.R.S. We cannot of course
lightly set aside the weight of evidence which
shows the apparent dependence of memory
and therefore of personality, on the persistence
of the brain and the physical changes pro-
duced in it by our experience. Nevertheless,
as Dr. W. McDougall remarks: —

"If we accept Dr. Prince's description of Sally Beau-
champ we can only account for her by adopting the
view that the normal personality consists of body and
soul in interaction, the soul being not dependent upon
the brain, or other physical basis, for its memory,
but having the faculty of retaining and remembering
among its other faculties. . . . This conclusion would
give very strong support of the spiritistic explanation
of such cases as Mrs. Piper, and would go far to justify
the belief in the survival of human personality after
the death of the body."1

This conclusion will receive additional
illustration and support in the succeeding
chapters.

1 "Proc. S. P. R.," Vol. XIX, p. 430.

CHAPTER XII

APPARITIONS

"Dare I say
No spirit ever brake the band
That stays him from the native land,
Where first he walk'd when claspt in clay?"
— In Memoriam, xciii.

We must now pass on from the bizarre and
perplexing phenomena we have so far dis-
cussed, to the more important question of the
evidence spiritualism affords of the continu-
ance of human life after it has, to all appear-
ance, ceased in the material body. Before
entering upon the experimental part of this
enquiry it is desirable to consider the evidence
on behalf of survival derived from apparitions
of the dying and the dead. This aspect of
our subject meets with wider acceptance, and
less objection from religious minds, than the
evidence derived from sittings with some
medium, which many regard as illegitimate.
One of the most cautious and philosophical
among our distinguished men of science of

140

Apparitions 141

the last generation, the late Dr. R. Angus
Smith, F.R.S., wrote to me, forty years ago,
that he was not aware of any law of nature,
except the most obvious, that was sustained
by so much and such respectable evidence
as the fact of apparitions about the time of
death.1 In a subsequent interview I learnt
from him that this opinion was arrived at
only after long and careful investigation of
the evidence attainable at that time. Since
then the Society for Psychical Research has
obtained a mass of additional and confirm-
atory evidence, which is incorporated in the

1 As the whole letter may be of future interest, I give it here
in full:—

"Manchester,

"October l8th, 1876.

"My Dear Professor Barrett, — I see you are deep in that
fascinating study, the action of mind freed from the organism.
It surprises me much that any man is found to think it of little
importance, and that any man is found who thinks his own
opinion so important that he cares for no evidence. I have not
been able to find a book which contains all the laws of nature
needed to sustain the world, but some men are easily satisfied.

"It is difficult to obtain such proofs as men demand for free
mind. Visions are innumerable, and under circumstances that
seem to render the sight of the absent, especially about the time
of death, a reality. I am not aware of any law of nature (except
the most obvious, such as are seen by common observers) which
is sustained by so many assertions so well attested, as far as re-
spectability of evidence goes. The indications we have point out
to some mighty truth more decidedly than even the aberrations of
TJranus to the newest of the great planets. If we could prove
the action of mind at a distance by constant experiment it would
be a discovery that would make all other discoveries seem trifles.
— Yours sincerely, R. Angus Smith."

142 Chapter XII

two bulky volumes on "Phantasms of the
Living and Dead" published by the Society.

In that monumental work, chiefly due to
the labour and learning of Mr. Edward
Gurney, the interval between death and the
apparition of the dying or deceased person
was limited to 12 hours. First-hand records
were however received where this interval
was greatly exceeded, whilst the fact of death
was still unknown to the percipient at the
time of his experience. After rigorous scrut-
iny 134 first-hand narratives are given where
the coincidence between death and the recog-
nised "appearance" (whether by a visual or
auditory experience) of the deceased to a dis-
tant person, who was not aware of the death,
is exact, or within an hour; in 39 cases the
apparition was seen more than an hour, but
within 12 hours of death, and in 38 cases the
apparition was seen shortly before death, or
when death did not follow, though the person
was seriously ill.1 In 104 cases it was not
known whether the percipients' experience
shortly preceded or followed the death; owing
to this uncertainty these cases were not taken
into account.

Mr. Gurney and Mr. Myers contributed a
valuable paper to Vol. V of the "Proceedings
of the S.P.R.," where additional first-hand
evidence was given of "apparitions occurring

1 "Proceedings S. P. R.," Vol. V, p. 408.

Statistical Enquiry 143

soon after death." This was supplemented by
a paper Mr. Myers contributed to Vol. VI on
"apparitions occurring more than a year after
death," where 14 veridical and recognised
apparitions are recorded on first-hand
evidence.

The result of a critical examination of the
evidence left no doubt in the mind of any
student that these apparitions were veridical
or truth telling, and that their occurrence
was not due to any illusion of the percipient
or chance coincidence. As regards this latter,
to arrive at a statistical proof Mr. Gurney
obtained a numerical comparison of the
veridical apparitions with those which were
purely accidental, i.e. did not coincide with
death. For this purpose he obtained nearly
6,000 replies to the question he addressed to
adults, whether they had had any such ap-
parition or hallucination during the preced-
ing ten years. This was followed by a still
more elaborate census of a similar kind, taken
by Professor Henry and Mrs. Sidgwick,
wherein 17,000 replies were received. When
the relative frequency of veridical to acci-
dental hallucinations was critically examined
the possibility of chance coincidence as an
explanation could be proved or disproved.
The result showed, in the Sidgwick census
alone, that the proportion of veridical and
recognized apparitions (i.e. coincidental

144 Chapter XII

cases) to the meaningless (i.e. non-coinci-
dental cases) was 440 times greater than pure
chance would give. The elaborate examina-
tion of this census by experts fills Vol. X. of
the Proceedings of the S.P.R., and the definite
but cautiously-expressed conclusion is reached
that—

"Between deaths and apparitions of the dying person
a connection exists which is not due to chance alone.
This we hold to be a proved fact. The discussion of
its full implications cannot be attempted in this paper,
nor, perhaps, exhausted in this age."

Such a result refutes the common idea that
it was a mere chance the apparition happened
to coincide with the death of that particular
person, and that the hits are remembered and
the misses forgotten.

It was found in the course of these lengthy
enquiries that the number of recognised ap-
paritions decreases rapidly in the few days
after death, then more slowly, and after a
year or more they become far less frequent and
more sporadic. This indeed might have been
expected ;Uor on any theory as to the nature
of these apparitions it is likely that the power
of communication between the dead and those
living on earth would lessen as the time of
transition from this life becomes more and
more remote. We need not conclude from
this that the soul of the departed is gradually

Apparitions 145

extiguished, for we cannot track the course
of the soul nor know its affinities in the larger
life beyond. There are, moreover, cases, to
which we will refer in a later chapter, where
evidence of survival has been given more than
a generation after the communicator has
passed from earth-life.

Those who have witnessed the apparition
of a distant deceased friend, of whose death
they were wholly unaware, or have heard the
statement at first hand, are far more impressed
by this single occurrence than by any amount
of evidence derived from reading reports of
apparitions. This was the case with myself
when a young friend of mine narrated to me
the following account of the apparition she
experienced; nor did the searching cross-
examination she was submitted to, at the meet-
ing of the Psychical Research Society where
I read the account, shake her testimony in the
least. The full report will be found in the
"Journal of the S.P.R." for May, 1908. An
important feature of this incident is that the
percipient was at the time at school in a con-
vent in Belgium, where she had absolutely
no access to newspapers, or any other sources
of information which might have suggested
the apparition. Briefly the case is as follows:

A gentleman, of some note, shot himself in London
in the spring of 1907. There can be little doubt that

146 Chapter XII

his mind was unhinged at the time by the receipt that
morning of a letter from a lady that blighted all his
hopes; before taking his life he scribbled a memorandum
leaving an annuity to my young friend, who was his
godchild and to whom he was greatly attached. Three
days afterwards (on the day of his funeral) he appeared
to his godchild, who, as stated, was being educated in
a convent school on the Continent, informing her of
the fact of his sudden death, of its manner, and of
the cause which had led him to take his life, and asking
her to pray for him.

The mother, anxious to conceal from her daughter
the distressing circumstances of her godfather's death,
waited to write until a few days after the funeral, and
then only stated that her uncle (as he was called) had
died suddenly. Subsequently, upon meeting her daughter
on her return from the Continent, the mother was
amazed to hear not only of the apparition, but that
it had communicated to her daughter all the circum-
stances which she had never intended her daughter to
know. Careful enquiry shows that it was impossible
for the information to have reached her daughter
through normal means.

A member of the S.P.R., Miss Charlton, who kindly
went to the convent to make enquiries into this case,
states that the girls in the convent never see any news-
papers, all letters are supervised, and no one in the con-
vent seems to have known of the deceased gentleman ;
hence "that any knowledge of her godfather's suicide,
or of the reason for it, could have reached the per-
cipient by ordinary channels, cannot be entertained for
a moment."

The mother of the percipient, who is a personal
friend of mine, assured me that neither she nor any

Apparitions i/\rj

of her relatives (had they known of the suicide, which
they did not) wrote to the convent on the matter, ex-
cept as narrated above.

Sometimes, as in the foregoing case, the
phantasm is not only seen but apparently
heard to speak; sometimes it may announce
its presence by audible signals. We may re-
gard such cases as auditory as well as visual
hallucinations. Rapping was heard as well
as the apparition seen, in the following case,
which was investigated by Professor Sidgwick
in 1892, and the house also visited by Mrs.
Sidgwick. The percipient was the Rev.
Matthew Frost of Bowers Gifford, Essex, who
made the following statement: —

"The first Thursday in April 1881, while sitting at
tea with my back to the window and talking with
my wife in the usual way, I plainly heard a rap at the
window, and looking round at the window I said to
my wife, 'Why, there's my grandmother,' and went
to the door, but could not see anyone; still feeling sure
it was my grandmother, and knowing, though she was
eighty-three years of age, that she was very active and
fond of a joke, I went round the house, but could not
see anyone. My wife did not hear it. On the follow-
ing Saturday, I had news my grandmother died in
Yorkshire about half-an-hour before the time I heard
the rapping. The last time I saw her alive I promised,
if well, I would attend her funeral; that was some
two years before. I was in good health and had no

148 Chapter XII

trouble, age twenty-six years. I did not know that
my grandmother was ill."

Mrs. P'rost writes: —

"I beg to certify that I perfectly remember all the
circumstances my husband has named, but I heard and
saw nothing myself."

Professor Sidgwick learned from Mr. Frost that the
last occasion on which he had seen his grandmother,
three years before the apparition, she promised if pos-
sible to appear to him at her death. He had no cause
for anxiety on her account; news of the death came
to him by letter, and both Mr. and Mrs. Frost were
then struck by the coincidence. It was full daylight
when Mr. Frost saw the figure and thought that his
grandmother had unexpectedly arrived in the flesh and
meant to surprise him. Had there been a real person
Mrs. Frost would both have seen and heard; nor
could a living person have got away in the time, as
Mrs. Sidgwick found the house stood in a garden a
good way back from the road, and Mr. Frost im-
mediately went out to see if his grandmother was ieally
there.

The following case was carefully investi-
gated, and corroborative evidence obtained,
by Mr. Ed. Gurney, soon after the experience
occurred to the narrator, Mr. Husbands1 : —

"September isrh, 1886.
"The facts are simply these. 1 was sleeping in a
hotel in Madeira early in 1885. It was a bright
moonlight night. The windows were open and the

1 "Proceedings S. P. R.," Vol. V, 1889.

Apparitions 149

blinds up. I felt some one was in my room. On
opening my eyes, I saw a young fellow about twenty-
five, dressed in flannel?, standing at the side of my bed
and pointing with the first finger of his right hand to
the place I was lying in. I lay for some seconds to
convince myself of some one being really there. I then
sat up and looked at him. I saw his features so plainly
that I recognised them in a photograph which was
shown me some days after. I asked him what he wanted ;
he did not speak, but his eyes and hand seemed to tell
me I was in his place. As he did not answer, I struck
out at him with my fist as I sat up, but did not reach
him, and as I was going to spring out of bed he slowly
vanished through the door, which was shut, keeping
his eyes upon me all the time.

"Upon enquiry I found that the young fellow who
appeared to me died in the room I was occupying.

"John E. Husbands."

The following letter is from Miss Falkner,
of Church Terrace, Wisbech, who was resi-
dent at the hotel when the above incident
happened: —

"October 8th, 1886.
"The figure that Mr. Husbands saw while in
Madeira was that of a young fellow who died unex-
pectedly some months previously, in the room which
Mr. Husbands was occupying. Curiously enough,
Mr. H. had never heard of him or his death. He told
me the story the morning after he had seen the figure,
and I recognised the young fellow from the descrip-
tion. It impressed me very much, but I did not mention
it to him or any one. I loitered about until I heard
Mr. Husbands tell the same tale to my brother; we

150 Chapter XII

left Mr. H. and said simultaneously, 'He has seen
Mr. D.'

"No more was said on the subject for days; then
I abruptly showed the photograph. Mr. Husbands
said at once, 'This is the young fellow who appeared
to me the other night, but he was dressed differently'
— describing a dress he often wore — 'cricket suit (or
tennis) fastened at the neck with a sailor knot.' I
must say that Mr. Husbands is a most practical man,
and the very last one would expect a 'spirit' to
visit.

"K. Falkner."

On further enquiry it was found that the
young man who appeared to Mr. Husbands
had died just a year previously, that the room
in which he died had subsequently been
occupied by other visitors, who apparently
had not seen any apparition, and that it must
have been February 2nd or 3rd that Mr.
Husbands took the room and saw the figure.
Miss Falkner's sister-in-law, who was also at
the hotel at the time, corroborates the above
facts, and remembers Mr. Husbands telling
her the incident; she also gave Miss Falkner
the photograph of the deceased which Mr.
Husbands recognized.

Even if Mr. Husbands had heard of the
death of Mr. D. and forgotten the circum-
stance, this would not enable him to recognize
the likeness when he was shown the photo-
graph. Mr. Gurney, as I have said, carefully

Apparitions 151

investigated this case, and saw both Mr.
Husbands and Miss Falkner, receiving full
viva voce accounts from each. Mr. Gurney
remarks : —

"They are both thoroughly practical and as far re-
moved as possible from a superstitious love of marvels;
nor had they any previous interest in this or any other
class of super-normal experiences. So far as I could
judge Mr. Husbands' view of himself is entirely cor-
rect— that he is the last person to give a spurious
importance to anything that might befall him, or to
allow facts to be distorted by imagination. As will be
seen, his account of his vision preceded any knowledge
on his part of the death which had occurred in the
room."

It would extend this book unduly were I to
give any further selections from the numerous,
remarkable and well authenticated cases of
apparitions which are recorded in the "Pro-
ceedings of the S.P.R."1 They are in fact so
common and so generally accepted that the
chief scepticism regarding them has been as to
"the ghosts of the clothes" they wore, as in
the last case. This would be puzzling if they
were regarded as objective realities, external
to the percipient. But if we regard appari-
tions of the dying and dead as phantasms pro-
jected from the mind of the percipient, the

1 A few other striking cases are given in Chapter X of my
book on Psychical Research in the Home University Library.

152 Chapter XII

difficulties of clothes, and the ghosts of animal
pets which sometimes are seen, disappear.

There is nothing improbable in this sub-
jective theory of apparitions, for all the things
we see are phantasms projected from our mind
into the external world. It is true that a min-
ute and real inverted picture of the objects
around us is thrown on the retina by the optical
arrangements in the eye, but we do not look
at that picture as the photographer does in
his camera; it creates an impression on cer-
tain brain cells, and then we mentally project
outside ourselves a large erect phantasm of
the retinal image. It is true this phantasm
has its origin in the real image on the retina,
but it is no more a real thing than is the
virtual image of ourselves we see in a look-
ing glass. If now, instead of the impression
being made on certain cells in the brain
through the fibres of the optic nerve, an
impression be made directly on those same
brain cells by some telepathic impact, it may
reasonably be supposed that a visual reaction
follows, and a corresponding image would be
projected by our mind into external space.

Nor is this pure hypothesis. Actual experi-
ments in telepathy have been repeatedly made
where the percipient has seen an apparition
of the distant person who mentally desired
his presence' to be known. The first success-
ful attempt at this, under conditions that

Experimental Phantasms 153

admit of no dispute, was made in 1881 by a
personal friend, Mr. S. H. Beard, one of the
earliest members of the Society for Psychical
Research. On several occasions Mr. Beard,
by an effort of his will, was able to cause a
phantom of himself to appear, three miles
away, to certain acquaintances who were not
aware of his intention to make the experiment.
The phantom appeared so real and solid
that the percipient thought Mr. Beard himself
had suddenly come into the room; and on one
occasion the figure was seen by two persons
simultaneously. Similar results have been
obtained by at least nine other persons, inde-
pendently of each other, living, in fact, in
different parts of the world, more than one
carefully conducted and successful experiment
being made in each case.1

Doubtless these apparitions, though appear-
ing so life-like and substantial, were hal-
lucinations, but by what process is thought
able to reproduce itself in a distant mind, and
thus cause these phantoms to be projected
from it? Either, thought in A. by some un-
known means, affects the brain matter in B.,
and so excites the impression, or thought
exists independently of matter. Whichever
alternative we take, as Mr. F. W. H. Myers
says, —

1 Full details of these cases will be found in Mr. Myers'
Human Personality, Vol. I, pp. 293 et seq. and pp. 688 et seq.

154 Chapter XII

"It is the very secret of life that confronts us here;
the fundamental antinomy between Mind and Matter.
But such confrontations with metaphysical problems
reduced to concrete form are a speciality of our re-
search ; and since this problem does already exist —
since the brain cells are, in fact, altered either by the
thought or along with it — we have no right to take
for granted that the problem, when more closely ap-
proached, will keep within its ancient limits, or that
Mind, whose far-darting energy we are realising, must
needs be always powerless upon aught but the grey
matter of the brain." ("Proceedings" S.P.R., Vol. X,
p. 421.)

Certainly amongst mankind a conscious
thought always strives and tends to external-
ise itself, to pass from a conception to an
expression. Creation is the externalised
thought of God, and this God-like attribute
we, as part of the Universal Mind, share in a
partial, limited degree. Our words and ac-
tions are a constant, though partial embodi-
ment of our thoughts, effected through the
machinery of our nervous and muscular sys-
tems. But without this machinery thought can
sometimes, as we have shown, transcend its
ordinary channels of expression, and act, not
mediately, but directly, upon another mind,
producing not only visual and auditory im-
pressions but also physiologieal changes.

In fact carefully conducted experiments,

The Stigmata 155

some of which I have myself witnessed, have
shown that startling physiological changes can
be produced in a hypnotised subject merely
by conscious or sub-conscious mental sug-
gestion. Thus a red scar or a painful burn
can be caused to appear on the body of the
subject solely through suggesting the idea.
By some local disturbance of the blood ves-
sels in the skin, the unconscious self has done
what it would be impossible for the conscious
self to perform. And so in the well-attested
cases of stigmata, where a close resemblance
to the wounds on the body of the crucified
Saviour appear on the body of the ecstatic.
This is a case of unconscious .^//-suggestion,
arising from the intent and adoring gaze of
the ecstatic upon the bleeding figure on the
crucifix. With the abeyance of the conscious
self the hidden powers emerge, whilst the
trance and mimicry of the wounds are strictly
parallel to the experimental cases previously
referred to.

May not the effects of pre-natal impressions
on the offspring (if such cases are proved)
also have a similar origin? And if I may
make the suggestion, may not the well-known
cases of mimicry in animal life originate, like
the stigmata, in a reflex action, — as physiolo-
gists would say, — below the level of conscious-
ness, created to some extent by a predominant
impression? I venture to think that ere long

156 Chapter XII

biologists will recognise the importance of the
psychical factor in evolution.

Adaptation to environment is usually a
slow process spread over countless genera-
tions, but here also the same causes, inter alia,
may be at work. Moreover, even rapid
changes sometimes occur. Thus the beautiful
experiments of Professor Poulton, F.R.S.,
have shown that certain caterpillars can more
than once in their lifetime change their colour
to suit their surroundings. I have seen a
brilliant green caterpillar acquire a black skin
when taken from its green, environment and
placed among black twigs. It is no explana-
tion to say that the nervous stimulus which
produced these pigmentary deposits is excited
by a particular light acting on the surface of
the skin.

Through what wonder-working power is
this marvellous change accomplished? Not,
of course, through any conscious action of the
caterpillar, for even the pupa? of these cater-
pillars undergo a like change, a light-coloured
chrysalis becoming perfectly black when
placed on black paper; even patches of
metallic lustre, exactly like gold, appear on
its integument, as I can testify, when the
chrysalis is placed on gilt paper! Does it
not seem as if animal Life shared with us, in
some degree, certain super-normal powers,
and that these colour changes might be due

Are Apparitions Objective? 157

to the influence of causes somewhat analogous
to those producing the stigmata, i.e., sug-
gestion, unconsciously derived from the
environment? If so, we have here something
like the externalising of unconscious thought
in ourselves.

To return from this digression. Whether
all apparitions are unsubstantial and sub-
jective, due to a telepathic impact from the
living or the dead, I am not prepared to say.
There are cases which this hypothesis is very
difficult to cover, where several people have
witnessed the apparition and where it has
seemed to have a definite objective existence
in successive positions. In any case we need
to be on our guard against pressing the
telepathic theory to absurd extremes, as some
psychical researchers seem disposed to do.

We are in fact, only on the threshold of
our knowledge of this obscure and difficult
region of enquiry, and humility of mind no
less than confidence of hope should be our
habit of thought. As Sir Oliver Lodge has
remarked, "Knowledge can never grow until
it is realised that the question 'Do you believe
in these things?' is puerile unless it has been
preceded by the enquiry, 'What do you know
about them?' " It is invariably those who
know nothing of the subject who scornfully
say "surely you don't believe in these things!"

158 Chapter XII

There are some remarkable instances where
the dying person, before the moment of
transition from earth, appears to see and
recognise some of his deceased relatives or
friends. One cannot always attach much
weight to this evidence, as hallucinations of
the dying are not infrequent. Here however
is a case, one of many recorded in that useful
journal Light, which much impressed the
physician who narrates it.

Dr. Wilson of New York, who was present
at the last moments of Mr. James Moore, a
well-known tenor in the United States, gives
the following narrative: —

"It was about 4 a.m., and the dawn for which he
had been watching was creeping in through the shut-
ters, when, as I leant over the bed, I noticed that his
face was quite calm and his eyes clear. The poor
fellow looked me in the face, and, taking my hand in
both of his, he said: 'You've been a good friend to
me, doctor.' Then something which I shall never for-
get to my dying day happened, — something which is
utterly indescribable. While he appeared perfectly
rational and as sane as any man I have ever seen, the
only way that I can express it is that he was trans-
ported into another world, and although I cannot sat-
isfactorily explain the matter to myself, I am fully
convinced that he had entered the golden city — for he
said in a stronger voice than he had used since 1 had
attended him: 'There is mother! Why, mother, ha\ c
you come here to see me? No, no, I am coming to

Visions of the Dying 159

see you. Just wait, mother, I am almost over. Wait,
mother, wait, mother!'

"On his face there was a look of inexpressible hap-
piness, and the way in which he said the words im-
pressed me as I have never been before, and I am as
firmly convinced that he saw and talked with his mother
as I am that I am sitting here.

"In order to preserve what I believed to be his con-
versation with his mother, and also to have a record
of the strangest happening of my life, I immediately
wrote down every word he said. It was one of the
most beautiful deaths I have ever seen."

Miss Cobbe in her Peak in Darien gives
another instance of this kind, but the following
narrative is even more striking. It is vouched
for by my friend the late Mr. Hensleigh
Wedgwood, who contributed it to the Spec-
tator. Mr. Wedgwood writes: —

"Between forty and fifty years ago, a young girl,
a near connection of mine, was dying of consumption.
She had lain for some days in a prostrate condition,
taking no notice of anything, when she opened her
eyes, and, looking upwards, said slowly, 'Susan — and
Jane — and Ellen!' as if recognising the presence of
her three sisters, who had previously died of the same
disease. Then, after a short pause, 'and Edward, too!'
she continued, — naming a brother then supposed to
be alive and well in India, — as if surprised at seeing
him in the company. She said no more, and sank
shortly afterwards. In course of the post, letters came
from India announcing the death of Edward from

160 Chapter XII

an accident, a week or two previous to the death of
his sister. This was told to me by an elder sister who
nursed the dying girl, and was present at the bedside
at the time of the apparent vision."

This last instance is difficult to explain
away, if correctly narrated. I am also per-
sonally acquainted with one or two similar
cases, which my informants consider too
sacred to be made public. Several remark-
able cases of visions of the dying are given in
the "Proceedings and Journal of the S.P.R.,"
which I regret are too long to be quoted here;
the reader is specially referred to the follow-
ing: "Proc," Vol. Ill, p. 93; V, p. 459, 460;
VI, p. 294. The evidence seems indisputable
that, in some rare cases, just before death the
veil is partly drawn aside and a glimpse of the
loved ones who have passed over is given to
the dying person.

CHAPTER XIII

AUTOMATIC WRITING: THE EVIDENCE
FOR IDENTITY

"Is there an answering voice from the void,

Or vain and worthless my passionate prayer?
Are all my hopes for ever destroyed

In blackness of darkness, depth of despair?"

— F. W. H. Myers.

Let us now enquire what further experimental
evidence is afforded by psychical research
for survival after death. No candid student
of the evidence, so carefully sifted in recent
years, can (in my opinion) resist the conclu-
sion that there exists an unseen world of in-
telligent beings, some of whom, as the succeed-
ing chapters will show, have striven to prove,
with more or less success, that they once lived
on earth. It would seem as if the mode in
which the manifestation of these unseen
intelligences takes place varies from time to
time. At one period hauntings and polter-
geists appear to be most frequent, at another
apparitions, at another super-normal physical
phenomena, such as were discussed in the

161

1 62 Chapter XIII

earlier chapters; at the present time automatic
writing appears to be the most common.

It is interesting to note that automatic
writing is also one of the oldest recorded
forms of super-normal communication. More
than 2,000 years ago it was mentioned by a
Hebrew seer as follows: "All this the Lord
made me to understand in writing with His
hand upon me."1 Automatic messages may
take place either by the automatist passively
holding a pencil on a sheet of paper, or by the
planchette, or by the "ouija board." In this
last method an indicator, — which may be a
small board shaped like a planchette, or any
other contrivance, — is lightly touched by the
automatisms fingers and after a time it moves
more or less swiftly to the different letters
of the alphabet which are printed on a board
below or arranged on a table.

All these modes of communication have the
objection that the automatist, even when ab-
solutely above suspicion, may unconsciously
guide the pencil or indicator; hence the
necessity for a critical examination of the
evidence so obtained and of the contents of
the messages themselves.2 In the first place
can the communications made through trust-

1 1. Chronicles xxviii. 19.

a The reader will bear in mind that the unseen intelligence may
be, and prubably is in .mimic cases, only the subliminal of the
medium.

Automatic Writing 163

worthy automatists or mediums, be reasonably
accounted for by thought-transference from
those who are sitting with the medium, or
telepathy from other living persons who may
know some of the facts that are automatically
written?

This explanation has indeed been held by
some investigators; but even assuming the
fact of thought-transference, of which many
automatic messages afford an interesting
confirmation, that only helps us a little
further; clairvoyance may occur, far-seeing
as well as far-feeling. Then there is often a
curious reflection of the prevailing sentiment
of the community, "As if" (Professor James
remarks), "the sub-conscious self was peculi-
arly susceptible to a certain stratum of the
Zeit-Geist." "It is conceivable," as Mr.
Myers remarks,

"that thought transference and clairvoyance may be
pushed to the point of a sort of terrene omniscience;
so that to a man's unconscious self some phantasmal
picture should be open of all that men are doing or
have done. All this might be, but before such a hypo-
thesis as this could come within the range of discussion
by men of science there must be a change of mental
attitude so fundamental that no argument at present
could tell for much in the scale."

But it may be urged that the revival of
lapsed memories, and of some of the many un-

1 64 Chapter XIII

conscious impressions made on our personal-
ity, may afford an explanation more in har-
mony with our present state of knowledge and
the scientific views of to-day. This uprush of
past impressions would come as a revelation
to the subject, unrecognisable as belonging
to his own past experience, and therefore
regarded as no part of his own personality,
but looked at merely with the curiosity and
fainter interest that attaches to the "not me."
Moreover, the series of unfamiliar nervous
discharges, accompanying the emergence of
new sensations and ideas from previously
dormant nerve centres, would appear as for-
eign to the automatist as the reproduction of
one's voice in the phonograph, or the reflection
of one's face in a mirror, if heard or seen for
the first time. The sensation of "otherness1'
thus produced would give rise to the feeling
of another Ego usurping the body, hence the
"control"1 would be designated by some
familiar or chance name other than the sub-
ject's own, or by a name that appeared to fit
the ideas expressed.

But is this explanation sufficient? It may
be a versa causa, but does it account for all
the facts that are definitely known about
double consciousness and about these auto-
matic and trance communications? Rcgard-

1 Sec p. 242 for definition of this term.

Automatic Writing 165

ing the latter, I know that it certainly does not.
Whilst it disposes of, perhaps, the bulk of the
messages usually attributed to disembodied
spirits of Satanic agency, it does not cover all
the ground. The late Hon. A. Aksakof — a
distinguished Russian savant — whose opinion,
formed after a painstaking and life-long study
of the whole subject, is deserving of the high-
est respect of scientific men as well as of
Spiritualists — points out (and the evidence he
adduces fully bears out his statement), that
the unconscious self of the medium cannot
explain all the facts, but that an external and
invisible agency is occasionally and unmistak-
ably indicated. The opinion of the Russian
savant is corroborated by the experience of
other investigators; for instance, I will cite
two distinguished and most competent author-
ities, who have made a careful study of this
part of our subject.

In his text-book on "Psychology," the late
Professor W. James, of Harvard, writes
(p. 214) :—

I am however, persuaded by abundant acquaintance
with the trances of one medium that the "control"
may be altogether different from any possible waking-
self of the person. In the case I have in mind it pro-
fesses to be a certain departed French doctor, and is,
I am convinced, acquainted with facts about the cir-
cumstances, and the living and dead relatives and ac-
quaintances, of numberless sitters whom the medium

1 66 Chapter XIII

never met before, and of whom she has never heard
the names. ... I am persuaded that a serious study
of these trance-phenomena is one of the greatest needs
of psychology.

Professor W. James not only speaks with
authority as an eminent psychologist, but he
has had unusual opportunities for a. careful
investigation of the case of the well known
medium Mrs. Piper, to whom he here refers,
and he reiterates, — in a letter to Mr. Myers,
published in the "Proceedings of the Society
for Psychical Research," Vol. VI, p. 658, —
that:—

I feel as absolutely certain as I am of any personal
fact in the world that she knows things in her trances
which she cannot possibly have heard in her waking
state.

Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., the other witness
I will cite, has also made a prolonged study
of Mrs. Piper, and he fully endorses Professor
James' opinion; he says: —

Mrs. Piper's trance personality is undoubtedly (I use
the word in the strongest sense) aware of much to which
she has no kind of ordinarily recognised clue, and of
which she, in her ordinary state, knows nothing. But
how does she get this knowledge?

That is the question we have to face, and
for this purpose what we have to do is to
collect truth-telling, veridical, messages, and

Automatic Writing 167

critically examine whether their contents were
known to the deceased person and not known
to the medium, or automatist, nor to the
sitters. This is now being done, and has
for many years past been done, by careful and
skilled investigators connected with the
English and American Societies for Psychical
Research. The result has confirmed the opin-
ion I have long held, and expressed in my
book A New World of Thought (published
many years ago), in the following sentences,
which remain unchanged: —

There is in my opinion evidence of occa-
sional communications from those who have
once lived on earth — not as satisfactory as one
would wish, and never a complete revelation
of their personality, but in general affording
the same trivial and fragmentary presentation
that we have in our own dreams. But the
messages are more than the incoherent mut-
terings of a man in his sleep. Behind them
there is the same evidence of a combining
and reasoning power as we have in our own
normal self-consciousness; evidence of an
unseen personality, with an intelligence and
character of its own entirely distinct from that
of the subject's normal self.1 It has been held
by some investigators that this person is only
part of the personality of the medium, the

1 See the remarkable cases quoted by Ms. Myers in "Proceed-
ings S. P. R.," Vol. VI, p. 341 et seq.

1 68 Chapter XIII

transcendental Ego of the unconscious self;
but, if so, it is, I am convinced, during trance
in touch with those who have once lived on
earth, evidence of some extra-terrene com-
municator certainly exists, unsatisfactory and
dream-like though the communication often
is. As Professor (now Sir Oliver) Lodge has
pointed out concerning Mrs. Piper when her
"control" is asked as to the source of its in-
formation:—

"She herself, when in the trance state,
asserts that she," i.e., her "control," or that
part of her which calls itself Dr. Phinuit "gets
it by conversing with the deceased friends and
relatives of people present .... but even
when the voice changes and messages come
apparently from these very people themselves,
it does not follow that they themselves are
necessarily aware of the fact, nor need their
conscious mind (if they have any) have any-
thing to do with the process."1

This opinion Sir Oliver Lodge expressed
in 1894, but the wider experience we have
gained in more recent years, especially the
evidence of "cross correspondence" (to which
I will refer in a moment), has led all serious
students of psychical research to the con-
viction that there is a conscious and designed
effort on the part of the unseen communi-
cators to convince us of their survival after

1 "Proceedings S. P. R.," Vol. X, pp. 15 and 17.

Automatic Writing 169

death. In fact the communications appear to
fall into two groups, with an indefinite line
of demarcation between them. In one group,
the cause appears to be the operation of
hidden powers that lie wrapped up in our
present human personality, and which the
peculiar organisation of the medium renders
manifest; in the other group the cause
appears to be the operation of the same
powers, controlled by unseen personalities,
who have once lived on earth, or claim to have
done so.

That is to say, the unconscious mind of the
medium is the instrument from which in the
former case and through which in the latter
the messages come. We must not, however,
conclude that these latter are in every case
extra-terrene in their origin, for a telepathic
influence from living and distant persons may
sometimes be their cause: — as, for instance,
in the well-known case of Rev. P. H. and Mrs.
Newnham, where Mrs. Newnham's hand
automatically wrote answers to questions pre-
viously written down by her husband, and of
the purport of which her conscious self was
wholly ignorant. This shows how necessary
it is to submit all "spiritualistic" communica-
tions to the most rigorous scrutiny before de-
ciding on their probable origin.

With full knowledge of all these points

17© Chapter XIII

before they passed from earth, both Mr.
Frederick Myers and Dr. Hodgson were con-
vinced, from their own personal enquiry, that
these automatic communications established
the fact of survival after death. Since these
pioneers in psychical research entered the
unseen world, they themselves appear to have
specially directed many of the communica-
tions, so as to avoid possible telepathy from
those on earth, or the emergence of a sub-
conscious memory on the part of the medium.
This they have done by making evident the
presence of a combining and reasoning in-
telligence, apart from and beyond that of the
automatist. The significance of the more re-
cent communications — through Mrs. Piper,
the late Mrs. Verrall, and several other auto-
matists — which contain what have been called
"cross-correspondences" — is precisely this,
that they seem inexplicable except on the
recognition that some intelligence, which cer-
tainly is not the conscious intelligence of any
incarnate mind, has planned, co-ordinated and
directed them.

The intricacy and elaboration of these in-
cidents makes them difficult to deal with in a
work like this. But it is impossible to pass
them by altogether, and an illustration will
be given later on. They evince not only the
presence of intelligent ami selective direction,
but also in some cases they contain fresh and

The Question of Identity 171

impressive evidence indicative of the identity
of the intelligence at work. In the last two
chapters of my little book on Psychical
Research in the Home University series, I
have given several instances of these "cross-
correspondences," and to these chapters the
reader is referred. It is however very diffi-
cult to compress into a brief narrative the sub-
stance of this evidence, and its cogency can
only be felt by a careful perusal of the lengthy
papers by Miss Johnson and others published
in the "Proceedings of the Society for Psy-
chical Research."

The enormous difficulty of verifying the
identity of the intelligence with that of the
deceased person it professes to be, is vastly
increased when the claimant is invisible,
when "personation" seems to be a common
practice, when telepathy is admitted, and
when the evidence is of a fitful and fragment-
ary character. Even in the law-courts we
have protracted trials, such as the Tichborne
case, when the sole question at issue is the
identity of a particular claimant. If the
identity of the intelligence which communi-
cates through the medium with a person who
has once lived on earth can be established,
even in a single instance, all other questions
sink into comparative insignificance. Those,
however, who will take the trouble critically

172 Chapter XIII

to examine the ample records of the com-
munications made through the mediumship
of Mrs. Piper, which have been published,
will find that it needs a great deal of ingenuity
and a great many hypotheses to get rid of the
inference that we are here, in several instances,
actually in touch with the veritable persons
who assert they have once lived on earth,
and whom we know to have done so. This
inference is, of course, a matter of individual
judgment, in which no doubt each person's
mental bias will come into play, be he as judi-
cial as he will.

Here we find a striking illustration that
our knowledge of each other is to a large ex-
tent incommunicable to other persons. Those
who have had repeated sittings with Mrs.
Piper and other genuine mediums for auto-
matic writing or speaking, have been con-
vinced of the survival of friends who have
passed from earth. On the other hand, those
who have not had such opportunities, but
have laboriously read the evidence that has
been published, may feel its weight and value,
though they may not attain the confident
conclusion reached by the investigators them-
selves. The reason is that we know one
another not by any verbal testimony of our
identity but by an instant recognition, either
from appearance or familiar traits of speech
or action. If a long absent friend, whom we

The Question of Identity 173

may have thought dead, is at the other end
of a telephone line, and through loss of voice
unable to speak to us except through an inter-
mediary, how difficult it would be for him
to prove his identity. To do this he would
not talk about current events, but cite trivial
incidents in his past life which he hoped we
might remember. This experiment with the
telephone has actually been made, one person
trying to identify himself to another at the
other end of the line.

As Dr. Hodgson and others have pointed
out, the best proof of identity is to be found
in accurate references to incidents of a simple
nature, that might be recalled by the sitter
but are unknown to the medium or to the
public generally. And so we notice that in
the messages which purport to come from a
deceased friend, trivial incidents are recalled,
which are likely to have been unknown to
any but the sitter. Such communications may
seem silly and worthless to the general reader
of the record, but they often carry convic-
tion to the person receiving them. Illustra-
tions of this will be given in the succeeding
chapters.

We now come to another interesting point:
if in automatic writing the hand of the auto-
matist is controlled and guided by some
discarnate spirit we should expect to find,

174 Chapter XIII

and we do sometimes find, words written in
a language unknown to the writer.1 Still
more striking would be the evidence of super-
normal guidance if very young children, as
yet unable to write in their normal state,
could occasionally have intelligible automatic
writing coming through them. This, of
course, involves the possession of psychic
power by such children, and therefore the in-
stances are likely to be rare.

There is however some trustworthy evi-
dence of this kind. Mr. Myers in Human
Personality (Vol. II, p. 484 et seq.) gives a
couple of cases which are well attested,
wherein children, who had not been taught
writing and could not write a word in their
normal state, were found to write intelligible
words automatically. One was a child nearly
five years old who had not learned a single
letter of her alphabet, the other a child just
four years of age who had no knowledge
whatever of writing. This latter case was in-
vestigated by Dr. Hodgson, who inspected the
writings, and which were made with a pencil
held between the middle fingers of the child's
left hand. Mr. Myers adds: "I have seen a

1 My friend Mr. W. B. Yeats informs me that he has received,
not through a professional medium, the most conclusive evidence
of this. Words were given in various languages, e.g., Italian,

Greek and Latin, known to the controli but utterly unknown to

the medium. See also "Proceedings S. P. R.," Vol>. XI 11, p.
337; XX, p. 30.

Automatic Writing 175

tracing of the last written phrase 'Your Aunt
Emma.' It is a free scrawl, resembling the
planchette writing of an adult rather than the
first effort of a child." The child had an Aunt
Emma who had died some years before, and
the child herself died soon after this unex-
pected message had come through her hand.
The parents it may be added were not spiritu-
alists, and the mother testifies that their child
"had not been taught the alphabet, nor how
to hold a pencil."

Further evidence of the super-normal source
of these automatic messages will be given in
the next chapter; it is obviously of para-
mount importance to establish the fact of this
super-normal source before entering upon the
discussion of the contents of the messages
themselves.

CHAPTER XIV

PROOF OF SUPER-NORMAL MESSAGES:
THE OUIJA BOARD

"Out of the deep, my child, out of the deep,
From that true world within the world we see,
Whereof our world is but the bounding shore."

— Tennyson.

In the previous chapter reference was made
to the so-called ouija board, whereby mes-
sages are communicated through the move-
ment of a small triangular table, or indicator,
which runs on three legs tipped with felt. The
automatists fingers rest lightly on this indi-
cator, which smoothly glides over the board
and spells out the messages by pointing to
one or other of the letters of the alphabet
printed on the board below. Though this
method of communication is slow and labori-
ous it has its advantages. Frequently it is
successfully used by those who tail to get
automatic writing with a pencil; moreover
with patience and practice speed ami accuracy
in indicating the right letters can be obtained.

176

The Ouija Board 177

But the most valuable feature in this method
of communication is the suppression of any
sub-conscious guidance of the indicator which
can be brought about by careful blindfolding
of the sitters.

A small private circle of friends of mine
in Dublin have devoted themselves for a few
years past to experiments with the ouija
board and have obtained some remarkable
results. A joint paper by myself and one of
the sitters, — the Rev. Savill Hicks, M.A., —
was read by the latter before the S.P.R.
wherein some of the communications were
given.1 The sitters found when they were
carefully blindfolded that the indicator moved
with as great ease and precision as when they
could see the letters of the alphabet. Ques-
tions were promptly answered and the
indicator often moved so rapidly that their
hands had some difficulty in keeping pace
with it: in fact the recorder who took down
the communications had frequently to resort
to shorthand.

I asked the "control" if I might turn round
the board with its alphabet. Instantly the
reply was spelt out "Yes, it makes no differ-
ence." So the sitters, still blindfolded, raised
the indicator and I turned the board so that
the alphabet was now upside down to the sit-

1 See also my paper published in the "Proceedings of the
American Society for Psychical Research" for September, 1914.

178 Chapter XIV.

ters, and even could they have seen there
would have been some difficulty in picking
out the right letter. But there was not the
least hesitation, the indicator moved as
promptly and correctly as before to the right
letter. I asked could any friend of mine com-
municate. A message was spelt out from a
deceased friend, whom I will call Sir John
Hartley, giving his full Christian and surname
correctly, and he sent a message to the Dublin
"Grand Lodge of Freemasons": Sir John
when on earth had held a very high rank in
the Masonic order, though this fact was quite
unknown to the sitters.

I then asked one of the sitters to allow me
to take his place, and this I did after being
securely blindfolded. On putting my fingers
on the indicator, along with the two other
sitters, the extraordinary vigour, decision and
swiftness with which the indicator moved
startled me, and it seemed incredible that any
coherent message could be in process of
delivery. But the recorder had taken down
the message which came as follows: ''The
same combination must always work together
in order to obtain the important messages,
as it is very tiring unless the same three are
present; there is one present who is unsuited
for the receiving." The recorder asked who
this was and was told that it referred to my-
self ! It was not until we removed the bandages

Blindfolded Sitters 179

from our eyes that any of the sitters knew the
purport of the messages given.1

Objection might be made that it is very
difficult to blindfold a person effectually by
bandaging the eyes. Although the sitters,
who were personal friends of mine, declared
they could see nothing, it was desirable to
meet this objection. Accordingly opaque eye
screens were made and fastened over the eyes
with an elastic cord round the head: a space
was cut for the nose so that the screen fitted
closely to the cheeks and forehead, and thus
resembled the eye screens used by patients
after an operation for cataract. I tried one
of these screens and found it pleasanter to use
than a bandage and absolutely effective in
preventing vision. But communications came
just as easily when these screens were worn;
and a new control unexpectedly came who
called himself Peter Rooney.

A new pattern of "board" was now made;
this consisted of a sheet of plate glass resting
on a table of the same size, beneath the glass
an alphabet was placed, and the indicator,
which had very short legs tipped with felt,
now moved more freely over the smooth glass
surface. The letters of the alphabet were on

1 It may be well to state here that I myself am not in the
least psychic, and have never had psychical gifts of any kind ;
perhaps happily so, as one is better able to preserve a detached
and critical spirit.

180 Chapter XIV

separate bits of thin card, and could be ar-
ranged in any way we pleased on the table
beneath the plate glass.

A clerical friend, who was an interested
but sceptical enquirer, was invited to be
present at some of the sittings, and whilst
the indicator was rapidly spelling out a
communication through the blindfolded sitters,
he silently held a large opaque fire screen
over the moving indicator and alphabet be-
low; but it made no difference, the message
went on, though it could only be read by the
recorder bending his head down to see be-
tween the screen and the alphabet. I asked
my friend, the Rev. W. P. Robertson, M.A.,
to send me a brief report of this sitting, here
it is: —

"When present with Sir Wm. Barrett at the sitting
in question, I observed that the interposition of the
opaque screen made no appreciable difference in the
speed at which the message was spelt out, and certainly
it caused no interruption, much less a cessation of the
message. The letters of the alphabet were arranged
in three lines and in order beneath the plate glass.

It occurred to me that possibly the sitters knew the
position of each letter, as a good typist knows her key-
board, though they might be unconscious of the fact
themselves. I ventured to suggest that flu- letters be
jumbled. The sitters agreed and Sir Wm. Barrett and
1 re-arranged the letter-, at random, the sitters being

blindfolded all the time. On resuming with the

Blindfolded Sitters 181

alphabet thus altered, the movement of the indicator
was at first very slow, it travelled three times in and
out between the letters and then proceeded to spell out,
slowly and deliberately: 'There is a disturbing person.'
Here we laughed and asked the 'control' to indicate
which of us was the culprit — the Professor or the
clergyman ?

At this point there occurred what, to my mind, was
the most impressive feature of the sitting. We all
expected some sort of answer to this question. The
shorthand writer said, 'It seems to be writing non-
sense now.' The 'nonsense' on examination proved
to be — 'ality in the room.' That is, our question was
ignored and the 'control' calmly finished what he in-
tended to say. A second instance of ignoring a question
and continuing a sentence that we thought had been
completed, occurred at the same sitting.

So far as I could judge the blindfolding of the sitters
was perfect, and their bona fides is to me beyond ques-
tion. When the opaque screen was held over the board,
the letters were visible only to the reporter who bent
down to see underneath the screen.

W. P. Robertson.

I have given these details to establish the
fact that whatever may have been the source
of the intelligence displayed, it was absolutely
beyond the range of any normal human
faculty. As for the numerous messages that
came through the blindfolded sitters, one from
the control, Isaac David Solomon, on October
19th, 191 2, — just after the first Balkan war
had broken out, — was as follows:

1 82 Chapter XI V

"Blood, blood everywhere in the near East. A great
nation will fall and a small nation will rise. A great
religion will stand in danger. Blood everywhere. News
that will astonish the civilised world will come to hand
within the next week."

Now, whatever the source of this message
it was perfectly true, for within a week after-
wards the first victory of the Bulgarians at
Kirk Kilisse was announced and later on, as
we know, a great nation (Turkey) fell and a
small nation (Bulgaria) rose; whilst more
recently Europe has been drenched in blood.

This control passed and the American-
Irishman Peter Rooney, persistently intruded
himself and told us the story of his life and
recent death. The purport of it was that he
had lived a wretched and bad life, mostly in
gaol, and, he added, life at last became so
unendurable that ten days previously he threw
himself under a tramcar in Boston and so com-
mitted suicide. It was only afterwards that
the blindfolded sitters knew the purport of the
message, they were laughing and chatting to-
gether during its delivery. To us lookers-on
it seemed very incongruous, for the message
was delivered in the most life-like manner,
with evident pain and reluctance leading up
to the tragic conclusion.

The next day I wrote to the Governor of
the State Prison at Boston, Mass., to the

Fictitious Messages 183

Chief of Police in that city, to the Chief of
Police at Boston, Lincolnshire, to the dis-
tinguished corresponding member of the
S.P.R., Dr. Morton Prince, of Boston, U.S.A.,
and to Dr. Hyslop, Hon. Sec. of the American
S.P.R., asking if any information could be
given me concerning this Peter Rooney, and
requesting a reply as soon as possible.

In the course of a few weeks I obtained
answers to my enquiries. No man of this
name was known at Boston in England, no
Peter Rooney had been in confinement at
Boston Prison, Mass., and no former inmate
of that prison had recently committed suicide.
The chief Inspector of Police at Boston,
Mass., made a thorough investigation and
found that no Peter Rooney had been sent to
prison from Boston, or had been committed
to the Reformatory, or had committed suicide.
Dr. Morton Prince, of Boston, however, ob-
tained from the Police Records of Boston that
a Peter Rooney had fallen from the elevated
railway in Boston in August, 19 10, had re-
ceived a scalp wound, was attended by a
doctor, laid up for a month, and was still living
in his home, York Street, Boston. It was
probably only a chance coincidence that a
man of the same name had met with an acci-
dent in Boston.

The whole elaborate story was therefore
fictitious, and characteristic of the dramatic

1 84 Chapter XIV

inventions, like externalised dreams, which so
often come through these automatic channels,
and which are so misleading to the novice and
so productive of mischief to the credulous.

Nevertheless other messages subsequently
came through another control, giving names
and addresses of two persons recently deceased
in England, which on investigation proved to
be perfectly correct; though the names were
entirely unknown to myself or any of the
sitters. Such is the curious mixture of truth
and fiction which these automatisms so
frequently display. I have not space to give
details of these two cases, but will cite a later
and remarkably veridical communication that
came through the ouija board in Dublin.
The sitters in this case were not blindfolded,
one was the same lady who took part in the
former sittings, the wife of a well-known
Dublin physician and daughter of the late
Professor Dowden, Mrs. Travers Smith. The
other was her friend, Miss C, the daughter of
a medical man, and evidently possessing great
psychic power.

THE PEARL TIE-PIN CASE.

Miss C, the sitter, had a cousin an officer with our
Army in Fiance, who was killed in battle a month
previously to the sitting: this she knew. One day
after the name of her cousin had unexpectedly been
spelt out on the ouija board, and her name given in

The Pearl Tie-Pin 185

answer to her query "Do you know who I am?" the
following message came: —

"Tell mother to give my pearl tie-pin to the girl
I was going to marry, I think she ought to have it."
When asked what was the name and address of the
lady both were given, the name spelt out included
the full Christian and surname, the latter being a very
unusual one and quite unknown to both the sitters.
The address given in London was either fictitious or
taken down incorrectly, as a letter sent there was
returned, and the whole message was thought to be
fictitious.

Six months later, however, it was discovered that
the officer had been engaged, shortly before he left for
the front, to the very lady, whose name was given;
he had however told no one. Neither his cousin nor
any of his own family in Ireland were aware of the
fact and had never seen the lady nor heard her name,
until the War Office sent over the deceased officer's
effects. Then they found that he had put this lady'g
name in his will as his next of kin, both Christian and
surname being precisely the same as given through the
automatist; and what is equally remarkable, a pearl
tie-pin was found in his effects.

Both the ladies have signed a document they sent
me, affirming the accuracy of the above statement. The
message was recorded at the time, and not written
from memory after verification had been obtained. Here
there could be no explanation of the facts by subliminal
memory, or telepathy or collusion, and the evidence
points unmistakably to a telepathic message from the
deceased officer.

1 86 Chapter XIV

Other remarkable evidential cases came
through the ouija board. One was on the
occasion of the sinking of the Lusitania, and
Mrs. Travers Smith has kindly furnished me
with the following report: —

THE HUGH LANE CASE.

"On the evening of the day on which news had come
that the Lusitania was reported sinking, Mr. Lennox
Robinson and I sat at the ouija board ; the Rev. Savill
Hicks taking the record. We did not know that Sir
Hugh Lane was on board. We were both personal
friends of his, and knew he was in America, but had
no idea he was coming back so soon.

"Our usual 'control' came and then the words 'Pray
for the soul of Hugh Lane.' I asked 'Who is speaking?'
the reply was 'I am Hugh Lane.' He gave us an
account of the sinking of the ship and said it was 'a
peaceful end to an exciting life.' At this point we
heard the stop-press evening paper called in the street
and Mr. Robinson ran down and bought a paper. I
went out of the room to meet him, and he pointed to
the name of Sir Hugh Lane among the passengers.
We were both much disturbed, but continued the sit-
ting. Sir Hugh gave me messages for mutual friends
and ended this sitting by saying 'I did not suffer, I
was drowned and felt nothing.'

"At subsequent sittings he spoke of his will, but
never mentioned the codicil now in dispute. He
hoped no memorial would be erected to him in the
shape of a gallery or otherwise, but was anxious ■boul
his pictures. The messages were always coherent and

Sir Hugh Lane 187

evidential and always came through Mr. Robinson and
me.

(Signed) Hester Travers Smith/'

This is a very evidential case, for no in-
formation of the death of Sir Hugh Lane was
given until some days later.

Another veridical message, through the
same sitters, came to a friend of mine who
was in profound distress through the death in
battle of his son, an officer with our army in
France. This message, together with others,
he obtained later on through a lady in London,
who knew nothing of my friend beforehand,
absolutely convinced him of the identity of
his son and of his survival after death. The
result was a very happy one; from almost
heartbroken grief he is now in serene and
perfect confidence of his son's survival.

Besides the foregoing group of sitters, a
well-known and esteemed member of the
Society of Friends and friend of mine in
Dublin, has for several years past had a small
private circle of sitters with the ouija board.
He has thus obtained some thousands of com-
munications, chiefly from deceased members
of his family, which have demonstrated to
him the fact of their survival after death, and
thus afforded great consolation to himself and
other stricken friends. These communications
are not evidential to an outsider, but they

1 88 Chapter XIV

give some remarkable statements as to the
conditions of life and occupation in the unseen
world, which are more or less in accordance
with similar communications (unknown to
these sitters) obtained by others.

A digest of the spirit teachings coming
through a medium in America who is much
esteemed by Dr. Hyslop, has lately been pub-
lished by Mr. Prescott Hall in the "Journal
of the American Society for Psychical Re-
search" for November and December, 1916.
As Mr. Hall points out, if we find on collating
a number of communications through differ-
ent mediums, of different training, in different
countries, that they substantially agree upon
certain facts as to the nature and conditions
of spirit life, the result may be of interest and
value.

But this will depend upon the fact whether
the descriptions given are not to be found in
spiritistic literature and therefore not likely to
be the common opinion of mediums generally.
Unfortunately it is usual to find such descrip-
tions arc only a reflection of the medium's
own opinions and reading, and therefore the
product of the memory or sub-conscious im-
pressions of the medium. This is conspicu-
ous when attempts at scientific or philoso-
phical disquisitions arc made by the medium,

Spirit Teachings 189

which rarely exhibit anything more than the
grotesque assertions of an ignorant mind.
Mr. Prescott Hall, however, is doing good
service in classifying these spirit teachings,
examining their source and testing their con-
sistency.

By far the most remarkable and interesting
collection of ''Spirit Teachings" was pub-
lished some years ago by the late Rev. Stainton
Moses (M.A., Oxon), to whom reference has
already been made. These were given
through his own mediumship and are well
worth careful perusal, together with his book
on "Spirit Identity and the higher aspects of
Spiritualism."

In the next chapter will be found some
glimpses of the spirit world obtained through
two ladies, neither of whom were spiritualists;
one was a personal friend, and both were of
unimpeachable veracity.

CHAPTER XV

FURTHER EVIDENCE OF SURVIVAL
AFTER DEATH

"The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God.
In the sight of the unwise they seem to die and their
departure is taken for misery and their going away from
earth to be utter destruction — but they are in peace."1

The super-normal character of many of the
communications that reach us through the
medium or automatist having been established,
let us now turn to further evidence of sur-
vival and of the identity of the discarnate in-
telligence, together with occasional glimpses
of their condition after death.

Some years ago I was staying at a friend's
house in the country, which I will call Haw-
thorn Manor, and found that my hostess,
Mrs. E. — the wife of a lawyer holding a
responsible official position, and herself a
matronly lady of great acumen and common-
sense, the centre of a circle of religious and
charitable activity — had accidently discovered

1 From the Wisdom of Solomon, iii, 1-3.
190

Evidence of Survival 19 1

that her hand was occasionally impressed by
some power she could not control. Long mes-
sages, the purport of which were at the time
unknown to her, were thus written.

The curious feature of this automatic writ-
ing was that it came on her suddenly; when
writing up some household accounts she fell
into a dreamy or semi-trance-like state, and
then felt the fingers of another hand — belong-
ing apparently to an invisible person seated
opposite to her — laid on her right hand, and a
sudden vigorous scribbling ensued. But the
writing was all upside down, each line begin-
ning at her right hand side of the page, and
could only be read by turning the page round.
Mrs. E. assured me, and I have no reason to
doubt her word, that it was quite impossible
for her to write a single word correctly in this
way in her normal state. Anyone who will
make the attempt will find how difficult such
a mode of writing is to execute, especially in
the clear and characteristic caligraphy, which
here occurred.

Mrs. E. was not a spiritualist and had no
knowledge of the subject, in fact rather an
aversion to it. Hence no serious attention was
given to this abnormal writing until a message
came containing certain specific statements,
wholly outside the knowledge of herself or
husband, which they subsequently discovered
to be perfectly true incidents in the life of a

192 Chapter XV

deceased relative, who asserted he was present
and guiding the lady's hand. Other com-
munications followed, which also were veri-
fied. Then on another evening came the
instance to which I have referred as affording
proof of identity.

THE CHATHAM CASE

In this case the communicating intelligence was un-
known to Mrs. E. The circumstances, written down
at the time, were as follows: — A cousin of my hostess,
an officer in the Engineers, named B., was paying a
visit to Hawthorn Manor. I was not present, but the
facts were sent to me; some, indeed, came under my
own knowledge. B. had a friend, a brother officer,
Major C, who died after B. left Chatham, and to
whose rooms in the barracks he frequently went to
play on C.'s piano, both being musical: of this Mrs. E.
assured me she knew absolutely nothing. At the sit-
ting in question, much to B.'s amazement, for he was
quite ignorant of spiritualism, the Christian name and
surname of Major C. were unexpectedly given, fol-
lowed by the question, addressed to B., "Have you
kept up your music?" Then came some private mat-
ter of a striking character, when suddenly the unseen
visitant interjected the question, "What w;is done with
the books?" "What books?" was askeJ. "Lent to
me," was C.'s reply. "Who lent you the books?"
The reply came at once, "A — ," giving the name of
another brother officer, of whose existence Mrs. E. was
also wholly unaware. "Shall I write to ask A — if
he has them?" B. asked. "Yes," was the reply. All
present assert on their word of honour they knew of

The Chatham Case 193

no such loan, nor was the officer named in any of
their thoughts, nor had Mrs. E. ever heard A — 's name
mentioned before.

A — was written to, and the question about the
books incidentally asked, but in reply that came some
time after no notice was taken of the question. Two
months later, however, B. accidentally met his friend
A — , when, in the course of conversation on other
matters, A — suddenly exclaimed: "That was a rum
thing you asked me about in your letter; I mean about
Major C. and the books. I did lend him some books,
but I don't know what became of them after his
death."

An objector might urge that it is conceiv-
able B. might once have seen some books
belonging to A — in Major C.'s room, and
afterwards forgotten the fact, and that this
latent memory had telepathically (and uncon-
sciously to all concerned) impressed Mrs. E.,
but obviously this explanation will not cover
other cases, some of which I will cite. For
these some more elaborate hypothesis must be
invented, and our ingenuity becomes severely
taxed when we remember that these are only
stray illustrations of a growing mass of sifted
evidence pointing in the direction of survival
after death. Much of this evidence has been
published, but other cases are privately known
to me, and each case requires new and often
absurd assumptions if we attempt to explain
it away.

194 Chapter XV

I will now cite some further illustrations
of the automatic script that came through
my friend Mrs. E.'s hand, and in the earlier
stages came in the wonderful manner already
mentioned. The remarkable point being that
Mrs. E. did not know what her hand had
written until the paper was turned completely
round and the message read. I know of no
other case where messages were written in
this inverted script, though there may be such.
"Mirror writing" is not uncommon, that is
messages written (as postcards are sometimes
written) in a script which can only be read
when viewed in a mirror; this art is not so
difficult to acquire as inverted writing.

The following communications are also
unlike the usual type, inasmuch as they give
us a glimpse, — if they are really veridical, —
of the state of the soul immediately after
death. Mrs. E. assured me that these mes-
sages were quite foreign to her thoughts, and
entirely beyond her ability to compose. She
had lost during the preceding winter a dearly
loved brother, who was studying at an en-
gineering college near London. A friend of
his, who had been a sufferer, had pre-deccased
him, but no thought of this friend was in
Mrs. E.'s mind when one evening her hand
wrote : —

"I want you to believe your friends live still and
can think of you. . . . On opening the eyes of my

Survival after Death 195

spiritual body I found myself unaltered, no terror,
only a strange feeling at first, then peace, a comforted
heart, love, companionship, teaching. I am [giv-
ing here his full name], and have written this, but

your brother [giving the name] is here and wants

to speak to you."

After an interval Mrs. E. felt her hand
again impelled to write, and the following
message came: —

"I am here [giving her brother's name] and want
to tell you about my awakening into spirit life. I was
at first dimly conscious of figures moving in the room
and round the bed. Then the door was closed and
all was still. I then first perceived that I was not
lying on the bed, but seemed to be floating in the air
a little above it. I saw in the dim light the body
stretched out straight and with the face covered. My
first idea was that I might re-enter it, but all desire
to do this soon left me — the tie was broken. I stood
upon the floor, and looked round the room where I
had been so ill and been so helpless, and where I
could now once more move without restraint. The
room was not empty. Close to me was my father's
father [giving the name correctly]. He had been with
me all through. There were others whom I love now,
even if I did not know much of them then. I passed
out of the room, through the next, where my mother

and were [relatives still in this life], I tried to

speak to them. My voice was plain to myself, and
even loud, yet they took no notice of all I could say.
I walked through the college rooms; much blacknes?

196 Chapter XV

but some light. Then I went out under the free
heavens. I will write more another sitting — power too
weak now. Good-night." [His signature follows.]

At another sitting, a night of two later, the
same name was written, and the thread of the
preceding narrative was abruptly taken up
without any preface: —

"I saw the earth lying dark and cold under the
stars in the first beginning of the wintry sunrise. It
was the landscape I knew so well, and had looked at
so often. Suddenly sight was born to me; my eyes
became open. I saw the spiritual world dawn upon
the actual, like the blossoming of a flower. For this
I have no words. Nothing I could say would make
any of you comprehend the wonder of that revelation,
but it will be yours in time. I was drawn as if by
affinity to the world which is now mine. But I am
not fettered there. I am much drawn to earth, but by
no unhappy chain. I am drawn to those I love; to the
places much endeared."

These messages are deeply interesting: some
of them were written in my presence and, as
I have stated, Mrs. E. in her normal waking
consciousness was convinced she could not
have composed them. But the subliminal
self, the uprush of which Mr. Myers has
suggested lies at the root of genius, has gilts
far beyond the power of the normal self and
it is possible, though not in my opinion prob-
able, that these communications are only the

Survival after Death 197

dramatised products of Mrs. E.'s own hidden
and unsuspected powers. This explanation,
however, fails to account for the veridical
messages that came through Mrs. E., giving
information beyond the knowledge of any
persons present; nor can it explain many of
the communications that have come through
other automatists, such as the other cases
already cited and those which follow.

But why should we think it so extravagant
to entertain the simplest explanation — that
occasionally a channel opens from the unseen
world to ours, and that some who have
entered that world are able to make their
continued existence known to us? Why
some, we cannot tell. And why so paltry a
manifestation? But is anything paltry that
manifests life?

In the dumb agony which seizes the soul
when some loved one is taken from us, in the
awful sense of separation which paralyses us
as we gaze upon the lifeless form, there comes
the unutterable yearning for some voice, some
sign from beyond; and if, in answer to our
imploring cry for an assurance that our faith
is not in vain, that our dear one is living still,
a smile were to overspread the features of the
dead, or its lips to move, or even its finger
to be lifted, should we deem any action a
paltry thing that assures us death has not yet

198 Chapter XV

ended life, and still more that death will not
end all?
Though it be

"Only a signal shown and a voice from out of the
darkness,"

it is not paltry! Only the dead in spirit care
not for the faintest, the rudest sign that as-
sures us, who are "slow of heart to believe in
all that the prophets have spoken," that the
soul lives freed from the flesh, that the indi-
vidual mind and memory remain, though the
clothing of the body and brain be gone.

And it is just this natural human longing
that renders a dispassionate consideration of
the facts, a calm and critical weighing of the
evidence, so difficult and yet so imperative.
This is now being done, as the following case
illustrates, with a care that grows by experi-
ence, and with an honesty that none can
dispute.

MRS. HOLLAND'S SCRIPTS

Some of the most remarkable automatic
scripts, — which have been discussed with
critical acumen by the Research Officer of the
S.P.R., — came to a lady of education and
social position resident in India. This lady
was not a spiritualist, and at the time had no
acquaintance with the members of the Society

Mrs. Holland's Scripts 199

for Psychical Research. As her family dis-
liked the whole subject she prefers to be
known under the pseudonym of "Mrs. Hol-
land." Subsequently, on her return to Eng-
land, she became personally known to and
esteemed by many of the leaders and officials
of the S.P.R. Her attention having been
once casually drawn to the subject of auto-
matic writing she tried the experiment and
to her surprise found her hand wrote both
verse and prose without any volition on her
part; the first messages were headed by the
impromptu lines: —

"Believe in what thou canst not see,
Until the vision come to thee."

Mrs. Holland says she remains fully con-
scious during the writing, "but my hand
moves so rapidly that I seldom know what
I am writing." Her interest in the subject
increased and she obtained and read Mr.
Myers' monumental work Human Personal-
ity, which was published after Mr. Myers'
death. Though she did not know the author,
it was natural that much of her automatic
script purported to be inspired by him. A
careful study of the messages so inspired has
compelled the belief that the spirit of Mr.
Myers really did control some of these mes-
sages. Here for instance is a very character-

200 Chapter XV

istic communication purporting to come from
Mr. Myers:—

"To believe that the mere act of death enables a
spirit to understand the whole mystery of death is as
absurd as to imagine that the act of birth enables an
infant to understand the whole mystery of life. I
am still groping — surmising — conjecturing.. The ex-
perience is different for each one of us. . . . One was
here lately who could not believe he was dead; he
accepted the new conditions as a certain stage in the
treatment of his illness."

Then follows, not quite verbally correct, the
first two lines of Mr. Myers' poem St. Paul —
a poem which Mrs. Holland declares she had
never read and of which she knew nothing
whatever. Of course it is possible that she
had somewhere seen these lines quoted, though
she has no recollection of this. The auto-
matic script is as follows: —

"Yea, I am Christ's — and let the name suffice ye —
E'en as for me He greatly hath sufficed.1 If it were
possible for the soul to die back into earth life again
I should die from sheer yearning to reach you — to tell
you all that we imagined is not half wonderful enough
for the truth — that immortality, instead of being a
beautiful dream, is the one, the only reality, the strong
golden thread on which all the illusions of all the

1 The actual lines in Mr. Myers' Si. Paul are:

"Christ! I am Christ's! and let the name suffice you,
Ay, for mc too He greatly hath sufficed."

Mrs. Holland's Scripts 201

lives are strung. If I could only reach you — if I could
only tell you — I long for power, and all that comes
to me is an infinite yearning — an infinite pain. Does
any of this reach you, reach anyone, or am I only
wailing as the wind wails — wordless and unheeded?"
Proceedings, S.P.R., Vol. XXI, p. 233.

On another occasion the Myers control
wrote : —

"It may be that those who die suddenly suffer no
prolonged obscuration of consciousness, but for my
own experience the unconsciousness was exceedingly
prolonged."

And again,

"The reality is infinitely more wonderful than our
most daring conjectures. Indeed, no conjecture is suffi-
ciently daring."

The hypothesis that these messages are due
to dramatic creations of Mrs. Holland's sub-
liminal self becomes increasingly difficult to
believe when we find other wholly different
types of messages purporting to come from
Mr. Ed. Gurney and the Hon. Roden Noel,
who were also entirely unknown to Mrs.
Holland. When they were on earth I knew
these distinguished men personally, and was
in frequent correspondence with each of them ;
hence from my own knowledge I can affirm
that these communications are singularly

202 Chapter XV

characteristic of the respective and diverse
temperaments of each.

But there was more than this, for not only
was some very striking blank verse written
by the Roden Noel control, but mention is
made of places and persons associated with
Mr. Roden Noel that were unknown to Mrs.
Holland. In fact the automatist did not
know who was controlling her hand when it
wrote : —

"I was always a seeker, — until it seemed at times
as if the quest was more to me than the prize, — only
the attainments of my search were generally like rain-
bow gold, alway beyond and afar. . . I am not op-
pressed with the desire that animates some of us to
share our knowledge or optimisms with you all before
the time. The solution of the great Problem I could
not give you — I am still very far away from it ; the
abiding knowledge of the inherent truth and beauty
into which all the inevitable ugliness of existence finally
resolve themselves will be yours in time."

Preceding this had come the following: —

"This is for A.W., ask him what the date, May 26th,
1894, meant to him — to me — and to F.W.H. I do
not think they will find it hard to recall, but, if so,
let them ask Nora."

Here it is to be noted Mrs. Holland, who
was in India, knew nothing of Dr. A. W.

Mrs. Holland's Scripts 203

Verrall, whose name is suggested by the
initials A.W., nor that Mrs. Sidgwick was
called Nora (her Christian name being
Eleanor) but the whole context eventually
suggested to Miss Johnson (the Research
Officer of the S.P.R.), to whom the script was
sent, a message from Roden Noel, who was
known both to Dr. Verrall, Mr. F. W. H.
Myers, and Mrs. Sidgwick. Miss Johnson
adds: "It was appropriate we should be told
to ask Nora (Mrs. Sidgwick) if we could not
find out for ourselves, since he (Roden Noel)
was an intimate friend of Dr. Sidgwick."
Now the date given was preceisely that of the
death of Roden Noel. Though Mrs. Holland
thought she may have once seen some poems
of Mr. Noel's, she knew nothing of him per-
sonally nor of the date of his death.

The fetish of subliminal or telepathic
knowledge is here hard to invoke and becomes
absurd when we find one of the earliest of
Mrs. Holland's scripts, written in India and
purporting to come from Mr. Myers, gives a
minute and lengthy description of an elderly
gentleman, which ends up as follows : —

"It is like entrusting a message on which infinite
importance depends to a sleeping person. Get a proof,
— try for a proof if you feel this is a waste of time
without. Send this to Mrs. Verrall, 5, Selwyn Gardens,
Cambridge."

204 Chapter XV

When this script was received by Miss
Johnson she at once recognised the description
as resembling Dr. Verrall, and Mrs. Verrall's
address given was perfectly correct. Further,
when the script was shown to Mrs. Verrall
she said the whole description was remarkably
good and characteristic of her husband, who
was then living. Mrs. Verrall, who now alas!
has also passed into the unseen, states that
no portrait or description of her husband had
ever been published, nor was her address
given in "Human Personality," which, as
stated, Mrs. Holland had read. On being
questioned Mrs. Holland declared she had
never seen, and had no conception of Mrs.
Verrall's address. Of the good faith of Mrs.
Holland there is no doubt whatever, and she
herself was most anxious to find out whether
any of her automatic writing came from her
sub-conscious memory.

Other very remarkable cases of super-
normal knowledge in Mrs. Holland's script
are described in Miss Johnson's long memoir
in the Proceedings of the S.P.R., one in par-
ticular is worth noting. Mrs. Holland's hand
wrote, on January 17th, 1904, — purporting to
be under the control of Mr. Myers: —

"The sealed envelope is not to be opened yet. I
am unable to make your hand form Greek characters
and so I cannot give the text as 1 wish — only the

Cross-Correspondence 205

reference — 1 Cor. xvi., 12 ['Watch ye, stand fast in
the faith, quit you like men, be strong']. Oh I am
feeble with eagerness. How can I best be identified !
It means so much apart from the mere personal love
and longing. Edmund's [Mr. Ed Gurney] help is not
here with me just now. I jim_trying_ -alone ^mid un-
speakable difficulties."

Now Mrs. Sidgwick had asked Mrs. Ver-
rall, who was also a remarkable automatist, as
a test to give a favourite text of her husband's
and a fairly satisfactory answer was obtained;
of this Mrs. Holland knew absolutely nothing,
but on the very same day, Jan. 17th, 1904,
that Mrs. Verrall's script in Cambridge made
references to a sealed letter and to a text,
Mrs. Holland's hand in India automatically
wrote the message just quoted. The text
1 Cor. 16, 12, was not the one asked for by
Mrs. Sidgwick, but it is the one inscribed
in Greek over the gateway of Selwyn College,
Cambridge, which Mr. Myers constantly
passed, and on which, owing to a slight verbal
error in the Greek inscription, Mr. Myers had
more than once remarked to Mrs. Verrall.
Mrs. Holland had never been in Cambridge,
had no connection with the University, and
knew absolutely nothing of the Greek inscrip-
tion on the gateway of Selwyn College.

The text incident may be an example of
what has been already referred to as "cross-
correspondence," that is two widely separated

206 Chapter XV

automatists, giving somewhat similar replies,
or giving a sentence the meaning of which
is unintelligible until it is supplemented by a
further communication through another auto-
matist, who has no knowledge of the other
fragmentary message. All this looks as if a
single unseen personality controlled the two
automatists, in order to avoid any explanation
by telepathy or the subliminal self. The
interesting point being, as I have pointed out
already, that only since the death of Mr.
Myers and Dr. Hodgson, — who were familiar
with this favourite method of explaining away
the significance of these messages, — have
numerous cases of cross-correspondence arisen
among independent and widely separated
automatists.

CHAPTER XVI

EVIDENCE OF IDENTITY IN THE
DISCARNATE

"The Ghost in man, the Ghost that once was man
But cannot wholly free itself from man,
Are calling to each other thro' a dawn
Stranger than earth has ever seen; the veil
Is rending and the voices of the day
Are heard across the voices of the dark."

— Tennyson.

These well-known lines of our great poet
are to-day receiving ampler confirmation than
was thought possible a generation ago. In
the present chapter I will cite some remark-
able evidence of survival obtained through
personal friends of my own.

I have previously given illustrations of
the wonderful mediumistic power of the Rev.
Stainton Moses and of the high regard in
which he was held. No one who knew him
could for a moment doubt, as Mr. Myers says,
"his sanity or his sincerity, his veracity or
his honour," and those who knew him person-
ally, as I did, could understand the esteem and

207

208 Chapter XVI

affection which his colleagues at University
College School and his intimate friends al-
ways felt for him. I will here briefly narrate
two remarkable cases in favour of the identity
of the soi-disant spirit which came through
Mr. Moses. These cases are well known to
those familiar with the literature of spiritual-
ism, but may not be known to many of my
readers: —

THE ABRAHAM FLORENTINE CASE.

In August, 1874, Mr. Moses was staying with a
friend, a medical man, in the Isle of Wight, and at
one of the "sittings" which they had together a
communication was received with singular impetuosity
purporting to be from a spirit who gave the name
Ahraham Florentine, and stated that he had been en-
gaged in the United States war of 1812, but only
lately had entered into the spiritual world, having died
at Brooklyn, U.S.A., on August 5th, 1874, at the age
of eighty-three years, one month, and seventeen days.
None present knew of such a person, but Mr. Moses
published the particulars as above stated in a London
newspaper, asking at the same time American journals
to copy, so that, if possible, the statement made might be
verified or disproved.

In course of time an American lawyer, a "claim-
agent," who had been auditing the claims of soldiers in
New York, saw the paragraph, and wrote to an Ameri-
can newspaper to say that he had come across the

name A. Florentine, and that 1 full record of the
person who made the claim could be obtained from the

U.S. Adjutant-General's office. Accordingly the head-

Abraham Florentine Case 209

quarters of the U.S. army was applied to, and an official
reply was received, stating that a private named
Abraham Florentine had served in the American war
in the early part of the century. Ultimately the widow
of Abraham Florentine was found to be alive.

Dr. Crowell, a Brooklyn physician, by means of a
directory, discovered her address in Brooklyn, and
saw and questioned the widow. She stated that her
husband had fought in the war of 1812, that he was
a rather impetuous man, and had died in Brooklyn
on August 5th, 1874, and that his eighty-third birth-
day was on the previous June 8th. He was therefore
eighty-three years, one month, twenty-seven days old
when he died, the only discrepancy being seventeen
for twenty-seven days, a mistake that might easily
have arisen in recording the message made through Mr.
Moses when entranced in the isle of Wight. Full
details of this case were published in Vol. XI of the
"Proceedings of the S.P.R."

What are we to say to this evidence? The
newspaper files remain to attest the facts,
which seem to be absolutely irrefragable.
The only surmise that can be made is that
Mr. Moses had seen some notice of the man's
death and career in an American newspaper,
and either had forgotten the fact or had pur-
posely deceived his friends. But then, this
could only have been one of many similar
cases of forgetfulness or deception, and before
we can assume this we have to prove that Mr.
Moses did obtain the required information
by means of newspapers or other mundane

210 Chapter XVI

channels of information. This Mrs. Moses is
certain he did not, and no one as yet has been
able to show that he did, or to find a particle
of evidence on behalf of the wearisome and
motiveless deception which must, in this
event, habitually have characterised a man of
spotless integrity and honour. Moreover, it
is wholly unlikely an obscure private soldier
should have an obituary notice in an American
newspaper, or if it were so, that it should
have been noted by English readers. In
fine, after critically examining this case, Mr.
F. W. H. Myers remarks: "I hold that the
surviving spirit of Abraham Florentine did
really communicate with Mr. Moses."1

It is, however, necessary to submit every
case of "spiritualistic" communication to the
most rigorous scrutiny before deciding on its
probable origin; what to a novice may seem
to have an extra-terrene origin may really be
a telepathic influence from some living person
or the revival of some forgotten impression.

Long experience in the work of psychical
research has shown the danger arising from
what has been called cryptomnesia, i.e. a
hidden memory. This explanation has indeed
been suggested by some psychical researchers
as possible in the foregoing case (unwarrant-
ably 1 think), but it cannot apply to the next;
which affords another of the remarkable

1 "Proc. S. P. R.," Vol. XI, p. 407.

Blanche Abercromby Case 21 1

proofs of spirit identity obtained through the
automatic writing of Mr. S. Moses.

THE BLANCHE ABERCROMBY CASE.

The following case Mr. Myers considered to be one
of extreme interest and value, owing to the fact that
only after Mr. Moses' death a series of chances led
Mr. Myers to discover additional proofs of its veracity.
The spirit purporting to communicate through Mr.
Moses was that of a lady known to Mr. Myers, and
who will be called Blanche Abercromby. This lady
died on a Sunday afternoon at a country house some
200 miles from London. Of her illness and death
Mr. Moses knew absolutely nothing, but the same
Sunday evening a communication, purporting to come
from her, and stating that "she had just quitted the
body," was made to Mr. Moses at his secluded lodgings
in London.

A few days later Mr. Moses' hand was again con-
trolled by the same spirit and a few lines were written
purporting to come from her and asserted by the spirit
to be in her own handwriting, as a proof of her iden-
tity. There is no reason to suppose Mr. Moses had
ever seen her handwriting, for he had only met her
once casually at a seance. The facts communicated
to Mr. Moses by the deceased lady were private; ac-
cordingly he mentioned the matter to no one, and
gummed down the pages of the communication in his
note book and marked it "private matter."

When after the death of Mr. Moses his documents
were examined by Mr. Myers, he received permission
from the executors to open these sealed pages. To
his astonishment he found the communication to be

212 Chapter XVI

from the lady whom he had known, and on comparing
the handwriting of the script with letters from this
lady when on earth he found the resemblance was in-
contestable. He submitted the matter to the lady's son
and to an expert in handwriting and both affirmed that
the spirit writing and that by the lady when living
were from the same person. Numerous peculiarities
were found common to the two, and the contents of
the automatic script were also characteristic of the de-
ceased lady. The ordinary handwriting of Air. Moses
is quite different from that which usually comes in
his automatic script, and that again was wholly unlike
the caligraphy in the present case.

Here no hypothesis of telepathy from the
living, or forgotten memory, or the sub-
liminal self of Mr. Moses, affords any explan-
ation, and I regard this case as one of the
strongest links in the chain of evidence on
behalf of survival after death. As a rule the
caligraphy of the automatic script is not the
same as that of the person who purports to
communicate, nor should we expect it to be
so, if the communication be effected by tele-
pathy from the deceased person.

There are however some other cases where
the soi-disant spirit occasionally seems able to
guide the hand of the medium so perfectly
as to produce an accurate reproduction of the
deceased's handwriting. A notable instance
of this occurred in the ease of the late Pro-
fessor Henry Sidgwick, from whom a char-

Evidence of Handwriting 213

acteristic communication came through auto-
matic writing to which his signature was
affixed. This signature is identical with that
in the many letters I received from Prof.
Sidgwick when on earth, and here also there
is no reason to believe the medium, a lady I
know personally, had ever seen Professor
Sidgwick's handwriting.1

Bearing in mind the hypothesis of crypt-
omnesia, I will now cite some remarkable
messages which were sent to us by my
venerable friend the late Mr. Hensleigh
Wedgwood, the cousin and brother-in-law of
Charles Darwin, and himself a well-known
savant. Mr. Wedgwood was deeply interested
in psychical research and had many sittings
for automatic writing (by planchette) with
two valued friends of his, "Mrs. R." and her
sister "Mrs. V.," both of whom were psychic.
In the present case Mrs. R. was the auto-
matist, a lady known for some years to Mr.
Fred. Myers, and of whose scrupulous good
faith there can be no more question than of
that of Mr. Wedgwood himself. Mrs. R. and
Mr. Wedgwood sat opposite each other at a
small table, the former with her left hand and

1 In Human Personality, Vol. II, p. 168, Mr. Myers refers to
this element of handwriting as a proof of identity, and gives a
remarkable case in point on p. 466. An able, critical paper by
Sir H. Babington Smith, C.B., which discusses this and other
evidence given by automatic writing, was published in Vol. V of
the Proceedings S.P.R.

214 Chapter XVI

the latter with his right on the planchette.
Mr. Wedgwood states that the writing came
upright to him but upside down to his partner,
and so far from guiding the planchette his
only difficulty was to avoid interfering with its
rapid movement. His partner declared the
same, and moreover could not have written
rapidly, or at all, in this inverted manner.
Mrs. R.'s notes, confirmed by Mr. Wedgwood,
are as follows: —

THE DAVID BRAIXERD CASE.

October ioth, Friday, at , Mr. Wedgwood and

I sitting. The board moved after a short pause and
one preliminary circling.

"David — David — David — dead 143 years."

The butler at this moment announced lunch, and
Mr. Wedgwood said to the soi-disant spirit, "Will you
go on for us afterwards, as we must break off now?"

"I will try."

During lunch Mr. Wedgwood was reckoning up the
date indicated as 1747, and conjecturing that the con-
trol was perhaps David Hume, whom he thought had
died about then. On our beginning again to sit, the
following was volunteered : —

"I am not Hume. I have come with Theodora's
sister. I was attracted to her during her life in
America. My work was in that land, and my earthly
toil was cut short early, as hers lias been. I died at
thirty years old. I toiled five years, carrying forward
the lamp of God's truth as I knew it."

The David Brainerd Case 215

Mr. Wedgwood remarked that he must have been
a missionary.

"Yes, in Susquehannah and other places."

"Can you give any name besides David?"

"David Bra — David Bra — David Brain — David
Braine — David Brain."

Mr. W. : "Do you mean that your name is Braine?"

"Very nearly right."

Mr. W.: "Try again."

"David Braine. Not quite all the name; right so
far as it goes. ... I was born in 1717."

Mr. W.: "Are you an American ?"

"America I hold to be my country as we consider

things. I worked at " (sentence ends with a line

of D's.)

After an interval Mr. Wedgwood said he thought
it had come into his head who our control was. He
had some recollection that in the 18th century a man
named David Brainerd was missionary to the North
American Indians. We sat again and the following
was written: —

"I am glad you know me. I had not power to
complete name or give more details. I knew that
secret of the district. It was guarded by the Indians,
and was made known to two independent circles.
Neither of them succeeded, but the day will come that
will uncover the gold."

It was suggested that this meant Heavenly truth.

"I spoke of earthly gold."

Mr. Wedgwood said the writing was so faint he
thought power was failing.

"Yes, nearly gone. I wrote during my five years of
work. It kept my heart alive."

Mr. Wedgwood writes: —

216 Chapter XVI

I could not think at first where I had ever heard
of Brainerd, but I learn from my daughter in London
that my sister-in-law, who lived with me 40 or 50
years ago, was a great admirer of Brainerd, and seemed
to have an account of his life, but I am quite certain
that I never opened the book and knew nothing of
the dates, which are all correct, as well as his having
been a missionary to the Susquehannahs.

My daughter has sent me extracts from his life,
stating that he was born in 1718 and not 1 71 7 as
planchette wrote. But the Biographical Dictionary says
that he died in 1747, aged 30.

Mrs. R. writes that she had no knowledge whatever
of David Brainerd before this.

The Biographical Dictionary gives the following: —

"Brainerd, David. A celebrated American mission-
ary, who signalised himself by his successful endeavours
to convert the Indians on the Susquehannah, Dela-
ware, etc. Died, aged 30, 1747."

It is perhaps noteworthy in connection with the last
sentence of the planchette writing that in the life of
Brainerd by Jonathan Edwards extracts given from his
journal show that lie wrote a good deal, e.g., "Feb. 3,
1744. Could not but write as well as meditate," etc
"Feb. 15, 1745. Was engaged in writing almost all
the day." He invariably speaks of comfort in connec-
tion with writing.

The other case given by Mr. Wedgwood
is too lengthy to quote in detail, but a brief
summary is given because, like the preceding,
it is one of the few cases where the soi-disani
spirit asserts he lived on earth very many
years ago.

The Colonel Gurwood Case 217

THE COLONEL GURWOOD CASE.

In this case the automatist was also Mr,
Wedgwood's friend Mrs. R., a lady of un-
impeachable integrity as already stated, and
the mode of sitting with planchette was the
same as described in the previous case. The
sitting took place in June, 1889, and is re-
corded in the Journal of the S.P.R. for that
year. Notes of the sitting were written at the
time and the planchette writing copied.

As soon as the sitting began planchette wrote that
a spirit was present who wanted to draw; forthwith
a rough drawing was made of the top of an embattled
wall, or mural coronet, from which an arm holding
a sword arose. Planchette wrote, "Sorry I can't do
better, was meant for a test, J.G." Asked what the
drawing represented, the answer came, "Something that
was given me." Asked if J.G. was a man or woman,
planchette wrote "Man, John G." Mr. Wedgwood
said he knew a J. Giffard, was that right? The reply
came, "Not Giffard, John Gurwood, no connection of
yours." Asked how he died, "I killed myself on
Christmas Day, it will be forty-four years ago next
Christmas," i.e. in 1845. Asked if he were in the
army, the reply came, "Yes, but it was the pen, not
the sword that did for me." Asked if pen was right,
and if so, was he an author who failed? the reply
was "Yes, pen, I did not fail, the pen was too much
for me after the wound." Asked where he was wounded
the reply was "In the Peninsular in the head, I was

21 8 Chapter XVI

wounded in 1810." Asked if the drawing was a crest
and had anything to do with the wound planchette
wrote "It came from that and was given me, the draw-
ing was a test; remember my name, power fails to
explain, stop now."

Mr. Wedgwood then recalled that a Colonel Gur-
wood edited the despatches of the Duke of Wellington,
but he had never read any history of the Peninsular
war and knew no details of Gurwood's life or of his
crest: Mrs. R. was wholly ignorant of the matter.
After the sitting Mr. Wedgwood looked up the matter
and found that Colonel Gurwood led the forlorn hope
at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo in 1812, ' and the
Annual Register states that he then "received a wound
in the skull which affected him for the remainder of
his life." In recognition of his bravery he received
a grant of arms in 1812, which are specified in the
Book of Family Crests, — and symbolised in the crest,
— as follows, "Out of a mural coronet, a ruined castle
in centre, and therefrom an arm, holding a scimitar."
The drawing given as a test is practically this crest,
though the ruined castle was doubtless too difficult
to be drawn by planchette. Furthermore, the Annual
Register for 1 845 states that Colonel Gurwood com-
mitted suicide on Chistmas Day that year, in a fit of
despondency, and remarks that it was probably owing
to the overstrain caused by his laborious work in editing
the despatches; this explains the automatic writing,
"Pen was too much for me after the wound." None
of these facts were known to Mr. Wedgwood or Mrs.
R. before the automatic writing came.

1 Planchette wrote 1810, if the figures were correctly read.

Evidence of Identity 219

In subsequent sittings Colonel Gurwood
again controlled planchette and gave some
further details of his life, the storming of the
fort and names of persons, all of which were
found to be correct so far as they could be
verified. But the evidential value of these
later sittings must be discounted, owing to
the fact that Mr. Wedgwood had meanwhile
looked up Napier's Peninsular War and might
have gained some of the information from its
pages.

Many other striking illustrations of survival
after death might be given, but the reader
who is interested must go to the original
papers to which I have referred earlier. Sir
Oliver Lodge has had some remarkable cases
of "spirit identity" through other auto-
matists, and especially through Mrs. Piper,
with whom he has had numerous sittings.
These cases he has critically investigated:
many of them relate to himself and his family,
revealing facts entirely unknown to the
medium and at the time unknown to Sir
Oliver, which subsequently have been found
to be correct. The conviction to which
Sir Oliver has been driven, from his own
personal and long continued experience,
and which he has publicly avowed, is that
there is undeniably evidence of survival after
death.

One of the most recent cases corroborative

220 Chapter XVI

of this conclusion relates to messages purport-
ing to come from his gallant and beloved son
Lieut. Raymond Lodge, who lost his life in
the war. Particulars of this case were read
before the Society for Psychical Research,
and I made an abstract of that paper, — kindly
revised by Sir. O. Lodge, — for insertion in
this place. But since then Sir Oliver has pub-
lished his work "Raymond," where additional
evidence is given, and as this book has been
so widely read and noticed in the press it
seems needless to refer to the matter further.
Moreover, nearly all the evidence I have
cited has come through private and unpaid
mediums, and this was not the case in all the
Raymond messages.

The Right Hon. Gerald Balfour has re-
cently (Dec. 1916) read a paper before the
S.P.R., which in the opinion of some compe-
tent judges affords the most striking evidence
of survival yet obtained. For it apparently
demonstrates the continued and vigorous
mental activity of the late Professor A. W.
Verrall and the late Professor Butcher, both
eminent classical scholars. The evidence ex-
hibits a range of knowledge, and constructive
ability in framing a classical puzzle, such as
could not be accounted for by telepathy, or the
subliminal self of the automatist. The auto-
matic script came through a lady who is well
known to Mr. Balfour, and to whom refer-

Evidence of Identity 221

ence has already been made under her pseu-
donym of "Mrs. Willett."

Mr. Balfour affirms with confidence that
Mrs. Willett is as little familiar with classical
subjects as the average of educated women.
Nevertheless recondite classical allusions like
the "Ear of Dionysius" (which forms the
title of Mr. Balfour's paper) and other ob-
scure topics were given in the script, the whole
forming a literary puzzle which remained
insoluble, until later on the script furnished
the key. Mr. Balfour says it is difficult to
suppose that the materials employed in the
construction of this puzzle could have been
drawn from the mind of any living person;
he believes they must be ascribed to some
disembodied intelligence or intelligences, and
there are cogent reasons for believing that the
real authors were, — as they profess to be, —
the late Professors Verrall and Butcher. The
paper will shortly be published in the "Pro-
ceedings" of the S.P.R.

CHAPTER XVII

EVIDENCE FROM ABROAD OF SURVIVAL

"There is no death, what seems so is transition;
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life Elysian,
Whose portal we call death."

— Longfellow.

It must be borne in mind that competent
psychical researchers in other parts of the
world besides the United Kingdom have for
many years past been at work, and obtained
what they deemed to be conclusive evidence
of survival. In this chapter I will cite a frag-
ment of the evidence that comes to us from
America and Russia.

No investigator of psychical phenomena
has given more time to the critical investiga-
tion of the evidence on behalf of survival than
the late Dr. Hodgson during his residence in
the United States. In fact he made this sub-
ject practically his sole occupation for many
years before his death. He was so far from
being credulous that he detected and exposed
many spurious phenomena, and in my opinion

Evidence from Abroad 223

he carried his scepticism too far as regards
other mediums than Mrs. Piper, with whom
he had innumerable sittings. At first he at-
tempted to explain away the results he ob-
tained through Mrs. Piper; but ultimately
was driven to the spirit hypothesis; his own
words are: ''Having tried the hypothesis
of telepathy from the living for several years
... I have no hesitation in affirming with
the most absolute assurance that the 'spirit'
hypothesis is justified by its fruits and the
other hypothesis is not."

The conclusion at which Dr. Hodgson
arrived, after his prolonged and critical ex-
perimental study of Mrs. Piper, he summed
up in the following words : —

"At the present time I cannot profess to have any
doubt but that the chief 'communicators' to whom I
have referred in the foregoing pages [of his report]
are veritably the personalities that they claim to be,
that they have survived the change we call death, and
that they have directly communicated with us whom
we call living, through Mrs. Piper's entranced or-
ganism."1

However improbable sceptics may consider
this conclusion, we must remember that Dr.
Hodgson began his long and arduous investi-
gation with just the same doubt and even

1 "Proc. S.P.R.," Vol. XIII, p. 406.

224 Chapter XVII

disbelief in the "spiritualistic" hypothesis as
any of his critics may entertain. Moreover
he was not only a remarkably sane and
shrewd investigator, but one specially skilled
in exposing fraud and illusion. This was
shown, as I have remarked, by his exposure
of various alleged spiritualistic phenomena
which had mystified and baffled some of the
ablest enquirers. Hence those who have not
had Dr. Hodgson's experience have no right
to place mere notions of what is probable and
improbable, or possible and impossible,
against his deliberate opinion, arrived at after
many years of patient and painstaking enquiry.

If it appeared that any other competent
investigator, after an equally exhaustive re-
search, had come to an opposite conclusion,
sceptics would be justified in their hesitancy
to accept the experimental evidence of sur-
vival after death. But this is precisely what
cannot be adduced. On the contrary, so far as
I know, every trained observer, of any nation-
ality, who has devoted years to a similar
experimental research, either has arrived at
practically the same conclusion as Dr. Hodg-
son and other able investigators, or has been
forced to admit that the phenomena in ques-
tion are at present wholly inexplicable.

Since Dr. Hodgson's death his work in
America has been chiefly carried on by his
friend Dr. J. II. Ilyslop, formerly Professor

American Investigators 11$

at Columbia University. Dr. Hyslop, who
now lives in New York, has devoted his life
to this work and is pre-eminent as an able,
courageous and indefatigable worker at
physchical research. Amid his amazingly
voluminous contributions to the "Proceed-
ings" and "Journal of the American Society
for Psychical Research" there are numerous
papers affording striking evidences of survival
after death. This evidence has driven him to
abandon the agnostic views he formerly held
and become a convinced believer in the spirit
hypothesis. As Dr. Hyslop is a trained
psychologist his opinion is all the more
valuable.

During the last six years Dr. Hyslop has
had constant sittings with a lady, Mrs.
Chenoweth (pseudonym), who has developed
strong mediumistic powers. The following is
a brief narrative of one of the evidential cases
of survival obtained through Mrs. Chenoweth,
whose entire trustworthiness and honesty are
not disputed. This case illustrates the trivial
nature of the incidents given to afford identi-
fication.

THE TAUSCH CASE.

Dr. Hyslop states that he received a letter from
a lady in Germany, of whom he had never heard
before, asking him if he could recommend a psychic,

226 Chapter XVII

as she had recently lost her husband, and in her great
distress wanted to find some evidence that would as-
sure her of her husband's continued existence. Dr.
Hyslop answered that he knew of no psychic in Ger-
many, but if she would come to America he would
arrange for sittings with a psychic in whom he had
confidence. The lady replied that this was impossible,
but gave the name (different from her own) and ad-
dress of a sister in Boston, U.S.A., who might take
her place.

Accordingly Dr. Hyslop arranged for the sister to
meet him, but gave her no information of the psychic's
name or address, nor did he give any information to
the psychic (Mrs. Chenoweth) of the visitor or the
object of the sitting. Before admitting the visitor Dr.
Hyslop put Mrs. Chenoweth into a trance state, when
the normal faculties are in abeyance; in fact, Dr.
Hyslop was satisfied that the medium did not even
know whether her visitor was a man or a woman.

Automatic writing by Mrs. Chenowcth's hand began
and the unseen communicator indicated that a gentle-
man was present who was anxious to make his existence
known to his wife, that he was a philosopher and
a friend of the late Professor William James of
Harvard, that his mother was dead, and to indicate
his identity pointed to a cavity in his mouth whore
a tooth had been extracted. Of course none of these
facts were known to Dr. Hyslop, but in the hope they
mitfht apply to the husband of the lady who wrote
to him, he communicated them to the widow in Ger-
many and found they were all correct; her husband
had been a lecturer on philosophy, was a friend of
Prof. W. James and had lost a tooth, though the
cavity was not visible. Then the unseen eommunica-

The Tausch Case 227

tor stated the gentleman just before his decease, had
great pain in his head, with confusion of ideas and
longed for home, adding that he was not away from
home where he died, but it was not like his home. All
this turned out to be true, he died in his old home
in Germany and not in his home in America.

Then some striking evidence of identity came, the
communicator stated the deceased wished to prove
that he was not a fool to believe in spirits, and that
he was geratly interested in some records which had
been lent to him "by his friend James." In response
to Dr. Hyslop's enquiries the widow wrote that before
her husband's death Prof. James had lent him some
records to read which had impressed him. All present
at the sitting were of course wholly ignorant of this
and of the other incidents. The unseen communicator
went on to say that he was fond of fixing things and
putting clocks to right; that he used to annotate his
books and apparently attempted to sign his name, for
the letters T. h. came. In reply to enquiries the widow
wrote to Dr. Hyslop that her husband did fuss a great
deal about clocks, that he annotated his books and
always read with a pencil in his hand. Now the name
of the deceased was Tausch, the first and last letters
of which were given.

Later on the communicator made great efforts to
give his name, by automatic writing through the en-
tranced Mrs. Chenoweth, and without any help from
Dr. Hyslop (who of course knew the name but no
other particulars) there came "Taussh, Tauch and
Taush," phonetically correct. Dr. Hyslop then ad-
dressed the communicator in German and got replies
in German, among them that the visitor was his

228 Chapter XVII

"Geschwister," which was correct, though Mrs. Cheno-
weth (through whom of course the automatic writing
came) only knew four words of German, not included
in these replies. Other points of interest establishing
identity also came, such as that the deceased used to
carry a small bag containing his manuscripts and
reading glass, and that he had taken a long railway
journey shortly before his death. In reply to enquiry
Mrs. Tausch wrote that her husband always used to
carry a small bag in which he put his manuscripts
and eye glasses, and that he had taken a long rail
journey shortly before his death.

Dr. Hyslop says, all the incidents described were
unknown to him and required confirmation by cor-
respondence with Mrs. Tausch in Germany, the only
living person who knew their truth. Nor in all his
years of sittings with Mrs. Chenoweth has Dr. Hyslop
ever had any communications containing similar in-
cidents to those above described. The name might
have been filched by telepathy from Dr. Hyslop's
mind, but there is no evidence that Mrs. Chenoweth
has the slightest telepathic percipience. Even if Mrs.
Chenoweth had known the name and address of Mrs.
Tausch in Germany (which, of course, she did not),
she could not have communicated with her, as only
36 hours elapsed from the first to the last sitting. There
was no one in America who could have given her the
information.

I agree with Dr. Hyslop that no adequate
explanation of this case by telepathy <>r sub-
liminal knowledge or collusion on the put
of the medium can be given, and that the

Russian Investigators 229

simplest and most reasonable solution is that
the information was derived from the mind
of the deceased person.

But I must draw to a close my imperfect
selection from the mass of first-hand evidence
that is being accumulated in proof of spirit
identity.

The following case is chosen because it
comes from wholly independent and able
investigators in Russia. Here, too, any ex-
planation based on collusion, telepathy, or the
knowledge of those present, is out of the
question. Unfortunately the evidence is
somewhat lengthy, but as it combines the
manifestation of physical phenomena with
evidence of the identity of the communicating
intelligence, it forms an important link be-
tween the two classes of phenomena. No paid
or professional mediums were present, and the
bona fides of all taking part appears to be
unquestionable.

This case is quoted from Vol. VI of the
"Proceedings" of the S.P.R., where the reader
will find other similar evidential cases in a
valuable paper by Mr. F. W. H. Myers.

THE PER^LIGUINE CASE.

A sitting was held in the house of M. A. Nartzeff,
at Tambof, Russia, on Nov. 18th, 1887. M. Nartzeff
belongs to the Russian nobility and is a landed pro-

230 Chapter XVII

prletor; his aunt, housekeeper and the official physician
to the municipality of Tambof were the only other
persons present.

The sitting began at io p.m. at a table placed in
the middle of the room, by the light of a night-light
placed on the mantelpiece. All doors were closed. The
left hand of each sitter was placed on the right hand
of his neighbour, and each foot touched the neighbour's
foot, so that during the whole of the sitting all hands
and feet were under control. Sharp raps were heard
in the floor, and afterwards in the wall and the ceiling,
after which the blows sounded immediately in the
middle of the table, as if someone had struck it from
above with his fist; and with such violence, and so
often, that the table trembled the whole time.

M. Nartzeff asked, "Can you answer rationally,
giving three raps for yes, one for no?" "Yes." "Do
you wish to answer by using the alphabet?" "Yes."
"Spell your name." The alphabet was repeated, and
the letters indicated by three raps — "Anastasie Pere-
liguine." "I beg you to say now why you have come
and what you desire." "I am a wretched woman.
Pray for me. Yesterday, during the day, I died at the
hospital. The day before yesterday I poisoned myself
with matches." "Give us some details about your-
self. How old were you? Give a rap for each year."
Seventeen raps. "Who were you?" "I was house-
maid. I poisoned myself with matches." "Why did
you poison yourself?" "I will not say. I will say
nothing more."

After this a heavy tabic which was near the wall,
outside the chain of hands, came up rapidly three
times towards the table round which the chain was

The Pereliguine Case 231

made, and each time it was pushed backwards, no
one knew by what means. Seven raps (the signal
agreed upon for the close of the sitting), were now
heard in the wall; and at 11.20 p.m. the seance came
to an end.

( Here follow the signatures of all those present, with
their attestation.)

Those who were present also signed the following
attestation : —

"The undersigned having been present at the seance
of November 18th, 1887, at the house of M. A. N.
Nartzeff, hereby certify that they had no previous
knowledge of the existence or the death of Anastasie^
Pereliguine, and that they heard her name for the
first time at the above mentioned se„nce."

Enquiries were then made as to the truth of the
message purporting to have come from an unknown
suicide. Dr. Touloucheff, the official physician who
was present at the sitting, and who signed the above
documents, states that at first he did not believe there
was any truth in the message. For he writes: —

"In my capacity as physician of the municipality
I am at once informed by the police of all cases of
suicide. But as Pereliguine had added that her death
had taken place at the hospital, and since at Tambof
we have only one hospital, that of the 'Institutions
de Bienfaisance,' which is not within my official survey,
and whose authorities, in such cases as this, them-
selves send for the police, or the magistrate; — I sent
a letter to my colleague, Dr. Sundblatt, the head physi-
cian of this hospital, and without explaining my reason
simply asked him to inform me whether there had
been any recent case of suicide at the hospital, and,
if so, to give me the name and particulars. The

232 Chapter XVII

following is a copy of his reply, certified by Dr. Sund-
blatt's own signature.

(Signed) "N. Touloucheff."

"November 19th, 1887.
"My dear Colleague, — On the 16th of this month
I was on duty; and on that day two patients were
admitted to the Hospital, who had poisoned them-
selves with phosphorous. The first, Vera Kosovitch,
aged 38, wife of a clerk in the public service . . . was
taken in at 8 p.m.; the second a servant named
Anastasie Pereliguine, aged 17, was taken in at 10
p.m. This second patient had swallowed, besides an
infusion of boxes of matches, a glass of kerosene, and
at the time of her admission was already very ill.
She died at I p.m. on the 17th, and the post-mortem
examination has been made to-day. Kosovitch died
yesterday, and the post-mortem is fixed for to-morrow.
Kosovitch said that she had taken the phosphorous in
an access of melancholy, but Pereliguine did not state
her reason for poisoning herself.

(Signed) "Th. Sundblatt."

When M. Nartzeff was asked if the housekeeper,
who was at the sitting, could possibly have heard of
the suicide, he replied as follows: —

"In answer to your letter I inform you that my
aunt's housekeeper is not a housekeeper strictly speak-
ing, but rather a friend of the family, having been
nearly fifteen years with us, and possessing our entire
confidence. She could not have already learnt the fact
of the suicide, as she had no relations or friends in
Tambof, and never leaves the house.

"The hospital in question is situated at the other
end of the town, about 5 vcrsts from my house. Dr.

Identity of the Discarnate 233

Sundblatt informs me, on the authority of the proces-
verbal of the inquest, that Pereliguine was able to
read and write. (This was in answer to the enquiry
whether the deceased could have understood alphabetic
communication. ) "

There are few cases which in my opinion
afford so simple and striking a demonstration
of the identity of the discarnate personality
as the foregoing. There was no professional
medium; all the witnesses concerned give their
full names; they are persons of repute, and
after the facts were published their testimony
was never impugned.

Those who remain in doubt as to the value
of the evidence adduced in the foregoing
chapters should remember that it is, and
probably always will be, impossible to obtain
such conclusive logical demonstration of
survival after death as will satisfy every
agnostic. But "formal logical sequence" as
Cardinal Newman said in his "Grammar of
Assent," "is not, in fact, the method by which
we are enabled to become certain of what is
concrete. . . The real and necessary method
... is the cumulation of probabilities, in-
dependent of each other, arising out of the
nature and circumstances of the particular
case which is under review," and so the truth
of the spirit hypothesis, and of spirit-identity,

234 Chapter XVII

like the truth of all disputed matters, is to be
judged in this way, — that is, by the whole
evidence taken together.1

In concluding this chapter I wish to draw
attention to a valuable and brightly written
work in two volumes, strangely entitled "On
the Cosmic Relations," by Kir. Henry Holt,
the widely esteemed American publisher. In
this work Mr. Holt gives a mass of evidence
obtained by himself, as well as by Dr. Hodg-
son and others, that has convinced him of the
existence of super-normal phenomena, and
the impossibility of explaining away by tele-
pathy or otherwise the evidence on behalf of
survival after bodily death.

1 Kant knew nothing of the telepathy or psychical research, but
even his critical mind admitted that "in regard to ^liost stories,
while I doubt any one of them, Mill 1 lia\<- a certain faith in the
whole of them taken together."— Drcttms of a Spirit Stir, p. 88.

$art 5

CHAPTER XVIII

CLAIRVOYANCE
PSYCHOLOGY OF TRANCE PHENOMENA

"We all walk in mysteries. We are surrounded -by
an atmosphere of which we do not know what is stirring
in it, or how it is connected with our own spirit. So
much is certain, that in particular cases we can put out
the feelers of our soul beyond its bodily limits, and that
a presentiment, nay, an actual insight into the immediate
future, is accorded to it."1

MANY difficulties and perplexing problems
arise in reviewing the brief and imperfect
outline of spiritualistic phenomena that I have
attempted to give in the preceding pages.
These it is desirable to consider in the present
and succeeding chapter.

Some of these difficulties may be removed
when we obtain a fuller knowledge of the

1 Goethe, "Conversations with Eckermann," Bonn's Library,
p. 290.

235

236 Chapter XVIII

whole subject. Those of my readers who
approach these problems for the first time
will, of course, bear in mind that only a frag-
ment of the already accessible evidence could
be presented within the compass of a small
volume. Moreover, I have been obliged to
omit certain portions of the wide field of
psychical research, which have received pro-
longed and critical investigation, and must
be considered in any explanation of spiritual-
istic phenomena. One of these is telepathy,
now largely accepted, and to which I will
return in the last chapter; another is alleged
clairvoyance. On this latter a few words must
now be said.1

The term clairvoyance unfortunately is
used to denote two distinct aspects of super-
normal faculty. In one sense it is employed
to express the transcendental perception of
distant scenes or of hidden material objects.
That such a faculty exists I have not the
least doubt; it may be evoked in the higher
stages of hypnotic trance or it may occur in
certain sensitives in their normal state. Mrs.
H. Sidgwick has published a searching inves-
tigation of what has been called "travelling

1 In a letter published in the London Timrs so long Igo as
1876, I said that before we could hope to arrive at any definite
Conclusion! upon alleged spirit communications we must know
whether clairvoyance and (what is now called) telepathy really
exist.

Clairvoyance 237

clairvoyance,"1 and in my lengthy researches
on the so-called Divining — or Dowsing — rod,
I have shown that a good dowser unquestion-
ably possesses a somewhat similar faculty,
though one unrecognised by science.2 The
term tel-cesthesia has been suggested by Mr.
F. W. H. Myers for this faculty; implying
the perception of terrestrial objects or condi-
tions independently of the recognised channels
of sense, and also independently of any pos-
sible knowledge derived from telepathy.

The word clairvoyance has also been used
to denote the transcendental vision of beings
on another plane of existence. It is alleged
that many mediums have this faculty in their
normal state, or in their entranced condition,
and also in their "waking stage" between
the two. Here also the evidence on behalf
of such a faculty appears to me indisputable;
but the difficulty of obtaining conclusive
evidence on this point is great, owing to the
possible intrusion of telepathy, — that con-
venient and hard worked hypothesis.

I have little doubt that clairvoyance in
both its meanings, as well as telepathy, enter
largely into, and afford some explanation of,
the communications which purport to come

1 See Proceedings S.P.R., Vol. VII e t seq.

2 See Proceedings S.P.R., Vols. XIII and XV; also for a
brief resume of the whole subject see Chap. XII of ray book on
Psychical Research in the "Home University Library."

238 Chapter XVIII

from the spirit world. But we must assume
telepathy from the dead as well as the living,
and we need evidence that the medium
actually possesses power as a percipient, or
unconscious receiver, of a telepathic impress.
It is quite time experimental psychologists
and psychical researchers should admit that
super-normal phenomena do occur, and test,
as well as propose, various theories, now often
advanced without proof.

Students of psychical research will find
the most important and critical examination
of the psychology of the trance phenomena
of spiritualism in the monograph by Mrs.
Henry Sidgwick, which fills the bulkv volume
of the "Proceedings of the S.P.R." for De-
cember, 1915. This laborious research deals
with Mrs. Piper's trance phenomena — but
applies more or less fully to other genuine
mediums — when evidence is alio riled of
knowledge acquired otherwise than through
the senses, whether from the living or from
the dead. The object of the paper is to throw
light on the question

"Whether the intelligence that speaks or writes in
the trance, and is sometimes in telepathic communica-
tion with other minds (whether of the Living or oi the
dead) is other than a phase, or untie of conaciousnesa,
of Mrs. Piper herself."

Psychology of Trance Phenomena 239

Mrs. Sidgwick emphatically admits that
Mrs. Piper has super-normal means of obtain-
ing knowledge, but comes to the conclusion
that Mrs. Piper's trance, and presumably that
of other similar mediums —

"Is probably a state of self-induced hypnosis in which
her hypnotic self personates different characters either
consciously and deliberately, or unconsciously and be-
lieving herself to be the person she represents, and
sometimes probably in a state of consciousness inter-
mediate between the two. . . And further . . . she
can obtain perfectly, and for the most part fragmenta-
rily, telepathic impressions. . . Such impressions are
not only received by her as the result of her own
telepathic activity or that of other spirits — spirits of
the living or may be of the dead — but rise partially
or completely into the consciousness operating in the
trance communications, and so are recognized."1

Telepathy from the living, and also some-
times from the discarnate, combined with a
real or imaginary dissociation of personality
of the medium during the trance state, is
therefore Mrs. Sidgwick's view of such
phenomena. This was in substance Dr.
Hodgson's opinion in the earlier stage of his
investigations. But, as Mrs. Sidgwick says,
"he had apparently already abandoned this
hypothesis when he published his first re-

* "Proceedings S.P.R.," Vol. XXVIII, p. 330.

240 Chapter XVIII

port." As is well known, and was pre-
viously mentioned, p. 223, Dr. Hodgson and
Mr. Myers, like many other critical students,
eventually were driven to accept the spirit
hypothesis as the most consistent and simplest
solution.

Mrs. Sidgwick's conclusions are unquestion-
ably entitled to careful consideration, and
doubtless will commend themselves to many
psychologists and conservative thinkers. To
a large extent, if without presumption I may
express an opinion, I believe they are justified,
and explain many of the perplexing anoma-
lies, false statements and personation of great
names, in these trance communications.

Thus in a sitting with Mrs. Piper, in 1899,
the Jewish lawgiver "Moses of old" pur-
ported to communicate, and prophesied that
in the near future there would be great wars
and bloodshed and then the approach of the
millennium. But in this great war Russia
and France would be on one side against
England and America on the other, whilst
Germany would not take any serious part in
the war. After this "Moses" added a good
deal of solemn twaddle.

Then another time Sir Walter Scott pur-
ports to communicate and tells Dr. Hodgson
that if he wishes to know anything about the
planet Mars he was to be sure to call up the
novelist, as he had visited all the planets;

Psychology of Trance Phenomena 241

asked if he had seen a planet further away
than Saturn, the soi-disant Walter Scott
answered "Mercury!" Julius Caesar also
purports to control and Madame Guyon; but
another and more frequent control was George
Eliot (the novelist), who sometimes acts as
the communicator, for she says,

"We speak by thought unless we act upon some
machine, so-called medium, when our thoughts are
expressed to the controlling spirit who registers them
for us."

This may be true enough; but the real George
Eliot would never speak so ungrammatically
as to say, "I hardly know as there is enough
light to communicate," or again, "Do not
know as I have ever seen a haunted house,"
words which are reported to be her own.
Similar grammatical mistakes are made by
other educated controls.

But some of the most conclusive evidence
of personation is given by the control who
purported to be the Rev. Stainton Moses.
The names of three spirit friends (the
"Imperator band"), whom the real Stainton
Moses could never have forgotten, were
given, and "not one of these names is true
or has the least semblance of truth," Pro-
fessor Newbold tells us. Again Dr. Stanley
Hall in a sitting with Mrs. Piper, asked if
a niece, Bessie Beals, could communicate?

242 Chapter XVIII

She professed to come and gave various mes-
sages at several sittings, but she had never
existed, Dr. Hall having given a fictitious
name and relationship!

Thus it will be seen that we cannot take
these communications at their face value,
as they are sometimes manifestly false,
although presented to the sitter with a
dramatic distinctness and corresponding char-
acter, which give them a life-like reality.
They probably represent phases of the hyp-
notic self of Mrs. Piper, created by some
verbal or telepathic suggestion from the mind
of the sitter. In spite of this unquestionable
personation of deceased personalities Mrs.
Sidgwick admits that —

"Veridical communications are received, some of
which, there is good reason to believe come from the
dead, and therefore imply a genuine communicator in
the background" (p. 204).

Here it is well to note the meaning attached
to the words "control" and "communicator."
By the former is meant the intelligence which
is, or professes to be, in direct communica-
tion with the sitter through the voice or
writing of the medium. By "communicator"
is meant the intelligence for which the con-
trol acts as amanuensis or interpreter, or
whose remarks or telepathic impress the
control repeats to the sitter through the

Difficulties of Communication 243

medium. This definition, given by Mrs.
Sidgwick, is generally accepted.

The difficulties of communicating are nec-
essarily great, as we cannot suppose that a
physical process or physical organs of speech
and hearing are employed by the communi-
cators. In fact they tell us, as Swedenborg
told us long before telepathy was discovered,
that spirits converse by thought. Visual per-
ception is sometimes suggested. One unseen
communicator says:

"If you could see me as I stand here, you would
see every gesture I make, which is copied by Rector
[the control] ; he imitates me as I speak to you."

Mental pictures, as Dr. Hyslop has stated,
float before the mind of the medium and the
difficulty seems to be in selecting the appro-
priate one. Difficulties of hearing, or tele-
pathic percipience, are also mentioned, espe-
cially the difficulty in getting a name. Then
there is mind wandering and mental confu-
sion, one communicator, speaking through
Mrs. Piper, says: —

"I am talking as it were through a thick fog and
it often suffocates me," and again, "I can't get the right
word, my mind is so confused"; "the conditions are
suffocating."

The sceptic, of course, will assert this is

244 Chapter XVIII

only the clever way the medium assumes to
cloak her ignorance, but there is every reason
to believe it represents a genuine difficulty in
the transmission of ideas from the unseen to
the seen. We know the uncertain conditions
of telepathy here, and they may exist on the
other side when the control is trying to
impress ideas on the sub-conscious self of the
medium.

Some light is thus thrown on the scrappy,
disjointed, and confused nature of many
veridical messages. The primary need of
establishing their identity probably explains
why the communications are so largely frag-
mentary reminiscences of the earth life of the
deceased.

Whilst the bulk of the communications
appear to exhibit a truncated, dream-like
intelligence on the part of the deceased, — as
if a dream zone intervened between the two
worlds, — this is not always the case. Some
recent scripts, as in Mr. Gerald Balfour's
paper on the Ear of Dionysius, show not only
the co-operation of two or more discarnatc
minds, but also, as stated on p. 220, give posi-
tive evidence of an ability and wide classical
knowledge, quite beyond the power of the
automatist. The cryptic allusions, it is true,
need considerable ingenuity, learning and skill
to make the evidence intelligible to ordinary
minds. This recondite mode of connnunica-

A Recent Classical Script 245

tion may be adopted to prevent suspicion that
the message is derived from terrene minds by
telepathy or other sources of error. Those
who have not the necessary time or knowledge
to unravel these mosaics of classical scholar-
ship, must rest content with the assurance that
competent and unbiassed investigators have
been convinced that they afford convincing
evidence of the identity of the deceased per-
sons from whom they profess to come.

CHAPTER XIX

DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS
CONSIDERED

"But trust that those we call the dead
Are breathers of an ampler day
For ever nobler ends."

— In Memoriam, cxviii.

In the course of our discussion we have seen
a dreary agnosticism, and the materialistic
tendency of scientific enquiry and modern
commercialism, confronted with the indisput-
able facts of psychical research. The revolu-
tion in thought which those facts imply and
necessitate, will in course of time be apparent,
and be a great gain both to knowledge and
religion.

There remain, however, many unsolved
problems. Why arc the unseen communi-
cators so seldom conscious of other friends
on earth, outside the narrow circle of the
sitters? Are earth memories only revived by
some association of ideas in the communicator
or control with those in the minds of the
circle? Why have we no messages that will

346

Difficulties and Objections 247

stand critical enquiry, from the greatest or
the saintliest men and women who once lived
on earth? Why is there no clear and con-
sistent account of the surroundings, and the
occupation, of those who have passed into
the spiritual world? These and many other
questions naturally arise and we can only
hope that in the future more light may be
thrown upon these perplexities.

There has certainly been a thinning of the
veil which separates us from those who have
passed into the unseen, but one is tempted
to ask why only a corner of the veil has been
lifted here and there, and no full revelation
given to us of life in the spiritual world?
Moreover, what is given appears so inade-
quate and so unsatisfying.

But it is probable we shall never be able
to see behind the veil with the clearness and
assurance that Swedenborg claimed to
possess, although he warned others off the
ground he trod. There may be, and are I
believe, good reasons for this obscure vision.
If everyone were as certain as they are of day
following night, that after the momentary
darkness of death they would pass into an
endless life of brightness and freedom, such
as many spiritualists depict, it is possible
few would wish to remain on earth. May be
multitudes of earth-worn and weary souls
would resort to some painless and lethal drug,

'248 Chapter XIX

that would enable them to enter a realm
where they hoped their troubles would be for
ever ended. A vain and foolish hope, for the
discipline of life on earth is necessary for us
all, and none can hope to attain a higher life
without the educative experience of trial and
conflict.

Doubtless much of the scepticism that ex-
ists in religious minds, as to the genuineness
of these automatic communications, arises
from the belief that messages which might
reach us from beyond this life would
authenticate themselves by their elevated
wisdom and piety, or by their transcendent
knowledge. Such a belief has its root in the
popular notion that at death we are suddenly
transformed by our passage out of this world
into a state of sublime holiness and wisdom,
or else of utter and hopeless misery. The
good are supposed to enter at once into their
final state of endless bliss, and the evil, by
their transition from earth, into their final
state of an endless Hell. One of the immense
benefits which Swedenborg has conferred on
theology is the shattering of this crude
medieval creed, — not only among his follow-
ers, but in a much wider circle; and to-day
the same may be said of spiritualism, which
confutes the popular idea of heaven and hell
and teaches us the continuity of our existence

Difficulties and Objections 249

here and hereafter. Long ago Milton with
singular prescience wrote: —

"What if earth
Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things in each
To other like, more than on earth is thought?"

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who has publicly
expressed his belief in Spiritualism, remarks:
"We find ourselves in apparent communica-
tion with the dead very shortly after they
leave us, and they seem to be exactly as they
were before we parted" ; and he adds that
though Spiritualism is in no way antagonistic
to Christianity it removes many of the crude
conceptions and modifies some of the doctrines
which are popularly held.

Turning now to those who, like the Roman
Catholics and many others, believe all spirit-
ualistic phenomena to be the work of evil
spirits and therefore to be shunned, the best
reply is "by their fruits ye shall know them."
We are told "to believe not every spirit but
prove the spirits whether they are of God."
An able Roman Catholic layman, Mr. J. G.
Raupert, who has had considerable experience
of Spiritualism, has written much on the
dangers of this subject, and with much that
he says I agree; but like the late Monsignor
Benson he naturally regards the whole matter
as one banned by his Church, and therefore

250 Chapter XIX

as he remarks, "it is an eating of the fruit
of the forbidden tree of knowledge."1

Most of the anathemas pronounced against
spiritualism by Protestant and Roman ecclesi-
astics come from the lips of men who know
little or nothing of the subject. Some who
have taken the trouble to enquire, have come
to believe that spiritism reveals the existence
of some mysterious power which may be of
a more or less malignant character.

Certainly the Apostle Paul in the Epistle
to the Ephesians, points to a race of spiritual
creatures, not made of flesh and blood, in-
habiting the air around us, and able injur-
iously to affect mankind. Good as well as
mischievous agencies doubtless exist in the
unseen; this, of course, is equally true if the
phenomena are due to those who have once
lived on the earth. ''There are as great fools
in the spirit world as there ever were in
this," as Henry More said over 200 years
ago. In any case, granting the existence
of a spiritual world, it is necessary to
be on our guard against the invasion of our
will by a lower order of intelligence and
morality.

The danger to the medium lies, in my

1 Miss H. A. Dallas has written an admirable little book, deal

iiiK with the objectioDi ii> ipiritualiwn from a religious point

of view, ami furnishes a cogent reply to inan\ oi the points
raised by Mr. Kaupeit.

Difficulties and Objections 251

opinion, not only in the loss of spiritual
stamina, but in the possible deprivation of
that birth-right we each are given to cherish,
our individuality, our true self-hood; just as
in another way this may be impaired by
sensuality, opium, or alcohol.

The great object of our life on earth appears
to be, on the one hand, the upbuilding,
strengthening, and perpetuation of our sepa-
rate and distinct personalities; and, on the
other, the awakening and development in each
of the consciousness of an underlying Unity,
which links each person into a larger Per-
sonal Life common to all, "in Whom we live
and move and have our being"; in a word,
the realisation of the fact that we are integral
parts and members of one Body. In so far
as Spiritualism aids or thwarts these objects
its moral effect must be judged; like mystic-
ism, I think it aids the latter object, but
is apt to endanger the former.

What I have said, let me once again repeat,
has obviously no bearing on prudent scientific
enquiry. Indiscriminate condemnation and
ignorant credulity are, in truth, the two most
dangerous elements with which the public are
confronted in connection with Spiritualism.
The explorer speedily discovers that both are
out of place, and in the ardour of the search —
unless properly equipped and guided by the
lumen siccum of the scientific spirit — is likely

252 Chapter XIX

to become engulfed in a Serbonian bog, even
if no worse fate befall him.

It is because I feel that in the fearless
pursuit of truth it is the paramount duty of
science to lead the way, and erect such sign-
posts as may be needed in the vast territory
we dimly see before us, that I so strongly
deprecate the past and the present scornful
attitude of many in the scientific world.
Furthermore, as a famous philosopher has
remarked of cognate facts, "The phenomena
under discussion are, at least from a philo-
sophical standpoint, of all facts presented to
us by the whole of experience, without com-
parison the most important; it is, therefore,
the duty of every learned man to make him-
self thoroughly acquainted with them."1

1 Schopenhauer ; who is here speaking of mesmerism anil clair-
voyance, but his observation applies still more emphatically to the

phenomena "i Spiritualism. The paaaagc i>- from the "Veraucht
ubcr Geiatersehen," and ii quoted in Du Prel'a "Philoaophjr of
Myaticiam."

CHAPTER XX

CAUTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

"How pure of heart and sound in head,
With what divine affections bold
Should be the man whose thought would hold
An hour's communion with the dead."

— In Memoriam, xciv.

BEFORE bringing this book to a close, it is
desirable we should consider what weight
can fairly be claimed for the argument often
urged by candid friends, that the dangers of
psychical enquiry more than counterbalance
its possible usefulness.

I do not deny that there are some risks (in
what branch of novel enquiry are there not
risks?), but they have been greatly exagger-
ated, and those who know least of the whole
subject are apt to magnify the dangers most.
As a leading weekly Journal has recently
said: —

"In any case it is right and reasonable to investigate

the phenomena, or alleged phenomena, as long as

they are investigated in a scientific spirit. No one

proposes to stop chemical enquiry because foolish

253

254 Chapter XX

people may poison themselves or blow themselves up.
Similarly, provided the dangers are understood, psychic
investigation ought not to be forbidden or hindered
merely because certain psychological and moral risks
attach thereto."1

Public performances of mesmerism by
travelling showmen ought to be prohibited by
law, in the same way as public performances
of the effects of chloroform by a quack doctor
should be, and would be, prohibited. But
experiments in thought-transference, to say
the least, are entirely harmless, so far as my
knowledge goes, and I speak with some
authority on this matter.2

All scientific investigations need to be con-
ducted with prudence and common sense, and
when these are exercised in psychical research
there is no reason to apprehend any dangers,
such as may undoubtedly befall those who,
with ignorant and unbalanced minds, and
from idle curiosity, venture to rush into a
region which may prove to them a treacherous
psychical quicksand.

Certain precautions in the investigation of

1 Spectator, Nov. 18, 1916.

- It is amusing to hear how often timid and uninstructed friends
liave said to me that they were sure strange psvehical phenomena
were "the work of the devil or else electricity"; either or both of
these mysterious agencies being, to many persons, the probable
cause of all novel and otherwise inexplicable disturbances.

Cautions and Suggestions 255

spiritualistic phenomena are however neces-
sary and it may be useful to set them forth.
First and foremost as regards those taking
part in a seance for physical phenomena, or
in the more familiar sittings for automatic
writing, trance speaking, or clairvoyance, let
me quote the words of that wise and experi-
enced spiritualist Mr. Epes Sargent, who long
ago wrote as follows : —

"The circumstance that scientific persons have, as
a general rule, kept aloof from the whole of this
subject, partly through a misgiving as to their ability
to cope with it, and partly through their own a priori
objections and rooted prejudices, has left it largely in
the hands of those who, from defective training or
from a lack of the critical faculty, have supposed that
all which may come from the unseen world must be
authoritative and right. Messages that violate all the
laws of logic and common-sense have thus been accepted
as bona fide communications from the world's great
departed thinkers."1

This was written some years ago but to-day
it cannot be said that spiritualists are as a
body so uncritical as they once were. I have
been invited to address their large gatherings
and found them as intelligent and anxious to
arrive at the truth as any other body of
English men and women. What has struck

1 "The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism," by Epes Sargent, p, 34I.

256 Chapter XX

me most forcibly is the spirit of fellowship
and freedom of opinion to be found amongst
them, and the reverent tone of their devotional
meetings. Doubtless the inexperienced are
often credulous and too ready to accept the
messages given by automatic writing or trance
speaking at their face value.

As regards the general and uninstructed
public, it is obvious that these phenomena,
and the type of alleged clairvoyance described
on p. 237, lend themselves to gross abuse by
those charlatans and rogues who prey upon
the credulity or the distress of mankind.
This is one of the misfortunes of the whole
subject, and has so largely discredited it.
Silly and credulous folk listen and pay for
the rubbish that is told them by would-be
astrologers, fortune tellers, crystal-gazers, et
hoc genus omne. There are genuine cases of
clairvoyance in the incipent hypnosis induced
by crystal-vision, as Mr. Andrew Lang and
others have shown; and there are genuine
cases of prevision or precognition of events, as
Mr. Myers has demonstrated, just as there
are veridical dreams and premonitions.1 But
these genuine cases are exceptional and rarely
to be found in a certain class of advertising
mediums who swindle the public.

1 Sec on all these subjects the "Proceedings of the S.P.R.," or

Mycr^' "Hunan Personality," Chapter! VI and IV

Cautions and Suggestions 257

Anyone who possesses genuine psychic
power has of course a perfect right to be
remunerated, when his or her time is occupied
by the exercise of that power. There are,
I am sure, many honorable and gifted pro-
fessional mediums, far removed from the
charlatans referred to in the last paragraph.
The mischief largely arises when the ignorant
public go to such honest psychics and expect
an immediate return for their money. The
natural tendency of the medium is not to dis-
appoint the sitter, and the temptation there-
fore arises to supplement genuine by spurious
phenomena. It cannot be too often insisted
on that super-normal gifts are rare and
elusive, and require patience, knowledge and
discrimination on the part of the enquirer.

It is for this reason that I should rather
dissuade than encourage uninstructed persons
to resort to professional mediums. Even those
who yearn to pierce the veil for "The touch
of a vanished hand and the sound of a voice
that is still," would in my opinion, if they
have not Christian faith, do better to rest con-
tent with a perusal of the evidence for survival
that is now being accumulated by rigorous
and laborious expert enquiry.

It is easier to give than to follow such ad-
vice, and some mourners have, after a time,
found in quiet, continuous, private sittings
with one or two friends, the assurance they

258 Chapter XX

longed to obtain. If they are not thereby
led to neglect the paramount duties of their
life and work and if they preserve a sane and
wholesome judgment no harm can result.

In a previous chapter I have referred to
one of the most provoking things in these
communications, the not infrequent persona-
tion of great names in history. The absurdity
is so transparent that only the ignorant are
misled, but, even with perfectly honest
psychics, these freaks of the subliminal self
often add to the perplexity of the enquirer
and to the contempt of the scoffer. A
century before modern Spiritualism arose
Swedenborg uttered warnings on the delusive
character of many of the communications
from "spirits." In the "Arcana Crclestia" he
says : —

"When spirits begin to speak with man they con-
join themselves with his thoughts and affections; hence
it is manifest none other but similar spirits speak with
man and operate upon him. . . . They put on all
things of his memory, thus all things which the man
has learned and imbibed from infancy the spirits
suppose these things to be their own ; thus they act,
as it were, a part of man with men."1 (This we
should now call the emergence of the sub-conscious

bdi of the psychic] "Wherefore let those who speak

1 "Arcana Cxlcstia," §§ 6192 and 5S50.

Cautions and Suggestions 259

with spirits beware lest they be deceived, when they
say that they are those whom they know or pretend
to be."1

And so Preiswerk, in a German work pub-
lished in 1856, giving an account of Spiritual-
ism among the Swiss, says it was found "that
the communications by table rapping were
only an echo and reflection of the mind of
the persons engaged."2 This, as we know, is
frequently the case, and indicates that the
source of some of the "physical phenomena"
may also be the unconscious self of the
medium, as I have already suggested.

Very often, I think, we are apt to judge
the medium too harshly. We must remember
the abnormal condition and loss of normal
self-control involved in mediumship, and
surely it would be as unjust to charge a
deeply-entranced medium with conscious
fraud as to accuse a somnambulist walking
on a housetop with consciously jeopardising
his life. It is this weakening of self-control
and personal responsibility, on the part of a
medium, that constitutes, in my opinion, the
chief peril of Spiritualism. Hence the steps
of a novice need to be taken with care; even

1 "Spiritual Diary," §§ 1622, 2686, et seq. Cf. also "Apoca-
lypse Explained," §1182.

2 Delitzsch, "Biblical Psychology," p. 369.

260 Chapter XX

the level-headed should walk warily, and the
excitable and emotional should have nothing
to do with it; for the fascination of the
subject is like a candle to moths, it attracts
and burns the silly, the credulous, and the
crazy.

Every Spiritualist knows the mischief of
promiscuous sittings of ignorant people, and
many feel as strongly as I do that paid pro-
fessional mediums who have been convicted
of fraud should be sedulously avoided. Dark
seances are also undesirable and should be dis-
couraged. The best sittings I ever had have
been in full light; so with Sir W. Crookes'
wonderful observations. In fact, Home, I
believe, always refused to sit in the dark:
and probably with any medium, by patience
and perseverance, the light could be gradu-
ally increased without serious injury to the
results, and with enormous gain to the ac-
curacy and precision of the observations.

Spiritualism has sometimes been accused
of creating insanity and fostering immorality.
No reliable evidence in support of such
sweeping charges has ever been adduced,
and unsupported accusations of a similar
character are familiar in the history of nearly
every new and disturbing phase of thought.
Isolated cases, no doubt, exist; but, as Airs.
1 lenry Sidgwick points out in an article in
the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," "the fact

,

Cautions and Suggestions 261

that the delusions of the insane not in-
frequently take the form of converse with
invisible beings" has probably led to this wide-
spread and mistaken inference.

Passing on to other effects produced on
the medium, I doubt if any harm has ever
resulted from sittings for automatic writing
or speaking, in the normal or trance condition.
But there is certainly some evidence indicating
that continual sittings for physical phenomena
cause an illegitimate and excessive drain on
the vitality of a medium, creating a nervous
exhaustion which is apt to lead, in extreme
cases, to mental derangement, or to an habitual
resort to stimulants with a no less deplorable
end. If this be the fact we must, of course,
be on our guard, as no gain to science would
ever justify experiment heedless of a risk so
great; but on this point we want more knowl-
edge. Sometimes D. D. Home suffered
severely after a long series of seances. Sir
W. Crookes states Home was prostrated after
some experiments, "pale, speechless and al-
most fainting he lay upon the floor; showing
what a drain on his vital powers was caused
by the evolution of the 'psychic force.' "

As regards the impression made on the
general public by such phenomena, Mr. C. C.
Massey, whose intimate acquaintance with
the whole subject I have already referred to,
wrote to me in 1895 as follows: —

262 Chapter XX

"Much of the opposition to phenomenal spiritual-
ism (so-called) arises from disgust of the grotesque
incongruity between spiritual mysteries and the vulgar
manifestations of which the world chiefly hears in con-
nection with this subject."

Everyone outside a lunatic asylum, at least
every reverent person, must revolt from the
nightmare of a spiritual realm peopled by the
quasi ticket-of-leave ghosts so often met with
in these manifestations. Compare such buf-
foonery with our cherished ideals as expressed
by Archbishop Trench : —

"Where thou hast touched, O wondrous death,
Where thou hast come between,
Lo! there for ever perisheth
The common and the mean."

Well-informed and experienced Spiritual-
ists say that serious risk to the health, both
of mind and body, of the medium sitting
for physical manifestations, is incurred by
any sudden light or violent awakening of the
medium from the state of trance. To a
scoffing public this plea seems obviously
invented to secure immunity from detection
of the medium by a sudden seizure in a dark
sitting. But the sniils and scoffs of the
ignorant do not advance our knowledge;
what we want to know— is there any con-
clusive evidence one way or the other on this

Cautions and Suggestions 263

point? We need experienced and unpreju-
diced physicians to decide this question.
Whatever the conclusion might be, it is really
absurd to suppose that the resources of science
are so far exhausted that highly-trained in-
vestigators cannot determine, with reason-
able precision, whether certain physical
movements or appearances are due to a known
or an unknown cause, without resort to the
aid of clumsy and possibly hazardous police
expedients.

It certainly appears to be the fact that the
best and most conclusive physical manifesta-
tions occur when the investigator treats the
phenomena as if they were produced by a
timid animal, a sensitive living thing, that
will shrink into obscurity and disappear at a
sudden disturbance or surprise of any kind,
often by a mental as well as material shock.
Imagine you are watching the unfolding of a
rare and highly organised polyp, and observ-
ing the capricious movements of its long and
sensitive tentacles, and you will be able to
realise how a shock or even a sudden ray of
light may startle it to instant closure, though
it may by training be accustomed to unfold
in full and steady light.

In concluding this chapter it may be well
to consider briefly what are the best conditions
for obtaining evidence in sittings with good

264 Chapter XX

psychics. There can be no doubt that suspi-
cion is fatal to success: sympathy, combined
with critical faculty, is essential. The rela-
tion of faith to psychical research has been
well expressed by the late Mr. C. C. Massey
and Mr. Stainton Moses. "Faith," Mr. Mas-
sey says, "is the condition of evidence, the
key to the gate of the invisible world." In
reference to this Mr. Moses remarks: —

"What Mr. Massey calls 'faith' is a predisposition
and attention, a sympathetic state of mind which estab-
lishes between an observer and a medium a rapport
without which no results are to be had that are worth
the having. So when the dispassionate critic makes
a merit of the absence of prejudice in his mind he
does well. It is conceivable that this negative side may
render him harmless; it may even enable him to
get personal experience under exceptionally favourable
circumstances. But, it may be, as Mr. Massey will
points out, 'that this negative qualification is not enough,
and . . . there is need of a positive sympathy' before
any real progress can be made."

It is useless for the sceptic to say we do
not require "sympathy" when we are testing
the evidence for some novel physical or
chemical discovery. No, they arc dealing
with the world of matter and must conduct
their experiments in such a way that preju-
dicial effects in their domain do not vitiate
the results. But here we are dealing with

Cautions and Suggestions 265

delicate psychical conditions and must ascer-
tain what are the favourable or unfavourable
conditions for success in that region. Mr.
Moses goes on to say: —

"If a man goes to a medium with the strongest
desire to witness phenomena, but bringing with him
the deterrent attitude of mind which is the antipodes
of faith, he will most probably fail, unless he is fortun-
ate enough to meet with a fully-developed psychic
whom his coldness cannot wholly chill." "I should
say," Mr. Massey remarks, "that the most unfavour-
able disposition to take to a medium is suspicion, and
the most favourable is confidence. But this is to de-
liver oneself over a prey to the deceiver! Yes, such
men do get taken in." I agree with Mr. Massey; they
do. I also agree with him when he adds, "I believe
that their success will be, on the whole, of such an
amount and character as more than to compensate for
these disadvantages."1

Confidence is certainly misplaced when you
are sitting with a doubtful or fraudulent
medium, and in any case it must not be re-
garded as synonymous with credulity. It is
the most experienced investigator who is the
least credulous, and it is also unquestionably
true that it is those psychical researchers who
bristle with suspicion, that have never been
able to obtain conclusive evidence of the
physical phenomena of spiritualism. They

1 Light, Oct. 23, 1886.

266 Chapter XX

are not abler or more critical investigators
than Sir W. Crookes and other scientific men,
who have had overwhelming proofs, but they
bring with them a psychical atmosphere that
is as unfavourable to success as a damp atmos-
phere is to the working of a f rictional or Holtz
electrical machine.

It was said of old "In quietness and
confidence shall be your strength," and this
attitude of mind, combined with alert observa-
tion and unwearied patience, we commend to
the psychical researcher who wishes to obtain
the best results.

$art 6

CHAPTER XXI

THE LESSON OF PHILISOPHY IN THE
INTERPRETATION OF NATURE

"By that I know the learned lord you are!
What you don't touch, is lying leagues afar;
What you don't grasp, is wholly lost to you;
What you don't reckon, think you, can't be true;
What you don't weigh, it has no weight, alas
What you don't coin, you're sure it will not pass!"1

In an early chapter (III.) we discussed the
objections raised by science and religion to
spiritualistic phenomena and briefly referred
to the fact that one reason which has pre-
vented the general recognition of these
phenomena, is because modern science, or
rather the dominant school of scientific
thought, is, or perhaps was, essentially
materialistic. This school, as Mr. F. W. H.

1 Bayard Taylor's translation of "Goethe's Faust," Part II,
p. x8.

267

268 Chapter XXI

Myers has eloquently said, "insists, in tones
louder sometimes and more combative than
the passionless air of science is willing to echo
or convey, that all enquiries into man's
psychical nature, all enquiries which regard
him as possibly more than a portion of organ-
ised matter, are no longer open, but closed,
and closed against his aspirations for ever."
The materialist is imprisoned within the
limits of his senses; hence a world which has
no continuous relation with his senses has no
existence for him. Life without ponderable
matter he confidently asserts is impossible,
and he prophesies that the atoms of such
matter contain within themselves, as Dr.
Tyndall asserted in his British Association
address, "the promise and potency of every
form and quality of life."1

Science having done so much for human
thought and life, public opinion naturally in-
clined to the view held by a recent school of
scientific thought, which denies the possibility
of any life without protoplasm, i.e., a particu-
lar grouping of the molecules of matter which
forms the basis of all earthly life. Many of
our leading physicists have however disso-
ciated themselves from this habit of thought.
So long ago as 1881, that eminent man
Professor Balfour Stewart, who has long

1 "Fragments of Science," Vol. II, p. 21a

The Lesson of Philosophy 269

since passed into the unseen, wrote to me as
follows : —

"It seems quite clear that the scientific recognition
of the unseen, is the point wanting in the intellectual
teaching of our race, and I do not doubt that this will
be provided for."

His confidence seems to have been abun-
dantly justified, for the psychological climate
of to-day is distinctly more favourable to
psychical research. Physicists no longer be-
lieve in the Lucretian atom "strong in solid
singleness," but are pushing the ultimate
nature of matter into the realm of the in-
comprehensible and intangible ether. The
mechanistic theory of the universe, which so
delights the German mind, is breaking down.
The confident and complacent assumptions of
materialism have it is true long been im-
pugned by philosophy. In fact —

"The common supposition that the material universe
and the conscious beings around us are directly and
indubitably known, and constitute a world of 'positive'
facts, on which reason can certainly pronounce without
any exercise of faith ... is an entire mistake, based
upon astonishing ignorance of the essential limitations
of human knowledge, of which thinkers who lived in
the very dawn of philosophy were perfectly aware.
The fact is, we are equally obliged to transcend pheno-
mena, and to put faith in events and powers and

270 Chapter XXI

realities which do not appear when we recognise the
past, or the distant, or the material universe, or the
minds of men, as when we infer the existence of God
and of the unseen world."1

Matter, the world outside our conscious-
ness, is the mystery to be explained; for we
only know matter in terms of consciousness,
hence we can never find in matter an intel-
ligible explanation of mind and will. A
mechanistic theory of the universe reduces
consciousness to a mere by-product of matter,
and volition to an illusion of the mind.

And if science replies to this that the
premises on which it rests are furnished by
immediate experience in the shape of observa-
tion and experiment —

"What are we to say about these same experiences
when we discover, not only that they may be wholly
false, but that they are never wholly true ; . . . nine-
tenths of our immediate experiences of objects are
visual, and all visual experiences, without exception,
are, according to science, erroneous. "-

that is to say, the degrees of brightness, form,
or colour whereby we perceive objects are,
as optics teaches, not properties of the things
seen but sensations produced in us by undula-
tions in the ether. Hence, psychologically

1 "The Realistic Assumptions of Modern Science Examined,"
by Profeator Herbert! M.A., p, 455.
- " 1 In- Foundation! of Belief," by the Rt. Hon. A. J. Haltour.

The Lesson of Philosophy 271

regarded, it may be said, as Mr. Balfour goes
on to remark, that —

"Our perceptions, regarded as sources of information,
are not merely occasionally inaccurate but habitually
mendacious."1

For instance, every stimulus given to the
optic nerve, whether by light, or pressure,
or electricity, or a chemical reagent, reveals
itself as a flash of light and is so called by us.
The same may be said, mutatis mutandis, of
the other specialised sense organs.

Again, how different would be our concept
of the external world if we were deprived of
some of our senses, such for example as sight
or touch; and again how different if we had
other gateways of sense, profounder avenues
to a knowledge of the world outside ourselves.
If we were restricted to a single sense, such
as sight, we should infer all phenomena, all
material things, to consist of variations in
luminosity or colour. Hence our ideas of the
world would expand or contract in proportion
to the extent of the means by which that world
is perceived.

It is our ignorance, or our forgetfulness, of
these facts, our neglect of the vast difference
between our perceptions and the realities for

1 "The Foundations of Belief," page in.

272 Chapter XXI

which they stand, that gives rise to many
of the perplexities we encounter, and some
of the conflicts between science and faith.
This is worth a moment's further considera-
tion by those who have not considered the
subject.

The first lesson taught by mental philosophy
is that all we know of external objects and
material phenomena are certain sensations
within us, as already remarked; of the things-
in-themselves we know absolutely nothing.
The things we do know are certain states of
consciousness, certain symbols — or tekmeria,
as the late Dr. Johnstone Stoney, F.R.S.,
proposed to call them1 — signs evoked in our
mind by events happening in the u'liverse
outside our mind. Accordingly we Jo not
perceive the actual material world, nor any-
thing like it, and have not, therefore, the
remotest idea of what the thing we call matter
is in itself.

We can watch the movements of a tele-
graphic needle and learn to read the message
it brings, but the moving needle does not en-
able us to perceive the operator at the other
end who is causing it to move, nor does it
even remotely resemble the operator; its

1 Sec a suggestive paper by Dr. Stoney In the "Proceedings of
the Royal Dublin Society," Vol. VI, p. 475.

The Lesson of Philosophy 273

signals give us, it is true, an intelligible mes-
sage, but it is intelligible only because the
intelligence of the operator has been and is
related to our intelligence. In like manner
the mental signs of our brain and nervous
mechanism give us of the material world
outside are not the things, nor a resemblance
to the things, in themselves; the real world
around us, the world of ontology, is absolutely
inaccessible to us. But the reason why the
material world is intelligible, why we can
interpret the signs it gives us, is because
there is an Intelligence behind the universe
which has been and is related to our in-
telligence.

To the pure materialist the universe is
self-sustained and has no deeper meaning
than fcie appearance it presents to our senses;
these appearances are to him the ultimate
reality. If he forms a mechanical theory of
nature by endowing atoms with some occult
power, or consciousness, he confers on them
the very properties which have to be ex-
plained. Hence we are driven to believe in a
Supreme Intelligence and to regard the uni-
verse as the expression of the Divine Thought
perpetually sustained by the Divine Will.
This is surely the simplest and truest interpre-
tation of nature.

There are few more honoured names in
science than that of Sir John Herschel, and

274 Chapter XXI

in this connection a passage from one of his
essays appears to me so valuable a contribution
to our belief in a Supreme Mind that I venture
to quote it. The whole essay, like all Sir John
wrote, is full of luminous thought.

"The universe presents us with an assemblage of
phenomena — physical, vital, and intellectual — the con-
necting link between the worlds of intellect and matter
being that of organised vitality, occupying the whole
domain of animal and vegetable life, throughout which,
in some way inscrutable to us, movements among the
molecules of matter are originated of such a character
as apparently to bring them under the control of an
agency other than physical superseding the ordinary
laws which regulate the movements of inanimate matter,
or, in other words, giving rise to movements which
would not result from the action of those laws unin-
terfered with ; and therefore implying, on the very same
principle, the origination of force.

"The first and greatest question which Philosophy
has to resolve in its attempts to make out a Cosmos —
to bring the whole of the phenomena exhibited in these
three domains of existence under the contemplation of
the mind as a congruous whole — is, whether we can
derive any light from our internal consciousness of
thought, reason, power, will, motive, design, or not;
whether, that is to say, Nature is or is not more
inter pit table by supposing these things (be they what
they may) to have had, or to have, to do with its ar-
rangements.

"Constituted as the human mind is, it Nature be
not interpretable through these conceptions it is not

The Lesson of Philosophy 275

interpretable at all; and the only reason we can have
for troubling ourselves about it is either the utilitarian
one of bettering our condition by 'subduing Nature'
to our use, through a more complete understanding
of its 'laws,' so as to throw ourselves into its grooves,
and thereby reach our ends more readily and effectually ;
or the satisfaction of that sort of aimless curiosity
which can find its gratification in scrutinising every-
thing and comprehending nothing. But if these at-
tributes of mind are not consentaneous, they are useless
in the way of explanation. Will without motive, power
without reason, thought opposed to reason, would be
admirable in explaining a chaos, but would render little
aid in accounting for anything else."1

It was formerly so integral a part of modern
scientific thought to regard mind and matter
as distinct entities that we forget this com-
mon dualistic conception may be an entirely
fallacious idea. Just as language is a mani-
festation of thought and indissolubly con-
nected with it, so matter may be only a
manifestation to us of spirit. To human intel-
ligence, spirit is always manifested through
matter; so that spirit and matter, like force
and matter, or thought and language, seem
to us inseverable and even unthinkable apart.
The essential unity which underlies thought
and its expression in language affords an

1 "On the Origin of Force," p. 473. "Lectures on Scientific
Subjects," by Sir J. F. W. Herschel, Bart., D.C.L., F.R.S., etc.

276 Chapter XXI

interesting analogy to spirit and matter. As
a suggestive writer has remarked —

"Language is the mode in which thought takes shape,
its way of becoming known to itself, and therefore
dependent on thought for existence, but their relation-
ship is a far more intimate one than that of cause and
effect. . . . We cannot 'account for' thought by the
laws of language, simply because thought unconsciously
makes those laws by way of attaining to a clearer recog-
nition of itself. In the same way we cannot 'account
for' mind by the laws of matter, because those laws
are, in reality, the principles according to which human
intelligence apprehends the material universe. In them,
mind recognises itself in the external world. As thought
is essentially self-manifesting so the life of the spirit
is essentially self-manifesting, hence as language is the
utterance of the one so matter is the utterance of the
other."1

Experimental science is still young and has
not wholly emerged from the Cartesian stage
of thought where matter and mind, nature
and spirit are absolute opposites, their an-
tagonism reconciled only in the Divine in-
comprehensible Will. As our knowledge
progresses and our interpretation of nature
becomes more adequate, we begin to recognise

1 "Progressive Revelation," Chap. V, by Miss Caillard; see
also my brochure entitled "Creative Thought," published by
W .1 1 k ins, Cecil Court, London, W.C

The Lesson of Philosophy 277

that the dualism and antithesis of nature and
spirit disappear, and miracles as well as all
super-normal phenomena become less in-
credible, when nature is seen to be, as Novalis
said, "an illuminated table of the contents of
the spirit."

CHAPTER XXII

THE MYSTERY OF HUMAN PERSONALITY

"One Life through all the immense creation runs,
One Spirit is the moon's, the sea's, the sun's;
All forms in the air that fly, on the earth that creep,
And the unknown nameless monsters of the deep —
Each breathing thing obeys one Mind's control,
And in all substance is a single Soul."

— Virgil.1

A BRIEF consideration of some aspects of
human personality was necessary in an earlier
portion of this book. It may not be out of
place in conclusion to note some of the higher
aspects of this subject. We have seen that
our personality is a very complex and myster-
ious thing. Probably in each of us, certainly
in many, there are potentialities which far
outstrip the capabilities of our conscious
voluntary intelligence; nay more, which
transcend the limitations of our senses, of
space, of time, and even of our thought and
consciousness. But if these super-normal

1 Book VI of the "/Eneid," translated by Mr. Myers.
278

The Mystery of Personality 279

faculties exist — and of their existence such
acute thinkers as Schopenhauer and E. von
Hartmann were convinced — other manifesta-
tions of them than those we are acquainted
with in spiritualism, somnambulism, hypnotic
trance, etc., might be expected.

The dark continent within us, is in fact
much more than a hidden record of unheeded
or forgotten past impressions; there is an
ultr a-limmaX as well as a jw^-liminal self;1
something that has higher perceptive powers
than our normal consciousness, something in
us that is able to respond to directed thought,
whether the thinker be "in the body or out
of the body," something that links our
individual life to the Source of that life, and
to the ocean of universal life. This was
firmly believed by that great philosopher,
Kant, who, anticipating our present knowl-
edge, slight as that is, was led by the mere
strength of his penetrating intellect to assert:

It is therefore, as good as proved . . . that the
human soul, even in this life, stands in indissoluble
community with all immaterial natures of the spirit

1 Mr. Myers has used the word supra-liminal to connote our
conscious waking life, but this might perhaps more appropriately
be called cis-liminalj within the threshold of consciousness: I
have used the world ultra-liminal to signify the higher tran-
scendental self. The great work on "Human Personality" by Mr.
Myers (which was published long after this chapter was
written in the original edition of this book) should be read by
all who wish a fuller knowledge of the subject.

280 Chapter XXII

world, that it mutually acts upon them and receives
from them impressions, of which, however, as man, it
is unconscious, as long as all goes well.

And again he says: —

It is, therefore, truly one and the same subject
which belongs at the same time to the visible and to
the invisible world, but (since representations of the
one world are not associated with ideas of the other)
what I think as spirit is not remembered by me as
man.1

This was also Swedenborg's view. He re-
peatedly states: —

Man is so constituted that he is at the same time
in the spiritual world and in the natural world: the
spiritual world is where the angels are, and the natural
world is where men are.

Plotinus, who lived in the third century,
also held a very similar belief, speaking of
men as "amphibia," who live partly in the

xKant: "Werke" (Rosenkranz), vii, 53, 59, quoted by Dr. Du
Prel in his "Philosophy of Mysticism" (Redway, London). This
quotation is from Kant's "Dreams of a Spirit-seer," a transla-
tion of which is published by Swan Sonnenschein Sc Co. Du
Prel's work has been, with loving labour, admirably translated
by the late Mr. C. C. Massey, not the least valuable part of the
work being the translator's own suggestive preface. Mr. Massey
has also rendered great service to English readers by his trans-
lation of E. von Ilartmann's "Spiritism." Like other candid en-
quirers, this eminent German philosopher, having with pains-
taking care made himself acquainted with the facts of Spiritual
ism, states that they afford "an urgent challenge to science to
enter upon the exact research of this phenomenal province."

The Mystery of Personality 281

I
natural and partly in the spiritual world.
In fact, the teaching of the Neo-platonists
and mysticism generally is that the soul has
a two-fold life, a lower and a higher.
Iamblichus believed that even in sleep the
soul is freed from the constraint of the body
and enters on its divine life of intelligence:
the night-time of the body being the day-time
of the soul.1 The "ecstasy" of Plotinus, and
earlier still of Philo, was, according to them,
the temporary liberation of the soul from its
finite consciousness and its union with the
Infinite.2

Thus we see the opinion of many of the
world's great thinkers in the past is quite in
accord with recent evidence, which teaches
us that our Ego is more than our self-
consciousness reveals. As the roots of a tree
are hidden in the earth, so we may regard
the root of our Ego as sunk in a world beyond
our consciousness, and the Neo-platonic idea
— that the soul is only partially known in its

1 See that delightful and well-known work, Vaughan's "Hours
with the Mystics." Professor Harnack's article on "Neo-platon-
ism," in the Encyclopedia Briiannica, should be read by all who
are interested in this subject.

2 Indeed, a belief in the soul's power to have commerce with
the spirit-world has a place in Greek philosophy as early as the
6th century B.C., for Aeschylus was echoing a Pythagorean doc-
trine when he wrote, "The mind in sleep is bright with eyes"
(to receive spiritual impressions). I am indebted to my friend
the Rev. M. A. Bayfield for this and many other valued sug-
gestions in this book.

282 Chapter XXII

normal, or physically-conditioned, conscious-
ness— becomes intelligible.

There is certainly a world beyond our
normal consciousness from which neither
space nor time divides us, but only the
barrier of our sense-perceptions. This barrier
constitutes what has been well termed the
"threshold of sensibility," and limits the
area of our consciousness. In the progress
of evolution from lower to higher forms
of life this threshold has been successively
shifted, with a corresponding exaltation of
consciousness. The organism of an oyster,
for instance, constitutes a threshold which
shuts it out from the greater part of our
sensible world; in like manner the physical
organism of man forms a threshold which
separates him from the larger and trans-
cendental world of which he forms a part.
But this threshold is not immovable. Occa-
sionally in rapture, in dream, and in hypnotic
trance it is shifted, and the human spirit
temporarily moves in "worlds not realised"
by sense. In the clairvoyance of deep hyp-
notic sleep, and in somnambulism, the thresh-
old is still further shifted and a higher intel-
ligence emerges, with a clearness ami power
proportional to the more complete cessation of
the functions and consciousness of our ordinary
waking life.

This intelligence, as has been shown above,

The Mystery of Personality 283

has powers and perceptions wider and deeper
than those of the normal waking conscious-
ness. Accordingly, since the exercise of these
faculties in our daily life is apparently hin-
dered by our bodily organism, we may infer
that when we are freed from "this muddy
vesture of decay," and the soul enters on its
larger life, these faculties will no longer be
trammelled as they are now. As, one by one,
the avenues of sense close for ever, the
threshold of sensibility is not suddenly re-
moved; and so, as our loved ones pass from
us, it is probable that in most cases the "dawn
behind all dawns" creeps gently upward,
slowly awakening them to the wider and
profounder consciousness that, for good or ill,
awaits us all.

"Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep, —
He hath awaken'd from the dream of life."1

1 Shelley: "Adonais."

CHAPTER XXIII

THE DIVINE GROUND OF THE SOUL
RE-INCARNATION

"All outward vision yields to that within,
Whereof nor creed nor canon holds the key;
We only feel that we have been
And evermore shall be."

— Bayard Taylor.

The transcendental phenomena we have been
discussing so far from excluding, of necessity
presuppose the "Divine ground of the soul,"
to use a phrase of the mystics. Encompass-
ing the super-normal within us, lies the
supernatural, in the true meaning of that
word. For "Behind consciousness itself must
certainly be placed the ultimate Reality of
which consciousness offers only a reflection
or faint representation."1 The intimacy and
immediacy of the union between the soul and
God, the Infinite manifesting itself in and
through the finite, is the fundamental idea,

1 Sec upon this subject the striking work on "I't rsim.i 1 it \ " In
the Rev. J. R. Illingworth, especially Lecture II ami the note on
p. 240, where the views of von llartmann and Lotzc are con-
trasted.

284

The Province of Religion 285

not only of the mystics, but of the New
Testament, and of all great Christian thinkers.
The attainment of this profounder conscious-
ness, and therefore of our full personality, is,
however, the province of religion, the "true
theme of which is not the future life but the
higher life."

This knowledge of God, not of the methods
of his working, but the consciousness of His
presence, is what is meant by religion. From
this point of view it is obvious Spiritualism is
not and cannot be a religion, which rests essen-
tially upon those higher instincts of the soul
we call faith. For, as Canon Scott Holland
says in "Lux Mundi" (p. 15) —

"Faith is the power by which conscious life attaches
itself to God. . . . Faith, then, opens an entirely new
career to creaturely existence; and the novelty of this
career is expressed in the word 'Supernatural.' The
supernatural world opens upon us as soon as faith
is in being."

In this sense also Spritualism cannot even
afford to us knowledge of the supernatural, as
it is often claimed to do.1 In its true meaning
supernatural knowledge is incommunicable
from without; it is the voice of the Spirit

1 In Appendix "A" I have discussed more fully the conflicting
popular notions that Spiritualism is on the one hand a "recru-
descence of superstition" and on the other, "evidence of the
supernatural."

286 Chapter XXIII

to the spirit, or, as Plotinus said, "The flight
of the Alone to the alone," for "the soul must
be very still to hear God speak." Of this
Divine unveiling the humblest human souls
have knowledge, no less than the greatest
prophets and poets.

"For more than once when I
Sat all alone, revolving in myself
The word that is the symbol of myself,
The mortal limit of the Self was loosed,
And past into the Nameless, as a cloud
Melts into Heaven. I touch'd my limbs, the limbs
Were strange, not mine — and yet no shade of doubt
But utter clearness, and thro' loss of Self
The gain of such large life as match'd with ours
Were Sun to spark — unshadowable in words,
Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world."1

It is this "loss of self," this self-surrender,
which enables the consciousness of God to
enter into our life. Our own will dies and
God's will lives in us, and in so far as this is
the case we attain the object of our earthly
existence, that is, the realisation of a higher
and wider consciousness, the discovery of our
true personality, which is immortal. This
cannot persist until it has been attained, and
its attainment is the Way of Life; as Lotze
says, "Perfect personality is in God alone."

1 Tennyson: "The Ancient Sage."

The Question of Immortality 287

In other words, when we are conscious of the
Divine life and love dwelling within us, our
human life becomes a conscious partaker of
the endless life of God ; without this conscious-
ness human life is not only unsatisfying but
unenduring.1

Here let me remark that the inference
commonly drawn that spirit communications
teach us the necessary and inherent immortal-
ity of the soul is, in my opinion, a mischievous
error. It is true they show us that life can
exist in the unseen, and — if we accept the
evidence for "identity" — that some we have
known on earth are still living and near us,
but entrance on a life after death does not
necessarily mean immortality, i.e., eternal
persistence of our personality; nor does it
prove that survival after death extends to all.
Obviously no experimental evidence can ever
demonstrate either of these beliefs, though it
may and does remove the objections raised as
to the possibility of survival.

There are many who believe with the devout
and learned Henry More, and other Platon-
ists, together with several eminent thinkers of

1 This view of potential immortality was and is held not only
by some learned theologians, both ancient and modern (see Rev.
Ed. White's "Life in Christ"), but also by not a few devout and
eminent scientific men such as the late Sir G. G. Stokes, a past
President of the Royal Society of London.

288 Chapter XXIII

the present day, such as Professor McTaggart,
that the survival of the soul after death
involves the assumption of its pre-natal ex-
istence. If so, as Mr. C. C. Massey has said,
"The whole conception of immortality under-
goes an important change if we regard the
personal consciousness with its Ego as a mere
partial and temporary limitation of a larger
self, the growth of many seasons, as it were,
of earthly life."

The lack of any memory of our past exist-
ences, if such there were, has been urged
against the idea of re-incarnation, but this
may be only a temporary eclipse. It is pos-
sible that recollection of our past lives may
gradually return, as in the course of our
spiritual progress we gain a larger life and
deeper consciousness: the underlying sub-
liminal life, may be the golden thread that
binds into one all our past and future lives.

As this question of re-incarnation is at
present attracting much attention it may be
of interest to quote another sentence or two
from the devout and suggestive writer named
above : —

"We may find," remarks Mr. C. C. Massey, "the
ground of re-incarnation in an attraction to this
world or principle of life. . . Whatever has brought
us here once will presumably bring us here again
and a^ain till the motive power changes. . . .
Regeneration (a new-nature) alone exempt! lioin

Re-incarnation 289

re-incarnation; the bonds of desire to the external
nature being thus severed, all the tendrils of at-
tachment to it are thus eradicated. . . . The idea of
Christianity it seems to me, is that this attachment
is broken (for all who desire it broken) by attachment
to the Personal Power, that has, in principle, accom-
plished the rupture. The Buddhist says 'conquer
desire,' but that is only negative: Christ supplies the
positive; desire Him and you are already free from
the grip of earthly desire: for the two desires cannot
co-exist."1

Doubtless some readers will consider the
foregoing remarks out of place in this book,
but the subject of Spiritualism is so intimately
connected with, and throws so much light on,
the whole question of eschatology, that I
have ventured to enter upon an inexhaustible
subject, one of age-long interest and discus-
sion. Immortality, Matthew Arnold defined
as 'living in the eternal order which never
dies'; but the soul craves for more than an
impersonal existence of love and goodness,
truth and beauty, which are in the eternal
order, timeless and boundless.

Let us however recognise our ignorance,
we cannot see far ahead, "We have but faith:
we cannot know." It may be as Indian
philosophy teaches, and the learned Domini-
can martyr, Bruno, believed, that human

1 "Thoughts of a Modern Mystic," edited by Sir W. F. Barrett,
Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.

290 Chapter XXIII

personality, the individualisation of the soul,
is but a fleeting event, which in the infinite
bosom of time has only an ephemeral stability
and duration, though as a portion of the
Divine life it is immortal. The whole uni-
verse was to Bruno, as to many later thinkers,
a living Cosmos, an eternal transmutation of
the World-soul, of the ever present Divine
Word.

Certainly all religions must admit that God
is the centre, and the manifestation of God
the circumference, of all existence. Within
this vast circle lies the whole creation, like
the myriad cell life in the human body. Each
of these cells in our body has a life of its own,
yet all are related to a unitary consciousness,
a personality which far transcends the life of
each cell. Some mysterious mode of inter-
communication possibly exists, even would
-appear to exist, between the individual cells
and the sub-conscious self.

Thus also we may conceive the human race
as the constituent cells, the many members,
of the one Body to which all are related and
yet all transcended in the one supreme in-
effable Being. Nor can we doubt that some
mode of communication and influence passes
between the Creator and all creaturely exist-
ence. For —

"All arc but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul."

Re-incarnation 291

"Inevitably," Frederick Myers remarks, "as our link
with other spirits strengthens, as the life of the or-
ganism pours more fully through the individual cell,
we shall feel love more ardent, wider wisdom, higher
joy; perceiving that this organic unity of Soul, which
forms the inward aspect of the telepathic law, is in
itself the Order of the Cosmos, the Summation of
Things."1

On the possibility of this Divine influx
some light is thrown by the discovery of
Telepathy, the implications of which we will
briefly consider in the concluding chapter.

1 "Human Personality," ii, 291.

CHAPTER XXIV

TELEPATHY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

"Each creature holds an insular point in space;
Yet what man stirs a finger, breathes a sound,
But all the multitudinous beings round
In all the countless worlds, with time and place
For their conditions, down to the central base,
Thrill, happy, in vibration and rebound,
Life answering life across the vast profound,
In full antiphony, by a common grace?"

I HAVE dealt in this book mainly with
Spiritualistic phenomena; it was not my
intention here to treat of other subjects of
psychical research, most of which are of a less
startling character and some, like hypnotism
and telepathy, are, in my opinion, almost as
fully established as many of the accepted
truths of science. We have added consider-
ably to the weight of evidence since Schopen-
hauer wrote: "Who at this day doubts the
facts of mesmerism and its clairvoyance is not
to be called sceptical but ignorant. Ami this
remark would now apply to other branches
of our enquiry. Deeply interesting scientific

1 Mrs. Browning: Sonnet on "Life."
292

Telepathy and its Implications 293

problems lie before us in the immediate
future. I can only hint at some of these.

In Thought-transference is it the idea or
the word that is transmitted; is it the emotion
or the expression of the emotion? I believe it
is the former in both cases. But if so, may not
this afford a hint towards the possibility of an
interchange of thought amongst men in spite
of differences in language? Language is but
a clumsy instrument of thought, "consisting
as it does of arbitrary signs, it is a rudiment
of a material system" j1 and we may expect it
to disappear under the action of evolutionary
forces. For how much more perfectly should
we be able to transmit complex ideas and
subtle emotions by the naked intercourse of
minds than by the mechanism of speech.

Or again, may not the animals share with
man this power? Evidence exists that

1 Isaac Taylor : "Physical Theory of Another Life," p. 102.
This book, written nearly fifty years before telepathy was heard
of. contains some suggestions very like the above, though I was
unaware of this till quite lately. Owing to the use of the phrase
thought-reading, the absurd idea is prevalent that thought-trans-
ference means reading all the thoughts in another's mind. Only
a dominant idea in the agent's. mind is passed on to the percipi-
ent, and that apparently requires an effort of will, so that filching
one another's thoughts is not possible, and the sanctity and privacy
of our minds must always be within our power and possessions,
so long as we retain our true self-hood. Professor H. Drum-
mond, in his "Ascent of Man," has also the same idea as I. Tay-
lor: "Telepathy," he remarks, "is theoretically the next stage
in the evolution of language," p. 233.

294 Chapter XXIV

domestic animals often perceive apparitions,
and are frequently keener in their perception
than man. It would be worth while to try
whether animals are open to telepathy; will
a favourite dog, for example, respond to the
unuttered call of his name, no sense percep-
tion reaching him? The habits of ants and
bees seem to indicate the possession of a mode
of communication unknown to us. If our
domestic animals are in any degree open to
thought-transference, may we not thus get into
somewhat closer communion with them?

But leaving aside such speculations, the
wider recognition of the fact of thought-
transference will inevitably lead to its culture
and development. Does it not already play
some part in the growing sense of sympathy
and humanity we find in the world around?
But if it were as common here among men,
as it is doubtless common in the intercourse
of the spiritual world, what a change would
be wrought! If we were involuntarily sharers
in one another's pleasures and pains, the
brotherhood of the race would not be a pious
aspiration or a strenuous effort, but the reality
of all others most vividly before us; the factor
in our lives which would dominate all our
conduct. "What would be the use of a
luxurious mansion at the West End ami
Parisian cooks if all the time the misery and
starvation of our fellow creatures at the East

Telepathy and its Implications 295

End were telepathically part and parcel of
our daily lives? On the other hand what
bright visions and joyous emotions would
enter into many dreary and loveless lives if
this state of human responsiveness were
granted to the race! For, as Shakespeare
says, in one of his Sonnets (XLIV.) : —

"If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance would not stop my way."

It may be that telepathy is the survival of
an old and once common possession of the
human race that has fallen into disuse and
almost died out with the growth of language.
More probably, I think, it is a rudimentary
faculty, or possibly an early and special case
of the great human rapport which is slowly
awakening the race to the sense of a larger
self : to

"... A heart that beats
In all its pulses with the common heart
Of human-kind, which the same things make glad,
The same make sorry."

In relation to psychical enquiry, however,
one often hears the question still raised "Of
what use is it?" When all is said and done,
and the facts we are slowly accumulating
are generally recognised and accredited, what
will be the gain? None at all to such as
Peter Bell, to whom a primrose by the river's

296 Chapter XXIV

brim will only excite regret that he cannot
eat or drink it; none to the simple, contented
heart; none to those saints whose supreme
faith has enabled them to transcend all
earthly doubt, and who daily "live as seeing
Him who is invisible"; but very much to
the rest of mankind, in whom most of us are
included.

For, as the learned Dr. Glanville says in
the dedication of his famous "Sadducismus
Triumphatus," "these things relate to our
biggest interests; if established, they secure
some of the outworks of religion, and regain
a parcel of ground which bold infidelity hath
invaded." But our scope is wider than Glan-
ville had before him, and our philosophical
need is greater. A false and paralysing mate-
rialistic philosophy must either disappear
or be reconstructed, when the phenomena we
attest can no longer be denied; and so, too,
the popular assaults on the Christian religion,
based on its incredibility, will be deprived of
much of the force they now possess in certain
minds.

The most profound change in human
thought that has occurred since the Christian
era will, in all probability, follow the general
recognition by science of the immanence of a
spiritual world. Faith will no longer be
staggered by trying to conceive of life in the
unseen; death will no longer be felt to have

Telepathy and its Implications 297

so icy a grip over even Christian hearts;
miracles will no longer seem to be the super-
stitious relics of a barbarous age; the "prayer
of faith" will no longer find an adequate
explanation in the subjective response it
evokes, nor the "Word of the Lord" in mere
human aspiration. On the contrary, if, as I
hold, telepathy be indisputable, if our crea-
turely minds can, without voice or language,
impress each other, the Infinite and Over-
shadowing Mind is likely thus to have re-
vealed itself in all ages to responsive human
hearts. To some gifted souls were given the
inner ear, the open vision, the inspired utter-
ance, but to all these comes at times the still
small voice, the faint echo within us of that
larger Life which is slowly but surely express-
ing itself in humanity as the ages gradually
unfold. Wordsworth felt this when he wrote,

"Not less I deem that there are Powers
Which of themselves our minds impress."

But even to those who prefer to regard these
phenomena from a purely scientific aspect
there will be great gain. I have already
alluded to the possible solution which they
afford of many perplexing, and at present in-
scrutable, scientific problems, the opening up
of new regions of fruitful experimental en-
quiry, the impulse they will give to a truer
psychology and a healthier philosophy. But

298 Chapter XXIV

in addition to this, they will tend to bring
more forcibly before our minds the solidarity
of the race, the immanence of the unseen, the
dominance of thought and spirit — in a word,
the transcendent unity and continuity of life.
Our scientific as well as our political memo-
ries are short-lived. We only see vividly that
in the midst of which we live. What has
gone before us is as if it had not been and
never could be. So the science of to-day
forgets, as has been well said,

"That the tendency of all the earlier systems of
physical philosophy was to supernaturalise natural
actions, whereas the tendency of modern science is to
force into the phenomenal world ultimate causes that
must ever be ultra-phenomenal. The older writers
on physical science delighted in symbolical designs in
which the forces of nature were represented each at
his appointed work, and over all they placed a cloud
from which issued the hand of God, directing the
several agents of the Universe."1

The symbol is not unjust, for,

11 'Tis the sublime of man,
Our noontide majesty, to know ourselves
Parts and proportions of one wondrous whole!
... But 'tis God
Difused through all, that doth make all one whole."-'

1 Rodweli: Preface (o "Hit tit>n;ii v oi St ii-iioc."
- Coleridge: "Religious Musings."

Telepathy and its Implications 299

We are not isolated in or from the great
Cosmos, the light of suns and stars reaches us,
the mysterious force of gravitation binds the
whole material universe into an organic
whole, the minutest molecule and the most dis-
tant orb are bathed in one and the self-same
medium. But surely beyond and above all
these material links is the solidarity of mind.
As the essential significance and unity of a
honeycomb is not in the cells of wax, but in
the common life and purpose of the builders
of those cells, so the true significance of nature
is not in the material world but in the Mind
that gives to it a meaning, and that underlies
and unites, that transcends and creates, the
phenomenal world through which for a
moment each of us is passing.

THE END

APPENDIX A

SUPERSTITION AND THE SUPERNATURAL
MIRACLES

1 1.

The spiritualistic phenomena we have described in
this book are usually characterised by sceptics as a
"recrudescence of superstition,"1 and by believers as
"evidence of the supernatural." If either of these
statements be true they have serious and far-reaching
consequences, and as they are both supported by some
authority, it is eminently desirable we should examine
these assertions carefully. And, first, what is the mean-
ing to be attached to "superstition" on the one hand,8
and "supernatural" on the other? Supersition (Lat.,
superstitio) is etymologically the standing over a thing
in amazement or awe. By so doing we shut out the
light of enquiry and reason ; where this light enters super-
stition fades away, so that we no longer enshroud a
mystery by standing over it, but begin to understand
it. Superstition is, therefore, the antithesis of under-

1 Leading review in Nature, Vol. LI, 1894, p. 22.

2 Johnson gives several definitions ; the best is "unnecessary
fear." Cicero says it is "a certain empty dread of the gods."
Plutarch's definition, in his interesting essay on Superstition,
resembles this.

,301

302 Appendix A

standing, and of that faith in the intelligibility of the
universe which is the sheet anchor of science and the
lode-star of all intellectual progress.

The definition given by a learned writer, Sir G. W.
Cox, seems to me near the truth, if supplemented by the
clause I have added in brackets, viz. : Superstition is a
belief not in accordance with facts [wherein a false cause
is assumed for a fact or occurrence], and issues in super-
stitious practices when such a belief is regarded as cap-
able of affording help or injury. Hence, when a primary
hypothesis is not only erroneous, but unrelated to the
facts in question, we have the basis of superstition and
its attendant evils, though the deductive reasonings from
that hypothesis may be irrefragable. The witch mania
was thus a horrible superstition. False ideas of the Cos-
mos are fruitful sources of absurd and sometimes revolting
superstitions.

We are now in a position to test the first assertion :
Is Spiritualism — using the word in the sense defined
on page 9 — a superstition? Certainly it is, if not in
accordance with facts; but those who assert this are
the very persons who, on a priori grounds, deem the
facts impossible or unvcrifiable, and have therefore never
given to the subject any painstaking Study whatever.
Those who have been eye-witnesses and made it a sub-
ject of laborious investigation, at first hand, assert that
certain phenomena entirely new to science do exist, that
the facts are there; in fine, although differences of opinion
may exist as to the interpretation of those tacts, no one
has yet proved that a belief in these phenomena is utterly
groundless, On the contrary, every painstaking and
honest investigator who has endeavoured tu prove this, so
far as 1 know, lias failed, and nun) IUCD have eventually
changed sides.

Superstition 303

But if this be so, it is obvious that, with regard to
these phenomena, the primary hypothesis of many
scientific and educated men to-day — which leads them
to reject the evidence adduced — is not in accordance
with fact; and such a belief issues in a conduct opposed
to the attainment of truth. Is it not, therefore, the
average man of science, the average public opinion of
to-day, that is on this subject foolishly superstitious?
Nor must we forget the consequences of this erroneous
belief upon the holders themselves. As the able and
thoughtful writer, whose definition of superstition I have
adopted, has said : —

"It follows that every belief and every practice not
based on, or not in accordance with, actual fact, must
have an injurious effect on the mental and moral state
of the thinker or actor. How great may be the mischief
so produced, and how far it may check the growth of
all literature, art, and science, the reader may gather
from the 9th chapter of Hallam's 'Middle Ages.' "l

We are all familiar with one mischievous effect of this
erroneous habit of thought on the part of the material-
istic school of scientific thought. Starting from the
fundamental principle of the denial of an unseen or
spiritual world, everything is made to give way to that;
albeit the ludicrous arrogance of this denial is obvious
when we consider the narrow limits both of our knowl-
edge and of our senses. According to this school, "any
solution of a difficulty is more probable than one which
would concede that a miracle had really occurred. This
explains their seeming want of candour, and why they
meet with evasions, proofs that seem to be demon-

1 "Dictionary of Science," by Dr. Brande, F.R.S., and Sir G. W.
Cox, M.A.; Art., "Superstition."

304 Appendix A

strative."1 These are the words a former learned Provost
of Trinity College, Dublin, Dr. Salmon, applies to the
Biblical critics of that school, and they are equally true
of many ferocious sceptics in connection with Psychical
Research.

§2.

Let us now examine the second and opposite assertion,
that Spiritualism is "evidence of the supernatural."
Putting aside that school of thought which denies
the supernatural in toto, numerous attempts have been
made to define the word supernatural. Strictly speak-
ing, as God is the Creator and Source of all things, He
only can be over or above Nature. Archbishop Whately
remarks : —

"As Nature is another word to signify the state of
things and course of events God has appointed, nothing
that occurs can be strictly called supernatural. Jesus
Himself describes His works, not as violations of the
laws of Nature, but as 'works which none other man
did.' Superhuman would, perhaps, be a better word than
supernatural."

But this was not the idea of the writers either in the
Old or New Testaments. Their idea was one common
to the age in which they lived, viz., that of the arbitrary
action of a Supreme Being breaking in upon the ordinary
course of events for a special purpose; a miracle was
thus a sign or wonder wrought in order to attest His
existence and power. Obviously, until science had

1 Of such it has been truly remarked, "There is a bigotry of
unbelief quite as blind and irrational, involving quite as
thorough an abnegation of the highest faculties of the human
mind, as can possibly DC the case with the bigOtiy of supersti-
tion."— Rev. J. J. Lias: "Are Miracles Credible?" j>. 12.

Nature and the Supernatural 305

given us conclusive evidence of an undeviating order in
Nature, there could be no clear idea of a miracle as
involving a violation of that order, no correct view of
the "supernatural."

An interesting discussion on the meaning of the word
supernatural is to be found in Dr. Horace Bushnell's
suggestive and well-known work, "Nature and the Super-
natural." Bishop Butler gives a sound view of the matter.
He says in his "Analogy," Part I, chap. I :

"The only distinct meaning of that word [natural] is —
stated, fixed, or settled; since what is natural, as much
requires and presupposes an intelligent agent to render
it so, i.e., to effect it continually or at stated times; as
what is supernatural or miraculous does to effect it
for once. And from hence it must follow that persons'
notion of what is natural will be enlarged in proportion
to their greater knowledge of the works of God, and
the dispensations of His providence. Nor is there any
absurdity in supposing that there may be beings in the
universe whose capacities and knowledge and views
may be so extensive, as that the whole Christian dis-
pensation may to them appear natural, i.e., analogous
or conformable to God's dealings with other parts of
His creation; as natural as the visible known course of
things appears to us."

Similarly St. Augustine remarked: "Miracles do not
happen in contradiction to nature, but only in contradic-
tion to that which is known to us of nature." This is
the view held by most modern theologians.

In fine, as a former Savilian Professor of Geometry
in the University of Oxford, the Rev. Baden Powell,
F.R.S., said in his admirable series of essays on the "Order
of Nature," p. 232, et seg.: —

"The limits of the study of nature do not bring us to

306 Appendix A

the supernatural ... if at any particular point science
finds a present limit, what is beyond science is not there-
fore beyond nature; it is only unknown nature; when
we cease to trace law we are sure law remains to be
traced. Whatever amount of the marvellous we
encounter in the investigation of facts, such extraor-
dinary phenomena will be sure at some future time to
receive their explanation. As Spinoza argued, we cannot
pretend to determine the boundary between the natural
and the supernatural until the whole of Nature is open
to our knowledge. . . . From the very conditions of
the case it is evident that the supernatural can never be
a matter of science or knowledge, for the moment it is
brought within the cognisance of reason it ceases to be
supernatural."

From this point of view it will be seen that Spiritualism
is not and cannot be "evidence of the supernatural."

The popular meaning attached to the word super-
natural is, however, "Some occurrence which affords evi-
dence of an unseen or spiritual world outside ourselves,
and therefore not belonging to the present or visible order
of nature." In this sense only but still improperly we
might speak of certain well-attested spiritualistic pheno-
mena as supernatural.

Those who deny all miracles assume they know all the
laws of the universe. On such men argument is wasted
and they must be left alone if they refuse to listen to
good evidence. As Archbishop Whately in an Essay on
Superstition, wisely says, "If either Roman Catholics, or
any others, will give sufficient proofs of the occurrence
of a miracle, they ought to be listened to; but to pretend
to, or to believe in, any miracle without sufficient proof
is clearly superstition."

In view of the phenomena of Spiritualism, I would

Definition of Miracles 307

venture to suggest the definition that miracles are super-
normal and therefore rare manifestations of mind, and
as such they may be evidence either (i.) of the Infinite
Mind, or (ii.) of a finite mind in the unseen, or (iii.) of
a higher transcendental part of the human mind.

Another and vital distinction must be drawn between
miracles which are voluntary exhibitions of super-normal
power for a Divine purpose; and miracles, such as some
of the phenomena we have been considering, which are
manifestations of an intelligence and a power wholly
beyond the control of the psychic, and with which his
volition is concerned only so far as the withdrawal of
any opposing mental condition. Of these latter (relative
miracles) it is probable that the progress of research may
render the miracle of to-day the accepted scientific fact
of to-morrow. But the former being self-determined are
not in the same category, and therefore will remain, as
Kant says, among "events in the world the operative laws
of whose causes are, and must remain, utterly unknown
to us."

It will thus be seen that the common Protestant belief
that miracles, using this term in its widest sense, are
credible in Scripture, but incredible out of it, is inac-
curate. As Dr. Bushnell has well shown, so far from
the age of miracles being past, there is unbroken testimony,
from the apostolic times to the present, of the existence
of miracles, i.e., evidence of a super-normal character on
behalf of the existence and operation of unseen Intelli-
gence.

APPENDIX B

NOTE BY PROF. BALFOUR STEWART, LL.D^F.R.S.1

I have read with much interest the paper by Professor
Barrett, on some Physical Phenomena commonly called
Spiritualistic witnessed by him. He expresses his conclu-
sions in the following words: "Assuming the evidence
to be trustworthy, I, for one, believe it points to the
conclusion that, under conditions which are so restricted
that we are not put to intellecual confusion by frequent
interruptions of the ordinary course of material laws,
mind occasionally and unconsciously can exert a dirt ct
influence upon lifeless mattt r."

As this is a subject to which I have given a good
deal of thought, I trust the Psychical Society will allow
me to make one or two remarks upon it, and I am very
sure my friend, Professor Barrett, will not object to this
course.

Viewing the "Conservation of Energy" as the
representative of physical laws, I nevertheless do not
regard it in its birth, at least, as anything else than a
scientific assertion — a very sagacious one, no doubt,
but yet an assertion. We are in profound ignorance
not only of the ultimate constitution of matter, but of
the nature of those forces which animate the atom and

1 This note formed the supplement to my paper on the "Physi-
cal Phenomena <>4 Spiritualism" and was published iu the
'Trotccdiufcs SJPJL," \ ul. IV, p. 4.:.

308 '

Note by Dr. Balfour Stewart 309

the molecule. Under these circumstances, chiefly to
advance physical knowledge by means of a working
hypothesis, but partly, it may be, as a weapon against
visionaries, we have formulated an assertion known as
the "Conservation of Energy." It is unquestionable
that this so-called law has greatly extended our knowl-
edge of physics; nor have we met with any strictly
physical experiment capable of repetition under fixed
conditions that is inconsistent with this law. Now,
what should be our course of action when a visionary
comes before us with some variety of "Perpetual
Motion?" The moral certainty that we are invaded
by presumptuous ignorance is, no doubt, a sufficiently
good excuse for not discussing the project. But we have
a less objectionable method of dealing with such a man
by asking him to put his project in execution, and to
produce his machine, which we will then carefully
examine. The fact that no such machine has been
produced, and, as I said before, that no physical experi-
ment contradicts the great laws of Energy, goes surely
very far to justify us in regarding these laws as true —
as laws which hold in what I may call the physical market
of the world, ruling the physical transactions between man
and man.

But there are many who are not content with such
a limited application of physical laws. In the first place,
they repudiate the doctrine of free-will because they regard
it as being inconsistent with such laws; secondly, they
repudiate the possibility of what are called miracles; and,
lastly, they repudiate (with contempt) the evidence for
telepathy, and more especially that for Spiritualistic pheno-
mena which has come before the Society for Psychical
Research.

One consequence of this mental posture is that

310 Appendix B

interminable discussions have arisen between a certain
class of men of science and the supporters of Christianity,
the latter of whom have been far from judicious in their
method of defence. These have until recently con-
sidered miracles as Divine interferences with ordinary
laws, and hence as abnormal and intellectually incom-
prehensible occurrences, while the Protestant theologians
have imagined that the power to work miracles ceased
with the Apostles.1 This latter doctrine was probably
assumed as a polemical weapon at the time of the great
controversy with the Church of Rome. It goes without
saying that this method of looking at things will not
recommend itself to men of science, and thus an em-
bittered and useless discussion has continued between two
classes of men, neither of whom has seemed to be either
able or willing to enter into the position assumed by
the other.

Of late years, however, miracles have come to be re-
garded not as breaks of law, but as phenomena embracing
a higher law — a doctrine which is a great advance upon
its predecessor. Now the question naturally arises, if
there be this higher law, may there not be occasional
traces of it to be met with in the world, even at this
present age? It is, I think, exceedingly unfortunate that
a large class of theologians have attempted to decide this
question in the negative. It is not a question for them
to decide, but for those who investigate matters of fact.
This is in reality the question upon which the Psychical
Society are engaged, and the circumstances which I have
mentioned appear to me to lend an unusual importance
to their investigations. Let us begin by allowing that

the laws of Energy dominate the scientific market-place,

1 Sec Appendix A, p. 307.

Note by Dr. Balfour Stewart 311

and the scientific dealings between man and man. We
are, I conceive, extending this scientific assertion so far.
But are we justified in extending it further? Are we,
for instance, justified in asserting that under the very
different conditions of things contemplated by the Psy-
chical Society there may not be at least an apparent and
prima facie breakdown of these laws; and more especially,
are we justified in absolutely shutting our eyes to all
evidence that may be brought before us in favour of such
apparent interruptions? I cannot think so. We must
examine everything. Because a scientific statement applies
to one set of conditions, must it necessarily apply to
everything else? I have always thought that this had
to be ascertained by investigation, and not by dogmatic
assertion, and I therefore conceive that our Society is
abundantly justified in applying the Baconian method of
research to all occurrences.

APPENDIX C

EUSAPIA PALADINO

After the favourable reports by Professor Charles
Richet and Sir Oliver Lodge upon their experiments
with Eusapia, referred to on page 65, as there stated
further seances were held with her at Cambridge in
1895.1 I was not present, and, indeed, have never had
the opportunity nor the desire to experiment with
Eusapia, but those present at Cambridge came to the
conclusion, on what appeared to them to be an adequate
trial, that there was clear evidence of trickery on the
part of Eusapia,2 although Sir Oliver Lodge adhered to
his opinion that the phenomena he witnessed in the He
Roubaud were genuine.3

This opinion was corroborated by that of the eminent
physiologist, Professor Charles Richet. After the scuuvs
at Cambridge he for a time suspended his judgment,
but subsequently, both in conversation with myself and
on other occasions, has stated that he was absolutely
convinced of the super-normal character of some of the
manifestations which occur with Eusapia. This alao
was the opinion of the well-known astronomical writer,

1 Sec "Journal of the S.P.R.," Vol. VI, p. 306.

2 ibid., Vol. VII, p. 148.

3 ibid., p. 135.

3"

Eusapia Paladino 313

Camille Flammarion, who in his work, "Les Forces
Naturelles Inconnues," deals at length with the pheno-
mena occurring with Eusapia, and is convinced of their
super-normal character.

But the most remarkable testimony in favour of
Eusapia came from some of the leading scientific men
of Italy, men specially trained in the investigation of
psychological and physiological phenomena. Perhaps the
most notable witness was the late Professor Lombroso,
who conducted the investigation of Eusapia's powers
in his laboratory in the University of Turin, every
precaution being taken against fraud. The result was
that Lombroso publicly bore witness to the genuineness
of these extraordinary physical manifestations. The
opinion of so experienced and able a criminologist as
Lombroso — whose high scientific status is recognised
throughout Europe — necessarily carried great weight. In
an article published in 1908 in the "Annals of Psychical
Science," Lombroso refers to various phases of these
phenomena, including phantasms and apparitions of de-
ceased persons. He points out that sometimes several
phenomena occurred simultaneously, and hence were be-
yond the power of one person to perform, and also that
there is evidence of the intrusion of another will, which
could not be attributed to the medium or to any person
present, but which was in opposition to all, and even to
the control, "John." He lays stress upon the importance
of these facts in relation to the hypothesis that the oc-
currences are explicable by the "psychic forces" of the
medium and circle alone: an hypothesis which at an
earlier stage of the enquiry he himself adopted, but which
he now regards as inadequate.

Independent testimony came from Dr. Enrico Morselli,
Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry (mental thera-

314 Appendix C

peutics), In the University of Genoa, who presided over
a set of seances with Eusapia in that city.1

The control of the medium was very strict. Her
hands and feet were held by Dr. Morselli and Sig.
Barzini, editor of the "Corriere della Sera," who states
that he was present "with the object of unmasking fraud
and trickery," but was in the end convinced of the reality
of some of the phenomena. The person of the medium
was thoroughly searched before the seance, and the
room was also searched ; the light was never entirely
extinguished.

Under these conditions Dr. Morselli testifies to the
occurrence of the following phenomena: movements of
the table, raps on the table and sounds on musical in-
struments without contact; complete levitations of the
table; movements of objects at a distance from the
medium seen in the light, and, also, the operation of self-
registering instruments by the unseen agency ; apforis,
i.e., objects brought into the room from outside; the
sound of human voices not proceeding from any visible
person; impressions on plastic substances of hands, feet
and faces; the appearance of dark prolongations of the
medium's body, of well delineated forms of faces, heads
and busts. Although entirely sceptical at the outset of
his experiments he declares himself convinced that most
of the phenomena alleged to occur with Eusapia arc "real,
authentic, and genuine."

Dr. Morselli was disposed to interpret these phenom-
ena by what he terms the hypothesis of special psychic
or bio-dynamic forces; that is to say, he attributes them
to some peculiar power emanating from the person of the

1 A very full report of these is given in the Annals of Psychical
Science for February, March, May, and June, 1907.

Eusapia Paladino 315

medium. This is practically the psychic force theory of
many earlier English investigators.

Shortly after the seances held under the direction of
Dr. Morselli in the University of Genoa, another series
of experiments, in Turin, was conducted by Doctors
Herlitzka, C. Foa, and Aggazzotti;1 Dr. Pio Foa, Pro-
fessor of Pathological Anatomy, being present at the most
remarkable of this set of experiments. The seances yielded
similar positive results to those held by Professors Lom-
broso and Morselli.

Another competent witness is Dr. Giuseppe Venzano,
stated by Dr. Morselli to be an "excellent observer."
He contributed an important article to the "Annals of
Psychical Science" (August and September, 1907),
containing a detailed record and critical analysis of his
experiences with Eusapia, under conditions of strict
control, and sometimes in the full light given by an
electric lamp of sixteen-candle power. Dr. Venzano, in
the course of his experiments with Eusapia, the light in
the room being sufficient to enable both the medium
and his fellow-sitters to be clearly seen, perceived a
woman's form beside him, felt her touch and heard her
speak: the form spoke with fulness of detail of certain
family affairs not known to anyone present except him-
self. The whole incident is a most amazing one, and
Dr. Venzano states that, in his opinion, any explanation
of this experience based on the possibility of fraud or of
hallucination is impossible.

Professor Philippe Bottazzi, Director of the Physio-
logical Institute at the University of Naples, having
read the report of Dr. Morselli's experiments at Genoa,
made an attempt to verify the phenomena by means of

1 Assistants of Professor Mosso, an eminent physiologist.

3 16 Appendix C

an elaborate and carefully arranged set of self- register-
ing instruments, in the hope of obtaining an automatic
graphic record of the psychic force exercised by the
medium. Such a record would negative the hypothesis
of hallucination or misdescription on the part of the
observer. These important experiments, carried out
with the collaboration of several able professors of the
same University, were remarkably successful, and
Professor Bottazzi's article concludes by stating that
these experiments have "eliminated the slightest trace
of suspicion or uncertainty relative to the genuineness
of the phenomena. We obtained the same kind of assur-
ance as that which we have concerning physical, chemical,
or physiological phenomena. From henceforth sceptics
can only deny the facts by accusing us of fraud and
charlatanism."1

In 1909 three members of the S.P.R., the Hon.
Everard Feilding, Mr. W. W. Baggally and Mr. Here-
ward Carrington were commissioned by the Society to
carry out another serious investigation with this medium.
The selection was specially made with a view to the
qualifications of the investigators. Mr. Carrington was
a clever amateur conjuror, and for ten years had carried
on investigations on these physical phenomena in the
United States. His book on this subject shows his
familiarity with the methods adopted by fraudulent
mediums and his cautious attitude towards all such ex-
periences. Mr. Baggally was also an amateur conjuror
with much experience, and had come to a negative con-
clusion as to the possibility of any genuine physical pluno-

1 See Annals of Psychical Science, September, 1907, p. 149;
October, 1907, p. 260; December, 1907, p. 377; where a full
account of these experiments will be found, with illustrations
showing the tracings made by the self-registering instruments.

Eusapia Paladino 317

mena. Mr. Feilding's attitude was the same, and,
moreover, he had had extensive experience in investigating
physical phenomena.

The result of this investigation was that all three of
these well qualified men were convinced of the absolute
genuineness of the remarkable super-normal phenomena
they witnessed at their hotel in Naples. Since then they
have had another series of seances which yielded quite
different results and in which they obtained nothing
convincingly super-normal and much that was obviously
normal and probably spurious. The same thing was also
found in sittings with Eusapia in America.

How can we reconcile these conflicting results? I
am not concerned to defend Eusapia, on the contrary
I am more disposed to loathe her, but we must be fair,
and give even the devil his due. Like other psychics,
especially those who exhibit similar amazing super-normal
phenomena, she is most sensitive to "suggestion," even
when unexpressed; and in the trance, when her con-
sciousness and self-control are largely inhibited, she is
the easy prey of external influences. In the absence of
the steadying though subconscious, influence of a high
moral nature, she unblushingly cheats whenever the
conditions are unfavourable for the production of super-
normal phenomena. We have no right to assume that
she is wholly conscious of so doing, for Professor Hyslop
has shown that mediumship is often accompanied with
abnormal bodily as well as mental conditions. We know
little or nothing of what constitutes the peculiar faculty
or environment for the necessary production of these
physical phenomena.

If they are due, as some have thought, to an external-
ization of the nerve force of the psychic, it is not im-
probable that the degree of this externalization will vary

318 Appendix C

with the favourable or unfavourable mental state of those
present. We may even conceive that when this psychic
force is restricted or not externalized, it may create move-
ments of the limbs of the psychic which will cause her
to perform by normal actions (in perhaps a semi-conscious
state) what under good psychical conditions would be
done super-normally. This would produce the impression
of intentional fraud. Every one who has had much ex-
perience in these perplexing investigations knows that what
seems purposeless and stupid fraud often intrudes itself,
after the most conclusive evidence of genuine phenomna
has been obtained. It is this which renders the whole
enquiry wholly unfitted for the hasty and unskilled in-
vestigator.

APPENDIX D

SUGGESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATORS
IN CONDUCTING PSYCHICAL EXPERIMENTS

There are many earnest enquirers who wish to know
how to conduct experiments for the investigation of psy-
chical phenomena, and a few suggestions to this end may
therefore be useful.

( I ) . Thought-transference.

Although the evidence for telepathy is both abundant
and weighty, additional evidence is always welcome
especially with a view to a better knowledge of the
conditions of success. A recent paper by Professor
Gilbert Murray, Litt. D., giving a record of his own
successful experiments, in guessing incidents thought of
by others, should be read in this connection; it will be
found in the "Proceedings of the S.P.R." for Nov., 1916.
Professor Murray points out how important it is to avoid
tedium and lack of interest in all concerned in the
experiment. Hence experiments in guessing a card or
a number, though useful and necessary for statistical
purposes, soon bore and weary the percipient, defeating
the end in view. In my original experiments with the
children of the Rev. A. M. Creery, 35 years ago, I found
the same thing; and in the report of these experiments
which Myers, Gurney, and myself published in the

319

320 Appendix D

first volume of the Proceedings S. P. R. (1882) we stated
that the more varied the experiments were made the
better were the results obtained. Always remember that
the essential thing is to keep alive the interest of the
percipient.

Further, it is necessary to avoid distraction of the
mind, or any disturbances, and also emphatically to
avoid any special anxiety for success. Make the con-
ditions as stringent as possible, but at the same time
endeavour to conduct the experiments as if they were
an amusing game. Nor should the agents, — that is
the persons who have selected the subject to be guessed, —
mentally exert themselves as if they were studying a
difficult proposition. It is not the conscious part of our
personality that is effective, but the sub-conscious;
possibly thought transference occurs universally. If
this is so it would appear that only in a limited number
of persons does the telepathic impact emerge into the
consciousness of the percipient. In this emergence
delay often occurs, hence all the "guesses" should be
noted down, as occasionally it will be found that an
earlier impression emerges in place of, or with, a later
one.

Again Professor Murray confirms what I noticed long
ago, that when the "agent" holds the hand of the per-
cipient very often better results are obtained. Tin's is
worth further investigation, care being taken to avoid
anything like "muscle reading" or hyper-CSthesia.

A series of experiments should not be continued too
long at one time, as sometimes it is found the trials tire
or exhaust the percipient. Some correspondenti have
told me the experiments produce giddiness, etc (see note
on p. 57, "Proc S.P.R.," Vol. I). Hut 1 myself have
never noticed this, nor seen any ill effects from tlitsc

Suggestions for Experimenters 321

experiments, nor from experiments on "dowsing" (see
Chap. 8 of my little book on Psychical Research, Home
University Library).

(2). The Dowsing Rod and the Pendule Explorateur.

Various autoscopes, as I have called them, can be
used to reveal involuntary muscular action on the part
of the automatist. The forked dowsing rod is the
simplest and most widely successful, but the twisting
of the rod is no evidence of any super-normal faculty,
nor does it imply success in the discovery of under-
ground water or metallic ores. Its movement is due to
involuntary and unconscious muscular action, and may
be caused by any sub-conscious suggestion arising in the
mind of the dowser.

The same explanation covers the motion of the
so-called pendule explorateur, a ring or other small object
suspended by a thread held between the fingers of one
hand; or passed over the ball of the thumb, the elbow
resting on the table. An alphabet arranged in a circle
round the pendule, will enable words to be spelt out
as the pendule swings to each letter.1 It is tedious, but
very amusing and curious results sometimes are found ;
unexpected messages and answers to questions may be
given. If the holder of the pendule be blindfolded and
the alphabet re-arranged, it will be seen how much is
due to his unconscious muscular action and involuntary
mental guidance.

In both these cases, however, as in the use of all
other autoscopes, certain persons will be found who

1 Two centuries ago the forked dowsing-rod was used for the
same purpose and messages purporting to come from different
planets were recorded!

322 Appendix D

possess super-normal power, and the results so obtained
cannot be explained away by any human faculty hitherto
recognized by official science. In the case of the good
dowser, — who may be a child or wholly unlettered person
of either sex, or a distinguished man like the late Mr.
A. Lang or others of note, — the faculty of clairvoyance
reveals itself, not by a conscious perception but by an
automatic action such as the twisting of the rod, when-
ever the object of search is found; whether it be a hidden
coin, or underground spring, or metallic lode. On the
continent the pcndule is often used for the same purpose,
but when messages are spelt out by its means the ex-
planation falls under the next heading.

(3). Automatic Writing, the Ouija Board, etc.

Here wc come to a branch of psychical research which
probably excites the most interest, and in which caution
is necessary. Those who are new to the subject should
read the suggestions given in Chapter XX and refer to
p. xviii of the Preface. Young persons, and those who
have little to interest or employ their time and thought-;,
should be strongly discouraged from making any experi-
ments in this perplexing region.

Moreover, it not infrequently happens, as some friends
of mine found, that after some interesting and veridical
messages and answers to questions had been given,
mischievous and deceptive communications took place,
interspersed with profane and occasionally obscene
language. How far the sitters' subliminal sell i^ respon-
sible for this, it is difficult to say; they were naturally
disquieted :uid alarmed, as the ideas and words weic
wholly foreign to their thoughts, and they threw up the
whole matter in disgust.

With this preliminary caution, and urging all in-

Suggestions for Experimenters 323

vestigators to preserve a sane and critical spirit, the
best results can be obtained when two or more friends
agree to sit regularly at some convenient and quiet hour.
A pencil may be held on a sheet of paper or a planchette
used or the ouija board, already described p. 176.1
This last autoscope usually furnishes the easiest, though
the most tedious, mode of automatic action. It has
also the advantage that the person, or two persons,
who touch the travelling indicator, can be carefully
blindfolded and the alphabet re-arranged without their
knowledge. If messages can thus be obtained, the con-
scious, or unconscious and unintentional, movement of the
indicator by the sitters, can thus be eliminated more or
less perfectly.

If after a few trials no results are obtained the circle
should be changed and others allowed to try. When
any messages are received, it is well to question the
unseen intelligence and ascertain what are the best
conditions and who is the most promising medium. Un-
wearied patience and regular sittings will be found nec-
essary to obtain the best results. Whether the game
is worth the candle, the enquirers must decide for them-
selves; personally I don't think it is, except for those
engaged in purely psychological investigation.

(4). Physical Phenomena.

These are less easy to obtain; though table-tilting
and the movements of other objects touched by the
sitters often occur, and may usually be traced to the
unconscious and involuntary muscular action of the
sitters. Raps and the movement of objects without

1This board can be obtained for a few shillings from the office
of Light, no, St. Martin's Lane, London, W.C.

324 Appendix D

contact, cannot be so explained; nor can all of the
remarkable motions of bodies which occur with contact.
This will be clear from a perusal of Chapters IV and V
dealing with physical phenomena. When raps first
occur in a private circle, they are usually very faint
ticks, and grow in loudness and frequency with continued
sittings.

Perhaps the best rules for the conduct of circles
sitting for spiritistic phenomena are those long ago
published by "M.A.(Oxon)" — the Rev. Stainton Moses.
After instructing sitters to place their hands flat on the
upper surface of the table round which they sit, he goes
on to say : —

"Do not concentrate attention too fixedly on the expected
manifestation. Engage in cheerful but not frivolous con-
versation. Avoid dispute or argument. Scepticism has no
deterrent effect, but a bitter spirit of opposition in a person
of determined will may totally stop or decidedly impede
manifestations. If conversation flags, music is a great help,
if it be agreeable to all, and not of a kind to irritate the
sensitive ear. Patience is essential, and it may be necessary
to meet ten or twelve times at short intervals, before anything
occurs. If after such a trial you still fail, form a fresh circle.
An hour should be the limit of an unsuccessful seance.

"If the table moves, let your pressure be so gentle on its
surface that you are sure you are not aiding its motions.
After some time you will probably find that the movement
will continue if your hands are held over, but not in contact
with, it. Do not, however, try this until the movement is
assured, and be in no hurry to git metal

"When you think that the time has come, let someone
take command of the circle and at t a> spokesman. Explain
to the unseen Intelligence that an agreed code of signals is
desirable, and ask thai ■ tilt may be given as the alphabet
is slowly repeated, at the lerera] letten which form the word

Suggestions for Experimenters 325

that the Intelligence wishes to spell. It is convenient to use
a single tilt for No, three for Yes, and two to express doubt
or uncertainty.

"When a satisfactory communication has been established,
ask if you are rightly placed, and if not, what order you
should take. After this ask who the Intelligence purports to
be, which of the company is the medium, and such relevant
questions. If you only satisfy yourself at first that it is
possible to speak with an Intelligence separate from that of
any person present, you will have gained much.

"The signals may take the form of raps. If so, use the
same code of signals, and ask as the raps become clear that
they may be made on the table, or in a part of the room
where they are demonstrably not produced by any natural
means, but avoid any vexatious imposition of restrictions on
free communication. Let the Intelligence use its own means.
It rests greatly with the sitters to make the manifestations
elevating or frivolous and even tricky.

"Should an attempt be made to entrance the medium, or to
manifest by any violent methods, ask that the attempt may
be deferred till you can secure the presence of some experienced
Spiritualist. If this request is not heeded, discontinue the
sitting. The process of developing a trance-medium is one
that might disconcert an inexperienced enquirer.

"Lastly, try the results you get by the light of Reason.
Maintain a level head and a clear judgment. Do not believe
everything you are told, for though the great unseen world
contains many a wise and discerning spirit, it also has in it
the accumulation of human folly, vanity, and error; and this
lies nearer to the surface than that which is wise and good.
Distrust the free use of great names. Never for a moment
abandon the use of your reason. Do not enter into a serious
investigation in a spirit of idle curiosity or frivolity. Culti-
vate a reverent desire for what is pure, good, and true. You
will be repaid if you gain only a well-grounded conviction
that there is a life after death, for which a pure and good
life before death is the best and wisest preparation."

326 Appendix D

The concluding sentence above must be read in con-
nection with the various theories of these physical pheno-
mena which I have given in Chapter IX. For my own
part I consider all these manifestations are so closely
associated with the subliminal self of the medium, that
it would be rash to infer they proceed from a discarnate
human personality; though the Russian case cited on
p. 229, as well as Rev. S. Moses' own experience, supports
the view that in some cases they may do so.

As a rule the higher and more spiritual the content
of the messages, the less palpable and material is their
manifestation. The silent "communion of saints" is very
far removed from a spiritistic seance. Telepathic such
communion may be, and probably is, but, as the mystics
in all ages have taught, calmness of body and mind is
essential,

"Some have striven
Achieving calm, to whom was given
The joy that mixes man with Heaven."

And "Into that silent heaven the Great Soul floweth in,"
as Plotinus tells us.

INDEX
A

PAGE

Abercromby, Blanche, case 211

Abraham, Florentine, case 208

Alcsakof, the late Hon. A 115, 165

Alexander, Prof. (Rio Janeiro), evidence of 56, 83

Apparitions of Dying and Dead 140-158

of Living Persons 153

Apports 82, 87, 88

Arnold, Matthew 289

Auditory hallucination 147

Augury 30, 31

Author, the, papers by and experience of

10, 38-48, 55, 57-59, 105

Authority, influence of 26

Automatic action 129, 130, 321

writing 162, 191-206, 322

" super-normal source 176-181

" through young children 1 74

Autoscopes, meaning of 122, 321

B

Baggally, W. W 316

Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J 15, 16, 27

" Rt. Hon. Gerald 220, 244

Bayfield, Rev. M. A xx, 281

Beard, S. H., experiments by 153

Beauchamp, Sally, case 136

Boldero, General and Mrs., experiences 59-63, 72

Brainerd, David, case of 214-216

327

328 Index

PAGE

British Association, author's paper at (1876) ... .37, 105

Browning, R. B. and Mrs 58

Mrs., quotation 292

Butler, Bishop, quotations from 7, 95, 305

c

C , Mrs., experiences of 38-43

Caillard, Miss, quotation from 276

Carpenter, Bishop Boyd 19

Dr. W. B 8, 71

Carrington, Hereward 316

Caterpillars, change of colour 156

Causes, secondary 11

Census of apparitions of dead 143

Chatham, case, the 192

Chenoweth, Mrs., the medium 225-8

Clairvoyance 236, 237

and charlatans 256

Combermere, Lord, case 89-92

Communications from discarnate, difficulties

of • • • 243

Communications from discarnate, evidence of

170, 185 et seq.

Communicator, definition of 242

Conscious self, a fragment of whole self 132, 278

Consciousness 12, 127-133

double 134

Constable, Mr. F. C 108

Control, definition of 242

Convent, apparition in Belgium '45-6

Cox, Sergeant 73, n>(>

Crawford, the late Lord, experiences of.... 70, 7s. '14
Dr. W. J., researches of 4t> 4S

Index 329

PAGE

Crookes, Sir W., opinions and experiments

17, 2i, 37, 53-55, 59, 75, 77, 84, 86, 104, 261

Cross-correspondence 1 70, 205-6

Cryptomnesia 210

D

Dallas, Miss H. A 250

Dangers of spiritualism considered

250, 251, 253, 259-261

De Morgan, Professor, quoted 7, 21, 99, 100

Delitzsch, Dr., quoted . 22, 259

Dialectical Society 53, 104

Difficulties considered 235-251

Direct writing and speaking 81-85

Divining rod, see Dowsing

Douglas, Rev. H., testimony of 63

Dowsing 122, 237, 321

Doyle, Sir A. Conan 249

Drayson, General, experiences of 63, 64

Dunraven, the late Earl, experiences of 70, 77

E

E s, Mrs., inverted script 191-196

Ectoplasms, meaning of 87

Ego, the 128-132, 281

Elongation of body 72

Eminent believers in spiritualism 21

Ether, the luminiferous IOI

Eusapia Paladino, conflicting evidence. . .65-68, 312-318

Evidence, canons of 95-98

Evidence of survival after death. . 145, 161-171, 207, 219

" from Russia. . . .229-233
" America

225-228, 234

33° Index

PACE

Evolution of life in the unseen 112-114

Exo-neural action of brain 106

F

Faith, region of 29, 33, 264, 285

Faraday on spiritualism 5, 6

Feilding, Hon. Everard 316

Fichte, G., on ideas 23

Fire-walk, A. Lang on 75

Fischer, Doris, case of 136

Florentine, Abraham, case 208

Fourth dimension 114

G

Gasparin, Count de 52, 106

God, consciousness of 285, 286

Goethe, quotations from I, 10, 235, 267

Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E 27

Glanville, Dr 296

Gurncy, Edmund 19, 142, 151, 201

Gurwood, Colonel, case of 217-9

H

Hall, S. C 76

Hallucination, collective 77, 78

theory of 37, 105

Hcrschel, Sir John, quotations from

20, 81, 103, 273, 274

HertZj Professor 18

Hodgson, Dr 173, 206, 222-3, 239» 24°

Holland, Mrs., scripts 198-006

Canon Scott 285

Holt, Mr. Henry 87, 234

Index 331

PAGE

Home, D. D., experiments with

57, 59-64, 70-72, 75, 86, 260

Huggins, Sir W 27, 76, 94

Human Personality 127-138, 278-283

Husbands, apparition seen by Mr 148-151

Hutton, R. H 8

Huxley, Professor 6

Hypnotic suggestions 78

Hypotheses, various 104-109

Hyslop, Professor xv, 18, 136, 224-228, 243

I
Iamblichus 281

Identity of the discarnate, evidence of 161 et. seq.

Immortality 287-289

Imposture hypothesis 2, 104

J

James, Professor W., the late.... 18, 69, 131, 165, 166
Johnson, Miss A 171, 203, 204

K

Kant, quotations from 279, 280

Karma, doctrine of 109

Kelvin, Lord, quotation from 33

Knot made in endless cord 114

L

L , Miss, experiments with 43-45

Lane, Sir Hugh, the late 186

Lang, the late Andrew 69, 72, 75, 256

Language and thought 275

Laplace 96

iLeighton, Lord 17

332 Index

VkC.T

Levitation 54, 69-74, 79

Life, evolution in the unseen 112, 119

" conditions after death 188, 247, 283

Lodge, Sir Oliver. .6, 18, 65, 123, 157, 166, 168, 219, 312

Lodge, the late Lieut. Raymond 220

OLombroso, Prof 18, 107, 313

Lotze 14, 286

Lowell, quotations from xix, 25

Luminous appearances 54, 86, 93

M

McDougall, Professor W 13, 14, 137, 139

McTaggart, Professor 288

Magnet, luminosity of field 93

Massey, C. C, quotations from. . .10, 98, 261, 264, 288

Materialisation 86, 87

Materialisation discussed 267-270

Matter, mystery of 269, 270, 275

Mayo, Dr 106

Mediums, professional 257, 260

risk of health 261, 262

Mediumship, problem of...xvii, 103, 117-126, 259-266

Mental suggestion 78, 155

Miracles discussed 97, 306, 307

Morgan, Professor de, see de Morgan

Morselli, Dr 314, 315

Moses, Rev. Stainton (M.A., Oxon.)

xvi, 73, 74, 189, 207-212, 241, 263, 265, 324

Multiple personality 130-139

Murray, Prof. Gilbert 19, 3*9. 320

Myers, F. W. H. .19, 36, 55. 58, 67, 125, 163, 174. 268
apparent communications from the
spirit of 200, 201, 204

Index 333

N

PAGE

(Necromancy ^o

iNeo-Platonists 281

Newman, Cardinal, quotation from 233

Noel, Hon. Roden 201-203

o

Objections considered 25-34

Ochorowicz, Professor 87

Ouija board experiments 162, 176-188

P

Passivity helpful 133

Pearson, Prof. Karl, quoted 15

Pendule explorateur 321

Pereliguine case, the 229-233

Personal experiences and belief, the author's

IO, 36-48, 177-183, 190-196

Personality, human 128-135, 278, 290

multiple 1 36-1 39

Personation of great names 240-2, 258

Phantasms of the dead 142-151

induced telepathic 153

objective hypothesis 157

Physical phenomena of spiritualism

35-68, 111-114, 261-3, 323
Piper, Mrs., experiments with. . 166, 170, 172, 219, 223

Plato, world of ideas in

Plotinus 280, 281, 286, 326

Podmore, the late F xvi

Poltergeists 80

Possession 135-139

Poulton, Prof. W. B 156

334 Index

PACE

Powell, Rev. Baden 305

Preiswerk 259

Prince, Dr. Morton 136

Dr. Walter 137

Psychic force, hypothesis 106, 107, 1 IO

Psychical Research x, 15-20, 36, 51, 94, 238, etc.

R

Raps and percussive sounds 30-42, 45-53

Raupert, Mr. J. G 249

Rayleigh, Lord 17

Reichenbach, odic lights, etc 93

Re-incarnation 109, 288

Religion, spiritualism not a 34, 285

Religious objections 27-34, 248-250

Richet, Prof. Chas 18, 65, 67, 312

Robertson, Rev. W. P., evidence of 180

Rooney, Peter, control 1 82-3

Ruskin, John, evidence of 13, 17

s

Sargent, Epes 255

Schiller, Dr. F. C. S ix, xii, 19

Schopenhauer 252

Scientific objections 26, 99

Scriptural warnings discussed Z°~Zi

Seances, precautions and suggestions

33, 255-266, 322

Senses often illusory 270-272

Sidgwick, Professor Henry.. 1, 8, 19, 51, 143, 147, 213
-Mrs. " ..9, 19, 5i, 52, 85, 88,

203, 205, 238-243, 260
Slade the medium 84

Index 335

\

PAGE

Smith, Dr. Angus, letter from 141

" Mrs. Travers, automatic script 184, 187

" Principal G. A 31

Spalding, J. Howard xviii

Spirit photography, alleged 82, 88-92

Spiritualism, cautions and suggestions 33, 250-266

Spiritualism or spiritism, definition of 9

Stead, W. T., the late 92

Stevenson, R. L 17

Stewart, Prof. Balfour ...36, 109, 268, 308

Stigmata 155

Stoney, Dr. Johnstone 272

Subliminal self 125, 288

Suggestions for experimenters 263-266, 319-326

Supernatural, misuse of word 29, 285,304—307

Super-normal, evidence for 51, 1 76, etc.

Superstition, discussed 301— 304

Survival after death 161, 170, etc.

Swedenborg, quotations from

in, 243, 247, 248, 258, 280

T

Tausch case, the 225-228

Taylor, Isaac, theory of another life 112, 293

Tekmeria : 272

Telsesthesia 237

Telekinetic 36

Telepathy 108, 236, 293-7

Tennyson, Alfred — 17; quotations from

140, 176, 253, 286

Theories, necessary and discussed 103, 115

Thomson, Sir J. J 17

Thought-body 109, 1 10

336 Index

PACE

Thought, projection, influence of 108-1 10

Thought-transference 293-5

Trance phenomena, psychology of 238-242

Trench, Archbishop 262

Triviality of phenomena often urged 4, 5, 197

Tyndall, Dr 268

u

Universe, a cosmos 26, 28, 273

Unseen intelligences, evidence of 41, 49, 113, 1 61

"Unseen Universe," work on, by Stewart and

Tait 109

V

Vennum Lurancy, case of 138

Verrall, the late Professor and Mrs. . . 170, 203-205, 220

Vision, human 152

Visions of the dying 158

w

Wallace, the late Dr. A. R 6, 9, 21, 92

Watts, G. F 17

Wedgwood, Hcnsleigh 1 59, 21 3-a 19

Whateley, Archbishop 304

Wynne, Captain 71

z

ZOllner, Professor 85, 115

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