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Title: How to thought-read: A manual of instruction in the strange and mystic in daily life, psychic phenomena
Author: Coates, James
Language: English
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HOW TO THOUGHT-READ:
_A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION_
IN THE
STRANGE AND MYSTIC IN DAILY LIFE,
PSYCHIC PHENOMENA,
INCLUDING
_Hypnotic, Mesmeric, and Psychic States, Mind and Muscle
Reading, Thought Transference, Psychometry, Clairvoyance,
and Phenomenal Spiritualism_.
BY
JAMES COATES, Ph.D., F.A.S.,
_Lecturer on Mental Science and Hygiene, Author of “How to Mesmerise,”
“How to Read Heads,” “How to Read Faces,” “The Social
Problem,” “The Antiquity of Man,” etc. etc._
PRICE ONE SHILLING.
LONDON: HAY NISBET & CO., 169, FLEET STREET.
GLASGOW: 25 JAMAICA STREET.
1893.
HAY NISBET AND CO., 26 JAMAICA STREET, GLASGOW,
AND
169, FLEET STREET, LONDON.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction, 5
Chapter I.--Somnambulism and Psychic Phenomena, 9
The Hypnotic, Mesmeric, and the Psychic States. Hypnotism
a Curative Agent; the Sixth Sense; Dreams, Premonitions;
Double and Psychic Consciousness. Evidences of the
Soul within us.
Chapter II.--Clairvoyance, 23
Psychoscopy, or Soul Sight. Spiritual Faculty, exhibited by
religious ecstatics, not a common possession. How Cultivated.
The Opinions and Evidence of Men of Science.
Second Sight. The Utility of Soul-Sight.
Chapter III.--Clairvoyance Illustrated, 33
Classified. Strange Story of the Chicago Water Supply.
Lost Goods Restored. An Aid to the Physician. Experiments
in Rothesay. Remarkable Clairvoyants. Clairvoyance
in Mesmerism and in Spiritualism.
Chapter IV.--Psychometry, 53
Soul-Measuring and Soul-Measurers. Dr. Buchanan’s Discoveries.
Professor Denton’s Experiments. Detective’s
Clues; what Psychometry can do. Testimony of Mr. Stead
and the Rev. Minot J. Savage. Disease Detected, and
Character Gauged by this Faculty.
Chapter V.--Thought-Transference and Telepathy, 69
Explained and Defined. Transference of Taste in Mesmerism.
Thought-Transference, in Dreams, from the Dying to
the Living; the Dead to the Living; in Prayer; in ordinary
Experience. Incidents and Experiences, etc. Mark Twain,
Hudson Tuttle, and Dr. Hilden.
Chapter VI.--Thought-Reading Experiments, 88
Thought and Muscle-Reading Distinguished. Projecting
Mental Pictures. Normal Experiments, without contact, by
Professor Lodge, Mr. Guthrie, and Professor Barrett. Some
Practical Suggestions. Muscle-Reading Entertainments.
Directions.
Chapter VII.--Spiritualism, 102
“How to Thought-Read” and Phenomenal Spiritualism.
The Spirit within us. The rejection of the Psychic. The
Fraudulent in Spiritualism. Spiritualism without Spirits.
Thought-Reading by Spirits and Mediums.
Chapter VIII.--Spiritualism.--_Continued_, 115
Automatic Writing. A Test Medium. Trance Addresses.
A Direct Spirit-Painting. Reflections and Speculations.
Testimony of Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S., the Electrician.
Theosophy a Revised Version of Hindoo Metempsychosis,
etc. etc.
INTRODUCTION.
The first book of this series, “How to Mesmerise,” gave so much
satisfaction to the reading public, and having passed into several
editions, my publishers have asked me to write another work on similar
lines. This _brochure_ is my response. Clairvoyance, Psychometry, and
Thought Transference--briefly referred to in the former--are more
fully gone into in this. Consequently, I have little doubt “How to
Thought-Read” will meet with acceptance.
Thought-reading is duly considered and explained. A clear distinction
is drawn between Musculation, or Muscle and Mind-Reading; and although
these pages are not confined to Thought-Reading, as generally
understood by the public, the subject itself, and as an entertainment,
have been pretty fully dealt with.
During the past decade, psychological subjects have, in a remarkable
way, arrested public attention. “New Mesmerism” and “New Spiritualism”
are popular subjects with editors and magazine writers. Whatever the
real causes--a greater influx of the spiritual from “the state of the
dead,” or from a reaction in the minds of men against the purblind
materialism of our scientific leaders--it is hard to say. Possibly
these and other causes have been at work. One thing is certain, for
good or ill, the majority of thinking men and women of the age are
not only interested in, but are actually searching for evidence of
“embodied spirit.” Hence we find men of science, journalists, and even
professed materialists and secularists, who, a few years ago, could
scarcely speak of these subjects in the ordinary language of courtesy,
confess now not only their belief, but are going to the other extreme
of advocating, what as yet, they have failed to fully grasp.
A few years ago “The British Parliament of Science” was nothing if
not materialistic. The leading _savants_ of the day declared “all was
matter, no matter what.” Consequently, man was the highest product
of protoplasm, and his _only_ destiny the grave. The change has been
great indeed, when one of its most brilliant members (Professor
Oliver Lodge, D.Sc., F.R.S., British Association at Cardiff, 1891)
in his address said: “It is familiar that a thought may be excited
on the brain of another person, transferred thither from our brain
by pulling a suitable trigger; by liberating energy in the form of
sound, for instance, or by the mechanical act of writing, or in other
ways. A pre-arranged code, called language, and a material medium of
communication, are recognised methods. May there not, also, be an
_immaterial_ (perhaps an ethereal) medium of communication? Is it
possible that an idea can be transferred from one person to another
by a process such as we have not yet grown accustomed to, and know
practically nothing about? _In this case I have evidence. I assert I
have seen it done, and am perfectly convinced of the fact; many others
are satisfied of the truth, too._ It is, perhaps, a natural consequence
of the community of life or family relationship running through all
living beings. The transmission of life may be likened in some ways
to the transmission of magnetism, and all magnets are sympathetically
connected, so that, if suitably suspended, a vibration from one
disturbs others, even though they be distant 92,000,000 miles. It is
sometimes objected that, granting thought-transference or telepathy to
be a fact, it belongs more especially to lower forms of life, and that
as the cerebral hemispheres develop we become independent of it; that
what we notice is the relic of a decaying faculty, not the germ of a
new and fruitful sense, and that progress is not to be made by studying
or alluding to it. As well might the objection be urged against a study
of embryology. _It may, on the other hand, be an indication of a higher
mode of communication, which shall survive our temporary connection
with ordinary matter._ The whole region is unexplored territory, and it
is conceivable that matter may react on mind in a way we can at present
only dimly imagine.” The italics are mine.
Thought-Transference and Telepathy may, indeed, be an indication of a
higher mode of communication between human beings after we have severed
our temporary connection with matter. Whether or not, the hope should
repay our study. I have sought in the following pages to briefly define
and illustrate what these phases of communication are.
Double and Psychic Consciousness, Clairvoyance, natural and induced;
Psychometry, its natural and leading features as a spiritual faculty;
Thought-Transference, visions, dreams, and their _portents_, are in
turn briefly dealt with, in order to extract therefrom some evidence of
_soul_.
Modern Spiritualism is referred to, in so far as Thought-Reading is
likely to throw any light upon its psychological phases, as well as on
its physical phenomena.
While attempting to cover so much ground my difficulty was not
what to write, but what not to write, the materials at my disposal
being so abundant. Much has been cut down to get the whole within
reasonable compass. Nevertheless, I hope my readers will find “How to
Thought-Read” a readable contribution to the science of soul.
JAMES COATES.
Glenbeg,
Ardbeg, Rothesay, N. B.
[Illustration: EXPERIMENT IN PSYCHOMETRY.--See Page 60.
MR. and MRS. COATES.]
HOW TO THOUGHT-READ.
CHAPTER I.
Somnambulism and Psychic Phenomena.
Before entering upon the subject of “How to Thought Read”--or rather,
range of interesting subjects grouped under this title--it is proposed
to deal briefly with the key to the whole, which is to be found in the
revelations of man’s inner life, soul-life and character, presented by
somnambulism and trance, whether natural or induced.
The use of a few simple terms having a well-defined meaning will help
the reader and prepare him for the more careful study of the psychic
side of human life.
The somnambulistic and trance states may be divided, for the
convenience of examination, into the Hypnotic, or state of hypnosis;
the Mesmeric, or somnambulistic; and the Psychic, or lucid
somnambulistic--or briefly, the Hypnotic, Mesmeric, and Psychic states.
The operator is the controlling agent, hypnotist, or mesmerist; in
spiritualism, the guide or control.
The sensitive is the subject, the percipient, psychic, patient, or
person who passes into the hypnotic, mesmeric, or trance states, etc.
Hypnosis is the term used for the hypnotic state artificially induced
by the agent. Hypnosis is the lowest rung of the ladder; the psychic
or soul state the highest. The intermediate phases, as indicated in
conscious or sub-conscious conditions of life, are innumerable and not
readily classified. Still, the states mentioned will give a favourable
insight to the whole. In hypnosis, physical rather than mental
phenomena are evolved; _anæsthesia_, or non-sensitiveness to pain, is
more or less present. The senses of smell and hearing are partially
exalted, and the sensitive may be partially or wholly unconscious.
The mesmeric state is the term frequently used to denote ordinary
artificial somnambulism. It is actually the higher or more perfect form
of hypnosis. The senses in this state are more fully submerged, and the
mental faculties are more fully exalted, than in hypnosis.
The psychic state, as the mesmeric, relates to the mental, and hypnosis
to the more physical, so does the psychic state refer to that class of
extraordinary somnambulism in which the mental and the spiritual gifts
transcend in character and power those of the foregoing states. In this
state the higher phenomena of lucid somnambulism, clairvoyance, and
thought-transference are manifested more perfectly than in any other.
The hypnotic, the mesmeric, and the psychic states indicated are
frequently interlinked in manifestation. The sensitive may pass from
the first to the last without apparent gradation. It is well to
keep these divisions in thought, so that in practice no one will be
content with the _lower_ where it is possible, by wise and judicious
observations and operations, to induce the higher.
To make the matter still more clear, in hypnosis and in the mesmeric
state all phenomena may be said to be induced through and by the
influence and the direction of the operator. Not that he produces the
effects as they are exhibited by the sensitive, but they are brought
about through the agency of his suggestions or operations.
In the psychic state this is not always the case. The influence of
the operator may at times be almost _nil_. The operator will find
it best--when the sensitive is in a high lucid state--to become an
observer and a learner, and no longer continue the _rôle_ of director.
In the psychic state, the soul-powers, so often submerged in ordinary
life, transcend in a remarkable manner. The senses are completely
suspended and the mind exalted to such a degree, a clearly defined
super-sensuous condition is reached. Whether this stage or condition is
induced by fasting, prayer, disease, or by mesmeric agencies, matters
little. In it we find the key to the seership, and the clairvoyance,
and the prophetic utterance, and the mystic powers attributed to
and exercised by prophet, and seer, and sybil in the past. By the
investigation of the phenomena evolved by the psychic state we are
enabled to understand something of man’s soul or spiritual nature,
apart from the phenomena induced by pathological conditions of brain
and body.
The foregoing view presented of mesmeric conditions may be very
different from that which medical men may glean from hypnotic practice
with hysterical and lobsided patients, and certainly not the views
which the general public are likely to gather from seeing a number of
paid “subjects” knocked about a music hall stage by an ignorant showman.
From the roughest to the finest, from matter to spirit, from hypnosis
to the psychic state, we find enough to arrest attention and give
a high degree of seriousness and earnestness to our investigation.
We stand on the threshold of soul, and the place where we stand is
holy ground. We find, as is the physical, mental, and spiritual
characteristics of the operator, _plus_ those of the sensitive or
sensitives, so will be the nature of the phenomena evolved.
It will be observed some subjects never get beyond the first state, or
hypnosis; others that of the second, or mesmeric. All sensitives, in
keeping with their temperamental and mental developments (as revealed
by phrenology and psychometry), are better adapted for one class of
phenomena than that of others.
It may be further observed that the foregoing states may be
self-induced or, directly and indirectly, the product of
“spirit-control,” drugs, or bodily disease. Hypnosis, we must bear in
mind, although not unlike the mesmeric state, has no more relation to
that condition than sleep produced by an exhaustive walk or a dose of
laudanum is like natural or healthy sleep. Indeed, hypnosis is not
properly a condition of sleep. In the majority of cases the sensitive
is never wholly unconscious. It is rather a state in which there is a
temporary perversion or subordination between brain impressions and
consciousness. The sensitive in hypnosis is often less intelligent than
in the normal or waking state.
For various reasons the state of hypnosis may be recognised as that
state in which the mind is subjected to certain abnormal conditions
of the body, notably of the brain, spinal cord, and indirectly of the
circulation, induced by certain means determined upon by the operator.
The mental condition in this state is one of almost pure automatism, in
which hallucination or sense illusions are more or less present.
Great and serious are the responsibilities of those who bring about the
state of hypnosis. Every thought and feeling, of whatever kind, infused
in this state, like seed, will take root and germinate, and finally
bud into action in the daily or waking consciousness, and determine
unconsciously for the sensitive the character of his life. Hypnotism
is neither for indiscriminate use, nor is hypnosis to be induced as a
plaything for the thoughtless--medical or lay. At the same time, in the
hands of the thoughtful, its educative value is most important, for,
if the operator is well poised, and feels that, he can impart higher
thoughts and strengthen the will[A] of the sensitives by the twofold
agencies of impressionability and suggestion. This is something not to
be despised. It is surely no degradation to be saved from evils one
cannot overcome or resist, unless assisted by external aid, even though
that help can only come by submitting to hypnotism.
In hypnosis the outer brain of convoluted grey matter is most affected,
being more or less denuded of arterial and nervous stimuli. The power
of conscious, intellectual, and abstract thought is reduced to a
minimum. The organs of the central brain are differently influenced,
as in inverse ratio the stimulation is increased. The eye is more
susceptible to light, or the pupils may become dilated and fixed.
The auditory sense is rendered more keen. The olfactory powers are
intensified, and there is more or less insensibility of feeling. The
powers of co-ordination and locomotion are preserved up to a certain
stage, when these functions are disturbed, all power of voluntary
movement ceases, lethargic and cataleptic symptoms supervene.
It was by observing, more particularly, hypnosis, Professor Heidenhain
was led to aver “inhibition” actually accounted for all phases of
hypnotism. This opinion has evidently been based on a limited number
of cases. “No inhibition,” says Dr. Drayton, “however ingeniously
applied, will explain all the phenomena of magnetism. If the personal
consciousness, the individuality, of the subject has been lost, and
his state is that of automatism, or rather that of an involuntary
actor, certainly his cerebral functions operate in a manner entirely
distinct from that which is characteristic in his ordinary state.
The inhibition relates to his common order of conduct mentally, while
the super-sensitivity and extraordinary play of faculty that he may
exhibit, indicate a higher phase of sensory activity, more free or
harmonious co-ordination of the cerebral functions. The brakes are off,
hence the phenomena that are frequently observed in the somnambulist,
and awaken wonder, because so much out of keeping with what is known of
his common life.”
Here we find doctors--experts in hypnotism or mesmerism--agree to
differ. They agree in this, albeit not expressly stated, they are alike
positive and decided in their views, and certainly _without being
positive, there is no possible success as an operator_.
The mistake they make evidently arises in confounding the two
states (hypnosis and the mesmeric), one with the other. There is no
super-sensitivity, or extraordinary play of faculty in hypnosis,
whatever there may be in the mesmeric state. They are similar, in
that they may be both induced by the reduction of the activity of the
cerebral cortex.
In hypnosis the mind slumbers and dreams. The dream-life appears as
substantial to the sensitive as the waking life. The life creations,
thus dreamed of, are acted upon, whether they arise from suggestion or
other causes.
In the mesmeric state the senses slumber, and the mind awakens to a
fuller enfranchisement of existence, and to the exhibition of mental
and spiritual powers not hitherto suspected.
In the lower stages the increased power of the senses is to be found
in the _intense concentration_ of effort, brought about from the fact
that the subject’s attention is, and his whole energies are, directed
in one line of action or thought, to the exclusion of mind or brain
activity in other directions. Hence all efforts are centred in the
direction suggested by the operator, or self-induced, as suggested by
the “dominant idea.”
The sensitive exhibits powers of mind and ability of thought which
were not noticeable in the ordinary waking condition. Not because he
really possesses greater powers of mind or body, but because of the
lack of concentration in the waking state. By this concentration of
direction, so called abnormal feats of strength are performed, rigidity
of structure brought about, and other characteristics not peculiar
to common life. In a higher sense, we see the sensitive passing
from this condition of concentration of one-idea-ism to a spiritual
state, in which the phenomena exhibited are no longer the product of
self-dethronement and of suggestion. Higher still, we see the soul
reign supreme. The sensitive possesses a clear consciousness of what
is transpiring at home and abroad, according to the direction of his
psychic powers.
In the psychic state--the more perfect trance state or control--the
whole mind becomes illumined; past, present, and future become
presentable to the mind of the lucid somnambulist as one great whole.
This higher stage may be reached through the simple processes of
manipulation, and passes as suggested in my little work, “How to
Mesmerise.”
In the mesmeric state the sensitive passes from the mere automatism of
the earlier stages of hypnosis to the distinct individuality indicated
above, although still more or less influenced or directed by his
controller or operator into the line of thought and train of actions
most desired.
The difference between the hypnotic and mesmeric states should now be
very clear. In the former the sensitive has no identity, in the latter
his identity is preserved in a clearly individualised form throughout
the whole series of abnormal acts. Whenever the sensitive enters this
condition his personal consciousness is most apparent in the middle and
higher stages.
In fact, in the mesmeric state, it is very stupid for some operators
to ask the sensitive, “Are you asleep?” It may be understood what is
meant, yet the question is absurd from the standpoint of an intelligent
observer. The sensitive is never more awake. The higher the state the
greater the wakefulness and lucidity of the inner or soul life.
THE SIXTH SENSE.
In the mesmeric state we see developed what Lord Kelvin (Professor
Thomson, of Glasgow University), Drs. Baird, Hammond, and
Drayton call the magnetic sense--or “sixth sense.” It is a gift
of super-sensitiveness. To my mind it is something more, the
enfranchisement of the soul, the human ego--in proportion as the
dominance of the senses is arrested.
In blindness, it has been noticed how keen the sense of touch becomes.
I have also noticed the keen sensitiveness of facial perception enjoyed
by some of the blind, by which they are enabled to perceive objects in
the absence of physical sight. In the mesmeric state we see a somewhat
analogous mental condition. As the peculiar sense of the blind is
developed by extra concentration of the mind in the direction of facial
perception, so is “the sixth sense” developed by concentration of
direction, as well as by the condition of sensitiveness induced by the
mesmeric state.
This newly recognised sense, “the sixth sense,” not only answers the
purpose of sight and hearing, but transcends all senses in vividness
and power. Materialists, no longer able to ignore the phenomena of
somnambulism and trance, and compelled to admit man’s avenues of
knowledge in this life were not confined to the recognised five senses,
are good enough to give him a “sixth sense,” even while they deny
him a soul. In the same way, no longer able to deny the existence
of mesmerism, they now admit it to consideration--re-baptised as
hypnotism. The phenomena being admitted, we will not quarrel over the
names by which they are called.
PSYCHIC-CONSCIOUSNESS.
As we advance in our investigations we find in the higher conditions
of these states a double or treble consciousness or memory. The higher
including and overlapping the lower. Thus the consciousness of the
hypnotic state includes that of the waking state, while the memory
of the waking state possesses no conscious recollection of what has
taken place in hypnosis, and so on, each stage has its own phases
of consciousness. The memory of the sensitive, under influence,
overlapping and including the memory of ordinary or normal life.
Strange as it may appear, there are no phenomena which have been
evolved in any of these abnormal conditions of life, which have not
been observed again and again in ordinary or normal life, as well
authenticated instances of dreams, warnings, and telepathy testify.
Dr. Richardson notwithstanding, “in dreams and visions of the night”
God has manifested himself to man in all ages. In other words, the
soul (in sleep and analogous states to somnambulism and trance) comes
more in touch with the sub-conscious or soul sphere of thought and
existence. At times there is an inrush from that sphere into our
present conscious state, by which we know of things which could not
otherwise be known. Of dreams, our space will not admit more than
occasional reference, we may mention as a case in point the dream of
Mrs. Donan, wife of the livery stableman from whom Dr. Cronin hired
his horse in Chicago. A week before Dr. Cronin was murdered this lady
had a dream-vision, and dreamt he was barbarously murdered, and saw in
a vision the whole terrible scene. This dream was a means, first, of
forewarning the doctor, and second, of leading to the detection of the
miscreants.
Of premonitions, an incident reported in the _Register_ of Adelaide,
will suffice:--“Constable J. C. H. Williams has reported to
headquarters that he had an unpleasant experience at about midnight
on Monday. He was on duty at the government offices in King William
Street, and while standing at the main entrance he had a presentiment
that he was in danger, and walked away a few steps. Scarcely had he
moved from the spot, when a portion of the cornice work at the top of
the building fell with a crash on the place where he had been standing.
The piece of plaster must have weighed fully a stone, and had it struck
Williams the result would doubtless have been fatal. A passer-by saw
the constable a few minutes after, and his scared looks and agitated
manner clearly showed that his story was true.” Concerning telepathy,
Mrs. Andrew Crosse, the distinguished widow of the famous electrician,
relates in _Temple Bar_ an anecdote about the late Bishop Wilberforce,
to the effect, the Bishop was writing a dry business letter one day,
when a feeling of acute mental agony overcame him and he felt that some
evil had befallen his favourite son, a midshipman in the navy. The
impression was correct. On that very day the lad, who was with his ship
in the Pacific, had been wounded and nearly bled to death. When this
was told Hallam, the historian, he replied that a very similar thing
had happened to himself. A few cases are noted further on. Some persons
would repudiate _all_ such incidents as accidents or coincidences;
while others would fly to the extreme, and declare all such are the
result of “spirit control”--that is, some disembodied but friendly
spirit projected the dream, conveyed the warning, or telepathically
despatched the news. But we must never forget news has to be received
as well as despatched. Consequently, we, as embodied spirits, must
possess psychic consciousness.
I believe that _much_ of the phenomena, directly and indirectly
attributed to disincarnate spirit control, are traceable to _no other
source_ than the powers of our own embodied spirits, as revealed by
the facts of somnambulism and trance, and this is the opinion of all
intelligent spiritualists.
“Because,” says Mr. G. H. Stebbins, a prominent investigator of modern
spiritualism in the United States “a person quotes from books he never
saw, or _tells of what he never knew_ in any external way, that is not
final proof that he is under an external spirit control. Psychometry
and clairvoyance may sometimes solve it all.”
“I hold,” says Mr. Myers, “that telepathy and clairvoyance do, in fact,
exist--telepathy, a communication between incarnate mind and incarnate
mind, and perhaps between incarnate minds and minds unembodied;
clairvoyance, a knowledge of things terrene which over-passes the
limits of ordinary perception, and which, perhaps, achieves an insight
with some other than terrene world.”
These are the cautious admissions of eminent investigators in psychical
research.
DOUBLE OR SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS.
“There are two sets,” says Dr. Brown-Sequard, “a double state of mental
powers in the human organism, essentially differing from each other.
The one may be designated as ordinary conscious intelligence; the
other, a superior power, which controls our better nature.”
J. Balfour Brown, in his “Medical Jurisprudence,” says:--“In no case
of pure somnambulism, waking consciousness of the individual knows
anything of the sleeping consciousness. It is as if there were two
distinct memories.”
This double-consciousness, memory, or sub-state of mental powers, is
another but lower phase of psychic-consciousness, and is sometimes
exhibited by accidents, and also by disease.
Dr. Abercromby relates the case of a boy, four years old who was
trepanned for a fracture of the skull. He was in a _complete stupor_
during the operation, and was not conscious of what took place. At
fifteen he became seriously ill of fever. In the delirium occasioned
by the fever, he gave a correct description of the operation, _and of
all the persons present, their dress_, manners, and actions, to the
minutest particulars. The “superior power” must have obtained this
knowledge in some other way than through the ordinary channels of the
outward senses.
In cases of apparent drowning, where the person has been saved from
death by active, external help, we have been informed that the human
mind has worked with a rapidity of action not thought possible in the
waking state, the intensity of menial action being increased in adverse
ratio to the inaction of the external senses and consciousness. In
this state the career of a lifetime has been reviewed, conversations,
actions, persons seen and places visited, all vividly brought to
mind--in possibly less time than it takes to pen this paragraph. These
phenomena suggest the reflection that the daily waking life--sensuous
and worldly-minded--is possibly, to many, the least real and effective.
How much our external life is influenced by our unconscious (to us in
the waking state) sub-life, is an interesting problem.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes says:--“The more we examine the mechanism
of thought, the more we shall see that the automatic and unconscious
action of the mind enters largely into all its processes. We _all_ have
a _double_ who is wiser and better than we, who puts thoughts into our
heads and words into our mouths.”
A commercial gentleman of my acquaintance, who was rather sceptical
on the subject of double-consciousness--although, “notwithstanding,”
he said, “Mr. Stead, in the _Review of Reviews_, had turned an
honest penny out of ghosts, double-consciousness, and that sort of
rubbish”--admitted to me, he had a maid, who had an awkward habit of
rising in her sleep, carefully setting the fires, cleaning and dusting
out the rooms, setting the breakfast table, and doing many other things
which appeared important to the servant-mind. Her movements were
watched. She slipped about with eyes closed, avoiding obstacles, and
doing her work systematically and neatly, and without fuss, when done,
she would go to bed. In the morning she had no recollection of what she
had said or done. It was a curious thing, he had to admit. The girl
was honest enough. He was certain this habit had not been simulated.
Threats of discharge, and possible loss of wages, did not cure her of
this habit. There was a certain form of “double consciousness” in this
case.
“The subliminal consciousness” of Mr. Myers, by which he accounts for
the phenomena of genius, is but another way of expressing the concept
of an “identity underlying all consciousness,” the psyche, the real “I,
me,” “the superior power which directs and controls our better nature,”
the “double who is wiser and better than we,” the reality of which is
so much hidden from our ordinary experience, because our soul-life is
so much buried out of sight by the _débris_ of the “things of this
life,” which, fortunately or otherwise, pre-occupy so much of our
attention.
It is this “subliminal consciousness” we see manifested in the psychic
state, and natural somnambulism. Clairvoyance, psychometry, thought
transference, etc., are as so many spectrum rays of the one soul light.
Call them “subliminal” if you will. These rays flow out from the soul,
and are many-hued, distinct or blurred, according to the degree of
pureness or super-sensitivity of the external corporeal prism through
which they are projected.
Persons have lived for years, we are credibly informed, who have
spent half their lives entranced, _in the alternation of two distinct
individualities_ or two distinct states of consciousness, in one of
which they forget all they had learned or did in the other.
Professor Huxley described (British Association of Science, Belfast,
1874) a case in which two separate lives, a normal, and abnormal one,
seemed to be lived at intervals by the same individual during the
greater portion of her life.
The conclusion to the whole matter is--the psychic, or soul-powers in
some persons are less entrammelled by the senses than in others; that a
high degree of organic sensitiveness always accompanies those who are
recognised as psychics or sensitives; that this state of sensitiveness
is natural to some, and in others may be developed by accident,
disease, or induced by somnambulism and trance.
I will endeavour to show these psychic characteristics, or soul
gifts, underlie, and enter into the varied phenomena--clairvoyance,
psychometry, thought transference, thought-reading, and what not, which
are collated under the title of,
“HOW TO THOUGHT-READ.”
CHAPTER II.
Clairvoyance.
What is clairvoyance? “The term, clairvoyance,” says Dr. George
Wyld, in a paper read before the Psychical Research Society, London,
“is French, and means _clear-seeing_, but it appears to me to be
an inadequate term, because it might signify clear optical vision,
or clear mental vision. What is signified by the term is the power
which certain individuals possess of seeing external objects under
circumstances which render the sight of these objects impossible to
physical optics. In short, by clairvoyance, we mean the power which
the _mind_ has of seeing or knowing thoughts and psychical conditions,
and objects hidden from or beyond the reach of the physical senses;
and if the existence of this faculty can be established, we arrive
at a demonstration that man has a power within his body as yet
unrecognised by physical science--a power which is called soul, or
mind-seeing, and for the description of such a power the term might
be auto-nocticy (αυτονοητικος), or psychoscopy.” Psychoscopy, or soul
sight, would, perhaps, be the better term. I propose to use the old
term--clairvoyance--as it signifies, in popular usage, the power of
seeing beyond the range of physical vision, as we know it.
That certain persons are endowed with this faculty of clear seeing--in
some of its various phases--is a matter settled beyond dispute. What
special name to call this faculty, or what are the true causes of
its existence; why it should be possessed by some persons and not by
others; why it should be so frail and fugitive in the presence of
some people, and strong and vivid before others; why some persons
are never clairvoyant until they have been through the mesmeric and
psychic states; why some become possessed of the faculty through
disease; while, with others, the gift of clairvoyance appears to be
a spontaneous possession; and why some operators are successful in
inducing clairvoyance, and others not, etc., are interesting questions
to which the student of psychology may, with advantage, direct his
attention.
Clairvoyance is soul-sight--the power of the soul to see. It is
the state of refined psychic perception. This state increases in
lucidity--clearness and power of penetration--in proportion as the
activity of the physical senses are reduced below normal action. It
is observed to be most effective in the trance state--natural or
induced--as in the mesmeric and psychic states. I conclude, then,
clairvoyance depends upon the unfolding of the spirit’s perception, and
is increased in power as the ascendency of the spirit arises above the
activities of the spirit’s corporeal envelope--the body. In proportion
to the spirit’s ascendency over the organs and senses of the body, is
this psychic gift perfect or imperfect.
The large brain or cerebrum is the physical organ of the soul, as the
cerebellum is of the physiological brain functions. Mental functions
are manifested by the former, and physical functions by the latter.
Clairvoyance, as a spiritual faculty, will doubtless have its
appropriate organ in the brain. I do not profess to locate that organ.
At the same time I have noticed the best clairvoyants are wide and full
between the eyes, showing there is a particular fulness of the frontal
cerebral lobes, at their juncture at the root of the nose. This may
be something more than a mere physiognomic sign. When this sign is
accompanied by refinement of organisation, and a fine type of brain, I
always look for the possible manifestation of clairvoyance in mesmeric
subjects.
Some writers are of the opinion clairvoyance is actually soul-sight,
more or less retarded in lucidity by the action or activity of
the bodily senses. Others believe it to be a state arising from a
peculiar highly-strained nervous condition, which induces the state
of super-sensitivity or impressionability of the organisation. The
first may be termed the spiritual, and the latter the physiological
hypothesis. But, as a matter of fact, both conditions are noted. The
latter may account for much, and possibly is sufficient to explain much
that is called thought-reading--so often mistaken for clairvoyance.
It does appear to me that certain peculiar physiological conditions,
varying from semi-consciousness to profound trance, are necessary
for the manifestation of clairvoyance, even when it takes place in
apparently normal life of the possessor.
It is more than likely that the ornate and mystic ceremonies indulged
in by Hindoo mystics, Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman priests, had
the one grand end in view--viz., to induce the requisite state of
super-sensitivity, and thus prepare the consecrated youths, sybils,
and vestal virgins for the influx of spiritual vision, prophecy, and
what not. When this subtle influx came--by whatever name called--the
phenomena manifested were pretty much the same as we know them, only
varied in degree. The gods spoke per oracle, Pythean, or Delphic. The
man of God either coronated a king or foretold the end of a dynasty.
St. Stephen saw Christ, St. John beheld visions, Joan of Arc was
directed, Swedenborg illumined, and religious ecstatics in ancient and
modern times partook more or less of the sacred fire--the inner sight.
This (stripped of the fantastic surroundings, priestly mummeries,
and dominant belief of the times) simply indicated the evolution and
exercise of clairvoyance and other psychic gifts.
Coming nearer home, we hear of the mysterious visions at the Knock,
and at Lourdes. Miraculous appearances of the Virgin and winged
angels, to cheer the hearts of the faithful, and to cause the heads
of the scornful to rejoice in sceptical derision. Then we have all the
vagaries produced by the high nervous tension of modern revivalism, in
which the visions seen are but a transformation of church and chapel
dogmas into objective realities. These illusionary visions--mistaken
for clairvoyance--possess less reality than the delusive fancies of the
sensitive in the state of hypnosis.
Clairvoyance will be governed by its own spiritual laws, just as sight
is affected or retarded by physical conditions. What these spiritual
laws are we can only surmise, but this we may safely conjecture--viz.,
that soul-sight is not trammelled or limited by the natural laws which
govern physical optics. Clairvoyance and physical vision are absolutely
distinct, and possess little in common.
To illustrate a new subject, it is permissible to draw upon the
old and the well-known. So I venture to illustrate clairvoyance by
certain facts in connection with ordinary human vision. Although some
children see better than others, the power to see, with the ability
to understand the relative positions and uses of the things seen, is
a matter of development. In psychic vision, we also see growth or
development, with increasing power to use and understand the faculty.
Some children are blind from birth, and others, seeing, lose the power
of sight. Many are _blind_, although they have physical sight, they see
not with _the educated eye_. Many, again, have greater powers of sight
than they are aware of. As so it is with psychic vision.
What is true of the physical is also true of the psychic. From the
first glimmerings, to the possession of well-defined sight, a period
of growth and time elapses. From the first incoherent cry of infancy
to well defined and intelligent speech of manhood, we notice the same
agencies at work. Not only is clairvoyant vision generally imperfect
at first, but the psychic’s powers of description are also at fault.
St. Paul could not give utterance to what he saw, when caught up to
the third heavens. His knowledge of things and powers of speech failed
him to describe the startling, the new, and the unutterable. He had
a sudden revelation of the state of things in a sphere which had no
counterparts in his previous experience, in this--his known--world.
Hence, although he knew of his change of state, he could give no lawful
or intelligible expression to his thoughts.
Between the first incongruous utterances, and apparent fantastic
blunderings, and the more mature period in which “things spiritual” can
be suitably described in our language, to our right sense of things, or
comprehension, a period of development and education must elapse. It is
true some clairvoyants develop much more readily than others.
In the entrancement of the mesmeric and psychic states, there is a
lack of external consciousness. The soul is so far liberated from
the body as to act independently of the ordinary sensuous conditions
of the body, and sees by the perception and light of the inner or
spiritual world, as distinct from the perception and light of this
external or physical world. Elevated, or rather, liberated into this
new condition, the clairvoyant loses connection with the thrums and
threads of the physical organism, and is unable, or forgets for a
time, how to speak of things as they are, or as they would appear
to the physical vision of another. It is not surprising that in the
earlier stages of clairvoyant development, and consequent transfer of
ordinary consciousness and sensuous perception to that of spiritual
consciousness and perception, the language of the clairvoyant should
appear peculiar, incongruous, and “wanting,” according to our ideas of
clearness and precision.
One important lesson may be learned from this--viz., the operator
should never force results, or strive to develop psychic perception by
short cuts. Time must be allowed to the sensitive, for training and
experience, and the development of self-confidence and expression.
Clairvoyance is not a common possession. Nevertheless, I believe there
are many persons who possess the faculty unknown to themselves. By
following out patiently, for a time, the requisite directions, the
possession of this invaluable psychic gift might be discovered by many
who now appear totally devoid of any clairvoyant indications. Its
cultivation is possible and, in many ways, desirable.
“The higher attainment,” says Dr. John Hamlin Davey, “of occult
knowledge and power, the development of intuition, the psychometric
sense, clairvoyant vision, inner hearing, etc., etc., thus reached,
so open the avenues to a higher education, and enlarge the boundaries
of human consciousness and activity, as to fairly dwarf into
insignificance the achievements of external science.”
Clairvoyance is as old as mankind, but the exhibition of clairvoyance,
induced by mesmeric processes, was first announced by Puysegeur, a
favourite pupil of Mesmer, in 1784. Since that time to the present
not only have remarkable cases of clairvoyance cropped up, but there
have been few mesmerists of any experience who have not had numerous
cases under observation. Clairvoyance converted Dr. John Elliotson,
F.R.S., one of the most scientific of British physicians, from extreme
materialistic views to that of belief in soul and immortality. The
same may be said of the late Dr. Ashburner, who was one of the
Queen’s physicians. Dr. Georget, author of “Physiology of the Nervous
System,”--who was at one time opposed to a belief in the existence of a
transcendental state in man,--found upon examination of the facts and
incidents of artificial somnambulism, that _his materialism must go_.
In his last will and testament, referring to the above-mentioned work,
he says:--“This work had scarcely appeared, when renewed meditations
on a very extraordinary phenomenon, somnambulism, no longer permitted
me to entertain doubts of the existence within us, and external to
us, of an intelligent principle, altogether different from material
existences; in a word, of the soul and God. With respect to this I
have a profound conviction, founded upon facts which I believe to be
incontestable.” Dr. Georget directed this change of opinion should have
full publicity after his death.
Space would not suffice me to mention the names of all the highly
educated and refined minds, in the medical, literary, philosophic,
and scientific walks of life, who have studied these phenomena, and
who, like Dr. Georget, have no more doubts of their reality than they
have of their own physical existence, status, or reputation. Among
medical men--some of whom I have known and corresponded with--might be
mentioned Sir James Simpson, Drs. Elliotson, Ashburner, Esdaile, Buss,
Garth Wilkinson, Hands, Wyld, Hitchman, Eadon, and Davey. Among others
on the roll of fame, might be noticed Archbishop Whately; Earls Ducie,
Stanhope, Macclesfield, Charleville; the present Duke of Argyle; Lord R.
Cavendish, Lord Lindsay; Burton, the traveller; and the late Sergeant
Cox. Among literary men, Mr. Gladstone, Britain’s foremost statesman
and scholar; Mr. Balfour, his able and talented opponent; Bulwer
Lytton, Marryat, Neal, Robert Chambers, Dickens, and Stevenson, of “Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” fame. Mr. George Combe, the distinguished Scottish
metaphysician, philosopher, author, phrenologist, etc., was profoundly
interested in the phenomena. Among well-known men of science might
be mentioned Camille Flammarion, the French astronomer; Fichte, the
German philosopher; Professors Tornebom and Edland, Swedish physicists;
Professor Oliver Lodge, D.Sc., F.R.S.; Alfred Russell Wallace,
D.C.L., LL.D.; William Crookes, F.R.S.; Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S.
Notwithstanding this somewhat formidable array of investigators of
clairvoyance, many good people will not hesitate to deny the value of
such evidence, and yet will believe anything in its favour which may be
found in the Bible, as to its existence in the _past_. It is a strange
perversion of judgment--not at all surprising--when the majority take
(second-hand) for their religious(?) views whatever is recognised as
“sound” in each particular district and Church. It is not a question of
belief, it is “a question of evidence,” as Mr. Gladstone avers.
The Rev. Mr. MʽKinnon, late pastor of Chalmers’ Free Church, Glasgow,
told me a short time ago, “Clairvoyance was nothing more than a high
nervous concentrated form of mental vision,” to which I replied,
“Admitting the hypothesis--which, however, explained nothing--it
matters little what clairvoyance is esteemed to be or called, if the
facts connected with it are acknowledged.” Even this friend admitted
he knew a man in Mull, who lived on the half croft, next to his
father’s croft. This man had great repute in that district as “having
the Second Sight.” Whatever this man foretold always came to pass.
One instance will suffice. He (Mr. MʽKinnon) remembered that one day,
while this crofter (who was a tailor by trade) was working, he suddenly
stopped, and looked _out into vacancy_--as he always did when the
“Second Sight was on him”--and described a funeral coming over the
hill, the mourners, who they were, and numbers, the way the procession
took, and the name of the “man whose face was covered,” and finally,
when the procession would appear. Mr. MʽKinnon’s parents noted the
time, and being simple Highland folk, accustomed to the accuracy of
this man’s visions, they believed what he said, and kept his saying
in their hearts till the time of fulfilment came about. Mr. MʽKinnon
assured me “the funeral took place to the day and hour, twelve months
subsequently to the vision, as predicted.” All I can say is, if “a high
nervous concentrated form of mental vision” is capable of pointing out
all this, it is worthy of investigation. It is evident this tailor at
least had a power of vision--prevoyance--not of the ordinary, everyday
kind of vision. Second sight, as exhibited in this case, is what may be
termed spontaneous clairvoyance.
Epes Sargent, in his work, “The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism,”
referring to clairvoyance, says: “As far as I have admitted it as part
of a scientific basis (demonstrating man’s spiritual nature), it is the
exercise of the supersensual faculty of penetrating opaque and dense
matter as if by the faculty of sight. But it does more. It detects
our unuttered, undeveloped thoughts; it goes back along the past, and
describes what is hidden; nay, the proofs are overwhelming that it may
pierce the future, and predict coming events from the shadows they cast
before.
“What is it that sees without the physical eyes, and without the
assistance of light? What is normal sight? It is not the vibrating
ether--it is not the external eye--that sees. It is the soul using the
eye as an instrument, and light as a condition. Prove once that sight
can exist without the use of light, sensation, or any physical organ of
vision, and you prove an abnormal, supersensual, spiritual faculty--a
proof which puts an end to the theory of materialism, and which,
through its affinity with analogous or corresponding facts, justifies
its introduction as part of a scientific basis for the spiritual
theory.”
J. F. Deleuze was profoundly convinced of the existence of this
faculty. He claimed that the power of seeing at a distance, prevision,
and the transference of thought without the aid of external signs, were
in themselves sufficient proofs of the existence of spirituality of
soul.
Except in a very few instances, little or no pains are taken to
cultivate the spiritual nature of man. Civilised man of to-day is
but rising out of the age of brute force of yesterday, and he is
still circumscribed by love of earthly power and position. He is an
acquisitive rather than a spiritual being. Being dominated by the
senses, he will naturally seek and appreciate that which gratifies
his senses most. He has little time or patience for anything which
does not contribute pleasure to his sensuous nature. He would give
time to the investigation of the soul side of life if it brought gold,
the means of enjoyment, and gratified his acquisitiveness and love of
power. Probably the majority give the subject no attention at all. If
the spiritual side of our natures were as fully cultivated as those
elements which bring us bread and butter and praise of men in the
market-place, there is no doubt, no manner of doubt whatever, but the
most of us would occupy a nobler and more spiritually elevated plane in
life; and were adequate means taken, I doubt not but this faculty of
clairvoyance would become more generally known and cultivated. Even to
the selfish, worldly and non-spiritual man, clairvoyance is not without
its practical side and utility, such, for instance, as supplying
Chicago with water. To the spiritually minded, clairvoyance and all
psychic gifts are appreciated, less for what they will bring, than for
the testimony they present of man’s spiritual origin, transcendental
powers and probable continuity of life beyond this mortal vale.
CHAPTER III.
Clairvoyance Illustrated.
Clairvoyance may be briefly classified as far and near, direct
and indirect, objective and subjective. I propose to give a few
well-authenticated cases to illustrate these phases in this chapter.
FAR AND DIRECT CLAIRVOYANCE
is possibly the highest and purest combination. The sensitive is able
to state facts not within the range of the knowledge of those present.
Thus when Swedenborg described to the Queen and her friends, when at a
distance of several hundred miles from the conflagration, the burning
of her palace at Christiania, no one present could possibly know of the
fire or the incidents connected therewith. Hence no thought-reading,
brain-picking, much less guess-work or coincidence, could account
for the exactness of details given by the seer. Clairvoyance in this
case was not only far and direct, but objective. That is, the matter
recorded was connected with the physical or objective plane.
CLAIRVOYANCE AN AID TO SCIENCE.
“Chicago, as is well-known, is one of the most go-ahead cities in the
world. Like Jonah’s gourd it appeared to spring up in a night. Its
population rapidly increased, and water soon became a _sine qua non_,
both as regards use and luxury. Science was at fault; for geologists
had pronounced that there could be no water beneath such a strata. Top
water was all that could be looked for, and presently a water company
was formed to supply this impure kind of liquid.
“There happened to live at this time in Chicago a person named Abraham
James, a simple-minded man, of Quaker descent, uneducated, and in fact,
quite an ignorant person. It was discovered by a Mrs. Caroline Jordon
that James was a natural clairvoyant, in fact a medium, and that he
had declared when put into the trance condition that both water and
petroleum, in large quantities, would be found in a certain tract of
land in the neighbourhood of the city. For a long time no attention
was paid to his statements. At length two gentlemen from Maine, called
Whitehead and Scott, coming to Chicago on business, and hearing what
had been said by Abraham James, had him taken to the land where he
said water could be had in immense quantities by boring for. Being
entranced, James at once pointed out the very spot. He told them that
he not only saw the water, but could trace its source from the Rocky
Mountains, 2000 miles away, to the spot on which they stood, and
could sketch out on maps the strata and caverns through which it ran.
Negotiations were at once entered into for the purchase of the land,
and the work of boring was commenced. This was in February, 1864, and
the process went on daily till November, when, having reached a depth
of 711 feet, water was struck, and flowed up at once at the rate of
600,000 gallons every 24 hours.
“The borings showed the following kinds of strata passed through by the
drill, and this was spiritually seen and described by the clairvoyant
as practical proofs to the senses of other people. First the drill
passed through alluvium soil, 100 feet; limestone, saturated with oil,
35 feet, which would burn as well as any coal; Joliet marble, 100
feet; conglomerate strata of sand and flint, mixed with iron pyrites
and traces of copper, 125 feet; rock (shale) saturated with petroleum,
the sediment coming up like putty, thick and greasy, 156 feet; galena
limestone was next reached at a depth of 530 feet; a bed of limestone,
containing flint and sulphuret of iron was bored through, the depth
being 639 feet, and being very hard, the work went on slowly. At this
point there appeared a constant commotion arising from the escape
of gas, the water suddenly falling from 30 to 60 feet, and then as
suddenly rising to the surface, carrying with it chippings from the
drill, and other matters. The work still went on; when at the depth of
711 feet the arch of the rock was penetrated, and the water suddenly
burst forth from a bore 4½ in. at the bottom, of a temperature of 58°
F., clear as crystal, pure as diamond, and perfectly free from every
kind of animal and vegetable matter, and which, for drinking purposes
and health, is much better adapted than any water yet known, and will
turn out to be the poor man’s friend for all time to come.
“Here, then, is a huge fact for the faithless: the fact brought to
light by dynamic or invisible agency, and which no power of negation
can gainsay. Natural science said, No water could be found; but
psychology said--False, for I will point out the spot where it will
flow in splendid streams as long as the earth spins on its axis. Since
1864 the artesian well of Chicago has poured forth water at the rate
of a million and a half gallons daily; and what is economic, to say
nothing of Yankee shrewdness, it is conveyed into ponds or reservoirs
which in winter freeze, producing 40,000 tons of ice for sale, and
which might be quadrupled at any time.”[B] This is a case of far and
near, direct and objective clairvoyance. This historical incident
proves the value and reality of psychic vision.
Indirect clairvoyance is the power of discerning what may be more or
less in the minds of those present, including absent or forgotten
thoughts and incidents. Thus, when a clairvoyant describes a place with
accuracy, recognised by some one present to be correct, and also gives
details partly known and unknown, but afterwards found to be correct,
this mixture of phases may be recognised as indirect.
SUBJECTIVE CLAIRVOYANCE
is that phase which enables the sensitive to perceive things and
ideas on the spiritual or subjective plane. The late Rev. Stainton
Moses, well known in literary circles as “M.A., Oxon,” once asked the
following pertinent questions:--“Is there conceivably a mass of life
all round us of which most of us have no cognisance? One gifted lady
I know sees clairvoyantly the spirit-life of all organised things,
of a tree or plant for example. I have heard her describe what her
interior faculties perceive. Is it a fact that spirit, underlying
everything, can be so perceived by the awakened faculties?” I should
say yes. If this lady’s clairvoyance has been of a high order in other
respects--why not in this? This type of psychic vision is of the
subjective order.
There are necessarily an infinite variety of phases, pure and mixed,
which the investigator will meet in practice. These phases may be
called _far_, such as seeing objects, etc., at a distance--prevoyance,
predicting events; retrovoyance, reading the past; introvoyance,
seeing internally, or examining bodies, as in disease; external
introvoyance, seeing into lockets, packets, letters, safes, and
discovering hidden, known or forgotten, or lost objects. Lastly, there
is pseudo-clairvoyance. For one case of direct there are hundreds
of well authenticated cases of indirect clairvoyance, and again for
one of the latter there are thousands of pseudo-clairvoyance, which
are the outcome of states similar to hypnosis, and are nothing more
than an incongruous medley of suggested ideas and fancies. Thus a
strong and positive willed person can impinge his ideas through
the thought-atmosphere of the sensitive and distort or deflect the
psychic vision, and render abortive any attempts to get beyond the
circle of the dominating influence. Again, the sensitive may enter
a realm of fancy--a veritable dreamland of coherent and incoherent
ideation, either the product of the sensitive’s own condition, or of
suggestion--accidental, spontaneous, and determined--in the sensitive’s
surroundings. Of course any classification of the numerous phases of
clairvoyance must be purely arbitrary.
DIRECT AND OBJECTIVE CLAIRVOYANCE--LOST GOODS RESTORED.
This instance of far vision is taken from “A Tangled Yarn,” page 173,
“Leaves from Captain James Payn’s Log,” which was published recently
by C. H. Kelly. As I knew Captain Hudson, of Swansea, personally, and
heard from his own lips the following incident, I have much pleasure
in introducing it here as a further illustration of the _Cui bono_ of
clairvoyance:--
“The _Theodore_ got into Liverpool the same day as the _Bland_. She was
a larger ship than ours but had a similar cargo. The day that I went
to the owners to report ‘all right,’ I met with Captain Morton in a
terrible stew because he was thirty bales of cotton short, a loss equal
to the whole of his own wages and the mate’s into the bargain. He was
so fretted over it that his wife in desperation recommended him to get
the advice of a Captain Hudson, who had a young female friend clever as
a clairvoyant. We were both sceptical in the matter of clairvoyance. At
first Morton didn’t wish to meddle, he said, with ‘a parcel of modern
witchcraft,’ and that sort of thing; but he at last yielded to his
wife’s urgency and consented to go. There was first of all a half-crown
fee to Captain Hudson, and then the way was clear for an interview with
the young clairvoyant. I was present to ‘see fair.’ When the girl had
been put into the clairvoyant state Morton was instructed to take her
right hand in his right hand and ask her any questions he wished. The
replies were in substance as follows:--She went back mentally to the
port whence the _Theodore_ had sailed, retracing with her hand as she
in words also described the course of the ship from Liverpool across
the Atlantic, through the West Indian group, etc., back to New Orleans.
At length she said, ‘Yes, this is the place where the cotton was lost;
it’s put on board a big black ship with a red mark round it.’ Then she
began to trace with her hand and describe the homeward course of the
vessel, but after re-crossing the Atlantic, instead of coming up the
Irish Channel for Liverpool, she turned along the English Channel as
though bound for the coast of France; and then stretching out her hand
she exclaimed, ‘Oh, here’s the cotton; but what funny people they are;
they don’t talk English.’ Captain Morton said at once, ‘I see; it’s
the _Brunswick_, Captain Thomas,’ an American ship that lay alongside
of him at New Orleans and was taking in her cargo of cotton while the
_Theodore_ was loading, and was bound for Havre de Grace. Captain
Morton, satisfied with his clairvoyant’s information, went home and
wrote immediately to Captain Thomas, inquiring for his lost cargo.
In due course he got an answer that the cotton was certainly there,
that it had been taken off the wharf in mistake, and that it was about
to be sold for whomsoever it might concern; but that if he (Captain
Morton) would remit a certain amount to cover freight and expenses
the bales should be forwarded to him at once. He did so, and in due
time received the cotton, subject only to the expenses of transit from
Havre to Liverpool. Such are the facts; I do not profess to offer any
explanation.”
CLAIRVOYANCE AN AID TO THE PHYSICIAN.
I am indebted to Dr. George Wyld for this case, which also exhibits
the value of clairvoyance. Dr. Wyld had the good fortune to make the
acquaintance of a Mrs. D----, a lady in private life who was endowed
with the gift of natural clairvoyance. Dr. Wyld told this lady of “a
friend who had for years suffered intense agony for hours every night
in his back and chest, and that latterly he had been obliged to sit up
all night in a chair, and his legs began to swell.”
“This gentleman had regularly for three years been under many of the
leading physicians of London. Some said that there must be some obscure
heart affection, others said it was neuralgia, one said it was gout,
and the last consulted said it was malignant caries of the spine.”
Dr. Wyld’s friend called upon him by appointment, and met Mrs. D----.
This lady merely looked at him. When he had retired from the room Mrs.
D---- made the following statement of his case to the doctor:--“I have
seen what the disease is; I saw it as distinctly as if the body were
transparent. There is a tumour behind the heart, about the size of a
walnut; it is of a dirty colour; and it jumps and looks as if it would
burst. Nothing can do him any good but entire rest.”
“I at once saw,” says Dr. Wyld, what she meant, and sat down to write
to my friend’s medical attendant as follows:--
“I believe I have discovered the nature of Mr.----’s disease. He has
an aneurism on the descending aorta, about the size of a walnut. It
is this which causes the slight displacement which has been observed
in the heart, and the pressure of the tumour against the intercostal
nerves is the cause of the agony in the back, and the peripheral pains
in the front of the chest. You are going to-morrow to see Sir ---- in
consultation; show him this diagnosis, and let me know what he says.”
“Next the patient had the consultation, and Mrs. D----’s diagnosis
was confirmed; and the doctors agreed with Mrs. D---- the only thing
to be done was to take entire rest. The treatment was duly followed
up, with successful results.” Dr. Wyld thoughtfully adds--“It is true
that the diagnosis cannot be absolutely confirmed during life, but as
the profession unanimously pronounce the disease to be aneurism, the
diagnosis may be accepted as correct. This diagnosis has probably saved
the gentleman’s life, as before Mrs. D---- saw him he was allowed to
shoot over Scotch moors, and to ride, drive, and play billiards.”
The use of clairvoyance in the diagnosis of disease is by no means
as rare as the majority of physicians and the general public would
naturally assume. I have had many opportunities of witnessing the
accuracy of diagnosis and the excellence of the methods of treatment
advised by clairvoyants. In my own personal experience I have had much
evidence of correctness of clairvoyance in diagnosis, and subsequent
success in treatment. It is a phase most desirable to cultivate if
possible, and all allied conditions connected therewith.
TRAVELLING CLAIRVOYANCE.
As a public entertainer at one time, giving demonstrations of mesmeric
phenomena, I have had naturally many opportunities of seeing different
types of clairvoyance. During a course of entertainments given by
me in Rothesay, 1881, I was able to introduce clairvoyance to public
notice by the most difficult method, that of public experiments.
M. C., the clairvoyante, was a native of Newcastle-on-Tyne. All her
clairvoyant experiments were satisfactory. Her husband was also a
clairvoyant, but not so striking for public exhibition. M. C. seemed
to possess all phases. One or two experiments out of many will be
interesting not only as illustrative of clairvoyance, but because what
I relate can be easily ratified.
M. C. arrived in Rothesay for the first time about four hours
previously to taking her seat upon the platform, in the New Public
Halls. It was neither possible nor probable she could have obtained the
information she possessed by other than psychic means. The clairvoyant
was mesmerised and blindfolded before the audience. After some
experiments in objective clairvoyance were given, such as describing
a watch, telling the time, and the number, by having the watch held
silently over her forehead, she gave several experiments in travelling
clairvoyance. Many visitors in the hall--for Rothesay is a well known
and fashionable seaside resort--sent up requests to the platform, and
desired the clairvoyante should visit their homes in Kent, Cornwall,
Island of Jersey, in the Isle of Man, Glasgow, and other places. Her
visits and descriptions were in all instances extremely satisfactory.
How far thought-transference and objective clairvoyance commingled and
entered into her descriptions it would be difficult to say, but the
results were simply marvellous.
Test case, by the late Dr. Maddever, M.D., M.R.C.S., and Dr. John
Maddever, his son. These medical gentlemen resided in Rothesay,
and were present in the hall. Dr. Maddever desired me to send the
clairvoyante into a certain room in his house and that she should
describe it.
All the directions the clairvoyante obtained were, “to go out of the
hall, down the front steps; when out turn to the right and proceed
onward till she came to an iron-railed gate, on which was a small brass
plate, bearing the name of ‘Dr. Maddever,’ she was to open the gate, go
up to the hall-door, enter, pass the first door to the left, and turn
round a passage to the left and enter the first door to which she came,
and describe what she saw.”
Sitting still upon the platform in silence for a minute or two, she
suddenly exclaimed:--“I am at the gate--at the door--now in the hall--I
have found the room, and I am now inside, and stand with my back to the
door.” She then proceeded to describe the room, the book-cases which
surrounded it, their peculiar structure; the mantel-piece, the form of
the clock, the time, and the appearance of the ornaments. The table in
the centre of the room, its form, the colour and style of the cloth
upon it, books, albums, and papers thereon, the flower vase support in
the window, and a number of other particulars.
At the conclusion Dr. Maddever arose in the audience and said:--“Ladies
and gentlemen, Professor Coates is a stranger to me, I only know of him
by report. The young lady on the platform I do not know. I have not
seen either till this evening, and they have never been in my house.
The experiment we have had is most remarkable, and should be of deep
and profound interest to all. The young lady has described the room, as
far as I can remember, most correctly--in fact very much better than I
could have done myself.” This statement was received with applause.
After one or two instances of travelling clairvoyance, a young
gentleman rose in the body of the hall and desired I should send the
sensitive to a house or villa not far from the juncture of Marine Place
and Ardbeg Road.
The directions given to the clairvoyante were briefly to the effect,
she was to leave the place, on reaching the front street she was to
turn to her left and keep on past the Post Office, Esplanade, past the
Skeoch Woods, etc., till she came to the house. She nodded her head in
compliance, and presently announced she “had found the house.” Then she
shivered and appeared to draw back, and said “I won’t go in.”
Some persons in the audience laughed, and one (I think it was the
young gentleman who asked that she might be sent) said: “The whole
thing is a swindle.” Now, considering there was not a single flaw in
the experiments that night, surprise after surprise being given, and
the audience had risen in enthusiasm, this opinion was not favourably
received.
I asked the gentleman “to have patience.” I had no doubt but we would
know soon enough the reasons. “Whatever they were I would try and
ascertain them.”
With much hesitancy she declared that “the house was not one any
respectable female would enter, and she would not.” When I repeated
this statement to the audience, there was what the newspapers call
“sensation.” The sensation was intensified when one of the Rothesay
Magistrates, Bailie Molloy, the then senior Bailie of the Royal Burgh,
declared “the young woman was right, perfectly right, this was a house
which had been inadvertently let to persons of ill-fame, and he, for
one, had recently had the facts of the case placed before him, and he
was most anxious that these people should be put out, and they would
be, as soon as the proper steps could be taken.”
The young gentleman retired somewhat discomfited, and the excitement
produced by these and other experiments brought crowded houses during
my professional stay.
When my “mesmeric exposition” was concluded, the two medical gentlemen
referred to, were good enough to introduce themselves, and invited me
to call next day to see the room. I accepted the invitation during
the following day and saw how truly correct and vivid her description
had been. In the first experiment the sensitive described the state of
the doctor’s library, pointing out what had not been recollected by
either of the medical men, and I believe the other case comes under the
heading of direct and objective clairvoyance. Dr. Maddever’s house was
about a quarter of a mile, and the other house about a mile and a half
from the hall.
The persistent and reliable clairvoyance evinced by this sensitive
was induced. She was a mesmeric subject, and when such subjects are
properly treated they make the very best clairvoyants.
PSYCHIC VISION POSSESSED BY THE PHYSICALLY BLIND.
Mrs. Croad resided at Redland, Bristol. My attention was called to
her case about fifteen years ago by Dr. J. G. Davey, of Bristol.
Unfortunately circumstances at the time prevented a personal visit and
report. Her psychic gifts and wonderful supersensitivity have been
amply testified to, by most reliable witnesses, such as Dr. Davey, Hy.
G. Atkinson, F.G.S., and others.
Clairvoyance in Mrs. Croad’s case was and is (for I believe the lady is
still living) a singular admixture of subtle sense transference so well
known to mesmerists of the old school, and spontaneous psychic vision.
Thought-transference and indirect clairvoyance, more or less induced,
by intense voluntary concentration.
Mrs. Croad is deaf, dumb, and paralysed, and stone blind. She can
see and hear, read with powers “denied to ordinary mortals,” and
discern pictures and writings in the dark. She is aware of her
daughter’s thoughts when the latter touches her, and becomes at once
acquainted with what her daughter wishes to communicate. She possesses
supersensitivity of touch, and discerns colour by their degrees of
heat, roughness or smoothness. She can also identify photographs and
pictures in the same way. From time to time she has exhibited the
highest phases of clairvoyance. Reports have been made in this case
by medical experts in the _Journal of Psychological Medicine_, and
other magazines and journals several years ago. The most recent was
contributed by the Rev. Taliesin Dans, The Cottage, Claptons, to _The
Review of Reviews_ in January, 1891.
THE SPIRITUALISTIC AND PRACTICAL CHARACTER OF CLAIRVOYANCE
might be further illustrated by the well known case of Miss Eliza
Hamilton, who became paralysed in her limbs and right arm, through
severe injury to the spine. She had been in hospital for four months,
on her return home frequently passed into the trance state, and
on awakening described various people and places she had visited,
and objects seen. These descriptions have been invariably verified
subsequently. “She also at times,” says her physician, “speaks of
having been in the company of persons with whom she was acquainted in
this world, but who have passed away; and she tells her friends that
they have become more beautiful, and have cut off their infirmities
with which they were afflicted while here. She often describes events
which _are about to happen_, and these are always fulfilled exactly as
she predicts.”
“Her father,” says Mr. Hudson Tuttle, “read in her presence a letter
he had received from a friend in Leeds, speaking of the loss of his
daughter, about whose fate he was very unhappy, as she had disappeared
nearly a month before, and left no trace. Eliza went into the trance
state, and cried out, ‘Rejoice! I have found the lost girl! She is
happy in the angel world.’ She said the girl had fallen into the dark
water where dyers washed their cloths; that her friends could not have
found her had they sought her there, _but_ now the body had floated a
few miles, and would be found in the River Aire. The body was found as
described.
“Now, knowing that her eyes were closed, that she could not hear, that
her bodily senses were in profound lethargy, how are we to account for
the intensity and keenness of sight? Her mental powers were exceedingly
exalted, and scarcely a question could be asked her but she correctly
answered.
“In this case the independence of the mind of the physical body are
shown in every instance of clairvoyance, is proven beyond cavil or
doubt. If it is demonstrated that the mind sees without the aid of
eyes, hears when the ears are deaf, feels when the nerves of sensation
are at rest, it follows that it is independent of these outward
avenues, and has other channels of communication with the external
world essentially its own.”
CLAIRVOYANCE FROM DISEASE.
Miss Mollie Fancher, of Brooklyn Heights, fell off a tramway car when
eighteen years of age, experienced very severe injuries to head and
spine, her body being dragged a distance, through her dress catching on
the step of the car. She became paralysed, lost all her senses, except
touch. She gradually recovered hearing, taste, and ability to talk
in time. She was also blind for nine years. Drs. Speir and Ormiston
were her physicians, men of skill and marked probity. These, with a
veritable host of medical men--ministers of the Gospel, educationists
and specialists--have borne testimony to her remarkable endowments,
from which we take two extracts. Mr. Charles Ewart, Principal of the
Brooklyn Heights Seminary, where she was under special care, writes:--
“For many days together she has been to all appearances dead. The
slightest pulse could not be detected; there was no evidence of
respiration. Her limbs were as cold as ice, and had there not been
some warmth about her heart, she would have been buried. When I first
saw her she had but one sense--that of touch. By running her fingers
over the printed page, she could read with equal facility in light or
darkness. The most delicate work is done by her in the night.... Her
power of clairvoyance, or second sight, is marvellously developed.
_Distance imposes no barriers_, without the slightest error she
dictates the contents of sealed letters which have never been in her
hands. She discriminates in darkness the most delicate shades of
colour. She writes with extraordinary rapidity.”
Mr. Henry M. Parkhurst, the astronomer (residing at 173 Gates Avenue,
Brooklyn, N.Y.), writes:--
“From the waste-basket of a New York gentleman acquaintance he
fished an unimportant business letter, without reading it, tore it
into ribbons, and tore the ribbons into squares. He shook the pieces
well together, put them into an envelope, and sealed it. This he
subsequently handed to Miss Fancher. The blind girl took the envelope
in her hand, and passed her hand over it several times, called for
paper and pencil, and wrote it verbatim. The seal of the letter had
not been broken. Mr. Parkhurst himself opened it, pasted the contents
together, and compared the two. Miss Fancher’s was a literal copy of
the original.”
MESMERIC CLAIRVOYANCE AND SPIRITUALISM.
“A few evenings ago I called upon Mr. and Mrs. Loomis, 2 Vernon
Place, Bloomsbury, and after we had chatted for a short time in the
drawing-room with the door closed and nobody else present, I asked if
they would try a mesmeric experiment for me. They willingly agreed,
and Mr. Loomis, by passes, threw his wife into a mesmeric state, as he
often does, and an intelligence, which claimed to be the spirit of her
mother, spoke through her lips. Until this moment I had said nothing to
any living soul about the nature of my contemplated experiment, but I
then asked the unseen intelligence if it could then and there go to the
house of Mrs. Macdougall Gregory, 21 Green Street, Grosvenor Square,
London, and move a heavy physical object in her presence. The reply
was, I do not know, I will try. About three minutes afterwards, at 8.40
p.m., the intelligence said that Mrs. Gregory was in her drawing-room
with a friend, and added, ‘I have made Mrs. Gregory feel a prickly
sensation in her arm from the elbow down to the hand, as if some person
had squeezed the arm, and she has spoken about it to her friend.’
“I took a note in writing of this statement at the time it was made. A
few minutes later I left Mr. and Mrs. Loomis, and without telling them
my intention to do so, went straight to the house of Mrs. Gregory about
a mile and a half off. I had selected Mrs. Gregory for this experiment
because she is not afraid to publish her name in connection with
psychic truths, and her word carries weight, especially in Scotland,
where she and her family are well-known. She is the widow of Professor
Gregory, of Edinburgh University, and is a lineal descendant of the
Lord of the Isles. I then for the first time told Mrs. Gregory of the
experiment. She replied that between half-past eight and nine o’clock
that evening she was playing the piano, and suddenly turned round to
her friend, Miss Yauewicz, of Upper Norwood, saying, ‘I don’t know what
is the matter with me, I feel quite stupid, and have such a pain in
my right arm that I cannot go on playing.’ Miss Yauewicz, who was no
believer in spiritualism or any of the marvels of psychology, felt a
lively interest when she was informed of the experiment. She told me
that she clearly remembered Mrs. Gregory’s statement that she could not
go on playing because of the pain in her right arm.”[C]
Mrs. Loomis was a remarkable clairvoyante, whom I accidently became
acquainted with in Liverpool many years ago, shortly after her arrival
from America. I introduced the lady and her husband, Mr. Daniel Loomis,
to Mr. Harrison, then editor of _The Spiritualist_. The Guion steamer,
_Idaho_, in which they came from New York, was wrecked off the Irish
Coast, and all they possessed in this world was lost with the vessel.
Mrs. Loomis predicted the disaster, where it was likely to take place;
that all hands would be saved, but all they had lost. Upon the arrival
of the officers of the vessel in Liverpool, they presented Mrs. Loomis,
at the Bee Hotel, John Street, Liverpool, with a basket of flowers,
purse, and testimonial, in recognition of her gift, and heroic conduct
during and after the disaster. I may add I knew Mr. Harrison as a most
careful investigator and a man of scientific tastes and ability.
I select the following case of a mesmeric sensitive controlled by
a disembodied spirit, from the writings of Mr. Epes Sargent, author
of “Planchette on the Despair of Science,” etc., as appropriately
illustrative of this form of clairvoyance:--
“One of the daughters of my valued correspondent, the late William
Howett, was a mesmeric sensitive. Howett told Professor W. D. Gunning,
whose words (slightly abridged) I here use, that, on one occasion his
daughter, being entranced, wrote a communication signed with the name
of her brother, supposed to be in Australia. The import was, that he
had been drowned a few days before in a lake. Dates and details were
given. The parents could only wait, as there was no trans-oceanic
telegraph. Months passed, and at last a letter came from a nephew in
Melbourne, bearing the tidings that their son had been drowned on such
a day, in such a lake, under such and such circumstances. Date, place,
and all the essential details were the same as those given months
before through the daughter. Mr. Howett believed that the freed spirit
of his son influenced the sister to write; and I know of no explanation
more rational that this.”
CLAIRVOYANCE DUE TO SPIRITUAL CONTROL.
Such cases as the above are the most difficult of all to prove. What I
contend for is, if it is demonstrated we can control a fellow-being,
throw him or her into a trance state--in which the phenomena of the
psychic state are evolved--and seeing such state is induced largely
by the control of spirit over spirit in the body, why may not a
disembodied spirit control, direct, or influence a suitable sensitive
or medium in the body? If not, why not? There is abundant evidence of
such controls.
Seeing objects concealed in boxes and letters, or reading books and
mottoes, etc., appears to some clairvoyants to be more difficult than
diagnosing disease, or seeing objects at a distance. The why and
wherefore seems at first difficult to explain.
The deliberate concealment of objects for the purpose of testing
clairvoyance is often the result of a spirit of virulent suspicion,
disbelief, and what is worse, _an earnest desire for failure_, so that
the parties may rejoice on the discomfiture of the clairvoyants. With
such people failure is a source of pleasure. Nevertheless, seeming
impossibilities have been triumphed over. Long lost wills have been
found, and places of the accidental or intentional hiding discovered.
In more than one case deliberate fraud has been exposed, and the guilty
parties brought to acknowledge the truth of the sensitive’s revelations.
THE FUGITIVE NATURE OF CLAIRVOYANCE.
“The chief feature,” said Alexis Didier, “of the somnambulistic
lucidity is its variability. While the conjurer or juggler, at all
moments in the day and before all spectators, will invariably succeed,
the somnambulist, endowed with the marvellous power of clairvoyance,
will not be lucid with all interviewers and at all moments of the
day; for the faculty of lucidity being a crisis painful and abnormal,
there may be atmospheric influences or invincible antipathies at work
opposing its production, and which seem to paralyse all supersensual
manifestation. Intuition, clairvoyance, lucidity, are faculties which
the somnambulist gets from the nature of his temperament, and which
are rarely developed in force.” Further, he adds, “the somnambulistic
lucidity varies in a way to make one despair; success is continually
followed by failure; in a word, error succeeds a truth; but when one
analyses the causes of this no right-minded person will bring up the
charge of Charlatanism, since the faculty is subject to influences
independent of the will and the consciousness of the clairvoyant.”
Alexis Didier, like his brother Adolphe, was a natural clairvoyant,
and excelled in direct and objective clairvoyance, phases of the most
striking and convincing character.
Clairvoyance can be cultivated by the aid of mesmerism and by the
introspection process. By the first, the sensitive can be materially
assisted by the experience and help of the operator. By the second,
something like natural clairvoyance can be induced. Either processes
are more or less suitable to subdue the activity of the senses, and
give greater range to the psychic powers. General instructions are
of little use. Personal advice is best. The operator then knows with
whom he has to do, their special temperament and character, what are
the best processes to adopt to cultivate their gift, and how far such
sensitives and students are themselves likely to be suitable for
clairvoyant experiments. I have found the “Mirror Disc” useful in
inducing favourable conditions in the normal state for the development
of clairvoyance, and recommend its use.
CHAPTER IV.
Psychometry.
[Illustration: J. RHODES BUCHANAN, M.D.]
What is psychometry? Dr. George Wyld esteems psychometry a phase of
clairvoyance--“the knowledge the psychic obtains by a _clue_, such as
a lock of the hair of some absent person, or some portion of a distant
object.” Mr. Stead calls it (_Review of Reviews_, p. 221, September,
1892) “the strange new science of psychometry.” In this he pardonably
errs. Psychometry may be strange, but _it_ is _not_ new. We may not
recognise the name as old, but the class of phenomena it specialises
is as old as clairvoyance and mind-reading.
“The word psychometry,” says Dr. Buchanan, “coined in 1842, to express
the character of a new science and art, is the most pregnant and
important word that has been added to the English language. Coined
from the Greek (_psyche_, soul; and _metron_, measure), it literally
signifies _soul-measuring_.”... “The psychometer measures the soul.”
In the case of psychometry, the measuring assumes a new character, as
the object measured and the measuring instrument are the same psychic
element, and its measuring power is not limited to the psychic, as it
was developed in the first experiments, but has appeared by successive
investigations to manifest a wider and wider area of power, until it
became apparent that this psychic capacity was really the measure of
all things in the universe. Hence, psychometry signifies not merely the
measuring of souls and soul capacities, or qualities by our own psychic
capacities, but the measurement and judgment of all things conceivable
by the human mind; and psychometry means practically _measuring by
the soul_, or grasping and estimating all things which are within the
range of human intelligence. Psychometry, therefore, is not merely an
instrumentality for measuring soul powers, but a comprehensive agency
like mathematics for the solution of many departments of science.
“Prophecy,” says Buchanan, “is the noblest aspect of psychometry, and
there is no reason why it should not become the guiding power to each
individual life, and the guiding power of the destiny of nations.”
For instance, while all Europe feared for Boulanger, Metz was getting
stored with food; Lord Wolseley declared war imminent, and the French
themselves prepared for _revanche_. Psychometers declared for peace
in 1889, and said there was no prospect of war for five years.
Subsequent events have proved Boulanger lacking in both generalship and
statesmanship--a veritable Bombastes Furioso; and peace up to the time
of writing is as yet unbroken.
Dr. Buchanan claims--“In physiology, pathology, and hygiene,
psychometry is as wise and parental as in matters of character and
ethics. A competent psychometer appreciates the vital forces, the
temperament, the peculiarities, and every departure from the normal
state, realising the diseased condition with an accuracy in which
external diagnosis often fails. In fact, the natural psychometer is
born with a genius for the healing art, and if the practice of medicine
were limited to those who possess this power in an eminent degree, its
progress would be rapid, and its disgraceful failures in diagnosis and
blunders in treatment and prognosis would be less frequently heard
of.” Many happy tests in diagnosis and in the successful treatment
of disease--out of the ordinary routine--are due, in my opinion,
not so much to elaborate medical training as to the fact of the
practitioner--perhaps unconscious to himself--being possessed of more
or less of the psychometric faculty.
Dr. Buchanan,[D] in his “Original Sketch,” gives us the history and
some details of his discovery, based upon certain investigations of
the nervous system. Already he was well versed in the phenomena of
hypnotism, which is at this late day becoming a fashionable study and
recreation of medical men. He had demonstrated the responsive action
of cerebral organs to mesmeric touch and influence, and he was already
acquainted with the curious psychological phenomena of sense and
thought transference, of double consciousness, and all the nervous and
pathological phases peculiar to natural and artificial somnambulism.
His investigation for years of the nervous system had clearly shown him
that its capacities were far more extensive, varied, and interesting
than physiologists and philosophers either knew or were prepared to
admit. He found in the nervous system a vast aggregate of powers which
constitute the vitality of man, existing in intimate connection with
the vast and wonderful powers of his mind. Was it possible or rational
to suppose that this nerve-matter, so intimately co-related with mind,
and upon which the mind depends for the manifestation of its powers,
could be entirely limited to the narrow materialistic sphere assigned
by physiologists? He thought not.
In a conversation with Bishop Polk (who afterwards became the
celebrated General Polk of Confederate fame), Dr. Buchanan ascertained
that Bishop Polk’s nervous sensibility was so acute that, if by
accident he touched a piece of brass in the night, when he could not
see what he had touched, he immediately felt the influence through his
system, and recognised an offensive metallic taste.
The discovery of such sensitiveness in one of the most vigorous men,
in mind and body, of his day, led Dr. Buchanan to believe it might
be found in many others. It is needless to say his conjecture was
correct. Accordingly, in the numerous neurological experiments which he
afterwards commenced, he was accustomed to place metals of different
kinds in the hands of persons of acute sensibility, for the purpose of
ascertaining whether they could feel any peculiar influence, recognise
any peculiar taste, or appreciate the difference of metals, by any
impression upon their own sensitive nerves. It soon appeared that the
power was quite common, and there were a large number of persons who
could determine by touching a piece of metal, or by holding it in their
hands, what the metal was, as they recognised a peculiar influence
proceeding from it, which in a few moments gave them a distinct taste
in the mouth. But this sensitiveness was not confined to metallic
substances. Every substance possessing a decided taste--sugar, salt,
nutmeg, pepper, acid, etc.--appeared to be capable of transferring its
influence. The influence appeared to affect the hand, and then travel
upwards. He afterwards demonstrated when a galvanic or electric current
passed through a medicinal substance, the influence of the substance
was transmitted with the current, detected and described by the person
operated upon. Medicinal substances, enclosed in paper, were readily
recognised and described by their effects. In due time, stranger
still, a geological specimen, an article worn, a letter written upon,
a photograph which had been handled, a coin, etc., transmitted their
influence, and the psychometrist was enabled to read off the history
concerning the particular object.
Nearly fifty years have elapsed since the discovery of this “strange
new science” and art. “To-day it is widely known, has its respected
and competent practitioners, who are able to describe the mental
and vital peculiarities of those who visit or write them, and who
create astonishment and delight by the fidelity and fulness of the
descriptions which they send to persons unknown, and at vast distances.
They give minute analysis of character and revelations of particulars
_known only to the one described_, pointing out with parental delicacy
and tenderness the defects which need correction, or in the perverse
and depraved they explain what egotism would deny, but what society,
family, and friends recognise to be too true.”
PSYCHOMETRIC REFLECTIONS.
Professor J. W. Draper says:--“A shadow never falls upon a wall
without leaving thereupon a permanent trace--a trace made visible by
resorting to proper processes. Upon the walls of private apartments,
where we think the eye of intrusion is altogether shut out, and our
retirement can never be profaned, there exists the vestiges of our
acts, silhouettes of whatever we have done. It is a crushing thought
to whoever has committed secret crime, that the picture of his deed,
and the very echo of his words, may be seen and heard countless years
after he has gone the way of all flesh, and left a reputation for
‘respectability’ to his children.”
Detectives have received impressions from a scene of crime, a clue to
the unravelment of the mystery and the detection of the criminal. Yet
they could not trace the impressions to anything they saw or heard
during their preliminary investigations. No detective will throw aside
such impressions. Indeed, those most successful are those who, while
paying attention to all outward and so-called tangible clues, _do not
neglect for one moment_ the impressions received, and the thoughts
_felt_, when gathering information likely to lead to the detection of
the law-breakers. Hugh Miller was right when he said, “I suspect that
there are provinces in the mind that physicians have not entered into.”
Thoughts are things--living, real and tangible, images, visions, deep
and pungent sensations--which exist after their creation distinct
and apart from ourselves--“Footprints on the sands of time,” in more
senses than one. We all leave our mark in a thousand subtle ways. No
material microscope or telescope can detect, nevertheless our mark
can be discovered by the powers of the human soul. From our cradle
to the grave--does it stop there?--every thought, emotion, movement,
and action have left their subtle traces, so that our whole life can
be traced out by the psychometric expert. We verily give hostages to
fortune all through life.
PSYCHOMETRIC SENSITIVES.
Professor Denton was very fortunate in having in his wife, children,
and in his sister, Mrs. Cridge, gifted psychometers. His sister
possessed this psychic, intuitive faculty in a high degree. Dr.
Buchanan was equally fortunate; not only was his wife a first-class
sensitive, but he discovered the faculty in several university
professors, and in students innumerable. Denton in his travels over
America, Europe, and Australia found several hundred good sensitives,
some of whom have since made a reputation both in Europe and America
for their powers.
One important fact we learn from these pioneers in psychometric
research is that not one of these persons knew they were endowed with
the psychometric gift prior to taking part in classes or experiments.
The possession of the faculty is not confined to any age, or to the
gentle sex; and Denton concludes, as an average, that one female in
four and one man in ten are psychometric sensitives. The possibility is
all healthy, sensitive, refined, intuitive, and impressionable persons
possess the soul-measuring faculty, and this faculty, like all other
innate human powers, can be cultivated and brought to a high stage of
perfection.
The psychometer, unlike the induced clairvoyant or entranced medium, is
in general, or outwardly at least, a mere spectator, as one who beholds
a drama or witnesses a panorama, and tells in his own way to someone
else what he sees and what he thinks about it. The sensitive can dwell
on what is seen, examine it closely, and record individual opinions
of the impressions of the persons, incidents, and scenes of the long
hidden thus brought to light. The sensitive has merely to hold the
object in hand--as Mrs. Coates is represented doing in frontispiece--or
hold it to the forehead (temple), when he or she is enabled to come in
contact with the soul of the person or thing with which the object has
been in relation. There is no loss of external consciousness, no “up
rush” of the subliminal, obliterating and overlapping that of common
life. The sensitive appears to be in a perfectly normal condition
during the whole time of examination, can lay the article down,
noticing what takes place, and entering into conversation with those in
the room, or drawing subjects, seen or not, as they think best.
WHAT PSYCHOMETRY CAN DO.
We can do little more than give a few general illustrations.
Professor Denton, having thoroughly satisfied himself of the reality
of psychometry, wondered if letters had photographed upon them the
impressions of the life and the image of the writer. Why not fossils?
“He gave his sister a specimen from the carboniferous formation;
closing her eyes, she described those swamps and trees, with their
tufted heads and scaly trunks, with the great frog-like animals that
existed in that age. To his inexpressible delight the key to the ages
was in his hands. He concluded that nature had been photographing from
the very first. The black islands that floated upon the fiery sea, the
gelatinous dots, the first life on our planet, up through everything
that flew or swam, had been photographed by Nature, and ten thousand
experiments had confirmed the theory. He got a specimen of the lava
that flowed from Kilava, in Hawaii, in 1848. His sister by its means
described the boiling ocean, the cataract of molten lava that almost
equalled Niagara in size. A small fragment of a meteorite that fell in
Painesville, O., was given to his wife’s mother, a sensitive who did
not then believe in psychometry. This is what she said: ‘I seem to be
travelling away, away, through nothing, right forward. I see what look
like stars and mist. I seem to be taken right up; the other specimens
took me down.’ His wife, independently, gave a similar description,
but saw it revolving, and its tail of sparks. He took steps to prove
that this was not mind reading by wrapping the specimens in paper,
shaking them up in a hat, and allowing the sensitive to pick out one
and describe it, without anyone knowing which it was. Among them were a
fragment of brick from ancient Rome, antimony from Borneo, silver from
Mexico, basalt from Fingal’s Cave. Each place was described correctly
by the sensitive in the most minute detail. A fragment from the Mount
of Olives brought a description of Jerusalem; and one from the Great
Pyramid enabled a young man of Melbourne to name and describe it. There
was a practical side to the question. His wife had, from a chip of
wood, described a suicide; this was subsequently confirmed. A number of
experiments from a fragment of Kent’s Cave, fragments from Pompeii and
other places brought minute descriptions from the sensitive.”
Mr. Stead bears his testimony to psychometry. He gave a shilling
to two ladies, at different periods, and unknown to each other. In
fact, they were perfect strangers. This shilling, in his mind, had a
special story connected with it. The first lady lived in Wimbledon,
and had the profession of being a clairvoyante. To use Mr. Stead’s
own words, he states:--“I took from my purse a shilling which I most
prized of all the pieces of money in my possession. I said nothing to
her beyond that I had carried it in my pocket for several years. She
held the shilling in her hand for sometime, and said:--‘This carries
me back to a time of confusion and much anxiety, with a feeling that
everything depended upon a successful result. This shilling brings me
a vision of a very low woman, ignorant and drunken, with whom you had
much better have nothing to do. There is a great deal of fever about. I
feel great pains, as if I had rheumatic fever in my ankles and joints,
but especially in my ankles and my throat. I suffer horribly in my
throat; it is an awful pain. And now I feel a coarse, bare hand pass
over my brow as distinctly as if you had laid your hand there. It must
be her hand. I feel the loss of a child. This woman is brought to me
by another. She is about thirty-two years; about five feet high, with
dark brown hair, grey eyes, small, nicely-formed nose, large mouth.’”
“Can you tell me her name?” asked Mr. Stead. “Not certain, but I think
it seems like Annie.” “That is all right,” said Mr. Stead, and he told
her the story of that shilling. About a month afterwards, Mr. Stead
tried a Swedish opera singer, who had clairvoyant powers, with the
shilling. She pressed it to her brow, and then she told Mr. Stead “she
saw a poor woman give him, from her pocket-money, the last shilling she
possessed. She has a great admiration for you, she said. She seems to
think you have saved her, but she is not _une grande dame_. Indeed, she
seems to be a girl of the town.” Mr. Stead said:--“I had not spoken a
word, or given her the least hint of the story of the shilling.” Now,
what are the facts? Mr. Stead says that he “was standing his trial at
the Old Bailey, a poor outcast girl of the streets, who was dying of a
loathsome disease in the hospital, asked that the only shilling that
she possessed in the world, might be given to the fund which was being
raised in his defence. It was handed to him when he came out of jail,
with, ‘From a dying girl in hospital, who gives her last shilling,’
written on the paper.” He (Mr. Stead) has carried it about him ever
since, never allowing it to be out of his possession for a single day.
The symptoms which the first clairvoyante, or psychometrix, described,
were very like those which this poor creature was suffering from in her
dying hours. It is too probable that the donor was a low, drunken woman.
These two readings are actually more psychometric than clairvoyant,
because, from the clue furnished, they went back and described the
conditions and surroundings of the woman who parted with this shilling.
They were not thought-readers, because they did not describe what was
passing in Mr. Stead’s mind. Mr. Stead’s experiences fairly illustrate
the exercise, in the earlier stages of employment, of the psychometric
faculty.
While engaged writing the “Real Ghost Stories,” Mr. Stead says:--“My
attention was called to a young lady, Miss Catherine Ross, of 41 High
Street, Smethwick, Birmingham, who, being left with an invalid sister
to provide for, and without other available profession or industry,
bethought herself of a curious gift of reading character, with which
she seems to have been born, and had subsequently succeeded in earning
a more or less precarious income by writing out characters at the
modest fee of 5s. You sent her any article you pleased that had been in
contact with the object, and she sent you by return a written analysis
of the subject’s character. I sent her various articles from one person
at different times, not telling her they were from the same person. At
one time a tuft of hair from his beard, at another time a fragment of
a nail, and a third time a scrap of handwriting. Each delineation of
character differed in some points from the other two, but all agreed,
and they were all remarkably correct. When she sent the last she added,
‘I don’t know how it is, but I feel I have described this person
before.’ I have tried her since then with locks of hair from persons of
the most varied disposition, and have found her wonderfully correct.”
“All these things are very wonderful, but the cumulative value of the
evidence is too great for any one to pooh-pooh it as antecedently
impossible. The chances against it being a mere coincidence are many
millions to one.”
I believe had this young lady, or others thus endowed, had the
training, such as Buchanan, Denton, or other experienced teachers give
their pupils, she would make a high class psychometer.
Rev. Minot J. Savage had a paper in a recent number of _The Arena_, on
Psychical Research, etc., in which he said--“On a certain morning I
visited a psychometrist. Several experiments were made. I will relate
only one, as a good specimen of what has occurred in my presence more
than once. The lady was not entranced or, so far as I could see, in
any other than her normal condition. I handed her a letter which I had
recently received. She took it, and held it in her right hand, pressing
it close, so as to come into as vital contact with it as possible.
I had taken it out of its envelope, so that she might touch it more
effectively, but it was not unfolded even so much as to give her an
opportunity to see even the name. It was written by a man whom she had
never seen, and of whom she had never heard. After holding it a moment
she said, ‘This man is either a minister or a lawyer; I cannot tell
which. He is a man of a good deal more than usual intellectual power.
And yet he has never met with any success in life as one would have
expected, considering his natural ability. Something has happened to
thwart him and interfere with his success. At the present time he is
suffering with severe illness and mental depression. He has pain here’
(putting her hand to the back of her head, at the base of the brain).
“She said much more, describing the man as well as I could have done
it myself. But I will quote no more, for I wish to let a few salient
points stand in clear outline. These points I will number, for the sake
of clearness:--
1. “She tells me he is a man, though she has not even glanced at the
letter.”
2. “She says he is either a minister or a lawyer; she cannot tell
which. No wonder, for he was both; that is, he had preached for some
years, then he had left the pulpit, studied law, and at this time was
not actively engaged in either profession.”
3. “She speaks of his great natural ability. This was true in a most
marked degree.”
4. “But he had not succeeded as one would have expected. This again was
strikingly true. Certain things had happened--which I do not feel at
liberty to publish--which had broken off his career in the middle and
made his short life seem abortive.”
About eighteen years ago a lady in Swansea sent me a lock of hair,
and asked me to send her my impressions. I did so, which I remember
were not pleasant. I informed her, as near as my recollection now
serves, that the person to whom the hair belonged was seriously ill.
No earthly skill could do anything for him. Diagnosing the character
of the insidious disease which was then undermining a once powerful
and active organisation, I felt constrained to add he _would live six
weeks_. I held the envelope, with its contents, in my left hand, and
wrote the impressions as they came with my right. I remember hesitating
about sending that letter, but eventually sent it. The accuracy of
my diagnosis, description of the patient, and the fulfilment of the
prophecy as to his death were substantiated in a Swansea paper, _The
Bat_. The patient was no other than Captain Hudson, the British master
mariner who sailed the first ship on teetotal principles from a British
port, and who subsequently became one of the most powerful of British
mesmerists. The lady who sent the lock of hair was his wife, and the
lady who contributed the letter to the papers was his widow. Of similar
experiences Mrs. Coates and I have had many.
HOW TO CULTIVATE THE PSYCHOMETRIC FACULTY.
_Class Experiments._--The sensitives are not to be magnetised or
unduly influenced by positive manner and suggestions, but are to sit
in their normal state (and without mental effort or straining to find
out what they have in their hands), and simply give expression to
their impressions--sensations, tastes, etc., if any, and no matter
how strange to them these may be. Let the experimenter or operator
place different metallic substances in their hands, taking care that
these substances are carefully covered with tissue paper or other
light substance, which will help to hide their character, and at the
same time not prevent their influence being imparted, or try them with
medical substances. In those sufficiently sensitive, an emetic will
produce a feeling of nausea. The substance must be put down before it
causes vomiting. Geological specimens can be given--a shell, a tooth,
or tusk. Let the experimenter record the utterances patiently, and seek
confirmation of the description from an examination of the specimen
subsequently. He should not know what special specimen it is previous
to the psychometer’s declared opinion. Good specimens are best. Thus
a fragment of pottery, a piece of scori, or a bit of brick from, say,
Pompeii would present material from which the psychometrist could glean
strong and vivid impressions.
If a medical man is not satisfied as to the correct pathological
conditions of his patient, he might ask the psychometer to take some
article of the patient in hand, and get, in the sensitive’s own--and
therefore very likely untechnical--language, what he feels and sees
regarding this particular patient’s case. Unsuspected abscesses and
tumours have been correctly pointed out in this way.
In the same way a correct diagnosis of character can be given in many
instances more correctly, more subtle, and penetrating in detail, than
estimates built upon mere external and physical signs of temperament
and cranial contours.
Lay a coin on a polished surface of steel. Breathe upon it, and all
the surface will be affected save the portion on which the coin lay.
In a few minutes neither trace of breathing nor of the coin are likely
to be seen on the surface of the polished steel. Breathe again, and
the hitherto unseen image of the coin is brought to light. In like
manner, everything we touch records invisibly to us that action. Hand
your sensitive a letter which has been written in love or joy, grief
or pungent sorrow, and let them give expression to their sensations.
As the breath brought back the image on the steel, so will the nervous
and the psychic impressionability of the sensitive bring to light the
various emotions which actuated the writers who penned the letters.
Mr. G. H. Lewes says “that he has brushed the surface of the polished
plate with a camel’s-hair brush, yet on breathing upon it the image
of the coin previously laid upon it was distinctly visible.” The mere
casual handling of letters by intermediates will not obliterate the
influence of the original writers; they have permeated the paper with
their influence, so that, if a score or more of psychometrists held
the paper, they would coincide, perhaps not in their language, but in
their descriptions of the originals and the state of their minds while
writing.
The experimenter may help, by asking a few judicious but not leading
questions, to direct and guide the attention of the psychometrist. The
description will be a capital delineation of the individual who wrote
the letter. We have frequently tested the sincerity of correspondents,
real and other friends, by this process. If the results have sometimes
been unpleasant revelations, we have yet to find in any case that we
have been mistaken. How is the sensitive able to glean so much of the
real character of the original? one is inclined to ask. While writing,
sincerity and earnestness leave a deeper impression than indifference,
pretence, or ordinary come-to-tea politeness. Some letters are instinct
with the writer’s identity, individuality, masculinity, earnestness,
and enthusiasm. Others are lacking in these things, because the writers
were devoid of these qualities, while others vary at different times.
The writer writes as _his soul_ moves him, and the writing expresses
his aims and hopes as they appear to his external consciousness.
While writing, _his soul_ draws his image on the paper, and pictures
out thereon his real thoughts; and when the sensitive gets hold of
the letter, outstands the image of the writer and the imagery of his
thoughts. The psychic consciousness of the psychometer grasps the
details and describes them.
“The strange new science of psychometry” is of profound interest to
all. Psychometers are to be found in every household. The whole subject
is one about which a good deal more could be easily written, but this
must do.
Those who desire to understand psychometry cannot do better than
read up fully the literature of the subject, and those who desire to
practise psychometry may do much to ascertain whether they possess
the faculty in any degree; but all are warned to have nothing to do
with persons who undertake to _develop_ their powers, a _self-evident
absurdity_.
CHAPTER V.
Thought-Transference and Telepathy.
Thought-Transference is evidently a phase of psychic perception. In
some respects it bears a greater relation to feeling than sight. It
is distinguished from pure clairvoyance by the result of experiment.
For instance, suppose I had in the Rothesay case designed M. C., the
clairvoyante, should see “a maid in the room, dressed in a black
dress, with neat white collar and cuffs, wearing a nicely-trimmed
white apron, and a white tulle cap with bows and streamers, or that
a black-and-white spotted cat lay comfortably coiled up upon the
hearth-rug, or some other strongly-projected mental image.” Now,
suppose while M. C. was examining the room, she declared she _saw_
the maid, and described her, or the cat, or other objects projected
from my mind, and described these, then this would be a case of
thought-transference.
There is a distinction between thought-transference and
thought-reading. It is no mere fanciful distinction either.
Thought-transference occurs when the ideas, thoughts, and emotions of
one mind are projected by intense action and received by the sensitive
and impressionable mind of another--awake or asleep is immaterial--so
long as it occurs without pre-arrangement and contact.
Telepathy is a more vivid form of sudden and unexpected
thought-transference, in which the intense thoughts and wishes of one
person, more or less in sympathy, are suddenly transferred to the
consciousness of another. The thoughts transmitted are often so intense
as to be accompanied by the vision of the person, and by the sound of
their voice.
Telepathy bears about the same relation to thought-transference
as “second sight” does to clairvoyance. Thought-transference and
clairvoyance can be cultivated. Not so telepathy and second sight.
They are phenomena, which belong to the unexpected, portents of the
unusual, or sudden revelations of what is, and what is about to happen.
Doubtless, there are conditions more favourable than others for
inception of these. One needs to be “in spirit on the Lord’s day,” or
any day, before telepathic and second sight messages are secured. Hence
it is noticed telepathic revelations mostly come in the quietude of the
evening, just before sleep, between sleep and waking, and under similar
conditions favourable to passivity and receptivity in the sensitive or
percipient.
In thought-reading both operator and sensitive are aware that
something is to be done, and indications, intentional or otherwise,
are given to make the thought-reader find out what is required. More
or less sensitiveness is required in both phases. In telepathy and
thought-transference the psychic elements are in the ascendency; in
thought-reading they may be more or less present, but intention,
sensitiveness, and muscular contact are adequate enough, I think, to
account for the phenomena, as witnessed at public entertainments--so
far, at least, as these entertainments are genuine.
How do we think? what are thoughts? and how are thoughts transferred?
are reasonable questions, and merit more elaborate solution than is
possible in an elementary work like this.
We think in pictures: words are but vehicles of thought. In
thought-transference we can successfully project actions, or a series
of actions, by forming in our minds a scene or picture of what is done
and what is to be reproduced. When, however, we think of a sentence
consisting of few or many words, there is nothing more difficult to
convey. Words belong to our external life here, and are but arbitrary
expressions and signs for what in the internal or soul-life is flashed
telepathically from mind to mind.
Thoughts are things for good or ill, veritable and living realities,
apart from our exterior selves, independent of words. The more words,
often the less thought. Try to teach a child by the slow, dry-as-dust
method of words, and the road to knowledge is hard and wearisome.
Convey the same thoughts by illustrations and experiments, and the
child’s mind at once grasps the ideas we desire to convey.
Thoughts are living entities (how poor are words!) which our own
souls have given birth to, or created in the intensity of our love,
wisdom, or passion. One Eastern adept has taught, “A good thought is
perpetuated as an active, beneficent power, an evil one as a malignant
demon. The Hindoo calls this _karma_. The adept evolves these shapes
consciously; other men throw them off unconsciously.” How true in our
experience! The thoughts of some men blast, while those of others
bless. There is wisdom in thinking deliberately, intelligently, and
therefore conscientiously, not passionately, impulsively, or carelessly.
In thought-transference the reproduction of exact words and dates seems
to be most difficult. Indeed, the transmission of arbitrary words and
signs is apparently the most difficult. The reason, I conclude, is,
ideas belong to our inner, real, and spiritual life, and names, words,
and dates to our exterior existence. The ideas can be expressed in the
language of the sensitive, according to culture or the want of it. If
the true lineaments of the picture are given, need we be too exacting
as to the special frame surrounding the picture?
Notwithstanding the difficulty in transference and the reading of the
exact words, this has also been frequently done. A very high state of
receptivity and sensitiveness, however, is necessary in the percipient.
An incident of exact word-reading is related by Gerald Massey, the
distinguished philosopher and poet. Mr. Massey met Mr. Home at the
London terminus just on his (Mr. Massey’s) arrival from Hertfordshire.
Home and he entered into conversation, during which Home suddenly said
“he hoped Mr. Massey would go on with his poem.”
“What did he mean?” asked Mr. Massey.
“The poem,” replied Home, “you composed four lines of just now in the
train.”
This was surprising to Mr. Massey, who had actually composed, but had
not written, the four lines of a new poem on the journey. Mr. Massey
challenged Mr. Home to repeat the lines, which Home did word for word.
How are thoughts transferred? No one can positively say. There are
theories enough--the _theory of brain-waves_ and of _a universal
impalpable elastic ether_, of _undulating motions_, or other more or
less materialistic hypothesis.[E]
We know there are no psychic phenomena without their corresponding
physical correlatives, and, in this life at least, these are in
thoughts evolved without producing corresponding molecular changes in
the brain.
We notice the human brain is capable of being, and is, acted upon
daily by much less subtle influences than mental impressions. We can
appreciate light impinged upon our cerebral centres at the rate of
millions of undulations, and sound as the result of 20,000 to 30,000
vibrations per second. So sensitives, when in the mesmeric or psychic
states, are readily acted upon, and respond as in thought-transference
to our thoughts and sensations, and veritably read our minds,
because of the _rapport_ or sympathy thus established. Whether they
become percipients of the nerve-vibrations which escape from our own
sensoriums or not, what does it matter _if they can, as they frequently
do_, read our minds?
“Professor Wheaton,” says Hudson Tuttle, “devised a means of
illustrating sympathy. If a sounding board is placed so as to resound
to all instruments of the orchestra, and connected by a metallic rod
of considerable length with the sounding board of a harp or piano, the
instrument will accurately repeat the notes transmitted.
“The nervous system, in its two-fold relation to the physical and
spiritual being, is inconceivably more finely organised than the most
perfect musical instrument, and is possessed of finer sensitiveness.
“It must not be inferred that all minds are equally receptive. Light
falls on all substances alike, but is very differently affected by
each substance. One class of bodies absorb all but the yellow rays,
another all but the blue, another all but the red, because these
substances are so organised that they respond only to the waves of the
colours reflected.”
All persons do not hear alike. They receive certain sounds and are deaf
to all others, although the sound-waves strike all tympanums alike.
All persons do not see alike. Some perceive colours, others cannot
distinguish between one colour and another, or can only see the more
striking colours--fineness of shade they do not perceive. So there are
individuals who cannot receive mental impressions, unless, indeed,
they are conveyed in the baldest and most esoteric manner. In a word
to convey and receive impressions they must be sent along the line of
the least resistance, that of _true sympathy_. There must be one mind
adequate to the projection, and another mind sufficiently sensitive to
receive and record the thoughts projected.
TRANSFERENCE OF TASTE IN THE MESMERIC STATE.
The operator will slowly eat or taste half-a-dozen lozenges or sweets
of different flavours, and the subject or sensitive most in sympathy
with him will also in imagination eat of and describe the taste of the
various sweets, concerning which he has no other knowledge than the
thoughts of eating and tasting, which are transmitted to him from the
brain of the operator. The mere eating of the lozenges by the operator,
without his being fully aware of the fact, will deepen the impression
on the operator’s mind, and help to concentrate his energies for the
transmission of his ideas or mental suggestions to his subject.
A step or two further and we find with greater sensitiveness the
sensitives can read the thoughts of the operator, whether the thoughts
were transmitted intentionally or not.
“We are compelled (says Dr. Hands) to acknowledge that certain
emanating undulations from the sensorium can generate different series
of thoughts, and that the trembling organisation, or parts of it, can,
by flinging or throwing off distinct or particular pulsatory waves,
inoculate or produce like vibrations in another person’s brain, making
up in it identical thoughts, followed by like feelings, and often
in this way, perhaps, capable of inciting, _through sympathy_, like
enactments of deeds and pursuits.”
THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE IN DREAMS.
The following interesting letter appeared in _The Phrenological
Magazine_ (p. 260, April, 1890), and as I know of the _bona-fides_ of
the writer, I have much pleasure in reproducing it:--
“Dear Sir,--This morning, at a little before four o’clock, I awoke as
the outcome of great mental distress and grief through which I had
just passed in a dream, my body trembling and in a cold perspiration.
I had been walking with my little boy, aged five and a half years, and
some friends. A heavy rain overtaking us, we stood up for shelter; and
venturing forth into a maze of streets, I missed my two friends, who,
threading among the people, had turned into a side street without my
noticing. Looking for them, my boy slipped from me, and was lost in
the crowd. I became bewildered by the strange labyrinth of streets
and turnings, and quickly taking one of them which gave an elevated
position, I looked down on the many windings, but could nowhere see
my boy. It was to me an unknown locality, and, running down among the
people, I was soon sobbing aloud in my distress, and calling out the
name of the child, when I awoke. With wakefulness came a sense of
relief and thankfulness. Gladly realising that the whole was only a
dream, and still scarcely awake, I was startled by a cry of terror
and pain from an adjoining bedroom--such a cry as could not be left
unheeded. It came from the same child, and pierced me with a distinct
sense of pain. I was immediately by his side. My voice calmed him. ‘I
thought I was lost’ was all he could say, and doubtless he was soon
composed and asleep again. To me the coincidence was too remarkable
and without parallel in my own experience. Later on, at breakfast, the
child gave further his dream that he _had been out with me and was
lost_. I am only familiar with such things in my reading. Mr. Coates’s
article in last month’s _Phrenological Magazine_ (page 143) mentions
that, ‘when the Prince Imperial died from assegai thrusts in Zululand,
his mother in England felt the intensity of his thoughts at the time,
felt the savage lance pierce her own side, and knew or felt at the
time that she was childless.’ But I am not of the _spirituelle_ type,
with only a thin parchment separation between this life of realities
and the great beyond, of those who, privileged to live in close touch
with the future, are the subjects of premonitions and warnings. My
spirituality 4 to 5 and reflectives 6 point rather the other way, but
I shall, nevertheless, hold tight to the lad. What is the underlying
cause of the coincidence? Which of the two minds influenced the other,
if either?--Yours truly,
“G. Cox.
“16 Bramfield Road,
Wandsworth Common, April 20, 1890.”
In this case of thought-transference, I am inclined to the opinion
that the father’s mind influenced that of the boy, the son being the
more sensitive of the two. Mr. Cox dreamt an ordinary but pretty vivid
dream, which aroused from its nature vivid and intense anxiety on
his part. A similar train of thought was awakened in the child. If
thought-transference occurs in waking life, why not in sleep, when,
as abundant telepathic instances testify, the phenomenon is of most
frequent occurrence.
THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE AT SEA.
The percipient was Captain G. A. Johnson, of the schooner “Augusta
H. Johnson.” He had sailed from Quero for home. On the voyage he
encountered a terrible hurricane. On the second day he saw a disabled
brig, and near by a barque. He was anxious to reach home, and, thinking
the barque would assist the brig, continued on.
But the impression came that he must turn back and board the brig. He
could not shake it off, and at last he, with four men, boarded the brig
in a dory. He found her deserted, and made sail in her. After a time
they saw an object ahead, appearing like a man on a cake of ice. The
dory was again manned, and set to the rescue. It proved to be the mate
of the barque “Leawood” clinging to the bottom of an overturned boat,
which, being white, appeared in the distance as ice.
The captain’s sensitiveness may have been aroused by the exhaustion of
so much wakefulness and care during the length of the storm, the sight
of the derelict and deserted brig; at the same time the premonitions
were opposed to his own desire and anxiety to get home.
THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE FROM THE DYING TO THE LIVING IN DREAM.
The following, by E. Ede, M.D., of Guilford (J.S.P.R., July, 1882):--
“Lady G. and her sister had been spending the evening with their
mother, who was in her usual health and spirits when they left her.
In the middle of the night the sister awoke in a fright, and said to
her husband, ‘I must go to my mother at once; do order the carriage.
I am sure she is ill.’ The husband, after trying in vain to convince
his wife that it was only a fancy, ordered the carriage. As she was
approaching the house, where two roads met, she saw lady G.’s carriage.
When they met, each asked the other why she was there. The same reply
was made by both--‘I could not sleep, feeling sure my mother was ill,
and so I came to see.’ As they came in sight, they saw their mother’s
confidential maid at the door, who told them when they arrived that
their mother had taken suddenly ill, and was dying, and had expressed
an earnest wish to see her daughters.”
The percipients having been so lately in company and sympathy with
their mother possibly rendered them more susceptible to her influence.
THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE FROM THE DEAD (?) TO THE LIVING IN DREAM.
Related by Mr. Myers, page 208, Proceedings S.P.R., July, 1892:--
“About March, 1857, Mrs. Mennier, in England, dreamt that she saw her
brother, whose whereabouts she did not know, standing headless at the
foot of the bed with his head lying in a coffin by his side. The dream
was at once mentioned. It afterwards appeared that at about the time
the head of the brother seen, Mr. Wellington, was actually cut off by
the Chinese at Sarawak.” On this case, Mr. Gurney remarks--“This dream,
if it is to be telepathically explained, must apparently have been
due to the last flash of thought in the brother’s consciousness. It
may seem strange that a definite picture of his mode of death should
present itself to a man in the instant of receiving an unexpected and
fatal blow; but, as Hobbes said, ‘Thought is quick.’ The coffin, at
any rate, may be taken as an item of death-imagery supplied by the
dreamer’s mind.”
“We have now, however,” says Mr. Myers, “seen a letter from Sir James
Brookes (Rajah of Sarawak), and an extract from the _Straits Times_ of
March 21st, 1857, in the (London) _Times_ for April 29th, 1857, which
makes it, I think, quite conceivable that the dream was a reflection
of knowledge acquired after death, and the head on the coffin had a
distinct meaning.” Sir James Brookes says:--“Poor Wellington’s remains
were consumed [by the Chinese]; his head, borne off in triumph, alone
attesting his previous murder.” The _Straits Times_ says:--“The head
was given up on the following day. The head, therefore, and the head
alone, must have been buried by Mr. Wellington’s friends; and its
appearance in the dream _on the coffin_, with a headless body standing
beside it, is a coincidence even more significant than the facts which
Mr. Gurney had before him when he wrote.”
The transmission of thought from a spirit discarnate to one incarnate,
whose body was asleep, should not be esteemed impossible. Abundant
instances, equally well substantiated, might be recorded did space
permit.
THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE IN PRAYER.
This may be a common experience, but only once in my life have I had
conscious knowledge of anything so remarkable. For some years before
devoting my attention to these subjects, I resided in Liverpool, and
had been a member of the Zion Methodist Church, or Chapel, in Everton,
and in time was duly placed on the local preachers’ plan. In this
capacity I became acquainted with a worthy old man--a chapel-keeper,
who looked after the meeting house situated in ---- street. He had
been an old soldier, and possessed something of the faith of the Roman
centurion. Poor in the things of this world, he was rich in the
sublimity of his love to God and the nobility and purity of his life. I
never think of “Old Daddy Walker” but his character and this incident
comes to my mind, viz.:--One morning I was hurrying down West Derby
Road to business, and, indeed had got halfway down Brunswick Road, when
I commenced to think about old Walker (I had not seen or thought of him
for some months). I attempted to throw aside my impressions, as passing
thoughts. No use. I became worried about him, and was asking myself
questions. “Was he ill?” “Maybe, he is in want?” “I think I will hurry
back and see?” I had not much time to spare. It would consume fully
twenty minutes to walk back. After hesitating, I went up Brunswick Road
and up West Derby Road, and to ---- Street, and tapped at the door of
his house. There was no response. The street door was slightly ajar. I
went in, and found the old pair on their knees in the kitchen. He was
engaged in earnest prayer. After kindly salutations, I apologised for
intruding, and told him, as I went to business, “I had been bothered
about him in my mind, and did not feel satisfied until I had seen him,
and knew the truth.” He told me, as near as I can recollect, “He was at
his last extremity. There was no food or fuel in the house, he had no
money, and he had been putting the whole case before the Lord.” I had
half a sovereign about me, which I had taken out of the house for an
entirely different purpose. This I gave to him. The old man, rubbing a
tear from his eye, looking at his wife, said: “Mary, don’t thee doubt
the Lord anymore. I said He would help, and He has given me what I
asked for.” Old Walker went on to explain, not only his bad fix, but
that he had no money to buy firewood with. He meant that he bought up
old wood and tar-barrels, which he cut up into lengths and made into
bundles, and sold for firewood; and that he had asked the Lord for ten
shillings, as he wanted that sum to buy a certain lot which could be
obtained for that amount. The old man obtained what he asked for. He
believed the Lord had answered his prayer.
THOUGHT TRANSMISSION IN PRAYER.
Since writing the above, the following came under my notice. In the
J.S.P.R., May, 1885, Dr. Joseph Smith, Warrington, England, says:--
“I was sitting one evening reading, when a voice came to me, saying:
‘Send a loaf to James Grady’s.’ I continued reading, and the voice
continued with greater emphasis, and this time it was accompanied with
an irresistible impulse to get up. I obeyed, and went into the village
and bought a loaf of bread, and, seeing a lad at the shop door, I
asked him if he knew James Grady. He said he did, so I bade him carry
it and say a gentleman sent it. Mrs. Grady was a member of my class,
and I went next morning to see what came of it, when she told me a
strange thing happened to her last night. She said she wished to put
the children to bed, they began to cry for want of food, and she had
nothing to give them. She then went to prayer, to ask God to give them
something. Soon after which the lad came to the door with the loaf. I
calculated, on inquiry, that the prayer and the voice I heard exactly
coincided in point of time.”
“More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of.”
Those who know anything of Methodism, will know this. The Methodists
have a profound faith in prayer, and also there is a very close
relationship between a class-leader and his members. Dr. Smith was,
therefore, all the more likely to be the percipient of the woman’s
earnest and intense prayer to God to feed her hungry children. The
Infinite must have an infinite variety of ways of fulfilling His own
purposes. Is it unreasonable to suppose that prayer to Him may not be
answered indirectly “through means”? and that thought-transference, as
in this instance, may be one of the means? If not, why not?
Charitable institutions are maintained; orphans saved, reared, and
educated; missions of mercy organised, and the necessary means found by
the agency of prayer. Beside “the angels,” in That Sphere just beyond
the ken of the physical, may not our waves of thought, projected by
prayer, be impinged upon, and directly affect susceptible minds in
this world, by directing their attention to those works of faith and
goodness? Prayer is the language of love, and the outcome of true
helplessness and need. A praying man is an earnest man. In prayer
thoughts are things--bread upon the waters.
THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE IN DISTRESS.
I withhold the names for family reasons. Mr. ---- had been in business
in Glasgow for nearly thirty years, and, from comparatively small
beginnings, had been very successful. Latterly, he and his family
resided in ----, a suburb of Glasgow. Both in the city and in this
district Mr. ---- was very much respected, being a church member and
holding office in ---- Free Church. For some time Mr. ---- had been
ailing, and his medical attendant advised him to take a sea voyage--a
thorough change, etc. In compliance with this advice, he took a trip
up the Mediterranean. Miss ----, a distant relative of his, had been
visiting Glasgow, and, being on terms of intimacy with the family,
knew of his departure from Glasgow. About two weeks after he left, she
also left Glasgow for Edinburgh. While in the train for Edinburgh, she
was overcome with great anxiety for Mrs. ----, his wife. Unable to
shake the feeling off, instead of going to Edinburgh, she actually got
out of the train halfway, at Falkirk, and took the next train back
to Glasgow, and went to her friend’s house, whom she found in great
distress. Mrs. ---- had, about the time Miss ---- became distressed
in the train, received word that her husband was found dead (having
committed suicide) in his berth on the steamer at Constantinople. The
state of mind of the newly-made widow re-acted on that of Miss ----.
As Miss ---- was not only a dear friend, but was noted for her earnest
piety, the widow at once earnestly desired to see her. When last
these two friends saw each other, everything seemed to contribute to
happiness and comfort. Mrs. ---- was looking forward hopefully for the
return of her husband, restored in health, to herself and children.
THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE IN ORDINARY EXPERIENCE.
Whether thought-transference is a “relic of a decaying faculty,” or the
“germ of a new and fruitful sense,” daily experience in the lives of
most furnish abundant evidence of the existence of such a power. My own
life has supplied me with abundant evidence of the fact. It is a common
occurrence with us for either my wife or I to utter or give expression
to the thoughts which, for the time being, occupied the conscious plane
in the other. It is possible there may have been, as there has been in
some instances, some half phrase uttered or manner shown, which in the
one have aroused the thoughts expressed by the other.
It has been our habit for several years to stay at Rothesay during the
summer season. As an instance of thought-transference quite common
in our experience;--On Saturday, 1st October, 1892, I went to the
Revision Court at the Town Hall to hear registration disputes settled
between Tory and Gladstonian lawyers. Finding nothing to interest me,
I entered into conversation with Mr. Thompson, jeweller and hardware
merchant, whom I met in the Court, and went with him to his shop in
Montague Street, Rothesay. Standing at his door a short time, I noticed
a solitary pair of shamrock earrings, composed of crystal brilliants
and gold, lying on a tray, with a number of other earrings, in one of
the windows. I inquired the price, as I felt sure Mrs. Coates would be
pleased with them. They were packed up in a neat box, and I took them
home. At dinner, I gave the box to my wife, who said, “What is this,
papa?”
“Open and see,” I replied.
Animated with a little curiosity, she did, and, as soon as she saw
the earrings, said, “Thompson’s! Well, papa, that is funny. James (my
little son) and I stood at Thompson’s window last night, and I admired
these earrings. I thought them so neat, and that they would match my
brooch. I thought I would like to have them, and then I thought to
myself, no; I will not spend the money. I pointed them out to James,
and said to him, I am sure if papa saw them, he would buy them--and
here you have brought them home. I cannot tell you how much I prize
them.”
My little boy said, “Thought-reading again, papa!” and, with a good
laugh, we proceeded to discuss our dinner. Mrs. Coates had not been in
the habit of seeing this particular window, and I am not in the habit
of buying jewellery.
I record this trifle here, as one of our common experiences, and I am
satisfied similar experiences are common to all.
Another experience is the anticipation of letters and their contents.
This is most frequent in the morning, just before rising. I frequently
see the letters and the shape of the envelope and style of address
before I actually see the letters on my consulting table.
The most common experience of all is recognised by the adage, “Think
of the Devil, and he will appear.” I have noted this in particular.
Sitting at the table, there is “popped” into my mind a thought of
someone. I will remark, “I think Mr. or Mrs. ---- will be here to-day,”
and they come. Certainly, all who have come in this way have been
relatives or friends; and although they appear subsequent to the
thought of them, the evidence in favour of thought-transference may not
be esteemed conclusive. I say it is a common experience. I don’t think
we should despise any experience, because it is common. To be common,
indicates there is a basis, amounting to a psychic law, to account for
its existence.
Another common experience is the crossing of letters. One person
suddenly recollects “So-and-so;” and writes them a letter excusing
delay in writing, retailing news, and in all probability writing on
some subject more particularly than on others. Strange to say, the
person you have written to, has also been engaged writing to you about
the same time and on similar subjects. Both have possibly posted their
letters at such a time that the delivery has been crossed. I do not say
this proves anything; yet I cannot help thinking the experience is too
frequent to be accounted for by the usual explanation of accident or
coincidence.
Mark Twain’s article on “Mental Telegraphy” is fresh in the minds of
most magazine readers. Whether that article had a basis in the writer’s
actual experience or not, it is a pretty common experience with most
literary men.
“Distance,” says Mr. Tuttle, “has inappreciable influence on the
transference of thought. It may take place in the same room, or where
the two persons are thousands of miles apart. As a personal experience,
I will relate one of many similar incidents which have awakened my
attention to this wonderful phenomenon. Sitting by my desk one evening,
suddenly as a flash of light, the thought came to write an article for
the _Harbinger of Light_, published at Melbourne, Australia. I had,
by correspondence, become acquainted with the editor, W. H. Terry, but
there had been no letters passed for many a year. I had not thought
of him or his journal for I do not know how long a time, and I was
amused at first with the idea of writing on the subject suggested.
But the impression was so strong that I prepared and forwarded an
article. Nearly two months passed before I received a letter from Mr.
Terry, requesting me to write an article on the subject on which I have
written; and, making due allowance for time, the date of our letters
were the same. In our experience, this crossing of letters answering
each other has twice occurred--the second by Mr. Terry answering a
request of mine.”
Dr. Charles W. Hidden, of Newburyport, Mass., U.S.A., reports a
somewhat similar experience to that of Mark Twain and the above, which
was reported in a recent number of the _Religio-Philosophical Journal_:
A very peculiar plot impressed itself upon his mind, and he immediately
based a story upon the plot. He read the story to his family, and was
about to send it to a publication to which his wife had recently become
a subscriber. When the next number arrived he opened it to learn how to
forward his manuscript, and great was his surprise to find on the first
page a story bearing the title of his own, and a plot almost identical
with that which he had written. Parts of the published article appeared
word for word. It is needless to add that Dr. Hidden tossed his
manuscript into his desk, and it is there yet. His explanation is,
that he caught the title and the plot from another, just as Mark Twain
caught the plot of the “Big Bonanza” from his friend Simmons.
It would be nigh impossible to illustrate the various phases of
thought-transference, ranging, as they do, from the association of
ideas which may be aroused by a hint, a half-uttered word, or a
gesture, to the unmistakable facts of pure mental transference,
and, higher still, to the region of pure psychism, where spirit
influences inspire and direct spirit, and thought-bodies are no longer
recognised as mere subjective spirits but living and tangible objective
personalities, albeit discarnate.
We can say truly with Voltaire, “There is a power that acts within us,
without consulting us.”
CHAPTER VI.
Thought-Reading Experiments.
Having satisfactory evidence of the reality of thought-transference,
it would be interesting to know if this power or faculty can be
cultivated, and if so, how? I propose in this chapter to show how this
can be done, and how to give thought-reading entertainments.
Experimental mind-reading may be distinguished, for the sake of study,
as the abnormal, the normal, and the spurious.
The abnormal, that which takes place in trance, dream, vision, or
which may be the product of artificial somnambulism or of some
super-sensitive condition of the nervous system, through disease. We
observe thought-transference in these conditions, rather than attempt
to cultivate it.
The normal, where the phenomena takes place in the ordinary waking
state, _without muscular contact_.
The spurious mind-reading, so-called, as the result of musculation or
_contact_, but which is, in fact, only muscle-reading.
In both the abnormal and normal, direct transference of thought
from mind to mind can only take place when there is the necessary
development of psychic activity in the agent or operator, and the
equally necessary sensitiveness in the sensitive or percipient.
Classed under muscle-reading are those performances and games in which
the sensitive reads not the mind, but some special desire (of those
with whom he or she may be placed _in contact_), by a “careful study
of the indications unconsciously given by the agent or operator to the
percipient or reader.”
In both abnormal and normal thought-reading, then, are presented
innumerable instances of the possession of psychic faculties; in the
muscle-reading phase there may be, and it is possible all successful
“readers” have, more or less sensitiveness, to take impressions.
To cultivate mind-reading in a sensitive, the operator should first
cultivate in himself the habit of projecting mental pictures, and
think of things as seen by the eye, rather than as described by words.
This is best done by calling to mind a landscape or domestic scene, by
conceiving and mentally building up the same, and, by degrees, getting
each feature or detail well stamped in his mind.
It is well in the beginning of these experiments to make the scene as
simple, and yet as natural and as complete in detail, as possible. For
instance, let the operator think of such a picture as this:--A bright
little landscape, having a well-defined cottage on the left, just on
the margin of a small lake; boat with two figures in the foreground;
rising bank upon the right; and a little higher up a defined windmill,
well thrown out by the perspective of blue-ridged and undulating
mountains, and sky in the background.
The agent, having satisfied himself of his sensitive’s whole or
partial powers of psychic perception, might ask:--“Do you see anything
now?” and quickly and deliberately go to work, meanwhile formulating
definitely such a picture as the above; even allowing himself to get
into ecstacies over the scene--peopling the cottage and the mill, and
introducing imaginary conversation between the individual dwellers
therein, and so on. The sensitive will describe the whole as the
same is _felt_ or perceived. This experiment may appear to some to
be impossible, but the word impossible belongs to the limitations of
sense, and not to the range of the things possible to the human spirit.
Some sensitives and mediums take impressions from their
surroundings--their clairvoyant revelations are often nothing more
than so much Mind-reading. _Nothing more_; but this nothing more is a
great deal. Certainly, it may not prove the existence of spirit, apart
from the sensitive’s own powers; but it does prove that man has other
avenues of knowledge than those with which he is usually credited.
The development of mind-reading in the psychic states may be encouraged
by a little judicious assistance or direction. Invite the sensitive
to pay attention to So-and-so; to visit places, to examine rooms, or
describe people whom the sensitive has never seen. But the places,
the rooms, and the persons must be _distinctly in the minds_ of those
persons, or agents, with whom he or she is placed in _rapport_.
During these experiments the sensitive will say, “I _see_ this,” or
describe that other, as if he actually saw. Hence the infinitely close
relationship of mind-reading to clairvoyance. Thought-reading in
spiritualism will be referred to in the next chapter.
Once possessing a good sensitive, the development of the power, as
a matter of fact, lies particularly in the operator’s ability to
concentrate and focus his thoughts--to think clearly, calmly, vividly,
and distinctly himself--and to deliberately and conscientiously project
the same.
THE NORMAL EXPERIMENTS WITHOUT CONTACT.
A pleasant hour or so can be profitably filled up on a long winter’s
evening with experiments in mind reading, without resorting to
mesmerism. It will be found that there are mind-readers in every
family--some boy, girl, or young woman more sensitive than the rest to
impressions.
Sometimes it has been found, when two or more persons think of the
same object, as in the “willing game,” the impression becomes more
vivid, and the sensitive finds, or describes, the article, or thing,
more easily. It has been left to the versatility of Professor Lodge,
of the University College, Liverpool, to project two distinct images
at the same time to a sensitive. He requested two friends to look at
a paper that he had given to each. On one paper a square was drawn,
and on the other an oblique cross. Neither person knew what the other
was looking at, and after they had looked intently at these diagrams
for a short time, the sensitive, who was in a normal condition, but
blindfold, said:--“I see two figures--first I see one, and then,
below that, another. I do not know which I am to draw. I cannot see
either plainly.” Having been requested to draw what she saw, she drew
a square, with an oblique cross inside of it. On being questioned,
she replied that she did not know why she placed the cross in the
square. The two images projected by distinct minds, intermingled, and
were produced, as narrated by Professor Lodge. We can readily see
that confusion will arise where a number of persons are thinking of
different subjects, or when some positive-minded individual declares
mind-reading to be an impossibility.
Something after the above experiments of Professor Lodge are those
which were conducted by Mr. Guthrie, a London barrister, and reported
by him to the Society of Psychical Research.
A number of diagrams, roughly drawn off-hand at the time, were shown to
the agent or precipitant, Mr. G., the subject, or percipient, a lady,
being blind-fold. During the process of transference, the agent looked
steadily and in silence at the drawing, the subject meanwhile sitting
opposite to him, and behind the stand on which the drawing lay, so
that it was entirely out of her range of vision had her eyes not been
blind-folded.
The agent stopped looking at the drawing when the subject professed
herself ready to make the attempt to reproduce it. The time occupied
thus was from half a minute to two or three minutes. Then the
handkerchief was removed, and she drew with a pencil what had occurred
to her mind.
[Illustration: RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS IN THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.]
[Illustration: RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS IN THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.]
The reproductions were made generally without the agent following or
watching the process. We reproduce several of the attempts here, giving
both the successes and the failures. Even the failures show the effect
Mr. G. produced upon the reader’s mind.
The experiments conducted so successfully in the family of the Rev.
Mr. Creery, of Boston, and made public by Professor Barrett in _The
Journal of Psychical Research_, show to what extent thought-reading
may be successfully carried on in the quietude and confidence of a
well-regulated family.
The mode of procedure adopted by Professor Barrett to test the faculty
as possessed by the children was as follows:--“One of the children,”
says Professor Barrett, “was sent into an adjoining room, the door of
which I saw was closed. On returning to the sitting-room, and closing
the door also, I thought upon some object in the house, fixed upon at
random. Writing the name down, I showed it to the family present, the
strictest silence being preserved throughout. We then all silently
thought of the name of the thing selected. In a few seconds the door
of the adjoining room was heard to open, and after a short interval
the child would enter the sitting-room, generally speaking, with the
object selected. No one was allowed to leave the sitting-room after
the object had been fixed upon, and no communication with the child
was conceivable, as her place was often changed. Further, the only
instructions given to the child were to fetch some objects in the house
that I would think upon and, together with the family, silently keep in
mind, to the exclusion as far as possible of all other ideas.”
Now, if Professor Barrett had told the children to select a word, and
upon coming into the room were to spell or state what the word was, I
question if the experiments would have been so successful. The articles
thought of, whether a hair brush, an orange, wine glass, apple, or a
playing card, were of such a nature that a definite picture or image of
the thing thought of could be formed in the mind. The father, mother,
and even Professor Barrett, seem to have been especially in _rapport_
with the little sensitives, and thus all the more readily were they
able to transmit the mental picture of the articles selected. Trick or
collusion in this case is absolutely out of the question. It would be
interesting to know if these young sensitives, who were so bright in
1881, still retain, or have increased or lost, their powers.
There were 312 trials made during Professor Barrett’s stay of six
days, who adds--“One most striking piece of success, when the things
selected were divulged to none of the family, was five cards running
named correctly on the first trial--the odds against this happening
once in our series, being considerably over one million to one. We had
altogether a good many similar batches, the two longest runs being
eight consecutive successes, once with cards and once with names,
when the adverse odds in the former case were over one hundred and
forty-two millions to one, and on the latter, something incalculably
greater. _Walls and closed doors made no difference._” [The italics are
mine.--J.C.]
Something after the foregoing style are drawing-room entertainments
given. If failure result, no one is blamed, and ridiculous mistakes
only lend pleasure to the company, where all are known one to the other.
The usual method is to select someone for thought-reader. Lady or
gentleman, matters little. He or she is sent out of the room. Some
one in the room generally takes the lead, who may suggest the article
to be selected and hidden, which the thought-reader is to find. The
article selected is thought of by the entire company. The reader is
to go to the place where it is, lift it, put it down, or give it to
some one else; or to find a certain book and remove it from its place
on table or elsewhere, and put it somewhere else; to come in and sit
on a certain chair or to lead someone else to it, or perform whatever
other test that is decided upon. The reader is admitted into the
room, and, if at all receptive, will do or say something like what is
desired--often going direct to the spot, lifting the article, or doing
the things which the company have decided upon.
A good plan is to get the assistance of one or two friends, use a bag
of counters, upon which numbers 10 to 100 are placed; also a smaller
bag with numbers 1 to 9. Let the sensitive sit at a table in such a
position, so as, if not blindfolded, he or she could not see what the
agent has in his hand. Use the small bag to begin with. Let one friend
hold the bag, another select a number. When both have carefully looked
at it, let it be handed to the agent, who shall fix his eyes steadily
upon the figure, and picture the said figure on his mind. The sensitive
will in one or two minutes either say or write down what the figure is.
If these experiments become satisfactory, the larger bag can be used.
The experiments with numbers must not be continued too long, and so
weary the faculty. In the same way a number of simple outline designs
can be used--these presented one by one to the agent or operator--a
fish, a boy and barrow, a fireman with escape, a negro and banjo, a
lecturer on platform, an orange, a book, etc., such as are found in
children’s school books; repeating the same processes as above. No one
must speak but the agent and the percipient, nor is the agent to know
what the numbers or designs are before the experiments are commenced.
Should failure occur, select another medium. In a company of twenty
to thirty persons it will be very strange if a good thought-reading
sensitive is not found. In which case, more serious experiments may be
attempted subsequently, and attain scientific value.
The thought-reader should be blindfolded, and _resign_ himself to the
_influence_ of the agent or operator. Although he understands that
something is expected of him, he is not to be anxious about what, but
simply _act_ as he _feels_ himself prompted.
In proportion as the sensitive is able to give up anxiety and desire,
so will he be able to become a good reader.
The operator, or agent, must concentrate his mind upon what is
required, and _will_ the sensitive to do it. When two or more persons,
or all in the room, _are_ concentrating their minds upon the thing,
object, or word, the sensitive may all the sooner be influenced; but
I prefer that one person should be chosen as the operator, and all
intended experiments be submitted to him.
The process is analogous to that of mesmerism. We see traces here of
the influence of mind over mind. We see the operator determines and
the subject performs, although it may not be very clear how thought is
actually projected, or in what way it is received, other than already
suggested.
Practice makes perfect in this as in other things. Success is
proportionate to success. A reader showing a degree of susceptibility
at first attempts will generally improve by subsequent efforts. In a
similar way, operators will make headway with practice. Some operators
and sensitives will be successful at first trial; others again have
failed after repeated attempts.
Plenty of time should be taken for all first attempts. Let the
operator, for instance, keep his mind thoroughly fixed on the object.
Should the reader be going away from it, let the agent strongly wish
him to go back, _touch_ it, lift it, etc., as previously decided upon
by the company.
All sensitive persons are likely to make good thought-readers; the less
sensitive, muscle-readers.
MUSCLE-READING ENTERTAINMENTS.
Thought-transference, like clairvoyance, is unequal in power and
manifestation, even with good percipients, and cannot be turned on
like, and with, the evening gas, to enlighten and entertain. Hence
those enterprising entertainers, like Bishop and Cumberland, depended
on “muscle-reading,” and “backed-up their show” with tricks, some of
them so puerile and barefaced that a third-rate conjuror would be
ashamed of them.
The general public, however, enjoyed these entertainments. They were
something new, and, like “angel’s visits,” were few and far between.
Not only so, but that wonderful combination, the general public, saw
that these entertainments were patronised by men of science, such as
Carpenter, Beard, Hammond, Baron Kelvin, and others deeply in love
with strictly materialistic hypothesis. They were also patronised by
“society.” These entertainers undertook to read thoughts and expose
spiritualism; and as the dear public loves mystery, it went. But the
dear public don’t like to be “taken in,” hence these performances are
generally repeated--in the next town.
The following, reported from St. John’s, N.B., January 17, 1887, in
the _Herald_, is a good illustration of the psychic and muscular
indications involved in an experiment of this kind:--“In a
‘mind-reading’ performance on Saturday night, after several examples
indoors, the ‘reader,’ a young man who belongs to this city, asked for
an outdoor test. The party separated, one remaining with the reader,
and hid a pin in the side of a little house used by the switchman of
the New Brunswick Railway at Mill Street. In their travels they went
over the new railway trestle, a most difficult journey. The reader
was blindfolded, and one took his wrist, but at the trestle hesitated,
fearing to venture, and was told by the reader to let go his wrist and
place his hand on his head. The subject did so, and the reader went
upon the trestle. Some of the party suggested that the bandage should
be removed, but he told them not to mind, and, the subject again taking
the wrist, he went over the ice and snow-covered sleepers. With a
firm step he crossed to the long wharf, went over as far as the mill
gates, then quickly turned, retraced his steps, and went back to the
corner of Mill Street. Here he rested a minute, then again took the
subject’s hand, and in less than five minutes afterwards found the pin.
At the conclusion of the test, the reader inquired what the matter had
been when they first reached the trestle. It was easily explained.
The storm had covered the sleepers with snow, and it was thought
dangerous, even for a man not blindfolded to cross them. The subject
felt anxious for the reader’s safety, and hesitated about going across.
The tests were most satisfactory.” Thought or mind-reading applied to
these experiments is a misnomer. If this young gentleman could “read
thoughts” by musculation, or _contact_, he would have known what the
matter had been when they first reached the trestle. Muscle-reading is
not thought-reading. Hence it is classified as spurious.
Any number of illustrations could be given of such entertainments. The
foregoing is sufficiently adequate to give an idea of how these muscle
(not thought) reading entertainments are given.
For drawing-room entertainments, first blindfold the reader, who is
conducted out of the room while the experiments are decided upon. The
blindfolding helps to mystify friends, who think the work is rendered
more difficult. As a matter of fact, the reader’s work is rendered much
more easy. It helps to isolate him, and leaves his mind much less
entrammelled by sights and impressions which would otherwise prevent
him receiving _the_ impressions which it is desirable he should receive.
Suppose the reader is to locate the seat of an imaginary pain, the
assistant or operator _pro tem._ will grasp[F] with his left hand
the sensitive’s right wrist and hold it firmly. While the reader is
endeavouring to locate the pain, the operator must give up his will,
and think intently on the situation of the pain. The reader will then
locate it.
There is less secret in this than appears at first sight. The
sensitive, or reader, is simply guided or led by the operator, and the
reader’s hand either stops partially over or is pressed upon the seat
of the pain. He then declares he has found the seat of the pain, and
points it out accordingly.
A somewhat similar method is adopted in finding the pin, or the _hole_
in which a pin _had been_. The racing and flying about of public
thought-readers are only so much “theatrical side,” thrown in to give
dramatic effect to their performances.
In reading the numbers on bank-notes, or spelling out certain words, a
board with the numerals and the alphabet (see front cover) is placed
in sight of the audience. The reader takes the wrist of the operator,
and, commencing at the left side of the board, proceeds from figure to
figure till he detects the right one. The operator thinks only of _one_
figure or letter at a time. This is the whole secret of “musculation.”
Even when the operators are sincere, and are careful to give no
conscious indications to the reader, yet it is almost certain, if they
keep their mind fixed on the desired figure or letter, object or place,
they will unconsciously indicate to the reader the right number or
letter.
To find an article, number, or do a certain act, it is necessary
for the reader to give prompt obedience to the indications given
him. The concentration of attention necessary can only come with
practice. No end of surprises and amusement will follow if the operator
honestly concentrates his mind upon the things to be done, and a good
muscle-reader is found to take up the indications. Apparently, the most
difficult feats are sometimes accomplished.
During the experiments, the reader will have curious sensations, such
as heaviness of feeling, dread and uncertainty, and then _blankness_
of mind, followed by an impulse to do something. If the reader can
keep his mind passive enough, he may receive impressions, as in
thought-transference; anyway, it is advisable to wait for the impulse
to move and to do. The highest percentages of success always follow.
General directions for the cultivation of experimental
thought-transference and mind-reading given in these pages are
sufficiently specific, to be found thoroughly practical by those who
have put them into practice; and certainly no harm, either mental or
physical, can come to those who are willing to give them a fair trial.
CHAPTER VII.
Spiritualism.
Any reference to Spiritualism here must be very brief, and, I am
afraid, very incomplete. I will deal with the subject in the light of
the preceding chapters.
It has been established on the clearest evidence that
thought-transference and reception between two nearly harmonised or
sympathetic human beings, or embodied human spirits, are possible, and
this without intermediate sense or physical agencies. If, then, between
mind and mind on earth, distance or space being no obstacle, matter no
hindrance, why not between mind disincarnate--if we can conceive of
mind apart from the human brain and organism--and mind incarnate? If
not, why not?
It seems to me very difficult, if we accept the first, to reject the
latter conclusion. If we accept the latter, we are committed in the
main to belief in Spiritualism, ancient and modern. If we admit that it
is possible for a disembodied spirit to communicate with us in dream,
vision, or, as in the case of Miss Howett, have our hands influenced to
write, or that we see and converse with spirits, as in the case of Mary
Reynolds, we then admit, and accept in the main, the essential features
of what is known as Spiritualism. The subject is not only interesting,
but of vital importance; therefore, I think, the fear of being called
a “Spiritualist,” or any other name, should not prevent us sounding to
the depths, the psychic possibilities of our human nature.
THE SPIRIT WITHIN US.
There is Spiritualism _and_ Spiritualism. That which I am most
interested in is not so much a hankering after spirits, “spirit
controls,” and the phenomena, generally recognised as the right thing
in certain circles, as that other Spiritualism which leads to an honest
endeavour on our parts to ascertain if we are spirits, here and now,
albeit clothed for the time being in an organic envelope, relating us
to our present estate.
If we are embodied spirits, it will be possible for the spirit-man (the
essential self--_ego_, I am), in each human being to communicate at
times, and under certain fitting conditions, with other fellow-beings,
under such circumstances, and in such a way, as to make it clear:--
(_a._) That the communications could not have been transmitted and
received by the ordinary channels, or physical sense organs, which in
ordinary circumstances appear essential to our exchange of thought.
(_b._) That the exchange of thought, in independence of the ordinary
sense channels, will demonstrate that man must possess other,
extraordinary or psychic, organs for the transmission and the reception
of thought.
Both positions I have endeavoured to sustain on the foregoing pages;
and, lastly, concerning spiritualism, I have arrived at the profound
conclusion that spirit-communion--that is, thought transmission from
the disembodied to the embodied--is a solemn fact. After carefully
eliminating all the possibilities of self-deception--auto-trance,
discreet degrees of consciousness, of natural and acquired
clairvoyance, of thought-transference and mind-reading, and lastly,
the puerile performances of conjurors and the simulated phenomena of
tricksters--there remains evidence of disembodied or disincarnate
spirit, and of such control influencing and directing the actions of
men, just as one man in this life influences and directs the actions of
another.
What I esteem, however, as satisfactory evidence might not be evidence
to another; and I for one do not think it necessary to open up the
life chambers of my psychic experiences to the indifferent, the
thoughtless, or the sceptic, to furnish the desired evidence. Others
must travel by the way I have come to understand something of that way.
All men cannot believe alike, hence it will not be surprising that some
will accept as sufficient evidence of spirit what others would deem
insufficient.
It is not my intention meantime to advocate spiritualism. I only refer
to it, in so far as it is related to “How to Thought-Read.” However,
phenomenal spiritualism is not a matter of belief so much as of
evidence, and many eminent thinkers have been compelled by the force of
the evidence to accept spiritualism now, who, a quarter of a century
ago, would have hesitated, principally through fear of ridicule, to
speak of the subject in language of ordinary civility.
While I am convinced that such communications between the so-called
dead and the living are possible, I do know and feel satisfied that
much which is accepted as evidence of the existence and influence of
spirits by the majority of the unthinking and excitable crowd who rush
after novelties, and perchance call themselves “spiritualists,” is
traceable to no other or higher source than our own innate, but little
understood, human or psychic powers. I have arrived at this conclusion
also, as the result of carefully investigating spiritualism, and it
is therefore not an _a priori_ hypothesis conveniently elaborated
from my own or borrowed from the brains of others who are opponents
to spiritualism. It is probable, had I not devoted the greater part
of my life to spiritualism, as one of the factors in human character,
I should have known but little of that sympathetic transference of
thought from one mind to another, or of the light which that fact
throws upon our dual or compound existence.
In this “sympathetic transference of thought” we find a solution to the
problem of spiritualism, whether old or new. I conclude, with Buffon,
“The true springs of our organisation are _not_ these muscles, these
veins, these arteries, which are described with so much exactness and
care. There exist in organised bodies _internal forces_ which do not
follow the gross mechanical laws we imagine, and to which we would
reduce everything.” Or, as Laplace puts it more strongly--“Beyond
the limits of this visible anatomy commences another anatomy, whose
phenomena we cannot perceive; beyond the limits of this external
physiology of forces, of action, and of motion, exists another
_invisible physiology, whose principles, effects, and laws are of the
greatest importance to know_.”
It may be esteemed reprehensible to “seek communion with the dead;”
but to know ourselves, to fathom this _invisible physiology_, whose
principles, effects, and laws are of such importance to understand, I
hold to be not only legitimate but perfectly laudable. How can we serve
God, whom we have not seen, if we do not understand ourselves, whom we
think we have seen, or the laws which govern our being, as created by
him? To know ourselves as we should, we ought not to neglect the search
for “the spirit within us.”
THE REJECTION OF THE PSYCHIC.
Many persons--scientific, theological, learned, and illiterate--reject
the psychic, and refrain from investigating, either from constitutional
bias or from crass ignorance; and such have played the part of learned
Sadducees or low fellows of the baser sort before anything having the
remotest flavour of spirit. The man of science is rendered purblind by
“my hypothesis,” the theologian by “my belief,” the man of the world
by “my business” or “my position.” The respectable church-goer--who
vaccinates his children, as he has them baptised, because it is
the proper thing to do--has neither head nor heart, apparently, to
understand anything beyond the common ideas of the hour. He would
crucify all new thought, or new spiritualism for that matter, as the
Jews did Jesus, because the new doctrines promulgated and the new
wonders performed tend to subvert the present respectable order of
things.
The worship of Diana is not confined to ancient Ephesus. The great
Diana of old was the type of that “Respectable Custom” which the
majority of mankind worship and obey to-day, because, as of yore, it
conserves their vested interests, official connections, and brings
them “much gain.” As for the man in the street--the multitude having
no shepherd--he is always more or less hypnotised by the well-clad and
well-fed, smug-faced worshippers of the aforesaid “Respectable Custom;”
hence he is ever ready to shout “Crucify,” or “Hurrah,” or aught else
he is influenced to do, especially if such exercises give him pleasure
and excitement for the time being. He accepts or rejects as he sees
“his betters” think best, and so, unfortunately, is unfitted to a large
degree, for the intelligent investigation of his own nature. These form
the largest group of rejectors of the phenomenal evidences of soul.
The psychic, however, has suffered less from such rejectors than from
those who claim to be recognised and known as converts and exponents
of the same, who at best have only shown themselves to be “seekers
after a sign.” They may have run into the wilderness and have had
a bit of miraculous bread, and yet not be a pennyworth the better
of it in either soul or body--_i.e._, life or conduct. These, by
their foolishness, have prevented many well-meaning and otherwise
able persons investigating the psychic, for the latter saw nothing
in the lives of professed spiritualists to make them desire to have
anything to do with spiritualism. Moreover, coming in contact with
the iconoclastic in spiritualism, they have become disgusted with the
crude and the coarse therein, as they have with the revelations,
inspirations, and fads, advocated by certain mediums, and hence have
rejected the wheat because of the apparent great quantity of tares.
THE FRAUDULENT IN SPIRITUALISM.
I am afraid the trend of modern civilisation, which leads men from
the beauties and quietude of hill and dale, of valley and river side,
into crowded city life, has tended to make men exoteric. They run
after signs and wonders without, and too little to the spirit within.
The broader view of being, and that self-culture and purity which
arises from the exercise of man’s innate powers, and makes for true
regeneration and spiritual progress, here and hereafter, have been more
or less sacrificed to the external and the phenomenal.
The love of the phenomenal, in and out of Spiritualism, has created
a crowd of harpies, impostors, or fraudulent mediums--male and
female--who trade on human credulity, some to earn a pittance, and
others to gratify vanity. Men and women have been known to risk
reputation for both. In this way Spiritualism has its quota of
deceivers and deceived.
There are some people who must have phenomena, just as there are other
people who will have sermons. If they don’t get exactly what they want,
they withdraw “their patronage”--the finances. So, if the patronage is
to be retained, phenomena and sermons have to be supplied--if the first
are fraudulent or the latter stolen.
Seeing how fugitive real psychological phenomena are--natural or
induced--one must necessarily hesitate to accept “trance addresses,”
“inspirational orations,” “medical controls,” clairvoyant, and
second-sight exhibitions, which are supplied to order, to gratify
patrons, at so much per hour. It is human to err, but the manufacturer
of spurious phenomena, the impostor who trades on the ties, and the
dearest of human affections, is a devil. There is no iniquity too
low--earthly or devilish--to which he will not as readily descend to
gratify his vampirish nature.
I am not disposed to accept the infallibility of spirits for that of
Popes--large or small--or professional media, in place of professional
priests and ministers, and there is by far too much of this in
Spiritualism.
In the foregoing connection, I must refer to another source of
error--this time, however, more related to physical rather than psychic
phenomena--viz., the credulity of those who are disposed to believe
that certain conjurors are aided in their performances by spirit
agency. Personally, I would sooner believe that mediums for “Physical
Phenomena” resorted to conjuring to aid “spirits,” than believe that
“spirits” resorted to “hanky-panky” to aid conjurors. No wonder
“frauds” smile. Years ago I had to protest against this absurdity,
when people--who ought to know better--talked this kind of nonsense
about conjurors, as they do about certain fraudulent mediums now--viz.,
“they are aided by spirits.” Owing to this lack of discrimination and
want of trained discernment in Spiritualists and the general public,
mediumistic frauds have fooled, to their utmost bent, fresh groups of
dupes at home and abroad.
I am none the less disposed to accept the genuine, because we recognise
sources of error connected therewith, and are determined to set our
faces against palpable frauds.
SPIRITUALISM WITHOUT SPIRITS.
We may now turn from the wretched arena of imposture, duplicity,
and credulity, to genuine, but little understood, phenomena in
Spiritualism. We have seen that much which has been attributed to
the agency of disembodied spirits is due, in many instances, to the
action of man’s own psychic states, “the double, who is wiser than
we,” and to the fact that, as often as not, trance states, automatic
and planchette writing, are self-induced conditions. Equally so,
clairvoyance, thought-transference, and psychometry do not require
the “agency of spirit” to account for their existence as “gifts,”
qualities or powers. It will be time enough to admit such agency--that
of disembodied spirit--when the evidence in each particular case is
reasonably conclusive. I think this is the only wise and safe course to
pursue.
Clairvoyance may be native or induced, self-cultivated or cultivated
by aid of a mesmerist. As it has been exercised naturally, and without
any such aid, the exhibition of clairvoyance--in itself--is no evidence
of disembodied spirit-presence or control. Equally, the seeing of, and
the describing of, spirits by a clairvoyant--even if the descriptions
are apparently accurate--may present no evidence of the real presence
of such spirits. I do not deny that clairvoyants can see spirits,
but the mere fact of being able to see and describe spirits, is not
sufficient evidence--the _seer_ is controlled by spirit-power to
see, or that the spirits described are actually _bona-fide_ spirits.
Frequently, so-called spirits have no other existence than the image
of them possessed by some positive-minded individual. A clairvoyant,
_perceiving_ these images, might naturally enough conclude she was
actually seeing the spirits which she described.
If Mr. Stead, for instance, is convinced that “Sister Dora,”
“Cardinal Manning,” or “Lord Tennyson,” are at his side, in his
rooms, influencing and directing his mind, or at other times actually
controlling his arm and hand to write, a clairvoyant in sympathy with
him may describe this or that other spirit he is _thinking_ about. But
that does not prove the spirit or spirits are actually present.
A lady (Mrs. Davis), whose name has come prominently before the
public as Mr. Stead’s clairvoyante, being questioned as to Mr. Stead’s
automatic writing and her own gift, said:--“I know probably more about
that than anyone. I was in his office some time in the beginning of
December last regarding the forthcoming publication of a book of mine
concerning spiritualism. The conversation turned upon spiritualistic
automatic handwriting. I did not know the deceased lady who was writing
through him, but I saw her behind his chair as distinctly as if she
had been in the flesh. I described her position as she stood and her
appearance. She at once wrote through Mr. Stead’s hand confirming all I
had stated concerning her in my description. Mr. Stead’s hand continued
to write. I knew afterwards it wrote out a message stating that another
spirit was in the room. Mr. Stead asked me if I could describe that
spirit. I had to wait some little time before I detected it, and
there I recognised as in the flesh a very famous personage recently
dead, whose loss was mourned all the world over in prose and verse. I
carefully described the spirit as he appeared to me, and then Mr. Stead
said I was right. But, I answered, I see another male spirit. Ask the
deceased lady who is writing through you to write the name of the last
spirit. Mr. Stead’s hand automatically moved, and he wrote the name
of a son of the famous personage already alluded to.” Mrs. Davis says
she has been strongly impressed with the fact that Mr. Stead has been
selected by the spirits as their champion from the peculiar and unique
position he occupies in the journalistic world, and he will be the
agent who will break through the solid walls of bigotry and prejudice.
Mr. Stead may or may not have written under spirit influence, and
this lady may or may not have seen spirits as described. We must
not conclude in the latter case that Mr. Stead and his “trustworthy
clairvoyante” are stating anything they do not believe to be true. I
believe she saw, as described or thought of by Mr. Stead, a “deceased
lady;” and that she also saw, as equally thought by him, “a very famous
personage recently dead;” also “another male spirit,” whose name she
did not know until Mr. Stead wrote the name. This narrative, however
interesting as to automatic writing and spirit agency in the opinions
of those concerned, conveys no tangible evidence of either the one or
the other. To us it is interesting in the fact that Mrs. Davis _saw the
spirits thought of by Mr. Stead_. We must think twice before we can
accept this as evidence of spirits and spirit-presence. Although it is
possible those concerned have evidence, we have not. We have, however,
evidence here of thought-transmission and psychic impressionability.
When we read of persons who have been raised up, as mediums of St.
Peter, St. Paul, or St. John, or a publishing company being run by
Shakespeare through a special medium, and worked by a syndicate of
Spiritualists, I think we are entitled to doubt these claims, even
though a dozen clairvoyants vouched for the existence and presence of
the aforesaid spirits.
Psychometry furnishes evidence that many so-called spirits are not
spirits “at all, at all”--only visions of the originals; and the fact
that such and such an individual has been accurately described--actions
and manners carefully indicated--and this has been and is accurately
done in health and disease daily--is no evidence, in itself, that
psychometers have seen spirits. Thus, when a psychometer places a
geological specimen to his forehead, and describes an “antediluvian
monster,” roaring and walking about, no one but a very shallow
individual would imagine for a second the psychometer was actually
seeing the original. So many of the spirits and spectres seen do
not proceed from our own brains, but from objects, relics, and old
houses, which had been in times past impinged by the living presence
and magnetism of the originals. Then we must take into consideration
those spectres which proceed from our own brains, such as the
realistic images which are sometimes projected from the background
of consciousness to our eyes and ears. Many so-called spirits are
simply the product of diseased neurological conditions, in short,
hallucinations, which arise from some derangement of the optic and
auditory centres. The spectres seen by Nicolai gradually disappeared as
he lost blood, as the prescribed leeches tranquilised his system. We
have no reason to believe the spectres he saw, visions and what not,
were actually either spirits or produced by spirits.
MIND-READING IN SPIRITUALISM
is the commonest of most common experiences. I have known mediums to
graphically describe scenes, persons, and incidents with such vividness
as to impress one they must be controlled by spirits intimately
acquainted with the whole circumstances which were revealed. Closer
examination indicates that all the information so given by these
mediums was based on the thought-read phase. That is, the information
was culled from the minds of spirits in the flesh, and did not come
from disembodied sources.
Some years ago I attended a series of seances in Liverpool. Nearly
all the family were mediums of some sort. I was at this time very
enthusiastic in my investigations. Consequently, the following incident
was not lost upon me. One evening the circle met, with the usual
members. Shortly after the circle was formed, the daughter of the
house went into the trance state. There were several controls, one
of whom professed to be a man who, the day before, had been injured
on board one of Lambert & Holt’s steamers, which lay in the Bramley
Moore Dock. The “spirit” described the accident, how he was injured,
and that he was carried to the hospital, and had “passed away.” Owing
to the suddenness of his death, he wished us to communicate with his
family, and desired the circle to pray for him, etc. As near as I can
recollect, when asked for further particulars, name, family, there was
no definite reply. The medium quivered, and a new control had taken
possession of her. I, however, neither doubted the _bona-fides_ of the
spirit nor the medium. I was especially interested in this control. I
thought this time I had obtained a test of spirit identity. But alas
for the imperfection of human hopes, I was doomed to disappointment.
I clung to the idea the spirit would come back again, and when he got
“more power,” we would get the particulars he wanted to give us. He did
not come back--and no wonder. Four months subsequently, I met the real
Simon Pure in the flesh.
To explain more fully: On the day previous to the seance mentioned, I
was on board the newly-arrived steamer in question. The lumpers were
getting out the cargo. This man had been working on the top of the
cargo in the main hold “hooking on.” I paid no particular attention at
the time to him, but an hour after I heard a great outcry, and saw a
rush of men to the main hold. When I turned back and got there, I found
this man senseless and bleeding.
The hooks had slipped off a bale while easing out some cargo. One of
them had caught the poor fellow in the mouth, and had torn up his cheek
almost to the right ear. He was to all appearance dying. I temporarily
dressed his face, and the stevedore had him put on a stretcher and sent
to the hospital. _I did not know his name or the hospital to which
he was removed._ That day and the next the whole scene was vividly
impressed on my mind. Hence that night the circumstances at the seance
seem to me to be quite natural. Everything advanced was wonderfully
apposite and convincing. It was not till I saw the man, and conversed
with him, that my so-called test of spirit identity resolved itself
into so much thought or mind reading, so that, even presuming the
medium or sensitive was controlled by “a spirit,” there can be no doubt
the source of the spirit’s information was purely mundane.
AUTOMATIC AND PLANCHETTE WRITING,
upon which so much reliance is placed, as furnishing evidence of
“disembodied spirit control,” presents similar difficulties. The
recording of forgotten incidents, and predicting possibilities in the
future, are not beyond the powers of the innate human spirit--wholly
and utterly unaided by spirit agency. Therefore automatic writing--when
genuine--does not necessarily furnish evidence of spirit control, not
even when the person who writes believes, and honestly believes too, he
is so controlled to write.
CHAPTER VIII.
Spiritualism.--_Continued._
Automatic writing is a phase of phenomenal Spiritualism most difficult
to prove. In the majority of cases we are reduced to the awkward
position of accepting or rejecting the assertions of the persons who
declare that the writing done by them is automatic--that is, written
without thought and volition on their part. A close examination of
this claim may lead to the conclusion that automatic writing is not
impossible. Whether the controlling agent is “the spirit within us,” or
a disembodied spirit, or both, is not a matter of much importance, if
it is established, the writing is automatic. When messages are written
without volition, in the handwriting of deceased persons, signed by
their names, such messages must be treated on their merits. I have
seen messages written in this way. I have seen messages written, not
only automatically, but _direct_. Some were written the reverse way,
and could only be read by holding up to the light or to a mirror. The
direct writing was done in an exceedingly short time, two or three
hundred words in less time than an expert phonographer could write
the same by the most expeditious efforts. The evidence in favour of
telepathic writing is not very strong, but of _direct_ writing there
appears to be abundant proof.
Dr. Nichols, in his fascinating work, “Forty Years of American Life,”
writes:--“I knew a Methodist sailor in New York, a simple, illiterate,
earnest man, who became what is called a test medium. He came to
see me in Cincinnati, and one evening we had also as visitors two
distinguished lawyers: one of them a brother of Major Anderson, “the
hero of Fort Sumter;” the other, a gentleman from Michigan, and one
of the ablest lawyers practising in the Supreme Court of the United
States. I had brought into the drawing-room a heavy walnut table, and
placed it in the centre of the room. The medium sat down on one side
of it, and the sharp Michigan lawyer, who was a stranger to us and the
medium, on the other. The medium placed his fingers lightly upon the
table. It tilted up under them, the two legs nearest him rising several
inches. The lawyer examined the table, and tried to give it a similar
movement, but without success. There was a force and a consequent
movement he could not account for. There was no other person near the
table, there was no perceptible muscular movement, and in no way in
which it could be applied to produce the effect.
“When there was no doubt on this point, the lawyer, at the
suggestion of the medium, wrote with careful secrecy on five bits
of paper--rolling each up like a pea as he wrote--the names of five
deceased persons whom he had known. Then he rolled them about until
he felt sure that no one could tell one pellet from the other. Then,
pointing to them successively, the tipping table selected one, which
the gentleman, without opening, put in his waistcoat pocket, and threw
the rest into the fire.
“The next step was to write the ages of these five persons at their
death, on as many bits of paper, which were folded with the same care.
One of these was selected, and again, without being opened, deposited
in the lawyer’s pocket, which now contained a name and a number
indicating age.
“With the same precautions the lawyer then wrote, in the same way, on
bits of paper, the places where these persons died, the diseases of
which they died, and the dates of their decease, going through the
same process with each. He had then in his pocket five little balls of
paper, each selected by a movement of the table, for which no one could
account.
“At this moment the hand of the medium seized a pencil, and with
singular rapidity dashed off a few lines, addressed to the lawyer as
from a near relative, and signed with a name which the medium very
certainly had never heard.
“The lawyer, very much astonished, took from his pocket the five paper
balls, unrolled them, spread them before him on the table, and read the
same name as the one on the written message, with the person’s age, the
place and time of death, and the disease of which he died. They all
corresponded with each other and the message. No person had approached
the table, and neither lawyer nor medium had moved. It was in my own
house, under a full gas light, and, so far as I could see, or can see
now, no deception was possible.
“The written communication, which purported to come from a deceased
relative of the gentleman only expressed, in affectionate terms,
happiness at being able to give him this evidence of immortality.”
This incident is introduced here in illustration of one out of many
phases of mediumship known to spiritualists. We see here both psychic
and physical powers-exercised, not generally recognised as possible.
A massive table moved without physical leverage or exertion, and
“thoughts read,” which formed the basis of the message. Trickery and
collusion in this instance are absolutely out of the question. The
only questions which remain to answer are: “Did this medium possess in
himself the powers referred to? or did he possess them in consequence
of being controlled by a disembodied spirit, as claimed by the
message?” Although the message in itself did not contain evidence of
any other source of information than that emanating from the lawyer’s
own mind, we are forced to the conclusion that either the medium or
the spirit controlling the medium had power to read his mind, and of
exerting what Professor Crookes and Sergeant Cox would call Psychic
Force to move the table, and indicate what pellets to select. We have
here evidence of an intelligence capable of exercising an unknown force
and of reading thoughts--that intelligence claimed to be a human spirit.
TRANCE ADDRESSES.
Trance and inspirational addresses, however, do not, in my opinion,
furnish much evidence of the reality of spirit control. We are
interested in the phenomena--taking for granted that these trance and
inspirational states are genuine--although the evidence of external
spirit control presented is often _nil_. The controls may or may
not be veritable realities to their own mediums--professional or
otherwise--but this is of little value, as evidence, to the public.
I have known mediumistic and otherwise sensitive persons to be
controlled--_i.e._, taken possession of by their reading. One gentleman
swallowed large doses of Theodore Parker. In time he thought of
Parker, talked of Parker, and finally believed he was “inspired” by
Theodore Parker. This gentleman had been a Unitarian before being a
Spiritualist, and doubtless his mind had been broadened and brightened
by his course of Theodore Parker; but beyond his own belief and the
evident state of excitability he exhibited when speaking under this
supposed control, there was actually no evidence of “spirit control”
worthy of notice.
Mrs. Cora L. V. Tappan-Richmond, an inspirational medium, from America,
delivered a series of remarkable addresses in this country about
twenty years ago. These were published by J. Burns, of Southampton
Row, Holborn, W.C. A young gentleman from Brighton heard and read the
lectures, and finally budded forth as “an inspirational speaker.” For
a long time the public got nothing but the Tappan lectures diluted. We
had the same marvellous, even flow, similar processes of reasoning,
fertility of illustration, and unbounded capacity for assertion. No one
dare say this person was not inspired by the spirits. It might have
been a way the spirits had of breaking in their instrument, but I had
a shrewd suspicion the young orator was controlled by his reading. I
don’t know how many others have been influenced in this way. I have
noticed when a noted medium “came to town,” delivered a number of
addresses in public, or gave seances in private, immediately thereafter
a number of imitators professed--correctly or otherwise--principally
otherwise--to have been controlled by the guides, who were supposed
to control the medium aforesaid, and that they would soon be able to
give addresses and manifestations, and what not. On the other hand, the
noted mediums averred “their guides never controlled any other than
themselves,” etc. The conscientious investigator is left to wonder
how much imitation, vanity, and self-deception have to do with such
statements.
Some of the most perfect oratory, and some of the ablest and most
cogent lectures and addresses I have ever listened to have been given
by trance and inspirational mediums. It was stated, as evidence of
spirit control, by those who professed to know, “that these mediums
could not reason and speak that way in their normal condition.”
All of which is worthy of consideration. At the same time I saw
nothing inherently impossible--judging from a physiological or
cerebral-physiognomic standpoint--to prevent these persons delivering,
unaided by spirit agency, the addresses referred to. That a person
speaks with greater ability, intelligence, or fluency in the trance
state compared with his known powers in the waking state, cannot,
alone, be accepted as proof of spirit control. We have seen hypnotised
subjects do the same. But the reality, or otherwise, of spirit agency,
cannot be estimated by the superiority, or otherwise, of the addresses
and messages given.
In all public meetings and in seances where a medium is expected to
give trance and inspirational addresses the platform is “supported”
or the chair surrounded by sympathisers, whose presence is esteemed
favourable to “good conditions”--a “nebulous term” better understood
by Spiritualists than the public. When the address is, as is often the
case, a miserable jumble of things inconsequential, old, experienced
Spiritualists say it is owing “to bad conditions,” _i.e._, the
influence of the audience on the speaker being conflicting and bad,
hence the inconclusive rambling of the spirit’s oration. Whether
this is the true explanation or not, whether the medium was really
controlled or not, or the addresses successful or not, the fact remains
that Spiritualists admit that the “message” is not only “seriously
modified,” according to the channel (or medium) through whom it is
given, but that it may be deflected and distorted by the influences
of the audience to whom it is given. Whatever the real cause of the
imperfect oratory, what is this but admitting _the thoughts transferred
from the audience to the sensitive either make or mar the utterance_?
If spirit utterance is thus influenced, it becomes a difficult matter
to decide how much of the original message has reached us as intended,
and how unwise it is for some to have their lives directed by such
uncertain counsel.
There are many persons so organised, that when they come in contact
with Spiritualism, (not knowing anything about clairvoyance,
psychometry, thought-transference, thought-reading, etc.) are so
convinced by what they hear and see for the first time--so much out of
the ordinary run of their experience--the only way they can account for
the phenomena is, “that they must be the work of spirits, for no human
being could tell what they knew, or what they wanted, save a spirit
who could read their thoughts.” This is just where, I think, the error
creeps in. Those very revelations which they in ignorance so readily
attribute as only possible coming from disembodied spirits, may be and
are in some instances quite possible to man, unaided by any such agency.
Many years ago I sat with Mr. David Duguid, the Glasgow painting
medium. I had a “direct spirit painting” done. It was a correct--as
far as I can recollect--painting of a small farm-house and stead, in
the North of Ireland, where I as a child had been sent for my health.
Neither Mr. Duguid nor the control claimed to possess any actual
knowledge of me, or of the circumstances of my childhood. When I had an
opportunity of attending the seance in question, I wondered if such a
scene could be painted, and my wonder was greater when it was done.
Here again, we have evidence of thought-transference. Whether Mr.
Duguid, by some occult power, caused the direct painting to be
done--his own spirit doing it while his body was in the trance
state--or the painting was produced by one of his controls, I am not
prepared to state. I am willing to state my belief that the painting
was not done by Duguid, the medium, or any other person present in the
room. One of the controls of the medium claimed to have painted the
little sketch, and, truth to tell, it is not more difficult to accept
this hypothesis than “the spirit of the medium did it.” In our ordinary
experience of human nature, we do not find it usual for men to give
credit to others--men or spirits--for what they are capable of doing
and saying themselves.
REFLECTIONS.
It is quite possible, seeing that out of this life into the next,
through the portals of death, pass all sorts and conditions of human
beings, that in the next stage of existence--most closely allied
to that in which we now live--mankind are not essentially different
in character from what we find now. It is not, therefore, necessary
to call in the agency of demons, as distinct from human spirits,
to account for the phenomena of Spiritualism. If in artificial
somnambulism and the phenomena of the psychic state the operating agent
is an embodied human spirit, it is possible the same human spirit,
albeit disembodied, may still retain power to control or influence
other human beings.
There is another and more serious matter for consideration, concerning
which our investigations of Spiritualism have thrown little or no
light--Spirit Identity. Not only do our friends depart and never
return, and many have promised to do so. How far are we certain
when spirits have returned? We may have been deceived by our own
impulsiveness, anxiety, and desire to feel and to know that “they are
not lost but gone before.” Again, admitting the genuineness of physical
phenomena, and conceding that all the communications are really made
by disembodied spirits or intelligent beings like unto ourselves,
what proof do we possess that they are really what they represent
themselves to be, or what they appear to be in spirit circles? “A bad
or mischievous spirit,” says Dr. Nichols, “may, for aught we know,
personate our friends, _penetrate our secrets_, and deceive us with
false representations.” This is certainly worth thinking about. My
object in writing is not to turn my readers against Spiritualism,
but to get them to bring into the investigation judgment, not only
to analyse evidence, but the capacity to “judge not according to
appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” It is no part of my
purpose to deal with the history, ethics, or even the phenomena of
Spiritualism. That has been well done by others. I merely write to show
that Spiritualism “has something in it,” and is of such importance
that it is neither to be lightly rejected on the one hand, nor are
its phenomena at all times to be attributed to agency of disembodied
spirits.
Spiritualism is a many-sided subject, and too vast in its
proportions to be dealt with here, and while I have no doubt that
its public mediumistic exponents are no more perfect than the rest
of humanity--much is laid at their door which may have a basis on
fact--yet I do think they often suffer unjustly. Firstly, from the
cries of the ignorant--educated or otherwise, matters little--who
charge them with fraud, simply because such people are ignorant of the
psychic possibilities of man; and, secondly, from the admiring and
thoughtless many who are prepared to accept the commonest of psychic
phases instanter as evidence of “disembodied spirit” presence and
power. I have no doubt many phenomena are quite explicable on natural
grounds. Setting aside the possibilities of self-deception in untrained
observers, and of fraud in dishonest mediums, and of genuine phenomena
traceable to the powers of the “spirit which is within each of us,”
there remains, to my mind, abundant evidence of the existence of
“discarnate spirit,” possessing all the attributes of the human spirit,
as we know ourselves from the study of man as a psychological subject.
Unfortunately, the very best evidence in favour of both “embodied”
and “disembodied spirit” is not of that kind which is available for
publicity. Still, I hold, if there is evidence (psychological and
physical) for disembodied spirit in Spiritualism, I am also satisfied
there is abundant evidence for embodied spirit in the psychological
experiences of life, apart from what we know of Spiritualism.
I may fitly close these reflections by quoting the testimony of that
keen scientific observer anent phenomenal Spiritualism--namely,
Cromwell F. Varley, Esq., F.R.S:--“Twenty-five years ago I was a
hard-headed unbeliever.... Spiritual phenomena, however, suddenly and
quite unexpectedly was soon after developed in my own family.... This
led me to inquire, and to try numerous experiments in such a way as to
preclude, as much as circumstances would permit, the possibility of
trickery and self-deception.”... He then details various phases of the
phenomena which had come within the range of his personal experience,
and continues:--“Other and curious phenomena had occurred, proving
the existence (_a_) of forces unknown to science; (_b_) _the power of
instantly reading my thoughts_; (_c_) the presence of some intelligence
or intelligences controlling those powers.... That the phenomena occur
there is overwhelming evidence, and it is too late to deny their
existence.”
The Bibliography of Spiritualism is somewhat extensive. What books are
best to recommend to beginners is not an easy matter to decide. “The
Use of Spiritualism,” by the late S. C. Hall, F.S.A.,[G] however, will
repay perusal, and from the intellectual fitness, high moral tone, and
spotless reputation of the author, this book may be safely recommended
to all readers.
THEOSOPHY.[H]
I have been frequently asked, What is Theosophy? A question more easily
asked than answered, and in answering I may do even less justice to it
than to Spiritualism. Theosophy is an intellectual speculation, having
for its main object the supplanting of Christianity, by a Revised
Version of Hindoo Metempsychosis. An attempt to foist upon our western
ideas and exoteric habits of thought, the mysticisms and esoteric
speculations of the mystics of India and Japan. Modern Spiritualism is
not a religion. Theosophy not only claims to be a religion, but to be
“the essential basis of all religions.” Modern Spiritualism may have
its faults, and be as imperfect as human souls are here or hereafter.
But we at least understand its faults and defects. The triple-crowned
spiritual monarch--sitting on the seven hills of Rome--is not more
infallible than the principles which underlie Theosophy--with its
demi-gods, its Mahatmas, its adepts, miracle workers and wonders. To
not understand and be able to accept these principles at once, is to
proclaim oneself an ignoramus. Theosophy is a strangely fascinating
religion for intellectual æsthetics.
Spiritualism is at least susceptible of being observed and
investigated, and the hypothesis of Spiritualism is naturally a
reasonable deduction from the facts. Not so Theosophy, which is
merely a theory, an _a priori_ assumption pleasing to those with
more reflective and imaginative powers than capacity for practical
observation. Spiritualism has given facts to be examined and tested,
Theosophy nothing save gigantic and baseless assertions. Its _astral
shells_ and _elementals_ are like its _Mahatmas_, flimsy phantasies,
less tangible than the ghost seen and described by Dr. Jessop, or
visions of the _shade of shades_, seen by psychometers. For these
latter we have at least a basis in psychic phenomena.
_Re-incarnation_ is the back bone of Theosophy, and Karma its necessary
adjunct. The _Kismet_ of Mahomet and the doctrines of election of
Calvinism are not more inexorable than the _Karma_ of Theosophy.
_Karma_ is a combination of earthly experiences and expiations of the
soul of man in time, during its everlasting process of incarnating and
re-incarnating in search of Wisdom, the Eternal Reality, and the final
extinction of all _individuality_ in the Nirvana. _Devachan_ is the
intermediate state of oblivion, in which _personality_ is blotted out,
and into which the spiritual soul, etc., enters between the periods of
incarnation.
Theosophy--the Wisdom of God religion--attempts to explain all the
inequalities of life, the intellectual and moral differences in men,
of sin and suffering, by its working theory, _Re-incarnation_, which
doubtless has many attractive features.
The phenomena Theosophists place so much reliance upon are the property
of mankind--somnambulism, psychic consciousness, clairvoyance,
psychometry, thought-transference, etc. The “Theosophic miracles of
communication with persons in other parts of the world” are explicable
by thought-transference, and in time may be no more inherently
impossible than telegraphy without wires and poles. The physical
wonders of Theosophy, akin to those of Spiritualism, are attributed
to _shells_, the _astral_ carcases of once embodied but now rapidly
dissolving _personality_ of man, and _elementals_, fragmentary
spirit imps or sprites, who up to the present have not been as yet
incorporated in some incarnated human soul.
As to the ethics of Theosophy, brotherly kindness, charity, and
self-sacrifice--most desirable virtues and _divine_ attainments--are
neither new nor the special property of Theosophy. Such _divine_
qualities and virtues are common to all religions and religious
teaching, and if they ever reached their climax in human form, they did
in the person of Jesus, the Lord’s Christ. He was the embodiment of
these, and a living example for all time, long, long before unthinkable
and “ungetatable” Mahatmas were announced by Madame Blavatsky, or
believed in by Mrs. Besant.
Theosophists recognise seven distinct parts in man, _i.e._, four
transitory and three eternal. The transitory elements are--the physical
body, the vital principle, the _astral body_, and the _animal soul_.
These four comprise man’s _personality_, and being transitory are
perishable. Hence the _personality_ of man is annihilated at death. The
three eternal elements are--the _spirit_, the _spiritual soul_, and
the _mind_. These being imperishable form man’s _individuality_, and
constitute the immortal part of man. This immortal part _incarnates_
and _re-incarnates_ throughout innumerable personalities on this
globe, and the rest of the planets, beside having alternate periods
of “rosy slumber” and of activity. Our _individuality_ has no sex,
consequently we may be a little negro wench in one incarnation,
an Egyptian monarch in another, a Nero in another, a John Knox in
another, and so on. Others may not progress, but sink from incarnation
to incarnation, from a mother in Israel, to a Deeming in Australia,
and, finally, to utter annihilation. Those good souls who _live the
life_, and perfect their souls through much suffering, will become as
one with “the Eternal Reality, the Rootless Root of all that was, or
is, or ever shall be.” The higher and ever advancing Theosophist may,
however, stop short before he reaches the Nirvana, and elect to become
a Mahatma, or great soul, and reside on this or some other planet to
exercise power and precipitate wisdom, by letters and otherwise, to
the world, through chosen adepts. The good Theosophist in this world
and the next is surrounded by “thought-forms,” which influence him
in his upward career. The Spiritualist has his departed friends for
guides, and the Christian (Spiritualist) is comforted by “messengers
sent forth to minister to them that are heirs of salvation.” I don’t
know that “thought-forms” administering counsel to a spirit having no
_personality_ is an improvement on the old ideas.
It is impossible to do justice to this Wisdom-Religion with its
orders, grades, and bewildering phraseology. It is a fancy religion
for the intellectual, without a personal God or a personal soul. Its
circles are masonic lodges for the rich. In no sense is it a religion
to meet the wants of man as man, like that founded on the life and
death of Jesus Christ. I do not pretend to explain Theosophy, for the
task is beyond me. It is a religion intended for those who realise they
are divine sparks of the Rootless Root, and not for the common people,
who are incapable of understanding a system of morals thus veiled in
allegory, and illustrated by signs and symbols. Amid the perplexities
of many words, we learn that Theosophy teaches what St. Paul indicates
as the divine order of morals by the words: “Whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.” To work out one’s own salvation is as old as
the race. We may all be Theosophists without knowing it, as we don’t
know who we are, what we were, or who we are going to be, such is
_Karma_. Spiritualism and Theosophy are only referred to here seeing
how largely the phenomena on which they are based, is explained by “How
to Thought-Read.”
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In this way evil habits, such as erotic mania, opium eating,
dipsomania, etc., may be cured. When the strength of the vice and
the deterioration of the brain and body are such as to undermine the
will of the patient, hypnotism, properly employed, may be used and
recognised as a powerful and legitimate curative agent.
[B] “Phrenological Annual,” 1892. Extract from article by Dr. Samuel
Eadon, M.D., M.A., LL.D. and Ph.D., etc., Aberdeen and Edinburgh
Universities.
[C] “Spirits Before our Eyes,” page 215. By W. H. Harrison, 1879.
[D] Dr. Joseph Rhodes Buchanan has been Dean and Professor in several
American universities. As far back as 1830 he was Professor of
Medicine in Transylvania University. In the year 1841 he made several
important discoveries in cerebral psychology, which he communicated
to the American and to the Edinburgh Phrenological Journals. These
discoveries are elaborated in his unique system of Anthropology, and
are published in his works--“Therapeutic Sarcognomy,” “Psychometry,”
“The Dawn of a New Civilisation,” “System of Anthropology,” and “The
New Education--which can be obtained through my publishers, or direct
from myself.”
[E] Thought (says Professor Houston) is accompanied by molecular
vibrations in the grey matter of the brain, and these brain molecules,
like everything else, are immersed in and interpenetrated by ether;
this being so, their vibrations must set up wave-motions in the ether,
and these must spread out from the brain in all directions. Further,
these brain-waves, or thought waves, being thus sent out into space,
will produce some phenomena, and, reasoning by analogy we may expect
that--as in the case of sound-waves--sympathetic vibrations will be
set up in bodies similar to that which generates the waves, if those
bodies are attuned to respond. Again, reasoning by analogy, we may
expect--as in electric resonance--that such oscillations would be set
up as are found when electric waves are sent out and, meeting a circuit
in consonance with them, set up in that circuit oscillations like their
own.
In view of these facts, which are well ascertained, he (Professor
Houston) considers that it does not seem improbable that a
brain engaged in intense thought should act as a centre for
thought-radiation, nor that these radiations, proceeding outwards in
all directions, should affect other brains on which they fall, provided
that these other brains are tuned to vibrate in unison with them.
Light waves are etheric vibrations, and it would seem that these
brain-waves should “partake of the nature of light.” If so, why should
it not be possible to obtain, say, by means of a lens, a photographic
impression of them?
Such a thought-record suitably employed might be able to awaken at any
subsequent time in the brain of a person submitting himself to its
influence thoughts identical to those recorded.--_English Mechanic._
[F] The _contact_ is usually made by the agent taking the wrist, or by
placing his hand on the brow of the reader.
[G] “The Use of Spiritualism.” By S. C. Hall, F.S.A., late Editor of
the _Art Journal_, author of “The Retrospect of a Long Life,” etc.
Price, 1s., Post Free, 1s. 1d. Hay Nisbet & Co., London and Glasgow.
[H] “What is Theosophy?” By Walter R. Old, F.T.S. Price, 1s., Post
Free, 1s. 2d., gives an excellent outline of this interesting subject.
Hay Nisbet & Co., London and Glasgow.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Most of the inconsistent hyphenation has been retained as
in the original, like ‘mind reading’ and ‘mind-reading’,
‘supersensitivity’ and ‘super-sensitivity’, etc.
Obvious punctuation errors have been silently corrected.
Original spelling and grammar have been preserved except for the
following:
page 5: “the ordinary lauguage” changed to “the ordinary language”
page 23: “render she sight” changed to “render the sight”
page 29: “Stanhope, Macclesfield, Charlville” changed to
“Stanhope, Macclesfield, Charleville”
page 29: “Camillie Flammarion” changed to “Camille Flammarion”
page 29: “Dr. Jykell and Mr. Hyde” changed to “Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde”
page 30: “and discribed a funeral” changed to “and described a
funeral”
page 31: “s capable of” changed to “is capable of”
page 42: “enter the first doo” changed to “enter the first door”
page 45: “She can also indentify” changed to “She can also
identify”
page 54: “why it hould not” changed to “why it should not”
page 73: “from our own sensorums” changed to “from our own
sensoriums”
page 75: “following by like feelings” changed to “followed by
like feelings”
page 77: “the brig in a dorry” changed to “the brig in a dory”
page 77: “the dorry was again” changed to “the dory was again”
page 79: “The coffin, at anyrate” changed to “The coffin, at any
rate”
page 81: “happened her” changed to “happened to her”
page 84: “I notice a solitary” changed to “I noticed a solitary”
page 118: “This gentlemen had” changed to “This gentleman had”
page 125: “understand it faults” changed to “understand its
faults”
page 125: “election of Calvanism” changed to “election of
Calvinism”
page 126: “Devachian is the intermediate” changed to “Devachan is
the intermediate”
Footnote A: “such as errotic mania” changed to “such as erotic
mania”
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