diff options
Diffstat (limited to '13934-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 13934-0.txt | 1341 |
1 files changed, 1341 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/13934-0.txt b/13934-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f8a19b --- /dev/null +++ b/13934-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1341 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13934 *** + + INFERENCES FROM HAUNTED HOUSES AND HAUNTED MEN + + BY THE HONBLE. JOHN HARRIS + + 1901 + + + + +Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men + + + + +The lack of interest in so-called psychical matters is somewhat +surprising. + +There is, however, more hope of the clearing up of the scientific aspects +of these phenomena than ever before. + +Sir William Crookes, late President of the British Association, has no +doubt that thoughts and images may be transferred from one mind to +another without the agency of the recognised organs of sense, and that +knowledge may enter the human mind without being communicated in any +hitherto known or recognised ways! The word recognised is important; +perhaps "not by the recognised action of the organs of sense," would be a +better expression. + +In the "Alleged Haunting of B---- House," p. 33, Miss Freer says: +"Apparitions are really hallucinations or false impressions upon the +senses, created so far as originated by any external cause, by +other minds either in the body or out of the body, which are themselves +invisible in the ordinary and physical sense of the term, and really +acting through some means at present very imperfectly known." This would +include hypnotism at a distance, but also perhaps spirits. + +Dr. Gowers has recently (reported in the _Lancet_), in a speech at +University College, pointed out the close connection of the optic and +auditory nerves with regard to cases of deafness. + +The young lady who, when an attempt at transferring the sight of a candle +to her was made, heard the word candle or something like it, the first +letter doubtful, shows that thought transfer is to the ear as well as to +the eye, or at least goes over from one to the other; she says, "You know +I as often hear the name of the object as see the thing itself." This may +have been from a mental effort to receive distinctly an inefficiently +acute impression of her friend's. She saw a jug seen by her friend, and +heard the train she heard. The colour of the jug differed a little. The +distance fourteen miles. Audible speech might thus be helped by +despatching a picture of the idea from a distance. Other people must +be like Miss Campbell.[1] There must be material force in this, since a +thought heightens the temperature of the brain. But this force has its +limits of distance, &c. + +[Footnote 1: Podmores "Studies," p. 228.] + + +To connect apparitions with hypnotism. + +In their case, and in so-called spiritual experiences (spiritistic is the +better word), there is generally a preceding feeling like entering an +icehouse.[2] This is described as occurring to the butler of the Haunted +House at B----, Harold Sanders, in 1896; to Mr. "Endell," and to others. +This chill is surely identical with, or very closely related to, the +chill of hypnotism mentioned by Binet and Féré.[3] The balance of the +circulation has been interfered with. They state that this is the only +symptom by which any one can tell he has been hypnotised, and that this +is not always present. + +[Footnote 2: "Alleged Haunting," &c., pp. 50, 139.] + +[Footnote 3: "Animal Magnetism," chap. xiv.] + +In continuous slight hypnotism, chills on part of the scalp, part of the +shoulder, part of the face, or the ribs, etc., may be experienced; they +are possibly signs of slackening hypnotic power. + +There is another symptom, hyperaesthesia of the eye, which Binet and Féré +omit; this is extremely rare among men, and with women results from local +affection. The symptom probably appears in hypnotic cases from the +cutaneous lesser sciatic nerve, which is connected with the nerves of the +sexual system, being affected. + +The chill and the hyperaesthesia of the eyes can be so severe that a +doctor or an oculist would be consulted. + +The feeling of gravel in the eye is probably produced by light falling +through chinks on the eye when hyperaesthetic during sleep--the lids may +be slightly tightened, as it were; this is perhaps a nearer approach to a +profounder hypnotism. + +"During actual hypnosis," says Mr. Harry Vincent, "frequently the +contraction of the muscles is so obvious that the subject appears to be +indulging in a grim smile."[4] + +[Footnote 4: "Elements of Hypnotism," p. 99.] + +I venture to call attention to the grim smile worn by Charles Kingsley in +the portrait which prefaces the large edition of his Life and Letters. +Charles Kingsley suffered from frequent fits of exhaustion; these are +often the results of excessive hypnotism after the limit (at the fifth or +sixth effort) of the hypnotist's power has been reached. His brother +Henry, we learn from Mr. Kegan Paul's "Memoirs," was excessively +hypnotisable. His character was weaker perhaps than Charles's, but the +geniality of his writings bears testimony to his remarkable ability. + +He was only rescued from a condition little better than a tramp's by a +kind friend. Charles's life was perhaps shortened by hypnotism. One of +Kingsley's neighbours at Eversley was the late Sir W. Cope. The elder son +of this gentleman, when Secretary of Legation at Stockholm, came to a +tragic end. He suddenly, when out walking with a friend, although his +health had been apparently perfect, began to shout and wave his umbrella. +He was put under the care of attendants, as he was considered to be +temporarily insane. He jumped out of a window and was killed. Voices +insulting or threatening him, and with such scoundrels speech would be of +something dreadful, would provoke or frighten the unhappy man. + +About two years later a distinguished priest, well known in London, also +suddenly waved an umbrella and behaved as if he were angry. But he showed +hardly any sign of insanity, and on applying to the proper court for +release from supervision, was declared sane by a jury. + +Strength of mind and religious feeling doubtless saved him from the fate +of Mr. Cope. A brave man can resist such an attack under favourable +circumstances. + +It is well known to those who have read the Biography of Lawrence +Oliphant, and that of Dr. Anna Kingsford by Professor Maitland, that +Lawrence Oliphant, who became a Shaker (a member of a sect who employ +hypnotism, as Mr. H. Vincent describes, to bind their neophytes to +them),[5] wrote commonplace vulgar verse on religious subjects, although +himself a highly cultivated literary man. + +[Footnote 5: "Elements of Hypnotism," Appendix, _note_ 3, p. 270.] + +Hypnotism doubtless led to this; the verse thought out in some vulgar +Shaker's mind was transferred to Oliphant. Not only was Oliphant induced +to become a Shaker, but his wife became one also, and both sacrificed +much money to the society and agreed to live in celibacy. Let us continue +again from the known to the unknown. Mrs. Lawrence Oliphant's brother, +the late Captain Lestrange, R.N., left his ship without leave, to avoid +his wife. He had married an undesirable person, who has also been dead +some years. + +He was a most intelligent officer, and commanded the despatch vessel of +the Admiral in command of the Mediterranean fleet. It is most probable +that he was weakened by hypnotism, otherwise he would not have entered +into this marriage, or allowed himself to be broken down by disgust at +its consequences. An exceedingly manly, robust character, and devoted to +his profession, he could not without being hypnotised have deserted his +ship. The only reason he had for leaving it was that his wife threatened +to come to the Mediterranean to Malta. There was a gang of criminal +hypnotists on the Mediterranean coast then. Captain Lestrange fled to +Copenhagen, a place connected with most of the attacks of criminal +hypnotists, mentioned before and hereafter. He had visited it on duty two +or three times, and been in contact with others who suffered. He died two +or three years afterwards, probably of a broken heart. Here, for the +second time, a connection between two victims is traceable. + +In the former case, the two were simply neighbours; the probability that +in each pair of cases one gang was concerned is very great. One gang, if +not both, were connected with Copenhagen; indeed, they may have been the +same gang. + +If striking haunted house stories are rare, the reason is that, on +obvious grounds, gangs of hypnotists are rare also. + +The writer believes that Lord Howe's and his sister's courage prompted +the attack on them by a gang of hypnotists 120 years ago.[6] Poltergeist +disturbances are caused by a single person generally; it is not +impossible that in rare cases there is a confederate. + +[Footnote 6: A. Lang's "Ghost Stories."] + +These victims of hypnotists were thus four--two very eminent literary +men, distinguished also in other ways; a very rising naval officer; and a +diplomatist, a member of the foremost of the services of the Crown. + +Father B. was attacked in 1888-89 in London. In June 1892, Father H. +visited the Haunted House at B----. He first brought the haunting to the +notice of Lord Bute in August 1892, and in 1893 met a lady who had been +governess at B---- about twelve years before, and who reported that the +house was haunted then. + +A noise like the continual explosion of petards, another like the falling +of a large animal against his bedroom door, another noise like spirit +raps, and shrieks were heard by Father H.; no one else then heard them. +Father H. heard them for eight nights, and not on the ninth. As a priest, +he was probably a good deal alone, and had to walk over to a cottage +behind a belt of wood to the eastward, where the retreat of the nuns he +attended to was held. + +According to the average experience of Miss Freer's party, he would +only have been attacked on about two days. The last day his tormentor +left--doubtless to avoid a journey with Father H. and subsequent +recognition. How these sounds are produced is easily understood. If the +doctrine of a very light stream of electricity be admitted, the pressure +on the ear readily causes raps--there is a slight buzzing sound if the +pressure on the ear be relaxed at a distance at first, later there is +pain; the flap is from an intermitted pressure. It is a thud if the +pressure be more acute, and the pattering, which is almost identical to +the effect produced by a drop of water rolling on the inside of a +sensitive ear, occurs when there is a double or treble intermission. In +some cases where the victim is strong, the consonants can be worked off +to his hearing. + +Add to this a slight effect on the eye, and Miss Campbell's doubtfully +pronounced word "candle" becomes clear enough. An initial starts a word +there is some reason to believe. Mr. Osgood Mason dwells upon community +of sensation, and it is doubtless this that renders the direction of aim +so exact; but when the subject of tickled faces is considered, we shall +see that it does not insure complete accuracy, any more than that exists +in volley firing, which with inferior shots is more telling than +independent firing, and yet is not perfect. + +The reason why more audile phenomena are perceived at night is that the +percipient is tolerably still. Father H. and other people heard these +sounds more when in bed after daylight. If loud clangs, &c., were heard +by night by the garrison under Miss Freer's command, it was that the +attacking hypnotists did not have the chances they had with Father H. of +hypnotising their victims; and here again, where action on the ear and +eye is concerned, talking with a friend, or indeed any one, is a great +safeguard. The tympanum is stirred, the eye moves--the mere irregularity +of the breath is an aid. Another reason will be given later. Miss +Campbell, whose case--one of experimental thought transference--has +been twice referred to, was an intimate friend of Miss Despard, who +effected the transfers. Her case differs from his; he expected nothing +(at least consciously), and perceived nothing except ugly sounds, until +he got a feeling that some one was glad that he left, and that he himself +would not like to pass another night there. Perhaps this last feeling was +a deceptive transfer; they did not like the stout priest bluffing them. +Later he was willing to go to the house at B---- again. + +Miss Campbell got a word, imperfect perhaps, but a better-developed +effort developed better results. It is worth remarking that in another +experimental transfer of thought, where the percipient was not warned, +when Mr. Godfrey's apparition was seen by a lady friend, she heard a +curious sound like birds in the ivy. It is by no means unlikely that +this was the result of his first trying to attract her attention.[7] + +[Footnote 7: Podmore's "Studies," p. 250.] + +The eye impression moving to the ear in a new and strange way, there is +perhaps a stirring and dragging of the cartilages. + +That Mr. Godfrey's friend appeared in response and spoke to him, and +referred back to some joint conversation, is curious. + +It must be said here that the speech coming from within is extremely +indicative of a real transferred or hypnotic speech, and its coming from +within facilitates surprise where it is used fraudulently or criminally. +A certain amount of collateral trickery would enhance this. It is easily +confounded with the victim's own thoughts. + +The appearance of a person to another does not seem to be as difficult as +the causing another person to appear to a third person. In this case the +second person should apparently be hypnotised, and willed to appear to +the third. The third person must know the second person.[8] + +[Footnote 8: Osgood Mason, "Telepathy," &c., chap. x.] + +The apparition to Miss Ducane is interesting, and it is a pity it could +not be recognised.[9] It was seen in the mirror by her sisters, with one +exception; but she (Miss Ducane) and the other young ladies all felt the +cold air. + +[Footnote 9: Podmore's "Studies," p. 275.] + +Miss Freer, who saw the shadows of a figure on the wall first, and then +the figure itself, must have been more scientifically operated on, but an +apparition to several young ladies is harder to bring about. The original +of Miss Freer's visions should be carefully traced--the one in the +drawing-room especially. How many persons would be needed to produce +the rather inchoate phenomena observed by Miss Freer's garrison is +doubtful; three distinct voices, if not four, were heard,[10] and it +seems probable that at least four persons would be necessary to produce +very startling phenomenon--notably conversation.[11] + +[Footnote 10: "Alleged Haunting of B---- House," p. 134.] + +[Footnote 11: "Haunting of B---- House," p. 121.] + +All the ears and eyes (notably one eye, the right) are affected. This +number would be easily got from a body like the Shakers, but it is +probably harder to collect an efficient gang elsewhere. Indeed there is, +the writer believes, evidence that only one such gang exists, and its +members are possibly all British subjects of various colours. It is +strange there have been no informers. The failure of the minor gang at +B---- to fairly beat Miss Freer's party as they had beaten the family who +lived in the house the year before, made them furious, and their attacks +on the weak secular priests and on a French lady of high courage but weak +health, were particularly desperate. How far the latter's health was +undermined, and her death brought about by them, is uncertain. She had +the shock of the fire at the Paris charity bazaar to break her down. She +lost relations there. Miss Freer sometimes writes as if ghosts and +spirits were possible. In her essays, on page 52, she says "naughty girls +or spirits"--the collation is perhaps sufficient to condemn the latter +alternative. But her remark about a lady medium whom she compares to a +gentleman jockey, and who had a maid of the Catholic faith, and that this +fact had an effect on the later proceedings, reads as if she were not +wanting in scepticism. Probably Miss Freer, subject to thought +transference, and yet a thought transferrer, as she is, was interested in +the effect on Miss "K." of the Catholic maid-servant. Nothing more +interesting than the transfer of thought by Miss Freer to a friend, who +therefore saw candles lighted on a lunch table, could be found, but here +again the experience seems simply hypnotic. The chapters in her essays on +visualising,[12] on "how it once came into my head," are very valuable. +Those on hauntings are grave and gay, comments on realities and errors +and superstitious, sometimes charming, beliefs. Miss Freer says of the +visions which she sees of persons in the crystal, or otherwise, that they +are (1) visions of the living--clairvoyant or telepathic; (2) visions of +the departed, having no obvious relation to time and space; (3) visions +which are more or less of the nature of pictures, from memory or +imagination: they are like No. 2, but not of a person. + +[Footnote 12: A. Goodrich Freer's "Essays," p. 126.] + +Her most remarkable stories are certainly almost magical. One refers to +her seeing the doings of relations, another to her seeing a friend's +doings.[13] "The figures do not appear" (she says, referring to +the B---- apparitions) "before 6.30 at the earliest; there is little +light on their surfaces--they show by their own light--_i.e._ outlined by +a thread of light."[14] + +[Footnote 13: "Haunting of B----House," p. 102.] + +[Footnote 14: _Ibid._, p. 142.] + +She does not see things in a flash. Thus when she saw a brown wood +crucifix, she saw a hand holding it, whilst a clergyman who saw the same +crucifix (Father H. also saw it) got just a glimpse of it. It was also +seen by Miss Langton.[15] + +[Footnote 15: _Ibid._, p. 132.] + +To turn to another characteristic of the disturbers of the peace at +B----, and to illustrate it by comparison. In Mr. Podmore's book on +Psychical research,[16] in the chapter describing phenomena of the +Poltergeist order--the Poltergeist in one case was a girl of about +twelve, Alice. She, Mrs. B. and Miss B., and Miss K. were seated at a +table; it moved sharply and struck Miss K. on the arm. Miss K. was an +inmate of the house, and no doubt Alice preferred hitting her to +hitting her mother and sister. + +[Footnote 16: "Studies," p. 153.] + +Similarly the disturbers at B---- House showed great respect for the +press. When a leading Edinburgh editor's son was there all was quiet; and +although they flew at their pet prey the priests, yet a bishop was too +imposing for them; and after he had blessed the house from top to bottom, +they left it quiet for the remaining week of Miss Freer's stay.[17] + +[Footnote 17: "Alleged Haunting," p. 215.] + +This might be sufficient to lull any further zeal the Catholic regular +clergy might find for the matter. + +Again the strange fact may be noted that, a gardener coming every night +to look after the stoves between 10 and 10.30, no noises were noted at +that time, with one exception. The gardener therefore kept the ghosts +away. + +But the one exception was when a servants' ball was being given, and the +gardener was in the house, in the billiard-room, where the supper was +served. To obtain re-hypnotism it was necessary for the disturbers to +approach the house. Their object would easily be affected with people +already hypnotised in the railway station or train. + +These would suffer from fatigue and nervousness, but would put it down to +the journey. + +The approach to the house with rights of way close by would be very easy. +The brave garrison who were so well commanded by Miss Freer, and who, +with three or four exceptions, support her account, were generally +affected (if well known, and not as Mr. Z., the editor's son, too +dangerous) on the first night of their arrival at B----. + +Miss Freer and Miss Moore, her comrade who shared her bedroom during the +greater part of the B---- siege, were thus attacked. Mr. L.F. was +disturbed, and also Colonel Taylor (in whose name the house was taken, +and who was almost impervious to influences), on their first night at +B----. Why the Honourable E.F. did not suffer at all is not clear. +Perhaps he was left alone on account of his scientific capacities. + +Three gentlemen who arrived together were not affected; there is strength +in numbers; and whilst people talking to each other are harder to +influence for two or three reasons, they further unconsciously watch over +each other. Mr. W. stayed two days and heard nothing; his scepticism +was convinced later. Mr. MacP. experienced nothing in four nights, but on +a later visit heard sounds. Mr. C., an Edinburgh solicitor, heard voices +in the glen, on the second occasion of a vision being seen there by Miss +Freer, which was during his first visit. + +Perhaps it may be guessed that the three gentlemen travelled with no +heavy luggage, and their identity and destination was not detected. The +vision seen most was that of a nun in the black dress commonest among +nuns. + +It was seen moving about on a very steep bank, a bank apparently too +steep for walking, and was only visible against the snow. Miss Freer did +not look on the bank for tracks. + +It may be noted that on the two previous days in the neighbourhood of +this glen a terrier, who never barked except under strong excitement, had +barked at the same hour, but no vision was seen; on the 6th of February +the dog had been taken off in another direction. After seeing the vision +in the glen, Miss Freer almost always heard strange sounds at night. + +The inference is that in the glen, where there was plenty of cover, and +where, judging by the dog's barking, suspicious persons lurked, Miss +Freer was hypnotised, made to see an apparition, and left susceptible to +a further operation that night. Later on it says, "the dog ran up, +pointed, and ran straight for the two women." This was on the second +occasion of a grey woman appearing, and the third occasion of the black +nun being seen. He was found barking in the glen; no cause could be +found; a lurking stranger is a possible explanation. It may be noted, +that the pointing attitude in a dog of the smaller breeds means +reflection, and that something puzzled it, perhaps its mistress's +attitude; but its going on barking would indicate the steady retreat of +some one who frightened it. + +At least three voices were heard--perhaps more. Phenomena were scarce; +the gang's powers were still limited, though the horror they inflicted +showed that they reached the bounds of some of the victims' strength. +Miss Freer not only heard sounds in the house, where she was less +exposed than in the glen, but saw apparitions on four occasions. + +The visions that can be inflicted telepathically, _i.e._ hypnotically, +seem to be at first limited to two kinds--first, the vision of the person +himself: this hallucination has often been effected by honest +experimentalists; secondly, and this is rather matter of inference, a +rascal who has hypnotised a person may be unable to get rid of the image +of his victim, and transfers the ghost that haunts him to another +subject. + +The portrait of a so-called Nathan Early, at the beginning of Osgood +Mason's book, has the eyebrows, eyes, and mouth of a much mesmerised man. +The mouth has not become stiffened into a laugh, as he was of a gentle +firm disposition, and the hypnotism probably was from a distance. + +The possessed hypnotist transferred it to his victim, Mrs. Juliette +Burton. + +The qualification, "at first," is important; visions are perhaps not +easily transferred to a new subject, but the question of what is good +policy for the rascals may have to be considered. This may limit +the experience of those who have been more seriously victimised than Miss +Freer and her garrison were. + +The experiments reported in Mr. Podmore's excellent book, though +invaluable, are probably not exhaustive. + +Colonel Meysey Thompson's Reminiscences relate a wonderful occurrence +connected with his father, but it is believed that more striking matters +occurred even than this. To return to the haunted house. + +The cottage to the east of the glen--Ballechin cottage--(there is no +reason for not using the name except that B---- is shorter than +Ballechin; indeed the public and the Perthshire police should combine +to clear the neighbourhood of the gang who have troubled a charming +country house)--was once a place for retreat for nuns. The fact was not +known to Miss Freer and her friends until several visions of nuns had +been seen in the glen.[18] + +[Footnote 18: "Haunting of B---- House," p. 136.] + +The poor religious women, like the priests, must have been a favourite +prey of the hypnotists. + +The writer believes that the late Cardinal Manning approved of religious +ladies residing with their families and carrying on works of charity, a +less wretched life than the usual nun's life often unavoidably must be. +English Catholics have not been subjected to the terrors of a _casa de +exercitios_ such as broke the courage of Mrs. Grahame's spinster +friend.[19] It must have been extremely repulsive to the feelings of a +man like Bishop Guerrero, and doubtless did not continue to exist long +even in remote Chile. + +[Footnote 19: Grahame's "Chile."] + +But subdued in spirit as they are, the attacks of hypnotists would be +terribly felt by most nuns. + +Father H.'s apparition was seen by Miss Langton in a dream or vision. +She recognised him when she met him three months later; he may have been +shadowed by some of the hypnotists for purposes of information; and the +idea that he should be begged to aid in blessing the house and banning +the haunters, may have been a thought transferred by a hypnotist to Miss +Freer, who is liable to thought transfer, and is a good transferrer +herself. Why should not a nun's apparition be transferred as was Father +H.'s (to Miss Langton)? + +It appears that valiant resistance can inflict this possession upon +hypnotists as well as the horrors of a hard and disgusting victory do. + +Perhaps the Scin-laeca of Bulwer's "Harold," the apparition of Cerdic, +haunted the imaginations of generations of magicians. These were possibly +Celts; only one witch-rune on a Saxon sword was found; that was in the +Isle of Wight. It was, Professor Stephens said, a solitary instance, as +the brave Germans thought magic the art of a coward. The hypnotism from +which all the garrison suffered was a slight hypnotism; the eyes remained +open and people went about behaving almost normally. Father B. lost his +self-control for an instant. Some people would have to be tricked in a +complicated way. Thought transfer--audible to the person affected alone, +or even inaudible but perceptible like a thought--accounts for the whole +of Mrs. Piper's operations; she might have accomplices who would never be +seen speaking to her, and who would dictate actions, say, to one of the +Pelham or Howard family. These dictated actions, or inchoate plans, would +then be reported by Mrs. Piper writing as George Pelham. What Mrs. Piper +saw or felt or heard would be--at least at stated times--seen or felt or +heard by her fellow conspirators. As in conjuring everything found was +placed beforehand in the desired position. Thus facts recounted had been +induced. The blackguard who spoke to her as Phinuit was less educated +than the one who dictated George Pelham's communications. + +Mrs. Piper's education was rather suited to receive the vulgar Phinuit's, +than the more refined pseudo Pelham's communications. But the progress +from the one stage so revolting to Miss Freer, to the other so +delightful, a sign of increased refinement to Mr. Myers, was hardly +more a change than the turning on a hot tap after a cold water tap into a +basin. The receptacle was the same. But as a strong hypnotist herself, +Mrs. Piper could bring off the Sutton matter; she could easily give Mrs. +Sutton visual hallucinations. The startling position taken up by Mr. +Myers in his article in the _National Review_, is easily explicable. He +and Dr. Hodgson were magnetised by Mrs. Piper, and were like wax in her +hands. Eusapia Palladius has the same power. + +It is a sad declension in an eminent classic, that he, whose reference to +the primitive heathen Ulysses torturing the shade of his own mother is +rather revolting than elevating, should be full of wonder and delight at +it. + +After all Ulysses was the worthy ancestor of many a pirate hanged at +Malta, more ferocious enemies of man than the Red Indian. Some +somnambulists should be perhaps protected from exploitation. Mrs. Piper's +trance is presumably feigned, as trances can easily be. + +To return to Haunted Houses. In a haunted house case, a story suggested +by some chronological connection, or the nature of the apparition, is +attached to the phenomena. No doubt, in these days where the individuals +who perceive the phenomena have a wider experience, such a variety of +persons appear that the ghostly appearance loses its individuality +if not its authenticity. Mr. Podmore discusses such cases.[20] In Mr. +Podmore's book when Poltergeists, Cock-lore ghost affairs, are discussed, +it appears that genuine hallucinations may be associated with fraudulent +physical phenomena. + +[Footnote 20: "Studies," pp. 305-308; Chap. x. Haunted Houses.] + +These are, it may be positively stated, hypnotic hallucinations. The two +together in some cases, as in the one already mentioned[21] of "Alice," +amount to a very good ghost story, the blood on the floor alone excepted. +Alice's home was a terrace house in a town. The House at B---- was very +large and somewhat lonely. + +[Footnote 21: "Podmore," p. 153.] + +It is, however, less than 200 yards from a road along the Tay, that river +running parallel to its front to the southward of it. + +Rights of way from the north-west pass north of the house, and there were +some empty lodges there; these might afford shelter to the persons of +strong hypnotic power who chose to play the ghost. The continuity of the +noises at night would be thus facilitated. The house belonged to the +grand-nephew of a retired Indian major. It is apparently suggested +that the major's relations with a young housekeeper were suspicious. The +two and a native Indian servant are buried in the kirkyard at L----; +presumably Logierait. + +The haunted house is, as was said, at Ballechin in Perthshire; and it may +be noted that to Perthshire Esdaile, the famous Calcutta hypnotist and +physician, retired; but that he was unable to effect with the Perthshire +people the marvellous cures he had brought about in India. Perhaps the +Indian servant may have attracted the attention of some base imitator of +the honourable Esdaile. It may be noted that an officer of rank, whose +family were friends and not very distant neighbours in the south of +England of the late Rev. Lord Sydney Godolphin Osborne, experienced some +singular phenomena. Lord Sydney was a great hypnotist, and cured, or +believed he cured, many cases of epilepsy. The officer in question +suffered at times from a tickling in his face, which annoyed him very +much; it seemed to be more on the cheeks than in the corners behind the +nostrils. + +The connection with hypnotism is seen in the next case. A much younger +man, a captain in the Indian army, who had attended many spiritist +seances, suffered much the same sort of tickling annoyance. Both were +perfectly sane, and were doubtless persecuted. They were intelligent, +capable people. A friend informs the writer that when some years ago he +visited a fortune-teller of the Mrs. Piper class in London, he had a cold +trickling up his feet, doubtless from hypnotism, to help thought reading. + +The tickling of the face is the result of a more or less vain attempt to +reach the ear or eye. It will be felt by people driving whose ear and eye +would otherwise be affected. People sleeping in an exposed place may +suffer more, as the fixed recumbent position makes them obnoxious to +attack, as was previously remarked. The hyperaesthesia spreads in a +slight degree round the eye. + +The nature of the eye is hardly understood yet; it is quite possible that +subconscious pictures pass before us like a cinematograph, enforcing or +enforced by our thoughts. It has been remarked that thought is a species +of self-hypnotism. Hypnotism may only make these pictures more distinct +and modify them by degrees. In the attempt to inflict a picture on the +eye, only the dark image of it may be seen. The writer believes that this +means failure to affect the mind. Binet and Féré mention the dark +after-shadow. + +The extremest direct effect of hypnotism upon the eye, mechanically +speaking, is doubtless scarcely more than the shock of thistledown wafted +against it by a gentle breeze. It appears to affect the corners of the +eye; the electric film is perhaps divided by the approach over the +skin to another and damper tissue. But hyperaesthesia sometimes spreads +to the upper cheek. + +Madame de Maceine saw Rubinstein's hallucinatory picture with the corner +of her eye.[22] A shock even as slight as a bit of thistledown blown +against the cornea might be ill--timed at a street-crossing. Mr. S. of +B---- was run over in the streets of London and killed. He had been +previously hypnotically affected, for he heard quantities of raps; these +were no friendly signs of spirits, but the affection of his early +hypnotists practising against him. + +[Footnote 22: _Vide_ a leading article, _Daily News_, July 23.] + +A double image is seen, the eye being curiously affected, when for +instance the knobs of a chest of drawers appeared through the apparition. + +The vision is in the veil or mist of Ibn Khaldoon. Does not this cast a +light upon the conceptive and receptive powers of the eye. The conceptive +power is shown, as Binet and Féré remark, by the fact that our +imagination has done away with the end of a nerve which should be seen at +every instant of our lives. Light images may be given by feeble +hypnotists of which but the dark reaction can be detected only once in a +way. Compare Binet and Féré. They are perhaps noted when hypnotic speech +does not come off and is not heard. The small vision in one eye only is +separate from the landscape, and practically does not much influence the +mind of the person on whom it is inflicted, who continues aware that it +is a mere delusion, causing scarcely anything but trifling interruption. +This is perhaps only the case with the few, more numerous however amongst +the strong nations than amongst the weaker ones, who are impervious to +ordinary hypnotism, or could only be hypnotised if extraordinarily +fatigued. + +The development of intelligence and perhaps endurance increases the +number of these. I imagine the students in Germany, whom Heidenhain found +so superior to our British students, were not only better educated, as is +usual, but were also fighting club men, hardened to pain, and very +superior to the bulk of their British contemporaries in courage and +endurance. + +The word skin-deep hypnotism might well be applied to the cases just +mentioned. To show instances of its criminal use. Hypnotism has been +used, there is reason to believe, against an Austrian ambassador in +Petersburg, who found his papers in disorder, and saw a pale young man in +his study. Ordering the gates to be closed, he was told by the porter +that no one had entered, but that the ghost of the son of a former +ambassador--a lad the writer knew who died at the Embassy--haunted +the house. The ghost was therefore a hallucination inflicted on the +ambassador. Stepniak's death at a level-crossing on a railway, might be +brought about as Mr. Stewart's was in the street. Prince Alexander of +Battenburg's mental prostration might be brought about by the same means +when he was kidnapped. + +At the time of the dispute between England and Russia, caused by Penjdeh, +a Greek naval officer showed a slightly indiscreet attachment for +England. Shortly afterwards he was removed for a time from the post he +held, as he was considered not quite sane; he had been at Copenhagen, He +was, however, restored to the navy, as it was considered rather good for +his health than otherwise that he should go to sea. He and an English +diplomatist at Copenhagen had been at Fiume together on duty, and the +former was undoubtedly tricked by hypnotists, pretending to be acting for +freemasonry, a trick played since on another person, and before in +England on a third. It has also been played in Italy long ago. The voices +would be taken for ventriloquists, whilst scenes heard would be +considered to be perceived in catalepsy by a person in good health, and +in full possession of his faculties, if not a doctor. At Fiume is the +Whitehead torpedo manufactory, but as the hammering and other noises +connected with it would prevent the chief persons in charge of the +factory from being got at, the hypnotists were doubtless foiled there. +Of course they may have got some information indirectly, but nothing of +high value. + +The alarm produced at B---- House was brought about less by the phenomena +than by the pressure on the vagus nerve or heart. Whether fatal syncope +can be produced by modifying the heart beats, as Mr. Vincent suggests it +can, is of course a question for a doctor. He seems to think such cases +not uncommon. A gentleman attacked by hypnotists twice suffered from +syncope. He was previously suffering from exhaustion brought on by rowing +a party for their lives in a squall, and took strychnine at a doctor's +orders; that medicament, as is known, makes the nerves more sensitive. +Further rascally attempts were a failure in better-situated houses. The +terror of hearing a voice suddenly is in those circumstances very great; +against one in good health it is less, no doubt. The trouble given at +B---- was particularly great in the case of Miss Moore,[23] who scarcely +slept for a week; she was Miss Freer's comrade in No. 1, the S.W. corner +room of the house at B----, and the most exposed room where voices were +chiefly heard; and that, too, by almost every one who slept there, Miss +N., the Rev. Mr. Q., Father MacL., and Madame Boisseaux. The road ran +nearest to it there. The writer believes that the remarkable fact that +No. 1, the S.W. room, No. 2, the W. room, No. 3, the N.W. room, showed a +far higher average of phenomena than the other five--_i.e._ the three +eastern and the north and south centre rooms--is accounted for by the +following circumstances. + +[Footnote 23: "Alleged Haunting of B---- House," p. 118.] + +No. 8, the south room, was much exposed, but unlike No. 1, it had no door +in a line with another door and a window. Upon No. 1 an almost direct +attack could be made from northward or southward; for the partition walls +of the house, as well as the outer walls, were very thick.[24] + +[Footnote 24: "Alleged Haunting of B---- House," p. 94; _ibid._, +p. 140, _note_.] + +In the new part of the house these were less so, but people in them were +less affected than had been the case when the H. family stayed there. + +Rooms Nos. 1, 2, and 3 could be raked from north or south. Nearly all the +persons in the house were affected, and leaving out one or two men who +objected to being reported, it appears that the ladies, who spent in the +aggregate 237 nights in the house, had sixty-two nocturnal experiences, +whilst men spending 108 nights had twenty experiences (between bedtime +and breakfast was considered night-time). But three of the eleven ladies +were very sensitive; only one man out of fourteen was so. Therefore, +on a fair estimate, men and women were about equally sensitive; and this +is the case with hypnotism generally. A further proof of the nature of +the attack. + +With regard to rooms Nos. 1 and 2, the following curious fact is noted by +Miss Langton. "The knocks on the door between Nos. 1 and 2 have been +audible in this room; No. 2 in my experience only when No. 2 is empty; +and in No. 1 only when No. 2 is empty."[25] This looks as if attacks were +made from the opposite side of the house to make detection less easy, +especially by daylight. The maid-servants in the attics were often more +impressed than the people in the rooms below. This seems due to the +construction of the house; the attics are more approachable than the +rooms from the staircase. The electricity follows the track of a person +far better on a stair than on a ladder, it may be remarked. Thick walls, +high window-sills, a commanding position, and a murmuring brook, are +great securities against hypnotism, and these would be found in older +Scotch castles. Another element of safety, the purling brook, is here +mentioned; all noise is a good antidote; it is perhaps the case that with +hypnotism from a distance the hypnotic state is continually waxing and +waning, one link, generally a weaker one, succeeding another in the chain +of impressions on the temperament. The diminution being continual, the +force is renewed by people getting near enough to get a strong hold +again, otherwise it dies out. + +[Footnote 25: "Alleged Haunting of B---- House," p. 169.] + +These approaches were doubtless most dangerous on railway journeys; +hypnotism acts better in a small room than in a large one, and therefore +a person in a railway carriage is more affected. Here discomfort and +oppression helps hypnotism, but the hypnotist if in the train is in a +favourable position, as the distance is preserved very closely and need +not be very great. + +Carriages are of the same size, and this is doubtless a help to the +operator. The frequency of phenomena being observed on the night of +arrival has been noticed. Miss N., who drove over, was not affected. +The average recurrence of phenomena to each person was every fourth +night; other people besides those previously mentioned as suffering on +first nights, were on the second visit Miss Langton and Miss Duff. +The latter was only very restless. This resembles the experimental result +obtained by Mr. Rose; he attempted to impress two ladies in the same +house: the elder saw his apparition, the younger was only restless.[26] + +[Footnote 26: "Podmore," p. 252.] + +It may be noted that in intercourse with other people, some effort is +commonly made to secure their attention; this no doubt is connected with +the greater facility for causing one's own apparition to be presented. + +Thus to resume the question of place of hypnotism, on the second sojourn +four people suffered in the night of first arrival. Was the gang larger, +or were the assailants operators who had been afraid of the cold before? + +Possibly Miss Langton had been followed to St. Andrews, where she had +spent Easter, and had a vision of the phantom nun. In other cases where +the absence had been longer only two people were attacked. + +Several other persons felt a restlessness like Miss Duff's--woke without +any cause, &c.--Mrs. M., Mr. T., Mr. L.F., and others. If any doubt be +felt about the appearances and noises being from hypnotism, the +experimental cases should remove it, the resemblance of the feelings +of the "garrison" to those hypnotized should be dwelt on, the times of +recurrence, and finally later mentioned the peculiarity of the +apparition's nature--corresponding to those produced by hypnotism. The +argument that Féré and Binet are fond of, that hypnotism much resembles +what can be seen every day, is no doubt true. + +Mrs. Anna Kingsford appears to have been often hypnotised by some unknown +rascal, but her gentle admirable character seems to have suffered but +little, though her life was possibly shortened. + +But when Professor Maitland talks of building walls round her, he +emphasises the advantage that society gives against witchcraft. Of four +people whose lives have been destroyed or grievously injured by +hypnotism, whose circumstances are known to the writer, three were +childless married men (two were unhappily married), and the fourth case +was a bachelor's, a poor young man's. + +It may be noted that in the North of Europe, at least half a small class +of men were attacked, and the others were more or less connected with +these. The most were diplomatists and consuls. + +The advantage of society must be referred to a great extent to the stream +of thought-transfer from hypnotists being checked and broken up; for the +effect of this stream being made indirect or semi-direct, its dominating +power is thereby greatly diminished. + +On the other hand, in three cases where attacks were defeated, the +subjects were happily married men, and in two, if not in the three (the +third case the writer gathered at second hand and fortunately remembered +later), they had children. On the third visit of Miss Freer to B---- that +lady notes that "the influence is evil and horrible. The worn features at +breakfast were really a dismal sight."[27] + +[Footnote 27: "Haunting of B----House," p. 210.] + +On this occasion it looks as if more than three persons (Miss Langton on +the 19th of February had noted three voices) were engaged in the attack. + +The writer has no doubt, from personal and observed experience, that +sometimes transfer is used, but is doubtful to what extent. + +Boxes on the ear, slaps on the back, nay a flip as with a towel on the +bare back, are felt, the last even by a clothed person. In Poltergeist +cases, as in Alice's, a slap on the back was felt; perhaps she +hypnotised Miss K. and slapped her on the back and transferred the slap +to her (Alice's) mother. + +This would be like the two engineer students' case, where the hypnotised +one appeared to a friend. + +In Poltergeist cases, one person perhaps does the mischief; in inferior +haunted house cases two would be enough. The Poltergeist raisers are +often subject to fits; the people who are vicious attackers, like the +assailants of the occupants of B----, must be semi-maniacs. The terror +is sometimes brought about by two people operating; one producing a +terrifying effect, the other intensifying the terror. In attempting to +weaken a person to whom speech has been made intelligible at a distance, +a sensation would be transferred after the speech, so that he might +believe it affected him, and cease jeering at and despising the operator. +A man with some knowledge of mesmerism, and living a life with good +interests in it, could defy them: such a case has happened. For nearly +fifty years a gentleman was tormented at times, and died and lived sane. + +The attack has perhaps been more developed in the last twenty or thirty +years, the influence of above-board hypnotism acted upon that practised +by criminal scoundrels. A combination possible is, for instance, one +rascal showing a faint image of a fiend, and another transmitting a sound +like a scratching at a window; this was a failure, the percipient +believing that the devil acted under the authority of the Almighty, and +had no business with innocent people. It was given to a person in a +semi-sleeping condition. Pain combined was efficient. The pain is partly +by affection of cutaneous nerves--partly by affection of the ear; but no +one on the watch would be driven into lunatic acts by it. Of course after +exhaustion (and pain makes this easier) the victim may be in a stupefied +condition and obey: this is the post-hypnotic state, which will not come +off with people who have been instructed against this villainous game. +Miss Freer's admirable nerve was doubtless due to the habit of studying +phenomena. The worn features at breakfast, mentioned before, included +those of two secular priests. Miss Freer had failed to get permission +for three well--known priests belonging to societies (perhaps Jesuits) to +come. The gentleman already mentioned who had first told Lord Bute of the +haunting of B---- was among these. + +An interesting light on the effect of prayer would probably be brought +out by struggles against witchcraft, struggles doubtless very common +amongst early Christians. Indeed, the devils who were cast out must +sometimes have been baffled hypnotists confronted by One who was stronger +than they; the departing into the swine is much more intelligible on this +hypothesis than on Dean Farrar's, of the swine's terror, which suppresses +the "devils'" request. + +A story is told of Titus by the rabbis: he heard a gnawing sound at his +brain; it caused him great pain. He heard a blacksmith hammering at his +anvil, and the gnawing ceased. The blacksmith was paid to go on hammering +in Titus' neighbourhood. At the end of a few days the "animal" that +gnawed at his brain got indifferent to the hammering, went on gnawing, +and Titus died. His brain was opened, and an animal as big as a sparrow +with a beak of iron was found in it. The truth of this story would be, +that some magicians, not especially adroit hypnotists, hammered at Titus' +tympanum. His nerves, tried by climatic fever--a great facilitator of +hypnotism--and by debauchery, gave way, and Jerusalem was avenged. + +The writer once approached a very eminent Catholic cleric on the subject, +hoping that some Freemason who had been victimised by tricks played by +hypnotists in Italy might have relieved his conscience to the priests; +the writer had been given one clue in the following way. + +Two English Freemasons in the writer's presence had briefly mentioned +mesmerism in Italian lodges. One asking a question as to this being true, +the other, who objected to his son becoming a Freemason early, turned the +question off; it is possible that he suspected it was the case, but +preferred holding his tongue. + +Now as these scoundrel hypnotists have, unseen but heard, approached +three or four people to the writer's knowledge, under the pretence of +being connected with Freemasonry, it is very possible that they may have +induced some of their victims to enter a lodge, and then or before +tricked them in different ways. Indeed, one of the people attacked +unsuccessfully had, to the writer's knowledge, an absurd idea of the +exclusiveness of Freemasonry, since he objected to the Prince of Wales +making over a poor Freemason's brief (if that be the proper word to use) +for inquiry as to his circumstances to gentlemen who were not Freemasons. +The brief of course contained only the man's name, and a few ornamental +figures: the man was dead and his widow wanted help. It is to be wished +that some scientific Freemason would study the matter; he would see that +the secrecy of Freemasonry, however harmless and venial, affords cover +for blackguard hypnotists of this particular and doubtless rare kind. +This secrecy is of course entirely conventional, and could doubtless be +altered. As elsewhere, the people who take an interest in it are not +always people with broad and scientific minds, and at the close of the +eighteenth century Cagliostro misused it, it is said, for his own +purposes. + +The writer regrets that a want of scientific study of the subject (it +must be remembered that books on hypnotism were rare, and research +backward eleven years ago) prevented him from introducing the subject +properly to the wise and good Lord Carnarvon. It must be borne in mind +that for audible thought-transfers to lead not only to apparent +intercourse--the answers being put into the recipient's mouth, as in Mrs. +Godfrey's case--a pretence of something like Freemasonry is needed. + +In "Piccadilly" Oliphant describes a cross appearing to the hero, and the +words "live the life" being whispered to him. He then abandons the young +woman he loves to his friend. Such a course of conduct would certainly be +suggested by hypnotists to make a capable man their plaything and tool as +was the case with Oliphant. Obviously a man could live a more beneficial +life with a marriage of mutual affection, whilst a poor young woman +would, if she married otherwise, be sure to be a sufferer. Perhaps this +fragment was historical. It would have made the Oliphants' disaster +easier. + +A word, a vision, and the mischief is done. Perhaps poor Captain +Lestrange was forced into his unhappy marriage by a similar trick. + +The love of power and of bullying is so great, perhaps especially with +British and Germans, that this tyranny is not wonderful; were there not +an efficient police the Mohawks would soon revive; the infamous cruelty +of some brutes is only known to a few doctors. Envy, malice, hatred, and +all uncharitableness are shown in these attacks upon people, whose lives +were useful and whose characters were high. Possibly the hope of profit +may be sometimes present;--when this is past and the scoundrels have had +their triumph, their persecution is continued, unprofitable though it be; +partly to render pursuit more difficult, partly maybe for practice, +partly because they have acquired a horrible habit which they cannot get +rid of. Du Potet's feeling of pride becomes in the bosom of a blackguard +wholly evil. Much interest has been given to Home's feats: to his +floating outside his window and other extraordinary performances. His +first feat, be it remembered, was to make a rapping stool leap up when it +had a Bible on it, and leap all the harder. Was not this mere tricking +action on the observer's eye and ear? This was closely paralleled by the +rascals about B----, who made a "work-table, a box on long slender legs," +emit a loud bang. Home might have done this alone to his aunt, but it +possibly was done by a combination of people at B----. + +The fact that Home, at least on one occasion, could not do anything when +Houdin was near, seems to show that Home relied on an accomplice whom he +was unable to conceal from Houdin, and who doubtless was a hypnotist +also. + +It is a fortunate thing that "spiritualism" and its wonders have invited +scientific study. The tendency to become spiritists is, of course, +furthered in many by an uncomfortable belief that without spiritualism a +future life is not insured; only the coming again to them of the spirits +of the dead assures them that they rise again. + +Of course all the heathen ideas of a resurrection were founded on the +keen recollection of themselves the defunct have inspired. Our belief in +the Christian revelations is founded on its ethical system, part of +which, however, is of course for missionary effort only, but which is the +more remarkably connected with previous revelations, not so distinctly +reported, to the Jews, and with the history of the world at large. + +Of course spiritual impressions are of no more value than the stigmata on +hysterical girls, in whom the emotional element was over developed, and +the religious understanding too little developed. The reversion to +ancestor worship in spiritism seems more clear, and dinners at Kensal +Green with five shillings tomb money, after the system of some low-caste +Indian tribes, should be instituted by the spiritists. But the Chinaman +also conciliates other spirits--those of friends or patrons or the great +men of past generations; why do not the spiritualists sacrifice gold leaf +and roast pork like the inhabitants of the Far East? + +The Catholic Church has exorcised spirits and put them in their place as +improper and disturbing elements. It thereby told its members that +spirits were conjurable: of course really the minds of the members were +strengthened, but the toleration of the idea of spirits, whether lazy and +trifling, pernicious or beneficial, is of course wrong. However, as they +were considered the servants of sorcerers, the idea was in some respects +sufficiently accurate. + +The Lutheran Church in Denmark, in the last century, had many famous +exercisers who banned ghosts into Schleswig-Holstein. + +One hypnotiser against another, the battle-field a stupid peasant. M. +Flammarion's book, just published (July 1900), contains an instance or +two of French peasants bewitching one another. The cure for this +witchcraft is found in science, the criminal law, and the mutual kindness +that, derived from Christianity, though often promoted by men whom we can +only call God-fearing unbelievers, has grown so much in this century, and +more elsewhere even than in Britain. Thousands of poor people perished in +the days of old, guiltless victims, whilst some scoundrelly hypnotists +went free. In modern times some poor people, bothered by hypnotists, have +been sent to lunatic asylums and have fallen victims of the greed, +cruelty, and neglect that so often prevail there. One must give Dr. +Savage his due, that he describes a case in his book on insanity where a +lady hearing voices (cheating hypnotic voices, perhaps), and believing +herself insulted, left one lodging after another perfectly quietly, and +he admits that this case was not suitable for a lunatic asylum. + +The "spirits" of spiritists are, of course, not impressive, if their +somewhat startling amount of information be excepted. The language used +by George Pelham is pure twaddle. One member of the society seems to have +been hypnotised, and the rest studied by the Piper gang through him. + +If all a man feels, sees, and hears be noted, the information gathered, +coming from a stranger, will be startling to people who belong to his +circle of friends. + +This information was imparted to Mrs. Piper, where it had not been +collected by her. All she saw was seen by her accomplices, who advised +her accordingly. They were doubtless too busy to study the eminent +statesman whom she told that he had money transactions with a person +called George.[28] + +[Footnote 28: Miss Goodrich Freer's "Essays," p. 119.] + +Study and inquiry should eradicate the superstition and the fraud called +spiritism, and people should be protected against a most dangerous and +cowardly form of crime--criminal hypnotism. It enfeebles the mind; and +murder is hardly more serious to a man than a marriage that embitters his +life, or the loss of a career that is the moral stay of his existence. +The knowledge that such a thing exists would, if it induced one per cent, +more care, save many lives. Apparitions of beneficent spirits can be +easily accounted for. They are cases of automatic visualisation. Thus the +children mentioned in the late Mr. Spurgeon's Life, who went down an +underground passage and saw a vision of their dead mother, who stopped +them from falling into a well, felt as other children would feel, that +they must think of the one person who is always ready to preserve her +little children from terror and pain; and thinking of her, they +visualised her. + +Energy and intelligence are the worst enemies of criminal hypnotism, as +they are of burglary, but social organisation alone can combat crime. + +To note some particulars of the haunting of B---- besides those already +mentioned. The butler, Sanders, lived with the H. family at B---- the +year before Miss Freer garrisoned the house. Not one of the people who +were at B---- in 1896 were there with Miss Freer. This bars one type of +fraud being alleged. Sanders, besides hearing thumping, groans, and the +rustling of a lady's dress, had his bedclothes lifted up and let fall +again--"first at the foot of my bed, but gradually coming towards the +head." He held the clothes round his neck with his hands, but they were +"gently lifted in spite of my efforts to hold them." + +This simply means that he had cramps, resulting from the effect of +hypnotism on the muscles of his legs. The writer believes that the force +always acts from the feet, or rather one foot, upwards; obviously a man +sitting or standing up must be approached that way, and habit causes the +electric stream to flow in that direction. But this cramp is not felt so +keenly as is the case when cramp arises from a constrained position. The +consequence is that the kicks given to relieve it are not so violent and +decisive. They are repeated automatically, until the bedclothes fly up +finally near the head, as is described. The intervals between the +flights of the clothes seem shorter than they are; this is again due to +hypnotic influence, as in spiritistic performances and in conjuring, +where, as M. Binet has recently remarked, a little hypnotism always comes +in. + +Thus in Mr. Austin Podmore's account of Mr. Davey's seance, his attention +was called away for two or three minutes without his noting it. We may +take it for granted that the kickings up of the bedclothes during which +Sanders became weak and faint, lasted ten minutes or more. "Being fanned +as though some bird were flying round my head," arose from his own breath +after his efforts; he felt it the more as he had got warm.[29] The sound +of breathing may have been of his own, but is not unlikely to have been +the transferred sound of the breathing of one of two people hypnotising +him. The feeling of the bed being carried round (or moved) towards the +window is a feeling of reaction: a man sticks his back against the bed to +resist the material and mental pressure, and the relief felt as the +effort ceases gives him the impression that the bed has been swung +towards the window, towards which he naturally looks, since the slight +draught refreshes him and diverts the attack. That he actually felt some +one making passes over him is not an error; he had two antagonists; one +of whom, like the young engineer Cleave,[30] was hypnotised by the other, +both willing the hypnotism of Sanders. + +[Footnote 29: "Alleged Haunting," p. 46.] + +[Footnote 30: "Osgood Mason," p. 234.] + +He felt the passes the stronger antagonist was making over the other. If +one of the two people can obtain return messages like Mr. Godfrey, +intimate knowledge of his victim's doings might soon be obtained. A ghost +appeared to young H. in the shape of a veiled lady; perhaps the mist +round her was taken for a veil. But to return to the action of two +hypnotists on one person, it may be noted that the sound like the giving +of a tin box heard by Miss Moore, Miss Freer, and Miss Langton,[31] and +afterwards like the lid of a coalscuttle caught by a dress by Mrs. +M.,[32] was the sound of a gong doubtless used to stimulate the +hypnotised partner in the blackguard couple. Such a sound done with a +little spring gong, or with a larger one, has been heard by a victim. + +[Footnote 31: "Haunting of B---- House," p. 155.] + +[Footnote 32: "Haunting of B---- House," p. 173.] + +By such experience, too, the monotonous reading can be explained; it was +the commencement by less powerful hypnotists of a supporting attack: the +words would become audible, distinguishable, and noticeable later. This +might ensue after the victim was more deeply hypnotised. + +Probably the very words which were to be used later were used then, a +sort of sub-conscious memory being created. + +Apparitions of a misty nature are described by Podmore in his chapter on +"Haunted Houses."[33] Miss Langton saw a misty phantom, and _Lizzie_ the +housemaid saw a cloud and afterwards got a cramp, less persistent than +the butler's, as she began to scream.[34] The upper housemaid saw a woman +whose legs she did not notice,[35] as was the case with Mr. Godfrey's +friend to whom he appeared hypnotically. + +[Footnote 33: "Studies," pp. 315, 326.] + +[Footnote 34: "Haunting of B---- House," p. 167.] + +[Footnote 35: _Ibid_., pp. 205, 207.] + +The fact that the dog that appeared to Miss Freer was a spaniel like +Major S.'s, shows familiarity with the house on the part of the gang. + +That they moved about early near the house is shown by Mr. C. hearing the +caw of the rooks at 5.35 on March 6; they would not start cawing so early +unless disturbed. There is thus abundant evidence (1) that rascals were +at work; (2) accounting for certain of the phenomena observed; (3) +pointing out their resemblance to cases of experimental hallucinations or +thought transfer; (4) that such hypnotic operations could be traced +by due vigilance. No. 2 is based in part on the writer's experience. + +If the roads and neighbourhood had been patrolled, and exposure to +possible hypnotists avoided, the phenomena would have ceased. The +gentleman who wrote to the _Times_ made a point or two that were too +petty to notice, and was probably disagreeable to Miss Freer, but +detective work would have been useful. The gentleman's connection with a +class of men, the mad doctors whom the late Sir William Gull so rightly +despised, and whose observations have been so unscientific, may perhaps +have unduly prejudiced Miss Freer against him. Yet people have listened +to a Maudsley against an Esher, and gone to the other extreme. Perhaps +Miss Freer will reconsider her opinion, that hypnotism is for doctors +only to study. + +To wind up with a statement of what the writer believes to have been the +object of the rascals about B----; ordinary thought-transfer probably +precedes audible speech by hypnotic influence. + +The many people who hear their names called, and find that no death or +other striking occurrence coincides in time with this, are perhaps being +experimented on by hypnotists, who somehow or other, perhaps by community +of feeling, have hit upon the precise moment of a state of subconscious +expectation that makes transfer of an actual word easier. + +Of course people, friends or others, about the victim are an antidote to +influences. The inevitable tendency of pious natures, sensitive people +who are indispensable to society, is to self-blame. In misfortune they +would always blame themselves as sinners who deserved punishment, +probably from having paid previously an undeserved attention to the +censorious. Their frame of mind is very contrary to the gospel teaching, +and to science; but the division of labour is moral as well as material; +one man takes the kicks undeservedly, another the halfpence undeservedly. +These gentle people can thus be driven into apparently insane acts, if +they have fools about them. + +The fact of the name Ishbel being transferred to the inquirers assembled +at Ballechin, may indicate whose was the spirit that should profess to +preach to victims. Women are often said to be worse, if evil, than men, +and they play this ugly role better. + +That rain interrupted the phenomena is another point against the +partisans of the supernatural. When after rain the nun was surprised and +chased by Miss Freer, it would seem that she intended mischief to some +other member of the garrison at B----, or she would have been _en +rapport_ with Miss Freer, and aware that she was nearing her. + +The pronunciation of the names Ishbel and Margaret only indicate a +non-Highlander being implicated, but it seems possible that the latter +name, for which there was no particular cause, may have been a punning +appellation. Mar-garret, as the grey woman, attacked the servants +in the attics. Such a joke is characteristic of such villains, and shows +that they are tolerably educated people. Their avoiding Mr. Z. may +indicate that they may have been brought in contact with him, in the +fifty different ways that an editor may have seen people--their +contributing to the press is not impossible. They must have some money +too. The writer believes that physiology and many other branches of +science, notably social, will be benefited by studying this case. + +Lord Bute, Miss Freer, Colonel Taylor, and other members of the +"garrison," deserve the gratitude of society. May inquirers never rest +until the subject, not too difficult a one in the age of electricians +and physiologists, has been fairly cleared up. + +There are one or two points in the study of the advanced combined +hypnotism--it is probably always criminal--which are worthy of notice. +One is that the operators generally, or always--(observation is +difficult)--repeat a phrase or its most important words. The first saying +of the word is barely noticeable. The repetition forces the word to the +subject's attention. + +Secondly, speech is addressed to the right ear; the sufferer of course +declines attention to it, but this slight, almost automatic effort, yet +distracts attention from the left ear, and a communication to that ear is +unheard, but perceived as a thought. + +To detect speech a very trifling pressure on the ear has to be watched +for. In a law court or in society the interest of what is going on knocks +the operators out. + +A facility for receiving thought transferred makes a person perhaps more +susceptible to depression by dull or inferior people, but principle +partly cures this. + +The art of dismissing obtrusive thoughts and persisting in one's own has +to be cultivated by people with the readiest perceptions. + +Natural caution and a habit of studying probabilities are great helps +against such attackers; but, on the other hand, the man who drinks a +glass of wine when he feels low will beat the hypnotist, who will +doubtless harm him by causing degeneration. + +A glass of port wine at eleven in the morning, and tea or breakfast +early, are a great help. Early rising deprives the operators of the time +when they pin their victim best. + +A dog's bark, a peahen's cry, above all a bird's song, is a great +interruption to hypnotism--silent or by voices. A nightingale will foil +the worst attack. + +The scoundrels may try and substitute an ugly sound for the song of +birds; they cannot affect the sharp, short, and sudden cry of the +swallow. + +Walking up and down hill is much better than walking on the flat. The +air is forced harder through the lungs. Windy weather is a help, and +rain, for two reasons: it is an advantage to the victim, and keeps +rascals away. The writer believes that the cartilages are influenced, +or at least felt to be influenced, rather than the nerves, glands, or +even the muscles. + +He believes that the hearing of the voices of hypnotists is partly +brought about by a change in the cartilages of the ear, which (it is +stated in Grey's anatomy) are to a certain extent disintegrated by +electricity. + +The ears thus become rather telephonic, and no longer dependent so +entirely on the will; emotion, however, either checks this facility of +sound or the weakness that permits attention. + +If to this be added the repetition by various voices of the same word, +the first occasion probably when the subject's eye is seen to pass over +the printed passage where it occurs in a paper, words will be brought to +the victim's ear hypnotically. + +But perhaps the first system mentioned is used where the difficulties of +approach are greater, the rascals must have great patience. + +When the victim begins a letter the date is called to him, and then he +can be tested by calling, say, July to him in September. His name may be +called when in reverie, perhaps in the country, his mind goes back to his +boyhood. + +Thought reading is very easy if a person is visible, and rascals begin +from a distance, and finally operate between hypnotics out of sight. + +They seem in this first to catch a person when he passes a window. This +shows that they are susceptible to the amount of light, as well as that a +thick wall is a greater obstacle than a pane of glass. They thus too may +partly distinguish environment, though this is perhaps learned by +practice. + +Ear and eye and muscular feeling are all weighed. A strong man much +hypnotised in this way, will notice that a diminished light will relieve +him, although previously he paid little attention to any glare, even up +to the age of forty. + +Residence changed from a ground floor to a lofty room would often cause +unusual relief. On a church tower this would be felt even more. + +The noise of London, and the fact that people hanging about are watched, +are checks to the early operations of criminal hypnotists. + +Music is probably an excellent antidote. A feeling of stupidity, given +even for a second, would probably give a boy a wrong idea of himself, and +even repeated successes would not quite efface this. + +The Japanese system of wrestling lately introduced shows how powerful a +touch on a nerve may be in weakening a man. Such a touch transferred or +propelled, may for a long time aid hypnotisers from a distance, though it +would be in time disregarded or little regarded. + +Calculative work is better suited than imaginative work to free the +brain. I would urge inquirers to ask themselves, whether Mrs. Piper's +doings could be accounted for in any other way than that suggested. + +Clairvoyance is seemingly mere guess-work, the imagination being +heightened temporarily rather than depressed by the hypnotic pressure. +Mr. Vincent's analysis of mental reactions is invaluable. A hypnotised +person does not go on to the analogies, which may be quite obvious +from a suggestive word. + +This resembles the habit of some religious persons who build on one text +of the Bible, completely neglecting the modifying and explanatory text +that immediately follows. The subject is grossly credulous, and is +deprived of much fruitful time for thinking. + +The hypnotised person will refuse to do many actions, and religion is of +course a mainstay, though irrational accretions, fasting, and +superstitious views of the Communion will weaken it. + +Miss Freer repeatedly asked herself the question, "How did this come into +my head?" + +It would seem from the story of the red figure, afterwards recognised on +a seal, that she had been hypnotised not by her companion but by some +travelling rascal who had seen the letter in the post-office, and thus +brought off a piece of prevision. + +Intelligent watchfulness is a great protection. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Inferences from Haunted Houses and +Haunted Men, by John Harris + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13934 *** |