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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Mrs. Piper & the Society for Psychical Research</p> +<p>Author: Michael Sage</p> +<p>Release Date: September 25, 2006 [eBook #19376]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. PIPER & THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Stacy Brown, Suzanne Lybarger,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + + +<h1>MRS PIPER & THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH</h1> + + + + + +<h2> +TRANSLATED & SLIGHTLY ABRIDGED<br /> +FROM THE FRENCH OF M. SAGE<br /> +<br /> +BY NORALIE ROBERTSON WITH A<br /> +PREFACE BY SIR OLIVER LODGE</h2> + +<p class="center" style="margin-top: 3em;"><b> +SCOTT-THAW CO.<br /> +NEW YORK<br /> +1904<br /></b> +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PUBLISHERS_NOTE" id="PUBLISHERS_NOTE"></a>PUBLISHER'S NOTE</h2> + + +<p>It is obvious that such a body of men, pledged to impartial +investigation, as the Society for Psychical Research could not +officially stand sponsor to the speculative comments of M. Sage, however +admittedly clear-sighted and philosophical that French critic may be.</p> + +<p>But the publication of this translation has been actually desired and +encouraged by many individuals in the Society, it has been revised +throughout by a member of their Council, and it is introduced to the +general reader by their President.</p> + +<p>The Society, indeed, is prepared to accept M. Sage's volume as a +faithful and convenient <i>résumé</i> of experiments conducted under its own +auspices, and so far as it contains statements of fact, these statements +are quoted from authoritative sources. For the comments, deductions or +criticisms therein contained, the acute intellect of M. Sage is alone +responsible.</p> + +<p>It remains only to state in detail the principles on which the original +text has been "slightly abridged" by the translator. No facts or +comments have been left out that bear directly on the main subject of +the book, the omissions are wholly of matters which might be regarded as +superfluous for the understanding of the case of Mrs Piper. Occasionally +paragraphs have been condensed, a tendency to vague theorising has been +checked throughout, and certain irrelevant matter has been altogether +omitted. Such omissions are confined, indeed, to single sentences or +paragraphs, with only the exception of a somewhat technical discussion +of the Cartesian philosophy in Chapter XVII. It had at first been +intended to omit the whole of Chapter XI., as containing only fanciful +and non-evidential matter; but statements of this kind form an integral +part of the communications, and so, on the whole, it was thought fairer +to retain M. Sage's chapter on the subject, especially as it may be +found of popular interest.</p> + +<p>The original appendix has been incorporated, after modifications, in +Chapter XII., since the incident here discussed was in progress as M. +Sage wrote and has since been closed. His conjectures as to its possible +development are naturally omitted. Finally all references to the +<i>Proceedings</i> (or printed reports) of the Society itself have been +carefully verified. In every case the words of the reports themselves +are given in preference to any re-rendering of M. Sage's translations.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table summary="contents" style="width: 75%;"><tbody> +<tr> + +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Preface by Sir Oliver Lodge</span></td> <td class="tr" style="width: 15%;"><a href="#Page_xi">xi</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Objects of the Society</span></td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_xix">xix</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> I</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Mrs Piper's mediumship—Is mediumship a +neurosis?</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> II</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Dr Richard Hodgson—Description of the trance—Mrs +Piper not a good hypnotic subject.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> III</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Early trances—Careful first observations by +Professor William James of Harvard University, +Massachusetts, U.S.A.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> IV</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">The hypothesis of fraud—The hypothesis of +muscle-reading—"Influence."</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> V</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">A sitting with Mrs Piper—The hypothesis of +thought-transference—Incidents.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> VI</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Phinuit—His probable origin—His character—What +he says of himself—His French—His +medical diagnosis—Is he merely a secondary +personality of Mrs Piper?</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> VII</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Miss Hannah Wild's letter—The first text given +by Phinuit—Mrs Blodgett's sitting—Thought-reading +explains the case.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> VIII</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Communications from persons having suffered +in their mental faculties—Unexpected communications +from unknown persons—The respect due +to the communicators—Predictions—Communications +from children.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> IX</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Further consideration of the difficulties of the +problem—George Pelham—Development of the +automatic writing.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> X</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">How George Pelham has proved his identity—He +recognises his friends and alludes to their opinions—He +recognises objects which have belonged to +him—Asks that certain things should be done for +him—Very rarely makes an erroneous statement.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XI</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">George Pelham's philosophy—The nature of the +soul—The first moments after death—Life in the +next world—George Pelham contradicts Stainton +Moses—Space and time in the next world—How +spirits see us—Means of communication.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XII</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">William Stainton Moses—What George Pelham +thinks of him—How Imperator and his assistants +have replaced Phinuit.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XIII</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Professor Hyslop and the journalists—The so-called +"confession" of Mrs Piper—Precautions +taken by Professor Hyslop during his experiments—Impressions +of the sittings.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XIV</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">The communications of Mr Robert Hyslop—Peculiar +expressions—Incidents.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XV</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">The "influence" again—Other incidents—Statistics.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XVI</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Examination of the telepathic hypothesis—Some +arguments which render its acceptance difficult.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XVII</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Some considerations which strongly support the +spiritualistic hypothesis—Consciousness and +character remain unchanged—Dramatic play—Errors +and confusions.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XVIII</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Difficulties and objections—The identity of Imperator—Vision +at a distance—Triviality of the +messages—Spiritualist philosophy—Life in the +other world.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XIX</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">The medium's return to normal life—Speeches +made while the medium seems to hover between +the two worlds.</div></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XX</td> <td class="tr"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tl2"><div class="lef">Encouraging results obtained—The problem must +be solved.</div></td> +</tr></tbody></table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2> + +<p class="center"><b>BY THE</b></p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">President of the Society for Psychical Research</span></h3> + + +<p><i>One of the facts which by general consent in the present stage of +psychological science require study is the nature, and if possible the +cause, of a special lucidity, a sensitiveness of perception, or +accessibility to ideas appearing to arrive through channels other than +usual organs of sense, which is sometimes met with among simple +people<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> in a rudimentary form, and in a more developed form in certain +exceptional individuals. This lucidity may perhaps be regarded as a +modification or an exaggeration of the clearness of apprehension +occasionally experienced by ordinary persons while immersed in a brown +study, or while in the act of waking out of sleep, or when +self-consciousness is for a time happily suspended.</i></p> + +<p><i>In men of genius the phenomenon occurs in the most dignified form at +present known to us, and with them also it accompanies a lapse of +ordinary consciousness, at least to the extent that circumstances of +time and place and daily life become insignificant and trivial, or even +temporarily non-existent; but the notable thing is that a few persons, +not of genius at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span>all, are liable to an access of something not +altogether dissimilar, and exhibit a kind of lucidity or clairvoyant +perceptivity, which, though doubtless of a lower grade, is of a +well-defined and readily-investigated type, during that state of +complete lapse of consciousness known to us as a specific variety of +trance.</i></p> + +<p><i>Not that all trance patients are lucid, any more than all brown studies +result in brilliant ideas; nor should it be claimed that some measure of +lucidity, even of the ultra-normal kind now under consideration, cannot +exist without complete bodily trance. The phenomenon called "automatic +writing" is an instance to the contrary,—when a hand liberated from +ordinary conscious control is found, automatically as it were, to be +writing sentences, sometimes beyond the knowledge of the person to whom +the hand belongs. Some approach to unconsciousness, however, either +general or local, seems essential to the access of the state, and such +conditions as ordinarily induce reverie or sleep are suitable for +bringing it on; no one, for instance, would expect to experience it +while urgently occupied in affairs. Whether it is desirable to give way +to so unpractical an attitude, and to encourage the influx of ideas +through non-sensory channels, is another question which need not now +concern us. It suffices for us that the phenomenon exists, and that it +occasionally though very rarely takes on so well marked and persistent a +form as to lend itself to experimental investigation. It is true that in +these cases nothing of exceptional and world-compelling merit is +produced; the substance of the communication is often, though not +always, commonplace, and the form sometimes grotesque. It is true also +that a complete record of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> conversation held under these +circumstances—perhaps a full record of a commonplace conversation held +under any circumstances—readily lends itself to cheap ridicule; +nevertheless, the evidence of intimate knowledge thus displayed becomes +often of extreme interest to the few persons for whom the disjointed +utterances have a personal meaning, although to the outsider they must +appear dull, unless he is of opinion that they help him to interpret the +more obscure workings of the human mind, or unless he thinks it possible +that the nature and meaning of inspiration in general may become better +understood by a study of this, its lowest, but at the same time its most +definite and controllable, form. Undoubtedly information is attainable +under these conditions from sources unknown, undoubtedly the entranced +or semi-conscious body or part of a body has become a vehicle or medium +for ostensible messages from other intelligences, or for impersonations; +but the cause of the lucidity so exhibited, the nature of the channel by +which the information is obtained, and the source of the information +itself, are questions which, although they are apt to be treated glibly +by a superficial critic, to whom they appear the most salient feature +and the easiest of explanation, are really the</i> <i>most difficult of all.</i></p> + +<p><i>It was to study such questions as this that a special society—the +Society for Psychical Research—was founded some twenty-two years ago.</i></p> + +<p><i>Perhaps the most remarkable, and certainly the most thorough, of all +the investigations made under the auspices of this Society has been the +case of the American lady, Mrs Piper; which, begun in 1887, has +continued ever since, with only such intervals as were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span> necessitated by +the circumstances of the case. She was already known to the Professor of +Psychology at Harvard and to some other American savants, but she was +brought to the notice of the leaders of the English Society by Dr +Richard Hodgson, who has been for some years, and is still, acting as +its representative in America, and Secretary of its American Branch. A +complete record of the whole investigation has not yet been published, +but large portions of it have appeared from time to time in the +Proceedings of the Society.</i></p> + +<p><i>It is not to be supposed that the case is unique by any means; on the +contrary, it may in some senses be regarded as typical, but its features +are exceptionally well-marked, and the record has been more carefully +and continuously kept than that of any other case. Accordingly, some +emphasis has been given to it, and a general vague notion concerning the +case has diffused itself among educated persons beyond the limits of the +Society.</i></p> + +<p><i>And indeed it is one of really general interest, since the hypothesis +of fraud is entirely inapplicable to it, and in the opinion of the most +sceptical critics who have made an adequate study of the case, no +explanation more commonplace than that of telepathy will bear +examination. Other critics—and these are they who have gone into the +matter most thoroughly—find the hypothesis of telepathy to be +insufficient, and hold that some further explanation is necessary. +Opinions differ as to what that further explanation may be, and so far +as I know it has not been scientifically formulated as yet. To me it +appears probable that no one explanation will fit all the facts, and +that the subject is not yet ripe for theory. Working hypotheses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> must be +made, must be tested, and in all probability must be rejected, but our +main duty at the present stage is the careful examination and record of +facts. The working hypothesis most widely prevalent among the general +public, whether for the purpose of scoffing or for a foundation of +belief, is some crude form of the idea that the persistent intelligence +of persons who have severed their connection with matter is willing, and +occasionally even anxious, to take up temporarily the broken thread, and +so to operate as to transmit, through any channel which may be open, to +us who are still associated with planetary matter, messages which shall +serve as a sign of their continued existence and affection; and that the +biological organism or part of an organism of a living but unconscious +or semi-conscious person is an instrument which may, though with +difficulty, be utilised to that end.</i></p> + +<p><i>It is easy to express this hypothesis in such a way that it is +repugnant to common sense. It may be possible hereafter to formulate it +so that it shall correspond in some measure with the truth. But even +though it should turn out that intelligences can exist apart from the +surface of planets and the usual material concomitants, it by no means +follows that they must all at some period have been incarnate on the +earth. The recognition of modes of existence differing greatly from our +own, if it can ever be properly effected, will have an illuminating +bearing on many fundamental problems of life and death; but this is not +the place to attempt to discuss such a question, even if the time were +ripe for the discussion at all.</i></p> + +<p><i>The Society for Psychical Research, though it has now for some time +studied this among other questions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span> has arrived at no sort of agreement +concerning it; the only fact on which its members are generally agreed +is as to the reality of some kind of telepathy, an apparently direct +influence between mind and mind; and telepathy is no doubt an important +fact, but it by no means follows that it is a master-key capable of +furnishing the solution of every variety of psychical problem. The chief +work of the Society has not been the construction of theories; it has +accumulated and sifted a mass of evidence dealing with ultra-normal +human faculty, it has published much material and criticism in its +Proceedings, has printed more in its private Journal, and its members +have written books. To these accessible sources of information students +can be referred.</i></p> + +<p><i>But it is necessary to get some inkling of a subject before becoming a +student of it—people have not time to read a tithe of what is printed; +and inasmuch as many erroneous notions and misconceptions are prevalent, +even among educated persons, concerning the method and motives of the +Society, as well as concerning its ascertained results, it occurred to +the Council that perhaps a more popular account of the outline of some +of the facts, with abridged examples or illustrations of some of the +details, might be of service in spreading the rudiments of a wider +knowledge concerning at least one branch of a subject which must +certainly be of interest to the human race when it is rightly +apprehended.</i></p> + +<p><i>A popular statement was perhaps the more desirable since a number of +insignificant bodies have recently sprung up, showing considerable +energy in the business of advertisement, assuming colourable imitations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span> +of our Society's designation, but having very different +objects—unscientific always, sometimes frankly pecuniary—so that it +was quite likely that a certain amount of confusion might occur.</i></p> + +<p><i>The idea of the Council, in the first instance, was to have a short +popular account or summary of the Piper case specially written by one of +their own members; but it was brought to their notice that a French +writer had already issued a small book of a character not very different +from that contemplated, and had steered his way cleverly through the +intricacies of a subject bristling with difficulty below the surface and +choked with detail throughout; so it was thought best to utilise the +skilful work of the French writer, and simply see to it that a faithful +translation was made, only introducing changes in the direction of still +further abbreviation occasionally.</i></p> + +<p><i>This is the book for which I consented, though I admit with some +misgivings, to write a preface when it was ready to appear; and now that +I see it in its English dress I find my misgivings justified.</i></p> + +<p><i>The author speaks deprecatingly of his purpose in writing it, +describing it as</i> "un modeste ouvrage de vulgarisation," <i>and thereby +disarms criticism, for, considered from this point of view, it is +successful; but I must guard not only myself but all other members of +the Council of the S.P.R. from any endorsement of the sentiments and +comments which M. Sage scatters somewhat liberally through his pages. +Taken as they were intended in the original, they were not out of +keeping; they seemed to harmonise with the general tone and formed part +of a consistent artistic scheme. Translated they appear less +appropriate, but to omit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span> them altogether would be to give the book a +different character, and probably to spoil it. As it stands, it is +readable, more readable than a profounder treatise would be. Let it +pass, therefore, as conveying to readers who have neither time nor +inclination to enter upon a detailed study some conception of the most +remarkable modern instance of the phenomenon to which I began by +referring—a phenomenon of which a better, but by no means yet a +complete or final, treatment can be studied in the work of Mr Myers +called</i> Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death.</p> + +<p><i>OLIVER LODGE.</i></p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Under the name "Second Sight," for instance.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="OBJECTS_OF_THE_SOCIETY" id="OBJECTS_OF_THE_SOCIETY"></a>OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY</h2> + + +<p>The Society for Psychical Research was founded at the beginning of 1882, +for the purpose of making an organised and systematic attempt to +investigate various sorts of debatable phenomena which are <i>primâ facie</i> +inexplicable on any generally recognised hypothesis. From the recorded +testimony of many competent witnesses, past and present, including +observations recently made by scientific men of eminence in various +countries, there appeared to be, amidst much illusion and deception, an +important body of facts to which this description would apply, and which +therefore, if incontestably established, would be of the very highest +interest. The task of examining such residual phenomena had often been +undertaken by individual effort, but never hitherto by a scientific +society organised on a sufficiently broad basis. The following are the +principal departments of work which the Society at present undertakes:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>1. An examination of the nature and extent of any influence which may +be exerted by one mind upon another, otherwise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</a></span> than through the +recognised sensory channels.</p> + +<p>2. The study of hypnotism and mesmerism; and an inquiry into the +alleged phenomena of clairvoyance.</p> + +<p>3. A careful investigation of any reports, resting on testimony +sufficiently strong and not too remote, of apparitions coinciding with +some external event (as for instance a death) or giving information +previously unknown to the percipient, or being seen by two or more +persons independently of each other.</p> + +<p>4. An inquiry into various alleged phenomena apparently inexplicable by +known laws of nature, and commonly referred by Spiritualists to the +agency of extra-human intelligences.</p> + +<p>5. The collection and collation of existing materials bearing on the +history of these subjects.</p></div> + +<p>The aim of the Society is to approach these various problems without +prejudice or prepossession of any kind, and in the same spirit of exact +and unimpassioned inquiry which has enabled Science to solve so many +problems, once not less obscure nor less hotly debated. The founders of +the Society have always fully recognised the exceptional difficulties +which surround this branch of research;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</a></span> but they nevertheless believe +that by patient and systematic effort some results of permanent value +may be attained.</p> + +<p>Investigating Committees (with the exception of the Committee for +Experiments) are not appointed by the Council; but any group of Members +and Associates may become an investigating Committee; and every such +Committee will, it is hoped, appoint an Honorary Secretary, and through +him report its proceedings to the Council from time to time.</p> + +<p>The Council, if it accepts a report so made for presentation to the +Society, will be prepared to consider favourably any application on the +part of the Committee for funds to assist in defraying the expenses of +special experimental investigation.</p> + +<p>The Council will also be glad to receive reports of investigation from +individual Members or Associates, or from persons unconnected with the +Society.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>Any such report, or any other communication relating to the work of the +Society, should be addressed to Miss Alice Johnson (as Editor of the +<i>Proceedings</i> and <i>Journal</i>), 20 Hanover Square, London, W., or to J. G. +Piddington, Esq., 87 Sloane Street, London, S.W.; or in America <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</a></span>to Dr +Richard Hodgson, 5 Boylston Place, Boston, Mass.</p> + +<p>Meetings of the Society, for the reading and discussion of papers, are +held periodically; and the papers then produced, with other matter, are, +as a general rule, afterwards published in the <i>Proceedings</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Proceedings of the Society</span> may be obtained directly from the +Secretary, 20 Hanover Square, London, W., or from the Secretary of the +American Branch, or from any bookseller, through Mr R. Brimley Johnson, +4 Adam Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.</p> + +<p>A Monthly Journal (from October to July inclusive) is also issued to +Members and Associates. The Journal contains evidence freshly received +in different branches of the inquiry, which is thus rendered available +for consideration, and for discussion by correspondence, before +selections from it are put forward in a more public manner.</p> + +<p>The Council, in inviting the adhesion of Members, think it desirable to +quote a preliminary Note, which appeared on the first page of the +Constitution of the original Society, and which still holds good.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Note.</span>—To prevent misconception, it is here expressly stated that +Membership of the Society does not imply the acceptance of any +particular explanation of the phenomena investigated, nor any belief as +to the operation, in the physical world,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[Pg xxiii]</a></span> of forces other than those +recognised by Physical Science."</p></div> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Conditions of Membership</span>.</p> + +<p>The conditions of Membership are thus defined in Articles 11-18:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Society shall consist of: (<i>a</i>) <i>Members</i>, who shall subscribe two +guineas annually, or make a single payment of twenty guineas, (<i>b</i>) +<i>Associates</i>, who shall subscribe one guinea annually, or make a single +payment of ten guineas.</p> + +<p>All Members and Associates of the Society shall be elected by the +Council. Every candidate for admission shall be required to give such +references as shall be approved by the Council, and shall be proposed +in writing by two or more Members or Associates.</p> + +<p>All subscriptions shall become payable immediately upon election, and +subsequently on the first day of January in each year. In the case of +any Member or Associate elected on or after the 1st October, his +subscription shall be accepted as for the next following year.</p> + +<p>Article 22 provides that if any Member or Associate desire to resign, +he shall give written notice thereof to the Secretary. He shall, +however, be liable for all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[Pg xxiv]</a></span> subscriptions which shall then remain +unpaid.</p> + +<p>Ladies are eligible either as Members or Associates.</p></div> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Privileges of Membership.</span></p> + +<p>Articles 19 and 20 provide that Members and Associates are eligible to +any of the offices of the Society, and are entitled to the free receipt +both of the <i>Proceedings</i> and of the <i>Journal</i>, to the use of Library +books in the Society's rooms, and to attend all the General Meetings of +the Society, to which they are also allowed to invite friends. They are +further entitled to purchase the <i>Proceedings</i> of the Society issued +previous to their joining it,—and also additional copies of any Part or +Volume,—at half their published price.</p> + +<p>Members have the additional privileges of borrowing books from the +Library, and of voting in the election of the Council, and at all +meetings of the Society.</p> + +<p>A contents sheet of the whole series of <i>Proceedings</i> may be had on +application to the Secretary, 20 Hanover Square, London, W.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Any reports or papers which may be printed in the +<i>Proceedings</i> will become the Society's property; but author or authors +will be entitled to receive 50 copies of any such report or paper +gratis, and additional copies, if required, at a small charge.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Mrs_Piper" id="Mrs_Piper"></a>Mrs Piper</h2> + +<p class="center"><b>AND THE</b></p> + +<h3>Society for Psychical Research</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p class="center">Mrs Piper's mediumship—Is mediumship a neurosis?</p> + + +<p>Mrs Piper is what the spiritualists call a <i>medium</i>, and what the +English psychologists call an automatist, which is to say, a person who +appears at times to lend her organism to beings imperceptible to our +senses, in order to enable them to manifest themselves to us. I say that +it appears to be thus, not that it is so. It is difficult for many +reasons to admit the existence of these problematical beings. We shall +deny it or remain sceptical till the day comes when the evidence proves +too strong for us.</p> + +<p>Mrs Piper's mediumship is one of the most perfect which has ever been +discovered. In any case, it is the one which has been the most +perseveringly, lengthily and carefully studied by highly competent men. +Members of the Society for Psychical Research have studied the phenomena +presented by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> Mrs Piper during fifteen consecutive years. They have +taken all the precautions necessitated by the strangeness of the case, +the circumstances, and the surrounding scepticism; they have faced and +minutely weighed all hypotheses. In future the most orthodox +psychologists will be unable to ignore these phenomena when constructing +their systems; they will be compelled to examine them and find an +explanation for them, which their preconceived ideas will sometimes +render it difficult to do.</p> + +<p>Praise and warm gratitude are due to the men who have studied the case +of Mrs Piper. But we owe no less to Mrs Piper, who has lent herself to +the investigations with perfect good faith and pliability. None of those +who have had any continued intercourse with her have a shadow of doubt +of her sincerity. She has not taken the view that she was exercising a +new kind of priesthood; she has understood that she was an interesting +anomaly for science, and she has allowed science to study her. A vulgar +soul would not have done this. Her example, and also that of Mlle. +Smith, of whom Professor Flournoy has lately written,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> deserve to be +followed. If the strange phenomena of mediumship have not yet been +sufficiently studied by as many persons as could be wished, scientific +men are chiefly to blame for the fact. Many of them regard with +disfavour facts which upset painfully-erected systems on which they have +relied for years. But the mediums are also to blame, for their vanity is +sometimes great, and their sincerity frequently doubtful.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs Piper is American. Her husband is employed in a large shop in +Boston. Although of a home-loving disposition, Mrs Piper has travelled; +she has several times consented to leave her ordinary surroundings in +order to prevent all suspicion of fraud; she has given sittings in New +York and other places, and has paid a three months' visit to England.</p> + +<p>Her education does not appear to have been carried very far. She has +doubtless read much, like all American women, but without method, and +probably very superficially. Her language is commonplace, sometimes even +trivial, but the records do not give me the impression that she is +really trivial-minded; language may be trivial when ideas are not. On +the whole, Mrs Piper's personality is attractive.</p> + +<p>The point which naturally interests the man of science, and particularly +the doctor, is the state of health and the morbid heredity of Mrs Piper. +We have very insufficient information about these. I can find no +circumstantial report on this important matter anywhere. Mrs Piper was +rather seriously ill in 1890; a doctor attended her for several +consecutive months; this gentleman was also present at a sitting she +gave on the 4th December of this same year, 1890. It is evident that he +was in a position to study Mrs Piper closely. Dr Hodgson asked him for a +report, which would have been appended to the other documents. But this +doctor had the wisdom of the serpent. He promised, but changed his mind, +and absolutely refused to furnish any report whatever. Dr Hodgson asked +the subject a series of questions with the object of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> ascertaining the +state of health of her immediate ancestors, particularly from the +neuropathic point of view. She belongs to a family which appears to have +been very healthy and not in any way subject to nervous maladies.</p> + +<p>Mrs Piper's own general state of health is even more interesting to our +inquiry than that of her ancestors, since most doctors persist in seeing +in mediumship a neurosis, sister or cousin to hysteria or epilepsy.</p> + +<p>It is undeniable that many mediums present some physiological +peculiarity or other. Eusapia Paladino, for example, has a depression of +the left parietal bone. But, on the other hand, Mlle. Smith of Geneva, +who has been studied by Professor Flournoy, seems to enjoy health as +good as anybody's—even flourishing health. Perhaps, if a thorough +search were made, some defect might be discovered, but the person who +should not betray some inherited peculiarity probably could not be +found.</p> + +<p>As far as Mrs Piper is concerned, she seems to have enjoyed +irreproachable health till towards 1882 or 1883. The exact date is not +stated. About that time she suffered from a tumour, caused by a blow +from a sledge, and she feared cancer. This illness brought about the +discovery of her mediumship. Up to this time absolutely nothing abnormal +had occurred to her. Her husband's parents had had, in 1884, a sitting +with a medium which had much impressed them. They frequently advised +their daughter-in-law to take the advice of some medium who gave medical +consultations. To please them, she went to a blind medium named J. R. +Cocke,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> and there she had her first loss of consciousness or "trance." +But we shall return to this.</p> + +<p>It is to be concluded that the prescription of the medium had no more +influence on the disease than those of ordinary doctors, for this tumour +continued to make Mrs Piper's health rather precarious for a long time. +She only decided in 1893 to undergo a surgical operation—laparotomy. No +complications resulted from it, and her convalescence was rapid. +However, in 1895, the after-effect of this operation was a serious +hernia, which necessitated a second operation in February 1896. She only +recovered thoroughly in October of the same year.</p> + +<p>Many persons will be disposed to believe that Mrs Piper's tumour is the +explanation of her mediumship, particularly as the mediumship only +appeared after the tumour. It is rather difficult to prove them wrong. +There is, however, a fact which seems to indicate that they would be +mistaken. When Mrs Piper is ill, her mediumship decreases or becomes +less lucid; she only furnishes incoherent, fragmentary, or quite false +communications. The syncope or "trance," which is easy when she is well, +becomes difficult or even impossible when she is ill. Her health has +been good since her last operation, the syncopes are easy, and the +communications obtained in this state have acquired a degree of +coherence and plausibility which was previously wanting.</p> + +<p>If, then, Mrs Piper's mediumship was the result of illness, it is +strange that her recovery should have favoured the development and +perfecting of this same mediumship. There appears to be a contradiction +here. I am not competent regarding the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> question, but, on examining the +facts, I can hardly believe that mediumship is a mere neurosis. After +all, are there not famous men of science who declare that genius itself +is only a neurosis? In their eyes the bandit is only a sick man; but the +genius also is only a sick man.</p> + +<p>If it is true that the best and worst in humanity are only opposite +faces of the same medal, we should be tempted to think mankind even more +pitiable than we have hitherto believed.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Des Indes à la Planète Mars; étude sur un cas de +somnambulisme</i>, by Th. Flournoy. Pub. Alcan, Paris.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p class="center">Dr Richard Hodgson—Description of the trance—Mrs Piper not a good +hypnotic subject.</p> + + +<p>Before proceeding further, I must ask my readers' permission to +introduce Dr Hodgson, the man who has studied Mrs Piper's case with the +greatest care and with the most perseverance. Dr Richard Hodgson went to +America expressly to observe this medium, and during some fifteen years +he has, so to say, hardly lost sight of her for a moment. All the +persons who have had sittings for a long time past have passed through +his hands; he introduces them by assumed names, and takes all possible +precautions that Mrs Piper, in her normal state, shall not obtain any +information about them. These precautions are now superfluous. Mrs Piper +has never had recourse to fraud, and everyone is thoroughly convinced of +the fact. But the slightest relaxation of supervision would lay the most +decisive experiments open to suspicion.</p> + +<p>Dr Hodgson is one of the earliest workers for the Society for Psychical +Research. He has been a terrible enemy to fraud all his life. At the +time of the formation of the Society, Mme. Blavatsky, foundress of the +Theosophical Society, was making herself much talked about. The most +extraordinary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> phenomena were supposed to have occurred at the +Theosophical Society's headquarters in India. Dr Hodgson was sent there +to study them impartially. He quickly made the discovery that the whole +affair was charlatanry and sleight-of-hand. On his return to England he +wrote a report—which has not killed Theosophy, because even new-born +religions have strong vitality—but which has discredited this doctrine +for ever in the eyes of thoughtful people.</p> + +<p>After this master stroke, Dr Hodgson continued to hunt down fraudulent +mediums. He learned all their tricks, and acquired a conjurer's skill. +It was he again who discovered the unconscious<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> frauds of Eusapia +Paladino during the sittings which this Italian medium gave at +Cambridge. When such a man, after long study of Mrs Piper's phenomena, +affirms their validity, we may believe him. He is not credulous, nor an +enthusiast, nor a mystic. I have written of him somewhat at length, +because, by force of circumstances, his name will often appear in these +pages.</p> + +<p>To return to Mrs Piper and the phenomena which specially interest us. +Mrs Piper falls into trance spontaneously, without the intervention of +any magnetiser. I shall explain later, at length, what must be +understood by "trance."</p> + +<p>Professor Charles Richet was one of the persons who had a sitting with +our medium while she was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>staying at Cambridge. He describes the trance +in these terms:—</p> + +<p>"She is obliged to hold someone's hand in order to go into a trance. She +holds the hand several minutes, silently, in half-darkness. After some +time—from five to fifteen minutes—she is seized with slight spasmodic +convulsions, which increase, and terminate in a very slight epileptiform +attack. Passing out of this, she falls into a state of stupor, with +somewhat stertorous breathing; this lasts about a minute or two; then, +all at once, she comes out of the stupor with a burst of words. Her +voice is changed; she is no longer Mrs Piper, but another personage, Dr +Phinuit, who speaks in a loud, masculine voice in a mingling of negro +patois, French, and American dialect."</p> + +<p>Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., well-known among English men of science, and +at the time Professor of Physics at Liverpool, describes the opening of +the trance in very nearly the same words as Professor Richet in the +remarkable report which he published in 1890 on the sittings he had with +Mrs Piper. He also notices the slight epileptiform attack, although he +adds that he is not "pretending to speak medically."<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>The Phinuit personality, of which Professor Richet speaks in the passage +above quoted, is what the Spiritualists call a "control." By "control" +is meant the mysterious being who is supposed to have temporarily taken +possession of the organism of the medium. Are these controls only +secondary personalities, or are they, as they themselves declare, +disincarnated human spirits, spirits of dead men who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>come back to +communicate with us by using an entranced organism as a machine? In +either case they must have a name. Phinuit has been one of Mrs Piper's +principal controls, but he is far from having been the only one. On the +contrary, they have been legion, and, what is strange, these controls +appear to be personalities as distinct from each other as possible, each +with his own style of language, his belief, his opinions, his tricks of +speech or manner.</p> + +<p>Mrs Piper's trance has changed its aspect a little with the development +and perfecting of her mediumship. Formerly the controls communicated +only by using her voice; then some of them began to write. In some of +the sittings one personality communicated through the voice, while +another, entirely different, and speaking of utterly different matters, +communicated simultaneously in writing. For some years now the controls +have only communicated in writing, and have used the right hand only. +The right arm of the medium is in lively movement, while the rest of her +body lies inert, leaning forward upon cushions.</p> + +<p>In a long report which has just appeared,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Mr James Hyslop, Professor +of Logic and Ethics at the University of Columbia, in the State of New +York, describes the beginning of the trance in detail as it now takes +place. At the first sitting he had with Mrs Piper he seated himself more +than a yard from her, in a position which enabled him to observe +attentively all that happened.</p> + +<p>The medium remained quietly seated in an armchair for three or four +minutes. Then her head shook and her right eyebrow twitched; all this +time she was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>trimming her nails. She then leant forward on the cushions +which had been placed on the table for her head to rest upon, and closed +and rubbed her eyes; her face was slightly congested for some instants. +She opened her eyes again, and the ocular globes were visible, slightly +upturned; she blew her nose, and began to attend to her nails again. Her +gaze became slightly fixed. Her face once more changed; the redness +disappeared, and she grew slightly pale. The muscles relaxed, the mouth +was a little drawn on one side, and the stare became more fixed. Finally +her mouth opened and the trance came on gently, like a fainting fit, +without struggle. Then Dr Hodgson arranged her head on the cushions with +her right cheek on her left hand, so that her face was turned to the +left, and she was unable to see her right hand, which soon began to +write automatically.</p> + +<p>During the trance the sensibility of Mrs Piper's organism to exterior +excitation is much blunted. If her arm is pricked, even severely, it is +withdrawn but slowly; if a bottle of ammonia is put to her nostrils, and +care is taken that it is inhaled, her head does not betray sensation by +the least movement. One day, if I am not mistaken, Dr Hodgson put a +lighted match to her arm, and asked Phinuit if he felt it.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Phinuit, "but not much, you know. What is it? Something +cold, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>These and numerous other experiments show that if sensibility is not +abolished, it is at least very much blunted.</p> + +<p>It might be concluded from the above that Mrs Piper would be an +excellent hypnotic subject. She <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>is nothing of the kind. Without being +precisely refractory to hypnotism, she is only an indifferently good +hypnotic subject. Professor William James of Harvard has made +experiments to elucidate this point. His two first attempts to hypnotise +Mrs Piper were entirely fruitless. Between the second and third, +Professor William James asked Phinuit, during a mediumistic trance, to +be kind enough to help him to make the subject hypnotisable. Phinuit +promised; in fact, he always promises all that is asked. At the third +attempt Mrs Piper fell slightly asleep, but only at the fifth sitting +was there a real hypnotic sleep, accompanied by the usual automatic and +muscular phenomena. But it was impossible to obtain anything more. +Hypnosis and trance, in Mrs Piper, have no points of resemblance. In the +trance, muscular mobility is extreme. In hypnosis, just the contrary is +the case. If she is ordered during hypnosis to remember what she has +said or done, she remembers. During the trance, the control has more +than once been asked to arrange that Mrs Piper should recall, on waking, +what she had said; but this has never succeeded. During the mediumistic +trance she seems to read the deepest recesses of the souls of those +present like a book. During hypnosis there is no trace of this +thought-reading. In short, the mediumistic trance and the hypnotic sleep +are not one and the same thing. Whatever may be the real nature of the +difference, this difference is so great that it strikes the least +attentive observer at once.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> In the opinion of the chief witnesses of the Cambridge +sittings the frauds of Eusapia Paladino were not unconscious. Mr Myers +said, in the report to the Society immediately after the sittings:—"I +cannot doubt that we observed much conscious and deliberate fraud, of a +kind which must have needed long practice to bring it to its present +level of skill."—<i>Journal of Society for Psychical Research</i> for 1895, +p. 133, <i>Trans.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Proc. of the S.P.R.</i>, vol. vi. p. 444.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xvi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. viii. p. 5.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p class="center">Early trances—Careful first observations by Professor William James of +Harvard University, Massachusetts, U.S.A.</p> + + +<p>I have already explained on what occasion Mrs Piper had her first +trance. Suffering from a traumatic tumour, she had gone to ask advice of +a blind medium named Cocke. This medium gave medical consultations, but +he also asserted that he had the power of developing latent mediumship. +At this first sitting Mrs Piper felt very strange thrills, and thought +she was going to faint. At the following sitting Mr Cocke put his hands +on her head. She felt at once that she was on the point of losing +consciousness. She saw a flood of light, as well as unrecognised human +faces, and a hand which fluttered before her face. She does not remember +what happened afterwards. But when she woke she was told that a young +Indian girl named <i>Chlorine</i> had manifested through her organism, and +had given a remarkable proof of survival after death to a person who +happened to be present.</p> + +<p>Mrs Piper was therefore really a medium. Her personal friends +immediately began to arrange sittings with her. Little by little +strangers were ad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>mitted to this private circle. Various self-styled +spirits communicated by her means in the earlier days. Phinuit, who +later took almost sole possession of Mrs Piper's organism, was far from +being alone at first; his place was disputed. The first controls, if +they themselves are to be believed, were the actress Mrs Siddons, the +musician John Sebastian Bach, the poet Longfellow, Commodore Vanderbilt +the multi-millionaire, and a young Italian girl named Loretta Ponchini.</p> + +<p>At the outset Dr Phinuit, when he appeared, confined himself to +diagnosing and giving medical advice. He thought everything else beneath +him.</p> + +<p>At last, one evening, John Sebastian Bach announced that he and all his +companions were about to concentrate their power on Dr Phinuit, and make +him the principal control. Naturally we do not know what they did, but +it is certain that from that time Dr Phinuit became so much the +principal control that he had almost sole possession of Mrs Piper's +organism for years. As we shall see, he ceased to confine himself to +giving medical consultations. He willingly replied to all questions +addressed to him, and he even talked readily on all sorts of subjects +without being questioned at all.</p> + +<p>The first person of educated intelligence who had an opportunity to +examine and study, although somewhat summarily, Mrs Piper's trance +phenomena, was Professor William James of Harvard University. In 1886 he +made a brief report of them, which he published in the <i>Proceedings of +the American Society for Psychical Research</i>. Professor James did not at +first recognise all the importance of the Piper case.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> No shorthand +report of the sittings was made, and he did not even take complete +notes. However, he assured himself that fraud had nothing to do with the +phenomena, but without taking all the minute precautions which others +have since taken. He satisfied himself that here was an interesting +mystery, and says so in his report, but he left the charge of looking +for the key to others. But I shall give an account of the sittings of +Professor James, in the first place because it would be improper to +neglect even the superficial studies of a man of such eminence, and +secondly, because they will give my readers a clear idea of the +phenomena.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Professor James made Mrs Piper's acquaintance in the autumn of 1885 in +the following way. His mother-in-law, Mrs Gibbens, had heard a friend +speak of Mrs Piper, and as she had never seen a medium, she asked for a +sitting out of curiosity. Mrs Gibbens, who went sceptical, returned +rather impressed. She had heard a number of private details which she +believed were unknown outside her family. On the day following Professor +James's sister-in-law went in her turn to see Mrs Piper, and obtained +even better results than her mother. For example, the inquirer had +placed a letter in Italian on the medium's forehead. It must be observed +that Mrs Piper is entirely ignorant of that language. Nevertheless, +Phinuit gave a number of perfectly correct details about the writer of +the letter. The mystery became interesting, as the young Italian who had +written it was only known to two people in the whole United States. +Later on, at other sittings, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>Phinuit gave the exact name of this young +man, which he had been unable to do at first.</p> + +<p>Professor James's attitude when these facts were related to him can be +imagined. He did what most of us do, or have done. He played the <i>esprit +fort</i>, joked his relatives about their credulity, and thought that women +were decidedly deficient in critical spirit. His curiosity was none the +less awakened. Some days after, in the company of his wife, and having +taken all possible precautions that Mrs Piper should not know his name +or intentions beforehand, he went and asked her for a sitting. Intimate +details, principally about Mrs James's family, were repeated. Others +even more circumstantial were given. What was the least easily obtained +was just what could have been learned with the greatest facility if Mrs +Piper had acquired these details fraudulently or by normal means, +namely, proper names. Professor James was the first to notice a fact +which a large number of observers have since remarked. The impression +that the names are shouted to Phinuit by a spirit is unavoidable. +Phinuit, who is to transmit them, hears imperfectly, doubtless on +account of his position, which all the controls describe as very +uncomfortable and painful—the organism of the medium seems to plunge +the controls into a semi-somnolence.</p> + +<p>Thus Phinuit mangles the names he repeats. It appears that the +communicating spirit is conscious of this and corrects. Phinuit repeats +the name thus several times, and very often only succeeds in giving it +exactly after several attempts. It even sometimes happens that a name +cannot be given all at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> a sitting, but then it is generally given at a +subsequent one.</p> + +<p>Thus, at this first sitting of Professor James, the name of his +father-in-law, <i>Gibbens</i>, was first given as <i>Niblin</i>, and then as +<i>Giblin</i>. Professor James had lost a child a year before. He was +mentioned, and his name, <i>Herman</i>, was given as <i>Herrin</i>. But the +details which accompanied the enunciation of the name prevented mistake, +on the part of the sitters, about the person intended.</p> + +<p>Professor James brought away from this first sitting the conclusion that +unless Mrs Piper, by some chance inexplicable to him, knew his own and +his wife's families intimately, she must be possessed of supernormal +powers. In short, his first scepticism was shaken, and he had twelve +further sittings with Mrs Piper in the course of the winter. Moreover, +he obtained circumstantial details from relatives and friends who +likewise had sittings.</p> + +<p>The following are some examples of Phinuit's clairvoyance.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>Professor James's mother-in-law had, on her return from Europe, lost her +bank-book. At a sitting held soon afterwards Phinuit was asked if he +could help her to find it. He told her exactly where it was, and there +it was found.</p> + +<p>At another sitting, Phinuit said to Professor James, who this time was +not accompanied by Mrs James, "Your child has a boy named Robert F. as a +playfellow in our world." The Fs. were cousins of Mrs James, who lived +in a distant town.</p> + +<p>On returning home Professor James said to his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>wife, "Your cousins the +Fs. have lost a child, haven't they? But Phinuit made a mistake about +the sex; he said it was a boy." Mrs James confirmed the perfect +exactness of Phinuit's information; her husband had been wrong.</p> + +<p>At the second sitting which Mrs Gibbens had she was told among other +things that one of her daughters, mentioned by name, had at the time a +bad pain in her back, to which she was by no means subject. The detail +was found to be exact.</p> + +<p>On another occasion Phinuit announced to Mrs James and her brother, +before the arrival of any telegram, the death of their aunt, which had +just occurred in New York. It is true that this death was momentarily +expected.</p> + +<p>At another sitting Phinuit said to Professor James, "You have just +killed a grey and white cat with ether. The wretched animal spun round +and round a long time before dying." This was quite true.</p> + +<p>Phinuit, again, told Mrs James that her aunt in New York, the one whose +death he had announced, had written her a letter warning her against all +kinds of mediums. And he sketched the old lady's character, not very +respectfully, in a most amusing way.</p> + +<p>I quote these examples to give an idea of the kind of information +furnished by Mrs Piper's controls. But it must not be believed that this +is all. The controls do not need to be entreated to speak. Phinuit is +particularly loquacious, and he often talks for an hour on end. His +remarks are frequently incoherent, and often also obviously false. But, +at the very least, in the good sittings, truthfulness and exactitude +much preponderate, whatever may be the source from which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> Phinuit +obtains his facts; whether he gets them from disincarnated spirits, as +he asserts; whether he reads them in the consciousness or +sub-consciousness of the sitter, or whether they are furnished him by +what he calls the "influence" which the persons to whom the objects +presented to him belonged have left upon them.</p> + +<p>I have forgotten to say that Phinuit asks to have brought to him objects +of some sort which have belonged to the persons about whom he is +consulted. He feels the objects, and says at once, "I feel the influence +of such-a-one; he is dead or he is alive; such a thing has happened to +him." Detail follows on detail, for the most part exact.</p> + +<p>As I have already said when speaking of Professor James, Phinuit showed +intimate knowledge of Mrs James's family. Now, there were no members of +the family in the neighbourhood; some were dead, others in California, +and others in the State of Maine.</p> + +<p>What I have said will suffice to give the reader a first idea of the +general features of the phenomena. I shall be able in future, while +reporting the facts, to examine as I proceed the hypotheses which they +suggest.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. vi. p. 651.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. vi. p. 657.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class="center">The hypothesis of fraud—The hypothesis of muscle reading—"Influence."</p> + + +<p>When phenomena of this nature are related, the first hypothesis that +occurs to the reader's mind is that of fraud. The medium is an impostor. +His trick may be ingenious and carefully dissimulated, but it is +certainly merely a trick. Therefore, in order to pursue these studies +with any good results, this hypothesis must be disposed of once for all. +Now this is not easy. Most men are so made that they have a high opinion +of their own perspicuity, but a very unfavourable one generally of that +of other men. They always believe that if they had been there they could +have quickly discovered the imposture. Consequently, no precaution must +be omitted; all safeguards must be employed, and it will be seen that +the observers of Mrs Piper's phenomena have not neglected to do this.</p> + +<p>Professor James concealed the identity of as many as he could of the +sitters whom he introduced to Mrs Piper. Personally, he was soon +convinced that fraud had nothing to do with the phenomena. But the point +was to convince others. It occured to a member of the Society for +Psychical Research that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> would be a good plan to cause Mrs Piper to +be followed by detectives when she went out, and not only herself, but +all the other members of her family. A singular idea, in my opinion. +However, if detectives had not been employed, many people would even +to-day believe that it would be possible to clear up the Piper mystery +in a very short time, in the most natural way in the world. This is why +Dr Hodgson, on his arrival in America, set detectives on the tracks of +Mr and Mrs Piper. Absolutely nothing was discovered; Mr and Mrs Piper +asked nobody indiscreet questions, made no suspicious journeys, did not +visit cemeteries to read the names on graves. Finally, Mrs Piper, whose +correspondence is at all times limited, received no letters from +Intelligence Agencies.</p> + +<p>Later on, the method taken to make sure of her good faith was revealed +to Mrs Piper. She was not at all offended; on the contrary, she saw how +absolutely legitimate was the precaution. This is another proof of her +uprightness and intelligence.</p> + +<p>Again, the idea that Mrs Piper could obtain the information she gives by +means of inquiries made abroad is <i>à priori</i> absurd to anyone who has +studied the phenomena with any care. Her sitters, whom she received +under assumed names, to the number of several hundreds, came from all +points of the United States, from England, and even from other parts of +Europe. The greater number passed through the hands of Professor James +and Dr Hodgson, and all necessary precautions were taken that Mrs Piper +should see them for the first time only a few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> moments before the +commencement of the trance. Indeed, they were often only introduced +after the trance had begun. These precautions have never injured the +results. The sittings, at least those which were not spoilt by the +medium's state of health, have always been marked by a large number of +perfectly accurate details.</p> + +<p>If Mrs Piper obtained the information through spies in her employment, +these spies would be obliged to send her private details about all the +families in the United States and Europe, since she hardly ever knows to +whom she will give a sitting the next day. Dr Hodgson arranges for her. +Formerly Professor James did this, at least in a large number of cases. +Now the scientific honesty of Dr Hodgson or Professor James (I mention +this only for foreign readers who may not be acquainted with the +reputation of these two gentlemen) can no more be suspected than that of +a Charcot, a Berthelot, or a Pasteur. Then, what interest could they +have in deceiving us? These experiments had cost them considerable sums, +not to speak of time and trouble; they have never profited by them.</p> + +<p>Again, Mrs Piper is without fortune. She would not have the means to pay +such a police as she would need. She is paid for her sittings, it is +true; she gains about two hundred pounds a year, but such a police +service would cost her thousands. But there was an excellent way of +putting the hypothesis of fraud out of question; it was to take Mrs +Piper out of her habitual environment, to a country where she knew +nobody. This was done. Certain members of the Society for Psychical +Research invited her to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> England, to give sittings in their houses. She +consented without any difficulty. She arrived in England on 19th +November 1889, <i>on</i> the Cunard Company's steamer <i>Scythia</i>. Frederic +Myers, whose recent loss is deplored by psychology, should have gone to +the docks and have taken her to his house at Cambridge. But at the last +moment he was called to Edinburgh, and asked his friend, Professor +Oliver Lodge, of whom we have already spoken, to receive Mrs Piper in +his stead. Professor Lodge installed her in an hotel with her two little +girls who came with her. The same evening Mr Myers arrived, and took her +to his house next day.</p> + +<p>Experiments at Cambridge began at once. This is what Mr Myers says about +them:—<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>"I am convinced that Mrs Piper, on her arrival in England, brought with +her a very slender knowledge of English affairs or English people. The +servant who attended on her and on her two young children was chosen by +myself, and was a young woman from a country village whom I had full +reason to believe both trustworthy and also quite ignorant of my own or +my friends' affairs. For the most part I had myself not determined upon +the persons whom I would invite to sit with her. I chose these sitters +in great measure by chance; several of them were not resident in +Cambridge, and except in one or two cases, where anonymity would have +been hard to preserve, I brought them to her under false names, +sometimes introducing them only when the trance had already begun."</p> + +<p>Professor Oliver Lodge in his turn invited Mrs Piper <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>to come and give +sittings at his home in Liverpool. She went, and remained from 18th +December to 27th December 1889. During this time she gave at least two +sittings a day, which fatigued her much. Professor Lodge gave up for the +time all other work to study her. He enumerates at length all the +precautions he took to prevent fraud. He also declares that Mrs Piper, +who was perfectly aware of the watch kept upon her, never showed the +least displeasure, and thought it quite natural. He wondered whether, by +chance, she might not have among her luggage some book containing +biographies of men of the day, and asked permission to look through her +trunks. She consented with the best possible grace. But Professor Lodge +found nothing suspicious. Mrs Piper also handed over to be read the +greater number of the letters she received; they were not numerous; +about three a week. The servants in the house were all new; they knew +nothing of the family's private affairs, and thus could not inform the +medium about them. Besides, Mrs Piper never tried to question them. Mrs +Lodge, who was very sceptical at first, kept guard over her own speech, +so as not to give any scraps of information. The family Bible (on the +first pages of which, according to custom, memorable events are +recorded) and the photographic albums were locked away. Professor Lodge, +like the others, presented most of his sitters under false names. +Finally, he affirms that Mrs Piper's attitude never justified the least +suspicion; she was dignified, reserved, and not in any way indiscreet.</p> + +<p>In short, during the fifteen years the experiments have continued, all +the suggestions made by sceptical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> and sometimes violent objectors have +been kept in view, that the fraud might be discovered, if fraud there +were. All has been in vain. The explanation of the phenomena must +consequently be sought elsewhere.</p> + +<p>As for the trance itself, all those who have seen it agree in saying +that it is genuine and in no way feigned.</p> + +<p>The hypothesis of fraud being disposed of, recourse has been had to +another, which it has also become necessary to abandon—that of the +reading of muscular movements. It appears that the thought-readers who +exhibit themselves on the platform accomplish their wonderful feats by +interpreting, with remarkable intelligence, sharpened by long practice, +the unconscious movements of the persons whose wrists they are holding.</p> + +<p>Now it is true that formerly Mrs Piper became entranced while holding +both hands, or at least one hand, of the sitter. She kept their hands in +hers during most of the trance. But Professor Lodge says this was far +from being always the case. She often dropped the sitter's hands and +lost contact with them for half an hour at a time. Phinuit, or some +other control, nevertheless continued to furnish exact information. +Shall we say that while he was holding hands he had laid in a provision +of knowledge for the whole half-hour? Seriously we cannot.</p> + +<p>But as this objection had often been made, the sitters endeavoured to +avoid contact with the medium. For a long time Mrs Piper has fallen into +the trance without holding anyone's hand. Her whole body reposes, +plunged in a deep sleep, except the right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> hand, which writes with giddy +rapidity and only rarely endeavours to touch the persons present. +Professor Hyslop, in the report which has just appeared,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> affirms +that he avoided the slightest contact with the medium with all possible +care, and yet we shall see farther on how exact were the facts he +obtained, since he believes that he has established the identity of his +dead father without the possibility of a doubt. Therefore the hypothesis +of thought-reading by means of muscular indications must also be put +aside.</p> + +<p>Finally, Phinuit affirms that the objects presented to him, and which he +touches, furnish him with information about their former possessors, +thanks to the "influence" such persons have left on the articles; and in +a multitude of cases we should be almost forced to admit that it may be +so. But here we are already plunged into depths of mystery. What can +this "influence" be? We know nothing about it. Must we believe in it? +Must we believe Phinuit when he says that he obtains his information +sometimes from the "influence" left upon the objects, sometimes directly +from the mouths of the disembodied spirits? Before reaching that point, +other hypotheses must be examined.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. vi. p. 438.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xvi.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p class="center">A sitting with Mrs Piper—The hypothesis of +thought-transference—Incidents.</p> + + +<p>The reader may not be displeased to have a specimen of these strange +conversations between human beings and the invisible beings, who assert +that they are the disincarnated spirits of those who day by day quit +this world of woe. It will not be difficult to give the reader a +specimen of them. At least one half of the fourteen or fifteen hundred +pages dedicated to the Piper case in the <i>Proceedings of the Society for +Psychical Research</i> are composed of reports of sittings, either taken +down in shorthand or given in great detail. In some of these reports +even the most insignificant exclamations of those present are noted.</p> + +<p>I have chosen the 47th of the sittings which took place in England, not +because it is peculiarly interesting, but because Professor Lodge's +published report of it is not too long, and I have no room for more +extended developments.</p> + +<p>The account of this sitting will perhaps disappoint some readers. +"What!" they will say, "is that all that spirits who return from the +other world have to say to us? They talk as we do. They speak of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +same things. They are not spirits." This conclusion would perhaps be too +hasty. I do not assert that they are spirits or that they return from +another world. I know nothing about it. But if this other world existed +we should expect that there would not be an abyss between it and our +own. Nature makes no leaps. That is surely a true principle in, and for, +all worlds.</p> + +<p>We have a means, although an imperfect one, of endeavouring to discover +if the communicators are really returning spirits. It is to ask them to +prove their identity by relating as large a number of facts as possible +concerning their life upon earth. The investigators of the Piper case +have for fifteen years devoted themselves to this task, apparently easy, +in reality difficult and ungrateful.</p> + +<p>In the earlier experiments in the Piper case the conversation almost +always takes place between the sitters and Dr Phinuit. Dr Phinuit does +not willingly give up his post, though he does so sometimes. When he is +giving information which he says he has received from other spirits he +sometimes talks in the third person; sometimes, on the contrary, he +reports word for word in the first person. This detail must not be +forgotten in reading the reports. The following is a report of the 47th +sitting in England.</p> + +<p>The sitters are Professor Oliver Lodge and his brother Alfred Lodge. The +latter takes notes. The phrases between parentheses are remarks made by +Professor Lodge after the sitting.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit</span>.—"Captain,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> do you know that as I came<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> I met the medium +going out, and she's crying. Why is that?"</p> + +<p>O. L.—"Well, the fact is she's separated from her children for a few +days and she is feeling rather low about it."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit</span>.—"How are you, Alfred? I've your mother's influence strong. +(Pause.) By George! that's Aunt Anne's ring (feeling ring I had put on +my hand just before sitting) given over to you. And Olly dear,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> +that's one of the last things I ever gave you. It was one of the last +things I said to you in the body when I gave it you for Mary. I said, +'For her, through you.'" [This is precisely accurate.]</p> + +<p>O. L.—"Yes, I remember perfectly."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit</span>.—"I tell you I know it, I shall never forget it. Keep it in +memory of me, for I am not dead. Each spirit is not so dim (?) that it +cannot recollect its belongings in the body. They attract us if there +has been anything special about them. I tell you, my boy, I can see it +just as plain as if I were in the body. It was the last thing I gave +you, for her, through you, always in remembrance of me." (Further +conversation and advice ending, "Convince yourself,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> and let others +do the same. We are all liable to mistakes, but you can see for +yourself. There's a gentleman wants to speak to you.")</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p><p>Mr E.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>—"Lodge, how are you? I tell you I'm living, not dead. That's +me. You know me, don't you?"</p> + +<p>O. L.—"Yes, delighted to see you again."</p> + +<p>Mr E.—"Don't give it up,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Lodge. Cling to it. It's the best thing +you have. It's coarse in the beginning, but it can be ground down fine. +You'll know best and correct (?). It can only come through a trance. You +have to put her in a trance. You've got to do it that way to make +yourself known."</p> + +<p>O. L.—"Is it bad for the medium?"</p> + +<p>Mr E.—"It's the only way, Lodge. In one sense it's bad, but in another +it's good. It's her work. If I take possession of the medium's body and +she goes out, then I can use her organism to tell the world important +truths. There is an infinite power above us. Lodge, believe it fully. +Infinite over all, most marvellous. One can tell a medium, she's like a +ball of light. You look as dark and material as possible, but we find +two or three lights shining. It's like a series of rooms with candles at +one end. Must use analogy to express it. When you need a light you use +it, when you have finished you put it out. They are like transparent +windows to see through. Lodge, it's a puzzle. It's a puzzle to us here +in a way, though we understand it better than you. I work at it hard. I +do. I'd give anything I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>possess to find out. I don't care for material +things now, our interest is much greater. I'm studying hard how to +communicate; it's not easy. But it's only a matter of a short time +before I shall be able to tell the world all sorts of things through one +medium or another. [And so on for some time.] Lodge, keep up your +courage, there's a quantity to hope for yet. Hold it up for a time. +Don't be in a hurry. Get facts; no matter what they call you, go on +investigating. Test to fullest. Assure yourself, then publish. It will +be all right in the end—no question about it. It's true."</p> + +<p>O. L.—"You have seen my Uncle Jerry, haven't you?"<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>Mr E.—"Yes, I met him a little while ago—a very clever man—had an +interesting talk with him."</p> + +<p>O. L.—"What sort of person is this Dr Phinuit?"</p> + +<p>Mr E.—"Dr Phinuit is a peculiar type of man. He goes about continually, +and is thrown in with everybody. He is eccentric and quaint, but +good-hearted. I wouldn't do the things he does for anything. He lowers +himself sometimes—it's a great pity. He has very curious ideas about +things and people; he receives a great deal about people from themselves +(?), and he gets expressions and phrases that one doesn't care +for—vulgar phrases he picks up by meeting uncanny people through the +medium. These things tickle him, and he goes about repeating them. He +has to interview a great number of people, and has no easy berth of it. +A high type of man couldn't do the work he does. But he is a +good-hearted old fellow. Good-bye, Lodge! Here's the doctor coming."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<p>O. L.—"Good-bye, E.! Glad to have had a chat with you."</p> + +<p>[<i>Doctors voice reappears.</i>]<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"This [ring] belongs to your aunt. Your Uncle Jerry tells me +to ask.... By the way, do you know Mr E.'s been here; did you hear him?"</p> + +<p>O. L.—"Yes, I've had a long talk with him."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"Wants you to ask Uncle Bob about his cane. He whittled it out +himself. It has a crooked handle with ivory on the top. Bob has it, and +has cut initials in it." [There is a stick, but description inaccurate.] +"He has the skin also, and the ring. And he remembers Bob killing the +cat and tying its tail to the fence to see him kick before he died. He +and Bob and a lot of the fellows all together in Smith's field, I think +he said. Bob knew Smith. And the way they played tit-tat-too on the +window pane on All Hallows' Eve, and they got caught that night too." +(At Barking, where my uncles lived as children, there is a field called +Smith's field, but my Uncle does not remember the cat incident.) "Aunt +Anne wants to know about her sealskin cloak. Who was it went to Finland, +or Norway?"</p> + +<p>O. L.—"Don't know."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit</span>.—"Do you know Mr Clark—a tall, dark man, in the body?"<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>O. L.—"I think so."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit</span>.—"His brother wants to send his love to him. Your Uncle Jerry, +do you know, has been talking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>to Mr E. They have become very friendly. +E. has been explaining things to him. Uncle Jerry says he will tell all +the facts, and all about families near, and so on, that he can recall. +He says if you will remember all this and tell his brother, he will +know. If he doesn't fully understand he must come and see me himself, +and I will tell him. How's Mary?"<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>O. L.—"Middling; not very well."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit</span>.—"Glad she's going away." [She was, to the Continent; but Mrs +Piper knew it.] "William<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> is glad. His wife used to be very +distressed about him. You remember his big chair where he used to sit +and think?"</p> + +<p>O. L.—"Yes, very well."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit</span>.—"He often goes and sits there now.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Takes it easy, he says. +He used to sit opposite a window sometimes with his head in his hands, +and think and think and think." (This was at his office.) "He has grown +younger in looks, and much happier. It was Alec that fell through a hole +in the boat, Alexander Marshall, her first father."<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> (Correct, as +before.) "Where's Thompson? The one that lost the purse?"</p> + +<p>O. L.—"Yes, I know."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit</span>.—"Well, I met his brother, and he sent love to all—to sister +Fanny, he told me especially. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>He tried to say it just as he was going +out, but had no time—was too weak."</p> + +<p>O. L.—"Oh, yes, we just heard him."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit</span>.—"Oh, you did? That's all right. She's an angel; he has seen +her to-day. Tell Ike I'm very grateful to him. Tell Ike the girls will +come out all right. Ted's mother and.... And how's Susie? Give Susie my +love."</p> + +<p>O. L.—"I couldn't find that Mr Stevenson you gave me a message to. +What's his name?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit</span>.—"What! little Minnie Stevenson? Don't you know his name is +Henry? Yes, Henry Stevenson. Mother in spirit too, not far away.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> +Give me that watch." (Trying to open it.) "Here, open it. Take it out of +its case. Jerry says he took his knife once and made some little marks +with it up here, up here near the handle, near the ring, some little +cuts in the watch. Look at it afterwards in a good light and you will +see them." (There is a little engraved landscape in the place described, +but some of the sky-lines have been cut unnecessarily deep, I think, +apparently out of mischief or idleness. Certainly I knew nothing of +this, and had never had the watch out of its case before.—O. J. L.)</p> + +<p>This example shows the kind of information given. Much of it is true; +other assertions are unverifiable, which does not prove that they are +untrue; others contain both truth and errors; finally, there are +certainly some which are entirely untrue. For this reason these +transcendental conversations very much resemble the conversations of +incarnated human <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>beings. <i>Errare humanum est.</i> And it would appear that +the heavy corpse we drag about with us is not alone to blame when we +sacrifice to Error.</p> + +<p>But, since the hypothesis of fraud and of unconscious muscular movement +may not be invoked, where shall we find the source of the mass of exact +information Mrs Piper gives us? The simplest hypothesis, after those we +have been obliged to set aside, consists in believing that the medium +obtains her information from the minds of those present. She must be +able to read their souls, as others read in a book; thought-transference +must take place between her and them. With these data, she would be +supposed to construct marionettes so perfect, so life-like, that a large +number of sitters leave the sittings persuaded that they have +communicated with their dead relatives. If this were true, the fact +alone would be a miracle. No genius, neither the divine Homer, nor the +calm Tacitus, nor Shakespeare, would have been a creator of men to +compare with Mrs Piper. Even were it thus, science would never have met +with a subject more worthy of its attention than this woman. But the +greater number of those who have had sittings with Mrs Piper affirm that +the information furnished was not in their consciousness. If they +themselves furnished it, the medium must have taken it, not from their +consciousness, but from their subconsciousness, from the most hidden +depths of their souls, from that abyss in which lie buried, far out of +our reach, facts which have occupied our minds for a moment even very +superficially, and have left therein, it appears, indelible traces.</p> + +<p>Thus the mystery grows deeper and deeper. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> this is not all. At every +moment Mrs Piper gives the sitters details which they maintain that they +never could have known. Consequently she must read them instantaneously +in the minds of persons, sometimes very far distant, who do know them. +This is the telepathic hypothesis, upon which for the moment we will not +insist, for we shall be obliged to study it carefully later on.</p> + +<p>Professor Lodge has made a list, necessarily incomplete, of incidents +mentioned by the medium in the English sittings which the sitters had +entirely forgotten, or which they had every reason to suppose they had +never known, or which it was impossible they should ever have known. +This list contains forty-two such incidents. To give my readers some +idea of their nature, I will quote four or five of them. I will take +these incidents from the history of the Lodge family, in order to avoid +introducing new personages unnecessarily.</p> + +<p>At the 16th sitting,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> on November 30, 1889, Phinuit tells Professor +Lodge that one of his sons has something wrong in the calf of his leg. +Now at the time the child was merely complaining of pain in his heel +when he walked. The doctor consulted had pronounced it rheumatism, and +this was vaguely running in Dr Lodge's mind. However, some time after +the sitting, in May 1890, the pain localised itself in the calf. Now +there could be no auto-suggestion in this case, for Professor Lodge +tells us he had said nothing to his son.</p> + +<p>At the 44th sitting,<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> Professor Lodge asked his Uncle Jerry, who is +supposed to be communicating, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>"Do you remember anything when you were +young?" Phinuit (for him) replies at once, "Yes, I pretty nigh got +drowned. Tried to swim the creek, and we fellows all of us got into a +little boat. We got tipped over. He will remember it. Ask Bob if he +remembers that about swimming the creek; he ought to remember it." Uncle +Robert, consulted, remembers the incident perfectly, but gives different +details. This sort of confusion about the details of a distant event, +the partial memory, occurs often to all of us.</p> + +<p>Thus disincarnated beings would seem to resemble incarnate ones on this +point also. Apparently it was not the boat which upset, but the two +young Lodges, Jerry and Robert, on getting out of it, began some +horse-play on the bank, and fell into the stream. They were obliged to +swim, fully dressed and against a strong current, which was carrying +them under a mill-wheel.</p> + +<p>At the 46th sitting,<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> Phinuit reports that the last visit the father +of Professor Lodge paid was to this Uncle Robert, and that he didn't +feel very well. Professor Lodge knew nothing of this fact, or, if he had +once known it, had so completely forgotten it that he was obliged to +apply to one of his cousins to know if it was true. The cousin replied +in confirmation of the fact.</p> + +<p>At the 82nd sitting,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> Uncle Jerry, speaking of his brother Frank, who +is still living, expresses himself thus about an event of their +childhood,—</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly! Frank was full of life; he crawled under the thatch +once and hid. What a lot of mischief he was capable of doing. He would +do anything; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>go without shirt, swop hats, anything. There was a family +near named Rodney. He pounded one of their boys named John. Frank got +the best of it, and the boy ran; how he ran! His father threatened +Frank, but he escaped; he always escaped. He could crawl through a +smaller hole than another. He could shin up a tree quick as a monkey. +What a boy he was! I remember his fishing. I remember that boy wading up +to his middle. I thought he'd catch his death of cold; but he never +did."</p> + +<p>This Uncle Frank was aged about 80, and was living in Cornwall: the +general description is characteristic. Professor Lodge wrote to him to +ask if the above details were correct. He replied, giving exact details: +"I recollect very well my fight with a boy in the corn field. It took +place when I was ten years old, and I suppose a bit of a boy-bully."</p> + +<p>On the 29th November<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> Professor Henry Sidgwick, of Cambridge, had a +sitting with Mrs Piper. It was arranged that Mrs Sidgwick, who stayed at +home, should do something specially marked during the sitting. Mrs Piper +was to be asked to describe it, to prove her power of seeing at a +distance. Phinuit, when questioned, replied, "She is sitting in a large +chair, she is talking to another lady, and she is wearing something on +her head." These details were perfectly correct. Mrs Sidgwick was +sitting in a large chair, talking to Miss Alice Johnson, and she had a +blue handkerchief on her head. However, Phinuit was wrong about the +description of the room in which this happened.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> For detailed report of these sittings see <i>Proc. of +S.P.R.</i>, vol. vi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> At the first sitting in Liverpool there was some talk of a +sea captain. Phinuit, who was rather fond of nicknames, jocularly +attached the epithet "Captain" to Professor Lodge.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>I.e.</i>, "As I entered the medium's organism."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Here Phinuit is supposed to be reporting in the first +person words of Aunt Anne, treated as if present.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Of a future life.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Phinuit seems to have left, and Mr E. takes his place. +This Mr E. was an intimate friend of Professor Lodge; he had appeared at +a preceding sitting and had offered proofs of his identity, which were +verified later. Professor Lodge recognised his mode of address. Phinuit, +we remember, always addressed Professor Lodge as "Captain."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The investigation into psychic matters.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> In accordance with a statement previously made by +Phinuit.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> These changes in the medium's voice are very surprising. +If there is fraud in the case, Mrs Piper must be the most accomplished +actress who has hitherto appeared.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>I.e.</i>, still living.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Mrs Lodge.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Mrs Lodge's step-father.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> These assertions, that spirits return to the places they +have lived in, and unknown to us, do what they were accustomed to do, +are very odd. But the literature of the subject is full of such +accounts.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Mrs Lodge's father. Phinuit had alluded to this accident +in a previous sitting, but without being able to explain if it had +happened to Mrs Lodge's father or her step-father.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> In these communications the self-styled spirits always +affirm that the dead get farther and farther by degrees from our +universe, in accordance with time, and their own progress. The Stevenson +episode, referred to above, is described on page 71.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. vi. p. 467.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i> p. 503.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. vi. p. 514.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 549.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, p. 627.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p class="center">Phinuit—His probable origin—His character—What he says of +himself—His French—His medical diagnosis—Is he merely a secondary +personality of Mrs Piper?</p> + + +<p>An interesting question arises at the point we have reached—"What is +Phinuit? Whence his name? Whence does he come? Should we believe that he +is a disincarnated human spirit, as he himself obstinately affirms, or +must we think him a secondary personality of Mrs Piper?" If he is a +spirit, that spirit is not endowed with a love of truth, as we shall +see, and on this point he too much resembles many of ourselves. In any +case we may notice in passing the obstinacy of these controls in wishing +to pass for disincarnated spirits; the fact is at least worthy of +attention. I am willing to allow that this may be a suggestion imposed +by the medium on her secondary personalities; but I ask myself why this +suggestion can never be annulled. Numerous efforts have been made, above +all in the case of Phinuit; they have ended only in provoking jests from +the disincarnated doctor, who absolutely insists on remaining a spirit. +However this may be, we will here endeavour to discover the origin of +this control.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<p>It will not have been forgotten that Mrs Piper's mediumship blossomed +forth, if I may thus express myself, during the sittings she had with +the blind medium J. R. Cocke. Now this medium was then, and has, I +believe, always since been, controlled by a certain doctor called Albert +G. Finnett, a French doctor of the old school which produced Sangrado. +This old barber-surgeon, as his medium calls him, is very modest. He +says that he is "nobody particular"; I hope he does not mean to say that +he resembles Jules Verne's Captain Nemo. There is a considerable +resemblance between this name Finnett and the English pronunciation of +Phinuit. Therefore we may well inquire whether the medium Cocke, when +developing Mrs Piper's mediumship, may not also have made her a present +of his control. Dr Hodgson has questioned Phinuit on this point several +times. But Phinuit asserts that he does not know what is meant, and that +Mrs Piper's is the first human organism through which he has manifested. +I will not try to settle the question.</p> + +<p>If Phinuit has not varied about his own name, he has certainly varied in +its orthography. Till 1887, whenever he consented to sign his name, he +signed Phinnuit, with two <i>n</i>'s. Dr Hodgson accuses himself of being the +originator of the orthographic variation. He carelessly took the habit +of writing Phinuit with one <i>n</i>, and gave this orthography to his +friends. Mrs Piper, in the normal state, often had occasion to see the +name thus written. And so, in the first half of 1888, Phinuit also began +to write his name with one <i>n</i>. Dr Hodgson only discovered the mistake +later on looking over his notes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>The reader will perhaps be astonished that I speak of the Phinuit +personality as if it were already established that the hypothetical +doctor were really a spirit; that is to say, a personality as distinct +from that of the medium as the reader and I are from one another. I must +hold this point in reserve. The investigators of the Piper case, finding +as decided a difference between the controls and the subject in a normal +state as exists between individuals of flesh and blood, have adopted the +language of these controls for convenience' sake, while warning us that, +in so doing, they have no intention of prejudging their nature. I do, +and shall continue to do, the same. There is no impropriety in this so +long as it is well understood.</p> + +<p>To return to Phinuit's character. This doctor in the Beyond is not a bad +fellow; on the contrary, he is very obliging, and his chief desire is to +please everybody. He repeats all he is asked to repeat, makes all the +gestures suggested to him by the communicators in order that they may be +recognised; even those of a little child. In his rather deep voice he +sings to a weeping mother the nursery song or the lullaby which she sang +to her sick child, if the song will serve as a proof of identity. I find +at least one such case in Dr Hodgson's report. The couplet sung was +probably well-known to Mrs Piper; it is a common one. But as this song +had often been sung during her last illness by the child who was +communicating, and as it was the last she sang upon earth, the +coincidence is at least surprising. Probably Mrs Piper took the air and +the words from the source whence she takes so many other details—a +source unknown to us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>However, if Dr Phinuit is good-hearted, he is also occasionally +deplorably trivial. His language is rarely elevated, and his expressions +are almost always vulgar. On occasion he does not dislike a joke or a +touch of humour. Thus we have seen that he mischievously persisted in +addressing Professor Lodge as "Captain." On another occasion he is a +long time in finding a person's name—Theodora. Then he adds, mockingly, +"Hum! it is a fine name once one has got hold of it." This does not +prevent Phinuit from altering Theodora into Theosophy, and calling the +person in question Theosophy! I could easily give other examples of +Phinuit's wit. But on this point I must remark that the word "Theosophy" +astonishes me in Phinuit's mouth, even when he is making a joking use of +it. Evidently Mrs Piper knows the name and the thing well. But at the +time when Dr Phinuit attended his contemporaries in flesh and blood, +there was, I believe, no question of Theosophy, nor of its foundress, +Madame Blavatsky. There was indeed a sect of Theosophists at the end of +the eighteenth century, but it was very obscure.</p> + +<p>Dr Phinuit is, besides, very proud of his exploits. He likes to make +people believe that he knows and sees everything. Indeed, perhaps it is +because he likes to seem not to be ignorant of anything that he +sometimes asserts so many controverted facts. And this is to be +deplored; for how much more useful service he would render if his facts +were not doubtful! Unluckily, this is far from being the case. Phinuit +occasionally seems to tell falsehoods deliberately. This has been made +evident when he has been asked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> to prove his identity by giving details +of his terrestrial life.</p> + +<p>In December 1889,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> he replies to Professor Alfred Lodge, the brother +of Professor Oliver Lodge,—</p> + +<p>"I have been from thirty to thirty-five years in spirit, I think. I died +when I was seventy, of leprosy; very disagreeable. I had been to +Australia and Switzerland. My wife's name was Mary Latimer. I had a +sister Josephine. John was my father's name. I studied medicine at Metz, +where I took my degree at thirty years old, married at thirty-five. Look +up the town of ——, also the Hôtel Dieu in Paris. I was born at +Marseilles, am a Southern French gentleman. Find out a woman named +Carey. Irish. Mother Irish; father French. I had compassion on her in +the hospital. My name is John Phinuit Schlevelle (or Clavelle), but I +was always called Dr Phinuit. Do you know Dr Clinton Perry? Find him at +Dupuytren, and this woman at the Hôtel Dieu. There's a street named +Dupuytren, a great street for doctors.... This is my business now, to +communicate with those in the body, and make them believe our +existence."</p> + +<p>I think a bad choice was made of Dr Phinuit to fill this part. The +information he here gives us about himself does not bear marks of +absolute sincerity. We might say he was an Englishman or American trying +to pass himself off for a Frenchman to his fellow-countrymen, and having +a very small acquaintance with France and French affairs. And if he had +even stopped there! But no. He has often contradicted himself. He tells +Dr Hodgson<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> that his name <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>is Jean Phinuit Scliville. He could not +tell the date of his birth or death. But, on comparing the facts he +gives, we might conclude that he was born in 1790, and that he died in +1860. He tells Dr Hodgson that he studied medicine in Paris, at a +college called <i>Merciana</i> or <i>Meerschaum</i>, he does not know exactly +which. He adds that he also studied medicine at "Metz in Germany." It is +no longer he who had a sister named Josephine; it is his wife. +"Josephine," he says, "was a sweetheart of mine at first, but I went +back on her, and married Marie after all." This Marie Latimer is +supposed to have been thirty when she married Dr Phinuit, and to have +died at fifty. He asks Dr Hodgson, "Do you know where the Hospital of +God is (Hospital de Dieu)?" "Yes, it is at Paris." "Do you remember old +Dyruputia (Dupuytren)?" "He was the head of the hospital, and there is a +street named for him." Phinuit asserts that he went to London, and from +London to Belgium, and travelled a great deal, when his health broke +down.</p> + +<p>In the above-quoted passage, Phinuit asserts that he had set himself to +prove the existence of spirits. If he had set himself the contrary task +he would have been more likely to succeed, when he gives us such +information as the above. If we went no further, we should need to ask +ourselves how serious men can have concerned themselves during so long a +period with such idle stories. Happily, as we shall see later, others +have succeeded in establishing their identity better than Phinuit has +done. Phinuit himself, even if he tells the most foolish stories when he +speaks of himself, reveals profoundly intimate and hidden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> secrets when +he speaks of others. Truly, it is correctly said that these phenomena +are disconcerting. But they are none the less interesting to science +when their authenticity and the sincerity of the medium are beyond +discussion, as in the present case. I will therefore go on examining the +Phinuit personality; it will be the reverse side of the medal.</p> + +<p>An American doctor, whom Dr Hodgson designates by the initials C. F. W., +has a sitting with Mrs Piper on May 17, 1889. Here is a fragment of the +dialogue between him and Phinuit.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>C. F. W.—"What medical men were prominent in Paris in your time?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"Bouvier and Dupuytren, who was at Hôtel Dieu."</p> + +<p>C. F. W.—"Was Dupuytren alive when you passed out?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"No; he passed out before me; I passed out twenty or thirty +years ago."</p> + +<p>C. F. W.—"What influence has my mind on what you tell me?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"I get nothing from your mind; I can't read your mind any more +than I can see through a stone wall." (Phinuit added that he saw the +people of whom he spoke objectively, and that it was they who gave him +his information.)</p> + +<p>C. F. W.—"Have you any relatives living in Marseilles?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"I had a brother who died there two or three years ago."</p> + +<p>A little later on, at the same sitting, Phinuit says,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Many people think I am the medium; that is all bosh."</p> + +<p>Well, so much the better. But if Phinuit is not Mrs Piper, neither does +he appear to be a Frenchman. A further proof of this is that he is +incapable of keeping up a conversation in French. He speaks English with +a pronounced <i>café-concert</i> French accent, it is true, but that is not a +proof. He likes to count in French, and sometimes he pronounces two or +three consecutive words more or less correctly. But who would venture to +maintain that Mrs Piper's sub-consciousness has not received them in +some way; it would be all the more likely, because at one time our +medium had a governess for her children who spoke French fluently. +However, Dr C. F. W., quoted above, says that Phinuit understood all +that he said to him in French, which Mrs Piper in her normal state could +not have done. On the other hand, Professor William James says that +Phinuit does not understand his French. Whom shall we believe? One thing +is certain, French or not, Phinuit does not speak French. Dr Hodgson +asked him why this was. Phinuit, who is never at a loss, explained as +follows:—"He had been a long time in practice at Metz, and as there are +a great many English there he had ended by forgetting his French." This +is just such a piece of childishness as the secondary personalities +invent.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Dr Hodgson pointed out the absurdity of the explanation to +Phinuit, and added, "As you are obliged to express your thoughts through +the organism of the medium, and as she does not know French, it would be +more plausible <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>if you said that it would be impossible to express your +thoughts in French by means of Mrs Piper."</p> + +<p>Phinuit found the explanation magnificent, and some days after served it +up whole to another inquisitive person who questioned him.</p> + +<p>As Dr Hodgson continued to tease him about his name, he ended by +admitting, or believing, that his name was not Phinuit at all.</p> + +<p>"It was the medium Cocke who insisted that my name was Phinuit one day +at a sitting. I said, 'All right, call me Phinuit if you like, one name +is as good to me as another.' But you see, Hodgson, my name is +Scliville, I am Dr John Scliville. But, when I think about it, I had +another name between John and Scliville."</p> + +<p>Phinuit did think about it, and at another sitting he said he had +remembered. His name now was Jean Alaen Scliville. Alaen, as we see, is +unmistakably French. In short, these are wretched inventions, quite as +wretched and much less poetic than the Martian romance, due to the +subconsciousness of Mlle. Smith.</p> + +<p>Does Phinuit better justify the title of doctor which he assumes? On +this point opinions are less divided. His diagnosis is often +surprisingly exact, even in cases where the patient does not himself +know what his illness is. As long ago as 1890, Professor Oliver Lodge +expresses himself as follows with regard to Phinuit's medical knowledge. +The opinion of a man of science like Professor Lodge is of great weight, +though he is a physicist and not a doctor.</p> + +<p>"Admitting, however, that 'Dr Phinuit' is probably a mere name for Mrs +Piper's secondary con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>sciousness, one cannot help being struck by the +singular correctness of his medical diagnosis. In fact, the medical +statements, coinciding as they do with truth just as well as those of a +regular physician, but given without any ordinary examination, and +sometimes without even seeing the patient, must be held as part of the +evidence establishing a strong <i>primâ facie</i> case for the existence of +<i>some</i> abnormal means of acquiring information."<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>Dr C. W. F., of whom we have spoken above, asks Phinuit to describe his +physical state for him, and Phinuit describes it perfectly. But here, +evidently, seeing that C. W. F. was a doctor, and must have known about +himself, we may only be concerned with thought-transference. Being +curious, Dr C. W. F. asked Phinuit how many years he had to live. +Phinuit replied by counting on his fingers in French up to eleven. This +happened in 1889. If the prophecy was fulfilled, Dr C. W. F. must have +gone to rejoin his colleague in the other world. It would be interesting +to know whether this is the case.</p> + +<p>In general, the other doctors who have had sittings with Mrs Piper find +more fault with Dr Phinuit's prescriptions than with his diagnosis. They +blame the prescriptions as being more those of a herbalist than a +doctor. This would not be a great reproach. If a Dr Phinuit has really +existed, he must have practised fifty or sixty years ago, and must have +studied at the beginning of the last century. Therapeutics of that epoch +differed considerably from those of the present day. For this reason Dr +C. W. F. asks whether Dr Phinuit's medical knowledge really <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>exceeds +what Mrs Piper might have read in a manual of domestic medicine. As far +as the diagnosis is concerned, his knowledge assuredly exceeds this.</p> + +<p>Dr C. W. F. reports a fact which, though it would not prove Dr Phinuit's +medical ignorance, would once more prove his ignorance of French, and +even of the Latin of botanists. Dr F. asked,<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> "Have you ever +prescribed <i>chiendent</i> or <i>Triticum repens</i>?" using both the French and +Latin names. Phinuit seemed much surprised, and said, "What is the +English of that?" It is certain that a French doctor, and, above all, a +doctor in the beginning of the last century, must know <i>chiendent</i>, and +even <i>Triticum repens</i>.</p> + +<p>Mrs Piper told Dr Hodgson that Phinuit had often been shown medicinal +plants, and had been asked their names, and that he had never made a +mistake. Dr Hodgson procured specimens of three medicinal plants from +one of his friends. He himself remained entirely ignorant of their names +and uses. Phinuit carefully examined the plants, and was unable to +indicate their names or their uses. But neither would this incident +prove much. The living practitioners who could not be caught in this way +must be rare.</p> + +<p>I will give two or three of Phinuit's diagnoses as examples. I will +choose those which have been given to Dr Hodgson about himself, as my +readers now know him well.</p> + +<p>At one of the first sittings<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> Dr Hodgson had with Mrs Piper, Phinuit +pronounced the following judgment on his physical constitution, "You are +an old bach (bachelor), and will live to be a hundred." <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>And he added +that Dr Hodgson had at the time a slight inflammation of the nasal +membranes, though there was no external sign to guide him.</p> + +<p>On another occasion Dr Hodgson asked him a question about a pain he had +had but which he no longer felt. Phinuit was evasive at first, saying, +"I have told you already that you are perfectly well." He then passed +his hand over Dr Hodgson's left shoulder, placed his finger under the +left shoulder-blade scapula, on the exact spot where the pain had been, +and said it must have been caused by a draught, which was probably true. +Another time, Dr Hodgson complained of a pain, without explaining where. +Phinuit instantaneously put his finger on the painful spot, below the +chest. He said at first that the pain was caused by indigestion, but +then corrected himself spontaneously and said it was caused by a muscle +strained in some unusual exercise. Dr Hodgson had not thought of this +explanation; but it was true that, two days before, when going to bed, +and after some weeks' interruption, he had exercised himself with +bending his body backwards and forwards. The pain appeared next day. +Phinuit ordered applications of cold water on the painful spot, and +friction with the hand. Naturally there exist other diagnoses more +complicated and extraordinary than those I have quoted.</p> + +<p>In terminating this study of Phinuit, I must return to the eternal +question—Is Phinuit a different personality from Mrs Piper, or is he +only a secondary personality? None of those who have studied the +question closely have ventured to decide it categorically. There is no +so clearly defined distinction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> between the normal personality and the +secondary personalities which have so far been studied as there is +between Mrs Piper and Phinuit. In fact, the medium and her control have +not the same character, nor the same turn of mind, nor the same +information, nor the same manner of speech. It is not so with normal and +secondary personalities. Our personality may split into fragments, +which, at a cursory glance, may appear to be so many different +personalities. But when these fragments are closely studied numerous +points of contact are found. When suggestion is added to this +segregation, the separation between the normal and secondary +personalities is even more emphatic. But then there are traces of +automatism present which are not to be found in Phinuit. He seems to be +as much master of his mental faculties and of his will as you or I.</p> + +<p>Finally, if we consider that many of Mrs Piper's controls carry the love +of truth further than Phinuit, that they have succeeded in proving their +identity in the eyes of their intimates, who were none the less sceptics +to begin with; if we consider the George Pelham and Hyslop cases, among +others, which we shall fully discuss a little further on, we shall be +almost tempted to let Phinuit benefit by the doubt about his colleagues, +and to believe that he is really a consciousness different from that of +Mrs Piper.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. vi. p. 520.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, vol. viii. p. 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>Proc. of the S.P.R.</i>, vol. viii. p. 98.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, part xxi. vol. viii. p 51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. vi. p. 449.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. viii. p. 51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p class="center">Miss Hannah Wild's letter—The first text given by Phinuit—Mrs +Blodgett's sitting—Thought-reading explains the case.</p> + + +<p>There is a case of which I shall speak with some detail in this chapter, +for three reasons:—(1) The good faith of the experimenters being +unquestioned, if the experiment had succeeded we should certainly have +had a first step towards proof of a future life. Experiments of this +kind must be arranged if the desired end is to be attained. Even if only +one out of ten were successful, we should have established a method of +procedure, and should certainly in time discover the truth. (2) This +example will once again show the reader the character of Phinuit, who +hesitates at no invention, and risks being caught in the act of +imposture sooner than own to his ignorance or incapacity. (3) The reader +will find in it examples of the untrue assertions which are found in all +the bad sittings.</p> + +<p>This dishonesty of Phinuit certainly complicates the problem singularly. +But I wish to present it as it actually is, with its dark and bright +sides. Science must endeavour to explain both.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>Miss Hannah Wild died on July 28, 1886. She <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>was a strong Baptist, and +remained so to her last moments. About a year before her death a Boston +spiritualist paper published a message supposed to have come from her +dead mother. Miss Hannah Wild was much struck by it.</p> + +<p>Her sister advised her to try the following experiment. Miss Hannah Wild +should write a letter whose contents she alone knew, and when she died, +she should return, if not prevented by circumstances stronger than her +will, and communicate the contents of the letter to her sister through +some medium. The letter would only be opened when some message bearing +all the marks of authenticity should arrive.</p> + +<p>This was done. Hannah Wild wrote the letter, sealed it and enclosed it +in a tin box. It was understood that no mortal hand was to touch it. +When giving it to her sister she said, "If I can come back it will be +like ringing the City Hall bell!"</p> + +<p>Mrs Blodgett, Hannah Wild's sister, adds, "Hands have never touched that +letter; it was in my husband's safe. When I sent it to Professor James I +took it out with scissors."</p> + +<p>Mrs Blodgett having, in the last half of 1886, seen Professor James's +name in a journal concerned with Psychical Research wrote to him and +told him the above circumstances. In consequence he tried to get the +letter read through Mrs Piper. He sent her, not the letter, of course, +but a glove which Miss Hannah Wild had worn on the day she wrote the +letter, and the lining of her hat.</p> + +<p>Mr J. W. Piper, Mrs Piper's father-in-law, acted as sitter. Phinuit took +his time, and tried for the contents of the letter during several +sittings. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> result was a long dramatic elucubration, which reminds us +involuntarily of certain of Mlle. Smith's subliminal productions. I will +give three paragraphs of it. The remarks between parentheses are Mrs +Blodgett's; the reader will appreciate the facts by the light the +remarks throw upon them. However, it may not be useless to remark that +Phinuit found Miss Hannah Wild's exact name, which had been carefully +hidden from him.</p> + +<p>1. "<span class="smcap">Dear Sister</span>,—In the bottom of my trunk in the attic with my clothes +I have placed a little money and some jewels, given to me, as you know, +by mother, and given to her by grandfather, who has now passed away. +Bessie, I now give to you; they are all I have, I wish I could have +more. It has grieved me not a little not to have given the Society +something, but as you know, sister, I am unable to do so. If it be +possible I will give them my presence in spirit." (Sister left no trunk. +Never lived in any house with an attic. Mother never gave her any +jewels. Mother's father died in 1835. Mother died in 1880, and gave all +her jewels to me. These jewels had previously been given to mother by +myself. Sister left money, and could have given the Society some had she +chosen to do so.)</p> + +<p>2. "The table-cover which I worked one year ago I want you to give +sister Ellen, John's wife. The reason I did not dispose of them before +will be a satisfactory proof of spirit return. My dearest sister, should +you ever marry, as I think you will, take the money and use it as you +think best, to buy a wedding outfit." (She never worked a table-cover. I +worked one and gave her. Brother John died when five years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> old. There +is no one by the name of Ellen connected with the family. She did think +I would marry, but knew that I had plenty of money to buy an outfit.)</p> + +<p>3. "Do not dress in mourning for me, for if it be true the spirit can +return I want to see you dressed in light, not black. Not for me now, my +dear sister Bessie. Try to be cheerful and happy through your married +life, and when you hear from me—this for you a copy, 'remember sister +Hannah is not dead, only passed out of the body.' I will give you a +beautiful description of our life there and of my darling mother if I +see her." (Hannah always wore black, and often said it would be wicked +for me to take it off, for my child always said, "Mamma, you will always +wear black for me," and I have worn black for twenty years, ever since +my child died.)</p> + +<p>And so forth.</p> + +<p>Phinuit's elucubrations were six good manuscript pages long. Except +Hannah Wild's name everything was wrong. And yet Mr J. W. Piper affirms +that during all the sittings he had the feeling that he was talking to +the spirit of Miss Hannah Wild. Phinuit was asked for a description of +the communicator; all the details were false. After this it is +unnecessary to say that the letter Miss Hannah Wild had written before +her death, when opened by Professor James, after receiving the Phinuit +letter, differed totally from that document.</p> + +<p>So far the Blodgett-Wild case is on the whole commonplace. Phinuit lied +when he pretended to communicate with Hannah Wild's spirit; for there is +no more reason here than elsewhere to sup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>pose conscious fraud on Mrs +Piper's part. But this is the point at which the case becomes +interesting, and where it may perhaps throw some light on Phinuit's +manner of procuring information, and on the character of Phinuit +himself. If we judged only from this case, it would seem that Phinuit +was merely a secondary personality of Mrs Piper, possessing the +extraordinary power of reading people's minds unhindered by distance. +But let us say at once that a number of other cases render the problem +much more complex. The conclusion to be drawn from what follows is, that +if Phinuit is really what he asserts that he is, he does not draw his +information only from disincarnated spirits, whom he is supposed to +perceive objectively; he also reads the minds of the living, and with +the information he finds there he creates personages, apparently +life-like, and bearing a strong resemblance to deceased persons.</p> + +<p>On the 30th of May 1888<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> Mrs Blodgett in person had a sitting with +Mrs Piper. The time was fixed by Dr Hodgson, who took care, as usual, +not to name the future sitter, and not to give any hint of her identity. +In my eyes this sitting is remarkable. Mrs Blodgett, with great good +sense, sums it up thus: "All the details which were in my mind Phinuit +gave exactly. On all the points of which I was ignorant he gave false +replies, or said nothing."</p> + +<p>During the whole sitting Phinuit asserted that he was literally +repeating the words of Miss Hannah Wild, present. I shall quote the most +typical incidents. The remarks between parentheses are taken from Mrs +Blodgett's comments.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hannah Wild.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></span>—"Bessie, Betsie Blodgett, my sister. How glad I am to +see you! I am Anna, Hannah, your sister, Hannah Wild. How's father and +all the folks? Oh, I am so glad to see you!" (All this time Mrs Piper +kept on slapping me with her hand just like sister. When she died my +name was not Blodgett but Bessie Barr.)</p> + +<p>H. W.—"Saw you once before in that audience. Threw a message at you." +(Four weeks after sister's death, John Slater, a medium, said, pointing +to me amongst a large audience, "There is a lady here who wants to have +you know she is here. She says she will tell you what is in that paper +soon.")</p> + +<p>H. W.—"How's the Society, Lucy Stone and all of them?" (Lucy Stone is +the editor of the <i>Woman's Journal</i>, and wrote a piece about sister when +she died.)</p> + +<p>H. W.—"My photo in that bag."</p> + +<p>Mrs Blodgett had brought a bag containing several things which had +belonged to her sister. Mrs Piper tried to open it, but could not. It +seems that Miss Hannah Wild, living, could only open the bag with +difficulty. Mrs Blodgett opened it. The so-called Hannah Wild threw the +objects out pell-mell, saying, "Picture of mine in here." This was so. +Now this photograph was the only thing in the bag which Mrs Blodgett did +not know was there; she had slipped her sister's will into an envelope +in which the photograph already was, but she had not consciously noticed +it was there. Her subconsciousness had probably <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>been more +perspicacious, and it is from that Phinuit had probably drawn the +detail; at least unless he has the power of seeing certain things +through opaque bodies.</p> + +<p>H. W.—(Takes her will, which she had shaken out of the envelope +containing the photograph.) "This is to you. I wrote it and gave it to +you. That was my feelings at the time I wrote it. You did not think as I +did. You made me feel sad sometimes. But you did take good care of me. I +always felt there was something that would never part us. Do just as I +told you to. You remember about my dress? Where's my comb? You remember +all about my money? I told you what to do with that. That ain't written +in this paper. I told you that on my death-bed." (All this is correct, +except that I know nothing about a comb. The will disposed of her books +and dresses and all her things, except her money.)</p> + +<p>H. W.—"How is Alice?"</p> + +<p>Mrs B.—"What Alice?"</p> + +<p>H. W.—"The little girl that's a namesake." (Our living sister Alice had +a child named Alice Olivia, and Hannah always called her Alice: it was +our mother's name. The others called her Ollie. Hannah did not like +this, and did all she could to make us know that she did not want the +Alice dropped.)</p> + +<p>H. W.—"Mother is here. Where's doctor? Where's brother?" (My husband is +a doctor; Hannah knew him. We have one brother living named Joseph, who +travels most of the time.) Hannah Wild takes a gold chain wrapped in +silk. Mrs Blodgett says, "Hannah, tell me whose and what is that?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + +<p>H. W.—(Feeling tassel at end of chain) "My mother's chain." (The chain +was a long chain of mother's. It was cut in two after she died. Hannah +had worn one half. The half which I took to the sitting had not been +worn since mother's death, and it had a tassel on the end, different +from the half Hannah had worn.)</p> + +<p>H. W.—"Who's Sarah?"</p> + +<p>Mrs B.—"Sarah Grover?"</p> + +<p>H. W.—"No, Sarah Obb—Hodg—" (The medium's hand points to Mr Hodgson, +and the voice says it belongs to him.) Then Hannah Wild adds, "Sarah +Hodson." (Sarah Hodson was a friend of sister's at Waterbury, +Connecticut. I had thought of her the night before when I met Mr +Hodgson, as she also came from London, England.)</p> + +<p>H. W.—"Where is my big silk handkerchief?"</p> + +<p>Mrs B.—"I gave it to Clara. You told me to."</p> + +<p>H. W.—"Where is my thimble?"</p> + +<p>Mrs B.—"I don't know."</p> + +<p>H. W.—"I saw you put it into this bag." (The handkerchief was a large +silk one given to sister by a lady who lived with us for years, and it +came from England. I did not know I had put Hannah's thimble in the bag, +but found on return to the hotel that it was there on the bed, with the +rest of the things I had taken out of the bag before starting for the +sitting.)</p> + +<p>Mrs B.—"Can you tell me, sister, how many brothers you have in spirit +life?"</p> + +<p>H. W.—"One, two, three." (I asked her how many brothers, because +William had only been dead since<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> March 27 in the same year (1888). +"Three" was correct.)</p> + +<p>Mrs B.—"Can you tell me where that letter is now that you wrote?"</p> + +<p>H. W.—"It is at home, in tin box."</p> + +<p>Mrs B.—"Can't you tell me more about it?"</p> + +<p>H. W.—"I have told you. It would be like ringing church bells if I +could come back." (The letter was in the bag wrapped up in rubber cloth. +Sister did say when we put the letter in tin box, "It would be like +ringing the City Hall bell if I can come back.")</p> + +<p>H. W.—"Where's William and doctor?"</p> + +<p>Mrs B.—"Hannah, you tell me where William is."</p> + +<p>H. W.—"He is here. I found him."</p> + +<p>Mrs B.—"How long has he been?"</p> + +<p>H. W.—"Weeks. You know all about it. He sticks to you all the time +every day. William wants to know how you like that lot."</p> + +<p>Mrs B.—"What lot?"</p> + +<p>H. W.—"You ought to know. You bought it to bury him in. William is +better out of the world than in it. He was a strange fellow. He don't +like that lot. Do you?"</p> + +<p>Mrs B.—"No." (I had bought him a lot in Woodlawn Cemetery, N.Y. His +wife wanted him buried there. We wanted to take him to our home and bury +him by mother. Brother was very proud, and we thought the lot was not as +nice as he would like.)</p> + +<p>At the end of the sitting the so-called Hannah Wild said that she must +go because it was church time, and she would not miss it. Mrs Blodgett +remarks that this is also characteristic of her sister. It was +Decoration Day, and the living Hannah Wild<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> would certainly not have +missed it. This last incident is odd; but there are many analogous ones +in the literature of the subject and in Mrs Piper's sittings. Often the +communicator will not allow that he is dead, or has passed into another +world; if he is asked what he is doing, he appears surprised, and +affirms that he is carrying on his usual occupation; if he is a doctor, +he asserts that he continues to visit his patients. Phinuit is often +asked to describe the people of whom he speaks. He pictures them as they +were on earth, in their customary dress, and he affirms that he so sees +them. At the end of one sitting Professor Hyslop's father exclaims, +"Give me my hat!" Now this was an order he often gave in his lifetime +when he rose painfully from his invalid chair to accompany a visitor to +the gate. I repeat, these incidents are odd and embarrassing for the +spiritistic hypothesis. It is difficult to admit that the other world, +if it exists, should be a servile copy of this. Should we suppose that +the bewilderment caused by death is so great in certain individuals that +it is some time before they perceive the change in their environment? It +is difficult to admit this. Should we suppose these speeches are +automatisms of the communicator, rendered half unconscious towards the +end of the sitting by the heavy atmosphere of the medium's organism? +But, when the communication is not direct, when an intermediary is +speaking through the organism, what should we think? Are these traits +thrown in intentionally by the communicator, the better to prove his +identity? No doubt these incidents are very embarrassing to the +spiritistic hypothesis. On the other hand, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> we allow that the +self-styled communicators are created by the entranced Mrs Piper from +the elements she finds here and there in the minds of living persons, +these incidents are quite natural; it would be surprising not to meet +with them. I mention the difficulty in passing; it will not fall to my +lot to solve it.</p> + +<p>However this may be, Mrs Blodgett left the sitting convinced that she +had been conversing with her own consciousness externalised, and not +with the spirit of her sister. But if it had not been for the previous +incident of the letter, which had invited distrust, and if Mrs Blodgett +had had less judgment, she would probably have left the sitting +convinced that she had been talking to her defunct sister. Many +spiritualists must commit like errors every day. This shows what +circumspection is needed in such studies as these.</p> + +<p>Mrs Blodgett asked Dr Hodgson to have some sittings for her, to try +again to obtain the text of the famous letter.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> At the sitting of +August 1, 1888, Dr Hodgson gave Phinuit a lock of Hannah Wild's hair. +Phinuit began by saying it was not her hair; he then recognised his +mistake, but said that someone else must have touched it. Then he gave a +new version of the letter. "This letter is concerned with an incident in +Hannah's former life," he affirmed. Then he dictated, "It's something +about Hannah's early history, that letter is. At one time I met a person +whom I loved. A circumstance in our affection changed my whole life. Had +it not been for this one thing I should have been married and happy. +Consequently I went into religious work, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>and did all the good I could. +Whoever reads this letter after I am gone will know why I remained +Hannah Wild...." Mrs Blodgett's comment on this text is very +interesting. She says, "This is not what my sister wrote on her +deathbed, but it is perfectly true. It was the great grief of sister's +life."</p> + +<p>How could Phinuit guess this by simply touching a lock of hair? Can it +be that our feelings, our sorrows and joys, leave a persistent vibration +on the objects we touch, which sensitives can perceive after even a long +interval? Numerous and well-observed facts would almost compel us to +believe so. It would seem as if the vibrations of the soul imprinted +themselves on matter as sound waves are recorded on the cylinder of a +phonograph. Certain subjects, in an abnormal state, would be able to +recover them. There is, after all, nothing in this repugnant to science.</p> + +<p>This abnormal state, which allows sensitives to apprehend past +vibrations, is perhaps only a partial abandonment of the body by the +spirit. In that case it would be easier to understand that those who, +like Phinuit, have entirely quitted their bodies, those who are in +another world, can read these vibrations as easily as we can read a +book. But if this is so, why does not Phinuit own it? It would be marvel +enough to satisfy his vanity. It would not, in any event, prevent his +obtaining information directly from disincarnated beings. But he ought +to state precisely in each case from what source he derives his +knowledge. He does nothing of the kind, and thus renders it almost +impossible for us to believe in his individuality.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<p>At this same sitting Phinuit asserted that he would give the letter word +for word if he had a longer lock of hair. So Mrs Blodgett sent a longer +lock, which was given to him on October 3, 1888. The text he gave was as +incorrect as the preceding ones. A last effort was made in 1889, again +without result. Miss Hannah Wild has not come back from the other world +to tell us what she wrote on her death-bed.</p> + +<p>I will end with another example which demonstrates Phinuit's cleverness +in reading people's minds even at a distance. On June 3, 1891,<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> Mrs +Blodgett wrote a letter to Phinuit. Dr Hodgson read it to him at a +sitting on the 15th of the same month. This drew from Phinuit the +following statement, which had nothing to do with the contents of the +letter: "She's been reading a funny book—a life of somebody. She called +on an old friend of Hannah's—somebody I told her to go and see. Mrs +Blodgett has a friend named Severance." Mrs Blodgett writes on June 17, +"Really Phinuit is doing wonderfully well as far as thought-transference +goes. Saturday night, June 13, I gave a talk to the Young Women's Rooms +about Helen Gardener's new book, <i>Is this your Son, my Lord?</i>" (On the) +"14th I did not go to see the friend in body, but I know my mind went, +and I wrote him the letter to ask him what Phinuit told me to do when +there." Mrs Blodgett adds:—"I had a friend named Severance, but sister +Hannah had never heard of him."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. viii. p. 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. viii. p. 75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Phinuit is speaking, but as he is supposed to be repeating +Miss Hannah Wild's words literally, it is easier to speak as if she were +speaking directly.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. viii. p. 78.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. viii. p. 83.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p class="center">Communications from persons having suffered in their mental +faculties—Unexpected communications from unknown persons—The respect +due to the communicators—Predictions—Communications from children.</p> + + +<p>The Blodgett-Hannah Wild case is, I repeat, of a kind to throw discredit +on the spiritualist hypothesis. If it and analogous cases alone were +considered, it would be needful to ask why earnest men, after long +hesitation, have finally given the preference to this hypothesis. But +psychic phenomena, and mediumistic phenomena in particular, are +infinitely various; they present a multitude of aspects, and it would +not be wise to consider them separately.</p> + +<p>In this Hannah Wild case everything seems to support the telepathic +hypothesis. By this must be understood, not only the reading of thoughts +in the consciousness, and even in the subconsciousness, of the persons +present, but also in that of absent persons, however far off they may +be. And what Phinuit calls "the influence" must be added. This +mysterious "influence" might be the traces of vibrations left on objects +by our thoughts and feelings. Evidently this hypothesis plunges us into +mystery, at least as much as does the spiritualist hypothesis. +Nevertheless, we should be obliged to give it the preference,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> if it +were sufficiently supported, because it is, after all, more in touch +with our present conceptions than its rival.</p> + +<p>Even the incident of the medium who, designating Mrs Blodgett amidst a +numerous audience, said to her, "There is a lady here who wants to speak +to you; she will soon give you the contents of the paper," can easily be +explained by telepathy. Mrs Blodgett was in the presence of a medium. +Now some medium was to reveal to her the mysterious text of her sister's +letter. That was enough to bring the recollection of the letter into the +foreground of her consciousness, where the medium may have read it +telepathically.</p> + +<p>But again, there are an infinite number of other cases which telepathy +does not explain at all, or only insufficiently. I shall try to show +this by repeating some of the arguments put forward by Dr Hodgson in his +remarkable report in 1898, and in the chapter entitled "Indications that +the 'Spirit' Hypothesis is True."<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> + +<p>The most important of these arguments is founded upon the communications +of persons whose mental faculties had been impaired by illness for a +more or less long period before their deaths. A long series of +concordant observations inspired Dr Hodgson with this argument. It is as +follows:—"If we had to do with telepathy, the communications should be +most clear and abundant in the cases where the memories of the dead are +most clear and abundant in the minds of the living."</p> + +<p>But experience shows that this is not so. When <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>the self-styled +communicator has suffered from mental illness before his death, the +communications repeat the trouble feature by feature; they are full of +confusion and incoherence. This confusion and incoherence is all the +graver, as the mental trouble preceding death was graver. It disappears +slowly, but sometimes traces of it appear years after. Telepathy does +not explain this. If there is madness in the mind of the dead person, +there is none in the minds of the living who remember him. On the other +hand, if we introduce the spiritualist hypothesis, the fact is quite +admissible, either because the mental trouble may only slowly disappear, +or because (and the controls assert this) the mere fact of the +disincarnated spirits plunging again into the atmosphere of a human +organism temporarily reproduces the trouble.</p> + +<p>Besides, there is always more or less incoherence in the communications +made very shortly after death, even when the communicator has kept his +full mental faculties up to his last moments. But if the communicator +were really what he says he is, we should expect this, for three +reasons—the violent shock of disincarnation must trouble the mind; the +arrival in an entirely new environment, where he must at first be unable +to distinguish much, should trouble him still more; and lastly, these +first attempts at communication may be impeded by his want of skill in +using the strange organism; he would require a sort of apprenticeship.</p> + +<p>But when no mental trouble has preceded death, the incoherence of the +first communications does not last. They soon become as clear as the +imperfection<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> of the means which the dead man has to use permits. In the +George Pelham case, which we shall examine later on, the first +communications were also incoherent. Yet George Pelham was soon to +become one of the most clear and lucid, if not the most clear and lucid, +of all the dead persons who have claimed to manifest through Mrs Piper's +organism. But George Pelham died suddenly by an accident, and his +intellectual faculties, which, moreover, were above the average, had +never been injured.</p> + +<p>This is, I repeat, what experience seems to show. But doubtless many +more observations are needed before we can affirm that it is really +proved.</p> + +<p>However, unless Dr Hodgson and his colleagues are mistaken, these facts +are contrary to what we should expect on the telepathic theory. I will +quote some examples.</p> + +<p>Dr Hodgson tried to obtain communications from one of his friends, +designated by the initial A., more than a year after the latter's death. +He spent six sittings over it, but the result was meagre. He obtained +some names, and with difficulty some mention of certain incidents of +A.'s life. Some of the incidents were even unknown to Dr Hodgson at the +time, but all was full of incoherence and confusion. Finally he gave it +up on the advice of George Pelham, who said that A.'s spirit would not +be clear for some time yet. This A. had suffered from violent headaches +and nervous exhaustion for some years before his death, though the +troubles had not amounted to insanity. Now, just at the time when A. was +incapable of manifesting clearly, other spirits were manifesting with +all desirable lucidity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> in identical circumstances. Another case quoted +by Dr Hodgson is that of a Mr B. who had committed suicide in a fit of +insanity. He was not personally known to Dr Hodgson. During several +years Mr B.'s communications were extremely confused, even about matters +with which Dr Hodgson was well acquainted.</p> + +<p>A third communicator, an intimate friend of Dr Hodgson's, had also +committed suicide. About a year after his death he still seemed to be +ignorant of events which he had known well in his lifetime and which +were quite clear in the inquirer's mind. More than seven years after his +death he wrote through the medium's hand, "My head was not clear, and is +not yet, when I speak to you."</p> + +<p>On December 7,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> 1893, M. Paul Bourget, of the <i>Académie Française</i>, +and his wife, had a sitting with Mrs Piper. M. Paul Bourget much wished +to communicate with an artist who had committed suicide at Venice by +throwing herself out of a gondola. There exists no written report of +this sitting, and consequently we do not know exactly what it was worth. +But on December 11<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> M. Bourget had another sitting, and this time Dr +Hodgson accompanied him and took notes. The artist seemed to make +desperate efforts to communicate and to write herself, but she could +only produce two or three French words, amongst which apparently was the +exclamation, "Mon Dieu!" Nevertheless her Christian name was given and +the place where she had killed herself, Venice, and the syllable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span><i>Bou</i>, +the beginning of Bourget, was often repeated. Why were the results so +poor? M. and Mme. Bourget knew this person well, and their minds were +full of reminiscences on which the medium had only to draw.</p> + +<p>However, some people might reason as follows. Objects having been used +by the persons with whom it is desired to communicate are nearly always +given to Mrs Piper. If the medium obtains her information not only from +the minds of the living, but likewise from the "influence," that is, +from the vibrations which our thoughts and feelings may have left +recorded on these objects, the imperfections of the earlier +communications of persons whose minds have been disturbed might be +explained by the theory that the "influence" left by an insane person +would be neither so clear nor so easy to read as that left by a sane +one. But then why should the communicators grow clear with time? Why +should they become lucid at the time when they ought to be still more +confused, if the telepathic hypothesis is the correct one?</p> + +<p>But this interpretation falls to the ground entirely when we take into +account the numerous communicators who are unknown, or almost unknown, +to the sitters, of whom absolutely nobody is thinking, and who come in +the middle of a sitting to send a message to their surviving relatives. +Mrs Piper cannot have produced these communications by means of the +"influence" left on objects, unless we suppose that the presence of +these objects is not necessary and that any "influence" may strike the +medium from any point of the compass at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> moment when she least +expects it. That would perhaps be stretching the hypothesis beyond +allowable limits. And these cases are, I repeat, numerous and very +interesting. I quote three for my readers' edification.</p> + +<p>During the 46th<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> of the English sittings with Messrs Oliver and +Alfred Lodge as sitters, Phinuit suddenly exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, there is something very bad about this. Here's a little child +called Stevenson—two of them—one named Mannie (Minnie?) wants to send +her love to her father in the body and the mother in the body—she had +sore throat and passed out. He is very bad and has gone away very +unhappy. She's clinging to me and begging me to tell you that she's +little Mannie Stevenson, and that her father's almost dead with grief, +he sits crying, crying dreadful, and he's gone away very unhappy. Tell +him she's not dead, but sends her love to him; and tell him not to cry."</p> + +<p>Professor <span class="smcap">Lodge.</span>—"Can she send her name any better?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"Oh, they called her Pet, and when she was ill they called her +Birdie. And tell mamma too, do."</p> + +<p>Professor L.—"Well, I will if I can."</p> + +<p>Professor Lodge could not discover the Stevenson family, which was a +pity, for two reasons; first, that a message from beyond the tomb might +have restored the despairing parents to a little hope and calm; and +secondly, because cavillers could not have attributed the incident to +the medium's cunning, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>which they would not fail to do if other +incidents of the same nature did not make this interpretation almost +inadmissible.</p> + +<p>At the 45th English sitting,<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> when Messrs Oliver and Alfred Lodge and +Mr and Mrs Thompson were the sitters, Phinuit suddenly said,—</p> + +<p>"Do you know Richard Rich, Mr Rich?"</p> + +<p>Mrs <span class="smcap">Thompson.</span>—"Not well; I knew a Dr Rich."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"That's him; he's passed out. He sends kindest regards to his +father." And Phinuit began directly to speak of something else.</p> + +<p>At the 83rd sitting, when Mr and Mrs Thompson were again present, +Phinuit said all at once,—</p> + +<p>"Here's Dr Rich;" upon which Dr Rich proceeds to speak.</p> + +<p>Dr <span class="smcap">Rich.</span>—"It is very kind of this gentleman" (<i>i.e.</i>, Dr Phinuit) "to +let me speak to you. Mr Thompson, I want you to give a message to +father."</p> + +<p>Mr <span class="smcap">Thompson.</span>—"I will give it."</p> + +<p>Dr R.—"Thank you a thousand times; it is very good of you. You see I +passed out rather suddenly. Father was very much troubled about it, and +he is troubled yet. He hasn't got over it. Tell him that I am +alive—that I send my love to him. Where are my glasses" (the medium +passes her hands over her eyes)? "I used to wear glasses" (true). "I +think he has them, and some of my books. There was a little black case I +had; I think he has that too. I don't want that lost. Sometimes he is +bothered about a dizzy feeling in his head—nervous about it—but it is +of no consequence."</p> + +<p>Mr T.—"What does your father do?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + +<p>(The medium took up a card and appeared to write on it, and pretended to +put stamp in corner.)</p> + +<p>Dr R.—"He attends to this sort of thing. Mr Thompson, if you will give +this message I will help you in many ways. I can and I will."</p> + +<p>Professor Lodge remarks about this incident, "Mr Rich, senior, is head +of Liverpool Post Office. His son, Dr Rich, was almost a stranger to Mr +Thompson, and quite a stranger to me. The father was much distressed by +his son's death, we find. Mr Thompson has since been to see him and +given him the message. He (Mr Rich, senior) considers the episode very +extraordinary and inexplicable, except by fraud of some kind. The +phrase, 'Thank you a thousand times,' he asserts to be characteristic, +and he admits a recent slight dizziness. Mr Rich did not know what his +son means by <i>a black case</i>. The only person who could give any +information about it was at the time in Germany. But it was reported +that Dr Rich talked constantly about a black case when he was on his +deathbed."</p> + +<p>No doubt Mr and Mrs Thompson knew Dr Rich, having met him once. But they +were quite ignorant of all the details here given. Whence did the medium +take them? Not from the "influence" left on some object, because there +was no such object at the sitting.</p> + +<p>At a sitting on the 28th November 1892,<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> at the house of Mr Howard, +when those present were Mr and Mrs Howard, their daughter Katherine, and +Dr Hodgson, Phinuit suddenly asked,—</p> + +<p>"Who is Farnan?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr <span class="smcap">Howard.</span>—"Vernon?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit</span>.—"I don't know how you pronounce it. It is +F-a-r-n-s-w-o-r-t-h." (Phinuit spelt it.)</p> + +<p>Dr <span class="smcap">Hodgson.</span>—"What about it?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"He wants to see you."</p> + +<p>Dr H.—"He wants to see me?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"Not you, but this lady."</p> + +<p>Mrs H.—"Well, what does he want to say to me? Is it a woman or a man?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"It is a gentleman; and do you remember your Aunt Ellen?"</p> + +<p>Mrs H.—"Yes; which Aunt Ellen?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Phinuit.</span>—"She has got this gentleman." (<i>I.e.</i>, this man was in her +service.)</p> + +<p>Further on, Phinuit adds, "That gentleman wanted to send his love to +her, and to be remembered to you—so that you may know he is here, and +it is a test. These little things sometimes interrupt me greatly and +when I go to explain it to you, you can't understand it. But sometimes +when I am talking to you, I am suddenly interrupted by somebody who +don't realise what they are doing, and then I give you what they say as +near as I can, you understand that, and it is very difficult sometimes +for me to discern it and place it in the right place."</p> + +<p>Mrs Howard asked her Aunt Ellen if she had known anyone named +Farnsworth, without telling her more. Phinuit was right: a gardener +named Farnsworth had worked for her uncle and then for her grandfather +thirty-five or forty years before. Mrs Howard had never heard of him.</p> + +<p>Incidents like those I have just related are evidently difficult to +explain on the telepathic theory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + +<p>But a more complete refutation of the telepathic hypothesis would be to +get a certain number of fulfilled predictions. The medium could not read +events which have not yet occurred, either in the minds of the living or +in the "influence" left on objects. Phinuit has often tried his hand at +predictions; I will quote one.</p> + +<p>At M. Bourget's second sitting,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> in 1893, a Mrs Pitman appeared, who +had lived a long time in France and spoke French well, and who offered +to help the artist with whom M. Bourget wished to talk in her efforts to +communicate.</p> + +<p>In 1888, Mrs Pitman, who was a member of the American Society for +Psychical Research, had had two sittings with Mrs Piper. Among other +things, Phinuit said to her, "You are going to be very sick; you will go +to Paris; you will be very sick: you will have great weakness in the +stomach and head. A sandy complexioned gentleman will attend you while +you are ill beyond the sea." In consequence of this, Mrs Pitman asked +Phinuit what the end of the illness would be. Phinuit made evasive +replies. Mrs Pitman asked Dr Hodgson's intervention; he insisted in his +turn, and Phinuit got out of it by saying, "After she gets over the +sickness she will be all right."</p> + +<p>Mrs Pitman replied that there was nothing the matter with her stomach; +she contradicted Phinuit on every point, and he appeared much annoyed. +But Mrs Pitman soon fell ill. She was attended by a Dr Herbert, who was +very fair; he diagnosed inflammation of the stomach. Then Mrs Pitman +began to believe in Phinuit's prediction; but interpreting <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>his last +words wrongly, she believed she should recover. Dr Charcott attended her +at Paris for a nervous illness. She suffered from weakness in the head, +and her mental faculties were impaired. In short, she died.</p> + +<p>Again, other communications which do not fit in with the telepathic +theory are those from very young children. When they communicate a short +time after death, they reproduce their childish gestures, they repeat +the few words they had begun to stammer; they ask by gestures for the +toys they liked. All these details are evidently to be found in the +minds of the parents. But when these children communicate long years +after their death, it is as if they had grown in the other world; they +only rarely allude to the impressions of their babyhood, even when these +impressions remain vivid in the minds of the father and mother. George +Pelham was one day acting as intermediary for a child who had been dead +many years. The mother naturally spoke of him as a child, and George +Pelham remonstrated, "Roland is a gentleman; he is not a little +boy."<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 370.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 494.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 495.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. vi. p. 514.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. vi. p. 509.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 416.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 496.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 512.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p class="center">Further consideration of the difficulties of the problem—George +Pelham—Development of the automatic writing.</p> + + +<p>Phinuit's empire remained uncontested till the month of March 1892. He +sometimes yielded his place to other controls, but rarely through a +whole sitting. However, in March 1892, a new communicator appeared, who +imposed his collaboration on Phinuit, with the latter's consent or +without it. This newcomer called himself George Pelham,<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> and asserted +that he was the disincarnated spirit of a young man of thirty-two, who +had been killed four or five weeks before by a horse accident. However +that may be, this new control had more culture, more moral elevation, +and a greater love of truth than the so-called French doctor. The latter +benefited by the companionship; he tried to be more truthful, and seemed +to make fewer appeals to his imagination; in short, all the sittings +improved, even those in which Phinuit appeared alone.</p> + +<p>The newcomer did everything in his power to establish his identity. His +success is still a matter open to discussion, in the view of some +persons, and their doubts at least prove that, in order to solve this +greatest of all problems, it is not enough that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>communicators +should give us numerous details which would seem at a first glance to +establish their identity, though the few cases in which identity appears +to be proved furnish us with a strong presumption in favour of survival +after death. If George Pelham is what he says he is, future generations +will <i>owe</i> him profound gratitude; he has done all that he could, under +circumstances which are, it appears, very unfavourable, although we are +not in a position to understand the difficulties.</p> + +<p>It is not always easy to prove identity, even between the living. +Imagine a man in England, at the end of a telegraph or telephone wire; +imagine that a certain number of his friends at the other end of the +wire, in France, refuse to believe him when he says he is So-and-so, and +say, "Please prove your identity." The unfortunate man will be in +difficulties. He will say, "Do you remember our being together in such a +place?" The reply will be, "Nonsense; somebody has told you of that +incident, and it does not in the least prove that you are the person you +say you are." And so on, and so on. One fact is incontestable, however; +there is somebody at the end of the wire. The telepathic theory asserts +that, in spite of appearances, there is no one at the end of the wire, +or, at least, that no one is there but the medium, temporarily endowed +with powers as mysterious as they are extraordinary. But to return to +George Pelham.</p> + +<p>Pelham is not his exact name. The last syllable has been slightly +modified, from motives of discretion. He belonged to a good family in +the United States, which counts Benjamin Franklin amongst its +an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>cestors. He had studied law, but when his studies were finished he +gave himself up exclusively to literature and philosophy. He had +published two works, which brought him much praise from competent +judges. He had lived for a long time in Boston or its neighbourhood. The +last three years of his life were passed in New York. In February 1892 +he fell from his horse and was killed on the spot.</p> + +<p>He had interested himself in Psychical Research, though very sceptical +about the matter. He was a member of the American Society, and later of +the American Branch of the Society for Psychical Research. Dr Hodgson +knew him very well, and liked to talk to him on account of the soundness +of his judgment and the liveliness of his intelligence. But neither time +nor circumstances had allowed ties of affection or real friendship to be +established between them.</p> + +<p>Two years before George Pelham's death, he and Dr Hodgson had a long +discussion regarding a future life. George Pelham maintained that it was +not only improbable, but also inconceivable. Dr Hodgson maintained that +it was at least conceivable. After much exchange of argument, George +Pelham ended by allowing so much, and finished the conversation by +saying that, if he should die before Dr Hodgson, and should find himself +"still existing," he would "make things lively" in the effort to reveal +the fact.</p> + +<p>George Pelham, more fortunate than many others who, before or after him, +have made the same promise, seems to have kept his word. That many +others have been unable to do so proves nothing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> The means of +communication are still definitely rare; Mrs Piper is an almost unique +medium of her kind up to the present day. It may be that the great +majority of the inhabitants of the other world are in the same position +as the great majority in this, and are ignorant of the possibility of +communication. Even if those who promise to return know of this +possibility, the difficulty of recognising their friends must be great, +since they do not seem to perceive matter. Their friends who are still +in the body should, it appears, call them by thinking intently of them, +by presenting to good mediums articles which belonged to the dead, and +to which a strong emotional memory is attached, and by asking the +controls of these mediums to look for them.</p> + +<p>When these precautions are not taken, the survivors are wrong to blame +their friends' failure to keep their word, or to conclude that all is +ended with the death of the body.</p> + +<p>George Pelham may have been enabled to manifest himself by particularly +favourable circumstances. He knew of Mrs Piper's existence, although, +most probably, Mrs Piper did not know him. In 1888 the American Society +for Psychical Research had nominated a commission for the investigation +of mediumistic phenomena; this commission asked Mrs Piper for a series +of sittings. I do not know whether George Pelham was a member of the +commission, but he was present at one of the sittings. The names of all +the sitters were carefully kept private, and nothing happened of a +nature to draw the attention of the medium to George Pelham, who in all +probability passed unnoticed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dr Hodgson thinks he can affirm that Mrs Piper only quite recently +learned that George Pelham had been present at one of her sittings. The +name of George Pelham must have been revealed to her considerably later +on, for, in her normal state, she is quite ignorant of what she has said +in her trance state; she learns it, as do all those who are interested +in these questions, by reading the <i>Proceedings of the Society for +Psychical Research</i> except when Dr Hodgson thinks proper to tell her +anything.</p> + +<p>With the appearance of George Pelham there arose a new method of +communication—the method of automatic writing.</p> + +<p>It was only on March 12, 1892,<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> that it was granted to Dr Hodgson to +be present for the first time when this writing was produced; although +it had occurred on rare occasions before. Phinuit was serving as +intermediary for a communicator who called herself Annie D. Towards the +end of the sitting Mrs Piper's arm rose slowly till the hand was over +the top of her head. The arm remained rigid in this position, but the +hand trembled very rapidly. Phinuit exclaimed, "She's taken my hand +away," and added, "she wants to write." Dr Hodgson put a pencil between +Mrs Piper's fingers and a block-book on her head. "Hold the hand," said +Phinuit. Dr Hodgson grasped the wrist and stopped the trembling. Then +the hand wrote, "I am Annie D. I am not dead but living," and some other +words; then Phinuit murmured, "Give me back my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>hand." The arm remained +contracted and in the same position for a short time, but finally, +slowly, and as though with much difficulty, it moved down to the side. +During the following sittings the writing was produced in the same +inconvenient position. But on April 29, 1892, Dr Hodgson arranged a +table so that Mrs Piper's right arm could rest comfortably on it; then, +seizing the arm and commanding with all his power, "You must try to +write on the table," he succeeded, by using not a little force, in +getting the arm down. Since then the writing has been produced with the +arm resting more or less on the table. When a control takes possession +of the arm to write, it is seized with violent spasmodic convulsions. +The block-books, writing-books, pencils, and everything on the table are +thrown in confusion on to the floor. Sometimes considerable force must +be employed to keep the arm still. Then a pencil is placed between the +fingers, and the writing begins. Sometimes, but rarely, the writing is +interrupted by a spasm; the hand is firmly closed and the wrist bent, +but after a few seconds the spasm disappears, and the writing begins +again.</p> + +<p>On most occasions, since the automatic writing has become easy, two +controls have manifested simultaneously—one by means of the voice, the +other by writing; Phinuit continuing to use the voice, according to his +former custom. George Pelham, although he also uses the voice +occasionally, prefers writing. On the 24th February 1894 a control +wrote, "There is no reason why various spiritual minds cannot express +their thoughts at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> same time, through the same organism." This is +really what happens. The voice may keep up a conversation with a sitter +while the hand keeps up another in writing with someone else on a wholly +different subject. If the sitter who is talking with the hand allows his +attention to be distracted by what the voice says, the hand recalls his +attention by its movements. When anyone is speaking to the hand control, +it is necessary to speak to the hand, and close to the hand, or there is +a risk of not being understood. In short, one must behave as if the hand +were a complete and independent being.</p> + +<p>Observation of this phenomenon suggested to Dr Hodgson that by using the +left hand he could perhaps obtain three communications on three +different subjects. He tried and succeeded, although imperfectly; no +doubt because, in the normal state, the left hand is not used to +writing.</p> + +<p>Formerly Phinuit used to protest when the hand was seized, and asked at +once that it should be returned to him, as we have seen above. Since the +automatic writing has been developed the hand may be used by one control +without the fact being perceived by the control who is using the voice. +One day Phinuit was talking with a sitter about his relations, when the +hand suddenly, and so to say surreptitiously, wrote for Dr Hodgson a +communication supposed to come from an intimate friend, and treating of +a subject altogether different from those of which the voice was +speaking. Dr Hodgson adds that it was "precisely as if a caller should +enter a room where two strangers to him were conversing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> but a friend +of his also present, and whisper a special message into the ear of the +friend without disturbing the conversation."<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> + +<p>Phinuit seems to prefer not to notice what the hand is doing. He talks +as long as he has an interlocutor, but, when the messages given through +the hand distract the attention of this interlocutor, Phinuit often +says, "I'll help him." What does he mean by this? It is a mystery. But +if it is wished to continue the conversation with him, the ear must be +addressed directly he is ready to resume. All this does not interrupt +the writing; the head and the hand do not interfere with one another.</p> + +<p>The observers of these strange phenomena, especially Dr Hodgson, +maintain that the controls write without consciousness that they are +writing, as, no doubt, they speak without consciousness that they are +speaking. According to what they say, these controls perceive in the +body of the medium two principal masses of the mysterious fluid, the +unknown energy which appears like light to them, and which they call the +"light." One of these masses is in the head, the other in the hand. The +controls think "in" this light, and their thoughts are transmitted to us +automatically through the organism.</p> + +<p>The automatic writing differs according to the controls. They do not +always succeed in reproducing the characteristics of their handwriting +when alive. George Pelham has tried to do so at least once, and did not +succeed. But this should not surprise us; we do not work as well with +other people's tools as with our own. In any case this difference in the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>handwriting is a presumption the more in favour of the difference of +individuality.</p> + +<p>The writing often looks like that on a lithographic stone, and can only +be read when reflected in a glass; this writing, which is called +mirror-writing, is produced as rapidly as ordinary writing, though Mrs +Piper, in her normal state, would be unable to write in this way. This +mirror-writing has been often observed in subjects who write +automatically; the cause for it is still to be found.</p> + +<p>On other occasions words are written backwards. Thus for <i>hospital</i>, +<i>latipsoh</i> will be obtained. With certain mediums not only words but +whole sentences are thus written. To read them, they must be begun at +the last letter and read backwards to the first. Syllables are also +often misplaced in Mrs Piper's automatic writing; thus <i>hospital</i> may be +written <i>hostipal</i>. I remind the reader that I am referring to facts +well attested by competent men, about which there can be no question of +fraud.</p> + +<p>There exist detailed minutes of many of the sittings, copied from +stenographic notes. An attempt was made to introduce a phonograph. +Phinuit jokingly felt the mouth with his hands and asked, "What is this +thing with a tube?" The attempt to explain its use to him was +unsuccessful. However, the phonograph recorded the sitting fairly well, +but the experiment was not repeated—why, I do not know, for the +intonations of the controls would have been an interesting study.</p> + +<p>I have often used expressions of affirmation in this chapter, and the +reader might therefore conclude<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> that the existence of spirits is no +longer a hypothesis in my eyes, but a reality. I have already warned +him, and warn him again, that I speak thus only for convenience' sake, +and that the existence of spirits is still as hypothetical to me as to +anyone else.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Not the real name. <i>See</i> p. 78, <i>Trans.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 291.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 294.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p class="center">How George Pelham has proved his identity—He recognises his friends and +alludes to their opinions—He recognises objects which have belonged to +him—Asks that certain things should be done for him—Very rarely makes +an erroneous statement.</p> + + +<p>Some of my readers must have asked themselves what the returning George +Pelham can have said to make grave and intelligent men think he has +proved his identity. I shall try to give them some idea by relating such +incidents as I can report without entering into too slight or complete +details. I cannot relate everything, in the first place for want of +space, and secondly, because I should be tiresome—a thing to be avoided +in a popular work like the present.</p> + +<p>When Dr Hodgson wrote the report which appeared in 1898, George Pelham, +who, like Phinuit, is always ready to act as intermediary (though +employing writing instead of speech) had had occasion to see one hundred +and fifty sitters, among whom thirty were old friends of his. He +recognised the whole thirty, and never mistook a stranger for a friend. +He not only addressed them all by name but took with each of them the +tone he had been accustomed to take.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>We do not speak in the same way to all our friends. The tone of our +conversation differs according to the character and the age of the +person we address, and according to the degree of esteem or affection we +have for him. These shades of manner are typical, though instinctive, +and therefore are difficult to reproduce artificially.</p> + +<p>George Pelham, then, addressed the thirty friends whom he had the +opportunity of meeting through the medium in the tone which he was in +the habit of taking formerly with each one of them. The incidents I +shall quote are only examples; I have said why I cannot recapitulate all +that has been published about these sittings.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> Besides, the sitters, +for reasons easy to imagine, have declined to permit the publication of +all that was most private, and consequently most convincing, in the +sittings.</p> + +<p>From the beginning George Pelham asks to see his father. He says that he +wishes to talk to him about private affairs, and also that he should +like to convince him, if possible, of his existence in a new world. Mr +Pelham was at once informed, and though he was very sceptical both by +nature and education, he, with his second wife, George Pelham's +step-mother, visited Mrs Piper at once. They were introduced under false +names. Quite at the beginning of the sitting George Pelham wrote, +"Hullo, father and mother, I am George!" The communications which +followed were altogether what Mr Pelham, senior, would have expected +from his living son.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<p>At one of the earliest sittings he asks after one of his friends, a +young writer, and urges that he should edit one of his, George Pelham's, +unpublished papers.</p> + +<p>While George Pelham was living in Boston he was connected by bonds of +strong affection with the Howard family. He lived with them often and +for long periods. He and James Howard often discussed serious +philosophical problems together. At the first sitting George Pelham +insistently asked for the Howards.<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> "Tell Jim I want to see him. He +will hardly believe me, believe that I am here. I want him to know where +I am. O good fellow!" He welcomes Mr and Mrs Howard in a characteristic +way: "Jim, is that you? Speak to me, quick. I am not dead. Don't think +me dead. I'm awfully glad to see you. Can't you see me? Don't you hear +me? Give my love to my father, and tell him I want to see him. I am +happy here, and more so since I find I can communicate with you. I pity +those people who can't speak."</p> + +<p>A Mr Vance has a sitting. George Pelham had known him. At first the +communicator does not appear to notice him, being occupied in giving +messages to Dr Hodgson. But presently George Pelham recognises him, and +says, "How is your son? I want to see him some time." "George, where did +you know my son?" "In studies in college." "George, where did you stay +with us?" "Country, peculiar house, trees around, porch that projects at +the front. Vine at the side. Porch at the front, and swing on the other +side." All this was correct.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p><p>Miss Helen Vance and George Pelham had belonged at the same time to a +society formed for mutual aid in the art of writing. She came to a +sitting some time after it had begun. Mrs Piper, in her normal state, +had never met her. Nevertheless, George Pelham asks her at once, "How is +the society getting on?" A little later on, the following dialogue takes +place between Miss Vance and George Pelham: "Now, whom do you have to +correct your writings?" "We correct one another's." "But do they give +satisfaction?" "Yes." "What, in their corrections?" "Yes, but not as +much as you; your corrections were better than theirs." "Well, that is +what I am trying to get out of you." "In other words, George, you wanted +a compliment from me." "Oh, bosh, you know me better than that."</p> + +<p>Miss Warner had two sittings with Mrs Piper<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> five years after George +Pelham's death. He had known her when she was quite a child, but he had +not seen her for three years before he died, and in eight years a child +becomes a tall young girl. Consequently, at the first sitting, George +Pelham did not recognise Miss Warner at all. At the second sitting he +admitted this and said, "I do not think I ever knew you very well." +"Very little. You used to come and see my mother." "I heard of you, I +suppose." "I saw you several times. You used to come with Mr Rogers." +"Yes, I remembered about Mr Rogers when I saw you before." "Yes, you +spoke of him." "Yes, but I cannot seem to place you. I long to place all +my friends, and could do so before I had been gone so long. You see, I +am <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>farther away—every day I get further away from you. I do not recall +your face; you must have changed." At this moment Dr Hodgson said, "Do +you remember Mrs Warner?" "Of course, oh, very well. For pity's sake, +are you her little daughter?" "Yes." "By Jove! how you have grown! I +thought so much of your mother, a charming woman."</p> + +<p>George Pelham not only recognises his friends,<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> as we have just seen; +he also remembers their opinions, their occupations, their habits. James +Howard is an author. He asks him, "Why don't you write on this subject?" +(the future life). Rogers writes also. He asks, "What is Rogers writing +now?" "A novel." "I don't mean that. Isn't he writing something about +me?" "Yes, he is preparing a memoir of you." "That is kind of him. One +is pleased not to be forgotten. He was always very good to me when I was +alive."</p> + +<p>He remembers the opinions of his father, and the discussions they had +upon philosophical questions. "I should like to convince my father," he +says; "but it will be hard. My mother will be easier." He says to James +Howard, "Do you remember how we used to ask each other for books of +certain kinds, about certain books, where they were, and you always knew +just where to find them." Formerly, when James Howard and George Pelham +were talking together in the evening, the first-named habitually smoked +a long pipe. At a sitting held in the library where these conversations +used to take place, George <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>Pelham said to Mr Howard, "Get the long pipe +and smoke." Katharine is one of James Howard's daughters, who plays the +violin. Formerly her practising used to greatly annoy George Pelham, who +lived with the Howards. He said to her at a sitting, "Katharine, how is +the violin? To hear you playing is horrible, horrible." Mrs Howard +replies, "Yes, George, but don't you see she likes her music because it +is the best she has." "No, but that is what I used to say."</p> + +<p>"Marte" is a pseudonym adopted by Dr Hodgson to designate a well-known +American writer. He is a monist, a partisan of Darwinism, convinced that +the death of the body is for us the end of all. At a sitting George +Pelham said to him, "Evolution is all right in the real life, as Darwin +says, but it goes on evoluting in the ideal life, which fact he, of +course, knew nothing of until he came here."</p> + +<p>George Pelham also recognises objects which have belonged to him, +principally those which have some remembered emotional association.</p> + +<p>John Hart, at the first sitting at which George Pelham appeared, gave +some sleeve-links he was wearing, and asked, "Who gave them to me?" +"That's mine. I sent that to you." "When?" "Before I came here. That's +mine. Mother gave you that." "No!" "Well, father then, father and mother +together. You got those after I passed out. Mother took them, gave them +to father, and father gave them to you. I want you to keep them. I will +them to you." All this is correct.</p> + +<p>At another sitting Mrs Howard gives a photograph. She placed it on the +top of the medium's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> head. "Do you recognise this?" "Yes, it is your +summer house; but I have forgotten the name of the town." "Don't you +remember D.?" "Oh, the little brick house and the vine, grape-vine some +call it. Yes, I remember it all; it comes back as distinctly as the +daylight. Where is the little outhouse?" All this is correct. The +outhouse which George Pelham was surprised not to see was a henhouse +left just out of the photograph. At another sitting Mrs Howard put a +book on the medium's head. We must not forget that the medium's eyes are +shut, and the ocular globes upturned. "Do you recognise this book?" "Oh, +yes, it is my French Lyrics." Needless to add that this was correct. +George Pelham asks for information on the subjects which interested him +in life. He asks to have things done for him. At the first sitting he +said to the sitter, John Hart, "Go up to my room, where I write. I left +things all mixed up. I wish you'd go up and straighten them out for me. +Lots of names, lots of letters. You answer them for me."</p> + +<p>Evelyn is another of Mr. Howard's daughters. George Pelham had given her +a book, and had written her name in it. He asks her if she remembers it.</p> + +<p>He has not forgotten his former speeches either. He was fond of Evelyn, +but this did not prevent his constantly teasing her. Thus she is weak in +mathematics. At one sitting George Pelham says to her, "I won't +tantalise Evelyn now; I used to torment her a great deal, but she will +forgive me, I know." Which does not prevent his adding directly after, +"Evelyn is a girl that can always tell how much two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> and two is. You +have just learned, haven't you? You are not a great one for mathematics, +are you?" But he adds quickly, "Now be good, Evelyn. It doesn't matter +so much about your lessons; being good is the most important point of +all."</p> + +<p>James Howard had asked George Pelham several questions to which the +latter had not replied, asserting that he had forgotten. On this account +James Howard still doubted George Pelham's identity. One day the former +said, "George, tell me something that you and I alone know. I ask you, +because several things I have asked you you have failed to get hold of. +We spent a great many summers and winters together and talked on a great +many things and had a great many views in common, went through a great +many experiences together. Tell me something now that you remember." The +hand at once began to write eagerly: the occurrences related were so +private that they cannot be published. At a given moment the hand wrote +"Private." Dr Hodgson then left the room. On his return James Howard +told him that he had obtained all the proof he could desire, and that he +was "perfectly satisfied, perfectly."</p> + +<p>At the first sitting at which George Pelham appeared, when John Hart was +the sitter, George spoke suddenly of Katharine, James Howard's daughter, +and he said something which at the time had no meaning for John Hart. +"Tell her, she'll know. I will solve the problems, Katharine." When John +Hart reported these words to the Howards they were more struck than by +anything else. During George Pelham's last stay with them he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> talked +frequently with Katharine upon deep philosophical questions, such as +Time, Space, Eternity, and had pointed out to her how unsatisfactory the +commonly-accepted solutions were. Then he had added the words of the +communication almost textually, "I will solve those problems some day, +Katharine." Remark that at this time the Howards had never yet seen Mrs +Piper, that John Hart knew absolutely nothing of these conversations, +and that Dr Hodgson, who took notes at the sitting, did not at the time +know the Howards or of the conversations.</p> + +<p>George Pelham had received a good classical education. He was a +Humanist. Consequently a rather large number of Latin expressions are +found in his language; usual, no doubt, with people of his education, +but with which Mrs Piper is not acquainted in her normal state. Phinuit, +who cannot have been a good Latinist, does not employ them either. +Observation of this fact inspired Professor Newbold<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> with the idea of +asking George Pelham to translate a short fragment of Greek, and he +proposed the first words which occurred to him; the beginning of the +Paternoster: [Greek: Pater hêmôn ho en tois ouranois]. George Pelham +made some attempts, and finally translated "Our Father is in heaven." +Professor Newbold then proposed a longer phrase, which he composed +himself on the spot for the occasion: [Greek: Ouk esti thanatos; hai gar +tôn thnêtôn psychai zôên zôsin athanaton, aidion, makarion]. This means, +"There is no death; the souls of mortals really live an immortal eternal +happy life." George Pelham called to his aid Stainton Moses, who in his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>lifetime passed for a good Hellenist. Both together only succeeded in +understanding the first proposition, "There is no death." These +experiments, at all events, prove that Mrs Piper in the trance state can +understand a little Greek, though in her normal state she does not even +know the letters. Again, George Pelham and Stainton Moses may have known +Greek tolerably well and have forgotten it: it is an accident which has +happened to many of us.</p> + +<p>With regard to this translation of Greek, we might form another +hypothesis. We might suppose that the spirits of George Pelham and +Stainton Moses—if there are spirits—perceiving thought directly, and +not its material expression, have partly understood what Professor +Newbold wanted to say, without knowing in what language it was +expressed. If they did not understand wholly and completely, it would be +because a thought expressed in a foreign language has in our minds a +certain vagueness. We might go further; we might suppose that Mrs +Piper's subconsciousness perceives the thought directly, independently +of the form in which it is expressed. Mrs Piper has often pronounced +words and short sentences in foreign languages. Phinuit likes to say, +"Bonjour, comment vous portez vous? Au revoir!" and to count in French. +Mme. Elisa, an Italian, the dead sister of Mrs Howard, succeeded in +writing or pronouncing some short sentences in more or less odd Italian. +I find also at a sitting where the communicator was supposed to be a +young Hawaian three or four words of Hawaian very appropriate to the +circumstances. Mrs Piper is ignorant of all this in her normal state. I +have just said that spirits—if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> there are spirits—perceive thought +directly. They themselves tell us this. On the other hand, they do not +perceive matter, which is non-existent to them. This brings me to a new +feature of the sittings, principally of those with George Pelham. If +this feature does not increase the proofs of identity, it is at least an +evidence of the abnormal powers of the medium.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> George Pelham is +asked to go and see what a certain person is doing at a given time and +to come back and relate it. He goes, and partially succeeds. This is +what appears to happen: if the act is strongly conceived in the mind of +the person he is watching, he perceives it clearly; if it is nearly +automatic, he perceives it vaguely; if it is wholly automatic, he does +not perceive it at all. He often says that actions have occurred which +have only been planned and not executed, at other times he reports past +actions as present. This is because spirits have not, it appears, a +clear notion of time. I have unfortunately neither time nor space to +give examples of this.</p> + +<p>Can we say that the communicator George Pelham has never made a +partially or wholly erroneous assertion? No. But the number of such +assertions is very small, which was not the case when Phinuit reigned +alone. Here is one such assertion, at which there has been much +cavilling; people have insisted on seeing in it the stamp of Mrs Piper +and her social environment, and not at all the stamp of the aristocratic +George Pelham. George Pelham is asked, "Could you not tell us something +which your mother has done?" He replies,<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> "I saw her brush <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>my +clothes and put them away. I was by her side as she did it. I saw her +take my sleeve buttons from a small box and give them to my father. I +saw her put some papers in a tin box." When Mrs Pelham is questioned by +letter, she replies, "George's clothes were brushed and put away, not by +me, but by the man who had valeted him." And the hasty conclusion is, +Mrs Piper on this occasion thought herself among her own class. She +forgot that Mrs Pelham did not brush and put away clothes herself. This +is perhaps a too hasty triumph. The most highly-bred women may +occasionally brush and put away clothing. Now suppose that what I have +said above about the way in which spirits perceive our actions should be +true. George Pelham may have seen the project of the action in his +step-mother's mind, and not its execution by the valet. It may be +objected that he ought to have supposed she would not do it herself. +Why? I do not see it. Perhaps he knew that his step-mother was capable, +occasionally, of putting away clothes herself.</p> + +<p>George Pelham is often asked questions which he cannot answer. But he +does not at all pretend to have forgotten nothing. If there is another +world, spirits do not go there to ruminate on what has happened in our +incomplete life. They go there to be carried away in the vortex of a +higher and greater activity. If, therefore, they sometimes forget, it is +not astonishing. Nevertheless, they seem to forget less than we do.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Those readers who are interested in this question are +recommended to read Dr Hodgson's Report, <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii., +<i>Trans.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 300.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 458.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, p. 324.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> For reports of these sittings see <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. +viii. pp. 413-441.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiv. p. 46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 329.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 303.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p class="center">George Pelham's philosophy—The nature of the soul—The first moments +after death—Life in the next world—George Pelham contradicts Stainton +Moses—Space and time in the next world—How spirits see us—Means of +communication.</p> + + +<p>The communicator, George Pelham, did not confine himself to obtaining +recognition from his friends; he talked a great deal of philosophy with +them, especially with Dr Hodgson. Indeed, if he had not done so, the +omission might have created a doubt as to his identity, for in his +lifetime he was fond of such discussions. But for the present Dr Hodgson +has kept back these speculations from the other side of the grave, +thinking quite rightly that no value would attach to them until +unmistakable evidence had been produced for the existence of "another +world." Still there are to be found among the reports of the sittings +some fragments of these philosophic theories, and they form an +interesting subject of study.</p> + +<p>The philosophy may be only that of Mrs Piper. But it may on the other +hand be the philosophy of the discarnate George Pelham, and for that +reason it is not unworthy of examination. Supposing, however, that the +assertions made are actually those of an inhabitant of the other world +who in this world was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> intelligent, honest and cultivated, the question +still arises whether we must regard them as expressing Absolute Truth. +Surely not; if another world exists beyond this one, its inhabitants +have mounted one step—but one step only—above us on the infinite +ladder of existence. They do not see the Eternal face to face. It is +quite possible that they may be able to see clearly truths of which we +have no glimpse, but we are not bound to believe more than we like of +what they tell us.</p> + +<p>If the existence of the discarnate George Pelham is established, a new +light is undoubtedly thrown on the old problem as to the nature of the +soul, a problem as old as the world itself. The disciples of Plato's +Socrates tried to interpret it by the charming analogy of the lyre and +its harmony; asking whether man may not be compared to a lyre and his +soul to its harmony, a harmony which ceases to exist when the instrument +is broken. Using more modern terms, we may ask whether the soul is the +resultant of the forces of the bodily organism, or whether it is the +indestructible and mysterious motor which produces the action of that +organism.</p> + +<p>George Pelham declares that the soul is in truth the motor, and that the +body is merely a machine used temporarily by the soul to act upon the +obscure world of matter. He speaks to this effect: Thought exists +outside matter and is in no way dependent upon matter. The destruction +of the body does not have as its consequence the destruction of thought. +After the dissolution of the body the Ego continues its existence, but +it then perceives thought directly, is much more free, and can express +itself much more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> clearly than when it was stifled by matter. The soul +and thought are one; thought is the inseparable attribute of the Ego or +individual soul. On its arrival in this world the soul is ready to +register innumerable new thoughts; it is a <i>tabula rasa</i> upon which +nothing has been inscribed.</p> + +<p>This is a noble thought, if true, and one that wonderfully widens our +narrow outlook. But, as I have said, I reserve my right of critical +examination. Elsewhere George Pelham says, "We have an astral +facsimile—the words are his—of our physical body, a facsimile which +persists after the dissolution of the physical body." This would seem to +be the astral body of the Theosophists. But the term "facsimile" is +perplexing, as I have always believed that the particular form which +Humanity actually has was entirely determined by the laws of our +physical universe, that it was an adaptation to its surroundings, and +that if a modification, however slight, were made in, for instance, the +laws of gravity, the human shape would undergo a corresponding +variation. Sir William Crookes has lately made some interesting +observations on this subject. But to this question I will return again.</p> + +<p>Now, the physics of the next world must be very different from the +physics of this world, seeing that the next world is not material, or at +least that its matter is excessively subtle. How then should the shape +we men have in this world persist in the next?</p> + +<p>Now, if we have an astral body which accompanies our Ego in the next +world, and if that astral body consists of a fluid similar to what we +suppose ether to be, or identical with that ether, this fluid must be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +matter in some form, though matter obviously subject to quite other laws +than those of our world of palpable substance. Moreover, there is no +proof that the soul is not the resultant of the organic forces of this +astral body. If this astral body, as is probable, in its turn suffers +disintegration, there is no proof that the soul survives this second +disaggregation. If all these suppositions were proved, the old problem +concerning the nature of the soul would have been carried back a stage, +but it would not have been solved.</p> + +<p>But, as things are, this is, perhaps, to carry speculation too far. Let +us curb our ambition and ask George Pelham what are the sensations felt +immediately after death. Everything was dark, he says; by degrees +consciousness returned and he awoke to a new life. "I could not +distinguish anything at first.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> Darkest hours just before dawn, you +know that, Jim. I was puzzled, confused." This is probable enough. If +things are thus, death must be a sort of birth into another world, and +it is easy to understand that the soul which has been just born into +that new world cannot see or comprehend much in it till some time after +such birth.</p> + +<p>James Howard remarked to George Pelham that he must have been surprised +to find himself still living, to which George Pelham replied, "Perfectly +so. Greatly surprised. I did not believe in a future life. It was beyond +my reasoning powers. Now it is as clear to me as daylight." Elsewhere he +says that when he found that he actually lived again he jumped for joy. +This joy is comprehensible enough; those of us who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>are resigned to the +prospect of annihilation are few. The thought that death is annihilation +makes us, against all principles of logic, shiver to the very marrow. +Such a feeling perhaps points to a revolt of the soul within that knows +itself immortal and cannot without a shiver of fear face the idea of +non-existence, an idea in opposition to its very nature.</p> + +<p>With the impressions of George Pelham may be compared those of another +communicator called Frederick Atkin Morton, who had passed into the next +world in quite a different way. This Morton had lately started a +newspaper; anxiety, overwork, and perhaps other causes made him lose his +reason. His insanity lasted but a short time; in one of its attacks he +shot himself in the head and was killed on the spot. The first time that +he tried to communicate, his remarks showed great incoherence;—no +matter for surprise if Dr Hodgson's observations on this subject are +recalled. But his thoughts soon became clear, and at the second sitting +his communications were definite enough. This is how he relates to his +brother Dick his impressions about his own death. He does not speak of +suicide, an action which he probably committed without full +consciousness of what he was doing, but at the end of the sitting Mrs +Piper's hand wrote the word "Pistol." Death had been due to a pistol +shot.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> "When on Sunday," he says, "I began to lose my mental +equilibrium, then suddenly I realised nothing and nobody." In answer to +the question as to what his next experience was he goes on: "I found I +was in this world. I did not know for the moment where I was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>only I +felt strange and freer; my head was light in weight, also my body ... my +thoughts began to clear when I observed I had departed from my material +body. Ever since then I have been trying to reach you, Dick. I saw a +light and many faces beckoning me on and trying to comfort me, showing +and assuring me I should soon be all right, and almost instantly I found +I was. Then I called for you and tried to tell you all about where and +how I was, and, with one exception, this is the only chance I have had. +Now you see I am taking advantage of the opportunity."</p> + +<p>After the question of how a man passes into the next world, the most +interesting one to us is how he feels when he gets there. Generally +speaking, the reports are satisfactory. One of Professor Hyslop's +uncles, though he seems to have had a happy life here, says to his +nephew, among other things,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> "I would not return for all I ever +owned—music, flowers, walks, drives, pleasures of all kinds, books and +everything." Another communicator, John Hart, the first sitter to whom +George Pelham appeared, said on his own first appearance, "Our world is +the abode of Peace and Plenty." If this is the case, what a pleasant +surprise awaits us, for in this world we have not much experience of +Peace and Plenty. But I fear that John Hart has exaggerated; every day +the Reaper's sickle casts from this world into the other such elements +of discord, not to reckon those who must long ago have been there, that +I wonder what means are taken to prevent their creating a disturbance. +However this may be, if when we leave this world we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>pass into another, +let us hope that the new world will be a better place than the old one, +or else we shall have every reason to regret that death is not +annihilation.</p> + +<p>But George Pelham, in his turn, assures us that we do not lose by the +change. He died, it will be remembered, at the age of thirty-two. When +Dr Hodgson asked him whether he had not gone too soon, he replied with +emphasis, "No, Hodgson, no, not too soon."</p> + +<p>If, however, spirits are happy, more or less happy, according to the +spiritualists, as they are more or less developed—and there seems +nothing inadmissible in this theory—we must suppose that their +happiness is not purely contemplative. One could soon have enough of +such happiness as that. They are active; they are, as we are, occupied, +though we cannot understand wherein their occupation consists. That this +is so is affirmed and reaffirmed in the sittings, and we might assume +it, even if the spirits did not assert it. George Pelham says to his +friend, James Howard, that he will have an occupation soon.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> The +first time that I read this statement, in a review which only reproduced +a short fragment and in no way gave the real effect of these sittings, I +remember that the impression produced on me was very disagreeable. How +unsophisticated, I thought, must these so-called investigators be not to +see that such a phrase as that cannot come from a spirit; it bears too +clearly the stamp of earth!</p> + +<p>Since then reflection has made me admit that spirits might very well +also have their occupations; the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>next world, if it exists, must be a +sphere of fresh activity. Work is the universal law. When George Pelham +was asked in what consisted the occupations of spirits, he replied that +they were like the noblest occupations of men, and consisted in helping +others to advance. This reply will doubtless not satisfy those who are +actuated only by an idle curiosity, but it contains a profound +philosophic truth. If our varied occupations upon earth are regarded +from a somewhat superior point of view, it will be seen that their +ultimate end is nothing else than the perfection of mankind. Those of us +who have evolved furthest realise this, and the rest do not; the case +must be the same in the next world, though George Pelham does not say +so. All our efforts and exertions are regarded with indifference by +nature who has no use for them, but the necessities of life make men +feel that they are brothers, and oblige them to polish one another, like +the stones of the beach rolled to and fro by the waves and rounded and +polished by rubbing one against another. Willingly or not, consciously +or unconsciously, we force one another to advance and to improve in all +respects. The world has been, I think with justice, compared to a +crucible in which souls are purified by pain and work and prepared for +higher ends. I should not like to go as far as Schopenhauer and say that +it is a mere penal settlement.</p> + +<p>A celebrated English medium, William Stainton Moses, in a book well +known to spiritualist readers, <i>Spirit Teachings</i>, developed, or rather +allowed his spirit-guides to develop, the theory that souls leave this +earth taking with them all their desires and all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> their evil passions. +Having no body in the next world to enable them to gratify these desires +they are subjected to a veritable punishment of Tantalus. Thereupon they +endeavour to satisfy their material passions at least, if I may so say, +vicariously; they urge on incarnate men, all unaware, to abandon +themselves to these vices and passions. They incite the gambler to play, +the drunkard to drink; in a word, they push, as far as in them lies, +every vicious man to the bottom of the abyss created by his own vice; +crime and debauchery intoxicate them and fill them with joy. Further +developed and noble souls, in spite of all their efforts, are unable to +conjure away the influence of the undeveloped and evil souls. In a word, +we have here the old fable of demons and angels arranged to suit the +doctrines of modern spiritualism. It is indeed the old fable with a +difference; demons desire the perdition of man from jealousy, because +being themselves eternally condemned they wish to drag down with them as +many souls as possible; the evil souls of Stainton Moses desire the +perdition of man to gratify their own bad inclinations. Demons are +spirits, wicked indeed, but yet spirits, whereas the evil souls of +Stainton Moses are only miserable ghosts driven mad by love of matter. +Certainly everything is possible, as Professor Flournoy says, but this +theory is somewhat astonishing, for it seems to make the inhabitants of +the next world gravitate round our miserable earth, and is like the old +astronomical theory that placed our little globe in the centre of the +universe. If there be another world, it is hard to believe that its +inhabitants spend the greater part of their time in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> attending to us, +some of them to harm us and the rest to do us good.</p> + +<p>Professor William Romaine Newbold, in a sitting which took place on June +19, 1895, asked George Pelham what we ought to think of this theory of +Stainton Moses.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p> + +<p>Professor <span class="smcap">Newbold.</span>—"Does the soul carry with it into its new life all +its passions and animal appetites?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George Pelham.</span>—"Oh, no, indeed, not at all. Why, my good friend and +scholar, you would have this world of ours a decidedly material one if +it were so."</p> + +<p>Professor <span class="smcap">Newbold.</span>—"The writings of Stainton Moses claimed that the +soul carried with it all its passions and appetites, and was very slowly +purified of them."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George Pelham.</span>—"It is all untrue."</p> + +<p>Professor <span class="smcap">Newbold.</span>—"And that the souls of the bad hover over the earth +goading sinners on to their own destruction."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George Pelham.</span>—"Not so. Not at all so. I claim to understand this, and +it is emphatically not so. Sinners are sinners only in one life."</p> + +<p>The result of this denial of Moses's doctrine was that George Pelham was +asked to find Stainton Moses and beg him to come himself and +communicate. Here is a fragment of conversation between Professor +Newbold and the discarnate Stainton Moses.</p> + +<p>Professor <span class="smcap">Newbold.</span>—"You taught that evil spirits tempt sinners to their +own destruction?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<p>W. S. <span class="smcap">Moses.</span>—"I have found out differently since I came over here. This +particular statement given me by my friends as their medium when I was +in the body is not true."<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a></p> + +<p>Professor <span class="smcap">Newbold.</span>—"Your second statement was that the soul carries its +passions and appetites with it."</p> + +<p>W. S. <span class="smcap">Moses.</span>—"Material passions. Untrue. It is not so. I believed that +we had every desire after reaching this life as when in the body, but I +find that we leave all such behind; in other words, evil thoughts die +with the body."</p> + +<p>So on this point the teaching of George Pelham differs from that of +Stainton Moses. But, says Professor Newbold, for the most part they +agree pretty well.</p> + +<p>Now when we reach this other world it is certain that we shall at first +be completely at a loss there, as all that we here regard as +indispensable conditions of existence will there be lacking. Spirits say +that they do not perceive matter which is for them as if non-existent, +whereas here present-day science asserts that outside matter moved by +force there is nothing. It would be strange if the science of to-morrow +were to prove that matter is only a sort of temporary illusion of mind. +Here we conceive nothing outside space and time, whereas spirits seem to +have but confused notions of space and time. Such, in the first place, +is the view which they constantly assert; and, in the next place, if +they are asked, for example, how long it is since they died they are +generally <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>unable to say. In their communications again, they often +relate as occurring in the present actions that have taken place long +ago. I have said already that George Pelham has often been asked to go +and see what certain absent persons are doing and to return and report +it; he has generally been successful, but he has sometimes made the +curious mistake of taking the past for the present. Here is an +illustration. He is told to go and see what Mrs Howard, absent at the +time, was doing; he returns and reports. Dr Hodgson writes to ask Mrs +Howard what she was doing at the time of the sitting, and hears from her +in reply that she did none of the things reported on the day of the +sitting, but that she had done them all in the course of the afternoon +and evening of the preceding day.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> It seems likely that George Pelham +had read the thoughts of Mrs Howard, and in his inability to appreciate +time had taken the past for the present.</p> + +<p>The same sort of thing seems to occur in the case of space. Phinuit, to +oblige Professor Newbold, goes to find Stainton Moses. Phinuit says that +he inhabits a great sphere, and that Stainton Moses lives in a very +distant part of this sphere. But in spite of this he brings him back +almost at once. When the medium is presented with objects likely to +attract the so-called spirits with whom the sitters are anxious to +communicate, these spirits for the most part arrive at once, no matter +where they may have died; John Hart, who died at Naples, communicates +two days afterwards at Boston. But it is hardly to be presumed that the +spirits are there waiting for us. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>If their appearance can be hastened +or delayed by sympathy or antipathy, on the other hand what we call +distance seems not to disturb them in the least; and yet we are +perpetually finding in the communications such phrases as, "Every day I +am getting further from you," "Now I am very far away from you." But +such phrases are probably not to be interpreted literally. The spirits +go further from us as they make progress in the spiritual world and +doubtless also as the things of this world occupy less and less place in +their recollections.</p> + +<p>The spirits see us but they do not see our bodies, since they do not +perceive matter. They see the spirit within us but it appears to them +more or less obscure, as long as it is within the body. "It is by the +spiritual part of your being that I see you," says George Pelham, "that +I am able to follow you and to tell you from time to time what you are +doing."</p> + +<p>And what do they think of our life upon earth? Here is a quotation from +George Pelham which will tell us:<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> "Remember we always shall have our +friends in the dream life, <i>i.e.</i>, your life so to speak, which will +attract us for ever and ever, and so long as we have any friends +sleeping in the material world; you to us are more like as we understand +sleep, you look shut up as one in prison."</p> + +<p>Professor Hyslop had a sister who died as a very young child; she sends +a short message to her brother saying that he dreams while she lives and +that she sends him her love.</p> + +<p>Our life then would seem to be but a sleep accompanied <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>by dreams which +are sometimes terrible nightmares. If this be so we can but hope for +dawn and waking, and wish soon to hear the crowing of the cock which +will put to flight the phantoms of the night. Happy should we be if we +had a certainty that it would be so!</p> + +<p>This reminds me of a fine passage in a Spanish poet, which I cannot +refrain from quoting: "To live is to dream; experience teaches that man +dreams what he is till the moment of awakening. The king dreams that he +is a king and passes his days in the error, giving orders and disposing +of life and property. The rich man dreams the wealth that is the cause +of his anxiety; the poor man dreams the poverty and need from which he +suffers. I too dream that I am here laden with chains, and in by-gone +days I dreamt that I was happy. Our dreams are but dreams within a +dream."</p> + +<p>So our world may be compared with the cave of which Plato speaks in the +Seventh Book of the <i>Republic</i>. In the conversation between Dr Hodgson +and George Pelham, when George Pelham promised that if he were the first +to die and if he found that he had another life he would do all that he +could to prove its existence, they referred to the old Platonic myth. In +the communications of the so-called George Pelham allusion was made to +the allegory, and that justifies me in briefly recalling it.</p> + +<p>Plato imagines prisoners who from their birth have been enchained in a +dark cave in such a way that they are not able either to move or to turn +their heads, and can only look straight in front of them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> Behind and +above the captives a great fire burns, and between the fire and the +captives men pass to and fro carrying in their hands vessels, statues, +images of animals and plants, and many other objects. The shadows of +these men and of the objects that they carry are thrown upon that wall +of the cavern which is opposite to the captives, who thus know nothing +of the external world but these shadows which they take to be realities, +and they spend their time discussing the shadows, naming them and +classifying them.</p> + +<p>One of the captives is carried off from the gloomy place and transported +into the external world. At first the light dazzles him and he can +distinguish nothing. But by degrees, as time goes on, his sight adapts +itself to its surroundings and he learns to look upon the stars and +moon, and the sun itself. When he has been brought back into the cave +and again sits beside his companions, he takes part in their discussions +and tries to make them understand that what they take for realities are +only shadows. But they, confident in the results of their lengthy +reflections on the subject, laugh him to scorn. The same thing would +happen to a soul which had dwelt for a time in the world of spirit and +had been brought back into the world of matter.</p> + +<p>When Plato's captive is brought back into the cave, his eyes, no longer +used to half-darkness, can distinguish nothing for some time; if he is +questioned about the shadows of the passing objects he does not see +them, and his answers are full of confusion. Perhaps something like this +happens to the discarnate spirits who try to manifest themselves to us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +by borrowing the organism of a medium. Such at least is the suggestion +of George Pelham; in that way he would explain the incoherence, the +confusion, the false statements made by many of the communicating +spirits:<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> "For us to get into communication with you, we have to +enter into your sphere, as one like yourself asleep. This is just why we +make mistakes as you call them, or get confused and muddled so to put +it. I am not less intelligent now. But there are many difficulties. I am +far clearer on all points than I was, shut up in the body. 'Don't view +me with a critic's eye, but pass my imperfections by.'"</p> + +<p>George Pelham also tells us how we may summon the spirits of those with +whom we desire to communicate. The thoughts of his friends reach him; if +he is to come and make himself manifest his friends must think of him. +He adds that, so far from the communications being injurious to the +communicating spirits or the sitters, they are positively to be desired.</p> + +<p>On one occasion Dr Hodgson asked what became of the medium during the +trance.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George Pelham.</span>—"She passes out as your ethereal goes out when you +sleep."</p> + +<p>Dr <span class="smcap">Hodgson.</span>—"Well, do you see that there is a conflict, because the +brain substance is, so to speak, saturated with her tendencies of +thought?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George Pelham.</span>—"No, not that, but the solid substance called brain—it +is difficult to control it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>simply because it is material; her mind +leaves the brain empty as it were, and I myself, or other spiritual mind +or thought, take the empty brain, and there is where and when the +conflict arises."</p> + +<p>All this is very unintelligible in the present condition of our +knowledge. But here is another passage even less intelligible and one +which in its <i>naïveté</i> almost suggests that the speaker is playing with +us. George Pelham says to his friend James Howard at the first sitting +at which James Howard was present:<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> "Your voice, Jim, I can +distinguish with your accent and articulation, but it sounds like a big +brass drum. Mine would sound to you like the faintest whisper."</p> + +<p>J. <span class="smcap">Howard.</span>—"Our conversation, then, is something like telephoning?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George Pelham.</span>—"Yes."</p> + +<p>J. <span class="smcap">Howard.</span>—"By long-distance telephone."</p> + +<p>George Pelham laughs.</p> + +<p>Understand who may! Are these only analogies? One does not know what to +think. Another difficult thing to understand is the "weakness" which the +spirits complain that they feel, especially towards the end of the +sittings. George Pelham actually says that we must not demand from +spirits just what they have not got, namely, strength. If the spirits +mean that the medium's "light" grows weak and no longer provides them +with the unknown something that they require in order to communicate, +why do they not express themselves more clearly?</p> + +<p>It will perhaps be thought that I have dwelt a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>little too long on what +I have called the philosophy of George Pelham. I have thought it best to +do so, and there is no harm done so long as I leave it to my readers to +believe as much as they like.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 301.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiv. p. 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xvi. p. 315.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 301.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiv. p. 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> In another sitting W. S. Moses says that, as he held this +view very strongly in life, he felt sure that he had been told it by his +spirit-guides.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. pp. 305, 306.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 362.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. pp. 362, 363.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 434.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 301.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<p class="center">William Stainton Moses—What George Pelham thinks of him—How Imperator +and his assistants have replaced Phinuit.</p> + + +<p>For those of my readers who are unacquainted with spiritualist +literature, and in order to facilitate the understanding of what +follows, I must give a short sketch of the life of the English medium, +William Stainton Moses. He was born in 1839, and died in 1892. He +studied at Oxford, and was then curate at Maughold, near Ramsey, in the +Isle of Man. His great kindness made him beloved by all his parishioners +there. When an epidemic of smallpox drove even the doctors away, he +remained faithfully at his post, caring for bodies and comforting souls. +But he had precarious health, and was overworked at Maughold. He +obtained another curacy, where there was less work, at Saint George's, +Douglas, also in the Isle of Man. It was at Douglas that the friendship, +broken only by death, was formed between him and Dr Stanhope Speer. A +throat-affection soon after prevented his preaching, and he left the +service of the Church to give himself up to teaching. He went to London, +where he became tutor to the son of Dr Stanhope Speer, who was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> living +there. Finally, at the beginning of 1871, he obtained a mastership in +University College School, and there he remained till 1889.</p> + +<p>Till 1872 William Stainton Moses knew nothing of spiritualism. If he had +vaguely heard of it, he had no doubt hastened to condemn the new +superstition which carried off sheep from his flock.</p> + +<p>However, in 1872, Mrs Speer, being ill and confined to her room, read +Dale Owen's book, <i>The Debatable Land</i>. The book interested her, and she +asked Stainton Moses to read it. He did so, but only to please his +friend's wife. Nevertheless he became curious to know how much truth +there might be in the matter. He visited mediums, and took Dr Speer with +him, and both were soon convinced that here was a new force.</p> + +<p>It was at the time when spiritualistic phenomena were attracting much +attention in the United States and England, and when learned bodies were +appealed to from all sides to put an end to these phantasmagoria. It was +the period when the materialised apparition of Katie King appeared and +talked to numerous spectators who came from widely separated places. Sir +William Crookes could see her and photograph her as much as he pleased; +heedless of his environment, he published what seemed to him the truth.</p> + +<p>Thereupon the man whose brain had till then been considered one of the +most lucid and best organised which humanity has produced, lost +considerably in the opinion of his contemporaries. But no doubt the +future will avenge him.</p> + +<p>The Speer family and Stainton Moses now began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> to hold sittings by +themselves. Stainton Moses<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> at once showed himself to be an +extraordinarily powerful medium. Neither he nor anybody else had +suspected this mediumship till now. Many other mediumships have been +revealed in the same way, suddenly, by experiment. This shows that +faculties, valuable for the study of these disturbing problems, may +exist in some of us who least expect it.</p> + +<p>The physical phenomena which occurred in the presence of Stainton Moses +were numerous and varied.</p> + +<p>These phenomena cannot be due to the subconsciousness of Stainton Moses, +and they seem to point to external intervention more clearly than do the +communications he has left us. The best known of these communications is +entitled <i>Spirit Teachings</i>. It is a long dialogue between self-styled +disincarnated spirits and Stainton Moses. Stainton Moses also wrote +automatically without being entranced. <i>Spirit Teachings</i>, among other +things, was obtained in this way. The medium is still saturated with his +theological education; he discusses, he cavils, and his spirit-guides +show him the absurdity of a great part of his beliefs. We know that his +robust faith began to be shaken by doubt about the time when his +mediumship revealed itself. If we left the above-mentioned phenomena out +of consideration, we might not unreasonably be tempted to see in these +dialogues only a doubling of personality; on one hand the personality of +the clergyman defending his doctrines foot by foot, on the other hand +the personality of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>the reasoning man formulating his own objections to +them.</p> + +<p>The self-styled spirit-guides of Stainton Moses formed a united group +obeying one chief, who called himself Imperator. Rector, Doctor, +Prudens, were his subordinates. Naturally, they asserted they were the +souls of men who had lived on earth; the above names were borrowed for +the circumstance; their real names were revealed to Stainton Moses, who +wrote them in one of his note-books, but always refused to publish them. +I beg the reader to observe this detail, which will become important +later.</p> + +<p>Stainton Moses had the temperament of an apostle but not at all that of +a man of science. The contents of the messages interested him much more +than their origin. The former clergyman liked better to discuss a +doubtful text than patiently to accumulate facts while guarding himself +in all possible ways against fraud. Certainly he was scrupulously +honourable; no conscious falsehood ever passed his lips, but his +temperament makes his interpretations doubtful, and with reason. He was +one of the first members of the Society for Psychical Research, but the +methods which the Society adopted from the beginning were not of a kind +to please him; for his part, he believed that abundant proofs already +existed, and he saw no use in minutely examining a large number of small +facts.</p> + +<p>Dr Speer's son, whom Stainton Moses had taught, praises his judgment, +his modesty, his inexhaustible charity. Modest he really was, and it +never occurred to him to be vain of the miraculous phenomena which +occurred in his presence; he never thought of mak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>ing a venal use of his +mediumship. Although he published his communications, he hardly ever +published reports of his phenomena. It was Frederic Myers who published +these from the note-books of the Speer family and of Stainton Moses +himself. The notes are in agreement, although they were made separately, +and without any idea of publication.</p> + +<p>The son of Dr Speer asserts that Stainton Moses never refused a +discussion, and never despised an opponent. But, on the other hand, +Frederic Myers, who knew him well, assures us that he bore contradiction +badly, and was quickly irritated by it. The manner in which he retired +from the Society for Psychical Research tends to prove that it is Myers +who is right. The son of Dr Speer, in his gratitude to his former +master, must have deceived himself.</p> + +<p>I will now explain the reason of this long preamble about Stainton +Moses. At a sitting which took place on June 19, 1895, Professor +Newbold, conversing with George Pelham, obtained from him the +enunciation of doctrines which contradicted those given by Stainton +Moses in <i>Spirit Teachings</i>. Professor Newbold<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> then asked,—</p> + +<p>"Do you know of Stainton Moses?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George Pelham.</span>—"No, not very much. Why?"</p> + +<p>Professor <span class="smcap">Newbold.</span>—"Did you ever know of him or know what he did?"</p> + +<p>G. P.—"I only have an idea from having met him here."</p> + +<p>Professor N.—"Can you tell me what he said?"</p> + +<p>G. P.—"No, only that he was W. Stainton Moses. I found him for E.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> +and Hodgson."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p><p>Professor N.—"Did you tell Hodgson this?"</p> + +<p>G. P.—"I do not think so."</p> + +<p>At the sitting on the next day, Professor Newbold returns to the charge.</p> + +<p>"Can you bring Stainton Moses here?"</p> + +<p>G. P.—"I will do my best."</p> + +<p>Professor N.—"Is he far advanced?"</p> + +<p>G. P.—"Oh, no, I should say not. He will have to think for a while +yet."</p> + +<p>Professor N.—"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>G. P.—"Well, have you forgotten all I told you before?"</p> + +<p>Professor N.—"You mean about progression by repentance?"</p> + +<p>G. P.—"Certainly I do."</p> + +<p>Professor N.—"Was not he good?"</p> + +<p>G. P.—"Yes, but not perfect by any means."</p> + +<p>Professor N.—"Was he a true medium?"</p> + +<p>G. P.—"True, yes, very true; his 'light' was very true, yet he made a +great many mistakes and deceived himself."</p> + +<p>Phinuit, sent to find Stainton Moses, ends by bringing him. George +Pelham warns the sitter against the confusions and incoherences of +Stainton Moses's communications. "When he arrives," says George Pelham, +"I will wake him up."</p> + +<p>Professor N.—"Is he asleep?"</p> + +<p>G. P.—"Oh, Billie, you are stupid, I fear, at times. I do not mean wake +him up in a material sense."</p> + +<p>Professor N.—"Nor did I."</p> + +<p>G. P.—"Well, then, old man, don't be wasting light."</p> + +<p>Professor N.—"I'm not wasting light, but I am obliged to find out what +you mean."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + +<p>G. P.—"Well, this is what I wish also."</p> + +<p>Professor N.—"Stainton Moses has been nearly three years in the +spirit.... Do you mean to say that he is not yet free from confusion?"</p> + +<p>These explanatory passages would be of great value if we were sure that +we were not dealing with a secondary personality of Mrs Piper.</p> + +<p>Later still, George Pelham returns to the probable mental confusion of +Stainton Moses, and to the necessity for taking certain precautions in +order to obtain clear communications. He was quite right. These +sittings, in which Stainton Moses was the self-styled communicator, are +exactly those which make the spiritualist hypothesis most difficult to +accept. All the exact information given existed already in the minds of +those present; all the rest was untrue. Stainton Moses had an excellent +chance of proving his identity. We have said that he had written down +the real names of his "spirit-guides" or "controls" in one of his +note-books. At the time these sittings were taking place in America, +Frederic Myers, in England, was studying these note-books in order to +publish so much of them as he thought fit. He knew these names, but I +believe he was the only person in the world who knew them. Stainton +Moses was told, "Give us the names of your spirit-guides; it will be a +splendid proof. Mr Myers knows them, but we do not. We will send them to +him, and if they are correct we shall no longer be able to have a +reasonable doubt of your identity." The self-styled Stainton Moses +seemed perfectly to understand what was asked of him; he gave the names, +and every one of them was wrong.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + +<p>In October 1896 Dr Hodgson made George Pelham understand the necessity +of obtaining exact information from Stainton Moses, in order that the +problem, which seemed to interest George Pelham as much as it did Dr +Hodgson, might be solved. Stainton Moses then said that he would ask the +help of his former spirit-guides. The latter communicated directly +several times, in November and December 1896 and in January 1897. But +finally they demanded that the "light" of the medium should be put at +their exclusive disposal. Imperator explained that these unconsidered +experiments with all sorts of spirits—more or less undeveloped and +disturbed—as communicators, had made Mrs Piper as a medium into a +machine "worn out," and incapable of being really useful. He, Imperator, +and his friends would be able to restore her in time. But they must have +the right to keep away such communicators as they should judge likely to +injure her again. Dr Hodgson explained the importance of trying this +experiment to Mrs Piper in her normal state. Mrs Piper, docile as usual, +consented. The last appearance of Phinuit occurred on January 26, 1897. +Phinuit had formerly said, "They find fault with me, they won't +understand that I do all I can, but when they do not hear my voice any +longer they will regret me." However, he is not regretted. Whoever the +controls Imperator, Rector, Doctor and Prudens may be, since they have +controlled the communications, these have acquired a coherence, +clearness and exactness unknown before; errors are rare, and evident +falsehood unknown. Besides, Mrs Piper enters the trance differently. +Formerly there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> more or less painful struggle; she had violent +convulsions and spasmodic movements; at present she enters the trance +quietly, as if she were falling asleep.</p> + +<p>If, in truth, Mrs Piper entranced is merely an automaton, a "machine," +of which use is made to communicate between two worlds, it is perfectly +evident that, on this side as well as the other, it is well to have +honourable and experienced experimenters. Phinuit was not perhaps +wanting in experience, but he was assuredly wanting in honesty; or +possibly he did not perceive the extreme importance of veracity in these +matters; he did not lie for the pleasure of lying, but he did not +hesitate to lie, if needs were, to escape from some difficulty.</p> + +<p>The new report of Professor Hyslop, which I am about briefly to analyse, +will show us the new phase of Mrs Piper's mediumship. The results are +already good. Imperator asserts nevertheless that the "machine" still +needs repair, and that he will obtain still more wonderful results +by-and-by.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> For an account of the mediumship of W. Stainton Moses the +reader is referred to Mr F. W. H. Myers's articles in the <i>Proc. of +S.P.R.</i>, vol. ix. p. 245, and vol. xi. p. 24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiv. p. 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Another communicator.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<p class="center">Professor Hyslop and the journalists—The so-called "confession" of Mrs +Piper—Precautions taken by Professor Hyslop during his +experiments—Impressions of the sittings.</p> + + +<p>The last report<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> we possess of the phenomena accompanying Mrs Piper's +trance is that of Professor James Hervey Hyslop, of Columbia University, +New York. This report appeared in November 1901. The minutes of the +sittings, the notes, the remarks of the sitter, the discussion of +hypotheses, the account of experiments made at the University in order +to throw light on certain points, all together make a report of 650 +pages of close reading. It refers, notwithstanding, only to sixteen +sittings, of which the first took place on December 23, 1898. But the +smallest incidents and the slightest arguments are scrupulously weighed. +It is, in short, a work of considerable extent.</p> + +<p>Professor Hyslop has an absolutely sincere and very lucid mind. It is a +pleasure to follow him through this mass of facts and arguments; +everything is scrupulously classified, and the whole is illuminated by a +high intelligence. Professor Hyslop occupies with good right an eminent +place <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>amongst the thinkers of the United States. Besides his classes, +he gives numerous lectures, which are well attended.</p> + +<p>The report he has published has been long waited for. As he is a man of +mark and has long occupied himself with Psychical Research, the +inquisitive journalists on the other side of the Atlantic quickly found +out that he had been experimenting with Mrs Piper. He was interviewed; +he was prudent, and contented himself with recommending the reporters to +study the preceding reports published upon the same case. But reporters +are not so easily contented; they have to satisfy an exacting master in +the public, which wants to know everything, and which would cease to +purchase any paper simple enough to say, "I have done all I could to get +information on this point for you, but I have failed." The public will +have none of such honesty as that, though if a falsehood is offered, it +is not angry; in the first place, because at the moment it does not +recognise the falsehood, and in the second, because by the time it finds +out it is busy over something else. Consequently, as they must live, +journalists find themselves sometimes obliged to invent. So the +reporters put into Professor Hyslop's mouth the following sensational +words, "In a year I shall be able to demonstrate the immortality of the +soul scientifically." These words were reproduced by the greater number +of the American papers and by a large number of English ones. Specialist +publications in France in their turn commented on them. It will be +understood with what eagerness the report was expected after this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> by +all men interested in psychical studies. They have not been +disappointed. Professor Hyslop is too modest for such unbounded +pretension; he knows that the great problem will not be solved at one +stroke, nor by one man. "I do not claim," he says, "to demonstrate +anything scientifically, not even the facts I offer." This phrase does +not at all resemble the declaration put into his mouth. But if he has +not definitively and scientifically proved the immortality of the soul, +he has approached the problem very nearly and thrown a vivid light on +more than one point. In any case the journalists have advertised him +thoroughly, perhaps without intending it.</p> + +<p>Speaking of journalists, I must relate another quite recent incident, +which is interesting to us, as it concerns Mrs Piper personally. One of +the editors of the <i>New York Herald</i> interviewed Mrs Piper and on +October 20, 1901, published an article somewhat speciously entitled, +"The Confessions of Mrs Leonora Piper." In this article it was stated +that Mrs Piper intended to give up the work she had been doing for the +S.P.R. in order to devote herself to other and more congenial pursuits, +that it was on account of her own desire to understand the phenomena +that she first allowed her trances to be investigated and placed herself +in the hands of scientific men, with the understanding that she should +submit to any tests they chose to apply, and that now, after fourteen +years' work, the subject not being yet cleared up, she felt disinclined +for further investigation. Her own view of the phenomena was expressed +in this article as follows:—"The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> theory of telepathy strongly appeals +to me as the most plausible and genuinely scientific solution of the +problem.... I do not believe that spirits of the dead have spoken +through me when I have been in the trance state.... It may be that they +have, but I do not affirm it.... I never heard of anything being said by +myself during a trance which might not have been latent in my own mind +or in the mind of the person in charge of the sitting, or in the mind of +the person trying to get communication with someone in another state of +existence, or of some companion present with such a person, or in the +mind of some absent person alive somewhere else in the world."</p> + +<p>In the <i>Boston Advertiser</i> of October 25, 1901, there appeared a +statement dictated by Mrs Piper to a representative of the paper, saying +that she had made no such statement as that published in <i>the New York +Herald</i> to the effect that "spirits of the departed do not control" her, +and later in the <i>Boston Journal</i> for October 29, 1901, there appeared +an account of interviews with Dr Hodgson and Mrs Piper, in which Mrs +Piper stated that though she had said "something to the effect that" she +"would never hold another sitting with Mr Hodgson," and that she "would +die first" to a <i>New York Herald</i> reporter the summer before, when she +gave the original interview, she now intended, regardless of whatever +may have been said, to go on with the present arrangement with Dr +Hodgson and the Society as formerly. She still held and expressed the +view that the manifestations are not spiritualistic, and felt that the +telepathic theory is more probable than the spiritualistic hypothesis.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<p>It will be seen that in none of these reports is there any justification +for the somewhat sensational use of the word "Confessions" in the +original article. Mrs Piper made no statements, as the use of that word +suggests, concerning the source of her knowledge; she expressed her +preference for one of two hypothetical explanations of the origin of +that knowledge. No question was raised in the original article as to Mrs +Piper's honesty or as to the genuineness of her trance phenomena; on the +contrary she is represented by the reporter of the <i>New York Herald</i> as +holding a view of those phenomena which asserts that they are not +fraudulent. She expresses her personal preference for the telepathic +hypothesis rather than the spiritualist hypothesis as an explanation of +them; on this point it should be remembered that the medium is not in a +more favourable position for forming an opinion than those who sit with +her, since she does not remember what passes while she is in trance, and +is therefore dependent for her knowledge on the reports of the sitters.</p> + +<p>The allegation of the <i>New York Herald</i> as to her intention to +discontinue the sittings was unfounded; after a suspension of some +months owing to the state of her health, she gave a sitting to Dr +Hodgson on October 21, the day after the article in the <i>Herald</i> +appeared, and it was then arranged to resume the sittings after a +further interval of three months. This has been done, and Mrs Piper gave +sittings to Dr Hodgson all through the spring of last year, and is still +doing so through the winter of 1902-1903.</p> + +<p>The reader will excuse this digression on a subject which made some stir +at the time, and is interesting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> as throwing light on the medium's own +attitude towards her trance phenomena.</p> + +<p>To return to Professor Hyslop's report.</p> + +<p>Professor Hyslop told only his wife and Dr Hodgson of his intention to +have sittings with Mrs Piper. The days were fixed, not with Mrs Piper in +the normal state, but with Imperator, the chief of the present controls, +while she was in trance. Now we must never forget that Mrs Piper has no +recollection of what happens during the trance. Professor Hyslop's name +was not given to Imperator; Dr Hodgson called him the "four times +friend," because Professor Hyslop had at first asked for four sittings. +I should not call this a transparent pseudonym.</p> + +<p>Professor Hyslop had once been present at one of Mrs Piper's sittings, +and his name had been pronounced. Although there seemed to be small +chance of her recognising him, as the sitting had taken place six years +before, and Professor Hyslop did not then wear a beard as he now does, +he put on a mask while he was in a closed carriage at some distance from +Mrs Piper's house. He kept on his mask during the first two sittings, +and then the precaution became useless, because his father's name was +pronounced by Mrs Piper at the end of the second. Dr Hodgson presented +him as Mr Smith, which name is given to all new sitters. Professor +Hyslop never spoke before Mrs Piper in her normal state, except twice to +utter short sentences, and he took pains to change his voice as much as +possible. He avoided all contact with the medium throughout all the +sitting. Most of the facts were obtained from the communicators without +previous questioning. When Professor Hys<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>lop was obliged to ask a +question, he did so in such a way that it did not contain a suggestion +of the answer. To prevent Mrs Piper's seeing him during the sitting, he +kept always behind her right shoulder, the easiest position too for +reading the writing.</p> + +<p>But when we recollect that Mrs Piper's head is always buried in pillows +during the trance, we shall think this a superfluous precaution.</p> + +<p>As I have said in the preceding chapter, Phinuit no longer manifests. +This is what now appears to take place on the "other side." Rector +places himself in the "machine," and it is he who produces the automatic +writing. This Rector seems to have had much experience of these +phenomena. The communicator comes close to Rector and speaks to him, in +whatever manner spirits may speak. Imperator remains outside the +"machine," and prevents the approach of all those likely to injure it, +or who have nothing to do with the sitter. Besides, before he allows a +communicator to enter the "machine," he gives him advice as to what he +should do, and helps him to arrange and clear up his ideas. Imperator's +two other helpers, Doctor and Prudens, appear but rarely. George Pelham +appears sometimes, when his services are needed.</p> + +<p>The communicators were few in number during Professor Hyslop's sixteen +sittings. They were, his father, Robert Hyslop, who gave much the most +important communications; his uncle, Carruthers; his cousin, Robert +Harvey MacClellan; his brother Charles, who died in 1864, aged four +years and a half; his sister Annie, who also died in 1864, aged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> three +years; his uncle, James MacClellan; and lastly, another MacClellan named +John.</p> + +<p>Professor Hyslop's father, Robert Hyslop, is the communicator who takes +up the greater part of the sittings. But he cannot remain long in the +"machine," he complains of having his ideas confused, of suffocating or +getting weak; for example, he says, "I am getting weak, James, I am +going away for a moment; wait for me." During these absences Imperator +sends another member of the family in his place "so that the light may +not be wasted." It would thus seem that the "weakness" which the spirits +complain of is only a feeling they have when they have been in contact +with the "machine" for a certain time; Imperator says that then they are +like a sick and delirious man. This explains the words of George Pelham, +"You must not ask of us just what we have not got—strength." But it is +indispensable to say that the former communicators did not explain +enough about this weakness; and they were not sufficiently well inspired +to go out when they felt it coming on. Dr Hodgson at last, having often +remarked this semi-delirium of the communicators towards the end of a +sitting, when the light was failing, succeeded in suggesting to them to +go away when they felt themselves getting weak. The possibility of this +suggestion is interesting to those who prefer the hypothesis of +telepathy.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Professor Hyslop's report is contained in <i>Proc. of +S.P.R.</i>, vol. xvi.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<p class="center">The communications of Mr Robert Hyslop—Peculiar expressions—Incidents.</p> + + +<p>After we have read the report of Professor Hyslop, weighed the slightest +facts with him, discussed the arguments for and against with him, we +cannot be surprised at his having ended by adhering to the spiritualist +hypothesis; in other words, we cannot be surprised that, in spite of his +previous prejudice, he should have ended by exclaiming, "I have been +talking with my father, my brother, my uncles. Whatever supernormal +powers we may be pleased to attribute to Mrs Piper's secondary +personalities, it would be difficult to make me believe that these +secondary personalities could have thus completely reconstituted the +mental personality of my dead relatives. To admit this would involve me +in too many improbabilities. I prefer to believe that I have been +talking to my dead relatives in person; it is simpler." This is the +conclusion at which Professor Hyslop has arrived, and he takes the +reader with him, in spite of himself. As may be imagined, I do not +pretend to do the same in a hurried sketch like the present. Here, as +was the case with George Pelham, the incidents quoted are only examples +selected from a great number; some important detail of the said +incidents may even be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> accidentally omitted. If the forgotten detail +lays the incident open to some great objection, the reader must blame me +only for it, and turn to Professor Hyslop's book for himself.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> + +<p>Professor Hyslop's father, Mr Robert Hyslop, was a private person in the +strictest sense of the word; he never did anything to attract public +attention to him; he did not write in the papers, and never, or hardly +ever, lived in towns. He was born in 1821, and lived on his farm in Ohio +till 1889, when he went into a neighbouring State. He returned to his +old home in August 1896, ill with a sort of cancer of the larynx. The +old home then belonged to his brother-in-law, James Carruthers, and he +died there on the 29th of the same month. In 1860 he had contracted a +spinal affection, the result of over-exertion, and this had degenerated, +some years later, into locomotor ataxy; he lost by degrees the use of +one of his legs and used a crutch; there was afterwards an improvement, +but he could never walk without a stick. In 1876 he had a slight attack +of apoplexy, which affected his hearing, one ear being quite deaf. Three +years before his death he further had the misfortune to lose his voice, +probably from paralysis of the larynx. A year before his death a fresh +affliction was added to all the others; he thought it was catarrh, but +it was probably cancer of the larynx; and it was accompanied by frequent +spasms which threatened his life.</p> + +<p>In short, for thirty-five years at least, Mr Robert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + +<p>Hyslop was an invalid. His life was by necessity passed indoors, or at +least on his farm. This life was necessarily without events calculated +to attract a stranger's notice. There was consequently very little +possibility that the medium could obtain information about him by normal +means. But when an obscure man like Mr Robert Hyslop returns from the +Beyond to establish his identity by relating a number of small facts, +too slight and unimportant to have been observed outside his intimate +circle, such a man furnishes us with a much stronger presumption in +favour of a future life than a personage in public life could do. Even +if the latter only reported incidents of his private life, it would be +easier to suppose that the medium had been able to procure them. During +nearly all his life, but principally during the last twenty years, the +thoughts of Mr Robert Hyslop turned on a small number of subjects—his +solicitude for his family; the administration of his farm, which gave +him much care; the fulfilment of his religious duties, in which he never +failed; and lastly, political events, which much interested him, because +they naturally reacted upon his private affairs. Consequently the +greater part of the facts I shall quote belonged to one or other of +these four categories of his preoccupations.</p> + +<p>But, to begin with, it will be useful to speak of a point which +characterises an individual as clearly as his features do—I mean his +speech. Each of us has his own language, his familiar expressions; each +of us expresses himself in his own way under given circumstances. When +Buffon said "the style is the man," he expressed an absolute truth. When +some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>body talks to us by telephone, without giving his name, we say, +without a shade of hesitation, "It is So-and-so. I know him by his +style." I repeat that everybody has this individuality of expression; it +is, however, less marked in educated people. But men only slightly +cultivated use stereotyped expressions, above all when they are growing +old; the language of some of them is almost entirely composed of +aphorisms and proverbs. If Mr Robert Hyslop did not altogether belong to +this class, he yet, his son tells us, used particular expressions, and +always the same in analogous cases; some of them indeed were altogether +peculiar to him.</p> + +<p>Now, when he communicates through Mrs Piper, he uses the same language +that he used when alive. Professor Hyslop has incessantly occasion to +remark, "This expression is quite like my father; he would have used it +when he was alive in such a case." There is even a passage of the +communications so characteristic in this way that it is nearly too much +so; it would almost suggest fraud. I will reproduce one of these +passages.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> "Keep quiet, don't worry about anything, as I used to say. +It does not pay. You are not the strongest man, you know, and health is +important for you. Cheer up now and be quite yourself. Remember it does +not pay, and life is too short there for you to spend it in worrying. +What you cannot have, be content without, but do not worry, and not for +me. Devoted you were to me always, and I have nothing to complain of +except your uneasy temperament, and that I will certainly help."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> + +<p>When a father has repeated the same advice in the same terms hundreds of +times in his life, and when, after his death, he repeats it again +through an intermediary, it must certainly be difficult to say, "That is +not he; it is not my father."</p> + +<p>I should much like to give the reader the greatest possible number of +these small facts, which convince us almost in spite of ourselves. But +it is impossible to do so without surrounding them with commentaries +indispensable to bring out all their importance. Thus, Mr Robert had a +horse named Tom, an old and faithful servant. It had grown too old to +work, but he would not kill it. He pensioned it, so to speak, and left +it to die a natural death on the farm. At one sitting he asks, "Where is +Tom?" and as James Hyslop did not understand what Tom he was speaking +of, the communicator added, "Tom, the horse, what has become of him?"</p> + +<p>Mr Robert Hyslop wrote with quill pens, which he trimmed himself; he had +often trimmed them for his son James. He recalls this detail about the +quill pens at one of the sittings.</p> + +<p>He was very bald, and had complained of feeling his head cold during the +night. His wife made him a black cap which he wore once. At one of the +sittings he spoke of this cap. James Hyslop, who had been away from home +a long time, had never heard of any black cap. But he wrote to his +step-mother, who corroborated the statement.</p> + +<p>At another sitting the communicator, Robert Hyslop, said that there were +always two bottles on his desk, one round and one square. Professor +Hyslop was ignorant of this detail, as of the preceding. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +step-mother, when questioned, had difficulty in remembering this, but +his brother recalled it at once; the round bottle held ink and the +square one contained gum.</p> + +<p>Another time Robert Hyslop asks, "Do you remember the penknife I cut my +nails with?" "No, father, not very well." "The little penknife with the +brown handle. I had it in my vest and then coat pocket. You certainly +must remember it?" "Was this after you went west?" "Yes." Professor +Hyslop was unaware of the existence of this penknife. He wrote +separately to his step-mother, brother and sister, asking them if their +father had possessed a brown-handled penknife with which he cut his +nails, without telling them why he wanted this information. All three +replied, "Yes, we have it still." But it appears that Mr Robert Hyslop +did not keep the knife either in his coat or waistcoat pockets, but in +his trousers pocket.</p> + +<p>These little facts will suffice as examples. I will go on to more +important ones.</p> + +<p>Mr Robert Hyslop had a son who had caused him much anxiety all his life. +He had often talked of these anxieties to his favourite son James, and +had died carrying them with him into the grave. He speaks of them +repeatedly during the sittings exactly as he did in life. "Don't you +remember, James, that we often talked of your brother and the trouble he +gave us? Don't worry about it any more, all will go well now, and if I +know that you do not worry I shall be all right."</p> + +<p>He remembers all the members of his family and names them correctly, +except for two odd mistakes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> of which I shall speak later. He alludes to +incidents in the lives, and traits in the characters of each of them. He +sends them expressions of affection, "Have I forgotten anybody, James, +my son? I should not like to forget anybody." He specially asks after +his youngest child, Henrietta; he wants to know if she has succeeded in +her examinations, and he expresses delight when he hears that, on the +whole, life promises well for her.</p> + +<p>Mr Robert Hyslop was an orthodox Calvinist; he belonged to the small, +very strict sect of Associate Presbyterians and refused to join the +United Presbyterian Church in 1858. He was extremely rigid in religious +matters. When he caused his son James to be educated, he hoped the +latter would become a minister, though he left him free choice. When he +saw his son modify his religious beliefs he was very much pained. By +degrees, however, he became resigned. It is easy to understand from all +this that religious preoccupations were in the foreground in his mind. +He often talked of religion to his family, he read the Bible and +numerous commentaries on it, and sometimes, rather than allow his family +to go to the church of a less orthodox sect, he himself preached to them +at home. Consequently, if he had not alluded to his former religious +life during the sittings, the omission might have caused a grave doubt +of his identity. But this is not the case; he constantly alludes to his +ancient religious ideas.</p> + +<p>At one of the first sittings he says, for example, "Do you remember what +my feeling was about this life? Well, I was not so far wrong after all. +I felt sure that there would be some knowledge of this life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> but you +were doubtful, remember you had your own ideas, which were only yours, +James."</p> + +<p>This last phrase, "You have your own ideas," Professor Hyslop remarks, +had been often repeated to him by his father in his lifetime. "He meant +that I was the only one of his children who was sceptical, and this was +true." Robert Hyslop's former religious ideas were the cause of a +strange incident. One day Dr Hodgson said to him, "Mr Hyslop, you ought +to look for my father and make friends with him. He had religious ideas +like yours. I think you would understand each other very well, and I +should be pleased." At a following sitting the communicator said to Dr +Hodgson, "I have met your father; we talked, and we liked each other +very much, but he was not very orthodox when he was alive." Dr Hodgson's +father was really a Wesleyan—that is to say, he belonged to a very +liberal sect. But in another place Robert Hyslop adds, "Orthodoxy does +not matter here; I should have changed my mind about many things if I +had known." In another sitting he says to his son, alluding to the +telepathic hypothesis, "Let that thought theory alone. I made theories +all my life, and what good did it do me? It only filled my mind with +doubts." In short, it appears that Robert Hyslop, the rigid Calvinist, +has greatly modified his views since he has been disincarnated.</p> + +<p>At the last visit Professor Hyslop paid to his father, in January or +February 1895, a long conversation took place between them on religious +and philosophical subjects. Professor Hyslop spoke of his psychical +studies. The possibility of communication<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> between the two worlds was +discussed at length, and Swedenborg and his works were mentioned. During +the sittings Robert Hyslop constantly returns to this conversation, +which had made a profound impression on him; much more profound than +would have been expected, considering his religious views. He recalls +the points which were discussed by him and his son one after another, +and adds, "You remember I promised to come back to you after I had left +the body, and I have been trying to find an opportunity ever since." +Now, no such promise had been made explicitly. But James Hyslop had +written to his father on his deathbed, "Father, when all is over, you +will try to come back to me." Robert Hyslop must from that moment have +resolved to return if possible; and he must have believed he had told +his son so, which was not the case.</p> + +<p>When he was living in Ohio, Mr Robert Hyslop had a neighbour named +Samuel Cooper. One day Cooper's dogs killed some sheep belonging to +Robert Hyslop. An estrangement followed, which lasted several years. At +one of the sittings in which Dr Hodgson represented Professor Hyslop, he +asked a question which the latter had sent him in writing. Professor +Hyslop hoped the question would turn his father's attention to the +incidents of his life in Ohio. The question was, "Do you remember Samuel +Cooper, and can you say anything about him?" The communicator replied, +"James refers to the old friend I had in the West. I remember the visits +we used to make to each other well, and the long talks we had concerning +philosophical topics." At another sitting,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> when Dr Hodgson was again +alone, he returned to the same idea. "I had a friend named Cooper who +was of a philosophical turn of mind and for whom I had great respect, +with whom I had some friendly discussion and correspondence. I had some +of his letters ... you will find them." Another time, when Professor +Hyslop was present, he said, "I am trying to remember Cooper's school." +The next day he returns to the point, "You asked me, James, what I knew +about Cooper. Did you think I was no longer friend of his? I had kept +some of his letters; and I think they were with you." In all this there +was not a trace of Samuel Cooper, and Professor Hyslop did not know what +to think. He therefore put a direct question in order to bring his +father back to the point he had in mind. "I wanted to know if you +remembered anything about the dogs killing sheep?" "Oh, I should think I +did ... but I had forgotten all about it. That was what we had the +discussion about.... Yes, very well, James, but just what you asked me +this for I could not quite make out as he was no relation of mine ... if +I could have recalled what you were getting at I would have tried to +tell you. He is here, but I see him seldom." This episode is +interesting. All that Robert Hyslop said at first about Cooper has +nothing to do with Samuel Cooper, but is entirely true of an old friend +of his, Dr Joseph Cooper. Robert Hyslop had really had many +philosophical discussions with him, and they had corresponded. Professor +Hyslop had perhaps heard his name, but did not know that he was an old +friend of his father. It was his step-mother who told him this, in the +course of an inquiry he made amongst<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> his relatives to clear up doubtful +incidents in the sittings. We see that disincarnated beings are capable +of misunderstanding as well as ourselves.</p> + +<p>But the following is the most dramatic incident. Professor Hyslop, +remembering that his father had thought his last illness catarrh, while +he himself believed it to be cancer of the larynx, asked the +communicator a question aimed at bringing up the word "catarrh." He +asked, "Do you know what the trouble was when you passed out?" The +double meaning of the word "trouble" caused a curious misunderstanding, +which the telepathic hypothesis will find it difficult to explain.</p> + +<p>The communicator replied in distress, "No, I did not realise that we had +the least trouble, James, ever. I thought we were always most congenial +to each other. I do not remember any trouble—tell me what it was about? +You do not mean with me, do you?" "Father, you misunderstand me. I mean +with the sickness." "Oh, yes, I hear—I know now. Yes, my stomach." +"Yes, was there anything else the matter?" "Yes, stomach, liver and +head—difficult to breathe. My heart, James, made me suffer. Don't you +remember what a trouble I had to breathe? I think it was my heart which +made me suffer the most—my heart and my lungs. Tightness of the +chest—my heart failed me; but at last I went to sleep." A little +further on he says, "Do you know, the last thing I recall is your +speaking to me. And you were the last to do so. I remember seeing your +face; but I was too weak to answer."</p> + +<p>This dialogue at first disconcerted Professor Hyslop. He had tried to +make his father tell the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> name of the malady from which the latter +thought he suffered—catarrh. It was only when he read over the notes of +the sitting, a little later, that he perceived all at once that his +father had been describing the last hours of his life in the terms +habitual to him. Professor Hyslop had been mistaken again. The doctor +had noticed pain in the stomach at 7 a.m. The heart action began to +decline at 9.30; this was shortly followed by terrible difficulty in +breathing, and death followed. When his father's eyelids fell, James +Hyslop said, "He is gone," and he was the last to speak. This last +incident seems to indicate that consciousness in the dying lasts much +longer than is believed.</p> + +<p>Soon after Professor Hyslop asked his father if he remembered some +special medicine he had sent him from New York. The communicator had +much trouble in remembering the very strange name of this medicine, but +ended by giving it, though incorrectly spelled.</p> + +<p>During the first fifteen sittings Professor Hyslop had asked as few +questions as possible, and when he was obliged to do so, he had so +expressed them that they should not contain the answer. But at the 16th +sitting he abandoned this reserve intentionally. He wished to see what +the result would be if he took the same tone with the communicator as is +taken with a friend in flesh and blood. Professor Hyslop says, "The +result was that I talked with my disincarnated father with as much ease +as if I were talking with him living, through the telephone. We +understood each other at a hint, as in an ordinary conversation." They +spoke of everything—of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> a fence which Robert Hyslop was thinking of +repairing when he died; of the taxes he had left unpaid; of the cares +two of his children had caused him, one of whom had never given him much +satisfaction, while the other was an invalid; of the election of +President M'Kinley and of many other things.</p> + +<p>Can it be said that there were no inexact statements made by the +communicator during all these sittings? There are some, but very few. I +shall speak of them in the following chapter. In any case, there is no +trace of a single intentional untruth in the whole sixteen sittings.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xvi. In what follows here there is +no attempt to give the actual words of Professor Hyslop's communicators. +<i>Trans.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xvi. p. 40.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<p class="center">The "influence" again—Other incidents—Statistics.</p> + + +<p>At this point I must return to a fact which is surprising on any +hypothesis we may prefer: the utility of presenting to the medium +objects which have belonged to the person from whom we wish to obtain +the supposed communications. Phinuit used to say that he found the +"influence" of the dead persons on these objects, and the "influence" +was all the stronger if the object had been worn or carried long, and if +it had passed through few hands; different successive "influences" seem +to weaken one another. I have said that we are totally ignorant of the +nature of this "influence," but I have also said that it might not +improbably be supposed to consist of vibrations left by our thoughts and +feelings upon material objects. However this may be, Phinuit seemed to +read this "influence," and draw from it the greater part of the +information he gave. Generally, in spite of his affirmations to the +contrary, he did not appear to be in direct relation with the +communicators at all. Since the disappearance of the Phinuit <i>régime</i> +and the appearance of that of Imperator, the presentation of small +objects is still of use; but it must be remarked that it has never been +indispensable, and that communicators often appear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> without having been +attracted by any "influence." But under the present system the +information received appears to be much less read from the "influence"; +there is much more sense of the real presence of the communicators. Of +what use, then, are the small objects given to the medium? Neither the +controls nor the communicators have explained, which is a pity. Under +the new system managed by Imperator and his helpers such small articles +seem chiefly useful for "holding" the communicator, for preventing his +going away, and for maintaining a certain cohesion in his thoughts. +Rector constantly repeats, "Give me something to keep him and clear up +his ideas." The communicator would apparently need a <i>point de repère</i> +in order to remain at the desired place, and this <i>point de repère</i> +would be furnished him by some object he has often used, the "influence" +left on which he seems to perceive more clearly than anything else. +According to George Pelham, we may also suppose that the communicator +somehow perceives the mind of the sitter, but this mind is imprisoned in +matter, and greatly clouded by it; the communicator only recognises the +mind of the sitter when it is functioning actively, if I may thus +express it; when the sitter is thinking, and, above all, thinking of the +communicator. This is why, when the communicator perceives that his +ideas are becoming confused, he constantly says reproachfully to the +sitter, "Oh! why don't you speak? Say something to me, help me. You want +me to work for you, but you will not do anything for me." The dead +cousin of Professor Hyslop, Robert MacClellan, says to him, for example, +"Speak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> to me, for Heaven's sake. Help me to reach you." Analogous +passages are very numerous.</p> + +<p>I return to Professor Hyslop's report. The most important communicator +after his father during the sittings was his uncle Carruthers, whose +name, however, was always mangled by Rector, and given as <i>Clarke</i> or +<i>Charles</i>. This uncle had died only twenty days before the first +sitting.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> At his first communication he inquires anxiously about his +wife Eliza, Robert Hyslop's sister, whom his death had left desolate. +"It is I, James," he says to the inquirer. "Give my love to Eliza; tell +her not to get discouraged, she will be better soon. I see her often in +despair." Professor Hyslop asks, "Do you know why she grieves?" "Yes, +because I left her; but I did not really leave her. I wish I could tell +you all I would like ... you would not think I had left entirely. Will +you comfort her? She ought not to be left lonely." "Yes, I will comfort +her." "I am so glad!" At that time Professor Hyslop did not guess that +his aunt was so completely alone and in such deep despair. He only found +this out on inquiry.</p> + +<p>I will quote another incident of "Uncle Carruthers'" communications, +because on account of its stamp of vivid realism it is one of those +which the telepathic hypothesis does not explain satisfactorily. Mr +Carruthers suddenly perceives the presence of Dr Hodgson and says, "You +are not Robert Hyslop's son, are you? You are not George."<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> Dr +Hodgson <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>replies, "No, I am not George." "No, James, I know you very +well, but this one" (speaking again to Dr Hodgson), "Did you know the +boys? Did you know me?"</p> + +<p>I shall only quote one more incident of these interesting sittings. The +communicator this time is Professor Hyslop's brother Charles, who died +in 1864 aged four and a half. Robert Hyslop's last child had been born +long after Charles's death. "James, I am your brother Charles. I am +happy. Give my love to my new sister Henrietta. Tell her I shall know +her some day. Our father often talks of her." A little further comes +this curious phrase, "Our father would much like you to have his +pictures, <i>if you are still in the body, James</i>."</p> + +<p>I have said there were some inexact statements, but they are very few. I +will quote two concerning proper names.</p> + +<p>The family name of "Uncle Carruthers" could never be given properly. He +was always called Uncle Charles or Clarke. The error is probably +attributable to Rector, to whom the name Carruthers was not familiar.</p> + +<p>The other mistake is odder still, though it may also be attributed to +Rector. Robert Hyslop's second wife was named Margaret, familiarly +called Maggie. Now, although it was impossible to misunderstand when +Robert Hyslop was talking of his wife, this name Maggie never came +correctly. Professor Hyslop waited a long time without rectifying the +mistake; he waited for the communicator to perceive it and correct it +himself, but this spontaneous correction was not made. At last he wanted +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> matter cleared up, and Dr Hodgson explained that the name of +Professor Hyslop's step-mother had not been given. Rector, failing to +understand, gave up his place to George Pelham, who began by +administering a tolerably sharp scolding to the sitters. "Well, why do +you not come out and say, Give me my step-mother's name, and not confuse +him about anything except what you really want? By Jove! I remember how +you confused me, and I don't want any more of it. I am going to find +out, and if your step-mother has a name you shall have it." George +Pelham went out of the "machine" and returned shortly, saying, "I do not +see any reason for anxiety about <i>Margaret</i>." Margaret was really the +name asked for, but one would have expected to obtain it in its more +habitual form, Maggie. However, it is easy to understand that Robert +Hyslop should not have given the familiar name of his wife to a stranger +like George Pelham.</p> + +<p>While Professor Hyslop was preparing his report, a number of his friends +who knew of his researches asked him what proportion of truth and error +he had met with in these manifestations. This frequently-repeated +question suggested to him the idea of making tables in which this +proportion should be made clear at a glance. This kind of statistics +would be important for the class of persons who think themselves +stronger-minded than the rest, and who tell you, "I only believe in the +eloquence of figures." Such people do not realise that battalions of +figures are like battalions of men, not always so strong as is supposed.</p> + +<p>However, Professor Hyslop took all the "inci<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>dents" or statements made +by the communicators and classed them according to the amount of truth +or error they contained. He then divided the incidents into factors. I +will give an example which will help me to define later on what +Professor Hyslop means by <i>incident</i> and <i>factor</i><a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a>: "My Aunt Susan +visited my brother." This is an incident, or statement of a complete +fact. This incident is composed of four factors which are not +necessarily connected with one another. The first is <i>my aunt</i>, the +second the name <i>Susan</i>, the third the <i>visit</i>, the fourth <i>my brother</i>. +Therefore an incident may be defined as a name, a conception or a +combination of conceptions forming an independent fact; it may be again +a combination of possibly independent facts forming a single whole in +the mind of the communicator. The factors would be the facts, names, +actions, or events which do not necessarily suggest each other, or which +are not necessarily suggested by a given name or fact.</p> + +<p>Naturally, in tables constructed on these lines, the facts cannot be +classified according to their importance as <i>proofs</i>; they can only be +reckoned as true or false. Thus incidents which have only a restricted +value as proofs are on a level with others which are in themselves very +valuable as proofs. This is really the weak point of these statistics. +The proofs need to be examined one by one, and not as a whole.</p> + +<p>However, the tables have one advantage; the greatest sceptic, after a +glance at them, can no longer invoke chance, the great <i>Deus ex machinâ</i> +of the ignorant and indolent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + +<p>Professor Hyslop has constructed a table for each sitting, and a table +of the sittings as a whole. I cannot reproduce these tables for the +readers, who would require the notes of the sittings to understand them. +I shall only give the definite results.</p> + +<p>Thus, out of 205 incidents, 152 are classed as true, 37 as +indeterminate, and only 16 as false. Out of the 927 factors composing +these incidents, 717 are classed as true, 167 as indeterminate, and 43 +as false.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> + +<p>It should be said that Professor Hyslop has perhaps overestimated the +number of false and unverifiable incidents. Many incidents or factors +classed as false or unverifiable have been later found to be exact. And +besides, the incidents of a transcendental and consequently unverifiable +nature might have been omitted from these tables. But in this case again +it has been thought better to give the false and doubtful facts full +play. The reader must draw from these results whatever conclusion seems +to him the most correct.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> <i>See</i> Professor Hyslop's Report, <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. +xvi. p. 90, etc., for "Carruthers."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Name of one of Professor Hyslop's brothers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xvi. p. 115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xvi. p. 121.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<p class="center">Examination of the telepathic hypothesis—Some arguments which render +its acceptance difficult.</p> + + +<p>I have mentioned in passing what should be understood by the word +<i>telepathy</i>. I shall repeat my explanation; it is necessary that the +reader should have it well in mind, as in this chapter I am about to +examine the telepathic hypothesis and endeavour to find out if it will +cover the facts which we are studying. By telepathy is here meant, not +only the power of obtaining information from the consciousness and +subconsciousness of the sitters on the part of the secondary +personalities of Mrs Piper, but also their power to read the +consciousness and subconsciousness of persons somewhere or anywhere else +on earth, no matter where, distance in no way increasing the difficulty +of this reading. This is evidently among hypotheses a wide and +far-reaching one, and yet, if we reject the spiritualistic hypothesis, +there is no other which will cover all the facts.</p> + +<p>The following arguments here briefly indicated are, with others, +developed at length in Professor Hyslop's book. I shall not again go +over those which circumstances have necessitated my explaining with +sufficient clearness before in the course of this work.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + +<p>To begin with, what is the origin of this telepathic hypothesis? Is it +justified by the facts of experimental or spontaneous observation among +psychologists? Certainly not; if we only reckoned the experiments and +observations of official psychology, the hypothesis of telepathy, as we +understand it, would be almost unfounded. This hypothesis is in reality +founded on our ignorance; we may admit it temporarily, because we are +ignorant of the latent powers of the human mind, and because we have +every reason to think these latent powers great and numerous. I think +that the first wide use of it was made in the famous book by Gurney, +Myers, and Podmore, <i>Phantasms of the Living</i>. The telepathic hypothesis +might very well be admitted as an explanation of the facts recorded in +that book, although the spiritualistic hypothesis would explain them as +well, or even better. But when we are considering other facts, such as +those of Mrs Piper's trance, for example, the telepathic hypothesis, in +order to explain them, must be stretched beyond permitted limits.</p> + +<p>In the first place, with regard to reading the consciousness of those +present, it would seem that, if we were dealing with telepathy, the +so-called communicator ought generally to bring out the facts of which +the sitters have been thinking most intently. But this hardly ever +happens; in Professor Hyslop's sittings it never happens. Certainly many +of the incidents related were in the consciousness of the sitters, but +the latter were not thinking about them till the communicator recalled +them.</p> + +<p>For the same way, if we were dealing with tele<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>pathy, it is to be +supposed that the communicators would be the persons whom the sitters +expect. Now this is far from being the case. In the fifteen years during +which Mrs Piper's mediumship has been studied, a great number of +communicators have appeared about whom nobody was thinking. Professor +Hyslop, among others, says that he has met with several communicators +whom he did not in the least expect. Others whom he expected did not +appear. It is a fact worthy of remark that in Professor Hyslop's +sittings only those persons appeared who were capable of telling +something of a nature to prove their identity; the others seem to have +been systematically put aside by Imperator, even when information +concerning them was abundant in the consciousness and subconsciousness +of the sitter.</p> + +<p>It would seem that, if we were dealing with telepathy, the self-styled +communicators would most easily utter the least remote ideas of the +sitters' minds; the nearest, most vivid ideas ought to appear first. Now +this is far from being the case. It seems to make no difference to the +communicator whether the idea is familiar or otherwise to the minds of +the living.</p> + +<p>When it is a question of facts entirely unknown to the sitters and known +only to persons living at a great distance, this distance might be +expected to affect telepathic mind-reading; nothing in nature authorises +us to neglect this law of distance. We can only conceive the telepathic +process as a propulsion of waves through space; these waves should +decrease with distance; the contrary is absolutely inconceivable. Now +this does not happen; if the fact exists<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> only in the consciousness of a +person who is at the time at the far ends of the earth, it makes no +difference in the precision of the details. If an analogy should be made +between telepathy—as we must conceive it, to explain the phenomena—and +wireless telegraphy, Mrs Piper entranced must be regarded as a mere +coherer of the telepathic waves. But this analogy is non-existent; +wireless telegraphy is far from being unaffected by distance, and +besides, when the coherer functions, it is because another instrument is +emitting particular waves. When a fact known only to a distant person is +reported, as in Mrs Piper's phenomena, it rarely happens that the +distant person was actively thinking of the fact, which was lying +unnoticed in the lowest strata of his consciousness. When the +experimenter makes his inquiries at the conclusion of the sitting, it is +often found that a definite effort on the part of the absent person is +required before the fact is recalled to memory.</p> + +<p>It would be well to reflect before we grant to telepathy a power of +omniscience, independent of all known laws.</p> + +<p>Another well-observed fact, opposed to the telepathic theory, is the +selection made amongst incidents by the communicator. If we were dealing +with telepathy, the secondary personalities of the medium would +sometimes be mistaken, make blunders, record facts which the so-called +communicator could never have known, but which the sitter alone knows +well. Now this never happens. The reported facts are always common to at +least two consciousnesses, that of the communicator and that of the +sitter, or that of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> the communicator and that of a distant person. The +inaccuracies prove nothing against this argument; if they are wilful +falsehoods they simply prove that the communicator is a liar, and not +that he is a secondary personality of Mrs Piper. If the reported facts +are unverifiable, this does not prove that they are inexact.</p> + +<p>If the telepathic theory expresses the truth, we must grant an almost +infinite power to telepathy. This supposition is indispensable to +account for the facts. Then how shall we understand the errors and +confusions of the communicators? How can an infinite power seem at times +so limited, so finite, when the conditions remain unchanged? On the +other hand, the lapses of memory and confusions are quite explicable on +the spiritualistic theory; we cannot reasonably think that a change so +great as death should not induce some disturbance of mind, at least +temporarily, or should not greatly weaken certain groups of memories +which, in the new surroundings, have no longer any practical use.</p> + +<p>A change of communicators has always been frequent, but was especially +so in Professor Hyslop's sittings. Mr Robert Hyslop constantly says to +his son, "James, I am getting weak; wait for me, I am coming back." And +then another communicator appears on the spot. The telepathic hypothesis +cannot explain this fact; it would seem quite natural that the +communicator should be always the same. To explain it, another +hypothesis—that of suggestion on the part of the sitter—must be added +to the telepathic hypothesis. But the spiritualistic hypothesis, on the +other hand, explains this perfectly well, even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> though we may be +compelled to reckon with the complications which the admission of the +existence of another world may introduce.</p> + +<p>The existence of the self-styled intermediaries between sitter and +communicator is another fact which does not fit in with the telepathic +theory. Formerly Phinuit was the most common intermediary; then George +Pelham collaborated with him; in Professor Hyslop's sittings, and, I +believe, in all subsequent sittings since the installation of the +Imperator <i>régime</i>, the intermediary is Rector. It is he who presides at +the functioning of the "machine," because he is particularly +competent—so say the communicators. These intermediaries have very +defined and life-like characters. Phinuit, George Pelham and Rector are +as unlike each other as possible. What, on the telepathic hypothesis, +has had the power to create them? Mrs Piper's secondary personalities +should have incarnated the communicator without intermediary. In order +to understand this ephemeral reconstitution of a consciousness which has +for ever vanished, we should have to allow that the scattered elements +of this consciousness had temporarily grouped themselves around the +<i>point de repère</i> formed by the secondary personality of Mrs Piper. We +should then see how difficult it is to explain the presence of these +intermediaries. But if, on the other hand, we accept the spiritualistic +hypothesis as well founded, we must admit that these intermediaries +account for their presence very plausibly.</p> + +<p>Here is another argument, which, I think, is very strong, against the +hypothesis of telepathy. Subjects in the hypnotic state, and the +secondary person<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>alities which appear in this hypnotic state, according +to the precise and decisive experiments made by modern science, have an +extremely definite notion of time. If you tell a hypnotised subject to +perform an action in a year, at such an hour and minute, he will never +fail, so to speak, although when he is awakened there remains in his +memory no trace of the order. Now the communicators, in the phenomena we +are studying, have an extremely vague notion of time, because, they say, +time is not a concept of the world in which they live. How is it that +telepathy, which can do so much, owns itself incapable, or nearly so, of +determining the moment when an action has been performed? What prevents +it from reading the idea of time, as well as any other idea, in the +minds of the persons present, since the notion of time is as clear and +precise in them at least as any other notion?</p> + +<p>To conclude, I should say that we are entirely ignorant of the point +where the powers of telepathy begin and end. What I have just said makes +the telepathic hypothesis an unlikely explanation; but, as Boileau said +long ago, "Le vrai peut quelque fois n'être pas vraisemblable"—Truth +may sometimes be unlikely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<p class="center">Some considerations which strongly support the spiritualistic +hypothesis—Consciousness and character remain unchanged—Dramatic +play—Errors and confusions.</p> + + +<p>The unity of character and consciousness in the communicators is one of +the reasons which most strongly support the spiritualistic hypothesis. +If we were dealing with Mrs Piper's secondary personalities, the first +difficulty would be found in their great number. I do not know the exact +number of communicators who have asserted their appearance by means of +her organism. But several hundreds may be found in the Reports of the +Society for Psychical Research, and they are certainly far from being +all mentioned. Now each communicator has kept the same character +throughout, to such an extent that, with a little practice, it is +possible to recognise the communicator at the first sentence he utters, +if he has already communicated. Some of the communicators only appear at +long intervals, but nevertheless they remain unchanged. But, on the +telepathic hypothesis, it is not easy to understand that a self-styled +communicator, a merely ephemeral consciousness reconstituted out of the +scattered recollections of the sitters, should be thus reconstituted +only at long intervals, suddenly, often without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> apparent cause, and +always with the same characteristics. This unity of consciousness and +character is particularly evident in the controls—that is, in such of +the communicators as have appeared uninterruptedly for years, on account +of their acting as intermediaries for others, and helping them with +their experience. If it cannot reasonably be admitted that the +occasional communicators are only secondary personalities of the medium, +the impossibility must be extended to the controls. Either all the +communicators are, without exception, secondary personalities, or none +of them are; for all give the same impression of intense life-likeness +and reality. If they are indeed secondary personalities, science has +hitherto studied none like them. I have already sketched Phinuit's +character, which has remained consistently the same during twelve years. +The reader should also have a sufficiently clear notion of George +Pelham's individuality, which is also consistent; even now, when George +Pelham appears, we find him unchanged.</p> + +<p>The individualities of the present controls are even more marked, and +not less consistent. None of those who, up to the present time, have +communicated through Mrs Piper have in the least resembled Imperator and +his assistants. The principal traits of Imperator's character are a +profound and sincere religious sentiment, much gravity and seriousness, +great benevolence, an infinite pity for man incarnate on account of the +miseries of this life of darkness and chaos; and with this, an imperious +temper, so that he does well to call himself Imperator; he commands, and +will be obeyed, but he wills only the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> right. The other spirits who +gravitate around him—Rector, Doctor, Prudens, and George Pelham—pay +him profound respect. This character of Imperator is quite the same as +we find in the works of Stainton Moses. Those who decline to accept the +spiritualist hypothesis on any terms may say that Mrs Piper has drawn +the character from this source. She must at least know the book we have +mentioned—<i>Spirit Teachings</i>. When the effort to communicate with +Stainton Moses was made, and nothing was obtained but incoherence and +falsehood, Dr Hodgson, wishing to discover what influence the normal Mrs +Piper's knowledge of Stainton Moses's works might have upon the +secondary personality calling itself Stainton Moses (if we are dealing +with secondary personalities), took her a copy of <i>Spirit Teachings</i>. +She read it, or it is to be concluded she did so, but there was no +result, and no effect upon the communicator who called himself Stainton +Moses. Nevertheless, I repeat, it may be asserted with some probability +that Mrs Piper took the character of Imperator from this source. But +then, from whence did she take the other characters?</p> + +<p>Imperator and his friends speak in a distinctive biblical style. +Generally, at the beginning of the sittings, Imperator either utters a +prayer himself or dictates one to Rector, who reproduces it. Here is a +specimen. "Holy Father, we are with Thee in all Thy ways, and to Thee we +come in all things. We ask Thee to give us Thy tender love and care. +Bestow Thy blessings upon this Thy fellow-creature. Help him to be all +that Thou dost ask him. Teach him to walk in the path of righteousness +and truth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> He needs Thy loving care. Teach him in all things to do Thy +holy will ... and we leave all else in Thy hands. Without Thy care we +are indeed bereft. Watch over and guide his footsteps and lead him into +truth and light. Father, we beseech Thee so to open the blinded eyes of +mortals that they may know more of Thee and Thy tender love and care." +Among the phrases which ring familiarly to English ears we notice one +peculiarity, and one that constantly recurs. Imperator calls God +"Father," and yet, when he commends man to God, he calls him God's +fellow-creature, His neighbour, and not His creature. Evidently +Imperator's idea of God differs from ours; it would seem that he thinks +us an emanation from the Divine, eternal as the Divine itself.</p> + +<p>Many readers may not be inclined to attach much value to Imperator's +prayers. They will take them for one of the diabolical inventions of +which secondary personalities are capable. Evidently, if we take them +apart from the rest, this is the most plausible explanation; but the +character and ideas of Imperator must be considered as a whole. I can +assure my readers that there is nothing diabolical about him. If +Stainton Moses and Mrs Piper have created him, they have created a +masterpiece; Imperator inspires respect in the most sceptical.</p> + +<p>There is another aspect of the phenomena which telepathy does not +explain; the dramatic play. The personages at the other end of the wire +act, as far as we can judge, with all the appropriateness and +distinctive characteristics of reality. There are incidents of this +dramatic play, which telepathy cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> explain, in nearly all the +sittings. I have given some of them in passing, and will now give some +more examples. At M. Bourget's second sitting Mrs Pitman, whom I have +mentioned before, suddenly appears, and speaks nearly as follows:<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> +"Monsieur, I come to offer you my help. I lived in France and spoke +French fairly well when I was living. Tell me what you want, and I can +perhaps help you to communicate with this lady." In order to understand +the appropriateness of this intervention we must remember that George +Pelham, who was acting as intermediary, had complained at the beginning +of the sitting that the communicating spirit spoke French and that he +did not understand her.</p> + +<p>One day George Pelham is asked for information about Phinuit, and is +about to give it. But Phinuit, who is manifesting through the voice +while George Pelham is doing so in writing, perceives this and cries, +"You had better shut up about me!" And the spectators witnessed a sort +of struggle between the head and the hand. Then George Pelham writes, +"All right, it is settled; we will say no more about it."</p> + +<p>During a sitting in which the sitter's wife gave proofs of identity of a +very private nature to her husband she said, "I tell you this, but don't +let that gentleman hear." "That gentleman" could not be Dr Hodgson, who +had left the room; it was the invisible George Pelham who was habitually +present at the sittings at this period.</p> + +<p>On April 30, 1894, Mr James Mitchell has a sitting.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> Phinuit begins +by giving him appropriate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>advice about his health. He ends by saying, +"You worry, too." Then he adds, "There's a voice I hear as plainly as +you would a bell rung, and she says, 'That's right, doctor, tell him not +to worry, because he always did so—my dear husband—I want him to enjoy +his remaining days in the body. Tell him I am Margaret Mitchell, and I +will be with him to the end of eternity, spiritually.'"</p> + +<p>The communicators often ask one or more of those present to go out of +the room, and they give one or other of the following reasons, according +to circumstances. The first is that very private information is about to +be given. I have quoted an example in speaking of George Pelham, when +James Howard asked him to tell something which only they two knew. +George Pelham, preparing to do so, begins by asking Dr Hodgson to leave +the room. How oddly discreet for secondary personalities! On other +occasions certain persons are asked to go out temporarily, because, say +the controls, "You have relations and friends who want very much to +communicate with you, and they prevent all communication by their +insistence and their efforts."</p> + +<p>On a certain occasion Professor Hyslop rises and goes to the other end +of the room, passing Mrs Piper, upon which George Pelham, apparently +offended, writes, "He has passed in front of Imperator! Why does he do +that?"</p> + +<p>It would need a volume to recount all the little analogous incidents +which telepathy does not explain. These will do as examples. Will it be +said that these small dramas resemble the creations of the same kind +which occur in delirium or dreams? But in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> first place, in delirium +and dreams, the spectator does not realise, as he does here, the +presence of persons who have given many details tending to prove their +identity. Again, the real cause of these creations of dream and delirium +is unknown to us. We might assert, without being fanciful, that sickness +is only their opportunity and not their cause. Lastly, a third group of +facts, which strongly militates in favour of the spiritualist +hypothesis, consists of the mistakes and confusions. This would probably +not be the opinion of a superficial observer; many take these errors and +confusions as a reason for entirely rejecting the spiritualist +hypothesis; generally because they have a strange notion of a "spirit," +without any analogy in nature. Deceived by absurd and antiquated +theological teaching, they imagine that the most pitiable drunkard, for +example, becomes a being of ideal beauty and omniscience from the day he +is disincarnated. It cannot be so. Our spirits, if we have them, must +progress slowly. When they leap into the great unknown they do not at +the same time leap into perfection; they were finite and limited, and do +not become immediately infinite. Disincarnated man, like incarnated man, +has lapses of intelligence, memory and morality. The existence of these +lapses very well explains the greater part of the mistakes in the +communications. I have no room to develop this idea, but the reader can +do it easily. I will only quote one example of lapse of memory. Mr +Robert Hyslop said he had a penknife with a brown handle, which he +carried first in his waistcoat pocket and afterwards in his coat. On +inquiry, it was discovered that he was mistaken, and that he really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +carried it in his trousers pocket. What man living has not made a +hundred such mistakes? In order to explain the phenomena we are studying +by the telepathic hypothesis, we must suppose that telepathy has +infinite power with which no obstacle can interfere. Then why does it +make mistakes? And why does it make just the mistakes that an imperfect, +finite spirit would make? Must we suppose that Dame Telepathy is a mere +incarnation of the demon of fraud and deceit?</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Evidently addressing George Pelham.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xiii. p. 519.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<p class="center">Difficulties and objections—The identity of Imperator—Vision at a +distance—Triviality of the messages—Spiritualist Philosophy—Life in +the other world.</p> + + +<p>Up till now I have said a great deal of evil of telepathy. I believe +that I have demonstrated, not that the theory is false, but that it is +an unlikely explanation of the facts. Shall we say, then, that the +spiritualistic hypothesis, the only reasonable one after the dismissal +of telepathy, can be accepted without difficulty and without objections? +Not at all. Many objections, more or less serious, are still made to the +spiritualistic hypothesis. To my mind there is only one that is serious; +I will speak of it in conclusion. Many of the others are raised by +persons who have a merely superficial acquaintance with the problem; +their arguments are more polemical than scientific.</p> + +<p>To begin with, some of them want to know why the controls, Imperator, +Doctor, Rector, Prudens, conceal themselves under these pseudonyms. If +they are, as they say, disincarnated spirits, who formerly lived in +bodies, why do they not say who they were? Does not their silence on +this point<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> indicate that they are only secondary personalities of the +medium?</p> + +<p>This objection is not very serious. In the first place, the controls +told Stainton Moses their names. If they do not wish these names +revealed, it is without doubt for excellent reasons, which it is not +difficult to imagine. There is every indication that these controls +belonged to a generation considerably remote from ours; their language, +the turn of their minds, and some of their assertions, all point to +this. If they were well-known men, and had revealed their names, the +critics would merely see a reason the more for crying fraud. They would +say, "The medium has read all that, and repeats it to us in hypnosis." +If, on the other hand, they were obscure persons, and had given +information about their lives, the information would be unverifiable. +And then the sceptics would cry on the spot, "Folly; these are the +inventions of the medium's secondary personality." The controls may have +still other reasons for not revealing themselves to us. This life, when +once it has been left behind, may seem to the spirit to be a more or +less painful nightmare. There is nothing astonishing in the fact that he +does not care to recall to others the part he played in this nightmare, +even if the part were a distinguished one. We ourselves know nothing but +this life; we do not admit that there is any other. Therefore we all +wish to shine in it like meteors, if possible. Possibly disincarnated +spirits, seeing things from a higher point of view, think otherwise. In +short, the controls, Imperator, Rector, Doctor and Prudens, may refrain +from speaking of their former life simply<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> because they are wise. Would +it not have been wiser of Phinuit to hold his tongue than to tell us a +mass of improbabilities?</p> + +<p>Amongst those who study these phenomena there are many who see in the +triviality of the greater part of the messages a strong presumption +against the spiritualist hypothesis. Some of these messages are signed, +it is true, by illustrious names—though that is not the case with Mrs +Piper. But this regrettable fact may be variously explained. In the +first place, there may be rogues, charlatans and fools on both sides, +since it is probable that the soul passes from this world to the other +just as it is, and that, if it progresses at all, it progresses slowly. +How many individuals see in spiritualism only a means of putting forward +their wretched personalities or of exploiting their contemporaries! Such +persons would not shrink from representing their lucubrations as +communications from the next world; they would sign them with the most +august of names if to do so would further their designs. Finally, it is +not even necessary to suppose that these messages are due to dishonesty; +the number of mystifiers may be at least as great on the other side as +on this; a sort of law of affinity which seems to rule the world of +spirits may cause these lower beings to be attracted by uncultured +mediums, while the great spirits are repelled by them. It would be these +larvæ of the other world who give the messages which disconcert when +they do not scandalise us. But the man of science should not be rebuffed +by these messages which, in spite of their contents, are important, if +they result in irre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>sistible proof of the fact that there exist outside +of us and around us intelligent beings resembling ourselves.</p> + +<p>But when we are dealing with developed spirits, who have begun by giving +proofs of their identity, it is not true that the messages are always +trivial. They often contain ideas of much breadth of view and elevation. +The form is generally defective, but those who have studied Mrs Piper's +phenomena will be indulgent to the form, and sometimes even to the +matter. The spirit in contact with the medium's organism suffers, as I +have said several times, from a kind of delirium; besides which the +organism only responds to his efforts imperfectly. "My dear friends," +says George Pelham, "do not look at me too critically; to try to +transmit your thoughts through the organism of a medium is like trying +to crawl through a hollow log." In short, the difficulties are enormous.</p> + +<p>It may very well be that great spirits have really been the authors of +very poor messages. It has happened to each of us to make poetical or +other compositions in our dreams which we have thought admirable; we say +in delight, "What a pity I shall not be able to remember that when I +wake!" But sometimes we do remember, and then we smile with contempt at +what had delighted us during sleep. Now the communicators constantly +repeat that they are dreaming while they are in the atmosphere of the +medium. "Everything seems so clear to me," says Robert Hyslop to his +son, "and when I try to tell you, James, I cannot."</p> + +<p>These considerations prove that we must not hasten to conclude, with +Professor Flournoy, that if there is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> a future life it is one of +wretched degeneration, one more misery added to all the others which +overwhelm us in this miserable universe.</p> + +<p>No; as Professor James says, in this world we live only at the surface +of our being; if death is not annihilation, then it is an awakening. It +does not follow that the life of the other world is not higher and more +intense than this, because communication with it is difficult.</p> + +<p>Another serious objection to the spiritualist hypothesis is the +philosophy with which certain too eager persons have connected it. +Spiritualism, which should at present be but the mere beginning of a +science, is, according to them, already a philosophy for which the +universe holds no secrets. How should such puny creatures as ourselves +hope to solve the problems of the universe by <i>a priori</i> reasoning? All +that we can reasonably hope, is to wrench from nature some of the +secrets nearest to us, surrounding ourselves with a thousand precautions +in order not grossly to deceive ourselves.</p> + +<p>I rank the spiritualistic philosophy with other philosophies. Perhaps +some of its dicta proceed from spirits, if spirits exist, but the system +as a whole most surely does not. But then, it will be said, the people +who have elaborated this philosophy must have been impostors. No, not +inevitably; I will even venture to say that imposture is unlikely. The +key to the mystery may be found in other characteristics of humanity.</p> + +<p>The most formidable obstacle to the admission of the spiritualist +hypothesis is in the messages which tend to represent the other world, +in which, it appears,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> matter is not perceived, and space and time are +unknown, as being all the same a servile copy of this, or a sketch of +it. If Phinuit or another control is asked to describe a communicator, +the description is generally given with exactness, and is the same there +as it was here; sometimes the communicator even goes so far as to wear +the same clothes, made of the same material. But these descriptions are +without importance, as it may be replied that the communicators or +controls give these details purely to prove identity. However, I know of +no message in which the communicator has been frank enough to say, "Of +course you may suppose that the form I have here is not the same as I +had in your world." Or again, "The idea of form differs totally in our +world and in yours; I cannot make you understand what that idea is here, +so it is of no use to question me." Unfortunately neither communicators +nor controls speak thus; they all say or allow it to be supposed that +the human form is the same in both worlds.</p> + +<p>But when action and events in that world are represented as being the +same as in this, then our credulity cries out in remonstrance. That a +deceased doctor should tell us that he continues to visit his patients, +a painter that he continues to daub canvas, is more than we can admit. +But, it may be explained, the doctor and the painter are temporarily +delirious; they do not know what they are saying. Unfortunately these +passages are too numerous to be always attributed to delirium. Certain +communicators say, with all the gravity in the world, and when they seem +in full possession of themselves, that they breathe, live in houses, +listen to lectures,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> and that a deceased child is beginning to learn to +read. This is an enormous difficulty, I repeat. I point it out without +trying to solve it; I am unable to offer a plausible explanation. +Professor Hyslop has tried, but I do not think he has succeeded.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<p class="center">The medium's return to normal life—Speeches made while the medium seems +to hover between the two worlds.</p> + + +<p>In Mrs Piper's case, the moments which precede the actual quitting of +the trance offer, at least at present, a special interest. I think it +well therefore to dwell on this point a little. To avoid endless +circumlocutions, I shall speak as if the spiritualistic hypothesis were +proved. Indeed, whatever the future fate of this hypothesis may be, and +in spite of the serious objection spoken of in the last chapter, it is, +I believe, the only one that can be reasonably adopted for the moment.</p> + +<p>When the sitting is over and the automatic writing has ceased, Mrs Piper +begins to return gradually to her normal state. She then utters with +more or less distinctness some apparently disconnected phrases which it +is sometimes difficult to catch. She is like a person talking in sleep. +Dr Hodgson and Professor Hyslop have collected as many of these broken +sentences as they could, keeping them separately under a different +heading from the record of the rest of the sitting proper. At the end, +Mrs Piper often asks this odd question, "Did you hear my head snap?" And +after her head is supposed to have snapped she looks round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> her in +apparent astonishment and alarm, and then all is over, she no longer +remembers what she has said or written during the trance.</p> + +<p>We shall see that these scraps of phrase are less incoherent than they +seem, and that it is worth while to collect them. Very often when +numerous unsuccessful efforts have been made to recall a proper name +during the sitting, Mrs Piper pronounces it when coming out of the +trance; when she is re-entering her body, the communicator or +communicators repeat the name to her insistently, and make great efforts +to cause her to remember and pronounce it as she comes out of the +trance. I have already quoted an example of this. M. Paul Bourget asked +the name of the town in which the artist he was communicating with had +killed herself. The name did not come, but Mrs Piper pronounced it as +she was leaving the trance—<i>Venice</i>. Mr Robert Hyslop's name was given +in the same way the first time, but accompanied by very significant +scraps of speech as follows. Mrs Piper first tried to pronounce the +name, then she said <i>Hyslop</i>, and went on,—</p> + +<p>"I am he.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> Tell him I am his father. I—Good-bye, sir. I shouldn't +take him away that way. Oh, dear. Do you see the man with the cross<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> +shut out everybody? Did you see the light? What made the man's hair all +fall off?"</p> + +<p>Dr Hodgson asks, "What man?"</p> + +<p>Mrs <span class="smcap">Piper</span>.—"That elderly gentleman that was trying to tell me +something, but it wouldn't come."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p><p>At a first glance this passage seems mere incoherence, but all the +portions of sentences have a very clear meaning when they are examined +together with the events of the sitting. They are, as it seems, +commissions with which the medium is charged as she is returning into +her organism, or they are observations made among themselves by the +spirits present, which the medium automatically repeats, or they are the +observations and questions of the medium herself. All that Mrs Piper +says on coming out of the trance belongs to one of these three +categories.</p> + +<p>In the passage quoted, the words, "I am he. Tell him that I am his +father," are a commission with which the medium is charged by Mr Robert +Hyslop. Mrs Piper takes leave of Robert Hyslop with the formula, +"Good-bye, sir." The phrases which follow, "Oh, dear. I shouldn't take +him away that way. Do you see the man with the cross shut out +everybody?" are the remarks of spirits repeated automatically, or Mrs +Piper's own remarks on Imperator, who, seeing the light exhausted, +imperiously sends off everybody, including Mr Robert Hyslop himself, in +spite of his desire to remain with his son. Imperator must even have +used some force, to justify the observation, "I should not take him away +that way." The final phrases are always Mrs Piper's own questions and +remarks: When she says, "Did you see the light?" she alludes without +doubt to the light of the other world, invisible to us. The other +sentences are clear enough, when we remember that Mr Robert Hyslop was +entirely bald. There are utterances like these, only apparently +incoherent on coming out of all the trances; but they vary in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> length. +The last words, if I am not mistaken, always come from Mrs Piper +herself, which is logically to be expected, since she gradually loses +the memory of the world she has just quitted, up to the definite moment +of waking, marked by the so-called snap in her head.</p> + +<p>These speeches on coming out of trance constitute, in our eyes, one more +argument against the hypothesis of telepathy and secondary +personalities, because there is no trace of simulation. To suppose +simulation would be to accord to telepathy too much skill in the arts of +deceit.</p> + +<p>These speeches bring into the foreground the question: "What becomes of +the medium's spirit during the trance, if there is a spirit?" The +controls say that it leaves the organism and remains in the company of +the group of communicating spirits.</p> + +<p>"But then," it will be said, "if she lives for the time being in the +other world, why does she not relate her impressions when she wakes?"</p> + +<p>We must not forget that for spirits our life is a sleep, and that we are +only conscious of what we acquire through the medium of our five senses. +When the spirit is again plunged into the prison of the body, after +having left it for a time, it goes to sleep once more and forgets all; +it recommences living the fragmentary life which is all that the five +senses permit. The complete absence of memory in the medium when awake +is no more astonishing than the same phenomenon in a subject coming out +of hypnosis, during which he may have talked, and even done much.</p> + +<p>Besides, during the short instants when Mrs Piper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> is as if suspended +between two worlds, she still has a vague recollection of what she has +just heard; the fragments of sentences she utters bear sufficient +witness to this. She rarely fails to shed a few tears, and to say, "I +want to stop here, I don't want to go back to the dark world!" Here is a +characteristic passage, as an example. Mrs Piper, coming out of the +trance, begins to weep and murmur, "I do not want to go back to the +darkness.... Oh, it is, it is, it must be the window ... but I want to +know.... I want to know where they are all gone<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a>.... It is funny ... +I forgot that I was alive.... Yes, Mr Hodgson, I forgot.... I was going +to tell you something, but I have forgotten what it was.... You see, +when my head snaps, I forget what I was going to say.... It must be +night. Oh, dear! I feel so weak.... Is that my handkerchief?"</p> + +<p>On other occasions she uses an odd figure of speech. "You see Rector +turns round a dark board and says that's your world—and he turns round +the other side and that's light, and he says that's his world. I don't +want to go back to the dark world."</p> + +<p>Another time she says, quite at the end, "Is that my body? how it +pricks!"</p> + +<p>It appears that Imperator, before sending her back to the "dark world," +prays for her, and she sometimes repeats fragments of the prayers +automatically.</p> + +<p>"Is that a blessing? Say it."<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p> + +<p>"Father be and abide with thee for evermore."</p> + +<p>"Servus Dei—I don't know."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p><p>"I have all these to look out for. I leave thee well."</p> + +<p>"Go and do the duties before thee."</p> + +<p>"Blessings on thy head."</p> + +<p>"The light shall cease."</p> + +<p>"Why do you say that?"</p> + +<p>"Are you going? Good-bye."</p> + +<p>"I want to go along the same path with you."</p> + +<p>"Hear the whistle?" (This was an earthly whistle, which those present +also heard.)</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xvi. p. 322.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> That is to say, Imperator, who always signalises his +presence by making a cross on the paper, or, with his hand, in the air.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> The spirits in whose company she has been.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> <i>Proc. of S.P.R.</i>, vol. xvi. p. 396.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<p class="center">Encouraging results obtained—The problem must be solved.</p> + + +<p>And now, can there be a conclusion to this work? It does not allow of +any conclusion. The most I can do in terminating is to record certain +facts. Dr Hodgson, Professor Hyslop and others, who, though +unprejudiced, began these studies as sceptical as anyone, have ended, +after long years of hesitation, by giving their adhesion to the +spiritualist hypothesis. But, as they are careful to point out, they +accept this hypothesis conditionally, and not definitely. New +experiments and new facts may turn their minds in quite another +direction.</p> + +<p>Should we follow them? Should we each admit conditionally the +spiritualist hypothesis? Not at all; it is not thus that knowledge is +attained. Whoever believes that he has excellent reasons for preferring +any other hypothesis should remain unshakable in his convictions till +the time when new facts may oblige him to abandon them. Science does not +ask that we should prefer this or the other explanation; it only asks +that we should study the facts unprejudiced, that we should be sincere, +and not shut our eyes childishly to the evidence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> + +<p>If a future life is to be, I will not say proved, but admitted by a +majority, a great number of experimenters, or, if you please, observers, +working independently of one another in all quarters of the globe, must +reach identical conclusions. Again, it must be possible for any +intelligent man willing to make the effort, and retracing the path +followed by the first observers, to arrive at the same conclusions. The +<i>magister dixit</i> is out of date. Teachers in the present day must show +their disciples the path of truth, and not try to impose upon them what +they themselves regard as truth. Modern science knows no infallible +Pope, speaking <i>ex cathedrâ</i>.</p> + +<p>Further, we must not confine ourselves to the study of one side of +mediumship only. The phenomena produced in the presence of mediums are +various. All the phenomena classified as "psychical" must be carefully +considered and thoroughly investigated. The grain must be separated from +the chaff; it must be decided which among these phenomena appear to be +due to spirits, which, according to the evidence, are due to incarnated +minds, and finally, which (if there are such) have only ordinary +physical causes. The new workmen who are entering the field of science +have before them a long task of clearing the ground, but the ground +seems to be of unexampled fertility; with a very little goodwill we +shall reap such a harvest as has never been seen.</p> + +<p>No doubt, though mediums able to produce certain second-rate phenomena +are not rare, good mediums are not easy to discover; they are less rare, +however, than the bones of <i>Anthropopithecus erectus</i>. When a good +medium is discovered it is not necessary to call<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> a committee together +and put the value he may have for science to the vote. If the "other +world" exists, it appears that no "missing link" exists between it and +our own.</p> + +<p>Thus the general conclusion to be drawn from the work described in this +little book, and from the other work of the Society for Psychical +Research, is that devotion to these studies is far from being fruitless. +Even official science might turn in this direction, if only in order to +defend the doctrines dear to it. It will come to that, without doubt, +but will it be soon? Humanity is but poor stuff, though the monists do +not hesitate to hold it up to us as the highest expression in our corner +of space of the consciousness of their great god Pan. The great majority +of human units is composed of minds in first childhood, eager only for +childish things.</p> + +<p>By slightly modifying Plato's allegory it is easy to arrive at an +understanding of the state of humanity at the present time. Imagine very +imperfect, very undeveloped beings, possessing, however, an infinity of +latent potentialities; imagine them born in a dark cavern where they +swarm pell-mell, passing their time chiefly in devouring one another. +Every moment this cavern is entered, and a certain number of these poor +beings are taken out of it and carried into the light of day, that they +may enjoy a higher life, and admire the beauties of nature. Those +remaining in the cavern weep for their companions and think that they +have for ever vanished. But in the vault of the cavern there are +fissures through which a little light filters. A few inquisitive beings, +a little more developed than their brothers, climb up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> to these +fissures; they look out, and believe that signs are made to them from +outside. They say to themselves, "Those who are making signs to us are +perhaps the companions who are constantly being carried off from amongst +us; in that case they cannot be dead; they must be continuing to live up +there." And they call to their brothers below, "Come and see; it looks +as if our companions who go up yonder every day are making signs to us. +We are not sure; but if we unite our efforts and intelligences perhaps +we shall end by being certain." Do you suppose that the swarms on the +ground of the cave will run? They have quite other things to do. They do +not stone the importunate seekers, but they look on them askance and +heap annoyances upon them. But we will drop allegory; and merely say how +deplorable it is that psychical studies do not inspire more enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>The doctors at first declared that mediumship was a form of neurosis. +Nothing is less certain; I will even say that nothing is less probable. +Educated people of independent social position when by chance they +discover that they possess mediumistic gifts hide them carefully, +instead of offering them spontaneously for study; they do not wish to be +supposed to be diseased; nobody likes to proclaim his defects in public. +This is why well-known mediums are nearly all recruited from the lower +classes and the poor; they are obliged to make merchandise of their +gifts; they are paid to produce phenomena, and, when these do not occur +spontaneously, they cheat. Mediums should be sought for in the class of +educated people who are not obliged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> to work for their daily bread. +There are as many or more in this class as in any other if we would only +look for them. What should such mediums fear? Do not Mlle. Smith and Mrs +Piper, when they allow competent persons to study their mediumship, +render more valuable services to society than do so many social +encumbrances, so many flies on the wheel who deafen us with their +buzzing? Have they any reason to be ashamed?</p> + +<p>Finally, in order to attain to any result in these studies, money is +needed—why not say so? Interesting subjects must be paid when they need +payment, and competent investigators must be paid when they need a +salary. If a thousandth part of the sum devoted in a year to the art of +killing were devoted to the solution of this problem, before ten years +were over we should have settled the question, and humanity could boast +an unexampled victory.</p> + +<p>In America and all the Anglo-Saxon countries many persons, as noble as +they are generous, give for science, for universal instruction, for +founding universities and colleges. May they be blessed! They make a +noble use of their money. But it is regrettable that as much money as is +needed can be found for the search after—let us say—the +<i>Anthropopithecus erectus</i>, and that it cannot be found for Psychical +Research.</p> + +<p>If I am not mistaken, a prize has been offered to whoever can find the +means of communicating with the planet Mars. If this communication were +ever established, I do not see how humanity would benefit by it, beyond +the satisfaction of its curiosity; which is, however, a noble and +legitimate curiosity. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> how much more helpful and interesting it +would be to communicate with the world beyond the grave, if such a world +there be, the world whither we are all bound. Perhaps some time mankind +will realise this fact.</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> + +<h4> +EDINBURGH<br /> +COLSTON AND COY. LIMITED<br /> +PRINTERS<br /> +</h4> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. 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