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diff --git a/37565.txt b/37565.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0363ee6 --- /dev/null +++ b/37565.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3800 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Psychical Miscellanea, by J. Arthur Hill + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Psychical Miscellanea + Being Papers on Psychical Research, Telepathy, Hypnotism, + Christian Science, etc. + +Author: J. Arthur Hill + +Release Date: September 29, 2011 [EBook #37565] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PSYCHICAL MISCELLANEA *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, eagkw and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + Psychical Miscellanea + _Being Papers on + Psychical Research, Telepathy, + Hypnotism, Christian Science, etc._ + + BY + + J. ARTHUR HILL + _Author of "Psychical Investigations," "Man is a Spirit," + "Spiritualism; Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine," etc._ + + + NEW YORK: + HARCOURT, BRACE & HOWE, + 1920 + + + + + _Printed in England_ + + + + +PREFACE + + +Many friends and correspondents have suggested that I should republish +a number of articles which have appeared from time to time in various +quarters. The present volume brings these articles together, with some +which have not appeared before. + +Each chapter is complete in itself, but there is more or less connexion, +for each deals with some aspect of the subject to which I have given +most attention during the last twelve years--namely, psychical research. + +I thank the editors of the _Holborn Review_, _National Review_, _World's +Work_, and _Occult Review_ for permission to republish articles which +have appeared in their pages. + J. A. H. + THORNTON, + BRADFORD. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + DEATH 1 + IF A MAN DIE, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN? 11 + PSYCHICAL RESEARCH; ITS METHOD, EVIDENCE, AND TENDENCY 18 + THE EVOLUTION OF A PSYCHICAL RESEARCHER 43 + DO MIRACLES HAPPEN? 52 + THE TRUTH ABOUT TELEPATHY 58 + THE TRUTH ABOUT HYPNOTISM 63 + CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 75 + JOAN OF ARC 88 + IS THE EARTH ALIVE? 94 + RELIGIOUS BELIEF AFTER THE WAR 111 + + + + +Psychical Miscellanea + + + + +DEATH + + +Our feelings with regard to the termination of our earthly existence are +remarkably varied. In some people, there is an absolutely genuine and +strong desire for cessation of individual consciousness, as in the case +of John Addington Symonds. Probably, however, this is met with only in +keenly sensitive natures which have suffered greatly in this life. Such +unfortunate people are sometimes constitutionally unable to believe in +anything better than cessation of their pain. Anything better than +that is "too good to be true", so much too good that they hardly dare +wish for it. Others, who have had a happy life, naturally desire a +continuance of it, and are therefore eager, like F. W. H. Myers, for +that which Symonds dreaded. Others, again, and these are probably the +majority, have no very marked feeling in the matter; like the good +Churchman in the story, they hope to enter into everlasting bliss, but +they wish you would not talk about such depressing subjects. This seems +to suggest that they have secret qualms about the reality of the bliss. +Perhaps they have read Mark Twain's _Captain Stormfield's Visit to +Heaven_, and, though inexpressibly shocked by that exuberant work, are +nevertheless tinged with a sneaking sympathy for its hero, who found the +orthodox abode of the blest an unbearably dull place. The harp-playing +in particular was trying, and he had difficulty in managing his wings. + +Anyhow, these people avoid the subject. As Emerson says somewhere, +religion has dealings with them three times in their lives: when they +are christened, when they are married, and when they are buried. And +undoubtedly its main appeal is in the period prior to this third +formality, if they happen to have a longish illness. The rich Miss +Crawley, in _Vanity Fair,_ is typical of many. In days of health and +good spirits, this venerable lady had "as free notions of religion and +morals as Monsieur de Voltaire himself could desire"; but when she was +in the clutches of disease, and even though in the odour of sanctity, so +to speak--for she was nursed by Mrs Reverend Bute Crawley, who hoped for +the seventy thousand pounds if she could keep Rawdon and Becky off the +doorstep--even with this spiritual advantage she was in much fear, and +"an utter cowardice took possession of the prostrate old sinner." + +Well, let those laugh who will. As for me, I have great sympathy with +Miss Crawley. Probably those who laugh, or are contemptuous of such +cowardice, are people who have not yet come to close quarters with +death--have not looked him, as the French say, in the white of the +eyes. Let them wait until that happens. If they come back after that +rencontre, they will be a little more tolerant of the cowardice of those +whom they called weaker brethren. + +Fear of death may be divided into classes, according to its cause, i.e., +the intellectual state out of which it seems to arise. It may be due to +the expectation of physical suffering; or, as in such cases as Cowper's +and Dr Johnson's, to expectation of what may happen after death, in +that undiscovered country from which Hamlet said no traveller returned, +though he had just been talking with his father's ghost, piping hot--as +Goldsmith has it in his Essay on Metaphor--from Purgatory. In my own +case, I think the fear is a little of both. And I admit that in both +directions the fear is irrational. As to the physical part, it is +probable that when my time comes I shall depart without much of what is +usually called pain, for the heart seems to be my weak place, and I may +reasonably hope that even though if attacked by other ailments, it +will be the heart that will give way. There will probably be suffering +through difficulty of breathing, and I dread this somewhat, for I know +how unpleasant it has been in the attacks which I have survived. Still, +it can hardly be compared with the agonising pain of many diseases. +Rationally, then, I ought not to have much fear on the physical side. + +On the spiritual side I confess with Oliver Wendell Holmes that I have +never quite got from under the shadow of the orthodox hell. I had a +Puritan upbringing, not severe in its home theology I am thankful +to say, but involving attendance at an Independent Chapel where the +minister--a good man and no hypocrite--was wont to preach very terrible +sermons. I shall never quite get over the baneful effect of those +damnatory fulminations. They branded my soul. They caused me more pain +than anything else has ever done throughout my life--and this is saying +a great deal. They made me hate God. Remember, I was a defenceless +child. I knew of no other God. I thought all decent people believed like +those about me. I was the only heretic--a rebel, an outlaw, an Ishmael. +Conceive, if you can, the agony of a sensitive child struggling with +that thought! Condemned to eternal torment, with those who, in Dante's +terrible line, "have no hope of death." ("Inferno," iii, 46.) + +Then I fell in with O. W. Holmes's Autocrat and Professor, and found a +friendly hand in the darkness. It led me to Emerson and Carlyle; then +I found Darwin, Spencer, and the rest of them. My loneliness was +mitigated, but the seared place in my soul was not healed, and never +will be healed. I cannot read the Inferno and Purgatorio of Dante +without horror, and thus the poetic beauty of those great cantos is +darkened for me. I cannot worship "God," for "God" is the fiend whose +image was stamped into my mind in its most plastic, most defenceless +period. Truly that early teaching has much to answer for. It has +poisoned a great part of my life. I suppose if I could have "accepted" +that Being as my God, accepting also the sacrifice--the Blood--by which +that Being's anger was supposed to be assuaged--I suppose I should have +been happy, feeling myself "saved." (But I have lately been surprised to +find how ineffective this belief can be. An acquaintance of mine, an +orthodox churchwoman who has no religious doubts, and who talks much of +the Bible, confesses to "a fear of death which clouds even her brightest +moments"--an ever-present, unconquerable dread.) However, I could not +accept the dogma. Why, I don't know. Somehow my whole mind and heart +revolted against the entire plan of salvation. I never believed any of +it. I felt it could not be true. And yet it tortured me. Illogical? +Yes: human beings are illogical. I am no exception. The Christian who +believes he will go to heaven is equally illogical in his unwillingness +to die. + +When or if we succeed in getting rid of hell, the spiritual fear of +death becomes less torturing, remaining only as a vague dread, as in +Hamlet's soliloquy. Bacon says that we fear death as children fear to +go in the dark. In my own case, it is somewhat thus that the fear now +presents itself. The old hell-fear, though not utterly obliterated, is +becoming less all-swallowing. This very desirable state of affairs +is partly the result of the conclusions to which I have been led by +psychical research. After many years of experiment and close study, I +can say that I know something about after-death conditions. Not that I +pretend to be able to coerce other people into a similar belief, even if +I wanted to. Each must travel his own path. Moreover, psychical research +being a science, its results are not more certain than those of other +sciences. Alternative theories in explanation of any phenomenon are +always possible. There is no such thing as knock-down proof. But for my +part I can say that I know--in the same way that I know the truth of +Mendeleef's law, or Avogadro's law, or Dalton's atomic theory--that +human beings do not become extinct when they die, that they are often +able to communicate with us after that event, and that they are not in +any orthodox heaven or hell. My knowledge is based partly on a lengthy +and carefully-conducted series of sittings which some intimate friends +of mine have had with a medium known to me; partly on my own results +over a period of several years of systematic investigation; and partly +on various curious experiences of psychic friends of mine who are in no +sense professional mediums. (Details to some extent in my _New Evidences +in Psychical Research_ (Rider, 1911) and _Psychical Investigations_ +(Cassell, 1917.) I now believe, with the Bishop of London, that a man +is essentially the same five minutes after death as he was five minutes +before. As the old woman says in _David Copperfield_, "death doesn't +change us more than life"--no, nor as much! + +The upshot is, of course, that my spiritual fear of death has, I am +thankful to say, almost vanished. The lurid future has taken on a milder +radiance. + +It is not that I want assuring of "happiness" in a future state as +compensation for misery in this. I should be quite contented if I could +be assured that death is annihilation. It would at least be a cessation +of suffering; and that is much. I could agree with Keats: + + "Darkling I listen; and, for many a time + I have been half in love with easeful Death, + Called him soft names in many a mused rhyme, + To take into the air my quiet breath. + Now more than ever seems it rich to die, + To cease upon the midnight with no pain + While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad + In such an ecstasy. + Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain-- + To thy high requiem become a sod!" + --(_To the Nightingale_) + +Easeful death--it is a good word. Keats knew disease, and was content +with prospect of ease; though at the end there is a note of depression +or despair at the thought of becoming a "sod," deaf and blind to beauty. + +This reminds us of the attitude of other poets towards the great +problem. Tennyson is mildly optimistic and placid; stretches, indeed, +somewhat lame hands of faith in his sorrowful moments when his friend +has died, but on the whole is healthily disposed; friendly to the most +cheerful way of looking at it; inclined, with true British burliness, to +make the best of a bad job--a job which, after all, may not be so very +bad when we come to closer quarters with it. Afar, death is the spectre +feared of man; seen nearer, he may metamorphose into a beautiful Iris, +sent by heavenly mercy. And, afterwards, the new spiritual state will +probably be an improvement--Aeonian evolution through all the spheres. +Therefore, away with all selfish mourning either about our own +prospective fate or that of those who have left us. Let us hate the +black negation of the bier: + + "And wish the dead, as happier than ourselves + And higher, having climb'd one step beyond + Our village miseries, might be borne in white + To burial or to burning, hymned from hence + With songs in praise of death, and crowned with flowers." + +No doubt Tennyson was to a very great extent able to stay himself on +the personal mystic experiences described in his poem _The Ancient +Sage_--experiences which gave him a subjective assurance that death was +"a ludicrous impossibility". Browning, characteristically buoyant, was +ready to face death with a laugh; the fog in the throat will pass, the +black minute's at end, then thy breast. In _Prospice_ we feel the eager +sureness with which he looked forward to rejoining her whose bodily +presence had left him a few months before. But even Browning's cheery +salutation is outdone by Whitman. The American, though acquainted with +suffering as Browning was not, and though apparently without much belief +or interest in personal survival, was almost uncannily friendly to his +own taking off. And it was not because he suffered so greatly that +he hailed release. It was more the natural outcome of his joyous +temperament, subdued at the last to a kind of solemn exaltation. The +following stanzas were written with George Inness' picture _The Valley +of the Shadow of Death_ in mind: + + "Nay, do not dream, designer dark, + Thou hast portray'd or hit thy theme entire; + I, hoverer of late by this dark valley, by its confines, having + glimpses of it, + Here enter lists with thee, claiming my right to make a symbol too. + For I have seen many wounded soldiers die, + After dread suffering--have seen their lives pass off with smiles, + And I have watch'd the death-hours of the old; and seen the + infant die; + The rich, with all his nurses and his doctors; + And then the poor, in meagreness and poverty; + And I myself for long, O Death, have breath'd my every breath + Amid the nearness and the silent thought of thee. + + "And out of these and thee, + I make a scene, a song (not fear of thee, + Nor gloom's ravines, nor bleak, nor dark--for I do not fear thee, + Nor celebrate the struggle, or contortion, or hard-tied knot), + Of the broad blessed light, and perfect air, with meadows, rippling + tides, and trees and flowers and grass, + And the low hum of living breeze--and in the midst God's beautiful + eternal right hand, + Thee, holiest minister of Heaven--thee, envoy, usherer, guide + at last of all, + Rich, florid, loosener of the stricture-knot called life, + Sweet, peaceful, welcome Death." + +This is indeed a change from the idea of Death as King of Terrors, as +"spectre feared of man". (_In Memoriam_) + +The Greek idea, at its best, seems to have been half-way between the +two extremes. It regarded death with more or less equanimity, as being +certainly not the greatest evil--no king of terrors--but merely an +emissary of greater Powers, to whose will we must bow, though with +dignity: + + "He that is a man in good earnest must not be so mean as to whine + for life, and grasp intemperately at old age; let him leave this + point to Providence."--(Plato: _Gorgias_) + +Sophocles has the same thought, with an added touch of Hamlet-like +irritation about the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune: + + "It is a shame to crave long life, when troubles + Allow a man no respite. What delight + Bring days, one with another, setting us + Forward or backward on our path to death? + I would not take the fellow at a gift + Who warms himself with unsubstantial hopes; + But bravely to live on, or bravely end, + Is due to gentle breeding. I have said."--(_Ajax_) + +Cicero voices the same pagan feeling, in the contented language of a +rather tired, wise old man: + + "I look forward to my dissolution as to a secure haven, where I + shall at length find a happy repose from the fatigues of a long + voyage."--(_De Senectute_) + +And was it not Cato--fine old Stoic--who, finding his natural force +abating, and accepting the hint furnished by a stumble in the street, +stooped and kissed the ground: "Proserpine, I come!" and went home, +making a speedy end, unwilling to suffer the indignity of disease and +the shame of being served in weakness? Modern opinion wisely reprobates +suicide, but there is something noble in the Roman attitude, condemn it +as we will. As a modern and almost comic example of a modern Stoic's +attitude to this same question of death we may cite the famous lines of +Walter Savage Landor: + + "I strove with none, for none was worth my strife, + Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art, + I warmed both hands before the fire of life, + It sinks, and I am ready to depart." + +"Strove with none", indeed! As a matter of fact, Landor strove with +everybody. He was one of the most quarrelsome men that ever lived. +The only man who could tolerate him was Browning. But in his mellower +moments, at least, he was "ready to depart", quietly acquiescing in the +scheme of things. To depart, note; not to be extinguished. And this view +is, all things considered, the most sane and wholesome view of the great +problem of Death. We did not begin to live when we were born in this +present tenement of flesh; we shall not cease to live when we quit it. +'Tis but a tent for a night, an interlude, a descent into matter, a +temporary incarnation for educative purposes, of the soul or a part of +it, as it pursues its lone way towards the ineffable goal. This life is +but a sleep and a forgetting; + + "The soul that rises with us, our life's star, + Has had elsewhere its setting, and cometh from afar." + +Death, then, is to be welcomed when it comes. We must not run to meet +it, or run from it; but we should welcome it when God thinks fit to send +it, His messenger. The beautiful eternal right hand beckons, and the +soul gladly arises and departs, to "that imperial palace whence it +came", or to fare forth on some "adventure brave and new". + + + + +IF A MAN DIE, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN? + + +A friend of mine tells me that psychical articles are always +interesting, "because so many people die and go somewhere". Presumably, +those who remain here feel a natural curiosity as to where the departed +have gone, partly for the latter's sake, and partly because they +themselves would like to know, so that they will know what to expect +when their own time comes. + +The teaching of religion on this point is admittedly either rather +vague, or, if definite--as with the Augustinian theology--no longer +credible. We have progressed in sensitiveness and humanity, and can no +longer believe that a good God will inflict everlasting torment in a +lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, even on the most wicked of +His creatures. Still less can we believe in such punishment being +inflicted for the "sin of unbelief", for we now know well enough that +"belief", being the net outcome of our total experience and character, +is not under the control of the will. Consequently, a God who punished +creatures for not believing, when He knew all the time that He had so +constructed most of them that they could not believe, would be either +wicked or insane. This inability to believe "to order" is plainly +perceived if we reflect on what our feelings would be if a Mohammedan +implored us to believe in Allah and in Allah's Prophet, as the only way +of salvation. We should decline, saying perhaps that we knew better; +but the real reason of our disbelief would not lie in our knowledge but +in our general makeup. We could not believe in Mohammedanism if we +tried. We have grown up in a different climate, and have taken a +different form. + +But, putting aside the vindictive hell-god of Augustine, Tertullian, +Calvin, and the rest--for not even an earthly father would punish a +child for ever--and taking Christianity at its best, we do not find any +very specific eschatological teaching. And this very absence is a good +feature. If a man tries to be good merely in order to avoid hell and +gain heaven--in other words, because it will pay--his goodness is not +much of a credit to him. It is only selfishness of a far-sighted kind. +Religion, on the other hand, when at its best, seeks to influence +character, not by threats and promises, but by encouraging moods and +attitudes and habits of thought from which good actions will flow +spontaneously, without any profit-and-loss calculations. Modern +Christianity is therefore perhaps right in touching much more lightly +on the future state than was customary in earlier centuries. + +Nevertheless, we cannot repress a little curiosity. People die and go +somewhere, as my friend says. Where do they go? Modern Religion having +avoided definite answer, we turn to Science. And Science, much as it +would surprise such fine old gladiators as Huxley and Tyndall to hear +it--has an answer, and an affirmative one. + +Psychical research has, in my opinion, brought together a mass of +evidence strong enough to justify the following conclusions. I do not +say they are "proved." You cannot "prove" that the earth is round, +unless your hearer will at least study the evidence. You cannot even +prove to him that 2 plus 2 makes 4, if he refuses to add. Therefore I +do not say anything about proof. I say only that after many years of +careful study and investigation I am of opinion that the evidence +justifies the conclusions. + +(1) Telepathy is a fact. A mind may become aware of something that is +passing in another mind at a distance, by means other than the normal +sensory channels. The "how" of the communication is entirely unknown. +The analogy of wireless telegraphy of course suggests itself, but is +misleading. The ether-waves employed in wireless telegraphy are physical +pulses which obey the law of inverse squares; telepathy shows no +conformity with that law, and has not been shown to be an affair of +physical waves at all. I believe that it is not a physical process; that +it occurs in the spiritual world, between mind and mind, not primarily +between brain and brain. And, if so--if mind can communicate with mind +independently of brain--the theory of materialism at least is exploded. +If mind can act independently of brain, mind may go on existing after +brain dies. + +(2) Communications, purporting to emanate from departed spirits, are +sometimes so strikingly evidential that it is scientifically justifiable +to assume the agency of a discarnate mind. For example, in a case known +to me, a "spirit" communicating through a non-professional medium--a +lady of means and position--referred to a recipe for pomatum which +the communicator said she had written in her recipe book. No one knew +anything about it; but, on hunting up the book, the deceased lady's +daughters found a recipe for Dr Somebody's pomade, which their mother +had evidently written shortly before her death. They confirmed that +"pomatum" was the word which their mother used. The points to be noted +are: That the medium was not a professional; that no one who knows her +has doubted her integrity; that she was not acquainted with either +the deceased lady or her daughters; that the knowledge shown was +not possessed by any living (incarnate) mind, and is therefore not +explainable by telepathy; and, finally, that the case was watched and +reported on by one of our ablest investigators--a lecturer at Newnham +College--who found no flaw in the evidence.[1] I repeat that I do not +claim this to be "proof". I give it merely as an illustration, and will +give a few more detailed cases in a later chapter. For the present I +must be content to say that the mass of evidence known to me justifies +the belief that minds survive what we call death. + + [1] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. xvii, + pp. 181-3. + +The question then arises: What is the nature of the after life? And here +we are faced with great difficulties. We can ask the returning spirits, +but we cannot verify their statements. If my uncle John Smith purports +to communicate, I can test his identity by asking him to tell me +intimate family details which I can verify by asking his widow, who +still lives; but I cannot thus check his statements about his spiritual +surroundings. Still, if he has proved his identity--particularly if +telepathy seems excluded--we may perhaps feel fairly safe in accepting +his other statements as true, or at least in admitting their possible +truth. And of course we can obtain the statements of many different +spirits, and can compare them. This has been done. The result is a +striking amount of uniformity. The various spirits agree, on the main +points. + +First of all, they are surprisingly unorthodox! They tell of no heaven +or hell of the traditional kind. There is no sudden ascent into +unalloyed and eternal bliss for the good--who, as Jesus pointed out, +are not wholly good--and no sudden plunge into eternal fires for the +bad--who, similarly, are not unqualifiedly bad. There is much of bad in +the best of us, and much of good in the worst of us. Accordingly, the +released soul finds itself not very different from what it was while in +the flesh. It has passed into a higher class of the universal +school--that is all. Tennyson has the idea exactly: + + "No sudden heaven, nor sudden hell, for man, + But through the Will of One who knows and rules-- + And utter knowledge is but utter love-- + Aeonian Evolution, swift or slow, + Thro' all the Spheres--an ever opening height, + An ever lessening earth." + +I have said that this view is unorthodox, and so it is, if compared with +the orthodoxy of Calvin or Edwards or Tertullian. But it is pleasant +to find that orthodoxy to-day is a different thing, and that the +Tennysonian notion is backed up in high quarters. The Bishopric of +London is the highest ecclesiastical office in England, after the +Archbishoprics of Canterbury and York, and we find the present Bishop +of London (Dr Winnington-Ingram) speaking as follows: + +"Is there anything definite about death in the Bible? I believe there +is. I think if you follow me, you will find there are six things +revealed to us about life after death. The first is that the man is the +same man. Instead of death being the end of him, he is exactly the same +five minutes after death as five minutes before death, except having +gone through one more experience in life. In the second place the +character grows after death; there is progress. As it grows in life +so it grows after death. A third thing is, we have memory. 'Son, +remember', that is what was said to Dives in the other world. Memory for +places and people. We shall remember everything after death. And with +memory there will be recognition; we shall know one another. Husband and +wife, parents and children. Sixthly, we still take great interest in the +world we have left". + +The good Bishop gets all this out of the Bible, and quite rightly. We +hope no heresy-hunter will accuse him of "selecting" his texts and +ignoring the hell-fire ones. + +So far as earth-language can go, the foregoing represents the probable +truth regarding the after life. If we inquire for details, we shall +get nothing very satisfactory. If we ask a spirit concerning what he +does--how he occupies himself--he will either say he "cannot explain so +that you will understand" or will tell about living in houses, going +to lectures, teaching children, and the like. All this is obviously +symbolical. Any communications that a discarnate entity can send must, +to be intelligible to us, be in human earth-language; and this language +is based on sense-experience. After death, experience is different, for +we no longer have the same bodily senses--eyes, ears, etc.: consequently +no explanation of the nature of spiritual existence can be more than +approximately true; yet such expressions as living in houses, going to +lectures, and the like, may be as near the truth as earth-language can +get. If a bird tried to describe air-life to a fish, the best it could +do would be to say it is something like water-life, but there is more +light, more ease of movement, more detail, more things of interest +and beauty. Of the wonders of sound--skylark's song, human choruses, +instrumental symphonies--no idea could be conveyed to the fish. Probably +our friends in the next stage of existence have, in addition to the +experiences which they can partly describe, other experiences of which +they can give us absolutely no idea. They have been promoted. Their +interests and activities have become wider, their joys greater. Yet they +are the "same" souls, as the butterfly is the "same" as the chrysalis +from which it has arisen. But to know exactly what it feels like to be a +butterfly, the caterpillar and chrysalis have to wait Nature's time. So +must we. + + + + +PSYCHICAL RESEARCH: ITS METHOD, EVIDENCE, AND TENDENCY. + + +Spiritualism and Psychical Research are to the fore just now, and there +is much newspaper and vocal discussion, based for the most part on +ignorance, particularly as regards the violent attackers of these +things. It is desirable that exact knowledge of the subject should +become more general, and in a recent volume I have tried to review the +whole subject impartially.[2] + + [2] _Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena, and Doctrine_ (Cassell & + Co., Ltd.). + +But there are many who in these stressful days have no time for even +one volume on this kind of thing, and for them, or such of them as may +read this, I have tried in the present article to give an idea of what +psychical research is, on the spiritualistic side, omitting the medical +side which concerns itself with suggestive therapeutics. The article was +first written as a paper which was read before a society of clergy in +Bradford, whose request for it was a significant and pleasing indication +that ministers are aware of the importance of the subject. They are +realising that psychical research is a powerful support to religious +faith, and that its results provide comfort for the bereaved. We live in +a scientific age, and the sorrowing heart asks for more than a text and +an assurance that it is God's will and all for the best; it asks whether +it is a fact that the departed one still lives and knows and loves, +whether it is well with him, and whether there will be reunion "over +there". Psychical research enables us to answer these questions in +the affirmative. Science is now backing up religion, and is providing +ministers with by far the best weapon against materialism and so-called +rationalism. It meets these negative 'isms on their own ground, and does +not need to take cover under intuition or personal religious experience, +which are convincing only to the experient. I am not belittling these; +I am only saying that the phenomenal evidence is more potent for the +scientific type of mind, and that a knowledge of this evidence is useful +to those who are defending religion. + + +TELEPATHY + +It is found by experiment that ideas can be communicated from mind to +mind through channels other than the known sensory ones. Professor +Gilbert Murray of Oxford, probably the most famous Greek scholar in this +country, recently carried out some interesting experiments of this kind +in his own family. He would go into another room, leaving his wife and +daughter to decide on something which they would try to communicate to +him on his return. They chose the most absurd and unlikely things, but +in a large number of cases Professor Murray, by making his mind as +passive as possible and saying the first thing that came into his head, +was able to reproduce with startling accuracy the idea they had in mind. +For instance, they thought of Savonarola at Florence and the people +burning their clothes and pictures and valuables. Says Professor Murray: +"I first felt 'This is Italy', then, 'this is not modern'; and then +hesitated, when accidentally a small tarry bit of coal tumbled out of +the fire. I smelt oil or paint burning and so got the whole scene. It +seems as though here some subconscious impression, struggling up towards +consciousness, caught hold of the burning coal as a means of getting +through".[3] On another occasion they thought of "Grandfather at the +Harrow and Winchester cricket match, dropping hot cigar-ash on Miss +Thompson's parasol." Professor Murray's guess, reported verbatim, was: +"Why, this is grandfather! He's at a cricket match--why it's absurd: +he seems to be dropping ashes on a lady's parasol." Another time they +thought of a scene in a book of Strindberg's which Professor Murray had +not read: a poor, old, cross, disappointed schoolmaster eating crabs for +lunch at a restaurant, and insisting on having female crabs. Professor +Murray says: "I got the atmosphere, the man, the lunch in the restaurant +on crabs, and thought I had finished, when my daughter asked: 'What kind +of crabs?' I felt rather impatient and said: 'Oh, Lord, I don't know: +female crabs.' That is, the response to the question came automatically, +with no preparation, while I thought I could not give it. I may add that +I had never before heard of there being any inequality between the sexes +among crabs, regarded as food." + + [3] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. 29, + p. 59. (For brevity's sake I shall hereinafter use the recognised + initials "S.P.R." for the Society.) + +This kind of evidence is not the best, because the thoughts of +members of one family run more or less in similar grooves; though the +experimenters recognised this and chose unlikely things purposely. Other +investigators have sometimes used cards, drawing one at random from a +shuffled pack, looking at it, and the percipient then trying to say what +it is. The chance of success is of course one in fifty-two, and the +amount of success which we might expect by chance in any series can +be mathematically determined. In one series of successful experiments +conducted by Sir Oliver Lodge the odds against an explanation by chance +alone were about ten millions to one. In ordinary matters this would be +regarded as proof. + +Other experiments of the same general character have been carried out by +Sir William Barrett, Professor Sidgwick, and others, and details may be +found in the S.P.R. _Proceedings_. In most cases the idea comes into the +mind as an impression, but if the percipient is a good visualiser it is +sometimes seen almost externalised as a hallucination. This leads us to +the next step. + +If it is possible to convey to another mind--sometimes so vividly that +the thing is almost seen as if out there in space--an image of scenes +thought about, may it not be possible to convey an image of oneself? +This idea occurred to a gentleman referred to by Myers as Mr S. H. B. +in his book _Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death_. Mr +S. H. B., whom I know by correspondence and whose brother I have known +personally for many years, decided that he would try to make himself +visible to two young ladies whom he knew, and he concentrated his mind +on the effort just before going to bed. He willed to show himself in +their room at one o'clock in the morning. The distance from his house to +theirs was three miles. Next time he saw them, a few days later, they +told him they had had a great fright: the elder sister had seen Mr B.'s +apparition, had screamed and awakened her little sister, who also saw +him. The time was one o'clock in the morning. They told him this before +he said anything about his experiment, and they had no reason to expect +that he would try anything of the kind. Both Mr B. and his brother +are keen and successful business men; Mr S. H. B. is now retired, his +brother is still the head of a large firm. I mention this because some +critics seem to have a notion that psychical researchers are a crowd of +long-haired poets or semi-lunatic cranks. + + +PHANTASMS OF THE DEAD + +Now if a living man can by force of will project a telepathic phantasm +of himself, it is reasonable to suppose that a dead man can do the same, +if the so-called dead man still exists; for telepathy does not seem to +be a physical process of ether-waves, does not conform to the law of +inverse squares or propagate itself in all directions as physical forces +do. It seems to occur in the mental world, between mind and mind rather +than between brain and brain. Consequently, telepathy from the dead is +likely to be easier than from the living, for they over there are not +clogged with the fleshly body. Certainly, however they may be explained, +there are many cases of the apparition of a deceased person. The +difficulty about accepting the evidentiality of some of them is that if +the percipient knew that the person appearing was dead, the apparition +may be merely a subjective hallucination. And even if the death was not +known, it might be surmised, and the apparition might be the result of +expectancy if the person appearing was known to be ill or in danger. But +there are some cases in which a certain amount of detail is conveyed, +rendering a subjective explanation not very probable. For instance, +Captain Colt had a vision of his brother, in a kneeling position, with +a bullet wound in his right temple. He described the vision to several +people in the house before any news came, so the case does not rest on +his word alone. In due time information arrived that his brother had +been killed. He had been shot through the right temple, had fallen among +a heap of others, and was found in a kneeling position. In his pocket +was a letter from Capt. Colt asking him, if anything happened to him, +to make his presence known in the room in which as a matter of fact the +apparition was seen. The vision, it was found, occurred a few hours +after the death. Mr Myers gives full details in _Human Personality_. +In this case the bullet-wound and the kneeling position are points of +correct detail which are hardly explicable on a subjective theory. The +best sceptical theory is that the incident was telepathic, the wounded +brother sending out his telepathic message after being shot. This is +possible, but hardly probable; for death in the case of a bullet-wound +through the temple must be almost instantaneous. + +Spontaneous cases of this kind and of this degree of evidentiality +are rare, but there is a large mass of evidence of the same general +character. The S.P.R. once carried out an extensive inquiry, receiving +answers from 17,000 people, and tabulating the results in a volume of +the _Proceedings_. The final conclusion, expressed in weighed and +guarded words, was that "Between deaths and apparitions of the dying +person a connexion exists which is not due to chance alone". This was +signed, among other members of the Committee, by Professor Sidgwick, +whom Professor James once called "the most exasperatingly critical mind +in England". Some of the apparitions occur before the person's actual +death, but usually in such cases he is already unconscious and the +spirit practically free. As to those occurring after, the main +difficulty about admitting them as proof of survival is, as just said, +the possibility that although they may appear after the death of the +person, the telepathic impulse may have been sent out before, and may +have remained latent for some time in the mind of the percipient. This +has been carefully considered by investigators, and in many cases there +are reasons for regarding it as an insufficient theory. On the whole, +the evidence tends more and more to suggest that in at least some +instances these happenings are due to the agency of a discarnate mind. +The proof is cumulative, and no single case can be crucial. There is +no coerciveness about it, and each can invent his own hypothesis. But +those who have considered the subject most carefully have come to the +provisional conclusion that the agency of the so-called dead is in some +cases a reasonable, and indeed the most reasonable, supposition. There +are of course many narratives of this kind in the Bible,[4] the _Lives_ +of the Saints, and other literature, but these records, being of +pre-scientific date, and lacking the corroborative testimony which we +now require, are of a lower order of evidentiality. The new evidence, +however, is throwing a backward light on many of these ancient stories, +and making them credible once more. To me personally, the Bible is a +much more living book than it used to be. I believe that many things in +it which I used to regard as myths may have been facts. + + [4] _E.g._, Moses and Elias on the Mount. + + +NORMAL CLAIRVOYANCE + +There are instances, then, of people occasionally having visions which +seem to be in some way caused by departed persons. Sometimes the +percipient has only one experience of the kind in his life; more often +he has several, for this seeing power is somehow temperamental--a sort +of gift, like the alleged second sight of the Highlander. It was well +known to St Paul, as his reference to "discerning of spirits" shows +(1 _Cor._, xii). With some people the experience is fairly common. And +in a very few persons the gift is so strong that it is to some extent +under control. I say to some extent, and I wish to use words very +carefully and to have them understood very clearly at this point. I +know several people, who by putting themselves into a passive and +receptive condition, but without any trance state, can generally get +evidential messages from somewhere; that is, messages embodying facts +which the sensitive did not normally know. And some of this matter +seems to be due to telepathy from the dead. But it cannot be done at +will. I believe that professional mediums who sit for all comers for a +fee are often, and indeed generally, quite honest people, but that they +cannot distinguish between their own imaginations and what really comes +through. Professor Murray, when saying what came into his head, did not +know whether it was right or not; that is, he did not know, until he was +told, whether he had really got the thing telepathically or whether +it was an idea thrown up by his own imagination. So with professional +mediums. They give out the ideas that come to them, but as a rule they +cannot distinguish; and, the power not being entirely under control, +there is often a large mixture of their own imagination. + +I have, however, the good fortune to be acquainted with a sensitive who +has the unusual power of being able to distinguish; and this is a great +advantage, rendering verbatim note-taking much easier, and eliminating +any necessity for balancing hits against misses. If nothing comes, he +sits silent or talks ordinarily. If he gets anything, it is practically +always correct. The amount of his success varies, and he will not sit +for people in general. I know many people who have asked him to visit +them, offering handsome payment, but he usually declines. He says he +cannot do it to order, and would be upset if he failed and caused +disappointment. He comes to me, however, because I understand and +always tell him that he need not worry if he gets nothing. In fact the +meeting is regarded as a social call and not as a seance. We talk for +a while about ordinary things, and in half-an-hour or so, if the medium +can get his mind placid enough and is in good trim generally, he will +begin to see and describe spirits present, often getting their names +and all sorts of details. These come for the most part in flashes, and +I take down every word he says, in shorthand, without giving any help +or indication as to whether he is right or wrong. Sometimes in a whole +afternoon he will have only one or two of these gleams, and on one +occasion he got nothing. With conditions at their best he will talk +almost continuously for an hour, the flashes following each other +closely; and sometimes a spirit will remain visible for several +minutes, moving about the room. About a dozen of these interviews are +described in detail in my book _Psychical Investigations_, and other +investigations of the same sensitive by two very able friends of mine +in another town are described in _New Evidences in Psychical Research_. + +Perhaps one or two illustrative incidents may make things clearer. + +The first time Wilkinson came to see me he said, in the middle of +ordinary talk, that he saw with me the form of a woman who looked about +fifty-four, and whom he described, saying further that her name was +Mary. Taking up a piece of paper and a pencil, he wrote in an abstracted +manner the words "Roundfield Place". He looked at it, without reading +it aloud, then said: "That will be a house", and proceeded to write +something else. I got up to look, and found "Roundfield Place. Yes" (the +"Yes" written in answer to his remark "That will be a house") and a +signature "Mary". Now it happens that my mother's name was Mary, +that the description applied to her, and that she died, in 1886, at +Roundfield Place, not the house to which Wilkinson came, whither we +removed in 1897. Other similar things were said, about other deceased +relatives, all true. + +In this kind of thing it is our duty to stick to known causes before +admitting unknown, and my first supposition was that Wilkinson had +primed himself with information. He could have ascertained most of the +things by local inquiry, though it would not be very easy, for my mother +had been dead twenty-two years, and only middle-aged or elderly people +would remember her. Further interviews with him, however, soon carried +me beyond the fraud theory--for holding which I now apologise to him, +feeling considerably ashamed--for he gave me messages from many people +whose association with me I feel sure he did not know, and also some +family matter of a very private kind, characteristic of the spirit who +purported to be communicating, but known to only four living people. I +then fell back on telepathy, assuming that the medium was reading my +mind. But, pursuing my investigations, I received information which I +did not know but which turned out true. For example, Wilkinson on one +occasion described a Ruth and Jacob Robertshaw, giving details about +them and saying that Ruth had a very spiritual appearance, with a sort +of radiance about her, indicating that she had been a very good woman, +and giving other particulars. All this meant nothing to me, for the +names were unknown. But, as I had on some other occasions found that +spirits were described who were relatives of my last visitor, I asked +the person who had last entered the room--except inhabitants of the +house--whether she had known people of these names. It turned out that +they were connexions of hers with whom she had been in close touch +during life, and everything said by the medium was correct. Now in the +first place this incident ruled out fraud, for Miss North's visit had +occurred three days before, and Wilkinson would have had to have +detectives watching both doors of my house, from first thing in the +morning to the last thing at night, to find out who my last visitor +had been; or he would have had to be in league with a servant or a +neighbour, and even thus could hardly have succeeded, for servants +are sometimes out--moreover, similar things have happened during the +_regime_ of different servants--and neighbours could not easily watch +both doors during dark winter evenings. Further, our neighbours are +friends of ours, non-spiritualists, and not acquainted with Wilkinson. +And, after getting to know who my last visitor was, information about +her deceased relatives would have had to be hunted up. I could give +further reasons for believing that fraud was an untenable hypothesis, +but I must be brief. What, next, about telepathy? Well, I had no +conscious knowledge of these people, so the medium could not have got +his information from my conscious mind. It is possible to assume that +I knew it subliminally, and that the medium abstracted it from those +hidden levels of my mind. This is a guess, but a legitimate guess. It +is the guess that Miss Dougall (author of _Pro Christo et Ecclesia_) +makes in criticising this very incident in the book of essays called +_Immortality_, by Canon Streeter and others. She suggests that on the +occasion of Miss North's visit my mind had photographed the contents +of hers, without my knowing it, and that the medium developed the +photograph and read off the required information. It may be so, but it +seems to me far-fetched. Miss Dougall, I may add, is a member of the +S.P.R., and her criticism is instructed criticism, worthy of careful +attention. But I cannot accept her theory, which seems to me more +wonderful and to require more credulity than the spirit theory. For it +is to be observed that the assumed mind-reading is of a character quite +different from anything that has been experimentally established. In +telepathic experiments, like those of Professor Murray, some incarnate +person is _trying_ to communicate the thought. This is not the case in +my sittings with Wilkinson. I am not trying to communicate anything to +him; very much the contrary. And I do not find, after long and careful +observation, any parallelism between what he says and what I happen to +be thinking about. There is, in short, no evidence for the supposition +that my mind is read. The evidence points unmistakably to discarnate +agency--telepathy _from the dead_. + + +TRANCE + +The sort of thing I have described is usually known as normal +clairvoyance, because the sensitive is in a normal state, not in +trance. But there is a further stage, into which, indeed, Mr Wilkinson +sometimes passes, in which there is a change of personality, and a +spirit purports to speak or write with the medium's organs. There +is nothing weird or uncanny in the procedure, nothing deathly or +coma-like; the medium usually sits up and even walks about, though +some trance mediums have to sit still and keep their eyes closed. I +have had visits from many trance mediums; and most of them have failed +to get anything evidential--which at least suggests their honesty, for +they could easily have obtained _some_ information about my deceased +relatives. But the whole matter of trance control is a thorny problem. +Indubitably, evidence of supernormal faculty is sometimes given in +this state, but we of the S.P.R. are divided as to what the control +really is. Some think it is a spirit, as claimed; others think it is +a secondary personality of the medium, as in the remarkable case +of split personality described in Dr Morton Prince's book _The +Dissociation of a Personality_. Mrs Sidgwick, widow of the Professor +and sister of Mr A. J. Balfour, has made a careful psychological study +of the case of Mrs Piper, given in 657 pages of _Proceedings_, vol. +28, and her conclusion is that though telepathy from the dead is +probably shown, and certainly some kind of supernormality, the +controls themselves are dream-fragments of the medium's mind. I am not +qualified to pronounce an opinion on Mrs Piper, not having met her; +but as to the trance mediums I have experimented with, I incline to +agree with Mrs Sidgwick. I think it may be a dodge of the subliminal +to get the over-anxious normal consciousness temporarily out of +the way. But this is a psychological detail, and a difficult one, +requiring much further study. From the psychical research point of +view Mrs Piper's case may be studied in _Proceedings_, vols. 6, 8, 13, +16, and a few of the later ones, or some idea of it can be got from +Sir Oliver Lodge's _Survival of Man_. All the investigators were +convinced of either telepathy or something more. Fraud was excluded by +introducing sitters anonymously, Dr Hodgson himself introducing over +150 different people in this way, and taking careful notes. I have +experimented similarly with Wilkinson, introducing people from distant +places such as Middlesex and Northumberland as well as from towns +nearer home, either under false names or with no names at all, and +being present myself to take notes. Friends of mine have done the same +thing. We were unanimously sceptical to start with, probably more +sceptical than most of those who will read this paper, for we +disbelieved in survival itself. We are now convinced that the fraud +theory is out of the question, that at the very least a complicated +theory of mind-reading--including the reading of the minds of distant +and unknown persons--must be assumed if the theory of survival and +communication is to be avoided. + +Of late years there has been a great development in automatic writing +among quite non-professional mediums--private people who are members of +the S.P.R., as for instance the late Mrs Verrall, Classical Lecturer at +Newnham--and some noteworthy evidence has been obtained. But it is too +complex even to summarise here. It seems to be the work of Gurney, +Hodgson, Myers, and Sidgwick, on the other side, for different messages +have come through different sensitives, making sense when put together, +and sense characteristic of these departed leaders. This had not been +thought of, so far as we know, by any living person, and it seems to +eliminate telepathy from the living, for the messages are not understood +until the bits are pieced together. The evidence fills several volumes +of our _Proceedings_, and students should read them carefully. + +There are many other kinds of mediumship or psychic faculty, and many +volumes are in existence on each phase; the library of the London +Spiritualist Alliance contains about 3,000. I have read about 500 of +them, and would not recommend anyone else to do the same. There is a +great deal of rubbish among them, though they are not all rubbish. The +reading I recommend is the _Proceedings_ of the S.P.R., the writings of +Sir William Barrett, Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr W. J. Crawford, and, above +all, the great work of F. W. H. Myers, _Human Personality and Its +Survival of Bodily Death_, in the original two-volume edition. The +abridged one-volume edition omits many of the illustrative cases. I do +not think that conviction is to be achieved by mere reading; books +would never have convinced me. But careful reading is perhaps +sufficient to lead a fairly tolerant mind to realise that there is +something here which must not be dismissed off-hand; something which is +worthy of investigation. That is as much as we expect. Sir Oliver Lodge +often says that we shall do well if we succeed, in this generation, in +modifying the psychological climate, creating an atmosphere more +favourable to unprejudiced examination of the facts. We have no desire +for revolutions; we want knowledge to grow slowly and surely. The +S.P.R. has been in existence only thirty-seven years, and the +subject is in its scientific infancy. Take the beginnings of any one +science--say, Chemistry, dating it somewhat arbitrarily from Priestley +or Dalton--and note what a little way discovery had gone in a like +period. With increased numbers of workers the pace increases; but in +every science the progress at first must be slow. In psychical research +a good start has been made, and the investigators seem to be certainly +on the track of something, whether their inferences are right in +every detail or not. And every advance in science has extended our +conceptions of this wonderful universe. The heavens declare the glory +of God in a tremendously larger way than they did in the days of the +old Ptolemaic astronomy, though man foolishly fought the Copernican +idea because it seemed to lessen our dignity by making our earth a +speck on the scale of creation instead of the central body thereof. So +with all other phenomena, physical and psychical. We may be sure that +all discovery will be real revelation. With this faith--a well-grounded +faith--we need not fear advance. + + +RECENT CRITICISM + +I add a few words, rather against my inclination, about recent criticism +of a kind which is hardly worthy that name. Two books, one by Dr Mercier +and one by Mr Edward Clodd, have had a certain popularity, mainly +because they attacked, with a certain smartness of phrase, the book of +a greater man. "Raymond" was being widely read and talked about, and +its popularity secured some success for these hostile books. Curiously +enough, even some of the clergy have quoted approvingly some of the +arguments of these rationalists, no doubt much to the glee of Mr Clodd +in particular. Now I have said before that instructed criticism is +always welcome, for we may hope to learn something from it. But Dr +Mercier, on his own statement, came new to the subject at the age of +sixty-four, read _Raymond_ and _The Survival of Man_, and immediately +sat down to write a flippant book the publication of which we hope he +now regrets. Not only had he never investigated for himself, but he was +also ignorant of the work of the S.P.R. + +As to Mr Clodd, his book is better-informed, though frequently unfair. +For instance, in his references to me he is very careful to avoid +any consideration of the strong parts of my case. Like the famous +theological professor, he looks the difficulties boldly in the face--not +_very_ boldly--and passes on, without speaking to them. He has obviously +read fairly widely, but where he does criticise in detail, he always +seizes on weak points and quietly ignores the strong ones. As to +personal investigation he is almost entirely without experience. He says +he attended a seance about fifty years ago, but has forgotten most of +what happened! He says this, with a momentary lapse from his usual +cleverness--for it gives away his case--in a letter to the April (1918) +_International Psychic Gazette_. In other words, he poses as an +authority on a branch of science of which he has no first-hand +knowledge. He criticises and dismisses airily the opinions and +investigations of those who have worked at the subject for ten, twenty, +thirty, or forty years; for it is over forty years since Sir William +Barrett brought his experiments in telepathy before the British +Association. Mr Clodd is a Rationalist, and knows without investigation +that these things cannot be. He is as _a prioristic_ as a medieval +Schoolman, in spite of his scientific pose. And his prejudices +unfortunately prevent him from seeking and studying the facts which +might lead him to other conclusions. + +I have not said anything about the S.P.R. itself, but may here add a +few remarks. Says its official leaflet: "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.... 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, +of forces other than those recognised by Physical Science". In other +words, the Society has no creed, except that the subject is worth +investigating. + +The Society has well over 1,000 members, and is growing steadily. It +includes many famous men in all walks of life, and indeed its membership +list has been said to contain more well-known names than any other +scientific society except the Royal Society itself. Among the +Vice-presidents are the Right Honourables A. J. and G. W. Balfour, Sir +William Barrett, Sir Oliver Lodge, the late Bishop Boyd-Carpenter and +the late Sir William Crookes. The President for the current year is Lord +Rayleigh, probably the greatest mathematical physicist now living.[5] +The President of the Royal Society (Sir J. J. Thomson) is a member, also +Professor Henri Bergson of Paris, Dr L. P. Jacks (editor of _The Hibbert +Journal_) and innumerable other scientists and scholars whose names are +known to everyone. + + [5] Lord Rayleigh's lamented death has since occurred, July, 1919. + +Finally let me assure you that the S.P.R. is so conservative and +suspicious that admission is almost as difficult to obtain as membership +of a high-class London club. It is extremely anxious to keep out cranks +and emotional people of all sorts, and it requires any applicant to be +vouched for as suitable by two existing members; and each application is +separately considered by the Council. The result is a level-headed lot +of members, and the maintenance of a sane and scientific attitude and +management. + +From the philosophic side it is sometimes urged that we cannot reason +from the phenomenal to the noumenal, from the world of appearance to the +world of reality; that consequently nothing happening in the material +world can prove the existence of a spiritual one. But this is easily +answered. We cheerfully agree, with Kant, that a spiritual world cannot +be proved coercively and in such knock-down fashion that belief cannot +be avoided. But it can be proved in the same way and to the same extent +as many other things which we believe and find ourselves justified in +believing. For instance, atoms and electrons and the Ether of Space are +not phenomenal; no one has ever seen or heard or felt or smelt them; but +we infer their real existence from the behaviour of the matter which +does affect our senses. Again: we cannot _prove_ to ourselves that other +human beings exist, or even that an external world exists; my experience +may be a huge subjective hallucination. If I were reading this paper I +should not be able to prove to myself that any other mind was present. +Looking around, I should receive certain impressions--sensations of +sight--and I should call certain aggregations of these the physical +bodies of beings like myself. From the similarity of their structure and +behaviour to the structure and behaviour of my own body, I should infer +that they have got minds somehow associated with them, as my mind is +associated with my body. But you could not prove it to me. If you got +angry with my obstinacy, and knocked me down, I should experience +painful sensations, but the existence of a mind external to me--and an +angry one--would still be a matter of inference only. But we find that +the inference is justified. We find that it "works," and social life is +possible. For the purposes, then, both of science and of ordinary life, +we do reason from phenomenon to noumenon, from appearance to reality, +from attribute to substance; and our reasoning justifies itself. +I affirm, therefore, that the kind of proof which we as psychical +researchers put forward for the existence of and communication from +discarnate minds, is philosophically the same kind as the proof we have +of the existence of incarnate minds. If a short and clear exposition of +the point is required, free from any psychical-research bias, I may +refer inquirers to the chapter on the Psychological Theory of an +External World in J. S. Mill's _Examination of Sir William Hamilton's +Philosophy_. Our evidence may be insufficient to justify belief--in the +opinion of many, it is--and I blame no one for disbelieving; but it is +evidence. And if it sufficiently accumulates and improves in quality, it +may amount to a degree of proof at least comparable with that concerning +electrons, which are now accepted as real by all physicists. + +One or two difficulties may here be briefly referred to: + +1. The appearance in Mrs Piper's script of such obvious dream-stuff +as messages from Homer, Ulysses, and Telemachus! These are of course +absurdities, and no psychical researcher regards them as anything else. +But they are no more absurd than many of our own dreams, and we must +remember that automatic writing comes from the dream-strata of the +medium's mind, these strata seeming to lie _between_ our normal +consciousness and the spiritual world. Consequently messages which +really seem to come from beyond: _i.e._, which are evidential--are often +mixed with subliminal matter from the medium's mind. As a communicator +once said: "The medium's dreams get in my way." All this has to be +allowed for, but in good mediums there is not much of it. In my friend +Wilkinson's case there is none, for he can distinguish. In Mrs Piper's +case there is a little, but it does not invalidate the huge mass of real +evidence that has come. And it at least testifies to her honesty, for no +medium would pretend to get messages from people whom everyone knows to +be mythical--messages which are indeed comic and therefore enable +opponents to score points with the general public by obvious witticisms. + +Huxley is often referred to, as having wisely declined to investigate, +knowing beforehand that it was all nonsense. Huxley was busy with his +own work, and, believing _a priori_ that alleged psychical phenomena +were either fraud or self-delusion, naturally declined to give any time +to them. We need not regret his decision, for he was doing work that was +more important than psychical investigation would have been, just then. +But he was wrong in his _a priori_ belief, or rather unbelief. He had +never seen any of these phenomena, but that did not prove that they did +not happen. A native of mid-Africa may never have seen snow, but that +does not prove that no snow exists. + +And it happens that the Dialectical Society went on with its task, +appointing committees which investigated without any paid medium. The +majority of the investigators were utterly sceptical at first; they were +practically all convinced at the finish. I state this merely as a fact, +not as a specially important fact; for I find that beginners, when +suddenly faced with striking phenomena, are liable to go from the +extreme of unbelief to an extreme of belief. When one's materialistic +scheme is exploded, there seems no criterion left, and anything may +happen. It usually takes an investigator a year or two to adjust himself +and to learn to follow the evidence and not overshoot it. + +Some people say: "But if communication is possible, why cannot _I_ +communicate direct with my own departed loved ones?" The question +is seen on reflection, however, to be easily answered. In the first +place, we cannot communicate direct even with our friends in the next +town; we have to get the help of postmen or telegraph clerks and the +like. It is therefore not at all surprising that an intermediary is +needed when they are removed further from our conditions. Probably all +of us have germs of psychic faculty--though I have not yet discovered +any in myself--somewhat as we can all play or sing a little; but the +Paderewskis and Carusos are few. Similarly with psychic faculty. Few +have enough of it to communicate for themselves. On the other hand, it +is much commoner than Carusos are; but of course, when it occurs in a +private person, that person does not advertise the fact. Outsiders would +either scoff, or say "lunacy", or crowd round asking for "sittings", +out of curiosity. Consequently only sympathetic intimates are told, or +people who, like myself, are known to be sympathetic investigators. Some +of the most remarkable sensitives in England at the present day are of +this private kind--people of education and position--and they are not +even spiritualists in the sense of belonging to the spiritualist sect. +They are of various religious persuasions, and belong mostly to rather +orthodox bodies. There is nothing of the crank about them; they are not +Theosophists or Christian Scientists or adherents of any other of +what the sergeant called "fancy religions." I may say that the most +extraordinary experiences I have ever had have been with a psychic of +this kind. I have not alluded to these experiences in my paper, because +the matter is private. But I just mention these things because I find +that psychic faculties are more common than I once thought, and a +sympathetic minister could probably hear of private cases if he let his +sympathy and interest be known. But of course, if he is known to have +condemned the whole thing as Satanic--as Father Bernard Vaughan does--or +as lunacy, people with psychic experiences will take very good care not +to tell him about them. + +As to details about the nature of the after-life, I have no dogmatic +opinions to offer. Probably it is impossible for those over there to +describe their experience adequately, in our earthly terms. Such +information as we get must be largely symbolical, as when mediums +describe a specially good deceased person as surrounded with radiance. I +have several times noticed that the relative "brightness" or "radiance" +of a spirit, as described by the medium, has correctly indicated that +spirit's character, though the medium had no normal knowledge whatever +of either the person's character or even existence. But though our +information must probably be mainly symbolical, I think we are justified +in believing that we begin the next stage pretty nearly where we leave +off here. There is no sudden jump to unalloyed bliss for even such good +people as you, no sudden plunge to everlasting woe even for sinners like +me. This, I admit, is not in accordance with what I used to hear from +the pulpit twenty years ago. But it agrees with what I read now of the +opinions of such men as the Bishop of London and Dr J. D. Jones; and +other clerical writers, such as Canon Storr in his _Christianity and +Immortality_ and Dr Paterson Smyth in his excellent _Gospel of the +Hereafter_ take the same view. Our modern moral sense refuses to believe +that a good God will sentence any creature to everlasting pain; and +although it may be contended that man has free-will and is therefore +the arbiter of his own fate, it still remains that God gave him that +freedom, and therefore still bears the ultimate responsibility. To +retain belief in a God who can be loved and worshipped, I at least must +disbelieve in everlasting pain for anyone. + +And, added to this moral revolt, there has come a war in which millions +of young men have died before their natural time. These young fellows, +we feel, are at least in most cases neither good enough for heaven nor +bad enough for hell. The sensible supposition seems to be--and it is +borne out by psychical facts--that they have gone on to the next stage +of life, which to most or all of them is an improvement; that they are +busy and happy there; that they are still more or less interested in and +cognisant of our affairs; that they will come to meet their loved ones +when _they_ cross over--of this I have had much evidence--and that they +and humanity as a whole are travelling on an upward path toward some +goal at present inconceivable to our small and flesh-bound souls. + +Some people have objected that psychical research will substitute +knowledge for faith. This is surely a curious objection, and few will +advance it. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and my +belief is that He wants us to learn all we can about His handiwork. +Nature is a book given to us by our Father, for our good; study of it is +a duty, neglect of it is unfilial and wrong. Psychical research studies +its own particular facts in nature, and is thus trying to learn a little +more of God's mind. It is not we, but those who oppose us, who are +irreligious. + +And as to this matter of faith; well, after we have learnt all we can, +there will still be plenty of scope left for the exercise of faith in +general, for our knowledge will always be surrounded by regions of the +unknown. If anyone says that psychical research antagonises _Christian_ +faith, I say most emphatically that on the contrary it _supports_ it. +Christianity was based on a Fact: the Resurrection and Appearances of +Jesus. Psychical-research facts are rendering that event credible to +many who have disbelieved it. Myers says that in consequence of our +evidence, everyone will believe, a century hence, in that Resurrection; +whereas, in default of our evidence, a century hence no one would have +believed it. And to him, personally, psychical research brought back the +Christian faith which he had lost. + +I hope that the facts and inferences which I have very sketchily put +before you will have made it clear that there is some reality in the +subject-matter of our investigations, and that these latter powerfully +support a religious view of the universe. I believe that we are +giving materialism its death-blow; hence the wild antagonism of such +well-meaning but belated writers as Mr Clodd. But we are not ourselves +religious teachers. That is your domain. You will use our work and its +results, as you use the work and results of other labourers in the +scientific vineyard. And I think you will find ours specially helpful. + + + + +THE EVOLUTION OF A PSYCHICAL RESEARCHER + + +Probably few of us keep a diary nowadays. I don't. But I somehow got +into the habit, soon after I became interested in psychical things, of +jotting down in a notebook the conclusions at which I had arrived--or +the almost complete puzzlement in which I found myself, as the case +might be. Glancing recently through these records of my pilgrimage, it +seemed to me that a sketch of it might be of some interest or amusement +to others. + +Professor William James says in his _Talks to Teachers_ that it is +very difficult for most people to accept any new truth after the +age of thirty; and that indeed old-fogeyism may be said to begin +at twenty-five. It is perhaps therefore not surprising that, coming +fresh to the subject at thirty-two--in 1905--I found the struggle to +psychical truth a very long and arduous affair. Having been brought up +on the ministrations of a hell-fire-preaching Nonconformist pastor +whose theology made me into a very vigorous Huxleyan agnostic, I was +biased against anything that savoured of "religion," and moreover +"spiritualism" was unscientific and absurd. So I thought, in my +ignorance; for I knew nothing whatever of the evidence on which +spiritualistic beliefs are based. + +However, I fortunately ran up against hard facts which soon cured me of +negative dogmatism. I became acquainted with a medium who satisfied me +that she could diagnose disease, or rather her medical "control" could, +from a lock of the patient's hair; and this without any information +whatever being given. Also that the diagnosis often went beyond the +knowledge of the sitter, thus excluding telepathy from anyone present or +near. But this did not prove that the control was a spirit, so I turned +to other investigations. + +First, I set myself to "read up". I feel sure that this is the best +course for beginners to adopt, after once achieving real open-mindedness. +It enables one to investigate with proper scientific care when +opportunity arises, and with much better chance of securing good +evidence. Without this preparation, an investigator has little idea how +to handle that delicate machine called a medium, and indeed no amount of +reading will entirely equip the experimenter, for there are many things +which only experience can teach. Also, without this preparation, the +investigator will be liable either to give things away by talking too +much, or will create an atmosphere of suspicion and discomfort by being +too secretive. It takes some practice to achieve an open and friendly +manner while never losing sight of the importance of imparting no +information that would spoil possible evidence. This of course is +desirable from the medium's point of view as well as that of the sitter. +It is hard on a medium if, for example, a really supernormally-got name +does not count because the sitter himself had let it slip. + +I think my reading began with _Light_ and some of Mr E. W. Wallis's +books, but I soon found my way to the _Proceedings of the Society for +Psychical Research_, and recognised that here was what I was seeking. +I cannot sufficiently express my admiration, which is as great as ever, +for such masterly pieces of evidence as, for instance, Dr Hodgson's +account of sittings with Mrs Piper, in volume 13. If we were perfectly +logical beings, without prejudice, that account ought to convince +anybody; certainly it ought to convince the reader of the operation of +_something_ supernormal, and it ought to go a long way towards +excluding telepathic theories and rendering the spirit explanation the +most reasonable one. But we are not logical beings. We require to be +battered for a long time by fact after fact before we will admit a new +conclusion. I remember saying, as indeed I noted down in the diary +mentioned, that a few of these volumes, with Myers's _Human Personality_, +left me in the curious position of being able to say that, though I was +not convinced, I felt that logically I ought to be, for the evidence +seemed irrefragable. Then I read Crookes' _Researches in the Phenomena +of Spiritualism_, and my logical agreement was accentuated, for Sir +William Crookes was my scientific Pope, in consequence of my having +worked from his chemical writings, and having an immense admiration +for his mind and method. But my actual inner conviction was not much +changed. Kant says somewhere that we may test the strength of our +beliefs by asking ourselves what we would bet on them. At this point I +had not got to the stage of being prepared to bet much on the truth of +the survival of human beings or the possibility of communicating with +them if they did survive. I thought the case was logically proved, but +I didn't feel it in my bones, as the phrase goes. For this, personal +experience is necessary; at least it is for an old fogey of over +thirty, with my particular build of mind. + +And I was fortunately able to get this experience. One of the two +best-known mediums in the North of England, Mr A. Wilkinson, happened +to live only a few miles away, though he was and is generally away from +home, speaking for spiritualist societies from Aberdeen to Exeter, +and being booked over a year ahead. However, I was able to get an +introduction to him through friends who also carried out investigations +with him (described in my _New Evidences in Psychical Research_), and +since then, with intermissions due mainly to ill-health, I have +had friendly sittings with him continuously. To him I owe my real +convictions, and for this I cannot adequately thank him. Without his +kindness I could never have achieved certainty; for owing to a damaged +heart I could not get about to interview mediums, and there was no other +medium within reasonable distance. Besides, Mr Wilkinson has stretched a +point in my case, for he does not give private sittings, preferring to +confine himself to platform work; and I suppose he makes an exception in +my case in view of my inability. I here once more thank him for all he +has done for me. + +At my first sitting with him he described and named my mother and other +relatives, whom he saw apparently with me. I had no reason to believe +that he had any normal knowledge of these people; certainly I had never +mentioned them to him, and it was in the last degree unlikely that +anyone else had. My mother had been dead twenty-two years, and was not +at all a prominent person. Moreover, he got by automatic writing a +signed message from her, giving the name of the house in which we lived +at the time of her death, but which we had left eleven years later. This +seemed to be given by way of a test. At later sittings my father and +other relatives manifested, with names and identifying detail, and +the proof began to be almost coercive. The evidence went beyond any +possibility of the medium's normal knowledge, and was characteristic of +the different communicators in all sorts of subtle ways. Telepathy alone +remained as a possible alternative to the spirit explanation. Then came +a peculiar phase, as if there were a definite plan on the part of some +of my friends on the other side for the purpose of utterly convincing me +by bringing evidence which could not possibly be accounted for by any +supposition of a reading of my own mind. A spirit friend of mine would +turn up, bringing with him a spirit whom I had never heard of, and +saying that he was a friend of his; and on inquiry I would find that it +was so--and sometimes it needed a great deal of inquiry, which made it +all the better evidence, for it showed how difficult it would have been +for the medium to obtain the information; though indeed at this stage +the evidence had forced me past crude suspicions of that sort. On other +occasions unknown spirits would appear, and I would find that they +belonged to the last visitor I had had. Several incidents of this kind +are described in my book _Psychical Investigations_. After some years +of this kind of experience I became fully satisfied that the spirit +explanation was the only reasonable one. Some writers, like Miss Dougall +in a recent volume of essays called _Immortality_, invent a complicated +hypothesis according to which my mind photographs the mind of a visitor +and the medium on his next visit develops and reads off the photograph; +but I confess that my credulity does not stand the strain put upon it by +such a hypothesis. Besides, I have lately had--as if to get round even +such tortured theories as this--evidence giving details which have not +been known to any person I have ever met. I was told to write to a +certain friend of mine, father of the ostensible communicator. The facts +were unknown even to him, but he was able to verify them completely; +and they were characteristic and evidential of the identity of the +ostensible communicator. + +If all my results were of the kind I have had through Mr Wilkinson the +case would, for me, be so utterly and overwhelmingly proved that doubt +would be absurd. But this is too much to expect. I have had many +other mediums here, with varying success, but nothing approaching Mr +Wilkinson's. In many cases it is fairly obvious that the medium's +subliminal--or the control's imagination--has been doing part of the +business, no doubt unknown to the medium's normal consciousness. But in +no case have I had any indication of fraud. This seems sufficient answer +to Mr Edward Clodd's credulous acceptance of the theory of a Blue-Book +and inquiry system which enables mediums to post themselves up about +likely sitters. It would be the easiest thing in the world for an +imitation medium to learn enough about me to give what would seem on the +face of it a fairly "good" sitting. But this is never the case. Either +the medium fails or he is so successful that normal knowledge is ruled +out. On Mr Clodd's theory, I ought to have neither of these extremes; +I ought to have no failures, and no results going beyond what inquiry +could produce. But I need not labour this point, for Mr Clodd has +recently confessed his almost absurd innocence of any first-hand +experience. In a letter to the _International Psychic Gazette_ for +April, 1918, he said he had been to a sitting about fifty years ago, but +he does not remember much about what happened! Yet he sets up as an +authority on this branch of experimental science! It is like someone +writing on chemistry after being in a laboratory once, fifty years ago. + +Some of my most curious experiences, concerning which I have not yet +published anything in detail, have been in connexion with crystal +vision. I happen to know a sensitive--not a professional medium or even +a spiritualist--who has physical-phenomena powers of very unusual and +indeed probably unique type. Not only can she see in the crystal and +get evidential messages by writing seen therein, but the writing or +pictures are visible to anyone present. I have seen them myself. As +many as six people at a time, myself among them, have seen the same +thing, and not one of the six was of suggestible type or had had any +hallucinations. All were middle-aged, except one young lieutenant, and +we were indeed a rather exceptionally un-neurotic and stodgy lot. But +though the things seem objective--I am going to try to photograph them, +also the sensitive, in the hope of confirming the Crewe phenomena--they +are somehow more or less influenced by the sensitive's own mind, +without her conscious knowledge; for, _e.g._, in one message, +purporting to come from my father, I was addressed as Arthur, a name +which would be natural to the medium who knows me mostly from printed +matter and a few letters, but which is entirely inappropriate in +relation to my father. Yet a good deal of evidence of identity has come +through this sensitive, and this "mixture" does not invalidate the +case. Again, a queer feature of this sensitive's powers is that lost +objects are frequently found as a result of instructions given in the +crystal; and in many of these cases it seems certain that the position +of the lost object could not have been known to any incarnate mind, +or of course it would not have been left there. In one case it was a +valuable ruby; in several others it was Treasury notes. This sensitive +also is a medium for very good raps, which all present can hear quite +distinctly and which show intelligence, answering questions and so +forth. + +I have therefore reached the conviction that human survival is a fact, +that the life over there is something like an improved version of +the present one, and--a comforting thought, supported by much of my +evidence--that we are met at death by those who have gone before. Some +of my more mystical friends, who have not needed such prolonged jolting +to get them out of materialistic grooves, are rather bored with me for +dwelling so much on the evidence and on the nature of the next state. +They call it "merely astral"; as for them, their minds soar in higher +flights. One friend, a sort of radical High Churchman, said to me some +time ago that he was "not interested in the intermediate state". But +I rather think that he will have to be. I may be wrong, but I suspect +that, whether they like it or not, these good people will have to go +through the intermediate state before they get anywhere else. Good +though they are, I do not believe they are good enough for unalloyed +bliss or union with the Godhead. Such sudden jumps do not happen. +Progress is gradual. Indeed, I have noticed lately that my High +Churchman friend has shown much more interest in these merely psychical +things. Perhaps he thinks he had better turn back and make sure of the +next state and its nature, perceiving that it is a necessary bridge or +"tarrying-place" (which is the alternative reading for the "mansions" +of our Father's house) on the way to the heaven which he quite rightly +aims at. + +As to the future of psychical science and opinion, I feel sure that +great things are now ahead. The war, with the terrible amount of +mourning it entails, has quickened interest in the subject, and for +millions of people the question of survival and the next state has +become an urgent and abiding one. Their interest, instead of being +almost wholly on this side, is very largely over there, whither their +loved ones have gone. Similarly with the soldiers who have come safely +through the war. All have lost friends, all have faced the possibility +of sudden or slow and painful death. And probably all young people at +present, and most adults, have out-grown the crude beliefs of last +century's orthodoxy with its everlasting hell, and are ready for a more +rational system. This is being supplied, backed by scientific proof, by +psychical research and scientific spiritualism. It seems likely that the +religion of the best minds for the next half-century or so, and perhaps +onward, will be something like that which Myers came to hold in his +later years. It does not much matter whether the spiritualist sect +grows as an institution or not. Many people will accept its main belief +without feeling it necessary to leave the communion to which they +already belong. It seems certain that the idea itself will be the ruling +idea in many minds for a long time, and no doubt psychic faculty will +become much more common, for thousands are now trying to develop it who +never cared to try before. Quite possibly the effort on both sides of +the veil, in consequence of so many premature deaths, may bring about +a closer communion between the two sides than has ever been known +hitherto. A great lift-up of earthly thought would be the result, a +perhaps final emergence from the chrysalis stage of materialism; and we +shall then be near the time when, as the inspired Milton makes his +Raphael say: + + "Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit, + Improved by tract of time, and winged ascend + Ethereal, as we, or may, at choice, + Here or in heavenly Paradises dwell." + + + + +DO MIRACLES HAPPEN? + + +Mr G. K. Chesterton, with true journalistic instinct, recently +stimulated public interest in himself and other worthy things by +engineering a discussion on "Do Miracles Happen?" The debate furnished +an opportunity of harmlessly letting off steam, but apparently each +disputant "was of his own opinion still" at the finish; though some of +the newspapers thought that the affirmative was proved, not by argument, +but by the actual occurrence of a miracle at the meeting--for Mr Bernard +Shaw was present, but remained silent! Joking apart, however, these +discussions are usually rendered nugatory by each debater attaching a +different meaning to the word. To one of them, a "miracle" involves the +action of some non-human mind; to others it is only a "wonderful" +occurrence, which is the strictly etymological meaning. It is only in +the latter sense that orthodox science has anything to say on the +subject. + +David Hume, in the most famous of his essays, says that a miracle is "a +violation of the laws of nature", which laws a "firm and unalterable +experience has established". A century later, Matthew Arnold disposed of +the question in an even shorter manner. "Miracles do not happen", said +he, in the preface to _Literature and Dogma_. Modern science has, +speaking generally, concurred. + +But the two statements are not very satisfactory. It is true, no doubt, +that miracles did not enter into the experience of David Hume and +Matthew Arnold; but this does not prove that they have never entered +into the experience of anybody else. If I must disbelieve all assertions +concerning phenomena which I have not personally observed, I must deny +that the sun can ever be north at mid-day, as indeed the Greeks did +(according to Herodotus), when the circumnavigators of Africa came back +with their story. But if I do, I shall be wrong. (_Histories_, book IV, +"I for my part do not believe them", says even this romantic historian.) + +It is as unsafe to reject all human testimony to the marvellous as it +is to accept it all without question. The modern mind has gone to the +negative extreme, as the medieval mind went to the other. Take for +instance the twenty-five thousand Lives of the Saints in the great +Bollandist collection. They are full of miracles, of most incredible +kinds; yet in those days the accounts caused no astonishment. There was +no organised knowledge of nature, outside the narrow orbit of daily +life--and how narrow that was, we with our facile means of communication +and travel can hardly realise. Consequently there was little or no +conception of law or orderliness in nature, and therefore no criterion +by which to test stories of unusual occurrences. Anything might happen; +there was no apparent reason why it shouldn't. One saint having retired +into the desert to lead a life of mortification, the birds daily brought +him food sufficient for his wants; and when a brother joined him they +doubled the supply. When the saint died, two lions came and dug his +grave, uttered a howl of mourning over his body, and knelt to beg a +blessing from the survivor. (Cf. the curious story of St Francis taming +"Brother Wolf", of Gubbio, in chapter 21 of the _Fioretti_.) The +innumerable miracles in the _Little Flowers_ and _Life of St Francis_ +are repeated in countless other lives; saints are lifted across rivers +by angels, they preach to the fishes, who swarm to the shore to listen, +they are visited by the Virgin, are lifted up in the air and suspended +there for twelve hours while in ecstasy they perceive the inner mystery +of the Most Blessed Trinity. Almost every town in Europe could produce +its relic which has produced its miraculous cures, or its image that had +opened or shut its eyes, or bowed its head to a worshipper. The Virgin +of the Pillar, at Saragossa, restored a worshipper's leg that had been +amputated. This is regarded by Spanish theologians as specially well +attested. There is a picture of it in the Cathedral at Saragossa. +(Lecky, _Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe_, vol. 1, page +141.) The saints were seen fighting for the Christian army, when the +latter battled with the infidel. In medieval times this kind of thing +was accepted without question and without surprise. + +About the end of the twelfth century there came a change. The human mind +began to awake from its long lethargy; began to writhe and struggle +against the dead hand of authority which held it down. The Crusades, as +Guizot shows, had much to do with the rise of the new spirit, by causing +educative contact with a high Saracenic civilization. Men began to +wonder and to think. Heresy inevitably appeared, and became rife. In +1208 Innocent III established the Inquisition, but failed to strangle +the infant Hercules. In 1209 began the massacre of the Albigenses, which +continued more or less for about fifty years, the deaths being at least +scores of thousands; but the blood of the martyrs was the seed of +further freedom and enlightenment. Nature began to be studied, in +however rudimentary a way, by Roger Bacon and his brother alchemists. +The Reformation came, weakening ecclesiastical authority still further +by dividing the dogmatic forces into two hostile camps, and thus giving +science its chance. Galileo appeared, and did his work, though with many +waverings, for Paul V and Urban VIII kept successively a heavy hand on +him; he was imprisoned at seventy, when in failing health, and, some +think, tortured--though this is uncertain, and his famous _e pur si +muove_ is probably mythical. More important still, Francis Bacon, +teaching with enthusiasm the method of observation and experiment. The +conception of law, of rationality and regularity in nature, emerged; +Kepler and Newton laid down the ground plan of the universe, evolving +the formulae which express the facts of molar motion. Uniformity in +geology was shown by Lyell, while Darwin and his followers carried +law into biological evolution. Then man became swelled-headed; became +intoxicated with his successes. It had already been so with Hume, and +it became more so with his disciples. Man treated his own limited +experience as a criterion, and denied what was not represented by +something similar therein. Especially was this the case when alleged +facts had any connection with religion. Religion had tried to +exterminate science, and it was natural enough that, in revenge, science +should be hostile to anything associated with religion. Consequently, +the scientific man flatly denied miracles, not only such stories as the +rib of Adam and the talking serpent (concerning which even a church +father like Origen had made merry in Gnostic days fifteen hundred years +before), but also the healing miracles of Jesus, which to us are now +beginning to look possible enough. + +This negative dogmatism is as regrettable as the positive variety. It +is not scientific. Science stands for a method, not for a dogma. It +observes, experiments, and infers; but it makes no claim to the +possession of absolute truth. A genuine science, confronted with +allegations of unusual facts, neither believes nor disbelieves. It +investigates. The solution of the problem is simply a question of +evidence. Huxley in his little book _Hume_, and J. S. Mill in his +_Essays on Religion_, made short work of the "impossibility" attitude. +Says the former in _Science and Christian Tradition_, page 197: + +"Strictly speaking, I am unaware of anything that has a right to the +title of an impossibility, except a contradiction in terms. There are +impossibilities logical, but none natural. A 'round square', a 'present +past', 'two parallel lines that intersect', are impossibilities, because +the ideas denoted by the predicates round, present, intersect, are +contradictory of the ideas denoted by the subjects square, past, +parallel. But walking on water, or turning water into wine, are plainly +not impossibilities in this sense". + +No alleged occurrence can be ruled out as impossible, then, unless the +statement is self-contradictory. Difficulty of belief is no reason. It +was found difficult to believe in Antipodes; if there were people on +the under side of the earth, "they would fall off". But the advance of +knowledge made it not only credible but quite comprehensible. People +stick on, all over the earth, because the earth attracts them more +powerfully than anything else does. Similarly with some miracles. They +may seem much more credible and comprehensible when we have learned +more. Indeed, the wonders of wireless telegraphy, radio-activity, and +aviation are intrinsically as miraculous as many of the stories in the +world's sacred writings. + +This is not saying, however, that we are to believe the latter _en +bloc_. They must be taken individually, and believed or disbelieved +according to the evidence and according to the antecedent probability or +improbability. The standing still of the sun (_Joshua_, x) does not seem +credible to the scientific mind which knows that the earth is spinning +at the equator at the rate of one thousand miles an hour and that any +sudden interference with that rotation would send it to smithereens, +with all the creatures on its surface. Of course, a Being who could stop +its rotation could perhaps also prevent it from flying to smithereens; +but we have to extend the miracle in so many entirely hypothetical ways +that the whole thing becomes too dubious for acceptance. It is simpler +to look on the story as a myth. + +But such things as the clairvoyance of Samuel (I _Samuel_, x), and +even the Woman of Endor story, are quite in line with what psychical +research is now establishing. And the healing miracles of Jesus are +paralleled, in kind if not in degree, by innumerable "suggestive +therapeutic" doctors. Shell-shock blindness and paralysis are cured at +Seale Hayne Hospital and elsewhere in very "miraculous" fashion. And +turning water into wine is not more wonderful than turning radium into +helium, and helium into lead, which nature is now doing before our +eyes. These things, therefore, have become credible, if the evidence +is good enough. Whether evidence nineteen hundred years old can be +good enough to take as the basis of serious belief is another matter. +Scientific method insists on a high standard of evidence. We must be +honest with ourselves, and not believe unless the evidence satisfies our +intellectual requirements. But the modern and wise tendency is to regard +religion as an attitude rather than as a belief or system of beliefs. It +does not stand or fall with the miracle-stories. + + + + +THE TRUTH ABOUT TELEPATHY + + +The amount of nonsense that is talked, and apparently widely believed, +about telepathy, is almost enough to make one wish that the phenomenon +had not been discovered, or the word invented. Without any adequate +basis of real knowledge, the "man in the street" seems to be accepting +the idea of thought-transference as an incontrovertible fact, like +wireless telegraphy--which latter is responsible for a good deal of easy +credence accorded to the former, both seeming equally wonderful. But the +analogy is a false one. There is a great deal of difference between the +two. In wireless telegraphy we understand the process: it is a shaking +of the ether into pulses or waves, which act on the coherer in a +perfectly definite way and are measurable. But in spite of much loose +talk about "brain-waves", the fact is that we know of no such thing. +Indeed, there is reason to believe that telepathy, if it is a fact at +all--and I believe it is--may turn out to be a process of a different +kind, the nature of which is at present unknown. For one thing, it does +not seem to conform to physical laws. If it were an affair of ripples in +the ether--like wireless telegraphy--the strength of impact would vary +in inverse ratio with the square of the distance. The influence would +weaken at a known rate, as more and more distance intervened between +sender and recipient. And this, in many cases at least, is not found to +be so, consequently Mr Gerald Balfour and other leading members of +the Society for Psychical Research incline to the opinion that the +transmission is not a physical process, but takes place in the spiritual +world. + +I have said that I believe in telepathy, yet I have deprecated too-ready +credence. What, then, are the facts? + +The first attempt at serious investigation of alleged supernormal +phenomena by an organised body of qualified observers was made by the +London Society for Psychical Research, which was founded in 1882 by +Henry Sidgwick (Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge), F. W. H. +Myers and Edmund Gurney (Fellows of Trinity), W. F. Barrett (Professor +of Experimental Physics at Dublin, and now Sir William), and a few +friends. The membership grew, and the list now includes the most famous +scientific names throughout the civilised world. In point of prestige, +the society is one of the strongest in existence. + +The first important work undertaken was the collection of a large +number of cases of apparition, etc., in which there seemed to be some +supernormal agency at work, conveying knowledge; as in the case of +Lord Brougham, who saw an apparition of his friend at the moment of +the latter's death. The results of this investigation were embodied in +the two stout volumes called _Phantasms of the Living_ (now out of +print, but an abridged one-volume edition has recently been edited by +Mrs Sidgwick (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1919), and in +Vol. x. of the _Proceedings_ of the Society. As the outcome of this +arduous investigation, involving the collection and consideration +of about 17,000 cases and extending over several years of time, the +committee made the cautious but memorable statement that "Between +deaths and apparitions of the dying person a connexion exists which is +not due to chance alone". This guarded statement was carefully worded +in order to avoid committing the society to any definite (_e.g._ +spiritualistic) interpretation. Some of the apparitions occurred +within twelve hours before the death, some at the time of death, and +some a few hours afterwards. But these latter of course do not prove +"spirit-agency"--though indeed sometimes they seem to render it +probable--for the telepathic impulse or thought may have been sent +out by the dying person, remaining latent--so to speak--until the +percipient happened to be in a sufficiently passive and receptive +state to "take it in". + +Definite experimentation was also made, of various kinds, _e.g._, one +person would be shown a card or diagram, and another (blindfolded) would +maintain a passive mind, saying aloud what ideas "came into his head". +Some of these experiments--which are still required and should be tried +by those interested in the subject--indicated that the concentration of +A's mind did indeed sometimes produce a reverberation in the mind of B. +In a series conducted by Sir Oliver Lodge, the odds against the +successes being due to chance can be mathematically shown to be ten +millions to one. + +For this new fact or agency, Mr Myers invented the word "telepathy" +(Greek _tele_, at a distance, and _pathein_, to feel), and defined it +as "communication of impressions of any kind from one mind to another, +independently of the recognised channels of sense". + +But I wish to say, and to emphasise the statement, that this +transmission, though regarded as highly probable by many acute minds, +cannot yet be regarded as unquestionably proved, still less as occurring +in a common or frequent way. We have all of us known somebody who +claimed to be able to make people turn round in church or in the street +by "willing" them, but usually these claims cannot be substantiated. +It is difficult to eliminate chance coincidence. And the folks who lay +claim to these powers are usually of a mystery-loving, inaccurate build +of mind, and therefore very unsafe guides. Moreover, how many times have +they "willed" without result? + +One reason why I deprecate easy credence, leaning to the sceptical side +though believing that the thing sometimes happens, is, that there is +danger of a return to superstition, if belief outruns the evidence. +If the popular mind gets the notion that telepathy is more or less +a constant occurrence--that mind can influence mind whenever it +likes--there is a possibility of a return to the witchcraft belief which +resulted in so many poor old women being burnt at the stake in the +seventeenth century. I prefer excessive disbelief to excessive credulity +in these things; it at least does not burn old women because they have a +squint and a black cat and a grievance against someone who happens to +have fallen ill. Unbalanced minds are very ready to believe that someone +is influencing them. I have received quite a number of letters from +people (not spiritualists) who, knowing of my interest in these +matters, got it into their foolish heads that I was trying some sort of +telepathic black magic on them. I had not even been thinking about them. +It was entirely their own imagination. One of these people is now in an +asylum. I think she would probably have become insane in any case--if +not on this, then on some other subject--but these incidents almost make +me wish that we could confine the investigation and discussion of the +subject to our own circle or society until education has developed more +balanced judgment in the masses. But of course such a restriction is +impossible. The daily press and the sensational novelists have got hold +of the idea. We must counteract the sensational exaggerations, which +have such a bad effect on unbalanced minds, by stating the bare, hard +facts. Here, as elsewhere, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It +is the half-informed people who are endangered. The remedy is more +knowledge. Let them learn that, though there is reason to believe that +under certain conditions telepathy is possible and real, there is +nevertheless no scientific evidence for anything in the nature of +"bewitching", or telepathy of maleficent kind. This cannot be too +strongly insisted on. Let us follow the facts with an open mind, but +let us be careful not to rush beyond them into superstition. + + + + +THE TRUTH ABOUT HYPNOTISM + + +Various popular novelists, such as George Du Maurier in _Trilby_, and +E. F. Benson in _The Image in the Sand_, have taken advantage of the +possibilities which hypnotic marvels offer to the sensational writer, +and have put into circulation a variety of exaggerated ideas. This is +regrettable. Of course the novelist can choose his subject, and can +treat it as he likes; it is the public's fault if it takes fiction for +fact, or allows its notions of fact to be coloured or in any way +influenced by what is avowedly no more than fiction. + +But it is certain that it is thus influenced. It is therefore desirable +that the public should be told from time to time exactly what the +scientific position is--what the conclusions are, of those who are +studying the subject in a proper scientific spirit, with no aim save the +finding of truth. This will at least enable the public to discriminate +between fact and fiction, if it wants to. + +No doubt the phenomena in question have been often discovered, +forgotten, and rediscovered; but in modern times the movement dates from +Mesmer. Friedrich Anton Mesmer was born about 1733 or 1734. In 1766 he +took his doctor's degree at Vienna, but did not come into public notice +until 1773. In that year he employed in the treatment of patients +certain magnetic plates, the invention of Father Hell, a Jesuit, +professor of astronomy at Vienna. + +Further experiments led him to believe that the human body is a kind of +magnet; and that its effluent forces could be employed, like those of +the metal plates, in the cure of disease. Between 1773 and 1778 he +travelled extensively in Europe, with a view to making his discoveries +better known. Also he sent an account of his system to the principal +learned bodies of Europe, including the Royal Society of London, the +Academy of Sciences at Paris, and the Academy at Berlin. + +The last alone deigned to reply; they told him his discovery was an +illusion. Apparently they knew all about it, without investigating. +There is no dogmatism so unqualified, no certainty so cocksure, as that +of complete ignorance. + +The method at first was probably a system of magnetic passes or +strokings of the diseased part by the hand of the doctor. But, as the +patients increased in number, a more wholesale method had to be devised. +Consequently Mesmer invented the famous "_baquet_". This was a large +tub, filled with bottles of water previously "magnetised" by Mesmer. + +The bottles were arranged to radiate from the centre, some of them with +necks pointing away from it and some pointing towards it. They rested +on powdered glass and iron filings, and the tub itself was filled with +water. In short, it was a sort of glorified travesty of a galvanic +battery. From it, long iron rods, jointed and movable, protruded through +holes in the lid. These the patients held, or applied to the region of +their disease, as they sat in a circle round the _baquet_. Mesmer and +his assistants walked about, supplementing the treatment by pointing +with the fingers, or with iron rods, at the diseased parts. + +All this may seem, at first sight, very absurd. But the fact remains +that Mesmer certainly wrought cures. And apparently he frequently +succeeded in curing or greatly alleviating, where other doctors had +completely failed. It is no longer possible for any instructed person to +regard Mesmer as a charlatan who knowingly deluded the public for his +own profit. His theories may have been partly mistaken, but his +practical results were indubitable. + +It is also worth noting that he treated rich and poor alike, charging +the latter no fee. He was a man of great tenderness and kindness of +heart, devoted to the cause of the sick and suffering; and the accounts +of his patients show the unbounded gratitude which they felt towards +him, and the respect in which he was held. + +The orthodox doctors, of course, felt otherwise. They were envious and +jealous of the foreign innovator and his success. And his fame was too +great to allow of his being ignored. Consequently the Royal Society +of Medicine (Paris) appointed a commission to inquire into the new +treatment. The finding, of course, was adverse. The investigators could +not deny the cures, but they fell back on the recuperative force of +nature (_vis medicatrix naturae_) and denied that Mesmer's treatment +caused the cure. + +Obviously, Mesmer, having treated his patients, could not prove that +they would not have recovered if he had _not_ treated them; so his +critics had a strong position. But, on the other hand, neither can an +orthodox doctor prove that _his_ cures are due to _his_ treatment. If it +is _vis medicatrix naturae_ in one case, it may be the same in the other. + +Modern medicine is more and more coming to this conclusion--is +abandoning drugging as it abandoned bleeding and cautery, and is leaving +the patient to nature. This is a significant fact. + +But there is good reason to believe that Mesmer's treatment was a real +factor in his cures, for in many cases the patient had been treated by +orthodox methods for years without effect. Perhaps, as the doctors said, +it was "only the recuperative force of Nature", but if the doctors could +not set that force to work, and Mesmer somehow could, he is just as much +entitled to the credit of the cure as if he had done it by bleeding or +drugging. However, by one sort of persecution or another, he was driven +out of Paris, and more or less discredited. After a visit to England, he +retired to Switzerland, where he lived in obscurity until his death in +1815. + +The method was kept alive by various disciples, such as the Marquis de +Puysegur, Dupotet, Deleuze, and many more, but in an amateurish sort of +way. The first-named found that in one of his patients he could induce +a trance state which showed peculiar features. In trance, the man knew +all that he knew when awake, but when awake he knew nothing of what had +happened in trance. This second condition thus seemed to be equivalent +to an enlargement of personality. + +Both in England and France the medical side came to the front again, +in the hands of Braid (a Manchester surgeon who first used the term +"hypnotism", from Greek _hypnos_, sleep, and whose book _Neurypnology, +or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep_ was published in 1843), Liebeault, +Bernheim, Elliotson, and Esdaile. + +Elliotson and Esdaile still believed in a magnetic effluence, but the +idea was given up by Braid and the "Nancy school" (the investigators +who followed the lines of Liebeault of Nancy), for it was found that +patients could be hypnotised without passes or strokings or any +manipulation. Braid told his patients to gaze fixedly at a bright +object, _e.g._, his lancet. Liebeault produced sleep by talking +soothingly or commandingly filling the patient's mind with the idea +of sleep. In some cases it was found that patients could hypnotise +themselves by an effort of will (this was confirmed more recently by Dr +Wingfield's experiments with athletic undergraduates at Cambridge), and +this disposed of the hitherto supposedly necessary "magnetic effluence" +from the operator. + +The most modern opinion is pretty much the same. Dr Tuckey, who learnt +his method from Liebeault himself, and who practised for twenty years in +the West End of London, is convinced that the whole thing is suggestion. +So is Dr Bramwell, who shares with Dr Tuckey the leading position among +hypnotic practitioners in England. The latter, it may be remarked, was +the first qualified medical man to write an important book on the +subject in English, after Braid. + +The tendency now is to give suggestions without attempting to induce +actual trance. It is found with many patients that if they will make +their minds passive and receptive, listening to the doctor's suggestions +in an absent-minded sort of way, those suggestions--that the health +shall improve and the specified symptoms disappear--are carried out. The +explanation of this is "wrapped in mystery". No one knows exactly how it +comes about. But it seems to be somewhat thus: + +The complicated happenings within our bodies, such as the chemical +phenomena known as digestion and the physical phenomena such as blood +circulation and contraction of involuntary muscles, seem to imply +intelligence, though that intelligence is not part of the conscious +mind, for we do not consciously direct the processes. They go on all +the same--for example--when we are asleep. Presumably, then, there is a +mental Something in us, which never sleeps, and which runs the organic +machinery. If we could get at this Something, and give it instructions, +a part of the machinery which is working wrongly might get attended to +and put right. Unfortunately, the ordinary consciousness is in the way. +We cannot get at the mechanic in the mill, because we have to go through +the office, and the managing director keeps us talking. + +Well, in hypnotic trance, or even in the preoccupied "absent-minded" +state, we get past the managing director--who is asleep or attending to +something else--into the mill. We get at the man who really attends to +the machinery. We get past the normal consciousness, and can give our +orders to the "subconscious" or "subliminal"--which means "below the +threshold". In Myers' phrase, suggestion is a "successful appeal to the +subliminal self", but exactly how it comes about, and why the patient +usually cannot do it for himself but has to have the suggestion +administered by a doctor, we do not know. + +Of course the word "suggestion" does not really explain anything. It +is a word employed to cover our ignorance. Suggestive methods are as +empirical as Mesmer's. In each case a successful appeal is made to the +recuperative forces of nature, _vis medicatrix naturae_; but exactly how +or why suggestion does it, we know no more--or hardly any more--than we +know how and why Mesmer's _baquet_ did it. The fact remains, however, +that the thing is done. What we lack is only a satisfactory theory. + +At one time it was thought that only functional disorders could be +relieved. But it is now recognised that the line between functional +and organic is an arbitrary one. If we cannot find definite organic +change in tissue, we call the ailment functional; but nevertheless +some change there must be, though microscopic or unreachable. +Consequently even functional disorders are at bottom organic; and, +though of course grave lesions produce the gravest disorders, there is +no _a priori_ impossibility in a hypnotic cure of even the most radical +tissue-degeneration. + +However, as a matter of practical fact, the "mechanic" has his +limitations, like the normal consciousness. He is not omnipotent. +Consequently we cannot be sure of being able to stimulate him to the +extent of a cure. It depends on his knowledge and power. But he can +always do something, if we can get at him. The chief difficulty is that +in many people he is inaccessible. + +For instance, I have many times submitted myself to the treatment of +Dr Tuckey and another medical friend, without effect. I have each time +tried my best to help, making my mind as passive as I could; for I was +sure that if a suggestible stage could be reached, some troublesome +heart symptoms and insomnia could be alleviated. But I was never +able to reach a state even approaching hypnosis. I suppose my normal +consciousness could not put itself sufficiently to sleep. Being +interested in the scientific aspect of the subject, my consciousness +watched the process and analysed its own sensations, instead of +"letting go" and subsiding out of the way. + +As to the proportion of susceptible persons, observers differ. +Wetterstrand and Vogt hold that all sane and healthy people are +hypnotisable, and Dr Bramwell's results among strong farm labourers at +Goole support that view. Patients with nervous ailments are difficult +to hypnotise; out of one hundred such cases in his London practice, Dr +Bramwell only influenced eighty. This is the percentage of susceptibles +found by Drs Tuckey and Bernheim also. + +The insane are usually unhypnotisable, probably because of their +inability to concentrate their attention. Out of the 80 per cent. of +sane susceptibles, only a small proportion go off into hypnotic sleep; +ten according to Tuckey, rather more according to the experience of +Bramwell, Forel, and Vogt. Most of the susceptible, however, though +retaining consciousness, may be deprived of muscular control. For +example, if told that they cannot open their eyes, they find that +it is so. + +The various "stages" of hypnosis shade gradually into each other, and +classifications are not much good. Charcot's three stages of lethargy, +catalepsy, and somnambulism are now discredited as true stages. In good +subjects they are producible at will, and as observed at the Salpetriere +they were almost certainly due to training. + +I have no space for the quoting of detailed medical cases, but it is +desirable to emphasise the practical facts and to make the subject +as concrete as possible to the reader, so I will quote just one, as +illustration, from Dr Bramwell's contribution to _Proceedings of the +Society for Psychical Research_, vol. xiv, page 99. + +"Neurasthenia; suicidal tendencies. Mr D----, aged 34, 1890; barrister. +Formerly strong and athletic. Health began to fail in 1877, after +typhoid fever. Abandoned work in 1882, and for eight years was a chronic +invalid. Anaemic, dyspeptic, sleepless, depressed. Unable to walk a +hundred yards without severe suffering. Constant medical treatment, +including six months' rest in bed, without benefit. He was hypnotised +from June 2 to September 20, 1890. By the end of July all morbid +symptoms disappeared, and he amused himself by working on a farm. He can +now walk forty miles a day without undue fatigue." Similar cases are +now being recorded in the military hospitals. Soldiers make excellent +"subjects". + +It has been much debated whether a hypnotised person could be made to +commit a crime. Probably not; it is difficult to be quite sure, but the +evidence is on the negative side. True, a hypnotised subject will put +sugar which he has been told is arsenic into his mother's tea, but his +inner self probably knows well enough that it is only sugar. On the +other hand, it is certain that a hypnotiser may obtain a remarkable +amount of control over specially sensitive subjects, particularly by +repeated hypnotisations. + +I have seen hypnotised subjects who seemed almost perfect automata, +obeying orders as mechanically as if they had no will of their own left. +Certainly no one, either man or woman, but particularly the latter, +should submit himself or herself to hypnotic treatment except by a +qualified person in whom full trust can be reposed. And, even then, in +the case of a woman patient, it is well for a third person to be +present. + +But the stories of the novelists, about subjugated wills, hypnotising +from a distance, and all the rest of it, are quite without adequate +foundation in fact. There is very little evidence in support of hypnosis +produced at a distance, and in the one case where it did seem to occur +there had been repeated hypnotisations of the ordinary kind, by which a +sort of telepathic rapport was perhaps established (Myers' _Human +Personality_, vol. i, page 524). + +Hypnotism against the will is a myth; except perhaps in here and there a +backboneless person who could be influenced any way, without hypnosis or +anything of the kind. The Chicago pamphleteer who wants to teach us how +to get on in business by developing a "hypnotic eye" is merely after +dollars. It is all bunkum. + +There is a sense, however, in which hypnotic treatment can be a help in +education and in strengthening the character. Backward and lazy children +could probably be improved, and I know cases in which sleep-walking and +other bad habits have been cured by suggestion. From this it is but a +step to dipsomania, which can often be cured. Dr Tuckey reports seventy +cures out of two hundred cases. + +F. W. H. Myers, to whose genius doctors as well as psychologists owe +their first scientific conceptions in this domain, was extremely +optimistic here. He held that though we cannot expect to manufacture +saints, any more than we can manufacture geniuses, there is nevertheless +enough evidence to show that great things could be done. + +"If the subject is hypnotisable, and if hypnotic suggestion be applied +with sufficient persistency and skill, no depth of previous baseness +and foulness need prevent the man or woman whom we charge with 'moral +insanity', or stamp as a 'criminal-born', from rising into a state where +he or she can work steadily and render services useful to the community" +(_Human Personality_, vol. i, page 199). Experiments on hypnotic lines +ought certainly to be carried out in our prisons and reformatories. As +to the formerly alleged dangers of such experimentation--dangers of +hysteria, etc., alleged by the Charcot school which is now seen to have +been quite on a wrong tack--they do not exist, if the operator knows his +business. + +Says Professor Forel: "Liebeault, Bernheim, Wetterstrand, Van Eeden, +De Jong, Moll, I myself, and the other followers of the Nancy school, +declare categorically that, although we have seen many thousands of +hypnotised persons, we have never observed a single case of mental or +bodily harm caused by hypnosis, but, on the contrary, have seen many +cases of illness relieved or cured by it". Dr Bramwell fully endorses +this, saying emphatically that he has "never seen an unpleasant symptom, +even of the most trivial nature, follow the skilled induction of +hypnosis" (_Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. +xii, page 209). + +A proof that _intellectual_ powers outside the normal consciousness +may be tapped by appropriate methods is afforded by the remarkable +experiments of Dr Bramwell, on the appreciation of time by somnambules. +He ordered a hypnotised subject to carry out, after arousal, some +trivial action, such as making a cross on a piece of paper, at the end +of a specified period of time, reckoning from the moment of waking. +In the waking state, the patient knew nothing of the order; but a +subliminal mental stratum knew, and watched the time, making the subject +carry out the order when it fell due. + +The period varied from a few minutes to several months, and it was +stated in various ways, _e.g._ on one occasion Dr Bramwell ordered the +action to be carried out in "24 hours and 2880 minutes". The order was +given at 3.45 P.M. on December 18, and it was carried out correctly at +3.45 P.M. on December 21. In other experiments, the periods given were +4,417, 8,650, 8,680, 8,700, 10,070, 11,470 minutes. + +All were correctly timed by the subliminal stratum, the action being +promptly carried out at the due moment. In the waking state the patient +was quite incapable--as most of us would be--of calculating mentally +when the periods would elapse. But the hypnotic stratum could do it, +and this shows that there are intellectual powers which lie outside +the field of the normal consciousness. The argument could be further +supported by the feats of "calculating boys", who can sometimes solve +the most complicated arithmetical problems, without knowing how they do +it. They let the problem sink in, and the answer is shot up presently, +like the cooked pudding in the geyser. + +But these things are still in their infancy. Psychology is working at +the subject, but we do not yet know enough to enable us to venture +far in the direction of practical application of hypnotic methods in +education. It seems likely, however, that further investigation will +yield knowledge which may be of inestimable practical value in the +training of minds, as well as in the curing of mental and bodily +disease. + + + + +CHRISTIAN SCIENCE + + +It has been said, as a kind of jocular epigram, that the Holy Roman +Empire was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire. With similar truth it +may be said that Christian Science is neither Christian nor science, +in any ordinary sense of those words. Still, perhaps we ought to allow +an inventor to christen his own creation, even if the name seems +inappropriate or likely to cause misunderstanding; and, Mrs Eddy having +invented Christian Science as an organised religion--though, as we shall +see, borrowing its main features from an earlier prophet--we may admit +her right to give a name to her astonishing production. In order that +the personal equation may be allowed for, the present writer begs to +affirm that he writes as a sympathetic student though not an adherent. + +Mary A. Morse Baker was born on July 16th, 1821, of pious parents, at +Bow, New Hampshire. Her father was almost illiterate, rather passionate, +a keen hand at a bargain, and a Puritan in religion. All the Bakers were +a trifle cranky and eccentric, but some of them possessed ability of +sorts, though Mary's father made no great success in life. His daughter +made up for him afterwards. + +The first fifteen years of Mary Baker's life were passed at the old +farm at Bow. The place was lonely, the manner of life primitive, and +education not a strong point in the community. Mrs Eddy afterwards +claimed to have studied in her girlhood days Hebrew, Greek, Latin, +natural philosophy, logic, and moral science! It was, however, +maintained by her contemporaries that she was backward and indolent, and +that "Smith's _Grammar_, and as far as long division in arithmetic", +might be taken as indicating the extent of her scholarship. There is +certainly some little discrepancy here, and perhaps Mrs Eddy's memory +was a trifle at fault. She made no claim to any acquaintance with this +formidable array of subjects in the later part of her life, and it +seems probable that her contemporaries were right. Her physical beauty, +coupled with delicate health, seem to have resulted in "spoiling", for +even as a child she dominated her surroundings to a surprising extent. + +In 1843 she married George Glover, who died in June, 1844, leaving her +penniless. Her only child was born in the September following. After ten +years of widowhood she married Daniel Paterson, a travelling dentist. +In 1866 they separated, he making some provision for her. In 1873 she +obtained a divorce on the ground of desertion. In 1877 she married Asa +Gilbert Eddy, who died in 1882. + +So much for her matrimonial experiences, which may now be dismissed, as +they had no particular influence on her character and career. To prevent +confusion, we will call her throughout by the name which is most +familiar to us and to the world. + +The chief event of Mrs Eddy's remarkable life, the event which put her +on the road to fame and fortune, occurred in 1862. This was her meeting +with the famous "healer", Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. This latter was an +unschooled but earnest and benevolent man, who had made experiments in +mesmerism, etc., and who had found--or thought he had found--that people +could be cured of their ailments by "faith". He therefore began to +work out a system of "mind-cure", which he embodied in voluminous MSS. +Patients came to him from far and near, and he treated all, whether they +could pay or not. Quimby was much above the level of the common quack, +and his character commands our respect. He was a man of great natural +intelligence, and was admirable in all his dealings with family, +friends, and patients. + +Mrs Eddy visited him at Portland in 1862, her aim being treatment for +her continued ill-health. She claims to have been cured--in three +weeks--though it is clear from her later letters that the cure was not +complete. Still, great improvement was apparently effected, for she had +been almost bedridden, with some kind of spinal or hysterical complaint, +for eight years previously. But Quimby's effect on her was greater +mentally even than physically. She became interested in his system, +watched his treatment of patients, borrowed his MSS., and mastered his +teachings. In 1864 she visited him again, staying two or three months, +and prosecuting her studies. She now seemed to have formed a definite +desire to assist in teaching his system. No doubt she dimly saw a +possible career opening out in front of her; though we need not +attribute her desire entirely to mere ambition or greed, for it is +probable that Quimby did a great amount of genuine good, and his pupil +would naturally imbibe some of his zeal for the relief of suffering +humanity. + +In 1866 Quimby died, aged sixty-four. His pupil decided to put on the +mantle of her teacher, but more as propagandist and religious prophet +than as healer. In this latter capacity perhaps her sex was against her. +(Even now the average individual seems to have a sad lack of confidence +in the "lady doctor"!) But she was poor, and prospects did not seem +promising. For some time she drifted about among friends--chiefly +spiritualists--preparing MSS. and teaching Quimbyism to anyone who would +listen. (She afterwards denied her indebtedness to Quimby, claiming +direct revelation. "No human pen nor tongue taught me the science +contained in this book, _Science and Health_, and neither tongue nor +pen can overthrow it."--_Science and Health_, p. 110, 1907 edition.) + +Though unsuccessful as healer (in spite of her later claim to have +healed Whittier of "incipient pulmonary consumption" in one visit), +she certainly had the knack of teaching--had the power of inspiring +enthusiasm and of inoculating others with her ideas. In 1870 she +turned up at Lynn, Mass., with a pupil named Richard Kennedy, a lad of +twenty-one. Her aim being to found a religious organisation based on +practical results (the prayer of faith shall heal the sick, etc.), it +was necessary to work with a pupil-practitioner. Accordingly she and +Kennedy took offices at Lynn, and "Dr Kennedy" appeared on a signboard +affixed to a tree. + +Immediate success followed. Patients crowded the waiting-rooms. Kennedy +did the "healing" and Mrs Eddy organised classes, which were recruited +from the ranks of patients and friends; fees, a hundred dollars for +twelve lessons, afterwards raised to three hundred dollars for seven +lessons. Before long, however, she quarrelled with Kennedy, and in 1872 +they separated, but not before she had reaped about six thousand dollars +as her share of the harvest. It was her first taste of success, after +weary years of toil and stress and hysteria and eccentricity. Naturally, +like Alexander, she sighed for further conquest. _L'appetit vient en +mangeant._ And, though in her fiftieth year, she was now more energetic +than ever. + +Her next move was the purchase of a house at 8, Broad Street, Lynn, +which became the first official headquarters of Christian Science. In +1875 appeared her famous book, _Science and Health, With Key to the +Scriptures_, which was financed by two of its author's friends. The +first edition was of a thousand copies. As it sold but slowly, she +persuaded her chief practitioner, Daniel Spofford, to give up his +practice and to devote himself to advertising the book and pushing its +sale. Since then it has been revised many times, and the editions are +legion. Loyal disciples of the better-educated sort have assisted in its +rewriting, and it is now a very presentable kind of affair as to its +literary form. Most, if not all, of the editions have been sold at a +minimum of $3.18 per copy, with _editions de luxe_ at $5 or more, and +the author's other works are published at similarly high prices. All +Christian Scientists were commanded to buy the works of the Reverend +Mother, and all successive editions of those works. It is not surprising +that Mrs Eddy should leave a fortune of a million and a half dollars. It +may be mentioned here that she moved from Lynn to Boston in 1882, thence +to Concord (New Hampshire) in 1889, and finally to a large mansion in a +Boston suburb which she bought for $100,000, spending a similar sum in +remodelling and enlarging. The modern prophet does not dwell in the +wilderness, subsisting on locusts and wild honey. He--or she--has moved +with the times, and has a proper respect for the almighty dollar and the +comforts of civilisation. + +In 1881 was founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical College. This +imposingly-named institution never had any special buildings, and its +instructions were mostly given in Mrs Eddy's parlour, Mrs Eddy herself +constituting all the faculty. Four thousand students passed through +the "College" in seven years, at the end of which period it ceased to +exist. The fees were usually $300 for seven lessons, as before. Few +gold-mines pay as well as did the "Metaphysical College". The fact does +not at first sight increase our respect for the alleged cuteness of the +inhabitants of the States. But, on further investigation, the murder is +out. Most of these students probably earned back by "healing" much more +than they paid Mrs Eddy. Our respect for Uncle Sam's business shrewdness +returns in full force. + +The experiment of conducting religious services had been made by Mrs +Eddy at Lynn in 1875, but the first Christian Science Church was not +chartered until 1879. The Scientists met, however, in various public +halls of Boston, until 1894, when a church was built. This was soon +outgrown, and 10,000 of the faithful pledged themselves to raise two +million dollars for its enlargement. The new building was finished in +1906. Its auditorium holds five thousand people. The walls are decorated +with texts signed "Jesus, the Christ," and "Mary Baker G. Eddy"--these +names standing side by side. + +The following examples, culled almost at random, will further show how +great is her conviction that she has the Truth, how vigorously she bulls +her own stocks (somehow, financial metaphors seem inevitable when +writing of Mrs Eddy): + +"God has been graciously fitting me during many years for the reception +of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific +mental healing". (_Science and Health_, p. 107.) + +"I won my way to absolute conclusion through divine revelation, reason +and demonstration". (_Ibid._, p. 109.) + +"To those natural Christian Scientists, the ancient worthies, and to +Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed the Spirit of Christian Science, +if not the absolute letter". (_Ibid._, p. 483.) + +"The theology of Christian Science is truth; opposed to which is the +error of sickness, sin, and death, that truth destroys". (_Miscellaneous +Writings_, p. 62.) + +"Christian Science is the unfolding of true Metaphysics, that is, +of Mind, or God, and His attributes. Science rests on principle and +demonstration. The Principle of Christian Science is divine". (_Ibid._, +p. 69.) + +The following maybe quoted as an example of mixed good and evil, with a +certain flavour of unconscious humour: + +"Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads its virus and +kills at last. If indulged, it masters us; brings suffering to its +possessor throughout time, and beyond the grave. If you have been badly +wronged, forgive and forget: God will recompense this wrong, and punish, +more severely than you could, him who has striven to injure you". +(_Miscellaneous Writings_, p. 12.) + +The advice is good, but it is not new. And Mrs Eddy seemed to experience +a special joy in the thought that by leaving our enemies alone they +will receive from God a more effective trouncing than we with our poor +appliances could administer. The ideal Christian would not want his +enemies handed over to the inquisitor--he would beg for them to be let +off. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" That is +the Christian attitude. It is perhaps too high for ordinary mortals to +attain to, but Mrs Eddy made such high claims that we are entitled to +judge her by correspondingly high standards. + +The form of service in the various Christian Science churches at first +included a sermon. But Mrs Eddy soon saw that this might introduce +discord: for the preachers might differ in their interpretations of +_Science and Health_. And Mrs Eddy above all things aimed at unity in +order to keep the control in her own hands. Therefore, in 1895, she +forbade preaching altogether. The Bible and _Science and Health, With +Key to the Scriptures_, were to be read from, but no explanatory +comments were to be made. The services comprise Sunday morning and +evening readings from these two books, with music; the Wednesday evening +experience meeting; and the communion service, once or twice a year +only. There is no baptismal, marriage, or burial service, and weddings +and funerals are never conducted in Christian Science churches. + +As to church government, there was a nominal board of directors, but Mrs +Eddy had supreme power. She could appoint or dismiss at will. The Church +was hers, body and soul. Probably no other religious leader ever had +such an unqualified sway. The Holy Father at Rome is a mere figurehead +in comparison with the late Reverend Mother. + +In June, 1907, there were in all 710 branch churches. Of these, +twenty-five were in Canada, fourteen in Britain, two in Ireland, four in +Australia, one in South Africa, eight in Mexico, two in Germany, one in +Holland, one in France, and the remainder in the States. There were also +295 societies not yet incorporated into churches. The total membership +of the 710 churches was probably about 50,000. (In _Pulpit and Press_, +p. 82, Mrs Eddy puts the number at 100,000 to 200,000; and this was in +1895. Some claim that the total number of adherents is as high as a +million. But these are probably exaggerated estimates.) About one-tenth +of these make their living by their faith. Here we come to the secret of +Christian Science success. + +There are about 400 authorised Christian Science "healers", and many +who practise without diploma but not without pay. These people treat +sick folks, receiving fees. Their method is to assure the patient +that he is under a delusion in thinking himself ill, that matter +is an illusion, that God is All, etc. It sounds very absurd. But the +curious thing is that many people have been cured by this treatment, +and--naturally--these people become ardent Christian Scientists. It is +by the practical application that Christian Science as a religion lives +and thrives. As to the kind of diseases cured, the most extravagant +claims are made. In _Miscellaneous Writings_, p. 41, Mrs Eddy +definitely states that "all classes of disease" can be healed by her +method. After careful sifting of much evidence, however, Dr Myers and +his brother (F. W. H. Myers) found that no proof was forthcoming for +the cure of definite organic disease by Christian Science methods. +(_Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol. IX, p. 160; +also _Journal_, vol. VIII, p. 247.) Undoubtedly they have been, and are +continually, efficient in relieving, and even curing, many functional +disorders which have resisted ordinary medical treatment--and it must +be remembered that many functional derangements are as serious, +subjectively, as grave organic disease--and consequently it is +undeniable that Christian Science often does good. But it is probable +that the same amount of good, and perhaps more, could be done by the +hypnotic or suggestive treatment of a qualified medical man, or perhaps +by other forms of "faith-healing". The Christian Scientist is using +suggestion; but he couples it up with religion, and thus, perhaps--with +some people--succeeds in driving the suggestion home with greater +force. It is noteworthy that similar attempts are now being made in +other directions--witness the Emmanuel movement in New York, the +Faithists and various "psycho-therapeutic" societies in England, and +the tendency in some quarters (Bishop of London) to return to anointing +and laying on of hands by clergymen. + +Psychologically, Mrs Eddy is at least classified, if not entirely +explained, by one word--monoideism. She was a person of one idea. These +people, for whom we usually have the simpler term of "crank", are common +enough. I have no personal acquaintance with the circle-squaring and +perpetual-motion cranks mentioned by De Morgan (_The Budget of +Paradoxes_), but I know a "flat-earth" crank, and am well acquainted +with a "British-Israelite" crank, who seems to derive unspeakable +joy--tempered only by his failure to convert me--from the thought that +we Britishers are veritably the descendants of one or more of the Lost +Tribes. All these people are conscious of a mission. They have had a +revelation, and are anxious to impart it. Their efforts may not be due +to the "last infirmity of noble mind", still less to a lower motive. +They may just be built that way. The majority of them, like my +Lost-Tribes friend, get no hearing because of the inflexible pragmatism +of a stiffnecked and utilitarian generation. "What difference does it +make whether we are the Tribes or not?" asks the man in the street. And +he passes on with a shrug or a grin, according to temperament. This +terrible pragmatic test makes short work of many amiable cranks. And it +is just here that Christian Science scores its point; for it cures +physical disease, thereby becoming intensely practical. Health is the +chief "good" of life. Anything that will restore it to an ailing body +commands immediate and universal respect. Christian Science therefore +appeals, on its practical side, to the deepest thing in us--to the +primal instinct of self-preservation. Hence its success. + +It is possible to blame Mrs Eddy unjustly for her love of power as such. +She was not unique in this respect. The difference is that Mrs Eddy +succeeded while the others have not, and are consequently not heard of. +My Lost-Tribes friend would be as autocratic as anybody if he had the +chance; but his motive would not be greed of power, but rather the +overmastering desire to push his cause, to proselytise, to promulgate +his one idea, almost by force, if such a thing were possible. Most of +us know a few fanatics of this kind. The objects of their devotion are +varied--one is mad north-north-west, another south-south-east--but +all suffer from a lack of balance, a lack of proper distribution of +interest. Of course, we may cheerfully admit that we are all more or +less specialists in our several departments, and that the line between +sanity and insanity is rather arbitrary. We all seem more or less mad to +those who do not agree with us. + +The good and true part of Christian Science is its demonstration of the +influence of mind on body, and of the usefulness of inducing mental +states of an optimistic character. It may, of course, be said that we +need no Mrs Eddy to tell us this. True, we don't. The great seers and +poets have always taught optimism, and the influence of mind on body was +medically recognised--more or less--long before even Quimby's time. But +we must remember that different minds need different treatment--need +their nutriment and stimulant in different forms, to suit the various +mental digestions and receptive powers. Consequently, though we may +prefer Browning for optimism and the doctors for hypnotic therapeutics, +we need not complain if others prefer Mrs Eddy and her disciples. +If they get good from their way of putting things, and if that good +manifests itself in their character and life--in their total reaction on +the world--by all means let them continue to walk in their chosen way. +It would be wrong to try to turn them. The system "works"; therefore it +is true for them. The tree is known by its fruits. And the fruits of +Christian Science are undoubtedly often good. In this complex world +nothing is unmixedly good, and harm is no doubt done occasionally. But, +on the whole, it seems probable that Mrs Eddy, with all her hysteria and +morbidities and rancours and queerness, has been a power for good in +the world. Her writings meet a want which some people feel, or, rather, +provide them with a useful impulse in the direction of physical and +spiritual regeneration. If you can make a sick person stop brooding over +his ailments and worrying over things in general, you have achieved +something which enormously increases his chance of recovery; and if you +can make him turn all his thoughts and energies in the direction of +recovery, and all his emotional powers in the direction of love and +goodwill to his fellow-men and towards God, there is no limit to the +powers which may be put in operation. In spite of all our achievements +in science--and they have been great--we are only, as Newton said, +picking up pebbles on the sea-shore. Nature is boundless; we can fix no +limits to her powers. And we know so little, really, about disease, that +I am not at all prepared to deny the Christian Science claims, even +with regard to organic disease. The distinction between organic and +functional is in our own inabilities, not in the nature of the case; +we call a disease "organic" when we find definite tissue-change, and +"functional" when we do not; but in the latter case there must be some +organic basis, though too small perhaps to be discoverable--say a lesion +in a tiny nerve. Consequently I regard the question of Christian Science +cures as entirely one of evidence. I keep an open mind. If I come across +enough evidence, I will believe that it can cure tuberculosis of the +lungs and other diseases, as claimed, whether I can understand how it +does it or not. At present, like Dr Myers, I am not convinced; but I +have seen enough of Christian Science results among my own friends to +prevent me from denying anything. I merely suspend judgment. But I do +believe that the power of the mind over the body is so great that almost +anything is possible; and I think that the medical advance of the next +half-century will be chiefly in this hitherto neglected direction. +I happen to know that this, or something very near this, was the +strongly-held opinion of the late Professor William James of Harvard, +who, in addition to being the most brilliant psychologist of his +generation, was also a qualified doctor of medicine. + + + + +JOAN OF ARC + + +Great results often flow from small causes. Pascal said that if +Cleopatra's nose had been shorter the history of the world would have +been different. Similarly it may be truly said that if a peasant girl of +Domremy had not had hallucinations, France would now have been a British +province. And it is curious to reflect that the Church which burnt her +as a heretic and sorcerer has her, and her only, to thank for such +hold as it still maintains on France, for the latter would have become +Protestant if England had won. The Roman church now recognises this, and +has beatified the Maid. The next step will be her canonisation as a +saint. Thus does the whirligig of Time bring its revenges. + +Jeanne d'Arc was born in the village of Domremy near Vaucouleurs, on the +border of Champagne and Lorraine, on January 6th, 1412. She was taught +to spin and to sew, but not to read or write, these accomplishments +being beyond what was necessary for people in her station of life. Her +parents were devout, and she was brought up piously. Her nature was +gentle, modest, and religious, but with no physical weakness or morbid +abnormality--on the contrary, she was exceptionally strong, as her later +history proves. + +At or about the age of thirteen, Jeanne began to experience what +psychology now calls "auditory hallucinations". That is, she heard +voices--usually accompanied by a bright light--when no visible person +was present. This, of course, is a common symptom of impending mental +disorder; but no insanity developed in Jeanne d'Arc. Startled she +naturally was at first, but continuation led to familiarity and trust. +The voices gave good counsel of a commonplace kind, as, for instance, +that she "must be a good girl and go regularly to church." Soon, +however, she began to have visions: saw St Michael, St Catherine, and St +Margaret; was given instructions as to her mission; eventually made her +way to the Dauphin; put herself at the head of 6,000 men, and advanced +to the relief of Orleans, which was besieged by the conquering English. +After a fortnight of hard fighting the siege was raised, and the enemy +driven off. The tide of war had turned, and in three months the Dauphin +was crowned King at Rheims, as Charles the Seventh. + +At this point Jeanne felt that her mission was accomplished. But her +wish to return to her family was over-ruled by king and archbishop, and +she took part in the further fighting against the allied English and +Burgundian forces, showing great bravery and tactical skill. But in +November, 1430, in a desperate sally from Compiegne--which was besieged +by the Duke of Burgundy--she fell into the enemy's hands, was sold to +the English, and thrown into a dungeon at their headquarters in Rouen. + +After a year's imprisonment she was brought to trial--a mock trial +before the Bishop of Beauvais, in an ecclesiastical court. Learned +doctors of the church did their best to entangle the simple girl in +their dialectical toils; but she showed a remarkable power of keeping to +her simple affirmations and of avoiding heretical statements. "God has +always been my Lord in all that I have done". But the trial was only +pretence, for her fate was already decided. She was burnt to death, +amid the jeers and execration of a rabble of brutal soldiery, in a Rouen +market-place on May 30th, 1431. + +The life of the Maid supplies a problem which orthodox science cannot +solve. She was a simple peasant girl, with no ambitions hankering after +a career. She rebelled pathetically against her mission. "I had far +rather rest and spin by my mother's side, for this is no work of my +choosing, but I must go and do it, for my Lord wills it." She cannot be +dismissed on the "simple idiot" theory of Voltaire, for her genius in +war and her aptitude in repartee undoubtedly prove exceptional mental +powers, unschooled though she was in what we call education. We cannot +call her a mere hysteric, for her health and strength were superb. A man +of science once said to an Abbe: "Come to the Salpetriere Hospital, and +I will show you twenty Jeannes d'Arc." To which the Abbe responded: "Has +one of them given us back Alsace and Lorraine?" + +There is the crux, as Andrew Lang quietly remarked. + +The retort was certainly neat. Still, though the Salpetriere hysterics +have not won back Alsace and Lorraine, it is nevertheless true that a +great movement may be started, or kept going when started, by fraud, +hallucination, and credulity. The Mormons, for example, are a strong +body, but the origins of their faith will not bear much criticism. _The +Book of Mormon_, handed down from heaven by an angel, is more than we +can swallow. No one saw its "metal leaves"--from which Joseph Smith +translated--except Joseph himself. We have our own opinion about +Joseph's truthfulness. Somewhat similarly with spiritualism. The great +movement is there, based partly on fact as I believe, but supported by +some fraud and much ignorance and credulity. May it not have been +somewhat thus with Jeanne? She delivered France, and her importance in +history is great; but may not her mission and her doings have been the +outcome of merely subjective hallucinations, induced by the brooding of +her specially religious and patriotic mind on the woes of her country? +The army, being ignorant and superstitious, would readily believe in the +supernatural character of her mission, and great energy and valour would +follow as a matter of course--for a man fights well when he believes +that Providence is on his side. + +That is the usual kind of theory in explanation of the facts. But it is +not fully satisfactory. How came it--one may ask--that this untutored +peasant girl could persuade not only the rude soldiery, but also the +Dauphin and the court, of her Divine appointment? How came she to be +given the command of an army? Surely a post of such responsibility and +power would not be given to a peasant girl of eighteen, on the mere +strength of her own claim to inspiration. It seems, at least, very +improbable. + +Now it seems (though the materialistic school of historians conveniently +ignore or belittle it) that there is strong evidence in support of the +idea that Jeanne gave the Dauphin some proof of the possession of +supernormal faculties. In fact, the evidence is so strong that Mr Lang +called it "unimpeachable"--and Mr Lang did not usually err on the side +of credulity in these matters. Among other curious things, Jeanne seems +to have repeated to Charles the words of a prayer which he had made +mentally, and she also made some kind of clairvoyant discovery of a +sword hidden behind the altar of Fierbois church. Schiller's magnificent +dramatic poem "_Die Jungfrau von Orleans_," though unhistorical in some +details, is substantially accurate on these points concerning +clairvoyance and mind-reading. + +As to the voices and visions, a Protestant will have a certain prejudice +with regard to the St Michael, St Catherine, and St Margaret stories, +though he may very possibly be wrong in his disbelief. But, waiving +that, it may be true that some genuine inspiration was truly given to +the Maid from the deeper strata of her own soul, and that these +monitions externalised themselves in the forms in which her thought +habitually ran. If she had been a Greek of two thousand years earlier, +her visions would probably have taken the form of Apollo and Pallas +Athene; yet they might equally well have contained truth and good +counsel, as did the utterances of the Oracles. + +And, speaking of the Greeks, we may remember that the wisest of that +race had similar experiences. Socrates--the pre-eminent type of sanity +and mental burliness--was counselled by his "daimon"; by a warning Voice +which, truly, did not give positive advice like Jeanne's, but which +intervened to stop him when about to make some wrong decision. Again--to +jump suddenly down to modern times--Charles Dickens says in his letters +that the characters of his novels took on a kind of independent +existence, and that Mrs Gamp, his greatest creation, spoke to him +(generally in church) as with an actual voice. In fact, all cases of +creative genius, whether in literature, art, or invention, are examples +of an uprush from unknown mental depths: the process is not the same as +the intellectual process of reasoning. In these cases, as for instance +with Socrates, Jeanne d'Arc, Dickens, the deeper strata of the mind +may be supposed to send up thoughts so vigorously that they become +externalised as hallucinations; not necessarily morbid or injurious, +though of course many hallucinations are undoubtedly both. The +inspiration rises from below the conscious threshold. It is as if +"given"; and the normal conscious mind looks on in passive astonishment. +_Alles ist als wie geschenkt_, says Goethe--and he knew, if anybody did. +A similar thing happens, on a more ordinary plane, when a problem that +has baffled the working mind is solved in sleep. In short, the normal +consciousness is not all there is of us; there are levels and powers +below the threshold. And it seems likely that the new psychology is on +the track of a better explanation of Socrates and Jeanne d'Arc, as well +as of the nature of genius in general, than has yet been excogitated by +the philosophers. Certainly these things supply interesting material for +study, and many curious discoveries are now being made in this field of +research. + + + + +IS THE EARTH ALIVE? + + +Some of the ancients thought the earth was an animal. It has its hard +and soft parts, its bone and flesh--rock and soil--as the Norse +cosmology pictured it; also its blood, of seas, rivers, and the like. +To a coast-dwelling people, the rhythmic inflow and outflow of the +tides would suggest a huge slow blood-pulsation, or a breathing. And +heat increases with depth, in mine or cave; fire spouts from Etna and +Vesuvius; evidently the earth is hotter inside than at the surface, as +animals are hotter inside than on their skins. Some such animal-notion +was held by Plato, and by some of the later Stoics; though it does not +seem to have been worked out in detail. And the Greek, Indian, or +Egyptian theology which made the earth a goddess and the bride of +Heaven or the sun, is still more indefinite, or is crudely +anthropomorphic and primitive. + +Modern approximations have been chiefly in poetry, and are pan-psychic +rather than animistic; as in Pope's _Essay on Man_: + + All are but parts of one stupendous whole, + Whose body Nature is, and God the soul, + +and in Wordsworth's _Tintern Abbey_ where the presence which disturbs +him with the joy of elevated thoughts is felt to be the Spirit which has +its dwelling in the light of setting suns and the round ocean and the +living air: + + A motion and a spirit that impels + All thinking things, all objects of all thought, + And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still + A lover of the meadows and the woods, + And mountains; and all that we behold + From this green earth; of all the mighty world + Of eye, and ear. + +Emerson expresses the same thought in _Pan_ and in much of his +prose--_Nature_, _The Over Soul_, _Self-Reliance_. William James, in +early days before his pluralistic development, thought that an _anima +mundi_ thinking in all of us was a more likely hypothesis than that of +"a lot of individual souls"; and Leibnitz, among other metaphysical +great ones, Spinozistically speaks of "un seul esprit qui est universel +et qui anime tout l'univers". Finally, to quote a modern of the moderns, +we find Mr H. G. Wells finely saying that "between you and me as we set +our minds together, and between us and the rest of mankind, there is +_something_, something real, something that rises through us and is +neither you nor me, that comprehends us, that is thinking here and using +me and you to play against each other in that thinking just as my finger +and thumb play against each other as I hold this pen with which I +write". (_First and Last Things_, p. 67.) + +But these various poets and thinkers, while suggesting a soul-side +of the material universe, have not ventured to attribute spirits to +specific lumps of matter such as the planets. Science has banished those +celestial genii. Kepler and Newton substituted for them the "bald and +barren doctrine of gravitation", to the disgust of the theologically +orthodox. It is possible, however, that science did not banish these +planetary spirits, but only prevented us from seeing them, by turning +our eyes in another direction, towards the laws according to which the +material universe works; as if we should become so absorbed in the +chemistry and physics of blood oxidation, digestion, cerebral change, +and the like, as to forget that the human body has a consciousness +associated with it. It may be that we are too materialistic in our +astronomy. Perhaps Lorenzo was right, even about the music of the +spheres; and that our deafness, not their silence, is the reason why +we do not hear it. + +The nineteenth century produced a thinker who revived the animistic +idea in an improved form. He elaborated it into a system of philosophy, +welding into it the discoveries of science, and leaving room for any +further advance in that direction. At the same time he showed that his +system was essentially religious, and indeed quite consistent with +Christianity in its best interpretations. But his writings fell almost +dead from the press, for he was before his time. The scientific men were +materialists, and sneered at a system which recognised a spiritual +world; while the orthodox Christians were scared by its evolutionary +method and its acceptance of Darwinism when the latter arrived--for the +philosophy preceded it--and also by the novelty of some of its ideas. + +Gustav Theodor Fechner was born on April 19, 1801, at Gross-Saerchen in +what is now Silesia, then under the Elector of Saxony. He studied at +Leipzig, and was appointed professor of Physics at the University there, +in 1834. He conducted several scientific journals, wrote text-books, +translated Biot's _Physics_ (4 vols.) Thenard's _Chemistry_ (6 vols.) +and a work on cerebral pathology; also edited an eight-volume +_Encyclopaedia_ of which he wrote about a third himself, lectured, and +made researches in electro-magnetism which injured his eyesight. His +chief scientific work, _Elements of Psycho-Physics_, was published in +1859, additions being made in 1877 and 1882. "Fechner's Law", the +fundamental law of psychophysics (that sensation varies in the ratio +of the logarithm of impression) is now an internationally current term. +Men like Paulsen and Wundt do not hesitate to call Fechner master. His +chief philosophical work is _Zend-Avesta_ (3 vols.) published in 1851, +and rearranged and condensed in _Die Tagesansicht gegenueber der +Nachtansicht_ (1879); but he published also many subsidiary volumes. +Only one of his works has appeared in English--the small volume on +_Life After Death_--and even this had to be brought out by an American +publisher! Yet Fechner is, as Professor William James said, "a +philosopher in the great sense ... little known as yet to English +readers, but destined, I am persuaded, to wield more and more influence +as time goes on". (_A Pluralistic Universe_, pp. 135, 149.) The prophecy +is already beginning to come true. + +Fechner always begins with the known and indisputable, arguing thence +to the unknown. His method is thus analogical and scientific. It is the +only method that a scientific generation will tolerate. Its results may +be disputed, but so can the results of science. Even mathematics gives +us no certainties, for something must always be taken for granted. In +philosophising by analogy, we do at least keep in close touch with +experience; we do not evaporate the world into an "unearthly ballet of +bloodless categories". And if the analogies point mostly one way, with +only weak ones pointing the other, the result may be at least acceptable +as a working hypothesis, even if not "demonstrable". + +Man is a living, thinking, feeling being. He is on the surface of a +nearly spherical body, which he calls the earth, out of which his +material part has arisen. The elements of his body are the same as +those in the earth. His carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen are the +carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen of the coal measures, soils, +atmosphere, oceans, of the earth. The calcium carbonate of his bones is +the calcium carbonate of her rocks as seen in cliffs at Flamborough and +Dover. He is bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh. Sometimes he calls +her Mother Earth, and involuntarily speaks the truth in jest. In Siberia +the Tartar word for the earth is "Mamma"--a curious fact. Indeed, the +bond between the earth and her children is much closer than in the case +of a human mother and her child; for we remain, all our lives, actually +_part_ of the planet's mass. If our bodies were suddenly annihilated, +the earth's gravitative attraction would be altered, and the whole solar +system would have to readjust itself to the slight diminution. We belong +to the earth. We are a film of cells on her skin. In Piccadilly and the +Bowery (and Throgmorton and Wall Streets?) we are--alas!--an eczematous +patch. + +But here it may be objected that man is more than a mere body. Quite +true. Man has experiences of an order different from the material one. +You cannot express joy and sorrow by chemical equations or number +of foot-pounds. Even if there is a material equivalent or necessary +concomitant, of electrical or chemical change in cerebral tissue or +what not, the fact of the non-material experience remains a reality. To +indicate this side of human life, we call it the spiritual side. We say +that man is matter and spirit, body and soul. This is quite justifiable +and right, whether we can define the terms or not. Definition means +explaining a word by means of others that are better known. And as we +cannot get any closer to reality than our own experience, which _is_ +reality to us, and as the two words conveniently classify two great +departments of experience, we justifiably say that we are soul and +body. Very well; the body, then, when we die, returns to the earth, from +which indeed it has not been severed, except as being a point at which a +special kind of activity was manifested. What then of the soul? Shall it +not return to the earth-soul, as the body returns to the earth-body? + +Man has arisen out of the earth. And can the dead give birth to the +living? Such an idea is self-contradictory. If the Earth has produced +us, it cannot be really a mere dead lump, as nineteenth-century +materialistic science regarded it. It must be alive. The fifteen hundred +millions or so of human beings who live on its surface like microscopic +insects on the body of an elephant, or like epidermis-cells on our +own bodies, constitute in their total weight and size only an almost +infinitesimal proportion of the earth's mass. The earth is 8,000 miles +in diameter; if human beings were so numerous that they could only stand +up, wedged together all over its surface, tropics and poles, land and +water--the latter covers seven-tenths of it--they would only be like a +skin 1/200,000th part of an inch thick, on a globe a yard in diameter. +The total mass of all the living creatures on the earth's surface, +including all animals and all vegetation, is almost inconceivably small, +as compared with the mass of the earth. Is it not a trifle ludicrous to +find some of these little creatures looking down so condescendingly on +the remainder of the planet? Emerson was among the few who have seen the +joke, for in _Hamatreya_ he satirises those who boast of possessing +pieces of the earth: + + Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds: + And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough. + Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys + Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; + Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet + Clear of the grave. + +And the earth sings: + + They called me theirs, + Who so controlled me; + Yet every one + Wished to stay, and is gone, + How am I theirs, + If they cannot hold me, + But I hold them? + +A very natural objection to the idea of the earth being full of life +and mind--as my body is full of my life and my mind--is that the +inorganic part of the planet presents no evidence of such. It does +not act as if it were alive and conscious. But this begs the whole +question. If you decide beforehand that all evidence for the existence +of mind must be the sort of phenomena exhibited by the things we call +living, the business is settled, and it is clear that the inorganic +kingdom is without consciousness. There is then no sign of mind +anywhere except in that infinitesimally thin and indeed discontinuous +skin which is made up of living individuals on the earth's surface. But +is it not somewhat presumptuous to dogmatise thus? Why should mind +always manifest itself in the same way? Non-living matter does not show +vital activities, but it does show other activities, quite systematic +and non-chaotic and comprehensible ones. How could "dead" matter have +any activity at all? Even Haeckel postulates a sort of mind in the +atom, and we have heard of "mind-stuff" before, from an equally +determined materialist. Indeed, how can we rationalise the behaviour +of phosphorus in oxygen but by saying that the two elements like each +other so well that they rush to combine whenever possible? If carbon +has great "affinity," showing a tendency to combine with many atoms of +other elements in various complicated ways--at least as regards its +favourite types--it is reasonable to regard it as a much-loving +element--the polygamous Solomon of the elements. If fluorine will +have nothing to do with other substances--except under protest, when +persuaded by Miss Hydrogen, whose gaiety and levity sometimes overcome +its sulkiness, bringing it also into the society of calcium and one or +two other metals--we must say that fluorine is unsociable, morbidly +self-centred, or perhaps mystically disposed, like Thoreau, happy by +his pond, alone. Chemical affinity is the loves of the elements. + +Rising to the next grade of complexity above atoms, we find that +molecular movements, visible in the apparently representative Brownian +movements of particles, recall the fidget of a bunch of midges, +and thereby suggest a sort of life. They disobey the second law of +thermodynamics, rising in a lighter liquid, as midges rise in the +tenuous air. Of course no one can deny that in the things we call living +there are phenomena not seen elsewhere, and some of these are quite +probably not understandable at all, in terms of measurement or imagery, +as we can understand the Brownian movements by irregular bombardment of +molecules. We cannot understand the relation between a supposed +brain-change and the corresponding mental fact. The two orders of +being seem disjunctive. Perhaps these things are too close to us to be +understood; perhaps we cannot understand life and consciousness because +we are ourselves alive and conscious--as we cannot lift ourselves by +pulling at our boot tops, and cannot see our own faces because the eyes +that see are _in_ the face that is to be seen. Still the distinction +between life at its lowest and non-life at its highest (crystals?) is +so small that we may yet effect a smooth transition--may somehow see a +continuity which now eludes us. And it seems likely that this will be +effected by an extension of the mind-idea down into the inorganic, +rather than by any explanation of life by physical and chemical +concepts. + +Again, on the larger scale, may not cohesion, as well as chemical +affinity, be a sort of affection; in this case a kind of wide social +friendship--the "adhesive love" of Whitman, which is to supersede +"amative love"--as against the fierce and narrow loves of the elements? +A. C. Benson in _Joyous Gard_ (p. 128) quotes a geologist who says: + + It is not by any means certain that stones do not have a certain + obscure life of their own; I have sometimes thought that their + marvellous cohesion may be a sign of life, and that if life were + withdrawn, a mountain might in a moment become a heap of sliding + sand. + +Yes, and even in sand-grains there is cohesion of particles, and in +the smallest particles huge numbers of molecules, and again--still +smaller--atoms and electrons. Something elusive yet tremendously potent +is still there, in the sand. It would be rash to call it dead and +mindless. There seems more sense in admitting that there is something +akin to what we know as life and mind in ourselves, permeating the +material universe. + +And if--to come back to our own planet--if the earth is a living +organism, there will naturally be distribution of function, as there +is in our own bodies. It would be absurd for the eye to deny life and +perception to ear or skin just because their mode of activity is +different. It is wiser to concede life and mind where-ever there is +action. In the present state of affairs, not only do we get into +difficulties by our rash assumption that there is no mind without +protoplasm (_ohne Phosphor kein Gedanke_, as the old materialist too +boldly said), but we find it impossible to draw the line between living +and non-living. Drops of oil exhibit amoeboid movements, and at the +lower end of life the slime-mass becomes so undifferentiated as to be +very much in a borderland between the two states. Probably non-living +substances gradate into living ones by imperceptible _differentiae_, as +man would be found to gradate back into an anthropoid ape or something +of the kind if we could see all the stages. Nature does not make jumps. +Where she seems to do so, it is only because we cannot see how she +gets from one place to another distant one. But when we scrutinise the +interspace, we see that there is a path. Nature does not jump. She +glides. + +It is on this line of thought that the disagreement between the schools +represented by Sir Edward Schaefer and Dr Hans Driesch respectively +may, perhaps, be happily resolved. No doubt each may have to make +concessions. The mechanist must not claim that mind is _only_ an affair +of nitrogenous colloids, for this would be a large assumption built on +a very small foundation; no biologist, however much he knows about +nitrogenous colloids, can in any conceivable sense explain his joy in a +sunset or a symphony by reference to those substances. Physical causes +have physical effects; to say that they cause anything non-physical +(_i.e._ mental) is really talking nonsense. And, on the other hand, +the vitalist must not deny consciousness to non-protoplasmic Nature. +Negations are dangerous. It is extremely risky to say that a Matterhorn +has less spiritual significance--in itself and for the whole, and not +only for us--than a cretin who wanders useless and unbeautiful about its +lower slopes. The activities of the two are different, that is all we +are justified in saying. True, the Matterhorn's are more calculable and +predictable, but that does not prove unconsciousness. Human action also +is predictable to some extent. And the more wise and unified a man +is--the nearer he approximates to ideal perfection--the more accurately +we can predict his response to a given stimulus. We might almost argue, +on these lines, that inorganic matter has a certain superiority; for +it is not capricious. It knows what it wants to do, and does it; or at +least--if this is going too far--it does things, and does them _as if_ +it knew very well what it wanted to do. To the same conditions and +stimuli it always responds in the same way, like reflex action in living +beings, and like association in ordinary consciousness. Water always +boils punctually at 100 deg.C., and freezes at 0 deg.C., if the pressure +is 760mm. of mercury. "Canal" always makes me think of Panama and +Mars--though to other people it might suggest Suez, their different +experience having given them other association-couplings. But any one +knowing me well, or knowing any one well, could say almost certainly +what associations "canal" would have--what thought it will evoke. And +the same thing is true, to a less extent, of our actions. If a man hits +Jack Johnson, the latter will probably hit back. Still more certain is +it that no one will hit him unless drunk or insane or in some sort of +very exceptional circumstances. If, on the other hand, somebody hits me, +the outcome is less certain. It will depend to a greater extent on the +result of reflection and judgment--perhaps partly on my estimate of the +other fellow's weight, age, training and science! Yet anyone knowing +me well, and perceiving the main conditions, could predict with fair +approach to accuracy what I should do. Yet I am undoubtedly a conscious +being. Some actions of conscious beings, then, are predictable, if we +know the conditions. Indeed, in the mass, human action is calculable +with precision--witness the various kinds of insurance. Why then +deny consciousness to the Matterhorn, because _all_ its actions are +calculable and predictable? The difference is one of degree, not kind. +And indeed _are_ all its actions predictable? The fact is, they are only +hypothetically so. We say that they would be if we knew enough. But we +might say the same of the actions of a man. The truth is, that if we say +it of either we are arguing dangerously, from our ignorance and not from +our knowledge. It is indeed as risky to say that we could predict the +Matterhorn's actions _in toto_, as to say that we cannot predict the +man's; for we are continually finding that matter does things which we +did not formerly suspect--_e.g._ radio-activity. Clearly, we cannot +predict all the activities of the Matterhorn: many may depend on +undiscovered properties. So it seems that even if some human actions, +such as Newton's discovery of the law of gravitation and Milton's +_Paradise Lost_ and Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy and Raphael's Sistine +Madonna, are strictly unpredictable, it still does not sufficiently +differentiate us from the Matterhorn, which on its part also has its +unpredictabilities. + +As to what parts of matter have separate spirits--where the +Snowdon-spirit ends and the Moel Siabod spirit begins, and so on--we +need not trouble much about that. This individualising of parts is +a reasonable supposition, but it is not necessary to press it. Mr +Maurice Hewlett has seen the _genius loci_ of a sunny woodland +landscape translated into human idiom as an opulent Titianesque +beauty (_Lore of Proserpine_), and Manfred sees or feels a spirit of +the Alps; but these are details. The only thing that matters is the +ensoulment of the earth as a whole. No doubt its spirit-part is +divided up somehow, correspondent to its material conformation, as +our spirits are divided from each other. The division, however, is +not a hermetic sealing off. The universe is continuous. Indeed its +parts are inter-penetrative, for every particle influences every +other particle--and a thing cannot act where it is not. Similarly, +human beings are found to have modes of communication other than +those hitherto recognised by orthodox science, and are somehow able +to influence others without regard to distance. We seem to be +connected with each other in the unseen, subliminal, spiritual +region. Our separateness is illusory. So with individualisations of +earth-features. They have individual aspects, both on the physical +and spiritual side; but they are part of the one earth and its one +spirit, as we ourselves are. And that earth-spirit is part of +the universe-spirit or God, as the human spirit is part of the +earth-spirit. + +It is perhaps difficult, at first, to think of the earth as having a +life and consciousness of its own, for we are located at little points, +and do not see it whole, nor do we see from the inside. We are like an +eye which looks at the body of which it forms a part, and finds it +difficult to believe in auditory, tactile, olfactory experience; more +difficult still to conceive of pure thought, emotion, will. If the earth +seems a dead lump, however, think of the human brain. It is a mere lump +of whitish filaments, _seen from outside_. But its inner experience is +the rich and infinitely detailed life of a human being. So also may the +inner experience of the earth be incomparably richer than its outer +appearance indicates to our external senses. Objectively, our brains are +part of the earth: subjectively, _we see in ourselves a part of what the +earth sees in itself_. + +In thinking of the earth as an organised being, we must guard against +the error of the ancients who called it an animal. It is not an animal. +It is a Being of a higher character than any animal, for it includes +all animals and all human beings, comprising in its spirit all their +spiritual activities, and having its own activities as well. We are to +it, as our blood-corpuscles are to us; and to think of the earth-spirit +as being like our spirits would be equivalent to a blood-corpuscle +thinking of its containing body as another corpuscle, only bigger. +Whereas the truth is that a man has feelings and cognitions and +purposes, and performs acts, which the corpuscles cannot in the least +comprehend. (Somewhat similarly, a drop cannot have waves, or a small +celestial body an atmosphere; the lower cannot have what the higher has, +nor can it understand it.) The corpuscle may know or believe that its +conscience or intuition is a sort of leakage down to it, of the mind or +will of its greater self (the voice of its God), and that in so far as +it does its duty according to its lights it is assisting the purposes +of that higher Being of which it forms a part; and this faith is its +highest wisdom. So with us. Human duty, done sincerely according to our +lights, is furthering the purposes of the higher Being in whom we live +and move. This faith is our highest wisdom concerning our relation to +the earth-spirit. We see, then, that there is a good deal of sense in +faith and intuition. They are rationally justified. By them we are dimly +in touch with the over-soul on our inner side: not _really_ dimly, for +the connection is close and real, but dimly to our normal consciousness. +The connection _via_ intellect is an external, round-about affair, +necessary and useful, but different. We need to cultivate both. This is +the essence of the philosophy of Bergson. There is more than one way of +receiving truth. Science is apt to overlook the intuitional way. + +On this conscience-side or moral aspect, the Fechnerian idea is +particularly fruitful and illuminating. The analogy of our own mind is +once more the key--the mirror wherewith to view the greater landscape, +the village wherefrom to draw inferences about nations. In childhood, +the world is, as James said, a big, blooming, buzzing confusion: +sensations pour in quite unconnected; the baby sees the moon, and +stretches out an arm to grab it, thus learning that it is not grabable. +It is only gradually that the child learns to associate sounds with +sights; to know what sounds indicate its mother's presence or proximity, +and what sounds its father's. Gradually, individual experiences get +linked up and harmonised. Then other disjointednesses arise. Foolish +impulses war against better judgment and parents' advice, and the +youth's mind is "torn", as we say, very aptly describing the feeling. +Growing older and wiser, his mind becomes more unified and consequently +more calm. His powers are marshalled and directed consciously at a +goal or goals. Wayward impulses are reined in. We feel that poise and +strength and wisdom are attained: never perfectly and ideally, but at +least to a considerable degree, as compared with the earlier state. + +So with the earth-spirit. Being far greater than the human +subsidiary spirits, it is longer in coming to maturity. Its elements +are still largely at loggerheads with each other. The nations war +against each other, and universal peace seems a long time in coming. +But steadily, steadily works the earth-spirit, and the nations almost +unconsciously--like somnambulists--carry out its will. They are working, +consciously or unconsciously, towards universal at-one-ment. A League of +Nations has arisen, and the Federation of the World is in sight. Union +is the political watch-word. Labour is combining throughout the world. +East is learning from West, and West from East. China sends her +students to Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Harvard, and welcomes Western +methods. India repays our civilising with the poems of Tagore. In trade, +thousands of small businesses are unified in a few great combines, +preparing for some sort of Socialism. Finance spreads its world-wide +network. Science is becoming international. The frontiers are melting; +coalescence, unity, harmony are being achieved. The earth-spirit is +reconciling its warring elements. When it succeeds in the complete +reconciliation; when the era of universal peace and brotherhood shall +dawn; when it reaches its huge equivalent of the ripe, calm, contented +wisdom of human age--ah, then will come a state of things which we can +but dimly prefigure. But it will come. The age of gold is in the future, +not the past. It is our duty and our privilege to hasten the coming of +this millennium. And even this is not the end. We cannot conceive the +things that shall be. Eye hath not seen, or ear heard. Enough for us to +know the tendency, and to trust ourselves to it, actively co-operating. + + Before beginning, and without an end, + As space eternal, and as surety sure, + Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good, + Only its laws endure. + + This is its touch upon the blossomed rose, + The fashion of its hand shaped lotus-leaves; + In dark soil and the silence of the seeds + The robe of Spring it weaves. + + It maketh and unmaketh, mending all; + What it hath wrought is better than had been; + Slow grows the splendid pattern that it plans, + Its wistful hands between. + + This is its work upon the things ye see: + The unseen things are more; men's hearts and minds, + The thoughts of peoples and their ways and wills, + Those, too, the great Law binds. + --Sir Edwin Arnold, _Light of Asia_. + +Is it asked: "Who is the Law-giver, and to what end is the Law?" The +question is foolish. Parts cannot know wholes, and the whole does not +want parts to be anything but what they obviously are. Each fits into +its place, and can do useful work there. Let it keep to tasks "of a size +with its capacity"--as a Kempis says--and leave the rest. "What doth the +Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk +humbly with thy God?" + + + + +RELIGIOUS BELIEF AFTER THE WAR + + +There is naturally and rightly a great deal of anxiety in the minds of +most thoughtful people as to the state of religion after the war. The +old order seems to have come down in chaos about our ears, and we are +wondering what shape the new building will take. Even our clergy, or +some of them, are honestly confessing that beliefs can never be just +the same again; to name only two things, they feel that the literal +acceptance of the non-resistance doctrine is no longer unqualifiedly +possible, as many were formerly inclined to maintain; for the aggression +of Germany has made clear the necessity of resisting evil; second, +that the old Protestant doctrine of immediate heaven or hell cannot +satisfactorily be applied to many of the millions of young fellows +who have gone over; some idea of more gradual progress through an +intermediate state seems more reasonable. But will this be sufficient? +Shall we jog on again, after this world-shaking cataclysm, with +such a very microscopical trimming--such an almost imperceptible +sail-reefing--as this? Will not rather the whole theological scheme have +to be remodelled? Can nations which have suffered as the belligerents +have suffered--even those at home, still more the brave lads who have +gone through experiences such as they never dreamed of in their worst +nightmares--can these people, even if they wish, accept the old scheme, +or anything like it? + +I am not going to try to answer such a large question directly. +Mr Wells has attempted something of the sort in his book, _God the +Invisible King_, and he prophesies a religious revolution. It may come +as he thinks, but it is perhaps more probable that, in spite of the +most earth-shaking events, a certain continuity of thought will be +maintained. New religions are not manufactured complete while you wait, +like Pallas emerging full-armed from the head of Zeus; or, if they are, +by such brilliant Olympians as Mr Wells, they do not get themselves +accepted. But there probably will be enough of a change to be called a +very considerable thought-revolution, even allowing for some inevitable +continuity; and inasmuch as each expression of opinion counts as a datum +and as a directive agency, I venture to make my prophecy. And I avoid +the negative side, also any argument as to whether or why this or that +particular doctrine will become obsolete; I think it better to let +obsolescent beliefs drop quietly into their limbo, and to concern +ourselves with the living ones that will replace them. + +First and most important, the idea of God. We have heard, over and over +again, the pathetic cry: "Why does God permit such things? Surely He +must be either not All-good or not Almighty?" And one hears of men, even +among the clergy, whose minds have been clouded by this difficulty. +Mr Wells solves the problem in the fashion of J. S. Mill and the late +William James, by postulating a finite god, a good being who is doing +his best but who is struggling with a refractory material. To many +people this seems a helpful notion, for it saves God's goodness and +gives a pleasurable sense of being co-workers with Him in His effort to +improve things. But to many of us it is unsatisfactory. Indeed, if one +could say such a thing of the author of _Bealby_ and of the most genial +of modern philosophers, we might say that the finite-god idea seems +impossible to anyone with a sense of humour. Is it not really rather +ridiculous of us to decide so solemnly that God is no doubt a good +fellow but that He is having a tough time of it in fighting Satan, and +that there does not seem to be any certainty of His winning? Perhaps +the idea appeals to adventurous spirits like Wells and James because it +has an air of being a sporting event, and promises excitement; but, I +repeat, is it not a rather ridiculous proposition for us small creatures +to make? "Finite" and "Infinite" are words; I am not sure that they have +any very clear meaning. As to "infinite" in particular, the idea is only +a negative one; we think of something finite, and then say "it is not +that". But even of "finite", can we say that it has any useful clear +meaning? The pen with which I write this may be said to be finite, for +I can give its dimensions, and in many ways can define the limits of +its powers. But inasmuch as every particle in it attracts every other +particle of matter in the universe, the little pen's finiteness or +infinity depends on whether the universe itself is finite or infinite; +and that is a bigger question than our small wits can settle. And if it +is so with a pen, will it not be more so with greater things? + +We measure things against the foot-rule of our own selves. We can +imagine something much greater than those selves, both physical and +spiritual. But when it comes to conceiving the whole physical universe +of which we form an insignificant part, I do not feel that we can know +whether it is finite or not. It is too big for our foot-rule. Even when +dealing with the distances of the stars, we realise that the billions of +miles which we can talk about so glibly do not convey much to our minds. +We can think of a distance of a few miles fairly clearly, recalling how +long it takes us to walk so far; but greater distances soon become mere +figures, not representing anything that we can picture. And when we +reach the conception of the whole physical universe, we get quite out of +our depth. We do not know whether it is finite or infinite; we know only +that it is inconceivably greater than we are. + +So with the spirit which energises through it. Beginning with what we +know best, we find ourselves acquainted with a world of mental phenomena +bound together in and by what we call our self. Whatever we think of +Hume's argument that a mass of experiences do not involve a soul that +has them, it is reasonable and useful to have a name for the active +thing which perceives and thinks and acts and feels, whether we call it +soul or spirit or mind or self or _x_. It is something which maintains +a sort of identity, in spite of growth and change; and it is marked off +from other selves. John Smith has John Smith's experiences, not William +Jones's. This individual spirit energises through each of our bodies. Of +our own spirit we have a very close knowledge, of other spirits we have +a rather more remote knowledge from inference; we infer their states of +mind from the states of body which we observe, or from the material +effects which they cause in speaking or writing. Passing from the +inferred human spirits (inferred because certain lumps of matter act in +a way similar to that of the lumps which we call our own bodies), we +come to other and larger and very different pieces of matter such as +planets. It may seem at the first glance an absurd idea, but I for one +cannot think of matter as dead, or of a whole planet without any soul +except what is in the human bodies which make up an infinitesimal +portion of its mass. It seems to me that there must be some sort of +mind energising through the planet-mass as my own mind energises +through my body-mass. And, carrying the idea further, we arrive at a +conception of the whole universe as ensouled by a Being who in the +material immanent manifestation is the Logos of the Christian doctrine, +but who also transcends the material part as indeed the Christian +doctrine teaches. This spirit, transcending the physical universe as +well as energising through it, is greater in comparison with our spirits +than the physical universe is in comparison with our bodies. Therefore, +once more, and to a greater degree, we are out of our depth. To throw +words like finite and infinite at such a Being is to make ourselves +ridiculous. It is like a microbe sticking its own adjective-labels--if +it has any--on a man, whom the microbe's vocabulary as a matter of fact +will not apply to. God is too great for our measure. He is high as +heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know? The +measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea--yea, +than the whole universe itself. + +This conclusion of Zophar the Naamathite, acquiesced in by Job at the +end of the argument, seems to some minds an evaporation of God into an +Absolute without any human attributes. We feel the necessity or at least +the desirability of regarding Him as good, loving, etc., and we shrink +from any de-personalisation. But there is a way out of the difficulty. +God is incomprehensible, as the Creed says; parts cannot comprehend +wholes. But there is something deep in us, call it what you will, which +tells us that our ideals of Good, Truth, and Beauty are divine; are God +in so far as we are able to cognise Him. Good, true, beautiful actions +and thoughts are God manifested through our personal limitations; they +are rainbow colours broken out of the pure white light of God. We do +right to worship them. They are the highest we can comprehend, though we +may reach lame hands of faith to the apprehension of the Unconditioned. +But this is a very great mystery, revealed only to the mystic. And it is +a dangerous path, for by reaching "beyond good and evil" we lose touch +with humanity and with the virtues we can exercise, risking the insanity +to which Nietzsche so logically succumbed. We may dimly apprehend the +Incomprehensible, but we must live and work among comprehensibilities. +That is what we are here for. God is conceived by us--and rightly so +conceived--as Good, Truth, Beauty, though we can see that as He really +is He must transcend them. Mr Wells's distinction between the Finite God +and the Veiled Being is not an ultimate. The two are one, seen as two +because of our limitations. They are the rainbow and its source. The sun +cannot be looked upon directly, but only when dimmed or reflected. + +Then as to immortality. The deaths of so many of our best, and the +sorrow thus brought into almost every home, force this question into +prominence. If blank pessimism is to be avoided, many people feel that +they must have some assurance of the continued existence of those who +have made the supreme sacrifice--a sacrifice at the call of duty, +greater probably than any sacrifice ever made by us of the older +generation who have lived in the smooth times of peace. We feel that if +these magnificent young lives have come to nought, have been _wasted_, +there is no rational religious belief possible to us. Accordingly we +inquire about immortality. And, curiously enough, Science, which in the +last generation tended to deny or discredit individual survival of +bodily death, now gives a quite opposite verdict. Psychical research +brings forward scientific evidence for that welcome belief. It seems +too good to be true; but it is true. Public opinion has not yet fully +accepted it--nor is it well that opinion should change too rapidly--for +it was well drenched in materialism during the heyday of physical +science and its astonishing applications in the latter part of +the nineteenth century, but the leaders of thought in almost all +branches--scientific, legal, literary, and what not--are now admitting +that the evidence is at least surprising, and those who have studied it +most are one by one announcing that it is convincing. There are many +questions yet to solve, such as the nature and occupations of the future +life, concerning which there are different views, and the problems may +turn out to be insoluble; but the main problem seems on the way to +be settled. The survival of human personality is a fact. And the +indications, so far as we have got, suggest that the next stage is a +life of opportunity, work, progress, even more than the present one. +There is much to be thankful for in even this only incipient revelation. +It is salvation great and joyous, to those reared amid unacceptable +theories of a blank materialism or the much more dreadful hell-doctrines +of the theologians. + +The religion of the coming time, then, seems likely to be mainly based +on these two articles, belief in God in the way indicated, and belief in +survival and progress on the other side. Both beliefs are empirical, and +are thus in harmony with the temper of our time. They begin with the +things which are most real to us, first the fact of conscious experience, +then the external world, and reason upward therefrom, instead of +beginning with metaphysical entities and attributes, and reasoning +down--and failing to establish contact with the material world. Religious +experience there still may be, and this may give rise to quite new and +unexpected forms of belief or worship; but on the whole the tendency of +thought for the last three hundred years has been increasingly empirical, +and the success of the method is likely to ensure its continuance. It may +be true that the ideal world is the more real--probably it is--that out +of thought's interior sphere these phenomenal wonders of the world rose +to upper air, as Emerson says; but for us in the present circumstances +the way back to universe-spiritualisation is _via_ experience (and +mainly sense-presentations) carefully observed and studied. If these +scientific methods, which are open to everybody, can lead to belief +in God and a spiritual world to which we pass at death, it seems +unnecessary to return to the bad old days when sporadic experiences of +this or that ecstatic, or logic-chopping by this or that theologian, +led to beliefs and cults of widely differing character according to the +idiosyncracy of the writer. A method which is open to all and the rules +of which are agreed on will be likely to yield something like unanimity. +The churches may yet form one fold, if they will; in which, with +variations to satisfy different aesthetic or symbolistic needs, all souls +may find the answer to their queries, healing for their sorrow, and +scope for their reverence and love; in a word, salvation. + + +PRINTED BY THE ANCHOR PRESS LTD., TIPTREE, ESSEX, ENGLAND. + + + + + Transcriber's Notes + + + Punctuation has been corrected without note. + + The following printer's errors have been corrected, on page + 1 "neaking" changed to "sneaking" (tinged with a sneaking sympathy + for its hero) + 49 "odject" changed to "object" (that the position of the lost + object could) + 66 "comandingly" changed to "commandingly" (soothingly or + commandingly filling the patient's mind) + 81 "handing" changed to "handed" (would not want his enemies handed + over to) + 90 "a" added (brutal soldiery, in a Rouen market-place) + 90 "Salpetriere" changed to "Salpetriere" (Come to the Salpetriere + Hospital, and I will show you) + 97 "gegenbueer" changed to "gegenueber" (Die Tagesansicht gegenueber + der Nachtansicht) + 98 "cerebal" changed to "cerebral" (chemical change in cerebral + tissue or what not) + 100 "discontinous" changed to "discontinuous" (thin and indeed + discontinuous skin which). + + Otherwise oddities and inconsistencies of the original text have been + preserved, including the spelling of foreign names. + + The first name of Mesmer was Franz, not Friedrich. + + On page 37 a paragraph starts with point 1. There is no point 2. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Psychical Miscellanea, by J. Arthur Hill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PSYCHICAL MISCELLANEA *** + +***** This file should be named 37565.txt or 37565.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/5/6/37565/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, eagkw and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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