Adventurings In The Psychical - Henry Addington

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ADDINGTON BRUCE

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UNIVERSITY

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LOS ANGELES LIBRARY

Adventurings in the Psychical 331 pages.

12mo.

Cloth.

$1.Z5 net

A review of the results of modern psychical research in the realm of the abnormal and the seemingly supernormal. Its especial purpose is to make clear their bearings on the nature and possibilities of mankind, and to contribute something towards a wider knowledge of the progress science is making in revealing the real causes of such phenomena. Especially has the author brought out the exceedingly practical character of many of these discoveries, by which the world has been i'

a rich gainer.

ADVENTIIRINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL

OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR

PSYCHOLOGICAL Scientific

Mental Healing

Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters

The Riddle

of Personality

HISTORICAL Woman

in

the

Making

of America

Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road

The Romance

of American Expansion

Adventurings in the Psychical

BY H.

ADDINGTON BRUCE

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BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1914

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Coj}yright, 1914,

By

Little,

Brown, and Company.

All rights reserved

Published, April, 1914

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C. H,

THE COLONIAL PRESS SIMONBS & CO., BOSTON,

U. 8. A.

X PREFACE present volume is somewhat in the nature " of a sequel to The Riddle of Personality,"

THE

published six years ago.

In that book I reviewed

the results of modern psychological research in the realm of the abnormal and the seemingly tv

supernormal, with the special purpose of making

^

clear their bearings

and

possibilities

purpose

^ any t

topical

mind,

it

tion.

V

how

was inadvisable to attempt

and detailed treatment

nomena made the

^ "^

in

on the problem of the nature of man. Having this special of the phe-

subject of scientific investiga-

Such a method

of treatment,

no matter

might have added to the interest of the book, would inevitably have obscured its mesit

sage to the reader.

Now, however, thing, in the

I

have undertaken

this

very

hope both of reinforcing the view

of personality set forth in the earlier work, of contributing

and

something towards a wider knowl-

[v]

PREFACE edge of the progress science

is

making

in

the

naturahzation of the supernatural, to borrow Mr.

Frank Podmore's happy phrase.

Especially have

I tried to bring out the exceedingly practical

character of

many

of the discoveries

made by

those scientists who, despite the often contemp-

tuous criticism of their colleagues, have valiantly persisted in their adventurings in the psychical.

The world has undoubtedly been richly the gainer, is

well

field

by

the gainer, and

their labors;

worth while to survey

in

and

some

it

surely

detail the

they have explored and the results of their

explorations.

H. Addington Bruce. Cambridge, Massachusetts, February, 1914.

[vi]

CONTENTS PAGE

CHAPTER

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V. VI. VII. VIII.

IX.

Preface Ghosts and their Meaning Why I Believe in Telepathy

... .

Clairvoyance and Crystal-Gazing Automatic Speaking and Writing Poltergeists and Mediums

The Singular Case of BCA The Larger Self Index

1

.

58

.

102

.

134

.

.

.

171

.

.

.

230

.

.

265

The Subconscious Dissociation and Disease

v

201

290 315

ADVENTURINGS

IN

THE

PSYCHICAL CHAPTER

I

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING

A "

WITTY

Frenchwoman was once asked

if

she beheved in ghosts.

No, not at

all,"

terribly afraid of

Most people

was her

them." feel

" reply.

But

I

am

*

precisely

this

way about

though few are candid enough to ac-

ghosts,

knowledge

it.

In broad daylight, or when seated

before a cheery

fire

friends, it is easy to

among a group

of congenial

be skeptical, and to regard

ghosts as mere products of imagination, supercredulity, hysteria, or indigestion.

stition, it is

notorious that even the most skeptical are

liable to

panic

But

if

creepy sensations and sometimes outright " " they experience sights or uncanny

sounds in the darkness of the night, or in lonely,

[1]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL uninhabited

places. Churchyards have never been popular resorts of those who go for a stroll

And

in the cool of the evening.

get the reputation of being

"

haunted,"

to impossible to find tenants for

Yet

a house once

let

it.

almost universal attitude

this

and fundamentally wrong. for being afraid of ghosts,

next

it is

There

is

is

entirely

no reason

and there are many

reasons for believing in them. I

do not,

mean

of course,

to say that

There are plenty

are real ghosts.

and there always

will be, as

of

all

ghosts

bogus ghosts,

long as

men

eat

and

drink too much, play practical jokes on one another,

and allow

their houses to

and infested by

A

single rat,

loose planks of sufficient to

rats

become run down

and mice.

scampering at midnight over the

an old

attic,

has often been quite

produce a counterfeit

" poltergeist,"

or troublesome ghost, of a highly impressive character.

So, too,

clothesline

man like

is

pillow-slip

swaying from a

apt to seem most ghostly to a gentle-

returning

much

a

home from a

else in this

late supper.

amazing world

to be pretty sharply scrutinized.

[2]

Ghosts,

of ours,

have

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING And

the point

is

that, after centuries of con-

temptuous neglect, they have at

last

men and women

the subject of investigation by

the task — persons

competent for cautious methods of sisting

upon the

scientific

strictest

been made

trained in the

inquiry,

evidential

and

standards,

Their

but devoid of prejudice or prepossession. researches are

still

in

progress,

in-

but they have

already demonstrated that amid a multitude of

sham ghosts /there

are perfectly authentic appari-

tions, displaying credentials too

convincing to be

denied./

What is still more scientific

ghostologists

rolled in the

also resulted in

on the nature,

Usually,

— especially

famous English Society

Research — have light

important, the labors of these

it

origin,

of those en-

for Psychical

throwing

and habits

much

of real ghosts.

seems, a genuine ghost

is

seen or

heard but once or twice, and then, having accomplished more. in

its

purpose,

But there

it

are plenty of well-attested cases

which a ghost attaches

family,

departs to return no

and keeps up

its

itself

to a house or

haunting for years, some-

times for centuries.

[3]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Take, for example, an experience that

befell

Miss Goodrich-Freer, at the time a most active

member

of the Society for Psychical Research, in

Hampton Court

This old building

Palace.

unquestionably one of the most famous of

first

all

back to the time

of

Tudors, and according to tradition

is

haunted houses. the

is

It dates

haunted by several ghosts, notably the ghosts of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's third queen; Catharine

Howard, whose

spirit is said to

go shrieking

along the gallery where she vainly begged brutal

and Sybil Penn, King Edward VI's foster-mother. Twice of late

King Henry to spare her

years

the

passed for

Howard ghost it

— has

Eastlake, and

The

life;

— or

something that

been heard, once by Lady

once by Mrs. Cavendish Boyle.

was sleeping in an apartment next to the haunted gallery which has long been unlatter

—

occupied and used only as a storeroom for old pictures

— when

she was suddenly awakened by

a loud and most unearthly shriek proceeding

from that quarter, followed immediately by perfect silence. Lady Eastlake's experience was exactly similar.

[4]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING Both

ladies, of course,

may have heard

a real

coming from some nightmaretormented occupant of the palace. But no exshriek,

possibly

planation of this sort

is

Miss Goodrich-Freer,

Hampton Court

who passed a

night

at

for the sole purpose of ascertain-

ing whether or not there its

adequate in the case of

was any foundation

for

ghostly legends.

The room

she selected for her vigil was one

especially reputed to be haunted,

and opened

into

a second room, the door between the two, how-

by a heavy piece of furniture. Thus the only means of entrance into her room was by a door from the corridor, and this she ever, being blocked

locked and bolted.

After which, feeling confident

that nothing but a real ghost could get in to trouble her, she settled

down

to read an essay on

We

Degrade Our Standard of Value?" a subject manifestly free from matters likely to "Shall

occasion nervousness.

In

fact,

the essay was so dull that by half past

one Miss Goodrich-Freer, not able to keep awake longer,

undressed,

dropped into bed, and was

almost instantly asleep.

Several hours later she

[5]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL some one opening the furniture-barricaded door. At this she put was aroused by a noise

as of

out her hand to reach a match-box which she

knew was " "

lying on a table at the head of the bed.

I did not reach

It

seemed to

on mine.

I

me

that a detaining hand was laid

withdrew

ness and silence.

room, and

it

quickly and gazed around

Some minutes passed

into the darkness.

in the

the matches," she reports.

I

had the sensation

finally,

in black-

of a presence

mindful of the tradition

that a ghost should be spoken to, I said gently: *

any one there.'^ Can remembered that the

Is

I

I

do anything for you?

last

tained the ghost had said:

want you,' and admire

my

person '

who

Go away,

'

enter-

I don't

hoped that my visitor would better manners and be responsive. I

However, there was no answer, no sound

of

any

kind."

Now all

Miss Goodrich-Freer

around the room

that she was alone.

left

the bed and

felt

in the dark, until satisfied

The

corridor door

was

still

locked and bolted; the piece of furniture against the inner door was in place. bed.

Almost at once a

So she returned to

soft light

[6]

began to glow

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING with increasing brightness.

It

seemed to radiate

from a central point, which gradually took form

and became a

tall,

across the room.

woman, moving slowly At the foot of the bed she

slender

stopped, so that the amazed observer had time to

examine her "

Her

and general appearance. " was Miss Goodrich-Freer says,

profile

face,"

insipidly pretty, that of a

woman from

thirty to

thirty-five years of age, her figure slight, her dress

of a soft,

dark material, having a

full skirt

and

broad sash or soft waistband tied high up almost under her arms, a crossed or draped handkerchief over the shoulders and sleeves which I noticed fitted

very tight below the elbow.

this definiteness I

was conscious that the

was unsubstantial, and

felt

you.f^

My

I felt effect

Can

I be of

all

figure

quite guilty of ab-

surdity in asking once more:

help "

In spite of

'

Will

you

any use to you?

let

me

'

voice sounded preternaturally loud, but

no surprise at noticing that it produced no upon my visitor. She stood still for perhaps

two minutes, though it is very difficult to estimate time on such occasions. Then she raised her hands, which were long and white, and held

[7]

them

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL before her as she sank

buried her face in

prayer out,

"

— when

and

I

was

upon her knees and slowly the palms in an attitude of suddenly the light went

quite

alone in the darkness.

I felt that the scene

was ended, the curtain

drawn, and had no hesitation at

my

side.

.

.

.

The

in lighting the candle

clock struck four."

Again investigation showed that the corridor door was locked and bolted as she had left it, and the inner door quently,

still

skeptical

firmly barricaded.

though

she had been

Conse-

when

Hampton Court Palace, Miss Goodleaving it entertained no doubt that

she arrived at rich-Freer in

she had witnessed a genuine psychical manifestation.

was forced upon two Miss Elizabeth Morison and Miss Frances

The same ladies.

Lamont, to

in connection

another

Trianon at of

that

conclusion

with a

visit

paid by them

famous haunted house, Versailles, the favorite

unfortunate

the

Petit

summer home

queen Marie Antoinette,

whose ghost, as well as the ghosts of her attendants, has long been alleged to be visible at times in

and around

it.

Miss Morison and Miss Lamont [8]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING had been sightseeing tiring of this had set

in

the royal palace, but

off, in

to walk to the Trianon.

the early afternoon,

Neither of them

knew

was located, but taking the general direction indicated on Baedeker's map, they finally came to a broad drive, which, had they

just

only

where

it

known

it,

would have led them directly to

their destination.

As

it

was, they crossed the

went up a narrow lane through a thick wood to a point where three paths diverged. Here

drive and

they began to have a series of experiences which,

comparatively insignificant in themselves, had a sequel so amazing that it would be incredible

were

it

not that the veracity of both ladies has

been established beyond question.

Ahead

of

them, on the middle path, they saw

two men clad

in curious, old-fashioned

of long, greenish coats,

three-cornered hats.

costumes

knee breeches, and small,

Taking them

for gardeners,

they asked to be shown the way, and were told " An Adventure," in which In a prefatory note to the book, '

these ladies detail

their experience,

their publishers,

"

Messrs.

that the Macmillan and Company, of London, guarantee authors have put down what happened to them as faithfully and accurately as was in their power." Their good faith is also vouched for by a reviewer in The Spectator.

[9]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL This brought them to a

to go straight ahead. little

clearing that

circular

and

like

had

in

it

a light garden kiosk,

a bandstand, near which a

man

As they approached, he turned his head and stared at them, and his expression was was seated.

so

repellent

The next

that

they

felt

greatly frightened.

coming from they knew not where, and breathless as if from running, a second

man

instant,

appeared, and speaking in French of a pe-

culiar accent, ordered

them brusquely

to turn to

the right, saying that the Trianon lay in that direction.

Just as they reached

it,

they were

again intercepted, this time by a young

stepped out of a rear door, banged

and with a somewhat

it

man who

behind him,

insolent air guided

them

to

the main entrance of the palace.

While they were hurrying thither, Miss Morison noticed a lady, seated below a terrace, holding out a paper as though reading at arm's length.

She glanced up as they passed, and Miss Morison, observing with surprise the peculiar cut of her " gown, saw that she had a pretty though not "

young "

face.

I looked straight at her,"

[10]

she adds in the

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING published statement she has made regarding their " but some indescribable feehng made adventure,

me

turn away, disturbed at her being there." " " indescribable feeling was Afterwards this

accounted for when Miss Morison identified in a

Marie Antoinette the lady she had seen seated below the terrace! rare portrait of

Still

more remarkable, subsequent

Trianon

brought to both

ladies

visits to

the

the

startling

knowledge that the actual surroundings of the place and the place itself differ vastly from what they saw that

summer

afternoon.

The woods

they entered are not there, and have not been there in the

memory

of

have long been effaced

anybody

living,

;

man; the paths they trod there

is

no kiosk, nor does

except Miss Morison and Miss

Lamont, remember having seen one in the Trianon grounds; on the very spot where Miss Morison saw the lady in the peculiar dress a large bush is

growing;

and the rear door, out

stepped the young

man who

of

which

guided them around

to the front, opens from an old chapel that has

been in a ruinous condition for door

" itself

being

bolted,

[11]

many

barred,

years, the

and

cob-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL webbed," and unused since the time of Marie Antoinette.

On

the other hand, their personal researches in

the archives of France have brought to Hght so

many

confirmatory facts that both Miss Morison

and Miss Lamont are firmly persuaded that the Trianon, its environment, and its people were once exactly as they appeared to them; and that in very truth they

at the time they

saw the place

first visited it,

as

but

it

looked, not

in the closing

years of the French Monarchy, more than a cen-

tury before.

That

German

White Lady of the Hohenzollerns, would likewise seem to have historic

ghost, the

more than a legendary basis. Her mission, apparently, is to announce the death of some member of the Hohenzollern family, and

frequent haunting-place Berlin.

is

Ifer

most

the royal palace at

She was seen as early as 1628, and since

the time of Frederick the Great her appearance

has been regularly chronicled on the eve of the

death of the King of Prussia.

For the matter families

of

that, there are not a few

whose ancestral homes, according to [12]

tra-

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING dition, are

This

is

haunted by death-announcing ghosts.

particularly the case with certain distin-

Two white owls

guished British families.

on the roof sure

omen

family.

of the family

perching

mansion are taken as a

of death in the

Arundel of Wardour

The Yorkshire Middletons, a Catholic

family, are said to be

warned

of approaching death

of a Benedictine nun.

by the apparition

Equally

noteworthy as a spectral messenger of tragedy is

the so-called

Drummer

of

Cortachy Castle, a

Scottish ghost that haunts the ancient stronghold of the Ogilvys, Earls of Airlie, but

only when an Ogilvy

The

is

about to

is

in

evidence

die.

story goes that, hundreds of years ago,

when the Scots were

little

better than barbarians,

a Highland chieftain sent a drummer to Cortachy Castle with a message that was not at all to the

As an appro-

liking of the Ogilvy of that time.

priate token luckless

of

his

drummer,

displeasure,

stuffed

him

he seized the

into his

drum

—

he must have been a very small drummer, and have carried a very big drum and hurled him

—

from the topmost battlements of the ing his neck.

[13]

castle,

break-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Just before he was tossed

threatened to

make a ghost

ghostly

drumming

is

and always the death

and haunt

has been,

Every once

seem, as good as his word.

drummer

the

of himself,

He

the Ogilvys forevermore.

off,

it

would

in a while

heard at Cortachy Castle, of

an Ogilvy follows.

An

especially impressive account of one instance of

and most unpleasant haunting has been left by a Miss Dalrymple, who happened to be a guest at Cortachy during Christmas week of this peculiar

1844.

was her

It

entirely

unaware

On

ghost.

first visit

to the Castle, and she

was

of the existence of the family

the evening of her arrival, while dress-

ing for dinner, she was startled by hearing under

her

window music

like the muffled

beating of a

She looked out, but could see nothing, and For the time presently the drumming died away. drum.

she thought no more of

it,

but at

turned to her host, the Earl of "

who

dinner

Airlie,

she

and asked:

"

your drummer? His lordship made no reply. Lady Airlie became

My

lord,

is

exceedingly pale, and several of the company, all of

whom had

heard the question, looked em-

[14]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING Realizing that she had

barrassed.

some

of

sort,

made

a

subject, but after dinner, naturally feeling

what

younger members "

some-

up with one of the the family, and was an-

curious, she brought

swered

slip

Miss Dalrymple quickly changed the

of

it

:

What! Have you never heard

of the

Drummer

"

of

Cortachy? "

" his

No,"

said she.

"

Who

in the

world

is

he?

"

Why, he is a person who goes about playing drum whenever there is a death impending The

in our family.

last

time he was heard was

shortly before the death of the late countess, the earl's first wife,

so pale

and that

is

why Lady

when you mentioned

The next drumming

night

Airlie

it."

Miss Dalrymple heard the

again, and, falling into a panic

she learned that nobody else had heard riedly left

was not

turned

Cortachy Castle.

for her.

True

it,

when hur-

But the drumming

to tradition, the

drummer

was concerned only with announcing the death of an Ogilvy, one of whom, the Lady Airlie who had been so disturbed by Miss Dalrymple's question, died soon afterward while on a visit to Brighton.

[15]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Five years later the drumming was once more heard, this time

by an EngHshman who had been

invited to spend a few days with the Earl of

Airhe's oldest son. Lord Ogilvy, at a shooting

box near Cortachy. Crossing a gloomy moor, in company with an old Highlander, the English-

man

suddenly stopped, and, with a look of amaze-

ment, exclaimed: *'

What can

place?

him?

a band be doing in this lonely

Has Lord Ogilvy brought a band with

"

The Highlander glanced "

I hear naething,"

" in

he

at

the distance — or at any

An'

lander.

is

"

it

In another shooting box

man

rate,

'tis

moment came

the mystery solved.

— only a scene it

"

A

band playing

somebody playcried the High-

something no canny." the lighted

into view,

hastened forward, fully

Ogilvy,

it?

a drum ye hear?

Then

strangely.

said.

Wliy, yes, can't you hear

ing a drum." "

him

windows

of the

and the Englishexpecting to have

But he found no musicians

of considerable confusion.

Lord

appeared, had just started for London,

[16]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING summoned by news

that his father was danger-

ill.

ously

And

the very next day, as the Englishman's

Highlander guide was not at

all

surprised

to

learn, the Earl of Airlie died.

Of

all

family ghosts, however, none

substantiated by documentary

^

is

so strongly

evidence as the

the Basil Woodds, an old

Knocking Ghost

of

English

This ghost began operations

family.

about the time of the Stuart Restoration, and is

it

alleged has ever since continued to announce,

by three or more loud knocks, the approaching death of a Basil Woodd. First-hand and thoroughly trustworthy accounts are extant of

its

activity in quite recent times.

December

15, 1893,

Mr. Charles H. L. Woodd

died at Hampstead, England, after a brief illness.

The

night before he died the Knocking Ghost

was heard by two persons, at Hampstead by his daughter, and in London by his son, the Reverend Trevor Basil Woodd. Both have made statements describing 1

The documents

their singular experiences.

in this case are published in the Proceedings

of the Society for Psychical Research, vol.

[17]

xi,

pp. 538-542.

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL "

On Thursday

evening,

after church," says the

"

was

I

sitting before

my

December

1893,

14,

Reverend Mr. Woodd, fire.

I

knew my

father

and had a presentiment that he was dangerously ill, though if I had known this I was

ill,

should have remained at Hampstead, where I

had been that day.

As

heard

I sat, I distinctly

three knocks, perhaps more, like the sound of

some one emptying a tobacco pipe upon the bars of

my

fire grate.

"

might be a warning, I did not go to bed for an hour, fearing I would be sent for. Thinking

it

At one

A. M. I

butler,

who

was awakened by a ringing of the front door-bell and knocking. It was my father's as

my

father

keeper "

'

I

told

me

the doctor had sent for me,

was very

ill.

I said to

my

house-

:

must

go.

I feel sure that

dying, because I heard the

Woodd

my chair before going to bed.' On my arrival my first question

my

father

is

knocks, as I

sat in

"

'

still

alive?

away

for I believed

' :

Is

he

he must have passed

at the time of the knocking.

eight-forty-five next morning."

[18]

was

He

died at

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING Mr. Woodd's housekeeper corroborates this statement. As to the knocking heard at Hampthe

stead,

daughter,

Mrs.

Winifred

Dumbell,

testifies :

"

On December

hearing

my

father,

1893,

Thursday morning, Mr. Charles Woodd, was not

14,

Epsom, where I had been staying, for Hampstead, and found my father in bed and well, I left

very weak, but I was in no way anxious about him, as I did not suppose him to be seriously

At eleven I could

down

o'clock at night, being tired

not assist

my

ill.

and finding

mother or the nurse,

I lay

an adjoining room, leaving the door wide open, and fell asleep. in

"

In a short time I was suddenly awakened by a loud rapping as if at the door. I jumped up

and ran into the passage, thinking my mother had called me. I listened at the door of my father's room, but no one was moving.

I lay

down

again

and instantly

exactly the

same

fell

thing occurred.

asleep,

when

I did not actually sleep again,

and cannot say whether any sound made me get up the third time, but I went in search of the doctor and gathered that he was anxious about

[19]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL

my

father,

were

all

who was

We

weaker.

connect this rapping

warning, as

next morning to

in his

warning

it

told

with the

at breakfast the

the Reverend Trevor

my brother,

Woodd, he

my

was so sudden and unex-

all

pected, but on mentioning

Basil

much

aroused, and about eight o'clock a. m.

father died. " I did not

Woodd

getting

me he

also heard a similar

rooms at Vauxhall Bridge Road

about the same time."

To mention

only one other of the

many

in-

stances that might be cited, the Knocking Ghost

was again heard on June

3,

1895, just twenty-four

hours before the death of Mr.

Woodd

at

Hampstead.

Thomas

Again, too,

it

Basil

was heard

by more than one person and in more than one place, by Mr. Woodd's daughters, Fanny and Kate, and by his niece. Miss Ethel G. Woodd,

who was and at

at the time visiting friends in Yorkshire, first

mistook the Knocking Ghost for

somebody hammering next room. it

sounded to

nails into the wall of the

Oddly enough,

this

Fanny Woodd,

in

was

also the

London,

from the following statement signed by her: [20]

way

as appears

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING "

On June

895, at ten-thirty p. m.,

Fanny Woodd, staying with Mrs. Stoney, 83 Wharton Road, West Kensington, heard knocks, appar3,

1

ently from next door, as of nails being in

hammered

and pictures hung, which seemed so unHkely

at that hour of night that the next morning she

mentioned

to Mrs, Stoney, whose

it

just below hers, asking

could account for

if

bedroom was

she had heard

it

or

it."

But Mrs. Stoney had heard nothing, and the next-door neighbor, Mrs. Harriet Taylor, rather tartly declared that:

ting in

up

this

also

of

pictures

house

early

for

"There has been no putor

quite

two years.

We

are

and are always in bed and That same day Miss ten p. m."

risers,

asleep

by

Woodd

rejoined her father

stead,

sort

knocking of any

and

sister in

Hamp-

and was astonished to hear that the

had been awakened about

latter

half past ten the pre-

vious night by loud knockings against the win-

dow

A

shutters.

few hours more and the mystery was solved

by the

startlingly

sudden death of Mr. Woodd,

from an attack of apoplexy. [21]

The Knocking

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Ghost

of the Basil

Woodds had hved up

to its

reputation.

The

giving of death warnings

is

by no means

may be

confined to family ghosts, as

sufficiently

by relating an incident that happened Canada some years ago, and that has always

indicated in

impressed

me

as one of the best ghost stories I

was

me by an

have ever heard.

It

the strange

drama, and knowing as

little

told

actor in I

do

the persons concerned, I have not the slightest hesitation in vouching for credible though the reader

its

authenticity, in-

may

be inclined to

it.

regard

In this instance the ghost was seen by a clergy-

man, the Reverend John Langtry, who afterward became a prominent dignitary of the English

Church

in

Canada.

His

home was

in

Toronto,

but on the occasion of the ghostly visitation he

was at the house lived

with

their

a small town Toronto.

of a IVIr.

only

some

and Mrs. Ruttan, who

child,

a young

fifty or sixty

girl,

in

miles north of

Mr. Ruttan was another Church

of

England clergyman, and was a warm friend of Doctor Langtry 's. This time, however, the [22]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING had journeyed

latter

ter

diocesan

of

it

complete

To

his

business,

home

and was anxious to

called out of town,

and would

until a late hour, possibly not until

the following day. return

him simply on a mat-

and get back to Toronto. disappointment he found that Mr.

Ruttan had been not be

to see

earlier

than

On

the chance that he might

expected,

Doctor Langtry

accepted Mrs. Ruttan's invitation to spend the

evening with her.

As they were chatting together

— she being so

seated that her back was toward the door leading

from the parlor, whereas Doctor Langtry 's posishe noticed tion gave him a full view of the hall

—

that

at once he stopped in the middle of a

all

sentence, leaned forward, and stared fixedly into

She instantly turned her head, and followed the direction of his gaze, but could see the hall.

nothing. "

What

asked. "

the matter. Doctor Langtry.? " " What are you looking at.f^ is

"

she

Nothing, nothing," he muttered, recovering " I fancied for a mohimself with an effort. "

ment

—

[23]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL He

paused,

then changed the conversation.

But Mrs. Ruttan

— from

whom

I got the story

— saw that from time to time he glanced furtively into the hall,

and

haK

finally

rose from his seat,

his face white, his limbs trembling.

"

"

Doctor Langtry! "

Are you " Oh," he said

tion.

was her

Whatever

ill.'^

" it is

shortly,

I shall be

faintness.

startled exclama-

all

is

the matter

" .f^

only a momentary

right presently.

The

must have unstrung me. I get me a glass of water, and

fatigue of the journey will trouble

then

I

you

think

He drank

to

I will

return to the hotel."

the water, and rose to go.

But when

near the front door, he turned to Mrs. Ruttan,

and "

said:

I

don't

daughter. "

She

is

believe

I trust she

I

have asked after your

is

well?

"

quite well, thank you.

I

put her to

bed just before you came in."

With

his

hand on the knob

Langtry again paused "

If it's

not too

of the door.

irresolutely.

much

trouble," he asked,

wish you would go up-stairs and is all

right

Doctor

now." [24]

make

"

I

sure she

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING Wondering at his request and at his manner, Mrs. Ruttan compHed, and presently returned to report that the child was sleeping peacefully. Doctor Langtry bowed with an relief, bade her good night, and

air

of obvious

left

the house.

But next day, after he had transacted his business, and was about to start for Toronto, he said to Mr. Ruttan, who had accompanied him

to the

train :

" fall

Ruttan, ill

while

if

your

should happen to

little girl

away from home, go

to her at once,

and take Mrs. Ruttan with you, even no reason to

feel

that the illness

Mr. Ruttan laughed. " Of course we would go to " sure of that. But why

is

"

Ask me no

but bear

my

you have

serious."

her.

—

"

if

You may be

questions," said Doctor Langtry,

request in mind

if

the occasion

should arise."

Within a very short time the child, visiting an aunt in a near-by town, was taken ill, failed rapidly,

and died almost before her parents, who

had been

hastily telegraphed for, could reach her

bedside.

Doctor Langtry 's warning immediately [25]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL recurred to them, and they wrote him, beseeching

an explanation. "

The reason

was anxious about your Httle " was because the night girl," he then told them, I was sitting with Mrs. Ruttan I saw an angel I

enter the hall, pass up the stairs, and return,

carrying the child in

But the kind

its

arms."

most frequently seen

of ghost

is

that which appears not before but immediately

a death.

after, or coincidental with, is

Its

purpose

not to give warning of impending tragedy, but

to convey the

mated.

news

There are thousands

sort, so well

consum-

of instances of this

authenticated as to compel credence.

Not long ago an

me by

of a tragedy already

interesting case

was reported to

a gentleman living in Burlington, Vermont,

—

a ]Mrs. Hazard nephew of the lady who saw the ghost. port, Rhode Island the

of

New-

—

She was

ill

and under the care

at the time,

a trained nurse.

One

having allowed her to

of

afternoon, her physician

sit

up

she was seated in a chair

for a couple of hours,

by the

side of her bed,

when the nurse noticed her open wide her eyes and turn her head as if following the movements [26]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING some one. Then she heard her

of

surprise

say, in a tone of

:

"Hello!

There he goes!

Hello!

There he

goes!

As the

far as the nurse could see,

room with them.

nobody was

in

But, not wishing to alarm

her patient, she merely asked: " "

Who

"

is it,

Mrs. Hazard?

Chet Keeeh.

now

But he doesn't

see me.

And

he's gone."

Later in the day the nurse mentioned the inci-

dent to Mrs. Hazard's daughter, asking her

if

she knew anybody by the name of Chet Keech. " " He Why, certainly I do," was the reply.

my

is

cousin,

and

lives in

Danielson, Connecti-

cut."

That day Chet Keech had died at Danielson, as a letter informed the Hazards next morning. Consider also this statement^ by the Reverend C. C. McKechnie, a Scotch clergyman: " I was about ten years of age at the time, and

had ^

for several years

been living with

my

grand-

First published in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical

Research, vol. x, p. 240.

[27]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL father,

who was an

Kirk

elder in the

of Scotland

good circumstances. He was very much attached to me and often expressed his intention

and

of

in

me

having

educated for a minister

in the Kirk.

Suddenly, however, he was seized with an

which "

in a couple of

At the time

having any to be at

was leaning

days proved mortal.

and without

of his death,

apprehension of his end, I

my

illness

father's house,

happened

about a mile

in a listless sort of

my

off.

I

against the

way

kitchen table, looking upward at the ceiling and

thinking of nothing in particular, father's face appeared to

at

first

dim and

when

my

grow out of the

indistinct,

grandceiling,

but becoming more

and more complete until it seemed in every spect as full and perfect as I had ever seen it. "

It looked

down upon me,

a wonderful expression

Then

tion.

gradually,

and

its

it

I

affec-

not suddenly but

and becoming dim saw nothing but the bare

spoke at the time of what I saw to

mother, but she probably,

and

features fading

indistinct, until I

ceiling,

as I thought, with

of tenderness

disappeared,

it

re-

made no account

of

it,

my

thinking,

was nothing more than a boyish [28]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING But

vagary.

in

about

fifteen or

twenty minutes

boy came running breathwith the news that my grand-

after seeing the vision, a less to

my

father's

had just died." Even more remarkable was the experience of an Illinois physician. Doctor J. S. W. Entwistle,

father

a resident of one of the Chicago suburbs.

Hurry-

ing one morning to catch a train Doctor Entwistle

saw approaching him an acquaintance, once wellGlanto-do, who had ruined himself by drink. cing at

him

as they met, the physician noticed

that his clothing was torn and his face bruised,

and that there was a cut under one

eye.

He

noticed, too, that the other kept looking steadily

at

him with a

pression."

"

woe-begone, God-forsaken ex-

Had he

not been in such a hurry, he

would have stopped and spoken to him, but as was he passed him with a nod.

At the

station

brother-in-law,

drawing "

and

Doctor Entwistle said,

while

the

it

met

his

train

was

in:

Oh, by the way, I just saw Charlie M., and

he was a

sight.

He must have

tear."

[29]

been on a terrible

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL "

I

wonder what

commented the "

"

Then

bit of

was going to see his wife." it. She won't have him around."

said about

Grand

at the

it

Both men,

Chicago.

"

until after they

as

M.

killed in

name

Chicago Tribune

in

"

is

dead.^

Here

body

a saloon

is

is

Did you know a notice in the

at the morgue.

fight.

The paper

He

hasn't

quite right, but from the description

Charlie, sure enough."

But he "

aghast, I

of the

Hello," he greeted them.

got the "

directly

hand.

paper, stating that his

it's

and went

They were met by a mutual

who had a copy

that Charlie

was

had reached

happened, had business

it

Pacific Hotel

there from the train.

his

"

the subject was dropped, and nothing

more was

friend,

anyway?

brother-in-law.

I suppose he

Not a

he's doing in town,

can't be dead," said Doctor Entwistle,

for

it

was only a few minutes ago that

met him on the Nevertheless,

street in

it

Englewood."

turned out that Charlie

M. was

dead, and that his body had been taken to the

morgue

several

hours before Doctor Entwistle

thought he saw him

in

[30]

the

Chicago suburb.

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING Moreover, on inquiry

was learned that the

it

worn by him when he was

clothes

marks on

his

"

face

tallied

killed

and the

in every particular

with the description given by the doctor."

Quite a similar experience occurred to Mr.

Harry E. Reeves when he was choirmaster at St. Luke's Church in San Francisco. On a Friday, about three in the afternoon, Mr, Reeves was

in

an up-stairs room at his home. He had been working on some music. Wishing to rest for a few minutes, he threw himself on a lounge, but almost immediately an led

him

to get

unaccountable impulse

up again and open the door

of his

room. Standing at the head of the Russell, a

member

San Francisco

stairs

of his choir

and a well-known

real estate broker.

had promised to

he saw Edwin

Mr. Russell

on him the following day to look over the music for Sunday, and Mr. Reeves's call

thought was that he had come a day earher than intended. He advanced to greet him, when, first

to his

amazement and

stairs

turned as though to descend, and then

horror, the figure

faded into nothingness.

[31]

on the

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL "

A

My

God!

"

gasped Reeves, and

fell

forward.

door below was hastily opened, and two

women and were his

a

man

sister

The women

ran to his aid.

and

niece, the

man was

a Mr.

Sprague.

They found Mr. Reeves

stairs, his

face white and covered with perspira-

seated on the

tion, his

body trembling. "Uncle Harry!" cried the

the world

is

the matter

Mr. Reeves was

niece.

"What

in

" .f^

in such

a panic that he could

hardly speak, but he managed to reply: " " I have seen a ghost! " Whose ghost.? " inquired Mr. Sprague, with

a skeptical smile. "

The ghost

of

Edwin

Russell."

Instantly the smile left Mr, Sprague's face. " " That's strange," said he, that's very strange. For, as these ladies will

tell

you, I

came

to consult

with you regarding the music for Mr. Russell's funeral.

He had

a stroke of apoplexy this morn-

and died a few hours ago." ^ Sometimes ghosts of this type present them-

ing,

1 Detailed reports of this case are published in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. viii, pp. 214-218.

[32]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING selves in such a

fact

As

way as to leave no doubt as to the and manner of the death of the person seen.

striking a case in point as has

come

to

my

knowledge is afforded by the singular experience of an old friend of mine, Edward Jackson, son of the late General Jackson, of Bideford,

Eng-

land.

Born

in India,

Jackson was from his boyhood

a roving and adventurous disposition.

of

went

in for all

He

forms of athletics, more particu-

larly boxing, cricket,

and

and before he

polo,

left

India was one of the best

known and most popumen in the younger sporting set. He was still in his early twenties when he came

lar

to the United States, drifting

ranch

in

Wyoming.

Tiring of

of his fondness for adventure,

Lake Superior mine, where

West

to go on a

this,

though not

he found work his quickly

in

a

demon-

strated ability to take care of himself in a rough-

and-tumble encounter won him the position of superintendent over a gang of hitherto been

most

difficult to

men whom

it

had

superintend.

As superintendent he was privileged to live by himself in a small, two-room cabin, somewhat [33]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL neater and more comfortable than the ordinary It

sleeping-shacks.

was

in this cabin that

he saw

the ghost. "

had returned from the mine one evening,

I

thoroughly tired out," he said, in telling " story,

and

sat

before an open

down fire.

While

I

was

sitting there,

The door was not

me and

was the

open, but standing between

figure of a

instantly recognized as a

He

was dressed

in polo

forgot

young man whom

in India.

—

— but

for a

moment

'

By

I

about the incongruity between his dress

and the rough, outlandish place in which saw him. I jumped up, exclaiming: "

I

boyhood chum costume we had often

played the game together all

and looked

somebody had thrown the door

open, "

it

the

to rest for a few minutes

half dozing, I felt a cold current of air,

up, thinking that

me

Jove, Jack, I'm glad to see you.

—

I then

When

'

did you get here.'^ And how " I stopped. He had been standing with his profile

and

toward me.

Now

he turned, facing me,

saw that he was ghastly white, with a deep cut over one eye. Without a word he walked I

[34]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING past me, gazing at in the inner

"

moment

believing that trick, I

solemnly, and disappeared

room.

am

I don't think I

that for a

"

me

a coward, but I confess Recovering, and

I felt faint.

somebody must be playing me a

made a dash

after him.

There was no one there

— and

no way

in

which anybody could have got out unknown to me. "

That night I wrote to my father, telling him what had happened. In his reply he informed me that I

my

friend

saw him

my

He had

perior.

India,

in

same day that cabin on the shore of Lake Su-

had been

killed the

been playing polo

had been thrown from

his horse,

struck on his head, sustaining a to that I

had seen

Of a somewhat recalling to

in

my

in

far-away

and had

wound

similar

vision."

different order,

mind the adventure

of

and at once Miss Morison

and Miss Lamont at the Petit Trianon,

is

an

in-

by an Englishwoman whose name must be withheld, for reasons that will become stance reported

obvious.

moved

With her husband she had recently

into a fine old

mansion surrounded by a [35]

ADVENTURtNGS IN THE PSYCHICAL

,

splendid park, with a broad stretch of lawn be-

tween the trees and the house. for

many

years been the

home

The

had

place

of a family of

ancient lineage.

One

night, shortly after eleven o'clock,

Mrs. M., as I

shall call her,

had gone

when

to her bed-

room, she thought she heard a moaning sound,

and some one sobbing as though in great distress. Mr. M. was away from home, the servants slept in another part of the house,

quite alone except for a friend

and she was

who had come

to

keep her company during her husband's absence, and to whom she had said good night a few minutes before.

resolved to

But being a courageous woman, she

make an

investigation

and soon

cated the sound as coming from outdoors. toeing over to a

she raised the

Below, on

window on the

lo-

Tip-

staircase landing,

bHnd and cautiously peered

the lawn, in the pale

out.

glow of the

moon, she saw an amazing scene. A middle-aged man, stern of face and wearing a general's uniform, was standing menacingly over a young

girl,

who, with hands clasped in anguish, was on her knees before him.

At the

sight of his hard, unre-

[36]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING lenting expression, Mrs. M.'s one thought

was

not of fear for herself but pity for the unfortunate girl.

"

So much did the

rating

I feel for her," she said, in nar-

" affair,

hesitation I ran

that

down

without a

moment's

the staircase to the door

opening upon the lawn to beg her to come in and

me her sorrow." When she reached

tell

soldier

and the

girl

the door, the figures of the

were

still

plainly visible on the

But

lawn, and in precisely the same attitude.

at the sound of her voice they disappeared. " They did not vanish instantly," Mrs. M. ex" that but more like a dissolving view plained,

—

is,

gradually.

And

I did not leave the

door until

they had gone."

Months

afterwards,

when

calling

with

her

husband at a neighboring house, she noticed on the wall the portrait of a distinguished-looking

man

in

nized "

At once she

a military uniform.

it.

That," she told her husband,

" is

recog-

a picture of the

officer I

"

Aloud she asked:

in

an undertone,

saw on the lawn,"

Whose

portrait

[37] '

92S24

is

that?

"

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL "

my

Why,'* replied her host,

X. Y.

uncle, General Sir

mented "

a portrait of

He was

born and

But why do

she had told the story, her host com-

:

What you

unhappy ter,

it is

now occupy.

died in the house you " you ask?

When

"

say

is

most

fact that Sir

a beautiful

girl,

X.

singular. Y'.'s

For

it is

an

youngest daugh-

brought disgrace upon the

was disowned and driven from home by her father, and died broken-hearted."

family,

^

Not

all

ghosts,

it

is

pleasant to know, bring

impending or already consummated tragedy. Many seem to exist solely for notification

of

the purpose of giving a warning of trouble which

be averted by taking proper precautions, and sometimes they are a direct means of prevent-

may

ing disaster.

Thus, a guest at a Back Bay hotel

Boston was hurrying along a dimly lighted corridor to catch an elevator she thought she saw waiting for her, when unexpectedly the form in

1

Mrs. M.'s detailed account of this experience, with a cor-

roboratory statement by Mr. M.,

is

published in the Proceedings \'iii, pp. 178-179.

of the Society for Psychical Research, vol.

[38]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING of a

man

appeared at the entrance to the elevator.

She was almost upon him, and stopped short in order to avoid a collision. At once he disappeared,

and she then saw that although the door in the elevator shaft was wide open, the car was at the bottom

of the

would have

fallen

had not the phantasmal

checked her onward

Or take

which she certainly

into

shaft,

figure

rush.

this instance, reported

by Lady Eard-

ley:

"

One day

I

went to

and was

door, undressed,

the bath,

when

my

bathroom, locked the

just about to get into

heard a voice say:

I

"'Unlock the door!' "

I

was

startled

and looked around, but

course no one was there.

I

had stepped

of

into the

bath when I heard the voice twice more, saying: " "

'

Unlock the door!

On

'

jumped out and did unlock the door, and then stepped into the bath again. As I got this I

in I fainted

away and

Fortunately, as I

fell,

fell

I

down

was

flat in

the water.

just able to catch at

a bell handle, which was attached to the wall

above the tub.

My

pull

brought the maid, who

[39]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL found me, she

with

said, lying

head under

my

She picked me up and carried me out. the door had been locked I would certainly

water. If

have been drowned." Still life

of

more impressive

an experience in the

is

an Englishwoman named Mrs. Jean

Her statement

Bettany.

is

Gwynne

corroborated by her

father and mother.^

"

On one

occasion," she says,

in a country lane.

I

I

walked along, a subject

as the

White Room,' and

mother, to

all

was walking

little likely

morbid phenomena a moment, I saw a bedroom '

I

was reading geometry as

fancies or in

"

of

to produce

any kind, when,

my house known upon the floor lay my in

appearance dead.

The

vision

must

have remained some minutes, during which time my real surroundings appeared to pale and die out; but as the vision faded, actual surroundings

came back, "

at

first

I could not

dimly, and then clearly.

doubt that what I had seen was

real, so, instead of

going home, I went at once to

the house of our medical man, and he immediately set out with me, on the 1

See

"

Phantasms

way putting

of the Living," vol.

[40]

i,

ques-

pp. 194-195.

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING tions I could not answer, as all

mother was to

my

appearance well when I left home. " I led the doctor straight to the White Room,' '

where we found

my

mother actually lying as in This was true even to minute details.

vision.

my

She had been seized suddenly by an attack at the heart, and would soon have breathed her last but for the doctor's timely advent."

Mrs. Bettany's father, Mr. adds: " I

seeing

daughter, in

company with the family

doctor, outside the door of

asked:

'Who

'

is

She

ilLf^

my

floor.

taken

my

was when

It ill

my

illness,

have been

White Room,'

left

swoon on the

asked when she had been

I

servants in the house

den

'

it

must have been

the house.

None

knew anything

which our doctor assured

fatal

I

'Mamma.'

replied:

wife lying in a

that I found

daughter had

and

residence;

She led the way at once to the where we found

Gwynne,

remember being surprised by

distinctly

my

G.

S.

after

of the

of the sud-

me would

had he not arrived when he did."

In this last case,

it

should be noted the ghost

seen was an apparition not of a dead person, but

[41]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL This is most important, from the view of gaining insight into the nature

of a living one.

point of

and

characteristics of ghosts.

The

investigators who, a matter of twenty-five

or thirty years ago, began for the

first

time to

inquire into the subject in a scientific way, early

made

the interesting discovery that phantasms

of the living are seen quite as frequently as

tasms of the dead.

Besides which,

it

phan-

was found

that ghosts could be produced experimentally

—

that by a mere act of willing, one person could

make

another, sometimes miles distant, see

ghost.

Many

a

successful experiments of the kind,

supported by ample corroborative evidence, are

now on

record.

Mr. B. F.

For example:

Sinclair, at the

time a resident of

Lakewood,

New

New York

to be absent several days.

was not

Jersey,

feeling well

had occasion to go to

when he

left

His wife

home, and he

was greatly worried about her. " That night," to continue the narrative^ *

ical

in his

quote from Mr. Sinclair's report to the Society for PsyResearch, and published by him in its Journal, vol. vii,

I

p. 99.

[42]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING own

words,

"

before I went to bed, I thought

would try to find out, if possible, her condition. I had undressed, and was sitting on the edge of

I

the bed,

when

I covered

and willed myself if

I

face with

Lakewood

in

could see her.

my

After a

hands

my

at

home, to see

little, I

seemed to be

standing in her room before the bed, and saw her

lying

there,

satisfied she

was

looking better,

much

better.

I

felt

and so spent the week

more comfortably regarding her condition. " On Saturday I went home. When she saw me, she remarked: "

'

I

to you.

thought something had surely happened I

saw you standing

the night you

left,

as plain as could be,

been worrying about you ever "

in front of the

After explaining

my

condition, everything

had seen me when

I

have

since.'

effort to

became

and

bed

find out her

clear to her.

She

was trying to see her. I thought at the time I was going to see her and

make

I

her see me."

In at least one instance another experimenter, a German savant named Wesermann, performed the seemingly impossible feat of creating, by a

[43]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL simple act of volition, a ghost not of himself but of a person

who was

dead.

Herr Wesermann had been greatly troubled by the conduct of a friend, a young officer in the

German army, and "

"

willed

in the

hope

of reforming

him,

one evening that at eleven o'clock that

night he should see in a dreatii an apparition of a

whom

lady in

he had once been greatly interested,

but who had been dead It

five years.

chanced that at eleven o'clock, instead of

being in bed and asleep, Herr Wesermann's friend

was chatting with a brother the apparition

and was

came

to

him

seen, not only

officer.

Nevertheless,

at the hour appointed,

by him, but by

his

com-

also.

panion

The door

of his

chamber seemed to open, and

the ghost of his dead sweetheart walked in, " dressed in white, with black kerchief and bared

Both

head."

officers started to their feet,

and

watched with bulging eyes while the ghost bowed gravely to them, turned, and without a word disappeared.

They ridor,

followed instantly, rushing into the cor-

but saw only the sentry, who solemnly

[44]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING them that nobody but themselves had

assured

entered or

the room.^

left

Facts like these naturally raised in the minds of

many

of the investigators a belief that quite

possibly ghosts could be explained without resorting to the alternative of dogmatically denying

them

their reality or regarding

beings. facts

This

belief

as supernatural

was strengthened by other

brought to light in the course of experiments

to determine the actuality of telepathy, or thought

transference as It

it

used to be called.

was discovered

that,

under certain favoring

conditions, thoughts could indeed be transmitted

from mind to mind without passing through the ordinary known channels of communication; and furthermore that thoughts thus transmitted were often apprehended, not as mere ideas, but in the

form of auditory or visual hallucinations. Thus,

if

it

were a question of

"

"

telepathing

the idea of a certain playing card, say the three of

diamonds, the recipient, instead of simply *

Herr

were reported by him fur den Thierischen Magnetismus, vol. vi, pp. 136-

Wesermann's experiments

in the Archiv

139.

[45]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL getting the thought,

"

three of diamonds," might

"

hear an hallucinatory voice saying to him, of

three

diamonds," or might see three diamond-shaped "

objects floating before his eyes, the

"

ghosts

of

three diamonds, so to speak.

Of even greater significance was the discovery that

it

frequently happened also that instead of

had

getting the message which the experimenter

consciously

attempted

to

send,

would get other ideas merely latent

the

recipient

in the experi-

menter's mind — ideas connected with

ment, something he had been doing,

his environ-

Or the

etc.

might get the right message several hours after the experiment had been made recipient

receiving

—

it,

for example, in

The obvious

conclusion

must be a function not consciousness, but of

a dream.

was that telepathy

of a person's ordinary

what psychologists

subconsciousness, thus accounting for

call

the

the

diffi-

culty of invariably obtaining satisfactory results in telepathic experiments.

In the light of these discoveries, then, the belief

has been gaining ground that ghosts

ghosts

—

real

— are at most nothing but mental images [46]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING impressed upon one mind by another through the

power of telepathy, and apprehended in the form of hallucinations of the various senses, subtle

just as

any ordinary telepathic message may be

apprehended.

A

person

stricken with a mortal illness,

is

fatally injured, or

is

passing through some other

Con-

great crisis likely to terminate in death. sciously or subconsciously, far

away, and

is

he thinks

of loved ones

seized with a longing to get into

touch with them once more,

them

is

if

only to notify

of the catastrophe threatening him.

Across the intervening space, by what mechan-

ism we as yet do not know, his thought wings

way to them, ness,

— as

finds

lodgment

its

in their subconscious-

and thence, when favoring conditions in some moment of mental relaxation

arise

—

is

projected into their consciousness before, at the

time

of,

or after the sender's death,

or heard,

it

may

be, as a

and

is

seen,

Phantom Drummer, a

Knocking Ghost, or the phantasmal image

of the

sender himself. If,

however, conditions are such as to prevent

the message from emerging from the recipient's

[47]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL subconsciousness into his

field of

conscious vision,

may, on occasion, as telepathic experiments have proved, be retransmitted to a third party, it

and by him be apprehended;

Drummer

as, for

of Cortachy, in the

example, the

two instances cited

above, was heard not by members of the Ogilvy family, but

by comparative

More than to

make

is

strangers.

evidence has been accumulating

certain that in

it

telepathy

this,

most cases not even

involved in the creation of ghosts,

but that they are merely products of the

own

This was

subconsciousness.

seer's

first clearly in-

dicated by the results of an interesting

"

census

some years ago at the International Congress of Psychology, and of hallucinations," originated

— principally by mem— Psychical Research

simultaneously carried on bers of the Society for

in

the United States, England, France, Germany,

and other

countries.

the question was put: "

Have you

ever,

To when

thousands of persons

believing yourself to

be completely awake, had a vivid impression of seeing or being touched

by a

living being or in-

animate object, or of hearing a voice, which im-

[48]

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING pression, so far as

you could

discover,

due to any external physical cause?

Of the 27,339

was not

"

replies received to this question

no fewer than 3,266 were

Many

in the affirmative.

of those replying narrated true

"

similar to the ones given above;

ghost stories

many

*

"

testified

to apparitions not of dead persons but of living

and

in addition to this, the replies of

others

brought out the interesting fact

friends;

many

that there often

were

—

and

objects

of hats

human

as of

One

inanimate

and tables as well

beings.

she and

lesson,

distinctly fall,

But no

chairs

of

broad daylight and while taking a

*'

must

ghosts

respondent, Mrs. Savile Lumley, testified

that, in

thenic

"

"

another young

saw a chair over which we

and

chair

calis-

woman felt

called out to each other to avoid

we it.

was there."

The Reverend G. Lyon Turner,

professor of

philosophy at the Lancashire Independent College,

Manchester, England, woke up one morning to 1

The

detailed report of the resuhs of this census will be

found in the Proceedings of vol. X, pp.

the Society for Psychical Research,

25-422.

[49]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL room adorned with a huge

find the ceiling of his

chandeher of some ten arms, and the

jets shining

brightly through the ground-glass globes at the

end of each arm.

He knew

that

when he went

to

bed no chandelier had been there, and naturally feared that something was the matter with his eyesight.

"

the

I

moved my head," he

phantom moved,

" said,

too.

But

to see whether

no,

remained

it

and the objects behind and bej'ond became more or less completely visible as

fixed;

it

I

moved, exactly as would have been the case had it been a real chandelier. So I woke my wife, but she saw nothing."

Even more

was the phantasm that appeared to another Englishman. Here is his

own account "

bizarre

of

it:

—

at least, had just gone to bed, and was this was my impression at the time quite awake. The door of my room was ajar, and there I

—

was a

my

light in the passage

room.

Suddenly

of slight taps

were not

I

which half-illumined

became aware

on the passage outside.

sufficiently''

loud for a

[50]

of

a

series

These taps

human

footstep;

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING on the other hand, the volume greater than that

remember

fully

two top-boots

made by a

sitting

up

sound was

of their

waLking-stick.

I

bed and beholding

in

trot rapidly across the

The

vanish into the opposite wall.

room and

illusion

was

astonishingly vivid, and I can recall the details I

to this day.

have never had a waking dream

and have never experienced ambulant topboots except on this occasion." since,

Whence the

The

reply of

origin of these

modern

science

odd apparitions? is

that they were

nothing more than the weird externalization of ideas latent in the

minds

of those perceiving

Indeed, in the case of Mr. Turner there

is

them.

absolute

proof that this was the case, for that gentleman

afterwards

identified

the

phantom chandelier

with one familiar to him as hanging from the

which he daily said of which Furthermore, there is proof

ceiling of the college chapel in

prayers.

an abundance

— that

will

be given

in

—

subsequent chapters

often the ideas thus externalized relate

to things once seen or heard but long since for-

may

be to things seen or heard

gotten;

it

wholly

unconscious,

or,

[51]

rather,

in a

subconscious,

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL way.

And

as with ideas of things, so with ideas

of persons.

In this connection, as illuminating vividly the

may weU be given an me by Doctor Morton

problem of ghosts,

experi-

ence narrated to

Prince,

the eminent Boston psychopathologist, or medical psychologist.

A

patient of his

came

to

him one morning

in

a

condition of extreme nervousness, declaring that " I woke the previous night she had seen a ghost. " and saw at the foot of my bed up," said she,

a young woman, who gradually faded away." She maintained that at no time had she seen any-

body resembling the apparition, but

in the

minute

description she gave. Doctor Prince at once rec-

ognized a relative of

his,

with

whom

he remem-

bered he had been talking in the hall when the patient last visited him.

Saying nothing to her he

quietly assembled a few photographs, and, before

she departed, asked her to look them over. " " Why," she said, picking one up, here

is

my

ghost!" "

saw your ghost

in

"

and you this house when you were here [52]

Yes," was Doctor Prince's reply,

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING only a few days ago.

came "

I

was talking to her as you

in."

But," objected the patient,

*'

I certainly did

not see her, for I noticed somebody was with you,

and

I purposely

turned away as I passed,

lest I

should seem rude." " " All the same," said Doctor Prince, you saw her without being conscious of

it

— saw

were, out of the corner of your eye.

her, as

One

it

fleeting

glance would be enough to give you the memory image that you mistook for a ghost."

Undoubtedly Doctor Prince was undoubtedly

this dual

ception and

memory

some

of the

chapter.

right,

and

law of subconscious peris

enough to account

most impressive ghosts

Even the strange haunting

for

cited in this of the Petit

Trianon, as experienced by Miss Morison and Miss

Lamont, may be said to find its explanation here. It is true that both Miss Morison and Miss

Lamont

profess to have

known

little

about the

history of the Petit Trianon previous to their visit to Versailles.

But

their detailed report of

the haunting contains statements showing that,

subconsciously at any rate, they must have pos-

[53]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Miss

sessed considerable knowledge of the place.

Morison admits that she had, as a

girl,

great en-

thusiasm for Marie Antoinette, and had read not a

about her, including an

little

summer home;

of her

article descriptive

Lamont

while Miss

teacher of French history, and accordingly

is

a

must

have had rather more knowledge than the average person regarding the

Queen Marie. Besides which, and most significant, there was life

story of

published, just before they went to Versailles,

an illustrated magazine torical fete in the

is

a

his-

gardens of the Petit Trianon,

with some account of It

article picturing

worth noting,

its

history.

too, that the two ladies were

not haunted in exactly the same way, each of

them

seeing certain people

not visible to the other. natural

manifestation

On this

and scenes that were the theory of a super-

would

explain, but the diflSculty vanishes

hard

be

if

we

to

recognize

that the subconscious knowledge of the Trianon possessed

by each must

The problem remains

necessarily

have

differed.

to account for the fact,

as distinct from the facts, of the haunting.

should Miss Morison and Miss Lamont,

[54]

Why among

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING all

the thousands of visitors to the Petit Trianon,

alone have had such an experience? assuredly, there

is

no answer

if

one

is

To

this,

going to

stick to the old-fashioned notion of ghosts

attribute

answer

to

is

them

objective

reality.

very simple on the modern

and

But the scientific

hypothesis.

Miss Morison and Miss Lamont, the psychologist

would say, were haunted

for the reason that,

being of exceptionally romantic, impressionable

temperaments, the ideas associated

in their

minds

with the Petit Trianon, appealed to them with " " force as to plunge them for such suggestive " the time being into a state of psychical dissociation," during

which their subconsciousness ob-

tained complete control over the upper conciousness,

and flooded them with

of all that they

place and

its

latent

memories

had ever read or heard about the

its historic

residents.

they were as two persons

"

In other words,

dreaming awake."

The same explanation would obviously apply to the ghostly vision seen on the lawn by Mrs. M. Nor do we need

to go

beyond the hypothesis

of

subconscious perception to account for the expe-

[55]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL riences of

Boston

Lady Eardley and the guest

hotel.

In the latter case

it is

at the

necessary to

assume nothing more than that the lady who saw the apparition at the elevator entrance perceived her danger without being aware of it, and subconsciously developed the hallucination that en-

abled her to avoid

As

it.

to the Eardley case,

it is

a well-established

medical fact that some diseases, in their

initial

stages,

cause organic changes too slight to be

noticed

by the

sufferer's

upper consciousness, but

plainly perceptible to his subconsciousness which,

through

symbolical

dreams

or

hallucinations,

sometimes seeks to convey to the upper consciousness a warning that all is not well. I myself

have had such an experience.

A num-

ber of years ago, beginning in the summer, I was troubled by a recurrent nightmare in which,

though the

al-

were not always the same, the central incident never varied. Always the details

nightmare ended with a phantom cat clawing viciously at my throat. I did not then know as

much about dreams thinking

as I

vaguely that

do now,

"

[56]

it

beyond must mean someso,

GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING thing," I paid no attention to this repeated night-

mare.

At the end

of six

months

I

grippe, necessitating treatment ist,

who

With

by a throat

of

special-

my throat a growth had had no knowledge. removal the recurrent dream of the cat

speedily discovered in

which

of

had an attack

its

I consciously

instantly ceased to trouble me.

Lady Eardley's lar,

case was, doubtless, quite simi-

the only difference being that the subconscious

warning was conveyed to her upper consciousness, not in dream, but as an auditory hallucination.

And,

in the

somewhat

parallel case of the ghost

seen by Doctor Langtry, tion that

if

it

seems a safe assump-

the frightened clergyman had advised

the child's father to place her under medical care at once, the subsequent fatality might have been averted.

In the Langtry case, however, there must have been operative also a telepathic factor. And since the telepathic explanation of ghosts subject of

much

proceeding

controversy,

farther,

to

known to-day regarding

it will

state

still

the

be well, before

exactly

telepathy.

[57]

is

what

is

CHAPTER n WHY

I

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

years ago,

when

New

living near

York,

SOME I had a curious dream that made a deep imIn this dream I seemed to be

pression on me. at a club or hotel,

when a messenger boy entered

and announced that There I

I

found

in a large

had been intimate

was wanted

I

in

up-stairs.

room a family with whom

my

boyhood

in

Canada.

had heard nothing of them for years, and naturally was delighted to see them. But I was struck

I

with the absence of one of the sons, Archie, who, as a youngster of about

my own

age,

had been

one of

my closest friends. To my inquiry as to why

he was not with

"He's gone," a statement vagueness, seemed in the dream

them, I was told: which, despite

its

a wholly adequate and satisfactory reply. I awoke, however, with the in mind, I

had a strong

dream

When

details vividly

feeling that, as I said to

[58]

WHY my

I

"

wife:

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

Something serious must have hap-

The

pened to Archie Tisdale."

sequel proved

that this feehng was amply justified.

For

developed that, at about the time of

it

dream, he had died from an

my

which

I

knew nothing until, prompted by the dream, made inquiries about him.

I

many

Again,

illness of

years earlier, whiling

away the

time one summer evening in a green lane that led to the shore of a beautiful

Canadian

lake, I

had

an experience which similarly gave me food for I had been leaning on a rail fence, thought. taking in the glories of the fading sunset.

was one of

of those evenings

and one

which poets delight to

sing,

It

of those scenes

and as

I

gazed

across the lake at the changing hues on the dis-

tant

hills,

slowly turning from blue to gray as

the twilight deepened, I gave myself up to the

common

in the ro-

was roused by hearing

my name

pleasurable day-dreaming so

mantic age of youth.

Suddenly called, in

I

a tone so faint, albeit perfectly audible,

that for a

moment

from beyond the

I could fancy the call

lake.

The next

[59]

instant,

came how-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL ever, I realized that

it

was what, with

psychological knowledge

my

larger

of to-day, I should

wholly subjective, coming from within

me

term

rather

than from without; and at the same time I tinctly got the impression that

it

dis-

was connected

some way with accident or illness befalling a young lady in whom I was then much interested in

— the young lady, my

in fact,

who

afterwards became

wife.

It

was

in vain that I

sought to dismiss this

impression as a mere freak of the imagination.

So

insistent did

to the house

what

I

it

and

at last

I

returned

hastily scribbled a note, stating

had heard

heard — and

become that

—

or,

rather, thought I

expressing the hope that

all

had was

well.

My

letter

had to go to a distant

city,

and

it

was therefore several days before an answer could arrive. I well remember how, in the in-

But by return mail a reassuring reply reached me. Only, most terval,

I

fretted

and worried,

strangely, the writer

noon

of the

tory

call,

added that

late in the after-

day on which I heard the hallucinashe had been overcome by heat, and [60]

WHY was

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

some hours thought

for

to be in a serious

condition.

Once again

I

heard the same weird inward

my name — this

ing of

time at eleven o'clock on

the night of a Fourth of July celebration,

was lounging

hammock on

in a

Niagara River, watching the

on the American friends with

side.

whom

I

hour or more before;

was not

their

name.

Yet

distinctly,

I

when

I

the bank of the

last of the fireworks

was quite alone, as the was staying had retired an I

and, for that matter,

custom to address

me by my

it

first

heard myself called, faintly but

and seemingly from across the water,

precisely as in

As

call-

my

previous experience.

in that experience, also, I instinctively as-

my absent sweetheart, once. Two days later, our

sociated the calling with

and wrote to her at letters

crossing,

I

received

word that on the

night of the Fourth she had taken an overdose of

headache powder, with consequences that might have been serious had not medical assistance been promptly obtained.

But even more going

is

singular than

any

of the fore-

a happening connected with an accident [61]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL that

occurred to

mere

schoolgirl.

my

wife while she

was

still

a

With a party of young people she had gone on an outing to a Maine lake resort, and in the dusk of a pleasant

evening started for a drive in an old-

There was no thought of danger, and the drive was thoroughly enjoyed

fashioned hay- wagon.

by

all

steep

coming down a long and rather the breeching broke, and the horses

until, hill,

At a sharp turn in the road, half-way down the hill, the drive came to a sudden and

ran away.

disastrous end with the overturning of the w^agon.

A number of its occupants were seriously hurt, my wife, with great presence of mind, saving herself

by jumping

gan to go over.

clear of the

Even

so,

wagon

just as

it

be-

she did not escape

uninjured, her face being badly cut.

Now comes the curious part of the affair.

Early

the next morning a telegram from her mother in

Boston was handed to her. hurt or letter

ill.?

Wire at once.

Am

which followed gave the amazing informa-

tion that the previous night of the

"Are you writing." The

It read:

— that

is,

the night

accident — the mother had had an unusu-

[62]

WHY ally vivid

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

dream

in

which she saw her daughter

driving in a carriage, thrown out of the carriage,

and badly cut about the face. So realistic was the dream that on waking it frightened her, and led to the sending of the telegram.

the

Obviously four

strange

question

chance

Were

representative

experiences

of extraordinary

arises:

coincidences,

these

merely

or

were

they indicative of the action of some direct means

communication from mind to mind by other than the ordinary recognized channels of comof

munication.?

Personally I

not

am

satisfied that

chance alone

will

account for them, and that they are

suflBce to

veritable instances of the workings of a faculty

latent in

all

mankind and operable

with a true,

nature — or

if

call

what you

And

my

tained

if

accordance

as yet httle understood, law of

it

telepathy, thought transference,

will.

in saying this, I belief

in

is

in

am

well

aware that, even

agreement with that enter-

by many eminent men

of science

— such

as Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Crookes, Camille

Flammarion, Charles Richet, Theodore Flournoy, [63]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Henri Morselli, Professor late

William James

—

it is

W.

F. Barrett and the

contrary to the opinion

held by the great majority of scientists at the present day. there

is

and

deliberate

errors of

or unconscious falsifica-

memory

most instances

plain

that

it briefly, is

no such thing as telepathy; that chance

coincidence, tion,

Their view, to put

are sufficient to ex-

com-

of alleged telepathic

munication; and that the remainder are reducible to the operation of

more or

less familiar principles

—

psychology of the subconscious

in the

notably

the law of hypersesthesia, or unusual extension of the senses of sight, hearing, smell, etc.

I

am

perfectly

which passes as telepathy

For example, I

my

to admit

willing

am

may

much

that

be thus reducible.

seated writing at the desk in

my whom I

Unexpectedly there flashes into

study.

mind an idea concerning a person have not thought

for

of

weeks or months.

The next

instant the doorbell rings, and presently the

informs that

me

that the very person of

moment been

thinking

has

whom

I

entered

maid have the

house.

This

is

a not infrequent experience, as most

[64]

WHY of

my

that

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

So frequent

readers will concede.

it

is

is

absurd to attempt to account for

it it

on the hypothesis of chance coincidence. But neither would it be always safe to raise the theory of telepathy. For it might well happen that while I was seated intent on

study windows closed,

my

my

ear nevertheless caught

down

the sound of footsteps coming or on

my

nized in

the street,

that I subconsciously recog-

porch;

them

work, with the

my

and that

friend's walk,

I con-

sequently, though without knowing why, thought of

him

moment. This

at that precise

a possible explanation

— though

conceding that in

such cases

all

is

am

I it

is

assuredly far

from

the only

explanation properly applicable. So, likewise, one

against

must be constantly on guard

over-readily

accepting

telepathic action the feats of

often undertaken

" Stage tainers

mind reading

may

be safely

by

left

trickery

and

deceit.

But

of

"

amusement.

professional

enter-

out of the reckoning,

methods

as undoubtedly based on

evidences

mind reading

of parlor

by way "

as

"

of conscious

in a private gathering,

where there can be no question of confederates

[65]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL and deliberate

etc.

objects,

reality it is

"

On

the

in

finding

are

results

hidden

of

the surface this would seem

on a telepathic basis, yet in " commonly brought about by muscle

only

explicable

reading

surprising

signaling,

sometimes obtained

rather than by true

"

mind reading."

Experiment has shown that the effort to concentrate thought on a given matter a name

—

or an object

— tends

to produce

some form

of

muscular activity, either subconscious whispering of the

name thought

of,

or subconscious

move-

ment

in the direction of the object.

rule,

the spectators are supposed to keep their

minds

fixed intently

have selected

If,

as

is

the

on the name or object they

for the

" test,"

some

of

them

are

apt to give these involuntary muscular hints,

which the performer it

may

accept and act upon,

will

be without being clearly conscious of the

source of his information. Still it

" willing

must be added that experiments in the " have been carried out under game

conditions and with results indicating that occasionally,

at

all

events,

successes

are

achieved

without any such subconscious guidance.

[66]

Not

WHY so

very

I

long

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY ago some interesting and most

striking experiments of this sort were described

to

me by "

"

The

Professor J. H. Hyslop.

subject of

my

woman

was a young

experiments," said he,

of

good family, who was

credited with having exceptional ability in divi-

ning the thoughts and wishes of others.

was

It

arranged that I should investigate her powers,

and accordingly

for a period of

some weeks

had

I

frequent sittings with her, in the presence of a

few interested and trustworthy friends. "

The plan followed in every experiment was this: The young woman having left the room, I

mentally selected some more or

action for her to perform

wrote to do,

down on a showed

in a book,

it

slip of

less

complicated

upon her return.

paper what I wished her

to the others,

and concealed

which did not leave

my hand

after the completion of the experiment. first

to last not a

"

it

until

From

word was spoken by any one,

so as to guard against of hearing

then

I

any possible hypertesthesia

on her part.

The young woman was then

called back,

and

almost invariably proceeded to execute the com-

[67]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL mands mentally given

She did

her.

this

so

promptly that I cannot conceive how she could possibly have got any unconscious hints from those present, and conscious signaling was out of the question.

"

For instance, I once wrote on

my

paper an

order for her to pick out of a vase a bunch of

keys I had hidden there, cross the room with the keys,

and place them on the mantel-piece.

moment

entered, stood for but a closed,

and then,

which was on the

She

with her eyes

swiftly

passing to the vase,

floor,

picked up the keys,

turned, and deposited

them on the mantel-piece

had mentally suggested. It was all done so quickly and spontaneously that to my mind it

as I

afforded strong evidential proof of true thought transference.

"

She was not always

successful,

but some of

her failures were quite as instructive as her successes.

the

On

three

commands

commands

I

occasions

she executed, not

had written on the paper, but

had thought of writing but for one No one in reason or another had abandoned. I

the room excepting myself

knew

[68]

of these previous

WHY

I

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

intentions, so she could

have derived her knowl-

edge of them from the involuntary movements of

no one excepting me; and if it had actually been a matter of subconscious guidance, it is obvious that

my

muscular indications would have related

not to the abandoned

mands " this

I actually

commands but

young woman

applicable, even

com-

wished her to carry out.

my

All things considered,

of subconscious

to the

satisfy

guidance

me is

when the

'

experiments with

that the hypothesis

not always properly

mind reader

'

is

in

a

position to see or hear the persons testing him."

Assuming, however,

for the sake of

that Professor Hyslop's conclusion

is

argument, erroneous,

and that the involuntary movement theory does always suffice as an explanatory hypothesis when experimenter and subject are in the same rooms, it

becomes manifestly and hopelessly inadequate

when applied

to explain the transmission of ideas

between persons a considerable distance apart. Yet what I consider abundant proof has been experimentally obtained that such transmission

may, and sometimes does, take place ally in most dramatic form. [69]

— occasion-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Take, for example, the experience of a French lady,

Mme.

Clarence de Vaux-Royer, who,

ing uneasy one day about a friend living in the

cable to him.

feel-

who was then

United States, thought she would Unfortunately

her maid found the cable

it

was Sunday, and

Mme.

office closed.

Vaux-Royer then decided

to

a

attempt

de

tele-

pathic experiment, and, knowing that her friend

was mourning the death

of his

mother and

of a

and impress him with an idea that they were near him and would comfort him in any trial he might be underfavorite sister, decided to try

going.

She told her maid

of her intention,

and

asked the maid to note the date, so as to be able to give corroborative evidence

if

the experi-

ment succeeded. This was on November

7.

Ten days

later the

American mail brought to Mme. de Vaux-Royer a letter from her absent friend, who, after referring to

some matters

of wholly private inter-

est, stated:

"

Last night (the 7th), while I was praying, I

saw, hovering above

my

head, some gold

which gradually floated away until [70]

circles,

I could

no

WHY

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

At the same time

longer see them.

seemed to

I

hear some one calHng to me: 'Mother!

Minnie!

Sister

'

Then the

circles floated

approaching until they almost touched

Oh, how much comfort

me

Mother!

How

I felt!

my

back, head.

they inspired "

with sentiments of goodness and happiness!

From

this it

manifestly only a step to the

is

experimental production of telepathic phantasms

human

of the in

form, as in the two instances given

the previous

Sinclair

fessor,

numerous other

whose authority

I

may

In one, a Harvard pro-

an acquaintance

the

in

Wesermann and

which one or two additional

be narrated here.

well

(the

and

experiments),

instances, of

of

chapter

of Professor

James, on

quote the story, having heard

possibility

of

telepathic

hallucinations,

determined one evening that he would try to

make an

apparition of himself appear to a friend,

who

a young lady

home. or to

He

"

from

his

did not mention his intention to her

anybody

letter, in

lived half a mile

else.

which she

The next day he

received a

said:

Last night about ten o'clock I was in the

dining-room

at

supper

with

[71]

B.

Suddenly

I

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL thought I saw you looking in through the crack of the door at the

I

was looking.

end

of the

room, toward which

I said to B.:

'There

looking through the crack of the door!

back was toward the door,

He would come

there.

'

said:

is

Blank,

B.,

whose

'

He

can't be

However, I

right in.'

got up and looked in the other room, but there

was nobody

at that time?

last night,

At that "

James, in his

Now, what were you doing

there.

moment,

precise

Blank

"

" as he told Professor

had been at home,

room, and trying

"

whether

I

sitting alone

could project

body to the presence of A." Possibly had the young lady been

my

astral

not actively engaged,

more

definite

friend,

.

for

she

alone,

might have had a

view of the phantasm of her absent

experience has

shown that

and quiet are favoring conditions tion of telepathic apparitions.

instance reported

to

of

in a

mind.

more or Such

In nearly every

the Society for Psychical

less passive,

a

solitude

for the percep-

Research the percipient of the phantasm

and

and

condition

is

alone

quiescent frame usually

obtains

immediately before or immediately after sleep,

[72]

WHY and

then that experimental apparitions are

it is

most

seen

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

plainly.

Though occasionally they when the percipient is

are vividly experienced

most active consciousness, as

in a state of the

by the agent

in the following case, reported

that

the person sending the telepathic mes-

is,

— and

sage

—

confirmed

English clergyman

by

now

the

percipient, an

W.

dead, the Reverend

Stainton Moses. " " One evening," runs the agent's account, I

some miles

resolved to try to appear to Z., at

the

not inform him beforehand of

I did

distance.

intended

experiment;

but retired to

rest

shortly before midnight with thoughts intently fixed

on

Z.,

with whose rooms and surroundings,

however, I was quite unacquainted. asleep,

I soon

and awoke next morning unconscious

anything having taken place.

On

fell

of

seeing Z. a

few days afterward, I inquired: "

'

Did anything happen

at your

rooms on

'

Saturday "

night.'*

'

'

Yes,' replied he, I

had been

a great deal happened.

sitting over the fire

and chatting.

with M., smoking

About twelve-thirty he [73]

rose to

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL and

leave,

the

fire

I let

to finish

him out myseH. I returned to my pipe, when I saw you sitting

by him. I looked intently at you, and then took up a newspaper to assure myself I was not dreaming,

in the chair just vacated

"

*

but on laying

it

down

I

saw you

I gazed without speaking,

Of course like

these,

sibly fall

But

it

^

While

there.

you faded away.'

"

in the case of all single experiments

the skeptically inclined might plau-

back on the theory

is

still

of

chance coincidence.

impossible seriously to entertain this

hypothesis

in

cases

where experiments

telepathic transmission of ideas

in

the

have been carried

on repeatedly and with an astonishing measure of success.

To mention ments

only

the

most notable

experi-

would

call at-

of this systematic kind, I

tention to the results obtained

by two

English investigators, the

comprising two

ladies

named

first

Clarissa Miles

sets of

and Hermione Rams-

den, the second two gentlemen, F. R. Burt

F. L. Usher.

As

I

see

it,

indeed,

and

the Miles-

Accounts of other experiments of the same type will be " The Riddle of Personality," pp. 140-142. found in my book, ^

[74]

WHY

I

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

Ramsden and Burt-Usher experiments have the additional interest that they not only make clear some

of the

fundamental laws of genuine thought

transference, but also

we can never hope trol of

show

just

why

it

is

that

to obtain such absolute con-

the telepathic process as to be able to send

mental messages from one to another with the

same ease and certainty as we now send ordinary telegrams and marconigrams. This inability of control has long been a stock objection against belief in telepathy, especially "

Not until among the scientifically trained. we can repeat at will, and with invariable success, the experiment of direct transference of thought, will

we accept telepathy

scientific, skeptics.

chemical

"

as established," say these

We know

and physical

that

laboratories,

if,

in our

we bring

such and such elements together, such and such action will always follow.

We

must be able to

do as much with telepathy before we it."

will

accept

But the Miles-Ramsden and Burt-Usher

experiments show that there are excellent reasons for affirming that telepathy

nevertheless

its

processes

[75]

is

a fact, and that

cannot be governed

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL with the certitude possible in the case of chemical

and physical volved which

processes. elude,

There are factors

and must always

in-

elude, the

directive control of the experimenter.

In the experiments by the Misses Miles and Ramsden it was arranged that, at a stated hour of a stated evening in each week.

— who

receiver

remain

Miss Ramsden

acted throughout as the percipient, or the

of for

messages

telepathic

a few minutes

in

— was

to

a condition of com-

and immediately afterwards was to note on a post-card whatever ideas came into her mind during that time. The post-card was

plete passivity,

then to be mailed to Miss Miles, who, for her

was to think

part,

of

Miss Ramsden at intervals

during the day agreed on, and in the evening to be mailed to was to make a post-card entry

—

her friend forthwith

had

tried to

— of

the idea or ideas she

convey to her telepathically.

in the event of achieving

any degree

Thus,

of success,

they would have a perfect documentary record to substantiate their claims.

As

to the distance separating them,

it

from a few score to several hundred miles. [76]

ranged

They

WHY made,

I

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

in fact, three distinct series of experiments,

with about a year's interval between each

During the

series.

they were at their homes. Miss

first

Miles in London, Miss

Ramsden

in

Buckinghamshire. During the second, Miss Ramsden was in Inverness, in northern Scotland, and Miss Miles visiting friends in various parts of England.

The

third series

was carried on while Miss Miles

was making a tour of the beautiful Ardennes region of France and Belgium, Miss Ramsden at the

same time being again

the Scottish

in

Highlands.

Thus

there was a progressive increase in the

distance between

them

for each series,

seems to have made no difference In each,

as

the

attested

Ramsden succeeded part,

but this

in the

record

result.

Miss

shows.

in getting, completely or in

no fewer than two out

of every five of the

"

telemessages her co-experimenter tried to " to her. Such a proportion is clearly too path high to be explained away on the theory of

chance coincidence, and this theory still

is

rendered

more untenable by the attendant circum-

stances which the record reveals.

[77]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL On

one occasion Miss Miles, who

is

an

artist,

had been busy in the afternoon painting a model's hands. She thought of this when evening came, and determined

Ramsden with

to

endeavor to impress Miss "

hands."

In her post-

card, written at seven o'clock the

same evening.

the idea

Miss Ramsden stated that

of several ideas

which

into her mind at the experiment-hour " " most vivid was a little black hand, quite

had come the

"

small,

much

and the

smaller than a child's, well formed,

fingers

This was the chief

straight.

thing." Similarly, having noticed at a meeting in

don a curious pair

man home

in the early evening,

spectacles," it

worn by a gentleMiss Miles, on returning

of spectacles

seated near her.

*'

to Miss

wrote down the word " "

with the idea of

Ramsden. The

for that evening noted

"

Lon-

telepathing

latter 's post-card entry

that

the only idea that came to

"

" spectacles

me

was

after waiting a

long time."

Again, while on a sketching expedition to an English village. Miss Miles was

by an adventure with a

much amused

large white

[78]

pig.

She

WHY

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

selected this pig as the subject of her next tele-

pathic coniniunication, the result of which Miss

Ramsden, writing

as almost always

on the night

of the experiment, thus reported:

"

You were

out of doors rather

evening, near a railway station;

late,

a cold, raw

there was a pig

with a long snout, and some village children. It

was getting dark."

On

the other hand, in several instances Miss

Ramsden's impressions contained much which Miss Miles had not consciously sought to convey to her. And this brings us to what is unquestionably the most important feature of the experi-

ments.

As was

said,

about two out

of every five

mes-

sages were correctly received, in whole or in part.

But

frequently happened in the case of the

it

seeming

failures,

that while Miss

Ramsden

did not

get the ideas which Miss Miles was endeavoring to send to her, she did get ideas relating to people,

things and events

much

in

Miss Miles's mind at

that moment, or which had been more or less in her

To

mind during the day illustrate,

of the experiment.

Miss Miles once tried to make [79]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Miss

Ramsden

think

What Miss Ramsden

of

"

or

pussies,

"

did think of was

cats."

a manu-

script,

pinned by a patent fastener in one cor-

ner."

And, oddly enough. Miss Miles had spent

a good part of that afternoon reading to a friend " from a manuscript fastened together," as the " with a patent fastener." friend has testified, Similarly, during Miss Miles's visit to the English village for

"

above mentioned, Miss Ramsden's report

one experiment ran: First I

saw dimly a house, but

I think that

you wish me to

see a little girl with

down her back,

tied with a ribbon in the usual

way.

She

is

sitting

hair

at a table with her back

turned and seems very busy indeed. is

brown

I

think she

cutting out scraps with a pair of scissors.

She

has on a white pinafore, and I should guess her

age to be between eight and twelve."

Miss Miles had not been trying to make Miss

Ramsden think

of anything of the sort.

But the

description fitted perfectly her landlady's

whom

daughter, of grove, " I

says

little

the mother, Mrs. Laura Love-

:

have a

little girl

aged eleven, with brown

[80]

WHY hair, tied

I

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY She

with a ribbon in the usual way.

wears a pinafore, and, being

often amuses

ill,

herself cutting out scraps."

Another time, when the hour

ment

for the experi-

Miss Miles forgot

arrived.

about

all

being busy writing letters to some friends. particular she

was absorbed

an important

to

letter

in

from

written in a peculiar script.

it,

In

framing an answer

a Polish

artist,

Miss Ramsden's

re-

port for that evening was: " I felt that you were not thinking of me, but

were reading a

The

writing.

them.

Is there

letter in letters

any

Significant also

same

a sort of half-German

have very long

to

tails

truth in that? "^

is

the fact that precisely the

sort of thing occurred in the

more recent

ex-

periments between Mr. Burt and Mr. Usher, who, like

Miss Miles and Miss Ramsden, conducted

their investigations in a careful, methodical, con-

scientious way, 1

and over a long period

The experiments

of the Misses

Miles and

of time.

Ramsden

are

reported in detail in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. xxi, and in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. viii. The report of the Burt-Usher experiments

appears in the Annates des Sciences Psychiques, January and February, 1910.

[811

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Mr. Usher,

like

Miss Miles, invariably acted

as the sender of the telepathic communications,

while Mr. Burt was the percipient. to

last

the

latter

From

first

remained in London, while

Mr. Usher was part of the time in Bristol, more than one hundred miles from London, and part of the time in

thousand evening

miles

the Austrian city of Prague, a

On

away.

was Mr. Usher's

it

previously agreed upon, to lighted room,

each

experiment-

practice, at the sit

hour

alone in a dimly

draw some design on a piece

of

paper, and remain for fifteen minutes thinking " " to transmit intently of the design and willing it

to

Mr. Burt, who, at the same hour, would

be seated

in

a darkened room in London, noting

the images that passed before his mind's eye,

and, at the expiration of fifteen minutes, setting

down on paper the one to him most vivid. Nearly results of

fifty

defying any explanation by the theory

chance coincidence.

also

two that had seemed

experiments were thus made, with

Ramsden experiments as

or

in

—

And, as for the

in

the Miles-

matter of that,

Professor Hyslop's experiments

[82]

—

it

WHY

I

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

at times failed

happened that when Mr. Burt totally to draw a design corresponding with that

which Mr. Usher had drawn, Mr. Burt's design did correspond with images demonstrably in Mr.

Usher's

mind

moment

of the experiment.

at

or

Thus, one evening to

make Mr. Burt

before

the

Prague Mr. Usher

tried

immediately

in

get the impression of an oblong

composed of numerous small dots. Instead Mr. Burt saw and designed a peculiar plume-like ornamentation, which Mr. Usher instantly recognized as a picture of part of the unusual carving

on the table at which he had been seated. another

occasion — the

On

eighteenth experiment

—

Mr. Usher sought

to transmit a crude design of a

flower in a pot.

What Mr. Burt

actually drew

was an excellent representation of a lighted rette with the smoke curling away from it.

ciga-

"

" And," says Mr. Usher, the evening that he drew this was the first evening I had smoked a cigarette while experimenting with him."

Such

incidents, with those cited in connection

with the experiments of Professor Hyslop and the Misses Miles and Ramsden, in my opinion

[83]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL go to show exactly

why

it is

that one cannot hope

to obtain unfaiHng control over the process of

For they indicate that at bottom

telepathy.

thought

genuine

much on

not

depends

so

conscious willing as on subconscious It

feeling.

transference

is

not necessarily the things about

which one thinks most strongly, but rather things which are tinged with some emotional coloring, that are most likely to become subjects of tele-

pathic communication.

And

these experiments further indicate that, on

the receiver's part also, the mechanism involved in

the transmission of telepathic messages be-

longs

rather

to

the

subconscious than

conscious portion of the mind.

to

the

In order to allow

the emergence of the transmitted ideas into the conscious knowledge, there seems to be " disalways necessary some form of psychical " sociation as in a trance, dream, reverie, or

field of

—

moment

of

^

absentmindedness.

Such

states

of

dissociation are not always easy to bring about

and when they are brought about, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, it by no

voluntarily;

means

follows that ideas received telepathically

[84]

WHY will

I

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

forthwith and rapidly rise above the threshold

consciousness.

of

as

For,

observation

the

recent psychological experiment and

have shown,

tendency

the

for

is

in

dissociated

states

emergence chiefly of

ideas which, through their emotional associations,

are of deep personal significance

dream

— as

when we

of persons or things associated with events

that once affected us profoundly.

Every one

of

us has subconscious reminiscences of this sort,

and with these personal subconscious reminiscences any ideas which have been transmitted telepathically have of necessity

emergence.

They may

whether they

not;

depends

in large

own emotional Hence

it

is

to

for

compete

get through or they

may

will get

through apparently measure on the degree of their

intensity.

that that scientist

perpetual unbelief

who

is

doomed

to

boasts that he will never

place credence in telepathy until he can play

with

it

tubes.

as he plays with the chemicals in his test

One cannot handle

feelings as

one can

handle a chemical compound, nor can one manipulate at will the subconscious as though

[85]

it

were

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL a physical substance.

Hence, too, the case for

telepathy must always

rest less

evidence

on experimental

— strong

though the Miles-Ramsden and Burt-Usher experiments demonstrate that this sometimes is than on well-authenticated

—

instances of spontaneous occurrence, which have

been recorded in ever-increasing volume since systematic investigation of the subject was

first

undertaken a scant quarter of a century ago. In such instances, the records further show, one of the commonest forms pathic message

is

hallucination, as in the

tele-

that of an auditory " voice heard by me on

received

"

which the

in

is

the shore of the Canadian lake and on the bank of

Niagara River.

When

there

is

connected with

the sending of the message some supreme

the career the sender — the of the moment of death — the in

of

cination

make this

its

is

sometimes

dire

respect I

of

may

be,

auditory hallu-

such a nature as to

meaning almost

know

crisis, it

crisis

self-evident.

of nothing

more

In

striking

than a strange case reported, with ample corroborative evidence, to the Society for Psychical

Research.

[86]

WHY The

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

narrator,

time in a country house.

living at the

was

a well-to-do Englishman,

was

It

and on the night of his telepathic experience there had been a slight snowfall, just

early spring,

make

to

sufficient

the

After

white.

ground

dinner he spent the evening writing until ten o'clock,

words "

when, to continue the story

in his

own

:

I got

up and

from the hall

table,

left

the room, taking a lamp

and placing

it

on a small table

standing in a recess of the window in the breakfast-room.

The

the window. nearest

I

curtains were not

had

just taken

bookcase a volume of

British Birds

'

for reference,

of reading the passage, the

the lamp, and shutter, est

and

my

drawn

down from

Macgillivray's

and was

in the act

book held

close to

window

when almost the

sound would be heard, when

the

'

shoulder touching the

in a position

across

I distinctly

slight-

heard

the front gate opened and shut again with a clap,

and footsteps advancing at a run up the drive; when opposite the window the steps changed from sharp and distinct on gravel to dull and less clear on the grass-slip below the window, [87]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL and at the same time

I

was conscious that some

one or something stood close to

me

outside, only

the thin shutter and a sheet of glass

dividing

us.

"

could

I

hear the

quick,

panting,

breathing of the messenger, or whatever as

if

Had

labored it

was,

trying to recover breath before speaking.

he been attracted by the light through the

shutter? side,

Suddenly, like a gunshot, inside, out-

and

all

around, there broke out the most

—a

appalling shriek

prolonged wail of horror,

which seemed to freeze the blood. single shriek,

It

was not a

but more prolonged, commencing

and then

in a high key,

less

and

less,

wailing

away toward the north, and becoming weaker and weaker as

it

receded in sobbing pulsations

of intense agony.

"

Of

my

fright

and horror

increased tenfold

when

room and found

my

work

close to the

I

I

can say nothing

—

walked into the dining-

wife sitting quietly at her

window,

in the

same

line

and

distant only ten or twelve feet from the corre-

sponding window in the breakfast-room.

had heard nothing.

I

She

could see that at once;

[88]

WHY

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

and from the position I

in

which

knew she could not have

Perceiving I "

'

"

'

"

'

was

failed to

sitting,

hear any

and any footsteps on the ground. was alarmed about something, she

noise outside

asked

slie

:

What

is

'

the matter?

Only some one outside,' I said. Then, why do you not go out and

You always do when you

hear

see:

any unusual

noise.'

"

*

There

is

something

queer '

about this

noise,' I replied.

and

dreadful "

I dare not face

it.'

Nothing more was heard, and early next morning he

made a

search in the grounds

careful

around the house, but not a footprint was to be seen in the snow, which had ceased falling long

A

before the occurrence of the wailing cry. later in the day,

little

however, word arrived that at

ten o'clock the previous night one of his tenants,

who

lived half a mile distant

and with

whom

had spent the afternoon, had committed

by drinking prussic He had gone up

he

suicide

acid.

to his bedroom, his

testified at the inquest,

groom had mixed the poison in

[89]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL a tumbler of water, drank scream,

dead on the

fell

it off,

and, with a terrible

floor.

Fortunately, telepathic hallucinations do not

come with such

usually

intensity or in such an

alarming form.

Often they are mere vague im-

that

something unpleasant or disas-

pressions

trous

is

occurring to a relative or friend, and, as

in the case of self-originating hallucinations like

that reported by

Lady Eardley, they

impel to action that averts disaster. to give

ported

'

a single

was thus,

experience re-

by William Blakeway, a Staffordshire

Englishman " I was in

:

my

usual place at chapel one

when

afternoon,

home.

instance, in an

occasionally It

all

at once I thought I

my

Seemingly against

will,

I

Sunday must go

took

Wlien reaching the chapel gates I

hat.

impulse that I must hasten possible,

and

I ran with all

stopping to take breath.

asked

home

my

an

as quick as

might without

Meeting a friend who

I hurried so, I passed

why

felt

my

him almost with-

out notice. "

When 1

In

"

I reached

Phantasms

home

I

found the house

of the Living," vol.

[90]

ii,

pp. 377-378.

full

WHY of smoke,

on

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

and

my

little

boy, three years old,

alone in the house.

fire,

life.

once tore the

off

him, and was just in

It has

always been a mystery

burning clothes from time to save his

I at

all

to me, as no person whispered a

word to me, and

no one knew anything about the fire till after I made the alarm at home, which was more than a quarter of a mile from the chapel."

Here the wholly subconscious nature of the phenomenon, on the percipient's part at all events,

is

dent in

all

plainly evident.

It

is

even more

evi-

cases where, as frequently occurs, the

telepathic message

dream

received in a

is

like

that which was recorded in the opening para-

As

graphs of this chapter. in telepathic

symbolism.

less

A

to be expected, too,

dreams we often find an element

The news

death, or whatever directly,

is

it

of

of illness, of accident, of

may

be,

is

not conveyed

but indirectly, amid a mass of more or

relevant details of

dream imagery.

couple of years ago I received a letter from a

lady living in Brooklyn, describing an experience that admirably illustrates this point.

Her dream,

however, was of such an intimate character that

[91]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL names

the

of the persons

suppressed.

and places must be

Five years ago, this lady writes, her

daughter became interested in a young man,

Mr.

v/hose suit, however, the mother dis-

v.,

Afterwards her daughter met,

couraged.

fell

in

and was happily married to a physithe Government service. She soon went

love with, cian in

abroad with her husband, to a remote and isolated

My

post.

"

We

informant continues:

could not hear from them

because they were ice-bound, but

them were always most

of

last

letters

all

my

winter

thoughts

delightful, for their

were bubbling over with happiness,

and I was lovingly busy getting things ready

for

them. "

Mr. V. had almost passed from my mind, when one morning, in the middle of June, I arose,

took a bath, and, having a half-hour to

spare,

went back to bed again,

falling

into a

deep sleep. "

my

Suddenly Mr. V. appeared to me in one of lower rooms. It seemed to be breakfast

time,

and

cepted,

I invited

and we

him

to have some.

sat together for

[92]

He

ac-

some time, but

WHY I do not

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

remember any

of

our conversation.

Suddenly he arose, faced me, and, looking straight

my eyes, Now she

into

said emphatically: is

Nothing you can do

mine!

This time she

ever separate us again! to

me! "

start,

much

frightened.

realizing the situation, I thanked

was

belong

'

awoke with a

I

will

will

Then,

Heaven she

and promptly put the dream This was about eight o'clock. At ten

safely married,

from me.

a despatch reached

me

saying that

my

daughter's

husband had

died, from the result of a boating accident two weeks before."

Or,

when apprehended

message

may

in

dream, the telepathic

be so distorted that

its

true meaning

cannot possibly be recognized immediately.

A

characteristic case of this kind occurred at the

time of President Lincoln's assassination, though it is

only recently that

it

was

for the first time

reported in detail by Mrs. E. H. Hughes, daughter of the

San Francisco

S.

C. Bugbee.

It should be explained that before

removing to

architect,

California from Massachusetts in 1863, the

Bug-

bees were well acquainted with the Booth family,

[93]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL and that John Wilkes Booth was an especial Says Mrs. Hughes,

favorite of Mrs. Bugbee's.

American Institute

in her report to the tific

"

Research:

One night my mother woke my 'Oh, Charles!

denly, saying:

a

terrible

dream!

Booth shot me! for a private

young to me,

in

exclaimed,

me

seats

a theater, and I took some

me.

and asked

have had such

seemed that he sent

It

box

I

father sud-

dreamed that John Wilkes

I

ladies with

"

for Scien-

^

Between the

me how

came

I liked the play.

Why, John Booth!

that you could put such

acts he

am

I

I

surprised

a questionable play

upon the stage. I am mortified to think that I have brought young ladies to see it." At that he raised a neck.

It

pistol,

and shot

seems as

After a while

my

if

me

back

of the

I felt a pain there

now/

mother

fell

in the

asleep,

and dreamed

the same thing a second time. " The next morning came the terrible news

which plunged the nation into

Almost at the hour

of

my

and mourning.

mother's dream, Presi-

^

iv,

grief

Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, vol. pp. 210-217.

[94]

WHY

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

dent Lincoln was assassinated; shot, in the back

box at a theater, by

of the neck, in a private

John Wilkes Booth."

On

the

bolism

other

or

significance

with the event as to

ports "

To

manifest.

Morris

may be no sym-

dream corresponding

the

distortion,

so realistically

Mrs.

hand, there

an

Griffith,

make

its

give an illustration, re-

Englishwoman,

:

On

March,

the night of Saturday, the eleventh of I

awoke

much

in

alarm, havirtg seen

eldest son, then at St. Paul de

my

Loanda on the

southwest coast of Africa, looking dreadfully

and emaciated, and calling to

me.

I

I

heard his voice distinctly

was so disturbed

I could not

sleep again, but every time I closed

my

appearance recurred, and

sounded

tinctly,

calling

depressed

all

ill

his voice

me 'Mamma!'

I

eyes the

felt

dis-

greatly

through the next day, which was

Sunday, but I did not mention it to my husband, as he was an invalid, and I feared to disturb him. Strange to say, he also suffered from intense low spirits all day,

and we were both unable to take

dinner, he rising from the table, saying:

[95]

'

I don't

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL care

what

it costs,

I

must have the boy back,'

al-

luding to his eldest son. "

mentioned

I

I

had had

to

dream and the bad night

my

two or three

friends,

that they would say nothing of

The next day a photos of

was

my

it

to

but begged

Mr.

Griffith.

letter arrived, containing

son, saying he

had had

some

fever,

but

and hoped immediately to leave for a much more healthy station. We heard no more till

better,

the ninth of

May, when a

letter arrived

with

the news of our son's death from a fresh attack of fever,

on the night

and adding that

just before his death

calling repeatedly for

It

is

of the eleventh of

me."

March, he kept

^

only a short transition from such a dream

as this to a waking

hallucination in which

as in the cases of experimental occurrence

—

men-

tioned above, and those other cases detailed in the preceding chapter

cerned at the

— phantom forms

moment when

threatened by some danger or the supreme

crisis of

the person seen is

"

Phantasms

is

passing through

death.

But now, accepting telepathy 1

are dis-

of the Living," vol.

[96]

as an established i,

pp. 343-344.

WHY

is

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

the problem remains:

fact, it?

I

What

is

How

are

we

to explain

the mechanism by which one person

able to transmit messages directly and instan-

taneously to another person although they

may

be half the world apart?

To

must frankly be admitted, answer can as yet be returned. But

this question, it

no positive some extremely plausible hypotheses have been advanced, not by mere theorists but by eminent

men

of science,

who, themselves aflSrming the

actuality of telepathy, to the problem of Sir

have given much thought

mode

its

of operation.

William Crookes, for example, calling at-

tention to the marvelous but undisputed facts of ethereal vibration as evidenced

nomena

by the phe-

of wireless telegraphy

and the Rontgen

we have

quite possibly an

rays, urges that here

adequate explanation of the mystery of telepathy

—

that is to say, on a wholly naturalistic basis a basis which enables us to accept telepathy with-

out

dislocating

our

entire

conception

of

the

physical universe. " " that in these It seems to me," he suggests,

rays [Rontgen rays]

we may have a [97]

possible

way

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL of transmitting intelligence which, with a

sonable postulates, that

is

may

supply the key to

obscure in psychical research.

assumed that these

few rea-

rays, or rays of

Let

much it

be

even higher

on frequency, can pass into the brain and act

some nervous center

there.

Let

it

be conceived

that the brain contains a center which uses these rays as the vocal chords use sound vibrations

(both being under the

and sends them

command

of intelligence),

out, with the velocity of light, to

impinge on the receiving ganglion of another In this same way the phenomena of

brain.

telepathy,

and the transmission

of

intelligence

from one sensitive to another through long distances, seem to come into the domain of law and can be grasped."

^

This undoubtedly strongly

commends

is

the explanation that most

itself

to those scientists

who

courageously acknowledge their belief in telepNor do they see any objection to it in the athy.

fact that people apparently are affected

telepathic impulse only at certain times. 1

by the For the

Presidential Address to the Society for Psychical Research,

January

29, 1897.

[98]

WHY

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

brain of both sender and receiver ably,

may

conceiv-

on the analogy of wireless telegraphy, be

and receive telepathic communi-

set to transmit

when attuned

cations only certain

There

amplitude.

to vibrations of a

however, as Sir

is,

William Crookes himself has recognized, another

and

really formidable objection to this vibratory

hypothesis. It

is

found

in the fact that,

assuming telepathic

messages to be conveyed by a system of infinitely

minute waves to

we

logically

assume that these waves would

what

By

in the ether,

is

known

still

that, spreading

in ever-expanding waves,

they would lose power

Consequently,

require a tremendous

them any great

obey

on every side

in proportion to the square of the distance

their source.

also

as the law of inverse squares.

meant

this is

have

initial

it

from

would not only

energy to project

distance, but the farther they

were sent the feebler they would become, so that in the case of a percipient remote from the agent, either the telepathic

ceived at

all

exceedingly

or at

message would not be

most

attenuated

it

would be received

fashion.

[99]

re-

in

Whereas the

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL fact

that, according to the results of such ex-

is

perimentation as that which I have described,

complete failure often occurs when the experi-

menters are only a few yards apart, and

brilliant

successes are sometimes achieved at distances of

hundreds This

miles.

of

consideration has

some thinkers

led

notably Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor

and the

late F.

W. H. Myers

W.

—

F. Barrett,

— to abandon out-

an explanation on a naturaland to advance instead the view that

right all attempt at istic basis,

telepathy

because

not explicable

is

it

in

physical

a wholly psychical process

is

terms

— "a

and supersensuous communion of mind with mind." After all, though, as Mr. Frank

direct

Podmore has pointed on a negation

— our

out, this view rests simply

present inability to con-

ceive a thoroughly satisfactory explanation;

and

may remove

that

at

any time

inability, as

scientific research

has happened

agam and again

in the

past in the case of other and seemingly equally inexplicable

phenomena.

Meanwhile, alike,

all

need do,

is

that we, scientists and laymen to

remember that [100]

inability to

WHY

BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

I

explain gives us of

itself

We

no warrant to deny.

must acquaint ourselves with the accepting or rejecting them.

And

facts

before

for

myself

I can only say that the actuality of telepathy

has to

my mind

Sir Oliver

"

I

am

been absolutely proved.

Lodge: prepared to confess that the weight of

testimony

is

sufficient to satisfy

my own mind

do undoubtedly occur; the distance between England and India that such

barriei'

With

things

the

to

intelligence

in

sympathetic

some way

of

that is

no

communication

of

which we are at

present ignorant;

that just as a signaling-key in

London causes a

telegraphic instrument to re-

spond instantaneously everyday

in

Teheran

occurrence — so

— which

be signaled without wire or telegraph

human

an

the danger or death

of a distant child, or brother, or husband,

heart of a

is

may

clerk, to the

being fitted to be the recipient

of such a message."

[101]

CHAPTER

III

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL

-

GAZING

word clairvoyance has acquired a decidedly sinister meaning in most people's

THE minds.

It

is

associated with professional spirit-

mediums, who lay claim to supernatural powers which they are ready, at a moment's noistic

tice, to exercise for all

to

pay the

fee they

who

are credulous enough

demand. Newspapers through-

out the country daily contain advertisements of clairvoyants of this type, arrant humbugs, most of

them, but often able, through cunningly ac" "

quiring lives

information

and family

regarding

their

sitters'

relationships, to persuade their

"

"

entranced they are actu" Really in contact with the spirit world." victims that while

peated exposures of

their

have not driven them out inspired

fraudulent

methods

of business,

but have

a widespread and healthy distrust of

their pretensions.

[102]

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING Nevertheless,

many

it

would be rash to conclude, as

of us do, that there

genuine

is

no such thing as

by which

clairvoyance,

is

ability to perceive distant scenes if

meant the

and events

as

one were bodily present at the place of their

That such

occurrence.

a

faculty

exists,

al-

though usable only on rare occasions, and that there is nothing in the least supernatural about it,

by the scientifwho have been dili-

are facts definitely established

ically trained

investigators

gently attacking this and other psychical prob-

lems the past twenty-five years.

have made

it

Their researches

evident that in order to explain

genuine clairvoyant phenomena

it

is

not neces-

sary to postulate the intervention of

" spirits,"

or the flight through space of the clairvoyant's

"

astral

body."

At most, clairvoyance

is

simply

a special form of telepathy, differing in degree

but not

in

kind from the phenomena discussed in

the preceding chapter. absolutely no evidence to justify the " independent clairvoyhypothesis of so-called

There

is

ance," advocated by occultists of every shade of spiritistic

belief,

and

utilized

[103]

by unscrupulous

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL tricksters

dupes.

On

the

dazzle

to

of

their

the other hand, as I hope to

make

convincingly clear, there

imagination

is

plenty of proof that

the scenes which the true clairvoyant perceives,

and

is

frequently able to describe with graphic

detail, are in reality

hallucinations,

only mental images, visual

developed by the same process

that enables any ordinary telepathic message to

be apprehended. It

must be acknowledged, however, that the

telepathic difficult

connection

to trace;

indisputable

sometimes

is

for example,

as,

instances,

reported

James and other trustworthy

extremely in

by

the few Professor

investigators,

which the services of clairvoyants

have

in

been

successfully invoked to find the bodies of persons

drowned or otherwise accidentally

killed

under

circumstances seemingly precluding any one from

having knowledge of the place or manner of their death.

A

typical

case

the kind occurred

of

a few

years ago in connection with the mysterious death of a

New

Enfield,

Hampshire girl. Miss Bertha Huse, who was drowned in Mascoma Lake. [

104

]

of

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING For three days

after the disappearance of

Huse, one hundred and

fifty of

her townspeople

She had

searched vainly for her.

Miss

last

been seen

on a long bridge crossing the lake, and it was supposed that she had fallen from it or had

alive

deliberately

committed

suicide.

The waters were

dragged but without result, and failure also attended the efforts of a professional diver from

Boston employed by a sympathetic citizen. Meantime, in the little town of Lebanon, some miles distant, a Mrs. Titus

during which she

talked

fell

to

into a trance,

her husband and

described to him a spot in the lake where she said

the body of the

Huse

girl

was

lying.

So strongly

was Mr. Titus impressed by her statements that, next day, he took her to Enfield, where the diver, following

body

her

instructions,

in the place located

by

demonstrations

of

the

her.

Mrs, Titus afterwards gave other, tional,

found

quickly

if

less sensa-

a similar character;

and Professor James, who made a

close study of

her case, publicly stated his belief that her ex" a decidedly solid document in periences form favor of the admission of a supernormal faculty

[105]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL of

seership

later

come

— whatever

to be attached to such a phrase."

There are

also

on record certain well-attested

dreams presenting the same fying the agent,

A

vision.

difficulty of identi-

or sender,

characteristic

of

dream

the clairvoyant of

this

sort

is

by Mrs. Alfred Wedgwood, daughter-

reported in-law

may

meaning

preciser

of

the English savant, Hensleigh

Wedg-

wood. "

I

spent

the

Christmas

holidays

my

with

Queen Anne Street," says Mrs. and in the beginning of January

father-in-law in "

Wedgwood,* I had a remarkably vivid dream, which him next morning at breakfast. "

I

dreamed

I

I told to

went to a strange house, stand-

ing at the corner of a street.

When

I reached the

top of the stairs I noticed a window opposite

with a

little

colored glass, short muslin blinds

running on a brass rod.

had a window

veiled

The top

of the ceiling

by colored muslin.

were two small shrubs on a

little

table.

There

The

drawing-room had a bow window, with the same 1 Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. pp. 47-48.

[106]

vii,

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING the library had a polished

blinds;

the "

same

with

floor,

blinds.

was going to a child's party at a cousin's, whose house I had never seen, I told my father-

As

I

in-law I thought that that would prove to be the

house. "

On January

tenth I went with

to the party, and,

my

little

boy

by mistake, gave the driver a When he stopped at number

wrong number. twenty, I had misgivings about the house, and remarked to the cabman that house.

The

Mrs. H.

lived,

thought of

I

met with

was not a corner

servant could not

my

dream, and, as a street, looking

had observed at

tell

me where Then

and had not a blue-book.

walked down the iar blinds I

it

number

in

fifty,

I

last resource, I

up

my

for the pecul-

These

dream.

a corner house, and,

knocking at the door, was relieved to find that it was the house of which I was in search. "

On

going up-stairs, the room and

corresponded with what I had seen in

and the same

little

shrubs

standing on the landing. I

had seen the colored

in

my

[107]

dream,

their pots

The window

glass

wmdows

in

were

which

was hidden by the

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL blind being down, but I learned on inquiry that

was

it

really there."

In this case the dream, though devoid of any dramatic feature, served a useful purpose, as

much more

dream occurring to Doctor A. K. Young, an Irish magistrate and In his dream he suddenly found land-owner.^ did a

spectacular

himself standing at the gate of a friend's park,

many

of persons, one a

arm, the his

Near by were a group

miles from home.

rest

woman

men, four

with a basket on her

whom

of

were tenants of

own, while the others were unknown to him.

Some

seemed to be making a murderous attack on one of his tenants, and he of the strangers

ran to his rescue. " I struck violently at the man on my left," " he says, and then with greater violence at the

man I did

to

my

right.

Finding to

surprise that

not knock either of them down, I struck

again and again, with

all

frenzied at the sight of

To my ^

my

the violence of a

my

poor friend's murder.

great amazement, I saw that

The evidence

relating to this

tasms of the Living,"

vol.

i,

dream

will

pp. 381-383.

[108]

man

my

be found

in

arms, " Phan-

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING

my

although visible to stance;

and the bodies

my own came

eye, were without subof the

men

I struck at

close together after each

blow

through the shadowy arms I struck with.

My

and

blows were delivered with more extreme violence

than I think I ever exerted; but I became painfully

convinced of

my

I

incompetency.

have no

consciousness of what happened, after this feeling

came upon me." Next morning Doctor Young awoke feeling stiff and sore, and his wife informed him that of unsubstantiality

he had greatly alarmed her during the night by striking out

"as

if

fighting for

his

life."

He

then told her of his curious dream, and asked her to remember the names of the actors in recognized by him.

The

following

day he

it

re-

ceived a letter from his land agent stating that

the tenant

tacked had

whom

he had dreamed he saw at-

and apparently dying, at the very spot where Doctor Young had in his dream tried to defend him;

and

tjiat

been found unconscious,

there was no clue to his assailants.

That night Doctor Y^oung started for the scene of the tragedy, and immediately upon his [109]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL arrival

appHed to the

local magistrate for

rants for the arrest of the three sides

war-

men whom,

be-

the injured tenant, he had recognized in All three,

the vision.

when

arrested

and ques-

tioned separately, told the same story, confirming the details of the dream, even to the incident of the presence of the

They had

woman

with the basket.

said nothing about the affair because

they were afraid

it

would make trouble

but they denied any complicity that

while

walking

in

it,

for

them,

asserting

home with them between

eleven and twelve at night, the tenant

by the way, ultimately recovered

— who,

— had

been

attacked by a couple of strangers, whose com-

panions had prevented them from interfering to protect him.

According to Mrs. Young,

it

was between

eleven and twelve o'clock on the night of the fight that her sleeping

husband had frightened

her by his violent actions.

Here the telepathic impulse causing the clairvoyant dream may have come either from the injured tenant himself or from one of the three spectators

known

to Doctor Young.

[110]

The

diffi-

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING culty of

is

to conceive an adequate reason for

them thinking

any

even subconsciously.

of him,

But, granting for argument's sake the possibihty of independent clairvoyance, the

question at once arises

why

still

"

his

more thorny

astral

"

body

should have chosen to journey to that precise spot at that precise moment.

a conception as independent clairvoyance are too serious to be

The

obstacles in the

Nor

overcome.

is it

way

of such

necessary to resort to

it,

in

view of the fact that in the vast majority of clairvoyant cases

it

is

possible to establish defi-

nitely the telepathic association.

Here, by fully

as

way

of illustration,

as

impressive

leaving no doubt as to

is

Doctor

tj'pical case,

Young's,

but

was reported Research by Mrs.

its origin.

to the Society for Psycliical

a

It

Hilda West, daughter of Sir John Crowe, who

was at the time British consul general

for

Nor-

way. "

father and brother," runs Mrs. West's " were on a journey during the winter. narrative,

My

was expecting them home, without knowing the exact day of their return. I had gone to bed I

[111]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL at the usual time, about eleven in the night I

p.

m.

Some time

had a vivid dream, which made a

great impression on me.

"

dreamed

I

when

I

I

was looking out

saw father driving

lowed in another by

my

in

of a

window,

a Spids sledge,

brother.

fol-

They had

to

pass a cross-road, on which another traveler was driving very fast, also in a sledge with one horse.

Father seemed to drive on without observing the other

who would, without fail, have over father if he had not made his horse

fellow,

driven

saw

rear, so that I

hoofs of the horse. the horse would

out

'

Father!

fall

my

father drive under the

Every moment I expected down and crush him. I cried

Father!

'

and

woke

in

a

great

fright.

"

The next morning my

turned.

I said to

them:

arrive quite safely, as I

about you

last night.'

father

'

I

am

and brother

re-

so glad to see

you had such a dreadful dream

My

brother said:

'You

could not have been in greater fright about him

than I was.'

And

then he related to

me what

had happened, which talKed exactly with my dream. My brother in his fright, when he saw [112]

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING the feet of the horse over father's head, called " out: Oh, father! Father! '

'

Compare with

this the

very similar instance of

clairvoyance in a

waking or semi-waking state, Mrs. Helen Avery Robinson, of experienced by Anchorage,

and communicated by

Kentucky,

her, with a corroborative letter from her son,

to Professor Hyslop:

"

My

son and a friend had driven across the

country to dine and spend the evening with

The

friends.

rest of the

for the night.

I

was awakened by the telephone,

and looked at the I

knew

of a

my

clock, finding

son would soon be

window

awake and ask I

it

eleven-thirty.

in,

and thought

down-stairs, which I felt might not

have been locked, and

"As

household had retired

my

I

son to

lay waiting

determined to remain

make

and

sure

it

was

listening for

secure.

him, I

suddenly saw their vehicle, a light break-cart, turn over, my son jump out, land on his feet, run to the struggling horse's head, his friend hold

to the lines, I

knew *'

I

all

met

and

in a

moment

was right and

my

felt

son as he came

[113]

it

on

was gone and

no disturbance. in,

and spoke

of the

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL He

window. I replied:

described what I

know

I

it.

them before they started called for him with his horse

I did not see

out, as his friend

and

tipped over, mother.'

saw you.' And saw, which he said was just as it

'Yes, I

happened.

'We

said:

vehicle, so I did not

know

in

what

style they

went."

be added that the spot where the cart was overturned was so far from the RobinIt should

son house that, even had

it

been broad daylight,

Mrs. Robinson could not possibly have witnessed the accident from her bedroom.

In the same way a young

Marks,

in

— and antly cident

Wallingford,

most

occurring

Oneida Lake,

in

man named

Connecticut,

Frederic clairvoy-

— beheld dramatically

to

his

brother,

New York

an ac-

Charles,

on

State, hundreds of

Charles Marks and from Wallingford.^ a friend, Arthur Bloom, had gone for a sail on the lake, were caught in a storm, and almost wrecked miles

through the giving way of their boom.

Charles,

The e\adence relating to this case is published in the Provol. vii, pp. 359ceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 364. 1

[114]

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING however, springing into the bow, managed to

make in

the

boom

fast again,

and they succeeded

running to shore.

was when

It

their danger

was greatest that

they were seen clairvoyantly by Frederic Marks, who, it being a rainy afternoon in Walhngford,

was lounging in his room. " I do not think I fell asleep," he testifies, " nor did I seem fully awake. But all at once I seemed to be facing a severe storm of wind and As I looked into the storm a small boat rain. with a

sail

came, driven helplessly along through

a seething, boiling mass of water.

men were

in

it,

Two young

one trying to steer and control

the boat, the other apparently trying to dip out

water and work on the "

One

of the two,

peril, tried to tear

The

face of

my

in

down

The boat

low shore that

it

grew fainter as sciousness

a

moment

the

sail

of greatest

from

its

mast.

brother came clearly into view,

with an expression on

now.

sail.

it

that remains with

righted and sped on.

was driving toward. it

I

me

saw a

The boat

neared the shore, and con-

came back

to me, and, whatever

[115]

it

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL was,

whether

a

dream

a

or

vision,

passed

away."

Marks did not keep

Fortunately, young singular

down-stairs Bristol,

and

assured that

told

himself,

was

it

"

but

hastened

— a Mr. employer — of what was

his

whom he He was laughed

with

he had seen.

or four

to

experience

his

living

But

three

arrived

from

only a dream."

days afterward a

and

at, of course,

letter

Charles Marks, bringing unexpected verification of his brother's story.

Even more

detailed,

in

point of clairvoyant

perception of a distant scene,

is

the strange dream

of a physician.

Doctor C. Golinski, of Kremen-

tchug, Russia.

It

was Doctor Golinski's custom

nap during the day, and one afternoon he lay down on a sofa as usual, about half-past three. While asleep, he says: to take a

^

"

I

dreamed that the doorbell rang, and that

had the usual rather disagreeable sensation that I must get up and go to some sick person. I

Then

I found myself transported directly into

*

Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. pp. 39-41.

[116]

vii,

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING a of

room with dark hangings. To the right the door leading into the room is a chest of

little

drawers, and on this I see a

To

of a special pattern.

on which

see a bed,

severe hemorrhage. to

know

I

a

woman

beforehand

from

suffering

do not know how I come

satisfy

any other reason, as

how

speaks to me.

medical

the door I

that she has a hemorrhage, but I

science than for

lamp

paraffin

left of

examine her, but rather to

I

it.

lies

the

little

things

are,

although

know

my I

con-

know

no one

Afterward I dream vaguely of

assistance

which

I

give,

and then

I

awake." It

was then half-past

later the doorbell rang,

four.

About ten minutes

and Doctor Golinskiwas

summoned to a patient. His surprise may be imagined when he found that he was ushered into the identical

room

So aston-

of his dream.

ished was he that he immediately approached

the bed on which his patient was lying, and said to her:

" "

You

are suffering from a hemorrhage."

Yes," was her reply, in a tone of great aston-

ishment.

"

But how do you know [117]

" it.?

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL She then told him,

in

answer to

his questions,

that the hemorrhage had set in about one o'clock,

but had not been severe enough to alarm her until

between three and four; and that

until nearly half-past four that she

it

was not

had decided

to send for him.

Nearly every instance of spontaneous that

voyance

is

clair-

authenticated

sufficiently

compel credence, resembles these

cases,

to

and the

between them and cases of ordinary

similarity

chapter on telepathy,

is

described

as

hallucination,

telepathic

too striking,

it

in

the

seems to

me, to leave any doubt regarding their true nature.

there

is

visions,

The only points of difference are that a greater amount of detail in clairvoyant and that the percipient often experiences

a sensation of being actually present at the scene beheld.

But

hensible

when we remember

sation of in

this latter fact

"

" otherplaceness

is

easily

compre-

that the same senis

often experienced

dreams that have no clairvoyant

significance,

and experienced with an equal feeling of reality, As dissipated only when the dreamer awakes. to the greater

amount

of detail,

[118]

it is

only neces-

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING sary

to

assume that

telepathic action

clairvoyant cases

in

the

by some favoring mind, just as some

intensified

is

condition in the percipient's

non-clairvoyant dreams are more detailed and vivid

than others.

Besides which, the telepathic basis of clairvoy-

ance has been experimentally demonstrated.

One

of the investigators for the Society for Psychical

Mr. G. A. Smith, once hypnotized " " the look into a lady and requested her to business office of a friend of his and tell him what Research,

Much

she saw there.

to his surprise she im-

mediately began to describe the exactness,

he

although

never visited

with great

was positive she had

it.

It then occurred to

him that

acquiring her knowledge of his

office

own mind, and

it

possibly she

was

by telepathy from

to test this theory he thought

an imaginary umbrella, which he pictured to himself as lying open on his friend's writing table.

of

In a minute or

so,

of astonishment,

"Why, how brella

the clairvoyant uttered a cry

and exclaimed: There's

strange!

open on the table!

"

[119]

a large

um-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Usually, however, experiments like this

fail,

the entranced clairvoyant being able to discriminate between the thoughts which correspond to reality

and those which are wholly imaginary.

But that the process involved unquestionably

telepathic

in clairvoyance is

has

been

otherwise

proved by the fact that when conditions are

imposed

on

clairvoyants

absolutely

excluding

the possibility of thought transference from one

mind

to another, they are conspicuously unsuc-

cessful in their efforts to obtain results.

If,

as

often happens, they are able to describe distant places

which they have never seen but with

which other persons are necessarily familiar, they are nevertheless unable to state, for example, the

number on a bank

note, chosen at

random from

among

others and placed

sealed

box without anybody previously ascer-

taining just

Such a

in

what the number

test,

if

successful,

their

quently made.

but I have

who has been

although the effort has been It should

[120]

a

would be decisive

yet to learn of any clairvoyant it,

in

is.

proof of independent clairvoyance;

able to meet

hands

fre-

be pointed out that,

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING in order to give it evidential value, there

must

not be the slightest possibility of any one even glancing at the bank note before

it is

put into the

as has already been said,

sealed box;

for,

now known

that the eye

far keener

is

it

is

than we

usually realize, and that the merest glance

may

often put us in possession of facts which, sinking

memory, may afterward emerge to astonish and perhaps mystify us. Once they were into the

lodged in the mind, a clairvoyant could, of course, obtain these facts from us telepathically, and

thus achieve a seeming success even in the bank

note or some similar

test.

Indeed, this power of subconscious perception is

of itself sufficient to explain

many undoubtedly There

genuine instances of clairvoyance. viously no need to go beyond

it

ob-

is

to account for

such a clairvoyant dream as the following, ported by a lady

name "

who has

re-

declined to allow her

to be published:

A number

of years ago I

was invited to

visit

a friend who lived at a large and beautiful country seat

on the Hudson.

started, with a

Shortly after

number

my

arrival I

of other guests, to

[121]

make

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL a tour of the very extensive grounds. for

We

walked

an hour or more, and thoroughly explored the

Upon my

place.

return to the house, I discovered

that I had lost a gold cuff-stud, which I valued for association's sake. I

wore

it

when we

of or notice

missing.

it

As

merely remembered that

and did not think

started out,

again until

it

to search for

I

my

return,

was quite dark,

it,

especially as

it it

when

it

was

seemed useless

was the season

autumn and the ground was covered with

of

dead leaves. "

That night

I

dreamed that

I

saw a withered

grapevine clinging to a wall, and with a pile of

dead leaves at in

my

The

I distinctly

Underneath the

saw

my

leaves,

stud gleaming.

following morning I asked the friends with

whom if

dream,

base.

its

had been walking the previous afternoon they remembered seeing any such wall and I

vine, as I did not.

They

replied that they could

not recall anything answering the description.

them why I asked, as I felt somewhat ashamed of the dream; but, during the morning, I made some excuse to go out on the I did

not

tell

grounds alone.

I

walked hither and [122]

thither, and,

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING a long time, I suddenly came upon

after

and vine

wall

as

exactly

they looked

the

my

in

dream. "

I

had not the

slightest recollection of seeing

them, or passing by them on the previous day. The dead leaves at the base were lying heaped up, as in

dream.

my

feeling rather

my

eye,

dream."

approached cautiously,

uncomfortable and decidedly

silly,

had scattered a

large

and pushed them

number

I

aside.

of the leaves

I

when a gleam

of gold struck

and there lay the stud, exactly

Akin to

this

is

my

an exceptionally interesting case

me by

that was reported to

a young lady at-

tending college at Greeley, Colorado. it

as in

^

Her

father,

appears, had sent her a check, which for a day

two she delayed

or

cashing.

Then, being without

money, she looked for it in the place where she supposed she had put it, but, to her dismay, discovered that of her

room

it

was not

there.

1

thorough search

failed to bring it to light, and, as it

was not a personal check

vol.

A

of her father's, she

Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research, i, pp. 361-362.

[123]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL was greatly worried, thinking that impossible to duplicate

A

it

it.

couple of nights later she had a curious

dream

in

which she saw

herself standing in front

On

of a bookcase in the college library. shelf

might be

were

in yellow,

binding.

a certain

one bound in blue, another

five books,

and between them three with a white She took down one

volumes, opened

it idly,

and

of the white-covered in the

middle of the

book found her check.

Next morning she awoke with no memory the dream, nor did she recall

it

when,

later in

came

the day, she visited the college library and across this identical placing of books.

to her only

when she glanced

white-covered ish,"

and

volumes.

it

and

It recurred

into one of the

Feeling

rather

"

fool-

also not a little apprehensive, she took

down a second volume it,

of

of the

same

set,

opened

was the missing check! She then remembered that the book in which there, sure enough,

was found had been

in

her room for some hours

the day she received her father's

happened, I

letter.

What

have no doubt, was that she absent-

mindedly slipped the check into the book, and [124]

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING so

then,

far

concerned,

her

as

forgot

all

upper consciousness was

about

But subcon-

it.

would remember and subconsciously would be reminded of it the day before the dream

sciously she

when, in the college library, she happened to see the same book again, without, perchance, any conscious knowledge of seeing in sleep, her

mind busied

itself

That

it.

night,

once more with

the problem of the missing check, this time to

good purpose.

Very similar is a dream for which I debted to Mr. Andrew Lang, who got the dreamer, an English lawyer.

man had

sat

up

half-past twelve

am it

in-

from

This gentle-

late to write letters,

and about

On

his

amount

re-

went out to post them.

return he missed a check for a large

by him during the day. He searched everywhere in vain, went to bed, and soon fell ceived

asleep.

Then he dreamed

that he saw the check

curled around an area raiKng not far from his

own

Waking, he was so impressed

door.

that,

was not yet daylight, he got up, dressed, walked out of the house, and found the check at the spot indicated by his dream. although

it

[125]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL In

another

a

case

Californian,

County,

New

given liim by his

sister.

Sullivan

he saw

it

lost

in

a gold ring

That night he dreamed

lying in the sand beneath a swing, in

which he had been

was actually *

York,

visiting

sitting in the afternoon.

there, as

he ascertained by looking

Similarly, a clerk in a

day.

It

customs house

^v-overed a valuable document, the loss of which

would have cost him

his position.

And

the wife

Reverend W. F. Brand,

of a clergyman, the

of

Emmorton, Maryland, had revealed to her in a dream the hiding-place of a sum of money which, months

had put away at her husband's request, but had afterward accidentally six

before, she

slipped into a bundle of shawls.

Decidedly, we not only see more than we are

aware

of,

but we also remember more and for a

far longer time than

Which

brings

is

me

usually supposed.

to

another point of great

importance to the student of clairvoyance and other psychical problems, and also, as will appear in a later chapter, of affairs of

ory

is

everyday

tremendous significance

life.

The

tenacity of

such that nothing one sees 126 [ ]

is

m

mem-

really for-

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING It merely slips,

gotten.

as

were, into

it

some

subterranean region of the mind, whence, days

and months and even years afterward, it may be Of this we have incontrovertible proof recalled. the

in

of

phenomena

crystal-gazing,

a species

into a crystal

of clairvoyance in which,

by gazing

or a glass of water, or

any small body with sometimes possible ,^_^

reflecting

perceive

it

surface,

is

hallucinatory

places situated far field of vision,

of

pictures

people

and

beyond the gazer's normal

and occasionally depicting events

occurring at the

moment they

are seen in the

crystal.

Occultists, as will

readily be understood, set

great store by crystal-gazing, finding in

proof of spirit action.

even

in

the

But again

it is

it

positive

unnecessary,

most extraordinary instances

re-

corded, to adopt any other explanatory hypothesis

than that of telepathy, and

in

most cases the

source of the visions can be traced directly to latent

memories

This has

in the gazer's

own mind.

been beautifully demonstrated by

Miss Goodrich-Freer, a lady who developed the faculty of crystal-gazing for the express purpose

[127]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL of studying ages.

and analyzing

Not everybody,

its

hallucinatory im-

should perhaps say,

I

can attain the degree of mental passivity requisite to seeing pictures in

the crystal, but fortu-

nately for the cause of scientific progress. Miss

Goodrich-Freer was eminently successful.

With the

aid of her crystal, Miss Goodrich-

Freer has frequently recalled dates

and other

information which she had forgotten and wished

one occasion, under

to remember;

and on at

least

exceptionally

peculiar

circumstances,

she

was

enabled to supply an address which was of no special interest to her,

to a relative.

Here

but was of special interest

is

her

own account

of the

^

episode: "

A

mine was talking one day with a the room next to that in which I was

relative of

caller in

reading, farther, I

and beyond wishing that they were paid no attention to anything they said,

and certainly could have declared positively that I did not hear a word. Next day I saw in a polished 1

mahogany

In the Proceedings of

table, the

'1,

Society for

vol. viii, p. 489.

[128]

Earl's

Square,

Psychical Research,

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING Netting

Hill,'

had no idea whose

but some days later

might be; '

marked:

I

H. (the

She told

sington.

but I did not write to ask:

'

Was

my

it

relative re-

has

caller aforesaid)

me

this address

down.'

It occurred to

Earl's Square?

1,

Ken-

her address the other day,

'

it,

left

And

me this

turned out to be the case."

On

another occasion, she says in the long report

she has

made on

the subject to the Society for

Psychical Research, she saw in the crystal the picture

a

of

dark-colored

wall,

covered

with

She had been taking a walk that morning through the streets of London, and white jessamine.

she thought that perhaps the crystal image represented

though

some spot she had passed this

in her walk,

seemed unlikely, both because she

could not remember having seen such a wall,

and because jessamine-covered walls are by no means common in London streets. But the next day she retraced her

steps,

and presently came

to the identical scene of her crystal vision, the sight of

it

bringing the immediate recollection

that at the

moment

before she

had been engaged

she passed this spot the day

[129]

in absorbing con-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL versation with a friend,

and her attention was

The

wholly preoccupied.

reproduction in the crystal

fact,

however, of

made

it

its

evident that,

by the subtle power of subconscious perception she had obtained a perfect mental image of it. Similarly, while busied one

day with household accounts, she opened the drawer of her writing table to get her bank-book, and her hand came in

Welcoming the sug-

contact with her crystal.

gestion of a change in occupation, she took

and began to gaze into "

Figures were

still

it.

it

up,

But, she says:

uppermost, and the crystal

had nothing more attractive to show me than the combination seven-six-nine-four. this as

probably the

number

Dismissing

of the cab I

had

driven in that day, or a chance grouping of the figures with

which

aside

the

which

I certainly

crystal

and found, to

my

had been occupied, I laid and took up my bank-book, I

had not seen

I

should,

some months,

surprise, that the

the cover was 7604. figures,

for

Had

number on

I wished to recall the

without

doubt,

have

failed,

and could not even have guessed at the number of digits or the value of the first figure."

[130]

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING It

not surprising to find Miss Goodrich-Freer

is

adding: "

Certainly, one result of crystal-gazing

teach one to abjure the verb

moods and Still it is

'

to forget

is

to

'

in all its

tenses." possible that in the act of opening the

drawer, she caught a glimpse, without realizing it,

of the

many

number on the bank-book.

cases, though, in her experience

There are

and

in the

experience of other crystal-gazers, proving absolutely that latent

memories dating back even to

be thus recalled; and similar evi-

childhood

may

dence

forthcoming

is

from

hallucinations

ex-

"

perienced without the aid of a crystal. A psy" chic with whom Professor Hyslop has often

home

experimented, and whose

is

in

Brooklyn,

used to have a recurrent visual hallucination of a bright blue sky overhead, a garden with a high

and a peculiar chain pump situated at the back of the house. fence,

Some time visit to

later she left

her girlhood

home

Brooklyn to pay a

in Ohio,

a lady who invited her to tea.

went into the garden, and [131]

in the garden,

where she met After tea they

there, to her

amaze-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL ment, she saw the high fence and the chain

She

of her hallucination.

felt

pump

quite sure that

she had never been in the place until that day,

and

it

looked very

much

as

though she had been

given a supernatural revelation of

it.

But the

mystery was solved on her return to Brooklyn. Telling her mother of her

odd experience, she

asked she thought there was any possibility she could have visited that particular house and if

garden in her younger days. "

"

When

two or three years

old, I

Why, yes," was the unexpected

you were a often took

But not

little girl,

you to all

reply.

it."

crystal visions

may

thus be attrib-

uted to the emergence of subconscious perceptions or the recrudescence of forgotten memories.

There are some

which the telepathic action of mind upon mind is clearly manifested, and in which the crystal seems to serve as a mechanical aid,

of

in

enabling the percipient to become aware

the telepathic

ever, as I

message.

have already

said,

In no case, howis it

necessary to go

beyond telepathy to find an adequate explanation.

[132]

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING The same

applies to the

phenomena

to which

phenomena

of

regarded by

we

still

shall

more

singular

turn next

— the

automatic speaking and writing,

many

as affording incontrovertible

proof of the vahdity of the spiritistic belief that

the

dead can and do communicate with the

living.

[133]

CHAPTER

IV

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING is

a widespread belief that spiritism

— or spiritualism, as THERE known — on the wane, and

it is

is

more commonly

will

soon be

But the

gated to the limbo of extinct religions. facts indicate otherwise.

rele-

At a conservative

es-

timate, there are to-day, in the United States alone,

more

no fewer than 75,000 avowed

spiritists, in

or less regular attendance at the meetings

and possessing church property valued at $2,000,000; and more

of nearly

than

450

spiritist

1,500,000

societies,

believers

who,

without openly

identifying themselves with

any

the

public

ministrations

of

1,500

society, accept

and

10,000

"

followed private mediums. Spiritism has even " the flag into the Philippines, seances being held at Manila and elsewhere.

This certainly

moribund

is

religion,

a remarkable showing for a

and

what makes

[134]

it

more

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING remarkable

the fact that spiritism, from

is

its

very beginnings sixty years ago, has been per-

meated with fraud.

New York

daughters of a little

Its founders, the

Fox

sisters,

farmer, were naughty

who amused themselves by making

girls

strange noises which superstitious persons inter-

preted as communications from the dead.

proving profitable to the of

Fox, the business " knockings spread from

"

producing

town

spirit

was born.

sisters

and forthwith modern

to town,

This

Since then

its

and dismal catalogue skeptical investigators.

spiritism

record has been a long

swindles

of

exposed by

month

Scarcely a

passes

without a story of some sensational expose; yet, disproving

all

predictions to the contrary, spirit-

ism continues to expand, constantly welcoming

new recruits

to its ranks.

Several reasons account for ress

amazing progunder what would appear to be the most

adverse conditions imaginable.

tendency of

many

of

makes

humanity.

to

One

is

the innate

people to dabble with the

occult and mysterious. spiritism

its

Another

is

the most sacred

the appeal

emotions

Its central doctrine is that it is

[135]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL possible for the dead to

surviving

of

dinary powers.

their

through

the

and

relatives

mediumship

communicate with

psychics

loved ones

seen,

whom To

gifted with extraor-

Thus the hope

messages of good cheer

— that

friends,

"

"

may

who have passed

their voices

may

is

raised that

be received from

to the great

Beyond

be heard, their faces

hands clasped by those from death has separated them.

and

the

their

seance,

spiritistic

grief-stricken

consequently,

men and women,

skeptical perhaps,

but fervently hopeful that their skepticism be overcome.

To borrow

go

Professor James's

will stri-

king phrase, they are already deeply imbued with " the will to believe," and are in no mood for close observation of

room.

what happens

in the seance

Usually, to speak plainly, they are utterly

lacking in the qualities that investigator.

sorbing,

and

The

make

a

sense of their loss

in this state of

mind

it is

scientific is

all-ab-

easy for

any trickster who poses as a medium to delude them into fancying that they have actually been in

touch with the dead.

But the main reason why [

136

1

spiritism has sur-

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING vived repeated exposes, and persists as

a force

to be reckoned with in the rehgious hfe of to-day,

by no means altogether synonymous with swindling. There are certain the fact that

is

it

is

phenomena, particularly so-called automatic speaking and writing, which it is out of the question to attribute invariably to trickery and

While one need have no hesitation

deceit.

dismissing as

diums

— that

fraudulent is

to say,

^

all

"

"

physical

in

me-

mediums whose stock

in

trade is the production of such phenomena as " " materialization of spirit forms and faces, the

the levitation and flinging about of furniture, and " " sitters the striking of the by unseen hands " " the case of the automatists, or psychical

—

mediums,

is

decidedly different.

These are mediums who, peculiar

condition

of

after passing into a

trance,

and occasionally

while seemingly in their usual waking state, ap-

pear to be controlled by some outside intelligence, and,

when

so controlled, utter or write informa"

" fraudulent should Of course, strictly speaking, the term not be applied to those mediums who are the victims of a peculiar form of hysteria. This is discussed in detail in the next chapter. 1

[137]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL which

tion

it is

hard,

if

not impossible, to beheve

they could have obtained by any ordinary means.

To

be sure, there

tists,

as

whom

against

Some

on guard. brazen

of these are out-and-out cheats,

most

rascally

materializers.

on guessing and on drawn from hints uncon-

for their success

shrewdly

dropped

sciously

a host of spurious automa-

one cannot be too watchfully

the

as

Some depend inferences

is

by

their

Quite

patrons.

a

number, however, undoubtedly seem to exercise a

gift

utilized

not

possessed

— by

—

or,

at

all

events,

not

everyday men and women.

One Sunday

evening, in the late nineties, I

visited the spiritist

church on Bedford Avenue,

Brooklyn, of which the late Ira Moore Corliss

was then pastor. In his day Mr. Corliss was probably the most prominent medium in Brooklyn, a city where spiritism has always flourished.

He was an

obviously religious-minded man, and

one who sincerely believed that

it

was

his mission

to act as an intermediary between this world

and

That evening the usual order of services a prayer, in spiritist churches was followed " some hymn singing, a sermon, or inspirational the next.

—

[138]

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING discourse," and, lastly, the giving of in

sages,"

"

which the medium passed

up and down the

aisles,

rapidly

pausing here and there

to deliver oral communications alleged to

from the world of Seated next to of dignified

mes-

test

come

spirits.

me was an

elderly gentleman

who watched

appearance,

the pro-

ceedings with a quiet smile of contempt.

evident that this was the

first

It

was

time he had ever

seen anything of the kind, and that he was both

amused and

Suddenly Mr.

disgusted.

Corliss,

halting directly in front of him, said, in the quick, " nervous way common to him when under spirit control ": " I

"

have a message for you, "

For

me.'*

sir."

repeated the elderly gentleman,

incredulously.

"

Yes,

sir,

wants to thank you

him to-day.

There

for you.

It

is

for

is

a spirit here that

your kindly thought of

the spirit of a rather

tall

man,

heavily built, clean-shaven, with bright, tender eyes.

The

He

says his

name

is

Henry Ward Beecher."

smile faded from the other's face.

bent forward, hstening intently. [

139

]

He

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL "

Go

"

on," he said.

This

that he

glad to

is

He

him.

"

continued the medium,

spirit,"

know you have not

says

forgotten

says that he was with you this after-

noon, when you went to the cemetery and took this flower

from

his grave."

With a dramatic gesture Mr. CorHss drew from the

lapel of his astonished auditor's coat a

sprig of geranium, see

and held

it

up so that

could

all

it.

"

"

Am

I not

You

are.

Afterward

"

he demanded.

right.f^

Quite right." I joined the elderly

the sidewalk, and plied

found him "

This

is

gentleman on

him with

questions.

I

greatly mystified.

too

much

me," said

for

"

he.

I

am

a stranger to Brooklyn, and had never attended

a spiritualist meeting

dropped this

until

in out of curiosity.

afternoon

I

visited

Henry Ward Beecher

is

But

the

me

in

it is

buried,

younger days.

How

[140]

where

and picked

memento

Mr. Beecher was a very good

my

only

true that

cemetery

flower from near his grave, as a visit.

I

to-night.

the

of

this

my

friend to

medium

could

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING know

these facts I cannot imagine. of

nobody

no one saw

On the

another

first

occasion I

of the

who dehvered

took an

told

am

artist friend to

The medium

Corhss type, an automatist "

"

his

I

pick the flower.'*

seance he ever attended.

was a psychic

of

me

had

and

trip to the cemetery,

my

positive that

I

spirit

messages

by word

There were perhaps a dozen other To one of these, a thin, gaunt, present.

mouth.

sitters

young woman, the entranced medium announced the presence of "a spirit

haggard-looking

named Wagner." than the ised

It

was none other,

it

spirit of the great musician,

appeared,

who prom-

he would aid her with her musical composi-

tions.

A

smile of infinite content transformed

her careworn features, as she leaned over and

whispered to "

The

my

spirit

friend:

of

Liszt

is

already helping me.

With Wagner's aid I cannot fail." One could not smile in face of the story of boundless faith and pitiful struggle these few words

And

told.

with the next

sitter

pathos rose

to positive tragedy.

"

There

is

the spirit of a 141 ] [

man

here,

whose

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL name lie

Frederick," the

is

medium

comes to you, madam.

" declared,

Take

my

and

hand."

Slowly a woman, dressed in deep mourning, stood up and extended her hand. Intensity was written in every line of her face. " There were two Fredericks," she said. " is

Which

" it.?

"

It

is

the Frederick

—

it is

the Frederick, who,

while on earth, did this."

And he "

struck her sharply on the arm.

I

understand,"

What

stand.

All this

she

does he

of

tell

to

the contrary, the

familiarized himself

these

women,

passed to the friend "

message

who

by

my

with the

doubtless

when he was

man.

in this sphere

of soldiers, a general.

looks Hke."

[142]

life

were

But now he

side.

for you, sir," said he,

spirit of a military-looking

mander

under-

say.?

regular attendants at his seances.

A

I

was mteresting, but not convincing.

medium had stories

"

murmured, "

For aught we could

that

Tears

her eyes.

filled

"

from the

Yes, he says

he was a com-

This

is

what he

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING He

launched into a long description, which I

could see was making a profound impression on

my "

friend.

Has he anything

particular to say to

me?

"

he asked. "

He

must on no account

says that you

the offer that has been

made

to

decline

you to go West

—

that you will never regret going."

Less than two hours earlier

had

told

me

of a

my

companion

commission unexpectedly ten-

dered him, involving a long sojourn in California.

At the medium's words he turned

pale,

and

glanced around as though half expecting to see

a ghost standing behind his chair. When the seance had come to an end, and we

were walking home together, he solemnly assured me that the medium had accurately described a

an army

dead

friend,

eral,

whose advice, had he been

officer of

have sought with regard to

the rank of genalive,

he would

his projected

journey

to California.

Again, there

is

an interesting case reported

England by the Reverend Wilhs M. Cleaveland. Among Mr. Cleaveland's parish-

from

New

[143]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL ioners

was a young woman, Miss Edith Wright,

who developed

mediiimistic abihties, being con-

trolled at times

by what purported

to be a dis-

Dreading notoriety. Miss Wright gave very few seances, and then only to her carnate

spirit.

closest friends or to sitters with

whom

were well acquainted, and

whose discretion

in

her friends

they could place reliance.

One

of these

interested

obtain,

if

in

was Mr. Cleaveland, who, being

psychical

research,

possible, proof of the identity of the

supposed communicating are a

spirit,

he said

able to give us

thing

undertook to

some

in effect,

facts

about your history

If

you

really

you ought

to be

spirit.

about yourself, somewliile

you were on

earth, with data that will enable us to obtain " " The control confirmation of what you say.

readily conceded the reasonableness of this, in the course of several seances

made

and

twenty-six

personal statements, of which the most

signifi-

cant were:

That her name was Amelia B. Norton.

That she had been the daughter clergyman, of the

"

water type."

[144]

of

an orthodox

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING That she had in the State of

Kennebec River,

lived near the

Maine.

That when writing letters it had been her custom to sign herself by the initials N. N., meaning Nellie Norton.

That she had died

in

middle

life.

That when quite young she had had a love affair with a Mr. L. C. Brown, who was still and engaged in business in Boston, at an " " address which the gave. spirit living

As goes without saying, Mr. Cleaveland at once wrote to Mr. Brown, and in a few days received a reply from him, in which he said: " I was out in the town of Sharon very recently,

on an elderly gentleman who was a manufacturer there when I resided there as a boy

and

in

called

my teens. To my

surprise, as

we were

reviving

old recollections of fifty years ago, he spoke of a

Miss Norton that he said time. "

The

I

was sweet on at that

facts of the case are that

Mary

B. Nor-

who always signed herself Nellie B. Norton, came there, a young miss about my age. We ton,

were, I guess, ardent lovers, but in the course of

[145]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL town and she

two years

I left the

knew very

httle of her for a

I think

it

was about

and

did,

I

few years after that.

five years later

that on

my

way home from the TVTiite Mountains I stopped off at her home in Maine, which was beside a I feel sure this

large river.

Her

River.

was the Kennebec

father was an orthodox minister, but

do not understand the meaning I think some two years type.' I

residing in Fairhaven

I

have not seen

her.

*

water

later she

was

and sent me some papers

that contained letters written by

but from that time

of the

— some I

Mary

B. Norton,

over forty years

—

heard that she died some

years ago, and think she must have been about fifty

years of age."

Later Mr.

Brown wrote

again, saying that

second thought he was not certain that her

might not have been Amelia instead as he It

had always known her is

"

of

*

name Mary,

only as Nellie B."

^

to the constant occurrence of incidents

like these that the vitality of spiritism is

due.

on

To many

This case

is

people

it

mainly

seems impossible to

reported in detail in the Proceedings of the vol. ii, pp. 119-138.

American Society for Psychical Research,

[146]

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING account for such detailed and abundantly corroborated proofs of personal identity on any hypothesis

Yet

short of actual spirit control.

analysis,

day

when viewed

scientific

in the sober light of latter-

it

will

workings of the

of the

knowledge

human mind,

in the last

be found that they do not

afford the conclusive demonstration of the validity

on the surface

of the spiritistic doctrine which

they appear to yield.

For there

is

always the

— amounting, warranted saypossibility — to certainty that what they really indicate in

I feel

ing,

is

not communication with the dead, but thought

transference between living minds.

In fact the telepathic connection between the

mind is

often

cited,

medium and

of the

most obvious.

the

Take the

and which are typical

munications.

medium

The

Corliss

to

mind

of the sitter

three cases just

com-

of mediumistic

statements the friend

made by the of Henry Ward

Beecher were statements relating to an incident fresh in the latter's

obtainable there

is

by

the

memory, and therefore telepathic

reason to believe,

command

of

is

which,

exceptionally at the

genuine psychics.

[147]

process,

easily

Likewise,

my

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL was much occupied mentally with

artist friend

the

problems involved in the California

and was doubtless thinking

of

it,

offer,

consciously or

subconsciously, at the time the medium invoked " " of the army officer whose advice the spirit

my still

would have sought had that officer been in the flesh. All the medium had to do friend

was to tap telepathically sciousness and extract from *'

revelation

"

my it

subcon-

friend's

every detail of the

so sensationally

made

to

him

in

the seance room. Slightly different, however,

Edith Wright.

Here the

the case of Miss

is

facts

thought to ema-

nate from the dead Amelia B. Norton were facts

concerning which Miss Wright's

sitter,

erend Mr. Cleaveland, was ignorant.

most

the Rev-

But

it

is

significant that, continuing his researches,

Mr. Cleaveland made the discovery that Miss Norton's old sweetheart, Mr. Brown, had had at least one sitting with Miss Wright.

Mr. Brown

denied that he had ever said anything about

Miss Norton

in

Miss Wright's presence; but

his

memory may have played him

false,

event, she could have got from

him by telepathy

[148]

and, in any

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING the data with which she afterward

both him and Mr. Cleaveland. the reader that

among

me remind

Let

the few definitely ascer-

tained laws of telepathy

is

the fact that

possible for telepathic messages to in

astonished

lie

it

is

long latent

the recipient's mind before emerging above

the threshold of consciousness.

This

is

even greater significance

of

tion with the rarer, but

stances

in

still

in connec-

quite numerous, in-

which the mediumistic communica-

tions offered as evidence of spirit identity refer

to incidents not sitter or

known by

by any previous

the

medium

sitter.

These,

or

by the

spiritists

absolutely inexplicable on the telepathic basis. I can make their position clearer by citing an illustrative case taken from the insist,

are

experience of that greatest of automatists, the

New

England medium, Mrs. Leonora E. Piper, whose remarkable mediumistic faculty was first

made known James

to the scientific world

thirty years ago,

by Professor

and who has since been

repeatedly investigated by leading

the Society for Psychical Research.

members

of

Detectives

have been employed to dog her footsteps, open [149]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL her mail, watch her every move.

But not once

have they detected her in fraudulent practices; and, on the other hand, she has given such convincing proof of the genuineness of her power

that some of the most skeptical vestigators

"

value her

On

among

her in-

have ended by accepting at face messages from the dead."

one occasion, while she was being investi-

gated in England by a committee of experts, that

famous EngUsh psychical researcher.

Oliver Lodge,

placed in her hands,

Sir

while she

was entranced, a gold watch once the property of an uncle of his who had died some twenty It was now owned by another years before. uncle, a twin brother of the dead man. " I was told almost immediately," says " that it had belonged to one of Oliver,

uncles

— one

Robert,

the

Sir

my

that had been very fond of Uncle

name

watch was now

of

the survivor

— that

in the possession of this

Uncle Robert, with

whom

anxious to communicate.

its

late

the

same

owner was

After some difficulty

and many wrong attempts. Doctor Phinuit a

'

'

spirit

—

alleged to be controlling Mrs. Piper

[150]

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING

— caught

the

name

Jerry, short for Jeremiah,

and said emphatically, as if impersonating him: This is my watch, and Robert is my brother, *

and "

I

am

here.

Uncle Jerry,

my

watch.'

on the very morning the watch had arrived by post, no one but myself and a shorthand clerk, who happened to

All this at the first sitting

have been introduced

time at this

for the first

sitting

by me, and whose antecedents were

known

to me, being present.

well

"

Having thus ostensibly got into communication through some means or other with what purported to be Uncle Jerry,

known

whom

I

had indeed

slightly in his later years of blindness,

of

whose early

to

him that

presence

it

to

life

I

knew

nothing, I pointed out

make Uncle Robert aware

would be well to

of their boyhood,

all

of

but

of his

recall trivial details

which I would faithfully

report.

"

He

quite caught the

idea,

and proceeded

during several successive sittings ostensibly to instruct

Doctor Phinuit to mention a number

of little things such as

to recognize him.

would enable

his brother

References to his blindness,

[151]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL and main

illness,

tively useless details of

facts of his

from

my

life

'

boyhood, two-thirds

Uncle

'

Jerry

but these

point of view; of

were utterly and entirely out of "

were compara-

recalled

a century ago,

my

ken.

such

episodes

as

swimming the creek when they were boys gether, and running some risk of getting drowned; to-

a cat in Smith's

killing

small

and

rifle,

of

the possession of a

field;

a long, peculiar

skin, like

which he thought was now

snakeskin,

in

a

the

possession of Uncle Robert.

"

All these facts

pletely

have been more or

But the

verified.

that his twin brother, from

and with

whom

I

interesting

whom

was thus

could not remember them sometliing about

less

thing

I got the

is

watch

in correspondence,

He

all.

swimming the

himself had merely looked on.

com-

recollected

creek,

though he

He had

a distinct

having had the snakeskin, and of the box in which it was kept, though he did recollection

not

of

know where

it

was then.

But he

altogether

denied killing the cat, and could not recall Smith's field.

"

His memory, however, was decidedly

[152]

failing

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING him, and he was good enough to write to another brother, Frank, Hving in Cornwall, an old sea captain,

and ask

if

he had any better rememof course not giving

brance of certain facts

—

any inexplicable reason for asking. The result of this inquiry was triumphantly to vindicate the existence of Smith's

field as

a place near their

home, where they used to play in Barking, Essex; and the killing of a cat by another brother was also recollected;

creek, near a

while of the

swimming

mill-race, full details

Frank and Jerry being the heroes

of the

were given, of that fool-

hardy episode." Sir

Oliver

Lodge himself appears to believe

that he was actually in communication, through

Mrs. Piper, with his dead Uncle Jerry; and by spiritists generally this is alluded to as a characteristic instance

impossible of explanation on the

theory of telepathy between living minds. it is

pertinent to point out that possibly, in his

childhood. Sir Oliver in

But

some moment

very incidents.

may have

heard his uncles,

of reminiscence, discussing these

He would

naturally have for-

gotten the episode, so far as conscious recollection

[153]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL of

it

was concerned; but he would none the

less

have retained some memory

of their conversa-

tion in his subconsciousness,

whence Mrs. Piper

could have gained knowledge of

And, even had he never heard

it

telepathically.

of the incidents,

they might indeed have been transmitted to him telepathically from the surviving uncles,

and been

by him retransmitted to Mrs. Piper. This

it

does telep-

athy between more than two persons,

may seem

last possibility,

to be far-fetched.

involving as

But there

dence that telepathy of this nically as telepathie d

have

in

mind one

trois

is

plenty of evi-

sort — known tech— an actuaHty. I is

particularly

interesting case

by Mr. Andrew Lang, the brilliant esand psychical researcher. It concerns a

studied sayist

crystal-gazer

"

named Miss Angus.

Again and again," to give Mr. Lang's own

words,

"

Miss Angus,

sitting with

man

or

woman,

described acquaintances of theirs but not of hers, in situations not

known

to be true to fact.

to the sitters but proved

In one instance. Miss Angus

described doings, from three weeks to a fortnight old,

of people in India,

people

[154]

whom

she had

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING never seen or heard

of,

but who were known to

Her account, given on a Saturday, was corroborated by a letter from India, which

her

sitter.

In another case she

arrived next day, Sunday.

described

— about

ten

p.

m.

— what

a lady, not

but the daughter of a matron present, who was not the sitter, had been doing about four p. m. on the same day. Again, sitting

known

to her,

with a lady. Miss Angus described a singular set of scenes

much

in the

mind, not of her

sitter,

but

unsympathetic stranger, who was reading a book at the other end of the room. " I have tried every hypothesis, normal and of a very

not so normal, to account for these and analo-

gous performances of Miss Angus.

There was,

in

the Indian and other cases, no physical possibility

of collusion;

chance coincidence did not

seem adequate; ghosts were out of the question, so was direct clairvoyance. Nothing remained for the speculative theorizer

currents

of

but the idea of cross

telepathy between

Miss Angus, a

casual stranger, the sitters, and people far away,

known

to the sitters or the stranger, but

to Miss Angus. [

155

]

unknown

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL "

Now," adds Mr. Lang,

every attendant at well

to

learn

in a

spiritistic

paragraph that

seances would do

"

by

heart,

Miss

that

suppose

Angus, instead of dealing with living people by

had dealt by way of voice or automatic handwriting, and had introduced

way

of crystal-visions,

a dead

'

Then she would have

communicator.'

been on a par with Mrs. Piper, yet with no aid

from the dead." "

That automatists sitters,

or

read the mind

draw upon the contents

subconsciousness

in

obtaining

the

they give out as coming from the

"

of their

of their facts

own

which

spirit world, is

further evident from experiments in automatic writing conducted lish

by

several

American and Eng-

psychical researchers.^

But when they

are

genuine automatists,

it

would be unjust to accuse them of conscious ^

The

extent to which automatists sometimes draw on the

contents of their

own

subconsciousness

is

strikingly illustrated

by a case investigated by Mr. Lowes Dickinson, wherein the medium, an estimable young lady of his acquaintance, was " " " " of a noblewoman of controlled spirit seemingly by the the Middle Ages, who described the customs, manners, and personages of the country in which she claimed to have lived, in such minute detail and with such accuracy that it seemed

[156]

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING deception in attributing their communications to

The

discarnate spirits.

not unlike,

As

state.

be shown in detail

increased

He

person hypnotized. slightest

matter

how

ridiculous

be, so long as

may

moral sense. think that he self,

and

gested

one of the is

the

suggestibility

of

the

will

suggestion

later,

hypnosis

of

characteristics

preternaturally

the

is

not identical with, the hypnotic

if

will

distinctive

an abnormal condition, and

fall is

they usually

trance state into which

of

accept and act upon the

hypnotist,

no

and absurd the suggestion

it

is

not repugnant to his

Moreover, he can be induced to is

some one other than

will often

personality

assume the with

his real

traits of the sug-

a fidelity

that

is

as-

tounding. So, likewise, atist,

—

who

will

we must

believe, with the

autom-

impersonate anybody suggested

albeit suggested quite unconsciously

— by the

was one case at all events in which survival had been proved. Ultimately it was discovered that every fact certain this

given by the alleged spirit was contained in a little known historical novel which the medium had read, but read only once, when a very small girl. So far as conscious recollection went she had forgotten all about this book, but subconsciously she

had evidently retained a marvelously exact memory

[157]

of

it.

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL sitters,

whether

it

be the

an Indian

philosopher,

"

" spirit

chief,

or

of a

the

Greek

deceased

some one present. Usually he is so deeply entranced as to have no knowledge of what he is doing, just as the hypnotized subject

friend of

remains in ignorance of the actions he carries out in response to the operator's suggestions.

But there

a record of at least one instance in

is

which the automatist, an amateur psychical

named Charles H. Tout,

searcher

recognized

clearly

that his

tions were suggested to

Mr. Tout

play

of

Vancouver,

various

impersona-

him by the

spectators.

relates that after attending

seances with some friends he

medium

re-

felt

a few

an impulse to

himself and assume an alien per-

Yielding to this impulse, he discovered

sonality.

that, without losing complete control of his con-

sciousness,

he could develop a secondary

self

that would impose on the beholders as a discar-

nate spirit. On one occasion he thus impersonated " " the of a dead woman, the mother of a spirit friend

present,

and

his

impersonation was ac-

cepted as a genuine case of spirit control. another,

after

On

having given several successful

[158]

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING impersonations, he suddenly this point,

"

One

to

trolling him,'

was and

weak and

ill.

At

he states:

made

of the sitters

remember

felt

'

have overheard,

and

whom

distressed in

the remark, which I

I

my

It

is

seemed to

I then

father con-

realize

who

I

was seeking. I began to be lungs, and should have fallen

they had not held me by the hands and let me back gently upon the floor. I was in a measure if

my

conscious of

still

surroundings, and

I

though not

actions,

have a

clear

ing myself in the character of lying in the bed

and

in the

room

memory

my in

shrunken hands and his

—

face,

dying moments; only

some

in

indistinct

and

which he died.

saw

I

his

lived again through

now

sort

my

of see-

dying father

was a most curious sensation.

It

of

I

of

was both myself and my way

—

and appearance." which Mr. Tout rightly attributes to

father, with his feelings

All of

"

the dramatic working out, by some half -con-

scious stratum of his personality, of suggestions

made

at the time

by other members

of the circle,

or received in prior experiences of the kind."

Add

to

this

the

known [159]

facts

of

telepathic

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL and there

action, for a

is

no need

of looking further

comprehensive explanation of the otherwise

perplexing and supernatural-seeming of psychic

phenomena

This applies even to "

automatism.

the phenomenon of so-called

cross-correspond-

which has been especially stressed the

ence,"

past few years

by

certain

members

of the Society

for Psychical Research as affording proof positive of survival.

With

reference to this particular problem,

should in the

first

it

place be said that, in addition

to Mrs. Piper, there are a

number

of other auto-

matic writers who have been similarly investigated by the Society for Psychical Research for a long term of years, and whose trustworthiness has likewise been definitely established.

They

include a Mrs. Holland, a Mrs. Forbes, a Mrs.

Thompson, Mrs.

Verrall, of

Newnham

College,

Cambridge, England, and Mrs. Verrall's daughter. Miss Helen Verrall. Through these ladies

been

received,

"

"

thousands of alleged

spirit

messages

many

including

have

purporting

to

come from Edmund Gurney, Henry Sidgwick, Frederic Myers, and Richard Hodgson, who in [

160

1

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING most active and promithe Society for Psychical Re-

their lifetime were the

nent members of search.

And among

the automatic writings sup-

posed to emanate from them there have been not a few so pecuharly conditioned as to suggest " " of the four great not only that the spirits researchers

psychical

living friends,

are

in

with

touch

their

but that they are working hard

to devise special tests to prove their identity.

To put

the matter more concretely, let

the case of Mrs. Holland.

This lady

is

me

cite

a resident

In 1893, having seen in the Review

of India.

of Reviews

a

reference

she experimented in

it

to

automatic

herself,

writing,

and found that

she possessed the faculty of penning coherent sentences without being conscious of what she

was

writing.

She continued these experiments

for ten years, or until 1903,

"

Myers's

Human

when, after reading

Personality and

its

Survival of

Bodily Death," she one day discovered that her

automatic writing was seemingly no longer spontaneous, but controlled by two outside intelli" " and Myers gences that called themselves " " control," alternating with Gurney." Each

[161]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL the other, caused her to write long communications,

which there was mingled with much

in

that seemed unintelligible and nonsensical long descriptions

Her

of

unnamed persons and

interest aroused,

number them

of

to

communications

these

places.

Mrs. Holland collected a

and mailed

Miss Alice Johnson, Research

Officer

of the English Society for Psychical Research.

Examining them

much

covered,

tained

carefully.

Miss Johnson

to her surprise, that they con-

unmistakable references

had known intimately, but satisfied

to

people

and

whom Myers and Gurney

the homes of people

Johnson

dis-

of

whom,

as

Miss

herself

by searching inquiry, Thus there Mrs. Holland had no knowledge. was an

excellent description of Mrs. Verrall, her

husband. Dr. A.

W.

Verrall,

and the Verrall

dining-room, in which Myers had often been entertained.

Even the

was correctly given.

street address of the Verralls

Miss Johnson, as

may

be

imagined, at once wrote, urging Mrs. Holland to continue her automatic wi-iting, all

and to forward

her script to the offices of the Society.

was done, with the

result that

[162]

much

This

else of

a

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING seemingly evidential value was soon obtained.

was

It

especially

noted

that,

although

Mrs.

Holland knew nothing of Latin and Greek, her

communications from the Myers control occasionally contained passages written in

guages,

both these lan-

with which Myers had been well ac-

quainted,

November in

Gurney control wrote

25, 1903, the

the automatic script:

"

Now

there

is

an experi-

ment want you to make — Suggest to the P. R. — to Miss — that some one with a trained — she have no finding some — — a few minutes — one of the sort to try a month — to convey every morning for at a thought — a phrase — a name — anything they — to your mind." In due course sugI

J.

will

difficulty in

will

for

is

least

this

like

gestion was sent son,

by Mrs. Holland

who arranged

to Miss John-

for a series of such experi-

ments, with Mrs. Verrall acting as the second

medium.

The experiments began

in

March, 1905, were

continued until towards the end of May, and

were resumed for a few weeks following year.

in the spring of the

The scheme adopted, however, [163]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL was not exactly that suggested by the Gurney Instead of simply attempting to con-

control.

vey some thought to Mrs. Holland's mind, Mrs. Verrall, at Miss Johnson's suggestion, wrote automatically

herself

Holland was to write.

on each day that Mrs. Neither medium was to

hold the slightest communication with the other,

but both were to forward their automatic In

to Miss Johnson as soon as written.

scripts fact, in

order to prevent any loophole for fraud. Miss

Johnson throughout the 1905 experiments kept Mrs. Holland

in ignorance of the identity of her

fellow-experimenter, who, on her side, was igno" Holthe rant of Mrs. Holland's real name

—

land

"

being a pseudonym.

interesting results

March

1,

exceedingly

were secured.

1905, Mrs. Holland's script contained

these sentences,

blue jar

Some

"

— jonquils

There are cut flowers I think

tulips near the window.

hints at spring,

A

and

tulips

dull day,

but the sky

and one chirping bird

above the roar of the

traffic."

in the

— growing is

heard

In reply to a ques-

tioning letter from Miss Johnson, Mrs. Verrall

wrote:

[164]

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING "

On March

draw-

my

the only cut flowers in

1

ing-room were in two blue china jars on the the flowers were large single daffo-

mantelpiece;

On

dils.

the ledge of

the

window

three pots of grow ing yellow tulips

.

.

.

— the

were only

any window. The day was dull morning, but about twelve the sun came

flowers near in the

out and

was warm;

it

it

rained heavily in the

afternoon."

"

There was no writings of the

two weeks a week

two

— the

— but

" cross-correspondence

in the

scripts for this or the next

experimenters wrote only once

in the scripts of the

week following

Miss Johnson found a curious coincidence

— the

presence of notes of music. or since, she

peared

in the script of either

"

Mrs. Verrall or Mrs.

In Mrs. Holland's script of that same

Holland. date,

testifies,

Only once before have notes of music ap-

March

22,

there was also a reference to

the ivory gate through which

come."

Mrs. Verrall,

19 or 20, "

the

it

iEneid

good dreams

was learned, on March

had been reading "

all

Virgil's

passage in

about the gates of horn and ivory.

She had been reading Dante, too, [165]

in the original

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Italian, the first

time she had read anything in

Itahan for months;

and, oddly enough,

Mrs.

Holland's script for

March 22 contained a

sen-

tence in Italian.

Later scripts were characterized by even more striking

and

correspondences,

— which

is

not

interest —

on more than one occasion without " " the issued warnings against placing controls faith

Eusapia Paladino.

in

December

1905,

1,

the

through Mrs. Holland:

For instance, on

Myers control wrote "There may be raps

genuine enough of their kind

—

I

concede the

— poltergeist merely — but the luminous raps — the sounds a semi-musical nature appearances — trickery — the flower upon the table — trickery." And the Gurney control added: " are very important — Next time can't Her of

falling

feet

Miss

J.

sit

with the sapient feet both touching

hers — Let her

fix

her thoughts on the feet and

prevent the least movement of them." As American investigators have since discovered, Eusapia's feet are indeed important.

These

first

experiments were followed by others,

in which, besides

Mrs. Holland and Mrs. Verrall,

[166]

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING all

mediums mentioned above

four of the other

took part, and again suggestive cross-correspondences were secured.

Besides which, having been

induced by the results of the Verrall-HoUand experiments to study more closely earlier scripts stored in the Society's archives, Miss Johnson

discovered

what seemed

correspondences that

to

be

occurred

similar

before

any

ex-

I

can

August

28,

periments of this kind were undertaken. give only one or two illustrations.

cross-

1901, Mrs. Forbes wrote a message purporting

to

come from her dead son Talbot,

to the effect

that he had to leave her in order to control an" other sensitive," and through her obtain corroboration of Mrs. Forbes's

On fir

own automatic

writing.

the same day Mrs. Verrall wrote in Latin of a tree planted in a garden,

signed

The

and the

script

was

with a sword and a suspended bugle.

latter

was part

of the

badge

of the

regiment

had belonged, and Mrs. Forbes had in her garden some fir trees grown from seed sent to her by her son. These facts, to which Talbot Forbes

according to Miss Johnson, were

Mrs. Verrall. [167]

unknown

to

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL In another case Mrs. Forbes wrote, on

Novem-

ber 26 and 27, 1902, references, absolutely meaningless to herself, to a passage in a

book which

Mrs. Verrall had been reading on those days;

and the references

also applied appropriately to

an obscure sentence of

November

in

Mrs. Verrall's own script

26.

But undoubtedly the most impressive

cross-

correspondences were obtained in a series of ex-

periments extending from November,

1906,

June, 1907, and

automa-

involving concordant

to

tism between Mrs. Holland, in India, and Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Verrall,

A

land.

full

and Miss

Verrall,

report on this series

is

in

Eng-

given in the

October, 1908, issue of the Society's Proceedings.

The plan

followed was to suggest to the controls " " of Mrs. Piper in her case the alleged spirits of

—

Myers, Sidgwick, and Hodgson

— that

they

transmit to one or more of the other automatists

some

test

failures,

word or message.

but there were also

There were many

many seeming

suc-

cesses.

January that

it

16, 1907, the

Myers

would, as a proof of

[168]

control promised

its

identity, cause

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING Mrs. Holland and Mrs. Verrall to sign a piece of automatic writing with a triangle

a

circle.

A circle

drawn within

with a triangle inside

it

actually

January 28, appeared in Mrs. exhibited several Holland while a script from Mrs. Verrall's script of

geometrical

it

Verrall, to

"

a

showed that

in

a

it.

and investigation

library matter,"

half

writing at her script

with

circle

February 6 the same control had just been referring, through Mrs.

triangle outside

said that

a

including

figures,

an hour

home

in

Mrs. Verrall,

earlier

Cambridge, had begun a "

"

which the word

library

— the

occurred

only time during the period " " was menof the experiments that library three times

tioned in her automatic writing or in Mrs. Piper's

The Myers

trance statements.

February

11,

announced that

and Browning

star,

script

showed that

"

it

to Mrs.

this

was

control again, on " had given hope, Verrall,

correct.

and her

February 12

the Hodgson control declared it had been trying " " arrow on Mrs. Verrall. to impress the word

Her

script for the previous day,

when

received

at the Society's oflSces in London, proved to be

decorated with a drawing of three arrows.

[169]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL It

is

— and

the multiplicity of coincidences like these

have given only the merest fragment of the evidence in hand that has recently perI

—

suaded

many

hitherto

hesitating

psychical re-

searchers, notably Sir Oliver Lodge, that scientific

proof of spirit communication has veritably been obtained. For myself, I nmst frankly say, however, that I cannot accept this view of the case.

Fraud,

I

admit,

is

out of the question as an ex-

planatory hypothesis.

Nor does

it

seem possible

to explain

away the evidence on the theory of mere chance, guessing, " lucky hits," etc. But there remains

the hypothesis of telepathy be-

tween living minds; and, as

it

seems to me, there

nothing whatever in the evidence presented incompatible with the view that the cross-correis

spondences

in

question

resulted

thought transference between themselves.

[170]

the

from

direct

automatists

CHAPTER V POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS

WE

have now to consider a very

different

class of spiritistic manifestations, the so-

"

phenomena," which are historically among the earliest on record, and at the same time are far more spectacular and sensacalled

tional

physical

than

the

phenomena produced by the

automatic speakers and writers.

They

include

such weird occurrences as the appearance in the seance room of ghostly forms alleged to be spirits

"materialized" by the power of the medium; the lifting of the latter from the floor by an invisible force;

the touching, pinching, and striking

of the sitters

by unseen hands, and the movement

of small articles of furniture as

Occasionally, gifted,

still

though

when the medium

more

is

alive.

particularly

striking happenings take place.

Thus, at a seance with Eusapia Paladino,

at-

tended by such eminent scientists as Professors [

171

]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Lombroso, Bianchi, Tamburini, censi, is

men whose

veracity

and As-

Vizioli,

beyond question,

is

it

recorded by Lombroso that: " We saw a great curtain, which separated our ^

room from an alcove more than three

adjoining,

feet distant

and which was

from the medium,

suddenly move out toward me, envelop me, and

wrap me close. Nor was I able to from it except with great difficulty. "

A

free myself

had been put in the little alcove room, at a distance of more than four and a

dish of flour

half feet

from the medium, who,

in her trance,

had thought, or, at any rate, spoken, of sprinkling some of the flour in our faces. When light was made,

it

was found that the dish was bottom

up, with the flour under sure,

but coagulated,

cumstance seems to first,

it.

like

me

This was dry, to be gelatine.

This

cir-

doubly irreconcilable

—

with the laws of chemistry, and, second,

with the power of movement of the medium,

had not only been bound as to her her hands held tight by our hands. "

side

When '

feet,

who

but had

the lights had been turned on, and "

After Death

— What? " pp. 57-58. [172]

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS we were

ready to go, a great wardrobe that

all

stood in the alcove room, about six and a half feet

was seen advancing slowly seemed like a huge pachyderm

away from

towards

us,

It

us.

that was proceeding in leisurely fashion to attack us."

Other investigators, acter, report

marvels no

Eusapia

occasion,

men

of equally high char-

less

Paladino

amazing. is

On one with

credited

having created an invisible man, a being which the sitters could distinctly

feel,

although they

it, and which, annoyed by their prodding, finally turned on one of

could not see inquisitive

them and

bit

him

in the

thumb. For

this

we have

the authority of Professors Morselli and Barzini, the latter being the investigator whose

was

thumb

bitten.

Again, two English noblemen. Lords Dunraven and Crawford, affirm that they several times

saw another medium, the

late

D. D. Home,

ing through the air; once at a height of

seventy feet above the ground; "

same medium, by some elongated in

full

spiritual

float-

more than

and that the "

agency, was

view of them, so that they beheld

[173]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL his stature visibly increase, to decrease again to

normal height only when he came out

of the

trance condition.^

Unfortunately,

the

"

"

that

perform have a uncanny strong liking for darkness, a circumstance which has led to wholethese

spirits

feats

and repeatedly substantiated, accusations fraud. In fact, there is no other department spiritism to which the taint of fraud has so

sale,

of of

thoroughly attached itseK.

It

is

obvious that

any clever charlatan, by persuading that darkness

is

his sitters

necessary for the development

phenomena, can produce most mystifying effects, and the records of scientific investiof occult

gations,

to say

police courts,

have not

nothing of the records of our

abound

been slow in availing themselves of

this opportunity to

superstitious.

diums

will

in evidence that swindlers

The

prey on the credulous and lengths to which bogus

sometimes go, and the extreme

me-

gulli-

which renders their operations ridiculously easy and highly profitable, are amusingly iUusA detailed account of Home's performances will be found in my book, " Historic Ghosts and Ghost-Hunters," pp. 143bility

^

170.

[174]

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS by Mr. Hereward Caran investigator who has done much to

by a

trated

rington,

story told

make

the pubHc acquainted with the ways of " fraudulent psychics."

One

of these, according to

among head

his patrons

an elderly business man, the

of a large concern that

ing implements.

medium

on from marvel to marvel, "

manufactured farm-

After several months of inter-

course, during which the

no

Mr. Carrington, had

phenomenon

"

too

him

deftly led

until at last there

incredible

was

him

for

to

swallow, he was informed that at the next seance

he would have the unique experience of conversing with the spirit of a deceased inhabitant of the planet Jupiter.

Sure enough, after the lights had been carefully

turned low, he was accosted by a figure,

Jupiter,

which announced

itself

and which, speaking

shadowy

tall,

as a spirit

excellent English,

proceeded to describe the conditions of that far-off sphere.

The

were a poor, ignorant

Jupiterians,

lot,

scarcely

it

life

in

appeared,

removed from

barbarism; they were greatly in need of tion,

from

and any one who should help [175]

civiliza-

in civilizing

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL them would be generously rewarded

in the future

life.

"

I should be glad to

business

man

eagerly

do

my

power," the " but I'm volunteered, all in

afraid there's nothing I could do."

"

Yes, indeed, there

is.

I

understand that you

make farm implements and machinery. Well, they haven't as much as a spade on Jupiter. you would send a few tools there, great step toward civilizing them." If

"

But how

to them.^

"

That

in the

it

would be a

world could I get anything

"

quite simple," the

is

" explained.

"

" spirit

glibly

Just send the things to the

medium

them and

here,

and he

them

to Jupiter, where they will be rematerial-

will

dematerialize

ship

ized."

Instead of seeing in this a daring attempt to

him, the victim joyfully acquiesced, and

fleece

sent a to the

number

of spades, plows, harrows, etc.,

medium, who promptly disposed

of

them,

not to the people of Jupiter, but to a dealer in

such

articles.

Other seances followed, the

spirit

from Jupiter again appearing and describing [176]

in

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS picturesque language the beneficent consequences of the

This meant more

welcome presents.

which steadily increased until the confederate

number and

in

who had been

gifts,

value,

playing the

part of the dead Jupiterian finally became frightened.

"

Look

here," he told the

got to stop. satisfied

It

was

all

medium,

this

has

very well when you were

with plows, and rakes, and

like that,

"

little

things

but now that you have got him giving

you horses and harvesters

bound

there's

to be

trouble.

He's sure to find out in the end, and

some

morning

fine

we'll

wake up on the

inside of

a

jail."

"

Oh, don't worry," said the medium.

"

He'll

never find out anything." "

I'm not so certain

you'll

have

One word

that.

At any

rate,

somebody my place." and ended in a violent to take

led to another,

The

confederate, vowing vengeance, on the business man, and told him how he

quarrel. called

to get

of

had been duped.

He was met

ing reply: " I don't believe a

with the astonish-

word you say." [177]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL "Didn't you send the medium, only yesterday, a horse and cart to

"You

don't?" he

be dematerialized? " "

cried.

"

Yes."

you wish to know where they are, come with me. He has them in a stable near his Well,

if

house, waiting to find a buyer."

Together they went to the

stable,

where the

confederate pointed out the horse and cart that to the

had been given

medium.

In particular,

he identified the cart by the number painted on "

Come, now,"

your " like

" "

cart,

said he,

can you?

Why," was

"

it.

that's

you can't deny

"

the answer,

"

it

does indeed look

my cart. But I know it isn't." " How do you know it isn't? Because

— "I

know

"

—

in a tone of

solemn conviction

that by this time

my

cart

is

on

Jupiter."

In another case, drawn to

my

attention

by a

Boston lawyer friend, the victim was a well-to-do merchant,

who had become

interested in spiritism

to shortly after the death of his wife,

whom

he had

been devotedly attached, and with whose [178]

spirit

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS he hoped to be brought into communication.

A

medium, learning this, determined to profit from his grief and longing, and hired a young woman to pose as the spirit of the dead wife. He was would be possible to wife from the spirit world

then told that before long "

materialize

"

his

it

with such substantiality that he would be able to clasp her in his arms.

When

the appointed time came, a slender form,

emerged from the mediumistic cabinet into the darkened seance room, and draped

in gauze,

saluted

him with a

There was not

"Husband!" "

"

enough to see the spirit's but he did not for an instant doubt that he

face,

was

joyful cry of

light

really gazing at his wife,

and rose to embrace

her.

At once the

lights

were turned up the medium explained that

figure vanished,

and

after the

" materializathere would have to be a good many " tions before the spirit form would be solid

enough

for

him

to touch

it.

This meant, of course, numerous seances, for

which the deluded husband paid handsomely. It also helped to blind affairs,

and increased

him

to the true state of

his infatuation to

[179]

such an

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL when

extent that

"

at length the

mitted to his caresses,

it

"

sub-

spirit

did not seem at

all

incongruous to find that he was pressing to his breast a flesh-and-blood

The medium now

woman.

resolved on a bold stroke.

Acting under her instruction, the terly

"

"

bit-

spirit

complained one evening that she did not

possess any jewelry.

exclaimed.

"Do

you mean to say that they wear jewelry

in the

"What!" other world? "

Oh,

what with "

I

little

"

I

"husband"

her "

yes.

But nothing

had while on

mine.'*

have

compare with What have you done

earth.

to

" it all

— every piece — put away

in

a

box."

Good.

Then

night, I can take

you

if

it

with

will

bring

me when

The medium, you know, can

it

to-morrow

I leave you.

dematerialize

it

for

us."

"

I will bring

it.

Rest assured of that."

Alas for husbandly devotion!

The seance

at

which he turned over the jewelry to the affec" " tionate of his wife was the last at which spirit

[180]

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS he held communion with

When

her.

he next

he was told that the medium had been

called,

unexpectedly

summoned out

of town.

She never

came back. These two episodes are typical rather than exceptional instances of the sort of thing that

has been going on for years in connection with the

phenomena

physical

made

has been

of spiritism.

Its

continuance

by a widespread entertained not by the ignorant and super-

belief,

stitious merely,

intellectual

and

possible largely

men

but by

of distinction in the

world, that, notwith-

scientific

standing the prevalence of fraud, there are at least

some physical phenomena which must be

accounted genuine.

Men

like the Italian

savants already named,

the English naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace; the great

French

many satisfied

seance

chemist,

Sir

that

room

who

Crookes;

might be mentioned,

have

they

witnessed

out

occurrences

the

Flammarion, and

Camille

astronomer, others

William

of

all

in

are

the

accord

with natural laws, and not to be attributed to fraud. [

181

]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL laid

on

leaving out of consideration

all

In support of this view, emphasis the fact that,

mediums who employ

their

livelihood,

phenomena

physical

is

powers as a means of of

the

most

have been manifested through men and women in private life, who cannot possibly

bizarre sort

have a pecuniary motive for deception, and whose character is beyond reproach. One of the most celebrated of physical mediums,

was a clergyman of the Church of England, the Reverend W. Stainton Moses, a gentlein fact,

man

respected and warmly esteemed by

all

who

knew him.^ As a further argument ticity of certain of the

in behalf of the

authen-

phenomena, attention

is

also called to the interesting circumstance that,

long

before

were heard

spuitism

of,

and

spiritistic

mediums

similar marvels — including seem-

ingly spontaneous

movements

of furniture,

the occurrence of mysterious raps,

and other noises

— were

and

knockings,

frequently reported by

thoroughly reputable witnesses. is ii,

1 An excellent study of the mediumship of Stainton Moses " Modern Spiritualism," vol. contained in Frank Podmore's

pp. 276-288.

[182]

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS To mention

^ only a few cases, as long ago as

1661 there was an outbreak of this kind at the

home

of

a wealthy Englishman named

pesson, an invisible ghost for

the peace of the

Mom-

months disturbing

Mompesson family by beating

on a drum, banging at doors, tugging at bedclothes, and hurling household articles about in

The

a most destructive manner.

much

stir

made

so

that a royal commission was sent to

inquire into

it,

but signally

For nearly a year,

ghost.

affair

failed in

Reverend Samuel Wesley, father of Methodism, was tormented in his rectory in Lincolnshire.

to

lay

the

1716-1717, the of the founder like fashion at

In 1753 a Russian

monastery was invaded by an equally malicious " and equally invisible spirit," which for months

amused

by ringing the monastery bells at unseemly hours. Nine years later all London was thrilled by the celebrated Cock Lane ghost, itself

which produced eclat

spirit

rappings with as

much

most up-to-date, medium-invoked from the other side." In none of these

as the

visitant

"

1 Studied in detail in Hunters."

my

book,

[

183

"

]

Historic Ghosts

and Ghost-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL instances did contemporary investigators find a

wholly satisfactory explanation for the singular

phenomena involved. it

Nevertheless,

may

confidently be aflBrmed

that, instead of strengthening the case for the

phenomena

physical

the

poltergeists

called

by

— as

psychical

of spiritism, the doings of

these

tricky

researchers

ghosts

are

— considerably

For during recent years a number of poltergeist hauntings have been looked into by

weaken

it.

members

of the Society for Psychical Research,

and whenever the conditions have been such as to permit a thorough investigation,

has been

it

found that, so far from being spiritual poltergeists are invariably

credulity,

and

delusion.

entities,

of deceit,

compounded Even more important,

from the standpoint of getting at the true inwardness of physical mediumship, the discovery has

been made that fraud has frequently been practised in poltergeist cases without

any apparent

motive.

Again I

will

give an instance from actual oc-

currence, in order to clear.

make my meaning

Word was one day

perfectly

received at the

[184]

London

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS of the Society for Psychical

oflfices

Research that

a ghost had taken possession of a farmhouse in Shropshire, and was

making Hfe miserable

named Hampson and

lawful occupants, a family

two

their

Emma made It

one

its

Nobody saw

presence

felt in

had announced fine afternoon,

kitchen

fire

lifting

it

a saucepan from the

across the room, pick-

it

ing red-hot coals out of the floor,

the ghost, but

true poltergeist style.

and throwing

them over the

and

advent, about four o'clock

its

by

Evans

Priscilla

maidservants,

Davies.

for the

fire

and scattering

and by causing a lamp globe This

last

frightened

the

Hampsons and

their servants that they fled

from

the house, and

summoned

to

fly

prank,

miraculously through the naturally

neighbors,

so

enough,

aid from the nearest

among them a Mr.

report that reached the

air.

Lea, who, in the

Society for

Psychical

Research,^ declared that

when he approached the

Hampson homestead,

seemed as

stairs

rooms were on

light in the 1

pp.

it

" fire,

if

as there

all

the up-

was such a

windows."

Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. 58-67.

[185]

xii,

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Reenforced, the

Hampsons made bold

to enter

the house again, but the poltergeist had seemingly formed a strong dislike to them, for the

report added: " As things were continuing to

jump about the

kitchen in a manner which was altogether inex-

and many were getting damaged, Hampson decided to remove everything out of the plicable,

apartment. eter

He

from the

on the

leg,

down a barom-

accordingly took

when something struck him

wall,

and a

loaf of bread,

which was on

the table, was thrown by some invisible means,

and

hit

him on the back.

A

volume

'

of

Pilgrim's

'

was thrown, or jumped, through the window, and a large, ornamental sea-shell went

Progress

through in similar fashion. "

In the parlor a sewing machine was thrown

about and damaged. the baby by the

fire

The nurse

girl

when some

fire

was nursing leaped from

the grate, and the child's hair was singed and its

arms burned.

The

girl

was so alarmed that

she set off to a neighbor's, and on the

her clothes took

body.

fire,

way

there

and had to be torn from her

During the evening, while the [186]

girl

was

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS at the neighbor's, a plate, which she touched while

having her supper, was repeatedly thrown on the

and the pieces were picked up by some unseen agency, and put in the center of the table." floor,

On

the

girl's

return to the

Hampson

place the

Mr. and Mrs.

manifestations broke out anew.

Lea were strongly of the opinion that they were the work of the devil; the Hampsons, however, inclined to the view that the of

some

evil spirit

blame lay at the door

that was especially desirous of

tormenting the nurse

girl,

Emma

noticed that things quieted

was out

On

of the house.

her to her

home

Davies,

this theory

detect

officer,

she

they sent

where

in a neighboring village,

presence of a police

being

down whenever

the poltergeist continued to annoy her.

to

it

In the

watching her closely

evidence of fraud,

it

wrenched the

buttons from her dress and ripped out the stitches of her apron.

While the

village schoolmistress

and some twenty other people looked on, it twice drew off her shoes and tossed them to the opposite side of the

ward

lifted

room; and

it

was said to have

her bodily from the

her suspended in mid-air.

[187]

floor,

after-

and held

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Clearly, this

was a case

calling for investiga-

and the Society for Psychical Research at once commissioned one of its expert detectives tion,

of the supernatural,

Mr. F.

S.

Hughes, to proceed

But before he

to the scene of the disturbances. arrived,

The

the mystery was solved.

seems, had been

made

so nervous

it

and excited

by the unwelcome attentions of the it was thought best to place her

that

girl,

poltergeist in a physi-

and she was accordingly taken to a sanitarium and kept m strict seclusion, under the cian's care,

constant observation of the physician's housekeeper.

woman.

Miss

Turner,

a

shrewd,

level-headed

For three days, the poltergeist continued

to plague her.

Then

it

suddenly took

its

de-

parture, under the following circumstances, nar-

rated by Mr. "

Hughes

in his official report:

On Tuesday morning Miss Turner was

in

an

upper room at the back of the house, and the servant of the establishment and

were outside,

Emma

Emma

Davies

having her back to the

house, and unaware that she was observed.

Miss

Turner noticed that she had a piece of brick in her hand, held behind her back. This she threw [188]

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS to a distance

doing

so,

by a turn

of the wrist, and, while

screamed to attract the attention of

the servant, who, of course, turning round, saw

and was very much frightened. Davies, looking round, saw that she had

the brick in the

Emma

air,

been seen by Miss Turner, and, apparently imagining that she had been found out, was very

anxious to return "

home

that night.

Miss Turner took no notice

of the occurrence

at the time, but the next morning she asked the girl if

she had been playing tricks, and the girl

confessed that she had, and went through

some

of the performances very skillfully, according to

Miss Turner's account.

Later on in the day she

the

presence of the doctor.

repeated

these

in

Miss Turner, and two reporters from London." Obviously, trickster though she was, the

had no

rational motive for her conduct.

It

girl

had

already cost her a good position, and rendered

it

most unlikely that she would easily get another. And, in fact, this same absence of motive is conspicuous in nearly

all

the poltergeist cases

exposed by the Society for Psychical Research,

and by independent

investigators.

[189]

It

is

also

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL noteworthy that when discovery is made, the active agent is usually found to be a boy or girl,

man in

woman,

or

constitutionally or temporarily

an abnormal nervous condition. In this particular case, for instance, the

Emma

girl,

Davies, on the testimony of her mother,

was subject to

In another case, investi-

"fits."

gated by the Society, the poltergeist was nitely identified with a little

deformed

girl,

defi-

twelve

years old, of decidedly abnormal characteristics.

In a third case, investigated

Podmore, another member specialist

on

poltergeists,

by

of the Society

a confession

from a neurotic boy confession only partial, it is true, but

was

more illuminating than any

its

Frank and a

of

fraud

of fifteen

elicited

have been.

Mr.

The

case

is

full

in

—a

one sense

confession would

so instructive, both for

revelation of the almost incredible credulity

devotees of spiritism, and for the light

of

many

it

throws on the problems of physical medium-

ship, that I

quote

it,

condensed, from Mr. Pod-

more's detailed review of his investigation.^ 1 Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. pp. 101-103.

[190]

xii,

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS "

In the autumn of 1894," he states,

"

Mrs. B.,

me an

a lady living in a provincial town, gave

account of certain curious incidents which had recently taken

pants

of

The

place in her house.

the house

— an

old

one

besides Mrs. B. and her family, of a

Mrs. D., and her two children, a twenty, "

occu-

— consisted, widow

lady,

girl of

about

and a boy of fifteen, E. D. C. D., and E. D. had been

in the

CD.,

Mrs. B.,

habit of trying experiments with planchette in

had given them to understand that the house was haunted by four the

Planchette

evening.

spirits,

a wicked marquis, a wicked monk, a lay

desperado, and a virtuous and beautiful young lady.

These

spirits

wrote, through planchette,

of treasure concealed in the house, of a

chamber, and

many

other matters.

hidden

Among

other

proofs were the following: " One evening after dark, Mrs. B., in accord-

ance with directions received through planchette,

went with

CD.

and E. D. to an old oak

the garden, and, standing with the

on either

side,

girl

tree in

and boy

holding a hand of each, she dis-

tinctly heard a stone strike the

[191]

garden

roller

a

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL few feet

off.

The phenomenon was repeated

and her companions solemnly assured her that they had no part in the performance. twice;

"

another occasion, sitting in a bedroom

On

in the dark,

with only E. D. in the room, Mrs. B.

was struck by a stone on the temple, heard objects thrown about the room, felt an arm put through hers,

and so on.

curred

Some

of these

when she was alone

in

phenomena ocbut the room

—

with the door, I gathered, not shut. " Mrs. B. one morning placed a white chrysan-

themum bouquet on It

the boughs of the oak tree.

disappeared shortly

afterward,

and on the

next morning two other small bouquets were found there. Mrs. B. asked for whom these were intended, and went away, leaving paper. in

half,

On

pencil

and

her return she found the paper torn

and the

name, and that

initials

of C.

of her

own

Christian

D., written on the

two

halves respectively, with a bouquet on each half. " About this time a secret chamber was discovered, with the skeleton of a cat crouching in act to spring,

Asked more

and the skeleton

of a

woman.

B. particularly about the latter, Mrs.

[192]

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS '

said

but "

:

it

was a woman's

A

some bones

Well, at least a skull and

—

skull.'

few days after receiving this account, I

went down by invitation to the house. I saw Mrs. D. and her two children, and received from

them ungrudging corroboration trated the secret chamber,

mummified skeleton

left

by

nothing

of

else.

and found there the

what might have been a In removing the stains

this exploit, I contrived

a tete-a-tete

terview with E. D., and asked him: did you do of '

Oh, not much. "

B.'s

In E. D.'s company I pene-

marvelous story.

cat — but

Mrs.

of

all

these things

I only did a

' .^^

few

'

in-

How much

He

replied:

little things.'

Pressed on particular points,

he admitted

having thrown one stone at the garden

and

roller,

having also thrown a trouser button against the wall

when

sitting

He

Mrs. B.

alone in

the bedroom

with

denied having produced the other

phenomena on those

occasions.

Asked as

to the

bouquets, he said he had not placed them on

the

tree.

did

it,

it

Pressed a

little

more, he said:

'

must have been without knowing

This without any suggestion from

[193]

me

If I it.'

as to pos-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL sible

somnambulism, or unconscious

me

assured

that his sister had had no hand in this

I could not get

matter.

He

action.

any more out

of him, as

he was shortly after called away. " I subsequently learned from his mother that E. D. was so nervous and delicate that he slept

room

in her

to do

that he was not allowed

at night;

much mental work;

to attacks of

that he was subject

somnambulism;

and had, indeed, a few days

fallen into a semiconscious state only

before, during a lesson in carpentry."

Probably

moment

of

elaborated

the

whole

mischief,

because

affair

in

originated

a

and was carried on and of

an

uncontrollable,

perhaps not entirely conscious,

desire

and

on the

part of the abnormally conditioned lad to mystify

the too easily imposed upon elderly lady.

In point of ciety

for

fact,

Psychical

the investigations of the So-

Research

make

it

certain

that in nine cases out of ten a poltergeist

by-product of hysteria, using the term in strictest

medical sense.

As

is

symptoms of indulge in all manner

well

a its

kno^n, one

of the distinctive

hysteria

ency to

of lies

[194]

is

is

a tend-

and decep-

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS coupled often with almost diabolical cleverness in giving these lies and deceptions a color tions,

of reality.

Impulse to such trickery

may

arise

from a great variety of motives; frequently, it would seem, from nothing more than an abnor-

mal craving

young people run

tainly, the hysterical

by the

and admiration.

for notoriety

hunters

poltergeist

the

of

Cer-

to earth

Society for

Psychical Research did not engage in their hoax-

make money out

ings because they expected to of them.

The

bearing of

nomena

of

on the physical phe-

this

all

is

spiritism

self-evident.

surely

It

money motive mediums to fraud;

shows, for one thing, that the is

not the only motive inciting

that

when a neurotic

or hysterical condition

present, the best of characters

against duplicity; stances

the

is

is

no guarantee

and that under such circum-

detection

fraud

of

is

exceedingly

difficult, particularly in the case of witnesses pre-

disposed to regard the If

hysterical

phenomena

as genuine.

as they

have often

children can,

done, carry on a course of deception mystifying

a whole community,

it is

manifest that mediums

[195]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL of similar

hysterical tendencies,

cover of darkness or in a less

light,

can more or

readily deceive the most expert observers;

and, moreover, that they if

dim

working under

at aU, conscious of their

may own

be only

partially,

frauds.^

Further, in estimating the nature of the phe-

nomena produced mediums,

it

is

at

the

seances

of

physical

imperative to take into account

the innumerable possibihties of mal-observation

on the part of the spectators. Experience has shown that comparatively few people, no matter

how

honest, are trustworthy witnesses even

when

conditions for observation are of the best.

For proof

of this,

one does not need to look

beyond the courtroom, where every day perfectly honest people give the most contradictory accounts of some simple occurrence. difficult

broad

to

see

If it is

thus

what goes on in the surely is far more difficult

correctly

light of day, it

to be certain of exactly

room where there

is

what

happening in a darkness rather than light. is

Besides which, the imaginative faculty

may

be

am inclined, for example, to believe that there is a large element of hysteria in the mediumship of the discredited Eusapia Paladino, once the marvel of two continents. 1

1

[196]

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS excited to such an extent that the sitters at a

seance

may

not only be misled into making inac-

curate reports of what really occurred, but they even, and with absolute sincerity, testify

may to

phenomena which did not occur

A friend

of mine,

now a

at

all.

physician in Maryland,

used to amuse himself in his student days by playing

medium

He

at table-tipping seances.

would cause the table to rap out messages to various acquaintances of his, none of whom were spiritists,

but several

interested,

of

whom became

owing to their

inability to

intensely

fathom the

source of the communications they received, friend

managing things so

skillfully

my

that they did

not suspect him of hoaxing them.

One evening the of the

"

" spirit

lady well

table announced the presence

of a little child, the daughter of a

known

to

most

of the sitters.

were not aware, however, that

my

intimately acquainted with the

little

history,

and when,

proceeded to of a

make

utilizing this

They

friend

one's

was life

knowledge, he

the table rap communications

most personal character, there was consid-

erable excitement.

Suddenly a lady present, not [197]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL a relative of the dead

a piercing

child, uttered

scream, and fainted.

When

she

was revived, she

declared,

with

emphatic assurance, that she had seen the head of a child emerge from the center of the table. Equally plays

in

indicative

my

of

the

part

imagination

phenomena is own with a New York me-

constructing

an experience dium.

of

spiritistic

His specialty was materialization, but at

the seance in question he did not attempt to " " develop spirit forms by any of the methods

vogue among materializers. Instead, the gas having been lowered until the room was almost in in

total darkness,

he went into a

"

trance," and,

seated at the seance table, with his head resting

on

his hands, declaimed in

"

The

spirits are

You

proaching.

a singsong voice:

coming.

be able to see

will

They

are almost here.

Here

left.

Can't you see

And

and another.

They

it.^^

them apthem soon.

I can feel

is

one now, on

here comes another,

are crowding around me, so

anxious to communicate with you. see them.?

gone soon.

my

I can't hold

them

long;

Oh, can't you see them? [198]

Can't you

they "

will

be

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS There were, perhaps, a dozen people present, including myself and a fellow investigator, who

Of the others, three

had accompanied me.

re-

sponded to the hypnotic suggestiveness of the medium's words and manner, and solemnly de-

One

about him.

"

"

clared that they could see a

hovering

spirit

whose integrity " that she saw two

lady,

not doubt, insisted

I could spirits,"

which she identified as her dead husband and brother.

Undoubtedly, therefore,

proper to assume

it is

that when, in the instances cited at the beginning of this chapter. Professor

sitting with

Lombroso,

Eusapia Paladino, saw a huge wardrobe advance and when Lords Crawford and to attack him;

Dunraven saw the medium Home the is

air,

floating through

"

hallucination rather than

the correct explanation.

view of the known the manifold

mediums;

fallibility of

opportunities

and the

exception of

fact

spirit action

At

all

the

human

for

that,

fraud

in

senses;

open to

with the single

Home, every medium

scientific investigation

events,

"

subjected to

has been caught practising

fraud at one time or another,

[199]

it

seems extremely

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL rash to accept as genuine any of the

phenomena

of

physical mediumship. Still,

it

v/ould be incorrect to say that the

time devoted by psychical researchers to the investigation of these

wasted.

duty for

phenomena has been time

They have performed a necessary police society, and their labors, as we shall see,

have been productive

of psychological discoveries

of great practical importance.

[200]

CHAPTER

VI

THE SUBCONSCIOUS the Society for Psychical Research

WHEN

was founded,

only to obtain,

if

in 1882, its

purpose was not

possible, scientifically accept-

able proof of the survival of

human

personality

after bodily death, but also to study the nature

of personality

in

its

mundane

aspects,

with a

view to securing greater insight into the powers

and

possibilities of

man

here on earth.

In this latter quest

and thanks to

successful,

been eminently

it

has

its

labors our knowledge

of ourselves has been increased a thousandfold.

As has been shown, phenomena as mysterious paritions,

and

"

hitherto regarded " such as apsupernatural -

have been

clairvoyance,

crystal-gazing,

definitely explained

istic basis;

—

etc.

—

on a purely natural-

and, as was said at the close of the

last chapter, in addition to naturalizing the su-

pernatural, psychical researchers have made, or

[201]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL have assisted

and having a profound bearing

practical utility,

on

affairs of

Among the

making, discoveries of great

in

life.

everyday

these,

none

the

of

discovery

is

of

more importance than

"

subconscious."

This

term, which was almost unheard of a few years ago,

is

nowadays used by psychologists

of ways, but

it

may

in a variety

be broadly defined as

in-

cluding an extensive range of mental processes

and phenomena that occur beneath the surface our

of

ordinary

mental action, part in our

Subconscious

consciousness.

in fact, has a constant, unceasing

lives.

It

is

in evidence in such

com-

monplace acts as walking, talking, writing, playing the piano, handling a tool, a tennis racket, or a baseball bat.

There was a time,

in the experience of all of us,

when we could do none to learn little,

as

but had

them by conscious effort. Little by we acquired more skill, the element of

consciousness

we

of these things,

became

less

and

less,

until at last

could execute them in a seemingly automatic

manner, as scribed

in the fashion of the

by Miss Cobbe: [202]

piano player de-

THE SUBCONSCIOUS "

Two different lines of

hieroglyphics have to be

read at once, and the right hand has to be guided to attend to one of them, the left to the other.

have the work assigned as quickly as they can move. The mind, or something which

All the fingers

does duty as mind, interprets scores of

and

B

flats,

and

and white ones,

C

feet are

crotchets,

not

with the pedals.

all

and quavers, and demi-

the mysteries of music.

idle,

but have something to do

And

all this

the conscious performer, artistic

sharps,

naturals into black ivory keys

quavers, rests, and

The

A

is

time the performer,

in a

rapture at the results of

seventh heaven of all

this

tremendous

business, or perchance lost in a flirtation with the

individual

and

is

who

turns the leaves of the music book,

justly persuaded she

is

giving

him the whole

of her soul."

The subconscious

is

thus a sort of reservoir in

which are stored up, available for future use, the things learned through education and experience;

dynamic power that enables it to supplement, economize, and enlarge the operations and

it

of the

also has a

upper consciousness.

appreciate what

we owe

Ordinarily

we

fail

to

to this hidden servitor,

[203]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL for the reason that its workings are so smooth, so

Yet

unobtrusive, as to pass quite unnoticed.

abundant evidence has been secured to demonstrate not simply the fact of its existence,

more is

significant fact that

it is

never at

but the

rest,

but

perpetually laboring in our behalf.

Even when our ment completely

— the asleep Many

of

my

consciousness

in

subconscious

mo-

for the

is

— as abeyance

when we

continues

readers have doubtless

are

operant.

had the

ex-

perience of vainly endeavoring for hours, perhaps for days, to solve

some important problem, and

then awaking one morning with a luminously clear idea of its correct solution. their subconsciousness

slept,

While they

had been at work

disentangling the threads of their conscious rea-

away and discarding unessentials, presenting them with, so to speak, a

soning, stripping

and

finally

ready-made understanding of that which had previously been so perplexing to them. all

such cases the action of the subconscious

more

vividly evident when, as often happens,

In is

the desired SQlution in the

is

gained during sleep

form of a dream.

An

[204]

excellent

itself,

example

is

THE SUBCONSCIOUS found

who "

in

says:

had been bothered

I

error in

despite

my

an episode narrated by a business man,

cash account for that month, and,

my

many

efforts,

September with an

since

hours' examination,

and

I almost

gave

it

up

it

defied

all

as hopeless.

had been the subject of my waking thoughts for many nights, and had occupied a large portion It

of

my

leisure hours.

Matters remained thus un-

night I had not, to

my

On

December.

settled until the eleventh of

this

knowledge, once thought

had not been long in bed and brain was as busy with the

of the subject, but I asleep,

when

my

books as though "

I

had been at

The cash book,

my

desk.

banker's pass books, etc.,

etc.,

appeared before me; and, without any apparent trouble,

I

almost

immediately

discovered

the

cause of the mistakes, which had arisen out of a I

complicated cross entry.

having taken a

slip of

paper in

made such a memorandum correct the error at

done

some

perfectly

as

my

recollect

dream, and

would enable

leisure time; and,

me

to

having

this, that the whole of the circumstances had

passed from

my

mind.

[205]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL **

When

slightest

I

awoke

in the

recollection

once occur to

me

of

my

home

it

throughout the day, although

had the very books before had apparently been engaged in returned

had not the

dream, nor did

I

I

I

morning

me

my

on which

I

When

sleep.

in the afternoon, as I did early,

and proceeded to paper from my dress-

for the purpose of dressing,

shave, I took

up a

ing table to wipe

my

piece of

my

and you may imagine

razor,

surprise at finding thereon the very

dum

I fancied I

night.

The

to our oflSce

effect

had made during the previous on me was such that I returned

and turned to the cash book, when

found that I had

really, while asleep,

the error which I could not detect in hours, and time. "

I

memoran-

had actually jotted

have no

recollection

it

detected

my

waking

down

at the

whatever as to where I

obtained the paper and pencil with which I the

memorandum.

I

It certainly

written in the dark, and in

made

must have been

my

bedroom, as I

found both paper and pencil there the following afternoon. The pencil was not one which I am in the habit of carrying, and

my

[206]

impression

is

that

THE SUBCONSCIOUS I

must

either

have found

down-stairs for

it."

it

in the

room, or gone

^

Ilhistrative of the

same subconscious mechan-

and doubly interesting because of the Hght throws on the true nature of many dreams fre-

ism, it

quently regarded as supernatural,

is

a singular

experience that once befell Professor H. V. Hilprecht, the well-known archaeologist of the University of Pennsylvania.

At the

time. Professor Hilprecht

was trying to

decipher the inscriptions on two small fragments of agate lonia,

finger

from the temple

of Bel in ancient

Babyand believed by him to be portions of the rings of some wealthy Babylonian. He had

already published a preliminary report on the collection

of

which they formed a part,

but,

had utterly failed the words inscribed on

despite weeks of earnest effort, to get at the

meaning

of

them.

One Saturday ments

until

satisfactory ^

pp.

night, after

working on the frag-

nearly twelve o'clock without any result,

he went to bed weary and

Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. 394-395.

[207]

viii,

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL exhausted, and was soon in a deep sleep.

He

then dreamed that he was transported to the

temple of Bel, where a venerable

priest,

whose

showed that he belonged to a pre-Christian epoch, conducted him into the treasure chamber of dress

the temple.

It

was a

small, low room, without

windows, and contained a large wooden chest,

around which were scattered pieces of agate and other valuable stones.

While Professor Hilprecht

stood looking at these, the priest said to him: " The two fragments which you have published

upon pages 22 and 26 belong together, are not finger rings, and their history is as folseparately

lows "

:

King Kurigalzu [who reigned

about 1300

among

B. c],

in

Babylonia

once sent to the temple of Bel,

other articles of agate and lapis lazuli,

an inscribed votive cylinder priests suddenly received the

for the statue of the

of agate.

We

of agate.

command

Then we to

make

god Ninib a pair of earrings

were in great dismay, since there

was no agate at hand as raw material. In order to execute the command, there was nothing for us to do but cut the votive cylinder into three

[208]

THE SUBCONSCIOUS making three

parts,

a portion

"The

rings,

each of which contained

of the original inscription.

two

first

rings served as earrings for the

statue of the god; the two fragments which have

much

given you so If

you

will

trouble are portions of them.

put the two together you

confirmation of

my

words.

But the

will

third ring

you have not yet found in the course excavations, and you never will find it."

With

came its

this the priest disappeared,

to an end.

have

of

your

and the dream

In the morning, impressed with

coherence and vividness. Professor Hilprecht

again attacked the troublesome fragments, put

them together

as directed, and,

by making the

proper guesses for the missing middle portion, readily deciphered the full inscription:

god Ninib, son

of

the

Bel, his lord, has Kurigalzu,

pontifex of Bel, presented this."

Nor

"To

^

are the intellectual achievements of the

subconscious during sleep confined to the solution of

problems that have been vexing the upper

consciousness. ^

Proceedings pp. 14-15.

of

It has a highly original, creative the Society for

[209]

Psychical Research, vol.

xii,

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL power of its own. Thus the composer Tartini dreamed one night that he heard the devil playing a wonderful sonata, and, remembering

awaking, was able to set

it

down on

it

on

paper, and

thereby put to his credit one of the finest pieces " Kubla of music that bears his name. Coleridge's " was another dream composition; and, Khan indeed, a long

and

list

literature, originating

mental action in

A

of masterpieces in music, art,

sleep,

through subconscious

might be drawn up.

was recently communicated to me by a well-known Pacific Coast architect, Mr. B. J. S. Cahill. He had been commissioned to typical case

design a twenty-six-story oflSce

building, to be

erected in Portland, Oregon, and he determined, if

possible, to plan

one that would be a

tribution towards the solution of

some

real con-

of the

most

problems of modern commercial archiFor weeks Mr. Cahill labored hard to tecture. difficult

devise a building that would unite a

maximum

and capacity with an abunnearly as possible an equality, of

of beauty, solidity,

dance, and as

was to contain.

light

and

The

structure he ultimately conceived

air for

the

many

offices it

[210]

was

cer-

THE SUBCONSCIOUS tainly novel,

and

differed conspicuously

ordinary four-sided office building, with offices lighted

from the its

inner

from a court.

His plan called for the construction of a building shaped

much

like

a St. Andrew's cross, or like

a square with a triangle cut out of each side. this

way

In

the need for an inner court was com-

and the only poorly ventilated and dimly lighted portion of the building would " core." Here the elevators and be its central pletely obviated,

stairs

were to be located.

According to the architect's this plan

— which has been highly

eminent a

was born he saw

own

statement,

praised by so

—

Mr. Montgomery Schuyler mind while he slept. One night

critic as

in his

dream a building shaped in this fashion, and knew that his problem was solved. He tells

me

in a

that on awaking he

made two rough

of the plan in a pocket note-book

sketches

— one showing

the general design, the other indicating the ap-

pearance of the building when completed.

Perhaps no one has ever been more favored this

same way than that remarkable man

genius, the late Robert Louis Stevenson.

[211]

in

of

The

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL for

plots

Stevenson's "

of

many

best

stories

—

Doctor Jekyll and Mr. including the marvelous " came to him in dreams, as he himself Hyde

—

has related in a delightful autobiographical essay, with

whimsicality, he " " Brownies personifies his subconscious ideas as " and little people." " This dreamer, like many other persons," he " in

which,

characteristic

has encountered some

says,

When

of fortune.

trifling vicissitudes

the bank begins to send letters,

and the butcher to

back gates, he

linger at the

sets to belaboring his brains after a story, for that is

once the in the all

monev winner; and behold!

his readiest

people begin to bestir themselves

little

same

quest,

and labor

night long set before

upon

at

night long, and

him truncheons

No

their lighted theater.

frightened now;

all

of tales

fear of his being

the flying heart and the frozen

scalp are things bygone;

applause, growing ap-

plause, growing interest, growing exultation in his

own

cleverness

and at

last

'

cry:

I

— for

he takes

all

the credit

—

a jubilant leap to wakefulness, with the

have

it,

that'll do!

'

upon

such and similar emotions he

[212]

sits

his lips;

with

at these noc-

THE SUBCONSCIOUS turnal dreams, with such outbreaks, like Claudius

he scatters the performance in the

in the play,

midst. "

Often enough the waking

ment; he has been too deep

is

a disappoint-

asleep, as I explain

the thing; drowsiness has gained his

little

peo-

ple; they have gone stumbling and maundering through their parts; and the play, to the wakened

mind, yet

is

how

And

seen to be a tissue of absurdities.

often have these sleepless Brownies done

him honest

service,

and given him, as he sat

taking his pleasure in the boxes, better tales

idly

than

he could fashion for himself. "

"

The more

the more I

my

I

think of

it,"

Stevenson continues,

am moved to press upon the world Who are the little people They '

'

question

:

.f*

are near connections of the dreamer's, beyond

doubt;

they share in his financial worries, and

have an eye to the bank book; they share plainly in his training; they have plainly learned, like him, to build the scheme of a considerable story,

and to arrange emotion in progressive order; only I think they have more talent; and one thing is

beyond doubt

— they can [213]

tell

him a story

piece

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL by

and keep him

piece, like a serial,

where they aim. That part of my work which

all

the while

in ignorance of

"

am

sleeping

is

done while

is

I

the Brownies' part beyond con-

tention; but that which

is

done when

I

am up

and

by no means necessarily mine, since all goes to show the Brownies have a hand in it even about

is

then."

1

It is

recently

what

is

worth noting that facts led to

known

like these

have

a novel theory explanatory of as

" genius."

Instead of adopt-

ing the Lombrosian doctrine, and regarding the

man

of genius as a kind of transcendental degen-

erate, this latest theory affirms that

he

is

what

by reason of enjoying a readier communication than most men possess between the he

is

conscious and subconscious portions of his mind.

Such a view has the further virtue

of being

com-

pletely in accord with the familiar definition of

genius as an infinite capacity for hard work.

From what has been

said, it

must be evident

that the contents of the subconscious are 1

Quoted from the

son's

"

"

made

Chapter on Dreams," in R. L. Steven-

Across the Plains." [

214

]

THE SUBCONSCIOUS in large

up

time

knowledge gained at one

of

by conscious endeavor and

The man who

thought. is

measure

another

or

thinks hard consciously,

certain to have a richer fund of subconscious

information at his disposal than the one whose conscious thinking

brained

All

sort.

of the idle, futile, scatter-

is

successful

men, whether a

Milton or a Rockefeller, a Shakespeare or a

Morgan, are men who have developed conscious faculties by their

laborious

their sub-

application

of

the routine of daily

conscious powers

in

the other hand,

has also to be observed

life.

On

that knowledge

is

it

often obtained subconsciously

without passing through any preliminary stage of conscious attention

and awareness; and

that,

by a reversal of the usual process, the conscious frequently acquires from the subconscious infor-

mation I

which

would otherwise be ignorant. have previously alluded to this interesting and of

most important

it

fact in

my

discussion of telepathy,

clairvoyance, crystal-gazing,

lems in psychical research.

and kindred prob-

As we then saw% the

subconscious has a certain eerie faculty of impart-

[215]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL information to the upper consciousness in

ing

its

the

way

of haUucinations, indicative at times of

thought transference from mind to mind,

or,

more

commonly, originating merely from unnoticed impressions of direct, personal experience.

be too firmly borne in mind that every

It cannot

day

of our lives

than we

realize;

we

see

and hear and

that these

feel

more

unobserved sights

and sounds and sensations may,

nevertheless, be

subconsciously registered in our minds; and that

they

soon or late be projected above the

may

threshold of consciousness in a form astonishing, puzzling,

and perhaps annoying to

case of a strange experience of a

us, as in the

young

New York

newspaper man. It

was

number sent in

his business to edit for publication in a

of

country newspapers the dispatches

by a

telegraphic news agency.

He had

been thus engaged for perhaps a year when he noticed, greatly to his dismay, that he

was

re-

peatedly omitting items which he believed, on " old reading them in the telegraphic copy, to be

news," but which were printed with more or

prominence

less

in the next morning's issues of other

[216]

THE SUBCONSCIOUS This occurred so often that he began

newspapers.

to tremble for his position,

and

set himself ear-

nestly to solve the mystery.

Luckily he had some acquaintance with psychology, and

knew that

must be due

his trouble

to a faulty identification of subconscious with

conscious impressions.

But why was

it,

he asked

on certain nights he would be quite from such errors of judgment, while on others

himself, that free

he might omit, or be strongly tempted to omit,

on the ground

of

supposed previous publication,

half a dozen items of real

The

truth

sitting

down

news value?

dawned on him one evening

as he

was

to begin work.

On

his desk lay a

heap

of envelopes containing

the dispatches that had come from the news agency before his arrival at the newspaper

office.

should already have been opened by an

These office

boy, but that night he had been busy with something

else.

Mechanically, the editor himself tore

open the envelopes, smoothed out their contents, and, without reading them, the

typewritten

sheets,

made a neat

preparatory

through them.

[217]

to

pile of

going

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL He had

not been working an hour when he came

to a dispatch, which he tossed aside, with the

muttered comment, I've read

it

"

That's an old story, sure.

somewhere before."

Then, remembering the mistakes he had been making, he hesitated, picked

it

up,

and read

it

Every word in it seemed familiar. But where could he have read it? In the evening carefully.

He went

papers?

without

result.

him that

through

Then

them one by

suddenly occurred to

it

possibly, in opening the dispatches, he

had, without being aware of particular item,

knowledge

of

it,

it,

which was now welling up con-

memory.

test this theory,

he directed the

to open the dispatches without

On none

few nights.

memory

glanced at this

and had obtained a subconscious

fusedly as a conscious

To

one,

fail

of these did

office

boy

for the next

he suffer from

confusion.

Possibly,

if

he had analyzed the matter further,

he would have found that the news items which

had caught

his eye while

smoothing out the

dis-

patch sheets related to subjects of some special interest to him.

For just as one's conscious [218]

at-

THE SUBCONSCIOUS tention

is

arrested

interesting,

by that which

is

particularly

so does the subconscious select for

presentation to the upper consciousness information of temporary or habitual interest

and

sig-

nificance.

Sometimes, too, there

back to

interests of

an

is

involved a harking

earlier period of

simple but instructive illustration of this in a little incident that occurred to

ard Hodgson while on a best be reported in his

visit to

is

A

found

Doctor Rich-

England.

own words:

life.

It

may

^

"

Yesterday

morning (September 13, 1895), was strolling alone along

just after breakfast, I

one

of the

garden paths of Leckliampton House,

Cambridge, repeating aloud to myself the verses

became temporarily oblivious to my garden surroundings, and regained my consciousness of them suddenly, to find myself brought of a

poem.

I

to a stand, in a stooping position, gazing intently

at a five-leaved clover.

On

careful examination,

I found about a dozen specimens of five-leaved clover, as well as several specimens of four-leaved 1

p.

Proceedings of

the Society

for Psychical Research, vol.

415.

[219]

xi,

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL clover, all of

which probably came from the same

root.

"

Several years ago I was interested in getting

extra-leaved clovers, but I have not for years

made any sionally

active search for them, though occa-

my conscious attention,

as I

walked along,

has been given to appearances of four-leaved

which proved, on examination, to be de-

clover,

The

ceptive.

peculiarity of yesterday's

'

'

find

was that

I discovered myself, with a sort of shock,

standing

and stooping down, and afterward that a five-leaved clover was directly

realized

under

still

my

eyes.'*

an incident reported by an English clergyman, the Reverend P. H. Newnham.

Compare with

this

We find in it exactly

the same element of selective

subconscious

attention, accompanied, however, an by auditory hallucination as a means of notify-

ing the upper consciousness of the fact subconsciously observed.

"

I

was

visiting friends at

Tunbridge Wells," " Mr. and went out one evening, Newnham, says entomologizing. As I crossed a stile into a field,

on

my way

to a neighboring wood, a voice said

[220]

THE SUBCONSCIOUS my

distinctly in

'

"

You'll find

right ear:

Cha-

"

on that oak.' This was a very scarce moth, which I had never seen before, and which most

onia

had never consciously thought of There were several oaks in the field, but

assuredly seeing.

I

I instinctively off side of it,

The

walked up to one, straight to the

and there was the moth indicated."

psychological explanation of this

enough, and

is

is

^

simple

equally applicable to similar,

if

sensational, hallucinations widely heralded

more

It

as of supernatural character.

"

"

absurd to suppose that a

spirit

is

manifestly

announced to

the entomologizing clergyman the presence of the rare his

and greatly sought-after moth which

good fortune to capture.

absurd to suggest that quite

But

it is

likely,

it

was

not at

all

although he

had consciously forgotten all about it, he had at some time seen Chaonia, or an entomological textbook picture

of Chaonia;

that he had subcon-

ciously caught a glimpse of

the

field

and

settling

*

fluttering across

on the oak, and that

conscious recognition of

p.

it,

its

identity

his sub-

had

set in

Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol.

411.

[221]

xi,

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL motion the proper mental mechanism to notify his upper consciousness of a fact in which it would naturally be

There tion, or

much

also be a subconscious intensifica-

may

"

interested.

hypersesthesia," of other senses than that

In

of sight.

probability hypersesthesia of the

all

sense of hearing

suflScient to

is

account for the

dramatic central incident in the following story,

by a lady whose

told

reveal " I

camp

identity I

am

unable to

:

was in

living

the

one summer

in a little

Rocky Mountains.

frame building, was some

little

mining

Our house, a

distance from any

other, at the top of a steep hill;

the only disad-

vantage of this being the additional

difficulty of

was an expensive commodity in the camp, as the adjacent mines had drained most of the wells.

getting

"

water,

which

The house contained

one out of another, closet beyond,

six

rooms,

all

opening

my own room, with a

dressing

where

my

child slept, being at one

end, and the front porch, which overlooked the valley, at the other.

"

One

evening, after

my

[222]

little girl

was

asleep,

THE SUBCONSCIOUS I

lit

a tiny night lamp, always

bracket in her room;

left

and, leaving

burning on a all

doors and

windows open, on account of the intense heat, went to sit on the front porch. I may have sat there half an hour, when my attention was caught

by a great blazing

light in the direction of the

farthest houses.

appeared evident that one at

least

had taken

It fire,

and the

difficulty of getting

water, and the hope that no children were in

danger, flashed through my mind. " While watching the rapidly growing glare, I

heard a It

faint, crackling

sound

would not have disturbed

me

in

my own

at

any other time,

house.

some smouldering piece the kitchen stove had blazed up.

as I only supposed that of cedar in

But, with the present thought of I

fire in

my

mind,

went into the kitchen to look, and, glancing

through the open doors as I passed, saw a volume of flame

and smoke pouring from the

child's

room

into mine.

"

Thank God it was still

and save her; and

possible to rush through

I carried her out in a blanket

to prevent the scorch, for the

room was only

burning at one end; the side where the bed stood,

[223]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL though fearfully hot and suffocating, was not yet on fire, and, thanks to the timely warning, the water

the barrels proved just enough to

left in

extinguish the flames before very troyed. " After

all

was

quiet, I

much was

des-

went back to the porch

to look at that other burning house, feeling so

thankful that if

my

child

others were, also.

came

known

make

to

in the

been for

my

But

was all

and wondering was dark, and when I safe,

inquiry next day, nothing was

camp

of

any such

strange vision of

it,

fire.

Had

would have been burned to death."

There

is

my

little

^

a possibility, though only a possibility,

that telepathy between mother and child

have had part

in the

hallucination.

But

may

production of this helpful

hypersesthesia of the sense of

hearing seems to afford the as also in

not

which must have

lasted fully ten minutes, I feel sure that girl

it

likelier

explanation,

numerous well-authenticated

instances,

which railroad men, obeying an unaccountable impulse or hallucinatory monition, have taken in

^

pp.

Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. 418-419.

[224]

xi,

THE SUBCONSCIOUS

A

action averting disastrous wrecks. trative

example must

suffice,

single illus-

a case called to the

attention of the Society for Psychical Research

by Mr. WiHiam H. Wyman, "

Some

years ago

my

of

Dunkirk, N. Y.:

brother was employed

and had charge as conductor and engineer of, a work train on the Lake Shore and Michigan on,

Southern Railway, running between Buffalo and

went with him to the gravel bank, where he had his headquarters, and returned on

Erie.

I often

his train with him.

"

On one

occasion I was with him, and after

the train of cars was loaded,

we went

to the telegraph office to see

if

orders,

as

and

we had

trains.

finding

to find out

if

together

there were any

the trains were on time,

to keep out of the

way

of all regular

After looking over the train reports, and

them

all

on time, we started

for Buffalo.

"

As we approached Westfield station, running about twelve miles per hour, and when within about one mile

of a long curve in the line,

brother

sudden shut

all

of a

off

my

the steam, and,

quickly stepping over to the fireman's side of the engine, he looked out of the cab window,

[225]

and then

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Not

to the rear of his train.

discovering anything

wrong, he put on steam, but almost immediately again shut

it off,

and gave the

signal for brakes,

and stopped. "

After inspecting the engine and train, and

finding

nothing wrong, he seemed very

excited,

and

not

time he acted as

for a short

know where he was

know; then,

line of

felt

much he did

I asked

replied that he did not

after looking at his

he said that he

on the

what to do.

or

He

what was the matter.

if

watch and

orders,

that there was some trouble

the road.

I suggested that

he had

better run his train to the station and find out.

He

then ordered his flagman to go ahead around

the curve, which was just ahead of us, and he

would follow with the "

The flagman

train.

started

and had barely time to

an extra express train, with the general superintendent and others on board, coming full forty

flag

miles an hour.

The superintendent

he was doing there, and orders to keep out of the

if

inquired what

he did not receive

way

of the extra.

My

brother told him that he had not received orders,

and did not know

of

any extra [226]

train coming; that

THE SUBCONSCIOUS we had both examined the leaving the station.

The

to the station, where

it

had been given."

train reports before

train

was then backed

was found that no orders

^

Incidents such as this are of not infrequent

By

occurrence.

the superstitious they are re-

garded as weird and uncanny, and savoring of the In reahty they are only exceptional

spiritistic.

exemplifications of a process which

There

taking place in all of us.

is

is

ceaselessly

no one who

does not, every day, perform acts which he can-

not consciously account inquired into,

for,

and which,

if

closely

would be found similarly to take

their rise in unnoticed subconscious impressions.

For the matter of that,

it is

possible to train one-

to subconscious attention to selected impres-

self

sions,

A

even

in sleep.

familiar illustration

is

the mother who, un-

disturbed by other sounds, awakens at the least cry of her infant. The same phenomenon is observable in the case of the conscientious medical nurse, who, >

p.

no matter how profound her

sleep,

vol. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,

416.

[227]

xi,

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL responds

to

instantly

And,

patient.

movement by her

any

in the course of conversation not

long ago, a physician said to me: "

As you know,

house

my

besides the cars, there carriage traffic on

the night.

on a car

line,

and,

much automobile and

street for a large part of

my

Nothing

is

is

of this breaks

my

rest.

I

sleep so soundly that a thunderstorm does not

arouse me. ring,

at

and

my I

I

Yet

am

let

the telephone bell begin to

out of bed and have the receiver

ear before the bell has ceased ringing."

have myself,

found

it

work

of

like

possible to

a good

make

an alarm clock.

many

other people,

the subconscious do the

That

is

to say,

if,

on

going to bed, I mentally determine to wake at a certain hour, I invariably do so,

and

this although

am

one of the deepest of sleepers. It matters not what hour I select, nor how late I retire the I

whom I have notifies me when

previous night, the mental sentinel

placed on guard punctually the appointed time arrives.

This goes to show, of course, that the subconscious

is,

to a certain extent, at any rate,

able to conscious control and direction.

[228]

amen-

That

THE SUBCONSCIOUS such control

is

highly desirable

is

evinced not

merely by the facts reviewed above, but

which we must next

— facts as

take

under consideration

of altogether different import.

we have

by others

seen, the subconscious

is

in

For

if,

many ways

a docile and helpful auxiliary of the upper consciousness, sibilities

it

also contains within itself dire pos-

of unhappiness, suffering,

even death.

[229]

disease,

and

CHAPTER

VII

DISSOCIATION AND DISEASE subconscious, I repeat, does not always

THE

exercise a helpful influence; there are times

when

us

may impose upon

it

indescribable

misery. It

is

able to do this

relations existing

At

this late

day

by

virtue of the intimate

between the mind and the body. it

scarcely necessary for

is

me

to undertake to demonstrate that the state of one's

mind has a great

What

of one's body.

and what

all

fact that

many

tressing

of us

mental

deal to do with the health is

not so generally known,

ought to know,

diseases are directly states,

and

and emotions

of

to say,

which the

sufferer

The same to

]

often

maladies the

which are almost v/holly 230 [

dis-

is

holds good even with regard of

due to

— that

consciously has no knowledge.

symptoms

the further

in such cases usually

to subconscious mental states

to thoughts

is

if

not

al-

AND DISEASE

DISSOCIATION

together physical, and the causes of which one

would naturally expect to

find physical, likewise.

Indeed, ignorance of the tremendous role played in the causation of disease,

by the subconscious

has in the past been responsible for shortcomings.

Nor

improved, although

is

the situation as yet

it is

known

as

group of

scientific

psychopathologists,

who have made

medical psychologists,

much

rapidly improving, thanks

chiefly to the labors of a little

investigators

medical

many

or

it

their

special business to ascertain the different

ways

in

which the subconscious

versely,

may

and to devise methods

affect health ad-

for coping with

mentally caused diseases.

These men are not

"

faith healers."

not making any war on medicine. fact,

themselves

physicians,

They

They

graduates

are

are, in

of

the

best medical schools, of excellent standing in their profession,

and seeking, above

crease the usefulness and science.

all

things, to in-

precision

of

medical

Already, though their labors were begun

only a few years ago, they have effected numer-

ous cures of a seemingly miraculous character;

but always they have effected them by

[231]

utilizing

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL natural laws which they have discovered

by the

rigorous processes of scientific experiment.

Of fundamental importance among these laws is

one known as the law of dissociation.

It

might

almost be called the law of forgotten memories, for to

a large extent

its

workings depend on the

interesting circumstance, to which attention has

previously been drawn, that ideas which have

faded from the conscious subconsciousness.

As

persist in the

memory

Pierre Janet,

the distin-

guished Frenchman and most eminent of living " Nothpsychopathologists, has tersely phrased it, ing that goes into the

human mind

is

ever really

lost."

No

matter

have shown

and

how

remote, past experiences, as I

in earher chapters,

can be recovered

mind by means

of crystal- vision,

recalled to

automatic writing, or other psychological methods " of tapping the subconscious." Obviously we

have here no absolute a splitting of

off,

or

loss of

memory, but merely

" dissociation,"

from the

field

waking consciousness.

Now,

while the memories thus dissociated and

lying hidden in the subconscious usually exercise

[232]

DISSOCIATION no appreciable of

character,

knowledge,

efifect

AND DISEASE

other than in the molding

the enlargement

etc.,

our store of

of

there are conditions under which,

in the case of persons predisposed

by circum-

stances of heredity or environment, they rise to all

A

manner

may

mental and physical

of

give

ills.

person, for instance, experiences a sudden

fright.

Time

passes, the fright

is

completely for-

gotten, or, at most, vaguely remembered.

But

one day unmistakable, and sometimes exceedingly peculiar,

victim,

or

"

it

symptoms

may

of

be, suffers

fixed idea," or

disease

appear.

The

from a strange obsession

from a general

"

nervous break-

down,'* or from an actual paralysis of

some bodily

organ, or from the development of abdominal or other enlargements

resembling true organic

growths.

Whatever the symptoms, the mechanism of the puzzling malady is always the same. There has been an abnormal dissociation.

The

ideas

connected with the original shock, although sub-

merged beneath the threshold in

a word, forgotten

of consciousness

— remain vividly alive

—

in the

subconscious, to act as perpetual irritants of the

[233]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL nervous system and in time to give

rise to

the

appearance of the symptoms of which the suferer complains. is

Often, indeed, the dissociation

instantaneous, and the appearance of the dis-

ease

symptoms equally

rapid.

In either case, the resultant malady psychical in

its origin,

psychical, not is

is

purely

and can be cured only by

by physical means. What

is

needed

to get at the dissociated mental states

forgotten,

disease-creating

memories

— the

— and

re-

them with the upper consciousness, or " root them out completely by means of suggesassociate

tions

"

This kind of

skillfully applied.

no

fanciful theory.

It

fact, repeatedly tested

and

is

is

the solidest

verified.

Time

and again, patients pronounced incurable by competent physicians have been taken in hand by the psychopathologists and,

once their disease

has been definitely traced to some dissociation,

have been restored to perfect health. For the matter

of that,

thing has been done to

of course,

the same

some extent by Christian

Science healers and other irregular practitioners " of mental medicine." But the difference be-

[234]

DISSOCIATION tween just

all

this

of these

— that

AND DISEASE

and the psychopathologists

the former apply

the healing

of suggestion to all sorts of diseases,

power

without any adequate understanding of

and

is

its

and laws

limitations, whereas the psychopathologists

recognize that

it is

only one of several valuable

medical methods, and that

it is

legitimately ap-

plicable only to certain maladies.

Experience has taught them, too, that even within

its

proper sphere of usefulness

it

often

is

of therapeutic value only after a searching scientific

examination of the patient's

subconscious-

ness has brought to light the particular dissociated

which have to be corrected before a cure

states

can be wrought. Nevertheless, the range of maladies susceptible

by psychopathological processes is marvelously wide, and it is no exaggeration to say

of cure

that

the

discovery

of

the

influence

exercised

by the subconscious in the causation of disease is one of the most vitally significant ever made in the history of medicine.

The citing a

truth of this

may

readily

be shown by

few cases illustrating some of the manifold

[235]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL ways

which dissociation works havoc in the

in

human

organism, and the extreme ingenuity dis-

played by the skilled psychopathologist in over-

coming its ravages. There was brought one day to the Parisian hospital of the Salpetriere, the world's greatest

center

of

woman

of forty, designated in the medical record

psychopathological

of her case

by the name

investigation,

of Justine.

a

She was

accompanied by her husband, who explained that he wished Doctor Janet to examine her because he feared that she had become insane. fact,

she presented

Her

maniac.

the

aspect

of

And,

in

a veritable

was flowing loosely over her shoulders, her eyes were fixed and glaring, her hands trembling, the muscles of her neck jet-black hair

and she constantly made the most When Doctor Janet gently grimaces.

twitching, horrible

sought to question her, she buried her face in her hands, and cried: *'

am "

Oh,

it is

so afraid

And

physician

of

terrible to live thus!

I

am

afraid, I

" !

what, pray, are you

asked. [

236

]

" afraid.^^

the

DISSOCIATION " *'

"

am

I

afraid of cholera."

Is that all

But

AND DISEASE

surely

you are it is

afraid of?

quite enough."

Doctor Janet turned

an explanation to her head despairingly, as

for

husband, who shook his

he replied "

This

is

in

"

an undertone:

the

way

she has been for years, doctor,

only lately she has grown

much

worse.

She

will

scarcely eat anything, for fear of catching cholera. It

is

stir

from the

is full

of cholera

sees cholera in everything.

Tell me,

difficult to

house.

germs. doctor,

persuade her to

She seems to think the

She is

my

separated, she

poor Justine

and

I.'*

Is

it

air

mad.'^

Must we be

that she will have to "

life in an asylum? Leave her here a few days," said Doctor " and I can tell you better then." Janet,

spend the rest of her "

Psychopathologists have invented some delicate tests for discriminating infallibly between

true organic insanity, which in the present state

knowledge is quite incurable, and funcmental troubles due to dissociation. Ap-

of medical tional

plying these, Doctor Janet soon reached the conclusion that Justine

was not [237]

really insane,

and

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL that her

"

phobia," ar irrational fear, was due to

some forgotten shock connected with the

disease

cholera.

But,

closely

though he questioned her, she

He

could recall nothing of the sort.

then decided

to try the effect of hypnotizing her, for, as

psychopathologists are aware, hypnotism, it is

possible to use

it, is

when

an unrivaled agency

for

Put

into the hypnotic

remember

incidents in their

recovering lost memories. state, patients easily

all

past of which they have no conscious recollection

when

in the normal,

with Justine,

waking

who proved

It

state.

to be

was thus

most hypnoti-

zable.

"

I

want you," Doctor Janet

told her, after she

had passed into deep hypnosis,

member whether

"

to try to re-

any time in your life you saw from cholera, or one who had

at

a person suffering

died from cholera." "

Why,

certainly I did," she promptly replied,

shuddering violently. " "

When was it.? " When I was a

little

old."

[238]

girl

—

fifteen

years

DISSOCIATION " " all

me

Tell

AND DISEASE

the circumstances."

mother was very poor. She had to take Sometimes she nursed sick sorts of work.

My

and when they died she got them ready burial. Once two people in our neighborhood

people, for

died from cholera, and I helped her with the corpses.

They made a

them, at

all

naked, and frightful! I shall

events.

it,

— one

was the body

of a

blue and green.

all

What

catch

It

frightful sight

I

if

Oh,

of

man,

frightful,

I should catch the cholera?

know

Nothing can save

I shall!

me!" Her voice

rose in a shriek of terror,

and Doctor

Janet hastened to de-hypnotize her.

The

situation

was now perfectly

Evidently the sight of the corpse, all

clear to him.

"

naked, and

blue and green," had so profoundly affected

the impressionable

girl as to

sociation

all

whereby

cause a severe dis-

memory

of

the shocking

episode had been blotted out of her consciousness,

only to be subconsciously remembered in most

minute

To

detail.

bring about a cure, to free her from the ob-

sessing

dread of cholera,

[239]

it

was necessary to

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL remove the gruesome subconscious memory image, and Doctor Janet essayed to do this through suggestions given to her

when she was again hypno-

tized.

"

You

no longer think

will

"

assuring her.

You

will

of this,"

forget

it,

he kept

absolutely,

permanently."

Day

he hypnotized her,

after day, for weeks,

and reiterated

similar

But she con-

commands.

tinued to be afflicted with her irrational fear,

and

it

finally

scious of

became

recollection

twenty-five

of

certain that her subcon-

the phobia-causing scene

years

before

rooted to be destroyed by

was

direct

too

deeply In-

attack.

abandoning the task as hopeDoctor Janet, with a shrewdness born of

stead, however, of less.

long experience,

made a

clever

in tac-

change

tics.

"

You "

tine,

insist,"

that

he said to the hypnotized Jus-

you cannot help seeing

mind's eye the corpse of the

Very

well, I

in

your

man who

died.

have no objection to that.

But

hereafter

you must

when

next appears to you, you will see

it

see

it

decently clothed.

[240]

So it

DISSOCIATION a

wearing

bright

AND DISEASE the

uniform,

blue-and-green

uniform of a foreign mihtary officer." " took," and Doctor Happily, this suggestion Janet followed up his advantage by suggesting

memory image which

that the subconscious

regarded as that of a corpse was, in the

image

a

of

successful, he

likewise being rid of the idea

demanded

What

only the

Ra.

'

this

is

cholera

Do you

name

and

suggestion

about getting

its

dire implica-

as

he

usual,

'

that troubles you

not understand that

of the fine

whom you

green, is

cholera,"

set

reality,

:

so much.f*

He

"

This

Hypnotizing the patient

tions.

"

living

man.

she

gentleman

a Chinese general, and his

Bear that well

in blue

marching up and

see

in

it

name

is

is

and

down.f*

Cho Le

mind."

Quite evidently there was nothing to inspire

dread in the image of a picturesque Chinese officer.

General Cho Le Ra.

Little

by

little,

as this artificial conception obtained firmer lodg-

ment

in Justine's subconsciousness, the baneful

idea which

it

was intended

away, and with

its

to supplant faded

fading the abnormal

[241]

fear

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL until

diminished,

at

length

peared, greatly to her joy

it

entirely

disap-

and the warm gratitude

of her devoted husband.^

Other

psychopathologists,

Doctor

following

Janet's lead, have similarly used this

method

of

substituting one subconscious idea for another.

Doctor John E. Donley, a well-known neurologist

of

Providence,

the few

Rhode

psychopathologists

Island,

whom

and one the

of

United

States has yet produced, was once consulted

by a

young man of thirty-two, who said to him: " Doctor Donley, I hear you have been very successful in handling people troubled with foolish

I'm bothered with as

notions.

foolish

notion as any one could possibly imagine.

a I

simply can't bear to ride in a street-car with an

odd number. trouble at

all,

Even-numbered but

if

hurry. it's

My

^

an odd-numbered car comes it

pass,

no laughing matter.

you on my nerves

me no

no matter how great friends laugh at me, but I tell

along, I've got to let

my

cars give

so that

it is

The

thing has got

unbearable."

This case and a number of other instances of forgotten

terrors giving rise to disease-symptonss are discussed in detail " in Doctor Janet's N^\Toses et Id6es Fixes."

[242]

DISSOCIATION "

How "

long have you been suffering in this

asked Doctor Donley,

way? "

For years. member." "

Is

it

instance?

No,

isn't

Just

it

began I can't

about

odd-numbered

re-

affect

for

houses,

"

no,"

answered

odd numbers

me

bother

when

odd-numbered cars that

only

How

you? "

AND DISEASE

a

bit.

in

"

the

it young man, That doesn't general.

It's just

when

they're painted

on street-cars." "

H'm,"

said

"

Doctor Donley.

a street-car accident? "

Ever been

in

"

Never."

"

Ever seen one?

"

"

Not

that I remember."

"

You

are quite sure as to that?

"

" Quite." "

Have you any

objection to

my

hypnotizing

youj'

"

Not

in the least,

if it is

likely to

do

me any

good."

In

another

solved.

ten

minutes

the

problem

Doctor Donley from the outset had [243]

was felt

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL confident that the young man's phobia

connected in some

and so

it

proved.

walking along the

way with

must be

a street-car accident,

Fourteen years

earlier,

when

he had seen a car strike

street,

and seriously injure a child who unexpectedly came from behind a wagon. He had noticed at the time that the car bore the

hundred and

thirteen,

The

thirteen."

and he remembered think-

"There

ing to himself:

number two

is

always bad luck

sight of the accident

a marked emotional shock, which, he

him

in

gave him said, upset

for several days.

All

of

waking

this

had long

memory,

was

but It

during hypnosis.

since

was

passed from his

distinctly

clear to

recalled

Doctor Donley

that the case was one of dissociation, and that

the exciting cause of the young man's unreasonable dread of odd-numbered cars was based on a painfully

vivid

subconscious

memory image

the consciously forgotten tragedy.

Also,

it

of

was

evident that before the dread could be overcome the distressing

memory image would have

to be

eradicated.

To

accomplish

this,

Doctor Donley resorted

[244]

AND DISEASE

DISSOCIATION to the

method

patient, while

of substitution, suggesting to the

under hypnotic influence, that

still

he was quite mistaken

had

street-car

was

it

supposing that the

injured the

seriously

that, on the contrary,

The

in

little

girl;

had scarcely touched

her.

after only eight days' treatment,

result,

to replace the painful

effectually

memory

image with one free from distressing associations.

As by magic,

No

phobia.

the young longer,

man shook

when he had

off his

absurd

to take a car,

did he stand on street corners, sometimes for an

hour at a time, waiting anxiously for a car with

an even number to appear.^ Bizarre as these cases actually

typical

causes an

by the

of sufi^ering only appreciable

sufferers themselves.

are thousands of

In every land there

men and women

obsessions equally strange ing, yet

are

a widespread malady that

of

amount

must seem, they

aflBicted

and equally

with

distress-

amenable to treatment by the methods

of psychopathology. ^

This case and several others similarly illustrative of the power of emotional disturbances are discussed

disease-creating

by Doctor Donley

in

"

Psychotherapeutics," a book of com-

posite authorsliip.

[245]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Often, in order to effect a cure,

sary to

make

tive is

use of the roundabout device just

— a strongly

Direct suggestion

described.

not neces-

it is

command imposed

in the

nega-

hypnotic state

—

frequently suflBcient. Often, besides,

tism at

all,

pathologist

not necessary to use hypno-

it is

a cure resulting

if

only the psycho-

can dig down to the root of the to conscious

trouble, and,

by

tion the lost

memory image,

recalling

recollec-

reassociate

it

with

the rest of the contents of the upper consciousness.

Particularly interesting in this connection, as

being illustrative also of an ingenious method of *' mind tunnelling " nowadays frequently em-

ployed to get at forgotten memories, reported

by Doctor A. A.

psychopathologist.

woman who nervousness. three

patient

a case

New York

was a young

applied to be treated for extreme

She had been perfectly well

months

begun to

His

a

Brill,

is

suffer

before,

when, she

said,

from a complication

including

insomnia,

headache,

irritability,

loss

of

she had

of disorders,

appetite,

constant

and stomach trouble. [246]

until

No

DISSOCIATION

AND DISEASE could be de-

physical cause for her condition tected,

and Doctor

suspected that

Brill

it

was

due to some secret anxiety, but the patient assured him that she

earnestly

"

had nothing

on her mind."

To

get at the facts which he suspected she

was consciously or unconsciously concealing from him, Doctor Brill decided to make use of what is

known

the

as

of mental

"

method

association-reaction

diagnosis,"

a cumbersome and

for-

midable term for a really simple process.

Everybody knows that

if

man

a

is

suddenly

asked a question bearing on matters which personally concern

him and which he

keep entirely to himself, he to the question in a

true state of

it

may

uncommon to

all

blush or stammer

all.

If

he

is

may find a man of

self-control, and not to be taken

off

may come smoothly

enough,

appearance without hesitation.

Never-

his guard, the reply

and

react

apt to

reply evasively,

impossible to reply at

anxious to " "

that will betray the

He may

affairs.

before replying,

way

is

is

theless, experiment has shown that, even in such

cases,

there

is

an appreciable difference [247]

in

the

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL time,

if

makes

not in the character, of the repHes he to

emotion-arousing questions, as com-

pared with the time questions

him.

it

takes

him

that have no special

The same

penings that

to

— albeit permemories — of hap-

him memories

subconscious

may

significance

holds good in the case of ques-

tions evoking within

haps wholly

to reply to

be no longer, but once were, of

keen emotional import to him.

Out

of the discovery of this fact the association-

reaction

using

it

method has been evolved.

The

reads slowly to his patient a

specialist

list

of one

hundred words or more, and requests him, as he hears each, to respond with the first word that

comes into

stimulus words is

mind.

his is

Seemingly

the

chosen at random; actually

so constructed that

some

of the

words are

to stir into activity the subconscious of

which the physician

this the fact will

list

is

in search.

of it

likely

memories

If

they do

be disclosed in the time of his

reaction-words — the words he utters reply — as measured by a chronoscope or stop-watch; in

or

in

their

character,

as

specialist.

[248]

noted down by the

DISSOCIATION Of course,

it is

AND DISEASE

necessary for the physician to likely to have,

emotional

significance to the particular patient;

and as a

select

words having, or

guide in the selection, strange though it may seem, nothing is more useful than the patient's

dreams.

For

it

has been definitely established

that dreams are far from being the haphazard

products of imagination they are generally supposed to be; that on the contrary, no matter

how

trivial or nonsensical

they seem, they always have an emotional foundation corresponding with

some present or past they mask matters of

reality;

and that usually

distinct significance to the

dreamer.

As a preliminary, his nervous patient.

then, in the

treatment of

Doctor

asked her to

Brill

write out her dreams and bring them to him. " " I never dream, except But," she said,

when

my

I

am

troubled by indigestion, and then

dreams are so absurd that they are not worth

telling."

"

Never mind," was

his

" reply.

Whenever

you do happen to have a dream, report me." [249]

it

to

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL Laughingly she promised to comply, and one

day brought him the following: " I dreamed that I was in a lonely country place and was anxious to reach my home, but could

Every time

not get there.

was a wall full

in the

My

of walls.

—

it

made

or very old.

a

move

there

looked like a street

were as heavy as lead;

legs

walk very slowly as

I could only

weak

way

I

Then

if

I

were very

there was a flock of

chickens, but that seemed to be in a crowded city street,

and they

and the biggest

— the

chickens

— ran

after '

of all said

something

like:

me,

Come

"

with me into the dark.' " " that There," she said, if

you can make head or

I can. tell

It

is

my

dream, and

tail of it, it is

so ridiculous that I

more than

am ashamed

to

it."

But Doctor

was already at work drawing with the more striking words of

Brill

up a test list, the dream sprinkled through the

is

list

it.

Twice he read

to her, noting not only the time of her

responses, but also their character.

He was that

immediately impressed by the fact such as certain of the dream words

—

[250]

DISSOCIATION "

" chicken,"

street,"

AND DISEASE "

and

had caused

words that would not

also given in her responses

be associated

"

and that she had

a noticeable time variation;

ordinarily

dark

with

the

words.

test

"

mysEspecially peculiar was the association of " " " " dark." and with the word tery marriage

The

mind that a

suspicion formed in his

disap-

might be at the bottom of all her disease symptoms. But he did not at once pointment

in love

give voice to this idea;

instead, he

obtain corroboration from her

own

sought to

lips

without

her appreciating his purpose, by means of an" " known as other method of mind tunnelling the method of free association. " " I want you," he said to her, to concentrate

your attention on the word the thoughts that

with

come

to

chicken,'

you

in

and

state

connection

it."

Her

reply, given after a

few moments of

meditation, was: " I

'

remember now that

biggest chicken;

all

silent

I could see only the

the others seemed blurred;

was unusually big and had a very long neck and it spoke to me. The street in which I saw it

it

[251]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL

—

the block where I used to go to school was always crowded with school children."

recalls

She paused, and began to blush and laugh. " Go on," said Doctor Brill encouragingly. "

What *'

next?

"

happy school days when I was young and had no worries. I even had a beau, a boy who attended the same school.

Why,

We

it

recalls the

used to meet after school hours and walk

home girls

together.

used to

He was tease me

lanky and thin, and the

they saw him coming, they said

comes your chicken.'

among

Whenever

about him.

That was

' :

his

Belle, here

nickname

the boys."

Stopping suddenly, she exclaimed: " Doctor Brill, it couldn't be possible that the chicken with the long neck, that I saw in my " dream, was my old beau! " It begins to look very much like it," he " " smiled. Have you seen him lately? "

"

Not

for

And

before then?

Little

by

months."

little

They had kept up

"

the

whole story came out.

their acquaintance after the [

252

]

AND DISEASE

DISSOCIATION

school days were long gone.

Three times he had

asked her to marry him, but each time she had " " liked him she refused, because although she " " him. At loved was not at all sure that she

had decided that the next time he proposed she would accept. But he had not proposed again. And shortly before she became ill last she

she had heard that he was paying attentions to

another young lady. " I take it," interposed Doctor is

not so well

off as

" Brill,

that he

he might be, and that this had

something to do with your refusing to marry him." "

What makes you

"

say

that-f*

"

'

In your dream I note that you state: Every time I made a move there was a wall in the way; it

looked like a street walls

full of

might easily

hence money. has

it

not?

full

signify

of

A

street

Wall Street

That has been the

—

real obstacle,

"

She confessed that he was

He

of walls.'

right.

then explained that the one great cause

her

ills

was her

insistent,

if

subconscious,

brooding over the disappointment she had ex-

[253]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL and that her cure depended upon her abihty to overcome this mental attitude. Realizing for the first time, as a result of the dream

perienced,

analysis, that she

was

really in love with the

man

she had three times declined to wed, she soon

Only a hint was needed to transform him into a suitor once more, and solved the problem.

within a very few months they

were happily

married.^

Sometimes

direct

questioning

is

sufficient

to

enable the physician to get at the underlying

mental cause of trouble.

Take, for example, an-

other case successfully treated by Doctor Donley.

The

woman

patient was a

of thirty-five

who

was troubled by a constant and involuntary hacking, which sounded as though she were trying to clear her throat. tions,

and

electricity

Drugs, local applica-

had been

tried at intervals

during more than four years, but to no purpose.

On

set in

about

who was a ^

it

inquiry,

Doctor

was found that the trouble had

five years before,

mill

Brill

recently published

when the

patient,

hand, had suffered from a sore

has reported and discussed this case in his " Psychanalysis," pp. 48-54. [

254

]

AND DISEASE

DISSOCIATION The

throat.

physician

she then consulted

had a bad case

told her that she

and that her

whom

tonsils

of tonsilitis,

would have to be burned

out.

Greatly frightened, she had hurried home, refusing to submit to the operation.

In a few days

the tonsilar symptoms disappeared, and she re-

turned to work.

But she was attacked a second

time three weeks

later,

tor, to

and

visited another doc-

be informed that her tonsils were so badly

diseased that

moved by

it

would be well to have them

re-

cutting.

Again she refused to submit to an operation, but the fear of cutting, added to her previous fear,

now

revived,

of

burning out her

threw her into a highly nervous

began

to

experience

an

state.

unpleasant

tickling feeling in her throat,

tonsils,

She then stinging,

which she tried to

remove by hacking. As the tickling continued, the hacking became more and more frequent, and by the time she came under Doctor Donley's observation had taken on the character of a "

tic," or uncontrollable

These

muscular movement.

facts in the early history of the case,

[255]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL remembered only vaguely. But she confessed that she was still tormented the patient herself

by a haunting

fear of a possible future burning

Finding her exceed-

or cutting of her tonsils. ingly suggestible. Doctor

tempt to hypnotize

Donley made no

He

her.

at-

merely requested

her to close her eyes, remain perfectly passive,

and "

listen attentively to

She was then in

says,

with

told,

describing

him.

the

much emphasis," he

treatment,

"

that

her

were perfectly healthy, that no cutting or burning ever was or ever would be required; tonsils

that the tickling sensation in her throat arose

from the constant part;

fixation of attention

that she would feel no

more

upon

desire to

this

hack

because her supposed reason for hacking had ceased to exist, and finally, that

open her eyes she would in a good many years. "

Much

of health,

on the itself

when she should

feel better

than she had

emphasis was placed upon this feeling because

was desired to leave her

it

crest of a pleasurable emotion,

which of

has a very great suggestive value.

had been predicted

in

What

her regard actually oc-

[256]

AND DISEASE

DISSOCIATION curred.

When

she sat up, her tic had disappeared,

and she expressed herself as feehng quite grateful and happy. The treatment lasted an hour, and except for two slight recurrences easily removed this patient

by waking suggestion, further difficulty."

has had no

^

Unfortunately, such an easy solution of prob-

lems like this

when, as

is

comparatively rare, particularly

in this instance, a physical trouble is

— a fact which too strongly — happens Often

superadded to the mental. cannot be emphasized

it

that, in dissociational cases, physical

symptoms

so far predominate as to lead to totally diagnosis, even results,

as

by experienced

wrong

physicians.

This

was hinted above, from the power

inherent in subconscious

"

fixed ideas

"

of pro-

ducing an endless variety of disturbances simulating true organic diseases,

it

may

be diseases

remediable only through surgical operations.

As a consequence, innumerable operations have been performed on patients who should have been given, not surgical but psychopathological treat-

ment.

I

have

^Quoted from

"

in

mind

as I write a case of this

Psychotherapeutics:

[257]

A

Symposium,"

p. 152.

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL kind that was called to

who

my

attention

by a

friend

participated in the lamentable affair.

A

middle-aged

woman

entered

one

of

the

Boston hospitals and complained of severe abdominal pains, which she attributed to cancer of the

stomach or

She was obviously

intestines.

greatly frightened, and suffering intense agony.

A

diagnosis of appendicitis was made,

and an

immediate operation deemed imperative. But, to the surprise of the surgeons, the ap-

pendix was found to be in a normal condition.

At once they

directed

their

attention

to

the

abdominal organs, examining them one by one. None showed any sign of disease. Finally, with a rueful smile, one of the surgeons

other

straightened up, and, touching a finger to his

head, said: " The trouble with this poor woman, gentle-

men,

is

here, not in the region that

exploring.

We

we have been

But we should not undeceive

her.

remove the appendix, on general prinand that will probably be all that is needed

will

ciples,

to cure the trouble in her head."

Under the circumstances, [258]

it

was excellent ad-

DISSOCIATION But how much

vice.

for the unfortunate

AND DISEASE

better

would have been

it

Hfe

was thus

if it

had been

woman, whose

endangered by the surgeon's knife,

recognized from the beginning that her malady " " was only a hysterical simulation of the symp-

toms

Some

of appendicitis.

day,

when physicians

make themselves acquainted with

generally

the

diagnostic methods of psychopathology, blunders like this will be, as

they ought to be, most ex-

ceptional.

In

both

point

of

diagnosis

psychopathological

again,

and treatment,

knowledge

is

indis-

pensable to the correct handling of such cases ^ as the following, reported by Doctor Janet. It

is,

but

am

I

it is

ready to concede, an unusual case, unusual only because it presents a com-

symptoms commonly found

plex of

singly or in

simpler combination. It

would be impossible to estimate with any

accuracy the number of persons who, only

in

scant

afflicted

degree like this poor Marcelle,

have been obliged to drag out an existence worse than death, either 1

In

"

in the care of their friends

Nevroses et Idees Fixes,"

[259]

vol.

i,

pp. 1-68.

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL or

immured

in

an

institution,

simply because

their medical attendants, ignorant of the

ings of the law of dissociation,

work-

have been unable

to fathom the true nature of their

ills

and adopt

adequate curative measures. Marcelle, as Doctor Janet calls her, was only

when she began to astonish by developing what they were at

nineteen years old

her relatives first

disposed to regard as nothing but an eccen-

tric

form

them work,

She would constantly ask

of laziness.

to give her objects

—a

book, her crochet

a plate — which she could

easily

have got

by stretching out her hand and picking them up. To all expostulations, she would

for herself

calmly reply "

:

I can't help

I can't use

it.

once did, and that's "

You

You can

all

there

can't use your hands!

use

them

"

hands as

I

to it."

What

nonsense!

to eat with, well enough,

you are crocheting most "

is

my

and

of the time."

Oh, but that's different."

What's the difference?

But Marcelle could

not, or

Tell us."

would not,

tell

them,

and from joking with her the family soon passed [260]

DISSOCIATION

AND DISEASE

to a state of wrath, endeavoring in every

"

overcome her in turn

fear,

to

Their anger

stupid obstinacy.'*

gave way to

way

when, one night, noticing

a glimmer of hght in her room, they entered, and

found her standing, "

But what "

ment.

is this!

Why

and go to bed?

all

"

they exclaimed, in amaze-

don't you get your clothes off "

"Because," she

And,

fully dressed, before the bed.

cried,

"I

can't undress!"

arguments proving vain,

it

sary for her sister to disrobe her as

were a tiny held,

and

was necesthough she

Next day a consultation was was decided to take her to the Sal-

child.

it

petriere.

"

She doesn't seem insane," her mother ex-

plained,

when applying

to

have her admitted.

"

She talks sensibly about most things. Can it be that she is really suffering from some kind of paralysis?

"

Most

"

assuredly," was the reply,

do our best to discover what

it is

"

and we

will

and cure

it."

This turned out to be no easy matter.

Doctor

Janet, into whose care she came, had no culty

in

diffi-

determining that the specific malady

[261]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL which afflicted her was an extreme form of " abouHa," a disease involving temporary paralysis of the will, and thereby preventing all mus-

movement. But

cular

diagnosis,

it

was one thing to make a

and another to

effect

a cure.

Presently, too, indications of mental disturb-

Doctor Janet had discovered

ance developed.

that by distracting her attention he could induce

her to

rise,

extend her hands, and perform other

acts that were impossible to her

when she con-

centrated her attention on them.

utilized

argument to try and persuade her

as an

this

He

that she could always control her limbs

only "

made

fonned him. not put out

Most

well I

work. "

she

sufficient effort.

But you

"

if

are quite wrong," she calmly in" I

my

have not

left

chair, I

have

You know

very

my

hand."

assuredly you have.

did not give you that piece of crochet " How, then, does it come into your hands?

I did not pick it up."

" "

A

Who

did, then?

Somebody little later

else

"

— somebody

acting in me."

arose another complication. [

262

]

She

DISSOCIATION

became necessary to adher forcibly. She kept saying

refused to eat, and

minister food to

AND DISEASE

it

to herself: *'

You must die, you must die as soon as possible. You must not eat, you have no need of eatYou must not speak, you have no voice, ing. you are paralyzed." " Why do you say

this?

"

Doctor Janet one

day asked her. " " Why do I say what?

He *'

" "

repeated her words.

But

I

have said nothing

Oh, yes, you have." it was not No, no, no

—

else acting in

of the sort."

I;

it

was somebody

me."

—"

somebody else acting Again that phrase in me." Greatly impressed, Doctor Janet threw her into deep hypnosis.

Now, an unexpected

and most pathetic passage

came

to light.

a secret love

A

of

personal history

year before, Marcelle had had

affair,

her lover had deserted her,

she had determined to commit suicide. to do this, she had, none the less

by the shock

of the desertion,

[263]

Failing

— overwhelmed

and giving

herself

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL wholly to grief and chagrin, which she

felt

— gradually perceive

to allow no one to

obliged

passed

into a dissociated, dreamlike state, in which she

subconsciously pictured herself to herself either as no longer existing or as about to perish.

Hence her else acting in

To Doctor

"

aboulia," hence the

me," hence the

somebody

refusal to take food.

Janet the situation was

as clear as the light

"

of day —

now almost was the

so, likewise,

course which he would need to follow to restore " the sufferer to her real self," and rid her of all disease

The

symptoms. dissociation, to

put

it briefly,

had

in this

case been so complete as to cause an actual dis-

ruption of the sense of personality. Nor is this " " as rare as one loss of personality malady of

might be tempted to think.

I

could mention

many

cases not unlike that of Marcelle's,

some

far

ments. of

BCA.

it

surpassing

There

But

fascinating,

is,

in

astounding develop-

for example, the singular case

this

so remarkable, so weirdly

is

and so instructive that

to be treated, as I shall treat ter, entirely

by

and

itself.

[264]

it

it

deserves

in the next chap-

CHAPTER

VIII

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA his long career as a specialist in the

DURING treatment of

nervous and mental diseases.

Doctor Morton Prince, the celebrated Boston psychopathologist, has been called upon to deal

with

many

puzzling

human

riddles,

and

to solve

mysteries which, in their way, have been quite as

complicated and baffling as any that ever

taxed the ingenuity of that most ingenious of story-book

In

fact,

New

detectives,

some

England

of the

Mr.

Sherlock

Holmes.

problems laid before the

specialist surpass

even the most

astonishing of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes,

thus proving once more that truth

than

fiction.

BCA

affair.

is

stranger

This particularly applies to the

In the beginning, however, there was nothing in the

that

it

BCA

affair to suggest to

Doctor Prince

had features which would [265]

test

to

the

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL utmost

his psychopathological skill.

It

opened

a prosaic, matter-of-fact way, with the ar-

in

a young

rival at his office of

woman who

what she described

to be treated for

The

ous breakdown."

as a

wished "

nerv-

story she told was a sad

had heard many quite like it before, did not impress him as involving anything

one, but he

and

it

out of the ordinary. "

My

she

trouble,"

in

said,

describing

the

"

began when my malady, husband was attacked with an incurable disease. evolution

her

of

was altogether given up him, striving to make him as com-

For four years to caring for

my

life

and endeavoring to conceal

fortable as possible,

from him

my

grief

and anxiety.

the strain put upon

me

all

You can imagine

that time.

Finally

he died, under circumstances that caused

me

a

great shock.

"

Within

less

than a week after his death, I

For nearly three months I ate scarcely anything, and did not lost

twenty pounds

in weight.

average more than three or four hours' sleep out of

the

twenty-four.

whelmed;

felt

I

was

that I had lost

[266]

depressed, all

that

over-

made

life

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA worth

and, in short, wished to die.

living;

became highly nervous,

tired easily,

almost constantly from headaches. " This went on for many months.

came a period

me

in life

Then

temporary recovery.

there

Strangely

followed an occurrence that brought

it

enough, to

of

I

and suffered

suddenly a realization that

was

my

position

entirely changed, that I was quite

alone, desolate,

and

helpless.

these ideas flashed through

For a few minutes

my

mind, and then

seemed changed. I no longer minded what, a moment before, had caused me so much distress; all

and, what

is

more, I immediately began to im-

prove in health, until I was able to mingle with

my

friends,

take long walks, go driving,

had formerly done. there soon was a relapse, and now I am really enjoy life as I

and Alas,

feeling

worse than ever." Listening to her recital, and examining carefully her

Prince

mental and physical condition. Doctor

felt

justified

in

assuring her that there

was nothing seriously the matter, and that he would ere long have her on the highway to health. In

fact,

he regarded her case as one presenting

[267]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL "

the ordinary picture of so-called neurasthenia,

characterized

by

and the usual

persistent fatigue

somatic symptoms, and by moral doubts and scruples"; and planned a course of treatment

which he expected would speedily result in a cure. It was, to describe it briefly, treatment by hypnotic suggestion

by

— a method

often

employed

psychopathologists in handling cases of neu-

rasthenia,

for

they have discovered that

perfectly feasible to

" suggest

insomnia, and other this

away

"

it

is

the fatigue,

symptoms connected with

widespread and distressing malady.

The

use of hypnotism in the present instance,

was attended by consequences vastly from any Doctor Prince had anticipated,

though, different

since

it

revealed to

reality, suffering

him that

his patient was, in

from something

serious

than

ordinary

finitely

more

diflficult

infinitely

and

neurasthenia, to

the hypnotic state, her

overcome.

ills,

more

Put

in-

into

to Doctor Prince's

amazement, disappeared as though by a miracle. Her whole expression was altered. She looked,

and declared that she hard

to

believe

felt,

that

entirely well.

this

[268]

radiant,

It

was

vigorous,

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA brightly smiling

woman was

the one

who had

entered his office so short a time before, a typical

nervous wreck, her features haggard and careworn, her eyes dull and heavy, her hands trem-

And, most astonishing of

bling.

all,

the hypno-

tized patient herself insisted that, in a very literal

was not the same person.

sense, she

The

tone,

the

were changed.

language,

manner

the

—

all

Struck with sudden apprehension,

Doctor Prince quickly brought her out of hypnosis. Immediately there was another transformation,

and she was neurasthenic once more, with-

out the slightest remnant of the strength, independence,

and

self-assertiveness

she

had

just

been displaying. Nor, although she was sharply questioned, could she remember anything she

had

while

said

nothing, for

hypnosis

is

it is

hypnotized;

still,

this

proved

seldom that what goes on during

recalled in the

waking

state.

But, comparing her latest declarations with her prior account of the course her malady had run, Doctor Prince could not help asking himself

whether she might not actually be a victim of

what

" is

technically designated

[269]

total

dissocia-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL tion of personality," tional shock of

whether the second emo-

which she had spoken, acting

on a system already disorganized by the severe and prolonged strain imposed upon her by her husband's illness, might not have resulted in a psychical upheaval so catastrophic as to involve " the disintegration of her ego, or self," and the creation of a secondary self markedly differing

from her

original personality.

In such an event, the period of temporary

re-

covery would, indeed, represent a period when the secondary

self

had obtained at

least partial

and

control of the patient's organism;

quite conceivable that there might

it

was

come a time

when, momentarily, at any rate, the secondary self would become wholly dominant. In that

young woman's plight would be appallshe would be in ignorance of all she said

case, the ing, for

and did while precisely

in the secondary state.

This was

what occurred.

Only a few days after she had first she came into Doctor Prince's office

visited him, in a greatly

excited condition. " " the strangest, the most Doctor," she cried,

[270]

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA happened to me! This breakfast, I went up-stairs, in-

inexplicable thing has

morning, after tending to

down

lie

for

I think I

exhausted.

a time, as I

felt so

asleep, but

fell

am

utterly

not sure.

do know, though, that two hours afterward I found myself standing in the post-office, about I

you a

to mail to

letter

which

not write, but which writing.

It

is

is

such a queer

me

certain I did in

my

hand-

letter,

too,

for

plainly

speaks of matters of which I

even

am

I

know

nothing, and

though I were somebody and somebody else were I. What does refers to

mean.?

And,

What in a

as

does

day or

mean.?

it

so,

it

else,

this

"

she had an even stranger

story to relate.

"

Yesterday afternoon," she

" said,

a walk, not because I wanted

you had

told

me

to,

I

went

for

but because

that I ought to take some exercise.

I returned

home about

straight to

my

room.

four o'clock, and went I

remember nothing

of

what then happened until, in the evening, I suddenly became aware that I was at a gay dinner party, drinking wine to

my

— and, principles

— which

what was

[271]

is

contrary

far

worse,

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL smoking a

Never

cigarette.

in

my

had I

life

done such a thing, and my humiHation at the discovery was deep and keen. "

I assure you,

on

my

honor, that I have not

the least recollection of accepting an invitation to dine out, of dressing for dinner, or of leaving

the house to attend the party.

blank to

room,

me

Everything

from the moment

in the afternoon, until I

went to

I

came

to

my

is

a

my

senses,

several hours afterward, to find a lively group

about me, a wineglass at

smoked Prince,

The

cigarette in

am

I

my

my

plate,

fingers.

and a

half-

Tell me. Doctor

"

going

insane.'^

physician hastened to reassure her, but

nevertheless he felt seriously alarmed.

It

was

evident that she was in a thoroughly dissociated

and that she had become, so to speak,

condition,

a battleground on which was to be fought out the weirdest and most uncanny of conflicts

—

a duel between two separate selves for absolute

supremacy Further,

would

lie

in the use of the organs of her it

body.

soon developed that the advantage

with the secondary

Prince called her

B

self

self

— which Doctor

— because,

[272]

although her

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA ordinary, or loss of

the

B

A

suffered

self,

from amnesia, or

memory, regarding her actions when in state, the B self had a memory extending

The mental agony growing out

over both states.

of this recurring forgetfulness on A's part

As the patient

readily be imagined. since expressed

in

it,

an autobiographical account

written at Doctor Prince's request: "

The amnesia made

life

very

except for the help

you gave me, have been impossible, and that gone truly mad. clear idea of

How

what

were, and not to

^

difficult;

think

I

indeed,

it

would

I should

have

can I describe or give any to

it is

know

time of the day, or

may

herself has

wake suddenly,

as

it

the day of the week, the

why one

is

in a given position?

would come to myself as A, perhaps on the street, with no idea of where I had been, or I

where alone,

was going; fortunate if I found myself for if I was carrying on a conversation I I

knew nothing

of

what

it

had been; fortunate,

^

in-

This autobiographical account was first published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Afterwards it was brought out in book form by Richard G. Badger, the Boston pubUsher, under the title, " My Life as a Dissociated Personality," and with an introduction by Doctor Prince. It is an account well

worth reading by aU students [

of psychology.

273

]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL deed, in that case,

thing I had said, all

I did not contradict

if

for, as

B,

my

some-

attitude toward

things was quite the opposite of that taken

by A." Picture to yourself, feel

for a

if,

my

reader,

how you would

few hours almost every day, and

sometimes for whole days at a stretch, you be-

came

nonexistent,

virtually

yet were

made

to

realize, from what your- friends told you, that a something or a somebody had taken possession

and was veritably acting

of your organism,

your place, and natural

self.

Doctor

in

a

way

utterly unlike your

This was the state of

Prince's

luckless

in

affairs

In

patient.

with

moods,

habits of thought,

and

controlling ideas, her secondary personality

was

tastes,

points

of view,

the very reverse of that which had been dominant

when she

first

sought medical advice.

There even were pronounced physical differences. Whenever she was in the A state, she

was extremely neurasthenic, being

by

one,

functional rasthenia,

now by

another,

disturbances

of

that

the

afflicted

now

multifarious

accompany

and being exhausted by the [274]

neu-

slightest

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA

A

effort.

walk of a few hundred yards would be

almost enough to prostrate her.

B

In the

know

state,

on the contrary, she did not

the meaning of the word

seemingly

of

incapable

would walk

"

pain," and was

She

fatigue.

feeling

for miles without experiencing the

was constantly on the go, and appeared to be in every way an exceptionally slightest distress,

robust, healthy

was — as B — a

Thus, physically, she

decided improvement over her-

But with

A.

self as

woman.

respect to psychical differ-

was altogether another matter. In the A state, she was kind, considerate

ences

it

others, self-sacrificing, of,

and devotion

any

tale of

scientious —

to,

of

animated by a keen sense

duty; profoundly stirred by

sorrow or suffering, and most conanything, overconscientious, being

if

tortured at times in an extraordinary degree by

moral doubts. thoughtless,

void of

"As

and

human

herself has

put

B, I felt

ure, using the

B

In the cold;

state, she

was

selfish,

one might almost say de-

feeling.

Here

is

the

way

she

it:

no emotion, except that

of pleas-

word pleasure as meaning a [275]

'

good

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL time ing,

'

—

boating, etc.;

things

walk-

social gayety, driving, motoring,

but

was very keen.

my

enjoyment of these As B, I was always the

gayest of the company, but for people I cared

The

nothing.

little

acts of affection which

perform in daily home

The

we

all

I never thought of.

life

habit of shaking hands with one's friends,

and

or embracing those nearer

kissing

dearer,

had no meaning to me. Ordinarily, I think, when one shakes hands with a friend, one feels the individuality of the person, more or the clasp of hands it

meant no more

of wood,

and the

or kissing were to

me

which

I

means something;

me

to

less,

and

but, as B,

than clasping a piece

acts of shaking hands, embracing, all

alike

—

it

made no

difference

did — one meant just as much as

This lack of feeling applied only to

the other.

the trees,

people, for I loved the outside world;

the water, the sky, and the wind seemed to be

a very part of myself.

which as

A

I

But the emotions by

was torn to shreds, as

B

I did not

feel at all."

In

still

further contrast, this most remarkable

young woman, when

in the [

276

]

B

state,

was giddy,

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA irresponsible,

she

and

A

In the

frivolous.

was most serious-minded and

state,

intellectual,

being fond of reading such excellent literature as the works of Shakespeare, Hugo, Ibsen, Tolstoi,

and Maeterlinck. and cared only she read at

All this,

B

found very tiresome,

for the lightest kind of fiction,

when

all.

In matters of dress and social pleasures,

and

B

A

were also diametrically opposed.

A be-

wear black; B, who seems

lieved that she ought to

never to have given a thought to the dead husband, detested black, and, on the other hand, had

a really abnormal liking for white.

So

that, as

the two selves alternated in control, the strange spectacle

was presented

one moment arrayed

in

of the

same woman

at

deep mourning, at an-

other dressed in some light, bright gown.

To in

cap the climax,

B

tormenting her other

made engagements

took a malicious pleasure self in

many

she

knew

wliich

ways.

She

that, as A,

she would not like to keep; she cultivated friendships with people with desire to associate;

whom,

as A, she

had

little

she was wastefully extrava-

gant, freely spending on useless articles [

277

]

money

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL which, as A, she had been carefully hoarding against a rainy day; she indulged in innumerable petty, but annoying, practical jokes at A's ex-

pense.

A

For example:

morning to

find

would often wake

in

the

on her pillow or dressing-table

" cheer up," to notes advising her jeeringly to " " bother Doctor weep no more," and not to Prince so much."

These notes she

herself

had

written during the night, having changed to the

B

awakened as B,

state while she slept,

and penned the

risen,

notes, and then returned to bed,

to fall asleep once more, and, in the morning,

awake

as A, with no

done since

The

memory

of

what she had

retiring.

flood of notes continuing, she

began to destroy them unread, hoping that this would discourage B's malicious activity.

matters worse, for

B now

began to

It only aflSx

the notes

to the center of her mirror, pasting above inscriptions

made them

warning her to be sure to read them,

—

as they and declaring that they contained sometimes did information of importance to

—

her. [

278

]

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA But the best

idea of the topsyturvy, kaleido-

scopic, almost incredible life led

with a double existence

woman

this

by

be given by quoting

may

a few extracts from a diary kept jointly by the

Doctor Prince's suggestion. Unique as a record of human experiences, it had

two

personalities, at

a distinctly practical value, for to keep track of

was

in control.

from

A

what she had been doing while B B, of course, had no need of it

for this purpose, since, as suffer

enabled

it

loss of

memory,

was

said, she did

like

A.

The

not

extracts

quoted are not always in chronological order; but, for the present purpose, that

is

unimpor-

tant:

"

I

am

here again to-night, B, I am.

well tell all I thing, I

had a

of being a

care

how

have done, facial

mass

I

I

know

is

A

no need doesn't

The Q's spent the smoked a cigarette. Now, A,

Doctor Prince; you don't have him everything you do it, though. I

must have a "

— there

as

she looks, but I do.

don't go and tell

massage

may

For one

I suppose.

of wrinkles.

evening here, and I

to

I

tell

—

little

fun."

have struggled through another day. [279]

B

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL am

I

explain?

How

it?

How

so humiliated, so ashamed.

Why-

has told what she did.

can I bear

should I do things which so mortify

Quite '

It

fun.'

"

A

all

ill

day.

is

day

pride?

— one of the worst for a long

I cannot live this I

expected.

my

am, as usual, paying for B's

not to be borne."

terrible

time.

I

am

way;

so confused.

not to be

it

is

I

have

lost

so

much time now that I can't seem to catch up. What is the end to be? What will become of me: "

A

was used up, and had to stay in bed all the morning, but I came about one o'clock,

X asked me to motor down

and Mrst

Had

to Z.

and got home at seven, nearly famished, for A had eaten nothing all day she lives on coffee and somnos nice coma gorgeous

ride,

—

—

bination

— steak

!

and French

fried

for

mine,

please."

"Good has been

gracious!

ill

all

How we

fly

around!

A

the day, could not sleep last night.

hope he [Doctor Prince] won't send for us, for he will put a quietus on me, and, as things are

I

now, I

am

gaining on A.

Had

[280]

a gay evening

—

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA no discussions

of religion or psychology,

and

secting of hearts

souls while I

am

no

dis-

in

the

flesh."

"

wonder

I

It

all?

frightens

if

A

seems

is

like

me some

ance wheel.

really

dead

—

for

good and

The thought

it.

way, as

She wants to

if

had

I

die,

lost

not bear to hear

A

my

bal-

she really does, I wish I

for she thinks it to herself all the time.

were myself alone, and neither

rather

A

nor B; I can-

groan, she cannot bear

my

glee."

"

Such a day A got away from me for a little while, and tried to write a letter to Doctor Prince. !

It

was a funny-looking *

her:

You cannot

letter, for I

write,

kept saying to

you cannot move your

hand,' but she had enough will power to write

some, and direct

The

it.

effort

used her up,

however, and I came, and the letter was not mailed." " I

am

too

much

bewildered to write.

succeeded in writing Doctor Prince. only mail

it!

Oh, but

I

am

tired!

If

have

I I

can

Such an awful

" struggle!

"

Another queer thing happened to-day. [281]

I

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL have not been to the cemetery for a long time, so started to go there. I had gone only a little

way when I began to I do not mean that I could not easily

was

It

me, or

as

if

like

feel

did not wish to, but that I

move my

was

I

force

was restraining

walking against a heavy wind.

held — could

not

I set

impossible to go.

it

move my

my

will,

feet

one inch

and said to my-

'I will go, I can go, and I will!'

could not do

it.

exhausted — and

I

began to

I

reached the en-

finally

but farther I found

in that direction.

seK:

feet in that direction.

some physical

kept on, however, and trance;

that I could not go on.

feel

turned back.

very

But

I

tired —

As soon

as

I

turned away, I had no trouble in walking, but I

was very tired." These last paragraphs

refer to a

phase of the

case which was, from the standpoint both of the

patient and Doctor Prince, one of

its

most

serious

and mysterious features. Although B, try as she and she undoubtedly tried hard enough might could not permanently oust the A self, and

—

—

had

to be content with manifesting as an alter-

nating personality,

it

was none the [282]

less .the fact

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA

to

A

was uppermost, B was able from some subconscious region, a

even when

that,

exercise,

amount

certain

A

often impelling

of influence,

to do things contrary to her inclinations.

The consequence was

that

A

suffered fearfully

from what seemed to be aboulia, or paralysis will,

somewhat

Doctor

Pierre

that experienced by

similar to

Janet's

patient,

scribed in the preceding chapter.

episode was only one of

of

many

Marcelle,

de-

The cemetery

incidents, when,

overpowered by some force she could not understand, and which was actually the superior will

was unable to carry out projects she wished to execute, or was made to perform acts

of B, she

not at

The

all

to her liking.

diary

is

full

of allusions to this subcon-

A

by B. Scores of times, B influenced her to read some particular book she scious mastery of

— B — wished to read, or to go out for a walk when she — A — wished to remain at home. Naturally

A

began to consider herself change-

able and weak-minded. "

One day," B

" it

writes,

was raining and

she did not want to go out, but I felt that I could [

283

]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL So I

not stay in the house another minute. willed that she should go to walk,

her clothes and went out.

nonsense this I

knew what

time.'

walk.'

wanted to do

She would thmk:

And then

want to go out '

minutes:

'

She thought:

five

in all this rain.'

I believe I will

more

finally she went,

minutes at a

*I guess I

she would thmk:

*

No,

I don't

in

a few

etc.

And

Then,

of

go to

will

go to walk,'

for peace

What

I wish

to go out in this rain!

is

I

and she changed

mind than

else."

anything

Frequently, moreover, the subconscious willing to

A's

afi'ect

effacing A,

neously,

m

conduct,

and allowing

resulted

B

in

completely

to reemerge sponta-

full control.

Thus, there was a dinner party which

across the

room

A

was dressing she she would not go, and started

anxious to attend, but while

— A — decided

B was

to telephone

and say she would

At once B subconsciously began "I want to go," "You must go."

not be present. to think:

And poor A

first

became very much confused,

then faded away entirely, with the result that the telephone message was not sent, and

[284]

B was

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA free to attend the party,

the

"

times

good

"

that

and enjoy another of meant so much to

her.

Where subtle

A

most

suffered

power

of

B

Doctor Prince, and well

all

by reason

of this

to influence her actions, lay

in the difficulty she

B

of

had

in

communicating with

in going to

knew that her

him

for treatment.

career would

come

end the moment Doctor Prince succeeded

to

an

in re-

associating his patient's disintegrated personality,

and she fought desperately to preserve her existence, repeatedly preventing A, as mentioned quoted from the diary, from

in the extracts

tele-

phoning to Doctor Prince, writing to him, or visiting

him;

all

of

which greatly increased A's

and unhappiness. chanced, although Doctor Prince

confusion, misery,

But, as

it

was earnestly desirous of effectually and forever suppressing B, he was not at all desirous of doing and was,

this for A's sake;

to get rid of

For,

A

as he

to inject a

most complicated discovered that

A

in fact, as

was to get

rid of B.

new complication affair,

anxious

he had by

into

this

this

time

had no more right to considera[285]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL tion than B, since

A

B

no more than

the patient's normal personaHty.

represented

His searching

— the duel between A and B study of the case lasted a year or more — had convinced him that there had been not a single, but a double, disso-

and that the normal

ciation of personality;

self,

in consequence first of the shock occasioned

by

the husband's illness and death, and afterward of the shock that

brought the

B

personality to

the fore, had been violently relegated to some

obscure department of the patient's subconsciousassuredly was existent,

ness, where,

however,

and where

was an intensely

it

it

interested,

spectator of the struggle being

less,

control

To

by the two usurping

recall this lost self,

if

waged

many months

which he designated as

weary and

of

and,

futile efifort,

One day,

ultimately succeeded.

for

selves.

C, was Doctor Prince's paramount object; after

help-

after

he

he had

plunged his patient into deep hypnosis, he saw that she had undergone a striking change. ically she seemed

much

as in the

not so boisterously vigorous; like

B

state,

Phys-

though

mentally she was

A, thoughtful and intellectual, but happily 286 ] [

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA devoid of the vacillation and morbid overcon-

had made A's

scientiousness that

and most

herself,

to

difficult

life

a misery to

who came

all

in

contact with her.

new

Questioned, she showed that in this she possessed a complete

A

B

and the

mal than

the

self

closer

both the to

nor-

— he

had found C, the missing which, after nearly two years of

had promise

exile,

and was

for

In Doctor Prince's mind, no

either.

doubt remained self,

states,

memory

state

coming once more into

of

its

own. It

had yet to be reestablished

in sovereignty

— no easy task, as the event proved. hours after in

its first

B

once more put

an appearance, wrathful, vehement, and de-

fiant, angrily

press

it

if

challenging Doctor Prince to sup-

however, by the short, the conflict

and

C

Then came A, and soon a

he could.

momentary return

B

emergence,

Not many

of still

C, quickly put to flight,

powerful

now became

active opponents,

and

will

of

B.

In

triangular, with

A

a participant

because she could not help herself.

The

invaluable diary affords a clear view of

[287]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL the chaos that prevailed, and of the increasing

Doctor

effectiveness

of

enforcement,

by

claims of C.

We

hypnotic

Well, once

this diary.

I never

came

the

lamenting,

I

am

permitted to write in

we got home, C went

saw such a

to pieces.

And then poor

lot!

Then, thank goodness,

why Doctor

cannot see

have that emotional, met

B

of

old

A

again, in anguish, wringing of hands, finally

tears.

I

suggestion,

banishment:

more

After

re-

vigorous

find, for instance,

after several days'

"

Prince's

It passes

came myself!

I

Prince would rather

than to have

hysterical set

comprehension.

I

know

every-

thing, always, and they know only a few things for a few minutes."

The note

woe and panic sounded here was amply justified. Little by little, A and B became less in

of

evidence, until at length they were heard

from no more, and left

C — the

normal

self

— was

dominant, with a complete restoration to

physical as well as mental health.

But, the reader this mean.f^

Can

may

well ask,

there really be

seK, one personahty, in

human

[288]

what does

all

more than one beings?

If so,

THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA what are we?

What

is

the true nature of

man?

These are questions that cannot be avoided, and in my next and closing chapter I will make some attempt to answer them.

[289]

CHAPTER IX THE LARGER SELF

TT --

is

barely fifty years since the problem interest to

supreme

mankind — the

of the nature, possibilities,

— began to be studied

of

problem

and destiny

of

in a really scientific

man way

;

yet in that half century more progress has been

made toward

its

solution than in

all

the previous

thousands of years that have elapsed since first

asked himself:

What

I?

Shall I be, after I

capabilities? exist here

What am

man

are

my

have ceased to

on earth?

Armed with instruments precision, devising novel

of the

methods

most for

delicate

exploring

the body and the mind in their mutual ramifications,

of

modern

new and

investigators have

largely unexpected light

and

on the great

and have opened vistas of aspiration and actual achievement

questions at issue,

hope

thrown a flood

[290]

THE LARGER SELF undreamed

by the vanished peoples

of

of

bygone

times.

At

much

to be sure,

first sight,

of their effort

appears to be irreparably, even wantonly, de-

and perhaps nowhere more so than in the blows they have dealt at the traditional structive,

conception of the central fact in man's psychical

— that intangible entity variously known

make-up

as the ego, the seK, the personality, animated

and governed by an indwelling, unifying printhe soul.

ciple,

that there

instinctively believes

only one of him.

is

matter how emotions

Every man

his

thoughts,

may change

He

his

feels that,

sensations,

in the course of time,

no his

he

himself will remain essentially and permanently

the same.

Putting this belief into metaphysical

language, he declares, with the excellent

Reid: "

The

conviction which every

identity

.

.

strengthen

without .

.

.

it;

first

The

wherever

needs

.

no

of

aid

man

Thomas

has of his

philosophy

to

and no philosophy can weaken it producing some degree of insanity.

identity of a person it is

real it

is

a perfect identity;

admits of no degrees; and

[291]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL impossible that a person should be in part

it is

the same and in part different, because a person is

a monad, and

But the modern replies

"

not divisible into parts."

is

explorer of the nature of

^

man,

:

You

my

are wrong,

friend.

Your seK

is

very

from being the simple, stable unity that you imagine it to be. In reality it is most complex

far

and most unstable,

easily breaking up,

times breaking up so completely that

be replaced by an entirely new believe this?

I can prove

it

self.

and some-

may even You do not

it

you from the

to

facts not only of scientific experiment,

but also

of everyday observation."

Naturally, in support of this statement, stress

would be case of at

all

BCA,

on instances resembling the strange just narrated.

similar to the

common in

laid

there are a

BCA

A

although cases

affair are

extremely un-

number on record evidencing

other ways so-called

personality."

And

"

total

dissociation

of

For example:

prosperous Philadelphia plumber, a

man

1 Thomas Reid's " Essaj^ on the Intellectual PowersO Man," pp. 228-231 (James Walker's edition of 1850).

[292]

of of

THE LARGER SELF exemplary habits and seemingly in good health,

home one day to take a moment he disappeared

left his

that

From

short walk.

as completely as

though the earth had opened and swallowed him. There was no reason why he should abscond or

commit

and the general belief was that Rewards were offered,

suicide,

he had met with foul play.

and detectives employed, but no trace of him could be found. His wife, giving him up for dead, sold his business and removed with their children to Chicago.

Nearly two years shop

later,

the

workmen

in

a tin-

a Southern city were startled one morning

in

by the conduct

of

one of their number, who,

dropping his tools and pressing his hand to his

head

in a bewildered

way, sprang to

his feet,

and

cried :

"My here?

God!

This

Where am

isn't

my

I?

How

did I get

" shop!

The foreman, thinking he was drunk,

or

had

gone insane, ran forward to pacify him. "Steady, Smith, steady!" he exclaimed. "

You'll be

The

all

right in a minute."

other only stared at him wildly. [

293

]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL "

do you caU me Smith? " That isn't my name." "

Why

That's the

"

he demanded.

name you've gone by

since

you

came among us six months ago." " Six months ago! You're crazy, man.

It

isn't half

an hour since I

left

my

wife and

little

ones to get a breath of fresh air before dinner." "

Look here,"

said the foreman, pressing

gently into a seat, " are,

"

"

him

where do you suppose you

anyway?

Why,

in Philadelphia, of course."

was indeed the Philadelphia plumber, whose missing self had returned to him as suddenly and It

as mysteriously as

it

had vanished.

A

few days

more and he was happily reunited with the family that had so long believed him to be among the dead.^

Where,

it

may

well be asked,

original self during these

become

was

two years?

this

man's

What had

normal ego, the ego of which alone he had formerly been aware? Yet at no time of his

1 This Boris Sidis's " Multiple Personality," pp. 365-368. book, by one of the foremost American psychopathologists, should be read by all students of abnormal psychology.

[294]

THE LARGER SELF throughout the period when he lacked knowledge

and was without memory for his earher life and social relationships, did he display the slightest sign of mental aberration. He was of his identity,

as sane and real to himself and to those with

whom

he came into contact, and was as able to

take care of himself and earn a sufficient living, as he had ever been in the years before he ex-

perienced

the

remarkable

psychical

that had substituted an alien, a self in

the place of the

upheaval

"

"

secondary

he had always been

self

and known.

A

blow, an

illness,

longed emotion

a fright, the stress of a pro-

— any one of several causes may

bring about this weird condition, of which I could

number that would

give illustrative cases to a

many

fill

pages of this book.^

fortunately seldom, case of

BCA — a

there

Sometimes, though

may

be

— as

in

the

double or even a multiple dis-

sociation, resulting in the

three,

four,

development of two, or more secondary selves, which

alternate with one another in a 1

tific

A

collection of such cases will be found Mental Healing," pp. 124-155. [

295

]

way productive in

my

book,

"

Scien-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL most intense mental agony to the

of the

helpless

victim.

But, after

not necessary to

it is

all,

on

insist

such extreme instances in order to demonstrate the essential instability and divisibility of that

which we commonly have in mind when we speak "

of the

Dissociation of personality

self."

is

in

evidence every day in the pathetic symptomatology of the various insanities, and in the chronic, if

often

masked and unrecognized, memory

universal

among

sufferers

from

affections of hysteria, such as

"

the chapter on is

in

the

we

lapses

manifold

dealt with in

Dissociation and Disease."

It

evidence in the victims of alcoholic and drug

excesses,

come

"

who,

in

a very

literal

sense,

may

be-

another person," and say and do things

and concerning afterward has no knowledge.

quite alien from their usual

which their usual

Even normal

self

sleep,

self,

albeit

a wise provision

and strengthening of the organism, Still more strikingly is dissociation.

for the rest

involves

dissociation

evident

in

the

phenomena

state of artificial sleep induced It

would

carry us too far

[296]

of

the

by hypnotism. from the point now

THE LARGER SELF under consideration to enter here into any

mechanism

cussion of the nature and tism, that

of

dis-

hypno-

widely misunderstood but mar-

still

velous agency, not simply for therapeutic pur-

and exploration of man's The thing of immediate impor-

poses, but for the study

inmost being. tance

the fact that under the influence of

is

hypnotism a person invariably develops a self more or less different from his ordinary waking, conscious

self.

he

Hypnotized,

to

is

all

outward

seeming

oblivious to everything transpiring around him.

But

the hypnotist speak to him,

let

question

him, and he instantly responds with answers so intelligent as to indicate that, in

at

all

events, he

wide awake.

mands and certain

is

more

alert

some

respects,

and keen than when

Curiously enough, however, com-

suggestions given to

limitations,

accepted

him

are, within

and acted upon,

no matter how disagreeable or absurd they may be.

Later,

same

when awakened, he

is

in precisely the

position as are victims of spontaneous dis-

sociation

— such

as

the

Philadelphia

[297]

plumber,

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL and Doctor Prince's puzzling neurasthene, BCA. That is to say, he is unable to give any account of

what he has

said

Thus the

effect

psychical

cleavage

the action,

of

within

and done during hypnosis. hypnotism

to produce a

is

so

profound as to involve

a

single

of

organism,

two

separate selves.

This has been demonstrated by a long

physicians and

scientific investigators, including

psychologists of international reputation.

More-

have shown that, even

over, these investigators after a person has

line of

been brought out of the hyp-

notic state, the self evoked

by hypnotism may

in

some inscrutable way continue operant without his suspecting for a moment its existence and influence.

Impressive proof of this tion of

mands.

what are known

A

is

found

as post-hypnotic

hypnotized person

being de-hypnotized, he

in the execu-

is

is

com-

told that, after

to perform a certain

act on receiving a certain signal, or at the expiration of a certain time.

to

his

conscious,

nothing of the

As

waking

usual, state,

when

restored

he remembers

command imposed on him; but [298]

THE LARGER SELF when the time

him

is

signal

arrives,

he

given,

an

feels

the

or

appointed

irresistible,

and

to

inexplicable, impulse to carry out the sug-

gested idea.

Thus,

in

made by

one

series

foremost

the

hypnotism. Doctor ject,

a young

of

fifty-five

English

experiments

on

authority

Milne Bramwell, the sub-

J.

woman

of nineteen,

was ordered

to perform a specified act at the end of a varying

number

of minutes, ranging

from three hundred

more than twenty thousand. Not once, on being de-hypnotized, did she remember what she

to

had been

told to do, although offered a liberal

reward

she could recall the

if

commands

given

her.

Nevertheless, only two of the fifty-five experi-

ments were complete she executed the

ment

failures, while in forty-five

commands

at exactly the

mo-

designated, and in the remainder was at

time more than

five

minutes out of the way.

no

As

to the complete failures, Doctor Bramwell ascertained that in one instance she

had mistaken

the suggestion given, and in the other the

cumstances were such that the

[299]

cir-

command might

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL have been executed without of

his

being

aware

it.i

Equally astonishing results are reported by the brilliant group of Frenchmen who, uniting

under the direction of Doctor A. A. Liebeault, were the

first

to

make an

organized investigation

the cause and effects, the possibilities and

of

limitations, of hypnotism.

One

French

of these

Doctor Hippolyte Bemheim, once hypnotized an old soldier, and asked him: investigators,

"

On what day you be at

will

" "

On

in the first

week

the Wednesday."

will

pay a

visit to

will find in his office

who

October

liberty?

Well," said Doctor Bernheim,

you

of

"

will

"

on that day

Doctor Liebeault;

you

the president of the republic,

present you with a medal and a pen-

sion.

The

was then awakened and questioned as to what had been said to him, but could resoldier

member nothing. However, on Wednesday, Octo^

These experiments by Doctor Bramwell were

by him

first

reported

in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,

vol. xii, pp. 176-203.

[300]

THE LARGER SELF ber

3,

Doctor Liebeault wrote to Doctor Bern-

heira:

"

Your

soldier has just called at

walked to

bookcase, and

my

salute; then I heard '

excellency!

him

my

house.

made a

respectful '

utter the words:

Soon he held out

He

Your

his right hand,

*

Thanks, your excellency.' I asked him to whom he was speaking. Why, to the

and

said:

*

president of the republic'

and

He

turned again to

then

went

the

bookcase

The

witnesses to the scene naturally asked

saluted,

away.

me

what that madman was doing. I answered that he was not mad, but as reasonable as they or I, only another person was acting in him."

Compare with

this

an amusing

little

^

story told

by Doctor Prince. "

test the compelling influence of

Wishing to

post-hypnotic

commands,"

gested to one of

my

he

" says,^

I

sug-

subjects, Mrs. R., after she

was hypnotized, that on the following day, when she went down to dinner, she would put on her bonnet, and keep *

it

on during the whole of dinner

"

De la Suggestion dans I'Etat Hypnotique," p. 29. Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. cxxii, p. 463.

[301]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL The next day

time.

which she said: *"

in

I think I

I

I received a letter from her

would wear "

On

story,

am

my

getting insane.

At dinner time

hat during the meal.'

further inquiry, I obtained the following

which I give substantially

in the original

language: " '

As

was going in to dinner, my girl asked me what I was going out for. " I am not," says "

I

" dinner." Then " what have you got your hat on for? says she. I

I.

put

I

am

my

bonnet. " crazy?

do

going to eat

hand

head, and there was my " *' am I going Lord, Mamie! says I, " " No, mother," she says, you often

my

to

"

began to get frightened, bonnet and went into the next

foolish things."

but took

room to "

my

off

my

I

dinner.'

Then the younger

child similarly asked her

where she was going, and called attention to her having her bonnet on. A second time she

and to her surprise She found that her bonnet was really there. raised her

hand

again took entered, the

it

to her head,

off,

and

later,

when her husband

same thing was repeated; but when [302]

THE LARGER SELF she found her bonnet on her head for the third time, she

made

excuse of the stormy words that

ensued to declare she would she was through.'

'

on now

till

After dinner, being alarmed,

she consulted a neighbor about

But the

it

keep

it."

longest time on record for the carrying

made by

out of a post-hypnotic suggestion was

a subject of Doctor Liegeois, another of the early

Doctor Liegeois hypnoFrench investigators. tized a young man, and said to him :

"

A year from to-day

to do, call at

and

this

is

what you are going

and what you are going to Doctor Liebeault's

tell

for all they

will

the morning,

office in

him that you have come

and Doctor Liegeois

You

see:

to

thank him

have done to

While you are talking to see enter the room a dog with a

improve your health. him, you

monkey

will

riding

a thousand "

you

will see

American

perform will

its

back.

They

will

perform

amuse you very much. a man come in, leading a

tricks that will

Then you

great

on

tricks.

grizzly

bear,

It will be a

not be at

all

which

tame

frightened.

will

also

bear, so that

The man

will

be delighted at recovering his trained dog and

[303]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL monkey, which he thought he had lost. Before he leaves you will borrow a few cents from Doctor Liebeault to give to him."

Doctor Liegeois, after repeating these complicated and absurd directions, awoke the young

man, and by cautious questioning ascertained that his memory was a perfect blank for all that

had been

him while he was hypnotized. Great care was taken not to recall to his mind said to

any time the command given to him, and which his hypnotic self was expected to remember and at

perform on the appointed day. Exactly a year

Doctor oflSce,

Liegeois

later, at

went

to

nine in the morning.

Doctor

Liebeault's

where he waited half an hour, and then

returned home, thinking that the experiment had

But

failed.

arrived.

at ten minutes to ten the

There was nothing about

young man his appear-

ance to indicate that he was in any abnormal condition.

He

greeted Doctor Liebeault, explained that he

had come

to

thank him

and inquired for Doctor he had expected to find

for his kindness to him,

Liegeois, there.

[304]

whom

A

he said

few minutes

THE LARGER SELF Doctor Liegeois having meanwhile

afterward,

been hastily summoned, the young out that a

monkey had

just

come

He watched

the back of a dog.

in,

man

cried

riding on

the antics of these

imaginary animals with great interest, laughing heartily,

and describing the

saw them performing. the arrival of a of the

man who was

monkey and

man

for

given him.

evidently the owner

the dog, and he begged Doctor

the

money

little

amusement

But he saw no

A moment

he fancied he

After this, he announced

Liebeault to lend him a the

tricks

later

his

to reward

animals had

bear.

he was conversmg with the

two physicians, in evident ignorance of all that he had just been saying and doing. He angrily denied that there had been any animals in the room.

When

asked

why he

himself was there,

he could give no definite reply.

Doctor Liegeois

immediately put him into the hypnotic state, and

demanded "

:

Do you know why you came "

ing.?

"

"

Of course

Why

was

I do." it?

"

[305]

here this morn-

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL "

Because you told

"

When?

"

A

me

to."

"

year ago."

"

But you did not come

"

You

You

did not

said to

me

tell

come

at nine o'clock?

to

come

to ten

"

at nine o'clock.

at exactly a year

time you were talking to me.

It

"

from the

was ten minutes

when you gave me your command."

And why

did you not see the bear?

"

"

Because you said nothing about a bear when you repeated your orders. Y^ou spoke only once of a bear. Everything else you spoke of twice. I thought 3^ou

bear."

^

Obviously,

the

hypnotic

self,

though

and

it is

sions as readily as the conscious self, it

distinct

from the primary, waking can reason, can analyze, can draw conclu-

different self,

had changed your mind about the

and

is,

to put

otherwise, as truly a self as the conscious

Facts

like

these,

as

was

said,

self.

have caused

^ Dr. Liegeois's account of his many hypnotic experiments, " De la Suggestion et du Somnambulisme dans as given in his leurs Rapports avec la Jurisprudence et la MMecine legale,"

forms one of the most striking contributions to the literature of hj^pnotism.

[306]

THE LARGER SELF to question the validity

numerous investigators

of the hitherto prevailing view of sonality.

tinuous, is

The

they aflBrm,

self,

permanent

On

entity.

no

is

human

per-

single, con-

the contrary,

it

merely a loosely coordinated aggregation of

mental

and changing, so to-morrow may be vastly dififer-

states, forever shifting

that the

self of

ent from the

self of

to-day.

To

quote Professor

Ribot, the famous scientist, and one of the most distinguished exponents of this

new view

of the

self:

"

The

unity of the ego

entity

single

phenomena;

number

of

diffusing it

states

common

sole,

among

multiple

it is

and

renascent, basis the

vague

This unity does not diffuse

downward, but

from below;

itself

perpetually

feeling of the body. itself

not the unity of a

the coordination of a certain

is

having for their

is

is

not an

aggregated by initial,

ascent

but a terminal

point."

And Ribot adds "

It

is

emphatically:

the organism, with the brain,

its

representative, which constitutes the sonality;

comprising

in itself the

[307]

supreme

real

per-

remains of

all

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL we have been and the

that

that

we

shall be.

The whole

there inscribed, with

is

its

aptitudes,

its vices, its

its

torpor or

of all

individual character

and passive

active

its

and antipathies,

sympathies

genius, its talent or

possibilities

stupidity, its virtues

its

its

and

^

activity."

Or, as the eminent psychologist, Alfred Binet, declares

"

:

We

have long been accustomed by habits of speech, fictions of law, and also by the results of

consider

to

introspection,

each

as

person

Actual

re-

searches utterly modify this current notion.

It

constituting

an

indivisible

unity.

seems to be well proven nowadays that unity of the ego be

real,

should be applied to if

for,

it

ating

some

sonalities.

A

Ribot's

is

not a single entity;

"

how

in

by exagger-

patients,

which obviously belongs

a phenomenon life,

1

It

were, one could not understand

to normal

the

a quite different definition

it.

certain circumstances

if

can unfold several different perthing that can be divided must

Les Maladies de

la Personalite."

F.

W. H. Myers's

its

Survival of Bodily Death," vol.

translation in his

[

308

i,

]

"

Human

p. 10.

Quoted from

Personality and

THE LARGER SELF Should a personality be

consist of several parts.

become double or

able to

proof that

it is

compound, a grouping

resultant from, several elements."

But the

would be of,

and a

^

brain, which Ribot identifies with the

personality,

a mere organ of the body, perish-

is

Does

ing with the body.

it

perishes with bodily death

an

this

triple,

abiding,

indwelling

and independent short, a soul

of,

— that

.f*

follow that the self Is it really

principle

without

superior

the physical organism

would enable

it

—

in

to survive

the final catastrophe of earthly existence?

man

to,

Is

Does death end personality? Aye, those who hold with Ribot would reply. soulless?

To speak

of a soul

in their

is,

sheer mysticism, since

"

more than the functional for the

view of the

the ego in us result of the

is

case,

nothing

arrangement

time being of the molecules or ions of our

brain matter."

That

is

why, at the beginning of

this chapter,

I stated that, of all the labors of the

investigators of the nature of

modern

man, none would

seem to be so irreparably destructive as the blows ^

"Les Alterations de [

la

Persormalit^," p. 316.

309

]

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL they have dealt at the traditional

human

of

Yet,

when we probe a

found that the damage

would at

conception

personality.

first

little is

deeper,

it will

be

not so irreparable as

appear; nay,

it will

even be found

that by their searching inquiries, the advocates

have unwittingly provided stronger reasons than were at any previous

of the brain-stuff theory

time available for insisting both on the actuality of the soul

and the fundamental unity and con-

tinuity of the ego.

Undeniably,

it

is

necessary to modify the old

conception in some important respects.

After

the discoveries that have been

made

as to the

disintegrating effects of natural

and

artificially

induced sleep, of disease, of sudden frights, of

profound emotional shocks, of alcohol and drugs, etc., it is idle to

are

distinctive

self of its

waking

instability

pretend that unity and continuity characteristics

So

life.

and

of

far as that self

divisibility are

the is

ordinary

concerned,

now

plainly

evident.

What, however,

if it

can be shown that, equally

with the secondary selves that

[310]

may and

so often

THE LARGER SELF do replace self

larger

beneath

it,

the primary

—a

all

self

self is

which

only part of a

unchanged the mutations of spontaneous and persists

In that case

experimental occurrence?

it will

at

once become clear that the situation has again

changed completely, and that we are back to the " " common-sense traditional, the intuitive, the conception of personality, with the single dif" " self means something ference that the term

broader and nobler than when we limit

now demonstrated

it

to the

and ever-change-

unstable,

able self of ordinary consciousness.

And

it

is

precisely to such a view of the self

that the discoveries of the

modern

when

irresistibly

If,

closely

I repeat,

scrutinized,

investigators,

impel us.

they have shown that what we usually

look upon as the

self is liable to

sudden extinction,

they have likewise brought to light abundant evidence to prove that there abiding

self,

a

self

is

none the

less

an

not dominated by but domi-

nating the organism, and unaffected by any vicissitudes that

To be

may

sure, it

befall the organism.

must be

said that, as yet,

paratively few of those to

[311]

whom we owe

comthis

ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL evidence are prepared to admit that such ultimate outcome of their efforts.

the evidence

is

is

the

All the same,

there, not simply justifying,

but

rendering logically necessary, the hypothesis of

a continuous, unitary ego, inclusive perior to, festation, utilized;

for

and

of,

su-

changing selves of outward mani-

all

and possessing powers thus but, under certain conditions,

our material,

intellectual,

far

little

utilizable

and moral

better-

ment. I have, in fact, in the

previous chapters pre-

sented

much

of

view.^

All the

phenomena

action — as

evidence

the

of subconscious

exliibited

variously

crystal vision,

supporting

in

this

mental

telepathy,

automatic writing and speaking,

the cure of disease by wholly mental means

point

unmistakably,

I

am

persuaded,

to

—

the

existence of a superior self to which the ordinary self

of

everyday

life

stands in

much

the same

relation as does the secondary self of a hysterical

patient to the ordinary, normal

self of

a healthy

person. ^

See also my book, pp. 69-70, 159-162.

"

The Riddle

[312]

of Personality," especially

THE LARGER SELF Not

all

the faculties of the larger

self

—

for in-

stance, the faculty involved in telepathic action

— seem to be adapted on earth.

for ready

employment here

Wliich would argue, of course, for a

future state in which, freed from limitations of full

all

hampering the body, such faculties will have

manifestation.

But most

assuredly,

as

the findings

psychopathologists indicate plainly, some these hidden powers are

here and now, and

enable the

come

less

self of

liable

may

amply

of

the

among

available for use

be so employed as to

ordinary consciousness to be-

to disintegration,

to

ward

off

and conquer disease, to develop mental attainments of a high order, to solve life's varying and

problems

with

a

lacking to

most

of us at present.

sureness

[313]

success

sadly

INDEX Aboulia, case of, 259-264. Angus, Miss, crj'stal-visions 154-156. Automatism, 134-170.

Cock Lane of,

Corliss,

ghost, 183.

M., trance medium,

I.

138-141, 147.

Cortachy Castle,

Drummer

of,

13-17, 47, 48.

Badger, R., and case

273

of

BCA,

Crawford, Lord, and D. D.

n.

W.

Barrett, 64, 100.

Home, F.,

and telepathy,

173, 199.

W., and telepathy, and mediumis-

Crookes,

63, 97, 98;

Barzini, Professor, and Eusapia Paladino, 173. BCA, case of, 2G5-289; also mentioned, 292, 295, 298. Bernheim, H., hypnotic ex-

tic

phenomena, -

Cross

181.

correspondence,

160-

170.

Crystal-gazing, 127-131, 154156.

periments by, 300-301. Bettany, Mrs., vision seen by, 40-41. Binet, A., on personality, 308309. Blakeway, W., telepathic experience by, 90-91. Boyle, Mrs., case of, 4.

Burt, F. R., telepathic experiments by, 74, 81-83.

dream creation by, 210-211. Carrington, H., and mediumistic frauds, 175-178. Clairvoyance, 102-126. Cleaveland, W. M., case reported by, 143-146, 148. Cobbe, Miss, and the subconscious, 202-203.

drummer, 14-15. Dickinson,

L.,

case

reported

by, 156-157 n. Dissociation, 230-289. J. E., and cases of dissociation, 242-245, 254-

Donley,

Bramwell, J. M., hypnotic experiments by, 299-300. Brill, A. A., and psycho-analysis, 246-254.

Cahill, B. J. S.,

Dalrymple, Miss, and ghostly

257.

Dreams, telepathic, 106-118; of

lost

objects,

121-126;

problems solved in, 204209 creative unagination in, 209-214. Dunraven, Lord, and D. D. ;

Home,

173, 199.

Eardley, Lady, case

of,

39-40,

56, 57, 90.

Eastlake, Lady, case of, 4-5. Entwistle, J. S. W., apparition seen by, 29-31.

[315]

INDEX C, and telepand mediumistic phenomena, 181. Flournoy, T., and telepathy,

Flammarion,

Hughes,

G3.

Forbes, Mrs., automatic writer, 160, 167-168.

new theory

Genius,

214-

of,

215.

Mrs.,

telepathic

dream by, 94-95.

athy, 63;

Huse, Miss, case of, 104-106. Hyperaesthesia, principle of, 64-65; cases of, 121-126, 216-227. Hypnosis, characteristics of, 157, 158, 296-306; as aid in treating disease, 238-244, 265-289. See also 263,

12-26; house-

Post-hypnotic Commands, and Suggestion.

35-38 experihaunting, mental, 42-45; of inanimate See also objects, 49-52.

Hyslop, J. H., telepathic experiments by, 67-69, 84; also mentioned, 113, 131.

Poltergeists.

Hysteria,

Ghosts,

premonitory,

coincidental, 26-35; ;

Goodrich-Freer, Miss, apparition seen by, 4-8; crystalvisions of, 127-131. Mrs., Griffith, telepathic dream by, 95-96.

Gurney, E., alleged spirit messages from, 160-164, 166.

and

poltergeists,

189-195; and physical phenomena of spiritism, 196 and

dream

Golinski, C., telepathic by, 116-118.

modern theories and ment of, 233-289.

n;

Jackson, E., by, 33-35.

treat-

apparition seen

James, W., and Huse case, 104-106; and Mrs. Piper, 149; also mentioned, 64, 71,

Hallucinations, Census 49.

See also Dissociation,

Ghosts, Hypnotism, Hysand Suggestion, teria, Telepathy. Hazard, Mrs., apparition seen by, 26, 27. H. Hilprecht,

dream

of,

and modern treatof hysteria, 236-242, also mentioned, 259-264;

Janet, P.,

ment

232, 283.

Miss, and expericross-correspondence, 162-167.

Johnson,

ments strange

V.,

207-209.

Hodgson, R., alleged messages from, 160,

spirit

169; hyperaesthesia 220.

219-

Hohenzollerns, White

of,

in

Justine, dissociation of, 236242.

168-

Lady

Lamont, Miss, and haunting of Petit Trianon, 8-12, 55.

of,

53-

Lang, A., and crystal-gazing,

12.

Holland,

72.

of, 48,

Miss,

automatic

writer, 160, 161-169.

Home, D.

D., trance medium, 173, 199. F. S., and Shropshire Hughes, poltergeist, 188-189.

154-156. J., apparition seen by, 22-26, 57. Licbeault, A. A., and hypnotic experiments, 300-301, 303305.

Langtrj^,

[316]

INDEX Liegeois, Doctor, hypnotic ex-

periment by, 303-306. Lodge, O., and telepathy, 63, 100, 101; and Mrs. Piper, 150-153; and spiritistic hypothesis, 170.

Lombroso,

C,

and Eusapia

Paladino, 172-173, 199. Lumley, Mrs., case of, 49.

Marks,

F.,

of,

259-

telepathic experi-

114-116. McKechnie, C. C, apparition seen by, 27-29. Miss, telepathic exMiles, periments by, 74-81.

ence

of,

Mompesson

M orison.

12,

53-55.

Piper, Mrs., automatic writer, 149-154, 160, 168-169.

Podmore, F., on telepathy, 100; and poltergeists, 190194;

also mentioned, 41.

Poltergeists, 2, 182-195.

M., Mrs., apparition seen by, 35-38, 55. Marcelle, dissociation 264, 283.

Petit Trianon, haunting of, 8-

ghost, 183.

Miss, and haunting

Post-hypnotic commands, execution of, 298-306. Prince, M., and case of BCA, 265-289; hypnotic experiment by, 301-303; also mentioned, 52, 53, 298. Psychopathology, principles and methods of, 230-289. R., Mrs., case of, 301-303. Ramsden, Miss, telepathic ex-

periments by, 74-81. Reeves, H. E., apparition seen by, 31-32.

53-

Reid, T., on personality, 291292.

Morselli, H., and telepathy, 64; and Eusapia Paladino, 173.

Ribot, T., on personality, 307-

of Petit Trianon, 8-12, 55.

W.

experimental apparition seen by, 73-74; mediumship of, 182 and n.

Moses,

S.,

308.

Richet,

telepalleged spirit from, 160, 161-

100;

messages 163, 166-169; tioned, 308 n.

Newnham,

also

men-

P.

H., hj^jeraesthesia of, 220-221.

Paladino, E., trance mediumship of 171-173, 196 TO, 199. Personality, cases of secondary and multiple, 259-289, 292-295; conflicting theories as to, 290-313. ,

telepathy, 63.

perience of 113-114. ,

Ruttan,

Mrs., by, 22-26.

Muscle reading, 65. Myers, F. W. H., and athy,

C, and

Robinson, Mrs., telepathic ex-

Sidgwick,

H.,

case

reported

alleged

spirit

messages from, 160, 168. Sinclair, B. F., telepathic experiment of, 42-43.

Spiritism, statistics, 134; reasons for vitality of, 135-137;

trance mediumship in, 137143, 158-159, 171-182; hysteria and, 194-196. R. dream creaStevenson, L., tion by, 211-214. Subconscious, the, 51-57, 6469, 121-132, 158-159, 201229, 232-289. Suggestion, in trance medium-

[317]

INDEX ship, 157-159, 196-197; in treatment of disease, 234— 289; in experimental hypnosis, 297-306.

automatic Verrall, Miss, writer, 160, 168. automatic Verrall, Mrs., writer, 160, 162-169.

Telepathy, experiments in, 42cases of 46, 67-83, 119; spontaneous, 58-63, 87-96, 106-118; and trance me153diumship, 147-149, theories re156, 160-170; garding, 84-86, 97-100. Thompson, Mrs., automatic

Wallace, A. R., and mediumistic

phenomena,

181.

Wedgwood, Mrs., telepathic dream by, 106-108. Wesermann, Herr, telepathic experiment by, 43-45. Wesley, S., poltergeist experience of, 183.

West, Mrs., telepathic dream

writer, 160.

Titus, Mrs., case of, 105-106. Tout, C. H., mediumistic experiences of, 158-159. Turner, G. L., case of, 49-51.

by, 111-113.

Woodds, linocking Ghost

of

the, 17-22, 47.

Usher, F. L., telepathic experiments by, 74, 81-83.

Wright, Miss, automatic messages by, 144-146, 148. Wyman, W. H., case reported by, 225-227.

Vaux-Royer, Mme., telepathic experiment by, 70-71.

Young, A. K., telepathic dream by, 108-111.

[318]

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