THE COMING 
 
 SCIENCE 
 
 HEREWARD CARRINGTON 
 
BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 FROM THE 
 
 SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 1891 
 
 A...j^.AJf,J..^.....: ,2.S//.-z./a£.. 
 
 3513-1 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BF1031.C31 C7 
 
 Comirig science by Hereward Carrington 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 028 950 934 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
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 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
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 http ://www. arch i ve . o rg/detai Is/cu31 924028950934 
 
THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
THE 
 
 COMING SCIENCE 
 
 BY 
 
 HEREWARD CARRINGTON 
 
 AUTHOB OF "VITALITY, FASTINO AND 
 NUTEITIOK," "THE PHYSICAL PHE- 
 NOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM," ETC. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 JAMES H. HYSLOP, Ph.D., LL.D. 
 
 VOBHERLT FBOnESSOB OF LOGIC AND ETHICS 
 OOX.UHBIA UHITBBSITY; AUTHOB OT 
 "SCIBNOBANDArnTtTBSLIFE," "PBYCHIOAIt 
 BBSBABCH AKO THB BBBUBBXCTIOM," KCO. 
 
 SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 BOSTON ... MCMVIII 
 
0>PTSIOHT, 1908 
 
 JSs Small, Aasnard & Compans 
 
 (nooBFOiU'nD) 
 Entirtd at StationtrM' E<Ul 
 
 FSnSVOBS BT 
 
 TBI snnuiTx rsiu, OikUBBioai, d.i.4. 
 
TO 
 THE MEMORY OF 
 
 ©ne 
 
 WHO POSSESSED THE CLEAREST VISION 
 
 THE SANEST AND THE PUREST 
 
 HIND I HAVE EVER 
 
 KNOWN 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TN presenting the following book to the public, I 
 -■• wish to say, first of all, that I must not be under- 
 stood as endorsing or even as accepting all the views 
 and theories that are advanced, from time to time, 
 throughout the book. I have offered these merely 
 tentatively, and merely as possible explanations for 
 facts that, on the strength of existing testimony, I 
 have assumed to be established. Readers of mv other, 
 more cautious books upon this and other subjects 
 will see that I have not been unwary in approaching 
 this question ; and I do not wish to draw upon 
 myself the charge of credulity merely because I 
 have presented certain theories in this book that, 
 from the standpoint of orthodox science, may appear 
 somewhat ' wild.' Having absolved myself in this 
 manner, I leave the reader to find in the text what- 
 ever he can of interest or profit. 
 
 A certain lack of connection and coherence may be 
 found in the chapters of the book, due to the fact 
 that some of these essays have appeared, in part 
 at least, in the Journal of the American Society 
 for Psychical Research, The Metaphysical Magazine, 
 and elsewhere. This is to be regretted, but could 
 
PREFACE 
 
 not very well be helped. The opening chapters are 
 devoted to a defence of the legitimacy of the study 
 and replies to various attacks from various sources. 
 This the reader will see for himself. 
 
 One word more. This book is not an attempt 
 to establish any of the facts, but is rather a dis- 
 cussion of theories that might be invoked in order 
 to explain the facts, once they have been established. 
 The reader who is unconvinced will find little to 
 convince him in this book ; the facts will be found 
 well summarised in Professor Hyslop's four books, 
 in the publications of the English and American 
 Societies for Psychical Research (hereinafter referred 
 to as the S. P. R.), and in other works upon this 
 subject. Very little has been said, however, in ac- 
 cessible books, in the way of explanatory hypotheses; 
 and these I have endeavoured to make the principal 
 factor in the present book. It is hoped that this 
 will be of interest to the public, for the very reason 
 that so little of an explanatory nature is said in the 
 current books. 
 
 My best thanks are due Prof. James H. Hyslop 
 for his kind Introduction. 
 
 H. C. 
 
 vni 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER FADE 
 
 I. The Comxa ScnarcE 1 
 
 II. The Phiiasofht of Life : or The Possibilitt 
 
 OF A Scientific Oftihism 14 
 
 III. Psychical Research : Repues to Objections 43 
 
 IV. HA£CXEL's"LAWOFSuRSTANCE''Ain>IlUIORTAIJTT 90 
 
 V. The Obiqin and Nature of Consciousness . 114 
 
 Ensuins Correspondence 139 
 
 VI. The Problems of Hypnotism « 179 
 
 VII. The Problems of Telepathy 193 
 
 VIII. The Problems of Sleep and Dreams . . . 304 
 IX. Modern Spiritualism : A Brief Historical 
 
 RisuMi 33T 
 
 X. The Case of Mrs. Piper . 339 
 
 XI. On the Influence upon the Communicator's 
 
 Mind of Objects Presented to the Medium 357 
 
 XII. The Nature of Apparitions 373 
 
 XIIL Experiments in Weighing the Soul .... 385 
 
 XIV. Haunted Houses : Theories ....... 313 
 
 XV. Haunted Houses and their Cure .... 331 
 
 XVI. Premonitions : Facts and Theories .... 348 
 
 XVII. EusAPiA Paladino and the Physical Phenomena 
 
 OF Spiritualism 369 
 
 XVIII. Conclusion 387 
 
 INDEX 391 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 MR. CARRINGTON has asked me to write a 
 brief introduction to his book on psychic 
 research, and I am glad to comply with his request. 
 He has here covered in a very clear and intelligible 
 way the main points of interest in the problems which 
 concern the psychic researcher. The book assumes 
 that the facts are known or easily accessible to the 
 reader in the publications of the Society for Psychical 
 Research, and hence the main part of the author's 
 task is discussion of their real or possible meaning 
 and explanation. The chapter on telepathy I can- 
 not help thinking is a very conservative and cau- 
 tious one ; for the general public has used that 
 idea so freely that it is constantly assumed to be 
 a well-known and well-understood phenomenon. It 
 is far from this, and yet is the least that a psychical 
 researcher can accept in regard to certain facts. 
 Mr. Carrington brings out clearly that it is not 
 to be regarded as an explanation of anything, and 
 is only a name for facts requiring such an expla- 
 nation. This is of all things one of the most im- 
 portant qualifications with which the term is to be 
 used. Moreover, it is well to keep in mind that 
 
 xi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 even, as an alleged fact of the supernormal kind, 
 it is not a generally accepted phenomenon in the 
 scientific world. Only a few men seriously believe 
 in it, and others are willing to speak and think 
 of it tolerantly in order to escape a profounder 
 alternative. But no intelligent scientific man will 
 think or speak of it with that confidence of feeling 
 that he indulges in with regard to physical phe- 
 nomena, or think that he understands it. Whatever 
 it is, as a phenomenon to be explained, its meaning 
 and explanation are still subjvdice for the scientific 
 world. 
 
 On the other topics of the book Mr. Carrington 
 furnishes no less interesting discussion, and I have 
 no doubt that readers will find the matter exceed- 
 ingly helpful in directing their reflections on them. 
 The whole subject has been left by the more 
 responsible educators of the community to a public 
 which has not been directed by the traditions of 
 science, and the consequence is that speculation 
 runs riot in theories for which there is no ade- 
 quate evidence^ It is high time that some such 
 conservative discussion as this little book affords 
 should receive intelligent attention. 
 
 James H. Hyslof. 
 
 xu 
 
THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 fXlHE majority of persons, upon seeing the 
 -■■ title of this book, will at once ask: What is 
 the Coming Science? I do not doubt that many 
 will think that this consists of the newer discov- 
 eries in physics and radio-activity, about which we 
 are hearing so much to-day ; others will think that 
 it is biology ; others psychology ; others electricity, 
 and so on — in fact, each will construe the 
 title differently, according to his beUef s in the pos- 
 sibilities of the subject mentioned and in propor- 
 tion to his interest in it. Thus the person inter- 
 ested in the newer discoveries in physics will think' 
 that the first of the above-mentioned departments 
 of science will be the one most cultivated in the 
 future and that from which most is to be hoped 
 by coming generations ; those interested in psychol- 
 ogy will think that that is tlie subject of study 
 for the future; and so on, each one thinking that 
 some certain department of science will be the one 
 most in evidence in the coming years, though 
 never neglectful of nor blind to the possibilities 
 
2 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 of the others. To my mind the Coming Science 
 will not be any of those just named, but will be 
 one that is not as yet recognised as a science at 
 all, properly speaking, by the majority of scien- 
 tists. I refer to what are known as psychic phe- 
 nomena, and the Coming Science is psychic re- 
 search. Although this statement may arouse 
 the ridicule of many of my readers, I think that 
 there are facts to support it and that far from 
 being irrational, this is the logical outcome of 
 modern thought and wiU represent an extension of 
 our present-day science in the right and logical di- 
 rection. I shall now attempt to lay before the 
 reader a few of the many reasons that have forced 
 me to believe this to be true, and shall endeavour 
 to show that the outcome is only what is to be ex- 
 pected from a close study of the facts. 
 
 In the process of time, the world has passed 
 through various stages of evolution. First of all, 
 there was the purely animal stage (I am referring 
 now only to man), and in that era brute force was 
 the ruling power; it was this that was most ad- 
 mired and upon which life depended. Then the 
 era of mind began to dawn. It was discovered 
 that cunning and skilled planning could over- 
 come the power of pure force, and man began to 
 cultivate and desire mind more than brute strength, 
 and evolution began to tend in that direction. 
 
THE COMING SCIENCE 3 
 
 Less and less space within the organism was de- 
 voted to the digestive functions and other animal 
 propensities, and more to the higher thinking 
 and feeling and willing organs. A study of com- 
 parative anatomy wiU prove this. So, as man 
 ascended in the scale of evolution, mind became the 
 all-ruling and preponderating element, and animal 
 force became less prominent and less admired. 
 Mind was first of all devoted, probably, to the fur- 
 therance of the desires of the individual organism; 
 but later it spread over wider areas and extended 
 to higher and broader spheres ; pure, abstract 
 thinking became possible, and altniism, or thought 
 of others besides self, began to show itself through 
 the darkness that had until then reigned supreme 
 upon the world. And with this higher knowledge 
 began to develop that spiritual self and conscious- 
 ness of which we are just beginning to catch the 
 first signs, and which is doubtless in its very in- 
 fancy in the realm of higher knowledge. This 
 spiritual side of man, that is just becoming mani- 
 fest, may possess powers and potencies as great, 
 as relatively great when compared to the purely 
 mental world, as that was above the physical and 
 animal world. A creature living on the first plane 
 would be totally incapable of appreciating any 
 of the joys and possibilities of one living on the 
 second or thought-plane; and, by analogy, it is 
 
4- THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 more than probable that we, of the second plane, 
 cannot appreciate or understand the possibilities 
 and returns of those who have at least tasted or 
 faintly perceived the third or spiritual plane. The 
 aspirations would be different; the same joys would 
 not be sought by both; and those of the third 
 plane would be superior to many of the desires 
 and appetites of those living on the second or 
 mental plane — just as they in turn would be 
 superior to those of the first. This would seem 
 to be borne out by the fact that yogis, and per- 
 haps certain mediums, who have (so it is claimed) 
 risen beyond the second into the third plane, are 
 independent of many of the things felt to be neces- 
 sities by those on the second plane. Their desires 
 and aspirations are of a different order, and with 
 them what is most desired is spiritual growth and 
 development; material and mental growth are not 
 sought for and desired as they are with us. But 
 to desire that development it must first of all be 
 tasted, — in a trifling degree, perhaps, but still 
 tasted, — and the germs and the possibilities must 
 be present within the being of one capable of de- 
 siring such advancement. As Professor James 
 pointed out many years ago, a man is only jeal- 
 ous of one who excels him in his own line of work, 
 and although he (speaking for himself) would 
 feel ashamed if any man knew more psychology 
 
THE COMING SCIENCE 5 
 
 than he, he did not at all mind if many men ex- 
 celled him in botany or billiards or prize-fight- 
 ing or in a number of other pursuits and studies, 
 though the botanist or the billiard-player or 
 the prize-fighter would feel ashamed to be beaten 
 by anyone else in his own special line of work or 
 occupation. This shows, merely, that we only de- 
 sire, ceteris paribus, what is an ideal possibility; 
 and if we are capable of feeling and experiencing 
 envy (in its best sense) for another more de- 
 veloped than ourselves in any certain direction, it 
 shows that we have some of that very thing in 
 us; and more, that we are, unconsciously perhaps, 
 striving to excel in that line of endeavour. 
 
 Now, I think that there are few of us who do 
 not admire, not to say envy, any man or woman 
 in whom this spiritual side is highly developed. 
 We wish that we also had their capacities in this 
 direction, and we endeavour to emulate their ex- 
 ample — often to the betterment of ourselves, as 
 we know. This shows us conclusively that there 
 is in each of us a hidden spiritual side, which 
 needs only to be developed in order to be brought 
 into full blossom — foregoing, perhaps, many of 
 the so-called delights and pleasures of this world 
 in the attempt, but, we may be assured, reaping 
 a reward at some time, in some place. A spiritual 
 side is latent in all of us, awaiting its development. 
 
6 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 What is this unknown, spiritual side? Whence 
 came it, and what are its capacities? These are 
 some of the questions to which we must now ad- 
 dress ourselves. 
 
 During the past two hundred years, science has 
 been devoting her energies (rightly) to the phys- 
 ical sciences — physics, chemistry, anatomy, phys- 
 iology, astronomy, etc. It is only of late that 
 psychology has risen to a place among the other 
 sciences, while philosophy and metaphysics are 
 still laughed at by many scientists as mere idle 
 dreams or as pleasant ways of passing time that 
 might be more profitably spent in other pursuits. 
 It has never seemed to occur to these scientists that 
 the conclusions drawn from every one of their facts 
 are, at basis, metaphysical, and that all science, 
 inasmuch as it is systematic, must be philosophical! 
 This is now recognised, it must be admitted, to 
 some degree, and the old antagonism to these sub- 
 jects is fast disappearing; but they are yet looked 
 upon as in some way inferior, and dependent upon 
 the physical sciences for their value and existence. 
 Of course this is not true in the sense that it is 
 generally understood; but I think it quite right 
 that science should have devoted her early time 
 and energies to a close and systematic study of 
 the objective world, and to have ignored all else. 
 Only in that way could any real progress have 
 
THE COMING SCIENCE 7 
 
 been made at a time when so little was known 
 of the universe in any part of its parts. But 
 there is no reason for continuing this resentful 
 and intolerant attitude now that we have placed 
 science upon a sure foundation ; and we are learn- 
 ing slowly but more and more surely every day 
 that behind and beyond this material, seen and 
 phenomenal world there is yet another world of 
 causes — that which produces the eflFects we per- 
 ceive. We find that every one of the physical 
 sciences comes to a point where it can go no fur- 
 ther, and this has proved to be the case even with 
 such material sciences as chemistry and physics. 
 Ten years ago it was one of the very funda- 
 mentals of science that the material atom was the 
 most minute particle of matter in the world, and 
 that from it this and all other worlds were built; 
 that it was indivisible, unchangeable and eternal: 
 it formed the very foundation stone of the uni- 
 verse. But now we find that these atoms have 
 been split up and divided ; we have now an ' elec- 
 trical theory of matter' which has verily ex- 
 plained away matter altogether, so that we are 
 no longer entitled to think of it as matter at all, 
 but as something else, itself immaterial ! This be- 
 ing so, it will be seen that we are entitled to doubt 
 whether any such thing as a material world exists 
 at all, in the sense in which it is generally under- 
 
8 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 stood, and that matter and the seen and tangible 
 world recedes into the unseen and intangible world 
 of force and causation. " Matter " no longer 
 means what it did a few years ago; it exists only 
 as a name; and soon we must begin to study the 
 forces that lie behind matter, of which it is the 
 active manifestation. The world of causes and 
 forces lies before us, ■ an unopened book. In the 
 past we have been studying merely the world of 
 products and eif^cts- 
 
 Let us take a simple example by way of illustra- 
 tion. Two chemical elements combine to form a 
 new substance (so-called) with properties different 
 from either. This has occurred because there has 
 been operative a certain force, called for conven- 
 ience chemical affinity, which has caused this great 
 change and brought these results to pass. The 
 effects of this force or of these forces have been 
 studied, the new product has been analysed, 
 weighed and classified; but little attention has been 
 given to the force that produced these changes — 
 the chemical affinity. What is this force which 
 produced the change.'' It may be classed, with 
 others, in the Law of Conservation ; but does that 
 do aught but classify it; does it in any way at- 
 tempt to explain it? Surely not! The law of 
 this force may have been determined, but the 
 nature of the force is still a mystery. 
 
THE COMING SCIENCE 9 
 
 I contend then that the study of these forces 
 — these noumena — should be that which most oc- 
 cupies our minds during the coming century ; it 
 will be a century for work in and study of causes 
 rather than eflFects. And more, the course of 
 science will swing round into a study of the mental 
 forces and powers of the universe; partly because 
 all other forces will be traced into an unseen world, 
 equally with consciousness; partly because this 
 world presents a wider field for inquiry than any 
 other, since it is in its infancy in every stage; 
 and thirdly because, I am assured, the key to 
 many other facts in the universe will be found in 
 this world of mental forces and causes. This is 
 too large a problem to discuss here; I mention it 
 merely by way of suggestion. 
 
 Let us now take up for discussion the most im- 
 portant factor of all (to us). We have been 
 speaking of the physical sciences, etc., without bear- 
 ing in mind that every fact known to us must be 
 acquired and retained in consciousness; that is, 
 in that side of man which raises him far above 
 the animal world in every respect, even enabling 
 him to overcome or offset its greater strength by 
 his mind alone. Consequently a study of con- 
 sciousness is by far the most important study of 
 all, for it is only by and through consciousness that 
 all else is understood and perceived. I have dis- 
 
10 TPIE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 cussed the relation of consciousness to the organism 
 elsewhere, as well as some of the problems that 
 arise from a study of these facts, and they need 
 not and cannot be discussed here. I wish to touch 
 in this place upon only one side of it — what may 
 be called the religious consciousness — that side of 
 man which concerns itself with the origin and des- 
 tiny of the human being, or in academic phrase- 
 ology, of the * soul.' 
 
 All religions are based upon the double idea 
 of some all-seeing deity, and upon the persistence 
 of consciousness or the " immortality of the soul." 
 But of late grave doubts , have arisen in every 
 thinking man's mind as to whether either or both 
 of these facts are true; whether there is any such 
 deity, or if the soul continues to exist after the 
 destruction of the physical organism. The first 
 of these problems would lead us too far astray, and 
 we cannot now stop to consider it. We shall, 
 therefore, concentrate our attention on the other 
 problem, whether consciousness can and does per- 
 sist after the death of the physical body; and if 
 it be shown that it does so persist, then this prob- 
 lem will have been solved and one of the great 
 stumbling blocks removed. If it can be shown 
 that consciousness can persist apart from brain 
 activity and a nervous system, then materialism 
 
THE COMING SCIENCE 11 
 
 will have been overthrown and another interpreta- 
 tion of the universe rendered possible. 
 
 As before stated, all religions are based, more 
 or less, upon this idea that the * soul ' exists apart 
 from the physical body; but none of these re- 
 ligions offers us any evidence of that fact. For 
 the evidence we are referred back to certain facts 
 that happened many centuries ago, and no addi- 
 tional or contemporary evidence is vouchsafed. 
 Now materialism asserts that consciousness is 
 bound up with a material brain and that, apart 
 from such a brain, there can be no consciousness. 
 If it does so persist, says materialism, where is your 
 evidence for that fact.? And apart from certain 
 phenomena called psychic, there is no evidence 
 whatever that materialism is not true. At least 
 we could never offset or disprove its claims. But 
 if it can be shown that certain facts actually oc- 
 cur which are inexphcable and cannot be accounted 
 for on any theory of materialism, then the exist- 
 ence of psychic facts will have been established 
 and the persistence of a soul of a conscious sort, 
 after death, also proved. It will be seen that this 
 subject at once assumes a look of gigantic im- 
 portance. Whether or not such facts occur is one 
 of the most important questions, if not the most 
 important question, before the world to-day, for 
 
12 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 the reason that a whole world-philosophy is based 
 thereon. Psychical phenomena offer the only 
 proof that we can ever obtain that a soul or con- 
 sciousness can exist apart from brain functioning, 
 and it consequently becomes a matter of the first 
 importance to ascertain, if possible, whether such 
 facts actually ezist, or whether they are one and 
 all hallucination and the results of fraud and a dis- 
 ordered imagination. 
 
 It is not the province of this book to establish 
 those facts. A much larger work would be needed 
 to accomplish it — if indeed it could be done. 
 Hundreds of volumes full of such evidence can 
 be obtained, and to these I would refer the reader 
 who is unconvinced of the facts. It is my pur- 
 pose merely, in the present volume, to point out 
 that this is, or should be, the problem or science 
 of the coming century — to ascertain as far as 
 possible how far these so-called * facts ' are such 
 in reality, and then, granting for the sake of argu- 
 ment that the facts are really established, to dis- 
 cuss theories that would in some way account for 
 them. The establishment of the facts will neces- 
 sitate the work of many men over a period of 
 many years ; the present book is merely an attempt 
 to point out certain of the difficulties and problems 
 that must be faced and overcome in the investiga- 
 tion of such phenomena, and a general and 
 
THE COMING SCIENCE 13 
 
 theoretical discussion of theories that must be ad- 
 vanced to account for the facts when once es- 
 tablished. It is one of the most interesting and 
 fascinating of fields for the worker — this border- 
 land between mind and matter — and may in truth 
 be called, at this stage of investigation, the Com- 
 ing Science. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE : OH THE POSSIBIUTT 
 OF A SCIENTIFIC OPTIMISM ^ 
 
 rilHE laws of health, the great laws of hygiene, 
 ■^ are all very important — indeed, one might 
 .say fundamentally important — because, unless one 
 knows what the laws of health are and consciously 
 or unconsciously obeys them, there can be no last- 
 ing health. Without health there can be no real 
 happiness — no true life ; for " good health " 
 does not mean only, as its consequent, a clean 
 physical organism, i. e., a healthy animal, but also 
 a more highly educated and advanced, a more moral 
 and spiritual individual, since the bodily health, 
 reacting upon the organism, does, without any 
 doubt, affect both the mental and the moral na- 
 tures of man ; and for this reason, if for no other, 
 a study of the laws of hygiene becomes of the very; 
 highest importance. 
 
 But in these considerations we must never lose 
 sight of the fact that all these laws are but so 
 many means for the gaining and preserving of 
 perfect health; i. e., they are not ideals in or of 
 
 1 An address before the Health Culture Cliib of New 
 fork, read at the meeting of Sunday, Jan. 38, 1906. 
 
 14 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 15 
 
 themselves, any of them, but merely so many 
 means by which we can regain and preserve our 
 mental and physical equilibrium; while (and this 
 is a point which I wish particularly to emphasise, 
 since it may seem to some a rather novel aspect 
 of the case) health is not itself a real, ultimate 
 ideal, either! Good health is (or should be) 
 sought only to enable us to perform our daily tasks 
 and duties unhampered by physical disease; to 
 reach our highest mental and spiritual attainment 
 without the constant depressing influences and 
 harrowing, soul-racking infirmities with which bad 
 health and disease saddle us. Health is not an aim 
 or an end in itself ; it is merely a condition — that 
 condition which best enables us to perform, with the 
 best possible results, whatever of life's duties it may 
 be ours to undertake or attempt. 
 
 Of course, if we are actually diseased; if we are 
 not enjoying the best possible health; if we are 
 oppressed and weighed down with some bodily 
 infirmity, then health does become, for the time 
 being, a real and ultimate end and aim — in fact 
 the first and most important factor in our lives : for 
 if we do not recover our health, we are not free 
 to pursue our lives and achieve that which we set 
 out to do; but once restored to good health, we 
 should simply follow nature's laws — enabling us 
 to remain in that condition — and then forget the 
 
16 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 body so far as possible. Health, once attained, 
 should be v^ed for the purposes of our daily life. 
 
 The normal conditions having thus been re- 
 stored, being free to develop ourselves along our 
 chosen lines, the question now arises. What is it 
 that we are to develop? What should be our ob- 
 ject in life? In short, why are we here; for what 
 reason are we living at all? These are the im- 
 portant questions which I shall endeavour to answer 
 — in part at least — in the present chapter; and 
 though my manner of treating the subject may not 
 meet with the approval of many of my readers, I 
 trust that we shall in the end find ourselves in no 
 lasting disagreement. 
 
 As I conceive it, then, our personality is the 
 thing we must consider, — the chief object of 
 our life being to attain its greatest possible de- 
 gree of development along some certain, definite 
 line of work. This should be our true end and aim 
 of life; but as I shall speak of this at greater 
 length later on, I must be content for the present 
 merely to state my position and to pass on to other, 
 prior considerations. 
 
 And first I would point out that before we can 
 possibly achieve the greatest development of our 
 personality, we must know something, at least, 
 about it. We cannot possibly obtain the best re- 
 sults from a machine about which we know nothing. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 17 
 
 and most certainly this is true of our mental and 
 physical selves. So that our first consideration will 
 be this of attempting to understand our ' selves.' 
 But just here I would point out that throughout 
 all this we must be influenced by our conception 
 of the character of our own personality — in what 
 it consists — and this must, therefore, claim our at- 
 tention before aught else. 
 
 Our outlook, then, will be coloured by this con- 
 sideration: whether we consider ourselves the re- 
 sultant of mere physical forces and so-called mat- 
 ter — our mental and spiritual life being but the 
 offshoot of these (this being the position of ma- 
 terialism) — or as a spiritual essence or entity hav- 
 ing persistence. Our entire viewpoint will and 
 must be altered by whichever of these views we 
 adopt, for our philosophy of life must be shaped 
 and built upon either one of these two positions., 
 It accordingly becomes our duty to examine, 
 briefly, each of them in turn, in order that we may 
 arrive at some clear understanding of the problem 
 before us. 
 
 Now nearly everyone we meet grants himself 
 to be a spiritual entity, and would indignantly re- 
 pudiate the idea that he is a materialist or in 
 any way materialistic in his outlook. Neverthe- 
 less his idea of a future life is beyond question very 
 vague, dim and uncertain; and above all, he 
 
18 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 takes no active, vital interest in the matter one way 
 or the other.^ The man-in-the-street never — or 
 hardly ever — allows these considerations to enter 
 into his life at all; he accepts them, yet never al- 
 lows them to interfere with or influence his daily 
 life and his actions in the slightest degree. He 
 utterly fails to see that the idea of continued sur- 
 vival — of a future hf e — and of his making here 
 and now the conditions of that life, must here and 
 now shape his life and mould his ideas. He never 
 allows the thought to be truly felt by him- 
 self, or to influence his life in the least. On Sun- 
 day, it is true, he attends church — more as a kind 
 of social function or duty than because any truly 
 religious spirit stirs him to go: but throughout 
 the week his religion influences him and his life not 
 a particle ; he is blankly indifferent to both — a 
 truth which Robert Louis Stevenson so forcibly 
 pointed out in his beautiful " Christmas Sermon." 
 He has, in fact, been living the life of the material- 
 ist while professing to be a spiritualist (in the 
 broadest sense of the term), and yet all the while 
 he takes it for granted that he ' has ' a soul, and 
 that the fact is obvious and indisputable, and be- 
 
 1 Prof. F. C. S. Schiller conclusively proved, by means of 
 a statistical inquiry, how very indifferent the public, as 
 such, is on this question. See his paper on " Human Senti- 
 ment as to a Future Life," Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. 
 XVIII, pp. 416-53. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 19 
 
 comes highly offended if anyone, in the honest 
 search for Truth, ventures to doubt that fact, upon 
 what he considers good ground ! 
 
 On the other hand — and as opposed to this 
 hypocritical and bigoted and narrow outlook — 
 the scientist has almost invariably made a close 
 personal study of this subject; and upon it he is 
 far more entitled to a hearing than the average 
 man or woman who has not taken the trouble to 
 investigate the question at aU — taking the whole 
 thing for granted and settled. The scientist's re- 
 searches do not, as many think, confine him to the 
 investigation of ' dead ' matter at all, but, if he is 
 a philosophic scientist (as nearly all are bound to 
 be nowadays), they will force him to consider the 
 greatest problems of death and futurity, and to 
 apply aU his ability and ingenuity to an attempt 
 to solve them. As the result of these investiga- 
 tions he has often returned the verdict " Immor- 
 tality is a superstition — an impossibility ! " 
 And although he may not be ultimately right in 
 this verdict, I would point out that he is neverthe- 
 less entitled — not to sneers and ridicule as many 
 think — but to praise for his painstaking care 
 and zeal and earnestness in thus making a close, 
 personal study and taking a vital interest in those 
 subjects which the man-in-the-street (who accepts 
 a future life) does not take, and whose faith is 
 
20 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 such only, and not founded upon close study and 
 personal and painstaking investigation, as is that 
 of the scientist. 
 
 Now the reason why so many (in fact the 
 vast bulk) of the people accept a future life is, 
 I believe, because they have never considered the 
 scientific and philosophic objections to it — those 
 reasons which, to the scientific mind, are stumbling 
 blocks in the way of its acceptance. And since the 
 man of science is, as a whole, most impartial and 
 open-minded, and since he has doubtless studied 
 these questions more exhaustively and impartially 
 than the man who accepts the whole question as set- 
 tled before investigation, it behooves us at least to 
 consider those objections which, to the man of sci- 
 ence, are conclusive against any such possibility 
 as a life hereafter. I cannot now, of course, even 
 touch upon more than two or three of the leading 
 and most important objections to the possibility of 
 a future life; and in those cases but briefly. 
 
 To many minds, then, the now all but universally 
 accepted doctrine of evolution is a very great rea- 
 son for our non-acceptance of any future life in 
 any form; for on that theory our mental hfe is 
 directly traceable to, and is but the higher develop- 
 ment of, the mental life of the lower organisms — 
 from which it has ascended by a gradual chain, 
 a series of steps in the evolutionary process. And 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 21 
 
 the mental life may be traced in a continuous, al- 
 most unbroken chain, down, down the scale to the 
 very lowest animal forms — aye, even into the 
 vegetable world; and the vegetable life may be 
 traced, ultimately, into the inorganic world — to 
 simple chemical reaction ; so that the position of 
 many scientific men is that there is no more reason to 
 suppose that our own mental life continues to exist, 
 and that we are entitled to ' immortality,' than 
 that all animal and vegetable life, and even chem- 
 ical action, is entitled to ' immortality.' ^ And this 
 position is at least logical. 
 
 i Another objection is found in the fact that our 
 mental life is, beyond a doubt, so intimately bound 
 up and associated with cerebral changes ; i. e., those 
 nervous changes that take place in the brain sub- 
 stance whenever we think. Mix poison with the 
 blood of any individual and see how quickly his 
 mental life will become unbalanced — even cease al- 
 together (apparently) ; while we know that, in many 
 types of disease, these same phenomena of mental 
 derangement occur. Above all — and the most 
 convincing argument to many minds — is the fact 
 that we can, by surgical operation, remove a cer- 
 tain portion of the brain-substance and with its 
 
 1 This statement is hardly quite accurate; it represents 
 only the very extreme school of which Professor Haeckel 
 may perhaps be considered the most noted champion. — 
 H. C. 
 
22 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 removal will vanish a certain section or part of our 
 mental life. " Piece by piece, section by section, 
 as the physical and obviously material brain is re- 
 moved ; so bit by bit, and little by little, the mental 
 life disappears, until not a vestige of it remains." ^ 
 All this " most certainly tends to show that; our 
 conscious existence is absolutely dependent iSipon 
 our very material brain." 
 
 Finally, there is the objection that thought and 
 cerebral changes are, apparently, so inseparably 
 united that the one cannot possibly exist without 
 the other. For every thought we think, for every 
 mood, emotion or fact of consciousness, there is, 
 corresponding to it, a certain definite change in the 
 brain tissue ; and that that correspondence and cor- 
 relation has now been established beyond doubt, 
 there can be no question. We must accept it as a 
 proved fact, whatever view we adopt of our men- 
 tal life and the possibility of its persistence. But 
 this being the case, the materialist might, and in- 
 deed does say, " Well, since this equivalence and 
 correlation is always present, what proof have we 
 that mental states or so-called consciousness can ex- 
 ist apart from such cerebral changes.!* That is, 
 when the brain ceases to exercise its functions, as it 
 most certainly does at death, what proof have we 
 
 1 See Chapter "V on " The Origin and Nature of Con- 
 sciousness," below, pp. 114-78. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 23 
 
 that our mental life continues to exist ; in fact liow 
 earn it, since, in this life, it is always bound up with 
 and inseparable from these cerebral changes? " In 
 fact the whole question can be resolved into this: 
 When the brain ceases to exercise its functions, 
 what evidence have we that the consciousness con- 
 tinues to exist? And if we have no such evi- 
 dence, then the presumption is certainly all against 
 our accepting such a thing as a future life of any 
 sort; for, since there is no positive evidence that 
 such IS the case, and since consciousness cannot, 
 apparently, exist apart from the functioning of 
 nerve-tissue, then the idea of a future hfe must 
 remain an unproved dream, a figment of the imag- 
 ination, which the man of science must conse- 
 quently reject; and this position is, it appears to 
 me, a perfectly logical and conclusive one, so far 
 as it goes. 
 
 If this position is ever to be overthrown, there- 
 fore, the evidence must be scientific evidence, and 
 the reasons produced facts, since no amount 
 of theorising and no religious faith can possibly 
 influence the mind of the man of science, to whom 
 facts and evidence alone appeal. If immortality, 
 is to be proved, therefore, the man of science must 
 be met upon his own ground and definite facts 
 and evidence produced which will offset those ad- 
 vanced by the materialist — such as will definitely 
 
24s THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 establish, upon scientific grounds, the possibility of 
 man's survival of bodily death; and this evidence 
 can only come from such facts as -will tend to show 
 that consciousness does continue to exist after 
 death — ■ where most certainly there is no brain 
 functioning for it to be associated with. If, there- 
 fore, we can produce certain facts and evidence 
 which seem to prove the operations of a conscious- 
 ness actively at work, and most certainly not con- 
 nected with any material brain, then we shall 
 have the right kind of evidence to take before the 
 materialist, and we can say to him, " Here is the 
 evidence you seek; here are certain recorded facts 
 that tend to show that consciousness can exist 
 apart from brain-function, and consequently that 
 immortality is not only possible, but certain and 
 demonstrable." And I must insist again upon the 
 fact that this is the only kind of evidence that will 
 ever be received by the scientific world as proof of 
 man's survival and of immortality. It is, in fact, 
 the only proof conceivable. 
 
 Now in the phenomena of psychical research 
 we find (and only here can we ever find) such evi- 
 dence ; for in these phenomena we have certain facts 
 brought before us which can certainly be explained 
 very readily upon the assumption that the con- 
 sciousness producing the facts or furnishing the 
 evidence is still existent, and are apparently most 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 25 
 
 hard, if not impossible, to explain in any other 
 manner. Into the quality and quantity and char- 
 acter of this evidence I cannot go here. Almost 
 all readers are probably too well aware of the gen- 
 eral phenomena and results of psychical research 
 to render such a detailed exposition necessary, 
 dealing as it does with supernormal mental states 
 and conditions: trance-mediumship, clairvoyance, 
 telepathy, dreams, apparitions, haunted houses and 
 the Hke. Such phenomena as these, carefully 
 studied, have supplied us with an abundance of in- 
 formation and of facts which, while they bear out 
 the spiritistic interpretation, certainly seem hard 
 to reconcile with the materiaUstic hypothesis. 
 They do, in short, present us with certain evidence 
 pointing, at least, to the conclusion that here, in 
 such phenomena, is the evidence — here are the 
 facts required — to prove beyond reasonable doubt 
 the fact that consciousness does and must exist 
 apart from brain-function, by producing such evi- 
 dence as will render the acceptance of that truth 
 unavoidable; and if such a definite and final con- 
 clusion has not yet been reached, it can only be said 
 that, in future years, such a proof seems well within 
 the bounds of possibility ; and as this is, as I have 
 stated, the only conceivable evidence that can ever 
 be forthcoming in proof of a future life, I must 
 insist upon the vast importance of the study, and 
 
26 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 upon the necessity of patiently and calmly and un- 
 ceasingly investigating these phenomena, realis- 
 ing that such an investigation, so far from deserv- 
 ing the scoffs and sneers of the public, is in one 
 sense " the most important investigation in the 
 world," as Gladstone so well said many years ago, 
 " by far the most important," since they form, 
 as has been repeatedly pointed out, the bridge, and 
 the only bridge possible, between the religious and 
 the scientific worlds. 
 
 And this evidence for a super-physical and 
 spiritual world which the phenomena of psychical 
 research furnish us, the fact that such phenom- 
 ena are constantly here and now happening 
 in our very midst, gives us a vivid impression of 
 the nearness, the presence, the all-inclusiveness of 
 such a world, and a sense of its nearness and reality 
 which few, if any, religious systems can furnish 
 or equal. This world which we thus come into 
 touch with, this inner, causal world may, after all, 
 be the real or ' noumenal ' world of which we but 
 perceive the phenomena, the effects, the shadows; 
 and that this is very probably true, at heart, is 
 certainly borne out and rendered most credible by 
 the general acceptance of the philosophic system 
 known as idealism — a very brief outline of which 
 I shall give here, as it is essential for our argu- 
 ment. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 27 
 
 It can readily be shown, and that without go- 
 ing further than the province of physiology, 
 that the world we see and know and live in is 
 not the real, outer world of physical things and 
 events at all, — which world we do not, in reality, 
 ever see or know or come in touch with; i. e., we 
 never can or do see the real, physical world! At 
 first sight this may appear rather a sweeping, 
 if not a ridiculous statement, but that this is 
 the truth can be readily proved as follows. When 
 I look at and apparently " see " a physical object, 
 what really happens is something like this. Ether 
 (light) waves passing from the object to my eye 
 have caused the eye to vibrate, and this vibration, 
 reaching the optic nerve through the vibration of 
 the vitreous humour of the eyeball, causes a nerve- 
 current to be set in motion, which travels along the 
 optic nerve, reaching ultimately the centre of 
 sight in the rear of the brain, where a certain brain- 
 change takes place (just what we are unable to say, 
 but probably some sort of nerve vibration), and 
 corresponding to this change and coincidental with 
 it is the sensation of sight — of the object at which 
 we happen to be looking at the time. But this 
 brain-change is not itself the object looked at, but 
 merely its counterpart, or duplicate, or symbol; 
 and therefore for every object we " see " there is 
 and must be this corresponding brain-change. 
 
28 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 varying with and corresponding to the various ob- 
 jects seen. There is thus a series or succession of 
 brain-changes, corresponding point for point with 
 the outer, external objects seen, of which they 
 are merely the symbols. But the mental state, 
 the thought, does not in any case correspond with 
 and to the external object, but with the brain- 
 change (see p. 131); with this it corresponds, 
 with this it is intimately connected; and, if the 
 mind can be said to see any physical thing in the 
 world, so to speak, it is the brain-change and not 
 the object! But the brain-changes are, so far as 
 we can see, as entirely dissimilar from the external 
 object as possible; they are merely its counterparts, 
 or symbols, as I have before stated. So that we 
 do in reality live altogether in a world of symbols 
 — an inner, duplicate, mental world — ^ which is 
 thus the only world we do or ever can know.^ So 
 
 i"That these objects [i. e., the objects we see and 
 know] are nothing but mental modifications may be dem- 
 onstrated, so to speak, ad oculos. Suppose I am looking at 
 a candle; the candle I am conscious of is a mental modifi- 
 cation. How may I convince myself of the fact? By the 
 simple process of closing my eyes. Something then ceases 
 to exist. Is it the real candle? Certainly not. Then it 
 must be the mental duplicate. By successively opening and 
 closing my eyes I may create and annihilate the perceived 
 candle. But the real candle continues unchanged. Then 
 what I am immediately conscious of when my eyes are open 
 must be the mental duplicate. If an original of that dupli- 
 cate exists outside the mind, it must be other than the candle 
 I perceive, and itself unperceived." — Prof. G. Strong, 
 the Mind Has a Body, p. 186. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 29 
 
 that — and this is the practical conclusion I wish 
 to reach and point out to you — we all live in 
 an inner, mental world which is but the symbol 
 of the outer world, and which each one of us must 
 subjectively construct within himself. 
 
 The certain conclusion from this chain of ar- 
 gument is that each one of us constructs with- 
 in himself the world he lives in — which is, so 
 far as he is concerned, the only, or real world. 
 Thus, we literally make or create owe own worlds 
 — the world we live in — in the very fullest sense 
 of the term : we live in our own created world — 
 the world we have made for ourselves. And, if 
 this is so, then, I suggest (since we can thus in- 
 fluence its construction) we might just as well 
 make for ourselves a good, cheerful, happy world 
 as a bad, gloomy, unhappy one — since the pro- 
 cess of construction must evidently enter into the 
 problem. Our mental world obviously does not 
 only correspond point for point with the outer 
 world that exists ; for if it did, then all minds must 
 necessarily be the same, and there would be no 
 ' personal factor ' in the world ; but since we 
 know that individuals do not, at any time, see 
 things precisely alike, there must be a personal or 
 individual factor entering into the case also; and 
 this individual factor colours or shapes our mental 
 world, causing it to differ in each one of us. 
 
30 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 How far this process of colouration and shaping 
 goes is readily seen when we look around upon 
 the world and see the varied types of individuals, 
 and how widely different are men and women of 
 every age and clime, — aye, even those of the same 
 land, the same city, house, family ! Thus the pro- 
 cess of colouration or individualisation becomes the 
 most important factor in our lives, and, in short, 
 determines our character and forms our true 
 ' self.' 
 
 One practical conclusion follows from all this 
 — a conclusion of most fundamental and of great 
 importance. It is this: According to the view- 
 point we assume does the world change; i. e., we 
 can alter or reconstruct the world we live in to suit 
 ourselves, and make it what we will. Now that is 
 a consideration of truly immense importance, for 
 we can see that, in order to reconstruct our lives 
 and live a happier, better, more contented life, we 
 have not to change the tvorld, but the viewpoint; 
 and when once this has been done the world will 
 assume its normal aspect ; things will become prop- 
 erly adjusted, and happiness and harmony, instead 
 of misery and discord, will ensue! How funda- 
 mentally important is this consideration is well il- 
 lustrated in that class of facts in which the coloura- 
 tion and viewpoint are so tremendously important 
 and all-inclusive as apparently to obliterate the 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 81 
 
 outer-world phenomena altogether, and even 
 change the course of those phenomena, causing 
 them to pursue some course, or achieve some end 
 which they would not otherwise do; and that is a 
 very important consideration for us indeed. This 
 aspect of the problem is well brought out and il- 
 lustrated by Prof. William James in his Will to 
 Believe (p. 96-7), where he says: 
 
 " Suppose, for example, that I am climbing in 
 the Alps, and have had the ill-luck to work myself 
 into a position from which the only escape is by a 
 terrible leap. Being without similar experience I 
 have no evidence of my ability to perform it suc- 
 cessfully; but hope and confidence in myself make 
 me sure I shall not miss my aim and nerve my 
 feet to execute what without those subjective emo- 
 tions would perhaps have been impossible. But 
 suppose that, on the contrary, the emotions of fear 
 and mistrust preponderate; or suppose that, hav- 
 ing just read the Ethics of Belief, I feel it would 
 be sinful to act upon an assumption unverified by 
 previous experience — why, then I shall hesitate 
 so long that at last, exhausted and trembling, and 
 launching myself in a moment of despair, I miss 
 my foothold and roll into the abyss. In this case 
 (and it is one of an immense class) the part of 
 wisdom clearly is to believe what one desires; for 
 the belief is one of the indispensable preliminary 
 
32 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 conditions of the realisation of its object. There 
 are then cases where faith creates Its own verifica- 
 tion. Believe, and you shall be right, for you shall 
 save yourself ; doubt, and you shall again be right, 
 for you shall perish. The only difference is that 
 to. believe is greatly to your advantage." 
 
 The practical consequences of all this are im- 
 mense. If faith can thus create its own verifica- 
 tion, where can we draw the line? How limit its 
 power for the fulfilment of worthy ambitions and 
 achievements which would otherwise be impossi- 
 ble.!* Viewed from this standpoint, they may not 
 be impossible at all, but well within the possibil- 
 ity of achievement ; while, if we could get. a larger 
 mental grasp of things, we might see that all our 
 set-backs and reverses are not such in reality, but 
 only temporary trials and obstacles to be overcome 
 — which may be, indeed, the very best thing that 
 could possibly happen to us, could we but see the 
 proper relations of that fact or happening to others 
 that have gone before or are about to follow. I 
 thus conceive that a " scientific optimism " is quite 
 possible, and that the old saying " All is good " may 
 be ultimately quite true, and may be proved to be 
 so from future experience as well as from philoso- 
 phy. And if it is possible, it is certainly alto- 
 gether desirable, both for the individual and for 
 those coming into close, personal contact with him. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE S3 
 
 since a happier and better life does not alto- 
 gether limit its influence to the individual living it, 
 but reacts, perforce, on all those who are closely 
 associated with him. The only difficulty is in real- 
 ising the position that all may ultimately be for 
 the best, could we but see things in their proper 
 light and judge them with the eye of foreknowl- 
 edge and greater understanding. The great 
 trouble with us is that we cannot, at the time any 
 event is happening, see the relations of that event 
 to others that are to follow — only the event itself ; 
 in that we are swallowed up and absorbed. And 
 if this larger mental viewpoint or judgment were 
 possible, I am assured that our ultimate judgments 
 of many of life's happenings would be very differ- 
 ent — we looking upon them as blessings, rather 
 than curses ; as the inevitable consequences of trans- 
 gressed law, rather than as ' dispensations of 
 Heaven ; ' as trials to be overcome for our own ul- 
 timate good, rather than as useless and altogether 
 harmful events and occurrences that have taken 
 place in our lives. To a larger, enveloping con- 
 sciousness this may, indeed, be the light in which 
 these things are seen, and the event arranged 
 for the purpose, and with the object, of our 
 best ultimate benefit, though not suited and 
 adapted, perhaps, to our limited and narrow 
 outlook. And that such an overshadowing, all- 
 
34f THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 inclusive consciousness — call it God or what you 
 will — is at least a possibility cannot be over- 
 looked or dismissed as a scientific absurdity. As, 
 Professor James so well expressed it (The Will to 
 Believe, pp. 57-8) : " That the world of physics is 
 probably not absolute, all the converging multitude 
 of arguments that make in favour of idealism tend 
 to prove; and that our whole physical life may he 
 soaking in a spiritual atmosphere, a dimension of 
 being that we at present have no organ for appre- 
 hending, is vividly suggested to us by the analogy 
 of the life of our domestic animals. Our dogs, for 
 example, are in our human life but not of it. 
 They witness hourly the outward body of events 
 whose inner meaning cannot, by any possible oper- 
 ation, be revealed to their intelligence, — events in 
 which they themselves often play the cardinal part. 
 My terrier bites a teasing boy, for example, and 
 the father demands damages. The dog may be 
 present at every step of the negotiations, and see 
 the money paid, without an inkling of what it all 
 means, without a suspicion that it has anything 
 to do with him; and he never can know in his nat- 
 ural dog's hfe." 
 
 To elaborate Professor James' idea a little fur- 
 ther: just as the dog's consciousness is contained in 
 ours, but we perceive, at the same time, many psy- 
 chological surroundings, meanings and relations to 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 35 
 
 the actual events, which the dog cannot possibly 
 see, so may our own consciousness be included and 
 surrounded by a vaster, cosmic consciousness, which 
 includes our own and much that we cannot possibly 
 know because of our limitations. 
 
 That some events, at least, now happening and 
 apparently altogether evil and harmful, may in 
 the end prove of the very greatest benefit to our- 
 selves is again suggested to us by the following 
 analogy. A dog has imbedded in his paw a 
 splinter, the removal of which is a painful opera- 
 tion. Knowing that it must be removed, however, 
 we hold the dog forcibly and have the splinter re- 
 moved — to his ultimate benefit, of course. But 
 during the operation, when the pain was at its 
 height, the dog could not possibly be supposed to 
 know that this was " for his own good," and to him 
 it must have seemed a very brutal and altogether 
 evil experience. But to us, who see — not only 
 the happening itself, but its future consequences 
 and relations; to our consciousness, which in- 
 cludes not only the dog's, but a great deal be- 
 sides, the event appears in an altogether different 
 light, and we perceive the ultimate effects to be 
 not detrimental and evil, but beneficial and the best 
 thing that could possibly happen. And so it may 
 be with ourselves. To a larger, more far-seeing 
 consciousness, the events which seem evil to us 
 
86 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 may ultimately appear to be those which are for 
 our greatest benefit, and of the greatest assistance 
 to our true progress. 
 
 Taking this more inclusive and larger point 
 of view, then, we come to see the pettiness, 
 the littleness of many of life's happenings, the 
 things we quarrel over and deem at the time to be 
 of such vast importance. These very things may, 
 and doubtless mil, ultimately prove to be of the 
 very least significance and worth ; in fact, when once 
 possessed, they may prove actually undesirable if 
 not actively detrimental. Take, for example, 
 money. Money does not bring happiness, nor 
 health, nor anything of real worth in life; in fact 
 often the reverse, as has been confirmed by many 
 men who possess it. But apart from their testi- 
 mony, consider what must be the feelings of any 
 sensitive, intuitive man or' woman who happens to 
 be immensely wealthy, and who sees around him the 
 crowds of men and women — ' friends ' — cluster- 
 ing as the bees about the hive! Would not his 
 thoughts be, " Do these men and women like me, 
 or do they like my money? If I were poor, would 
 they still cleave to me for myself, my own indi- 
 viduality? Or do they like me because of what 
 they can extract from me, in one form or an- 
 other? " Would not such thoughts as these make 
 life bitter, taking from it all its charm and spon- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE S7 
 
 taneity and sweetness? The constant worry and 
 uncertainty must be ' hell on earth ' indeed to such 
 poor (literally poor) souls! Are we not, almost 
 all of us, better and happier without this money for 
 which the whole world strives? Is it not a false 
 ideal — a false goal? And may not much greater 
 happiness be experienced without than with it? 
 That degeneracy and inability to do good work — 
 the work of genius — often goes with fame and 
 the inheritance of large sums of money is too well 
 realised to insist upon here; it is made the central 
 theme of Marie Corelli's truly fine book, The 
 Sorrows of Satan. And as a final reflection I 
 would point out that we do, in America, judge 
 all a man's abilities by his money-making ability. 
 His other qualities and qualifications we heed not 
 at all, be he ever so great a man ; but if he is an 
 adept at gaining money (honestly or dishonestly) 
 then he is a ' clever ' man, forsooth ! And yet this 
 ability to make money will surely be rated the very 
 lowest in the scale when the ultimate summing-up 
 shall follow. 
 
 The whole viewpoint and position toward the 
 question is wrong, I think, in this: that we can- 
 not, as it is generally supposed, add happiness 
 •from without, — since we must find that with- 
 in ourselves; it must well up from the core of 
 our being. Just as we cannot add vitality to our- 
 
38 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 selves from without, but can only ' clear the 
 ground,' so to speak, for its free operation from 
 within; ^ just as we cannot force another soul to 
 perceive Truth (the recognition of which must 
 come from within — all facts and arguments 
 merely ' clearing the way ' of obstructions existing 
 between the seer and the Truth), just so must aU 
 real happiness come from within ourselves ; it must 
 well up from within us, and cannot possibly be 
 forced in or supplied from without. Each individ- 
 ual must thus make and form his own mental life, 
 and must colour it as he may, according to the de- 
 gree of understanding and intuitive grasp of his 
 personality. 
 
 And thus, as the result of this long preamble, 
 we arrive at the true viewpoint in this matter, 
 • — in perceiving that we can make ourselves, in 
 the truest sense of the term, and that we can, 
 in reality, create our own world and become the in- 
 dividual we choose to be. Our whole future, then, 
 
 1 " We cannot force plants to grow with greater rapidity 
 ... all we can do is to supply the conditions (heat, 
 moisture, sunlight, and the proper amount of nutriment) 
 that are most favourable for the growth of the plant. The 
 conditions being supplied, growth becomes more easily pos- 
 sible; but it will be observed we are not actually adding to 
 the life-force of the plant, but merely supplying the condi- 
 tions that render the outward manifestations of this life- 
 force more favourable. The force, the energy of growth is 
 inherent, and the absurdity of trying to force or 'manu- 
 facture ' this energy should be apparent." — Vitality, Fast- 
 ing and Nutrition, p. 3SS. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OP LIFE 39 
 
 rests not on some ' Divine Providence,' but in our 
 own hands; we must ourselves achieve any great 
 results that are achieved, any ambitions that 
 are fulfilled. What, then, is the object of life? 
 For what reason are we living? What should we 
 do with our lives, in short? For my own part, I 
 think that some definite and lastingly beneficial 
 work — achievement of some kind along some cer- 
 tain line — is our life's duty, and that this is the 
 great and the final end and aim of life — viz., the 
 accomplishment of some set purpose through per- 
 sistent and continued work. And in considering 
 the matter, it appears more and more obvious, I 
 think, that this should be so. For what purpose 
 do we need rest and sleep and food other than to 
 recuperate and refresh and strengthen us for the la- 
 bours of the morrow? Do we not simply recharge 
 ourselves with energy thereby for the purpose of 
 fitting ourselves for more and better work? And 
 in this connection, the true meaning and the phi- 
 losophy of recreation become clear to us also. As 
 Felix Adler so well said (Religion of Duty, p. 
 154) : " Pleasure is intended as a recreation, a 
 cordial. We cannot do our work well if we are 
 relaxed, heavy and dull, surely not so well as when 
 our faculties are at their brightest, and when we go 
 about our tasks full of cheer, freshness and vigour. 
 Pleasure is justified to the extent that it renders 
 
40 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 men more efficient workers." And this, it seems to 
 me, is an absolutely true statement. The main 
 thing in life is the work (not money-getting be it 
 understood, which I consider purely subsidiary, 
 and necessary only as a means for preserving life 
 iwhile the life's real work is being accomplished) 
 — this definite object which we should all have, 
 and the accomplishment of which must be our sole 
 aim and end and purpose; that, I conceive, is our 
 life's true goal, and, as compared with the accom- 
 plishment of that ideal, all else is really insignifi- 
 cant. 
 
 Thus it will be seen, I think, that the individ- 
 ual is quite secondary and unimportant as com- 
 pared with the achievement and completion of his 
 life's true work. So long as this is thoroughly 
 and well accomplished, I think that the individual 
 i should be quite willing to be sacrificed — to suffer 
 his own insignificant personality to become obliter- 
 ated, if needs be, for the good of the human race, 
 and especially for those near and dear to him. 
 Compared with the results of a man's life the man 
 himself is, and should consider himself, quite unim- 
 portant, and as constituting merely the means to a 
 great end — the work achieved. I say he should 
 be willing to sacrifice himself; not that he must 
 necessarily do so. Provided a man keeps himself 
 in good health, there is absolutely no reason why 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 41 
 
 he should not produce a great amount of good 
 work and live a long and a happy life as well — 
 " a long life and a merry one," in fact. There is 
 no reason, I say, why these should not be combined 
 into one human lifetime, and I think they should 
 be so combined. For we know that in giving we 
 often experience the greatest happiness, and that 
 unselfishness often recoils in our own favour, and 
 that we invariably find good and happiness in so 
 sacrificing that which we hold dear; and so long 
 as we are producing good results — the fruit of 
 good work — I think we shall never feel the need of 
 other, external sources of happiness, or of those 
 things which the majority crave. As Horace 
 Fletcher so well said : " Happiness is the result 
 of conscious usefulness " — a statement as exquisite 
 as it is true. Each one of us, then, should take up 
 some definite line of work — ' one which he or she 
 thinks most fitted to his or her particular bent and 
 life — and follow that work persistently, conscien- 
 tiously, unswervingly. No matter what the line 
 of work may be — so long as it is honourable — it 
 is bound to bring good into the world and happi- 
 ness to the person accomplishing it. Having in 
 mind, then, those things which are of real worth 
 in life (and bearing in mind that this life is not the 
 end of all things, so far as we are concerned, but 
 merely the very smallest fraction of our Life — as 
 
42 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 it will doubtless ultimately prove to be), we should 
 choose and begin some definite work — the accom- 
 plishment of which should be our life's chief duty 
 — ■ before which all else pales into insignificance, all 
 else must be sacrificed; and in thus striving, and 
 perhaps achieving, we shall find happiness and 
 health and true Life. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 PSYCHICAL £ES£A£CH: BEFIJES TO OBJECTIONS 
 
 \ MONG men of scientific repute, and especially 
 ■'^*- among psychologists, no question of late 
 years has given rise to such bitter contests, to such 
 strong partisan feeling, as the legitimacy for se- 
 rious study of certain more or less sporadic 
 phenomena termed " psychic." By " psychical re- 
 search," as herein defended, is meant certain res- 
 idual phenomena which are as yet unrecognised by 
 any of the official sciences ; whose very existence is, 
 in fact, doubted by a large number of scientific 
 men. The existing difi'erences of opinion are only 
 natural, but when we come to examine the reasons 
 upon which the sceptic founds his doubts and res- 
 ervations, we find them generally invalid, and it is 
 the purpose of this chapter to examine the objec- 
 tions themselves. But that they should be open 
 to doubt at all, if actually existing, is, to some 
 persons, an irreconcilable drawback to their inves- 
 tigation. It seems to show that they are uncertain, 
 shifting, uncontrollable, and not subject to the scien- 
 tifically exact methods of laboratory experiment 
 prevailing at the present day. This uncertainty 
 is largely due, first, to the fact that here, unlike 
 43 
 
44 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 any other scientific investigation in this respect, 
 fraud frequently enters into the question of evi- 
 dence, and has to be carefully excluded before any 
 deductions from the facts observed can be drawn; 
 second, because, even considering the genuine phe- 
 nomena, we are principally coping with that most 
 unstable and uncertain " quantity " — the human 
 mind. When we are dealing, not with carbon and 
 hydrogen, but with emotions and moods, we are 
 on far more debatable ground, in far more uncer- 
 tain surroundings than science, as such, is accus- 
 tomed to debate. Indeed, comparatively nothing 
 is known in reality about these mental phenomena, 
 even by the " orthodox psychologists ; " the whole 
 subject is enveloped in a cloud of exasperating ob- 
 scurity, and, such being the case, it is certainly un- 
 reasonable that the outlying, and perhaps still 
 more obscure phenomena, such as trance, clairvoy- 
 ance, telepathy, etc., should meet with a priori re- 
 jection and ridicule, instead of diligent study and 
 research. It is the above-named subjects then, to- 
 gether with such other debatable phenomena as ap- 
 paritions at the moment of death, second-sight, pre- 
 monitions, phantasms of the dead, and haunted 
 houses, together with the wide range of spiritistic 
 phenomena, which form the basis of this research; 
 a " new science " as Sir Oliver Lodge has said. 
 The opposition to any strikingly new idea; the 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 46 
 
 natural tendency to cling to long-seated dogmas 
 and prejudices, as distinguished from the perfectly 
 legitimate scientific caution with which every par- 
 tially demonstrated theory is received, all these 
 tend to arouse doubts and to promote antagonistic 
 ideas from the man of science. Looked at from 
 the other side of the question, however, it is some- 
 what surprising to find that in an age which has 
 produced so many brilliant " free-thinkers " along 
 theological and other hues of inquiry — it is some- 
 what surprising, I say, to find so few men who are 
 liberal enough to take up the investigation of 
 these subjects in a perfectly candid and unbiased 
 frame of mind; to be willing, at the cost of a little 
 time and trouble, to sift the matter thoroughly, 
 and to find what truth, if any, is contained therein. 
 No caU is made upon their credulity, no " ac- 
 ceptance of any particular explanation of the phe- 
 nomena investigated, nor any belief as to the opera- 
 tion, in the physical world, of forces other than 
 those recognised by physical science." The only 
 plea entered by those who defend these subjects is 
 that they should be investigated, and not merely 
 scoffed at upon d priori grounds, and without any 
 knowledge either of the strength or the character 
 of the evidence attacked. 
 
 Surely no scientifically minded man can object to 
 these conditions. " Investigate for yourself ; form 
 
46 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 your own opinions; by no means trust entirely to 
 the evidence presented by others : " this has almost 
 invariably been the advice of psychical researchers, 
 and, be it added in fairness to them, of the spiritists 
 also. And that scientific men have investigated 
 these questions, and that the vast majority of those 
 who have done so Tiave become convinced that at 
 least occasionally phenomena occur which are not 
 dreamed of in our scientific philosophy, — this also 
 is a matter of historical record. Dr. Alfred Rus- 
 sel Wallace has, in fact, declared that " the whole 
 history of science shows us that, whenever the edu- 
 cated and scientific men of any age have denied the 
 facts of other investigators on d priori grounds of 
 absurdity or impossibility, the deniers have always 
 been wrong." ^ 
 
 Without going quite so far as Dr. Wallace 
 has done in his somewhat sweeping, but generally 
 true statement, it is certain that the history of 
 scientific research is most dolefully bespattered 
 with records of almost fanatical scepticism. The 
 astronomers of Galileo's time, who knew that he 
 was hopelessly wrong, yet refused even to put 
 their eyes to his telescope — " for fear of be- 
 ing convinced ; " the sceptical M.D. who " does 
 not beheve that any spirit can come back, because 
 
 lA. R. Wallace, Miracles and Modern Spirittuxlism, pp. 
 z, xi. 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 47 
 
 he does not believe that there is any such thing 
 as a spirit to come back " (we shall return to this 
 argument later on) ; the skilled geologist who de- 
 clares (apropos of meteors) that "there are no 
 stones in the air, consequently none can fall out of 
 the air " — these are but a few examples of the 
 melancholy list which it would be no great task to 
 compile, all illustrating human error, prejudice and 
 fanaticism. 
 
 But in pointing out these defects and mistakes 
 made by scientific men, it must not be supposed 
 that science, or scientific method itself, is at fault 
 — far from it. It is to science that we owe what- 
 ever progress has been made towards a solution 
 of the various " riddles of the universe ; " and 
 strictly scientific method and rigorous logic are 
 only neglected by those who are incapable of un- 
 derstanding and properly appreciating their value. 
 The blatant credulity and astonishing ignorance 
 displayed by many of those following various spir- 
 itualistic creeds cannot be appreciated until seen. 
 Their utter contempt for anything constituting 
 valid evidence is simply amazing. But again, be- 
 tween these two entirely opposite classes — which 
 I have painted in somewhat vivid colours to make 
 the contrast the clearer — there are, happily, va- 
 rious intermediate stages, any one of which it is 
 perfectly legitimate to defend, and which are, in 
 
48 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 fact, defended by men of eminently scientific re- 
 pute, ranging from the complete believers (Wal- 
 lace) to the equally complete disbelievers (Haeckel). 
 And if this be so, the question is : How is it possible 
 for the student to distinguish between these various 
 theories, and to obtain an unbiased review of the 
 facts and the arguments both pro and con? The 
 answer to this, of course, would be: first, experi- 
 ment for yourself, and secondly, read, without 
 bias, the standard books upon this subject."- 
 
 But, it may be objected, this will take much 
 time, and how am I to know whether, having done 
 all this, I shall be rewarded by anything at the 
 other end? In a field where imposture and credu- 
 lity run riot, as they most certainly do here, is it 
 worth while for scientific men to devote their time 
 to such dubious work as this, when it can most cer- 
 tainly be spent profitably in following up their 
 more orthodox scientific studies? What guarantee 
 is there of anything obtainable in this work — 
 anything, that is, of practical value? One can 
 hardly expect men like the late Lord Kelvin and 
 Thomas Huxley to go running about the country 
 investigating disturbances in " haunted houses " 
 which turn out to be caused by rats and the w,ind 
 in old water pipes ; to spend hours sitting round a 
 
 1 Especially the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical 
 Research. 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 49 
 
 table in the dark for the pleasure of exposing some 
 humbug juggler! On the whole, it appears to be 
 mostly rubbish, and I cannot aflFord to waste my 
 time making prolonged investigations of it! 
 
 These arguments, employed, as they are, by the 
 majority of scientific men to-day, and self -satisfy- 
 ing as they may be to the speaker, are yet lamen- 
 tably wesik when analysed. How are we to know 
 if there be truth in any question without prolonged 
 investigation? Whether inexplicable phenomena 
 do or do not occur in certain cases, is simply a mat- 
 ter of evidence; and that there is much good evi- 
 dence for their occurrence in many instances is be- 
 yond question. The facts are there; the interpre- 
 tation of those facts is another question. 
 
 Now, taking the whole range of psychical re- 
 search into consideration, it is somewhat difficult to 
 determine exactly the grounds for objection which 
 the scientific man will choose. If I should go to 
 some " orthodox " psychologist, or physician, or 
 physicist, and pointedly ask him, " What are 
 your objections to the serious study of these phe- 
 nomena? Why do you despise them, and deem 
 them unworthy of credence? What are your rea- 
 sons for refusing to study these subjects? And, 
 more than all, why do you ridicule them, or ignore 
 them altogether?" his answer would probably be: 
 " Because they are altogether unworthy of serious 
 
60 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 study; there is no respectable evidence in support 
 of any of them — none at all beyond that of a 
 few hysterical and credulous persons; the whole 
 thing is obviously humbug and rubbish from be- 
 ginning to end, and I don't want to waste my time 
 over it ! " * Or, again, the objections may be on 
 theological or orthodox grounds; or, it may be 
 urged that this inquiry fosters superstition, or 
 encourages fraudulent practices, or that their study 
 tends to induce abnormal and morbid conditions, 
 detrimental alike to both health and morals. As 
 all these objections seem to carry weight in the 
 public mind, though their complete lack of all 
 foundation may be easily seen by anyone thor- 
 oughly conversant with these subjects, I shall pro- 
 ceed to answer them one by one, being as brief as 
 possible in each case. 
 
 OETHODOX AND THEOLOGICAI. OBJECTIONS 
 
 The conflict between science and religion is 
 bound, in the natural order of events, finally to re- 
 sult in the complete triumph of science as opposed 
 to the crude speculations of many centuries ago. 
 It is a notorious fact that the Church has always 
 
 1 All this, it will be observed, is purely & priori, and win 
 be considered under tliat section. It is a sample of the 
 class of objections which the writer has often heard, how- 
 ever, and which show wilful prejudice and ignorance of this 
 subject 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 51 
 
 been opposed to new discoveries, to scientific ad- 
 vance; in fact to the enlightenment and education 
 of the masses in any form. That there should ever 
 have been such a thing at all as a " conflict bet^ea- 
 science and religion " is, in itself, a most foul blot 
 upon the history of religion and a slur upon man's 
 reason and independence of thought — as it neces- 
 sarily indicates opposition to progress. Those 
 very persons who are the most bigoted and rabid 
 in their defence of the Bible miracles are, strangely 
 enough, the very ones who oppose most vehemently 
 all modem evidence upon the same subject. If 
 these extraordinary events ever occurred, it surely is 
 reasonable to suppose that they should continue to 
 do so, in more or less the same form ; for the old 
 idea of a miracle — that it was a " direct interven- 
 tion on the part of providence " or a " suspension 
 of the laws of nature " — is absolutely discredited 
 by all thinking men of the present day. This is 
 not saying that no unaccountable phenomena took 
 place to give rise to these stories. It is highly; 
 probable that supernormal ^ phenomena did exist ; 
 that is, natural phenomena, the causes for which are 
 as yet unknown. But the evidence for the newer 
 
 1 The word " supernormal " has, for some time past, been 
 used by the Society for Psychical Research to take the 
 place of the meaningless term " supernatural," it being 
 claimed that whatever happens is natural — be it even the 
 intervention of spirits. 
 
62 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 " miracles " is infinitely superior to the old, and 
 that the former should be discredited and the latter 
 blindly accepted is beyond the comprehension of 
 the present writer. The credulity and ignorance 
 of the masses on religious topics is simply amazing ; 
 yet their blase attitude towards the vital questions 
 of death and futurity is beyond a doubt, unless 
 one should happen to step upon some orthodox 
 corn ! A perusal of Haeckel's Riddle of the Uni- 
 verse, for example, would do the majority of per- 
 sons a world of good. " What such persons most 
 need," as Prof, William James has justly said, " is 
 that their faiths should be broken up and venti- 
 lated; that the northwest wind of science should 
 get into them and blow their sickliness and bar- 
 barism away." ^ 
 
 Finally, it is urged, " What is the use of seek- 
 ing.'' You will find nothing. Such things are 
 God's secrets, which he keeps to himself." And to 
 this M. Flammarion rightly answers : " There al- 
 ways have been people who liked ignorance better 
 than knowledge. By this kind of reasoning (had 
 men acted upon it) nothing would ever have been 
 known of this world. . . . It is the mode of 
 reasoning adopted by those who do not care to 
 think for themselves, and who confide to directors 
 (so called) the charge of controlling their con- 
 
 1 The Will to Believe, and Other Essays, p. x. 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 53 
 
 " Faith," as Dr. Hyslop has reminded 
 us,^ " no longer charms with her magic wand, ex- 
 cept among those who do not accept or appreciate 
 scientific method, but whose flimsy standards afford 
 no criteria for defence against illusion and decep- 
 tion. Hence men who have been saturated, con- 
 sciously or unconsciously, with the scientific spirit, 
 either give up the hereafter or insist that their be- 
 lief shall have other credentials than authority." 
 Finally, that there should be any laws or phenom- 
 ena which it is illegitimate to study is utterly in- 
 credible, and that men should take this stand at 
 the present day is a sign of the most narrow- 
 minded bigotry, and utterly unworthy of the scien- 
 tific spirit of the age in which we hve. 
 
 THE OBJECTION THAT IT FOSTEUS SUPEKSTITION 
 
 This objection, I take it, has a certain amount of 
 force, and is, to some extent, a valid one. That 
 many superstitions are kept alive; that almost un- 
 bounded credulity exists among various spiritis- 
 tic sects, and that a faith in all sorts of vagaries 
 is maintained by the flood of so-called " psychic " 
 literature upon the market — all this is undoubtedly 
 true. But it does not necessarily follow, as many 
 
 1 The Unknovm, p. vil. 
 
 ^ Proceedinas Society for Psychical Research, Vol. XVI, 
 p. 289. 
 
64 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 think, that everyone who takes up the investiga- 
 tion of these subjects seriously is more or less de- 
 mented! It all depends upon the cast of mind of 
 the individual; and there is absolutely no reason 
 why these subjects should not be investigated in 
 precisely the same scientific spirit as any other 
 problem whatever. The present writer regards 
 the question of a future life or " spirit return " 
 as purely a matter of evidence, and its solution 
 a problem for experimental psychology to settle as 
 much as the nature of the earth's centre is a prob- 
 lem for geologists, or, to be more prosaic, the 
 composition of table-salt is one for the attention 
 of chemists. Nor is there any reason why the one 
 should not be investigated in precisely the same 
 calm, cool, scientific spirit as the other, the prin- 
 cipal difficulty being simply that in one case we 
 are dealing with far less known and more uncertain 
 phenomena than in the other. That a large num- 
 ber of persons have been grossly deceived, and 
 that others have, to a certain extent, lost their 
 reason while dwelling upon these problems, argues 
 nothing more than that these particular individ- 
 uals lacked a certain balance of mind, a scientific 
 cast of character which rendered them, unfortu- 
 nately, incapable of investigating these partic- 
 ular subjects without detriment to themselves; but 
 the fault here lies obviously with the investigator 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 55 
 
 and not with the subject-matter investigated. It 
 is my contention that if these same individuals 
 had happened to become interested in any other 
 branch of science than the psychic, precisely the 
 same thing would have happened. It must not be 
 forgotten, in this relation, that many men have 
 become insane by long brooding over problems 
 which are now classed among the most " ortho- 
 dox " of sciences, viz., physics.'' The individual 
 with that particular " make-up " is as likely to 
 become insane over any one unsolved problem as 
 another; and the only objection is that, in these 
 subjects, the faith and emotions are appealed to, 
 as they are not in the majority of other sciences. 
 But surely not more so than in various religious 
 creeds — where the most appalling extremes are 
 constantly held before the eyes of their followers ! 
 In this case the parallel is striking, and conse- 
 quently the absolutely untrue and unjust state- 
 ment that " modem spiritualism has sent com- 
 paratively more people to the insane asylum than 
 everything else put together " may be refuted by 
 the fact that recent statistics have shown that a 
 larger proportion of the inmates of insane asylums 
 are religious lunatics than spiritualists. 
 
 But there is another point of view to be consid- 
 ered in relation to the objection we are discussing. 
 
 1 For example, " perpetual motion.'' 
 
B6 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 It has been assumed, by all those who oppose such 
 investigations as those relating to clairvoyance, 
 haunted houses, and so on, that these subjects are 
 all necessarily untrue; that there is no real founda- 
 tion for any of them ; consequently their investiga- 
 tion tends merely to propagate error. If such 
 were the case that would undoubtedly be so, but 
 let it once be granted for a moment that such 
 things do exist, and really are a part of nature, 
 though all unknown as yet, and their investigation 
 becomes a most imperative duty. The average 
 scientist would be willing to admit, I believe, that 
 if such phenomena really existed, their solution 
 Would be highly important, and consequently must 
 take the stand that they do not really exist. But 
 they do exist! This I say not merely by way of 
 opinion, but on the authority of very many em- 
 inent men and investigators who have borne testi- 
 mony as to their reality, and whose cumulative 
 evidence is absolutely overwhelming and convinc- 
 ing. If the facts did not exist, why should these 
 men bear testimony thereto.'' Why should the evi- 
 dence be forthcoming? or, to quote Andrew Lang, 
 " why do such stories come to be told.'' " On this, 
 I take it, everyone must form his own opinion, 
 which will be guided into one of three channels. 
 Either (i) the phenomena exist, as stated; or (ii) 
 the investigators were hallucinated, and only ' 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 57 
 
 thought they saw what they did. This theory is, 
 in many cases, excluded by the fact that some ma- 
 terial change has been left in the world, proving 
 that the phenomenon actually occurred, and was 
 not merely thought to have done so; or (iii) — - 
 and this is the theory the majority of persons pre- 
 fer to believe — that the investigators were, in 
 some way, imposed upon and duped. Undoubtedly 
 this has occurred in some cases, but in others, such 
 as telepathic hallucinations, automatic writing, 
 etc., it seems incredible, and in many cases prac- 
 tically impossible to attribute the cause to fraud 
 and fraud alone. Such a theory would involve 
 the dishonesty of many of our leading scientists 
 and literary men, who claim either to have expe- 
 rienced or witnessed many of these phenomena 
 themselves, under circumstances which render that 
 hypothesis absolutely untenable; for any reason- 
 able man to hold it nowadays simply betrays lack 
 of knowledge of the evidence at hand. And if 
 they exist; if, amid this bewildering mass of evi- 
 dential matter, some phenomena, however slight 
 and obscure, are observed, which tend to show that 
 there are here some problems of nature as yet un- 
 solved, then the study of these very problems is 
 of the highest possible value, and the objection 
 that they tend to " foster superstition " is mean- 
 in eless and absolutely without foundation. 
 
S8 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 THE OBJECTION THAT IT ENCOUKAGES FEAUD 
 
 I This objection is closely akin to the last one 
 and need not detain us here at any length. The 
 drawback it suggests is, again, a partially vital 
 one; as the continued patronage of mediums who 
 have been exposed in fraud is not only a very 
 great mistake, but a temptation held out to other 
 mediums to produce phenomena fraudulently also, 
 and thus obtain a living at the expense of their 
 dupes in the easy way suggested. All this is ad- 
 mitted. But it must be remembered, on the other 
 hand, that fraud such as this is only likely to 
 occur when investigating paid or professional me- 
 diums; and the Society for Psychical Research 
 has made it an almost invariable rule to refuse to 
 investigate the phenomena occurring in their pres- 
 ence, as being open to this very objection, and 
 have devoted their energies almost entirely to pri- 
 vate and unpaid mediums, in many cases with con- 
 vincing results. Further, be it observed, psychi- 
 cal research does not by any means confine itself 
 to the investigation of spiritistic phenomena, but 
 devotes its attention to many other problems — 
 apparitions, telepathy, etc. — some of which, 
 however much hallucination may occur, can 
 scarcely be set down to deliberate fraud, as such 
 an hypothesis would involve the connivance of hun- 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 59 
 
 dreds of cultured persons. Indeed, to the careful 
 observer, it would seem that, owing largely to the 
 public exposure of trick devices, and largely to the 
 laborious investigations of the Society for Psychi- 
 cal Research, fraud is far less in vogue, far less 
 practised at the present day than ever before; it 
 seems, in fact, as though it were gradually being 
 eliminated by the increase of knowledge in these di- 
 rections, so that, here again, the objection that 
 psychical research " tends to encourage fraud " is 
 absolutely erroneous and made in entire ignorance 
 of the evidence at hand.^ 
 
 MOEBIDITY AND ABNOKMAMTY 
 
 But one of the principal objections which has 
 always been raised against the study of these phe- 
 nomena is that they tend to induce abnormal and 
 morbid conditions, both mental and physical; and 
 this both in the subject and in the operator. And 
 as no impression relating to these topics seems to 
 have so great an influence over the public mind as 
 this, and as no one of them is, generally speaking, 
 more false or without foundation, it is well that this 
 objection should be met and answered here, if only 
 for the sake of completeness ; it has already been re- 
 
 1 See my Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism for a very 
 detailed account of the tricks and devices of fraudulent 
 mediums. 
 
60 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 futed many times by pens far more competent than 
 mine. To state the objections, then, as briefly as 
 may be, it would seem that the public at large 
 regard the mvestigators in these questions either as 
 partially demented — this state being invited 
 and induced by a continued dabbling in the 
 unknown and mysterious, a love of the marvellous 
 — or as taking actual pleasure in invoking 
 certain abnormal conditions for the purpose of 
 watching the subject in the course of the induced 
 paroxysm; just as an abnormally minded surgeon 
 might watch the struggles of a suffering animal in 
 a case of vivisection. To answer the first of these 
 objections it is only necessary to quote the names 
 of a few of those who have investigated these sub- 
 jects, and whose authority on any other topic what- 
 ever would not, for one moment, be disputed; 
 such men as Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Crookes, 
 Lord Rayleigh, Hon. A. J. Balfour (former 
 Premier of England), Professors William James, 
 Sidgwick, Barrett, Hyslop, Wallace, Balfour 
 Stewart, John Ruskin, Messrs. Myers, Gumey, 
 Andrew Lang, Schiller, Robert Louis Stevenson, 
 Lord Tennyson, Hon. W. E. Gladstone, the 
 Bishop of Ripon and Professor Langley (to quote 
 only a very few names most widely known as men 
 of science and letters) : — these men most surely did 
 not engage in any such investigation as this for 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 61 
 
 the mere pleasure of beguiling away their other- 
 wise valuable time in worthless speculations on 
 subjects which do not really exist! The absurd- 
 ity of such a statement should be apparent without 
 further comment. These questions can be investi- 
 gated in precisely the same manner as any other 
 branch of investigation, without undue credulity 
 and without lacking that calm, sane, scientific spirit 
 which marks any other scientific investigation. 
 
 The second charge brought against the investi- 
 gators is, that they induce morbid conditions 
 merely for the opportunity of studying the results 
 attained in this manner. Now, I claim that this is 
 not the case. This side of the question turns upon 
 the supposed fact that morbid conditions are gen- 
 erally induced, while it can be shown that they are 
 not. This brings us to the subjects of investigation 
 themselves — the objection here resting upon the 
 supposed fact that, in the course of psychic studies, 
 unnatural and unhealthy conditions are constantly 
 evoked. This objection must obviously be confined, 
 in the first place, to experi/mental evidence, as over 
 spontaneous phenomena we exercise no apparent 
 control ; and be the effects in these cases what they 
 may, we cannot help them, as they occur whether in- 
 vestigated scientifically or not. To these may be 
 added many of the experimental phenomena, a 
 study of which has failed to produce any satisf ac- 
 
62 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 tory evidence as to any lasting evil effects result- 
 ing therefrom. In fact, the charges of abnormal- 
 ity or morbidity must be confined, it appears to me, 
 to the four following subjects : 
 
 (i) Experimental thought-transference, 
 (ii) Induced hallucinations and hallucination; 
 in general. 
 
 (iii) Spiritism: the medium-trance, "posses- 
 sion," etc. 
 
 (iv) Hypnotic experiments. 
 
 I shall take them for discussion in the order indi- 
 cated. 
 
 (i) In telepathic experiments both the operator 
 and subject are, generally speaking, in a perfectly 
 normal condition; they act voluntarily and con- 
 sciously, and it is an extremely rare occurrence for 
 any untoward symptoms to manifest themselves, 
 either at the time or afterwards. Occasionally, a 
 slight headache is complained of, after the comple- 
 tion of the experiments, or a feeling of lassitude; 
 but these are only occasional, transitory, and 
 utterly insignificant compared with the importance 
 of the results attained. In the vast majority of 
 these cases this has been the sentiment of the sub- 
 jects themselves, even when those slight symptoms 
 follow, which, generally, is not the case. 
 
 (ii) Nothing could be a greater mistake than to 
 suppose that a hallucination of the senses invariably; 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 69 
 
 indicates bad health or morbidity of temperament. 
 That it does so in many cases is an undoubted fact ; 
 but that isolated, transient hallucinations of the 
 sane should indicate any specially abnormal condi- 
 tion is wholly opposed to the results of the investi- 
 gations carried on of late years. The hallucina- 
 tions resulting from doses of opium and other 
 drugs; from illness; from defects in, or irritation 
 of, the sense-organs themselves, in the cortical cen- 
 tres, or in the nerves leading from the one to the 
 other — in aU these cases an abnormal condition ex- 
 ists, and they are more a province of pathology 
 and psychology than of psychical research. Hallu- 
 cination itself is only discussed in this relation be- 
 cause of its frequent induction — in crystal-gaz- 
 ing, hypnotic suggestion, etc. ; hence, granting 
 their morbidity, the opposition to these subjects on 
 this ground. But, as before stated, their morbid- 
 ity is by no means granted by modem investigators ; 
 and case after case could be quoted (did space 
 permit) containing some such sentence as the 
 following : " I was in perfect health at the time, 
 and cricket, rowing and swimming were part of my 
 daily exercises. . . ." The argument is very 
 neatly summed up by Mr. Podmore, from whose 
 book ^ I quote the following: 
 
 1 Apparitions and Thought-Transference, pp. 207-8. 
 
64. THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 " Indeed, until recent years the tendency of even 
 well-instructed opinion has been to regard a sensory 
 hallucination as necessarily implying some physical 
 or mental disorder. This misconception — for it 
 is a misconception — has had some curious conse- 
 quences. Since it does occasionally happen that a 
 person admittedly sane and healthy reports to have 
 seen the likeness of a human figure in what was ap- 
 parently empty space, such reports have been by 
 some perforce scouted as unworthy of credence, and 
 by others regarded as necessarily indicating some 
 occult cause — as testifying to the agency of 
 ghosts. There was, indeed, the analogy of dreams 
 to guide us. Few educated persons would regard 
 dreams, on the one hand, as a symptom of ill- 
 health, or on the other as counterparts or revela- 
 tions of any super-terrestrial world; or, indeed, as 
 anything else than purely subjective mental images. 
 Yet dreams belong to the same order of mental 
 phenomena as hallucinations, and are commonly so 
 classed, such differences as exist being mainly due 
 to the conditions under which the two sets of phe- 
 nomena respectively occur. In fact, a hallucina- 
 ition is simply a hypertrophied thought — the last 
 member of a series, whose intermediate terms are to 
 be found in the mental pictures of ordinary life, in 
 the vivid images which some artists can summon at 
 will, and in the faces in the dark which many 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 65 
 
 persons see before passing into sleep, with its more 
 familiar and abundant imagery." 
 
 Thus far as to hallucination in general; but 
 what of those individuals who are in the habit of 
 constantly/ inducing these images? Here, if any- 
 where, we should find traces of some abnormal con- 
 dition were the phenomena in question dependent 
 upon morbidity in any form. But such is by no 
 means the case. In Mr. Myers' paper ^ on " Sen- 
 sory Automatism and Induced Hallucinations," 
 there are printed statements of several of those so- 
 called " psychic " individuals who experience such 
 hallucinations almost daily. Of these " Miss X " 
 is probably the most frequent recipient living of 
 hallucinatory pictures, voices, etc., and her evidence, 
 supported, as it is, by all the other investigators 
 and subjects, must be taken as at least typical. On 
 this very subject, however, she has declared: 
 
 " In view of certain statements which are current 
 as to the physical conditions of crystal-gazing, I 
 wish to say, as emphatically as possible, that in my 
 own case these experiments are neither the cause nor 
 the effect of any morbid condition. 
 
 " I can say positively, from frequent experience, 
 that to attempt experiments when mind and body 
 are not entirely at ease is absolute waste of time. 
 1 Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. VIII, pp. 436-S35. 
 
66 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 The very conditions which might make crystal-gaz- 
 ing a fatiguing and exhausting process render it 
 impossible. I can with equal certainty disclaim, 
 for myself, the allegation that success in inducing 
 hallucinations of this kind is due in any way to an 
 etat maladif. The four years during which I have 
 carried on experiments in crystal-gazing have been 
 among the healthiest of my life." 
 
 In view of this definite evidence, then, it can 
 hardly be objected that this branch of the subject 
 is necessarily a sign of morbidity. 
 
 (iii) Objections have been raised to the study 
 of the so-called " medium-trance," with its accom- 
 panying phenomena of possession, obsession, etc., 
 upon the ground of its abnormality. Upon no 
 topic is the medical and psychological world so un- 
 interested, and consequently so misinformed, as 
 upon this. The general impression existing, that 
 any trance condition is necessarily pathologi- 
 cal and injurious, seems to be so deeply inrooted, 
 and everywhere accepted without any inquiry as to 
 its legitimate foundation, that it cannot be com- 
 bated or refuted in a general review such as this. 
 I can but say that, generally speaking, this opinion 
 is wholly unwarranted and untrue, and I appeal to 
 the evidence existing upon these subjects to bear 
 out my statement. That such abnormal condi- 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 67 
 
 tions exist together with trance is undoubtedly true 
 in many instances ; ^ but that such symptoms 
 should be considered as inseparable from the trance 
 state is just as erroneous a conclusion as the Char- 
 cot theory that " all hypnotisable subjects are hys- 
 terical." This theory has been exploded by point- 
 ing out the fact that the Charcot school experi- 
 mented solely upon hysterical subjects ! Naturally, 
 such a conclusion was the only one at which it was 
 possible to arrive. Moreover, they are entirely 
 alone in this theory, the vast majority of physi- 
 cians agreeing that it is entirely unsupported and 
 opposed to their own experience in this direc- 
 tion, and declaring that sound and healthy persons, 
 make just as good or better subjects than those 
 with a predisposition to hysteria. 
 
 With regard to the medium-trance : . 
 
 I can but appeal to the evidence extant and beg 
 my readers to refer thereto, and satisfy themselves 
 that my statement is correct when I say that true 
 pathological conditions are extremely rare in the 
 medium-trance. I shall refer to a single case — 
 the most noticeable of its kind on record — by way 
 of illustrating the point here made ; for it may rea- 
 sonably be argued that if the trance condition is 
 dependent upon any abnormal condition, those in- 
 
 1 See, e. g.. Dr. Hammond's Spiritualism and Allied 
 Causes and Conditions of Nervous Derangement and Dr. 
 Marvin's Philosophy of Spiritualism. 
 
68 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 dividuals in whom the trance manifests itself most 
 frequently would be the ones in whom the conditions 
 would be most marked. Mrs, Piper — ^the now 
 famous Boston medium — has been almost con- 
 stantly studied since the autumn of 1885 — the 
 first report on her trance phenomena appearing 
 in July, 1886,^ over the signature of Prof. Wil- 
 liam James. Since that time this medium has 
 been under almost constant observation, both here 
 and abroad, and at one time experienced as many 
 as two long trances a day, or even more. During 
 all the seventeen years, however, no noticeable path- 
 ological symptoms have ever been observed, though 
 her case has frequently been observed by medical 
 and other experts. She was chiefly studied by 
 the late Dr. Richard Hodgson, secretary of the 
 American Branch of the Society for Psychical Re- 
 search; and, in a review, he most emphatically re- 
 pudiated the suggestion that Mrs. Piper's trances 
 involved " the extreme cost of personal suffering," 
 and that the symptoms frequently observed were 
 " the convulsed countenance, the gnashing teeth, 
 the writhing body, the clenched hands," by the 
 following statement: 
 
 " In a communication to Light . . . for 
 February 4, 1899, I pointed out that her asser- 
 tions on this matter were entirely baseless. I drew 
 
 1 American Proceedings S. P. R., p. 103. 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 69 
 
 attention to the fact that ' the convulsive move- 
 ments which usually in past years marked Mrs. 
 Piper's going into and coming out of trance ' had 
 ceased two years previously. ... I also em- 
 phasised the fact that Mrs. Piper's trances did not 
 involve any personal suffering by quoting a state- 
 ment from Mrs. Piper herself that she had never 
 suifered any physical pain in connection with 
 her trances, and that during the past two years she 
 had experienced better health than before since she 
 was thirteen years old." ^ 
 
 It would seem, then, that in this case also, the 
 charges of morbidity, etc., are entirely unfounded ; 
 and, supported as the evidence is by that of Mrs. 
 Thompson and other and newer investigations of a 
 similar type, we must again conclude that the 
 charges brought against these subjects upon this 
 score represent, not so much the sound opinion 
 formed by a careful study of the available evidence, 
 as the hasty a priori objections of the old-school, 
 old-time practitioner, whose knowledge of these 
 subjects was gained years ago and whose opinion is 
 now practically valueless, as it represents a point 
 of view which is by no means up to date, nor even 
 in accordance with observed and admitted facts. 
 
 (iv) There is probably no branch of psychic 
 investigation which is more misinterpreted and 
 
 1 Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. XIV, p. 395. "i 
 
70 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 which has given rise to such misconception as hyp- 
 notism and hypnotic phenomena. From the dozens 
 of different theories put forward to explain this 
 state (all probably wrong) ; from the mass of rub- 
 bishy literature upon this subject now printed and 
 upon the market, and from the general fear with 
 which it is regarded, it would seem that the days of 
 witchcraft had returned, with their vagaries and 
 superstitious terrors. The average person is, I am 
 sure, absolutfely afraid of being hypnotised, though 
 it would be hard for people, in the majority of 
 cases, to explain the cause for this dread. Some, 
 perhaps, would oppose it on theological ground, 
 claiming it to be the work of the Devil — which ac- 
 tually occurred, e. g., in 1842, when the Rev. James 
 McNeil attacked the phenomena upon that ground 
 in a sermon preached in Manchester, England. 
 This objection has already been answered many 
 times. Others, perhaps, would object upon the 
 ground that it would be liable to induce hysteria, or 
 some other morbid condition ; or that it " weakens 
 the will ; " or that an unlimited control might be 
 gained by the operator over the subject, thus en- 
 forcing the enactment of crimes, etc. ; or that, once 
 asleep, it might be impossible for the operator ever 
 to awaken the patient, thus inducing one of those 
 terrible cases of continued sleep, ending in death, 
 which we sometimes read of in the papers. I 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 71 
 
 can assure my readers that such cases actually exist 
 in the papers — and there only. There is abso- 
 lutely no respectable evidence of any kind forth- 
 coming that such a case as this exists or ever 
 has existed outside the fertile brain of the news- 
 paper reporter. Such stories must be absolutely 
 discredited, as there is not a single grain of 
 truth in any such statement as this. After 
 considerable personal experience in this work, 
 and after a careful perusal of practically all 
 the standard authorities upon this subject, I can 
 honestly say that not a single well-evidenced case 
 has been forthcoming. It may occasionally hap- 
 pen that a shght difficulty has been experienced in 
 awakening a particular subject ; but in experienced 
 hands this is extremely rare; and even when this 
 does occur, no apprehension need be felt upon this 
 score, as, when left alone, a spontaneous awakening 
 will occur in every case — in from one to twenty- 
 four hours after treatment. It will thus be seen 
 how foolish and unfounded such stories are ; indeed, 
 they appear creditable at all only to those individ- 
 uals unacquainted with the fundamental nature of 
 hypnotism and its phenomena. 
 
 The other three objections require more con- 
 sideration, as although they are, as I believe, de- 
 cidedly untrue, the absurdity of the charges is not 
 so apparent, and the objections named have, ap- 
 
72 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 parently, considerable weight in public opinion. I 
 hope, at some future time, to treat this question 
 at greater length, but for the present I must con- 
 tent myself with noting and briefly answering the 
 three following, and remaining, objections: 
 
 (fl) Hypnotism induces hysterical and other 
 morbid conditions. 
 
 (b) The frequent induction of hypnotism 
 tends to " weaken the will." 
 
 (c) The operator may, in time, obtain complete 
 control of the subject's personality — his will — ■ 
 and thus compel him to commit crimes, etc., merely 
 by commanding him to do so. 
 
 (a) This was the theory adopted by the Char- 
 cot School, and persistently defended by them for 
 a number of years. As it was defended by numer- 
 ous physicians on the Continent, and by Ernest 
 Hart ^ and others in England, those laymen who 
 defend this theory may well feel that their case is in 
 good hands, and be content to leave it there. 
 ConsequeHtly this objection either stands or falls 
 with the ability of these physicians successfully to 
 defend their theory. But, in the ensuing clash of 
 opinions, what has been the outcome? This old 
 thesis has been absolutely and completely exploded. 
 First, it was pointed out, as I have done above, 
 
 1 See Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witchcraft, 
 By Ernest Hart. London, 1893. 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 73 
 
 that the Charcot School experimented entirely upon 
 hysterical subjects, and consequently the only pos- 
 sible conclusion to be drawn from such an investiga- 
 tion was that hypnotic subjects were hysterical. 
 But when other investigators experimented upon 
 other and healthy subjects, hysterical symptoms 
 were found in very few instances ; on the contrary, 
 hypnotic suggestion completely cured many cases of 
 pronounced hysteria. And this extends also to 
 other morbid conditions. The supposed analogy 
 between hypnotism and hysteria is now shown to be 
 absolutely without foundation; it is one of those 
 old-time theories beyond which many medical men 
 have not progressed, but the fallacy of which any 
 intelligent student of these phenomena, who keeps 
 abreast of the times, may readily perceive. This 
 hypothesis is behind the times. Dr. Bramwell, in- 
 deed, declared that " as far back as the Interna- 
 tional Congress of Psychology of 1892 the Char- 
 cot theories had practically ceased to excite scien- 
 tific interest." ^ As this seems to be the opinion, 
 also, of the majority of other writers upon this 
 subject, I leave the final verdict to any unpreju- 
 diced reader. 
 
 (b) Nothing, in this connection, is more fre- 
 quently heard than the statement that hypnotism 
 tends to " weaken the will." It would be next to 
 
 1 Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. XV, p. 102. 
 
74 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 impossible to refute that statement here, as such an 
 argument would involve much dispute as to the na- 
 ture of hypnotism itself, and other technical points ; 
 and I can but say in this connection, " Where is 
 the evidence for its ever having done so? Upon 
 what does this accusation rest? " If analysed, I 
 believe that this assumption would be found to rest 
 principally upon subjective bias and unconfirmed 
 rumour, occasionally supplemented, perhaps, by 
 some flaring newspaper article. In opposition to 
 this I may state that a careful perusal of the works 
 of Doctors Braid, Moll, Bemheim, Lloyd Tuckey, 
 Bramwell, William James, De^Courmelles, Cocke, 
 and Messrs. Gurney, Myers, Sextus, Quackenbos, 
 Binet and Fere, De Mude, Anderson, St. Germain 
 and other writers has failed to produce any confir- 
 mation whatever of this theory, which must, there- 
 fore, be relegated to the list of " human errors," 
 together with so many others relating to these 
 subjects. 
 
 (c) The subject of " criminal suggestion " is 
 one which is yet far from being definitely decided 
 to the satisfaction of all. The works of the old 
 mesmerists occasionally contained accounts of 
 crimes perpetrated by the unfortunate and unwill- 
 ing subject, but in the absence of any recent 
 evidence tending to confirm these stories, they must, 
 I am sure, be accepted largely cum grano, and as 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 75 
 
 being due partly to misunderstanding the existing 
 conditions, and partly to an ignorance of the power 
 of conscious and unconscious suggestion. I have 
 spoken of " the absence of any recent evidence 
 tending to confirm these stories." It is true that 
 pseudo-crimes are induced nearly every day by hyp- 
 notic suggestion ; that is, acts are performed in the 
 laboratory which would, if enacted in real life, con- 
 stitute crimes; but it is precisely this difference 
 which renders the latter most unlikely of perform- 
 ance — that they are " laboratory crimes." The 
 hypnotic consciousness of the subject, which never 
 sleeps, comprehends perfectly that a trial, a " test," 
 is being made, and knows that however great the 
 similarity may be between this and a genuine crime, 
 he would not be permitted to commit a real crime 
 in the presence of his investigators, and it is this 
 feeling of security which allows him to perform any 
 act suggested to him. But let a real crime be sug- 
 gested, in which the subject is left to himself, and 
 in whom the responsibility, if caught, would rest, 
 and the suggestion invariably fails. This is the 
 experience of almost every person at the present 
 day who either practises hypnotism or is thor- 
 oughly acquainted with hypnotic phenomena. Dr. 
 Bramwell, in his exceedingly thorough and brilliant 
 article on " What is Hypnotism ? " ^ after a brief 
 
 1 Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. XII, pp. 204-58. 
 
76 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 resume of the evidence for criminal suggestion sums 
 up the result of his investigations as follows : 
 
 " SUGGESTED CRIMES STJMMAKY 
 
 "1. I have never seen a suggestion accepted in 
 hypnosis which would have been refused in the 
 normal state. 
 
 " 2. I have observed that suggestions could be 
 resisted as easily in the lethargic as in the alert 
 stage. 
 
 " 3. I have frequently noticed increased refine- 
 ment in hypnosis: subjects have refused sugges- 
 tions which they would have accepted in the normal 
 condition. 
 
 " 4. I saw Camille refuse a suggestion from 
 mere caprice. 
 
 " 5. Examination of the mental condition in 
 hypnosis revealed the fact that it was unimpaired. 
 
 " 6. The arguments of Bernheim cannot be con- 
 sidered conclusive, as they are founded solely upon 
 two classes of facts, (a) Where a simple and 
 harmless act has been assumed to be thought crim- 
 inal by the subject, because the operator has 
 stated it to be so. (b) Where the subject has 
 permitted something in hypnosis which he would 
 probably have submitted to in the normal state." ^ 
 
 iPp. 238-39. 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 77 
 
 Such phenomena do not necessarily indicate the 
 presence of any abnormal or morbid condition. 
 
 Before leaving this section, one or two reflections 
 may be noted which tend to cast a somewhat 
 new light upon these subjects, and upon our point 
 of view regarding them. These phenomena are by 
 no means always degrading or abnormal in their 
 character. Are they ever elevating or ennobling 
 in this respect.? May they not sometimes repre- 
 sent, not sub or abnormal phenomena alone, but 
 superaormal — tending toward a higher goal, and 
 occasionally betraying sparks of a more celestial 
 fire? There are symptoms and tokens which seem 
 to show that man's ephemeral personality is more 
 deeply set, more part of a greater and higher 
 " self " than we can conceive upon the materialistic 
 basis of physiolgical psychology. Such a concep- 
 tion, based upon its legitimate facts, is far from 
 being a premature speculation. Mr. Myers, speak- 
 ing on this very subject,* has said: 
 
 " I claim that ihis substitution of personality, or 
 spirit-control, or possession, or pneumaturgy, is a 
 normal forward step in the evolution of our race. 
 I claim that a spirit exists in man, and that it is 
 healthy and desirable that this spirit should be thus 
 capable of partial and temporary dissociation from 
 the organism, thereby enjoying an increased free- 
 
 1 Proceedinga S. P. R., Vol. XVII, p. 68. 
 
78 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 dom and vision, and also allowing some departed 
 spirit to make use of the partially vacated organism 
 for the sake of communication with other spirits 
 still incarnate on earth. I claim that much know- 
 ledge has already been thus acquired, while much 
 more is hkely to follow." 
 
 And again,^ in discussing the various fluc- 
 tuations of personality observable in the " me- 
 dium-trance " and kindred states, he goes on to 
 say, " It may perhaps be felt, by some at least of 
 the rising generation of psychologists, that few 
 tasks can be more interesting and important than 
 that of discovering, investigating, and comparing 
 as many as possible of these extraordinary varia- 
 tions in the ordinary human type — variations 
 which, although often degenerative, are also some- 
 times, in my view, distinctly and rapidly evolutive in 
 their tendency." 
 
 A PKIOEI OBJECTIONS 
 
 I have left but little space for meeting the ob- 
 jections raised to the study of these subjects upon 
 d priori grounds; nor do I feel that such a de- 
 tailed defence is needed. Those individuals who 
 oppose the study of these subjects upon such 
 grounds alone are hopelessly prejudiced, and, 
 
 1 Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. XVII, p. T4. 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 79 
 
 in such cases, any defence whatever is absolutely a 
 waste of time. It is impossible to convince them; 
 they know beforehand that there is nothing of 
 advantage to be gained in pursuing these inves- 
 tigations ; and, as Miss X. pointed out,^ " it 
 is only what Macaulay called the ' cocksure ' from 
 wliich nothing is to be hoped." Fortunately, the 
 majority of persons are not of this stamp, and 
 have more or less definite grounds for opposing 
 their study. 
 
 There still remain certain objections of a more 
 or less valid character which could not be included 
 under any of the sections already discussed, and 
 consequently must be answered here. This section, 
 indeed, might well be headed " Miscellaneous Ob- 
 jections." 
 
 First, then, there is the objection that these phe- 
 nomena are " impossible." No matter how strong 
 the evidence may be in their favour ; no matter how 
 many scientific men testify to their reality, there 
 Twust be a mistake somewhere. They are contrary 
 to the laws of nature, they are impossible, conse- 
 quently their study will tend merely to divert at- 
 tention from legitimate scientific investigation. 
 Those who believe in them are mistaken — that is 
 all. " But," as Dr. Mason has well said, " the ob- 
 jector who refuses credence to well-attested facts on 
 
 1 Essays in Psychical Research, p. 11. 
 
80 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 that ground alone, simply assumes that he is ac- 
 quainted with all the laws of nature." ^ And 
 again, Sir Oliver Lodge declared that : 
 
 " It is a question of evidence whether such things 
 have occurred; and opinions differ. For myself, 
 I think they have. Part of the extra difficulty of 
 accepting evidence for any unusual phenomena is 
 the a priori notion that such occurrences are con- 
 trary to natural law, and are therefore impossible. 
 We cannot, however, clearly tell that they are con- 
 trary to natural law; all we can safely say is that 
 they are contrary to natural custom ; or, safer still, 
 that they are contrary or supplementary to our 
 usual experience. The last statement is safe 
 enough; but between that and the adjective 'im- 
 possible,' or the equivalent phrase ' contrary to the 
 order of nature,' there is a vast and unfillable 
 gap." 2 
 
 All this is undoubtedly true. If, for example, 
 we should go to any chemist, or physicist, or physi- 
 ologist, or scientist in any line of work, and ask 
 him if he considers that everything is known re- 
 lating to that subject which ever will be known — 
 in other words, if the world's knowledge is complete 
 along that line of inquiry — he would most assur- 
 edly answer "No ! " How much more would this be 
 
 1 Telepathy and the Subliminal Self, p. 110. 
 
 2 Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. XVII, p. 43. 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 81 
 
 the case in psychology, where next to nothing is 
 known, comparatively speaking, about the phenom- 
 ena it investigates. And, as psychical research 
 problems are, very largely, psychological problems, 
 whence the objection? If it be granted that there 
 are any problems in nature as yet unsolved, then 
 their solution becomes an imperative duty for the 
 scientist. All scientific inquiry is based upon that 
 very fact — that there are many problems as yet 
 unsolved and laws as yet unknown. Scientific in- 
 vestigation means simply an organised attempt to 
 discover these laws. Why, then, should some sub- 
 jects be investigated and not others? In fact, if 
 reduced to definite statements, those who oppose the 
 study of these phenomena upon the ground of & 
 priori objection must fall back upon the statement, 
 either that they are not investigated by scientific 
 men, or that they are not investigated in a proper, 
 thoroughly scientific spirit. As both of these 
 statements are absolutely false, I can but inquire 
 again. Whence the objection? 
 
 Second. If, then, we grant, for the sake of ar- 
 gument, that it is possible for such phenomena to 
 exist, the next question is. Do they exist ? This, of 
 course, is a question which every man must answer 
 for himself ; but, in view of the strength of existing 
 positive evidence, the point I wish to here emphasise, 
 in fact the object of this entire chapter, is to 
 
82 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 show that a negative answer to this question cannot 
 and must not be given upon d priori grounds alone. 
 It can only be answered after a lengthy personal in- 
 vestigation and course of study; and, even should 
 the final result be negative, it must be remembered 
 that it represents that one investigator's opinion 
 only; others may have met with very different re- 
 sults. One may encounter a hundred f radulent me- 
 diums before one is discovered who is honest; but 
 that is no reason for asserting that all are dis- 
 honest. In view of these facts, then, Professor 
 Huxley's letter to the Dialectical Society,^ declining 
 to join that committee because " The only case of 
 ' Spiritualism ' I have had the opportunity of ex- 
 amining into for myself was as gross an imposture 
 as ever came under my notice," assumes rather a 
 humorous aspect, coming, as it does, from the pen 
 of so profound a thinker as he. And, in viewing 
 the attitude assumed by the majority of persons 
 toward these subjects, one cannot help feeling how 
 irrational and dogmatic they almost invariably are. 
 Of course, we all consider ourselves the criterion and 
 standard of unprejudiced judgment, and feel, in 
 our conceit, " Oh, if others could only view the 
 study of these phenomena in the same unbiased yet 
 critical spirit that I do myself ! " Unfortunately, 
 others think in exactly the same way, yet hold very 
 
 1 See Report, p. 229. 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 83 
 
 different opinions regarding these phenomena! 
 And it is here that we have brought vividly before 
 us the extreme svhjectiveness of our universe, and 
 appreciate, to its fullest extent, while studying these 
 phenomena, the necessity of granting every man his 
 own opinion, and the art of gracefully allowing 
 everyone to retain that opinion without either un- 
 due acceptance of the same, or a contemptuous re- 
 jection thereof. And, on the other hand, many 
 persons start about their investigations in a wrong 
 spirit. Apart from the fact that but few persons 
 possess a well-balanced mind — neither credulous 
 nor unduly sceptical — many others require to be 
 convinced that such phenomena are possible before 
 they will consent to investigate them! Thus Pro- 
 fessor Jastrow declares (apropos of thought-trans- 
 ference), " If telepathy means the hypothesis of 
 a new force, that is, the assumption of an as yet 
 uncomprehended mode of the output of energy, sub- 
 ject rigorously to the physical bonds of material 
 causation which make possible a rational conception 
 of psycho-physiological processes ; and if, further, 
 someone will put forth a rational conception of 
 how this assumed action can take place apart from 
 the exercise of the senses, I am prepared to admit 
 that this hypothesis is (not sound, or strong, or in 
 accordance with the facts, or capable of explaining 
 the facts,^ or warranted by the facts, but) one which 
 
84 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 it is legitimate, though perhaps not profitable, to 
 consider. If, however, telepathy is put forward as 
 a totally new and peculiar kind of action, which is 
 quite unrelated to the ordinary forces with which 
 our senses and scientific observation acquaint us, 
 and which is not subject to the limitations of the 
 material world of causation; if telepathy is sup- 
 posed to reveal to us a world beyond or behind or 
 mysteriously intertwined with the phenomena of this 
 world — a world in which events happen not in ac- 
 cordance with the established physical laws, but for 
 their personal significance even in defiance of those 
 laws — then it becomes impossible for the scientist 
 to consider this hypothesis without abandoning his 
 fundamental conceptions of law and science ; " *■ 
 which amounts to saying, of course, " If you can 
 explain these phenomena to me, I will accept them, 
 but if you admit that they are quite inexplicable, I 
 shall have to reject them forthwith! " Could any- 
 thing be more irrational? Does it not seem more 
 scientific to accept some sufficiently attested phe- 
 nomenon and endeavour to account for it after- 
 wards, than to declare a priori that the phenomenon 
 itself cannot and does not exist, however well at- 
 tested, merely because we cannot account for it in 
 our present state of knowledge? Similarly with 
 other subjects. Earlier in this chapter I cited the 
 
 1 Fact and Fable »» Psychology, pp. 101-2. 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 85 
 
 case of a doctor who refused to believe that a "spir- 
 it " could return — could " come back, because he 
 does not believe that there is any such thing as a 
 spirit to come back." Obviously, the only way to 
 decide this question is, not to speculate a priori 
 upon the possibility of spirit existence, and reason 
 from that the possibility of its return, but to test 
 and establish the possibility of its return, from 
 which we can argue (should that be established) 
 that man has a spirit to return. Here, as before, 
 it is merely a question of evidence. 
 
 And, finally, if it be once admitted that such phe- 
 nomena do exist — if telepathy, e. g., be proved a 
 fact in nature — the pessimist is sure to arise with 
 his Cui bono? Granting their existence, what is 
 their use? What practical benefit can they be to 
 mankind.'* Such questions, I believe, are almost in- 
 variably asked by persons who are either uninter- 
 ested or uninstructed in scientific matters. No sci- 
 entist would, for one moment, be guilty of such a 
 preposterous question. What is the " use " of any 
 scientific investigation, except to find out facts gen- 
 erally unknown and unrecognised? Every new 
 truth acquired, every scrap of information gained 
 by persistent effort is of great importance in help- 
 ing us to understand and unravel the mysteries of 
 the universe which surround us on every side ; and 
 especially is this the case in our attempts to under- 
 
86 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 stand that by which and through which every phe- 
 nomenon is known and appreciated — the human 
 mind. Moreover, if these studies should result, as 
 now seems highly possible, in scientifically demon- 
 strating a future life, their value can hardly be fur- 
 ther questioned, even by those who now oppose them 
 most strenuously. And, as I have before stated, 
 this now looks well within the bounds of possibility ; 
 and it is a fact that many persons — previously 
 materialists — have become converted to that be- 
 lief through these very phenomena, scouted, ridi- 
 culed and rejected though they be! 
 
 In every instance the attacks on this subject 
 may be successfully repelled; in every case the ob- 
 jections can be triumphantly refuted. A great deal 
 more might be said in this relation, . but space does 
 not permit. I leave the final judgment to any un- 
 prejudiced reader. Meanwhile, one or two final re- 
 flections may be noted, which, self-evident as they 
 appear when pointed out, are not by any means seen 
 and appreciated individually by the majority of 
 persons : 
 
 First, there is the possibility that thoroughly 
 scientific investigation might tend to destroy the 
 existing evidence for supernormal phenomena by 
 exposing and " explaining " these occurrences and 
 by showing them to be merely misinterpreted 
 normal phenomena. At any rate, nothing is to be 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 87 
 
 lost by deciding this question definitely, one way 
 or the other. In the first Circular issued by the 
 American Society for Psychical Research the fol- 
 lowing sentence occurs, and, as it sums up, very 
 tersely, the point here under discussion, I may quote 
 it in full. It says : 
 
 " The Council of the American Society, there- 
 fore, feels that the duty can be no longer postponed 
 of systematically repeating observations similar to 
 those made in England, with a view of confirming 
 them, if true, of definitely pointing out the sources 
 of error in them if false. If true, they are of value, 
 and the tracing of their limits becomes a scientific 
 duty. If false, no time should be lost in publishing 
 their refutation; for, if allowed long to stand un- 
 contradicted, their only effect will be to re-enforce 
 powerfully the popular drift toward superstition." 
 
 Since this was written, much has been published 
 which tends to destroy the existing evidence, both by 
 exposing frauds and by discovering and eliminating 
 sources of conscious and unconscious error, never 
 before fully appreciated. But, on the other hand, 
 much has been published which establishes, beyond 
 all reasonable doubt, the fact that certain phenom- 
 ena do occasionally occur which may with impunity 
 be called " supernormal," inasmuch as they are most 
 certainly unexplained and inexplicable by modern 
 science as it stands to-day. I claim that this much 
 
88 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 has been definitely accomplished, and that those who 
 deny this are merely ignorant of the existing evi- 
 dence. And if we analyse the objections of scien- 
 tific men — why they decline to investigate these 
 problems — we find that in every case their objec- 
 tions practically amount to a dislike for admitting 
 the unpleasant truth, " I don't know ! " How 
 absurd a statement in the present condition of the 
 world's knowledge! How hollow the ground be- 
 neath such dogmatic denial! How little is yet 
 known compared with what may yet be known ! 
 As Prof. William James has so forcibly re- 
 minded us, ". . , an audience of some five or 
 six score people, if each person in it could speak 
 for his own generation, would carry us away to the 
 black unknown of the human species, to days with- 
 out a document or monument to tell their tale. Is it 
 creditable that such a mushroom knowledge, such 
 a growth overnight as this, can represent more 
 than the minutest glimpse of what the universe will 
 really prove to be when adequately understood? 
 No! Our science is a drop, our ignorance a sea. 
 Whatever else be certain, this at least is certain — 
 that the world of our present natural knowledge is 
 enveloped in a larger world of some sort of whose 
 residual properties we at present can have no posi- 
 tive idea." ^ 
 
 1 The Will to believe, etc., pp. 53-4. 
 
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 89 
 
 The words of the late Frederic W. H. Myers 
 upon this subject are especially apt. Mr. Myers 
 was a man whose perfect insight and philosophical 
 grasp of nature is seen but once in a generation, 
 and his death is deeply deplored by scientists the 
 world over. Pondering over these problems of 
 death and futurity, and, in so doing, letting his 
 glance rest for a moment upon such dogmatic as- 
 sertions as these on the part of his scientific breth- 
 ren, the spirit moved him to write, with his usual 
 strength and beauty of style, yet with his custom- 
 ary tenderness and pathos: 
 
 " And yet popular science sometimes speaks as 
 though nearly everything in human nature had 
 been observed already! As though normality had 
 been defined, aberrations classified, a mass of ex- 
 perience acquired which our successors will only 
 have to work out in detail ! A vain • conceit ! a 
 monstrous prematurity! Rather let us remember 
 that only by an abiding consciousness of our own 
 inevitable childishness can we prevent those suc- 
 cessors from looking on our religions with pity, 
 and on our science with contempt, while they 
 analyse, with a smile, our rudimentary efforts at 
 self-reaUsation, remarking, How hard a thing 
 it was to found the race of man." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 HAECKEL's " I^W OF SUBSTANCE " AND IMMOR- 
 TALITY ' 
 
 rr^HERE can be no question that the two great 
 ■*■ fundamental laws of modem-day science are 
 the indestructibility of matter and the conserva- 
 tion of energy. No scientific hypotheses are con- 
 sidered to be more established than these ; they are 
 the very foundation stones of Haeckel's philoso- 
 phy, e.g., and science is more proud of the sup- 
 posedly complete proof of these dogmas than of 
 any other achievements of the past century. I 
 think I may assume that all my readers are fa- 
 miliar with the central ideas of these two doc- 
 trines; and I shall not elaborate them here. I 
 wish only to call attention, in this place, to certain 
 aspects of the theories, in so far as they relate 
 to the problems under discussion, and particularly 
 the question of immortality. For, it will readily 
 be seen that, if materialism be true, if matter and 
 force fill aU the universe, and there is no room in 
 
 1 By the " law of substance " Haeckel meant a compound 
 law, composed of the two generally recognised laws apply- 
 ing to matter — that of the indestructibility of matter and 
 the conservation of energy. Haeckel coined his term to 
 include and unify these two. 
 
 90 
 
" LAW OF SUBSTANCE " 91 
 
 it for that " third thing " of Huxley's — con- 
 sciousness — after the organism we know ceases to 
 function; then immortality would be an impossi- 
 bility, beyond any doubt, and materialism would 
 stand proved. I shall, in this place, discuss these 
 two theories in relation to the problems under con- 
 sideration; the first briefly, the second at greater 
 length; and I shall attempt to show that these 
 dogmas, even if established, do not have the effect 
 that many persons think they do have; and that 
 immortahty and the possibility of the occurrence 
 of psychic phenomena are not rendered impossible 
 thereby, as many persons suppose. 
 
 Modern science contends that matter is inde- 
 structible ; not that the ' individuality ' of matter 
 is preserved, so to say, in all its varied forms and 
 manifestations, but that the crude elements of mat- 
 ter persist unchanged, eternally and unchangeably. 
 Until the past year or two, no one dared even ques- 
 tion this statement and hope to be considered sane ; 
 but lately we have the astonishing phenomena of 
 radimn and radio-activity, seemingly showing 
 that the elements themselves can be disrupted and 
 changed into other elements — radium into he- 
 lium, e.g., as we hear on the authority of one 
 scientist, and copper into helium, as we hear from 
 Sir William Ramsey. This would seem to show 
 that the whole modem conception of the nature 
 
93 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 of matter has been changed, and that the ideas 
 of the alchemists have been not only revived, but 
 demonstrated! Again, we see how unsafe it is to 
 dogmatise on any scientific question. The cor- 
 puscular theory of light, for instance, which for 
 years back had been discarded as superstition, and 
 so far disproved as to be not worth discussing, 
 has been revived (since the recent discoveries in 
 radio-activity), and now is not without its cham- 
 pions in the scientific world. Many of the 
 dreams of the alchemist are thus proving to be 
 more — far more — than the mere dreams of 
 visionaries; they are apparently becoming scien- 
 tifically grounded facts. How many more of 
 their teachings will prove to be similarly founded 
 on reality.? 
 
 And recently, Dr. Gustave Le Bon has claimed 
 that he has caused matter to actually disintegrate 
 and vanish altogether — without return ! Mat- 
 ter has been, not changed, but actually anni- 
 hilated! It has (apparently) been resolved back 
 again into that force or those forces of which it 
 is the manifestation, merely; and the dogma of 
 the indestructibility of matter can thus be 
 shown to be untrue. It is true that the scientific 
 world is not so shocked by the publication of 
 this fact as they would have been a dozen years 
 ago. Then, the facts would have been dismissed 
 
" LAW OF SUBSTANCE " 93 
 
 as unworthy of discussion, or even consideration; 
 and the man who published such statements would 
 have been looked upon as a dreamer or insane! 
 But the recent discoveries in physical science have 
 been preparing the world for some such ' shock ' 
 as this; and it is probable that these experiments 
 will soon be received by the world as authentic 
 and conclusive. 
 
 Ever since Lavoisier formulated his law of the 
 indestructibihty of matter, which seemed as per- 
 manent as the heavens themselves, and which has 
 been held without exception for more than one hun- 
 dred years, no one had dared question it without 
 involving the ridicule and contempt of scientists the 
 world over. It was thought that the indestructi- 
 bility of matter was, if anything, even more sure 
 than the conservation of energy, — since more eas- 
 ily verified. And yet, the new physics asserts that 
 matter is not only destructible, but can be disso- 
 ciated, and caused to vanish from sight ! In 
 the physical laboratory, we are told, matter can be 
 resolved back into the energy, of which it is the 
 manifestation, merely. And so matter can be 
 caused to become invisible, and, in fact, actually 
 cease to be matter altogether ! It is no longer mat- 
 ter, but energy. And science now seriously talks 
 of the materialisation and the dematerialisation of 
 matter! But let me quote from Dr. Gustave Le 
 
94 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 Bon's Evolution of Matter, one of the latest and 
 most original of these works. Here he says, in 
 part: 
 
 " Matter can vanish without return. . . . 
 Force and matter are two different forms of one 
 and the same thing. Matter represents a stable 
 form of intra-atomic energy ; heat, light, electricity, 
 etc., represent unstable forms of it. By the dis- 
 sociation of atoms, that is to say the dematerialisa- 
 tion of matter, the stable form of energy termed 
 matter is simply changed into those unstable forms 
 known by the name of electricity, light, heat, etc. 
 . The atoms of all substances can disappear 
 without return by being transformed into energy." 
 
 Well, here is a revolution indeed! What be- 
 comes of the old dogmas, so long cherished.'' Of the 
 law of substance and of the old laws of chemistry 
 and mechanics? What indeed! M. Le Bon was 
 led to believe that there is a world between that of 
 matter and that of pure force, — a world of " im- 
 ponderable matter." (This reminds us of Andrew 
 Jackson Davis!) And the whole of Book IV. is 
 devoted to " The Dematerialisation of Matter " ! 
 After this, there can surely be no d priori objection 
 to certain spiritistic phenomena — on the grounds 
 of " impossibility," etc. — as there always has been 
 in the past. It has simply become a matter of 
 
"LAW OF SUBSTANCE" 95 
 
 fact and evidence. The old dogmatic objections no 
 longer hold good. 
 
 And not only that. Matter can be materialised 
 — long enough, indeed, for it to be photographed ! 
 Thus, on p. 164s, we read: 
 
 " Such equilibria can only be maintained a mo- 
 ment. If we were able to isolate and fix them for 
 good — that is to say, so that they would survive 
 their generating cause — we should have succeeded 
 in creating with immaterial particles something re- 
 sembling matter. The enormous quantity of 
 energy condensed within the atom shows the im- 
 possibility of realising such an experiment. 
 
 " But if we cannot with material things effect 
 equilibria able to survive the cause that gave them 
 birth, we can at least maintain them for a suffi- 
 ciently long time to photograph them, and thus 
 create a kind of momentary, materialisation." 
 
 Photographs of this materiahsed matter are 
 given, so that we may see it. And this, be it re- 
 membered, is said by a man who is, if anything, 
 opposed to spiritism and its phenomena ; who takes 
 " no stock " in Eusapia Paladino, and who is a 
 purely experimental scientist! What are we com- 
 ing to? 
 
 We are coming to this. That the old. Biblical 
 account of creation is probably at basis true, after 
 
96 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 all! Matter and all that is in the universe 
 emerged from — nothing, and it returns to — 
 nothing. In the last pages of Dr. Le Bon's fas- 
 cinating book, we have sketched for us the probable 
 fate of the universe. It is this : 
 
 " I have demonstrated with regard to the ele- 
 ments of dissociated matter . . . that electric 
 atoms in motion are always accompanied by vibra- 
 tions in the ether. . . . These vibrations of 
 the ether, ever the companions of the electric atoms, 
 most likely represent the form under which these 
 vanish by the radiation of all their energy. The 
 electric particle with an individuality of its own 
 
 . . would thus constitute the last stage but 
 one of the disappearance of matter. The last of 
 all would be represented by the vibrations of the 
 ether — vibrations which possess no more durable 
 individuality than do the waves formed in water 
 when a stone is thrown into it, and which soon dis- 
 appear. ... 
 
 " After these ephemeral vibrations, the ether re- 
 turns to its repose, and matter has definitely disap- 
 peared. It has returned to the primitive ether 
 from which hundreds of millions of ages and forces 
 unknown to us can alone cause it to emerge, as it 
 emerged in the far oif ages when the first traces 
 of our universe were outlined in the chaos. The 
 
"LAW OF SUBSTANCE" 97 
 
 beginning of things was, doubtless, nothing else 
 
 than a re-beginning. Nothing lends to the belief 
 
 that they had a real beginning, or that they can 
 
 have an end." 
 
 And so we have the universe traced back to a 
 
 homogeneous, primal ether in rest. Once this 
 
 ether receives an initial impulse, and all the rest 
 
 would follow — ethereal vibrations, electric atoms, 
 
 material atoms, worlds, the universe! And into 
 
 the ether aU shall return. But what caused that 
 
 prime, initial impulse.'' That we cannot say; nor 
 
 does Dr. Le Bon attempt to answer that question. 
 
 He says that " forces unknown to us " caused it 
 
 to emerge. Is there any force unknown to us that 
 
 could effect this first grand impulse other than 
 
 some human or divine Will? ^ 
 
 1 Since the above was written. Dr. Le Bon has issued a 
 sequel to his Evolution of Matter in another work, entitled 
 The Evolution of Forces. This book, forming Volume XCI. 
 of the International Scientific Series, shows us that the 
 dogma of the indestructibility of energy is no more good 
 and valid than that of the indestructibility of matter was 
 proved to be. Throughout his book, and particularly in 
 the chapter devoted to "The Vanishing of Energy and the 
 End of Our Universe," Dr. Le Bon attempts to show us 
 that energy, too, can be made to vanish without return; 
 and that, in course of time, energy, like matter, wiU vanish 
 and cease to be; and when that shall have taken place, the 
 universe wiU have become stable, — practically resolved back 
 into that quiescent ' nothingness ' whence it sprang. Such 
 is the latest conception of science ! His conclusions are 
 perfectly justifiable, inasmuch as Dr. Le Bon has furnished 
 us with the details of the experiments upon which he 
 founds them; so that any man who cares to may repeat 
 his experiments. The facts, at least, would seem to be 
 
98 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 So we come to this : Certainly matter is not the 
 material, coloured, solid matter we think we see in 
 every-day life. I have shown in another place 
 (p. 28) that the world we see is not the real ex- 
 ternal world at all ; what we see is but the duplicate 
 or double of such a world. We create a mental 
 world within ourselves, and that is the only ' real ' 
 world for us, — and the only world we know and 
 directly come into contact with. The real world, 
 without, is different from it — of that we are as- 
 sured; and of its existence, in any such real sense 
 as the majority of persons imagine, there is very 
 grave doubt. 
 
 But physical science has always been concerned 
 with things as they seem to be, not things as 
 they really are. No matter whether the world 
 is, in its essence, such as we conceive it or not, 
 it says; that is nothing to do with us for our 
 particular experimental problems and for prac- 
 tical purposes. Even granting that the material 
 world we come into contact with is not such a 
 
 established beyond all question; at any rate the central fact, 
 which Dr. Le Bon formulates thus: 
 
 " Energy is not indestructible. It is unceasingly con- 
 sumed, and tends to vanish like the matter whi(£ repre- 
 sents one of its forms" (p. 99). 
 
 This at all events shows us that the second of the two 
 great dogmas of the past century has been called in ques- 
 tion, and, in fact, actually disproved ! Before such as- 
 tounding revelations, one may well pause before pronouncing 
 any fact "impossible." 
 
« LAW OF SUBSTANCE » 99 
 
 world as it has generally been supposed to be, still, 
 for our purposes and for the affairs of every-day 
 life, we have to take it as if it really were so, and 
 as if it existed in exactly the way that we perceive 
 it. That is very true, and physical science is per- 
 fectly justified in taking this stand, for exper- 
 imental purposes and arguments. Were she not 
 to do so, there could be no real science of physics ; 
 it would all be vague metaphysics. But even 
 then, we must not lose sight of the fact that phys- 
 ical science has recently been showing that matter 
 is no such solid substance as has always been sup- 
 posed — even for experimental purposes. Matter 
 having recently been resolved into electricity, it is 
 shown to be, not matter at all, but to consist of 
 centres or points of force. Again, this revives 
 ancient speculations — but this is a question that 
 cannot be discussed here. 
 
 Now, let us turn to the question of the con- 
 servation of energy. I shall not, in this place, 
 attempt to question this scientific hypothesis, ex- 
 cept in one respect. It is universally held, as my 
 readers doubtless know, that all the forces of the 
 universe — light, heat, motion, chemical aflSnity, 
 vital force, etc. — are in some manner interrelated 
 and capable of being transformed or changed, one 
 into another; and further, that the amount or 
 
100 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 quantity of the force, when thus transformed, is 
 exactly equal to the quantity of the original force 
 or energy. That is, the quantity of force in the 
 universe remains constant, while its quality varies. 
 
 So far as this relates to the physical world, pure 
 and simple, this is probably correct, and I shall 
 not attempt to question it here. My plea is, 
 that life, or vital force, is wrongly placed in the 
 list of energies; that it is not capable of being 
 transformed from or into any other force what- 
 ever, — as is universally held. All the purely phys- 
 ical energies of the universe may be capable of 
 being thus transformed and transmuted, and to 
 them the law of conservation probably applies; 
 but I contend that the law does not apply to the 
 animal world and to vital force, and I shall now 
 state, very briefly, my reasons for thinking so. 
 
 In order to sustain the present system of in- 
 cluding the vital energies in the law of conserva- 
 tion, it is necessary to consider those energies as 
 capable of being derived from others, and capable 
 of being converted back into them under suitable 
 conditions. Thus, energy would be supplied to 
 the body, and in some manner converted into vital 
 energy in it; and this vital energy would be 
 given off by the body, and converted into other 
 energies, in doing the muscular and other work 
 necessitated. The way in which the body is sup- 
 
"LAW OF SUBSTANCE" 101 
 
 posed to derive its energy is through the food 
 eaten; the chemical combustion of the food in- 
 gested supplying the body with its energy, in 
 precisely the same manner as the engine derives 
 its energy through and by means of the coal 
 burnt. The two cases (the steam engine and the 
 body) are thus supposed to be practically identi- 
 cal; the body derives its energy, supposedly, in 
 the same way that any engine derives its energy 
 — through the chemical combustion of the fuel 
 supplied; and the process is no more complicated 
 and mysterious in the one case than in the other. 
 That is the present theory, and the one I beUeve to 
 be essentially untrue. 
 
 I cannot now enter into all the reasons for 
 thinking this theory erroneous, as that would take 
 us into many obscure physiological problems, and 
 would be out of place in a volume such as this. 
 In my book, Vitality, Fasting and Nutrition, I 
 have discussed this question in great detail, and 
 shall here but summarise some of the arguments 
 and theories there advanced. Anyone who wishes 
 to obtain detailed knowledge of the facts is re- 
 ferred to the book mentioned, where my argu- 
 ments will be found in full. 
 
 If the energy of the body were derived from the 
 food eaten, then the process should be purely a 
 mechanical one, and the same amount of food, 
 
102 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 oxidised in the same way, should yield the same 
 or nearly the same amount of energy to all persons. 
 Yet we know that such is not the case ; the athletes' 
 and the weaklings' bodies are built from the same 
 food and about the same amount of it; and yet 
 we know that one has twice or thrice or even ten 
 times the strength of the other. If our strength 
 were derived from the food by a purely mechanical 
 process of combustion, it is hard to see why this 
 should be so. 
 
 But we need not go beyond the limits of 
 every-day life and every-day experience in order 
 to see that this theory of the replacement of en- 
 ergy by food is a pure myth. For, " were the 
 generally held theory true, it would only be nec- 
 essary, when tired, to go first to the dining room, 
 and then to the gymnasium, in order to recuperate 
 our strength and energies. We should ingest more 
 food, then oxidise it off, and the process of its 
 internal combustion would add more energy to the 
 system; and so on ad infimtwrn. A truly pretty 
 theory, but unfortunately (for it) we all know 
 from actual practical experience that we must, 
 when weary, retire to bed, and not to the dining 
 room, in order to recuperate our energies; and 
 there comes a time when we can sustain, ourselves 
 no longer, but must seek rest and sleep, or die ; and 
 this no matter how much food we may have eaten, 
 
"LAW OF SUBSTANCE" 103 
 
 or how industriously we may have exercised and 
 breathed in order to oxidise it off. As a matter of 
 fact, we know that it is exceedingly unhygienic 
 and unwholesome to eat at aU when exhausted by 
 the labours of the day, and that exercise at such 
 a time is most doubtfully beneficial, and that no 
 amount of deep breathing will succeed in indefi- 
 nitely postponing the oncoming of fatigue, exhaus- 
 tion and sleep. 
 
 " We are supposed to gain our energy through 
 the combustion of food, — just as a steam engine 
 gains its energy through the combustion of fuel; 
 and it is contended that the parallel, in the two 
 cases, is almost exact. But, unfortunately for the 
 theory, the parallel is not exact in just this way: 
 the human engine (the body) reaches a point where 
 it refuses to evolve energy, no matter how much 
 fuel (food) is forced into it, and no matter how 
 full a ' draught ' is turned on (exercise and deep- 
 breathing taken). The engine does not recuper- 
 ate and restore itself, and the body does; the en- 
 gine continues to wear out, and can never replace 
 its own parts by new ones, and the body can." 
 
 Finally, I showed in my book, above referred 
 to, how patients, when fasting (and so going 
 without food altogether) did not get weaker, but, 
 on the contrary, stronger — and this in spite of 
 the fact that we supposedly derive our strength 
 
104) THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 from the food eaten! As the result of these and 
 many more facts and arguments, I think we may 
 safely come to the conclusion that life or vital 
 force is wrongly placed in the list, and that it is 
 not derivable from, nor in turn transmutable or 
 transformable into, any other of the physical 
 forces, but stands alone, separate, distinct, per se. 
 
 If this be true, we are in a better position to 
 appreciate the position of life and its relative posi- 
 tion in the other forces. It is not one of them, 
 but gvAdes them, merely, in its association with 
 the body. It is not the product of any chemical 
 process of combustion, but an essence, apart from 
 any chemical or physical force in the universe. It 
 is something apart from and superior to these. 
 
 Now we are better enabled to understand the re- 
 lation of this idea — that life is not simply an or- 
 ganic product — than formerly and the relation 
 of the theory to the possibility of conscious im- 
 mortality and the possibility of psychic phenom- 
 ena. Let me illustrate. Professor Shaler, in his 
 book. The Individual (pp. SOI— 2), thus expresses 
 the current opinions : 
 
 " The functions of the body are but modes of 
 expression of the energy which it obtains through 
 the appropriation of food. As regards their 
 origin, these functions may be compared to the 
 
"LAW OF SUBSTANCE" 105 
 
 force which drives the steam engine, being essen- 
 tially no more mysterious than other mechanical 
 forces. Now, the mind is one of the functions of 
 the body, a very speciahsed work of the parts 
 known as the nervous system. We can trace the 
 development of this mind in a tolerably continuous 
 series from the lowest stages of the nervous pro- 
 cesses, such as we find in the monera or kindred 
 protozoa to man. Thus it is argued that, though 
 the mental work of our kind is infinitely more ad- 
 vanced than that of the primitive animals, there 
 is no good reason to believe that it is other than 
 a function of the body; that it is more than a 
 peculiar manifestation of the same forces which 
 guide digestion, contract muscles, or repair a 
 wound. Furthermore, as is weU known, at death 
 all the functions of the organic body fall away 
 together in the same manner and at essentially 
 the same time, so there is, in fine, no more reason 
 to believe that the functions of the brain persist 
 than that a like persistence occurs in the digestive 
 function or in the blood-impelling power of the 
 heart. All this, and much more, can be said to 
 show that the phenomenon of death appears to 
 possess us altogether when we come to die." 
 
 All this is perfectly logical and consistent. It 
 would seem to indicate that such is indeed the case. 
 
106 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 were it not for this fact. We have seen that, upon 
 the theory defended, none of the bodily energies 
 are derived from the daily food, but from rest 
 and sleep only; that the body is more like an elec- 
 tric motor, in construction, than it is like a steam 
 engine; and consequently the analogy does not 
 hold. As we have seen, " nervous or vital force is 
 not dependent upon food combustion at any time, 
 nor under any circumstances whatever; and conse- 
 quently mental energy — one form of nervous 
 energy — is not dependent upon this physiological 
 process either; it is altogether independent of it; 
 so that, when the process itself ceases, it is 
 no proof whatever — and there is not even a 
 presumption in favour of the argument — that 
 mental life ceases at the death of the physical or- 
 ganism. In fact, the presumption is all the other 
 way. So that this main, oft-quoted and central 
 argument against survival is no valid objection 
 at all. . . . Provided my theory be true, it 
 proves to have no foundation in fact. The possi- 
 bility of conscious survival of death is thus left 
 quite an open question — capable of scientific in- 
 vestigation or of philosophic dispute; but the 
 grand negative, physiological argument vanishes." 
 From the physiological point of view, therefore, 
 there can be no longer any objection against con- 
 scious survival or the existence of psychic phe- 
 
" LAW OF SUBSTANCE » 107 
 
 nomena — at least the argument based upon the 
 supposed dependence of mind upon the organic 
 processes and energies. The old, materialistic no- 
 tion, which compared the body to a lamp, vitality 
 and life to the flame, which simply ceased to ex- 
 ist with the extinction of the lamp, is thus shown 
 to be invalid and based upon an incorrect inter- 
 pretation of the facts. Life is not the result of 
 any process of combustion or oxidation whatever, 
 but is, on the contrary, the guiding, controlling 
 principle, the real entity, for whose manifestation 
 the body was brought into being. 
 
 We have thus traced the vital or life-principle 
 to some external source, outside the body, and 
 have shown that, whatever its nature and ultimate 
 source, it is not made or ' manufactured ' within 
 the system by any process of chemical or other 
 combustion, but that it is derived from some all- 
 pervading energy. The manner of this connec- 
 tion I have also attempted to illustrate, briefly; 
 and that is as far as I attempted to carry the 
 problem in my Vitality, Fasting and Nutrition, 
 which was a purely physiological treatise, and in 
 which I did not wish to confuse the issue by intro- 
 ducing unnecessary and ultra-speculative attempts 
 at explanation of the nature or essence of this force. 
 Its essence I did not therein attempt to explain, 
 and indulged in no speculations as to what this 
 
108 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 life or vital force might be. In a book such as 
 the present, however, where the limitations are re- 
 moved, so far as physical speculations are con- 
 cerned, and believing as I do that one of the most 
 prominent problems of the Coming Science will 
 be an attempt to find and isolate this life or vital 
 principle, I may state what I conceive to be the 
 nature of this life force, offering the following re- 
 marks as tentative only, and not as dogmatic state- 
 ments of what the real essence of life may be. 
 This is a most venturesome and bold undertaking, 
 I admit — this attempt to define life — but I do 
 so, as I before said, tentatively, and in the hope 
 that speculations, however crude, may at least help 
 in unravelling the mysteries that siu:round us on 
 every side. 
 
 Several times, during my discussion, I called at- 
 tention to the close analogy of the body to the 
 electric motor — at times using such language as : 
 ". . . The body is not an exact parallel, in its 
 action, to the steam engine, as has heretofore been 
 contended, but is rather that of the electric motor, 
 which has the power of recharging itself with 
 life or vital energy, just as the motor of the elec- 
 trician receives its energy from some external 
 source — the brain and nervous system being that 
 part of us which is thus recharged, and constitut- 
 ing the motor of the human body. . . ." But 
 
"LAW OF SUBSTANCE" 109 
 
 I went on to say : " I do not pretend to say what 
 this source is, and I do not feel that I am called 
 upon to explain this any more than I am the 
 essence of vitality. Both must be, in a sense, ac- 
 cepted without explanation, like the connection of 
 mind and matter. I need only say that, to the 
 physicist, the theory should have no objections on 
 that ground, since the fact that such an all-per- 
 vading energy exists is becoming more and more 
 manifest. Says Mr. Thurston,^ ' All space is per- 
 vaded by heat, light, electricity and magnetism ; 
 why not with vital and spiritual energies ? ' " 
 
 Having arrived so far in our investigations and 
 inquiry, the question at once arises. What is this 
 life.'' That it is in some way electrical in its na- 
 ture will probably at once suggest itself to my 
 reader. Numberless suggestions and speculations 
 have been advanced on these lines, but the same 
 objection might be raised to them all, viz.: If we 
 were to assume that life is in any way electricity, 
 how account for the facts of self -consciousness .? 
 Electricity, so far as we know it, is not conscious, 
 but on the contrary is a more or less ' physical ' 
 and ' material ' force, — just as all other forces are 
 ' physical.' Carl Snyder * says that, " In the new 
 view, the ultimate cause of muscular action, and, 
 
 1 The Animal aa a Prime Mover, p. 334. 
 ^New Conceptions in Science, p. 209. 
 
110 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 not improbably, of all life-processes, is electricity." 
 But if life is electricity, where does consciousness 
 come in? We seem to be as badly off as ever. 
 
 Now, I would begin by calling attention to cer- 
 tain facts in physical science. Electricity is, as 
 we well know, positive and negative. What nega- 
 tive electricity is we know pretty well. The atoms 
 of the universe are built up of it, — according to 
 modem science. But what of positive electricity? 
 Of that virtually nothing whatever is known. 
 Let me state the present position of science by 
 quoting from Dr. Kennedy Duncan's book. The 
 New Knowledge (pp. 188—9), as follows: 
 
 ". . . What is positive electricity, as dis- 
 tinguished from negative, which consists of these 
 corpuscles ? The answer is. We do not know. We 
 conceive of an atom as an aggregation of nega- 
 tive corpuscles arranged in a certain number in 
 a certain way, and surrounded by a sphere of 
 positive electricity which balances the negative elec- 
 tricity of the corpuscles within it. We can ac- 
 count for positive electrification as distinct from 
 positive electricity on the supposition that a posi- 
 tively electrified body is one which has lost some 
 of its corpuscles, while a negatively electrified body 
 is one which has gained corpuscles. But this does 
 not tell us what positive electricity actually is. 
 
"LAW OF SUBSTANCE" 111 
 
 If it is made up of particles, these particles must 
 either have no mass at aU, or very little, for the 
 mass of the whole atom seems to be simply the 
 sum of the masses of its negative corpuscles. 
 Positive electricity as apart from an atom does not 
 seem to exist. It never seems to fly free as the 
 corpuscle does. Its nature is, to-day, a mystery." 
 And again (p. 246) : 
 
 " What positive electricity is nobody knows : 
 unless the statement that it is a mode of manifesta- 
 tion of the all-pervading ether constitutes knowl- 
 edge, though even this we do not absolutely know." 
 
 Now, I boldly propose that the active phenom- 
 enal principle of what we call life is positive electric- 
 ity. Positive electricity may be the very life-prin- 
 ciple in operation — the phenomenal aspect of what 
 we call hf e — itself in action : life acting or func- 
 tioning, may be this very positive electricity. It 
 seems to surround and control aU matter and yet 
 be no part of it! What is this power or force 
 which seems to play so powerful and yet so insig- 
 nificant and unmeasurable a part in the universe, 
 if it be not the controlling, regulating power of 
 the universe.'' And what may that be but life? 
 That positive electricity is immaterial we have evi- 
 dence; and it is certain that no definite place has 
 been assigned to it, as yet. May not this positive 
 electricity, then, be the active life-principle of the 
 
112 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 universe — that which charges our nervous 
 
 mechanisms during the hours of rest and sleep in 
 
 the manner I have suggested in my book? There 
 
 are many facts that might be adduced in favour 
 
 of such an hypothesis, but this is not the place to 
 
 produce them. I advance this merely by way of 
 
 a suggestion. If we could trace these other forces 
 
 of the universe back to one primary force, — they 
 
 being but its aspects, — and if we could in any 
 
 way identify this primary or fundamental cause 
 
 with life or mind, positive electricity being the 
 
 phenomenal aspect of this very mind in operation,*^ 
 
 we could begin to see the workings of this law — 
 
 a law that would unify all science and explain in 
 
 1 It is improbable that mind can ever act directly upon 
 matter, but (upon the theory that it acts upon the brain 
 at all, and is not made by it and its functioning) upon 
 some intermediary — semi-material — which some persons 
 have conceived as an ' ethereal body.' This may be very 
 true, and the ethereal body may, in the last analysis, be 
 but a modification of the power I am discussing. Long ago 
 Dr. Dods pointed out that: "... Electricity is indeed 
 the connecting link between the mind and the body . . . 
 mind cannot come into direct contact with gross matter. 
 My mind can no more directly touch my hand than it can 
 the mountain rock. My mind cannot touch the bones of 
 my arm, nor the sinews, the muscles, the blood vessels, nor 
 the blood that rolls in them. In proof of this position, let 
 one hemisphere of the brain receive what is caUed a stroke 
 of palsy. Let the paralysis be complete, and one-half of 
 the system will be rendered motionless. In this case, the 
 mind may will with all its energies, — may exert all its 
 mental powers — yet the arm will not rise, nor the foot 
 stir. Yet the bones, sinews, muscles, and blood vessels are 
 all there, and the blood as usual continues to flow. . . ." 
 This passage has singular interest in this connection. 
 
"LAW OF SUBSTANCE" 113 
 
 a rational manner all that we know of the organic 
 — no less than the inorganic — worlds. So far 
 as we can ever understand life at all, it is prob- 
 ably positive electricity; to us it will remain so, 
 though it is possible that this is itself but the phe- 
 nomenon of that which lies behind — the nou/m- 
 enon; and that may be zviU power — that which 
 creates and annihilates worlds: the dynamic force 
 of one, universal, all-pervading, omnipotent mind. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE OEIGIN AND NATUEK OP CONSCIOUSNESS ^ 
 
 NOTHING, in psychical research, can either 
 help or hinder our progress so much as the 
 attitude of mind assumed, at the commencement of 
 our studies, toward these subjects, and the clearness 
 with which are formed our conceptions of what is 
 believable and what is not. Broadly speaking, 
 however, it may fairly be said that he who begins 
 his investigations with the least prepossession, with 
 the least clearly formed opinions — either for or 
 against — and with willingness to accept any new 
 fact, upon sufficient evidence, even if it should up- 
 set his previous convictions and beliefs ; in short, 
 that person who possesses an abundance of what 
 Professor Sidgwick so happily termed the " higher 
 common sense," he it is from whom we may rightly 
 expect the greatest results; an impartial repre- 
 sentation of the evidence at hand, without either 
 dogmatic positive assertion, or a relapse into 
 that weak and effeminate position of assuming off- 
 hand that it is " unknowable." And most assur- 
 
 1 Paper read before the Minneapolis Society for Psychical 
 Research, June 6, 1902. A portion of this paper has pre- 
 viously appeared in print; see Psychic and Occult Views and 
 Beviewe, May, 1903.— H. C. 
 
 114 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 115 
 
 edly no other point in our evidence will hinder us 
 more than setting a limit upon our own powers, 
 mentally, and of the view we take of our own per- 
 sonality. If we are to accept the fact (now 
 taught by most psychologists) that our mental life 
 depends simply and solely upon certain physical 
 processes within our brains, and consequently that 
 without these processes there can be no mental life, 
 we are indeed crippled and confined, in our out- 
 look, to a certain narrow field, viz., how far can 
 our senses be sharpened and our nervous system 
 trained to receive more fully certain fine — but 
 obviously physical — indications as to what is oc- 
 curring around us? 
 
 Now, one great blow which this " narrow " out- 
 look upon the universe has received is the large 
 and constantly increasing acceptance of telepathy 
 
 — of the fact, that is, that certain impressions can 
 and do reach another mind quite independent of 
 the ordinary and recognised avenues of sense. 
 " But this fact," as Mr. Myers has admitted, 
 " does not in itself carry obvious proof of any- 
 thing in man which the materialistic hypothesis 
 might not cover. ' Brain waves ' might be a form 
 of ether waves, or in some way analogous thereto," 
 
 — though it has repeatedly been shown how im^ 
 probable such a theory is. But, apart from this, 
 there are, indeed, very few facts incapable of being 
 
116 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 classified (I will not say explained) in some way 
 under the materialistic hypothesis. So wide an ac- 
 ceptance is this latter theory receiving, in fact, 
 that the majority of Continental scientists have 
 given up all thought of mind existing apart from 
 matter, and consequently have come to the conclu- 
 sion that " a future life, of any sort, is hardly 
 worthy of serious consideration." 
 
 Now, such a position as this can only be met 
 upon its own ground, and answered by facts as 
 strong as those advanced by the materialistic 
 school. This subject, of such vast importance to 
 man, can no longer be argued from the same 
 standpoint as formerly; the subject of a future 
 life can no longer be based upon emotional crav- 
 ing or theological dogma; it must withstand the 
 test of evidence. Here, then, is a point which can 
 definitely be decided either one way or the other. 
 Are there, or are there not, among these problems 
 of psychical research, such evidential data as wiU 
 decide, more or less definitely, the question, by 
 producing such undeniable facts and evidence as 
 will tend to show that man's survival of bodily 
 death is indeed a great reality, and no mere fig- 
 ment of the imagination.'' Such evidence, the 
 strongest ever yet advanced, may be found in fuU 
 in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical 
 Research (S. P. R.), and repugnant as the idea 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS IIT 
 
 of an experimentally proved future life may be to 
 some, it is nevertheless the only evidence forthcom- 
 ing. It is upon such evidence as apparitions and 
 haunted houses; upon the hidden depths of man's 
 consciousness, as evoked under certain abnormal 
 conditions; but above all, upon the trance utter- 
 ances of the famous Boston medium, Mrs. Piper, 
 that those scientific men v^ho have become con- 
 vinced of a future state of being base their con- 
 clusions and argvunents, and I cannot too strongly 
 advise my readers to read and to study that evi- 
 dence in its complete and cumulative form. 
 
 But this chapter is not to be devoted to the evi- 
 dence itself, but rather to a consideration of cer- 
 tain d priori objections which have been raised 
 against this subject, and particularly to a dis- 
 cussion of the materialistic standpoint, in its rela- 
 tion to the phenomena of mind. For it must be 
 admitted that if science can show that such a thing 
 as a future life is an utter impossibility, then, no 
 matter what our previous opinions or convictions 
 may have been, we are bound, as lovers and follow- 
 ers of truth, to reject this long-coveted treasure, 
 however much our instincts or desires may be to 
 the contrary. And it is such a proof as this which 
 experimental psychology claims to have brought 
 forward. Its arguments are chiefly these: That 
 the brain and nervous system are those parts of 
 
118 THE COMING SCIENCE, 
 
 our being which form and compose our mental 
 life, and upon which the latter is wholly de- 
 pendent for its existence.^ For every thought 
 there is an accompanying physical change in the 
 brain substance — from which the obvious infer- 
 ence to be drawn is that when there is no more 
 brain there can be no more thought or conscious- 
 ness. Again, should you strike a man upon the 
 head with a bar of steel, consciousness ceases for 
 the time being — owing, apparently, to the de- 
 rangement of the brain's functions ; and should the 
 blow be dealt with more severity and greater struc- 
 tural damage take place, the man ceases to exhibit 
 thought or consciousness — ^not only for the pres- 
 ent, but for all time; he is, in fact, what we term 
 " dead." Again, should you mix poison with the 
 blood of any individual, and this be carried to 
 the brain through that medium, the correspond- 
 ing mental " states " or conditions invariably show 
 themselves; the organ of mind has been tampered 
 with, and consequently the mind itself is deranged. 
 But more than all this, it has been shown that in- 
 jury to, or removal of, certain portions of the 
 brain affect certain portions (if I may so express 
 
 1 A typical example of the position of the scientific world 
 is to be found in Lowell's Occult Japan, p. 313; "White- 
 heating of the cells (of the brain) we call consciousness. 
 Consciousness, in short, is probably nerve-glow." 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 119 
 
 it) of consciousness and thought. Piece by piece, 
 section by section, as the physical and obviously 
 material brain is removed; so bit by bit, and little 
 by little, the mental life disappears, until not a 
 vestige of it remains. 
 
 Now, all this most certainly tends to show that 
 our conscious existence is absolutely dependent 
 upon our very material brain, and consequently 
 the formula, " Thought is a function of the 
 brain," is so widely accepted and believed that al- 
 most any psychologist " wfll tell you," as James 
 himiorously puts it, " that only a few belated 
 scholastics, or possibly some crack-brained theos- 
 ophist or psychical researcher can be found hold- 
 ing back, and stiU talking as if mental phenomena 
 might exist as independent variables in the world." 
 Now, aU this is strictly common-sense and to the 
 point, and the fact is certainly there that for any 
 form of a future life we may postulate we must 
 of necessity take into account this undoubted brain 
 action, and subscribe, in one sense or another, to 
 the old psycho-physiological formula, " Thought 
 is a function of the brain." The question is, Does 
 this undoubted fact of neurosis or nervous change, 
 accompanying all thought, deter us finally from 
 accepting any such condition as a future life, for 
 the reason that thought and consciousness cannot 
 
120 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 exist apart from matter? I venture to think that 
 it does not, and I shall now endeavour to justify 
 this statement and make good my position. 
 
 In the first place, then, " it would appear that 
 the supposed impossibility of its continuing comes 
 from too superficial a look at the admitted fact of 
 functional dependence. The moment we inquire 
 more closely into the notion of functional depend- 
 ence, and ask ourselves, for example, how many 
 kinds of functional dependence there may be, we 
 immediately perceive that there is one kind at least 
 that does not exclude a life hereafter at all. The 
 fatal conclusion of the physiologist flows from his 
 assuming off-hand another kind of functional de- 
 pendence, and treating it as the only imaginable 
 kind." I shall here briefly recapitulate these the- 
 ories for the sake of clearness, using the terse lan- 
 guage of Prof. William James in so doing : 
 
 ". . . One cannot see more than two reaUy 
 different sorts of dependence of our mind on 
 our brain; either (i) the brain brings into being 
 the very stuff of consciousness of which our mind 
 consists; or else (ii) consciousness pre-exists as an 
 entity, and the various brains give to it its various 
 specific forms. 
 
 " If supposition (ii) be the true one, and the 
 stuff of mind pre-exists, there are, again, only two 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 121 
 
 ways of conceiving that our brain confers upon it 
 the specifically human form. It may exist: 
 
 "(a) In disseminated particles, and then our 
 brains are organs of concentration ; organs for 
 combining and massing these into resultant minds 
 of personal form. 
 
 "(6) In vaster units (absolute 'world soul' or 
 something less), and then our brains are organs 
 for separating it into parts and giving them finite 
 form. . . . There are, thus, three possible 
 theories of the brain's function, and no more. 
 We may name them severally: (i) The theory of 
 production; («i) the theory of combination, and 
 {Hi) the theory of separation." ^ 
 
 Now, it is to the first of these theories that the 
 majority (but by no means all) of the psychologists 
 cling; and it is upon this theory that their argu- 
 ments are based; but in the absence of all definite 
 proof either for or against, we are surely entitled 
 to consider the two latter theories as possibilities 
 not to be summarily rejected. Indeed, apart from 
 the fact that one theory involves some such hy- 
 pothesis as " spirit " and the other does not, the 
 two theories are exactly on a par, neither being 
 exactly proved, explained, nor apparently prov- 
 able or explainable with our present knowledge 
 
 1 Human Inrniortality. By Prof. William James. 
 
122 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 and data. And, apart from the above-mentioned 
 difficulty, the latter theories, involving some sort 
 of transcendental world, lend themselves very 
 naturally to the explanation and elucidation of 
 those psychical phenomena — so-called " miracu- 
 lous cures," telepathy, premonitions, and the like 
 
 — which are exceedingly difficult, if not impossi- 
 ble, to explain and classify on the " production 
 theory." 
 
 And now let us see how - — in the latter theories 
 advanced — consciousness is to be conceived as 
 operating upon and through us; or rather our 
 brains, which are the " seats " of consciousness — 
 whatever view we take of our mental life. First 
 of all then, I shall assume, for the sake of argu- 
 ment, that consciousness may really exist apart 
 from our physical organism, but is only manifest 
 to us — to our senses — while operating through 
 that organism ; ^ and this I shall endeavour to illus- 
 trate by a simple analogy. In the accompanying 
 illustration we will suppose that the vertical divid- 
 ing line. A, represents an opaque wall; forming, 
 in this case, with the walls, B, C, D, a perfectly 
 air-tight chamber, into which no hght can possibly 
 enter. In this wall. A, a small opening has been 
 made and a glass prism, E, inserted — as shown 
 
 — upon which falls the light of the distant sun, 
 
 1 Save in telepathy, etc. — H. C. 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 123 
 
 F; and it is through this prism that light is re- 
 fracted into the enclosed chamber — ■ that being the 
 only light obtainable. Now, it will be observed 
 that, in this case, anyone living within that cham- 
 
 B 
 
 (X) 
 
 — I -^ 
 
 oer can have no Idea or conception of the sun's 
 actual, unimpeded light — would have no knowl- 
 edge, in fact, of any light at all not obtained 
 through our prism ; and, had he always lived within 
 that chamber, would disbelieve in any other light 
 whatever. Further, if this prism should become 
 cracked or marred in any way, a corresponding 
 defect would be noticed in its refracting qualities ; 
 and, with every additional crack or chip, its utility 
 would be still further impaired; in short, its func- 
 tion would be deranged. 
 
 And now suppose that this sun should represent 
 
124 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 consciousness — free and unimpeded from all its 
 material limitations; that we should be the inhab- 
 itants of that chamber ; and that our brams should 
 represent this prism, by which and through 
 which consciousness manifests itself. Many 
 things fall into place on this analogy. First, 
 here is a full and complete answer to the material- 
 ist that, as the brain is injured, a corresponding 
 mental derangement takes place. This, as we have 
 seen, would be the case on the " transmission the- 
 ory," just outlined above. If a man loses con- 
 sciousness as soon as his brain is injured, it is 
 clearly as good an explanation to say that the 
 injury to the brain destroyed the mechanism by 
 which the manifestation of consciousness was ren- 
 dered possible as to say that it destroyed the 
 " seat " of consciousness. On the other hand, 
 there are facts which the transmission theory suits 
 the better. If, for example, as sometimes hap- 
 pens, a man after a time more or less recovers facul- 
 ties of which the injury to his brain deprived him, 
 and that not in consequence of a renewal of the 
 injured part, but in consequence of the inhibited 
 functions being performed by the action of other 
 parts, the easiest explanation certainly is that con- 
 sciousness constitutes the remaining parts into a 
 mechanism capable of acting as a substitute for 
 the lost parts. Again, this analogy would explain 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 125 
 
 and answer the diflBculties raised, and the objec- 
 tions brought forward against this theory on the 
 ground that the mental faculties apparently grow 
 with the brain and decHne with the brain's decay. ^ 
 For, in that case, our prism would be small in 
 childhood, and consequently admit less light in 
 actual volume, but that light would be clearer and 
 purer than that refracted in later life, when the 
 glass or prism had become dulled and blurred with 
 constant use and exposure ; and, indeed, this proves 
 to be the case — for childhood's imagination and 
 impressionability are with difficulty stamped out 
 and replaced by the more prosaic and so-called 
 " rational " view of things necessary in our modern 
 civilisation. 
 
 And again, as to the effects of drugs upon the 
 brain, and arguments of that nature. The reply 
 is much the same for all these objections: if you 
 destroy the organ through which, or by which, con- 
 sciousness manifests itself, then certainly that con- 
 sciousness cannot manifest properly ; just as, in the 
 above case, if we injure or destroy our prism, then 
 its refracting properties are impaired. But we 
 do not injure the Tiimd — the actual consciousness 
 — any more than we should, in the above case, de- 
 stroy the sun. 
 
 And yet again : it is hard to see, on the material- 
 
 1 Haeckel, The Riddle of the Universe, p. 147. 
 
126 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 istic theory, how the mind can effect those wonder- 
 ful mental cures which have now become so nu- 
 merous ; for, from their point of view, the mind is 
 but a function of the brain, just as secreting bile 
 is a function of the liver ! But if we can conceive 
 ourselves — our real selves — acting upon our ma- 
 terial body through the brain, and directing the 
 other functions of that body, more or less, thereby, 
 by means of our mil — a part of our mental Hfe 
 — then we begin to see how these cures are ef- 
 fected; to have some faint inkling of the hidden 
 processes at work within ourselves which bring 
 these results to pass. And, finally, the above the- 
 ory is perfectly compatible with the general trend 
 of Evolution, for the reason that as the ma- 
 terial brain advances in development, so it admits 
 a correspondingly greater influx of mental life. 
 " If the material encasement be coarse and simple, 
 as in the lower organisms, it permits only a little 
 intelligence to permeate through it ; if it is delicate 
 and complex, it leaves more pores and exits, as it 
 were, for the manifestations of consciousness." ^ 
 The above theory, then, contains nothing which is 
 absolutely opposed either to common-sense, philos- 
 ophy, or science. 
 
 Having now shown, as I trust I have, that these 
 other theories of consciousness — though purely 
 
 1 F. C. S. Schiller, Biddies of the Sphinx, p. 393. 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 127 
 
 theoretical and speculative — still contain nothing 
 which absolutely contradicts what is already known 
 of physiology or the physical sciences, I shall en- 
 deavour to combat, in the remaining portion of this 
 chapter, the materialistic or " production " theory 
 of consciousness, and to point out the many diffi- 
 culties to be taken into account in an acceptance of 
 that theory. For if it is hard for us to conceive 
 how the " combination " or " separation " the- 
 ories — spoken of above — actually operate, the 
 production theory presents just as great and in- 
 surmountable barriers. As before stated, then, 
 the materialistic standpoint is simply this: that 
 certain physical changes take place in the brain. 
 These changes give rise — in some unknown way 
 — to definite thought. What these changes actu- 
 ally are, and all the experiments made and infer- 
 ences drawn therefrom, may be found in the stand- 
 ard works on physiological psychology,* and this 
 is not the time nor the place to discuss them. To 
 place, briefly, a few of the difficulties of the pro- 
 duction theory before you, I shall in the first place 
 quote the opinions of some of the world's greatest 
 scientists upon this very subject. Professor Tyn- 
 daU, for example, says: 
 
 " The passage from the physics of the brain to 
 
 1 See, e. g., Ferrier, Fwnctiom of the Brain; Bastian, Tka 
 Brain as an Organ of Mind; Ladd, Psychology, etc 
 
128 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 the corresponding facts of consciousness is un- 
 thinkable. Granted that a definite thought and a 
 definite molecular action in the brain occur simul- 
 ttaneously, we do not possess the intellectual organ, 
 'nor apparently any rudiment of the organ, which 
 will enable us to pass, by a process of reasoning, 
 from the one to the other. Were our minds and 
 senses so expanded, strengthened and illuminated 
 as to enable us to see and feel the very molecules 
 of the brain ; were we capable of following all their 
 motions, all their groupings, all their electrical dis- 
 charges, if there be such, and were we intimately 
 acquainted with the corresponding changes of 
 thought and feeling, we should probably be as far 
 as ever from the solution of the problem: How 
 are these physical processes connected with the 
 facts of consciousness? The chasm between the 
 two classes of phenomena would still remain intel- 
 lectually impassable." ^ 
 
 Hear also the words of Professor Huxley upon 
 this subject — a man who, by the way, has fre- 
 quently been charged with being a materiahst. 
 He says : 
 
 " I understand the main tenet of materialism to 
 be that there is nothing in the universe but mat- 
 ter and force, and that all the phenomena of 
 nature are explicable by deduction from the prop- 
 
 1 Fragments of Sdenee, Sth Ed^ p. 420, 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 129 
 
 erties assignable to these two primitive factors. 
 . But all this I heartily disbelieve. In the 
 first place, it seems to me pretty plain that there 
 is a third thing in the universe — to wit, con- 
 sciousness — which, in the hardness of my heart 
 or head, I cannot see to be either matter or force, 
 or any conceivable modification of either, however 
 intimately the manifestation of the phenomena of 
 consciousness may be connected with the phenom- 
 ena known as matter or force." ^ 
 
 Finally, I give here a brief resume of an article 
 by Dr. Romanes on " The Fallacy of Material- 
 ism," which appeared in the Contemporary Review 
 many years ago. In doing so, however, I shall 
 quote also qioite freely from Dr. Thomson's excel- 
 lent summary of this question — including a review 
 of the above-mentioned article — ■ in his clever 
 booklet entitled Materialism and Modem Physiol- 
 ogy of the Nervous System. To return to Dr. 
 Romanes, however, I may state his argument as 
 follows : 
 
 Premising that when once the invariable asso- 
 ciation between material changes and mental 
 changes is recognised, there arises the question as 
 to the nature of this constant association, Dr. 
 Romanes proceeds to discuss the question: Can 
 
 1 Collected Eisays. 
 
ISO THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 the material changes in the brain cause the mental 
 changes? The affirmation to this he assumes to 
 be the contention of materialism, and he begins by 
 summarily ruling it out of court as having no 
 case to argue. For he says that where the ques- 
 tion becomes one, not as to the fact of the associa- 
 tion, but as to its nature, " Philosophy . . . 
 must pronounce that the hypothesis is untenable, 
 for the hypothesis of its association being one of 
 causality, acting from neurosis to psychosis — ■ 
 that is, from nervous structure to mental processes 
 — cannot be accepted without doing violence not 
 merely to our faculty of reason, but to our very 
 idea of causation itself. For our idea of causa- 
 tion is not derived from without, but from within, 
 and what we call the evidence of physical causa- 
 tion is really only certain mental modifications fol- 
 lowing one another in definite sequence. Hence 
 we can have no evidence of causation proceeding 
 from object to subject. The mind, therefore, 
 cannot prove its own causation from matter or 
 motion, because all evidence of that must itself be 
 mental evidence, and nothing but mental; and 
 hence it is as impossible for the mind thus to prove 
 its own causation as it is for water to rise above 
 its source." 
 
 Having thus opened the argument, as is the 
 lawyer's custom, by showing that the materialists 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 131 
 
 really have no case at all, Dr. Romanes agrees, 
 however, to allow them a chance to say something 
 by remarking that they are fond of asserting that 
 the evidence of causation from neurosis to psy- 
 chosis is as good as such evidence can be proved 
 in any other case. But, without considering the 
 above-mentioned difficulty that there can be no 
 such real evidence at all, he says the statement can 
 be proved to be untrue by treating the problem 
 on the lower ground of the supposed analogy 
 itself. For the only resemblance between this sup- 
 posed case of causation and all other cases of cau- 
 sation consists in the invariability of the correla- 
 tion between cerebral processes and mental 
 processes. In aU other points the analogy fails. 
 For in all cases of recognised causation there is a 
 perceived connection between the cause and the 
 effect; the antecedents are physical and the conse- 
 quents are physical. But in the case before us 
 there is no perceived or even conceivable connection 
 between cause and effect, for the causes are sup- 
 posed to be physical and the effects mental. And 
 this alone is enough to separate this case from all 
 other known cases of supposed causation, the dif- 
 ficulties being pointed out in the above extracts 
 from Tyndall and Huxley. 
 
 The next objection to materialism which Dr. 
 Romanes finds is that in all other known cases 
 
132 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 there is an equivalency between cause and effect. 
 But, as between matter and motion on the one side, 
 and feeling and thought on the other, no such 
 equivalency is conceivable. Some few materialists, 
 he says, have sought to meet the difficulty in the 
 only way it can be met, by " boldly asserting that 
 thought and energy are more or less transmutable. 
 . . . On this view thought becomes a mode 
 of motion and takes its rank among the forces as 
 identical in nature with heat, light, electricity and 
 the rest." But this view he regards as also in- 
 herently impossible. Mind presents absolutely no 
 point of real analogy with motion, because in- 
 volved with the essential idea of motion is the idea 
 of extension, for motion only means translation in 
 space of something itself extended. But thought, 
 so far as we possibly can know it, is known and 
 distinguished by the very peculiarity of not hav- 
 ing extension, and therefore, for motion to become 
 thought, it must cease to be motion, and thus cease 
 to be energy. Thought, consequently, instead of 
 being equivalent to so much energy, destroys en- 
 ergy, and would thus constitute a unique exception 
 to the otherwise universal law of the Conservation 
 of Energy. And therefore, for these and other 
 considerations of a more metaphysical kind, which 
 we have no time at present to quote, Dr. Romanes 
 finally concludes that, at the bar of Philosophy, 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 133 
 
 Materialism must be pronounced conspicuously in- 
 adequate to account for the facts. 
 
 But if matter cannot cause mind, or physical 
 changes cause mental changes, how then are brain 
 and thought associated? In answer to this ques- 
 tion, Dr. Romanes first discusses what he calls the 
 theory of Spiritualism. By this term he means 
 that view which conceives the mind as having an 
 independent existence, or substance apart from the 
 brain, and capable of acting upon it, and so using 
 the brain as the mechanism of its thought, — for 
 he uses the term " spirit " as interchangeable with 
 mind. This theory he also summarily rejects, be- 
 cause it seems to him to be merely the theory of 
 materialism inverted; and that, therefore, most of 
 the arguments adduced in his analysis of material- 
 ism are just as available against " spiritualism." 
 For he claims that in whatever measure it is incon- 
 ceivable that neurosis should cause psychosis, in the 
 same measure must it be inconceivable that psycho- 
 sis should cause neurosis; seeing that it is as 
 impossible to imagine mind affecting energy as it 
 is to imagine energy affecting mind. 
 
 This is a favourite way among this class of writ- 
 ers of disposing of mind; and it is obvious that 
 such a dictum leaves us in mid-air as to what any- 
 thing mental is — for, if physical changes cannot 
 cause mental changes, nor mental changes cause 
 
134) THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 physical changes, what are mental changes any- 
 way? 
 
 One answer to this question is — that mental 
 and physical phenomena, though apparently di- 
 verse, are really identical! The apparent dis- 
 similarity arises only because we perceive these 
 things in a different light, as it were; and that 
 they are double only in relation to our modes of 
 apprehension. Just as the tremors of a violin 
 string are phenomenally very different, according 
 to our mode of apprehending them, with the eye 
 or with the ear, so the tremors of a nerve are, both 
 physical and mental, apparently dual; the event 
 may be really singular, as, e. g., an air on the 
 violin is one with the vibrations of catgut, yet is 
 perceived by us as varying absolutely. " But," 
 continues Dr. Romanes, " if the physical and the 
 mental are thus supposed to be identical in the 
 brain, the physical and the mental must be iden- 
 tical universally, for there is no reason to suppose 
 the physics of the brain differs from physics in 
 general. AU physical processes, therefore, are 
 likewise mental! We have not, indeed, to suppose 
 that our physical processes (motions) think or feel 
 • — ■ we have only to suppose that all physical mo- 
 tions present the " raw material " of mind, which 
 has not, as yet, been wrought into feeling or 
 thought, just as the physics of crystallisation has 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 135 
 
 not proceeded so far in complexity or refinement 
 as the physics of life." In support of this view — 
 namely, that we cannot draw anywhere a line be- 
 tween physics and psychics — Dr. Romanes quotes 
 a passage from what he terms " the most closely 
 reasoned and profound of Professor Clifford's phi- 
 losophical writings," which reads: 
 
 " Mind-stuff is the reality which we perceive as 
 matter. A moving molecule of inorganic matter 
 does not possess mind or consciousness, but it pos- 
 sesses a small piece of mind-stuff. When the 
 molecules are so combined together as to form the 
 film on the under side of a jelly-fish, the elements 
 of mind-stuff which go along with them are so 
 combined as to form the faint beginnings of sen- 
 tience. When the molecules are so combined as to 
 form the brain and nervous system of a vertebrate, 
 the corresponding elements of mind-stuff are so 
 combined as to form some kind of consciousness. 
 When matter takes the complex form of a living, 
 hiunan brain, the corresponding mind-stuff takes 
 the form of a human consciousness, having intel- 
 ligence and volition." ^ Dr. Romanes, however, 
 decides that a fatal objection to this theory is that 
 
 1 See Professor Strong's recent work. Why the Mind Has a 
 Body (1903), which has appeared since the above was writ- 
 ten. See also Prof, William James's attack on the theory in 
 his Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, Chapter VI, " The 
 Mind-Stuff Theory," and references therein given. 
 
186 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 it is unable to explain the fundamental antithesis 
 between subject and object — the perceiver and 
 the perceived — and concludes, as he began, by 
 stating that the relation between matter and mind 
 is inexplicable. 
 
 Thus, just as Herbert Spencer leaves us in the 
 great " Unknowable," and Huxley in the " Incon- 
 ceivable," so Dr. Romanes lets us find our final 
 intellectual rest in the " Inexplicable " ! Surely 
 when such diverse opinions and admitted ignorance 
 upon this subject, as here shown, are held by some 
 of the leading scientific minds of the day, no one 
 can dogmatise very much upon the subject either 
 one way or the other. And, whereas it must be 
 admitted that thought is, in one sense or another, 
 a " function " of the brain, a very different state- 
 ment of the case, from that generally held, may 
 be made as follows: Instead of consciousness or 
 thought being a function of the nervous tissue, the 
 perception of a sensation through nervous tissue is 
 a function of consciousness; that is to say, con- 
 sciousness is independent of nervous tissue, and 
 uses nervous tissue to perceive with. In this sense 
 our two brains — for we have two — would be 
 the mstruments of consciousness, but are not con- 
 scious themselves ; just as our eyes are the instru- 
 ments of sight, but do not themselves see; in the 
 same way that a microscope is the instrument for 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 137 
 
 magnifying minute atoms of matter, but cannot 
 itself see and appreciate thp magnification. Why ? 
 Because it has no consciousness of its own. 
 
 And thus, out of a multitude of opinions, we 
 arrive very nearly at our starting-point, and have 
 merely found, in our circuitous route, that nothing 
 definite has been decided upon this point, either 
 for or against any particular theory; ^ and it is, 
 very largely, merely a matter of personal opinion 
 which theory is accepted; and this will vary with 
 each individual according to his knowledge, envi- 
 ronment and outlook upon the universe in general 
 and upon these subjects in particular. Therefore, 
 in this state of uncertainty, let us investigate those 
 facts which tend either to prove or to disprove this 
 or that theory upon experimental and scientific 
 grounds. For it must be admitted that if a man's 
 so-called " spirit " can be isolated, and got into 
 communication with, after death — and many of 
 the world's greatest scientists say that it can, and 
 that they have actually done so — if this, I say, is 
 a fact, then it follows as a matter of course that 
 man has a " spirit " or " soul " to return ; which 
 would be positive, decisive evidence. But this can 
 only be decided, as before emphasised, by actual 
 experimental evidence. Let us, therefore, press 
 our investigations in this direction with as much 
 
 1 James, Psychology, Vol. I, pp. 134, 138, 154-8, 316, etc. 
 
138 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 energy and zeal as in any other; fearlessly tracing 
 to its fountain-head any evidence, any facts, seem- 
 ing to throw light upon these subjects, and follow- 
 ing up that evidence wherever it may lead us. 
 If we encounter difficulties and disappointments on 
 the road — these are to be expected in investiga- 
 tions such as ours; but they should only goad us 
 on to further efforts — for surely the subject is 
 interesting and important, from any point of view 
 whatever. And if, finally, there is, amidst all the 
 fraud, delusion and reeking superstition in which 
 psychical research is unhappily steeped, some 
 grain, however small, of a transcendental faculty 
 in man, which our science of to-day does not rec- 
 ognise, but of which, occasionally, faint glimpses 
 may be caught in investigations such as ours, — 
 then most assuredly we should pursue these inves- 
 tigations — this science — with a mind as free 
 from prepossession as it may be our fortune to 
 possess. We live in the hopes of a great dis- 
 covery, far-reaching and of vast import, and, in 
 such a cause as this, " worthy should be that effort 
 and great should be that hope ! " 
 
ENSUING CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 Though the following discussion may not ap- 
 pear at first sight to have any direct bearing upon 
 the foregoing essay on Consciousness, or to follow 
 directly from it, it will become apparent as we 
 proceed that it is a more or less direct continuation 
 of that essay, inasmuch as I shall be called upon 
 later to defend the position I there occupied ; while 
 it makes clearer certain obscure points which 
 needed, perhaps, further elaboration. This dis- 
 cussion began by the publication in The Open 
 Court magazine for June, 1905, of the following 
 criticism of Dr. I. K. Funk's interesting book on 
 psychical research. The Widow's Mite. The fol- 
 lowing is the article (I quote verbatim) : 
 
 THE widow's mite 
 
 DR. I. K. funk's PEACTICAL JOKE 
 
 BY THADDEtrS B. WAKEMAN 
 
 " As a people we are measured by the books we 
 read and what we think of them. Dr. I. K. Funk's 
 big book of over 500 pages, on ' The Widow's 
 Mite ' and the ' Spirit ' of Henry Ward Beecher, 
 has measured a great mass of readers to be far 
 back of this age of science — which is not won- 
 139 
 
140 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 derful; has it not done the same for a large part 
 of our leading university professors and edu- 
 cators? — a fact, if it be one, of the greatest 
 importance. 
 
 " The book tells of two little ancient coins, one 
 black and genuine, and the other light and dubious, 
 supposed to have been like those of the widow's 
 ' mites ' mentioned in Mark and Luke. They 
 were borrowed by Funk and Wagnalls to be used 
 in the Standard Dictionary and then returned. 
 The spurious one was used by mistake, but both 
 were then put in the safe in an envelope. Dr. Funk 
 ordered the genuine one to be returned to its owner. 
 Professor West, a neighbour and friend of Henry 
 Ward Beecher and principal of a young ladies' 
 seminary on ' The Heights.' Nine years after 
 this, and after the death of Professor West and 
 Mr. Beecher, Dr. Funk was attending spiritualistic 
 seances in Brooklyn. At one of them the medium 
 suddenly gave a message to the Doctor, purport- 
 ing to be from the ' spirit ' of Henry Ward 
 Beecher, requiring of him the immediate return 
 of this borrowed genuine black coin to its owner. 
 The Doctor answered that it had been returned 
 years ago. The spirit replied that it had not; 
 but the medium could not learn to whom or where 
 it should be returned. Upon search the envelope 
 with both coins in it was found in the safe where 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 141 
 
 they had been placed, presumably, nine years be- 
 fore. 
 
 " Result : General surprise ! Was this at last 
 one genuine, decisive ' spirit test ' ? Everyone at 
 the Doctor's office who knew of the coin supposed 
 that it had been returned. The medium and all 
 connected with the seance swore that they never 
 knew or heard of any such occurrence before this 
 Beecher message. Professor West's son and ex- 
 ecutor certified that he is as certain as he can be 
 of anything that passed in his father's mind 
 ' that he, too, supposed that the coin had been 
 returned.' The coin was rare and of great value 
 — some say worth $2,500.00. 
 
 " Spirituahsts claimed that the facts proved this 
 message to be indubitable, and that Mr. Beecher's 
 personal, living continuous consciousness, or spirit, 
 was a fact. They even obtained another message, 
 purporting to be from him, to the effect that he 
 had sent this message about a trivial matter be- 
 cause, from the nature of the facts, he saw that 
 * the test ' must be conclusive, and that he wished 
 to open the portals to the earth from the spirit 
 realm, from which he had most important matters 
 to communicate. But notwithstanding the per- 
 sistent efforts of Dr. Funk and of very many 
 mediums all over the earth, those ' most important 
 matters ' have wholly failed to appear. Finally 
 
142 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 even the mediums seemed to tire of their efforts, 
 and this message was ' received ' from Mr. 
 Beecher, who was bothered beyond celestial endu- 
 rance ; viz., ' The widow's mite bother Dr. Funk to 
 their hearts' content for aught I care. I will have 
 nothing more to do with the affair.' Thus the 
 Beecher wit came to his protection and relief; 
 which, as Dr. Funk adds, ' has at least something 
 of the old Beecher ring in it.' 
 
 " Thus this ' spirit ' incident ends in nothing, as 
 they all do, when it comes to anything of value or 
 use.^ But far otherwise is the revelation of the 
 consequences and moral of the story to those who 
 think. Dr. Funk was at first under a great vari- 
 ety of doubts and be-puzzlement. This big book 
 is his thrifty way of obtaining relief therefrom, 
 and also fame, a good ' ad.,' and then too ' shekels ' 
 — worth far more than mites. Two of his ex- 
 perts intimate that it is also his ' jest ' and ' prac- 
 tical joke,' whereby his wit and humour also came 
 to his relief — a view in which many a reader may 
 concur, and to which finally the good Doctor may 
 contribute a smile. 
 
 " The gist of the book consists of a statement of 
 the case, which was submitted to forty-two experts, 
 
 1 This, it will be observed, is a mere dogmatic statement 
 or opinion; and is, I venture to think, not in accord with 
 the facts.— H. C. 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 14.3 
 
 chiefly professors of physics and psychics in our 
 leading universities and colleges, commencing with 
 the voluminous Professor James of Harvard. 
 Then follow their answers, mostly in the Appendix. 
 With aU this we have an epitome of the best spirit- 
 ualistic literature — trying to make this revelation 
 and test seem probable, if not certain, as the work 
 of the continuous Mr. Beecher. 
 
 " The Doctor might have consulted others with 
 other results. For instance, many an impartial 
 counsellor-at-law would have given him the maxim 
 of old Horace: "Nee Deus inter sit, nisi dignus 
 mndice nodus — 'Don't call in a God (or even a 
 Beecher), unless the knot is worthy of such an 
 untier.' That is, the supernatural is never in 
 order until the natural, relevant to the case, is all 
 known and exhausted in vain. Thus, it was not 
 natural or probable for a coin of that interest 
 and value to be unretumed and lost without being 
 talked over by West and Beecher in the circle of 
 their curious friends, some of whom were largely 
 spiritualistic. Some of the friends or visitors of 
 tliis resident medium would almost certainly hear 
 of the story, and the medium consciously or un- 
 consciously get it from them. Then, she may 
 have forgotten it during the nine years and re- 
 called it unconsciously in trance ; as is well attested 
 in similar cases, even of languages heard and 
 
144 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 afterwards repeated in trance, by those at other 
 times ignorant of them. Then comes in explana- 
 tion the possible fraud or collusion of some of the 
 parties, including the medium. Indeed aU of the 
 natural solutions suggested by Dr. Funk and oth- 
 ers in the book are to be taken as — imore prob- 
 able than any ' spirit ' from another state of 
 existence. This much the counsellor would say — 
 resting upon the common rules of evidence and 
 experience. 
 
 " But Dr. Funk says, in effect, that all such sup- 
 posing does not negative the possibility of ' spirit ' 
 existence and communication. Well on this point 
 he might and should have consulted an up-to-date 
 biologist, as well as professors of physics and psy- 
 chics. And since he wandered all over the world 
 (including Japan) to find experts, why did he not 
 include Prof. Ernst Haeckel of Jena, or some like 
 scientist, without reserve in behalf of scientific 
 truth? 1 
 
 " Professor Haeckel is by many regarded as the 
 first scientist of our age in his department — the 
 one in which this question properly comes. In his 
 Thesis sent to the Congress of Liberals held at 
 St. Louis in October last, he gives, not his verdict, 
 
 iDr. Funk did include in his book the statements of 
 several men just as opposed to spiritism as Professor 
 Haeckel. 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 145 
 
 but that of up-to-date science on this very point 
 in these words ; viz. : ' The soul of man has been 
 recognised as the totality of brain functions. 
 . This activity, of course, becomes extinct 
 in death; and in our days it appears to be per- 
 fectly absurd to expect, nevertheless, a personal 
 immortality of the soul.' That is, the scientific 
 and social immortality have become one, and they 
 take the place of the ' personal.' Thus science 
 says : ' Not possible ' ! And this not as the opin- 
 ion of one man or set of men, but the result of the 
 facts of biology — commencing with the simplest 
 protoplasm, and rising with all of its cellular com- 
 binations through all vegetative and animal forms 
 and convolutions to the brain of man, and the co- 
 operation of human societies. 
 
 " This induction from all of the facts is clinched, 
 he would say, by the two bottom laws of science — 
 that is, of the universe; viz.: The laws of 'sub- 
 stance,' or ' correlation,' and the law of ' economy.' 
 By the first law, all mental activities and processes, 
 including the ' soul,' are the sequent or concomi- 
 tant correlates which are found to be the results 
 and equivalents of preceding correlative changes 
 occurring in protoplasmic organisms, and in those 
 only! By the law of economy, the fact that 
 these ' activities ' are the results of protoplasmic 
 changes and actions is conclusive that they are not, 
 
146 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 and cannot be, produced or exist in any other 
 place or way. For every such activity is the re- 
 sult of equivalent correlations only, which cannot 
 be changed without a different result, and which 
 cannot cease without a ceasing of their activity at 
 the same time. 
 
 " After the death of Mr. Beecher there was, 
 therefore, no possible spirit, soul, or consciousness 
 of him extant to bother or be bothered about this 
 ' widow's mite ' or anything else. Any other sup- 
 position is not only untrue, but ' absurd.' This 
 ' recognised ' fact, as Professor Haeckel styles it, 
 is now ' the commonplace of science.' Thus, for 
 instance, it underlies all medical treatment of men- 
 tal ailments, except by frauds, quacks and the 
 uninformed.^ In one or the other of those un- 
 enviable classes must not those stand who, by 
 words, silence or otherwise, admit or imply that 
 Mr. Beecher's conscious spirit or soul was not 
 existent, so as to have possibly made this pretended 
 communication ? 
 
 " Now, Dr. Funk's book reveals this astonishing 
 fact; viz. : Not a single one of the said jury of 
 forty-two experts does other than to directly or 
 
 1 Here Mr. Wakeman shows ignorance himself of the 
 fact that, only in some instances, is any organic change 
 discovered by poat-mortem examinations of the brains of 
 insane persons. 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 147 
 
 implicitly or tacitly admit the then existence of 
 Mr. Beecher's soul, and its consequent ability to 
 communicate as claimed! But this fact is not 
 only astonishing: it is exceedingly important. Do 
 our universities and colleges exist for the purpose 
 of 'raying out darkness'.? Was there not OTie 
 great professor who knew enough and dared 
 enough to teU Dr. Funk the plain truth — the 
 commonplace and bedrock of science? 
 
 " What kind of leaders and teachers are we to 
 have for the next generation when those who are 
 ' liberally educated ' in this accept only a practical 
 suppression of the truth as to the most important 
 matter that science has made known to a human 
 being — the nature, origin, duty and future of 
 himself? Let us all have the truth, the whole 
 truth and nothing but the truth. For ' in that 
 only is there wisdom and safety,' as old Goethe 
 told us long ago. 
 
 " Aside from their bearing upon the substance of 
 Dr. Funk's book, those arguments of ' induction,' 
 ' correlation ' and ' economy ' are just now of ex- 
 traordinary importance, for Professor Haeckel has 
 seriously proposed to make them an important 
 part of the basis upon which the free-thinkers of 
 every country should organise. I have never been 
 able to answer those arguments, and never could 
 
148 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 find anyone who could. If any such person ex- 
 ists, the occasion calls for him, and I believe The 
 Open Court will be open to him." 
 
 THE rMMOETALITY OP THE SOUL 
 
 A EEPLY TO ME. THADDEUS B. WAKEMAN 
 
 BY THE EDITOE ^ 
 
 " Some time ago, Dr. Isaac K. Funk, of the well- 
 known publishing firm, submitted to us evidences 
 of spirit communication concerning an ancient He- 
 brew coin called ' the widow's mite,' which had 
 been used by Funk & Wagnalls for illustration in 
 their Standard Dictionary. Dr. Funk was re- 
 minded of the coin in a spiritualistic seance of an 
 unprofessional medium who spoke in the name of 
 the late Henry Ward Beecher, claiming that it had 
 never been returned to its owner. The medium's 
 claim (or shall we say the claim of Mr. Beecher's 
 spirit) was substantiated, for the coin was discov- 
 ered in the safe of Funk & Wagnalls, where it had 
 lain unheeded for nine years, and it was now duly 
 returned to the owner or his heirs. 
 
 " Dr. Funk submitted the case and its value as 
 evidences of genuine spirit communication to a 
 large number of scholars, scientists, experts, psy- 
 chologists, etc., and then published the whole ac- 
 
 1 Dr. Paul Carus. This " reply " appeared in the same 
 issue as the foregoing criticism. — H. C. 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 149 
 
 count, together with these opinions, in a book called 
 The Widow's Mite. The case was also referred 
 at the time to the editor of The Open Court, but 
 his reply was too uncompromising to recommend 
 itself for publication. It admitted the strange- 
 ness of the occurrence, provided that there was 
 neither error in the facts, nor fraud, but it de- 
 clared that a cross-examination of the several per- 
 sons involved would be indispensable, and this be- 
 ing excluded we had to abstain from giving a 
 definite verdict on the merits of the case. The 
 book now hes before us, but the evidence being 
 still hedged in with ' if s ' and ' buts ' we cannot 
 regard it as convincing. Considering the unsat- 
 isfactory character of a negative verdict, we de- 
 layed our review and kept the book on our shelf 
 without being able to sum up the case in a state- 
 ment which would do justice to Dr. Funk's zeal 
 and circumspection, yet also point out the weak 
 spot of his argumentation. 
 
 " At this juncture Mr. Wakeman's article came 
 to hand and forced the issue again upon our 
 attention. His verdict is very direct and simple. 
 Quoting Haeckel he denies the possibility of the 
 occurrence, and hence refuses to consider the argu- 
 ment. There must be an error somewhere, and 
 thus the case is disposed of. 
 
 " Now we agree with Mr. Wakeman on the main 
 
150 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 point. We, too, believe that there must be an 
 error somewhere; but we think it equally certain 
 that there must be a truth in a theory which, in 
 spite of its crudity, exercises an enormous influ- 
 ence over multitudes of people, among whom we 
 encounter men of business sense like Dr. Funk, 
 and scholars such as Hyslop and James. There 
 is a deep-seated natural longing for immortality, 
 and we believe that although untenable in the 
 shape in which it is commonly held, it is based 
 upon fact. There is an immortality of personal 
 character — difi'erent though it may be from the 
 popular conception. 
 
 " Professor Haeckel's argument that there is no 
 immortality is wrong and can easily be refuted. 
 He declares that soul is a function of the brain, 
 accordingly the soul is lost with the decomposition 
 of the body. 
 
 " Now, it is true that the soul is our thinking, 
 feeling and willing. But we must bear in mind 
 that the soul is not the brain, but the purpose we 
 pursue in life and the meaning which our thoughts 
 possess, both being represented in certain forms 
 of brain operation. There is no thinking with- 
 out brain, but the brain is only the material con- 
 dition in which thinking is realised. The thoughts 
 themselves are not material. 
 
 " Let us use the analogy of 4 book. The book 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 161 
 
 itself, or rather the soul of the book, consists of 
 ideas which are expressed in the printed words. 
 Ideas cannot be communicated without some sen- 
 sory means, and a material of some kind is needed 
 as a substratum to render them somehow actual 
 and to convey them. We can bum a book, but we 
 cannot bum the ideas expressed in it. If a poet 
 writes a poem on a sheet of paper the writing may 
 become illegible, but the poem need not be lost; it 
 can be copied and it remains the self -same poem. 
 
 " The same is true of the soul of man. Soul is 
 the meaning and purpose of some living sub- 
 stance. It is not the substance, but that unsub- 
 stantial something which gives character to it, and 
 anyone who declares that it is non-existent because 
 it is purely formal and relational, and not mate- 
 rial, would be driven to the paradoxical conclusion 
 that the non-existent is more important in the 
 material world than aU the innumerable concrete 
 material objects. The essential part of our own 
 being is not the material aspect of our cerebral 
 activity, but the contents of our thought, the pur- 
 pose of our wiU, the leading motive of our senti- 
 ments, which factors in their bodily actualisation 
 are, of course, always of a definite structure. 
 
 " Now Professor Haeckel will not dispute this 
 point, but he insists that this cerebral structure 
 which is the physical aspect of the soul will be 
 
152 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 destroyed, and being destroyed the soul is lost and 
 gone forever. But we claim the same kind of a 
 brain constitutes the same kind of a soul, and that 
 the reappearance of the same form of brain func- 
 tions denotes the rebirth of the same soul. Pro- 
 fessor Haeckel's arguments would be correct if 
 identity of soul depended upon an identity of the 
 bodily elements, but that is not so. 
 
 " We ought to grant that we are dying at every 
 minute and that a new soul is being bom in place 
 of the other, for our cerebral substance is decom- 
 posed in the very act of thinking and the particles 
 that are now functioning are at once changed into 
 waste matter and are discarded from our system. 
 In a certain sense it is quite correct to say that 
 life is a constant dying — media in mta nos in 
 morte sumus; but in another sense, and with no less 
 tioith, we can also say, ' There is no death ; what 
 seems so is transition.' 
 
 " It is well known that all the atoms of which 
 our bodies* are composed will change in the average 
 within seven years. If the material elements, and 
 not the form in which they are grouped, be the 
 essential part of our existence, we ought to con- 
 sider ourselves new personalities as soon as the 
 last atom of our former existence has passed away. 
 The transition is slow and almost imperceptible, 
 but it takes place none the less, and that after all 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 153 
 
 we recognise our identity throughout all these 
 changes is the best evidence that the material por- 
 tion of our being is of secondary consideration. 
 
 " Birth and death are the limits of individual ex- 
 istences, but we know perfectly well that we have 
 not risen from nothingness and in the same way 
 that we originated from prior conditions and are 
 the continuation of former soul-life — so we are 
 not annihilated in death and shall continue in the 
 life of the generations to come. 
 
 " Neither is birth an absolute beginning nor 
 death an absolute finality. They are the limits of 
 a series the character and form of which is deter- 
 mined by former lives, and our life is again deter- 
 mining the life of the future. Every individual 
 is a link in the great chain of the whole life of 
 mankind. The life of the individual is formed 
 and in its turn is forming again, so as to produce 
 a continuity in which the old forms of life are 
 preserved, being modified only by receiving new 
 additions and being enriched with further details. 
 Thus the soul of Christ is a living presence in all 
 Christian souls, and Christ's promise is literally 
 fulfilled when He says : ' And lo, I am with you 
 alway, even unto the end of the world.' But in 
 the same sense a father and a mother live on in 
 their children, a teacher in his pupils, each one in 
 the memory of his friends, martyrs and heroes in 
 
164 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 their cause, etc. And this immortality is not an 
 illusion, nor a mere phrase, but a living power 
 exercising a decisive influence upon the actions of 
 mankind. 
 
 " If Professor Haeckel were right, if the disso- 
 lution of the body ended all, constituting death a 
 finality, we would not care what might occur when 
 we are gone. The truth is that people are not 
 indifferent to what will happen after their death. 
 According to their different characters they en- 
 deavour to perpetuate their souls — and in this 
 they succeed. Whatever a man does lives after 
 him according to the nature of his deeds, and 
 these ■ deeds, the traces which they produce, the 
 memories which they leave, the effects in which 
 they are perpetuated, are nothing foreign to him, 
 but in them dwells the quintessence of his soul. 
 It. is he himself. 
 
 " Just as an inventor who has built up a factory, 
 to actualise his invention is a living presence in 
 every department of the plant, although bodily 
 he may be absent, so the soul of man remains an 
 efficient factor in life, although he may be over- 
 taken by death and rest from his labours. 
 
 " Now, we grant Mr. Wakeman that from our 
 standpoint a communication of a spirit through 
 a medium in the way described by Mr. Funk 
 should be considered an impossibility, but far from 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 155 
 
 ridiculing Mr. Funk's attempted investigation I 
 feel grateful to him for having ventured into the 
 desert of vain speculations — only to find out the 
 uselessness of his labours. He may not see the 
 result himself as yet, but others do ; and it is cer- 
 tainly necessary that all avenues of advance should 
 be reconnoitred, even those which a sound scien- 
 tific prevision condemns as hopeless. Those who 
 undertake this thankless task are naturally enthu- 
 siasts and beUevers in the improbable. Their 
 work is certainly not useless, for they call atten- 
 tion to the one-sidedness of the opposite view, and 
 certainly deserve credit for the apagogic proof 
 of an untenable position. 
 
 " Mr. Funk's hope may prove an illusion, but 
 Mr. Wakeman will pardon us for saying that his 
 venture of establishing a proof of immortality — 
 albeit of a counterfeit soul — should not be 
 branded as a ' joke.' I myself made investiga- 
 tions along the lines of the Society for Psychical 
 Research in what now appears to me an immature 
 period of my life ; but though I have surrendered 
 the expectation of finding anything in that waste 
 and sterile field, I deem it wise from time to time 
 to study critically the work of others and see 
 whether they have furnished the world with new 
 facts that would necessitate a revision of our pres- 
 ent views. Their views may be untenable from 
 
156 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 the standpoint of science, yet our own view may 
 also stand in need of emendation, or at least modi- 
 fication. 
 
 " As to Mr. Punk's book I can only say that I 
 fail to be convinced by his arguments. I will 
 grant that the proof would be fairly complete if 
 there were not ample scope for doubt on many 
 points where a cross-examination of the persons 
 involved would throw new light upon the case. I 
 feel convinced that though it will impress the be- 
 liever favourably, it wiH never convert the scoffer ; 
 and whether the impartial reader standing between 
 the two opposite positions will be affected, remains 
 to be seen. 
 
 " I have learned from the book to appreciate the 
 power of the belief in immortality, prompting a 
 business man to go out of his way and collect the 
 minutiae of so slender an evidence. This yearning 
 for a personal immortality is as deep rooted as are 
 the instincts of animals and I beheve, as set forth 
 above, it is well founded. Man feels that death 
 does not end all, and so he expresses the truth of 
 immortality in a mythical form, inventing the 
 ideas of heaven and hell and representing the soul 
 as a concrete being, built of some mysterious spir- 
 itual substance. 
 
 " Upon the whole it is even better that man 
 should believe in a mythical immortality than that 
 
ORIGESr OF CONSCIOUSNESS 15T 
 
 he should deny the truth of the myth itself, for the 
 idea is not without importance and exercises a 
 practical influence upon our actions and our gen- 
 eral attitude in Kfe. We conclude, therefore, with 
 the question: Is it better and wiser, or, even 
 merely more advisable, that a man should always 
 act as though the end of life were an absolute 
 finality, or, on the contrary, should he so act as 
 constantly ' to consider the part which his hfe and 
 all the results of his life will play in the world 
 when he is gone? I know that Professor Haeckel 
 himself cares very much for the after-effects of 
 his hfe. 
 
 " The period after death is certainly longer, as 
 Antigone says, than the brief span of our earthly- 
 career. 
 
 " ' For longer time, methinks, have I to please 
 The dwellers in that world than those in this.' 
 
 And yet the mere duration is less important than 
 the dynamical aspect of our soul-hfe after death. 
 There is reason enough to say that if the idea of 
 immortality deserves any consideration, it should 
 furnish the ultimate tribunal before which all ques- 
 tions of importance should reach their final de- 
 cision. Indeed, I can give no better rule for test- 
 ing the correctness of moral actions than that a 
 man in doubtful cases should ask himself : ' How 
 
158 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 would you wish to have acted if your life were 
 completed and you had passed away from the 
 world below? ' Anyone who is influenced by such 
 a thought believes in fact in the immortality of 
 the soul, though in his words he may flatly deny 
 and ridicule it." 
 
 To these articles I replied in The Open Court for 
 November, 1905, as follows: 
 
 THE IMMOB.TAUTT OF THE SOtTXi ^ 
 BY HEKEWAKD CAB,EINGTON. 
 
 " The attitude of mind assumed by Mr. Wake- 
 man in his criticism of Dr. Funk's book. The 
 Widow's Mite, is quite understandable, very hu- 
 man, and — from one point of view — thoroughly 
 justifiable. Mr. Wakeman's attitude may be 
 taken, I believe, as fairly representing the average 
 scientific mind of to-day; that of Dr. Cams as a 
 typical scientific-philosophical mind. I shall de- 
 vote a few words, first, to a consideration of the 
 remarks of each of these gentlemen, before stat- 
 ing my main contention — which is, namely, that 
 the majority of The Open Court readers do not 
 look at psychical research phenomena in the proper 
 
 1 A brief criticism of the articles on this subject by Thad- 
 dens B. Wakeman and the Editor of The Open Court in the 
 number for Jun^ 1905. 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 159 
 
 spirit, or study them from the particular point 
 of view of the psychical researcher. 
 
 " Mr. Wakeman's main contention is, of course, 
 that the majority (not all, but the majority) of 
 scientific men, with the great Professor Haeckel 
 at their head, have pronounced against the possi- 
 bility of personal immortality; or of the existence 
 of any such thing as ' spirit ' or ' soul,' separ- 
 able from its material encasement. I quite under- 
 stand and appreciate the strength and the char- 
 acter of the evidence upon which Mr. Wakeman 
 relies for his dogmatic assertions — evidence un- 
 doubtedly strong, positive, abundant, and lending 
 a very strong impetus to the materialistic cause. 
 It is true that there is another way of viewing 
 these newer results of science — a method of inter- 
 preting them which tells, not in favour of mate- 
 rialism, but just the reverse; and it is also true 
 that there are many weighty philosophic and meta- 
 physical objections to the doctrine of materialism 
 (meaning by this any system which excludes 
 'spirit' as a separate essence or entity); but 
 on these I shall not dwell here. In the first place, 
 this is not the time or place for such a discussion ; 
 and, in the second place, I am not at all sure my- 
 self that these objections should carry weight, or 
 even enter at all, into a scientific discussion. Sci- 
 ence deals with facts, and it is the fact of personal 
 
160 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 immortality that we must now consider from that 
 particular scientific or critical attitude. 
 
 " I can quite appreciate the repugnance Mr. 
 Wakeman feels in discussing any such thing as 
 * spirit ' — I have experienced just such feelings 
 myself and fully understand them. Let us, then, 
 eliminate ' spirit ' from our discussion and use the 
 expression ' persistence of personal consciousness.' 
 Having thus eliminated the objectionable term, 
 perhaps we may arrive at a basis for discussion. 
 
 " The great point is, of course, that conscious- 
 ness is indubitably bound up, in some way, with 
 brain function; and the scientific man asserts that 
 thought — and so consciousness — is in some man- 
 tier a product of this functioning, or, at least, so 
 inseparably bound up with it that any existence 
 apart from such functioning is unthinkable and 
 altogether unwarranted. He asserts that thought 
 is but one aspect of the nervous system's function- 
 ing, and that when that functioning ceases, there 
 is and can be, consequently, no more thought or 
 consciousness. The conclusion is obvious, there- 
 fore, it is claimed, that consciousness is obliter- 
 ated at death, and, as Mr. Wakeman puts it, 
 ' After the death of Mr. Beecher there was, there- 
 fore, no possible spirit, soul, or consciousness of 
 him extant to bother or be bothered about his 
 " widow's mite " or anything else.' 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 161 
 
 " Now my claim is this : that in such reasoning 
 the cart has, figuratively speaking, been placed 
 before the horse; and that a wrong course of ar- 
 gument has been pursued. Instead of searching, 
 impartially, for the facts in the case, an a priori 
 denial of the possibility of such facts has been 
 made — and, of course, if a fact is impossible it 
 cannot exist! But how do we know that it is im- 
 possible? At the most we can only raise a pre- 
 sumption against its occurrence; and a dogmatic 
 denial of its possibility has led science into great 
 and preposterous blunders more than once. It is 
 only necessary to recall such cases as the experi- 
 ments of Galvani and, more recently, the questions 
 of meteors, hypnotism, etc., to be assured of the 
 accuracy of that statement. Of course, scientific 
 reserve in the face of new and strange facts is 
 always justifiable, but that is a different matter to 
 flat d priori denial. But the point is that instead 
 of searching for such facts as tend to prove man's 
 immortality, the majority of scientists content 
 themselves with declaring, without investigation, 
 that such a condition is impossible — quite forget- 
 ting the fact that logic shows us that it is impos- 
 sible to prove a negative! 
 
 " The psychical researcher also realises the 
 strength of the scientific presumption against a 
 future life of any sort, but says, ' Nevertheless, 
 
162 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 here are certain well-evidenced facts which seem 
 to prove such survival. If I can obtain enough 
 and definite enough facts and evidence of this 
 character, then the presumption wiU be overthrown, 
 because we have certain facts which definitely prove 
 it to be incorrect.' In short, the only method 
 from which any conclusive result can follow is 
 that in which all presumption is laid aside and 
 deliberate experiment entered upon. That is the 
 attitude of the psychical researcher. As I wrote 
 some years ago, apropos of this very point, 
 ' Obviously, the only way to decide this question 
 is, not to speculate d priori upon the possibility 
 of spirit existence and reason from that the pos- 
 sibility of its return, but to test and establish 
 the possibility of its return, from which we can 
 argue (should that be established) that man has 
 a spirit to return. Here, as before, it is merely a 
 question of evidence.' 
 
 " Now, of the character, the variety, and the 
 strength of this evidence I cannot, of course, speak 
 here. I must refer the interested reader to the 
 eighteen ^ printed volumes of the Proceedings of 
 the Society for Psychical Research (S. P. R.), or, 
 if this is too much to ask, I would suggest that the 
 reader peruse Professor Hyslop's very excellent 
 book ientitled Science and a Future Life. Pro- 
 1 Eighteen at that time (190S). 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 163 
 
 fessor Hyslop handles this question in what is to 
 my mind an ideal manner, and I cannot too 
 strongly recommend it to the serious attention of 
 the readers of The Open Cowrt. 
 
 " To turn to the article by Dr. Cams. I am not 
 quite sure that I fuUy understand his position in 
 the matter. I take it to be (but I stand open to 
 correction) that all personal or individual immor- 
 tality is denied, but that the impression or im- 
 print our life and personality has made upon 
 the himian race — or rather those of the race with 
 whom we came into contact — constitutes the 
 afteiveffects, or immortality, of which Dr. Cams 
 speaks. Of course, no one would deny that 
 kind of immortality in any case, but I venture 
 to suggest that — for the individual concerned — 
 such an immortality practically amounts to 
 annihilation. Immortality without individuality 
 is no immortality at all. I cannot now go into 
 any detailed discussion of Dr. Cams' attitude, 
 but I can only say that it does not at all 
 appeal to me. Either the individual exists as 
 such, or he does not. If not, it is practically an- 
 nihilation so far as he is concerned. With this I 
 leave that branch of the discussion, and will add 
 a few final words as to the interrelation of brain 
 and mind and the inferences that are drawn from 
 the " admitted fact " of the correlation of mental 
 
164 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 states and cerebral changes. For every thought 
 there is a corresponding change in the brain-sub- 
 stance — from which the conclusion is drawn that 
 ' when there is no more brain there can be no 
 more thought or consciousness.' But does that 
 follow? Because the two facts are always coin- 
 cidental, does it follow that the brain-change pro- 
 duced the thought? By no means! We might 
 urge, on the contrary, that the brain-change was 
 merely the result of such thought; or that it was 
 merely coincidental in time, without the one affect- 
 ing the other, or that both are but aspects of 
 something else. This fact of functional depend- 
 ence has been looked at from one standpoint only. 
 As Prof. William James remarked in his Human 
 Immortality, ' it would appear that the supposed 
 impossibility of its (the soul's) continuing comes 
 from too superficial a look at the admitted fact 
 of functional dependence. The moment we in- 
 quire more closely into the notion of functional 
 dependence, and ask ourselves, for example, how 
 many kinds of functional dependence there may be, 
 we immediately perceive that there is one kind, at 
 least, that does not exclude a life hereafter at all. 
 The fatal conclusion of the physiologist flows 
 from his assuming off-hand another kind of func- 
 tional dependence and treating it as the only im- 
 aginable kind.' But this is altogether unwar- 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 165 
 
 ranted and unjustifiable. I have elaborated a 
 theory of consciousness, and of its relation to 
 brain function, in my article on ' The Origin and 
 Nature of Consciousness,' * which accepts the fact 
 of dependence, but endeavours to account for it in 
 such a manner as would leave personality quite 
 possible and immortality an open question — one 
 that could then be determined by direct experi- 
 ment. Mr. Wakeman must not misunderstand me. 
 I am not arguing that the soul does exist, but 
 merely that it is possible for it to exist; and this 
 being the case, we should endeavour directly to 
 experiment in those directions which hold out some 
 hope of its proof as existent. Personally I do not 
 particularly care whether the soul lives after the 
 death of the body or not. To me, as I have 
 repeatedly stated, it is merely a question of evi- 
 dence — of verifiable fact. But I do obj ect to the 
 attitude of men who assert ofF-hand and a priori 
 that such an existence is impossible, because I do 
 not think that such a conclusion is either justified 
 or warranted by the results of modem science, 
 especially in the face of evidence now accumulated 
 by the Psychical Research Society — of which I 
 am an imworthy member." 
 
 1 The Metaphysical Magazine, April-June, 1905, pp. 42-56. 
 
166 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 editok's eeply * 
 
 " Though I do not characterise my position as 
 materialism, I feel convinced that Mr. Carrington 
 would be obliged to call me a materialist accord- 
 ing to his classification. According to my no- 
 menclature, materialism * is that view which at- 
 tempts to explain the world from matter and 
 motion, and omits the most essential character- 
 istic of existence — the significance and reality of 
 purely formal relations. But in spite of my ob- 
 jection to materialism as a philosophical principle, 
 I would not hesitate to deny the ghost existence of 
 the soul which means that spirits could lead an in- 
 dependent life without being somehow incarnated 
 into bodily actuahty. I recognise the spiritual 
 and I claim that it alone possesses significance, 
 while the material part of the universe and even 
 energy amount to nothing unless guided by the 
 will of spiritual purpose. Further I wish to state 
 that Mr. Carrington has probably understood my 
 position correctly in appreciating the significance 
 of man's after-life, the reality of which, as he says, 
 no one would deny. But he does not grasp the 
 implications of this view, which might as well be 
 
 1 Appearing in the same issue. — H. C. 
 
 2 For details of my criticism as to the errors of the 
 materialism of Carl Voigt, see Fundamental Problems, pp. 
 350-^4. 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 167 
 
 stated in a negative form, declaring that the indi- 
 vidual as a separate entity, a kind of thing-in-it- 
 self, after the Vedantist atman, does not exist at all, 
 so it could not survive. The first question to be 
 solved is not whether or not the personality of 
 man will live again, but what is the personality of 
 man, how does it originate, and whence does it 
 come? The solution of this will naturally an- 
 swer the other question, Whither does it fare? I 
 believe I have treated the subject with sufficient 
 plainness in my little book Whence and Whither. 
 
 " The negative aspect which denies that person- 
 ality is a thing-in-itself is misleading in so far as 
 it seems to deny the reality of personality. If our 
 soul is not a thing-in-itself it is still a fact of real 
 life, and though that congregation of ideas, im- 
 pulses, sentiments, and purposes which constitutes 
 myself at the present moment will be broken up in 
 death, it will nevertheless continue to constitute a 
 factor in the world of living and aspiring man- 
 kind, and it will continue to be accompanied by 
 the consciousness of living generations just as 
 much as my ideas are conscious in my own body. 
 We shall be preserved entire and nothing will be 
 lost in death of the essential features of our per- 
 sonality. 
 
 " This view may be unsatisfactory to many peo- 
 ple and may appear tantamount to extinction 
 
168 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 from the standpoint of those who are under the 
 illusion that their personality is in the present ex- 
 istence a thing-in-itself, and I would not deny 
 that it is so ; but I claim that kind nature has with 
 seeming intention clothed the truth in the lan- 
 guage of myth and has made mankind create dif- 
 ferent allegories as to the nature of immortality, 
 making it more or less materialistic and sensuous. 
 All the several religions present the truth of im- 
 mortality in an artistic form which is only untrue 
 if its symbolism is understood hterally.-^ 
 
 " In -Mr. Carrington's conception my views 
 would probably appear identical with those of Mr. 
 Wakeman, for like him I do not believe that spirits 
 of the departed can be consulted or communicated 
 with in the style of mediumistic seances, but I 
 object to Mr. Wakeman's position in so far as I 
 must emphatically declare that man's life is not 
 finished at his death, that the after-hfe consti- 
 tuted by the effects of life itself is a salient part 
 of the present life and has to be constantly con- 
 sidered in all our actions. A consideration of the 
 status of our being after we are gone should be 
 the supreme motive of all our principles, and I 
 
 1 When this discussion in TJie Open Court was in progress, 
 I sent copies of all the magazines to Dr. Hodgson, and 
 received from him a congratulatory letter, at the end of 
 which he characteristically remarked: "What Dr. Cams 
 calls 'immortality' has always amused me." 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 169 
 
 •would not hesitate to say that it constitutes the 
 basis of all true morality. 
 
 " I have followed with great interest the work of 
 the Society for Psychical Research, but I must con- 
 fess that I do not deem its results as assured as do 
 many of its enthusiastic members. So far as I 
 can see they are of a negative nature and dispro- 
 portionately small to the enormous output of la- 
 bour and expense." 
 
 As this criticism merely reiterated certain conr 
 tentions which I deemed to be untenable — for the 
 reasons above pointed out — I did not write a 
 reply to it, since I did not think it necessitated 
 one. Mr. Wakeman, however, returned to the at- 
 tack, and in an article entitled " Human Immor- 
 talities, the Old and the New," he writes, in part, 
 as follows: 
 
 SCIENCE AND SENTIMENT 
 
 " That article ^ on The Widow's Mite explained 
 and applied the laws of science to the belief in the 
 old immortality ; viz. : 
 
 " 1. The law of induction from the facts. 
 
 " 2. The law of equivalent, continuous correla- 
 tion. 
 
 1 /. e., the first criticism to which Mr. Wakeman had just 
 referred. 
 
170 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 " 3. The law of economy, or non-repetition in 
 nature. 
 
 " It was shown that under these laws the old im- 
 mortahty was an absolute impossibility, unless 
 their application could be avoided ; and the prayer 
 Was that this (if possible) should be done at once, 
 or that intelligent people should drop the old and 
 turn to the new belief. 
 
 " This challenge has been before the public for 
 years without even an attempt at an answer; and 
 the default of the old belief had been taken there- 
 upon, as far as such a thing could be. But 
 
 " ' Truth can never be confirmed enough, 
 Though doubts did ever sleep.' 
 
 " It was very pleasing, therefore, to find in the 
 last November number of The Open Court an ar- 
 ticle on ' Immortality ' by Mr. Hereward Carring- 
 ton of the Society for Psychical Research, in which 
 he refers to my article as one of ' dogmatic asser- 
 tions,' but tells us that in the Metaphysicdl Maga- 
 zine for June last he had ' elaborated a theory of 
 consciousness and of its relation to brain function 
 which accepts the fact of dependence, but endeav- 
 ours to account for it in such a manner as would 
 leave personality quite possible and immortality 
 an open question — one that could then be deter- 
 mined by direct experiment.' He says that he 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 171 
 
 does ' not argue that the soul does exist, but 
 merelj that it is possible for it to exist.' 
 
 " When his article referred to appeared in that 
 magazine the author, or someone, kindly sent it 
 to me. Had it seemed to me to make the old im- 
 mortality ' possible ' I should so have announced 
 without delay, but it did nothing of the kind. 
 
 " That article contains an account of the errors 
 of scientists during the ' unknowable,' ' inconceiv- 
 able,' and ' inexplicable ' stages of their attempts 
 to apply the correlative ' key law ' of the uni- 
 verse. Their struggles there shown with * princi- 
 ples,' ' forces,' ' energy,' ' thing-in-itself ,' ' mind- 
 stuff,' * spirits,' ' auras ' and ' entities ' generally, 
 show us what not to get befogged with, and that 
 a new and up-to-date edition of the late Prof. E. 
 L. Yoiunan's book on correlation (published by 
 Appleton) is most desirable. Finally we reach 
 the author's said ' theory ' in these words : 
 
 " ' And, whereas it must be admitted that thought 
 is, in one sense or another, a " function " of the 
 brain, a very different statement of the case, from 
 that generally held, may be made as follows : In- 
 stead of consciousness or thought being a function 
 of the nervous tissue, the perception of a sensation 
 through nervous tissue is a function of conscious- 
 ness; that is to say, consciousness is independent 
 of nervous tissue and uses nervous tissue to perceive 
 
172 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 with. In this sense our two brains — for we have 
 two — would be the instruments of consciousness, 
 but are not conscious themselves; just as our eyes 
 are the instruments of sight, but do not themselves 
 see; in the same way that a microscope is the in- 
 strument for magnifying minute atoms of matter, 
 but cannot itself see and appreciate the magnifica- 
 tion. .Why? Because it has no consciousness of 
 its own.* 
 
 " This ' theory ' or hypothesis seems to me to be 
 upset at the start and to be useless child's play ; 
 for it asserts that ' consciousness or thought * — 
 treating them as one — are ' independent,' ' iTistead 
 of being functions of the nervous tissue.' Yet at 
 the start we read that ' it must be admitted that 
 thought is, in one sense or another, a function of 
 the brain.' But the brain is simply active nervous 
 tissue. This proven and admitted fact contradicts 
 and makes the proposed theory of an independent 
 consciousness impossible. 
 
 " Next we are told that the consciousness would 
 use ' the nervous tissue to perceive with.' But 
 that is immaterial. Consciousness may do that 
 and a thousand other things, and yet be the active 
 process and function of the brain's nervous tissues. 
 We are told that it would be ' just as our eyes are 
 the instruments of sight, but do not themselves 
 see.' But our sight is the seeing, is action, and 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 173 
 
 not a thing, and has no eyes as ' instruments.' 
 It is simply the activity of the nervous tissues of 
 the eyes and brain when hght vibrations reach 
 them. Our consciousness comes about in a similar 
 way, from those and from countless other vibra- 
 tions. It is proven to be a correlating process — 
 a go and not a thing. It is rudimentary in some 
 plants, higher in animals, and highest as the action 
 of the human nervous tissues. That it survives 
 each plant, animal, or human being after death as 
 a ghost to be caught by the Society for Psychical 
 Research is, as Professor Haeckel says, ' perfectly 
 absurd ' — that is, too absurd for anything but 
 silence. It can only catch the ear of those who, 
 like Colvunbus' crew, wish to slink back to some 
 imaginary Eden, or heaven, instead of pressing 
 forward to enjoy and people the new and real 
 world." 
 
 To this I replied as follows : 
 
 BY HEREWAan CAB.B.INGTON 
 
 " I should like to reply to that part of Mr. 
 Wakeman's article on ' Human Immortalities ' that 
 directly concerns my own position as stated in the 
 November number of The Open Court. 
 
 " I take exception to no portion of Mr. Wake- 
 
 1 ThB Open Court, April, 1906. 
 
174 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 man's paper save that under the heading of ' Sci- 
 ence and Sentiment,' and even here I can quite 
 see and appreciate Mr. Wakeman's attitude of 
 mind, which, as I before Stated, is thoroughly un- 
 derstandable. I would point out, however, that 
 Mr. Wakeman, in his reply, has in no wise an- 
 swered my objection to his position, as stated in 
 my own criticism, which was, namely : ' That the 
 majority of The Open Court readers do not look at 
 psychical research phenomena in the proper spirit, 
 or study them from the particular point of view of 
 the psychical researcher.' 
 
 " Mr, Wakeman confines his criticism of my pre- 
 vious article to my other article on ' The Origin 
 and Nature of Consciousness,' to which I referred 
 in my discussion, and has limited his criticism to 
 my viewpoint, as expressed in that article, and to 
 the theory I there maintained; and has not at all 
 answered the primary objection I raised in The 
 Open Court, as to the attitude of mind assumed by 
 himself and others towards the possibility of im- 
 mortality. Before discussing this at greater 
 length, I should like to reply briefly to the criti- 
 cism as raised by Mr. Wakeman of my theory of 
 consciousness, and its relation to brain-function. 
 In stating that ' it must be admitted that thought 
 is in one sense or another a function of the brain,' 
 I did not intend to imply, and in fact my whole 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 175 
 
 article was against the assumption, that the thought 
 was the product of the brain functioning, and I 
 then pointed out that the functioning might be 
 connected with states of consciousness in alto- 
 gether another way than in the relation of pro- 
 ducer and produced, and that it was at least con- 
 ceivable that this functioning, accompanying all 
 thought, is but coincidental with the thought — 
 not necessarily its producer, but conceivably the 
 produced, the thought being the real causal agency ; 
 or that both are but aspects of something else, 
 differing from both in its underlying reality, 
 just as the tremors of a violin string are perceived 
 by us as sound and as more or less visible vibra- 
 tions of catgut, according to whether the ear or 
 the eye interprets these vibrations; and, though 
 they appear to us as dissimilar as possible, they are, 
 it wiU be seen, but the differing aspects, or subjec- 
 tive methods of interpretation, by ourselves, of the 
 same physical cause. Thus it may be that con- 
 sciousness and brain functioning, though appar- 
 ently so dissimilar, are ultimately one and the 
 same thing at basis, the two being but the dif- 
 fering ways in which the same cause is interpreted. 
 I admit that the brain is simply ' active nervous 
 tissue ; ' but this simply states the condition of the 
 physical brain at the time of thinking — upon 
 which I would insist as much as Mr. Wakeman — 
 
176 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 for it is always in connection with this activity that 
 thought is associated in this life; but it does not 
 prove that the activity produced the thought, as 
 I have before pointed out, but merely that it is co- 
 incidental with it. There is absolutely no proof 
 that the nerve activity produces the consciousness; 
 all we can ever say on this question is that they 
 are coincidental in point of time. 
 
 " I do not agree with Mr. Wakeman in his state- 
 ment that ' Sight is seeing, is action, and not a 
 thing, and has no eyes as instruments ; it is simply 
 the activity of the nervous tissues of the eyes and 
 brain when light vibrations reach them ' (p. 109). 
 I must insist that the activity of the eyes has abso- 
 lutely nothing to do with the sensation of con- 
 sciousness ; that is associated only with the activity 
 of the sight-centre in the brain, and the eyes 
 merely transmit to that centre certain vibrations, 
 arousing in it a nervous activity with which the 
 sense of sight is associated, but the eyes have 
 nothing to do with the state of consciousness. 
 They are merely transmitters or instruments, as I 
 before insisted upon; and that the consciousness, 
 the idea of seeing, is associated only with activity 
 of the sight-centre in the brain Is proved by the fact 
 that in hallucinations, when this sight-centre is 
 morbidly excited, the sensation of sight is expe- 
 rienced without vibrations reaching the sight- 
 
ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS 177 
 
 centre through the eye, or without the rest of the 
 brain being involved in the slightest degree. No 
 matter how the sight-centre is aroused into activity, 
 it is the activity with which thought is associated, 
 and with the activity of that centre only. I must 
 insist therefore, that eyes are 'instruments,' and 
 not in any way associated with, or producers of, 
 the conscious state known to us as the sensation of 
 sight. I do not see, finally, how Mr. Wakeman 
 can pronounce upon the " impossibility " of con- 
 sciousness persisting apart from brain functions, 
 unless he is omniscient, since aU his arguments 
 can ever lead to is the scientific vmprohahtLity of 
 such persistence, and this improbability will, in 
 turn, rest not on philosophic speculation, but on. 
 the presence or absence of facts tending to show 
 that such persistence of consciousness, apart from 
 brain function, is a fact in nature. 
 
 " Mr. Wakeman says there is no such evidence ; 
 we psychical researchers say there is — not that the 
 evidence is absolutely conclusive, but that it is sug- 
 gestive, and at least renders such persistence of 
 personality a probability ; and this brings me to my 
 last point, to which I have been working through- 
 out this chapter. I do not think the question of 
 survival or non-survival can ever be settled by 
 philosophic or metaphysical speculation. Mr. 
 Wakeman might produce arguments against its 
 
178 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 probability and I for it indefinitely, and we should 
 probably both, in the end, be all the more solidly 
 grounded in our own beliefs. 
 
 " I think that the only way this matter can ever 
 be settled is by resolutely putting aside all philo- 
 sophic and other preconceptions, and by turning to 
 direct investigation of evidence and of facts that 
 may be forthcoming — tending to show that such 
 persistence of consciousness is an actual fact. If 
 these facts are ever established, then all specula- 
 tion is mere child's play and conclusively disproved 
 by the evidence in the case. 
 
 " As a member of the Psychical Research Society 
 I must insist upon this being the only attitude in 
 which to approach this problem, and only by such 
 direct evidence can this fact ever be definitely set- 
 tled one way or the other." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THK PKOBLEMS OF HYPNOTISM 
 
 * < TUST as chemistry arose from alchemy,''* 
 *^ says Dr. Bramwell,^ " astronomy from as- 
 trology, and the therapeutics of to-day were for- 
 merly represented by disgusting compounds whicK 
 were drawn from the living or dead human body, 
 so hypnotism had its origin in mesmerism." 
 Though mesmerism was characterised by many 
 absurd pretensions, and did not receive the accept- 
 ance of the scientific world in its day, hypnotism 
 now receives the serious attention of the great 
 majority of scientific men, — and, in fact, its phe- 
 nomena have now gained general recognition, as 
 facts. Just here, before discussion goes further, 
 it may be as well to point out the distinction 
 between mesmerism and hypnotism, and to make 
 clear the subject we are to discuss. Mesmer- 
 ism, as taught by Mesmer, from whom it re- 
 ceived its name, stated that there was a kind of 
 universal magnetism present in every living and 
 dead body, not only in this earth, but even in the 
 most distant stars in space throughout the uni- 
 verse, and that this magnetism might be collected 
 
 ^Hypnotism, p., 3. 
 
 179 
 
180 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 and centered by one individual, to a large extent, 
 and directed by him in a certain channel, for useful, 
 curative purposes. Mesmer conceived this mag^ 
 netism to be more or less fluidic or semi-material in 
 its character, and in this respect it differs entirely 
 from hypnotism, which is regarded as a purely psy- 
 chological phenomenon by the majority of its inves- 
 tigators, and is in no way related to any physical 
 influence or affluence at all. This is the principal 
 mark of distinction between the two theories; one 
 stands for the physical influence, the other for the 
 purely psychical. The Abbe Faria, in 1814, first 
 suggested that the phenomena observed in the mes- 
 meric state were almost entirely subjective, i. e. 
 psychological, and not due to physical cause; but 
 his teachings were almost entirely lost sight of in 
 the next thirty years, during which period the 
 mesmeric school received a fresh impulse, owing to 
 the magnificent work of Drs. Elhotson and Esdaile, 
 who performed numerous operations during mes- 
 meric trance, having produced, apparently, com- 
 plete anaesthesia in their patients during such op- 
 erations. The theory was not revived until Dr. 
 Braid, of Manchester, England, published his fa- 
 mous book entitled Neurypnology, or the Rationale 
 of Nervous Sleep. In this book was advanced, for 
 the first time, the psychological theory of hypno- 
 tism in a thoroughly scientific manner, and though 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF HYPNOTISMT 181 
 
 Dr. Braid received, of course, the sneers and oppo- 
 sition of the medical profession at the time, it may 
 be safely stated that the general acceptance of 
 hypnotic phenomena dates from the publication of 
 this work. Shortly after the attention of the 
 scientific world had been drawn by the evidence to 
 an investigation of hypnotic phenomena, however, 
 it was again forcibly diverted by the discovery, at 
 about this time, of chloroform and other anaesthet- 
 ics, which placed in the hands of the physician a re- 
 liable means of inducing this condition, without 
 attempting the uncertain methods that Braid advo- 
 cated for inducing the anaesthetic state; and al- 
 though hypnotism continued to be investigated by 
 individuals and to receive its staunch supporters, 
 especially in France and Germany, the interest in 
 the subject practically died out In England, and 
 was not revived until the announcement that Dr. 
 Charcot of La Salpetriere Hospital had become 
 convinced that there were displayed, in hypnotic 
 states, certain interesting nervous conditions which 
 claimed the attention of the scientific and medical 
 worlds, being undoubtedly genuine. This at once 
 revived the interest, and the medical world was 
 finally convinced that there was, in hypnotism, 
 more than trickery and charlatanism, and its scien- 
 tific investigation dates from that period. I can- 
 not, in this chapter, do more than refer to the ex- 
 
182 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 cellent work that has been done since that time by 
 various continental workers, and especially by the 
 * Nancy School ' (the greatest modem advocates 
 of the theory of suggestion), but I shall confine 
 myself to the work that has been done in England 
 and America, largely by the Society for Psychical 
 Research, through whose influence the phenomena 
 of hypnotism were largely brought to public at- 
 tention, and through whose careful and painstaking 
 and most excellent work hypnotism received its just 
 appreciation and ultimate acceptance. In this field 
 the early experiments of Edmund Gumey and the 
 brilliant theoretical papers of Frederic Myers de- 
 serve the utmost commendation and whole-hearted 
 praise. The general phenomena of hypnotism are 
 now so well understood that it is hardly necessary 
 to refer to them in a paper of this character, 
 since there is hardly a reader, probably, who has 
 not some idea of their general nature as observed by 
 the outsider, or who has not seen such experiments 
 performed. Public entertainers dehght in showing 
 the extent of the influence they exert over their 
 patients, inducing in them hallucinations and il- 
 lusions, as well as causing them to perform all 
 sorts of ridiculous antics which are absolutely value- 
 less, except to illustrate to the public mind the 
 extent of the power of hypnotism. Briefly, it may 
 be said that the uses of hypnotism are two: med- 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF HYPNOTISM 183 
 
 ical and psychological. In the former case anaes- 
 thesia may be induced, alleviating pain or causing 
 the patient to become insensible to the surgeon's 
 knife or the dentist's forceps ; thus enabling 
 many difficult surgical and dental operations to be 
 performed without the shock that would otherwise 
 accompany them — and this without the harmful 
 after-effects that would follow the administration 
 of any of the dangerous drugs that are used to- 
 day. And further, we know that the hypnotic 
 trance can, when supplemented by forceful sug- 
 gestions, greatly benefit all nervous and functional 
 diseases ; while it is asserted in some quarters that 
 organic diseases can also be cured in this manner 
 — though the majority of medical men would 
 doubtless take exception to this statement. The 
 power for good in hypnotism has also been well 
 illustrated in its ability to cure various habits and 
 vices that have been contracted and found impossi- 
 ble to eradicate by any other system of treatment. 
 Many such cases have been reported, and on these 
 grounds alone hypnotism should receive the wide 
 support and sympathy of the public, instead of 
 the intolerant prejudice and scepticism with which 
 it is now received.^ 
 
 1 For cases that have been cured by this method of treat- 
 ment, see e. g., nypnotUm in Mental and Moral Culture, 
 by Dr. J. D. Quackenbos; Hypnotism and Suggestion, by 
 Dr. Osgood Mason; Psycho-Therapeutics, by Dr. C. Lloyd- 
 
184. THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 But to the psychologist or psychical researcher 
 the great interest is in its theoretical side; in its 
 ability to lay bare to us the inner workings of the 
 mind, and enable us to explore the most hidden 
 depths of man's personality. We know from 
 other, independent sources that there is in man a 
 subconscious stratum of mind that Mr. Myers 
 pleased to call the ' subliminal consciousness ' (from 
 sub, beneath, and limen, a threshold). This mind 
 is operative in dreams, in somnambulism, in trance, 
 in many cases of split personality and secondary 
 consciousness, etc., and, though these states may 
 not, of course, all originate in the same stratum of 
 the subconscious mind, they are all or almost all 
 reachable, apparently, by hypnotism; and in this 
 manner we have an experimental means of reach- 
 ing the various parts of our subconscious mind, 
 and, at will, investigating the workings of that 
 portion of our hidden ' selves.' This is a most im- 
 portant aspect of the problem. Of late there has 
 been considerable discussion as to whether there is 
 a contimiov^ stream of consciousness active within 
 ourselves, or whether these indications of the work- 
 ings of a subconscious mind merely show that there 
 are, at certain times, flashes of intelligence, — mere 
 
 Tuckey; Suggestive Therapeutics, by Dr. Bernheim; Hypno- 
 tism, by Albert Moll; Psychic Treatment of Nervous Dis- 
 orders, by Paul Du Boisj etc. 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF HYPNOTISM 185 
 
 sparks, as it were, thrown off from the wheel of con- 
 sciousness in its ordinary revolutions. The facts 
 which the Psychical Research Society have accumu- 
 lated prove conclusively, it seems to me, that this 
 stratum of consciousness is continuous, and is not & 
 mere flash of intelligence. Gurney proved this in 
 a very ingenious manner. He hypnotised a subject 
 and suggested to him that, after he was awakened 
 and again in his normal condition, his hand would 
 write out, automatically on a piece of paper, the 
 answers to certain mathematical problems that had 
 been set his hypnotic self. After this patient had 
 been aroused, therefore, and was again in his 
 normal state, and conversing freely, and at the 
 same time that he was discussing topics of general 
 interest, his hand was writing out the answers to 
 these mathematical problems — showing that some 
 portion of his mind was still actively at work in 
 figuring the problems that had been set just be- 
 fore he had been awakened; and in this manner it 
 has been possible to ' tap,' as it were, the subliminal 
 consciousness, and to ascertain that it is a contin- 
 uous stream, and not merely a fragment of our 
 mind which was enabled to operate only when our 
 normal consciousness was suspended. Another very 
 interesting proof is found in the fact that, in 
 many cases of double consciousness (where the mem- 
 ory has suddenly been lost, and revived again only 
 
186 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 after an interval of some months, during which 
 period the person has been living an altogether dif- 
 ferent life — possessed, as it were, of another per- 
 sonality) memory of this state has been artificially 
 evoked through hypnotism, and the patient has been 
 enabled to remember all that transpired in his sec- 
 ondary state, and give an account of his actions, 
 though the events that had happened in the inter- 
 val were entirely unknown to, and unrecallable by, 
 his ordinary consciousness. Mr. Myers' idea- was 
 that the hypnotic self was not a different self, but 
 merely the more inclusive ; it includes the conscious- 
 ness which we know and which is operative every 
 day. within us — which latter consciousness he re- 
 garded merely as a special section, so to speak, of 
 our entire self — noted by us here more than any 
 other portion or section for the reason that it is best 
 adapted for the purposes of our every-day life. 
 He regarded the subliminal self as possessing a far 
 greater grasp of the mental and physical organism 
 than our ordinary consciousness possesses ; and 
 this must naturally be so, since the latter is but a 
 fragment of the former, according to him. This 
 would seem to agree with the statement made by 
 Dr. Bramwell.^ " The difi^erence between the hyp- 
 notised and the normal subject, it appears to me 
 from a long series of observed facts. Is not so much 
 
 i Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. XII, p. 237. 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF HYPNOTISM 187 
 
 in conduct as in increased mental and physical 
 powers." 
 
 When we come to the explanations of the na- 
 ture of hypnotism, we encounter two opposite 
 schools, which I may caU, for our present purposes, 
 the physiological and the psychological. Dr. 
 Charcot was the originator of the former school, 
 believing that hypnosis signified a more or less mor- 
 bid condition, observable only in the hysterical — 
 basing his theory upon the fact that in aU the 
 cases he had himself noted the patients had marked 
 hysterical symptoms, and were more or less neurotic. 
 This theory was completely refuted in the first place 
 by Dr. MoU, who pointed out that all Charcot's 
 subjects were hysterical, — which obviously nega- 
 tived any results he might obtain, and forever dis- 
 posed of this theory. Further Dr. Liebeault found 
 that soldiers (presumably not a hysterical class) 
 made very excellent subjects ; and Mr. Harry Vin- 
 cent has recently found that the same is true of 
 university graduates. 
 
 Dr. Heidenhain's physiological theory was dis- 
 proved conclusively, it seems to me, by Gurney 
 and Dr. BramweU; while Dr. Ernest Hart's theory 
 — of cerebral ansmia — carried with it its own in- 
 nate disproof, for, as Prof. WiUiam James pointed 
 out in his Psychology, decreased blood supply fol- 
 lows, and is not the cause of, decreased nervous ac- 
 
188 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 tivity; while the reverse is also true: namely, that 
 increased blood supply is the result of and not the 
 cause of increased nerve activity. I cannot, in this 
 chapter, review the various psychological theories, 
 interesting as this might prove to be, but I shall 
 conclude by outlining briefly Mr. Myers' theory of 
 hypnotism, and its relation to the subliminal con- 
 sciousnesSi 
 
 First of all, it was pointed out that sugges- 
 tion does not cover all the facts of the case, as is 
 commonly supposed — since the success of sug^ 
 gestion depends, not on the suggestion itself, but on 
 conditions inherent in the subject; that is, the op- 
 erator is merely the starter of the phenomena ob- 
 served, and not their real agent; the phenomena 
 are in reality the result of the inner workings of the 
 subject's own being. ^ The potentiality of hyp- 
 notic phenomena lie, therefore, in the subject and 
 not in the operator; and this fact Mr. Myers, in 
 his customary beautiful language, pointed out as 
 follows : 
 
 " I regard sleep as an alternating phase of per- 
 sonality — distinguished from the waking phase by 
 the shutting off of the supraliminal life of relation 
 of external attention, and by the concentration of 
 
 1 Compare Occult Japan, p. 296; "In all cases the sub- 
 ject really hj^pnotises himself. The art of the operator 
 simply consists in getting him, more or. less unwittinBly, to 
 do this." 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF HYPNOTISM 189 
 
 subliminal attention upon the profounder organic 
 life. To sleep's concentrated inward attention I 
 ascribe its unique recuperative power. 
 Trance is a further stage of sleep in the sense that 
 it accomplishes more powerfully sleep's characteris- 
 tic task; the subliminal plasticity is more marked, 
 the subliminal control intenser ; until hypnosis some- 
 times seems to be to sleep what sleep is to waking. 
 . But how, after all, is this fuller control 
 effected? How is the subliminal plasticity, this 
 vis medicatrix natures — actually reached? On 
 this question Dr. Bramwell has demonstrated, with 
 the advantage of actual experience, what some of 
 us foreshadowed long ago — I mean the absolute 
 insufBciency at present of any purely physiological 
 explanation. No such explanation, indeed, now 
 survives with apparent vitality to be worth the 
 trouble of killing anew. The main consensus of 
 living hypnotists declares that hypnotic phenomena 
 are due to suggestion almost or quite alone. We 
 need not reject that dictum, but we must make it 
 our task to try and find out what that word ' sug- 
 gestion ' can mean. One thing the word certainly 
 cannot mean, if it is to have any explanatory value 
 at all ; and that is — mere ordinary persuasiveness. 
 Dr. Bramwell (to take his own instance) is not the 
 first person who has advised the dipsomaniac not 
 to drink. If he succeeds in reforming such a pa- 
 
190 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 tient, it is because he has managed to touch, not 
 lis supraliminal reason, but his subliminal plastic- 
 ity. He has set going some intelligent organic 
 faculty in the man which has lain dormant until 
 that moment, and which proves more effectual for 
 healing than the man's conscious will. How, then, 
 has he done this? He has either infused power, or 
 he has merely invoked it. Either he has added 
 power by some influence ... or else, in some 
 empirical way, not as yet understood, he has simply] 
 started a self -suggestion ; has unlocked, as I say, 
 some fountain of energy which was latent within 
 the man's own being. . . . Beneath the 
 threshold of waking consciousness there lies, not 
 merely an unconscious complex of organic pro- 
 cesses, but an intelligent vital control. To incor- 
 porate that profound control with our waking will 
 is the great evolutionary end which hypnotism, by 
 its group of empirical artifices, is beginning to 
 help us to attain." 
 
 The illusion that hypnotism is harmful or can in 
 any way weaken the mental or moral will of the 
 subject, or can in any way render him a ' tool in the 
 hands of an unscrupulous person ' must be thor- 
 oughly disposed of and discredited. There is not 
 one iota of evidence to show that such is, or ever has 
 been, the case. " I have never seen," says Dr. 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF HYPNOTISM 191 
 
 Bramwell,-'' " an unpleasant symptom even of the 
 most trivial nature, follow the skilled induction of 
 hypnosis." 
 
 1 Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. XII, p. 209. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE PROBLEMS OF TELEPATHY 
 
 IF there is any one thing which the Society for 
 Psychical Research can be accused of " trying 
 to prove," it is most certainly Telepathy, since 
 all Its earlier work was bent in the direction of ex- 
 perimenting in thought-transference, and the larger 
 part of the labours of the Society were devoted to 
 conducting experiments in this field. Since that 
 time it has been used freely as an explanatory hy- 
 pothesis in the Society's work, and, in spite of re- 
 peated statements by the Society (as such) that 
 it did not accept it as a proved fact, and especially 
 that it held no theory as to its modus operandi, the 
 public has appropriated this theory of telepathy, 
 and speaks of it as though it were a proved fact, 
 established beyond controversy; and further, as 
 though it were a definitely established principle that 
 the action of telepathy is vibratory. Now all this 
 is unwarranted, inasmuch as, even granting that 
 the early experiments proved the reality of some- 
 thing akin to thought-transference, no theory as 
 to its actual nature has ever been forthcoming — 
 none, at least, that has proved acceptable to the 
 scientific world. Telepathy, in fact, is not, strictly 
 
 192 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF TELEPATHY 193 
 
 speaking, an explanation of anything; when we 
 use the term ' telepathy ' we do not imply any di- 
 rect explanation; it is merely a term used to ex- 
 press the fact that there is some causal connection 
 between two similar states of consciousness, occur- 
 ring at the same time, in different individuals and 
 not attributable to coincidence or chance — that 
 is, aU that telepathy does is to state the problem 
 (that there is some connection between the two facts 
 observed other than chance) : it in no wise shows 
 what the explanation of this connection is. Of 
 course, we may build up theories as to the operation 
 of telepathy, and doubtless every one of us has some 
 vague idea as to its modus operandi, but I must in- 
 sist upon the fact that no such theory has received 
 scientific verification in any single case, and all the 
 talk we hear about " thought vibrations," etc., is 
 simply so much rubbish, put forward by men who 
 do not understand the real scientific problems in 
 the case, and who are using the term ' vibration ' 
 to build upon the credulity of the public, because it 
 is a term that has some scientific meaning, and ap- 
 pears to give some faint clue as to the method by 
 which telepathy might possibly operate ; ^ but there 
 
 1 A typicjil instance of this kind is Stacker's book Tele- 
 pathy and in the chapter on this subject in his Sub- 
 Co7isciowsne8s. The fact that we know, as yet, nothing 
 whatever about the action of telepathy was most forcibly 
 pointed out by Miss Johnson, Journal S. P. R., Vol. IX, 
 
194) THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 is no scientific evidence, as I have before stated, 
 that telepathy actually does operate in this way 
 (even granting that it exists), and in fact, I might 
 point out that there are many weighty objections 
 to this theory of vibratory action. If we were to 
 pursue the analogy further than the first crude 
 statement (that vibration is the method of opera- 
 tion in the case), we should find ourselves in hopeless 
 difficulties, if not contradictions. Let us for a mo- 
 ment pursue this line of argument and see whither 
 it would lead us. In a wireless message, let us say, 
 there is a transmitter and a receiver, and the only 
 connection between the two is a species of ether 
 vibration. Granting that some portion of the 
 brain of one person might act as a transmitter of 
 telepathic messages, and that another portion of 
 another's brain might act as a receiver for these 
 (though we have as yet absolutely no physiological 
 evidence of this fact — but perhaps this would not 
 invalidate the argument), and granting, further, 
 that the ether might be capable of carrying such 
 infinitely fine vibrations from one brain to another, 
 there is still the practical difficulty, pointed out by 
 Mr. Snyder in his New Conceptions vn Science, 
 that, though we can, by the aid of delicate instru- 
 
 pp. 16^70, and by Dr. Hyslop in his Pgychical Research 
 and the Resurrection, pp. 305-31. It is only fair to myself 
 to state, however, that this chapter was written several 
 years ago, and before Dr. Hyslop's article had appeared. 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF TELEPATHY 195 
 
 ments, detect vibrations almost infinitely rapid and 
 far beyond the range of our senses, yet these instru- 
 ments cannot detect any vibrations in the case of 
 thought. Still I do not admit the entire validity of 
 this objection, since, as Mr. Hutchinson points out 
 in his Dreams and Their Meanings (p. 194), the 
 brain may be far more sensitive than any instrument 
 — though the senses are not. The chief objection 
 in my mind is that, in the case of the electrical mes- 
 sage, vibration is a purely mechanical process, and 
 in no wise carries intelligence with it; it is vibra- 
 tion pure and simple. Now in the case of a sup- 
 posed telepathic message, thought flashed from 
 one brain to another must be supposed to convey 
 with it intelligence of some sort; for if it were a 
 purely mechanical vibratory action, I ask, How is 
 it that this would impress another brain in such an 
 entirely different manner from all other vibrations 
 as to create in that brain, not only a thought, but 
 the precise kind of thought that originated in the 
 brain of the agent.'' Granting that the vibrations 
 are but symbols, and that they are interpreted by 
 our brains as " things," the difficulty remains that, 
 in all other cases, such vibrations, no matter what 
 their intensity, convey to the brain the idea of ex- 
 ternal objects, or qualities of those objects, and do 
 not convey to it the idea of mmd or intelligence. 
 How is it, therefore, that one particular species of 
 
190 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 vibration, which, we must assume, would vary more 
 or less with each individual, can convey with it the 
 idea of thought, and that this vibration is associated 
 with mind, and in fact is thought, while all other 
 vibrations in the world are in no wise connected with 
 intelligence, and do not appear to us to be so con- 
 nected ; and, further, how infinitely we should have 
 to vary the degree and type of vibration which 
 would have to correspond to all shades of thought 
 and feeling and emotion ! Sir William Crookes ^ 
 strongly urged the possibility of this vibratory 
 theory of telepathy, but Mr. Myers' objections to 
 it ^ (to my mind) outweigh and render altogether* 
 untenable this idea of the vibratory action of telep- 
 athy ; but on this point I would refer the reader 
 to the book in question. 
 
 Let us now go back and review very briefly the 
 kind of evidence that exists in favour of telepathy. 
 There is first the experimental evidence, in which 
 one person, generally called an " agent," endeav- 
 ours to impress his thoughts upon another, gener- 
 ally called a " percipient." The percipient then 
 either describes or writes the impression he receives, 
 and if it coincides with the thought of the agent, 
 there is fair evidence for the action of telepathy. 
 
 1 Presidential address to the Society for Psychical Re- 
 search, in 1897. 
 
 2 Human Personality, Vol. I, pp. g4S-6. 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF TELEPATHY 197 
 
 Of course, before any such theory is established, 
 there are many sources of error that must be elimi- 
 nated, In the first place, we must ascertain, by 
 mathematical calculations, that the results are more, 
 and very much more, numerous than can be ac- 
 counted for by chance, since it is necessary to estab- 
 lish, first of all, the fact that some law other than 
 chance has been operative. After this has once 
 been established, we must eliminate all ordinary 
 chances of error, — such as conscious and uncon- 
 scious fraud, muscle reading, hyperaesthesia, and 
 other such errors as the tendency of minds to run 
 in the same channel, — allowing a great number of 
 coincidences to take place, owing to the similar op-- 
 crations of two minds acting quite independently 
 of one another, and in no way dependent upon the 
 operation of telepathy. After allowing for all of 
 these factors, and while taking sufficient precau- 
 tions to insure the fact that the results were not 
 due to any of the above-mentioned errors, or to 
 nmnerous others that will doubtless occur to the 
 reader, the Society for Psychical Research suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining results which are many hun- 
 dreds and thousands of times more numerous than 
 would have occurred if due only to chance ; it was, 
 therefore, almost inevitable that they should con- 
 clude that thought-transference was practically a 
 proved fact. 
 
198 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 But thought-transference does not depend en- 
 tirely upon this experimental evidence, though 
 to the scientific world it must, of course, depend 
 very largely upon it. Telepathy is evidenced by 
 facts of every-day life, and by a multitude of indi- 
 cations all pointing in the same direction and inex- 
 plicable on any other theory. Without the experi- 
 mental evidence, we should certainly be unwarranted 
 in inventing that theory to explain the spontaneous 
 cases, but, granting that certain experimental evi- 
 dence for this faculty exists, we can extend it to 
 cover cases of spontaneous telepathy, and expect to 
 find many analogies. The great work that the 
 Society for Psychical Research has done is collect- 
 ing cases of such spontaneous telepathic action; 
 such cases being very largely the action of one 
 mind upon another at a supreme mental crisis — 
 for example, the moment of death. In Phantasms 
 of the Living alone were published some 702 such 
 cases; and these have been supplemented by many 
 thousands of cases since collected and printed in 
 the Proceedings and the Journal of the S. P. R., 
 and in very many other books upon the subject that 
 have recently appeared. The most common evi- 
 dence of this kind is that afforded by apparitions 
 at the moment of death, when a figure of the dying 
 person is frequently seen by the percipient, who is 
 generally some friend or relative of the dying per- 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF TELEPATHY 199 
 
 son and so, we might fairly assume, en rapport with 
 him. There is also evidence for a supernormal 
 — probably telepathic — action in the many cases 
 of automatic writing, in impressions and intuitions, 
 in haunted houses, in crystal-gazing, in the Piper 
 case, and in many other mediumistic cases, as well 
 as in many of the occurrences of daily life ; and it 
 might almost be assumed that telepathic action is 
 almost constantly taking place, unknown to us, 
 since it operates, apparently, in some portion of 
 our MTiconscious mind and does not, except on 
 very rare occasions, reach our ordinary waking 
 consciousness. Of course, there is a tremendous 
 difference between experimental thought-transfer- 
 ence and spontaneous telepathy, for this very 
 reason; experimental thought-transference is di- 
 rected entirely, by our conscious minds (though 
 it is probable that our conscious minds merely 
 convey to the subconscious self the message which 
 the latter carries), — but still there is a wide 
 gulf between the experimental and spontane- 
 ous cases. So great, indeed, is this apparent 
 difference that some persons have decided that 
 they do not belong to the same class, and are 
 not, in fact, subject to the same explanation at 
 all, the law operative in experimental and in spon- 
 taneous telepathy being entirely different. While 
 this difference is undoubtedly great, the difficulty is 
 
goo THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 lessened when we consider the fact that there are 
 several discernible states, stages or degrees be- 
 tween the two, and we can almost follow the pro- 
 cess step by step through the various " transi- 
 tional " cases, as they have been called, from the 
 experimental to the spontaneous type. Such cases, 
 for example, are those in which the agent has willed 
 an image or apparition of himself to appear to the 
 percipient, and, though this was consciously initi- 
 ated, the apparition did so appear at a time when 
 the agent was in some unusual condition, — in sleep 
 or hypnotic trance, etc. Here then we have a se- 
 ries of cases in which a figure is perceived, as in 
 spontaneous cases — the agent consciously willing 
 it to appear before passing into trance, as in ex- 
 perimental cases — while at the time of its actual 
 appearance he was unconscious of the manifestation 
 he was himself producing, as in spontaneous cases ; 
 and such ca^es as these form a bridge between the 
 two groups or classes — suggesting that the law of 
 telepathy is equally applicable to both. Taking, 
 then, this mass of experimental evidence, which 
 the Society has accumulated in its Proceedings and 
 Journals, and the tremendous number of cases of 
 spontaneous telepathy, as well as the transitional 
 cases quoted above, and such other cases as have 
 been produced in dozens of other books, pamphlets, 
 magazines and periodicals of all kinds, the evidence 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF TELEPATHY gOl 
 
 for telepathy becomes, it seems to me, almost over- 
 whelming, especially in view of the fact that appar- 
 ently telepathic phenomena crop up in spiritistic 
 seances ; whUe it explains many other supernormal 
 phenomena which are hardly explicable by any, 
 other means — short of invoking some sort of 
 spiritism. 
 
 Now if the fact of telepathy be a fact in nature, 
 the problems opening before us in its investigation 
 are of the most wonderful character, as well as 
 of fascinating interest — taking us down to the 
 very foimtain of our mental life — the very core 
 of our being. As I have before stated, however, 
 very little progress has been made toward an ex- 
 planation of the phenomena, the word ' telepathy ' 
 simply implying a causal nexus and in no wise 
 actually explaining the connection. The vibratory 
 theory I have discussed briefly at the beginning of 
 this chapter, and though it may ultimately prove 
 correct, I am insisting upon the fact that we have 
 at present no proof that it is the explanation, or 
 that the vibratory theory can be used and said to 
 be, in any sense, explanatory. 
 
 The theory has been advanced that all minds 
 are included in some vast cosmic consciousness or 
 ' world-soul ' — to which all consciousnesses ulti- 
 mately lead as do the spokes of a wheel to the hub 
 — and consequently that there is a constant connec- 
 
g02 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 tion or interrelation of mind at one point, if we 
 could but perceive such connection — it occurring, 
 of course, in the subconscious part of our being 
 and our conscious lives being but the offshoot of 
 such larger consciousness. The theory does not, 
 of course, state an impossibility, but the kind of 
 scientific evidence that must be produced in order 
 to prove it is almost inconceivable. We have been 
 practically forced to discard the idea of any 
 physical action of telepathy, in the ultimate analy- 
 sis, when discussing this problem, and Mr. Myers' 
 statement that telepathy indicates merely the 
 fact that " life has the power of manifesting to 
 life " is about all we can say on the problem by way 
 of explanation. Granting that mind can in some 
 manner manifest to mind, other than by material 
 means, how can such manifestation be conceived.'' 
 Does one consciousness stretch out, as it were, and 
 grasp the thought of the other mind (the per- 
 cipient being in reahty, it will be perceived, the 
 active factor in such transmission, the agent be- 
 ing merely the subject from whose mind the fact 
 is grasped), or does the agent project the 
 thought from his brain and impress the mind of 
 the percipient with it, just as a bullet might be 
 shot from a rifle, or light waves radiate from 
 some centre? The first of these theories would 
 be somewhat akin to true mind-reading, the other 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF TELEPATHY 203 
 
 thought-projection or transference, and if the lat- 
 ter theory be correct, is all thought directed into 
 one single channel — at a target, as it were — or 
 does it spread equally in all directions like all other 
 vibratory radiations? It may be conceived that 
 telepathy is a combination of the above two 
 processes, it being a kind of mutual action, a pro- 
 jection on the part of one, and a mental reception 
 or grasping on the part of the other. If this is 
 the case, we must conceive the thought as met, 
 as it were, in space, and in some way joined or 
 seized upon by the percipient thought; and how 
 can we conceive such seizing or such perception? 
 Speculations such as these would, of course, lead 
 us into regions of the deepest mystery, to the 
 most profound metaphysical speculation; and we 
 should find ourselves far removed from the domain 
 of science and critical philosophy. As it is not 
 the province of this chapter to deal with that as- 
 pect of the problem, I will leave the question of 
 telepathy for the present as it stands — which is no 
 more nor less than a statement of a scientific prob- 
 lem to he solved by scientific methods. What 
 might foUow, were it to become an accepted fact 
 of science, and the deeply important considerations 
 into which we should be led in consequence, would 
 form a most interesting study, and is one which 
 I hope to consider at some future time. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE FEOBIiEMS OT SX.EEF AND SSEAMS 
 
 FOR some unknown reason, it seems to be con- 
 sidered " superstitious " by the majority of 
 persons to consider or discuss sleep and dreams at 
 all. Why this should be so is indeed a mystery, 
 seeing that we spend a third of our lives asleep, 
 and that most of us dream continually. It may 
 not be known to the average layreader that the 
 problems of sleep and dreams are now receiving 
 thorough and scientific attention from some of the 
 best minds of our time, and that the psychology 
 of dreams is at present admitted to be a legitimate 
 study. This being so, it may prove of value and 
 interest to us to look into the question for a few 
 moments, and see how far the accepted theories of 
 sleep and dreams cover the facts, even of normal 
 dreams and the phenomena of sleep. We shall 
 then be in a better position to appreciate how lit- 
 tle is really known of the subject, and the great 
 interest, scientifically, that supernormal dreams 
 have in throwing light on the obscure physiologi- 
 cal and psychological processes involved. 
 
 Innumerable are the theories of sleep! Until 
 lately, very little was known of the real nature of 
 &04i 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF SLEEP 205 
 
 sleep, and indeed it may be said that all that we 
 know now is purely phenomenal, and suggests 
 mere classification rather than explanation in the 
 strict sense of the term. We are beginning to 
 know fairly well some of the physiological pro- 
 cesses that take place during sleep, but of its psy- 
 chological aspects we are stiU in the blankest ig- 
 norance. We know that the ordinary normal self- 
 consciousness is absent ; but whether this is in 
 some way withdrawn or is actually extinguished, 
 as a candle flame, we do not know. Then, too, 
 there is a great deal of ' consciousness ' about the 
 organism while asleep. Contrary to general be- 
 liefs, the body is not a mere aggregation of living 
 matter during the hours of rest and sleep, but is, 
 on the contrary, very actively conscious of stimuli 
 from without, and even of what is transpiring in 
 its immediate neighbourhood. This has fre- 
 quently been demonstrated by means of artificial 
 stimuli. The body of a sleeping man has been 
 pricked, slapped, scorched, sounds made in the 
 ear, scents held to the nostrils, etc., etc., and the 
 results noted. It was almost invariably found 
 that the dreams experienced by the sleeper were 
 the result of the external stimuli — these being 
 dramatised by the sleeping self and woven into a 
 complex and dramatic whole. This clearly shows 
 that there is some self or consciousness left, capa- 
 
206 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 ble of responding to external stimuli, and hence 
 sleep cannot be the deep, ' consciousless ' thing" that 
 the majority suppose it to be. There is some con- 
 sciousness still within and about the organism; 
 and yet it is not srff-consciousness. Here is evi- 
 dently a deep mystery. There is present, at such 
 times, a consciousness peculiar to itself, and which 
 we might call ' dream-consciousness.' Close at- 
 tention to the phenomena of sleep and dreams 
 might reveal something of the nature of this 
 dream-consciousness, its phenomena and extent; 
 and this I propose to discuss, very briefly, in the 
 present chapter. First of all, however, let us 
 turn our attention to the bodily conditions that 
 accompany sleep and see what these may be. 
 
 Some authors have suggested that sleep might 
 be due to the excessive functioning of the thyroid 
 gland, but this was disproved by the fact that 
 animals, in whom this gland was removed or atro- 
 phied through disease, slept just as well as other 
 animals. Then the theory was advanced that 
 sleep was due to cerebral hyperaemia — an ex- 
 cessive supply of blood in the brain, this being the 
 real cause of sleep. This idea was held for a 
 number of years, but was ultimately shown to be 
 quite untrue, and a reverse condition was proved 
 to be present during sleep — cerebral anasmia, or 
 lack of blood in the brain, being invariably pres- 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF SLEEP 207 
 
 ent during all normal sleep. It was consequently 
 asserted that this was the cause of sleep — it be- 
 ing caused by the cerebral ansemia. But it was 
 pointed out, by Prof. William James and others, 
 that this fact of cerebral anaemia proved nothing, 
 inasmuch as the lessened blood supply would nec- 
 essarily follow, and would not precede, the on- 
 coming of sleep. That is, the nerve functioning 
 would invariably lessen f.rst, and the lessened 
 blood-supply would foUow later. This being the 
 case, it is obvious that the theory of cerebral 
 ansemia explained nothing; it stated a condition 
 (^one condition) that accompanied sleep, but did 
 not explain its cause. The cause of the lessened 
 nerve-functioning was still to be sought. 
 
 Then came the innumerable chemical theories 
 of sleep. It was held that certain poisons were 
 formed within the system, as the results of the 
 day's activities, and these poisons, acting upon 
 the nerves of the brain, prevented their proper 
 functioning; and this was consequently the real 
 cause of sleep. This is a theory still held by 
 many; but it does not explain many facts, it 
 seems to me, and is not in accord with others. 
 The fact that a mere effort of will can keep us 
 awake would seem to refute this theory ; and so do 
 the facts of hypnotic suggestion and the psy- 
 chological activities that take place during sleep, 
 
208 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 — to say nothing of the supernormal powers ap- 
 parently possessed by many during this period. 
 Again, why is it that mere boredom or monotony 
 will induce sleep — and this when the patient may 
 have been up and awake only a short time? 
 Again, it has never been explained why it is that 
 bodily cleansing and eliminating measures would 
 not remove sleepiness — or the causes of sleepiness 
 
 — far more than any mere process of quiescence. 
 Sleep is not merely a negative condition, it must 
 be remembered, but a positive process — ■ one in 
 which the most remarkable vital and physiological 
 adjustments take place. A moment's loss of con- 
 sciousness will sometimes refresh and invigorate 
 us more than hours of rest and mere lyiiig down; 
 it is a period of great recuperation, and to assert 
 that this state is merely the result of poisons 
 formed within the body is simply nonsense. If 
 sleep were merely a process of eliminating poisons, 
 it is hard to see how such wonderful regenerative 
 and recuperative changes could take place; it 
 would take us every night to eliminate the poisons 
 of the previous day; we should never improve 
 at all, but, like Alice through the looking- 
 glass, it would take all our running to keep, in 
 the same place! For these and other reasons 
 tjierefore, this theory cannot be maintained, and 
 we must seek elsewhere for a true explanation of 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF SLEEP 209 
 
 sleep — which, I am convinced, will never be 
 found in any purely materialistic scheme. Mr. 
 Leadbeater, in his little book on Dreams has a very 
 ingenious theory of sleep to offer, which might be 
 summarised as follows: 
 
 " Clairvoyant observation bears abundant testi- 
 mony to the fact that when a man falls into deep 
 slumber the higher principles of the astral vehicle 
 almost invariably withdraw from the body, and 
 hover in its immediate neighbourhood. Indeed, it 
 is the process of this withdrawal that we com- 
 monly call ' Going to sleep.' " If this could be 
 established (or some very similar theory) it would 
 account for many of the facts of sleep and dreams, 
 and is at aU events ingenious and worthy of in- 
 vestigation. This more mystical interpretation 
 of sleep would not be in opposition to any of the 
 more physiological interpretations of the phe- 
 nomena either. For example, I hold that " sleep 
 is that physiological condition of the organism in 
 which the nervous system of the individual (in 
 precisely the same manner as the electric storage 
 battery) is being recharged from without, by the 
 external, all-pervading cosmic energy, in which 
 we are bathed, and in which we live and move and 
 have our being." ^ This would enable us at least 
 to appreciate the fact that sleep is a far more com- 
 
 1 Vitality, Fasting and Nutrition, p. 309. 
 
210 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 plicated and mysterious process than it is univer- 
 sally thought to be ; and so with this I pass on to 
 a consideration of sleep's chief characteristic — ■ 
 dreams. 
 
 " The student of psychology," says Dr. Hy- 
 slop, " has no perplexities with our ordinary 
 dreams. He may not always be able to assign 
 the exact cause for the matter of men's dreams, 
 but he knows the general nature of the influences 
 that determine their occurrence." ^ It is well that 
 Dr. Hyslop used the guarded language he did, 
 because, claiming as many do, that we know all 
 about dreams and their causes, would be to claim 
 a knowledge we do not possess. Take, for exam- 
 ple, the common case of a dream, all the elements 
 of which are past visual memories or experiences. 
 Some of these are twenty years old, some ten days 
 old, some barely an hour; and yet these are in- 
 extricably bound together and intermingled, with 
 no space or time-relation between the incidents, 
 but all — old and new, false and true, vivid and 
 indistinct — are blurred together in the dream by 
 some law, or lack of law, that we cannot as yet 
 fathom. Why should time and space be disre- 
 garded in our dreams.? I venture to think that 
 even this well-known and common fact is ex- 
 tremely suggestive — indicating that we are, in 
 
 1 Enigmas of Psychical Research, p. 144. 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF SLEEP 211 
 
 our sleep, closely in touch with a world in which 
 time and space are not — at least in any such 
 sense as we know them; and this is greatly 
 strengthened by the evidence which supernormal 
 dreams afford. 
 
 Before passing on to these, however, let us first 
 consider the psychology of certain dreams that 
 nearly every person experiences at one time or an- 
 other in his hfe. Mr. Horace G. Hutchinson 
 has written a very interesting book on this subject, 
 entitled Dreams and Their Mearmigs, and I pro- 
 pose to give a brief resume of the book before 
 passing on to consider supernormal dreams, as 
 the subjects dealt with are highly interesting and 
 important. 
 
 The first chapter in this book is devoted to 
 "What Science Has to Say About Them" 
 (dreams) and considers and summarises the vari- 
 ous theories that have been put forward to account 
 for normal dreams — conditions of blood supply, 
 sensory stimulation, bodily conditions, etc. — as 
 well as considering certain psychological ques- 
 tions of general interest. Of these, the most im- 
 portant are the length or duration of dreams, the 
 comparative vividness, the influence of the daily 
 life and thoughts upon the content of the dream, 
 etc. — all of which has been pretty fully discussed 
 elsewhere. One remark, however, calls for special 
 
212 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 mention because of the important conclusion that 
 can be drawn from the statement made. It is: 
 " We cannot determine what they shall be about, 
 by fixing our mind on any particular subject be- 
 fore we drop off to sleep, nor can we, after waking 
 out of a pleasant dream, prolong it, by thinking 
 of its incidents, when we again fall to sleep. I 
 am well aware that there are exceptions to this rule 
 — people who claim, and no doubt justly, to be 
 able to influence in a great measure the course of 
 their dreaming thoughts, but they are in a very 
 small minority. . . ." This brings before our 
 minds clearly the fact that here is a world of 
 which we do not know the laws, and over which we 
 have practically no control. We cannot tell what 
 may or may not happen in that world, when once 
 we enter it, nor can we control our thoughts in it, 
 though we may be perfectly rational beings, and 
 capable of willing to do so. Just in a similar 
 manner it may be that, in the Piper case, e. g., the 
 " controls " are alive and active, but when they 
 come in contact with the " light," and more or 
 less lose control of their faculty of thinking and 
 willing voluntarily, many things are apt to occur 
 over which they have no control, and for which 
 they are not responsible. The point I wish to 
 make is that we are not entitled to say what 
 " spirits " should or should not do in the next life^ 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF SLEEP 218 
 
 or when, how and what they ought to communi- 
 cate, without knowing anything of that other life 
 — its laws and possibilities and the amount of 
 control the various spirits (granting that they 
 exist) have over their own thoughts and actions. 
 •When communicating, they may be just as incap- 
 able of controlling their thoughts as we are our 
 dreams. 
 
 The question of the remembrance of dreams 
 is another question which Mr. Hutchinson has 
 touched upon in an interesting manner, though 
 all too briefly, considering the importance of the 
 problem. Many authors consider it a sign of 
 disease if we ever dream; others, on the contrary, 
 assert that we constantly dream during sleep, 
 and that no sleep is absolutely dreamless ! That 
 sleep which appears to be so is merely a sleep in 
 which the dreams are not remembered. On this 
 theory, we dream constantly, but only a few of 
 them are remembered, on waking. To dream, 
 then, is perfectly normal, and it might even be 
 urged that dreamless sleep is abnormal. Is it then 
 normal to dream or not? I myself have thought 
 about this question much, and it has occurred to 
 me that a possible solution of the problem is to be 
 found in the combination of both theories; i. e., 
 both are right and both are wrong, to a certain 
 extent. It might be suggested that we do con- 
 
«14 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 stantly dream during sleep, and that this is a nor- 
 mal process, tJie abnormal factor being its remem- 
 brance. Thus we should dream, but we should 
 not (normally) remember these dreams. The ab- 
 normal event would be the remembrance - — and 
 this might be due to some sort of hyper-penetra- 
 bility of the " psychical diaphragm," as Mr, 
 Myers put it; the screen that usually exists, as a, 
 wall, between the conscious and subconscious 
 lives. The abnormal penetrability of this is the 
 diseased state or condition to be rectified. 
 
 I now come to what is the real kernel of the book. 
 The author, Mr. Hutchinson, had found, some 
 years before, that certain dreams had a tendency 
 to occur far more frequently than others; and, 
 further, that almost every person who dreams at 
 all had experienced certain types of dreams at one 
 time or another in his life, and he conceived the 
 idea of collecting a large number of cases of just 
 such dreams, with the object of finding out, if 
 possible, their general form, their causes, varia- 
 tions, and general effects — in short to make a 
 careful study of these particular dreams. 
 
 The dreams that were found to occur most fre- 
 quently, and which were most carefully studied, 
 were the following : i 
 
 1. The falling dream. 
 
 2. The flying dream. 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF SLEEP 215 
 
 3. The dream of inadequate clothing. 
 
 4. The dream of not being able to get away 
 from some beast, or injurious person or thing, 
 that is pursuing. 
 
 5. The dream of being drawn irresistibly to 
 some dangerous place. 
 
 6. The dream that some darling wish has been 
 gratified. 
 
 7. The dream of being about to go on a jour- 
 ney, and being unable to get your things into 
 your trunks, etc. 
 
 As the author argues, since these dreams are so 
 frequent, there must be some uniformity of physi- 
 cal or mental conditions that would produce these 
 dreams in all persons alike; L e., there must be 
 some law at work. To find out what that law is, 
 was the object of the author, and it must be ac- 
 knowledged that if he had solved the problem, he 
 would have added much to our knowledge of 
 dreams and dream states. 
 
 Let us now consider some few of the cases that 
 were sent the author, before attempting to con- 
 sider their explanation or psychological signifi- 
 cance. Take first the " falling dreams." It is 
 commonly supposed, at least it has frequently 
 been said, that, though many persons have dreamed 
 that they were falling, none have ever dreamed 
 that they arrived at the bottom of the fall — for 
 
8,16 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 " if they did, they would die." This would seem 
 to bear out the Irishman's remark that " it was not 
 the fall that hurt him, but the sudden stop at the 
 bottom." However, there appears to be as little 
 foundation for this current opinion as there is in 
 the majority of such beliefs, for Mr. Hutchinson 
 collected accounts of several cases in which the 
 dreamer had reached the bottom of the fall, and 
 even dreamed that he was smashed into little bits 
 as the result,— but yet lived to tell the tale ! This 
 is very instructive. The ego, which in this case 
 appears to have a kind of onlooker, " picked up 
 the pieces and glued them together again." 
 
 Many interesting cases of flying dreams are 
 given — these dreams being, for the most part, 
 cases in which the dreamer thinks he is skimming 
 along the ground in a horizontal position, with or 
 without a swimming movement of the arms. To 
 some, this sensation is like swimming, to some like 
 skating, to some like gliding, to others like flying 
 (proper), and in other cases it more nearly re- 
 sembles the falling dream. In. some cases the 
 sensation is pleasant, in others distinctly un- 
 pleasant. But it would be impossible for me to 
 give instances of all the dreams here, since that 
 would take a book as big as the original. I can 
 only refer my readers to the book itself, assuring 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF SLEEP 217 
 
 them that there is sufficient of interest in the book 
 to warrant its perusal. 
 
 What are the causes of such dreams, which oc- 
 cur so frequently and to so great a diversity of 
 people? It may be stated at once that the author 
 did not succeed in tracing the causes of these 
 dreams in most instances or in showing clearly the 
 psychological laws that govern them. This was 
 due partly to lack of the requisite material, and 
 partly to the fact that not enough is yet known 
 about dreams, their causes and psychological laws, 
 to enable any such generalised explanation being 
 made. What the author has done, therefore, is 
 to collect the dreams, classify them, and then to 
 offer a number of possible explanations, — some 
 original, some gathered from other sources, — and 
 leave the reader to form his own conclusions in the 
 matter. After all, perhaps this is the wisest 
 course. Thus the book is disappointing in one 
 sense, as showing us how little is really known 
 about dreams and dream states, but very useful in 
 another, for the reason that it clears away many 
 of the prevailing erroneous beliefs connected with 
 the subject, and anything that does this is to be 
 commended. 
 
 Having said so much it but remains for me to 
 summarise the theories that have been advanced 
 
218 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 by way of explanation of the various dreams, 
 though it cannot be hoped that this portion of the 
 subject will contain anything new or of great in- 
 terest to the psychologist. To the average reader, 
 however, some of the theories may be of interest, 
 since theories of dreams are not so well known as 
 they should be — I mean even normal dreams. 
 
 Take, then, the " falling dreams." These may 
 be due to a number of causes. The common ex- 
 planation is " indigestion " — this producing a 
 pressure on the heart and consequent sending of 
 blood to the brain in a jerk. But is this really 
 any explanation at all? Why should this give us 
 the sensation of falling from a great height, 
 since we none of us know what that sensation is.!* 
 It can readily be imagined that this would have 
 the effect of waking the dreamer with a start, but 
 why should it arouse the idea of falling.'' The 
 explanation evidently does not explain. Can it be 
 that we merely imagine ourselves falling (or fly- 
 ing as the case may be) .-' If it be contended that 
 this is the explanation, how can we imagine a 
 thing or a sensation we have never experienced, 
 since we cannot possibly tell what it would be like? 
 It may be pointed out, parenthetically, that these 
 dreams completely disprove the assertion so fre- 
 quently made that we cannot possibly dream about 
 any thing or sensation which we have not expe- 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF SLEEP 219 
 
 rienced in our waking lives. As we have not 
 fallen from great heights or flown, while awake, 
 how are the dreams to be accounted for? One 
 ingenious correspondent suggests that this sensa- 
 tion is a relic of our prehistoric days, and repre- 
 sents experiences and memories carried over from 
 our " monkeyhood " state ! I shall not do more 
 than refer to the suggestion. The author rather 
 inclines to the belief that the eyes or optic nerves 
 play a great part in the explanation of such 
 dreams. They are supposed to give us the sensa- 
 tion of things moving upward past us, and this 
 would indirectly suggest the fact that we were 
 falling. The author contends that these sensa- 
 tions are frequently experienced in waking life, 
 and might be the basis of our dreams of falling, 
 when asleep. For reasons it would take too long 
 to specify here I can only say that this explana- 
 tion does not appear to me to cover all the facts, 
 or to explain many of the dreams in any complete 
 manner. 
 
 The most rational explanation of such dreams 
 is probably the following: By lying too long in 
 one position, the blood supply on the lower sur- 
 face of the body is cut off, producing a certain 
 peripheral anaemia, with loss of sensation in these 
 parts. This loss of sensation would be coupled 
 with the feehng that there was no support be- 
 
220 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 neath the body, and hence the idea that the body 
 was falling through space. The imagination of 
 the dreamer would supply the rest of the dream 
 data, so long as the primary sensation was aroused. 
 There are, in addition to all" the above dreams, 
 many on record much more remarkable — ■ dreams 
 which convey to the dreamer information un- 
 known to him until that moment — dreams ap- 
 parently telepathic, clairvoyant, prophetic. A 
 son appears to his mother, and announces to her 
 that he has just been killed in a railroad accident; 
 a dreamer sees with horror an accident befalling 
 a near and dear friend of his; or sees an incident 
 happening in the future — all of which turn out 
 to be absolutely accurate. How are we to account 
 for such dreams on the accepted laws of psychol- 
 ogy and physiology.'' Do not such dreams rather 
 suggest that we are, in sleep, in a world distinctly 
 different from this one, where it is possible for us, 
 occasionally at least, to see and hear that which it 
 is impossible for us to see or hear in our normal, 
 wakilig state? And how absurd the claim that 
 all dreams are but the results of past states of 
 consciousness, or past experience, in the face of 
 Buch experiences and such dreams! There are 
 many of them on record; so many that it would 
 be unnecessary to argue the point here. The only 
 remaining question that lies before us is, How 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF SLEEP 221 
 
 are such dreams to be explained? Why do they 
 occur, and how? 
 
 The hint I have let fall in the preceding para- 
 graph will answer these questions in a large part — 
 at least so far as they can be answered in the pres- 
 ent state of our knowledge. Telepathy and clair- 
 Toyance and premonition operate in sleep and 
 dreams as well or better than they do in the waking 
 state; and, if spirits exist, there is great reason to 
 Suppose that their mental influences cause or in- 
 itiate a large nimiber of dreams that appear to us 
 to be evidence of the faculties mentioned above, or 
 even of ordinary dreams. These faculties exist, 
 and they operate in sleep as they do in the waking 
 state — in fact, we seem to have proof that they 
 operate more perfectly and freely in the sleep- 
 state than in the waking state. This is also a 
 very suggestive point; for, if the materialistic 
 theory of consciousness and its relation to brain 
 activity be true, it should be that, the less the brain 
 activity the less the consciousness, whereas we find 
 that precisely the reverse of this is true; and that 
 the nearer the brain is to a state of complete in- 
 activity, the more intense and alive is that portion 
 of consciousness which is active during the sleep- 
 ing hours. Which, of course, suggests to us that 
 if, or rather when, the brain ceases to function — 
 as it does at death — the same consciousness (the 
 
222 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 soul?) is most free and most active — at least as 
 soon as it recovers from the shock and wrench of 
 death. 
 
 Much has been written of the similarity of sleep 
 and death, on the one hand, and the phenomena of 
 trance and hibernation, on the other. That there 
 are certain resemblances (notably the absence of 
 consciousness) cannot be doubted, but I am con- 
 vinced that the two states of sleep and trance 
 differ radically; and that both of these differ 
 from hibernation also. This is not the place to 
 discuss these theories, which are of more inter- 
 est to physiology than to psychology and psy- 
 chic research. I shall, on the other hand, conclude 
 this speculative chapter with some remarks upon 
 a question that is of intense interest, but which 
 has never been discussed in any detail, so far as I 
 am aware, except by Dr. Hyslop, years ago, in 
 the Journal of the English S. P. R. I refer to 
 the subject of the consciousness of dying. The 
 problem may be stated somewhat as follows: 
 
 From the materialistic point of view, it would 
 appear to be practically impossible for anyone 
 to have any distinct consciousness of dying. For, 
 if materialism were true, death must be the ex- 
 tinction of consciousness. It would seem to be 
 impossible, therefore, ever to be conscious of dy- 
 ing; that is, conscious that consciousness is being 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF SLEEP 223 
 
 extinguished. Therefore, if it be true that per- 
 sons are conscious that they are dying, it would 
 apparently contradict materialism. 
 
 Of course the difficulty is to prove the fact that 
 the dying person is really conscious of the fact 
 he is dying. We cannot ever prove this by any in- 
 trospective process unless we die ourselves — and 
 that would shut off aU direct means of imparting 
 the information to others in the future. We, 
 therefore, have to depend upon inferences from 
 observing dying persons. Dr. Hyslop founded 
 his observations and opinions upon his father's 
 case — who afterwards communicated through 
 Mrs. Piper, and confirmed many of these infer- 
 ences. It might be urged also, that we are fre* 
 quently conscious of going to sleep, and again, 
 that the dying person might simply infer that he 
 is dying, and not be really conscious of it. All 
 of which facts would make it hard to prove the 
 fact under discussion. 
 
 If consciousness were suspended entirely in sleep 
 (annihilated pro tern), it should be as impossible 
 for anyone to be aware of the fact that he is going 
 to sleep as of the fact that he is dying. But we 
 know that this is frequently the case. It is not 
 always the case, of course. Personally, I am 
 rarely or never conscious of going to sleep, and Dr. 
 Hyslop stated that he was never aware of it 
 
224 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 either. But it will readily be seen that, even were 
 this the case, it would tend to prove only the fact 
 that sleep is a suspension of consciousness, and not 
 an annihilation of it; and if persons are conscious 
 of dying, it would tend to prove the same thing. 
 Therefore, this fact also would tend to show that 
 sleep is a time of the withdrawal of consciousness 
 from the organism, and not of its extinction. And 
 the argument that the dying person knows by in- 
 ference, merely, that he is dying may be met in 
 two ways, at least. In the first place, he cannot 
 infer anything without self -consciousness ; and the 
 presence of self-consciousness would prove its ex- 
 istence and active operation. It could not, there- 
 fore, be extinct. The second reason is this. " In- 
 ference is usually, if not always, in normal life, 
 connected with some previous experience which has 
 had the meaning inferred in the new case. But as 
 the subject has had no experience involving the con- 
 nection of a sensation with death, it would appear 
 remarkable that it should infer a fact which is in- 
 terpreted as extinction which it has not had. A 
 new experience of an extraordinary kind might, of 
 course, suggest death as its explanation, though 
 it might equally suggest mere wonder at its new- 
 ness, as strange sensations often do. 
 
 " That the explanation, in the consciousness of 
 
THE PROBLEMS OF SLEEP 226 
 
 the subject having the experience, takes the form 
 of supposing the approach of death, might be sug- 
 gested by the d priori conception of death as the 
 departure of the soul from the body. ... If 
 we interpret sleep as the suspension of conscious- 
 ness, as I think we must do, under any theory what- 
 ever, then it would be quite probable, even sup- 
 posing the persistence of the subject after death, 
 that this suspension would generally, if not always, 
 take place at death, permanently of course, on the 
 theory of materialism, but temporarily, at least, on 
 the opposing theory. But there might be excep- 
 tions to this suspension at the moment of decease, 
 if death is not extinction. There might be cases 
 where the subject retains consciousness of the sev- 
 erance, similar to those experiences on record in 
 which the person says that he has seemed to leave 
 the body. It is simply a question of evidence, 
 whether we can determine the possibilities of such a 
 consciousness, or whether we find the facts either 
 without significance or disproving the hypothesis. 
 If we find phenomena, normal or abnormal, in the 
 existence of the living and resembling what we 
 might imagine to be at least an occasional phenom- 
 enon of the dying, we should give the problem the 
 attention it deserves, and endeavour to ascertain 
 whether the so-called consciousness of dying is 
 
i226 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 anything more than an inference, or like those ap- 
 prehensions about death that are so often illu- 
 sions." ^ 
 
 Is death an " everlasting sleep," or is it a state 
 of the most intense active self -consciousness? Time 
 will show. 
 
 1 Jowmal of the S. P. E., Vol. VIII, pp. 250^5, 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 MODERN SPIBITrrAUSM : A BBIEF HISTOBICAL 
 B£STJM£ 
 
 TV TO attempt can here be made to trace in any 
 •^ ^ detail the history of spiritualism through the 
 various literatures of the nations, nor even to follow 
 the modem history of the subject. Any attempt 
 to do so would, of course, involve a treatise of sev- 
 eral volumes, and to even touch upon it lightly 
 would necessitate a ponderous essay. I shall 
 therefore, in this chapter, confine myself to a brief 
 outline of only the most important and significant 
 features of the subject that have been recorded, 
 and to touch upon those phenomena which have 
 received international reputation and significance. 
 Spiritualistic phenomena have, of course, been 
 recorded throughout aU ages of the world's history. 
 In the very earliest times we find traces and records 
 of such occurrences, both biblical and in the tradi" 
 tions, mythology and religious beliefs of all coun- 
 tries, and there is no more interesting study than 
 the collection and comparison of such records. 
 The phenomena of witchcraft recorded through- 
 out the middle ages, both in Europe and in Ameri- 
 ca, and later the semi-mystical beliefs in ' magne- 
 22T 
 
228 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 tism,' revived by Mesmer and his disciples, were, as 
 Mr. Podmore clearly shows in his Modem Spirit- 
 uaUsm, the two chief, connecting links between 
 the mysticism of the middle ages and the modem 
 psychic phenomena observed in the middle of the 
 nineteenth century when modem spiritualism re- 
 ceived a sudden and tremendous revival. 
 
 This " cult " originated, strictly speaking, in 
 Hydesville, N. Y., when the Fox sisters suddenly 
 developed the surprising faculty of producing and 
 intelligently controlling knocks or rappings, and 
 inducing such rappings to answer questions put to 
 them. This certainly seemed to signify that some 
 intelligence was behind these manifestations, and 
 trhen questions were put, it was stated that an 
 Italian peddler who had died and been buried be- 
 low the basement of the house was the cause of 
 such rappings, — his spirit being restless, and he 
 returning to render his personality manifest in this 
 manner. Active measures were at once taken. 
 The floor of the basement was dug up, but no 
 body was discovel^d, nor has any body been un- 
 earthed answering to the description until within 
 the last year or twp, when, it is stated, a body cor- 
 re^onding to the description given was discov- 
 ered, which seems a most interesting confirmation 
 of the original statement. 
 ; Ip these rappings originated modem spiritismf 
 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM 829 
 
 They were of course received variously by the com- 
 munity at the time — some accepting them as gen- 
 uine evidences of the spirit worlds others asserting 
 that they were due to fraud and trickery, and de- 
 manding an instant investigation by scientific men. 
 Such investigation was, unfortunately, never forth- 
 coming, and to this day the Fox sisters remain an 
 " unknown quantity " in the history of Spiritual- 
 ism. 
 
 It is true that a partial investigation was con- 
 ducted by three doctors from Buffalo, N. Y., who 
 examined the sisters and returned a rather unfav- 
 ourable report, asserting that raps did not occur 
 when strict conditions were observed, and that only 
 when these were relaxed were the phenomena possi- 
 ble; but nothing was definitely proved, and these 
 rappings have always remained open to question. 
 As may be supposed, other mediums rapidly devel- 
 oped, raps occurring in the presence of male and fe- 
 male mediums throughout the country, and other 
 phenomena appeared in rapid succession. Slate 
 writing, materialisation, playing of musical instru- 
 ments, the appearance of spirit ' hands and feet, 
 " test " messages given, and various other phe- 
 nomena observed, with the consequence that spirit- 
 ism soon claimed its adherents by the thousand, 
 and within a few years various books and pam- 
 phlets appeared, and several journals were founded 
 
8S0 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 devoted entirely to these subjects, while mediums 
 continued to multiply to a bewildering degree. 
 Almost all of the newly developed mediums were 
 those in whose presence physical phenomena were 
 observed (as distinct from mental) ; and indeed, ia 
 the early stages of spiritism, we find few mediums 
 who devoted their time solely to the mental side of 
 the question. There were, however, a few notable 
 exceptions ; among these the famous Andrew Jack- 
 son Davis, Emma Harding Brittain, and a few 
 other trance speakers in whose presence, if we re- 
 member rightly, no physical phenomena ever ocr 
 curred: but with them died almost completely the 
 exclusively mental phenomena so far as the more 
 reputable mediums were concerned ; and this state of 
 affairs continued until the case of Mrs. Piper was 
 brought to light, of which I shall speak presently. 
 Meanwhile, physical mediums had been multiply- 
 ing ad nauseam. The most famous of these was 
 doubtless Daniel Dunglas Home, whose reputa- 
 tion has remained undimmed for forty years, and 
 which will now doubtless continue so throughout all 
 time. This medium was one of the very few pro- 
 ducing physical phenomena against whom no def- 
 inite charge of fraud was ever brought — or, at 
 least, sustained. Home's fame in America was, of 
 course, great; but it was not until he made his 
 trip to England and Germany, following in the 
 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM 231 
 
 wake of Mrs. Hayden in the former country, and 
 became a subject of investigation by Sir William 
 Crookes, that his fame became really great. 
 About the years 1865 to 1870 there was a great 
 impetus in English thought towards spiritism, and 
 at about that time Home visited England, giving 
 seances in various parts of the country, and arous- 
 ing tremendous excitement wherever he appeared, 
 because of the extraordinary phenomena witnessed 
 in his presence. So great was the excitement that 
 there arose a clamour on the part of the more en- 
 lightened of the scientific world that the phenomena 
 observed in this medium's presence should receive 
 due consideration and investigation at the hands 
 of competent observers; and when Sir William 
 Crookes undertook to investigate this medium, 
 solely in the interests of science, from a scientific 
 standpoint, and by scientific means, the journals 
 were unanimous in asserting that no better inves- 
 tigator could be found than the clear-headed, logi- 
 cal and sceptical Sir William Crookes. It was, in 
 fact, a test case — the first medium of his time to 
 be investigated by the most eminent scientist then 
 living in England! What wonder that the scien- 
 tific journals should rejoice because they consid- 
 ered that now the impostures of the infamous Home 
 would be brought to life and exploded; and what 
 wonder that the spiritists should rejoice since 
 
2S2 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 they conceived that the phenomena observed 
 through Home's mediumship would finally receive 
 their just appreciation and be recorded as actual 
 scientific facts, instead of the mere assertions of 
 gullible laymen! And while these opinions were 
 clashing, the moderate and even-minded world was 
 awaiting the final verdict with interest. 
 
 For sev^al years Sir William Crookes had the 
 opportunity of studying Home more or less di- 
 rectly, and in 1872 he published in his Quarterly 
 Journal of Science, of which he was then the editor, 
 his first lengthy report, entitled " An Experimental 
 Investigation of a New Force." In this article, 
 which is one of the most intensely interesting that 
 can be imagined. Sir William Crookes goes into 
 great detail in explaining the precautions he took 
 to guard against fraud, the apparatus used, the 
 methods employed, and the results attained. These 
 were entirely favourable to Home, and convinced 
 Sir William Crookes that there was, operative 
 through him, a force of some kind, which he provi- 
 sionally termed " psychic," capable of moving ma- 
 terial bodies without the direct contact of the me- 
 dium's body, and achieving other results in the 
 physical world. This famous essay was supple- 
 mented two years later by one that still more radi- 
 cally upset the scientific traditions of the age by 
 recording, a^ facts, such phenomena as direct writ- 
 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM 233 
 
 iag, materialisation, and other astonishing phe- 
 nomena, which were published in an article enti- 
 tled " Notes on an Inquiry into the Phenomena 
 Called Spiritual." These articles brought upon 
 Sir William Crookes' head, as might be im" 
 agined, the bitter criticism and hostiUty of the 
 scientific world, who now realised that the very 
 champion who, they had confidently hoped, would 
 smash and expose the ' fraud of spiritualism,' 
 had, as the result of his years of investigation, ber 
 come a firm believer in practically all the phenome- 
 na recorded ; and indeed it may be said, parenthet- 
 ically that this is true of a very large number of 
 investigators who have taken the pains to study the 
 subject at first hand. Some of the phenomena re- 
 corded by Sir William Crookes and by others at 
 the time were, indeed, almost incredible, and we 
 can quite readily appreciate the hostility which 
 the publication of such records entailed. The 
 elongation of the medium's body, the possibility 
 of Home handling red hot coals, etc., without in- 
 jury to himself, and above all, the instances of lev- 
 itation — in which the medium's body was, as it 
 was asserted, lifted by some force (apparently 
 counteracting that of gravity) and carried about 
 the room, and even out of the window, at a distance 
 of some 70 feet from the ground — such phenom- 
 ena certainly seemed incredible; and as yet their 
 
834 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 acceptance remains purely a personal matter, 
 each individual having to balance in his own mind 
 the alternatives of rejecting the statements of 
 trained scientific men, such as those whose names 
 are given, or of accepting the phenomena as genu- 
 ine. The acceptance of either alternative seems 
 impossible. It has been suggested that there is, 
 of course, another possible explanation which 
 would not necessitate either of the alternatives 
 named. This is, that the investigators were in 
 some way hallucinated, and that their senses de- 
 ceived them into thinking that events occurred 
 which did not actually take place. But in many, 
 cases, this explanation would not hold good, as 
 there was the material record left in the physical 
 world of actual events that had transpired, and Sir 
 WiUiam Crookes had, in many cases, invented appa- 
 ratus for mechanically marking such movements as 
 took place, having in mind this very objection, 
 and wishing to forestall it by producing the mate- 
 rial proofs given him by a mechanical instnmient 
 which could not, we must suppose, have been de- 
 ceived. 
 
 I have dwelt thus at length upon the phenomena 
 obtained through Home's mediiunship and the ex- 
 periments of Sir William Crookes for the reason 
 that they are the most important experiments 
 in the history of spiritism that have ever been 
 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM 235 
 
 conducted, and almost the only ones that have 
 never been discredited by further investiga- 
 tions. In almost every other instance the physical 
 phenomena have been ultimately shown to be 
 frauds; but with the exception of Home and one 
 or two other, later, cases, it may be said that the 
 evidence for the physical phenomena of spiritism is 
 practically nil. We accordingly leave the physical 
 phenomena of spiritism and turn our attention to 
 the more interesting and positive proofs of the 
 doctrine afforded by mental manifestations. 
 
 As stated, the early history of spiritism affords 
 us few instances of the kind, and it was not until 
 Mrs. Piper began to receive the attention of the 
 scientific world that such phenomena began to 
 receive from scientists the attention they had al- 
 ways deserved. The first report on this case, 
 which has now a world-wide reputation, appeared 
 over the signature of Prof. William James of Har- 
 vard in 1886, being published in the Proceedings 
 of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 For several years past Professor James had been 
 investigating this medium, and when Dr. Hodgson 
 arrived in this country some two years later, his 
 attention was at once drawn to the importance of 
 the investigation of this medium by Professor 
 James, and he at once began an investigation of 
 her powers. 
 
236 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 It is not too much to say that the case of Mrs. 
 Piper is the most important that the history of 
 spiritism has as yet presented, and possibly ever will 
 present, as affording evidence of life after death, 
 and it is worth the centered and almost exclusive 
 attention that has been given it for the past twenty 
 years. Putting aside all the other phenomena of 
 psychical research, the evidence for a future life 
 may be fairly said to rest on this case of Mrs. 
 Piper,— partly for the reason that it affords far 
 better evidence than does any other case so far 
 published, and partly because it has received the 
 careful attention of a number of eminent scientists 
 and other qualified investigators for a number of 
 years past. A brief resume of the case may, per- 
 haps, be given as follows: 
 
 When Dr. Hodgson became convinced of the gen-- 
 uineness of Mrs. Piper's power (which, I may add, 
 was only established after several years of detec- 
 tive work and the closest possible scrutiny and 
 observation of the medium), she was taken to 
 England by the English society and investigated 
 there by Sir Oliver Lodge, Mr. F. W. H. Myers, 
 Dr. Walter Leaf and others, — their reports be- 
 ing published in Vol. VI. Proceeding! S. P. R. 
 Some of these reports were favourable, others unfa- 
 vourable, though almost unanimous in asserting 
 that Mrs. Piper was genuine, so far as the trance 
 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM «37 
 
 went — opinions differing as to the value of the 
 communications received through her; and, indeed, 
 the sittings themselves varied most remarkably. 
 Dr. Hodgson's first report ^ left the matter still un- 
 determined, he stating that, while there were 
 many evidences of discarnate intelligence, still there 
 were many objections to it also, and he held his 
 judgment in suspense pending further investiga- 
 tion. His second report was published six years 
 later in 1898,* and in this report Dr. Hodgson 
 came out, for the first time, as an advocate of the 
 spiritistic theory, he asserting that it was the 
 most rational explanation of the facts so far ob- 
 served, and publishing, for the first time, a sten- 
 ographic record of seances that certainly seemed to 
 justify, if not to prove, his contention. Shortly 
 afterward a brief Report was published ' by Pro- 
 fessor Newbold, — this author also holding his 
 judgment in suspense and offering no definite the- 
 ory by way of explanation. Soon after this Pro- 
 fessor Hyslop obtained his series of seventeen sit- 
 tings, and published his Report, with great detail.* 
 Professor Hyslop considered, in the first part of 
 his Report, the various theories that have been 
 put forward, by way of explanation of this case, 
 
 1 Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. VIII. 
 
 2 Proceeding! S. P. R., Vol. XIII. 
 » Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. XIV. 
 *Proc»edimgi S. P. R., VoL XVL 
 
feS8 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 and the difficulties and objections of each theory. 
 He was himself, however, entirely in favour of 
 the spiritistic explanation, having been converted 
 to that belief, from materialism, through Mrs. 
 Piper's trance-mediumship. Since that time no 
 elaborate reports have appeared, though several 
 criticisms and minor essays have been published, 
 and the world at present awaits further evidence 
 with intense interest. 
 
 I shall, in the next chapter, discuss the various 
 theories that have been brought forward to explain 
 the phenomena obtained through this remarkable 
 medium. Here it is only necessary to state that in 
 this case of Mrs. Piper is focussed and concen- 
 trated, one might say, the whole issue of spiritism 
 so far as personal identity and proof of life after 
 death is concerned ; and the importance of the case 
 cannot, consequently, be too strongly insisted 
 upon. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE CASE OP Mas. PIPEE 
 
 MRS. PIPER first gained the attention of the 
 public in 1886, when Prof. William James 
 published a Report in the American Proceedings 
 S. P. R., stating that, owing to his personal inves- 
 tigation, he was convinced that there was, in this 
 case, prima facie evidence of supernormal faculty, 
 and that fraud was apparently out of the question, 
 owing to the precautions he had taken to exclude 
 it. Various individuals were sent by Professor 
 James to Mrs. Piper, who had sittings during three 
 or four ensuing years, but no serious and syste- 
 matic attempt at investigation was made until Dr. 
 Hodgson arrived in this country in 1887, making 
 Mrs. Piper's acquaintance about two weeks sifter 
 his arrival in Boston. 
 
 *' I had several sittings myself with Mrs. Piper," 
 writes Dr. Hodgson, at this period, " at which much 
 intimate knowledge, some of it personal, was shown, 
 of deceased friends or relatives of mine; and I 
 made appointments for sittings for at least fifty 
 persons whom I believed to be strangers to Mrs. 
 Piper, taking the utmost precautions to prevent 
 her obtaining any information beforehand as to 
 £39 
 
240 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 who the sitters were to be. The general result was 
 the same as in my own case. Most of these persons 
 were told facts through the trance-utterance which 
 they felt sure could not have become known to Mrs. 
 Piper by ordinary means. For several weeks, 
 moreover, at the suggestion of one of the members, 
 detectives were employed for the purpose of ascer- 
 taining whether there were any indications that 
 Mrs. Piper or her husband, or other persons con- 
 nected with her, tried to ascertain facts about possi- 
 ble sitters by the help of confederates, or other or- 
 dinary methods of inquiry, but not the smallest in- 
 dication whatever of any such procedure was dis- 
 covered. My own conclusion was that — after al- 
 lowing the widest possible margin for information 
 obtainable under the circumstances by ordinary 
 means, for chance coincidence and remarkable 
 jessing, aided by clues given consciously or un- 
 consciously by the sitters, and helped out by sup- 
 posed hyperaesthesia on the part of Mrs. Piper — 
 there remained a large residuum of knowledge 
 .displayed in her trance state which could not be 
 accounted for except on the hypothesis that she 
 had some supernormal power; and this conviction 
 has been strengthened by later investigations." 
 
 As a further precaution against fraud, however, 
 and in order to study the case more satisfactorily, 
 Mrs. Piper was taken to England for experiment 
 
THE CASE OF MRS. PIPER 241 
 
 by a group of investigators, which comprised such 
 men as Prof, Henry Sidgwick, of Cambridge 
 University ; Sir Oliver Lodge, F. W. H. Myers, Dr. 
 Walter Leaf and others. Mrs. Piper arrived in 
 England, November 1889, and was met at Liver- 
 pool by Sir Oliver Lodge. Throughout her stay 
 in England she was under close observation during 
 the entire time, being the guest of one or more of 
 the above-mentioned men throughout this period 
 and imtil her departure for America some three 
 months later. At this period Dr. Hodgson again 
 resumed his investigation, and the case remained 
 under his personal observation from that date until 
 his lamentable death in December, 1905. 
 
 Before I proceed further, let me make plain the 
 class of phenomena that appear through Mrs. 
 Piper's mediumship, as this is a point which is ap- 
 parently much misunderstood. In the Piper case 
 there are no materialisations, no slate writing, no 
 rope tying, no dark seances, nothing of the kind 
 that could in any way suggest conscious physical 
 trickery. Mrs. Piper merely sits at a table and, 
 while conversing, falls into a trance condition, in 
 which the body, to all intents and purposes, dies 
 for some few seconds, — consciousness being en- 
 tirely obliterated, — and, indeed, her own conscious- 
 ness does not return so long as the trance lasts. 
 The head falls forward and is supported by cash- 
 
242 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 ions on tfie table; her whole body becomes inani- 
 mate. Shortly after this, the right hand and arm 
 seem to gain a consciousness of their own.^ 
 The fingers seize a pencil (presented by the sit- 
 ter) and begin to write on a pad placed on the 
 table in readiness — just as would be the case were 
 the medium in her ordinary conscious state — the 
 whole seance, occurring, of course, in full daylight, 
 and, so far as the writing is concerned, there is 
 nothing unusual about it, to all appearances, and 
 no proof whatever that it is not directed by Mrs. 
 Piper's own consciousness ; and whether or not there 
 is any evidence for the supernormal would depend, 
 therefore, not on the physical characteristics of 
 the case, but on the actual content of the written 
 message; that is, whether such a message contains 
 any fact or piece of information, or knowledge, 
 that is unknown to the sitter, or known only to the 
 intelligence communicating that fact. 
 
 This is the kind of evidence that the Society has 
 been for many years endeavouring to procure, and 
 I wish just here to make clear what the problem is 
 that confronts us in the Piper case. Mrs. Piper's 
 
 1 A most interesting fact, in this connection, is the fol- 
 lowing; Mr. Lowell found, in his study 6{ the Japanese 
 trance possession cases, that the hands and arms are the 
 firtt and last parts to be;'.ome 'possessed.' All students of 
 psychic phenomena should read this book, as the similarities 
 of the Japanese possession cases to the Piper ca^e are fre- 
 quently .very strikingi {Oeoult Japan, pp. I7d, 180, 853-70.) 
 
THE CASE OF MRS. PIPER 24.3 
 
 hand is controlled by some intelligence, that in- 
 telligence claiming to be sometimes a deceased per- 
 son (possibly the friend or relative of the sitter) 
 and at other times an intermediary, who undertakes 
 apparently to speak for such friend or relative. 
 Whether or not the intelligence is what it claims to 
 be is, of course, the problem to be solved, and of this 
 we shall speak later. There is doubtless an intelli- 
 gence or agent of some sort at work, and the ques- 
 tion is : Is this intelligence what it claims to be, — 
 that is, a discarnate spirit, — or is it merely the re- 
 sult of the activity of Mrs. Piper's subconscious- 
 ness dramatically acting out the part and falsely 
 passing itself off as the spirit it claims to be? 
 That i^ the diiBculty that is to be solved in this 
 case. The trouble is that we can never get into 
 closer contact with the intelligence communicating 
 than is aflForded by the automatic writing. Sup- 
 pose for a moment that a relative had started, 
 twelve or fifteen years ago, on an expedition to 
 Alaska; and suppose that we one day received a 
 telephone message, stating that the speaker was the 
 relative in question, returned from his trip. Verifi- 
 cation, in this case, could be readily obtained by 
 meeting and recognising such a person. But sup- 
 pose that such meeting and recognition were never 
 possible, the only method of communication thence- 
 forward Jjeing confined to telephone messages? 
 
244 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 Now the problem would be : How can the intelli- 
 gence at the other end of the wire prove that he is 
 what he claims to be, — namely, your own relative, 
 — and that he is not an impostor passing himself 
 off as such for financial or other gain? What 
 would be the method we should pursue in such a 
 case? We should probably say to him: "Well, 
 how do I know that you are so-and-so? Can 
 you produce any evidence to show that you are 
 the person you claim to be?" And in order to 
 prove his identity, such person would have to 
 bring forward certain facts which were known 
 only to himself and to the person receiving the 
 message, as, if facts were given which a num- 
 ber of persons knew, it would be no test-evidence, 
 as any one of those persons might have been 
 communicating. Still better evidence would be af- 
 forded were the communicator to furnish some in- 
 formation that was unknown, even to the receiver 
 of that message or to anyone other than the person 
 communicating, such information afterwards be- 
 ing verified by letter or reference to written docu- 
 ments, etc. If the evidence in such cases was con- 
 clusive, there would be a very clear presumption 
 that the intelligence giving the message was ac- 
 tually what it claimed to be, — namely, the relative 
 in question, — and that his own intelligence and 
 none other was active at the other end of the line. 
 
THE CASE OF MRS. PIPER 245 
 
 Now this is precisely the problem before us in the 
 Piper case. The communications are, as stated, 
 hmited to the automatic writing, and in this man- 
 ner only can we get in touch with the communicat- 
 ing intelligence, whatever it may be. Whether 
 such intelligence is what it claims to be, therefore, 
 must depend on evidence of this kind; and this is 
 precisely the sort of evidence which the S. P. R. 
 has been endeavouring to procure for a number of 
 years past. Test cases of the kind have been made 
 as follows: A person has written a letter which 
 was sealed and sent to Dr. Hodgson for safe-keep- 
 ing, the letter not to be opened until after the 
 death of the person writing it, who was, conse- 
 quently, the only person in the world who was 
 in possession of the knowledge of the contents of 
 that letter. Now when this person died and his 
 soi-disant spirit claimed to communicate, if he 
 was enabled to tell accurately the contents of this 
 letter, there would be very good evidence that his 
 intelligence was still ahve and active. Such ex- 
 periments have, however, as yet been limited in 
 number and inconclusive in result, though there 
 should be doubtless many interesting developments 
 within the next few years, as the result of experi- 
 ments of this kind, as the writers of the letters (of 
 which Dr. Hodgson had a great number on hand) 
 die off. For the present, evidence has been con- 
 
846 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 fined to somewhat less strictly experimental meth- 
 ods, in which information ha^ been given of a pri- 
 vate character, and indeed a great part of the 
 records in the Piper case could never be published 
 owing to the fact that they are of such a private 
 nature that the persons who receive the messages 
 have refused to allow their publication. From a 
 scientific standpoint this is most unfortunate, but 
 quite understandable, and perhaps only natural. 
 One very interesting point was that one spirit, call- 
 ing himself George Pelham, recognised, out of hun- 
 dreds of sitters, onltf those who were known to him 
 m life and greeted each of these with the proper 
 degree of familiaritif; that is, he continued his rela- 
 tions with them on precisely the same footing as he 
 would were he still alive ; and this is a most interest- 
 ing fact when we consider that, in all other cases, 
 he did not claim any knowledge of the sitters, and 
 had to be introduced to them, frequently, before the 
 communications could begin. These shades of rec- 
 ognition are most interesting and form a very 
 strong presumption in favour of the spiritistic hy- 
 pothesis. One other strong reason for believing 
 this theory to be correct is found in the fact that in 
 many cases messages have been given through one 
 medium and broken off while incomplete, and after- 
 wards furnished through another medium, in a dif- 
 ferent part of the country, or even in a different 
 
THE CASE OF MRS. PIPER 247 
 
 country. For example, in the case of the late F. 
 W. H. Myers, a message was given through a 
 private medium in England — a lady and a teacher 
 in Cambridge University — and finished three 
 days later through Mrs. Piper in Boston, the 
 spirit coming back with the remark : " I am afraid 
 I did not make myself clear three days ago with ref- 
 erence to so-and-so ; what I meant was this . . ," 
 and the message was completed in more intelligible 
 form. 
 
 Now that the reader has a general idea of 
 the character of the phenomena, and the problems 
 that are to be solved, the question of explanatory 
 theories must be discussed, without going into great 
 detail. It may be stated that such explanatory 
 theories are three: (1) Fraud; (2) Telepathy; 
 and (3) Spirits. Of course fraud must first be 
 eliminated before any other considerations are al- 
 lowable. But I cannot go into the question at 
 great length here because the theory has been 
 practically disposed of for many years, in the 
 minds of practically all men who have had any per- 
 sonal contact with Mrs. Piper, or who have even 
 carefully studied the reports of the Society. That 
 information is frequently obtained by personal 
 inquiries and by the employment of paid detectives 
 is well known ; also that there is a system, or kind 
 of " bureau of information," among paid mediums 
 
248 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 which allows them to exchange information ob- 
 tained about sitters ^ — all this was well known and 
 recognised by the Society, and allowances were 
 made for all such possibilities. Detectives were 
 employed at one time to watch Mrs. Piper, her cor- 
 respondence was frequently intercepted, and sitters 
 were introduced at the last moment, just before 
 Mrs. Piper went into the trance, or, in some cases, 
 even after she had gone into trance, — 'Mrs. Piper 
 herself never having seen the sitter before, and the 
 whole arrangement being made through Dr. Hodg- 
 son, without any knowledge on Mrs. Piper's part 
 as to who the sitter was to be. Further, Mrs. 
 Piper was, as stated, taken to England in 1889 and 
 studied there for some months, largely to exclude 
 the possibilities of fraud. For all of which rea- 
 sons I must ask my reader to assume that fraud 
 has been excluded in the case, and shall proceed to 
 discuss the other two theories above mentioned. 
 
 The telepathic hypothesis assumes that the dra- 
 matic play of personality is explainable on the as- 
 sumption that some subconscious part of Mrs. 
 Piper's mind is acting out, as it were, the personal- 
 ity it claims to be, — being a case of secondary per- 
 sonality, which has received many confirmatory 
 
 1 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism, by the present 
 writer, pp. 313-18; also my Report on Lily Dale, Proceed/- 
 ings Amer. S. P. R., Vol. II, Part I, pp. 106-16. 
 
THE CASE OF MRS. PIPER 249 
 
 proofs in the recent cases of split personality, sec- 
 ondary consciousness, etc., studied by medical and 
 other scientific men. This would be the ready ex- 
 planation and account for all the facts in the case, 
 ■were it not that evidence is continually given which 
 such personality could not be supposed to possess. 
 Just here it is assumed that telepathy is operative, 
 keeping such personality supplied with facts that 
 have been obtained from the mind of the sitter, or 
 from other minds in the world elsewhere, and offer- 
 ing these facts as though they were obtained from 
 the intelligence in question, when they are, as a 
 matter of fact, only such facts as are obtained 
 telepathicaUy from living minds. Such a theory 
 would be hard to disprove, and, in fact, there are 
 many indications that it is possible, some of which 
 I myself pointed out in a criticism of Professor 
 Hyslop's report. ■*■ Since this was published, I have 
 totaUy changed my views on the Piper case, how- 
 ever, and would now no longer defend the view I 
 there advanced. 
 
 The objections to the telepathic hypothesis have 
 been summarised with great force by Professor 
 Hyslop in his recent book. Science and a Future 
 Life, and I might perhaps take the argument very 
 largely from his book. I would but point out first 
 that telepathy, of the kind necessary to explain 
 
 1 Proceedingt S. P. R., Vol. XVII, pp. 337-S9. 
 
250 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 this case, has never received acceptance by the 
 scientiiio world — that is, we are using telepathy, as 
 against spiritism, while telepathy in itself is no ex- 
 planation at all, merely the name of a connection 
 of some sort between two minds, which connection 
 itself requires explanation (p. 193) ; and further 
 that the scientific world has not accepted telepathy 
 at all, so that we are using an unaccepted theory to 
 explain certain facts. But Professor Hyslop goes 
 on to argue that, even supposing that telepathy 
 has been proved to be a fact, the only experimental 
 evidence we have is limited strictly to conscious 
 mental states, and in order to apply it to the Piper 
 case, we should have to stretch this to cover ttncon- 
 scious mental states ; and this, not only in the sitter, 
 but in other minds, active elsewhere in the world, — 
 and for this kind of telepathy we have no evidence 
 whatever. Even granting the possibility of such 
 telepathy, however, and that it is powerful enough 
 to abstract from any consciousness anywhere in the 
 world a certain fact and convey it, as it were, to 
 Mrs. Piper's subconscious self, then. Professor Hys- 
 lop urges, such a power would be practically om- 
 nipotent, and telepathy should be enabled to obtain 
 facts from the minds of practically any person in 
 the world, — and not only trivial facts, but impor- 
 tant and personal and detailed evidence, — and this 
 is precisely what has not been obtained. On the 
 
THE CASE OF MRS. PIPER 251 
 
 contrary, only personal, and, to the World at large, 
 trivial incidents have been given, which is precisely 
 what we should expect if spiritism were true, but 
 precisely what we should not expect if this kind of 
 telepathy were operative, which, we might sup- 
 pose, would be enabled to obtain facts of any de- 
 scription, at any time. Thus the triviality of the 
 messages, in the Piper case, argues, not against 
 spiritism, but in favour of it, since we know that 
 living consciousnesses do deal in trivialities almost 
 entirely; and as Professor Hyslop experimentally 
 proved previously, trivial messages are voluntarily 
 chosen by individuals who attempt to prove their 
 identity by means of telegraphic or other com- 
 munications where personal contact and speech is 
 impossible. Many other objections to the tele- 
 pathic hypothesis might be advanced, but I cannot 
 at this time attempt to mention them, merely re- 
 ferring the reader to Professor Hyslop's book be- 
 fore quoted, and to M. Sage's most readable book, 
 Mrs. Piper and the Society for Psychical Research. 
 I shall, in conclusion, consider two other points 
 of interest in connection with the Piper case; one 
 deals with the character of the mistakes and confu- 
 sions, the other with the triviality of the messages. 
 This question of the mistakes and confusions is a 
 large one, and I cannot do more than briefly refer 
 to it. I might state, however, in this connection. 
 
252 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 that although it is, in one sense, a great objection 
 to the spiritistic hypothesis that such mistakes 
 should occur, the communicator apparently giv- 
 ing wrong information on subjects well known to 
 him in life, such mistakes are, on the other hand, 
 a great argument in favour of spiritism, for 
 the reason that in the average individual we find a 
 consciousness that frequently lapses into moments 
 of forgetfulness — and this of even most im- 
 portant things — things, too, which we think 
 should be well remembered — and this in their or- 
 dinary life and under conditions and in the envi- 
 ronment to which they are most used. Taking into 
 account, therefore, the vastly greater difficulties 
 that must be experienced in recollecting and com- 
 municating such past events through another's 
 brain, and the lapses of memory that frequently 
 happen in human beings, we can quite conceive 
 that, even should a real spirit be communicating, 
 as it is claimed, the difficulties would be such that 
 frequent errors of memory would be made, and 
 erroneous facts stated, on subjects that would be 
 well known to the individual, were he still alive. 
 The difficulty might be just as great as, e. g., con- 
 trolling our dreams by voluntary effort, and we 
 know that the individuals who can do that are few 
 and far between.^ 
 1 See p. 213. 
 
THE CASE OF MRS. PIPER 
 
 FinaUy there is the objection as to the triviality 
 of the messages, this being, to many minds, the 
 most important objection to the Piper case. " If," 
 they say, " the intelligences are really what they 
 claim to be, — that is, spirits, — why do they not 
 tell us something of real utility or permanent 
 value, something that could be of some real use? 
 Why do they not tell us some scientific facts, or 
 leave us some ennobling teaching, or some state- 
 ment that could be verified as other than contained 
 in living minds, thus showing that there was some 
 independent consciousness at work? The answers 
 to this objection are manifold. In the first place. 
 Professor Hyslop showed by direct experiment 
 that even the most intelligent men, when directed 
 to establish their identity by means of telegraphic 
 communications, dehberately chose trivial, personal 
 incidents, and did not select any important scien- 
 tific facts or any message that would convey the 
 idea that the intelligence communicating was above 
 the average, though they were, in fact, univer- 
 sity professors. The next answer is that we have 
 no scientific knowledge, and, indeed, the presump- 
 tion is all against the fact, that the moment we die 
 we gain greatly enlarged spiritual insight and 
 foresight ; i. e., immediately upon our death. This 
 is the great stumbling block, especially with those 
 persons who are influenced by religious teaching. 
 
254 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 They are still under the impression that the mo- 
 ment death occurs we gain almost unlimited knowl- 
 edge, and that the stores of the world's wisdom are 
 laid open to us ! This la, I think, a very erroneous 
 viewpoint. I can see no reason to suppose that 
 simply because of a person's death that person 
 should gain a larger mental grasp of things or be 
 possessed of a wider knowledge than he possessed 
 at the moment of his death. Such increase of 
 knowledge can only come as the result of a gradual 
 process of evolution, or the result of work, the 
 same as in this life, and we have, I think, no 
 proof at all of the fact that the communicating in- 
 telligence (even granting it to exist and to be the 
 person it claims to be) could give us any further 
 information than that person was enabled to give 
 when alive ; and even supposing that he were, such 
 information would be absolutely valueless, for the 
 reason that until proof exists of the reality of the 
 communicating intelligence, such statements might, 
 and doubtless would be taken as a mere fabrication 
 of Mrs. Piper's subconscious self, and would have 
 no scientific weight whatever. Volumes and vol- 
 umes exist of statements made by spirits as to their 
 existence, mode of life, work, etc., but such state- 
 ments have never received the credence of the scien- 
 tific world for the reason that we have no proof 
 of the fact that such statements were made by the 
 
THE CASE OF MRS. PIPER 256 
 
 intelligences who claimed to make them, or that 
 they were other than workings of the subconscious 
 self of the medium ; so that in the Piper case, such 
 statements have always been set aside, and the 
 whole interest in it centered around the scientific 
 problem of ' personal identity ' or the persistence 
 of individual consciousness. This brings me to a 
 final reflection ; it is this, which I quote from Pro- 
 fessor Hyslop. It is in answer to those persons 
 who refuse to accept the evidence in the Piper case 
 for the reason that the sort of hereafter they por- 
 tray is not a " desirable " one ! 
 
 " If the facts," says Professor Hyslop,^ " make 
 the spiritistic theory the only rational supposition 
 possible to explain them, it has to be accepted 
 whether desirable or not. Our business as scientists 
 is not with the desirability of the next life, but with 
 the fact of it. We have to accept the life to come, 
 if it be a fact, without any ability to escape it, and 
 its degenerate nature would not afi'ect the evidence 
 for the fact of it. Its being a madhouse or an 
 asylum for idiots would not weaken the evidence 
 for its existence. . . . The desirability or un- 
 desirability of a future existence has nothing to do 
 with the scientific question as to whether it is a 
 fact." With this reflection I shall close the pres- 
 ent discussion, which might, of course, be continued 
 1 Science and a Future Itife, p. S90. 
 
256 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 indefinitely, taking up, in turn, all the difficul- 
 ties and objections to each theory and applying 
 them in detail to the records and the theories as 
 advanced; but such considerations would require 
 another chapter. I shall conclude by saying that 
 the Piper case contains the most important and, in 
 fact, the oidy scientific evidence that we at present 
 possess in favour of a future life; and the impor- 
 tance of the case from this point of view is very 
 great indeed ; in fact, as I have elsewhere stated, it 
 cannot be overestimated. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE UPON THE COMMUNICATOe's 
 MIND OF OBJECTS PEESENTED TO THE MEDIUM 
 
 I PROPOSE to lay before the reader, in this 
 chapter, a few remarks upon a subject that has 
 been very Uttle discussed, from a theoretical stand- 
 point, though the fact itself is hardly questioned 
 by those who have made a careful and critical study 
 of the evidence for supernormal phenomena in the 
 Piper and other similar cases. I refer to the fac- 
 ulty (apparently possessed by the medium or the 
 intelligences who purport to communicate through 
 her) of coming into closer touch with the mental 
 and spiritual life of the sitter, and of being better 
 enabled to remember a number of forgotten 
 facts simply because they are enabled to hold 
 (through the medium's hand) certain material ob- 
 jects which they previously wore, or handled, and 
 which the sitter had brought with him or her in 
 order to " assist in clearing the communicator's 
 mind." In both Dr. Hodgson's Report and that 
 of Dr. Hyslop are to be found many references 
 to this fact — the importance of some material ob- 
 ject to act as a means of clearing the communi- 
 cator's mind and insuring better and clearer com- 
 257 
 
258 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 munications — though it was only after long years 
 of experimenting with the trance that the real im- 
 portance of having these objects began to dawn 
 upon the experimenters. It was only natural that 
 this comprehension should be slow in coming, when 
 we know that so much fraud is frequently con- 
 nected with this very factor — mediums asking to 
 hold a letter against their foreheads, e. g., in or- 
 der to catch a glance at its contents, and so 
 on. So when objects were brou^t to the medium 
 at first, it was only right that they should have 
 been carefully wrapped up and concealed from the 
 medium, though we now know that many of the 
 results that might otherwise have been obtained 
 were in all probability vitiated or ruined by the 
 very precautions employed. Still, in the early 
 stages of the investigation, and especially before 
 the honesty of the medium was proved to the sat- 
 isfaction of all, it was only natural that such pre- 
 cautions should be taken; and most unscientific 
 would have been the procedure if they had not. 
 
 But now that the facts are all but universally 
 recognised — at least among those who have made 
 a careful study of the phenomena — the ques- 
 tion arises: What is the explanation of the ob- 
 served fact? If, e. g., a sitter should bring a lock 
 of hair to a sitting and place it in the medium's 
 hand when the person from whose head that lock 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MIND 259 
 
 of hair had been cut, when alive, was communicat- 
 ing; and if the communications at once became 
 clear and relevant, instead of confused and er- 
 roneous; if, again, a pen-knife or a piece of stone 
 were placed in the hand with the same results, or 
 with the result of inducing a sudden rush of super- 
 normal information, what would be the modus 
 operandi of this clearer and greatly facilitated 
 communication? In what way have these objects 
 assisted in the acquisition of the information im- 
 parted? That they must have assisted in some 
 way is evident from the very fact that the commu- 
 nications did become clearer and more correct and 
 precise. In what manner have they influenced or 
 afiFected the medium or the communicator in order 
 to bring about these unlooked-for results? 
 
 That is certainly a most baffling question, one 
 that I shall not attempt to answer, of course, be- 
 cause its entirely correct solution will not, in all 
 probability, be forthcoming for many years yet 
 — until a far better comprehension and grasp of 
 psychic phenomena be prevalent than is prevalent 
 today. But, if only for the purpose of clearing 
 away some popular misconceptions on this subject, 
 and in order to stimulate reflection among members 
 of the S. P. R. and others who think upon these 
 questions, I may, perhaps, be permitted to ofi^er 
 the following tentative remarks. 
 
260 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 It is generally conceived that the object carries 
 with it some subtle physical influence or " aura " 
 which, in some manner, influences the medium or 
 the intelligence communicating through her.^ 
 This belief is the basis of all " psychometric " read- 
 ings, of course, and is a very convenient one to 
 hold, and can be made a very plausible one. So 
 far back as 1885, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick offered a 
 somewhat similar view — or rather hypothesis — 
 as one of four explanations of haunted houses, 
 conceiving it possible that some such influence 
 might chng to the atmosphere of a house — 
 much as its physical atmosphere clings to it — ■ 
 and in some manner might influence the minds and 
 senses of those who lived in such a house thence- 
 forward, or at least for some considerable time, 
 until the influence might be supposed to " wear 
 off." Similarly, it might be that every object, 
 worn by a person, or closely associated with him, 
 physically, might in some manner be influenced by 
 him or impregnated with his " psychic atmos- 
 phere," and so might be the means of bringing 
 that person or influence to the medium to commu- 
 nicate; or assist him to communicate, while there, 
 
 1 For the sake of clearness of expression, I shall speak, 
 throughout, of the " communicators " as If they were real 
 intelligences or personages. This is for the sake of con- 
 venience, merely, and must not be understood as carrying 
 witli it any adhesion to the uefinitely spiritistic view. 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MIND 261 
 
 by bringing him in touch, as it were, 'pro tern, 
 with old influences and associations. And this 
 idea is still further supported by the fact that arti- 
 cles brought to the seance for the purpose of 
 " holding " a communicator and rendering his 
 communications more clear and intelligible are 
 far more potent and influential if they have been 
 previously wrapped up in oil or rubber cloth and 
 carefully protected from all external influences — 
 the touches of, and handling by, another person 
 particularly; if, indeed, such handling does not 
 ruin the influence altogether. These facts, then, 
 woidd seem to indicate that some such physical in- 
 fluence exists, in fact, and that it has, in some man- 
 ner, the power ascribed to it. 
 
 Granting, then, for the sake of argument, that 
 such an influence does exist, how are we to conceive 
 it as stored in the object handled.'' how does it in- 
 fluence the medium? how the communicator? how 
 recall incidents forgotten by him until that mo- 
 ment? and how facilitate communication? Such 
 are some of the puzzling questions that arise as 
 soon as we begin to put our theory to the test and 
 see how far it assists us in clearing up the present 
 difficulties. 
 
 Are we to conceive this influence, this emana- 
 tion, this " aura," as in some sense magnetic or 
 electrical? If so, then how are we to diiferentiate 
 
262 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 the magnetism or the electricity of one person from 
 that of another; for magnetism and electricity 
 are not supposed to be in any sense " personal " in 
 their nature, but rather universal, and intimately 
 associated with every particle of matter in the uni- 
 verse — living and not-living. Evidently, there 
 must be some means of differentiating the influence 
 of one person from that of another, and this would 
 render the influence " personal " and distinguish it 
 from the ordinary magnetism or electricity, of 
 which we are accustomed to speak. Is it, then, to 
 be conceived as in some sense tntal in character — 
 consisting in, or partaking of, the vital energy of 
 the person to whom the article formerly belonged.'' 
 Well, what is this vital energy.? Has it ever been 
 measured, ever detected by any of the delicate in- 
 struments which science has perfected — instru- 
 ments so delicate that they can measure the energy 
 of light waves, or detect the heat of a candle at 
 the distance of half a mile.'' Have such instru- 
 ments ever detected the existence of any vital force 
 or vital energy — i semi-material, or semi-fluidic, in 
 character? We know that they have not. It is 
 true that the early mesmerists contended that such 
 an influence actually existed, and produced many 
 facts in support of their contention; but these 
 facts have now all been accounted for by the laws 
 of conscious and unconscious suggestion; and. 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MIND 
 
 though I should be the last to contend that such 
 an influence does not and cannot exist, the in^ 
 fluence will never be proved by mesmeric experi- 
 ments, but must have other, independent facts in 
 its support if it desires to be accepted by the sci- 
 entific world. 
 
 Granting, again, for the sake of argument, that 
 such an influence or effluence does exist, in spite of 
 the fact that it has never been detected, how are 
 we to conceive it as stored within the object han- 
 dled or worn? Is it merely contained within its 
 structure, like water in a sponge; or does it be- 
 come an actual part or property of the object, like 
 gravitation? One cannot well conceive it to be 
 the latter; and it seems to be definitely disproved 
 by the fact that it can be lost or dissipated, for 
 which reason the articles in question are wrapped 
 up in oil or rubber cloth, and otherwise protected. 
 If it is merely present within the article, again, as 
 water is present in a sponge, how does it influence 
 the medium and the communicator? Is the in- 
 fluence lost or dissipated by much handling, or 
 does it remain forever in the object? Experi- 
 mental evidence would seem to point to the former 
 conclusion, though nothing definite can be said, as 
 yet. The evidence afforded by the oil or rubber 
 cloth might again be cited in support of the theory 
 that it is lost through handling. 
 
264. THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 Still, granting that such a physical, or vital 
 effluence or influence exists, how does the medium 
 become aware of its existence? We should have to 
 suppose it is by means of the sensory nerves, and 
 of these, the nerves of totich are the ones involved, 
 since all the other senses are more or less dormant 
 or incapable of rendering assistance in the detec- 
 tion and recognition of such an influence. If, 
 then, this influence were in some manner transmitted 
 along the nerves of touch to the brain, and there 
 associated with other impressions, we might begin 
 to form some faint idea of the process involved 
 were it not for certain difflculties, which the casual 
 reader invariably overlooks. Among these are the 
 following. 
 
 In order that the incoming nervous impulse or 
 sensation may be distinguished from any other 
 tactile sensation, it must possess some peculiarity 
 distinctly its own, for otherwise it would be merely 
 registered in the brain as is any other tactile sen- 
 sation whatever, and would excite no especial psy- 
 chic impression one way or the other. The sensa- 
 tion would be carried along the nerves to the brain, 
 as is any other tactile sensation, and would not 
 appear to be essentially distinct from these. But 
 if the nervous impulse conveyed from the hand to 
 the brain be along the medium's own nerves, we 
 must surely conclude that this nervous impulse is 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MIND 265 
 
 the medium's also; for otherwise we should have 
 to assume that an altogether alien and foreign 
 nerve-fluid of some sort was introduced into the 
 nerve channel (inoculated, as it were), and that 
 this impulse, travelling to the brain, influenced it 
 in its own peculiar way. This imparted nervous 
 impulse bearing the characteristics of the nervous 
 system of the other person (the person deceased, 
 on our present hypothesis) and belonging to that 
 person's nervous system, we might conceive that it 
 would act upon the medium's brain (as a tactile 
 sensation) in a manner somewhat peculiar, and 
 different from, the ordinary tactile sensations of 
 the medium, and would excite the brain and nervous 
 system in a different way. That is, the brain 
 would, pro tern, function in a manner familiar to 
 the communicator, but unfamiliar to the medium. 
 Of course, this is all conjecture, pure and simple, 
 and is based upon the supposition that some sort of 
 nerve impulse is passed from the object itself into 
 the nerves of the hands, and by them conveyed to 
 the medium's brain — a fact for which we have no 
 confirmatory evidence whatever. I am not saying 
 that such might not be possible ; for if we can con- 
 ceive the nervous mechanism of the medium's body 
 (as, on the " possession " theory, we are bound to 
 conceive) usurped and controlled by a spirit, we 
 can imagine or conceive many things. And cer- 
 
266 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 tainly this theory is as rational as any other ; none 
 other accounting for the facts equally well. 
 .What we should have to conceive, then, on this 
 theory, is that this peculiar and characteristic ner- 
 vous impulse reached the medium's brain while still 
 carrying with it its own peculiarities, and that it 
 impressed that brain in its own peculiar way, and 
 that this impression was recognised by the intelli- 
 gence controlling the brain and utilising it for the 
 time being — all of which, taken together, seems 
 to me to be a pretty good strain upon one's credu- 
 lity. We have the facts to account for, however, 
 which are an equal strain upon our credulity and 
 must be explained in one way or another, or the 
 problem given up altogether. 
 
 The manner in which such objects might be sup- 
 posed to influence the medium's brain is now clear, 
 and we can conceive that the controlhng intelli- 
 gence, acting upon the brain and nervous mechan- 
 ism of the medium, might be influenced by the 
 peculiarly famihar functioning of a certain centre 
 or set of centres, and so arouse in him the associa- 
 tions which were previously lacking, or enable him 
 to recall certain facts, before forgotten. In this 
 way communication would be facilitated to just 
 that extent, and so render the communications 
 clearer and more relevant to the occasion. 
 
 It is true there is another way of accounting 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MIND 267 
 
 for the observed facts, or a very large portion of 
 them. To this view very few of the objections 
 formerly raised can be said to apply, because we 
 are not led into any of the intricate speculations 
 which the former and commonly held theory 
 necessitated. In this case, we might conceive that 
 the influence is purely psychological, and that the 
 communicator merely remembers more facts con- 
 nected with a certain person, place or thing by 
 reason of his seeing the article in question. This 
 would involve nothing more occult than a simple 
 association of ideas, the sight of the object 
 bringing up to the mind of the communicator a 
 chain of thoughts until then latent, of memories 
 long forgotten. This would dispose of the physi- 
 cal-influence theory and all the difficulties it pre- 
 sents, and is consequently much to be preferred, 
 if it covers and explains all the facts. It is doubt- 
 ful, however, if it does so. Thus, in those cases 
 where an article is brought and placed upon the 
 table or in the medium's hand, which the supposed 
 control did not know when alive (and hence could 
 not recognise and associate with anything), the 
 explanation can hardly be said to apply. For this 
 article, too, seems to greatly facihtate the commu- 
 nications and to better them (to say nothing of 
 the well-attested phenomena of psychometry), and 
 this would be far more easily explicable on the 
 
268 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 physical-influence theory than on the mental-asso- 
 ciation theory. And this objection would also 
 apply to those cases in which objects belonging to 
 other persons were presented to the medium and 
 the communications facilitated in like manner. 
 Again, if the mental-association theory were the 
 true one and sufficient to account for the facts, 
 why should we have to wrap up the articles pre- 
 sented so carefully; for if physical influences had 
 nothing to do with the article or the medium's 
 impressions therefrom, it should make no difference 
 to either medium or communicator whether the 
 articles were exposed to the atmosphere and mis- 
 cellaneous handling or not. Yet, so far as I have 
 been enabled to learn, there is a decided difference 
 — so great, in fact, as to altogether annul the ef- 
 fects of the experiment altogether. So that, while 
 there are many points in favour of the mental- 
 association theory, it has not everything its own 
 way, as some persons think; and, indeed, it is 
 doubtful if it really explains many of the facts in 
 the case at all. 
 
 There is yet another objection to the mental- 
 association theory which I might urge in this place. 
 It is this: it would have to be assumed that the 
 communicator could actually see the object pre- 
 sented, for otherwise the theory would not hold. 
 If he had to depend upon touch alone, aU the diffi- 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MIND 269 
 
 culties above enumerated would at once present 
 themselves for solution. No; he must see the ob- 
 ject, as with the physical eye, in order to associate 
 it with any scenes, events, or persons in his past 
 life. Now, we have very little evidence that spirits 
 can see our material world, as we see it, at all ; the 
 spirits themselves state this, on numerous occasions ; 
 their failure to procure information, read books, 
 etc., is a further indication of this ; and it is in 
 fact admitted by all those who have closely studied 
 and brought in reports upon the Piper case. Cer- 
 tainly they do not see when communicating, though 
 they may possibly see, very dimly and indistinctly, 
 at other times. This is a subject that will stand 
 working out in greater detail, on another occasion ; 
 but as I cannot do so here, I leave that branch of 
 the discussion, merely calling attention to the 
 fact that aU the objections formerly raised to this 
 theory still apply: the communicator can only 
 associate with other things an object which is 
 familiar to him and which suggests such associa- 
 tions, and any unfamiliar object would never 
 arouse these associations, and never could. 
 
 It may be contended that I have been too " ma- 
 terialistic " in my treatment of the problem, in the 
 above discussion, and failed to take account suffi- 
 ciently of the purely ' psychic ' or ' spiritual ' 
 sense or discernment with which mediums and psy- 
 
270 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 chics are theoretically endowed. It may be con- 
 tended that such material things as nerves and 
 brain centres and sensory perceptions are not in- 
 volved in the case at all, but that the knowledge is 
 gained by some purely psychic or spiritual per- 
 ception. I confess that I cannot see or even con- 
 ceive how this can take place. If the object were 
 a conscUmsness, then I could understand that such 
 close association might well eiFect the results ; but 
 when the thing touched is an inanimate object, I 
 confess that such an " explanation " does not 
 really explain, when we come to apply it in de- 
 tail. For the idea that the actual past thought of 
 a person should be registered in the object in some 
 way, as a thought, is absolutely incomprehensible 
 to me; even preposterous. But it might be con- 
 tended that the object is charged with a sort of 
 vital magnetism by the person originally handling 
 and wearing such object, and that this influence 
 might afi^ord a sort of vital-association with the 
 sitter's thought, in some transcendental world. 
 Let me illustrate what I mean a little more fully. 
 It is contended by a certain school of mystics that 
 every thought is registered upon " the Absolute " 
 in somewhat the same way that a spoken word is 
 registered upon a wax cylinder, and that it re- 
 mains there forever; that it is possible to regain 
 and re-read that thought, by suitable means, un- 
 
INFLUENCE UPON THE MIND 271 
 
 der appropriate conditions. Such is the theory. 
 Now if this be true (let us assume its truth for 
 the sake of argument, pro tern), then it might be 
 that every thought, thus registered, would bear on 
 it the stamp or impress of the individual thinking 
 it ; it would " belong " to him or her and to none 
 other. It would belong to him for the reason that, 
 between him and the registered thought, there was 
 an intimate and more or less perfect rapport. 
 Now we can conceive that (if this were the case) 
 the communicating intelligence might be, in some 
 way, brought into more perfect rapport with the 
 previously registered thought when the object 
 previously worn was presented to it, for the rea- 
 son that this object would bring back to the mind 
 certain thoughts and associations belonging to the 
 period when, that thought was "registered," and 
 we all know that association is a very large part of 
 memory. In other words, a certain thought or 
 set of thoughts was registered upon the Absolute, 
 let us say, upon a certain occasion, and there were 
 many associations linked with such thought. If 
 now this object were the means of bringing the 
 mind of the communicator into rapport with the 
 previous state or condition of memory, in which it 
 was enabled to re-read the thoughts previously 
 " registered " in the manner suggested (because 
 of the rapport supposed), then we might on this 
 
272 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 theory have some faint idea of tne modus operandi 
 involved. But as the whole idea of the Absolute 
 is purely speculative and theoretical, I do not think 
 that such explanations can ever be seriously ad- 
 vanced, unless some proof be adduced of the cor- 
 rectness of the theory and of the existence of the 
 postulated Absolute. We look with mingled in- 
 terest and impatience for such proof. 
 
 It will be seen, then, as the upshot of this dis- 
 cussion, that the popular impression (that some 
 " aura " emitted from the object impressed the ner- 
 vous mechanism of the medium and influenced the 
 controlling intelligence through it) is not nearly 
 so simple an explanation as at first sight appeared, 
 but one that is highly detailed and complex, and, 
 when analysed down to its core, is not really intel- 
 ligible at all, unless we are prepared to make 
 some monstrous assumptions and advance hypoth- 
 eses for which we have no adequate evidence and 
 for which there is no analogy in the physical or 
 mental worlds. But, as before pointed out, the 
 facts must be explained, in any case, and the field 
 is open for explanations that will really explain. 
 Perhaps some of my readers may be enabled to 
 throw some light on this question; for my own 
 part, I must confess it is to me a baffling and as 
 yet an insoluble mystery that confronts us and 
 defies adequate explanation. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE NATtraE OF APPAEITIONS 
 
 TF we take up any book dealing with the history 
 ■'■ of the ' supernatural,' we find that the vast ma- 
 jority of the phenomena observed and recorded 
 deal with cases of apparitions or haunted houses. 
 As, however, I have discussed this question of 
 haunted houses in another chapter, and as they 
 are, in one sense, simply ' localised ' apparitions, 
 ■ — that is, apparitions that have been seen by a 
 number of successive individuals in one particular 
 locality, or by a number of individuals at one time 
 in that locality, — I shall in the present chapter 
 dismiss that branch of the subject and confine 
 the discussion to cases of apparitions that have 
 been observed at various times, the various types 
 of apparitions, and a discussion of the theories 
 that have been advanced by members of the S. P. R. 
 and others by way of explanation. In spite of 
 the fact, however, that apparitions have been re- 
 corded with greater frequency than any other class 
 of psychic phenomena, as I have said before, they 
 have doubtless received a greater amount of ridi- 
 cule from the world at large, and are less believed 
 in than almost any other branch of psychic inves- 
 273 
 
274t THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 ligation. From one point of view, it is hard to see 
 why this is the case; but looked at from another 
 standpoint, it is quite natural. When a figure is 
 seen, and suddenly vanishes, there is no proof that 
 this figure is not a mere subjective hallucination, 
 similar to those figures seen in feverish conditions, 
 in delirium tremens, etc. ; and in fact, the scientific 
 and medical worlds have always recorded them as 
 simple hallucinations or illusions, and while inter- 
 esting in a sense, from a psychological standpoint, 
 are certainly not worthy of serious consid- 
 eration as affording any evidence of the super- 
 normal ; and this position, so far as it goes, is per- 
 fectly logical and justifiable. Since we know that 
 hallucinations of the kind do occur, what proof 
 have we in any case that the figure seen is not a 
 hallucination, the result, perhaps, of a disordered 
 mind, or a morbid physiological state? But apart 
 from the phenomena presented in haunted houses, 
 there are many facts tending to show that the fig- 
 ures seen are not, in many cases, mere subjective 
 hallucinations, such facts seeming to indicate that 
 the figure has some cause or source other than 
 the mind of the seer. One of the first indications 
 is the fact that, in numerous instances, the figure 
 or phantom is seen by two or more persons at the 
 same time, which would seem to prove that there 
 is some outstanding entity, or some cause acting 
 
THE NATURE OF APPARITIONS 275 
 
 upon two minds, causing them each to perceive the 
 figure in the same manner and at the same time, 
 since, if such figure were purely subjective, how is 
 it that such coincidence occurred? Many psy- 
 chical researchers contend, indeed, that the figure 
 seen in such cases is an actual, outstanding en- 
 tity, and is not subjective or ' psychological ' at all. 
 This brings us, of course, to a consideration of the 
 nature of the figure seen, — some contending that 
 it is a more or less material, fluidic, ethereal body ; 
 others that the explanation is solely psychological, 
 and that the explanation is to be found in this 
 field, rather than in the physical world. Between 
 these two schools there is an ' impassable gulf,' 
 and the S. P. R. set out in its career with the in- 
 tention of seeing if this gulf could not be bridged 
 and a rational explanation of such apparitions put 
 forward, — if, i. ^., the reahty of such facts could, 
 in one sense or another, be proved. Many such 
 cases of apparitions were, consequently, collected, 
 and, since the founding of the Society, it may be 
 said that such cases have now run into the thou- 
 sands. Very soon it began to be noted that there 
 was a connection, in a very large percentage of 
 cases, between the figure seen and the death of the 
 person represented by such figure, and that there 
 was, apparently, some coincidence between the death 
 and the apparition seen. Now what is this coinci- 
 
276 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 dence? It was at this period that Messrs. Gurney 
 and Myers came forward with their ingenious 
 theory of ' telepathic hallucinations,' extending 
 the theory of thought-transference, which had been 
 practically demonstrated by experimental means, 
 to cover such ' spontaneous ' cases, as they were 
 called. Let me make clear just here, in brief out- 
 line, what that theory is. I quote from an earlier 
 article of mine, entitled " A Study of Appari- 
 tions," ^ as follows: 
 
 " We have two persons, A and B, whose honesty 
 we will take for granted. A is the " agent," B 
 the " percipient." B is taken into one room, 
 while A remains in a different part of the house, 
 thus absolutely severing any connection between 
 the agent and the percipient. A pack of cards 
 is now shui9ed and one drawn at random. It is, 
 say, the nine of clubs. A fixes his eyes and 
 thoughts on this card, and (sometimes) after more 
 or less time spent in the operation, B perceives 
 (more or less clearly) an image of the card chosen. 
 The image may form before the eyes in space, or, 
 if looking at a blank sheet of paper, the number 
 of figures, or whatever the chosen article is, may 
 appear as if written on the paper, to the percipient, 
 and may be traced. So vivid is this mental pic- 
 
 1 Published in the Psychic and Occult Views and Re- 
 views, December, 1902, and January, 1903. 
 
THE NATURE OF APPARITIONS 277 
 
 ture to some people (those who are credited with 
 exceptional powers of visualisation, or thought- 
 transference) that it actually appears enlarged 
 when viewed through a magnifying glass, and is 
 reflected in a mirror. These figures are obviously 
 as objective to the seer as any real external object 
 is, for the time being; nevertheless, they are hal- 
 lucinations, and purely subjective; so that the the- 
 ory of the objective phantom being proved to be 
 an outstanding entity because it is seen (sometimes) 
 to be reflected in a mirror is, obviously, inconclu- 
 sive. Any drawing or visible article may be thus 
 reproduced in a good subject, the object appearing 
 as if real to the percipient. Now, if a picture may 
 be thus mentally transferred from one mind to an- 
 other, why not the mental picture of some person? 
 A sits down and wills that a mental image ( an hal- 
 lucination) of himself may appear to B. This 
 " thought-image " actually does come into B's 
 mind, and, taking the form of a visual hallucina- 
 tion, leaves the percipient under the impression 
 that he has seen a " ghost." That this has been 
 successfully attempted several times, the English 
 Society for Psychical Research most positively as- 
 sures us, and the cases may be read in full, to- 
 gether with the discussion to which this question 
 has, very naturally, given rise. 
 
 " Now, all this falls luider the head of- " experi- 
 
278 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 mental thought-transference," and it may very 
 naturally be argued that when a man is dying, 
 however much he may be thinking of home, he will 
 not spend his time in trying to cause a " double " 
 of himself, a " telepathic hallucination," to be per- 
 ceived by those who are near and dear to him. 
 Much less is this the case where instantaneous 
 death puts an abrupt termination to all thought, 
 so far as we know. The apparition appearing in 
 this case is the result of spontaneous telepathy, 
 and over this we exercise no control. This phe- 
 nomenon, however, very rarely exhibits itself ex- 
 cept under great mental stress, which would be the 
 case, most assuredly, at the moment of death, This, 
 then, is the generally accepted explanation of 
 apparitions seen at the moment of that physical 
 change which is known to us as death." 
 
 Of course this theory was valueless so long as it 
 was not proved beyond question that such coin- 
 cidences occurred with greater frequency than 
 chance could account for. Whether or not they 
 did occur had to be proved mathematically, and 
 Mr. Gumey set out upon the immense task of 
 demonstrating this, and to all fair minds succeeded 
 beyond question in proving, in his monumental 
 work, Phantasms of the Livimg, that coincidences 
 occurred with greater frequency than chance 
 could account for. But, in order to make as- 
 
THE NATURE OF APPARITIONS 279 
 
 surance doubly sure, the Society continued its 
 efforts, organising an international statistical 
 inquiry, and obtained some thirty thousand an- 
 swers in response to its inquiries relative to figures 
 seen, death coincidences, etc. The result of its 
 labour was published in Volume X, Proceedmgs 
 S. P, R., occupying the entire volume as the Re- 
 port of the Committee on the Census of Hallucina- 
 tions. In this it was proved beyond question that 
 such coincidences did occur with greater frequency 
 than could be accounted for by chance, and from 
 that day it may fairly be said that practically all 
 impartial minds who have studied the evidence have 
 become convinced that there is some causal con- 
 nection between deaths and apparitions of the dying 
 person, which, as the Committee stated, they re- 
 garded as a ' proved fact ' ! This telepathic theory 
 also is used to explain ' collective hallucinations ' 
 (j. e., those appearing to two or more persons at 
 the same time), the theory being that the mind 
 of the dying person has either affected both minds 
 equally, or that he has affected the mind of one 
 seer, who, in turn, has affected the mind of his fel- 
 low percipient, causing them both to perceive 
 the phantom in the same manner and at the same 
 time. This explanation may appear to some a lit- 
 tle far-fetched, of course, but there is certain ex- 
 perimental evidence in its favour. However, this 
 
280 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 is a question into which we cannot at present go, 
 as it would necessitate too lengthy a discussion of 
 detailed and technical points. It is true that the 
 coincidence, in such cases, has not always been ex- 
 act; in many cases the figure is seen some min- 
 utes or even hours after the person the phantom 
 represented had died, and in such cases, if we dis- 
 card the theory of spirit influence acting telepath- 
 ically upon the mind of the seer, we are forced to 
 assume that the telepathic message was sent at the 
 moment of the death of the person the phantom 
 represented, but that such message remained ' la- 
 tent,' as it were, for some time, until a favourable 
 opportunity had been presented for its perception 
 or ' extemalisation.' The length of time that 
 such a message can lie latent is, of course, very un- 
 certain, but, for statistical purposes, twelve hours 
 were allowed; beyond that time the coincidence 
 was not reckoned, and the figure was treated as a 
 " phantasm of the dead," instead of " the living." 
 !As this again brings us to the subject of haunted 
 houses, I shall leave this aspect of the problem for 
 the present. 
 
 There is one most interesting fact in this connec- 
 tion that we must now consider; namely, the ap- 
 parition that materially affects the world; i. e., 
 some phantoms apparently occasion some defi- 
 nite physical changes that are left after their dis- 
 
THE NATURE OF APPARITIONS 281 
 
 appearance, — seeming to prove beyond question 
 that such figures are in the nature of a real definite 
 outstanding entity, and are not by any means sub- 
 jective or the creation of the seer's own mind. In- 
 stances are on record in which not only footsteps 
 have been heard, but doors have been opened and 
 shut, handles turned, door bells rung, furniture 
 upset, etc., and such cases present a very delicate 
 problem indeed for us to solve. Some investiga- 
 tors assert that the phantom is, in many cases, 
 definite and material enough to be perceived by 
 natural means and actually photographed; others 
 assert that such photographs hav€ never been taken 
 under sufficiently stringent conditions to insure 
 their absolute genuineness. It is, of course, con- 
 ceivable that a thought may be enabled to assume 
 a more or less material form, such ' thought 
 bodies ' being the extemalisation of the inner 
 thought — one phase, perhaps, of materialisation. 
 This, however, is a subject that cannot be consid- 
 ered in the present chapter, being altogether too 
 detailed and intricate for a general discussion such 
 as this. 
 
 There remains one interesting branch of the 
 study of apparitions of which I have not as yet 
 spoken. These are the so-called ' reciprocal ' cases, 
 where a figure of the agent is seen by the per- 
 cipient and, at the same moment, the agent is 
 
282 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 aware that he is manifesting, and actually sees the 
 percipient and his surroundings, — being, appar- 
 ently, clairvoyant himself. One most interesting 
 case of this kind was reported in Phantasms of 
 the Living, when the Rev. P. B. Newnham ap- 
 peared to his fiancee and was seen by her and she 
 felt him put his arm around her, but a moment 
 later the figure had vanished and she became aware, 
 for the first time, that the figure she had seen was 
 not Mr. Newnham himself, but an apparition. 
 At that same moment Mr. Newnham had himself 
 experienced precisely the same sensations that he 
 would have experienced had he been there in the 
 flesh, — and had seen, clairvoyantly, her surround- 
 ings. This is a typical case and illustrates, in a 
 most interesting manner, this class of reciprocal or 
 mutual psychic action, of which the S. P. R. has 
 now collected a number of cases. The natives of 
 West Africa assert indeed that they are enabled to 
 perceive clairvoyantly scenes transpiring many 
 miles away, at the moment that they are actually 
 happening, and, at the same time, to ' materialise,' 
 as it were, at the other end, being visible and tangi- 
 ble to the percipients who may happen to see the 
 figure. This materialisation or figure is, they as- 
 sert, material enough to move objects and effect 
 other changes in the physical world. We are at 
 present unable to assert that this is an impossibil- 
 
THE NATURE OF APPARITIONS 283 
 
 ity, though the S. P. R. has as yet collected no 
 well authenticated case of this character. Still, 
 cases are on record which in some ways approximate 
 this and enable us to assert that it is not an in- 
 herent absurdity or in any way impossible. 
 
 And this brings us to a final reflection, with 
 which I will close. It is well known that cases of 
 double consciousness exist in which two distinct 
 and separate mental lives are lived by the individ- 
 ual, each possessing its own stream of thoughts, 
 its own personality and character. 
 
 These ' selves ' are doubtless fractions of the 
 total self, each one being a portion of the sublim- 
 inal self — that portion of our psychic being in 
 which telepathy, clairvoyance, etc., operate. Now 
 if we can conceive each personality — distinct in 
 itself — possessing the power to project itself, as 
 it were, and in some sense materialise during such 
 projection, forming a phantom or ' double ' of 
 that self (which we might possibly conceive it to 
 symbolise in its physical aspect), we should have 
 a case of the actual projection of that portion of 
 our personality that was active at the time; and 
 if we could conceive further that, in any definite 
 individual, there is massed into one such person- 
 ality all the evil traits, and into another person- 
 ality all the good — the two mental lives being dis- 
 tinct and each being enabled to project its own 
 
284 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 image or double as above suggested — we should 
 have here the first glimpses of the possible scien- 
 tific explanation of such cases as Stevenson's " Dr. 
 Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Such speculations are, 
 of course, purely theoretical and tentative, and 
 we might say that as yet we have no evidence that 
 such cases are actual facts ; but the evidence may yet 
 be forthcoming that would warrant our formulat- 
 ing some such theory, and it is as well, perhaps, 
 to be prepared for whatever evidence we may re- 
 ceive. The study of apparitions from a scientific 
 standpoint has, of course, only begun. In fifty 
 or one hundred years from now, we may know 
 something of them ; but at present there is next to 
 nothing known as to their essence or causation, 
 nor is much knowledge likely to be gained until the 
 present bigoted and prejudiced manner of treat- 
 ing these subjects has been overcome, and they 
 are discussed, not as mere superstitions or the re- 
 sults of a disordered brain, but as scientific facts, 
 to be studied by scientific men in a scientific man- 
 ner. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 EXPEB.1MENTS IN WEIGHING THE SOUL 
 
 T X rE have seen, in the preceding chapter, that a 
 » ' figure can be apparently seen and possibly 
 even photographed, under appropriate conditions, 
 by certain individuals. Such experiments and such 
 experiences tend to convince us that the figure 
 seen, whether it be soul, double, spirit, astral 
 body, or what not, is apparently a far more ma- 
 terial body than we have been in the habit of sup- 
 posing. Were we to accept the facts as such, and 
 interpret them as they are frequenty interpreted by 
 a large body of investigators, and as they cer- 
 tainly appear to be (on their face value), we 
 should be forced to come to the conclusion that the 
 apparitions frequently seen are semi-material in 
 their nature, and are by no means purely halluci- 
 natory. If such were the case, and spirits were 
 indeed composed of some sort of semi-material 
 bodies, capable of reflecting light, then these bodies 
 must not only be space-occupying, but must have 
 weight. Thus reasoned Dr. Duncan MacDougall, 
 whose experiments in " weighing the soul " created 
 such a stir when first they were pubhshed in the 
 newspapers. We obtained from Dr. MacDougall, 
 285 
 
286 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 at the time, all the original documents in connec- 
 tion with his experiments, and these were pub- 
 lished in the Journal of the American Society 
 for Psychical Research.^ I shall quote a part of 
 these records, since they have never as yet reached 
 the public, beyond those few individuals (compara- 
 tively) who are members of the Society. I shall 
 also quote parts of my criticism of these experi- 
 ments, together with portions of the correspon- 
 dence that followed the publication of these rec- 
 ords. I cannot but think that this will be of inter- 
 est to my readers, since these are the only authentic 
 experiments that have ever been tried in this direc- 
 tion, so far as I know. 
 
 Dr. MacDougall's article, entitled " Hypothesis 
 Concerning Soul Substance, Together with Expei> 
 imental Evidence of the Existence of Such Sub- 
 stance," reads, in part, as follows: 
 
 " If personal continuity after the event of bodily 
 death is a fact, if the psychic functions continue 
 to exist as a separate individuaUty or personality 
 after the death of brain and body, then such per- 
 sonality can only exist as a space-occupying body, 
 unless the relations between space objective and 
 space notions in our consciousness, established in 
 our consciousness by heredity and experience, are 
 
 . 1 May, 1907. 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL 287 
 
 entirely wiped out at death and a new set of rela- 
 tions between space and consciousness suddenly es- 
 tablished in the continuing personality, which would 
 be such a breach in the continuity of nature that 
 I cannot imagine it. 
 
 " It is tmthinkable that personality and con- 
 sciousness continuing personal identity should ex- 
 ist, and have being, and yet not occupy space. It 
 is impossible to represent in thought that which 
 is not space occupying as having personaHty, for 
 that would be equivalent to thinking that nothing 
 had become or was something, that emptiness had 
 personality, that space itself was more than space, 
 all of which are contradictions and absurd. 
 
 " Since, therefore, it is necessary to the continu- 
 ance of conscious life and personal identity after 
 death that they must have for a basis that which 
 is space-occupying or substance, the question arises. 
 Has this substance weight ; is it ponderable.'' 
 
 " The essential thing is that there must be a sub- 
 stance as the basis of continuing personal identity 
 and consciousness, for without space-occupying 
 substance, personality or a continuing conscious 
 ego after bodily death is unthinkable. 
 
 " According to the latest conception of science, 
 substance or space-occupying material is divisible 
 into that which is gravitative — solids, liquids, 
 gases, all having weight — and the ether which is 
 
288 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 non-gravitative. It seemed impossible to me that 
 the soul substance could consist of ether. If the 
 conception is true that ether is continuous and not 
 to be conceived of as existing or capable of exist- 
 ing in separate masses, we have here the most solid 
 ground for believing that the soul substance we 
 are seeking is not ether, because one of the very 
 first attributes of personal identity is the quality or 
 condition of separateness. Nothing is more borne 
 in upon consciousness than that the you in you 
 and the me in me, the ego, is detached and separate 
 from all things else — the non-ego. 
 
 " We are therefore driven back upon the assump- 
 tion that the soul substance so necessary to the con- 
 ception of continuing personal identity, after the 
 death of this material body, must still be a form of 
 gravitative matter, or perhaps a middle form of 
 substance neither gravitative matter nor ether, not 
 capable of being weighed and yet not identical with 
 ether. Since, however, the substance considered 
 in our hypothesis must be linked organically with 
 the body until death takes place, it appears to me 
 more reasonable to think that it must be some 
 form of gravitative matter, and therefore capable 
 of being detected at death by weighing a human 
 being in the act of death. 
 
 " The subjects experimented upon all gave their 
 consent to the experiment weeks before the day of 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUI. 289 
 
 death. The experiments did not subject the pa- 
 tients to any additional suffering. 
 
 " My first subject was a man dying of tuberculo- 
 sis. It seemed to me best to select a patient dying 
 with a disease that produces great exhaustion, the 
 death occurring with little or no muscular move- 
 ment, because in such a case the beam could be 
 kept more perfectly at balance and any loss oc- 
 curring readily noted. 
 
 " The patient was under observation for three 
 hours and forty minutes before death, lying on a 
 bed arranged on a light framework built upon 
 very delicately balanced platform beam scales. 
 The patient's comfort was looked after in every 
 way, although he was practically moribund when 
 placed upon the bed. He lost weight slowly at the 
 rate of one ounce per hour, due to evaporation of 
 moisture in respiration and evaporation of sweat. 
 
 " During all three hours and forty minutes I 
 kept the beam end slightly above balance near the 
 upper limiting bar in order to make the test more 
 decisive if it should come. 
 
 " At the end of three hours and forty minutes he 
 expired, and suddenly. Coincident with death, the 
 beam end dropped with an audible stroke, hitting 
 against the lower limiting bar and remaining there 
 with no rebound. The loss was ascertained to be 
 three-fourths of an ounce. 
 
290 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 " This loss of weight could not be due to evapor- 
 ation of respiratory moisture and sweat because 
 that had already been determined to go on, in his 
 case, at the rate of one-sixtieth of an ounce per 
 minute, whereas this loss was sudden and large — 
 three-fourths of an ounce in a few seconds. 
 
 "The bowels did not move; if they had moved 
 the weight would still have remained upon the bed, 
 except for a slow loss by the evaporation of mois- 
 ture, depending, of course, upon the fluidity of 
 the fasces. The bladder evacuated one or two 
 drachmes of urine. This remained upon the bed 
 and could only have influenced the weight by slow, 
 gradual evaporation, and therefore in no way could 
 account for the sudden loss. 
 
 " There remained but one more channel of loss to 
 explore, the expiration of all but the residual air in 
 the lungs. Getting upon the bed myself, my col- 
 league put the beam at actual balance. Inspira- 
 tion and expiration of air as forcibly as possible by 
 me had no effect upon the beam. My colleague 
 got upon the bed and I placed the beam at balance. 
 Forcible inspiration and expiration of air on his 
 part had no effect. In this case we certainly have 
 an inexplicable loss of weight of three-fourths of 
 an ounce. Is it the soul substance? How else shall 
 we explain it? 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL 291 
 
 " My second patient was a man moribund from 
 consumption. He was on the bed about four hours 
 and fifteen minutes under observation before death. 
 The first four hours he lost weight at the rate of 
 three-fourths of an ounce per hour. He had much 
 slower respiration than the first case, which ac- 
 counted for the difference in loss of weight from 
 evaporation and respiratory moisture. 
 
 " The last fifteen minutes he had ceased to 
 breathe, but his facial muscles still moved convul- 
 sively, and then, coinciding with the last movement 
 of the facial muscle, the beam dropped. The 
 weight lost was found to be half an ounce. Then 
 my colleague auscultated the heart and found it 
 stopped. I tried again, and the loss was one ounce 
 and a half and fifty grains. In the eighteen min- 
 utes that elapsed between the time he ceased breath- 
 ing until we were certain of death, there was a 
 weight loss of one and one-half ounces and fifty 
 grains, compared with a loss of three ounces during 
 a period of four hours, during which time the 
 ordinary channels of loss were at work. No bowel 
 movement took place. The bladder moved, but the 
 urine remained upon the bed and could not have 
 evaporated enough through the thick bed' clothing 
 to have influenced the result. 
 
 " The beam at the end of eighteen minutes of 
 
292 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 doubt was placed again with the end in slight con- 
 tact with the upper bar and watched for forty 
 minutes, but no further loss took place. 
 
 " My scales were sensitive to two-tenths of an 
 ounce. If placed at balance one-tenth of an ounce 
 would lift the beam up close to the upper limiting 
 bar, another one-tenth ounce would bring it up 
 and keep it in direct contact, then if the two-tenths 
 were removed the beam would drop to the lower bar 
 and then slowly oscillate till balance was reached 
 again. 
 
 " This patient was of a totally different tempera- 
 ment from the first, his death was very gradual, so 
 that we had great doubt from the ordinary evi- 
 dence to say just what moment he died. 
 
 " My third case, a man dying of tuberculosis, 
 showed a weight of half an ounce lost, coincident 
 with death, aild an additional loss of one ounce a 
 few minutes later. 
 
 " In the fourth case, a woman dying of diabetic 
 coma, unfortunately our scales were not finally 
 adjusted and there was a good deal of interference 
 by people opposed to our work, and although at 
 death the beam sunk so that it required from three- 
 eighths to one-half ounce to bring it back to the 
 point preceding death, yet I regard this test as of 
 no value. 
 
 " With my fifth case, a man dying of tuberculo- 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL 293 
 
 SIS, there showed a distinct drop in the beam requir- 
 ing about three-eighths of an ounce which could 
 not be accounted for. This occurred exactly simul- 
 taneously with death, but peculiarly on bringing 
 the beam up again with weights and later removing 
 them, the beam did not sink back to stay back for 
 fully fifteen minutes. It was impossible to ac- 
 count for the three-eighths of an ounce drop, it 
 was so sudden and distinct, the beam hitting the 
 lower bar with as great a noise as in the first case. 
 Our scales in the case were very sensitively balanced. 
 
 " My sixth and last case was not a fair test. 
 The patient died almost within five minutes after 
 being placed upon the bed, and died while I was ad- 
 justing the beam. 
 
 " In my communication to Dr. Hodgson I note 
 that I have said there was no loss of weight. It 
 should have been added that there was no loss of 
 weight that we were justified in recording. 
 
 " My notes taken at the time of experiment show 
 a loss of one and one-half ounces, but in addition it 
 should have been said the experiment was so hur- 
 ried, jarring of the scales had not wholly ceased 
 and the apparent weight loss, one and one-half 
 ounces, might have been due to accidental shifting 
 of the sliding weight on the beam. This could not 
 have been true of the other tests, as no one of them 
 was done hurriedly. 
 
294 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 " My sixth case I regard as of no value from this 
 cause. The same experiments were carried out on 
 fifteen dogs, surrounded by every precaution to 
 obtain accuracy, and the results were uniformly 
 negative: no loss of weight at death. A loss of 
 weight takes place about twenty to thirty min- 
 utes after death, which is due to the evaporation of 
 the urine normally passed, and which is duplicated 
 by evaporation of the same amount of water on 
 the scales, every other condition being the same, 
 e. g., temperature of the room, except the presence 
 of the dog's body. 
 
 " The dogs experimented on weighed from fifteen 
 to seventy pounds and the scales with the total 
 weight upon them were sensitive to one-sixteenth 
 of an ounce. The tests on dogs were vitiated by 
 the use of two drugs administered to secure the 
 quiet and freedom from struggle necessary to keep 
 the beam at balance. 
 
 " The ideal test on dogs would be obtained in 
 those dying from some disease that rendered them 
 much exhausted and incapable of struggle. It was 
 not my fortune to get dogs dying from such sick- 
 ness. 
 
 " The net result of the experiments conducted on 
 human beings is that a loss of substance occurs 
 at death not accounted for by known channels of 
 loss. Is it the soul substance? It would seem to 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL S95 
 
 me to be so. According to our hypothesis such a 
 substance is necessary to the assumption of con- 
 tinuing or persisting personality after bodily 
 death, and here we have experimental demonstra- 
 tion that a substance capable of being weighed 
 does leave the human body at death. 
 
 " If this substance is a counterpart of the physi- 
 cal body, has the same bulk, occupies the same di- 
 mensions in space, then it is a very much lighter 
 substance than the atmosphere surrounding our 
 earth, which weighs about one and one-fourth 
 ounces per cubic foot. This would be a fact of 
 great significance, as such a body would readily as- 
 cend in our atmosphere. The absence of a weigh- 
 able mass leaving the body at death would of 
 course be no argument against continuing person- 
 ality, for a space-occupying body or substance 
 might exist not capable of being weighed, such as 
 the ether. 
 
 " It has been suggested that the ether might be 
 that substance, but with the modem conception of 
 science that the ether is the primary form of all 
 substance, that all other forms of matter are merely 
 differentiations of the ether having varying densi- 
 ties, then it seems to me that soul substance, which 
 in this life must be linked organically with the 
 body, cannot be identical with the ether. More- 
 over, the ether is supposed to be non-discontinu- 
 
296 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 ous, a continuous whole and not capable of existing 
 in separate masses as ether, whereas the one prime 
 requisite for a continuing personality or individ- 
 uality is the quality of separateness, the ego as 
 separate and distinct from all things else, the non- 
 ego, 
 
 " To my mind, therefore, the soul substance can- 
 not be the ether as ether, but if the theory that 
 ether is the primary form of all substance is true, 
 then the soul substance must necessarily be a differ- 
 entiated form of it. 
 
 " If it is definitely proven that there is in the hu- 
 man being a loss of substance at death not ac- 
 counted for by known channels of loss, and that 
 such loss of substance does not occur in the dog, 
 as my experiments would seem to show, then we 
 have here a physiological difference between the 
 human and the canine at least and probably between 
 the human and all other forms of animal life. 
 
 " I am aware that a large number of experiments 
 would require to be made before the matter can 
 be proven beyond any possibility of error, but if 
 further and suiScient experimentation proves that 
 there is a loss of substance occurring at death and 
 not accounted for by known channels of loss, the 
 establishment of such a truth cannot fail to be of 
 the utmost importance. 
 
 " One ounce of fact more or less will have mors 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL 297 
 
 weight in demonstrating the truth of the reality of 
 continued existence with the necessary basis of sub- 
 stance to rest upon than all the hair-splitting the- 
 ories of theologians and metaphysicians combined. 
 
 " If other experiments by other experimenters 
 prove that there is a loss of weight occurring at 
 death, not accounted for by known channels of loss, 
 we must either admit the theory that it is the hy- 
 pothetical soul substance, or some other explana- 
 tion of the phenomenon should be forthcoming. 
 If proven true, the materialistic conception wiU. 
 have been fuUy met, and proof of the substantial 
 basis for mind or spirit or soul continuing after 
 the death of the body, insisted upon as necessary 
 by the materialists, will have been furnished. 
 
 " It will prove also that the spiritualistic concep- 
 tion of the immateriality of the soul is wrong; 
 The postulates of religious creeds have not been a 
 positive and final settlement of the question. 
 
 " The theories of all the philosophers and all the 
 philosophies offer no final solution of the problem 
 of continued personality after bodily death. This 
 fact alone of a space-occupying body of measure- 
 able weight disappearing at death, if verified, fur- 
 nishes the substantial basis for persisting per- 
 sonality or a conscious ego surviving the act of 
 bodily death, and in the element of certainty is 
 worth more than the postulates of all the creeds 
 
298 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 and all the metaphysical arguments combined. 
 " In the year 1854! Rudolph Wagner, the physi- 
 ologist, at the Gottingen Congress of Physiolo-' 
 gists proposed a discussion of a " Special Soul- 
 Substance." The challenge was accepted, but no 
 discussion followed, and among the five himdred 
 voices present not one was raised in defence of a 
 spiritualistic philosophy. Have we found Wag- 
 ner's soul substance?" 
 
 These speculations cannot fail to have great in- 
 terest to my readers, of that I am assured. Dr. 
 MacDougaU's speculations as to the nature of the 
 soul are beside the question, for our present pur- 
 poses, and I shall not stop to consider them now. 
 After all, the proof or the disproof of Dr. Mac- 
 DougaU's theories, or even of his facts, would have 
 no final and conclusive bearing upon the prob- 
 lems of psychical research one way or the other. 
 As Dr. Hyslop said at the time : " It should be 
 observed that the problem of psychic research ia 
 not affected by either success or failure in such ex- 
 periments as Dr. MacDougaU's. One might even 
 contend that success in proving the loss of weight 
 by death in some way not ordinarily accountable 
 by physical theories would not prove that the resi- 
 duum was a soul. It might be some vital energy, 
 and the soul yet remain an imponderable form 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL 299 
 
 of substance. It might even be that vital force, 
 if such there be other than the orthodox chemical 
 theory of life, is also imponderable, and that the 
 residuum in such experiments as Dr. MacDougall's 
 would be some form of matter not yet known. All 
 that successful experiments wotild prove would be 
 that there was some form of energy unaccounted 
 for by known agencies, and not necessarily that 
 this residuum was the subject of consciousness. 
 The problem of psychic research, in so far as it 
 represents the search for a soul, concerns the evi- 
 dence that consciousness survives death, and that 
 is a psychological, not a physical problem. Even 
 after we proved that somethmg survived death, we 
 should still have to prove that it was conscious and 
 also to prove that it was the same consciousness 
 that we had once known as a living human per- 
 son. That can be determined only by communi- 
 cation with the discamate, and any conclusion es- 
 tablished by that method would be indifferent to 
 the question whether the subject of consciousness 
 was ponderable or imponderable. Failure to 
 prove that the residuimi in such experiments as 
 Dr. MacDougall's Is ponderable would not affect 
 this question of personal identity. It would re- 
 main a legitimate suit or question in any case, es- 
 pecially as we are privileged to assume imponder- 
 able and space-occupying substances. As for 
 
SOO THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 myself, I have no objections to the Leibnitzian or 
 llBoscovitchian point of view, which is that the ulti- 
 mate nature of substance is spaceless. I do not ac- 
 cept that view, but I have no facts or philosophy 
 that require me to contradict it. I simply ascer- 
 tain facts and accept the conclusions which they 
 make imperative, and hence I make no d priori as- 
 sumptions as to what the substance of the soul or 
 of anything else must be. That has to be deter- 
 mined by the facts, not by hypotheses antecedent 
 to facts." 
 
 At the time these experiments were published, I 
 advanced some adverse criticisms, bearing upon 
 this question, and at the same time corrected cer- 
 tain newspaper stories that had been going the 
 rounds, — certain statements having been attributed 
 to me which I had never made. I went on to say 
 that such experiments as these would have to be 
 repeated a number of times before they could gain 
 recognition from the scientific world, especially as 
 all former experiments in this direction seem to have 
 yielded opposite and contrary results. Thus : 
 
 " It has very frequently been asserted that this 
 experiment has been tried, and in Hibbert's Life 
 and Energy will be found a Chapter entitled ' Is 
 Life Matter? ' in which this question is consid- 
 ered and the author comes to the immediate con- 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL 301 
 
 elusion that life is not matter owing to this very 
 fact — that the dead body does not weigh less than 
 the same body, alive. I am unaware of any first- 
 hand accounts of such a series of experiments hav- 
 ing been made, however, and it would be amusing 
 if it should turn out that such experiments never 
 had been made — after science has stated so dog- 
 matically for so many years that the question had 
 already been settled past all dispute ! 
 
 " For, after all, the whole question is one of ac- 
 tual experiment, and can never be settled by specu- 
 lations of any sort — 'philosophic or otherwise. 
 Whether the soul is or can be a space-occupying 
 body or not is beside the question, it seems to me, 
 and should not enter into any argument based upon 
 observed facts; or, if so, it should be allowed 
 weight only as a personal opinion, and in no wise 
 influence the conclusions drawn from a study of 
 the facts. Taking the experiments, then, as Dr. 
 MacDougaU has described them, the question 
 arises: Granting that the facts exist, as stated, 
 would these results prove the contention that the 
 observed loss of weight was due to the exit from 
 the body of some hypothetical soul substance, or 
 may the facts (granting them to exist, as stated) 
 be explained in some such manner as to render Dr. 
 MacDougall's hypothesis unnecessary? 
 
 " I must say that Dr. MacDougall seems to have 
 
302 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 provided pretty thoroughly against all normal 
 losses of weight. His papers indicate this clearly. 
 The only channel that need be taken seriously into 
 account is the lungs ; i. e., the loss of weight due to 
 expired air. It therefore becomes a question of 
 the amount of air the lungs may contain, and its 
 consequent weight, — granting, for the sake of ar- 
 gument, that every particle of air is forced out of 
 the lungs at death. A cubic foot of air, at the or- 
 dinary temperature, and at sea-level, weighs about 
 one and one-fourth ounces, we are told — a state- 
 ment that is confirmed by the Enctfclopcedia Bri- 
 tannica and other authorities. In the cubic foot 
 there are 1728 cubic inches. Now, we know that 
 the average capacity of the lungs of a healthy 
 human being is about 225 to 250 cubic inches ; * 
 but let us say 300 cubic inches to be on the safe 
 side. This is, as nearly as possible, one-sixth of an 
 ounce, granting that all the air is expired at death 
 — for which we have no evidence — and that the 
 lungs contained as much as 300 cubic inches of air. 
 This is also a practical impossibility, in such cases 
 as those quoted, for the reason that this represents 
 the state of healthy lungs at the moment of 
 the fullest inspiration. The majority of persons, 
 however, could not inhale 200 cubic inches (the 
 twelfth of an ounce), while consumptive patients, 
 iKirke, Pkysioloffy, p. 262. 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL 303 
 
 dying, and in the last stages of the disease, would 
 not contain within their lungs anything like 100 
 cubic inches — the eighteenth of an ounce. When, 
 therefore. Dr. MacDougall tells us that more than 
 a whole ounce is lost instantaneously, at the mo- 
 ment of death, we must seek elsewhere than in this 
 direction for the explanation of the facts. 
 
 " First of all : May it not be that there are some 
 etheric or electrical conditions of the body which 
 are no longer present after death, ceasing at that 
 moment, yet in no way connected with any form of 
 thought or consciousness? It does not seem to 
 have occurred to Dr. MacDougall that, coincident 
 with life, there may be present certain electric or 
 other activities of the body, which cease at the mo- 
 ment of death, but are in no sense caused of the 
 thought and consciousness, that are also coinci- 
 dental with life in the body. Both conditions may, 
 be present in a living body, though one may not be 
 causal of the other in any degree. Both are merely 
 coincidental. It is quite possible — not to say 
 probable — that consciousness acts on some sort 
 of etheric medium, which in turn acts upon the 
 nervous mechanism, and that, at death, conscious- 
 ness (itself spaceless and weightless) withdraws at 
 once from the organism, while the etheric medium 
 withdraws more or less gradually, according to the 
 condition of the organism at the time — this, in 
 
304 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 turn, determined by the duration and the severity 
 of the attendant disease. In some cases, such as 
 consumption, where we might almost say the body 
 has died before it dies, we might assume that this 
 etheric medium would leave the body rapidly and 
 be noticed immediately, while in other diseases this 
 withdrawal would be much slower, and would not be 
 registered by the balance until some considerable 
 time after the death, and in such cases would have 
 no evidential value, since (like apparitions of the 
 dead, as opposed to apparitions of the living) 
 there would be no coincidence to form the striking 
 event. Such a withdrawal would account for the 
 facts, perhaps, without resorting to the supposition 
 that consciousness was in any way that which 
 caused the loss of weight indicated by the balance. 
 " However, all the above speculations are purely 
 hypothetical, of course, and would have no weight 
 with the materialist — who does not accept either 
 consciousness as an entity, or the hypothetical 
 etheric medium I have postulated. He has, how- 
 ever, to explain the facts, which seem to be pretty 
 well established. Is it possible to form some sort 
 of explanation without even resorting to the ' bio- 
 logical metaphysics ' in which I have just in- 
 dulged? Some experiments I have made, and some 
 observations of certain cases, cause me to think that 
 these losses and gains of weight might, perhaps. 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL 305 
 
 be accounted for in other ways. I present some 
 facts for the reader's consideration. 
 
 " I have been enabled to watch the progress of a 
 number of cases of patients who have had their 
 health restored to them by means of the Fasting 
 Cure ; i, e., the process of abstaining entirely from 
 aU solid and liquid food for a number of days 
 — thirty, forty, fifty, and longer — with the al- 
 most uniform result that health has been restored 
 to these persons, though they had previously been 
 given up to die by the physician in charge of the 
 case. I have embodied the results of these obser- 
 vations in my book. Vitality, Fasting and Nutri- 
 tion. One chapter — the one that concerns us 
 here — is devoted to ' The Loss and the Gain in 
 Weight.' I found that, by comparing a num- 
 ber of cases suffering from a number of different 
 diseases (or, as I hold, different aspects of the 
 same underlying cause), an average loss of weight 
 was noticed which I calculated was as nearly as 
 possible one pound per diem. We might assume, 
 therefore, it would seem, that sixteen ounces was the 
 ' ideal ' loss of weight, so to speak, were it not 
 for the fact that all the persons undergoing the 
 fast were more or less diseased, and I had pre- 
 viously shown that all diseased persons (as a rule) 
 lose more weight than the same persons in health. 
 After some further discussion, I was forced to the 
 
306 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 conclusion that twelve ounces represented the aver- 
 age daily loss of weight of persons in health, or 
 one-half an ounce each hour. This would seem 
 to coincide to some extent with the results of Dr. 
 MacDougall, conducted on other lines for different 
 reasons. But all this and other discussion does not 
 concern us so much here, for the reason that all 
 such losses and gains in weight are intelligible and 
 can be explained by the known laws of physiology. 
 The interesting point, in this connection, is this: 
 I noted that, on several occasions, losses and gains 
 of weight were noted that could not so readily be 
 accounted for — and losses and gains not of 
 ounces, merely, but of pounds. Let me give some 
 illustrations. There was held, at the Madison 
 Square Garden, New York, an athletic contest, 
 all the participants in the contest having to enter 
 upon it after having fasted, absolutely, for seven 
 days. The object was to show that we do not lose 
 strength while fasting in the way that most per- 
 sons think we do, and so successful was the demon- 
 stration that several of the contestants actually 
 made world's records at that time. However, this 
 is not the place to call attention to those facts. 
 What I wish to say, particularly, is that, during 
 this week, one of the contestants, a Mr. Estrapper, 
 ' instead of losing weight, actually gamed three- 
 quarters of a pound! . . . This weight was 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL 307 
 
 very accurately ascertained, and there was no pos- 
 sible source of error through which a mistake could 
 have been made. . . . The measurements and 
 weights were taken with the greatest care, and the 
 contestants were under the strictest surveillance 
 throughout the whole period, and were frequently 
 observed and examined by New York physicians 
 and others.' Mrs. Martin, of Stapleton, S. I., 
 gained weight during a fast of eight days. Dr. 
 RabagUati has recorded one case in which the pa- 
 tient gained one and one-half pounds in three 
 weeks, on a diet of less than eight ounces of food a 
 day, ninety per cent, of which was water. "^ I my- 
 self have observed several cases almost or quite as 
 remarkable. Mrs. B. (after a four days' fast) 
 gained eight pounds on three meals and one plate 
 of soup. Each of the three meals was very light, 
 and certainly did not weigh anything like a pound 
 each. Mrs. C. again (after a twenty-eight days' 
 fast) gained ten pounds in six days, on no solid 
 food whatever — hquid food only being allowed 
 during this period. The food consisted in broths 
 and fruit juices, and a very little milk. Dr. T. L. 
 Nichols has recorded a case in which a patient of 
 his gained weight on less than three ounces of solid 
 food each day." * 
 
 1 Air, Food and Exercites, pp. 204^5. 
 
 2 The Diet Cure, p. 20. 
 
308 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 Here, then, we have certain cases in which weight 
 is gained by some means, through some channel, 
 other than that recognised by physiologists — at 
 least, so it would appear. The fact that certain 
 persons gained more weight than the food they ate 
 certainly seems a physiological paradox, for the 
 reason that we are supposed to increase our flesh 
 and weight solely from the food we eat. And if 
 more weight is gained than the food eaten, how are 
 we to account for the facts? In such cases, are 
 we to attribute the gain in weight to added soul 
 substance? We might be tempted to do this, yet a 
 long study of these cases has convinced me that such 
 a course would not be necessary. It is possible to 
 have some sort of hypothetical explanation of the 
 facts — paradoxical as they may seem — on other, 
 normal grounds. In some cases great denseness of 
 tissue is present — it is obstipated, as it is called — > 
 and when such a person fasts, he or she oxidizes off 
 a part of this too-solid tissue and fills in the inter- 
 stices with water, which the patient is at liberty to 
 drink, always, during the fast. This is, at least, 
 the explanation which I have been driven to adopt, 
 none other seemingly covering the facts. 
 
 There are also cases in which an extraordinary 
 loss of weight has been noticed. I have known of 
 one case in which the patient lost forty pounds in 
 three weeks, while fasting three days at a time, and 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL 309 
 
 eating one meal on the fourth. More remarkable 
 still is another case in which the patient lost 
 seventy-five pounds in twenty-one days of an ab- 
 solute fast — an average of almost three and one- 
 half pounds per diem. Still,, these cases might per- 
 haps be accounted for, since the patients were both 
 very stout women, and, in all such cases, weight is 
 very rapidly lost. Still, how are cases to be ex- 
 plained in which great loss of weight is noted 
 through purely mental trouble, though the per- 
 son may have, throughout this period, all the food 
 he cares to eat; and loses weight, moreover, at 9. 
 greater rate than if he ate nothing at all? Prob- 
 ably the most remarkable case of this kind — one 
 that cannot be explained by any of the ordinary 
 laws of physiology — is that recorded by Rear- 
 Admiral Greorge W. Melville, U. S. N., and pub" 
 lished in his Report to the Smithsonian Institute. 
 The passage runs as follows : 
 
 " It is on record that one individual in a New 
 England town several months ago actually entered 
 a metallic burial casket and was sealed up for a 
 period of one hour. He simply demanded that the 
 glass plate over the head-piece be not covered, and 
 that the individuals conducting the test should look 
 through the head-plate at intervals, so that he 
 could smile at them. It was rather a ghastly test, 
 but it was a successful one, although the individual 
 
810 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 undergoing the operation lost five pounds in the 
 undertaking! In this test the man did not prob- 
 ably have two cubic feet of air to draw upon.^ 
 Here, then, we have a loss of weight that, if re- 
 corded correctly, cannot be explained by known 
 laws of physiology, since the person undergoing 
 the test took no bodily exertion, and the loss can- 
 not be due to any of the known channels of loss. 
 Would such a test indicate that soul substance had 
 been lost? Evidently not, since the man continued 
 to live. In such a case, then, we have a decrease 
 in weight that cannot be explained by present-day 
 physiology ; and, until such cases are in some meas- 
 ure accounted for, it is at least premature to assert 
 or even propose that an observed loss of weight, at 
 the moment of death, is due to any soul substance, 
 or that it has any necessary connection with soul 
 or consciousness at all. While, then, I think that 
 Dr. MacDougall has certainly made some most in- 
 teresting and important discoveries, and that 
 further experiment along these lines is greatly to 
 be desired, we cannot hold out much hope that we 
 shall, by such means, ever demonstrate that the 
 human soul weighs an ounce, even though the 
 reality of the losses be proved. The conditions at- 
 tendant upon death are so little known, and the hu- 
 man organism is subject to such queer variations 
 
 1 The Submarine Boat, p. 723. 
 
WEIGHING THE SOUL 311 
 
 In weight, even when alive, that many and positive 
 proofs will have to be forthcoming before his in- 
 terpretation of the facts, even though they them- 
 selves should be estabUshed, can be accepted by sci- 
 ence." 
 
 When the above criticism was published. Dr. 
 MacDougall issued a rejoinder, stating that my 
 explanations did not explain, and that the case 
 quoted by me, of the immense loss of weight when 
 shut in the coffin, could be accounted for by reason 
 of the fact that such a body would perspire pro- 
 fusely, and would in all probability lose weight in 
 that way. I think that this is quite probable, but 
 the case cannot be settled now for want of confirma- 
 tory evidence. The experiments are likely to re- 
 main in their present position of isolation and 
 uniqueness until a further series of experiments are 
 tried — which, let us hope, will be in the near fu-; 
 ture. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 HAUNTED houses: THEORIES 
 
 THERE is probably no more interesting branch 
 of psychical research, yet none about which 
 the public is more misinformed, than the subject of 
 haunted houses. Cases of ' hauntings ' have oc- 
 curred, or at least have been reported, through- 
 out the history of all ages, with probably greater 
 frequency than any other phenomena of this char- 
 acter; but though the early literature of the sub- 
 ject contains very numerous accounts of such 
 cases, the S. P. R. has been unable ever to definitely 
 bring to light more than four or five well authenti- 
 cated cases, that would stand the test of impartial 
 and exact scrutiny. Still, such cases form a 
 nucleus around which may gather those of more 
 dubious origin, and, providing these are definitely 
 proved to exist, the other cases receive more or less 
 greater impetus towards credibility, and, should 
 such cases be collected in sufficient numbers, would 
 necessitate our accepting haunted houses as more 
 or less definitely established facts of nature, 
 though as yet it must be acknowledged that this 
 certainty has not been achieved. Still, there are 
 enough well-attested cases en hand to warrant the 
 313 
 
HAUNTED HOUSES 813 
 
 average psychical researcher in accepting the fact 
 of their existence in some form or another, without 
 definitely accepting any theory as to their explan- 
 ation, and I think that any impartial mind who 
 has studied the evidence will accept the fact of the 
 haunting in some cases, at least, whatever theory 
 of the facts is held, or whatever construction may 
 be put upon the phenomena observed. 
 
 The typical " haunted house " is too well known 
 to need description ; more or less vague visions be- 
 ing seen by one or more members of the household, 
 footsteps in different parts of the house, sighs, 
 sobs, moans, and fragments of sentences being 
 heard, more or less distinctly, — and sometimes 
 even touches, and other more material evidences be- 
 ing recorded, — serving to estabHsh, apparently, 
 the objectivity of the ghost. Those of my read- 
 ers who are interested in such phenomena I would 
 refer to Mrs. Crowe's Night Side of Nature, or 
 to two modem cases, one ^ by Miss Morton, en- 
 titled " Record of a Haunted House," and one a 
 book by Miss X., entitled The Alleged Haunt- 
 ing of B House. It is not the province 
 
 of this paper to go into the alleged facts in 
 such cases, since I shall take it for granted that 
 the majority of my readers are familiar with the 
 phenomena of haunted houses, as they are gener- 
 
 1 Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. VIII, pp. 311-32. 
 
314 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 ally reported, and shall here but briefly consider 
 the various theories that have been advanced by 
 way of explanation. 
 
 Mrs. Sidgwick in her most interesting article on 
 " Phantasms of the Dead " ^ advanced, tentatively, 
 four theories in explanation of haunted houses. 
 Briefly, and in outline, they are as follows: 
 
 Theory 1. The ghost is an outstanding, ob- 
 jective entity — a real, more or less material be- 
 ing which actually exists in the material world, and 
 exists whether perceived by a seer or not. That is, 
 a ghost is a separate entity, and exists whether or 
 not the seer is present to perceive it. This, of 
 course, is the commonly accepted theory and the 
 one the public conceives as the true explanation of 
 all cases of so-called haunted houses, involving a 
 more or less material being — a ' materialised soul,' 
 so to speak. To this theory there are, of course, 
 various objections. In the first place, it is taken 
 for granted that there is such a thing as a soul to 
 exist, which is precisely what "we set out to prove 
 in investigating all such cases, and to accept it as 
 already proved is a monstrous assumption. An- 
 other objection is that, were the so-called ghost 
 really to exist independently, it would doubtless be 
 seen by two or more persons at the same time ; but 
 this is very rarely the case, even when several per- 
 
 1 Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. Ill, pp. 69-160j 
 
HAUNTED HOUSES 315 
 
 sons are together, — though this has sometimes 
 happened, — and in any case the objection is not 
 altogether valid for reasons that have been ad- 
 vanced in the last chapter. The great and most 
 crushing objection to this idea of the ghost is the 
 old argument as to the ghost's clothes. Ghosts in- 
 variably appeared clothed, and, if they are real 
 outstanding entities, their clothes must be ghostly 
 counterparts of their material raiment also, since 
 they are part and parcel of the figure and insep- 
 arable from it ! This old objection has never been 
 satisfactorily answered by the advocates of the ex- 
 ternal objectivity of apparitions, and I shall merely 
 state it and pass to the next theory advanced in 
 explanation of haunted houses. 
 
 Theory 2. This theory was, I believe, origi- 
 nated by Mr. Podmore, or at least elaborated by, 
 him, and he is its staunchest defender. The the- 
 ory in brief is this: that one occupant of the 
 house has experienced a subjective hallucination, 
 visual or other, consequent upon the abnormal 
 mental condition of the percipient, or person see- 
 ing the ghost, which mental condition may have 
 been engendered by purely material causes being 
 misinterpreted — such as the dropping of water, 
 perceived as footfalls, etc. — or have a purely sub- 
 jective origin in the morbid imagination of the 
 seer. Having once conjured up this imaginary 
 
316 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 figure, which would, in this case, it must be ob- 
 served, be nothing more than a hallucination, this 
 figure might appear again to the same percipient, 
 owing to the association of ideas, or to other mem- 
 bers of the house, the mental condition being then 
 communicated by thought-transference from the 
 original seer; and, when these occupants move and 
 others occupy the house, the thoughts of the for- 
 mer occupants might, by thought-transference, so 
 affect the minds and senses of the then inhabitants 
 as to predispose them to perceive the images for- 
 merly beheld by the occupants first perceiving 
 them! 
 
 The objections to this theory are also, of course, 
 many. In the first place, we should have to assume 
 (and this is a monstrous assumption) that the 
 mind of the prst seer was in some manner morbidly 
 affected before he saw the ghost in the first in- 
 stance, and of this, in many cases, we have abso- 
 lutely no proof. And further, we should have to 
 assume (and this is again a monstrous assumption) 
 that this person could, all unconsciously, affect the 
 minds of the following tenants, by telepathy, to 
 such an extent as to predispose their minds to be- 
 hold the same apparitions. And why should the 
 two series of apparitions agree in appearance, as 
 they apparently do.? As Mr. Andrew Lang has 
 
HAUNTED HOUSES 317 
 
 so humorously remarked : ^ " Surely the peace of 
 us all rests on a very uncertain tenure ! " 
 
 Theory 3. This theory assumes that there is, 
 in the house, some " subtle physical influence," 
 abiding either in the walls, in the atmosphere, or in 
 some article of furniture in the house, which is 
 capable of affecting, in turn, each tenant, caus- 
 ing them to be affected, to a certain extent, in some- 
 what the same manner. The ' atmosphere ' spoken 
 of is, of course, psychic, not physical ; and I think 
 tliere is a great deal to be said in favour of this 
 theory, and that not enough consideration has 
 been given to it in the records of psychical re- 
 search. That persons do carry with them their 
 own individual ' aura ' or atmosphere, there can be 
 no doubt ; and though it is, of course, quite intangi- 
 ble, it is nevertheless distinctly felt by those psy- 
 chics attuned to receive and appreciate such influ- 
 ences. The spontaneous aversion of two persons 
 one to the other, or the case of " love at first sight " 
 might, it has been pointed out, be explained upon 
 this theory of the mutual blending or repulsion of 
 the psychic aura of the individuals. And that this 
 extends to the so-called inanimate world, to a lesser 
 extent, is, it seems to me, undoubtedly true. Cer- 
 tain subjects can collect and retain such impres- 
 
 1 Cock Lane and Common Sense, p. 149. 
 
318 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 sions, and be capable of arousing in the sensitive 
 the same impressions as those with which they are 
 charged, when handled again by such psychics ; and 
 of this fact we have constant proof in the phenom- 
 ena of psychometry and trance-mediumship — for 
 example, the case of Mrs. Piper. As Miss X so 
 well remarked,* " A house might perhaps be de- 
 scribed as being in a ' haunted atmosphere.' This 
 question of atmosphere is so exceedingly subjec- 
 tive that the sensation is difficult to analyse. It 
 is one of which all ' sensitives ' are conscious, 
 both as to places and persons, and I am inclined to 
 think that in both cases the emotion is telepathic. 
 Most of us know, in some degree, the overwhelming 
 sensation of the presence of Westminster Abbey, 
 or whether we chance to be very loyal or no on 
 hearing ' God Save the Queen ' sung by a thous- 
 and voices, or the sight of a lifeboat, or a relic 
 ef Prince Charlie, or a warhorse that has been in 
 action, or the colours used at Waterloo or Bala- 
 klava, or of the mast of the Victory. We may dis- 
 miss the emotion as simply ' cosmic,' but I venture 
 to think that we are, some of us, overwhelmed be- 
 cause we are for the moment the subject of the 
 emotions of others as well as of our own." 
 
 And in other, subtler ways we feel such impres- 
 
 ^ Essays in Psychical Research, pp. 41-3. 
 
HAUNTED HOUSES 819 
 
 sions. I have myself, for instance, when entering 
 a certain room, found myself humming an air, all 
 unconsciously, which I had been humming in that 
 same room on the last two or three occasions in 
 which I had been in it, and at no other times; 
 that is, the atmosphere of the room had, appar- 
 ently, in some way influenced my unconscious mind 
 to the extent of associating with it, and with it 
 only, that particular tune. And it seems to me 
 that this same influence might extend to a greater 
 degree, and in a more forcible manner, in arous- 
 ing, in our subliminal consciousness, thoughts and 
 associations of a more subtle, psychic character, 
 which might tend to externalise themselves, when- 
 ever in that room, in phantasms — visual, auditory 
 or tactile. 
 
 The objections to this theory are, of course, al- 
 most too apparent to be pointed out, and I shall 
 not dwell upon them here. That an influence of 
 this character must involve more or less mentality 
 or consciousness is obvious ; and if mentality is in- 
 volved, then this mentality is either that of some 
 all-pervading consciousness, or of some individual 
 either known or unknown to the beholder; and if 
 the latter is the case, it involves a consideration of 
 the fourth theory, which I outline herewith. 
 
 Theory 4. Mr. Myers, in his article on " Rec- 
 
320 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 ognised Apparitions Occurring More Than a 
 Year After Death," ^ has so beautifully stated this 
 theory that it would be impossible for me to do 
 better than quote herewith ; but owing to the length 
 at which the theory was there elaborated, it is im- 
 possible for me to do so at sufficient length to jus- 
 tify quotation, and I shall consequently give a 
 brief resume of his theory. 
 
 Mr. Myers, then, started with the admitted fact 
 of telepathy, or thought-transference between the 
 living. He endeavoured to show that its action was 
 that of soul to soul; that is, that it was an imma- 
 terial, non-physical thing, and belonged solely to 
 the immaterial, psychic or spiritual world. Conse- 
 quently, he argued, telepathy was, in all probabil- 
 ity, the mode of communication between soul and 
 soul when disembodied, — that is, spirits thus com- 
 mune with one another; and this agrees with the 
 statements made by ' spirits ' who have, according 
 to their own account, returned to tell us of the con- 
 ditions ' on the other side.' From this Mr. Myers 
 goes on to argue that it is more than probable that 
 it is the mode of communication between spirits 
 either embodied or disembodied, and that one may 
 be embodied — that is, alive, — and the other may 
 be disembodied — that is, dead — and yet telepathy 
 be the means of communication between them. Now 
 
 1 Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. VI, pp. 13-65. 
 
HAUNTED HOUSES 321 
 
 if this be true, telepathy is the means by which the 
 spirit communicates or sends messages or impres- 
 sions to those stUl in the flesh, and this impression 
 may be in the form of a message, warning, intui- 
 tion or ' internal voice,' or in the more externalised 
 forms of the vision, the voice, or the touch. They 
 all originate from the same source, the diflferences 
 being in us — in our mode of apprehension — and 
 in the manner in which the message is externalised 
 by us, or rendered capable of perception by our or- 
 dinary consciousness. Thus we see that the spirit 
 of the departed person (supposing it exists and re- 
 tains its personal identity) may impress the sub- 
 liminal consciousness of one still living with an 
 imprint or impress of its individuality; and this 
 thought may take form or become externalised as 
 a visionary image or figure, constituting what is 
 popularly known as a " ghost." It will thus be 
 seen that haunted houses may really exist in so 
 far as they actually do affect the persons residing 
 in them, and that figures really are seen and voices 
 heard, though they do not themselves have an ex- 
 ternal or actual existence. They really exist so far 
 as the mind of the seer goes, and it is not right to 
 say that they have no existence at all, since they 
 are mental states as truly as any other mental 
 states, and all that we know of the external world 
 is, after all, but a series of mental states or condi- 
 
THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 tions. It is true there is no corresponding physical 
 .counterpart to the apparition or figure seen, and 
 that the figure exists purely in the mind of the 
 person seeing it, but the origin of such figure has a 
 real external existence — in the mind of a deceased 
 person ; and to say that haunted houses do not ex- 
 ist is, therefore, obviously incorrect. It is only 
 correct if we think of haunted houses in the popu- 
 lar sense of the term, — ■ that is, as houses in which 
 appear more or less material, externalised figures 
 wrapped in sheets and parading about in more or 
 less material form. Such, of course, is a crude 
 materialistic conception, which cannot be enter- 
 tained; but that real influences are at work in cer- 
 tain houses, affecting the minds, senses and the 
 subliminal consciousness of those residing within 
 them is beyond question, and to deny it is to deny 
 well-recorded facts, which would be a most unwar- 
 ranted proceeding. 
 
 Provisionally accepting, then, this last explana- 
 tion as the true one, so far as it goes (or at least 
 in combination with one or other of the three for- 
 mer theories, elaborated above), let us now con- 
 sider one or two of the complex problems into which 
 we are led in accepting this theory as the true one. 
 
 There are some cases on record where the inhab- 
 itant of a haunted house has been (apparently) 
 prevented by some unseen but supposedly physical 
 
HAUNTED HOUSES 823 
 
 force from accomplishing some act or purpose — 
 such, for example, as reaching forth the hand and 
 obtaining possession of the matches, etc. In such 
 cases, the individual so attempting to reach forth 
 his hand has had it grasped or restrained by some 
 unseen hand or force, so much stronger than the 
 seer's vohtion that he has been unable to reach 
 them. That, at least, is what the sensation expe- 
 rienced is like. This is one very interesting phe- 
 nomenon that has been frequently recorded by 
 visitors to haunted houses, and I think the ex- 
 planation of such occurrences can now be found, 
 though I have never seen the explanation I bring 
 forward elsewhere. Its rationality must be judged 
 by the reader. I merely offer it as a provisional 
 theory, which explains the facts without undue 
 straining of the intelligent person's powers of 
 credulity. 
 
 As previously stated, cases of this character are 
 more or less abundant, and are to be found scat- 
 tered throughout psychic literature. William T. 
 Stead mentions a case of this sort in his Real Ghost 
 Stories. But, to illustrate my point, and at the 
 same time to render the story credible, I quote a 
 case observed by a trained psychical researcher, a 
 lady known to all readers of psychic literature, 
 an acute observer, and possessing an analytical and 
 scientific mind, as all who have read the lady's book 
 
'324 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 will testify — I refer to Miss Goodrich-Freer, or 
 " Miss X," ^ Miss X. was sleeping, on the night 
 in question, in historic Hampton Court, and had 
 gone peacefully to sleep, after reading an article 
 in the National Review (on " Shall we Degrade 
 our Standard of Value?"). The account goes on: 
 
 " Nearly three hours later I was suddenly 
 awakened from dreamless slumber by the sound of 
 the opening of a door against which some heavy 
 piece of furniture was standing, in, as it seemed, 
 the empty room to my right. I remembered the 
 cat [previously mentioned] and tried to conceive 
 by what kind of ' rampaging ' she could contrive 
 to be so noisy. A minute later there followed a 
 ' thud,' apparently on this side of the folding- 
 doors, and too heavy for even the prize animals of 
 my home circle, not to speak of a mongrel stray, 
 newly adopted and not yet doing credit to her keep. 
 ' A dress fallen in the wardrobe ' was my next 
 thought, and I stretched out my hand for the 
 match-box, as a preliminary to inquiry. 
 
 " I did not reach the matches. It seemed to me 
 that a detaining hand was laid on mine? I with- 
 drew it quickly and gazed around into the darkness. 
 Some minutes passed in blackness and silence. I 
 
 1 1 quote the following narrative from her Essays in 
 Psychical Research, p. 33. 
 2 The italics are mine. — H. C. 
 
HAUNTED HOUSES 325 
 
 had the sensation of a ' presence ' in the room, and 
 finally, mindful of the tradition that a ghost should 
 be spoken to, I said gently, 'Is anyone there?' 
 " There was no answer — no sound of any kind ; 
 and, returning to the theory of the cat and the 
 fallen dress, though nevertheless so far influenced 
 by the recollection of those detaining fingers as 
 not to attempt to strike a light, I rose and walked 
 around my bed, keeping the right hand on the edge 
 of my bedstead, while, with my left arm extended, 
 I swept the surrounding space. As the room is 
 small, I thus fairly well satisfied myself that it con- 
 tained nothing unusual." 
 
 Miss X. then goes on to relate that, having as- 
 sured herself that the room contained ' nothing 
 unusual,' she prepared herself to go to sleep again, 
 when " a soft light " began to glow in the dark- 
 ness. This gradually increased in brightness and 
 extent until a tall, slight woman stood before her, 
 who passed through the room slowly, finally rais- 
 ing her hands to her face in the attitude of prayer, 
 " when quite suddenly the light went out, and I was 
 alone in the darkness." 
 
 " I felt that the scene was ended, the curtain 
 down, and had no hesitation in lighting the candle 
 at my side" (p. 84). 
 
 Now, there are several interesting points in the 
 
326 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 above narrative. Miss X. knew, of course, that 
 Hampton Court has the reputation of being a 
 " haunted house," but that would not in any way 
 affect an investigator of her sane and sceptical turn 
 of mind. It must be remembered that Miss X. 
 
 spent several weeks in ' B House ' for 
 
 the express purposes of studying the phenomena 
 there, on behalf of the Society for Psychical Re- 
 search, and anyone who reads her book will recog- 
 nise that she is a calm, cool, clear-headed witness, 
 who regards the phenomena observed as scien- 
 tific facts, calling for careful, exact observation. 
 But let us suppose that the figure now seen was 
 nothing but the result of expectancy and sugges- 
 tion ; that the figure was no more than a hallucina- 
 tion. I am willing to admit all that, for the mo- 
 ment. The point to which I wish to call particular 
 attention, in the above narrative, is the fact that 
 the fingers were apparently detained by some un- 
 seen hand, and that, when the figure had vanished, 
 and the " haunt " ended, the seer experienced no 
 difficulty In reaching the matches and lighting one. 
 This most interesting phenomenon has been re- 
 corded in several stories of haunted houses, and is 
 one well worthy of our careful consideration.* 
 
 1 Bulwer makes use of this idea in his Haunters and th» 
 Haunted, but the phenomenon has been observed carefully 
 several times, within the past few years. 
 
HAUNTED HOUSES 827 
 
 The first crude theory that an actual disembodied 
 spirit is present, and places his detaining fingers 
 on the seer's hand, will hardly receive a hearing 
 from the scientific world, even that part of the 
 scientific world which accepts telepathy and even 
 spirit-communication as realities. We must, ac- 
 cordingly, find some theory or explanation which 
 wiU render the facts intelligible, and at the same 
 time not strain too far our ideas or beliefs in the 
 matter. In short, we must seek some theory that 
 will explain the facts in the case, and at the same 
 time depart as little as possible from the " known," 
 i. e., the facts and theories that are already ac- 
 cepted by all psychical researchers. 
 
 In order to do so, it will be necessary for us to 
 ' go back,' for a few moments, and consider the 
 phenomena of hypnotism — the reason for this 
 will appear as we proceed. 
 
 One of the most common experiments performed 
 in hypnotic exhibitions is the inhibition of the sub^ 
 ject's will in some certain line, — the preventing of 
 the subject from saying some word or accomplish- 
 ing some act he had it in mind to do. In such 
 cases, the operator or hypnotist suggests to his 
 subject that he cannot possibly perform some cer- 
 tain act requiring volition (such as stepping over 
 a crack in the board floor, for example), and the 
 subject finds himself utterly unable to do so. Here 
 
828 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 we have a case of direct inhibition of voluntary 
 movement by hypnotic suggestion. The com- 
 mand is, however, spoken by the hypnotist, and the 
 subject hears with his ears in the normal way. 
 
 Now, we know that telepathy is a fact in nature 
 — at least, most psychical researchers believe it to 
 be a fact. We know that thoughts and commands 
 can be carried by this process from one mind to 
 another, by other means than through the five 
 senses. Such being the case, it is only natural to 
 suppose that there might be such a thing as 
 telepathic hypnotism in the world — i. e., hypnosis 
 induced by telepathic means instead of by the 
 spoken word. With these thoughts in mind, a 
 number of experiments were tried in France,^ and 
 with entire success. The subject was sent to sleep 
 by the operator when he was at a distance, the 
 time at which the subject fell into trance corre- 
 sponding to the time the ' willing ' was in progress 
 at the operator's end. There could be no decep- 
 tion in these experiments, since the subject did not 
 know when they were to be tried; and she was 
 certainly not in collusion with the operators, who 
 were none others than Prof. Pierre Janet, Mr. F. 
 W. H. Myers, and Mr., Gurney. The experi- 
 ments must therefore be considered conclusive so 
 far as they go, and seem to establish telepathic 
 
 1 Recorded in Proceedings S. P. R., VoL IV, pp. 127-88. 
 
HAUNTED HOUSES 329 
 
 hypnotism as a fact in nature, whether understood 
 and explained or not. 
 
 Now, if all this is so, it seems highly probable 
 that the dead (granting that they exist at all) 
 might also exert some telepathic influence on the 
 minds of the living, as suggested above, and this 
 influence, inasmuch as it is operative at aU, is prac- 
 tically hypnotic in character, since it afi^ects the 
 minds of the living, causing them to see and do 
 things they would not see and do otherwise. If the 
 telepathic suggestion from the dead is that the 
 subject perform a certain action, he does so, with- 
 out knowing the cause of this silent prompting or 
 command. If, on the other hand, the suggestion 
 from the mind of the dead person is to the effect 
 that a certain action be not performed, then the 
 subject is unable to perform that action, without 
 his being aware of the cause of his inability to 
 perform it. In short, just as the subject, in the 
 hypnotic exhibition, is rendered incapable of per- 
 forming some act of volition because of the opera- 
 tor's suggestion, so, I suggest, may the hand of the 
 ' seer ' or subject, in such cases as that quoted 
 above, be rendered unable to reach the matches, or 
 perform some other similar act of volition, — he is 
 prevented from doing so by the telepathic sugges- 
 tion from the mind of the dead operator. In such 
 cases as the above, in short, the hand is restrained. 
 
330 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 not by the fingers of some external phantom, but 
 by a species of post-mortem telepathic hypnotism, 
 which inhibits the action, just as the action would 
 be inhibited by a spoken or telepathic suggestion 
 from the living. 
 
 I offer the above theory, believing that it con- 
 tains at least a grain of truth, though I have never 
 seen it worked out in detail before and used as an 
 explanation of the recorded phenomena. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 HAUNTED HOUSES AND THEIB, CURE 
 
 GRANTING that houses surnamed « haunted " 
 exist, it becomes a legitimate part of any in- 
 terested man's duty to investigate the causes of 
 such haunting — to ascertain, so far as possible, 
 what the nature of the influence about the house 
 may be, and if disagreeable to remove it, or at 
 least attempt to do so. That these influences are 
 at times malign and evil cannot be doubted by any- 
 one who has examined the mass of evidence that 
 exists upon this subject; and it is true that many 
 persons inhabiting haunted houses would give 
 much to be relieved from the influence that hovers 
 about them, and in no wise encourage or like the 
 ghostly visitations of which they are the recipients. 
 It would be unnecessary to adduce any great show- 
 ing of proof upon this point, since it may be said 
 to apply to aU inhabitants of haunted houses, 
 except those few individuals who may be residing in 
 the house, temporarily or permanently, in order 
 to study the phenomena for scientific purposes. 
 It is true that many of these cases turn out to be 
 due, not to supernormal action or influence at all, 
 but to trickery, hallucination, or other purely 
 
832 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 natural causes ; but there are cases on record, be- 
 yond a doubt, in which some influence of a psy- 
 chical sort exists in and about the house; and it is 
 almost certain that this influence is at times evil 
 and malevolent. 
 
 One need but call to mind such a case as The 
 Great Amherst Mystery (in which fires were 
 lighted in various parts of the house, the medium 
 was cut and stuck full of pins, etc.), or — if the 
 physical manifestations arouse incredulity — such 
 a case as that studied by Miss X. and the Marquis 
 of Bute, where, after some weeks' stay in the 
 house, Miss X. was forced to write : " The gen- 
 eral tone of things is disquieting. Hitherto, in 
 our first occupation, the phenomena affected one 
 as melancholy, depressing, and perplexing, but 
 now all, quite independently, say the. same thing — 
 that the influence is evil and horrible — even poor 
 little Spooks [dog] was never terrified before as 
 she has been since our return here. The worn 
 faces at breakfast are really a dismal sight." ^ 
 The nature of these influences so impressed the Hon. 
 John Harris that he imagined a band of hypnotists 
 were attempting to influence the inmates of the 
 house by hypnotic telepathic suggestion ! ^ 
 
 1 The Alleged Haunting of B House, p. 210. 
 
 2 See Inferences from JSaumted Houses and Haunted 
 Men. 
 
CURE FOR HAUNTED HOUSES 
 
 In many other cases, also, the influence im- 
 presses the owners of the house in the same manner ; 
 and in nearly every instance would the owner be 
 glad to rid the house of its ghostly occupants. 
 This being the case, the question arises: How 
 may we so rid it? Are there any forces and laws 
 we may put into operation that would drive the 
 haunting intelligences from their home? Can we 
 devise any apparatus or any plan that would be 
 instrumental in driving the influences from the 
 house in question, leaving it free for its fleshly 
 occupants? If so, such a knowledge would be in- 
 valuable to the resident of the house, and the plan 
 might at all events be tried — perhaps with com- 
 plete success. 
 
 At all events, I propose to lay before the reader 
 some theories and ideas that I have recently formu- 
 lated in my own mind, and, wrong and crude as 
 they may be, they may yet, nevertheless, be of 
 some assistance to persons dwelling in houses of 
 the kind under discussion who feel that they are as 
 impotent to cope with the forces and influences 
 into which they are thrown as is the diver who feels 
 about his body the supple arm of the giant octopus. 
 
 First, what is the nature of these influences? 
 My subsequent account will have a tendency to set- 
 tle this point. There are, roughly speaking, four 
 theories. (1) Telepathic influences from the liv- 
 
SM THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 ing; (2) telepathic influences from the dead; (3) 
 some physical influence or " aura " that exists in 
 and about the house, affecting the minds of those 
 who dwell in it; (4) spirits as entities. It is need- 
 less to say that the fourth of these is by far the 
 simplest, and the one which covers and explains all 
 the facts in the most rational and comprehensive 
 manner, if spirits, as such, are ever proved to 
 exist. Although there are certain arguments in 
 favour of all the other theories mentioned, I shall 
 adopt the last-named, for the present purposes, and 
 try it as a working hypothesis.^ It is true that 
 there is much to be said against this view of the 
 matter and in favour of the other theories — that 
 I do not deny ; indeed there are certain facts going 
 to show that a simple suggestion, if properly de- 
 livered, will rid the house once and for all from in- 
 fluences of the sort mentioned above. Aside from 
 regular exorcisms, incantations, sprinkling with 
 holy water, etc., which may be considered 
 " bread pills," and so suggestions, for all prac- 
 tical purposes, there are such cases as the follow- 
 ing, given by Miss X. in her Essays m Psychical 
 Research. The passage seems to me to be one of 
 the most interesting and suggestive ever penned. 
 
 iThis does not conflict with the theory advanced in the 
 last chapter, as will presently appear. For our present dis- 
 cussion, theories (2) and (4) may be merged into one. 
 
CURE FOR HAUNTED HOUSES 335 
 
 After describing a haunted house of the typical 
 sort, the vain efforts to get rid of the ghost, etc., 
 Miss X. goes on to say : 
 
 " Not satisfied with his preliminary researches, 
 he [the investigator] next morning invited his 
 hostess to conduct him once more over the house, 
 already explored from cellar to attic. He had not 
 gone into detail as to the box-room and its con- 
 tents, and Mrs. Z.'s travelling boxes, the chest con- 
 taining, let us suppose, the summer clothes and the 
 muslin curtains, the deck chairs for the garden, 
 the extra mats and blankets were all simple enough. 
 The house was new, and there was not the accu- 
 mulation of rickety tables, chairs without casters, 
 jugs without handles — the melancholy record of 
 time and of housemaids. 
 
 " But one piece of spare furniture stood sug- 
 gestively in the corner of its adoption, a wooden 
 bedstead, an ugly unsanitary anachronism, a splen- 
 did text for a suggestion. Its origin was obscure, 
 vague, easily represented as mysterious. 
 
 " ' Clear out this room,' prescribed the special- 
 ist, ' clean it, whitewash it, put back all else, if you 
 will, but hum that bedstead! ' 
 
 " It may have been a fetish, a poimt de repire of 
 evil, filled with the germs of thought-transference, 
 the microbe misnamed ' psychometric,' the bacilli 
 
336 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 of astral and elemental forms; or the order may 
 have been merely a suggestion, a bread pill; but 
 when the bedstead was burnt, that ghost was 
 laid." 
 
 In a case such as the above, there can be no ques- 
 tion that the cure was brought about merely by 
 suggestion. But there would appear to be numer- 
 ous other cases that cannot be thus explained away 
 — cases, in fact, in which the ghost refused to de- 
 part because of any such measures, but clung to 
 the house with grim tenacity, and ultimately drove 
 the earthly tenants from the doors! This can 
 hardly be ascribed to suggestion, nor, it seems to 
 me, to any thought-transference theory, and would 
 seem to indicate that some force or influence is 
 operative which is sufficiently independent of the 
 minds of those in the house to defy and over-rule 
 them. Readers of Bulwer Lj^tton's powerful story. 
 The House and the Brain, will recall the feeling 
 of intense, masterful Will that the visitant en- 
 countered; and, although this story is, of course, 
 a work of fiction, it is more or less closely paral- 
 leled by other cases of a similar type — some of 
 which are not as yet in print, but which I have had 
 the opportunity to read. Such being the case, the 
 question arises : How can we ascertain what these 
 intelligences are? and^ if discovered, how can we 
 
CURE FOR HAUNTED HOUSES 337 
 
 cope with them? These are the problems we must 
 now discuss. 
 
 I would begin by saying, once again, that I 
 shall, for the sake of argument, assume that the 
 intelligences manifesting in haunted houses are in 
 reality spirits of the departed, and use that as a 
 working hypothesis. The problem for us to solve, 
 then, is this : Can we in any way come into touch 
 with these intelligences ? and, if so, how ? 
 
 Students of psychic matters will remember that 
 efforts have been made in this direction before. 
 Thus, the clairvoyant " Jane " was directed to the 
 haunted WHlington Mill in her clairvoyant trance, 
 and described the influences about the house and 
 the spirits that were said to haunt it. These de- 
 scriptions agreed to a certain extent with the de- 
 scriptions of those who had lived or spent certain 
 nights in the haunted mill.^ Again, automatic 
 writing, crystal-gazing, seances, etc., were held in 
 the haunted B House, but nothing conclu- 
 sive was arrived at. Certainly the investiga- 
 tors were on the " right track " in that case, how- 
 ever. Just such experiments may be expected to 
 throw a flood of light on cases of this kind, es- 
 pecially in view of the fact that automatic writing, 
 
 1 For details of this, see Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. VII, 
 pp. S4, 82-4, 86, 87, and Journal S. P. R., Vol. V, pp. 331- 
 63. 
 
338 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 etc., is occasional! J obtained, and only obtained, 
 in certain so-called haunted houses, as I happen to 
 know. This is a most significant fact, and one 
 well worthy of further inquiry and investigation. 
 I now come to my theory of the manner for clear- 
 ing haunted houses of the influences that are sup- 
 posed to remain within them. Certain it is that 
 the influences, whatever they are, cannot be dealt 
 with upon material lines. The man who goes to a 
 haunted house with a watch-dog and a loaded re- 
 volver is not the sort of investigator who is likely 
 to reveal much of interest to science ! No ; the in- 
 telligences or influences must be dealt with upon 
 psychical lines; they must be, so to speak, beaten 
 at their own game. Methods such as crystal- 
 gazing, automatic writing, etc., are very useful as 
 indicating what the influences are in any certain 
 house ; they are " methods of diagnosis." But 
 when we have ascertained that a certain spirit is 
 haunting a house, e. g., what are we to do to make 
 it leave that house? As before stated, material 
 agencies would be of no use; we must resort to 
 psychical influences. A medium must be employed 
 — one who has around him or her a number of 
 tried and trusted controls or " guides," in whom 
 he or she can place the strictest reliance. .With the 
 aid of such a medium, might we not, through his 
 or her controls or guides, come into contact with 
 
CURE FOR HAUNTED HOUSES 839 
 
 the intelligences invading the house in question, 
 and, through them, carry on a warfare with the 
 unruly intelligences manifesting within the house? 
 The suggestion is at least plausible, and the experi- 
 ment worth trying. Nay, more, it has been tried, 
 and with success. Some time ago, I had sent to 
 me a long letter by Georgia Gladys Cooley — a 
 medium in whom I have perfect confidence, so far 
 as honesty and reliability go, and who has had a 
 number of most remarkable experiences, the fol- 
 lowing being one of these. At my request she 
 wrote out this accoimt and sent it to me. I here- 
 with present it to my readers, feeling assured that 
 it will prove of great interest — no matter whether 
 the statements are accepted as true, or not. They 
 at least afford room for thought, and give us a 
 clue for the direction in which to look for more 
 light in the investigation of this exceedingly dark 
 and complex problem. 
 
 " Something over fifteen years ago, an expe- 
 rience of rather an extraordinary nature came my 
 way. 
 
 " In the city of Stockton, Cal., where I was lec- 
 turing at the time, a lady came to me, claiming to 
 be greatly annoyed by hearing a voice almost con- 
 stantly talking to her. The voice purported to be 
 that of her first husband, who had passed from 
 
840 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 earth several years before. At times it spoke in 
 most endearing tones, and again quite severely — 
 presuming to be interested in all her earthly affairs 
 and quite dictatorial regarding them. It spoke 
 of relatives gone on, and of many things in her 
 past life which led her to believe, at times, that it 
 might be the voice of her departed companion; at 
 other times she felt that it could not be he. 
 
 " The attendance of this queer visitor grew 
 more constant as the days passed, and became a 
 great source of annoyance, as it interfered with 
 the woman's rest — the voice often keeping up its 
 chattering the greater part of the night. The 
 lady, who knew nothing of spiritualism or the oc- 
 cult, was sorely upset. On looking into her case, 
 I found it was not imagination nor hallucination 
 on her part, as I discovered an individual in spirit 
 form hovering near her. He was low in stature, 
 crass in appearance, and had an exceedingly low 
 forehead, covered with dark and coarse looking 
 hair. Heavy, dark eyebrows, which met, added to 
 his unprepossessing appearance. There were days 
 when he would scold her for being over-liberal, and 
 perhaps the next day he would call her stingy, etc. 
 ' " I could not now relate a hundredth part of 
 what he did and said in order to annoy this good 
 woman; and, in time, a new phase of his actions 
 manifested itself. The lady felt at times a sen- 
 
CURE FOR HAUNTED HOUSES 341 
 
 sation as of someone pinching her, and soon there- 
 after a bruised spot would appear upon the flesh. 
 I must not forget to state that the description of 
 this man, as given by myself, did not tally with 
 that of the departed husband. While living, her 
 husband had always been very good and kind to 
 her. 
 
 " It was an impostor, endeavouring to pass him- 
 self off as the departed one. He was low in spir- 
 itual development, as well as in intellectual growth, 
 and seemed bent upon mischief. With the help of 
 wise and generous loved ones of the higher spheres, 
 we undertook to rid the lady of her annoying and 
 misleading visitor, but found it by no means an 
 easy task. He was cynical at first, then grew re- 
 belhous, and refused to listen to pleading or kind- 
 ness. He was hard to awaken spiritually, and it 
 was trying indeed; cunning and shrewdness were 
 fully developed, and altogether it was a sad yet 
 interesting case that lay before us, 
 
 " When he refused to listen to all kindness and 
 pleading, force was called into play. I shall state 
 immediately how this was done. I cannot go into 
 detail now, but will give the essentials of the case, 
 which is of great interest, no matter how we choose 
 to interpret it. 
 
 " Shortly after retiring one night, and having 
 had one nap, I was awakened by some strange 
 
84.2 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 vibrating force, and saw several forms in the room, 
 as though they had just passed through the door. 
 Two were leading or pulling by either arm the 
 form of the man that had become so familiar to me ; 
 and directly back of the form was a third spirit 
 known to me as Uncle Eli, who was making passes 
 over the head or back of the head of the spirit 
 that was being dragged in. They had hypnotised 
 him, and by force pulled him from the house! 
 
 " A pallet was improvised in the corner of the 
 room, and the poor, helpless fellow placed upon it. 
 I knew then that a victory had been won. I 
 watched the good friends work on him for a time, 
 and then fell asleep — to be awakened in the morn- 
 ing to see the same form quietly lying where he 
 had been placed. I was informed later in the day 
 that the lady had had her first full night's sleep in 
 three months. 
 
 " From that night on she was little disturbed — 
 the visitor returning but a few times, and upon 
 each occasion was taken away immediately. He 
 learned to dislike me very much, feeling that I was 
 in some way responsible for his losing something 
 he felt it his right to possess. He often came to 
 me with threats, trying hard to intimidate me, 
 but I was too well guarded to fear him. I felt that 
 in time he would understand that I was his friend. 
 
 " In his most furious states, he would forbid my 
 
CURE FOR HAUNTED HOUSES 343 
 
 entering the lady's house, which recalls to my 
 mind one strange and almost weird experience I 
 had in this connection. 
 
 " I had an appointment with the lady one even- 
 ing, and was on my way to her home. When 
 about two blocks from her house, I saw the Salva- 
 tion Army people holding a meeting. I felt im- 
 pelled to stop and listen to their remarks, and was 
 greatly impressed with their sincerity. When the 
 time came to pass the tambourine for offerings, a 
 familiar voice said to me, ' Drop a dollar in,' and I 
 followed the suggestion. I turned away and 
 crossed the street, when suddenly a man appeared 
 before me, put his hand to my throat, and said: 
 ' If you go to that house, I'll kill you.' Until 
 that moment I thought it was a man of flesh, but 
 instantly everything was clear to me. I drew back 
 in a most positive manner, and declared : ' / am 
 going, and you will not harm me! ' At this the 
 figure passed from sight, and I saw it no more 
 until I stepped up to the door, when he followed me 
 in, took up a position at my right, and stood there, 
 apparently listening to everything I said. He 
 made several threatening remarks, which I did not 
 heed. 
 
 " After I had been in the house a short time, I 
 was impressed to form a small circle, which con- 
 sisted of the lady in question, her husband, Mr. 
 
344 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 Cobley, and myself. To our surprise the lady was 
 influenced by someone who went through the per- 
 formance of playing a cornet; this influence lasted 
 about ten minutes. I then became very clairvoy- 
 ant, seeing many familiar spirits and a great many 
 unfamiliar ones. Benches were around the en- 
 tire room, next the wall, and all were filled with 
 (what seemed to me) real human beings — my 
 judgment leading me to believe of rather a low 
 type, as the clothing of some of the men was torn 
 almost to tatters. Their hair was dishevelled, and 
 one man had a large, ugly scar over his right 
 cheek. The annoying friend was still at my right, 
 " I was next entranced by Uncle Eli, who gave a, 
 very interesting and encouraging talk, in which he 
 told a great many things, of which I was entirely 
 ignorant — one in particular I learned of. He 
 addressed the lady I had gone to see, and stated: 
 ' Not only yourself but this house is obsessed by a 
 class of poor, unfortunate, discarnate spirits, and 
 if it were not for your law, we should advise that it 
 be burned to the ground. When you bought this 
 house, you thought you got a grea,t bargain, but 
 you got much more than you bargained for. You 
 have become sensitive and receptive to outside in- 
 fluences, and consequently are aff'ected by these 
 unseen inhabitants: but fear not, no harm shall 
 come to you, as we have bi^ught help this even- 
 
CURE FOR HAUNTED HOUSES 345 
 
 ing, and many of them will be released from their 
 imprisoned condition.' 
 
 " He then withdrew, and instantly I was con- 
 trolled by a Salvation Army girl who gave the 
 name, I believe, of Sarah or Sadie Jones. She 
 poured forth a regular Salvation Army lecture, 
 imploring the poor souls to go with her, etc., reach- 
 ing out her hands as in the act of drawing some- 
 thing over to her, encouraging them for their 
 bravery, and for an hour worked as any true 
 woman of her rank can work, sometimes gently 
 yet positively upbraiding someone for daring to 
 hold another back; finally turning to the mortals 
 and assuring them that all was well, and that those 
 who were to go with her would be on another plane, 
 with new interests and surroundings, never again 
 to return to their earth-bound state. 
 
 " She then gave the lady some advice as to the 
 care of herself and her house and withdrew, leav? 
 ing a most hallowed and beautiful influence behind 
 her. 
 
 " During the entire evening I was a silent wit- 
 ness, having seen and heard all, and seemed like a 
 second person, distinctly outside my own body, see- 
 ing it used by those who manipulated it for the 
 purpose of bringing peace and joy to others. 
 
 " I was informed by the lady that the house, 
 though large, clean, and new in appearance, had 
 
S46 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 been purchased by her and moved to its present 
 locality. It had, she said, been used as a saloon 
 for many years, before being altered and partly 
 rebuilt, which no doubt accounted for its unseen 
 inhabitants, they having been frequenters of the 
 haunt in all probability. 
 
 " Uncle Eli also informed me that it was he who 
 impressed me to stop and listen to the Salvation 
 Army, as well as advised me to help them, as it 
 drew their attention to me, and in return they had 
 aided him, as he felt that they were the only class 
 who could readily reach these poor unfortunates. 
 Thus we learned that each class of spirits has their 
 work to do, and ' in unison there is strength.' 
 
 " It was, indeed, a great experience for me, one 
 which money cannot buy, as the knowledge derived 
 therefrom has been of great value. Perhaps there 
 will be many opinions expressed as to the cause of 
 such an experience, the nature of the influence, 
 etc. — each one having his own theory, as he has 
 a right to — but I wish it remembered that, while 
 I am a psychic, I think I am a rational being, with 
 an average amount of intelligence, not given to 
 imagination, but, like the Missourian, being prac- 
 tical, I must be shown — as, indeed, I was shown. 
 " Yours for truth and progress, 
 
 " Geoegia Gladys Coolet." 
 
CURE FOR HAUNTED HOUSES 347 
 
 The above account speaks for itself, and I can- 
 not add anything to it that would be half so 
 interesting as the account itself. It may appear 
 fanciful to some of my readers, but when we are 
 in the realm of spirit who shall say where the 
 "possible" ends and the "impossible" begins? 
 All theories apart, however, my object will have 
 been attained if the above article serves to direct 
 reflection and experiment into a channel hitherto 
 all but neglected, but which is, none the less, one 
 of the most interesting in the whole province of 
 psychic research. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 PEEMONITIONS : TACTS AND THEOEIES 
 
 1 1 iHERE is always a charm and a fascination 
 ■'■ about the future that will continue to attract 
 the minds of men so long as the world shall last; 
 so long as it remains hidden from man, a mys- 
 terious and unknown region, so long wiU man en- 
 deavour to pierce it by every means in his power. 
 This desire to peer into the unknown is perfectly 
 intelligible, and is only another expression of that 
 inquiring spirit which has enabled man to know 
 as much as he does of the physical world in which 
 he lives. There is a semi-formulated idea in the 
 minds of many persons that it is in some way harm- 
 ful or wrong to endeavour to pierce the future, 
 since it is " one of God's mysteries," and hence too 
 sacred to touch or inquire into! I need hardly 
 say that it was this same spirit — the idea that it 
 was wicked to inquire too closely into the workings 
 of the universe — that hindered the growth of 
 science and all true progress, and is a perfectly 
 unreasonable attitude to take, in view of what has 
 occurred in the past. For we are endowed with 
 intellect and senses provided for the express pur- 
 pose of delving as deeply into nature as it may 
 348 
 
PREMONITIONS 349 
 
 be our good fortune to penetrate; and there is no 
 reason to suppose — nothing to indicate — that 
 any one portion of the universe (mental, spiritual, 
 or physical) should be investigated and inquired 
 into and another neglected. It may be quite im- 
 possible to see into the future, — that much may 
 be granted, for the sake of argument, — but that 
 does not affect the question of the legitimacy of 
 inquiring into it. Granted that there is here a 
 legitimate field of inquiry, therefore, let us turn 
 our attention to the facts, and see whether there is 
 any real evidence that man ever has pierced the 
 veil ; if so, to what extent ; and again, if so, how is 
 such foresight to be explained? 
 
 There are many interesting cases that might be 
 cited in this connection, all illustrative of the 
 faculty of foresight, but we must content ourselves 
 in this chapter with a few by way of illustration, 
 as it would be quite impossible to prove any such 
 thing as a faculty of this kind in a work of this 
 general character. The following case is a good 
 example of the type of spontaneous case we are apt 
 to meet with in inquiries such as ours : 
 
 " I was staying with a friend, a clergyman, in 
 South Carnarvonshire in March, 1877 I think, and 
 dreamt that I was one of a shooting party. One 
 of the party shot a woodcock. When I awoke I 
 
850 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 was impressed with a very vivid recollection of my 
 dream and its locality, which, as it appeared to me, 
 I had never seen before. 
 
 " I had no occasion to mention the dream until 
 the afternoon, when the following circumstance 
 occurred. Returning with my friend from a long 
 walk, in the neighbourhood of Madym Park, we 
 chanced to fall in with the squire's gamekeeper 
 carrying his gun on his shoulder. My friend with 
 the keeper walked on some fifty or sixty yards in 
 advance of me. 
 
 " They presently turned off the road at right 
 angles, and disappeared from my view. When I 
 came to the spot where they had left the road, I 
 saw them following a path through a dingle. 
 Though I had never been in the neighbourhood 
 before, I felt that the scene was familiar to me. 
 I stopped to collect my thoughts and reconcile the 
 inconsistency. In a moment it flashed upon me 
 that this was the scene of my last night's dream. 
 I had a strange feeling of expectation; the iden- 
 tity of the scene became every moment clearer and 
 clearer; my eyes fell upon the exact spot where 
 the woodcock of my dream had risen; I was cer- 
 tain the event of my dream would be inevitably 
 re-enacted. I felt I must speak, and there was not 
 a moment to lose. I shouted to my friend : ' Look 
 
PREMONITIONS 851 
 
 out. I dreamt I shot a woodcock here last night.' 
 My friend turned and replied, ' Did you.'' ' 
 
 " The words were hardly out of his mouth and 
 the gun oflF the keeper's shoulder (I was still in- 
 tently gazing at the very foot of ground), when 
 up gets a woodcock — the woodcock of my dream 
 — and falls to the keeper's gun — a capital snap 
 shot. We were all not a little astonished, the 
 keeper, moreover, remarking that he thought all 
 the woodcocks had left the country some weeks be- 
 fore. 
 
 " I am, sir, etc., 
 
 " Thomas Wabren Trevou." 
 
 In reply to further inquiries, Mr. Trevor stated 
 that he had never had any similar experience in his 
 life,, and that woodcocks were rare at the time the 
 dream was fulfilled. The Rev. Cannon Johnson, 
 in a letter to Mr. Trevor, corroborated the incident 
 infull.1 
 
 This case is very interesting, as, although it was 
 a dream (and so open to the old objection that in- 
 cidents of the kind occur frequently which are not 
 fulfilled), it certainly did not happen frequently to 
 this particvlar mem; in fact, he explicitly states 
 that he had never before experienced anything of 
 
 1 See Proceedmga S. P. R., Vol. V, pp. 316-17. 
 
352 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 the kind. The old and generally absurd objection 
 of ' pseudo-presentiment ' — i.e., a mere illusion 
 on the part of the percipient that he had ex- 
 perienced such-and-such an event — would not hold 
 good in this case, since the coming event was pre- 
 dicted again, just before its occurrence, and cor- 
 roborated by another witness. Assuming the truth 
 of the witnesses, it is hard to see how chance alone 
 could account for such a case as this — a sample 
 case, merely, and one much inferior, in strength 
 and detail, to many that might be cited, hun- 
 dreds and thousands of such cases of both sleeping 
 and waking premonitions existing, premonitions 
 foreshadowing all kinds of future events, and seem- 
 ing to prove conclusively that what we know as the 
 future may (under certain circumstances and con- 
 ditions of which we at present know nothing) 
 penetrate into the future and foresee scenes and 
 events that are about to. happen. This is not the 
 place to attempt any defence of this position; I 
 shall assume that it is possible and in fact occa- 
 sionally an actuality, and so shall proceed to the 
 interesting question that must be raised at this 
 point; viz.. How are we to explain such facts? 
 If it be possible to see into the future in this man- 
 ner, why not make a fortune over night in stocks? 
 In any case, what are the processes involved, what 
 laws are put into operation? 
 
PREMONITIONS 353 
 
 I shall not enter into the question of why it is 
 that persons possessing this peculiar power do not 
 make use of it to make a fortune over night, as 
 suggested, for the reason that those who advance 
 this suggestion do not know what they are talking 
 about, or in any way understand the problem. 
 Visions of this kind, apparently seeing into the 
 future, are not to be summoned at will, but occur 
 — when they occur at all — spontaneously, and 
 not in accord with any special laws or rules with 
 which we are familiar. They merely crop up 
 spontaneously, and cannot be summoned at will. 
 As M. Flammarion insisted, there are two 
 methods of investigation in all scientific problems: 
 that of observation and that of experiment. Al- 
 most all psychic problems have to be investigated 
 by the former of these two methods; we have to 
 observe them as we may, and we cannot control 
 them at will. Such being the case, we can very 
 easily see why it is that persons cannot make for- 
 tunes by the aid of their foresight; such things 
 do not act in any such concise and systematic man- 
 ner at all, and may occur but once in the individ- 
 ual's life, if then. 
 
 But when we come to the question of how such 
 things can be — the modus operandi involved — 
 that is a legitimate, but a most difficult question to 
 answer. At once the question rises in the mind: 
 
354. THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 Can it be possible that the veil of the future can 
 really be torn, so that it actually becomes the pres- 
 ent and the real to the onlooker? How can such 
 things be? Or is there not rather some illusion, 
 which, if discovered, would reveal to us the simple 
 explanation of all such facts, and explain them in 
 a perfectly intelligible and natural manner? 
 
 If there were but a few facts of this character in 
 existence, to weigh against all human experience, 
 that would be, doubtless, the most rational ground 
 to take ; but when we find hundreds of facts of this 
 character — all detailed and apparently recorded 
 with care — it is more difficult to dismiss them in 
 that summary manner, and in fact one finds one- 
 self gradually becoming more and more convinced 
 that some such process is in actual existence, when 
 we come to weigh and measure the evidence in its 
 favour. But if the fact can once be established, 
 if one single fact can be shown to be due to some 
 cause other than chance, what a recasting of our 
 views, what a remoulding of science would be neces- 
 sary in order to fit it into our present scheme of the 
 Universe ! 
 
 Now let us see, for the moment, if some conceiv- 
 able explanation of such facts might not be possi- 
 ble. Granting, for the sake of argument, that 
 genuine premonitions sometimes occur, how are we 
 to account for them? The fact of seeing into the 
 
PREMONITIONS 355 
 
 future is such an apparent impossibility that any 
 explanation of the facts would seem at first sight 
 utterly hopeless; and yet such might not be the 
 case. Let us see how far certain legitimate spec- 
 ulations might carry us in this explanatory theory. 
 First of all, it must be pointed out that there is 
 some amount of foresight or ' premonition ' in our 
 ordinary normal life; we are enabled to foresee 
 certain events that are about to happen; that, for 
 example, the lamp is about to fall, or that our pet 
 dog is about to die. Here it is clear that we see 
 further than the object or the animal, though (in 
 the latter case) he -is himself the personality in- 
 volved. Again, we can frequently foresee how cer- 
 tain lines of action would bring certain definite re- 
 sults, and we can frequently tell, almost exactly, 
 how any event is going to terminate. If we see 
 two men engaging in a wordy war, we feel assured 
 that they will ultimately end up with blows ; if we 
 see a man walking down the street, we know that he 
 will eventually reach the street comer, and if we 
 know (what he does not) that there is a powerful 
 wind blowing down the street, we can predict with 
 some degree of certainty that his hat will be blown 
 ofi' as soon as he arrives at that comer and the wind 
 strikes him. Or again, to use an old example, if 
 we see a spider walking across the table, we can pre- 
 dict with a fair degree of certainty that when the 
 
S66 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 spider reaches the edge of the table he will fall off. 
 Yet the spider is quite unaware of any such danger 
 awaiting him. In all the above examples, it will 
 be seen that greater knowledge of the surround- 
 ings or environment, mental or physical, of the 
 recipient of the disaster enables the onlooker to 
 foresee the impending danger, and, if he chooses, 
 to save such recipient from it. A larger mental 
 grasp of circumstances and a clear view of tendenf 
 cies will frequently enable one to foresee what is 
 quite invisible to another. And might we not 
 suggest that, by analogy, some of our friends in 
 a spiritual world, seeing the tendencies of certain 
 of our actions more clearly than we, would warn 
 us, by dream or telepathic action, and so reveal to 
 us what we should never otherwise perceive? Hav- 
 ing a clearer and larger grasp of our environment 
 than we, would it not be quite possible for them to 
 foresee, and so to warn us of impending dangers ia 
 this manner? 
 
 Again, there is another whole set of phenomena 
 of this character which might be explained on other 
 lines altogether. A physician can foresee cer- 
 tain tendencies in himself and in others which 
 would be invisible to the average man, who has not 
 been trained in these special lines. He can fore- 
 tell what will happen far in advance of the actual 
 event, — what is likely to happen to any individual. 
 
PREMONITIONS 857 
 
 — and so, in the broader sense, this might be 
 termed ' premonitory.' In like manner, it is prob- 
 able that our own subconscious mind can foresee 
 bodily states far more readily than can our ordinary 
 wake-a-day consciousness, and so apprise us in 
 advance of oncoming disastrous symptoms. This 
 knowledge might be dramatised and symbolised in 
 a dream; so again, the appearance might be sug- 
 gestive of the supernormal, though, it will be seen, 
 it is not strictly so. Foretelling deaths, etc., may 
 be due to this cause. But at all events it will be 
 apparent that none of the explanations so far ad- 
 vanced will explain the detailed incident — such 
 as that recorded above — in which the woodcock 
 was shot, as foreseen. How are we to account for 
 such a case as that? 
 
 Let it be admitted that we cannot explain it at 
 all, in the present state of our knowledge. We 
 can but guess at the modus operandi involved, and 
 doubtless very ineffectually. It is not to be be- 
 lieved that spirits (granting that they exist, and 
 that they can foresee tendencies and coming events 
 with greater foresight than do we, because of their 
 clearer and more extended outlook, so to speak) 
 still, it is not to be believed that they can really 
 foresee all the details of any coming event, as that 
 would be tantamount to saying that the event it- 
 self was planned out in advance and merely enacted 
 
858 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 at the proper moment — a form of fatalism. We 
 might conceive this, of course, but it would not be 
 proof. In heu of any better theory, however, let 
 us pursue this line of thought for the moment, and 
 see whither we are led. I quote from a previous 
 article of mine on " Omar Khayyam and Psychical 
 Research." ^ In part it runs as follows : 
 
 ". . . That Omar was a fatalist goes with- 
 out saying, the idea of extreme fatalism running 
 throughout his verse and rendering it at times 
 almost despairing in tone, at others rendering it 
 indignant or scornful. Fatalism is a different 
 thing from the modem philosophical doctrine of 
 determinism, though both are opposed to free- 
 will. We have, apparently, of course, free choice 
 in all our actions ; that is, we are enabled to do 
 what we want to do ; but determinism says that we 
 are not enabled to do anything of the kind. The 
 fact that we can apparently do so is mere illusion, 
 and that our action is in every case determined by 
 our previous actions, environment, mode of life and 
 external and internal influences and causes ; so 
 that, when any action is performed, it is the result 
 of these influences and their necessary result ; i. e., 
 we are never enabled to choose freely, or perform 
 any action that is other than the direct and in- 
 
 1 Journal of the A. S. P. R., July, 190T. 
 
PREMONITIONS 359 
 
 evitable result of previous actions, thoughts and 
 environment. If we could get a large enough 
 mental perception and grasp, as it were, of such 
 forces acting upon ourselves, we could see how it 
 is that in all cases our action is necessitated, and 
 not the result of deliberate choice or free will, 
 though the illusion of free will would always be 
 present. This differs from fatalism, as I under- 
 stand it, in that it does not necessitate the planning 
 or intervention of any external mind or Deity other 
 than the mental and physical forces of the universe ; 
 while fatalism supposes an external mind which has 
 planned everything from the beginning, and each 
 action and event as it occurs is consequently in- 
 evitable and has been planned from the very crea- 
 tion of things. Doubtless such thoughts prompted 
 Omar to write Verse 73: 
 
 " ' With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man 
 
 knead, 
 'And there of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed: 
 
 And the first Morning of Creation wrote 
 What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.' 
 
 " This idea that the universe is planned out, as 
 it were, in advance is somewhat different from the 
 doctrine which maintains that everything has, in 
 a sense, actually happened, — we merely perceiv- 
 
860 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 ing such actions as we reach certain states or stages 
 in our journey through hfe; that is, all future 
 events are actually existent at present, but the rea- 
 son that we do not perceive them is that we have 
 not yet arrived at the point of view that enables 
 us to perceive them, — nor will we until the appro- 
 priate time has arrived. Perhaps we may be en- 
 abled to grasp this idea a little more fully when 
 we consider the following simple analogy. Let us 
 suppose ourselves on the hind platform of the rear 
 car of a train which is travelUng at a more or less 
 rapid rate of speed. As the train moves, we per- 
 ceive, at either side of us, altered scenery, and the 
 country seems suddenly to be changed, — new scenes 
 coming into view and others vanishing. But it wilT 
 be seen that in this case the landscape newly per- 
 ceived is not actually created; it does not come into 
 being at the moment we perceived it ; it has always 
 existed, and the reason why it has not existed for us 
 before is that we have not been in a position to per- 
 ceive it until that moment ; and when the landscape 
 recedes in the distance, it is not annihilated, but 
 remains unaltered; but for us it has vanished — 
 for the reason that we are no longer in a position to 
 perceive it. Thus it is that events may perhaps 
 exist in some real or " noumenal " world which are 
 only perceived by us, as phenomena, at certain 
 definite stages or times for their perception." 
 
PREMONITIONS 361 
 
 Such a conception of the universe would at least 
 enable us to understand much and make clear to 
 us the apparent facts of so-called premonition. 
 There is something awesome and stupendous in this 
 conception of the cosmos, and perhaps I cannot 
 do better, by way of illustration of this, than to 
 quote a page from Mr. Mitchell's charming little 
 story, Amos Judd, where he vividly portrays for 
 us the aU-pervading intelligence and the omnipo- 
 tence of the moral force that rules the universe, 
 and man's impotence when opposed to it. Under 
 the mask of fiction, we find one of the most striking 
 conceptions of fatalism known to me. Amos, the 
 hero of the story, being gifted with the unwelcome 
 capacity of seeing into the future, had predicted 
 that Mr. Cabot was to perform certain acts the 
 next day at a certain time. Just at the time speci- 
 fied, Mr. Cabot found himself doing (quite natur- 
 ally, apparently) those very acts! This calls 
 forth conscious-resistance on his part, — the result 
 being a dramatic picture of a one-sided duel be- 
 tween the mind of man and that of some all-per- 
 vading fate. But I leave the author to tell his own 
 tale. 
 
 " . . . Mr. Cabot, as he strode rapidly to- 
 ward the village, experienced an elasticity and ex- 
 hilaration that recalled his younger days. He felt 
 
362 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 more like dancing or climbing trees than plodding 
 sedately along a turnpike. With a quick, youthful 
 step he ascended the gentle incline that led to the 
 Common, and if a stranger had been called upon to 
 guess at the gentleman's age as he walked jauntily 
 into the village with head erect, swinging his cane, 
 he would more likely have said thirty years than 
 sixty. And if the stranger had watched him for 
 another three minutes he would have modified his 
 guess, and not only have given him credit for his 
 full age, but might have suspected either an ex- 
 cessive fatigue or a mild intemperance. For Mr. 
 Cabot, during his short walk through Daleford 
 Village, experienced a series of sensations so novel 
 and so crushing that he never, in his inner self, re- 
 covered completely from the shock. 
 
 " Instead of keeping along the sidewalk to the 
 right and going to the post-ofBce according to his 
 custom, he crossed the muddy road and took the 
 gravel walk that skirted the Common. It seemed 
 a natural course, and he failed to realise, until he 
 had done it, that he was going out of his way. 
 Now he must cross the road again when opposite 
 the store. When opposite the store, however, in- 
 stead of crossing over, he kept along as he had 
 started. Then he stopped, as if to turn, — : but his 
 hesitation was for a second only. Again he went 
 ahead, along the same path, by the side of the 
 
PREMONITIONS 363 
 
 Common. It was then that Mr. Cabot felt a mild 
 but unpleasant thrill creep upward along his spine 
 and through his hair. This was caused by a start- 
 ling suspicion that his movements were not in obedi- 
 ence to his own will. A moment later it became a 
 conviction. The consciousness brought the cold 
 sweat to his brow, but he was too strong a man, too 
 clear headed and determined, to lose his bearings 
 without a struggle or without a definite reason. 
 With all the force of his nature he stopped once 
 more to decide it, then and there: and again he 
 started forward. An indefinable, all-pervading 
 force, gentle but immeasurably stronger than him- 
 self, was exerting an intangible pressure, and never 
 in his recollection had he felt so powerless, so weak, 
 so completely at the mercy of something that was no 
 part of himself; yet, while amazed and impressed 
 beyond his own belief, he Suffered no obscurity of 
 intellect. The first surprise over, he was more puz- 
 zled than terrified, more irritated than resigned. 
 
 " For nearly a hundred yards he walked on, im- 
 pelled by he knew not what; then, with deliberate 
 resolution, he stopped, clutched the wooden railing 
 at his side, and held it with an iron grip. As he 
 did so, the clock in the belfry of the Unitarian 
 Church across the road began striking twelve. He 
 raised his eyes and, recalling the prophecy of Amos, 
 he bit his hp, and his head reeled as in a dream. 
 
864. THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 * To-morrow, as the clock strikes twelve, you will 
 be standing in front of the Unitarian Church, 
 looking up at it.' Each stroke of the bell — and 
 no bell ever sounded so loud — vibrated through 
 every nerve of his being. It was harsh, exultant, 
 almost threatening, and his brain in a numb, dull 
 way seemed to quiver beneath the blows. Yet, up 
 there, about the white belfry, pigeons strutted 
 along the moulding, cooing, quarrelsome, and im- 
 portant, like any other pigeons. And the sunlight 
 was even brighter than usual; the sky bluer and 
 more dazzling. The tall spire, from the moving 
 clouds behind it, seemed like a huge ship, sailing 
 forward and upward as if he and it were floating 
 to a different world. 
 
 " Still holding fast to the fence, he drew the other 
 hand sharply across his eyes to rally his wavering 
 senses. The big elms towered serenely above him, 
 their leaves rustling like a countless chorus in the 
 summer breeze. Opposite, the row of old-fash- 
 ioned New England houses stood calmly in their 
 places, self-possessed, with no sign of agitation. 
 The world, to their knowledge, had undergone no 
 sudden changes within the last five minutes. It 
 must have been a delusion: a little collapse of the 
 nerves, perhaps. So many things can affect the 
 brain: any doctor could easily explain it! He 
 would rest a minute, then return. 
 
PREMONITIONS 365 
 
 " As he made this resolve, his left hand, like a 
 treacherous servant, quietly relaxed its hold and he 
 started off, not toward his home, but forward, — ■ 
 continuing his journey. He now realised that the 
 force which impelled him, although gentle and 
 seemingly not hostile in purpose, was so much 
 stronger than himself that resistance was useless. 
 During the next three minutes, as he walked me- 
 chsinically along the sidewalk by the Common, his 
 brain was nervously active in an effort to arrive at 
 some solution of this erratic business ; some sensible 
 solution that was based either on science or on com- 
 mon-sense. But that solace was denied him. The 
 more he thought the less he knew. No previous 
 experience of his own, and no authenticated expe- 
 rience of anyone else, at least of which he had ever 
 heard, could he summon to assist him. When op- 
 posite the house of Silas Famam, he turned and 
 left the sidewalk, and noticed with an irresponsible 
 interest as he crossed the road that with no care of 
 his own he avoided the puddles and selected for his 
 feet the drier places. This was another surprise, 
 for he took no thought of his steps; and the dis- 
 covery added to the overwhelming sense of helpless- 
 ness that was taking possession of him. With no 
 volition of his own he also avoided the wet grass be- 
 tween the road and the gravel walk. He next 
 found himself in front of Silas Famam's gate and 
 
366 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 his hand reached forth to open it. It was another 
 mild surprise when his hand, like a conscious thing, 
 tried the wrong side of the httle gate, then felt 
 about for the latch. The legs, over which he had 
 ceased to have direction, carried him along the 
 narrow brick walk, and one of them lifted him upon 
 the granite doorstep. 
 
 " Once more he resolved, calmly and with a se- 
 rious determination, that this humiliating comedy 
 should go no further. He would turn about and 
 go home without entering the house. It would be 
 well for Amos to know that an old lawyer of sixty 
 was composed of different material from the impres- 
 sionable enthusiast of twenty-seven. While making 
 this resolve the soles of his shoes were drawing 
 themselves across the iron scraper; then he saw 
 his hand rise slowly toward the old-fashioned 
 knocker and, with three taps, announce his pres- 
 ence. A huge fly dozing on the knocker flew off 
 and lit again upon the panel of the door. As it 
 adjusted its wings and drew a pair of front legs 
 over the front of its head Mr. Cabot wondered if, 
 at the creation of the world, it was foreordained 
 that this insect should occupy that identical spot 
 at a specified moment of a certain day, and execute 
 this trivial performance. If so, what a role human- 
 ity was playing! The door opened and Mrs. 
 Famam, with a smiling face, stood before him. 
 
PREMONITIONS 367 
 
 " ' How do you do, Mr. Cabot? Won't you step 
 in?' 
 
 " As he opened his lips to decline, he entered the 
 little hallway, was shown into the parlour, and sat 
 in a horse-hair rocking chair, in which he waited for 
 Mrs. Farnam to call her husband. When the hus- 
 band came, Mr. Cabot stated his business and found 
 that he was once more dependent upon his own voli- 
 tion. He could rise, walk to the window, say what 
 he wished, and sit down again when he desired." 
 
 So, for him, ended the most remarkable expe- 
 rience of his life. 
 
 Before such an all-pervading, all-powerful voli- 
 tion as this we pause, awestruck. Is it conceiv- 
 able that this universe is planned out and pre- 
 arranged in any such manner? It seems hardly 
 credible; and yet, how otherwise are we to account 
 for those obstinate facts that keep coming before 
 our attention, demanding an explanation, no mat- 
 ter what views we may care to hold of the uni- 
 verse, or their possibility? Premonitions are the 
 most baffling of all psychic phenomena, and, if ever 
 established scientifically and accepted as actual 
 facts, they will necessitate more recasting of old 
 theories and conceptions than any other character 
 of phenomena whatever. In conclusion I can only 
 repeat a wise saying, which is not without its sense 
 
S68 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 of humour and which might be fitly quoted in this 
 place. Two philosophers were arguing about the 
 possibility of a certain fact — one from experimen- 
 tal evidence, the other from d priori conceptions. 
 The latter had wound up his argiunent with a very 
 self -satisfying proof. " So you see it's an utter 
 impossibility, don't you?" To which his friend 
 wisely replied: " My dear sir, I never said it was 
 possible, I said it was a fact! " Might we not ap- 
 ply this to premonitions.'' 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 EUSAPIA PALADINO AND THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 
 OF SPIRITUALISM 
 
 FOR the benefit of those of my readers who may 
 not have read many books upon psychic sub- 
 jects I may state that Eusapia Paladino is the name 
 of a woman, living in Naples, Italy, who is, it is 
 claimed, a most remarkable " physical medium ;" 
 i.e., that there occur in her presence movements of 
 objects without contact, tips of, and raps upon, 
 tables, playing of musical instruments without any 
 human hands, and a number of other manifesta- 
 tions, still more remarkable, which I shall outline in 
 brief immediately. I have, until now, withheld 
 from mentioning the physical phenomena, for the 
 reason that they are so much more open to doubt 
 and suspicion than are the mental or psychical phe- 
 nomena proper, — which are far more numerous and 
 more easily proved than are the physical facts. So 
 many mediums have been detected in fraud, in the 
 production of physical phenomena, that, whenever 
 they occur, there is immediately a suspicion, in the 
 minds of most persons, that fraud was in some 
 manner connected with the production of the phe- 
 nomena ; and this applies also to the medium under 
 369 
 
370 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 discussion. It is well known to all the scientists 
 and other persons who investigate Eusapia that 
 she will deceive whenever she can do so; and that 
 unless fraud has been rendered impossible, she will 
 invariably produce the phenomena by fraudulent 
 means. If the statements of those scientists who 
 have carefully investigated this medium are to be 
 implicitly relied upon, there are very good reasons 
 why Eusapia should resort to fraud whenever she 
 can. It is asserted that whenever phenomena of the 
 kind under discussion are produced in a genuine 
 manner, the medium is left more or less exhausted ; 
 there is a certain nervous ' tiredness,' which follows 
 upon the production of phenomena of this sort. It 
 is only natural to suppose that, if the medium could 
 obtain the same results by fraudulent means, she 
 would do so, and thus save herself the consequent 
 fatigue. This, it is asserted, is the chief reason 
 why Eusapia (and kindred mediums) resort to 
 cheating, and, whether true or not, the explanation 
 is at least conceivable. 
 
 Let us now turn to a consideration of the phe- 
 nomena themselves, that are alleged to occur in the 
 presence of this medium. I shall quote from the 
 various reports concerning her mediumship 
 that have been brought in, reserving any re- 
 marks or discussion of the results until after- 
 wards. I quote a typical Report, taken from 
 
PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 371 
 
 M. Flammarion's fascinating book, Mysterious 
 Psychic Forces, where, after describing several re- 
 markable manifestations, he goes on to say : • 
 
 " A round centre table, placed at my right, 
 comes forward without contact towards the table, 
 always in full light, be it understood, as if it would 
 like to climb up on it, and falls down. Nobody 
 has moved aside or approached the curtain, and no 
 explanation of this movement can be given. The 
 medium has not yet entered into a trance and con- 
 tinues to take part in the conversation. 
 
 " Five raps in the table indicate, according to a 
 convention arranged by the medium, that the un- 
 known cause asks for less light. This is always an- 
 noying. . . . The candles are blown out, the lamp 
 turned down, but the light is strong enough for us 
 to see very distinctly everything that takes place in 
 the room. The round table, which I had lifted and 
 set aside, approaches the table and several times 
 tries to climb up on it. I lean upon it in order to 
 keep it down, but I experience an elastic resistance 
 and am unable to do so. The free edge of the 
 round table places itself on the edge of the rec- 
 tangular table, but, hindered by its triangular foot, 
 it does not succeed in clearing itself sufficiently to 
 climb upon it. Since I am holding the medium, 
 I ascertain that she makes no effort of the kind that 
 
37a THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 would be needed for this style of performance. 
 
 " The curtain swells out and approaches my 
 face. It is at this moment that the medium falls 
 into a trance. She utters sighs and lamentations 
 and only speaks now in the third person, saying 
 that she is John King. . . . Five new raps 
 ask for still less light, and the lamp is almost com- 
 pletely turned down, but not extinguished. The 
 eyes, growing accustomed to the clare-obscure, still 
 distinguish pretty well what is taking place. 
 
 " The curtain swells out again, and I feel that 
 I am touched on the shoulder, through the stuff of 
 the curtain, as if by a closed fist. The chair in 
 the cabinet, upon which are placed the music-box 
 and the bell, is violently shaken, and the objects 
 fall to the floor. The medium asks again for less 
 light, and a red photographic lantern is placed 
 upon the piano, and the light of the lamp com- 
 pletely extinguished. The control is rigorously 
 kept up, the medium agreeing to it with the great- 
 est docility. 
 
 " For about a minute the music-box plays inter- 
 mittent airs behind the curtain, as if it were turned 
 by some hand. The curtain moves forward again 
 toward me, and a rather strong hand seizes my 
 arm. I immediately reach forward to seize the 
 hand, but I grasp only the empty air. I then 
 press the two legs of the medium between mine and 
 
PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM S73 
 
 I take her left hand in my right. On the other 
 side, her right hand is firmly held in the left hand 
 of M. de Fontenay. Then Eusapia brings the 
 hand of the last named toward my cheek and imi- 
 tates upon the cheek, with the finger of M. de 
 Fontenay, the movement of a little revolving crank 
 or handle. The music-box, which has one of these 
 handles, plays at the same time behind the curtain 
 in perfect synchronism. The instant that Eusa- 
 pia's hand stops, the music stops: all the move- 
 ments correspond, just as in the Morse telegraph 
 system. We all amused ourselves with this. The 
 thing was tried several times in succession, and 
 every time the playing of the finger tallied with the 
 playing of the music. 
 
 " I feel several touches on the back and on the 
 side. M. de Fontenay receives a hard slap on the 
 back that everybody hears. A hand passes 
 through my hair. The chair of M. de Fontenay is 
 violently pulled, and a few moments afterwards he 
 cries, ' I see the silhouette of a man passing be- 
 tween M. Flammarion and me, above the table, 
 shutting out the red light ! ' 
 
 " This thing is repeated several times. I do 
 not myself succeed in seeing the silhouette. I then 
 propose to M. de Fontenay that I take his place, 
 for in that case, I should be likely to see it also. 
 I soon distinctly perceive a dim silhouette passing 
 
374 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 before the red lantern, but do not recognise any 
 precise form. It is only an opaque shadow (the 
 profile of a man) which advances as far as the 
 light and retires. In a moment, Eusapia says 
 there is someone behind the curtain. After a 
 slight pause she adds : ' There is a man by your 
 side, on the right; he has a great soft, forked 
 beard.' I ask if I may touch this beard. In fact, 
 while lifting my hand, I feel rather a soft beard 
 brushing against it. . . . 
 
 " The little round table, placed outside the cabi- 
 net, at the left of the medium, approaches the table, 
 climbs clear up on it and lies across it. The 
 guitar in the cabinet is heard moving about and 
 giving out sounds. The curtain is puffed out, and 
 the guitar is brought upon the table, resting upon 
 the shoulder of M. de Fontenay. It is then laid 
 upon the table, the large end towards the medium. 
 Then it rises and moves over the heads of the com- 
 pany without touching them. It gives forth sev- 
 eral sounds. The phenomenon lasts about fifteen 
 seconds. It can readily be seen that the guitar is 
 floating in the air, and the reflection of the red 
 lamp glides over its shining surface. A rather 
 bright gleam, pear-shaped, is seen on the ceiling 
 in the other corner of the room. . . . John is 
 spoken to as if he existed, as if it was he whose 
 head we perceived in silhouette ; he is asked to con- 
 
PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 375 
 
 tinue his manifestations and to show the impression 
 of his head in the putty, as he has already several 
 times done. Eusapia replies that it is a difficult 
 thing and asks us not to think of it for a moment, 
 but to go on speaking. These suggestions of hers 
 are always disquieting, and we redouble our atten- 
 tion, though without speaking much. The medium 
 groans, pants, writhes. The chair in the cabinet 
 on which the putty is placed is heard to move. 
 The chair comes forward and places itself by the 
 side of the medium, then it is lifted and placed 
 upon the head of Mme. Z. Blech, while the tray is 
 lightly placed in the hands of M. Blech, at the 
 other end of the table. Eusapia cries that she sees 
 before her a head and bust, and says, " E fatto " 
 ("It is done"). We do not believe her, because 
 M. Blech has not felt any pressure on the dish. 
 Three violent blows as of a mallet are struck upon 
 the table. The light is turned on, and a human 
 profile is found imprinted upon the putty. 
 
 " Mme. Z. Blech kisses Eusapia upon both 
 cheeks, for the purpose of finding out whether her 
 face has not some odour (glazier's putty having a 
 very strong odour of linseed oil which remains for 
 some time upon the fingers). She discovers noth- 
 ing abnormal." ^ 
 
 There are many cases, as interesting as this one, 
 
 iPp. 70-75. 
 
376 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 running through the book. I have merely picked 
 out a typical seance, in which a number of repre- 
 sentative phenomena are said to have occurred. 
 Upon other occasions, these casts were obtained 
 in the putty, placed in the cabinet, the medium sit- 
 ting in the circle, and holding or held by members 
 of the circle in such a way as to render escape 
 (apparently) impossible; on other occasions, musi- 
 cal instruments have been seen to float about the 
 room, playing of their own accord, and, when a 
 light was struck, the instrument was seen to be in 
 a position in midair, as, for instance, in the fol- 
 lowing case: 
 
 " The light was extinguished and the experi- 
 ments begun again. While, in response to a unani- 
 mous wish, the little bell was beginning again its 
 tinklings and its mysterious aerial circuits, M. 
 Ascensi, taking his cue, unknown to us, from M. 
 Tamburini, went (unperceived, owing to the dark- 
 ness) and stood on the right of the medium, and 
 at once with a single scratch lighted a match, so 
 successfully, as he declared, that he could see the 
 little bell, while it was vibrating in the air, sud- 
 denly fall upon a bed, about six feet and a half 
 behind Mme. Paladino." 
 
 It would be unnecessary to repeat seances and de- 
 
PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 877 
 
 tails of such phenomena in this place, where space 
 is limited. Suffice it to say that phenomena of 
 this character have been taking place in the pres- 
 ence of Eusapia for a number of years past, and 
 she has now succeeded in convincing a very large 
 number of French and Italian, and some of the 
 finest English, scientists of the fact that the phe- 
 nomena are genuine, and are not the result of any 
 known process or known law. Apparently, Eu- 
 sapia is a second Home, whose advent has been so 
 long awaited, and this time she is being thoroughly 
 studied by some of the first scientific men of the 
 time, and not left to the care of one scientist, as 
 Home was practically left to Sir WiUiam Crookes. 
 In many of these seances, the light has been suffi- 
 ciently good to see the medium at the time that the 
 manifestations were actually in progress, and she 
 has been tied and held in such a manner as to ab- 
 solutely prevent any possibility of fraud. Of 
 course upon this question of possible fraud hangs 
 the whole case. I cannot attempt, in this place, 
 to refute that theory; indeed, we know that Eu- 
 sapia will cheat whenever she can, as already said. 
 But I quote a passage ^ which seems to challenge 
 explanation by any theory of fraud, and is one of 
 the most interesting documents that I have ever 
 come across, whatever theory we may choose to 
 
 1 Annals of Payckieal Science, May, 1907. 
 
378 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 hold by way of explanation of the phenomena. 
 At the seance in question, which took place in the 
 psychological laboratory of one of the three scep- 
 tical doctors who were holding the seance (also 
 the medium), the following took place: 
 
 " After table No. 1 had stood upright, Dr. 
 AruUani approached it, but the piece of furniture, 
 moving violently towards him, repulsed him; Dr. 
 A. seized the table, which was heard to crack in 
 the struggle. It was a strong table of white wood, 
 about 2 ft. 9 in. high, and 3 ft. long by 22 in. 
 broad, weighing 17 lbs. 
 
 " Dr. A. asked that the hand behind the curtain 
 should grasp his; the medium replied in her own 
 voice, ' First I am going to break the table, then I 
 will give you a grasp of the hand.' This declara- 
 tion was followed by three fresh, complete levita- 
 tions of the table, which fell back each time heavily 
 onto the floor. All those who were on the left of 
 the medium could observe, by a very good red 
 light, the various movements of the table. The 
 latter bent down and passed behind the curtain, 
 followed by one of us (Dr. C. Foa), who saw it 
 turn over and^rest on one of its two short sides, 
 whilst one of the legs of the table came off vio- 
 lently, as if under the action of some force pressing 
 upon it. At this moment the table came violently 
 
PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 379 
 
 out of the cabinet and continued to break up under 
 the eyes of everyone present; at first its different 
 parts were torn off, then the boards themselves went 
 to pieces. Two legs which still remained united by 
 a thin slip of wood floated above us and placed 
 themselves on the seance table." 
 
 It would seem almost impossible to explain such a 
 case by fraud, and would seem to establish the 
 genuineness of the phenomena, however incredible 
 they may appear. Assuming, for the sake of 
 argument, that these phenomena are really facts, 
 that they actually happened, as stated, how are we 
 to account for them? 
 
 When we come to explanatory hypotheses, there 
 have been a number brought forward to explain 
 the facts, and it must be said at once, not very 
 satisfactorily. 
 
 There is first of aU the theory that the nervous 
 fluid or forces of the medium are in some manner 
 externalised beyond the periphery of the body, 
 and, operating in space, produce the results men- 
 tioned. As M. Flammarion expressed it : " The 
 vital force of the medium might externalise itself 
 and produce in a point of space a vibratory system 
 which should be the counterpart of itself, in a more 
 or less advanced degree of visibility and solidity." 
 A number of the minor facts could be accounted for 
 
880 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 in this manner, such as the mere movements of 
 objects without contact, and would seem to be 
 strongly borne out by certain facts — e. g., the 
 current of cold air (?) that is felt to proceed from 
 the scar on the medium's temple when the phe- 
 nomena are in full swing; and this would also 
 seem to tell strongly against fraud. (Of course 
 there is the possibility of hallucination to be 
 reckoned with, in a case of this character, but in 
 view of the facts, I do not think it need be seriously 
 considered.) In a word, then, this theory of the 
 extemalisation of nervous fluid or force has much 
 to recommend it; and there are many phenomena 
 in physical science (radiation, etc.) with which to 
 compare it ; but there seem to me to be very many 
 facts that such a theory would not account for at 
 all. Take the cases of playing upon musical in- 
 struments, for instance: this implies intelligent 
 action, and fingers to manipulate the keys, in the 
 majority of cases ; how is any " external force " to 
 account for these facts .'' It seems to me that, while 
 this theory has its uses, and may be the correct one 
 to account for many of the phenomena, it cannot 
 be the true explanation of all the facts, as we 
 shall see more fully later on. 
 
 There has been another theory advanced, which 
 is far more daring than that just proposed. It is 
 that there is a sort of " fluidic prolongation of the 
 
PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 381 
 
 limbs " — the real hands and arms and legs, e. g., 
 being in some manner duplicated in the " astral " 
 or fluidic or shell form and extended beyond the 
 limits of the medium's body. " This prolongation 
 is real," says M. Flammarion, " and only extends 
 to a certain distance from the medium, — a distance 
 which can be measured, and which varies according 
 to circumstances. . . . We are forced to ad- 
 mit that this prolongation, usually invisible and 
 impalpable, may become visible and palpable — 
 take, especially, the form of an articulated hand, 
 with flesh and muscles, and reveal the exact form of 
 a head or a body." 
 
 It will be seen that such a theory is closely allied 
 to the facts of materialisation; and, if we could 
 accept such facts and the conclusions to which they 
 legitimately lead, we should have no difficulty what- 
 ever in accepting the phenomena of materialisa- 
 tion. But it is also closely allied to the astral- 
 form theory of the theosophists, and it is hard to 
 tell which of these would be correct, were it not for 
 the fact that the forms that appear, while they are 
 often duplicates of the medium, in one or more 
 ways, are also entirely different forms, upon occa- 
 sion — being the forms of men, e. g., with large 
 hands and a beard, etc. It is difficult to see how 
 any astral-body theory could account for these 
 facts — unless, indeed, we are prepared to admit 
 
382 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 the possibility of astrals of discarnate spirits; and 
 if that is done, how are we to distinguish them, 
 evidentially or in any other way, from materialisa- 
 tions ? 
 
 It will thus be seen that we have been led to the 
 spiritistic hypothesis almost without knowing it, 
 as an explanation of the facts under consideration ; 
 and in many ways it is by far the most intelligible 
 explanation, and explains a far larger number of ' 
 the facts than does any other theory. On the 
 other hand, there are many objections to such an 
 hypothesis — the most formidable of which is the 
 fact that it assumes a ' soul ' capable of function- 
 ing — ^ which is the very fact psychical researchers 
 are attempting to prove, and so begs the question. 
 If a soul were proved to exist, apart from such 
 phenomena as those under discussion, then we 
 should be entitled to speculate upon its potentiali- 
 ties and possible powers ; but we can hardly prove a 
 soul by such physical phenomena as those we have 
 been discusrfng. The fact of the soul's survival 
 must first of all be established by other facts than 
 these; and then, that once established, we should 
 be in a position to argue as to its possible powers 
 and limitations. Personally, I think that it is 
 premature to speculate on the origin and nature of 
 such phenomena as those presented by Eusapia 
 Paladino. The facts are not yet sufficiently well 
 
PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 383 
 
 established to warrant any speculations of the 
 kind, though one can well see how it would be a 
 temptation to offer such speculations when one has 
 been thoroughly convinced of the nature and gen- 
 uineness of the phenomena. There is always a 
 temptation to try and explain facts that are new, 
 to dovetail them into our present knowledge; and 
 in a sense that is perfectly right and legitimate. 
 It is only that the phenomena, in this case, are 
 so remarkable, so take one's breath away, that 
 one is inclined to cry " Halt " before any explana- 
 tions are offered of facts which, in themselves, seem 
 incredible beyond belief. 
 
 I shall end this discussion of the case by a quota- 
 tion from one of Sir Oliver Lodge's addresses be- 
 fore the Society for Psychical Research, in Lon- 
 don, when these phenomena first came to the atten- 
 tion of that Society and Dr. Lodge brought in 
 his report on the case. True or not, these specu- 
 lations seem to me to be highly interesting and sug- 
 gestive, and well worthy of being preserved. In 
 part they run as follows : 
 
 " The fact . . . that the medium's body 
 undergoes sympathetic or corresponding move- 
 ments or twitches is very instructive and interesting. 
 Sometimes, when she [the medium] is going to 
 push a distant object, she will make a little sudden 
 
S84 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 push with her hand in this direction, and imme- 
 diately afterward the object moves. Once this was 
 done for my edification with constantly the same 
 object, inz., a bureau in the comer of the room. 
 . . . When six or seven feet away the time- 
 interval (between the push and the movement 
 of the object) was something like two seconds. 
 When the accordion is being played, the fingers of 
 the medium are moving in a thoroughly appro- 
 priate manner, and the process reminds one of the 
 twiching of a dog's legs when he is supposed to be 
 dreaming that he is chasing a hare. It is as if 
 Eusapia were dreaming that she was fingering the 
 instrument, and dreaming it so vividly that the 
 instrument was actually played. It is as if a dog 
 dreamt of the chase with such energy that a distant 
 hare was readily captured and killed, as by a 
 phantom dog; and, fanciful as for the moment it 
 may seem, and valueless as I suppose such specula- 
 tions are, I am, I confess, at present more than half 
 disposed to looi in some such direction for a clue 
 to these effects. In an idealistic conception of na- 
 ture it has by many philosophers been considered 
 that thought is the reality, and that material sub- 
 stratum is but a consequence of thought. So, in 
 a minor degree, it appears here; it is as if, let us 
 say, the dream of the entranced person were vivid 
 enough physicajly to effect surrounding objects 
 
PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 886 
 
 and actually produce objective results; to cause 
 not only real and permanent movements of ordinary 
 objects, but also temporary fresh aggregations of 
 material particles into extraordinary objects — 
 these aggregations being objective enough to be 
 felt, heard, seen, and probably even photographed 
 while they last." 
 
 I think the reader will agree with me in feeling 
 that these remarks open before us a world of pos- 
 sibilities, and incline us to the belief that we are 
 " but shadows " after aU, as Omar said, and that 
 behind and beyond this world of matter there is 
 another world of causes and forces, of which we are 
 just beginning to see and reahse the effects, and 
 consequently which we are only just beginning to 
 investigate. It is the world of noumena, of causes, 
 that modern science must begin to investigate in 
 this new century, just as the science of the last 
 century devoted its energies to the world of phe- 
 nomena or effects. When this has been realised 
 and the energies and ingenuity of scientific men 
 are turned in this direction, then we may begin to 
 look for progress indeed; for development along 
 lines hitherto all but neglected; for a wider and 
 deeper and broader view of the universe. And it is 
 this research into the world of causes which is, 
 largely, the legitimate problem of psychicjj re- 
 
386 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 search ; it opens before us a new vista of latent pos- 
 sibilities and shows us that here is, waiting to be 
 developed, indeed a new science; the science of the 
 coming century — the Coming Science* 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 T HAVE attempted, in the preceding pages, to 
 •*■ give a very rapid survey of the field of psy- 
 chic research and of the chief theories that might 
 be advanced by way of explanation of the facts. 
 As before stated, I have not attempted to cite any 
 large number of cases or make any great showing 
 of proof, for the reason that that field has been 
 covered in many volumes on this subject: I have 
 devoted myself rather to possible explanations of 
 facts which must, some day, be recognised as a 
 part of legitimate science. Once the facts are 
 accepted, their explanation becomes of prime im- 
 portance; and it will not be any disadvantage to 
 the average person to be in possession of those 
 ideas and theories that have been advanced, from 
 time to time, by way of explanation of these facts. 
 There is no more fascinating field than this — 
 the borderland of the Unknown ; the dim, obscure 
 region that lies between mind and matter, between 
 physical and spiritual forces and energies, between 
 the noumenal and the phenomenal worlds. The 
 phenomena presented for our consideration are 
 themselves the most fascinating and the most vital 
 98? 
 
888 THE COMING SCIENCE 
 
 that can ever be discussed; while the immense sig- 
 nificance of their interpretation must be apparent 
 to those who think and reflect at all. Whether the 
 universe is at basis material or spiritual is the 
 greatest question that can ever be raised; it lies 
 at the root of all moral law, no less than philoso- 
 phy and science (in the generally accepted sense 
 of the word), and is the most important question 
 before the world today, without a doubt. Upon 
 such facts as these must rest all future religion; 
 for, apart from the facts of psychic research, what 
 evidence have we that the soul exists after the 
 death of the body at all.-' I have elsewhere pointed 
 out that we have no such evidence ; so that upon the 
 outcome of this investigation may be said to hang 
 the whole future spiritual evolution of the race. 
 Materialism must ultimately triumph, if no facts 
 can be brought forward to prove it erroneous ; and 
 that would mean the sacrifice and the abolition of 
 the religious consciousness of the age. The 
 societies for psychical research have long realised 
 this point and insisted upon the immense ^impor- 
 tance and significance of the work in hand — a 
 work that should be endowed a thousand times more 
 lavishly than any of the churches, since it is 
 (or soon will be) the only means and the sole 
 weapon with which successfully to combat material- 
 ism. The issue Once fairly raised, and the great 
 
CONCLUSION 889 
 
 world-problems once grasped by the average man, 
 this will become apparent, and then, it is to be 
 hoped, the much needed and shamefully neglected 
 support will be forthcoming. 
 
 I repeat : let one single fact which the psychical 
 researcher defends be proved true and the funda- 
 mental conceptions of science, as at present held, 
 must be completely shaken. It will not be neces- 
 sary to retract any of the laws or facts which have 
 been won with such great exertion, at such a cost, 
 but merely to remodel our conceptions of science 
 and enlarge its boundaries so as to include the 
 new facts — and possibly to include a spiritual 
 universe, a world of forces and causes, of which 
 we see the resultants merely. We should open 
 conununication with a world of spiritual intelli- 
 gences, they apparently producing phenomena 
 which we are called upon to study; and the solu- 
 tion of these phenomena will, without doubt, form 
 the Coming Science. 
 
 THE END 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abnormality, question of, 59- 
 
 78. 
 Absolute, the, 270-73. 
 Adler, Dr. Felix, 39. 
 Anderson, Dr., 74. 
 Apparitions, nature of, 373- 
 
 84. 
 Arullani, Dr., 37& 
 Ascensi, M., 376. 
 " Atmosphere," 317-19. 
 
 Balfour, A. J., 60. 
 Barrett, Prof. W. F., 60, 
 Belief, value of, 30-33. 
 Bernheim, Dr.. 74. 
 Binet, A, 74. 
 Blech, M., 375. 
 Braid, Dr., 74, 180-81. 
 Bramwell, Dr. Milne, 73, 74, 
 
 75, 76, 179, 186-7, 189, 191, 
 Bulwer, Lord Ly tton, 336, 336. 
 
 Carus,Dr. Paul, 148-58, 166-9. 
 Census of HallucinatioDs, 379. 
 Charcot, Dr.. 67, 72, 73, 181, 
 
 187. 
 Clifford. Prof. W. K., 135. 
 Clothes of ghosts, 315. 
 Cocke, Dr., 74. 
 Coming Science, defined, 3-13. 
 
 386, 389. 
 Confidence, importance of, 
 
 30-33. 
 Consciousness, inclusive, 34-5; 
 
 nature of, 118; relation of, 
 
 to body, 122-6, 129-36. 
 Consciousness of dying, 333-6. 
 
 Cooley, Georgia Gladys, 339- 
 
 46. 
 Crookes, Sir William, 60, 196. 
 
 231-4, 377. 
 Crowe, Mrs., 313. 
 Criminal suggestion, question 
 
 of, 74-6. 
 Crystal-gazing, 65-6. 
 dux Bono >6S-^. 
 
 Davis, Andrew Jackson, 94, 
 
 330. 
 De Courmelles, 74. 
 De Mude, 74. 
 
 Devil theory of hypnotism, 70. 
 Duncan, Dr. Kennedy, 110-11. 
 Dods, Dr. J. B., 112. 
 Dreams, nature and character 
 
 of, 210-22. 
 Dying, consciousness of, 223-6. 
 
 Electricity and life, 109-13. 
 
 EUiotson. Dr., 180. 
 
 Energy, vanishing of, 97-8; 
 
 conservation of, 99-104. 
 Esdaile, Dr., 180. 
 Evolution of mind, 3-3; of 
 
 spirit, 3. 
 
 Faria, Abb^, 180. 
 
 F^r^, Dr., 74. 
 
 Flammarion, Camille, 53, 353, 
 
 371-5, 379, 381. 
 Fletcher, Horace. 41. 
 Foa, Dr. C, 378. 
 Fonteney, de, 373. 
 Fox Sisters. 338-9. 
 
392 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Funk, Dr. I. K., 139. 144.. 
 Future life, indifference to, 
 18-19 ; objections to, 20-23. 
 
 Gladstone, Hon., 26. 
 Gurney, Edmund, 60, 74, 182, 
 185, 187, 276, 278, 328. 
 
 Haeckel, Ernst, 48, 52, 90, 125, 
 
 144, 146. 
 Hallucinations, nature of, 63-6; 
 
 Census of, 2T9. 
 Happiness, defined, 41. 
 Harris, Hon. John, 332. 
 Hart, Dr. E., 72, 187. 
 Hayden, Mrs., 231. 
 Health, value of, 14-15. 
 Heidenhain. Dr., 187. 
 Hodgson, Dr. Richard, 68-9, 
 
 168, 235, 236, 237, 239-40, 
 
 241, 245, 248, 257. 
 Home, D. D., 230-35. 
 Hutchinson, Horace G., 195, 
 
 211, 214, 216. 
 Huxley, Prof. Thomas, 82, 
 
 91, 128-9, 136. 
 Hypnotism, nature of, 69-76, 
 
 187-90; vs. mesmerism, 179- 
 
 80. 
 Hyslop, Dr. James H., S3, 60, 
 
 194, 210, 222-6, 237, 249, 
 
 250, 251, 253, 255, 257, 298- 
 
 300. 
 Hysteria, 73. 
 
 Idealism, 27-8. 
 
 James, Prof. William, 4, 31, 
 34, 52, 60, 68, 74, 88, 119, 
 120-21, 135, 137, 187, 207. 
 235, 239. 
 . Janet, Pierre, 328. 
 
 Jastrow, Prof. Joseph, 83-4. 
 
 Johnson, Miss Alice, 193-4. 
 
 Lang, Andrew, 56, 60, 316-17. 
 Langley, Professor, 60. 
 Lavoisier, '93. 
 
 Leadbeater, C. W.,209. 
 Leaf, Dr. Walter, 236, 241. 
 Le Bon, Dr. Gustave, 92, 93-7. 
 Li^beault, Dr., 187. 
 Life, meaning of, 39-42 ; nature 
 
 of, 108-13. 
 Lloyd-Tuckey, Dr., 74. 
 Lodge, Sir Oliver, 44, 60, 80, 
 
 236, 241, 383-5. 
 LoweU, Prof. Percival, 118, 
 
 188, 242. 
 
 MacDougall, Dr. Duncan, 285, 
 
 286-98. 
 Mason, Dr. Osgood, 79. 
 Materialisation, possibility of, 
 
 95. 
 Matter, nature of, 94-5. 
 Melville, Rear Admiral G. W., 
 
 309-10. 
 Mesmer, Anton, 179, 228. 
 Mesmerism vs. hypnotism, 
 
 179-80. 
 Metaphysics, necessity for, 6. 
 Mind, evolution of, 2-3. 
 Mind-stuff theory, 135. 
 Mitchell, J. A., 361-7. 
 MoU, Dr. Albert, 74, 187. 
 Morbidity, 59-78. 
 Myers, F. W. H., 60, 65, 74, 
 
 77, 89, 115, 182, 184, 186, 
 
 188-90, 196, 202, 214, 236, 
 
 241, 247, 276, 320-21, 328. 
 
 Newnham, Rev. P. B., 282. 
 Nichols, Dr. T. L., 307. 
 
 Omar Khayyam, 358, 359. 
 Orthodox objections, 50-53. 
 
 Paladino, Eusapia, 369-86. 
 Piper, Mrs., 68^9, 235-8, 239- 
 
 56 257. 
 Podmore, Frank, 63-4, 229, 
 
 315. 
 Positive eletitricity, and life, 
 
 109-14. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Prejudice, examples of, 46-7. 
 Premonitions, theories of, 353- 
 
 68. 
 Psychical phenomena, value 
 
 of, 24-6. 
 
 Quackenbos, Dr., 74. 
 
 Rabagliati, Dr. A., 307. 
 Ramsey, Sir William, 91. 
 Rayleigh, Lord, 60. 
 Ripon, Bishop of, 60. 
 Romanes, J. G., 139-36. 
 Ruskin, John, 60. 
 
 Schiller, F. C. S., 18, 60, 126. 
 Shaler, Prof. N., lOirS. 
 Sidgwick, Prof. Henry, 60, 
 
 114, 241. 
 Sidgwick, Mrs. Henry, 260, 
 
 314. 
 Sleep, theories of, 204-10. 
 Snyder, Carl, 109, 194. 
 Spencer, Herbert, 136. 
 Spirit, evolution of, 3. 
 Stead, WilUamT., 323. 
 Stevenson, R. L., 18, 60. 
 Stewart, Balfour, 60. 
 Strong, Prof G., 28, 135. 
 Superstition, 53-7. 
 
 Tamburini, Professor, 376. 
 
 Telepathy, nature of, 115, 
 192-6, 201-3 ; evidence for, 
 196-201. 
 
 Theological objections to psy- 
 chical research, 50-53. 
 
 Thompson, Mrs., mediumship 
 of, 69. 
 
 Thomson, Dr. Hanna, 129. 
 
 Thurston, H., 109. 
 
 Time-relations, in dreams, 210- 
 11. 
 
 Trance, description of, 241-2. 
 
 Tyndall, Professor, 127-8. 
 
 Universe, end of, 95-6; be- 
 ginning of, 96-7. 
 
 Vincent, Harry, 187. 
 
 Vitality, impossibility of add- 
 ing to, 37-8 ; and law of 
 conservation, 99-104, source 
 of, 101-4. 
 
 Wagner, Rudolph, 298. 
 Wakeman, Thaddeus B., 139- 
 
 48, 169-73. 
 Wallace, Prof. A. R. ,46, 48,60. 
 Will, weakened, 73. 
 WiUington MiU, 337. 
 
 X, Miss, 65, 79, 313, 318. 
 324-5, 326, 332, 334-6.