PHANTASMS.
Perhaps no department of Psychical Research is looked upon from such
divers and even quite opposite standpoints as that which relates to
Apparitions or Phantasms. Many intelligent people, in a general way,
accept them as realities but assign for them a supernatural origin; while
others discredit them altogether because they have apparently no basis
except an assumed supernatural one.
It has been said that primitive, undeveloped, and ignorant people almost
universally believe in ghosts; while with the advance of civilization,
culture, and general intelligence, the frequency of alleged apparitions
and the belief in ghosts diminishes or altogether disappears. If this
statement were to stand unqualified, by so much would the reality and
respectability of phantasms be discredited. Possibly, however, it may be
found that the last word has not yet been said, and that there may exist
a scientific aspect for even so unstable and diaphanous a subject as
ghosts.
Instead of going over the literature of the subject from the earliest
times--a literature, by the way, which in the hands of Tylor, Maury,
Scott, Ralston, Mrs. Crowe and others certainly does not lack interest--it
will better suit our present purpose to examine some facts relative to
perception in general and vision in particular, and give some examples
illustrating different phases of the subject.
Perception may be defined as the cognizance which the mind takes of
impressions presented to it through the organs of sense, and possibly also
by other means.
One class of perceptions is universally recognized and is in a measure
understood, namely, perceptions arising from impressions made by
recognized external objects or forces upon the organs of sense, sight,
hearing, smell, taste, and also the general sense of touch. These
perceptions in particular are designated as _real_ or _true_, because they
correspond to recognized external realities.
But impressions are also made upon the organs of special sense by
influences which are not recognized as having any objective reality, but
which nevertheless affect the senses in a manner often identical with that
in which they are affected by recognized external objects, and they cause
the same perceptions to arise in the mind. Hence another broad class of
perceptions includes those which are taken cognizance of by the mind from
impressions made upon the organs of sense in other ways and by other means
than by external objects, and often where there is no evidence that any
external object exists corresponding to the impression so made.
Perceptions arising in these various ways are called _hallucinations_.
On close examination, however, it is found that the sharp line of
separation between what has and what has not an objective reality is not
easily drawn, any more than in biology the sharp line between animal and
vegetable life can be easily drawn, or at the lower end of the scale
between the living and the not living.
So the origin of those perceptions which are classed as hallucinations has
always been a subject of controversy, even among philosophers of the
greatest merit and eminence.
Without following out the discussions which have arisen on this
point--discussions which are often confusing and generally inconclusive,
a fairly distinct view of the subject may be obtained by considering the
origin of these perceptions under three heads--namely:--
(1) Perceptions which are reckoned as hallucinations may be originated
_centrally_; that is, they may arise wholly within the mind itself without
any direct external stimulus. For instance the characters drawn by the
novelist may become so real to him, and even to some of his readers, that
they become _externalized_--actual objects of visual perception and are
seen to act and even heard to speak. The instance is repeatedly quoted of
the painter who, after carefully studying a sitter's appearance, could
voluntarily project it visibly into space and paint the portrait, not from
the original, but from the phantasm so produced; and of another who could
externalize and project other mental pictures in the same manner, pictures
which so interested him and were so subject to the ordinary laws of vision
that he would request any one who took a position in front of them, to
move away so as not to obstruct his view.
It will be noticed in these cases that although the perception has its
origin centrally, in the mind itself, and is even voluntarily produced,
still, it is seen as an impression made upon the visual organ in exactly
the same manner as a picture thrown upon the retina by a real external
object; it disappears when the eyes are closed or an opaque object
intervenes, and follows the laws of optics in general; hence, strictly
speaking, these perceptions are also real.
(2) Perceptions may have their origin _peripherally_--that is, the point
of excitation which causes the act of perception in the mind may exist in
the external sense organs themselves, even when no external object
corresponding to the perception exists at the time, or it is not in a
position on account of distance or intervening objects to affect the
senses.
In examining the cases which may be placed under this head they resolve
themselves into two classes: those which occur in connection with some
disease or defect in the sense organ concerned, and those which are
recrudescences or after-visions, arising from over-excitation of those
organs; for instance, after looking through a window in a very bright
light--even a considerable length of time afterwards--on shutting the eyes
or looking into a dark room, an image of the window is seen with all its
divisions and peculiarities of construction distinctly presented. To the
country lad returning home at night from his first visit to the circus
the whole scene is again presented; and ring, horses, equestrians,
acrobats and clowns are all seen and externalized with the utmost
distinctness; even the crack of the ring-master's whip is heard and the
jokes and antics of the clowns repeated.
(3) Perceptions may have their origin telepathically--that is, scenes and
incidents transpiring at a distance far too great to affect the bodily
organs of sense in any direct or ordinary way do, nevertheless, in some
way, cause perceptions to arise in the mind corresponding to those same
scenes and incidents.
This is comparatively a new proposition in psychology and has for its
basis studies and experiments which have only been systematically made
within the past fourteen years. These studies and experiments relate to
telepathy, automatism, and the action of the subliminal self. They have
been undertaken and carried on by various societies interested in
experimental psychology, but chiefly by the English Society for Psychical
Research, some of the results of whose labors have been briefly sketched
in the preceding chapters.
In addition to the reports of these societies an important contribution to
the subject of apparitions was published by the then secretaries of the
Society for Psychical Research, the late Mr. Edmund Gurney, Mr. Frederick
W. H. Myers, and Mr. Frank Podmore.
It appeared under the title, _Phantasms of the Living_, and contained more
than seven hundred instances relating to various forms of hallucinations
and phantasms--carefully studied and authenticated cases which were
selected from several thousand presented for examination. It is to these
sources chiefly that I shall refer for cases illustrating the subject
under consideration.
It seems hardly necessary to recapitulate here the experiments on which
the doctrine of telepathy or thought-transference is
established--experiments which have been carefully made by so many well
qualified persons, and which have proved convincing to nearly every one,
whether scientific or unscientific, who has patiently followed them,
though of course not convincing to those who choose to remain ignorant of
the facts.
The same is true regarding the subject of automatism and the existence and
action of the subliminal self. It remains to show the interesting
relations which these subjects bear to hallucinations in general, and
especially to phantasms and apparitions.
It is well known that hallucinations can be voluntarily or purposely
produced by one person in the mind of another, and in various ways, though
few perhaps consider to what an extent this is possible. In many of the
most astonishing feats of the conjurer, and especially of the Indian
fakir, suggestion and the imagination are brought into service to aid in
producing the illusions.
Regarding the hallucinations which may be produced in the mind of the
hypnotized subject by the hypnotizer there can be no doubt.
The following case is in point and illustrates telepathic influence
excited at a distance as well. It is from _Phantasms of the Living_, and
the agent, Mr. E. M. Glissold, of 3 Oxford Square, W., writes
substantially as follows:--
"In the year 1878 there was a carpenter named Gannaway employed by me to
mend a gate in my garden; when a friend of mine (Moens) called upon me and
the conversation turned upon mesmerism. He asked me if I knew anything
about it myself. On my replying in the affirmative he said, 'Can you
mesmerize any one at a distance?' I said that I had never tried to do so,
but that there was a man in the garden whom I could easily mesmerize, and
that I would try the experiment with this man if he (Moens) would tell me
what to do. He then said, 'Form an impression of the man whom you wish to
mesmerize, in your own mind, and then wish him strongly to come to you.'
"I very much doubted the success of the experiment, but I followed the
directions of my friend, and I was extremely astonished to hear the steps
of the man whom I wished to appear, running after me; he came up to me
directly and asked me what I wanted with him. I will add that my friend
and I had been walking in the garden and had seen and spoken with the
carpenter, but when I wished him to come to me I was quite out of his
sight behind the garden wall, one hundred yards distant, and had neither
by conversation nor otherwise led him to believe that I intended to
mesmerize him.
"On another occasion, when the Hon. Auberon Herbert was present, the
following scene occurred. Gannaway was mesmerized and stood in one corner
of the dining-room. Herbert sat at the table and wrote the following
programme, each scene of which Mr. Glissold, the magnetizer, was to
_silently call up in his own mind_.
"(1) I see a house in flames.
"(2) I see a woman looking out of a window.
"(3) She has a child in her arms.
"(4) She throws it out of the window.
"(5) Is it hurt--?
"Gannaway became much excited, describing each scene as it passed through
the mind of his hypnotizer. Several well known persons add their testimony
to the above statement."
A single case of mental action so strange and unusual, no matter how well
authenticated, might not impress a cautious truth-seeker, but when
fortified by well studied cases in the experience of such men as Esdaile,
as shown in his remarkable experiments upon the natives of India, and
especially his well known one of hypnotizing the blind man at a distance,
also those of Prof. Janet, Prof. Richet, Dr. Gibert, and Dr. Hericourt, in
France under the observation of Mr. Myers and other members of the Society
for Psychical Research, and hundreds of other cases of hypnotizing at a
distance, or silently influencing the subject without hypnotization, the
matter then challenges attention and belief;--and it is from abundant
observation of such cases, from the simplest examples of
thought-transference to the most wonderful exhibition of perceptive power
at great distances, that the doctrine of Telepathy is founded.
In the following case the agent was able to project his own semblance or
phantasm a distance of several miles; and it was then distinctly perceived
by a young lady, a friend of the agent. The circumstances were these:--Two
young men, Mr. A. H. W. Cleave and Mr. H. P. Sparks, aged respectively
eighteen and nineteen years, were fellow-students of engineering at the
Navy Yard, Portsmouth, England. While there, they engaged in some mesmeric
experiments, and after a time Sparks was able to put Cleave thoroughly
into the hypnotic condition. The following is Mr. Sparks' account of what
occurred.
"For the last year or fifteen months I have been in the habit of
mesmerizing a fellow-student of mine. The way I did it was by simply
looking into his eyes as he lay in an easy position on a bed. This
produced sleep. After a few times I found that this sleep was deepened by
making long passes after the patient was off. Then comes the remarkable
part of this sort of mesmerism." (Mr. Sparks then describes his subject's
ability to see in his trance places in which he was interested if he
resolved to see them before he was hypnotized.) "However, it has been
during the last week or so I have been surprised and startled by an
extraordinary affair. Last Friday evening (Jan. 15th, 1886), he (Cleave)
expressed his wish to see a young lady living in Wandsworth, and he also
said he would try to make himself seen by her. I accordingly mesmerized
him and continued the long passes for about twenty minutes, concentrating
my will on his idea. When he came round (after one hour and twenty
minutes' trance) he said he had seen her in the dining-room; and that
after a time she grew restless; then suddenly she looked straight at him,
and then covered her eyes with her hands; just then he came round. Last
Monday evening (Jan. 18th) we did the same thing, and this time he said he
thought he had frightened her, as after she had looked at him a few
minutes she fell back in her chair in a sort of faint. Her little brother
was in the room at the time. Of course after this he expected a letter if
the vision was real; and on Wednesday morning he received a letter from
the young lady, asking whether anything had happened to him, as on Friday
evening she was startled by seeing him standing at the door of the room.
After a minute he disappeared and she thought it might have been fancy;
but on Monday evening she was still more startled by seeing him again, and
this time much clearer, and it so frightened her that she nearly fainted."
Mr. Cleave also writes a very interesting account of his experience in
the matter, and two fellow-students who were in the room during the
experiments also write corroborating the statements made.
The following is a copy of the letter in which the young lady, Miss A.,
describes her side of the affair. It is addressed, "Mr. A. H. W. Cleave,
H. M. S. _Marlborough_, Portsmouth," and is postmarked Wandsworth, Jan.
19th, 1886.
"WANDSWORTH,
"Tuesday morning.
"DEAR ARTHUR,--Has anything happened to you? Please write and let me
know at once, for I have been so frightened.
"Last Tuesday evening I was sitting in the dining-room reading, when I
happened to look up, and could have declared I saw you standing at the
door looking at me. I put my handkerchief to my eyes, and when I
looked again you were gone.
"I thought it must have been only my fancy, but last night (Monday)
while I was at supper I saw you again just as before, and was so
frightened that I nearly fainted. Luckily only my brother was there or
it would have attracted attention. Now do write at once and tell me
how you are. I really cannot write any more now."
Probably the young lady is in error regarding the date of the first
experiment, which may be accounted for by her excited condition--the shock
of the last experiment having proved decidedly serious, as was afterwards
discovered, and she begged that the experiment might never be repeated.
Both young men mention Friday as the day of their first decided success,
but they were experimenting on previous days, including Tuesday, when the
young lady writes she first saw Cleave's phantasm. Concerning the date of
the last experiment there is no question.
Effects similar to those just related may also occur where the agent is in
ordinary sleep, or at least when no hypnotizing process is made use of.
The agent in this case first formulates the wish or strong resolution to
be present and be seen at a certain place or by a certain person, and then
goes to sleep, and generally remains unconscious of the result until
learned from the percipient.
In the following case the name of the agent is withheld from publication,
though known to Mr. Myers who reports the case; the percipient is the Rev.
W. Stainton-Moses. The agent goes on to state:--
"One evening early last year (1878), I resolved to try to appear to Z.
(Mr. Moses) at some miles distant. I did not inform him beforehand of my
intended experiment, but retired to rest shortly before midnight with
thoughts intently fixed on Z., with whose room and surroundings, however,
I was quite unacquainted. I soon fell asleep and woke up the next morning
unconscious of anything having taken place. On seeing Z. a few days
afterwards I inquired, 'Did anything happen at your rooms on Saturday
night?' 'Yes,' he replied, 'a great deal happened. I had been sitting over
the fire with M., smoking and chatting. About 12:30 he rose to leave, and
I let him out myself. I returned to the fire to finish my pipe when I saw
you sitting in the chair just vacated by him. I looked intently at you,
and then took up a newspaper to assure myself I was not dreaming, but on
laying it down I saw you still there. While I gazed without speaking, you
faded away. Though I imagined you must be fast asleep in bed at that hour,
yet you appeared dressed in your ordinary garments, such as you usually
wear every day.' 'Then my experiment seems to have succeeded,' I said.
'The next time I come ask me what I want, as I had fixed on my mind
certain questions to ask you, but I was probably waiting for an
invitation to speak.'
"A few weeks later the experiment was repeated with equal success, I, as
before, not informing Z. when it was made. On this occasion he not only
questioned me upon the subject which was at that time under very warm
discussion between us, but detained me by the exercise of his will, some
time after I had intimated a desire to leave. As on the former occasion no
recollection remained of the event, or seeming event, of the preceding
night."
Mr. Moses writes, September 27th, 1885, confirming this account. Mr. Moses
also says that he has never on any other occasion seen the figure of a
living person in a place where the person was not.
The next case, while presenting features similar to the last, differs from
it in this respect: that there are two percipients. It is copied from the
manuscript book of the agent, Mr. S. H. B.
Mr. B. writes:--"On a certain Sunday evening in November, 1881, having
been reading of the great power which the human will is capable of
exercising, I determined with the whole force of my being that I would be
present in spirit in the front bedroom, on the second floor of a house
situated at 22 Hogarth Road, Kensington, in which room slept two ladies of
my acquaintance, Miss L. S. V. and Miss E. C. V., aged respectively
twenty-five and eleven years. I lived at this time at 23 Kildare Gardens,
a distance of about three miles from Hogarth Road, and I had not mentioned
in any way my intention of trying this experiment to either of the above
named ladies, for the simple reason that it was only on retiring to rest
upon Sunday night that I made up my mind to do so. The time at which I
determined I would be there was one o'clock in the morning, and I also had
a strong intention of making my presence perceptible.
"On the following Thursday I went to see the ladies in question, and in
the course of conversation (without any allusion to the subject on my
part), the elder one told me that on the previous Sunday night she had
been much terrified by perceiving me standing by her bedside, and that she
screamed when the apparition advanced towards her, and awoke her little
sister who also saw me. I asked her if she was awake at the time, and she
replied most decidedly in the affirmative; and upon my inquiring the time
of the occurrence, she replied about one o'clock in the morning."
Miss Verity's account is as follows:--
"On a certain Sunday evening, about twelve months since, at our house
in Hogarth Road, Kensington, I distinctly saw Mr. B. in my room about
one o'clock. I was perfectly awake and was much terrified. I awoke my
sister by screaming, and she saw the apparition herself. Three days
after, when I saw Mr. B., I told him what had happened; but it was
some time before I could recover from the shock I had received, and
the remembrance is too vivid to be ever erased from my memory.
"L. S. VERITY."
Miss E. C. Verity writes:--
"I remember the occurrence of the event described by my sister in the
annexed paragraph, and her description is quite correct. I saw the
apparition at the same time and under the same circumstances."
Miss A. S. Verity writes:--
"I remember quite clearly the evening my eldest sister awoke me by
calling to me from an adjoining room, and upon my going to her
bedside, where she slept with my youngest sister, they both told me
they had seen S. H. B. standing in the room. The time was about one
o'clock. S. H. B. was in evening dress, they told me."
The following case, while of the same general character, presents this
remarkable difference: that the agent's mind was not at all directed to
the real percipient, but only to the _place_ where the percipient happened
to be. It is from the notebook of Mr. S. H. B. who was also the agent.
"On Friday, December 1st, 1882, at 9:30 P. M. I went into a room alone and
sat by the fireside, and endeavored so strongly to fix my mind upon the
interior of a house at Kew (viz., Clarence Road), in which resided Miss V.
and her two sisters, that I seemed to be actually in the house.
"During this experiment I must have fallen into a mesmeric sleep, for,
although I was conscious, I could not move my limbs. I did not seem to
have lost the power of moving them, but I could not make the effort to do
so.... At 10 P. M. I regained my normal state by an effort of the will and
wrote down on a sheet of note-paper the foregoing statements.
"When I went to bed on this same night, I determined that I would be in
the front bedroom of the above-mentioned house at 12 P. M., and remain
there until I had made my presence perceptible to the inmates of that
room. On the next day, Saturday, I went to Kew to spend the evening, and
met there a married sister of Miss V. (viz., Mrs. L.). This lady I had
only met once before and that was at a ball, two years previous to the
above date. We were both in fancy dress at the time, and as we did not
exchange more than half a dozen words, this lady would naturally have lost
any vivid recollection of my appearance even if she had noticed it.
"In the course of conversation (although I did not for a moment think of
asking her any questions on such a subject), she told me that on the
previous night she had seen me distinctly on two occasions. She had spent
the night at Clarence Road, and had slept in the front bedroom. At about
half-past nine, she had seen me in the passage going from one room to
another, and at 12 P. M., when she was wide-awake, she had seen me enter
the bedroom and walk round to where she was lying and take her hair (which
is very long), into my hand. She told me that the apparition took hold of
her hand and gazed intently into it, whereupon she spoke, saying, 'You
need not look at the lines for I have never had any trouble.'
"She then awoke her sister, Miss V., who was sleeping with her, and told
her about it. After hearing this account I took the statement which I had
written down the previous evening from my pocket and showed it to some of
the persons present, who were much astonished, although incredulous.
"I asked Mrs. L. if she was not dreaming at the time of the latter
experience, but she stoutly denied, and stated that she had forgotten what
I was like, but seeing me so distinctly she recognized me at once. At my
request she wrote a brief account of her impressions and signed it."
The following is the lady's statement:--
"On Friday, December 1st, 1882, I was on a visit to my sister, at 21
Clarence Road, Kew, and about 9:30 P. M. I was going from my bedroom
to get some water from the bath-room, when I distinctly saw Mr. S. B.
whom I had only seen once before, two years ago, walk before me past
the bath-room, toward the bedroom at the end of the landing.
"About 11 o'clock we retired for the night; about 12 o'clock I was
still awake, and the door opened and Mr. S. B. came into the room and
walked around to the bedside, and there stood with one foot on the
ground, and the other knee resting on a chair. He then took my hair
into his hand, after which he took my hand in his and looked very
intently into the palm. 'Ah,' I said (speaking to him), 'you need not
look at the lines for I never had any trouble.' I then awoke my
sister; I was not nervous, but excited, and began to fear some serious
illness would befall her, she being delicate at the time, but she is
progressing more favorably now.
"H. L."
(Full name signed.)
Miss Verity also corroborates this statement.
* * * * *
The following is still another case of one mind acting upon another mind
at a distance and at least in a most unusual way. Call it mind-projection,
making one's self visible at a distance, sending out the subliminal
self--call it what we may--it is a glimpse of a phenomenon, rare in its
occurrence, but which nevertheless has been observed a sufficient number
of times to claim serious attention, and calm and candid consideration.
The case is from _Phantasms of the Living_, and is furnished by "Mrs.
Russell of Belgaum, India, wife of Mr. H. R. Russell, Educational
Inspector in the Bombay Presidency." It differs from those already cited
in the fact that it is unconnected with either sleep or hypnotism, but
both agent and percipient were awake and in a perfectly normal condition.
Mrs. Russell writes:--
"June 8th, 1886.
"As desired I write down the following facts as well as I can recall
them. I was living in Scotland, my mother and sisters in Germany. I
lived with a very dear friend of mine, and went to Germany every year
to see my people. It had so happened that I could not go home as usual
for two years, when on a sudden I made up my mind to go and see my
family. They knew nothing of my intention; I had never gone in early
spring before; and I had no time to let them know by letter that I was
going to set off. I did not like to send a telegram for fear of
frightening my mother. The thought came to me to will with all my
might to appear to one of my sisters, never mind which of them, in
order to give them warning of my coming. I only thought most intensely
for a few minutes of them, wishing with all my might to be seen by one
of them--half present myself, in vision, at home. I did not take more
than ten minutes, I think. I started by the Leith steamer on Saturday
night, end of April, 1859. I wished to appear at home about 6 o'clock
P. M. that same Saturday.
"I arrived at home at 6 o'clock on Tuesday morning following. I
entered the house without any one seeing me, the hall being cleaned
and the front door open. I walked into the room. One of my sisters
stood with her back to the door; she turned round when she heard the
door opening, and on seeing me, stared at me, turning deadly pale, and
letting what she had in her hand fall. I had been silent. Then I spoke
and said, 'It is I. Why do you look so frightened?' When she answered,
'I thought I saw you again as Stinchen (another sister) saw you on
Saturday.'
"When I inquired, she told me that on Saturday evening about 6
o'clock, my sister saw me quite clearly, entering the room in which
she was, by one door, passing through it, opening the door of another
room in which my mother was, and shutting the door behind me. She
rushed after what she thought was I, calling out my name, and was
quite stupefied when she did not find me with my mother. My mother
could not understand my sister's excitement. They looked everywhere
for me, but of course did not find me. My mother was very miserable;
she thought I might be dying.
"My sister who had seen me (i. e. my apparition) was out that morning
when I arrived. I sat down on the stairs to watch, when she came in,
the effect of my real appearance on her. When she looked up and saw
me, sitting motionless, she called out my name and nearly fainted.
"My sister had never seen anything unearthly either before that or
afterwards; and I have never made any such experiments since--nor will
I, as the sister that saw me first when I really came home, had a very
severe illness afterwards, caused by the shock to her nerves.
"J. M. RUSSELL."
Mrs. Russell's sister, in answer to her inquiry whether she remembered the
incident, replied: "Of course I remember the matter as well as though it
had happened to-day. Pray don't come appearing to me again!"
* * * * *
We started out with this proposition. Perceptions--those of the class
denominated hallucinations--may have their origin telepathically. In proof
and illustration of that proposition we have so far presented a single
class of cases, namely, Those where the hallucination was produced with
will and purpose on the part of the agent. The cases present the following
conditions:--
(1) The agent being in a normal condition--the percipient hypnotized, the
hypnotic condition having been produced at a distance of a hundred
yards--and from a point from which the percipient could not be seen.
(2) The agent in the hypnotic condition; a definite hallucination strongly
desired and decided upon beforehand was produced, the percipient being in
a normal state.
(3) The agent was in normal sleep. Hallucination decided upon before going
to sleep was produced--the percipient awake and in normal condition.
(4) Both agent and percipient awake and normal--hallucination produced at
a distance of four hundred miles. In one case the phantasm is seen by two
percipients, and in another case the _place_ only where the phantasm
should appear was strongly in the agent's mind; and while the sisters who
_usually_ occupied that room might naturally be expected to be the
percipients, as a matter of fact another person, a married sister who
happened to be visiting them--a comparative stranger to the agent--was
occupying the room and became the percipient.
In each of these cases a definite purpose was formed by the agent to
produce a certain hallucination or present a certain picture--generally a
representation or phantasm of himself to the percipient. A picture or
phantasm is seen by the intended percipient, and, on comparison, in each
case it is found that it is _the same phantasm_ that the agent had
_endeavored_ to project and make visible, and that it was perceived in the
same place and at the same time that the agent had intended that it should
be seen.
Can these statements be received as true and reliable? In reply we say,
the evidence having been carefully examined is of such a character as to
entitle it to belief, and the errors of observation and reporting are
trifling, and not such as would injure the credibility of statements made
regarding any event which was a matter of ordinary observation; moreover,
these cases now have become so numerous and have been so carefully
observed that they should be judged by the ordinary rules of evidence; and
by that rule they should be received.
Having been received, how can they be explained?
It may be answered:--
(1) That these apparent sequences presenting the relation of cause and
effect are merely chance coincidences. But on carefully applying the
doctrine of chances, it is found that the probability that these
coincidences of time and place, and the identity of the pictures presented
and perceived, occurred by chance, would be only one in a number so large
as to make it difficult to represent it in figures, and quite impossible
for any mind to comprehend. And that such a coincidence should occur
repeatedly in one person's experience is absolutely incredible.
(2) The circumstances of distance and situation render it certain that the
phantasms could not have been communicated or presented to the percipient
through any of the usual channels of communication--by means of the
physical organs of sense--even granting that they could be so transferred
under favorable conditions.
If, then, these cases must be received as authentic and true, and if they
cannot be disposed of as chance coincidences, nor explained by any
ordinary method or law of production or transmission, then there must be
_some other_ method of mental interaction, and mental intercommunication
_not usually recognized_, by means of which these pictures or phantasms
are produced or transferred, and this unusual method of mental
interaction and intercommunication we designate _telepathy_. What the
exact method is by which this unusual interaction is accomplished is not
fully demonstrated, any more than are the methods of the various
interacting forces between the sun and the planets or amongst the planets
themselves. The hypothesis of a universal or inter-stellar ether has never
been demonstrated; it is only a hypothesis framed because it is necessary
in order to explain and support another undemonstrated theory, namely, the
vibratory or wave theory of light. We do not know what the substance or
force which we call _attraction_ really is. Light has one method of
movement and action, sound another, heat another, and electricity another,
but most of the propositions concerning these methods of action are only
theories or hypotheses having a greater or less degree of probability as
the case may be. They were invented to account for certain actual and
undeniable phenomena, and they are respected by all men of science or
other persons having sufficient knowledge of these different subjects to
entitle them to an opinion. The same thing is true of telepathy; its facts
must be known and its theories well considered by those who assume to sit
in judgment upon them; and when known they are respected. The Copernican
theory of the planetary movements was formulated three hundred and fifty
years ago; it was one hundred and fifty years later when Newton proposed
the first rational theory regarding a force which might explain these
motions. For this he was ridiculed and even ostracized by the
self-constituted judges of his day. Telepathy has been the subject of
careful study and experiment comparatively only a few years, and it can
hardly, at this early date, expect better treatment at the hands of its
critics. Its facts, however, remain, and its explanatory theories are
being duly considered.
What, then, are the theories or hypotheses which may aid us in forming an
idea of the manner in which a thought, a conception, or a mental picture
may pass between two persons so situated that no communication could pass
between them through the ordinary channels of communication--sight,
hearing, or touch? Let us suppose two persons A and B to be so situated. A
is the agent or person having unusual ability to impress his own thought,
or any conception or mental picture which he may form in his own mind,
upon some other mind; and B is the percipient or a person having unusual
ability to receive or perceive such thoughts or mental pictures. Suppose
these two people to be in the country and engaged in farming. Upon a
certain morning A takes his axe and goes to the woods, half a mile
distant, and is engaged in cutting brush and trees for the purpose of
clearing the land, and B goes into the garden to care for the growing
vegetables. After an hour spent in these respective occupations, B becomes
disquieted, even alarmed, oppressed with the feeling that some misfortune
has happened and that A is needing his assistance. He is unable to
continue his work and at once starts for the woods to seek for A. He finds
that A has received a glancing blow from his axe which has deeply wounded
his foot, disabled him, and put his life in immediate danger from
hemorrhage. Here the thought of A in his extreme peril goes out intensely
to B, desiring his presence; and B, by some unusual perceptive power,
takes cognizance of this intense thought and wish. This is telepathy.
Again, suppose B hears a voice which he recognizes as A's calling his name
and with a peculiar effect which B recognizes as distress or entreaty. Or,
again, that B sees a picture or representation of A lying wounded and
bleeding, still it is a telepathic impulse from A and taken cognizance of
by B which constitutes the communication between them, whatever the exact
nature or method of the communication may be.
The theories or hypotheses which have been put forward regarding the
method by which this telepathic influence or impact is conveyed may be
noted as follows:--
(1) That of a vibratory medium, always present and analogous to the
atmosphere for propagating sound or the universal ether for propagating
light.
(2) An effluence of some sort emanating from the persons concerned and
acting as a medium for the time being.
(3) A sixth sense.
(4) A duplex personality or subliminal self.
First, then, as regards the vibratory hypothesis; it would demand a
variety of media to convey separately something corresponding to the sense
of sight, the sense of hearing, and to each of the other senses--touch,
taste, and smell--as all these sensations have been telepathically
transmitted, or else there must exist one single medium capable of
transmitting these many widely different methods of sensation
separately,--either of which suppositions are, to say the least,
bewildering. Such a medium must also possess a power of penetrating or
acting through intervening obstacles, such as no medium with which we are
acquainted possesses; and, lastly, in addition to numerous apparently
insurmountable difficulties and insufficiencies, there is no proof
whatever that any such vibratory medium exists.
Second. Regarding a vital effluence or some physical emanation or aura
belonging to each individual, and by means of which communication is
possible between persons separated by too great a distance to permit
communication through the ordinary channels; it is at least conceivable
that such an aura or personal atmosphere exists, and by some it is claimed
to be demonstrated; but admitting its existence, that it would be capable
of fulfilling the numerous functions demanded of it in the premises is
doubtful.
Third. That the telepathic intercommunication is accomplished by means of
a sixth sense--a sort of compend of all the other senses, with added
powers as regards distance and intervening obstacles--is a hypothesis
which has been urged by some, and is at least intelligible; but, while it
presents an intelligible explanation of such facts as clairvoyance and the
hearing of voices, there is a large class of facts, as we shall see, which
utterly refuse to fall into line or be explained by this hypothesis.
Fourth. The hypothesis of different strata of personality--or of a second
or subliminal self--is the one which best fulfils the necessary conditions
and also harmonizes the greatest number of facts when arranged with
reference to this idea. There is also real, substantial evidence that such
a second personality actually exists, some of the facts bearing upon this
subject having been presented in former chapters.
Those of my readers who have carefully followed the cases of unusual
mental action there presented--cases of thought-transference, of
clairvoyance, of remarkable mind-action in the hypnotic trance and in
natural somnambulism--in well marked examples of double consciousness as
shown in the cases of Felida X., of Alma Z., of Ansel Bourne, and the
hypnotic subject, Madame B., in her various personalities of Leonie,
Leontine, and Leonore, in automatic action as displayed in
Planchette-writing, in trance-speaking and in crystal-gazing, cannot have
failed to observe, throughout the whole series, mind acting rationally and
intelligently, quite independently of the ordinary consciousness, and even
at times independently of the whole physical organization. We have
considered the evidence which points to the fact, or at least to the
theory of a subliminal self, or another personality, in some manner bound
up in that complicated physical and mental mechanism which constitutes
what we term an individual. We have seen that there are weighty proofs
that such a secondary or subliminal, or, if you choose so to designate it,
_supranormal_ self, actually exists, and that it exhibits functions and
powers far exceeding the functions and powers of the ordinary self. We
have seen it expressing its own personal opinions, its own likes and
dislikes, quite different and opposite to the opinions, likes, and
dislikes of the ordinary self; having its own separate series of
remembered actions or chain of memories, its own antecedent history, and
its separate present interests; and especially performing actions
altogether beyond the powers of the ordinary self. We have seen it going
out to great distances, seeing and describing scenes and events there
taking place--for example, Swedenborg at Gottenburg witnessing the
conflagration at Stockholm; Dr. Gerault's clairvoyant maid-servant, Marie,
in France, seeing the sad death of her neighbor's son, Limoges, the
ropemaker, while serving in the Crimea; and also the serious illness of
Dr. Gerault's military friend in Algiers. Fitzgerald, at Brunswick, Me.,
seeing and describing the Fall River fire three hundred miles away, and
Mrs. Porter, at Bridgeport, Conn., describing the burning of the steamer
_Henry Clay_ while it was occurring on the Hudson River near the village
of Yonkers. We have seen this same subliminal self in the case of Mr.
Stead, going out and acquiring desired knowledge relating to the location,
occupation, and needs of persons from whom he desired such information,
and bringing it back and reporting it by means of automatic writing.
Again, we have seen this subliminal self in the case of Mrs. Newnham,
perceiving the silently written and sometimes even the unwritten questions
of her husband, and automatically writing the answers by means of
Planchette; and we have seen it producing hallucinations of hearing as in
the case of Leonore causing Leontine to hear a voice reproving her for her
flippancy.
A remarkable series of facts are here pointed out, facts some of which are
akin to those which have for ages been lying about in the lumber rooms of
history or in out-of-the-way corners of men's memories, neglected and
discredited, because unexplained, unaccounted for, forming no part of any
recognized system of mental action, and some only recently observed and
even now looked at askance for the same reason. They have remained a mass
of undigested and unarranged facts, without system, without any
ascertained relation to each other, pointing to no definite principle,
defined by no definite law. It is only within the past decade that these
facts have been studied with reference to the action of a subliminal self.
But this new and startling idea being once admitted and brought to the
front, it is found that not only in the whole series of observed automatic
actions in the somnambulism of the hypnotic state, and that of ordinary
sleep, are the organs of the unconscious body made use of by this
subconscious or subliminal self, but also in dreams, in reverie, in
moments of abstraction, of strong emotion or mental excitement, and even
in the case of some peculiarly susceptible persons in the ordinary waking
condition, this subliminal self can greatly influence and sometimes take
entire control of the action of the body.
It will be seen then, how wide and important is the range of phenomena in
which the subliminal self appears as an active agent, impressing its own
special knowledge, however acquired, its ideas, pictures, and images upon
the primary self, and causing them to be perceived, remembered, and
expressed by it; and with this unusual power in view, evidently it is in
this direction also that we must look for the key to that still more
remarkable series of phenomena which are known as phantasms or
apparitions.