Clairvoyance.
What is clairvoyance? “The term, clairvoyance,” says Dr. George
Wyld, in a paper read before the Psychical Research Society, London,
“is French, and means _clear-seeing_, but it appears to me to be
an inadequate term, because it might signify clear optical vision,
or clear mental vision. What is signified by the term is the power
which certain individuals possess of seeing external objects under
circumstances which render the sight of these objects impossible to
physical optics. In short, by clairvoyance, we mean the power which
the _mind_ has of seeing or knowing thoughts and psychical conditions,
and objects hidden from or beyond the reach of the physical senses;
and if the existence of this faculty can be established, we arrive
at a demonstration that man has a power within his body as yet
unrecognised by physical science--a power which is called soul, or
mind-seeing, and for the description of such a power the term might
be auto-nocticy (αυτονοητικος), or psychoscopy.” Psychoscopy, or soul
sight, would, perhaps, be the better term. I propose to use the old
term--clairvoyance--as it signifies, in popular usage, the power of
seeing beyond the range of physical vision, as we know it.
That certain persons are endowed with this faculty of clear seeing--in
some of its various phases--is a matter settled beyond dispute. What
special name to call this faculty, or what are the true causes of
its existence; why it should be possessed by some persons and not by
others; why it should be so frail and fugitive in the presence of
some people, and strong and vivid before others; why some persons
are never clairvoyant until they have been through the mesmeric and
psychic states; why some become possessed of the faculty through
disease; while, with others, the gift of clairvoyance appears to be
a spontaneous possession; and why some operators are successful in
inducing clairvoyance, and others not, etc., are interesting questions
to which the student of psychology may, with advantage, direct his
attention.
Clairvoyance is soul-sight--the power of the soul to see. It is
the state of refined psychic perception. This state increases in
lucidity--clearness and power of penetration--in proportion as the
activity of the physical senses are reduced below normal action. It
is observed to be most effective in the trance state--natural or
induced--as in the mesmeric and psychic states. I conclude, then,
clairvoyance depends upon the unfolding of the spirit’s perception, and
is increased in power as the ascendency of the spirit arises above the
activities of the spirit’s corporeal envelope--the body. In proportion
to the spirit’s ascendency over the organs and senses of the body, is
this psychic gift perfect or imperfect.
The large brain or cerebrum is the physical organ of the soul, as the
cerebellum is of the physiological brain functions. Mental functions
are manifested by the former, and physical functions by the latter.
Clairvoyance, as a spiritual faculty, will doubtless have its
appropriate organ in the brain. I do not profess to locate that organ.
At the same time I have noticed the best clairvoyants are wide and full
between the eyes, showing there is a particular fulness of the frontal
cerebral lobes, at their juncture at the root of the nose. This may
be something more than a mere physiognomic sign. When this sign is
accompanied by refinement of organisation, and a fine type of brain, I
always look for the possible manifestation of clairvoyance in mesmeric
subjects.
Some writers are of the opinion clairvoyance is actually soul-sight,
more or less retarded in lucidity by the action or activity of
the bodily senses. Others believe it to be a state arising from a
peculiar highly-strained nervous condition, which induces the state
of super-sensitivity or impressionability of the organisation. The
first may be termed the spiritual, and the latter the physiological
hypothesis. But, as a matter of fact, both conditions are noted. The
latter may account for much, and possibly is sufficient to explain much
that is called thought-reading--so often mistaken for clairvoyance.
It does appear to me that certain peculiar physiological conditions,
varying from semi-consciousness to profound trance, are necessary
for the manifestation of clairvoyance, even when it takes place in
apparently normal life of the possessor.
It is more than likely that the ornate and mystic ceremonies indulged
in by Hindoo mystics, Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman priests, had
the one grand end in view--viz., to induce the requisite state of
super-sensitivity, and thus prepare the consecrated youths, sybils,
and vestal virgins for the influx of spiritual vision, prophecy, and
what not. When this subtle influx came--by whatever name called--the
phenomena manifested were pretty much the same as we know them, only
varied in degree. The gods spoke per oracle, Pythean, or Delphic. The
man of God either coronated a king or foretold the end of a dynasty.
St. Stephen saw Christ, St. John beheld visions, Joan of Arc was
directed, Swedenborg illumined, and religious ecstatics in ancient and
modern times partook more or less of the sacred fire--the inner sight.
This (stripped of the fantastic surroundings, priestly mummeries,
and dominant belief of the times) simply indicated the evolution and
exercise of clairvoyance and other psychic gifts.
Coming nearer home, we hear of the mysterious visions at the Knock,
and at Lourdes. Miraculous appearances of the Virgin and winged
angels, to cheer the hearts of the faithful, and to cause the heads
of the scornful to rejoice in sceptical derision. Then we have all the
vagaries produced by the high nervous tension of modern revivalism, in
which the visions seen are but a transformation of church and chapel
dogmas into objective realities. These illusionary visions--mistaken
for clairvoyance--possess less reality than the delusive fancies of the
sensitive in the state of hypnosis.
Clairvoyance will be governed by its own spiritual laws, just as sight
is affected or retarded by physical conditions. What these spiritual
laws are we can only surmise, but this we may safely conjecture--viz.,
that soul-sight is not trammelled or limited by the natural laws which
govern physical optics. Clairvoyance and physical vision are absolutely
distinct, and possess little in common.
To illustrate a new subject, it is permissible to draw upon the
old and the well-known. So I venture to illustrate clairvoyance by
certain facts in connection with ordinary human vision. Although some
children see better than others, the power to see, with the ability
to understand the relative positions and uses of the things seen, is
a matter of development. In psychic vision, we also see growth or
development, with increasing power to use and understand the faculty.
Some children are blind from birth, and others, seeing, lose the power
of sight. Many are _blind_, although they have physical sight, they see
not with _the educated eye_. Many, again, have greater powers of sight
than they are aware of. As so it is with psychic vision.
What is true of the physical is also true of the psychic. From the
first glimmerings, to the possession of well-defined sight, a period
of growth and time elapses. From the first incoherent cry of infancy
to well defined and intelligent speech of manhood, we notice the same
agencies at work. Not only is clairvoyant vision generally imperfect
at first, but the psychic’s powers of description are also at fault.
St. Paul could not give utterance to what he saw, when caught up to
the third heavens. His knowledge of things and powers of speech failed
him to describe the startling, the new, and the unutterable. He had
a sudden revelation of the state of things in a sphere which had no
counterparts in his previous experience, in this--his known--world.
Hence, although he knew of his change of state, he could give no lawful
or intelligible expression to his thoughts.
Between the first incongruous utterances, and apparent fantastic
blunderings, and the more mature period in which “things spiritual” can
be suitably described in our language, to our right sense of things, or
comprehension, a period of development and education must elapse. It is
true some clairvoyants develop much more readily than others.
In the entrancement of the mesmeric and psychic states, there is a
lack of external consciousness. The soul is so far liberated from
the body as to act independently of the ordinary sensuous conditions
of the body, and sees by the perception and light of the inner or
spiritual world, as distinct from the perception and light of this
external or physical world. Elevated, or rather, liberated into this
new condition, the clairvoyant loses connection with the thrums and
threads of the physical organism, and is unable, or forgets for a
time, how to speak of things as they are, or as they would appear
to the physical vision of another. It is not surprising that in the
earlier stages of clairvoyant development, and consequent transfer of
ordinary consciousness and sensuous perception to that of spiritual
consciousness and perception, the language of the clairvoyant should
appear peculiar, incongruous, and “wanting,” according to our ideas of
clearness and precision.
One important lesson may be learned from this--viz., the operator
should never force results, or strive to develop psychic perception by
short cuts. Time must be allowed to the sensitive, for training and
experience, and the development of self-confidence and expression.
Clairvoyance is not a common possession. Nevertheless, I believe there
are many persons who possess the faculty unknown to themselves. By
following out patiently, for a time, the requisite directions, the
possession of this invaluable psychic gift might be discovered by many
who now appear totally devoid of any clairvoyant indications. Its
cultivation is possible and, in many ways, desirable.
“The higher attainment,” says Dr. John Hamlin Davey, “of occult
knowledge and power, the development of intuition, the psychometric
sense, clairvoyant vision, inner hearing, etc., etc., thus reached,
so open the avenues to a higher education, and enlarge the boundaries
of human consciousness and activity, as to fairly dwarf into
insignificance the achievements of external science.”
Clairvoyance is as old as mankind, but the exhibition of clairvoyance,
induced by mesmeric processes, was first announced by Puysegeur, a
favourite pupil of Mesmer, in 1784. Since that time to the present
not only have remarkable cases of clairvoyance cropped up, but there
have been few mesmerists of any experience who have not had numerous
cases under observation. Clairvoyance converted Dr. John Elliotson,
F.R.S., one of the most scientific of British physicians, from extreme
materialistic views to that of belief in soul and immortality. The
same may be said of the late Dr. Ashburner, who was one of the
Queen’s physicians. Dr. Georget, author of “Physiology of the Nervous
System,”--who was at one time opposed to a belief in the existence of a
transcendental state in man,--found upon examination of the facts and
incidents of artificial somnambulism, that _his materialism must go_.
In his last will and testament, referring to the above-mentioned work,
he says:--“This work had scarcely appeared, when renewed meditations
on a very extraordinary phenomenon, somnambulism, no longer permitted
me to entertain doubts of the existence within us, and external to
us, of an intelligent principle, altogether different from material
existences; in a word, of the soul and God. With respect to this I
have a profound conviction, founded upon facts which I believe to be
incontestable.” Dr. Georget directed this change of opinion should have
full publicity after his death.
Space would not suffice me to mention the names of all the highly
educated and refined minds, in the medical, literary, philosophic,
and scientific walks of life, who have studied these phenomena, and
who, like Dr. Georget, have no more doubts of their reality than they
have of their own physical existence, status, or reputation. Among
medical men--some of whom I have known and corresponded with--might be
mentioned Sir James Simpson, Drs. Elliotson, Ashburner, Esdaile, Buss,
Garth Wilkinson, Hands, Wyld, Hitchman, Eadon, and Davey. Among others
on the roll of fame, might be noticed Archbishop Whately; Earls Ducie,
Stanhope, Macclesfield, Charleville; the present Duke of Argyle; Lord R.
Cavendish, Lord Lindsay; Burton, the traveller; and the late Sergeant
Cox. Among literary men, Mr. Gladstone, Britain’s foremost statesman
and scholar; Mr. Balfour, his able and talented opponent; Bulwer
Lytton, Marryat, Neal, Robert Chambers, Dickens, and Stevenson, of “Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” fame. Mr. George Combe, the distinguished Scottish
metaphysician, philosopher, author, phrenologist, etc., was profoundly
interested in the phenomena. Among well-known men of science might
be mentioned Camille Flammarion, the French astronomer; Fichte, the
German philosopher; Professors Tornebom and Edland, Swedish physicists;
Professor Oliver Lodge, D.Sc., F.R.S.; Alfred Russell Wallace,
D.C.L., LL.D.; William Crookes, F.R.S.; Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S.
Notwithstanding this somewhat formidable array of investigators of
clairvoyance, many good people will not hesitate to deny the value of
such evidence, and yet will believe anything in its favour which may be
found in the Bible, as to its existence in the _past_. It is a strange
perversion of judgment--not at all surprising--when the majority take
(second-hand) for their religious(?) views whatever is recognised as
“sound” in each particular district and Church. It is not a question of
belief, it is “a question of evidence,” as Mr. Gladstone avers.
The Rev. Mr. MʽKinnon, late pastor of Chalmers’ Free Church, Glasgow,
told me a short time ago, “Clairvoyance was nothing more than a high
nervous concentrated form of mental vision,” to which I replied,
“Admitting the hypothesis--which, however, explained nothing--it
matters little what clairvoyance is esteemed to be or called, if the
facts connected with it are acknowledged.” Even this friend admitted
he knew a man in Mull, who lived on the half croft, next to his
father’s croft. This man had great repute in that district as “having
the Second Sight.” Whatever this man foretold always came to pass.
One instance will suffice. He (Mr. MʽKinnon) remembered that one day,
while this crofter (who was a tailor by trade) was working, he suddenly
stopped, and looked _out into vacancy_--as he always did when the
“Second Sight was on him”--and described a funeral coming over the
hill, the mourners, who they were, and numbers, the way the procession
took, and the name of the “man whose face was covered,” and finally,
when the procession would appear. Mr. MʽKinnon’s parents noted the
time, and being simple Highland folk, accustomed to the accuracy of
this man’s visions, they believed what he said, and kept his saying
in their hearts till the time of fulfilment came about. Mr. MʽKinnon
assured me “the funeral took place to the day and hour, twelve months
subsequently to the vision, as predicted.” All I can say is, if “a high
nervous concentrated form of mental vision” is capable of pointing out
all this, it is worthy of investigation. It is evident this tailor at
least had a power of vision--prevoyance--not of the ordinary, everyday
kind of vision. Second sight, as exhibited in this case, is what may be
termed spontaneous clairvoyance.
Epes Sargent, in his work, “The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism,”
referring to clairvoyance, says: “As far as I have admitted it as part
of a scientific basis (demonstrating man’s spiritual nature), it is the
exercise of the supersensual faculty of penetrating opaque and dense
matter as if by the faculty of sight. But it does more. It detects
our unuttered, undeveloped thoughts; it goes back along the past, and
describes what is hidden; nay, the proofs are overwhelming that it may
pierce the future, and predict coming events from the shadows they cast
before.
“What is it that sees without the physical eyes, and without the
assistance of light? What is normal sight? It is not the vibrating
ether--it is not the external eye--that sees. It is the soul using the
eye as an instrument, and light as a condition. Prove once that sight
can exist without the use of light, sensation, or any physical organ of
vision, and you prove an abnormal, supersensual, spiritual faculty--a
proof which puts an end to the theory of materialism, and which,
through its affinity with analogous or corresponding facts, justifies
its introduction as part of a scientific basis for the spiritual
theory.”
J. F. Deleuze was profoundly convinced of the existence of this
faculty. He claimed that the power of seeing at a distance, prevision,
and the transference of thought without the aid of external signs, were
in themselves sufficient proofs of the existence of spirituality of
soul.
Except in a very few instances, little or no pains are taken to
cultivate the spiritual nature of man. Civilised man of to-day is
but rising out of the age of brute force of yesterday, and he is
still circumscribed by love of earthly power and position. He is an
acquisitive rather than a spiritual being. Being dominated by the
senses, he will naturally seek and appreciate that which gratifies
his senses most. He has little time or patience for anything which
does not contribute pleasure to his sensuous nature. He would give
time to the investigation of the soul side of life if it brought gold,
the means of enjoyment, and gratified his acquisitiveness and love of
power. Probably the majority give the subject no attention at all. If
the spiritual side of our natures were as fully cultivated as those
elements which bring us bread and butter and praise of men in the
market-place, there is no doubt, no manner of doubt whatever, but the
most of us would occupy a nobler and more spiritually elevated plane in
life; and were adequate means taken, I doubt not but this faculty of
clairvoyance would become more generally known and cultivated. Even to
the selfish, worldly and non-spiritual man, clairvoyance is not without
its practical side and utility, such, for instance, as supplying
Chicago with water. To the spiritually minded, clairvoyance and all
psychic gifts are appreciated, less for what they will bring, than for
the testimony they present of man’s spiritual origin, transcendental
powers and probable continuity of life beyond this mortal vale.