alum and other ingredients. It is possible that the skin may be so
hardened and thickened by such preparations that superficial charring
might take place without the pain becoming great; but the surface of the
skin would certainly suffer severely. After Home had recovered from the
trance, I examined his hand with care to see if there were any signs of
burning or of previous preparation. I could detect no trace or injury
to the skin, which was soft and delicate, like a woman's. Neither were
there signs of any preparation having been previously applied. I have
often seen conjurers and others handle red-hot coals and iron, but there
were always palpable signs of burning.'[11]
In September 1897 a crew of passengers went from New Zealand to see the
Fijian rites, which, as reported in the 'Fiji Times,' corresponded exactly
with the description published by Mr. Basil Thomson, himself a witness.
The interesting point, historically, is the combination in Home of all the
_répertoire_ of the possessed men in Iamblichus. We certainly cannot get
rid of the fire-trick by aid of a hypothetical 'non-conducting substance.'
Till the 'substance' is tested experimentally it is not a _vera causa_. We
might as well say 'spirits' at once. Both that 'substance' and those
'spirits' are equally 'in the air.' Yet Mr. Podmore's 'explanations' (not
satisfactory to himself) are conceived so thoroughly in the spirit of
popular science--one of them casually discovering a new psychological law,
a second contradicting the facts it seeks to account for, a third
generously inventing an unknown substance--that they ought to be welcomed
by reviewers and lecturers.
It seems wiser to admit our ignorance and suspend our belief.
Here closes the futile chapter of explanations. Fraud is a _vera causa_,
but an hypothesis difficult of application when it is admitted that the
effects could not be caused by ordinary mechanical means. Hallucination,
through excitement, is a _vera causa_, but its remarkable uniformity,
as described by witnesses from different lands and ages, knowing nothing
of each other, makes us hesitate to accept a sweeping hypothesis of
hallucination. The case for it is not confirmed, when we have the same
reports from witnesses certainly not excited.
This extraordinary bundle, then, of reports, practically identical, of
facts paralysing to belief, this bundle made up of statements from so many
ages and countries, can only be 'filed for reference.' But it is manifest
that any savage who shared the experiences of Sir W. Crookes, Lord
Crawford, Mr. Hamilton Aïdé, M. Robert de St. Victor at Cideville, and
Policeman Higgs at Worksop, would believe that a spirit might tenant a
stick or stone--so believing he would be a Fetishist. Thus even of
Fetishism the probable origin is in a region of which we know nothing--the
_X_ region.
[Footnote 1: A sketch of the history will be found in the author's _Cock
Lane and Common Sense_.]
[Footnote 2: The best source is his article on 'Poltergeists.'
_Proceedings_ xi. 45-116. See, too, his 'Poltergeists' in _Studies in
Psychical Research_.]
[Footnote 3: _Studies in Psychical Research_, p. 140.]
[Footnote 4: See Preface to this edition for correction.]
[Footnote 5: _Proceedings_, S.P.R. vii. 383-394.]
[Footnote 6: See Sir W. Crookes's _Researches in Spiritualism_.]
[Footnote 7: Mr. Aïdé has given me this information. He recorded the
circumstances in his Diary at the time.]
[Footnote 8: _Report of Dialectical Society_, p. 209.]
[Footnote 9: See Porphyry, in Parthey's edition (Berlin, 1857), iii. 4.]
[Footnote 10: _Bulletin de la Société de Biologie_, 1880, p. 399.]
[Footnote 11: Crookes, _Proceedings_, ix. 308.]
APPENDIX C
_CRYSTAL-GAZING_
Since the chapter on crystal-gazing was in type, a work by Dr. Pierre
Janet has appeared, styled 'Les Névroses et les Idées Fixes.'[1] It
contains a chapter on crystal-gazing. The opinion of Dr. Janet, as that of
a savant familiar, at the Salpêtrière, with 'neurotic' visionaries,
cannot but be interesting. Unluckily, the essay must be regarded as
seriously impaired in value by Dr. Janet's singular treatment of his
subject. Nothing is more necessary in these researches than accuracy of
statement. Now, Dr. Janet has taken a set of experiences, or experiments,
of Miss X.'s from that lady's interesting essay, already cited; has
attributed them, not to Miss X., but to various people--for example, to
_une jeune fille, une pauvre voyante, une personne un peu mystique_; has
altered the facts in the spirit of romance; and has triumphantly given
that explanation, revival of memory, which was assigned by Miss X.
herself.
Throughout his paper Dr. Janet appears as the calm man of science
pronouncing judgment on the visionary vagaries of 'haunted' young girls
and disappointed seeresses. No such persons were concerned; no such
hauntings, supposed premonitions, or 'disillusions' occurred; the romantic
and 'marvellous' circumstances are mythopoeic accretions due to Dr.
Janet's own memory or fancy; his scientific explanation is that given by
his trinity of _jeune fille, pauvre voyante_, and _personne un peu
mystique_.
Being much engaged in the study of 'neurotic' and hysterical patients, Dr.
Janet thinks that they are most apt to see crystal visions. Perhaps they
are; and one doubts if their descriptions are more to be trusted than
the romantic essay of their medical attendant. In citing Miss X.'s paper
(as he did), Dr. Janet ought to have reported her experiments correctly,
ought to have attributed them to herself, and should, decidedly, have
remarked that the explanation he offered was her own hypothesis, verified
by her own exertions.
Not having any acquaintances in neurotic circles, I am unable to say
whether such persons supply more cases of the faculty of crystal vision
than ordinary people; while their word, one would think, is much less to
be trusted than that of men and women in excellent health. The crystal
visions which I have cited from my own knowledge (and I could cite scores
of others) were beheld by men and women engaged in the ordinary duties
of life. Students, barristers, novelists, lawyers, school-masters,
school-mistresses, golfers--to all of whom the topic was perfectly
new--have all exhibited the faculty. It is curious that an Arabian author
of the thirteenth century, Ibn Khaldoun, cited by M. Lefébure, offers the
same account of _how_ the visions appear as that given by Miss Angus in
the _Journal_ of the S.P.R., April 1898. M. Lefébure's citation was sent
to me in a letter.
I append M. Lefébure's quotation from Ibn Khaldoun. The original is
translated in 'Notices et Extraits des MSS. de la Bibliothèque Impériale,'
I. xix. p. 643-645.
'Ibn Kaldoun admet que certains hommes ont la faculté de deviner l'avenir.
'"Ceux, ajoute-t-il, qui regardent dans les corps diaphanes, tels que les
miroirs, les cuvettes remplies d'eau et les liquides; ceux qui inspectent
les coeurs, les foies et les os des animaux, ... tous ces gens-là
appartiennent aussi à la catégorie des devins, mais, à cause de
l'imperfection de leur nature, ils y occupent un rang inférieur. Pour
écarter le voile des sens, le vrai devin n'a pas besoin de grands efforts;
quant aux autres, ils tâchent d'arriver au but en _essayant de concentrer
en un seul sens toutes leurs perceptions_. Comme la vue est le sens le
plus noble, ils lui donnent la préférence; fixant leur regard sur on objet
à superficie unie, ils le considèrent avec attention jusqu'à ce qu'ils y
aperçoivent la chose qu'ils veulent annoncer. Quelques personnes croient
que l'image aperçue de cette manière se dessine sur la surface du miroir;
mais ils se trompent. Le devin regarde fixement cette surface jusqu'à ce
qu'elle disparaisse et qu'un rideau, semblable à un brouillard,
s'interpose entre lui et le miroir. Sur ce rideau se dessinent les choses
_qu'il désira apercevoir_, et cela lui permet de donner des indications
soit affirmatives, soit négatives, sur ce que l'on désire savoir. Il
raconte alors les perceptions telles qu'il les reçoit. Les devins,
pendant qu'ils sont dans cet état, n'aperçoivent pas ce qui se voit
réellement dans le miroir; c'est un autre mode de perception qui naît
chez eux et qui s'opère, non pas au moyen de la vue, mais de l'âme. Il
est vrai que, _pour eux, les perceptions de l'âme ressemblent à celles
des sens au point de les tromper_; fait qui, du reste, est bien connu. La
même chose arrive à ceux qui examinent les coeurs et les foies d'animaux.
Nous avons vu quelques-uns de ces individus _entraver l'opération des
sens_ par l'emploi de simples _fumigations_, puis se servir
d'_incantations_[2] afin de donner à l'âme la disposition requise; ensuite
ils racontent ce qu'ils ont aperçu. Ces formes, disent-ils, se montrent
dans l'air et représentent des personnages: elles leur apprennent, au
moyen d'emblèmes et de signes, les choses qu'ils cherchent à savoir. Les
individus de cette classe se détachent moins de l'influence des sens que
ceux de la classe précédente."'
[Footnote 1: Lican, Paris, 1898.]
[Footnote 2: L'auteur arabe avait déjà mentionné (p. 209) l'emploi des
incantations et indiqué qu'elles étuient un simple adjuvant physique
destiné à donner à certains hommes une exaltation dont ils se servaient
pour tâcher de découvrir l'avenir.
'Pour arriver au plus haut degré d'inspiration dont il est capable, le
devin doit avoir recours à l'emploi de certaines phrases qui se
distinguent par _une cadence et un parallelisme particuliers_. Il
essaye ce moyen _afin de soustraire son âme aux influences des sens_ et
de lui donner assez de force pour se mettre dans un contact imparfait
avec le monde spirituel.[a] Cette agitation d'esprit, jointe à l'emploi
des moyens intrinsèques dont nous avons parlé, excite dans son coeur
des idées que cet organe exprime par le ministère de la langne. Les
paroles qu'il prononce sont tantôt vraies, tantôt fausses. En effet,
le devin, voulant suppléer à l'imperfection de son naturel, se sert de
moyens tout à fait étrangers à sa faculté perceptive et qui ne
s'accordent en aucune façon avec elle. Donc la vérité et l'erreur se
présentent à lui en même temps, aussi ne doit on mettre aucune
confiance en ses paroles. Quelquefois même il a recours à des
suppositions et à des conjectures dans l'espoir de rencontrer la vérité
et de tromper ceux qui l'interrogent.']
[Footnote a: Compare Tennyson's way of attaining a state of trance by
repeating to himself his own name.]
APPENDIX D
_CHIEFS IN AUSTRALIA_
In the remarks on Australian religion, it is argued that chiefs in
Australia are, at most, very inconspicuous, and that a dead chief cannot
have thriven into a Supreme Being. Attention should be called, however, to
Mr. Howitt's remarks on Australian 'Head-men,' in his tract on 'The
Organisation of Australian Tribes' (pp. 103-113).
He attaches more of the idea of power to 'Head-men' than does Mr. Curr in
his work, 'The Australian Race.' The Head-men, as a rule, arrive at such
influence as they possess by seniority, if accompanied by courage, wisdom,
and, in some cases, by magical acquirements. There are traces of a
tendency to keep the office (if it may be called one) in the same kinship.
'But Vich Ian Vohr or Chingahgook are not to be found in Australian
tribes' (p. 113). I do not observe that the manes or ghost of a dead
Head-man receives any worship or service calculated to fix him in the
tribal memory, and so lead to the evolution of a deity, though one
Head-man was potent through the whole Dieyri tribe over three hundred
miles of country. Such a person, if propitiated after death, might
conceivably develop into a hero, if not into a creative being. But we
must await evidence to the effect that any posthumous reverence was paid
to this man, Ialina Piramurane (New Moon). Mr. Howitt's essay is in the
'Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria for 1889.'
INDEX
Academy of Medicine, Paris, inquiry into animal magnetism, 34
Achille, the case of, 134
Acosta, Père, cited, 74, 244, 246
Adare, Lord, cited, 335
Addison, cited, 16
Africans, religious faiths of, 212, 218, 221, 222.
See under separate tribal names.
Ahone, North-American Indian god, 231-233, 241, 248, 258, 262, 280
Aïdé, Hamilton, cited, 336
Algonquins, the, 250
Allen, Grant, cited, 190
American Creators, 230;
parallel with African gods, 230;
savage gods of Virginia, 231;
the Ahone-Okeus creed, 231-233;
Pawnee tribal religions, 233-236;
Ti-ra-wá, the Spirit Father, 234, 235;
rite to the Morning Star, 234;
religion of the Blackfeet, 236;
Nà-pi, 237-239;
one account of the Inca religion, 239-242;
Sun-worship, 239-241;
cult of Pachacamac, the Inca deity, 239-247;
another account of the Inca religion, 242-246;
hymns of the Zuñis, 247;
_Awonawilona_, 247
Amoretti, Sig., cited, 30, 152
Ancestor, worship, 164-166, 178, 205, 212, 268, 271-277
Andamanese, the, religious beliefs of, 167, 194-197, 205, 208, 211,
249, 252, 256, 272
'Angus, Miss,' cases in her experience of crystal-gazing, 89-102, 341
Animal magnetism, inquiry into, 29, 34, 35
Animism, nature and influence of, 48, 49, 53, 58, 63, 129, 168, 190,
191, 206, 256, 264, 266, 268, 269, 303
Anthropology and hallucinations, 105;
sleeping and waking experience, 105, 106;
hallucinations in mentally sound people, 107;
ghosts, 107;
coincidence of hallucinations of the sane with death or other crisis of
person seen, 107;
morbid hallucinations and coincidental 'flukes,' 108;
connection of cause and effect, 108;
the emotional effect, 108;
illustrative coincidence, 108;
hallucinations of sight, 109;
causes of hallucinations, 110;
collective hallucinations, 110;
the properly receptive state, 110;
telepathy, 111;
phantasms of the living, 112;
Maori cases, 113-115;
evidence to be rejected, 116;
subjective hallucination caused by expectancy, 116;
puzzling nature of hallucinations shared by several people at once, 116,
117;
hallucinations coincident with a death, 117;
apparitions and deaths connected in fact, 117;
Census of the Society for Psychical Research thereupon, 118;
number and character of the instances, 119;
weighing evidence, 119;
opinion of the Committee on Hallucinations, 121;
remoteness of occurrence of instances, 121;
want of documentary evidence, 121
non-coincidental hallucinations, 121;
telepathy existing between kinsfolk and friends, 122;
influence of anxiety, 123;
existence of illness known, 123;
mental and nervous conditions in connection with hallucinations, 134;
value of the statistics of the Census, 124;
anecdote of an English officer, 125
Anthropology and religion, 30;
early scientific prejudice against, 40;
evolution and evidence, 40;
testing of evidence, 41-43;
psychical research, 48;
origin of religion, 44;
inferences drawn from supernormal phenomena, 41, 53;
savage parallels of psychical phenomena, 45;
meanings of religion, 45, 40;
disproof of godless tribes, 47;
Animism, 48, 49;
limits of savage tongues, 49;
waking and sleeping hallucinations, 60;
crystal-gazing, 50;
the ghost-soul, 51;
savage abstract speculation, 52;
analogy of the ideas of children and primitive man, 53;
early man's conception of life, 32;
ghost-seers, 54;
psychical conditions in which savages differ from civilised men, 54;
power of producing non-normal psychological conditions, 55;
faculties of the lower animals, 56;
man's first conception of religion, 56;
the suggested hypnotic state, 57;
second-sight, 68;
savage names for the ghost-soul, 60;
the migratory spirit, 60-64
Anynrabia, South Guinea Creator, 220
Apaches, crystal-gazing by, 84, 85
Apollonius of Tyana, 66
Atua, the Tongan Elohim, 279
Aurora Borealis, savage ideas of the, 4, 262, 292
Australians, religious beliefs of, 50, 83, 118, 128, 165, 175-182, 185,
188, 190, 205, 208, 211, 215, 219, 224, 240, 249, 253, 266, 261-263
Automatism, 155
Awonawilona, Zuñi deity, 248, 251
Ayinard, Jacques, case of, 150, 182
Aztecs, creed of, 104 _note_, 183, 233, 234, 255, 258, 263
Bealz, Dr., cited, 132
Baiame, deity, 189, 190, 191, 205, 261, 280
Baker, Sir Samuel, cited, 42, 211
Bakwains, the, 169
Balfour, A.J., quoted, 44, 57 _note_
Banks Islanders, their gods, 169, 197-198
Bantus, religious beliefs of, 176, 211, 220, 248
Barkworth, Mr., his opinion of Mrs. Piper, 140
Barrett, Professor, on the divining-rod, 162-154
Bostian, Adolf, cited, 6, 43
Baxter, cited, 15
Beaton, Cardinal, his mistress visualized, 97
Bell, John, cited, 149
Beni-Israel, 282
Berna, magnetiser, 34
Bernadette, case of, 117
Big Black Man, Fuegian deity, 258
Binet and Féré, quoted, 20, 76
Bissett, Mr. and Mrs., experiences of crystal-gazing, 99-102
Blackfeet, beliefs of, 230, 236
Blantyre region, religion in the, 217, 218
Bleck, Dr., cited, 194
Bobowissi, Gold Coast god, 225-227, 230-232
Bodinus, cited, 15
Book of the Dead, 286, 303
Bora, Australian mysteries, 176, 179, 190, 196, 260
Bosman, cited, 225
Bourget, Paul, his opinion of Mrs. Piper, 139, 140
Bourke, Captain J.G., cited, 83
Boyle, cited, 15
Braid, inventor of the word 'hypnotism,' 24, 35, 36
Brewster, Sir David, cited, 33
Brinton, Dr., cited, 67, 168, 232, 236, 254, 264, 290
Bristow, Mr., cited, 332
British Association decline to hear Braid's essay, 24
rejection of anthropological papers, 89
Brasses, de, cited, 149
Brown, General Mason, cited, 68, 67
Bunjil, deity, 189
Bushmen, religious beliefs of, 165, 198, 208, 211, 252
Button, Jemmy, the Faegian, case of, 116
Caon, Boshmon deity, 189, 193, 205
Callawoy, Dr., on Zulu beliefs, 72, 85, 106, 142, 151 207, 208
Cardan, cited, 15
Carpenter, Dr., cited, 324
Carver, Captain Jonathan, his instance of savage possession, 142
cited, 60, 144, 145
Charcot, Dr., on faith cures, 20-23, 24 _note_
Chevreul, M., cited, 152
Chinese, the, demon possession in, 181, 183
divining-rod, 154
religious beliefs, 237, 290, 291
Chonos, the, 176
Circumcision, 286
Clairvoyance (vue à distance), 65
'opening the Gates at Distance.' 65, 66
attested cases among savages, 66
conflict with the laws of exact science, 67
instances, 67
among the Zulus, 68-70
among the Lapps, 70
the Llarson case, 71
seers, 72
the element of trickery, 73
a Red Indian seeress, 73
Peruvian clairvoyants, 75
Professor Richet's case, 75
Mr. Dobbie's case, 76
Scottish tales of second-sight, 78-81
visions provoked by various methods, 81
See Crystal visions
Clodd, Edward, cited, 119, 120, 300
'Cockburn, Mrs.,' test of crystal-gazing, 99-101
Codrington, Dr., cited, 150, 169, 197-199
Coirin, Mlle., her miraculous cure, 20
Coleridge, cited, 9, 11, 12 _note_, 295, 296
Collins, cited, 179
Comanches, the, 250
Confucius, religious teaching of, 290, 291
Cook, Captain, cited, 271
Corpse-binding, 143, 144
Crawford, Lord, cited, 325, 334, 330, 387
Creeks, the, 143
Croesus, tests the Delphic Oracle, 14
Crookes, Sir William, cited, 325, 331, 333, 334, 337, 338
Crystal visions, 83
savage instances, 83-85
in later Europe, 85
nature of 'Miss X's' experiments, 85
attributed to 'dissociation,' 86
examples of 'thought-transference,' 87
arguments against accepting recognition of objects described by another
person, 87
coincidence of fact and fiction, 88
cases in the experience of 'Miss Angus,' 89-102
'Miss Rose's' experience, 91, 92
phenomena suggest the savage theory of the wandering soul, 103
cited, 7, 44, 50, 314-316, 340
Cumberland, Stuart, 72
Cures by suggestion, 20, 21
Curr, Mr., reports 'godless' savages, 184 _note_
Dampier, cited, 176
Dancing sticks, 149-131
Darumulun, Australian Supreme Being, 178, 179, 183, 186, 191, 213, 240,
258-264, 280
Darwin, cited, 115, 149, 174 _note_, 324, 332
Death, savage ideas on, 187
Degeneration theory, the, 254
the powerful creative Being of lowest savages, 254
differences between the Supreme Being of higher and lower savages, 255
human sacrifice, 255
hungry, cruel gods degenerate from the Australian Father in Heaven, 256
savage Animism, 256
a pure religion forgotten, 257
an inconvenient moral Creator, 257
hankering after useful ghost-gods, 257
lowering of the ideal of a Creator, 257
maintenance of an immoral system in the interests of the State and the
clergy, 258
moral monotheism of the Hebrew religion, 258
degradation of Jehovah, 258
human sacrifice in ritual of Israel, 258
origin of conception of Jehovah, 258
Semitic gods, 259
status of Darumulun, 259
conception of Jehovah conditioned by space, 260
degeneration of deity in Africa, 260
political advance produces religious degeneration, 261
sacrificial ideas, 262
the savage Supreme Being on a higher plane than the Semitic and
Greek gods, 263
Animism full of the seeds of religions degeneration, 264
falling off in the theistic conception, 265
fetishism, 265
modus of degeneration by Animism supplanting Theism, 265
feeling after a God who needs not anything at man's hands, 267
Demoniacal possession, 128
the 'inspired' or 'possessed,' 129
'change of control,' 130
gift of eloquence and poetry, 131
instances in China, 131
attempted explanations of the phenomena, 132
'alternating personality,' 132
symptoms of possession, 132
evidence for, 133
scientific account of a demoniac and his cure, 134
inducing the 'possessed' state, 135
exhibition of abnormal knowledge by the possessed, 136
Scientific study of the phenomena, 136
details of the case of Mrs. Piper, 136-141
diagnosing and prescribing for patients, 142
Carver's example of savage possession, 142, 157
custom of binding the seer with bonds, 142, 145
corpse-binding, 143, 144
Dendid, Dinka Supreme Being, 211, 212, 258, 280
Deslon, M., disciple of Mesmer, 24
Dessoir, Dr. Max, quoted, 32, 33, 57
Dinkas, beliefs of the, 42, 211, 212, 256
Divining-rod, use of the, 30, 152-155
Dobbie, Mr., his case of clairvoyance, 76
Dorman, Mr., cited, 203
Dunbar, Mr., cited, 236
Du Pont, cited, 75
Du Prel, cited, 28
Dynois, Jonka, trance of, 65
Ebumtupism, second sight, 73
Egyptians, beliefs of, 83, 302
Elcho, Lord, cited, 334
Eleusinian mysteries, 196
Elliotson, Dr., cited, 24, 35, 37, 40
Ellis, Major, on Polynesian and African religions ideas, 83, 144, 222-228,
232, 251, 260, 272
Elohim, savage equivalents to the term, 277
Esemkofu, Zulu ghosts, 128, 129
Eskimo, religious beliefs of, 72, 113, 184
Faith-Cures, 20-22
Fenton, Francis Dart, on Maori ghost-seeing, 114
Ferrand, Mlle., on hallucinations, 32
Fetishism and Spiritualism, 147
the fetish, 147
sources super-normal to savages, 148
independent motion in inanimate objects, 149
comparison with physical phenomena of spiritualism, 149
Melanesian belief in sticks moved by spirits, 150
a sceptical Zulu, 150
a form of the pendulum experiment, 151
table-turning, 152
the divining-rod, 152
the civilised and savage practice of automatism, 156
dark room manifestations, 156
the disturbances in the house of M. Zoller, 156
consideration of physical phenomena, 158
instanced, 165, 225, 265, 266, 276, 324-339
Figuier, M., cited, 152
Fijians, religious beliefs of, 128, 136, 200, 248, 338
Finns, the, 58
Fire ceremony, the, 180 _note_
Fison, Mr., cited, 128
Fitzroy, Admiral, cited, 115, 173, 174
Flacourt, Sieur de, on crystal-gazing in Madagascar, 84
Flint, Professor, cited, 253
Francis, St., stigmata of, 22
Fuegians, beliefs and customs of, 115, 165, 173-175, 183, 187, 208,
211, 227, 258, 262, 272
Galton, Mr., cited, 12, 96, 107, 294, 295
Garcilasso de la Vega, on Inca beliefs, 239-244
'Gates of Distance, Opening the,' 65, 66, 68
Ghost-seers, 54, 63
Ghost-soul, the, 51
names for the, 60
Gibert, Dr., on 'willing' sleep, 36
Gibier, Dr., cited, 146
Gippsland tribes, 187
Glanvil, Rev. Joseph, his scientific investigations, 15