E-text prepared by Stacy Brown, Suzanne Lybarger, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/)
MRS PIPER & THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
Translated & Slightly Abridged from the French of M. Sage
By Noralie Robertson
With a Preface by Sir Oliver Lodge
Scott-Thaw Co.
New York
1904
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
It is obvious that such a body of men, pledged to impartial
investigation, as the Society for Psychical Research could not
officially stand sponsor to the speculative comments of M. Sage, however
admittedly clear-sighted and philosophical that French critic may be.
But the publication of this translation has been actually desired and
encouraged by many individuals in the Society, it has been revised
throughout by a member of their Council, and it is introduced to the
general reader by their President.
The Society, indeed, is prepared to accept M. Sage's volume as a
faithful and convenient _resume_ of experiments conducted under its own
auspices, and so far as it contains statements of fact, these statements
are quoted from authoritative sources. For the comments, deductions or
criticisms therein contained, the acute intellect of M. Sage is alone
responsible.
It remains only to state in detail the principles on which the original
text has been "slightly abridged" by the translator. No facts or
comments have been left out that bear directly on the main subject of
the book, the omissions are wholly of matters which might be regarded as
superfluous for the understanding of the case of Mrs Piper. Occasionally
paragraphs have been condensed, a tendency to vague theorising has been
checked throughout, and certain irrelevant matter has been altogether
omitted. Such omissions are confined, indeed, to single sentences or
paragraphs, with only the exception of a somewhat technical discussion
of the Cartesian philosophy in Chapter XVII. It had at first been
intended to omit the whole of Chapter XI., as containing only fanciful
and non-evidential matter; but statements of this kind form an integral
part of the communications, and so, on the whole, it was thought fairer
to retain M. Sage's chapter on the subject, especially as it may be
found of popular interest.
The original appendix has been incorporated, after modifications, in
Chapter XII., since the incident here discussed was in progress as M.
Sage wrote and has since been closed. His conjectures as to its possible
development are naturally omitted. Finally all references to the
_Proceedings_ (or printed reports) of the Society itself have been
carefully verified. In every case the words of the reports themselves
are given in preference to any re-rendering of M. Sage's translations.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface by Sir Oliver Lodge xi
Objects of the Society xix
Chapter I 1
Mrs Piper's mediumship--Is mediumship a neurosis?
Chapter II 7
Dr Richard Hodgson--Description of the trance--Mrs
Piper not a good hypnotic subject.
Chapter III 13
Early trances--Careful first observations by Professor
William James of Harvard University, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Chapter IV 20
The hypothesis of fraud--The hypothesis of
muscle-reading--"Influence."
Chapter V 27
A sitting with Mrs Piper--The hypothesis of
thought-transference--Incidents.
Chapter VI 39
Phinuit--His probable origin--His character--What
he says of himself--His French--His
medical diagnosis--Is he merely a secondary
personality of Mrs Piper?
Chapter VII 52
Miss Hannah Wild's letter--The first text given
by Phinuit--Mrs Blodgett's sitting--Thought-reading
explains the case.
Chapter VIII 65
Communications from persons having suffered
in their mental faculties--Unexpected communications
from unknown persons--The respect due
to the communicators--Predictions--Communications
from children.
Chapter IX 77
Further consideration of the difficulties of the
problem--George Pelham--Development of the
automatic writing.
Chapter X 87
How George Pelham has proved his identity--He
recognises his friends and alludes to their opinions--He
recognises objects which have belonged to
him--Asks that certain things should be done for
him--Very rarely makes an erroneous statement.
Chapter XI 99
George Pelham's philosophy--The nature of the
soul--The first moments after death--Life in the
next world--George Pelham contradicts Stainton
Moses--Space and time in the next world--How
spirits see us--Means of communication.
Chapter XII 117
William Stainton Moses--What George Pelham
thinks of him--How Imperator and his assistants
have replaced Phinuit.
Chapter XIII 126
Professor Hyslop and the journalists--The so-called
"confession" of Mrs Piper--Precautions taken by Professor
Hyslop during his experiments--Impressions of the sittings.
Chapter XIV 134
The communications of Mr Robert Hyslop--Peculiar
expressions--Incidents.
Chapter XV 147
The "influence" again--Other incidents--Statistics.
Chapter XVI 154
Examination of the telepathic hypothesis--Some
arguments which render its acceptance difficult.
Chapter XVII 161
Some considerations which strongly support the
spiritualistic hypothesis--Consciousness and
character remain unchanged--Dramatic play--Errors
and confusions.
Chapter XVIII 169
Difficulties and objections--The identity of
Imperator--Vision at a distance--Triviality of the
messages--Spiritualist philosophy--Life in the
other world.
Chapter XIX 176
The medium's return to normal life--Speeches
made while the medium seems to hover between
the two worlds.
Chapter XX 182
Encouraging results obtained--The problem must be solved.
PREFACE
BY THE
President of the Society for Psychical Research
_One of the facts which by general consent in the present stage of
psychological science require study is the nature, and if possible the
cause, of a special lucidity, a sensitiveness of perception, or
accessibility to ideas appearing to arrive through channels other than
usual organs of sense, which is sometimes met with among simple
people[1] in a rudimentary form, and in a more developed form in certain
exceptional individuals. This lucidity may perhaps be regarded as a
modification or an exaggeration of the clearness of apprehension
occasionally experienced by ordinary persons while immersed in a brown
study, or while in the act of waking out of sleep, or when
self-consciousness is for a time happily suspended._
_In men of genius the phenomenon occurs in the most dignified form at
present known to us, and with them also it accompanies a lapse of
ordinary consciousness, at least to the extent that circumstances of
time and place and daily life become insignificant and trivial, or even
temporarily non-existent; but the notable thing is that a few persons,
not of genius at all, are liable to an access of something not
altogether dissimilar, and exhibit a kind of lucidity or clairvoyant
perceptivity, which, though doubtless of a lower grade, is of a
well-defined and readily-investigated type, during that state of
complete lapse of consciousness known to us as a specific variety of
trance._
_Not that all trance patients are lucid, any more than all brown studies
result in brilliant ideas; nor should it be claimed that some measure of
lucidity, even of the ultra-normal kind now under consideration, cannot
exist without complete bodily trance. The phenomenon called "automatic
writing" is an instance to the contrary,--when a hand liberated from
ordinary conscious control is found, automatically as it were, to be
writing sentences, sometimes beyond the knowledge of the person to whom
the hand belongs. Some approach to unconsciousness, however, either
general or local, seems essential to the access of the state, and such
conditions as ordinarily induce reverie or sleep are suitable for
bringing it on; no one, for instance, would expect to experience it
while urgently occupied in affairs. Whether it is desirable to give way
to so unpractical an attitude, and to encourage the influx of ideas
through non-sensory channels, is another question which need not now
concern us. It suffices for us that the phenomenon exists, and that it
occasionally though very rarely takes on so well marked and persistent a
form as to lend itself to experimental investigation. It is true that in
these cases nothing of exceptional and world-compelling merit is
produced; the substance of the communication is often, though not
always, commonplace, and the form sometimes grotesque. It is true also
that a complete record of a conversation held under these
circumstances--perhaps a full record of a commonplace conversation held
under any circumstances--readily lends itself to cheap ridicule;
nevertheless, the evidence of intimate knowledge thus displayed becomes
often of extreme interest to the few persons for whom the disjointed
utterances have a personal meaning, although to the outsider they must
appear dull, unless he is of opinion that they help him to interpret the
more obscure workings of the human mind, or unless he thinks it possible
that the nature and meaning of inspiration in general may become better
understood by a study of this, its lowest, but at the same time its most
definite and controllable, form. Undoubtedly information is attainable
under these conditions from sources unknown, undoubtedly the entranced
or semi-conscious body or part of a body has become a vehicle or medium
for ostensible messages from other intelligences, or for impersonations;
but the cause of the lucidity so exhibited, the nature of the channel by
which the information is obtained, and the source of the information
itself, are questions which, although they are apt to be treated glibly
by a superficial critic, to whom they appear the most salient feature
and the easiest of explanation, are really the most difficult of all._
_It was to study such questions as this that a special society--the
Society for Psychical Research--was founded some twenty-two years ago._
_Perhaps the most remarkable, and certainly the most thorough, of all
the investigations made under the auspices of this Society has been the
case of the American lady, Mrs Piper; which, begun in 1887, has
continued ever since, with only such intervals as were necessitated by
the circumstances of the case. She was already known to the Professor of
Psychology at Harvard and to some other American savants, but she was
brought to the notice of the leaders of the English Society by Dr
Richard Hodgson, who has been for some years, and is still, acting as
its representative in America, and Secretary of its American Branch. A
complete record of the whole investigation has not yet been published,
but large portions of it have appeared from time to time in the
Proceedings of the Society._
_It is not to be supposed that the case is unique by any means; on the
contrary, it may in some senses be regarded as typical, but its features
are exceptionally well-marked, and the record has been more carefully
and continuously kept than that of any other case. Accordingly, some
emphasis has been given to it, and a general vague notion concerning the
case has diffused itself among educated persons beyond the limits of the
Society._
_And indeed it is one of really general interest, since the hypothesis
of fraud is entirely inapplicable to it, and in the opinion of the most
sceptical critics who have made an adequate study of the case, no
explanation more commonplace than that of telepathy will bear
examination. Other critics--and these are they who have gone into the
matter most thoroughly--find the hypothesis of telepathy to be
insufficient, and hold that some further explanation is necessary.
Opinions differ as to what that further explanation may be, and so far
as I know it has not been scientifically formulated as yet. To me it
appears probable that no one explanation will fit all the facts, and
that the subject is not yet ripe for theory. Working hypotheses must be
made, must be tested, and in all probability must be rejected, but our
main duty at the present stage is the careful examination and record of
facts. The working hypothesis most widely prevalent among the general
public, whether for the purpose of scoffing or for a foundation of
belief, is some crude form of the idea that the persistent intelligence
of persons who have severed their connection with matter is willing, and
occasionally even anxious, to take up temporarily the broken thread, and
so to operate as to transmit, through any channel which may be open, to
us who are still associated with planetary matter, messages which shall
serve as a sign of their continued existence and affection; and that the
biological organism or part of an organism of a living but unconscious
or semi-conscious person is an instrument which may, though with
difficulty, be utilised to that end._
_It is easy to express this hypothesis in such a way that it is
repugnant to common sense. It may be possible hereafter to formulate it
so that it shall correspond in some measure with the truth. But even
though it should turn out that intelligences can exist apart from the
surface of planets and the usual material concomitants, it by no means
follows that they must all at some period have been incarnate on the
earth. The recognition of modes of existence differing greatly from our
own, if it can ever be properly effected, will have an illuminating
bearing on many fundamental problems of life and death; but this is not
the place to attempt to discuss such a question, even if the time were
ripe for the discussion at all._
_The Society for Psychical Research, though it has now for some time
studied this among other questions, has arrived at no sort of agreement
concerning it; the only fact on which its members are generally agreed
is as to the reality of some kind of telepathy, an apparently direct
influence between mind and mind; and telepathy is no doubt an important
fact, but it by no means follows that it is a master-key capable of
furnishing the solution of every variety of psychical problem. The chief
work of the Society has not been the construction of theories; it has
accumulated and sifted a mass of evidence dealing with ultra-normal
human faculty, it has published much material and criticism in its
Proceedings, has printed more in its private Journal, and its members
have written books. To these accessible sources of information students
can be referred._
_But it is necessary to get some inkling of a subject before becoming a
student of it--people have not time to read a tithe of what is printed;
and inasmuch as many erroneous notions and misconceptions are prevalent,
even among educated persons, concerning the method and motives of the
Society, as well as concerning its ascertained results, it occurred to
the Council that perhaps a more popular account of the outline of some
of the facts, with abridged examples or illustrations of some of the
details, might be of service in spreading the rudiments of a wider
knowledge concerning at least one branch of a subject which must
certainly be of interest to the human race when it is rightly
apprehended._
_A popular statement was perhaps the more desirable since a number of
insignificant bodies have recently sprung up, showing considerable
energy in the business of advertisement, assuming colourable imitations
of our Society's designation, but having very different
objects--unscientific always, sometimes frankly pecuniary--so that it
was quite likely that a certain amount of confusion might occur._
_The idea of the Council, in the first instance, was to have a short
popular account or summary of the Piper case specially written by one of
their own members; but it was brought to their notice that a French
writer had already issued a small book of a character not very different
from that contemplated, and had steered his way cleverly through the
intricacies of a subject bristling with difficulty below the surface and
choked with detail throughout; so it was thought best to utilise the
skilful work of the French writer, and simply see to it that a faithful
translation was made, only introducing changes in the direction of still
further abbreviation occasionally._
_This is the book for which I consented, though I admit with some
misgivings, to write a preface when it was ready to appear; and now that
I see it in its English dress I find my misgivings justified._
_The author speaks deprecatingly of his purpose in writing it,
describing it as_ "un modeste ouvrage de vulgarisation," _and thereby
disarms criticism, for, considered from this point of view, it is
successful; but I must guard not only myself but all other members of
the Council of the S.P.R. from any endorsement of the sentiments and
comments which M. Sage scatters somewhat liberally through his pages.
Taken as they were intended in the original, they were not out of
keeping; they seemed to harmonise with the general tone and formed part
of a consistent artistic scheme. Translated they appear less
appropriate, but to omit them altogether would be to give the book a
different character, and probably to spoil it. As it stands, it is
readable, more readable than a profounder treatise would be. Let it
pass, therefore, as conveying to readers who have neither time nor
inclination to enter upon a detailed study some conception of the most
remarkable modern instance of the phenomenon to which I began by
referring--a phenomenon of which a better, but by no means yet a
complete or final, treatment can be studied in the work of Mr Myers
called_ Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death.
_OLIVER LODGE._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Under the name "Second Sight," for instance.
OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY
The Society for Psychical Research was founded at the beginning of 1882,
for the purpose of making an organised and systematic attempt to
investigate various sorts of debatable phenomena which are _prima facie_
inexplicable on any generally recognised hypothesis. From the recorded
testimony of many competent witnesses, past and present, including
observations recently made by scientific men of eminence in various
countries, there appeared to be, amidst much illusion and deception, an
important body of facts to which this description would apply, and which
therefore, if incontestably established, would be of the very highest
interest. The task of examining such residual phenomena had often been
undertaken by individual effort, but never hitherto by a scientific
society organised on a sufficiently broad basis. The following are the
principal departments of work which the Society at present undertakes:--
1. An examination of the nature and extent of any influence which may
be exerted by one mind upon another, otherwise than through the
recognised sensory channels.
2. The study of hypnotism and mesmerism; and an inquiry into the
alleged phenomena of clairvoyance.
3. A careful investigation of any reports, resting on testimony
sufficiently strong and not too remote, of apparitions coinciding with
some external event (as for instance a death) or giving information
previously unknown to the percipient, or being seen by two or more
persons independently of each other.
4. An inquiry into various alleged phenomena apparently inexplicable by
known laws of nature, and commonly referred by Spiritualists to the
agency of extra-human intelligences.
5. The collection and collation of existing materials bearing on the
history of these subjects.
The aim of the Society is to approach these various problems without
prejudice or prepossession of any kind, and in the same spirit of exact
and unimpassioned inquiry which has enabled Science to solve so many
problems, once not less obscure nor less hotly debated. The founders of
the Society have always fully recognised the exceptional difficulties
which surround this branch of research; but they nevertheless believe
that by patient and systematic effort some results of permanent value
may be attained.
Investigating Committees (with the exception of the Committee for
Experiments) are not appointed by the Council; but any group of Members
and Associates may become an investigating Committee; and every such
Committee will, it is hoped, appoint an Honorary Secretary, and through
him report its proceedings to the Council from time to time.
The Council, if it accepts a report so made for presentation to the
Society, will be prepared to consider favourably any application on the
part of the Committee for funds to assist in defraying the expenses of
special experimental investigation.
The Council will also be glad to receive reports of investigation from
individual Members or Associates, or from persons unconnected with the
Society.[2]
Any such report, or any other communication relating to the work of the
Society, should be addressed to Miss Alice Johnson (as Editor of the
_Proceedings_ and _Journal_), 20 Hanover Square, London, W., or to J. G.
Piddington, Esq., 87 Sloane Street, London, S.W.; or in America to Dr
Richard Hodgson, 5 Boylston Place, Boston, Mass.
Meetings of the Society, for the reading and discussion of papers, are
held periodically; and the papers then produced, with other matter, are,
as a general rule, afterwards published in the _Proceedings_.
The Proceedings of the Society may be obtained directly from the
Secretary, 20 Hanover Square, London, W., or from the Secretary of the
American Branch, or from any bookseller, through Mr R. Brimley Johnson,
4 Adam Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.
A Monthly Journal (from October to July inclusive) is also issued to
Members and Associates. The Journal contains evidence freshly received
in different branches of the inquiry, which is thus rendered available
for consideration, and for discussion by correspondence, before
selections from it are put forward in a more public manner.
The Council, in inviting the adhesion of Members, think it desirable to
quote a preliminary Note, which appeared on the first page of the
Constitution of the original Society, and which still holds good.
"Note.--To prevent misconception, it is here expressly stated that
Membership of the Society does not imply the acceptance of any
particular explanation of the phenomena investigated, nor any belief as
to the operation, in the physical world, of forces other than those
recognised by Physical Science."
Conditions of Membership.
The conditions of Membership are thus defined in Articles 11-18:--
The Society shall consist of: (_a_) _Members_, who shall subscribe two
guineas annually, or make a single payment of twenty guineas, (_b_)
_Associates_, who shall subscribe one guinea annually, or make a single
payment of ten guineas.
All Members and Associates of the Society shall be elected by the
Council. Every candidate for admission shall be required to give such
references as shall be approved by the Council, and shall be proposed
in writing by two or more Members or Associates.
All subscriptions shall become payable immediately upon election, and
subsequently on the first day of January in each year. In the case of
any Member or Associate elected on or after the 1st October, his
subscription shall be accepted as for the next following year.
Article 22 provides that if any Member or Associate desire to resign,
he shall give written notice thereof to the Secretary. He shall,
however, be liable for all subscriptions which shall then remain
unpaid.
Ladies are eligible either as Members or Associates.
Privileges of Membership.
Articles 19 and 20 provide that Members and Associates are eligible to
any of the offices of the Society, and are entitled to the free receipt
both of the _Proceedings_ and of the _Journal_, to the use of Library
books in the Society's rooms, and to attend all the General Meetings of
the Society, to which they are also allowed to invite friends. They are
further entitled to purchase the _Proceedings_ of the Society issued
previous to their joining it,--and also additional copies of any Part or
Volume,--at half their published price.
Members have the additional privileges of borrowing books from the
Library, and of voting in the election of the Council, and at all
meetings of the Society.
A contents sheet of the whole series of _Proceedings_ may be had on
application to the Secretary, 20 Hanover Square, London, W.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Any reports or papers which may be printed in the _Proceedings_ will
become the Society's property; but author or authors will be entitled to
receive 50 copies of any such report or paper gratis, and additional
copies, if required, at a small charge.
Mrs Piper
and the
Society for Psychical Research
CHAPTER I
Mrs Piper's mediumship--Is mediumship a neurosis?
Mrs Piper is what the spiritualists call a _medium_, and what the
English psychologists call an automatist, which is to say, a person who
appears at times to lend her organism to beings imperceptible to our
senses, in order to enable them to manifest themselves to us. I say that
it appears to be thus, not that it is so. It is difficult for many
reasons to admit the existence of these problematical beings. We shall
deny it or remain sceptical till the day comes when the evidence proves
too strong for us.
Mrs Piper's mediumship is one of the most perfect which has ever been
discovered. In any case, it is the one which has been the most
perseveringly, lengthily and carefully studied by highly competent men.
Members of the Society for Psychical Research have studied the phenomena
presented by Mrs Piper during fifteen consecutive years. They have
taken all the precautions necessitated by the strangeness of the case,
the circumstances, and the surrounding scepticism; they have faced and
minutely weighed all hypotheses. In future the most orthodox
psychologists will be unable to ignore these phenomena when constructing
their systems; they will be compelled to examine them and find an
explanation for them, which their preconceived ideas will sometimes
render it difficult to do.
Praise and warm gratitude are due to the men who have studied the case
of Mrs Piper. But we owe no less to Mrs Piper, who has lent herself to
the investigations with perfect good faith and pliability. None of those
who have had any continued intercourse with her have a shadow of doubt
of her sincerity. She has not taken the view that she was exercising a
new kind of priesthood; she has understood that she was an interesting
anomaly for science, and she has allowed science to study her. A vulgar
soul would not have done this. Her example, and also that of Mlle.
Smith, of whom Professor Flournoy has lately written,[3] deserve to be
followed. If the strange phenomena of mediumship have not yet been
sufficiently studied by as many persons as could be wished, scientific
men are chiefly to blame for the fact. Many of them regard with
disfavour facts which upset painfully-erected systems on which they have
relied for years. But the mediums are also to blame, for their vanity is
sometimes great, and their sincerity frequently doubtful.
Mrs Piper is American. Her husband is employed in a large shop in
Boston. Although of a home-loving disposition, Mrs Piper has travelled;
she has several times consented to leave her ordinary surroundings in
order to prevent all suspicion of fraud; she has given sittings in New
York and other places, and has paid a three months' visit to England.
Her education does not appear to have been carried very far. She has
doubtless read much, like all American women, but without method, and
probably very superficially. Her language is commonplace, sometimes even
trivial, but the records do not give me the impression that she is
really trivial-minded; language may be trivial when ideas are not. On
the whole, Mrs Piper's personality is attractive.
The point which naturally interests the man of science, and particularly
the doctor, is the state of health and the morbid heredity of Mrs Piper.
We have very insufficient information about these. I can find no
circumstantial report on this important matter anywhere. Mrs Piper was
rather seriously ill in 1890; a doctor attended her for several
consecutive months; this gentleman was also present at a sitting she
gave on the 4th December of this same year, 1890. It is evident that he
was in a position to study Mrs Piper closely. Dr Hodgson asked him for a
report, which would have been appended to the other documents. But this
doctor had the wisdom of the serpent. He promised, but changed his mind,
and absolutely refused to furnish any report whatever. Dr Hodgson asked
the subject a series of questions with the object of ascertaining the
state of health of her immediate ancestors, particularly from the
neuropathic point of view. She belongs to a family which appears to have
been very healthy and not in any way subject to nervous maladies.
Mrs Piper's own general state of health is even more interesting to our
inquiry than that of her ancestors, since most doctors persist in seeing
in mediumship a neurosis, sister or cousin to hysteria or epilepsy.
It is undeniable that many mediums present some physiological
peculiarity or other. Eusapia Paladino, for example, has a depression of
the left parietal bone. But, on the other hand, Mlle. Smith of Geneva,
who has been studied by Professor Flournoy, seems to enjoy health as
good as anybody's--even flourishing health. Perhaps, if a thorough
search were made, some defect might be discovered, but the person who
should not betray some inherited peculiarity probably could not be
found.
As far as Mrs Piper is concerned, she seems to have enjoyed
irreproachable health till towards 1882 or 1883. The exact date is not
stated. About that time she suffered from a tumour, caused by a blow
from a sledge, and she feared cancer. This illness brought about the
discovery of her mediumship. Up to this time absolutely nothing abnormal
had occurred to her. Her husband's parents had had, in 1884, a sitting
with a medium which had much impressed them. They frequently advised
their daughter-in-law to take the advice of some medium who gave medical
consultations. To please them, she went to a blind medium named J. R.
Cocke, and there she had her first loss of consciousness or "trance."
But we shall return to this.
It is to be concluded that the prescription of the medium had no more
influence on the disease than those of ordinary doctors, for this tumour
continued to make Mrs Piper's health rather precarious for a long time.
She only decided in 1893 to undergo a surgical operation--laparotomy. No
complications resulted from it, and her convalescence was rapid.
However, in 1895, the after-effect of this operation was a serious
hernia, which necessitated a second operation in February 1896. She only
recovered thoroughly in October of the same year.
Many persons will be disposed to believe that Mrs Piper's tumour is the
explanation of her mediumship, particularly as the mediumship only
appeared after the tumour. It is rather difficult to prove them wrong.
There is, however, a fact which seems to indicate that they would be
mistaken. When Mrs Piper is ill, her mediumship decreases or becomes
less lucid; she only furnishes incoherent, fragmentary, or quite false
communications. The syncope or "trance," which is easy when she is well,
becomes difficult or even impossible when she is ill. Her health has
been good since her last operation, the syncopes are easy, and the
communications obtained in this state have acquired a degree of
coherence and plausibility which was previously wanting.
If, then, Mrs Piper's mediumship was the result of illness, it is
strange that her recovery should have favoured the development and
perfecting of this same mediumship. There appears to be a contradiction
here. I am not competent regarding the question, but, on examining the
facts, I can hardly believe that mediumship is a mere neurosis. After
all, are there not famous men of science who declare that genius itself
is only a neurosis? In their eyes the bandit is only a sick man; but the
genius also is only a sick man.
If it is true that the best and worst in humanity are only opposite
faces of the same medal, we should be tempted to think mankind even more
pitiable than we have hitherto believed.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] _Des Indes a la Planete Mars; etude sur un cas de somnambulisme_, by
Th. Flournoy. Pub. Alcan, Paris.