VARIOUS PSYCHO-PHYSICAL METHODS
"If man, then, shall attempt to sound and fathom the
depths that lie not without him, but within, analogy
may surely warn him that the first attempts of his rude
_psychoscopes_ to give precision and actuality to thought
will grope among 'beggarly elements'--will be concerned
with things grotesque, or trivial, or obscure. Yet here
also one handsbreadth of reality gives better footing than
all the castles of our dream; here also by beginning with
the least things we shall best learn how great things may
remain to do."--F. W. H. M., Introduction to _Phantasms of
the Living_
I must not shirk a rather queer subject which yet needs touching
upon, though it bristles with theoretical difficulties; and that is
the rationale of one of the most elementary methods of ultra-normal
communication, a method which many find practically the easiest to
begin with.
It is possible to get communication of a kind, not by holding a
pencil in the fingers, but by placing the hand on a larger piece of
wood not at all adapted for writing with. The movements are then
coarser, and the code more elementary; but in principle, when the
procedure is analysed, it is seen not to be essentially different. It
may be more akin to semaphore-arm signalling or flag-wagging; but any
device whereby mental activity can translate itself into movements
of matter will serve for subliminal as well as for conscious action;
and messages by tilting of a table, though crude and elementary, are
not really so surprising or absurd as at first sight they seem. The
tilts of a telegraphic operator's key are still more restricted; but
they serve. A pen or pencil is an inanimate piece of matter guided by
the fingers. A planchette is a mere piece of wood, and when touched
it must be presumed to be guided by the muscles,--though there is
often an illusion, as with the twig of the dowser, that the inanimate
object is moved directly, and not by muscular intervention. So also
we may assume that a table or other piece of furniture is tilted
or moved by regular muscular force: certainly it can only move at
the expense of the energy of the medium or of people present. And
yet in all these cases the substance of the message may be foreign
to the mind of anyone touching the instrument, and the guidance
necessary for sense and relevance need not be exercised by their own
consciousness.
When a table or similar rough instrument is employed, the ostensible
communicators say that they feel more _directly_ in touch with the
sitters than when they operate through an intermediary or 'control'
on their side,--as they appear to find it necessary to do for actual
speech or writing,--and accordingly they find themselves able to give
more private messages, and also to reproduce names and technicalities
with greater facility and precision. The process of spelling out
words in this way is a slow one, much slower than writing, and
therefore the method labours under disadvantages, but it seems to
possess advantages which to some extent counterbalance them.
Whether it sounds credible or not, and it is certainly surprising, I
must testify that when a thing of any mobility is controlled in this
more direct way, it is able to convey touches of emotion and phases
of intonation, so to speak, in a most successful manner. A telegraph
key could hardly do it, its range of movement is too restricted,
it operates only in a discontinuous manner, by make and break;
but a light table, under these conditions, seems no longer inert,
it behaves as if animated. For the time it is animated--somewhat
perhaps as a violin or piano is animated by a skilled musician and
schooled to his will,--and the dramatic action thus attained is very
remarkable. It can exhibit hesitation, it can exhibit certainty; it
can seek for information, it can convey it; it can apparently ponder
before giving a reply; it can welcome a new-comer; it can indicate
joy or sorrow, fun or gravity; it can keep time with a song as if
joining in the chorus; and, most notable of all, it can exhibit
affection in an unmistakable manner.
The hand of a writing medium can do these things too; and that
the whole body of a normal person can display these emotions is
a commonplace. Yet they are all pieces of matter, though some
are more permanently animated than others. But all are animated
temporarily,--not one of them permanently,--and there appears to be
no sharp line of demarcation. What we have to realise is that matter
in any form is able to act as agent to the soul, and that by aid of
matter various emotions as well as intelligence can be temporarily
incarnated and displayed.
The extraction of elementary music from all manner of
unlikely objects--kitchen utensils, for instance--is a known
stage-performance. The utilisation of unlikely objects for purposes
of communication, though it would not have been expected, may have to
be included in the same general category.
With things made for the purpose, from a violin to the puppets of a
marionette show, we know that simple human passions can be shown and
can be roused. With things made for quiet other purposes it turns out
that the same sort of possibility exists.
Table-tilting is an old and despised form of amusement, known to many
families and often wisely discarded; but with care and sobriety and
seriousness even this can be used as a means of communication; and
the amount of mediumistic power necessary for this elementary form of
psychic activity appears to be distinctly less than would be required
for more elaborate methods.
One thing it is necessary clearly to realise and admit, namely
that in all cases when an object is moved by direct contact of an
operator's body, whether the instrument be a pencil or a piece of
wood, unconscious muscular guidance must be allowed for; and anything
that comes through of a kind known to or suspected by the operator
must be discounted. Sometimes, however, the message comes in an
unexpected and for the moment puzzling form, and sometimes it conveys
information unknown to him. It is by the content of the communication
that its supernormal value must be estimated.
There are many obvious disadvantages about a Table Sitting,
especially in the slowness of the communications and in the fact
that the sitter has to do most of the talking; whereas when some
personality is controlling a medium, the sitters need say very little.
But, as said above, there are some communicators who object to a
control's presence, especially if they have anything private to say;
and these often prefer the table because it seems to bring them more
directly into contact with the sitter, without an intermediary.
They seem to ignore the presence of the medium on our side,
notwithstanding the fact that, at a table sitting, she is present in
her own consciousness and is aware of what goes on; they appear to
be satisfied with having dispensed with the medium on their side.
Moreover, it is in some cases found that information can be conveyed
in a briefer and more direct manner, not having to be wrapped up in
roundabout phrases, that names can be given more easily, and direct
questions answered better, through the table than through a control.
It must be remembered that under control every medium has some
peculiarities. Mrs. Leonard, for instance, is a very straightforward
and honest medium, but not a particularly strong one. Accordingly
anything like conversation and free interchange of ideas is hardly
possible, and direct questions seldom receive direct answers, when
put to the communicator through Feda.
I have known mediums much more powerful in this respect, so that free
conversation with one or two specially skilled communicators was
quite possible, and interchange of ideas almost as easy as when the
communicator was in the flesh. But instances of that kind are hardly
to be expected among hard-worked professional mediums.
* * * * *
I shall not in this volume touch upon still more
puzzling and still more directly and peculiarly physical
phenomena, such as are spoken of as 'direct voice,'
'direct writing,' and 'materialisation.' In these strange
and, from one point of view, more advanced occurrences,
though lower in another sense, inert matter appears
to be operated on without the direct intervention of
physiological mechanism. And yet such mechanism must be
in the neighbourhood. I am inclined to think that these
weird phenomena, when established, will be found to shade
off into those other methods that I have been speaking
of, and that no complete theory of either can be given
until more is known about both. This is one of the facts
which causes me to be undogmatic about the certainty
that all movements, even under contact, are initiated
in the muscles. I only here hold up a warning against
premature decision. The whole subject of psycho-physical
interaction and activity requires attention in due time
and place; but the ground is now more treacherous, the
pitfalls more numerous, and the territory to many minds
comparatively unattractive. Let it wait until long-range
artillery has beaten down some of the entanglements,
before organised forces are summoned to advance.