{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_68388/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_68388","id":"gutenberg_68388","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68388","summary":null,"tags":["Category: How To ...","Category: Psychiatry/Psychology","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Clairvoyance","Spiritualism","Telepathy"],"text":"TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTE\n\n\n  Text in italics is shown in _underscores_.\n\n  Footnotes have been moved to the end of the book.\n\n  A detailed list of changes made to the text can be found at the end.\n\n\n\n\n  HOW TO THOUGHT-READ:\n\n  _A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION_\n\n  IN THE\n\n  STRANGE AND MYSTIC IN DAILY LIFE,\n  PSYCHIC PHENOMENA,\n\n  INCLUDING\n\n  _Hypnotic, Mesmeric, and Psychic States, Mind and Muscle\n  Reading, Thought Transference, Psychometry, Clairvoyance,\n  and Phenomenal Spiritualism_.\n\n  BY\n\n  JAMES COATES, Ph.D., F.A.S.,\n\n  _Lecturer on Mental Science and Hygiene, Author of \u201cHow to Mesmerise,\u201d\n  \u201cHow to Read Heads,\u201d \u201cHow to Read Faces,\u201d \u201cThe Social\n  Problem,\u201d \u201cThe Antiquity of Man,\u201d etc. etc._\n\n  PRICE ONE SHILLING.\n\n  LONDON: HAY NISBET & CO., 169, FLEET STREET.\n  GLASGOW: 25 JAMAICA STREET.\n  1893.\n\n\n\n\n  HAY NISBET AND CO., 26 JAMAICA STREET, GLASGOW,\n\n  AND\n\n  169, FLEET STREET, LONDON.\n\n\n\n\n  CONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                              PAGE\n\n  Introduction,                                                  5\n\n  Chapter I.--Somnambulism and Psychic Phenomena,                9\n\n  The Hypnotic, Mesmeric, and the Psychic States. Hypnotism\n  a Curative Agent; the Sixth Sense; Dreams, Premonitions;\n  Double and Psychic Consciousness. Evidences of the\n  Soul within us.\n\n\n  Chapter II.--Clairvoyance,                                    23\n\n  Psychoscopy, or Soul Sight. Spiritual Faculty, exhibited by\n  religious ecstatics, not a common possession. How Cultivated.\n  The Opinions and Evidence of Men of Science.\n  Second Sight. The Utility of Soul-Sight.\n\n\n  Chapter III.--Clairvoyance Illustrated,                       33\n\n  Classified. Strange Story of the Chicago Water Supply.\n  Lost Goods Restored. An Aid to the Physician. Experiments\n  in Rothesay. Remarkable Clairvoyants. Clairvoyance\n  in Mesmerism and in Spiritualism.\n\n\n  Chapter IV.--Psychometry,                                     53\n\n  Soul-Measuring and Soul-Measurers. Dr. Buchanan\u2019s Discoveries.\n  Professor Denton\u2019s Experiments. Detective\u2019s\n  Clues; what Psychometry can do. Testimony of Mr. Stead\n  and the Rev. Minot J. Savage. Disease Detected, and\n  Character Gauged by this Faculty.\n\n\n  Chapter V.--Thought-Transference and Telepathy,               69\n\n  Explained and Defined. Transference of Taste in Mesmerism.\n  Thought-Transference, in Dreams, from the Dying to\n  the Living; the Dead to the Living; in Prayer; in ordinary\n  Experience. Incidents and Experiences, etc. Mark Twain,\n  Hudson Tuttle, and Dr. Hilden.\n\n\n  Chapter VI.--Thought-Reading Experiments,                     88\n\n  Thought and Muscle-Reading Distinguished. Projecting\n  Mental Pictures. Normal Experiments, without contact, by\n  Professor Lodge, Mr. Guthrie, and Professor Barrett. Some\n  Practical Suggestions. Muscle-Reading Entertainments.\n  Directions.\n\n\n  Chapter VII.--Spiritualism,                                  102\n\n  \u201cHow to Thought-Read\u201d and Phenomenal Spiritualism.\n  The Spirit within us. The rejection of the Psychic. The\n  Fraudulent in Spiritualism. Spiritualism without Spirits.\n  Thought-Reading by Spirits and Mediums.\n\n\n  Chapter VIII.--Spiritualism.--_Continued_,                   115\n\n  Automatic Writing. A Test Medium. Trance Addresses.\n  A Direct Spirit-Painting. Reflections and Speculations.\n  Testimony of Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S., the Electrician.\n  Theosophy a Revised Version of Hindoo Metempsychosis,\n  etc. etc.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nThe first book of this series, \u201cHow to Mesmerise,\u201d gave so much\nsatisfaction to the reading public, and having passed into several\neditions, my publishers have asked me to write another work on similar\nlines. This _brochure_ is my response. Clairvoyance, Psychometry, and\nThought Transference--briefly referred to in the former--are more\nfully gone into in this. Consequently, I have little doubt \u201cHow to\nThought-Read\u201d will meet with acceptance.\n\nThought-reading is duly considered and explained. A clear distinction\nis drawn between Musculation, or Muscle and Mind-Reading; and although\nthese pages are not confined to Thought-Reading, as generally\nunderstood by the public, the subject itself, and as an entertainment,\nhave been pretty fully dealt with.\n\nDuring the past decade, psychological subjects have, in a remarkable\nway, arrested public attention. \u201cNew Mesmerism\u201d and \u201cNew Spiritualism\u201d\nare popular subjects with editors and magazine writers. Whatever the\nreal causes--a greater influx of the spiritual from \u201cthe state of the\ndead,\u201d or from a reaction in the minds of men against the purblind\nmaterialism of our scientific leaders--it is hard to say. Possibly\nthese and other causes have been at work. One thing is certain, for\ngood or ill, the majority of thinking men and women of the age are\nnot only interested in, but are actually searching for evidence of\n\u201cembodied spirit.\u201d Hence we find men of science, journalists, and even\nprofessed materialists and secularists, who, a few years ago, could\nscarcely speak of these subjects in the ordinary language of courtesy,\nconfess now not only their belief, but are going to the other extreme\nof advocating, what as yet, they have failed to fully grasp.\n\nA few years ago \u201cThe British Parliament of Science\u201d was nothing if\nnot materialistic. The leading _savants_ of the day declared \u201call was\nmatter, no matter what.\u201d Consequently, man was the highest product\nof protoplasm, and his _only_ destiny the grave. The change has been\ngreat indeed, when one of its most brilliant members (Professor\nOliver Lodge, D.Sc., F.R.S., British Association at Cardiff, 1891)\nin his address said: \u201cIt is familiar that a thought may be excited\non the brain of another person, transferred thither from our brain\nby pulling a suitable trigger; by liberating energy in the form of\nsound, for instance, or by the mechanical act of writing, or in other\nways. A pre-arranged code, called language, and a material medium of\ncommunication, are recognised methods. May there not, also, be an\n_immaterial_ (perhaps an ethereal) medium of communication? Is it\npossible that an idea can be transferred from one person to another\nby a process such as we have not yet grown accustomed to, and know\npractically nothing about? _In this case I have evidence. I assert I\nhave seen it done, and am perfectly convinced of the fact; many others\nare satisfied of the truth, too._ It is, perhaps, a natural consequence\nof the community of life or family relationship running through all\nliving beings. The transmission of life may be likened in some ways\nto the transmission of magnetism, and all magnets are sympathetically\nconnected, so that, if suitably suspended, a vibration from one\ndisturbs others, even though they be distant 92,000,000 miles. It is\nsometimes objected that, granting thought-transference or telepathy to\nbe a fact, it belongs more especially to lower forms of life, and that\nas the cerebral hemispheres develop we become independent of it; that\nwhat we notice is the relic of a decaying faculty, not the germ of a\nnew and fruitful sense, and that progress is not to be made by studying\nor alluding to it. As well might the objection be urged against a study\nof embryology. _It may, on the other hand, be an indication of a higher\nmode of communication, which shall survive our temporary connection\nwith ordinary matter._ The whole region is unexplored territory, and it\nis conceivable that matter may react on mind in a way we can at present\nonly dimly imagine.\u201d The italics are mine.\n\nThought-Transference and Telepathy may, indeed, be an indication of a\nhigher mode of communication between human beings after we have severed\nour temporary connection with matter. Whether or not, the hope should\nrepay our study. I have sought in the following pages to briefly define\nand illustrate what these phases of communication are.\n\nDouble and Psychic Consciousness, Clairvoyance, natural and induced;\nPsychometry, its natural and leading features as a spiritual faculty;\nThought-Transference, visions, dreams, and their _portents_, are in\nturn briefly dealt with, in order to extract therefrom some evidence of\n_soul_.\n\nModern Spiritualism is referred to, in so far as Thought-Reading is\nlikely to throw any light upon its psychological phases, as well as on\nits physical phenomena.\n\nWhile attempting to cover so much ground my difficulty was not\nwhat to write, but what not to write, the materials at my disposal\nbeing so abundant. Much has been cut down to get the whole within\nreasonable compass. Nevertheless, I hope my readers will find \u201cHow to\nThought-Read\u201d a readable contribution to the science of soul.\n\n  JAMES COATES.\n\n  Glenbeg,\n  Ardbeg, Rothesay, N. B.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: EXPERIMENT IN PSYCHOMETRY.--See Page 60.\n\nMR. and MRS. COATES.]\n\n\n\n\nHOW TO THOUGHT-READ.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nSomnambulism and Psychic Phenomena.\n\n\nBefore entering upon the subject of \u201cHow to Thought Read\u201d--or rather,\nrange of interesting subjects grouped under this title--it is proposed\nto deal briefly with the key to the whole, which is to be found in the\nrevelations of man\u2019s inner life, soul-life and character, presented by\nsomnambulism and trance, whether natural or induced.\n\nThe use of a few simple terms having a well-defined meaning will help\nthe reader and prepare him for the more careful study of the psychic\nside of human life.\n\nThe somnambulistic and trance states may be divided, for the\nconvenience of examination, into the Hypnotic, or state of hypnosis;\nthe Mesmeric, or somnambulistic; and the Psychic, or lucid\nsomnambulistic--or briefly, the Hypnotic, Mesmeric, and Psychic states.\n\nThe operator is the controlling agent, hypnotist, or mesmerist; in\nspiritualism, the guide or control.\n\nThe sensitive is the subject, the percipient, psychic, patient, or\nperson who passes into the hypnotic, mesmeric, or trance states, etc.\n\nHypnosis is the term used for the hypnotic state artificially induced\nby the agent. Hypnosis is the lowest rung of the ladder; the psychic\nor soul state the highest. The intermediate phases, as indicated in\nconscious or sub-conscious conditions of life, are innumerable and not\nreadily classified. Still, the states mentioned will give a favourable\ninsight to the whole. In hypnosis, physical rather than mental\nphenomena are evolved; _an\u00e6sthesia_, or non-sensitiveness to pain, is\nmore or less present. The senses of smell and hearing are partially\nexalted, and the sensitive may be partially or wholly unconscious.\n\nThe mesmeric state is the term frequently used to denote ordinary\nartificial somnambulism. It is actually the higher or more perfect form\nof hypnosis. The senses in this state are more fully submerged, and the\nmental faculties are more fully exalted, than in hypnosis.\n\nThe psychic state, as the mesmeric, relates to the mental, and hypnosis\nto the more physical, so does the psychic state refer to that class of\nextraordinary somnambulism in which the mental and the spiritual gifts\ntranscend in character and power those of the foregoing states. In this\nstate the higher phenomena of lucid somnambulism, clairvoyance, and\nthought-transference are manifested more perfectly than in any other.\n\nThe hypnotic, the mesmeric, and the psychic states indicated are\nfrequently interlinked in manifestation. The sensitive may pass from\nthe first to the last without apparent gradation. It is well to\nkeep these divisions in thought, so that in practice no one will be\ncontent with the _lower_ where it is possible, by wise and judicious\nobservations and operations, to induce the higher.\n\nTo make the matter still more clear, in hypnosis and in the mesmeric\nstate all phenomena may be said to be induced through and by the\ninfluence and the direction of the operator. Not that he produces the\neffects as they are exhibited by the sensitive, but they are brought\nabout through the agency of his suggestions or operations.\n\nIn the psychic state this is not always the case. The influence of\nthe operator may at times be almost _nil_. The operator will find\nit best--when the sensitive is in a high lucid state--to become an\nobserver and a learner, and no longer continue the _r\u00f4le_ of director.\n\nIn the psychic state, the soul-powers, so often submerged in ordinary\nlife, transcend in a remarkable manner. The senses are completely\nsuspended and the mind exalted to such a degree, a clearly defined\nsuper-sensuous condition is reached. Whether this stage or condition is\ninduced by fasting, prayer, disease, or by mesmeric agencies, matters\nlittle. In it we find the key to the seership, and the clairvoyance,\nand the prophetic utterance, and the mystic powers attributed to\nand exercised by prophet, and seer, and sybil in the past. By the\ninvestigation of the phenomena evolved by the psychic state we are\nenabled to understand something of man\u2019s soul or spiritual nature,\napart from the phenomena induced by pathological conditions of brain\nand body.\n\nThe foregoing view presented of mesmeric conditions may be very\ndifferent from that which medical men may glean from hypnotic practice\nwith hysterical and lobsided patients, and certainly not the views\nwhich the general public are likely to gather from seeing a number of\npaid \u201csubjects\u201d knocked about a music hall stage by an ignorant showman.\n\nFrom the roughest to the finest, from matter to spirit, from hypnosis\nto the psychic state, we find enough to arrest attention and give\na high degree of seriousness and earnestness to our investigation.\nWe stand on the threshold of soul, and the place where we stand is\nholy ground. We find, as is the physical, mental, and spiritual\ncharacteristics of the operator, _plus_ those of the sensitive or\nsensitives, so will be the nature of the phenomena evolved.\n\nIt will be observed some subjects never get beyond the first state, or\nhypnosis; others that of the second, or mesmeric. All sensitives, in\nkeeping with their temperamental and mental developments (as revealed\nby phrenology and psychometry), are better adapted for one class of\nphenomena than that of others.\n\nIt may be further observed that the foregoing states may be\nself-induced or, directly and indirectly, the product of\n\u201cspirit-control,\u201d drugs, or bodily disease. Hypnosis, we must bear in\nmind, although not unlike the mesmeric state, has no more relation to\nthat condition than sleep produced by an exhaustive walk or a dose of\nlaudanum is like natural or healthy sleep. Indeed, hypnosis is not\nproperly a condition of sleep. In the majority of cases the sensitive\nis never wholly unconscious. It is rather a state in which there is a\ntemporary perversion or subordination between brain impressions and\nconsciousness. The sensitive in hypnosis is often less intelligent than\nin the normal or waking state.\n\nFor various reasons the state of hypnosis may be recognised as that\nstate in which the mind is subjected to certain abnormal conditions\nof the body, notably of the brain, spinal cord, and indirectly of the\ncirculation, induced by certain means determined upon by the operator.\nThe mental condition in this state is one of almost pure automatism, in\nwhich hallucination or sense illusions are more or less present.\n\nGreat and serious are the responsibilities of those who bring about the\nstate of hypnosis. Every thought and feeling, of whatever kind, infused\nin this state, like seed, will take root and germinate, and finally\nbud into action in the daily or waking consciousness, and determine\nunconsciously for the sensitive the character of his life. Hypnotism\nis neither for indiscriminate use, nor is hypnosis to be induced as a\nplaything for the thoughtless--medical or lay. At the same time, in the\nhands of the thoughtful, its educative value is most important, for,\nif the operator is well poised, and feels that, he can impart higher\nthoughts and strengthen the will[A] of the sensitives by the twofold\nagencies of impressionability and suggestion. This is something not to\nbe despised. It is surely no degradation to be saved from evils one\ncannot overcome or resist, unless assisted by external aid, even though\nthat help can only come by submitting to hypnotism.\n\nIn hypnosis the outer brain of convoluted grey matter is most affected,\nbeing more or less denuded of arterial and nervous stimuli. The power\nof conscious, intellectual, and abstract thought is reduced to a\nminimum. The organs of the central brain are differently influenced,\nas in inverse ratio the stimulation is increased. The eye is more\nsusceptible to light, or the pupils may become dilated and fixed.\nThe auditory sense is rendered more keen. The olfactory powers are\nintensified, and there is more or less insensibility of feeling. The\npowers of co-ordination and locomotion are preserved up to a certain\nstage, when these functions are disturbed, all power of voluntary\nmovement ceases, lethargic and cataleptic symptoms supervene.\n\nIt was by observing, more particularly, hypnosis, Professor Heidenhain\nwas led to aver \u201cinhibition\u201d actually accounted for all phases of\nhypnotism. This opinion has evidently been based on a limited number\nof cases. \u201cNo inhibition,\u201d says Dr. Drayton, \u201chowever ingeniously\napplied, will explain all the phenomena of magnetism. If the personal\nconsciousness, the individuality, of the subject has been lost, and\nhis state is that of automatism, or rather that of an involuntary\nactor, certainly his cerebral functions operate in a manner entirely\ndistinct from that which is characteristic in his ordinary state.\nThe inhibition relates to his common order of conduct mentally, while\nthe super-sensitivity and extraordinary play of faculty that he may\nexhibit, indicate a higher phase of sensory activity, more free or\nharmonious co-ordination of the cerebral functions. The brakes are off,\nhence the phenomena that are frequently observed in the somnambulist,\nand awaken wonder, because so much out of keeping with what is known of\nhis common life.\u201d\n\nHere we find doctors--experts in hypnotism or mesmerism--agree to\ndiffer. They agree in this, albeit not expressly stated, they are alike\npositive and decided in their views, and certainly _without being\npositive, there is no possible success as an operator_.\n\nThe mistake they make evidently arises in confounding the two\nstates (hypnosis and the mesmeric), one with the other. There is no\nsuper-sensitivity, or extraordinary play of faculty in hypnosis,\nwhatever there may be in the mesmeric state. They are similar, in\nthat they may be both induced by the reduction of the activity of the\ncerebral cortex.\n\nIn hypnosis the mind slumbers and dreams. The dream-life appears as\nsubstantial to the sensitive as the waking life. The life creations,\nthus dreamed of, are acted upon, whether they arise from suggestion or\nother causes.\n\nIn the mesmeric state the senses slumber, and the mind awakens to a\nfuller enfranchisement of existence, and to the exhibition of mental\nand spiritual powers not hitherto suspected.\n\nIn the lower stages the increased power of the senses is to be found\nin the _intense concentration_ of effort, brought about from the fact\nthat the subject\u2019s attention is, and his whole energies are, directed\nin one line of action or thought, to the exclusion of mind or brain\nactivity in other directions. Hence all efforts are centred in the\ndirection suggested by the operator, or self-induced, as suggested by\nthe \u201cdominant idea.\u201d\n\nThe sensitive exhibits powers of mind and ability of thought which\nwere not noticeable in the ordinary waking condition. Not because he\nreally possesses greater powers of mind or body, but because of the\nlack of concentration in the waking state. By this concentration of\ndirection, so called abnormal feats of strength are performed, rigidity\nof structure brought about, and other characteristics not peculiar\nto common life. In a higher sense, we see the sensitive passing\nfrom this condition of concentration of one-idea-ism to a spiritual\nstate, in which the phenomena exhibited are no longer the product of\nself-dethronement and of suggestion. Higher still, we see the soul\nreign supreme. The sensitive possesses a clear consciousness of what\nis transpiring at home and abroad, according to the direction of his\npsychic powers.\n\nIn the psychic state--the more perfect trance state or control--the\nwhole mind becomes illumined; past, present, and future become\npresentable to the mind of the lucid somnambulist as one great whole.\nThis higher stage may be reached through the simple processes of\nmanipulation, and passes as suggested in my little work, \u201cHow to\nMesmerise.\u201d\n\nIn the mesmeric state the sensitive passes from the mere automatism of\nthe earlier stages of hypnosis to the distinct individuality indicated\nabove, although still more or less influenced or directed by his\ncontroller or operator into the line of thought and train of actions\nmost desired.\n\nThe difference between the hypnotic and mesmeric states should now be\nvery clear. In the former the sensitive has no identity, in the latter\nhis identity is preserved in a clearly individualised form throughout\nthe whole series of abnormal acts. Whenever the sensitive enters this\ncondition his personal consciousness is most apparent in the middle and\nhigher stages.\n\nIn fact, in the mesmeric state, it is very stupid for some operators\nto ask the sensitive, \u201cAre you asleep?\u201d It may be understood what is\nmeant, yet the question is absurd from the standpoint of an intelligent\nobserver. The sensitive is never more awake. The higher the state the\ngreater the wakefulness and lucidity of the inner or soul life.\n\n\nTHE SIXTH SENSE.\n\nIn the mesmeric state we see developed what Lord Kelvin (Professor\nThomson, of Glasgow University), Drs. Baird, Hammond, and\nDrayton call the magnetic sense--or \u201csixth sense.\u201d It is a gift\nof super-sensitiveness. To my mind it is something more, the\nenfranchisement of the soul, the human ego--in proportion as the\ndominance of the senses is arrested.\n\nIn blindness, it has been noticed how keen the sense of touch becomes.\nI have also noticed the keen sensitiveness of facial perception enjoyed\nby some of the blind, by which they are enabled to perceive objects in\nthe absence of physical sight. In the mesmeric state we see a somewhat\nanalogous mental condition. As the peculiar sense of the blind is\ndeveloped by extra concentration of the mind in the direction of facial\nperception, so is \u201cthe sixth sense\u201d developed by concentration of\ndirection, as well as by the condition of sensitiveness induced by the\nmesmeric state.\n\nThis newly recognised sense, \u201cthe sixth sense,\u201d not only answers the\npurpose of sight and hearing, but transcends all senses in vividness\nand power. Materialists, no longer able to ignore the phenomena of\nsomnambulism and trance, and compelled to admit man\u2019s avenues of\nknowledge in this life were not confined to the recognised five senses,\nare good enough to give him a \u201csixth sense,\u201d even while they deny\nhim a soul. In the same way, no longer able to deny the existence\nof mesmerism, they now admit it to consideration--re-baptised as\nhypnotism. The phenomena being admitted, we will not quarrel over the\nnames by which they are called.\n\n\nPSYCHIC-CONSCIOUSNESS.\n\nAs we advance in our investigations we find in the higher conditions\nof these states a double or treble consciousness or memory. The higher\nincluding and overlapping the lower. Thus the consciousness of the\nhypnotic state includes that of the waking state, while the memory\nof the waking state possesses no conscious recollection of what has\ntaken place in hypnosis, and so on, each stage has its own phases\nof consciousness. The memory of the sensitive, under influence,\noverlapping and including the memory of ordinary or normal life.\n\nStrange as it may appear, there are no phenomena which have been\nevolved in any of these abnormal conditions of life, which have not\nbeen observed again and again in ordinary or normal life, as well\nauthenticated instances of dreams, warnings, and telepathy testify.\n\nDr. Richardson notwithstanding, \u201cin dreams and visions of the night\u201d\nGod has manifested himself to man in all ages. In other words, the\nsoul (in sleep and analogous states to somnambulism and trance) comes\nmore in touch with the sub-conscious or soul sphere of thought and\nexistence. At times there is an inrush from that sphere into our\npresent conscious state, by which we know of things which could not\notherwise be known. Of dreams, our space will not admit more than\noccasional reference, we may mention as a case in point the dream of\nMrs. Donan, wife of the livery stableman from whom Dr. Cronin hired\nhis horse in Chicago. A week before Dr. Cronin was murdered this lady\nhad a dream-vision, and dreamt he was barbarously murdered, and saw in\na vision the whole terrible scene. This dream was a means, first, of\nforewarning the doctor, and second, of leading to the detection of the\nmiscreants.\n\nOf premonitions, an incident reported in the _Register_ of Adelaide,\nwill suffice:--\u201cConstable J. C. H. Williams has reported to\nheadquarters that he had an unpleasant experience at about midnight\non Monday. He was on duty at the government offices in King William\nStreet, and while standing at the main entrance he had a presentiment\nthat he was in danger, and walked away a few steps. Scarcely had he\nmoved from the spot, when a portion of the cornice work at the top of\nthe building fell with a crash on the place where he had been standing.\nThe piece of plaster must have weighed fully a stone, and had it struck\nWilliams the result would doubtless have been fatal. A passer-by saw\nthe constable a few minutes after, and his scared looks and agitated\nmanner clearly showed that his story was true.\u201d Concerning telepathy,\nMrs. Andrew Crosse, the distinguished widow of the famous electrician,\nrelates in _Temple Bar_ an anecdote about the late Bishop Wilberforce,\nto the effect, the Bishop was writing a dry business letter one day,\nwhen a feeling of acute mental agony overcame him and he felt that some\nevil had befallen his favourite son, a midshipman in the navy. The\nimpression was correct. On that very day the lad, who was with his ship\nin the Pacific, had been wounded and nearly bled to death. When this\nwas told Hallam, the historian, he replied that a very similar thing\nhad happened to himself. A few cases are noted further on. Some persons\nwould repudiate _all_ such incidents as accidents or coincidences;\nwhile others would fly to the extreme, and declare all such are the\nresult of \u201cspirit control\u201d--that is, some disembodied but friendly\nspirit projected the dream, conveyed the warning, or telepathically\ndespatched the news. But we must never forget news has to be received\nas well as despatched. Consequently, we, as embodied spirits, must\npossess psychic consciousness.\n\nI believe that _much_ of the phenomena, directly and indirectly\nattributed to disincarnate spirit control, are traceable to _no other\nsource_ than the powers of our own embodied spirits, as revealed by\nthe facts of somnambulism and trance, and this is the opinion of all\nintelligent spiritualists.\n\n\u201cBecause,\u201d says Mr. G. H. Stebbins, a prominent investigator of modern\nspiritualism in the United States \u201ca person quotes from books he never\nsaw, or _tells of what he never knew_ in any external way, that is not\nfinal proof that he is under an external spirit control. Psychometry\nand clairvoyance may sometimes solve it all.\u201d\n\n\u201cI hold,\u201d says Mr. Myers, \u201cthat telepathy and clairvoyance do, in fact,\nexist--telepathy, a communication between incarnate mind and incarnate\nmind, and perhaps between incarnate minds and minds unembodied;\nclairvoyance, a knowledge of things terrene which over-passes the\nlimits of ordinary perception, and which, perhaps, achieves an insight\nwith some other than terrene world.\u201d\n\nThese are the cautious admissions of eminent investigators in psychical\nresearch.\n\n\nDOUBLE OR SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS.\n\n\u201cThere are two sets,\u201d says Dr. Brown-Sequard, \u201ca double state of mental\npowers in the human organism, essentially differing from each other.\nThe one may be designated as ordinary conscious intelligence; the\nother, a superior power, which controls our better nature.\u201d\n\nJ. Balfour Brown, in his \u201cMedical Jurisprudence,\u201d says:--\u201cIn no case\nof pure somnambulism, waking consciousness of the individual knows\nanything of the sleeping consciousness. It is as if there were two\ndistinct memories.\u201d\n\nThis double-consciousness, memory, or sub-state of mental powers, is\nanother but lower phase of psychic-consciousness, and is sometimes\nexhibited by accidents, and also by disease.\n\nDr. Abercromby relates the case of a boy, four years old who was\ntrepanned for a fracture of the skull. He was in a _complete stupor_\nduring the operation, and was not conscious of what took place. At\nfifteen he became seriously ill of fever. In the delirium occasioned\nby the fever, he gave a correct description of the operation, _and of\nall the persons present, their dress_, manners, and actions, to the\nminutest particulars. The \u201csuperior power\u201d must have obtained this\nknowledge in some other way than through the ordinary channels of the\noutward senses.\n\nIn cases of apparent drowning, where the person has been saved from\ndeath by active, external help, we have been informed that the human\nmind has worked with a rapidity of action not thought possible in the\nwaking state, the intensity of menial action being increased in adverse\nratio to the inaction of the external senses and consciousness. In\nthis state the career of a lifetime has been reviewed, conversations,\nactions, persons seen and places visited, all vividly brought to\nmind--in possibly less time than it takes to pen this paragraph. These\nphenomena suggest the reflection that the daily waking life--sensuous\nand worldly-minded--is possibly, to many, the least real and effective.\nHow much our external life is influenced by our unconscious (to us in\nthe waking state) sub-life, is an interesting problem.\n\nDr. Oliver Wendell Holmes says:--\u201cThe more we examine the mechanism\nof thought, the more we shall see that the automatic and unconscious\naction of the mind enters largely into all its processes. We _all_ have\na _double_ who is wiser and better than we, who puts thoughts into our\nheads and words into our mouths.\u201d\n\nA commercial gentleman of my acquaintance, who was rather sceptical\non the subject of double-consciousness--although, \u201cnotwithstanding,\u201d\nhe said, \u201cMr. Stead, in the _Review of Reviews_, had turned an\nhonest penny out of ghosts, double-consciousness, and that sort of\nrubbish\u201d--admitted to me, he had a maid, who had an awkward habit of\nrising in her sleep, carefully setting the fires, cleaning and dusting\nout the rooms, setting the breakfast table, and doing many other things\nwhich appeared important to the servant-mind. Her movements were\nwatched. She slipped about with eyes closed, avoiding obstacles, and\ndoing her work systematically and neatly, and without fuss, when done,\nshe would go to bed. In the morning she had no recollection of what she\nhad said or done. It was a curious thing, he had to admit. The girl\nwas honest enough. He was certain this habit had not been simulated.\nThreats of discharge, and possible loss of wages, did not cure her of\nthis habit. There was a certain form of \u201cdouble consciousness\u201d in this\ncase.\n\n\u201cThe subliminal consciousness\u201d of Mr. Myers, by which he accounts for\nthe phenomena of genius, is but another way of expressing the concept\nof an \u201cidentity underlying all consciousness,\u201d the psyche, the real \u201cI,\nme,\u201d \u201cthe superior power which directs and controls our better nature,\u201d\nthe \u201cdouble who is wiser and better than we,\u201d the reality of which is\nso much hidden from our ordinary experience, because our soul-life is\nso much buried out of sight by the _d\u00e9bris_ of the \u201cthings of this\nlife,\u201d which, fortunately or otherwise, pre-occupy so much of our\nattention.\n\nIt is this \u201csubliminal consciousness\u201d we see manifested in the psychic\nstate, and natural somnambulism. Clairvoyance, psychometry, thought\ntransference, etc., are as so many spectrum rays of the one soul light.\nCall them \u201csubliminal\u201d if you will. These rays flow out from the soul,\nand are many-hued, distinct or blurred, according to the degree of\npureness or super-sensitivity of the external corporeal prism through\nwhich they are projected.\n\nPersons have lived for years, we are credibly informed, who have\nspent half their lives entranced, _in the alternation of two distinct\nindividualities_ or two distinct states of consciousness, in one of\nwhich they forget all they had learned or did in the other.\n\nProfessor Huxley described (British Association of Science, Belfast,\n1874) a case in which two separate lives, a normal, and abnormal one,\nseemed to be lived at intervals by the same individual during the\ngreater portion of her life.\n\nThe conclusion to the whole matter is--the psychic, or soul-powers in\nsome persons are less entrammelled by the senses than in others; that a\nhigh degree of organic sensitiveness always accompanies those who are\nrecognised as psychics or sensitives; that this state of sensitiveness\nis natural to some, and in others may be developed by accident,\ndisease, or induced by somnambulism and trance.\n\nI will endeavour to show these psychic characteristics, or soul\ngifts, underlie, and enter into the varied phenomena--clairvoyance,\npsychometry, thought transference, thought-reading, and what not, which\nare collated under the title of,\n\n  \u201cHOW TO THOUGHT-READ.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nClairvoyance.\n\n\nWhat is clairvoyance? \u201cThe term, clairvoyance,\u201d says Dr. George\nWyld, in a paper read before the Psychical Research Society, London,\n\u201cis French, and means _clear-seeing_, but it appears to me to be\nan inadequate term, because it might signify clear optical vision,\nor clear mental vision. What is signified by the term is the power\nwhich certain individuals possess of seeing external objects under\ncircumstances which render the sight of these objects impossible to\nphysical optics. In short, by clairvoyance, we mean the power which\nthe _mind_ has of seeing or knowing thoughts and psychical conditions,\nand objects hidden from or beyond the reach of the physical senses;\nand if the existence of this faculty can be established, we arrive\nat a demonstration that man has a power within his body as yet\nunrecognised by physical science--a power which is called soul, or\nmind-seeing, and for the description of such a power the term might\nbe auto-nocticy (\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u03b7\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2), or psychoscopy.\u201d Psychoscopy, or soul\nsight, would, perhaps, be the better term. I propose to use the old\nterm--clairvoyance--as it signifies, in popular usage, the power of\nseeing beyond the range of physical vision, as we know it.\n\nThat certain persons are endowed with this faculty of clear seeing--in\nsome of its various phases--is a matter settled beyond dispute. What\nspecial name to call this faculty, or what are the true causes of\nits existence; why it should be possessed by some persons and not by\nothers; why it should be so frail and fugitive in the presence of\nsome people, and strong and vivid before others; why some persons\nare never clairvoyant until they have been through the mesmeric and\npsychic states; why some become possessed of the faculty through\ndisease; while, with others, the gift of clairvoyance appears to be\na spontaneous possession; and why some operators are successful in\ninducing clairvoyance, and others not, etc., are interesting questions\nto which the student of psychology may, with advantage, direct his\nattention.\n\nClairvoyance is soul-sight--the power of the soul to see. It is\nthe state of refined psychic perception. This state increases in\nlucidity--clearness and power of penetration--in proportion as the\nactivity of the physical senses are reduced below normal action. It\nis observed to be most effective in the trance state--natural or\ninduced--as in the mesmeric and psychic states. I conclude, then,\nclairvoyance depends upon the unfolding of the spirit\u2019s perception, and\nis increased in power as the ascendency of the spirit arises above the\nactivities of the spirit\u2019s corporeal envelope--the body. In proportion\nto the spirit\u2019s ascendency over the organs and senses of the body, is\nthis psychic gift perfect or imperfect.\n\nThe large brain or cerebrum is the physical organ of the soul, as the\ncerebellum is of the physiological brain functions. Mental functions\nare manifested by the former, and physical functions by the latter.\n\nClairvoyance, as a spiritual faculty, will doubtless have its\nappropriate organ in the brain. I do not profess to locate that organ.\nAt the same time I have noticed the best clairvoyants are wide and full\nbetween the eyes, showing there is a particular fulness of the frontal\ncerebral lobes, at their juncture at the root of the nose. This may\nbe something more than a mere physiognomic sign. When this sign is\naccompanied by refinement of organisation, and a fine type of brain, I\nalways look for the possible manifestation of clairvoyance in mesmeric\nsubjects.\n\nSome writers are of the opinion clairvoyance is actually soul-sight,\nmore or less retarded in lucidity by the action or activity of\nthe bodily senses. Others believe it to be a state arising from a\npeculiar highly-strained nervous condition, which induces the state\nof super-sensitivity or impressionability of the organisation. The\nfirst may be termed the spiritual, and the latter the physiological\nhypothesis. But, as a matter of fact, both conditions are noted. The\nlatter may account for much, and possibly is sufficient to explain much\nthat is called thought-reading--so often mistaken for clairvoyance.\nIt does appear to me that certain peculiar physiological conditions,\nvarying from semi-consciousness to profound trance, are necessary\nfor the manifestation of clairvoyance, even when it takes place in\napparently normal life of the possessor.\n\nIt is more than likely that the ornate and mystic ceremonies indulged\nin by Hindoo mystics, Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman priests, had\nthe one grand end in view--viz., to induce the requisite state of\nsuper-sensitivity, and thus prepare the consecrated youths, sybils,\nand vestal virgins for the influx of spiritual vision, prophecy, and\nwhat not. When this subtle influx came--by whatever name called--the\nphenomena manifested were pretty much the same as we know them, only\nvaried in degree. The gods spoke per oracle, Pythean, or Delphic. The\nman of God either coronated a king or foretold the end of a dynasty.\nSt. Stephen saw Christ, St. John beheld visions, Joan of Arc was\ndirected, Swedenborg illumined, and religious ecstatics in ancient and\nmodern times partook more or less of the sacred fire--the inner sight.\nThis (stripped of the fantastic surroundings, priestly mummeries,\nand dominant belief of the times) simply indicated the evolution and\nexercise of clairvoyance and other psychic gifts.\n\nComing nearer home, we hear of the mysterious visions at the Knock,\nand at Lourdes. Miraculous appearances of the Virgin and winged\nangels, to cheer the hearts of the faithful, and to cause the heads\nof the scornful to rejoice in sceptical derision. Then we have all the\nvagaries produced by the high nervous tension of modern revivalism, in\nwhich the visions seen are but a transformation of church and chapel\ndogmas into objective realities. These illusionary visions--mistaken\nfor clairvoyance--possess less reality than the delusive fancies of the\nsensitive in the state of hypnosis.\n\nClairvoyance will be governed by its own spiritual laws, just as sight\nis affected or retarded by physical conditions. What these spiritual\nlaws are we can only surmise, but this we may safely conjecture--viz.,\nthat soul-sight is not trammelled or limited by the natural laws which\ngovern physical optics. Clairvoyance and physical vision are absolutely\ndistinct, and possess little in common.\n\nTo illustrate a new subject, it is permissible to draw upon the\nold and the well-known. So I venture to illustrate clairvoyance by\ncertain facts in connection with ordinary human vision. Although some\nchildren see better than others, the power to see, with the ability\nto understand the relative positions and uses of the things seen, is\na matter of development. In psychic vision, we also see growth or\ndevelopment, with increasing power to use and understand the faculty.\nSome children are blind from birth, and others, seeing, lose the power\nof sight. Many are _blind_, although they have physical sight, they see\nnot with _the educated eye_. Many, again, have greater powers of sight\nthan they are aware of. As so it is with psychic vision.\n\nWhat is true of the physical is also true of the psychic. From the\nfirst glimmerings, to the possession of well-defined sight, a period\nof growth and time elapses. From the first incoherent cry of infancy\nto well defined and intelligent speech of manhood, we notice the same\nagencies at work. Not only is clairvoyant vision generally imperfect\nat first, but the psychic\u2019s powers of description are also at fault.\nSt. Paul could not give utterance to what he saw, when caught up to\nthe third heavens. His knowledge of things and powers of speech failed\nhim to describe the startling, the new, and the unutterable. He had\na sudden revelation of the state of things in a sphere which had no\ncounterparts in his previous experience, in this--his known--world.\nHence, although he knew of his change of state, he could give no lawful\nor intelligible expression to his thoughts.\n\nBetween the first incongruous utterances, and apparent fantastic\nblunderings, and the more mature period in which \u201cthings spiritual\u201d can\nbe suitably described in our language, to our right sense of things, or\ncomprehension, a period of development and education must elapse. It is\ntrue some clairvoyants develop much more readily than others.\n\nIn the entrancement of the mesmeric and psychic states, there is a\nlack of external consciousness. The soul is so far liberated from\nthe body as to act independently of the ordinary sensuous conditions\nof the body, and sees by the perception and light of the inner or\nspiritual world, as distinct from the perception and light of this\nexternal or physical world. Elevated, or rather, liberated into this\nnew condition, the clairvoyant loses connection with the thrums and\nthreads of the physical organism, and is unable, or forgets for a\ntime, how to speak of things as they are, or as they would appear\nto the physical vision of another. It is not surprising that in the\nearlier stages of clairvoyant development, and consequent transfer of\nordinary consciousness and sensuous perception to that of spiritual\nconsciousness and perception, the language of the clairvoyant should\nappear peculiar, incongruous, and \u201cwanting,\u201d according to our ideas of\nclearness and precision.\n\nOne important lesson may be learned from this--viz., the operator\nshould never force results, or strive to develop psychic perception by\nshort cuts. Time must be allowed to the sensitive, for training and\nexperience, and the development of self-confidence and expression.\n\nClairvoyance is not a common possession. Nevertheless, I believe there\nare many persons who possess the faculty unknown to themselves. By\nfollowing out patiently, for a time, the requisite directions, the\npossession of this invaluable psychic gift might be discovered by many\nwho now appear totally devoid of any clairvoyant indications. Its\ncultivation is possible and, in many ways, desirable.\n\n\u201cThe higher attainment,\u201d says Dr. John Hamlin Davey, \u201cof occult\nknowledge and power, the development of intuition, the psychometric\nsense, clairvoyant vision, inner hearing, etc., etc., thus reached,\nso open the avenues to a higher education, and enlarge the boundaries\nof human consciousness and activity, as to fairly dwarf into\ninsignificance the achievements of external science.\u201d\n\nClairvoyance is as old as mankind, but the exhibition of clairvoyance,\ninduced by mesmeric processes, was first announced by Puysegeur, a\nfavourite pupil of Mesmer, in 1784. Since that time to the present\nnot only have remarkable cases of clairvoyance cropped up, but there\nhave been few mesmerists of any experience who have not had numerous\ncases under observation. Clairvoyance converted Dr. John Elliotson,\nF.R.S., one of the most scientific of British physicians, from extreme\nmaterialistic views to that of belief in soul and immortality. The\nsame may be said of the late Dr. Ashburner, who was one of the\nQueen\u2019s physicians. Dr. Georget, author of \u201cPhysiology of the Nervous\nSystem,\u201d--who was at one time opposed to a belief in the existence of a\ntranscendental state in man,--found upon examination of the facts and\nincidents of artificial somnambulism, that _his materialism must go_.\nIn his last will and testament, referring to the above-mentioned work,\nhe says:--\u201cThis work had scarcely appeared, when renewed meditations\non a very extraordinary phenomenon, somnambulism, no longer permitted\nme to entertain doubts of the existence within us, and external to\nus, of an intelligent principle, altogether different from material\nexistences; in a word, of the soul and God. With respect to this I\nhave a profound conviction, founded upon facts which I believe to be\nincontestable.\u201d Dr. Georget directed this change of opinion should have\nfull publicity after his death.\n\nSpace would not suffice me to mention the names of all the highly\neducated and refined minds, in the medical, literary, philosophic,\nand scientific walks of life, who have studied these phenomena, and\nwho, like Dr. Georget, have no more doubts of their reality than they\nhave of their own physical existence, status, or reputation. Among\nmedical men--some of whom I have known and corresponded with--might be\nmentioned Sir James Simpson, Drs. Elliotson, Ashburner, Esdaile, Buss,\nGarth Wilkinson, Hands, Wyld, Hitchman, Eadon, and Davey. Among others\non the roll of fame, might be noticed Archbishop Whately; Earls Ducie,\nStanhope, Macclesfield, Charleville; the present Duke of Argyle; Lord R.\nCavendish, Lord Lindsay; Burton, the traveller; and the late Sergeant\nCox. Among literary men, Mr. Gladstone, Britain\u2019s foremost statesman\nand scholar; Mr. Balfour, his able and talented opponent; Bulwer\nLytton, Marryat, Neal, Robert Chambers, Dickens, and Stevenson, of \u201cDr.\nJekyll and Mr. Hyde\u201d fame. Mr. George Combe, the distinguished Scottish\nmetaphysician, philosopher, author, phrenologist, etc., was profoundly\ninterested in the phenomena. Among well-known men of science might\nbe mentioned Camille Flammarion, the French astronomer; Fichte, the\nGerman philosopher; Professors Tornebom and Edland, Swedish physicists;\nProfessor Oliver Lodge, D.Sc., F.R.S.; Alfred Russell Wallace,\nD.C.L., LL.D.; William Crookes, F.R.S.; Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S.\nNotwithstanding this somewhat formidable array of investigators of\nclairvoyance, many good people will not hesitate to deny the value of\nsuch evidence, and yet will believe anything in its favour which may be\nfound in the Bible, as to its existence in the _past_. It is a strange\nperversion of judgment--not at all surprising--when the majority take\n(second-hand) for their religious(?) views whatever is recognised as\n\u201csound\u201d in each particular district and Church. It is not a question of\nbelief, it is \u201ca question of evidence,\u201d as Mr. Gladstone avers.\n\nThe Rev. Mr. M\u02bdKinnon, late pastor of Chalmers\u2019 Free Church, Glasgow,\ntold me a short time ago, \u201cClairvoyance was nothing more than a high\nnervous concentrated form of mental vision,\u201d to which I replied,\n\u201cAdmitting the hypothesis--which, however, explained nothing--it\nmatters little what clairvoyance is esteemed to be or called, if the\nfacts connected with it are acknowledged.\u201d Even this friend admitted\nhe knew a man in Mull, who lived on the half croft, next to his\nfather\u2019s croft. This man had great repute in that district as \u201chaving\nthe Second Sight.\u201d Whatever this man foretold always came to pass.\nOne instance will suffice. He (Mr. M\u02bdKinnon) remembered that one day,\nwhile this crofter (who was a tailor by trade) was working, he suddenly\nstopped, and looked _out into vacancy_--as he always did when the\n\u201cSecond Sight was on him\u201d--and described a funeral coming over the\nhill, the mourners, who they were, and numbers, the way the procession\ntook, and the name of the \u201cman whose face was covered,\u201d and finally,\nwhen the procession would appear. Mr. M\u02bdKinnon\u2019s parents noted the\ntime, and being simple Highland folk, accustomed to the accuracy of\nthis man\u2019s visions, they believed what he said, and kept his saying\nin their hearts till the time of fulfilment came about. Mr. M\u02bdKinnon\nassured me \u201cthe funeral took place to the day and hour, twelve months\nsubsequently to the vision, as predicted.\u201d All I can say is, if \u201ca high\nnervous concentrated form of mental vision\u201d is capable of pointing out\nall this, it is worthy of investigation. It is evident this tailor at\nleast had a power of vision--prevoyance--not of the ordinary, everyday\nkind of vision. Second sight, as exhibited in this case, is what may be\ntermed spontaneous clairvoyance.\n\nEpes Sargent, in his work, \u201cThe Scientific Basis of Spiritualism,\u201d\nreferring to clairvoyance, says: \u201cAs far as I have admitted it as part\nof a scientific basis (demonstrating man\u2019s spiritual nature), it is the\nexercise of the supersensual faculty of penetrating opaque and dense\nmatter as if by the faculty of sight. But it does more. It detects\nour unuttered, undeveloped thoughts; it goes back along the past, and\ndescribes what is hidden; nay, the proofs are overwhelming that it may\npierce the future, and predict coming events from the shadows they cast\nbefore.\n\n\u201cWhat is it that sees without the physical eyes, and without the\nassistance of light? What is normal sight? It is not the vibrating\nether--it is not the external eye--that sees. It is the soul using the\neye as an instrument, and light as a condition. Prove once that sight\ncan exist without the use of light, sensation, or any physical organ of\nvision, and you prove an abnormal, supersensual, spiritual faculty--a\nproof which puts an end to the theory of materialism, and which,\nthrough its affinity with analogous or corresponding facts, justifies\nits introduction as part of a scientific basis for the spiritual\ntheory.\u201d\n\nJ. F. Deleuze was profoundly convinced of the existence of this\nfaculty. He claimed that the power of seeing at a distance, prevision,\nand the transference of thought without the aid of external signs, were\nin themselves sufficient proofs of the existence of spirituality of\nsoul.\n\nExcept in a very few instances, little or no pains are taken to\ncultivate the spiritual nature of man. Civilised man of to-day is\nbut rising out of the age of brute force of yesterday, and he is\nstill circumscribed by love of earthly power and position. He is an\nacquisitive rather than a spiritual being. Being dominated by the\nsenses, he will naturally seek and appreciate that which gratifies\nhis senses most. He has little time or patience for anything which\ndoes not contribute pleasure to his sensuous nature. He would give\ntime to the investigation of the soul side of life if it brought gold,\nthe means of enjoyment, and gratified his acquisitiveness and love of\npower. Probably the majority give the subject no attention at all. If\nthe spiritual side of our natures were as fully cultivated as those\nelements which bring us bread and butter and praise of men in the\nmarket-place, there is no doubt, no manner of doubt whatever, but the\nmost of us would occupy a nobler and more spiritually elevated plane in\nlife; and were adequate means taken, I doubt not but this faculty of\nclairvoyance would become more generally known and cultivated. Even to\nthe selfish, worldly and non-spiritual man, clairvoyance is not without\nits practical side and utility, such, for instance, as supplying\nChicago with water. To the spiritually minded, clairvoyance and all\npsychic gifts are appreciated, less for what they will bring, than for\nthe testimony they present of man\u2019s spiritual origin, transcendental\npowers and probable continuity of life beyond this mortal vale.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nClairvoyance Illustrated.\n\n\nClairvoyance may be briefly classified as far and near, direct\nand indirect, objective and subjective. I propose to give a few\nwell-authenticated cases to illustrate these phases in this chapter.\n\n\nFAR AND DIRECT CLAIRVOYANCE\n\nis possibly the highest and purest combination. The sensitive is able\nto state facts not within the range of the knowledge of those present.\nThus when Swedenborg described to the Queen and her friends, when at a\ndistance of several hundred miles from the conflagration, the burning\nof her palace at Christiania, no one present could possibly know of the\nfire or the incidents connected therewith. Hence no thought-reading,\nbrain-picking, much less guess-work or coincidence, could account\nfor the exactness of details given by the seer. Clairvoyance in this\ncase was not only far and direct, but objective. That is, the matter\nrecorded was connected with the physical or objective plane.\n\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE AN AID TO SCIENCE.\n\n\u201cChicago, as is well-known, is one of the most go-ahead cities in the\nworld. Like Jonah\u2019s gourd it appeared to spring up in a night. Its\npopulation rapidly increased, and water soon became a _sine qua non_,\nboth as regards use and luxury. Science was at fault; for geologists\nhad pronounced that there could be no water beneath such a strata. Top\nwater was all that could be looked for, and presently a water company\nwas formed to supply this impure kind of liquid.\n\n\u201cThere happened to live at this time in Chicago a person named Abraham\nJames, a simple-minded man, of Quaker descent, uneducated, and in fact,\nquite an ignorant person. It was discovered by a Mrs. Caroline Jordon\nthat James was a natural clairvoyant, in fact a medium, and that he\nhad declared when put into the trance condition that both water and\npetroleum, in large quantities, would be found in a certain tract of\nland in the neighbourhood of the city. For a long time no attention\nwas paid to his statements. At length two gentlemen from Maine, called\nWhitehead and Scott, coming to Chicago on business, and hearing what\nhad been said by Abraham James, had him taken to the land where he\nsaid water could be had in immense quantities by boring for. Being\nentranced, James at once pointed out the very spot. He told them that\nhe not only saw the water, but could trace its source from the Rocky\nMountains, 2000 miles away, to the spot on which they stood, and\ncould sketch out on maps the strata and caverns through which it ran.\nNegotiations were at once entered into for the purchase of the land,\nand the work of boring was commenced. This was in February, 1864, and\nthe process went on daily till November, when, having reached a depth\nof 711 feet, water was struck, and flowed up at once at the rate of\n600,000 gallons every 24 hours.\n\n\u201cThe borings showed the following kinds of strata passed through by the\ndrill, and this was spiritually seen and described by the clairvoyant\nas practical proofs to the senses of other people. First the drill\npassed through alluvium soil, 100 feet; limestone, saturated with oil,\n35 feet, which would burn as well as any coal; Joliet marble, 100\nfeet; conglomerate strata of sand and flint, mixed with iron pyrites\nand traces of copper, 125 feet; rock (shale) saturated with petroleum,\nthe sediment coming up like putty, thick and greasy, 156 feet; galena\nlimestone was next reached at a depth of 530 feet; a bed of limestone,\ncontaining flint and sulphuret of iron was bored through, the depth\nbeing 639 feet, and being very hard, the work went on slowly. At this\npoint there appeared a constant commotion arising from the escape\nof gas, the water suddenly falling from 30 to 60 feet, and then as\nsuddenly rising to the surface, carrying with it chippings from the\ndrill, and other matters. The work still went on; when at the depth of\n711 feet the arch of the rock was penetrated, and the water suddenly\nburst forth from a bore 4\u00bd in. at the bottom, of a temperature of 58\u00b0\nF., clear as crystal, pure as diamond, and perfectly free from every\nkind of animal and vegetable matter, and which, for drinking purposes\nand health, is much better adapted than any water yet known, and will\nturn out to be the poor man\u2019s friend for all time to come.\n\n\u201cHere, then, is a huge fact for the faithless: the fact brought to\nlight by dynamic or invisible agency, and which no power of negation\ncan gainsay. Natural science said, No water could be found; but\npsychology said--False, for I will point out the spot where it will\nflow in splendid streams as long as the earth spins on its axis. Since\n1864 the artesian well of Chicago has poured forth water at the rate\nof a million and a half gallons daily; and what is economic, to say\nnothing of Yankee shrewdness, it is conveyed into ponds or reservoirs\nwhich in winter freeze, producing 40,000 tons of ice for sale, and\nwhich might be quadrupled at any time.\u201d[B] This is a case of far and\nnear, direct and objective clairvoyance. This historical incident\nproves the value and reality of psychic vision.\n\nIndirect clairvoyance is the power of discerning what may be more or\nless in the minds of those present, including absent or forgotten\nthoughts and incidents. Thus, when a clairvoyant describes a place with\naccuracy, recognised by some one present to be correct, and also gives\ndetails partly known and unknown, but afterwards found to be correct,\nthis mixture of phases may be recognised as indirect.\n\n\nSUBJECTIVE CLAIRVOYANCE\n\nis that phase which enables the sensitive to perceive things and\nideas on the spiritual or subjective plane. The late Rev. Stainton\nMoses, well known in literary circles as \u201cM.A., Oxon,\u201d once asked the\nfollowing pertinent questions:--\u201cIs there conceivably a mass of life\nall round us of which most of us have no cognisance? One gifted lady\nI know sees clairvoyantly the spirit-life of all organised things,\nof a tree or plant for example. I have heard her describe what her\ninterior faculties perceive. Is it a fact that spirit, underlying\neverything, can be so perceived by the awakened faculties?\u201d I should\nsay yes. If this lady\u2019s clairvoyance has been of a high order in other\nrespects--why not in this? This type of psychic vision is of the\nsubjective order.\n\nThere are necessarily an infinite variety of phases, pure and mixed,\nwhich the investigator will meet in practice. These phases may be\ncalled _far_, such as seeing objects, etc., at a distance--prevoyance,\npredicting events; retrovoyance, reading the past; introvoyance,\nseeing internally, or examining bodies, as in disease; external\nintrovoyance, seeing into lockets, packets, letters, safes, and\ndiscovering hidden, known or forgotten, or lost objects. Lastly, there\nis pseudo-clairvoyance. For one case of direct there are hundreds\nof well authenticated cases of indirect clairvoyance, and again for\none of the latter there are thousands of pseudo-clairvoyance, which\nare the outcome of states similar to hypnosis, and are nothing more\nthan an incongruous medley of suggested ideas and fancies. Thus a\nstrong and positive willed person can impinge his ideas through\nthe thought-atmosphere of the sensitive and distort or deflect the\npsychic vision, and render abortive any attempts to get beyond the\ncircle of the dominating influence. Again, the sensitive may enter\na realm of fancy--a veritable dreamland of coherent and incoherent\nideation, either the product of the sensitive\u2019s own condition, or of\nsuggestion--accidental, spontaneous, and determined--in the sensitive\u2019s\nsurroundings. Of course any classification of the numerous phases of\nclairvoyance must be purely arbitrary.\n\n\nDIRECT AND OBJECTIVE CLAIRVOYANCE--LOST GOODS RESTORED.\n\nThis instance of far vision is taken from \u201cA Tangled Yarn,\u201d page 173,\n\u201cLeaves from Captain James Payn\u2019s Log,\u201d which was published recently\nby C. H. Kelly. As I knew Captain Hudson, of Swansea, personally, and\nheard from his own lips the following incident, I have much pleasure\nin introducing it here as a further illustration of the _Cui bono_ of\nclairvoyance:--\n\n\u201cThe _Theodore_ got into Liverpool the same day as the _Bland_. She was\na larger ship than ours but had a similar cargo. The day that I went\nto the owners to report \u2018all right,\u2019 I met with Captain Morton in a\nterrible stew because he was thirty bales of cotton short, a loss equal\nto the whole of his own wages and the mate\u2019s into the bargain. He was\nso fretted over it that his wife in desperation recommended him to get\nthe advice of a Captain Hudson, who had a young female friend clever as\na clairvoyant. We were both sceptical in the matter of clairvoyance. At\nfirst Morton didn\u2019t wish to meddle, he said, with \u2018a parcel of modern\nwitchcraft,\u2019 and that sort of thing; but he at last yielded to his\nwife\u2019s urgency and consented to go. There was first of all a half-crown\nfee to Captain Hudson, and then the way was clear for an interview with\nthe young clairvoyant. I was present to \u2018see fair.\u2019 When the girl had\nbeen put into the clairvoyant state Morton was instructed to take her\nright hand in his right hand and ask her any questions he wished. The\nreplies were in substance as follows:--She went back mentally to the\nport whence the _Theodore_ had sailed, retracing with her hand as she\nin words also described the course of the ship from Liverpool across\nthe Atlantic, through the West Indian group, etc., back to New Orleans.\nAt length she said, \u2018Yes, this is the place where the cotton was lost;\nit\u2019s put on board a big black ship with a red mark round it.\u2019 Then she\nbegan to trace with her hand and describe the homeward course of the\nvessel, but after re-crossing the Atlantic, instead of coming up the\nIrish Channel for Liverpool, she turned along the English Channel as\nthough bound for the coast of France; and then stretching out her hand\nshe exclaimed, \u2018Oh, here\u2019s the cotton; but what funny people they are;\nthey don\u2019t talk English.\u2019 Captain Morton said at once, \u2018I see; it\u2019s\nthe _Brunswick_, Captain Thomas,\u2019 an American ship that lay alongside\nof him at New Orleans and was taking in her cargo of cotton while the\n_Theodore_ was loading, and was bound for Havre de Grace. Captain\nMorton, satisfied with his clairvoyant\u2019s information, went home and\nwrote immediately to Captain Thomas, inquiring for his lost cargo.\nIn due course he got an answer that the cotton was certainly there,\nthat it had been taken off the wharf in mistake, and that it was about\nto be sold for whomsoever it might concern; but that if he (Captain\nMorton) would remit a certain amount to cover freight and expenses\nthe bales should be forwarded to him at once. He did so, and in due\ntime received the cotton, subject only to the expenses of transit from\nHavre to Liverpool. Such are the facts; I do not profess to offer any\nexplanation.\u201d\n\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE AN AID TO THE PHYSICIAN.\n\nI am indebted to Dr. George Wyld for this case, which also exhibits\nthe value of clairvoyance. Dr. Wyld had the good fortune to make the\nacquaintance of a Mrs. D----, a lady in private life who was endowed\nwith the gift of natural clairvoyance. Dr. Wyld told this lady of \u201ca\nfriend who had for years suffered intense agony for hours every night\nin his back and chest, and that latterly he had been obliged to sit up\nall night in a chair, and his legs began to swell.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis gentleman had regularly for three years been under many of the\nleading physicians of London. Some said that there must be some obscure\nheart affection, others said it was neuralgia, one said it was gout,\nand the last consulted said it was malignant caries of the spine.\u201d\n\nDr. Wyld\u2019s friend called upon him by appointment, and met Mrs. D----.\nThis lady merely looked at him. When he had retired from the room Mrs.\nD---- made the following statement of his case to the doctor:--\u201cI have\nseen what the disease is; I saw it as distinctly as if the body were\ntransparent. There is a tumour behind the heart, about the size of a\nwalnut; it is of a dirty colour; and it jumps and looks as if it would\nburst. Nothing can do him any good but entire rest.\u201d\n\n\u201cI at once saw,\u201d says Dr. Wyld, what she meant, and sat down to write\nto my friend\u2019s medical attendant as follows:--\n\n\u201cI believe I have discovered the nature of Mr.----\u2019s disease. He has\nan aneurism on the descending aorta, about the size of a walnut. It\nis this which causes the slight displacement which has been observed\nin the heart, and the pressure of the tumour against the intercostal\nnerves is the cause of the agony in the back, and the peripheral pains\nin the front of the chest. You are going to-morrow to see Sir ---- in\nconsultation; show him this diagnosis, and let me know what he says.\u201d\n\n\u201cNext the patient had the consultation, and Mrs. D----\u2019s diagnosis\nwas confirmed; and the doctors agreed with Mrs. D---- the only thing\nto be done was to take entire rest. The treatment was duly followed\nup, with successful results.\u201d Dr. Wyld thoughtfully adds--\u201cIt is true\nthat the diagnosis cannot be absolutely confirmed during life, but as\nthe profession unanimously pronounce the disease to be aneurism, the\ndiagnosis may be accepted as correct. This diagnosis has probably saved\nthe gentleman\u2019s life, as before Mrs. D---- saw him he was allowed to\nshoot over Scotch moors, and to ride, drive, and play billiards.\u201d\n\nThe use of clairvoyance in the diagnosis of disease is by no means\nas rare as the majority of physicians and the general public would\nnaturally assume. I have had many opportunities of witnessing the\naccuracy of diagnosis and the excellence of the methods of treatment\nadvised by clairvoyants. In my own personal experience I have had much\nevidence of correctness of clairvoyance in diagnosis, and subsequent\nsuccess in treatment. It is a phase most desirable to cultivate if\npossible, and all allied conditions connected therewith.\n\n\nTRAVELLING CLAIRVOYANCE.\n\nAs a public entertainer at one time, giving demonstrations of mesmeric\nphenomena, I have had naturally many opportunities of seeing different\ntypes of clairvoyance. During a course of entertainments given by\nme in Rothesay, 1881, I was able to introduce clairvoyance to public\nnotice by the most difficult method, that of public experiments.\n\nM. C., the clairvoyante, was a native of Newcastle-on-Tyne. All her\nclairvoyant experiments were satisfactory. Her husband was also a\nclairvoyant, but not so striking for public exhibition. M. C. seemed\nto possess all phases. One or two experiments out of many will be\ninteresting not only as illustrative of clairvoyance, but because what\nI relate can be easily ratified.\n\nM. C. arrived in Rothesay for the first time about four hours\npreviously to taking her seat upon the platform, in the New Public\nHalls. It was neither possible nor probable she could have obtained the\ninformation she possessed by other than psychic means. The clairvoyant\nwas mesmerised and blindfolded before the audience. After some\nexperiments in objective clairvoyance were given, such as describing\na watch, telling the time, and the number, by having the watch held\nsilently over her forehead, she gave several experiments in travelling\nclairvoyance. Many visitors in the hall--for Rothesay is a well known\nand fashionable seaside resort--sent up requests to the platform, and\ndesired the clairvoyante should visit their homes in Kent, Cornwall,\nIsland of Jersey, in the Isle of Man, Glasgow, and other places. Her\nvisits and descriptions were in all instances extremely satisfactory.\nHow far thought-transference and objective clairvoyance commingled and\nentered into her descriptions it would be difficult to say, but the\nresults were simply marvellous.\n\nTest case, by the late Dr. Maddever, M.D., M.R.C.S., and Dr. John\nMaddever, his son. These medical gentlemen resided in Rothesay,\nand were present in the hall. Dr. Maddever desired me to send the\nclairvoyante into a certain room in his house and that she should\ndescribe it.\n\nAll the directions the clairvoyante obtained were, \u201cto go out of the\nhall, down the front steps; when out turn to the right and proceed\nonward till she came to an iron-railed gate, on which was a small brass\nplate, bearing the name of \u2018Dr. Maddever,\u2019 she was to open the gate, go\nup to the hall-door, enter, pass the first door to the left, and turn\nround a passage to the left and enter the first door to which she came,\nand describe what she saw.\u201d\n\nSitting still upon the platform in silence for a minute or two, she\nsuddenly exclaimed:--\u201cI am at the gate--at the door--now in the hall--I\nhave found the room, and I am now inside, and stand with my back to the\ndoor.\u201d She then proceeded to describe the room, the book-cases which\nsurrounded it, their peculiar structure; the mantel-piece, the form of\nthe clock, the time, and the appearance of the ornaments. The table in\nthe centre of the room, its form, the colour and style of the cloth\nupon it, books, albums, and papers thereon, the flower vase support in\nthe window, and a number of other particulars.\n\nAt the conclusion Dr. Maddever arose in the audience and said:--\u201cLadies\nand gentlemen, Professor Coates is a stranger to me, I only know of him\nby report. The young lady on the platform I do not know. I have not\nseen either till this evening, and they have never been in my house.\nThe experiment we have had is most remarkable, and should be of deep\nand profound interest to all. The young lady has described the room, as\nfar as I can remember, most correctly--in fact very much better than I\ncould have done myself.\u201d This statement was received with applause.\n\nAfter one or two instances of travelling clairvoyance, a young\ngentleman rose in the body of the hall and desired I should send the\nsensitive to a house or villa not far from the juncture of Marine Place\nand Ardbeg Road.\n\nThe directions given to the clairvoyante were briefly to the effect,\nshe was to leave the place, on reaching the front street she was to\nturn to her left and keep on past the Post Office, Esplanade, past the\nSkeoch Woods, etc., till she came to the house. She nodded her head in\ncompliance, and presently announced she \u201chad found the house.\u201d Then she\nshivered and appeared to draw back, and said \u201cI won\u2019t go in.\u201d\n\nSome persons in the audience laughed, and one (I think it was the\nyoung gentleman who asked that she might be sent) said: \u201cThe whole\nthing is a swindle.\u201d Now, considering there was not a single flaw in\nthe experiments that night, surprise after surprise being given, and\nthe audience had risen in enthusiasm, this opinion was not favourably\nreceived.\n\nI asked the gentleman \u201cto have patience.\u201d I had no doubt but we would\nknow soon enough the reasons. \u201cWhatever they were I would try and\nascertain them.\u201d\n\nWith much hesitancy she declared that \u201cthe house was not one any\nrespectable female would enter, and she would not.\u201d When I repeated\nthis statement to the audience, there was what the newspapers call\n\u201csensation.\u201d The sensation was intensified when one of the Rothesay\nMagistrates, Bailie Molloy, the then senior Bailie of the Royal Burgh,\ndeclared \u201cthe young woman was right, perfectly right, this was a house\nwhich had been inadvertently let to persons of ill-fame, and he, for\none, had recently had the facts of the case placed before him, and he\nwas most anxious that these people should be put out, and they would\nbe, as soon as the proper steps could be taken.\u201d\n\nThe young gentleman retired somewhat discomfited, and the excitement\nproduced by these and other experiments brought crowded houses during\nmy professional stay.\n\nWhen my \u201cmesmeric exposition\u201d was concluded, the two medical gentlemen\nreferred to, were good enough to introduce themselves, and invited me\nto call next day to see the room. I accepted the invitation during\nthe following day and saw how truly correct and vivid her description\nhad been. In the first experiment the sensitive described the state of\nthe doctor\u2019s library, pointing out what had not been recollected by\neither of the medical men, and I believe the other case comes under the\nheading of direct and objective clairvoyance. Dr. Maddever\u2019s house was\nabout a quarter of a mile, and the other house about a mile and a half\nfrom the hall.\n\nThe persistent and reliable clairvoyance evinced by this sensitive\nwas induced. She was a mesmeric subject, and when such subjects are\nproperly treated they make the very best clairvoyants.\n\n\nPSYCHIC VISION POSSESSED BY THE PHYSICALLY BLIND.\n\nMrs. Croad resided at Redland, Bristol. My attention was called to\nher case about fifteen years ago by Dr. J. G. Davey, of Bristol.\nUnfortunately circumstances at the time prevented a personal visit and\nreport. Her psychic gifts and wonderful supersensitivity have been\namply testified to, by most reliable witnesses, such as Dr. Davey, Hy.\nG. Atkinson, F.G.S., and others.\n\nClairvoyance in Mrs. Croad\u2019s case was and is (for I believe the lady is\nstill living) a singular admixture of subtle sense transference so well\nknown to mesmerists of the old school, and spontaneous psychic vision.\nThought-transference and indirect clairvoyance, more or less induced,\nby intense voluntary concentration.\n\nMrs. Croad is deaf, dumb, and paralysed, and stone blind. She can\nsee and hear, read with powers \u201cdenied to ordinary mortals,\u201d and\ndiscern pictures and writings in the dark. She is aware of her\ndaughter\u2019s thoughts when the latter touches her, and becomes at once\nacquainted with what her daughter wishes to communicate. She possesses\nsupersensitivity of touch, and discerns colour by their degrees of\nheat, roughness or smoothness. She can also identify photographs and\npictures in the same way. From time to time she has exhibited the\nhighest phases of clairvoyance. Reports have been made in this case\nby medical experts in the _Journal of Psychological Medicine_, and\nother magazines and journals several years ago. The most recent was\ncontributed by the Rev. Taliesin Dans, The Cottage, Claptons, to _The\nReview of Reviews_ in January, 1891.\n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTIC AND PRACTICAL CHARACTER OF CLAIRVOYANCE\n\nmight be further illustrated by the well known case of Miss Eliza\nHamilton, who became paralysed in her limbs and right arm, through\nsevere injury to the spine. She had been in hospital for four months,\non her return home frequently passed into the trance state, and\non awakening described various people and places she had visited,\nand objects seen. These descriptions have been invariably verified\nsubsequently. \u201cShe also at times,\u201d says her physician, \u201cspeaks of\nhaving been in the company of persons with whom she was acquainted in\nthis world, but who have passed away; and she tells her friends that\nthey have become more beautiful, and have cut off their infirmities\nwith which they were afflicted while here. She often describes events\nwhich _are about to happen_, and these are always fulfilled exactly as\nshe predicts.\u201d\n\n\u201cHer father,\u201d says Mr. Hudson Tuttle, \u201cread in her presence a letter\nhe had received from a friend in Leeds, speaking of the loss of his\ndaughter, about whose fate he was very unhappy, as she had disappeared\nnearly a month before, and left no trace. Eliza went into the trance\nstate, and cried out, \u2018Rejoice! I have found the lost girl! She is\nhappy in the angel world.\u2019 She said the girl had fallen into the dark\nwater where dyers washed their cloths; that her friends could not have\nfound her had they sought her there, _but_ now the body had floated a\nfew miles, and would be found in the River Aire. The body was found as\ndescribed.\n\n\u201cNow, knowing that her eyes were closed, that she could not hear, that\nher bodily senses were in profound lethargy, how are we to account for\nthe intensity and keenness of sight? Her mental powers were exceedingly\nexalted, and scarcely a question could be asked her but she correctly\nanswered.\n\n\u201cIn this case the independence of the mind of the physical body are\nshown in every instance of clairvoyance, is proven beyond cavil or\ndoubt. If it is demonstrated that the mind sees without the aid of\neyes, hears when the ears are deaf, feels when the nerves of sensation\nare at rest, it follows that it is independent of these outward\navenues, and has other channels of communication with the external\nworld essentially its own.\u201d\n\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE FROM DISEASE.\n\nMiss Mollie Fancher, of Brooklyn Heights, fell off a tramway car when\neighteen years of age, experienced very severe injuries to head and\nspine, her body being dragged a distance, through her dress catching on\nthe step of the car. She became paralysed, lost all her senses, except\ntouch. She gradually recovered hearing, taste, and ability to talk\nin time. She was also blind for nine years. Drs. Speir and Ormiston\nwere her physicians, men of skill and marked probity. These, with a\nveritable host of medical men--ministers of the Gospel, educationists\nand specialists--have borne testimony to her remarkable endowments,\nfrom which we take two extracts. Mr. Charles Ewart, Principal of the\nBrooklyn Heights Seminary, where she was under special care, writes:--\n\n\u201cFor many days together she has been to all appearances dead. The\nslightest pulse could not be detected; there was no evidence of\nrespiration. Her limbs were as cold as ice, and had there not been\nsome warmth about her heart, she would have been buried. When I first\nsaw her she had but one sense--that of touch. By running her fingers\nover the printed page, she could read with equal facility in light or\ndarkness. The most delicate work is done by her in the night.... Her\npower of clairvoyance, or second sight, is marvellously developed.\n_Distance imposes no barriers_, without the slightest error she\ndictates the contents of sealed letters which have never been in her\nhands. She discriminates in darkness the most delicate shades of\ncolour. She writes with extraordinary rapidity.\u201d\n\nMr. Henry M. Parkhurst, the astronomer (residing at 173 Gates Avenue,\nBrooklyn, N.Y.), writes:--\n\n\u201cFrom the waste-basket of a New York gentleman acquaintance he\nfished an unimportant business letter, without reading it, tore it\ninto ribbons, and tore the ribbons into squares. He shook the pieces\nwell together, put them into an envelope, and sealed it. This he\nsubsequently handed to Miss Fancher. The blind girl took the envelope\nin her hand, and passed her hand over it several times, called for\npaper and pencil, and wrote it verbatim. The seal of the letter had\nnot been broken. Mr. Parkhurst himself opened it, pasted the contents\ntogether, and compared the two. Miss Fancher\u2019s was a literal copy of\nthe original.\u201d\n\n\nMESMERIC CLAIRVOYANCE AND SPIRITUALISM.\n\n\u201cA few evenings ago I called upon Mr. and Mrs. Loomis, 2 Vernon\nPlace, Bloomsbury, and after we had chatted for a short time in the\ndrawing-room with the door closed and nobody else present, I asked if\nthey would try a mesmeric experiment for me. They willingly agreed,\nand Mr. Loomis, by passes, threw his wife into a mesmeric state, as he\noften does, and an intelligence, which claimed to be the spirit of her\nmother, spoke through her lips. Until this moment I had said nothing to\nany living soul about the nature of my contemplated experiment, but I\nthen asked the unseen intelligence if it could then and there go to the\nhouse of Mrs. Macdougall Gregory, 21 Green Street, Grosvenor Square,\nLondon, and move a heavy physical object in her presence. The reply\nwas, I do not know, I will try. About three minutes afterwards, at 8.40\np.m., the intelligence said that Mrs. Gregory was in her drawing-room\nwith a friend, and added, \u2018I have made Mrs. Gregory feel a prickly\nsensation in her arm from the elbow down to the hand, as if some person\nhad squeezed the arm, and she has spoken about it to her friend.\u2019\n\n\u201cI took a note in writing of this statement at the time it was made. A\nfew minutes later I left Mr. and Mrs. Loomis, and without telling them\nmy intention to do so, went straight to the house of Mrs. Gregory about\na mile and a half off. I had selected Mrs. Gregory for this experiment\nbecause she is not afraid to publish her name in connection with\npsychic truths, and her word carries weight, especially in Scotland,\nwhere she and her family are well-known. She is the widow of Professor\nGregory, of Edinburgh University, and is a lineal descendant of the\nLord of the Isles. I then for the first time told Mrs. Gregory of the\nexperiment. She replied that between half-past eight and nine o\u2019clock\nthat evening she was playing the piano, and suddenly turned round to\nher friend, Miss Yauewicz, of Upper Norwood, saying, \u2018I don\u2019t know what\nis the matter with me, I feel quite stupid, and have such a pain in\nmy right arm that I cannot go on playing.\u2019 Miss Yauewicz, who was no\nbeliever in spiritualism or any of the marvels of psychology, felt a\nlively interest when she was informed of the experiment. She told me\nthat she clearly remembered Mrs. Gregory\u2019s statement that she could not\ngo on playing because of the pain in her right arm.\u201d[C]\n\nMrs. Loomis was a remarkable clairvoyante, whom I accidently became\nacquainted with in Liverpool many years ago, shortly after her arrival\nfrom America. I introduced the lady and her husband, Mr. Daniel Loomis,\nto Mr. Harrison, then editor of _The Spiritualist_. The Guion steamer,\n_Idaho_, in which they came from New York, was wrecked off the Irish\nCoast, and all they possessed in this world was lost with the vessel.\nMrs. Loomis predicted the disaster, where it was likely to take place;\nthat all hands would be saved, but all they had lost. Upon the arrival\nof the officers of the vessel in Liverpool, they presented Mrs. Loomis,\nat the Bee Hotel, John Street, Liverpool, with a basket of flowers,\npurse, and testimonial, in recognition of her gift, and heroic conduct\nduring and after the disaster. I may add I knew Mr. Harrison as a most\ncareful investigator and a man of scientific tastes and ability.\n\nI select the following case of a mesmeric sensitive controlled by\na disembodied spirit, from the writings of Mr. Epes Sargent, author\nof \u201cPlanchette on the Despair of Science,\u201d etc., as appropriately\nillustrative of this form of clairvoyance:--\n\n\u201cOne of the daughters of my valued correspondent, the late William\nHowett, was a mesmeric sensitive. Howett told Professor W. D. Gunning,\nwhose words (slightly abridged) I here use, that, on one occasion his\ndaughter, being entranced, wrote a communication signed with the name\nof her brother, supposed to be in Australia. The import was, that he\nhad been drowned a few days before in a lake. Dates and details were\ngiven. The parents could only wait, as there was no trans-oceanic\ntelegraph. Months passed, and at last a letter came from a nephew in\nMelbourne, bearing the tidings that their son had been drowned on such\na day, in such a lake, under such and such circumstances. Date, place,\nand all the essential details were the same as those given months\nbefore through the daughter. Mr. Howett believed that the freed spirit\nof his son influenced the sister to write; and I know of no explanation\nmore rational that this.\u201d\n\n\nCLAIRVOYANCE DUE TO SPIRITUAL CONTROL.\n\nSuch cases as the above are the most difficult of all to prove. What I\ncontend for is, if it is demonstrated we can control a fellow-being,\nthrow him or her into a trance state--in which the phenomena of the\npsychic state are evolved--and seeing such state is induced largely\nby the control of spirit over spirit in the body, why may not a\ndisembodied spirit control, direct, or influence a suitable sensitive\nor medium in the body? If not, why not? There is abundant evidence of\nsuch controls.\n\nSeeing objects concealed in boxes and letters, or reading books and\nmottoes, etc., appears to some clairvoyants to be more difficult than\ndiagnosing disease, or seeing objects at a distance. The why and\nwherefore seems at first difficult to explain.\n\nThe deliberate concealment of objects for the purpose of testing\nclairvoyance is often the result of a spirit of virulent suspicion,\ndisbelief, and what is worse, _an earnest desire for failure_, so that\nthe parties may rejoice on the discomfiture of the clairvoyants. With\nsuch people failure is a source of pleasure. Nevertheless, seeming\nimpossibilities have been triumphed over. Long lost wills have been\nfound, and places of the accidental or intentional hiding discovered.\nIn more than one case deliberate fraud has been exposed, and the guilty\nparties brought to acknowledge the truth of the sensitive\u2019s revelations.\n\n\nTHE FUGITIVE NATURE OF CLAIRVOYANCE.\n\n\u201cThe chief feature,\u201d said Alexis Didier, \u201cof the somnambulistic\nlucidity is its variability. While the conjurer or juggler, at all\nmoments in the day and before all spectators, will invariably succeed,\nthe somnambulist, endowed with the marvellous power of clairvoyance,\nwill not be lucid with all interviewers and at all moments of the\nday; for the faculty of lucidity being a crisis painful and abnormal,\nthere may be atmospheric influences or invincible antipathies at work\nopposing its production, and which seem to paralyse all supersensual\nmanifestation. Intuition, clairvoyance, lucidity, are faculties which\nthe somnambulist gets from the nature of his temperament, and which\nare rarely developed in force.\u201d Further, he adds, \u201cthe somnambulistic\nlucidity varies in a way to make one despair; success is continually\nfollowed by failure; in a word, error succeeds a truth; but when one\nanalyses the causes of this no right-minded person will bring up the\ncharge of Charlatanism, since the faculty is subject to influences\nindependent of the will and the consciousness of the clairvoyant.\u201d\n\nAlexis Didier, like his brother Adolphe, was a natural clairvoyant,\nand excelled in direct and objective clairvoyance, phases of the most\nstriking and convincing character.\n\nClairvoyance can be cultivated by the aid of mesmerism and by the\nintrospection process. By the first, the sensitive can be materially\nassisted by the experience and help of the operator. By the second,\nsomething like natural clairvoyance can be induced. Either processes\nare more or less suitable to subdue the activity of the senses, and\ngive greater range to the psychic powers. General instructions are\nof little use. Personal advice is best. The operator then knows with\nwhom he has to do, their special temperament and character, what are\nthe best processes to adopt to cultivate their gift, and how far such\nsensitives and students are themselves likely to be suitable for\nclairvoyant experiments. I have found the \u201cMirror Disc\u201d useful in\ninducing favourable conditions in the normal state for the development\nof clairvoyance, and recommend its use.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nPsychometry.\n\n\n[Illustration: J. RHODES BUCHANAN, M.D.]\n\nWhat is psychometry? Dr. George Wyld esteems psychometry a phase of\nclairvoyance--\u201cthe knowledge the psychic obtains by a _clue_, such as\na lock of the hair of some absent person, or some portion of a distant\nobject.\u201d Mr. Stead calls it (_Review of Reviews_, p. 221, September,\n1892) \u201cthe strange new science of psychometry.\u201d In this he pardonably\nerrs. Psychometry may be strange, but _it_ is _not_ new. We may not\nrecognise the name as old, but the class of phenomena it specialises\nis as old as clairvoyance and mind-reading.\n\n\u201cThe word psychometry,\u201d says Dr. Buchanan, \u201ccoined in 1842, to express\nthe character of a new science and art, is the most pregnant and\nimportant word that has been added to the English language. Coined\nfrom the Greek (_psyche_, soul; and _metron_, measure), it literally\nsignifies _soul-measuring_.\u201d... \u201cThe psychometer measures the soul.\u201d\n\nIn the case of psychometry, the measuring assumes a new character, as\nthe object measured and the measuring instrument are the same psychic\nelement, and its measuring power is not limited to the psychic, as it\nwas developed in the first experiments, but has appeared by successive\ninvestigations to manifest a wider and wider area of power, until it\nbecame apparent that this psychic capacity was really the measure of\nall things in the universe. Hence, psychometry signifies not merely the\nmeasuring of souls and soul capacities, or qualities by our own psychic\ncapacities, but the measurement and judgment of all things conceivable\nby the human mind; and psychometry means practically _measuring by\nthe soul_, or grasping and estimating all things which are within the\nrange of human intelligence. Psychometry, therefore, is not merely an\ninstrumentality for measuring soul powers, but a comprehensive agency\nlike mathematics for the solution of many departments of science.\n\n\u201cProphecy,\u201d says Buchanan, \u201cis the noblest aspect of psychometry, and\nthere is no reason why it should not become the guiding power to each\nindividual life, and the guiding power of the destiny of nations.\u201d\nFor instance, while all Europe feared for Boulanger, Metz was getting\nstored with food; Lord Wolseley declared war imminent, and the French\nthemselves prepared for _revanche_. Psychometers declared for peace\nin 1889, and said there was no prospect of war for five years.\nSubsequent events have proved Boulanger lacking in both generalship and\nstatesmanship--a veritable Bombastes Furioso; and peace up to the time\nof writing is as yet unbroken.\n\nDr. Buchanan claims--\u201cIn physiology, pathology, and hygiene,\npsychometry is as wise and parental as in matters of character and\nethics. A competent psychometer appreciates the vital forces, the\ntemperament, the peculiarities, and every departure from the normal\nstate, realising the diseased condition with an accuracy in which\nexternal diagnosis often fails. In fact, the natural psychometer is\nborn with a genius for the healing art, and if the practice of medicine\nwere limited to those who possess this power in an eminent degree, its\nprogress would be rapid, and its disgraceful failures in diagnosis and\nblunders in treatment and prognosis would be less frequently heard\nof.\u201d Many happy tests in diagnosis and in the successful treatment\nof disease--out of the ordinary routine--are due, in my opinion,\nnot so much to elaborate medical training as to the fact of the\npractitioner--perhaps unconscious to himself--being possessed of more\nor less of the psychometric faculty.\n\nDr. Buchanan,[D] in his \u201cOriginal Sketch,\u201d gives us the history and\nsome details of his discovery, based upon certain investigations of\nthe nervous system. Already he was well versed in the phenomena of\nhypnotism, which is at this late day becoming a fashionable study and\nrecreation of medical men. He had demonstrated the responsive action\nof cerebral organs to mesmeric touch and influence, and he was already\nacquainted with the curious psychological phenomena of sense and\nthought transference, of double consciousness, and all the nervous and\npathological phases peculiar to natural and artificial somnambulism.\nHis investigation for years of the nervous system had clearly shown him\nthat its capacities were far more extensive, varied, and interesting\nthan physiologists and philosophers either knew or were prepared to\nadmit. He found in the nervous system a vast aggregate of powers which\nconstitute the vitality of man, existing in intimate connection with\nthe vast and wonderful powers of his mind. Was it possible or rational\nto suppose that this nerve-matter, so intimately co-related with mind,\nand upon which the mind depends for the manifestation of its powers,\ncould be entirely limited to the narrow materialistic sphere assigned\nby physiologists? He thought not.\n\nIn a conversation with Bishop Polk (who afterwards became the\ncelebrated General Polk of Confederate fame), Dr. Buchanan ascertained\nthat Bishop Polk\u2019s nervous sensibility was so acute that, if by\naccident he touched a piece of brass in the night, when he could not\nsee what he had touched, he immediately felt the influence through his\nsystem, and recognised an offensive metallic taste.\n\nThe discovery of such sensitiveness in one of the most vigorous men,\nin mind and body, of his day, led Dr. Buchanan to believe it might\nbe found in many others. It is needless to say his conjecture was\ncorrect. Accordingly, in the numerous neurological experiments which he\nafterwards commenced, he was accustomed to place metals of different\nkinds in the hands of persons of acute sensibility, for the purpose of\nascertaining whether they could feel any peculiar influence, recognise\nany peculiar taste, or appreciate the difference of metals, by any\nimpression upon their own sensitive nerves. It soon appeared that the\npower was quite common, and there were a large number of persons who\ncould determine by touching a piece of metal, or by holding it in their\nhands, what the metal was, as they recognised a peculiar influence\nproceeding from it, which in a few moments gave them a distinct taste\nin the mouth. But this sensitiveness was not confined to metallic\nsubstances. Every substance possessing a decided taste--sugar, salt,\nnutmeg, pepper, acid, etc.--appeared to be capable of transferring its\ninfluence. The influence appeared to affect the hand, and then travel\nupwards. He afterwards demonstrated when a galvanic or electric current\npassed through a medicinal substance, the influence of the substance\nwas transmitted with the current, detected and described by the person\noperated upon. Medicinal substances, enclosed in paper, were readily\nrecognised and described by their effects. In due time, stranger\nstill, a geological specimen, an article worn, a letter written upon,\na photograph which had been handled, a coin, etc., transmitted their\ninfluence, and the psychometrist was enabled to read off the history\nconcerning the particular object.\n\nNearly fifty years have elapsed since the discovery of this \u201cstrange\nnew science\u201d and art. \u201cTo-day it is widely known, has its respected\nand competent practitioners, who are able to describe the mental\nand vital peculiarities of those who visit or write them, and who\ncreate astonishment and delight by the fidelity and fulness of the\ndescriptions which they send to persons unknown, and at vast distances.\nThey give minute analysis of character and revelations of particulars\n_known only to the one described_, pointing out with parental delicacy\nand tenderness the defects which need correction, or in the perverse\nand depraved they explain what egotism would deny, but what society,\nfamily, and friends recognise to be too true.\u201d\n\n\nPSYCHOMETRIC REFLECTIONS.\n\nProfessor J. W. Draper says:--\u201cA shadow never falls upon a wall\nwithout leaving thereupon a permanent trace--a trace made visible by\nresorting to proper processes. Upon the walls of private apartments,\nwhere we think the eye of intrusion is altogether shut out, and our\nretirement can never be profaned, there exists the vestiges of our\nacts, silhouettes of whatever we have done. It is a crushing thought\nto whoever has committed secret crime, that the picture of his deed,\nand the very echo of his words, may be seen and heard countless years\nafter he has gone the way of all flesh, and left a reputation for\n\u2018respectability\u2019 to his children.\u201d\n\nDetectives have received impressions from a scene of crime, a clue to\nthe unravelment of the mystery and the detection of the criminal. Yet\nthey could not trace the impressions to anything they saw or heard\nduring their preliminary investigations. No detective will throw aside\nsuch impressions. Indeed, those most successful are those who, while\npaying attention to all outward and so-called tangible clues, _do not\nneglect for one moment_ the impressions received, and the thoughts\n_felt_, when gathering information likely to lead to the detection of\nthe law-breakers. Hugh Miller was right when he said, \u201cI suspect that\nthere are provinces in the mind that physicians have not entered into.\u201d\n\nThoughts are things--living, real and tangible, images, visions, deep\nand pungent sensations--which exist after their creation distinct\nand apart from ourselves--\u201cFootprints on the sands of time,\u201d in more\nsenses than one. We all leave our mark in a thousand subtle ways. No\nmaterial microscope or telescope can detect, nevertheless our mark\ncan be discovered by the powers of the human soul. From our cradle\nto the grave--does it stop there?--every thought, emotion, movement,\nand action have left their subtle traces, so that our whole life can\nbe traced out by the psychometric expert. We verily give hostages to\nfortune all through life.\n\n\nPSYCHOMETRIC SENSITIVES.\n\nProfessor Denton was very fortunate in having in his wife, children,\nand in his sister, Mrs. Cridge, gifted psychometers. His sister\npossessed this psychic, intuitive faculty in a high degree. Dr.\nBuchanan was equally fortunate; not only was his wife a first-class\nsensitive, but he discovered the faculty in several university\nprofessors, and in students innumerable. Denton in his travels over\nAmerica, Europe, and Australia found several hundred good sensitives,\nsome of whom have since made a reputation both in Europe and America\nfor their powers.\n\nOne important fact we learn from these pioneers in psychometric\nresearch is that not one of these persons knew they were endowed with\nthe psychometric gift prior to taking part in classes or experiments.\n\nThe possession of the faculty is not confined to any age, or to the\ngentle sex; and Denton concludes, as an average, that one female in\nfour and one man in ten are psychometric sensitives. The possibility is\nall healthy, sensitive, refined, intuitive, and impressionable persons\npossess the soul-measuring faculty, and this faculty, like all other\ninnate human powers, can be cultivated and brought to a high stage of\nperfection.\n\nThe psychometer, unlike the induced clairvoyant or entranced medium, is\nin general, or outwardly at least, a mere spectator, as one who beholds\na drama or witnesses a panorama, and tells in his own way to someone\nelse what he sees and what he thinks about it. The sensitive can dwell\non what is seen, examine it closely, and record individual opinions\nof the impressions of the persons, incidents, and scenes of the long\nhidden thus brought to light. The sensitive has merely to hold the\nobject in hand--as Mrs. Coates is represented doing in frontispiece--or\nhold it to the forehead (temple), when he or she is enabled to come in\ncontact with the soul of the person or thing with which the object has\nbeen in relation. There is no loss of external consciousness, no \u201cup\nrush\u201d of the subliminal, obliterating and overlapping that of common\nlife. The sensitive appears to be in a perfectly normal condition\nduring the whole time of examination, can lay the article down,\nnoticing what takes place, and entering into conversation with those in\nthe room, or drawing subjects, seen or not, as they think best.\n\n\nWHAT PSYCHOMETRY CAN DO.\n\nWe can do little more than give a few general illustrations.\nProfessor Denton, having thoroughly satisfied himself of the reality\nof psychometry, wondered if letters had photographed upon them the\nimpressions of the life and the image of the writer. Why not fossils?\n\u201cHe gave his sister a specimen from the carboniferous formation;\nclosing her eyes, she described those swamps and trees, with their\ntufted heads and scaly trunks, with the great frog-like animals that\nexisted in that age. To his inexpressible delight the key to the ages\nwas in his hands. He concluded that nature had been photographing from\nthe very first. The black islands that floated upon the fiery sea, the\ngelatinous dots, the first life on our planet, up through everything\nthat flew or swam, had been photographed by Nature, and ten thousand\nexperiments had confirmed the theory. He got a specimen of the lava\nthat flowed from Kilava, in Hawaii, in 1848. His sister by its means\ndescribed the boiling ocean, the cataract of molten lava that almost\nequalled Niagara in size. A small fragment of a meteorite that fell in\nPainesville, O., was given to his wife\u2019s mother, a sensitive who did\nnot then believe in psychometry. This is what she said: \u2018I seem to be\ntravelling away, away, through nothing, right forward. I see what look\nlike stars and mist. I seem to be taken right up; the other specimens\ntook me down.\u2019 His wife, independently, gave a similar description,\nbut saw it revolving, and its tail of sparks. He took steps to prove\nthat this was not mind reading by wrapping the specimens in paper,\nshaking them up in a hat, and allowing the sensitive to pick out one\nand describe it, without anyone knowing which it was. Among them were a\nfragment of brick from ancient Rome, antimony from Borneo, silver from\nMexico, basalt from Fingal\u2019s Cave. Each place was described correctly\nby the sensitive in the most minute detail. A fragment from the Mount\nof Olives brought a description of Jerusalem; and one from the Great\nPyramid enabled a young man of Melbourne to name and describe it. There\nwas a practical side to the question. His wife had, from a chip of\nwood, described a suicide; this was subsequently confirmed. A number of\nexperiments from a fragment of Kent\u2019s Cave, fragments from Pompeii and\nother places brought minute descriptions from the sensitive.\u201d\n\nMr. Stead bears his testimony to psychometry. He gave a shilling\nto two ladies, at different periods, and unknown to each other. In\nfact, they were perfect strangers. This shilling, in his mind, had a\nspecial story connected with it. The first lady lived in Wimbledon,\nand had the profession of being a clairvoyante. To use Mr. Stead\u2019s\nown words, he states:--\u201cI took from my purse a shilling which I most\nprized of all the pieces of money in my possession. I said nothing to\nher beyond that I had carried it in my pocket for several years. She\nheld the shilling in her hand for sometime, and said:--\u2018This carries\nme back to a time of confusion and much anxiety, with a feeling that\neverything depended upon a successful result. This shilling brings me\na vision of a very low woman, ignorant and drunken, with whom you had\nmuch better have nothing to do. There is a great deal of fever about. I\nfeel great pains, as if I had rheumatic fever in my ankles and joints,\nbut especially in my ankles and my throat. I suffer horribly in my\nthroat; it is an awful pain. And now I feel a coarse, bare hand pass\nover my brow as distinctly as if you had laid your hand there. It must\nbe her hand. I feel the loss of a child. This woman is brought to me\nby another. She is about thirty-two years; about five feet high, with\ndark brown hair, grey eyes, small, nicely-formed nose, large mouth.\u2019\u201d\n\u201cCan you tell me her name?\u201d asked Mr. Stead. \u201cNot certain, but I think\nit seems like Annie.\u201d \u201cThat is all right,\u201d said Mr. Stead, and he told\nher the story of that shilling. About a month afterwards, Mr. Stead\ntried a Swedish opera singer, who had clairvoyant powers, with the\nshilling. She pressed it to her brow, and then she told Mr. Stead \u201cshe\nsaw a poor woman give him, from her pocket-money, the last shilling she\npossessed. She has a great admiration for you, she said. She seems to\nthink you have saved her, but she is not _une grande dame_. Indeed, she\nseems to be a girl of the town.\u201d Mr. Stead said:--\u201cI had not spoken a\nword, or given her the least hint of the story of the shilling.\u201d Now,\nwhat are the facts? Mr. Stead says that he \u201cwas standing his trial at\nthe Old Bailey, a poor outcast girl of the streets, who was dying of a\nloathsome disease in the hospital, asked that the only shilling that\nshe possessed in the world, might be given to the fund which was being\nraised in his defence. It was handed to him when he came out of jail,\nwith, \u2018From a dying girl in hospital, who gives her last shilling,\u2019\nwritten on the paper.\u201d He (Mr. Stead) has carried it about him ever\nsince, never allowing it to be out of his possession for a single day.\n\nThe symptoms which the first clairvoyante, or psychometrix, described,\nwere very like those which this poor creature was suffering from in her\ndying hours. It is too probable that the donor was a low, drunken woman.\n\nThese two readings are actually more psychometric than clairvoyant,\nbecause, from the clue furnished, they went back and described the\nconditions and surroundings of the woman who parted with this shilling.\nThey were not thought-readers, because they did not describe what was\npassing in Mr. Stead\u2019s mind. Mr. Stead\u2019s experiences fairly illustrate\nthe exercise, in the earlier stages of employment, of the psychometric\nfaculty.\n\nWhile engaged writing the \u201cReal Ghost Stories,\u201d Mr. Stead says:--\u201cMy\nattention was called to a young lady, Miss Catherine Ross, of 41 High\nStreet, Smethwick, Birmingham, who, being left with an invalid sister\nto provide for, and without other available profession or industry,\nbethought herself of a curious gift of reading character, with which\nshe seems to have been born, and had subsequently succeeded in earning\na more or less precarious income by writing out characters at the\nmodest fee of 5s. You sent her any article you pleased that had been in\ncontact with the object, and she sent you by return a written analysis\nof the subject\u2019s character. I sent her various articles from one person\nat different times, not telling her they were from the same person. At\none time a tuft of hair from his beard, at another time a fragment of\na nail, and a third time a scrap of handwriting. Each delineation of\ncharacter differed in some points from the other two, but all agreed,\nand they were all remarkably correct. When she sent the last she added,\n\u2018I don\u2019t know how it is, but I feel I have described this person\nbefore.\u2019 I have tried her since then with locks of hair from persons of\nthe most varied disposition, and have found her wonderfully correct.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll these things are very wonderful, but the cumulative value of the\nevidence is too great for any one to pooh-pooh it as antecedently\nimpossible. The chances against it being a mere coincidence are many\nmillions to one.\u201d\n\nI believe had this young lady, or others thus endowed, had the\ntraining, such as Buchanan, Denton, or other experienced teachers give\ntheir pupils, she would make a high class psychometer.\n\nRev. Minot J. Savage had a paper in a recent number of _The Arena_, on\nPsychical Research, etc., in which he said--\u201cOn a certain morning I\nvisited a psychometrist. Several experiments were made. I will relate\nonly one, as a good specimen of what has occurred in my presence more\nthan once. The lady was not entranced or, so far as I could see, in\nany other than her normal condition. I handed her a letter which I had\nrecently received. She took it, and held it in her right hand, pressing\nit close, so as to come into as vital contact with it as possible.\nI had taken it out of its envelope, so that she might touch it more\neffectively, but it was not unfolded even so much as to give her an\nopportunity to see even the name. It was written by a man whom she had\nnever seen, and of whom she had never heard. After holding it a moment\nshe said, \u2018This man is either a minister or a lawyer; I cannot tell\nwhich. He is a man of a good deal more than usual intellectual power.\nAnd yet he has never met with any success in life as one would have\nexpected, considering his natural ability. Something has happened to\nthwart him and interfere with his success. At the present time he is\nsuffering with severe illness and mental depression. He has pain here\u2019\n(putting her hand to the back of her head, at the base of the brain).\n\n\u201cShe said much more, describing the man as well as I could have done\nit myself. But I will quote no more, for I wish to let a few salient\npoints stand in clear outline. These points I will number, for the sake\nof clearness:--\n\n1. \u201cShe tells me he is a man, though she has not even glanced at the\nletter.\u201d\n\n2. \u201cShe says he is either a minister or a lawyer; she cannot tell\nwhich. No wonder, for he was both; that is, he had preached for some\nyears, then he had left the pulpit, studied law, and at this time was\nnot actively engaged in either profession.\u201d\n\n3. \u201cShe speaks of his great natural ability. This was true in a most\nmarked degree.\u201d\n\n4. \u201cBut he had not succeeded as one would have expected. This again was\nstrikingly true. Certain things had happened--which I do not feel at\nliberty to publish--which had broken off his career in the middle and\nmade his short life seem abortive.\u201d\n\nAbout eighteen years ago a lady in Swansea sent me a lock of hair,\nand asked me to send her my impressions. I did so, which I remember\nwere not pleasant. I informed her, as near as my recollection now\nserves, that the person to whom the hair belonged was seriously ill.\nNo earthly skill could do anything for him. Diagnosing the character\nof the insidious disease which was then undermining a once powerful\nand active organisation, I felt constrained to add he _would live six\nweeks_. I held the envelope, with its contents, in my left hand, and\nwrote the impressions as they came with my right. I remember hesitating\nabout sending that letter, but eventually sent it. The accuracy of\nmy diagnosis, description of the patient, and the fulfilment of the\nprophecy as to his death were substantiated in a Swansea paper, _The\nBat_. The patient was no other than Captain Hudson, the British master\nmariner who sailed the first ship on teetotal principles from a British\nport, and who subsequently became one of the most powerful of British\nmesmerists. The lady who sent the lock of hair was his wife, and the\nlady who contributed the letter to the papers was his widow. Of similar\nexperiences Mrs. Coates and I have had many.\n\n\nHOW TO CULTIVATE THE PSYCHOMETRIC FACULTY.\n\n_Class Experiments._--The sensitives are not to be magnetised or\nunduly influenced by positive manner and suggestions, but are to sit\nin their normal state (and without mental effort or straining to find\nout what they have in their hands), and simply give expression to\ntheir impressions--sensations, tastes, etc., if any, and no matter\nhow strange to them these may be. Let the experimenter or operator\nplace different metallic substances in their hands, taking care that\nthese substances are carefully covered with tissue paper or other\nlight substance, which will help to hide their character, and at the\nsame time not prevent their influence being imparted, or try them with\nmedical substances. In those sufficiently sensitive, an emetic will\nproduce a feeling of nausea. The substance must be put down before it\ncauses vomiting. Geological specimens can be given--a shell, a tooth,\nor tusk. Let the experimenter record the utterances patiently, and seek\nconfirmation of the description from an examination of the specimen\nsubsequently. He should not know what special specimen it is previous\nto the psychometer\u2019s declared opinion. Good specimens are best. Thus\na fragment of pottery, a piece of scori, or a bit of brick from, say,\nPompeii would present material from which the psychometrist could glean\nstrong and vivid impressions.\n\nIf a medical man is not satisfied as to the correct pathological\nconditions of his patient, he might ask the psychometer to take some\narticle of the patient in hand, and get, in the sensitive\u2019s own--and\ntherefore very likely untechnical--language, what he feels and sees\nregarding this particular patient\u2019s case. Unsuspected abscesses and\ntumours have been correctly pointed out in this way.\n\nIn the same way a correct diagnosis of character can be given in many\ninstances more correctly, more subtle, and penetrating in detail, than\nestimates built upon mere external and physical signs of temperament\nand cranial contours.\n\nLay a coin on a polished surface of steel. Breathe upon it, and all\nthe surface will be affected save the portion on which the coin lay.\nIn a few minutes neither trace of breathing nor of the coin are likely\nto be seen on the surface of the polished steel. Breathe again, and\nthe hitherto unseen image of the coin is brought to light. In like\nmanner, everything we touch records invisibly to us that action. Hand\nyour sensitive a letter which has been written in love or joy, grief\nor pungent sorrow, and let them give expression to their sensations.\nAs the breath brought back the image on the steel, so will the nervous\nand the psychic impressionability of the sensitive bring to light the\nvarious emotions which actuated the writers who penned the letters.\nMr. G. H. Lewes says \u201cthat he has brushed the surface of the polished\nplate with a camel\u2019s-hair brush, yet on breathing upon it the image\nof the coin previously laid upon it was distinctly visible.\u201d The mere\ncasual handling of letters by intermediates will not obliterate the\ninfluence of the original writers; they have permeated the paper with\ntheir influence, so that, if a score or more of psychometrists held\nthe paper, they would coincide, perhaps not in their language, but in\ntheir descriptions of the originals and the state of their minds while\nwriting.\n\nThe experimenter may help, by asking a few judicious but not leading\nquestions, to direct and guide the attention of the psychometrist. The\ndescription will be a capital delineation of the individual who wrote\nthe letter. We have frequently tested the sincerity of correspondents,\nreal and other friends, by this process. If the results have sometimes\nbeen unpleasant revelations, we have yet to find in any case that we\nhave been mistaken. How is the sensitive able to glean so much of the\nreal character of the original? one is inclined to ask. While writing,\nsincerity and earnestness leave a deeper impression than indifference,\npretence, or ordinary come-to-tea politeness. Some letters are instinct\nwith the writer\u2019s identity, individuality, masculinity, earnestness,\nand enthusiasm. Others are lacking in these things, because the writers\nwere devoid of these qualities, while others vary at different times.\nThe writer writes as _his soul_ moves him, and the writing expresses\nhis aims and hopes as they appear to his external consciousness.\nWhile writing, _his soul_ draws his image on the paper, and pictures\nout thereon his real thoughts; and when the sensitive gets hold of\nthe letter, outstands the image of the writer and the imagery of his\nthoughts. The psychic consciousness of the psychometer grasps the\ndetails and describes them.\n\n\u201cThe strange new science of psychometry\u201d is of profound interest to\nall. Psychometers are to be found in every household. The whole subject\nis one about which a good deal more could be easily written, but this\nmust do.\n\nThose who desire to understand psychometry cannot do better than\nread up fully the literature of the subject, and those who desire to\npractise psychometry may do much to ascertain whether they possess\nthe faculty in any degree; but all are warned to have nothing to do\nwith persons who undertake to _develop_ their powers, a _self-evident\nabsurdity_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nThought-Transference and Telepathy.\n\n\nThought-Transference is evidently a phase of psychic perception. In\nsome respects it bears a greater relation to feeling than sight. It\nis distinguished from pure clairvoyance by the result of experiment.\nFor instance, suppose I had in the Rothesay case designed M. C., the\nclairvoyante, should see \u201ca maid in the room, dressed in a black\ndress, with neat white collar and cuffs, wearing a nicely-trimmed\nwhite apron, and a white tulle cap with bows and streamers, or that\na black-and-white spotted cat lay comfortably coiled up upon the\nhearth-rug, or some other strongly-projected mental image.\u201d Now,\nsuppose while M. C. was examining the room, she declared she _saw_\nthe maid, and described her, or the cat, or other objects projected\nfrom my mind, and described these, then this would be a case of\nthought-transference.\n\nThere is a distinction between thought-transference and\nthought-reading. It is no mere fanciful distinction either.\nThought-transference occurs when the ideas, thoughts, and emotions of\none mind are projected by intense action and received by the sensitive\nand impressionable mind of another--awake or asleep is immaterial--so\nlong as it occurs without pre-arrangement and contact.\n\nTelepathy is a more vivid form of sudden and unexpected\nthought-transference, in which the intense thoughts and wishes of one\nperson, more or less in sympathy, are suddenly transferred to the\nconsciousness of another. The thoughts transmitted are often so intense\nas to be accompanied by the vision of the person, and by the sound of\ntheir voice.\n\nTelepathy bears about the same relation to thought-transference\nas \u201csecond sight\u201d does to clairvoyance. Thought-transference and\nclairvoyance can be cultivated. Not so telepathy and second sight.\nThey are phenomena, which belong to the unexpected, portents of the\nunusual, or sudden revelations of what is, and what is about to happen.\nDoubtless, there are conditions more favourable than others for\ninception of these. One needs to be \u201cin spirit on the Lord\u2019s day,\u201d or\nany day, before telepathic and second sight messages are secured. Hence\nit is noticed telepathic revelations mostly come in the quietude of the\nevening, just before sleep, between sleep and waking, and under similar\nconditions favourable to passivity and receptivity in the sensitive or\npercipient.\n\nIn thought-reading both operator and sensitive are aware that\nsomething is to be done, and indications, intentional or otherwise,\nare given to make the thought-reader find out what is required. More\nor less sensitiveness is required in both phases. In telepathy and\nthought-transference the psychic elements are in the ascendency; in\nthought-reading they may be more or less present, but intention,\nsensitiveness, and muscular contact are adequate enough, I think, to\naccount for the phenomena, as witnessed at public entertainments--so\nfar, at least, as these entertainments are genuine.\n\nHow do we think? what are thoughts? and how are thoughts transferred?\nare reasonable questions, and merit more elaborate solution than is\npossible in an elementary work like this.\n\nWe think in pictures: words are but vehicles of thought. In\nthought-transference we can successfully project actions, or a series\nof actions, by forming in our minds a scene or picture of what is done\nand what is to be reproduced. When, however, we think of a sentence\nconsisting of few or many words, there is nothing more difficult to\nconvey. Words belong to our external life here, and are but arbitrary\nexpressions and signs for what in the internal or soul-life is flashed\ntelepathically from mind to mind.\n\nThoughts are things for good or ill, veritable and living realities,\napart from our exterior selves, independent of words. The more words,\noften the less thought. Try to teach a child by the slow, dry-as-dust\nmethod of words, and the road to knowledge is hard and wearisome.\nConvey the same thoughts by illustrations and experiments, and the\nchild\u2019s mind at once grasps the ideas we desire to convey.\n\nThoughts are living entities (how poor are words!) which our own\nsouls have given birth to, or created in the intensity of our love,\nwisdom, or passion. One Eastern adept has taught, \u201cA good thought is\nperpetuated as an active, beneficent power, an evil one as a malignant\ndemon. The Hindoo calls this _karma_. The adept evolves these shapes\nconsciously; other men throw them off unconsciously.\u201d How true in our\nexperience! The thoughts of some men blast, while those of others\nbless. There is wisdom in thinking deliberately, intelligently, and\ntherefore conscientiously, not passionately, impulsively, or carelessly.\n\nIn thought-transference the reproduction of exact words and dates seems\nto be most difficult. Indeed, the transmission of arbitrary words and\nsigns is apparently the most difficult. The reason, I conclude, is,\nideas belong to our inner, real, and spiritual life, and names, words,\nand dates to our exterior existence. The ideas can be expressed in the\nlanguage of the sensitive, according to culture or the want of it. If\nthe true lineaments of the picture are given, need we be too exacting\nas to the special frame surrounding the picture?\n\nNotwithstanding the difficulty in transference and the reading of the\nexact words, this has also been frequently done. A very high state of\nreceptivity and sensitiveness, however, is necessary in the percipient.\n\nAn incident of exact word-reading is related by Gerald Massey, the\ndistinguished philosopher and poet. Mr. Massey met Mr. Home at the\nLondon terminus just on his (Mr. Massey\u2019s) arrival from Hertfordshire.\nHome and he entered into conversation, during which Home suddenly said\n\u201che hoped Mr. Massey would go on with his poem.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat did he mean?\u201d asked Mr. Massey.\n\n\u201cThe poem,\u201d replied Home, \u201cyou composed four lines of just now in the\ntrain.\u201d\n\nThis was surprising to Mr. Massey, who had actually composed, but had\nnot written, the four lines of a new poem on the journey. Mr. Massey\nchallenged Mr. Home to repeat the lines, which Home did word for word.\n\nHow are thoughts transferred? No one can positively say. There are\ntheories enough--the _theory of brain-waves_ and of _a universal\nimpalpable elastic ether_, of _undulating motions_, or other more or\nless materialistic hypothesis.[E]\n\nWe know there are no psychic phenomena without their corresponding\nphysical correlatives, and, in this life at least, these are in\nthoughts evolved without producing corresponding molecular changes in\nthe brain.\n\nWe notice the human brain is capable of being, and is, acted upon\ndaily by much less subtle influences than mental impressions. We can\nappreciate light impinged upon our cerebral centres at the rate of\nmillions of undulations, and sound as the result of 20,000 to 30,000\nvibrations per second. So sensitives, when in the mesmeric or psychic\nstates, are readily acted upon, and respond as in thought-transference\nto our thoughts and sensations, and veritably read our minds,\nbecause of the _rapport_ or sympathy thus established. Whether they\nbecome percipients of the nerve-vibrations which escape from our own\nsensoriums or not, what does it matter _if they can, as they frequently\ndo_, read our minds?\n\n\u201cProfessor Wheaton,\u201d says Hudson Tuttle, \u201cdevised a means of\nillustrating sympathy. If a sounding board is placed so as to resound\nto all instruments of the orchestra, and connected by a metallic rod\nof considerable length with the sounding board of a harp or piano, the\ninstrument will accurately repeat the notes transmitted.\n\n\u201cThe nervous system, in its two-fold relation to the physical and\nspiritual being, is inconceivably more finely organised than the most\nperfect musical instrument, and is possessed of finer sensitiveness.\n\n\u201cIt must not be inferred that all minds are equally receptive. Light\nfalls on all substances alike, but is very differently affected by\neach substance. One class of bodies absorb all but the yellow rays,\nanother all but the blue, another all but the red, because these\nsubstances are so organised that they respond only to the waves of the\ncolours reflected.\u201d\n\nAll persons do not hear alike. They receive certain sounds and are deaf\nto all others, although the sound-waves strike all tympanums alike.\nAll persons do not see alike. Some perceive colours, others cannot\ndistinguish between one colour and another, or can only see the more\nstriking colours--fineness of shade they do not perceive. So there are\nindividuals who cannot receive mental impressions, unless, indeed,\nthey are conveyed in the baldest and most esoteric manner. In a word\nto convey and receive impressions they must be sent along the line of\nthe least resistance, that of _true sympathy_. There must be one mind\nadequate to the projection, and another mind sufficiently sensitive to\nreceive and record the thoughts projected.\n\n\nTRANSFERENCE OF TASTE IN THE MESMERIC STATE.\n\nThe operator will slowly eat or taste half-a-dozen lozenges or sweets\nof different flavours, and the subject or sensitive most in sympathy\nwith him will also in imagination eat of and describe the taste of the\nvarious sweets, concerning which he has no other knowledge than the\nthoughts of eating and tasting, which are transmitted to him from the\nbrain of the operator. The mere eating of the lozenges by the operator,\nwithout his being fully aware of the fact, will deepen the impression\non the operator\u2019s mind, and help to concentrate his energies for the\ntransmission of his ideas or mental suggestions to his subject.\n\nA step or two further and we find with greater sensitiveness the\nsensitives can read the thoughts of the operator, whether the thoughts\nwere transmitted intentionally or not.\n\n\u201cWe are compelled (says Dr. Hands) to acknowledge that certain\nemanating undulations from the sensorium can generate different series\nof thoughts, and that the trembling organisation, or parts of it, can,\nby flinging or throwing off distinct or particular pulsatory waves,\ninoculate or produce like vibrations in another person\u2019s brain, making\nup in it identical thoughts, followed by like feelings, and often\nin this way, perhaps, capable of inciting, _through sympathy_, like\nenactments of deeds and pursuits.\u201d\n\n\nTHOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE IN DREAMS.\n\nThe following interesting letter appeared in _The Phrenological\nMagazine_ (p. 260, April, 1890), and as I know of the _bona-fides_ of\nthe writer, I have much pleasure in reproducing it:--\n\n\u201cDear Sir,--This morning, at a little before four o\u2019clock, I awoke as\nthe outcome of great mental distress and grief through which I had\njust passed in a dream, my body trembling and in a cold perspiration.\nI had been walking with my little boy, aged five and a half years, and\nsome friends. A heavy rain overtaking us, we stood up for shelter; and\nventuring forth into a maze of streets, I missed my two friends, who,\nthreading among the people, had turned into a side street without my\nnoticing. Looking for them, my boy slipped from me, and was lost in\nthe crowd. I became bewildered by the strange labyrinth of streets\nand turnings, and quickly taking one of them which gave an elevated\nposition, I looked down on the many windings, but could nowhere see\nmy boy. It was to me an unknown locality, and, running down among the\npeople, I was soon sobbing aloud in my distress, and calling out the\nname of the child, when I awoke. With wakefulness came a sense of\nrelief and thankfulness. Gladly realising that the whole was only a\ndream, and still scarcely awake, I was startled by a cry of terror\nand pain from an adjoining bedroom--such a cry as could not be left\nunheeded. It came from the same child, and pierced me with a distinct\nsense of pain. I was immediately by his side. My voice calmed him. \u2018I\nthought I was lost\u2019 was all he could say, and doubtless he was soon\ncomposed and asleep again. To me the coincidence was too remarkable\nand without parallel in my own experience. Later on, at breakfast, the\nchild gave further his dream that he _had been out with me and was\nlost_. I am only familiar with such things in my reading. Mr. Coates\u2019s\narticle in last month\u2019s _Phrenological Magazine_ (page 143) mentions\nthat, \u2018when the Prince Imperial died from assegai thrusts in Zululand,\nhis mother in England felt the intensity of his thoughts at the time,\nfelt the savage lance pierce her own side, and knew or felt at the\ntime that she was childless.\u2019 But I am not of the _spirituelle_ type,\nwith only a thin parchment separation between this life of realities\nand the great beyond, of those who, privileged to live in close touch\nwith the future, are the subjects of premonitions and warnings. My\nspirituality 4 to 5 and reflectives 6 point rather the other way, but\nI shall, nevertheless, hold tight to the lad. What is the underlying\ncause of the coincidence? Which of the two minds influenced the other,\nif either?--Yours truly,\n\n  \u201cG. Cox.\n\n  \u201c16 Bramfield Road,\n  Wandsworth Common, April 20, 1890.\u201d\n\nIn this case of thought-transference, I am inclined to the opinion\nthat the father\u2019s mind influenced that of the boy, the son being the\nmore sensitive of the two. Mr. Cox dreamt an ordinary but pretty vivid\ndream, which aroused from its nature vivid and intense anxiety on\nhis part. A similar train of thought was awakened in the child. If\nthought-transference occurs in waking life, why not in sleep, when,\nas abundant telepathic instances testify, the phenomenon is of most\nfrequent occurrence.\n\n\nTHOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE AT SEA.\n\nThe percipient was Captain G. A. Johnson, of the schooner \u201cAugusta\nH. Johnson.\u201d He had sailed from Quero for home. On the voyage he\nencountered a terrible hurricane. On the second day he saw a disabled\nbrig, and near by a barque. He was anxious to reach home, and, thinking\nthe barque would assist the brig, continued on.\n\nBut the impression came that he must turn back and board the brig. He\ncould not shake it off, and at last he, with four men, boarded the brig\nin a dory. He found her deserted, and made sail in her. After a time\nthey saw an object ahead, appearing like a man on a cake of ice. The\ndory was again manned, and set to the rescue. It proved to be the mate\nof the barque \u201cLeawood\u201d clinging to the bottom of an overturned boat,\nwhich, being white, appeared in the distance as ice.\n\nThe captain\u2019s sensitiveness may have been aroused by the exhaustion of\nso much wakefulness and care during the length of the storm, the sight\nof the derelict and deserted brig; at the same time the premonitions\nwere opposed to his own desire and anxiety to get home.\n\n\nTHOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE FROM THE DYING TO THE LIVING IN DREAM.\n\nThe following, by E. Ede, M.D., of Guilford (J.S.P.R., July, 1882):--\n\n\u201cLady G. and her sister had been spending the evening with their\nmother, who was in her usual health and spirits when they left her.\nIn the middle of the night the sister awoke in a fright, and said to\nher husband, \u2018I must go to my mother at once; do order the carriage.\nI am sure she is ill.\u2019 The husband, after trying in vain to convince\nhis wife that it was only a fancy, ordered the carriage. As she was\napproaching the house, where two roads met, she saw lady G.\u2019s carriage.\nWhen they met, each asked the other why she was there. The same reply\nwas made by both--\u2018I could not sleep, feeling sure my mother was ill,\nand so I came to see.\u2019 As they came in sight, they saw their mother\u2019s\nconfidential maid at the door, who told them when they arrived that\ntheir mother had taken suddenly ill, and was dying, and had expressed\nan earnest wish to see her daughters.\u201d\n\nThe percipients having been so lately in company and sympathy with\ntheir mother possibly rendered them more susceptible to her influence.\n\n\nTHOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE FROM THE DEAD (?) TO THE LIVING IN DREAM.\n\nRelated by Mr. Myers, page 208, Proceedings S.P.R., July, 1892:--\n\n\u201cAbout March, 1857, Mrs. Mennier, in England, dreamt that she saw her\nbrother, whose whereabouts she did not know, standing headless at the\nfoot of the bed with his head lying in a coffin by his side. The dream\nwas at once mentioned. It afterwards appeared that at about the time\nthe head of the brother seen, Mr. Wellington, was actually cut off by\nthe Chinese at Sarawak.\u201d On this case, Mr. Gurney remarks--\u201cThis dream,\nif it is to be telepathically explained, must apparently have been\ndue to the last flash of thought in the brother\u2019s consciousness. It\nmay seem strange that a definite picture of his mode of death should\npresent itself to a man in the instant of receiving an unexpected and\nfatal blow; but, as Hobbes said, \u2018Thought is quick.\u2019 The coffin, at\nany rate, may be taken as an item of death-imagery supplied by the\ndreamer\u2019s mind.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe have now, however,\u201d says Mr. Myers, \u201cseen a letter from Sir James\nBrookes (Rajah of Sarawak), and an extract from the _Straits Times_ of\nMarch 21st, 1857, in the (London) _Times_ for April 29th, 1857, which\nmakes it, I think, quite conceivable that the dream was a reflection\nof knowledge acquired after death, and the head on the coffin had a\ndistinct meaning.\u201d Sir James Brookes says:--\u201cPoor Wellington\u2019s remains\nwere consumed [by the Chinese]; his head, borne off in triumph, alone\nattesting his previous murder.\u201d The _Straits Times_ says:--\u201cThe head\nwas given up on the following day. The head, therefore, and the head\nalone, must have been buried by Mr. Wellington\u2019s friends; and its\nappearance in the dream _on the coffin_, with a headless body standing\nbeside it, is a coincidence even more significant than the facts which\nMr. Gurney had before him when he wrote.\u201d\n\nThe transmission of thought from a spirit discarnate to one incarnate,\nwhose body was asleep, should not be esteemed impossible. Abundant\ninstances, equally well substantiated, might be recorded did space\npermit.\n\n\nTHOUGHT TRANSFERENCE IN PRAYER.\n\nThis may be a common experience, but only once in my life have I had\nconscious knowledge of anything so remarkable. For some years before\ndevoting my attention to these subjects, I resided in Liverpool, and\nhad been a member of the Zion Methodist Church, or Chapel, in Everton,\nand in time was duly placed on the local preachers\u2019 plan. In this\ncapacity I became acquainted with a worthy old man--a chapel-keeper,\nwho looked after the meeting house situated in ---- street. He had\nbeen an old soldier, and possessed something of the faith of the Roman\ncenturion. Poor in the things of this world, he was rich in the\nsublimity of his love to God and the nobility and purity of his life. I\nnever think of \u201cOld Daddy Walker\u201d but his character and this incident\ncomes to my mind, viz.:--One morning I was hurrying down West Derby\nRoad to business, and, indeed had got halfway down Brunswick Road, when\nI commenced to think about old Walker (I had not seen or thought of him\nfor some months). I attempted to throw aside my impressions, as passing\nthoughts. No use. I became worried about him, and was asking myself\nquestions. \u201cWas he ill?\u201d \u201cMaybe, he is in want?\u201d \u201cI think I will hurry\nback and see?\u201d I had not much time to spare. It would consume fully\ntwenty minutes to walk back. After hesitating, I went up Brunswick Road\nand up West Derby Road, and to ---- Street, and tapped at the door of\nhis house. There was no response. The street door was slightly ajar. I\nwent in, and found the old pair on their knees in the kitchen. He was\nengaged in earnest prayer. After kindly salutations, I apologised for\nintruding, and told him, as I went to business, \u201cI had been bothered\nabout him in my mind, and did not feel satisfied until I had seen him,\nand knew the truth.\u201d He told me, as near as I can recollect, \u201cHe was at\nhis last extremity. There was no food or fuel in the house, he had no\nmoney, and he had been putting the whole case before the Lord.\u201d I had\nhalf a sovereign about me, which I had taken out of the house for an\nentirely different purpose. This I gave to him. The old man, rubbing a\ntear from his eye, looking at his wife, said: \u201cMary, don\u2019t thee doubt\nthe Lord anymore. I said He would help, and He has given me what I\nasked for.\u201d Old Walker went on to explain, not only his bad fix, but\nthat he had no money to buy firewood with. He meant that he bought up\nold wood and tar-barrels, which he cut up into lengths and made into\nbundles, and sold for firewood; and that he had asked the Lord for ten\nshillings, as he wanted that sum to buy a certain lot which could be\nobtained for that amount. The old man obtained what he asked for. He\nbelieved the Lord had answered his prayer.\n\n\nTHOUGHT TRANSMISSION IN PRAYER.\n\nSince writing the above, the following came under my notice. In the\nJ.S.P.R., May, 1885, Dr. Joseph Smith, Warrington, England, says:--\n\n\u201cI was sitting one evening reading, when a voice came to me, saying:\n\u2018Send a loaf to James Grady\u2019s.\u2019 I continued reading, and the voice\ncontinued with greater emphasis, and this time it was accompanied with\nan irresistible impulse to get up. I obeyed, and went into the village\nand bought a loaf of bread, and, seeing a lad at the shop door, I\nasked him if he knew James Grady. He said he did, so I bade him carry\nit and say a gentleman sent it. Mrs. Grady was a member of my class,\nand I went next morning to see what came of it, when she told me a\nstrange thing happened to her last night. She said she wished to put\nthe children to bed, they began to cry for want of food, and she had\nnothing to give them. She then went to prayer, to ask God to give them\nsomething. Soon after which the lad came to the door with the loaf. I\ncalculated, on inquiry, that the prayer and the voice I heard exactly\ncoincided in point of time.\u201d\n\n    \u201cMore things are wrought by prayer\n    Than this world dreams of.\u201d\n\nThose who know anything of Methodism, will know this. The Methodists\nhave a profound faith in prayer, and also there is a very close\nrelationship between a class-leader and his members. Dr. Smith was,\ntherefore, all the more likely to be the percipient of the woman\u2019s\nearnest and intense prayer to God to feed her hungry children. The\nInfinite must have an infinite variety of ways of fulfilling His own\npurposes. Is it unreasonable to suppose that prayer to Him may not be\nanswered indirectly \u201cthrough means\u201d? and that thought-transference, as\nin this instance, may be one of the means? If not, why not?\n\nCharitable institutions are maintained; orphans saved, reared, and\neducated; missions of mercy organised, and the necessary means found by\nthe agency of prayer. Beside \u201cthe angels,\u201d in That Sphere just beyond\nthe ken of the physical, may not our waves of thought, projected by\nprayer, be impinged upon, and directly affect susceptible minds in\nthis world, by directing their attention to those works of faith and\ngoodness? Prayer is the language of love, and the outcome of true\nhelplessness and need. A praying man is an earnest man. In prayer\nthoughts are things--bread upon the waters.\n\n\nTHOUGHT TRANSFERENCE IN DISTRESS.\n\nI withhold the names for family reasons. Mr. ---- had been in business\nin Glasgow for nearly thirty years, and, from comparatively small\nbeginnings, had been very successful. Latterly, he and his family\nresided in ----, a suburb of Glasgow. Both in the city and in this\ndistrict Mr. ---- was very much respected, being a church member and\nholding office in ---- Free Church. For some time Mr. ---- had been\nailing, and his medical attendant advised him to take a sea voyage--a\nthorough change, etc. In compliance with this advice, he took a trip\nup the Mediterranean. Miss ----, a distant relative of his, had been\nvisiting Glasgow, and, being on terms of intimacy with the family,\nknew of his departure from Glasgow. About two weeks after he left, she\nalso left Glasgow for Edinburgh. While in the train for Edinburgh, she\nwas overcome with great anxiety for Mrs. ----, his wife. Unable to\nshake the feeling off, instead of going to Edinburgh, she actually got\nout of the train halfway, at Falkirk, and took the next train back\nto Glasgow, and went to her friend\u2019s house, whom she found in great\ndistress. Mrs. ---- had, about the time Miss ---- became distressed\nin the train, received word that her husband was found dead (having\ncommitted suicide) in his berth on the steamer at Constantinople. The\nstate of mind of the newly-made widow re-acted on that of Miss ----.\nAs Miss ---- was not only a dear friend, but was noted for her earnest\npiety, the widow at once earnestly desired to see her. When last\nthese two friends saw each other, everything seemed to contribute to\nhappiness and comfort. Mrs. ---- was looking forward hopefully for the\nreturn of her husband, restored in health, to herself and children.\n\n\nTHOUGHT TRANSFERENCE IN ORDINARY EXPERIENCE.\n\nWhether thought-transference is a \u201crelic of a decaying faculty,\u201d or the\n\u201cgerm of a new and fruitful sense,\u201d daily experience in the lives of\nmost furnish abundant evidence of the existence of such a power. My own\nlife has supplied me with abundant evidence of the fact. It is a common\noccurrence with us for either my wife or I to utter or give expression\nto the thoughts which, for the time being, occupied the conscious plane\nin the other. It is possible there may have been, as there has been in\nsome instances, some half phrase uttered or manner shown, which in the\none have aroused the thoughts expressed by the other.\n\nIt has been our habit for several years to stay at Rothesay during the\nsummer season. As an instance of thought-transference quite common\nin our experience;--On Saturday, 1st October, 1892, I went to the\nRevision Court at the Town Hall to hear registration disputes settled\nbetween Tory and Gladstonian lawyers. Finding nothing to interest me,\nI entered into conversation with Mr. Thompson, jeweller and hardware\nmerchant, whom I met in the Court, and went with him to his shop in\nMontague Street, Rothesay. Standing at his door a short time, I noticed\na solitary pair of shamrock earrings, composed of crystal brilliants\nand gold, lying on a tray, with a number of other earrings, in one of\nthe windows. I inquired the price, as I felt sure Mrs. Coates would be\npleased with them. They were packed up in a neat box, and I took them\nhome. At dinner, I gave the box to my wife, who said, \u201cWhat is this,\npapa?\u201d\n\n\u201cOpen and see,\u201d I replied.\n\nAnimated with a little curiosity, she did, and, as soon as she saw\nthe earrings, said, \u201cThompson\u2019s! Well, papa, that is funny. James (my\nlittle son) and I stood at Thompson\u2019s window last night, and I admired\nthese earrings. I thought them so neat, and that they would match my\nbrooch. I thought I would like to have them, and then I thought to\nmyself, no; I will not spend the money. I pointed them out to James,\nand said to him, I am sure if papa saw them, he would buy them--and\nhere you have brought them home. I cannot tell you how much I prize\nthem.\u201d\n\nMy little boy said, \u201cThought-reading again, papa!\u201d and, with a good\nlaugh, we proceeded to discuss our dinner. Mrs. Coates had not been in\nthe habit of seeing this particular window, and I am not in the habit\nof buying jewellery.\n\nI record this trifle here, as one of our common experiences, and I am\nsatisfied similar experiences are common to all.\n\nAnother experience is the anticipation of letters and their contents.\nThis is most frequent in the morning, just before rising. I frequently\nsee the letters and the shape of the envelope and style of address\nbefore I actually see the letters on my consulting table.\n\nThe most common experience of all is recognised by the adage, \u201cThink\nof the Devil, and he will appear.\u201d I have noted this in particular.\nSitting at the table, there is \u201cpopped\u201d into my mind a thought of\nsomeone. I will remark, \u201cI think Mr. or Mrs. ---- will be here to-day,\u201d\nand they come. Certainly, all who have come in this way have been\nrelatives or friends; and although they appear subsequent to the\nthought of them, the evidence in favour of thought-transference may not\nbe esteemed conclusive. I say it is a common experience. I don\u2019t think\nwe should despise any experience, because it is common. To be common,\nindicates there is a basis, amounting to a psychic law, to account for\nits existence.\n\nAnother common experience is the crossing of letters. One person\nsuddenly recollects \u201cSo-and-so;\u201d and writes them a letter excusing\ndelay in writing, retailing news, and in all probability writing on\nsome subject more particularly than on others. Strange to say, the\nperson you have written to, has also been engaged writing to you about\nthe same time and on similar subjects. Both have possibly posted their\nletters at such a time that the delivery has been crossed. I do not say\nthis proves anything; yet I cannot help thinking the experience is too\nfrequent to be accounted for by the usual explanation of accident or\ncoincidence.\n\nMark Twain\u2019s article on \u201cMental Telegraphy\u201d is fresh in the minds of\nmost magazine readers. Whether that article had a basis in the writer\u2019s\nactual experience or not, it is a pretty common experience with most\nliterary men.\n\n\u201cDistance,\u201d says Mr. Tuttle, \u201chas inappreciable influence on the\ntransference of thought. It may take place in the same room, or where\nthe two persons are thousands of miles apart. As a personal experience,\nI will relate one of many similar incidents which have awakened my\nattention to this wonderful phenomenon. Sitting by my desk one evening,\nsuddenly as a flash of light, the thought came to write an article for\nthe _Harbinger of Light_, published at Melbourne, Australia. I had,\nby correspondence, become acquainted with the editor, W. H. Terry, but\nthere had been no letters passed for many a year. I had not thought\nof him or his journal for I do not know how long a time, and I was\namused at first with the idea of writing on the subject suggested.\nBut the impression was so strong that I prepared and forwarded an\narticle. Nearly two months passed before I received a letter from Mr.\nTerry, requesting me to write an article on the subject on which I have\nwritten; and, making due allowance for time, the date of our letters\nwere the same. In our experience, this crossing of letters answering\neach other has twice occurred--the second by Mr. Terry answering a\nrequest of mine.\u201d\n\nDr. Charles W. Hidden, of Newburyport, Mass., U.S.A., reports a\nsomewhat similar experience to that of Mark Twain and the above, which\nwas reported in a recent number of the _Religio-Philosophical Journal_:\nA very peculiar plot impressed itself upon his mind, and he immediately\nbased a story upon the plot. He read the story to his family, and was\nabout to send it to a publication to which his wife had recently become\na subscriber. When the next number arrived he opened it to learn how to\nforward his manuscript, and great was his surprise to find on the first\npage a story bearing the title of his own, and a plot almost identical\nwith that which he had written. Parts of the published article appeared\nword for word. It is needless to add that Dr. Hidden tossed his\nmanuscript into his desk, and it is there yet. His explanation is,\nthat he caught the title and the plot from another, just as Mark Twain\ncaught the plot of the \u201cBig Bonanza\u201d from his friend Simmons.\n\nIt would be nigh impossible to illustrate the various phases of\nthought-transference, ranging, as they do, from the association of\nideas which may be aroused by a hint, a half-uttered word, or a\ngesture, to the unmistakable facts of pure mental transference,\nand, higher still, to the region of pure psychism, where spirit\ninfluences inspire and direct spirit, and thought-bodies are no longer\nrecognised as mere subjective spirits but living and tangible objective\npersonalities, albeit discarnate.\n\nWe can say truly with Voltaire, \u201cThere is a power that acts within us,\nwithout consulting us.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nThought-Reading Experiments.\n\n\nHaving satisfactory evidence of the reality of thought-transference,\nit would be interesting to know if this power or faculty can be\ncultivated, and if so, how? I propose in this chapter to show how this\ncan be done, and how to give thought-reading entertainments.\n\nExperimental mind-reading may be distinguished, for the sake of study,\nas the abnormal, the normal, and the spurious.\n\nThe abnormal, that which takes place in trance, dream, vision, or\nwhich may be the product of artificial somnambulism or of some\nsuper-sensitive condition of the nervous system, through disease. We\nobserve thought-transference in these conditions, rather than attempt\nto cultivate it.\n\nThe normal, where the phenomena takes place in the ordinary waking\nstate, _without muscular contact_.\n\nThe spurious mind-reading, so-called, as the result of musculation or\n_contact_, but which is, in fact, only muscle-reading.\n\nIn both the abnormal and normal, direct transference of thought\nfrom mind to mind can only take place when there is the necessary\ndevelopment of psychic activity in the agent or operator, and the\nequally necessary sensitiveness in the sensitive or percipient.\n\nClassed under muscle-reading are those performances and games in which\nthe sensitive reads not the mind, but some special desire (of those\nwith whom he or she may be placed _in contact_), by a \u201ccareful study\nof the indications unconsciously given by the agent or operator to the\npercipient or reader.\u201d\n\nIn both abnormal and normal thought-reading, then, are presented\ninnumerable instances of the possession of psychic faculties; in the\nmuscle-reading phase there may be, and it is possible all successful\n\u201creaders\u201d have, more or less sensitiveness, to take impressions.\n\nTo cultivate mind-reading in a sensitive, the operator should first\ncultivate in himself the habit of projecting mental pictures, and\nthink of things as seen by the eye, rather than as described by words.\nThis is best done by calling to mind a landscape or domestic scene, by\nconceiving and mentally building up the same, and, by degrees, getting\neach feature or detail well stamped in his mind.\n\nIt is well in the beginning of these experiments to make the scene as\nsimple, and yet as natural and as complete in detail, as possible. For\ninstance, let the operator think of such a picture as this:--A bright\nlittle landscape, having a well-defined cottage on the left, just on\nthe margin of a small lake; boat with two figures in the foreground;\nrising bank upon the right; and a little higher up a defined windmill,\nwell thrown out by the perspective of blue-ridged and undulating\nmountains, and sky in the background.\n\nThe agent, having satisfied himself of his sensitive\u2019s whole or\npartial powers of psychic perception, might ask:--\u201cDo you see anything\nnow?\u201d and quickly and deliberately go to work, meanwhile formulating\ndefinitely such a picture as the above; even allowing himself to get\ninto ecstacies over the scene--peopling the cottage and the mill, and\nintroducing imaginary conversation between the individual dwellers\ntherein, and so on. The sensitive will describe the whole as the\nsame is _felt_ or perceived. This experiment may appear to some to\nbe impossible, but the word impossible belongs to the limitations of\nsense, and not to the range of the things possible to the human spirit.\n\nSome sensitives and mediums take impressions from their\nsurroundings--their clairvoyant revelations are often nothing more\nthan so much Mind-reading. _Nothing more_; but this nothing more is a\ngreat deal. Certainly, it may not prove the existence of spirit, apart\nfrom the sensitive\u2019s own powers; but it does prove that man has other\navenues of knowledge than those with which he is usually credited.\n\nThe development of mind-reading in the psychic states may be encouraged\nby a little judicious assistance or direction. Invite the sensitive\nto pay attention to So-and-so; to visit places, to examine rooms, or\ndescribe people whom the sensitive has never seen. But the places,\nthe rooms, and the persons must be _distinctly in the minds_ of those\npersons, or agents, with whom he or she is placed in _rapport_.\n\nDuring these experiments the sensitive will say, \u201cI _see_ this,\u201d or\ndescribe that other, as if he actually saw. Hence the infinitely close\nrelationship of mind-reading to clairvoyance. Thought-reading in\nspiritualism will be referred to in the next chapter.\n\nOnce possessing a good sensitive, the development of the power, as\na matter of fact, lies particularly in the operator\u2019s ability to\nconcentrate and focus his thoughts--to think clearly, calmly, vividly,\nand distinctly himself--and to deliberately and conscientiously project\nthe same.\n\n\nTHE NORMAL EXPERIMENTS WITHOUT CONTACT.\n\nA pleasant hour or so can be profitably filled up on a long winter\u2019s\nevening with experiments in mind reading, without resorting to\nmesmerism. It will be found that there are mind-readers in every\nfamily--some boy, girl, or young woman more sensitive than the rest to\nimpressions.\n\nSometimes it has been found, when two or more persons think of the\nsame object, as in the \u201cwilling game,\u201d the impression becomes more\nvivid, and the sensitive finds, or describes, the article, or thing,\nmore easily. It has been left to the versatility of Professor Lodge,\nof the University College, Liverpool, to project two distinct images\nat the same time to a sensitive. He requested two friends to look at\na paper that he had given to each. On one paper a square was drawn,\nand on the other an oblique cross. Neither person knew what the other\nwas looking at, and after they had looked intently at these diagrams\nfor a short time, the sensitive, who was in a normal condition, but\nblindfold, said:--\u201cI see two figures--first I see one, and then,\nbelow that, another. I do not know which I am to draw. I cannot see\neither plainly.\u201d Having been requested to draw what she saw, she drew\na square, with an oblique cross inside of it. On being questioned,\nshe replied that she did not know why she placed the cross in the\nsquare. The two images projected by distinct minds, intermingled, and\nwere produced, as narrated by Professor Lodge. We can readily see\nthat confusion will arise where a number of persons are thinking of\ndifferent subjects, or when some positive-minded individual declares\nmind-reading to be an impossibility.\n\nSomething after the above experiments of Professor Lodge are those\nwhich were conducted by Mr. Guthrie, a London barrister, and reported\nby him to the Society of Psychical Research.\n\nA number of diagrams, roughly drawn off-hand at the time, were shown to\nthe agent or precipitant, Mr. G., the subject, or percipient, a lady,\nbeing blind-fold. During the process of transference, the agent looked\nsteadily and in silence at the drawing, the subject meanwhile sitting\nopposite to him, and behind the stand on which the drawing lay, so\nthat it was entirely out of her range of vision had her eyes not been\nblind-folded.\n\nThe agent stopped looking at the drawing when the subject professed\nherself ready to make the attempt to reproduce it. The time occupied\nthus was from half a minute to two or three minutes. Then the\nhandkerchief was removed, and she drew with a pencil what had occurred\nto her mind.\n\n[Illustration: RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS IN THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.]\n\n[Illustration: RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS IN THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.]\n\nThe reproductions were made generally without the agent following or\nwatching the process. We reproduce several of the attempts here, giving\nboth the successes and the failures. Even the failures show the effect\nMr. G. produced upon the reader\u2019s mind.\n\nThe experiments conducted so successfully in the family of the Rev.\nMr. Creery, of Boston, and made public by Professor Barrett in _The\nJournal of Psychical Research_, show to what extent thought-reading\nmay be successfully carried on in the quietude and confidence of a\nwell-regulated family.\n\nThe mode of procedure adopted by Professor Barrett to test the faculty\nas possessed by the children was as follows:--\u201cOne of the children,\u201d\nsays Professor Barrett, \u201cwas sent into an adjoining room, the door of\nwhich I saw was closed. On returning to the sitting-room, and closing\nthe door also, I thought upon some object in the house, fixed upon at\nrandom. Writing the name down, I showed it to the family present, the\nstrictest silence being preserved throughout. We then all silently\nthought of the name of the thing selected. In a few seconds the door\nof the adjoining room was heard to open, and after a short interval\nthe child would enter the sitting-room, generally speaking, with the\nobject selected. No one was allowed to leave the sitting-room after\nthe object had been fixed upon, and no communication with the child\nwas conceivable, as her place was often changed. Further, the only\ninstructions given to the child were to fetch some objects in the house\nthat I would think upon and, together with the family, silently keep in\nmind, to the exclusion as far as possible of all other ideas.\u201d\n\nNow, if Professor Barrett had told the children to select a word, and\nupon coming into the room were to spell or state what the word was, I\nquestion if the experiments would have been so successful. The articles\nthought of, whether a hair brush, an orange, wine glass, apple, or a\nplaying card, were of such a nature that a definite picture or image of\nthe thing thought of could be formed in the mind. The father, mother,\nand even Professor Barrett, seem to have been especially in _rapport_\nwith the little sensitives, and thus all the more readily were they\nable to transmit the mental picture of the articles selected. Trick or\ncollusion in this case is absolutely out of the question. It would be\ninteresting to know if these young sensitives, who were so bright in\n1881, still retain, or have increased or lost, their powers.\n\nThere were 312 trials made during Professor Barrett\u2019s stay of six\ndays, who adds--\u201cOne most striking piece of success, when the things\nselected were divulged to none of the family, was five cards running\nnamed correctly on the first trial--the odds against this happening\nonce in our series, being considerably over one million to one. We had\naltogether a good many similar batches, the two longest runs being\neight consecutive successes, once with cards and once with names,\nwhen the adverse odds in the former case were over one hundred and\nforty-two millions to one, and on the latter, something incalculably\ngreater. _Walls and closed doors made no difference._\u201d [The italics are\nmine.--J.C.]\n\nSomething after the foregoing style are drawing-room entertainments\ngiven. If failure result, no one is blamed, and ridiculous mistakes\nonly lend pleasure to the company, where all are known one to the other.\n\nThe usual method is to select someone for thought-reader. Lady or\ngentleman, matters little. He or she is sent out of the room. Some\none in the room generally takes the lead, who may suggest the article\nto be selected and hidden, which the thought-reader is to find. The\narticle selected is thought of by the entire company. The reader is\nto go to the place where it is, lift it, put it down, or give it to\nsome one else; or to find a certain book and remove it from its place\non table or elsewhere, and put it somewhere else; to come in and sit\non a certain chair or to lead someone else to it, or perform whatever\nother test that is decided upon. The reader is admitted into the\nroom, and, if at all receptive, will do or say something like what is\ndesired--often going direct to the spot, lifting the article, or doing\nthe things which the company have decided upon.\n\nA good plan is to get the assistance of one or two friends, use a bag\nof counters, upon which numbers 10 to 100 are placed; also a smaller\nbag with numbers 1 to 9. Let the sensitive sit at a table in such a\nposition, so as, if not blindfolded, he or she could not see what the\nagent has in his hand. Use the small bag to begin with. Let one friend\nhold the bag, another select a number. When both have carefully looked\nat it, let it be handed to the agent, who shall fix his eyes steadily\nupon the figure, and picture the said figure on his mind. The sensitive\nwill in one or two minutes either say or write down what the figure is.\nIf these experiments become satisfactory, the larger bag can be used.\nThe experiments with numbers must not be continued too long, and so\nweary the faculty. In the same way a number of simple outline designs\ncan be used--these presented one by one to the agent or operator--a\nfish, a boy and barrow, a fireman with escape, a negro and banjo, a\nlecturer on platform, an orange, a book, etc., such as are found in\nchildren\u2019s school books; repeating the same processes as above. No one\nmust speak but the agent and the percipient, nor is the agent to know\nwhat the numbers or designs are before the experiments are commenced.\n\nShould failure occur, select another medium. In a company of twenty\nto thirty persons it will be very strange if a good thought-reading\nsensitive is not found. In which case, more serious experiments may be\nattempted subsequently, and attain scientific value.\n\nThe thought-reader should be blindfolded, and _resign_ himself to the\n_influence_ of the agent or operator. Although he understands that\nsomething is expected of him, he is not to be anxious about what, but\nsimply _act_ as he _feels_ himself prompted.\n\nIn proportion as the sensitive is able to give up anxiety and desire,\nso will he be able to become a good reader.\n\nThe operator, or agent, must concentrate his mind upon what is\nrequired, and _will_ the sensitive to do it. When two or more persons,\nor all in the room, _are_ concentrating their minds upon the thing,\nobject, or word, the sensitive may all the sooner be influenced; but\nI prefer that one person should be chosen as the operator, and all\nintended experiments be submitted to him.\n\nThe process is analogous to that of mesmerism. We see traces here of\nthe influence of mind over mind. We see the operator determines and\nthe subject performs, although it may not be very clear how thought is\nactually projected, or in what way it is received, other than already\nsuggested.\n\nPractice makes perfect in this as in other things. Success is\nproportionate to success. A reader showing a degree of susceptibility\nat first attempts will generally improve by subsequent efforts. In a\nsimilar way, operators will make headway with practice. Some operators\nand sensitives will be successful at first trial; others again have\nfailed after repeated attempts.\n\nPlenty of time should be taken for all first attempts. Let the\noperator, for instance, keep his mind thoroughly fixed on the object.\nShould the reader be going away from it, let the agent strongly wish\nhim to go back, _touch_ it, lift it, etc., as previously decided upon\nby the company.\n\nAll sensitive persons are likely to make good thought-readers; the less\nsensitive, muscle-readers.\n\n\nMUSCLE-READING ENTERTAINMENTS.\n\nThought-transference, like clairvoyance, is unequal in power and\nmanifestation, even with good percipients, and cannot be turned on\nlike, and with, the evening gas, to enlighten and entertain. Hence\nthose enterprising entertainers, like Bishop and Cumberland, depended\non \u201cmuscle-reading,\u201d and \u201cbacked-up their show\u201d with tricks, some of\nthem so puerile and barefaced that a third-rate conjuror would be\nashamed of them.\n\nThe general public, however, enjoyed these entertainments. They were\nsomething new, and, like \u201cangel\u2019s visits,\u201d were few and far between.\nNot only so, but that wonderful combination, the general public, saw\nthat these entertainments were patronised by men of science, such as\nCarpenter, Beard, Hammond, Baron Kelvin, and others deeply in love\nwith strictly materialistic hypothesis. They were also patronised by\n\u201csociety.\u201d These entertainers undertook to read thoughts and expose\nspiritualism; and as the dear public loves mystery, it went. But the\ndear public don\u2019t like to be \u201ctaken in,\u201d hence these performances are\ngenerally repeated--in the next town.\n\nThe following, reported from St. John\u2019s, N.B., January 17, 1887, in\nthe _Herald_, is a good illustration of the psychic and muscular\nindications involved in an experiment of this kind:--\u201cIn a\n\u2018mind-reading\u2019 performance on Saturday night, after several examples\nindoors, the \u2018reader,\u2019 a young man who belongs to this city, asked for\nan outdoor test. The party separated, one remaining with the reader,\nand hid a pin in the side of a little house used by the switchman of\nthe New Brunswick Railway at Mill Street. In their travels they went\nover the new railway trestle, a most difficult journey. The reader\nwas blindfolded, and one took his wrist, but at the trestle hesitated,\nfearing to venture, and was told by the reader to let go his wrist and\nplace his hand on his head. The subject did so, and the reader went\nupon the trestle. Some of the party suggested that the bandage should\nbe removed, but he told them not to mind, and, the subject again taking\nthe wrist, he went over the ice and snow-covered sleepers. With a\nfirm step he crossed to the long wharf, went over as far as the mill\ngates, then quickly turned, retraced his steps, and went back to the\ncorner of Mill Street. Here he rested a minute, then again took the\nsubject\u2019s hand, and in less than five minutes afterwards found the pin.\nAt the conclusion of the test, the reader inquired what the matter had\nbeen when they first reached the trestle. It was easily explained.\nThe storm had covered the sleepers with snow, and it was thought\ndangerous, even for a man not blindfolded to cross them. The subject\nfelt anxious for the reader\u2019s safety, and hesitated about going across.\nThe tests were most satisfactory.\u201d Thought or mind-reading applied to\nthese experiments is a misnomer. If this young gentleman could \u201cread\nthoughts\u201d by musculation, or _contact_, he would have known what the\nmatter had been when they first reached the trestle. Muscle-reading is\nnot thought-reading. Hence it is classified as spurious.\n\nAny number of illustrations could be given of such entertainments. The\nforegoing is sufficiently adequate to give an idea of how these muscle\n(not thought) reading entertainments are given.\n\nFor drawing-room entertainments, first blindfold the reader, who is\nconducted out of the room while the experiments are decided upon. The\nblindfolding helps to mystify friends, who think the work is rendered\nmore difficult. As a matter of fact, the reader\u2019s work is rendered much\nmore easy. It helps to isolate him, and leaves his mind much less\nentrammelled by sights and impressions which would otherwise prevent\nhim receiving _the_ impressions which it is desirable he should receive.\n\nSuppose the reader is to locate the seat of an imaginary pain, the\nassistant or operator _pro tem._ will grasp[F] with his left hand\nthe sensitive\u2019s right wrist and hold it firmly. While the reader is\nendeavouring to locate the pain, the operator must give up his will,\nand think intently on the situation of the pain. The reader will then\nlocate it.\n\nThere is less secret in this than appears at first sight. The\nsensitive, or reader, is simply guided or led by the operator, and the\nreader\u2019s hand either stops partially over or is pressed upon the seat\nof the pain. He then declares he has found the seat of the pain, and\npoints it out accordingly.\n\nA somewhat similar method is adopted in finding the pin, or the _hole_\nin which a pin _had been_. The racing and flying about of public\nthought-readers are only so much \u201ctheatrical side,\u201d thrown in to give\ndramatic effect to their performances.\n\nIn reading the numbers on bank-notes, or spelling out certain words, a\nboard with the numerals and the alphabet (see front cover) is placed\nin sight of the audience. The reader takes the wrist of the operator,\nand, commencing at the left side of the board, proceeds from figure to\nfigure till he detects the right one. The operator thinks only of _one_\nfigure or letter at a time. This is the whole secret of \u201cmusculation.\u201d\nEven when the operators are sincere, and are careful to give no\nconscious indications to the reader, yet it is almost certain, if they\nkeep their mind fixed on the desired figure or letter, object or place,\nthey will unconsciously indicate to the reader the right number or\nletter.\n\nTo find an article, number, or do a certain act, it is necessary\nfor the reader to give prompt obedience to the indications given\nhim. The concentration of attention necessary can only come with\npractice. No end of surprises and amusement will follow if the operator\nhonestly concentrates his mind upon the things to be done, and a good\nmuscle-reader is found to take up the indications. Apparently, the most\ndifficult feats are sometimes accomplished.\n\nDuring the experiments, the reader will have curious sensations, such\nas heaviness of feeling, dread and uncertainty, and then _blankness_\nof mind, followed by an impulse to do something. If the reader can\nkeep his mind passive enough, he may receive impressions, as in\nthought-transference; anyway, it is advisable to wait for the impulse\nto move and to do. The highest percentages of success always follow.\n\nGeneral directions for the cultivation of experimental\nthought-transference and mind-reading given in these pages are\nsufficiently specific, to be found thoroughly practical by those who\nhave put them into practice; and certainly no harm, either mental or\nphysical, can come to those who are willing to give them a fair trial.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nSpiritualism.\n\n\nAny reference to Spiritualism here must be very brief, and, I am\nafraid, very incomplete. I will deal with the subject in the light of\nthe preceding chapters.\n\nIt has been established on the clearest evidence that\nthought-transference and reception between two nearly harmonised or\nsympathetic human beings, or embodied human spirits, are possible, and\nthis without intermediate sense or physical agencies. If, then, between\nmind and mind on earth, distance or space being no obstacle, matter no\nhindrance, why not between mind disincarnate--if we can conceive of\nmind apart from the human brain and organism--and mind incarnate? If\nnot, why not?\n\nIt seems to me very difficult, if we accept the first, to reject the\nlatter conclusion. If we accept the latter, we are committed in the\nmain to belief in Spiritualism, ancient and modern. If we admit that it\nis possible for a disembodied spirit to communicate with us in dream,\nvision, or, as in the case of Miss Howett, have our hands influenced to\nwrite, or that we see and converse with spirits, as in the case of Mary\nReynolds, we then admit, and accept in the main, the essential features\nof what is known as Spiritualism. The subject is not only interesting,\nbut of vital importance; therefore, I think, the fear of being called\na \u201cSpiritualist,\u201d or any other name, should not prevent us sounding to\nthe depths, the psychic possibilities of our human nature.\n\n\nTHE SPIRIT WITHIN US.\n\nThere is Spiritualism _and_ Spiritualism. That which I am most\ninterested in is not so much a hankering after spirits, \u201cspirit\ncontrols,\u201d and the phenomena, generally recognised as the right thing\nin certain circles, as that other Spiritualism which leads to an honest\nendeavour on our parts to ascertain if we are spirits, here and now,\nalbeit clothed for the time being in an organic envelope, relating us\nto our present estate.\n\nIf we are embodied spirits, it will be possible for the spirit-man (the\nessential self--_ego_, I am), in each human being to communicate at\ntimes, and under certain fitting conditions, with other fellow-beings,\nunder such circumstances, and in such a way, as to make it clear:--\n\n(_a._) That the communications could not have been transmitted and\nreceived by the ordinary channels, or physical sense organs, which in\nordinary circumstances appear essential to our exchange of thought.\n\n(_b._) That the exchange of thought, in independence of the ordinary\nsense channels, will demonstrate that man must possess other,\nextraordinary or psychic, organs for the transmission and the reception\nof thought.\n\nBoth positions I have endeavoured to sustain on the foregoing pages;\nand, lastly, concerning spiritualism, I have arrived at the profound\nconclusion that spirit-communion--that is, thought transmission from\nthe disembodied to the embodied--is a solemn fact. After carefully\neliminating all the possibilities of self-deception--auto-trance,\ndiscreet degrees of consciousness, of natural and acquired\nclairvoyance, of thought-transference and mind-reading, and lastly,\nthe puerile performances of conjurors and the simulated phenomena of\ntricksters--there remains evidence of disembodied or disincarnate\nspirit, and of such control influencing and directing the actions of\nmen, just as one man in this life influences and directs the actions of\nanother.\n\nWhat I esteem, however, as satisfactory evidence might not be evidence\nto another; and I for one do not think it necessary to open up the\nlife chambers of my psychic experiences to the indifferent, the\nthoughtless, or the sceptic, to furnish the desired evidence. Others\nmust travel by the way I have come to understand something of that way.\nAll men cannot believe alike, hence it will not be surprising that some\nwill accept as sufficient evidence of spirit what others would deem\ninsufficient.\n\nIt is not my intention meantime to advocate spiritualism. I only refer\nto it, in so far as it is related to \u201cHow to Thought-Read.\u201d However,\nphenomenal spiritualism is not a matter of belief so much as of\nevidence, and many eminent thinkers have been compelled by the force of\nthe evidence to accept spiritualism now, who, a quarter of a century\nago, would have hesitated, principally through fear of ridicule, to\nspeak of the subject in language of ordinary civility.\n\nWhile I am convinced that such communications between the so-called\ndead and the living are possible, I do know and feel satisfied that\nmuch which is accepted as evidence of the existence and influence of\nspirits by the majority of the unthinking and excitable crowd who rush\nafter novelties, and perchance call themselves \u201cspiritualists,\u201d is\ntraceable to no other or higher source than our own innate, but little\nunderstood, human or psychic powers. I have arrived at this conclusion\nalso, as the result of carefully investigating spiritualism, and it\nis therefore not an _a priori_ hypothesis conveniently elaborated\nfrom my own or borrowed from the brains of others who are opponents\nto spiritualism. It is probable, had I not devoted the greater part\nof my life to spiritualism, as one of the factors in human character,\nI should have known but little of that sympathetic transference of\nthought from one mind to another, or of the light which that fact\nthrows upon our dual or compound existence.\n\nIn this \u201csympathetic transference of thought\u201d we find a solution to the\nproblem of spiritualism, whether old or new. I conclude, with Buffon,\n\u201cThe true springs of our organisation are _not_ these muscles, these\nveins, these arteries, which are described with so much exactness and\ncare. There exist in organised bodies _internal forces_ which do not\nfollow the gross mechanical laws we imagine, and to which we would\nreduce everything.\u201d Or, as Laplace puts it more strongly--\u201cBeyond\nthe limits of this visible anatomy commences another anatomy, whose\nphenomena we cannot perceive; beyond the limits of this external\nphysiology of forces, of action, and of motion, exists another\n_invisible physiology, whose principles, effects, and laws are of the\ngreatest importance to know_.\u201d\n\nIt may be esteemed reprehensible to \u201cseek communion with the dead;\u201d\nbut to know ourselves, to fathom this _invisible physiology_, whose\nprinciples, effects, and laws are of such importance to understand, I\nhold to be not only legitimate but perfectly laudable. How can we serve\nGod, whom we have not seen, if we do not understand ourselves, whom we\nthink we have seen, or the laws which govern our being, as created by\nhim? To know ourselves as we should, we ought not to neglect the search\nfor \u201cthe spirit within us.\u201d\n\n\nTHE REJECTION OF THE PSYCHIC.\n\nMany persons--scientific, theological, learned, and illiterate--reject\nthe psychic, and refrain from investigating, either from constitutional\nbias or from crass ignorance; and such have played the part of learned\nSadducees or low fellows of the baser sort before anything having the\nremotest flavour of spirit. The man of science is rendered purblind by\n\u201cmy hypothesis,\u201d the theologian by \u201cmy belief,\u201d the man of the world\nby \u201cmy business\u201d or \u201cmy position.\u201d The respectable church-goer--who\nvaccinates his children, as he has them baptised, because it is\nthe proper thing to do--has neither head nor heart, apparently, to\nunderstand anything beyond the common ideas of the hour. He would\ncrucify all new thought, or new spiritualism for that matter, as the\nJews did Jesus, because the new doctrines promulgated and the new\nwonders performed tend to subvert the present respectable order of\nthings.\n\nThe worship of Diana is not confined to ancient Ephesus. The great\nDiana of old was the type of that \u201cRespectable Custom\u201d which the\nmajority of mankind worship and obey to-day, because, as of yore, it\nconserves their vested interests, official connections, and brings\nthem \u201cmuch gain.\u201d As for the man in the street--the multitude having\nno shepherd--he is always more or less hypnotised by the well-clad and\nwell-fed, smug-faced worshippers of the aforesaid \u201cRespectable Custom;\u201d\nhence he is ever ready to shout \u201cCrucify,\u201d or \u201cHurrah,\u201d or aught else\nhe is influenced to do, especially if such exercises give him pleasure\nand excitement for the time being. He accepts or rejects as he sees\n\u201chis betters\u201d think best, and so, unfortunately, is unfitted to a large\ndegree, for the intelligent investigation of his own nature. These form\nthe largest group of rejectors of the phenomenal evidences of soul.\n\nThe psychic, however, has suffered less from such rejectors than from\nthose who claim to be recognised and known as converts and exponents\nof the same, who at best have only shown themselves to be \u201cseekers\nafter a sign.\u201d They may have run into the wilderness and have had\na bit of miraculous bread, and yet not be a pennyworth the better\nof it in either soul or body--_i.e._, life or conduct. These, by\ntheir foolishness, have prevented many well-meaning and otherwise\nable persons investigating the psychic, for the latter saw nothing\nin the lives of professed spiritualists to make them desire to have\nanything to do with spiritualism. Moreover, coming in contact with\nthe iconoclastic in spiritualism, they have become disgusted with the\ncrude and the coarse therein, as they have with the revelations,\ninspirations, and fads, advocated by certain mediums, and hence have\nrejected the wheat because of the apparent great quantity of tares.\n\n\nTHE FRAUDULENT IN SPIRITUALISM.\n\nI am afraid the trend of modern civilisation, which leads men from\nthe beauties and quietude of hill and dale, of valley and river side,\ninto crowded city life, has tended to make men exoteric. They run\nafter signs and wonders without, and too little to the spirit within.\nThe broader view of being, and that self-culture and purity which\narises from the exercise of man\u2019s innate powers, and makes for true\nregeneration and spiritual progress, here and hereafter, have been more\nor less sacrificed to the external and the phenomenal.\n\nThe love of the phenomenal, in and out of Spiritualism, has created\na crowd of harpies, impostors, or fraudulent mediums--male and\nfemale--who trade on human credulity, some to earn a pittance, and\nothers to gratify vanity. Men and women have been known to risk\nreputation for both. In this way Spiritualism has its quota of\ndeceivers and deceived.\n\nThere are some people who must have phenomena, just as there are other\npeople who will have sermons. If they don\u2019t get exactly what they want,\nthey withdraw \u201ctheir patronage\u201d--the finances. So, if the patronage is\nto be retained, phenomena and sermons have to be supplied--if the first\nare fraudulent or the latter stolen.\n\nSeeing how fugitive real psychological phenomena are--natural or\ninduced--one must necessarily hesitate to accept \u201ctrance addresses,\u201d\n\u201cinspirational orations,\u201d \u201cmedical controls,\u201d clairvoyant, and\nsecond-sight exhibitions, which are supplied to order, to gratify\npatrons, at so much per hour. It is human to err, but the manufacturer\nof spurious phenomena, the impostor who trades on the ties, and the\ndearest of human affections, is a devil. There is no iniquity too\nlow--earthly or devilish--to which he will not as readily descend to\ngratify his vampirish nature.\n\nI am not disposed to accept the infallibility of spirits for that of\nPopes--large or small--or professional media, in place of professional\npriests and ministers, and there is by far too much of this in\nSpiritualism.\n\nIn the foregoing connection, I must refer to another source of\nerror--this time, however, more related to physical rather than psychic\nphenomena--viz., the credulity of those who are disposed to believe\nthat certain conjurors are aided in their performances by spirit\nagency. Personally, I would sooner believe that mediums for \u201cPhysical\nPhenomena\u201d resorted to conjuring to aid \u201cspirits,\u201d than believe that\n\u201cspirits\u201d resorted to \u201chanky-panky\u201d to aid conjurors. No wonder\n\u201cfrauds\u201d smile. Years ago I had to protest against this absurdity,\nwhen people--who ought to know better--talked this kind of nonsense\nabout conjurors, as they do about certain fraudulent mediums now--viz.,\n\u201cthey are aided by spirits.\u201d Owing to this lack of discrimination and\nwant of trained discernment in Spiritualists and the general public,\nmediumistic frauds have fooled, to their utmost bent, fresh groups of\ndupes at home and abroad.\n\nI am none the less disposed to accept the genuine, because we recognise\nsources of error connected therewith, and are determined to set our\nfaces against palpable frauds.\n\n\nSPIRITUALISM WITHOUT SPIRITS.\n\nWe may now turn from the wretched arena of imposture, duplicity,\nand credulity, to genuine, but little understood, phenomena in\nSpiritualism. We have seen that much which has been attributed to\nthe agency of disembodied spirits is due, in many instances, to the\naction of man\u2019s own psychic states, \u201cthe double, who is wiser than\nwe,\u201d and to the fact that, as often as not, trance states, automatic\nand planchette writing, are self-induced conditions. Equally so,\nclairvoyance, thought-transference, and psychometry do not require\nthe \u201cagency of spirit\u201d to account for their existence as \u201cgifts,\u201d\nqualities or powers. It will be time enough to admit such agency--that\nof disembodied spirit--when the evidence in each particular case is\nreasonably conclusive. I think this is the only wise and safe course to\npursue.\n\nClairvoyance may be native or induced, self-cultivated or cultivated\nby aid of a mesmerist. As it has been exercised naturally, and without\nany such aid, the exhibition of clairvoyance--in itself--is no evidence\nof disembodied spirit-presence or control. Equally, the seeing of, and\nthe describing of, spirits by a clairvoyant--even if the descriptions\nare apparently accurate--may present no evidence of the real presence\nof such spirits. I do not deny that clairvoyants can see spirits,\nbut the mere fact of being able to see and describe spirits, is not\nsufficient evidence--the _seer_ is controlled by spirit-power to\nsee, or that the spirits described are actually _bona-fide_ spirits.\nFrequently, so-called spirits have no other existence than the image\nof them possessed by some positive-minded individual. A clairvoyant,\n_perceiving_ these images, might naturally enough conclude she was\nactually seeing the spirits which she described.\n\nIf Mr. Stead, for instance, is convinced that \u201cSister Dora,\u201d\n\u201cCardinal Manning,\u201d or \u201cLord Tennyson,\u201d are at his side, in his\nrooms, influencing and directing his mind, or at other times actually\ncontrolling his arm and hand to write, a clairvoyant in sympathy with\nhim may describe this or that other spirit he is _thinking_ about. But\nthat does not prove the spirit or spirits are actually present.\n\nA lady (Mrs. Davis), whose name has come prominently before the\npublic as Mr. Stead\u2019s clairvoyante, being questioned as to Mr. Stead\u2019s\nautomatic writing and her own gift, said:--\u201cI know probably more about\nthat than anyone. I was in his office some time in the beginning of\nDecember last regarding the forthcoming publication of a book of mine\nconcerning spiritualism. The conversation turned upon spiritualistic\nautomatic handwriting. I did not know the deceased lady who was writing\nthrough him, but I saw her behind his chair as distinctly as if she\nhad been in the flesh. I described her position as she stood and her\nappearance. She at once wrote through Mr. Stead\u2019s hand confirming all I\nhad stated concerning her in my description. Mr. Stead\u2019s hand continued\nto write. I knew afterwards it wrote out a message stating that another\nspirit was in the room. Mr. Stead asked me if I could describe that\nspirit. I had to wait some little time before I detected it, and\nthere I recognised as in the flesh a very famous personage recently\ndead, whose loss was mourned all the world over in prose and verse. I\ncarefully described the spirit as he appeared to me, and then Mr. Stead\nsaid I was right. But, I answered, I see another male spirit. Ask the\ndeceased lady who is writing through you to write the name of the last\nspirit. Mr. Stead\u2019s hand automatically moved, and he wrote the name\nof a son of the famous personage already alluded to.\u201d Mrs. Davis says\nshe has been strongly impressed with the fact that Mr. Stead has been\nselected by the spirits as their champion from the peculiar and unique\nposition he occupies in the journalistic world, and he will be the\nagent who will break through the solid walls of bigotry and prejudice.\nMr. Stead may or may not have written under spirit influence, and\nthis lady may or may not have seen spirits as described. We must\nnot conclude in the latter case that Mr. Stead and his \u201ctrustworthy\nclairvoyante\u201d are stating anything they do not believe to be true. I\nbelieve she saw, as described or thought of by Mr. Stead, a \u201cdeceased\nlady;\u201d and that she also saw, as equally thought by him, \u201ca very famous\npersonage recently dead;\u201d also \u201canother male spirit,\u201d whose name she\ndid not know until Mr. Stead wrote the name. This narrative, however\ninteresting as to automatic writing and spirit agency in the opinions\nof those concerned, conveys no tangible evidence of either the one or\nthe other. To us it is interesting in the fact that Mrs. Davis _saw the\nspirits thought of by Mr. Stead_. We must think twice before we can\naccept this as evidence of spirits and spirit-presence. Although it is\npossible those concerned have evidence, we have not. We have, however,\nevidence here of thought-transmission and psychic impressionability.\n\nWhen we read of persons who have been raised up, as mediums of St.\nPeter, St. Paul, or St. John, or a publishing company being run by\nShakespeare through a special medium, and worked by a syndicate of\nSpiritualists, I think we are entitled to doubt these claims, even\nthough a dozen clairvoyants vouched for the existence and presence of\nthe aforesaid spirits.\n\nPsychometry furnishes evidence that many so-called spirits are not\nspirits \u201cat all, at all\u201d--only visions of the originals; and the fact\nthat such and such an individual has been accurately described--actions\nand manners carefully indicated--and this has been and is accurately\ndone in health and disease daily--is no evidence, in itself, that\npsychometers have seen spirits. Thus, when a psychometer places a\ngeological specimen to his forehead, and describes an \u201cantediluvian\nmonster,\u201d roaring and walking about, no one but a very shallow\nindividual would imagine for a second the psychometer was actually\nseeing the original. So many of the spirits and spectres seen do\nnot proceed from our own brains, but from objects, relics, and old\nhouses, which had been in times past impinged by the living presence\nand magnetism of the originals. Then we must take into consideration\nthose spectres which proceed from our own brains, such as the\nrealistic images which are sometimes projected from the background\nof consciousness to our eyes and ears. Many so-called spirits are\nsimply the product of diseased neurological conditions, in short,\nhallucinations, which arise from some derangement of the optic and\nauditory centres. The spectres seen by Nicolai gradually disappeared as\nhe lost blood, as the prescribed leeches tranquilised his system. We\nhave no reason to believe the spectres he saw, visions and what not,\nwere actually either spirits or produced by spirits.\n\n\nMIND-READING IN SPIRITUALISM\n\nis the commonest of most common experiences. I have known mediums to\ngraphically describe scenes, persons, and incidents with such vividness\nas to impress one they must be controlled by spirits intimately\nacquainted with the whole circumstances which were revealed. Closer\nexamination indicates that all the information so given by these\nmediums was based on the thought-read phase. That is, the information\nwas culled from the minds of spirits in the flesh, and did not come\nfrom disembodied sources.\n\nSome years ago I attended a series of seances in Liverpool. Nearly\nall the family were mediums of some sort. I was at this time very\nenthusiastic in my investigations. Consequently, the following incident\nwas not lost upon me. One evening the circle met, with the usual\nmembers. Shortly after the circle was formed, the daughter of the\nhouse went into the trance state. There were several controls, one\nof whom professed to be a man who, the day before, had been injured\non board one of Lambert & Holt\u2019s steamers, which lay in the Bramley\nMoore Dock. The \u201cspirit\u201d described the accident, how he was injured,\nand that he was carried to the hospital, and had \u201cpassed away.\u201d Owing\nto the suddenness of his death, he wished us to communicate with his\nfamily, and desired the circle to pray for him, etc. As near as I can\nrecollect, when asked for further particulars, name, family, there was\nno definite reply. The medium quivered, and a new control had taken\npossession of her. I, however, neither doubted the _bona-fides_ of the\nspirit nor the medium. I was especially interested in this control. I\nthought this time I had obtained a test of spirit identity. But alas\nfor the imperfection of human hopes, I was doomed to disappointment.\nI clung to the idea the spirit would come back again, and when he got\n\u201cmore power,\u201d we would get the particulars he wanted to give us. He did\nnot come back--and no wonder. Four months subsequently, I met the real\nSimon Pure in the flesh.\n\nTo explain more fully: On the day previous to the seance mentioned, I\nwas on board the newly-arrived steamer in question. The lumpers were\ngetting out the cargo. This man had been working on the top of the\ncargo in the main hold \u201chooking on.\u201d I paid no particular attention at\nthe time to him, but an hour after I heard a great outcry, and saw a\nrush of men to the main hold. When I turned back and got there, I found\nthis man senseless and bleeding.\n\nThe hooks had slipped off a bale while easing out some cargo. One of\nthem had caught the poor fellow in the mouth, and had torn up his cheek\nalmost to the right ear. He was to all appearance dying. I temporarily\ndressed his face, and the stevedore had him put on a stretcher and sent\nto the hospital. _I did not know his name or the hospital to which\nhe was removed._ That day and the next the whole scene was vividly\nimpressed on my mind. Hence that night the circumstances at the seance\nseem to me to be quite natural. Everything advanced was wonderfully\napposite and convincing. It was not till I saw the man, and conversed\nwith him, that my so-called test of spirit identity resolved itself\ninto so much thought or mind reading, so that, even presuming the\nmedium or sensitive was controlled by \u201ca spirit,\u201d there can be no doubt\nthe source of the spirit\u2019s information was purely mundane.\n\n\nAUTOMATIC AND PLANCHETTE WRITING,\n\nupon which so much reliance is placed, as furnishing evidence of\n\u201cdisembodied spirit control,\u201d presents similar difficulties. The\nrecording of forgotten incidents, and predicting possibilities in the\nfuture, are not beyond the powers of the innate human spirit--wholly\nand utterly unaided by spirit agency. Therefore automatic writing--when\ngenuine--does not necessarily furnish evidence of spirit control, not\neven when the person who writes believes, and honestly believes too, he\nis so controlled to write.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nSpiritualism.--_Continued._\n\n\nAutomatic writing is a phase of phenomenal Spiritualism most difficult\nto prove. In the majority of cases we are reduced to the awkward\nposition of accepting or rejecting the assertions of the persons who\ndeclare that the writing done by them is automatic--that is, written\nwithout thought and volition on their part. A close examination of\nthis claim may lead to the conclusion that automatic writing is not\nimpossible. Whether the controlling agent is \u201cthe spirit within us,\u201d or\na disembodied spirit, or both, is not a matter of much importance, if\nit is established, the writing is automatic. When messages are written\nwithout volition, in the handwriting of deceased persons, signed by\ntheir names, such messages must be treated on their merits. I have\nseen messages written in this way. I have seen messages written, not\nonly automatically, but _direct_. Some were written the reverse way,\nand could only be read by holding up to the light or to a mirror. The\ndirect writing was done in an exceedingly short time, two or three\nhundred words in less time than an expert phonographer could write\nthe same by the most expeditious efforts. The evidence in favour of\ntelepathic writing is not very strong, but of _direct_ writing there\nappears to be abundant proof.\n\nDr. Nichols, in his fascinating work, \u201cForty Years of American Life,\u201d\nwrites:--\u201cI knew a Methodist sailor in New York, a simple, illiterate,\nearnest man, who became what is called a test medium. He came to\nsee me in Cincinnati, and one evening we had also as visitors two\ndistinguished lawyers: one of them a brother of Major Anderson, \u201cthe\nhero of Fort Sumter;\u201d the other, a gentleman from Michigan, and one\nof the ablest lawyers practising in the Supreme Court of the United\nStates. I had brought into the drawing-room a heavy walnut table, and\nplaced it in the centre of the room. The medium sat down on one side\nof it, and the sharp Michigan lawyer, who was a stranger to us and the\nmedium, on the other. The medium placed his fingers lightly upon the\ntable. It tilted up under them, the two legs nearest him rising several\ninches. The lawyer examined the table, and tried to give it a similar\nmovement, but without success. There was a force and a consequent\nmovement he could not account for. There was no other person near the\ntable, there was no perceptible muscular movement, and in no way in\nwhich it could be applied to produce the effect.\n\n\u201cWhen there was no doubt on this point, the lawyer, at the\nsuggestion of the medium, wrote with careful secrecy on five bits\nof paper--rolling each up like a pea as he wrote--the names of five\ndeceased persons whom he had known. Then he rolled them about until\nhe felt sure that no one could tell one pellet from the other. Then,\npointing to them successively, the tipping table selected one, which\nthe gentleman, without opening, put in his waistcoat pocket, and threw\nthe rest into the fire.\n\n\u201cThe next step was to write the ages of these five persons at their\ndeath, on as many bits of paper, which were folded with the same care.\nOne of these was selected, and again, without being opened, deposited\nin the lawyer\u2019s pocket, which now contained a name and a number\nindicating age.\n\n\u201cWith the same precautions the lawyer then wrote, in the same way, on\nbits of paper, the places where these persons died, the diseases of\nwhich they died, and the dates of their decease, going through the\nsame process with each. He had then in his pocket five little balls of\npaper, each selected by a movement of the table, for which no one could\naccount.\n\n\u201cAt this moment the hand of the medium seized a pencil, and with\nsingular rapidity dashed off a few lines, addressed to the lawyer as\nfrom a near relative, and signed with a name which the medium very\ncertainly had never heard.\n\n\u201cThe lawyer, very much astonished, took from his pocket the five paper\nballs, unrolled them, spread them before him on the table, and read the\nsame name as the one on the written message, with the person\u2019s age, the\nplace and time of death, and the disease of which he died. They all\ncorresponded with each other and the message. No person had approached\nthe table, and neither lawyer nor medium had moved. It was in my own\nhouse, under a full gas light, and, so far as I could see, or can see\nnow, no deception was possible.\n\n\u201cThe written communication, which purported to come from a deceased\nrelative of the gentleman only expressed, in affectionate terms,\nhappiness at being able to give him this evidence of immortality.\u201d\n\nThis incident is introduced here in illustration of one out of many\nphases of mediumship known to spiritualists. We see here both psychic\nand physical powers-exercised, not generally recognised as possible.\nA massive table moved without physical leverage or exertion, and\n\u201cthoughts read,\u201d which formed the basis of the message. Trickery and\ncollusion in this instance are absolutely out of the question. The\nonly questions which remain to answer are: \u201cDid this medium possess in\nhimself the powers referred to? or did he possess them in consequence\nof being controlled by a disembodied spirit, as claimed by the\nmessage?\u201d Although the message in itself did not contain evidence of\nany other source of information than that emanating from the lawyer\u2019s\nown mind, we are forced to the conclusion that either the medium or\nthe spirit controlling the medium had power to read his mind, and of\nexerting what Professor Crookes and Sergeant Cox would call Psychic\nForce to move the table, and indicate what pellets to select. We have\nhere evidence of an intelligence capable of exercising an unknown force\nand of reading thoughts--that intelligence claimed to be a human spirit.\n\n\nTRANCE ADDRESSES.\n\nTrance and inspirational addresses, however, do not, in my opinion,\nfurnish much evidence of the reality of spirit control. We are\ninterested in the phenomena--taking for granted that these trance and\ninspirational states are genuine--although the evidence of external\nspirit control presented is often _nil_. The controls may or may\nnot be veritable realities to their own mediums--professional or\notherwise--but this is of little value, as evidence, to the public.\nI have known mediumistic and otherwise sensitive persons to be\ncontrolled--_i.e._, taken possession of by their reading. One gentleman\nswallowed large doses of Theodore Parker. In time he thought of\nParker, talked of Parker, and finally believed he was \u201cinspired\u201d by\nTheodore Parker. This gentleman had been a Unitarian before being a\nSpiritualist, and doubtless his mind had been broadened and brightened\nby his course of Theodore Parker; but beyond his own belief and the\nevident state of excitability he exhibited when speaking under this\nsupposed control, there was actually no evidence of \u201cspirit control\u201d\nworthy of notice.\n\nMrs. Cora L. V. Tappan-Richmond, an inspirational medium, from America,\ndelivered a series of remarkable addresses in this country about\ntwenty years ago. These were published by J. Burns, of Southampton\nRow, Holborn, W.C. A young gentleman from Brighton heard and read the\nlectures, and finally budded forth as \u201can inspirational speaker.\u201d For\na long time the public got nothing but the Tappan lectures diluted. We\nhad the same marvellous, even flow, similar processes of reasoning,\nfertility of illustration, and unbounded capacity for assertion. No one\ndare say this person was not inspired by the spirits. It might have\nbeen a way the spirits had of breaking in their instrument, but I had\na shrewd suspicion the young orator was controlled by his reading. I\ndon\u2019t know how many others have been influenced in this way. I have\nnoticed when a noted medium \u201ccame to town,\u201d delivered a number of\naddresses in public, or gave seances in private, immediately thereafter\na number of imitators professed--correctly or otherwise--principally\notherwise--to have been controlled by the guides, who were supposed\nto control the medium aforesaid, and that they would soon be able to\ngive addresses and manifestations, and what not. On the other hand, the\nnoted mediums averred \u201ctheir guides never controlled any other than\nthemselves,\u201d etc. The conscientious investigator is left to wonder\nhow much imitation, vanity, and self-deception have to do with such\nstatements.\n\nSome of the most perfect oratory, and some of the ablest and most\ncogent lectures and addresses I have ever listened to have been given\nby trance and inspirational mediums. It was stated, as evidence of\nspirit control, by those who professed to know, \u201cthat these mediums\ncould not reason and speak that way in their normal condition.\u201d\nAll of which is worthy of consideration. At the same time I saw\nnothing inherently impossible--judging from a physiological or\ncerebral-physiognomic standpoint--to prevent these persons delivering,\nunaided by spirit agency, the addresses referred to. That a person\nspeaks with greater ability, intelligence, or fluency in the trance\nstate compared with his known powers in the waking state, cannot,\nalone, be accepted as proof of spirit control. We have seen hypnotised\nsubjects do the same. But the reality, or otherwise, of spirit agency,\ncannot be estimated by the superiority, or otherwise, of the addresses\nand messages given.\n\nIn all public meetings and in seances where a medium is expected to\ngive trance and inspirational addresses the platform is \u201csupported\u201d\nor the chair surrounded by sympathisers, whose presence is esteemed\nfavourable to \u201cgood conditions\u201d--a \u201cnebulous term\u201d better understood\nby Spiritualists than the public. When the address is, as is often the\ncase, a miserable jumble of things inconsequential, old, experienced\nSpiritualists say it is owing \u201cto bad conditions,\u201d _i.e._, the\ninfluence of the audience on the speaker being conflicting and bad,\nhence the inconclusive rambling of the spirit\u2019s oration. Whether\nthis is the true explanation or not, whether the medium was really\ncontrolled or not, or the addresses successful or not, the fact remains\nthat Spiritualists admit that the \u201cmessage\u201d is not only \u201cseriously\nmodified,\u201d according to the channel (or medium) through whom it is\ngiven, but that it may be deflected and distorted by the influences\nof the audience to whom it is given. Whatever the real cause of the\nimperfect oratory, what is this but admitting _the thoughts transferred\nfrom the audience to the sensitive either make or mar the utterance_?\nIf spirit utterance is thus influenced, it becomes a difficult matter\nto decide how much of the original message has reached us as intended,\nand how unwise it is for some to have their lives directed by such\nuncertain counsel.\n\nThere are many persons so organised, that when they come in contact\nwith Spiritualism, (not knowing anything about clairvoyance,\npsychometry, thought-transference, thought-reading, etc.) are so\nconvinced by what they hear and see for the first time--so much out of\nthe ordinary run of their experience--the only way they can account for\nthe phenomena is, \u201cthat they must be the work of spirits, for no human\nbeing could tell what they knew, or what they wanted, save a spirit\nwho could read their thoughts.\u201d This is just where, I think, the error\ncreeps in. Those very revelations which they in ignorance so readily\nattribute as only possible coming from disembodied spirits, may be and\nare in some instances quite possible to man, unaided by any such agency.\n\nMany years ago I sat with Mr. David Duguid, the Glasgow painting\nmedium. I had a \u201cdirect spirit painting\u201d done. It was a correct--as\nfar as I can recollect--painting of a small farm-house and stead, in\nthe North of Ireland, where I as a child had been sent for my health.\nNeither Mr. Duguid nor the control claimed to possess any actual\nknowledge of me, or of the circumstances of my childhood. When I had an\nopportunity of attending the seance in question, I wondered if such a\nscene could be painted, and my wonder was greater when it was done.\n\nHere again, we have evidence of thought-transference. Whether Mr.\nDuguid, by some occult power, caused the direct painting to be\ndone--his own spirit doing it while his body was in the trance\nstate--or the painting was produced by one of his controls, I am not\nprepared to state. I am willing to state my belief that the painting\nwas not done by Duguid, the medium, or any other person present in the\nroom. One of the controls of the medium claimed to have painted the\nlittle sketch, and, truth to tell, it is not more difficult to accept\nthis hypothesis than \u201cthe spirit of the medium did it.\u201d In our ordinary\nexperience of human nature, we do not find it usual for men to give\ncredit to others--men or spirits--for what they are capable of doing\nand saying themselves.\n\n\nREFLECTIONS.\n\nIt is quite possible, seeing that out of this life into the next,\nthrough the portals of death, pass all sorts and conditions of human\nbeings, that in the next stage of existence--most closely allied\nto that in which we now live--mankind are not essentially different\nin character from what we find now. It is not, therefore, necessary\nto call in the agency of demons, as distinct from human spirits,\nto account for the phenomena of Spiritualism. If in artificial\nsomnambulism and the phenomena of the psychic state the operating agent\nis an embodied human spirit, it is possible the same human spirit,\nalbeit disembodied, may still retain power to control or influence\nother human beings.\n\nThere is another and more serious matter for consideration, concerning\nwhich our investigations of Spiritualism have thrown little or no\nlight--Spirit Identity. Not only do our friends depart and never\nreturn, and many have promised to do so. How far are we certain\nwhen spirits have returned? We may have been deceived by our own\nimpulsiveness, anxiety, and desire to feel and to know that \u201cthey are\nnot lost but gone before.\u201d Again, admitting the genuineness of physical\nphenomena, and conceding that all the communications are really made\nby disembodied spirits or intelligent beings like unto ourselves,\nwhat proof do we possess that they are really what they represent\nthemselves to be, or what they appear to be in spirit circles? \u201cA bad\nor mischievous spirit,\u201d says Dr. Nichols, \u201cmay, for aught we know,\npersonate our friends, _penetrate our secrets_, and deceive us with\nfalse representations.\u201d This is certainly worth thinking about. My\nobject in writing is not to turn my readers against Spiritualism,\nbut to get them to bring into the investigation judgment, not only\nto analyse evidence, but the capacity to \u201cjudge not according to\nappearance, but judge righteous judgment.\u201d It is no part of my\npurpose to deal with the history, ethics, or even the phenomena of\nSpiritualism. That has been well done by others. I merely write to show\nthat Spiritualism \u201chas something in it,\u201d and is of such importance\nthat it is neither to be lightly rejected on the one hand, nor are\nits phenomena at all times to be attributed to agency of disembodied\nspirits.\n\nSpiritualism is a many-sided subject, and too vast in its\nproportions to be dealt with here, and while I have no doubt that\nits public mediumistic exponents are no more perfect than the rest\nof humanity--much is laid at their door which may have a basis on\nfact--yet I do think they often suffer unjustly. Firstly, from the\ncries of the ignorant--educated or otherwise, matters little--who\ncharge them with fraud, simply because such people are ignorant of the\npsychic possibilities of man; and, secondly, from the admiring and\nthoughtless many who are prepared to accept the commonest of psychic\nphases instanter as evidence of \u201cdisembodied spirit\u201d presence and\npower. I have no doubt many phenomena are quite explicable on natural\ngrounds. Setting aside the possibilities of self-deception in untrained\nobservers, and of fraud in dishonest mediums, and of genuine phenomena\ntraceable to the powers of the \u201cspirit which is within each of us,\u201d\nthere remains, to my mind, abundant evidence of the existence of\n\u201cdiscarnate spirit,\u201d possessing all the attributes of the human spirit,\nas we know ourselves from the study of man as a psychological subject.\nUnfortunately, the very best evidence in favour of both \u201cembodied\u201d\nand \u201cdisembodied spirit\u201d is not of that kind which is available for\npublicity. Still, I hold, if there is evidence (psychological and\nphysical) for disembodied spirit in Spiritualism, I am also satisfied\nthere is abundant evidence for embodied spirit in the psychological\nexperiences of life, apart from what we know of Spiritualism.\n\nI may fitly close these reflections by quoting the testimony of that\nkeen scientific observer anent phenomenal Spiritualism--namely,\nCromwell F. Varley, Esq., F.R.S:--\u201cTwenty-five years ago I was a\nhard-headed unbeliever.... Spiritual phenomena, however, suddenly and\nquite unexpectedly was soon after developed in my own family.... This\nled me to inquire, and to try numerous experiments in such a way as to\npreclude, as much as circumstances would permit, the possibility of\ntrickery and self-deception.\u201d... He then details various phases of the\nphenomena which had come within the range of his personal experience,\nand continues:--\u201cOther and curious phenomena had occurred, proving\nthe existence (_a_) of forces unknown to science; (_b_) _the power of\ninstantly reading my thoughts_; (_c_) the presence of some intelligence\nor intelligences controlling those powers.... That the phenomena occur\nthere is overwhelming evidence, and it is too late to deny their\nexistence.\u201d\n\nThe Bibliography of Spiritualism is somewhat extensive. What books are\nbest to recommend to beginners is not an easy matter to decide. \u201cThe\nUse of Spiritualism,\u201d by the late S. C. Hall, F.S.A.,[G] however, will\nrepay perusal, and from the intellectual fitness, high moral tone, and\nspotless reputation of the author, this book may be safely recommended\nto all readers.\n\n\nTHEOSOPHY.[H]\n\nI have been frequently asked, What is Theosophy? A question more easily\nasked than answered, and in answering I may do even less justice to it\nthan to Spiritualism. Theosophy is an intellectual speculation, having\nfor its main object the supplanting of Christianity, by a Revised\nVersion of Hindoo Metempsychosis. An attempt to foist upon our western\nideas and exoteric habits of thought, the mysticisms and esoteric\nspeculations of the mystics of India and Japan. Modern Spiritualism is\nnot a religion. Theosophy not only claims to be a religion, but to be\n\u201cthe essential basis of all religions.\u201d Modern Spiritualism may have\nits faults, and be as imperfect as human souls are here or hereafter.\nBut we at least understand its faults and defects. The triple-crowned\nspiritual monarch--sitting on the seven hills of Rome--is not more\ninfallible than the principles which underlie Theosophy--with its\ndemi-gods, its Mahatmas, its adepts, miracle workers and wonders. To\nnot understand and be able to accept these principles at once, is to\nproclaim oneself an ignoramus. Theosophy is a strangely fascinating\nreligion for intellectual \u00e6sthetics.\n\nSpiritualism is at least susceptible of being observed and\ninvestigated, and the hypothesis of Spiritualism is naturally a\nreasonable deduction from the facts. Not so Theosophy, which is\nmerely a theory, an _a priori_ assumption pleasing to those with\nmore reflective and imaginative powers than capacity for practical\nobservation. Spiritualism has given facts to be examined and tested,\nTheosophy nothing save gigantic and baseless assertions. Its _astral\nshells_ and _elementals_ are like its _Mahatmas_, flimsy phantasies,\nless tangible than the ghost seen and described by Dr. Jessop, or\nvisions of the _shade of shades_, seen by psychometers. For these\nlatter we have at least a basis in psychic phenomena.\n\n_Re-incarnation_ is the back bone of Theosophy, and Karma its necessary\nadjunct. The _Kismet_ of Mahomet and the doctrines of election of\nCalvinism are not more inexorable than the _Karma_ of Theosophy.\n_Karma_ is a combination of earthly experiences and expiations of the\nsoul of man in time, during its everlasting process of incarnating and\nre-incarnating in search of Wisdom, the Eternal Reality, and the final\nextinction of all _individuality_ in the Nirvana. _Devachan_ is the\nintermediate state of oblivion, in which _personality_ is blotted out,\nand into which the spiritual soul, etc., enters between the periods of\nincarnation.\n\nTheosophy--the Wisdom of God religion--attempts to explain all the\ninequalities of life, the intellectual and moral differences in men,\nof sin and suffering, by its working theory, _Re-incarnation_, which\ndoubtless has many attractive features.\n\nThe phenomena Theosophists place so much reliance upon are the property\nof mankind--somnambulism, psychic consciousness, clairvoyance,\npsychometry, thought-transference, etc. The \u201cTheosophic miracles of\ncommunication with persons in other parts of the world\u201d are explicable\nby thought-transference, and in time may be no more inherently\nimpossible than telegraphy without wires and poles. The physical\nwonders of Theosophy, akin to those of Spiritualism, are attributed\nto _shells_, the _astral_ carcases of once embodied but now rapidly\ndissolving _personality_ of man, and _elementals_, fragmentary\nspirit imps or sprites, who up to the present have not been as yet\nincorporated in some incarnated human soul.\n\nAs to the ethics of Theosophy, brotherly kindness, charity, and\nself-sacrifice--most desirable virtues and _divine_ attainments--are\nneither new nor the special property of Theosophy. Such _divine_\nqualities and virtues are common to all religions and religious\nteaching, and if they ever reached their climax in human form, they did\nin the person of Jesus, the Lord\u2019s Christ. He was the embodiment of\nthese, and a living example for all time, long, long before unthinkable\nand \u201cungetatable\u201d Mahatmas were announced by Madame Blavatsky, or\nbelieved in by Mrs. Besant.\n\nTheosophists recognise seven distinct parts in man, _i.e._, four\ntransitory and three eternal. The transitory elements are--the physical\nbody, the vital principle, the _astral body_, and the _animal soul_.\nThese four comprise man\u2019s _personality_, and being transitory are\nperishable. Hence the _personality_ of man is annihilated at death. The\nthree eternal elements are--the _spirit_, the _spiritual soul_, and\nthe _mind_. These being imperishable form man\u2019s _individuality_, and\nconstitute the immortal part of man. This immortal part _incarnates_\nand _re-incarnates_ throughout innumerable personalities on this\nglobe, and the rest of the planets, beside having alternate periods\nof \u201crosy slumber\u201d and of activity. Our _individuality_ has no sex,\nconsequently we may be a little negro wench in one incarnation,\nan Egyptian monarch in another, a Nero in another, a John Knox in\nanother, and so on. Others may not progress, but sink from incarnation\nto incarnation, from a mother in Israel, to a Deeming in Australia,\nand, finally, to utter annihilation. Those good souls who _live the\nlife_, and perfect their souls through much suffering, will become as\none with \u201cthe Eternal Reality, the Rootless Root of all that was, or\nis, or ever shall be.\u201d The higher and ever advancing Theosophist may,\nhowever, stop short before he reaches the Nirvana, and elect to become\na Mahatma, or great soul, and reside on this or some other planet to\nexercise power and precipitate wisdom, by letters and otherwise, to\nthe world, through chosen adepts. The good Theosophist in this world\nand the next is surrounded by \u201cthought-forms,\u201d which influence him\nin his upward career. The Spiritualist has his departed friends for\nguides, and the Christian (Spiritualist) is comforted by \u201cmessengers\nsent forth to minister to them that are heirs of salvation.\u201d I don\u2019t\nknow that \u201cthought-forms\u201d administering counsel to a spirit having no\n_personality_ is an improvement on the old ideas.\n\nIt is impossible to do justice to this Wisdom-Religion with its\norders, grades, and bewildering phraseology. It is a fancy religion\nfor the intellectual, without a personal God or a personal soul. Its\ncircles are masonic lodges for the rich. In no sense is it a religion\nto meet the wants of man as man, like that founded on the life and\ndeath of Jesus Christ. I do not pretend to explain Theosophy, for the\ntask is beyond me. It is a religion intended for those who realise they\nare divine sparks of the Rootless Root, and not for the common people,\nwho are incapable of understanding a system of morals thus veiled in\nallegory, and illustrated by signs and symbols. Amid the perplexities\nof many words, we learn that Theosophy teaches what St. Paul indicates\nas the divine order of morals by the words: \u201cWhatsoever a man soweth,\nthat shall he also reap.\u201d To work out one\u2019s own salvation is as old as\nthe race. We may all be Theosophists without knowing it, as we don\u2019t\nknow who we are, what we were, or who we are going to be, such is\n_Karma_. Spiritualism and Theosophy are only referred to here seeing\nhow largely the phenomena on which they are based, is explained by \u201cHow\nto Thought-Read.\u201d\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[A] In this way evil habits, such as erotic mania, opium eating,\ndipsomania, etc., may be cured. When the strength of the vice and\nthe deterioration of the brain and body are such as to undermine the\nwill of the patient, hypnotism, properly employed, may be used and\nrecognised as a powerful and legitimate curative agent.\n\n[B] \u201cPhrenological Annual,\u201d 1892. Extract from article by Dr. Samuel\nEadon, M.D., M.A., LL.D. and Ph.D., etc., Aberdeen and Edinburgh\nUniversities.\n\n[C] \u201cSpirits Before our Eyes,\u201d page 215. By W. H. Harrison, 1879.\n\n[D] Dr. Joseph Rhodes Buchanan has been Dean and Professor in several\nAmerican universities. As far back as 1830 he was Professor of\nMedicine in Transylvania University. In the year 1841 he made several\nimportant discoveries in cerebral psychology, which he communicated\nto the American and to the Edinburgh Phrenological Journals. These\ndiscoveries are elaborated in his unique system of Anthropology, and\nare published in his works--\u201cTherapeutic Sarcognomy,\u201d \u201cPsychometry,\u201d\n\u201cThe Dawn of a New Civilisation,\u201d \u201cSystem of Anthropology,\u201d and \u201cThe\nNew Education--which can be obtained through my publishers, or direct\nfrom myself.\u201d\n\n[E] Thought (says Professor Houston) is accompanied by molecular\nvibrations in the grey matter of the brain, and these brain molecules,\nlike everything else, are immersed in and interpenetrated by ether;\nthis being so, their vibrations must set up wave-motions in the ether,\nand these must spread out from the brain in all directions. Further,\nthese brain-waves, or thought waves, being thus sent out into space,\nwill produce some phenomena, and, reasoning by analogy we may expect\nthat--as in the case of sound-waves--sympathetic vibrations will be\nset up in bodies similar to that which generates the waves, if those\nbodies are attuned to respond. Again, reasoning by analogy, we may\nexpect--as in electric resonance--that such oscillations would be set\nup as are found when electric waves are sent out and, meeting a circuit\nin consonance with them, set up in that circuit oscillations like their\nown.\n\nIn view of these facts, which are well ascertained, he (Professor\nHouston) considers that it does not seem improbable that a\nbrain engaged in intense thought should act as a centre for\nthought-radiation, nor that these radiations, proceeding outwards in\nall directions, should affect other brains on which they fall, provided\nthat these other brains are tuned to vibrate in unison with them.\n\nLight waves are etheric vibrations, and it would seem that these\nbrain-waves should \u201cpartake of the nature of light.\u201d If so, why should\nit not be possible to obtain, say, by means of a lens, a photographic\nimpression of them?\n\nSuch a thought-record suitably employed might be able to awaken at any\nsubsequent time in the brain of a person submitting himself to its\ninfluence thoughts identical to those recorded.--_English Mechanic._\n\n[F] The _contact_ is usually made by the agent taking the wrist, or by\nplacing his hand on the brow of the reader.\n\n[G] \u201cThe Use of Spiritualism.\u201d By S. C. Hall, F.S.A., late Editor of\nthe _Art Journal_, author of \u201cThe Retrospect of a Long Life,\u201d etc.\nPrice, 1s., Post Free, 1s. 1d. Hay Nisbet & Co., London and Glasgow.\n\n[H] \u201cWhat is Theosophy?\u201d By Walter R. Old, F.T.S. Price, 1s., Post\nFree, 1s. 2d., gives an excellent outline of this interesting subject.\nHay Nisbet & Co., London and Glasgow.\n\n\n\n\n  TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTE\n\n\n  Most of the inconsistent hyphenation has been retained as\n  in the original, like \u2018mind reading\u2019 and \u2018mind-reading\u2019,\n  \u2018supersensitivity\u2019 and \u2018super-sensitivity\u2019, etc.\n\n  Obvious punctuation errors have been silently corrected.\n\n  Original spelling and grammar have been preserved except for the\n  following:\n\n  page 5: \u201cthe ordinary lauguage\u201d changed to \u201cthe ordinary language\u201d\n\n  page 23: \u201crender she sight\u201d changed to \u201crender the sight\u201d\n\n  page 29: \u201cStanhope, Macclesfield, Charlville\u201d changed to\n  \u201cStanhope, Macclesfield, Charleville\u201d\n\n  page 29: \u201cCamillie Flammarion\u201d changed to \u201cCamille Flammarion\u201d\n\n  page 29: \u201cDr. Jykell and Mr. Hyde\u201d changed to \u201cDr. Jekyll and Mr.\n  Hyde\u201d\n\n  page 30: \u201cand discribed a funeral\u201d changed to \u201cand described a\n  funeral\u201d\n\n  page 31: \u201cs capable of\u201d changed to \u201cis capable of\u201d\n\n  page 42: \u201center the first doo\u201d changed to \u201center the first door\u201d\n\n  page 45: \u201cShe can also indentify\u201d changed to \u201cShe can also\n  identify\u201d\n\n  page 54: \u201cwhy it hould not\u201d changed to \u201cwhy it should not\u201d\n\n  page 73: \u201cfrom our own sensorums\u201d changed to \u201cfrom our own\n  sensoriums\u201d\n\n  page 75: \u201cfollowing by like feelings\u201d changed to \u201cfollowed by\n  like feelings\u201d\n\n  page 77: \u201cthe brig in a dorry\u201d changed to \u201cthe brig in a dory\u201d\n\n  page 77: \u201cthe dorry was again\u201d changed to \u201cthe dory was again\u201d\n\n  page 79: \u201cThe coffin, at anyrate\u201d changed to \u201cThe coffin, at any\n  rate\u201d\n\n  page 81: \u201chappened her\u201d changed to \u201chappened to her\u201d\n\n  page 84: \u201cI notice a solitary\u201d changed to \u201cI noticed a solitary\u201d\n\n  page 118: \u201cThis gentlemen had\u201d changed to \u201cThis gentleman had\u201d\n\n  page 125: \u201cunderstand it faults\u201d changed to \u201cunderstand its\n  faults\u201d\n\n  page 125: \u201celection of Calvanism\u201d changed to \u201celection of\n  Calvinism\u201d\n\n  page 126: \u201cDevachian is the intermediate\u201d changed to \u201cDevachan is\n  the intermediate\u201d\n\n  Footnote A: \u201csuch as errotic mania\u201d changed to \u201csuch as erotic\n  mania\u201d","title":"How to thought-read : $b A manual of instruction in the strange and mystic in daily life, psychic phenomena, including hypnotic, mesmeric, and psychic states, mind and muscle reading, thought transference, psychometry, clairvoyance, and phenomenal spiritualism","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":36707}