The Problems of Psychical Research Part 5

Again, in the case of telepathy. Once the facts were proved, the fascinating study of the laws and causes would begin. Under what mental, physical, and, possibly, spiritual conditions does telepathy operate?

What is the best mental condition of the agent? of the percipient? What would be the effect of hypnotic trance? What of dreams? (These are not original ideas, but they have never been followed out as they should be, and might be, if the subject were pursued scientifically as other questions in science are.) Again, might not telepathy be facilitated if we chose individuals of the same general temperament? If we chose two individuals to whom the same chord on the piano appealed (say the common chord of G minor or C sharp), and this chord were struck repeatedly, might not telepathic transmission be facilitated under such conditions?

If both subjects were hypnotized, and the agent were told to "will"

certain figures, etc., might not the percipient receive them more easily? If both agent and percipient were placed in a strong magnetic or high-tension electric field, might not this in some way influence communication? Again, these are but a very few of the experiments which might be tried, once telepathy became an accepted fact.

In the case of clairvoyance the field is even greater, but here more original work has been done, owing largely to the fact that many of the experiments have been conducted upon subjects in the hypnotic trance, and hence more fully resembled "laboratory experiments." Still, much remains to be done, particularly in the realm of the _explanation_ of clairvoyance, and in the investigation of the neural and general physiological concomitants of the condition.

In the field of "thought-" and "spirit-photography," the possibilities of research and experimentation are obvious and almost unlimited. The recent researches of Dr. Ochorowicz in "radiographs," and of Commandant Darget in thought-photography and the so-called V-rays, are of extreme importance, if true. Here is a field which any one may invade; and, with the aid of a camera and specially sensitive plates, might accomplish really valuable and striking results. Very rarely have attempts been made to photograph apparitions (probably because they were too fleeting and unexpected), and the forms at seances have been photographed on only a few occasions. The human "aura"--granting it exists--should certainly be capable of being photographed, under certain conditions, as well as the radiation said to issue from magnets, crystals, etc., as explained by Reichenbach.

The human "aura" itself should be made the subject of special study.

Here is a perfectly tangible thing, so to speak, which physicists can work on to their hearts' content, without becoming "contaminated" by the general run of psychic manifestations! Is the aura a form of physical radiation? Does it affect the atmosphere? Can it be photographed? Is it connected with the phenomena of exteriorization of sensitivity or motivity? Will it affect the galvanometer needle, or other delicate electrical or physical instruments? Is it connected with the "astral" or "etheric body"? What is its condition when the subject is asleep? Can it be altered at will? Is it affected by pa.s.sing a high-tension current through the body of the subject? (We know that these high-tension currents will themselves create an electric aura around the body.) What becomes of the aura after death; and what changes, if any, does it undergo at the moment of death? Such are a few of the questions which the psychic student might ask himself, and which certainly call for solution.

Once more: is "psychometry" a fact? If objects can retain certain "influences" within them, what is their nature, and how are they retained? How does the sensitive perceive these impressions? Is there not a connection between these phenomena and haunted houses? or between the "charging-up" of a table or planchette board before it proceeds to answer questions and behave in the manner it is often reported to do?

What is the nature of the "cold breeze" which is so often experienced, not only at seances, but during very many psychic phenomena, both of the experimental and spontaneous types, in all parts of the world? Is it a physical breeze, or is it purely "psychical"? Could it be collected and a.n.a.lysed, as was suggested in the case of the cold breeze issuing from the scar on Eusapia Palladino's forehead? What is its source? And what is its object? On this subject alone much suggestive and valuable research might be undertaken.

Take the simple phenomena of _raps_. What produces them? What is the bond between the hand of the medium which makes a gesture in the direction of the table, and the table itself? What is the nature of the physical impact upon the table? Are these raps due to exteriorized vital force? If so, does this energy exude from the nerve termini, or is it connected only with the etheric body or double? Can these raps be controlled at will, or directed and controlled when the subject is under hypnosis? Can this energy be directed at will? Could it not impress delicate physical instruments? Might not a connection be thus established between these phenomena and the impressions of hands and faces, etc., occasionally seen in the presence of Eusapia and other mediums?

Then the phenomena of materialization! Here is a wide field for study indeed! How can such an organism be built up? Out of what materials is it constructed? What degree of density can be attained? What is the power which manipulates this matter? and what is the structure of the matter itself? How can _will_ plastically mould matter in s.p.a.ce? On what framework, so to speak, is the body constructed? What is the nature of the vital drain upon the medium and the sitters? What is the nature of the intelligence animating the materialized figure? What is the connection between so-called "thought-forms" and materialized phantoms?

These are but some of the questions which would suggest themselves, and call for solution when "psychics" is recognized as a legitimate science, as it surely will be one day. These are problems mostly on the physical plane; but the psychological problems are just as many and just as alluring! I have referred to some of these elsewhere; and would content myself with again saying, that only when the _facts_ of psychical research are recognized will their real, scientific study begin.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The copy of this book in my possession is the copy once owned by Dr.

Hodgson--having his name in the front, and the date, April 1881. This pa.s.sage is marked with a thick red pencil stroke, showing the importance which Dr. Hodgson attached to the point here made.

[2] Might not this account for the fact that trance or "spirit control"

practically never occurs during the hours of sleep? Even "obsessed"

patients find peace and rest during their sleeping hours. Is this not, in all probability, due to the fact that the mind is, at such times, forced in upon itself; as it were--instead of being directed outwards--away from the centre of being, as it is daily, during conscious life? It is probably nature's protective device--ensuring the stability and integrity of the psychic "self."

[3] Kilner, _The Human Atmosphere_. I myself have conducted a number of interesting experiments in this direction, which I hope to make public at a later date.

[4] Townsend, _Facts in Mesmerism_, p. 215.

[5] _Metaphysick_, bk. iii. ch. v.

[6] _Body and Mind_, pp. 299-300.

[7] _Eusapia Palladino and her Phenomena_, pp. 293-301.

[8] _Vitality, Fasting and Nutrition_, p. 41. For discussions of this question from a variety of different points of view, see _Life and Matter_, by Lodge; _The Riddle of the Universe_, Haeckel; _The Correlation of Spiritual Forces_, by Hartmann; "Consciousness and Force," _Met. Mag._, Oct. 1910; the article on "Consciousness and Energy," by Professor Montague, in _Essays in Honour of William James_, and pp. 283-5 of _The New Realism_, etc.

[9] Bulwer Lytton, with his usual remarkable foresight in things psychic, clearly perceived this. In his story, "The Haunters and the Haunted," he says: "In all that I had witnessed, and indeed in all the wonders which the amateurs of mystery in our age record as facts, a material human agency is always required. On the Continent you will still find magicians who a.s.sert that they can raise spirits. a.s.sume for a moment that they a.s.sert truly, still the living, material form of the magician is present, and he is the material agency by which, from some const.i.tutional peculiarities, certain strange phenomena are represented to your natural senses.... Accept again as truthful the tales of spirit manifestation in America, produced by no discernible hand--articles of furniture moved about without visible human agency--or the actual sight and touch of hands to which no bodies seem to belong--still there must be found the "medium," or living being, with const.i.tutional peculiarities capable of obtaining these signs. In fine, in all such marvels, supposing even that there is no imposture, there must be a human being like ourselves, by whom, or through whom, the effects presented to human beings are produced."

[10] It should be said, however, that--apart from its innate difficulties--this theory has recently received its death-blow by the discovery of the fact that s.p.a.ce is filled with ultra-violet rays, which would soon prove fatal to all forms of life.

[11] See, especially, Duncan, _Some Chemical Problems of Today_, pp.

63-83 and 97-104.

[12] "Rector" is the name of Mrs. Piper's chief control and amanuensis, during her trance sittings.

CHAPTER II

INVESTIGATING PSYCHICAL PHENOMENA WITH SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS

It is generally conceded that Aristotle possessed the greatest single intellect the world has ever known; yet any schoolboy today knows more of the structure of our universe than did Aristotle! The reason for this is that Science has more fully penetrated the secrets of Nature, and we now know approximately the const.i.tution of matter and a good deal concerning life and mind. How has this progress been possible? Only in one way. Improvement in the _mechanical instruments_ by means of which we study Nature. We might "speculate" as to the const.i.tution of matter for a thousand years, but we should never have arrived at our present positive _knowledge_ had it not been for the delicate and sensitive instruments which are today in the hands of the physicist and the chemist, and employed by him in his laboratory.

Doubtless much the same law will be found to apply in the realm of "psychics." Until we can apply definite "laboratory methods," and study psychical phenomena by means of physical instruments far more delicate than our senses, it is probable that the present state of things will continue to exist; but it is my firm belief that, were a laboratory fitted up with physical and electrical apparatus, suitable for this work, and if we could by their aid study a promising case of "psychic"

or "mediumistic" phenomena, we should (within ten years or so) arrive at some definite conclusions! We should then know something about the _laws_ and conditions under which telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis (the movement of objects without contact), et cetera, operate, and not until this is done, I believe, will such positive conclusions be reached.

Of course the reader may object, just here, that I am a.s.suming such phenomena to be _true_--while the tendency of many present-day scientists is to regard them as unreal, hallucinatory, and the result of fraud. I cannot spare the time in the present place to argue the point.

While I admit freely that a very large percentage of such phenomena _are_ so produced, and while I freely admit that probably 98 per cent of so-called "mediums" are fraudulent; I am equally emphatic in declaring that a residuum of genuine phenomena exists--that supernormal manifestations _do_ occur, and that every one who investigates _carefully enough_ and _long enough_ will find them. This has been not only my own experience, but that of every person who has investigated this subject with an impartial mind for any length of time. As Sir Oliver Lodge said, in writing of this very question:

"The result of my experience is to convince me that certain phenomena, usually considered abnormal, _do_ belong to the order of Nature, and as a corollary from this, that these phenomena ought to be investigated and recorded by persons and societies interested in natural knowledge."

Based on this conviction, Sir Oliver Lodge wrote, as far back as 1894, in a paper ent.i.tled "On Some Appliances Needed for a Psychical Laboratory":

"If the investigations are to go on easily and well, special appliances must be contrived and arranged conveniently for use, precisely as is done in any properly fitted laboratory. It has already doubtless been realized that one of the needs of the future is a _psychical laboratory_, specially adapted for all kinds of experimental psychology and psycho-physics...."

Sir Oliver Lodge suggested at the time, among other necessary appliances, a delicate registering balance,--so adjusted that it would record the medium's weight, unknown to her, at all times during the seance--the fluctuations in weight, if any, to be recorded on a revolving drum. Means ought also to be provided for studying the temperature, pulse, muscular exertion, breathing, etc., etc. The lighting of the room should be carefully attended to and capable of the slightest gradation. Means should be provided for obtaining moving pictures of the seance from without the room, unknown to the medium.

Were the sittings held in complete darkness, these photographs could be obtained by means of ultra-violet light, with which the room might be flooded. In addition to these devices, we may add others--such as X-ray tubes, high-frequency currents and a delicate field of electric force,--while instruments for testing the ionization of the air (if it exists) in the immediate vicinity of the medium, during a seance, should also be employed,--together with the more strictly psychical instruments and devices which have been utilized of late years.

Electrical apparatus _has_, in fact, been utilized on several occasions to test so-called "physical mediums" in the past. Italian investigators, particularly, have excelled in this. In a series of seances conducted in Naples, the following apparatus was employed. (Fig. 1.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1]

A telegraphic key (b) was connected by wires (a,a) to a battery (d) and to two screws, connecting them with an electro-magnet (e) to the opposite end of which was attached a needle. The point of the needle touched a revolving drum (f), with a smoked surface, driven by two interlacing, cogged wheels. The whole of this registering apparatus was enclosed under a gla.s.s bell-jar (g). The telegraphic key itself (b) was covered by a cardboard box (c). The "powers" manifesting were asked to press the telegraphic key _without_ tearing the cardboard box (that is, _through_ it). When the key was depressed, this would be instantly communicated to the electro-magnet, and cause the needle to oscillate,--these oscillations being marked upon the smoked surface of the revolving drum. A number of successful tests were conducted by means of this apparatus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2]

A variation of this was then employed (Fig. 2). A cylinder filled with water (a) was connected by means of tubing (b) to a U-tube, or manometer (c), filled with mercury. Upon the further side of this tube floated a bent wire (e) inserted into a small cork. The point of this wire, again, was so adjusted as to come into contact with the smoked surface of a revolving drum (f), driven as before. The top of the cylinder (a) was covered with a rubber cap (d), and this whole apparatus was inserted under a wooden box (g) having a cloth top.

Now, if the rubber covering (d) were pressed upon, this would force some of the water, in a, along the tube, b, and the added air-pressure would depress the column of mercury in the manometer, causing the floating needle to rise on the opposite side, and scratch upon the revolving drum. Fig. 3 shows some of the tracings which were obtained in this way--the force acting through the cloth top, g.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig 3]

The instruments thus recorded a _definite physical, intelligent force_.

It may interest my readers to know that, at the time of his death, M.

Curie,--who had been completely convinced of the reality of these phenomena,--was busy devising an instrument which would register and direct _psychic power_ liberated from the body of a physical medium when in trance.

Dr. Imoda, the a.s.sistant of Professor Mosso, has also conducted a number of experiments in the discharge of an electroscope, by means of "rays"

issuing from the medium's body. It was found that, if the medium held her fingers at a distance of an inch or so from the k.n.o.b of the electroscope, some form of energy, apparently _radio-active_ in character, issued from her fingers, and _gradually discharged the electroscope_. This is the "radiation" or "emanation" issuing from the body, which has been studied extensively by students of the occult. Dr.

Imoda concluded--as the result of his experiments--that "_the radiations of radium, the cathode radiations of the Crookes' tube, and mediumistic radiations are fundamentally the same_."