PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 759 



fortunate that the popular interest in " spirits " causes attention 

 to be focussed on the Society's activities in the survival direc- 

 tion ; for it is quite possible that its investigations in, e.g., 

 hypnotism, multiple personality, etc., if pushed farther, might 

 yield data more important to our conceptions of human 

 personality than the more immediately attractive phenomena 

 of definitely spiritistic type. Anyhow, let me emphasise the 

 fact that the Society exists to investigate, without prejudice, 

 all apparently supernormal faculty, not merely those alleged 

 phenomena which point directly to survival. The Society has 

 no creed, except perhaps the belief that there is something 

 worth investigating ; and consequently no one has any right to 

 speak for it as regards the conclusions reached — the facts and 

 theories which are or are not established. Each member must 

 speak for himself; and, as I am perhaps a fairly average member, 

 half-way between Dr. Bramwell who does not believe in telepathy, 

 and Dr. Ochorowicz who (after long and laborious investigation) 

 has arrived at belief in various queer telergic and teleplastic 

 phenomena, it may not be out of place if I indicate my own 

 attitude towards the main features of the subject. 



Telepathy 



I believe that communication between mind and mind, 

 through channels other than the known sensory ones, is a fact. 

 My belief is based on the voluminous and carefully recorded 

 evidence in the forty volumes of Proceedings and Journal S.P.R., 

 plus my own experience. I have carried out long series of experi- 

 ments with distant friends — not professional mediums, and not 

 spiritualists — with impressive if not conclusive results. There 

 is always a mixture of hit and miss in these experiments, and 

 it is difficult to know how much to allow for chance coincidence. 

 However, by using a shuffled pack of cards, and drawing one 

 for each attempt, the chances can be mathematically determined. 

 It may here be mentioned that, in a series carried out by Sir 

 Oliver Lodge, the odds can be shown to be ten millions to one 

 against the results being due to chance. 1 Mr. Shelton may say 

 that telepathy is " not proven," but I think that in certain walks 

 of life such odds as ten millions to one would indicate what I 

 believe is known as a " dead cert." 



1 Survival of Matt, p. 65. 

 49 



