THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DECEPTION. 153 



can not be exaggerated. It is this that makes all the difference be- 

 tween the seance swarming with miracles, any one of which com- 

 pletely revolutionizes the principles of science, and the tedious 

 dreariness of a blank sitting varied only by childish utterances 

 and amateurish sleight of hand. Scientific observers often report 

 that the very same phenomena that were utterly beyond suspicion 

 in the eyes of believers, are to unprejudiced eyes so apparent 

 " that there was really no need of any elaborate method of inves- 

 tigation " ; close observation was all that was required. Again, 

 Mr. Davies, of the English Society for Psychical Research, has 

 experimentally shown that, of equally good observers, the one 

 who is informed of the general modus operandi by which such a 

 phenomenon as " slate-writing " is produced, will make much less 

 of a marvel of it than one who is left in doubt in this regard. 



With these all-powerful magicians, an expected result, and the 

 willingness to credit a marvel clearly in mind, let us proceed from 

 those instances in which they have least effect up to the point 

 where they form the chief factor. First come a host of conjuring 

 tricks performed on the stage in slightly modified forms, but which 

 are presented as spiritualistic. So simple a trick as scratching a 

 name on one's hand with a clean pen dipped in water, and then 

 rubbing the part with the ashes of a bit of paper containing the 

 name, thus causing the ashes to cling to the letters formed on the 

 hand and reveal the mystic name, has been offered as a proof of 

 spirit agency. Whenever an article disappears or rapidly changes 

 its place, the spiritualist is apt to see the workings of hidden spir- 

 its ; and over and over again have the performances of professional 

 conjurers been declared to be spiritual in origin in spite of all pro- 

 test from the conjurers themselves. Here everything depends 

 upon the possession of certain technical knowledge ; judging with- 

 out such knowledge is apt to be mere prejudice. Another very 

 large class of phenomena consists of those in which the performer 

 is placed in a position apparently inconsistent with his taking any 

 active part in the production of the phenomena — rope-tying tests, 

 cabinet seances, the appearance of a " spirit-hand " from behind a 

 screen, locking the performer in a cage, sewing him in a bag, and 

 so on. The psychologist has very little interest in these ; their so- 

 lution depends upon the skill with which knots can be picked, 

 locks unfastened, and the other devices by which security can be 

 simulated. The chief interest in such performances is the histor- 

 ical one, for these have done perhaps more than anything else 

 to convince believers of the truth of spiritualism. Here, where 

 everything depends upon the security of the fastenings (for once 

 free, the medium can produce messages from the spirit-land lim- 

 ited only by his ingenuity and boldness), it might be supposed 

 that all possible precautions had been taken against undoing 



