PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 



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PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 



Much reliance has been placet!, by those who 

 accept the evidence, upon the accuracy of de- 

 tails, some seemingly unknown to the percipi- 

 ent until the moment of the premonition or 

 apparition. Some favor the hypothesis of a 

 spirit communication to account for the reports 

 as rendered. Evidence of this type depends 

 wholly upon the accuracy, scientific habits of 

 observation and freedom from bias of the re- 

 corders. A scientific view must conclude, in 

 view of the contradiction which such a view 

 nts to known action of physical and men- 

 tal agencies, and in view of the extreme uncer- 

 tainty of the evidence and of the negative re- 

 sult of experimental proofs, that the case is not 

 proven and inherently weak. The census of hal- 

 lucinations, upon which some of the conclusions 

 are based, suggests at once the tendency of fa- 

 vorable cases to be reported, and has established 

 that such phenomena are by no means uncom- 

 mon in normal individuals. That there may be 

 a tendency among those of nervously unstable 

 temperament to invite or favor such phenomena 

 and to find satisfaction in attaching significance 

 to them, is conclusively established. 



An interesting and more decisive branch of 

 investigation includes the physical phenomena, 

 occurring mostly in the presence of spiritual- 

 istic mediums, such as the mysterious move- 

 ments of objects, the writing on slates appar- 

 ently out of control of the medium, answering 

 of questions in sealed envelopes, materializa- 

 tions, spirit photographs, etc. (see SPIRITUAL- 

 . Substantially all of these were found to 

 be fraudulent, and some questionable cases 

 have since been exposed. The investigation has 

 not been without result in showing the wide 

 prevalence of a willingness to deceive (quite 

 apart from self-deception), and particularly in 

 showing how slight a departure from accuracy 

 of description is sufficient to make a miracle 

 out of a plain tale, and what expert knowledge 

 is required to detect the fraud in operation. 



The investigation of haunted houses, espe- 

 cially the cumulative account of different ob- 

 servers, is too complex to be summarized. It 

 has convinced some, and seems inconclusive 

 and suggestive of delusion to others. The per- 

 sistence of such accounts even in skeptical days 

 is not without interest. 



Of a different type are the revelations of 

 mediums in a trance state, usually of affairs of 

 deceased individuals or of living ones, seem- 

 ingly beyond their knowledge by any ordinary 

 channels; often private matters of an intimate 

 character, upon which reticence is most natural, 



are thus revealed. It is to be noted that such 

 revelations are made by a few individuals, often 

 under questionable circumstances, involving at 

 once the suspicion of lack of good faith or of 

 hysterical varieties of deception. The largest 

 mass of testimony has accumulated through the 

 sittings of Mrs. Piper, whose method is to go 

 into a trancelike state and answer questions as 

 well as offer information both as to the living 

 and the departed, seemingly beyond the possi- 

 bility of ascertainment by Mrs. Piper herself. 

 Communications with those recently departed 

 and interested in the reality of such phenomena 

 are recorded. Spirit communication has been 

 accepted by some investigators as the only ade- 

 quate hypothesis; while others regard telepathy 

 as adequate. It is clear that, unlike material 

 phenomena which can be examined and ex- 

 posed, this type of evidence depends wholly 

 upon the cooperation of the "medium," who as 

 a rule has been unable or unwilling to furnish 

 such enlightenment. Under these circumstances 

 and in view of the baffling complexity of the 

 evidence and the openings which it offers for 

 all manner of deception, no other value can be 

 attached to it than that of an interesting psy- 

 chological manifestation. 



The problems of psychical research have in- 

 cluded a miscellaneous group of exhibitions of 

 unusual powers, of which "crystal gazing" is an 

 example. The ability of favored individuals to 

 promote subconscious images and by this means 

 to project in pictures seen in the surface of a 

 glass ball incidents seemingly beyond the nor- 

 mal knowledge, is unmistakably established. 

 Those convinced of the telepathic or similar 

 action see in these revelations additional proofs 

 of their views. That the action falls in line 

 with what is known of subconscious mecha- 

 nisms is the more scientific hypothesis. While 

 the source of the images cannot be traced in 

 many instances, a generous allowance for the 

 intricacy of mental action will bring the results 

 within the normal behavior of subconscious in- 

 telligence. The same applies to "automatic 

 writing" in which the medium of expression is 

 either a pen or pencil or the spelling out of 

 sentences letter by letter on a board (ouija 

 board) on which the letters are alphabetically 

 arranged, and the hand of the agent rests upon 

 a small tripod which moves and rests upon one 

 letter after another. Poems, narrative, answers 

 to questions have been thus revealed. 



In reviewing the wide range of the problems 

 of psychical research it becomes evident that 

 most of them pertain to the same powers as 



