CHAP. xvir. HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 211 



of future events, phantoms, voices or knockings, visible 

 or audible to numerous individuals, bell-ringing, the 

 playing on musical instruments, stone-throwing, and 

 various movements of solid bodies, all without human 

 contact or any discoverable physical cause still occur 

 among us as they have occurred in all ages. These are 

 now being investigated, and slowly but surely are proved 

 to be realities, although the majority of scientific men 

 and of writers for the press still ignore the cumulative 

 evidence, and ridicule the inquirers. These phenomena, 

 being comparatively rare, are as yet known to but a 

 limited number of persons; but the evidence for their 

 reality is already very extensive, and it is absolutely cer- 

 tain that, during the coming century, they too will be 

 accepted as realities by all impartial students and by the 

 majority of educated men and women. 



The great lesson to be learnt from our review of this 

 subject is, distrust of all a priori judgments as to facts; 

 for the whole history of the progress of human knowl- 

 edge, and especially of that department of knowledge 

 now known as psychical research, renders it certain that, 

 whenever the scientific men or popular teachers of any 

 age have denied, on a priori grounds of impossibility or 

 opposition to the " laws of nature," the facts observed 

 and recorded by numerous investigators of average 

 honesty and intelligence, these deniers have always been 

 wrong. 1 



Future ages will, I believe, be astonished at the vast 

 amount of energy and ignorance displayed by so many of 



1 For a discussion of this point, with illustrative cases, see my 

 "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism," pp. 17-29. 



