Psychic Science 579 



ence must rest upon the narrator. No need to adduce any ex- 

 amples: ghost stories of this class are almost too well known; 

 they are difficult to remember in detail, though absurdly easy to 

 invent. 



Is there any rational hypothesis that can be thrown out for 

 the explication of such phantoms as these, provided they establish 

 themselves as facts? Does the possible independence of or un- 

 usual connection between mind and matter the occasional free- 

 dom of the mind from the body at all assist in such explication? 

 On the whole and tentatively it does, along one or two channels. 



Clairvoyance or Lucidity 



First along the line of clairvoyance or lucidity. A critical 

 examination of mediumistic powers has shown that occasionally 

 they can extract information, not only from people's minds, by 

 what we assume to be a process of telepathy whatever that is 

 but also occasionally from commonplace objects. That they can 

 decipher, for instance, what is in a sealed letter or packet, or 

 read part of a page of a closed book. This "reading with the pit 

 of the stomach," as it was long ago called, or reading with the 

 top of the head, or with the fingers or some other part of the 

 body, has sometimes been attributed to hyperresthesia, as if parts 

 of the skin not usually sensitive to visual impression become so 

 under exceptional conditions, or as if the sense of sight became 

 incredibly penetrating and efficient. The difficulties about such 

 a semi-physical theory are insuperable, and it is better to affix 

 the term clairvoyance or lucidity to the phenomenon, without any 

 attempt at explanation in the first instance, and continue to scru- 

 tinise intelligently the facts. 



A well-known instance, detailed by the great philosopher 

 Kant, is when Swedenborg was aware of a fire in Stockholm, 200 

 miles away, and rose perturbed from a dinner party, remaining 

 disquieted for an hour or two ; until his anxiety subsided, and he 

 was able to assure himself and his friends that the fire had been 



