PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 



By 



ARTHUR HILL. 



It is related of Mmc. de Stacl that she did iidt 

 belie\'e in ghosts, but that she was afraid of them 

 all the same — " /c iic Ics crnis pjs, iiiais jc lea 

 cniiiis." The \\itt\' Freiichwdinan's epigram con- 

 tains deep psychological truth : foi- our emotions 

 are not ruled bv our reasoned l)elicfs. And, in 

 addition to its true psychology, it accurateh- des- 



cribes the attitude of the average 



though he 



ma\' not confess it so frankl\-. Wo don't believe 

 in ghosts — oh, no. not realh' believe in them. But 

 we are at times a little — just a little — afraid of 

 them : sav, for instance, when going to bed at two in 

 the morning (at which \vmv. accorciing to Napoleon, 

 courage is at its lowest ebb) up the gloomy stair- 

 cases and in the draught\- corridors of an old and 

 lonely house, with the wind soughing and sobbing 

 and wailing in the trees outside^likc the wraith of 

 poor Cath\- in " Wuthering Heights." At such times, 

 we have inner qualms, step we never so boldlw 



The recent advance in certain bN-jiaths of science, 

 however, seems likely to go far towards effecting 

 a change in popular opinion and popular feeling. 

 The ghosts, like evers^thing else in this extremel\" 

 scientific age, are now being studied and examined. 

 and photogiaphed and dissected (or would be. if 

 they had any insides to dissect), and the prospects 

 are that before very long, we may get so well 

 acquainted with these ciiiiiiiulae vafJiilae that we 

 shall no longer be afraid of them. Then we shall be 

 able to reverse the epigram : instead of disbelieving 

 yet fearing, we shall believe but shall not fear. This 

 consummation may be displeasing to the ortlu)dox 

 haunting ghost, whose business is dike the Fat Boy's 

 in "Pickwick)." to make our flesh creep: but, on the 

 other hand, it will meet with the approval of all 

 sensible and well-disposed spirits, such — for ex- 

 ample — as Mr. Stead's friend Julia, of whom we 

 have lateh' been hearing so much. 



The " spirit " cjuestion, however, is the wrong end 

 of the subject to attack. Of course, when an appari- 

 tion does turn u[) it is the percipient's scientific 

 duty (if he can keep his wits about him sut^cientlv 

 to do it well) to obser\-e it, to make careful notes at 

 once, and to get them signed — along with a doctor's 

 certificate of sobriety — b\' corroborating friends. 

 Then, if the person represented bv the spook is after- 

 wards found to have died at the time of the vision, 

 we have good evidence for some kind of supernormal 

 agenc)-. Or if — as is most likely — he did not die : 

 if. indeed, he was in specialh- good health and 

 spirits at the time; if. in short, our hallucin- 

 ation was due to indigestion las the doctor probabh' 

 assured us), we naturally feel a mild regret 

 that the Societ\- for Ps\chical Research should 



have lost a promising '" case," but, on the other 

 hand, we ha\-e at least retained our friend, 

 who — perhaps equalK' naturally — will be apt to 

 regard nur aforementioned regret with a feeling akin 

 to resentment. But, even in cases of veridical 

 hallucination — i.e., hallucinations which seem some- 

 how connected with distantly-occurring events, and 

 which are therefore " truth-telling " — even in these 

 cases, the scientific value of the phenomenon itself is 

 perhaps less than that of many apparently less 

 important happenings. For it is not the mere estab- 

 lishing of the actuality of an alleged i>lunomenon, 

 that constitutes its value to pure science. It is the 

 linking of it up with facts already known : the fitting 

 of it into the mosaic of already organized knowledge: 

 the bringing of it into the domain of law : — it is here 

 that the main business and interest of the philo- 

 sophical scientific man are to be found. And. in the 

 case of ghosts, this linking up, and fitting in. does 

 not seem likeh' to be an easy matter, even if the 

 facts are satisfactorily established. 



It was therefore with deeji wisdom that Sir ()li\er 

 Lodge, in "■ The Survival of Man," which is the 

 latest important pronouncement on the subject, 

 decided to begin at the other end. Instead of 

 plunging into the description of phenomena which 

 puz/le us because they seem so out of relation with 

 our scientific know ledge, he starts by giving a lengthy 

 and careful description of some experiments of his 

 own which seem to establish the fact of thought- 

 transference or ■■ telepathy." In these very matter- 

 of-fact and unghostly experiments, the chief parts 

 were plaved b\' two \oung ladies who were emplo\'ed 

 b\- a Liverpool firm, of which Mr. Malcolm Guthrie, 

 I. P.. was head. (^ne of them — the receiver or 

 ■■ percipient " — was blindfolded, though as an aid 

 to passi\'it\- of mind rather than as a precaution. 

 The other — the "agent" — concentrated her mind 

 on an object selected by Sir Oliver, trying to 

 impress the idea of it on the mind of her friend. 

 Care was taken, of course, that the latter was 

 afforded no ojiportunity of seeing the object, or 

 of gleaning any information of its nature by 

 normal means. Many of the experiments were 

 made w ith ordinarx' pla\ing cards ; for, In- this 

 means, the likelihood of chance coincidence could 

 be mathematically determined. In one series which 

 Sir Oliver quotes, the successes were ten out of 

 sixteen. The chance of this occurring by accident 

 can be shown to be less than one in ten million. 



Im-oiu this we go on to telepathy at a distance. 

 Recent exp(^riments between Miss Miles and Miss 

 Ramsden. carried out in accordance with suggestions 

 made bv Professor Barrett, indicated clearly that 



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