422 



KXOWLEDCxE. 



NOVKMBKR, 1911. 



For some years after Mr. .Myers's death in l')01. 

 automatic writing had been regularly produced by 

 several people of social and educational standing — 

 not professional mediums, or even siiiritualists — who 

 were more or less in touch with the Society for 

 Psychical Research, and whose script purported to 

 emanate parth' from the sur\iving mind of F. W. H. 

 M\-ers. Chief among these automatists is Mrs. 

 \'errall. Classical Lecturer at Newnham : others are 

 Mrs. Holland (an Anglo-Indian lady, who did not 

 know Mr. M\-ers) and Mrs. Forbes, the widow of a 

 well-known judge. These scripts contained much 

 evidential matter, but it was usually open to the 

 telepathic explanation, though some of it admittedly 

 strained that explanation rather severely. Still, 

 telepatln- was possibly the true theory. I^nit. 

 in i90(). it was discovered by Miss Johnson (the 

 Research Officer of the Society for Psychical 

 Research) that there were curious concordances in 

 these scripts, concordances which apparently had 

 been going on for some time. It was found that one 

 script, sa\- Mrs. X'errall's, would contain a piece of 

 writing which was apparently meaningless, and which 

 was so treated by the automatist, while another 

 script, sav Mrs. Holland's, written about the same 

 date, would contain a message equally meaningless in 

 itself, but which, when compared with the similar 

 one in Mr. X'errall's script, produced the most start- 

 linglv good sense. Here. then, apparently, was 

 found evidence of initiative "on tlie other side." for 

 none of the living investigators had thought of this 

 plan of splitting a communication up and giving it 

 piecemeal through different automatists. (See Pro- 

 ceed iims of the Societv tor Psvcliical Research, \'ols. 

 XXI an.l XXII). 



These remarkable phenomena are. howe\cr. still 

 not quite ccjnclusive. Perhaps the ingenious and 

 sportive snbliminals of the automatistsconcerned have 

 arranged an elaborate system of impersonation, 

 telepathing these message-fragments to each other, 

 while the normal consciousnesses remain ignorant 

 of all this below-decks cross-firing. The hypothesis 

 cannot be entirelv put aside ; though it seems very 

 improbable to those who ha\'e made a careful study 

 of the whole mass of evidence. As Sir Oliver Lodge 

 has said, it is too early to formulate dogmas, or even 

 to express opinions (on the spiritualistic question) 

 except in hesitating and tentati\'e fashion. But the 

 evidence now certainly seems sufficient to justify the 

 holding of at least a working hypothesis that in these 

 experiments the minds of " dead "" persons are really 

 playing a part. 



This, however, is a very different thing from an 

 acceptance of "spiritualism." with all its crudenesses 

 and follies. The spiritualists — or most of them — 

 accept any sort of trance-ravings or automatic 

 scrawlings, as genuine '" messages " from " the 

 beyond." Psychical research, on the other hand, 

 criticallv examines the content of the messages, 

 applving the most drastic tests before even admitting 

 other than known causes. If the communications 



contain nothing that is not kn(.)wn to the medium, 

 psvchical researchers dismiss them as of no interest : 

 unless, indeed, there is a cross-correspondence 

 involved — i.e., the same message, or a related one, 

 being given through another medium. If the 

 medium's own knowledge is undeniably insufficient 

 to account for the facts, then telepath}' is invoked, 

 and is stretched to a fearsome extent, amidst the 

 violent diatribes of the spiritualistic jiress, which 

 stigmatizes the Society for Psychical Research 

 as a Socict\- for Suppressing Knowledge. If 

 telepathv begins to seem insufficient, some few- 

 bolder spirits of the Society (incarnate ones) 

 \'enture on the tentative h}-pothesis of " telepathy 

 from the dead : " but w ith careful hesitancy, 

 leaving the door open behind them in order that 

 the\- ma\- fiee back to the safet\' of former and more 

 orthodox views, if further investigation should render 

 the new tentative hypothesis untenable. This 

 perhaps undignified but certainh' wise position is 

 that which is at present occupied by Mrs. Sidgwick 

 (the ex-President of the Society), Sir (Oliver Lodge, 

 and other leading members of the Society for 

 Ps\chical Research. The present writer, who 

 is also a member of the Society in question, 

 adopts a similar attitude. Personal investiga- 

 tion has con\inced him of the truth of Hamlet's 

 well-worn remark to Horatio, and lu' is even 

 inclined to think that some of the evidence 

 justifies us in thinking that (to be Shakespearian 

 once more) not onl\- can we call spirits from the 

 vast\' deep, but that sometimes they will coiiie 

 (though ot tlu'ir own free will) when we do rail 

 for them. 



It is a difficult subject, not suitable for everyone. 

 Emotional and unbalanced people should be warned 

 oft. Even religious people are doubtfully desirable : 

 the in\-estigation should be carried on, as far as 

 possible, in the pure dr\- light of science, as it has 

 been in the past, b\- men like Sidgwick, Gurney, 

 M\'ers, and Hodgson. We want no recurrence of 

 witchcraft and superstition, of which, perhaps — after 

 the materialistic extremes of nineteenth century 

 science — there is some danger, the pendulum of 

 popular opinion being apt to swing from one side 

 to the other. But, this said, we may follow up our 

 researches with an eas\' mind. \\'e are certainly on 

 the track of something, whether (in Professor 

 Barrett's phrase) it be a " new world " of being, 

 or not. Careful and honest and patient investiga- 

 tion will no doubt yield its reward : but no sudden 

 revelation is to be expected or desired. It ma}- 

 require the labours of many generations to unfold 

 the full significance of the discoveries which are now- 

 being made. For it is not onh' in the (possibly) 

 spiritistic direction that our pioneers are making 

 progress: we are also finding out much concerning 

 the unsuspected powers of the human mind 

 (telepatliN", clairvovance, and so on), while it is still 

 manifesting itself through a material brain in the 

 ordinarv earthb' life. 



