MIRACLES 



and Observations on the Dark Side of Science), and Petty 

 (in his mystic anthropology) especially investigated the 

 mysterious phenomena of mental action, and sought to 

 connect them with the physiological functions of the 

 brain on the one hand and supernatural spiritual agen- 

 cies on the other. Modern spook-seeking has no more 

 value than mediasval magic, cabahsm, astrology, necro- 

 mancy, dream - interpretation, and invocation of the 

 devil. 



We must put at the same stage of superstition the 

 spiritism and occultism we find mentioned so much in 

 modem literature. There are always thousands of 

 credulous folk in educated countries who are taken in by 

 the performances of the spiritists and their media, and 

 are ready to believe the unbelievable. Spirit-rapping, 

 table-turning, spirit -writing, the materialization and 

 photogi-aphing of deceased souls, find credit, not only 

 among the uneducated masses, but even among the most 

 cultured, and sometimes among imaginative scientists. 

 It has been proved without avail by numbers of impartial 

 observations and experiments that these occultist per- 

 formances depend partly on conscious fraud and partly 

 on careless self-deception. Mundus vult decipi — "the 

 world wishes to be taken in" — as the old saying has it. 

 This spiritistic fraud is particularly dangerous when it 

 clothes itself with the mantle of science, makes use of the 

 physiological phenomena of hypnotism, and even as- 

 sumes a monistic character. Thus, for instance, one of 

 the best - known occultist writers, Karl du Prel, has 

 written, not only a Philosophy of Mysticism and Studies 

 of Scientific Subjects, but also (1888) a Monistic Psychol- 

 ogy, which is dualistic from beginning to end. In these 

 popular writings lively imagination and brilliant pres- 

 entation are combined with a most flagrant lack of 

 critical sense and of knowledge of the elements of biology 

 {cf. chapter xvi. of the Riddle). It seems that the her^di- 



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