1896.] Psychotogy. 605 
see anything; and the crowds of pilgrims who have gone to Lourdes in 
a state of vivid expectant attention haveseen nothing. 
I have no space to describe the many instances I have met with of 
recent appearance of the Virgin Mary, under circumstances where 
there can be no reasonable doubt of the good faith of the pereipients, 
nor do I recall any circumstances of religions exaltation accompanying 
these visions. Where pious Catholics see the Virgin Mary or the 
saints, equally devout Protestants see Christ or an angel, and both see 
spirits which they believe to be those of the blessed dead. 
My own mind in regard to the question of religions experiences is in 
the state of suspense of judgment,—the state of “pure aguosticism ” 
advocated by G. J. Romanes. [I need hardly say that this is not the 
agnosticism of scientific orthodoxy]. 
If in the present stage of our study of these phenomena we leave the 
stage of pure agnosticism, one of two hypotheses must, it seems to me, 
be accepted. Either such experiences are due (in persons otherwise 
rational and capable of carrying out the business of life) to some “ organ 
of spiritual experience,” or they are allin the domain of morbid psycho. 
logy. The evidence is of a similar nature in all these cases, whether of 
Paul, or Mahomet, or Ansel Bourne, or Bunyan or Socrates or Mr. 
Skilton; the hallucination (?) visual or auditory or both is only mani- 
fest to the percipient, and to him appears objective. In the case of 
what are called “ collective hallucinations ”—which are not uncommon, 
we have also only the evidence of the percipients, who see what others 
do not see. The great difficulty in accepting the hypothesis that there 
is some real communication possible from “a Power not ourselves 
which makes for righteousness,” is the frequent association of religions 
‘hallucinations with insanity. But if there be an “ organ of spiritual 
insight ” it can act only subject to the general functions of the organ- 
ism, and must be liable to partake of its disorders; it can only be the 
frail machinery through which an Unknown Energy is acting. 
So I leave the question, the most important, it seems to me, with 
which Science can deal. The history of Ansel Bourne is extracted 
from the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. 
ALICE BODINGTON. 
