Part 7 (1/2)

It is only a short transition fro hallucination in which--as in the cases of experimental occurrence mentioned above, and those other cases detailed in the preceding chapter--phantom forms are discerned at the er or is passing through the supre telepathy as an established fact, the problem remains: How are we to explain it? What is the es directly and instantaneously to another person although they may be half the world apart?

To this question, it must frankly be admitted, no positive answer can as yet be returned But some extremely plausible hypotheses have been advanced, not by mere theorists but by e the actuality of telepathy, have given ht to the problem of its mode of operation

Sir Willia attention to the marvelous but undisputed facts of ethereal vibration as evidenced by the phenoes that here we have quite possibly an adequate explanation of the mystery of telepathy on a wholly naturalistic basis--that is to say, a basis which enables us to accept telepathy without dislocating our entire conception of the physical universe

”It seeen rays] we ence which, with a few reasonable postulates, may supply the key to much that is obscure in psychical research Let it be assuher frequency, can pass into the brain and act on some nervous center there Let it be conceived that the brain contains a center which uses these rays as the vocal chords use sound vibrations (both being under the coence), and sends the ganglion of another brain In this same way the phenoence fro distances, seerasped”[15]

[15] Presidential Address to the Society for Psychical Research, January 29, 1897

This undoubtedly is the explanation that eously acknowledge their belief in telepathy Nor do they see any objection to it in the fact that people apparently are affected by the telepathic impulse only at certain times

For the brain of both sender and receiver raphy, be set to transmit and receive telepathic communications only when attuned to vibrations of a certain amplitude There is, however, as Sir Willianized, another and really formidable objection to this vibratory hypothesis

It is found in the fact that, assues to be conveyed by a systeically have also to assume that these waves would still obey what is known as the law of inverse squares By this iswaves, they would lose power in proportion to the square of the distance from their source Consequently, it would not only require a trereat distance, but the farther they were sent the feebler they would becoent, either the telepathic e would not be received at all or at ly attenuated fashi+on Whereas the fact is that, according to the results of such experimentation as that which I have described, complete failure often occurs when the experimenters are only a few yards apart, and brilliant successes are sometimes achieved at distances of hundreds of miles

This consideration has led soe, Professor W F Barrett, and the late F W H Myers--to abandon outright all attempt at an explanation on a naturalistic basis, and to advance instead the view that telepathy is not explicable in physical terms because it is a wholly psychical process--”a direct and supersensuous coh, as Mr

Frank Podation--our present inability to conceive a thoroughly satisfactory explanation; and at any time scientific research ain in the past in the case of other and seely equally inexplicable phenomena

Meanwhile, all that we, scientists and layives us of itself no warrant to deny Weor rejecting them And for myself I can only say that the actuality of telepathy has to e:

”I aht of testis do undoubtedly occur; that the distance between England and India is no barrier to the syence in sonaling-key in London causes a telegraphic instrument to respond instantaneously in Teheran--which is an everyday occurrence--so the danger or death of a distant child, or brother, or husband, raph clerk, to the heart of a hue”

CHAPTER III

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING

The word clairvoyance has acquired a decidedly sinisterin most people's minds It is associated with professional spiritistic mediums, who lay claim to supernatural pohich they are ready, at a h to pay the fee they dehout the country daily contain advertises,infor their ”sitters'”

lives and family relationshi+ps, to persuade their victims that while ”entranced” they are actually in contact with the ”spirit world”

Repeated exposures of their fraudulent methods have not driven them out of business, but have inspired a widespread and healthy distrust of their pretensions

Nevertheless, it would be rash to conclude, as enuine clairvoyance, by which is meant the ability to perceive distant scenes and events as if one were bodily present at the place of their occurrence That such a faculty exists, although usable only on rare occasions, and that there is nothing in the least supernatural about it, are facts definitely established by the scientifically trained investigators who have been diligently attacking this and other psychical problems the past twenty-five years Their researches have enuine clairvoyant phenomena it is not necessary to postulate the intervention of ”spirits,” or the flight through space of the clairvoyant's ”astral body” At most, clairvoyance is siree but not in kind fro chapter

There is absolutely no evidence to justify the hypothesis of so-called ”independent clairvoyance,” advocated by occultists of every shade of spiritistic belief, and utilized by unscrupulous tricksters to dazzle the iination of their dupes On the other hand, as I hope to ly clear, there is plenty of proof that the scenes which the true clairvoyant perceives, and is frequently able to describe with graphic detail, are in reality only es, visual hallucinations, developed by the sae to be apprehended

It ed, however, that the telepathic connection is sometimes extremely difficult to trace; as, for example, in the few indisputable instances, reported by Professor Jaators, in which the services of clairvoyants have been successfully invoked to find the bodies of persons drowned or otherwise accidentally killed under circue of the place or manner of their death

A typical case of the kind occurred a few years ago in connection with the irl, Miss Bertha Huse, of Enfield, as drowned in Mascoma Lake

For three days after the disappearance of Miss Huse, one hundred and fifty of her townspeople searched vainly for her She had last been seen alive on a long bridge crossing the lake, and it was supposed that she had fallen from it or had deliberately coed but without result, and failure also attended the efforts of a professional diver from Boston employed by a sympathetic citizen