Apollonius

Part 1

APOLLONIUS

OR THE

PRESENT AND FUTURE OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

APOLLONIUS

The Present and Future of Psychical Research

BY E. N. BENNETT, M.A. Late Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford

Κέρδος ἄν εἴη μήτε πιστεύειν μήτε ἀπιστεῖν πᾶσιν

Phil. Vit. Apoll. II, 45

NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 FIFTH AVENUE

APOLLONIUS, COPYRIGHT, 1927, BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. :: :: PRINTED IN U. S. A.

APOLLONIUS

OR THE

PRESENT AND FUTURE OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

Psychical research has in the last twenty-five years lived down the obloquy and suspicion which surrounded its earlier days, and secured an assured position as a recognized branch of scientific study. In nearly every European country and in the United States of America men of acknowledged eminence in their professions――philosophers, scientists, doctors, literary men――have devoted themselves to the earnest study of those obscure and baffling phenomena which form the subject matter of psychical research, though this field of scientific endeavour holds at present few allurements in the shape of personal advantage or reward, no appreciable endowments exist to facilitate such research, no professorial chairs are reserved for its devotees. The patient and unselfish toil of those men, who have given to psychical research years which otherwise might have brought them rich material gains, is based on their deep and abiding interest in the subject, and their frank endorsement of Schopenhauer’s words:

“The phenomena under discussion are, at least from a philosophical standpoint, of all the facts presented to us by the whole of experience without comparison the most important; it is therefore the duty of every educated man to make himself thoroughly acquainted with them.”

Nevertheless, in spite of the recent emergence of psychical research into the clearer light of scientific tolerance and even encouragement, it must be admitted that its literary output has within recent years, as far as the English-speaking races are concerned, fallen far behind the brilliant and yet substantial work of its earlier pioneers. Few, if any, of our modern researchers in Great Britain have reached the high level attained by the works of, say, Myers, Gurney, Podmore, Professor and Mrs Sidgwick, and Professor James of Harvard. Nor again has any adequate progress been maintained in the experimental work which characterized the earlier history of the Society for Psychical Research. Our main evidence for telepathy is still the careful work of the Sidgwick group at Brighton, and little has been accomplished in the investigation of “physical phenomena” since the perplexities and disappointments of the Palladino experiments. In America the glory has indeed departed from a movement which was formerly illumined by the splendid work of William James, Hyslop, Hodgson, and Prince.

On the other hand, if in Great Britain the earlier branches of experiment have to some extent been neglected, a vast amount of useful work has been accomplished since the death of Myers in the new field of “cross correspondence,” which, in the opinion of some, may well prove to be the most productive of all our areas of research. On the Continent too experimental work of a high order has been developed during recent years, more especially in France and in Germany, the results of which have been given to the world in the writings of such men as Richet, Osty, Schrenck-Notzing, Tischner, Dessoir, Driesch, and others. The happy selection this year of Dr Driesch as President of the S. P. R. is a tribute to the fine work of himself and his countrymen. No better future could indeed be desired for psychical research than that it should occupy the serious attention of German scholars and be treated in accordance with the painstaking and efficient methods of German science.

i. e. two mediums sitting widely apart, sometimes even in different countries, receive different messages alleged to come from the same discarnate personality. When taken separately such messages may be obscure and meaningless; when read in conjunction they present a clear and intelligible meaning.

But while the advance of psychical research on strictly scientific lines has to some extent fallen short of the hopes of our pioneers, an unprecedented development has taken place in the cruder and less critical forms of what is popularly known as “Spiritualism”. This increased interest in spiritualistic phenomena has been followed by a vast output of books devoted to the acceptance of the spiritist theory and generally characterized by the absence of scientific spirit or critical investigation. Thousands of persons who fully admit their acceptance of the “facts of spiritualism” and allege that they find in the teachings of the spiritualist creed guidance in life and consolation in death appear to be satisfied with a minimum of reason for the faith which is in them. Popular enthusiasm for occult experiences has produced no corresponding increase in the number of serious students. The valuable material accumulated with immense care in the Proceedings of the Psychical Research Society is to a large extent unknown to and unexplored by the modern spiritualist, who professes to base his claims, if called upon to do so, on uncritical data derived from professional clairvoyants or his own automatic script. The result has been a veritable flood of alleged messages from another world which, in some cases, have been supplied to the Sunday newspapers by discarnate and obliging intelligences with the regularity of an editorial leader. The recognized spiritualist churches, “Lyceums” and similar organizations in Great Britain, 610 in number apart from independent societies and groups, possess a membership of at least 54,000; and, despite the honourable efforts of many educated and enlightened spiritualists who are determined enemies of mediumistic fraud, a steady increase has taken place in the ranks of those pseudo-mediums who trade on the credulity of the public.

At first sight this strange development might appear to be wholly out of keeping with the spirit of an age which may reasonably be described as materialistic. The appalling failure of organized Christianity to avert or shorten the War, the diseased growths which have fastened upon our music, art, and drama, the waste and extravagance in our social life, the cruel self-seeking of our international conduct――these and other influences of the War-period and its aftermath have provided a fitting inspiration for large sections of our population which appear to have little taste for much beyond the life-purpose of Mr. Wells’ hero “to put one’s hands on the dibs, and have a good time.” But history has demonstrated in the case of individuals and nations alike that material and even intellectual progress does not necessarily eliminate superstition. The sceptical Julius Caesar crawled up the steps of the Capitol to avert the jealous wrath of the gods; the Renaissance was responsible for two centuries of witch-burning. And so we find that side by side with the weakening of moral and religious sanctions a widespread spirit of credulous and uncritical belief pervades the community. The vast developments in the circulation of cheap newspapers while adding enormously to the information of the public on current events, has also led our less educated citizens in general to accept what they see in print. During the War-fever even men of recognized position whose training might, one would think, have instilled into them some measure of intellectual caution, have exhibited amazing credulity. The late Bishop of Carlisle, and the Editor of Punch are typical of thousands of our fellow-citizens, clerical and lay alike, who accepted without question such grotesque fabrications as the German “Corpse Factory” or the “Crucified Canadian.” Stories embodied in the Bryce Report and similar publications were received without any misgiving or discrimination by ninety-nine per cent. of our population. The nebulous story of the singularly inefficient “Angels of Mons” formed the text of lay and ecclesiastical addresses. The national mind, carefully tutored by the fraud or stupidity of controlled journalism, was ready when the War ceased to exchange the material horrors of this world for the spiritual excitements of the next.

The most powerful impulse, however, behind the new spiritualism has come from the staggering loss of human life in the Great War. Never before in the world’s history has the cry of human bereavement been so loud and bitter, for the vast majority of the millions who perished in the conflict were young men leaving behind them a heritage of sorrow incomparably greater than that which follows from the loss of the old, who in far greater numbers die every year in the ordinary course of nature. Nor has the poignancy of their grief for the loss of sons and brothers been lessened for those among the survivors who have reached the conviction that these vast armies of the world were led to the slaughter on false pretences, and that the soldiers died not, as most of them honestly believed, to promote justice, peace, and freedom, but to subserve the same vile motives of imperialist and commercial greed which have promoted every other modern war.

In earlier ages the Christian religion did indubitably inspire in the minds of its adherents a genuine conviction of a life beyond the grave and a future recognition of those lost awhile. But Protestantism in its violent rejection of earlier tenets has so far attenuated the doctrine of a future existence that its harsh interdicts on prayers for the dead and its vague and inconsistent beliefs as to the state of the departed have to a large extent ceased either to attract or convince. At Omdurman the writer saw thousands of men advancing against the most terrific fire of the century’s warfare with the name of God upon their lips and real conviction of a future life in their hearts――but these men were not Christians. The carelessness, timidity, or corruption of the Churches have served to devitalize not only the ethical precepts of their Master but also that immortality which He brought to light. But, although the old springs of comfort have to a large extent ceased to flow, the needs of the human heart remain, and are turned to those fresh sources of assurance and consolation which are so lavishly offered by modern Spiritualism.

Continue reading Apollonius free in the Wunder reader →