Part 2

IX. Other forms of occult healing 33

X. Influences affecting belief in the occult 38

THE PROBLEMS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

I. Science and its attitude toward borderland phenomena 47

II. The attitude of Psychical Research; its relation to Psychology 50

III. Types of interest in Psychical Research: the occult interest; the psychological interest; practical applications of "psychical" investigations; the explanatory interest; the investigative interest; the anthropological interest 56

IV. The content of the problems of Psychical Research: hypnotism; subconscious activities; hallucinations; telepathy 66

V. The tendencies of Psychical Research 75

THE LOGIC OF MENTAL TELEGRAPHY

Introductory 78

I. Factors of the problem: unconscious mental processes; mental community; coincidences 79

II. The statistical nature of the inquiry; the application of theory to special cases 83

III. Sources of error in the data 87

IV. The source of coincidences in the subjective interest 88

V. Résumé 93

VI. The value of the data; coincidences; experimental evidence; assumption and logical hypothesis 95

VII. The legitimacy of the telepathic hypothesis 99

VIII. Logical interpretation of the evidence 102

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DECEPTION

Introductory 106

I. The interpretative factor in perception; its relation to sense-deceptions 106

II. The rôle of the conjurer; the comprehension of conjuring tricks dependent upon a knowledge of technical detail; illustrations; conjuring deceptions as imitations of the conditions of real experience 111

III. The subjective factors in deception: suggestion, expectation, misdirection of the attention; the setting of a trick; illustrations 118

IV. The subjective attitude and prepossession as a factor in deception; illustrated by the phenomena of Spiritualism; experimental proof of the influence of the belief-attitude; extreme instances of prepossession 125

V. Mental contagion 132

VI. Résumé; the safeguards against deception 134

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SPIRITUALISM

I. Origin of modern Spiritualism; a survey of typical manifestations; report of the Seybert Commission; reports of other observers 137