CHAPTER X.. Phantasms.

PHANTASMS.

Perhaps no department of Psychical Research is looked upon from such divers and even quite opposite standpoints as that which relates to Apparitions or Phantasms. Many intelligent people, in a general way, accept them as realities but assign for them a supernatural origin; while others discredit them altogether because they have apparently no basis except an assumed supernatural one.

It has been said that primitive, undeveloped, and ignorant people almost universally believe in ghosts; while with the advance of civilization, culture, and general intelligence, the frequency of alleged apparitions and the belief in ghosts diminishes or altogether disappears. If this statement were to stand unqualified, by so much would the reality and respectability of phantasms be discredited. Possibly, however, it may be found that the last word has not yet been said, and that there may exist a scientific aspect for even so unstable and diaphanous a subject as ghosts.

Instead of going over the literature of the subject from the earliest times--a literature, by the way, which in the hands of Tylor, Maury, Scott, Ralston, Mrs. Crowe and others certainly does not lack interest--it will better suit our present purpose to examine some facts relative to perception in general and vision in particular, and give some examples illustrating different phases of the subject.

Perception may be defined as the cognizance which the mind takes of impressions presented to it through the organs of sense, and possibly also by other means.

One class of perceptions is universally recognized and is in a measure understood, namely, perceptions arising from impressions made by recognized external objects or forces upon the organs of sense, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and also the general sense of touch. These perceptions in particular are designated as real or true, because they correspond to recognized external realities.

But impressions are also made upon the organs of special sense by influences which are not recognized as having any objective reality, but which nevertheless affect the senses in a manner often identical with that in which they are affected by recognized external objects, and they cause the same perceptions to arise in the mind. Hence another broad class of perceptions includes those which are taken cognizance of by the mind from impressions made upon the organs of sense in other ways and by other means than by external objects, and often where there is no evidence that any external object exists corresponding to the impression so made. Perceptions arising in these various ways are called hallucinations.

On close examination, however, it is found that the sharp line of separation between what has and what has not an objective reality is not easily drawn, any more than in biology the sharp line between animal and vegetable life can be easily drawn, or at the lower end of the scale between the living and the not living.

So the origin of those perceptions which are classed as hallucinations has always been a subject of controversy, even among philosophers of the greatest merit and eminence.

Without following out the discussions which have arisen on this point--discussions which are often confusing and generally inconclusive, a fairly distinct view of the subject may be obtained by considering the origin of these perceptions under three heads--namely:--

(1) Perceptions which are reckoned as hallucinations may be originated centrally; that is, they may arise wholly within the mind itself without any direct external stimulus. For instance the characters drawn by the novelist may become so real to him, and even to some of his readers, that they become externalized--actual objects of visual perception and are seen to act and even heard to speak. The instance is repeatedly quoted of the painter who, after carefully studying a sitter's appearance, could voluntarily project it visibly into space and paint the portrait, not from the original, but from the phantasm so produced; and of another who could externalize and project other mental pictures in the same manner, pictures which so interested him and were so subject to the ordinary laws of vision that he would request any one who took a position in front of them, to move away so as not to obstruct his view.

It will be noticed in these cases that although the perception has its origin centrally, in the mind itself, and is even voluntarily produced, still, it is seen as an impression made upon the visual organ in exactly the same manner as a picture thrown upon the retina by a real external object; it disappears when the eyes are closed or an opaque object intervenes, and follows the laws of optics in general; hence, strictly speaking, these perceptions are also real.

(2) Perceptions may have their origin peripherally--that is, the point of excitation which causes the act of perception in the mind may exist in the external sense organs themselves, even when no external object corresponding to the perception exists at the time, or it is not in a position on account of distance or intervening objects to affect the senses.

In examining the cases which may be placed under this head they resolve themselves into two classes: those which occur in connection with some disease or defect in the sense organ concerned, and those which are recrudescences or after-visions, arising from over-excitation of those organs; for instance, after looking through a window in a very bright light--even a considerable length of time afterwards--on shutting the eyes or looking into a dark room, an image of the window is seen with all its divisions and peculiarities of construction distinctly presented. To the country lad returning home at night from his first visit to the circus the whole scene is again presented; and ring, horses, equestrians, acrobats and clowns are all seen and externalized with the utmost distinctness; even the crack of the ring-master's whip is heard and the jokes and antics of the clowns repeated.

(3) Perceptions may have their origin telepathically--that is, scenes and incidents transpiring at a distance far too great to affect the bodily organs of sense in any direct or ordinary way do, nevertheless, in some way, cause perceptions to arise in the mind corresponding to those same scenes and incidents.

This is comparatively a new proposition in psychology and has for its basis studies and experiments which have only been systematically made within the past fourteen years. These studies and experiments relate to telepathy, automatism, and the action of the subliminal self. They have been undertaken and carried on by various societies interested in experimental psychology, but chiefly by the English Society for Psychical Research, some of the results of whose labors have been briefly sketched in the preceding chapters.

In addition to the reports of these societies an important contribution to the subject of apparitions was published by the then secretaries of the Society for Psychical Research, the late Mr. Edmund Gurney, Mr. Frederick W. H. Myers, and Mr. Frank Podmore.

It appeared under the title, Phantasms of the Living, and contained more than seven hundred instances relating to various forms of hallucinations and phantasms--carefully studied and authenticated cases which were selected from several thousand presented for examination. It is to these sources chiefly that I shall refer for cases illustrating the subject under consideration.

It seems hardly necessary to recapitulate here the experiments on which the doctrine of telepathy or thought-transference is established--experiments which have been carefully made by so many well qualified persons, and which have proved convincing to nearly every one, whether scientific or unscientific, who has patiently followed them, though of course not convincing to those who choose to remain ignorant of the facts.

The same is true regarding the subject of automatism and the existence and action of the subliminal self. It remains to show the interesting relations which these subjects bear to hallucinations in general, and especially to phantasms and apparitions.

It is well known that hallucinations can be voluntarily or purposely produced by one person in the mind of another, and in various ways, though few perhaps consider to what an extent this is possible. In many of the most astonishing feats of the conjurer, and especially of the Indian fakir, suggestion and the imagination are brought into service to aid in producing the illusions.

Regarding the hallucinations which may be produced in the mind of the hypnotized subject by the hypnotizer there can be no doubt.

The following case is in point and illustrates telepathic influence excited at a distance as well. It is from Phantasms of the Living, and the agent, Mr. E. M. Glissold, of 3 Oxford Square, W., writes substantially as follows:--

"In the year 1878 there was a carpenter named Gannaway employed by me to mend a gate in my garden; when a friend of mine (Moens) called upon me and the conversation turned upon mesmerism. He asked me if I knew anything about it myself. On my replying in the affirmative he said, 'Can you mesmerize any one at a distance?' I said that I had never tried to do so, but that there was a man in the garden whom I could easily mesmerize, and that I would try the experiment with this man if he (Moens) would tell me what to do. He then said, 'Form an impression of the man whom you wish to mesmerize, in your own mind, and then wish him strongly to come to you.'

"I very much doubted the success of the experiment, but I followed the directions of my friend, and I was extremely astonished to hear the steps of the man whom I wished to appear, running after me; he came up to me directly and asked me what I wanted with him. I will add that my friend and I had been walking in the garden and had seen and spoken with the carpenter, but when I wished him to come to me I was quite out of his sight behind the garden wall, one hundred yards distant, and had neither by conversation nor otherwise led him to believe that I intended to mesmerize him.

"On another occasion, when the Hon. Auberon Herbert was present, the following scene occurred. Gannaway was mesmerized and stood in one corner of the dining-room. Herbert sat at the table and wrote the following programme, each scene of which Mr. Glissold, the magnetizer, was to silently call up in his own mind.

"(1) I see a house in flames.

"(2) I see a woman looking out of a window.

"(3) She has a child in her arms.

"(4) She throws it out of the window.

"(5) Is it hurt--?

"Gannaway became much excited, describing each scene as it passed through the mind of his hypnotizer. Several well known persons add their testimony to the above statement."

A single case of mental action so strange and unusual, no matter how well authenticated, might not impress a cautious truth-seeker, but when fortified by well studied cases in the experience of such men as Esdaile, as shown in his remarkable experiments upon the natives of India, and especially his well known one of hypnotizing the blind man at a distance, also those of Prof. Janet, Prof. Richet, Dr. Gibert, and Dr. Hericourt, in France under the observation of Mr. Myers and other members of the Society for Psychical Research, and hundreds of other cases of hypnotizing at a distance, or silently influencing the subject without hypnotization, the matter then challenges attention and belief;--and it is from abundant observation of such cases, from the simplest examples of thought-transference to the most wonderful exhibition of perceptive power at great distances, that the doctrine of Telepathy is founded.

In the following case the agent was able to project his own semblance or phantasm a distance of several miles; and it was then distinctly perceived by a young lady, a friend of the agent. The circumstances were these:--Two young men, Mr. A. H. W. Cleave and Mr. H. P. Sparks, aged respectively eighteen and nineteen years, were fellow-students of engineering at the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, England. While there, they engaged in some mesmeric experiments, and after a time Sparks was able to put Cleave thoroughly into the hypnotic condition. The following is Mr. Sparks' account of what occurred.

"For the last year or fifteen months I have been in the habit of mesmerizing a fellow-student of mine. The way I did it was by simply looking into his eyes as he lay in an easy position on a bed. This produced sleep. After a few times I found that this sleep was deepened by making long passes after the patient was off. Then comes the remarkable part of this sort of mesmerism." (Mr. Sparks then describes his subject's ability to see in his trance places in which he was interested if he resolved to see them before he was hypnotized.) "However, it has been during the last week or so I have been surprised and startled by an extraordinary affair. Last Friday evening (Jan. 15th, 1886), he (Cleave) expressed his wish to see a young lady living in Wandsworth, and he also said he would try to make himself seen by her. I accordingly mesmerized him and continued the long passes for about twenty minutes, concentrating my will on his idea. When he came round (after one hour and twenty minutes' trance) he said he had seen her in the dining-room; and that after a time she grew restless; then suddenly she looked straight at him, and then covered her eyes with her hands; just then he came round. Last Monday evening (Jan. 18th) we did the same thing, and this time he said he thought he had frightened her, as after she had looked at him a few minutes she fell back in her chair in a sort of faint. Her little brother was in the room at the time. Of course after this he expected a letter if the vision was real; and on Wednesday morning he received a letter from the young lady, asking whether anything had happened to him, as on Friday evening she was startled by seeing him standing at the door of the room. After a minute he disappeared and she thought it might have been fancy; but on Monday evening she was still more startled by seeing him again, and this time much clearer, and it so frightened her that she nearly fainted."

Mr. Cleave also writes a very interesting account of his experience in the matter, and two fellow-students who were in the room during the experiments also write corroborating the statements made.

The following is a copy of the letter in which the young lady, Miss A., describes her side of the affair. It is addressed, "Mr. A. H. W. Cleave, H. M. S. Marlborough, Portsmouth," and is postmarked Wandsworth, Jan. 19th, 1886.

"WANDSWORTH, "Tuesday morning.

"DEAR ARTHUR,--Has anything happened to you? Please write and let me know at once, for I have been so frightened.

"Last Tuesday evening I was sitting in the dining-room reading, when I happened to look up, and could have declared I saw you standing at the door looking at me. I put my handkerchief to my eyes, and when I looked again you were gone.

"I thought it must have been only my fancy, but last night (Monday) while I was at supper I saw you again just as before, and was so frightened that I nearly fainted. Luckily only my brother was there or it would have attracted attention. Now do write at once and tell me how you are. I really cannot write any more now."

Probably the young lady is in error regarding the date of the first experiment, which may be accounted for by her excited condition--the shock of the last experiment having proved decidedly serious, as was afterwards discovered, and she begged that the experiment might never be repeated.

Both young men mention Friday as the day of their first decided success, but they were experimenting on previous days, including Tuesday, when the young lady writes she first saw Cleave's phantasm. Concerning the date of the last experiment there is no question.

Effects similar to those just related may also occur where the agent is in ordinary sleep, or at least when no hypnotizing process is made use of. The agent in this case first formulates the wish or strong resolution to be present and be seen at a certain place or by a certain person, and then goes to sleep, and generally remains unconscious of the result until learned from the percipient.

In the following case the name of the agent is withheld from publication, though known to Mr. Myers who reports the case; the percipient is the Rev. W. Stainton-Moses. The agent goes on to state:--

"One evening early last year (1878), I resolved to try to appear to Z. (Mr. Moses) at some miles distant. I did not inform him beforehand of my intended experiment, but retired to rest shortly before midnight with thoughts intently fixed on Z., with whose room and surroundings, however, I was quite unacquainted. I soon fell asleep and woke up the next morning unconscious of anything having taken place. On seeing Z. a few days afterwards I inquired, 'Did anything happen at your rooms on Saturday night?' 'Yes,' he replied, 'a great deal happened. I had been sitting over the fire with M., smoking and chatting. About 12:30 he rose to leave, and I let him out myself. I returned to the fire to finish my pipe when I saw you sitting in the chair just vacated by him. I looked intently at you, and then took up a newspaper to assure myself I was not dreaming, but on laying it down I saw you still there. While I gazed without speaking, you faded away. Though I imagined you must be fast asleep in bed at that hour, yet you appeared dressed in your ordinary garments, such as you usually wear every day.' 'Then my experiment seems to have succeeded,' I said. 'The next time I come ask me what I want, as I had fixed on my mind certain questions to ask you, but I was probably waiting for an invitation to speak.'

"A few weeks later the experiment was repeated with equal success, I, as before, not informing Z. when it was made. On this occasion he not only questioned me upon the subject which was at that time under very warm discussion between us, but detained me by the exercise of his will, some time after I had intimated a desire to leave. As on the former occasion no recollection remained of the event, or seeming event, of the preceding night."

Mr. Moses writes, September 27th, 1885, confirming this account. Mr. Moses also says that he has never on any other occasion seen the figure of a living person in a place where the person was not.

The next case, while presenting features similar to the last, differs from it in this respect: that there are two percipients. It is copied from the manuscript book of the agent, Mr. S. H. B.

Mr. B. writes:--"On a certain Sunday evening in November, 1881, having been reading of the great power which the human will is capable of exercising, I determined with the whole force of my being that I would be present in spirit in the front bedroom, on the second floor of a house situated at 22 Hogarth Road, Kensington, in which room slept two ladies of my acquaintance, Miss L. S. V. and Miss E. C. V., aged respectively twenty-five and eleven years. I lived at this time at 23 Kildare Gardens, a distance of about three miles from Hogarth Road, and I had not mentioned in any way my intention of trying this experiment to either of the above named ladies, for the simple reason that it was only on retiring to rest upon Sunday night that I made up my mind to do so. The time at which I determined I would be there was one o'clock in the morning, and I also had a strong intention of making my presence perceptible.

"On the following Thursday I went to see the ladies in question, and in the course of conversation (without any allusion to the subject on my part), the elder one told me that on the previous Sunday night she had been much terrified by perceiving me standing by her bedside, and that she screamed when the apparition advanced towards her, and awoke her little sister who also saw me. I asked her if she was awake at the time, and she replied most decidedly in the affirmative; and upon my inquiring the time of the occurrence, she replied about one o'clock in the morning."

Miss Verity's account is as follows:--

"On a certain Sunday evening, about twelve months since, at our house in Hogarth Road, Kensington, I distinctly saw Mr. B. in my room about one o'clock. I was perfectly awake and was much terrified. I awoke my sister by screaming, and she saw the apparition herself. Three days after, when I saw Mr. B., I told him what had happened; but it was some time before I could recover from the shock I had received, and the remembrance is too vivid to be ever erased from my memory.

"L. S. VERITY."

Miss E. C. Verity writes:--

"I remember the occurrence of the event described by my sister in the annexed paragraph, and her description is quite correct. I saw the apparition at the same time and under the same circumstances."

Miss A. S. Verity writes:--

"I remember quite clearly the evening my eldest sister awoke me by calling to me from an adjoining room, and upon my going to her bedside, where she slept with my youngest sister, they both told me they had seen S. H. B. standing in the room. The time was about one o'clock. S. H. B. was in evening dress, they told me."

The following case, while of the same general character, presents this remarkable difference: that the agent's mind was not at all directed to the real percipient, but only to the place where the percipient happened to be. It is from the notebook of Mr. S. H. B. who was also the agent.

"On Friday, December 1st, 1882, at 9:30 P. M. I went into a room alone and sat by the fireside, and endeavored so strongly to fix my mind upon the interior of a house at Kew (viz., Clarence Road), in which resided Miss V. and her two sisters, that I seemed to be actually in the house.

"During this experiment I must have fallen into a mesmeric sleep, for, although I was conscious, I could not move my limbs. I did not seem to have lost the power of moving them, but I could not make the effort to do so.... At 10 P. M. I regained my normal state by an effort of the will and wrote down on a sheet of note-paper the foregoing statements.

"When I went to bed on this same night, I determined that I would be in the front bedroom of the above-mentioned house at 12 P. M., and remain there until I had made my presence perceptible to the inmates of that room. On the next day, Saturday, I went to Kew to spend the evening, and met there a married sister of Miss V. (viz., Mrs. L.). This lady I had only met once before and that was at a ball, two years previous to the above date. We were both in fancy dress at the time, and as we did not exchange more than half a dozen words, this lady would naturally have lost any vivid recollection of my appearance even if she had noticed it.

"In the course of conversation (although I did not for a moment think of asking her any questions on such a subject), she told me that on the previous night she had seen me distinctly on two occasions. She had spent the night at Clarence Road, and had slept in the front bedroom. At about half-past nine, she had seen me in the passage going from one room to another, and at 12 P. M., when she was wide-awake, she had seen me enter the bedroom and walk round to where she was lying and take her hair (which is very long), into my hand. She told me that the apparition took hold of her hand and gazed intently into it, whereupon she spoke, saying, 'You need not look at the lines for I have never had any trouble.'

"She then awoke her sister, Miss V., who was sleeping with her, and told her about it. After hearing this account I took the statement which I had written down the previous evening from my pocket and showed it to some of the persons present, who were much astonished, although incredulous.

"I asked Mrs. L. if she was not dreaming at the time of the latter experience, but she stoutly denied, and stated that she had forgotten what I was like, but seeing me so distinctly she recognized me at once. At my request she wrote a brief account of her impressions and signed it."

The following is the lady's statement:--

"On Friday, December 1st, 1882, I was on a visit to my sister, at 21 Clarence Road, Kew, and about 9:30 P. M. I was going from my bedroom to get some water from the bath-room, when I distinctly saw Mr. S. B. whom I had only seen once before, two years ago, walk before me past the bath-room, toward the bedroom at the end of the landing.

"About 11 o'clock we retired for the night; about 12 o'clock I was still awake, and the door opened and Mr. S. B. came into the room and walked around to the bedside, and there stood with one foot on the ground, and the other knee resting on a chair. He then took my hair into his hand, after which he took my hand in his and looked very intently into the palm. 'Ah,' I said (speaking to him), 'you need not look at the lines for I never had any trouble.' I then awoke my sister; I was not nervous, but excited, and began to fear some serious illness would befall her, she being delicate at the time, but she is progressing more favorably now.

"H. L."

(Full name signed.)

Miss Verity also corroborates this statement.

* * * * *

The following is still another case of one mind acting upon another mind at a distance and at least in a most unusual way. Call it mind-projection, making one's self visible at a distance, sending out the subliminal self--call it what we may--it is a glimpse of a phenomenon, rare in its occurrence, but which nevertheless has been observed a sufficient number of times to claim serious attention, and calm and candid consideration. The case is from Phantasms of the Living, and is furnished by "Mrs. Russell of Belgaum, India, wife of Mr. H. R. Russell, Educational Inspector in the Bombay Presidency." It differs from those already cited in the fact that it is unconnected with either sleep or hypnotism, but both agent and percipient were awake and in a perfectly normal condition.

Mrs. Russell writes:--

"June 8th, 1886.

"As desired I write down the following facts as well as I can recall them. I was living in Scotland, my mother and sisters in Germany. I lived with a very dear friend of mine, and went to Germany every year to see my people. It had so happened that I could not go home as usual for two years, when on a sudden I made up my mind to go and see my family. They knew nothing of my intention; I had never gone in early spring before; and I had no time to let them know by letter that I was going to set off. I did not like to send a telegram for fear of frightening my mother. The thought came to me to will with all my might to appear to one of my sisters, never mind which of them, in order to give them warning of my coming. I only thought most intensely for a few minutes of them, wishing with all my might to be seen by one of them--half present myself, in vision, at home. I did not take more than ten minutes, I think. I started by the Leith steamer on Saturday night, end of April, 1859. I wished to appear at home about 6 o'clock P. M. that same Saturday.

"I arrived at home at 6 o'clock on Tuesday morning following. I entered the house without any one seeing me, the hall being cleaned and the front door open. I walked into the room. One of my sisters stood with her back to the door; she turned round when she heard the door opening, and on seeing me, stared at me, turning deadly pale, and letting what she had in her hand fall. I had been silent. Then I spoke and said, 'It is I. Why do you look so frightened?' When she answered, 'I thought I saw you again as Stinchen (another sister) saw you on Saturday.'

"When I inquired, she told me that on Saturday evening about 6 o'clock, my sister saw me quite clearly, entering the room in which she was, by one door, passing through it, opening the door of another room in which my mother was, and shutting the door behind me. She rushed after what she thought was I, calling out my name, and was quite stupefied when she did not find me with my mother. My mother could not understand my sister's excitement. They looked everywhere for me, but of course did not find me. My mother was very miserable; she thought I might be dying.

"My sister who had seen me (i. e. my apparition) was out that morning when I arrived. I sat down on the stairs to watch, when she came in, the effect of my real appearance on her. When she looked up and saw me, sitting motionless, she called out my name and nearly fainted.

"My sister had never seen anything unearthly either before that or afterwards; and I have never made any such experiments since--nor will I, as the sister that saw me first when I really came home, had a very severe illness afterwards, caused by the shock to her nerves.

"J. M. RUSSELL."

Mrs. Russell's sister, in answer to her inquiry whether she remembered the incident, replied: "Of course I remember the matter as well as though it had happened to-day. Pray don't come appearing to me again!"

* * * * *

We started out with this proposition. Perceptions--those of the class denominated hallucinations--may have their origin telepathically. In proof and illustration of that proposition we have so far presented a single class of cases, namely, Those where the hallucination was produced with will and purpose on the part of the agent. The cases present the following conditions:--

(1) The agent being in a normal condition--the percipient hypnotized, the hypnotic condition having been produced at a distance of a hundred yards--and from a point from which the percipient could not be seen.

(2) The agent in the hypnotic condition; a definite hallucination strongly desired and decided upon beforehand was produced, the percipient being in a normal state.

(3) The agent was in normal sleep. Hallucination decided upon before going to sleep was produced--the percipient awake and in normal condition.

(4) Both agent and percipient awake and normal--hallucination produced at a distance of four hundred miles. In one case the phantasm is seen by two percipients, and in another case the place only where the phantasm should appear was strongly in the agent's mind; and while the sisters who usually occupied that room might naturally be expected to be the percipients, as a matter of fact another person, a married sister who happened to be visiting them--a comparative stranger to the agent--was occupying the room and became the percipient.

In each of these cases a definite purpose was formed by the agent to produce a certain hallucination or present a certain picture--generally a representation or phantasm of himself to the percipient. A picture or phantasm is seen by the intended percipient, and, on comparison, in each case it is found that it is the same phantasm that the agent had endeavored to project and make visible, and that it was perceived in the same place and at the same time that the agent had intended that it should be seen.

Can these statements be received as true and reliable? In reply we say, the evidence having been carefully examined is of such a character as to entitle it to belief, and the errors of observation and reporting are trifling, and not such as would injure the credibility of statements made regarding any event which was a matter of ordinary observation; moreover, these cases now have become so numerous and have been so carefully observed that they should be judged by the ordinary rules of evidence; and by that rule they should be received.

Having been received, how can they be explained?

It may be answered:--

(1) That these apparent sequences presenting the relation of cause and effect are merely chance coincidences. But on carefully applying the doctrine of chances, it is found that the probability that these coincidences of time and place, and the identity of the pictures presented and perceived, occurred by chance, would be only one in a number so large as to make it difficult to represent it in figures, and quite impossible for any mind to comprehend. And that such a coincidence should occur repeatedly in one person's experience is absolutely incredible.

(2) The circumstances of distance and situation render it certain that the phantasms could not have been communicated or presented to the percipient through any of the usual channels of communication--by means of the physical organs of sense--even granting that they could be so transferred under favorable conditions.

If, then, these cases must be received as authentic and true, and if they cannot be disposed of as chance coincidences, nor explained by any ordinary method or law of production or transmission, then there must be some other method of mental interaction, and mental intercommunication not usually recognized, by means of which these pictures or phantasms are produced or transferred, and this unusual method of mental interaction and intercommunication we designate telepathy. What the exact method is by which this unusual interaction is accomplished is not fully demonstrated, any more than are the methods of the various interacting forces between the sun and the planets or amongst the planets themselves. The hypothesis of a universal or inter-stellar ether has never been demonstrated; it is only a hypothesis framed because it is necessary in order to explain and support another undemonstrated theory, namely, the vibratory or wave theory of light. We do not know what the substance or force which we call attraction really is. Light has one method of movement and action, sound another, heat another, and electricity another, but most of the propositions concerning these methods of action are only theories or hypotheses having a greater or less degree of probability as the case may be. They were invented to account for certain actual and undeniable phenomena, and they are respected by all men of science or other persons having sufficient knowledge of these different subjects to entitle them to an opinion. The same thing is true of telepathy; its facts must be known and its theories well considered by those who assume to sit in judgment upon them; and when known they are respected. The Copernican theory of the planetary movements was formulated three hundred and fifty years ago; it was one hundred and fifty years later when Newton proposed the first rational theory regarding a force which might explain these motions. For this he was ridiculed and even ostracized by the self-constituted judges of his day. Telepathy has been the subject of careful study and experiment comparatively only a few years, and it can hardly, at this early date, expect better treatment at the hands of its critics. Its facts, however, remain, and its explanatory theories are being duly considered.

What, then, are the theories or hypotheses which may aid us in forming an idea of the manner in which a thought, a conception, or a mental picture may pass between two persons so situated that no communication could pass between them through the ordinary channels of communication--sight, hearing, or touch? Let us suppose two persons A and B to be so situated. A is the agent or person having unusual ability to impress his own thought, or any conception or mental picture which he may form in his own mind, upon some other mind; and B is the percipient or a person having unusual ability to receive or perceive such thoughts or mental pictures. Suppose these two people to be in the country and engaged in farming. Upon a certain morning A takes his axe and goes to the woods, half a mile distant, and is engaged in cutting brush and trees for the purpose of clearing the land, and B goes into the garden to care for the growing vegetables. After an hour spent in these respective occupations, B becomes disquieted, even alarmed, oppressed with the feeling that some misfortune has happened and that A is needing his assistance. He is unable to continue his work and at once starts for the woods to seek for A. He finds that A has received a glancing blow from his axe which has deeply wounded his foot, disabled him, and put his life in immediate danger from hemorrhage. Here the thought of A in his extreme peril goes out intensely to B, desiring his presence; and B, by some unusual perceptive power, takes cognizance of this intense thought and wish. This is telepathy. Again, suppose B hears a voice which he recognizes as A's calling his name and with a peculiar effect which B recognizes as distress or entreaty. Or, again, that B sees a picture or representation of A lying wounded and bleeding, still it is a telepathic impulse from A and taken cognizance of by B which constitutes the communication between them, whatever the exact nature or method of the communication may be.

The theories or hypotheses which have been put forward regarding the method by which this telepathic influence or impact is conveyed may be noted as follows:--

(1) That of a vibratory medium, always present and analogous to the atmosphere for propagating sound or the universal ether for propagating light.

(2) An effluence of some sort emanating from the persons concerned and acting as a medium for the time being.

(3) A sixth sense.

(4) A duplex personality or subliminal self.

First, then, as regards the vibratory hypothesis; it would demand a variety of media to convey separately something corresponding to the sense of sight, the sense of hearing, and to each of the other senses--touch, taste, and smell--as all these sensations have been telepathically transmitted, or else there must exist one single medium capable of transmitting these many widely different methods of sensation separately,--either of which suppositions are, to say the least, bewildering. Such a medium must also possess a power of penetrating or acting through intervening obstacles, such as no medium with which we are acquainted possesses; and, lastly, in addition to numerous apparently insurmountable difficulties and insufficiencies, there is no proof whatever that any such vibratory medium exists.

Second. Regarding a vital effluence or some physical emanation or aura belonging to each individual, and by means of which communication is possible between persons separated by too great a distance to permit communication through the ordinary channels; it is at least conceivable that such an aura or personal atmosphere exists, and by some it is claimed to be demonstrated; but admitting its existence, that it would be capable of fulfilling the numerous functions demanded of it in the premises is doubtful.

Third. That the telepathic intercommunication is accomplished by means of a sixth sense--a sort of compend of all the other senses, with added powers as regards distance and intervening obstacles--is a hypothesis which has been urged by some, and is at least intelligible; but, while it presents an intelligible explanation of such facts as clairvoyance and the hearing of voices, there is a large class of facts, as we shall see, which utterly refuse to fall into line or be explained by this hypothesis.

Fourth. The hypothesis of different strata of personality--or of a second or subliminal self--is the one which best fulfils the necessary conditions and also harmonizes the greatest number of facts when arranged with reference to this idea. There is also real, substantial evidence that such a second personality actually exists, some of the facts bearing upon this subject having been presented in former chapters.

Those of my readers who have carefully followed the cases of unusual mental action there presented--cases of thought-transference, of clairvoyance, of remarkable mind-action in the hypnotic trance and in natural somnambulism--in well marked examples of double consciousness as shown in the cases of Felida X., of Alma Z., of Ansel Bourne, and the hypnotic subject, Madame B., in her various personalities of Leonie, Leontine, and Leonore, in automatic action as displayed in Planchette-writing, in trance-speaking and in crystal-gazing, cannot have failed to observe, throughout the whole series, mind acting rationally and intelligently, quite independently of the ordinary consciousness, and even at times independently of the whole physical organization. We have considered the evidence which points to the fact, or at least to the theory of a subliminal self, or another personality, in some manner bound up in that complicated physical and mental mechanism which constitutes what we term an individual. We have seen that there are weighty proofs that such a secondary or subliminal, or, if you choose so to designate it, supranormal self, actually exists, and that it exhibits functions and powers far exceeding the functions and powers of the ordinary self. We have seen it expressing its own personal opinions, its own likes and dislikes, quite different and opposite to the opinions, likes, and dislikes of the ordinary self; having its own separate series of remembered actions or chain of memories, its own antecedent history, and its separate present interests; and especially performing actions altogether beyond the powers of the ordinary self. We have seen it going out to great distances, seeing and describing scenes and events there taking place--for example, Swedenborg at Gottenburg witnessing the conflagration at Stockholm; Dr. Gerault's clairvoyant maid-servant, Marie, in France, seeing the sad death of her neighbor's son, Limoges, the ropemaker, while serving in the Crimea; and also the serious illness of Dr. Gerault's military friend in Algiers. Fitzgerald, at Brunswick, Me., seeing and describing the Fall River fire three hundred miles away, and Mrs. Porter, at Bridgeport, Conn., describing the burning of the steamer Henry Clay while it was occurring on the Hudson River near the village of Yonkers. We have seen this same subliminal self in the case of Mr. Stead, going out and acquiring desired knowledge relating to the location, occupation, and needs of persons from whom he desired such information, and bringing it back and reporting it by means of automatic writing. Again, we have seen this subliminal self in the case of Mrs. Newnham, perceiving the silently written and sometimes even the unwritten questions of her husband, and automatically writing the answers by means of Planchette; and we have seen it producing hallucinations of hearing as in the case of Leonore causing Leontine to hear a voice reproving her for her flippancy.

A remarkable series of facts are here pointed out, facts some of which are akin to those which have for ages been lying about in the lumber rooms of history or in out-of-the-way corners of men's memories, neglected and discredited, because unexplained, unaccounted for, forming no part of any recognized system of mental action, and some only recently observed and even now looked at askance for the same reason. They have remained a mass of undigested and unarranged facts, without system, without any ascertained relation to each other, pointing to no definite principle, defined by no definite law. It is only within the past decade that these facts have been studied with reference to the action of a subliminal self.

But this new and startling idea being once admitted and brought to the front, it is found that not only in the whole series of observed automatic actions in the somnambulism of the hypnotic state, and that of ordinary sleep, are the organs of the unconscious body made use of by this subconscious or subliminal self, but also in dreams, in reverie, in moments of abstraction, of strong emotion or mental excitement, and even in the case of some peculiarly susceptible persons in the ordinary waking condition, this subliminal self can greatly influence and sometimes take entire control of the action of the body.

It will be seen then, how wide and important is the range of phenomena in which the subliminal self appears as an active agent, impressing its own special knowledge, however acquired, its ideas, pictures, and images upon the primary self, and causing them to be perceived, remembered, and expressed by it; and with this unusual power in view, evidently it is in this direction also that we must look for the key to that still more remarkable series of phenomena which are known as phantasms or apparitions.