Psychical Research

PSYCHICAL RESEARCH SIR W. F. BARRETT, F. R. S. PROFESSOR OF EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS IN THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE FOR IRELAND, 1873-1910. - PREFACE To compress into a small volume such as the present an outline of psychical research has proved a more formidable task than I anticipated when the Editors asked me to undertake this work. The problems are so new and entangled and the results so startling that it is very difficult to present them in a brief yet readable and convincing form. A superficial sketch of the subject might have been given, but that seemed hardly worthy of the aim which the Editors have in view. I have therefore endeavoured to give a brief survey in separate chapters of the principal lines of work and of the results so far achieved by the Society for Psychical Research. One of the most difficult tasks was to compress into a chapter or two an intelligible view of the laborious work of the Society during recent years in the investigation of automatic writing and the evidence this may afford for survival of bodily death a critical inquiry that extends over several bulky volumes of the Societys Proceedings. Happily my friend, Miss Jane Barlow, D. Litt., who has made a careful study of this subject and is one of the Committee of Reference and Publication of the S. P. R., generously came to my aid. Her literary skill is seen in the two last chapters, wherein she has helped me to outline the salient features of this evidence and the general conclusions to which we have been led. I have also to thank Miss Barlow for much other kind assistance in the preparation of this volume. Mrs. H. Sidgwick, D. Litt., Hon. Secretary and a former President of the S. P. R., has also verykindly read the proof sheets and made some valuable suggestions which I have adopted. It must, however, be understood that neither Mrs. Sidgwick nor the Council of the Society for Psychical Research are in any way responsible for the conclusions stated and the opinions expressed in the following pages. W. F. BAFLRETT. Kingstown, 00. Dublin, Auqwt 1911. - CONTENTS - PREFACE - . e m SCIENCE AND BUPERSTITIOF . . UNCONSCIOUS MUSCULAR ACTION. THE PBNDULB BXPLORATBULAUTOSCOPE8 . THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESaARCHHUMAN PERSONALITY . THE WILLING GAME AND S0 - CALLED THOUGHT-READING . THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE IN THE NORMAL STATE Or THE PERCIPIENT . THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE IN THE HYPNOTIC STATE . MESMERISM-HYPNOTISM-SUGGESTION . EXPERIMENTAL AND SPONTANEOUS TELE PATHY OVER LONG DISTANCES . VISUAL HALLUCINATIONS PHANTASMS OF THE LIVING AND DEAD, vii .. S Vlll CONTENTS CHAP. X DREAMS AND CRYSTAL-VISIONS, XI SUPERNORMAL PERCEPTION SEEING WITHOUT EYES . XI1 THE 80-CALLED DIVINING-OR DOWSING ROD . XI11 HA LNTINGS AND POLTERGEISTS XIV THE PIIYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM XV AUTOMATIC WRITING-CROSS-CORRESPUNDENCE . XVI AUTOMATIC WRITING CONTINUED-SURVIVAL ABTER DEATH INDEX . 253 PSYCHICAL RESEARCH CHAPTER I SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION THE phenomena we are about to discuss in the present volume are characterized by many sceptics as a recrudescence of superstition see Nature, vol. 51, p. 122, and on the other hand by many believers as evidence of the supernatural. The average busy man, who has no time for critical inquiry, probably thinks that there is a good deal of truth in both these statements, and therefore prefers to give the whole subject a wide berth. But the scornful disdain of the savant and thecredulous belief of the ignorant are now giving way to a more rational attitude of mind...