part in the phenomena of both " physical " and trance

mediums, for it has been shown that the latter frequently collect, through private enquiry agents, information anent possible sitters which is later retailed by the '.' controls." The spiritualist's explanation of these lapses into fraud is that they are instigated by the spirits themselves. And it does not seem impossible that a genuine medium might have resort to fraud during a temporary failure of his psychic powers. Automatism covers a still wider field. That automatic utterances, writing, drawing, etc., may be quite involuntary, and without the sphere of the medium's normal consciousness, is no longer to be doubted The psychological phenomena may be met with in small children, and in private mediums whose good faith is beyond question, and the state is recognised as being allied to hypnotism and hysteria. Besides automatism and fraud there are some other factors to be considered ere the possibility of transcendental faculties be touched upon.
On the part of the sitter as well as of the medium some deception may be practised. It has been said that the ability to inspire confidence in his sitters is essential to a successful medium, and if at the same time the sitters be predisposed to believe in the supernatural nature of the manifestations, it is easy to imagine a lessening of the attention and observation so necessary to the investigator. The impossibility of continued observation for even a short period is a fact that can only be proved by experiment. Memory defects and proneness to exaggeration are also accountable for many of the marvels of the seance-room, and possible hallucination must be considered. When the medium is in a trance, with its accompanying hyperesthesia, unconscious suggestion- on the part of the sitters might offer a rational explanation of so-called " clairvoyance." But when all these factors are removed the root problems of mediumship still remain. In the case of Mrs. Piper for instance, the least that can be said for her trance utterances is that they were telepathic ; that she gathered information from the minds of her sitters, or through them from other living minds. To not a few, however, . they presented definite proof of spirit communication. To meet such instances Mr. Myers formulated his doctrine of transcen- dental faculties, crediting the medium with clairvoyance and pre-vision. But no really conclusive test has ever been complied with. Psychical researchers have left sealed letters, whose contents are known only to themselves, instructing that after their deaths the letters be submitted to a medium, but in no case have the contents been correctly revealed. Again, in the case of Eusapia Palladino, Mr. MyeTs, Sir Oliver Lodge, and others have inclined to the belief in a force emanating from the medium herself by which the physical manifestations are produced. Here, also, the evidence cannot be considered conclusive. Skilled and scientific investigators have from time to time been deceived by what has actually proved to be sleight of hand, and, in fact, the only trustworthy evidence possible would be that of automatic records.
At the same time the testimony of such distinguished gentlemen as Professor Richet, Sir O. Lodge, and others makes it evident that judgment must not be hastily pro- nounced on the medium, but rather that an earnest endea- vour be made to solve the problems in that connection.
Healing Mediums. — The diagnosis and cure of disease have been extensively practised by spiritualistic mediums, following in the path of the older somnambules and magnetic subjects. These latter were wont not only to trace the progress of their own diseases, but also to diagnose and to prescribe a mode of treatment. At the outset it was not prescribed for the diseases of those with whom they were in rapport ; and likewise the medium, having established rapport between his control and the patient, was influenced to prescribe a mode of treatment. At the outset it was not considered proper for the healing medium to accept any remuneration for his services, but later healers usually demanded a fee. It is true that healing mediums, like Christian Scientists, mesmerists, magnetists, and others, have effected a considerable proportion of bona fide cures, but whether by spirit influence or suggestion is a point on which there is too much diversity of opinion for it to be discussed here. It is claimed for many mediums that they have cured diseases of long standing, which were pronounced incurable — heart disease, consumption, cancers, paralysis, and many more. Some also have been credited with the power to heal instantaneously, as did the Cure d'Ars and other miraculous healers. The marvellous potency of the waters at Lourdes is considered by spiritualists to be the gift of discarnate beings, having been in the first instance revealed to a child by her spirit guide, in the form of a- white angel.
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Metempsychosis
Medium and Daybreak : Spiritualistic Journal. (See Spirit- ualism.)
Medium Evangslique, La (Journal) : (Sec France.)
Melusina : The most famous of the fays of France. Being condemned to turn into a serpent from the waist down- wards every Saturday, she made her husband. Count Raymond of Lusignan, promise never to come near her on a Saturday. This prohibition finally exciting his curiosity and suspicion, he hid himself and witnessed his wife's transformation. Melusina was now compelled to quit her mortal husband and destined to wander about as a spectre till the day of doom. It is said also that the count immured her in the dungeon of his castle.
Mental World : Formerly known as the Manas Plane — is in the theosophic scheme of things, the third lowest of the seven worlds. It is the world of thought into which man passes on the death of the astral body, and it is composed of the seven divisions of matter in common with the other worlds. It is observed that the mental world is the World of thought, but it is necessary to realise that it is the world of good thoughts only, for the base have all been purged away during the soul's stay in the astral world. According as these thoughts are, is the power to perceive the mental wovld. Perfected man would be free of the whole of it, but the ordinary man has in his past imperfect experience, gathered only a comparatively small amount of thought and he is, therefore, unable to perceive more than a com- paratively small part of his surroundings. It follows from this that though his bliss is inconceivably great, his sphere of action is very limited, — this limitation, however, becom- ing less and less with his abode there after each fresh incarnation. In the Heaven world-division into which he awakes after dying in the astral world, he finds vast, vm- thought-of means of pursuing what has seemed to him good, art, science, philosophy and so forth. Here, all these come to a glorious fruition of which we can have no conception, and at last the time arrives when he casts aside his mental body and awakens in his casual body to the still greater bliss of the higher division of the mental world. At this stage he has done with the bodies which form his mortal personality, and which form his home in successive incarnations, and he is now truly himself, a spirit, immortal and unchangeable except for increasing development and evolution. Into his casual body is worked all that he has experienced in his physical, astral and mental bodies, and when he still finds that experience insufficient for his needs, he descends again into grosser matter in order that he may learn yet more and more.
Mephis or Memphitis : A stone which, when bruised to powder and drunk in water, causes insensibility to torture.
Mercury : Or quicksilver. A metal which has been known of for many centuries, and which has played an important