part in collecting vitality from the sun for the use of the

denser physical body, and reference is made to the articles on the Etheric Body, and Chaksams. At death, the physical body and the etheric double are cast aside and slowly resolve into their components. (See Worlds, Planes or Spheres, Theosophy.)
Pierart, Z. T. : French Spiritualist and editor of La Revue Spiritualists. M. Periart was born in humble circumstances but managed to secure for himself an adequate education. He became in time professor at the College of Maubeuge, and afterwards secretary to Baron Du Potet. In 1858 he founded La Revue Spirilualiste, and led the French spirit- ualists, between whom and the spiritists under Allan Kardec there existed a certain rivalry. Until his death in 1878 he continued to devote his time and talents to the movement with which he had identified himself.
Pierre, La : (See Palingenesy.)
Pinto : Grand Master of Malta : (See Cagliostro.)
Piper, Mrs. : A famous trance medium, whose discourses and writings present the best evidence extant for the actuality of spirit communication. A native of America, it was there that Mrs. Piper first became entranced, while consulting a professional clairvoyant in 1884. Numerous spirits pur- ported to control her in these early days — Mrs. Siddons, Longfellow, Bach, to mention only the most celebrated — but in 1885, when she came under the observation of the Society for Psychical Research, her principal control was Dr. Phinuit. From that time forward her trance utterances and writings — for after 1890 the communications were generally in writing — were carefully recorded and analysed by members of the S.P.R., chiefly under the direction of Dr. Hodgson. In 1889-90 Mrs. Piper visited this country and gave many seances, most of which seemed to display supernormal powers in the medium. It is impossible in a limited space to detail her remarkable trance impersonations. On his death in 1905 Dr. Hodgson became one of her controls ; Mr. Myers and Mr. Gurney also controlled her. But perhaps the most life-like and convincing impersonation or spirit-manifestation — whichever it may have been — was that of George Pelham, a young American author and a friend of Dr. Hodgson, who had died suddenly in 1892. (See Trance Personalities.) The information given by this control, his recognition of friends, and so on, were so accurate as to convince many that it was indeed " G.P." who spoke.
From that time until 1896 the seances were- especially productive, but in the latter year the medium underwent an operation. Phinuit, who often acted as a go-between for other controls and the sitter, now took his departure, and a band of other spirits, led by the " Imperator " of Stainton Moses, took control of Mrs. Piper's organism. The trance writings and utterances became fewer, and the spirits recommended that the number of sittings be cut down on account of the medium's health. Nevertheless some excellent tests were subsequently got with the Piper- Hodgson, Piper-Myers, and Piper-Gurney controls. Mrs. Piper was also one of those who took part in the " cross- coirespondences " sittings held in 1906 and onwards, the other mediums being Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Verrall, Miss Verrall, Mrs. Holland, Mrs. Forbes, etc. (See " Spiritual- ism, and Cross-Correspondences.) It seems clear that in Mrs. Piper's trance phenomena there are evidences of some supernormal faculty, at the best, of telepathy, though to the writer even that hypothesis seems to be inadequate. It would, for example, be a very complicated form of telepathy, that would enable some of these automatic " cross- correspondence " scripts to be written, in which, say, two scripts contain allusions unintelligible to the writers, and requiring a key provided by a third script to make them plain. Such a case inevitably suggests that one and the same intelligence directs all three mediums. Mrs. Piper's impersonation of George Pelham, again, calls for some explanation, since it would seem that all the information could hardly have been culled from the sitter's minds. (See Spiritualism.) Planchette : An instrument designed for the purpose of communication with spirits. It consists of a thin-heart- shaped piece of wood, mounted on two small wheel-castors and carrying a pencil, point downwards, for the third support. The hand is placed on the wood and the pencil writes automatically, or presumably by spirit control operating through the psychic force of the medium.
In 1853, a well-known French spiritualist, M. Planchette, invented this instrument to which he gave his name. For quite fifteen years it was used exclusively by French spiritualists. Then in the year 1868 a firm of toy-makers in America took up the idea and flooded the booksellers' shops with great numbers of planchettes. It became a popular mania, and the instrument sold in thousands there and in Great Britain. It was, and is, largely used simply as a toy and any results obtained that may be arresting and seemingly inexplicable are explained by Animal Magnetism or traced to the power of subconscious thought.
Amongst spiritualists it has been used for spirit com- munication. Automatic writing has often been developed by use of the planchette, some mediums publishing books which, they claimed, were written wholly by their spirit- controls through the use of planchettes. Dr. Ashburnes, in his Spiritualism Chemically Explained says that the human body is a condensation of gases, which constantly exude from the skin in invisible vapour — otherwise electricity ; that the fingers coming in contact with the planchette transmit to it an " odic force," and thus set it in motion. He goes on to say that some people have phosphorous in excess in their system and the vapour " thus exuded forms a positively living, thinking, acting body, capable of directing a pencil." There are variations on the planchette form such as the dial-planchette which consists of a founda- tion of thick cardboard nine inches square on the face of which the alphabet is printed and also the numerals one to ten. There are the words " Yes," " No," " Goodbye " and " Don't know." These letters, words, and numerals are printed on the outer edge of a circle, the diameter of which is about seven inches. In the centre of this circle, and firmly affixed to the cardboard, is a block of wood three
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inches square. The upper surface of this block has", a circular channel in it and in this run balls. Over the balls is placed a circular piece of hard wood, five inches in diameter, and attached to the outer edge of this a pointer. The upper piece of wood is attached to the lower by an ordinary screw, upon which the upper plate revolves when used for communication. Another form is the Ouija board on which in a convenient order the letters of the alphabet are printed and over which a pointer easily moves under the direction of the hand of the person or persons acting as mediums. It is stated that a form of this " mystic toy " was in use in the days of Pythagoras, about 540 B.C. In a French history of Pythagoras, the author describing his celebrated school of philosophy, asserts that the brother- hood held frequent seances 0* circles at which a mystic table, moving on wheels, moved towards signs inscribed on the surface of a stone slab on which the moving-table worked. The author states that probably Pythagoras, in his travels among the Eastern nations, observed some such apparatus in use amongst them and adapted his idea from them. Another trace of some such " communicating mechanism " is found in the legend told by the Scan- dinavian Blomsturvalla how the people of Jomsvikingia in the twelfth century had a high priest, one Volsunga, whose predictions were renowned for their accuracy throughout the length and breadth of the land. He had in his posses- sion a little ivory doll that drew with " a pointed instru- ment " on parchment or " other substance," certain signs to which the priest had the key. The communications were in every case prophetic utterances, and it is said in every case came true. The writer who recounts the legend thought it probable that the priest had procured the doll in China. In the National Museum at Stockholm there is a doll of this description which is worked by mechanism, and when wound up walks round and round in circles and occasionally uses its right arm to make curious signs with a pointed instrument like a stylo which is held in the hand. Its origin and use have been connected with the legend recounted above.
Planet : (See Planetary Chains.)
Planetary Logos, or Ruler of Seven Chains, is, in the theo- sophic scheme, one of the grades in the hierarchy which assists in the work of creation and guidance. It is the supreme Logos who initiates this work, but in it he is helped by the " seven." They receive from him the inspiration and straightway each in his own Planetary Chain carries on the work, directed by him no doubt, yet in an individual fashion, through all the successive stages which go to compose a Scheme of Evolution. (See Logos, Chains.)
Planetary Spirits : In the theosophical scheme the number of these spirits is seven. They are emanations from the Absolute, and are the agents by which the Absolute effects all his changes in the Universe.
Planets : (See Astrology.)
Podovne Vile : (See Slavs.)
Poe, Edgar Allen : (See Fiction, Occult English.)
Poinandres : A hermetic book. (See Hermes Trismegistus.)
Polong : Malay familiar. (See Malays.)
Poltergeist : The name given to the supposed supernatural causes of outbreaks of rappings, inexplicable noises, and similar disturbances, which from time to time have mystified men of science as well as the general public. The term poltergeist (i.e.. Poller Geist, rattling ghost) is sufficiently indicative of the character of these beings, whose manifesta- tions are, at the best, puerile and purposeless tricks, and not infrequently display an openly mischievous and destructive tendency. The poltergeist is by no means indigenous to any one country, nor has he confined his attentions to any particular period. Lang mentions several cases belonging
to the Middle Ages, and one at least which dates so far back as 856 B.C. In both savage and civilised countries this peculiar form of haunting is well known, and it is a curious fact that the phenomena are almost identical in every case. The disturbances are always observed to be particularly active in the neighbourhood of one person, generally a child or a young woman, and preferably an epileptic or hysterical subject. According to the theory advanced by spiritualists, this centre of the disturbances is a natural medium, through whom the spirits desire to communicate with the world of living beings. In earlier times such a person was regarded as a witch, or the victim of a witch, whichever supposition was best fitted to the chcu instances. The poltergeist is represented as a development from witch- craft, and the direct forerunner of modern spiritualism, and is, in fact, a link between the two.
Turning our attention first to some of the earlier records, we may consider briefly the case of the Drummer of Ted worth (1661), and the Epworth Case (1716). In both of these instances the manifestations witnessed were of the usual order. The spirits, if spirits they were, sought to attract attention by familiar childish tricks, and communicated by means of the same cumbrous process of knocking. The circumstances of the first-named instance are as follow : In 1661 a vagrant drummer was, at the instance of Mr. Mompesson of Tedworth, taken before a Justice of the Peace, and deprived of his drum, which instrument finally found a resting-place in the house of Mr. Mompesson, during that gentleman's absence from home. Immediately violent disturbances broke out in the house. Loud knock- ings and thumpings were heard, and the beating of an invisible drum. Articles flew recklessly about the rooms, and the bedsteads (particularly those in which the younger children lay) were violently shaken. After a time the drummer was transported, when the manifestations abruptly ceased, but a recurrence of the outbreak synchronised with his return. Contemporary opinion put the case down to witchcraft on the part of the drummer, but Mr. Podmore and other moderns incline to the belief that the " two little modest girls in the bed " had more than a little to do with the mysterious knockings and scratchings of the poltergeist. In the famous Epworth Case, where the phenomena is well attested by the whole Wesley family, and described in numerous contemporary letters, the dis- turbances comprised all the ordinary manifestations of levitations, loud and terrifying noises, and rappings, together with apparitions of rabbits, badgers, and so on. Podmore is of the opinion that one of the daughters, Hetty, was in some way implicated in the affair. She alone did not give an account of the manifestations, though she had promised to do so. The poltergeist showed a decided partiality for her company — a circumstance which, though not unobserved, does not seem to have held any special significance for her family. A more recent case in which a charge of witchcraft is involved, is the Cideville case, described by Mr. Lang in his Cock Lane and Common Sense, under the heading, " A Modern Trial for Witchcraft." In 1849 the Cure of Cideville, Seine Inferieure, was sum- moned to court by a shepherd named Thorel, who alleged that the Cure had denounced him for sorcery. In his defence the Cure stated that Thorel himself had confessed to having produced by means of sorcery certain mysterious manifestations which had disturbed the inmates of the Abbey. During the trial it transpired that the Cure, when visiting a sick parishioner, had driven from the bedside a man of notorious character, with an evil reputation for sorcery, who was about to treat the patient. The sorcerer retired, vowing vengeance on the Cure, and was shortly afterwards sent to prison. Later when two little boys, pupils of the Cure, were at an auction, they were approached
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by Thorel, who was known as a disciple of the sorcerer. He placed his hand on the head of one of the children, and muttered some strange words. When the boys returned to the Abbey the poltergeist performances commenced. . Violent blows on the walls seemed about to demolish them, one of the children complained that he was followed by a man's shadow, and other witnesses declared that they had seen a grey hand and wreaths of smoke. Some of those who visited the Abbey were able to hold a conversation with the spirits by means of knocking. It was agreed that sharp-pointed irons should be driven into the walls, and on this being done, smoke and flames were seen to issue from the incisions. At last Thorel sought the Cure and confessed that the disturbances were the work of his master, the sorcerer. The plaintiff was non-suited, and the judge, in summing up, said that the cause of the " extraordinary facts " of this case " remained unknown." In February, 1851, the boys were removed from the Abbey, and the disturbances ceased.
Of those instances where a spiritualistic explanation has been offered perhaps the most outstanding is the case of the Cock Lane Ghost, almost too well-known to call for recapitulation. In 1 761-2 raps and scratches were heard in a house in Cock Lane, generally occurring near the bed of the little daughter of the house, Elizabeth Parsons. Very soon the manifestations became so pronounced that people from all parts of the city were crowding to witness them. A code of raps was agreed upon, through which it was ascertained that the spirit was that of a lady named " Fanny," who declared that she had been poisoned by her deceased sister's husband, with whom she had lodged in the Cock Lane house some two years previously, and expressed a wish that he might be hanged. It is, indeed, quite a common thing for the poltergeist to reveal a crime, real or imaginary — and more often the latter, which is entirely in keeping with the character of the spirit. In the Cock Lane affair the manifestations followed the girl when she was removed to another house, and she trembled strongly, even in her sleep, on the approach of the ghost. The case which presents the most formidably array of evidence, however, is that of the Joller family in Switzer- land. In 1860-2 serious disturbances broke out in Stans, in the home of M. Joller, a prominent lawyer, and a man of excellent character. Knocks were first heard by a servant- maid, who also averred that she was haunted by strange grey shapes, and the sound of sobbing. In the autumn of 1861, she was dismissed and another maid engaged. For a time there was peace, but in the summer of 1862 they commenced with redoubled vigour. The wife and seven children of M. Joller heard and saw many terrifying sights and sounds, but M. Joller himself remained sceptical. At length, however, even he was convinced that neither trickery nor imagination would suffice as an explanation of the phenomena. Meanwhile the manifestations became more and more outrageous, and continued in full view of the thousands of persons who were attracted by curiosity to the house, including the Land-Captain Zelger, the Director of Police Jaun, the President of the Court of Justice, and other prominent people, some of whom sug- gested that a commission be appointed to examine the house thoroughly. Three of the heads of police were deputed to conduct the enquiry. They demanded the withdrawal of