M. Joller and his family, and remained in the house for six

days without witnessing anything abnormal, and drew up a report to this effect. Directly the Joller family entered the house the interruptions were renewed. M. Joller became the butt of ridicule to all, even his political and personal friends, and was finally compelled to quit his ancestral home. This is undoubtedly one of the most striking cases of poltergeist haunting on record. Here, as
in almost every instance, there are children evidently and intimately bound up with the manifestations. It is his choice of a medium which has directed most suspicion to the poltergeist, and it on this that Mr. Podmore bases his assumption that all poltergeist visitations are traceable to the cunning tricks of " naughty little girls." He suggests that with the " medium " under careful control it is more than probable that the poltergeist will turn shy, and refuse to perform his traditional functions ! There is much to be said for this theory. The medium- of the spiritualistic seance is frequently credited with the loftiest utterances, and the production of literary, musical, and artistic com- positions. The poltergeist indulges in such futilities as the breaking of crockery, the throwing about of furniture, and the materialization of coal and carrots in the drawing- room. Why, if they are mature spirits, as they purport to be, should they practise such feats of mystification as would seem to be impelled either by the foolish vanity of a child, or the cunning impulses of a deranged mind ? Then there is often a curious hesitancy on the part of the medium, as in the case of Hetty Wesley, a trembling on the approach of the phenomena, and a tendency to such physical dis- turbances as epileptic and other fits. And sometimes the poltergeist confesses, as did the maid-servant Ann at Stock- well, to having manipulated the disturbing occurrences with the aid of wires and horsehair. But in such a case as that of the Joller family, the theory of " naughty little girls " is childishly inadequate. It is all but impossible to believe that children could produce the manifestations in full view of hundreds of people. It is still more difficult to understand how children and ignorant persons, with presumably no knowledge of previous instances, could fix upon exactly the same phenomena which has been pro- duced by the poltergeists of every age and clime. And in the Joller case, there is the evidence of many spectators that the most violent disturbances were witnessed when the whole family were assembled outside the house and thus not in a position to assist the manifestations, which included the throwing open of all windows, doors, cup- boards and drawers, the materialization of the " thin grey cloud," noises and apparitions. In short, it must be" admitted that there is an element of mystery which calls for elucidation, and which the most scientific and critical minds have hitherto failed to make clear. Polynesia : Magic in Polynesia is the preserve of the priestly and upper classes, although lesser sorcery is practised by individuals not of these castes. There is a prevailing belief in what is known as mana, or supernatural power, which is resident in certain individuals. The method of using this power is twofold. One of these is practised bv a society known as the Iniat, where certain rites are carried out which are supposed to bring calamity upon the enemies of the tribe. The ability to exercise magic is known as agagara, and the magician or wizard is tena agagara. If the wizard desires to cast magic upon another man, he usually tries to secure something that that person has touched with his mouth, and to guard against this, the natives are careful to destroy all food-refuse that they do not consume, and they carefully gather up even a single drop of blood when they receive a cut or scratch, and burn it or throw it into the sea, so that the wizard may not obtain it. The wizard having obtained something belonging to the person whom he wishes to injure, buries it in a deep hole, together with leaves of poisonous plants and sharp-pointed pieces of bamboo, accompanying the action by suitable incantations. If he chances to be a member of the Iniat society, he will place on the top of the whole one of their sacred stones, as they believe that so long as the stone is pressing down the article which has been buried in the hole the man to whom it belonged will remain sick. Immediately a man falls
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sick, he sets enquiries on foot as to who has bewitched him, and there is always someone to acknowledge the soft impeachment. If he does not succeed in having the spell removed he will almost certainly succumb, but if he succeeds in having it taken away, he begins to recover almost immediately ; and the strange thing is that he evinces no -enmity towards the person or persons who " bewitched " him, — indeed it is taken as a matter of course, and he quietly waits the time when he will be able to return the compliment !
These remarks apply for the most part to New Britain, and its system of magic is practically the same as that known in Fiji as vakadraunikau concerning which very little is known. In his work Melanesians and Polynesians the Rev. Dr. George Brown, the well-known pioneer missionary and explorer, gives an interesting account of the magical systems of these people, in which he incor- porates several informative letters from brother mission- aries, which are well worth quotation. For example, the Rev. W. E. Bromilow says that at Dobu in south-eastern New Guinea : —
" Werabana (evil spirits) are those which inhabit dark places, and wander in the night, and give witches their power to smite all round. Barau is the wizardry of men, who look with angry eyes out of dark places, and throw small stones, first spitting on them, at men, women, and even children, thus causing death. A tree falls, it is a witch who caused it to do so, though the tree may be quite rotten, or a gust of wind may break it off. A man meets with an accident, it is the werabana. He is getting better through the influence of the medicine-man, but has a relapse ; this is the barau at work, as we have ascertained from the terrified shouts of our workmen, as some sleeper has called out in a horrid dream. These medicine-men, too, have great power, and no wonder, when one of our girls gets a little dust in her eye, and the doctor takes a big stone out of it ; and when a chief has a pain in the chest, and to obaoba takes therefrom a two-inch nail.
'* The people here will have it that all evil spirits are female. Werabana is the great word, but the term is applied to witches as well, who are called the vesses of the werabana, but more often the single word is used. I have the names of spirits inhabiting the glens and forests, but they are all women or enter into women, giving them terrible powers. Whenever any one is sick, it is the wera- bana who has caused the illness, and any old woman who happened to be at enmity with the sick person is set down as the cause. A child died the other day, and the friends were quite angry because the witches had not heeded the words of the lota, i.e., the Christian religion Taparoro, and .given up smiting the little ones. ' Tnese are times of peace,' said they, ' why should the child die then ? ' We, of course, took the opportunity and tried to teach them that sickness caused death without the influence of poor old women.
'" Sorcerers are barau, men whose powers are more terrible than those of all the witches. I was talking to a .to obaoba — medicine-man— the other day, and I asked him why his taking a stone out of a man's chest did not cure him. ' Oh,' said he, ' he must have been smitten by a barau.' A very logical statement this. Cases the to obaoba cannot cure are under the fell stroke of the barau, from which there is no escape, except by the sorcerer's own incantations.
" The Fijian sorcery of drau-ni-kau appears here in another form called sumana or rubbish. The sorcerer obtains possession of a small portion of his victim's hair, or skin, or food left after a meal, and carefully wraps it up in a parcel, which he sends off to as great a distance as is ^possible. In the meantime he very cunningly causes a
report of the sumana to be made known to the man whom he wishes to kill, and the poor fellow is put into a great fright and dies."
The Rev. S. B. Fellows gives the following account of the beliefs of the people of Kiriwina (Trobiands group) : —
" The sorcerers, who are very numerous, are credited with the power of creating the wind and rain, of making the gardens to be either fruitful or barren, and of causing sick- ness which leads to death. Their methods of operation are legion. The great chief, who is also the principal sorcerer, claims the sole right to secure a bountiful harvest every year. This function is considered of transcendent im- portance by the people.
" Our big chief, Bulitara, was asking me one day if I had these occult powers. When I told him that I made no such claim, he said, ' Who makes the wind and the rain and the harvest in your land ? ' I answered, ' God.' 1 Ah,' said he, ' that's it. God does tins work for your people, and I do it for our people. God and I are equal.' He delivered this dictum very quietly, and with the air of a man who had given a most satisfactory explanation.
" But the one great dread that darkens the life of every native is the fear of the bogau, the sorcerer who has the power to cause sickness and death, who, in the darkness of the night, steals to the house of his unsuspecting victim, and places near the doorstep a few leaves from a certain tree, containing the mystic power which he, by his evil arts, has imparted to them. The doomed man, on going out of his house next morning, unwittingly steps over the fatal leaves, and is at once stricken down by a mortal sickness. Internal disease of every kind is set down to this agency. Bulitara told me the mode of his witchcraft. He boils his decoctions, containing numerous ingredients, in a special cooking-pot on a small fire, in the secret recesses of his own house, at the dead of night ; and while the pot is boiling he speaks into it an incantation known only to a few persons. The bunch of leaves dipped in this is at once ready for use. Passing through the villages the other day, I came across a woman, apparently middle-aged, who was evidently suffering from a wasting disease, she was so thin and worn. I asked if she had any pain, and her friends said ' No.' Then they explained that some bogau was sucking her blood. I said, ' How does he do it ? ' ' Oh,' they said, ' that is known only to herself. He manages to get her blood which makes him strong, while she gets weaker every day, and if he goes on much longer she will die.'
" Deformities at birth, and being born dumb or blind, are attributed to the evil influence of disembodied spirits, who inhabit a lower region called Tuma. Once a year the spirits of the ancestors visit their native village in a body after the harvest is gathered. At this time the men perform special dances, the people openly display their valuables, spread out on platforms, and great feasts are made for the spirits. On a certain night, when the moon named Namarama is at the full, all the people — men, women and children — join in raising a great shout, and so drive the spirits back to Tuma.
" A peculiar custom prevails of wearing, as charms, various parts of the body of a deceased relative. On her breast, suspended by a piece of string round her neck, a widow wears her late husband's lower jaw, the full set of teeth looking ghastly and grim. The small bones of the arms and legs are taken out soon after death, and formed into spoons, which are used to put lime into the mouth when eating betel-nut. Only this week a chief died in a village three miles from us, and a leg and an arm, for the above purpose, were brought to our village by some relatives as their portion of their dead friend.
" An evidence of the passionate nature of this people is
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seen in the comparatively frequent attempts at suicide. Their method is to climb into the top branches of a high tree* and, after tying the ankles together, to throw them- selves down. During the last twelve months two attempts near our home were successful, and several others were prevented! In some cases the causes were trivial. One 'young man allowed his anger to master him because his wife had smoked a small piece of tobacco belonging to him ; he fell from the tree across a piece of root, which was above ground and broke his neck. A woman, middle-aged and childless, who had become jealous, climbed into a tree near her house, and calling out " Good-bye ' to her brother in the village, instantly threw herself down. Falling on her head she died in a few hours ; the thick skin on the scalp was cut, but so far as I could see the skull was not broken." Some of the minor magical customs of Polynesia are worthy of note. Natives of the Duke of York group believe that by persistent calling upon a man whom they wish to get hold of he will by their call be drawn to them, even from a great distance. The natives will not eat or drink when at sea. In New Guinea and Fiji the custom prevails of cutting off a finger joint in token of mourning for a near relative, as do the bushmen of South Africa. (See Magic, Prehistoric.) They firmly believe in mer- maids, tailed men and dwarfs ; and regarding these they are most positive in their assertions. The natives of the Duke of York group in fact declared to a missionary that they had caught a mermaid, who had married a certain native, and that the pair had several of a family ; " but unfortunately," says the relater of this story, " I could never get to see them." Like many other races, the Polynesians work themselves into a great state of terror whenever an eclipse takes place, and during the phenome- non they beat drums, shout and invoke their gods.
In Samoa magic is not practised to such an extent as in other Melanesian groups, although the sorcerer still exists. He is, however, much more sophisticated, and instead of asking merely for any trifling object connected with the person whom he desires to bewitch, he demands property, such as valuable mats and other things which are of use to him. His modus operandi was to get into communication with his god, who entered the sorcerer's body, which became violently contorted and convulsed. The assembled natives would then hear a voice speaking from behind a screen, probably a ventriloquial effort, which asserted the presence of the god invoked. Sickness was generally believed to be caused by the anger of some god, who could thus be con- cealed by the priest or wizard and duly placated. The " god " invariably required some present of substantial value, such as a piece of land, a canoe, or other property, and if the priest happens to know of a particularly valuable object belonging to the person who supposed himself bewitched, he stipulates that it shall be given up to him. This caste of priests is known as taula-aitu, and also act as medicine-men. Polytrix : This is almost the only example of an inauspicious stone. It caused the hair to fall off the head of anyone who had it about his person. Pontica : A blue stone with red stars, or drops and lines like blood. It compels the devil to answer questions, and puts him to flight. Poppy Seeds : Divination by smoke was sometimes practised by magicians. A few jasmine or poppy seeds were flung upon burning coals, for this purpose ; if the smoke rose lightly and ascended straight into the heavens, it augured well ; but if it hung about it was regarded as a bad omen. Pordage : (See Visions.) Porka : (See Slavs.) Port of Fortune : (See Astrology.) Postel, Guillaume : A visionary of the sixteenth century.
born in the diocese of Avranches. He was so precocious that at fourteen years of age he was made master of a school. It is said that he was in the habit of reading the most profound works of the Jewish rabbis, and the vivacity of his imagination threw him into constant troubles, from which he had the greatest difficulty in extricating himself. He believed that he had been called by God to re-unite all men under one law, either by reason or the sword. The pope and the king of France were to be the civil and religious heads of his new republic. He was' made Almoner to a hospital at Venice, where he came under the influence of a woman called Mere Jeanne, who had visions which had turned her head. Because of his heterodox preachings,. Postel was denounced as a heretic, but latterly was regarded as merely mad. After having travelled somewhat exten- sively in the East, and having written several works ia which he dealt with the visions of his coadjutor, he retired to the priory of St. Martin-des-Champs at Paris, where he died penitent in 1581. Posthumous Letters : Many investigators of psychic science, members of the Society for Psychic Research and others, have left sealed letters, whose contents are known only to the writer. On the death of the writer, and before the letter shall have been opened, an attempt is made by a. medium to reveal the contents. By this means it is hoped to prove the actuality or otherwise of spirit communication, for, since only the writer knows what the letter contains,, it is presumed that on his death this knowledge can only be communicated through his discarnate spirit. This hypothesis certainly overlooks the fact that the information, might be telepathically acquired during the writer's life- time by a still living person, and so conveyed to the medium. As yet, however, hypotheses are premature, for no attempt of the kind has met with striking success. Powder of Projection : A powder which assisted the alchemist in the transmutation of base metal into pure gold. (See- Seton.) Powder of Sympathy : A remedy which, by its application, to the weapon which had caused a wound, was supposed to cure the hurt. This method was in vogue during the reigns of James I. and Charles I., and its chief exponent was a gentleman named Sir Kenelm Digby. An abstract of his theory, contained in an address given before an. assembly of nobles and learned men at Montpellier in. France, may be seen in Pettigrew's Superstitions connected with Medicine and Surgery. The following is the recipe- for the powder : — " Take Roman vitriol six or eight ounces, beat it very small in a mortar, sift it through a fine sieve when the sun enters Leo ; keep it in the heat of the sun by day, and dry by night." This art has been treated by some authors with belief, and by others with unbelieving wit :. Wrenfels says : — " If the superstitious person be wounded by any chance, he applies the salve, not to the wound, but, what is more effectual to the weapon by which he received it." Pozenne Vile : (See Slavs.)
Pratyshara : One of the initial stages of yoga practice. Precipitation of Matter : One of the phenomena of spiritual- ism which least admits of a rational explanation is that known as the " passing of solids through solids." The statement of the hypothetical fourth dimension of space is an attempt at a solution of the problem ; so also is the theory of " precipitation of matter." The latter suggests that before one solid body passes through another it is resolved into its component atoms, to be precipitated in its- original form when the passage is accomplished. M. Camille Flammarion found a parallel to this process in the passage of a piece of ice — a solid — through a napkin. The ice passes through the napkin in the form of water, and may afterwards be re-frozen. This is matter passing.
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through matter, a solid passing through a solid, after it has undergone a change of condition. And we are only carry- ing out M. Flammarion's inference in suggesting that it is something analogous to this process which occurs in all cases of solids passing through solids.
Prelati : (See Gillis de Laval.)
Premonition : An impressional warning of a future event. Premonitions may range from vague feelings of disquiet, suggestive of impending disaster, to actual hallucinations, whether visual or auditory. Dreams are frequent vehicles of premonitions, either direct or symbolical, and there are countless instances of veridical dreams. In such cases it is hard to say whether the warning may have come from an external source, as spiritualists aver, or 'whether the portended catastrophe may have resulted, in part, at least, from auto-suggestion. The latter is plainly the explanation of another form of premonition — i.e., the predictions made by patients in the magnetic or medium- istic trance with regard to their maladies. The magnetic subject who prophesied that his malady would reach a crisis on a certain date several weeks ahead, probably himself attended subconsciously to the fulfilling of his prophecy. Might not the same thing happen in " veridical" dreams and hallucinations ? We know that a subject obeying a post-hypnotic suggestion will weave his action quite naturally into the surrounding circumstances, though the very moment of its performance may have been fixed months before. That the dreamer and hallucinated sub- ject also might suggest and fulfil their premonitions, either directly or by telepathic communication of the suggestion to another agent, does not seem very far-fetched or im- probable. Then there is, of course, coincidence. It is impossible but that a certain pioportion of verified premoni- tions should be the result of coincidence. Possibly, also, such impressions, whether they remain vague forebodings or are embodied in dreams or otherwise, must at times be subconscious inferences drawn from an actual, if obscure, perception of existing facts. As such, indeed, they are not to be lightly treated. Yet very frequently premonitions prove to be entirely groundless, even the most impressive ones, where the warning is emphasized by a ghostly visitant.
Prenestine Lots, The : or Sortes Prenestince. A method of divination by lots, in vogue in Italy. The letters of the alphabet were placed in an urn which was shaken, and the letters then turned out on the floor ; the words thus formed were received as omens. In the East this method of divination is still common.
Pretu (a departed ghost) : The form which the Hindus believe the soul takes after death. This ghost inhabits a body of the size of a man's thumb, and remains in the keeping of Yumu, the judge of the dead. Punishment is inflicted on the Pretu, whose body is enlarged for this purpose and is strengthened to endure sorrow. At the end of a year the soul is delivered from this state by the performance of the Shraddhu, and is translated to the heaven of the Pitrees, where it is rewarded for its good deeds. Afterwards, in a different body, the soul enters its final abode. The performance of the Shraddhu is abos- lutely necessary to escape from the Pretu condition.
Prophecy : In an early state of society, the prophet and shaman were probably one and the same, as is still the case among primitive peoples. It is difficult to say whether the offices of the prophet are more truly religious or magical. He is usually a priest, but the ability to look into the future and read its portents can scarcely be called a religious attribute. In many instances prophecy is merely utter- ances in the ecstatic condition. We know that the python- esses attached to the oracles of ancient Greece uttered prophetic words under the influences of natural gases or drugs ; and when the medicine-men of most savage tribes
attempt to peer into the future, they usually attain a condition of ecstasy by taking some drug, the action of which is well known to them. But this was not always the case ; the shaman often summoned a spirit to his aid to discover what portents and truths lie in the future ; but this cannot be called prophecy. Neither is divination prophecy in the true sense of the term, as artificial aids are- employed, and it is merely by the appearance of certain objects that the augur can pretend to predict future events. We often find prophecy disassociated from the ecstatic condition, as for example among the prophets of Israel, who occupied themselves in great measure with the calm statement of future political events, or those priests of the Maya Indians of Central America known as Chilan Balam, who at stated intervals in the year made certain statements regarding the period which lay immediately before them. Is prophecy then to be regarded as a direct utterance of the deity, taking man as his mouthpiece, or the statement of one who seeks inspiration from the fountain of wisdom ? Technically, both are true of prophecy, for we find it stated in scripture that when the deity desired to com- municate with man he chose certain persons as his mouth- pieces. Again individuals (often the same as those chosen by God) applied to the deity for inspiration in critical moments. Prophecy then may be the utterances of God by the medium of the practically unconscious shaman or seer, or the inspired utterance of that person after inspira- tion has been sought from the deity.
In ancient Assyria the prophetic class were called nabu, meaning " to call " or " announce," — a name prob- ably adopted from that of the god, Na-bi-u, the speaker or proclaimer of destiny, the tablets of which he inscribed. Among the ancient Hebrews the prophet was called nabhia, a borrowed title probably adopted from the Canaanites. That is not to say, however, that the Hebrew nabhiim were indebted to the surrounding peoples for their prophetic system, which appears to have been of a much loftier type than that of the Canaanite peoples. Prophets appear' to have swarmed in Palestine in biblical times, and we are told that four hundred prophets of Baal sat at Jezebel's table. The fact that they were prophets of this deity would almost go to prove that they were also priests. We find that the most celebrated prophets of Israel belonged to the northern portion of that country, which was more subject to the influence of the Canaanites. Later, distinct prophetic societies were formed, — the chief reason for whose existence appears to have been the preservation of nationality ; and this class appears to have absorbed the older castes of seers and magicians, and to some extent to have taken over their offices. Some of the later prophets, — Micah, for example — appear to have regarded some of these lesser seers as mere diviners, who were in reality not unlike the prophets of Baal. With Amos may be said to have commenced a new school of prophecy — the canonical prophets, who were also authors and historians, and who disclaimed all connection with mere professional prophets. The general idea in Hebrew Palestine was that Yahveh, or God, was in the closest possible touch with the prophets, and that he would do nothing without revealing it to them. The greatest importance was given to their utterances, which more than once determined the fate of the nation. Indeed no people has lent so close an ear to the utterance of their prophetic class as did the Jews of old times.
In ancient Greece, the prophetic class were generally found attached to the oracles, and in Rome were repre- sented by the augurs. In Egypt the priests of Ra at Memphis acted as prophets, as, perhaps, did those of Hekt. Among the ancient Celts and Teutons, prophecy was fre- quent, the prophetic agent usually placing him or herself in the ecstatic condition. The Druids were famous practi-
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tioners of the prophetic art, and some of their utterances may be still extant in the so-called Prophecies of Merlin. In America, as has been stated, prophetic utterance took practically the same forms as in Europe and Asia. Captain Jonathan Carver, an early traveller in North America, •cites a peculiar instance where the seers of a certain tribe stated that a famine would be ended by assistance being sent from another tribe at a certain hour on the following day. At the very moment mentioned by them a canoe rounded a headland", bringing news of relief. A strange story was told in the A tlantic Monthly some years ago by a traveller among the Plains tribes, who stated that an Indian medicine-man had prophesied the coming of him- self and his companions to his tribe two days before their arrival among them.
Prophecy of Count Bombast : {See Alary.)
Prophetic Books : (See Blake.)
Prout, Dr. : (See Alchemy.)
Psychic : A sensitive, one susceptible to psychic influences. A psychic is not necessarily a medium, unless he is suffi- ciently sensitive to be controlled by disembodied spirits. The term psychic includes the somnambule, the magnetic or mesmeric subject, anyone who is in any degree sensitive. According to one view, all men are in some measure sus- ceptible to spiritual influences, andto that extent deserve the name of psychic.
Psychic Body : A spiritualistic term variously applied to an impalpable body which clothes the soul on the " great dissolution," or to the soul itself. Sergeant Cox in his Mechanism of Man declares that the soul — quite distinct
' from mind, or intelligence, which is only a function of the brain — is composed of attenuated matter, and has the same form as the physical body, which it permeates in every part. From the soul radiates the psychic force, by means •of which all the wonders of spiritualism are performed. Through its agency man becomes endowed with telekinetic and clairvoyant powers, and with its aid he can affect such natural forces as gravitation. When free of the body the soul can travel at a lightning speed, nor is it hindered by such material objects as stone walls or closed doors. The psychic body is also regarded as an intermediary between the physical body and the soul, a sort of envelope, more material than the soul itself, which encloses it at death. It is this envelope, the psychic body or nervengeist, which becomes visible at a materialisation by attracting to itself other and still more material particles. In time the psychic body decays just as did the physical, and leaves the soul free. During the trance the soul leaves the body, but the vital functions are continued by the psychic body.
Psychical Research : A term covering all scientific investiga- tion into the obscure phenomena connected with the ' so-called " supernatural," undertaken with a view to their elucidation. Certain of these phenomena are known all over the world, and have remained practically unaltered almost since prehistoric times. Such are the phenomena of levitation, the fire-ordeal, crystal-gazing, thought- reading and apparitions, -and whenever these were met with there was seldom lacking the critical enquiry of some psychical researcher, not borne away on the tide of popular credulity, but reserving some of his judgment for the impartial investigation of the manifestations. Thus Gaule, in his Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft (London, 1646), says : " But the more prodigious or stupendous (of the feats mentioned in the witches' con- fessions) are effected meerly by the devill ; the witch all the while either in a rapt ecstasie, a charmed sleepe, or a melancholy dreame ; and the witches' imagination, phan- tasie, common sense, only deluded with what is now done, or pretended." And a few other writers of the same period arrived at a similar conclusion. The result of many of these
mediaeval records was to confirm the genuineness of the phenomena witnessed, but here and there, even in those days, there were sceptics who refused to see in them any supernatural significance. Poltergeist disturbances, again, came in for a large share of attention and investigation, to which, indeed, they seemed to lend themselves. The case of the Drummer of Tedworth was examined by Joseph Glanvil, and the results set forth in his Saddncisimus Triumphatus , published in 1668. The Epworth Case, which occurred in the house of John Wesley's father, called forth many comments, as did also the Cock Lane Ghost, the Stockwell Poltergeist and many others. The Animal Magnetists and their successors the Mesmerists' may, in a manner, be considered psychical researchers, since these variants of hypnosis were the fruits of prolonged investiga- tion into the phenomena which indubitably existed in connection with the trance state. If their speculations were wild and their enquiries failed to elicit the truth of the matter, it was but natural, at that stage of scientific progress, that they should be so. And here and there even in the writings of Paracelsus and Mesmer we find that they had glimpses of scientific truths which were in advance of their age, foreshadowings of scientific discoveries which were to prove the triumph of future generations. The former, for example, states in his writings : " By the magic power of the will, a person on this side of the ocean may make a person on the other side hear what is said on
this side The ethereal body of a man may know what
another man thinks at a distance of 100 miles and more." This reads uncommonly like an anticipation of telepathy, which has attained to such remarkable prominence in recent years, though it is not now generally attributed to " the ethereal body of a man." Such things as these would seem to entitle many of the mesmerists and the older mystics to the designation of '^psychical researchers."
As knowledge increased and systematised methods came into use these enquiries became ever more searching and more fruitful in definite results. The introduction of modern spiritualism in 1848 undoubtedly gave a remarkable impetus to psychical research. The movement was so widespread, its effects so apparent, that it was inevitable but that some man of science should be drawn into an examination of the alleged phenomena. Thus we find engaged in the investigation of spiritualism Carpenter, Faraday and De Morgan, and on the Continent Count de Gasparin, M. Thury and Zollner. One of the most im- portant of individual investigators was undoubtedly Sir William Crookes, who worked independently for some time before the founding of the Society for Psychical Research.
However, although much good work was done by inde- pendent students of " psychic science," as it came to be called, and by such societies as the Dialectical Society (q.v.) and the Psychological Society (q.v.), it was not until 1882 that a concerted and carefully-organised attempt was made to elucidate those obscure problems which had so long puzzled the wits of learned and simple. In that year was founded the Society for Psychical Research, with the object of examining in a scientific and impartial spirit the realm of the supernatural. The following passage from the Society's original prospectus, quoted by Mr. Podmore in his Naturalisation of the Supernatural, indicates with sufficient clearness its aim and proposed methods.
" It has been widely felt that the present is an opportune time for making an organised and sytematic attempt to investigate that large group of debatable phenomena designated by such terms as mesmeric, psychical, and spiritualistic.
" From the recorded testimony of many competent witnesses, past and present, including observations recently
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made by scientific men of eminence in various countries, there appears to be, amid much delusion and deception, an important body of remarkable phenomena, which are prima facie inexplicable on any generally recognised hypothesis, and which, if incontestably established, would be of the highest possible value.
" The task of examining such residual phenomena has often been undertaken by individual effort, but never hitherto by a scientific society organised on a sufficiently broad basis."
The first president of the Society was Professor Henry Sidgwick, and among later presidents were Professor Balfour Stewart, Professor William James, Sir William Crookes, Mr. A. J. Balfour, Professor Richet and Sir Oliver Lodge, while prominent among the original members were Frank Podmore, F. W. H. Myers, Edmund Gurney, Pro- fessor Barrett, Rev. Stainton Moses and Mrs. Sidgwick. Lord Rayleigh and Andrew Lang were also early members of the Society. Good work was done in America in con- nection with the Society by Dr. Hodgson and Professor Hyslop. On the continent Lombroso, Maxwell, Camille Flammarion, and Professor Richet — all men of the highest standing in their respective branches of science — con- ducted exhaustive researches into the phenomena of spiritualism, chiefly in connection with the Italian medium Eusapia Palladino.
At first the members of the Society for Psychical Research found it convenient to work in concert, but as they became more conversant with the bfoad outlines of the subject, it was judged necessary for certain sections or individuals to specialise in various branches. The original plan sketched roughly in 1882 grouped the phenomena under five different heads, each of which was placed under the direction of a separate Committee.
1. — An examination of the nature and extent of any influence which may be exerted by one mind upon another, apart from any generally recognised mode of perception. (Hon. Sec. of Committee, Professor W. F. Barrett.)
2. — The study of hypnotism, and the forms of so-called mesmeric trance, with its alleged insensibility to pain; clairvoyance, and other allied-phenomena. (Hon. Sec. of Committee, Dr. G. Wyld.)
3- — A critical revision of Reichenbach's researches with certain organisations called " sensitive," and an inquiry whether such organisations possess any power of perception beyond a highly-exalted sensibility of the recognised sensory organs. (Hon. Sec. of Committee, Walter H. Coffin.)
4. — A careful investigation of any reports, resting on strong testimony, regarding apparitions at the moment of death, or otherwise, or regarding disturbances in houses reputed to be haunted. (Hon. Sec. of Committee, Hensleigh Wedgwood.)
5- — An enquiry into the various physical phenomena commonly called spiritualistic ; with an attempt to discover their causes and general Jaws. (Hon. Sec, Dr. C. Lockhart Robertson.)
Besides these there was a Committee appointed to con- sider the literature of the subject, having as its honorary secretaries Edmund Gurney and Frederic W. H. Myers, who, with Mr. Podmore, collected a number of historic instances. Of the various heads, however, the first is now generally considered the most important, and is certainly that which has yielded the best results to investigators. In the case of hypnotism it is largely through the exertions of psychical researchers that it has been admitted to the sphere of legitimate physiology, whereas it was formerly classed among doubtful phenomena, even at the time the Society was founded. The examination of Reichenbach's claims to having discovered a new psychic fluid or force —
odyle (q.v.) — which issued like flame from the points of a magnet or the human finger-tips, was at length abandoned, nothing having been found to verify his conclusions which, however, previous to this had been largely accepted. The investigations in connection with apparitions and haunted houses, and with the spiritualistic phenomena, are still proceeding, though on the whole no definite conclusion has been arrived at. Though the members of the Society under- took to carry out their investigations in an entirely unbiased spirit, and though those members who joined the Society originally as avowed spiritualists soon dropped out, yet after prolonged and exhaustive research the opinion of the various investigators often showed marked divergence. So far from being pledged to accept a spirit, or any other hypothesis, it was expressly stated in a note appended to the prospectus that " Membership of this Society does not imply the acceptance of any particular explanation of the phenomena investigated, nor any belief as to the operation, in the physical world, of forces other than those recognised by Physical Science." Nevertheless Mr. Myers and Sir Oliver Lodge, to take two notable instances, found the evidence sufficient to convince them of the operation in the physical world of disembodied intelligences, who manifest themselves through the organism of the " medium " or " sensitive." Mr. Podmore, on the other hand, was the exponent of a telepathic theory. Any phase of the " mani- festations " which was not explicable by means of such known physiological facts as suggestion and hypercesthesia, the so-called " subconscious whispering," exaltation of memory and automatism, or the unfamiliar but presumably natural telepathy, must, according to him, fall under the grave suspicion of fraud. His theory of poltergeists, for example, by which he regards these uncanny disturbances as being the work of naughty children, does not admit the intervention of a mischievous disembodied spirit. In coincident hallucination, again, he considers telepathy a suitable explanation, as well as in all cases of " personation " by the medium. His view — one that was shared by Andrew Lang and others — was that if telepathy were once estab- lished the spirit hypothesis would not only be unnecessary, but impossible of proof.
The most important of telepathic experiments were those conducted by Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick in 1889-91. The percipients were hypnotised by Mr. G. A. Smith, who also acted as agent, and the matter to be transmitted consisted at first of numbers and later of mental pictures. The agent and percipient were generally separated by a screen, or were sometimes in different rooms, though the results in the latter case were perceptibly less satisfactory. On the whole, however, the percentage of correct guesses was far above that which the doctrine of chance warranted, and the experiments did much to encourage a belief that some hitherto unknown mode of communication existed. More recently the trance communication of Mrs. Piper would seem to point to some such theory, though Mr. Myers, Dr. Hodgson and Dr. Hyslop, who conducted a very pro- found investigation into those communications, were in- clined to believe that the spirits of the dead were the agencies in this case. Telepathy cannot yet be considered as proved. At the best it is merely a surmise, which, if it could be established, would provide a natural explanation for much of the so-called occult phenomena. Even its most ardent protagonists admit that its action is extremely uncertain and experiment correspondingly difficult. Nevertheless, each year sees an increasing body of scientific and popular opinion favourable to the theory, so that we may hope that the surmised mode of communication may at last be within a reasonable distance of becoming an acknowledged fact. The machinery of telepathy is generally supposed to be in the form of ethereal vibrations, or " brain waves,"
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acting in accordance with natural laws, though Mr. Gerald Balfour and others incline to an entirely metamorphosed theory, urging, e.g., that the action does not conform to the law of inverse squares.
The subject of hallucinations, coincidental or otherwise, has also been largely investigated in recent years, and has been found to be closely connected with the question of telepathy. Apparitions were in former times regarded as the ;1 doubles " or " ethereal bodies " of the persons they represented, but they are not now considered to be other- wise than subjective. Nevertheless the study of " coinci- dental hallucinations " — i.e., hallucinatory apparitions which coincide with the death of the person represented, or with some other crises in his life — raises the question as to whether the agent may not produce such an hallucination in the mind of the percipient by the exercise of telepathic influence, which may be judged to be more powerful during an emotional crisis. Now hallucinations have been shown to be fairly common among sane people, about one person in ten having experienced one or more. But the chances that such an hallucination should coincide with the death of the person it represents are about, I in 19,000 ; that is, if no other factor than chance determines their ratio. With a view to ascertaining whether coincidental hallucinations did actually bear a higher proportion to the total number of hallucinations than chance would justify, the Society for Psychical Research took a census in 1889 and the three or four years immediately following. Professor Sidgwick and a committee of members of the Society conducted the investigations and printed forms were distributed among 410 accredited agents of the Society, including, besides its own members, many medical men and others belonging to the professional classes, all of whom gave their services without fee in the interests of science. In all some 17,000 persons were questioned, and negative as well as affirmative answers were sent in just as they were received, the agents being specially instructed to make no discrimination between the various replies. Out of 8372 men 655 had had an hallucination, and 1029 out of 8628 women — 9.9 % of the total. When ample allowance had been made for defects of memory with regard to early hallucinations by multi- plying the 322 recognised and definite cases by 4, it was found that 62 coincided with a death ; but, again making allowances, this number was reduced to 30. Thus we find 1 coincidental hallucination in 43 where, there being no causal connection we should expect 1 in 19,000. Clearly, then, if these figures be taken, there must be some causal connection between the death and the apparition, whether it be a spiritualistic or telepathic theory that may be used. Though it be true that memory plays strange tricks, yet is it difficult to understand how persons of education and standing could write down and attest minutes and dated records of events that never happened.
Apart from telepathy, which because it postulates the working of a hitherto unknown natural law, takes premier place, perhaps the most interesting field of research is that of automatism. Trance writings and utterances have been known since the earliest times, when they were attributed to demoniac possession, or, sometimes, angelic possession. By means of planchette, ouija, and such contrivances many people are able to write automatically and divulge information which they themselves were unaware of possessing. But here again the phenomena are purely subjective, and are the result of cerebral dissocia- tion, such as may be induced in hypnosis. In this state exaltation of the memory may occur, and thus account for such phenomena as the speaking in foreign tongues with which the agent is but ill-acquainted. Or, conceivably, cerebral dissociation may produce a sensitiveness to telepathic influences, as would seem apparent in the case of
Mrs. Piper, whose automatic productions in writing and speaking have supplied investigators with plentiful material of recent years, and have done more, perhaps, than any- thing else to stimulate an interest in so-called spiritualistic phenomena. In connection with the " physical " phenom- ena— probably no less the result of automatism than the " subjective," though in a different direction — the Italian medium Eusapia Palladino has been carefully studied by many eminent investigators both in Great Britain and on the Continent, with the result that Camille Flammarion, Pro- fessor Richet, Sir Oliver Lodge — to mention only a few — have satisfied themselves with regard to the genuineness of some of her phenomena.
On the whole, even if psychical research has not succeeded in demonstrating such matters as the immortality of the soul or the possibility of communication between the living and the dead, it has done good work in widening the field of psychology and therapeutics and in gaining admission for that doctrine of suggestion which since the time of Bertrand and Braid had never been openly received and acknowledged by the medical profession. Many of the obscure phenom- ena attending mesmerism, magnetism, witchcraft, polter- geists, and kindred subjects have been brought into fine with modern scientific knowledge. Little more than thirty vears has elapsed since the Society for Psychical Research was founded, and probably in time to come it will accomplish still more, both in conducting experiments and investigations in connection with psychic phenomena, and in educating the public in the: use of scientific methods and habits of thought in their dealings with the " supernatural."
Psyehograph : An instrument to facilitate automatic writing. It is composed of a rotating disc, on which the medium's finger-tips are placed, thus carrying an index over the alphabet. A similar contrivance was used by Professor Hare in his spiritualistic experiments.
Psyehography : Writing produced without human contact, and supposed to be the work of the spirits.
Psychological Society, The : The Psychological Society came into being in April, 1875, having as its founder and president Sergeant Cox, and numbering among its members the Rev. William Stainton Moses, Mr. Walter H. Coffin, and Mr.