CHAPTER II.

Clairvoyance. What is clairvoyance? “The term, clairvoyance,” says Dr. George Wyld, in a paper read before the Psychical Research Society, London, “is French, and means _clear-seeing_, but it appears to me to be an inadequate term, because it might signify clear optical vision, or clear mental vision. What is signified by the term is the power which certain individuals possess of seeing external objects under circumstances which render the sight of these objects impossible to physical optics. In short, by clairvoyance, we mean the power which the _mind_ has of seeing or knowing thoughts and psychical conditions, and objects hidden from or beyond the reach of the physical senses; and if the existence of this faculty can be established, we arrive at a demonstration that man has a power within his body as yet unrecognised by physical science--a power which is called soul, or mind-seeing, and for the description of such a power the term might be auto-nocticy (αυτονοητικος), or psychoscopy.” Psychoscopy, or soul sight, would, perhaps, be the better term. I propose to use the old term--clairvoyance--as it signifies, in popular usage, the power of seeing beyond the range of physical vision, as we know it. That certain persons are endowed with this faculty of clear seeing--in some of its various phases--is a matter settled beyond dispute. What special name to call this faculty, or what are the true causes of its existence; why it should be possessed by some persons and not by others; why it should be so frail and fugitive in the presence of some people, and strong and vivid before others; why some persons are never clairvoyant until they have been through the mesmeric and psychic states; why some become possessed of the faculty through disease; while, with others, the gift of clairvoyance appears to be a spontaneous possession; and why some operators are successful in inducing clairvoyance, and others not, etc., are interesting questions to which the student of psychology may, with advantage, direct his attention. Clairvoyance is soul-sight--the power of the soul to see. It is the state of refined psychic perception. This state increases in lucidity--clearness and power of penetration--in proportion as the activity of the physical senses are reduced below normal action. It is observed to be most effective in the trance state--natural or induced--as in the mesmeric and psychic states. I conclude, then, clairvoyance depends upon the unfolding of the spirit’s perception, and is increased in power as the ascendency of the spirit arises above the activities of the spirit’s corporeal envelope--the body. In proportion to the spirit’s ascendency over the organs and senses of the body, is this psychic gift perfect or imperfect. The large brain or cerebrum is the physical organ of the soul, as the cerebellum is of the physiological brain functions. Mental functions are manifested by the former, and physical functions by the latter. Clairvoyance, as a spiritual faculty, will doubtless have its appropriate organ in the brain. I do not profess to locate that organ. At the same time I have noticed the best clairvoyants are wide and full between the eyes, showing there is a particular fulness of the frontal cerebral lobes, at their juncture at the root of the nose. This may be something more than a mere physiognomic sign. When this sign is accompanied by refinement of organisation, and a fine type of brain, I always look for the possible manifestation of clairvoyance in mesmeric subjects. Some writers are of the opinion clairvoyance is actually soul-sight, more or less retarded in lucidity by the action or activity of the bodily senses. Others believe it to be a state arising from a peculiar highly-strained nervous condition, which induces the state of super-sensitivity or impressionability of the organisation. The first may be termed the spiritual, and the latter the physiological hypothesis. But, as a matter of fact, both conditions are noted. The latter may account for much, and possibly is sufficient to explain much that is called thought-reading--so often mistaken for clairvoyance. It does appear to me that certain peculiar physiological conditions, varying from semi-consciousness to profound trance, are necessary for the manifestation of clairvoyance, even when it takes place in apparently normal life of the possessor. It is more than likely that the ornate and mystic ceremonies indulged in by Hindoo mystics, Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman priests, had the one grand end in view--viz., to induce the requisite state of super-sensitivity, and thus prepare the consecrated youths, sybils, and vestal virgins for the influx of spiritual vision, prophecy, and what not. When this subtle influx came--by whatever name called--the phenomena manifested were pretty much the same as we know them, only varied in degree. The gods spoke per oracle, Pythean, or Delphic. The man of God either coronated a king or foretold the end of a dynasty. St. Stephen saw Christ, St. John beheld visions, Joan of Arc was directed, Swedenborg illumined, and religious ecstatics in ancient and modern times partook more or less of the sacred fire--the inner sight. This (stripped of the fantastic surroundings, priestly mummeries, and dominant belief of the times) simply indicated the evolution and exercise of clairvoyance and other psychic gifts. Coming nearer home, we hear of the mysterious visions at the Knock, and at Lourdes. Miraculous appearances of the Virgin and winged angels, to cheer the hearts of the faithful, and to cause the heads of the scornful to rejoice in sceptical derision. Then we have all the vagaries produced by the high nervous tension of modern revivalism, in which the visions seen are but a transformation of church and chapel dogmas into objective realities. These illusionary visions--mistaken for clairvoyance--possess less reality than the delusive fancies of the sensitive in the state of hypnosis. Clairvoyance will be governed by its own spiritual laws, just as sight is affected or retarded by physical conditions. What these spiritual laws are we can only surmise, but this we may safely conjecture--viz., that soul-sight is not trammelled or limited by the natural laws which govern physical optics. Clairvoyance and physical vision are absolutely distinct, and possess little in common. To illustrate a new subject, it is permissible to draw upon the old and the well-known. So I venture to illustrate clairvoyance by certain facts in connection with ordinary human vision. Although some children see better than others, the power to see, with the ability to understand the relative positions and uses of the things seen, is a matter of development. In psychic vision, we also see growth or development, with increasing power to use and understand the faculty. Some children are blind from birth, and others, seeing, lose the power of sight. Many are _blind_, although they have physical sight, they see not with _the educated eye_. Many, again, have greater powers of sight than they are aware of. As so it is with psychic vision. What is true of the physical is also true of the psychic. From the first glimmerings, to the possession of well-defined sight, a period of growth and time elapses. From the first incoherent cry of infancy to well defined and intelligent speech of manhood, we notice the same agencies at work. Not only is clairvoyant vision generally imperfect at first, but the psychic’s powers of description are also at fault. St. Paul could not give utterance to what he saw, when caught up to the third heavens. His knowledge of things and powers of speech failed him to describe the startling, the new, and the unutterable. He had a sudden revelation of the state of things in a sphere which had no counterparts in his previous experience, in this--his known--world. Hence, although he knew of his change of state, he could give no lawful or intelligible expression to his thoughts. Between the first incongruous utterances, and apparent fantastic blunderings, and the more mature period in which “things spiritual” can be suitably described in our language, to our right sense of things, or comprehension, a period of development and education must elapse. It is true some clairvoyants develop much more readily than others. In the entrancement of the mesmeric and psychic states, there is a lack of external consciousness. The soul is so far liberated from the body as to act independently of the ordinary sensuous conditions of the body, and sees by the perception and light of the inner or spiritual world, as distinct from the perception and light of this external or physical world. Elevated, or rather, liberated into this new condition, the clairvoyant loses connection with the thrums and threads of the physical organism, and is unable, or forgets for a time, how to speak of things as they are, or as they would appear to the physical vision of another. It is not surprising that in the earlier stages of clairvoyant development, and consequent transfer of ordinary consciousness and sensuous perception to that of spiritual consciousness and perception, the language of the clairvoyant should appear peculiar, incongruous, and “wanting,” according to our ideas of clearness and precision. One important lesson may be learned from this--viz., the operator should never force results, or strive to develop psychic perception by short cuts. Time must be allowed to the sensitive, for training and experience, and the development of self-confidence and expression. Clairvoyance is not a common possession. Nevertheless, I believe there are many persons who possess the faculty unknown to themselves. By following out patiently, for a time, the requisite directions, the possession of this invaluable psychic gift might be discovered by many who now appear totally devoid of any clairvoyant indications. Its cultivation is possible and, in many ways, desirable. “The higher attainment,” says Dr. John Hamlin Davey, “of occult knowledge and power, the development of intuition, the psychometric sense, clairvoyant vision, inner hearing, etc., etc., thus reached, so open the avenues to a higher education, and enlarge the boundaries of human consciousness and activity, as to fairly dwarf into insignificance the achievements of external science.” Clairvoyance is as old as mankind, but the exhibition of clairvoyance, induced by mesmeric processes, was first announced by Puysegeur, a favourite pupil of Mesmer, in 1784. Since that time to the present not only have remarkable cases of clairvoyance cropped up, but there have been few mesmerists of any experience who have not had numerous cases under observation. Clairvoyance converted Dr. John Elliotson, F.R.S., one of the most scientific of British physicians, from extreme materialistic views to that of belief in soul and immortality. The same may be said of the late Dr. Ashburner, who was one of the Queen’s physicians. Dr. Georget, author of “Physiology of the Nervous System,”--who was at one time opposed to a belief in the existence of a transcendental state in man,--found upon examination of the facts and incidents of artificial somnambulism, that _his materialism must go_. In his last will and testament, referring to the above-mentioned work, he says:--“This work had scarcely appeared, when renewed meditations on a very extraordinary phenomenon, somnambulism, no longer permitted me to entertain doubts of the existence within us, and external to us, of an intelligent principle, altogether different from material existences; in a word, of the soul and God. With respect to this I have a profound conviction, founded upon facts which I believe to be incontestable.” Dr. Georget directed this change of opinion should have full publicity after his death. Space would not suffice me to mention the names of all the highly educated and refined minds, in the medical, literary, philosophic, and scientific walks of life, who have studied these phenomena, and who, like Dr. Georget, have no more doubts of their reality than they have of their own physical existence, status, or reputation. Among medical men--some of whom I have known and corresponded with--might be mentioned Sir James Simpson, Drs. Elliotson, Ashburner, Esdaile, Buss, Garth Wilkinson, Hands, Wyld, Hitchman, Eadon, and Davey. Among others on the roll of fame, might be noticed Archbishop Whately; Earls Ducie, Stanhope, Macclesfield, Charleville; the present Duke of Argyle; Lord R. Cavendish, Lord Lindsay; Burton, the traveller; and the late Sergeant Cox. Among literary men, Mr. Gladstone, Britain’s foremost statesman and scholar; Mr. Balfour, his able and talented opponent; Bulwer Lytton, Marryat, Neal, Robert Chambers, Dickens, and Stevenson, of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” fame. Mr. George Combe, the distinguished Scottish metaphysician, philosopher, author, phrenologist, etc., was profoundly interested in the phenomena. Among well-known men of science might be mentioned Camille Flammarion, the French astronomer; Fichte, the German philosopher; Professors Tornebom and Edland, Swedish physicists; Professor Oliver Lodge, D.Sc., F.R.S.; Alfred Russell Wallace, D.C.L., LL.D.; William Crookes, F.R.S.; Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S. Notwithstanding this somewhat formidable array of investigators of clairvoyance, many good people will not hesitate to deny the value of such evidence, and yet will believe anything in its favour which may be found in the Bible, as to its existence in the _past_. It is a strange perversion of judgment--not at all surprising--when the majority take (second-hand) for their religious(?) views whatever is recognised as “sound” in each particular district and Church. It is not a question of belief, it is “a question of evidence,” as Mr. Gladstone avers. The Rev. Mr. MʽKinnon, late pastor of Chalmers’ Free Church, Glasgow, told me a short time ago, “Clairvoyance was nothing more than a high nervous concentrated form of mental vision,” to which I replied, “Admitting the hypothesis--which, however, explained nothing--it matters little what clairvoyance is esteemed to be or called, if the facts connected with it are acknowledged.” Even this friend admitted he knew a man in Mull, who lived on the half croft, next to his father’s croft. This man had great repute in that district as “having the Second Sight.” Whatever this man foretold always came to pass. One instance will suffice. He (Mr. MʽKinnon) remembered that one day, while this crofter (who was a tailor by trade) was working, he suddenly stopped, and looked _out into vacancy_--as he always did when the “Second Sight was on him”--and described a funeral coming over the hill, the mourners, who they were, and numbers, the way the procession took, and the name of the “man whose face was covered,” and finally, when the procession would appear. Mr. MʽKinnon’s parents noted the time, and being simple Highland folk, accustomed to the accuracy of this man’s visions, they believed what he said, and kept his saying in their hearts till the time of fulfilment came about. Mr. MʽKinnon assured me “the funeral took place to the day and hour, twelve months subsequently to the vision, as predicted.” All I can say is, if “a high nervous concentrated form of mental vision” is capable of pointing out all this, it is worthy of investigation. It is evident this tailor at least had a power of vision--prevoyance--not of the ordinary, everyday kind of vision. Second sight, as exhibited in this case, is what may be termed spontaneous clairvoyance. Epes Sargent, in his work, “The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism,” referring to clairvoyance, says: “As far as I have admitted it as part of a scientific basis (demonstrating man’s spiritual nature), it is the exercise of the supersensual faculty of penetrating opaque and dense matter as if by the faculty of sight. But it does more. It detects our unuttered, undeveloped thoughts; it goes back along the past, and describes what is hidden; nay, the proofs are overwhelming that it may pierce the future, and predict coming events from the shadows they cast before. “What is it that sees without the physical eyes, and without the assistance of light? What is normal sight? It is not the vibrating ether--it is not the external eye--that sees. It is the soul using the eye as an instrument, and light as a condition. Prove once that sight can exist without the use of light, sensation, or any physical organ of vision, and you prove an abnormal, supersensual, spiritual faculty--a proof which puts an end to the theory of materialism, and which, through its affinity with analogous or corresponding facts, justifies its introduction as part of a scientific basis for the spiritual theory.” J. F. Deleuze was profoundly convinced of the existence of this faculty. He claimed that the power of seeing at a distance, prevision, and the transference of thought without the aid of external signs, were in themselves sufficient proofs of the existence of spirituality of soul. Except in a very few instances, little or no pains are taken to cultivate the spiritual nature of man. Civilised man of to-day is but rising out of the age of brute force of yesterday, and he is still circumscribed by love of earthly power and position. He is an acquisitive rather than a spiritual being. Being dominated by the senses, he will naturally seek and appreciate that which gratifies his senses most. He has little time or patience for anything which does not contribute pleasure to his sensuous nature. He would give time to the investigation of the soul side of life if it brought gold, the means of enjoyment, and gratified his acquisitiveness and love of power. Probably the majority give the subject no attention at all. If the spiritual side of our natures were as fully cultivated as those elements which bring us bread and butter and praise of men in the market-place, there is no doubt, no manner of doubt whatever, but the most of us would occupy a nobler and more spiritually elevated plane in life; and were adequate means taken, I doubt not but this faculty of clairvoyance would become more generally known and cultivated. Even to the selfish, worldly and non-spiritual man, clairvoyance is not without its practical side and utility, such, for instance, as supplying Chicago with water. To the spiritually minded, clairvoyance and all psychic gifts are appreciated, less for what they will bring, than for the testimony they present of man’s spiritual origin, transcendental powers and probable continuity of life beyond this mortal vale.