The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1878-04-04
Is Clairvoyance a Fact?
Popular Science Monthly


The term clairvoyance means literally
clear sight. But everybody with good
eyes has clear right; the alleged vision
is, therefore, not of the ordinary kind.
1t claims to be an extraordinary kind of
seeing, a seeing through opaque objects
through the eyelids, through ban
dages, or through the back of the head,
and into objects not p%enetrable by or
binary vision. The term clear" as
applied to this kind of sight, is intended
to denote especial or remarkable clear
ness, or a transcendental vision, which
opens to sight things not sensible to the
mortal eye. In short, clairvoyance
afirms an extra endowment for making
things visible which goes beyond the
range of that sense which is our usual
source of knowledge.
Now, Mr.. Wallace says that this is an
"absolute fact" which has been con-
clusively proved and known for forty
seven years, or since the report of 1881,
that declared it to be demonstrated.
As, therefore, this remarkable endow-
ment of human nature has been estab-
lished as a fact for nearly half a CEN
fury, we are fairly entitled to ask, what
have been its results? If it be true, no
discovery ever made in science can for
a moment bear comparison with it in
importance; and if it be true, we have
a right to demand the legitimate results
that must flow from it, as we expect and
require the natural results of all other
genuine discoveries. Of course, the OBJ
lection may be i%nterposed hat we must
not be premature in anticipating the
fruits of discovery, because the history
of all science shows that the interval
between the dawn of, a new principle
and its developments and applications
may be very long. This is true; yet, in
every case we demand at once efforts
that flow Immediately from the quality
of the discovery; in fact, we only know
it by these results. 1t would, of course,
have been absurd to expect from the
invention of the spy-glass the great re-
suits of the modern telescope, which
has grown out of it; but it would have
been proper to expect from the ~spy-glass
that which was properly claimed for it,
and which it at once compelled all men
to yield. All scientific discoveries, in
fact, are new procurable effects, and are,
therefore, their own witnesses. Clair
voyance must give US the new results of
a marvelously sharpened vision; the
extra faculty implies extra disclosures.
And again we ask, where are they!
With a new capacity for seeing, what
new thing has been seen? The limita.
lions of vision restrict and measure the
usual sphere of knowledge, and with
every increase in the power of optical
instruments, as the microscope and tel
escope, in aiding the eye, knowledge
has been extended, novel facts brought
to light, and it is these that attest the
instrumental improvements. But with
a power of vision so m~ysteriously sharp
ened that Opaque objects become trans
parent, with the barriers actually taker
away, what has been revealed? There
are thousands of perplexing and un
settled questions, regarding the consti
nationality of material things, which
might be cleared up by another incre
ment of visual penetration, but clair
voyance has given no help in conquerinl
these difficulties. 1t has been a demon
strated reality these fifty years, it ough
long ago have INDICATED its claims b,
unwilling some of the obscurities o
material objects. Yet, claiming to be
superior mean of laying open the inne
constitution of things, it has not evel
), proved equal to ordinary sight, and has
in fact, done nothing whatever towar'
extending the boundaries of knowledge