Western appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1885-18??, 1885-06-13
PIiANTOMS OF THE MIND.


Death.
What is psychology? A science as
yet unknown, save that it is connected
intimately with the human soul, the
half-awakened latent consciousness of
dual existence which we have all
experienced in those brief and momen-
tary flashes Of abnormal intelligence,
which are extinguished by the investig-
alton of reason, leaving us in greater
darkness than before. By what cohe-
sion OF occult forces are we compelled
to think Of long-forgotten friend, to
wonder and speculate as to the pos
sibility that he is yet alive, to recall
accurately his features, tone of voice
and other distinguishing characters
tics, to dwell upon the fact of this
mental resurrection, as something
strange and foreboding, PRESENT.
ment that, like Banquo's ghost, will
not down, and then to learn, a few DAYS
later, that at that particular date the
friend in question had died hundreds
of miles distant. This has occurred to
SO many people of intelligence and
veracity thatit has almost ceased to be
a matter of surprise. Sometimes the
memory thrust upon us does not mean
death but life. We meet the person
face to face, and, afterfa hearty hand
shake, recount our promonition as a
strange coincidence. But it is not
possible that the friend coming to us
had sent out a messenger dove-a
thought, a wish, an intangi ble, unseen
grapplingiron of memory that in some
way touched kindred chord in US
a vibration of the mental atmosphere
in which the soul dWells? There must
be certain conditions to envolve the
the phenomena, keenness of psychic
intelligence, an abnormally acute state
OF the senses as if all the windows of
the soul were opened and the keynote
of celestial telegraphy sounded. It is
not given unto all men to see or hear
the supernatural. There must be a
psychophysical relation established in
the individual before any indications of
that sensitive message can reach the
consciousness. We can believe with the
poet that isolated souls can tell us:
ct see a hand you cannot see,
Which beckons me away;
l hear voice you cannot hear,
Which says must not stay.''
The realm of fiction has set science
aside and given us, realistic detail, the
strange circumstance Of vocal and Wis
ual clairvoyance. When, in ssJane
Eyre, y the blind Rochester calls in des-
pair, "Jane! Jane! where are yotp'' the
wind watts him back an answer: ..Wait
for me. l am coming.
How many readers, of this paper
have heard a voice-far distant-per-
haps silent in the grave-ring in its old
CHEEKY tones in the ears that had long
since ceased to listen for its tones.
The majority of people are not willing
to talk about these things. They put
the experience aside as something
.unaccountable, or credit it to the mag
nation. Itmay therefore be of some
value to the reader to read statement
OF facts, which are supported by living
witnesses we'll known, who stand far
above the dogmas of superstition. and
whose education gives them the right
to instruct others by their experience.
The firstof these isrelated by DR.. T. A.
McGraW, one of the most distinguished
surgeon-physicians in the state Of Mich
igan.
UNDERTAKING..
s'Of all abnormal nervous manifesta-
lions, says the Doctor, in his paper
on mind-reading, .'the most curious are
those rare cases ofintense perceptive
power Of the brain which is called
second sight. They are indeed SO rare
as to be rejected by most physicians as
unreal; and yet there are cases so well
authenticated as to make it impossible
to deny its possibility. I have myself
met with one instance which seemed to
be indisputable. A young lady was
seized with inflammation of the spinal
cord, in the course of which she became
sensitive to an extraordinary degree.
As she lay in roomin the second story.
with every door and window closed,
she could hear distinctly what passed
in the rooms below, even to whisper
ed communication. One day about
noon she said to her father that she saw
her uncle and aunt getting off the cars.
These relatives were not expected, and
did not know that she was i'll, and the
remark therefore passed as one of delir-
ium. Half an hour afterward, how
ever, they were driven up to the house
in a carriage, and on inquiry it was
found that they had actually got off the
cars at the time named.
There were, in the course of her
illness, one or two other such mani
festations of unusual, and by our ordi-
nary experience, inexplicable perceptive
power. When questioned in relation
to the matter she could only say that
she actually saw what she described.
This unnatural exaltation Of nervous
sensibility and claiWoyant power, if
such it was, disappeared completely as
the patient grew better. LIDO not pre-
tend to account for the phenomena.
but have to remark that they were
morbid in an intense degree, nor do 1
believe that such phenomena can occur
IN perfectly healthy persons. It will
be seen from this that DR.. McGraw