The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-04-06
GHOSTS OF THE DEAD.
A SCIENTI sTS TALK ON PoST-MOR-
TEN APPARITI ONS.

| SpSCNSES duQ hhl4uC ndClOnS-W nat
an Actual Phantom is Like-Some
Ghost Stories.
Prom the Washington Star
| Are ghosts the dreams of the deadl
Before considering that question:" said
an expert in physical science to a writer for
the Star, ''let us discuss the question as to
what a ghost is like. The popular concep-
ton Of such phenomenon is familiar
enough to be termed conventional Typi-
cally, as represented by tradition
and described in popular fiction,
it is corpse like spparition,
which enters by preference at the
stroke of midnight, dressed in a winding
sheet, smelling Of the grave and dragging a
clanking chain through the sliding panel
| just by the blood stain on the floor The
candles are apt to burn blue incidentally,
SO IS 20 increase the ghastlineSs of the effect,
aud if there are any dogs about they howl
| dismally or hide themselves, feeling their
| powerleSsness to take a lite out Of anything
SO immaterial and tasteless.
such is the oid-fashioned style Of ghost.
l will not assert that it is an impossibility,
but that such one was ever in reality be-
held has not been demonstrated to the salts
! faction of the student of spectral philosophy.
On the contrary, the gh st Of sober matter
| ot-fact is recognized by those who have
most earnestly pursued this interesting
branch of metaphysics as something OF a
very different character and quality.
GENERAL sKEPTICIsM.
ION the part of the public at large there
is a tendency to extreme skepticism respect
ing post-mortem apparitions. It could not
we'll be otherwise, in view of the fact that
| very few people have ever been witnesses to
| euCh nhanOmanQ nf fha
human mind is very naturally to deny the
| possibility OF that which is altogether be
| yond and outside of the range of its own
| experience. In considering subject of the
sort also, the only proper scientific attitude
| Is one of non-bellef, except upon adequate,
which means entire, demonstration. OBJ
vlously, il would be incorrect to attribute
to supernormsl causes anything for which
causes purely normal are able to salts
| factorily account.
The study of post-mortem apparitions Is
| a new branch of metaphysical research.
Little more than a beginning has been
made i'll it. However, the impression
which has gone to some extent abroad that
! those who have begun to investigate the
subject are parcel of cranks is surely not
just one. Some of the foremost men of
| science in this country aud IN Europe have
| interested themselves in the matter, not by
| any means for the purpose of proving the
existence of ghosts, but in order to find out
whether or not such phenomena we're pos
sible- The knowledge they have gathered
| thus far seems to point irresistibly TO the
conclusion that phantasms of the dead do
sometimes appear to the living. If this be
50 how intense an interest be felt in the dis
| covery by all mankind, to whom the ques-
ton as to whether au ht of the individual
entity survives the body has ever been the
most absorbing Of all speculative inquiries.
THE GHOST OF REALITY.
"What does the ghost of reality look like9
Naturally you ask that question Fl st, AMI |
will answer it as definitely as / can, though
the description is not so easy. The appear
ance of such phantoms, 81 far as all scien-
titically gathered testimony goes to show is
very different from the conception of them
formed by imaginative writers of romance,
AS an almost invaluable rule, the specter of
dead person, when seen. sho IS few signs
of life. 1t does not speak nor use its Inn bs
| 1t re- embles magic lantern picture more
than anything else 10 hlch it is read lily % N
parable. its method of locomo ion, Wnen it
moves, being gliding. 1t is clothed not in
| a winding sheet, but in garments such as
| we're worn by the individual Of whom it is
the eidolon or image. 1t appears by day,
| light as often as at night, but lever with
| any purp Sc in its actions that is at all COM
| prehensble. Occasionally it is self-luminous
|
WALL but frequently it simply fades away
in a shadowy mist. Sometimes the nan
| tasmal figure is see as though illuminated
| on a dark backgrou d. Someti mes it ap-
| pears as in disk of ovai of light. Some
| times its contour is indistinct and it
resembles a luminous cloud, aud sometimes
there is no figure at all, but nicely a
dltfused glow.
because ghosts are rarely seen it is not to
| inferred necessarily that they are
rarity. 1t is reasonable to imagine that the
| appearance of one is occasloned only by
conditions of a very extraordinary nature.
| Supposing that to be the case, we may be
| moving in world of unseen specters and
| continually surrounded, whether at home or
on our walks abroad, by invisible phantoms
| of the dead. IL has bee estimated that for
every human being now living 10000 have
| died on this earth, 81 that il the spiritual
| bodies of all preserve existence here after
| DEATH we survivors are but a comparative
| few, passing brief term of years Of what
| we call life in the flesh amid a vast i'm
palpable swarm of beings incorporeal. All
that is the merest speculation Of course, but
l, for one, am disposed to believe that. sup
posing the occurrence of a pc t-mortem
apparition to be thing demonstrated, it is
to be regarded as an exceptional phe-
nomenon, affording hardly more than an
accidental glimpse into supernormal
world.
A CONDITION NECESSARY TO SEE A GHOST.
Zone condition necessary to the seeing OF
ghost is purely subjective. The percipient
must be in certain state, physically speak
ing, which implies the Sc asltiveness requis-
ite for sect & that which would be Invisible
to him under ordinary circumstances. Dr.
Elliott Coues speaks of this as change in
the threshold of conscio usness by which
what is unseen at other times becomes per-
ceptible. A premonition of the appar alton
is usually given by what is technically
called tho 'gnost chill 1t is only a
very exceptional organism in which
the threshold of consciousness is ca
pable If this shifting. / have a frie d. a
scholar aud man of science, who often
experiences the phenomenon. He comes
home every afternoon at about o'clock,
more or less tired after his days work, and
lies down on the sofa in his study for brief
rest before dinner. Occasionally, while en-
joying this repose, though perfectly wide
awake, there comes upon him-so he tells
me-the peculiar sensation of the ghost
chill, and he waits with much attention
and interest to see what is going to happen.
Prese lily he finds his own Insciousness
projected effectively, as it were, 80 that his
conscious self stands out in the room and
views his body lying on the lounge. About
the latter is bright light, which grows
gradually until it has filled all the room,
and his conscious self finds itself surrounded
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