The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-12-20
is IT A DEAD FACULTY 4?
THE POWER OF ONE MIND COMMUNI-
eating WITH ANOTHER.

Professor Lodge in the London Times
The ordinary processes of observation and
experiment are establishing the truth OF some
phenomena that are at present contemplated
by science, and to which the orthodox man
shuts his ears. For instance, there is the
question whether it has or has not been
established by direct experiment that method
OF communication exists between mind and
mind irrespective of the ordinary channels Of
consciousness and the known organs Of sense,
and, II SO, what is the process 1t can hardly
be through some unknown sense organ, but
1t may be by some direct physical influence on
the other, or it may be in some still more subtle
manner.
For brevity, it may be styled "thought
transference," though the name may turn out
to be an unsuitable one after further investi-
cation. Further investigation is iust what is
wanted. There are individual scientific men
who have Investigated these matters for them
selves; there are others who are willing to re-
ceive evidence, who hold their minds open and
their judgmentin suspe ense-but these are only
individuals. The great majority feel active
hostility to those researches and determined
opposition to the reception or discussion OF
evidence. A few tricks at public perform
ance, or the articles of some impostor, and
they decline to consider the matter further.
The field is the borderland of physics and
psychology, the connection between life and
energy, or the condition between mind and
matter. By what means is force exerted, and
what, definitely, is force? There is here some
thing not provided for in the orthodox sch eme
OF physics; modern physics is not complete,
and line of possible advance lies in this di-
rection. Given, that force can be exerted by
an act of will, do we understand the mechan-
ism by which this is done?
And if there is gap In our knowledge be-
tween the conscious idea OF a motion and the
liberation of muscular energy needed to ac-
complish it, how do we know that body may
not be moved without ordinary material con-
tact by an act of will ? 1t is familiar that a
thought may be excited in the brain of
another person, transferred thither from our
brain, by pulling suitable trigger, by liberia
ting energy in the form of sound, for instance
or by the mechanical act Of writing, or in
other ways. prearranged code, called
language. and material medium of communica-
tion, are the recognized methods. s
May there not also be an immaterial (per-
haps an ethereal) medium Of communication?
Is it possible that an idea can be transferred
from one person to another by process such
as We have not yet grown accustomed to, and
know practically nothing about? In this case
have evidence / assert that have seen it
done, and am perfectly convinced by the fact.
Many Others are satisfied of the truth Of 1t,
too. Why must we speak of it with bated
breath, as of thing of which we are ashamed?
1t is sometimes objected that, granting
thought-transference or telegraphy to be a
fact il halOOps aceanfiollu fo
forms of life, and that as the celebral hemis-
pheres develop we become independent of 1t,
that what we notice is the relic of decaying
faculty, not the germ Of a new and fruitful
sense, and that progress is not to be made by
studying or attending to it. 1t may be that
1t is an immature mode of communication,
adapted to lower stages Of unconsciousness
than ours; but how much can we not learn
by studying immature stagesf
1t may, on the other hand, be an indiction
of higher mode of communication, which
shall survive our temporary connection with
ordinary matter. have spoken of the ap-
parently direct action of mind on mind, and a
possible action Of mind on matter. But the
whole region is unexplored territory, and it is
conceivable that matter may react on mind in
way we can at present only dimly imagine
In fact, the barrier between the two may
gradually melt away, as SO many other barriers
have done, and we may end in a wider per-
ception of the unity of nature, such as
philosophers have already dreamt of. l care
not what the end may be. ! do care that
the inquiry shall be conducted by US, and that
we shall be free from the disgrace of jogging
along accustomed roads, leaving to outsiders
the work and the qualification of unfolding a
new region to unwilling eyes.