Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-21
Just Now Being Taken by the Society
for Psychical Research.
AT WORK ON BOTH CONTINENTS.
A Partial Report of the Progress in England
Already Made.
AMERICAN HEADQUARTERS AT HARVARD

England, the census is under the care OF
| Prof. Henry Sidgwick, of Cambridge Uni
versity, President OF the Psycnical Society;
in France Leon Marillier is collecting ex-
periences, and in the United States, Prof.
| William James, Of Harvard University, has
assumed charge of the work. The expert
ences which it is sought to enumerate are
scientifically described as ''casual
hallucinations of sane persons includ-
ing under this term phantasmal
appearances, which some deny to be halluci-
nations, because they believe them to be
| ghosts" The object of this inquiry is to
ascertain the proportion of persons who have
| had such experiences, and to obtain details
of these experiences so that some insight
| may be gained into their cause and mean
| ing.
The general question is framed in this
way: Have you ever, when believing
| yourself to be completely awake, had vivid
Impression of seeing or being touched by a
living being or inanimate object, or of hear
| ing voice; which impression, so far as you
could discover, was not due to any external
! physical cause?" OF course, for a census,
I the answer mo" is as important as the an
swer yes, but one result of the census
| thus far has been to show that the affirma-
tive answers are rare and infrequent.
Result of the Census in England.
Prot. Sidgwick has recently made public
partial report of his work on this census
in England. In that country G, 4S1 answers
have been received to the question given
above; of these, 8, 617 have been from women
and 727 have been Eyes" answers, a per-
centage of Ii of the total number received.
Five hundred and nine women answer
''yes" and 218 men furnish the rest of the
''yes" answers; of the "no" answers, 2,646
are by men, and 9, ,108 by women. OF the
''yes" experiences in 474 cases the sense of
sight was affected; in PIG voices were heard
without any accompanying visual impress
sion; and in Sc cases the sense of touch only
| was affected.
In about 48 cases of the whole number
more than one sense was affected at the same
| time, but it is pointed out that it is difficult
in the case of sounds, especially of nom
| vocal sounds, such as rustling, footsteps,
| etc.. to ascertain whether they were hallu-
cinatory or not. There are some cases, bor-
dering on ghost land, which there is some
reason to regard as purely subjective. Thus
there are six cases Of the figure and one of
the voice of dead persons "phantasmally
| seen or heard when the perciplent was un-
aware of the death" There are nine cases
where apparently the same figure is inde-
pendently seen by more than one person on
different occasions.
Cases of Some Importance.
Of considerable Importance, as indicating
corroboration of experience, are the 66 col
lective cases-cases In which more than one
person shares the experience. More than
halt of the visual collective cases occurred
out of doors, while of the visual cases occur
ring to single percipiept only about one
seventh occurred out of doors. On this
point Prot. Sidgwick observes:
Now, though some supposed apparitions seen
out OF doors are quite as obviously true hallu-
cinatlons as some OF them seen indoors. still,
speaking generally. there seem to be several
reasons why real human beings are more likely
to be mistaken tor apparitions out of doors
than indoors. Further, if the figure be unrec-
ognized this can seldom be regarded as evidence
of its hallucinatory character out of doors,
while it would often afford evidence indoors
since it Is not usual for strangers to walk into
| rooms without anyone in the house knowing
anything about it. And again, the mode of ap-
pearance and disappearance of the figure is
much more often clearly impossible for real
person indoors than it is out of doors. The
figure may, for instance, go through locked
door, or through the wall, or into a room into
which it is at once followed and where it is not
found. Out of doors it is often difficult to prove
that the vanished figure has not simply turned
into house, or been hidden by some obstacle
After making all allowances, however, there re-
mains certain number of collective cases in
which the objects seen eau hardly have been
real people or things.
The Explanation Volunteered.
Prof Sidgwick then proceeds to give some
remarks on the nature and origin of halIu-
cinations, and points out that the common
origin of collective Authorizations may be
telepathic (some other mind affecting the
common percipients similarly and stimuli
taneously), or it may be due to what be calls
physical suggestion" "by which mean
some real external cause-say a sound like
footstep-starting by suggestion similar
hallucination. "Hallucinations," he adds,
'are so rare in the experience OF most of us
that it may fairly be argued that when we
see them we are not quite in normal state,
and think there is reason to believe that
self-suggestion sometimes operates during
hallucination, for it is sometimes difficult
otherwise to account for the occaSional agree
ment of two senses. For instanSe, lady in
the dark feels her husbands presence, then
putting out her hand, teels his coatsleeye.
then hears him speak. The husband, mean
while, is absent and vividly imagining him
self to be bringing her bad news"
Two more explanations of collective hal
lucinations are set forth: the one that A
sees halIucination first and then CONVEYS
it by word or gesture to B; the other that
the hallucination of one percipient is caused
by mental suggestion Of thought-transfer-
ence from the other. An interesting ex-
pertinent illustrating the latter hypothesis
is given to conclude Prot. Sidgwlck's
account of the work on the census. It is an
experiment in thought-transference with
hypnotized persons conducted by Mrs. Side-
wick and a Mr.. Smith. Here is the ex-
pertinent as described in Prof. Sidg-
wick's words:
One Peculiar Instance Related.
Two persons were hypnouzsd in different
rooms We will call them Mr.. P. and Miss B.
You are no doubt aware that good hypnotic
subjects can be made to have post-hypnotic
hallucinations-e g., if told while hynotized
that they will see some. specific object when
they awake, they do see it, though there is
nothing of the sort there. Mr. Smith told Mr..
P. that Mrs. Sidgwick would show him pict-
ure. and then went out of the room and told
Miss B. that she would see picture which Mr.
P. would show her when her eyes were open
While he was away Mrs. Sidgwick told Mr.. P.
that she was going to show him a picture
Of 2 goatchase with two goats. Then Mr.
Smith came back. awoke Mr.. p, and left again
Immediately. After which Mrs Sidgwick
gave Mr.. p. a blank card as a picture and he
almost Immediately saw on it the picture of
goat chase and two goats and was much
pleased with it. Mrs. Sidgwick asked him to
take it up stairs and show it to Miss B.. but to
be careful not to tell her what 1t was. This he
did. Miss b. at first only saw something black
on the card, then by degrees she saw, first
some wheels. then "a nice little wee carriage"
and presently some animals in front which she
Identified as two goats. This seems to be a
was conveyed to Miss B. by thought transfer
ence from MIR. P.
The census inquiry is also proceeding in
France Germany and Itaiy hut M detailed