The morning news., 1894-10-21
WE ALL CAN'T SEE GHOSTS.
Perhaps One in Ten of Us Sees, Hears,
or Touches a 5pook.
from the Springfield Republican

from the Springfield Republican.
The Psychical Research Society has
come to the conclusion, after investigat-
ing the matter for about six years, that
to only one in ten of us is given to see.
hear, or touch ghosts. Ninety pei. cent.
of mortals are seemingly too dull or OBJ
tuse too BIN of vision, or too thick of
hearing to perceive those unbodified Wis
itors. of too healthy in mind aud BODY to
be subject to these Authorizations The
commonplace routine of bread and but
ter getting, to which most of this so per
cent of ghostless men and women are
bound, seems to afford few opportunities
for exhibitions of psychic phenomena and
the fatigue after honest toll is a foe to
dreams and visions. Nor does the rush
and struggle for wealth which absor,.s
all the energies and eXhausts the vital
forces of another portion of this 80 per
cent. of ghostless individuals help 10
glimp5es of the undiscovered country"
The way in which the society for psychi-
cal research reaches it's conclusion which
agrees so well with the experience of
most of us, is by a permissible use of
the doctrine of averages.
Members of that society set themselves
to work to Quiz all their friends and ey-
erybody within reach about the wonder
full and uneXplainable events which had
disturbed the mOnotony of their lives.
Women and men together, there were 40
of these inquirers. 233 women and 1877
men,, and they quizzed 400 persons. 1t
took three years to do this ouizzine
systematically by asking response from
every one of the 1900 to this question:
Have you ever, when believing yourself
to be completely awake, had a vivid i'm
preston of seeing or being touched by a
living being or inanimate object or of
hearing a voice, which impression, SO far
a fha
any external Cause?" To this question
2,272 answered Yes" but the inouirers
were not satisfied that some hundreds of
these pretended psychical subjects had
really experienced the phenomena thew
descrit ed in their replies or that these
phenorIena came within their scope of in
quiry. For these reasons and others the
number of affirmative replies registered
was cut down to 1854, or almost exactly
10 per cent, of the whole number of direct
and indirect replies received.
The analysis of these accepted replies
brings out facts as interesting as the re-
plies themselves. More women claimed
to have had these experiences than men.
and the vast majority saw the strange
things rather than heard or felt them
There were l,l20 visions reported while
3SS heard mysterious voices or sounds
and only IA were touched by the unex-
plainable. Angels showed themselves
rarely, only sixteen having been seen, and
saints and religious appearances were
even more rare. Satan, with his gro
tesque and disagreeable satellites. was
! seen siXty-eght times, while spectral
animals startled the observers twenty
seven times. Where human figures were
seen, the majority of these phantoms
were Of living persons, a good many were
not recognized, while only 232 of the IL
900 claimed to have seen. heard and felt
images or phantoms of the dead All
these things considered, this is a remark
able result, for IL shows that the phe-
nomena OF reappearance, or of direct ap-
parent communication between the dead
and the living, or what passes for such
phenomena. is at best extremely rare
Where could the great body of spiritists
who possess such familiarity with these
phenomena. have been when this uues-
ton Of the psychical society was going it's
rounds? IL was sent all over the world
and replies came from every civilized
country from Russia TO Brazil. and Il is a
I.strlking result that only 232 people were
found who would claim 10 have seen
heard or touched phantoms, or appear