Arizona republican., 1894-01-05
PSYCHIC MYSTERIES.
A Peculiar Theory Advanced by
 Dr. Elliott Couea.
The So-Called "Science" of Telekinesis- InexpKcabie as Theosophy and Other Fads-The Law of Gravita-
 tion Defied.

The enthusiastic Prof Elliott Coues, a distinguished and responsible man of scieuce, asserted at the Psychical con- gress that he had time and again seen his own ponderous dining-table rise in the air when no one was touching 1t, directly or indirectly. The fact he ayers to be beyond cavil. The possible explanations are these: The table may be moved by spirits; it may be moved by the action of the human mind or will without contact, or the observers may be deceived If the fast of these explanations were to be admitted Prof. Coues would have to deny all validity to the testimony of his senses. Of the two former alternatives, he inclines to the view that the table was moved by human force rather than by spirits
 The subject of the paper was the :'alleged movement of objects without mechanical contact" more briefly ex- pressed by the Greek word ''teleki- nesis," or action at distance. We have read good deal about ''levita- tion'' in Mime. Blavatsky's writings and in other outpourings of modern theosophical ideas, but it remains for Prof. Coues to assert that, inasmuch as action and reaction are equal and opposite, all gravitation is compensat- ed by an equal degree of levitation. This statement has pseudo-scientific sound, for while it is true that gravity is compensated by an equal reaction when one body rests on another, there is no such principle applicable to bodies at distance from each other. When ever an object is lifted the effect may be called levitation, but there is no evi- dence of such repulsive effect except in cases of substantial contact.
 Prof Coues went on to explain that action at a distance is of constant oc- currence, as in ordinary cases of gravi- tation and magnetism. He therefore derided the scientific dogma that bod ies can act upon each other only by contact It is right here that an old inveterate controversy among men of science comes to view. Is contact necessary whenever one body effects another, or is there such a thing as 5elekinesis?
 It was asserted by Prof. Coues that gravitation is manifestly an example of action without mechanical contact. Just here the physicists take issue with him. Prof. Oliver J. Lodge has recently expressed his views before certain learned British societies to the effect that the denial of action at a distance must be taken as the funda- mental axiom of science. It is on this very account that the hypothetical ether is posted. Bodies cannot act except through physical contact, i. e.. except through some medium. The celestial spheres do act upon one an other, and as there is no ordinary ma terial medium prevailing the inter- mediate space, there must be some other medium, which is not material in the ordinary sense. This they call ether.
 The explanation, says the Chicago Journal, involves new difficulties. The ether is of little use even as Q hypcthc- sis if conceived to be made up of dis crete particles-molecules or atoms like ordinary matter. It will not serve it's purpose unless it is absolutely con tinous and homogeneous. without any particles or intervening spaces. Yet in it motions take place. Now it is hard to conceive of motion in a liquid except as a change in the relative posi- tion of its particles. How motion can take place in an absolute continuous plenum is problem that the physicists labor to unravel by various means, none of which can be deemed altogether sat isfactory. Such are the pitfalls of those who deny action at a distance but the trouble with Prof. Coues is, that his table moves without any ap- parent expenditure of physical energy It is doubtful whether his telekinesis is more satisfactory explanation than spirits. However, he does not profess to explain facts, but merely to rehearse them.