The Wichita daily eagle., 1901-02-10
TeIepathy and Ghos :

f E4searcE4. Andrew Lang says.
The Society. as a society, expresses
no opinion, but the committee OF the
Society, Tor their part, decided that
-wraiths' are co.nciaental. or veridical
+ halIuciuaucns, produced by some un-
known mental or cerebral process. called
I Professionally, 'telepatny '--ssnsa tion from
distance. Whether the process is
physical, and caused by the molecular
acton OF one brain upon another distant
and recipient brain las IN wireless tele
/ sraphy), or whether The process Is
I psychical. and involves the action Of 4
/ .nysJerious psychical faculty. there is no
mems OF deciding. But, Il We adm
( that there are phantasms OF the dead,
not being mere casual hallncinations,
/ then We must conceive the process 10 be
psychical; the brain of the dead being
+ Gust, the sour must be ths agent III
/ phantasms OF the dead, or ghosts, the
! Society has collected numerous examples
/ al first hand On the hypothesis al
/ ready explained, these appearances
/ would be caused by the action OF the
disinearnate upon the living mind. But
I how can II be proved that the pnantasm
/ is no mere empty hallucinatiou or llu-
sion begotten suojeetively py grief, by
/ Aciation Cf ideas, or by q casual ar
rangement Of light and shade2 We have,
/ in the case OF the dead, ,isno cotncidental
crisis OF their own to appeal TO, as in
the case Of phantasms of the living. The
/ only possible test is the communication
/ by the plantasm of knowledge otherwise
unattainable by the percipient.
The modern ghost seldom speaks. and
/ the knowledge is indirectly communicat
ed. One or TWO examples are needed
/ Thus residing in a house IN Switzerland,
lady saw a phantasm exactly like ID
/ portraits Of Ncltaire. she then learned
! for the first time, that she occupied what
had been Noitaire's room. But had she
not known about Voltaire's connection
with the house, and forgotten? Again,
a young American, when making up his
books in a hotel, sees the phantasm Of
his dead sister, with q long scratch on
her cheek. His mother tells him what
she had kept secret that she herself
/ accidentally scratched the cheek of the
corpse. as she arranged flowers in the
coffin, aud that she concealed it by aid
Of powder But, granting teleDathy. was
not the phantasm a projection from the
mind Of the mother, who knew the fact?
II is plain that teleparhy, If accepted,
makes it almost impossible for CHEST
to prove his identity. He can do this
only by communicating knowledge con
tanned in no incarnate mind, but after
wards discovered to exist in some long
lost document or other source of evl-
dence. The nearest approach known To
nae TO such a thing is in the case o.
Queen Mary's secret Jewels. Gregory
published a vision Of these jewels with
many attendant circumstance, beneld by
a hypnotized young man Several years
later was discovered in "A heap Of old
law papers in the Scottish Register
House, an inventory of Queen Mary's
jewels. Stin later the inventory was pub
ished by DR. Joseph Robertson. I com
pared the inventory with the account OF
the vision, and the results We're, to a con
siderable degree, oOrroborauve. But cor
roboration of this kind, in the nature of
the case, must be very rare.
'sThus any knowledge contributed by a.
seeming phantasm of the dead may be
explained away by a sweeping theory Of
telepathy The phantasm makes you
aware OF this OF that fact, which is veri-
fed, But. if the verifying evidence may
conceivably have become known, say To
a German savant working in the Sui
tan's library, then it may be urged that
the German savant unconsci0usly wire
on his information TO YOU in the shape
Of an hallUeination. This theory is not
easily accepted. but it may be more
credible than the hypothesis Of a hallu-
"As to haunted houses the Society
has occupied many, to little purpose.
Ghosts, indeed, are seen, and astonishing
noises are heard by such members Of the
investigating parties as are in The way
of experiencing hallucinations wherever
they 60. But that proves nothing.
myself STAYED for a week in a haunt
ed house, whence the noises had evicte3
a large shooting party. but nothing be-
7ef int lra-f
be sure, [ had asked for as quiet a room
as possihle-I certainly got it. As far
as the researches Of the Society 60, the
ghosts retreat before them. whereas, on
the theory that the Society are superstl-
tiOus fools, they ought to see ghosts in
exceeding abundance by dint of expecta-
ton. 1T would appear that haunted
houses are local centers Of permanent
possibility Of halluclnation Thus in an
old house at St. Andrews. a cheerful
family last year constantly net an un-
known lady on the stairs. She always
went into the same room, but never was
found there when pursued. The cheerful
family regarded her as a pleasing pecu.i-
arity Of the mansion This anecdota
leads to the difficult topic OF collective
hallucInation as when number Of per
sons, similarly situated. are similarly
and simultaneously halluclnated The
by an external cause, or does one person
wire on his hallucinations 70 the 9TH
ers2
1T will be observed that this theory
Of hallacination gets rid ~ fhe old puz-
zle. How about the clothes f%he
ghost@ Clothes have no ghosts yet
have heard 0f only one ghost without
clothes ION the evidence Of tina report of
a criminal trial in 1888 The new theory
& fa
ghcst nor clothes In The cases the hall
iucination merely includes clothes. FOR
the sake If decency. or beeauss the (
agent. the mind which Affects the peroiD- j
ients mind thinks II himself rs dress ed f
in bis habit as he lived
While the Society. sdvanclng from The T
experimental taouEat-traneferance to tel- /
epatay. has more or less exrlaires i
.vraifae and has. PERHAPS. Euggesies q +
conceivahl theory ef g1ests tn fse
region OF spirltuaistic material phen1 (
ena az ~ volatile articles ~ fHrn.tare-
II has found M certatntr Exberimsnts .
vFith raid 'Yne1'n-1s' have riaffr re-
suited In tha .ectio1 ~ furost1r NJ
fabIr ln the ease ~ sad an5 n
Izsaapia Palad5no. Bst + s. fa'r 20 sar
that some thsere even now oes
that Esusria ceass7ualsv gets 1er ~
amateur ned uns. many things t1l 81
evidence uuIrna rhate 81 waF71 mat-
fers are certaia1g nara 10 exrfa.u. Fer
q rnrr her ~ sears N-e F1ar
cffuyenna Z tna r-nt3 states nas beers
closely ztuffea IRE le7rne8
Prof W5Har James ~ Hot~ ara
Prof olITer Lodge aer s-e IT.
grsm tre deaf Faaf