Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-23

S:t1'!<3
CCIENCE for long time set its judg ~
y ment against the possibility of sus- Is
- tanning any belief in future life and I'M
many still will assert confidently that it NNl
never can give any substantial support for g
it. This may be true in fact; but there ~
is mass of phenomena within the reach
of scientific consideration that certainly
iusties scientific investigation looking to
the merits of the claim that human consciousness
survives death, and it is indeed the scandal of
science itself that the phenomena which put
forward such strong evidence of their Importance
have not received the attention which they deserve
even though they turn out to be different from
what their superficial appearance suggests that
they are
Why the human race would so enthusiastically
organize all other fields of inquiry and neglect
this one-nay despise it-and reduce every wayfarer
in it to candidate for the madhouse is all but
inexplicable OF course the follies of those who
have prosecuted inquiry in it so long, and the vu-
gar frauds that blazed the pathway into it, have
been the real reason for this contempt, and GER
tainly the suspicion and warness of the
man, though this assumption of intelligence ought
to have made it secure for his Investigations But
it has not, and the way is still open to the
who will insist upon the need of distinguishing be-
tween the wheat and the chaf in this product of
human development. That it may be done is
the object of the American Institute for Scientific
Research, which has been founded recently, though
it has the wide field Of abnormal psychology for its
province at the same time.
The material which makes it unnecessary as well
as foolish to talk gblysabout fraud and delusion
the explanation of all that lays claim to being
supernormal is so large in quantity and good
in quality that only unintelligent afford
longer to sheer. The eighteen volumes of Pro
ceedings" published by the English Society for
Psychical Research, monument to its work,
as well as a library of facts that demand some
PLANTATION of their meaning and sooner or later
must receive it. They contain information
every imaginable phase of the inquiries associated
with the real and the alleged supernormal, including
fraud, illusion, Authorization, coincidence, telep-
athy, clairvoyance appar1tions and med1umlstlc
phenomena In addition to these the two large
volumes on 'Phantasms of the Living" which
a treasure house of material on spontaneous and
experimental telepathy, at least alleged,
incidental dreams, and apparitions Of the living
and the dying. They to be supported evil
dentally in most cases to such degree that no
ordinary explanation is conceivable, though
may not require to go beyond telepathy between
living minds to account for them
But telepathy alone is the most revolutionary
hypothesis imaginable within the field of psychology,
and is not yet admitted by the scientific world.
Only few people interested in psychic research
and determined to entertain any supposition but
spiritstic agency can be induced to defend openly
telepathy of any kind, and scientific of
any high standing will advocate that kind of telep-
athy which would be necessary to account for such
cases that of Mrs Piper, and similar instances,
such as that of Stanton Moses Hensleigh Wedge
wood the brother-in-1aw of Charles Darwin Mrs.
Veral1, Miss X, Mrs. A, Lurancy Vennum, and
perhaps host of minor lights. 1t is not necessary
to claim that anything else will explain them; but
telepathy certainly does not and will not until some
experimental evidence of its nature be found that
will qualify it for the duty imposed upon it by the