Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-16

OF facts pointing to the posi- "
bility of thought being COM
munlcated from mind to mind
by some agency other than the
recognized organs of sense ssu-1
At once he made it his special 's~'A'
business to accumulate data ra'nef
bearing on this point: his abOrs OF the
ultimately leading him into Movement.
exhaustive examination of
hypnotisn. he found that
the hypnotic trance seemed peculiarly favorable to
thought transference or "telepathy," to give it
its modern
The Society Organized
MEANTIME, the example of this little Cam
AvA bridge group had been followed by other in
vestigators and in 1876. before no less dignfed
and conservative a body than the British Associa-
ton for the Advancement of Science the proposal
made that special committee be appointed
for the systematic examination of spiritualistc and
kindred phenomena The idea was preached by
W. F. Barrett professor of physics at the Royal
onded by DR.. Alfred Russell Wallace and William
Crookes, two distinguished scientists who had
already made experiments in psychic research and
destined to wide renown ghost hunters
For some reason nothing done at the time;
but five years later Professor Barrett renewed his
suggestion, asking Myers and Quincy if they would
join him in the formation of such a society That,
they replied, they would gladly do, provided Sidg
wick could be induced to accept its presidency.
Having long before realized that the field was too
extensive for thorough exploration by any individ
ual, however gifted, Sidgwick willingly gave his
consent And accordingly, in January, 1882, the
now celebrated Society tor PSych1cal Research was
formally organized its first council including besides
Sidgwick Myers Quincy, and Barrett such men as
Arthur Balfour, afterward Prime Minister of Great
Britain; the brilliant Richard Hutton; Professor
Bafour Stewart and Frank Podmore than whom
no more merciless executioner of bogus ghosts is
alive to-day.
Unfortunately, the first council also numbered
several avowed spiritualists. notably the medium
Stanton Moses; and the societys birthplace in
the rooms of the British National Association of
Spirtualists. These two facts created wide
hot he ff1ol1y
nothing more than an ad unct to the splritual1stc
movement. Nor confidence wholly restored by
the hasty withdrawal of the sprituastic representa-
tives as as they learned that strictly scientific
methods of inquiry were to prevail; or by the
cessiOn as honorary members of such national figures
as w. E. Gladstone, John Ruskin, Lord Tennyson,
A. r. Wallace, William Crookes, and G.. F. Watts.
To the scientific we'll as the popular conscious
ness the society was little better than assem-
blage of cranks with strangely fantastic notions,
and only too likely to lose it's mental balance and
help ignorant and superstitious people to lose
theirs Conscious, however, of the really serious
and important nature of their enterprise, and
cheered by Gadstone's comforting assurance that
no investigation of greater moment to mankind
themselves zealously to the business that had
brought them together.
Sensiby enough, they adopted the principle of
specialization and division of labor. While
group carried on experiments designed to prove
dsprove the telepathic hypothesis, another engaged
in systematic examination of the alleged facts of
clairvoyance third, in it's turn, under the skill
of the hypnotic trance, with results unexpectedly
beneficial to medical science. A special committee
was also appointed to collect and sift evidence