Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-10
Nor Does Mental Telepathy Elk.
plain the Phenomena.
HIS DEFINITION OF A SPIRIT
"A Stream of Consciousness Aware
of ITSELF Surviving the
Physical Death.

You may get money for north pole
expeditions, aeroplane and deep sea dredg-
ing experiments. but YOU can't get -
cents TO prove the Immortality of the
SOUL declared Prof. James H. Hyslop
secretary of the American Society of
Psychical Research. in an address before
an audience that filled George Washing
ton University hall last evening. His
general subject was The Problem of
Psychical Research
With the development of the materi-
alstic mode of thinking in the recent
centuries, said the speaker, and the con-
sequent swinging of the greatest thinkers
from the religious to the materalistic.
faith through the Bible in the Immortality
of the soul has given way TO demand
for physical proof that consciousness sur
wives after death. Yet for answering this
demand he continued. and fer solving the
question which has agitated thinking
minds since the days of Plato, little money
can be ebtained for conducting necessary
experiments. That the immortality of
the soul can be proven by material evil
dence is Prof. Hyslops contention.
During the course of his lecture. Prof
Hyslop gave many occult or psychical
incidents, for which he claimed there is
absolute proof. tending to show that the
dead can communicate with the living
and that there is a surviving conscious
ness after death. He also presented his
theory of explanation of the incidents,
which is ''spiritistic. and which is based
on the definition that a spirit is "a stream
of consciousness aware of itself. The
Spirits" in which he believes. he said.
are not those clad in angelic robes and
with sweeping gestures.
Il accepted the invitation to speak
here" he said in beginning. thinking
that l was to speak only to a small num-
Der OF women. l am glad the men have
been admitted l find that many Of them,
while making fun of women fer taking
stock in psychical experiments. are read
ing books on psychical research on the
sly And the wife is reading the same
book. but does not tell her husband. Is
it any wonder that there are SO many
divorces when man and wife cannot
discuss the Immortality of the sOul?'
Consciousness and Physical Signs.
In beginning the discussion of occult
phenomena Prof. Hyslop first declared
that one knows his own consciousness. but
has no exact knowledge Of state of
consciousness in others. He sees certain
actions around him. however. which lead
him to believe that there are other con-
sciousnesses like his own around him.
But some people may BE- paralyZed SO that
they cannot move muscle. yet when
they recover they declare they were con-
sciOus all the time. There was conscious
ness and yet no physical sign. So con-
seriousness may exist in the universe, he
continues, without physical signs.
''The materialists say that conscious
ness disappears at DEATH, he continued
But they can't prove that consciousness
went out of existence; can't prove the
negative. They may prove that one can't
get a sign of consciousness after death. y
When the English society for psychical
research. was first organized, he said, they
found sufficient evidence to prove mental
telepathy. 1t next took up the study of
GHOSTS" and Authorizations. 1t investi-
gated large number of cases. threw out
every one about which there was any
doubt and ended up with forty-four sub
stantiated cases. In thee cases where a
voice was heard it was found that it was
a trillion to one against chance as the
explanation. In other cases ii was found
that it was trillion trillion to one
against chance. SO the society concluded
that the evidence showed that chance
was not the explanation for the occult
incidents.
Messages From the Dead.
Prof Hyslop next related many expert
ences with psychics. during which ex-
periments. he said, he received MESA ges
from the dead. The messages. he said,
not public-pfacticing meu.ums and who
did not know him. He declared that
mental telepathy was not the explanation
of the messages because he had received
information which he did not know and
which only one or two living persons
knew.
The principal objection which would be
urged against the incidents reported by
him, said the speaker. is that the mes
sases received are of trivial nature.
That, he said. was the best proof of the
theory. If two persons are at opposite
ends of a telegraph line and one wants
to establish his identity he relates most
trivial matters with which only the per-
son at the other end of the wire is ia
miliar. So the surviving consciousness
or spirit" uses trivial matters to eStab-
fish his or it's identity in communica ting
with the living.
Accepting the law of physics that all
matter is indestructible, asked the
speaker in conclusion, is not nature as
careful of personalities as of atoms?
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