The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1912-04-11
GHOSTS and PSYCHICS
Distinguished English Clergyman Son Of Late Archbishop
of Canterbury, Thinks Subconscious Person
atty Hints at Immortality of the Soul

Mgr. Robert Hugh Benson Of Eng
land. who some years ago became
Roman Catholic, having renowned the
Church of England, of which his faith
er, the late Archbishop of Canterbury
was the spiritual head, spoke at a
meeting of the League for Political
| Education In the Hudson Theatre yes
terday morning on psychic phenomena,
| but usually avoided giving his own
views on the subject, contenting him
self with the suggestion at the close
that In the theory OF the psycholo-
| gist Of the subconscious personality
the churchman may divine the truth
| of his belief In the Immortality Of the
soul.
! At the outset the speaker explained
that he has never seen ghost, never
| has attended spiritualist seance and
never has written a book on the sub
5ect, but that from his earliest years
| he has been accustomed to an at
mosphere, which ministered to his
fondness for delving into those exper-
fences Of which he purposed to speak.
He always has been afraid of the
dark, and as it's study has progressed
he has been led to believe that it has
infinite potentia1ities Of which the light
| gives little or no suggestion.
| The modern psychologist. according
| to Mgr. Benson, has seized upon the
| tnoOTy VI tI10 SuOCOu6ClOUS SCH DIS d
sort Of carpet bag into which are
tossed these mystic phenomena. In
its terms are explained many sets
Of phenomena otherwise difficult, Of
correlation. It was first put forward
| by Prof. Wundt Of Germany and AM
erican psychologists have developed IT
to large extent. Ddagrammed the
theory is that the mind is two story
house with one room above another
and trapdoor between. In the up
per room are the objective faculties,
those that enable men to transact the
ordinary business Of life; IN the lower
! room are the faculties Of Imagination.
intuition, memory and all those things
that have their expression in dreams,
In works Of art and mystical exper-
| iences =,
In the room of the objective faculties
| lives the practical man; down below
dwells the weaver Of fancies and, the
| Spanish aerial architect. Most men
are inclined to live more In one room
! than in the other and the true genius
| is he that has such a control Of the
trapdoor that he can open or close 1t
at will. so that the things that have
been planned down below can be made
| to take substantial form by the exer-
else Of those faculties that keep to
| the upper chamber. Some there are
who have used the sjlbconscious facul-
ties so often and so long that the trap
OOOr has DcCOII6 ClOSeQ anu t0CSS IVIA
dwell in unpleasant places. In Mgr.
Benson's opinion the tendency of mod
ern psychologists is to explain every
| thing by this theory just as some
years ago electricity was made the ex-
PLANTATION Of every phenomena that
troubled anybody for any length or
time
Mgr. Benson then referred to several
we'll known phenomena that are ex-
planned by this theory. For example.
the experience OF starting to tell
funny story and finding oneself at an
Of 1t. The objective memory tells
how the story begins. but the subtec-
tive memory has seized upon the point
of 1t and to get it through the trap
door is Ike trying to extract cork
that has been pushed down into bot
tie. You can touch 1t, but it hobs
around and evades recovery. Exactly
the same phenomena is observed in old
men, who may not be able to say
whether or not their wives are alive
but can describe with exactness the
kind Of dress they wore in youth. The
explanation is that the subconscious
memory is an absolute memory. Ev-
erything is there. but the objective
memory can often bring up only the
unimportant things.
AS for dreams, your consciousness Is
poised in the subconscious room and
tive check of the reason or will You
are at the mercy of the faculties there.
A person constantly roaming in this
mysterious realm is either insane or
asleep.
Explaining telepathy the speaker told
story of a party at a country house.
Several persons remained in one room,
decided upon something to be found
or done by those in another room and
then called these persons in. One
young lady Just married proved espec-
tally susceptible to these telepathic
suggestions After many trials it was
agreed that she should be asked tele-
pathically to take off one of her shoes.
She came into the room, began to
blush, got very nervous and complet-
ed the experiment by going to her hus-
band and taking off one Of his shoes.
On another occasion the mons1gnor
hypnotized two boys and placed them
i'm separate rooms. One boy he told
to look into a glass of water and see
the COW climbing a church steeple.
The boy had no difficulty in seeing
it. The other boy then was brought
In and told to explain what he saw in
the same glass of water. This young
man reported that he saw a big thing
going up a. thin thing and afterward
gave a fuller explanation to the eff
feet that It was a bear climbing
pile. These suggestions were made
through the subsconscious faculties Of
the two boys.
Mgr. Benson said he did not propose
to be humorous on the subject of
ghosts There are two kinds gener-
ally accepted. One kind appears at
the, moment Of death and the other