The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1920-07-23
Can Spirits Speak To Us ?

Some of the most noted scientists
OF America attended the funeral of
Prof. James Hevey Hyslop, secretary
Of the American Society for Psy-
chical Research, who died from blood
clot, in Upper Montclair, N. j., re-
Gently after several months illness.
Sir Oliver Lodge called Prof. Hys
iop "the chief representative of psy.
ohical research in America" Believ-
ers in the power of the disembodied
spirit show unusual interes- in his
death because as founder and spokes-
man for the society he worked out by
study and had published the belief in
spirit contact and he printed an &C
count of a personal experience, in
which he said he had talked with his
wife, who had been dead some years.
Thus both reason and practical result
confirmed him in the assurance that
spirit could talk with the living.
Spirits Fail to Garry Out stipuIations
Early in the life of his society,
dozen years ago or more, at a gather
ing in his house of member friends
and investigators, each of those pres
ent wrote a note, not disclosing its
contents to the others, sealed it and
placed it in a special compartment of
the society safe, at the residence.
A mutual stipulation was that none
of the notes should be disturbed or
unsealed until the departed spirit Of
enc of the writer's should appear to
enc or more of the survivors and re-
veal the contents with the message
from the spirit world The several
writer's agreed that if message and
rote were alike, or substantially so.
that conformity would be accepted as
proof that a spirit could, of its own
will, communicate with friends on
earth
Some of the note writer's have died,
and no sign has been reported from
them.
Prof. Hyslop made light of this APP
parent neglect, which, he said, was
merely negative testimony and worth
less, the implication being that per
haps the writer's, in their lifetime, had
lost interest in the matter, or at mos,
that they could not break the restraint
of their Esprit control" AS it was
the purpose of the writer's to see what
their spirits might do without invoking
the help of a medium, Prof. Hyslop
regarded the failure of the spirits thus
released to reappear to any of the
party as merely an incident in scieu-
tific inquiry, nowise affecting the
power of communication in some form
Survivors of the note-writing parry
have felt, through all the intervening
wears. that the real test would come
with the spirit of Prof. Hyslop, for
while others might slip or yield to re-
straint, his spirit-in the interest anc
for the credit of the cause to winch
his high talents had been devoted
would make special effort to keep the
compact of the note writer's. That is
The test which will now be awaited.
Prof. Hyslop undertook psyehlcai
research as a trained student, Pre-
fessedly unwilling to accept anything
short of scientific truth in the line Of
his inquiry. He has supplemented
his college course in the University OF
Wooster with course at the univef'
sity of Leipzig and another in Johns
Hopkins University, and he had begun
his career as instructor in philosophy
in Lake Forest University, ILL.,, from
which he went to Smith College and