The New York herald., 1921-06-19
Reviewed by DAVID coYLE.


TT seems to me that the attentive
reader can no longer doubt the
- existence OF the soul and It's
purely psychic faculties. Before the
knowledge of telepathy, in past ages,
they attributed these sorts of warnings
to angels or demons. or, fifty years
ago, to disembodied spirits. To-day
we can think that there is telepathic
transmission from brain to BRAIN that
cerebral waves overcome distance.
This is possible, but it is also possible
that the science of the future will
smile at our present theories as we
smile at those of the aneients. What
ever may be the explanation, Fremont
tory Dreams visions of the future, are
authentic, Investigations have con-
f1rmed them. To solve the
mystery Of death we first had to
prove that the soul exists, individually.
an existence proved by special, extra
corporeal faculties which cannot be in
cluded among the properties of the
material brain or among chemical or
mechanical reactions: faculties essen
TALLY spiritual. such as the will, acting
without the spoken word; auto sug-
gestion, producing physical effects;
presentiments, .telepathy, intellectual.
transmissions. reading in closed
book, the sight by the spirit of
far off country. of a future scene or
eNent-all phenomena outside the
sphere of our physical organism. lack
ing any common measure with our or
ganic sensations and proving that the
soul Is a substance which exists in
ITSELF
So concludes the eminent French
astronomer after some forty years of
investigation, during which time he
has studied and verified hundreds of
cases of abnormal psychic manifesto
tions This present volume consists
mostly of records of these extraordi-
rary occurrences, with names. dates
aid witnesses; in many cases the evil
dence is so complete that the reader
must either admit the fact or believe
that an immense number of seemingly
matter of fact people are really fan
tastically insane.
Beyond any reasonable doubt. there
are people who do things that ordinary
folks can't do every day with our
ordinary senses, which certainly proves
that there is more in the universe
than the well known and obvious
bodily activities. Whether this extra
something is only more elaborate
form of chemical reaction or is a
psychic force existing on its own is
the question at issue. One may. per-
haps, be permitted to observe that
both the materialists and the believers
in psychic force like DR.. Flammarion
and DR.. Geley have to jump certain
logical gap in stating dogmatically
that the facts prove this or that.
Nine-tenths of the world believes that
we are souls living in our bodies, and
everybody acts in practice as if he
believed in his own mental existence.
so the burden Of proof certainly rests
heavily on the materialists. On the
other hand, If these weird, abnormal
spooks must sing In our ears to prove
that we have souls, how about those
of us who never have any spooks?
II every human being has, or rather
is. a spiritual person inhabiting a
physical body there ought to be quail
ties common to the lot of us which
indicate the fact.
One is inclined to think that it is
more by the study of the spiritual
faculties of the normal person that
convincing theory may be finally built
up to explain what we are and why
We act the way we do. Books such
as this OF DIR. Fammarion's may be
useful in upsetting the two easy ex-
plantations of the mechanist school.
But the less startling work of men
like Josiah Royce and William James
will probably leave more Of residue
in the thought Of those future philos-
ophers who perhaps will solve the
riddle Of the universe.