Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: PRE-PYR
del.icio.us it!
|
PSYCHICAL See also:RESEARCH , a See also:term which may be defined, partially, as an examination into the amount of truth contained in See also:world-wide superstitions. Thus when See also:Saul disguised himself before his seance with the See also:witch of See also:Endor, and when See also:Croesus scientifically tested the oracles of See also:Greece (finding See also:clairvoyance or lucidite in the Delphic Pythoness), Saul and Croesus were psychical researchers. A more systematic student was the Neoplatonist philosopher See also:Porphyry. In his See also:letter to Anebo, answered in Hepi µuar1tpiwv by lamblichus (?) we find Porphyry concerned with the usual alleged phenomena—prophecy; the See also:power of walking through See also:fire unharmed; the movements of inanimate See also:objects, untouched; the "levitation" of "mediums"; See also:apparitions of See also:spirits, their replies to questions, the falsehood of those replies; and so forth. Similar phenomena fill the lives of the See also:saints and the records of witch trials. Apparitions, especially of the dying or the dead; the stereotyped disturbances in haunted houses; and the miraculous healing of diseases, are current in classical and See also:medieval records. The See also:exhibition of remote or even future events, to gazers in mirrors, crystals, vessels full of See also:water, or drops of See also:ink or See also:blood, is equally notorious in classical, See also:Oriental, medieval and See also:modern literature; while the whole range of these phenomena is found in See also:Chinese, See also:Japanese, See also:Hindu, See also:ancient See also:American, Red See also:Indian and See also:savage belief.
At various periods, and in proportion to the scientific methods of the ages, attempts have been made to examine these things scientifically. St See also:Augustine wrote on the whole topic with remarkable acuteness and considerable See also:scepticism; his treatment of miracles of healing is especially noteworthy. After Petrus Thyraeus (1 J46-1601), S. J. Wierus, See also:Ludwig See also:Lavater (1527-1586), and other authors of the 16th See also:century, came the labours of See also:Glanvill, See also: Attempts were made to get first-See also:hand evidences and Glanvill investigated the knocking drummer of Tedworth in situ (1663). The disturbances in the See also:house of the Wesleys at Epworth (1716 and later) were famous, and have copious contemporary See also:record. See also:David See also:Hume believed himself to have settled questions which, when revived by the See also:case of See also:Swedenborg and the experiments of See also:Mesmer and his pupils, puzzled and interested See also:Kant. The See also:influence of Mesmer has never died out; the fact of " See also:animal See also:magnetism " (with such examples as the" See also:divining See also:rod," and the phenomena in See also:general) was accepted in his manner, and explained, by See also:Hegel. The researches of See also:Braid (c. 1840-1850) gave a new name, " See also:hypnotism," to what had been called " mesmerism " or " animal magnetism "; a name conveying no theory of " magnetic " or other " fluids."
Mesmerism " implies a theory of " emanations " from the operator to the patient ; " hypnotism" implies no such hypo-thesis. In the See also:middle of the 19th century Dr See also:Gregory and Dr See also:Mayo published their entertaining but unsystematic See also:works,
Animal Magnetism and The Truths in Popular Superstitions respectively. Esdaile and See also:Elliotson were See also:practical pioneers in the medical use of induced See also:sleep or See also:somnambulism. For their ideas and experiments The Zoist may be consulted. The epidemic of " See also:spiritualism " and of " turning tables " then invaded See also:Europe from America, and was discussed by Dr See also:Carpenter, See also:Faraday, Gasparin, De See also:Morgan and many others. The adventures of See also:Daniel Dunglas See also:Home excited all Europe, and his effects were studied by See also:Sir See also: Believers explained them by the agency of the spirits of the dead, the old savage theory. He had many followers, most of whom, if not all, were detected in vulgar impostures. Of the books of this See also:period those of Mr Richard See also:Dale See also:Owen (1810-1890) are the most curious, but exact method was still to seek.
In 1882 the Society for Psychical Research, under the See also:presidency of Henry See also:Sidgwick, See also:professor of moral See also:philosophy in the university of See also:Cambridge, was founded expressly for the purpose of introducing scientific method into the study of the " debateable phenomena." Other See also:early members were See also:Edmund See also:Gurney, F. W. H. See also:Myers, See also:Andrew See also:Lang, Professor See also:Barrett, Mrs Sidgwick, F. Podmore, See also:Lord See also:Tennyson, Lord See also:Rayleigh and Professor See also: It is See also:plain that the range of psychical research is almost unlimited. It impinges on See also:anthropology (with its study of the savage theory of spirits—See also:animism—and of diabolical See also:possession), and on the usual See also:province of psychology, in the problems of the hallucinations both of morbid patients and of See also:people in normal See also:mental See also:health. The whole topic of the unconscious or subconscious self is made See also:matter not of See also:mere metaphysical See also:speculation (as by Kant and See also: The experiments of Reichenbach on the perception of flames issuing from magnets have not been verified. The collection of See also:historical examples, again (6), has not been much pursued by the society, except in Mr Gurney's studies of See also:witchcraft in Phantasms of the Living, by himself, Mr Podmore and Mr Myers. On the other hand, a vast number of experiments were made in " thought transference." (r) Diagrams See also:drawn by A were reproduced by B; See also:cards thought of, See also:numbers 3. 4. 5. and so forth were also reproduced in conditions that appeared to make the normal transference of the See also:idea by See also:sound, sight or See also:touch impossible, and to put See also:chance coincidence out of See also:court. In one or two instances See also:collusion was detected ingeniously. In others two explanatory theories have been broached. People may accidentally coincide in their choice of diagrams, or the " unconscious whispering " of a See also:person fixing his mind hard on a number, card or what not may be heard or seen. But coincidence in diagrams does not apply when a See also:ship, dumb-bells, a See also:candlestick or a See also:cat is drawn by both experimenters; nor can " unconscious whispering " be heard or seen when the experimenters are in different rooms. On the whole, the inquirers convinced themselves that one mind or See also:brain may influence another mind or brain through no recognized channel of sense. This is, of course, an old idea (see See also:Walton's See also:Life of See also:Donne, and his theory of the See also:appearance of Mrs Donne, with a dead baby, to Dr Donne in See also:Paris). The method of communication remains a problem. Are there " brain waves," analogous to the X-rays, from brain to recipient brain, or does mind touch mind in some unheard-of way? The former appears to be the See also:hypothesis preferred by Sir William Crookes and Professor Flournoy (See also:Des Indes a la planete See also:Mars, pp. 363-365). On this showing there is nothing " supranormal " in " telepathy," as it is called. The latter theory of " a purely spiritual communication " is argued for by Mr Myers (Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, xv. 407-410). If we accept telepathy as experimentally demonstrated, and regard it as a physical See also:process, we reduce (4), " apparitions at the moment of death or other-See also:wise," to a normal though not very usual fact. Everyone would admit this in the case of mere empty hallucinations. A, in See also:Paisley, See also:sees P, in See also:London, See also:present in his See also:room. P is neither dying nor in any other crisis, and A is, as both continue to be, in his normal health. Such experiences are by no means very uncommon, when there is nothing to suggest that P has exercised any telepathic influence on A. On the other hand, in Phantasms of the Living, and in the See also:report on the See also:Census of Hallucinations (Proceedings, vol. x.), the society has published large numbers of " coincidental " hallucinations, the appearance of P to A coinciding with the death or other crisis of the distant P. That such " wraiths " do occur is the popular and savage belief. But, it may be urged, many hallucinations occur and many deaths. People only remember the hallucinations which happened, or were made by erroneous reckoning to seem to happen, coincidentally with the decease of the person seen. This is not quite true, for a See also:hallucination so vivid as to be taken for a real person and addressed as such is not easily forgotten by a sober See also:citizen, even if " nothing happened " afterwards. None the less, the coincidental hallucinations have certainly a better chance of being remembered, while See also:fancy is See also:apt to exaggerate the closeness of the coincidence. Nothing can demonstrate that coincidences between death and hallucination occur more frequently than by the See also:doctrine of chance they ought to do, except a census of the whole See also:population. In the present indifference of See also:government to psychical See also:science no party is likely to See also:institute such a census, and even if it were done, the frivolity of mankind would throw doubt on the See also:statistics.. It would be necessary to See also:cross-examine each " percipient," and to ask for documentary or other corroborative See also:evidence in each case. The Society for Psychical Research collected statistics in proportion to its resources. More than 17,000 answers were received to questions rather widely circulated. The affirmative respondents were examined closely, their mental and physical health and circumstances inquired into, and collectors of evidence were especially enjoined to avoid selecting persons known to be likely to return affirmative replies. There were 8o cases at first hand in which the death of the person seen coincided, within twelve See also:hours, with the visual hallucination of his or her presence, out of 352 instances of such hallucinations. By way of arriving at the true proportions, the hallucinations which coincided with nothing were multiplied by four. In this way See also:allowance was made for obliviousness of non-coincidental hallucinations. The See also:verdict of the See also:committee was that, on the
xxII. 18RESEARCH 545
evidence before them, hallucinations coincided with deaths in a ratio of 440 times more than was to be expected by the See also:law of probabilities. The committee came to the conclusion that a relation of cause and effect does exist between the death of A and the See also:vision of A beheld by P. The hallucination is apparently caused from without by some unexplained See also:action of the mind or brain of A on the brain or mind of P. This effect is also traced, where death does not occur, for example, in the many instances of false " arrivals." A is on his way to X, or is dreaming that he is on his way, and is seen at X by P, or by P, Q and R, as may happen. These cases are See also:common, and were explained in See also:Celtic philosophy by the theory of the " Co-See also: In " second sight," even among savages, these occurrences are not infrequent, and doubtless admit of an explanation by telepathy. In two instances, known at first hand to the present writer, persons dreamed, at a distance, that they entered their own homes. In one the person was seen, in the other distinctly heard, by the inmates of his or her house. In several of these examples knocks are heard, as in spiritualist seances. In fact, if we accept the evidence, living but remote persons may, unconsciously, produce effects of sounds and of phantasms exactly like those which popular belief ascribes to the spirits of the dead. If we admit the evidence, of which a See also:great body exists, and if we attribute the phenomena to telepathy, curious inferences may be drawn. Thus if the phenomena are such as only the spirits of the dead could be credited with producing—if the dead were frequently recognized by various See also:good witnesses—it would follow (on the hypothesis of telepathy) that telepathy is not a physical process caused by material waves or rays from living brain to brain, the dead having no brains in working See also:order. On the other hand, if living brains may thus affect each other, a subjective hallucination experienced by the living A may conceivably be "wired on" to the living P. Thus A, in a given house, may have a mere subjective hallucination of the presence of the dead B, and may, unconsciously, infect with that hallucination other persons who come to the house. Thus once admit that any living brain may infect any other, and it becomes practically impossible for a spirit of the dead to prove his identity. Any See also:information which he may give in any way must either be known to living people, however remote, or unknown. If known to a living person, he may, unconsciously, " See also:wire it on " to the seer. If wholly unknown to everybody, the veracity of the information cannot be demonstrated, except later, if it refers to the unknown future. Thus the theory of telepathy, with a little good will, puts the existence and activity of the souls of the dead beyond possibility of See also:proof. These remarks apply to the researches of the society into alleged isolated phantasms of the dead, and into " haunted houses." As to the former cases, it is admitted on all hands that sane and sober people may have subjective hallucinations of the presence of living See also:friends, not dying or in any other crisis. Obviously then, the appearance of a dead person may equally be an empty hallucination. Thus, a member of the House of See also:Commons, See also:standing at the entrance of a certain committee-room, saw another member, of See also:peculiar aspect and gait, pass him and enter the room, his favourite haunt. Several hours passed before the percipient suddenly recollected that the other member had been dead for some'months. Even superstition cannot argue that this appearance was a See also:ghost. In the same way See also:Hawthorne, the celebrated novelist, frequently, he has written, saw a dead See also:club-See also:man in his club. But suppose, for the See also:sake of See also:argument, that at intervals members of the house kept seeing such appearances of dead members of See also:parliament, and suppose that they had never seen the prototypes in their lifetime, but yet correctly. described them: then it might be said that their hallucinations II had merely been " wired on " from the brain of some living member of parliament who knew the deceased. Thus telepathy cuts two ways. It is, if accepted, a singular See also:discovery, but it throws an enormous See also:burden of proof on a " ghost " who wants to establish his identity. In the same way telepathy cuts at the See also:root of " clairvoyance," or lucid view of events remote in space or distant in See also:time. The vision may have been " wired on " telepathically by a living person who knew the remote event. The "supranormal " can only be proved if the information conveyed by the hallucination is verified in the future, or is proved by the finding of documents . not known to exist at the time of the hallucination, but after-wards discovered. A curious possible instance was the discovery in 1856 of a MS. See also:inventory of the jewels of See also:Mary See also:Stuart (1566), verifying in some degree a clairvoyant vision about the jewels published some years earlier (see " See also:Queen Mary's Jewels " in the writer's See also:Book of Dreams and Ghosts). For the same reasons the information nominally given by " spirits " of the dead through the mouth or by the automatic See also:writing of Mrs See also:Piper (See also:Boston. U.S.) and other mediums may be explained by telepathy from the living who know the facts. This theory was rejected, for example, in the case of Mrs Piper, by Myers and Dr Richard See also:Hodgson, who devoted much time to the examination of the See also:lady (see Proceedings, vols. vi., xiv., with criticisms by Mrs Sidgwick and the present writer in vol. xv. pt. See also:xxxvi). In the See also:late Dr Hodgson's See also:opinion, the dead do communicate through the automatic writing or speaking of Mrs Piper. The published evidence (much is unpublished) does not seem to justify the conclusion, which is not accepted by Mrs Piper herself ! Dr J. H. Hyslop has published enormous and See also:minute reports on Mrs Piper, convincing to himself but not to most readers. This leads us to the See also:chief field of research in " automatisms," or actions of the subconscious or " subliminal " self. The prototype of such things is found in the performances of natural somnambulists, who in all ages have seemed to exhibit faculties beyond their power when in a normal See also:condition. The experiments of Mesmer, and of those who followed in his track, down to the psychologists of to-See also:day, proved (what had See also:long been known to savages and conjurers) that a See also:state of somnambulism could be induced from without. Moreover, it is proved that certain persons can, as it were, hypnotize themselves, even unwittingly, and pass into trance. In these secondary conditions of trance, such persons are not only amenable to " See also:suggestion, " but occasionally evolve what are called secondary personalities: they speak in voices not their own, and exhibit traits of See also:character not theirs, but in See also:harmony with the impersonation. The popular, savage and ancient theory of these phenomena was that the people thus affected were inspired by a See also:god or spirit, or " possessed " by a demon or a dead man. Science now regards the gods or demons or spirits as mere exhibitions of the secondary See also:personality, which wakens when the normal personality slumbers. The knowledge and faculties of the secondary personality, far exceeding those exhibited in the normal state, are explained to a great extent by the patient's command, when in the secondary state, of resources latent in the memory. The same explanation is offered for other phenomena, like those of automatic writing, knocking out answers by tilting tables, or discovering objects by aid of the "divining rod." The See also:muscular actions that tilt the table, or wag the rod, or direct the See also:pencil or planchette, are unconsciously made, and reveal the latent stores of subconscious knowledge, so that a man writes or knocks out information which he possessed, but did not suspect himself of possessing. These processes were See also:familiar to the Neoplatonists, and in one See also:form or other are practised by Chinese, Tibetans, Negroes, Malayans and Melanesians. A similar kind of automatism is revealed in the inspirations of See also:genius, which often astonish the author or artist himself. An interesting example has been studied by Myers in the feats of See also:arithmetic recorded about " calculating boys," who are usually unconscious of their methods. The whole of this vast field of the unconscious, or subconscious, or subliminal self hasbeen especially examined by Myers, and by such psychologists as See also:Ribot, See also:Janet, Richet, Flournoy and many others. The general result is a normal explanation, not yet See also:complete, of the phenomena hitherto attributed to witchcraft, See also:inspiration, possession, and so forth. Probably the devils, saints, angels and spirits who have communicated with witches, living saints, demoniacs and visionaries are mere hallucinatory reflections from the subconscious self, endowed with its See also:store of latent memories and strangely acute percipient faculties. Thus a curious See also:chapter of human history is at last within possible' reach of explanation. Men regard phenomena as " supranormal " or " supernatural," or reject them altogether, till their modus is explained. But it would not be candid to say that the explanation is complete, or nearly complete. The nature of the hypnotic trance itself remains a matter of dispute. The knowledge automatically revealed can by no means always be accounted for, either by latent memory or by the sharpening of the normal faculties of perception, while the limits of telepathy (if it be accepted) are vaguely conjectured. Even the results of See also:simple experiments in " crystal-gazing " are often very perplexing. Further experiment may reveal some normal explanation, while scepticism (which seldom takes the trouble to examine the alleged facts with any care) can always repose on a theory of malobservation and imposture. These, of course, are verae causae, while in this, as in all provinces of human evidence, See also:bad memories and unconscious errors distort the testimony. Psychical research encourages, or ought to encourage, the cool impartiality in examining, See also:collecting and recording facts, which is usually absent, in greater or less degree, from the See also:work even of eminent historians. Men of equal honesty and acuteness may believe or disbelieve in the innocence of Mary Queen of Scots, or in the " spirits " which See also:control Mrs Piper. As to alleged " physical phenomena " of unknown cause, one, the power of passing without See also:lesion with naked feet over fire, has recently been attested by numerous competent observers and experimenters in the See also:ritual of Fijians and other See also:South See also:Sea Islanders, Japanese, Bulgarians, natives of See also:southern See also:India and other races. (The evidence has been collected by the present writer in Proceedings S.P. R. vol. xv. pt. xxxvi. pp. 2-15. Compare a case examined and explained more or less by S. P. See also:Langley, Nature, See also:August 22, 1901.) The much more famous tales of movements of objects untouched have been carefully examined, and perhaps in no instance have professional per-formers proved See also:innocent of See also:fraud. Yet the best known living medium, Eusapia Palladino, though exposed at Cambridge, has been rehabilitated, after later experiments, in the opinion of many distinguished See also:Continental observers, who entirely disbelieve in the old theory, the action of " spirits," and venture no other hypothesis.
The results of psychical research, after several years of work, are not really less than could be expected from toil in a field so difficult. The theory of alternating, or secondary, personalities is the See also: Many " miracles " of healing and of " See also:stigmatization " become credible when verified in modern experience and explained by " suggestion "; though to " ex-plain the explanation " is a task for the future. Such as it is, the theory was accepted by St See also:Francis de Sales in the case of St See also:Theresa. Results of wider range and of more momentous See also:interest may yet be obtained. The science of See also:electrical phenomena was not See also:developed in a See also:quarter of a century, and it would be premature to ask more from psychical research than it has achieved in a See also:short period. The subject is not readily capable of exact experiment, human faculty being, as it were, capricious, when compared with See also:ordinary physical processes. Imposture, conscious or unconscious, is also an See also:element of difficulty. But already phenomena which are copiously reported throughout the whole course of history have been proved to possess an actual basis in fact, have been classified, and to some extent have been explained. Even if no See also:light is ever to be See also:cast on spiritual problems, at least the field of psychology has been extended. The literature of psychical research is already considerable, and a complete bibliography would occupy much space. Readers who care to pursue the study will find their best See also:guide in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, which contains a See also:catalogue of the society's collection, including the Gurney Library (hypnotism), with reviews of modern books in many See also:languages—See also:French, See also:German, Italian, See also:Russian—as they appear. Among modern See also:English books may be recommended Phantasms of the Living, by Gurney, Podmore and Myers; Studies in Psychical Research, by Podmore, with his Apparitions and Thought-Transference; and Principles of Psychology, by Professor William James, of Harvard. The historical See also:side of the subject, especially as regards the beliefs of savages and of classical antiquity, may be studied in E. B. See also:Tylor's See also:Primitive Culture (under " Animism "), in Myers's Classical Essays (under " See also:Greek Oracles "), and A. Lang's See also:Cock See also:Lane and Common Sense, and Making of See also:Religion. Myers's work, Human Personality, contains vast collections of facts, with a provisional theory. Myers's regretted death prevented him from finally revising his book, which contains certain inconsistencies. It is plain that he tended more and more to the belief in the " invasion " and " possession " of living human organisms by spirits of the dead. The same tendency marks an See also:article on " Psychical Research," by Sir See also:Oliver See also:Lodge, in Harper's See also:Magazine (August 19o8). Other students can find, in the evidence cited, no See also:warrant for this return to the " See also:palaeolithic psychology " of " invasion " and " possession." Th. Flournoy's Des Indes a la planete Mars is a penetrating study of pseudo-spiritual " messages." A See also:criticism making against the notion of telepathy may be found in Herr See also:Parish's Hallucinations and Illusions (Eng. trans.). Some errors and confusions in this work (due in See also:part to the expansion of the original See also:text) are noted in A. Lang's Making of Religion, appendix A. Such topics as TELEPATHY, CRYSTAL-GAZING, HYPNOTISM, SECOND SIGHT, the See also:POLTERGEIST, &C., are dealt with under See also:separate articles in this work. (A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] PSYCHE (//vxi7) |
[next] PSYCHOLOGY |