Clairvoyance and Occult Powers, William Walker Atkinson [best book clubs TXT] 📗

regarding any phase of this class of phenomena which may come before you for attention. Once you learn a general rule, the rest becomes merely a matter of application and interpretation. Let us now proceed to a consideration of other phases of the general subject of telepathic influence.

We now come to the phase of what may be called direct telepathy—that is where a thought is consciously, and more or less purposely, directed toward another person. We come across many interesting cases of this kind where persons find themselves thinking intently of certain other persons, and afterwards are told by the other persons that "I found myself thinking intently about you, at such and such a time," etc. In some of these cases it is difficult to determine which one started the thinking. Again, how often do we find ourselves thinking of a person, when all of a sudden the person comes into sight. Again, we think intently and earnestly about a certain question; and then, all of a sudden, other folks whom we meet begin talking to us about the same thing. These instances are too common to need more than a passing notice.

A little more purpose is displayed in that class of phenomena in which we intently wish that a certain person shall do a certain thing, and lo! we soon learn that that certain person has done it. A number of years ago, a popular writer wrote an article in which he mentioned what seemed to him to be a curious instance of some form of mental influence or telepathy. He said that he had found out that if he would sit down and carefully write a letter to some person from whom he had not heard for a long time, and then destroy the letter instead of sending it, he would be almost certain to receive a letter from that person within a few days. He did not attempt to account for the phenomenon, he merely called the attention of his readers to it. Many persons have followed the suggestion, often with very wonderful results. There is nothing miraculous, or supernatural about such occurrences. It is merely one phase of telepathy. The concentrated thought of the writer of the letter is directed toward the other person, and that person begins to think of the first one; then he thinks he will write to him; then he actually does write. Distance, space, and direction have no importance in this experiment—it is not necessary to even know where the second person is, in fact.

There are often found persons so closely in psychic harmony with each other that they very often are able to ask questions and receive answers from each other, even though great distances separate them. Some particular times there is a better psychic harmony existing between the same persons than is found at other times. All this, of course, affects the success of the experiment. It is surprising what wonderful results along these lines may be obtained by almost any person of average intelligence, after a little careful, patient, conscientious practice.

But there have been phenomena obtained as the result of long series of careful experiments which are, in a way, even more wonderful than these somewhat less deliberate experiments just mentioned. I allude to the experiments of a number of earnest, careful scientific students, who surrounded themselves with every precaution against over-enthusiasm, fraud, and coincidence. Prominent among this class of investigations we find those conducted by the Society for Psychical Research, of England, which really established a firm basis for the work of other investigators who followed the general methods of the said society. In the following chapter, I shall give you a somewhat extended statement of the results of such investigations, because this information is important to every student of psychic phenomena, not only because it establishes a firm scientific basis for his studies and beliefs, but also because it gives him important information which he may apply in the course of his own experimental work.

I may mention that the investigations into the subject of telepathy, and kindred subjects, under the auspices of the society just mentioned, were conducted by men of careful scientific training and experience, and under the general supervision and approval of the officers of the society, among which have been numbered such eminent men as Prof. Henry Sidgwick, of Cambridge University; Prof. Balfour Stewart, a Fellow of the Royal Society of England; Rt. Hon. A.J. Balfour, the eminent English statesman; Prof. William James, the eminent American psychologist; Sir William Crookes, the great chemist and discoverer of physical laws, who invented the celebrated "Crookes' Tubes," without which the discovery of the X Rays, radio-activity, etc., would have been impossible; Frederick W.H. Myers, the celebrated explorer of the astral planes, and writer upon psychic phenomena; Sir Oliver Lodge, the popular English scientist; and other men of international reputation and high standing. The character of these men at once gives the stamp of honesty and scientific accuracy to all the work of the society.

In order that you may understand the spirit which animated these scientific investigators in their work of the exploration of this new and strange region of Nature, I ask you to carefully read the following words of the presidential address of Sir William Crookes, before the Royal Society, at Bristol, England, in 1898. Remember, please, that this address was made before an assemblage of distinguished scientists, many of them rank materialists and, quite skeptical of all occult phenomena—this was nearly twenty years ago, remember. Sir William Crookes, facing this gathering, as its president, said:

"Were I now introducing for the first time these inquiries to the world of science, I should choose a starting point different from that of old (where we formerly began). It would be well to begin with Telepathy; with that fundamental law, as I believe it to be, that thoughts and images may be transferred from one mind to another without the agency of the recognized organs of sense—that knowledge may enter the human mind without being communicated in any hitherto known or recognized ways. * * * If telepathy takes place, we have two physical facts—the physical change in the brain of A, the suggestor, and the analogous physical change in the brain of B, the recipient of the suggestion. Between these two physical events there must exist a train of physical causes. * * * It is unscientific to call in the aid of mysterious agencies, when with every fresh advance in knowledge it is shown that either vibrations have powers and attributes abundantly able to any demand—even the transmission of thought.

"It is supposed by some physiologists that the essential cells of nerves do not actually touch, but are separated by a narrow gap which widens in sleep while it narrows almost to extinction during mental activity. This condition is so singularly like a Branly or Lodge coherer (a device which led to the discovery of wireless telegraphy) as to suggest a further analogy. The structure of brain and nerve being similar, it is conceivable that there may be present masses of such nerve coherers in the brain, whose special function it may be to receive impulses brought from without, through the connecting sequence of ether waves of appropriate order of magnitude.

"Roentgen has familiarized us with an order of vibrations of extreme minuteness as compared with the smallest waves with which we have hitherto been acquainted: and there is no reason to suppose that we have here reached the limit of frequency. It is known that the action of thought is accompanied by certain molecular movements in the brain, and here we have physical vibrations capable from their extreme minuteness of acting direct upon individual molecules, while their rapidity approaches that of internal and external movements of the atoms themselves. A formidable range of phenomena must be scientifically sifted before we effectually grasp a faculty so strange, so bewildering, and for ages so inscrutable, as the direct action of mind upon mind.

"In the old Egyptian days, a well known inscription was carved over the portal of the Temple of Isis: 'I am whatever has been, is, or ever will be; and my veil no man hath yet lifted.' Not thus do modern seekers after truth confront Nature—the word that stands for the baffling mysteries of the Universe. Steadily, unflinchingly, we strive to pierce the inmost heart of Nature, from what she is to reconstruct what she has been, and to prophesy what she shall be. Veil after veil we have lifted, and her face grows more beautiful, august and wonderful, with every barrier that is withdrawn."

You will notice that this address made nearly twenty years ago, and from the standpoint of physical science is in full accord with the ideas of occultism as old as the hills. And yet, the speaker had worked out the idea independently. He also investigated higher forms of psychic phenomena, with results that startled the world. But, you will notice that he does not attempt to give any other than purely physical laws the credit for the ordinary phenomena of telepathy. And he was thoroughly right in this, as we have seen. He escaped the common error of confusing physical-sense phenomena with the phenomena of the astral-senses. Each plane has its own phenomena—and each class is surely wonderful enough. And, again, remember that both physical and astral phenomena are purely natural; there is no need for seeking any supernatural agencies to account for these natural facts.

LESSON IV.

SCIENTIFIC TELEPATHY.

The investigators of the Society for Psychical Research, of England, started by giving a broad definition of Telepathy, as follows: "Telepathy is the communication of impressions of any kind from one mind to another, independently of the recognized channels of sense." They took the rational position that the actual distance between the projector and the recipient of the telepathic message is not material; and that all that is required is such a separation of the two persons that no known operation of the senses can bridge the space between them. They wisely held that telepathy between two persons in the same room is as much telepathy as when the two persons are located at opposite sides of the world.

The investigators then ruled out all instances of thought-transmission in which there was even the slightest muscular contact between the projector and the recipient. They held that though there might be genuine telepathy in such cases, nevertheless, there was always the possibility of fraud or collusion, or of unconscious muscular action on the part of the projector. They demanded absolute and actual separation of the two persons, in order that their experiments might be above suspicion. They were wise in this, for while there is undoubtedly a psychic communication in the cases in which there is the slight physical connection between the two persons (as I shall point out to you a little further on), still the element of doubt or suspicion must be entirely eliminated from a scientific test, in order to render it valuable and valid.

They, therefore, confined their investigations in Telepathy to the two following classes, viz.: (1) where actions are performed without physical contact with the person willing; and (2) where some number, word, or card is guessed apparently without any of the ordinary means of communication. The investigators recognized the possibility that in the first of the above-mentioned two classes of experiments there is a possibility of suspicion of collusion, fraud, or unconscious suggestion, in the matter of the motion of the eyes of the party, or some member of it, which might be seized upon, perhaps unconsciously, by the recipient, and used to guide him to the object which was being thought of by the projector or the party. They sought to obviate this difficulty by blindfolding the percipient, and by placing non-conductors of sound over his ears. But, finally, they came to the conclusion that even these precautions might not prove sufficient; and, accordingly, they devoted their