ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR PSYCHOLOGICAL Scientific Mental Healing Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters The Riddle of Personality HISTORICAL Woman in the Making of America Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road The Romance of American Expansion Adventurings in the Psychical BY H. ADDINGTON BRUCE BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1914 _Copyright, 1914_, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. _All rights reserved_ Published, April, 1914 THE COLONIAL PRESS C. H. SIMONDS & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. PREFACE The present volume is somewhat in the nature of a sequel to "The Riddle of Personality," published six years ago. In that book I reviewed the results of modern psychological research in the realm of the abnormal and the seemingly supernormal, with the special purpose of making clear their bearings on the problem of the nature and possibilities of man. Having this special purpose in mind, it was inadvisable to attempt any topical and detailed treatment of the phenomena made the subject of scientific investigation. Such a method of treatment, no matter how it might have added to the interest of the book, would inevitably have obscured its message to the reader. Now, however, I have undertaken this very thing, in the hope both of reinforcing the view of personality set forth in the earlier work, and of contributing something towards a wider knowledge of the progress science is making in the naturalization of the supernatural, to borrow Mr. Frank Podmore's happy phrase. Especially have I tried to bring out the exceedingly practical character of many of the discoveries made by those scientists who, despite the often contemptuous criticism of their colleagues, have valiantly persisted in their adventurings in the psychical. The world has undoubtedly been the gainer, and richly the gainer, by their labors; and it surely is well worth while to survey in some detail the field they have explored and the results of their explorations. H. ADDINGTON BRUCE. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, February, 1914. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE v I. GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING 1 II. WHY I BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY 58 III. CLAIRVOYANCE AND CRYSTAL-GAZING 102 IV. AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING 134 V. POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS 171 VI. THE SUBCONSCIOUS 201 VII. DISSOCIATION AND DISEASE 230 VIII. THE SINGULAR CASE OF BCA 265 IX. THE LARGER SELF 290 INDEX 315 ADVENTURINGS IN THE PSYCHICAL CHAPTER I GHOSTS AND THEIR MEANING A witty Frenchwoman was once asked if she believed in ghosts. "No, not at all," was her reply. "But I am terribly afraid of them."