I think, as a matter of fact, that apparitions can, whilst manifesting
themselves to some, remain invisible to others, and that they themselves
determine to whom they will appear. Some types of phantasms apparently
prefer manifesting themselves to the spiritual or psychic-minded person,
whilst other types do not discriminate, but appear to the spiritual and
carnal-minded alike. There is just as much variety in the tastes and
habits of phantasms as in the tastes and habits of human beings, and in
the behaviour of both phantasm and human being, I regret to say, there
is an equal and predominant amount of inconsistency.
_Intuition_
I do not think it can be doubted that psychic people have the faculty of
intuition far more highly developed than is the case with the more
material-minded.
"Second sight" is but another name for the psychic faculty, and it is
generally acknowledged to be far more common among the Celts than the
Anglo-Saxons. That this is so need not be wondered at, since the Irish
and the Highlanders of Scotland (originally the same race) are far more
spiritual-minded than the English (in whom commerciality and worldliness
are innate), and consequently have, on the whole, a far greater
attraction for spirits who would naturally prefer to reveal themselves
to those in whom they would be the more likely to find something in
common.
There is still a belief in certain parts of the Hebrides that second
sight was once obtained there through a practice called "The Taigheirm."
This rite, which is said to have been last performed about the middle of
the seventeenth century, consisted in roasting on a spit, before a slow
fire, a number of black cats. As soon as one was dead another took its
place, and the sacrifice was continued until the screeches of the
tortured animals summoned from the occult world an enormous black cat,
that promised to bestow as a perpetual heritage on the sacrificer and
his family, the faculty of second sight, if he would desist from any
further slaughter.
The sacrificer joyfully closed with the bargain, and the ceremony
concluded with much feasting and merriment, in which, however, it is
highly improbable that the phantasms of the poor roasted "toms" took
part.
_Clairvoyance_
Clairvoyance is a branch of occultism in which I have had little
experience, and can, therefore, only refer to in brief. When I was the
Principal of a Preparatory School, I once had on my staff a Frenchman of
the name of Deslys. On recommencing school after the Christmas vacation,
M. Deslys surprised me very much by suddenly observing: "Mr O'Donnell,
did you not stay during the holidays at No. ... The Crescent, Bath?"
"Yes," I replied; "but how on earth do you know?" I had only been there
two days, and had certainly never mentioned my visit either to him or to
anyone acquainted with him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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