Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth Century Witchcraft: Illustrated Investigations into the Phenomena of Spiritualism and TheosophyEvans, Henry Ridgely
Religion
Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth Century Witchcraft: Illustrated Investigations into the Phenomena of Spiritualism and Theosophy
Evans, Henry Ridgely
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna), 1831-1891; Spiritualism; Theosophy
"'This is remarkable language for the signatures of Prof. and Mrs.
Sidgwick, than whom few harder-headed skeptics could be found. It is more
than borne out, however, by a consideration which the committee does not
mention, but which the facts entirely justify, and it is that since many
of the apparitions occurred not merely on the day, but at the very hour or
minute of death, the improbability of their explanation by chance is
really much greater than the figures here given. That the apparition
should occur within the hour of death the chance should be 1 to 356,000,
or at the minute of death 1 to 21,360,000. To get 30 cases, therefore,
brought down to these limits we should have to collect thirty times these
numbers of apparitions. Either these statistics are of no value in a study
of this kind, or the Society's claim is made out that there is either a
telepathic communication between the dying and those who see their
apparitions, or some causal connection not yet defined or determined by
science. That this connection may be due to favorable conditions in the
subject of the hallucination is admitted by the committee, if the person
having the apparition is suffering from grief or anxiety about the person
concerned. But it has two replies to such a criticism. The first is the
query how and why under the circumstances does this effect coincide
generally with the death of the person concerned, when anxiety is extended
over a considerable period. The second is a still more triumphant reply,
and it is that a large number of the cases show that the subject of the
apparition has no knowledge of the dying person's sickness, place, or
condition. In that case there is no alternative to searching elsewhere for
the cause. If telepathy or thought transference will not explain the
connection, resort must be had to some most extraordinary hypothesis. Most
persons will probably accept telepathy as the easiest way out of the
difficulty, though I am not sure that we are limited to this, the easiest
explanation.'
"Professor Hyslop then proceeds to consider the effect of the committee's
conclusion upon existing theories and speculations regarding the relations
between mind and matter, and foresees with gratification as well as
apprehension the revolt likely to be initiated against materialism and
which may go so far as to discredit science and carry us far back to the
credulous conditions of the Middle Ages. He says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account