Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and ObservationsMaxwell, J. (Joseph)
Philosophy
Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and Observations
Maxwell, J. (Joseph)
Parapsychology -- Investigation
These diverse movements are normal: that is to say, they are executed
according to the recognised rules of muscular activity; they do not go
beyond the peripheral limit of the body; the nervous influx is diffused
along the nerves in the ordinary manner.
If the nervous influx, or more correctly speaking, the mode of
energy which constitutes it, goes beyond the material limits of
the body, we have phenomena designated by de Rochas under the name
of _extériorisation de la motricité_. These are again automatic
phenomena for me, since the personal consciousness and the will do not
participate in them. But they present a feature which distinguishes
them from normal automatisms: they are _exosomatic_, if I may use that
expression, while the others are _endosomatic_. These two expressions
signify for me, the one exosomatic, that the movements are produced
beyond the limits of the body; the other endosomatic, that they are
produced within the limits of the body, that is to say by muscular
activity acting physiologically. The first, which are apparently
contrary to the ordinary data of experience, are paranormal phenomena,
that is to say, outside the usual rule; the second, on the contrary,
are normal. Parakinesis is a paranormal movement with contact;
telekinesis is a paranormal movement without contact.
Sensibility presents the same categories of facts. Properly speaking
there is no veritable automatism in phenomena of sensitivity; but
we can nevertheless distinguish therein, first, normal sensitive
phenomena—that is to say, phenomena produced under physiological
conditions, more or less well-known, but frequent, such as
hallucinations, hypermnesiæ; and second, paranormal phenomena, that is
to say, phenomena which imply the existence of modes of perception to
which the normal personality is foreign—clairvoyance, clairaudience,
tele-æsthesia, telepathy (Myers, Gurney, Podmore), exteriorisation of
motor power (de Rochas).
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