Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and ObservationsMaxwell, J. (Joseph)
Philosophy
Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and Observations
Maxwell, J. (Joseph)
Parapsychology -- Investigation
I have already indicated that these perceptions appear to depend upon
the _impersonal_ consciousness, and that the impressions thus perceived
are transmitted to the personal consciousness in a given form analogous
to that of dream perceptions—that is to say, in a dramatic form,
with a concrete and symbolical setting. The impersonal consciousness
seems, therefore, to be affected in a vague, general manner: the
perceptions only assume an appearance of precision in those strata of
the consciousness, where the notion of personality is determined. Hence
the following conclusions, which I only give as probabilities: (1) that
the notion of personality is susceptible of diverse degrees; (2) that
the impressions perceived by the general consciousness are agreeable or
disagreeable—that is to say, only impart to the personal consciousness
a very vague message, moral comfort or indefinable discomfort; that,
in rarer cases, the transmitted message is more precise, and takes the
form of a detailed hallucination; (3) that, if telepathy exists, the
general consciousness is capable of being affected by channels other
than those of the ordinary senses, which have only a value in ratio to
the personal consciousness of which they are, perhaps, the condition.
This last consideration brings us back to the definition which I gave
a little while ago of consciousness, which is, for me, the common
property of all living matter: its sensuality is limited and specified
by the _senses_, is limited and specified by the personality and the
will.
I beg the reader to excuse me for having entered into these
explanations. I wished, as I said before, to state as clearly as
possible the meanings I attach to the terms I use; I have still another
task to accomplish somewhat similar to the last: which is to classify
medianic phenomena before studying their relations with fraud. In the
first place I divide them into two wide categories, each capable of
penetrating into the other, for, with the exception of luminosities,
physical phenomena are rarely devoid of all meaning, and intellectual
phenomena have always some fact of a physical nature as substratum.
Therefore, these two categories are two _different aspects_ of the same
phenomena rather than two distinct categories.
If we consider the purely physical side, we have the following
approximate series:—
PHYSICAL PHENOMENA
_Sonorous._—Raps; diverse noises.
_Motor._—Normal; paranormal; parakinesis; telekinesis.
_Luminous._—Amorphous; definite forms; psychic (?) photography.
If we consider the form of communications, in appearance intelligent,
by adhering to the mode of expression of the _intellectual_ sense of
the phenomena, we have the following classification:—
INTELLECTUAL PHENOMENA: ENDOSOMATIC AUTOMATISM
_Muscular._—Typtology; grammatology; automatic script; automatic
speaking.
_Sensorial._—Visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory phenomena.
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