Telepathy and the Subliminal SelfMason, R. Osgood (Rufus Osgood)
Philosophy
Telepathy and the Subliminal Self
Mason, R. Osgood (Rufus Osgood)
Parapsychology -- Investigation; Telepathy
To such objectors, cumulative evidence regarding facts out of their own
mental horizon is useless. Their motto is: "No amount of evidence can
establish a miracle;" and their definition of a miracle is something done,
or alleged to have been done, contrary to the laws of nature. But the
objector who refuses credence to well-attested facts on that ground alone,
simply assumes that he is acquainted with all the laws of nature.
A miracle, really, is only something alleged to have been done, and we are
not able to explain how; nevertheless, it may be perfectly in accordance
with natural laws which we did not understand or even know existed. To the
West Indian, whom Columbus found in the New World, an eclipse of the sun
was a miracle of the most terrible character; to the astronomer it was a
simple fact in nature. To the ignorant boor, "talking with Chicago" or
cabling between New York and London is a miracle; to the electrician it is
an everyday, well-understood affair. For a long time scientific men did
not believe in the existence of globular, slowly-moving electricity; if
such a thing had existed, it certainly should have put in an appearance
before members of the "Academy," or "Royal Society" some time in the
course of all these years; but it never had done so; only a few cooks,
blacksmiths, or back-woodsmen had ever seen it, and they certainly were
not the sort of people to report scientific matter; they did not know how
to observe, and undoubtedly "they did not see what they thought they saw."
But for all that, globular, slowly-moving electricity is now a well known
fact in nature.
Neither the West Indian, the ignorant boor, nor the man of science had, at
the time these several facts were presented to him, "any place in the
existing fabric of his thought into which such facts could be fitted." The
fabric of thought in each case must be changed, enlarged, modified, before
the alleged facts could be received or assimilated.
The objector to the fact of clairvoyance and other facts in the new
psychology is often simply deficient in the knowledge which would enable
him properly to judge of these facts; he may be an excellent
mathematician, physicist, editor, or even physician, but he has been
educated to deal with a certain class of facts, and only by certain
methods, and he is wholly unfitted to deal with another class of facts,
perhaps requiring quite different treatment.
An excellent chemist might not be just the man to analyze questions of
finance or to testify as an expert on the tariff, or a suspension bridge;
the "texture of his thought" would need some modifying to fit him for
these duties; indeed, he is fortunate if he can even be quite sure of
morphia when he sees it; it might be a ptomaine.
If, then, the objector to well authenticated facts in any department of
research expects his objections to be seriously considered, he must, at
least, exhibit some intelligence in that department of research to which
his objection relates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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