The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, September, 1913: Vol. LXXXVI, No. 5Various
General
The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, September, 1913: Vol. LXXXVI, No. 5
Various
Periodicals
Do the extraordinary phenomena of which we have spoken--transmission
of thought from one subconscious mind to another, perception of events
at a distance, subliminal clairvoyance--occur when the dead are not
in evidence, when the experiments are being made exclusively between
living persons? This cannot be honestly contested. Certainly no one
has ever obtained among living people series of communications or
revelations similar to those of the great spiritualistic mediums Mrs.
Piper, Mrs. Thompson, and Stainton Moses, nor anything that can be
compared with these so far as continuity or lucidity is concerned.
But though the quality of the phenomena will not bear comparison,
it cannot be denied that their inner nature is identical. It is
logical to infer from this that the real cause lies not in the source
of inspiration, but in the personal value, the sensitiveness, the
power of the medium. These mediums are pleased, in all good faith and
probably unconsciously, to give to their subliminal faculties, to
their secondary personalities, or to accept, on their behalf, names
which were borne by beings who have crossed to the further side of the
mystery: this is a matter of vocabulary or nomenclature which neither
lessens nor increases the intrinsic significance of the facts.
THE BORDER-LAND OF LIFE AND DEATH
Well, in examining these facts, however strange and really unparalleled
some of them may be, I never find one which proceeds frankly from
this world or which comes indisputably from the other. They are, if
you wish, phenomenal border incidents; but it cannot be said that the
border has been violated. It is simply a matter of distant perception,
subliminal clairvoyance, and telepathy raised to the highest power;
and these three manifestations of the unexplored depths of man are
to-day recognized and classified by science, which is not saying that
they are explained. That is another question. When, in connection
with electricity, we use such terms as positive, negative, induction,
potential, and resistance, we are also applying conventional words
to facts and phenomena of the inward essence of which we are utterly
ignorant; and we must needs be content with these, pending better.
Between these extraordinary manifestations and those given to us by a
medium who is not speaking in the name of the dead, there is, I insist,
only a difference of the greater and the lesser, a difference of extent
or degree, and in no wise a difference in kind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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