Mysterious Psychic Forces: An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants
John Stuart Mill · en
Twelve months ago in this journal, July 1, 1870, I wrote an article,
in which, after expressing in the most emphatic manner my belief in
the occurrence, under certain circumstances, of phenomena inexplicable
by any known natural laws, I indicated several tests which men of
science had a right to demand before giving credence to the
genuineness of these phenomena. Among the tests pointed out were, that
a "delicately poised balance should be moved under test conditions;"
and that some exhibition of power equivalent to so many "foot-pounds"
should be "manifested in his laboratory, where the experimentalists
could weigh, measure, and submit it to proper tests." I said, too,
that I could not promise to enter fully into this subject, owing to
the difficulties of obtaining opportunities, and the numerous failures
attending the enquiry; moreover, that "the persons in whose presence
these phenomena take place are few in number, and opportunities for
experimenting with previously arranged apparatus are rarer still."
Opportunities having since offered for pursuing the investigation, I
have gladly availed myself of them for applying to these phenomena
careful scientific testing experiments, and I have thus arrived at
certain definite results which I think it right should be published.
These experiments appear conclusively to establish the existence of a
new force, in some unknown manner connected with the human
organization, which for convenience may be called the Psychic Force.
Of all the persons endowed with a powerful development of this psychic
force, and who have been termed "mediums" upon quite another theory of
its origin, Mr. Daniel Dunglas Home is the most remarkable, and it is
mainly owing to the many opportunities I have had of carrying on my
investigation in his presence that I am enabled to affirm so
conclusively the existence of this force. The experiments I have tried
have been very numerous, but owing to our imperfect knowledge of the
conditions which favor or oppose the manifestations of this force, to
the apparently capricious manner in which it is exerted, and to the
fact that Mr. Home himself is subject to unaccountable ebbs and flows
of the force, it has but seldom happened that a result obtained on one
occasion could be subsequently confirmed and tested with apparatus
specially contrived for the purpose.