Mysterious Psychic Forces: An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Mysterious Psychic Forces: An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants
John Stuart Mill · en
The lifting of a table, the displacement of an object, may be attributed
to an unknown force developed by our nervous system or otherwise. At least
these movements do not prove the existence of a mind extraneous to that of
the subject. But when some one is naming the letters of the alphabet or
pointing them out on a sheet of pasteboard, and the table, either by raps
in the wood or by levitations, puts together an intelligible sentence, we
are forced to attribute this intelligent effect to an intelligent cause.
This cause may be the medium himself; and the simplest way is, evidently,
to suppose that he himself raps out the letters. But experiments can be
arranged in such a way that he cannot possibly do this, even
unconsciously. Our first duty is, in reality, to make fraud impossible.
Those who have sufficiently studied the subject know that fraud does not
explain what they have observed. To be sure, in fashionable Spiritualistic
soirees people sometimes amuse themselves. Especially when the seances
take place in the dark, and the alternation of the sexes is provided for
so as to "reinforce the fluids," it is not altogether an unheard of thing
for the gentlemen to profit by the temptation to temporarily forget the
object of the meeting and break the established chain of hands in order to
begin another on their own account. The ladies and the young girls like
these changes in the program, and scarcely a complaint is heard. On the
other hand, apart from fashionable soirees, to which everybody is invited
for their amusement, the more serious reunions are frequently no safer;
for the medium, who is, in one way or another, an interested person, is
anxious to give the most he can--and something to boot.
Upon the leaf of an old note-book of mine which has just turned up, I
classed Spiritualistic soirees in the following order, which is doubtless
a slightly original one:--
1. Amorous caresses. (A similar reproach was made against the ancient
Christian love-feasts or _agapes_.)
2. Charlatanry of mediums, abusing the credulity of the sitters.
3. _Some_ serious inquirers.