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
These were my customary thoughts. They are the thoughts of a student of
nineteen or twenty who has acquired the habit of thinking. There can be no
doubt that they were wholly the product of my own intellect, and that the
illustrious Florentine astronomer had nothing whatever to do with them.
Besides, this would have been a collaboration to the last degree
improbable.
It has been the same with all the communications of the astronomical
class: they have not led the science forward a single step. Nor has any
obscure, mysterious, or illusive point in history been cleared up by the
spirits. We only write that which we know, and even chance has given us
nothing. Still, certain unexplained thought-transferences are to be
discussed. But they belong to the psychological or human sphere.
In order to reply at once to objections that certain Spiritualists have
sent to me apropos of this result of my observations, I will take as an
example the case of the satellites of Uranus, since it is the chief one
always brought forward as a _proof_ of scientific discoveries imparted by
spirits. Furthermore, I received several years ago from divers sources a
pressing invitation to examine an article by General Drayson, published in
the journal named _Light_, in 1884, under the title of _The Solution of
Scientific Problems by Spirits_, in which it is asserted that the spirits
made known the true orbital movement of the satellites of Uranus. Pressing
engagements had always hindered me from making this examination; but the
case having been recently promulgated in several Spiritualistic works as
decisive, and I being so persistently importuned to discuss it, I believe
it will prove of some use if I now examine the case.
To my great regret there is an error in their communication, and the
spirits have taught us nothing. Here is one instance, wrongly selected as
a demonstration. The Russian writer Aksakof sets it forth in the following
terms (_Animism and Spiritualism_, p. 341):
The case of which we are about to give an account seems to be of such
a nature as to settle all objections. It was communicated by
Major-General A. W. Drayson and published under the title _The
Solution of Scientific Problems by Spirits_. I append a translation:
"Having received from M. Georges Stock a letter asking me if I could
mention, were it only as an instance, that, during the holding of a
seance, a spirit had solved one of those scientific problems which
have always embarrassed scientists, I have the honor to communicate to
you the following circumstance, which I witnessed with my own eyes:
"In 1781 William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus and its
satellites. He observed that these satellites, contrary to all the
other satellites of the solar system, traversed their orbits from east
to west. Sir John Herschel says in his _Outlines of Astronomy_: