Horses are frequently managed by a steady gaze into their eyes. Dr. Moll states that a method of hypnotizing horses named after its inventor as Bala.s.siren has been introduced into Austria by law for the shoeing of horses in the army.

We have all heard of the snake charmers of India, who make the snakes imitate all their movements. Some suppose this is by hypnotization. It may be the result of training, however. Certainly real charmers of wild beasts usually end by being bitten or injured in some other way, which would seem to show that the hypnotization does not always work, or else it does not exist at all.

We have some fairly well known instances of hypnotism produced in animals. Lafontaine, the magnetizer, some thirty years ago held public exhibitions in Paris in which he reduced cats, dogs, squirrels and lions to such complete insensibility that they felt neither p.r.i.c.ks nor blows.

The Harvys or Psylles of Egypt impart to the ringed snake the appearance of a stick by pressure on the head, which induces a species of teta.n.u.s, says E. W. Lane.

The following description of serpent charming by the Aissouans of the province of Sous, Morocco, will be of interest: "The princ.i.p.al charmer began by whirling with astonishing rapidity in a kind of frenzied dance around the wicker basket that contained the serpents, which were covered by a goatskin. Suddenly he stopped, plunged his naked arm into the basket, and drew out a cobra de capello, or else a haje, a fearful reptile which is able to swell its head by spreading out the scales which cover it, and which is thought to be Cleopatra's asp, the serpent of Egypt. In Morocco it is known as the buska. The charmer folded and unfolded the greenish-black viper, as if it were a piece of muslin; he rolled it like a turban round his head, and continued his dance while the serpent maintained its position, and seemed to follow every movement and wish of the dancer.

"The buska was then placed on the ground, and raising itself straight on end, in the att.i.tude it a.s.sumes on desert roads to attract travelers, began to sway from right to left, following the rhythm of the music. The Aissoua, whirling more and more rapidly in constantly narrowing circles, plunged his hand once more into the basket, and pulled out two of the most venomous reptiles of the desert of Sous; serpents thicker than a man's arm, two or three feet long, whose shining scales are spotted black or yellow, and whose bite sends, as it were, a burning fire through the veins. This reptile is probably the torrida dipsas of antiquity. Europeans now call it the leffah.

"The two leffahs, more vigorous and less docile than the buska, lay half curled up, their heads on one side, ready to dart forward, and followed with glittering eyes the movements of the dancer. * * * Hindoo charmers are still more wonderful; they juggle with a dozen different species of reptiles at the same time, making them come and go, leap, dance, and lie down at the sound of the charmer's whistle, like the gentlest of tame animals. These serpents have never been known to bite their charmers."

It is well known that some animals, like the opossum, feign death when caught. Whether this is to be compared to hypnotism is doubtful. Other animals, called hibernating, sleep for months with no other food than their fat, but this, again, can hardly be called hypnotism.

CHAPTER XI.

A Scientific Explanation of Hypnotism.--Dr. Hart's Theory.

In the introduction to this book the reader will find a summary of the theories of hypnotism. There is no doubt that hypnotism is a complex state which cannot be explained in an offhand way in a sentence or two. There are, however, certain aspects of hypnotism which we may suppose sufficiently explained by certain scientific writers on the subject.

First, what is the character of the delusions apparently created in the mind of a person in the hypnotic condition by a simple word of mouth statement, as when a physician says, "Now, I am going to cut your leg off, but it will not hurt you in the least," and the patient suffers nothing?

In answer to this question, Professor William James of Harvard College, one of the leading authorities on the scientific aspects of psychical phenomena in this country, reports the following experiments: "Make a stroke on a paper or blackboard, and tell the subject it is not there, and he will see nothing but the clean paper or board. Next, he not looking, surround the original stroke with other strokes exactly like it, and ask him what he sees. He will point out one by one the new strokes and omit the original one every time, no matter how numerous the next strokes may be, or in what order they are arranged. Similarly, if the original single line, to which he is blind, be doubled by a prism of sixteen degrees placed before one of his eyes (both being kept open), he will say that he now sees one stroke, and point in the direction in which lies the image seen through the prism.

"Another experiment proves that he must see it in order to ignore it. Make a red cross, invisible to the hypnotic subject, on a sheet of white paper, and yet cause him to look fixedly at a dot on the paper on or near the red cross; he wills on transferring his eye to the blank sheet, see a bluish-green after image of the cross. This proves that it has impressed his sensibility. He has felt but not perceived it. He had actually ignored it; refused to recognize it, as it were."

Dr. Ernest Hart, an English writer, in an article in the British Medical Journal, gives a general explanation of the phenomena of hypnotism which we may accept as true so far as it goes, but which is evidently incomplete. He seems to minimize personal influence too much--that personal influence which we all exert at various times, and which he ignores, not because he would deny it, but because he fears lending countenance to the magnetic fluid and other similar theories. Says he: "We have arrived at the point at which it will be plain that the condition produced in these cases, and known under a varied jargon invented either to conceal ignorance, to express hypotheses, or to mask the design of impressing the imagination and possibly prey upon the pockets of a credulous and wonder-loving public--such names as mesmeric condition, magnetic sleep, clairvoyance, electro-biology, animal magnetism, faith trance, and many other aliases--such a condition, I say, is always subjective. It is independent of pa.s.ses or gestures; it has no relation to any fluid emanating from the operator; it has no relation to his will, or to any influence which he exercises upon inanimate objects; distance does not affect it, nor proximity, nor the intervention of any conductors or non-conductors, whether silk or gla.s.s or stone, or even a brick wall. We can transmit the order to sleep by telephone or by telegraph. We can practically get the same results while eliminating even the operator, if we can contrive to influence the imagination or to affect the physical condition of the subject by any one of a great number of contrivances.

"What does all this mean? I will refer to one or two facts in relation to the structure and function of the brain, and show one or two simple experiments of very ancient parentage and date, which will, I think, help to an explanation. First, let us recall something of what we know of the anatomy and localization of function in the brain, and of the nature of ordinary sleep. The brain, as you know, is a complicated organ, made up internally of nerve ma.s.ses, or ganglia, of which the central and underlying ma.s.ses are connected with the automatic functions and involuntary actions of the body (such as the action of the heart, lungs, stomach, bowels, etc.), while the investing surface shows a system of complicated convolutions rich in gray matter, thickly sown with microscopic cells, in which the nerve ends terminate. At the base of the brain is a complete circle of arteries, from which spring great numbers of small arterial vessels, carrying a profuse blood supply throughout the whole ma.s.s, and capable of contraction in small tracts, so that small areas of the brain may, at any given moment, become bloodless, while other parts of the brain may simultaneously become highly congested. Now, if the brain or any part of it be deprived of the circulation of blood through it, or be rendered partially bloodless, or if it be excessively congested and overloaded with blood, or if it be subjected to local pressure, the part of the brain so acted upon ceases to be capable of exercising its functions. The regularity of the action of the brain and the sanity and completeness of the thought which is one of the functions of its activity depend upon the healthy regularity of the quant.i.ty of blood pa.s.sing through all its parts, and upon the healthy quality of the blood so circulating. If we press upon the carotid arteries which pa.s.s up through the neck to form the arterial circle of Willis, at the base of the brain, within the skull--of which I have already spoken, and which supplies the brain with blood--we quickly, as every one knows, produce insensibility. Thought is abolished, consciousness lost. And if we continue the pressure, all those automatic actions of the body, such as the beating of the heart, the breathing motions of the lungs, which maintain life and are controlled by the lower brain centers of ganglia, are quickly stopped and death ensues.

"We know by observation in cases where portions of the skull have been removed, either in men or in animals, that during natural sleep the upper part of the brain--its convoluted surface, which in health and in the waking state is faintly pink, like a blushing cheek, from the color of the blood circulating through the network of capillary arteries--becomes white and almost bloodless. It is in these upper convolutions of the brain, as we also know, that the will and the directing power are resident; so that in sleep the will is abolished and consciousness fades gradually away, as the blood is pressed out by the contraction of the arteries. So, also, the consciousness and the directing will may be abolished by altering the quality of the blood pa.s.sing through the convolutions of the brain. We may introduce a volatile substance, such as chloroform, and its first effect will be to abolish consciousness and induce profound slumber and a blessed insensibility to pain. The like effects will follow more slowly upon the absorption of a drug, such as opium; or we may induce hallucinations by introducing into the blood other toxic substances, such as Indian hemp or stramonium. We are not conscious of the mechanism producing the arterial contraction and the bloodlessness of those convolutions related to natural sleep. But we are not altogether without control over them. We can, we know, help to compose ourselves to sleep, as we say in ordinary language. We retire into a darkened room, we relieve ourselves from the stimulus of the special senses, we free ourselves from the influence of noises, of strong light, of powerful colors, or of tactile impressions. We lie down and endeavor to soothe brain activity by driving away disturbing thoughts, or, as people sometimes say, 'try to think of nothing.' And, happily, we generally succeed more or less well. Some people possess an even more marked control over this mechanism of sleep. I can generally succeed in putting myself to sleep at any hour of the day, either in the library chair or in the brougham. This is, so to speak, a process of self-hypnotization, and I have often practiced it when going from house to house, when in the midst of a busy practice, and I sometimes have amused my friends and family by exercising this faculty, which I do not think it very difficult to acquire. (We also know that many persons can wake at a fixed hour in the morning by setting their minds upon it just before going to sleep.) Now, there is something here which deserves a little further examination, but which it would take too much time to develop fully at present. Most people know something of what is meant by reflex action. The nerves which pa.s.s from the various organs to the brain convey with, great rapidity messages to its various parts, which are answered by reflected waves of impulse. If the soles of the feet be tickled, contraction of the toes, or involuntary laughter, will be excited, or perhaps only a shuddering and skin contraction, known as goose-skin. The irritation of the nerve-end in the skin has carried a message to the involuntary or voluntary ganglia of the brain which has responded by reflecting back again nerve impulses which have contracted the muscles of the feet or skin muscles, or have given rise to a.s.sociated ideas and explosion of laughter. In the same way, if during sleep heat be applied to the soles of the feet, dreams of walking over hot surfaces--Vesuvius or Fusiyama, or still hotter places--may be produced, or dreams of adventure on frozen surfaces or in arctic regions may be created by applying ice to the feet of the sleeper.

"Here, then, it is seen that we have a mechanism in the body, known to physiologists as the ideo-motor, or sensory motor system of nerves, which can produce, without the consciousness of the individual and automatically, a series of muscular contractions. And remember that the coats of the arteries are muscular and contractile under the influence of external stimuli, acting without the help of the consciousness, or when the consciousness is in abeyance. I will give another example of this, which completes the chain of phenomena in the natural brain and the natural body I wish to bring under notice in explanation of the true as distinguished from the false, or falsely interpreted, phenomena of hypnotism, mesmerism and electro-biology. I will take the excellent ill.u.s.tration quoted by Dr. B. W. Carpenter in his old-time, but valuable, book on 'The Physiology of the Brain.' When a hungry man sees food, or when, let us say, a hungry boy looks into a cookshop, he becomes aware of a watering of the mouth and a gnawing sensation at the stomach. What does this mean? It means that the mental impression made upon him by the welcome and appetizing spectacle has caused a secretion of saliva and of gastric juice; that is to say, the brain has, through the ideo-motor set of nerves, sent a message which has dilated the vessels around the salivary and gastric glands, increased the flow of blood through them and quickened their secretion. Here we have, then, a purely subjective mental activity acting through a mechanism of which the boy is quite ignorant, and which he is unable to control, and producing that action on the vessels of dilation or contraction which, as we have seen, is the essential condition of brain activity and the evolution of thought, and is related to the quickening or the abolition of consciousness, and to the activity or abeyance of function in the will centers and upper convolutions of the brain, as in its other centers of localization.

"Here, then, we have something like a clue to the phenomena--phenomena which, as I have pointed out, are similar to and have much in common with mesmeric sleep, hypnotism or electro-biology. We have already, I hope, succeeded in eliminating from our minds the false theory--the theory, that is to say, experimentally proved to be false--that the will, or the gestures, or the magnetic or vital fluid of the operator are necessary for the abolition of the consciousness and the abeyance of the will of the subject. We now see that ideas arising in the mind of the subject are sufficient to influence the circulation in the brain of the person operated on, and such variations of the blood supply of the brain as are adequate to produce sleep in the natural state, or artificial slumber, either by total deprivation or by excessive increase or local aberration in the quant.i.ty or quality of blood. In a like manner it is possible to produce coma and prolonged insensibility by pressure of the thumbs on the carotid; or hallucination, dreams and visions by drugs, or by external stimulation of the nerves. Here again the consciousness may be only partially affected, and the person in whom sleep, coma or hallucination is produced, whether by physical means or by the influence of suggestion, may remain subject to the will of others and incapable of exercising his own volition."

In short, Dr. Hart's theory is that hypnotism comes from controlling the blood supply of the brain, cutting off the supply from parts or increasing it in other parts. This theory is borne out by the well-known fact that some persons can blush or turn pale at will; that some people always blush on the mention of certain things, or calling up certain ideas. Certain other ideas will make them turn pale. Now, if certain parts of the brain are made to blush or turn pale, there is no doubt that hypnotism will follow, since blushing and turning pale are known to be due to the opening and closing of the blood-vessels. We may say that the subject is induced by some means to shut the blood out of certain portions of the brain, and keep it out until he is told to let it in again.

CHAPTER XII.

Telepathy and Clairvoyance.--Peculiar Power in Hypnotic State.--Experiments.--"Phantasms of the Living" Explained by Telepathy It has already been noticed that persons in the hypnotic state seem to have certain of their senses greatly heightened in power. They can remember, see and hear things that ordinary persons would be entirely ignorant of. There is abundant evidence that a supersensory perception is also developed, entirely beyond the most highly developed condition of the ordinary senses, such as being able to tell clearly what some other person is doing at a great distance. In view of the discovery of the X or Roentgen ray, the ability to see through a stone wall does not seem so strange as it did before that discovery.

It is on power of supersensory, or extra-sensory perception that what is known as telepathy and clairvoyance are based. That such things really exist, and are not wholly a matter of superst.i.tion has been thoroughly demonstrated in a scientific way by the British Society for Psychical Research, and kindred societies in various parts of the world. Strictly speaking, such phenomena as these are not a part of hypnotism, but our study of hypnotism will enable us to understand them to some extent, and the investigation of them is a natural corollary to the study of hypnotism, for the reason that it has been found that these extraordinary powers are often possessed by persons under hypnotic influence. Until the discovery of hypnotism there was little to go on in conducting a scientific investigation, because clairvoyance could not be produced by any artificial means, and so could not be studied under proper restrictive conditions.

We will first quote two experiments performed by Dr. c.o.c.ke which the writer heard him describe with his own lips.

The first case was that of a girl suffering from hysterical tremor. The doctor had hypnotized her for the cure of it, and accidentally stumbled on an example of thought transference. She complained on one occasion of a taste of spice in her mouth. As the doctor had been chewing some spice, he at once guessed that this might be telepathy. Nothing was said at the time, but the next time the girl was hypnotized, the doctor put a quinine tablet in his mouth. The girl at once asked for water, and said she had a very bitter taste in her mouth. The water was given her, and the doctor went behind a screen, where he put cayenne pepper in his mouth, severely burning himself. No one but the doctor knew of the experiment at the time. The girl immediately cried and became so hysterical that she had to be awakened. The burning in her mouth disappeared as soon as she came out of the hypnotic state, but the doctor continued to suffer. Nearly three hundred similar experiments with thirty-six different subjects were tried by Dr. c.o.c.ke, and of these sixty-nine were entirely successful. The others were doubtful or complete failures.

The most remarkable of the experiments may be given in the doctor's own words: "I told the subject to remain perfectly still for five minutes and to relate to me at the end of this time any sensation he might experience. I pa.s.sed into another room and closed the door and locked it; went into a closet in the room and closed the door after me; took down from the shelf, first a linen sheet, then a pasteboard box, then a toy engine, owned by a child in the house. I went back to my subject and asked him what experience he had had.

"He said I seemed to go into another room, and from thence into a dark closet. I wanted something off the shelf, but did not know what. I took down from the shelf a piece of smooth cloth, a long, square pasteboard box and a tin engine. These were all the sensations he had experienced. I asked him if he saw the articles with his eyes which I had removed from the shelf. He answered that the closet was dark and that he only felt them with his hands. I asked him how he knew that the engine was tin. He said: 'By the sound of it.' As my hands touched it I heard the wheels rattle. Now the only sound made by me while in the closet was simply the rattling of the wheels of the toy as I took it off the shelf. This could not possibly have been heard, as the subject was distant from me two large rooms, and there were two closed doors between us, and the noise was very slight. Neither could the subject have judged where I went, as I had on light slippers which made no noise. The subject had never visited the house before, and naturally did not know the contents of the closet as he was carefully observed from the moment he entered the house."

Many similar experiments are on record. Persons in the hypnotic condition have been able to tell what other persons were doing in distant parts of a city; could tell the pages of the books they might be reading and the numbers of all sorts of articles. While in London the writer had an opportunity of witnessing a performance of this kind. There was a young boy who seemed to have this peculiar power. A queer old desk had come into the house from Italy, and as it was a valuable piece of furniture, the owner was anxious to learn its pedigree. Without having examined the desk beforehand in any way the boy, during one of his trances, said that in a certain place a secret spring would be found which would open an unknown drawer, and behind that drawer would be found the name of the maker of the desk and the date 1639. The desk was at once examined, and the name and date found exactly as described. It is clear in this case that this information could not have been in the mind of any one, unless it were some person in Italy, whence the desk had come. It is more likely that the remarkable supersensory power given enabled reading through the wood.

We may now turn our attention to another cla.s.s of phenomena of great interest, and that is the visions persons in the ordinary state have of friends who are on the point of death. It would seem that by an extraordinary effort the mind of a person in the waking state might be impressed through a great distance. At the moment of death an almost superhuman mental effort is more likely and possible than at any other time, and it is peculiar that these visions or phantasms are largely confined to that moment. The natural explanation that rises to the ordinary mind is, of course, "Spirits." This supposition is strengthened by the fact that the visions sometimes appear immediately after death, as well as at the time and just before. This may be explained, however, on the theory that the ordinary mind is not easily impressed, and when unconsciously impressed some time may elapse before the impression becomes perceptible to the conscious mind, just as in pa.s.sing by on a swift train, we may see something, but not realize that we have seen it till some time afterward, when we remember what we have unconsciously observed.

The British Society for Psychical Research has compiled two large volumes of carefully authenticated cases, which are published under the t.i.tle, "Phantasms of the Living." We quote one or two interesting cases.

A Miss L. sends the following report: January 4, 1886.

"On one of the last days of July, about the year 1860, at 3 o'clock p.m., I was sitting in the drawing room at the Rectory, reading, and my thoughts entirely occupied. I suddenly looked up and saw most distinctly a tall, thin old gentleman enter the room and walk to the table. He wore a peculiar, old-fashioned cloak which I recognized as belonging to my great-uncle. I then looked at him closely and remembered his features and appearance perfectly, although I had not seen him since I was quite a child. In his hand was a roll of paper, and he appeared to be very agitated. I was not in the least alarmed, as I firmly believed he was my uncle, not knowing then of his illness. I asked him if he wanted my father, who, as I said, was not at home. He then appeared still more agitated and distressed, but made no remark. He then left the room, pa.s.sing through the open door. I noticed that, although it was a very wet day, there was no appearance of his having walked either in mud or rain. He had no umbrella, but a thick walking stick, which I recognized at once when my father brought it home after the funeral. On questioning the servants, they declared that no one had rung the bell; neither did they see any one enter. My father had a letter by the next post, asking him to go at once to my uncle, who was very ill in Leicestershire. He started at once, but on his arrival was told that his uncle had died at exactly 3 o'clock that afternoon, and had asked for him by name several times in an anxious and troubled manner, and a roll of paper was found under his pillow.

"I may mention that my father was his only nephew, and, having no son, he always led him to think that he would have a considerable legacy. Such, however, was not the case, and it is supposed that, as they were always good friends, he was influenced in his last illness, and probably, when too late, he wished to alter his will."

In answer to inquiries, Miss L. adds: "I told my mother and an uncle at once about the strange appearance before the news arrived, and also my father directly he returned, all of whom are now dead. They advised me to dismiss it from my memory, but agreed that it could not be imagination, as I described my uncle so exactly, and they did not consider me to be either of a nervous or superst.i.tious temperament.

"I am quite sure that I have stated the facts truthfully and correctly. The facts are as fresh in my memory as if they happened only yesterday, although so many years have pa.s.sed away.

"I can a.s.sure you that nothing of the sort ever occurred before or since. Neither have I been subject to nervous or imaginative fancies. This strange apparition was in broad daylight, and as I was only reading the 'Ill.u.s.trated Newspaper,' there was nothing to excite my imagination."

Hundreds of cases of this kind have been reported by persons whose truthfulness cannot be doubted, and every effort has been made to eliminate possibility of hallucination or accidental fancy. That things of this kind do occur may be said to be scientifically proven.

Such facts as these have stimulated experiment in the direction of testing thought transference. These experiments have usually been in the reading of numbers and names, and a certain measure of success has resulted. It may be added, however, that no claimants ever appeared for various banknotes deposited in strong-boxes, to be turned over to any one who would read the numbers. Just why success was never attained under these conditions it would be hard to say. The writer once made a slight observation in this direction. When matching pennies with his brother he found that if the other looked at the penny he could match it nearly every time. There may have been some unconscious expression of face that gave the clue. Persons in hypnotic trance are expert muscle readers. For instance, let such a person take your hand and then go through the alphabet, naming the letters. If you have any word in your mind, as the muscle reader comes to each letter the muscles will unconsciously contract. By giving attention h the muscles you can make them contract on the wrong letters and entirely mislead such a person.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Confessions of Medium.--Spiritualistic Phenomena Explained on Theory of Telepathy.--Interesting Statement of Mrs. Piper, the Famous Medium of the Psychical Research Society.

The subject of spiritualism has been very thoroughly investigated by the Society for Psychical Research, both in England and this country, and under circ.u.mstances so peculiarly advantageous that a world of light has been thrown on the connection between hypnotism and this strange phenomenon.

Professor William James, the professor of psychology at Harvard University, was fortunate enough some years ago to find a perfect medium who was not a professional and whose character was such as to preclude fraud. This was Mrs. Leonora E. Piper, of Boston. For many years she remained in the special employ of the Society for Psychical Research, and the members of that society were able to study her case under every possible condition through a long period of time. Not long ago she resolved to give up her engagement, and made a public statement over her own signature which is full of interest.

A brief history of her life and experiences will go far toward furnishing the general reader a fair explanation of clairvoyant and spiritualistic phenomena.

Mrs. Piper was the wife of a modest tailor, and lived on Pinckney street, back of Beacon Hill. She was married in 1881, and it was not until May 16, 1884, that her first child was born. A little more than a month later, on June 29, she had her first trance experience. Says she: "I remember the date distinctly, because it was two days after my first birthday following the birth of my first child." She had gone to Dr. J. R. c.o.c.ke, the great authority on hypnotism and a practicing physician of high scientific attainments. "During the interview," says Mrs. Piper, "I was partly unconscious for a few minutes. On the following Sunday I went into a trance."

She appears to have slipped into it unconsciously. She surprised her friends by saying some very odd things, none of which she remembered when she came to herself. Not long after she did it again. A neighbor, the wife of a merchant, when she heard the things that had been said, a.s.sured Mrs. Piper that it must be messages from the spirit world. The atmosphere in Boston was full of talk of that kind, and it was not hard for people to believe that a real medium of spirit communication had been found. The merchant's wife wanted a sitting, and Mrs. Piper arranged one, for which she received her first dollar.

She had discovered that she could go into trances by an effort of her own will. She would sit down at a table, with her sitter opposite, and leaning her head on a pillow, go off into the trance after a few minutes of silence. There was a clock behind her. She gave her sitters an hour, sometimes two hours, and they wondered how she knew when the hour had expired. At any rate, when the time came around she awoke. In describing her experiences she has said: "At first when I sat in my chair and leaned my head back and went into the trance state, the action was attended by something of a struggle. I always felt as if I were undergoing an anesthetic, but of late years I have slipped easily into the condition, leaning the head forward. On coming out of it I felt stupid and dazed. At first I said disconnected things. It was all a gibberish, nothing but gibberish. Then I began to speak some broken French phrases. I had studied French two years, but did not speak it well."

Once she had an Italian for sitter, who could speak no English and asked questions in Italian. Mrs. Piper could speak no Italian, indeed did not understand a word of it, except in her trance state. But she had no trouble in understanding her sitter.

After a while her automatic utterance announced the personality of a certain Dr. Phinuit, who was said to have been a noted French physician who had died long before. His "spirit" controlled her for a number of years. After some time Dr. Phinuit was succeeded by one "Pelham," and finally by "Imperator" and "Rector."

As the birth of her second child approached Mrs. Piper gave up what she considered a form of hysteria; but after the birth of the child the sittings, paid for at a dollar each, began again. Dr. Hodgson, of the London Society for Psychical Research, saw her at the house of Professor James, and he became so interested in her case that he decided to take her to London to be studied. She spent nearly a year abroad; and after her return the American branch of the Society for Psychical Research was formed, and for a long time Mrs. Piper received a salary to sit exclusively for the society. Their records and reports are full of the things she said and did.

Every one who investigated Mrs. Piper had to admit that her case was full of mystery. But if one reads the reports through from beginning to end one cannot help feeling that her spirit messages are filled with nonsense, at least of triviality. Here is a specimen--and a fair specimen, too--of the kind of communication Pelham gave. He wrote out the message. It referred to a certain famous man known in the reports as Mr. Marte. Pelham is reported to have written by Mrs. Piper's hand: "That he (Mr. Marte), with his keen brain and marvelous perception, will be interested, I know. He was a very dear friend of X. I was exceedingly fond of him. Comical weather interests both he and I--me--him--I know it all. Don't you see I correct these? Well, I am not less intelligent now. But there are many difficulties. I am far clearer on all points than I was shut up in the prisoned body (prisoned, prisoning or imprisoned you ought to say). No, I don't mean, to get it that way. 'See here, H, don't view me with a critic's eye, but pa.s.s my imperfections by.' Of course, I know all that as well as anybody on your sphere (of course). Well, I think so. I tell you, old fellow, it don't do to pick all these little errors too much when they amount to nothing in one way. You have light enough and brain enough, I know, to understand my explanations of being shut up in this body, dreaming, as it were, and trying to help on science."

Some people would say that Pelham had had a little too much whisky toddy when he wrote that rambling, meaningless string of words. Or we can suppose that Mrs. Piper was dreaming. We see in the last sentence a curious mixture of ideas that must have been in her mind. She herself says: "I do not see how anybody can look on all that as testimony from another world. I cannot see but that it must have been an unconscious expression of my subliminal self, writing such stuff as dreams are made of."

In another place Mrs. Piper makes the following direct statement: "I never heard of anything being said by myself while in a trance state which might not have been latent in: "1. My own mind.

"2. In the mind of the person in charge of the sitting.

"3. In the mind of the person who was trying to get communication with some one in another state of existence, or some companion present with such person, or, "4. In the mind of some absent person alive somewhere else in the world."

Writing in the Psychological Review in 1898, Professor James says: "Mrs. Piper's trance memory is no ordinary human memory, and we have to explain its singular perfection either as the natural endowment of her solitary subliminal self, or as a collection of distinct memory systems, each with a communicating spirit as its vehicle.

"The spirit hypothesis exhibits a vacancy, triviality, and incoherence of mind painful to think of as the state of the departed, and coupled with a pretension to impress one, a disposition to 'fish' and face around and disguise the essential hollowness which is, if anything, more painful still. Mr. Hodgson has to resort to the theory that, although the communicants probably are spirits, they are in a semi-comatose or sleeping state while communicating, and only half aware of what is going on, while the habits of Mrs. Piper's neural organism largely supply the definite form of words, etc., in which the phenomenon is clothed."

After considering other theories Professor James concludes: "The world is evidently more complex than we are accustomed to think it, the absolute 'world ground' in particular being farther off than we are wont to think it."

Mrs. Piper is reported to have said: "Of what occurs after I enter the trance period I remember nothing--nothing of what I said or what was said to me. I am but a pa.s.sive agent in the hands of powers that control me. I can give no account of what becomes of me during a trance. The wisdom and inspired eloquence which of late has been conveyed to Dr. Hodgson through my mediumship is entirely beyond my understanding. I do not pretend to understand it, and can give no explanation--I simply know that I have the power of going into a trance when I wish."

Professor James says: "The Piper phenomena are the most absolutely baffling thing I know."

Professor Hudson, Ph.D., LL.D., author of "The Law of Psychic Phenomena," comes as near giving an explanation of "spiritualism," so called, as any one. He begins by saying: "All things considered, Mrs. Piper is probably the best 'psychic' now before the public for the scientific investigation of spiritualism and it must be admitted that if her alleged communications from discarnate spirits cannot be traced to any other source, the claims of spiritism have been confirmed."

Then he goes on: "A few words, however, will make it clear to the scientific mind that her phenomena can be easily accounted for on purely psychological principles, thus: "Man is endowed with a dual mind, or two minds, or states of consciousness, designated, respectively, as the objective and the subjective. The objective mind is normally unconscious of the content of the subjective mind. The latter is constantly amenable to control by suggestion, and it is exclusively endowed with the faculty of telepathy.

"An entranced psychic is dominated exclusively by her subjective mind, and reason is in abeyance. Hence she is controlled by suggestion, and, consequently, is compelled to believe herself to be a spirit, good or bad, if that suggestion is in any way imparted to her, and she automatically acts accordingly.

"She is in no sense responsible for the vagaries of a Phinuit, for that eccentric personality is the creation of suggestion. But she is also in the condition which enables her to read the subjective minds of others. Hence her supernormal knowledge of the affairs of her sitters. What he knows, or has ever known, consciously or unconsciously (subjective memory being perfect), is easily within her reach.

"Thus far no intelligent psychical researcher will gainsay what I have said. But it sometimes happens that the psychic obtains information that neither she nor the sitter could ever have consciously possessed. Does it necessarily follow that discarnate spirits gave her the information? Spiritists say 'yes,' for this is the 'last ditch' of spiritism.

"Psychologists declare that the telepathic explanation is as valid in the latter cla.s.s of cases as it obviously is in the former. Thus, telepathy being a power of the subjective mind, messages may be conveyed from one to another at any time, neither of the parties being objectively conscious of the fact. It follows that a telepathist at any following seance with the recipient can reach the content of that message.

"If this argument is valid--and its validity is self-evident--it is impossible to imagine a case that may not be thus explained on psychological principles."

Professor Hudson's argument will appeal to the ordinary reader as good. It may be simplified, however, thus: We may suppose that Mrs. Piper voluntarily hypnotizes herself. Perhaps she simply puts her conscious reason to sleep. In that condition the rest of her mind is in an exalted state, and capable of telepathy and mind-reading, either of those near at hand or at a distance. Her reason being asleep, she simply dreams, and the questions of her sitter are made to fit into her dream.

If we regard mediums as persons who have the power of hypnotizing themselves and then of doing what we know persons who have been hypnotized by others sometimes do, we have an explanation that covers the whole case perfectly. At the same time, as Professor James warns us, we must believe that the mind is far more complex than we are accustomed to think it.