CHAPTER XI.

MODERN PSYCHIC PHENOMENA.

Mesmerism. Telepathy demonstrated by the Followers of Mesmer. - Braid's Discovery. — Hypnotism. — Discovery of the Law of Suggestion. — Clairvoyance. — The Rochester Knockings. — Mesmeric Subjects and Mediums. Spiritism as a Step in the Process of Evolution. · Its Effect.

WE

WE now approach an epoch in the history of psychic phenomena of the most transcendent interest and imminent importance. Hitherto we have dealt with phenomena so obscured by the twilight of tradition and imperfect history that only the faint outlines or the most salient features have been discernible. We shall, however, be compensated for this lack of clearness in the ancient phenomena by turning upon it the calcium light of modern experience; for we now enter the domain of demonstrable facts which have been incorporated into the great body of modern science; namely, the scientifically verified facts of experimental psychology.

When Anton Mesmer first demonstrated to the world that by certain mysterious manipulations persons can be thrown into a condition of trance, during which the objective senses are held in more or less complete abeyance, and that at the same time the functions of the body can be modified, pain suppressed, fever calmed, and disease removed, he laid the foundation of the true science of the human soul. Not that he obtained more than a glimpse into the promised land, or that he had the remotest idea of the grand results

which were to follow; but he was the first, in modern times, to point out one mean through which the soul can be experimentally studied. For him the only field of usefulness for the newly discovered power was that of therapeutics; and it was not till he had been driven by professional jealousy into dishonored exile that his followers so far extended his discoveries as to open the way for the study of the whole field of experimental psychology. The Marquis de Puységur, a philanthropist, a scientist, and a man of fearless integrity, in utter disregard of the sentence of professional and social ostracism pronounced by the medical profession of his day upon all who presumed to investigate the subject of mesmerism, extended the experiments of Mesmer, and was the first to develop experimentally the phenomenon of telepathy. He was followed by many others, of more or less scientific prominence, who confirmed his experiments, among whom were Esdaile, Elliotson, Deleuze, Baron Dupotet, and many others of lesser note. The result was that a series of most wonderful psychic phenomena were produced and verified with scientific exactitude. The ultra-scientists, however, continued to cast ridicule upon the phenomena, and to persecute and to drive to ruin every scientist who dared to make an honest experiment. This continued until 1840, when Dr. Braid, a Manchester physician, announced that he had discovered that a condition cognate to that produced by Mesmer could be induced by causing the subject to gaze steadily upon a bright object held in front of and slightly above the eyes. This he denominated "hypnotism; " and the name has since been retained and applied to all the varied phases of induced subjective phenomena, although it strictly applies to but a very small proportion of them. His work, however, attracted very little immediate attention in his own country, and it was not until Liébault confirmed and extended the experiments of Braid that hypnotism was admitted within

the domain of the exact sciences. Liébault was followed by a host of others, so that within the last twenty years, or less, hypnotism has come to be acknowledged as a science. of the most transcendant interest and importance, not alone in its aspects as a therapeutic agent, but as the handmaiden, par excellence, of experimental psychology.

It is to Liébault, however, that the world is indebted for the greatest discovery ever made in the science of hypnotism; namely, the law of "suggestion." This law, reduced to its simplest terms, is that " persons in an hypnotic condition are constantly amenable to control by suggestion." I am aware that the credit of this discovery has been claimed for Braid; but, nevertheless, Liébault first formulated the law, and it is to the one who has the capacity to grasp the universality of a law, and definitely to formulate it, that credit is due for the discovery. Many others had noted the effect of suggestion in particular cases, and had thus counted it as a possible factor in hypnotism. Paracelsus, in the sixteenth century, noted it as an important factor in psychotherapeutics; but he was no more entitled to the credit of its discovery than were the predecessors of Newton, who talked learnedly of gravitation but died before its fundamental law was formulated, entitled to the credit due to the author of the "Principia." It is true that Liebault confined his formula to the phenomena of experimental hypnotism, and it was left for later investigators to discover that the law was the universal and dominating factor in all the multiform phases of psychic phenomena. But until Liébault's discovery was definitely formulated, hypnotism was not, nor could it be, entitled to admission into the circle of the exact sciences. That discovery, therefore, constituted the first great step in the evolution of the science of the soul; for it is by hypnotism and cognate phenomena alone that the fact that man has a soul can be scientifically demonstrated.

In the mean time, before the discoveries of Braid and of Liébault, mesmerism had fallen largely into the hands of ignorant charlatans, who travelled throughout every civilized country, lecturing and giving exhibitions of the phenomena to gaping crowds, who were neither more nor less capable than were the exhibitors themselves of appreciating the real significance of the exhibitions. By this means mesmeric subjects were indefinitely multiplied until every little hamlet in Christendom could boast of its "seers" and its "prophets." "Clairvoyance" became a word of portentous import, and was soon employed as a generic term for every manifestation of perception not directly traceable to sensorial experience. Many notable phenomena were produced, and books describing them multiplied. All were, of course, derided by the "scientists; "the lecturers themselves were branded as "mountebanks," and the "subjects," who were taken largely from the ranks of the school children, were denounced as "frauds," "humbugs," and "swindlers." Among the books which appeared, many were written in a purely scientific tone and spirit, and described the experiments with great minuteness and exactness, and detailed the tests applied and the safeguards employed with true scientific caution and transparent honesty of purpose. It is a curious and an intensely interesting study to go over those old "volumes of forgotten lore," rescued from the top shelves of secondhand bookstores, and to compare the experiments therein detailed with those of the scientists of to-day. Such a study reveals many thoroughly authenticated facts of great scientific value in the study of experimental psychology, the only defect being that the law of suggestion had not yet been formulated. Nevertheless, in very many cases, that factor was as intelligently eliminated as it has ever been by later scientists who are in full possession of a thorough knowledge of its potency and universality. In point of fact, there are few phenomena of importance produced by the

later scientists which have not their counterpart in the old records of pre-spiritistic mesmerism.

In this connection it may be well to pause for the purpose of remarking that up to a certain date no one ever dreamed of ascribing to supermundane agency any of the phenomena of mesmerism. Many phenomena were produced which have since found a ready solution in the hypothesis of spirit intercourse; but at the time of their production it was not found necessary to presuppose any other agency than that of some inherent, though newly discovered, power of the living subject. In other words, it was not regarded as necessary for a man to be dead before he could develop the powers evoked by mesmerism. Such an hypothesis had not yet been "suggested."

This state of affairs, however, was destined to a somewhat sudden termination. The Rochester knockings had commenced. At first ascribed to trickery, investigation proved that they could not be traced to any known physical agency. The sounds were startling, mysterious, uncanny, and to none more so than to those to whose unconscious agency they were afterwards traced. To the minds of the local savants the most obvious solution was the supernatural. This idea once suggested, a test was easy. A code of signals was improvised, and the raps were questioned. An intelligence was found to be behind the mysterious sounds. On crossexamination, that intelligence freely admitted itself to be none other than that of a disembodied spirit; and the raps first made upon the walls of the humble residence of the Fox sisters were heard around the world.

A new era in psychic phenomena had been inaugurated. In an incredibly short space of time "mediums" of communication with the inhabitants of another sphere were found all over the civilized world. Mesmerism was forgotten. But it is a significant fact that it had unwittingly provided an abundant supply of the raw material for