Psychics: facts and theories

Front matter

Class JiFiaM Book._-.-^_aa_ psychics: facts and theories.

BY REV. MINOT j: SAVAGE.

Author of '" The Irrepressible Conflict between Two World- Theo~ ric's," " The Religion of Evolution" " The Morals of Evolution" " Christianity the Science of Manhood" " The Modem Sphinx^" " Bluffiton? "Social Problems" etc.

Preface

This little volume is made up of certain papers which have appeared in Tlie Arena, and of one which was published in The Forum for December, 1889. The latter is re-published here by consent.

Since the appearance of these articles a hundred questions have been asked. I propose to take occasion of this preface to answer some of them a little more fully than is practicable by letter, and also to save myself the labor of writing the same things to so many different persons.

No end of people write and ask if these phenomena may not be explained by this theory or that. It may not be out of the way to say that one who has been studying the matter for eighteen years, has probably considered, with some care, all the theories he could think of. He will be grateful, however, for anything, by way of suggestion, that is not already long familiar.

A word, also, to those who send accounts of experiences. However interesting they may be, or, however conclusive to those immediately convi PREFACE.

cerned, they are generally quite worthless as evidence to others. This, for two reasons : First, in most cases, no record is made at the time. So it is always open to an objector to say that the memory is unreliable. And, secondly, they are not accompanied by any corroborative testimony of others. It cannot be too strongly, or too emphatically said that those who have these experiences should take pains to put their stories into evidential shape, so that they may help in the solution of the great problem.

There is a class of objectors who say, " If my friends in the spirit world can come and communicate at all, why do they not come directly to me ? Why must I go to a medium ? " For reply, I will ask another question. If a man can communicate with me along a telegraph wire, why can he not as well send the message along a board fence ? I do not know. I only know that electricity will work along a wire, but will not along a fence. Why can I not play the piano as well as Blind Tom, since I may claim, without immodesty, to be more than his intellectual equal ? I do not know. Perhaps it will be as well to recognize facts, and not deny them because we do not know why they are facts.

Then there are seekers who seem to me quite as unreasonable as are some objectors. They will go to a psychic and ask to be put in communica-

PREFACE. vii

tionwith a particular friend inside of five minutes. Now, if my friends are alive in a spirit world, and even if they are sometimes able to communicate, is it quite reasonable for me to expect them to be hanging about the door of any particular " medium " I may take a notion to visit ? Perhaps they may have something else to do in the spirit world. I hope so, at any rate. If not, I should not like myself to live there.

It ought also to be remembered that failures are quite as satisfactory, sometimes, as successes. If it is only a clever trick, then there need be no failures. If the psychic is honest, occasional failures are to be expected. For all that an honest psychic can do is to sit and passively await results.

One more caution needs to be pointed out. Some person, just interested, starts out and appears to think he is going to settle the matter in a week. Unless prepared for a long, serious and oftentimes disappointing study, people had better let it alone, and leave it to those better fitted for the arduous task. A person needs to be trained and experienced as an observer; he needs to know what is good evidence, and what is not ; he needs to know the possibilities and resources of trickery ; and then, perhaps, his conclusions may be worth something.

People who propose to visit Boston or NewYork are constantly writing and asking me to give them the address of some " reliable medium." I almost viii PREFACE,

always decline. For, first, I know very few advertising mediums to whom any first-corner can be sent. And, secondly, though I may have had some satisfactory experience, it does not at all follow that it can be repeated or duplicated, to order, in the case of another. Most of my own experiences have been in the presence of personal friends to whom I should not be at liberty to send a stranger.

I am often asked if I am a Spiritualist. Some who hate spiritualism occasionally charge me with being one ; while some Spirtualists express the opinion that I am a sort of Nicodemus, who fears to avow his belief in daylight. I may as well answer that question here. No, in the popular acceptation of that word, I am not a Spiritualist. As the term is commonly used, it covers much which I do not believe, and much which is most distasteful to me. Should I now adopt that name, I should be seriously misrepresenting my position. Even though I should come at last to hold the theory that communication for the spirit world alone could explain my facts, even that would not make me what is generally understood as a Spiritualist.

Spiritualists, for one thing, seem to think that their ism is a new religion. This claim seems to me to be hasty and absurd. The proof that the " dead " are alive and can communicate with the

PBEFACE. ix

living would only put certainty in the place of hope as to the destiny of man. It would not touch or change any one of the great essentials of my religious creed or life. I certainly hope that continued existence may be demonstrated. But " Spiritualism " is a good deal more than that, and many other things besides that. So, as the term is now used, I cannot wear it.

People often ask why, if there is anything in these so-called manifestations, they have waited all these ages and have not appeared before. There are stories of similar happenings as marking every age of history; but, as reported, they have been only occasional, and they have not attracted any serious study. Let us note the stages of evolution as having a possible bearing on this point. First* muscle ruled the world. Then came cunning, the lower form of brain power. Next, the intellect became recognized as king. After that, the moral ideal showed itself mightier than muscle or brain. To-day it is the strongest force on earth. No kingdares go to war without claiming, at least, that his cause is a righteous one. Now it is not meant that either of these has ruled the world alone, for they have overlapped each other, as have the advancing forms of life. And as heralding the advent of each new stage of progress, there have been tentative and sporadic manifestations of the next higher, while still the lower was dominant. Is it not then x PREFACE.

in line with all that has gone before, that the next step should be a larger and higher xnanif estation of the spiritual ? And, in this case, are not the tentative and sporadic manifestations reported from the past just what might have been expected? " First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." " That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; and afterward that which is spiritual."

With these suggestions, I offer the reader the following facts and some discussion as to theories. If the facts force us to the reasonable conclusion that

" There is no death, what seems so is transition,"

why should any one shrink from having proved that which all men hope ? I hesitate, as yet, to say that there can be no other explanation ; but I frankly admit that I can now see no other which seems to me adequate to account for all the facts. If any one can find another explanation, I am ready ~to accept it. For what any reasonable man wishes is only the truth.

M. J. Savage.

Boston, Dec. 26, '92.

PSYCHICS : FACTS AND THEOKIES.

Chapter I

I am to tell some stories ; others are to explain them — if they can. Not that I mean to shirk any responsibility. I am ready with my opinions as to what seems to me reasonable in the way of theory, and what unreasonable, only I do not propose to dogmatize ; and I am ready to listen to the suggested explanations of anybody else.

The one thing I know about these stories is that they are true, I say this advisedly and weighing my words. If in the case of any one of them, I only think or believe it is true, I shall say so ; but nearly all of them I know to he true — know it in the same sense in which I use the word of that which is scientifically demonstrated.

These stories will lead us into the realm of the supernormal. I do not say supernatural, because I do not believe in any supernatural. In my way of looking at the universe, I regard all that is as natural. If, for example, there are invisible beings who can take part in the events of our lives, their being invisible does not make them either unnatural or supernatural. A blind man would have no right to regard other people as supernatural merely because he could not see them. Science makes it purely rational for us to believe in the possibility of the existence and activity of persons we cannot see. Our senses are limited ; so it is only a question of fact and evidence. But certain things may transcend the range of our ordinary or normal experience. For clearness of thought, then, let us call these supernormal.

If the claim is made that some supernormal thing has occurred, it is only reasonable that

PSYCHICS: FACTS A&D THEORIES. ?

people should demand adequate proof. The chances are against it, by as much as the normal is more common than the supernormal. If some one tells us that he has just seen on the street a dark-haired man dressed in gray, we do not ask for evidence of such a fact ; but if he tells us that, while he was looking at him, he faded out of sight and disappeared, we naturally and rightly doubt the reality of his experience. We know that people can be mistaken ; we know that they sometimes lie ; we know that, in certain conditions of the brain, men think they see when no objective reality corresponds with their vision. The probabilities, then, are in favor of some one of these explanations.

But that a real, conscious, intelligent being may exist and not be visible to normal eyes ; that such a being may be seen at one time by a particular person and not at another ; that he may be seen by one person and not by others, — there is nothing in all this that contravenes scientific possibility. It is not as if a man should tell us that he knew of a country where water did not freeze at 32 ° Fahrenheit. The scientifically impossible is one thing ; while the improbable, the uncommon, or the supernormal, is quite another thing. The supernormal may be true. While, then, the probabilities are against it, the proof may be such as to render it credible. Indeed, it is conceivable that the proof may become so strong as to make incredulity absurd and unscientific. The attitude of caution is rational ; but the attitude of those who " know " a thing cannot be true, merely because it is unusual, or because it does not fit into the theory of things which they happen to hold — this is irrational.

What looks like proof of certain supernormal happenings has been accumulating so rapidly during the last few years, that public attention has been turned in this direction as never before. Psychic investigation is becoming " respectable." It will be fortunate for it if it does not become a fashionable fad for those who want a new sensation. It is curious, and

PSYCHICS: FACTS AND THEORIES. \t

would be ludicrous were it not sad, to watch the progress of these things. " You ought to be thankful to nie ? " said John Weiss, one morning, as I met him on Washington Street, "for I have been killed to make room for you." Yes, brave men were professionally and socially killed, to make our religious liberty possible. And now even the "Orthodox" get great credit for being " liberal," and the blood-bought liberty is the hobby of snobs. Always some Winkelreid makes way for liberty at the price of fatal thrusts of spears.

A world-famous man, Church of England clergyman and scientist in one, said to me one day, "I do not talk about my psychic experiences and knowledge with everybody. I used to think all who had anything to do with these things were fools ; and I do not enjoy being called a fool." But now the danger is that the society fools will go to dabbling in the matter. Said another man to me, a scholar known on two continents, " Suppose you and I should come to believe, it would only be a couple more cranks!" But it begins to look as though the " cranks" might get to be in the majority, when a famous German philosopher can say that " The man who any longer denies clairvoyance does not show that he is prejudiced ; he only shows that he is ignorant."

So much by way of preface to my stories. It seems to me that all these points, at least, ought to be kept in mind by one who reads them and seriously tries to think out what they may mean. Now to the stories themselves.

I. Let me begin by telling about some rappings. Do these ever occur except in cases where they are purposely produced ? Are they always a trick? A vast amount of ingenuity has been expended by those who have thought they could explain these things as the work of toe joints or other anatomical peculiarities. It will be something to find out that genuine raps do occur, whatever theory may be adopted in explanation of them.

I know a regular physician living not a thousand miles from Boston. His wife, I should call a psychic, though she does not call herself so. Neither she nor her husband has ever had anything to do with spiritualism, nor are they believers. Where they formerly lived they were continually troubled by strange and unaccountable happenings ; but though they moved to their present residence, the happenings — with one important exception — have not ceased. No attempt has been made to reduce these happenings to order, or to find out whether there is any discoverable intelligence connected with them. The doctor vaguely holds the opinion that they indicate some abnormal nervous condition on the part of his wife. So far the whole matter has been treated from that point of view. But what is it that happens? Sometimes, for two hours on a stretch, the doctor and his wife are kept wide awake at night by loud rappings on the headboard of their bed. In accordance with his nervous theory, the doctor will hold his wife with one arm, while the hand of the other arm is pressed against the headboard, in the attempt thus to put an end to the disturbance. Said the doctor to me one day, " If anybody thinks these rappings are not genuine, I should like to have him go through some of my experiences."

He and his wife will be sitting by the drawing-room table of an evening. They will be conscious of a stream of cold air passing by them, — an accompaniment of psychic facts well known to investigators, — and then the " trouble " will begin. Sometimes it is only raps. At other times they will hear a noise on the floor of the room above, and will think their boy has fallen out of bed; but on going up to see, they find him quietly asleep. Sometimes there will be a loud crash in the corner of the room over the furnace register, as though a basket of crockery had been thrown down and broken. They occupy the house alone, and have no other way of explaining these unpleasant facts than the one alluded to above.

I give this case because of the undoubted occurrence of these things in the house of one who is not a believer nor even an investigator. There is no expectancy or invitation of them, or any superstitious attitude of mind towards them. They are, in this case, plain, bold, apparent facts, as real as is breakfast or supper, or the existence of a brick in the sidewalk.

The " one important exception " referred to above is this : In the house they formerly occupied, the doctor's wife sometimes saw the fio-ure of a woman. Others were said to have seen it also. It was never visible to the doctor. There is the story of a tragic death which connects this woman with this particular house. Those who believe in haunted houses would thus be able to explain why this figure is never seen in the house at present occupied by the doctor's family.

Here then are raps not to be explained as the conscious, purposed work of any visible person ; nor can they be explained as the result of the shrinking of boards, as the work of rats or mice, or in any ordinary way. Starting with facts like these, many persons have supposed themselves to get into communication with invisible intelligences who had taken these ways of attracting attention. Nothing of this sort has been even attempted here. I simply set forth the facts and the reality of the raps.

II. I will now tell a brief story of one of my own experiences in this line.

Until within the past year or two there lived in New York city a lady who, when a girl, had been somewhat known as a "medium." But for twenty or thirty years she led a quiet homelife with her husband, a well-known businessman. But intimates in the house told stories of remarkable occurrences. For example, a friend of this family has told me how, when at breakfast, after having spent the night there, raps would come on the table ; and by means of them, how long and pleasant conversations would be held with those who once had walked the earth, but now were in the unseen. This is his belief.

Having occasion to pass through New York, this friend, above referred to, gave me a letter of introduction, saying he knew I would be welcomed if I called at the house of this lady. I had never seen her, nor she me, but one morning I presented myself with my letter. I was shown into the back parlor. Carpenters were at work on a conservatory opening out of this room where the lady had received me. They made more or less noise, but not enough to interfere with our conversation. Soon I began to hear raps, apparently on the floor, and then in different parts of the room. On this, the lady remarked, simply, " Evidently there is some one here who wishes to communicate with you. Let us go into the front parlor, where it will be quieter." This we did, the raps following us, or rather beginning again as soon as we were seated. At her suggestion I then took pencil and paper (which I happened to have in my bag), and sat at one side of a marble-top table, while she sat at the other side in a rocker and some distance away. Then she said, "As one way of getting at the matter, suppose you do this : You know what friends you have in the spirit world. Write now a list of names — any names you please, real or fictitious, only among them somewhere include the names of some friends in the spirit world who, you think, might like to communicate with you, if such a thing were possible." I then began. I held a paper so that she could not possibly have seen what I wrote, even though she had not been so far away. I took special pains that no movement or facial expression should betray me. Meantime she sat quietly rocking and talking. As I wrote, perhaps at the eighth or tenth name, I began to write the name of a lady friend who had not been long dead. I had hardly written the first letter before there came three loud, distinct raps. Then my hostess said, " This friend of yours, of course, knows where she died. Write now a list of places, including in it the place of her death, and see if she will recognize it." This I did, beginning with Vienna, and so on with any that occurred to me. Again, I had hardly begun to write the

PSYCHICS: FACTS AND THEOBIJSS. 17

real name, when once more came the three raps. And so on, concerning other matters. I speak of these only as specimens.

Now, I cannot say that in this particular case the raps were not caused by the toe joints of the lady. The thing that puzzles me, in this theory, is as to how the toe joints happened to know the name of my friend, where she died, etc., which facts the lady herself did not know, and never had known.

Certain theories, as explanations of certain facts, are already regarded as demonstrated by those familiar with the results of psychic investigation. Among these are hypnotism, clairvoyance, telepathy, and the agency of the sub-conscious self as active about matters with which the conscious self is not familiar. Can the simplest, genuine rap be explained as coming under either of these? No one has the slightest idea how, and as yet there is nothing in this direction that, even by courtesy, can be called a theory ; but it may be possible that

these raps are produced by psvchic power. If so, as in Case I., the psychic herself does not know even that she does it, mnch less how. Are they the work of the sub-conscious self ? No sub-conscious self has ever claimed to do it. And if so, from what source does this sub-conscious self, as in Case II., obtain a knowledge of facts the psychic never knew ? To explain these cases in accordance with any yet accepted theories, mind-reading must also be introduced. This New York lady must have been able, not only to produce the raps, consciously or unconsciously, but also to read my mind and tell me things she never knew before. But these things, if they do no more, reveal such an extension of mental power as to lead us into a world vastly unlike that which is recognized by ordinary scientific theories ; and it may be well for us to be on our guard lest we invent theories more decidedly supernormal than the facts we seek to explain.

IV. My next story goes far beyond any of these, and, — well, I will ask the reader to decide as to whether there is any help in hypnotism or clairvoyance or mind-reading, or any of the selves of the psychic, conscious, or sub-conscious.

Early on Friday morning, Jan. 18, 1884, the steamer " City of Columbus," en route from Boston to Savannah, was wrecked on the rocks off Gay Head, the southwestern point of Martha's Vineyard. Among the passengers was an elderly widow, the sister-in-law of one of my friends, and the mother of another.

This lady, Mrs. K., and her sister, Mrs. B., had both been interested in psychic investigation, and had held sittings with a psychic whom I will call Mrs. E. Mrs. B. was in poor health, and was visited regularly for treatment on every Monday by the psychic, Mrs.* E. On occasion of these professional visits, Mrs. B. and her sister, Mrs. K., would frequently have a sitting. This Mrs. E., the psychic, had been known to all the parties concerned for many years, and was held in the highest respect. She lived in a town fifteen or twenty miles from Boston. This, then, was the situation of affairs when the wreck of the steamer took place.

The papers of Friday evening, January 18, of course contained accounts of the disaster. On Saturday, January 19, Dr. K., my friend, the son of Mrs. K., hastened down to the beach in search of the body of his mother. No trace whatever was discovered. He became satisfied that she was among the lost, but was not able to find the body. Saturday night he returned to the city. Sunday passed by. On Monday morning, the 21st, Mrs. E. came from her country home to give the customary treatment to her patient, Mrs. B. Dr. K. called on his aunt while Mrs. E. was there, and they decided to have a sitting, to see if there would come to them anything that even purported to be news from the missing mother and sister. Immediately Mrs. K. claimed to be present ; and along with many other matters, she told them three separate and distinct things which, if true, it was utterly impossible for either of them to have known.

PSYCHICS: FACTS AXD THEOBIJES. 21

1. She told thein that, after the steamer had sailed, she had been able to exchange her inside stateroom for an outside one. All that any of them knew, was that she had been obliged to take an inside room, and that she did not want it.

2. She told them that she played whist with some friends in the steamer saloon during the evening ; and she further told them the names of the ones who had made up the table.

3. Then came the startling and utterly unexpected statement, — "I do not want you to think of me as having been drowned. I was not drowned. When the alarm came, I was in my berth. Being frightened, I jumped up, and rushed out of the stateroom. In the passage-way, I was suddenly struck a blow on my head, and instantly it was over. So do not think of me as having gone through the process of drowning." Then she went on to speak of the friends she had found, and who were with her. This latter, of course, could net be verified. But the other things could be. It was learned, through survivors, that the matter of the stateroom and the whist, even to the partners, was precisely as had been stated. But how to verify the other statement, particularly as the body had not been discovered ?

All this was on Monday, the 21st. On Tuesday, the 22d, the doctor and a friend went again to the beach. After a prolonged search among the bodies that had been recovered, they were able to identify that of the mother. And they found the right side of the head all crushed in by a blow.

The impression made on the doctor, at the sitting on Monday, was that he had been talking with his mother. The psychic, Mrs. E., is not a clairvoyant, and there were many things connected with the sitting that made the strong impression of the mother's present personality. In order to have obtained all these facts,, related under numbers 1, 2, and 3, the psychic would have had to be, not only clairvoyant, but to have gotten into mental relations with several different people at the same time. The reading of several different minds at once, and also clairvoyant seeing, not only of the bruised body, but of facts that took place on the Friday previous (this being Monday), — all these multiplex and diverse operations, going on simultaneously, make up a problem that the most ardent advocate of telepathy, as a solvent of psychic facts, would hardly regard as reasonably coming within its scope.

Let us look at it clearly. Telepathy deals only with occurrences taking place at the time. I do not know of a case where clairvoyance is even claimed to see what were once facts, but which no longer exist. Then there must have been simultaneous communication with several minds. This, I think, is not even claimed as j>ossible by anybody. Then let it be remembered that Mrs. E. is not conscious of possessing either telepathic or clairvoyant power. Such is the problem.

I express no opinion of my own. I only say that the doctor, my friend, is an educated, level-headed, noble man. He felt sure that he detected undoubted tokens of his mother's presence. If such a thing is ever possible, surely this is the explanation most simple and natural

V. The only other case I shall be able to find room for in this chapter is a genuine ghost story, all the better for my purpose because it is simple and clear cut in every particular. It is perfectly authentic, and true beyond any sort of question.