The coming science

Preface To The New Edition

THIS book — first issued in 1908> and now republished — is intended to constitute a "primer of psychical research" — an Introduction to the subject, for those who have not as yet read extensively upon it. I have endeavored to make clear why it is that the study of this subject is so important, and why it may in truth be called "The Coming Science." More and more, we are realizing that religion and spiritual ideals are losing their hold upon the public mind; that materialism is rapidly gaining ground — where it is not offset and, as it were, "antidoted" by the facts of psychical research. Here and here alone is to be found a true solution of these world-"Droblems. Here and here alone is there any evidei ^e of a future life, or of the higher spiritual p>owers of man.

Additional light upon these obscure problems has been obtained since the issuance of this book, in several directions. Thus, the newer dream-psychology has made great strides since then; a better understanding of hypnosis and kindred states has been rendered possible; the newer studies in "physical phenomena" have, in some cases, been very striking; but the book will; I believe, constitute a simple and

Preface

clear presentation of evidence and theories^ and will remain practically unaffected by the newer evidence. The latter may, in a sense, supplement the evidence herein presented; it will in no wise affect it.

The final Chapter of this book deals with Eusapia Palladino; and it is hardly necessary to add that, since this was written, I have personally witnessed all these phenomena myself, and have been compelled to accept them as genuine. My own experiments with this remarkable medium I have detailed in my books, "Eusapia Palladino: and her Phenomena," and "Personal Experiences in Spiritualism," and the interested reader is referred to these for this material, and for a historical summary of the evidence to date.

I can only hope that this little book — by attracting the attention of some readers, and by directing their reflections, perhaps, upon these problems — may help the cause of psychical research and assist in founding the "Coming Science."

H. C.

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PREFACE

TN presenting the following book to the public, I -■• wish to say, first of all, that I must not be understood as endorsing or even as accepting all the views and theories that are advanced, from time to time, throughout the book. I have offered these merely tentatively, and merely as possible explanations for facts that, on the strength of existing testimony, I have assumed to be established. Readers of my other, more cautious books upon this and other subjects will see that I have not been unwary in approaching this question ; and I do not wish to draw upon myself the charge of credulity merely because I have presented certain theories in this book that, from the standpoint of orthodox science, may appear somewhat ' wild.' Having absolved myself in this manner, I leave the reader to find in the text whatever he can of interest or profit.

A certain lack of connection and coherence may be found in the chapters of the book, due to the fact that some of these essays have appeared, in part at least, in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, The Metaphysical Magazine^ and elsewhere. This is to be regretted, but could

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PREFACE

not very well be helped. The opening chapters are devoted to a defence of the legitimacy of the study and replies to various attacics from various sources. This the reader will see for himself.

One word more. This book is not an attempt to establish any of the facts, but is rather a discussion of theories that might be invoked in order to explain the facts, once they have been established. The reader who is unconvinced will find little to convince him in this book ; the facts will be found well summarised in Professor Hyslop's four books, in the publications of the English and American Societies for Psychical Research (hereinafter referred to as the S. P. R.), and in other works upon this subject. Very little has been said, however, in accessible books, in the way of explanatory hypotheses ; and these I have endeavoured to make the principal factor in the present book. It is hoped that this will be of interest to the public, for the very reason that so little of an explanatory nature is said in the current books.

My best thanks are due Prof. James H. Hyslop for his kind Introduction.

H. C.

vni

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Coming Science 1

II. The Philosophy of Life : or The Possibility

Introduction

MR. CARRINGTON has asked me to write a brief introduction to his book on psychic research, and I am glad to comply with his request. He has here covered in a very clear and intelligible way the main points of interest in the problems which concern the psychic researcher. The book assumes that the facts are known or easily accessible to the reader in the publications of the Society for Psychical Research, and hence the main part of the author's task is discussion of their real or possible meaning and explanation. The chapter on telepathy I cannot help thinking is a very conservative and cautious one ; for the general public has used that idea so freely that it is constantly assumed to be a well-known and well-understood phenomenon. It is far from this, and yet is the least that a psychical researcher can accept in regard to certain facts. Mr. Carrington brings out clearly that it is not to be regarded as an explanation of anything, and is only a name for facts requiring such an explanation. This is of all things one of the most in)- portant qualifications with which the term is to be used. Moreover, it is well to keep in mind that

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INTRODUCTION

even, as an alleged fact of the supernormal kind, it is not a generally accepted phenomenon in the scientific world. Only a few men seriously believe in it, and others are willing to speak and think of it tolerantly in order to escape a profounder alternative. But no intelligent scientific man will think or speak of it with that confidence of feeling that he indulges in with regard to physical phenomena, or think that he understands it. Whatever it is, as a phenomenon to be explained, its meaning and explanation are still subjudice for the scientific world.

On the other topics of the book Mr. Carrington furnishes no less interesting discussion, and I have no doubt that readers will find the matter exceedingly helpful in directing their reflections on them. The whole subject has been left by the more responsible educators of the community to a public which has not been directed by the traditions of science, and the consequence is that speculation runs riot in theories for which there is no adequate evidence. It is high time that some such conservative discussion as this little book affords should receive intelligent attention.

James H. Hyslop.

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Chapter I

THE majority of persons, upon seeing the title of this book, will at once ask: What is the Coming Science? I do not doubt that many will think that this consists of the newer discoveries in physics and radio-activity, about which we are hearing so much to-day ; others will think that it is biology ; others psychology ; others electricity, and so on — in fact, each will construe the title differently, according to his beliefs in the possibilities of the subject mentioned and in proportion to his interest in it. Thus the person interested in the newer discoveries in physics will think that the first of the above-mentioned departments of science will be the one most cultivated in the future and that from which m.ost is to be hoped by coming generations ; those interested in psychology will think that that is the subject of study for the future; and so on, each one thinking that some certain department of science will be the one most in evidence in the coming years, though never neglectful of nor blind to the possibilities of the others. To my mind the Coming Science will not be any of those just named, but will be one that is not as yet recognised as a science at all, properly speaking, by the majority of scientists. I refer to what are known as psychic phenomena, and the Coming Science is psychic research. Although this statement may arouse the ridicule of many of my readers, I think that there are facts to support it and that far from being irrational, this is the logical outcome of modern thought and will represent an extension of our present-day science in the right and logical direction. I shall now attempt to lay before the reader a few of the many reasons that have forced me to believe this to be true, and shall endeavour to show that the outcome is only what is to be expected from a close study of the facts.

In the process of time, the world has passed through various stages of evolution. First of all, there was the purely animal stage (I am referring now only to man), and in that era brute force was the ruling power; it was this that was most admired and upon which life depended. Then the era of mind^ began to dawn. It was discovered that cunning and skilled planning could overcome the power of pure force, and man began to cultivate and desire mind more than brute strength, and evolution began to tend in that direction.

Less and less space within the organism was devoted to the digestive functions and other animal propensities, and more to the higher thinking and feeling and willing organs. A study of comparative anatomy will prove this. So, as man ascended in the scale of evolution, mind became the all-ruling and preponderating element, and animal force became less prominent and less admired. Mind was first of all devoted, probably, to the furtherance of the desires of the individual organism ; but later it spread over wider areas and extended to higher and broader spheres ; pure, abstract thinking became possible, and altruism, or thought of others besides self, began to show itself through the darkness that had until then reigned supreme upon the world. And with this higher knowledge began to develop that spiritual self and consciousness of which we are just beginning to catch the first signs, and which is doubtless in its very infancy in the realm of higher knowledge. This spiritual side of man, that is just becoming manifest, may possess powers and potencies as great, as relatively great when compared to the purely mental world, as that was above the physical and animal world. A creature living on the first plane would be totally incapable of appreciating any of the joys and possibilities of one living on the second or thought-plane; and, by analogy, it is more than probable that we, of the second plane, cannot appreciate or understand the possibilities and returns of those who have at least tasted or faintly perceived the third or spiritual plane.

The aspirations would be different ; the same j oys would not be sought by both; and those of the third plane would be superior to many of the desires and appetites of those living on the second or mental plane — just as they in turn would be superior to those of the first. This would seem to be borne out by the fact that yogis, and perhaps certain mediums, who have (so it is claimed) risen beyond the second into the third plane, are independent of many of the things felt to be necessities by those on the second plane. Their desires and aspirations are of a different order, and with them what is most desired is spiritual growth and development; material and mental growth are not sought for and desired as they are with us. But to desire that development it must first of all be tasted, — in a trifling degree, perhaps, but still tasted, — and the genms and the possibilities must be present within the being of one capable of desiring; such advancement. As Professor James pointed out many years ago, a man is only jealous of one who excels him in his own line of work, and although he (speaking for himself) would feel ashamed if any man knew more psychology than he, he did not at all mind if many men excelled him in botany or billiards or prize-fighting or in a number of other pursuits and studies, though the botanist or the billiard-player or the prize-fighter would feel ashamed to be beaten by anyone else in his own special line of work or occupation. This shows, merely, that we only desire, ceteris paribus, what is an ideal possibility; and if we are capable of feeling and experiencing envy (in its best sense) for another more developed than ourselves in any certain direction, it shows that we have some of that very thing in us; and more, that we are, unconsciously perhaps, striving to excel in that line of endeavour.

Now, I think that there are few of us who do not admire, not to say envy, any man or woman in whom this spiritual side is highly developed. We wish that we also had their capacities in this direction, and we endeavour to emulate their example — often to the betterment of ourselves, as we know. This shows us conclusively that there is in each of us a hidden spiritual side, which needs only to be developed in order to be brought into full blossom — foregoing, perhaps, many of the so-called delights and pleasures of this world in the attempt, but, we may be assured, reaping a reward at some time, in some place. A spiritual side is latent in all of us, awaiting its development.

What is this unknown, spiritual side? Whence came it, and what are its capacities? These are some of the questions to which we must now address ourselves.

J>^ During the past two hundred years, science has been devoting her energies (rightly) to the physical sciences — physics, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, astronomy, etc. It is only of late that psychology has risen to a place among the other sciences, while philosophy and metaphysics are still laughed at by many scientists as mere idle dreams or as pleasant ways of passing time that might be more profitably spent in other pursuits. It has never seemed to occur to these scientists that the conclusions drawn from every one of their facts are, at basis, metaphysical, and that all science, inasmuch as it is systematic, must be philosophical ! This is now recognised, it must be admitted, to some degree, and the old antagonism to these subjects is fast disappearing; but they are yet looked upon as in some way inferior, and dependent upon the physical sciences for their value and existence. Of course this is not true in the sense that it is generally understood; but I think it quite right that science should Jiave devoted her early time and energies to a close and systematic study of the objective world, and to have ignored all else. Only in that way could any real progress have been made at a time when so little was known of the universe in any part of its parts. But there is no reason for continuing this resentful and intolerant attitude now that we have placed science upon a sure foundation ; and we are learning slowly but more and more surely every day that behind and beyond this material, seen and phenomenal world there is yet another world of causes — that which produces the effects we perceive. We find that every one of the physical sciences comes to a point where it can go no further, and this has proved to be the case even with such material sciences as chemistry and physics. Ten years ago it was one of the very fundamentals of science that the material atom was the most minute particle of matter in the world, and that from it this and all other worlds were built; that it was indivisible, unchangeable and eternal: it formed the very foundation stone of the universe. But now we find that these atoms have been split up and divided ; we have now an * electrical theory of matter ' which has verily explained away matter altogether, so that we are no longer entitled to think of it as matter at all, but as something else, itself immaterial ! This being so, it will be seen that we are entitled to doubt whether any such thing as a material world exists at all, in. the sense in which it is generally understood, and that matter and the seen and tangible world recedes into the unseen and intangible world of force and causation. " Matter " no longer means what it did a few years ago; it exists only as a name; and soon we must begin to study the forces that lie behind matter, of which it is the active manifestation. The world of causes and forces lies before us, an unopened book. In the past we have been studying merely the world of products and effects.

Let us take a simple example by way of illustration. Two chemical elements combine to form a new substance (so-called) with properties different from either. This has occurred because there has been operative a certain force, called for convenience chemical affinity, which has caused this great change and brought these results to pass. The effects of this force or of these forces have been studied, the new product has been analysed, weighed and classified; but little attention has been given to the force that produced these changes — the chemical affinity. What is this force Avhich produced the change? It may be classed, with others, in the Law of Conservation ; but does that do aught but classify it ; does it in any way attempt to explain it.? Surely not! The law of this force may have been determined, but the nature of the force is still a mystery.

I contend then that the study of these forces • — these noumena — should be that which most occupies our minds during the coming century ; it will be a century for work in and study of causes rather than effects. And more, the course of science will swing round into a study of the mental forces and powers of the universe ; partly because all other forces will be traced into an unseen world, equally with consciousness ; partly because this world presents a wider field for inquiry than any other, since it is in its infancy in every stage ; and thirdly because, I am assured, the key to many other facts in the universe will be found in this world of mental forces and causes. This is too large a problem to discuss here; I mention it merely by way of suggestion.

Let us now take up for discussion the most important factor of all (to us). We have been speaking of the physical sciences, etc., without bearing in mind that every fact known to us must be acquired and retained in consciousness; that is, in that side of man which raises him far above the animal world in every respect, even enabling him to overcome or offset its greater strength by his mind alone. Consequently a study of consciousness is by far the most important study of all, for it is only by and through consciousness that all else is understood and perceived. I have discussed the relation of consciousness to the organism elsewhere, as well as some of the problems that arise from a study of these facts, and they need not and cannot be discussed here. I wish to touch in this place upon only one side of it — what may be called the religious consciousness — that side of man which concerns itself with the origin and destiny of the human being, or in academic phraseology, of the ' soul.'

All religions are based upon the double idea of some all-seeing deity, and upon the persistence of consciousness or the " immortality of the soul." But of late grave doubts have arisen in every thinking man's mind as to whether either or both of these facts are true; whether there is any such deity, or if the soul continues to exist after the destruction of the physical organism. The first of these problems would lead us too far astray, and we cannot now stop to consider it. We shall, therefore, concentrate our attention on the other problem, whether consciousness can and does persist after the death of the physical body ; and if it be shown that it does so persist, then this problem will have been solved and one of the great stumbling blocks removed. If it can be sho^m that consciousness can persist apart from brain activity and a nervous system, then materialism will have been overthrown and another interpretation of the universe rendered possible.

As before stated, all religions are based, more or less, upon this idea that the ' soul ' exists apart from the physical body; but none of these religions offers us any evidence of that fact. For the evidence we are referred back to certain facts that happened many centuries ago, and no additional or contemporary evidence is vouchsafed. Now materialism asserts that consciousness is bound up with a material brain and that, apart from such a brain, there can be no consciousness. If it does so persist, says materialism, where is your evidence for that fact.? And apart from certain phenomena called psychic, there is no evidence whatever that materialism is not true. At least we could never offset or disprove its claims. But if it can be shown that certain facts actually occur which are inexplicable and cannot be accounted for on any theory of materialism, then the existence of psychic facts will have been established and the persistence of a soul of a conscious sort, after death, also proved. It will be seen that this subject at once assumes a look of gigantic importance. Whether or not such facts occur is one of the most important questions, if not the most important question, before the world to-day, for the reason that a whole world-philosophy is based thereon. Psychical phenomena offer the only proof that we can ever obtain that a soul or consciousness can exist apart from brain functioning, and it consequently becomes a matter of the first importance to ascertain, if possible, whether such facts actually exist, or whether they are one and all hallucination and the results of fraud and a disordered imagination.

It is not the province of this book to establish those facts. A much larger work would be needed to accomplish it — if indeed it could be done. Hundreds of volumes full of such evidence can be obtained, and to these I would refer the reader who is unconvinced of the facts. It is my purpose merely, in the present volume, to point out that this is, or should be, the problem or science of the coming century — to ascertain as far as possible how far these so-called ' facts ' are such in reality, and then, granting for the sake of argument that the facts are really established, to discuss theories that would in some way account for them. The establishment of the facts will necessitate the work of many men over a period of many years ; the present book is merely an attempt to point out certain of the difficulties and problems that must be faced and overcome in the investigation of such phenomena, and a general and theoretical discussion of theories that must be advanced to account for the facts when once estabhshed. It is one of the most interesting and fascinating of fields for the worker — this borderland between mind and matter — and may in truth be called, at this stage of investigation, the Coming Science.

Chapter II

THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE : OR THE POSSIBILITY OF A SCIENTIFIC OPTIMISM ^

nnHE laws of health, the great laws of hygiene, -*■ are all very important — indeed, one might say fundamentally important — because, unless one knows what the laws of health are and consciously or unconsciously obeys them, there can be no lasting health. Without health there can be no real happiness — no true life ; for " good health " does not mean only, as its consequent, a clean physical organism, i, e., a healthy animal, but also a more highly educated and advanced, a more moral and spiritual individual, since the bodily health, reacting upon the organism, does, without any doubt, affect both the mental and the moral natures of man ; and for this reason, if for no other, a study of the laws of hygiene becomes of the very^ highest importance.

But in these considerations we must never lose sight of the fact that all these laws are but so many means for the gaining and preserving of perfect health; i. e., they are not ideals in or of

1 An address before the Health Culture Club of New York, read at the meeting of Sunday, Jan. 28, 1906.

themselves, any of them, but merely so many means by which we can regain and preserve our mental and physical equilibrium; while (and this is a point which I wish particularly to emphasise, since it may seem to some a rather novel aspect of the case) health is not itself a real, ultimate ideal, either! Good health is (or should be) sought only to enable us to perform our daily tasks and duties unhampered by physical disease; to reach our highest mental and spiritual attainment without the constant depressing influences and harrowing, soul-racking infirmities with which bad health and disease saddle us. Health is not an aim or an end in itself ; it is merely a condition — that condition which best enables us to perform, with the best possible results, whatever of life's duties it may be ours to undertake or attempt.

Of course, if we are actually diseased; if we are not enjoying the best possible health; if we are oppressed and weighed down with some bodily infirmity, then health does become, for the time being, a real and ultimate end and aim — in fact the first and most important factor in our lives : for if we do not recover our health, we are not free to pursue our lives and achieve that which we set out to do ; but once restored to good health, we should simply follow nature's laws — enabling us to remain in that condition — and then forget the body so far as possible. Health, once attained, should be used for the purposes of our daily life.

The normal conditions having thus been restored, being free to develop ourselves along our chosen lines, the question now arises, What is it that we are to develop? What should be our object in life? In short, why are we here; for what reason are we living at all? These are the important questions which I shall endeavour to answer — in part at least — in the present chapter ; and though my manner of treating the subject may not meet with the approval of many of my readers, I trust that we shall in the end find ourselves in no lasting: disagreement.

As I conceive it, then, our personality is the thing we must consider, — the cliief object of our life being to attain its greatest possible degree of development along some certain, definite line of work. This should be our true end and aim of life; but as I shall speak of this at greater length later on, I must be content for the present merely to state my position and to pass on to other, prior considerations.

And first I would point out that before we can possibly achieve the greatest development of our personality, we must know something, at least, about it. We cannot possibly obtain the best results from a machine about which we know nothing, and most certainly this is true of our mental and physical selves. So that our first consideration will be this of attempting to understand our ' selves.' But just here I would point out that throughout all this we must be influenced by our conception of the character of our own personality — in what it consists — and this must, therefore, claim our attention before aught else.

Our outlook, then, will be coloured by this consideration: whether we consider ourselves the resultant of mere physical forces and so-called matter — our mental and spiritual life being but the offshoot of these (this being the position of materialism) — or as a spiritual essence or entity having persistence. Our entire viewpoint will and must be altered by whichever of these views we adopt, for our philosophy of life must be shaped and built upon either one of these two positions. It accordingly becomes our duty to examine, briefly, each of them in turn, in order that we may arrive at some clear understanding of the problem before us.

Now nearly everyone we meet grants himself to be a spiritual entity, and would indignantly repudiate the idea that he is a materialist or in any way materialistic in his outlook. Nevertheless his idea of a future life is beyond question very vague, dim and uncertain; and above all, he takes no active, vital interest in the matter one way or the other. ^ The man-in-the-street never — or hardly ever — allows these considerations to enter into his life at all; he accepts them, yet never allows them to interfere with or influence his daily life and his actions in the slightest degree. He utterly fails to see that the idea of continued survival — of a future life — and of his making here and now the conditions of that life, must here and now shape his life and mould his ideas. He never allows the thought to be truly felt by himself, or to influence his life in the least. On Sunday, it is true, he attends church — more as a kind of social function or duty than because any truly religious spirit stirs him to go : bvft throughout the week his religion influences him and his life not a particle ; he is blankly indiff^erent to both — a truth which Robert Louis Stevenson so forcibly pointed out in his beautiful " Christmas Sermon." He has, in fact, been living the life of the materialist while professing to be a spiritualist (in the broadest sense of the teiTn), and yet all the while he takes it for granted that he ' has ' a soul, and that the fact is obvious and indisputable, and be-