nothing will be done; as also if knowledge is supposed to be
absolute or adequate, or if its absence is held to be inevitable and
is acquiesced in. If, lastly, the knowledge sought is feared or
disapproved of for any reason, various measures will be taken for
effectively repressing interest in it ; nor must it be supposed that



such social taboos cease to operate merely because witch-burning
has ceased to be a popular entertainment. In general, moreover,
subjects which are inchoate and contentious are far more sensitive
to changes in the social atmosphere than those which are recog-
nized, established and endowed. For toward the latter the social
attitude is fairly stable and changes only slowly, and they possess,
moreover, a permanent organization, which provides for their
cultivation (or is supposed to do so), and on which their progress
mainly depends. In the case of the former, progress may depend
chiefly on the social attitude, and indeed may even consist
chiefly in a change of social attitude. It is unreasonable, for
example, to expect progress in psychical research so long as the
energies of researchers have to be devoted primarily to eluding
the police or the officers of the Holy Inquisition.

The history of psychical research during the decade 1910-20
provides excellent illustrations of all these reflections. It is
composed of a short pre-war period of obscure labour in the cold
shade of social neglect, a short eclipse due to the complete
immersion of all scientific workers in the pursuits and passions
of the World War, accompanied by a grotesque ebullition of
superstitions long supposed to have become extinct, and followed
shortly afterwards by an astonishing revolution in social senti-
ment, which rendered psychical research popular and reputable
as it had never been before, but is now slowly yielding and re-
lapsing into the pre-war tone of feeling. Before the World War
the great bulk of public opinion was either hostile to the sub-
jects of psychical research, or at any rate indifferent to their
scientific investigation. That, at least, seemed to be the obvious
construction to be put upon the general indifference towards
scientific psychical research, and was borne out by the results of a
questionnaire intended to test the extent and depth of the desire
to have knowledge of the most exciting of these subjects, viz. the
individual's survival after death. The answers, as analyzed by
the writer in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Re-
search (pt. 4q, 1904), seemed to indicate that such a desire was
actively functional only in comparatively few minds at any one
time, and that these were nearly always excited by the stimulus
of a recent bereavement. This explanation seemed, moreover,
to account sufficiently for the ordinary social attitude towards
the subject. For it would follow that under normal circumstances
the great majority, who were not animated by the bereavement-
sentiment, would effectively repress the few who were, and would
mould public opinion and social institutions accordingly as had
manifestly happened both to scientific and to religious " ortho-
doxy." But it would also follow that if for any reason the
bereavement-sentiment should become widespread, powerful
and dominant, it might be predicted that there would ensue a
great outburst of interest in psychical research, and a passionate
demand for any method that held out to the bereaved human
heart the immediate consolation of a direct communication
with the departed.

Accordingly this is what happened in consequence of the
World War. If we put aside, as mere " propaganda " for the
benefit of the superstitious, the crop of bogus prophecies that
accompanied the outbreak of war, and such successful appeals
to primitive credulity as the legends of the " Russians from
Archangel," and of the " Angels of Mons " (the latter, though
published as fiction, was actually taken as fact) , we find that at
first the normal peace-sentiment persisted. It remained en-
grossed in mundane affairs and showed itself by a complete and
exclusive absorption in the war. Nothing else seemed to matter,
and scientific inquiries that did not minister to the war were
simply dropped in an ecstasy of patriotic fervour. It seemed,
therefore, the sheer waste of a guinea to continue to subscribe to
an inquiry whether the human lives that were sacrificed so
prodigally on the battle-fields were really dead and done with.
No wonder the membership of the Society for Psychical Research
in England went down from 1,205 i n i<) l 3 to I >SS in 1916.

Meantime, beneath the surface of social convention, the
bereavement-sentiment was growing to proportions unparal-
leled in civilized history. It was merely awaiting a signal to re-
veal itself. The signal was presently given, in a high academic



PSYCHICAL RESEARCH



199



quarter, by the courageous act of a bereaved father, who did
not shrink either from exposing himself to academic ridicule
or from divulging the private evidence which he had
Sir Oliver obtained of his son's survival and declaring that it
"'iffy- S had satisfied him. That a distinguished physicist at
mond. " the head of the university of Birmingham should open-
ly endorse spiritism was a remarkable event: yet Sir
Oliver Lodge's Raymond (1916) was not in itself a remarkable
book. Evidentially it did not show that Mrs. Leonard produced
anything markedly more conclusive and better in quality
than the evidence obtained long before through Mrs. Piper and
other " psychics "; nor was there anything remarkable about the
quantity of its evidential communications. Hardened sceptics
should have had no difficulty in explaining away the "hits" it
narrated, as they had dealt with its many predecessors. Nor did
its version of the after-life differ markedly from the descriptions
of the " summerland " that had been the staple of spiritist litera-
ture for the past 50 years, while its apparent crudities, e.g. of
ghosts smoking " cigars " and drinking " whiskies-and-soda,"
were no less susceptible of a " symbolical " explanation.

But what turned out to be remarkably different was the re-
ception of the book. It was found that patriotism paralyzed the
voice of criticism. The scoffing reviewer, who had been accus-
tomed to say that interest in psychical research was " morbid "
and a sure passport to the lunatic asylum, or that the mystery of
the grave was insoluble and that anyhow no sensible man had
the slightest desire to solve it, was no longer regarded as the
sort of person to express what the public wanted to hear about a
book of that kind. So he was not allowed to touch it, or perhaps
himself experienced a change of heart. Able editors perceived
that, in war-time, consolations that appealed to millions of
bereaved hearts must be treated tenderly, if only to keep the
home front unbroken. So Raymond was reviewed respectfully
and copiously, and enabled to break down the barrier of peace-
time convention. A flood of lesser books followed, ascribed to the
living or returning dead, and mostly 'composed of communica-
tions received by relatives of fallen soldiers, through automatic
writing not without an admixture of pious fraud. Unfortunately
they were mostly written by people who paid little or no
attention to the difficulty of getting evidential communications
and of making their value apparent to their readers, and who
considered the mere form of the communication as a sufficient
authentication, being wholly ignorant of psychology and of
the tricks they were, unconsciously, capable of playing on them-
selves. Nor did amateur automatism alone profit by this in-
novation. Professional " psychics " obtained an enormous
vogue. The resignations from the Society for Psychical Research
ceased, and accessions took their place. The membership went
up from 1,055 in 1916 to 1,305 in 1919; and the new members
were not only willing to pay the two-guinea subscription of a
" member " instead of the guinea of the " associate," but insisted
on a more active and enterprising policy, and came within
measurable distance of " hustling " this eminently respectable
society into an endorsement of spiritism.

Of course a change in the social attitude produced in this way
cannot -be permanent. The old influences persist, and will
inevitably reassert themselves and produce a relapse into the
former apathy, unless the exceptional opportunites are exploited,
and the abnormal will to believe is fortified by positive achieve-
ments. In the long run, therefore, the status of psychical re-
search will depend, not on the mere intensity of the desire to
know and the amount of social approval it can secure, but on the
amount of solid scientific work that will have been accomplished
under the stimulus of the abnormal social conditions. It is
necessary, therefore, to turn to the scientific side of psychical
research, though the developments here will be found to have
been relatively small and by no means commensurate with the
volume of popular interest excited by the war.

Nevertheless a certain amount of scientific progress has been
made, enuring both to the benefit and to the detriment of
psychical research. It may be classified under the following
heads: (a) Psychology, (6) Multiple Personality, (c) Telepathy,



(d) Trance, (e) Automatic Writing, (/) Physical Phenomena,
(g) Dowsing, (h) Thinking Animals.

Psychology during the war made considerable progress
because numbers of academic psychologists were compelled to
practise, and to apply their theoretical conceptions to clinical
problems, while numbers of medical men, finding themselves
unable to cope with the profound disturbances of mental equili-
brium, inaccurately, but conveniently, designated as " shell-
shock," were compelled to reckon with the psychical side of
medicine. Thus were large bodies of intelligent men forced not
only to apply their theories to concrete cases, and to correct them
by their working, but also to recognize the power of the dis-
ordered mind to simulate the most various lesions and diseases
of the body. As might have been anticipated, the older systems
of academic psychology, being compiled out of aesthetic prefer-
ences, metaphysical prejudices, methodological assumptions,
introspective observations of conscious states, and highly arti-
ficial and limited laboratory experiments, did not stand the test
of application to the battle-field at all well.

The " psychoanalytic " method, however, devised long before
by Dr. Sigmund Freud of Vienna, for tapping the unconscious
depths of the mind and bringing their contents to the surface
was found to be capable both of explaining the symptoms and in
many cases of suggesting a cure. Hence though the psychological
theory on which Freud worked had seemed (and been) improb-
able, extreme and crude, and had (justly) encountered the
strongest emotional repugnance, there was no gainsaying the
practical validity of his method, and the reality and importance
of the mind's unconscious structure. The mind had to be con-
ceived, like the spectrum, as having invisible (unconscious)
extensions, as truly characteristic, as susceptible of investigation,
and in some respects as important, as its visible (conscious)
regions. It had in consequence to be admitted that psychic
contents could be " repressed " into this unconscious region
without thereby losing their identity and reality, and could
thence continue to produce effects in consciousness, even by
those who refused to follow Freud in assigning none but an
erotic motive to this repression. These psychological discoveries
had a considerable bearing on several branches of psychical
research. They seemed to throw a flood of light on the mechan-
ism of multiple personality. A " repressed complex " could
explain the growth of a " secondary self." They also modified
the notion of " fraud."

Not only was it clear, as had indeed already long been recog-
nized by investigators, that a secondary or trance-personality
might perpetrate a fraud of which the primary or normal self
might be innocent, incapable and unaware, but a personality of
either kind might become unaware of the fraud it had committed
by " repressing " its knowledge thereof. Thus the problem of the
fraudulent medium was enormously complicated, and it could
be suggested, as by Dr. Culpin (Spiritualism and the New
Psychology, London, 1920), that even the most honest mediums
were frauds, who had cleared their consciences by " repressing "
the knowledge of their delinquencies. Furthermore, this same
process might be used to explain many errors and gaps in the
narratives of observers of supernormal occurrences. Having
" repressed," as unwelcome, the real facts, they might honestly
deny that they had ever possessed or divulged the knowledge
they were bent on regarding as supernormal: it would thereupon
appear to be so. Hence repression of the truth would have to be
added as a third to mal-observation and forgetfulness, as a very
subtle source of error in testimony to the occurrence of the super-
normal, and would further complicate the problem of what the
evidence really proved. On the other side it is fair to remember
that whatever goes to show how little we really know as yet
about the functions of the mind should act as an encouragement
to psychical research, and renders more credible pro tanto
claims to unsuspected powers.

In the field of multiple personality Dr. Morton Prince has
extended and confirmed his brilliant researches, attending
particularly to the proof of the reality of " coconscious "
secondary selves (cf. his Unconscious, 1914). It will doubt^



200



PSYCHICAL RESEARCH



less have gratified the readers of his Dissociation of a Personal-
ity (1906) to learn that " Miss Beauchamp " was afterwards hap-
pily and healthily married though her husband did
Multiple not know what a heroine of psychological romance he
aiay a ' had espoused. The most striking and substantial con-
tribution to the subject is, however, contained in the
admirably recorded and narrated story of the strange case of
" Doris Fischer," for which science is indebted to the Rev. Dr.
Walter F. Prince, who in consequence became interested in
psychical research, and subsequently (1920) succeeded the late
Prof. J. H. Hyslop as secretary of the American S.P.R. The
record extends over three large volumes (1915, 1916, 1917) of
the Proceedings of the American S.P.R. , contains almost 2,500
pages of print, and is fully worthy of such elaborate treatment.
It narrates how, as a little girl of three, " Doris Fischer " was
thrown down violently by her drunken father, and so sustained a
psychic fracture, which " dissociated " her into " Margaret "
and " Real Doris," 'the former being a personage very similar
to " Sally " in the " Beauchamp " case. But for 19 years no one
discovered the dissociation, and even her mother only thought
Doris a little odd and forgetful, when as " Real Doris " she
displayed ignorance of what " Margaret " had just said or done.
At the age of 16 another painful scene, at her mother's death-be 1,
led to a further dissociation and the mergence of a new person-
ality. " Sick Doris " was born mature, grave, hardworking and
conscientious, but totally ignorant of everything that had
happened before her birth. Again the dissociation escaped
detection, because " Margaret," whose " mental age " never
rose above 10, undertook to instruct her uneducated partner, and
succeeded, at the cost of all-night sittings and violent quarrels.
Between these two the " Real Doris " was for six years almost
completely crowded out. How she was restored by the skill and
tact of Dr. Prince, after he had taken charge of the girl and
discovered her condition and how first " Sick Doris " and then
" Margaret " were weakened by being put to sleep whenever they
cropped up, and grew younger and younger under this treatment,
and in the case of " Sick Doris " actually infantile, until they
finally evaporated, may be read in Dr. Prince's fascinating record.

Theoretically the case (which was fully reviewed by the
present writer in Proceedings S.P.R., pt. 74: cf. also the article
by Dr. T. W. Mitchell in pt. 79) is important also for two reasons.
In the first place it brings out that the dissociations were plainly
protective, and relieved the strain of an otherwise intolerable life.
Secondly, they were attended by a considerable number of
supernormal incidents which, though not unprecedented in other'
cases of dissociation (e.g. the "Watseka Wonder"), had not
formerly been recorded properly. Indeed, if one can accept the
record in vol. iii. of the sittings " Doris Fischer " had with Dr.
Hyslop'S medium " Mrs. Chenoweth," these incidents were the
clew to the whole affair, and the dissociations were caused by, or
complicated with, spirit -possession. But this interpretation is not
apparently accepted by Dr. Prince, and is something of an ex-
crescence on the main story.

Telepathy. 'Little progress has been made in establishing
telepathy as a process in nature. It remains a sort of half-way
house for those who do not feeF able to deny the supernormal
altogether and yet shrink from the spiritist interpretation. It
fulfils this function best if its nature and operation are left vague,
so that anything and everything may be set down to telepathy
of some sort. Hence beLevers in " telepathy " have not any
strong motive for coming to close quarters with their theory,
while the more intelligent spiritists dislike it as rendering any
conclusive proof of spirit-identity practically impossible. The
opponents of the supernormal first use it freely to disparage
the evidences of spiritism, and thereupon frequently proceed,
somewhat illogically, to cast doubts upon its own reality. Telep-
athy, however, has one great advantage, that of being suscep-
tible of experiment. Unfortunately such experiments as are under-
taken not only do not succeed in increasing our knowledge of its
conditions, but hardly even confirm the earlier experiments on
which the existence of telepathy is based. The most noteworthy
of the experiments that have yielded positive results were those



undertaken by Miss Miles and Miss Ramsden, published in the
S.P.R. Proceedings, pt. 69 (1914). On the principle that any-
thing supernormal may be attributed to some sort of " telepathy,"
one might perhaps chronicle here the very anomalous Adventure,
experienced by two well-known academic ladies of Oxford in the
gardens of Versailles, but not published until six years after the
event, in 1911 (cf. the review in S.P.R. Proceedings, pt. 64).

On the other hand, elaborate attempts made by two psy-
chologists in America to verify the existence of telepathy have
led to results which at first sight appear to be wholly negative.
Dr. J. E. Coover, of Leland Stanford Junior University, was
specially endowed as a psychical researcher by the brother of its
founder, and in due course produced in 1917 a book of 640 pages.
Among its rather miscellaneous contents (it contains inter alia
a pleasing account of the outwitting of a fraudulent " trumpet-
medium " by hidden machinery) he describes too series of 100
experiments with cards (court cards omitted) made by too pairs
of Californian students, for the purpose of testing the existence of
telepathy as a faculty widely dilTused in some slight degree
among human minds. The " agent " was instructed to draw a
card and to determine by casting dice whether to look at it or
not, and in the former case to try to impress his knowledge
(without contact) on the percipient; while the latter had to
answer in both cases, but for about half the time would thus be
really guessing at random. The results, when tabulated and
added up, yielded in the first series of 5,135 genuine " experi-
ments " 153 complete successes (most probable number, 128), in
the second series of 4,865 control experiments or " guesses " 141
complete successes (most probable number, 122).

There was therefore a slight excess of successes, but Dr.
Coover rightly argues that it was too small to be significant of
anything beyond chance. He claims therefore to have disposed
of the idea that telepathy may exist in minimal intensity in all
minds, and evidently thinks that this disposed of the whole case.
This, however, would seem to be going too far, on his own show-
ing. For his figures do not dispose of the possibility that telep-
athy may exist in a faint degree in some minds. Indeed they
rather suggest this possibility. For if we examine them with a
view to testing this hypothesis, we may select, as possibly slightly
telepathic, the series in which the " percipients " got 3 or more
complete successes in their " experiments." There were 14 of
these, in which 54 complete successes were scored in 711 experi-
ments. The most probable number being 18, the excess is now
large enough to be significant of something beyond " chance."
But not, apparently, of telepathy, so much as of a sort of " lucid-
ity " or " clairvoyance." For if we treat the (supposedly fortui-
tous) series of " guesses " similarly, we get still more remarkable
results. The series with 3 or more complete successes once more
turns out to be 14, and yields 49 complete successes out of 690
experiments (most probable number, 17). But curiously enough
5 of the 14 best " guesses " are identical with 5 of the 14 best
" experiments. " As the most probable number for such a
coincidence is only 2, it can hardly be fortuitous. Moreover, if we
add together the " experiments " and " guesses " of these 5
series, we get 41 complete successes out of 500 experiments, as
against a most probable number of 12. Again something- beyond
" chance " is indicated. As, however, this something operates
about equally well whether the percipient is trying to determine
a card which was actually being thought or is only guessing, it can
not be set down to conscious telepathy. This again accords
with the other evidence that goes to show that telepathy, if it
exists, is not greatly dependent on the conscious efforts of the
mind; or otherwise, that if minds communicate telcpathically, it
is by way of the subliminal. For the rest, of course, the moral is
that further experiments should have been conducted with the 5
successful pairs, in order to determine whether they would
continue to produce a surplus of successes; but unfortunately this
idea did not occur to Dr. Coover.

Dr. L. T. Troland also experimented in telepathy, with very
elaborate apparatus, in the Psychological Laboratories of Har-
vard University (1917), in order to utilize an endowment given in
memory of Richard Hodgson (cf. Review in S.P.R. Proceedings,






PSYCHICAL RESEARCH



2OI



pt. 80). He, too, got negative results, and did not go on long
enough. In fact, he failed so completely that he failed even to
prove that telepathy did not exist, or that at any rate he and his
colleague were completely devoid of telepathic ability. Only 605
experiments were made, and only 284 complete successes were
obtained. Now this is very sensibly below the most probable
number (302); but, as Dr. Troland observes, an abnormal de-
ficiency is quite as significant of something other than chance as
an abnormal excess. It may mean the presence of some factor
that inhibits success, and if this can be established, it is just as
supernormal as one that produces success. However, Dr. Troland
does not hold that in his experiments the deficiency is sufficiently
great. He has not observed how it arose. His total figures were
arrived at by lumping together two sets of experiments. In
one of these the stimulus shown to the " agent," to which the
" percipient " was to react by pushing an instrument either to
the right or to the left, was exposed for 30 seconds; in the other,
for 15 seconds. Now in the former series there was no de-
ficiency of right reactions; 129 successes out of 249 experiments
are slightly above the probable number, 124. The whole of the
deficiency was incurred in the is-second series, which yielded
only 155 successes out of 354 experiments, instead of a most
probable 177. As the only difference between the two series
was in the duration of the exposure, the idea easily suggests
itself that the i5-second exposure was too short to enable the
percipient to react rightly. And not only that; it seems to have
positively inhibited the right reaction, presumably by inducing
an " anxiety-neurosis." In other words, if the " agent," or more
probably the " percipient," got " flustered " by the shortness of
the exposure, his very knowledge of the right reaction would