Crystal Gazing Its History and Practice, with a Discussion of the Evidence for Telepathic Scrying
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B Y THE SAME A UTHOR THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE A Critical and Historical R eview of the E v idence for Telepathy with a R ecord o f New Experiments 1902 o n et 1903 . Cl th CRYSTAL GAZINO Its H s or and Pract a Dis i t y ice, with ca ss ion of the E v idence for Tele a S r n n ro u on An p thic c yi g. I t d cti by L r A LL. D w an . M . C o d e g, , l th DODGE PUBLI SHI NG COM PANY 40-42 E as t roth Street New YOR K C R Y ST A L GA Z I N G I ts Histo r and Pra ti e with a y c c , Discu ssion of the Evidence for Telep athic Sc rying With an I ntrodu ction by D A . LL . AN D R EW LAN G M . , , By A T T TH M AS M . N O R HC O E W . O Au thor of Thought Trans ference NEW YORK Dodge Publishing C omp any 40—42 East l gth Street THE NEW Yon: PUBLIC LIBRARY A STO R , L E N O X A N D TILD E N FO UN DA T IO N S 19 3 7 ' 1 905 BY Cor vnrcn r, , m uc Co. Done: P U BL rs C ON TEN TS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I SUPERSTI TI ON AND I NCREDULI TY CHAPTER II VI SION A N D VI SIONS CHAPTER III CRY STAL VI SIONS CHAPTER IV T m: PE M A N D T H E ME HOD OF SI I T S CULU , T U NG CHA PTE R V HI STORI CAL CHAPTER VI HI STORICAL CHA PTER VII “ Tm: INCANTATION OR CALL vii CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII 5 EGYPTI AN SCRYI NG CHAPTE R IX MORE EGYPTI AN SCRYI N G CHA PTER X PROPH ETIC AND TELEPATH I C SCRYI NG CHA PTER XI EVI DENTI AL CASES CHAPTER XII E x PERI M E N TATION BIBLI OGR A PHY I NDEX I N TRO DUCTI ON ” DO you believe in crystal gazing ! is a question ca n : which one is often asked . One only reply ! What do y ou mean by believing in crystal gazi n g m If you ean , Do I believe that it is worth while to - a- o pay half crown , or a guinea, as a fee to a pers n who professes to discover by crystal gazing the n whereabouts of lost property , or of a missing frie d . or to foretell events — I do not believe in crystal ’ n n gazi g. One hears wo derful tales of successes in first- 0 1 this kind, but not at hand ; and the pe p e rac who tell them are not very critical , while the p ’ tisers i are, to beg n with, breaking the law . But if the question means , Do I believe that some people in have the faculty of seeing faces , places , persons m n otion , sometimes recog isable, in a glass ball , or in r — water, ink, or any clea deep then I do believe n in the existence of this faculty . Whether the thi gs o coinci thus seen ever answer, except by fortuit us ’ n n de ce , to thoughts in a other person s mind , things u ff n nknown to the crystal gazer, is a di erent questio , to which I return later. But as to the actual exist ence of an experience which the gazer can only de scribe as seeing such or such things in the glass ball I have no doubt whatever . I shall use for the xx x INTRODUCTION — a practice the old English word scrying form , n n ma o e m a . y guess, of descryi g Perhaps I y as n m well give the grou ds of y belief, as far as that n belief exte ds . Like other people, I had heard and m m m r — e read , all y life , of agic i rors ver since, in childhood , I perused the Notes to The Lay of ” ’ n the Last Minstrel, and Scott s story, My Au t ’ ” ’ n Margaret s Mirror, and Ki gsley s Egyptian in n chapters Eothe . Like other people, I thought the stories nothin g but mediaeval or Oriental - romances . But Miss Goodrich Freer published an essay on crystal gazin g i n the P roceedings of the et P s hic l e e h Soci y for yc a R s arc . The essay con tained r n n a b ief and i teresti g history of the practice, n and records of perso al experiences by the author , ” n m Miss X , whose real a e I did not know . I n was stayi g at a hospitable country house, a castle ” an n n b n n with ancie t lege d for ei g hau ted . n an No e of us ever saw y of the traditional spectres . n n n We se t to Lo don for a glass ball, in which no e of us could see anythi n g that was not very natu ral n d a normal . The hostess was the last who tried n m n she fou d that the ball first yielded ere reflectio s , m m and then see ed to grow ilky , then black , then m pictures appeared . These to so e s light degree n m n rather disturbed her equa i ity , bei g novel in n and n n an her experie ce, not correspo di g to y m n m conscious thoughts in her i d , which ight have suggested them to a person very capable of visual INTRODUCTION xi ’ n — m u m isi g that is, for ing pict res in her ind s eye of the Object of her conscious thoughts . This in e power exists very various degrees , perhaps esp ciall in m n n d n a . y wo en , childre , people of ge ius Thackeray and Dicken s have left descriptions of their o wn power of visualising : perhaps most imagi r it native w iters possess , but other writers possess m m n . it , who do not see to be successfully i agi ative “ o e The crystal pictures , h wever, w re seen , not in ’ ” m n n the i d s eye , but projected outwards i to the not n an glass , and did correspo d to y thoughts which She n the gazer knew that was thinki g, or had ever thought . ’ This lady s faculty went no further . In perhaps one case she partially beheld the object on which a friend fixed his min d ; in another she saw a curious mystical design that we Shortly afterwards foun d on n w the cover of a book , rece tly published , hich not and in had then reached us , a third case , when scrying in the crystal cover of a m i n iature of the r Chevalie de St George (James III . and she saw what might be explained as the march of his m irr ir ar y across the field of Sh amu . But there n n n s r was o evidence to anythi n g u usual i such c ys . an d n w and I got a glass ball , , at St A dre s else o f and m n where , people both sexes , of a y social n n m m m co ditio s , fro y cook of that day ( who ade the a n a experience casually , as she saw the b ll lyi g bout) , m en s men to golfers , of busine s , of letters , a physi xii INTRODUCTION m— an d men m cia all sorts conditions of and wo en , n m frie ds , kinsfolk , and chance acquaintances of y in own . The proportion of successes seeing t — be crys al pictures was very great unusually so , I o lieve . The subject had not then won its way int ma z n n ga ines and general literature and co versatio , m m in yet the sy pto s , so to say, were identical cases m n of success . The ball grew ilky , the black ; then m an. the pictures appeared , as al ost invariable rule , though the experim en ters were not told what to a expect , and were quite ignorant of the little th t o had been written on the topic . I , therefore , to k leave to thin k that all experimenters were not play m ing on y artless confidence . One lady tried to . n a scry in a glass jug of water She saw la dsc pes, m n an d an Ecce Ho o , and other thi gs , doubted whether the Church ( she was of the ancient faith ) n wa s cu sanctio ed the practice . She added , what riou s l i nk az , that, as a child, she used to spil , g e t n ow into it , and see such pic ures as she beheld in the water . An incident occurred which I have narrated else where . I lent the ball to a Miss Balfour, who only an - a fu rn i then saw , I think , old f shioned piece of ture . Her brother laughed at her, and took the ball into the study , whence he returned, looking per l x m m p e ed .