ON the THRESHOLD of the UNSEEN Digitized by Tine Internet Arciiive

Medical Library 8 The Fenway Ex LiBRIS William Sturgis Bigelow W n .^_S^rl^_ 3 2044 020 917 555 ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE UNSEEN Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2010 with funding from Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School http://www.archive.org/details/onthresholdofunsOObarr ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE UNSEEN AN EXAMINATION OF THE PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM AND OF THE EVIDENCE FOR SURVIVAL AFTER DEATH BY ^ Sir WILLIAM F. BARRETT, F.R.S. With an Introduction by JAMES H. HYSLOP, Ph.D., LL.D. Secretary ofthe American Society for Psychical Research '' Men are wont to guess about new subjects from those they are already acquainted with, and the hasty and vitiated fancies they have thence formed : than which there cannot be a more fallacious mode of reasoning.''—Bacon "Novum Organuvi" Bk. i, par. cix. NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 68 1 Fifth Avenue o : /d6. First ^printing, November, 1917 Second ". May, 1918 Third " June, igiQ Printed in the United States of America ©ebication TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF ONE WHOSE RADIANT FAITH GAVE HER " THE AS- SURANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR " AND NEEDED NOT THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS UNSEEN WHICH THIS BOOK MAY POSSIBLY GIVE TO SOME STRICKEN SOULS AND OTHER SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH. PREFACE "A mind unwilling to believe, or even undesirous to be instructed, our weightiest evidence must ever fail to impress. It will insist on taking the evidence in bits and rejecting item by item. The man who announces his intention of waiting until a single absolutely conclusive bit of evidence turns up, is really a man not open to conviction, and if he be a logician he knows it. For modern logic has made it plain that single facts can never be 'proved' except by their coherence in a system. But as all the facts come singly anyone who dismisses them one by one is destroying the conditions under which the cqnviction of new truth could ever arise In his mind."* During the greater part of the last century, and that which preceded it, the learned world as a whole treated with scorn and contempt all those obscure psychical phenomena which lie between the territory already conquered by science and the dark realms of Ignorance and superstition. Many causes have in recent years contributed to lessen this aversion, which is not only passing away but giving place to an earnest desire to know what trustworthy evidence exists on behalf of super-normal,—often, but erroneously, called super-natural,—phenomena. Although many eminent scientific men In the past and present generation, both in England and abroad, have testified to the genuineness and im- portance of these phenomena official science still stands aloof. This no doubt is largely due to the essential difference between physical and psychical phenomena, a difference by no means clearly * Dr. F, C. S. Schiller, "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," Vol. XVIII, p. 419. vii viii Preface recognized and which can never be broken down. The main object of physical science is to measure and forecast, and from its phenomena free will must be eliminated. Psychical states on the con- trary can neither be measured nor forecast, and from them the disturbing influence of life and will can neither be eliminated nor foreseen. The association of ideas and methods of investigation in physical research are therefore widely different from those in psychical research. Accordingly minds working in the former line of thought become more or less impervious to facts belonging to the other line of thought, however well attested those facts may be. The new association of ideas is foreign and uncongenial and has apparently no harmonious relation to ac- cepted scientific truths. Nevertheless, as I have endeavoured to point out in the introductory chap- ters, when these differences are realized, and the rapidly accumulating weight of evidence on behalf of phenomena, hitherto unrecognised by official science, is critically and fairly examined, the general acceptance of these phenomena by science can only be a question of time. That this is likely to be the case is seen from the fact that all enduring additions to our knowledge of the universe rest upon a similar basis. They are the result of prolonged and cautious enquiry, the investigation and discussion of a num- ber of circumstances, each of which by itself may appear to be insignificant, but taken collectively point to some wide generalization. Such evidence though conclusive to a trained observer makes little appeal to the popular mind, which has no time nor inclination to master the necessary de- Preface ix tails, and asks for some one piece of conclusive evidence,—some "knockdown blow,"—to compel its attention and assent. This however cannot be given,—as that acute thinker Dr. F. C. S. Schiller has pointed out in the quotation at the head of this Preface,—and there is nothing for it but a tiresome study of detailed evidence, the strength of which rests on its cumulative character. In the following pages I have given some of this evidence with as little tedium as possible, and also ventured to touch, perhaps too daringly, upon many subjects which need fuller exposition than was possible in a small volume, the history of which is as follows. More than twenty years ago an address on the phenomena of spiritualism, which I delivered in London, was expanded into a little book,—the nucleus of the present volume,—entitled "On the Threshold of a New World of Thought." Al- though an edition of that book was printed off in 1895 its publication was delayed for more than a dozen years for the following reason. Consid- erable public interest was at that time being taken in a well known Italian medium, Eusapia Pala- dino; several eminent continental savants, and subsequently a few distinguished members of the Society for Psychical Research, after a searching investigation in 1894, had attested the genuineness of many remarkable phenomena occurring with this medium. Their report was quoted in my former book, but just before it was issued an opposite opinion was arrived at by others, equally competent, after a subsequent investigation in 1895. It seemed wiser therefore to delay the publication of the volume until more conclusive X Preface evidence, one way or the other, was forthcom- ing. Moreover I felt that if Eusapia were really nothing more than a clever and systematic im- postor, able to deceive several eminent investigators, both English and foreign, this fact would certainly shake the value of other scientific testi- mony to the supernormal, and undermine the stability of many of the conclusions reached in my book. As will be seen by referring to the history of this case, which I have given on pp. 65-67 and in Appendix C of the present work, repeated critical investigation in later years showed that this no- torious medium really possessed genuine super- normal power, albeit, like so many professional mediums of a low moral type, she sometimes lapsed into fraudulent practices, which however were quickly detected by trained observers. Accordingly "On the Threshold of a New World of Thought" was issued in 1908 and the edition quickly sold out. The remarkable series of experiments, carried out by the Society for Psychical Research, on the evidence for survival after death was then in progress and I postponed the publication of a new edition until further trustworthy evidence on this vital question was attainable. This, in my opinion, has now been obtained; my early book was therefore recast, an outline of some of the evidence on survival in- cluded, and the present volume is the result. Meanwhile the editors of the Home University Library had asked me to write the volume on "Psychical Research" for their series, and after this was published, various circumstances pre- vented the completion of this book until the pres- Preface xi ent year. Now, alas, the war has rendered printing and paper a great difficulty for the publishers, to whom my readers will I trust extend their in- dulgence for any shortcomings in this respect. It will thus be seen that the conclusions reached in this book are not the result of hasty and super- ficial examination. Upwards of forty years ago I began the investigation of alleged super-normal phenomena with a perfectly detached and open mind. The urgent need for a Society which should preserve continuity of records of investigation and a high standard of experimental work became apparent, and with the co-operation of one or two friends the Society for Psychical Re- search was founded early in 1882. Forty-six volumes of its Proceedings and Journal have now been published, and in addition its sister society in America,—which through the assistance of some eminent friends in Boston and Harvard I was enabled to initiate in 1884,—has also published a large library of its Proceedings and Journal, under the indefatigable editorship of Professor Hyslop. Thus a vast collection of sifted evidence is being accumulated and printed, which will be of immense value for future ref- erence and study. As regards the so-called "physical phenomena" of spiritualism, given in Part 2, bizarre and sometimes repellant as such manifestations are,—and meaningless except as affording illustrations of the operation of some unknown Intelligence and power,—the evidence cited seems to me Indis- putable, though some of my readers may hesitate to accept it. A wholesome scepticism is desirable, but to attribute imbecility or hallucination to emi- xii Preface nent and cautious scientific Investigators, or fraud to men of high intelligence and probity like the Rev.

Load more