76/Apollonius the Present and Future of Psychical

” 76 / APOL L ON IU S Th e Pre sen t an d Fut u re o f Psyc hi c al Re se arc h B Y N B ENN E . ETT M A . , L a t F ow o Herl ord C o Ox ord e ell f f llege , f ’ Képfios av etn mir e m o w- 61561 1! w ir e dm o r‘ efv mi o w P hi . Vi t . A o . II l p ll , 4 5 L O N D O N PA RE TRU BN ER o L TD KE UL C . GAN , T NCH, , . N e w YO RK : E. P . D U I I O N 8c C 0. Made an d Prin t e d i n G re at B ri t ain b y M F. o bi n so n 8: Co . Ltd. at Th e b rat Press L ow e s toi R , , y , A POL LON IU S O R THE P RE SE N T AN D FU TU RE O F P S Y CHICAL RE SEAR CH Psychical research has in the last twenty- fi v e years lived down the o bloquy and suspicion which sur rounded its earlier days , and secured an assured position as a recognized branch i of scient fic study . In nearly every European country and in the United States of America men of acknow ledged eminence in their professions — i ph losophers , scientists , doctors , literary men—have devoted themselves t o the earnest study of those obscure and baffling phenomena which form the subj ect matter of psychical research , though this field of scientific endeavour holds at present few allurements in the [ 5 ] APOLLONIUS shape of personal advantage or reward no ap p reciable endowments exist to a facilitate such rese rch , no professorial chairs are reserved for its devotees . The patient and unselfish toil of those men , who have given to psychical research yea rs which otherwise might have brought them rich material gains , is based on their deep and abiding interest in the subj ect , and their frank endorsement of Schopenhauer ’ s words The p henomena under discussion are , at least from a p hilosop hical stand o i p oint , all the facts p resented to us by the whole of experience withou t comparison the most important it is therefore the duty of e v erv educated man to make himself thoroughly ” acquainted with them . l N everthe ess , in spite of the recent emergence of p sychical research into the clea rer light of scientific tolerance u and even enco ragement , it must be admitted that its literary output has [ 6 ] PSYCHICAL RESEARCH within recent years , as far as the - English sp eaking races are concerned , fa llen far behind the brill iant and yet substantial work of its earlier pioneers . Few , if any , of our modern researchers in Great B ritain have reached the high level attained by the works of, say , Myers , Gurney , Podmore , Professor and Mrs Sidgwick , and Professor James N o r of Harvard . again has any ade quate progress been maintained in the experimental work which characterized the earlier history of the Society for Psychical Research . Our main evidence for telep athy is still the careful work of the Sidgwick group at Brighton , and little has been a ccomplished in the investigation of p hysical phenomena sin ce the perplexities and disappoint ments of the Palladino experiments . In America the glory has indeed de p a rted from a movement which was formerly illumined by the sp lendid l work of Wil iam James , Hyslop , Hodgson , and Prince . [ 7 ] APOLLONIUS On the other hand , if in Great Britain the earlier branches of e xp e ri ment have to some extent been neglected , a vast amount of useful work has been accomp lished since the death of Myers in the new field of cross correspondences which , in the opinion of some , may well p rove to be the most productive of all our areas of research . On the Continent too experimental work of a high order has been develop ed during recent years , more especially in France and in Germany , the results of which have been given to the world in the writings S c h re n c k~ of such men as Richet , Osty , D es s oi r Notzing , Tischner , , Driesch , and others . The happy selection this year of Dr Driesch as President of the 1 i t w o m e i um i i w i e a a r e d s s tt ng d ly p t , m e i m e e e i n i f e re c u ri e re c e i e so t s v n d f nt o nt s , v ’ di fi e re n t m e ssa ge s alle ge d to c om e from t h e s a m e i c a r a e e r a li W e a e e a ra e l d s n t p son ty . h n t k n s p t y s u c h m ess a ge s m a y b e obsc u re an d m e ani ngle ss w he n re a d i n conj unc ti on the y pres e nt a cle a r an d i e i i l e m e a i nt ll g b n ng . [ 8 ] PSYCHICAL RESEARCH F. R . S . is a tribute to the fine work of N o himself and his countrymen . better future could indeed be desired for psychical research than that it should occup y the serious attention of German scholars and be treated in accordance with the painstaking and efficient methods of German science . But while the advance of psychical research on strictly scientific lines has to some extent fallen short of the hop es ' o f u our p ioneers , an nprecedented development has taken place in the cruder and less critical forms of what is p opularly known as Spiritu alism This increased interest in spiritualistic phenomena has been followed by a vast output of books devoted to the accep t ance of the spiritist theory and gener ally characterized by the absence of scientific spirit or critical investigation . Thousands of persons who fully admit their accep tance of the facts of spiritualism and allege that they find in the teachings of the spiritualist [ 9 J APOLLONIUS creed guidance in life and consolation in death ap p ear to be sa tisfied with a minimum of reason for the faith which is in them . Pop ular enthusiasm for occult experiences has produced no corresponding increa se in the nu mber of serious students . The valuable material accumulated with immense care in the P roc eedi n gs of the Psychical Research Society is to a large extent unknown to and unexplored by the u modern spirit alist , who p rofesses to base his claims , if called upon to do so , on uncritical data derived from pro fes s i on al clairvoyants or his own auto a u m tic script . The res lt has been a veritable flood of alleged messages from another world which , in some cases , have been sup p lied to the Sunday newsp ap ers by discarnate and obliging intelligences with the regu a la ri ty of an editoria l le der . The recog ” n i ze d u sp iritualist ch rches , Lyceums a n d similar organizations in Great 61 0 u Britain , in n mber ap art from [ I O ] PSYCHICAL RESEARCH independent societies and groups , pos sess a membership of at least and , desp ite the honourable efforts of many educated and enlightened spirit u a li s t s who are determined enemies of mediumistic fraud , a steady increase has taken p lace in the ranks of those pseu do - mediums who trade on the credulity of the public . At first sight this strange develop ment might a ppear to be wholly o u t of keeping with the spirit of an age which may reasonably be described as mater i ali s ti r c . The ap p alling failure of o ga n i ze d Christianity to avert or shorten the War , the diseased growths which have fastened upon our music , art , and a dr ma , the waste and extravagance in - our social life , the cruel self seeking of our international conduct—these and other influences of the Wa r- p eriod and its afterm a th have provided a fitting insp iration for large sections of our population which appear to have little taste for much beyond the life - p urp ose [ I I ] APOLLONIUS ’ ’ u t of Mr . Wells hero to p one s hands ” on the dibs , and have a good time . But history has demonstrated in the case of individuals and nations alike that material and even intellectual progress does not necessarily eliminate u superstition . The sceptical Juli s Caesar crawled up the steps of the Capitol to avert the j ealous wrath of the gods ; the Renaissance was responsible for u - two cent ries of witch burning . And so we find that side by side with the weakening of moral and religious sanc tions a widespread spirit of credulous and uncritical belief pervades the com munity . The vast developments in the circulation of cheap newspapers while adding enormously to the information of the p ublic on current events , has also led our less educated citizens in general to accep t what they see in - print .

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