A CAVALCADE OF THE SUPERNATURAL By HAROLD H. U. CROSS, Ph.D. NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & CO., Inc. pit Copyright, 1939, By E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. FIRST EDITION IN MEMORY OF CHARLES RICHET TEACHER AND FRIEND CONTENTS CHAPTEK PAGI L INTRODUCTORY BUT ESSENTIAL INFORMATION . 1 3 PART ONE HAPPENINGS IN WHICH PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL EFFECTS PREDOMINATE II. WATER-DIVINING 3 1 m. TABLE-TURNING, OUIJA-BOARDS AND RAPS ... 42 IV. TELEKINESIS 56 V. APPORTS 69 VI. INTERPENETRATION OF MATTER 8 1 Vn. LUMINOUS EFFECTS 85 Vm. MATERIALIZATION 92 " IX. POLTERGEISTS AND HAUNTED HOUSES . I40 PART TWO PHENOMENA IN WHICH THE MENTAL FACTOR IS IN GREATER EVIDENCE X. "SPIRIT" PHOTOGRAPHY 1 5 1 xi. "psychography" 162 XH. "THE TRUMPET SHALL SOUND" 1 76 XIII. UNIVERSALLY AVAILABLE EVIDENCE . I95 xrv. conclusion 236 appendix i 243 appendix 11 248 general index 25 1 index of names in text 257 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACINQ PLATB PAGE i 57 part n, i 105 n, part 11 106 in 107 rv 112 v 156 vi 169 vii 202 1 A CAVALCADE OF THE SUPERNATURAL RATIONAL PSYCHIC RESEARCH Chapter I INTRODUCTORY BUT ESSENTIAL INFORMATION PSYCHIC RESEARCH now occupies such an im portant place in the pageantry of passing things that everyone who watches the procession of scientific progress, must, to a greater or lesser extent, be im pressed, directly or indirectly, by the non-material trend of practically all modern ideas concerning science. Psychology and metaphysics— the former still a youngster in the scientific family— have hitherto been charged with the burden of explaining the unusual and the abnormal in our existence. To clarify still further the situation, certain facts have been desig nated as metapsychic, a term meaning beyond the domain of ordinary psychology or physiological psy chology; in short, a word competent to express the various phases of mediumistic phenomena. But, even with this aid, it is to be feared that there are many intelligent persons who are roaming down the ave nues of -isms and -ologies like a crusader who has 13 A CAVALCADE OF THE SUPERNATURAL mislaid his map of the Holy Land. Some of the less erudite are, quite frankly, scared by the Frankenstein of abnormality that has, during the last few decades, reared its head from under the cloak of Spiritualism. To all such, this little book, it is hoped, will prove a source of solace and guidance along an admittedly very perplexing road; it is the object to show throughout the pages that follow, that mind is the master-power that fashions the unwritten history of the years; and that occultism is hardly a term which harmonizes with the true spirit of scientific progress. Occultism is rather an all-embracing word covering a multitude of mystic truths and near truths, plus a whole lot of utter nonsense. Today science is able to stab the gathered darkness of occultism with a long shaft of penetrating light, for science is, after all, but the sum total of ways and means leading to the knowledge of truth. The science of the college may have replaced the faith of the conventicles, as Joseph Conrad put it, but in retalia tion science has become the chief of the prophets. By its very catholicity, science has taken the cult out of occultism. At the outset, the reader will want to know the position of the author, so let it be said that— after more than thirty years of personal investigation— he most definitely inclines to the so-called spiritualistic hy pothesis as the only rational explanation of ALL the facts presented by metapsychics, but he most em phatically repudiates any suggestion of an attempt to ESSENTIAL INFORMATION proselytize the reader into such a sect, of whom the larger part feed themselves on delicious but innutri- tive illusion, and for whom no future destiny, except absorption in well-established religions, is probable. His experience has been wide— at least in the geo graphical sense— and his electrical and medical train ing have most certainly nurtured a critical and experi mental bias, that it is hoped will be as quickly appreciated by his colleagues in the General Electric —and in general medicine— as it is depreciated by his spiritualist friends. Metapsychical acts—i.e. the phenomena of Spirit ualism—occur every day in London and New York, in fact in every centre of humanity, as well as in the Acts of the Apostles! In this day and age, men and women in all depart ments of science admit the FACTS of spiritualistic phenomena. They do not, in general, admit their "spiritual" interpretation, although there are some outstanding names in physical science, such as Sir William Crookes and Sir Oliver Lodge, to mention only two— giants of scientific intellect— whose experi ence with spiritualistic phenomena has been im mensely varied and of a whole lifetime in extent; and who have ranged themselves on the side of the spirit ualist. The former, it is true, at first hotly denied the spirit postulate; indeed at the conclusion of his famous work with Florence Cook, he wrote in Light, "I have found no proof whatever that men survive the grave. I have never once had satisfactory proof 15 A CAVALCADE OF THE SUPERNATURAL that this is the case— the great problem of the future a is, to me, as impenetrable mystery as ever." Not 1 until 91 7, shortly before he died, did he amend his declaration to: "IT IS QUITE TRUE THAT A CONNECTION HAS BEEN SET UP BE TWEEN THIS WORLD AND THE NEXT." It will be observed that even here the note of per sonal survival and personal return is absent, although Sir Oliver, on the contrary, is profoundly convinced that it is sometimes possible to prove the latter diffi cult feat through complete identification. It must be recalled that any such admission of belief is still decidedly unpopular, and the author knows of more than one man of science, who secretly inclines to the spirit interpretation of the facts he has seen in the psychic research laboratory, but who on no ac count would like his secret belief to be generally recognized. Facts are, of course, undeniable; not to admit them is to display ignorance or gross prejudice, although as the author's friend and master, the late Professor a is Charles Richet, put it, "It positively painful for physiologist and man of science to have to admit the truth of metapsychics." But such men are courageous enough to do just that. Richet went further, he ad mitted that he was at first the chief of scoffers, and that he later knew that he was foolishly wrong. A confession almost unique in the annals of psychic research! The interpretation of these facts offers more lati 16 ESSENTIAL INFORMATION tude, and the writer's great friend did not (until near his passing) see eye to eye with the other famous scientists mentioned. He would have liked to, no doubt, but his half-century of laboratory experimen tation had rendered the acceptance of the spirit inter ference theory peculiarly difficult and distasteful; like all good scientists, he was in honour bound to seek and to uphold any material explanation before he capitulated, and this would only be possible after such theories as the subconscious mind, hallucination, hyp notism, aggregate and divided personality, cryptes- thesia, etc., had failed to serve. Any scientist, worthy of the name, could not be expected to clutch at that last straw—the discarnate intelligence of a personal character—to explain the mysteries of mediumship until he had completely exhausted all known prem ises. It is paradoxical that Richet's masterpiece, Thirty Years of Psychical Research, so ably trans lated from the French by Stanley de Brath, has con verted many hundreds of people to the spirit view point, although its author, almost to the last, re mained unconverted! This savant professor of the University of Paris, who won the Nobel Prize for his researches in medical physiology, built up his ex perimental evidence with such consummate skill, that in the words of Emerson "he builded better than he " knew! Indeed, it has astonished many of his readers, how Richet, with all his wealth of research and ex perience—probably unique in the history of psychical research— could have remained undecided as to the »7 A CAVALCADE OF THE SUPERNATURAL explanation. Some regard his conclusions as anticli- matic. But it must be remembered that the purpose of science is to develop, without prejudice or precon ception of any kind, a knowledge of the facts, the laws and the processes of nature. Science concerns itself primarily with the intellect. It employs the microscope, the scalpel, the test tube, the formula and the equation. Science, as that great legislator of the experimental method, Claude Bernard, teaches us, offsets a hundred negative testimonies by one positive observation. Experiment is the path of progress, and as D'Arsonval puts it, "To find the facts, to observe them well, to make deductions— it is there where, de spite what one may say, lies the future of science" (and most certainly of psychic research!). Yes! as the writer's old friend, David Starr Jordan, used to say to all his students at Stanford University, "With out the spirit of research a man lags behind the prog ress of knowledge and his mental equipment becomes second hand." In all sciences, and this includes psychic science, i ) new facts may be determined by three processes: ( direct experiment; (2) logical deductions from al ready established facts; (3) by these two processes corroborating each other.