Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men

Inferences from Haunted Houses
and Haunted
by John Harris

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Title: Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men
Author: John Harris
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Language: English
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INFERENCES FROM HAUNTED HOUSES AND HAUNTED MEN

BY THE HONBLE. JOHN HARRIS
1901

Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men

The lack of interest in so-called psychical matters is somewhat
surprising.
There is, however, more hope of the clearing up of the scientific
aspects of these phenomena than ever before.
Sir William Crookes, late President of the British Association, has no
doubt that thoughts and images may be transferred from one mind to
another without the agency of the recognised organs of sense, and that
knowledge may enter the human mind without being communicated in
any hitherto known or recognised ways! The word recognised is
important; perhaps "not by the recognised action of the organs of
sense," would be a better expression.
In the "Alleged Haunting of B---- House," p. 33, Miss Freer says:
"Apparitions are really hallucinations or false impressions upon the
senses, created so far as originated by any external cause, by other
minds either in the body or out of the body, which are themselves
invisible in the ordinary and physical sense of the term, and really
acting through some means at present very imperfectly known." This
would include hypnotism at a distance, but also perhaps spirits.
Dr. Gowers has recently (reported in the Lancet), in a speech at
University College, pointed out the close connection of the optic and
auditory nerves with regard to cases of deafness.
The young lady who, when an attempt at transferring the sight of a
candle to her was made, heard the word candle or something like it, the
first letter doubtful, shows that thought transfer is to the ear as well as

to the eye, or at least goes over from one to the other; she says, "You
know I as often hear the name of the object as see the thing itself." This
may have been from a mental effort to receive distinctly an inefficiently
acute impression of her friend's. She saw a jug seen by her friend, and
heard the train she heard. The colour of the jug differed a little. The
distance fourteen miles. Audible speech might thus be helped by
despatching a picture of the idea from a distance. Other people must be
like Miss Campbell.[1] There must be material force in this, since a
thought heightens the temperature of the brain. But this force has its
limits of distance, &c.
[Footnote 1: Podmores "Studies," p. 228.]
To connect apparitions with hypnotism.
In their case, and in so-called spiritual experiences (spiritistic is the
better word), there is generally a preceding feeling like entering an
icehouse.[2] This is described as occurring to the butler of the Haunted
House at B----, Harold Sanders, in 1896; to Mr. "Endell," and to others.
This chill is surely identical with, or very closely related to, the chill of
hypnotism mentioned by Binet and Féré.[3] The balance of the
circulation has been interfered with. They state that this is the only
symptom by which any one can tell he has been hypnotised, and that
this is not always present.
[Footnote 2: "Alleged Haunting," &c., pp. 50, 139.]
[Footnote 3: "Animal Magnetism," chap. xiv.]
In continuous slight hypnotism, chills on part of the scalp, part of the
shoulder, part of the face, or the ribs, etc., may be experienced; they are
possibly signs of slackening hypnotic power.
There is another symptom, hyperaesthesia of the eye, which Binet and
Féré omit; this is extremely rare among men, and with women results
from local affection. The symptom probably appears in hypnotic cases
from the cutaneous lesser sciatic nerve, which is connected with the
nerves of the sexual system, being affected.

The chill and the hyperaesthesia of the eyes can be so severe that a
doctor or an oculist would be consulted.
The feeling of gravel in the eye is probably produced by light falling
through chinks on the eye when hyperaesthetic during sleep--the lids
may be slightly tightened, as it were; this is perhaps a nearer approach
to a profounder hypnotism.
"During actual hypnosis," says Mr. Harry Vincent, "frequently the
contraction of the muscles is so obvious that the