Mrs. Piper the Society for Psychical Research | Page 2

so-called "confession" of
Mrs Piper--Precautions taken by Professor Hyslop during his
experiments--Impressions of the sittings.
Chapter XIV
134
The communications of Mr Robert Hyslop--Peculiar
expressions--Incidents.
Chapter XV
147
The "influence" again--Other incidents--Statistics.
Chapter XVI
154
Examination of the telepathic hypothesis--Some arguments which
render its acceptance difficult.

Chapter XVII
161
Some considerations which strongly support the spiritualistic
hypothesis--Consciousness and character remain unchanged--Dramatic
play--Errors and confusions.
Chapter XVIII
169
Difficulties and objections--The identity of Imperator--Vision at a
distance--Triviality of the messages--Spiritualist philosophy--Life in
the other world.
Chapter XIX
176
The medium's return to normal life--Speeches made while the medium
seems to hover between the two worlds.
Chapter XX
182
Encouraging results obtained--The problem must be solved.

PREFACE
BY THE
President of the Society for Psychical Research
One of the facts which by general consent in the present stage of
psychological science require study is the nature, and if possible the

cause, of a special lucidity, a sensitiveness of perception, or
accessibility to ideas appearing to arrive through channels other than
usual organs of sense, which is sometimes met with among simple
people[1] in a rudimentary form, and in a more developed form in
certain exceptional individuals. This lucidity may perhaps be regarded
as a modification or an exaggeration of the clearness of apprehension
occasionally experienced by ordinary persons while immersed in a
brown study, or while in the act of waking out of sleep, or when
self-consciousness is for a time happily suspended.
In men of genius the phenomenon occurs in the most dignified form at
present known to us, and with them also it accompanies a lapse of
ordinary consciousness, at least to the extent that circumstances of time
and place and daily life become insignificant and trivial, or even
temporarily non-existent; but the notable thing is that a few persons,
not of genius at all, are liable to an access of something not altogether
dissimilar, and exhibit a kind of lucidity or clairvoyant perceptivity,
which, though doubtless of a lower grade, is of a well-defined and
readily-investigated type, during that state of complete lapse of
consciousness known to us as a specific variety of trance.
Not that all trance patients are lucid, any more than all brown studies
result in brilliant ideas; nor should it be claimed that some measure of
lucidity, even of the ultra-normal kind now under consideration, cannot
exist without complete bodily trance. The phenomenon called
"automatic writing" is an instance to the contrary,--when a hand
liberated from ordinary conscious control is found, automatically as it
were, to be writing sentences, sometimes beyond the knowledge of the
person to whom the hand belongs. Some approach to unconsciousness,
however, either general or local, seems essential to the access of the
state, and such conditions as ordinarily induce reverie or sleep are
suitable for bringing it on; no one, for instance, would expect to
experience it while urgently occupied in affairs. Whether it is desirable
to give way to so unpractical an attitude, and to encourage the influx of
ideas through non-sensory channels, is another question which need
not now concern us. It suffices for us that the phenomenon exists, and
that it occasionally though very rarely takes on so well marked and

persistent a form as to lend itself to experimental investigation. It is
true that in these cases nothing of exceptional and world-compelling
merit is produced; the substance of the communication is often, though
not always, commonplace, and the form sometimes grotesque. It is true
also that a complete record of a conversation held under these
circumstances--perhaps a full record of a commonplace conversation
held under any circumstances--readily lends itself to cheap ridicule;
nevertheless, the evidence of intimate knowledge thus displayed
becomes often of extreme interest to the few persons for whom the
disjointed utterances have a personal meaning, although to the outsider
they must appear dull, unless he is of opinion that they help him to
interpret the more obscure workings of the human mind, or unless he
thinks it possible that the nature and meaning of inspiration in general
may become better understood by a study of this, its lowest, but at the
same time its most definite and controllable, form. Undoubtedly
information is attainable under these conditions from sources unknown,
undoubtedly the entranced or semi-conscious body or part of a body
has become a vehicle or medium for ostensible messages from other
intelligences, or for impersonations; but the cause of the lucidity so
exhibited, the nature of the channel by which the information is
obtained, and the source of the information itself, are questions which,
although they are apt to be treated glibly by a superficial critic, to
whom they appear the most salient feature and the easiest of
explanation, are really the most difficult of all.
It was to study such questions as this that