Mrs. Piper the Society for Psychical Research | Page 3

a special society--the Society
for Psychical Research--was founded some twenty-two years ago.
Perhaps the most remarkable, and certainly the most thorough, of all
the investigations made under the auspices of this Society has been the
case of the American lady, Mrs Piper; which, begun in 1887, has
continued ever since, with only such intervals as were necessitated by
the circumstances of the case. She was already known to the Professor
of Psychology at Harvard and to some other American savants, but she
was brought to the notice of the leaders of the English Society by Dr
Richard Hodgson, who has been for some years, and is still, acting as
its representative in America, and Secretary of its American Branch. A

complete record of the whole investigation has not yet been published,
but large portions of it have appeared from time to time in the
Proceedings of the Society.
It is not to be supposed that the case is unique by any means; on the
contrary, it may in some senses be regarded as typical, but its features
are exceptionally well-marked, and the record has been more carefully
and continuously kept than that of any other case. Accordingly, some
emphasis has been given to it, and a general vague notion concerning
the case has diffused itself among educated persons beyond the limits
of the Society.
And indeed it is one of really general interest, since the hypothesis of
fraud is entirely inapplicable to it, and in the opinion of the most
sceptical critics who have made an adequate study of the case, no
explanation more commonplace than that of telepathy will bear
examination. Other critics--and these are they who have gone into the
matter most thoroughly--find the hypothesis of telepathy to be
insufficient, and hold that some further explanation is necessary.
Opinions differ as to what that further explanation may be, and so far
as I know it has not been scientifically formulated as yet. To me it
appears probable that no one explanation will fit all the facts, and that
the subject is not yet ripe for theory. Working hypotheses must be made,
must be tested, and in all probability must be rejected, but our main
duty at the present stage is the careful examination and record of facts.
The working hypothesis most widely prevalent among the general
public, whether for the purpose of scoffing or for a foundation of belief,
is some crude form of the idea that the persistent intelligence of
persons who have severed their connection with matter is willing, and
occasionally even anxious, to take up temporarily the broken thread,
and so to operate as to transmit, through any channel which may be
open, to us who are still associated with planetary matter, messages
which shall serve as a sign of their continued existence and affection;
and that the biological organism or part of an organism of a living but
unconscious or semi-conscious person is an instrument which may,
though with difficulty, be utilised to that end.

It is easy to express this hypothesis in such a way that it is repugnant to
common sense. It may be possible hereafter to formulate it so that it
shall correspond in some measure with the truth. But even though it
should turn out that intelligences can exist apart from the surface of
planets and the usual material concomitants, it by no means follows
that they must all at some period have been incarnate on the earth. The
recognition of modes of existence differing greatly from our own, if it
can ever be properly effected, will have an illuminating bearing on
many fundamental problems of life and death; but this is not the place
to attempt to discuss such a question, even if the time were ripe for the
discussion at all.
The Society for Psychical Research, though it has now for some time
studied this among other questions, has arrived at no sort of agreement
concerning it; the only fact on which its members are generally agreed
is as to the reality of some kind of telepathy, an apparently direct
influence between mind and mind; and telepathy is no doubt an
important fact, but it by no means follows that it is a master-key
capable of furnishing the solution of every variety of psychical problem.
The chief work of the Society has not been the construction of theories;
it has accumulated and sifted a mass of evidence dealing with
ultra-normal human faculty, it has published much material and
criticism in its Proceedings, has printed more in its private Journal,
and its members have written books. To these accessible sources of
information students can be referred.
But it is necessary to get some inkling of a subject before becoming a
student of it--people have not time to read a tithe of