Mrs. Piper the Society for Psychical Research | Page 6

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Mrs Piper
and the
Society for Psychical Research
CHAPTER I
Mrs Piper's mediumship--Is mediumship a neurosis?
Mrs Piper is what the spiritualists call a medium, and what the English
psychologists call an automatist, which is to say, a person who appears
at times to lend her organism to beings imperceptible to our senses, in
order to enable them to manifest themselves to us. I say that it appears
to be thus, not that it is so. It is difficult for many reasons to admit the
existence of these problematical beings. We shall deny it or remain
sceptical till the day comes when the evidence proves too strong for us.
Mrs Piper's mediumship is one of the most perfect which has ever been
discovered. In any case, it is the one which has been the most
perseveringly, lengthily and carefully studied by highly competent men.
Members of the Society for Psychical Research have studied the
phenomena presented by Mrs Piper during fifteen consecutive years.
They have taken all the precautions necessitated by the strangeness of
the case, the circumstances, and the surrounding scepticism; they have
faced and minutely weighed all hypotheses. In future the most orthodox
psychologists will be unable to ignore these phenomena when
constructing their systems; they will be compelled to examine them and
find an explanation for them, which their preconceived ideas will
sometimes render it difficult to do.
Praise and warm gratitude are due to the men who have studied the case
of Mrs Piper. But we owe no less to Mrs Piper, who has lent herself to
the investigations with perfect good faith and pliability. None of those

who have had any continued intercourse with her have a shadow of
doubt of her sincerity. She has not taken the view that she was
exercising a new kind of priesthood; she has understood that she was an
interesting anomaly for science, and she has allowed science to study
her. A vulgar soul would not have done this. Her example, and also that
of Mlle. Smith, of whom Professor Flournoy has lately written,[3]
deserve to be followed. If the strange phenomena of mediumship have
not yet been sufficiently studied by as many persons as could be wished,
scientific men are chiefly to blame for the fact. Many of them regard
with disfavour facts which upset painfully-erected systems on which
they have relied for years. But the mediums are also to blame, for their
vanity is sometimes great, and their sincerity frequently doubtful.
Mrs Piper is American. Her husband is employed in a large shop in
Boston. Although of a home-loving disposition, Mrs Piper has travelled;
she has several times consented to leave her ordinary surroundings in
order to prevent all suspicion of fraud; she has given sittings in New
York and other places, and has paid a three months' visit to England.
Her education does not appear to have been carried very far. She has
doubtless read much, like all American women, but without method,
and probably very superficially. Her language is commonplace,
sometimes even trivial, but the records do not give me the impression
that she is really trivial-minded; language may be trivial when ideas are
not. On the whole, Mrs Piper's personality is attractive.
The point which naturally interests the man of science, and particularly
the doctor, is the state of health and the morbid heredity of Mrs Piper.
We have very insufficient information about these. I can find no
circumstantial report on this important matter anywhere. Mrs Piper was
rather seriously ill in 1890; a doctor attended her for several
consecutive months; this gentleman was also present at a sitting she
gave on the 4th December of this same year, 1890. It is evident that he
was in a position to study Mrs Piper closely. Dr Hodgson asked him for
a report, which would have been appended to the other documents. But
this doctor had the wisdom of the serpent. He promised, but changed
his mind, and absolutely refused to furnish any report whatever. Dr

Hodgson asked the subject a series of questions with the object of
ascertaining the state of health of her immediate ancestors, particularly
from the neuropathic point of view. She belongs to a family which
appears to have been very healthy and not in any way subject to
nervous maladies.
Mrs Piper's own general state of health is even more interesting to our
inquiry than that of her ancestors, since most doctors persist in seeing
in mediumship a neurosis, sister or cousin to hysteria or epilepsy.
It is undeniable that many mediums present some physiological
peculiarity or other. Eusapia Paladino, for example, has a depression of
the left parietal bone. But, on the other hand, Mlle. Smith of Geneva,
who