Mrs. Piper the Society for Psychical Research | Page 7

has been studied by Professor Flournoy, seems to enjoy health as
good as anybody's--even flourishing health. Perhaps, if a thorough
search were made, some defect might be discovered, but the person
who should not betray some inherited peculiarity probably could not be
found.
As far as Mrs Piper is concerned, she seems to have enjoyed
irreproachable health till towards 1882 or 1883. The exact date is not
stated. About that time she suffered from a tumour, caused by a blow
from a sledge, and she feared cancer. This illness brought about the
discovery of her mediumship. Up to this time absolutely nothing
abnormal had occurred to her. Her husband's parents had had, in 1884,
a sitting with a medium which had much impressed them. They
frequently advised their daughter-in-law to take the advice of some
medium who gave medical consultations. To please them, she went to a
blind medium named J. R. Cocke, and there she had her first loss of
consciousness or "trance." But we shall return to this.
It is to be concluded that the prescription of the medium had no more
influence on the disease than those of ordinary doctors, for this tumour
continued to make Mrs Piper's health rather precarious for a long time.
She only decided in 1893 to undergo a surgical operation--laparotomy.
No complications resulted from it, and her convalescence was rapid.
However, in 1895, the after-effect of this operation was a serious hernia,
which necessitated a second operation in February 1896. She only

recovered thoroughly in October of the same year.
Many persons will be disposed to believe that Mrs Piper's tumour is the
explanation of her mediumship, particularly as the mediumship only
appeared after the tumour. It is rather difficult to prove them wrong.
There is, however, a fact which seems to indicate that they would be
mistaken. When Mrs Piper is ill, her mediumship decreases or becomes
less lucid; she only furnishes incoherent, fragmentary, or quite false
communications. The syncope or "trance," which is easy when she is
well, becomes difficult or even impossible when she is ill. Her health
has been good since her last operation, the syncopes are easy, and the
communications obtained in this state have acquired a degree of
coherence and plausibility which was previously wanting.
If, then, Mrs Piper's mediumship was the result of illness, it is strange
that her recovery should have favoured the development and perfecting
of this same mediumship. There appears to be a contradiction here. I
am not competent regarding the question, but, on examining the facts, I
can hardly believe that mediumship is a mere neurosis. After all, are
there not famous men of science who declare that genius itself is only a
neurosis? In their eyes the bandit is only a sick man; but the genius also
is only a sick man.
If it is true that the best and worst in humanity are only opposite faces
of the same medal, we should be tempted to think mankind even more
pitiable than we have hitherto believed.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Des Indes à la Planète Mars; étude sur un cas de somnambulisme,
by Th. Flournoy. Pub. Alcan, Paris.
CHAPTER II
Dr Richard Hodgson--Description of the trance--Mrs Piper not a good
hypnotic subject.
Before proceeding further, I must ask my readers' permission to

introduce Dr Hodgson, the man who has studied Mrs Piper's case with
the greatest care and with the most perseverance. Dr Richard Hodgson
went to America expressly to observe this medium, and during some
fifteen years he has, so to say, hardly lost sight of her for a moment. All
the persons who have had sittings for a long time past have passed
through his hands; he introduces them by assumed names, and takes all
possible precautions that Mrs Piper, in her normal state, shall not obtain
any information about them. These precautions are now superfluous.
Mrs Piper has never had recourse to fraud, and everyone is thoroughly
convinced of the fact. But the slightest relaxation of supervision would
lay the most decisive experiments open to suspicion.
Dr Hodgson is one of the earliest workers for the Society for Psychical
Research. He has been a terrible enemy to fraud all his life. At the time
of the formation of the Society, Mme. Blavatsky, foundress of the
Theosophical Society, was making herself much talked about. The
most extraordinary phenomena were supposed to have occurred at the
Theosophical Society's headquarters in India. Dr Hodgson was sent
there to study them impartially. He quickly made the discovery that the
whole affair was charlatanry and sleight-of-hand. On his return to
England he wrote a report--which has not killed Theosophy, because
even new-born religions have strong vitality--but which has discredited
this doctrine for ever in the eyes of thoughtful people.
After this master stroke, Dr Hodgson continued