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‘‘The observations given in this work; the sensations; the impressions;
the visions; things heard; etc。; may indicate physical effects produced
without the brain。
‘‘Yes; no doubt; but it does not seem so。
‘‘Let us examine one instance。
‘‘Turn back to page 156。@@@
‘‘A young woman; adored by her husband; dies at Moscow。 Her father…in…law;
at Pulkowo; near St。 Petersburg; saw her that same hour by his side。
She walked with him along the street; then she disappeared。
Surprised; startled; and terrified; he telegraphed to his son;
and learned both the sickness and the death of his daughter…in…law。
‘‘We are absolutely obliged to admit that SOMETHING emanated
from the dying woman and touched her father…in…law。 This
_thing unknown_ may have been an ethereal movement;
as in the case of light; and may have been only an effect;
a product; a result; but this effect must have had a cause;
and this cause evidently proceeded from the woman who was dying。
Can the constitution of the brain explain this projection?
I do not think that any anatomist or physiologist will give
this question an affirmative answer。 One feels that there is
a force unknown; proceeding; not from our physical organization;
but from that in us which can think。
‘‘Take another example (see page 57)。@@@
‘‘A lady in her own house hears a voice singing。
It is the voice of a friend now in a convent; and she faints;
because she is sure it is the voice of the dead。
At the same moment that friend does really die; twenty miles
away from her。
‘‘Does not this give us the impression that one soul holds
communication with another?
‘‘Here is another example (page 163):@@@
‘‘The wife of a captain who has gone out to the Indian mutiny sees one night
her husband standing before her with his hands pressed to his breast;
and a look of suffering on his face。 The agitation that she feels convinces
her that he is either killed or badly wounded。 It was November 14th。
The War Office subsequently publishes his death as having taken place
on November 15th。 She endeavors to have the true date ascertained。
The War Office was wrong。 He died on the 14th。
‘‘A child six years old stops in the middle of his play and
cries out; frightened: ‘‘Mamma; I have seen Mamma。'' At that
moment his mother was dying far away from him (page 124)。@@@
‘‘A young girl at a ball stops short in the middle of a dance and cries;
bursting into tears。 ‘My father is dead; I have just seen him。'
At that moment her father died。 She did not even know he was ill。
‘‘All these things present themselves to us as indicating
not physiological operations of one brain acting on another;
but psychic actions of spirit upon spirit。 We feel that they
indicate to us some power unknown。
‘‘No doubt it is difficult to apportion what belongs to the spirit;
the soul; and what belongs to the brain。 We can only let ourselves
be guided in our judgment and our appreciations by the same
feeling that is created in us by the discussion of phenomena。
This is how all science has been started。 Well; and does not every
one feel that we have here to do with manifestations from beings
capable of thought; and not with material physiological facts only?
‘‘This impression is superabundantly confirmed by investigation concerning
the unknown faculties of the soul; when active in dreams and somnambulism。
‘‘A brother learns the death of his young sister by a terrible nightmare。
‘‘A young girl sees beforehand; in a dream; the man whom she will marry。
‘‘A mother sees her child lying in a road; covered with blood。
‘‘A lady goes; in a dream; to visit her husband on a distant steamer;
and her husband really receives this visit; which is seen by a third person。
‘‘A magnetized lady sees and describes the interior of the body
of her dying mother; what she said is confirmed by the autopsy。
‘‘A gentleman sees; in a dream; a lady whom he knows arriving at night
in a railroad station; her journey having been undertaken suddenly。
‘‘A magistrate sees three years in advance the commission of a crime;
down to its smallest details。
‘‘Several persons report that they have seen towns and landscapes
before they ever visited them; and have seen themselves in situations
in which they found themselves long after。
‘‘A mother hears her daughter announce her intended marriage six months
before it has been thought of。
‘‘Frequent cases of death are foretold with precision。
‘‘A theft is seen by a somnambulist; and the execution of
the criminal is foretold。
‘‘A young girl sees her fiance'; or an intimate friend dying
(these are frequent cases); etc。
‘‘All these show unknown faculties in the soul。 Such at least
is my own impression。 It seems to me that we cannot reasonably
attribute the prevision of the future and mental sight to a nervous
action of the brain。
‘‘I think we must either deny these facts or admit that they must
have had an intellectual and spiritual cause of the psychic order;
and I recommend sceptics who do not desire to be convinced; to deny
them outright; to treat them as illusions and cases of a fortuitous
coincidence of circumstances。 They will find this easier。
Uncompromising deniers of facts; rebels against evidence;
may be all the more positive; and may declare that the writers
of these extraordinary narratives are persons fond of a joke;
who have written them to hoax me; and that there have been persons
in all ages who have done the same thing to mystify thinkers
who have taken up such questions。
‘‘These phenomena prove; I think; that the soul exists;
and that it is endowed with faculties at present unknown。
That is the logical way of commencing our study; which in the end
may lead us to the problem of the after…life and immortality。
A thought can be transmitted to the mind of another。
There are mental transmissions; communications of thoughts;
and psychic currents between human souls。 Space appears
to be no obstacle in these cases; and time sometimes seems
to be annihilated。''
A few years ago a person whom I will designate as ‘‘A'' related a dream
to me as follows: ‘‘I take no interest in pugilism or pugilists;
but I saw; in a dream; every detail of the Corbett and Fitzsimmons mill;
four days before it took place out West。 Two nights before the fight I
had a second dream in which a favorite horse was running; but suddenly;
just before the judge's stand was passed; a hitherto unobserved little black
horse ran ahead and the crowd shouted in my ears; ‘Fitzsimmons wins!' ''
‘‘B'' relates the following as a dream: ‘‘I saw the American soldiers;
in clay…colored uniform; bearing the flag of victory two weeks
before the Spanish…American war was declared; and of course before
any living being could have known the uniform to be adopted。
Later I saw; several days before the actual occurrence happened;
the des