A CONFLICT OVER GHOSTS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 2009, 8 October 1906, Page 7

A CONFLICT OVER GHOSTS.

— * — DO CONFLICTING THEORIES DESTROY EACH OTHER ? Some men and women of weal and learning believe they have lift the veil that hides the spirit worl This startling claim is the resi oi a series of recent experlmeni watched by two groups of inves gators. A full report of these e peri men ts have been sent to t I‘hychical Research Society in Lo don. The two groups of investigate acknowledge the surpassing wond oi the things they have seen. Ea draws a different conclusion as their meaning. One group accepts the theory spiritualism as a probable explan t ion. The other makes a positi statement. Here, they assert, a revelations of the life and power the spirits of living persons. Tin declare : This spirit life is now open to i vestigation in detail. Man is now able, by a method ful tested, to control these spirits aj communicate with them. Their met od of converse is known, and how 1 use it. The immaterial part of man is no as fully open to study as is his boc of flesh. Spirit life is no longer a clos< book, but it is the spirit of the li >ng that has power to reveal its oj orations. That the spirits of the dead retur to the earth there is no proof. The sceptical mind will continue t think, its own thoughts regardin those claims and those of the Spirii ualist group in the Psychical R< search Society. But among the ir \estiga tor’s into those mystic phene mona there never was a time who this study was prosecuted so active ■ ly ami with such confidence as now. ' DID HODGSON’S SPIRIT SPEAK An ultra-believer might think tha the spirit of the dead president o the society. Dr. Richard Hodgson whether or not it has made th promised post-mortem appearance oi earth, has animated his followers. Hut in these experiments the pain does not seem to be to the follower; : of Hodgson, hut to those who den? Iris spiritualist theory. If goes witl those who are experimenting witl “telepathy”—the medium of commun nation between the spirits of living persons. Prof. James M. Hyslop, who ha: been expecting a visit, from the spirit of Richard Hodgson—in fulfilment o a promise made by Hodgson befon his death—denies that “telepathy” i.< sufficient to explain the phenomena. THEORY OF THE TWO MINDS One theory supported by Dr. Quack enbos is that man has two minds each separate and distinct, but bearing relations to each other that arc necessary to the continuance of human life. The "subjective” mind is the soul or spirit within a man. It has independent powers and is capable oi sustaining existence independent ol the body. The “objective” mind is merely the function of the physical brain. It has no powers' whatsoever independent oi the body. If the brain is injured this mind is injured., The subjective mind is most active and performs ' its most feats when the body and brain are in a slate of unconsciousness, as in sleep. In the hypnotic state —when the objective mind sleeps—this soul mind “can be made apparently to leave the body and travel to distant lands, and bring back intelligence. “It Has the power to read the thoughts of others, even to the minutest detail. “The subjective mind never sleeps. No matter how profound the lethargy it is ever alert, and comprehends instantly, with preternatural acuteness, everything that occurs.” Its memory is perfect, down to the finest detail. Dr. Quackenbos and those working with him, or along the same lines, have been studying this “subjective mind,” or* soul (life in living persons, by placing their subject in hypnotic sleep, and calling forth the powers of this “mind” by “suggesting” lines of thought or action to it. The suggestion given the “subjective mind” immediately follows it out to its true conclusions. v Thus Dr. Quackenbos declares that he has caused this mind of a person in hypnotic sleep to come in touch with the subjective mind of a person many miles away and command -hat person to perform some act, and has nndispntuble proof pf many instances in yhicih" such a command was obeyed- • Und,qr suggestion from the person eii rapport with the soul, mind of an hypnotized person. Dir.’ Quackenbos states, soul can.be. made to disclose clairvoyant power. One , subject of these hypnotic experiments by whom Dr. Quackenbos believes he has clearly proved his startling claim is Anna Fortwangler, a twonty-three-year-old girl of German peasant extraction. She was Hypnotized first by Gustav A. Gayer, a member of the Physical Research Society, with astonishing results. Th*m Dr. Quackenbos took her up. and in the presence of many persons at the physicians house and elsewhere,- she exhibited an hypnotic sleep the ability to project her spirit personality to distant parts of the city and tell what was going on there at llie instant she was speaking. A MYSTERIOUS CASE OF “CLAIR VOYANCY.” She described a room in a house she had never entered and of which she had no knowledge, a mile distant. giving all the details of its furnishings and telling exactly what the people in the room wore doing. Dr. Quackenbos declares the “clairvoyant” power exhibited by this girl has been exhibited by other hypnotized persons in his presence. He explains it by telepathy and sugges- j tion. .i The newspapers of a month ago I published a startling story of ‘Adele’ { a young woman well vouched for as cultured and refined, who averred ! that Dr. 'Quackenbos bad raised her j from the dead. She believed firmly | that she had passed into the Great i Beyond, where she saw visions that ; she described. “I seemed to be in the midst* of ut- I ter desolation, the girl said. “1m- • measurable tracts of land spread out j before me, desolate and barren. • Them were trees, but brown and j withered with no leaves. The air was filled with spirits, clothed but indistinct and ethereal.

“Then I entered a vast building ) t with long corridors and spacious rooms, in one of which sat six judges on a bench presided over by one superior to all the rest. I seemed to be on trial for all my misdeeds and every, act of my life was imprinted on a massive scroll that was unrolled t-" before mo. Every unkind word all the sins of omission as well as commisd- sion stood out before me. It ****** s, “Then I seemed to be a great dis1_ tance from the earth—suspended in air. The earth I could see far below. 10 I seemed to be among the stars.” | She heard a voice callling her back to earth. Dr. Quackenbos had been summoned by the girl's mother, and j had said to her : “Adele, where are 1 you going ? Come back, you cannot ° j die. You have work to do cm earth ! It is not finished yet, come back at \ once.” x ~ i Dr. Quackenbos referred briefly to e this incident at a meeting of physicians. Afterward the girl told the j story- herself. Dr. Quackenbos explain■y ed his object in bringing the case to I public notice. It was to “let the peox~ | pie know that suggestion has been i brought to the domain of exact - r ; science. It is,” he added, ‘‘practised | of Europe.” ° j Was Adele called back from the j dead ? Dr. Quackenbos does not say. w She was, according to the testimony y of those present at her bedside, in a I condition resembling death or prod | found coma. ! Dut outside of such claims as these | that test the credulity of many modj ern minds as to modern possibilities, 11 i the “adepts” of the school to which j Dr. Quackenbos belongs, are seeking 3 I a practical use of what they- claim is ’ j the tremendous power of “sugges- ~ | lion” over the mind that never ~ | sleeps. " ! Mr. Gayer, who was a Central Of- " j fic , > detective under Police Commis--1 sioner Roosevelt, applies it especially to cure young boy-s of the cigarette habit. He implants in their sub- > jective minds an aversion to tobacco, when they are in hypnotic sleep, i that, he says, will continue to rule them when they wake up. ■ The “subjective mind” or soul, its ! investigators say, is controlled al--1 ways by- the strongest suggestion that reaches it. Habits become strong j 1 suggestions, but can be overcome by 1 more powerful suggestions from within or without. The subjective mind is reached from w-ithout most directly and potently when the person is in natural or hypnotic sleep. The ! thought or wish in another soulmind can they reach it by the medium of “telepathy.” The "subjective mind” controls the functions of the body—the beating of the heart and all the body’s involuntary work. i Since this mind, or soul, is itself , controlled by suggestions can it not , be made a healing agency by- this . means ? This is the question the . “suggestionists” are now asking and answering affirmatively, while formulating from it a full system of “mind cure.” Then, also, of course, they ( can outline a scheme for educating ( j the soul along moral lines, for, be- | side controlling the bodily functions, i this soul within the body is the seat of the emotions. Its absolutely perfect memory makes it a store- , house of all that is good as well as had, that it has come in contact with in this life. Its character is ! * developed from that which finds its j | way into it, be it good or bad. i “His objective powers of reasoning ' were given to man,” says Dr. Hud- j ° son, “and their control over the sub- ? | jective mind, in order to enable him 1 jto train his soul for eternity—to “work out his own salvation.” I The flawless memory that will recall all the deeds of this life will re- c j ward or punish the soul when it t ! reaches the great beyond. | WILL NEW TRUTHS SOON BE REi VEALED? t . I ! The enthusiastic experimenters arc I convinced that a new science has c , been born—the science of the soul. | Great revelations of truths vital to life on this earth are impending. These disclosures will open new possibilities to human existence and clothe life with new purposes and hopes. There is no limit to what can be done with and through the subjective mind that willl not leak out. Telepathy, they have discovered, is the medium of communication between subjective minds. Dr. Quackenbos and his associates claim to have proved all this. Prof. Hyslop declares. The fact is we know nothing whatever about the processes of supernormal communication from mind to mind.” So the contest between these two schools in the psychic world is as between the ‘ supernatural and the supernormal. And both aver that the chief object of all their work is to prove soul existence and its inimo rtality ( —one by means of the souls of the living and the other through the souls of the dead. And in this work many hundred other investigators in the Psychical Research Society throughout the world are striving to-day, under the impulse of what they consider a wonderful progress of recent times in psychic knowledge.—”N. Y. World.”