BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 21, 19 October 1918, Page 11

BOOKS OF THE DAY

Man is a Spirit, The over-increasing interest taken nowadays in what is known as psychic phenomena is responsible for the appearance of Mr. J. Arthur Hill's "Man is a Spirit: A Collection of Spontaneous Oases of Dream, Vision, and Ecstasy" (Cassell and Co., per S. and AY. Mackay). The author contends that "ii dream is as much of a '.fact' as a homb is." The first, lie says, is a psychological fact: the other a physical fact". The collection and study of psychological facts is a late development in science, and Mr. Hill admits that wo have not got very far as yet, particularly as regards the "facts" of psychical research kind. He was moved to make personal research in the curious and fascinating realm of psychic phenomena and the deductions that follow by a study of Frederic Myers's great work, ■'Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death." The result of his study of dreams, "clairvoyance," telepathy, visions of the dead, and various other forms or phases of spiritual communication is set forth in what is undeniably a very interesting and thoughtprovoking volume. Tho author wisely remarks, in a chapter entitled "What Constitutes Evidence," that much of the distrust and doubt with which socalled psychical "evidence" is received is because such "evidence" "has been obtained through mediums, sometimes paid ones, and there is a, natural tendency to regard such people as rogues until they aro proved honest and even'afterwards." Mr. Hill believes that the majority of mediums are perfectly honest, although, ho admits, "there is much self-delusion and erratic faculty." In his own book bo gives accounts of spontaneous psychical experiences of many kinds, "from dreiims which only touch the fringe of tho supernormal up to the full-blown apparitions seen by several people." Tho persons to whom such experiences occurred "enjoy," he says, "evidential but only occasional enlargements of perceptivity," and do not belong to "the professional medium class. Mr. 'Hill assures us that he has included "no caso without having been convinced by either correspondence or interviews ' that tho narra'tor is a person of sanity and , integrity, ■ whose word we would accept without hesitation in more ordinary matters." The experiences quoted aro often most - curious, and to the sceptically-minded certainly very wonderful. Many of the cases of telepathy, of visions of the'dead, of ,tlio alleged meeting by dying persons with others long previously departed, arise out of the war. A specially interesting chapter is that devoted, to "Communication by Motor Response,' several instance's being quoted of persons writing down matter not emanating from their own minds. An equally interesting section is that in which "Metethoroal Imprints" aro discussed. Mr. F. M. Myers first put forward tho theory thai; when a particularly.stressful and emotional event occurs, "some impression is made oh the etherial or "metetherial" environment, and that this persists and can be perceived, when conditions are favourable, by people with psychical sensitiveness, and that this may/account for some stories of reenacted murder , ' scenes and other haunts, in which' it seems unreasonable to suppose that the original actors are still concerned. In this connection Mr. Hill quotes some very extraordinary incidents, amongst them tho selection at different times, and unknown to each other, first by-Guy de Maupassant, and later by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of a lonely inn in the Gommi Pass, in Switzerland, as Hie scene Mr a story of mystery and crime. Both the English author and the Frenchman before him were quite unaware that long years before either had planned such a story to fit this particular background, a German playwright had written a tragedy whinh was based on a real occurrence at the inn in question. Mr. Hill's theory is that a tragedy did take place at tho inn, that the "psychical reverberation of the event still lingered there," and that "the delicato sensibility of two literary artists picked up their vibrations," and their minds then reconstructed the' scenes and circumstances of the tragedy. All who are interested in psychic phenomena nnd what is popularly known as Spiritualism will, find much in this book of Mr. 'Hill's to provoke discussion. (Price, 6s. 6d.)