THOUGHT-READING v. CLAIRVOYANCE.

Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 108, 30 May 1885, Page 3

THOUGHT-READING v. CLAIRVOYANCE.

TO THH IDITOE. Sib— l was sorry to sco a gontleman of Dr. Gillon's position engago tho aorrospondenco oolnmn of your issne of 25th instant to doolaim against clairvoyants and clairvoyanoo, bat expooted he woald meet with a roply, aa ho has from Mr. M'Loan and "A Finn Beliover." His attaok on Slgnor Otto Hug vis, in my opinion, most undignified and nnworthy of tho writer. The Signor has, in his qniet, unostentatious way, dono a vast amount of 'pood, at very roasonable cost to the recipients— of itself no small consideration— without in any Case, so far as known to me, casting tho slightest imputation on tho diagnosis, treatment, or professional skill of the M.D.'s who had proended him in the oaaoa submitted to hia vory unusual and searching examination. Is it professional joalonsy (the loaves and fishes of medioal praotioo) tliat induoes tho dootor to single out Signor Hug oa an impostor ? Why not attaok oUurroyanoo in ifcn Raid win aspeot, aa at present exhibited? Then, at least, we would know that his letters were disinterested, solentifio, and not affected by buMnoss or professional considerations. In to-night's issue Dr. Gillon replies to the corrcapondonce his previous letter called forth- find whioh, by the way, is put by Mr. M'Lean very plainly, in that he (the dootor) has still much to learn on what ho writes of —only to khow himself in worse form than when he wrote hia first letter. A little learning is a dangerous thing. Some time ago Dr. Gillon was a soeptio in regard to both thought-reading and clairvoyance. He now admits " that thought-reading has something in it," and, like a young convert, with the little he knows of tho ono he proceeds to denounce tho other, of whioh he knows nothing, and to brand as an impostor a gentleman gifted more highly than the generality of mankind,, as olairvoyanc© is n gift of no oommon order. I had thought the doctor wonld recognise the faot that he does not evon know everything, and I certainly gave him credit for more ustutonoa* than to deny the existence of anything ho does not hapoen to know of. Hut this is hia present line of aotion, and his proposition in to-night's papor is certainly unique. Get three or four doctors to givo a patient a dose of certain medicine (God help the patient with three or four doctors dosing liitn), and lot Otto Hug say what was Riven. No, rather let throo or four dootors doso a patient to thoir satisfaction, and let 40 doctors tell what the results will bo— if they aroablo. I was at one time associated, in our family oirole with a highly gifted clairvoyant, and wera such here now I should havo no trouble in proving to the dootor's saturation that tiionght-reading ia only a very preliminary to the beauty and magnitude of olairvoyanoe an a whole, and I would oommond to him tlio following procedure, that instead of trying with the littlo he knows of thought-reading to explain away all ho does not know of oiairvoyaaop, that h« starts with the formor, whioh ho now aooopts, as his primer. Mndy it in relation to man, and he will find it lead him to the thresholdd of new boautios of creation and new conceptions of man, and of man's superiority to matter, whioh he would find olevating in the highest deirroo. Dr. Gillon's exporienoo of man is confined to material— bone, flesh, blood. Man is much more than this in his higher attributes of mind, spirit, and relation to his creator ; and this olairvoyanoe teaches as nothing elie oan. I am, Ac, D. A. Douglas, Late Member Glasgow Branoh Edinburgh Moamerio Sooiety. Wellington, 28th May, 1885.