NEW INSTITUTE

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1934, Page 5

NEW INSTITUTE

PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

BIOLOGISTS IN THE FIELD

SCIENTIFIC METHODS

When; fifty years ago, the Society for Psychical Research was founded with a group of men of intellectual distinction as its nucleus, there seemed to be a reasonable hope that in tho course of a few years the problems of the reality, and nature of such apparently supernormal occurrences as telepathic communication, clairvoyance, spirit-rappings, table-turning, etc., would be definitely settled, writes Robert H. Thoiiess in the '' Manchester Guardian.'.' That hope has been disappointed. Certain successes have been obtained. Hypnotism is no longer regarded as supernormal and takes its place in orthodox science; some of the alleged phenomena have been definitely shown to bo results of mistaken observation or of fraud. Tho existence of telepathy has probably been, proved, although we are as far as ever from understanding its nature. Nevertheless tho vast majority of the problems about which there was doubt at that time are still doubtful. The possibility of communication from the spirits of people who have diod, of moving objects at distances, of materialisation, of reporting correctly the contents of sealed packages are' still questions on which there is fierce controversy. Certainly there is now plenty of evidence, of various degrees of reliability, but those who best know the evidence come to different conclusions about it. Some find it convincing, while others are not convinced. This is unsatisfactory to those who hope that every problem will be solved by tho applications of- scientific method and that tho solution will fall into an ordered system which is the whole body of scientific knowledge. ■ . ALL BIOLOGISTS. , Now under tho presidency of Professor G. Elliot.Smith, and with Professors Julian Huxley, and E. \V.-. Macßride as vice-presidents, a new-International Institute for Psychical. Research has been formed to investigate psychic phenomena on strictly scientific lines. It is. perhaps significant of a' now attitude that these threo are all workers in the biological sciences. ' The chemist who finds that a substance burns in air knows that any other specimen of-the same substance will also do so under the same conditions. But tho biological scientist is -used ■to dealing with effects which occur only sometimes and not always, and with the difficulties which result froia'one individual behaving differently . from another individual. So. for him the unravelling of tho skein oi'.cause.and effect is a task requiring more complicated methods'of thought than the siiuplo- logic of. tho physical scientist.' These complications occur plainly in psychical.research, and it. is not surprising that those' at the head of the new institute are- drawn from the biological sciences, ■ In some ways the task is harder now than it was in 1882. There is an'immense literature . in many languages, and the investigator, who undertook to read everything that had been ■ done by others before ho started experimenting for himself would, die miserably before his first experiment; Also there is no doubt that the problems which remain unsolved aro those most difficult of solution. Telepathy could, at,any rate; be investigated , under- adequately . controlled conditions. Tho medium, howover, 'who moves things about without contact may object to every method of control that the scientist wishes to impose;.'... ■;.'■'.'. ;■ . SUSPICION OP FRAUD. * It is difficult to satisfy oneself- as to tho nature of an ectoplasm which is said to be exuded by the medium, but which cannot be touched or examined under strong light. Conscious and deliberate fraud must also be guarded against, as well ,as the risks of incorrect observation and- the too hasty reaching of conclusions. Perhaps it is the suspicion of fraud that has most discredited these phenomena, in the eyes of the general public. The ectoplasmic arm of a well-known medium. looked in a photograph, suspiciously -like ;a piece _ cut from the lung of a sheep, and 'the materialised faces of another, medium resembled in detail portraits which had previously been published in an illustrated paper. But, tho difficulty of separating good, from, bad : evidence need not bo an insuperable one, and I think-that it is for, another reason that there has been a general,distrust.of the investigation of supernormal •phenomena ' amongst scientists; Even the strangest of physical facts—apparent •exceptions to natural law; such as the breaking-up of radium—when investigated and, understood have taken their place in the whole coherent body of scientific knowledge, . even explaining* other facts in that body : not formerly understood. So scientific knowledge tends to be a compact and coherent ■whole. But the facts of the so-called' supernormal d 6 not seenv to fit either with the existing body of Knowledge or with any, extension of it that \ye. can imagine. . REASON FOR DISTRUST. ■"'Telepathy, ifit be a fact, fits in with nothing that wo know of mind or of brain, and casts no.new light, oh ■iyhat we already mow of human psychology. Nor can we see any way in which the ectoplasm secreted by the medium in trance and moulded into shapes perhaps by the medium's thoughts can fit into what is known of physiology. This resistance to assimilation, by existing knowledge is. different from, everything that has previously been found in the history of science. The facts may'bo genuine, and there may bo a, reason for this difficulty, but it is certainly a considerable- reason for the distrust of scientific investigators and their tehdoncy to abandon this field of investigation to the amateur. ' . s The pseudo-scientist, who is a serious hindrance to tho'''scientific development of psychical investigation, is not simply a would-be investigator who lacks academic qualifications or standing (he may, in factj have both). Ho is one who undertakes scientific investigation without submitting himself to tho severe self-discipline which is necessary in order, to make scientific conclusions valid. He makes numerical investigations without bothering himself to mas•ter the science of .statistical methods, by tho use of which alone' can the value of his conclusions bo judged; and, generally, he snatches at results without having learned or developed any technique of self : criticisnv Now, as in 1882, a body of scientists who have won their spurs in other fields of investigation are turning to this most difficult' field of research. All those interested in scientific research will wish them, success.