A CONFLICT OVER GHOSTS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2645, 11 September 1906, Page 7

A CONFLICT OVER GHOSTS.

* DO CONFLICTING THEORIES DESTROY EACH OTHER? Some men and women of wealth and learning believe they have lifted the veil that hides the spirit world. This startling claim is the result of a series of recent experiments, watched by two groups of investigators. A full report of these experiments have been sent to the Uhychicul Research Society in London. The two groups of investigators acknowledge the surpassing wonder of the things they have seen. Each draws a different conclusion as to their meaning. One group accepts the theory of spiritualism as a probable explanation. The other makes a positive statement. Here, they assert, are revelations of the life and power of the spirits of living persons. They declare : This spirit life is now open to investigation in detail. Man is now able, by a method fully tested, to control these spirits and communicate with them. Their method of converse is known, and how to use it. The immaterial part of man is now as fully open to study as is his body of .flesh. Spirit life- is no longer a closed book, but it is the spirit of the living that has power to reveal its operations. That the spirits of the dead return to the earth there is no proof. The sceptical mind will continue to lliiuk its own thoughts regarding these claims and those of the Spiritualist group in the Psychical Research Society. Hut among the in\estimators into these mystic phenomena there never was a time when this study was prosecuted so actively anil with such confidence as now.

DID HODGSON'S SPIRIT SPEAK? An ultra-believer might think that the spirit of the dead president of the society, Dr. Richard Hodgson, whether or not it has made the promised post-mortem ap|icarance on earth, has animated his followers. Hut in these experiments the palm does not seem to be to the followers of Hodgson, but to those who deny his spiritualist theory. It goes with those who are experimenting with "telepathy"—the medium of communication between the spirits of living persons. Prof. James M. H.vslop. who has been expecting a visit from the spirit of Richard Hodgson—in fulfilment of a promise made by Hodgson before his death—denies that "telepathy" is sufficient to explain the phenomena. THKORY OF THE TWO MINDS. One theory supported by Dr. Quackenbos 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 of sustaining existence independent of the body. The "objective" mind i.s merely the function of the physical brain. It has no powers whatsoever independent of the body. If the brain is injured this mind is injured. The subjective mind is most active and performs its most wonderful feats when the body and brain are in a state of unconsciousness, as in sleep.

In the hypnotic state—when the objective mind sleeps—this soul mind "can be made apparently to lea\e 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" linos of thought or action to it. The suggestion given tho "subjective mind" immediately follows it out to its true conclusions. 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 undisputable proof of many instances in which such a command was obeyed. Under suggestion from the person en rapport with the soul mind of an hypnotized person. Dr. Quackenbos slates, tin- 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 twent.\-thre>-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. Then Dr. Quackenbos took her Up, and in tho 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 the instant she was speaking.

A MYSTKKIOI S CASK OF "CLAIKVOYANCY." She described a room in a house she had never <-nt»*n*<J and of which sh«' had ii<> knowledge, a mile distaut. a" 'he details of its furnishings and telling exactly what the people in the room were doing. I>r. Quackenbos declares tin- "clairvoyant*' power exhibited li.\ this girl has been exhibited In other hypnotized persons in his presence. He explains it b\ telepathy and sutrtr»'Stion. The ncw.spa|»ers of a month ago published a startling stury of Allele' a voung woman well winched for as cultured and relim-d. "ho u\erred thai |»r i{nui'ki-nbos had raised her from ih" dead. She believed lirmlv that she had passed into I lie ''real Heyond, where she saw visions that she described. "J seemed to be in i h j•• midst of utter desolation. 1 h«' "til said. "Immeasurable tracts ni land spread out before me. de.»nl<ite rtiul barreii. 'l'hei" were trees, hut brown and wither. i| with i.'> leaves. The air was lill.il unli spirits, elothed but iiulis t hi. I ami eUiereal

"'Then I entered a vast tniii.itng 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 everv, act. of my life was imprinted on a massive scroll that was unrolled before me. Every unkind word all the sins of omission as well as commission stood out before me. • ••••• "Then I seemed to be a great distance from the earth—suspended in air. The earth 1 could see far below. I seemed to be among the stars." She heard a voice caflling her back to earth. Dr. Quackenbos had been summoned by the girl's mother, and had said to her : "Allele, where arc you going ? Come back, you cannot, die. You have work to do on earth It is not finished yet, come back at once." Dr. Quackenbos referred briefly to this incident at a meeting of physicians. Afterward the girl told the story herself. Dr. Quackenbos explained his object in bringing the case to pubtlic notice. It was to "let Ihe people know that suggestion has been brought to the domain of exact science. It is," he added, "practised in the foremost medical institutions of Europe." Was Adele called back from the dead ? Dr. Quackenbos does not say. She was. according to the testimony of those present at her bedside, in a condition resembling death or profound coma.

Hut outside of such claims as these that test the credulity of many modern minds as to modern possibilities, the "adepts" of the school to which Dr. Quackenbos belongs, are seeking a practical use of what they claim is the tremendous power of "suggestion" over the mind that never sleeps. Mr. Gayer, who was a Central Ofli* detective tinder Police Commissioner Roosevelt, applies it especially to cure young boys of the cigarette habit, He implants in their subjective minds an aversion to tobacco, when they are in hypnotic sleep, that, he says, will continue to rule them when they wake up. The ''subjective mind" or soul, its investigators say, is controlled always by the strongest suggestion that reaches it. Habits become strong suggestions, but can be overcome by more powerful suggestions from within or without. The subjective mind is reached from without 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 involuntary work. 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 usking and answering affirmatively, while formulating from it a full system of ' mind cure." Then. also, of course, they can outline a scheme for educating the soul along moral lines, for. beside controlling the bodily functions, this sou! within the body is the seat of the emotions. Its absolutely perfect memory makes it a storehouse of all that is good as wel'l as bad, that it has come in contact with in this life. Its character is developed from that which finds its way into it, lie it good or bad. "His objective powers of reasoning were given to man." says Dr. Hudson, "and their control over the subjective mind, in order to enable him to train his soul for eternity—to work out his own salvation." The flawless memory that will recall all the deeds of this life will reward or punish the soul when it reaches the great beyond. WILL NEW TRUTHS SOON BK REYEA LED ? The enthusiastic experimenters are convinced that a new science has 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 i.s no limit to what can be done with and through the subjective mind that will 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 tho chief object of all their work is to prove soul existence and its immortality—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 know ledge.-"N. Y. World."