What Psychical Research Has Taught Me

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 14, 12 April 1923, Page 9

What Psychical Research Has Taught Me

(By J. Godfrey Raupert, K.S.G., in the Ave Maria.) I am often'asked by friends, both lay and clerical, in various parts of the world, what final impressions' my psychical researches have left upon me personally: to what extent they have affected my general view of the worldorder and myjndividual religious life. It is not easy to give a full and adequate reply to this question, since psychical research is not unlike a tangled skein, the numerous threads of which form so many troublesome knots that it seems almost impossible to disentangle it. Or it may be compared to a delicate piece of machinery in which wheels run within wheels, and to the respective functions of which the constructor alone possesses the key. It is difficult to make a definite statement without, running the risk of over or under emphasis; and one never ceases to be conscious of the inadequacy of human language in its application to a world-order so different from that under which we live. And yet there are certain broad facts which many years of patient research, and of contact with the best intellects engaged in these problems, have left upon my mind, and respecting which my views are definite and final.

I am, in the first place, wholly and entirely convinced that, whatever future research may bring to light, nothing in the natural order can account for the intelligence which is at work in the production of a large proportion of the phenomena in question. Neither duplex or secondary personality, nor telepathy or thought-transference, nor the manifestations of the subconscious mind, can furnish the key to the solution of the problem. All these may bo instrumental agencies by means of which the intelligence, back of the phenomena, works; but they are not the intelligence itself; and, in true phenomena, that intelligence does most certainly display itself in an unmistakable manner. I said this in my earliest works, many years ago, before science had applied itself systematically to the solution of the problem ; and I held to my conviction in spite of much unfavorable criticism and of the plausible sounding assertions of imperfectly informed experimenters. The now almost universal acceptance of the spiritistic conclusion is evidence that my view was the correct one.

To a large extent, this firm conviction is, of course, due to my personal observation of the phenomena under a variety of conditions; and I maintain that no sane man, who has had similar opportunities, could possibly arrive at any other. I have often, in some spirit-haunted room, with the furniture moving about, and voices sounding aloud and explaining some of the mysteries of the spiritlife—all the witnesses being in a. normal state of mind, and all agreeing as to the nature of the phenomena — laughed inwardly at those scientists who sit in their armchairs and evolve complex and, I am sure, often (to themselves) incomprehensible theories, by which they seek to explain these phenomena. I feel sure that five, minutes in such a spirit-haunted room would have been sufficient to make them converts to spiritism—in . the wider sense, of course, of that term, and in nowise implying that these spirits are what they most generally claim to be.

One thing,, therefore, which psychical research has taught me is the fact that an objective spirit-world exists; that it can, under certain conditions, get in contact with the sense-world; and that its operations play a very prominent part in the development of the world-order and in the history of the individual human soul. It is not improbable that future research and observation will show how far this influence extends, and in what way we can best guard ourselves against it. I am confident that all such research will confirm, if it has not already confirmed, at least in the case of all unprejudiced inquirers, what the Church teaches on the subject. * , ■ ~ -

But I am also convinced that, while “developed” raediumship, in the spiritistic sense, furnishes one means of access to the human personality— is one “open door” by which spirits can enter inthere are-other “open doors” by means of which this access is effected; and here, too, the teaching of Catholic theology is confirmed both by fact and experience. I am thus fully persuaded - that human

passion anger, envy, gluttony, hatred, uncurbed ambition is instrumental in removing that bar in our nature which shuts off the evil spirit-world, and in . throwing the soul open to spirit-invasion. .

M hen men become the helpless slaves of such passions, their moral judgment becomes unbalanced,-their will is paralysed, they lose the sense of the proportion of things, and there is developed in them a state of mind which creates a sort of bond or affinity with evil spirit-intelligen-ces, who, by reason of 'this affinity, gain a closer access to the soul, and, in the course of time, control and dominate it entirely. By a method of suggestion and by a subtle and barely perceived direction of the destructive current of thought, they manage to fan the particular passion enslaving the subject, until they rule the soul and become masters of the situation. I believe, that it is thus that some forms of spirit-obsession and possession have their beginning, and that this is the key which solves many a puzzling psychological problem by which we are confronted. The main peril, of course, lies in the circumstances that the victim is seldom consciofis of the true character of the influence which is at work.

We are thus able to understand how it comes to pass that the young man of wealth and influence, who enjoys buoyant health, and to whom life offers every attraction, but who recklessly indulges. his passions, falls a victim to the ta’dium viler and commits suicide; how a man occupying an honorable public position the head of a household,, held in esteem by all who know him, sacrifices honor, reputation, and a great career in the world, in order to indulge some abominable craving which has taken possession of him; how another comes to trample on all that is good and true and sacred in human life, and to ruin thousands in order to gain what can be of no earthly use to him and that can in nowise increase his enjoyment of life. We all know what dreadful things men will say and do when enslaved by such a. passion as hatred or anger.

It is difficult to find the full and adequate explanation of such things as these in the natural order. They violently contradict some of the fundamental dictates and instincts of our human nature, and, in my opinion, they can be adequately explained only by our recognition of the activities of the evil spirit-world of which we have now such striking and steadily increasing evidence. And, indeed, we have, here and there, admissions on the part of some of the bolder and more boastful of these preternatural agencies, to the effect that this is in truth the mode in which they are apt to operate.

The fact of this domination is also confirmed by the circumstances that the victims of these preternatural “controls” frequently come to their senses when the climax ef this demoniac invasion has been reached and the moral downfall has been accomplished. They then often awaken from what they themselves describe as a trance-like state, and can not recognise themselves in the situation in which their fall has placed them. They are apt to assert emphatically that it was not their true self but some hidden and unsuspected power in them which somehow gained the mastery and which unbalanced and paralysed the true self. -

It is to my mind certain that the researches of sane and rational men who have succeeded in entirely freeing themselves from the fetters of the absurd materialistic philosophy, and who are not enslaved by conventional preconceptions, will throw light upon these difficult and intricate problems, and that the steadily increasing acceptance of -the spiritistic philosophy will cause the treatment of the insane to undergo a very radical change. This is already recognised by men of high standing who, although somewhat diffident in their official and public utterances, have nevertheless expressed their, views very freely.

I am further thoroughly..convinced that the key to the solution of the psychic problem' will never be found in the purely scientific method. The scientific, student of the phenomena may be able observe and register and classify the various phenomena which he invites. He may .weigh and measure and microscopically , examine “the psychic force,” or “plasm,”, as it flows from the body of the sensitive." He may succeed in ascertaining .the' most favorable conditions under which it ’can’ be exteriorised, and, become available, for manipulation by spirit-intelligence. He will

never- be able, by such a. method, to determine, with any degree of certainty, what are the source and character and aim .of the intelligence which controls it, and which produces by its means such mysterious and remarkable effects in the sense-world. It is evident that he is here confronted by a problem which lies wholly outside the scientific sphere,, and .for the solution of which his scientific knowledge will avail him nothing.

His statements on this point must ever be mere surmise and inference—inference largely affected by his personal views of life and by his attitude towards religion. The circumstance that the spirit-intelligence displaying itself presents a human form and uses human language is manifestly no evidence at all that it is really human in its nature, seeing that it is only in this way that it could make itself intelligible to our understanding. A being or an order different from the human obviously could not enter into sensible communication with us, unless it adopted the human mode of intercourse—employed human thought-forms and human language. The circumstance, therefore, that these are employed can never be conclusive evidence that the intelligence back of them is not of an order different from the human.

But, whatever view we may be disposed to take of the matter, it is fully admitted by the best-informed psychical students that, whether they be human or not, evil and malignant beings doubtless exist in the unseen. The grave peril, therefore, to which the rash and unwary expose themselves in entering upon these experiments must be apparent to the most superficial thinker. The door of the mind once thrown open either by the practice of mediumship or sin and passion, access to the personality by the unseen spirit-agent becomes a comparatively easy matter; and the degree in which this access is effected depends largely upon the physical health and the general mental and moral condition of the victim.