[87] The Human Personality, p. 11.
[88] Id., p. 23.
[89] Id., p. 63.
[90] The Human Personality, p. 313.
[91] The Subconscious Nature, p. 82.
[92] See my remarks in The Unknown, pp. 290-294.
[93] See Bulletin of the Psychological Institute, Vol. I. pp. 25-40.
[94] Quite recently I saw an account of some phenomena which rather plead in its favor than otherwise (Bulletin of the Society for Psychical Studies of Nancy, Nov.-Dec., 1906). Out of the eleven instances mentioned, the first and the second may have been taken from a cyclopedia, the third and the fourth from public journals; but, in the case of the seven others, the admission of the identity of apparitions with the originals they purported to represent is surely the best explanatory hypothesis.
[95] As a forestalling of judgment on what is yet to be demonstrated, the word "medium" is a wholly improper term. It takes it for granted that the person endowed with these supra-normal psychic faculties is an intermediary between the spirits and the experimenters. Now while we may admit that this is sometimes the case, it is certainly not always so. The rotation of a table, its tipping, its levitation, the displacement of a piece of furniture, the inflation of a curtain, noises heard—all are caused by a force emanating from this protagonist of the company, or from their collective powers. We cannot really suppose that there is always a spirit present ready to respond to our fancies. And the hypothesis is so much the less necessary since the pretended spirits do not impart any new facts to us. For the greater part of the time, it is undoubtedly our own psychic force that is acting. The chief personage and principal actor in these experiments would be more accurately called a dynamogen, since he (or she) creates force. It seems, to me that this would be the best term to apply in this case. It expresses that which is proved by all the observations.
I have known mediums very proud of their title, and sometimes found them a bit jealous of their fellows. They were convinced that they had been chosen by Saint Augustine, Saint Paul, and even Jesus Christ. They believed in the grace of the Most High and claimed (not without reason too) that, coming from other hands, these signatures were to be suspected. There is no sense in these rivalries.