[146] It should perhaps be said that there is nothing in the experience of the many persons who have so far tried crystal gazing, at the instance of the S.P.R., to indicate risk of injury to health. It is no doubt not advisable for an invalid, or for any one suffering from headache, or undue fatigue, to try the experiment. Indeed, the experience of Mrs. Verrall and others is that success under such conditions is unattainable. But with ordinary care to avoid straining the eyes, no evil effect, it is thought, need be apprehended; and there is probably no form of experiment which at the cost of so little trouble may be expected to yield results of so great interest and value. There is of course no magic in the crystal; a glass paper-weight, a mirror, or a glass of water will serve the purpose equally well. Records of experiments will be welcomed by Mr. F. W. H. Myers, from whose suggestive article many of the illustrations quoted in the text are taken. (See Proc., vol. viii., p. 436, etc.)
[147] Of course in this case there is an alternative explanation—viz., that Miss X. received the impression at the time the words were spoken, and that the shell merely developed it for her conscious self.
[148] S.P.R., vol. vi. pp. 33, 34.
[149] A translation of Dr. Gibotteau's account is given by Mr. Myers, Proc. S.P.R., vol. viii. pp. 468, 469.
[150] The fact that most, if not all, the medical men quoted would themselves reject the explanation hinted at in the text, and would regard their own success as due rather to skill and patience than to any specific endowment, should, of course, have due weight, but cannot be regarded as decisive.
[151] See also the account given by Dr. Gibotteau in the Annales des Sciences Psychiques of the power possessed by Berthe (see ante, p. 139) of causing people to stumble or lose their sense of direction. Mr. Andrew Lang has recently drawn attention to the remarkable resemblances between accounts of medieval magic, etc., and modern telepathic phenomena (see, e.g., his article in Cont. Review, Sept. 1893).
[152] It is possible that we need not go so far as telepathy for an explanation. Slight indications unconsciously apprehended may have furnished the necessary clue in all cases, as they almost certainly did in some.
[153] See Proc. S.P.R., vol. i. p. 230, vol. ii. p. 56; Phil. Mag., April 1883; Proc. Amer. S.P.R., p. 116.
[154] Animal Magnetism (International Science Series), pp. 264 et seq. Cf. Ottolenghi and Lombroso, in Rev. Phil., Oct. 1889, on polarisation of hallucinations by magnets.
[155] Rev. de l'Hypnotisme, Dec. 1887.