It is the author's good fortune that he has for a period extending over several years been able to verify the conclusions which Sir Oliver Lodge expresses in the above, and thus to satisfy his own mind that the process by which man's mental powers are "being enlarged" is indeed demonstrable by actual observation and experimental methods.
Lodge continues:
"The boundary between the two states—the known and the unknown, is still substantial, but it is wearing thin in places, and like excavators engaged in boring a tunnel from opposite ends amid the roar of water and other noises, we are beginning to hear now and again the strokes of the pick-axes of our comrades on the other side."
Camille Flammarion[30] cites 436 cases of psychic manifestations examined by himself and which establish beyond any reasonable doubt that there are certain perceptive faculties, namely, clairvoyance and clairaudience, that crop out in certain individuals, sometimes in abnormal conditions and sometimes normally, the very unusual character of which proves their rudimentary nature and the potency of their maturescence in the humanity of the future. Among the cases cited by Flammarion are 186 instances of manifestations from the dying received by persons who were awake; 70 cases were manifestations received by persons asleep; 57 were observations of direct transmission of thought without the aid of sight, hearing or touch or other physical means; 49 were cases of sight at a distance or clairvoyance by persons awake, in dreams or in somnambulism and 74 cases of premonitory dreams or predictions of the future. Indeed, there are few persons now living who have not had similar experiences, if not exactly like these, of the same nature. These examples, of course, may be greatly multiplied in every country in the world, and it is unnecessary to enumerate them further; for, when once the existence of such faculties has been demonstrated in persons, either in a normal or an abnormal condition, their presence can no longer be questioned by the fair-minded. It is, then, only a question of evolution before they will appear in the normal way and their universalization, as transmissible characters, be an accomplished fact. When we are brought face to face with this sort of phenomenon which seems to be increasing rapidly the conclusion is inevitably forced upon us that since evolution must be a continuous process and matter destined to yield higher and more refined powers and humanity to come into a far more extensive scope of motility because of the opening avenues of knowledge, it is not impossible that these acuter senses, these new faculties are now existing in the human race in a rudimentary stage and are designed to become the universal possession of all. That this is to be the almost immediate outcome of the perpetual exalting power which life exercises not alone over materiality but over human organs and faculties as well, seems to be the one big, outstanding implication of the evolutionary process. The presence of such functions as the ability to sense the invisible and the inaudible, to answer to vibrations far subtler than anything in the scope of our external sense-organs, certainly indicates the existence of rudimentary faculties which make these functions possible. Back of these vague, indefinite functions, back of every supernormal or abnormal manifestation of man's mentality and back of all that class of phenomena which take their rise out of supersensuous areas must lie, in ever increasing potency, faculties and organs, however rudimentary, which are the source of these manifestations. Life, that ineluctable agent of creation, which is incessantly pushing outward the confines of the intellect's scope of motility, never wearying, never tiring nor sleeping, has long ago, in the dim and distant past of man's evolution, laid the foundations; and in fact, with one stroke of its creative hand, has molded the organs which are to become the active media of these new faculties. And now, these incipient demonstrations, these infantile struggles which we see now and again outputting from them, are but the specializing processes through which, in their later development, these organs are proceeding. These are the outward signs which should tell us that life is breaking up these organs into special parts, assigning to each a certain division of labor and making of each a perfect coördinate of all the others. It is, by these very dispread exhibitions, cutting up, specializing and by slow degrees determining the function, character and general tendence of the organs of expression wherewith these manifestations shall be centralized and put into effective operation. In doing this, it is but following its accustomed procedure, the procedure which it adopted when it produced the eye, the ear, the heart and the spleen. We shall, therefore, gauge our understanding of the purport and end of evolution; in fact, we shall determine our exact intellectual comprehension of life itself, by the attitude which we adopt towards it and the mode of its appearance. Much depends, accordingly, upon the posture which we assume towards life—whether we shall say the totality of life's creative powers has been dissipated in the bringing of the human body to its present degree of perfection; whether we shall say that it is neither necessary nor possible for life to produce other organs and faculties which shall respond to the unseen world about us revealing its glories in a way far more perfect than do our external sense-organs reveal the wonders of the world of sensation; or, whether we shall conclude from these most palpable evidences that life has yet other powers and faculties which it designs to bestow upon the human mind and other organs and capabilities with which it shall endow the human body so that man, in his evolution, shall be enabled to rise to still higher spheres while yet incarnate. There may be, and undoubtedly are, those who, for various reasons prefer to take the former positions and there are certainly those who like Lodge, Flammarion, Hudson, Crookes and a host of others, preferring the latter view, would rather believe in the strength of the great mass of corroborative testimonies that we are even to-day in the midst of the matutinal hours of a newer, a better and a far more efficient era of human evolution than any through which we have hitherto come.
Already, recent scientific investigations and the results obtained therefrom have begun to turn the attention of medical authorities to the activities of two very small organs situated in the mid-brain and known as the pineal gland and the pituitary body. These organs, and especially the pineal gland hitherto supposed to be a vestige of the past, are now beginning to be recognized as rudimentary organs belonging to the future evolution of humanity. Dr. Charles de M. Sajous, who is an authority on the pituitary body, believes that it has no active internal secretions but is an "epithelio-nervous organ" which controls, through nerves leading to the adrenals and thyroid bone, the processes of general oxygenation, metabolism and nutrition. Little is known of the functions of the pineal gland except that it is an ovoid, reddish organ attached to the posterior cerebral commissure projecting downward and backward between the anterior pair of the corpora quadrigemina. It is otherwise known as the "conarium" the "pinus" or "epiphysis." Situated at the base of the brain, it is held in position by a fold of the pia mater while its base is connected with the cerebrum by two pedicles. It contains amylaceous and gritty, calcareous particles constituting the brain sand. There are, however, marked structural resemblances between the pineal gland and the pituitary body and their formation is perhaps the most interesting feature of the development of the thalamencephalon or mid-brain. The hypophysis cerebri or pituitary body is a small, ovoid, pale, reddish mass varying in weight from five to ten grains and situated at the basal extremity of the brain in a depression of the cranium known as the sella turcica, a configuration very much like a Turkish saddle in shape. It is a composite, ductless gland and consists of two divisions, an anterior and a posterior, connected by an intermedial portion—all of which are attached to the base of the cerebrum by the infundibulum. The anterior lobe is larger than the posterior and very vascular, springing in its development from the buccal cavity of the embryo; the posterior lobe is situated in a depression of the anterior and is a brain-process. The pituitary body itself is lodged in a cavity of the sphenoid bone called the pituitary fossa. This is a most remarkable position, for the reason that the sphenoid, or wedge-shaped, bone which lies at the base of the skull articulates from behind with the occipital and in front with the frontal and ethmoid bones and by lateral processes with the frontal, parietal and temporal bones. From this position it binds together all the bones of the cranium, and moreover, articulates with many bones of the face. It is upon the upper surface of the sphenoid bone which occupies such a prominent and commanding position in the cranium, in a deep depression, that the pituitary gland is located.
Each nasal chamber is lined by a mucous membrane called the pituitary or Schneiderian. This membrane is prolonged into the meatuses and air sinuses which open into the nasal chambers. The pituitary membrane is thick and soft and diminishes the size of the meatuses and air sinuses. It is covered by a ciliated columnar epithelium and contains numerous racemose glands for the secretion of mucous or pituita. It is also vascular and the veins which ramify it have a plexiform or net-work like arrangement. It divides into two membranes—a respiratory, which is concerned in breathing, and an olfactory region. The respiratory region corresponds to the floor of the nose, to the inferior turbinated bone and to the lower third of the nasal septum. The olfactory region is the seat and distribution of the olfactory nerve and corresponds to the base of the nose, to the superior and middle turbinals and the upper two-thirds of the nasal septum.
Recent developments prove that this gland has a profound influence over the animal economy. It is believed by some that the pituitary body actually destroys certain substances which have a toxic influence on the nervous system; others believe that it secretes material media for the proper action of the trophic or nutritive apparatus; still others believe that it influences blood-pressure. It is known, however, from experimentation, that its removal in dogs, cats, mice and guinea pigs causes a fall of temperature, lassitude, muscular twitchings, dyspnœa or difficult breathing, and even speedy death. Hypertrophy of the gland is directly associated with certain diseases, such as giantism and acromegaly. The latter is a disease which causes a general enlargement of the bones of the head, feet and hands, usually occurring between the ages of twenty and forty years, and most frequently in females. The fact that these diseases are so closely associated with a hypertrophic condition of the pituitary gland has led to the conclusion that perhaps the giants or Cyclops of ancient times were cases of giantism or acromegaly. This view, while interesting from the standpoint of the functions of the pituitary gland, is not necessarily a correct one; for the age of giants, when men attained to a much larger stature than at present, can be accounted for on other grounds, namely; that the early mesozoic man, on account of his having to live among animals, trees and other vegetation of such huge size, had naturally to be fitted with a frame proportional to other animals in order that he might successfully cope with his environing conditions. Nature thus wisely fitted him for the conditions which she had prepared for the scenes of his life.
The facts adduced in the foregoing description are purely empirical and may be verified by any who seek to establish their correctness or incorrectness. But we are about to introduce a species of testimony which while it may also be verified will not be found so easy of verification as the above-mentioned physiological facts, and not by the same means; yet they are nevertheless deserving of a place here. It is the liberal attitude that we must adopt towards all phenomena, excluding none that give promise of the widening and deepening of our knowledge and an explanation of much that has seemed heretofore unaccountable.
We have noted how subtle is the physical connection between these two bodies, the pineal gland and the pituitary body; we have seen how profound is the effect which the latter has been demonstrated, in a measure, to have over the entire bodily economy; but there is even other testimony to the effect that those gifted with the inner vision can observe the "pulsating aura" in each body, a movement which is not unlike the pulsations of the heart and which never ceases throughout life. In the development of clairvoyance it is known that this motion becomes intensified, the auric vibrations becoming stronger and more pronounced. The pituitary body is the energizer of the pineal gland and, as its pulsating arc rises more and more until it contacts the pineal gland, it awakens and arouses it into a renewed activity in much the same manner as current electricity excites nervous tissue. When the pineal gland is thus aroused clairvoyant perception is said to become possible. These are facts which cannot be proved by the materialistic man of science nor can they be demonstrated to the layman who has to depend alone upon sense-deliveries for his knowledge. This is true for the reason that, in the first place, it is necessary that he shall either feel in his own mid-brain the energizing activity of these two organs and have his entire nerve-body shaken from crown to toe by the down rushing currents of that subtle energy with which the pituitary body floods it or be himself the perceiver of its activities. Nevertheless attention is here called to these phenomena and the conclusions drawn therefrom are offered as a means of denoting the probable line of investigations which will establish the directions which we should pursue and the source whence we shall find outcropping the new faculties and their organs of expression.
We confess to a knowledge of the fact that men of empirical science have long maintained a rather skeptical, if not contemptuous, attitude towards all these phenomena but it is also felt that there is far more of discredit in their attitude than of credit; for, in so doing, they have voluntarily adopted measures by means of which the knowledge that they so eagerly seek is shut out from their attainment. In vain, then, is appeal made to the intellect to remove the barriers which it unconsciously interposes between itself and the goal of its pursuit; in vain do we appeal to the materialist to give ear to testimony the data of which cannot be made amenable to his knife and scalpel neither to the microscope nor microphone; in sheer vanity is he adjured to look within—into the interior of life, of mind and the things which he handles with his instruments—for the answers to his queries, for the path which leads into the wake of life and consciousness. Because his utter loyalty and devotion to the modus vivendi of the intellect will not permit this; but, after all, it is not wholly wise to allure him away unbetimes from his search after truth through superficialities nor to inveigle him into giving up his tenacious prosecution of the physically determinable. We would not have it so; for, perchance, he, too, one fine day, in the quiet of his laboratory shall come upon the data which may substantiate in his own mind the long settled conclusions of the occultist who, frequently and not without cause, grows impatient at the scientist's obstinate delay. These two workers, the empiricist and the occultist, must ultimately come together as collaborators—the one working upon the form, the vehicle, physical matter and the other seeking to understand the life, the interior forces which produce, the creative element. They cannot remain always aloof from one another; for they, too, are as men digging a tunnel from opposite ends. Finally, the partition will break and thus will dawn a new day for the knowledge of humanity and men will see the rationale, the truth and good sense of coöperation in this respect.