One special difficulty surrounding this investigation is that the ectoplasmic material seems to be manipulated or controlled through an etheric connecting link, and that a tremor or vibra tion in the ether, of the kind which normally excites the retina of the eye, is detrimental to its activity; so that in most ordinary cases operations of this kind have to be conducted, or seem to be easier, in the dark—a circumstance which makes investigation specially difficult and unsatisfactory. It seems to have been found however that red light is not so deleterious as the brighter illu mination of higher frequency, and that with due preparation the ectoplasmic formations can be photographed by a flashlight before they are thereby disintegrated. Moreover it is asserted that in the case of some exceptionally strong mediums, some of the effects have been produced in full daylight.
The force exerted by the ectoplasm can be quite considerable. For instance a table can be raised completely off the ground ; and the weight of a man clambering on the table need not be suffi cient to bring it down. The forces have sometimes been measured by spring-balances : and an attempt has been made to weigh the medium from whom ectoplasm has hypothetically been removed, with the result that the normal organism is said to have lost weight corresponding to that of the material which has been extruded and accumulated on another balance.
But there are certain other phenomena asserted which are not of a normal character, and could not be produced normally if the operator were free,—phenomena which might be spoken of as miracles. The one most commonly attested to is the immunity to damage or destruction by extreme heat. It is said that certain people can hold flaming or red-hot coals in their hands without feeling pain and without being singed; that this power can be conveyed to other people under certain conditions; and that even fabrics, such as hair or cambric, can be rendered temporarily immune to fire. Travellers tell us of native races who can walk
through fire, or over hot coals, without injury, when in a state of exaltation. Heat is known to be a rapid vibration or tremor among the particles of a body, and it is difficult to see how the molecular or chemical changes normally associated with such tremor can be suspended. But again, when there is sufficient con firmation, we must be prepared to accept the facts, whether we feel able to understand them or not.
Another phenomenon of what is popularly called a miracu lous character, has been often asserted to occur, namely the passage of a solid body into or out of a closed cavity; as, for in stance, the introduction of an object into a closed room, such object having been previously known to be outside; a phenome non known as an "apport." Verification of such a fact as that is singularly difficult, especially when the enclosure is, like a room, such as can readily be normally opened ; and, like all the rest of the phenomena, it must depend with excessive cogency on the good faith of all concerned. Indeed good faith alone might not be sufficient. Before accepting a thing like that, one would have to allow for hypnotic or other influence.
A modification of this "passage of matter through matter," as it has been called, is the linking of two entire rings together, or the tying of knots on an endless string. These things have been testified to, but are hardly as yet even tentatively accepted. The disintegration and reconstitution of matter has been contemplated as a working hypothesis by the few who do accept them ; while others have taken refuge in a fourth dimension of space, in which a globe is no more a complete enclosure than a circle is in three dimensions. A quadruped is fully confined when enclosed in a village pound, but a bird is not. The parable is obvious.
It is however hardly worth while to seek for some mode of conceiving or formulating an explanation until the facts are established. The object of this article has been, first, to show the kind of assertions which are made, and then to indicate the kind of lines on which a rational explanation may be looked for; at least in connection with those for which a prima facie case has been established; and, next, to suggest that an enlarged psychol ogy, and possibly an enlarged physiology,—possibly even an enlarged physics—will have to take into account and rationalize a number of phenomena which so far have been mainly dis believed or ignored.