CLAIRVOYANCE, defined as the power of perceiving without the use of the organ of vision or under conditions in which the organ of vision with its natural powers alone would be useless. It comprises the sight of things past, present, or future. Various methods of Clairvoyance are recounted: by direct vision of things at a distance (opaque substances being no hindrance) ; by look ing into a black surface; by looking into water, into a crystal, etc.; or by laying the object to be described on the fore head or chest of the clairvoyant; but clairvoyants now usually represent the cerebral region as the seat of illumina tion. From remote antiquity the posses sion of such powers by favored indi viduals has been believed. As instances of clairvoyants in later times may be mentioned Jacob Bihme (1575-1624) and Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), the Swedish scientist and founder of the re ligious body called "The Church of the New Jerusalem." The phenomena of
Clairvoyance have been carefully ob served. The clairvoyant state seems to be intimately connected with the mes meric, the somnambulistic, and the so called "biological." Mesmeric somnam bulism and Clairvoyance were first brought to notice by Puysegur in 1784. The clairvoyant is usually in a state of trance, which may be induced by mes meric passes. In this state he is some times conscious only of his mesmerizer; in others, his Clairvoyance is unrestrict ed; but the Clairvoyant may enter the trance state spontaneously, or he may even be in possession of his ordinary faculties. In "second-sight," as found in Denmark, parts of Germany, and es pecially in the Highlands of Scotland, the seer is not in a state of trance simi lar to that in other forms of Clairvoy ance. See PSYCHICAL RESEARCH.