PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. In its tech nical sense psychical research refers to objects and methods of investigation employed by The Society of Psychical Research, which was founded in England in 1882. The function of this society is set forth in the following an nouncement: aIt has been widely felt that the present is an opportune time for making an organized and systematic attempt to investigate that large group of debatable phenomena desig nated by such terms as mesmeric, psychical and spiritualistic. From the recorded testimony of many competent witnesses, past and present, including observations recently made by scien tific men of eminence in various countries, there appears to be, amidst much illusion and decep tion, an important body of remarkable phenom ena, which are prima facie inexplicable on any generally recognized hypothesis, and which, if incontestably established, would be of the high est possible value. The task of examining such residual phenomena has often been undertaken by individual effort, but never hitherto by a scientific society organized on a sufficiently broad basis.• The society's membership has in cluded the names of Henry Sidgwick (the first president), A. J. Balfour, W. F. Barrett, Bal four Stewart, Edmund Gurney, Frederic W. H. Myers, Oliver Lodge, William Crookes, Lord Rayleigh and Alfred Russell Wallace. In 1884 an American Society for Psychical Research was established and later (1890) incorporated with the British society. In 1906 the societies again separated. Similar organizations have been formed in Germany and other countries. The records of the English society fill many volumes of Proceedings and Journals. Besides these offi cial reports, individual members have published numerous works on psychical research. The investigations of the society have been directed by six principal committees to whom the fol lowing tasks were severally assigned in 1882: (1) An examination of the nature and extent of any influence which may be exerted by one mind upon another, apart from any generally recognized mode of perception. (2) The study of hypnosis, trance, clairvoyance and other allied phenomena. (3) A critical revision of Reichen bach's researches with certain organizations called °sensitive? (4) An investigation into apparitions and haunted houses. (5) An in quiry into the various physical phenomena com monly called spiritualistic; with an attempt to discover their causes and general laws. (6) The collection and collation of existing materials bearing on the history of these subjects. In brief, the work of the committees has covered the subjects of telepathy, hypnosis, trance, au tomatisms, °magnetic sensations? apparitions and °spiritualistic manifestations? Three prin cipal methods have been employed by the com mittees and by individual members of the society: (1) the examination of accumulated evidence and of current cases; (2) experi mental investigation, and (3) statistical treat ment. The first of these methods has been
used widely in the study of apparitions and alleged spiritualistic phenomena —ghost stories have been collected and noted mediums ex amined; the second, in hypnosis, in tests of Reichenbach's claims and in the collection of evidence for telepathy; and the third, in inter preting extensive data regarding apparitions and hallucinations.
The results obtained by the several commit tees are quite unequal. Investigations into the umagnetic sense;) into clairvoyance, haunted houses and the grosser physical manifestations of °spirits)) — that is, raps, table-tipping, slate writing, levitation and linaterializations)) —have turned out, on the whole, negatively. Many in stances of fraud, of defective observation and of involuntary deception have been brought to light. Hypnosis and allied states have been investigated, not so much for their own sake as for the study of telepathy and of subcon scious states. The work of the society may be said to centre in the question of telepathy and the existence of mind independently of the body. In order to secure evidence touching both these matters the Society for Psychical Research in stituted, in the years 1889-92, an extensive cen sus on hallucinations. Answers to the number of 17,000 were returned to the following ques tion: Have you ever, when believing yourself to be completely awake, had a vivid impression of seeing or being touched by a living being or inanimate object, or of hearing a voice; which impression, so far as you could discover, was not due to any external physical cause? About one-tenth (1,6t34) of the answers were affirm ative, and of this number 80 were "death coincidences; that is, cases of recognized ap paritions occurring within 12 hours of the death of the person represented, the death being unknown to the percipient at the time.* The committee in charge of the census draws the conclusion that 'between deaths and apparitions of the dying person a connection exists which is not due to chance alone.° In the last few years the society has devoted much attention to the study of trance states as produced in certain persons called gsensitives.° This study is said to furnish evidence of telepathy. It is considered by some members of the society to be the most fruitful subject for further in vestigation.