Psychic Phenomena

By Ralph M. Lewis, F. R. C.

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!y and simply presented, and designed to give the reader the useful essence of the topic of his interest in as few words as possible. The books are printed in easy-to^read type. Though each is attractively bound, it is of a size that may be slipped easily into a ooat pocket and read whenever the leisure hour is available. This cries is priced at $1.00, postage paid, for the entire set of six. (If you have one the other live will be sent to you for 85 cents kindly do not remit in postage stam ps.) M A K E Y O U R O W N P R O PH E C IE S Learn how to see the future develop logically and intelligently out of the present. W H A T O CCURS AFTER D E A TH ? H ere is a mystical and scientific treatment of this subjcct that will fascinate you. S U P E R S IG H T , O R T H E T H IR D E Y E The facts about the third eye the psychic or inner eye. C O L O R IT S M Y ST IC A L IN F L U E N C E H ere is explained the mystical law of color attraction and how color affects your life. C O SM IC C O N S C IO U S N E S S Learn the nature and way of developing this power. Send O rder and Rem ittance T o:
- t v Hpui Series. Each subject included in this senes .. concise'

chic Phenomena
OR

EA D IN G timed to your caste is the pi. rpose of the Leisure

By R a l p h M. L ew is, F. R. C. From early childhood until late in life we are governed by two major influences; one, facts, and the other, fancies. As small children, while learning our ABCspurely a factual matterwe were at the same time having our consciousness inculcated with legends, fairy tales and Red Riding Hood stories. It is not unusual for a little girl to fancy herself a queen, and, while in that state of unreality, to associate with the fancy those things which she has read or heard concerning a queenher scepter, her crown, her castle. W e can well tolerate this intermingling of facts and fancies by children, but it is a dangerous practice for adults and persons of mature mind because it con fuses their world. W e live in a false world if we live in a fanciful existence, and often the sudden realisation that our existence has been just fancy is a painful one. The control of fancy is entirely within our own province. W e can will ourselves to be almost anything we desire to be, in fancy. While actually in an atmosphere or environment of turmoil, strife and confusion, in fancy we can dream ourselves to be at peace. On the other hand, fact deals with actualities, external conditions and circumstances that may not be a part of us, but have just as much

"facts anc) "fancies

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of an existence as we have. Accumulated facts are the realisation of our experiences. W e can deny factual things if we want to, we can ignore them, but they persist in their existence. W e can in our conduct be like the proverbial ostrich and bury our heads in holes in the sand and refuse to take cognizance of the things of the world. However, these things, whether we recognize them or not, take their toll in their influence upon us. It is necessary, as well, to distinguish between imagination and fancy; the two are not synonymous. Fancy presumes existence. Fancy presumes that something actually is, in the present or in the future, when it may not have any such existence whatsoever. For example, an individual may fancy himself to be very important. He may fancy that everything he does or says attracts the attention of others, or is of great interest or concern to them. Actually and factually, no one may pay any atten tion to him or take cognizance of him. Imagination, on the other hand, consists of the combina tion of the present and of the future. Imagination works with things that have an existence now, and that can be perceived, or which have already been experienced. Imagi nation enlarges upon these things, projects them into the future. For example, an engineer may stand upon the hanks of a great swamp overlooking its dismal extent, and observe the actual murky waters and the unpleasant reeds and grasses that grow out of it. He may look, as well, on the hordes of insects which hover over it, carriers of fever and other germs. While perceiving these actu alities, in his minds eye he can imagine another con dition growing out of the present, a transition taking place. He can see dredges being brought in by crews of

men. He can see drainage canals being constructed and the water being drawn away from this swamp. He can see the grasses being removed, and dams and dikes being erected to prevent a future submerging of the land. Then, in his minds eye, he can see in this great area before him and beneath what now is just murky water, a black, rich, fertile soil. He can see that soil being cultivated, and he can see plots of vegetables and acres of billowy grain. He can see the area dotted by orchards and farms and little communities growing prosperous all of this in his imagination, but linked very definitely with things that have existence and which are probable. Imagination employs reason, and reason combines the elements of the things we have experienced into a new form, into a new order. Likewise, reason compels action. Imagination establishes the goal, and reason takes the present, puts it into an order or process by which that goal can be attained. Now it is advisable for us to consider some of the fancies of the day; shall we say, some of the conceptions and practices of people which are a combination of facts and fancies. People who believe many of the things they do, or practice them, are disappointed with life because they do not know how to distinguish between fact and fancy. W e begin with fate. There are millions of people today who are fatalists. This is their philosophy of living. They are governed entirely by it, or, shall we say, submit en tirely to that belief. A fatalist is one who presumes that his whole course of life, that is, all the events of today and tomorrow, has been mapped out for him. Each step that he will take will not be the result of a per sonal decision, but of an influence or direction brought

to bear, and which was conceived even in advance of his birth. Consequently, the fatalist looks upon his life as being a sort of bowling alley, and he just rolls along, motivated by powers beyond his control. The strike at the end of the alley may be high or it may be low; he resigns himself to whatever it may be. The true fatalist, as a rule, is not a student, for why should he study? W hy should he hope to improve his mind? W hy should he inquire into the nature of his own being or existence, or the phenomena of the universe? W hat would be accomplished by knowing about the laws of nature, because he could not expect to change his life, he could not expect to employ these powers to alter his environment or to bring about conditions that he desires; for, as a fatalist, his wishes and desires have no place in his life. He is but a puppet, to take what may come, be subject to the whims and fancies and caprices of a power beyond himself. A fatalist, likewise, has no ambition. W hy should he aspire to any thing? His aspirations may be in opposition to what has been planned for him; therefore, he cannot expect to re alize them. Furthermore, a fatalist has no initiative. So much for the fanciful side of the subject. Now let us reason a little. If fatalism is Cosmically true, then God would be unjust. It would be useless for a man to attempt recourse through prayer or any other means of com munion with God. W hy appeal, why hope for inter cession? W hy ask for divine wisdom? All that would be useless. Man would merely have to resign himself to whatever occurred. All methods whereby man hoped for divine consolation, advice, and intercession, would be use less. W e have, however, in opposition to the fancies of fatalism, the facts of our existence and nature. Man has

the ability to reason. He can appraise and evaluate the things of the world around him. He can name and adjudge some things as good and some things as bad. These things may be purely notions of his mind, but de pending upon these notions he can make his life one of happiness or one of torment. Man canand we know he doesalter his environment. If man is purely a product of fate, why is he given the ability to think and analyze and to perceive? W hy does he even have consciousness at all? W hat value is it to him? Even more important is the fact that man has been given will, volition, the right to choose a course of action. If there is but one course of action open to manthat which has been decreed in ad vancewhy has he been given the agency of selection, of change? W e know that this is possible, and we know that men have changed their lives through their own de cisions. Consequently, thesethe existence of will and the existence of reasondisprove an absolute fate. One of the most fantastic, and perhaps one of the oldest practices and concepts of man which still has a very profound influence upon his life, is that of divi nation, prognostication, or fortune telling. W hen the belief in the foretelling of the future began, perhaps no one will ever know. It may have occurred when man first had eschatological concepts; that is, when he began to consider the finality of things, what occurs after life, what happens at death, whether the world has a permanent existence or is transitory. However, man has always been aware, since he has had the ability to reason and think of himself in relation to other things, of his insecurity. His experiences were of two kinds; those that he recollected of the past, and those

that he had at the present. The future, on the other hand, was always a series of surprises, and these surprises have often been disastrous to man. Things have occurred which he often did not anticipate or look for, and which caught him unaware. Sometimes they were opportunities which he grasped, and of which he made the utmost; other times they were calamities. This insecurity left man troubled. He hoped to know the future. If he could but for a moment tear aside the veil and peer ahead, he could see what was about to come, what was impending, prepare for it, either to take advantage of it or to avoid it. For thousands of years he has devised means and methods to satisfy his belief in the foretelling of the future. W e have records which tell of the ancient Babylonians resorting to the crude method of reading the convolutions or folds of a sheeps liver. The priests of Marduk, Enlil, and of Ishtar would, in all solemnity, upon occasion, have a sheep slaughtered, and then the liver, while yet warm, would be seriously studied. Its natural folds would, to these priests, augur some sign of an event to occur in the future, either near or distant. In fact, archaeologists and Assyriologists have recovered from the ruins of some of these temples and cities clay casts of these livers, especially those which portended some future that was favorable, and thus the liver with its omens was preserved. The stars, then, became the next and most lasting method of divining the future. W hat a deep impression the Cosmic bodies had upon the Babylonians, Assyri ans, Sumerians and the Akkadians, can easily be re alized by those who today visit Mesopotamia or the great deserts of Iraq, known thousands of years ago as the plains of Shinar. As we stand in these vast silences at night,

looking up at the black canopy overhead, there seem to be suspended from this vault on silver threads, shimmering, dazzling specks of light, almost unreal, so close to the earth do the heavens seem to be. W ith little else at night to distract their attention, these early peoples must have gazed long upon the phenomena overhead. Their fancy was uncontrolled, and in their minds eye these different Cosmic bodies assumed forms that were related to humans or to animals which they knew, and some of them seemed, to the primitive minds of these peoples, a combina tion of both human and animal forms. They believed that all of these Cosmic bodies were part of some great family, each with its own influence, its own weaknesses, habits, and characteristics, not unlike man. These gods were believed to have an influence upon the lives of the people; and, depending upon their personal temperament or virtues, they were either a good influence or an evil in fluence. Consequently, the conjunction of these planets and stars, and the time of the year as well, was developed into a system of divination. W e find, therefore, astronomy combined with the vagaries of astrology. Let us presume that the future is established for each of us. If we believe in divination or fortune telling, we must be fatalists as well. If we were not fatalists, we would not be concerned with looking ahead. There would be nothing to look ahead for, except what man made him self. So if it is true that there is a future, would it not be often disastrous to look upon it and to see in the offing tragedy, misfortune, pain, sorrow, grief? Such portending events would offset any advantages through knowing op portunities that lie ahead. It would be of no use to say that we could escape the things of the future that were not

favorable if we could see ahead, because if the future is established, if it is definite, if it has an existence, we can' not escape. It is ours. W e have to meet it. W hy, then, even know about it, if we cannot escape it? W hy not wait until it comes? If, as some say, we can change the future, then it is not the future. If it lies within oui power to create or to make the future, then we are the future; and it does not exist apart from us, and what we do today determines the tomorrow. Now there are certain systems of divination that are scientifically correct and proper. For instance, we can determine the cyclical causes of tomorrows phenomena. If we throw a stone into the air, having a knowledge of the existence of the law of gravity, which exists now as well as in the future, we can predict precisely that the stone will return to the surface of the earth. W e can predict, as well, the coming of an eclipse, because those laws are known to us and have continual existence. They are not past, they are not present, they are not future; they are always. So it really is not prediction, it is merely the declaration of a law and its effect which are ubiquitous. Things which have no existence in the now, have no existence in the future either, because whatever is to be tomorrow must have its roots in the present. Another fantastic belief and practice, and yet founded upon some very fundamental physiological and psychology cal laws, is that of automatic writing. Automatic writing is the practice or the phenomenon of writing by various methods without volition, without the effort of writing; in other words, without the conscious intent of putting down what is written. This craze of automatic writingand it is such, because it has bursts of popularity at different

timesfirst spread to this country in 1850, and was very prominent between the years of 1850 and 1860, also during the early part of the present century. Automatic writing may be accomplished in either a trance state, when the person has no awareness of anything, or in normal wakefulness. Most automatic writing is accomplished when the subject is perfectly aware of his surroundings and what he is doing. In fact, he is able to carry on a conversation, while at the same time his hand is gliding over the paper holding a pen or pencil and writing cryptic messages. He may be reading a book or looking about the room, all of which does not seem to interfere with the automatic writing, because of the fact the subject does not control his writing. Likewise, because he is not familiar with the text of his writing it seems a strange communica' tion to him. The prevalent idea among many of the sub' jects is that it is external, that it is the result of some supernatural power or agency that for the moment has dominated his consciousness, taken possession of him. Consequently, many persons are inclined to believe auto' matic writing is the result of spiritualism, a disembodied or departed soul hoping to express itself in a physical form through the medium of the living person. The lowest form of automatic writing is where the sub' ject actually knows what he is going to write, the text does not come as a surprise to him, but he has the uncon trollable urge to sit down and write, and cannot resist it, and watches the words pour from his pencil. The hand and arm of the automatic writer are almost insensible. That is, they work like a mechanism, without any sensation of feeling. True, they are not completely dormant, and pain can be sensed, but they seem apart from the in-

dividual, as though there were some mechanical attach' ment fastened to his body and motivated by some power beyond himself. The text of the automatic writing is, as I have said, mostly strange to the writer, cryptic, enigmatic, sometimes almost unintelligible. At other times it reads quite rationally, and yet may still be of a nature that the subject does not recall ever having heard or read. Names may be written, of which the subject disclaims any previous knowledge. There may be incidents related with which he has never had personal experience. The one thing that is of particular importance, from a psychological point of view, is that no practitioner of automatic writing, no matter how insistent he may be that other powers or beings or intelligences are working through him, has ever yet given a message that contained a scientific formula, a philosophical doctrine, or a fact that had not been disclosed to man. In other words, if there are intelligences working through man in this method, these intelligences apparently are not possessed of any wisdom not already known to man, and not quite common. Psychologists explain the phenomena of automatic writ ing as being the results of half-formed impressions released from the subjective mind, and by reflex action actuating the motor nerves of the arm and hand to the extent that the impressions are formed in written words or sentences. In other words, there are many things which we perceive with our peripheral senses; that is, we hear them or see them without our being fully conscious of them at the time. For example, we may be carrying on a conversation with someone over the telephone, and at the same time we look out the window and observe something occurring

across the street, and we half-form impressions about what we see, while at the same time we listen to the conversa tion over the telephone. These half-formed impressions pass through and are registered in the subjective mind, but have no definite registry in the memory. So conse quently we forget them; we never remember them. Yet, under certain conditions they may be restored and take form in the conscious mind, and they surprise us. They seem new, different. They are what psychologists call dream stuff, that is, the disorganized, unregulated, un disciplined ideas of the mind. Automatic writing, as fantastic as it may seem, has a therapeutic value. Persons possessed of hysterical convul sions, and who are unable to articulate, can, through auto matic writing, reveal the subjective notions in their minds, which, when analyzed by psychiatrists, sometimes give a clue to the cause of the mental state of the individual. It must be realized that automatic writing does not have as followers just morons or neurotic persons, or those in clined to superstition only. Many intelligent persons and practitioners are fascinated by the phenomenon. Some are only sensationalists, others are sincere in their belief that it is a divine force working through them, and make no attempt at scientific investigation of the phenomenon. Some years ago, a prominent Senator of one of our east ern states was, shall we say, quite an automatic writing addict, and would have the spell occur several times a day. He was a very intelligent individual; consequently, he attempted to analyze carefully the results of his writing. He found that most of the writings were in essay form, a page or two pages, and were usually controversialthat is, polemic in their natureand he found himself objec

tively arguing with the writings before him. In fact, he said that he would become indignant at the expressions, as though someone else were writing the things on the sheet of paper before him merely to argue with him, or merely to oppose his views. He said they were on various topics, and were definitely opinions that he ordinarily would not hold nor to which he would accede. He kept a complete diary of his writings, and they made very interesting reading. Sometimes the continuity was not thorough, and they would break off in the middle of a thought. A p parently the Senator was not a student of psychology, be cause he said the only explanation he could make for the writings, even though he was reluctant to accept the ex planation, was that they came from an agency or power, human perhaps, but beyond earth at the time. Psychologically similar, yet different in procedure, is the practice of crystal gazing. Crystal gazing consists of focusing the gaze upon the depth of an object for a cer tain length of time, for the purpose of producing visual images in that depth. Thus one may produce these images by concentrating the gaze on a crystal, on a black mirror, or in a deep pool of water. Some have been able to ac complish results by the use of only a glass of water. Prac titioners declare that it usually takes at least five minutes, and they emphasize the importance of the period of time, the reason for which we will explain later. They also state that the object usedthe mediumwhether a crystal or a black mirror, should be kept at about book distance from the eye. After the concentration period, about four or five minutes, gradually there forms, apparently in the crystalif that is what is being usedwhat seems like a milky mist. The mist is in motion, swirling, somewhat

like a nebula that we see through a giant telescope when we scan the heavens at some great astronomical observa tory. The mist continues to develop until eventually it obscures the entire crystal ball, and further, until we are not aware of anything other than this mist. If we continue the concentration at this point, pictures begin to emerge, and finally nothing remains but the scene be fore our eyes. Now these scenes are not just landscapes or stationary objects. They may be moving objects, they may be like what we would see upon a motion-picture screenpeople moving about, animals, we may even see words. They become very realistic. W e do not seem to be apart from the scene, but rather in it. W e have the same emotional reactions that we would have if we were participating in the event before our eyes. It is necessary, so practitioners of crystal gazing tell us, that one has soli tude. W e will understand why this is necessary. They say also to avoid somnolence, because if one falls asleep, naturally one would have no awareness of what transpires. Now what is the cause of this phenomenon? Frankly, it is the result of a subjective state in which the crystal gazer places himself. By focusing his visual attention upon one object intently for a period of time, he accom plishes two things. He permits himself to be sensitive only to visual impressions, just the things he sees. By visual concentration only, he immediately subordinates all his other faculties. He practically hears, tastes, feels, or smells nothing. He has awareness of one thing onlythat upon which he is concentrating his visual gaze. Next, if that intense visual gaze is held for any length of time without the blinking of the eyes or turning away of the head, or without varying the object upon which the individual is

concentrating, there is produced what is known psychologically as ocular fatigue. The optic nerve becomes tem porarily paralyzed, and fails to register any more impres sions. In other words, we stop seeing, and when that hap pens, that is when the mist begins to form; that is, when all things around the crystal gazer, as he relates, begin to disappear. He is temporarily losing possession of his sense of sight, and since he has already suppressed his other fourperipheral faculties he is practically in a subjective state. His entire objective consciousness is nearly dormant, and the impressions of the subjective flow freely, then, unreleased, unorganized, without the control of will. They form various scenes, impressions, or images, and those images which he thinks he sees in the crystal ball or in any other medium he is using, actually are being formed within his own mind and are not in the crystal itself. The subject has not placed himself into a proper psychical state for genuine psychic phenomena. The fact of the matter is that after numerous experi ments conducted by psychical researchers, there are prac tically no cases on record of two persons simultaneously concentrating upon the crystal ball who have seen the same image. The impressions or scenes are the result of, first, lost memoriessomething that we experienced years ago, and that made very little impression upon us at the time, or which we recalled for a few days or weeks, then forgot entirely, and have been unable to recollect or call forth. It returns from the subjective to the border of the objec tive consciousness, and seems new or different to us. Next, there are the unconscious impressions which we have ex plained above, things that we see and hear, and of which we are hardly conscious, which partly register and pass

through to the subjective and are retained there. Third, the most common causes of these visual images are tele pathic projections. Quite frequently one in this border line state of consciousness through crystal gazing may re ceive a telepathic message or mental impression of another. The one who transmits the impression may not be con scious of doing so. It may be merely that he has, at the moment, been quite emotionally agitated, and has, for a second or two, held in mind some word or scene, and then released it; and at that moment, the crystal gazer is the recipient of it. That this is so, has been proved to be fact by psychical research. Some years ago, a woman caused considerable comment in occult and scientific circles by the remarkable accuracy of scenes and images and messages in her crystals. She was quite sincere in her practices. She offered no ex planation as to how they occurred. Psychical research ers were of the opinion that her experiences were tele pathic, and they set about to prove it. Unbeknown to the crystal gazer, they arranged with a woman in England, who was quite successful in telepathy, to transmit a mes sage at a given hour to this crystal gazer. On the pre arranged date, the crystal gazer was asked to go through her usual procedure in the presence of the investigators. The crystal gazer had never been to England, and, I re peat, knew nothing of the experiment. A t the conclusion of this seance, the crystal gazer, to the surprise of the in vestigators, did not receive the message of the woman but described the woman accurately, her physical appear ance, the mode of her dress, the room in which she was located, even the very chair in which she was seated. The investigators checked on the story and found that the

woman was so dressed, was in a room of that nature at that hour, and was seated as had been related. The scene had been transmitted more forcefully than the message. Crystal gazing had been used as a method among aborigines for the purpose of divination. The Polynesians were wont upon occasion, when they had lost something of great importance, to go in solitude to some still, deep pool, and seated on a branch overlooking it, gaze intently into it for minutes at a time. The images that formed in the depth of the pool, to them revealed by inference where the lost article might be found, or where they might derive information as to where the object could be located. W e have no record as to the success of the divinations, or what explanations the Polynesians made if they did not locate the article by this means.

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