Introductory
5
actually been done will make the position clearer. The phenomena to be investigated by the Society were roughly classified in 1882 under five heads:
- An examination of the nature and extent of any influence which may be exerted by one mind upon another, apart from any generally recognised mode of perception.
- The study of hypnotism, and the forms of so-called mesmeric trance, with its alleged insensibility to pain; clairvoyance, and other allied phenomena.
- A critical revision of Reichenbach's researches with certain organisations called "sensitive", and an inquiry whether such organisations possess any power of perception beyond a highly exalted sensibility of the recognised sensory organs.
- A careful investigation of any reports, resting on strong testimony, regarding apparitions at the moment of death, or otherwise, or regarding disturbances in houses reputed to be haunted.
- An inquiry into the various physical phenomena commonly called spiritualistic; with an attempt to discover their causes and general laws.
The inquiry under heading 3 proved inconclusive; but there seems now little room for doubt that the phenomena reported by Reichenbach were due in the main to unconscious suggestion, a fruitful and until recent years insufficiently recognised source of error in all investigations in this obscure region. The inquiries under 1, 4, and 5 are still proceeding; and the results so far reached will be set forth in the chapters which follow. But the study of hypnotism (2) has been practically abandoned of recent years by the lay members of
