Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men by John William Harris
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senses, created so far as originated by any external cause, by
other minds either in the body or out of the body, which are themselves invisible in the ordinary and physical sense of the term, and really acting through some means at present very imperfectly known." This would include hypnotism at a distance, but also perhaps spirits. Dr. Gowers has recently (reported in the _Lancet_), in a speech at University College, pointed out the close connection of the optic and auditory nerves with regard to cases of deafness. The young lady who, when an attempt at transferring the sight of a candle to her was made, heard the word candle or something like it, the first letter doubtful, shows that thought transfer is to the ear as well as to the eye, or at least goes over from one to the other; she says, "You know I as often hear the name of the object as see the thing itself." This may have been from a mental effort to receive distinctly an inefficiently acute impression of her friend's. She saw a jug seen by her friend, and heard the train she heard. The colour of the jug differed a little. The distance fourteen miles. Audible speech might thus be helped by despatching a picture of the idea from a distance. Other people must be like Miss Campbell.[1] There must be material force in this, since a thought heightens the temperature of the brain. But this force has its limits of distance, &c. [Footnote 1: Podmores "Studies," p. 228.] To connect apparitions with hypnotism. In their case, and in so-called spiritual experiences (spiritistic is the |
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