登陆注册
4811200000072

第72章 "MATTER THROUGH MATTER"(3)

Turning, now, to a consideration of the seance, we find that many of these psychological rules still hold good, and their operation enables the medium to perform many actions which would otherwise be impossible. A certain suggestion is given to the sitters, and imagination and inference do the rest. "Our conclusions as to what we see or hear are always founded on a combination of observation and inference; but in daily life it is seldom necessary to distinguish between the two elements, since, when the object and its mode of presentation are familiar, our inferences are generally correct. But it is different when, owing to circumstances, such as a bad light, we have to infer more in proportion to what we perceive than usual; or when some one, e. g., a conjurer or a ventriloquist, is trying to deceive us by presenting one object under the familiar aspect of another, and suggesting false inferences. It is not uncommon to find people at seances encouraging each other in the belief that they see, say, a living human figure, when all that they actually SEE is something moving which is about the size of a human being; the rest is inference." How true these last remarks are is demonstrated by the statement, made in The Revelations of a Spirit Medium, that an old wire mask frequently used at materializing seances had been recognized "by dozens of persons as fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, cousins, sweethearts, wives, husbands, and various other relatives and friends. None but the medium knew that it was only a fifty-cent wire mask, hence none but the medium could enjoy the humor of the occasion."One of the most instructive incidents I know, in relation to this question of the psychology of deception, is the one given by Doctor Hodgson[1]--the case of the officer and the Hindu juggler. In this case, a trick was performed before an English officer and his wife, and Doctor Hodgson happened to overhear this officer telling some travelers of the experience at dinner that evening. "Referring to the movements of the coins, he said that he had taken a coin from his own pocket and placed it on the ground himself, yet that this coin had indulged in the same freaks as the other coins. His wife ventured to suggest that the juggler had takenthe coin and placed it on the ground, but the officer was emphatic in repeating his statement, and appealed to me for confirmation. He was, however, mistaken. I had watched the transaction with special curiosity, as I knew what was necessary for the performance of the trick. The officer had apparently intended to place the coin upon the ground himself, but as he was doing so, the juggler leaned slightly forward, dexterously and in a most unobtrusive manner received the coin from the fingers of the officer, as the latter was stooping down, and laid it close to the others. If the juggler had not thus taken the coin, but had allowed the officer himself to place it on the ground, the trick, as actually performed, would have been frustrated.

[1] Proceedings Society for Psychical Research, Vol. IV., pp. 385-6. "Now I think it highly improbable that the movement of the jugglerentirely escaped the perception of the officer; highly improbable, that is to say, that the officer was absolutely unaware of the juggler's action at the moment of its happening; but I suppose that, although an impression was made on his consciousness, it was so slight as to be speedily effaced by the officer's IMAGINATION of himself as stooping and placing the coin upon the ground. The officer, I may say, had obtained no insight into the modus operandi of the trick, and his fundamental misrepresentation of the only patent occurrence that might have given him a clew to its performance debarred him completely from afterwards, on reflection, arriving at any explanation. Just similarly, many an honest witness may have described himself as having placed one slate upon another at a sitting with a medium, whereas it was the medium who did so, and who possibly effected at the same time one or two other operations altogether unnoticed by the witness."In reading through descriptions of slate-writing seances, we very seldom find the statement made as to WHO placed the slates on the table, or under the table, etc., generally the account reading "the slates were then placed on the table," without any qualifying statement as to WHO placed them there. Accounts of this kind are absolutely worthless, from an evidential standpoint. We must at once ask ourselves: who placed the slates in that position? and if it was the medium--as it probably was in thevast majority of instances--then that test, in all probability, ceases to have any evidential weight. Anyone can read over a number of accounts of slate-writing performances, and verify these statements, if he chooses to do so. Frequently, the statement is made that the sitter did actually place the slate on the table, when in reality the medium did so. This error is quite unconscious on the sitter's part, of course, but the account is falsified, nevertheless. Mistakes of this kind are very common, the sitter thinking afterwards that he (the sitter) MUST have placed the slates on the table himself!

同类推荐
  • 无锡县志

    无锡县志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 开庆四明续志

    开庆四明续志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 史载之方

    史载之方

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 莲修起信录

    莲修起信录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Gentle Grafter

    The Gentle Grafter

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 爱到极致,行到极端

    爱到极致,行到极端

    您想过吗?离开枯燥乏味的城市,到梦想中的远方旅行。当您还在向往着能够实现一次说走就走、拿上背包旅行的梦想时,有一对情侣夫妇突破了世俗的羁绊,勇敢地向极限挺进……到极地去,到火山去。他们的实践为怀有梦想的人们开了先河,用本文主人公张昕宇的话来说就是:“有些事情是值得用生命去做的,每个人都有梦想,梦想能否实现并不在你有多少钱,而在于你对它的热情有多大,付出有多大。”他们身体力行的“侣行”或许对怀有梦想的人们是一种启示。零下71.2℃的求婚计划不来雅库茨克,我得后悔一辈子扔下一包行李,乘着装甲车假装去索马里南,出了市区,立马绕道直奔机场。
  • 大道禁区

    大道禁区

    生活,本不易。异界生活,更不易。到了异界后觉得……我……尼玛……
  • 佛说菩萨逝经

    佛说菩萨逝经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 天书宝典

    天书宝典

    天地间第一本书——无字天书。被混沌宇宙神所得,并被其炼成传承宝典。且看天书化人,纵横天下。踏足武道巅峰,成就一代神皇。
  • 追忆似水年华:在少女们身旁(第二卷)

    追忆似水年华:在少女们身旁(第二卷)

    《追忆似水年华》以回忆的形式对往事作了回顾,有童年的回忆、家庭生活、初恋与失恋、历史事件的观察、以及对艺术的见解和对时空的认识等等。时间是这部小说的主人公。作者凭着智慧和想象力,使时间变得具体、生动、完美。它就像一首由多种主题构成的交响乐,爱情、嫉妒、死亡、回忆、时光,时而交叉重叠在一起,时而又游离开来,然而在宏观上,整个作品浑然一体,具有蓬勃的生命力。《追忆似水年华》被公认为文学创作的一次新的尝试,开意识流小说之先河。
  • 我的梦很奇怪

    我的梦很奇怪

    掌控死亡的勇者黑暗笼罩的光明自我放逐的剑仙沐浴鲜血的女王。。。。。。。闭上双眼他们传奇的一生出现在我的梦里
  • 先结婚后恋爱

    先结婚后恋爱

    幽暗的后巷里,借着微弱的灯光,只见一个纤细的小手费劲地跟一条皮带软劲,而这条皮带的主人则是一个英俊潇洒的男人。几分钟以后,一个女人站了起来,十分满意的看着手里试管,扬长而去。片断一“先生,请看好您的女儿,请不要让她到处乱跑。”美丽的空姐对着南宫浩说道。“女儿?”南宫浩脸沉了下来,对小孩子他一贯是不喜欢的,再说,他从没有跟女人,哪里来的女儿?“不错,很帅。不过和我比起来还是稍逊一筹。”一个可爱的小女孩走到南宫浩眼前,上下打量。南宫浩愣住了,这个孩子怎么和自己长得一模一样?片断二“死女人,谁给你的权力,让你生下我的孩子?”南宫浩怒目瞪着苏楠。“对不起。”毕竟是自己不对,道个歉也不会死人,苏楠低眉顺眼地说道。“明天带着孩子嫁过来。”南宫浩看到苏楠的样子稍平息一点怒火。“不行。”苏楠一百个一万个不愿意。“你觉得你有资格说不吗?”南宫浩不怒反笑。苏楠则是缩了缩身子,不敢反抗。
  • 我的宠物波波

    我的宠物波波

    波波不是我的第一只宠物,它算不上有多可爱,还很调皮,偶尔也会闹脾气,可却是我后来生活里的一大部分。在它走失后我无比想念它,以此纪念。
  • 盛宠小蛮妃

    盛宠小蛮妃

    葬身火海,她从地狱归来——曾经的将门贵女,先帝亲封郡主,成了深宅中人人可欺的沈三小姐;为查家族被灭旧案,她步步为营,为复仇,她遇神杀神,魔挡屠魔;只是,这位王爷,你找你的王妃干嘛来惹我?情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 成神之路

    成神之路

    为了国服英雄联盟的希望,一代杀神许阳,强势崛起,但是在MSI输给韩国的最强战队之后,杀神许阳竟不幸发生车祸而亡。杀神许阳的离去,是国服巨大的损失,甚至国服再没有能够对抗世界顶尖战队的实力。就在此时,杀神的弟弟,许浩,带着哥哥的希望,替许阳,再次踏上了英雄联盟的道路,为了国服的荣耀,征战!