Part 44 (2/2)
Here Weissmann again broke in. ”You will enroll yourself with Aksakof and Von Hartmann and Lombroso?”
”Not precisely. They admit the reality of the appearances. I do not believe that the mind has power to dematerialize objects, as in the case of your wine-gla.s.s last night, which was a trick.”
”But the mind can produce a blister without external cause,” said Serviss. ”You hypnotic sharps have proved that it can also deaden nerves and heal skin diseases, if not bone fractures.”
”Yes, we produce marvellous cures within the organism, but we draw the line at the periphery of the body. Telekinesis is to me the word of a lively fictionist.”
”One is as easy to believe as the other, and Crookes, Lodge, Lombroso, Tamburini, Aksakof, Von Hartmann, all believe in the reality of these happenings,” retorted Serviss. ”They differ only in their explanations. One party believes them due to disembodied spirits, the other relates them to the inexplicable action of a certain psychic force generated within the sitters and acting on objects at a distance. I am not yet persuaded of the phenomena, but I am progressing. I am willing to admit that these gentlemen are ent.i.tled to a respectful hearing.”
Tolman resumed his own explanation, and after several premises and general statements put a case. ”For example, take automatic writing.
You begin by placing a pad and pencil before the mind. That suggests writing--sets up a certain train of a.s.sociated ideas. These ideas have the innate tendency to realize themselves, the will of the subject being weakened. This is why the left hand is often used. These ideas disa.s.sociate themselves from the rest of the mental organism and may, in highly developed cases, become what is called a 'secondary personality.' They may give a weak imitation of discourse. They may a.s.sume a vague resemblance to some other individual, but they can never give a full statement or a new statement. This is why all the so-called spirit communications are so fragmentary and so futile. The cure of any such state is to set up a strong current of counter-suggestion.”
Weissmann asked: ”Is it not extravagant to say that there can exist in the unconscious mind of a young girl, a skill so great as will enable her to draw intricate patterns, manipulate objects at a distance, and impersonate dead persons unknown to her?”
”But there you have pa.s.sed into the region of hallucination or deceit.”
”I'm not so sure of that. I do not see how fraud or hallucination can come into the most of what we saw last night. I will admit that coming alone by itself the test would have little weight; but it does not come alone. The literature of the subject is great and growing.”
Tolman smiled. ”Yes, the newspapers are filled with accounts of mediums exposed.”
They entered then upon a discussion of the trance, and pa.s.sed to a consideration of multiple personality, which brought out many singular facts. ”We learned also,” Tolman said in discussion of a certain case which he had studied, ”that certain drugs have the power of arousing specific nerve-centres, and that in cases of alternating personality by flooding the brain with blood we were able to bring back the normal self.”
”Doesn't that weaken your argument of the power of mind over matter?”
asked Serviss, profoundly interested in this a.s.sertion.
”Not at all. It is my belief in the drug that influences the patient.”
Serviss laughed and Weissmann's mouth twitched. ”You cannot head them off--these modern mind-specialists! They plunge into the subconscious like prairie-dogs into the sod, only to come up at a new point.”
Tolman's interest in the unknown psychic was now keen, and he asked for a chance to try his powers.
To this Serviss was strongly averse. ”I have never had a chance at a case of this kind and I would very much like to experiment. Perhaps I may need you; but if suggestion is what you claim it to be, if the power is really in the mind of the subject, I can arouse it as well as any one. But as a believer in matter I would like to ally myself with the drug you mention.”
”Very well, here is the prescription.” He jotted down on a card a few hieroglyphic phrases. ”And now I must hurry away. I'm sorry, but I have an engagement.”
Serviss took his hand cordially. ”I'm glad to have had this talk with you. It has suggested a new train of thought to me.”
”If you need me on the case you mention, be sure to let me know. It sounds mighty interesting, and I'd like a hand in it.”
After Tolman left, Weissmann remarked: ”There is a school of thinkers which believes that exceptional individuals may have the power to effect molecular changes in matter at a distance.”
”Yes, I know that. I spent most of the night reading the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, in which that theory has a large place.”
”Well, may it not be that Miss Lambert has this power? May it not be that she is able in some such way as that suggested by Lombroso, to impart cerebral movements to the ether and so modify matter as to produce movement of objects, telekinetic writing, and all the rest of it?”
”That is too violent an a.s.sumption. We might as well surrender to the spiritists at once. What evidence have we that Clarke did not rise and tiptoe about the room manipulating the horn himself?”
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