HAUNTED HOUSES AND HAUNTED MEN.
Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men. By the Hon. John Harris. (Philip Wellby. 2s. 6d.)—The author's " inferences " are that the records of haunted men and houses are due to hypnotism, and much information is given of this occult force in this little volume. That much, especially in the way of apparently evil influence of which we read in the earlier world, may be explained on the ground of psychical suggestion conveyed by seemingly immaterial means, we have little doubt. But we confess that some of the well-authenticated stories of "visions" and hauntings do not appear to us to admit of quite so simple an explanation. Mr. Barris thinks that Mrs. Piper hypnotised Mr. Myers and Dr. Hodgson. We should doubt if two such strong intellects, who were, moreover, consciously investigating a singular case in a scientific spirit, would have come entirely under the influence of a woman of whom no mental power, no evil quality, nothing remarkable save in one respect, is recorded. The occurrences at B—House in Perthshire, of which we have given an account, are also put down to hypnotism, of which, if that is the explanation, not only Miss Freer, but several of her guests of quite different dispositions must have been victims. There is a slight reference to M. Flammarion, but it is impossible for us to believe that the hundreds of cases recorded by him can be solved by this one word,—hypnotism. His chapter on hallucinations, which distinguishes these phenomena from those experienced, his examination of the various categories of psychical events, compel us to conclude either that many of these are removed from the class properly called hypnotic, or that the hypnotic class must be greatly extended and the word must receive some wider meaning. But this little book is worth reading, and we commend it to all interested in the subject.
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