A SYMPOSIUM ON SPIRITUALISM.•
This is a very disappointing book. Nothing could be more imposing than the list of the contributors to Mr. Huntly Carter's Symposium. We fear we must add that few things could be less valuable than the remarks made by the majority of those who sat down to his visionary banquet. The writers either carefully guard themselves from making admissions, or else give themselves hopelessly away. An irritated critic might indeed describe the book as a mixture of treacle and sawdust. But though there is so large and so depressing an amount of both these ingredients, the work occasionally deviates into sense. Here let us say that the said sense is, curiously enough, more often to be found in the writings of those who have an open mind on the subject at issue and realize the great importance of investigating alleged spiritual phenomena than in those of the hide-bound materialists who think they can dismiss the whole business as rubbish because it does not at in with their physical theories; or, again, of those self -styled men of science who, in the true spirit of mediaeval intolerance, try to raise the bogy that the investigation of spiritual phenomena will drive people mad. They seem to forget that this was what the mediaeval Church always said in regard to scientific investigation. The astronomer was in danger of being burnt as an astrologer, the chemist as an alchemist.
Very sane and sensible is Dr. Clays Shaw's dealing with the problem of insanity and spiritualism. After duly noting the importance of the instinct of curiosity as a spur to scientific research, he writes as follows
" One of the main objects of this symposium is to consider the relation between the study of the mystic cult and the setting up a form of insanity in those who attend seances and give themselves up to the subject ; in other words, does insanity result from the practice of crystal-gazing, of attending silances, from telepathic suggestions, Acc. '1 In my opinion it does not. I see no reason why the study and practice of Spiritualism should unhinge the mind when carried on in moderation, any more than does the study of mathematics or of political economy, or of abstract work in general. . . . What is there in studying spiritualistic manifestations that is so dangerous to mental integrity ? It is said that it is too emotional, but so is racing, so is Stock Exchange speculation, so are almost all things in which people are interested. Even ennui itself is a dangerous emotional apathy, and it is surely much better to be interested in something than to lead a vacuous life, rendered • Spiribtaliset. W Present-Day a Symposium. Edited by Madly Carter. Loudon T. Fisher liable. ilea. seta
tedious and uninteresting by the absence of stimulus to mental occupation."
Equally reasonable in another way is Miss May Sinclair's contribution to the Symposium.
We cannot, however, leave the book without a word as
to the short but exceedingly interesting paper contri- buted by Dr. Gustav Geley, President of the International Metapsychic Institute of Paris. It is, in effect, a short analysis
of his book De l'Inconscient an Conscient. After dealing with what he regards as the absurdity of the " classical teaching on the complex cellular being," and referring to the facts which have merged from his own laboratory studies, he proceeds :—
"These facts prove that the organic complex, the body, instead of being the whole of the individual, is but a product of that which is essential in the individual, a psychic force which conditions everything, which is everything. An examina- tion of the psychological individual leads to an identical con- ception.
" Psycho-physiological parallelism, the keystone of materialism, is only an illusion based on an incomplete analysis of the facts. The most important part of the mental personality totally escapes it. This part is constituted by the subconscious, which forms the very foundations of the being ; enshrines all the essential characteristics, the inner faculties ; is the source of inspiration, of genius, of the intuition, of the cryptopsyehe and of oryptomneeia.
"Everything passes, in a word, as if the essential psychic force of the being was a psychic force in great part subconscious, independent of the functioning' of the organism, and in conse- quence pre-existing and surviving it. "Now, the personal consciousness, the memory of Self, is an integral part of this essential psychic force. There is no gulf between the unconscious and the conscious, but continual interpenetration. Evolution is nothing else than the passing of the essential psychic force from the primitive unconscious to the conscious."
The searcher may be disappointed, but at any rate he knows what he is looking for, and the object of his search is of incomparable interest.
Previous page
