SPIRIT MESSAGES
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. Joad endorses Dr. Broad's ingenious but hypo- thetical theory, that
The attractiveness of this theory consists in its ability to rxplain that double reference of spirit messages . . . The reinini- eences of the medium's personality are due to the fact that the niediuin's body is one of the elements upon which the new temporary 11144 emerges."
Unfortunately, he does not explain why there should be any reminiscences at all of a medium's personality if the mind t hat forms the " spirit message " is an emergent. The especial characteristic of this mind or emergent is that it is composed of a " psychic factor " and the medium's body but at the same time exhibits none of the characteristics of its two component parts. That any trait of the medium's personality should be disclosed in the ultimate " spirit message " is in direct conflict with the definition of an emergent, or, in other words, a compound.
Although, as Mr. Joad admits, the " theory " is nothing more than guesswork to explain the existence of double refer- ence in " spirit messages " yet it does not even accomplish that. The banality and general vagueness of the messages cannot be attributed to the meditun for, according to Dr. Broad's own theory, when a medium is in a trance, his "psychic factor" is displaced by that of some other person, or surviving spirit, so that any reminiscences of the medium's personality would have to be corporeal in character : this, of course, is only true if the two elements combine to form not an emergent but a mixture.
Mr. Joad, at the outset, draws a definite line of demarcation between physical and psychological phenomena in connexion with the Schneider seances. Had lie not neglected to treat proof
of the former as, at least, contributing towards proof of the latter, he would have found that Dr. Broad's theory is, in
reality, nothing more than a corollary of the Schneider seances.
At those seances objects were moved by paranormal means. Both Dr. W. Brown and Professor Harris observed that the
force which emerged from the medium's body (the force which
moved the objects) bore a definite relation towards his breath- ing. The moving of the objects. could only be explained by
saying that it was due to the energies of the medium's body plus a psychic force which Dr. Broad calls the " psychic factor."—I am, Sir, &c., S. `WEN. Oaklands, Merchers Gardens, Cardiff.
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