PROFESSOR BARRETT'S PAPER.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR:1
STE,—In the present stage of the controversy respecting so-called spiritualistic phenomena, perhaps you may find room for the following extract from a letter received this morning from Brisbane, under date August 1. The writer (my brother) left England on March 17 last, and of course wrote in ignorance of the conclusions arrived at by Professor Barrett. The extract is taken from a chatty letter to my wife :— : must tell you that I have had some rare manifestations from the
'spirits' since I came here. I inquired how you all were at home, and when I asked for you the table thumped as if %would break its legs. Mediums say this is a sign ' they ' are pleased to give the information. I do not believe in the spirit theory at all, for I find the answers can be regulated by the will. The force, however, is there, without doubt ; only those who first became aware of it ignorantly attributed it to spirits. I have had a table under my own hands, and left entirely to myself after it had been influenced by the medium, which travelled with me all over the room and answered any questions I asked it. If you so wish it the table gives expression (by tipping to the letters of the alphabet) to any idea you fix your mind on, and it is thus that persons have been led to attribute the manifestations to spirits. Questions have been asked relating to things known only to the questioner, and correct answers are given when the questioner's mind is fixed (as it nearly always is) upon the right answer. Should the questioner fix his attention on a wrong answer, that wrong answer is given,—ergo, the force is a real and natural force, the spirit theory a humbug."
This conclusion is interesting from its being identical with that of Professor Barrett and arrived at independently. The writer I know to be as incapable of conscious exaggeration as he is of deliberate falsehood.
I think with the Spectator that a case for inquiry has been made
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