THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1913. MENTAL TELEPATHY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 14 January 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1913. MENTAL TELEPATHY.

There are »o many intricate social and other problems requiring solution on this terrestrial sphere, that few people find time for t'ho discussion of the occult or the super-natural. There is one distinguishaed scientist, however, in the person of Sir Oliver Lodge, who is astounding tho world, with his treati«e on these subjects. Tn a recent issue of the Science Quarterly, Sir Oliver ha« soino interesting things to say about telepathy. He explains "why we regard telepathy as philosophically important, if real. Tho fundamental issue is whether consciousness, apart from brains, has any meaning. Brain, nervous system, nndl muscle, in combination, obviously constitute the instrument by which mind' (manifests itself here and now; and in the absence of its customary living brain, normal manifestation admittedly ceases. Tn the absence of all brain and nerve, probably not even super-normal psychic manifestations can occur. But it by no means follows that consciousness and memory cease to exist. A genuine agnostic should grant the possibility, but ;

should go on to ask how on earth wo t are going to establish their existence, in that on so. And wo should replythat telepathy appears to bo a nonaL process of communication between minds, not as usual between brain*—though we refrain from 'dogmatising on so difficult and momentous a, proposition —and that-it tends to suggest a doctrine intolerable to materialistic- philosophy, T realise that physical phenomena of an unusual and Miner-normal kind do occur in the neighbourhood of certain persons, without my being able to explain how they occur. All that T can tesuifv t'"> is that something more is involved than is reccgnised in the present state of o'ihoilox science, lam bound to add, however, that my personal view conoorninsr the reality of some abnormal physical phenomena" is not shared by many of the leaders in. t'he Society for Psychical Research, who ■still remain sceptical of everything of this kind, though they have been forced by long-continued evidence to a belief in the truth of telepathy. Without mentioning £lie names of the living. T can say that tho late Mr Podmore belonged conspicuously to this category. Tdo hold that our records ought to establish a. prima facie case for investigation ; and T think that by far the. greater part of the evidence. which we have actually published —especially tb» evidence for telepathv—ought to be received with reasonable respect. lam safe in sayins that Professor' Sidgwick. prover- , biallv cautious as he was. was certainty convinced cf the truth of telepathy—i.e.. of (he facts which hove necessitated that hypothesis n.« the ' minimum whh-h must be granted to .explain them." Mr J. Arthur Hill in Bedrock, envs: "Modern science is based on observation and experiment, i The experts observe, experiment. n"d infer: the man in the street reads tho experts' aocouns, and believe* — if he does believe—on authoritv. Most men in the street believe in X-ray*-: most men in the street disbelieved that the earth revolved round the sun in the days of Galileo and Copernicus, Tn each case the opinion of -such men is valueless; they have made no first-hand 1 observation of experiment; they are not scientific, lam not biased in favour of a 'future life' —-more accurately, survival of personality. Ido not want any future I life. I contemplate with, something approaching dread and dismay the possibility that my personality will go on existing and suffering after death. I should greatly prefer extinction*; and it is extinction that I hope and long for. Tf T have been driven by sheer force of evidence to believe that personal survival is a fact, I 'can honestly say that it has "been j against inv will. I had and have a 'strong 'will to disbelieve'; but facts ' are facts, and some o,f the facts of my experience and that of my intimate. friends are in my opinion most rationally interpreted by the provi- | siona! hypothesis (J will not ,be driven furthe'-. even by facts) of discarnate minds still active and. able to communicate. This forced conclusion, tentative though it is. I repeat is profoundly distasteful to me."