- Psychical Research and the Theorists -
P.S. Haley, Ph.C., D.D.S., Pres.
Calif. Soc. for Psychic Research.
. . . . . Many philosophers have lived and died since the days of Descartes, and others are still with us, but they are changing. They now listen to the facts of the scientist before they write their philosophies. And they are the better philosophers for it. Their writings are still far from presenting a complete picture of the mind-body relation and of man's place in the universe, but they are more careful in their selection of material.
It cannot be said that the parapsychologist, unable as he is to accept the revelations of the prophet and seer, has as yet the final answer to the problem. But he has more of solid fact behind him, though he may not see as far into the heavenly realms as the mystics do. He can state the properties of ectoplasm, for instance. He knows that it emanates from the body, that it is often of whitish appearance, that it is luminous at times, that it is subject to the influence of the mind of the medium who elaborates it, that it is capable of morphological alteration, building up at times into various shapes, some of which are moulded into unmistakable likenesses of people long since passed into the spirit world, that at times, at least, when contacting the skin of observers, it may cause a feeling of numbness therein, and that it develops mass and weight at the expense of the body of the medium and even the observers.
The parapsychologist also knows that he deals with phenomena which transcend the classical concepts of time and space. Certain psychic events such as telepathy illustrates happen over thousands of miles in a split second. The parapsychologist has not yet reached the place where the spiritualist stands, but he has unearthed much evidence upon which to found a belief in communication with spirits. Far from being the enemy of the devout, far from discouraging their cherished belief in their God who is good and their spirit friends who help and guide them, the scientist in the field of parapsychology is moving in the opposite direction.
(Closing paragraphs of an address
recently delivered before a
San Francisco audience.)