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THE LAW OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA




BY DR. HUDSON.


  THE LAW OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 12mo                      $1.50

  A SCIENTIFIC DEMONSTRATION OF THE FUTURE LIFE. 12mo      1.50

  THE DIVINE PEDIGREE OF MAN. 12mo                         1.50

  THE LAW OF MENTAL MEDICINE. 12mo                        $1.20 _net_

  THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL. 12mo                          1.20 _net_


A.C. MCCLURG & CO.

CHICAGO.




  THE LAW

  OF

  PSYCHIC PHENOMENA

  A Working Hypothesis

  FOR THE

  SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF HYPNOTISM,
  SPIRITISM, MENTAL THERAPEUTICS,
  ETC.

  BY

  THOMSON JAY HUDSON, PH.D., LL.D.

  AUTHOR OF "A SCIENTIFIC DEMONSTRATION OF THE FUTURE LIFE,"
  "THE DIVINE PEDIGREE OF MAN," ETC.

  [Illustration]

  SIXTIETH THOUSAND

  CHICAGO
  A.C. MCCLURG & CO.
  1904




  COPYRIGHT
  BY A.C. MCCLURG AND CO.
  A.D. 1893


  UNIVERSITY PRESS, JOHN WILSON
  AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.




TO THE

Honorable Lester L. Bond,

THE COMPANION OF MY YOUTH, THE STEADFAST FRIEND OF MY MANHOOD, MY
MENTOR ALWAYS,

THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY

  THE AUTHOR.




PREFACE.


I do not expect this book to stand upon its literary merits; for if it
is unsound in principle, felicity of diction cannot save it, and if
sound, homeliness of expression cannot destroy it. My primary object
in offering it to the public is to assist in bringing Psychology
within the domain of the exact sciences. That this has never been
accomplished is owing to the fact that no successful attempt has been
made to formulate a working hypothesis sufficiently comprehensive to
embrace all psychic phenomena. It has, however, long been felt by the
ablest thinkers of our time that all psychic manifestations of the
human intellect, normal or abnormal, whether designated by the name
of mesmerism, hypnotism, somnambulism, trance, spiritism, demonology,
miracle, mental therapeutics, genius, or insanity, are in some way
related; and consequently, that they are to be referred to some general
principle or law, which, once understood, will simplify and correlate
the whole subject-matter, and possibly remove it from the domain of
the supernatural. The London Society for Psychical Research, whose
ramifications extend all over the civilized world, was organized for
the purpose of making a systematic search for that law. The Society
numbers among its membership many of the ablest scientists now living.
Its methods of investigation are purely scientific, and painstaking
to the last degree, and its field embraces all psychic phenomena. It
has already accumulated and verified a vast array of facts of the most
transcendent interest and importance. In the mean time a large number
of the ablest scientists of Europe and America have been pursuing
independent investigations in the phenomena of hypnotism. They too
have accumulated facts and discovered principles of vast importance,
especially in the field of mental therapeutics,--principles which also
throw a flood of light upon the general subject of Psychology.

This vast array of facts, thus accumulated and verified, and awaiting
scientific classification and analysis, would seem to justify at least
a tentative effort to apply to them the processes of induction, to the
end that the fundamental law of psychic phenomena may be discovered.

In the following pages I have attempted such a classification of
verified phenomena, accounts of which I find in the literature current
on the subject; and I have tentatively formulated a working hypothesis
for the systematic study of all classes of psychic phenomena. It
will be observed that I have availed myself largely of the labors of
others, instead of confining myself to experimental researches of my
own. I have done this for two reasons: _first_, that I might avoid the
accusation of having conducted a series of experiments for the purpose
of sustaining a pet theory of my own; and _second_, because I hold that
substantial progress cannot be made in science until one is ready to
accord due credit to human integrity, and to give due weight to human
testimony.

In conclusion, I desire to say that I