IC-NRLF 
 
 SB 57 IfiH 
 
 HAS 
 
 SWEDENBORG'S 
 "LOST WORD" 
 BEEN FOUND? 
 EDMUNDS, 
 
GIFT OF 
 
VOL. VII. No. 5. 
 
 JOURNAL 
 
 May, 1913. 
 
 OF THE 
 
 American Society for Psychical Research 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 GENERAL ARTICLES: PAGE 
 
 Has Swedenborjf's "Lost Word" Been 
 
 Found ? - - 257 
 
 " Journeys to the Planet Mars " - - 272 
 Personal Experiences - 284 
 
 EDITORIAL : 
 
 Professor Muensterberg's Progress - 296 
 
 BOOK RB VIEWS - 
 
 303 
 
 HAS SWEDENBORG'S " LOST WORD " BEEN 
 
 FOUND? 
 
 By Albert J. Edmunds. 
 
 \i 
 
 When an astronomer makes an observation, his first step 
 is to calculate for refraction. He knows that the star he is 
 studying- does not send its rays directly into our atmosphere, 
 but obliquely: those rays are bent in their course by that 
 atmosphere, and this distortion must be allowed for before 
 any successful calculation can be made. 
 
 Must we not allow for a like refraction in spiritual things? 
 Is not Swedenborg's Doctrine of Adaptation an attempt to 
 account for this very phenomenon? Such being the case, it 
 will not be strange if the seer's own visions require a calcu- 
 lation for distortion. Of course, in this case, we shall be 
 " wise after the event." But only by being 1 thus wise a great 
 many times can we make any progress at all in the most dif- 
 ficult and recondite of all the sciences. 
 
 When a ship is arriving in a fog, the first thing that we 
 know is merely that some large object is coming: only by de- 
 grees do we descry the outlines of a ship. So, in our psychical 
 Jabberwock, we can be sure that " somebody killed some- 
 thing " long before we know who and what. But science is 
 patient, and refuses to throw up the sponge refuses to say: 
 " This uncertain nonsense is not worth while ! " I have ob- 
 
 264195 
 
258 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 served myself that mental images go in pairs, and that the 
 wrong one is liable to be projected into the mind. 
 
 In my first copy of this article, intended for a Sweden- 
 borgian magazine, I refrained from giving a sample of the 
 experiences which led me to formulate this law, tho I dis- 
 tinctly said that it was based upon experience. A Sweden- 
 borgian minister, who read the manuscript, thereupon re- 
 marked : 
 
 " ' Pairs of images ' seems to me a pure fiction imported 
 for a special purpose." 
 
 This convinced me of the hopelessness of presenting sci- 
 entific criticism to the average theologian. I now give one 
 experience out of many which have led me to formulate a law 
 of pairs. In 1893 I dreamed that John Wana maker had 
 died. Shortly afterwards Anthony J. Drexel died. Now, of 
 the two, both of whom meant nothing to me but local 
 magnates, Wanamaker was the one whom I had seen, but 
 Drexel never. I therefore concluded that the basis of my 
 dream was the death of Drexel, whose image, being strange 
 to me, was supplanted by that of Wanamaker, already in my 
 mind. Many more experiences of this nature have led me 
 to formulate a law of pairs or groups in mental images, 
 whereby the one most familiar is projected into the mind in 
 place of an unknown one. Far from my tentative law being 
 " pure fiction, imported for a special purpose," it was the 
 result of experience, used to explain phenomena. 
 
 In my article in The Helper * for March 16, 1898, I sum- 
 marized the conclusions of Richard Hodgson with respect to 
 alleged post-mortem communications, and pointed out the 
 difficulties of obtaining correct answers from spirits. 
 
 Richard Hodgson died in 1905, regretted by all who knew 
 him. That vigorous, transparent, athletic personality was a 
 champion of whom any cause might be proud. Since his 
 death, his apostolic successor, Dr. James H. Hyslop, has been 
 experimenting with a series of trance-communications pur- 
 porting to come from Hodgson's continued personality. In 
 
 * Imperfectly and incorrectly reprinted in The New-Church Messenger 
 in recent years. 
 
Has Swedcnborg's "Lost Word" Been Found? 259 
 
 a Report of nearly a thousand pages, dated May, 1912,* 
 Dr. Hyslop gives the following as his predecessor's present 
 opinion : 
 
 " Hodgson Personality ". Sometimes in the early work at 
 the Piper light I could not understand the movements and 
 changes and apparent desire for changes without power to 
 express what the changes ought to be, and I learned much as 
 one would learn the desires of a child before it can talk. 
 
 James H. Hyslop. Good. 
 
 R. H. Now for a long time I have wished to say that 
 many of the lessons I have learned there have been of great 
 use to me in communicating. I knew too much to be a good 
 communicator at first. That is literally true. 
 
 /. H. H. Good. 
 
 R. H. I knew the complications and conditions, and I 
 could not forget them when I made my first efforts ; and the 
 consciousness of them, together with the consciousness of 
 the desires of my friends, hampered and hindered me. You 
 know how that might occur. 
 
 /. H. H. Yes, perfectly. 
 
 R. H. Now much of that condition is worn away, and I 
 am doing better everywhere. William [James] was never as 
 intimately associated with all the forms and methods of ex- 
 pression as I, and he had not so many ideas and understand- 
 ings to overcome. His one desire is to be slow and sure and 
 let nothing come that is not of his own. No fugitive ideas 
 to float in unawares into the communications. This is not 
 a new phase of thought to you and me. The fugitive ex- 
 pressions you understand. 
 
 /. H. H. Yes, perfectly. 
 
 R. H. But we are seeking to eliminate all that, as far as 
 we can, at least; but it is almost impossible to completely 
 inhibit one's self and thought and let nothing but the pure 
 present expression come. Try it yourself in the ordinary 
 conversations of life, and see how the fugitive drops in and is 
 constantly bringing misunderstandings of the idea you are 
 
 * Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research, Vol. VI, 
 New York, May, 1912, pp. 976, octavo, price $8.00. 
 
260 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 trying to express to your most intimate friend. It is all the 
 same, Hyslop. It is expression of personality in either 
 sphere, but personality so distorted and tempered by other 
 personalities that no one is definitely apart and alone. Verily 
 no man liveth to himself. How true that is. We are a few 
 degrees more sensitive than you in the world of physical ex- 
 pression, that is all. 
 
 *I sometimes think that the spirits who have nothing 
 to lose or fear by the way of reputation or understanding- 
 give the clearest messages in an offhand manner about the 
 physical life they have lived and the people who still live in 
 physical surroundings. 
 
 This is just a word I have long wished to give you, and 
 so I rushed to the front with my message before the wires 
 were crossed. 
 
 /. H. H. Good. 
 
 R. H. You do not need to have me write R. H., but I 
 do so that there may be no question in the records. 
 
 /. H. H. Good. 
 
 R. H. Your word might not be sufficient." 
 In transcribing this from the scientific account, Dr. Hyslop 
 has omitted the questions and iterations with which these 
 painfully recorded experiments abound, while I have taken 
 the liberty to punctuate and introduce initials. The full 
 name of William James is also added by me. 
 
 From this important utterance and others like it Dr. Hys- 
 lop deduces the layv that the communicator can neither inhibit his 
 own marginal associations and their transmission, nor the intrusions 
 of other minds and their thoughts, when they are near, aiding. 
 In other words, the communicator projects not only the cen- 
 tral mental image which he wishes to transmit, but the fugi- 
 tive or marginal images that accompany it; while he is also 
 hampered by thoughts in the minds of other spirits around 
 both parties. The formulation of this law is the leading fea- 
 ture of Hyslop's masterly Report. 
 
 The followers of Swedenborg claim an exemption from 
 the law of Refraction for him, on the ground that he was in 
 
 * I have made a fresh paragraph here for the sake of clearness. A. J. E. 
 
Has Sivedeuborg's "Lost Word" Been Found? 261 
 
 both worlds at once, and so received truth direct. But the 
 same claim is made for Buddha, and science, while not deny- 
 ing this claim a priori, seeks to investigate each case for itself. 
 
 We shall now apply this law to the alleged communica- 
 tions made to Emanuel Swedenborg by spirits from Central 
 Asia concerning a lost sacred literature which they affirmed 
 to exist in " Great Tartary " : i. e., in the language of eigh- 
 teenth-century geography, the Chinese Empire outside 
 China proper, but including Chinese Turkestan, as may be seen 
 from contemporary maps.* The first passage concerning 
 these things is found in The Apocalypse Revealed (Amsterdam, 
 1766), paragraph No. 11. For non-Swedenborgians I ex- 
 plain that, according to our Seer, the Old Testament was 
 preceded by an older revelation which he calls the Ancient 
 Word. Our first text now follows : 
 
 " Concerning this Ancient Word, which was extant in 
 Asia before the Israelitish Word, it is worth while to men- 
 tion that it is still preserved among the people who inhabit 
 Great Tartary; I have conversed with spirits and angels in 
 the spiritual world who came from thence, who said that they 
 possess a Word, and have possessed it from ancient times; 
 and in conformity to this Word their Divine worship is es- 
 tablished; and that it consists of mere correspondences: they 
 said that it contains the book of Jasher, which is mentioned 
 in Joshua X. 12, 13, and 2 Sam.uel I, 17, 18; and also that 
 they possess the books mentioned by Moses, as The Wars of 
 Jehovah and The Propheticals (Numbers XXI, 14, 15; 27-30;) 
 and when I read to them the words quoted thence by Moses, 
 they examined whether they were extant there, and found 
 them : from which circumstance it is very clear to me that 
 the old Word is still preserved among them. In the course 
 of the conversation, they said that they worshipped Jehovah, 
 some as an invisible, and some as a visible God. Moreover 
 they related that they do not suffer foreigners to come among 
 them, except the Chinese, with whom they cultivate peace, 
 because the Emperor of China is from their country; and 
 
 * See, for example, Gordon's Geography, published during Swedenborg's 
 lifetime. 
 
262 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 further, that they are so populous, that they do not believe 
 any country in the world to be more so; which is very cred- 
 ible from the wall so many miles long, which the Chinese 
 formerly built as a defence against any invasion from them. 
 [The corresponding passage in the T. C. R. given below, here 
 adds matter about the Creation, Deluge, etc.] Seek for it in 
 China, and per adventure you may find it there among the Tartars." 
 
 Now, applying our principle of Refraction, we may say 
 that, should we find in this region any sacred literature of 
 epoch-making import for the understanding of religion, our 
 Seer's vision would be abundantly justified. Note in the first 
 place that no Old Testament literature or its affinities is 
 forthcoming from this region, but has been found extensively 
 in Babylonia. The Chaldean Creation and Deluge legends 
 of that land, absolutely unexplored in Swedenborg's time, 
 would have been a partial fulfilment of his vision, but literal 
 as to place, had they been discovered in Turkestan. So here 
 we find a vision fulfilled in the wrong place. But I shall 
 presently show that, in Chinese Turkestan, so near the fron- 
 tier of China and so far within the province of Kansu as to 
 answer the description of " China among the Tartars ", there 
 has lately been found Buddhist literature of epoch-making 
 importance for the history of religion, by making more prob- 
 able than ever before an historical connection between the 
 two great world-religions of to-day, and thus furnishing the 
 objective basis for the coming world-cult or final federation 
 of all beliefs. 
 
 My thesis therefore is that Swedenborg had two visions 
 which he mistook for one : viz., 
 
 1. A vision of a lost sacred literature which was the 
 lineal ancestor of the Old Testament, and which was destined 
 to be found in Babylonia; and* 
 
 2. A vision of a far more epoch-making discovery of a 
 lost sacred literature in Chinese Turkestan which was to 
 connect Christianity and Buddhism and lay the foundation 
 for the coming world-religion. 
 
 * It has been pointed out to me by Swedenborgians that Swedenborg was 
 aware of the Ancient Word in Babylonia (D. S. S. 102). But the subject of 
 this paper is the discoveries on the frontier of China. 
 
Has Swedenborg's "Lost Word" Been Found? 263 
 
 But, owing to the fact that Sivedenborg read more Hebrew 
 than Greek, and wrote more about the Old Testament than about 
 the Nciv, his prepossession transformed the New Testament vision 
 into one of Old Testament significance. It may be objected that 
 the two Apocalyptic works of Swedenborg are almost equal 
 in amount to the Arcana Coelestia, especially when consid- 
 ering that the Apocalypse is shorter than Genesis or Exodus, 
 the subjects of the Arcana; but, in the light of modern criti- 
 cism, the Apocalyse is more of an Old Testament book than 
 any other in the New, as may be seen at a glance from the 
 uncial quotations in Westcott and Hort. I repeat that Swe- 
 denborg was more at home in the Old Testament than in the 
 New, which latter he read in Latin more than in Greek as my 
 friend Wilfred Schoff has pointed out to me. This scholar 
 considers that Swedenborg's treatise on the Athanasian 
 Creed is sufficient proof of his weakness in Greek, tho 
 Schoff would not deny a knowledge of it as an academic ac- 
 complishment. 
 
 We now come to the new facts upon which this article is 
 based: viz., the discovery of Tokharish and Sogdian versions 
 of the Buddhist Scriptures in Chinese Turkestan. The sig- 
 nificance of this is that Sogdian was a vernacular of the 
 Parthian Empire, the buffer state between Palestine and 
 India, and therefore the Parthians who were present at the 
 founding of the Christian religion (Acts II, 9) could read 
 those scriptures in their own speech without knowing San- 
 skrit or Pali. Tokharish was spoken in Bactria and prob- 
 ably in the adjoining parts of Parthia too. Both tongues were 
 discovered some years ago and called " unknown languages," 
 Tokharish being called Language No. 1, and Sogdian, No. 2. 
 But lately we have found bilingual texts, and therefore are 
 able to translate what were mysteries ten years ago. 
 
 In 1906 I pointed out, in an essay which has been criti- 
 cised by eminent scholars in Germany, Great Britian, France 
 and Holland, two quotations in the Gospel of John made 
 direct from Buddhist books (John VII, 38; XII. 34).* 
 
 * Buddhist Texts Quoted as Scripture by the Gospel of John : a discovery 
 in the Lower Criticism. Philadelphia, 1906. (London: Luzac & Co.) 
 
64 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 The great objection to my thesis was that John could 
 not read Sanskrit or Pali, and that the Pitakas had not been 
 translated into any language outside of India (except the 
 first beginnings of the Chinese versions, which date from 
 the age of Paul and Nero). But in 1907, Aurel Stein, of the 
 Anglo-Indian Turkestan expedition, discovered at Tun-huang 
 a Buddhist library which had been closed up during a period 
 of warfare about 1035, and kept dry by the rock-chamber 
 and the sandy soil where it had the fortune to be found. 
 In this library there was a Sogdian Jataka, i. e., a Buddhist Birth- 
 story in a language probably understood by some of the Parthians 
 who were present at Pentecost. The religious significance of 
 this we shall discuss presently. There was also a Chinese 
 printed book dated A. D. 864, as well as other matter equally 
 astonishing. (See M. Aurel Stein: Ruins of Desert Cathay. 
 London, 1912.) 
 
 Nothing in the history of modern research is more roman- 
 tic than this. Mr. Stein could not read Chinese, to say noth- 
 ing of Sogdian; but in 1908 the young French Sinologist Paul 
 Pelliot spent three weeks crouching in the niche (for the 
 rock-chamber was crammed with books and would barely 
 admit a man) " drunk with the enthusiasm of youth and dis- 
 covery," to paraphrase the racy French of Professor Sylvain 
 Levi, of the celebrated Sorbonne, and easily the leading Bud- 
 dhist scholar of the world. The documents thus found, as well 
 as others found by the Germans, are now in Paris, London, 
 Berlin and Pekin; and accounts thereof, as well as transla- 
 tions, are appearing in such learned organs as the Journal 
 Asiatique, to which we are indebted for the Sogdian Jataka 
 (January, 1912). This means that the legend of the prince 
 who gave all he had away, was being translated into a ver- 
 nacular of the Parthian Empire by enthusiastic Buddhist mis- 
 sionaries at the time of the Christian era. Tokharish texts, 
 both Discipline and ordinary Scripture, or Sutra, have also 
 been found. 
 
 In my Buddhist and Christian Gospels, Fourth Edition, Vol. I, 
 Philadelphia, 1908, p. 156, I quoted a passage from Strabo, 
 which says that nearly the same language pervaded Media 
 and parts of Persia, Bactria and Sogdiana; and I added that 
 
Has Swedenborg's "Lost Word" Been Found? 265 
 
 when Buddhist ideas went westward they would surely be 
 translated. In 1906, also, in my Buddhist Texis in John, I had 
 maintained that a " lost version of the Sutras " had travelled 
 westward. Now my predictions are fulfilled : we have found 
 traces of at least two versions in languages west of India. 
 To show how this discovery affects the Grseco-Roman 
 world, I will advert to one case. Alexander Polyhistor, a 
 writer of Asia Minor of the first century B. C., alludes to the 
 Samanseans (o-a/uavatoi) of Bactria. Now the Buddhist philoso- 
 phers were called Cramawas in Sanskrit and Sama;ias in Pali. 
 When the Greeks were quoting the Sanskrit form, they 
 wrote it o-c^uave?, and we therefore argued that Polyhistor was 
 quoting the Pali form, which must have been the one known 
 to him in Bactria. But now we find that Tokharish, the newly 
 found lost language of Bactria, had the same word in the 
 form Shamane. Polyhistor was therefore transcribing into 
 Greek, not Pali, but Tokharish, a foreign language in which 
 Buddhist books were being read at the time of Christ. 
 
 Before these recent discoveries by Germans, Frenchmen 
 and English in Chinese Turkestan, we already knew of an- 
 other important link between Buddhism and the Western 
 world: viz., the Indo-Greek coins of Kanishka and other 
 Indo-Scythian and Bactrian potentates who reigned in the 
 period preceding and succeeding the Christian era. One of 
 these kings called himself " upholder of the true religion/' 
 another (the Greek Menander) has the Buddhist symbols of 
 wheel and tree on a coin ; another has a Buddhist stupa, while 
 the great Scythian, Kanishka himself, has an image of 
 Buddha, with his name in Greek letters : 
 
 BOAAO. 
 
 The date of Kanishka is still being debated, but recent re- 
 search bids fair to place him in the first century B. C. 
 
 Now, if we can prove that Luke and John quote Buddhist 
 texts or legends, as I believe they do, a great religious bar- 
 rier will be broken down : we shall cease to call Buddhism 
 " heathen," and shall admit that it was one of the factors in 
 the composition of our own religion. This admission will 
 have the effect of removing the harshness that now separ- 
 
266 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 ates the two faiths, and must inevitably lead at last to an 
 understanding between them, a mutual respect for each other, 
 and finally to a world-religion wherein the leading truths of 
 each will have a share. The difficulty so far has been our ig- 
 norance of the history of Buddhism and the vastness of its 
 early propaganda. We knew that it entered China and that 
 its missionaries spent centuries translating their Scriptures 
 into Chinese. We knew that later it entered Corea, Japan 
 and Tibet; that it spread into Farther India and some East 
 Indian islands; but we have not known until now that it was 
 being propagated, at the very time of Christ, in the tongues 
 of the Parthian and Bactrian dominions. Whether Greek 
 itself was ever one of its vehicles we do not yet know, but it 
 is quite possible, judging from the coins. When a story like 
 the Penitent Brigand, converted by Buddha, was being carved 
 on temple walls and translated into foreign tongues, through- 
 out a great portion of the continent of Asia, it is easy to see 
 why the Gentile Evangelist should be anxious to appropriate 
 it, and why he did violence to the text of Mark in order 
 to introduce it (for his authority, Mark, most clearly excludes 
 it by telling us that both the malefactors reviled the Lord). 
 This is only one instance of what will be ultimately estab- 
 lished by criticism when the means of communication be- 
 tween the great pre-Christian world-religion and its younger 
 brother are at length made known by just such discoveries 
 as this one of Tokharish and Sogdian. 
 
 For further information I must refer my readers to Buddhist 
 and Christian Gospels and to the articles in The Monist and 
 Open Court, of Chicago, in which I am keeping my researches 
 abreast of the times. 
 
 Besides minor references to the Lost Word, which may be 
 found in Potts's Concordance, under the head of Tartary, one 
 more important passage in Swedenborg remains to be no- 
 ticed: True Christian Religion, paragraph 279 (Amsterdam, 
 
 mi):- 
 
 " Concerning that Ancient Word which has been in Asia 
 before the Israelitish Word, it is permitted to relate this 
 news: that it is still reserved there, among the people who 
 live in Great Tartary. I have conversed with spirits and 
 
Has Szvedenborg's "Lost Word" Been Found? 267 
 
 angels who were thence in the spiritual world; w r ho informed 
 me that they possess the Word, and that they have possessed 
 it from ancient times, and they perform their divine ivorship 
 according to this Word, and that it consists of mere correspond- 
 ence. They said that in it also is the book of Jasher, which 
 is mentioned in Joshua X, 12, 13, and in the second book of 
 Samuel I, 17, 18; and also with them are the books called 
 The Wars of Jehovah and The Enunciations, which are men- 
 tioned by Moses, Numbers XXI, 14, 15, and 27-30; and when 
 I read to them the words which Moses had taken thence, 
 they looked to see if they were there, and found them. Hence 
 it was manifest to me that the Ancient Word is still with 
 them. 
 
 " In conversing with them, they said that they worship 
 Jehovah, some as an invisible God and some as visible. They 
 further told me that they do not suffer foreigners to come 
 among them, except the Chinese, with whom they cultivate 
 peace, because the Chinese Emperor is from their country; and 
 also that they are so populous that they do not believe any 
 country in the whole world to be more so; which also is 
 credible from the wall of so many miles which the Chinese for- 
 merly built for their protection against invasion from them. 
 Moreover, I heard from the angels that the first chapters 
 of Genesis, which treat concerning the creation, concerning 
 Adam and Eve, concerning the Garden of Eden, and con- 
 cerning their sons and posterity till the flood, and likewise 
 concerning Noah and his sons, are also in that Word; and 
 thus that they were copied thence by Moses. 
 
 " The angels and spirits from Great Tartary appear in the 
 southern quarter, on the side of the east, and are separated 
 from, the rest by their dwellings in a higher expanse, and by 
 their not admitting any to them from the Christian world; 
 and that if they ascend, they guard them, that they may not 
 go away. The reason for this separation is because they pos- 
 sess another Word." 
 
 To show that my interpretation of this remarkable passage 
 is nothing sudden, let me repeat what I said about it in my 
 Buddhist Bibliography, based upon the libraries of Philadelphia 
 (Journal of the Pali Text Society, London, 1903, p. 35): 
 
268 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 " Notices of Buddhism by early Travelers and Writers, 
 down to 1800. 
 
 " The True Christian Religion. By Emanuel Sweden- 
 borg. (Many editions; original in Latin: Amsterdam, 1771. 
 Paragraph No. 279 anticipates the discovery of a sacred lit- 
 erature in Central Asia. Though Swedenborg imagines that 
 it was a lost Semitic book, the precursor of the Old Testa- 
 ment, it is plain that the Buddhist, not the Babylonian, lore 
 is adumbrated. Thus, it is to be found in ' Great Tartary'; 
 worship is still based upon it; it contains the cult both of a 
 visible and an invisible God. Its Genesis=Digha 27, with 
 parallel in Mahavastu; Enunciations=Udana; Book of the 
 Wars, i. e. Temptations, of the Lord=Mara-Sawyutta.) " 
 
 I had already given this explanation before the New- 
 Church Society of Philadelphia, as reported in the New- 
 Church Messenger, May 1, 1901. The interpretation is an- 
 other application of our principle of Refraction. Thus, when 
 the spirits turned to the Buddhist Genesis* (first translated 
 into English in the Chicago Monist for January, 1904, and 
 quoted in Hastings's Dictionary of Religion and Ethics, article 
 "Ages of the World") and when they found therein the 
 story of the forbidden foods eaten by the first men and result- 
 ing in the genesis of the sex-passion and the fall of man- 
 kind from a spiritual to a physical state, that would be 
 to Swedenborg sufficient evidence for the primeval Gen- 
 esis of his visions ; for of course he did not know that the 
 Digha Nikaya was an Aryan document not earlier than 
 B. C. 400. So too with the Wars of the Lord. The 
 Mara-Samyutta, with its stories of Buddha's many conflicts 
 with the Evil One, would answer to Swedenborg' s idea of 
 the Lord's Temptations as related in the Psalms and other 
 sacred sagas with a deep mystical meaning. Then there is 
 the Udana (literally " Out-breathings ") a book of legends 
 each founded upon a brief ejaculation or Enunciation of 
 
 * Sutra 27 in the Pali Long Collection ; No. 5 in the Chinese. We owe 
 this information to the magnificent study by Anesaki, in Transactions of the 
 Asiatic Society of Japan for 1908. When Nanjio made his famous catalog 
 of the Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka in 1883, he could not identify this Sutra in 
 the Chinese. 
 
Has Swedenborg's "Lost Word" Been Found? 269 
 
 Buddha's. When, in my Buddhist and Christian Gospels, I 
 render Udana by this term, and call it the Book of Enuncia- 
 tions, I am simply showing my Swedenborgian colors. 
 
 Of course if these books existed only in the Pali Canon 
 they would be merely sectarian and not Catholic Buddhism. 
 But the Genesis document exists also in Chinese, Tibetan 
 and corrupt Sanskrit, emanating from different sects from 
 that of the Elders who have transmitted the Pali. The same 
 may be said of the Book of Temptations and of the Enuncia- 
 tions, the latter at least so far as Tibetan is concerned. Re- 
 cent discoveries in Chinese Turkestan have brought to light 
 fragments of the Sanskrit Udana* and of the Classified Col- 
 lection in the same recension as the Chinese and therefore 
 containing, in its entirety, the Book of Temptations. The 
 cult of a visible God (=Buddha) and an invisible (=Dharma, 
 or Truth) is perfectly comprehensible to the student of 
 Buddhism. 
 
 " Noah and his sons " are more difficult to account for; but 
 the gradual deterioration of the race, as related in the Digha, 
 might suggest this. 
 
 The fact that " divine worship is still performed according 
 to this lost Word," necessitates the books of a living religion; 
 and the Buddhist is the only one available in that part of the 
 world, the few scattered Chinamen who represent the Con- 
 fucian Classics and the great literature of Taoism being in- 
 sufficient. Neither Confucius nor Lao-tse ever became the 
 teacher of the Tartars, but Buddha became so as early as 
 the time of Christ, and probably earlier. We now know 
 that not only the Scythians of Afghanistan and both Turke- 
 stans were Buddhists, but that even the Turks were so, long 
 before they became Mohammedans; and we have found in 
 Central Asia the traces of Buddhist books in early Turkish. 
 
 With regard to the Chinese Emperors " coming from their 
 country," I used to puzzle over this, because I thought it 
 could only refer to the Manchu dynasty, which was so recent 
 as the seventeenth century. But I am now informed that 
 
 * See, for example, the curious bilingual fragment (Sanskrit and Tok- 
 harish) from the Book of Enunciations in the Journal Asiatique for May, 1911. 
 The fragment is about the conquest of old age, disease and death. 
 
270 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 "the Posterior Chow and the Tsin [dynasties], who did so 
 much for Buddhism, were really Huns, and ruled over a large 
 proportion of Hiungnu subjects."* 
 
 The present interpretation of these things is in line with 
 Swedenborg's other great vision : viz., the Last Judgment, 
 which stands in intimate relation with India. In this vision 
 our Seer proclaimed that the year 1757 was the beginning of 
 a new order of things. We now know that ifcwas. Every 
 schoolboy in the British dominions is taught that the battle 
 of Plassey, in June, 1757, laid the foundation of the Anglo- 
 Indian empire. No political calculation could have taught 
 this to Swedenborg, for the news of the battle did not reach 
 Europe until early in 1758, as I have verified from the con- 
 temporary newspapers at the Historical Society of Pennsyl- 
 vania. Before this news (which of course could mean but 
 little at the time) the great vision of the passing away of 
 the old Christian Church in 1757 and the genesis of a new 
 Church had been granted to Swedenborg. Out of the Eng- 
 lish dominion of India has come the translation of the Sacred 
 Books of the East and the establishment of a cosmic inter- 
 course between Europe and Asia which was the dream of 
 Alexander and the despair of Caesar. 
 
 I therefore answer the question of our title in the affirm- 
 ative : That the Lost Word has been found. Confused with a 
 vision of the discovery of the Babylonian sacred legends, 
 which were the lineal ancestors of those of Genesis, 
 was the greater vision of a lost literature to be 
 found in Central Asia. This literature proves to be 
 the Buddhist, culminating in the recent discovery of the 
 wrecks of a propaganda of Buddhism as a world-re- 
 ligion at the time of Christ. By means of this propaganda 
 in the vernaculars of the Bactrian and Parthian empires, it is 
 now made possible for the first time to establish an historical 
 link between certain Buddhist doctrines and legends which 
 have puzzled scholars for two generations by reason of their 
 resemblance to things in Luke and John. When this link is 
 recognized, as it is now in the process of being/fthe two great 
 
 * Arthur Lloyd, The Creed of Half Japan, London and N. Y., 1912, p. 143. 
 
Has Szvedenborg's "Lost Word" Been Found? 271 
 
 religions of the world, which have hitherto been hostile, will 
 approach each other with respect, and the last obstacle will 
 be removed to the founding of a modern world-religion based 
 upon the facts of science, physical, historical and psychical. 
 
 Evolution, which is the dominant idea of Buddhism, and 
 Personality, which is the dominant idea of Christianity, will 
 make peace with each other a thing they have never yet 
 done, except in India, the home of truth and intellectual 
 peace. The besetting sin of Evolution is to regard every- 
 thing as arising from nothing and disappearing into nothing: 
 the besetting sin of Personality is to ignore sequence and 
 causes, and to derive all things from the fiat of a Will. In 
 my limited reading I know of no one who has harmonized 
 these two conflicting theories so profoundly as Emanuel 
 Swedenborg, whose writings will surely be one of the classics 
 of the coming religion of mankind. 
 
 /J 
 
 ri-/ See, for example, the frank and manly admission of Professor Garbe, of 
 
 Tubingen, in the Chicago Monist for July, 1912 : " I take pleasure in using this 
 opportunity to grant that by the lucid critique of Edmunds the probability of 
 the hypothesis of Buddhist loans in the New Testament has increased in my 
 opinion." (P. 478.) 
 
272 Journal of the American Society for 'Psychical Research. 
 
 " JOURNEYS TO THE PLANET MARS." 
 
 By James H. Hyslop. 
 
 Those who have followed the subject of psychic research 
 will remember the remarkably interesting book of Professor 
 Flournoy entitled: "From India to the Planet Mars" a book 
 purporting to represent a case of the reincarnation of a de- 
 ceased human being on the planet Mars and communicating 
 therefrom regarding its inhabitants, life, institutions, lan- 
 guage and various things pertaining to that planet. Profes- 
 sor Flournoy showed very clearly how large a part in these 
 phenomena the subconscious of Mile. Helene Smith played, 
 though he admitted that there were some supernormal phe- 
 nomena in the case. But whatever the supernormal, which 
 was not as well proved as was desirable, there could be no 
 doubt about the remarkable power of subsconscious fabrica- 
 tion manifested in the case. I published in the Annals of 
 Psychical Science and in the Journal for Abnormal Psychology 
 articles on alleged Martian communications through Mrs. 
 Smead. The detailed record was not published and hence the 
 extent of its resemblance to Mile. Helene Smith's was not 
 evident. But careful experiment with the case of Mrs. 
 Smead, to say nothing of other records not published at any 
 length in connection with the Martian matter, showed that 
 she had supernormal phenomena and some of these have been 
 excellent. The fact shows what relation the subconscious 
 has to mediumistic powers or possibly that non-evidential 
 matter may have unexpected sources at times, even though 
 it may be so influenced by subconscious coloring as to totally 
 obscure the claims for any other source. There were some 
 alleged communications through Mrs. Piper regarding the 
 planet Mars, but I do not have access to them at present. 
 They were not systematic as with the case of Mile. Helene 
 Smith and Mrs. Smead. They were rather casual, though they 
 indicate an interest in that planet, possibly influenced by the 
 public curiosity regarding it from the discussion of astrono- 
 mers. There was no scientific evidence, however, that they 
 
''Journeys to the Planet Mars." 273 
 
 were veridical. Besides the communications of Mile. Helene 
 Smith and Mrs. Smead were so different from, each other, 
 coinciding only in a few minor and unimportant points, that 
 they tend to discredit all claims to their alleged source. This 
 does not diminish their interest for the psychologist: for he 
 has to deal with a very large mental problem in this per- 
 petual simulation of spiritistic phenomena, especially in close 
 connection with supernormal facts that do much to sustain 
 that claim. Hence for a variety of reasons alleged communi- 
 cations from the planet Mars must have considerable inter- 
 est. I place no emphasis on the fact that the natural human 
 interest is in the question whether that planet is inhabited or 
 not. That has no part in our consideration of it, though it 
 may have an influence in the suggestion and creation of the 
 phenomena in the minds of those who give them as communi- 
 cations from the planet. It is the psychological problem 
 of subconsious action that gives the statements their primary 
 interest, together with the question of survival after death, 
 with which such communications are usually associated. We 
 have to ask and answer why they are thus associated with 
 the general processes that are the sources of the supernormal. 
 But we are not yet in a position to answer this question. 
 We have still to collect the facts that will enable us to answer 
 it intelligently. 
 
 I have ascertained that there is another alleged case of 
 communications with that planet, but I have never been able 
 to induce the party to let me see the record. However there 
 is still another instance of it that was published by the author 
 who was the subject herself of the alleged communications. 
 I have known of the existence of the volume for some years, 
 but only recently had an opportunity to examine it. It was 
 not published by any one whose imprimatur would protect 
 the book. Its sale was evidently a failure and it was in some 
 way turned over to the Austin Publishing Company and thus 
 associated with other spiritualistic literature. It is entitled 
 " Journeys to the Planet Mars or our Mission to Ento" The au- 
 thor was a Mrs. Sara Weiss. She was also the author of 
 another story of the kind: Story of Decimon Huydas: A Ro- 
 mance of the Planet Mars." Mrs. Weiss was a private person 
 
274 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 who had developed mediumship of the kind at least that pro- 
 duced such works as these and saw that the work obtained 
 publication. The volume here under consideration was pub- 
 lished without any explanation of its source or any detailed 
 account of how it was produced. Readers would not know 
 that it had a mediumistic cast, unless they were familiar with 
 work of this kind in that connection. It might be taken for 
 an odd romance or piece of fiction. It is not explained as a 
 mediumistic production. Readers are left to make out of it 
 what they may, treating it as real, if they desire, or treating 
 it as fiction, if they desire. Nothing is said to distinguish 
 its nature, though psychic researchers would at once suspect 
 what claims it really had or made. 
 
 On this account I made inquiries regarding the book to 
 learn how it originated. I learned that Mrs. Weiss had died 
 a few years ago but that Mr. Weiss is still living. Com- 
 munication with him resulted in an explanation of the book 
 and I deem it important to put that explanation on record 
 here for all future students of the literature on the subject. 
 It adds much to the interest of the book. It takes it out of 
 the category of merely imaginary literature, imaginary, I 
 mean, in the normal sense, and places it among those works 
 which have to be studied in connection with subconscious 
 phenomena, whatever their source. 
 
 Mr. Weiss is connected with the United States Express 
 Company in St. Louis, Mo. His first reply to my inquiry was 
 as follows : 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., 12/12/'12. 
 Mr. Jas. H. Hyslop, 
 
 American Society for Psychical Research, 
 
 New York, N. Y. 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 Yours of the 6th instant received. I beg to say that I am 
 gratified to find that Mrs. Sara Weiss' quite extraordinary work, 
 or mission, should have come to your attention. 
 
 Her book, " Journeys to the Planet Mars ", if it can be called 
 hers in the commonly accepted sense, -was, as she steadfastly 
 maintained during the years since it was begun, a matter of in- 
 spiration, or rather of dictation. She was merely the instrument 
 through which another individual spoke or wrote. I cannot en- 
 
"Journeys to the Planet Mars." 275 
 
 tertain the slightest doubt as to the correctness of this statement, 
 in view of the intimate knowledge of my Dear Wife, extending 
 over a period of thirty-four years. 
 
 A more singularly high-minded woman I never knew ; nor one 
 more modest and unassuming. She lacked the literary training 
 which is the basis of most scientific books. She was, it is true, 
 a woman of quite uncommon order of intellect ; but to the end she 
 seemed surprised and delighted at the unseen influences which 
 guided her in her writing. 
 
 Her method was purely that of submission. She did her writ- 
 ing during days when she was quite alone. It was her habit to sit 
 in a room which she had carefully darkened, or from which she 
 had excluded most of the light, pencil in hand, with paper before 
 her. She did not know at what instant the actual tracing of let- 
 ters and words would begin. At one time, when the " influence " 
 moved her, she wrote for hours. On such occasions she worked 
 until a condition very like exhaustion overtook her. While she 
 was deeply interested in the various phenomena of the spirit 
 world, she was not a professional medium, and confessed her ex- 
 traordinary experience in full only to her intimate friends. 
 
 In all, save one matter in question, she was a pleasantly nor- 
 mal woman, fond of her home, and of quiet entertainments, and 
 of a group of friends who were by no means exclusively of the 
 spiritualistic faith. 
 
 She was in doubt as to the advisability of publishing her book, 
 which appeared only a comparatively short time before she passed 
 awav at the advanced age of seventy years. 
 
 To her, in every sense, her book was a thing given or inspired 
 or dictated. She never referred to it as her own, and knowing 
 her as I did, I fully concurred in her belief that she was really 
 recording a message from the spirit world, borne to her by a proc- 
 ess which was wholly outside the forces underlying normal au- 
 thorship. 
 
 I would be pleased to hear from you again. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 A. M. WEISS. 
 
 I made further inquiries regarding additional points of 
 interest and the following is the reply of Mr. Weiss. 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., 12/18/'12. 
 Mr. James H. Hyslop, 
 
 American Society for Psychical Research, 
 
 New York, N. Y. 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 Your letter of the 13th inst. received, and I hope to give you 
 fairly definite answers to your several questions. 
 
276 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 It was often a spoken regret of Mrs. Weiss' that she had been 
 unable to receive an education in her younger years. 
 
 She was the daughter of an Ohio farmer, who, with his wife, 
 was narrowly religious. Her schooling was of the most rudi- 
 mentary character, and even reading, outside of church books, 
 was discouraged. 
 
 During our thirty-four years of married life I never knew of 
 her having read a book on astronomy, or of her being especially 
 interested in the subject. She had a longing to gaze at the stars, 
 and often wished to know something of the beautiful shining 
 planets. 
 
 She read very little : this was a constant source of surprise to 
 those who knew her and who were impressed with her intellectual 
 vigor and her lively interest in conversations. 
 
 I feel sure that " Mars ", as a physical fact, did not interest 
 her, save as it existed in " Journeys to the Planet Mars." 
 
 She read little or nothing after completing her books. She 
 lived but a short time afterward. The work had so greatly im- 
 paired her energy that she went into a decline which resulted in 
 her death. 
 
 I think I may say quite frankly and definitely that her rela- 
 tionship to the subject you mention was not that of the student 
 or scholar, but rather that of a " subject ", or an " instrument ", 
 as she certainly considered herself to be. 
 
 It may throw some light upon her personality if I say that a 
 favorite diversion of hers, when in the presence of intimate friends, 
 was to relate dreams which had come to her. These were em- 
 bellished with beautiful minuteness of detail ; they assumed the 
 aspects of unearthly experiences rather than dreams. 
 
 I have touched upon the matter of her dreams, not because I 
 see any relation between them and her writings, but with the 
 thought that possibly they may throw some light for you upon a 
 subject which I never fully comprehended. 
 
 Very sincerely, 
 
 A. M. WEISS. 
 
 The limited education and reading of Mrs. Weiss and the 
 absence of especial interest in astronomy make her book 
 more important. The interest in the stars shows a bent in 
 that direction^ though it does not reveal any data that might 
 explain the Martian messages. It is open to suggest sub- 
 liminal dreaming or poetising, but that is a thing for which 
 we have no evidence in the case. The dreams directly con- 
 nect the phenomena with other psychical processes so fre- 
 quently associated with supernormal data. This does not 
 
"Journeys to the Planet Mars." 277 
 
 mean that the dreams either explain the phenomena or af- 
 ford a conjecturable source for them. They indicate a gen- 
 eral matrix for them whether we consider that supernormal 
 or subliminal. The explanation remains open. 
 
 I desired further information on certain matters regard- 
 ing the original manuscript and the influences which gave rise 
 to the phenomena and the following is quoted from another 
 letter of Mr. Weiss, dated January 6th, 1913 : 
 
 " I am, sorry to say that I cannot tell you what first 
 attracted Mrs. Weiss' attention to the subject of spiritual- 
 ism. She had long been interested in spiritualism when I 
 first met her. She was a seeker after truth and her ex- 
 periences in spiritualism were attended with a scepticism 
 so great that, not until her own powers were developed and 
 she was enabled to write automatically without knowing 
 what had been written, did she become convinced of the 
 truth of the phenomena of spirit control. After this she be- 
 gan the more earnest investigations which resulted in the 
 further unfoldment of her most remarkable psychic powers. 
 At seances she was most frequently visited by her father, 
 mother, sisters and brothers, who died many years ago. 
 Through the mediumship of others, she received messages 
 from members of her family and others. She was quite con- 
 vinced of the authenticity of the spirit who visited her. 
 
 " She never gave any messages to any living friends, save 
 in the sense that she considered her books such messages. 
 In the usual sense she never undertook mediumistic work. 
 
 " The original manuscripts were not preserved. The dic- 
 tation was taken pencil in hand, on common paper, after- 
 wards revised and rewritten with ink under the direction of 
 the spirit Carl De L'Ester; these manuscripts of the 'Jour- 
 neys ' are, I think, still in the possession of her daughter." 
 
 It was not perfectly clear in one of the letters from Mr. 
 Weiss what he meant by the destruction of the original 
 manuscript and I wrote to have it made clear. His reply 
 was: 
 
 Feb. 5th, 1913. 
 
 Replying to your letter of the 25th ulto. I beg to say that in 
 using the word " Original Manuscript ", in a recent communica- 
 
218 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 tion I referred to the first copy made by Mrs. Weiss from the 
 pencil dictation of (Spirit) Carl De L'Ester, which was, of course, 
 the original copy. 
 
 The first form, in pencil, was not considered by Mrs. [Weiss] 
 as being of any value, her idea being, naturally, that the 
 message itself counted, and not any peculiarities which might ap- 
 pear in the form in which it was set down. The original pencil 
 version was all but illegible to any one besides Mrs. Weiss, and 
 when she had completed the ink copy the original version was 
 destroyed. I referred to the ink written copy as the original 
 manuscript version and it was from this copy that she made a 
 typed copy for the printers. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 A. M. WEISS. 
 
 If there seem.s any confusion in the previous letters of 
 Mr. Weiss this one will make the matter clear. The great 
 value of the original pencil manuscript would have been for 
 its comparison with the handwriting of Mrs. Weiss normally 
 and for comparison with the printed book to ascertain where 
 she had used her judgment in correcting the original either 
 in spelling or grammatical structure. Original documents 
 in such work are priceless. It is not necessary to state all 
 the reasons for this. But they will occur to students of the 
 problem. 
 
 Mr. Weiss sent me some of the normal handwriting of 
 Mrs. Weiss and a poem written by her automatically, pur- 
 porting to come from her brother Robert. The automatic 
 script has the technical characteristics of her normal writing, 
 but the difference between them is such that you would have 
 to examine them carefully to notice that they were written 
 by the same person. A casual look at them would not reveal 
 the same origin, tho an expert in such things might see the 
 resemblance at a glance. But the difference is marked and 
 would be admitted by an expert tho he found that the im- 
 portant characteristics in the letters showed or confirmed 
 that they had the same origin. I give the poem in a foot- 
 note, as representing a product above the usual automatic 
 poetry which is so often so inferior as to invite ridicule, but 
 whose inferiority in many cases is evidence of the genuine- 
 
"Journeys to the Planet Mars." 279 
 
 ness of it as a non-normal product.* The " Sorrowful Star " 
 is explained as referring to the Earth. 
 
 It is impossible to give any adequate account of the book's 
 contents. It must be carefully and critically read by the 
 student of psychology, and it does not require to be read with 
 any assumptions of its origin in spirit. The reader may not 
 go beyond reading it as a psychological production of the 
 subliminal. All that he requires to keep in mind is that it 
 is an automatic production, but he must be familiar with 
 psychic research and its vast data of similar phenomena. 
 Whether the book is really a communication about the planet 
 Mars no one can prove, no matter what he believes. But 
 he can study it as a work of psychological interest and it 
 will abundantly repay study from that point of view. The 
 
 * Oh listen, my soul ! A soft echo comes ringing 
 
 From the far away shores, from the homes of the blest, 
 And ever glad voices are singing, are singing. 
 " In the bright Spirit land there is rest ; There is rest" 
 
 Hark! Again and again. The soft echo comes ringing 
 
 Adown toward the Earth, from the far spirit spheres. 
 From the homes where our loved ones are singing, are singing. 
 "As we sowed, we have reaped, in sorrow and tears." 
 
 Still again and again the sweet echo comes ringing; 
 
 It falls toward the Earth like the soft dropping rain. 
 And! the far away voices are singing, are singing. 
 " We garnered our sheaves in sorrow and pain." 
 
 Ah listen, the echo is ringing, still ringing. 
 
 I catch the faint sound as it falls from afar, 
 And still the sweet voices are singing, are singing. 
 " We have sowed. We have reaped, on the Sorrowful Star." 
 
 Now rising, now falling; the echo comes ringing. 
 " We have sowed. We have reaped, and we sorrow no more. 
 And ever glad anthems of joy are we singing, 
 In our beautiful homes, on the far shining shore." 
 
 I listen in silence. No echo comes ringing. 
 
 The voices of loved ones, I hear them no more. 
 But I know their glad voices are singing, are singing, 
 
 As they wave their dear hands, from the far shining shore. 
 
 Oh listen, my soul! Is the echo still ringing? 
 
 Hear you not a faint note falling down from afar? 
 Ah no ! 'Tis the wind that is sighing and singing. 
 
 And I am alone on the Sorrowful Star. 
 
280 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 spiritist who accepts its alleged source and contents will have 
 to do so without the proof that is required for these. It is, 
 of course, quite possible that it is spiritistic, but the con- 
 cession does not imply that the contents represent the reality 
 we are accustomed to assign to narratives of the kind. It 
 may be a romance in spite of its spiritistic source, if that be 
 tolerated. We do not know enough as yet of a spiritual ex- 
 istence to interpret messages about such a world as being 
 realistic in the sense we attach to such stories. If the spirit- 
 ual world be a mental one, as it is natural to suppose, ideal- 
 ism may be the point of view from which its messages have 
 to be judged, and that would make it a rationalized dream 
 life in which narratives would be true for the minds that 
 make them, but not representative of any objective reality, as 
 we have to represent sensory experience. Each individual 
 makes his own world, so to speak. The ideas communicated 
 may contain an element of objectivity, but the subjective may 
 predominate to such an extent as to conceal the objective and 
 give rise to interpretations in our experience that would be 
 wholly misleading. 
 
 This will appear a very extravagant view of the case, but 
 I am not contending that it is true. I am using its bare 
 possibility as a foil to the realistic interpretation which as- 
 sumes what we do not know about a transcendental exist- 
 ence, and if by chance such a world was a rationalized dream 
 life the whole meaning of such books as this would be al- 
 tered for the scientific man and he would find himself in the 
 face of something to be tolerantly studied instead of ridi- 
 culed. The evidence that the book requires this sort of 
 tolerance is not in itself, but in the multitudes of similar pro- 
 ductions, whether they concern planetary or other matters. 
 They show common characteristics tho having independent 
 origins, and they manifest marked coincidences in contents 
 with what comes through psychics that have been tested 
 for the supernormal. The fact alone requires that the stu- 
 dent at least should pause. He will be right in his scepticism 
 or at least in assuming a critical attitude regarding such 
 works. That attitude protects him against the interpre- 
 tation which the story superficially suggests. But if a man 
 
"Journeys to the Planet Mars." 281 
 
 stops there he is likely to be as badly deceived, if he ridicules 
 it, as he would be if he accepted it unequivocally. There is 
 simply a problem here to understand such productions. It 
 is not enough to go vaporing about in talk about subcon- 
 scious fabrications and subliminal dreamery. All that is a 
 subterfuge for ignorance. We know very little about the 
 subconscious as yet. It may be a product of such action. I 
 do not know. But if I tolerate that hypothesis it is my duty 
 to show the evidence, and we would undoubtedly find evi- 
 dence of at least subconscious coloring, as we perhaps do in 
 all mediumistic productions. But the proof of that influence 
 is not proof that the whole thing in cast and conception is a 
 subconscious invention. It is quite conceivable that the 
 general stimulus should be foreign and the form and con- 
 tent a subconscious cast. That, too, remains to be proved. 
 But we have here a field which cannot be dismissed from 
 investigation with a sneer based upon physiological meta- 
 physics quite as. fanciful as any alleged communications from 
 Mars. 
 
 I can give only a brief account of what the book is. Mrs. 
 Weiss at no time seems to have been in a trance. The auto- 
 matic writing was done in her normal state, her normal 
 mind not knowing what the hand wrote until it had been 
 written. The chief communicating spirit, so-called, was one 
 who called himself Carl De L/Ester. In the course of the 
 work other personalities appeared as giving information, 
 some of them well known historical characters, such as Von 
 Humboldt, Agassiz and others. A whole vocabulary was 
 adopted to represent the names of the planet Mars, animals, 
 plants and human beings upon it. There does not seem to 
 have been a language invented or employed, as in the case 
 of Mile. Helene Smith studied by Professor Flournoy. 
 There were only individual terms used to express the names 
 of things, and then special terms for numbers and the per- 
 sonal pronouns. The last were the only indications of a Mar- 
 tian language. The terms are given in a Glossary at the 
 end of the book. Some of the letters did not have the same 
 pronunciation that they would have in the same situations 
 in our language. For instance E sometimes had the sound 
 
282 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 of A in our language. But this alteration was confined to 
 only two letters, A and H. 
 
 Ento was the name of the planet Mars; Andumana is the 
 name of the Supreme One, the Creator of all things; As- 
 tranola, the name of the "Realm of the Deific ones;" An- 
 adillo Pylo, the name of a scaly armored amphibian; Cryfimo, 
 of the ocean; Elipso, of the year; Emano, of a friend, mascu- 
 line; and Emana, of a friend, feminine. These suffice for il- 
 lustration and perhaps suggestion as to possible origin. The 
 Glossary gives several hundreds of these words. But I give 
 those for numbers and the pronouns, as showing the most dis- 
 tinct evidence of system in their formation. 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 Fon i. Muen 6. Yodis n. Voda 50. 
 
 Itu 2. Of en 7. Fonitu 12. Muena 60. 
 
 Meos 3. Zu 8. Ita 20. Ofena 70. 
 
 Len 4. Tevon 9. Meosa 30. Zua 80. 
 
 Vodu 5. Ruya 10. Lena 40. Tevona 90. 
 
 Ryzo 100. 
 
 Pronouns. 
 
 Efon I. Nofan Thou. Tofan He. Tsya They. 
 
 Onos We. Noifan Thee. Toifan She. Esto Ye. 
 
 Ufan You. Neffan Thy. Ista It. 
 
 Those familiar with the fact that Flournoy's case formed 
 the Martian language after the fundamental grammatical 
 structure of the French which Mile. Helene Smith spoke 
 naturally will raise the question here whether the formation 
 of the above Martian terms may not have been influenced 
 by English habits of mind. But they will not find this dis- 
 tinctly proved. It is true that the general idea of numbers 
 and pronouns like our own, especially in the pronouns, will 
 be a dubious fact. It is not universal in the languages of 
 terrestrial people and that Martians should duplicate those 
 of the English language throughout is a fact that suggests the 
 influence of normal habits on the invention of them. It is 
 equally noticeable also that the notation is decimal which 
 corresponds with ours. Of course this is not a fatal objec- 
 tion, but it awakens inquiry, and from what we know of 
 subliminal action we should have to concede that influence 
 
"Journeys to the Planet Mars." 283 
 
 in these terms, even tho we were convinced that the phe- 
 nomena had a spiritistic origin. The subconscious is the me- 
 dium of its expression and it can no more escape coloring 
 transcendental influences than red glass can avoid coloring 
 light. Compare " Elipso " for " year ". 
 
 The volume entitled " Decimon Huydas " is a romance of 
 the planet Mars. Mrs. Weiss did not place so much value 
 upon it as she did upon the Journeys. It purports to be ro- 
 mance while the Journeys claims to be science, so to speak. 
 The romance* is serious and poetic in character tho written 
 in prose. It has its psychological interest as a subconscious 
 production, but this is perhaps not so anomalous as the pur- 
 ported nature of the planet Mars and its inhabitants. 
 
 It is impossible at this time to pronounce any final judg- 
 ment on such works. The time has not yet come to esti- 
 mate their meaning. If we had any criterion for distinguish- 
 ing between foreign and subjective influences in the result 
 we might venture upon an estimate. But we have no such 
 standards as yet. We have only a clear idea in normal ex- 
 perience and memory of what comes from sensation and we 
 have a clear idea of the supernormal when (1) information 
 that has not been known normally by the subject comes 
 through the subliminal and (2) when it cannot be due to 
 guessing and chance coincidence. Beyond that there is the 
 wide territory which has either not been adequately explored 
 or offers such an admixture of foreign and domestic material 
 that we cannot as yet discriminate them. In that situation 
 we must leave such works at present. 
 
284 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 By Major Cicero Newell. 
 
 Spiritualism, as generally understood by the public, 
 means : Fortune telling. How to make love matches. The 
 laws of affinity. Calling up ghosts and spooks "from the land 
 of the shades. Taking spirit pictures. Trumpet seances in 
 dark rooms. Materialization of dead people in dark places. 
 Producing raps and table tipping. Giving people tips where 
 they can make a fortune in a gold mine. And much more 
 information of like nature. So much fraud and humbug has 
 been practiced by people that have advertised themselves as 
 spiritual mediums and Reverends and D. D's. that honest 
 investigators are doing all they can to expose the frauds that 
 are preying on the good natures of the weak and unsophisti- 
 cated. 
 
 Behind all of this fraud and chicanery, there is a grand 
 underlying truth. Those of us that have dared to face the 
 storm of ridicule that the ignorant have heaped on our heads, 
 have, in the words of the celebrated ancient said, " Eureka, 
 I have found it." 
 
 In the year 1848 when the spiritualistic wave swept over 
 the land from the little home in Hydesville, New York 
 State, my father's family, like many other Christian families, 
 were swept away with it. 
 
 My Mother proved to be what they called a table-tipping 
 and rapping medium. Tables were lifted from the floor with- 
 out the aid of human hands, furniture moved, musical instru- 
 ments played on, and many other things of like nature. As 
 a boy of eight years, I heard the neighbors say it was ghosts 
 that did it. Six years later, my mother left us for the higher 
 life. Even after she left, they often came and communicated 
 with us by means of a set of A B C blocks that I had. 
 
 When President Lincoln called for Volunteers in April, 
 1861, I went with the boys of our town to answer the first 
 
Personal Experiences. 285 
 
 call. When I left home, these manifestations followed me 
 into the army. When our army was retreating from the first 
 bloody battle of Bull Run, I heard the voice of my mother 
 saying to me, " Cicero, leave the road, and go into the field 
 to the left." My comrade and I had hardly got over the 
 fence and entered the field, before we heard the shriek of 
 bursting shells, and saw our comrades running in every 
 direction, many were killed, others left on the road mangled 
 beyond recognition, every one trying to get out of the way 
 of the shot and shell that was raining upon them. Had I not 
 heeded the warning, I too might have been among the dead 
 or wounded. In the fall of 1862 while on duty at the Head- 
 quarters of General Grant with my Company of Cavalry, I 
 was constantly cautioned and guided by my mother and a 
 man by the name of Pierre Thomas. This man, Pierre 
 Thomas, was my step-mother's father. During his life 
 on earth, he was in the French army and served under 
 Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt and on the continent. He 
 was a Captain of Cavalry. When captured by the English, 
 he escaped and made his way to America, where he ob- 
 tained a place as teacher at West Point Military Acad- 
 emy. There he taught fencing and dancing. All during 
 my military career in the Civil war, he was my right hand 
 man. He guided me in every move of importance that 
 I made. Being an expert swordsman, he insisted that I too 
 should become an expert. I was detailed to teach the of- 
 ficers' school in sword exercise. 
 
 At the time that I speak of, General Grant was at La- 
 Grange, Tenn., and General Sherman was at Memphis, Tenn., 
 sixty miles to the west of us. General Grant was very much 
 disturbed that General Forest had got in between their ar- 
 mies and cut off all communications between them. He 
 tried for several days to get communications opened, finally 
 he sent out a large force of Infantry, Artillery, and Cavalry, 
 to drive Forest out of the country, and I was given the des- 
 patches that were to be sent to General Sherman, and or- 
 dered to follow this command through to Memphis. I shall 
 never forget the expression that I noticed on General Grant's 
 face when he handed me the despatch. After handing it to 
 
286 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 me, he took it back, tore the envelope open, asked me to read 
 it over carefully. After I read it once, he said, " Read it 
 again, as I want you to thoroughly understand every word 
 of it. If you are in danger of capture by the enemy, destroy 
 this letter, but if you get through later, tell General Sherman 
 what I have written there." He seemed to have a premoni- 
 tion that I would have trouble before I got through to Gen- 
 eral Sherman. Then he took the letter, sealed it, and said, 
 " Captain, try to get that through." How we got through, 
 is better described by the Official Report of the Adjt. General 
 of the State of Michigan in the report of Michigan in the 
 war. 
 
 On pages 631, 632 and 633, we find in the Official Report 
 of General John K. Mizner, Chief of Cavalry, the following: 
 
 In November, 1862, communications between General Grant, 
 at La Grange, and General W. T. Sherman, at Memphis, Tenn., 
 were cut off by destroying telegraph lines and railroad track. 
 Battalions and regiments of cavalry try in vain to open them. A 
 brigade of infantry with a battery of light artillery and a regiment 
 of cavalry are sent out to open the way, and Captain Newell's 
 company, K, 3d Michigan Cavalry (the White Horse Squadron), 
 is selected to bear the despatches. The best men and horses are 
 selected. General Grant delivers Newell the papers for General 
 Sherman, saying, " Get them through." The company leaves 
 near dark, and about three miles out meet the entire command 
 sent out in the morning returning. It had been fighting a heavy 
 force of cavalry and artillery all day, and decided to retire within 
 the Union lines during the night. Newell keeps on in the dark- 
 ness of night to Moscow. He directs Lieutenant Mclntyre to 
 wear a Confederate uniform ; he enters the town ; the enemy has 
 fallen back across Wolf river. The company advances to the 
 bridge ; a reconnoissance is made across the river ; the rebels are 
 encamped at points along the road, through to Memphis ; a large 
 force near by ; a circuit of seventeen miles is made and the road is 
 again reached at daylight, near Sommerville ; Newell finds the 
 way to Memphis guarded at several points by large detachments 
 of cavalry ; but General Grant said the despatches must . go 
 through, so the way must be cut by the sword or abandoned. On 
 they dash, attacking and capturing pickets and picket-posts, driv- 
 ing videttes in every direction. They come upon a whole rebel 
 regiment, take their guard, and dash on, passing, fighting, and 
 disarming pickets. Reach Wolf river ; find a rebel brigade burn- 
 
Personal Experiences. 287 
 
 ing the bridge ; further progress cut off ; the rebel force within 
 pistol shot ; Newell's command plunge into the river ; they are 
 taken for Confederates and are not fired on ; they reach the oppo- 
 site bank and push on, and are at Sherman's picket line at the 
 firing of the evening gun. They are soon at headquarters, and 
 the despatches safely delivered, amid the hearty congratulations 
 of the general and the surprise of the whole army. After a rest 
 of two days the company returns to La Grange with General 
 Grierson's Illinois Cavalry Regiment as an escort. 
 
 Captain Newell receives a complimentary letter from General 
 Sherman, as follows : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF MEMPHIS, 
 Memphis, Nov. 28, 1862. 
 Capt. Newell, $d Michigan Cavalry, Present: 
 
 SIR: I acknowledge the receipt of the despatches of General Grant en- 
 trusted to your hands, dated La Grange, November 6th, and to compliment you 
 for the intelligence, energy, and skill displayed by you in coming so long a 
 distance through hostile bands. 
 
 I send you herewith my despatches in reply, which I wish you to carry to 
 General Grant at La Grange or wherever he may be. 
 
 Colonel Grierson, 6th Illinois Cavalry, will, at 3 P. M., be ready to accom- 
 pany you all or part of the way according to circumstances. 
 
 I am, with respect, your ob'dt serv't, 
 
 W. T. SHERMAN, 
 Major General Commanding. 
 
 From the time I left the Headquarters of General Grant 
 until I returned, my French Captain was constantly by my 
 side, guiding me in every movement that I made. Only by 
 his good counsel and guidance, I feel that I never should have 
 accomplished the mission that I was sent to carry through. 
 On my return, General Grant thanked me for the service 
 and seemed to feel quite relieved that communications had 
 been opened up between the two armies. 
 
 The only way I have to give positive assurance that the 
 so-called dead can talk with mortal man, is to give personal 
 experience. Our courts do not admit of hearsay evidence. 
 
 I wish to speak of one more incident in my life, where I 
 had positive knowledge that the so-called dead saved me from 
 having my leg amputated, and perhaps saved my life. 
 
 In the month of February, in the year 1863, our Cavalry 
 lay in camp at Jackson, in West Tennessee. I was ordered 
 by Col. John K. Mizner, who was Chief of Cavalry for the 
 army at that time, to take a Battalion of Cavalry and scout 
 the country as far as the Tennessee River, some sixty miles 
 
288 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 to the east. As I expected to come in contact with the 
 trained cavalry of General Forest, I wished to proceed with 
 much caution. The Colonel cautioned me very carefully not 
 to get into a fight, only to find out what I could of the move- 
 ments of the enemy. He thought it not necessary even to 
 send a surgeon along. 
 
 I had no more than got started on my trip, before I felt 
 the presence of my French Captain. I knew he would not 
 accompany me, unless there was some sharp work to do. 
 As the sequel will show, it was well that he was there to 
 guide and give me assistance. 
 
 I will quote from the Report of the Adjutant General of 
 Michigan, as it gives a better idea of the expedition than I 
 can write. 
 
 re gi men t W as also engaged at Brownsville, 
 Miss., January 14th, 1863, and Clifton on the 20th. Captain 
 Newell, with Companies A, K and L, 3d Michigan Cavalry, and a 
 company of Tennessee scouts, while scouting along the Tennessee 
 river east of Lexington and near Clifton, discovered an old sunken 
 boat, and having knowledge that the noted Colonel Newsum, 
 with some ninety of his followers were at their old haunt (Clif- 
 ton) on the opposite bank, conceived the plan of crossing the river 
 under cover of the night and attempting their capture. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS CHIEF OF CAVALRY, 
 GENERAL ORDERS Jackson, Tenn., Feb. 22, 1863. 
 
 No. 8. 
 
 It is with a mingled feeling of pride and pleasure that the Colonel com- 
 manding announces to the cavalry of this district the splendid achievement of 
 the 3d Michigan Cavalry, under Captain Cicero Newell. On the morning of 
 the 2Oth, inst, while scouting in the country along the Tennessee river, east of 
 Lexington, and about twelve miles above Clifton he discovered an old sunken 
 flat boat, and having previous knowledge of the presence of the noted Colonel 
 Newsum and some ninety of his followers at their old haunt, Clifton, on the 
 opposite bank, he immediately conceived the plan of crossing the river under 
 cover of the night and attempting their capture. Foiling all suspicion of the 
 inhabitants by starting off with his entire command for Lexington, he then 
 turned into the woods and concealed his force until nightfall, when he has- 
 tened to a point on the river four miles above the fated town, where he found 
 the flat boat safely moored in charge of Sergeant Vowels, of Company K, and 
 six men, who had bailed out the boat, manned it with a pair of rude oars, and 
 in the darkness of the night had floated cautiously eight miles down the river 
 to this point. Finding the flat boat incapable of freighting the entire party and 
 there being no time for a second trip, sixty men were selected and embarked 
 on their hazardous voyage. Gaining the opposite bank two miles below, they 
 found, after a wearisome reconnoissance, that they were entirely cut off from 
 the main land by an extensive bayou ; yet, nothing daunted they re-embarked 
 
Personal Experiences. 289 
 
 and landed again quite near the town, which they immediately surrounded, and 
 dashed in upon the astonished; half-awake, half-clad enemy, and secured the 
 entire party, consisting of one colonel, three captains, four lieutenants, and 
 sixty-one enlisted men, with their horses, arms and equipments complete, with- 
 out the loss of a single man. But we have to regret an accident to the brave 
 commander, Captain Newell, who received a serious but not dangerous wound. 
 Capt. F. C. Adamson, of the 3d Michigan Cavalry, then assumed command and 
 safely re-crossed the Tennessee river with all his prisoners and captured prop- 
 erty. He, with all the officers and men of this heroic band, deserve the highest 
 praise for their cheerful and hearty seconding of this happily conceived expedi- 
 tion. While we admire and applaud this noble achievement of Captian Newell 
 and his little party, let us learn to emulate them, and, inspired with the love 
 of the noble and brave, and this example before us, let us take courage and 
 press this civil strife with redoubled energy. 
 
 By order of J. K. MIZNER, 
 
 THOMAS B. WIER, Colonel and Chief of Cavalry. 
 
 Lieut, and Act'g Ass't Adj't Gcn'l. 
 
 While the report of the Chief of Cavalry gives me much 
 credit for the part I took in the engagement with the enemy, 
 I feel that it was all due to the guidance I had from the 
 French Captain, and the kindly advice of my angel mother. 
 As I was standing on the west bank of the Tennessee River, 
 waiting for the wind to go down, so I could venture out on 
 the river with the old scow that was to bear my men across 
 the river, I heard the voice of my mother saying, " Cicero, 
 you will be shot in your left knee to-morrow morning." It 
 was so plain, that I turned to see who spoke. It was moon- 
 light, but no one was near me. My men were quietly resting 
 on the bank, awaiting orders. I fully realized that my 
 mother was giving me a timely warning. I was satisfied that 
 she saw that I was getting into trouble that might cost me 
 much annoyance. So far in my life, my mother had never 
 deceived me. She had never told me a falsehood. Why 
 should she now? I knew that her word's would come 
 true. When I stopped to think over my orders, I was 
 to scout as far east as the Tennessee River. Here I 
 was planning to go beyond the river. I was going be- 
 yond where I had orders to go. Should I fail in my ex- 
 pedition, should I be repulsed, should I lose some of my 
 officers or men, the whole blame would come on me. I might 
 be dismissed from the service for disobedience of orders, I 
 had been told that day by a conscript that had escaped from 
 the enemy's camp the day before, that the enemy were ex- 
 
290 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 pecting reinforcements, that a full regiment of cavalry were 
 expected there that day. Perhaps they were there now, and 
 my mother was giving me the warning to save me from 
 disaster. " What shall I do? " I could hear the promptings 
 of my French Captain, urging me to make the attack. My 
 own judgment and reason said go slow. While deliberating 
 as to the best course to pursue, the voice of my mother came 
 again. As I listened, I heard these words, " Never mind 
 Cicero, the wound will not be serious, you will go home and 
 have a good time." Surely I was agoing to be victorious in 
 my fight with the enemy, because, if I were to lose the battle, 
 we should either be killed or taken prisoners, then I could 
 not go home. No, that last message meant for me to go 
 ahead. And go we did. I immediately ordered the men 
 into the boat, and started across the river. It took us until 
 nearly daylight before we got into position to make the at- 
 tack. My men, knowing that they had superior numbers 
 to meet, did their duty in a quick and very satisfactory man- 
 ner to me. But the predictions of my angel mother had come 
 true. I had been shot in my left knee as she said I would. 
 
 But how was the second part of her prediction to come 
 true? The wound would not be serious, and I was to go 
 home and have a nice time. To get a furlough to go home 
 at that time, was a very hard thing to accomplish. Fur- 
 loughs were a hard thing to get. Away from home as we 
 were, a boy could not but think how he would like to get 
 home where mother could care for him. As soon as the 
 prisoners were secured, and the horses and other captured 
 property listed, I took the wounded and crossed to the west 
 bank of the river, where the men were that I left behind. 
 
 I instructed Captain A dam son- of my command, to get 
 the prisoners and captured property to the west bank of the 
 river as soon as he could, as he was liable to be attacked at any 
 moment. Soon after I got across the river with the wounded 
 men, Sergeant Cutting, one of my most trusted sergeants, 
 came running into the house that we had secured for the care 
 of the wounded, informing me that his men had reported five 
 steamers coming up the river, that they were about one mile 
 away. As the enemy had boats on the river, he did not know 
 
Personal Experiences. 291 
 
 whether they were friends or enemies. Soon he came back 
 saying- he could see the stars and stripes floating at the mast- 
 head. My mind was very much relieved, as my men on the 
 east bank of the river, that were guarding prisoners and 
 caring for captured property, would have little chance of get- 
 ting back to the west bank of the river if the enemy came up 
 with reinforcements. As soon as they steamed up opposite 
 our place, Sergeant Cutting signaled them to come ashore. 
 As soon as the fleet effected a landing, several officers came 
 ashore. Among them were the surgeons of the fleet. They 
 examined my wound carefully, and very politely informed me 
 that my leg would have to come off just above the knee, that 
 the wound was a very bad one. Then I remembered that 
 my mother had told me the night before that the wound 
 would not be serious, and that I would go home and have a 
 good time. " Surely, my mother has made a mistake. If 
 my leg must come off to save my life, I have a most danger- 
 ous wound." So far in my experience my angel guides had 
 made no mistakes. " Now, shall I trust my life in the hands 
 of five experienced surgeons, or shall I rely on the words of 
 my mother? " As I lay there on the bed, I thought it over. 
 " No, " I said to myself, " my angel guides have made no mis- 
 takes in the past, I will trust to their counsel and advice." I 
 then told the surgeons that I had decided to take my chances, 
 and let the leg remain on; that when that leg was buried, my 
 head would be buried with it. They then withdrew, and 
 cared for the wounded confederates that were in the room. 
 As they withdrew, another officer, that had been talking to 
 the confederates, came up and asked me where my camp was, 
 how far away it was, and how I expected to get back to it 
 in my wounded condition. He told me not to undertake the 
 trip in the condition I was, but to come on board of his boat, 
 and he would see that I had medical care and attendance. I 
 accepted the offer of this officer. Soon a detail of sailors 
 appeared and carried me on board the steamer Fair Play, 
 which proved to be the flag-ship of the squadron. The of- 
 ficer who had come to my assistance was Commodore Leroy 
 Fitch, the commander of the fleet. He kindly volunteered to 
 send one of his gunboats over and get the prisoners and 
 
292 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 captured property. He likewise took the prisoners off of our 
 hands, saving my men the trouble of guarding them back to 
 our camp. The fleet then proceeded on up the river as far 
 as Mussel Shoals, then turned back to the Ohio River. As 
 soon as the surgeons said I could be removed, the Commo- 
 dore signaled the river Packet that ran from Cairo to Evans- 
 ville to come alongside and take me off. Soon I was landed 
 in Evansville, Ind. and on a train speeding for my home in 
 Michigan. Here I was m.et by the girl that had promised 
 to marry me as soon as the war was over. We decided that 
 we might as well get married then, as to wait until the war 
 was over. She wanted to show her love and respect for me, 
 by caring for me while I was suffering from my wound. We 
 were married. I remained at home until I was able to again 
 mount a horse and assume my duties. The full prediction of 
 my angel mother had come true. I was wounded as she said 
 I would be.. It was not serious, and I went home and had a 
 nice time. That incident in my life has helped to confirm 
 me in my belief that the so-called dead can communicate with 
 mankind. I could go on and relate more incidents of like 
 nature that I have experienced, not only in the army, but 
 many that have been just as convincing in my many years of 
 every day life. 
 
 [I made inquiries of Major Newell in regard to the voice. 
 The following letter explains Editor.] 
 
 Seattle, July 8th, 1910. 
 Prof. James H. Hyslop, 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 Your letter of the 19th of May, was rec'd in time, but ow- 
 ing to my time being so much taken up, I could not find time 
 to answer it. But this morning,- 1 will take time to answer 
 the questions you ask as best I can. 
 
 You ask, how did I know, that my Mother and Pierre 
 Thomas were guiding me. The case I mentioned in my 
 communication, was when I heard a voice speaking to me, as 
 I was standing on the bank of the Tennessee River. How 
 did I know that it was the voice of my mother? I wonder 
 how Eli knew that it was God's voice that spoke to Samuel 
 
Personal Experiences. 293 
 
 that night that Samuel reported that a voice was calling 
 him. 
 
 I am aware that these voices are not audible, that is, 
 they were not audible to any other person that might have 
 been standing near me, but to me they seemed to be audible. 
 There was a certain expression about the voice. If your 
 wife was in another room, and you heard her call to you, 
 you would reply, knowing that it was your wife, without 
 going to see who spoke. There is a certain expression to 
 every voice, that we know who speaks, especially if it is a 
 person as near to you as your mother. After she left her 
 body, there was never a week passed but what I heard her 
 speaking to me. Often, it was in the stillness of my room at 
 night, when it was so dark that I could not see anything in 
 the room. Again it was when a boy at play, I would hear 
 her words of caution, as she seemed to be near me, watching 
 over my every act of life. There is a tone of expression that 
 cannot be mistaken. In speaking to me, she always used my 
 first name, Cicero. That name was hardly known in the 
 army, outside of a few of the boys that went with me into the 
 army. I was only known as Captain or the rank by which 
 I was known. 
 
 Then you ask, Why did I know that it was Pierre Thomas 
 that was guiding me. 
 
 Here is a question that needs more explanation. I never 
 knew Pierre Thomas when he was in earth life. 
 
 But I knew this. After I was commisioned an officer of 
 Cavalry, there was an influence that often came to me, that 
 was so different from that of my mother. Whenever I felt 
 it, it made me feel like another person. I was in a high ner- 
 vous strain, every move I made was quick and very impulsive, 
 there was a short quick snap about it. Every order I gave 
 my men, was a quick, short and very impulsive order, not in 
 the least like myself. My nature was to move slow and care- 
 ful. I noticed that when I acted as I was impressed to do by 
 this strange mania, I often call it, everything went well with 
 me. I made no mistakes. Therefore I let it take possession 
 of me, and I followed in its lead. This strange mania would 
 impress me to do things that my better judgment said, " No, 
 
294: Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 do not do so." My reason said' it was not the thing to do. 
 But this voice, said, " Do so and so." If I disobeyed, I suf- 
 fered for not doing or obeying its orders. When I started 
 with those despatches for General Sherman's Headquarters, 
 my best judgment said, " Go back to camp, and report that it 
 was impossible to get through the lines of the enemy. A full 
 Brigade has been driven back by the enemy, I could not get 
 through with one company." But this voice said, " No. 
 You can get through, follow my directions." That entire 
 night, I was under the control of that mania. When I got to 
 Moscow, my guide said, go to the north. But my reason 
 said NO. I must feel of the enemy and see if they were 
 there. I followed my own reason, and found them in force. 
 Then I listened to my guide. I went as he directed. At 
 times I could not give way ''entirely to his promptings. 
 Therefore, I let my own reason have sway. At that time, I 
 did not know that it was Pierre Thomas, my stepfather or 
 grandfather, as he called himself, that was guiding my move- 
 ments. But I knew it was not my mother. The influence 
 was so different. 
 
 This same impulse is felt with many people even at this 
 day. From my experience in life, I have reason to believe 
 that people are often taken possession of by some disem- 
 bodied spirit, the same as I was. Pierre Thomas as I stated 
 in my letter, was a Captain of Cavalry und'er Napoleon. His 
 love for the Cavalry service was the same after he left his 
 physical body behind, as it was when he was serving with 
 Napoleon. Nearly fifty years have passed since I com- 
 manded the White Horse Company of the Third Cavalry, but 
 the love of White Horses is so implanted in me, that when- 
 ever I ride, it must be a white horse. On last Memorial Day, 
 I was selected by the Grand Army of the Republic as Field 
 Officer of the Day, or Grand Marshall as we sometimes call 
 it. I felt that I must have my staff all mounted on white 
 horses. I found where I could get them. Therefore I had 
 my four Aides-de-Camp all mounted on white horses, it goes 
 to prove to me that the love of the service follows us through 
 many years. So it was with Captain Thomas. His love for 
 the cavalry service was the same as when he was in the flesh. 
 
Personal Experiences. 295 
 
 He has not changed. He saw in me a tool that he could carry 
 out his love for the cavalry service. I cannot help but think 
 and believe that it was Captain Thomas that guided me. 
 Then again, Captain Thomas came to me at Cincinnati in, 
 I think it was 1869, and told me through Lizzie Kizer at a 
 public meeting, in a church one Sunday evening, that he was 
 often with me guiding my movements. While in Cincinnati, 
 I was in the State Military Service. The woman, Lizzie 
 Kizer, acted, while giving the test, the same as I felt when- 
 ever he was controlling me. How I can better explain this 
 condition, I do not know. 
 
 Dr. Hyslop, I am well satisfied in my mind that many of 
 the cases now before the courts, men that are charged with 
 high crimes, are in the same condition that I was : only they 
 are controlled by men or women that seek to do wrong, but 
 they are controlled in the same way. They act on the im- 
 pulse of the moment. They, of themselves, are not to blame. 
 I can recall incidents that have come into my life when I have 
 had to fight for my life, as it were, to overcome these strange 
 influences that would get possession of me. 
 
 Fraternally yours, 
 
 CICERO NEWELL. 
 
296 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 EDITORIAL. 
 PROFESSOR MUENSTERBERG'S PROGRESS. 
 
 In his work on Psychotherapeutics Professor Muensterberg 
 flatly denied the existence of the subconscious, tho he said it 
 would take a good many words to explain what was meant 
 by saying of it: "There is none". However here in the 
 magazine article on Beulah Miller and her phenomena he 
 has come so thoroughly to believe in the subconscious that 
 he uses it to explain what he witnessed. This is certainly 
 great progress. But when and where did he get the evidence 
 for the existence of this subconscious? lias he ascertained 
 that he can no longer move in respectable society unless he 
 believes in it? Has it not revolutionized his psychology to 
 accept the existence of that which a little while ago had no 
 place whatever in it? 
 
 The papers heralded far and wide that he was investiga- 
 ting Beulah Miller, and something was expected of him in 
 this respect. He has at last appeared with an article in the 
 May Metropolitan Magazine. He seems to have made an 
 honest effort to ascertain whether there was any evidence for 
 telepathy in that case and the present writer must say that 
 he deserves much credit for his willingness to experiment 
 with the child, a thing which our other academic Philistines 
 are too dignified to do. There was an opportunity right in 
 the locality for a psychologist to study the case and he seems 
 not to have gone out of his comfortable nest even to see it. 
 Professor Muensterberg shows more than the usual academic 
 willingness to look into alleged marvels and this Journal 
 will not begrudge him any praise for doing so. On the other 
 hand, it is glad to see the academic man getting out of his 
 lair and meeting the facts. 
 
 This is not the place to state the facts on which Professor 
 Muensterberg rests his explanation of the case. Readers 
 must go to the magazine for them. But he frankly admits 
 
Editorial. 297 
 
 that he witnessed interesting phenomena. However, he re- 
 jects the telepathic " hypothesis ' and adopts that of " unin- 
 tentional signals unconsciously interpreted " as the true expla- 
 nation. He evidently repudiates the conjurer's right to judge 
 the case, as he acquits the child and the family of all fraud 
 in the matter, and virtually implies that the problem is for 
 the psychologist, not the conjurer. With this view we fully 
 agree and are glad to see it practically recognized here. 
 But finding that the conjurer's simple hypothesis of a con- 
 sciously worked up signal code does not work, he resorts to 
 a modification of this and makes it an unconscious signal 
 made by the person transmitting the thought and an uncon- 
 scious reading of this signal by the child. 
 
 Now if Professor Muensterberg thinks he has gotten rid 
 of telepathy by any such theory he ought to know that he is 
 either mistaken in that assumption or he is mistaken in re- 
 gard to the scientific conception of telepathy. The mistake, 
 I think, which Professor Muensterberg makes in this matter 
 and also in nearly all that he says about psychic research is 
 found in the following facts. (1) He assumes that telepathy 
 is essentially connected with some sort of waves or vibra- 
 tions, brain or ethereal, that determine its nature. (2) He 
 assumes that telepathy and the supernormal are loaded with 
 implications of the supernatural, which is precisely the thing 
 to be proved. (3) He assumes that there is a distinction 
 between telepathy and unconscious signals unconsciously 
 interpreted. 
 
 Now it does not seem to the present writer than any one 
 of these assumptions is correct. They prevent him from 
 seeing the real interest of his facts. When you are able to 
 call a thing " natural " you do not get rid of its interest, if it in 
 any way differs from ordinary experience. The word " nat- 
 ural " is only a counter for fools. It covers everything from 
 the falling of a stone to the seeing of objects, hearing sounds, 
 color adaptation and all the marvels of physical science, to say 
 nothing of the wilderness of the subconscious. It is worth- 
 less for making anything whatsoever intelligible. It only 
 excuses men from investigating. 
 
 In regard to the conception of telepathy which he as- 
 
298 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 sumes, it is only fair to say that he has a certain kind of justi- 
 fication for it in the views of crack-brained people who ex- 
 plain everything in the universe by vibrations and try to re- 
 duce telepathy to this. But Professor Muensterberg ought 
 to know that psychic researchers of any scientific standing do 
 not hold to any such views. It has been a term merely for 
 naming a class of irreducible facts, at least irreducible to or- 
 dinary experience. It is not an explanation,, tho the public 
 that Professor Muensterberg has in mind does often take 
 that conception of it. But he should not make the psychic 
 researchers responsible for that. They have regarded it 
 merely as a name for facts, not a name for any known process. 
 He should attack the theory of brain waves, not the de- 
 scriptive term telepathy. He confuses issues here. And he 
 confuses them all the more when you see that no one can 
 tell the difference between telepathy and unconscious signals 
 unconsciously read. They may be identical. They may be 
 different. No one knows, and Professor Muensterberg has 
 given us no evidence of what they are in this special case. 
 He rejects telepathy because he found no evidence, and he 
 might have seen that the same evidence or lack of evidence 
 required him to reject his unconscious signals unconsciously 
 read. What is evidence for the one may be evidence for the 
 other, and what is not evidence for one is not evidence for 
 the other. If we knew what telepathy is, this statement 
 could not be made, because we do not know what the un- 
 conscious signals unconsciously read are. We, in fact, know 
 very little, if any more, about subconscious processes than we 
 do about telepathy. Both are terms for our ignorance of all 
 but the facts. As processes they may be the same, or they 
 may be different. W r e do not yet know. Both are negative 
 conceptions defining our ignorance, and only academic prej- 
 udices, which may be good or bad, prevent us from seeing 
 this circumstance. 
 
 Professor Muensterberg says he did not find evidence for 
 telepathy in the facts described in his experiments, and taking 
 them as described, this verdict would not be disputed by the 
 scientific man. But I think the scientific man would also 
 say that he gives no evidence for his own theory. But there 
 
Editorial. 299 
 
 is one good thing in his attempt to explain, which our be- 
 lievers in " X ray vision " and simpler theories would do well 
 to note. Professor Muensterberg proceeds along correct 
 lines in searching for his explanation. He does not use terms 
 that are new. He does not coin phrases that cannot pos- 
 sibly mean more than the facts themselves. He employs the 
 language of familiar experience. He associates his explana- 
 tion with the idea of signals which we understand in normal 
 life, and which in the subnormal life can be made a more or 
 less familiar fact within certain limits. He gets the advan- 
 tage of appealing to the known, or apparently known, and 
 thus satisfies scientific requirements. But he does not see, 
 apparently, that the scientific requirement also demands that 
 he prove the application of his hypothesis to the facts. He 
 only guesses at this and readers take his ipse dixit based on a 
 guess for the fact when he has no more evidence for the actual 
 signs used than he has for telepathy. The public that is as 
 much prejudiced against telepathy as its adherents are for it, 
 shouts with approval while the advocates, grind their teeth 
 with rage, and both are wrong! 
 
 The public, however, which favors telepathy has itself 
 largely to blame for the situation. It will not suspend its 
 judgment, but rushes into absurd explanations of telepathy 
 which come to be the meaning of the term tho it was intended 
 only to name facts not normally explained. Now there is 
 nothing clearer than that Professor Muensterberg has to ad- 
 mit that the facts are not normal. People going about are 
 not generally reading unconscious signals unconsciously 
 made by others in the coincidental way described with Beulah 
 Miller. The facts are exceptional. This Professor Muen- 
 sterberg admits, and what more beyond the normal could you 
 have than unconscious reading of unconscious signals? But 
 you say it is not supernormal. Well, you say it is not ab- 
 normal, as you do not apply hysteria to the case, or any 
 other condition justifying that description. Nor is the phe- 
 nomena in any rational sense subnormal. You cannot but 
 call it supernormal, tho that term may not take us be- 
 yond the fact that the case is exceptional and not 
 reducible to what we call the normal in its accepted 
 
300 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 sense. This only means that both the normal and 
 the supernormal are relative terms. You can draw 
 the line where you please. It does not help to call 
 the subconscious normal. It was not long since that the 
 subconscious was not suspected and it was not long since 
 that Professor Muensterberg himself denied the existence of 
 the subconscious, as we have remarked above. Then the 
 subconscious was not normal, and we have only stretched the 
 meaning of the term normal when we resolve to include the 
 subconscious in it. Now when you go still farther and speak 
 of unconscious reading of unconscious signals you are again 
 stretching the term normal beyond all rational meaning when 
 you apply it to such phenomena. I have no objections to do- 
 ing so, but I would not be under any illusions that I had 
 eliminated the mystery of the case. We could just as well 
 call telepathy normal in order to answer prejudice, and Pro- 
 fessor Muensterberg' s procedure is only juggling with words 
 in fact, if he supposes that he has satisfied any scientific mind 
 by this sort of conjuring when we want to know what the 
 signals are and how little Beulah Miller interprets them only 
 on such emergencies. She ought to be the victim of untold 
 obsessions from such unconscious signals from her mother 
 and sister. All that Professor Muensterberg has really done 
 is to cover up unexplained facts by familiar words which do 
 not apply at all, at least so far as the evidence goes. He is 
 half conscious of this when he admits that it would take 
 months to experiment adequately with the child, and he 
 would have done better to have insisted on this and not 
 rushed to a magazine with a garbled account of such experi- 
 ments as he has described. 
 
 We hope ourselves to have something to say about the 
 case later. It will depend on whether we shall be allowed to 
 experiment even as much as was Professor Muensterberg. 
 In the meantime it may be well to recognize that popular 
 conceptions of telepathy are not the ones which should be 
 attacked unless you distinguish between them and the de- 
 scriptive meaning of the term as used by scientific men. In 
 this respect the article of Professor Muensterberg only 
 throws dust in the eyes of the public, though he may be well 
 
Editorial. 301 
 
 meaning enough in this. I can quite understand his preju- 
 dices in favor of " normal " explanations where you can get 
 them. That is the business of all of us. But there is no 
 use to suppose that telepathy overthrows psycholog- 
 ical science any more than does the conscious or 
 the subconscious reading of unconscious signals. Psy- 
 chology cannot be overthrown by any facts, normal 
 or supernormal. Only our worthless metaphysics about 
 it is likely to be disturbed by telepathy and other facts. Half 
 the talk we hear about the brain and its processes is pure 
 metaphysics and imagination, and so are likely to be over- 
 thrown by every new fact we find, whether normal or other- 
 wise. But what we really know about psychology will never 
 be set aside by knowing more. Professor Muensterberg con- 
 fuses his metaphysics with science in this problem. Telep- 
 athy might well revolutionize his metaphysics and so ought 
 this talk about subconscious reading of subconscious signals, 
 but they would never revolutionize scientific facts that have 
 been established. He is unduly frightened about his meta- 
 physics in the name of science. 
 
 I think that the chief criticism that can be brought against 
 Professor Muensterberg's attitude of mind is the one that 
 can be brought against the academic mind always. In his 
 antagonism to the layman the academic votary gets into the 
 habit of confusing cautiousness with mere throwing of dust. 
 When he had to face Mesmerism he talked glibly of the im- 
 agination. When he was forced to abandon the imagination 
 as a miracle worker, tho he might have had more sense than 
 to adopt it, he took his stand on " suggestion ", and now he 
 has worn that threadbare, tho it never meant anything so in- 
 telligible as the imagination. Now he goes into the impen- 
 etrable wilderness of the subconscious with the same con- 
 fidence that he had displayed in his reference to imagination 
 and " suggestion ". He constantly changes his ground, tho 
 he insists that he has not done so. The more he changes the 
 more he remains the same. He never knows when he is 
 whipped. He changes his terms and supposes that the si- 
 lence of his antagonist is a sign of their vanquishment. The 
 recent performance of the academic gentleman under review r 
 
302 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 illustrates it clearly and even the newspaper editors had the 
 sense of humor and insight to see through its dust throwing 
 nature by saying of it : "According to the experts Beulah 
 Miller is not at all a psychic mystery, but something still 
 harder to understand." Some day these academic priests, 
 like the Roman augurs, will smile when they meet. 
 
Book Reviews. f - f : j J /;' \ : ;;39.3 : ,\ 
 
 BOOK REVIEWS. 
 
 Spiritism and Psychology. By Th. Flournoy. Translated from 
 the French by Hereward Carrington. Harper and Brothers, 
 New York. 1911. 
 
 This is a translation of the work by Th. Flournoy entitled 
 " Esprits et Mediums ", with the explanatory title " Melanges de 
 Metapsychiqne et de Psychologic" The translator's title very much 
 abbreviates the author's. He has also abbreviated the matter 
 so that the translation contains less than one-third of the original. 
 It contains the more interesting discussions and facts of the au- 
 thor. There is also a considerable Introduction by Mr. Carring- 
 ton in which he explains the philosophical position of the author 
 and defends the Palladino case in this country, as this subject 
 comes up in the work of Professor Flournoy. 
 
 The book should obtain a reading in this country and perhaps 
 it is sure to do this from all who know his remarkably interesting 
 volume "From India to the Planet Mars ". It will receive more aca- 
 demic attention than most literature on psychic research, and yet 
 the academic man will be disappointed if he expects to find a re- 
 jection of all supernormal phenomena. Professor Flournoy ac- 
 cepts the genuineness of physical phenomena without offering an 
 explanation of them. He criticizes the spiritistic theory, tho be- 
 lieving in a future life. The unreformed sceptic will not like the 
 concessions that he makes to the supernormal, but they are here. 
 Yet he is conservative in the treatment of it. Psychic researchers 
 will be interested in it greatly and we are very glad that it has 
 been translated. When reviewing the original we expressed the 
 wish that it were done. Our wish has here been fulfilled. 
 
 We could go into a minute examination of the book, and 
 discuss the views expressed on their merits. But there is noth- 
 ing in the authors views that would justify controversy. Tho 
 differing with him more, perhaps, than Mr. Carrington, the book 
 is too sympathetic with the truth to entertain any hostility toward 
 his point of view or opinions. 
 
 There are perhaps some things introduced by the translator 
 that are hardly relevant to a book that did not contain them and 
 perhaps some unwary inconsistencies between statements in the 
 Introduction and discussions in it and in later notes. But I shall 
 not particularize. 
 
of the American Society for Psychical Research. 
 
 The Coping Stone. By E. Katharine Bates. Greening and Co.. 
 London, 1812. 
 
 Miss Bates is rather fertile in the use of her pen. It has no1 
 been long since we reviewed two other books of hers. The pres- 
 ent one gets its title from the last chapter. The next to last i< 
 called the Prelude and the fact that there is no Preface leaves uj 
 to our wits to know why the Prelude comes last. Apparently 
 there was a justifiable motive "in this. The book is not primaril; 
 for helping in scientific psychic research, tho incidents of im- 
 portance are scattered throughout the book. There is a variety 
 of subjects treated, but they all have a " spiritual " meaning, \\ 
 we may appropriate its ethical and religious coloring to describ< 
 its departure from the strictly scientific role. The book will b< 
 helpful to those who want to see more than tests of the super- 
 normal and who wish to know the relations and bearings of th< 
 fundamental problem with which the scientific researcher into th< 
 facts is employed. Miss Bates always brings the subject out oi 
 the laboratory and spices it with general ethical values and isj 
 sues. As critical students of the problem we should have to 
 that she does not satisfy scepticism with her facts, but we musi 
 not put ourselves in the. position of the mathematician who inj 
 sisted that Paradise Lost proved nothing. There are other values 
 in life besides proof, and then experiences like these in abundanci 
 would go a long way toward proof, if they did not actually 
 achieve it. 
 
 A Mathematical Theory of Spirit. By H. Stanley Redgrove, Assist] 
 ant Lecturer in Mathematics at the Polytechnic, Lond< 
 William Rider and Son Ltd. London. 
 
 It would hardly be too much to say that the author starts ou 
 with the promise to apply mathematics to metaphysical problem) 
 and then forgets his promise and never attempts to fulfill i1 
 There does not seem to be the slightest trace of what mathe] 
 matics are, except that if you multiply 2 by 2 you get 4 as 
 product or A by B you get AB. The elementary processes 
 mathematics are mentioned but the book ends with that, t 
 there are some statements about Swedenborg who evidently 
 fluenced the author's thinking. But-- anything like applying 
 mathematics to metaphysics is wholly absent from the book. 
 
An Italian Critique of an 
 American Book 
 
 46739 
 
 By Carlo Formichi, Professor of Sanskrit and English in the 
 University of Pisa. 
 
 Translate^ knm Coenobium, Lugano, March, 1913, pp 67 -69. 
 
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