The Making of Religion

if it exists, is the result of a faculty of undetermined nature, whereby knowledge of remote events may be acquired, n

ally styled ‘dissociation.’ No psychologist or pathologist will deny that visions of an hallucinatory sort may occur in dissociated states, say in the petit mal of e

miles from her house in his boat, Jonka ‘was found, and seen standing at her own house wall in a trance, and being taken, she could not give answer, but sto

uted to Apollonius of Tyana, to Plotinus, to many Saints, to Catherine de’ Medici, to the Rev. Mr.

task. White men either scout the idea, or are afraid of seeming superstitious if they give examples, or, if they do give examples, are accused of having sunk to the degraded level of Zulus or Red Indians. Even where travellers, like Scheffer, have told about their own experiences, t

the topic in a man

ined from a Cree medicine-man a true prophecy of the arrival of a canoe with news next day at noon; or when Mr. J. Mason Brown, travelling with two voyageurs on the Copper Mine River, w

raise a presumption that the savage’s theory has a better foundation than Mr. Tylor supposes. Oddly enough, thou

yet I cannot but approach them with hesitation. They are so revolting to the laws of exact science, so alien, I had almost said, t

of; the alleged facts are ‘put as

t science’ must be the only laws at work in the world. Science,

, bade his emissaries ‘seek three whites, whose horses, arms, attire, and personal appearance he minutely described, which description was repeated to General Brown by the warriors before they saw his two companions.‘ General Brown assured Dr. Br

with the Zulus. His knowledge of their language and customs was minute, an

were hunting in a very unhealthy country, and I had agreed to wait for them on the North–East border, the nearest point I could

, one of my servants recommended me to go to the doctor, and

hing of their ways.” However, after some persuasion and promise of liberal payment, impressing upon him the fact that it was not white men but Kaffirs I want

hat if he obtained that information from me he might easily substitute some news which he may have heard

y — not yours.” On receiving this fillip I felt inclined to give it up, as I thought I might receive some rambling statement with a

his point also, and ot

ng, as he did so, the name to which the stone was dedicated; then he ate some “medicine,” and fell over in what appeared to be a trance for about ten minutes, during all which time his limbs kept moving

ant, but your gun is coming home,” and so on through the whole, the men being minutely and correctly described; their success or non-success being equally so. I was told where the survivors were,

mation at the time, and to my utter amazeme

man could have had ordinary intelligence of the hunters; the

ed. He gives another example, which may be explained by ‘suggestion.’ A parallel case from Central Africa will be found in the ‘Jour

which looks like the result of intense visualising power,

e will find it; at length he sees it, and himself approaching it; before he begins to move from where he is, he sees it very clearly indeed, and there is an end of doubt. That sight is so clear that it is as though it was not an inner sight, but as if he saw the very thing itself, and the place where it is; so he quickly arises and goes to the place. If it is a hidden place he throws himself into it, as t

be given under the heads ‘

f lots. But a Lapp confessed to Scheffer, with tears, that he could not help seeing visions, as he proved by giving Scheffer a minute relation ‘of whatever particulars had happened to me in my journey to Lapland. And he further complained that he know not how to make use of

ke the other savage examples, is mere

Let

Traditions d

ère de St. Joseph,

uverneur Général, me raconta cet Hyver, & qu’il a s?? de cette Dame, qui n’est rien moíns qu’un esprit foible. Elle etoit un jour fort inquiette an sujet de M

tel jour et à telle heure, qu’elle lui marqua, avec un chapeau gris sur la tête. Comme elle s’apper?ut que la Dame n’ajoutoit point foi à sa prédiction, au jour & à l’heure, qu’elle av

gris sur la tête; & ayant appris ce qui s’etoit passé, ass?ra qu’il ne pouvoit pas

ion, or that they may be explained by fraud and collusion. It is certain, however, that savage proficients believe in their own powers, though no less certainly they will eke them out by imposture. Seers are chosen in Zululand, as among Eskimos and Samoyeds, from the class which in Europe supplies the persons who used to be, but are no longer the most favourite hypnotic subjects, ‘abnor

l in finding objects which have been hidden without their knowledge. They then behave much like Mr. Stuart Cumberland, but have not the advantage of muscular contact with the person who knows where the hidden objects are concealed. The neighbours even deny that they have hidden anything at all. ‘When

l recently, supposed to make the best hypnotic subjects. Thus, in West Africa, ‘the presiding elders, during your initiation to the secret society of your tribe, discover this gift [of Ebumtupism, or

jects may be selected partly because of the physical phenomena of convulsions which they exhibit, and which favourably impress their clients, they are also

ilt for her, and she crawled in. As is well known, these lodges are violently shaken during the magician’s stay within them, which the early Jesuits at first attributed to muscular efforts by the seers. In 1637 Père Lejeune was astonished by the violent motions of a large lodge, tenanted by a small man. One sorcerer, with an appearance of candour, vowed that ‘a great wind entered boisterously,’ and the Father was assured that, if he went in himself, he would become clairvoyant. He did not make the experiment. The Methodist convert, Catherine, gave the same description of her own experience: ‘The lodge began s

llumin

umines

pirit, or Body

ills the w

ak, man

or Body, is

Sensitive Soul. We are reminded, too, of ‘the doctrine of the Sanscrit

ed to give other examples of wh

t parts before news can come. In the distance of two or three hundred leagues they would tell what the Spaniards did or suffered in their

owledge apparently acquired in no normal way, by a person of t

r Richet

ows M. Langlois from having seen him two or three times some time ago in my physiological laboratory, where he acts as my assistant. — “He has burnt himself,” Léonie replied, — “Good,” I said, “and where has he burnt himself?” — “On the left hand. I

and into water, wherever the bromine had touched it a blister was formed in a few seconds — a blister which one could not better describe than by saying, “the skin puffed up.” I need not say that Léonie had not left my house, nor seen anyone from my laboratory. Of this I am absolutely ce

ge was observed in the last century by M. de Puységur in one of his earliest cases of somnambulism. MM. Binet and Féré say: ‘It is not yet admitted that the subject is able to divine the thoughts of the magnetiser without any materia

sed hypnotism for curative purposes. He explains (June 10, 1884) that he had mesmerised Miss ——

s in this respect, April 12, 1884. There were four persons present during

m, and there are a lot of people going in and out.” “What is he doing?” “Writing a letter, and there is a book in front of him.” “Whom is he writing to?” “To the newspaper.” Here she paused and laughingly said, “Well, I declare, he is writing to the A B” (naming a newspaper). “You said there was a book there. Can you tell me what book it is?” “I

what I had in my hand, to which she replied, “It is a shilling.” It seemed as though she co

thorough sceptic as to clairvoyance, he frankly admitted that my clairvoyant was perfectly correct in every particular. He also informed us that the book referred to was a new one, which he had purchased after

cases can seldom justify either the savage theory of the wandering soul (which is not here seriously proposed) or Hegel’s theory that the fühlende Seele is unconditioned by space. For, if thought transference be a fact, the apparent clairvoyant may only

ry experiences are still very common in the Highlands, where I have myself collected many recent instances. Mr. Tylor observes that the examples ‘prove a little too much; they vouch not only for human apparitions, but for such phantoms as demon dogs, and for still more fanciful symbolic omens.’ This is perfectly true. I have found no cases of demon dogs; but wandering lights, probably of mete

fraction

n rises ere

lanation. I give, however, one or two instances. They are published in the ‘Journal of the Caledonian Medical Soci

years as a clergyman, he had been so often consulted beforehand by people who said they had seen visions of events which subsequently occurred, to my father’s knowledge,

eeable to the possessors of it. The gift was possessed by individuals of both sexes, and its fits came on within doors an

cal example of the

ow a funeral procession passing along the road. From their dress the bulk of the mourners seemed to be farm labourers — indeed the young woman recognised some of them as natives of Dull, who had gone to live and work near Dunkeld. Remarks were naturally made by my grandfather and the young couple about the untimely hour for a funeral, and, hastily filling in the papers, my grandfather went out to get the key of t

ere picked up and put into a coffin and taken without delay to Dull. A grave was dug as quickly as possible — the poor lad having no relatives — and the remains were interred. My grandfather and the young couple recognised several of the mourners as being among those w

nce was auditory, as well as visual, and th

of the “warning” or “vision” directly it was told him. Having had the advantage of a medical, previous to his theological, training, he was able to note down sound facts, unembellished by superadded imagination. Entering into this method of case-taking with a mind perfectly open, except for a slight touch of scepticism, he was greatly surprised to discover how very frequently re

liday inland, and went off to Uig, where a farmer enlisted his services in separating some lambs from the ewes. One of the lambs ran away, and the fisher lad ran headlong after it, and not looking where he was going, on catching the lamb was pulled by it to the edge of one of the very picturesque but exceedingly dangerous rocks at Uig. Too late realizing his critical position, he exclaimed, “This is a fatal lamb for me,

lcome nature of the visions is borne out by what Sc

various methods. Drugs (impepo) are used, seers whirl in a wild dance till they fall senseless, or trance is induced by various kinds of self-suggesti

tained in a great variety of lands and ages, and by races in every condition of culture.24 The alleged experiences are still said to occur, and have been inv

eve, been previously observed. We then add facts of modern experience, about the authenticity of which we, personally, entertain no doubt; and the provisional conclusion appears to be that sav