 |
vol. title: Vol Four of The Theosophical Society of The Arya Samaj of Arya-wart vol. period: Sept 1878 – Sept 1879 pages in vol.: 350 |
< Science and Speculation (continued from page 8-94) >
investigation has been preserved, and the result is a degree of certainty in physical science nearly, if not quite, equal to that of mathematics.
If mankind’s “circle of knowledge” is “circumscribed,” the limits of that circle are not yet defined, and the progress of science during the last half century, and especially during the last decade, seems to place tha limit almost beyond the reach of imagination. The spectroscope reveals the constitution of the sun, the planets, the far-off stellar bodies and nebulæ, and has reduced almost to a certainty that sublime conception of creation, the evolution of systems in infinite succession too vast for human comprehension.
The demonstration of the unity and conservation of force, the correlation and conversion of its various forms, the continuity of motion and the relations of its different modes, and the universality of these correlations and conversions, from the infinite on the one hand to the infinitesimal on the other, seems to open a field of knowledge without discernible limit. In view of what science has done during the immediate past, who shall say what it may not accomplish in the future?
A New View of Spiritualism
A volume of somewhat remarkable interest has just been issued. It consists of the notes of a special inquiry concerning the etiology of certain phenomena called spiritual, which are now attracting the attention of the most alert scientific minds, both in this country and in England.
The author of this work claims to have settled, by facts of observation and by actual experiment as to their nature, that the phenomena of Spiritualism are constantly associated with the epileptic temperament, and are really transformed epileptic paroxysms. His method of investigation, as regards this issue, has consisted simply in a careful and minute inquiry concerning the early history, parentage, and hereditary tendencies of professed spiritual mediums, among them Mr. Home, Foster, Andrew Jackson Davis, the late Judge Edmonds, J. R. Brown, and many other noted exponents of the system. In the well-known case of the Eddy Brothers he traces the hereditary taint for two generations in both the father and the mother of the mediums. He has, he thinks, collated a sufficient number of cases to establish this point as an undoubted scientific verity, and boldly asserts that, from this aspect, the phenomena, whether purely psychic in their attitude, and consisting of clairvoyance, trance, and prevision, or of a more dynamic type, as in table-tipping, induced rappings, and writing with phantom hands, are to be regarded as the exponents of perversion of the nervous system, and as having no ascertained or ascertainable relation to true spiritual culture. His view is that trance of the higher type is the exponent of morbid function of the cortex (or convolutions) of the brain; and this view he supports by the fact that, in persons of this temperament, trance generally supervenes under the action of anæsthetics, particularly those of the ether class, after the ordinary motor and sensory functions of the nervous system have been completely extinguished. He gives several instances in which this has occurred, and one in which the habitual use of sulphuric ether was instrumental in developing spontaneous and periodical attacks of this kind. He, therefore, regards somnambulism as an initial stage of the same disorder, quotes instances in which it has coexisted with clairvoyance, and, what is more singular, states, as a fact of personal observation, that in the several instances he has had an opportunity of observing, the somnambulistic attack has been invariably heralded by slight but perceptible nocturnal convulsions. If these facts are universal, the presumption that somnambulism, with all its singular psychical phenomena, is in the nature of a nocturnal epileptic spasm, is certainly a very strong one. Pursuing this aspect of the subject, he adduces facts to show that the literature of Spiritualism is the product of an intellectual aura engendered by nervous disorder.
According to his view, the particular portion of the cortex of the brain, in which this morbid function is set up, determines the type of the phenomena that result. If, in the convolutions of the anterior lobes, the extinction of consciousness is not necessarily complete, and the morbid sensorial impressions may coexist with conscious cognition of environing facts. If, in the convolutions of the coronal region, the impressions take the type of morbid religious or spiritual imaginings, and more definitely participate in the preternatural. Or, depending upon the centers affected, the trance medium may paint strange interior pictures, or break into gusts of music, which he could no more imitate in the normal condition of his nervous system than he could produce something from nothing. The author instances cases in which the trance activity has taken these specific forms.
Another point which Mr. Fairfield regards as an established verity is that the trance phenomena of Spiritualism are invariably associated with the cerebral temperament, while table-tipping, rappings, spirit-materializing, and the kindred dynamic phenomena are invariable in their association with the vital temperament. To enforce this point, he carefully specifies the temperament in each case, and concludes by stating that he finds not a single exception to this rule in the many instances he has personally investigated.
And this leads to the discussion of the third main point of the volume, namely, that the nervous perversion of epilepsy develops in many instances, simultaneously with the attack, a true sensory and motor aura (or nervous influence), which he traces to the molecular disturbance of nervous tissue. This, in common with medical psychologists, he styles nerve aura, meaning by that term the specific molecular influence of nervous tissue under conditions of extreme excitation such as occur in epileptic disturbances of the nervous system. His claim is that the psychic force insisted upon by Dr. Crooks, as concerned in these states, is an incorrect term to apply, and that the force concerned in them is a nervous influence specifically resulting from extreme molecular disturbance of the nervous centers of the brain and spinal cord, or both. In accordance with ascertained facts of nervous physiology, he refers this nervous influence to the gray excitor tissue of these tracts, and being himself an amateur experimentalist in physiology, supports his views both by pathological observations and by experimental data. The nervous influence is, he claims, of the same nature and genetic origin in all instances—that is to say, the direct and immediate exponent of molecular disturbance of the gray excitor tissue. The question whether it exhibits itself in psychical phenomena and morbid sensorial impressions, or in dynamic and motor phenomena of the table-tipping class, depends purely upon the temperament of the medium. If the temperament is cerebral, the sensory class will follow; if, on the other hand, it is vital, the motor class will follow. If, again, it is evenly balanced, both may occur, but neither in its most extraordinary development.
For the facts that support these somewhat extraordinary and subversive views, the reader must scan Mr. Fairfield's volume, which is a museum of facts, with very little theorizing, except such as the nature and bearing of the facts themselves have required. It should be added that Mr. Fairfield expends no ingenuity in attempting to deny that extraordinary phenomena are really associated with Spiritualism, or in trying to explain them by vague electrical theories. The detection and exposure of fraud was not within the scope of his plan, which seems to have been to collect, sift, and record such phenomena as are undoubtedly genuine, and to offer the simplest physiological explanation of them.
The Home Journal, of this city, has the following brief biography of Mr. Fairfield, which will both answer for his competence to discuss these issues, and tell what manner of man one of the frequent contributors to the Phrenological Journal is:
“Mr. Fairfield is a native of Connecticut, and was born August 18, 1839. His first lessons in Latin and Greek were taken at Monson Academy. Passing through the collegiate course, he finally graduated in the theological class of 1862, at the Lutheran Institution, Hartwick Seminary, having been in the seminary less than two of the prescribed three years. In his seminary days he was known as a promising mathematician, metaphysician, and philologist rather than for literary talent, and more particularly distinguished for his knowledge of German literature. When, in 1864, he came to New York, it was with the purpose of supporting himself as a journalist, while devoting his leisure to physiological and psychological studies. In the latter pursuit he has made successful progress. For knowledge from actual dissection and from preparation of specimens of the comparative anatomy of the nervous system, from the ruder forms of insect life, to the higher forms of animal, and for range of experiments on living bodies, he has gained a high place among professional physiologists. His powers of analysis and subtile thought are extraordinary, and he has a memory so tenacious of facts and ideas that he may almost be said to absorb a volume at a single reading, and never to forget the details of an experiment or the general statements of a scientific author.”
* “Ten Years With Spiritual Mediums.” A inquiry concerning the etiology of certain phenomena called spiritual. By Francis Gerry Fairfield. Published by D. Appleton & Co., New York. Price, $1.25.
Editor's notes