ehand, and the process
were also explained to the controls, it is reasonable to suppose
that--after some trials at any rate--the trance would not be
broken, and that better, clearer results would follow. At all
events, when some of our physicians in America are experimenting
upon the effects of various electrical rays upon mediums in a
trance, might not this far simpler and better-understood method be
tried with more or less impunity? I at least suggest that it be so
tried."

23. It must not be thought that this "possession" theory of the Piper
and similar cases is the only one which has been held in the past. On
the contrary, as we know, there have been several others--Mrs.
Sidgwick's telepathic theory--from the discarnate; Mr. Andrew Lang's
theory of telepathy _a trois_; Mr. Podmore's theory of simple telepathy;
the theory held by Andrew Jackson Davis and other clairvoyants, that
there exists a sort of mirror-like sphere, upon which all thoughts and
acts are recorded, and which the medium is somehow enabled to "read"
during the trance state; the theory that discarnate spirits somehow
project their thoughts upon a wax-like surface of astral substance, and
that the medium is enabled to reinterpret them in some mysterious
manner; the Theosophical theory; the theory of the occultists and
mystics; the Catholic theory--that these manifestations are all the
result of evil, lying spirits--these are but a few of the hypotheses
which have been advanced in the past by way of explanation of these
phenomena. I may say that this latter theory has some respectable
evidence in its support, by the way, a few very remarkable cases having
come under my own observation, which I hope to detail at some future
time; and Dr. J. Godfrey Raupert has cited some impressive cases in his
_Dangers of Spiritualism_, _Modern Spiritism_, and _The Supreme
Problem_. This is assuredly a side of psychic investigation which
demands close study and prolonged investigation; and, in spite of the
masterly analysis of some of these cases by Professor Flournoy in his
_Spiritism and Psychology_ (chap. iii.), I cannot but feel that there is
yet much to be learned as to the nature of the intelligence manifested
in these cases. And this was, as we know, the opinion also of Professor
William James, for he wrote (_Proceedings of S.P.R._, vol. xxiii. p.
118): "The refusal of modern 'enlightenment' to treat 'possession' as a
hypo