psychical research.
Whether or no many of the alleged "physical phenomena" are genuine, or
whether they are merely hallucinatory in character, is a question which
involves--not only the phenomena themselves, but psychology and human
life in general, and even influences strongly science and scientific
experiments in other fields.... The senses are to be relied upon in
every science other than psychic research; that seems to be the _dictum_
of the world, and strange and even absurd as it may seem, it is, as we
know, more or less founded upon fact. In no other science is fraud
practised as it is in this; in practically no other line of research are
the mental and physical powers so strained out of their usual or normal
relations and perceptions as they are in this. It is only right, then,
that Caution should be the password, and should be most rigidly employed
in all such investigations as these.

While admitting all this, however, one must also admit that it is easy
to go too far in the opposite direction, and reject evidence which
depends upon the senses simply _because_ they depend upon them. This, I
think, is invalid reasoning. No one would be more willing than I to
admit their fallibility and untrustworthiness--especially when we are
dealing with conditions and phenomena where mal-observation is possible;
but I do not think that any negative conclusion can be drawn from this.
The case is still an open one; nothing is _proved_, one way or the
other, and, in such work as ours, proof--and not mere conjecture--must
be forthcoming. Very true it is that proof of the sort desired is often
impossible; but it is obtained sometimes. If a medium be caught
masquerading in a white muslin "robe" and a mask, we are doubtless
within our rights in saying that the medium has been _proved_ a fraud.
But failure to detect such trickery does not prove the phenomena
genuine. That would depend upon other considerations, and would only
raise a _presumption_ in favour of their authenticity. In such a case,
"proof" is largely a question of relative probability, and can be
obtained only by making the probability in favour of the reality of the
phenomena so strong that the negative aspect is rendered logically
unsound by the sheer weight of evidence against it.

These trite remarks were nevertheless rendered necessary because of the
enormous amount of misunderstanding which exists in connection with
these phenomena, and of the general methods an