was suddenly and
permanently awakened by the discovery, following several years spent in
patiently collecting evidence, of facts pointing to the possibility of
thought being communicated from mind to mind by some agency other than
the recognized organs of sense. At once he made it his special business
to accumulate data bearing on this point, his labors ultimately leading
him into an exhaustive examination of hypnotism, as he found that the
hypnotic trance seemed peculiarly favorable to "thought transference,"
or "telepathy."

Meantime, the example of this little Cambridge group had been followed
by other investigators; and in 1876, before no less dignified and
conservative a body than the British Association for the Advancement of
Science, the proposal was made that a special committee be appointed for
the systematic examination of spiritistic and kindred phenomena. The
idea was broached by Dr. W. F. Barrett, professor of physics at the
Royal College of Science, Dublin, and was warmly seconded by Dr. Alfred
Russel Wallace and Sir William Crookes, two distinguished scientists who
had already made adventures in psychical research and were destined to
wide renown as ghost hunters.

For some reason nothing was done at the time; but five years later
Professor Barrett renewed his suggestion, asking Myers and Gurney if
they would join him in the formation of such a society. That, they
replied, they would gladly do, provided Sidgwick could be induced to
accept its presidency. Having long before realized that the field was
too extensive for thorough exploration by any individual, however
gifted, Sidgwick willingly gave his consent. And accordingly, in
January, 1882, the now celebrated Society for Psychical Research was
formally organized, its first council including, besides Sidgwick,
Myers, Gurney, and Barrett, such men as Arthur J. Balfour, afterward
Prime Minister of Great Britain; the brilliant Richard Hutton; Prof.
Balfour Stewart; and Frank Podmore, than whom no more merciless
executioner of bogus ghosts is wielding the ax to-day.

Unfortunately, the first council also numbered several avowed
spiritists, notably the medium Stainton Moses; and the society's
birthplace was in the rooms of the British National Association of
Spiritualists. These two facts created a wide-spread suspicion that the
society was actually nothing more than an adjunct to the spiritistic
movement. Nor was confidence wholly restored by the hasty