ective and genuine occult world.

_The Psychic Faculty and Second Sight_

Whereas some people seem fated to experience occult phenomena and others
not, there is this inconsistency: the person with the supposed psychic
faculty does not always witness the phenomena when they appear. By way
of illustration: I have been present on one occasion in a haunted room
when all present have seen the ghost with the exception of myself;
whilst on other occasions, either I have been the only one who has seen
it, or some or all of us have seen it. It would thus seem that the
psychic faculty does not ensure one's seeing a ghost, whenever a ghost
is to be seen.

I think, as a matter of fact, that apparitions can, whilst manifesting
themselves to some, remain invisible to others, and that they themselves
determine to whom they will appear. Some types of phantasms apparently
prefer manifesting themselves to the spiritual or psychic-minded person,
whilst other types do not discriminate, but appear to the spiritual and
carnal-minded alike. There is just as much variety in the tastes and
habits of phantasms as in the tastes and habits of human beings, and in
the behaviour of both phantasm and human being, I regret to say, there
is an equal and predominant amount of inconsistency.

_Intuition_

I do not think it can be doubted that psychic people have the faculty of
intuition far more highly developed than is the case with the more
material-minded.

"Second sight" is but another name for the psychic faculty, and it is
generally acknowledged to be far more common among the Celts than the
Anglo-Saxons. That this is so need not be wondered at, since the Irish
and the Highlanders of Scotland (originally the same race) are far more
spiritual-minded than the English (in whom commerciality and worldliness
are innate), and consequently have, on the whole, a far greater
attraction for spirits who would naturally prefer to reveal themselves
to those in whom they would be the more likely to find something in
common.

There is still a belief in certain parts of the Hebrides that second
sight was once obtained there through a practice called "The Taigheirm."
This rite, which is said to have been last performed about the middle of
the seventeenth century, consisted in roasting on a spit, before a slow
fire, a number of black cats. As soon as one was dead another took its
place, and the sacrifice was continued until the screeches of the
tortured