le region of the
occult. Many spiritualists found in Theosophy, for which existence is
the endless turning of a wheel, a cycle of death and rebirth, a
pseudo-philosophic support for their belief. Spiritualism appealed
naturally to the lovers of the mystic and the unusual and it associated
itself, to a degree, with extreme liberalism in the general development
of religion. (On the whole, however, as far as religion goes,
Spiritualism has created a religion of its own.) Its advocates were
likely to be interested in phrenology, advanced social experiments, or
modification of the marriage laws. Spiritualistic phenomena themselves
became more varied and complex; trance mediumship became a profession
with a great increase of performers; slate writing was introduced and
finally materialization was achieved. All this might mean that the
spirits were growing more adept in "getting through," the mediums more
adept in technique, or else, which is more likely, that latent abnormal
aspects of personality were being brought to light through suggestion,
imitation and exercise. But no concerted effort was made by trained and
impartial observers to eliminate fraud, collect data and reach
dependable conclusions. This has been finally attempted by the Society
for Psychical Research and the results of their laborious investigations
are now at the service of the student of the occult.

_The Society for Psychical Research Begins Its Work_

The weight which attaches to the names of many English and some
American members of the Society, the carefully guarded admission of some
of them that there is in the whole region a possible residue of
phenomena which indicate communication between the living and the
discarnate and the profoundly unsettling influence of the war, really
account for the renewed interest in Spiritualism in our own time. In
1875 a few Englishmen, one of them a famous medium--Stainton
Moses--formed a Psychological Society for the investigation of
supernormal phenomena. (In general all this account of the history of
Spiritualism is greatly condensed from Podmore and Hill and the reader
is referred to their works without specific reference.)

This first group dissolved upon the death of one of its members--though
that would seem to have been a good reason for continuing it--and in
1882 Professor (afterward Sir) William Barrett, who had already done
some experimenting and had brought hypnotism and telepathy to the notice
of th