New Britain Herald Newspaper, April 10, 1925, Page 23

Jcientst Cant Liplain Weird. by - houge was ‘at the disposal of the curate. The @ short time’ later told him his un ad come GrPYHE Unknown of yestcrday fs the Truth I of tomorraw “We must study everything, discu everything, anatyze everythings withouts prejudice. The history of the gclences show. us d great’num ber of eminent niew, superior spirits, who were stopped In the path of progress by the idea that science had-spoked her last word. “We must only rroved, We eredyk We must st adniit that which has hern st he ther eredalous nor in 1y without prejudice and above we mus renain free and indspendent.” For many years jt has been known that Wamille Flammarion, dstingdished French astronome was interested it the truth of the year forming his own opinion us to wfter death, ldom Aurt did the livian opinion. Never has he been positive. So Insist ent, howeyer, las the pressure pecn Ly | who wanted the benefit of the xreat s pmion that Flammarion finally consented to write, or v “comipile, a book which would de tion. JOINS OTHER SCIENTISTS This he hua dom>, He ¢ Houties ¢pectral o ulls his volun Haunted (Appleton). T it he deals chiefly with phenomerh. © He @ites 5000 cases of genuine ov supposedly genuine instances of such ydnitts e of them phenomena. ile cannot sclentifically t for many Aud throughout the he pleads for a tolerant attitude on the part of the amateur investigator, he who really wants 1o penetrate the veil that separates from death. It one were to form any idea of Flammarion's etate of mind he would say, from a reading of “Haunted Houses,” that Flammarion is just as confirmed a believer in spiritualism (in its popular eense) ‘as Sir Oliver Lodge, A. Conan_ Dogle and the host of other distinguished minds of the pres ent, day bases the theme of his But lw is a more cautious believer, and entire work on the founda force of which we nothing. What is it? . “The Unknown World fs vaster apd ‘more im ton that there is a know sortant than the Known,” he warns. “We can edd the name of Ernest Hacckel to the list of 'savants blindéd by faise pride, who Yave denied the existence of unexplained phe Yomena, WHY SOME CAN'T UNDERSTAND “In spite of Haetkel and his colledgues, thought ransference, hypnotism end many other psychie wnifestations are now acknowledged by eminent -~ men, and the psychologist has taken courage to interést himself in problems which arvise in a field of study hitherto considered a mass of trickery and fraud. “We must remark again that ths comprehension of paychic pheromena is beyond the capacity of 1 ceftain number of men & “In’ the’ first. place, there are firstclass men of science, high officials in education or adminis- tration, who are very competent_jn dertain sub- Jects, very upright, of a ripe and unusually well- teunded judsment, but who do not go outside their sphere, and for whom science has said its last word on everything. They are convinced that the l.nv of natur re known! ass of people was opposed to' new dis wghout the wges, the movement of werjes th the earth, the telescope, the circulation of the tlood, méteorites . . . efe. They .would never de. vote their time to these things because they were sure they were impossible, and they always ab stinately adhere to a &eépticism wivch to them seems rational BLIND FAITH “Then there are the shrewd persons of business ability, false, knavish qnd crooked people, given to exploiting their neighbors, convinced that it is hetter te rob than to be robbad, and setting un scrupulous traps {or others “Laistly from another point of view, but equally tneapable of judging thé phienomena, there are the simipletons, the credufous, who have no critical minds, who make a blind faith of spiritualism— a religion indeed—-and cannot exactly analyze the effects to be observed “Yet there are also the free, and they surely form a notable proportion of the human species “Lot us acknowledge, in any case, that people in deneral are intapable of a sustained attention, and that in the terrestial human race, as a whole, ludifference to the truth is almost universal. “It 1s particular fn psychic matters that this ghorance is remurkable and regrettable, for we are all personally concerned there. The psychioul world is vaster and more immense than the physical world, Flammarion's book Is rich with experiences ot persons who claim to have lived in haunted houses. A STRANGE CASE 'One In particular is amazingly- interesting.” It is.the experience of a dignitary of the Anglican Chureh, so Flammarion writes, ’ “About 18 years ago, having cojpleted thevpro batignary petiod Of two years from.my ordina- tion as deacon, 1 was in sea quotes the churchman mongst others which came under one in the southwest of the county The parish was extensive and the situ retired, It was a sole charge, and a (Copyright of a cu _————— . friend also heard thess nol a curacy was uccepted, and in due time my wife and I proceeded to take possession of our new home. We reached it on a dull Februury duy.* “It was, | remember, a I'viday afternoon on which we orrived, and we worked with a wil, and had two or three rooms fit for occupancy by Saturday «evening. BROUGHT A FRIEND. HOME “We lud gone to bed one night as usual, and were wbout quietlys to drop asleep, when all at once there commenced u tunmult overhebd, whieh very soon mude us as wide awake as we had cver been (n our Ijves. The noise was . . . or | should say it seemed to be the result of tossing about over the attic floors of all the boxes, cases and bundies stored there, and persistent. It was loud, bolsterous There was a bump, and a rattle, and u roll and u crash. Of course an investigatior was an obvious necessity but an Investigation discovered nothing. All was quiet. was apparently undisturbed.” Everything The vector then goes on-to'tell about how he and his wife invited-a friend to come to the house to spend & few days. ‘They did not tell her any- thing about the noises, as they wanted to be sure that they themselves had not been victims of thelr own imaginations. But, he goes on to relate, this plainly as they. “Our experlences of the prenomena,” the writer concludes, “which | have descriled, extended over a perlod of 12 months. . At the end of that time 1 was appointed to a benefice in another part of England and consequently resigned my, cura We turned our backs on the vicarage nét sorry It must be confessed, to be done with our noc turnal alarms, but disappointed at not having been able to discover the cause of them,” Flammarion’s book contains 5000 of such ex periences, each different from the last. After most of them' the astronomer adds his own inter- pretation, and, after most, it must be noted, he seems baffled completely’ for want of an explana- tion. FRENCHMAN SEEKS TRUTH Is It possible for houses to be haunted? That Is the question that the great Flammarion an- swers indirectly in the affirmative Flammarion also seems to take great stock in coincidentalshappenings due to psychlo causes. In 1870 & young man employed in an arsenal in China dreamed his baby back in France had died of croup. The first letter he recelved after that dream told of the crouy ANr. LV bad the sensation tt turned and saw his apparition vanis e mj& mitted sulgide at ubout the same time he saw the ./ Raps and Noc(ead/ SV | science | ' | ipparition. OTHER CASES A poet rented u house in Windsor. Every time lo tried to work he was disturbed by ruppings und other nol The door would open as if by Invisible hunds and he would hear footsteps in the same room, though he ¢ould see no one. An p— WHAT ARE THEY? THO, asks bel in “Feeble L Y S Cumille Flammarion, can nted houses? and credulous minds. “They are but nurses' fables, good for Such Is the general opinjon—and such, it would seem, How (rightening small children. must be the verdict of common sense. much is true? Hew much is false? “An old proverb assures us that there I8 No doubt there is often much more smoke than fire, but the no smoke without fire, popular adage remains true. “Even the most absurd legends have some orl “Now, it i3 remarkable that haunted houses are as old as theghistory of humanity itsel.” Most of the time tales of haunted houses can be explained by earthly pranks, he sa Hysterical deceptions, mystifications, come: dies, fgrees and amusements—these explain most. of them. “But,” he adds, “not all the cases can be thus explained.” J M— investigation disclosed that a murder had been committed in that house years before. SEASE | A series of noises in & Norman castls had baffled all investigators. The hammerings, noises, even stampedes heard in the casile were made even when there was snow on the ground outside but no footsteps to indicate other than super natural forces had been at work. The Prrousteau in ¥rance troubled times by visitations. noises would literally shake the walls. has been Violent At one neighbors 60 d of the family was sent away During the lad's absence the family several time these noises wers heard by yards away. because of 1 noises stopped. A group of persons had been called to the bed- were grouped t uproar seem- ng on a wall. As Must Beware Fakers | MILLE FLAMMARION'S In direct expression in his bellef "in spiritualism is u great vie tory for those persons whose lives are devoted to the causs of estab lishing proof of survival after death, Flamparion, like his fellow acien tist, Sir Oliver Lodge, s & hardened materialist. Untll now he has ac cepted as fact only materlal things. The stars, the planets, the comets and other heavenly bodies were his world in which he loved to roam, But they existed. They could be seen, The public's interest in the psychic travels in cycles.” There comes u period when because of some out: standing event, the entire nation is aroused. Then for a long time such interest will lapse. s 00 HE United States, some six years ago, witnessed such a revival of interest in the spirit world. 8ir Ol ver Lodge came over hers and made & number of speeches in the interest of spirituallsm, or probably one should say spiritism, He spoke In many cities, Every- where the newspapers heralded his approach and ‘suditorlums in which he spoke were packed. Semetimes he was forced to repeat the lecturs, Much of the interest unquestionably griginated from the fact that the war had enly just been ended. Should Flammarion decide to re- peat Sir Qliver Lodge's tour he would not ‘be micelved ‘with the same enthusfasm, but his reception would be profound nevertheless. Spiritualism today s stronger than ever. More people either open- ly or secretly are being won over to Its cause. Much of the conver: slon is based, not on any physical manifestations experienced by those converted, but rather.on a HOPE that there is some truth, that there MUST BE some truth of survival {rom a rather seedy world, at best. ... E\“Em' time a man of” repute, such &8 Flammarion, openly professes his belief in the existence of & paychic force, there arises a fresh crop of charlatans, of fakers, of frauds whe prey on a sullible public. Once Flammarjon's book be comes popular, which it will, this herde will be heard from. They must be expected, even endured— but all their fakery will not @rown out the good work of Flammarion. A curious and moteworthy point to remember when considering a work such as Flammarion's, end works of Lodge on the same sub- Ject, s that whils a hard-boiled lentist takes a long time, many years to make up his mind, he never changes it. None of them ever have, to the best of this writer's recolls: tion, back-tracked on their declara. tions, ’ “« o SCIENTIST who adopts a sym. pathetic attitude towards spir- itism rarely has anything to do with a professional medium. He {nvaria- bly devotes his Investigations te “amateur” mediums, thoss who do not make a living displaying their own occult powers, Many times thess mediums are wives or daugh- in prominent families, whe S8 unusual powers which they elves cannot explain logically. When Sir Oliver Lodge was tour- ng this country he was asked, nay urged, to have a4 seance with a cer- tain medium in an Ohio city. This medium, & woman of about 60 years, has been startling people wha visited her for the past 0 years. 8he claims to have clairaudiant and alse clairvoyant powers. She claimed to get messages via a slate from the dead and also claimed to be able to ses and hear the dead. Her results were astonishing, and so her friends did their best to bring Lodge to see her, or rather bring her to Lodge's But Lodge would have notking to do with her, despite the fact that the late Bishop Hyslop, founder of can Society for Psychical urneyed from New Yorl to see her at times and seeming iderable confidence in he He gave as his reason he didn't see professional mediums in whom he had no confidence,