From India to the planet Mars : a study of a case of somnambulism with glossolalia / by Th. Flournoy ; translated by Daniel B. Vermilye.

  • Flournoy, Théodore, 1854-1920.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: From India to the planet Mars : a study of a case of somnambulism with glossolalia / by Th. Flournoy ; translated by Daniel B. Vermilye. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    society, its founders made the following state- ment : From the recorded testimony of many compe- tent witnesses, past and present, including obser- vations accuratel}^ made by scientific men of emi- nence of various countries, there appears to be, among much illusion and deception, an important body of remarkable phenomena which are prima facie inexplicable on any generally recognized hy- pothesis, and which, if incontestably established, would be of the highest possible value. The organization of this society constituted the first attempt in the world's history to investigate the phenomena of clairvoyance, automatic writing and speaking, trance conditions, second sight, appa- ritions of persons at the point of death, alleged spirit messages, etc., by a scientific body formed upon a broad basis. As was to have been expected, the work and aims of the society were met by a storm of derision and ridicule, and by attacks which poured in from every quarter, the bitterest of which came from the always too numerous class of narrow-minded scientists, whose partisan prejudices, confining them to a nar- row rut, hinder their seeing anything from a point of view other than that of their preconceived hy- potheses, and prevent them from attaining that open-mindedness which is indispensable to and one of the first requisites of a true scientist in any field of investigation.