Psychical Research For The Plain Man

Author : S. M. Kingsford
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331773030
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (73 download)

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Download or read book Psychical Research for the Plain Man (Classic Reprint) written by S. M. Kingsford and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-19 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Psychical Research for the Plain Man Professor Henri Bergson, in his Presidential address to the Society for Psychical Research in 1913, after discussing the differences between scientific, historical and judicial certainty, stated: - "I am led to believe in telepathy, just as I believe in the defeat of the Invincible Armada. My belief is not the mathematical certainty that the demonstration of Pythagoras' theorem gives me, it is not the physical certainty that I have of the law of the fall of bodies, but it is at least all the certainty that we obtain in a historical or judicial matter." Whilst it is obvious that scientific questions, and to a lesser extent historical questions, must be left to experts; yet the ultimate decision of Guilty, or Not Guilty, in a trial for murder rest with twelve jurymen, and not with the expert judge; though the summing up of the judge is intended to instruct the jury, and influence their verdict. It has unfortunately happened in the matter of evidence for supernormal occurrences, with which is involved the hope of life after death, that the judge and the jury, the expert and the man in the street, seldom or never come into contact. For nearly forty years the Society for Psychical Research acting as judge, has been summing up in an impartial manner the evidence for and against supernormal occurrences; but the jury, the general public, knows practically nothing about either the evidence or the summing up. The general public derives its ideas either from paragraphs in newspapers, which mostly turn the whole thing into ridicule, without argument; or from books of 'ghost stories' written by people who treat the existence of beings they call 'Elementals, ' as an established fact, and mention chats with Charlotte Bronte as everyday occurrences. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.