Circe
(See Greece.) Circles, Spiritualistic : A group of persons who meet at intervals for the purpose of holding séances for spirit communication. It is essential that at least one among them be a medium; occasionally there are several mediums in one circle. But indeed all the members of a circle must be chosen with care, if the séances are to be productive of phenomena. The Baron de Guldenstubbé, in his Practical Experimental Pneumatology, or the Reality of Spirits and the Marvellous Phenomenon of their Direct Writing, published early in the history of the movement, gives directions for the forming of a circle after the American fashion. 66
Setting aside the moral conditions," he says, "which are equally requisite it is known that American Circles are based on the distinction of positive and electric or negative magnetic currents. "
The circles consist of twelve persons, representing in equal proportions the positive and negative or sensitive elements. This distinction does not follow the sex of the members, though generally women are negative and sensitive, while men are positive and magnetic. The mental and physical constitution of each individual must be studied before forming the circles, for some delicate women have masculine qualities, while some strong men are, morally speaking, women. A table is placed in a clear and ventilated spot; the medium is seated at one end and entirely isolated; by his calm and contemplative quietude he serves as a conductor for the electricity and it may be noted that a good somnambulist is usually an excellent medium. The six electrical or negative dispositions, which are generally recognised by their emotional qualities and their sensibility, are placed at the right of the medium, the most sensitive of all being next to him. The same rule is followed with the positive personalities, who are at the left of the medium, with the most positive among them next to him. In order to form a chain, the twelve person: each place their right hand on the table, and their left hand on that of the neighbour, thus making a circle round the table. Observe that the medium or mediums, if there be more than one, are entirely isolated from those who form the chain."
The formation of a circle is accomplished on similar lines at the present day. M. Camille Flammarion states that the alternation of the sexes is generally provided to "reinforce the fluids." That the séance may be as productive when the circle is composed of a few investigators, following no rules, but their own, has been abundantly proved in recent years. The one indispensable feature is the medium.
Clairaudience ("Clear Hearing"): The ability to hear sounds inaudible to the normal ear, such as "spirit" voices; a faculty analogous to clairvoyance, (q.v.), but considerably → less frequently met with. If clairaudience be ascribed to auditory, as clairvoyance to visual, hallucination, its comparative rareness is accounted for, since visual hallucination is the more common of the two. At the same time there are a goodly number of instances of the clairaudient faculty on record, some of them of a very picturesque nature. (See Spirit Music). Perhaps the best known case is that of Joan of Arc, but she was not the only martyr who heard the voices of saints and angels urging them to the performance of some special task. In spiritualistic circles the faculty is frequently claimed by mediums, but distinction must be made between the inner voice," in which the latter are supposed to receive communications from the denizens of the other world, and an externalised voice comparable to an actual physical sound. Frequently some such physical sounds form the basis of an auditory hallucination, just as the points of light in a crystal are said to form points de repère round which the hallucination of the visualiser may shape itself.
Clairvoyance (i.e., "clear vision"): A term denoting the supposed supernormal faculty of seeing persons and events which are distant in time or place, and of which no knowledge can reach the seer through the normal sense-channels. Clairvoyance may be roughly divided into three classesretrocognition and premonition, or the perception of past and future events respectively, and the perception of contemporary events happening at a distance, or outside the range of the normal vision. Clairvoyance may include psychometry, second sight, and crystal-gazing, all of which see.
For the early history of clairvoyance, see Divination. In prophecy, we have a form of clairvoyance extending back into antiquity, and second-sight also is an ancient form. It is notable that spiritualism in Great Britain was directly heralded, about the third decade of the nineteenth century, by an outbreak of clairvoyance. Among the clairvoyants of that period may be mentioned Alexis Didier (q.v.), whose phenomena suggested that telepathy at least entered into his feats, which included the reading of letters enclosed in sealed packets, the playing of écarté with bandaged eyes, and others of a like nature. Clairvoyance remains to the present day a prominent feature of the spiritualistic seance. Though there exists a quantity of evidence, collected by the members of the Society for Psychical Research and other scientific investigators, which would seem to support the theory of a supernormal vision, yet at the same time it must be acknowledged that many cases of clairvoyance lend themselves to a more mundane explanation. For instance, it has been shown that it is almost, if not quite, impossible so to bandage the eyes of the medium that he cannot make some use of his normal vision. The possibility of hyperæsthesia during trance must also be taken into account, nor must we overlook the hypothetical factor of telepathy, which may conceivably play a part in clairvoyant performances. A private enquiry agency might also be suggested as a possible source of some of the knowledge displayed by the professional clairvoyant. The crystal is, as has been indicated, a favourite mode of exercising the clairvoyant faculty, presumably because the hypnotic state is favourable to the development of the supernormal vision, though it might also be suggested that the condition thus induced favoured the rising into the upper consciousness of knowledge sub-consciously gleaned. The term clairvoyance is also used to cover the power to see discarnate spirits, and is thus applied to mediumship generally.