Psychometry
A term used by spiritualists to denote the faculty, supposed to be common among mediums, of reading the characters, surroundings, etc. of persons by holding in the hand small objects, such as a watch or ring, which they have had in their possession. The honour of having discovered the psychometric faculty belongs to Dr. J. R. Buchanan, who classed it among the sciences, and gave it the name it bears. His theory is based on the belief that everything that has ever existed, every object, scene, event, that has occurred since the beginning of the world, has left on the ether or astral light a trace of its being, indelible while the world endures; and not only on the ether, but likewise on more palpable objects, trees and stones and all manner of things. Sounds also, and perfumes leave impressions on their surroundings. Just as a photograph may be taken on a plate and remain invisible till it has been developed, so may those psychometric "photographs remain impalpable till the developing process has been applied. And that which is to bring them to light isthe mind of the medium. All mediums are said to possess the psychometric faculty in a greater or less degree. One authority, Professor William Denton, has declared that he found it in one man in every ten, and four women in ten. Dr. Buchanan's earliest experiments, with his own students, showed that some of them were able to distinguish the different metals merely by holding them in their hands. On medical substances being put into their hands they exhibited such symptoms as might have been occasioned if the substances were swallowed. Later he found that some among them could diagnose a patient's disease simply by holding his hand. Many persons of his acquaintance, on pressing a letter against their forehead, could tell the character and surroundings of the writer, the circumstances under which the letter was written and other particulars. Some very curious stories are told of fossilised bones and teeth revealing to the sensitives the animals they represent in the midst of their prehistoric surroundings. Professor Denton gave to his wife and mother-in-law meteoric fragments and other substances, wrapped in paper and thoroughly mixed to preclude the possibility of telepathy, which caused them to see the appropriate pictures.
Many mediums who have since practised psychometry have become famous in their line. As has been said, the modus is to hold in the hand or place against the forehead some small object, such as a fragment of clothing, a letter, or a watch, when the appropriate visions are seen. Psychometrists may be entranced, but are generally in a condition scarcely varying from the normal. The psychometric pictures, printed presumably on the article to be psychometrised, have been likened to pictures borne in the memory, seemingly faded, yet ready to start into vividness when the right spring is touched. We may likewise suppose that the rehearsal of bygone tragedies so frequently witnessed in haunted houses, is really a psychometric picture which at the original occurrence impressed itself on the room. The same may be said of the sounds and perfumes which haunt certain houses.