Psychical Research
a term apas mesmeric, psychical, and spiritualis- "phenomena designated by such terms tic," to use the words of the programme of the British Society for Psychical Research. The object of the inquiry, as mine the nature and extent of any indescribed by this society, was to deterby this society, was to deterfluence which might be exerted by one mind upon another apart from any gen- Inquiry had to be made into hypnotism, erally recognized mode of perception. the so-called mesmeric trance, clairvoy- PSYCHICAL RESEARCH PSYCHOANALYSIS ance, reports of apparitions and haunted was reorganized into an independent ashouses, and the phenomena of spiritual- sociation. The society issues a monthly ism. The British society was established in 1882, and an American society on similar lines two years later. Since that time continued inquiry has been made for the purpose of testing all the reported channels of thought that might exist outside the known channels of perception. The methods employed include arrangements by which an agreed-upon individual is led to concentrate his mind on some simple idea or object and to seek by methods distinct from those employed by the senses to transfer the idea to a second individual, who is usually chosen as being endowed with a supposed acute to impressions so received. re journal, and has for some years published its proceedings. It participated in the census of hallucinations, initiated by the British society and carried on for three years ending in 1892. The society does not aim at the classification of a recognized body of knowledge, but at an investigation and interpretation of groups of psychical phenomena.