If that imaginary individual so convenient for literary
illustration, a visitor from Mars, were to alight upon our planet at its
present stage of development, and if his intellectual interests induced him to
survey the range of terrestrial views of the nature of what is " in heaven
above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth," to
appraise mundane opinion in regard to the perennial problems of mind and
matter, of government and society, of life and death, our Martian observer
might conceivably report that a limited portion of mankind were guided by
beliefs representing the accumulated toil and studious devotion of generations,
—the outcome of a slow and tortuous but progressive growth through error and
superstition, and at the cost of persecution and bloodshed ; that they
maintained institutions of learning where the fruits of such thought could be
imparted and the seeds cultivated to bear still more richly ; but that outside
of this respectable yet influential minority, there were endless upholders of
utterly unlike notions and of widely diverging beliefs, clamoring like the
builders of the tower of Babel in diverse tongues.
***
Historically considered, the occult points back to distant
epochs and to foreign civilizations; to ages when the facts of nature were but
weakly grasped, when belief was largely dominated by the authority of
tradition, when even the ablest minds fostered or assented to superstition,
when the social conditions of life were inimical to independent thought, and
the mass of men were cut off from intellectual growth of even the most elementary
kind. Pseudo-science flourished in the absence of true knowledge; and
imaginative speculation and unfounded belief held the office intended for inductive
reason. Ignorance inevitably led to error, and false views to false practices.
In the sympathetic environment thus developed, the occultist flourished and
displayed the impressive insignia of exclusive wisdom. His attitude was that of
one seeking to solve an enigma, to find the key to a secret arcanum ; his
search was for some mystic charm, some talismanic formula, some magical
procedure, which should dispel the mist that hides the face of nature and
expose her secrets to his ecstatic gaze. By one all-encompassing, masterful effort
the correct solution was to be discovered or revealed ; and at once and for
all, ignorance was to give place to true knowledge, science and nature were to
be as an open book, doubt and despair to be replaced by the serenity of perfect
wisdom. As our ordinary senses and faculties proved insufficient to accomplish
such ends, supernatural powers were appealed to, a transcendental sphere of
spiritual activity was cultivated, capable of perceiving, through the hidden
symbolism of apparent phenomena, the underlying relations of cosmic structure and
final purposes. Long periods of training and devotion, seclusion from the
world, contemplation of inner mysteries, were to lead the initiate through the various
stages of adeptship up to the final plane of communion with the infinite and
the comprehension of truth in all things. This form of occultism reaches its
fullest and purest expression in Oriental wisdom-religions. These vie in
interest to the historian with the mythology and philosophy of Greece and Rome
and we of the Occident feel free to profit by their ethical and philosophical content,
and to cherish the impulses which gave them life. But when such views are
forcibly transplanted to our age and clime, when they are decked in garments so
unlike their original vestments, particularly when they are associated with
dubious practices and come into violent conflict with the truth that has
accumulated since they first had birth,—their aspect is profoundly altered, and
they come within the circle of the modern occult.
***
THE
PROBLEMS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
The division of the sciences reflects the diversity of human
interests; it represents the economical adaptation of organized thought to the
conditions of reality; and it likewise recognizes the intrinsically and
objectively distinct realms and aspects, in which and under which phenomena
occur. It is obvious that the sciences were shaped by human needs ; that
physics and chemistry and geology and biology and psychology do not constitute
independent departments of nature's regime, but only so many aspects of complex
natural activities ; that a cross-section of the composite happenings of a cosmic
moment would reveal an endlessly heterogeneous concomitance of diverse forms of
energy acting upon diverse types of material ; that, as we confine our
attention somewhat arbitrarily to one or another component of the aggregate, we
become physicists, or chemists, or geologists, or biologists, or psychologists
; that, indeed, Nature is all things to all men. There is, furthermore, a
community of spirit between the several sciences, as there is a logical unity
of method and purpose within the realm of each. However ignorant they may be of
one another's facts, the chemist and the psychologist readily appreciate one
another's purposes, and find a bond of sympathy in the pursuit of a commonly
inspired though differently applied method. The search for objective truth, the
extension of the realm of law and regularity, the expansion and organization of
the army of facts constantly marshaled and reviewed and made ready for service,
the ever widening development of principles and the furthering of a deeper
insight into their significance,—these are ideals for the advancement of
science, far easier of expression than of execution, but the clear and accepted
formulation of which itself attests a highly developed stage of accurate thought.
A clear-cut conception of the purposes and methods of scientific investigation
and of the scope of the several sciences is a dearly bought product of generations
of well-directed, as also of misdirected, effort. The path of progress leading
to this achievement has been tortuous and indirect; there has been much
expenditure of energy that resulted merely in marking time, in going through
the movements of locomotion but with no advance, in following a false trail,
or, through a loss of the sense of direction, in coming back after a circuitous
march to an earlier starting-point. It is easy, when a certain height is reached,
to look down and back, and see how much more readily the ascent might have been
accomplished; but it is a very different matter to form a successful plan for
attaining the next higher commanding point. It is inevitable that there shall
be differences of opinion as to course and manoeuvre, and errors of judgment of
commission and omission; but such diversity is quite consistent with an
underlying cooperation and singleness of purpose. It is in the inspiration and
in the execution of that purpose that science becomes differentiated from the
unscientific and non-scientific.
***
A
STUDY OF INVOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS
When some years ago, the American public was confronted with
the striking exhibitions of muscle-reading[1], the wildest speculations
were indulged in regarding its true modus operandi ; and the suggestion that
all that was done was explicable by the skillful interpretation of the
unconscious indications given by the subjects, was scouted or even ridiculed.
It was not supposed that such indications were sufficiently definite for the purposes
of the "mind-reader," or were obtainable under the conditions of his
tests. Again, it was urged that this explanation was hardly applicable to
certain striking performances, which in reality involved other and subtler
modes of thought-interpretation, and the accounts of which were also
exaggerated and distorted. And furthermore, it was argued, too many worthy and learned
persons were absolutely certain that they had given no indications whatever.
For a time the view that mind-reading was muscle-reading rested upon rather
indirect evidence, and upon a form of argument that carries more weight with
those familiar with the nature of scientific problems than with the public at large.
But the development of experimental research in the domain of psychology has
made possible a variety of demonstrations of the truth and adequacy of this explanation.
It was with the purpose of securing a visible record of certain types of
involuntary movements, that the investigation, the results of which are here
presented, was undertaken.
***
THE
ROLE OF VISION IN MENTAL LIFE
Man is predominantly a visual animal. To him seeing is
believing, — a saying which in canine parlance might readily become smelling is
believing. We teach by illustrations, models, and object-lessons, and reduce
complex relations to the curves of the graphic method, to bring home and
impress our statements. Our every-day language, as well as the imagery of
poetry, abounds in metaphors and similes appealing to images which the eye has
taught us to appreciate. The eye is also the medium of impressions of aesthetic
as well as of intellectual value; and one grand division of art is lost to
those who cannot see. The eye, too, forms the centre of emotional expression, and
reveals to our fellow-men the subtle variations in mood and passion, as it is
to the physician a delicate index of our well-being. There are reasons for
believing that it was the function of sight as a distance-sense that led to its
supremacy in the lives of our primitive ancestors. Whatever its origin, the
growth of civilization has served to develop this eye-mindedness of the race,
and to increase and diversify the modes of its cultivation.
FACT AND FABLE
IN
PSYCHOLOGY
BY JOSEPH
JASTROW
PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF WISCONSIN
1900
Jastrow's rabbit–duck
illusion
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