[1] Cf Sir OLIVER LODGE:  Life and Matter (1907), especially chap. ix.; and W. HIBBERT, F.I.C.:  Life and Energy (1904).

I am not sure that this theory really avoids the difficulty which it is intended to obviate;[1] but it is at least an interesting one, and at any rate there may be modes in which the body, under the directive control of the spirit, may expend energy derived from the material plane, of which we know little or nothing.  We have the testimony of many eminent authorities[2] to the phenomenon of the movement of physical objects without contact at spiritistic seances.  It seems to me that the introduction of discarnate intelligences to explain this phenomenon is somewhat gratuitous—­the psychic phenomena which yield evidence of the survival of human personality after bodily death are of a different character.  For if we suppose this particular phenomenon to be due to discarnate spirits, we must, in view of what has been said concerning “mediums,” conclude that the movements in question are not produced by these spirits DIRECTLY, but through and by means of the nervous system of the medium present.  Evidently, therefore, the means for the production of the phenomenon reside in the human nervous system (or, at any rate, in the peculiar nervous system of “mediums"), and all that is lacking is intelligence or initiative to use these means.  This intelligence or initiative can surely be as well supplied by the sub-consciousness as by a discarnate intelligence.  Consequently, it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that equally remarkable phenomena may have been produced by the aid of talismans in the days when these were believed in, and may be produced to-day, if one has sufficient faith—­that is to say, produced by man when in the peculiar condition of mind brought about by the intense belief in the power of a talisman.  And here it should be noted that the term “talisman” may be applied to any object (or doctrine) that is believed to possess peculiar power or efficacy.  In this fact, I think, is to be found the peculiar danger of erroneous doctrines which promise extraordinary benefits, here and now on the material plane, to such as believe in them.  Remarkable results may follow an intense belief in such doctrines, which, whilst having no connection whatever with their accuracy, being proportional only to the intensity with which they are held, cannot do otherwise than confirm the believer in the validity of his beliefs, though these may be in every way highly fantastic and erroneous.  Both the Roman Catholic, therefore, and the Buddhist may admit many of the marvels attributed to the relics of each other’s saints; though, in denying that these marvels prove the accuracy of each other’s religious doctrines, each should remember that the same is true of his own.

[1] The subject is rather too technical to deal with here.  I have discussed it elsewhere; see “Thermo-Dynamical Objections to the Mechanical Theory of Life,” The Chemical News, vol. cxii. pp. 271 et seq. (3rd December 1915).