"Doyle, Arthur Conan - The New Revelation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doyle Arthur Conan)

report of the Dialectical Society, although this Report
had been presented as far back as 1869. It is a very
cogent paper, and though it was received with a chorus
of ridicule by the ignorant and materialistic papers of
those days, it was a document of great value. The
Society was formed by a number of people of good
standing and open mind to enquire into the physical
phenomena of Spiritualism. A full account of their
experiences and of their elaborate precautions against
fraud are given. After reading the evidence, one fails
to see how they could have come to any other conclusion
than the one attained, namely, that the phenomena were
undoubtedly genuine, and that they pointed to laws and
forces which had not been explored by Science. It is a
most singular fact that if the verdict had been against
spiritualism, it would certainly have been hailed
as the death blow of the movement, whereas being an
endorsement of the phenomena it met with nothing by
ridicule. This has been the fate of a number of
inquiries since those conducted locally at Hydesville
in 1848, or that which followed when Professor Hare of
Philadelphia, like Saint Paul, started forth to oppose
but was forced to yield to the truth.

About 1891, I had joined the Psychical Research
Society and had the advantage of reading all their
reports. The world owes a great deal to the unwearied
diligence of the Society, and to its sobriety of
statement, though I will admit that the latter makes
one impatient at times, and one feels that in their
desire to avoid sensationalism they discourage the
world from knowing and using the splendid work which
they are doing. Their semi-scientific terminology also
chokes off the ordinary reader, and one might say
sometimes after reading their articles what an American
trapper in the Rocky Mountains said to me about some
University man whom he had been escorting for the
season. "He was that clever," he said, "that you
could not understand what he said." But in spite
of these little peculiarities all of us who have wanted
light in the darkness have found it by the methodical,
never-tiring work of the Society. Its influence was
one of the powers which now helped me to shape my
thoughts. There was another, however, which made a
deep impression upon me. Up to now I had read all the
wonderful experiences of great experimenters, but I had
never come across any effort upon their part to build
up some system which would cover and contain them all.
Now I read that monumental book, Myers' Human
Personality, a great root book from which a whole tree