ASPR Journal, V14 - Iapsop.com

324 ltmrnal of the American Society for Psychical Research.
The chief psychological interest in the real or alleged appearance
of Napoleon is the fact that the sentiment expressed
about his not having a " thirst for conquest " and that " the years
had brought understanding," is directly opposed to the belief of
Mrs. Chenoweth, as my note at the end of the sitting shows.
She believed that he had the same nature as when he carried on
his wars, but here this is directly denied.
The next matter of interest has its humorous as well as its
curious side. It is the appearance of an alliance between the
English and the French in the spiritual world! !I Napoleon,
England's great enemy and one who might be thought to cherish
eternal enmity for his banishment to St. Helena, is working hand
in hand with Gladstone! There is no assertion of this, but it is
a natural inference from the situation, assuming that the message
is genuine, and quite as interesting on the hypothesis that it is
subliminal impersonation, for .which there is no more evidence
than there is that it is as alleged. I make no defence for this
appearance, as I am not scientifically interested in the claim,
unless it could help to explain the predictions, but our question
is not primarily their explanation, but the assurance that they
are beyond normal guessing. Some of them are not beyond this
and the unfulfilled ones cannot be invoked to prove anything as
yet.
I have said that the difficulty is to assure ourselves that the
newspapers did not convey enough information to impair the
veridicity of the most general predictions. But for the sake of
pursuing another problem in the case, let us assume that the
predictions do come from the spiritual world, whether from the
personalities alleged or from others or from the subconscious of
the psychic. Then how would we explain them?
The answer to this query involves some interesting facts.
The predictions center around, not only present events, but such
as are, in many instances, in the minds of many people. The
personalities predicting the future have only to know what is in
those minds and especially in the minds of the statesmen who
are responsible for everything and who have had their plans for
years. Any spirit which could obtain these. telepathically or
otherwise. and who should know the relative strength of the
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