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The Ninth Lesson: Psychic Influence135
The Ninth Lesson: Psychic Influence
O
ne of the things which have puzzled scientific investigators and
students of the history of mankind is the persistent recurrence of stories,
legends and traditions relating to the possession and practice of some form
of Psychic Influence by men of all races and in all ages. The investigators
have found it easy to dismiss the more primitive forms of these stories by
the explanation that they were merely the result of the crudest form of
superstition among the uneducated and undeveloped people. But as they
turned over the pages of history they found that the “idle superstition” still
maintained its original force, and that its forms increased in number and
variety. From the repulsive Voodoo practices of the African savage, one may
trace a straight line to the Witchcraft epidemic in New England, and thence
on to the present time, when the Western world has apparently gone
wild on “psychism,” and the daily papers are filled with sensational tales of
mesmeric influence, hypnotism, personal magnetism, etc. The books of all
ages are filled with tales of psychic influence, the Bible containing a number
of instances of its practice for good or evil.
At the present time, attention is often called to the wonderful instances of
the power of the mind, personal magnetism, etc., and it is quite common to
hear the expression that one has, or has not, “personal magnetism”—is, or is