ABSTRACT

On the level of practical thought, the mind thinks in accordance with the plan of its surroundings: but it is blind to its own specialized structure. The paranormal phenomena investigated by psychical research lie further outside the field which the mind is capable of exploring than does the subject-matter of other sciences; therefore the attitude which the human mind adopts towards the paranormal is of the highest interest and importance. Evidence collected in psychical research points to a whole vista of highly significant things—knowledge conveyed without the help of the senses; the future in some inscrutable way open to human knowledge; depths of the subconscious which extend human personality indefinitely. The mind impelled by instinct would be convinced by that instinct that it was behaving in a perfectly balanced manner, while all the time it was being swayed by a subjective influence leading it to a foregone conclusion.