Science and Psychical Research

Abstract

I BEG space for a short comment on Dr. Tillyard's remarks in NATURE of October 23, so far as they concern my letter which appeared in the issue of October 2. Dr. Tillyard misrepresented what I said when he wrote that I had given my own interpretation of the words “super-normal phenomena.” These were his own words, chosen by me because I regarded them as better fitting this discussion than either “subjects of psychical research” or “spiritualism”. For I am aware that although psychical research does certainly include the study of most, if not all, of the phenomena alleged by many to be referable to some spiritual origin, there are many psychical researchers who do not accept this explanation of alleged communications between the living and the dead, but prefer to interpret such communications, and others said to occur between living persons at a far distance from one another, by attributing them to an unknown power which was long ago named ‘telepathy’ by one of the founders of the Society for Psychical Research.