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Second Sight: A study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance by Sepharial

I. THE SCIENTIFIC POSITION

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We know what they mean well enough: the history of human development is the sequel to natural evolution, and this development could never have had place apart from the hunger of the mind and the consequent breaking down of sense limitations by human invention. As to the extent of our limitations it has been suggested that just as there are states of matter so fine as to be beyond the range of vision, so there may be others so coarse as to be below the sense of touch. We cannot, however, assert anything with certainty, seeing that proof must always require that a thing must be brought within our range of perception before we can admit it as fact. The future has many more wonderful revelations in store for us, no doubt. But there is really nothing more wonderful than human faculty which discovers these things in Nature, things that have always been in existence but until now have been outside our range of perception. The ultra-solid world may exist.

The relations of our sense-organs to the various degrees of matter, to solids, fluids, gases, atmosphere and ether, vary in different individuals to such a wide extent as to create the greatest diversity of normal faculty. The average wool-sorter will outvie an artist in his perception of colour shades. An odour that is distinctly recognizable by one person will not be perceptible to others. In the matter of sound also the same differences of perception will be noted. On a very still night one can hear the sugar canes growing. Most people find the cry of a bat to be beyond their range. The eye cannot discern intervals of less than one-fiftieth of a second. Atmospheric vibration does not become sound until a considerable frequency is attained. Every movement we make displaces air but our sense of touch does not inform us of it, but if we stand in a sunbeam the dust particles will show that it is so. Our sense of feeling will not register above certain degrees of heat or below certain degrees of cold. Sensation, moreover, is not indefinitely sustained, as anyone may learn who will follow the ticking of a watch for five minutes continuously.

But quite apart from the sense and range of our perceptions, the equality of a sense-impression is found to vary with different persons, affecting them each in a different way. We find that people have "tastes" in regard to form, colour, flavour, scent, sound, fabric and texture. The experience is too general to need illustration, but we may gather thence that, in relation to the nervous system of man, every material body and state of matter has a variable effect. These remarks will clear the ground for a statement of my views upon the probable effect a crystal may have upon a sensitive person.

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