Excerpt from The Catholic Fortnightly Review, Vol. 18: 1911 Dr. Amy E. Tanner has recently, in conjunction with Dr. G. Stanley Hall, President of Clark University, made a careful investigation of the "mediumship" of the celebrated Mrs. Piper, whose "spirit messages" have been so widely heralded as proofs that the dead can and do communicate with the living. The results of this investigation are now before us in a volume titled Studies in Spiritism by Amy E. Tanner. Introduction by G. Stanley Hall (New York: D. Appleton Co. $2.50). A good part of the volume besides the Introduction is written by President Hall, and it includes his personal notes of the seances which he and Dr. Tanner held with Mrs. Piper. These seances were unusual both in the manner in which they were conducted, and the light they throw on the problems involved. For some time a number of those interested in psychical investigation have felt that in order to probe to the bottom of mediumistic communications, it is necessary to inquire closely into the exact condition of the medium while entranced. Pierre Janet long ago pointed out resemblances between certain phases of mediumship and the actions of hysterical patients when hypnotized. More recently Profs. Lombroso and Morselli, after separate clinical examinations, definitely pronounced the Italian medium, Eusapia Palladino, a true hysterical. It seemed a legitimate inference that possibly all mediums, when falling into the trance state, pass into a condition of hysterical dissociation involving the extreme suggestibility, hyperaesthesia of the senses, and other stigmata characteristic of hysteria. If this were so, the fact could readily be ascertained by the application of a few diagnostic tests, and a new vantage point would be gained for the study of the phenomena manifested during the trance. This is precisely what President Hall and Dr. Tanner have done in the case of Mrs. Piper. With her consent, they made her the subject of a number of experiments, utilizing the ingenious resources of modern psychopathology to explore her trance condition. As a result they have been able to make some interesting and helpful discoveries. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.