The task of parapsychology Modern parapsychology has little to do with Spiritism at this point in time. It has decided to arduously investigate everything through the deductive1 method that Spiritism has found out long ago through its inductive method and now regards the secured inventory of its own science. – But everything takes time. Those that are familiar with the latest research and speculations by Professor Rhine from the Duke University, USA for instance, will get the impression that the partition wall between Spiritism and parapsychology is now very thin indeed. Cases of haunting are investigated. Unlike in the past, mediumship is no longer seen as hysterics or a mental illness, telepathy and telekinesis are no longer seen as deceptions or fraud, but as scientific facts. • The task of parapsychology is to continue where old spiritistic researchers like Zoeller, Crookes, Bozzano, Dr. du Prel etc, have stopped. In contrast to Spiritists, actual Spiritualist are basically no longer interested in these things. They regard the standard work by Dr. Emil Mattiesen, “The personal survival after death” (Berlin 1936 - 39) as the pinnacle of scientific, paraphysical and parapsychological research of the supernatural. Whilst “dancing tables” and “materialisations” were sensations in the past and the pros and cons heated the minds, they have nowadays disappeared from the quiet rooms of objective investigations. They are now only justified in the hands of experienced researchers, the curious and laymen should keep their hands off it. The greatest surprise to every newcomer will always be the fact that physical phenomena produced by Spiritism, ergo telekinesis (Remote movement of objects), apports, levitation, materialisations etc. will always seem so incredible and wonderful, but that they in themselves do not verify the independence, immortality and the survival of the soul after death. All of them can also be explained along animalistic lines. Actual evidence was only provided through mental observations.2 This means the following: “Spirits (Ghosts) are not silent spectres and lifeless observation objects, but living, intelligent beings like us. They can provide information about themselves and the world they live in and they can also give sensible answers to questions about philosophy and religion. They can therefore a priory verify their own identity by telling us things that neither the medium nor anybody else present could know, actually sometimes things that nobody here on Earth would know anything about, things that can be verified as accurate later on. 1 Deductive: Concluding from the general to the individual. Concluding from the individual to the general. The inductive methods proceeds as follows, namely that a lot of good, certified observation and experience materials are collected to then be investigated for superior legalities that can explain these materials uncontradicted. The deductive method on the other hand looks for generally valid legalities through experiments and only then tries to utilise the manifold apparition. It is quite tragic that the British S.P.R. (Society for Psychic Research) has collected an enormous amount of material, but has been unable to understand or wanted to understand up to now, that one can find scientific evidence for or against the spiritistic interpretation hypothesis through induction. Some of its presidents like Myers, Sir Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge have tried, but they did not succeed. The most seamless scientific evidence for Spiritism based on the inductive method comes, according to my opinion, from Dr. Emil Mattesen in his standard works “Das persönliche Überleben des Todes. Eine Darstellung der Erfahrungsbeweise” (Berlin, 1936 – 1939). 2 Parapsychology works with two interpretation methods, the animistic and the spiritistic. Whilst all phenomena that indicate an afterdeath survival are placed at the feet of the medium subconscious or that of other participants with the animistic hypothesis, the spiritistic hypothesis concludes that surviving the demise of the body is a possibility and regards this a verifiable.
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