See also:

• CLAIRVOYANCE (Fr. for " clear-seeing ")

CLAIRVOYANCE (Fr. for " clear-seeing ")  , a technical See also:

• TERM

term in psychical See also:

• RESEARCH (O. Fr. recerche, from recercher, re- and cercer, mod. chercher, to search; Late Lat. circare, to go round in a circle, to explore)

research, properly See also:

• EQUIVALENT

equivalent to lucidity, a super-normal See also:

• POWER [WILLIAM GRATTAN] TYRONE (1797-1841)

power of obtaining knowledge in which no See also:

• PART

part is played by (a) the See also:

• ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

ordinary processes of sense-See also:

• PERCEPTION (from Lat. percipere, to perceive)

perception or (b) super-normal communication with other intelligences, incarnate, or discarnate . The word is also used, sometimes qualified by the word telepathic, to mean the power of gaining supernormal knowledge from the mind of another (see See also:

• TELEPATHY (Gr. rnXe, far, wan, feelings), or THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE

TELEPATHY) . It is further commonly used by spiritualists to mean the power of seeing spirit forms, or, more vaguely, of discovering facts by some supernormal means . Lucidity.—Few experiments have been made to test the existence of this See also:

• FACULTY (through the French, from the Lat. facultas, ability to do anything, from facilis, easy, facere, to do; another form of the word in Lat. facilitas, facility, ease, keeps the original meaning)

faculty . If communications from discarnate minds are regarded as possible, there are no means of distinguishing facts obtained in this way from facts obtained by See also:

• INDEPENDENT

independent See also:

• CLAIRVOYANCE (Fr. for " clear-seeing ")

clairvoyance . In practice no See also:

• EVIDENCE (Lat. evidentia, evideri, to appear clearly)

evidence has been obtained pointing to the See also:

• POSSESSION
• POSSESSION (Lat. possessio, possidere, to possess)

possession by a discarnate spirit of knowledge not possessed by any living See also:

• PERSON, OFFENCES AGAINST THE

person (see See also:

• MEDIUM

MEDIUM) . As explanation of the few successful experiments in independent clairvoyance we have the choice of three explanations: (1) lucidity; (2) telepathy from living persons; (3) hypereesthesia . The second possibility was overlooked in Richet's See also:

• DIAGRAM

diagram experiments; it cannot be assumed that a picture put into an envelope and not consciously recalled has been in reality forgotten . Similarly the clairvoyant diagnosis of diseases may depend on knowledge gained telepathically from the patient, who may be subliminally aware of diseased states of the See also:

• BODY

body . The most elaborate experiments are by Prof . Richet with a hypnotized subject who succeeded in naming twelve See also:

• CARDS, PLAYING

cards out of sixty-eight . But no precautions were taken against hyperaesthesia further than enclosing the card in a second envelope .

There is a power possessed by a certain number of See also:

• PEOPLE

people, of naming a card See also:

• DRAWN

drawn by them or held in the See also:

• HAND
• HAND (a word common to Teutonic languages; cf. Ger. Hand, Goth. handus)
• HAND, FERDINAND GOTTHELF (1786-185r)

hand See also:

• FACE (from Lat. fades, derived either from facere, to make, or from a root fa-, meaning " appear "; cf. Gr. cbatvstv)

face downwards, so that there is no normal knowledge of its suit and number . Few thorough trials have been made; but it seems to point to some See also:

• KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind of hyperaesthesia rather than to clairvoyance; in the Richet experiments even if the envelopes excluded hyperaesthesia of See also:

• TOUCH (derived through Fr. toucher from a common Teutonic and Indo-Germanic root, cf. " tug," " tuck," O. H. Ger. zucchen, to twitch or draw)

touch on the part of the medium, there may have been subliminal knowledge on Prof . Richet's part of the card which he put in the envelope . The experience known as the dejd vu has sometimes been explained as due to clairvoyance . Telepathic Clairvoyance.—For a discussion of this see TELEPATHY and CRYSTAL-GAZING . It may be noted here that some curious relation seems to exist between apparently telepathic acquisition of knowledge and the arrival of a See also:

• LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

letter, newspaper, &c., from which the same knowledge could be directly gained . We are confronted with a similar problem in attempting an explanation of the power of mediums to See also:

• STATE
• STATE, GREAT OFFICERS OF

state correctly facts See also:

• RELATING

relating to See also:

• OBJECTS

objects placed in their hands . Of a somewhat different See also:

• CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character is retrocognition (q.v.), where the knowledge in many cases, if telepathic, must be derived from a discarnate mind . Clairvoyance, as a term of See also:

• SPIRITUALISM

spiritualism, with its correlative clairaudience, is the name given to the power of seeing and See also:

• HEARING (formed from the verb " to hear," O. Eng. hyran, heron, &c., a common Teutonic verb; cf. Ger. Koren, Dutch hooren, &c.; the O. Tent. form is seen in Goth. hausjan; the initial h makes any connexion with " ear," Lat. audire, or Gr. &Kobew very doub

hearing discarnate See also:

• SPIRITS

spirits of dead relatives and others, with whom the living are said to be surrounded . More vaguely it includes the power of gaining knowledge, either through the spirit See also:

• WORLD

world or by means of psychometry (i.e. the supernormal acquisition of knowledge about owners of objects, writers of letters, &c.) . Some evidence for these latter See also:

• POWERS, HIRAM (1805-1873)

powers has been accumulated by the Society for Psychical Research, but in many cases the piecing together of normally acquired knowledge, together with shrewd guessing, suffices to explain the facts, especially where the investigator has had no See also:

• SPECIAL

special training for his task . See Richet, Experimentelle Studien (1891); also in Proc .

S.P.R. vi . 66 . For a See also:

• CRITICISM
• CRITICISM (from the Gr. KpiTrlS, a judge, Kpivew, to decide, to give an authoritative opinion)

criticism see N . W . See also:

• THOMAS
• THOMAS (c. 1654-1720)
• THOMAS (d. 110o)
• THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING (1850-1892)
• THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896)
• THOMAS, GEORGE (c. 1756-1802)
• THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY (1816-187o)
• THOMAS, ISAIAH (1749-1831)
• THOMAS, PIERRE (1634-1698)
• THOMAS, SIDNEY GILCHRIST (1850-1885)
• THOMAS, ST
• THOMAS, THEODORE (1835-1905)
• THOMAS, WILLIAM (d. 1554)

Thomas, Thought Transference, pp . 44-48 . For Clairvoyance in See also:

• GENERAL
• GENERAL (Lat. generalis, of or relating to a genus, kind or class)

general see F . W . H . See also:

• MYERS, FREDERIC WILLIAM HENRY (1843-1901)

Myers, Human See also:

• PERSONALITY (from Lat. persona, originally an actor's mask, from personare,1 to sound through)

Personality, and in Proc . S.P.R. xi . 334 et seq .

For a criticism of the evidence see Mrs See also:

• SIDGWICK, HENRY (1838-1900)

Sidgwick in Proc . S.P.R. vii . 30, 356 . (N . W .