THE 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS 
OF DELUSIONS 
BY 
GEORGE M. BEARD, A. M. M. D. 
G. P. PUTNAMS’ SONS. THE 
SCIENTIFIC BASIS 
OF DELUSIONS 
A NEW THEORY OF TRANCE, AND ITS BEARINGS 
ON HUMAN TESTIMONY 
BY 
geokctE m. beard, a. m. m. d. 
Fellow of the New York Academy oj Medicine. Member of the American Medical and 
Neurological Associations, etc. 
NEW YORK: 
(1. P PUTNAMS’ SONS, 
182 FIFTH AVE. 
1877. INTRODUCTION. 
In the early settlement of our Western territories, it was the 
custom to allow any who chose to occupy the soil, to stake off a 
claim and to cultivate it, and to get whatever of good from it 
that might be possible to them; hence arose the familiar terms, 
squatters and squatter sovereignty. With the advance of im- 
migration these territories have gradually passed into the hands 
of those who have acquired ownership of the land, and are now 
organized into States. Through stages somewhat analogous, 
all the sciences of the world have passed, or are now passing; 
astronomy, chemistry and physres, having already reached the 
organized stage, are now wholly in the possession of experts, 
who give their lives to the cultivation of their respective do- 
mains, while some of the younger sciences are yet in the terri- 
torial condition. Among these younger sciences is that branch 
of the physiology and pathology of the brain, which constitutes 
the scientific basis of many of our modern delusions; it is every- 
body's land; whoever is especially eminent for excellence in phys- 
ics, in chemistry, in law or literature, in theology or business, 
or in any realm of human activit3r, save the study of the nervous 
system, is liable to be called upon by an inward voice, and to be 
•required by public opinion to enter in and take summary posses- 
sion.1 The purpose of this monograph is to aid in bringing this 
department of cerebral physiology and pathology out of the ter- 
ritorial into the organized stage, by pointing out what seems to 
be the true and only method by which it should be cultivated. 
The scientific basis of delusions consists primarily in the genu- 
ine phenomena of trance, and of the involuntary life out of 
which trance is developed; and, secondarily, in the relation of 
trance and other states and phenomena of the brain to human 
testimony. 
1 Within a few years, three societies—two in London, and one in New 
York—made up of nearly all the professions except medicine, have been 
organized for the purpose of investigating these subjects. What would 
be thought of an astronomical society composed of all classes except 
astronomers ? Introduction. 
The subject of trance and allied states belongs to the neglected 
branch of moral pathology, which, as Mr. Lecky observes, is 
full of possibilities so far unrealized, but in which are undoubt- 
edly to be made the great advances of the future, and which, in 
proportion as it is raised to a science, is destined to supplement 
and correct nearly all the great departments of human history. 
The central and distinctive fact in the theory of trance here 
offered, is that it shifts the stand-point from which the phenom- 
ena are viewed, and shows that it is a subjective, not an ob- 
jective condition, the numberless exciting causes, which have 
hitherto drawn almost exclusively the attention of observers, 
being in themselves powerless, unless acting on nature’s physi- 
cally or psychaly predisposed, no one of them being essential to 
the appearance of the phenomena. The difference between the 
objective and subjective methods of considering trance is as 
radical, if, for the sake of clearness, the comparison be allowed, 
as the difference between the Ptolemaic and Copernican 
theories of the universe. By the Copernican theory—the first 
formal revolt against the despotism of the eye under which, 
from the earliest history, the human race, civilized as 
well as barbarous, had been willingly subjected—it was 
proved that not the earth as it appeared, but the sun was 
the center of the solar system, and since this hypoth- 
esis was refuted, not by theology alone, but by the unani- 
mous experience of mankind, it will never cease to be a marvel 
that Copernicus was allowed to die a natural death. This sub- 
jective theory of trance, and in connection with it the physiologi- 
cal law announced in this treatise, that no human being ha§ 
any qualities different in kind from those that belong to the 
species in general,1 are in their relation to the testimony of all 
the senses what the Copernican theory was to the testimony of 
the eye, since their acceptance involves the rejection of very 
much that men hear and feel, as well as see, and will enable us to 
break away from many of the shackles that have hitherto bound 
the world to superstition and false reasoning. 
Practically, in every-day life, we are compelled to accept the 
evidence of the senses, and with certain implied, and oftentimes 
1 This law is derived from all physiological observation. It is, more 
over, an inevitable deduction from the theory of evolution, according to 
which all new qualities are the result of slow development. If any human 
being were found to possess a sixth sense, the evolution theory, as now 
understood, would be utterly overthrown. fintroduction. 
unconscious reservations, we trust them, although they deceive 
us constantly, every hour and every moment, and in the simplest 
matters, so that our personal experiences, from birth to death, 
are but a series of mistakes, a chain in which nearly every link 
is a complete or partial blunder; but in science, the object of 
which is the discovery and systematization of important truth, 
only the specially trained reason making use, indeed, of the 
senses as instruments, but oftentimes rejecting their testimony 
—as the skillful general accepts or rejects, according to his judg- 
ment, the reports of his scouts and subordinates—is worthy of 
trust or capable of adding to the world's stock of knowledge. 
Tf average human testimony is to be accepted, if the con- 
current evidence of the senses of millions of honest, and intelli- 
gent, and unbiased observers is to be our guide in the pursuit of 
knowledge, then science is the only delusion, everything is true 
except the truth. 
There are many, even among the staunchest opposers of de- 
lusions, who yet declare that they are open to conviction in re- 
gard to their claims, but on these and kindred subjects, want of 
knowledge is often confounded with impartiality. He who is 
willing to listen to evidence in favor of the claims of perpetual 
motion, of squaring the circle, of turning baser metals into gold, 
of mind or thought-reading, of clairvoyance or second sight, is not 
as he supposes, in a judicial state of mind; he is so far forth in 
an ignorant state of mind, since by the established principles of 
the sciences to which these claims respectively belong, it is 
proved that they must be false; and even if there were no such 
established principles no amount of inductive investigation 
could ever prove the negative of such claims. 
The timeliness of this discussion of these themes will be 
questioned only by those who are unfamiliar with the course 
and necessities of recent thought. For ages, indeed, trance has 
been a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both science 
and superstition; a far off and unexplored land, inherited ac- 
cording to the traditional fancies of men, by all forms of super- 
natural life—a sort of (Folian cavern in whose dark vaults 1 
know not how many mystic forces lie imprisoned, and liable, at 
the tap of any curious non-expert, to be let loose on a wonder- 
ing world. The relation of trance to the special delusions of 
which it is the basis, is, indeed, the least important of its 
practical applications; it is in its bearings on the general sub- Introduction. 
ject of human testimony, that it particularly appeals to the at- 
tention of the thoughtful. It would, indeed,appear that the recon- 
struction of the principles of evidence by the aid of our present 
knowledge of the human brain, in health and disease, is the one 
transcendent need of our time. Illustrations are everywhere. 
A young adventurer from the West, claiming the divine gift of 
knowing what is in the mind of another, marches like some 
conqueror through the heart of the nation; science at first is 
dumb with wonder, or turns to superstition in his presence; 
the press, secular and religious, without dissent, becomes his 
submissive ally; high society receives the stranger to its arms; 
a great city falls at his feet; physicians and professors are en- 
rolled as his body-guard; for a time he makes a college his cita- 
del. A notorious and not over-skillful trickster crosses the sea, 
and at once brings literary and scientific London to its knees, 
from which it is yet but half risen; arraigned in court, and by 
accident rather than by science convicted, both continents con- 
tribute to aid his appeal. In the leading medical society of 
the country a prominent member reads a paper advocating the 
extreme claims of somnambulists, and not a word of protest is 
offered. Even those who most strenuously oppose these sur- 
vivals, give no sound reasons for their opposition; whatever 
of conventional logic may chance to be cast upon the shore 
after these storms have passed, is usually found in the hands of 
superstition; the logic of the schools, indeed, is always, or almost 
always on the side of delusions. 
Not only the great, but the very greatest minds are thus 
bound in the chains of human testimony. For forty years, by 
intervals, carefully selected committees of the French Academy 
struggled with mesmerism, and after a series of experiments, that 
fairly bristled with elements of error, left the problem unsolved; 
the cases of clairvoyance recorded by Swedenborg, were a 
puzzle even to the acute intellect of Kant; Sir William Hamil- 
ton solemnly doubts whether mind can act on matter at a dis- 
tance; Bain questioned, even to his dying day, though with tim- 
idity and caution, the possibility of the existence of a magnetic 
fluid; George Eliot opens one of the chapters of Daniel Deronda 
with the confession that “second-sight is a flag over disputed 
ground;” while Emerson, one of the bravest of philosophers, 
declares that all these claims are mysteries of which a wise man 
would prefer to be ignorant.1 These great thinkers are no better 
1 Article on Demonology, North American Review, March 1877. Introduction. 
and no worse than their text-hooks and instructors, since in the 
first universities of the world, the young are taught to believe 
without dispute, the testimony of their eyes and ears. The out- 
come of two thousand years of human reasoning, since the found- 
ing of the science of logic by Aristotle, is that the Encyclopedia 
Brittanica, in its latest edition, regards it as yet an open ques- 
tion whether ghosts appear.1 
The antiquarian of the future, searching among the ruins of 
our great cities for samples of American culture in the years 
1874 and ’75, will find the leading organs of literary expression 
more or less mortgaged to mediums, and published evidence 
of honest and able observers, that those who have been dead 
and buried for centuries are, under certain conditions, raised to 
life, that, if the present respect for the testimony of the senses 
shall have survived until that day, will be absolutely convincing. 
One reason, indeed, the main reason, why the controversy in 
regard to miracles, from Butler and Hume down to Mozley and 
Matthew Arnold, has been so discouraging a chapter in the his- 
tory of human striving after the truth, is that there has not 
been on either side any just standard for estimating the worth or 
worthlessness of testimony on which, as must be allowed, the 
entire validity of the discussion depends; it has been a battle 
of giants, but of giants fighting in the air; both parties have 
been constantly beaten, and every apparent victory has been 
quickly followed by a renewal of the conflict. If, in their esti- 
mate of evidence both sides agree, there is nothing further to 
discuss; if they do not agree, further discussion is useless.2 
1 Under the article Apparitions. 
2 Since writing the above I have observed that Mr. Mozley, in the 
preface to the third edition of his work on Miracles, has admitted all I 
have here claimed. After stating that the a priori arguments against 
miracles are inadequate, he adds, “ but after having put the speculative 
class of arguments against miracles aside, we go to the practical ques- 
tion of evidence, we find ourselves here again, before long, coming 
to a stand-still in controversy, because it soon appears that the two 
sides have no common criterion of good evidence and bad; that 
what is strong evidence to one man, is weak to another; what is sufficient 
to one is defective to another.” lie further remarks that the two sides are 
separated by a difference in “ fundamental principles and assumptions.” 
If Mr. Mozley had reached this truth sooner, lie would have probably 
written quite a different book, or rather he would have written none 
at all, since the establishment of the principles of evidence can only be 
accomplished by the aid of the physiology, and pathology of the brain— 
a department in which he is not, and does not profess to be an authority. VI 
Inti'oduction. 
Recognizing these facts, the query may be put whether it 
would not be well for those in whom the trained capacity for 
philosophic thinking exists, to pause for a while amid their dis- 
putations, and to ask themselves whether their controversies 
thus far have not been largely a vast begging of the questions 
at issue; whether on the basis of our knowledge of trance, and 
of other facts connected with the nervous system, it is not now 
time to begin a rebuilding of the science of logic on which all 
other sciences must depend; whether much that passes for 
reasoning might not be saved, if we should first scientifically 
revise the premises of our reasoning; whether, for one example 
out of many, the constant collisions between science and religion 
might not be in a degree avoided, to the great advantage of 
both, if they should draw in their guns, and throw the lead, 
and take the sun as often as it breaks through the fog, and 
thus finding out where they are, be enabled to pursue, undis- 
turbed, each one its own proper course. 
The practical difficulties in the way of popularizing these 
views, or even of gaining a just hearing from them, have not 
been overlooked. So far as these facts and suggestions are true, 
so far must they wait for their audience; for the present, at 
least,it must be one man, or at most a few men, against millions 
of men. Nor is the advantage of those who favor established 
methods of reasoning that of numbers only; they have likewise 
the advantage of position; entrenched behind a great delusion, 
a child shall wield, indeed has often wielded, a more than mon- 
arch’s power. He who would bring physiology to bear against 
the follies that centuries have made sacred, has only right and 
the future on his side; while around his opponents the whole 
brotherhood of human ignorance, educated and uneducated, in- 
stinctively rallies; he who pushes forward a popular untruth, 
works with the first, while he would arrest its progress, must work 
with the third power of the lever. The gathering superstitions 
of every race, reinforced by history and by tradition, all com- 
bine to swell the stream against which he must contend who 
would offer a true explanation of those mysteries which, under 
so many forms, and for so many ages, have been at once the con- 
solation and the terror of humanity; for a delusion, it must be re- 
membered, is as truly a possession as are houses or lands, and the 
science which would seek to dispel it must be at first regarded 
as no less than a thief and a robber. I ntroduction. 
Nothing indeed is dearer or more precious than traditional 
error—not only witchcraft, animal magnetism and clairvoyance, 
but minor and dying beliefs, as spiritualism and mind-reading, as 
well as the general dogma of the trustworthiness of the senses, 
by which the whole confederacy of untruth is bound together, 
have been sources of infinite comfort to many generations; 
no truths, in science, however important could have been for 
many minds half so sweet or inspiring. If, therefore, it were 
possible for science by its utmost effort to drive these delightful 
falsities at once from society, the effect would be, without doubt, 
pernicious if not perilous; such a sudden and powerful illumina- 
tion would surely blind the eyes and shock the nerves; but it is 
a part of the principle of evolution that the displacement of error 
by truth must develop slowly, silently, almost imperceptibly, 
like the early coming on of the light of morning. By the time 
that trance and its relations to human testimony shall be 
generally understood, society will be ready for the change, and 
will cast off its delusions as worn-out garments, without a 
struggle or a tear.1 
The present monograph—the substance of a paper originally 
given before the New York Medico-Legal Society, and subse- 
quently published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Dis- 
eases—is designed as an introduction to a work on the Philos- 
ophy of Delusions, which will aim to unfold in detail the phe- 
1 In the complex economy of nature, error, as well as truth, has its mis- 
sion. Truth, indeed, at first, is a luxury, while error is oftentimes an ab- 
solute necessity, although in the progress of the race, the time comes 
when truth itself is necessary, and error a positive hinderance. In re- 
gard to the relation of utility to truth, on all subjects where reason is the 
arbiter, these two propositions seem to be clearly sustained by history: 
First. The fact that an opinion is generally entertained, that it has al- 
ways been entertained, that it has never been doubted by any member of 
the human race, does not give even a presumption in favor of the truth 
of that opinion. 
Witness the theory of the universe, that prevailed before the time of 
Copernicus. 
Secondly. Am opinion may be false, may be utterly false, may contain 
not even a shadow of truth, and yet it may be indispensable that for ages 
it should be universally believed and acted upon. 
Witness the exploded beliefs of ancient Paganism. 
To expect that a truth on its discovery should at once be appreciated 
and accepted, is to look for the leaves before the branches, for the fruit 
before the fiower. / ntroduction. 
nomena of the Involuntary Life,1 including Trance, and to give 
practical suggestions for the reconstruction of the principles of 
evidence in their application to history and to logic, to science 
and to law. 
1 The phrase, Involuntary Life, which I have been in the habit of using 
in these discussions, includes all those phenomena of the body and mind 
in their mutual relations, that are independent of will, or consciousness, or 
of both. It is the side of physiology that has been most neglected and 
is least understood, both by the profession and the people; indeed, if it had 
been generally understood, the delusions here referred to would never have 
arisen. I may, perhaps, make provisional reference to my essay on this 
subject in the Archives of Electrology and Neurology, November, 1875, 
and to a paper on the Physiology of Mind Reading, in the Popular Science 
Monthly, February, 1877; also to companion monographs now in prepara- 
tion, on the Automatic Action of the Brain, and onthe Influence of Mind 
in the Causation and Cure of Dis< ase. A NEW THEORY OF TRANCE, AND ITS 
BEARINGS ON HUMAN TESTIMONY. 
George M. Beard, M. I). 
(Head before the New York Medico-Legal Society, November 1 st, 1876.) 
}jX)R ages there liave been observed a group of symptoms 
connected with the nervous system, which, under va- 
rious confusing and contradictory names, have been at once 
the wonder of the masses, the refuge of delusions, the scan- 
dal of law, and the opprobrium of science. Among the more 
or less incorrect and meaningless terms that either super- 
stition or science has applied to these symptoms, I may specify 
as especially prominent, somnambulism artificial and spon- 
taneous, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism, Braidism, 
catalepsy, ecstasy, and biology. 
You will agree with me—all thoughtful minds of our time 
do agree—that the solution of the mystery suggested by these 
vague and one-sided phrases, is one of the most import- 
ant problems of science; since it is of interest, and of the 
highest moment, not for itself alone, but on account of its re- 
lations to physiology and pathology in general, to the phil- 
osophy of popular delusions of all kinds and all ages, from 2 
Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
the Delphic oracles to Brown’s mind reading—and, what is 
perhaps most important of all, on account of its bearings on 
the principles of evidence, the estimate of human testimony 
which we are to consider this evening. 
It is with the conviction that the problem presented by this 
subject can be, and is substantially solved, that these intricate 
and widely extending phenomena can be unified, harmonized, 
reduced to a science, and brought under the rule of law, that I 
have chosen trance as the subject of the present address. 
In using the word trance to include the real phenomena re- 
presented or suggested by the above mentioned terms, I am 
not guilty of introducing a new term—for it is indeed a very 
old one—nor of wresting it from its original signification, 
for it has always been popularly used in the sense in which I 
here use it, although no before me, so far as I know, has 
given it a full and formal definition. 
It is necessary to understand, at the beginning, that in 
order to master the subject of trance, we must use deductive 
as wrell as inductive reasoning—in other words, we must reason 
from generals to particulars, drawing our conclusions from prin- 
ciples already established, as well as from particulars to gen- 
erals. It is needful to insist on the validity of deductive 
reasoning, for without it no progress can he made in this 
branch of science; without it, indeed, it is a useless attempt 
to study subjects of this kind at all. 
It was not long ago that an accomplished friend of mine, 
a physician, publicly remarked that it seemed to him the 
wiser course for scientific men to let these subjects alone, not 
to attempt their solution. He based his objections, perhaps 
unconsciously, on the fact of the impossibility of solving these 
problems by the inductive method. 
Those who share these views may be reminded that all the 
sciences in their infancy, astronomy, physics, physiology, 
and chemistry, have been opposed on substantially the same 
ground; these things, it was claimed, cannot he understood 
by the human mind; therefore let us join ourselves to the 
idols of our ignorance, and let them alone. Grand as have 
been the results of the inductive method of investigation, as or- 
ganized by Bacon, it has not displaced, and never will displace Bkakd—-A New Theory of Trance. 
3 
deductive reasoning—and it is a fact of vast encouragement 
for the future of human knowledge, that there is now begin- 
ning to he a slow reaction in favor of a right use of the think- 
ing, as well as of the observing faculties in scientific research. 
Clear evidences of this reaction are found in the writings of 
nearly all the leaders of scientific thought to-day. Mr. Mill, 
in his logic, says truly that the progress of the future must be 
made along the line of deductive reasoning; and, quite recently, 
Haeckel, in his “ History of Creation,” has protested in most 
vigorous language, against what I may call the tyranny of the 
senses. The success of the inductive method has been so 
brilliant that we have lost our heads; we have looked so long 
at one side of the subject that it has not seemed possible that 
it could have any other side. With the triumph of the tele- 
graph and railway constantly before our eves, as reminders of 
what the modern world owes or thinks it owes to Bacon for in- 
ductive investigation, we forget that, after all, the greatest con- 
tributions to human knowledge have been largely the product 
of deductive reasoning. Newton’s discovery of the law of 
gravitation was a deduction, not an induction; and, indeed, 
astronomy itself is throughout a deductive science. 
The Darwinian theory of natural selection, and, indeed, the 
whole law of evolution, of which Darwinianisin is but a 
single factor, is simply an enormous deduction, which, so far 
as it becomes accepted, must be regarded as a far greater 
achievement than that of Newton’s. Indeed, the Baconian 
philosophy of induction is itself a deduction. 
The objection may be pressed that deductive reasoning is 
liable to error, and the oft-cited prediction of Lardner, that no 
steam vessel could ever cross the Atlantic, may be brought to 
mind; but all this is but to say that it is human to err, for in 
all methods of seeking the truth, there may be mistakes. But 
if any comparison were to be made between the fallacies of 
these two modes of reasoning, it would be found that where 
deduction makes one blunder, induction makes a thou- 
sand: and for this reason, if for no other, that everybody can 
use, and does use induction, not only in science, but in all the 
ordinary affairs of life, while deduction can be mastered only 
by a few, since it requires, in all its higher phases, a power of Beaku—A New Theory of Trance. 
reasoning that is but rarely possessed or acquired. Difficult 
as it is to find those who can make correct scientific obser- 
vations, it is incomparably more difficult to find those who can 
make just scientific deductions. On this subject Buckle re- 
marks: “ For one person who can think, there are at least a 
hundred persons who can observe; for an accurate observer is no 
doubt rare, but an accurate thinker is far rarer.” Liebig, dis- 
cussing the same subject, says: “Our attaching too high a 
value to the mere fact is often a sign of a want of ideas.” 
So far as the senses are concerned, they deceive all of us 
every hour and every moment. The delusion that the senses, 
any one, or all of them, can be trusted, is, with the advance of 
culture and the development of better notions of the principles 
of evidence, fast dying out. With the man whose mind is 
trained to right conceptions of the worth and worthlessness of 
human testimony, seeing is not believing, but doubting; for 
what is all human science but a correcting of the errors,and a 
supplementing of the defects of the senses. The sight is, on the 
whole, the best of the senses, but in civilized lands only fools 
trust it. The savage, casting his eyes upward, sees a blue arch 
filled with lights but a little wav off and rolling; around the 
world; the astronomer sitting in his study, deduc.es that these 
lights are worlds millions of miles away, and that the earth 
rolls around the sun. It is not the retina, but the brain be- 
hind the retina, that really sees, or, in (foethe’s language, the 
eye sees what it brings the means of seeing. If any man 
wishes to blunder, let him but open his eye and believe what 
he thinks he sees. Indeed, the much-lauded habit of ex- 
clusively trusting the senses, and of making all knowledge a 
matter of induction, is not, as some believe, a result of the 
Baconian philosophy, but is rather a slowly passing away 
survival of savagery. Every barbarian is an imperfect Ba- 
conian. 
The infinite errors that enter the brain through the doors of 
the senses, can be, in a considerable degree, guarded against, 
and reduced to a minimum, by the proper use of the 
reasoning faculties. All experts in any branch of science, or 
of art, consciously or unconsciously correct the defects and un- 
certainties, and positive errors of the senses, by the trained IIe.vko—A New Theory of Trance. 
5 
intellect made especially watchful by long study and practice, 
in special lines of investigation. In all important and difficult 
matters, therefore, the only testimony that is of any value is 
expert testimony; if that cannot be obtained, we have no way 
of knowing anything of the subject. 
In the special topic under consideration, the truth is 
only obtainable by experts and expertness. This most diffi- 
cult department, in its present state of development, is only 
mastered after years of study, and on the basis of a thorough 
knowledge of the physiology of the involuntary life. The 
non-expert, in studying subjects of this kind, is very apt to be- 
lieve what he sees and hears, or thinks he sees and hears, and 
concludes and reports accordingly; the expert, in the presence 
of the same phenomena, asks and definitely answers the ques- 
tion, whether the image on the retina is subjective or objective; 
whether he sees all or but a part of what is needful to get the 
exact truth; whether all things that are seen are seen in their 
due relations as to time, space and mass: and he also tests the 
results thus sifted by the established principles of deductive 
reasoning. 
Normal condition. 
Ordinary sleeii. 
Trance. 
The accompanying cuts will aid somewhat in making clear 
the general distinction between the normal condition, ordinary 
sleep, and trance, as regarded by this hyp<(thesis. The cuts are not, 
however, to be understood as in the light of an attempt to exact- 
ly localize any of the cerebral faculties, or to indicate the rela- 
tive quantity of active and inactive regions in the trance. It 
is probable that in some forms of trance, nearly the entire 
brain is active, but enough is suspended in its activity to 
cause all the symptoms. 
The theory of the nature of trance which I have to offer, and 
which I now present for the first time, is that it is afunctional 
disease of the nervous system, in which the cerebral activity is 
concentrated in some limited region of the brain, with suspen- 
sion of the activity of the rest of the brain, and consequent 
loss of volition. It is the prime requisite of a scientific Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
hypothesis that it should account for all the phenomena em- 
braced under the department to which it applies. The hypoth- 
esis that trance is a morbid state, consisting in a concentra- 
tion of the cerebral force in some limited region of the brain, 
the activity of other portions being meanwhile suspended, 
seems, as I hope to be able to demonstrate, to account for all 
the real phenomena of this state, all its different forms and 
stages. 
Before bringing this theory to the test of accounting for all 
the phenomena, a few general remarks on trance seem to be 
necessary; and all the more since the current notions on this 
subject, among scientific men, and even among physiologists, 
are mostly crude, one-sided, and positively erroneous. 
Trance, like other functional nervous diseases, may be in- 
duced either physically or psychically; that is, by influences that 
act on the nervous system, or on the mind; more frequently by 
the latter, sometimes by both combined. The special exciting 
causes that may induce this state are, therefore, practically 
infinite. 
Among the physical causes are injuries of the brain, the ex- 
haustion of protracted disease or of starvation, or of over exer- 
tion, anaesthetics, alcohol and many drugs, and certain cerebral 
diseases. Ordinary sleep may act as an exciting cause, as is 
illustrated in the somnambulistic form of trance. Under the 
psychical causes are included all conceivable influences whatso- 
ever, that may powerfully excite any emotion, or group of 
emotions. The majority of the cases of trance come under 
this head. 
Trance may, for the sake of convenience of description, be 
divided into four varieties: the spontaneous, the self-induced, 
the emotional, and the intellectual trance. In strictness, 
these varieties may, to a certain extent include each other, and 
in using these terms, this fact should be borne in mind. Thus, 
the intellectual trance is spontaneous, although the majority of 
the cases of spontaneous trance are not also intellectual. The 
self-induced trance may be partly emotional, but it is not en- 
tirely so. 
A typical form of spontaneous trance is natural somnambu- 
lism, or sleep-walking; a term which is vaguely used by many Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
writers to include all phases of trance, excepting those which 
are produced by performances of mesmerizers, which are called 
cases of artificial somnambulism. In sleep-walking, the cere- 
bral activity, which, during ordinary sleep is more or less 
lowered throughout the brain, is suddenly concentrated in some 
limited region; the cerebral equilibrium being spontaneously 
disturbed through the subjective action of dreams, the subject, 
under the dominion of this restricted region of the brain, the 
activity of the rest of the brain being suspended, runs or walks 
about like an automaton, with exaltation of the sense of touch 
often, and of the co-ordinating power, as is shown in their 
capacity for balancing in difficult and dangerous positions, and 
climbing on heights where in the normal state he would not 
venture. Other senses may be sealed entirely, as in other 
forms of trance. 
Under self-induced trance are comprised those cases where 
the subject can bring himself into this state at will, either sud- 
denly, or gradually. Of such subjects it maybe said that they 
will to lose their wills; or it would be nearer the truth to say 
that they voluntarily put themselves under influences where 
the involuntary life becomes supreme. 
All genuine trance preachers and speakers—and many of 
them are genuine—represent the self-induced variety. I have 
studied the case of a famous trance preacher, who tells me— 
and his statements are in accordance with the laws of trance, 
although he does not at all understand the true philosophy of 
his own experience—that when he began to go into this state, 
the first symptom was only a thrill, or electric shock through 
his arm, then with more practice the whole arm became con- 
vulsed, then the whole body, until in time exaltation of the 
faculties of imagination, and of language, were developed, and 
he became a most successful performer before audiences. 
The current slang of spiritualistic circles in which mediums 
are described as “fully developed,” or “partially developed,” or 
as “developing,” has this basis of truth in it that it oftentimes 
needs practice to acquire the habit of readily, and at will, enter- 
ing the trance. 
There is such a thing as the habit of being entranced. 
After one has been a number of times thrown into this state 8 
Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
by any procedure or influence—-whatever it may be—he seems 
to grow more and more susceptible to the influence of that 
special procedure or influence, and will be entranced by it quite 
likely, while many other equally good or better methods fail. 
Some have a habit of falling into trance spontaneously at 
regular intervals; there is indeed, in this disease, the same per- 
iodicity oftentimes that has long been observed in neuralgia. 
Somnambulism, or sleep-walking, is a form of trance that may 
become periodic. 
One of the most noted writers on spiritualism has been ac- 
customed to induce the trance by starving himself, or, at least, 
by living very low. This is a good method, but it is slow and 
painful, and may be harmful; for the brain, through want of 
just nutrition, gets into a chronic pathological state, when its 
equilibrium is readily upset--in nautical language it is thrown 
off the center, the imagination becomes abnormally active, and 
the subject is oftentimes borne to heaven, where he sees and 
hears many wonderful and beautiful things, and reports ac- 
cordingly. The visions of Swedenborg, and of Mahomet, possi- 
bly—for it is difficult to obtain any detailed information in 
regard to the heroes of distant ages that will bear scientific 
scrutiny—as well as the ecstacies of many of the mediaeval 
saints and recluses, and the bright experiences of the dying 
everywhere, find here their pathological explanation. 
Under emotional trance are included cases that are caused 
by the so-called mesmeric performances, or through the feel- 
ings of fear, wonder, reverence and expectation, however ex- 
cited. The majority of the cases of trance come under this 
head; for every one is endowed with these emotions, and in 
the greater part of the human race they are the controlling 
elements in character—they are especially active and irritable 
in the young, and in those who have passed out of childhood, 
and have not yet reached full manhood,' or womanhood; they 
are present, however, in force at all ages, (for in this respect 
all men are women and all women are children), and in the 
strongest and most intellectual minds they are apt to be in 
constant and usually successful rebellion against the authority 
of reason—any influences, therefore, that excite any, or all, of 
these emotions, may be regarded as exciting causes of trance. Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
The emotions through which trance is most likely to be ex- 
cited, are fear, reverence, wonder, and expectation. Among 
the numberless conditions or circumstances that are liable to 
excite these emotions, it is needful to specify but a few that 
are of a representative character, are most familiar and most 
readily verified, such as standing on a height, or on the track 
as a train is approaching, or a sudden alarm of fire in a 
crowded building; the imposing impression made by a pre- 
tense of supernatural power, as when it is claimed that the dead 
are raised, or that departed spirits are communicating with 
their friends, or that the sick are instantly healed, and similar 
miracles; and, lastly, and of least importance, the perform- 
ances of so-called mesmerizers or hypnotizers, as passes to and 
fro, manipulations, concentrating the attention on some fixed 
point or bright object, as a button or nail in the wall, drink- 
ing of water believed to be magnetized, and so forth. 
The one fact common to all these conditions is, that they 
exert some one or several emotions—fear, or wonder, or expec- 
tation—to such a degree that the activity of the rest of the 
brain is suspended while these emotions are abnormally active, 
and consequently the will loses control, and the subject acts 
automatically in response to external or internal suggestion, 
doing the very things he wishes to avoid doing, and unable to 
do what he most desires. If on the edge of a height, he be- 
comes dizzy, and may fall; if fearful of being crushed by the 
approaching train, he cannot move a step; if seated in a se- 
ance with supposed mediums, he sees and hears whatever he 
is told to see and hear, as flames, or light, or sound, and recog- 
nizes the faces of departed dear ones in a rubber mask, a 
pocket-handkerchief, or in a drop of water. 
The almost universally held belief that the mesmeric form 
of emotional trance is caused by some force or fluid (animal 
magnetism) passing from the body of the operator into the 
body of the subject, is as far from the truth as any view on 
any subject possibly can be; and the fact that this view is 
held not by the masses alone, but probably by ninety-nine out 
■of a hundred physicians and scientists, shows how one-sidedly 
this whole subject of trance has been studied. 
In producing this form of trance, indeed, the presence of 10 
Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
the operator or magnetizer, so-called, is not needed at all; 
any influence or circumstance that the subject expects Mull 
put him into the trance is liable to produce that effect, par- 
ticularly if, as is usually the case, the emotions of wonder and 
fear are at the same time acted upon. Subjects in the mes- 
meric trance are under the control of the external suggestions 
of the operator, as expressed by voice or manner (not of his 
silent, unexpressed will, as some imagine), because they go 
into the state with that expectation; otherwise the operator 
has no power over him. But there is no need of any operator 
at all. Not much less erroneous and one-sided is the con- 
clusion of Braid, M'lio, in some respects, has studied the sub- 
ject with intelligence, that fatigue of the eyes and power of 
attention by looking upward intently at some bright object 
—as a'key or pencil—is specially important..* The fact is 
that it makes no difference as such what you do to produce 
mesmeric trance; it makes no difference who does it; it is a 
subjective matter entirely, and all depends upon the emotions 
of the subject, what he fears, expects, or wonders at. True 
enough that a professor of vast fame succeeds in a greater 
proportion of cases, but that is because the subject expects 
great things of him, and all the needful emotions are created 
in his presence. The operator may be an absolute ninny; 
but if the subject believes in him, that is enough, lie may 
make the passes up or down, or crossways, with his fingers, 
or with his hands, or he may make no passes at all; he may 
sit perfectly still; his presence is not necessary; he may be a 
thousand miles away; he may have been dead or buried a 
thousand years; he may never have existed: if the subject 
strongly believes that he exists, or that he is raised to life, and 
expects or fears that he may have the power to put him into a 
trance, entranced he will become. Let any one with some 
reputation as a mesmerizer request the audience to stand up, 
stating also that in a few moments they will be mesmerized, 
*These attempts to induce trance with keys, pencils, and so forth, will 
fail almost always even with persons psychically and physically predis- 
posed to go into that state, if the subject does not know or suspect that 
something of the kind is to happen. I have proved this repeatedly by a 
thorough series of experiments with the patients of Demilt Dispensary. Beakd—A N6w Theory of Trance. 
11 
and in ten minutes let him permit those who can to sit down, 
and it will he found that perhaps one out of ten cannot sit 
down; they are thoroughly entranced, fixed to the floor, and 
are ready to do whatever they are told to do. If the statue of 
the mesmerizer had been on the platform instead of the mes- 
merizer himself, and if it could have spoken, and the audience 
could have believed in it, the results would have been just 
the same. One famous operator used to simply say to his sub- 
jects, “Sleep,” and they passed into the trance. 
In one of the most successful experiments of this kind that 
I ever witnessed, a number of individuals were seated side by 
side on a platform before an audience, and were simply directed 
to put one hand on the wrist of the other, close their eyes, 
and control their thoughts. In fifteen minutes at least one- 
third of those who tried the experiment were entranced. 
To intellectual trance belong the extreme cases of what are 
commonly characterized as absent-mindedness; a state which 
is quite distinct from simple mental attention. The popular 
term absent-minded, as applied to those who become so ab- 
sorbed in thought that they are unconscious of what is going- 
on around them, and perhaps respond automatically to external 
suggestions or influences, is, in view of the theory of trance 
here advocated, a happy one; since it expresses, with partial 
correctness, the real state of the brain during an attack of 
that kind. A large portion of the brain is active, and, until 
aroused, is insensible to surroundings, and thus responds me- 
chanically. The biographies of illustrious thinkers are filled 
with instances, some of which are probably correct, of this 
form of trance. Thus Walter Bagehot says of Adam Smith,, 
the great political economist, that his absence of mind was 
amazing. On one occasion, having to sign his name to an 
official document, he produced, not his own signature, but an 
elaborate imitation of the signature of the person who signed 
before him; on another occasion, a sentinel on duty having 
saluted him in military fashion, he astounded and offended the 
man by acknowledging it with a copy of the same gestures. 
In these intellectual trances,great thoughts have 
out doubt, evolved, that would have been impossible to the 
brain in its normal state. 12 
Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
The hypothesis I have here presented must, if true, account 
for the actual phenomena of trance in all its forms and stages, 
however induced. If there be a single fact of trance that is 
positively inconsistent with this hypothesis, then the hypothe- 
sis has no value. It can be shown that by this hypothesis all 
the facts of all forms and phases of trance are explained, unified 
and made harmonious; nay, more, that only by this hypo the-, 
sis, is it possible to give any unity or solidarity to the phe- 
nomena of this state. 
Fikst. This hypothesis accounts for the loss of the control 
of the will and tlie automatism of trance, which is the first ob- 
served, and most distinguishing feature. 
In his normal state man is, to say the least, nine-tenths a 
machine. As 1 have elsewhere said, the involuntary life—that 
which acts without the will, or in spite of the will—is the 
chief fact in human life, and in human history. It is the side 
of humanity that in some most important relations has been 
least studied, and in which are to be made very largely .the 
physiological discoveries, and the advances of the future. 
Comparing life to a wheel, as Dr. S. S. Laws has done, the 
voluntary functions may represent the narrow huh, while the 
involuntary functions are represented by all the area between 
the hub and the periphery. In this little inner circle lies all 
human responsibility and all the vast influence of punishment 
or reward; in all the rest of his functions, man is as much 
an automaton as a tree or a flower. .Now, in the trance, 
this little inner circle, of what we call volition, is en- 
croached upon by the involuntary life, and in the deeper stages 
is entirely displaced by it. The fully entranced person has no 
will; what he wishes to do he cannot do; what he wishes not 
to do he does; he is at the mercy of any external or internal 
suggestions. Every one who has had the nightmare knows 
what this feeling of powerlessness is, for the more he tries to 
run the firmer he sticks. A mesmerized subject, when he tries 
to do anything against the command of the operator, does just 
the opposite. 
This hypothesis of the concentration of the cerebral ac- 
tivity in a limited region, accounts for the displacement of the 
will in this wav. The will may be defined as the co-ordinated Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
13 
activity of all the faculties of the mind, including, in gen- 
eral terms, the perception, the emotions and the intellect. 
Cerebro-physiologists will agree—all questions of phrenol- 
ogy, or cranioscopy, or minute specializations of functions 
aside—that the brain does not act as a unit, but that different 
parts are the organs of different faculties. When the cerebral 
activity is harmoniously diffused, as in the normal state,through 
all the different regions, the man is said to be under the control 
of the will. When the cerebral activity is concentrated in 
some limited region of the brain—say that devoted to the emo- 
tions, or that devoted to the intellect, the activity of the rest of 
the brain being suspended for the time—the man would have no 
will; he would he under the control of that group of faculties; 
he would be a conscious living automaton, as a fully-entranced 
person always is. 
Secondly. This hypothesis explains why trance is an ab- 
normal state. It shows that it must be a morbid pathological 
condition, and also shows in what this morbidness consists. 
The man whose mental faculties are mostly suspended, who 
has no will, but is under the control of some single faculty, is 
surely in an abnormal state, and in this respect the popular 
idea is correct. It is a functional disturbance relating only 
to circulation and innervation, and not causing structural 
changes, although it may be caused by structural cerebral 
diseases, and not ordinarily permanently affecting the health 
in other respects. The liability to trance, like the liability to 
various other functional disturbances of the nervous system, 
does not conflict with general good health and longevity. 
If it seem a doubtful thing to class absent-mindedness, or a 
state of being “frightened to death " under diseases, it must be 
considered that, strictly speaking, there is no arithmetically 
defined line between health and disease, hut that, as Allbutt 
has well observed, pathology is but the shady side of 
physiology. 
Thirdly. This hypothesis explains the difference between 
trance and ordinary sleep, which in some respects it so much 
resembles. Sleep is a normal state, a partial cessation of the 
activity of all the faculties, a lowering of the activity in all the 
regions, but not a suspension of the activity of any except the 14 
Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
will, which, as we have seen, is simply a co-ordinated action 
of the faculties. When a person who is sleeping gets up and 
walks in his sleep, in other words, passes into the somnambu- 
listic form of trance, the change that takes place in the brain 
is this: while sleeping, the activity of all the faculties was 
lowered; on going into trance the activity of all the faculties 
becomes suspended, and the entire cerebral activity is concen- 
trated in some one faculty, or limited group of faculties. 
Trance differs from ordinary sleep in the following features: 
1. The performances of the trance are logical, coherent, 
and consistent; while dreams are filled with extravagances 
and absurdities, which to the sleeper seem entirely proper. 
By the hypothesis of trance here presented, we should expect 
that the dreams acted while in that state, however exalted 
they might be, would be restricted and coherent, for they 
must arise in a limited region of the brain, and are not like 
the dreams of ordinary sleep, the scattered and confused prod- 
ucts of all parts of the brain. 
2. In trance some of the senses may be perfectly sealed. 
The loudest noises are not heard, the most fragrant odors are 
not observed, and there is no power of taste. While some of 
the senses are thus utterly closed, others may be greatly ex- 
alted. On the other hand, the soundest sleepers are awakened 
by loud noises, or by sufficiently irritating the sensitive nerves. 
This sealing of some of the senses is perfectly clear, if we al- 
low certain regions of the brain to be entirely inactive. In 
sound sleep all regions of the brain are active, although far less 
so than in the waking state, but in no region is there com- 
plete suspension of activity. The explanation of the exalta- 
tion of the faculties will be given subsequently. 
3. Trance subjects are capable of responding to suggestions 
offered by a second party, or from any external source, and be- 
come consciously obedient to those suggestions. Sleepers 
present no such peculiarity; they respond to external suggest- 
ions addressed to the senses, but not consciously or coherently. 
The entranced person, according to this hypothesis, is a living, 
active personality, more active in certain directions than when 
in the normal state; and yet he is only a fraction of his nor- 
mal self; consequently he is, or may he at the mercy of any Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
15 
external suggestion that is offered. lie may not he able to re- 
sist the external suggestion, as of the so-called mesmerizer, for 
example, but he responds consciously and consistently through 
that portion of the brain that is active, and without coming 
out of the trance. If one in ordinary sleep becomes fully 
conscious so as to respond intelligently to external suggestion, 
he wakes up. 
4. In some forms of trance there maybe divided or double 
consciousness. The subject, on coming out of the trance, has 
no recollection of his experience while in it. On again enter- 
ing the trance, he resumes the experience of the previous at- 
tack where it left off. as though no acthe life had intervened. 
If he have a habit of entering into the trance at certain times, 
he really leads two quite distinct lives. In sleep there is no 
such continuity of existence, from one nap to another. The 
explanation of double consciousness is referred to under another 
head. 
In strictness, trance is not sleep at‘all; it is rather another 
form of waking life, over which the will has little or no in- 
fluence. It does not rest one, rather it is exhausting, at least 
in some of its phases, and with reason, for the mental and 
physical functions are oftentimes exalted. 
Fourthly. This hypothesis explains the phenomenon of 
dual life and double consciousness, which has been regarded as 
one of the greatest and most inexplicable mysteries of trance. 
In trance—even in the most profound instances ever ob- 
served—there is probably always consciousness at the time, 
but it is not always or usually remembered consciousness. On 
awaking, as on awaking from ordinary sleep, the dreams that 
may have been active and numberless, fade as a cloud; pos- 
sibly not even a glimpse of them may be caught and held be- 
fore the mind long enough to become a permanent and recol- 
lectible impression during the normal state. But on resum- 
ing the trance state, the exalted functional activity of the 
region of the brain in which the cerebral force is concentrated, 
is able to bring these impressions of the previous attack of 
trance, forgotten during the intervening normal state, to con- 
sciousness, and thus the subject carries on an independent 
trance life, just as though there had been no intervening nor- 16 
Beakd—A New Theory of Trance. 
mal state. On returning to the normal state, the cerebral 
force being again diffused through the whole brain, is insuf- 
ficient to enable the subject to recall the experience of the 
trance, but quite sufficient to enable him to recall the experi- 
ences of his previous normal state. Thus he leads two lives— 
the normal life and the trance life,—and they are independent 
of each other. 
That very great excitements, or unusual experiences or cir- 
cumstances of any kind, may bring to consciousness impres- 
sions supposed to be forgotten, is illustrated in the history of 
every person at all susceptible; even a little trip in the country, 
a walk in the woods, a sea-voyage, may have this effect in a 
most interesting way. Extreme illustrations are the well 
known experiences of the drowning, or of those in great peril 
of any kind. A physician at one time under my professional 
care, told me that he was once thrown in his carriage off a high 
bridge. In the short interval between leaving the bridge and 
reaching the ground beneath, forgotten events of his life 
rushed before him, as in the case of drowning men. 
It would also be consistent with this hypothesis, if the sub- 
ject iu the trance state should recall not only previous attacks 
of trance, but also the general fact of having been in the nor- 
mal state; for in the normal state the whole brain is active, 
and in the trance state that portion in which the activity is 
concentrated would be able to bring to consciousness the acts 
of the normal life in which that same portion of the brain 
must have participated. The case of Felida X., recently re- 
ported by Dr. Azam, of Bordeaux, France, appears to have 
been of this character.* In this case the first attacks appeared 
in the fifteenth year, and at first lasted for but ten or 
fifteen minutes. The first year, but about one-tenth of her 
life was passed in these trance attacks; after the lapse of six- 
teen years her life was about equally divided between trance 
and health, until finally the former encroached on the latter, 
until she passed nearly all the time in trance. Through all 
these years of dual existence she always forgets, during her 
normal life, the experiences of the trance; nothing seems to 
A translation by Dr. Tucker of Dr. Azam’s report, appeared in the Jour- 
nal of Nervous and Mental Disease, for October, 187G. Bkakd .1 New Theory of Trance. 
be competent to bring them into consciousness but the con- 
centrated and exalted activity of the trance itself. 
The case of Miss Reynolds, of Pennsylvania, the details of 
which were published in I860, was a type of this feature of 
trance. On coming out of her first attack, which was at the 
age of eighteen, she forgot all about her former life, and she 
had no consciousness of previous existence; she did not know 
her father, or mother, her brother or her sister. After five 
weeks she fully recovered her normal state, and with it her 
memory of her life previous to the attack of trance, but not of 
the trance itself. For years she alternated between trance and 
health, leading two distinct lives. In trance she was gay and 
lively, full of fun, and fancy, and fond of social life; in the 
healthy state she was sedate and pensive, almost to melan- 
choly, slow though sensible in her intellectual operations, 
and apparently destitute of imagination. 
In these cases of dual life the trance life is the more bril- 
liant and active in certain features, as by this hypothesis it 
naturally would be. In a case under the observation of the 
late Dr. J. R. Mitchell, a young girl in trance life was quick, 
energetic, and witty, and vivacious; in her normal life she was 
slow, indolent, and querulous. 
Fifthly. The hypothesis explains the difference between 
the deeper stages of trance, and death, with which trance is 
sometimes confounded. 
With this hypothesis of the pathology of trance before my 
mind, I have been accustomed to illustrate the difference be- 
tween ordinary sleep trance and death, by pointing to a chande- 
lier of gas-burners. When all the burners of the chandelier 
are fully lighted, that is the normal waking state; when all 
of the burners are turned down low, but not turned out en- 
tirely, as usually is the case in public halls, before the opening 
of entertainments, that is ordinary sleep; if I turn out en- 
tirely all the burners except one, and that one, as often hap- 
pens, flames all the more brightly from increased pressure, that 
is trance; if all the burners are turned out entirely and per- 
manently, that is death. The only hold on life which the 
deeply entranced person has, is through the activity of a lim- 
ited region of the brain, through which feeble movements of 18 
Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
the heart are sustained, the body being, in other respects, 
motionless. The popular belief that deeply entranced persons 
are liable to be buried alive is correct, but fortunately mis- 
takes of this kind occur but rarely. 
One person,it is said was laid out to be buried, all the prep- 
arations for the funeral having been made, of which he was 
fully conscious, and yet he could not at first speak, or cry, or 
wake, or move. By a desperate effort at the last moment, he 
succeeded in slightly moving one of his thumbs; the move- 
ment was observed and he was saved, and in time came out of 
his trance. 
In the famous case of the late Rev. William Tennent, of New 
Jersey, a severe illness—some form of fever—M'as followed by 
profound trance, which so thoroughly simulated death that the 
time for his funeral was appointed, and the people were gath- 
ered in attendance. At this juncture his physician, who was 
also a special friend, insisted that lie should not be buried at 
that time, because a tremor in the flesh, which had been ob- 
served when the body was laid out, still continued. A brother 
of Mr. Tennent became impatient at this suggestion, exclaim- 
ing: “ What, a man not dead who is cold and stiff as a stake! ” 
The suggestion of the physician, however, prevailed, another 
day for the funeral was appointed, and the people went away. 
For three days and three nights the doctor worked over his 
patient, trying, if possible, to find some other symptom of life 
than the mere tremor in the flesh, but failed. Again the 
friends appeared at the hour assigned for the funeral, and 
again the physician plead for time; at first for an hour, then 
for a half hour, and then for a quarter of an hour. At the 
last moment Mr. Tennent opened his eyes. Ilis mouth was 
pried open, and through a quill, liquid nourishment was con- 
veyed to his stomach, and by degrees the patient recovered; 
but at first he could not write nor read, and was only able to 
pronounce monosyllables. It was a considerable time—more 
than a year—before he gained the recollection of his past life, 
and his acquirements were fully restored to him. During his 
slow recovery he took lessons in reading and writing, as in his 
childhood. It is stated by his biographer that the return of 
his memory was marked by the sensation of a sudden shock in Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
19 
his head, as lie was reciting Cornelius Hepos. lie clapped his 
hand to his head, and then it seemed to him that he had read 
that book before; the subsequent return of his recollection of 
his past life, though gradual, was perfect. 
After his recovery, Mr. Tennent stated that the three days in 
which he had appeared lifeless seemed to him not more than 
ten or twenty minutes; and during that time he seemed to be 
transported, under the guidance of a superior individual, to 
heaven, where he saw an innumerable host of happy beings 
surrounding an “ Ineffable Glory;” he was able to hear their 
songs and their hallelujahs, and he was conscious of joy unut- 
terable.* 
In cases of this kind the heart probably beats very feebly, 
and not always with sufficient force to be detected by ordinary 
auscultators. 
Rosenthal, of Vienna, records a case of trance in an hysteri- 
cal woman. She was declared dead by her physician. When 
Rosenthal saw her, the skin was pale and cold*the pupils con- 
tracted and not sensitive to light, no pulse could be detected, 
and there was relaxation of the extremities. Melting sealing- 
wax, dropped on the surface, caused no reflex movements. 
When a mirror was held before the mouth no moisture ap- 
peared. It was not possible to hear any respiratory murmurs, 
but in the cardiac region a feeble intermittent sound could be 
just detected on auscultation. The patient had been appar- 
ently dead for thirty-two hours. On examining the patient 
with the faradic current of electricity, Rosenthal found that 
the muscles of the face and the extremities contracted. After 
twelve hours of faradization, she recovered. Two years after- 
wards she was alive and well, and told Rosenthal that about 
the commencement of the attack she knew nothing, but that 
afterwards she heard people talk about her death, but she was 
powerless to help herself. 
Sixthly. This hypothesis explains the exaltation of some 
of the physical and mental faculties in trance, and depression 
of others. 
The exaltation of the physical and psychical faculties in 
trance cannot be questioned, but is readily demonstrated; and by 
* Life of Rev. William Tennent. New York, 1868. 20 
Beard-—A New Theory of Trance. 
this hypothesis receives an explanation that is both lucid and 
complete. 
Representing, for the sake of comparison, the quantity of 
cerebral force in all parts of the brain by one hundred; if the 
activity of three-fourths of the brain is suspended, then the 
remaining one-fourth may be four fold more active than when 
in the normal state. That there should he such a concentration 
of cerebral force in a limited range of faculties, is in harmony 
with every day observed facts. Thus the intellect increases in 
vigor in any direction under exercise up to a certain point, 
and through over exercise becomes fatigued. In the brain are 
the centers of thought, of muscular motion, and of general 
and special sense. It would follow, therefore, that some one 
or several of the senses, or some one or several of the mental 
faculties, or some one or several groups of muscles might be 
exalted in activity, with entire suspension of the activity of 
other senses, faculties and muscles, according to the region 
of the brain in which the concentration of activity takes place. 
There is, therefore, no mystery in the frequently observed, 
though sometimes disputed fact, that entranced subjects can 
raise with ease weights which in their normal state they are 
unable to move. Mesmerized subjects sometimes exhibit this 
power. Persons entranced through fear, as by an alarm of fire, 
have been known to take up a stove and carry it out of the 
house; the next day they cannot, to save their lives, carry 
back that stove. The co-ordinating or balancing power may 
be so much exalted in somnambulists that* they can climb 
without harm in most dangerous places. A case in point 
is related by Dr. Brown-Sequard of a young lady in Paris, 
who, every Sunday, at ten o’clock, was seized with ec- 
static trance; and during the attack would get on a bed, 
put her toes on the edge, take an attitude of prayer, 
and offer supplications to the Virgin Mary. In this position, 
impossible to any one in a waking state, she would stay for a 
long time, fixed as a statue, her chest moving, her heart beat- 
ing, and her lips uttering sounds, but the rest of the body 
absolutely still. The exaltation of the time telling power— 
which sometimes passes for second sight—has the same ex- 
planation as the exaltation of other faculties. Likewise the Beakd—A New Theory of Trance. 
21 
nerves of general and special sense are all liable to be greatly 
exalted in tbis state; the feeblest whisper in a distant room 
may be readily heard, and one can read by a dimmer light 
than is usually needed. The sense of touch may be so deli- 
cate that when the sense of sight is sealed, the subject can 
find bis way from room to room without injury; and it is 
claimed may, in some cases, recognize the presence of another 
person near at hand, by the temperature alone, even where 
there is no physical contact. 
These exaltations of the normal senses are the bases of many 
of the popular and professional delusions relating to “second 
sight,” “clairvoyance,” “thought reading,” and the like. 
I3y this hypothesis also any of the mental faculties should be 
liable to be exalted. Observation shows that not only the imag- 
ination, but the reasoning1 faculty and command of language 
are oftentimes greatly enlivened in their activity in this state, 
as the performances of trance preachers illustrate. Weak 
minded men and women, who in the normal state think little 
and sav less, are sometimes able, when entranced, to speak con- 
tinuously, and almost if not quite eloquently, and with slight 
apparent effort. While there lias been much exaggeration of 
the originality and value of these trance speeches, yet it can 
not be denied that they are, with all their wildness of fancy 
and repetition, and frequent senselessness, far beyond the 
capacity of the same persons when not entranced. On return- 
ing to the normal state, they may be utterly stupid or com- 
monplace; their cerebral force, when diffused through the 
whole brain, is unequal to even rapid and sustained small 
talk. 
The converse of exaltation, depression of some of the senses 
and faculties of the mind, directly follows from this hypothesis 
of concentration of cerebral activity; those senses and facul- 
ties that belong to the entirely inactive regions of the bfain, 
must be for the time practically dead, as is found to be the 
case in some forms of trance. Thus the sealing of some of the 
special senses and general anaesthesia, making it possible to 
perform without causing pain certain surgical operations, are 
accounted for. 
Seventhly. This hypothesis explains all the familiar 22 
Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
physical symptoms of trance, such as flushing of the face, fixity 
of position, sighing respiration, accelerated pulse, involuntary 
convulsive movements, and marvellous and numberless 
hysteroid sensations. 
The effects of trance on the pulse and respiration, and on 
the circulation in general, are what would be expected from 
the known inter-dependence of mind and body. The quite 
recently established fact of the existence of definite centers of 
muscular motion in the brain, however the fact may be inter- 
preted, is of great significance in its bearings on this subject, 
since it shows clearly why convulsions so. frequently ac- 
company trance. The aphorism that I have elsewhere laid 
down, that when we think we move, was based on our knowl- 
edge of the existence of these centers of muscular motion, in 
that portion of the surface of the brain that is regarded as the 
seat of some of the mental faculties, and was first suggested 
to me while repeating the experiments of Iiitzig and Terrier 
in the electrical irritation of the brains of animals. 
These convulsive movements in trance, as in hysteria and 
epilepsy, belong to the lighter phases, or to the coming in and 
going out of the attack; in the deeper stages the muscles are 
motionless. 
Whether the entranced subject walks about, or remains 
fixed and immovable, probably depends on the nature of the 
dream that arises in the portion of the brain the activity of 
which is exalted. 
The vague nervous sensations that often accompany the early 
and lighter phases of trance-sensations, as of electric shocks, 
of heat or of cold, of crawling or creeping, or twitching—are 
in harmony with what the neurologist every day observes in 
various temperaments where the brain in whole, or in part, is 
excited. In very many persons the simple expectation that 
their symptoms are to appear, is sufficient to bring them in 
full foi ■ce. 
Eighthly. This hypothesis accounts for the illusions and 
hallucinations of trance. > 
Illusions, delusions, and hallucinations, are, as is estab- 
lished, the products of cerebral activity, and are frequently the 
symptoms of some abnormal state of the brain. There is no Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
proof that any other part of the body than the brain, as the 
spinal cord or nerves, can originate hallucinations, any more 
than there is proof that any other part of the body can origin- 
ate the higher modes of conscious thought—all the facts and 
arguments that serve to establish that the brain is the organ 
of the mind in health, also establish that is is the organ of 
the mind in disease. For while automatic acts, as nursing 
and so forth, maybe manifested by brainless infants, and while 
the spinal cord clearly contains centers of reflex action, yet 
there is no proof that any conscious thought, of the higher 
kind at least, attends the activity of these reflex centres, any 
more than in the familiar automatic movements of plants. The 
hallucinations of trance—the visions of heaven and other in- 
numerable fancies—must then, like dreams, and all mental 
operations, whether coherent or incoherent, have their seat in 
some part of the brain; and, according to this hypothesis, 
their existence, their coherency, and their extreme activity, are 
all explained. 
Illusions and delusions may arise in brains that are in a 
normal state, through the necessary deceptions of the senses, 
but many of them are in part, at least, of a transient char- 
acter, and are in various ways corrected; but in trance both 
the false perceptions (illusions), and the false conclusions from 
what is perceived (delusions) are permanent, and in many cases 
are immensely more absurd than ever arise in the normal 
state. 
Ninthly. This hypothesis accounts for the relation of 
trance to its admitted predisposing and exciting causes. 
By this hypothesis any influence that tends to overthrow 
the cerebral equilibrium, to disturb the balance of innervation, 
would be likely to be a cause of trance; experience shows that 
this is actually the case. 
The predisposing, like the exciting causes of trance, are both 
physical and psychical. 
One is physically predisposed to trance, so far forth, who 
inherits, or has acquired a nervous system generally sensitive 
and impressible. One is psychically predisposed to trance 
who is mentally unbalanced through excessive and dispro- 
portionate endowment of imagination and emotion. One who 
is powerfully developed in reasoning and thinking qualities, Beard—A New 'L'heory of Trance. 
and is badly deficient in observing, practical faculties is so far 
fortli predisposed to the intellectual form of trance. The best 
subjects are those who are predisposed, both physically and 
psychically, who have sensitive organizations, and unbalanced, 
ill-trained minds. 
A typical subject for emotional trance, especially the mes- 
meric form, is the average shop-girl; she is usually delicate in 
body, feeble in mind, or rather, all that is in her of mind runs 
to emotion, and that little is but half matured; it is almost as' 
easy for her to become entranced under exciting causes as it is 
to laugh or cry. Persons of this mental calibre and im- 
maturity, of either sex, are predisposed to trance, even when 
physically they are very strong. Trance is not, however, as 
many suppose, the peculiar gift of certain temperaments. It 
is the property of the human race. All persons are liable to 
become entranced, just as they are liable to become paralyzed 
or epileptic, although all do not suffer in this way. All per- 
sons are not predisposed to the same form of this disorder; 
one can only be entranced through the intellect, another 
through the emotions; one person can only be frightened into 
this state; one needs the presence of a medium, another of a 
mind reader, another of a clairvoyant, and another of a mes- 
merizer; another of a magnetized letter, and another still of 
one who performs miracles of healing by the laying on of 
hands. Mr. Grimes, who has had much experience with the 
mesmeric trance, and who is accustomed to direct his subjects 
to stand still with closed eyes and folded hands as a means of 
exciting the emotion of reverence, says that he failed with 
every one out of forty military officers at West Point, while 
just across the river, among the operatives, the same process 
was very successful.* This is easy to understand from what 
Grimes has recently published a work, entitled “Mysteries of the 
Head and Heart,” the latter portion of which especially is commended to 
the attention of those who are interested in these themes. Mr. Grimes is 
almost the only writer on trance who has had sufficient originality and 
mental force to see more than one side of it. But, like Dr. Carpenter, and 
most other writers on these subjects he fails to see all sides, and he makes 
the mistake which is fatal to the scientific study of trauce, of conceding 
the possibility of thought reading. This serious mistake results from the 
studying the subject inductively instead of deductively; it is, indeed, as I 
shall show farther on, an inevitable mistake from that false method of 
reasoning. Beauh—A New Theory of Trance. 
has already been stated in regard to the predisposing causes, 
but it would be an error to infer that those officers were not 
capable of being entranced. If they should all sit in a circle 
around a table for half an hour or more, with the expectation 
that some strange things would develop, very likely some of 
them would become carried away, and, by unconscious mus- 
cular motion, would move the table, or perhaps they would feel 
sensations like electrical shocks through their bodies, or they 
might go into convulsions, or might experience wonderful 
visions, hearing the voices and seeing the faces-of loved ones. 
Tenthly. This hypothesis accounts for the periodicity of 
trance in certain cases. 
It is the nature of all functional nervous diseases—neural- 
gia, sick headache, hay fever, inebriety, and some forms of in- 
sanity, to appear more or less periodically. It may be said, I 
think, that the majority of cases of spontaneous trance are 
periodic. Several of the cases reported in this paper to illus- 
trate various points, it will be observed, agree in this element 
of periodicity, though widely differing in other features. The 
famous case of the French sergeant, for example, is a striking 
illustration of the periodicity of this disease. According to 
I)r. Mesnet’s report, the attacks of trance in this case came 
on after a hemiplegia, which followed a wound in the head 
received at Sedan. From one to two or three days of every 
month are passed in this state, into which he enters spon- 
taneously and instantaneously. While in trance the sense of 
touch is much exalted, the sense of sight appears to be limited 
to those objects with which he is brought in direct relation, 
and is only excited into activity automatically by the sense of 
touch; all the other senses are sealed. The excessive activity 
of the sense of touch appears to supply the place of the other 
senses in a measure, so that he eats, drinks, smokes, dresses 
and undresses, and retires to bed as in his normal state; but 
throughout mechanically responds to external suggestions. 
Here, as it would seem, I might close the case, with all the 
real phenomena of trance accounted for, unified, and harmon- 
ized by this hypothesis of concentration of activity in a lim- 
ited region of the brain. It may be opposed to all this pro- 
cess of reasoning, that no one has ever seen with his eyes the 26 
Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
brain thus concentrating its force during an attack of trance; 
but it must be remembered that only exceptionally can scien- 
tific hypotheses be verified by actual sight. Even in the ma- 
terial world the seen is but a fraction of the unseen. No man 
ever saw the waves of light; no man has ever seen gravity; 
these universal forces are studied only through their phe- 
nomena, by means of which we frame hypotheses of the law of 
gravitation, and the existence of a luminiferous ether. In 
the realm of physiology and pathology, the chances of veri- 
fication by actual sense perception are more rare than in astron- 
omy or physics. Only by deduction can we arrive at any idea 
of any functional disease whatsoever, or of the relation of 
mind to brain. 
It is essential to the validity of a scientific hypothesis that 
it account for all the phenomena, and that it he the only 
hypothesis that will account for them. The supernatural 
hypothesis of trance, which is the one that has been most 
generally entertained, even if there were no other argument 
against it, must be dismissed at mice, as soon as it is found that 
the phenomena can be fully explained by natural causes. 
Although we have the authority of the best writers on the 
principles of science, Whewell and Jevons, for accepting 
an hypothesis if it be singly and solely competent to account 
for all the phenomena; yet the best hypotheses, as it seems to 
me, will bear even severer tests; they will shed light on other 
and allied phenomena, and will point to new and pre- 
viously unknown phenomena, for which they will also account. 
This hypothesis of the nature of trance will bear, in a man- 
ner, this severe and supplementary test. It puts us in a posi- 
tion to predict, from our knowledge of the mental and physical 
characteristics of an individual, whether he will or will not be 
likely to become the victim of any form of trance. This 
hypothesis is also of material assistance in studying the auto- 
matic functions of the brain and the relation of automatism to 
responsibility, which just now is the battle ground of science. 
This hypothesis also assists us in obtaining a general idea 
of the nature of sleep, explaining in a general way the philoso- 
phy of dreams, the cause of their incoherency, their relation to 
trance, and the cause of loss of will in that state. Beard-—A New Theory of Trance. 
Thousands, if not millions, of pages have been written on 
the will; all metaphysics is complicated by discussions on, and 
obscured by ignorance of the nature of this element of the 
mind. In the light of this theory of trance, the will is not 
any single, or special, or separate faculty, but the co-ordinated 
action of all the faculties; and the reason why, in trance, the 
will is displaced is that the activity of a considerable portion 
of the faculties is suspended. There is scarcely a problem in 
psychology that is not simplified by this explanation of the na- 
ture of the will, as all who are familiar with the literature of 
the subject will perceive. 
In regard to the other popularly alleged phenomena of 
trance,—clairvoyant, or second-sight power, or the existence of a 
sixth sense, by means of which the subject is able to see 
around and through the world, and into other worlds, or to tell 
time through the back of the head, or to read with closed eyes, 
or to see through opaque objects, or to discover lost persons 
and property, or to reveal the past, or to prophesy with pre- 
cision, to communicate with spirits of the departed, or to 
raise the dead—in regard to all these claims, and every claim 
allied to them, I may say that there are not, and never have 
been, and never can be any such phenomena. How do wo 
know that phenomena of this kind never have existed and 
never can exist in the trance? It is not a matter of opinion, 
or of the ipse dixit of any man, or of any number of men; it 
is a fact capable of absolute proof that no phenomena of this 
kind have ever appeared in the world in any human creature, 
in trance or out of trance. 
IIow do we know this? Surely not through inductive rea- 
soning, which is the method usually resorted to in studying 
this subject. No amount of inductive research will ever ad- 
vance this branch of science one inch. Suppose that there are 
a thousand clairvoyants, and mediums and mind-readers who 
profess to have these powers, and that by the investigation of 
some competent expert (and none but an expert can conduct 
investigations of this kind), it is shown that none of them are 
justified in their claims, that all of them are intentional or 
unintentional deceivers, what have we found? Simply nothing. 
We leave off where we started. How do we know that the- Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
next clairvoyant does not have the power that she claims to 
have? How do we know that even these one thousand may 
not have had the powers they claim just before our investiga- 
tion, or just after? You say that exposures of this kind di- 
minish the probability that any one has these gifts. Very 
true, but in science we are not to be content with a low de- 
gree of probability when we can get certainty; and on this 
subject we can get certainty. I have no sympathy, therefore, 
with the habit, honored though it may be by the endorsement 
of some of the greatest names, from the committee of the 
French Academy down—of offering large sums of money to 
those who will display these marvelous gifts. No plan con- 
ceivable could be more unscientific than this. Two years ago, 
a friend of mine much interested in these themes, and uncom- 
monly successful in the study of them, remarked to me, “ I 
have laid by a few thousand dollars, the results of labor and 
saving; I will give it all to any one who will read the mind 
of another.” lie gave me authority to publicly use his offer, 
which I did not do for the reason I have given. I observe that 
offers of this kind find no takers, for no one ever was endowed 
with any of these divine powers; but the fact of their non- 
acceptance is negative evidence merely, and leaves the subject 
where it found it. 
The true way, the only way to settle this question, is 
through deductive reasoning, by the application of this law of 
nature, devised from the experience of all authorities in physi- 
ology—namely, that no human being ever has any faculty dif- 
ferent in hind from that conferred on the human race in 
general. The law is of universal application, and may embrace 
all species of living things; but for our purpose here it is 
sufficient to limit it to the human race. The difference between 
Socrates, Newton, Shakespeare, and Milton, and the lowest type 
of society is a difference of degree only; all the mental facul- 
ties are common to all. None of the real phenomena of trance, 
as above detailed, differ from those that are common to the 
human family otherwise than in degree. AVhen, therefore, we 
hear these wondrous stories of second-sight and thought-read- 
ing, though endorsed, as they oftentimes are, by the ablest and 
most honest scientific men of the world, we need spend no Be a hd—A New Theory of Trance. 
time or force in investigating them; deduction proves their 
falsity without any examination. 
We can, if we choose, and are competent to do so, verify and 
illustrate our deductions by exposure of those making these 
claims, but let us beware of making these exposures with the 
idea of proving anything. With the masses of the people, 
who are moved by their instincts, these exposures count for 
much, I admit; but science has no need of them, and save in 
exceptional cases, when incidentally they lead to positive and 
original contributions to science, as in the case of the Fox girls, 
the table lifters, and Brown, the mind-reader, derives no aid 
froiii them in settling this great question.* 
* Lest I may be accused of inconsistency, I may say that whatever I 
have done during the past few years in the way of detecting and exposing 
mediums, clairvoyants and mind-readers has been, not for the purpose of 
ascertaining the truth or falsity of the claims made by these performers 
and their advocates, since that question is, as I have stated above, settled 
definitely and forever by deductive reasoning, but partly in order to 
solve some questions relating to the psychology of jugglery—a most in- 
structive and much neglected subject—and partly, also, out of regard to 
the weaker brethren who are unable to employ deductive reasoning, and 
can only be taught through whai, in some way, appeals to the senses. 
These exposures are, in strict logic, no absolute disproval in the abstract 
of the claims made by those who are exposed; but their influence with 
the people, even with physicians and scientific men, is, as I have found 
by experience, enormously greater than any scientific method of treating 
the subject possibly can be. Thus, in the case of the Eddy Brothers, who 
contracted the habit of raising the dead in immense numbers, in an out 
of the way hamlet of Vermont, deductive reasoning was, to one who knew 
how to employ it, amply sufficient, without any attempt at special verifi- 
cation, to disprove the claim; and yet there wrere in this country thou- 
sands of persons, many of them of the highest intelligence, and some of 
them of scientific distinction, who, up to the time of my published expo- 
sure, w ere not a little uneasy in mind in regard to what was alleged, on 
excellent average testimony, to be performed there. 
Likewise in the case of Brown’s mind-reading—in some respects the 
most original and remarkable performance connected with delusions— 
comparatively few, even of physicians and physiologists were able, at once, 
to grasp the true, though somewhat complex explanation which I gave— 
unconscious muscular tension and relaxation on the part of the subject— 
although the theory was confirmed by careful and repeated experiments; 
but the incidental comparison of the mind-reading seances to the “learned 
pig” exhibitions, in my letters to the Tribune, was more effective in 
bringing the trickery into contempt, as I have various reasons for believ- 
ing, than any published reasonings or explanations. 30 
Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
Likewise the common objections that these delusions do no 
good and much harm, and add nothing to the treasury of 
human knowledge, have no place in science, however useful 
they may be in practically dealing with the people. 
In regard to all these claims, it may be said that in all cases 
whenever the hand of an expert touches them they vanish into 
air. Non-expert human testimony of vast proportions, in 
favor of all these claims, crowds our libraries and our news- 
papers; but the testimony in favor of witchcraft, of alchemy, 
of magic, and of astrology is incomparably more imposing; 
but non-expert human testimony in matters of science is, as 
you are aware, of no value, and no force of numbers can give 
it any value. No process of addition can make knowledge 
out of ignorance; a million ciphers are worth no more than 
one cipher. A strong boy standing on the shore tries to throw 
a stone across the Atlantic, and fails; a million boys come to 
his aid, and each one tries to throw a stone; all combined 
shall not help that first boy,hor come much nearer to reaching 
the other shore, though they may toil forever. 
The cures of disease wrought on trance subjects are often- 
times genuine cures—the result of mind acting on body, as I 
have proved by a systematic series of experiments wherein 
even without the aid of trance, I accomplished, and have, in 
my paper on the subject before the American Neurological 
Association, pointed out in detail the way for others to ac- 
complish most remarkable and oftentimes permanent results in 
serious cases of disease,—results which formerly were regarded 
as miraculous. 
An excellent parallel to the superstitions connected with 
trance, is found in the perpetual motion delusion. For 
centuries the belief that perpetual motion was attainable, 
dominated in the civilized world, and, like the delusions of 
second sight, clairvoyance, and so forth, was most active in 
the intelligent classes; thousands upon thousands of machines 
have been devised, which, b}r their inventors, and by their 
friends, were supposed to have solved the problem, and no 
amount of inductive investigation could ever have availed to 
settle the question, since but a minority of claims could be ex- 
posed by expert skill, and in every direction new claimants Heard—A New Theory of Trance. 
31 
were appearing, and likely to appear. Not until physicists 
were aide to demonstrate deductively through the law of the 
correlation and conservation of force, that perpetual motion 
was impossible, was the delusion dispelled. At the present 
time all classes of perpetual motion are disallowed by physici- 
ists without a moment’s examination. It would he as much a 
violation of the established and unvarying laws of nature, for 
one person to have any faculty different in kind from those 
belonging to the race in general—such as second sight, or 
clairvoyance, or mind reading, or prevision, or retrovision—as 
for the sun to rise in the west instead of the east; bv legiti- 
mate deductive reasoning the one claim is as conclusively dis- 
posed of as the other. 
It was only by deductive reasoning that the delusion of 
alchemy was gradually overcome. The belief prevailed 
in Europe that the baser metals could be turned into 
gold; the ablest minds were influenced by the delusion; even 
Sir Isaac Newton, it is claimed, did not escape the infection. 
T1 iroughout Europe, indeed, alchemists were for centuries as 
common and as annoying as clairvoyants and mind-readers 
are to-day; and induction was equally powerless against them, 
and for the same reason. As chemistry passed slowly out of 
the territorial into the organized stage, it became possible to 
prove deductively that baser metals could not be turned into 
gold, and claims to that effect ceased to be examined. In 
his one department of astronomy, Sir Isaac Newton was per- 
haps the greatest master of deductive reasoning that the 
world has ever seen; but in studying alchemy he was but a 
layman, a non-expert, and blundered accordingly; and in. this 
respect, if in no other, his example has been imitated by a 
number of eminent judges, physicists, and naturalists of our 
day. 
Another excellent parallel drawn from physiology is found 
in the belief, in this country at least widely prevalent, 
even among the educated classes, that oculists can take out the 
eve in a living patient, clean it, and put it back again. 
Thousands of individuals of general intelligence are positive 
that they have seen, with their own eyes, this operation per- 
formed, and many of them would he willing to swear in court Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
to that effect; patients themselves, as an oculist of reputation, 
Dr. Matthewson informs me, are positive that this operation 
lias been performed on themselves. To meet this delusion by 
exhaustive investigation, by exposing, in detail, every claim of 
this kind that is, or has been, or will be made in the world, is 
manifestly beyond human power; and if such exhaustive ex- 
posures had been made, the possibility that such an operation 
could be performed might still be urged. Only by deductive 
reasoning—by the recognition of the absolutely established 
physiological law that it is as impossible to detach the eye 
from its nervous, vascular, and muscular connections, and re- 
store it to those connections, not only unharmed, but bene- 
fited by the procedure, as is claimed, as it would be to cut off' 
the head and put it back again on the living man—can this de- 
lusion be successfully met. 
Those who have followed my argument thus far, will find 
no difficulty in accounting for the fact, that the trance has for 
so long a time been a refuge and a hiding-place for the world’s 
great imposters. The essence of a delusion is ignorance, and 
in all ages the delusions of mankind have sheltered themselves 
in the darkness of the unexplained phenomena, and have re- 
treated as fast as light is let in upon them. As astronomy 
rose astrology sank; as chemistry was developed, alchemy 
died away; as medicine became something of a science, 
witchcraft lost its vitality; the trance and the automatic side 
of human nature have been so full of mystery that in them 
the delusions of our time have made their last stand, from 
which they are already beginning to retreat. 
It is the belief of the wisest men of our time, that there is 
a scientific substratum to delusions. This belief is well 
founded; there is a scientific substratum to delusions, and it 
is found in the subject under consideration, and it is for 
that sake alone worthy of the study of all physiologists who 
are competent to make themselves masters of this branch of 
inquiry. 
Those who fully understand the nature and symptoms of 
trance, as I have here described them, and the involuntary 
life of which trance is, so to speak, the triumph and culmination, 
may remain assured that they have possessed themselves of all Bkard—A New Theory of Trance. 
33 
that is genuine and important in witchcraft; in clairvoyance, 
in spiritualism, in mind-reading, and in animal magnetism, 
which latter is the mother of all modern delusions, being, 
indeed, to our century what witchcraft was to the fourteenth. 
In the light of the theory here proposed, it will be seen that 
trance has a two-fold interest, scientific and practical—scien- 
tific in its relations to both physiology and pathology, and 
practical in its bearing on the principles of evidence, as ob- 
tained through human testimony. 
There are various reasons why.all that portion of logic, as- 
taught in our colleges and schools of law, that treats of hu- 
many testimony, must be radically reconstructed, and when 
this reconstruction is made, as it surely will be, it will be 
found that much of what is called history, is subjective rather 
than objective, originating in the brain rather than in external 
nature; and it will be seen that not an inconsiderable portion 
of our libraries can be laid aside and forgotten without* 
detriment to the cause of truth, and with large advantage to 
those who wish to make the wisest use of time. The neces- 
sity for thus reconstructing the principles of evidence is based, 
in part, though not entirely on the fact that all are 
liable to be entranced, and that when in that stage their 
own statements of what they experience is of little or no value. 
On legal medicine trance has a direct and most important 
application, and in four ways: 
First. Testimony as to crimes committed under circum- 
stances of great excitement. Arson, murder, and even theft, 
especially burglary, may cause or be attended by so much of 
fear or terror on the part of those who witness them, either 
sufferers or by-standers, that their testimony as to what oc- 
curred may become of slight value. The possibility that wit- 
nesses may be entranced through the emotion of fear, is worthy 
of fair consideration in all cases of this kind where details are 
testified to and insisted on, and where there is important con- 
flict of evidence between witnesses. 
Second. Testimony relating to sudden accidents, attended 
with fatal or serious consequences. 
The value of testimony often brought before coroners’ juries 
is impaired, and quite frequently neutralized altogether by the Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
fact that the excitement of sudden accidents tends to entrance 
those who are directly concerned; and thus the attempt to fix 
responsibility in such cases so often miscarries. A typical in- 
stance is found in the disaster that occurred to the yacht 
Mohawk, in New York harbor, last summer. It will he re- 
membered that this yacht was suddenly capsized, and thrown 
completely over while getting under weigh, one afternoon, off 
Staten Island. Commodore Garner and wife, and several 
others were drowned. The captain was quite generally blamed, 
and there was a strong desire among the people to have him 
indicted for criminal negligence. The testimony given on 
the trial before the coroner was far from being satisfactory to 
impartial minds, and the captain was discharged. In cases of 
this kind newspapers are violent, and call for the blood of those 
whom they suppose to be unpardonably negligent; but coroners’ 
juries, following their intuitions or their feelings of compas- 
sion are unwilling, as a rule, to convict on the testimony usually 
brought before them; and in this respect they are right, 
although they may not know why. Their impulses and their 
intuitions are wiser than the logic and eloquence of editors and 
preachers. Imminent peril and unexpected disaster, threaten- 
ing or injuring life are likely to excite trance, and thus to di- 
minish the value of the testimony of the parties concerned, to 
such a degree that we should pause before inflicting punish- 
ment. In the case of the Mohawk, the squall was so sudden, and 
the capsizing of the yacht so quick, and the position of those 
on board so perilous that any attempt to ascertain just what 
transpired may as well be abandoned. We shall never know 
what occurred after the squall struck the yacht in sufficient 
detail to punish any one. 
There is no doubt that persons in responsible positions some- 
times become entranced as peril approaches, and thus they are 
liable to take precisely the wrong course, and to do that which 
they especially wish to avoid, like a mesmerized subject. A 
few years since, while returning from Europe, our steamer col- 
lided with a sailing vessel, under these circumstances. It was 
a starlight night, and the sailing vessel was sighted at least 
flfteen minutes before the moment of collision, and was not 
lost sight of during that time. The vessel was coming across Beard—A New Theory of 'Trance. 
our bows. Under right management on the part of the officer 
of the deck, a collision would have been impossible. If we 
had stopped, if we had backed, if we had kept on our course, 
if we had turned to the port, all would have been well. There 
was but one way in which it was possible for us to run into 
the sailing vessel, and that was by turning to the starboard and 
chasing her. That course the officer of the deck took, and 
succeeded in running into and knocking the masts out of the 
sailing vessel. There was no suspicion of intention; there could 
have been no motive. The officer in charge was not over- 
experienced, probably became entranced, and did just what he 
terribly wished to avoid doing." 
In cases of this kind, the responsibility, legal or moral, be- 
longs to those who allow men of insufficient capacity or expe- 
rience to take positions for which they are not adapted. For 
what the man does or does not do at the time he is not crimi- 
nally responsible. In those who have the right capacity for a 
responsible station, and whose experience in that station has 
been large, the liability to become entranced through fear is 
reduced to a minimum. 
Third. Testimony relating to alleged crime or wrong 
deeds committed by entranced persons. 
It is quite rarely that subjects in any form of trance are ac- 
cused of committing crime while in that state, for this reason, 
*0n this occasion was also illustrated, iu a most interesting way, the 
power of fear to entrance large numbers of individuals simultaneously, 
causing them all to see precisely what they feared to see. After the col- 
lision, the passengers from the cabin and steerage rushed on the quarter- 
deck, many of them overcome with terror, and nearly all of them sup- 
posed that our steamer was seriously injured. The sound of the falling 
spars, unspeakably dismal in the darkness, the roar of the wind, which 
•seemed, as usual, to rise at the critical moment, the difficulty and awk- 
wardness that attended the slow lowering of the boats on the dashing 
waves, the shrieks and prayefs and cries of the passengers, all combined 
to make the emotion of fear the master of the occasion. In the height of 
the excitement, the cry went forth that our steamer was stove in, and that 
the bow was sinking. Straightway all eyes were turned toward the bow, 
and to every eye it seemed to be sinking. I shall never forget how that 
bow gradually lowered in the darkness, as I anxiously gazed upon it; and 
yet, so far as I was able to judge, I was more angry at myself for not 
having taken some other steamer than fearful of shipwreck. Probably 
all, or nearly all the passengers would, if necessary, have testified in court, Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
mainly, that the commission of crime requires, usually, the 
exercise of the will; although, as in some forms of insanity, 
the will tnay be irresponsible. The automatic movements of 
entranced subjects, whether called forth by external suggestion 
of any kind, or of a subjective origin purely, can rarely lead 
to positive crime; although they may accomplish some form 
of injury. It is conceivable that a mesmerized subject might, 
under the influence of external suggestion, strike a blow that 
would injure some one; but there could be no deliberate, sus- 
tained attack, with a view to injure. Again, the very sugges- 
tion of crime, or serious evil-doing, of any kind, to a mesmer- 
ized subject, seems to have the effect to restore the equilibrium 
of the brain, like a physical jar, or knock, or push; and he 
comes out of the trance, at least suiliciently to be able to resist 
the suggestion. Of the large numbers of cases of trance I 
have seen, I do not recollect any instance of evil doing of any 
kind. Mr. Grimes, who has devoted his life to the practical 
study of the subject,-declares that subjects, even when fully 
under the influence of the operator, and ready to act according 
to the suggestions he gives, will not do an indelicate thing. 
Say to a young man who has gone into a mesmeric trance with 
under oath, that the bow of our steamer gradually sank before them on 
that night; and yet, the bow did not sink, the steamer was uninjured. 
For the circumstances of that accident, substitute the pretense of mystic 
or supernatural power, through the agency of an oracle, a seeress, a sor- 
cerer, a necromancer, a witch, a conjurer, a juggler, a nnignetizer, a medi- 
cine man, a medium, a clairvoyant, a mind-reader, or a repository of 
animal magnetism, or odic, or psychic force; for the excitation of the 
emotion of fear, substitute the excitation of the emotions of wonder, 
reverence and expectancy, combined with fear, and we are in a position to 
estimate the value of the literature of delusions. 
The day before the burning of the Brooklyn theatre, I lectured on this 
subject in that city, and remarked that an alarm of fire was one of the 
best exciting causes of trance. The confirmation of this view the follow- 
ing day was of a most remarkable and unusual character. Probably the 
majority of those in the theatre were more or less entranced; some being 
unable to move, others unconsious of what they did, and unable to tell 
what happened or what they saw or heard. How animals are entranced 
through fear is shown by the conduct of horses when stables take fire; 
by the experiments of Czermak with crawfish, hens, frogs, and so forth; 
and by the ease with which snakes charm birds, and draw them helpless 
within easy reach; but in perilous circumstances masses of men are little 
or no better than animals. Bkaud—A Few Theory of l ranee. 
the belief that the so-called operator will have an influence 
over him, that he is a lawyer, and the jury is before him, and 
he will proceed with an eloquent, if not logical plea; tell him 
that he is in an orchard, and that the ground is covered with 
fruit, which he may pick up and distribute to the audience, 
and he will do as suggested; hand him a broomstick, saying 
that it is a lady, and he will put his arms around it; give him 
a brick, and tell him that it is a baby, and he will hug it; and 
yet, if that same young man, while in that state, at the mercy 
of the operator apparently, be requested to expose his person, 
he would at once refuse, the suggestion acting , perhaps as a 
means of bringing him out of the trance. 
In the case of Tilton vs. Beecher, it was claimed privately 
by the counsel for Mr. Beecher (if newspaper reports are cor- 
rect), and publicly by the committee appointed by Mr. Beecher, 
that Mrs. Tilton was entranced at the time she signed some of 
her contradictory documents. Dr. Corey, of Brooklyn, who 
has had much experience with diseases of the brain, testified 
before the committee, according to their report, that the con- 
duct of Mrs. Tilton could be explained on that theory. It is 
conceivable that so simple a movement as the signing of one’s 
name to a false document of terrible import, might be automat- 
ically made by a mesmerized subject, at the suggestion of the 
person whom she supposed put her into the trance. There is, 
however, no published evidence that Mrs. Tilton was in a 
trance at the time referred to, and no certainty, if she were 
in that state, that she was in a condition to respond in detail 
automatically to the suggestion of any one. Granting that 
she was entranced through a combination of physical weakness 
and mental excitement which is possible, the suggestion that 
she commit the the great crime of charging unjustly a great 
crime on another, would have been likely to have brought her 
out of the trance.* 
Fourth. Testimony in the trial of those who, under pre- 
tense of going into trance, defraud the people. 
Nothing is easier to counterfeit, after slight practice, than 
the early physical symptoms of trance; the closing of the eyes, 
* Dr. Mesnet, of France, states in his report on the case of the French 
Sergeant, that he has known of two cases of trance that ended in suicide. 38 
Beard—A Neio Theory of Trance. 
the jerking of the head, the general twitching of the muscles,, 
and the sighing respiration, can all he simulated by even a poor 
actor so perfectly that an expert cannot, without careful in- 
vestigation, be sure of the deception. The exhaustion, on 
coming out of trance, is also readily counterfeited. The great 
majority of public clairvoyants, seeresses, and thought readers,, 
keep out of trance, and while they pretend to go into it, en- 
trance their visitors through the emotions of wonder and ex- 
pectation, causing them to see what they are told to see, hear 
what they expect to hear, and to tell them the secrets they 
wish to know, and thus they accomplish their fraudulent pur- 
poses. I have had interviews at various times with many of 
the most famous clairvoyants in the country, and under cir- 
cumstances where I had all possible opportunity of judging, 
and I have yet to see a sure case of genuine trance among them. 
An expert is justified in testifying in court, first, that these 
impostors do not go into the trance at all, as a rule, very few 
of them having the power of self-inducing that state, and that 
those who do have that power have no use for its exercise when 
any fraud is to be brought about; and, secondly, that even those 
who can induce trance in themselves, do not have, while in 
that state, any of the powers which they claim, as is proved de- 
ductively by the known law of physiology already mentioned. 
All of these persons, therefore, whenever they profess to have 
powers different in kind from other persons, i. <?., to find lost 
persons, or property, or to tell the past or the future, or diag- 
nose disease, or to raise the dead, are guilty of fraud before the 
law, and when they are tried, if expert testimony is received 
in court, must be without exception, convicted. 
On the other hand, if average human testimony—which in 
this, as in all scientific matters, is vastly worse than no testi- 
mony at all—be received, these deceivers must in every case 
be acquitted; for in this country ten non-experts can be found 
to testify in their favor to one who will testify against them. 
It is for this reason that trials of these cases in this country 
have been, without exception, so far as I know, disgraceful 
both to science and to law. In the famous Ward case, in De- 
troit, for instance, where an attempt was made to break a will 
on the ground that it was made under the influence of me- Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
diums, no single witness competent to testify on the subject, 
was called by either side, although the trial was a long one; 
while public mediums, whose lives are devoted to crime, 
(among them, I believe, Slade, just convicted in London) were 
called to give their opinion as experts. What would be 
thought of summoning some local Lucretia Borgia as an ex- 
pert in a poisoning case, or some member of the Molly Ma- 
guire gang, in a case of murder. 
A few years since, according to a newspaper account, a 
clairvoyant pretender was arrested in Bridgeport, and went 
through the form of a trial for deceiving a shop girl. A 
dozen, or more shop girls were allowed to testify that the ac- 
cused had divine powers, and consequently she was acquitted, 
and borne off amid the plaudits of the mob. 
It may be objected both to the theory and the practical con- 
clusions from the theory here advocated, that even granting 
their entire soundness in the abstract, they would, if generally 
understood and held, have a paralyzing influence by encourag- 
ing the sceptical spirit, both in science and in law. To this I 
would reply, that scepticism is a relative term merely, and, 
rightly viewed, is but another form of belief. Strictly speak- 
ing we are all believers. We can no more avoid believing 
than we can avoid breathing. Superstition and science are 
both credulous, only that the one believes the false, the other 
the true. Science is indeed but a higher form of faith; it 
knows what to receive and what to reject. If the distinction 
between belief and scepticism be retained, it may be said that 
superstition is the real sceptic, ignorance is the doubter, and 
science the only believer. Facts, such as are here urged, are 
therefore the strongest of all bulwarks against scientific and 
popular scepticism, against that most baneful of all forms of 
infidelity so prevalent everywhere, but especially in this coun- 
try, that rejects everything except average human testimony, 
that makes the emotions the masters rather the servants of 
reason, and in seeking for objects of its faith, insists only on 
one condition, namely, that they be untrue. 
As regards trance, there is required no better proof of the 
need there is of studying it, and of reducing it to a science, as 
in the present essay I have attempted to do, than the fact that Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
up to the present moment the tendency has been, even among 
physicians and physiologists, to reject the, real and de- 
monstrable symptoms of this state—such as loss of will, au- 
tomatism, double consciousness, and exaltation of the fac- 
ulties, and to accept as genuine the impossible claims of clair- 
voyance or second sight. 
If it be claimed that the application of this theory of trance 
to law, though ideally right, will be practically impossible, I 
find inv reply in the tact that our courts of justice are already 
acting upon these principles, and with good results. For a long 
time now it has been the custom to call experts in cases of sus- 
pected poisoning and insanity, and yet every timea lawyer sum - 
mons an expert, he abandons Greenleaf, who, in his very ably 
written chapter on the principles of Evidence, as introductory 
to the Harmony of the Gospels, places honesty as the first 
qualification for a witness. 
One reason, though not the only reason why experts are 
called in cases of insanity, is that the evidence of the senses, 
as such, is beginning to be regarded as of little value. Every- 
body can see the insane, but only a few can see them with ex- 
pert eyes. 
It will now not be a very long step for the law to take to 
embrace in full the suggestions I have offered, and to accept the 
principle that in matters of science average human testimony 
as such, is absolutely worthless. To do so they must throw 
overboard the principles of evidence as taught not only in 
books and schools of law, but in all our courses on logic and 
metaphysics, and in our colleges and schools everywhere, and, 
as assumed by all who attempt to reason on any subject what- 
soever; they must throw overboard the metaphysician, Thomas 
Reid, who, in his text-book on the intellectual powers of man 
—long time an authority in Europe and America—uses these 
words: “An upright judge will give a fair hearing to every ob- 
jection that can be made to the integrity of a witness, and al- 
low it to be possible that he may be corrupted; but no judge 
will even suppose that witnesses may be imposed upon by 
trusting to their eyes and ears; and if a sceptical counsel 
should plead against the testimony of the witnesses that they 
had no other evidence from that declared than the testimony Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
41 
of their eyes and ears, and that we ought not to put so much 
faith in our senses as to deprive men of life and fortune upon 
their testimony, surely no uprjght judge would admit a plea 
of this kind. I believe no counsel, however sceptical, ever 
dared to offer such an argument; and if it was offered it 
would be rejected with disdain”; they must throw overboard 
Phillips and Greenleaf, Edward W. Cox, the eminent English 
lawyer, and legal author, who even declares that if the senses 
of honest and intelligent observers are not to be trusted, we 
must close our courts of justice. 
These authorities which 1 have quoted—not as uttering 
peculiar views on this subject, but simply as representing the 
current notions of the world—will be, are, indeed already, be- 
ing thrown overboard, for in this direction, as in so many 
others, human instinct is wiser than human reason; even as 
I write the cable brings the tidings that the justice before 
whom the trial of Slade is conducted, has decided that on the 
accused rests the burden of proving in court that his trickery 
is wrought through the aid of supernatural beings. This view 
of the justice is not the correct one, according to the ideal 
presented in this paper, but it is probably the longest step 
ever made in the direction of that ideal, for it implies an 
abandonment of the custom of settling these questions by the 
testimony of the dupes of the deceivers. If the testimony of 
scores of honest persons, including some of the ablest scien- 
tific minds in the world—who believe that Slade is aided by 
supernatural powers, in other words, is a doer of miracles— 
should be allowed to have great weight in his favor, as in 
this country it certainly would, he must surely be acquitted at 
once; for it is not yet fully recognized that only experts are 
(Competent to deal with these subjects, and it is not generally 
known that seances of this kind are the best of all exciting 
causes of trance; so powerful indeed that only rare and peculi- 
arly organized minds can at first resist them, and that only 
after long and special study of the phenomena of the nervous 
system in health and disease, can any one even begin the in- 
vestigation of this department of science. It is one symptom 
of trance that one does not usually know that he is entranced, 
and will swear that he is in his right mind, as the intoxicated 
man will swear that he is sober. 42 
Beard—A Nevj Theory of Trance. 
Just now, in the present infancy of this subject, it would be 
difficult to try these cases in court by expert testimony, for 
competent experts are very rarely found. In England, Dr. 
Carpenter, who has labored so hard, and, in some respects, so 
successfully in this department of science, is yet so far out of 
the way as to concede the possibility of thought-reading; and 
admits that he could not see through the very cheap and coarse 
and transparent trickery of Slade, which any man can do who 
has two hands, two feet, a limited audience of scientific non- 
experts, and a conscience sufficiently seared. 
All the sciences of the world have passed through the stage 
in which the subject under discussion is now passing. We 
smile when a committee of editors, lawyers and clergymen are 
extemporaneously appointed to decide in public whether en- 
tranced mediums have or have not divine powers granted them 
in their trance state; but the time has been when the great, 
questions of astronomy, of chemistry, of physics, and of medi- 
cine were settled, or supposed to be settled, in very much the 
same way. Sciences in their infancy are like our distant 
Western territories, where every one who chooses can squat 
down and stake out a claim. * 
Observe that no new principles of evidence are introduced 
for application to this special subject. The first step in the 
development of all the sciences has always been the rejection 
of average human testimony. If we accept what people say, 
there can be no scientific knowledge of any kind. Non-expert 
human testimony is worth nearly as much on this subject as- 
it is on any other branch of science; it is of little value any- 
where, and intuitively and unconsciously all authorities on 
science reject it without examination, although they have not 
heretofore formulated this custom into a principle; for here, 
as in many other things, the intuition and unconscious reason- 
ing has outstripped and been far in advance of our conscious 
reasoning. We have professed in theory, in books of logic 
and of law, that the senses are trustworthy, and that the con- 
current testimony of large numbers of honest witnesses must 
be accepted as truth. In practice we have oftentimes cut 
*The early history of Electro-physics in the last century excellently 
illustrates this fact. Bkard—A New Theory of Trance. 
43 
away from these false dogmas. Already we are slowly recog- 
nizing through our intuitions, and must in time recognize 
through the reason, that all science is and must be the product 
of expert skill, and that the first qualification of a witness in 
in court, or out of court is not honesty, but competence to 
judge of the special matter in hand. 
In proportion as a science becomes developed into, and 
recognized as a specialty, through labors of experts in that 
branch, it is resigned to those experts, and outsiders do not 
presume to interfere. Illustrations by contrast are right at 
our very doors. The recent search for the suspected planet 
Vulcan was, by universal consent, resigned to astronomers, 
and no one thought of referring the question to committees of 
eminent and upright judges, or poets, or physicians; for it 
was assumed that in an investigation of that kind honesty, as 
such, counted for nothing; and that ability, even the highest 
scientific genius in other departments than astronomy, counted 
for nothing, llut when Prof. Huxley, who is one of the 
few authorities of the world on biology, gave a series of lectures 
on evolution,which only a trained anatomist and geologist could 
begin to appreciate, not to say criticise, forthwith, the 
air is darkened with replies, and criticisms, and suggestions 
that almost any editor, or teacher, or professor, or clergyman 
feels competent to offer, with no suspicion of any special 
absurdity in such procedures. Why this contrast in the treat- 
ment which these two departments, astronomy and biology, re- 
ceive? Partly because astronomy is an older science, has sur- 
vived the attacks made upon it by theology, while biology is 
as yet hardly out of the territorial stage, where everybody has 
claims upon it, experts not having yet made it their exclusive 
property.* 
* It may be alleged that Prof. Huxley took pains to formally attack an 
account of creation that belonged to a religion, and that in defense of 
their own belief, and from their own point of view, theologians, at least, 
were compelled to reply. Even allowing this privilege to theologians, it 
cannot be allowed to editors or critics in general; but the majority of 
theologians, it was observed, did not restrict themselves to the defense of 
the Mosaic account of creation, from the theological or philological 
stand point, but brought positive criticism to bear either for or against 
Prof. Huxley on his own ground in paleontology, and thus by their rela- 44 
Beaki)—A New Theory of Trance. 
The subject we are discussing is now in this state. Every 
eminent naturalist, or lawyer, or chemist feels that he can oc- 
cupy it if he wishes, and that the world must respect his 
claims. They forget that the greatest blunders in history have 
been made by men eminent in special departments stepping- 
outside of those departments, and that in all directions the 
truth of the aphorism of the famous magician Houdin,: “It is 
easier to dupe a clever man than a fool,” is confirmed l>y all 
who successfully study these themes. The maxim for modern 
research should be, out of the mouth of two or three experts 
every word shall be established; and if they err, as they may, 
their conclusions are to be revised, not by the laity, but by 
other and better experts. 
The very stupendousness of the claim here made, I may 
say in closing, may be a bar against its ready accep- 
tions to this special subject, laid themselves open to the charge of being 
squatters in science. It is a wise rule for scientific men, in public dis- 
cussions, to religiously avoid religion; and for the simple reason that the 
theological explanations of natural phenomena, all, or almost all, belong 
to the pre-exploratory stages of science, and only by coincidence can he 
expected to agree with the deductions of scientific experts, and therefore 
do not require either rejection or confirmation. The religious idea of cre- 
ation has never been adopted as an hypothesis by scientific men, since 
biology and geology have been in what I here call the territorial stage; it 
belongs, rather, to the pre-exploratory stage, and being, not a matter of 
science, but rather of faith, it is not for biologists and geologists to argue 
for or against it. 
The supernatural theory of trance, which has been more generally 
adopted than any other, I do not here attempt to elaborately disprove, for 
the same reason, that it belongs to the pre-exploratory stage of this branch 
of cerebro-physiology; and, unlike the animal magnetism theory, has 
never been adopted or seriously considered by the scientific men who have 
given their attention to this subject since it has been in the territorial 
stage. 
If scientific men are persuaded that the beliefs of men are delusions, 
the better way to destroy them is b}r independently building up positive 
truths, which, if they are needed, and the world is ready for them, will be 
gradually accepted, and correspondingly the delusions must disappear. 
The antidote for darkness is light; as the day dawns night retreats. 
Those who understand and accept the theory of trance here unfolded, will 
dismiss forever the supernatural explanation of the phenomena, just as 
those who understand and accept the theories of astronomy, dismiss forever 
from their minds all supernatural associations connected with comets and 
meteors. Bkakd—A New Theory of Trance. 
45 
tance; but this objection is counter-balanced, in part at least, by 
the fact that by acting on these suggestions, it is possible for 
those who have adequate physiological knowledge and mental 
discipline, to study this whole subject for themselves, so that 
it shall not be necessary for them to depend on the dogmatic 
statements of any one. 
Among a certain ancient people, it was the custom for any 
one proposing a new law to stand with a baiter around his 
neck, so that if his proposition were displeasing to the people, 
they might hang him on the spot. If this custom were in 
force to-day, it is probable that the least possible mercy would 
lie shown to the author of this paper; for it is not in harmony 
with the laws of human nature that views like these, that have 
only truth on their side, and all the world’s past belief against 
them, shall find instant and secure lodgment. It therefore be- 
comes necessary to appeal from the present to the not very far 
distant future, when a limited number of competent men shall 
have made themselves masters of and authorities in this branch 
of cerebro-physiology and pathology, and shall have learned, as- 
they surely must, that it lies within the grasp of the properly 
trained and properly furnished intellect, that its problems are 
no longer unsolvable; that, in short, whatever mysteries have 
gathered around it in the past, exist no longer, but can be 
explained, and are explained in full detail, and that they can 
explain them. 
As this rich and fertile held becomes occupied by those 
who alone are able to cultivate it, amateurs and laymen, and 
what I here call the squatters of science, will gradually retire, 
and the grotesque spectacle, but a few weeks ago presented at 
the British Association for the advancement of science, of a 
man reading, or attempting to read a paper on the phenomena 
of trance, not only without any knowledge of the subject, but 
without any conception of the means by which knowledge of 
this subject is to be acquired, or of the principles of evidence 
that apply to the acquisition of physiological science in general, 
will be remembered and cited only as a melancholy warning.* 
*The above criticism applies as much to the critics of Prof. Barrett as 
to that gentleman himself; for in all that was said in the discussion that 
immediately followed the reading of his paper, and by the English press Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
The delusions darkness connected with this subject 
has sheltered, will die,are dying already; they would die even 
if they could not be scientifically explained, for witchcraft has 
been dead a hundred years, although to this moment its 
phenomena, though fully understood, have never yet been pub- 
licly and in detail elucidated. But as the delusions disappear, 
the facts of trance and of the involuntary life, which together 
constitute the real scientific substratum of delusions, will pro- 
portionately rise in dignity and in interest. 
When the Egyptian architect, as you remember, erected by 
the royal command, a light-house on the shore of the Mediter- 
ranean, he placed, as he was directed to do, the name of the 
reigning king conspicuously on the top, but in perishable 
plaster, which soon crumbled and fell; and beneath, on the 
enduring marble, the future saw the name of the architect 
himself. So the delusions of which we have been speaking, 
which have attracted so much of the world’s wonder, will dis- 
appear; but in their place, and out of the phenomena that 
gave them support will be recognized a positive addition to 
human knowledge, which, in time, must take its place side by 
side with other sciences, and become the common and perma- 
nent possession of mankind. 
subsequently, the real fallacy in the procedure was, so far as I can learn, 
never suggested. The study of trance, which was practically the subject 
of Prof. Barrett’s paper, is well worthy of the attention of the British 
Association; but only acknowledged authorities in cerebral physiology 
and pathology are competent to prepare, or should be suffered to read 
essays on that subject before any body that calls itself scientific. 
Another evidence that this subject is yet far from the organized stage, is 
that when Mr. Crookes began his investigations in so-called spiritualism, 
the press urged him on, as though an eminent chemist and physicist were 
competent to deal with the mooted questions in physiology; and to com- 
plete the absurdity, his reports of what he thought he saw were formally 
replied to by other chemists and physicists, on the doubly erroneous as- 
sumption that his experiments were rightly reported, and that any 
one outside of experts in that branch of physiology was competent to 
rightly estimate and reply to them. What Mr. Crookes and his associates 
did, or tried to do, with the medium, Home, will, in this world, never be 
known. Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences, but the number of those 
in the world who are capable of reporting correctly and authoritatively 
in regard to any alleged new discoveries in that branch, is very limited; 
and in the department under consideration, to which we are but just Beard—A New Theory of Trance. 
47 
beginning to give serious and successful attention, it may be doubted 
whether there can be found in Europe and in America combined, a dozen 
individuals sufficiently expert to report with any approximation to accu- 
racy, what transpires in experiments of this kind. 
Mr.Crookes is certainly one of the most ingenious and careful of exper- 
imentalists in chemistry and physics, and fully deserves his great and in- 
creasing fame; but his experiments in chemistry and physics, even those 
that are original and refined, are simple matters in comparison with 
physiological experiments with living human beings. Assuming for the 
moment the substantial correctness of Mr. Crookes’ report of some of the 
superficial facts relating to wliat was done in the presence of himself and 
Mr. Huggins, it is clear that of the six sources of error that enter into all 
experiments of this kind, and all of which must be absolutely guarded 
against if the experiments are to have any scientific value, not one was 
even thought of. For a physicist, or even for a physiologist to try to ex- 
plain such reports of such experiments, is to be guilty of a blunder but 
one degree below that of the non-experts who originally made the experi- 
ments; is, indeed, to beg the whole question at issue. The position of 
Mr. Crookes and of Mr. Wallace, and Sergeant Cox, in relation to this mat- 
ter, is not at all peculiar or unprecedented; the stream of superstition 
through all the civilized ages, is lined, on either side, with the battered 
reputations of great and good men. 
A scientific gentleman of distinction once remarked to me, that he could 
only explain the statements of Mr. Crookes on the hypothesis of positive 
dishonesty. This hypothesis is at once unjust, unnecessary, and unscien- 
tific; for in science everywhere, simple non-expertness makes more 
blunders than the most atrocious dishonesty. A friend of mine, a physi- 
cian of unusual ability and acquisition, whose conversation is always of 
great value to me—an observer of far more than average acuteness and 
originality—is unable to attend any performances where strange or super- 
natural events are claimed or expected, although a skeptic in such mat- 
ters, without at once becoming entranced; and the accounts he gives of 
what he thinks he sees and hears in such places, are as amusing to him- 
self as td others. It cannot be too often repeated, line upon line, and 
precept upon precept, that in science the prime requisite is not honesty, 
nor general ability, nor skepticism, nor genius even in other departments, 
but expert skill; that being absent, all else is as sounding brass and a 
tinkling cymbal.