In the glossary of the Society for
Psychical Research, the term is defined as: "The faculty or act of
perceiving, as though visually, with some coincidental truth, some distant
scene; it is used sometimes, but hardly properly, for transcendental
vision, or the perception of beings regarded as on another plane of
existence."
Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, a distinguished writer on the subject of psychic
phenomena, in one of her reports to the Society for Psychical Research,
says: "The word clairvoyant is often used very loosely and with widely
different meanings. I denote by it a faculty of acquiring supernormally,
but not by reading the minds of persons present, a knowledge of facts such
as we normally acquire by the use of our senses. I do not limit it to
knowledge that would normally be acquired by the sense of sight, nor do I
limit it to a knowledge of present facts. A similar knowledge of the past,
and if necessary, of future facts may be included. On the other hand, I
exclude the mere faculty of seeing apparitions or visions, which is
sometimes called clairvoyance."
The above definitive explanation of the term clairvoyance agrees with the
idea of the best authorities, and distinguishes between the phenomena of
clairvoyance and that of telepathy, on the one hand; and between the
former and that of seeing apparitions, on the other hand.
Pages:
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116