Abstract
THERE cannot be much doubt that Sir Oliver Lodge (NATURE, October 30, 1926, p. 623) wishes to compare the attitude of an hypothetical race of “secluded, but intelligent aborigines,” towards rumours of X-rays, telephones, radio telegraphy, and the existence of a hitherto unsuspected race of white men—with that of present-day opponents of what is called ‘spiritualism’. This comparison, in my opinion, is unsound. In the first place, it would be possible for any one of the aborigines mentioned to insist that the believers in X-rays, and other things of a like nature, conduct him to the part of the world where these phenomena were alleged to be produced, in order that he might examine them. Further, upon arrival, he would be met by actual individuals of the race of white men, as to whose existence he had harboured doubt, and these people, of flesh and blood like himself, would proceed to show him the phenomena in actual operation, and, I take it, explain to him, in a perfectly rational and detailed manner, how they were brought about. Such a demonstration, which could be repeated, under ideal conditions for seeing and understanding, as many times as the aborigine wished, would, without question, convince him that the rumours he had heard in his own country were based upon fact, as it would any other reasonable person.
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MOIR, J. Science and Psychical Research. Nature 118, 694 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118694a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118694a0
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