Abstract
IN the fourth Frederic W. H. Myers Memorial Lecture, which was given by Mr. Whately Carington on October 30, 1935, and is now published by the Society for Psychical Research, the speaker stressed the importance of language in any serious consideration of the problem of ‘personal survival’ after bodily death. He pointed out that one of the great difficulties of the subject lies in the incorrect use of terms, which, although they might mean something in connexion withmatters for which they are intended, yet might be quite meaningless when applied outside their legitimate limits. Thusit is possible, and indeed probable, that many of the questions propounded might be really quite meaningless; and therefore it is unlikely that any sensible answers can be found for them. It was here that Mr. Carington urged the more extensive use of a mathematical type of language in which the symbols employed do not suggest any relationships other than those deliberately assigned to them. In conclusion, Mr.Carington briefly referred to his recent studies of trance personalities, where, through statistical methods, a clearer understanding is being achieved and light is being thrownon the problem as to how these secondary or multiple personalities differ or not from other communicating personalities, which operate through the so-called mediumistic trance.
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The Meaning of Survival. Nature 137, 696–697 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137696d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137696d0