«we learn in great detail what the ostensible communicators (purporting to be the surviving spirits of Myers and of Gurney) told, first to Lodge and later to Balfour, through Mrs. Willett’s automatic script or trance-speech, about the use which they claimed to be deliberately making of her, of the methods which they employed, and of the difficulties which they encountered in attempting various kinds of communication through her.» — Broad resume lo que el trabajo de Gerald Balfour contiene, que es la materia de este libro: lo que los comunicadores ostensibles dijeron del uso que declaraban hacer de la médium, de sus métodos y de las dificultades que hallaban para comunicar por ella.
Investigación psíquica (psychical research)
What does this tradition say about experience, knowledge and transformation? We approach these questions with consciousness as our centre, listening to the language of each source.
Gonzalo Olivares Velázquez · Spiritus Mundi
1 · Listen to the sources
How these passages were chosen: from the works assigned to this tradition, in alphabetical order, the first passage of each whose quoted words name consciousness, awareness, soul, spirit or knowledge (in English or Spanish); one per work, up to four. The choice is by vocabulary only: a passage may agree with our reading, disagree with it, or leave the question open.
«I set out in search of Beauty, and in the end I proved, at least to my own satisfaction, that I possessed an immortal soul» — cómo enuncia lo que dice haber alcanzado, acotado a su propia satisfacción
«It is divided into three parts. In the first part some idea of the kind of life lived and the spirit shown by any number of youths, fully engaged in civil occupations, who joined for service when war broke out and went to the Front, is illustrated by extracts from his letters. The object of this portion is to engender a friendly feeling towards the writer of the letters, so that whatever more has to be said in the sequel may not have the inevitable dulness of details concerning an entire stranger. This is the sole object of this portion.» — Lodge fija el plan del volumen y el oficio de la primera parte: las cartas del frente no van como evidencia sino para que el lector tome afecto al muchacho y no lea lo que sigue como pormenores de un desconocido; dice que ese es su único objeto
«THE book which is now at last given to the world is but a partial presentation of an ever-growing subject which I have long hoped to become able to treat in more adequate fashion. But as knowledge increases life rolls by, and I have thought it well to bring out while I can even this most imperfect text-book to a branch of research whose novelty and strangeness call urgently for some provisional systematisation, which, by suggesting fresh inquiries and producing further accumulation of evidence, may tend as speedily as possible to its own supersession.» — abre el prefacio acotando lo que ofrece: presentación parcial de un asunto que crece, manual imperfecto de una rama de investigación cuya novedad pide una sistematización provisional destinada, dice, a ser superada por ella misma
2 · Ask what each source declares
Who knows, and what is transformed? Is the relationship between inner experience and the world declared, disputed, or left open? Let the passage determine the answer before bringing it into dialogue with our reading.
Explore documented argument maps →3 · Return to the centre
For us, these paths meet in consciousness. Which passage converses with that reading, and which qualifies or contradicts it? Save it with your own note.
Read the position of the house →Open your notebook →