t proceed step by
step, perfecting yourself at each step before proceeding to the next.

LESSON VI.

CLAIRVOYANT PSYCHOMETRY.

The word "clairvoyance" means "clear seeing." In its present usage it
covers a wide field of psychic phenomena; and is used by different writers
to designate phases of psychic phenomena differing widely from each other.
The student is apt to become confused when he meets these apparently
conflicting definitions and usages. 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. I, personally,
accept this distinction as both scientific in form, and as agreeing with
the facts of the case. You will, of course, see that the acceptance of the
existence of the astral senses throws light on many obscure points about
which the psychic researchers are in doubt, and reconciles many apparently
opposing facts.

All scientific authorities, as well as the best occultists, divide the
phenomena of clairvoyance into several well-distinguished classes. The
following classification is simple, and indicates clearly the principal
forms of clairvoyant phenomena:

(1) Simple Clairvoyance, in which the clairvoyant person merely se