al to
fact, therefore, that this question can be settled one way or the other.
The difficulty has been that, until now, no direct method has been
devised capable of solving the problem. This has now been rendered
possible for the first time, by means of the instrument described in
this chapter. The experiments herein narrated settle, to my mind, the
question of the nature of the human will; they prove it to be a definite
physical energy--as much so as any other energy we know. The majority of
these facts have been before the scientific world for some time; and why
their philosophic interpretation and implications have not been seen is
to me a great mystery. One can only account for it by assuming that most
scientists are not at the same time philosophers; they do not see the
full _meaning_ of the facts they observe. Only in this manner can one
account for the apathy with which the scientific world has, so far,
accepted the facts in question--why it has utterly failed to see their
tremendous philosophic and even religious value and significance.

My attention was first drawn to the instrument in question by Professor
Th. Flournoy, of Geneva, the author of _From India to the Planet Mars_,
_Spiritism and Psychology_, and other works, well known to English
readers. Immediately I learned of the experiments in question, I wrote
to Professor Alrutz, and obtained from him one of his instruments, by
means of which the experiments described below were performed. Writing
of the early results obtained by him, Professor Alrutz says ("Report to
the Sixth Congress of Psychology," etc.):

"In spite of the knowledge we have gained of the electrical and
chemical phenomena of the central nervous system, we must confess
that we know little indeed of the inner nature of the
psycho-physical processes. What is happening in the
brain--especially in the psycho-motor centres--when we move an arm
by means of an act of will? What are the forms of nervous energy
which are employed? Are these entirely electrical and chemical
forces, the neural impulses being mere electrical currents? Or are
there other forms of energy which experimental physiology has not
as yet brought to light? Might there not be, perhaps, some form of
energy more closely allied to the psychic acts, constituting a sort
of bridge or transition between psychic phenomena, on the one
hand, and electrical and chemical ph