s. An instance of this
kind is furnished by the celebrated "Gyb Ghosts," or ghosts of the
gibbet, described in _More Glimpses of the World Unseen_, p. 109, as
being repeatedly seen in the form of herds of mis-shapen swine-like
creatures, rushing, rooting and fighting night after night on the site
of that foul monument of crime. But these belong to the subject of
apparitions rather than to that of clairvoyance.

CHAPTER IX.

METHODS OF DEVELOPMENT.

When a man becomes convinced of the reality of the valuable power of
clairvoyance, his first question usually is, "How can I develop in my
own case this faculty which is said to be latent in everyone?"

Now the fact is that there are many methods by which it may be
developed, but only one which can be at all safely recommended for
general use--that of which we shall speak last of all. Among the less
advanced nations of the world the clairvoyant state has been produced
in various objectionable ways; among some of the non-Aryan tribes of
India, by the use of intoxicating drugs or the inhaling of stupefying
fumes; among the dervishes, by whirling in a mad dance of religious
fervour until vertigo and insensibility supervene; among the followers
of the abominable practices of the Voodoo cult, by frightful
sacrifices and loathsome rites of black magic. Methods such as these
are happily not in vogue in our own race, yet even among us large
numbers of dabblers in this ancient art adopt some plan of
self-hypnotization, such as the gazing at a bright spot or the
repetition of some formula until a condition of semi-stupefaction is
produced; while yet another school among them would endeavour to
arrive at similar results by the use of some of the Indian systems of
regulation of the breath.

All these methods are unequivocally to be condemned as quite unsafe
for the practice of the ordinary man who has no idea of what he is
doing--who is simply making vague experiments in an unknown world.
Even the method of obtaining clairvoyance by allowing oneself to be
mesmerized by another person is one from which I should myself shrink
with the most decided distaste; and assuredly it should never be
attempted except under conditions of absolute trust and affection
between the magnetizer and the magnetized, and a perfection of purity
in heart and soul, in mind and intention, such as is rarely to be seen
among any but the greatest of saints.

Experiments in connection with the mesmeric