Community of taste can be demonstrated under hypnosis. It is not otherwise usually active in sensitives, and Swedenborg was hence of opinion that the sense of taste could not be obsessed. This, however, is incorrect. I have illustrated community of all the senses under hypnosis in circumstances which entirely precluded the possibility of feint or imposition on the part of the subject.
Another phase of psychic activity is that illustrated in "dowsing" or water-finding by means of the hazel fork. It may be accounted a form of hyperaesthesia and no doubt has a nervous expression, but it is not the less psychic in its origin. I have already referred to the action of water upon psychic sensitives, and there seems little room for doubt that it is the psychometric sense which, by means of the self-extensive faculty inhering in consciousness, registers the presence of the great diamagnetic agent. Professor Barrett has written a most interesting monograph on this subject, and there are many books extant which make reference to and give examples of this curious phenomenon. The late British Consul at Trieste and famous explorer and linguist, Sir Richard Burton, could detect the presence of a cat at a considerable distance, and I have heard that Lord Roberts experiences the same paralyzing influence by the proximity of the harmless feline. If, therefore, one can register the presence of a cat, and another that of a dead body, I see no difficulty in others registering water or any other antipathetic. All we have to remember is that these things are psychic in their origin, and not ignorantly confound sensation with consciousness, or hyperaesthesia with the various psychopathic faculties we have been discussing. But it is necessary to return to our main subject and consider where our developed clairvoyant or second-sight faculty will lead us, and what sort of experience we may expect to gain by its use. These points may now be dealt with.
First let us have the facts, we can then best see what use we can make of them. This I think is the correct position in regard to any abnormal claim that is made upon our attention. Everybody has heard of the prophecies of the Brahmin seer, most people have some acquaintance with the phenomena attending the clairvoyance of the seeress of Prevorst, while the experiences of Emanuel Swedenborg have been set forth in many biographies, but in none more lucidly and dispassionately than that by William White. Traditions have come to us concerning the clairvoyance of the Greek exponent of the Pythagorean teachings, Apollonius of Tyana, and the case of Cavotte, who predicted his own death and that of Robespierre and others by the guillotine, is on record. The illumination of Andrew Jackson Davis, the Poughkeepsie seer, and that of Thomas Lake Harris of Fountain Grove, are modern examples of abnormal faculty of a nature which places them outside the field of direct evidence. A prophecy made from the use of the super-sense which is followed by exact fulfilment appears to be the best criterion, though it is a very imperfect illustration of the scope of clairvoyance.