People who make serious study of the paranormal tend to be well aware of certain classic volumes of parapsychology, such as the often-mentioned works below:
Conversely, the 576-page work Man and His Relations by Samuel Byron Brittan MD is almost never cited, although it seems to be in the same class as most of the often-mentioned books above. Maybe the work failed to get the attention it deserved because it lacked an intriguing memorable title such as The Night Side of Nature or Death and Its Mystery. It sure didn't help that the book's full title was the way-too-long and boring-sounding title "Man and his relations : illustrating the influence of the mind on the body : the relations of the faculties to the organs, and to the elements, objects and phenomena of the external world." From that dull-sounding title, you would never guess that the chapters are rich with fascinating material. Let's take a took at some of the book's very interesting contents, which discuss very many topics in psychology and parapsychology.
Samuel Byron Brittan MD
After dozens of pages of well-written but not-very-interesting prose, we have on page 67 the first very interesting account of the book:
"Mr. Charles Lawrence, with whom the writer was for several years on familiar terms, possessed a remarkable voluntary power over sensation and vital motion. He could so paralyze the censor nerves that his skin might be punctured without causing pain, and a violent blow did not occasion the least suffering. By the power of his volition he could immediately accelerate the pulsation in a surprising degree ; and he could also entirely suspend the heart’s action in three minutes ! These effects were repeatedly produced in the presence of the writer, before public asssemblies, and to the satisfaction of several committees composed of members of the medical profession."
The author mentions Eastern holy men with similar abilities, and modern reports corroborate such claims. In 2021 the Daily Mail reported the following:
"Russian scientists are actively studying Tibetan monks in the hopes of garnering tips for astronauts on future long-distance space missions. Experts from Moscow State University are examining ancient techniques for putting the human body into a 'semi-lethargic state' - 'suspended animation', before returning to normal weeks later."
A similar anomaly involves mysterious cases of Buddhist monks whose bodies seem to not decay for a very long time after death. At the mainstream materialist site www.bigthink.com, we read this: "After the apparent death of some monks, their bodies remain in a meditating position without decaying for an extraordinary length of time, often as long as two or three weeks."
Most of the first two hundred pages of the book aren't very interesting. On page 197 there begins a discussion of psychometry. We read on page 202 this remarkable claim: "The capacity of certain impressible persons to perceive, by an exquisite power of cognition, or semi-spiritual sensation, the general and particular characteristics of distant and unknown persons, by merely holding their autographs in the hand, or against the forehead, has been demonstrated to the satisfaction of numerous experimental observers." On page 204 we read this similar claim, mentioning the "animal magnetism" experiments that are now called hypnotism: "The early experimenters in Animal Magnetism did not fail to observe that persons of acute sensibility were enabled to establish a sympathetic rapport with others at a distance, by holding a lock of hair, an article of clothing, or a finger-ring which the absent party had worn ; or, indeed, by taking in the hand any small article of personal property that had been in contact with the body."
The claims may seem outrageous, but it matches what was reported at great length by a nineteenth century physician (Joseph R. Buchanan) and also an early twentieth century investigator (Osty), as reported here. Even in recent decades similar things may be reported, as we read below:
"In 1991, when her daughter’s rare, hand-carved harp was stolen, Lisby Mayer’s familiar world of science and rational thinking turned upside down. After the police failed to turn up any leads, a friend suggested she call a dowser—a man who specialized in finding lost objects. With nothing to lose—and almost as a joke—Dr. Mayer agreed. Within two days, and without leaving his Arkansas home, the dowser located the exact California street coordinates where the harp was found."
This was before the Internet was widely available. The account above matches what Brittan states on pages 204-205:
"Crimes and criminals were occasionally discovered in this way. The smallest fragment of a cravat, worn by a thief, would hold him fast ; a shirt was a better means of detection than a sheriff ; and an old shoe would suffice to put the sensitive explorer on the track of those who were either concealed, absent or lost. When the search resulted in finding the object, not only physical conditions and specific localities could be described, and pointed out, but the memory became an open book, that could be read in the darkness of midnight ; the unspoken thoughts of men were mysteriously revealed ; and the most secret purposes were disclosed before time had afforded an opportunity for their actual accomplishment."
On page 207 Brittan gives us some very specific examples to back up such claims. Referring to Semantha Mettler, whose first decades are documented in the biography here, Brittan states the following:
"While Mrs. Mettler was holding a sealed letter from Dr. Buchanan — who was at that time editing the Journal of Man — she declared that the chief study of the writer was ‘Man, in his whole nature.' When an envelope enclosing some [poetry] stanzas written by a convict, was placed in her hand, she observed, that the author had a double character — the sphere was unpleasant, but that the person could 'write poetry tolerably well.' A letter written by Kossuth, immediately after the delivery of a powerful speech in St. Louis, caused her to gesticulate as if she were addressing a multitude, and this was folloved by a feeling of extreme exhaustion. The letter of an insane man, who had killed his own child, occasioned sympathetic delirium and convulsions. Some irregular pencil lines and scratches, traced by the hand of an infant child gave no impression. A very delicate picture on silk — painted by Miss Thomas, of Edwardsburg, Mich., and presented to the writer — was handed to Mrs. M., under the cover of a sealed envelope, whereupon she affirmed that the author of the contents of the envelope had painted her idea, instead of expressing it in words."
On page 252 we read of the astonishing success that Dr. James Esdaile had in India in performing dramatic surgeries in patients who were given no anesthesia but had only been hypnotized to a state of deep trance:
"He found the natives of Bengal extremely impressible, and a few trials, by himself or his assistants, generally subdued their natural powers of resistance, leaving them in a state of profound coma, and insensible of pain. In the short period of eight months he performed, at Hoogly, no less than seventy-three painless operations in surgery, embracing among others the dissection and amputation of different members of the body, operations for scrotocele and hydrocele, removal of scrotal and other tumors, actual and potential cauteries, etc., etc. In these operations the subjects were entirely deprived of physical sensation ; with rare exceptions, they were altogether unconscious, and often expressed the greatest surprise on learning what had been done to them during the interval of oblivious repose."
On pages 286-287 Brittan discusses successful ESP experiments he did with various subjects. In one a subject was able to instantly identify flowers shown on a dozen or more cards Brittan was looking at but the subject could not see. In another a subject was able to identify tastes Brittan was experiencing.
On page 287 he describes astonishing success doing experiments with a Mrs. Rice, one involving a "traveling clairvoyance" very widely reported in nineteenth century literature:
"Mrs. Rice, of Worcester, Mass., was distinguished for a most delicate susceptibility of mental impressions. Having been invited to visit her one afternoon — at her residence, and in company with several friends — I seated myself at her side, at the same time requesting her to take an excursion, and to describe whatever she might observe by the way. Without giving the slightest intimation respecting the direction we were to travel, I proceeded on an ideal [mental] journey, by railroad and steamboat, to New York. Madam Rice described with singular fidelity all the important objects on the route of which the writer could form a distinct conception— spoke of persons whom she met by the way, and repeated the very words they were by me supposed to utter. On the same occasion, I imagined a letter to be placed before her, when she suddenly exclaimed, “ Here is a letter from Mr. -----' mentioning the name of an absent friend of whom I was thinking at that moment ; and going through with the appropriate motions, as if she were really breaking a seal and unfolding the sheet, she commenced and read verbatim, from my mind, for several minutes. These were the first and only experiments made with Mrs. Rice."
On page 288 Brittan describes a telepathy experiment with a Mrs. Mills of Albany:
"This gentleman having expressed a desire to witness the experiment, it was agreed that I should cause the lady to leave her place at the opposite side of the room, and occupy a vacant chair by his side. In less than one minute she obeyed the silent action of my will and seated herself in the unoccupied chair. In like manner she was impelled to change her position several times, and finally to leave the room temporarily, with no specific object in view, and without so much as suspecting the origin of an impulse she was quite unable to resist."
Later we read of a similar ESP experiment:
"Miss. A. promptly obeyed the silent mandate of my mind, and going to the center-table, selected a particular book, that had been singled out from among a number of others equally conspicuous. Some one required that she might be incited to take up another book, of five hundred pages, and turn to a short poem — somewhere about the middle of the volume — which was accordingly done without the least hesitation. Again, by a similar effort, this lady was influenced to make choice of a particular engraving, from amongst a number contained in an annual."
On page 290 Brittan reports a dramatic case of ESP in which a distant person was apparently telepathically summoned: "On one occasion, while spending a few days at Waterbury, Conn., I found it necessary to see a young man in the village. The immediate presence of the youth was of considerable importance to me, but not knowing his residence, place of business, or even his name, I could not send for him. In this emergency, I undertook to [mentally] telegraph him, by concentrating my mind on the young man, with a fixed determination to bring him to me. Some ten minutes had elapsed when he came to the house and inquired for the writer. Meeting a gentleman at the door, he asked, with much apparent interest, whether 1 wanted to see him. On being interrogated by this individual, he stated that a few moments before, and while actively engaged in his workshop — distant one fourth of a mile — he suddenly felt that he must seek my presence without delay."
On page 335 we have this account of information apparently acquired in a dream:
"Some years since the Highland Eagle of Westchester County, New York, published the fact that Mr. Dykeman, Deputy Sheriff of Putnam County, had made a singular discovery in a dream. It was stated that George F. Sherman, of Cold Spring, had lost his pocket-book, containing three hundred and seventy-two dollars. On the night following the Deputy Sheriff dreamed that a clerk by the name of McNary had the money. Unable to resist the suspicion excited in his mind, Mr. Dykeman arrested McNary, who thereupon made a confession, and restored over three hundred dollars of the money, which he had concealed in places indicated in the dream."
On page 362 we have some fascinating accounts of people who performed very complex tasks while sleepwalking:
"Dr. Gall gives an account of a miller who was in the habit of rising every night and running his mill. Mertinet mentions the case of a saddler who worked at his trade when sleeping; and Dr. Prichard that of a farmer who got out of bed, dressed himself, saddled his horse, and rode to market while asleep. Professor Soave reports the case of an Apothecary’s clerk who not only walked while asleep, but would kindle his fire ; pursue his studies, examining authorities, classify botanical specimens ; engage in animated controversies — with his employer or Professor Soave — on Chemistry and other scientific themes ; and, indeed, perform any duty or service that he was accustomed to do in his waking hours. He would carefully compound medicines, according to the prescriptions that were before him, but conscientiously declined filling false prescriptions, or such as would be likely to injure the patient. Mrs. Newton, a relative of the writer, was a skillful seamstress and was accustomed to the unconscious use of her needle for hours at night, when there was no light in her room. A friend, who was an accomplished horseman, often rode many miles while he was in a profound slumber ; and it is a still more remarkable fact — but well authenticated — that in the disastrous retreat of Sir John Moore, before the battle of Corunna, many of the soldiers fell asleep, yet continued to march with their comrades."
On page 389 we hear this account of the legendary scientist and clairvoyant Immanuel Swedenborg:
"It is alleged by M. Dieudonne Thiebault, Professor of Belles Letters in the Royal Academy of Berlin, that the Count de Montville, Ambassador from Holland to Stockholm, having died suddenly, a shopkeeper demanded of his widow the payment of a bill, which she remembered had been paid in her husband’s lifetime. Not being able to find the shopkeeper’s receipt, she was induced to consult the distinguished Seer, though she did so less from credulity than curiosity. Swedenborg informed her that her deceased husband had taken the shopkeeper’s receipt on a certain day (also naming the hour), while he was reading such an article in Bayle’s Dictionary, in his cabinet ; and that his attention being called immediately to some other concern, he put the receipt into the book to mark the place at which he left off ; where, in fact, it was found at the page described!"
The next page tells another account about Swedenborg that was well authenticated:
"When Swedenborg was in Gottenburg, three hundred miles from Stockholm, he announced the occurrence of a great fire in his native city, giving the facts respecting the time, place, and circumstances of its origin, and accurately describing its progress and termination. It was on Saturday night that this conflagration was described as occurring at that time. The Seer repeated the substance of his statement to the Governor on Sunday morning. This was substantially confirmed by a dispatch, received from Gottenburg on Monday evening, and on Tuesday morning the arrival of the royal courier furnished an unqualified attestation of the truth of all the particulars of the clairvoyant revelation. These facts rest on no doubtful authority. Their authenticity is sanctioned by Kant, the great German metaphysician, in whose judgment— to use his own words — they 'set the assertion of the extraordinary gift of Swedenborg out of all possibility of doubt.' "
Kant's original account of the incident above can be read here.
The book gives many other accounts of clairvoyance, including the well-documented case of Alexis Didier, which I won't repeat since I already described it here. We then read of a case I had not previously heard of:
"Mrs. Semantha Mettler, of Hartford, Conn., has long exercised her clairvoyant powers in discovering the immediate and remote causes of disease, its organic relations — noting, at any distance, its essential character and its phenomenal aspects - and in selecting from the great pharmacopeia of Nature the appropriate remedies for her patients. During a period of fifteen years she has been constantly before the public, in a professional capacity, and her diagnoses — made in the course of her daily transfigurations— amount to more than 40,000 in number. In numerous instances the representatives of accredited science have been put to shame by Mrs. Mettler’s disclosures respecting the original cause, the particular seat, the precise nature, and the ultimate result of a disease, when these were previously all unknown by the afflicted parties, and not to be detected by ordinary professional sagacity."
The case of Semantha Mettler (comparable to that of Edgar Cayce) was so remarkable that she inspired an 1853 biography that detailed her rise from abject poverty and extreme bad luck to an apparent wonder worker. Brittan's work dates from 1865, so apparently that 1853 biography detailed only part of Mettler's success. The Brittan work gives this example:
"The writer could easily fill a volume of facts illustrative of the Clairvoyance of Mrs. Mettler, but a brief digest of a few well-authenticated facts must suffice in this connection. Mrs. William B. Hodget, of Springfield, Mass., had extreme pain and inflammation in one of her limbs. Mrs. M. made an examination at the distance of twenty-four miles, and discovered a fine cambric needle concealed in the flesh. This staggered the faith of Mr. Hodget, and the family Physician was equally skeptical on the point of the needle ; but, to remove all doubts, he applied his lancet, when the needle was discovered and removed."
Brittan recounts a case of a man who was shot in the pocket, and who did not recover from his wound. We read this:
"On my return from the West I took an early opportunity to submit this distressing case to the clairvoyant inspection of Mrs. Mettler, merely telling her that she was requested to examine a young man who had been shot. There was no intimation respecting the circumstances attending the accident, the seat, or the extent of the injury ; nor was the existing condition of the young man in any way implied or referred to. In the course of the investigation and diagnosis — conducted at Hartford, while the patient was in Central Michigan — Mrs. M. discovered a piece of copper in the limb, and observed that the wound would not heal until it was removed. But young Barker was sure that he had no copper in his pocket at the time of the accident ; and, inasmuch as the medical attendant had made no such discovery, it was presumed that the Seeress was mistaken. But some time after the foreign substance described became visible, when Mr. Barker’s mother — with a pair of embroidery scissors — removed a penny from the wound ! In such a case science is a stupid, sightless guide, and must stand out of the way. The doctors in Michigan could not see that penny when it was within their reach, and their eyes were wide open ; but this Seeress discovered it at a distance of nearly 1,000 miles with her eyes closed !"
Call it a case of telemedicine before there was what we now call telemedicine. The next pages of the book give us equally impressive accounts involving the same Mrs. Mettler.
On page 427 the author tells us that he personally witnessed an astonishing case of accurate prophecy:
"The writer and several other persons were witnesses of a prophetic announcement of the destruction of the steamer Henry Clay, on the Hudson River, made by Mrs. Harriet Porter, at Bridgeport, Connecticut, on the 27th day of July, 1852 — the day before that boat was actually burned. On the 28th, at about tbe hour of three o’clock, p. m., Miss. Porter — being entranced in presence of several persons — again referred to the subject, and proceeded to describe the terrible catastrophe, which was then, as she affirmed, being enacted before her. She declared with great emphasis that a steamboat was burning on the Hudson ; that she could see the name — Henry Clay; and that the village of Yonkers was also distinctly visible. She appeared to be thrilled and terrified at the spectacle, and expressed the deepest anguish on account of the loss of so many lives. On the following morning the public journals contained the verification of all she had said, in the details of the mournful disaster, so mysteriously foreshadowed and so graphically portrayed at the very hour of the fatal occurrence."
Bridgeport, Connecticut is more than 25 miles from the closest part of the Hudson River. Wikipedia.org lists the fire on the Henry Clay as occurring at about 3 PM on July 27, 1852, with a loss of nearly 50 lives, as the ship passed near Yonkers (40 miles from Bridgeport). The details in the wikipedia.org article exactly match the details given above.
On page 476 of this book written more than a century before the terms "near-death experience" and "out-of-body experience" became widely used, we have an account of a near-death experience that included an out-of-body experience:
"A few months since, an eminent Presbyterian divine in New York was borne by disease to the very portals of the invisible world. He had a distinct consciousness of his condition. Veiled in light, his spirit rose and hovered over the body. He could distinctly see the wasted form, stretched on the couch ‘beneath him, pale, pulseless and cold, but his immortal self was thrilled with inexpressible peace and joy. Just then his wife, to whom he was tenderly but strongly attached, called to him with the deep earnestness of that undying love which can endure all things but separation from the object of its devotion. The potent magnetism of that loving heart counterpoised the combined attractions of the spheres, and even recalled the unshackled spirit from the Heavens just opening to receive it. He returned to the body. The next moment a gentle voice — calling his name in tones of mingled tenderness and grief— vibrated on the outward ear, reminding him that he was still a dweller in the earth."
