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Thomson Jay Hudson (1834-1903) Acclaimed Psychic Researcher |
Psychical researcher Thomson Jay Hudson is best
known for his classic work in the mental science and mental
therapeutics field, The
Law of Psychic Phenomena, first published in 1893.
The author of The Law of
Psychic Phenomena is as fascinating as the great work itself.
Dr. Hudson was truly a man of many talents, many intellectual pursuits
and many accomplishments. He was a man with great talent for bringing
out the very best in all those who knew him - family, friends and
acquaintances. He had a great love for all life and a great love for
scientific and intellectual pursuit. Logic was, for him, the password
for life.
It was during the period of 1870 through 1915 that man began
another of his periodic great "upsurges" of making serious inquiry into
the nature of man, man's evolution, man's relationship with all nature
and the actual working of man's mind. Despite living and working in
this period of "giants" - Charles Darwin, Sir Oliver Lodge, Frank
Podmore, Richard Bucke, Judge Troward, Max Heindl, etc., - Thomson Jay
Hudson stood out because of his intellectual honesty, logic, sincerity,
curiosity and ability to put into writing his great wisdom and
intellect.
Truly for him the writing of The
Law of Psychic Phenomena was a labor of love and a challenge to
his genius. That it proved to be one of the most successful books of
the past century (over 47 printings) appeared to be somewhat of a
surprise to him as he had envisioned the book to be primarily of
interest to scholars seeking a scientific approach to "right living and
thinking." The commercial success of this book, or any of his books,
never concerned him. He was only interested in "sparking" an
intellectual and spiritual awakening in man. Above all else, he was
concerned that man be made aware of the great evidence of the existence
of power in thought and of the importance of developing a spiritual
nature. Dr. Hudson was a great forerunner of modern day giants of
science, psychology and theology.
Dr. Hudson was involved in so many diverse activities and
intellectual pursuits that to enumerate them all would be beyond the
scope of any introductory remarks. However, to really appreciate his
great breadth of knowledge and intellectual curiosity, a little of his
life should be known.
Even while working on his father's farm in early years, he studied
natural philosophy, chemistry and logic, which were subjects far beyond
the usual prescribed educational pursuits of the mid-1800's.
Later, while preparing for college, his father insisted that he
study for the ministry. In this request he stubbornly refused. He
stated that he could not accept much of the theological dogma that he
had been given. Forced therefore to leave his father's protection and
support, on his own, he pursued studies in law. He was admitted to the
bar at twenty-three and practiced as an attorney and journalist in Port
Huron, Ohio, until 1866 - the year he entered politics. During the
years he was studying and practicing law, he was actively working with
new ideas concerning both mind and matter. During an oil boom in the
Lake Erie area of Canada around 1860, Hudson spent considerable time
researching and exploring the oil fields themselves; and his most
inventive mind developed a number of devices and processes for working
in oil fields which are still used today. In all of his many careers,
he used his most analytical and inventive mind. Everything he touched
was affected most constructively with his ingenuity and curiosity.
He later became editor-in-chief of the Detroit Daily Union. In 1877, he
became Washington correspondent of a national syndicate - a post he
held until offered a position on the examining corps of the United
States Patent Office in 1880. This position was a "natural" for Dr.
Hudson with his inquiring and open mind and his own penchant for
invention. He remained with the Patent Office for thirteen years,
rising to the position of Principal Examiner and in charge of one of
the scientific divisions of that office. He left that position in 1893
immediately after the publication of The Law of Psychic Phenomena
- which overnight made Dr. Hudson famous throughout the
English-speaking world. As one of his biographers has stated: "Without
violence to the truth it may be said that one morning, in 1893, Dr.
Hudson awoke to find himself famous throughout the English-speaking
world."
Dr. Hudson spent the remainder of his life in pursuing his study
into the "true nature of man" with particular emphasis on the
extra-sensory powers of man as manifested through psychic phenomena. He
wrote a number of other outstanding books dealing with this subject
prior to his death in 1903. Dr. Hudson received an LL.D. degree from
St. John's College and a Ph.D. from Ewing College.
Any reference to Dr. Hudson's work should concern his objectives.
He was adamant about why psychic phenomena should be of interest to
man. To use his own words:
"Jesus, who was master of the science of the soul, drew the line,
on strictly scientific principles when he proclaimed the law that
belief - faith - was the essential prerequisite to the attainment of
immortal life. Faith, in the sense in which Jesus employed the term
means much more than belief, although the latter is included in the
term. Faith in the psychic sense and
that is the sense in which Jesus employed it, is conscious
potentiality. It is a power; it is the power of the soul. All
psychic phenomena demonstrate that proposition. Without it there can be
no psychic phenomena beyond the exercise of the purely animal instinct.
It is the creature of suggestion. Suggestion alone awakens it into
existence, suggestion can utterly destroy it. Inasmuch as no suggestion
of the possibility of immortal life can be conveyed through the
embryotic soul of the brute, the conscious potentiality requisite to
the sustentation of independent existence does not exist; and it
obviously cannot exist in other than an intelligent being. And this
remark, according to the philosophy of Jesus, applies to all the brute
creation, whether it is embodied in the form of animals or of man."
This statement underlies his objective - to make man aware of his
spiritual potential, of awakening this important faculty of man. He
believed, and reiterated time after time, that the only reason to study
the psychic aspects of man was to better comprehend the importance of
developing the "spirit faculty" that exists within every man. Hudson
was able to let the creative force within him free itself; and because
of that, all of us who are privileged to read his works are much the
richer.
Several other passages from Dr. Hudson's work give us further
evidence of the great wisdom, creative ability and understanding that
this unique individual had. He wrote; "....the subjective mind is
constantly amenable to control by suggestion. (This is not true of the
objective mind as he says in another passage.) ....The objective mind
is merely the function of the physical brain. The subjective mind is a
distinct entity possessing independent powers and functions, having a
mental organization of its own, and capable of sustaining an existence
independently of the body. The subjective mind of man is synonymous
with the soul of man."
How far ahead of his day - even of today - was Dr. Hudson! He was
a pioneer in such fields as psychology, philosophy, biology,
metaphysics and even in some areas of chemistry and physics. Dr. Hudson
was writing of the power of mental conditioning fifty years before Dr.
Norman Vincent Peale and others popularized the concept of "mind
power." Fifty years ago, Dr. Hudson was discussing ideas that have now
become proven scientific facts in many areas of medicine, biology,
physiology and psychology. Even so, he was able to effectively
communicate to those of "his time", and his writing is just as
effectively communicated to us today.
No one could really do an adequate job of "introducing" this man
and his work. One has to read what Dr. Hudson wrote, digest it and
relate it to subsequent events and newly discovered "facts" in order to
comprehend the ability, creativeness and uniqueness of this man and his
work. The more we become exposed to his work the greater will be the
understanding that man has of man
Hudson's theory
Thomson Jay Hudson began observing hypnotism shows and noticed similarities between hypnosis subjects and the trances of spiritualist mediums. His idea was that any contact with "spirits" was in fact contact with the medium's or the subject's own subconscious. Anything else could be explained by telepathy, which he defined as contact between two or more subconsciouses.
Hudson postulated that his theory could explain all forms of spiritualism, and had a period of popularity until the carnage of the First World War caused a fresh interest in spiritualism again as psychic mediums emerged to meet the demands of grieving relatives.
Hudson's work, although unrefuted, and thought by some to be a "bust" of spiritualism, remained almost forgotten until recently when his theory was found to explain some of the theories of Rupert Sheldrake. In 1998, the electronic voice phenomena, that Hudson could have known nothing about, which had hitherto defied explanation, was found to follow Hudson's laws. Paranormal investigators are beginning to look again at his works.
1. Man has two minds: the objective mind (conscious) and the subjective mind (subconscious).
2. The subjective mind is constantly amenable to control by suggestion.
3. The subjective mind is incapable of inductive reasoning.
The Law of Psychic Phenomena (1893)
Scientific Demonstration of Future Life (1895)
Divine Pedigree of Man (1899)
The Law of Mental Medicine (1903)
Evolution of the Soul and Other Essays (1906) (Published posthumously)
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