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CHAPTER IV PSYCHOMETRY16 IN this chapter the author departs from the realm of strictly scientific research and invites his readers to join him in some speculations concerning the commonest of all forms of supernormal cognition. One of the most prolific writers on occult subjects of our day once made the statement that she had not met anyone below the rank of an Adept who could explain Psychometry satisfactorily. In view of this statement an attempt may here usefully be made to discover some of the principles underlying this type of clairvoyance. As is probably well known, the psychometrist is able, by taking hold of an object, to read the past history of that object and its immediate surroundings; if skilful, he will also be able to give precise information concerning its present conditions, while even its future may be foreseen. Probably the occult student would explain that every object is surrounded by, and exists in, a sea of Akasha17 upon which is indelibly imprinted a record of its complete history, and that psychometry is the art of contacting and reading these records. If further pressed for an explanation of the seer’s knowledge of the future of the object and its surroundings, the student must endeavour to explain the relativity of time and the elusive conception of the eternal NOW. At first glance these explanations appear to be satisfactory enough, and undoubtedly do provide the groundwork for an understanding of the phenomenon under consideration. Closer study shows, however, that the problem is by no means so easily solved. Apparently neither time nor space have any power to limit the range of the psychometrist’s powers. Hand him an object from the ruins of the temple of St. Columb on Iona, and he does not sec Iona as viewed from his present position in time and space; he sees it as it actually was at any period of its history he may