Science Quote by Oliver Joseph Lodge

A physicist talking about mediumship in the language of “grades” and “simplest forms” is doing something sly: he’s trying to domesticate the supernatural by giving it a lab coat. Lodge’s phrasing borrows the calm taxonomy of science - categories, capacities, conditions - to make a contested phenomenon feel methodical rather than scandalous. “Automatic writing” becomes not a parlor trick or a symptom, but a measurable “form” of reception that can occur “under peaceful conditions” and “in an ordinary state.” That last clause is the key tell. Lodge anticipates the skeptic’s objection (hysteria, trance, fraud) and preemptively insists on normalcy, as if the mind can serve as an instrument without being overtaken.

The subtext is reputational risk management. By presenting mediumship as incremental and mundane, he invites curiosity without demanding belief. He’s also signaling to fellow educated readers: you don’t have to abandon rigor to look at this. The tone is almost bureaucratic, which is exactly the point - the paranormal framed as paperwork.

Context matters: Lodge was a prominent figure in an era when psychical research sat awkwardly beside triumphant physics, and after World War I spiritualism surged amid mass grief. His closing dodge - “too large to be treated here” - reads less like humility than strategy. He opens the door just wide enough to legitimize the topic, then retreats before the argument starts, leaving a residue of scientific plausibility where certainty can’t quite go.