title: Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking
author:  Robert E. Bartholomew 
description: ..".you are certain to be amused and amazed in equal parts....an entertaining and enlightening book."
zlib_text: ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
  
  ##### www.blackmask.com
  
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  An Open Mind: William James
  
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  # An Open Mind: William James
  
  
  ### Walter Lippmann
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
    
  
  
  WITHIN a week of the death of Professor William James of Harvard
  
  
  University, the newspapers had it that Mr. M. S. Ayer of Boston had
  
  
  received a message from his spirit. This news item provoked the
  
  
  ridicule of the people who don't believe in ghosts, but the joke was on
  
  
  Mr. Ayer of Boston. When, however, it was reported that Professor James
  
  
  himself had agreed to communicate with this world, if he could, and, in
  
  
  order to test the reports, had left a sealed message to be opened at a
  
  
  certain definite time after his death, the incredulous gasped at the
  
  
  professor's amazing "credulity."
  
  
  William James wasn't "credulous." He was simply open-minded. Maybe
  
  
  the soul of man is immortal. The professors couldn't prove it wasn't,
  
  
  so James was willing to ope