Apparitions and Thought-Transference: an Examination of the Evidence for Telepathy

CHAPTER II.. Experimental Transference of Simple Sensations

EXPERIMENTAL TRANSFERENCE OF SIMPLE SENSATIONS IN THE NORMAL STATE 18

Transference of Tastes--Of pain, by Mr. M. Guthrie and others--Of sounds--Of ideas not definitely classed, by Professor Richet, the American Society for Psychical Research, Dr. Ochorowicz--Transference of visual images, by Dr. Blair Thaw, Mr. Guthrie, Professor Oliver Lodge, Herr Max Dessoir, Herr Schmoll, Dr. von Schrenck-Notzing, and others.

CHAPTER III.. Experimental Transference of Simple Sensations

EXPERIMENTAL TRANSFERENCE OF SIMPLE SENSATIONS WITH HYPNOTISED PERCIPIENTS 58

Transference of tastes, by Dr. Azam--Of pain, by Edmund Gurney--Of visual images, by Dr. Liébeault, Professor and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, Dr. Gibotteau, Dr. Blair Thaw.

CHAPTER IV.. Experimental Production of Movements and

EXPERIMENTAL PRODUCTION OF MOVEMENTS AND OTHER EFFECTS 82

Inhibition of action by silent willing, by Edmund Gurney, Professor Barrett, and others--Origination of action by silent willing, by Dr. Blair Thaw, M. J. H. P., and others--Planchette-writing, by Rev. P. H. Newnham, Mr. R. H. Buttemer--Table-tilting, by the Author, by Professor Richet--Production of local anæsthesia, by Edmund Gurney, Mrs. H. Sidgwick.

CHAPTER V.. Experimental Production of Telepathic Effects

EXPERIMENTAL PRODUCTION OF TELEPATHIC EFFECTS AT A DISTANCE 105

Induction of sleep, by Dr. Gibert and Professor Janet, Professor Richet, Dr. Dufay--Of hysteria and other effects, by Dr. Tolosa-Latour, M. J. H. P.--Transference of ideas of sound, by Miss X., M. J. Ch. Roux--Of visual images, by Miss Campbell, M. Léon Hennique, Mr. Kirk, Dr. Gibotteau.

CHAPTER VI.. General Criticism of the Evidence for Spontaneous

GENERAL CRITICISM OF THE EVIDENCE FOR SPONTANEOUS THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 143

On chance coincidence--Misrepresentation--Errors of observation--Errors of inference--Errors of narration--Errors of memory--"Pseudo-presentiment"--Precautions against error--"Where are the letters?"--The spontaneous cases as a true natural group.

CHAPTER VII.. Transference of Ideas and Emotions 161

TRANSFERENCE OF IDEAS AND EMOTIONS 161

Transference of pain, Mr. Arthur Severn--Of smell, Miss X.--Of ideas, Miss X., Mrs. Barber--Of visual images, Mr. Haynes, Professor Richet, Dr. Dupré--Of emotion, Mr. F. H. Krebs, Dr. N., Miss Y.--Of motor impulses, Archdeacon Bruce, Professor Venturi.

CHAPTER VIII.. Coincident Dreams 185

COINCIDENT DREAMS 185

Discussion of the evidence for telepathy derivable from dreams--Chance-coincidence--Simultaneous dreams, the Misses Bidder--Transference of sensation in dreams, Professor Royce, Mrs. Harrison--Dreams conveying news of death, etc., Mr. J. T., Mr. R. V. Boyle, Captain Campbell, Mr. E. W. Hamilton, Mr. Edward A. Goodall--Clairvoyant dream, Mrs. E. J.

CHAPTER IX.. On Hallucination in General 207

ON HALLUCINATION IN GENERAL 207

Common misconceptions--Hypnotic hallucinations, experiments by MM. Binet and Féré, Mr. Myers--Point de repère--Post-hypnotic hallucinations, Professor Liégeois, Edmund Gurney--Spontaneous hallucinations, Professor Sidgwick's census--Table showing classification of spontaneous hallucinations--Origin of hallucinations, sometimes telepathic--Proof of this, calculation of chance-coincidence, allowance for defects of memory--Conclusion.

CHAPTER X.. Induced Telepathic Hallucinations 226

INDUCED TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS 226

Possible misconceptions--Accounts of experiments, by Rev. Clarence Godfrey, Herr Wesermann, Mr. H. P. Sparks, and A. H. W. Cleave, Mrs B----, Dr. von Schrenck-Notzing, Dr. Wiltse, Mr. Kirk.

CHAPTER XI.. Spontaneous Telepathic Hallucinations 247

SPONTANEOUS TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS 247

Auditory hallucinations, Miss Clark, Mr. William Tudor--Visual hallucinations--Incompletely developed, Countess Eugenie Kapnist, Miss L. Caldecott, Dr. Carat--Completely developed, Miss Berta Hurly, Mrs. McAlpine, Miss Mabel Gore Booth--Hallucinations affecting two senses, Rev. Matthew Frost, M. A----.

CHAPTER XII.. Collective Hallucinations 268

COLLECTIVE HALLUCINATIONS 268

Illusions, epidemic hallucinations, illusions of memory--Explanations of collective hallucination--Auditory hallucinations, Mr. C. H. Cary, Miss Newbold--Visual hallucinations, Mrs. Greiffenberg, Mrs. Milman and Miss Campbell, Mr. and Mrs. C----, Mr. Falkinburg, Dr. W. O. S., Rev. C. H. Jupp--Collective hallucinations with percipients apart, Sister Martha and Madame Houdaille, Sir Lawrence Jones and Mr. Herbert Jones.

CHAPTER XIII.. Some Less Common Types of Telepathic Hallucination 297

SOME LESS COMMON TYPES OF TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATION 297

Reciprocal cases, Rev. C. L. Evans and Miss ---- --A misinterpreted message, Miss C. L. Hawkins-Dempster--Heteroplastic hallucination, Mrs. G----, Frances Reddell, Mr. John Husbands, Mr. J---- --"Haunted houses," Mrs. Knott and others, Surgeon-Major W. and others.

CHAPTER XIV.. On Clairvoyance in Trance 326

ON CLAIRVOYANCE IN TRANCE 326

Definition of clairvoyance--Accounts of phenomena observed with Mrs. Piper, by Professor Lodge, Professor W. James, and others--Accounts of experiments by Mr. A. W. Dobbie, Dr. Wiltse, Mr. W. Boyd, Dr. F----, Dr. Backman.

CHAPTER XV.. On Clairvoyance in the Normal State 351

ON CLAIRVOYANCE IN THE NORMAL STATE 351

Observations of M. Keulemans--Crystal-visions, Miss X., Dr. Backman, Miss A. and Sir Joseph Barnby--Spontaneous clairvoyance, Mrs. Paquet, Mr. F. A. Marks, Mrs. L. Z.--Clairvoyance in dream, Mrs. Freese--Clairvoyant perceptivity in an experiment, Dr. Gibotteau.

CHAPTER XVI.. Theories and Conclusions 371

THEORIES AND CONCLUSIONS 371

Resumé, the proof apparent--The proof presumptive--The alleged influence of magnets and metals--The alleged marvels of spiritualism--Usage of the word telepathy--On various theories of telepathy--Difficulties of a physical explanation--Value of theory as a guide to investigation--Is telepathy a rudimentary or a vestigial faculty?--Our ignorance stands in the way of a conclusive answer--Imperative need for more facts.

PREFACE.

The following pages aim at presenting in brief compass a selection of the evidence upon which the hypothesis of thought-transference, or telepathy, is based. It is now more than twelve years since the Society for Psychical Research was founded, and nearly eight since the publication of Phantasms of the Living. Both in the periodical Proceedings of the Society and in the pages of Edmund Gurney's book, a large mass of evidence has been laid before the public. But the papers included in the Proceedings are interspersed with other matter, some of it too technical for the taste of the general reader; whilst the two volumes of Phantasms of the Living, which have for some time been out of print, were too costly for the purse of some, and too bulky for the patience of others. The attention which, notwithstanding these drawbacks, that work excited on its first appearance, the friendly reception which it met with in many quarters, and the fact that a considerable edition has been disposed of, encouraged the hope that a book on somewhat similar lines, but on a smaller scale, might be of service to those--and their number has probably increased within the last few years--who take a genuine interest in this inquiry. Accordingly in the autumn of 1892 I obtained permission from the Council of the Society for Psychical Research to make full use, in the compilation of the present work, not merely of the evidence already published by us, but of the not inconsiderable mass of unpublished records in the possession of the Society.

It will be seen that the present book has little claim to novelty of design; but it is not merely an abridged edition of the larger work referred to. On the one hand it has a somewhat wider scope, and includes accounts of telepathic clairvoyance and other phenomena which did not enter into the scheme of Mr. Gurney's book. On the other hand, the bulk of the illustrative cases here quoted have been taken from more recent records; and, in particular, certain branches of the experimental work have assumed a quite new importance within the last few years. Thus the experiments conducted by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick at Brighton have strengthened the demonstration of thought-transference, and have gone far to solve one or two of the problems connected with the subject; and the evidence for the experimental production of telepathic effects at a distance has been greatly enlarged by the work of MM. Janet and Gibert, Richet, Gibotteau, Schrenck-Notzing, and in this country by Mr. Kirk and others. It may be added that some of the criticisms called forth by Phantasms of the Living, and our own further researches, have led us to modify our estimate of the evidence in some directions, and to strengthen generally the precautions taken against the unconscious warping of testimony.

To say, however, that the following pages owe much to Edmund Gurney is but to acknowledge the obligation which all students of the subject must recognise to his keen and vigorous intellect and his colossal industry. My own debt is a more personal one. To have worked under his guidance, and to have been stimulated by his example, was an invaluable schooling in the qualities demanded by an inquiry of this nature. Of the living, I owe grateful thanks, in the first instance, to Professor and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, who have read through the whole of the book in typescript, and have given help and counsel throughout. Miss Alice Johnson, Mr. F. W. H. Myers, the late Dr. A. T. Myers, Miss Porter, and others have also given me welcome help in various directions. In acknowledging this assistance, however, it is right to add that, though I trust in my estimate of the evidence presented, and in the general tenour of the conclusions suggested, to find myself, with few exceptions, in substantial agreement with my colleagues, yet I have no claim to represent the Society for Psychical Research, nor right to cloak my own shortcomings with the authority of others.

One word more needs to be said. The evidence, of which samples are presented in the following pages, is as yet hardly adequate for the establishment of telepathy as a fact in nature, and leaves much to be desired for the elucidation of the laws under which it operates. Any contributions to the problem, in the shape either of accounts of experiments, or of recent records of telepathic visions and similar experiences, will be gladly received by me on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research, at 19 Buckingham Street, Adelphi, W.C.

FRANK PODMORE.

August 1894.

FOOTNOTES:

APPARITIONS AND THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE.

CHAPTER I.. Introductory--Special Grounds of Caution.

INTRODUCTORY--SPECIAL GROUNDS OF CAUTION.

It is salutary sometimes to reflect how recent is the growth of our scientific cosmos, and how brief an interval separates it from the chaos which went before. This may be seen even in Sciences which deal with matters of common observation. Amongst material phenomena the facts of Geology are assuredly not least calculated to excite the curiosity or impress the imagination of men. Yet until the middle of the last century no serious attempt was made to solve the physical problems they presented. The origin of the organic remains embedded in the rocks had indeed formed the subject of speculation ever since the days of Aristotle. Theophrastus had suggested that they were formed by the plastic forces of Nature. Mediæval astrologers ascribed their formation to planetary influences. And these hypotheses, with the alternative view of the Church, that fossil bones and shells were relics of the Mosaic Deluge, appear to have satisfied the learned of Europe until the time of Voltaire, who reinforced the rationalistic position, as he conceived it, by the suggestion that the shells, at any rate, had been dropped from the hats of pilgrims returning from the Holy Land. Yet Werner and Hutton were even then preparing to elucidate the causes of stratification and the genesis of the igneous rocks. Cuvier in the next generation was to demonstrate the essential analogies of the fossils found in the Paris basin with living species; Agassiz was to investigate the relation of fossil fishes and to show the true nature of their embedded remains. Nay, even in the middle of the present century, so slow is the growth and spread of organised knowledge, it was possible for a pious Scotchman to ascribe the origin of mountain chains to a cataclysm which, after the fall of Man, had broken up and distorted the once symmetrical surface of the earth; for a Dean of York to essay to bring the Mediæval theory up to date and prove that the whole series of geological strata, with their varied organic remains, were formed by volcanic eruptions acting in concert with the Mosaic Deluge; and for another English divine to warn his readers against any sacrilegious meddling with the arcana of the rocks, because they represented the tentative essays of the Creator at organic forms--a concealed storehouse of celestial misfits!

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