Apparitions and thought-transference: an examination of the evidence for telepathyPodmore, Frank
Philosophy
Apparitions and thought-transference: an examination of the evidence for telepathy
Podmore, Frank
Apparitions; Telepathy
(14) July 17th.--Lemaire was to guess a card at 9 o'clock. At 10
minutes to 9, from my house, I tried to transfer the 4 _Spades_.
(I have forgotten to make a note of whether I merely thought of
this card or whether I drew it from a pack.) At 9 o'clock Lemaire
guessed 5 _Spades_.
(15) 30th July.--This experiment is more complicated but none the
less interesting. On the 30th July, at 11 A.M., Lemaire was to
guess a card which I had tried to suggest to him on the 26th July.
This card was the _Knave Diamonds_. But he forgot to do it, and did
not remember to guess the card till 7 P.M. on the 30th July. Now
on this same day, the 30th July, from 6 to 6.30 P.M. I was myself
engaged in guessing a card by clairvoyance, and after many attempts
I decided on 7 _or_ 8 _Clubs_, and Lemaire, guessing the card at 7
P.M., also decided upon 7 _Clubs_. So that I had suggested the card
to him unconsciously.
Thus, omitting the last trial as of doubtful interpretation, we find
that in 14 trials the card was guessed correctly twice, the number
alone once, and the suit alone nine times, or three times the probable
number.
_Transference of Visual Impressions._
In the four cases which follow the impression was of a well-marked
visual character; reaching, indeed, in the two last to the level of
actual hallucination. It should be observed that in none of these four
cases is the possibility of chance coincidence so entirely precluded
as in many of the experiments at close quarters already cited. In the
first of the cases recorded by Dr. Gibotteau (No. 40), and in some
of Mr. Kirk's experiments (No. 37), the luminous patches seen by the
percipients are not unlike rudimentary hallucinations of a sufficiently
common type, and their resemblance in these instances to the objects
actually looked at or thought of by the agents should not therefore
be pressed very far. In the other cases, however, the percipient
received a well-marked impression of a definite object. But here
there is a flaw of another kind. The coincidences may have been due,
as indeed Miss Campbell (No. 35) is careful to suggest, to a lucky
shot on the part of the percipient at the object the agent would be
likely to choose. The very distinct nature of the impression produced
in each case upon the percipient, as contrasted with the vague images
called up, _e.g._ in Miss Campbell's case, by more or less conscious
conjecture, is, however, against this interpretation; and the fact that
in the first narrative the experiments quoted were the culmination of a
successful series of experiments at close quarters tells in favour of a
telepathic explanation for these also.
No. 35.--By MISS CAMPBELL and MISS DESPARD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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