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
Notes of the experiments were in every case made independently in
writing by agent and percipient. In each case, with the exception
of two occasions (on which Mr. Kirk's notes record his anticipation
of failure), the percipient saw luminous appearances, often taking
the form of round or square patches of light, in correspondence
with the shape of the surface looked at by the agent. When Miss G.
was at Pembroke or Ilfracombe (Mr. Kirk remaining at Plumstead) the
correspondence did not go beyond this; but in two or three cases,
when Miss G. was also at Plumstead, at a distance of only 400 yards,
the percipient appears to have seen some details of the diagram on
the card, and in one instance a fairly accurate reproduction of the
diagram was given. Mr. Kirk on this occasion, 5th June 1891, was trying
to impress three percipients--of whom Miss G. was one--and used three
diagrams, viz., a Maltese cross, a white oval plate with the figure 3
on it, and a full-sized drawing of a man's hand in black on white. Miss
G.'s report is as follows:--
"5/6/91. Sat last night from 11.15 to 11.45. After a few minutes
wavy clouds appeared [these are drawn as a group of roundish
objects], followed by a pale bluish light very bright in centre.
[This is drawn of an indefinite oval shape with roundish white spot
in centre.] Near the end of experiment saw a larger luminous form,
lasting only a moment but reappearing three or four times; it had
lines or spikes about half an inch wide darting from it in varied
positions."
Appended are reproductions of Miss G.'s original drawings of her
impression, which bear, it will be seen, a marked likeness to a man's
hand.
[Illustration]
It should be added that Miss G. has not had any hallucinations of the
kind except at times when Mr. Kirk was experimenting; and the amount
of correspondence between her visions and the images which Mr. Kirk
endeavoured to transfer would certainly seem beyond what chance could
produce.
No. 38.--By MR. KIRK and MISS G.
A further series of seven trials with the same percipient in
April-June 1892 produced some interesting results. Full notes of the
experiments were, as in the previous cases, made by Mr. Kirk and Miss
G. independently. Mr. Kirk wrote his notes immediately after the
conclusion of the experiments, which were made late in the evening, at
a time previously agreed upon. Miss G., who was in the dark, and as a
rule in bed, wrote her notes on the following morning before hearing
from Mr. Kirk. No diagrams were used in this series, "the object
being," in Mr. Kirk's words, "to test the possibility of influencing
the imagination, and inducing the percipient to visualise hallucinatory
figures of persons or animals thought of by the agent." Miss G. knew
only that diagrams would not be used. The distance between agent and
percipient was about 400 yards.
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