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
"I woke up with a start, feeling I had had a hard blow on my mouth,
and with a distinct sense that I had been cut and was bleeding
under my upper lip, and seized my pocket-handkerchief, and held
it (in a little pushed lump) to the part, as I sat up in bed, and
after a few seconds, when I removed it, I was astonished not to
see any blood, and only then realised it was impossible anything
could have struck me there, as I lay fast asleep in bed, and so I
thought it was only a dream!--but I looked at my watch, and saw it
was seven, and finding Arthur (my husband) was not in the room, I
concluded (rightly) that he must have gone out on the lake for an
early sail, as it was so fine.
"I then fell asleep. At breakfast (half-past nine), Arthur
came in rather late, and I noticed he rather purposely sat
farther away from me than usual, and every now and then put his
pocket-handkerchief furtively up to his lip, in the very way I had
done. I said, 'Arthur, why are you doing that?' and added a little
anxiously, 'I know you've hurt yourself! but I'll tell you why
afterwards.' He said, 'Well, when I was sailing, a sudden squall
came, throwing the tiller suddenly round, and it struck me a bad
blow in the mouth, under the upper lip, and it has been bleeding
a good deal and won't stop.' I then said, 'Have you any idea what
o'clock it was when it happened?' and he answered, 'It must have
been about seven.'
"I then told what had happened to _me_, much to _his_ surprise, and
all who were with us at breakfast.
"It happened here about three years ago at Brantwood, to me.
"JOAN R. SEVERN."
Mr. Severn wrote to us on the 15th November 1883, giving an account of
the trivial accident described by the percipient, and adding that after
leaving the boat he
"walked up to the house, anxious of course to hide as much as
possible what had happened to my mouth, and getting another
handkerchief walked into the breakfast-room, and managed to say
something about having been out early. In an instant my wife said,
'You don't mean to say you have hurt your mouth?' or words to that
effect. I then explained what had happened, and was surprised to
see some extra interest on her face, and still more surprised when
she told me she had started out of her sleep thinking she had
received a blow on the mouth! and that it was a few minutes past
seven o'clock, and wondered if my accident had happened at the same
time; but as I had no watch with me I couldn't tell, though, on
comparing notes, it certainly looked as if it had been about the
same time.
"ARTHUR SEVERN."
(_Phantasms of the Living_, vol. i. pp, 188, 189.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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