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
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,[2] Richet, Gibotteau, Schrenck-Notzing, and in this
country by Mr. Kirk and others.[3] 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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