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
In all 50 trials were made with P., 26 with agent and percipient in
the same room, 24 with agent and percipient in different rooms. Of
the former 14 were successful, of the latter only one. In the 35
unsuccessful experiments no impression at all was received in 14 cases,
7 of which occurred while agent and percipient were in the same room.
Two trials with Whybrew are worth quoting as illustrating the gradual
development of the impression.
The percipient's eyes were closed during these experiments. The first
was made on July 11th.
No. 17.
Subject: _A man riding_. Mr. Smith downstairs with Miss Johnson;
Whybrew, upstairs with Mrs. Sidgwick, said, after some remarks
on the former pictures: "There's another one--I think it's like
the other two--a puzzle [to see]--if I can find the picture. I
hope I'll be able to see it properly. A kind of a square--square
shadow--blowed if I can understand what it's meant for--I don't
know what to make out of that. I don't know if that's meant to
be the lower part of a pair of legs. Do you see a picture?" Mrs.
Sidgwick: "I see something." Whybrew: "I see them two spots, but I
don't know what to make of them. If they're legs, the body ought
to come.--Don't seem to come any brighter, but there's those two
things there, that look like a pair of legs." Here Mr. Smith was
asked to come upstairs and talk to him. He told him the picture
was coming up closer and that he had turned the gas on to make it
brighter. Whybrew: "There's them pair of legs there." Mr. Smith:
"Yes" (doubtfully). Whybrew "Why, there's another. I never see
that other pair before. Why, it's a horse. I expect it's like them
penny pictures that you fold over. That horse--that's plain enough;
but what's that other thing?" Mr. Smith: "Yes, I told you there
was something else." Whybrew: "Why, I see what it is now--it's
supposed to be a man there, I expect." Mr. Smith: "Yes." Whybrew:
"Riding him. But that ain't so good as the boy and the ball." Mrs.
Sidgwick: "How is the man dressed?" Whybrew: "Ordinary."
The second took place on July 16th, 1891.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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