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
Mr. Smith having hypnotised Whybrew, sat by him, but did not speak
to him at all after he knew the subject--_a man with a barrow of
fish_--given him by Mrs. Sidgwick. Miss Johnson, not knowing what
the subject was, carried on the conversation with Whybrew. He said:
"It's the shape of a man. Yes, there's a man there. Don't know
him. He looks like a bloke that sells strawberries." Miss Johnson
asked: "Are there strawberries there?" Whybrew: "That looks like
his barrow there. What's he selling of? I believe he's sold out.
I can't see anything on his barrow--perhaps he's sold out. There
ain't many--a few round things. I expect they're fruit. Are they
cherries? They look a bit red. Aren't they fish? It don't look
very much like fish. If they're fish, some of them hasn't got any
heads on. Barrow is a bit fishified--it has a tray on. What colour
are those things on the barrow? They looked red, but now they
look silvery." He was rather pleased with this picture and asked
afterwards if it was for sale.
Of 18 experiments with Whybrew 6 were successful. Of the 12 failures, 8
occurred when agent and percipient were in separate rooms. There were
only two cases in which no impression was received--one with the agent
in the same room.
Seven trials were made with Major, of which 1 was completely and 2
partially successful. Subjoined is the record of the only complete
success, which occurred on July 8th, 1891. The percipient was
hypnotised and his eyes were closed; Mr. Smith sat by him, talking to
him and telling him that he was to see a picture.
No. 18.
The subject given was _a mouse in a mouse-trap_. Regarding himself
as a man of culture and being generally anxious to exhibit this,
Major asked if it was to be an old master or a modern "pot-boiler."
He was told the latter, and he then discoursed on "pot-boilers" and
how he knew all the subjects of them--mentioning two or three--in a
very contemptuous manner. He did not seem to see anything, however,
and appeared to be expecting to see an artist producing a rapid
sketch. Then, when told that the picture was actually there, he
suddenly exclaimed: "Do you mean that deuced old trap with a mouse?
He must have been drawing for the rat vermin people."
Thirty-two trials were made with T., of which only four were
successful--two completely, one partially, one completely, but
deferred--_i.e._, the subject of the preceding experiment, a black dog,
came before his vision after the agent had already passed to another
subject, the Eiffel Tower. T. had, of course, not been told the subject
of the previous experiment. Instances of deferred impressions of this
kind occurred also with Miss B. A few experiments were tried with
another percipient, a man named Adams, but without success; his own
imagination appeared to be so fertile that any telepathic impression
must have been crowded out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account