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
"The experiment was varied as follows:--The word 'Yes' was written
on one, and the word 'No' on the other, of two precisely similar
pieces of card. One or other of these cards was handed to Mr.
Smith at my arbitrary pleasure, care of course being taken that
the 'subject' had no opportunity of seeing the card, even had he
been awake. When 'Yes' was handed Mr. Smith was silently to will
the 'subject' to answer aloud in response to the question asked by
me, 'Do you hear me?' When 'No' was handed Mr. Smith was to will
that no response should be made in reply to the same question. The
object of this series of experiments was to note the effect of
increasing the distance between the willer and the willed,--the
agent and the percipient. In the first instance Mr. Smith was
placed _three feet_ from the 'subject,' who remained throughout
apparently asleep in an arm-chair in one corner of my study.
"At three feet apart, 25 trials were successively made, and _in
every case_ the 'subject' responded or did not respond in exact
accordance with the silent will of Mr. Smith, as directed by me.
"At 6 feet apart six similar trials were made without a single
failure.
"At 12 feet apart six more trials were made without a single
failure.
"At 17 feet apart six more trials were made without a single
failure.
"In this last case Mr. Smith had to be placed outside the study
door, which was then closed with the exception of a narrow chink
just wide enough to admit of passing a card in or out, whilst
I remained in the study observing the 'subject.' To avoid any
possible indication from the tone in which I asked the question, in
all cases except the first dozen experiments, I shuffled the cards
face downwards, and then handed the unknown 'Yes' or 'No' to Mr.
Smith, who looked at the card and willed accordingly. I noted down
the result, and then, and not till then, looked at the card.
"A final experiment was made when Mr. Smith was taken across the
hall and placed in the dining-room, at a distance of about 30 feet
from the 'subject,' two doors, both quite closed, intervening.
Under these conditions, three trials were made with success, the
'Yes' response being, however, very faint and hardly audible to me,
who returned to the study to ask the usual question after handing
the card to the distant operator. At this point, the 'subject' fell
into a deep sleep, and made no further replies to the questions
addressed to him."
Further trials were made under different conditions, the results being
almost uniformly successful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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