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 interpreting these results there is no justification for assuming
direct control by the agent over the organism of the percipient. Nor
does the current phrase, endorsed as it is in the first case by the
percipient himself, that the operator's will dominated the will of
the subject, give an adequate account of the matter. When, as in the
case of experiments previously described, the percipient's impression
reproduces the sensation of the agent, there is nothing to indicate
that the impulse transferred directly affects the external organs, or
even the intermediate sensory centres. In the absence of any direct
evidence it is at least equally probable that the higher brain centres
only are concerned in the transmission in the first instance, and
that the transmitted idea is reflected downwards, until it actually
assumes, as in some of the experiments recorded with P. and Miss B.,
the form of a sensory hallucination. Upon this view no fundamental
distinction need be drawn between the results before described and
those now under discussion. In the latter case the question is not one
of transference of will or of a motor or inhibitory impulse. What is
actually transferred from the agent is probably only a simple idea. Its
subsequent translation into action, or the inhibition of action, is
as much the work of the percipient's mind as, in the other case, the
transformation of the idea of a number into a visual hallucination.
As regards the particular effect produced, it must be remembered that
the prime characteristic of the hypnotic state is its openness to
suggestion, and especially to suggestion coming through a particular
channel. It is the establishment of this suggestible state, which
consists essentially in the suppression of the controlling faculties
which normally pass judgment on the suggestions received from without,
and select those which are to find response in action, that Mr. Beard
describes as the surrender of his will. So that when Mr. Beard answered
our questions he did what his natural courtesy led him to do; when
he maintained silence his tendency to respond to the stimulus of
our questions was momentarily overcome by the stronger stimulus of
the idea received from the agent. But the superior efficacy of the
idea so transferred resulted not from any impulsive quality in the
idea itself, but from the previously established relations between
agent and percipient. The fact that experiments of this kind have
rarely succeeded in the waking state is no doubt due to the inferior
suggestibility of that state.
_Actions originated by Silent Willing._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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