Sinclair, Mary Craig, 1883-1961; Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968; Telepathy; Telepathy -- Case studies
It is psychologically likely that a drawing just before made or even
looked at sometimes unfortunately influences a succeeding drawing. The
most interesting apparent example of this is Figure 8a made just after
Mrs. Sinclair had been looking at the several concentric circles of
her last reproduction in the Sinclair-Irwin Group. First she got a
whirl of circles, then the whirl assumed the shape of a triangle, then
came two angles differently characterized, and finally the angles
multiplied and constituted a star duplicating the original. And a
careful study makes it impossible to doubt that there were
anticipations. Some are too striking to be likely as accidents in the
same series, and in some cases Mrs. Sinclair announced ahead that
such-and-such an object would be found among the originals, and was
right. Indeed, in cases where a set of originals was not viewed by the
agent one by one, as the tests were proceeding, but were submitted in
a heap together, it is a wonder that as a general rule the
correspondences were found in due order, and we are hardly able to
explain it. I do not, however, count any feature theoretically left
over from the previous drawing as evidential, but only as an
interesting glimpse into the mental processes. Neither does Mr.
Sinclair, as I understand him. Nor do I reckon any “anticipation” as
evidential, unless it was announced in advance, and then only in a
reduced degree. And Mr. Sinclair’s principles of estimation were
nearly the same. For he says (the italics mine):
“Manifestly, if I grant the right to more than one guess, I am
increasing the chances of guesswork, and correspondingly reducing the
significance of the totals. What I have done is this: where such
_cases have occurred, I have called them total failures, except in a
few cases, where the description was so detailed and exact as to be
overwhelming—as in the case of this ‘Happy Hooligan.’_ Even so, I have
not called it a complete success, only a partial success. In order to
be _classified as a complete success, my wife’s drawing must have been
made for the particular drawing of mine which she had in her hand at
that time_; and throughout this account, the reader is to understand
that every drawing presented _was made in connection with the
particular drawing printed alongside it—except in cases where I
expressly state otherwise_.”
Footnote 19:
When she reached the snake original, the percipient made no drawing,
but wrote “Man running fast.” If the reader will turn back to
Experiment 2 of February 8th, where the original was a snake, he will
again find the cat’s tail and living things fleeing. I more than ever
suspect that buried in her subconsciousness is the memory of some
incident wherein a snake and a cat and something else in flight
figure.
Footnote 20:
O—original drawing. R—reproduction. Quoted matter was written by Mrs.
S as a part of her result.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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