Sinclair, Mary Craig, 1883-1961; Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968; Telepathy; Telepathy -- Case studies
Footnote 21:
Statistically this must be rated a failure. But it is quite possible
that in fact there is an underlying real connection. Perhaps Mrs. S
had read the life of Napoleon, and had been aware that he was by
education primarily an artillerist, and that the increased and
peculiar use of artillery was the chief distinctive feature of his
campaigns. If so, it is quite possible that the idea of cannon,
struggling for emergence in her mind, by association of ideas got
sidetracked to Napoleon, and became expressed in “Black Napoleon hat
and red military coat.” I have not discovered what the uniform of
Napoleon’s artillerists was; his infantry, at any rate, wore coats
brilliantly faced with red.
Footnote 22:
Let it be understood that there were reproductions rated as
Suggestive, Partial Successes or even Successes, where there was no
such “correspondence.” That is to say, the reproduction might not
recognizably represent any living thing, might even be indeterminable
as to its nature, and yet so notably imitate the leading features of
the original (though omitting something necessary for identification)
as to give it one grade or another of ranking otherwise than Failure.
Footnote 23:
Here the original was not a drawing but a “red flower” that Mr.
Sinclair was simultaneously reading about.
Footnote 24:
Mathematically, that is, on the basis of a large number of counted
experiments in guessing.
Footnote 25:
Unless by “involuntary whispering,” a theory to be attended to later.
Footnote 26:
There was one experiment with drawings. One of the Danish
experimenters drew a candlestick, with a lighted candle in it. The
other in response drew what in the cut looks like a crooked
milk-bottle with a short curved line proceeding from one end and two
short curved lines proceeding from one side. The latter says he meant
it for a cat, but does not know why he furnished it with only two
“legs.” The only use made of this drawing in the pamphlet is to
compare it with a selected and very poor example from the Richet
series and to assert that it is as good a reproduction. The utmost I
should grant for the Richet drawing is that, regarded as one of a
series containing a number of far more impressive ones, it is
Suggestive, and the most I could grant for the “cat,” is that it may
possibly be Slightly Suggestive. But did Hansen and Lehmann think
there was any resemblance between their reproduction and original? If
so, how did they know that there was no thought-transference and why
did they not continue to experiment with drawings? Were they afraid
that if they did, they might have an intractable problem on their
hands? But if they thought there was no real resemblance, what
possible weight had their failure against a series of experiments
wherein a large percentage of the reproductions beyond question _did_
notably resemble the originals?
Footnote 27:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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