Sinclair, Mary Craig, 1883-1961; Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968; Telepathy; Telepathy -- Case studies
My friend and publisher Charles Boni thinks that I should write this
book without protestations; taking a dignified position, sure that my
readers will trust me. But as it happens, I have read, not merely the
literature of psychic research, but also the literature in opposition to
it, and I know the arguments advanced by persons who are unwilling to
change their “fundamental notions.” It seems common sense to answer here
the objections which are certain to be made.
I submitted this manuscript to the two leading psychologists of America,
Morton Prince and William McDougall. Dr. Prince was taken by death
before he found time to read it, but Professor McDougall read it, and
has stated his reactions in the preface. In writing to me, he expressed
the hope that my wife would be able to make some of these telepathy
tests under the observation of well-known scientists. In replying, I
assured him that my wife and I shared this hope; but whether it can ever
be realized is a problem for the future. All Craig’s work so far has
depended upon a state of complete peace and relaxation. As she has
pointed out, it is a matter of “undivided concentration,” and even such
disturbing things as light and noise are an interference. One friend who
has tried to experiment lately at our instigation gave it up because of
automobile horns in the street outside. She declared that these had
never disturbed her before, but that the effort not to hear them when
concentrating only caused her to concentrate on the horns, and so
threatened to give her a case of “nerves.”
Whether Craig would be able to get the necessary state of mind in the
presence of strangers, skeptical or possibly hostile, is a problem yet
to be solved. Unless we are going to beg the question, we have to assume
that telepathy may be a reality; and if it be a reality, then certainly
what is in the other person’s mind makes a difference, and certainly it
is a serious matter to ask a woman in delicate health to open her mind
to the moods of strangers. Some day in the future Craig is going to make
the test, but whether it succeeds or fails will not alter, so far as I
am concerned, what has already happened in my presence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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