Psychic phenomena : $b a brief account of the physical manifestations observed in psychical researchBennett, Edward T.
Philosophy
Psychic phenomena : $b a brief account of the physical manifestations observed in psychical research
Bennett, Edward T.
Parapsychology
There is one, and perhaps only one phase of the great subject of
Thought-Transference or Telepathy the manifestations of which can
legitimately be included among physical phenomena. Involuntary drawing
or scribbling is a phenomenon of very common occurrence. But when such
an involuntary drawing turns out to be a more or less exact copy of a
drawing which the involuntary draughtsman has never seen; and still
further when it turns out that the original drawing has been drawn by
another person with the deliberate purpose of impressing it on the
mind of the involuntary draughtsman, the subject assumes an entirely
new interest. This, however, is the history of those series of
"Thought-Transference Drawings" which have been published by the
Society for Psychical Research. They are scattered through several
volumes of its publications. Through the kindness of the Council of
that Society I am able to put before the reader the largest selection
of these drawings which has appeared. The drawings are the results of
several different groups of experimenters in different parts of the
country; and the selection has been made from as many groups as
possible. In all cases facsimiles of the original drawing and of the
reproduction are given. The earlier series done under the auspices of
a Committee of the Society do not represent successes picked out of a
large number of failures, but include all the attempts made at the
time. The number that can be considered total failures in any of the
trials is exceedingly small. Any conceivable chance or coincidence is
entirely inadequate to account for the similarity in the great
majority of cases.
The "First Report on Thought-Reading" was written by Professor W. F.
Barrett, Mr. Gurney, and Mr. Myers, and was read at the first General
Meeting of the Society on 17th July 1882. In order to illustrate the
then state of scientific opinion, the writers say: "The present state of
scientific opinion throughout the world is not only hostile to any
belief in the possibility of transmitting a single mental concept except
through the ordinary channels of sensations, but, generally speaking, it
is hostile even to any inquiry upon the matter. Every leading
physiologist and psychologist down to the present time has relegated
what, for want of a better term, has been called "Thought-Reading" to
the limbo of explored fallacies."[64] A second Report by the same writers
was read at a meeting of the Society in the same year. In this Report
the first series of "Thought-Transference Drawings" was described.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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