Raymond; or, Life and Death: With examples of the evidence for survival of memory and affection after death.Lodge, Oliver, Sir
Religion
Raymond; or, Life and Death: With examples of the evidence for survival of memory and affection after death.
Lodge, Oliver, Sir
Future life; Lodge, Raymond, 1889-1915 (Spirit); Spiritualism; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British
When operating indirectly in the ordinary way through a
control and a medium, it usually appears to be remarkably
difficult to get names transmitted. Most mediums are
able to convey a name only with difficulty. Now plainly
a name, especially the proper name of a person, is a
very conventional and meaningless thing: it has very few
links to connect it with other items in memory; and hence
arises the normally well-known difficulty of recalling
one. Conscious effort made to recover a name seems to
inhibit the power of doing so: the best plan is to leave
it, and let subconsciousness work. An example occurred
to me the other day, when I tried to remember the name
of a prominent statesman or ex-Prime Minister whom I had
met in Australia. What I seemed to recollect was that
the name began with "D," and I made several shots at
it, which I recorded. The effort went on at intervals
for days, since I thought it would be an instructive
experiment. I know now, a month or two later, without
any effort and without looking it up, that the name was
Deakin; but what my shots at it were I do not remember.
I will have the page in the note-book looked up and
reproduced here, as an example of memory-groping, at
intervals, during more than one day. Here they are:--D.
Dering, Denman, Deeming, Derriman, Derring, Deeley,
Dempster, Denting, Desman, Deering.
Now I knew the name quite well, and have known it for
long, and have taken some interest in the gentleman who
owns it; and I am known by some members of my family to
have done so. Hence if I had been on 'the other side'
and could only get as far as D, it would have seemed
rather absurd to anyone whose memory for names is good.
But indeed I have had times when names very much more
familiar to me than that could not on the spur of the
moment be recalled--not always even the initial letter;
though, for some reason or other, the initial letter is
certainly easier than the word.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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