Studies in the Out-Lying Fields of Psychic ScienceTuttle, Hudson
Religion
Studies in the Out-Lying Fields of Psychic Science
Tuttle, Hudson
Parapsychology
Her lower limbs became twisted entirely around each other. Her right arm
was bent upward and doubled under her head. She had no use of her right
hand at all, and of the left hand only the thumb and little finger.
Lying all the time, night and day, upon her right side, her right hand
cramped under her neck, and only her left free, with closed eyes, and
working back of her head, as she was forced to do, she wrought the most
exquisite worsted work and wax flowers. The darkness or light were all
the same to her; in fact, the light was painful to her, and even the
gas-light was placed in the further corner of the room and shaded. She
regained hearing and speech after several years, but otherwise her
conditions remained unchanged. She knew the thoughts of those who came
near her; printed pages or a sealed letter held in her hand back of her
head were readily read. Mr. Henry Parkhurst made many experiments to
test her powers. She repeatedly read sealed letters he gave her, and, as
a crucial test, he took a letter at random from the waste basket of an
acquaintance, tore it in strips, and then cut the stripes into squares.
He shook the pieces well together, put them into an envelope, and sealed
it. This he handed the blind girl. She passed her hand over it several
times, took a pencil and wrote the letter verbatim. Mr. Parkhurst opened
the envelope, arranged the pieces, and found she had made a perfect
copy.
Not satisfied, with the assistance of two friends, Mr. Parkhurst secured
an ancient mining report, yellow with age, and with averted face, so
that he might not see the contents, he tore out a page of tabulated
figures with explanation. This he folded and tore into scores of pieces.
Some of the pieces fell on the floor and were allowed to remain there.
The others he put in an envelope and sealed, and handed to one of his
assistants, who put it in another envelope, which he also sealed and
handed to the third, who enclosed it in the same manner. Then the party
went to Miss Fancher’s room, and asked her to give them the contents of
the envelope. She took it in her hand and wrote, “It is nonsense;
figures in which there are blank places, words that are incomplete, and
sentences in which words are missing.” She wrote on, in some sentences
skipping three or four words, and began with the last five letters of a
word having ten letters. The table of figures she made contained blank
spaces, but she wrote it out; and the gentleman returned to Mr.
Parkhurst’s, where they arranged the pieces in their original form. They
found that the copy made by Miss Fancier was absolutely correct, and the
blank spaces represented the pieces left on the floor. When these were
fitted in, the broken sentences were complete.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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