Telepathy, Genuine and FraudulentBaggally, W. W. (William Wortley)
Science
Telepathy, Genuine and Fraudulent
Baggally, W. W. (William Wortley)
Parapsychology -- Investigation; Telepathy
3. At the conclusion of the performance, after the bulk of the audience
had left, some persons remained in the foyer of the theatre, and a
discussion arose, during which some of the persons present asserted that
Yoga Rama had brought about his results by supernormal means. Mr.
Marriott, Mr. Guttwoch, and I denied this. At that moment Yoga Rama came
into the foyer, and he was accused by us of having been able to see. He
asserted that he had not seen, and to prove it offered to try some
experiments while a handkerchief was held tightly against his eyes. Mr.
Guttwoch held a handkerchief against his eyes. As Yoga Rama was not now
able to see, he resorted to a different method from the one he used on
the stage. He held the wrist of the left hand of a lady with the thumb
and three fingers of his right hand, while his forefinger rested against
the back of the lady's hand. He then asked her to trace the letters of
the name thought of with the forefinger of her right hand on the palm of
her left hand, which was being held by him. He was able to tell the
name, but only after repeated tracing of the letters by the lady. Yoga
Rama not being able to be guided by sight as in his stage performances,
now guided himself by the sense of touch. Although I have never before
carried out an experiment of this nature myself, when Miss Newton and I
returned to the rooms of the Society for Psychical Research I tried the
experiment with her. I closed my eyes and held her wrist, and was able
to feel the letter which she traced on the palm of her hand. Manifestly
this is a difficult trick to perform, and requires great practice. I
noticed that Yoga Rama chose the hand of a lady in preference to that of
a gentleman, obviously because a lady's hand is thinner than that of a
man, and the motion of her finger would be more easily felt.
What convinced me more than any of the above reasons that Yoga Rama was
able to see during his performance is the following fact. I placed the
sticking plaster over my eyes after it had been taken from Yoga Rama's
eyes and, to my surprise, I found I could perfectly well see through it.
The numerous small holes with which it was perforated allowed me to do
this.
The audience at the "Little Theatre" had had their expectations raised
that they were to witness manifestations of the occult powers of the
mind through the mediumship of an Abyssinian Yogi, instead of which they
witnessed an ordinary conjuring entertainment by a man who previously to
assuming the name of "Yoga [_sic_] Rama" was known as Professor A. D.
Pickens of Conduit Street, London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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