Telepathy, Genuine and FraudulentBaggally, W. W. (William Wortley)
Science
Telepathy, Genuine and Fraudulent
Baggally, W. W. (William Wortley)
Parapsychology -- Investigation; Telepathy
Not one of these theories has been accepted as proved by the Society for
Psychical Research. In cases of spontaneous telepathy it is now
generally believed that the appearance of a person at the time of death
or at a crisis is not caused by an objective bodily ghost, but arises
from a telepathic impact from the agent formulating itself into his
image in the mind of the percipient.
In the case of two persons seeing an apparition at the same time, this
may be due to the two percipients receiving each, separately, a
telepathic impression, or there may be only one percipient who
telepathically impresses the hallucination on the mind of the second
person.
I will now proceed to relate some cases of telepathy which have come
under my personal observation. My first experiment in the transmission
of images of drawings and diagrams took place in the rooms of the
Society for Psychical Research in May 1902. A private lady, Miss M.
Telbin, acted as percipient, and I acted as agent. There were present at
the time Mr. J. G. Piddington, Honorary Secretary of the Society, and
Mr. Thomas, the then Acting Secretary.
During the first experiment Miss Telbin, who was a stranger to me, sat
with her back towards a large opaque screen. In front of her stood a
small table upon which rested a crystal ball. She was asked to gaze at
the crystal and to describe any vision that might appear to form itself
therein. I may parenthetically remark that the object of crystal-gazing
is to concentrate the mind and to withdraw it from outward influences.
The vision seen in the crystal does not exist objectively, but only in
the mind of the seer. On the other side of the screen, entirely hidden
from the view of Miss Telbin, sat Mr. Piddington and myself. This
gentleman proceeded to take from a box, which was behind the screen and
on the floor between his and my chairs, various articles, and to hand
them silently, one at a time, to me. I then concentrated my thoughts
successively on each article. Miss Telbin gave an account of what she
saw in the crystal, and Mr. Thomas, who sat in such a position that both
Mr. Piddington and myself were hidden from his view, took notes of what
occurred.
The first article handed me was a _Windsor Magazine_, on the cover of
which there was an engraving of Windsor Castle. I concentrated my
thoughts on this engraving, and Miss Telbin then gave a description of
the vision that presented itself to her mental view.
She first observed that she could see trees on the left side of the
picture, and cottages also on the left, and that there was water.
These details were correct so far as they went, but the subsequent
details that she gave were incorrect, and the experiment was abandoned
as a failure. I then replaced the magazine in the box from which it had
been taken, so that Miss Telbin had no opportunity of seeing the
magazine during the experiment nor after.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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