The George "Pelham" famous in the annals of Psychical Research was a
friend of the present writer, and his alleged postcarnate self appeared
through Mrs. Piper to the following effect. There could not have been
anything cooked up about it; it was my first and only sitting with Mrs.
Piper, who knew nothing about me or my friends. In fact, the old theories
of some form of fraud, now, in the light of the vast accumulation of later
knowledge, seem ridiculous. However the phenomena have to be explained,
that explanation is out of date.
G.P. speaks.--"A" [assumed initial. Ed.] "is in a critical state.
He's not himself now. He's terribly depressed." Sitter--"Can you
tell anything [more] about A?" G.P.--"Friend of yours in body."
S.--"Of Hodgson?" [Who was present. This question and the
following were mild "tests": I knew the man well. Ed.]
G.P.--"Yes." S.--"Did I ever know him?" G.P.--"Yes, you knew him
very well. You're connected with him." S.--"Through whom?"
G.P.--"Do you know any B----?" [assumed initial. Ed.] S.--"Are A.
and I connected through B?" G.P.--"Write to B. and he'll tell you
all about it."
It turned out later that A. actually was low in his mind, and that B.,
whom nobody present knew, _was_ trying to get him occupation. I knew
nothing whatever about any such circumstances, nor did Hodgson. To suppose
that Mrs. Piper did, would be absurd. _But_ they were known to other minds
"in the body," and hence the medium's utterance of them is open to the
interpretation of teloteropathy. Similar instances are not rare, but the
interpretation of teloteropathy seems to be rapidly losing probability.
In this instance, I _was_ "connected with" B., but only so far as he had
become a professor at Yale long after my graduation: I did not know him
personally. But my intimate connection with A. was not only direct, but
through several persons intimate with us both, including G.P. when living.
Mere telepathy, certainly mere telepathy from my mind, would have
"spotted" some one of these connections much more readily than the alleged
one with B., which was hardly a connection at all.
The _simplest_ solution for the whole business, though perhaps not the
most "scientific," or even probable, is that the spirit of G.P. was
troubled about A. and habitually thinking of me at the University Club as
a Yale man, on my turning up at the seance, was reminded of the solution
of A.'s troubles proposed through B., and wanted me to help.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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