Telepathy and the Subliminal Self

In the German version of the twelfth century as given by Wolfram, in his Parzival, the Grail is a beautiful, sacred stone, enshrined in the magnificent temple at Montsalvat, guarded by the consecrated knights and the sick and erring, but repentant, King Amfortas. While the unhappy king was worshipping with gaze intent upon the Sacred Emblem, suddenly letters of fire surrounded it and he read the cheering prophecy:

“In the loving soul of a guiltless one
Put thy faith—Him have I chosen.”

Kufferath remarks, “The religious emblem soon became a symbolic object—it revealed to its worshippers the knowledge of the future, the mystery of the world, the treasures of human knowledge, and imparted a poetic inspiration.” So it comes to pass that in the legend in its latest form—the splendid work of the Master of Bayreuth, the Holy Grail, as a chalice and Christian emblem, is still endowed with the same miraculous power, and is rescued from the unfortunate guardianship of Amfortas by the “loving soul of a guiltless one”—the simple, tried, and much-enduring Parsifal, miraculously promised long before by the Grail itself.

It will be seen, then, that crystal-gazing in its various forms has, from the earliest times, been practised with great ceremony for the purpose of acquiring knowledge concerning affairs and events unknown and often not discoverable by ordinary methods.

Stripped of its fictitious accessories—its charms, incantations, incense and prayers—one single important fact remains common in the most ancient and the most modern usages, and that fact is the steady and continuous gazing at a bright object. It is identical with Braid’s method of inducing the hypnotic trance, with Luys’ method, causing his patients to gaze at revolving mirrors, and with the method of hypnotizers generally who desire their patients to direct their gaze toward some specified, and preferably some bright or reflecting object.

In crystal gazing, as ordinarily practised, the full hypnotic condition is not usually induced; but in many cases a condition of reverie occurs, in which pictures or visions fill the mind or appear externalized in the crystal or mirror. With some persons this condition so favorable to visualizing, is produced by simply becoming passive; with others the gazing at a bright or reflecting object assists in securing that end, while with many none of these means, nor yet the assistance of the most skilful hypnotizer, avails to secure the message-bearing action of the subliminal self.

The experiences of Miss X., in crystal-gazing are devoid of the interest imparted by exciting incident, and on that very account are the more valuable as illustrating our subject. She has friends of whose experiments she has carefully observed the results, and she has some seventy cases or experiments of her own of which she has kept carefully prepared notes, always made directly or within an hour after each experiment. For a crystal she recommends “a good-sized magnifying glass placed on a dark background.”

She classifies her results as follows:—

(1) After-images or recrudescent memories coming up from the subconscious strata to which they had fallen.

(2) Objectivations, or the visualizing of ideas or images which already exist consciously or unconsciously in the mind.

(3) Visions possibly telepathic, or clairvoyant, implying acquirement of knowledge by supranormal means.

The following are some of Miss X.’s experiments:—

She had been occupying herself with accounts and opened a drawer to take out her banking book; accidentally her hand came in contact with the crystal she was in the habit of using, and she welcomed the suggestion of a change of occupation. Figures, however, were still uppermost, and the crystal showed her nothing but the combination 7694. Dismissing this as probably the number of the cab she had driven in that morning, or a chance combination of figures with which she had been occupied, she laid aside the crystal and took up her banking book, which certainly she had not seen for several months. Greatly to her surprise she found that 7694 was the number of her book, plainly indicated on the cover.

She declares that she would have utterly failed to recall the figures, and could not even have guessed the number of digits nor the value of the first figure.

Again:—Having carelessly destroyed a letter without preserving the address of her correspondent she tried in vain to recall it. She knew the county, and, searching on a map, she recognized the name of the town, one quite unfamiliar to her, but she had no clue to the house or street, till at length it occurred to her to test the value of the crystal as a means of recalling forgotten knowledge. A short inspection showed her the words, “H. House,” in gray letters on a white ground. Having nothing better to rely upon she risked posting the letter to the address so curiously supplied. A day or two brought an answer—on paper headed “H. House” in gray letters on a white ground.

One more illustration from Miss X., one of her earliest experiments, numbered 11, in her notebook. There came into the crystal a vision perplexing and wholly unexpected: a quaint old chair, an aged hand, a worn black coat-sleeve resting on the arm of the chair. It was slowly recognized as a recollection of a room in a country vicarage which she had not been in and had seldom thought of since she was a child of ten. But whence came the vision, and why to-day? The clue was found. That same day she had been reading Dante, a book which she had first learned to read and enjoy by the help of the aged vicar with the “worn black coat-sleeve” resting on the same quaint, oak chair-arm in that same corner of the study in the country vicarage.

Here are two cases from the same writer belonging to the third division of her classification, namely, where an explanation of the vision requires the introduction of a telepathic influence. On Monday, February 11th, she took up the crystal with the deliberate wish and intention of seeing a certain figure which occupied her thoughts at the time; but instead of the desired figure the field was preoccupied by a plain little nosegay of daffodils, such as might be formed by two or three fine flowers bunched together. This presented itself in several different positions notwithstanding her wish to be rid of it, so as to have the field clear for her desired picture. She concluded that the vision came in consequence of her having the day before seen the first daffodils of the season on a friend’s dinner-table. But the resemblance to these was not at all complete, as they were loosely arranged with ferns and ivy, whereas the crystal vision was a compact little bunch without foliage of any kind. On Thursday, February 14th, she very unexpectedly received as a “Valentine” a painting on a blue satin ground, of a bunch of daffodils corresponding exactly with her crystal vision. She also ascertained that on Monday the 11th, the artist had spent several hours in making studies of these flowers, arranged in different positions.

Again:—On Saturday, March 9th, she had written a rather impatient note to a friend, accusing her of having, on her return from the Continent, spent several days in London without visiting her. On Sunday evening following, she found her friend before her in the crystal, but could not understand why she held up in a deprecating manner what seemed to be a music portfolio. However, she made a note of the vision and sketched the portfolio. On Monday she received an answer to her impatient letter, pleading guilty to the charge of neglect, but urging as an excuse that she was attending the Royal Academy of Music and was engaged there the greater part of every day. Such an excuse was to the last degree unexpected, as her friend was a married woman and had never given serious attention to music. It was true, however—and she afterwards learned that she carried a portfolio which was the counterpart of the one she had sketched from her crystal vision.

The following incident in which an East India army officer, Col. Wickham, his wife, Princess di Cristoforo, and Ruth, their educated native servant, were the chief actors, illustrates another phase of crystal-gazing. All three of the actors participating in the incident were well known personally to Mr. Myers, who reports the case. Briefly stated: In 1885, Colonel, then Major, Wickham, was stationed with the Royal Artillery at Colabra, about two miles from Bombay. Mrs. Wickham was accustomed to experiment with some of the Indian servants and especially Ruth, by having her look in a glass of magnetized water. One morning Lord Reay was expected to arrive at Bombay, and there was to be a grand full-dress parade of the English troops. While sitting at the breakfast table the major directed his orderly to see that his uniform was in readiness. The man obeyed, but soon returned with a dejected air, and stammered out—“Sahib, me no can find the dress pouch-belt.” A general hunt for the lost article was instituted, but to no purpose; the pouch-belt was absolutely missing. The enraged major stormed and accused the servants of stealing it, which only produced a tumult and a storm of denials from them all. “Now,” cried the major, “is an excellent opportunity to test the seeing powers of Ruth. Bring her in at once and let her try if she can find my pouch-belt.” Accordingly a tumbler was filled with water, and Mrs. W. placing it on her left hand made passes over it with her right. Water so treated could always be detected with absolute certainty by Ruth, simply by tasting it—a fact not uncommonly observed, and which was an additional proof that she possessed unusual perceptive power. Into this glass of water Ruth gazed intently, but she could discern nothing. She was commanded to find the thief, but no thief could be seen. Changing her tactics, Mrs. W. then commanded Ruth to see where the major was the last time he wore the belt. At once she described the scene of a grand parade which took place months before, and which they all recognized. “Do not take your eyes off from the major for a moment,” said Mrs. W., and Ruth continued to gaze intently at the pageant in the glass. At length the parade ended and Ruth said, “Sahib has gone into a big house by the water; all his regimentals are put in the tin case, but the pouch-belt is left out; it is hanging on a peg in the dressing-room of the big house by the water.” “The yacht club!” cried the major. “Patilla, send some one at once to see if the belt has been left there.” The search was rewarded by finding the belt as described, and the servants returned bringing it with a grand tumult of triumph. On many other occasions was Ruth’s aid successfully invoked to find lost articles.

Instead of a glass of water, some springs and wells when gazed into have the same effect of producing visions, especially when a mirror is so held at the same time as to reflect light upon the surface of the water. Springs of this sort have been reported at various periods in the past, some being frequented for health and some for purposes of divination. The latest instance of a well possessing the quality or power of producing visions is that upon the farm of Col. J. J. Deyer at Handsoms, Va. It was in May, 1892, that the curious influence pertaining to this well was first observed and soon it was thronged with visitors. Faces, both familiar and strange, of people living and of those long dead, and hundreds of other objects, animate and inanimate, were distinctly seen upon the surface of the water. The water of the well is unusually clear and the bottom of white sand is clearly visible. A mirror is held over the top of the well with face toward the water so as to throw reflected light upon the surface. At first Miss Deyer, the colonel’s daughter, always held the mirror, but afterwards it was found that any one who could hold the mirror steadily performed the duty equally well. If the mirror was held unsteadily the pictures were indistinct or failed to appear at all; and the brighter the day the better the pictures. Many level headed men and some well qualified to observe curious psychical phenomena visited the well, and nearly all were convinced that, under favorable circumstances, remarkable pictures appeared; naturally, however, different causes were assigned for these appearances. Prof. Dolbear and Mr. T. E. Allen, from the American Psychical Society, saw nothing remarkable during their visit to the well, and referred the pictures seen by so many people to the reflection of objects about the well, aided by the mental excitement and expectation of so many spectators. This explanation, however, seems hardly sufficient to account for the hallucinations of so large a number of persons kept up for so long a time. At all events, an interesting psychic element of some sort was active.

Col. Deyer is an intelligent man, commanding the respect of his neighbors, and has held an appointment of considerable importance under the government at Washington. In a letter dated December 2d, 1893, he says:—“Thousands of people from various sections of the Union have visited the place—of course some laugh at it. I do myself sometimes, as I am not superstitious and take little stock in spooks or anything connected therewith; but the well is here, and still shows up many wondrous things, but not so plentiful nor so plainly as it did a year ago.”

We have presented in this well the most favorable conditions possible for crystal-gazing—a body of unusually clear sparkling water, lying upon a white sand bottom, and the rays of the sun reflected into it by means of a mirror;—no better “cup of divination” could be desired, nor any better circumstances for securing the psychical conditions favorable for the action of the subliminal self.

The various methods of practising crystal-gazing here noticed may be looked upon simply as so many different forms of sensory automatism, referable in these instances to the sense of sight; and whether produced by using the “cup of divination,” the ink or treacle in the palm of the hand, the jewels of the Jewish high-priest, the ordinary crystal or stone of the early Christian centuries, and even down to the experiments of Miss X., and the Society for Psychical Research, or last of all, the wells or springs of clear water, either the early ones of Greece and Rome, or the latest one on the farm of Col. Deyer, they are all simply methods of securing such a condition by gazing fixedly at a bright object, as best to facilitate communication between the ordinary or primary self, and the secondary or subliminal self. It is the first, and perhaps the most important, in a series of sensory automatisms, or those having reference to the senses, in distinction from motor automatisms, or those produced by various automatic actions of the body.

These sensory automatisms are usually looked upon as hallucinations—but so far as the term hallucination conveys the idea of deception or falsity it is inappropriate, since the messages brought in this manner are just as real—just as veridical or truth-telling as automatic writing or speaking.

Hearing is another form of sensory automatism, which, while less common than that of seeing, has also been noticed in all ages.

The child Samuel, ministering to the High Priest Eli, three times in one night, heard himself called by name, and three times came to Eli saying, “Here am I;” adding at last, “for surely thou didst call me.” The wise high-priest recognized the rare psychic qualities of the child and brought him up for the priesthood in place of his own wayward sons; and he became the great seer of Israel.

Socrates was accustomed to hear a voice which always admonished him when the course he was pursuing or contemplating was wrong or harmful; but it was silent when the contemplated course was right. This was the famous “Dæmon of Socrates,” and was described and discussed by Xenophon and Plato as well as other Greek writers and many modern ones. Socrates himself called it the “Divine Sign.” And on that account he was accused of introducing new gods, and thus offering indignity to the accredited gods of Greece. On this, as one of the leading charges, Socrates was tried and condemned to death; but in all the proceedings connected with his trial and condemnation he persisted in his course which he knew would end in his death, rather than be false to his convictions of duty and right; and this he did because the voice—the “Divine Sign”—which always before had restrained him in any wrong course, was not heard restraining him in his present course.

Only once was it heard, and that was to restrain him from preparing any set argument in his defence before his judges. So he accepted his sentence and drank the hemlock, surrounded by his friends, to whom he calmly explained that death could not be an evil thing, not only from the arguments which he had adduced, but also because the Divine Sign, which never failed to admonish him when pursuing any harmful course, had not admonished nor restrained him in this course which had led directly to his death.

Joan of Arc heard voices, which in childhood only guided her in her ordinary duties, but which in her early womanhood made her one of the most conspicuous figures in the history of her time. They placed her, a young and unknown peasant girl, as a commander at the head of the defeated, disorganized, and discouraged armies of France, aroused them to enthusiasm, made them victorious, freed her country from the power of England, and placed the rightful prince upon the throne. She also heard and obeyed her guiding voices, even unto martyrdom.

Numerous instances might be cited occurring in ancient and also in modern times where the subliminal self has sent its message of instruction, guidance, warning, or restraint to the primary self by means of impressions made upon the organ of hearing. Socrates, Joan of Arc, Swedenborg, and many others considered these instructions infallible, supernatural, or divine; but in other cases the messages so given have been trivial, perhaps even false, thus removing the element of infallibility and absolute truthfulness from messages of this sort, and at the same time casting a doubt upon their supernatural character in any case. It seems wisest, therefore, at least to examine these and all cases of automatically received messages, whether by writing, trance-speaking, dreams, visions, or the hearing of voices, with a definite conception of a real and natural cause and origin for these messages in a subliminal self, forming a definite part of each individual: bearing in mind also that this subliminal self possesses powers and characteristics varying in each individual case, in many cases greatly transcending the powers and capabilities of the normal or primary self. But infallibility, though sometimes claimed, is by no means to be expected from this source, and the messages coming from each subliminal self must be judged and valued according to their own intrinsic character and merit, just as a message coming to us from any primary self, whether known or unknown to us, must be judged and valued according to its source, character, and merit.

CHAPTER X.

It has been said that primitive, undeveloped, and ignorant people almost universally believe in ghosts; while with the advance of civilization, culture, and general intelligence, the frequency of alleged apparitions and the belief in ghosts diminishes or altogether disappears. If this statement were to stand unqualified, by so much would the reality and respectability of phantasms be discredited. Possibly, however, it may be found that the last word has not yet been said, and that there may exist a scientific aspect for even so unstable and diaphanous a subject as ghosts.

Instead of going over the literature of the subject from the earliest times—a literature, by the way, which in the hands of Tylor, Maury, Scott, Ralston, Mrs. Crowe and others certainly does not lack interest—it will better suit our present purpose to examine some facts relative to perception in general and vision in particular, and give some examples illustrating different phases of the subject.

Perception may be defined as the cognizance which the mind takes of impressions presented to it through the organs of sense, and possibly also by other means.

One class of perceptions is universally recognized and is in a measure understood, namely, perceptions arising from impressions made by recognized external objects or forces upon the organs of sense, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and also the general sense of touch. These perceptions in particular are designated as real or true, because they correspond to recognized external realities.

But impressions are also made upon the organs of special sense by influences which are not recognized as having any objective reality, but which nevertheless affect the senses in a manner often identical with that in which they are affected by recognized external objects, and they cause the same perceptions to arise in the mind. Hence another broad class of perceptions includes those which are taken cognizance of by the mind from impressions made upon the organs of sense in other ways and by other means than by external objects, and often where there is no evidence that any external object exists corresponding to the impression so made. Perceptions arising in these various ways are called hallucinations.

On close examination, however, it is found that the sharp line of separation between what has and what has not an objective reality is not easily drawn, any more than in biology the sharp line between animal and vegetable life can be easily drawn, or at the lower end of the scale between the living and the not living.

So the origin of those perceptions which are classed as hallucinations has always been a subject of controversy, even among philosophers of the greatest merit and eminence.

Without following out the discussions which have arisen on this point—discussions which are often confusing and generally inconclusive, a fairly distinct view of the subject may be obtained by considering the origin of these perceptions under three heads—namely:—

(1) Perceptions which are reckoned as hallucinations may be originated centrally; that is, they may arise wholly within the mind itself without any direct external stimulus. For instance the characters drawn by the novelist may become so real to him, and even to some of his readers, that they become externalized—actual objects of visual perception and are seen to act and even heard to speak. The instance is repeatedly quoted of the painter who, after carefully studying a sitter’s appearance, could voluntarily project it visibly into space and paint the portrait, not from the original, but from the phantasm so produced; and of another who could externalize and project other mental pictures in the same manner, pictures which so interested him and were so subject to the ordinary laws of vision that he would request any one who took a position in front of them, to move away so as not to obstruct his view.

It will be noticed in these cases that although the perception has its origin centrally, in the mind itself, and is even voluntarily produced, still, it is seen as an impression made upon the visual organ in exactly the same manner as a picture thrown upon the retina by a real external object; it disappears when the eyes are closed or an opaque object intervenes, and follows the laws of optics in general; hence, strictly speaking, these perceptions are also real.

(2) Perceptions may have their origin peripherally—that is, the point of excitation which causes the act of perception in the mind may exist in the external sense organs themselves, even when no external object corresponding to the perception exists at the time, or it is not in a position on account of distance or intervening objects to affect the senses.

In examining the cases which may be placed under this head they resolve themselves into two classes: those which occur in connection with some disease or defect in the sense organ concerned, and those which are recrudescences or after-visions, arising from over-excitation of those organs; for instance, after looking through a window in a very bright light—even a considerable length of time afterwards—on shutting the eyes or looking into a dark room, an image of the window is seen with all its divisions and peculiarities of construction distinctly presented. To the country lad returning home at night from his first visit to the circus the whole scene is again presented; and ring, horses, equestrians, acrobats and clowns are all seen and externalized with the utmost distinctness; even the crack of the ring-master’s whip is heard and the jokes and antics of the clowns repeated.

(3) Perceptions may have their origin telepathically—that is, scenes and incidents transpiring at a distance far too great to affect the bodily organs of sense in any direct or ordinary way do, nevertheless, in some way, cause perceptions to arise in the mind corresponding to those same scenes and incidents.

This is comparatively a new proposition in psychology and has for its basis studies and experiments which have only been systematically made within the past fourteen years. These studies and experiments relate to telepathy, automatism, and the action of the subliminal self. They have been undertaken and carried on by various societies interested in experimental psychology, but chiefly by the English Society for Psychical Research, some of the results of whose labors have been briefly sketched in the preceding chapters.

In addition to the reports of these societies an important contribution to the subject of apparitions was published by the then secretaries of the Society for Psychical Research, the late Mr. Edmund Gurney, Mr. Frederick W. H. Myers, and Mr. Frank Podmore.

It appeared under the title, Phantasms of the Living, and contained more than seven hundred instances relating to various forms of hallucinations and phantasms—carefully studied and authenticated cases which were selected from several thousand presented for examination. It is to these sources chiefly that I shall refer for cases illustrating the subject under consideration.

It seems hardly necessary to recapitulate here the experiments on which the doctrine of telepathy or thought-transference is established—experiments which have been carefully made by so many well qualified persons, and which have proved convincing to nearly every one, whether scientific or unscientific, who has patiently followed them, though of course not convincing to those who choose to remain ignorant of the facts.

The same is true regarding the subject of automatism and the existence and action of the subliminal self. It remains to show the interesting relations which these subjects bear to hallucinations in general, and especially to phantasms and apparitions.

It is well known that hallucinations can be voluntarily or purposely produced by one person in the mind of another, and in various ways, though few perhaps consider to what an extent this is possible. In many of the most astonishing feats of the conjurer, and especially of the Indian fakir, suggestion and the imagination are brought into service to aid in producing the illusions.

Regarding the hallucinations which may be produced in the mind of the hypnotized subject by the hypnotizer there can be no doubt.

The following case is in point and illustrates telepathic influence excited at a distance as well. It is from Phantasms of the Living, and the agent, Mr. E. M. Glissold, of 3 Oxford Square, W., writes substantially as follows:—

“In the year 1878 there was a carpenter named Gannaway employed by me to mend a gate in my garden; when a friend of mine (Moens) called upon me and the conversation turned upon mesmerism. He asked me if I knew anything about it myself. On my replying in the affirmative he said, ‘Can you mesmerize any one at a distance?’ I said that I had never tried to do so, but that there was a man in the garden whom I could easily mesmerize, and that I would try the experiment with this man if he (Moens) would tell me what to do. He then said, ‘Form an impression of the man whom you wish to mesmerize, in your own mind, and then wish him strongly to come to you.’

“I very much doubted the success of the experiment, but I followed the directions of my friend, and I was extremely astonished to hear the steps of the man whom I wished to appear, running after me; he came up to me directly and asked me what I wanted with him. I will add that my friend and I had been walking in the garden and had seen and spoken with the carpenter, but when I wished him to come to me I was quite out of his sight behind the garden wall, one hundred yards distant, and had neither by conversation nor otherwise led him to believe that I intended to mesmerize him.

“On another occasion, when the Hon. Auberon Herbert was present, the following scene occurred. Gannaway was mesmerized and stood in one corner of the dining-room. Herbert sat at the table and wrote the following programme, each scene of which Mr. Glissold, the magnetizer, was to silently call up in his own mind.

“(1) I see a house in flames.

“(2) I see a woman looking out of a window.

“(3) She has a child in her arms.

“(4) She throws it out of the window.

“(5) Is it hurt—?

“Gannaway became much excited, describing each scene as it passed through the mind of his hypnotizer. Several well known persons add their testimony to the above statement.”

A single case of mental action so strange and unusual, no matter how well authenticated, might not impress a cautious truth-seeker, but when fortified by well studied cases in the experience of such men as Esdaile, as shown in his remarkable experiments upon the natives of India, and especially his well known one of hypnotizing the blind man at a distance, also those of Prof. Janet, Prof. Richet, Dr. Gibert, and Dr. Héricourt, in France under the observation of Mr. Myers and other members of the Society for Psychical Research, and hundreds of other cases of hypnotizing at a distance, or silently influencing the subject without hypnotization, the matter then challenges attention and belief;—and it is from abundant observation of such cases, from the simplest examples of thought-transference to the most wonderful exhibition of perceptive power at great distances, that the doctrine of Telepathy is founded.

In the following case the agent was able to project his own semblance or phantasm a distance of several miles; and it was then distinctly perceived by a young lady, a friend of the agent. The circumstances were these:—Two young men, Mr. A. H. W. Cleave and Mr. H. P. Sparks, aged respectively eighteen and nineteen years, were fellow-students of engineering at the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, England. While there, they engaged in some mesmeric experiments, and after a time Sparks was able to put Cleave thoroughly into the hypnotic condition. The following is Mr. Sparks’ account of what occurred.

“For the last year or fifteen months I have been in the habit of mesmerizing a fellow-student of mine. The way I did it was by simply looking into his eyes as he lay in an easy position on a bed. This produced sleep. After a few times I found that this sleep was deepened by making long passes after the patient was off. Then comes the remarkable part of this sort of mesmerism.” (Mr. Sparks then describes his subject’s ability to see in his trance places in which he was interested if he resolved to see them before he was hypnotized.) “However, it has been during the last week or so I have been surprised and startled by an extraordinary affair. Last Friday evening (Jan. 15th, 1886), he (Cleave) expressed his wish to see a young lady living in Wandsworth, and he also said he would try to make himself seen by her. I accordingly mesmerized him and continued the long passes for about twenty minutes, concentrating my will on his idea. When he came round (after one hour and twenty minutes’ trance) he said he had seen her in the dining-room; and that after a time she grew restless; then suddenly she looked straight at him, and then covered her eyes with her hands; just then he came round. Last Monday evening (Jan. 18th) we did the same thing, and this time he said he thought he had frightened her, as after she had looked at him a few minutes she fell back in her chair in a sort of faint. Her little brother was in the room at the time. Of course after this he expected a letter if the vision was real; and on Wednesday morning he received a letter from the young lady, asking whether anything had happened to him, as on Friday evening she was startled by seeing him standing at the door of the room. After a minute he disappeared and she thought it might have been fancy; but on Monday evening she was still more startled by seeing him again, and this time much clearer, and it so frightened her that she nearly fainted.”

Mr. Cleave also writes a very interesting account of his experience in the matter, and two fellow-students who were in the room during the experiments also write corroborating the statements made.

The following is a copy of the letter in which the young lady, Miss A., describes her side of the affair. It is addressed, “Mr. A. H. W. Cleave, H. M. S. Marlborough, Portsmouth,” and is postmarked Wandsworth, Jan. 19th, 1886.

Probably the young lady is in error regarding the date of the first experiment, which may be accounted for by her excited condition—the shock of the last experiment having proved decidedly serious, as was afterwards discovered, and she begged that the experiment might never be repeated.

Both young men mention Friday as the day of their first decided success, but they were experimenting on previous days, including Tuesday, when the young lady writes she first saw Cleave’s phantasm. Concerning the date of the last experiment there is no question.

Effects similar to those just related may also occur where the agent is in ordinary sleep, or at least when no hypnotizing process is made use of. The agent in this case first formulates the wish or strong resolution to be present and be seen at a certain place or by a certain person, and then goes to sleep, and generally remains unconscious of the result until learned from the percipient.

In the following case the name of the agent is withheld from publication, though known to Mr. Myers who reports the case; the percipient is the Rev. W. Stainton-Moses. The agent goes on to state:—

“One evening early last year (1878), I resolved to try to appear to Z. (Mr. Moses) at some miles distant. I did not inform him beforehand of my intended experiment, but retired to rest shortly before midnight with thoughts intently fixed on Z., with whose room and surroundings, however, I was quite unacquainted. I soon fell asleep and woke up the next morning unconscious of anything having taken place. On seeing Z. a few days afterwards I inquired, ‘Did anything happen at your rooms on Saturday night?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘a great deal happened. I had been sitting over the fire with M., smoking and chatting. About 12:30 he rose to leave, and I let him out myself. I returned to the fire to finish my pipe when I saw you sitting in the chair just vacated by him. I looked intently at you, and then took up a newspaper to assure myself I was not dreaming, but on laying it down I saw you still there. While I gazed without speaking, you faded away. Though I imagined you must be fast asleep in bed at that hour, yet you appeared dressed in your ordinary garments, such as you usually wear every day.’ ‘Then my experiment seems to have succeeded,’ I said. ‘The next time I come ask me what I want, as I had fixed on my mind certain questions to ask you, but I was probably waiting for an invitation to speak.’

“A few weeks later the experiment was repeated with equal success, I, as before, not informing Z. when it was made. On this occasion he not only questioned me upon the subject which was at that time under very warm discussion between us, but detained me by the exercise of his will, some time after I had intimated a desire to leave. As on the former occasion no recollection remained of the event, or seeming event, of the preceding night.”

Mr. Moses writes, September 27th, 1885, confirming this account. Mr. Moses also says that he has never on any other occasion seen the figure of a living person in a place where the person was not.

The next case, while presenting features similar to the last, differs from it in this respect: that there are two percipients. It is copied from the manuscript book of the agent, Mr. S. H. B.

Mr. B. writes:—“On a certain Sunday evening in November, 1881, having been reading of the great power which the human will is capable of exercising, I determined with the whole force of my being that I would be present in spirit in the front bedroom, on the second floor of a house situated at 22 Hogarth Road, Kensington, in which room slept two ladies of my acquaintance, Miss L. S. V. and Miss E. C. V., aged respectively twenty-five and eleven years. I lived at this time at 23 Kildare Gardens, a distance of about three miles from Hogarth Road, and I had not mentioned in any way my intention of trying this experiment to either of the above named ladies, for the simple reason that it was only on retiring to rest upon Sunday night that I made up my mind to do so. The time at which I determined I would be there was one o’clock in the morning, and I also had a strong intention of making my presence perceptible.

“On the following Thursday I went to see the ladies in question, and in the course of conversation (without any allusion to the subject on my part), the elder one told me that on the previous Sunday night she had been much terrified by perceiving me standing by her bedside, and that she screamed when the apparition advanced towards her, and awoke her little sister who also saw me. I asked her if she was awake at the time, and she replied most decidedly in the affirmative; and upon my inquiring the time of the occurrence, she replied about one o’clock in the morning.”

Miss Verity’s account is as follows:—

Miss E. C. Verity writes:—

“I remember the occurrence of the event described by my sister in the annexed paragraph, and her description is quite correct. I saw the apparition at the same time and under the same circumstances.”

Miss A. S. Verity writes:—

“I remember quite clearly the evening my eldest sister awoke me by calling to me from an adjoining room, and upon my going to her bedside, where she slept with my youngest sister, they both told me they had seen S. H. B. standing in the room. The time was about one o’clock. S. H. B. was in evening dress, they told me.”

The following case, while of the same general character, presents this remarkable difference: that the agent’s mind was not at all directed to the real percipient, but only to the place where the percipient happened to be. It is from the notebook of Mr. S. H. B. who was also the agent.

“On Friday, December 1st, 1882, at 9:30 P. M. I went into a room alone and sat by the fireside, and endeavored so strongly to fix my mind upon the interior of a house at Kew (viz., Clarence Road), in which resided Miss V. and her two sisters, that I seemed to be actually in the house.

“During this experiment I must have fallen into a mesmeric sleep, for, although I was conscious, I could not move my limbs. I did not seem to have lost the power of moving them, but I could not make the effort to do so.... At 10 P. M. I regained my normal state by an effort of the will and wrote down on a sheet of note-paper the foregoing statements.

“When I went to bed on this same night, I determined that I would be in the front bedroom of the above-mentioned house at 12 P. M., and remain there until I had made my presence perceptible to the inmates of that room. On the next day, Saturday, I went to Kew to spend the evening, and met there a married sister of Miss V. (viz., Mrs. L.). This lady I had only met once before and that was at a ball, two years previous to the above date. We were both in fancy dress at the time, and as we did not exchange more than half a dozen words, this lady would naturally have lost any vivid recollection of my appearance even if she had noticed it.

“In the course of conversation (although I did not for a moment think of asking her any questions on such a subject), she told me that on the previous night she had seen me distinctly on two occasions. She had spent the night at Clarence Road, and had slept in the front bedroom. At about half-past nine, she had seen me in the passage going from one room to another, and at 12 P. M., when she was wide-awake, she had seen me enter the bedroom and walk round to where she was lying and take her hair (which is very long), into my hand. She told me that the apparition took hold of her hand and gazed intently into it, whereupon she spoke, saying, ‘You need not look at the lines for I have never had any trouble.’

“She then awoke her sister, Miss V., who was sleeping with her, and told her about it. After hearing this account I took the statement which I had written down the previous evening from my pocket and showed it to some of the persons present, who were much astonished, although incredulous.

“I asked Mrs. L. if she was not dreaming at the time of the latter experience, but she stoutly denied, and stated that she had forgotten what I was like, but seeing me so distinctly she recognized me at once. At my request she wrote a brief account of her impressions and signed it.”

The following is the lady’s statement:—