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Title: Telepathy
Genuine and Fraudulent
Author: W. W. Baggally
Release Date: June 17, 2009 [EBook #29151]
Language: English
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[Illustration: THE PAD THAT "BLINDFOLDS" THE YOGI
The above is a photograph of the actual porous plaster and pads produced
by YOGA RAMA as a means of "blindfolding." The plaster is seen exactly
as it was when taken off by Mr. WILLIAM MARRIOTT. It will be seen that
the pads have shifted, allowing comparatively clear vision with one eye.
The tissue paper, making the plaster non-adhesive, will also be noticed.
[_Page 52_]
TELEPATHY
GENUINE AND FRAUDULENT
BY
W. W. BAGGALLY
MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
WITH A PREFACE BY
SIR OLIVER LODGE, F.R.S.
METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
_First Published in 1917_
PREFATORY NOTE
My friend, Mr. W. W. Baggally, an experienced investigator of
supernormal phenomena, has set down some of his experiences in connexion
with the subject of Telepathy, and I heartily commend his book to the
public as the record of a careful, conscientious, and exceptionally
skilled and critical investigator. It would be difficult to find anyone
more competent by training and capacity to examine into the genuineness
of these subtle and elusive phenomena, which yet are of the utmost
importance in the development of psychological science. Telepathy, or
the direct action of mind on mind apart from the ordinary channels of
sense, opens a new chapter; it is not a coping-stone completing an
erection, but a foundation-stone on which to build.
OLIVER J. LODGE
CONTENTS
PART I
GENUINE TELEPATHY
PAGE
Experimental Telepathy 1
Spontaneous Telepathy 18
Telepathy between Human Beings and Animals 30
PART II
FRAUDULENT TELEPATHY
Accounts of Cases 35
Description of Various Methods used by Public
Performers for effecting their So-called
Transmission of Thought 57
PART III
THE ZANCIGS
Public Experiments 68
Private Experiments 70
Experiments before Committees 82
Importance of establishing Genuine Telepathy
as a Scientific Fact 92
TELEPATHY
PART I
GENUINE TELEPATHY
Sir William F. Barrett, one of the founders of the Society for Psychical
Research, more than forty years ago tried some experiments which led him
to believe that something then new to science, which he provisionally
called "thought transference" and which is now known as "telepathy,"
really existed.
At the first general meeting of the Society, on the 17th July 1882, he
read a paper entitled "First Report on Mind Reading."
Since that date the Society has carried out a great number of
experiments which tend to show that telepathy is a scientific fact. The
evidence for its existence is twofold--that which can be gathered
experimentally, and that which arises spontaneously. To the first
category belong those experiments in the transmission of the images of
drawings or diagrams by means of an effort of the will of a person known
as the _agent_ to the mind of another person designated the
_percipient_, when the transmission is carried out otherwise than
through the ordinary channel of the senses. To the second category
belong those hallucinations of seeing a person at the moment of death or
at a crisis, evidence for which has been obtained abundantly by the
Society for Psychical Research and has been embodied in the work
_Phantasms of the Living_, and in the _Census of Hallucinations_--a
report on which appeared in the _Proceedings_ of the Society in 1894.
There are several theories to explain the action of telepathy. The first
compares it to wireless telegraphy. On this hypothesis it is supposed
that it is due to ethereal wave action:--Thought causes motion in the
brain cells of the agent, the cells then impart motion to the
surrounding ether in the form of waves which impinge on the brain cells
of the percipient and give rise to a corresponding thought to that which
started the ethereal wave motion.
This theory offers great difficulties. An opponent to it points out that
"A wireless message is transmitted by a succession of single ethereal
wave impulses produced by the electric sparks at the starting station
and received by the coherer at the receiving station, whereas a diagram
to be transmitted would require a number of brain-waves produced
simultaneously and arranged in the form of the diagram."
Another mode of putting the matter recently advanced is that the agent
does not transmit his thought, but that the percipient reads
clairvoyantly what is in the agent's mind.
There is also the spiritualistic theory. It is asserted that an external
entity, or spirit, conveys the images or thoughts from one mind to
another.
Another theory is that telepathy takes place in the subconscious mind,
and that the subconscious mind of the agent is in communication with
the subconscious mind of the percipient by means of the universal mind
underlying all things and of which individual subconscious minds form
part.
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.
Other experiments were being tried when Miss Telbin spontaneously said
that she had had a vision of Windsor Castle.
This experiment may be regarded as a case of deferred telepathy.
Another experiment with the same lady, in which simultaneous double
telepathy occurred, is of better evidential value.
Miss Telbin again sat with her back to the screen, and instead of the
crystal a piece of paper and a pencil were placed on the table in front
of her.
This time Mr. Thomas and I sat behind the screen hidden from her view,
and Mr. J. G. Piddington took notes. Mr. Thomas and I acted as
simultaneous agents. We each held a small piece of cardboard with a
diagram on it known to the agent viewing it, but not to the other agent.
These diagrams belonged to the Society for Psychical Research and had
not been seen by Mr. Thomas nor by me previous to the experiment. They
were in a box which was at our feet behind the screen. We each took a
diagram from the box, taking care that we did not see each other's
diagram.
We concentrated our minds on our respective diagrams, and Miss Telbin
drew her impressions on the piece of paper in front of her. The
following drawings show the results:--
[Illustration:
MR. BAGGALLY'S
DIAGRAM.
MISS TELBIN'S
DRAWING.
MR. THOMAS'S
DIAGRAM.
MISS TELBIN'S
DRAWING.]
At the time that Miss Telbin got the impression of the diagram with
three sections, she made the remark that it looked like three leaves.
The correspondence between the drawings and the diagrams is very great,
and difficult to account for by chance.
The following points have to be considered. First, that Miss Telbin only
made two drawings and not many from which two might have been selected
in which there was a resemblance to the diagrams. Secondly, that Mr.
Thomas's diagram was correctly reproduced although in a reversed
position (the reversal of a figure sometimes happens in experiments in
telepathy). Thirdly, that my diagram of three triangles, although not
reproduced in the form of triangles, was drawn correctly as regards
there being three sections, and that the relative position of the
sections was given correctly. Fourthly, that Miss Telbin had not
previously seen any of the diagrams, and therefore the chances against
her being able to hit upon any diagram which was then being used were
very great. Fifthly, that the chances against her being able to hit upon
two diagrams simultaneously were even greater.
The explanation that the result might have been due to collusion between
the persons experimenting of course cannot be entertained, at least by
myself, who was one of the experimenters.
It was not possible for the percipient to see through the large screen
which was behind her, and there were no mirrors in the room in which the
small diagrams could have been reflected. No word was spoken to give her
the slightest clue. These two successful telepathic experiments led to
further ones at a distance between this lady and myself.
It will be of interest to insert here an account of an experiment in
telepathy, similar to the one I have just described, between two agents
and one percipient, which Sir Oliver Lodge carried out in the year 1884.
When the experiment was tried with Miss Telbin, Mr. Thomas, and myself I
was not aware that Sir Oliver Lodge had already tried an experiment of a
like nature.
SIR OLIVER LODGE'S ACCOUNT
"My own first actual experience of thought transference, or
experimental telepathy, was obtained in the years 1883 and
1884 at Liverpool, when I was invited by Mr. Malcolm Guthrie
of that city to join in an investigation which he was
conducting with the aid of one or two persons who had turned
out to be sensitive, from among the employees of the large
drapery firm of George Henry Lee & Co.
"A large number of these experiments had been conducted
before I was asked to join, throughout the spring and autumn
of 1883, but it is better for me to adhere strictly to my own
experience and to relate only those experiments over which I
had control.
"Most of these experiments were confirmations of the kind of
thing that had been observed by other experimenters. But one
experiment which I tried was definitely novel, and, as it
seems to me, important; since it clearly showed that when two
agents are acting, each contributes to the effect, and that
the result is due, not to one alone, but to both combined.
The experiment is thus described by me in the columns of
_Nature_, vol. xxx., page 145, for 12th June 1884:--
"_An Experiment in Thought Transference_
"Those of your readers who are interested in the
subject of thought transference, now being
investigated, may be glad to hear of a little
experiment which I recently tried here. The series
of experiments was originated and carried on in
this city by Mr. Malcolm Guthrie, and he has
prevailed on me, on Dr. Herdman, and on one or two
other more or less scientific witnesses, to be
present on several occasions, critically to examine
the conditions, and to impose any fresh ones that
we thought desirable. I need not enter into
particulars, but I will just say that the
conditions under which apparent transference of
thought occurs from one or more persons,
steadfastly thinking, to another in the same room
blindfold and wholly disconnected from the others,
seem to me absolutely satisfactory, and such as to
preclude the possibility of conscious collusion on
the one hand or unconscious muscular indication on
the other.
"One evening last week--after two thinkers, or
agents, had been several times successful in
instilling the idea of some object or drawing, at
which they were looking, into the mind of the
blindfold person, or percipient--I brought into the
room a double opaque sheet of thick paper with a
square drawn on one side and a St. Andrew's cross
or X on the other, and silently arranged it between
the two agents so that each looked on one side
without any notion of what was on the other. The
percipient was not informed in any way that a novel
modification was being made; and, as usual, there
was no contact of any sort or kind--a clear space
of several feet existing between each of the three
people. I thought that by this variation I should
decide whether one of the two agents was more
active than the other; or, supposing them about
equal, whether two ideas in two separate minds
could be fused into one by the percipient.
"In a very short time the percipient made the
following remarks, every one else being silent:
'The thing won't keep still.' 'I seem to see things
moving about.' 'First I see a thing up there, and
then one down there.' 'I can't see either
distinctly.' The object was then hidden, and the
percipient was told to take off the bandage and to
draw the impression in her mind on a sheet of
paper. She drew a square, and then said, 'There was
the other thing as well,' and drew a cross inside
the square from corner to corner, saying
afterwards, 'I don't know what made me put it
inside.'
[Illustration: ORIGINALS.]
[Illustration: REPRODUCTION.]
"The experiment is no more conclusive as evidence
than fifty others that I have seen at Mr.
Guthrie's, but it seems to me somewhat interesting
that two minds should produce a disconnected sort
of impression on the mind of the percipient, quite
different from the single impression which we had
usually obtained when two agents were both looking
at the same thing. Once, for instance (to take a
nearly corresponding case under those conditions),
when the object was a rude drawing of the main
lines in a Union Jack, the figure was reproduced by
the percipient as a whole without misgiving;
except, indeed, that she expressed a doubt as to
whether its middle horizontal line were present or
not, and ultimately omitted it."
[Illustration: ORIGINAL.]
[Illustration: REPRODUCTION.]
As I have said, the two successful telepathic experiments which I have
described, and which took place in the rooms of the Society for
Psychical Research, led to further experiments at a distance between
Miss Telbin and myself.
AT 7 P.M.
I drew the following diagram
[Illustration]
AT 7 P.M.
Miss TELBIN'S drawings
[Illustration]
AT 7:10 P.M.
I fixed my attention on a
flower
[Illustration]
AT 7:10 P.M.
Miss TELBIN obtained several
incorrect scrawls, but amongst
them one under which
she had written the
words
[Illustration]
"First impression"
AT 7:20 P.M.
I looked at a pair of opera
glasses, at which I gazed first
lengthwise
[Illustration]
then sideways
[Illustration]
AT 7:20 P.M.
Miss TELBIN'S drawings
were--
First impression [Illustration]
A series of crescents [Illustration]
And this drawing [Illustration]
Also four drawings
[Illustration]
It was arranged that we should sit on certain days in the week, and that
at a fixed hour I should act as agent and transmit to her my thoughts,
she being at the time in her residence in West Hampstead, and I in
Kensington. The distance between these localities as the crow flies is
four miles. The result of our first sitting, which took place on 20th
May 1902, is shown on the preceding page.
There was no possibility that the agent or the percipient could have
copied the drawings, as the letters embodying them that we wrote to each
other were posted on the evening of the same day and received by the
first post the following morning, having crossed in the post.
Telepathy was clearly indicated in this experiment.
We continued trying experiments for some months after, but did not get
such good results as at the beginning. On one occasion, however, we
obtained a successful negative result. I was not feeling well, and did
not fix my attention on any object. On the following morning Miss
Telbin's letter said, "I could get nothing from you last night." It
was, to say the least, curious that she should not have received an
impression on the only night that I had not attempted to experiment.
On another occasion, when Miss Telbin was in London and I in Folkestone,
I arranged to transmit to her the impression of a diagram on a certain
day at 8 p.m. It chanced that on that evening there was a performance at
the theatre, at which my wife wished to be present. I therefore decided
to telegraph to Miss Telbin that I would be unable to try the experiment
that night, but after a good deal of hesitation I changed my mind, and
thought that I would endeavour to transmit the impression of the diagram
on my way to the theatre. The letter that I received from Miss Telbin
the next day was to this effect:--
"I got a good deal of writing last night which was
illegible, but amongst it I read the words 'going out' and
'rain.'"
Now this may be a mere coincidence, but it was strange that the words
"going out" should correctly represent the idea that was in my mind
during a great part of the preceding day. I had much worried,
hesitating whether I should telegraph or not.
The result appears to indicate the transmission of my mental state. The
word "rain" represented correctly the state of the weather at
Folkestone, but, as it often rains in England, this was of no evidential
value.
In regard to spontaneous telepathy I may bring before the reader two
cases which I personally investigated, the percipient in the first case
being a gentleman who belonged to a circle which regularly met for the
study of psychic phenomena, and of which circle I was a member.
The percipient, Mr. John Polley, gave me an account of his vision as
follows:--
"At a séance held within sound of Big Ben on 8th May 1901,
there were present Mrs. E. V. M., Mr. Thomas Atwood, and
myself. As Mr. Atwood resumed his seat after delivering an
address (about 8.30 p.m.) I became aware of a vision which
presented itself as being some five feet distant from me,
and displayed part of the interior of a room, namely, that
part where the stove stood. The fire in the stove was small
and dull, and close beside it was an overturned chair. In
front of the fire was something that looked like a
fire-guard or clothes-horse, but this was not clear to me.
Playing, or climbing over this article, was a child, who
fell forward, and when it regained its feet I noticed that
its dress was on fire. I made no reference to the matter at
the time, as I had an impression that the vision might be
connected with some occurrence in the family of Mrs. M., and
I was averse to mentioning it for fear of awakening sad
memories. Shortly afterwards the whole vision was repeated,
and this time I had an uncontrollable impulse to speak. Upon
describing what I had seen for the second time, I was much
relieved to hear that the matter was not recognized as being
connected in any way with the sitters. I may mention here
that the child appeared to be about three years old, and,
judging from the style of dress, I described it as a girl,
although the vision would apply equally to a boy, as at that
early age the short clothes worn by both sexes would be very
similar.
"Next Thursday morning, 9th May 1901, upon awakening, I
described to my wife the events of the previous evening's
séance. On the evening of the same day, namely, Thursday,
9th May, I was out with a friend, and upon my return home at
11.50 p.m., my sister, Mary Louisa Polley, who resided with
me at the time, made the remark, 'I have a piece of bad news
for you.' 'Well,' I replied, 'what is it? Let me know.' And
she answered, 'Brother George's little son, Jacky, has been
burned to death.' Like a flash I realized the connexion of
the sad event with my vision of the previous night. I then
asked my sister, 'How did you know this, and when?' She
replied, 'Mr. Fred Sinnett told me when he came over to see
us this evening.'
(Signed) "JOHN POLLEY"
I obtained from the other sitters at the séance the following
statement:--
"At the séance held on the evening of Wednesday, 8th May
1901, at which were present Mrs. E. V. M., Mr. Thomas
Atwood, and Mr. John Polley, we, the undersigned, testify
that Mr. John Polley gave to us a description of a vision of
the burning of a child which he saw at this séance.
(Signed in full) "E. V. M.
"THOMAS ATWOOD"
I personally interviewed Mr. John Polley's wife and sister and received
a written statement from each confirming Mr. Polley's account.
A local paper containing an account of the inquest on the child states
that the accident took place on Tuesday, 7th May, and the child was
taken to a hospital immediately and there died. The father of the child
wrote to me as follows:--
"DEAR SIR,--In reply to your inquiry respecting my late son,
John Frederick, I beg to say that on Tuesday, 7th May, my
wife went out to do some shopping, leaving my son, aged two
years and two months, in a bedroom with another brother aged
seven. Whilst the elder brother was getting some toys to
play with, the deceased thrust some paper in the fire,
pulled it out again, and set fire to his clothes. Some
neighbours took him to the Children's Hospital, Paddington
Green, where he passed away on Wednesday, 8th May, at 11.45
a.m. No intimation of this was given by myself or any member
of our family to my brother, Mr. John Polley, until a friend
of the family called at my address on Thursday, 9th May,
between 1 and 2 p.m., when we informed him of the sad loss
that we had sustained, and he told us that he intended
calling on my brother that evening, and we asked him if he
would communicate the news to my brother and sister who
reside at Church Street, Stoke Newington. Of course, Sir,
you know I am antagonistic to your views, but my brother has
told me it is for the interests of science. If this is so, I
take great pleasure in its furtherance.--Yours sincerely,
(Signed) "FREDERICK GEORGE POLLEY"
In the above case it appears to me that the vision of the burning child
which Mr. John Polley saw arose out of a spontaneous telepathic
impression, either from the mind of the father of the child to his
brother's (Mr. John Polley's mind), or from the mind of one of the
persons who was cognizant of the sad event.
In regard to the second case of spontaneous telepathy to which I have
referred, I cannot do better than to give the account of same as it
appeared in the _Journal of the Society for Psychical Research_ of June
1912:--
"The following case of a reciprocal telepathic impression
occurring to two persons at the same time has been
communicated to us by Mr. W. W. Baggally. Both Miss Emma
Steele and Mr. Claude Burgess, the lady and gentleman
concerned in the case, are known personally to Mr. Baggally.
"Miss Steele writes as follows:--
"'16 and 17 SILLWOOD PLACE,
"'BRIGHTON, _13th March 1912_
"'Mr. Claude Burgess, who is an invalid, had been
staying at my private hotel, at the above address,
for some months. He left on 15th February to take
up his residence at No. 10 Belgrave Place, Kemp
Town, Brighton. In the interval between the date
of his leaving and the night of the 5th inst.,
when I had the remarkable dream (if it can be
called a dream) which I am about to relate, I had
not seen Mr. Burgess, and nothing had occurred to
cause me to think particularly about him.
"'On the above night I retired to rest at my usual
time. I awoke finding myself standing in the
middle of my room and answering, "All right, I'm
coming," to Mr. Burgess, who, I thought, called
three times: "Miss Steele! Miss Steele! Miss
Steele!"
"'By the time I had put on my dressing-gown and
lighted the gas I was fully awake. I then
remembered Mr. Burgess was no longer in the house.
I looked at the clock and noticed it was exactly 3
a.m. When I came downstairs next morning I told my
cook my dream, and remarked I hoped nothing had
happened to Mr. Burgess. During the next day,
Wednesday, 6th March, in the afternoon, a man
called while I was out and left a note from Mr.
Burgess, which I enclose. I was much surprised by
its contents. It struck me most forcibly getting
it from him, as he is paralysed and has to write
with great difficulty with his left hand. He very
seldom writes now, so it must have made a great
impression on him seeing me as he relates in his
letter.
"'EMMA M. STEELE'
"The letter from Mr. Burgess to Miss Steele referred to
above, which is now in our possession, was as follows:--
"'10 BELGRAVE PLACE, BRIGHTON
"'MY DEAR EMMA,--I had a funny dream about you
last night. I dreamed that you appeared at about 3
a.m. Just a glimpse of you. It's funny, isn't
it?--Yours,
"'CLAUDE BURGESS'
"Miss Steele's cook made the following statement to Mr.
Baggally:--
"'_13th March 1912_
"'On Wednesday morning, the 6th March last, Miss
Emma Steele came down from her bedroom at 8.30. I
saw she was looking pale. I asked her if she were
not well. She replied that she had had a strange
dream. She heard Mr. Burgess call her three times.
She told me that she suddenly jumped up and put
her dressing-gown on. By the time she had put on
her dressing-gown and lit the gas she remembered
Mr. Burgess had left the house. She said it was
about 3 o'clock a.m. when she heard Mr. Burgess
call.
(Signed) "'SARAH POLLARD'
"The following statement was written by Mr. Baggally on 13th
March 1912, from Mr. Claude Burgess's dictation:--
"'On Tuesday night, 5th March 1912, I woke up at
about 3 a.m. with a start. I saw Miss Emma Steele
standing at the door of my bedroom. I had closed
the door, but she appeared to have opened it. She
was attired in her ordinary dress.
"'I was much surprised. It was an absolutely
distinct apparition. I had not been thinking of
her the previous day, and I cannot tell why she
appeared to me.
"'The apparition lasted about five seconds. I was
not at all frightened, and went to sleep
immediately after.
"'I was so struck by what I had seen that, next
morning, the 6th March, at about 11 o'clock, I
wrote a letter to Miss Steele which I handed to
Mr. William Watkins, the proprietor of the
establishment where I now reside, for him to send
to Miss Steele. In this letter I told Miss Steele
that I had dreamed that she had appeared to me on
the previous night.
(Signed) "'CLAUDE BURGESS'
"In reply to Mr. Baggally's personal inquiries, Mr. Claude
Burgess stated that it was the first time that he had had a
hallucination of this kind, and he had not had one since.
_Statement by Mr. William Watkins_
"'10 BELGRAVE PLACE,
"'BRIGHTON, _13th March 1912_
"'Mr. Claude Burgess delivered to me a letter
which he had written to Miss Steele, at about 11
a.m. on 6th March, which I handed to a man of the
Church Army Labour Home to take to Miss Steele.
The same morning at 8 a.m. Mr. Burgess told me he
had dreamt of Miss Steele.
"'WILLIAM WATKINS'
_Statement by Mr. Baggally_
"'I called on the afternoon of the 13th March 1912
at the offices of the Church Army Labour Home, St.
James Street, Brighton, and saw the Secretary, who
showed me an entry in their books confirming the
fact that, at the request of Mr. William Watkins,
a man in their employ had delivered a letter to
Miss Emma Steele of 16 Sillwood Place, Brighton,
in the afternoon of 6th March 1912.
"'I have interviewed all the persons connected
with this case, and they confirmed their
respective statements.
"'W. W. BAGGALLY'
"In reply to our further questions as to whether Mr.
Burgess's experience was a dream or a waking hallucination,
Mr. Baggally wrote to us on 1st April 1912:--
"'I had an interview with Mr. Burgess to-day, and
the following is the information I received from
him respecting the points you raise. He said to
me:--
"'"(1) I used the word 'dream' in my letter to
Miss Steele for want of a better word. (2) I woke
up and then had the vision of Miss Steele. (3) I
did not notice anything in the room at the time I
had the vision. The room appeared dark. (4) Miss
Steele appeared to me in a bright light, not
self-luminous or phosphorescent, but just as she
would have appeared in daylight. She appeared to
me in the part of the room where the door was."'
"Mrs. Baggally sends us the following statement enclosed in
a letter dated 27th April 1912:--
"'I was in the drawing-room of Miss E. Steele's
sister on the evening of Wednesday, 6th March,
when Miss Emma Steele came in, saying in an
excited manner, "Where is Mr. Baggally? He will be
so interested in this."
"'She held in her hand a letter from Mr. Burgess,
and proceeded to tell me that the previous night
she had heard, as she thought, Mr. Burgess fall
on the floor of the bedroom over her own. She
sprang out of bed.
"'Finding herself in the middle of the room, she
heard him call "Miss Steele!" three times. She
then suddenly remembered that Mr. Burgess was no
longer living in her hotel. She struck a light,
looked at the clock, and found it was 3 o'clock.
The following morning she felt so tired that when
giving orders to her cook, the latter noticed her
fatigue and commented upon it. She told the cook
the reason was that she heard Mr. Burgess
apparently calling her at 3 o'clock.
"'Miss Steele proceeded to say that Mr. Burgess
had, curiously enough, sent her that afternoon the
note which at that moment she held in her hand,
and in which he told her that he dreamt she had
appeared to him at 3 a.m. the previous night.
"'Miss Steele appeared much impressed and wondered
if anything had happened to Mr. Burgess. I
informed my husband that same night, on his return
home, of what Miss E. Steele had told me.
"'LAURA E. BAGGALLY'
"'On my return home on the evening of 6th March
my wife related to me what appears in her
statement above.
"'W. W. BAGGALLY'"
The above case is evidentially a good one, inasmuch as both Miss Emma
Steele and Mr. Burgess each reported on the morning of 6th March (the
one to her cook and the other to his landlord) their experiences of the
previous night before either of them was aware that a reciprocal
telepathic impression had occurred between them.
There appears to be evidence that telepathy can also occur between the
mind of a human being and that of an animal. The reader will doubtless
recollect Mr. H. Rider Haggard's case which appeared in the public
press. This gentleman, on the night of Saturday, 9th July 1904, dreamed
that a favourite dog of his eldest daughter was lying on its side among
brushwood by water, and that it was trying to transmit in an undefined
fashion the knowledge that it was dying. Next day the dog was missing.
The body of the dog was subsequently found floating in the water near a
bridge. An examination of the attendant circumstances pointed to the
dog having met its death on the night of Mr. Rider Haggard's dream. As a
result of this gentleman having made public this experience, he received
from numerous correspondents accounts of telepathy between the minds of
the writers of the letters and the minds of animals. These accounts were
sent by Mr. Rider Haggard to the Secretary of the S.P.R., who handed
them to me for investigation.
A very good case was that communicated by Lady C. The following is the
account of her experience:--
"On one hot Sunday afternoon in the summer of 1900 I went,
after luncheon, to pay my customary visit to the stables to
give sugar and carrots to the horses, among the number being
a favourite mare named Kitty. She was a shy, nervous,
well-bred animal, and there existed between us a great and
unusual sympathy. I used to ride her every morning before
breakfast (whatever the weather might be)--quiet, solitary
rides on the cliffs which overhung the sea at Castle F., and
it always seemed to me that Kitty enjoyed that hour in the
freshness of the day as much as I did. On this particular
afternoon I left the stables, and walked along to the
garden, a distance of a quarter of a mile, and established
myself under a tree with an interesting book, fully
intending to remain there for a couple of hours. After about
twenty minutes an uncomfortable sensation came between me
and my reading, and at once I felt sure that there was
something the matter with Kitty. I tried to put the feeling
from me, and to go on with my book, but the impression grew
stronger, and I felt compelled to hasten back to the
stables. I went straight to Kitty's box and found her
'cast,' and in urgent need of help. The stablemen were in a
distant part of the stables, whence I fetched them to have
the mare up. Their surprise was great to find me in the
stables for the second time that afternoon."
I wrote to Lady C., and received the following reply:--
"_27th December 1904_
"Lady C. would be glad indeed to have the case investigated,
as it always seemed to her to be of the greatest possible
interest. At the same time, it may be difficult at this date
to get a statement from the stablemen, one of whom is
somewhere in England, but Lady C. will try to do so. She is
absolutely convinced that no one entered the stable. Had the
stablemen done so they would at once have helped the mare to
get up, and anyone else would have given the alarm. It seems
a direct case of telepathy from animal mind to human."
Lady C. afterwards sent me a statement from a former coachman; it is
this:--
"_31st December 1904_
"I was coachman at Castle F. at the time. Lady C. came to
the stables after luncheon as usual on a Sunday afternoon
with carrots and sugar for the horses. Kitty was then loose
in her box and quite well. I then went to my room over the
stables, the other stablemen being also upstairs, and to my
surprise, after half an hour or three-quarters of an hour
later, her ladyship, who had been to the garden, called me
and the other stablemen to come and help Kitty up, as she
was lying 'cast'[1] in her box. No one had gone into the
stable in the interval.
(Signed) "E. N."
[Footnote 1: This word is used by veterinary surgeons to describe the
state of a horse that has fallen down in its box in a stable and cannot
rise.]
Telepathy may possibly exist between the mind of an animal and that of a
human being and _vice versa_, but a sufficient number of cases have not
been collected to establish this as a fact.
PART II
FRAUDULENT TELEPATHY
I now come to another class of so-called thought transference--that
exhibited at public entertainments in which genuine telepathy plays no
part.
On the 25th November 1912 Miss Isabel Newton, the Secretary of the
Society for Psychical Research, and I attended the demonstration given
by Yoga [_sic_] Rama of his alleged occult powers at the "Little
Theatre," Adelphi.
Accounts had appeared in the public press of a previous private
performance given by this so-called Abyssinian Mystic, at which Sir John
Simon, the Solicitor-General, Mr. Bernard Shaw, and Mr. Anthony Hope had
assisted, and it was stated that Yoga Rama had been able to read the
thoughts of the Solicitor-General by supernormal means.
In order to demonstrate, in a public manner, the alleged occult power of
this "psychic," a stage performance was given at the "Little Theatre" on
the afternoon of the above-mentioned date. A large audience was present,
and their expectations of witnessing manifestations of an occult nature
were raised by the contents of the programme, wherein it appeared that
Yoga Rama was to give a demonstration of "The power of mind over mind"
by means of--
"1. Clairaudience.
"2. The possibility of the interpretation of vibrations
without the aid of sound.
"3. Psychometry by sense of touch.
"4. Telepathy. The disclosure of names thought of by persons
in the audience.
"5. Disclosure of personalities by subconscious means.
"6. Revelations by a circumstantial chain of mind pictures.
"7. Various demonstrations of ideas silently conveyed to the
spectator by suggestion.
"8. Descriptions of cities and places by mind pictures.
"9. Messages."
Before Yoga Rama made his appearance a gentleman (a Mr. Fletcher)
delivered a short speech from the stage. He stated that the "Yoga" had
acquired his occult powers by contemplation after many years' study. He
went on to say that in the Eastern World the occult powers of the mind
had been more studied than in the Western World, but at the present day
the Western World looked upon these powers with much less prejudice than
formerly.
After Mr. Fletcher had retired, Yoga Rama made his appearance from
between the centre of two curtains which hung at the back of the stage.
He was attired in a long loose black gown and wore a large crimson
turban. He advanced to the front of the stage and made a speech which
had a smattering of a theosophical discourse. He described four kinds of
Yogi. The first kind, he said, was frequently met in India. These Yogi
worked on the physical plane and produced effects resembling the feats
of a conjurer. The second kind worked in the mental plane (to this
class he implied that he belonged). The third dealt with the spiritual
problems of life. The fourth was absorbed in meditation.
He continued his speech by saying that he required the sympathy of the
persons with whom he would experiment. If they mentally opposed him he
could do nothing, but if their minds were sympathetic and not
antagonistic he would succeed.
The speeches of Mr. Fletcher and of Yoga Rama still further raised the
expectations of the audience that they were about to witness that
afternoon a demonstration of the power of mind over mind by supernormal
means.
Yoga Rama, after the conclusion of his speech, called for thirty persons
(ladies and gentlemen) to come upon the stage and form a Committee. A
gentleman and I first answered the call. We were soon followed by a rush
of ladies and gentlemen who rather inconveniently filled the stage, but
this did not interfere with the performance, as the majority of the
ladies and gentlemen kept at the back of the stage while Yoga Rama
carried out his experiments with a limited number of the members of the
Committee. In order to be more at his ease, Yoga Rama removed his
turban. I placed it under a table which stood on the stage. I then had a
good look at him. I found he was a black man with short crisp curly
hair. From his appearance and the fluency with which he speaks English,
I came to the conclusion that he is not an Abyssinian, but an American
or West Indian negro.
Amongst the members of the Committee were Mr. Zancig and Mr. William
Marriott. Both of these gentlemen I have had the pleasure of knowing for
some years. They, together with Mr. Charles Guttwoch (a friend of Mr.
Marriott), three or four other gentlemen, and myself, were the only
members of the Committee who actively endeavoured to ascertain whether
Yoga Rama's experiments depended for their success on trickery or on
other causes. The other members of the Committee remained passive
spectators. As regards the lady members with whom Yoga Rama tried a few
experiments, they declared themselves, at the conclusion of the
performance, to be believers in his alleged supernormal claims.
Before the experiments commenced, Yoga Rama asked that some one should
blindfold him with some articles which lay on a small table in the
centre of the stage. These consisted of two pieces of folded paper just
large enough to cover the eyebrows and eyes, a piece of porous plaster
perforated with holes, a thin white cotton handkerchief, two gloves, and
a long red silk scarf. Mr. Marriott offered to blindfold him. I stood
close to him while this was being done. Mr. Marriott placed the pieces
of paper first on Yoga Rama's eyes, then the porous plaster, then the
cotton handkerchief, after this the two gloves, and finally the red
scarf which he wound several times round his head. The tip of Yoga
Rama's nose could be seen under the plaster, the white cotton
handkerchief, and the scarf. Yoga Rama, who remained standing, then
requested some one to sit on a chair in front of him, to think of a
name, then to hold his left hand (_i.e._ the sitter's left hand) in
front of the sitter's face, and to trace on the palm of the left hand
with the forefinger of the right the first letter of the name thought
of. The sitter was then asked to give taps on his left hand or make
movements in the air with his right hand corresponding to the number of
letters of which the name thought of consisted. When Yoga Rama suggested
(as he subsequently did) that the name of a flower or of a city should
be thought of, he requested that the same procedure of tracing the first
letter of the name and giving a number of taps or making movements with
the right hand corresponding to the number of letters should be
followed, but when he suggested that a play of Shakespeare should be
thought of he only asked that the first one or two letters of the title
should be traced on the palm of the left hand of the sitter with the
forefinger of the other hand. He did not then ask that taps or movements
of the right hand should be given or made. About an hour and a half of
the first part of the performance was taken up by experiments of the
above nature. These were varied only by one experiment of telling the
title of a hymn which a lady thought of, one of reading the thoughts of
a young lady, and one experiment with playing cards.
Yoga Rama then made a long speech about happiness depending on our own
selves and our being what we willed ourselves to be. He asserted that he
had overcome in himself the passion of anger. He laboured these points
so much and repeated himself so often that it became manifest he was
making the speech solely with the object of filling up the time.
The patience of the Acting Committee became exhausted, and one of the
members advanced to the front of the stage, interrupted Yoga Rama, and,
appealing to the audience, said he had no doubt but that he had their
support when he asserted that they had come to the theatre not to hear
speeches but to witness experiments. Yoga Rama brought his speech
abruptly to a close after saying he would now demonstrate the power he
had acquired of controlling the functions of his body and of rendering
it insensible to pain. To show the control over his body he asked two
members of the Committee to stand by his side and to look at their
watches and note the length of time he was able to cease from breathing.
To show his insensibility to pain he said he would stand barefooted on a
board studded with long nails, and also stand on broken glass.
I have given an account of the nature of the performance with which Yoga
Rama favoured us. I will now proceed to describe the experiments more in
detail and to comment upon them.
Mr. Marriott was the first person to sit on the chair in front of Yoga
Rama. He was told to hold his left hand in front of his face, to trace
the first letter of the name thought of on the palm of his left hand
with the forefinger of the right, and give the taps or make the
movements in the air with his right hand in the manner already
described. Mr. Marriott, instead of holding his left hand up, held his
right hand. Yoga Rama immediately said, "Not your right hand but your
left." This was a suspicious circumstance, as it indicated that Yoga
Rama could see notwithstanding he was blindfolded. Now conjurers know
that blindfolding in the manner above described is not a precaution
against seeing, as at the time of blindfolding what the conjurer does is
to shut his eyes tightly and bring his eyebrows well down. When the
blindfolding is finished, the conjurer opens his eyes and draws his
eyebrows up; the bandages will then be displaced and drawn up from their
original position and he will be able to see under the bandages through
the spaces between the bridge of his nose and his cheeks. This, in the
joint opinion of Mr. Zancig, Mr. Marriott, and myself, is what Yoga Rama
did, and our opinion was confirmed when we examined the bandages at the
time they were removed from the performer's eyes, as will be described
later.
Yoga Rama's method of telling the name thought of is to watch the
movement of the finger of the sitter's right hand while he traces the
first letter of the name on the palm of the left. This indicates to him
the first letter of the name, then he counts the number of taps or
movements given by the sitter's right hand. Thus, if the first letter
were W and the number of taps or movements seven, the name in all
likelihood would be William, or, if the first letter were W and the
number of taps or movements six, the name would probably be Walter.
Ordinary Christian names are limited in number, and Yoga Rama took care
to know beforehand whether the sitter were thinking of a female name or
of a male name. It was therefore not a difficult matter for him to hit
upon the name. Moreover, when he was in doubt, as was often the case, he
not only asked that the first letter should be traced, but the second
and the third and the fourth, etc. Before hazarding a guess Yoga Rama
often asked whether the second or third or fourth, etc., letter of the
name were a letter that he mentioned. Thus, if he were not quite sure
that W had been traced, but he had noticed that seven taps or movements
had been given, he would say is not the fourth letter of the name L. If
the sitter answered in the affirmative, he would be pretty sure that
William was the name, but if the sitter's answer were a negative one,
Yoga Rama asked that the letters should be traced again and the taps,
etc., repeated. Yoga Rama resorted to the above-described method when he
asked the sitter to think of the name of a flower or of a city, but he
only tried one or two experiments with the names of flowers or cities,
the reason being, obviously, that as the names of flowers or cities are
not so limited in number as Christian names, he fought shy of them. The
reason he gave for not being able to guess readily the name of a flower
was, he said, that he was not a botanist.
As regards the titles of Shakespeare's plays he only asked that one or
two of the first letters of the title should be traced on the left hand,
and did not require any taps or movements of the right hand. Any person
acquainted with Shakespeare's plays and knowing the first one or two
letters of the title could have guessed with equal facility which play
was in the mind of the sitter. After getting the name of the play, Yoga
Rama asked the sitter to think of a personage in that play. He only
requested that this should be done once or twice, and was not successful
in getting the name of the personage at the first guess, but only after
making two or three guesses.
In the experiment of telling the title of a hymn which a lady had in her
mind, Yoga Rama resorted to the same method of asking her to trace the
first letter of the title of the hymn on the palm of her left hand. She
traced the letter L, and he hazarded the guess that it was "Lead,
kindly light," which proved to be correct. Apparently the most
successful experiments were one carried out with a young lady and one
with myself. Yoga Rama asked the young lady to think of something. He
then, without asking her to trace any letter or make movements with her
right hand, told her that she wished to get married. She acknowledged
that that was the thought in her mind. This caused a good deal of
amusement amongst the audience. The young lady left the stage
immediately after the experiment. This step on her part gave rise in the
minds of some of the members of the Committee that she was an
accomplice, and that, as the experiment had been carried out, she was no
longer required by Yoga Rama. These members of the Committee may be
doing an injustice to the young lady, but it was unfortunate she should
have left the stage at that moment.
As regards the experiment with myself, I stood in front of Yoga Rama and
did not sit down, neither did I place my left hand in front of my face
as other experimenters had done, but close against my body when tracing
the letters of my second name, which was the one I had in my mind.
My object in standing up was to have my hands out of the line of his
vision. I took care that the movement of the forefinger of my right hand
when tracing the letters should not be seen by him.
Yoga Rama repeatedly asked me to trace and retrace all the letters of
the name. He then gave the name correctly. Although this experiment
appeared to indicate that the performer possessed telepathic powers, it
must be borne in mind that he might have known who I was, as he had been
practising his so-called occult powers for some time in London under the
name of Professor Pickens before he assumed that of Yoga Rama. It was
not necessary that he should see my face in order to know with whom he
was experimenting. It was observed that he took a very careful stock of
the dresses of the Acting Committee before he was blindfolded. It was
only necessary, therefore, that he should see the lower part of the
dress for him to know which member of the Committee stood in front of
him. As one member after the other experimented with him he described
their dress. He asserted that he was able to do this by a sort of
telepathic vision.
The experiment with the playing cards was a simple conjuring trick. Yoga
Rama produced a pack of cards and asked the Committee to see that it was
unopened. I opened the pack, shuffled the cards, and handed them to Mr.
Marriott, who had been asked by the Professor to retire to a corner of
the stage and choose a card which he was to show to two members of the
Committee. Mr. Guttwoch and I accompanied Mr. Marriott to the corner of
the stage and saw which card Mr. Marriott had chosen. Mr. Marriott then
shuffled the pack again and handed it to Yoga Rama, who put it in his
pocket. Yoga Rama then asked Mr. Marriott what card he had chosen. Mr.
Marriott informed him. He then wrote something on a piece of paper which
he folded and handed to one of the members of the Committee to hold. He
then drew from his pocket another pack of cards similar in appearance to
the original pack (that it was not the original pack was evidenced by
the fact that the bottom card of the pack which Yoga Rama drew from his
pocket was not the same as the bottom card of the original pack), but
which had the cards arranged in an order known to Yoga Rama. He
proceeded to pass the cards one after the other before Mr. Marriott's
eyes, asking him to tell him when he came to the card he had chosen.
When Yoga Rama came to the card, Mr. Marriott told him. Yoga Rama then
said, "What is the card in front of the one you chose and the one behind
it?" He was informed which they were. He then asked that the piece of
paper should be opened, and it was found that the names of the cards had
been written by him on the piece of paper. What occult power Yoga Rama
intended to demonstrate by this simple conjuring trick I fail to see. It
could not have been telepathy, as the two cards (the names of which Yoga
Rama had written) had not been chosen nor thought of by Mr. Marriott.
A few words will suffice to describe the experiments which Yoga Rama
carried out to show (1) the control he had acquired over the functions
of his body, and (2) his insensibility to pain. As has already been
stated, he asked two members of the Committee to stand by him and note
by their watches the length of time that he was able to cease breathing.
He retained his breath for fifty seconds. A member of the Committee at
the back of the stage called out, when the length of time was announced,
"That is nothing. I can stop breathing for a full minute." This
exclamation appeared to disconcert Yoga Rama a good deal. The standing
barefooted on a board studded with nails and on broken glass are common
tricks which can be seen performed by negroes at country fairs. I felt
the points of the nails and found they had been filed down and were
blunt. Mr. Marriott sat on the nails to the amusement of the audience
while Yoga Rama had gone off the stage to remove his boots. When Yoga
Rama returned he stood barefooted on these nails only for about half a
minute. He then proceeded to break some bottles on a piece of felt. He
pounded away on the glass with a hammer till he had reduced the greater
part to nearly a powder. He carefully pushed the larger pieces of glass
on one side and stood on the powdered portion.
I will now proceed to state the reasons which lead me to the conclusion
that Yoga Rama was able to see, although apparently blindfolded.
1. The bandages were removed from his eyes by Mr. Marriott, who had
blindfolded him at the commencement of the performance. While this was
being done I had my face about two feet away from Yoga Rama's face and I
carefully noted the position of each article as it was being removed.
The lower edge of the porous plaster was above the tip of the
performer's nose, and the edge of the white handkerchief above the edge
of the plaster, and above the edge of the handkerchief was the edge of
the crimson scarf. The edges of the handkerchief and scarf were
sufficiently high up, so that, had the blindfolding depended only on
these, he could have seen under them. The gloves which had been placed
on the handkerchief need not be taken into account, as the folded pieces
of paper on his eyes prevented them from pressing into the sockets of
Yoga Rama's eyes, and he, by merely closing the eyes and bringing the
eyebrows well down when he was being blindfolded and then opening his
eyes and lifting the eyebrows well up, could displace the gloves from
their original position and cause them to rise, as a conjurer well
knows; therefore the blindfolding really depended on the position of the
porous plaster. Now when Mr. Marriott placed the plaster over the pieces
of paper he took care that the lower edges of both pieces should be on
one of the lines of holes which existed in the plaster as shown in the
accompanying engraving (which is taken from a photograph).
He also took care that the lower edge of the plaster should stick
against Yoga Rama's cheeks. On examining the plaster just before it was
removed we found that the lower edge no longer stuck against the
performer's cheeks. There were hollow spaces between the bridge of his
nose and his cheeks through which he could have seen with a downward
glance. The point now arises whether he used both his eyes or only one.
I noticed that Yoga Rama always kept the right side of his face towards
the sitters when trying the experiments. If the reader will look at the
engraving, which shows the exact position of the folded pieces of paper
at the time of the removal of the plaster from Yoga Rama's face, he will
see that the piece of paper which covered his right eye is no longer on
the same line of holes as the left piece, but is higher up, and, what is
most suspicious, he will note some pieces of tissue paper which were
stuck on the plaster by Yoga Rama and were under the pieces of folded
paper, which prevented these from adhering to the plaster; thus by an
upper movement of the eyebrows Yoga Rama succeeded in raising the folded
piece of paper which covered his right eye, and with this eye he glanced
under the plaster and watched the movements of the sitter's hands, etc.
2. As I have stated above, Yoga Rama always kept the right side of his
head towards the person with whom he was experimenting. He tried one
experiment with a gentleman who sat in the second row of the stalls. He
then turned his body round so that the right side of his face was in the
same position relatively to this gentleman as it had been to the sitters
on the stage. Moreover, the lights in the body of the theatre were not
alight when Yoga Rama was trying his alleged thought-readings with the
members of the Committee on the stage, but when he experimented with the
gentleman in the stalls, one of the electric chandeliers in the body of
the theatre, not far from the gentleman, was immediately lit, thus
enabling Yoga Rama to watch the movements of the gentleman's right hand
when tracing the letters of the name he had chosen on the palm of his
left hand, and giving the taps corresponding to the number of the
letters.
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.
Besides the method used by Yoga Rama for producing his so-called thought
transference, there are others resorted to by public entertainers. The
one most in use is by means of a verbal code. The letters of the
alphabet are substituted and a word can be conveyed by the agent asking
a series of questions, each question beginning with a substituted
letter. The percipient has to remember what letters the substituted ones
represent; he takes note of the first letter only of each question, puts
them together in his mind, and thus gets the word that it is the
intention of the agent to convey.
I have made a table (shown opposite) which shows one of these systems.
If the name "Alfred" is to be conveyed, it can be done by the following
questions:--
Here is a name = A
Can you see it? = L
Endeavour to do so = F
Mind what you are doing = R
Go on = D
The letter E is understood.
TABLE
+-----------------------------------++------------------------------+
| SUBSTITUTED LETTERS TABLE || NUMBERS TABLE |
+--------+----------+---------------++------------------------------+
| A is H | J is L | S is N || No. 1 is Say |
| B " T | K " Pray | T " P || " 2 " Be |
| C " S | L " C | V " Look || " 3 " Can |
| D " G | M " O | W " R || " 4 " Do |
| E " F | N " D | X " See this || " 5 " Will |
| F " E | O " V | Y " Q || " 6 " What |
| G " A | P " J | Z " Hurry || " 7 " Please |
| H " I | Q " W | || " 8 " Are |
| I " B | R " M | || " 9 " Now |
| | | || " 10 " Tell |
+========+==========+===============++==============================+
| SETS |
+----------------+---------------------+-------------+--------------+
| SET A | SET B | SET C | SET D |
+----------------+---------------------+-------------+--------------+
| _What is | _What article | _What is it | _What |
| this?_ | is this?_ | made of?_ | colour?_ |
| | | | |
| No. 1. Watch | No. 1. Handkerchief | No. 1. Gold | No. 1. White |
| " 2. Bracelet | " 2. Necktie | " 2. Silver | " 2. Black |
| " 3. Guard | " 3. Bag | " 3. Copper | " 3. Blue |
| " 4. Chain | " 4. Glove | " 4. Lead | " 4. Brown |
| " 5. Breastpin | " 5. Purse | " 5. Zinc | " 5. Red |
| " 6. Necklace | " 6. Basket | " 6. Wood | " 6. Green |
| " 7. Ring | " 7. Book | " 7. Brass | " 7. Yellow |
| " 8. Rosary | " 8. Head-dress | " 8. Paper | " 8. Grey |
| " 9. Cross | " 9. Fan | " 9. Silk | " 9. Purple |
| " 10. Charm | " 10. Key | " 10. Glass | " 10. Violet |
+----------------+---------------------+-------------+--------------+
The transmission of the nature of an article is by dividing articles
that would be likely to be brought to a public entertainment into sets
of ten, each set being indicated by a different question. These sets
have to be learned by heart by the agent and the percipient. I give in
the table four sets to illustrate my meaning. After asking the question
which conveys the set to which the article belongs, a second question is
asked, beginning with the word corresponding to the number on the number
table. This will indicate what number in the set the article corresponds
to. As an example: when the question "What is this?" is asked, it means
that the article corresponds to SET A. If the second question begins
with "Do," such as "Do you know?", this question on referring to the
number table would mean No. 4; therefore the article would be a chain.
Now, if the question "What is it made of?" is asked, it would refer to
SET C, and if this question is followed by "Can you tell me?", on
referring to the number table it will be found to correspond to No. 3;
therefore the article would be a chain made of copper. When an article
is not in any one of the sets the substituted letter code is used. Of
course public entertainers learn by heart a number of sets, not only
four.
For silent thought transference occasionally electrical contrivances
are resorted to. These are placed in different parts of the hall, and
when being pressed by the foot or hand of the agent will convey a
message to a certain part of the stage upon which the percipient (who
may be blindfolded) rests his foot.
There is another silent method which can be worked by a confederate who
is placed behind a curtain close to the chair on the stage upon which
the blindfolded percipient sits. The confederate watches the performer
who stands amongst the audience and reads through a spyglass what he is
writing on his tablet when putting down what members of the audience
wish to be done. The confederate then communicates the contents of the
writing to the percipient on the stage by whispering or by an electrical
apparatus. The position of the performer or agent while he is writing in
a clear hand on his tablets with his back to the stage easily enables a
confederate to read the writing.
Then there is the silent method of a French conjurer, some of whose
performances I have witnessed, which consists of suggesting or "forcing"
the spectators to do certain things, each action having a corresponding
number which he conveys to his lady assistant, who is blindfolded, by
touching her foot with his after she has come down from the stage and
stands by his side amongst the audience.
The "time-coding" method consists of silently counting by the agent and
percipient at the same rate, starting from a preconcerted signal and
ending at another preconcerted signal. The performer amongst the
audience has in his hand a piece of paper on which is written the number
that he wishes to silently convey to the other blindfolded performer on
the stage. At the moment that he bends his head to look at the number he
begins silently counting at a certain rate; a confederate behind the
scenes begins counting at the same rate from the moment that the
performer bends his head. When the performer lifts his head he ceases
counting, so does the confederate. Each number written on the paper is
thus conveyed, and the confederate communicates the total to the
blindfolded performer by means of an electrical apparatus or otherwise.
I have attended several performances in public halls in London at which
thought transference--so-called--was carried out by the above trick
methods.
Sir Oliver Lodge was present with me at one of the performances at which
the time-coding method was used. He has sent me the following note:--
"I was with Mr. Baggally on one of these occasions, and took
note of the fact that he could often guess what was being
transmitted by the performers quite as well as they could
themselves. We sat in a box looking at them, and he often
told me before they had spoken what they were going to say
(or words to that effect).
"I perceived even without his assistance that the
performance, which was stimulated by the success of the
Zancigs, was an exceedingly inferior imitation of what they
had achieved, and was manifestly done by a code of some
kind.
"O. J. L."
Some of the methods resorted to by public entertainers are so ingenious
that the spectator is led to believe that genuine thought transference
has taken place. The following correspondence, which appeared in the
spiritualistic weekly paper called _Light_, illustrates a case in point.
In the number of _Light_ of the 25th October 1902 there appeared this
letter headed "Thought Transference":--
"SIR,--A few years ago Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin gave the
following entertainment in almost every large town in the
three kingdoms. The public were invited to write any
question or questions they desired to have answered on a
piece of paper, to place it in their pockets, and keep it
there without communicating its contents to anyone, and then
when they went to the hall their names were called out and
their question answered without the papers leaving their
possession. About fifty such inquiries were answered each
evening without a single failure by Mrs. Baldwin, who sat
blindfolded with her back to the audience. From my
experience and that of my friends, collusion was impossible,
and the only way of accounting for the performance was by
thought transference or telepathy between Mrs. Baldwin and
those of the audience with whom she was in mental sympathy.
(Signed) "C. A. M."
Commenting on this letter, I wrote to _Light_, and my communication
appeared the following week. It was to this effect:--
"Under the heading of 'Thought Transference,' your
correspondent, C. A. M., gives an account of some
entertainments by Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin, at which he says" (I
here quoted from C. A. M.'s letter, and then continued as
follows):--"I never was present at entertainments given by
Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin, and therefore cannot express an
opinion as to the _modus operandi_ in their particular case,
but I would point out that their entertainments bear a close
resemblance to those given by conjurers. The explanation of
the mystery in a conjurer's case is as follows:--The
conjurer asks members of the audience to write their
questions secretly, to sign their names at the bottom of the
question, and then to fold the pieces of paper on which the
questions are written and place them in their pockets. To
facilitate the writing he hands pencils round and tablets
upon which to rest the pieces of paper during the writing of
the questions, or the members of the audience, if they so
wish, can retire into an adjoining room and write their
questions on a table. The tablets and pencils are then
collected by an assistant who is a confederate, who then
retires from the hall to the room where the table is. The
tablets and table have false surfaces of leather or other
material, which, on being removed by the confederate,
disclose a layer of carbon paper resting on another of white
paper upon which the questions have been recorded unknown to
the inquirers. The confederate then proceeds to read the
questions with their respective attached signatures, and to
communicate them to the blindfolded medium by an electrical
apparatus upon which the medium's foot rests, or by other
mechanical means."
I signed my letter W. W. B. A fortnight after, the following letter
appeared in _Light_:--
"SIR,--With reference to the communication by W. W. B.
referring to the supposed thought transference, and
mentioned by another correspondent, C. A. M., in connection
with the entertainments of Professor Baldwin (an American
conjurer and brother mason), whom I met in Cape Town on two
separate occasions, permit me to state that (1) if it is the
same Baldwin, he is one of the cleverest illusionists in
his special line of trick thought transference, and W. W. B.
is quite right. (2) I know that Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin did
most of their experiments by trick, because, being one of
the chosen committee to test the so-called thought reading,
I fixed it absolutely as trickery on the lines indicated by
W. W. B.
(Signed) "BERKS HUTCHINSON"
I was gratified to read this letter and to find that my conjecture was
correct that the Baldwin performance was a mere exhibition of
conjuring.
PART III
THE ZANCIGS
Some years ago there appeared at the Alhambra Theatre, London, two
entertainers--Mr. and Mrs. Zancig--whose performances were of so
puzzling a nature that to many who had witnessed them the only
explanation of the results obtained appeared to be that genuine
telepathy was at play. The _Daily Mail_ newspaper arranged that Mr. and
Mrs. Zancig should be subjected to a series of severe tests at its
office, and on the 30th November 1906 these were carried out.
On the 1st December the _Daily Mail_ published a full account of these
experiments. The publication of this and of other accounts by persons
who had witnessed the remarkable performances of the Zancigs led to a
heated controversy between the correspondents of the _Daily Mail_ and
the _Daily Chronicle_. Those of the first paper mostly asserted that the
performance was an exhibition of true telepathy, while those of the
second paper declared that codes--visual and verbal--would account for
the phenomena. Previously to the experiment carried out by the _Daily
Mail_ I had obtained a letter of introduction to the Zancigs from a
friend of mine who had had private tests with them, but as it was
necessary to have the permission of the manager of the Alhambra before
an interview with the Zancigs could be arranged, I called at the offices
of that theatre, and saw Mr. Scott, the manager. I informed him that I
was a member of the Society for Psychical Research, which body I told
him took the deepest interest in telepathy. I handed him a letter that I
had written to Mr. Zancig, and on the 29th November 1906 I received the
following communication from the last-named gentleman:--
"DEAR SIR,--I received a letter from Miss H. A. Dallas,
telling me that you would like to meet us. Now, my dear sir,
we would be pleased to make your acquaintance, and have you
call for a visit, but if it is for any private show and to
be tried and judged if our work is, as we represent, 'two
minds with but a single thought,' I will have to say No. We
have done nothing since we arrived in London but have
callers to test and try us every day, from three to four
ladies and gentlemen. My wife and I agreed to all tests they
put to us, and all was quite satisfactory. Personally I do
not care, but it has been quite a strain on my wife. Should
you care to witness our show, you would be able to see us at
ten p.m. on the Alhambra stage, but if you care to call and
see us, and have a little talk, we both would be pleased to
meet you.--Trusting that I am understood, I remain, yours
sincerely,
(Signed) "JULIUS ZANCIG"
Although the contents of the above letter were of a discouraging nature,
I determined to strike the iron while it was hot; therefore, on the
evening of the same day I called, accompanied by my wife, at the flat
where the Zancigs resided. They were at the time partaking of their
evening meal. We apologized for our intrusion, but by the kind way that
they received us we were soon put at our ease. I informed Mr. Zancig
that I was much interested in telepathy, and that I had personally
carried out experiments in this branch of psychical research, and that I
was assured of the truth of its existence through the successes that I
had obtained.
Mr. and Mrs. Zancig impressed my wife and myself most favourably by
their unaffected and simple manner. After a conversation which lasted
about ten minutes, Mr. Zancig very kindly spontaneously offered to try
some experiments. I will now describe these. Madame Zancig went to the
other end of the room farthest away from where Mr. Zancig, my wife, and
I sat. She faced the wall with her back to us; Mr. Zancig then wrote
with a chalk a line of figures on a slate which he held in his left
hand, and called out the word "Ready." Madame Zancig immediately named
the figures correctly and in their proper order. The same kind of
experiment was tried successfully three times. The results might have
been due to telepathy, but I was not satisfied, as it could have been
possible that the figures were prearranged, or that Madame Zancig could
tell by the sound of the chalk what figures were being written. I also
had in my mind the fact that there is a method of communicating figures
by time-coding.
Mr. Zancig then asked me to write a double line of figures. I handed the
slate to him, and after he had called out "Ready" Madame Zancig
proceeded to cast them up correctly.
As Madame Zancig named all my figures aloud as she was summing them up,
this experiment was of a more complicated nature than the previous ones;
nevertheless, I was not entirely satisfied, as time-coding in putting
down the resultant figures by Mr. Zancig, and the hearing of the sound
of the chalk by Madame Zancig when I was writing my own figures, might
have accounted for the favourable result.
To prevent the possibility of communicating by an electrical or other
apparatus concealed under the carpet, I requested Mr. Zancig to raise
his feet from the floor. He immediately complied by sitting on the
table, where he remained to the last experiment.
Madame Zancig then retired into an adjoining bedroom with a slate in her
hand; the door was closed, but not entirely. My wife wrote down two
lines of figures, the slate was handed by her to Mr. Zancig, who called
out "Ready," and he then proceeded without speaking to add them up.
Madame Zancig then came into the room with the correct result written by
herself on her slate. This was a more crucial test than the last, but
still, although visual-coding was excluded, sound-coding while Mr.
Zancig was writing the resultant sum was not entirely so.
Then followed the experiment of transmitting a selected line in a book.
Mr. Zancig handed me a book and asked me to open it at any page and to
point out a line. After I had done so I handed the book to him. He
called out "Ready." Then his wife opened a duplicate book at the proper
page, and read the line which I had selected. Doubtless the words of the
line were not communicated telepathically or otherwise by Mr. Zancig,
but only the number of the page and the number of the line counting from
the top of the page. Nevertheless, it was difficult to discover by what
method this was done, as Mr. Zancig simply called out "Ready." There did
not appear to be time for the numbers of the page and line to be
transmitted by time-coding. The reader will observe that as the
experiments proceeded they appeared to present increasing evidence that
true telepathy was at work.
The following and last experiment that I tried on this occasion was the
most crucial. I requested Mr. Zancig to go out with me on to the landing
outside the door of the flat. I did not previously inform Madame Zancig
nor Mr. Zancig of the nature of the test that I was about to put. Madame
Zancig remained in the room with my wife. The door was closed, but not
completely. When we were on the landing I suddenly drew my cheque-book
out of my pocket, tore out a cheque, and handed it to Mr. Zancig,
requesting him to transmit the number. Mr. Zancig observed to me in a
whisper that the noise of the traffic in the street was very disturbing.
This was true, as the hall door to the street was open. He then remained
silent while he looked at the cheque. My wife then came out on to the
landing, and handed me a slate upon which Madame Zancig had during the
experiment written the words, "In the year 1875." Mr. Zancig then said
aloud, "This is not what we want; it is the number." My wife returned
into the room with the slate, and the door was closed, but not
completely. It was impossible, however, for Madame Zancig to see her
husband. The suspicion arose in my mind that the number on the cheque
might have been communicated to Madame Zancig by the words that Mr.
Zancig had spoken aloud. I therefore took the cheque that he had in his
hand and substituted another one with a different number that I tore
from the bottom of my cheque-book. Mr. Zancig remained absolutely silent
during the whole time that this second experiment lasted. My wife again
came out of the room with the slate, upon which Madame Zancig had
written quite correctly, in their proper order, four of the five numbers
of the second cheque, with the exception of the last figure, which was
wanting, but just as we were returning to the room Madame Zancig said,
"There was another figure; it was four"--which was correct. This
impressed me as a good test, with regard to the three last numbers of
this cheque, which were different from the corresponding ones of the
first cheque. Madame Zancig could not see her husband, and he remained
absolutely silent while the experiment was being carried out.
I insert here a note by Sir Oliver Lodge in which he gives an account of
an experiment of a similar nature, and also of other experiments which
he tried with the Zancigs.
"Independently of the more thorough investigations of Mr.
Baggally, I myself was favoured with a private interview
with the Zancigs, who were friendly and considerate and
helpful; and I tried the experiment of having Mrs. Zancig
outside the room, though with door open, and Mr. Zancig with
me and quite silent. I wrote five or six figures on a slate,
taking care to make no noise, and Mrs. Zancig failed to get
them correctly. Zancig seemed distressed at that, and after
a little time groaned out, 'Oh, surely you can do this';
almost immediately after which Mrs. Zancig came into the
room with the correct figures written on her slate. It was
difficult to see how the sentence had conveyed the figures,
but it was instructive to find that utterance of some kind
seemed necessary. It was partly this, and partly the
manifest difficulty of eliminating all possibilities of code
between a pair of performers accustomed to go about
together, with years of experience behind them, that
prevented me from doing what I probably ought to have done,
though circumstances did not render it very easy, namely, to
make a serious study of the Zancig phenomena.
"Moreover, I questioned Mr. Zancig about codes, and found
that he was familiar with a great many. He was quite frank
about it, and rather implied, as I thought, that at times he
was ready to use any code or other normal kind of assistance
that might be helpful, though he assured me that he found
that he and his wife did possess a faculty which they did
not in the least understand, but which was more efficient
and quicker than anything they could get by codes. On the
whole, I think this extremely likely, but the rapidity and
the certainty and dependableness of the power went far
beyond anything that I could imagine as possible between
people who depended on supernormal faculty alone. But if
there was a mixture of devices between people so skilled, I
despaired of bringing the genuine part of the phenomenon to
a definite issue.
"I do not think that either this or the weight of my other
avocations are a sufficient excuse for this neglect, but it
certainly was not easy to get opportunities for careful
investigation. One of the main difficulties was that they
were not free agents, having entered into contracts with
managers whose financial interests partly depended upon the
continued uncertainty of the public as to the causes
underlying their very remarkable performance. Moreover, I
knew that so skilled an investigator as Mr. Baggally was
more favourably impressed with them than I was myself, and
was able to give to them some considerable time and
attention.
"The extraordinary and rapid success with which Mrs. Zancig
named one thing after another, handled or seen by her
husband as he went through the hall in their public
performances, is familiar to everybody who attended those
exhibitions; but one episode which I have not put on record
did impress me as rather exceptionally good, though entirely
unsensational and unnoticeable at the time. I relate it
here:--
"The Zancigs happened to come to Birmingham for a week
during the University Vacation when I was away. On the last
day of their performance I happened unexpectedly to return
to Birmingham, and was dining at the club with some other
men. Some one remarked that the Zancigs were performing, and
suggested that we should cut dessert and go and see them; so
we went in the middle of the performance and sat at the back
of the gallery. Everything went on as usual. Mrs. Zancig was
on the stage, blindfolded, I think, though I attach no
importance to that. Mr. Zancig had been through the body of
the hall, and was coming along the side gallery, taking
objects from members of the audience as he went, and having
them described quickly one after the other as usual, when he
caught sight of me at the back of the gallery, and indicated
recognition by a little start. The next object that he took
in hand (a purse or what not) he said, 'What is this?' and
Madame Zancig on the stage said 'Oliver.' Zancig shook his
head and muttered, 'No, that's what I was thinking of, but
what's this?' On which she said whatever it was correctly,
and the performance went on as usual; my friends in due time
getting their tests efficiently done. Nobody noticed the
incident in particular; it was over in a second. It
conveyed no impression of anything except of a slight
confusion,--an error, in fact, immediately corrected,--but I
could not fail to notice that the very unimportant incident
tended in favour of the view that a power of sympathy or
communication between them was genuine, since she got an
undesired and unintended impression which certainly was at
the moment in Mr. Zancig's mind.
"O. J. L."
Later, on the same evening of the experiment with the numbers on my
cheque-book which I have described above, my wife and I attended the
public performance at the Alhambra. We were seated at a distance from
the stage. When Mr. Zancig came amongst the audience my wife handed him
a piece of something black, the nature of which it was difficult to tell
at first sight. He stooped down and asked in a whisper, "What is that?"
My wife answered, also in a whisper, "Liquorice." Madame Zancig
immediately called out from the stage, "Liquorice." No word had been
spoken by Mr. Zancig after my wife had whispered the word "Liquorice." I
then handed a visiting-card with a double name. Zancig read to himself
in a low voice the last name, which was Hutchinson, and said, "What is
the first name?" Madame Zancig called out "Berks"; this was correct. It
appeared to me suspicious, however, that the question, "What is the
first name?" although appropriate and natural, should contain the same
number of words as there are letters in the name Berks--namely, five.
Therefore some months after, at another performance, I wrote the same
name, Berks Hutchinson, on a piece of paper and handed it to Mr. Zancig.
This time he asked, "What is this?" Madame Zancig replied, "A piece of
paper with a name." Mr. Zancig said, "Give the name." She replied,
"Berks Hutchinson."
I attended a series of performances at the Alhambra, and took down the
questions and answers in order, if possible, to discover the code. On
witnessing a first performance the spectator might be led to believe
that word-coding alone is at the bottom of the mystery, but if notes are
taken at a number of performances he will find that the same question
is answered differently time after time.
From my experiments with the Zancigs I came to the conclusion that
although the alleged transmission of thought might possibly depend on a
code or codes which I was unable to unravel, yet their performance was
of such a nature that it was worthy of serious scientific examination.
On the assumption that they possessed genuine telepathic powers it would
be a pity that the opportunity of investigating their claim should be
missed. I therefore set myself to work to arrange with Mr. Alfred Moul,
managing director of the Alhambra, and Mr. Zancig for some experiments
to be tried before a Committee of the members of the Society for
Psychical Research.
An article appeared in the _Daily Mail_, inspired evidently by Mr. Moul,
from which I now quote:--
"We have suggested to Mr. Zancig that in preference to
inquiries into telepathy by unskilled persons he should
place himself in the hands of the Society for Psychical
Research, of which Mr. Gerald Balfour is the President, and
of which Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Crookes, and other
distinguished scientists are leading members. Mr. Zancig has
informed us that he has already received a communication
from that Society, and that he was entirely willing to place
himself and Madame Zancig at the disposal of the Society for
a thoroughly scientific series of tests."
The investigation by the Society for Psychical Research, at which I was
present, took place on the 18th January 1907. I regret that I cannot
give an account of what took place at this meeting, as it was mutually
arranged between Mr. Moul and the S.P.R. that the results should not be
divulged. They appeared, however, sufficiently favourable to some of the
members present (though not to all) to induce them to subsequently form
an unofficial Committee to carry out further tests. These unofficial
experiments did not take place till 26th July 1907.
In the meantime I continued my own private experiments. A striking one
is the following. I was in the balcony of the Alhambra on the 19th
January 1907, and when Mr. Zancig came to that part of the house I
handed him a piece of paper on which I had written the word
"Istapalapan." I took care that he should not see the word previously to
my giving him the paper. Zancig remarked to me in a whisper, "This is a
long word." Owing to the distance from his wife it could not have been
possible for her to overhear these words. Then Mr. Zancig called out,
"Spell this." Madame Zancig immediately wrote on the blackboard which
was on the stage "Istapala," and when she came to the second "p" she
wrote "f" and then "san." I have often noticed that when Madame Zancig
makes a mistake in a letter or number there is a similarity in the form
of the letter or number to that which was to be transmitted; thus, she
would put down "f" for "p," "7" for "9." "fsan" in this case is very
like "pan," and Mr. Zancig may have mistaken the letters. I fail to
understand how in this experiment he was able to code such a long word
as "Istapalafsan" by the simple words "Spell this." It would appear as
if Madame Zancig really saw what Mr. Zancig was looking at. The reader
will recollect that in his preliminary remarks at each of his
performances Zancig says, "What I see, Madame Zancig sees."
I have several times observed this alleged peculiarity, notably so on
the occasion of the tests at the Gramophone offices, which took place on
the 22nd February 1907, and at which I was one of the members of the
Committee. Mr. and Mrs. Zancig were divided by a large screen. They
could not see each other. A recording trumpet was placed near each, into
which they spoke. A table was placed by the side of Mr. Zancig on which
a great number of articles had been placed by the members of the
Committee. Madame Zancig with great rapidity named the articles as Mr.
Zancig took them up in answer to his "What is this? and this?" etc. An
incident which struck me as remarkable was the following. Mr. Zancig
raised a pencil, saying, "What is this?" and after Madame Zancig had
correctly stated what it was, he took up immediately (not in the
vicinity of the pencil, but some distance from it) a case, and said,
"And this?" Instead of naming the article Madame Zancig proceeded to
enumerate in their proper order the articles that lay between the two
articles which Mr. Zancig had taken up. Thus, a pencil, a seal, a
penknife, a case. It appeared as if Madame Zancig had actually seen the
articles over which her husband had passed his hand.
An excellent test was the following. Dr. W. M'Dougall, a member of the
Council of the S.P.R., who was present at these tests, borrowed a book
from one of the members of the Committee. He came to the side of the
screen where Mr. Zancig stood, opened the book at a certain page, then
pointed to the middle of a line in the centre of the page. Mr. Zancig,
without taking the book in his hand, glanced at the line, then Dr.
M'Dougall shut the book, took it to the other side of the screen, and
handed it closed to Madame Zancig. Mr. Zancig remained absolutely
silent, placed his hand against his forehead, and appeared to make a
strong mental effort. Madame Zancig, after the lapse of a minute, opened
the book at the proper page and began reading at the word in the middle
of the line that had been chosen by Dr. M'Dougall. Some members of the
Committee and I stood quite close to Mr. Zancig. We did not hear him
utter a sound. He could not be seen by Madame Zancig owing to the
screen.
I was present at the _matinée_ performance given under the auspices of
the _Daily Mirror_ newspaper at the Alhambra. Dr. H., principal surgeon
of a well-known hospital, handed to Mr. Zancig a set of skeins of silk
of different colours. These were then passed on to Madame Zancig, who
was on the stage. Dr. H. pointed silently to a skein of silk of a
corresponding set which he had retained, and which he took care Madame
Zancig could not see. Mr. Zancig, who preserved absolute silence, and
remained motionless, looked at the colour of the skein, and in the space
of half a minute his wife picked out a skein of the corresponding colour
from the set that she had in her possession. This test was tried
successfully three times. I particularly took note that Mr. Zancig
remained silent and motionless, retaining the same position of his body
during the course of the three experiments.
I have tried tests with Mr. and Madame Zancig in the transmission of
diagrams. I took with me to a private house to which I was invited an
envelope containing cards with diagrams on them. Madame Zancig sat
behind a large screen at the end of the room. By her side sat a lady, a
friend of mine, who watched Madame Zancig and saw that she did not move
from her chair. Mr. Zancig stood close to me near the other end of the
room. I presented the envelope to him, retaining it in my hand. He drew
out one of the cards on which was a diagram not known either to him or
to me till he looked at it. He fixed his gaze intently on it, remained
motionless, and in a whisper said to me, "Please say ready." I called
out, "Ready," and his wife then drew a diagram on a piece of paper, at
the same time saying, "Something like half a moon."
[Illustration: MR. ZANCIG'S DIAGRAM]
[Illustration: MADAME ZANCIG'S DRAWING]
Mr. Zancig then drew another card from the envelope. This time he did
not speak, but nodded his head once, and I called out, "Ready." Madame
Zancig thereupon observed, "It is a square within a square." The diagram
that Mr. Zancig was looking at was this:
[Illustration]
his wife drew this:
[Illustration]
Two more cards were then drawn, but Madame Zancig did not succeed; she
got absolutely wrong drawings.
At a public performance at Eastbourne I handed Mr. Zancig this diagram:
[Illustration]
He called out, "Draw this." Madame Zancig, who was on the platform,
said, "It is something like this." She made a motion with her right arm
like drawing a capital V; she then drew it on the blackboard. After
this she slowly drew a horizontal line through the V, thus:
[Illustration]
Mr. Zancig said, "Give the number." She then placed a 2 in the proper
position. He then called out, "Give the rest." She thereupon placed the
_a_ under the line, thus:
[Illustration]
Mr. Zancig said, "What more?" His wife placed the sign of + correctly,
but she rubbed it out several times as if in doubt. Finally she put down
the sign of + and a capital X, so that her drawing appeared like this:
[Illustration]
I have had many other experiments with this gifted couple, but have not
yet obtained the crucial test of getting Mr. Zancig to be in a distant
room with closed doors, while his wife was in another room. The
possibility of their using a sound code at one time and a visual code at
another is therefore not entirely precluded.
Although I have been quite unable to discover the methods by which they
can possibly communicate when a visual and a sound code are not
detected, yet I will reserve my ultimate opinion until I obtain tests
under the crucial conditions that I have named.
Not only did I personally meet with difficulties in endeavouring to
explain the performances of Mr. and Madame Zancig, but also the members
of the unofficial Committee that I have referred to. I now give an
extract from our unofficial report.
"... It must be remembered that the antecedent probabilities
in favour of a code to explain all performances of this kind
are enormous.
"While we are of opinion that the records of experiments in
telepathy made by the Society for Psychical Research and
others raise a presumption for the existence of such a
faculty at least strong enough to entitle it to serious
scientific attention, the most hopeful results hitherto
obtained have not been in any way comparable as regards
accuracy and precision with those produced by Mr. and Madame
Zancig. Further, there is, so far as we are aware, no case
of any public performers (including certain recent examples)
where the use of a code or apparatus has not been more or
less readily discoverable or clearly to be inferred. In
considering, therefore, the claim of Mr. and Madame Zancig
to the possession of a genuine telepathic faculty, one is
faced by the initial difficulty that such a faculty must be
regarded as unique in quality, and Mr. and Madame Zancig
themselves as unique in kind, a difficulty on the force of
which it is not necessary to insist. On the other hand, the
difficulty of suggesting by what method, if not by
telepathy, they communicate is considerable. Those who have
only witnessed the public theatre performances, clever and
perplexing as these are, will not appreciate how hard it is
to offer any plausible explanation of their _modus
operandi_."
In conclusion, I would wish to point out that the establishment of the
fact that telepathy is a scientific truth would have bearings of the
greatest importance.
It would show that the transmission of thought could occasionally be
effected otherwise than by the ordinary sense channels.
It would change the materialistic conception that thought only acts
within the limits of the brain.
It would modify the materialistic scientific view of the relation of
mind to matter.
I trust that what I have written will act as an incentive to some of my
readers to try experiments in this branch of psychical research.[2] It
is not enough that a few individuals by patient inquiry and experiment
should have been convinced of the reality of telepathy. What is wanted
is that scientific men generally, by the record of an overwhelming
number of experiments under the strictest test conditions, should be
convinced of its truth. Once let them be so, then public conviction will
in due time follow.
Meanwhile I feel bound to state that, in spite of initial
improbability, the experiences which I myself have had, as partly
narrated in this book, especially those briefly summarized in Part I,
have convinced me that the telepathic faculty does exist, and that its
detection is a genuine extension of scientific knowledge; though much
more will have to be done before the bare fact receives its explanation
and is permanently incorporated in a coherent system of Science.
[Footnote 2: Information relating to cases of genuine telepathy may be
sent to the Secretary of the Society for Psychical Research, 20 Hanover
Square, London, who will be pleased to investigate them.]
PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LTD., EDINBURGH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber's Note:
Punctuation errors have been corrected without note. On p. 20, "11.5
p.m." was corrected to "11.50 p.m."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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