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:
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 ally 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 1834:
"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.'
Original |
Reproduction |
"The experiment is 110 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."
Original |
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.
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 below.
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 tonight 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.
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