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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 eves, 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 he 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 he 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 a 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.
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The pad that "blindfolds"
the Yogi |
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The above is a photograph of the actual porous plaster
and pads producer 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. |
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.
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.
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