Telepathy: Genuine and Fraudulent
(London, 1917)
W. W. Baggally: Experienced investigator of supernormal
phenomena and amateur conjuror with much experience. Alan Gauld
notes in The Founders of Psychical Research that Baggally
'had sat with every notable physical medium since Home and had
found them all wanting'. For many years he had come to a
negative conclusion as to the possibility of any genuine
physical phenomena - until his co-investigation of Eusapia
Palladino in 1909, with Everard Feilding and Hereward
Carrington. |
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 Mall 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
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