Psychical research for the plain man

Foreword

PROFESSOR HENRI BERGSON, in his Presi- •*■ dential address to the Society for Psychical Research in 191 3, after discussing the differences between scientific, historical and judicial certainty, stated :--" I am led to believe in telepathy, just as I believe in the defeat of the Invincible Armada. My belief is not the mathematical certainty that the demonstration of Pythagoras' theorem gives me, it is not the physical certainty that I have of the law of the fall of bodies, but it is at least all the certainty that we obtain in a historical or judicial matter."

Whilst it is obvious that scientific questions, and to a lesser extent historical questions, must be left to experts ; yet the ultimate decision of Guilty, or Not Guilty, in a trial for murder rest with twelve jurymen, and not with the expert judge ; though the summing up of the judge is intended to instruct the jury, and influence their verdict.

It has unfortunately happened in the matter of evidence for supernormal occurrences, with which is involved the hope of life after death, that the judge and the jury, the expert and the man in the street, seldom or never come into contact. For nearly forty years the Society for Psychical Research acting as judge, has been summing up in an impartial manner the evidence for and against supernormal occurrences; but the jury, the general public, knows practically nothing about either the evidence or the summing up.

The general public derives its ideas either from paragraphs in newspapers, which mostly turn the whole thing into ridicule, without argument ; or from books of 'ghost stories' written by people who treat the existence of beings they call ' Elementals,' as an established fact, and mention chats with Charlotte Bronte as everyday occurrences,

J vi. FOREWORD

It is true that a certain number of most valuable books have been written by various individual members of the S.P.R. ; but these writers, being learned men, are inclined to emphasize abstract theories which the general public is hardly able to grasp, rather than to bring forward the evidence for, and details of concrete facts.

I am an unlearned woman, and my object in writing this book has been to produce in an intelligible and interesting form the evidence that seems to prove that supernormal events have occurred, together with comments on the credibility or otherwise of the evidence by S.P.R. experts. I have made but few comments myself on the various cases, which I have quoted verbatim wherever possible : I have preferred to leave my readers to draw their own conclusions from the evidence I put before them. But I ask that they should endeavour to consider the matter in an unbiased and judicial spirit ; accepting or rejecting alleged facts according to the weight of evidence given by witnesses who appear to be worthy of credence, or the reverse.

I desire to render sincere thanks to the Council of the Society for Psychical Research for their kind permission to make extracts from the Proceedings and Journal. My hope is that my humble effort to act as interpreter between the learned Society and the plain man in the street may cause the latter to appreciate the work of the former better than he has done hitherto.

I also wish to acknowledge gratefully the permission accorded by Messrs. Longmans Green & Co. to insert an extract from The Making of Religion , by the late Mr. Andrew Lang (see page 54) : and I heartily thank Mrs. Salter and Miss Newton for their kind help.

S. M. KINGSFORD.

Contents

CHAP,

PAGE.

I. Telepathy j

Chapter I

The word Telepathy was coined by Mr. F. W. H. Myers, who defined its meaning to be 'the communication of impressions of any kind from one mind to another, independently of the recognised I / channels of sense.' The literal meaning of the word Telepathy is feeling at a distance, and Mr. Myers noted, {Human Personality, Glossary), " the distance between agent and percipient need in fact only be such as to prevent the operation of whatever known modes of perception are not excluded by the other conditions of the case. Telepathy may thus exist between two men in the same room as truly as between one man in England and another in Australia, or between one man still living on earth, and another man long since departed."

Most people have themselves had telepathic experiences in a greater or less degree : those who live together know how often the same idea, for no apparent reason, occurs to them both at once. If when this happens you investigate, you will often find that one of the people in question derived the idea from an orderly sequence of thought ; whilst to the other it came suddenly and unaccountably.

A

In that case the former was, in psychical language the agent, and the latter the percipient. Or it may be you suddenly feel anxiety concerning a friend hundreds or even thousands of miles away ; and subsequently discover that about the same time that friend, being in trouble or emotion of some sort, was thinking of you.

These and similar incidents happen so frequently that very few people would try to argue that they are due merely to chance coincidence, but would be inclined to share the opinion of Dr. Johnson. When Boswell " introduced the subject of second sight, and other mysterious manifestations, and suggested the fulfilment might happen by chance, Johnson said ' Yes, sir, but they have happened so often that mankind have agreed to think them not fortuitous.' "

Though telepathy in common parlance denotes thought-transference between human minds or brains, there seems some probability that it is in reality the universal language of all animals, the use of which in the case of homo sapiens has been considerably weakened by his invention of articulate language. Sir Oliver Lodge has pointed out in "Raymond" that the sounds of spoken language, and the signs of written language, differing as they do amongst various races, are themselves artificial and unnatural. The acquirement of these artificial means of communication has probably weakened, and to a great extent destroyed, man's natural power of direct thought-transference, which there is some reason to think is far stronger in savages than in civilized men. As regards animals other than man, the unanimity in action of a flock of starlings or a pack of wolves, to say nothing of the understanding often established between individual animals without exchange of a sound, are inexplicable except on the hypothesis of some kind of telepathic communication. There is also some definite evidence that thought-transference between men and animals occasionally, at any rate, takes place.

It is an absolute necessity to commence any treatise on psychical research with the subject of telepathy, because it would be difficult to weigh judicially the evidence for and against the possible source of origin of the various types of psychic phenomena, without adequate knowledge of the proved scope of telepathy, and at least a glimpse of its unproved possibilities. It is probable that telepathy in some degree is a factor in every supernormal occurrence ; indeed many people are of opinion that telepathy from living persons is the only factor, and adequately accounts for all the supernormal sounds and visions, as well as mental impressions, which have ever been experienced. And those who believe that some at least of these phenomena are derived from disembodied or unembodied spirits, would probably allow that telepathy may be the means by which these communicate with their friends still in the flesh.

Unlike most other psychic phenomena, telepathy admits of experimental investigation ; in this chapter I propose to deal exclusively with a selection from various series of experiments, leaving spontaneous cases to be given under the heads of subsequent chapters. But here a difficulty arises : experimental investigations, though important, are apt to be extremely dull to read about. For this reason a friend of mine with considerable literary experience, knowing that this book is intended to be read by the general public, earnestly urged me not to make experimental telepathy the subject of my first chapter ; she obviously feared that if I did, it would also be the last chapter for the majority of readers.

Fortunately, however, one series of telepathic experiments has recently been published which is really as interesting as an exciting game, For nearly six years, that is to say from the Spring of 1910 to the end of 1915, Professor Gilbert Murray and his family have conducted a series of experiments of which a careful record has been kept. Professor Murray gave most interesting details concerning some of these experiments, in his Presidential Address to S.P.R. in July 191 5, since published in Proceedings Vol. XXIX. And the same issue of Proceedings contains an article by the late Mrs. A. W. Verrall, dealing with the whole series, at some few of which she had been present and had taken part.

Professor Murray explained, " The method followed is this : I go out of the room and of course out of earshot. Someone in the room, generally my eldest daughter, thinks of a scene or an incident or anything she likes, and says it aloud. It is written down, and I am called. I come in, usually take my daughter's hand, and then, if I have luck, describe in detail what she thought of. The least disturbance of our customary method, change of time or place, presence of strangers, controversy, and especially noise, is apt to make things go wrong. I become myself somewhat over-sensitive and irritable, though not, I believe, to a noticeable degree. — There are many cases of correct pictures. E.g Subject set : ' I think of grandfather at the Harrow and Winchester cricket match, dropping hot cigarash on Miss Thompson's parasol.' My guess (verbatim) : ' Why, this is grandfather. He's at a match—- why, it's absurd : he seems to be dropping ashes on a lady's parasol.' . . . Much more often, however, the information comes not through any particular sense but through what I may call a sort of indeterminate sense of quality or atmosphere. For instance, I almost always, if I am going right, get first a feeling of the country in which the scene or incident is set. I say, ' This is Russian,' ' This is Italian,' ' This seems to be tropical,' or the like. Also I am apt to know whether a thing comes from a book or from real life, and the taste of the book is apt to be very strong. One would never confuse Thackeray and Tolstoy, for instance. A rather instructive case and one in which I do think I was rather clever, referred to a scene in a book which I had not read. I give it more at length.

Subject set : A scene in a story by Strindberg. A man and woman in a lighthouse, the man lying fallen on the floor, and the woman bending over him, looking at him and hoping that he is dead.

My guess : ' A horrid atmosphere, full of hatred and discomfort. A book, not real life. A book I have not read. Not Russian, not Italian, but foreign. I cannot get it. There is a round tower, a man and woman in a round tower ; but it is not Maeterlinck. Not like him. I should guess it was Strindberg. The woman is bending over him and hating him, hoping he is dead.'

Another Strindberg scene, also from a book I had not read, raises a rather interesting point. The subject set was an old, cross, poor, disappointed schoolmaster eating crabs for lunch at a restaurant, and insisting on having female crabs. I got the atmosphere, the man, the lunch in the restaurant on crabs, and thought I had finished, when my daughter said, 'What kind of crabs?' I felt rather impatient and said : ' Oh, Lord, I don't know. Female crabs.'

That is, the response to the question came automatically, with no preparation, while I thought I could not give it. I may add that I had never before heard of there being any inequality between the sexes among crabs, regarded as food."

Mrs. Verrall described the experiments at which she was present, as follows : — " February 18, 1914. Yesterday, February 17, between tea and dinner, I was present at a series of experiments in thought-transference, in which Professor Murray acted as percipient and his daughter, Mrs. Toynbee, as agent. There were present, in the study, Lady Mary Murray, Miss Blomfield (who took notes), Mr. Arnold Toynbee (who left after the first or second experiment), and myself, besides the two principals.

Professor Murray went out of the room, and the door was shut. Mrs. Toynbee then decided on a subject to transfer, a.nd described it in a low voice ; Miss Blomfield recorded it, and no other word was spoken. (Once Lady Mary Murray asked if the note was made). Then Lady Mary Murray opened the door, in silence, and Professor Murray came in, held Mrs. Toynbee's hand, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting, and proceeded to describe his impressions. . .

So far as I observed, and I observed with care, Professor Murray never looked at Mrs. Toynbee after he had taken her hand, nor did she look at him. Any indications derived from contact must be confined to suggestions — of course unintentional — of encouragement or discouragement, and no mere encouragement could, as far as yesterday's experiments were concerned, account for the success. The details are as follows :

I. Subject. Mrs. Toynbee (agent) : ' Celia Newbolt under a gourd tree at Smyrna.' (Miss Celia

Newbolt is the daughter of Sir Henry Newbolt, the poet).

Professor Murray : ' Modern Greek of some kindsort of Asia Minor place — a tree and woman sitting under it— a particular tree— girl sitting under it— she does not belong to the place— she is English — something to do with a poet— can't be Mrs. Kiplingno, it's a girl— rather like one of the Oliviers— (I) don't think I can get her.' In this case the subject was imagined, not remembered.

II. Subject. Mrs. Toynbee (agent): 'Mr. S

playing Badminton at the Badminton Club at Bogota ; Lord Murray watching, and ladies watching, one with a fan.'

Professor Murray : ' This is something to do with your voyage to Panama— it's South America— it's people in white playing a game— it's your villain S — — . He's playing a game— the word Bogota is coming to my mind — I think it is at a games-club.'

Mrs. Toynbee : ' What is the game ? '

Professor Murray : ' I think I am only guessing. I think the game is Badminton, and the Master of Elibank (Lord Murray) is there.' Here too the scene is purely imaginary.

Professor Murray then suggested that I should choose an incident and tell Mrs. Toynbee. But after he had left the room, at an unspoken suggestion, by sign, of Lady Mary Murray's, we decided to pursue the usual plan.

Subject. Mrs. Toynbee (agent) : ' I'll think of the Master of Trinity— (to me) your Master walking along the Backs and a gardener with a wheelbarrrow sweeping up dead leaves and getting out of his way.'

Professor Murray : ' I don't think this is Mrs. Verrall's— it's the Master of Trinity walking in a garden — and a gardener sweeping leaves,'

Mrs. Toynbee : ' Any special place ? '

Professor Murray : ' The Backs.'

It was arranged that I should think of the next subject, and act directly as agent.

Subject. Mrs. Verrall (agent): 'Jean Valjean walking in the dark wood and taking the handle of the pail from the little child (Cosette).'

Professor Murray : ' I had a faint impression of Silverlocks finding the bears' house in the wood.'

Even in this comparative failure there are two points of contact — the wood and the girl child. My subject was from Hugo's Les Miserables"

Mrs. Verrall made a statistical examination of all the experiments recorded during five years : — " The total number of recorded experiments is 505. On six occasions where the subject is noted there is no entry of a description, and these I count as Failures. So also I do ten cases where only the word ' Failure ' is noted. In sixty-eight cases no impression was obtained, and for statistical purposes these are, of course > also Failures ; though there is a great distinction, as regards our estimate of the phenomena, between a wrong guess and a failure to have any impression. These may be called Negative and the others Positive Failures. The whole number of Failures of every kind is 197, sixty-eight of these being due to absence of any impression. The number of Partial Successes is 141, and of Complete Successes 167. I have counted as Successes not only all cases where the complete incident is described, but also cases where what may be called the essential elements are given by the percipient, but of course opinions will differ as to what is essential." Mrs. Verrall then gives examples of Complete Successes, some of which have already been noted ; also of three Partial Successes, as follows : —

Subject : ' Miss Barbara Tchaikovsky visiting a political prisoner in the Peter and Paul prison.'

Professor Murray : ' Tchaikovsky, but I can't see what he's doing. No, I've got it blurred. I've got it mixed up with Miss Tchaikovsky. I've got her knocking at a front door.'

As the idea of prison, prisoner, is absent in the description, I have not counted this as a complete success.

Subject. • Paul Sabatier walking with an alpenstock along a winding road in Savoy.'

Professor Murray : ' A man like Mr Irving going up a mountain — it isn't Mr. Irving — it's a clergyman with an alpenstock — I should say it was a foreign clergyman.'

Here again, since the name 'Paul Sabatier' and the locality ' Savoy ' were not given, the success is counted only as Partial, though I think it will be admitted that the greater part of the desired impression was successfully transmitted.

Subject: ' Alister and Malcolm McDonald running along the platform at Liverpool Street, and trying to catch the train just going out.'

Professor Murray : ' Something to do with a railway station. I should say it was rather a crowd at a big railway station, and two little boys running along in the crowd. I should guess Basil.' Here again, though the picture of two little boys running in a railway station is correctly described, the name of the station is not given, and the boys are not identified. This therefore appears as Partial, and not as Success."

Mrs Verrall then discusses " whether the ordinary senses, if we alloiv for special sensitiveness , are the io TELEPATHY

agency for the transmission. The conditions of the experiment show clearly that the only sense we need consider is that of hearing." That is to say, though Professor Murray goes out of the room, and it is needless to say does not listen at the door, has he supernormal powers of hearing which enable him subconsciously to know what is said in a low voice inside the room ?

In favour of this possibility it may be noted that when mistakes in names are made, the wrong name has occasionally a similarity in sound to the right one ; as Masefield for Mansfield ; Mrs. Carr for Mrs. Carlyle. But against this must be set instances where unspoken thoughts have been transmitted ; and also cases where Professor Murray adds details unknown to himself, but known to Mrs Toynbee, though she has not mentioned them in giving the subject.

Subject : ' Belgian Baron getting out of a train at Savanarilla with us, and walking across the sandy track, and seeing the new train come in.'

Professor Murray : ' Man getting out of a train and looking for something. I don't know if he's looking for another train to come. I think it is a sort of dry hot sort of place. I get him with a faint impression of a waxed moustache — a sort of foreign person — but I can't get more.'

The Belgian Baron, never seen by Mr Murray, had a waxed moustache ; but it had not been mentioned by Mrs Toynbee.

Subject. Mrs. Toynbee : ' I think of Mrs. F. sitting on the deck, and Grandfather opening the door for her.'

Professor Murray : ' This is Grandfather. I think it is on a ship, and I think he is bowing and smiling to somebody — opening a door.'

TELEPATHY n

Mrs Toynbee : ' Can't you get the person ? '

Professor Murray : ' I first thought of the Captain, and afterwards of a lady. I get a feeling of a pink head dress.' Mrs. Toynbee: 'That is right.'

Subject. Mrs. Toynbee : ' I think of that funny old Irishman called Dr. Hunt in the hotel at Jamaica. I'll think of the race where they wouldn't let him ride with his little gray mare.'

Professor Murray: 'Tropics. It's — it must have something to do with Jamaica. I can't get it a bit clear. I feel as if it were a drunken Irish doctor talking with a brogue. I can't get it clear.'

To this the contemporary note says that ' Mrs. Toynbee did not mention that he got drunk, but he did.'"

Mrs. Verrall remarks that Professor Murray is much more often successful when a member of his own family acts as agent, than when anyone else does so ; and continues, ' Various explanations may be offered for this fact, and among them must certainly be reckoned the mental attitude of the agent. The topics chosen by the members of his family have a vividness and actuality, a picturesqueness, a detail, and often an element of the fantastic which is lacking in the more sober selections made by visitors less acquainted perhaps with the conditions of previous success. For there is % no doubt that the fantastic and the unusual specially lends itself to the successful guessing of Professor Murray, so that future experimenters should think of schoolmasters eating female crabs, of actual persons replacing fictitious characters, and perhaps especially of Russian novels rather than of actual incidents.'

Other 'guesses,' in varying degrees of success, are the following : —

Subject'. 'Mr. B. with a dog in the front Quad at New College.'

Professor Murray : ' B. showing P. some old building in Rome — no, it's not in Rome, he's in the front Quad at New College, with something like a dancing bear.'

Subject : ' Miss L. dragging her little dog up the hill at Alassio in the heat.'

Professor Murray : ' I get the impression of people on the Riviera going up a hill. Is a dog in it?' ('Yes') 'Road towards the gap at Alassio.'

Subject-. 'Mr. H. throwing stones into a pond on Hampstead Heath.'

Professor Murray : ' Not Denis and me throwing stones at a notice board ? Faint impression of throwing stones.'

Subject : ' Mr. L. beating an egg at Siena.'

Professor Murray : ' Kangaroos.'

(One person present had been thinking that if she were choosing a subject she would give something like a kangaroo or a bear with a visiting book like the picture in Punch. Professor Murray said he had sheep, bears and kangaroos in his mind.)

Subject : ' Sir Henry Lunn at the North Pole.'

Professor Murray : ' Is it anything to do with the poll at an election ? A vague impression of a crowd waiting at the North Pole.'

Subject: ' Mr. B. pulling a tin bath at the top of a staircase.'

Professor Murray : ' This is Harold B. I thought he was looking in at a shop window, but now I can only get tin pans.'

Subject: 'I shall think of the third S. brother eating sponge cake, and talking to the other S's grey dog.'

Professor Murray : 'This smells to me like

Birmingham. It's the S. family — not Ernest. I rather think it's Hugh, but there are other S.'s about, and Hugh's eating' something — a sort of afternoon tea. It's not Hugh, it's another one I don't know. It's either Hugh or one I don't know.'

Subject : — ' Mrs. X. driving in a taximeter towards Notre Dame and shouting to the cabman to stop, and he's deaf and doesn't hear.'

Professor Murray : ' This is something French — Paris. I get an impression of Notre Dame and somebody driving towards it and the ear stopping or something — it's not clear, but I get Notre Dame. A rich stoutish elderly woman with rather a manner.' (This description applies to Mrs X.)"

No other telepathic experiments have yet reached as high a measure of success as those of Professor Murray and his family ; but it must be borne in mind that they were conducted under the most favourable conditions ; the complete sympathy between agent and percipient being no doubt the principal factor towards success. But another point to be noted is that both agent and percipient were in a perfectly familiar environment, without any element of strangeness or elaborate preparation.

Another series of experiments, principally between Miss Verrall, (now Mrs. Salter), and Miss L. Tipping, was made during 191 3 and 1914, under strictly supervised conditions, in the rooms of the S.P.R. At the commencement of these experiments Miss Verrall (agent) and Miss Tipping (percipient) were not acquainted : after the experiments had been going on some weeks they met once and had five minutes' conversation, but did not meet again during the period covered by the experiments. Miss Verrall sat in one room under the supervision of i 4 TELEPATHY

Miss Newton, Secretary to S.P.R. : Miss Tipping sat in another room under the supervision of Miss Johnson, Research Officer ; the two rooms being separated by a passage about 30 feet in length.

Though this supervision was necessary to prevent any possibility of the accusation of collusion and fraud being made ; still it created an environment which was to some extent strained and unnatural, which must have militated against complete success. Nevertheless, in a great many instances Miss Tipping did get dim, and occasionally clear, intuitions as to what Miss Verrall was doing in the other room. Full particulars are to be found in S.P.R. Proceedings, Vol. XXVII. ; I will give one example here.

Miss Verrall was concentrating her mind on making crochet lace, and found it necessary to count the stitches. Just before the experiment commenced the casual thought had gone through her mind that she would buy some cherries for dessert on her way home.

Miss Tipping, sitting in the other room wrote down what ideas came to her, addressing herself to Miss Verrall, as follows : — " I have an impression of white flowers, lots of little bits of white, very soft in texture. You seem to move these fallen white things about, at least your fingers seem very busy. Then I see red colours, and small rounds this time, like this (she drew six cherries with stalks), I want to eat cherries. I keep wishing to taste fruit. Your hands seem to move about much. It's so queer, but I do want to count the things you are touching."

Though this is not an exact description of Miss Verrall's employment, the points of similarity, particularly the desire to count which evidently puzzled Miss Tipping, can hardly be the result of chance coincidence. It is I think especially interesting that the passing thought of cherries should have been transmitted with greater distinctness than the idea of crochet lace which Miss Verrall intended to transmit.

The following experiments in thought-transference were conducted by Dr. S., a well-known physician of San Francisco, and his wife. Dr. S. thus describes the circumstances : — " I came to try the experiment this way : I read of a certain drummer who, when absent from home, made it a practice to sit at ten o'clock p.m., for about half an hour, his wife the same, and mentally communicate the news of the day to each other. . . As my wife was to go away from San Francisco last summer with a sick sister of hers, we decided to try the experiment. My wife has grown up in an atmosphere of scepticism, consequently she did not give the subject as much attention as I did, otherwise we might have had better results. . . We agreed to sit twenty minutes at ten o'clock p.m. In sending news, I fixed my mind strongly on the message : in receiving I made my mind as nearly blank as I could, excluding all thought. Everything I received came to me as a mental picture. Sometimes I would see things only partly, like half of a face. When I saw her arm with the poison oak, it came very clearly. I almost thought I could speak to her, but I never heard anything like noise."

May 1 2th. Transmitted May 12th. Received. Mrs. S.

Arrived safely. Pleasant Had a good trip. B.

trip. B. feels fairly well, sleptwell. House squarely

We have a nice place in built and plain ; porch

an old-fashioned house. surrounded by trees ; not

fronting the road ; rooms i6

May 13th. Trans. Dr. S.

Theresa B. and her mother were here yesterday. Also Clare and Emma. Business somewhat dull. W's house burned yesterday.