CLAIRVOYANCE AND OCCULT POWERS/PART 4
LESSON IV.
SCIENTIFIC TELEPATHY.
The
investigators of the Society for Psychical Research, of England, started by
giving a broad definition of Telepathy, as follows: "Telepathy is the
communication of impressions of any kind from one mind to another,
independently of the recognized channels of sense." They took the rational
position that the actual distance between the projector and the recipient of
the telepathic message is not material; and that all that is required is such a
separation of the two persons that no known operation of the senses can bridge
the space between them. They wisely held that telepathy between two persons in
the same room is as much telepathy as when the two persons are located at
opposite sides of the world.
The
investigators then ruled out all instances of thought-transmission in which
there was even the slightest muscular contact between the projector and the
recipient. They held that though there might be genuine telepathy in such
cases, nevertheless, there was always the possibility of fraud or collusion, or
of unconscious muscular action on the part of the projector. They demanded
absolute and actual separation of the two persons, in order that their
experiments might be above suspicion. They were wise in this, for while there
is undoubtedly a psychic communication in the cases in which there is the
slight physical connection between the two persons (as I shall point out to you
a little further on), still the element of doubt or suspicion must be entirely
eliminated from a scientific test, in order to render it valuable and valid.
They,
therefore, confined their investigations in Telepathy to the two following
classes, viz.: (1) where actions are performed without physical contact with
the person willing; and (2) where some number, word, or card is guessed
apparently without any of the ordinary means of communication. The
investigators recognized the possibility that in the first of the
above-mentioned two classes of experiments there is a possibility of suspicion
of collusion, fraud, or unconscious suggestion, in the matter of the motion of
the eyes of the party, or some member of it, which might be seized upon,
perhaps unconsciously, by the recipient, and used to guide him to the object
which was being thought of by the projector or the party. They sought to
obviate this difficulty by blindfolding the percipient, and by placing
non-conductors of sound over his ears. But, finally, they came to the
conclusion that even these precautions might not prove sufficient; and,
accordingly, they devoted their attention to the second class of experiments,
in which all ordinary means of communication between projector and recipient
were impossible. They took the additional precautions of limiting their circle
to a small number of investigators of scientific reputations, and well known to
each other, always avoiding a promiscuous company for obvious reasons.
One
of the earliest series of investigations by these special committees of
investigators was that of the family of the Rev. A.M. Creery, in Derbyshire,
England. The children of this family had acquired a reputation in what was
known as the "guessing game," in which one of the children,
previously placed outside of the room, then returned to the room and attempted
to "guess" the name or location of some object agreed upon by the
party during her absence. The results were very interesting, and quite
satisfactory, and have frequently been referred to in works on the subject
written since that time. I think it well to give the results of this series of
experiments in some little detail, for they form a basis for experiments on the
part of those who read these lessons.
Prof.
W.F. Barrett, Professor of Physics in the Royal College of Science for Ireland,
conducted the most of the experiments. The report to the Society says: "We
began by selecting the simplest objects in the room; then chose names of towns,
people, dates, cards out of a pack, lines from different poems, etc., in fact,
any thing or series of ideas that those present could keep in their minds
steadily. The children seldom made a mistake. I have seen seventeen cards
chosen by myself named right in succession without any mistake. We soon found
that a great deal depended on the steadiness with which the ideas were kept
before the minds of the thinkers, and upon the energy with which they willed
the ideas to pass. I may say that this faculty is not by any means confined to
the members of one family; it is much more general than we imagine. To verify
this conclusion, I invited two of a neighbor's children to join us in our
experiments, with excellent results."
The
report gives the methods of the experiments, as follows: "The inquiry has
taken place partly in Mr. Creery's house, and partly in lodgings, or at a hotel
occupied by some of our number. Having selected at random one child, whom we
desired to leave the room and wait at some distance, we would choose a pack of
cards, or write on a piece of paper a name of a number which occurred to us at
the moment. Generally, but not always, this was shown to the members of the
family present in the room; but no one member was always present, and we were
sometimes entirely alone. We then recalled the child, one of us always assuring
himself that, when the door was suddenly opened, she was at a considerable
distance, though this was usually a superfluity of caution, as our habit was to
avoid all utterances of what was chosen. On re-entering, she stood—sometimes
turned by us with her face toward the wall, oftener with her eyes directed
toward the ground, and usually close to us and remote from the family—for a
period of silence varying from a few seconds to a minute, till she called out
to us some number, card, or whatever it might be."
In
the first experiments, in "guessing" the name of objects, the child
guessed correctly six out of fourteen. She then guessed correctly the name of
small objects held in the hands of one of the committee—five times out of six.
She guessed fictitious names chosen by the committee—five out of ten, at the
first trial. The committee then tested her by writing down the name of some
object in the house, fixed at random, and then, after all had thought intently
of the thing, they sent for the child and bade her try to find the thing
thought of, the thought-concentration of course continuing during the search.
The result is thus reported: "In this way I wrote down, among other
things, a hair-brush—it was brought; an orange—it was brought; a wine-glass—it
was brought; an apple—it was brought; and so on, until many objects had been
selected and found by the child."
Passing
over the details of many other experiments we find that the following
remarkable results were obtained by the committee: "Altogether, three
hundred and eighty-two trials were made in this series. In the case of letters
of the alphabet, of cards, and of numbers of two figures, the chances of
success on a first trial would naturally be 25 to 1, 52 to 1, and 89 to 1,
respectively; in the case of surnames they would of course be infinitely
greater. Cards were far most frequently employed, and the odds in their case
may be taken as a fair medium sample, according to which, out of a whole series
of three hundred and eighty-two trials, the average number of successes at the
first attempt by an ordinary guesser would be seven and one-third. Of our
trials, one hundred and twenty-seven were successes on the first attempt,
fifty-six on the second, nineteen on the third—MAKING TWO HUNDRED AND TWO, OUT
OF A POSSIBLE THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO!" Think of this, while the law
of averages called for only seven and one-third successes at first trial, the
children obtained one hundred and twenty-seven, which, given a second and third
trial, they raised to two hundred and two! You see, this takes the matter
entirely out of the possibility of coincidence or mathematical probability.
But
this was not all. Listen to the further report of the committee on this point:
"The following was the result of one of the series. The thing selected was
divulged to none of the family, and five cards running were named correctly on
a first trial. The odds against this happening once in a series were
considerably over a million to one. There were other similar batches, the two
longest runs being eight consecutive guesses, once with cards, and once with
names; where the adverse odds in the former case were over one hundred and
forty-two millions to one; and in the other, something incalculably
greater." The opinion of eminent mathematicians who have examined the
above results is that the hypothesis of mere coincidence is practically
excluded in the scientific consideration of the matter. The committee calls
special attention to the fact that in many of the most important tests none of
the Creery family were cognizant of the object selected, and that, therefore,
the hypothesis of fraud or collusion is absolutely eliminated. The committee
naturally came to the conclusion that the phenomena was genuine and real
telepathy.
Prof.
Balfour Stewart, LL.D., F.R.S., who was present at some of these experiments,
though not a member of the committee, expressed great amazement at some of the
results. He reports: "The thought-reader was outside a door. The object or
thing thought of was written on paper and silently handed to the company in the
room. The thought reader was then called in, and in the course of a minute the
answer was given. Definite objects in the room, for instance, were first
thought of, and in the majority of the cases the answers were correct. Then
numbers were thought of, and the answers were generally right, though, of course,
there were some cases of error. The names of towns were thought of, and a good
many of these were right. Then fancy names were thought of. I was asked to
think of certain fancy names, and mark them down and hand them round to the
company. I thought of and wrote on paper, 'Blue-beard,' 'Tom Thumb,'
'Cinderella.' and the answers were all correct!"
The
committee also conducted a number of experiments with other recipients, with
very satisfactory results. Colors were correctly guessed with a percentage of successes
quite beyond the average or probable number. Names of towns in all parts of the
world, were correctly "guessed" by certain recipients with a
wonderful degree of success. But, probably most wonderful of all, was the
correct reproduction of diagrams of geometrical and other figures and shapes.
In one case, the recipient, in a series of nine trials, succeeded in drawing
them all correctly, except that he frequently reversed them, making the
upper-side down, and the right-hand side to the left. The Society, has
published these reproduced diagrams in its Illustrated reports, and they have
convinced the most skeptical of critics. Some of the diagrams were quite
complicated, unusual, and even grotesque, and yet they were reproduced with
marvelous accuracy, not in a hesitating manner, but deliberately and
continuously, as if the recipient were actually copying a drawing in full
sight. Similar results have been obtained by other investigators who have
followed the lead of these original ones.
So
you see, the seal of scientific authority has been placed upon the phenomena of
telepathy. It is no longer in the realm of the supernatural or uncanny. As
Camille Flammarion, the eminent French scientist, has said: "The action of
one mind upon another at a distance—the transmission of thought, mental
suggestion, communication at a distance—all these are not more extraordinary
than the action of the magnet on iron, the influence of the moon on the sea,
the transportation of the human voice by electricity, the revolution of the
chemical constituents of a star by the analysis of its light, or, indeed, all
the wonders of contemporary science. Only these psychic communications are of a
more elevated kind, and may serve to put us on the track of a knowledge of
human nature. What is certain is: That telepathy can and ought to be henceforth
considered by Science as an incontestable reality; that minds are able to act
upon each other without the intervention of the senses; that psychic force
exists, though its nature is yet unknown. * * * We say that this force is of a
psychic order, and not physical, or physiological, or chemical, or mechanical,
because it produces and transmits ideas and thoughts, and because it manifests
itself without the co-operation of our senses, soul to soul, mind to
mind."
In
addition to investigating the above mentioned classes of telepathic phenomena,
the English Society for Psychical Research investigated many remarkable cases
of a somewhat higher phase of telepathy. They took down the stories told by persons
deemed responsible, and then carefully examined, and cross-examined other
witnesses to the strange phenomena. The record of these experiments, and
investigations, fill a number of good sized volumes of the Society's reports,
which are well worth reading by all students of the subject. They may be found
in the libraries of nearly any large city. I shall, however, select a number of
the most interesting of the cases therein reported, to give my students an idea
of the character of the phenomena so investigated and found genuine by the
committees having this class of telepathy under investigation.
An
interesting case of spontaneous telepathy is that related by Dr. Ede, as
follows: "There is a house about a half-mile from my own, inhabited by
some ladies, friends of our family. They have a large alarm bell outside their
house. One night I awoke suddenly and said to my wife: 'I am sure I hear Mrs.
F's alarm bell ringing.' After listening for some time, we heard nothing, and I
went to sleep again. The next day Mrs. F. called upon my wife and said to her:
'We were wishing for your husband last night, for we were alarmed by thieves.
We were all up, and I was about to pull the alarm bell, hoping that he would
hear it, saying to my daughters, "I am sure it will soon bring Dr.
Ede," but we did not ring it.' My wife asked what time this had happened,
and Mrs. F. said that it was about half past one. That was the time I awoke
thinking that I heard the bell."
In
this case there was manifested simply ordinary physical plane telepathy. Had
the bell actually been rung, and heard psychically, it would have been a case
of astral plane hearing, known as clairaudience. As it was, merely the thought
in the mind of Mrs. F., and her strong idea to ring the bell, caused a transmission
of thought waves which struck Dr. Ede with great force and awakened him. This
case is interesting because it is typical of many cases of a similar nature
within the experience of many persons. It is seen that a strong feeling, or
excitement, accompanied by a strong desire or wish to summon another person,
tends to give great power and effect to the thought waves emitted. They strike
the mind of the recipient like the sudden ringing of an alarm clock bell.
Another
interesting case is that of two ladies, both well known to members of the
committee, and vouched for as of strict veracity. This case is unusual for the
reason that two different persons received the thought-waves at the same time.
Here is an abridgment of the case: "Lady G. and her sister had been
spending the evening with their mother, who was in her usual health and spirits
when they left her. In the middle of the night the sister awoke in her fright
and said to her husband: 'I must go to my mother at once; do order the
carriage. I am sure that she is taken ill.' On the way to her mother's house,
where two roads meet, she saw Lady G.'s carriage approaching. When they met
each asked the other why she was there. They both related the same experience
and impression. When they reached their mother's house, they found that she was
dying, and had expressed an earnest wish to see them."
Another
case of a similar nature is this: "At the siege of Mooltan, Major General
R., then adjutant of his regiment, was severely wounded and supposed himself to
be dying. He requested that his ring be taken off his finger and sent to his
wife. At the same time his wife was at Ferozepore, one hundred and fifty miles
distant, lying on her bed, in a state half way between waking and sleeping. She
saw her husband being taken off the field, and heard his voice saying: 'Take
this ring off my finger, and send it to my wife.'"
This
case bears the marks of very strong telepathy, but also has a suspicious
resemblance to clairvoyance accompanied by clairaudience. Or perhaps it is a
combination of both telepathy and clairvoyance. It is impossible to determine
which, in absence of more detailed information. The message of persons dying,
or believing themselves to be approaching death, are frequently very strong,
for certain reasons well known to occultists. But there is nothing supernatural
about the phenomena, and in most cases it is merely a case of strong telepathy.
The
Society also reports the following interesting case: "A. was awake, and
strongly willed to make himself known to two friends who at that time (one
o'clock in the morning) were asleep. When he met them a few days afterward,
they both told him that at one o'clock they had awakened under the impression
that he was in their room. The experience was so vivid that they could not go
to sleep for some time, and looked at their watches to note the time."
Cases of this kind are quite common, and many experimenters have had equally
good results with this phase of thought transference. You will remember that
there is no actual projection of the astral body, in most of these cases, but
merely a strong impression caused by concentrated thought.
Another
interesting case is that of the late Bishop Wilberforce, and is recorded in his
biography, as follows: The Bishop was in his library at Cuddleson, with three
or four of his clergy with him at the same table. The Bishop suddenly raised
his hand to his head, and exclaimed: "I am certain that something has
happened to one of my sons." It afterwards transpired that just at that
time his eldest son's foot was badly crushed by an accident on board his ship,
the son being at sea. The Bishop himself recorded the circumstance in a letter
to Miss Noel, saying: "It is curious that at the time of his accident I
was so possessed with the depressing consciousness of some evil having befallen
my son, Herbert, that at the last, I wrote down that I was unable to shake off
the impression that something had happened to him, and noted this down for
remembrance." There is nothing unusual about this case, for it has been
duplicated in the experience of many persons. Its chief importance lies in the
fact that it is recorded by a man of wide reputation and high standing, and
also that the Bishop had taken the precaution to note down the thing at the
time, instead of merely recalling it after he had heard of the accident.
You
will notice that in many cases of this kind the phenomenon closely approaches
the aspect of true clairvoyance, or astral sensing. In some cases there appears
to be a blending of both telepathy and astral clairvoyance. In fact, there is
but very little difference between the highest phases of ordinary telepathy,
and the more common phases of clairvoyance. Here, as in many other cases of
Nature's forces, there seems to be a gradual blending, rather than a sharp
dividing line between the two classes of phenomena. Moreover, the student
developing his telepathic powers will frequently find that he is beginning to
unfold at least occasional flashes of clairvoyance.
In
the case of telepathy, the recipient merely senses what is in the mind of the
projector. In some cases a picture in the mind of the projector may be seen by
the recipient, and may thus be mistaken for a case of pure clairvoyance. But,
in investigating closely, it will be found that the real scene was slightly
different from the impression, in which case it shows that the impression was
simply telepathic. Clairvoyant vision shows the scene as it really is, or
rather as the physical eye of the recipient would have seen it. The astral
sight really sees the scene, and does not merely receive the mental impression
of the projector. The first is original seeing; the second, merely a
reproduction of images already in the mind of the projector, and colored by his
personality, etc.
In
the next lesson, I shall give you a number of exercises and methods designed to
develop your telepathic powers. You will find the practice of these most
interesting and entertaining, and at the same time most instructive. You will
find that as you practice the exercises given therein, you will become more and
more adept and proficient in producing telepathic phenomena. From the lower
stages, you will be able to proceed to the higher. And, in time, you will be
surprised to find that almost unconsciously you have passed into the stage in
which you will have at least occasional manifestations of clairvoyance,
psychometry, etc.
In
fact, there is no better way known to practical occultists to develop in a
student the powers of clairvoyance than just this method of starting the
student with the exercises designed to develop the telepathic power. It has
been found by centuries of experience that the student who develops telepathic
power, in a systematic way, will gradually unfold and evolve the clairvoyant
and psychometric power. It constitutes the first rungs on the ladder of psychic
development.
Of
course, under the head of clairvoyance, etc., you will be given methods and
exercise designed to develop clairvoyant powers—some of them very valuable and
effective methods, at that. But, notwithstanding this, I feel that I should
impress upon you the importance of laying a firm foundation for such
instruction, by developing yourself first along the lines of telepathic power.
Such a course will not only keenly sharpen your powers of receptivity to such
vibrations as you may wish to receive; but it will also train your mind in the
direction of translating, interpreting, and recording such impressions when
received.
You
must remember that proficiency in a mental art is attained only by means of
training the attention to concentrate upon the task. It is the same way in
clairvoyance and psychometry. Telepathy trains your attention to concentrate
upon the reception of impressions, and to hold them firmly and clearly in
consciousness. The result is that when you really develop clairvoyant
receptivity, your attention has already been trained to do the necessary work.
I need not tell you what an advantage this gives you over the clairvoyant who
has not received this training, for your own good common sense will assure you
of it.
So,
now for our training in telepathy—not only for itself, but also as a means of
preparing for the higher stages.
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