So V

Presented to the LIBRARY of the

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

h

ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE LIBRARY

JOURNAL

OF THE

ONTARIO

Society for Psychical Research

VOLUME XVII 1915 — 1916

54128

For Private Circulation among Members and Associates only

ONTARIO

THE SOCIETY'S ROOMS 20 HANOVER SQUARE, LONDON, W.

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research

INDEX TO VOL. XVII. 1915 — 1916

A.

Accounts of Receipts and Expenditure. See Society for Psychical

Research.

American Society for Psychical Research - 16

Journal of - 16, 82, 147-148, 162

" Angels, The, at Mons " 95, 106, 156

Animals, " Thinking." See "Thinking" Animals, Experiments with. Annalen der Natur- und Cultur- Philosophic 8

Anne, E. Edward, Case confirmed by 122

Anne, Mrs. E. Edward, Case confirmed by 121

Anne, Ernest L. S., Case confirmed by 120-121

Anne, Miss Ernestine, Case contributed by 118

Apparitions at or near the time of Death - 204. 230

Archives de Psychologic - - 162-164,183-184

Automatic Writings 207-208

Automatism, Sensory. See An Icelandic Seer.

Automatist, A New 178

Auto-suggested Visions - 43

B.

B., Fraulein von. See Wasielewski, W. von.

B., Miss, Case confirmed by • • 237

iv Index to Vol. XVII.

Balfour, The Right Hon. Gerald W.—

The Ear of Dionysius - - 219 Some Recent Scripts affording Evidence of Personal Survival - 25

Barrett, Sir W. F., F.R.S., Investigation of a Haunted House in

Worcestershire ... 34 Baxter, Mrs., Case contributed by - - 204 Bayer, Dr., Case confirmed by - 11-12 Bayfield, Miss Cyrille, Cases confirmed by - 138, 139 Bayfield, Rev. M. A., Some Recent Cases of Premonition and Tele- pathy 106, 126 Beilby, Sir George, Case reported by - - 230 Beraud, Marthe - 82, 184 Theories, Physical Secretion - 84 Bjarnarson, Rev. Halldor, Evidence contributed by - 64, 05, 67 Bjarnarson, Karl H., Case confirmed by - 60 Bjarnason, Professor Agust, Report on an Icelandic Seer - - 53, 78 Bjornsddttir, Mrs. Gudrun, Evidence contributed and collected

by 56, 63, 64, 66-68

British College of Psychic Science - 219-220

Buscarlet, Mme., Premonitory dream 145

C.

C., Ethel, Evidence contributed by 38-39 " C. Eva." See Beraud, Martin-.

Case, A Poltergeist sr> < bm

" L." - 2. 1 18, 204, 210, 212, 230. 235

See also Clairvoyance, Supposed.

Telepathy, Spontaneous —

Dreams 49-51, 133-134, 210, 212 Hallucinations 2, 43-46, 204, 230 Impressions 235

" Thinking " Animals, Experiments with —

Dog (New Zealand, " Darkie ") 99-104.123-124

„ (Mannheim) 99, 100, 124

Horses (Elberfeld) 24, 99, 100

Thought-transference. See Telepathy.

Tillyard, Aelfrida, Eeview of The Yoga-System of Patanjali - - 174

Tipping, Misses K. and L., Experiments in Thought-transference 23, 160

Tomczyk, Miss Stanislawa —

English Sittings with - .... 24-25, 28-31

Committee of Investigation 24

Procedure - 28-29

Phenomena, Description of .... 28, 29-30

Warsaw, Experiments in - - 24, 28, 30

Trance Phenomena of Mrs. Piper, Psychology of - 23, 25, 170-171, 195 " Communicators," Their relation to Mrs. Piper - - - 195-199

U.

Unknown Quest, The, by M. Maeterlinck, Review of - - - - 14

Unpopular Review, Notes on 207-208

V.

V., H. de G. See Verrall, Miss H. de G.

" Ve, Cecile," A Modern Mystic - - - -162-164,183

Verrall, Mrs. A. W.—

" Guessing," A Series of Experiments in 152

Legacy to the Society 218

Obituary of 193, 218

Verrall, Miss H. de G.— See Salter, Mrs. W. H.

Vilhjdlmssou, Gudm., Evidence contributed by - 81

Visions - 43, 154, 199, 230

See also " Angels at Mons " and " An Icelandic Seer."

xii Index to Vol. XVII.

W.

War, The European —

" Angels at Mons " - - - 95, 106, 156

Cases connected with - - 154, 204, 210

Effect of, on the activities, income, and membership of the

Society 19-22, 98, 152-154

Prophecies 185, 199

Psycho-Therapeutic Hospital for Soldiers 22

" Russian Troops in England " - 155

Wasielewski, W. von, Experiments in Clairvoyance and Telepathy 8-14

White, Mrs. Grenfell, Case contributed by - 134

White, W. Grenfell, Case confirmed by 134

Wilson, Mrs. Stuart, Experiments in telepathy and automatic

writing 157, 178 Woods, Professor J. H., Translation from the Sanskrit of The Yoga- System of Patanjali, Review of 174

Woolley, V. J., M.D.—

Auto-Suggested Visions as illustrating Dream Formation • - 43

Reviews - 24

War-hospitals, work in 145

Worcestershire, Haunted House in 34

Y.

Yoga-System, The, of Patanjali, Translated from the Sanskrit by

Professor J. H. Woods, Review of 174

Yost, C. S., Patience Worth 208

No. CCCXV.— VOL. XVII. JANUARY, 1915.

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

New Members and Associates, 2

Meeting of the Council, 2

Case, 2

A Supposed Case of Clairvoyance, 8

Review: M. Maeterlinck's " The Unknown Guest," ....... 14

The American Society for Psychical Research, 16

NOTICE OF MEETING.

A General Meeting of the Society

WILL BE HELD AT THE HOUSE OF

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE

(in the Robert Barnes Hall),

I WIMPOLE STREET, LONDON, W.

(Entrance in Henrietta Street),

On FRIDA Y, JANUARY 2^tk, 1915, at 5 p.m.

WHEN

MR. J. G. PIDDINGTON

WILL READ A PAPER ON

" Cross-Correspondences of a Gallic Type."

N.B. — Members and Associates will be admitted on signing their names at the door. Visitors will be admitted on the production of an invitation card signed by a Member or Associate. Each Member or Associate is allowed to invite ONE friend.

Journal of Society /or Psychical Research. JAN., 1915.

NEW MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES.

Names of Members are printed in Black Type. Names of Associates are printed in SMALL CAPITALS.

Bolton, Lyndon, The Patent Office, 25 Southampton Buildings,

London, W.C.

Lawry, J. Littleton, M.D., Calstock, Cornwall. ARMSTRONG, Miss M. M., 57 Redington Road, Hampstead, London,

N.W.

HALL, Miss E. M., Swedish Gymnasium, Prince's Drive, Cohvyn Bay. HARRIS, MRS., The Willows, Westbourne Avenue, Hull. HOLT, Miss WINIFRED, New York Association for the Blind, 111 East

59th Street, New York, N.Y., U.S.A. MATSUMURA, REV. KAISIKI, Omori, Tokio, Japan. PERRY, HORACE H., Court Royal, 144 Kings Cliff, Brighton. SCOTT, F. GILBERT, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., Rocquaine, New Maiden,

Surrey.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

THE 131st Meeting of the Council was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Monday, December 14th, 1914, at 5 p.m. ; THE PRESIDENT, DR. F. C. S. SCHILLER, in the chair. There were also present : Mr. W. W. Baggally, Sir Lawrence Jones, Mr. Sydney C. Scott, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, and Mr. H. Arthur Smith ; also Miss Alice Johnson, Research Officer, and Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Minutes of the last Meeting of the Council were read and signed as correct.

Two new Members and seven new Associates were elected. Their names and addresses are given above.

The monthly accounts for November, 1914, were presented and taken as read.

CASE.

L. 1202. HALLUCINATION.

THE following case of a sensory hallucination, perhaps tele- pathically induced, has been sent to us through Miss Agnes Fry, who is a Life Member of the Society. The percipient

JAN,, 1915. Case. 3

was Miss Winifred Gill, Millbrook House, Guildford, and she records her experience as follows :

Sunday, January 18, 1914.

To-night at about 8.30 (certainly between 8 and 9) I came downstairs into the hall, and as I reached the last stair I looked up and saw what I could only suppose to be our maid Lizzie come from the direction of the front door and pass me, going downstairs to the kitchen. I knew that she had been suffering a good deal from toothache, and although she was not due to come in until 9.30, I supposed that it being a cold night she had come in early. I was going to address some remark to her on the subject, but she looked straight in front of her in a way that gave the suggestion of sullenness, and I hesitated and changed my mind.

I noticed that she was dressed in a dark coat and skirt, navy blue or black, and that her hat was lined with green velvet, a fact which surprised me, as Lizzie has been in mourning for some time.

I wondered how she had got in without my hearing the bell or the front door close, and, when I came to think of it, who had opened the door to her, as I could hear my aunt in the kitchen, and I found my sister reading in the drawing-room. However, I had some business on hand which took my attention, and the matter passed out of my mind.

I was down in the kitchen later on for about half an hour, and not finding Lizzie there, supposed her to be in her bedroom.

At 9.30 she did not appear, and my aunt remarked that the girl was late. I then told her that Lizzie had been in more than an hour, for I had seen her; that I particularly noticed she had green velvet in her hat, whereas I had thought she was in mourning ; and that my sister had said, "Oh no, she is just out of it. She has a coat with a purple collar to it." "In that case," said my aunt, "let us ring for her." She did not come, however, and I was crossing the hall ten minutes later to see if there were a light in her room when the door-bell rang. It was Lizzie herself, this time wearing a long grey coat with a purple collar and a plain black hat. She struck me as looking unexpectedly short.

I asked if she had been in before. She looked very surprised, and said, " Why, no, Miss Winnie, but I was rather late out ; it was nearly eight before I went."

I tried to recall the appearance of the girl I had seen. She struck me now, on looking back, and with the real Lizzie before

4 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN., 1915.

me, as having been slightly taller and certainly broader. She had worn a coat and skirt such as Lizzie usually wears, and I did not remember that she had worn glasses, in fact as well as I could remember I was almost certain that she had not.

My mother, whose memory for detail is very retentive, said she felt sure that Lizzie had had a hat trimmed with green velvet when she first came, so that I decided I would ask her in the morning.

Monday, January 19, 1914.

As I was going to sleep last night I tried to think which of our former maids it could have been that I saw, if not Lizzie, and I decided that it probably was Nellie Lee, a girl who left us more than ten years before. I dreamed about her then, seeing her face very clearly. She was wearing in my dream a green velvet hat.

In the morning I asked Lizzie if she had, or had ever had, a hat with green velvet in it, and she said yes — when she first came, but she had only worn it about once. The velvet was round the hat, but not under the brim, and it was a very dark green. She no longer possessed the hat.

My mother on hearing this said, "There is only one other girl I can think of who it might have been, and that is Nellie Lee. She was a little taller than Lizzie and stouter, and she had a hat made of green velvet. She has been in my thoughts a good deal lately, for no reason that I know of."1

I had no sensation of fear or surprise when I met the girl. I particularly remember that I heard her walking on the oil-cloth ; in fact, there was nothing to show that it was not a being of flesh and blood. She passed between me and the light, and her face was in shadow, which partly accounted for my mistaking her for Lizzie.

I was about twelve years old when Nellie Lee left, and do not remember to have seen her since. I believe she left the town almost immediately.

WINIFRED M. GILL.

Mrs. Gill corroborates Miss Gill's statement, thus :

January 29, 1914.

On Sunday, January 18, 1914, I was in my room by about 7.30 in the evening; my son was helping me with some business

1 When Miss Gill wrote this report, she was not aware of her brother having recently met Nellie Lee and spoken of her to Mrs. Gill. She heard of this next day, January 20, 1914. (See below.) — ED.

JAN., i9io. Case. 5

relating to my late husband's affairs, and we were very much occupied. Winifred was out to tea.

I think it was about 8 o'clock when she came back, and I asked her to fetch the papers from downstairs, which she did, and went down again.

She came up at about 9 with my supper — which she had cooked herself — and we only said a few words about her visit in the afternoon.

At about 9.45 Winifred came up and told me that when she went down after fetching me the papers she saw the servant Lizzie — who was out for the evening — cross the hall, from the direction of the door, and go down the kitchen stairs. Winifred went straight into the drawing-room where her sister Rosalind was sitting and told her that Lizzie had come in, and no doubt would get the supper. She waited a while, but as her Aunt Mary did not come upstairs, she concluded Lizzie was not well and had gone to her bedroom, so she went to the kitchen and helped prepare supper.

At a few minutes past 9.30 Aunt Mary had remarked, " Lizzie is late." Winifred had said, " Oh, no, she came in at 8.30, and went straight to the kitchen." Aunt Mary remarked that she had heard no one come down, and also asked how Lizzie could have got into the house, as the door was locked.

After Winifred had told me, I said, "I wonder if one of our old maids was thinking of us and of coming into the house." The only one I could think of at all like Lizzie was Nellie Lee, and I had been thinking about her lately. My son met her not long before Christmas and came back and told me about it, and we remarked on how she had changed from the pretty, bright girl she used to be. (Winifred had not beard of this.) Nellie Lee was a fair girl, rather taller and larger-built than Lizzie, but might well resemble her in a bad light. She did not wear glasses, and, I feel sure, had a hat turned up with green velvet, as I used to notice how pretty her hair looked against it. SARAH

Miss Gill's brother also corroborates her statement, thus :

December 1, 1914.1

I was in my Mother's room on the evening of January 18th when my sister Winifred came up and told us of her experience, as related

1In view of the fact that Mr. Gill's corroboration was not obtained for nearly a year, Miss Gill writes that his memory for details is very retentive. — ED.

6 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN., 1915.

in my mother's account — which I fully corroborate. I particularly remember her saying that the figure wore a green velvet hat, but no mention was made in my presence of Nellie Lee.

RAYMOND GILL.

Miss Verrall, who had an interview with Miss Gill, makes the following statement, based on contemporary notes:

Miss Gill came to see me, by appointment, on January 28, 1914. I questioned her as to whether there was any possibility that the figure she saw in the hall was the maid, Lizzie, going out, but she said that this explanation was excluded for several reasons :

(a) Lizzie had gone out a little before 8 p.m (see above), whereas it was certainly after 8 p.m. when she saw the figure.

(b) The clothes which the figure was wearing differed noticeably in several ways from the clothes which Lizzie was wearing that evening, e.g. as regards the coat and skirt, — not a long coat, — and the hat lined with green velvet.

(c) If the girl had been Lizzie on her way out, she would pre- sumably have been seen walking from the kitchen stairs to the front door instead of in the reverse direction. It was impossible for any one without a key to get in at the front door without being let in, unless the door was " on the latch." As Miss Gill had let herself in with a latch-key about twenty minutes earlier, and, so far as she or any one else in the house knew, no one had come in since, she had every reason to think that the door was latched as usual that evening.

In explanation of the statement in her original record that she " did not remember that [the girl she saw] wore glasses," she said that Lizzie wore rather conspicuous spectacles.

She also said that according to the recollection of Mrs. Gill and herself no mention was made between them of Nellie Lee until January 19, 1914, i.e. until after Miss Gill's dream about her.

It was on January 20, 1914, that Mrs. Gill told her of her brother having met Nellie Lee a few weeks before Christmas.

H. DE G. VERRALL.

This case presents two points of interest :

(i) There seems little doubt that Miss Gill experienced on this occasion a vivid sensory hallucination. For there is good reason to believe that at the time when Miss Gill saw the figure which she describes no person answering to this

JAN., 1915. Case. 7

description was present. The inmates of the house, as is clear from the narratives of Mrs. and Miss Gill, were otherwise accounted for, and it seems certain that no one could have entered the house without being admitted from within. From Miss Gill's statement that she particularly remembers hear- ing the figure walking on the oil-cloth, it appears that the hallucination was of two senses.

(ii) As to what may have caused this hallucination, whether, for instance, it was telepathically induced, the case is not so clear. If Mrs. and Miss Gill and Mr. Eaymond Gill are right in their recollection that no mention was made of Nellie Lee in Miss Gill's presence until after her dream on the night of January 18-19, it is certainly curious that Miss Gill should independently have reached the conclusion that the figure she* saw was that of Nellie Lee, and that she should have had this impression at a time when, unknown to her, Nellie Lee, whom she had not seen for more than ten years, had been in Mrs. Gill's thoughts. It is, however, difficult to be sure that nothing was said to Miss Gill on the evening of January 18, which might have suggested Nellie Lee to her, especially in view of the fact that, according to Mrs. Gill's statement, when she heard of her daughter's experience, she said : " I wonder if one of our old maids was thinking of us and of coming into the house."

But, even if we suppose that Miss Gill's dream and her conscious identification of the apparition with Nellie Lee were the result of some suggestion made to her by Mrs. Gill, there is one piece of evidence connecting the apparition with Nellie Lee which cannot be so explained, namely, the hat lined with green velvet. This part of Miss Gill's impression was evidently prior to any conversation she had on the subject with Mrs. Gill, because she spoke of it almost imme- diately to her sister, when she was still under the impression that the figure she had seen was that of the maid Lizzie. Miss Rosalind Gill's corroboration cannot now be obtained, but Mr. Raymond Gill, in the statement which has been quoted above, says that he particularly remembers that in her original account of her experience to Mrs. Gill and himself, Miss Gill mentioned the green velvet hat.

If any telepathic influence was involved, it came, pre-

8 Journal of Society for Psychical Research,. JAN., 1915.

sumably, from Mrs. Gill's mind, since she had recently been reminded of Nellie Lee and is sure that she " had a hat turned up with green velvet, as I used to notice how pretty her hair looked against it."

Miss Gill said, in reply to a question, that she had never had any similar hallucination before, although she had had several curious experiences of a premonitory character.

A SUPPOSED CASE OF CLAIRVOYANCE.

IN the Annalen der Natur- und Cultur-Philosophie (Ed. Wilhelm Ostwald) for October, 1913, there appeared an article by W. von Wasielewski entitled " Concerning a Case of Experimental Clairvoyance." Our attention was called to this article shortly after its appearance by one of our Associates, Professor Hans Driesch, but we have not hitherto published any report upon it, partly from lack of space, and partly because the author held out hopes of a further and more conclusive series of experiments, which, so far as we know, have not yet been carried out.

The experiments were conducted by Herr von Wasielewski himself, the subject being a young lady of his acquaintance, Fraulein von B., whom he describes as enjoying excellent physical and mental health. She had not apparently tried any similar experiments before, but " for various reasons " Herr von Wasielewski concluded that she was likely to be " gifted as regards the phenomena in question," namely telepathy and clairvoyance.

The first experiments, in the early summer of 1912, were concerned with automatic writing and telepathy. Herr von Wasielewski describes them as " successful," but gives no details. Towards the end of the year the question occurred to him " whether Fraulein von B. would be able to recognise an object in a closed box without any mental assistance from me."

By way of a preliminary experiment I packed a key about six centi- metres long between folded paper in a cardboard box, which I corded and sealed with my own seal.

I told Fraulein von B. to go with this box into an adjoining room, lie down on the sofa, and try whether she could under these conditions

JAN., 1915. A Supposed Case of Clairvoyance. 9

discover its contents. . . . During her absence I read a book which interested me, in order not to think of the key, and succeeded in my purpose. After about eight minutes Fraulein von B. came back and told me that she felt sure she had been successful. In the first place she was certain that the object was of metal. Secondly, its form was that of a key : a ring, then a shank, and at the top a projecting piece, like the wards of a key. She therefore believed the object to be a key, of such and such a length (measuring out the right distance with her hands). I ascertained by careful examination that the cord- ing and sealing of the box were untouched.

It might seem from this description that Herr von Wasie- lewski does not clearly distinguish between telepathy and clairvoyance in the true sense of the word, i.e. a perception derived neither through the ordinary channels of sense, nor from any other mind, since the fact that he was not con- sciously trying to influence Fraulein von B. at the time of the experiment affects hardly at all the question as to whether she derived her impression from his mind. Later on in his report, however, Herr von Wasielewski does distinguish between the two types of phenomena, and puts forward reasons for thinking that in the case of Fraulein von B. we have to deal with clairvoyance rather than thought-transference.

[Experience] clearly points to the fact that telepathy and clair- voyance are distinct although interrelated phenomena ; there is tele- pathy proper (communication from one mind to another), and there is clairvoyance proper, without any such communication. Moreover, in my opinion it is as good as certain — and later I hope to establish beyond doubt what I can now only put forward as a probability— that in the experiments with which we are here concerned, we have to do with clairvoyance and not with telepathy.

The reasons which Herr von Wasielewski adduces in support of this conclusion are that, whereas in the case of his earlier telepathic experiments with Fraulein von B.

(a) an effort was required on the part of the agent, (6) not every one could play the part of agent, (c) separation of the agent and percipient made the experi- ment harder ; in the case of the box-experiments

(a) no effort was required on the part of the agent,

10 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN., 1915.

(6) any person could play the part of agent, (c) separation of the agent and percipient had no effect on the result.

For all these reasons the hypothesis of telepathy could only be maintained by supposing that any human being's bare knowledge of the contents of the box is sufficient to produce after an interval of many days an unconscious and unintentional transference of thought, so soon as the percipient, in this case, Fraulein von B., tries to "see " the contents of the box.

Herr von Wasielewski also attaches great weight to the fact that Fraulein von B. herself declares that there is a marked difference in her sensations in the two types of experiment. In the case of telepathic experiments she has a series of changing mental images, from which one clear impression gradually emerges ; in the case of the box-experiments, on the other hand, she has a sudden detailed impression as to the pecu- liarities of the enclosed object, " not so much a mental image of it, but rather a knowledge of its nature." When, for instance, she was asked how she could distinguish so clearly between gold and brass, she said that gold gave her the impression of a much softer metal. Fraulein von B.'s intro- spective analysis of her own sensations is interesting psycho- logically, but Herr von Wasielewski does not seem to have made any allowance for the possible effect of suggestion.

The weakest point of his argument for clairvoyance is that, as he himself admits, he has not hitherto carried out any experiments under conditions " expressly devised to exclude the telepathic hypothesis," and considering how far stronger at the present time is the evidence for telepathy than for clairvoyance, we are bound, I think, to give precedence to the telepathic hypothesis, unless it is absolutely excluded. Moreover, some of Herr von Wasielewski's arguments seem to show that he does not make sufficient allowance for the fact that telepathic impressions may be subconsciously transmitted, and may also be deferred.

Herr von Wasielewski says that he tried fifty experiments in all, of which forty-five were at least partly successful. The time required for each experiment was from three to ten minutes. He could not form any definite opinion as to the

JAN., 1915. A Supposed Case of Clairvoyance. 11

cause of failure. He satisfied himself that it was not due to the nature of the object which was to be " perceived," or of the material used for the outer wrapping. In describing the conditions under which the experiments were conducted, Herr von Wasielewski says that, although he is personally convinced of Fraulein von B.'s absolute trustworthiness, he is aware that this argument will not carry weight with the general public, and, moreover, the possibility of unconscious fraud has to be taken into account.

To form any conjecture as to their content from the outside of the boxes was impossible. They consisted, in most cases, of thin, but strong and stiff cardboard, . . . and later on they were often of tin. . . . The size and shape of the boxes did not bear any tell-tale rela- tion to their contents. For example, in the case of a fairly early experiment, an object four centimetres long packed in a box about twenty -five centimetres long was correctly recognised. . . .

The fastenings were always from the first knotted and sealed in several places. As a rule, I used my own seal for this purpose. In several instances parcels from people who were interested came to. the house ready -prepared, and provided respectively with the seals of those who had sent them. . . . Moreover, Fraulein von B. was alone with the box only for a few minutes in a neighbouring room, liable to observation at any moment, and on many occasions actually under observation ; often in strange houses, where no preparations could be made beforehand either to copy the seals, or to take them off and replace them again. . . .

If these phenomena are to gain general recognition, it is essential that we should have a guarantee against fraud, deliberate or other- wise, and therefore, at the risk of being tedious, I must concern myself with this question a little longer. The boxes gave, as we have seen, no clue to their contents . . . but, in case the objection is made that so long as the percipient remained alone with the closed box for several minutes, we have no right to say that fraud was absolutely excluded, ... I will add that on several occasions it was found possible to carry out the experiments with equal success in the presence of myself and other witnesses. . . .

Dr. Bayer and Professor Edmund Konig, both of this town [Leip- sig], the former . . . State medical-adviser, the latter a master at the "Gymnasium" here, and author of several philosophical works . . . have given me permission to declare in my article in their

12 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN., 1915.

names that they were present throughout the whole of one experi- ment and thereby convinced themselves that Fraulein von B. did not leave her place, nor manipulate the box in any way to discover its contents.

It is unfortunate that Herr von Wasielewski was not able to report the whole series of experiments (doubtless for reasons of space), but gives only a few selected instances, and even those not in as much detail as might have been desired. The following is one of the experiments which he describes. On this occasion Fraulein von B. was alone with the box for some minutes.

Object. A paper-weight in the shape of an egg of reddish-brown, slightly speckled marble, wrapped between folded paper in a card- board box. Fraulein von B. came back after an absence of eight minutes ; since she stated that she had not begun at once, the actual duration of the experiment would be about five minutes. " It is an object of such and such a length (measuring off the right length between her hands), of a dark, very hard substance. But not metal ; I think it is stone. Judging by the shape, I should say it was a wooden darning-egg of my mother's, but, as I have said, it is not of wood, also it is darker. And there is another peculiarity about it, that on one side it has a small flat surface to lie on." Every statement, includ- ing the last, was correct. On the other hand, the colour was only noted as dark, and, on enquiry, was not recognised more exactly. This, I may add, has been hitherto a characteristic of these experi- ments. With few exceptions, the colours of the objects are only distinguished as light or dark, much as a person totally colour-blind might see them. . . . Hitherto the actual colour has been recog- nised, as a rule, only in the case of metals, which are described as grey (tin or aluminium), white (silver or nickel), brown (copper), yellow (gold or brass, which, however, are distinguished from one another, as I have said before). This rather curious circumstance is one of the peculiarities to which I referred above as being an argument against telepathy, since in the case of telepathic communication the colour must be as communicable as any other factor, and actually is so, accord- ing to the experience of myself and other investigators. Neverthe- less, I note in passing that in the telepathic experiments also I had some failures as well as successes in regard to colour, and this fact has given me the idea of making a special enquiry on this point. At any rate, in the case of the box-experiments, contrary to the results obtained by telepathy, there was as a rule no impression of colour.

JAN., 1915. A Supposed Case of Clairvoyance. 13

The following is an account of another experiment, during which Herr von Wasielewski was present throughout :

Object. An empty scent-bottle, with a glass stopper, packed up with paper in a tin box so that it could not move. Fraulein von B. put the box on this occasion on her breast. (This she usually did, but the action had no influence on her success.) After about a quarter to half a minute she said : "I feel the metal very strongly again, from my knees to my head, but another feeling also comes in between." After a minute : " Glass." Then she went on with pauses of only a second : " Rather long, at the top it gets suddenly small, as though broken off, then wide again, like a stopper. It is certainly a little bottle of glass, and the stopper is of glass too, and cut off square, not round — the little bottle is also four-cornered." The size of the bottle and the fact that it was empty were also correctly given. The dura- tion of the whole experiment was about two minutes.

Herr von Wasielewski gives one curious instance in which Fraulein von B. received a correct impression of an object which had been accidentally included amongst the contents of the box without the sender's conscious knowledge. This is the strongest piece of evidence for clairvoyance against telepathy which he is able to put forward.

He also gives a detailed account of an experiment designed to show that Fraulein von B.'s abnormal powers include per- ceptions of taste and smell. He had six small glass bottles made up by a chemist, containing respectively saccharine and water, distilled water, citric acid and water, quinine and water, peppermint essence and water, and brandy.

These bottles were placed one after another in a corded cardboard box which was laid either on Fraulein von B.'s forehead or on her neck. Herr von Wasielewski was present throughout the whole experiment and testifies to the fact that she never touched or saw the bottles. The result of the experiment (in brief) was as follows :

SUBJECT. IMPRESSION.

1. Quinine. Failure.

2. Brandy. "Something like port-wine, but

light in colour."

3. Saccharine. "Sweet."

4. Peppermint-essence. "Peppermint."

14 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN., 1915.

5. Distilled water. " Something like the last, but

fainter."

6. Quinine. Failure.

7. Citric acid. " Taste of lemons."

8. Distilled water. " Still a taste of lemons."

9. Brandy. "Brandy."

10. Saccharine. " The sweet taste again."

As regards the impressions of peppermint, citric acid, and brandy, the most natural explanation perhaps is hyperaesthesia of smell, and this interpretation is borne out by the double failure with quinine which has little or no scent. On the other hand, the double success with saccharine, which also is practi- cally scentless, is not so easily explained on this hypothesis. Moreover, the first impression of the brandy as " Something like port- wine, but light in colour," is interesting, as is also the persistence each time of the preceding sensation in the case of the distilled water.

The general impression made by Herr von Wasielewski's report is that even if he has not succeeded as yet in clearly establishing his own conclusions, he has found in Fraulein von B. a percipient of unusual powers with whom it would be interesting to try further experiments.

H. DE G. V.

REVIEW.

The Unknown Guest. By MAURICE MAETERLINCK. Translated by ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS. Methuen & Co., London, 1914. 340 pp. Price 5s. net.

M. MAETERLINCK'S new volume is a continuation of his studies of the mysteries of life which were begun in the essay on Death, and is itself to be followed by a discussion of " the miracles of Lourdes and other places, the phenomena of so-called materialization, of the divining rod, and of fluidic asepsis." The present instalment contains, in addition to a short introduction, essays on Phantasms of the Living and the Dead, Psychometry, the Knowledge of the Future, The Elberfeld Horses, and the Unknown Guest, of which the first two have not been published before, while the others have recently appeared in magazines, and one <>f them, that on the Elberfeld horses, has been noticed in this Journal for July, 1914, p. 271. The whole work is very readable and suggestive, and will appeal the more strongly to members of the S.P.R that its tone is uniformly appreciative of the Society's work, which is constantly

JAN., 1915. Review. 15

quoted as authoritative, and even as more conclusive than perhaps it claimed to be. It is a very real impediment to progress in Psychical Research that when men first read the extensive literature on the subject and realize how much better than they had expected the evidence is, they should at once treat as established fact the less anomalous phenomena, such as "telepathy," and use them to speculate about the more anomalous, in- ways that are often ingenious, but necessarily insecure. Whereas in fact we do not understand save where we can control, and cannot discover what is the nature of the phenomena labelled " telepathic " until we can produce them with sufficient certainty to subject them to continuous experimentation.

M. Maeterlinck also seems too ready to go ahead in this incautious manner, and one cannot but deprecate such statements as that " it is by this time incontestable that a violent or deep emotion can be transmitted instantaneously from one mind to another . . . and as the most violent emotion which man can undergo is that which grips and overwhelms him at the approach or at the very moment of death, it is nearly always this supreme emotion which he sends forth and directs with incredible pre- cision [!] through space, if necessary across seas and continents, towards an invisible and moving goal" (pp. 17-18). If so, our present calamities should generate so abundant a crop of telepathic phantoms as to render Psychical Research a most powerful agency for peace, by convincing even the most sceptical and materialistic nations that they cannot get rid of their enemies by killing them. But unfortunately there seem to be no signs that Psychical Research will not suffer as severely as the other spiritual interests of humanity from the JRagnarok of European civilization.

Similarly M. Maeterlinck seems quite willing to accept the existence of "mediums" as an ultimate fact and point of departure for his theories (p. 43), and to assume that there is no difficulty about finding capable and trustworthy representatives of their class (e.g. pp. 58, 78). Such has not by any means been the experi- ence of our Society, and until " mediums " are as plentiful and procurable as blackberries, they and their mentality should surely be regarded as a difficult psychological problem deserving of the most careful examination.

M. Maeterlinck proceeds to use the existence of telepathy and of mediums as premisses in his theorizings about the supra-personal and supernatural " subconsciousness " which he calls the "unknown guest " who occasionally crosses the threshold of our normal life, and whom he greatly prefers to the spiritistic interpretation of the data. That his speculations are eloquent and interesting no reader will deny, though M. Maeterlinck himself would no doubt confess the enormous difficulty of penetrating the enveloping mystery and obtaining any definite conclusions from facts so shadowy and conceptions so inchoate as those he is forced to rely on. From the standpoint of purely scientific Psychical Research, however, one feels that it is still premature to theorize except in the most

16 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN., i!U6.

tentative manner, and that it is a pity that in his eagerness to advance M. Maeterlinck should pass so lightly over what appear to be some highly important experiences of his own. In his essay on " Psychometry " (p. 52 f.) he mentions a visit of his wife to a " M"'e M — " to ask her, on the basis of a scrap of paper which was in his handwriting but gave no other clue, what he was doing. The psychometrist at once declared that he was far away in a foreign country, examining horses with an absorbed and tired air. He was in fact on his visit to the Elberfeld horses, though not actually investigating them at the time of the sitting. Even more striking is the story on pp. 56-7 of the fame medium's description of the unknown writer of a letter asking M. Maeterlinck for his autograph. In this case we are merely assured that "on enquiry, all the details were found to be astonishingly accurate " ; but surely this astonishing accuracy excites the render's curiosity and would be enormously convincing. If, then, the correspondence which established it has been preserved, as one must presume, it should be published in erteneo. The Editor of this Journal would no doubt be delighted to do so.

F. C. S. SCHILLER.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH.

THE Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, November, 1914, contains the announcement of the appoint- ment of an Assistant to Professor Hyslop, who has hitherto carried on the work of the Society singlehanded. The new Assistant is Mr. Edwin W. Friend, who graduated from Har- vard University in 1908, and was, at the time of his appoint- ment, acting as Assistant in the Department of Philosophy. His services, it is hoped, will relieve Professor Hyslop of the office work of the Society and leave him free for scientific investigations.

The same issue of the Journal contains the gratifying state- ment that the Endowment Fund has recently been increased by the contribution of $3,000, and — though not yet reaching the amount desired — is at least sufficient to ensure the exist- ence of the Society. It is satisfactory that, in spite of the difficulties and discouragements which beset a young organiza- tion, it has secured a permanent endowment and the means to provide for the continuance of its scientific work in the future. That this successful accomplishment is due to Professor Hyslop's energy, perseverance, and untiring zeal in the cause of psychical research, no one will be disposed to deny.

No. CCCXVI.-VoL. XVII. FEBRUARY, 1915.

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research

CONTENTS.

PAGE

New Members and Associates, 17

Annual General Meeting of Members, 17

Meetings of the Council, 18

General Meeting, 19

Report of the Council for the year 1914, 19

Account of Receipts and Expenditure for 1914, 26

Endowment Fund for Psychical Research, Account for 1914, 27

Note on the English Sittings with Miss Tomczyk. By the Hon. Everard Feilding,- 28

To Members and Associates of the Society for Psychical Research, 32

NEW MEMBEES AND ASSOCIATES.

Names of Members are printed in Black Type. Names of Associates are printed in SMALL CAPITALS.

Wilkinson, Miss Milisent, c/o The Royal Bank of Queensland,

31 Budge Row, London, E.G.

CAIRNS, The REV. DAVID S., D.D., 62 Hamilton Place, Aberdeen. DAVIES, Miss M. H. LLOYD, Lynton, Curzon Road, Hoylake. DE WYCKOFF, JOSEPH, The Croft, Greville Place, London, N.W. FOOTE, MRS. H. R., Harewood House, Hanover Square, London, W. SCHAAF, A. E., 55 North Clinton Street, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., U.S.A. SETON-KARR, CAPTAIN H. W., 8 St. Paul's Mansions, Hammersmith,

London, W.

SHAW, ARNOLD E., Grove House, Aspley Guise, Beds. THOMPSON, W. R., Zoological Laboratory, Cambridge. WARD, DAVID S., Sedan House, Harrogate. WRANGHAM, W. H., 78 Barmouth Road, Wandsworth, London, S.W.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF MEMBERS.

THE Annual General Meeting of Members of the Society was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Friday, January 29th, 1915, at 3.30 p.m. ; THE PRESIDENT, DR. F. C. S. SCHILLER, in the chair. There were also present : Mr. W. W. Baggally, Sir W. F. Barrett, the Rev. M. A. Bayfield, Sir

18 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. FEB., 1915.

William Crookes, Sir Lawrence Jones, Miss S. M. Kingsford, Mr. St. G. Lane Fox Pitt, Miss F. R. Scatcherd, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, Mr. H. Arthur Smith, Eev. C. Drayton Thomas, Mrs. A. W. Verrall, and Dr. V. J. Woolley ; also Miss Alice Johnson, Research Officer, and Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Report of the Council for the year 1914 was read, and is printed below. The audited account of income and expendi- ture for the year 1914 was presented and taken as read, and is also printed below.

The Chairman announced that the six retiring Members of the Council offered themselves for re-election. No other nomi- nations having been received, the following were declared to be duly elected Members of the Council : the Right Hon. Gerald W. Balfour, Mr. E. N. Bennett, Dr. W. M'Dougall, Sir Oliver Lodge, Mr. H. Arthur Smith, Sir Joseph J. Thomson.

MEETINGS OF THE COUNCIL.

THE 132nd Meeting of the Council was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Friday, January 29th, 1915, at 3 p.m. ; THE PRESIDENT, DR. F. C. S. SCHILLER, in the chair. There were also present : Mr. W. W. Baggally, Sir W. F. Barrett, Rev. M. A. Bayfield, Sir William Crookes, Sir Lawrence Jones, Mr. St. G. Lane Fox Pitt, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, Mr. H. Arthur Smith, Mrs. A. W. Verrall, and Dr. V. J. Woolley; also Miss Alice Johnson, Research Officer, and Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Report of the Council was considered for the year 1914.

The 133rd Meeting of the Council was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Friday, January 29th, 1915, im- mediately after the Annual General Meeting ; DR. F. C. S. SCHILLER in the chair. There were also present : Mr. W. W. Baggally, Sir W. F. Barrett, Rev. M. A. Bayfield, Sir William Crookes, Sir Lawrence Jones, Mr. St. G. Lane Fox Pitt, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, Mr. H. Arthur Smith, Mrs. A. W. Verrall, and Dr. V. J. Woolley ; also Miss Alice Johnson, Research Officer, and Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Minutes of the 131st Meeting of the Council were read and signed as correct.

The proceedings of the Annual General Meeting were reported.

FEB., 1915. Meetings of the Council. 19

Professor Gilbert Murray, LL.D., was elected President of the Society for the year 1915.

Mr. H. Arthur Smith was re-elected Hon. Treasurer ; Mrs. Henry Sidgwick and the Hon. Everard Feilding, Hon. Secre- taries ; and Mr. Arthur Miall, Auditor, for the current year.

The following were co-opted as Members of the Council for the year 1915 : the Rev. M. A. Bayfield, Mr. G. Lowes Dickinson, Professor L. P. Jacks, Sir Lawrence Jones, Dr. T. W. Mitchell, Mr. A. F. Shand, Dr. V. J. Woolley, and Dr. M. B. Wright.

Committees were elected as follows :

Committee of Reference and Publication : The Right Hon. Gerald W. Balfour, Miss Jane Barlow, Sir William F. Barrett, Sir William Crookes, the Hon. Everard Feilding, Dr. W. Leaf, Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr. T. W. Mitchell, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Lord Rayleigh, Mrs. H. Sidgwick, and Mrs. A. W. Verrall.

Library Committee : The Hon. Everard Feilding, Dr. T. W. Mitchell, Mr. J. G. Piddington, and Dr. C. Lloyd Tuckey.

House and Finance Committee : Mr. W. W. Baggally, the Hon. Everard Feilding, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Mr. Sydney C. Scott, and Mr. H. Arthur Smith.

Corresponding Members and Honorary Associates were elected for the year 1915.

One new Member and ten new Associates were elected. Their names and addresses are given above.

The monthly accounts for December, 1914, were presented and taken as read.

GENERAL MEETING.

THE 144th General Meeting of the Society was held in the Robert Barnes Hall of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wim- pole Street, London, W., on Friday, January 29th, 1915, at 5 p.m. ; DR. F. C. S. SCHILLER in the chair.

MR. J. G. PIDDINGTON read a paper entitled " Cross-Corre- spondences of a Gallic Type," which will, it is hoped, be published later in the Proceedings.

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR THE YEAR 1914. CONSIDERING the present state of public affairs, it will not be a matter for surprise that we have to report some decrease in

20 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. FEB., r.n:».

membership at the end of this year. During the year 23 new Members (including one Corresponding Member; were elected, and 2 Associates became Members ; 62 new Associates were elected, and 1 Member became an Associate. On the other hand, the total loss in numbers, from resignations, deaths and other causes, was 29 Members (including one Corresponding Member) and 90 Associates, making a net decrease of 31.

The total membership is now 1212, the numbers being dis- tributed as follows : Members, 286 (including 27 Honorary and Corresponding Members) ; Associates, 926 (including 11 Honorary Associates).

These figures, with the corresponding ones of previous years, have been analysed in order to discover how far the decrease may reasonably be attributed to the war. During the five years, 1909 to 1913 inclusive, the average number of autumn elections of Members and Associates was 53, whereas this year it was only 31. Further, the average number of resignations during the previous five years for the period August to Decem- ber was 30, whereas this year it was 41. The figures are even more striking if we omit the year 1912, which happened to be a comparatively unprosperous one for the Society. In that case, the average number of autumn elections is found to be 56, as against 31 this year ; while the average number of resignations is 26, as against 41 this year.

The number of elections this year before the war was 53, which is up to the average of the corresponding period for the last three years, though below the average (69) for the last five years, 1909 and 1910 having been unusually prosperous years.

Further evidence of the effect of the war on our numbers is to be found in the letters of resignation received. As usual, a large proportion (38 out of 75) give no reason for resigning ; of the other 34, 8 state specifically that it is due to the war, while 10 others, who allude to reduced circum- stances or the urgency of other claims on them, probably mean the same thing. If so, the war accounts for half the number of resignations out of those who mention any reason for their resigning. Other reasons given are such as ill-health (7 cases), inability to attend meetings, going abroad, etc. The majority express regret for having to resign, and 8 say that they hope to rejoin later ; in only 3 cases out of the total of 75 is

FEB., 1915. Report of the Council for the Year 1914.

21

mention made of any dissatisfaction with the methods of the Society or the results of its work.1

In connection with the war, it may be of interest to add the figures of membership in the European countries outside our own. They are as follows :

France - Eussia Belgium Germany

Austria-Hungary - 2 Holland - Italy and Sicily Norway - Denmark Spain Sweden - Switzerland Portugal Roumania -----

19
9	- 29
1
11 Il7 6 J
12
3
2
2	-31
1
1
1
1

Total

77

Publications continue to be sent to most of our members in France and Russia, as well as in the neutral countries, and it is hoped that communication will be resumed with those in Germany and Austria as soon as the war is over. We have had several requests from members at the front to send the publications there, and a letter from a medical man with the Fleet, who seems to have some leisure for reading and opportunities for observation, asking us to send him information about the best books on psychical subjects and hypnotism.

The drop in membership of course involves some decrease in the income of the Society, and it is natural that the receipts

1 One member expresses disapproval of the Society's present methods ; another says " I cannot follow the present recondite investigations of the Society with much interest, as they are so very complicated, and the Council show such a very strange timidity in publishing any authoritative conclusions on any subject." The third writes that he has been disappointed in his hope of learning from the Society the art of investigating psychical phenomena, but that he has not lost his interest in the subject and hopes to be able some time to send contributions both of money and information.

2 Including Mr. Cort van der Linden, who is at present Prime Minister of Holland.

22 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. FEB., 1915.

from the sale of publications — one of our minor sources of income — have also fallen off. During the second half of the year the sale of publications through our London agent to persons not belonging to the Society brought in a net profit of £13 11s. 6d., whereas the average for the second half of the previous four years was £37. On the other hand, the sale of publications for the first half of the year realised a profit of £27 6s. 3d., as compared with an average for the first half of the preceding four years of £25 10s. Again, the sales of publications to members since the war began up to the end of the year amounted to £4 12s. 9d., whereas the average receipts for the corresponding period during the five previous years amounted to £16 10s. 2d.

The Society, however, has considerable reserves in its Endow- ment Fund and other investments, so that no anxiety is felt as to its financial position. Nevertheless, in view of the present decrease in income, members may be reminded that subscrip- tions are due on January 1st in every year.

In regard to the more important question of work done by the Society, a certain amount of the time and energy ordinarily spent on psychical research is naturally being diverted into other channels. Thus, Mr. Feilding has accepted an appointment on the Naval Press Bureau ; Dr. M'Dougall has gone to the front in charge of a motor-ambulance, and Mr. E. N. Bennett is taking command of a Red Cross con- tingent which is being sent out from England to Serbia.

In regard to the Special Hospital for officers suffering from nervous shock, the scheme for which was mentioned in the December Journal, and which has now been started at a large house in Kensington, it is interesting to note that five out of the twenty-two medical men who have offered their services free to it are members of the Council, and three others belong to the Society, which has thus at the outset associated with it more than one-third of the whole medical staff of the Hospital.

Turning to the more normal activities of the Society, we may observe that the extra room which was added to the office at the beginning of the year has proved of use in many ways. The Assistant Research Officer has been able to carry on her work there without the constant interruptions that were inevi- table in the Library, and the room has also been in frequent use for interviews and for purposes of experiment. In most of

FEB., 1915. Report of the Council for the Year 1914-. 23

the experiments in telepathy that are carried on at the Rooms, it is arranged for the agent to be in one room and the per- cipient in another, and both rooms have, of course, to be kept quiet and free from disturbance for the time being. Though telepathic phenomena seem to occur fairly often, it is well known that they can only be experimentally demonstrated in rare cases, so that much of the time spent in such experiments is inevitably fruitless, producing merely negative results. Among a number of sets of experiments, however, tried during the last two years, a considerable proportion of successful results were obtained with two experimenters, the Misses Tipping, and a report on these by Miss Verrall was read at a meeting of the Society in November and will appear later in the Proceedings.

Another advantage of the extra room has been the greater accommodation thereby afforded in the Library for people who wish to read or consult books and periodicals there, and the Library has in consequence been used a good deal more this year, though readers have fallen off again since the outbreak of war.

A useful piece of work, which has been on hand for some time, Vol. II. of the Combined Index to the Proceedings and Journal, has been completed and published this year. The first volume of this Index, covering the first 15 volumes of Proceedings and the first 9 volumes of the Journal, was pub- lished ten years ago. The second volume continues the series down to Vol. XXVI. of Proceedings and to Vol. XV. of the Journal inclusive, and in view of the increasing complexity of the reports on the work of the Society, is likely to prove even more useful than the first. The Index was prepared by Miss C. Burke and carefully revised by the Sub-Editor.

Study of the automatic scripts, which continue to be pro- duced, has gone on steadily throughout the year, and three reports on them have appeared in the Proceedings published during 1914. Mrs. Sidgwick has also been for some time engaged in an examination of all the available records, both published and unpublished, of Mrs. Piper's trance phenomena, from the point of view of finding what light is thrown by them on the psychology of her trance. A paper giving a general account of this investigation was read at a meeting of the Society in January, and Mrs. Sidgwick's full report is now being printed for the Proceedings.

24 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. FEB., 1915.

During the year we had the pleasure of a visit from Dr. Morton Prince, who read a paper to a meeting of the Society.

A number of reviews of psychological and other work done abroad have been contributed to the Proceedings and Journal by Dr. Schiller and Dr. Woolley. Several of these related to reports on the " thinking animals " whose performances have excited so much interest in recent years, and with whom Dr. Woolley and Mr. Bullough experimented last year at Elberfeld. But this is another of the possible lines of investi- gation which are blocked for the present ; it has indeed been rumoured that the " thinking horses " have gone to the front.

During the summer a series of experiments was conducted with the Polish medium, Miss Stanislawa Tomczyk, in whose presence telekinetic phenomena are said to occur. Her performances had not only been favourably reported on by Dr. Ochorowicz, of Warsaw, and some other scientific men on the Continent, but had also much impressed Mr. Feilding, who had had opportunities of observing them at Warsaw and at Munich. The Council invited Miss Tomczyk to come to London, and appointed a Committee of investigation, con- sisting of Mr. Feilding, Mr. Baggally, Mrs. Sidgwick, Miss Verrall, Dr. Woolley, and two friends of Mr. Feilding's, Mr. S. Cowper-Coles (an electrical metallurgist with expert knowledge of photography) and Mr. Mark Barr (an electrical expert), to take charge of the sittings.

Eleven sittings in all were held between June 2 and July 13, 1914, but unfortunately only inconclusive results were obtained. During part of the period the medium's health was not good, which probably accounted for the fact that several sittings were almost entirely blank. At the others slight phenomena were observed of the type usually associated with Miss Tomczyk, that is, movements of small objects without any apparent contact. The most striking incident was one witnessed at the fourth sitting, on June llth, 1914, when a small celluloid ball was levitated to a height of about 9 inches above the table (the medium's hands being about a quarter of an inch from the ball on either side), coming down again almost at once.

The conditions of " control " were those habitually used at Miss Tomczyk's sittings, as described below in Mr. Feilding's Note (see p. 28) ; but, owing to the slight nature of the phenomena and their desire not to discourage the medium at

FEB., 1915. Report of the Council for the Year 1914. 25

the outset, the Committee were not able to impose such conditions as they would have thought completely satisfactory. It may, however, be said that no evidence of fraud was obtained and the Committee consider that there is undoubtedly still a case for investigation.

At the end of the year, Miss Verrall was invited to give a course of lectures once a week on psychical research during the Lent Term, 1915, to the third-year students in psychology at King's College, University of London, where she has for some time been assisting in the Demonstrations in Psychology.

Dr. William Brown, the head of the psychological department at King's College, London, has obtained a commission in the R.A.M.C., and Miss Yen-all's course has been arranged to take the place of some of the lectures that he would have given. In it she will attempt to give a general view of the various lines of enquiry pur- sued in psychical research and of the results so far obtained, considering them especially from a psychological standpoint.

This is believed to be the first time that any such course has been delivered in an English University.

Mention may incidentally be made of the new London Medico- Psychological Clinic, which was opened in October, and an account of which appeared in the December Journal This has, of course, no connexion with the Society, but so much has been done through the work of the S.P.R. both to advance knowledge and to arouse interest in hypnotic and allied states from a psychological as well as a therapeutic point of view, that new developments of this kind under the direction of properly qualified persons are always especially welcomed by the Council. Six members of the medical staff of the Clinic belong to the S.P.R. , and the Chairman of the Board of Management is a member of our Council. We have already found occasion to send to the Clinic several persons who have come to the S.P.R. Rooms for advice and help in regard to mental or nervous symptoms.

Five Meetings of the Society were held during the year.

The dates and subjects of the papers read were as follows:

*January 30th. "On the Psychology of the Piper

Trance," by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick.

March 27th. " Some Recent Scripts affording Evidence of Personal Survival," by the Right Hon. Gerald W. Balfour.

* Those marked with an asterisk were General Meetings.

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28 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. FEB., 1915.

*April 24th. " Certain Spiritistic Phenomena and Sub- conscious Activities," by Dr. Morton Prince.

*June 29th. " Presidential Address," by Dr. F. C. S. Schiller. November 20th. " Some Experiments in Thought- Transference, " by Miss Helen de G. Verrall.

NOTE ON THE ENGLISH SITTINGS WITH MISS TOMCZYK.

BY THE HON. EVERAED FEILDING.

ELEVEN sittings in all were held between June 2 and July 13, 1914. Although I do not propose to submit here a detailed report of the proceedings, which may perhaps be dealt with later in complete form, it may be of interest to give some description of them. An interesting feature concerning this medium is that neither by herself nor by Dr. Ochorowicz, who has closely studied her for several years, are the phenomena which are stated to occur in her presence attributed to spirit action. They consist of two classes, viz. : first, phenomena of the so called " poltergeist " type, many of which I have seen. These occur spontaneously and generally unexpectedly in her normal state, and include raps, movements of tables and chairs without apparent contact, throwings or transportations of objects about the house in which she is living, frequently in her own proximity, but also often in places apparently beyond her normal reach, such as outside the room in which she is, or even in another room the door of which is shut. Secondly, phenomena produced experimentally and deliberately when the medium is in a quasi-somnambulistic condition, or, more exactly speaking, in a secondary state bearing all the characteristics of a complete dual personality, somewhat similar to that of " Sally " in the case of Miss Beauchamp reported by Dr. Morton Prince and well known to most members of the Society. It is only by long-continued observation that any conclusions can be reached regarding the first class of phenomena, but the second class (which, so far as I know, are peculiar to this medium) appeared, from reports received, capable of satisfactory investigation, and it was to these that the Committee confined its attention. The procedure is as follows. The secondary personality having been first induced by hypnosis, the medium,

* Those marked with an asterisk were General Meetings.

FEB., 1915. Note on the English Sittings with Miss Tomczyk. 29

who usually wears a blouse with short sleeves, submits herself to examination in full light ; that is, her arms and hands and dress, as well as the table, which is bare, are carefully scruti- nised for the purpose of ascertaining that no hair or thin wire, by which means alone it would seem that the effects which follow could be produced fraudulently, are present or accessible. After the examination she remains with her hands well extended on the table in front of her without, so far as the closest observation of the Committee could determine, ever finding an opportunity of picking up any such aid. It is, indeed, mainly to prevent such an opportunity that the observation is sub- sequently directed. Since, however, it is necessary to reduce the light to a degree of brilliancy sufficient, indeed, to see the position of the hands with complete clearness, but insufficient to make certain of seeing a hair between the medium's hands if there were one, it is a matter of individual opinion, on which the members of the Committee were not united, as to whether such observation, extended over a sitting lasting perhaps two hours or more, can ever be adequate to justify a positive statement that no such opportunity presented itself.

She remains with her hands on the table, and generally joined, for a time varying from about five minutes to a half or three-quarters of an hour, until she reports feeling the " current," which she says shows itself by a prickling sensation in the tips of her fingers. She then asks for some small object to be placed on the table between her hands. It is im- material what object is chosen provided it is not too heavy, but the objects usually chosen are celluloid balls of different sizes, from that of a marble to that of a billiard ball, «jJ cigarette, matchbox, small aluminium box, spoon, etc. S^ie f places her hands on each side of the object, with her fingers,^' sometimes open and sometimes joined, pointing inwards towards it at a distance of from £ inch to 3 or 4 inches on each side. Presently the object is seen to move about on the table ; if a ball, running to and fro ; if a long object such as a cigarette, changing its angle of inclination or lifting at one end : if a box, sliding short distances and occasionally turning over. Should the "force," whatever it may be, be manifesting satis- factorily, the experiment terminates by the medium lifting her hands from the table, when the object also is lifted to a height varying from 6 inches to about 1| feet.

30 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. FEB., 1915.

This is the only type of experiment which I have myself witnessed, but it by no means covers the range of phenomena reported by Dr. Ochorowicz and others, who have had longer opportunities of studying the case. These include the produc- tion of lights, effects produced without contact on photographic plates in the dark or in red light, or on a galvanometer, sudden precipitation of chemical substances held in solution, and vision through an opaque screen. It would appear that the power alternates from one class of phenomena to another, each class occurring during a period when the others are not exhibited.

I had already visited the medium twice in Warsaw, and had also attended a few experiments conducted with her in January and February, 1914, by Dr. von Schrenck-Notzing. The suc- cessful production of her phenomena seems to depend upon the general condition of the medium, who is subject to positive and negative periods. My first visit to Warsaw in 1912 was during an almost entirely negative period, and though slight indications of some apparently supernormal force were per- ceptible, its action was irregular and very small. Having been informed later that a positive period had again set in, I returned to Warsaw at Christmas, 1913, and at the series of experiments which then took place, as well as at a subsequent series a few weeks afterwards in Munich, the effects were produced with great regularity, the conditions being precisely the same as those which prevailed in London.

At the series held in London the phenomena proved, unfor- tunately, far less striking, though far better than those which I saw at my first visit to Warsaw. Not only were the move- ments as a rule small, but they were also of rare occurrence, seldom more than three or four in a sitting which might last two hours. There was only one complete lifting of any object, viz. of a celluloid ball, at the fourth sitting, and the last two or three sittings were entirely blank. Any definite experimental observation of the " force," such as by varying the conditions, interposing fresh obstacles to possible fraud, and so forth, was in the circumstances impossible, and the most that can be said is that the Committee as a whole were unable either to con- vince themselves that their precautions against fraud were adequate, or, on the other hand, to point to any indications that fraud had been employed.

FEB., 1915. Note on the English Sittings with Miss Tomczyk. 31

On the assumption that the medium is possessed of some supernormal force, the comparative lack of success in London can be accounted for by the supposition that she was entering upon another (the third or fourth in her history) negative period, and that the " force " was already waning when the experiments started and ultimately entirely disappeared. Since the termination of the official sittings, I have made a large number of experiments privately, but at two only, at intervals of many months, has any success been obtained.

On the other hand, there have been a great quantity of phenomena of the " poltergeist " type, occurring in cycles of activity and quiescence, succeeding one another. As phenomena of this kind are most difficult to control, it is impossible to adduce evidence which would satisfy any one who was not a constant witness of them, and at present, at all events, I shall not refer to these further than to suggest that should further experimentation in the other kind of manifestations show a better measure of success in conditions which absolutely pre- clude any explanation except that of a supernormal faculty, the a 'priori improbability of a supernormal agency in the " poltergeist " class also would be greatly reduced.

As already stated, a spiritistic origin of both classes is disbelieved in by the medium, who, no doubt influenced by the views of Dr. Ochorowicz, is disposed to attribute them to an emanation of some unknown kind of energy from her nervous system. It may be of interest to add, in support of her contention, that the production of a " phenomenon," either in her normal or secondary condition, is almost invariably followed within a few minutes by a kind of collapse suggesting a sudden depletion of nervous energy and in which she falls instantaneously insensible, sometimes with rather disastrous consequences, such as tumbling backwards down half a flight of stairs, or striking her head violently against the furniture.

It is rash to speculate on insufficient data, but should Miss Tomczyk's claims ever come to be regarded as satisfactorily proved, viz. that, as I believe, she has a supernormal force and that this force is in the nature of a discharge of energy from her own organism, it may be that we have here a basis for the explanation of a great part, if not the whole, of the so-called physical phenomena of spiritualism.

32 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. FEB., 1915.

TO MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH.

THE Society for Psychical Research is anxious to try experi- ments of various kinds, hypnotic and other, with a view to obtaining further evidence either of telepathy or of hyperaesthesia. In the case of hypnotic experiments, the hypnotist would be one of our own medical members, experienced in work of this kind.

In order to carry out this purpose effectively, it is necessary that a considerable number of persons should be available who are willing to act as " subjects." It would be an advantage to have subjects who have already shown signs of some automatic or telepathic faculty, or who are responsive to hypnotic suggestion, but these are not essential qualifications, since it is always possible that in the course of experiments, some hitherto undiscovered faculty will be brought to light.

Some experiments would almost necessarily, and many might preferably, be conducted at the Rooms of the Society, but some might equally well be carried out by people in their own homes, provided that they kept careful records and observed test-conditions. In all experimental work quantity, as well as quality, is important, and we hope, therefore, that not only will a considerable number of subjects present themselves, but that they will be willing to continue the experiments regularly, say, once a week, for at least two or three months, should it appear that interesting results are likely to be obtained.

If any of our members and associates are willing to take part in these experiments, we should be much obliged if they would write to the Secretary, stating what kind of experiments they would prefer, and especially whether they are willing to be hypnotised. We appeal first to members of the S.P.R., because we know that they take an interest in its work, but we should, of course, welcome good subjects, whether members or not.

It is impossible in this preliminary notice to describe in detail the kind of experiments which it is proposed to try, but as instances of earlier experiments which it would be interesting to repeat, we refer our readers to Proceedings, S.P.R., Vols. VI., p. 128; VIII., p. 536; XXL, p. 60; XXVIL, p. 279 (telepathy) ; and Vol. XL, p. 182 (hyperaesthesia).

No. CCCXVIL-VoL. XVII. MARCH> 1915

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research

CONTKNTH.

PACK

Investigation of a Haunted House in Worcestershire. By Sir W. F. Barrett, K.R.S. 34 A Further Report of Mr. GrUnbaum's Experiences. By Alice Johnson - 43

NOTICE OF MEETING.

A Private Meeting of the Society

FOR

MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES ONLY

WILL BE HELD IN

THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, ON THE FIRST FLOOR OF 20 HANOVER SQUARE, LONDON, W.

On TUESDA Y, MARCH 2$rd, 1915, at 4 p.m.

WHEN A PAPER ON

An Icelandic " Seer "

WILL BE READ BY

Miss H. DE G. VERRALL.

N.B.— No Tickets of Admission are issued for this Meeting. Members and Associates will be admitted on signing their names at the door.

34 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAR., 1915.

INVESTIGATION OF A HAUNTED HOUSE IN WORCESTERSHIRE.

BY SIR W. F. BARRETT, F.R.S.

LAST July I received a letter from Mrs. Roberts (pseudonym) giving me details of mysterious disturbances that had occurred for some time past in their house in Worcestershire. The house occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Roberts is quite in the country, about two miles from a railway station : it stands back from the road and has a large and beautiful garden around and behind it. The house is a very old one of two stories, with thick walls, and considerable alterations and additions had been made by Mr. Roberts. Mrs. Roberta's first letter is as follows :

July 1, 1914.

The facts are these :

We came to this house nearly three years ago, and although it had the reputation of being haunted, we thought it was due to the fact that there is a novel about a haunted house called [name of house], and having no reference whatever to this house ; and we thought nothing of it.

A few months ago, however, odd things began to happen.

One evening one of the maids went to do my room after I had gone down to dinner, and was startled by hearing groans coming from under my bed. She thought it was the dog, and was walking towards the bed when she saw a figure emerge, and distinctly heard its footsteps go round the room, out of the door, and along the passage. She was too much frightened to pursue it. The only people in the house at the time were my husband and myself in the dining-room, my small children asleep in bed, and the old cook in the kitchen, who I think would have been incapable of the agility that would have been necessary if it had been any human being playing a trick. A few weeks later a temporary maid (who heard nothing of this incident while she was here) swore to hearing footsteps come into her room, walk to the dressing-table, then come to the bed, and she thought her bed was pushed against the one of the maid sleeping next her. A light revealed nothing. The next night she again heard footsteps walking up and down outside her room.

MAR., 1915. A Haunted House in Worcestershire. 35

About six weeks later my mirse was awoke one night by a tremendous noise in the room below her, which is the day nursery. There were sounds as if the window was being pushed up and down and the furniture of the room being thrown about. She thought some one must have got into the house and she was coming to call my husband, when the noises stopped. The next night she heard loud groaning in the room overhead, the cook's room, and thought she must be feeling ill, but next day the cook said she had slept all through the night, and heard nothing herself— though she constantly complains of noises, footsteps, and occasionally says she feels her bedclothes being pulled.

Just lately things have got worse. My nurse (who is perfectly cool-headed, and was most sceptical about the other incidents) woke suddenly one night, then heard footsteps come into the room and walk in a great hurry between her bed and my elder little boy's, felt something brush past her head, then heard the foot- steps hurry to the dressing-table, then back, and cease at the 'door. During this time, and while the noise was still in the room, she managed to strike a light, but there was nothing to be seen. She was very much afraid, and described a feeling of there being something there which one could not get by. A few nights later the same thing occurred, but that time she had the feeling of a hand being put on her throat, and of receiving a push. That night she had a night-light burning, but saw nothing. She also describes a noise like an iron bedstead being kicked, and she heard this noise outside her door a few nights ago, when nothing else happened. Since then she has heard groaning in her room ; and on the same night, the cook heard noises and the maid who saw the first apparition — and since then has experienced nothing — was woke by the feeling of some one pushing her on the shoulder. She thought it was the maid who shares her room trying to wake her, but found that the maid was asleep and there was no one else there.

My husband has since had much the same experience, accompanied by a feeling of great stupor. He attributes it to indigestion !

If things go on at this rate all our servants will be leaving, and it is altogether very unpleasant.

Can you, with your large experience, suggest any explanation or cure ?

I much hope you will forgive me for troubling you with this long letter. Even now there are details which I have left out.

A2

36 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAR., 1915.

Writing to me again a week later, Mrs. Roberts says :

July 6, 1914.

I very much wish you could come over and investigate these mysterious phenomena, but I hardly like to press you to come so far on the small chance of anything occurring when you are here. The phenomena appear to centre round our cook ! She is certainly not young, but although one or two mysterious noises had been heard before she came, nothing really developed till she had been here some weeks. She admits to having lived in places before where similar things have happened, and my hope is that when she leaves in a month's time the poltergeists will leave with her !

I have just been told by my nurse that she heard noises again last night— a loud yell being followed by bumping noises which went on over a period of 1£ hours. Unfortunately she was too much alarmed to come and call my husband and me.

If you think of coming, I think a week-end would be the best, as Sunday is rather a favourite night.

There are one or two elements in our case which do not seem quite to fit in with orthodox poltergeist behaviour, but as they are things more difficult to vouch for than the noises, I have not felt able to lay stress on them ; but if you come, we can discuss all this. I must, however, warn you once more of the extremely erratic behaviour of the phenomena — sometimes dis- appearing for weeks. Lately, however, not more than a week has passed without something happening.

I arranged accordingly to go over and spend a week-end with Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, to whom I am greatly indebted for their kind hospitality and also giving me every assistance in the investigations I made. During the time I was there I took down the testimony of the different inmates of the house who had personally experienced these abnormal disturbances. The evidence in each case was given to me independently and alone, and my cross-examination of the witnesses was cheerfully submitted to, and did not shake the evidence.

DOROTHY L., under-nurse and housemaid, said :

I was in Mrs. Roberts's bedroom one Sunday evening last March about 8 p.m., when I heard a groaning under the bed ; it sounded very like a dog moaning, and occurred twice over. There was a bedroom lamp alight in the room but I saw nothing to account

MAR., 1915. A Haunted House in Worcestershire. 37

for the sound. Suddenly, as I was standing by the dressing-table, I felt a hand placed on my chest and I was pushed over by the pressure, back to the dressing-table. A moment later I saw a figure, as if coming from under the bed, moving across the room towards the door : I only saw the back of the figure, which was tall, and white clothed. The figure went through the door out of the room and I distinctly heard its footsteps on the landing outside. I was so petrified that I was unable to stir for a minute or two, and I was afraid of screaming, as it would have frightened the children who were in bed in the adjoining room. As soon as I recovered I rushed downstairs and told the cook what had happened, and later on I told the head nurse, who informed Mrs. Roberts.

At the time Dorothy saw the figure, Mr. and Mrs. Roberts were at dinner in the dining-room, which was downstairs, but not under this bedroom. The cook was at the moment engaged in dishing-up the dinner. The head-nurse and parlour-maid had gone to church, and that Sunday evening there was no one else staying in the house. I enquired if there was a dog on the premises, and found a dog was kept in the yard outside, but not allowed in the house. On this occasion the dog was not in the premises at all, for the head-nurse, as was her custom, had taken the dog to accompany her to church, where it waited outside till the service was over and accompanied the nurse home. No other dog was kept, and no stray dog was in the place.

On another occasion, about three weeks previous to my visit, Dorothy said :

I was in bed and it was just getting daylight, when I woke up with the sound of some one coming into the bedroom; some- thing crossed the room and came to my bedside and pushed me. I did not see any figure, there was hardly light enough, but I distinctly felt a push on my shoulder, and then it went away. I lay awake till it was time to get up but nothing more occurred. I am sure it was not a dream; the parlour-maid was asleep in her bed, adjoining mine, all the time. This is the last time the " ghost " visited me.

I next examined the cook, an elderly person named Mrs. E., who said :

Dorothy on the Sunday came downstairs and told me of the

38 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAR., 191

fright she had and the apparition she saw in Mrs. Eoberts's bed- room, but I could not believe her. However, a little while after- wards I heard a groaning in my bedroom and the noise of some one going out of the room, but I saw nothing. I was in bed when the groaning woke me up ; the room was quite dark and I was too frightened to stir or light the candle. Another night I heard a stamping sound as if some one was walking heavily across the room. This time I did get up and light the candle and went outside on the landing : the time was 2 a.m. On at least half a dozen other occasions I heard similar sounds after midnight, but saw nothing. For the last week or two I have heard nothing. When I lived with a family in the I. of Wight, I also heard on several occasions curious noises which could not be explained. The sounds were like some one smashing crockery or moving furniture, and sometimes footsteps. These sounds were also heard by my mistress and others and they were much frightened and said it was dreadful. The family with whom I lived in the I. of Wight have, I believe, now gone to New Zealand.

The cook left the Isle of Wight to come to Mrs. Koberts ; her bedroom is upstairs over the night-nursery, and she sleeps alone. She told me she was perfectly sure no one was playing a trick on her : and said she was certain some object was standing by her bedside and uttering these groans, which woke her up on the first occasion.

I next examined Ethel C., the nurse, a most intelligent and respectable person about thirty years old. Ethel C. said :

Dorothy told me of the fright she had and the figure she had seen on the Sunday evening on my return from church that night. The date was March 22nd, as I put it down in my diary immediately afterwards. At first I could not believe it, though Dorothy declared it was perfectly true. The dog had gone with me to church that evening, as it aways does, for the church is 3| miles walk through country roads, and the dog goes as my companion and waits outside the church till I come out, and it did so on this occasion. Some time after this when I was in bed in my room — the night nursery, which is over the day nursery — I heard the window of the room below suddenly thrown open and then shut down again and the furniture knocked about in the room below. I got up and lit my candle and found it

MAR., 1915. A Haunted House in Worcestershire. .'{!>

was 1.30 a.m. I was too frightened to go downstairs by myself and was going to call Mr. Roberts when the sound ceased, after going on for nearly fifteen minutes. I then laid down again and waited but nothing more occurred that night. The only other persons in my bedroom were the two children, who were fast asleep. When I got up in the morning early I went to the room below and examined the room. Nothing was disturbed, the windows were fastened and the door locked as usual.

On a subsequent occasion, June 15th last, the children being asleep in their cots, and I myself had been asleep when I was awoke by hearing heavy footsteps, as if made by a person with hobnailed boots, coming into the room. The footsteps tramped across the room towards the dressing-table. I was terrified but managed to light the candle by my bedside and found it was 1.20 a.m. The perspiration was running off my forehead with fear and I kept the candle alight, but no more sleep was possible that night. I was really too frightened to get out of bed to call Mr. Roberts and nothing further occurred that night. I am sure the sound of the tramping did not come from some one walking in the garden outside, for I felt the bed shaking with the heavy tread.

A week later when in bed in the same room, I heard groans coming from some one standing near my bed, and then felt an object brush past my head. I lit the candle, found it was 1.30 a.m. ; the children were fast asleep in their beds and there was nothing to explain the sounds. The same night I heard a noise outside my door as if some one was striking a metallic rod. I laid awake but nothing else occurred.

A few days later, a horrible experience happened to me. I had been in bed some time but was not asleep, when a hand suddenly gripped my throat and another hand gripped the side of my body. The grip on the throat was so violent that it hurt but did not choke me. I managed to light the candle after a few minutes and found it was 1.30 a.m. The children were fast asleep and no one else was in the room. I am sure it was not a nightmare. After that I always kept a light burning in my room all night, and nothing like this experience happened again, though I have heard unaccountable noises several times.

Mr. Roberts had fitted up an electric bell communicating with his room from the nurse's bedside, and the Sunday night before I arrived, July 12th, the nurse rang the bell. MX..

40 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAR., 1915.

Roberts threw on a dressing-gown and ran to the room at once. The nurse had heard heavy footsteps moving about the landing outside the door. Mr. Roberts searched the whole house but found nothing to account for them : he then sat outside the room for some time but nothing else occurred that night. On one occasion the nurse told me she was going downstairs in the evening when some object was felt near her, as if trying to stop her passing. She went back to her bed- room, lit a candle, but could find nothing to account for it. She assured me the noises could not be explained by any hoax or natural cause, nor was her experience the result of anything Dorothy had told her, for she had dismissed that narration as absurd. She is not of a nervous disposition, as is shown by her having had sole charge of the house and slept alone in it for three weeks before the disturbances began.

Mrs. Roberts has neither heard nor seen anything super- normal. Mr. Roberts on one occasion (I was informed) dis- tinctly felt a presence as of some person brushing past him, but could find nothing to account for it.

I examined every room in the house. The night nursery was carpeted with thick felt and hardly any sound was made when I walked across it. The nurse imitated the sound she heard by stamping across the room from the door past her bed to the dressing-table, and I noticed that the room shook as she trod heavily. The house is old and the floors upstairs shake when they are tramped across.

The room I slept in was opposite the night nursery on the first floor, the doors facing each other across the wide landing. An electric bell was temporarily fitted up by my bedside, and the bell push by the nurse's bed in the room opposite ; the doors were also left open during the night, and I remained awake till 2.30 a.m. Nothing, however, occurred during the whole time of my stay.

After I had left I received the following letter from Mrs. Roberts :

August 6, 1914.

The night you left, July 20th, Ethel, in the nursery, and the two maids who slept together upstairs, heard awful groaning lasting 15-20 minutes, which seemed to go round the house — they all confirm that.

MAK., 1915. A Haunted House in Worcentewhire.

41

Last Sunday night, Aug. 2, I was sitting at dinner, late, about 9.15, as I had not been able to leave my husband [who was ill] sooner. Ethel rushed into the dining-room to say that she had heard extraordinary noises appearing to come from the cellar, when she was in the larder. I went to the larder, where Ethel and Lester (my ci-devant children's nurse, who is staying here now) were engaged in breaking up ice for my husband. All was then quiet, and I went back to my dinner.

Shortly after Ethel came in again to say that they had heard four loud noises like furniture being pushed about, and I went out again.

This is the lie of the land there :

55 P

landing

Door

Hall

a

w

I asked Lester if she would go down with me to inspect the cellar. She said yes, and seized a lamp, and we were just starting (leaving door into hall and larder open) when I heard my husband coughing, and I rushed upstairs.

When I re-emerged about half-an-hour later, I found that Lester had stayed where I left her, on the little landing at the top of the cellar stairs, and shortly afterwards heard footsteps coming up them. She shouted " What do you want ? " and the footsteps stopped, but the cook who was close by, and also heard them, fainted from fright at this moment.

I then went and asked Lester and Ethel to come and inspect the cellar -with me. We did this thoroughly, and nothing human was to be seen.

Last night (Aug. 5) Florence, the parlourmaid, woke suddenly

42 Journal of Society fov Psychical Research. MAR., 1915.

about 3 a.m. to become aware of a dark form standing over her bed, between herself and the window [which is near her bed on the left hand side]. She described it as showing against the window " darker than the night," and she could see the outline of protruding ears. She said her matches were by the bed, but she dared not put out her hand for them, as she felt she would have had to put it through the figure. She shut her eyes and did not open them for a long time, when she did all was as usual. She heard nothing.

I have taken time to write all this in order that you may be au courant and that the dates may be put down.

One other letter I had from Mrs. Roberts as follows :

Aug. 29, 1914.

Since Mrs. E., the cook, left on the 12th inst. we have had " peace, perfect peace," as far as ghosts are concerned. Things were very acute the last few days — and the two maids, Florence and Dorothy, heard noises in Mrs. E.'s room one morning about 8.30, and thought at first it was Mrs. E. herself walking about, and opening and shutting her tin box. It turned out, however, when Dorothy went across to investigate, that the old lady had gone downstairs.

Later in the day noises were heard in the larder when no one was there, and footsteps on the stairs leading to the attics.

Mrs. E. said she saw a bright light flash through the larder, and again she nearly fainted.

The very day of her departure the servants felt an entire change of atmosphere in the house, and one by one commented on it. Not a sound has been heard since.

It seems to me the queerest thing.

Ethel has just told me that for months she has been dreaming that we were leaving this house, the dreams beginning before my nurse left in February or the ghost trouble began.

In conclusion I may add that the landlord of the house has been written to several times to enquire if previous tenants had complained of any disturbances, but he had never given any reply to this question until just before I left, when, in answer to the question whether the previous tenant had seen or heard any " ghost," he replied, nothing, so far as he knew, had been heard or seen by previous tenants.

Mr. and Mrs. Roberts gave up the house in the autumn, and are now living elsewhere.

MAR., 1915. Report of Mr. Grunbaum's Experiences. 43

A FURTHER REPORT OF MR. GRUNBAUM'S EXPERIENCES.

BY ALICE JOHNSON.

IN the last Part of the Proceedings two papers, by Dr. Woolley and myself, were published on a series of hallucinatory im- pressions experienced by one of our foreign members, there called " Mr. Griinbaum." Many of these were the result of suggestions deliberately made by Mr. Griinbaum to himself in a state of self-induced hypnosis, or some condition of a similar kind ; and though the hallucinations often diverged considerably from his conscious intentions, he was generally able to trace their variations to something that had recentlv attracted his attention or had been in his mind. The account showed clearly two points : (1) That Mr. Griinbaum is un- usually liable to hallucinations ; that is, that ideas which with most of us remain merely ideas are in his case liable to become externalised almost as vividly as if they had been produced by sensations derived immediately from external objects ; (2) that these hallucinations are undoubtedly sub- jective ; that is, that their source can be traced to his own mind, as Mr. Griinbaum himself has always recognised, and as Dr. Woolley makes clear in his analysis of them.

Quite recently, however, one of these hallucinations has coincided with the death by accident of a relative of Mr. Griinbaum's in such a way as to suggest that this particular case was, at least partially, telepathic in character, and the suggestion is borne out by the fact that on the same night Mr. Griinbaum's mother had a dream relating to the same person. The hallucination was of the same type as many of the previous ones, and showed many of their idiosyncrasies, so that the coincidence between it and the death may, no doubt, have been purely accidental. The case is further weakened by the fact that Mr. Griinbaum did not mention it to any one till after he had heard of the death. This is, however, so far as I can remember, the first time that he has reported to us any such coincidence with any of his experiences ; it seems therefore very improbable that it is a case of illusion of memory. Having known Mr. Griinbaum personally for some years, I have every confidence that his statements

44 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAR., 1915.

can be depended on, and his reports are always characterised by great care and precision.

It appears to me not improbable that a genuine telepathic impression should take a form which the percipient's own mental habits had made customary for him, — in other words, as I suggested above, that this case may be telepathic, but only partially telepathic. But even if nothing more than a chance coincidence, it seems to me of interest.

I was first informed of it in a letter from Mr. Griinbaum as follows :

January 17, 1915.

Two curious cases happened recently to me.

I.

At about the beginning of this month I came home one day very tired and sat down in a chair in the back room. As I feel that I can hardly keep my eyes open, I say to myself : " Get out of your body." Shortly afterwards my mother came in from the hall and woke me up by saying : " Come now, what's the use of this ? Have you been walking up and down in the corridor all the while ? I heard somebody walking up and down, and coming out of the front room in the hall. I found nobody there." The hall has a stone floor. I told her that I had not done so.

II.

In the night of Tuesday, January 12th, shortly after I had gone to bed, between II and 12 o'clock, I feel all at once a " brain- squeeze " l accompanied by :

(1) a pain of horrid anxiety in my heart ;

(2) a vision of a black -rooted skull2 with two big eye-holes.

This skull is enveloped in a very fine gauze of black

yarn.8

The thing startles me, and I call myself directly to order. Directly afterwards I feel a slight trembling all through my body, accom- panied by the low rumbling sound. [Mr. Griinbaum had mentioned

1 Cf . the account of Mr Grunbaum's previous experiences, Proceedings, Part LXIX., p. 403. The sensation is there described as a "club-blow." —A. J.

2 I am utterly indifferent in regard to skulls.

3 Cf. op. cit. pp. 396-398, for other instances of visions seen through a hallucinatory thin black veil or gauze. — A. J.

MAK., 1915. Report of Mr. Grunbaum'a Experiences. 45

to me in a previous letter that a low rumbling sound sometimes accompanied his hallucinations. — A. J.] Then the indescribable divine sensation comes on (as in my first phonograph experiment1) and I find myself in a globe of opalescent light.

Therein I see the following vision :

In front of me, and slightly to the left, there stands a long curved blackish stick or rattan. On this long stick there stands a skull ; it swings from right to left. The skull is phosphorescent.

At the same time the head of my cousin M., who lives in the city W., is leaning towards me.

Then the head of my cousin begins to fade away and the swinging skull takes the features of my cousin. There is no flesh on the skull, but the phosphorescent skull takes the features of my cousin in such a way that it shows a marvellous likeness to him. It swings then to left and right, looks in a very friendly way at me and moves away, still swinging, from the curved stick, going very very slowly upwards. That is the end.

In the morning at breakfast we received a note from my cousin, who lives here around the corner of the street, that she had just received a telegram that her brother (my cousin M.) had died.

Going to the funeral, I found that my cousin M. had been run over by an express train at the railway station at W., where he lives. He was killed on the spot, being so terribly injured that it was only on account of the papers he had in his pocket that he could be recognised. He had been taking leave of an acquaintance and had brought him to the train. In order to come home quickly to his wife, he walked round the train in which his friend was, and was caught by the express that was coming on behind his friend's train without his knowledge, and this caused his sudden death.

When I consider this case from a psychological point of view, I find myself facing a puzzle. First of all : the time is wrong. The accident happened between 7 and 8 o'clock on Tuesday night, and I saw the vision on the same night between 11 and 12 before going to sleep. How can this be explained ? And then, I cannot suppose that my cousin was consciously thinking of me at that terrible moment, as the time must have been too short and he was on the way home to his wife, who was waiting for him. I had not met with him for some thirty years. 1 Op. cit. p. 401. — A. J.

40 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAR., 1915.

Then it is a curious thing that I saw nothing at all connected with the idea of a train in my vision, 'because, if the poor fellow had had any particular idea in his head at that terrible moment, it must have been the idea of a locomotive and of his wife.

Then there is still something else. There are at present a couple of thousand people dying daily on the battlefields. I have never seen anything at all about the war.

Why did this particular thing just reach me ? Might it perhaps have been on account of his being a family relation ? But why did only 7 see it ? And why only 4 hours later ?

There remains the curious point of the two different skulls: the black-smoky-black-rooted one and the bright phosphorescent one. In the course of my own experiments I found many times that a self-induced happy vision was preceded by a black- smoky horrid one. But here it is exactly the reverse, in so far that I regard the black-rooted horrid skull as the telepathic impression (if it can be considered such). This was then followed by the bright phosphorescent one.

But why the " brain-squeeze " ? Nobody (and certainly not I) had been thinking about the possibility of such an accident; and, in fact, I had altogether forgotten about my cousin, as he lives in another city. His marriage was a most happy one.

If this " brain-squeeze " had come at the moment that he was run over, then one might be compelled to suppose that he had been thinking of me at that special moment, but I think that is very unlikely.

I am really sorry that I did not speak about it to anybody before the telegram was shown to us. Then I remarked to my cousin that it would not surprise me "if he had died in the beginning of the night." This is in fact all I said to her. But you see, when once long ago I saw the vision of my nephew S., he turned out afterwards to be remarkably well. So I did not like to make people anxious all for nothing.

During these last two weeks I had not been experimenting at all.

P.S. — Suppose a man gives himself a self-induced vision of something horrid, would you think that it would then be pre- ceded or followed by a white benevolent one ? Just as a happy benevolent vision may be preceded by a black, smoky, horrid one ? You see, I have many a time seen these two types

MAB., 1915. Report of Mr. Grunbaum'a Experiences. 47

together at the same time, the black smoky one alternating with the white benevolent one.

In reply to my enquiries and request for any corroborative evidence that might be obtainable, Mr. Grunbaum wrote again :

February 3, 1915.

. . . With this letter I send you the following particulars : (I.) The note announcing the death of my cousin, Mr. M., to my cousin Mr. I., who is living here round the corner of the street. My own note being lost, I include his note, as both notes have been delivered by the same postman at the same time, the post-office being opposite to us.

The postmark shows that this note reached him and me on

January 14th at about 10 o'clock at night It runs: W ,

14.1.15, 1-2. N., which means : 14-Jan.-1915, between 1 and 2 o'clock p.m.

(II.) A note by my cousin, Miss M. M., who lives here also around the other corner of the street.

(III.) A translation of the account of the accident that appeared in The Fatherland, a newspaper published here at H. W. being only a small town, there is no special newspaper there. (IV.) I send also the copy of The Fatherland to you. Further information has shown that the accident must have happened as follows :

[Here Mr. Grunbaum gives a diagram of the platforms and lines at W. railway station.]

My cousin had been taking a friend to the train going to A. He had taken leave of this friend, and, in order to come home quickly, he seems to have walked across the lines behind that train, in order to get out of the railway station before the express from A. should pass. It happened, however, that this express train, passing W. at full speed, without stopping, caught him exactly at the moment when he was crossing.

This express train passes W., according to the time-table, at 7.30 p.m. The annexed time-table : shows this.

My cousin brought his friend to the train that leaves W. at 7.24. This train is generally late. The express from A. leaves A. at 7.15, and, as it takes about eighteen minutes to run from A. to W., it passes W. at full speed at about 7.30.

1 The time-table showed all the times of these various trains as stated by Mr. Grunbaum. — A. J.

48 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAR., 1915.

Now this is just the time that I generally take a little nap, either trying experimentally for visions or leaving it to chance. I am sure that I saw nothing at all at that time.

You will remember that in my previous letter I considered the first horrid instantaneous violent skull (which was only visible for about a tenth of a second) as the " telepathic impulse." I hasten now to take back this supposition. As far as explana- tion goes, I don't know what to make of it.

The most incomprehensible part of the phenomenon lies for myself in the fact that in the first black-rooted, violent halluci- nation there was nothing that could remind me in the slightest way of my cousin. These details came only later on in the brilliant benevolent one.

So that my standpoint is now that I have no standpoint at all.

(V.) I also enclose here a note of what my mother dreamt during the night of the 12th. If there is anything more you might like to know, please write to me.

The documents enclosed in this letter were as stated by Mr. Griinbaum :

(I.) The original obituary notice of his cousin's death with a translation as follows : " Herewith I give you notice of the sudden death of my husband, Mr. W. M., at the age

of 52 years. W , January 12, 1915. The funeral will

take place on Saturday at 1.30 p.m." The post-mark is as described in Mr. Griinbaum's letter.

(II.) A statement (in English) by his cousin, Miss M. M., as follows :

January 31, 1915.

This is to certify that in the morning of the 13th of January I received a telegram giving me notice of the sudden death of my eldest brother W. My cousin [Mr. Griinbaum] coming to me at about 10 o'clock that same morning remarked to me, after he had taken notice of the telegram, that it would not surprise him at all if my brother had died during the beginning of the preceding night, giving, however, at that moment no further details as to what he meant by such a statement, as I was in a hurry to catch the train to W.

(III. and IV.) A copy of the newspaper The Fatherland for Thursday, January 14, 1915, containing a paragraph

MAR., 1915. Report of Mr. Grunbaum's Experiences. 49

about Mr. M.'s death, of which Mr. Griinbaum furnishes a translation as follows :

The Fatherland, 14th January, 1915, morning edition.

On Tuesday evening there happened a terrible disaster at W., of which a highly esteemed citizen was the victim.

Mr. M., who was leaving the second platform (from which the trains start for A.), in order to go out of the railway station, was just at the moment that he was crossing the railway track caught by an express train coming from A. He was go terribly injured that death followed instantaneously.

(V.) An account of the dream of Mr. Grunbaum's mother, written by herself, of which his accompanying translation is as follows :

In the night of 12 to 13 January between 5 and 6 o'clock in the morning, I dreamt that I was sitting in an auto. This auto was standing in front of the house where my nephew, Mr. M., was born. When the auto began to run I felt very anxious lest it should run into the water, as the road was very sloping. At the moment when I expected that it would run into the water, and my anxiety was the strongest, I awoke.

On receiving this account, I wrote to ask Mr. Griinbaum when his mother had first told him of her dream ; whether she had at any other time had dreams or impressions which she believed to coincide with a death or any other definite misfortune ; whether she was inclined to believe that dreams had significance ; and whether the house before which the dream-auto was standing was the same as the one at W. in which Mr. M. had recently been living. Mr. Griinbaum replied :

February 13, 1915

As my mother is ill just now and is not allowed to come out of her bed (she is 75 years old), I will write down what she told me just now.

My mother's dream. I remember very clearly and I am abso- lutely sure that my mother told me about her dream directly at breakfast on the 13th January, even before we received tidings from my niece, M. M., who lives quite near to us here in the city. At breakfast as well as afterwards I did not pay any

50 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAR., r.nr.

attention to her dream, because I did not see any connection between her dream and the accident, as I did not know about any accident. The detail of the express train only reached us on the 14th, after M. M. had gone to Al. and W., and after she had written about it, and after Mr. I. showed The Fatherlnnl to us on the 14th.

In the newspaper we are reading ( The ) there has never

appeared any note at all about the sudden death of my cousin. So that it is only on the 14th January afternoon that Mr. I. showed his newspaper, The Fatherland, to us, giving details about the express train.

When I wrote my first report to you I did not tell about my mother's dream, because I did not judge it clear enough, and because an auto is not an express train, and because there was nobody run over by the auto in her dream. But afterwards it came to me that it was anyhow a curious coincidence, and that it might perhaps be of interest to you to know about it.

If my mother were not ill just now she would be willing to write about it herself to you, as she says that she is sure that there must have been some sort of connection.

Other experiences of my mother. If you do not count my own experimenting with my mother (without her knowledge) when on three different occasions she heard :

(a) the footsteps in the room above ; (6) the bird jumping in the room ; (c) somebody pacing up and down in the corridor, then I know of only one incident that was very striking. It was the following :

One of my mother's friends from her youth is the old minister of justice, Mr. K. He is an old man, now 84. He is living on the other side of the city. I think it must have been in September, 1914, that my mother one day coming down at breakfast told me that she had a very curious experience that night. She said : "I was lying in a state of half-sleep this morning, and all the while thinking about the European War, at about 6 o'clock in the morning, when all at once there appeared before my eyes a very big, bright visiting-card of about a foot long as follows : [drawing of visiting card with Mr. K.'s name on it]. The name was written in black type on a white card. Mr. K. has not come to see me for the last three years, so I wonder what this means."

MAR., 1915. Report of Mr. Grunbaum's Experiences. 51

On that day nothing happened, but on the next day the old man really came to pay us a visit.

My mother has not at all the habit of ascribing any signi- ficance to dreams. She knows of no other dreams or impressions [of her own] that coincided with any misfortune. When her only daughter died in D. (she living quite near to her in the same city) she had no intimation of it.

The city of Al. is the native town of my cousin, Mr. M. It was in front of his native house in this city that the dream- auto started, not in W., where my cousin had been living as long as twenty-seven years and where he was run over by the passing express train.

So that it comes to this : Both my mother and I had im- pressions of a deadly danger, or even death, in some way connected with my cousin W. M. My impression occurred four hours after the accident happened, and before going to sleep. My mother's impression occurred ten hours after it, and before she awoke. The fact of the death was not made known to me till after breakfast, when my cousin M. showed the telegram to me. The facts about the express train only reached us on the 14th January when my cousin I. showed the copy of The Fatherland to me.

In the letter just quoted, Mr. Griinbaum refers to three instances of apparently telepathic communication between his mother and himself, when she had an impression corre- sponding to some impression or idea of his at about the same time. The first instance was mentioned to me in one of his earlier letters. The third is given at the beginning of his letter of January 17, 1915, quoted above. The second was described in a letter to me dated December 21, 1914, in which, after speaking of the " low rumbling sound " which sometimes accompanies his self-induced hallucinations, he goes on :

I heard this many a time when experimenting. Once, sitting opposite to my mother after dinner, I noticed it. On that occasion it was followed by the sound as if a big bird were jumping on the floor behind me. I heard very distinctly the " pit-a-pat " of the bird along the wooden floor. As there was a thick carpet on the floor, a real bird could not, of course, have occasioned such a sound.

But the curious point is that when my mother awoke, she

52 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAR., 1915.

said : " Dear me, how curious ! I thought there was a big bird in the room ! " She had not heard anything of the sound of rumblings.

These cases are not of course evidential, since they were not fully recorded at the time, but only noted incidentally by Mr. Griinbaum when he was writing out reports of his own experiences. Nevertheless, if his recollection of them is accurate, there seems reason to believe that his mother's mind and his own may occasionally be in telepathic com- munication. In that case, it is conceivable that both of them received telepathic intimations of Mr. M.'s death, which were mutually reinforced by the telepathic connection between their two percipient minds.

The impressions of the two percipients were, it will be noted, quite different from one another, though both showed a connection with the state of the agent, so that the whole case bears a certain resemblance to cross-correspondences between the scripts of different automatists.

No. (XX5XVHI-XIX.-VOL. XVII. AnlL A(lo MAVi ,„.,

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS.

An Icelandic Seer. By Professor Agflst Bjarnason, Notice,

Particulars of the next Meeting of the Society, at which Pro- fessor Gilbert Murray will deliver his Presidential Address, will be announced in the Journal for June.

AN ICELANDIC SEER.

REPORT ON A SUPPOSED CASE OF TRAVELLING CLAIRVOYANCE.

BY PROFESSOR A GUST BJARNASON. WITH EDITORIAL COMMENTS BY HELEN DE G. VERRALL.

(Professor Bjarnason's report is printed in large type, and the corroborative statements contributed by various witnesses are in small type. Miss VerraWs comments are enclosed in square brackets, and have her initials at the end. Only part of the report is included in this number of the Journal ; the conclusion will appear in the next number.)

INTRODUCTION.

[THE case with which this report deals has been investigated on behalf of the Society by Professor Agust Bjarnason, pro- fessor of psychology in the University of Iceland. As Professor Bjarnason's report is very long and detailed, only selections from it can be published here. But first some account must be given of how we got into communication with him, and under what circumstances he made the enquiries upon which his report is based.

On April 8, 1914, Professor Bjarnason wrote us a letter giving an account of " a poor peasant in the north of Iceland,

54 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APR.-MAY,

known by the name of Dreaming-Joi [Joe] . . . who for a long time has been used as a dreaming oracle by his acquain- tances." Professor Bjarnason said that he had heard a good many stories about Dreaming Joe, partly from two pupils of his own who knew him, and he wrote to ask whether the Society for Psychical Research would care to have a detailed report on the case, which would involve his going to the north of Iceland to obtain first-hand testimony from the people amongst whom Dreaming Joe had lived.

In the following May Professor Bjarnason sent us, by request, a short preliminary report, giving such instances of Dreaming Joe's faculty as he had been able to collect at second hand during the last few years. On the strength of this report it was decided that he should be asked to go to the north of Iceland on behalf of the Society to make a detailed investi- gation of the case.

In accordance with this plan Professor Bjarnason left Reykjavik on July 9, 1914, for Raufarhofn, and spent about a month travelling over the country in which Dreaming Joe had spent his life, and collecting the evidence of various people who had first-hand knowledge concerning his supposed faculty. During part of this time Dreaming Joe himself accompanied Professor Bjarnason in the capacity of a guide.

The detailed report which Professor Bjarnason sent us on his return to Reykjavik included all the evidence, negative as well as positive, which he had been able to collect in regard to Dreaming Joe. We have selected for publication at full length instances in which Dreaming Joe appears to have been particularly successful, but something will be said later of his failures in regard to their bearing on an estimate of the whole case. H. DE G. V.]

PROFESSOR BJARNASON'S REPORT.

On Langanes, one of the most northern peninsulas of Iceland, there lives a man named Johannes Jonsson. He has been a shepherd and a farmer all his life, and has scarcely ever been outside his own parish. Yet he may be said to be known throughout the whole country by the name of " Dream- ing Joe." He is so called because in his sleep he replies to questions which are put to him, tells people the where-

An Icelandic Seer.

abouts of lost things which nobody knows where to find besides informing them of various other things that they

are desirous of knowing. At one time he was even a kind of oracle for the people of the north and east country. It is now eight years since my interest in him was first

56 Journal of Society fen" Psychical Research. A PR. -MAY,

awakened by the reports I heard of him, and especially by those stories which were told to me by Mrs. Gudrun Bjorns- dottir, who was personally acquainted with Joe, and in whose service he had been for some time. In April, 1906, I wrote a letter to Mrs. Gudrun Bjornsdottir, asking her to obtain for me reliable information about several facts concerning Dreaming Joe. Mrs. Gudrun l then wrote to a sister of Joe's, A. Jonsdottir, who was an acquaintance of hers, for- warding my letter to her, and asking her to obtain reliable answers to my questions.

[Professor Bjarnason then gives a list of his questions and the answers obtained. I will only give a risumi here of such facts as are not mentioned in the subsequent narrative.

Joe was born of quite healthy parents, and his gift is not shared by any other members of his family. When he has been questioned in his sleep, he is conscious of fatigue after waking. He does not always remember having been questioned, but he is a light sleeper and often awakes during the question- ing, and has only a dim recollection of what he has been asked about. His eyes are usually closed during the question- ing, and, so far as is known, he has never walked in his sleep. If he is asked to dream of something, he concentrates his thoughts on it before going to sleep ; then he can generally give the desired information.

Professor Bjarnason adds that his own experience of Joe indi- cates that these answers are correct as far as they go.

H. DE G. V.]

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Dreaming Joe, who is now living in the village of Thors- hofn on the Langanes, is fifty-three years of age. He was born at Saudaneskot on the Langanes, on April 24, 1861. He was brought up with his parents until his father died, which happened when he was eleven years of age. He then removed with his mother to the parsonage of Saudanes, where he stayed until he was nineteen years old (1880). During this time he was twice taken seriously ill, it was thought

1 In Iceland the custom of calling people by their forenames still prevails. The ladies seldom bear their husband's surnames, but are generally called the daughters of their father. Thus Gudrun Bjornsdottir means : Gudrun daughter of Bjorn. — Ag. Bj.

An Icelandic Seer. 57

with typhoid fever. He says it was not certain that his first illness, which occurred when he was about thirteen years old, really was typhoid fever, but it was after that illness that he first discovered the fact that he could sometimes at will dream the whereabouts of things he had lost; but he was never questioned in his sleep until he was over twenty years old. Then he had become farm-servant at Ytra-Lon, which is the next farm to the north-east of the parsonage of Saudanes. At Ytra-Lon he stayed for four years (until 1884), and was often questioned in his sleep. From there he returned to Saudanes where he now stayed for two years (till 1886), and it was during these two years that he was most frequently questioned.

[Professor Bjarnason then relates how Dreaming Joe spent some years moving from one farm to another, always in the same district. H. DE G. V.]

In the year 1893 he married, and since then it has always been more difficult to get permission to question him in his sleep, as his wife has always been greatly opposed to its being done. For he was sometimes asked about thefts and all kinds of misdoings, and betrayed people, which he would never have done of his free will.

While collecting the stories about Dreaming Joe and trying to obtain the best possible proofs of their veracity, I have met with great difficulties on account of the long time which has elapsed since some of the events occurred. I have as far as possible proceeded in the following manner :

(a) I have taken pains to find those people who have themselves seen or heard what the stories state, having only in a few instances (as in the case of Doc. theol. S. P. Sivert- sen) taken stories recorded by noted men who had received their information of the facts from eye-witnesses or from Joe himself.

(6) I have also referred the stories to Joe, and recorded his comments on them, as, after having become personally acquainted with him, I consider him scrupulously honest and very trustworthy, and as he himself makes less of his gift than most of those who have known him. Joe told me that in his younger days he often used to remember his dreams very plainly when he awoke, but since he grew older he

A2

58 Journal of Society for Psychical Research.

remembers them very indistinctly or not at all. For this reason he remembers some of the oldest stories best.

(c) I have got each person to record his account according to his own memory without previously telling him what I already had heard from others of the same occurrence. This is why there are in some cases several variations of the same story.

I. THE STORY OF THE SHEEP.

[I have included this story because it is the earliest re- corded case in which Joe exercised his faculty, and it is a typical example of the kind of powers which he is currently reputed to possess. Owing to the long lapse of time since these events occurred, very little corroborative evidence can now be obtained. H. DE G. V.]

(Recorded from Joe's own statement by Doc. theol. S. P. Sivertsen on October 19, 1903.)

One day at Ytra-L6n [in the summer 1881] Joe lay down after breakfast in the meadow for a nap. He then began to talk in his sleep and said : " The poor creatures are so awfully distressed." This he repeated two or three times. Tryggvi J6nsson, then farmer at Ytra-L6n [now in Pembina, N.D., U.S.A.], asked him what he saw in his sleep. Joe replied : " I see two sheep away up in the highlands, and they have hooked their horns together and cannot disentangle themselves." Tryggvi then asked him in what highlands they were. Joe could not say. He thought it was either the Highlands of Hvammur or of Dal. Tryggvi then asked Joe if he could not see the marks on their ears. To which Joe replied that he could only see the marks on one ear, the one that turned up, for he thought the sheep had been struggling about and were now so exhausted that they were lying down. Joe described the marks that he saw, so that Tryggvi concluded that one of the sheep belonged to the farmer J6n at Dal and the other to Sigfiis, the farmer at Hvammur. [They are now both dead.] Joe said that the sheep would not be able to disentangle themselves, for they had already exerted themselves to the utmost. All this Tryggvi told Joe when he awoke. He asked Joe what he had dreamt, and whether he knew that he had been questioning him. Joe did not know anything about that, but said he had been dreaming some nonsense about sheep.

.471 Icelandic Seer. 59

Some considerable time now elapsed until all the sheep had been gathered and driven down from the highlands in the autumn. The sheep Joe had described had not been found anywhere. Now Sigurd, the son of J6n at Dal, happened to come and stay overnight at Ytra-L6n. People began to speak about the sheep and Joe's dream. Sigurd thought it remarkable how Joe had answered in his sleep, and asked if they might not try to question him again, and ask him to describe more minutely the place where the sheep were. Joe's permission was then obtained, and that night, after he had gone to sleep, they asked Joe about the place in the highlands ; and he described it so that Sigurd at Dal felt certain that he recognized it as being in the Dal highlands.

Some time later Sigurd went to the highlands and found the two sheep with their horns hooked together, lying dead in a place which was just like the one that Joe had described. One of the sheep belonged to Jon at Dal, and the other to Sigfiis at Hvammur.

I have been trying to obtain proofs of the facts (1) that Joe was questioned in his sleep, and (2) that the sheep were found according to his directions.

As to the first point, I have written to Tryggvi Jonsson, the discoverer of Joe's gift, but have as yet received no reply. On the other hand, I have quite unexpectedly received the following evidence :

THORSHOFN, June 25, 1914.

I, the undersigned, Johann Gunnlaugsson, bailiff, hereby testify that I was out in the meadow and heard distinctly when my brother-in-law Tryggvi J6nsson asked Dreaming Joe about the sheep in this story, and that the story is quite true and correct

according to my memory.

JOHANN GUNNLAUGSSON, Bailiff.

As to the second point, it is difficult to prove that the sheep were found according to Joe's directions. Sigurd at Dal is dead, and neither his wife nor daughter, whom I have seen, remember anything about this. But this may be accounted for by the fact, that this happened just before he was married. But Bjorn Jonsson, bailiff, a brother of the deceased Sigurd at Dal, remembers it. When asked about this on July 19, 1914, he replied that he remembers

60 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APR. -MAY,

that the sheep were found according to Joe's directions. Lastly I have received the following evidence from men who have of their own accord told me this story :

KEYKJAVIK, July 7, 1914.

We, the undersigned, recognize this story and remember to have heard in our youth that the sheep were found in the place described by Joe.

BJ. J6H. JOHANNESSON, KARL H. BJARNARSON,

Printers.

The following stories occurred while Joe was at Saudanes for the second time (1884-1886) in the service of the clergy- man, the Rev. Vigfus Sigurdsson. Larus J6hannesson had then just taken orders and become curate to the Rev. Vigfus. The Rev. Larus had heard about Dreaming Joe, and asked him if he really was as peculiar as he was said to be. Joe replied that rumours generally exaggerated. But some days later the Rev. Larus tried Joe's powers in the following manner.

II. THE CURATE'S WHIP.

(Recorded by Doc. theol. S. P. Sivertsen in 1903 from Joe's own statement.)

The Rev. Lams was summoned to the farm Lseknisstadir to christen a child. When his horse had been saddled he said that he couldn't find his whip, which was quite new and had been made by the silversmith Bjorn Palsson. He therefore asked some of the lads to lend him a whip. He then asked Joe to try to find the whip for him, while he was away. Joe was shy with the clergyman, and made no reply. The curate then asked whether Sveinn J6nsson [now living at Nordfjordur] might not ask Joe about it, while he was away. Sveinn J6nsson was a fellow-servant of Joe's, and Joe gave him permission to try. During the night Sveinn asked Joe about the whip. Joe replied that he saw the whip, but he would not tell where. Joe did not say any more that night. Next morning Sveinn told him what he had said, and was vexed with him for not telling where the whip was. Next night Sveinn questioned him again, but received the same reply. This time Joe remembered that he dreamt of the whip, but would not tell Sveinn where he had dreamt it was, for he thought he might be mistaken. He there-

1915- An Icelandic Seer. 61

fore went out to find the whip himself, according to his dream. He found it in a horse-stall in a stable in the home-field, where it lay under a heap of refuse of hay. Two days later the Rev. Larus came home and was told what reply Sveinn had received from Joe in his sleep. He then wanted to question Joe once more. But that evening Joe went into the stable and took the whip and removed it to the next stall. In the night Joe awoke, so they couldn't question him. In the morning the curate asked him about the whip, and Joe told him to come with him down to the stable ; and there he showed him the whip and told him that he had removed it the evening before. The Rev. Larus had himself hidden the whip in the stable.

Joe told me this summer (1914) that he remembers all this very distinctly, and would be willing to swear in court to its truth, except the item that he removed the whip to the next stall, which is not correct ; he says that he only thought of doing so, for he thought that perhaps Sveinn had hidden the whip to fool him. Still it seemed to him the first night that he saw the Rev. Larus go into the stable with the whip, but he could not believe it of the clergyman. It was rather late in the day when they walked down towards the stable, and when Joe was going in, the curate asked : " Are you going in there ? " Joe made no reply, but went in, while the curate remained outside. He took the whip from under the hay and brought it to the curate. The Rev. Larus now laughed and said : " Well, you certainly are a remarkable man." Then the curate told Joe that he had hidden the whip in order to try his powers.

The Rev. Larus died in 1888, and his widow, Mrs. Gudrun, does not remember anything about this occurrence, so you cannot get any first-hand evidence thereof. Still, I have spoken with a very reliable man, Bjorn Gudmundsson, at Hallgilsstadir, who told me this story even more minutely than Joe had done. He said that among other things the clergyman had said to Joe : "It isn't so easy to steal at Saudanes now. I shouldn't like to be the one to do it." When I asked Joe about this, he smiled and said he remem- bered these words, but he had not thought it befitting to repeat them as those of a clergyman.

From Sveinn Jonsson I have received the following statement :

62 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APR. -MAT,

NORDFJORDUR, August 22, 1914.

... I remember that the Rev. Larus lost a whip which was found according to the direction of Dreaming Joe. I am sorry I cannot give more information about this incident as I have for the most part quite forgotten it.

. . . Dreaming Joe was often and by many people questioned in his sleep about all kinds of things which they desired to know something about. He always replied promptly, and experience showed that his answers always proved reliable. I have myself often asked Joe in his sleep about many things and could always rely on his answers.

I was with him at Saudanes for ten years.

SVEINN J6NSSON.

III. SEES FIFTY SHEEP AND FINDS THEM.

(Recorded by Doc. theol. S. P. Sivertsen in 1903 from Joe's own statement.)

Once fifty sheep were missing from the fold at Saudanes. They were searched for for two whole days. Then the Rev. Vigfus asked Joe to take a nap. Joe did so, and the clergyman tried to ask him about the sheep. Joe now described the place where the sheep were, and said that they were lying together on the southern slope of a high hill, and that to the north and north-east of this place there was a barren moor. When Joe awoke he remembered plainly that he had dreamt of the place where the sheep were. He got a horse to ride in search of them. He went straight to a hill which he saw was just like the one of which he had dreamt, and there he found all the missing sheep.

When asked about this story Joe said it was not quite correct. He thought there had only been about thirty sheep. He says, too, that the Rev. Vigfus tried to question him, but did not succeed, as he then awoke. But still he requested him to go and look for the sheep, as he thought that he above all others would be able to find them. The clergy- man now lent him his own horse. Joe started off, and when he was out in the open field, he lay down and dreamt of the sheep. His dream was just as is stated above, and he found the sheep according to his dream.

I have not been able to obtain any further evidence of this story ; still, I think it worth relating, as it shows how

19!5- A n Icelandic Seer. 63

early Joe began to practise a method he has especially culti- vated in his later years, viz. dreaming for himself, when other persons either are not able or not allowed to question him. There are many other stories of Joe's finding missing sheep, which could be verified.

IV. LITTLE VIGFUS'S PURSE.

(Recorded by Mrs. Gudrun (see p. 56) in 1906.) One evening everybody had gone to bed except my sister Halldora, Metta and I. Metta went upstairs and was about to go to bed, when she heard that Joe was talking in his sleep. He said it was too bad that he couldn't tell anyone about little Vigfus's purse. Vigfus Thordarson (a nephew of the Kev. Vigfiis) had lost a purse and had begged Joe to try to find it for him. Then Metta asked him if he could see it. Joe replied that there was a purse behind the stove in the north-room, but it was empty. Metta came down and told me this. I went into the north-room and found the purse, but it was empty. We then went upstairs again and Metta asked Joe where the money was. He said that little Jonas (a lad at the parsonage) had taken it and had thrown the purse there, in order to make it appear as if it had been taken by some of the people who came to church. He added that little Jonas would be fortunate if he didn't get into mischief some day. He said that the money was wrapped up in a rag and was stuck into a hole in the wall of the store- house. There was also some money therein that did not belong to Vigfus, but was the savings of Jonas himself. I don't re- member how much money he said was wrapped up in the rag, but it proved to be just as he said. I now went out to search for it, and while I was away Joe said that I was feeling all over the wall without finding the right place. I then went in again, as I couldn't find the money, and Metta asked him more minutely about this. He then said there were two holes in the wall [the wall being made of turf and stone] near the door of the storehouse. In one of these the lads always kept the wedge with which they split the fuel ; but in the other hole was the rag containing the money, and if one looked care- fully, a bit of the rag might be seen sticking out of the hole. All this proved just as Joe said. I went out again and found the hole at once, for on looking more carefully, I saw the rag sticking out of the hole.

(>4 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APR. -MAY,

Miss Halldora, Mrs. Gudmn's sister, tells this story in exactly the same way as Mrs. Gudrun, although they have not for many years spoken about this subject.

Metta has emigrated to America. I have written to her brother-in-law, Jon Jonsson, from Sledbrjot (formerly an M.P. here), who also is living in America, and he has promised me to obtain for me Mrs. Metta's evidence concerning this case.

The owner of the purse, now the Eev. Vigfus Thordarson at Hjaltastadur, remembers this quite well, although he was very young, but it seems to him that he himself questioned Joe and found the purse, which can hardly be true against the evidence of Mrs. Gudrun and Miss Halldora.

Joe himself had almost forgotten this occurrence, but on being reminded of it, he recollected it quite well.

V. SEES THE KEV. HALLDOR'S PURSE.

(a) Statement by Mrs. Gudrtin, made in 1906.

The last winter that my brother Halld6r was at Saudanes, he lost a purse, and Joe was asked about it. When the purse had been described to him, Joe said that such a purse was in the pocket of a jacket which was hanging in the house at Eld- jarnsstadir (a farm in the parish of Saudanes) and that the jacket belonged to Hallgrimur. The next time Hallgrimur came to church at Saudanes, Halld6r asked him about the purse, which he then produced, taking it out of his pocket.

(6) Statement by the Eev. Hallddr Bjarnarson.

REYKJAVIK, July 4, 1914.

In the spring of 1885 I was at Saudanes. Joe was then a servant there. The previous autumn I had lost a purse, which I had laid in the window of the north-room at Saudanes. I asked the people to question Joe about the purse. When he was asked about this, he first replied that he did not know what this purse looked like. It was then described to him. It had no lock, but was kept closed by a piece of elastic. Then Joe replied that there was a purse like that in the pocket of a jacket at Eldjarnsstadir. The jacket was hanging in the room under the staircase and belonged to Hallgrimur, who had been a servant at Saudanes the year before. A week or two later Hallgrimur

1915- An Icelandic Seer. 65

came to church. I then took him aside and told him that I suspected him to have a purse which I had lost the year before. Thereupon he took the purse out of his pocket and asked me if that was mine. I recognized it at once. He then told me that he had found it under the wall of the storehouse, and said he was very sorry he had spent 35 aur. ( =5 pence) which were in it. I said that it did not matter at all, as I had only asked about the purse in order to see what Joe was able to do. Some of the children had evidently taken the purse and carried it out.

HALLD6R BJARNARSON.

A similar story is told in the article on Dreaming Joe in Heimskringla, April 1, 1891, where the main facts correspond with what is related above.

Joe himself has a vague recollection of this story.

VI. SEES THE SHIP " KRISTINE." The Rev. Halldor Bjarnarson of Prestholar relates the following :

REYKJAVIK, July 8, 1914.

In the spring of 1885, I was one evening after bedtime standing with my brother-in-law, the late Rev. Larus, on the stony slope above the house at Saudanes. We then saw a ship which was sailing in, and was already inside the Brimnestangi. We at once thought that it was the ship Kristine belonging to the " Grana " Trading Company, for Joe had been asked about it the preceding nights. The first time he saw it to the south of Iceland, and the second time he said it was off the eastern firths. I now went in and upstairs. Everybody there was fast asleep. Joe slept in a bed under the sloping ceiling, but I stood by the gable window, facing the north, and could from there see the ship. I then asked Joe if he could tell me where the Kristine was now. He mumbled something and then he said that it was in the bay, opposite to the Lambanes' breakers, and was sailing in. I saw through the window that this was exactly correct.

HALLD6R BJARX ARSON.

Joe confirms this story. He remembers being asked about Kristine several times. I have not got any more stories of Joe from his second

6G Journal of Society for Psychical Research. A PR. -MAT,

stay at Saudanes. The following three stories are from his second stay (1886-88) at Ytra-L6n.

VII. THE EMBROIDERED SUSPENDERS. (Statement by Mrs. Gudrtin, recorded in 1906.)

Bjorn Gudmundsson at Hallgilsstadir once came to Saudanes on his way to Ytra-L6n. Bjorn had with him a pair of em- broidered suspenders, which he had been asked to take to the saddle-maker in order to have the straps put on them. But Bjorn lost the suspenders. When he came to Ytra-L6n, Joe was asked about the suspenders, which he had lost. He said that Bjorn had left them at the bottom of a barrel, in the north storehouse at Saudanes, and that Sigvaldi, a servant at Saudanes, would find them and return them. This proved as Joe said.

On July 21, 1914, I spoke to Bjorn at Hallgilsstadir. He remembered this incident at once, and added that he went back to Saudanes, and when he came there, Sigvaldi had not yet found the suspenders, but had said he would find them, which he also did very soon. He found them at the bottom of a barrel in the storehouse.

Sigvaldi is now dead.

Joe says that this story is quite correct.

VIII. THE HORSE WITH THE CLEAN-SHAVEN TAIL.

(Statement by Mrs. Gudrun, recorded in 1906.) Once there was a change of tenants at the farm of Brimnes on the Langanes. 0 — was the name of the tenant who

surrendered the lease, but his successor was called S . At

the time of this story 0. was still at Brimnes, and the two farmers were not on friendly terms. One morning when the people came into the stable, they saw that the tail of S.'s favourite horse had been very closely shaved. S. was greatly grieved at this offence, and had some one ask Joe for him who had done this. Joe replied that he supposed 0. knew some- thing about it. He requested this to be kept secret, for he did not wish 0. to hear that he had accused him of doing this. Nevertheless, this soon came to O.'s ears, and he was greatly enraged. He even threatened to report Joe to the magistrate

An Icelandic Seer. <;?

for this. Joe then told him he might do as he liked about that, but he would then tell where he had hidden the horse-hair. 0. never reported the case to the magistrate. But Joe said that he had buried the horse-hair on the beach, and there it was found.

I have heard this story from different people, as so many know it, for it caused some sensation in its time. But it was especially memorable to Joe, on account of the fuss that was made about it all over the Langanes. He was so annoyed by this, that after this he was very reluctant to allow people to question him in his sleep, unless he could trust their secrecy.

Miss Halldora and the Rev. Halldor of Prestholar both confirm this story, and several other people who still live on the Langanes.

IX. THE STORY OF THE NEEDLE-CASE. Mrs. Gudrun relates the following :

[Recorded in 1906, revised in 1914.]

When I left Prestholar (in 1895) I moved to Sigurdarstadir on the Melrakkasletta. Joe was then on the Langanes, living at his farm, 'Assel, more than a day's journey from Sigurdar- stadir. During the summer, while I was at Sigurdarstadir, I happened to lose my needle-case and couldn't imagine how I had lost it. I always used to carry it in my pocket, and from there it disappeared. I had often mentioned how sorry I was to lose that needle-case, for I had had it so long. That summer I had a maidservant who later took service at Langanes.1 I don't remember how long a time passed until I once got a message [Mrs. Gudrun is not sure it was a letter] from her saying that she had asked Dreaming Joe how my needle-case had been lost, and where it was to be found. He had told her in his sleep that once the preceding summer I had gone down to the mouth of the river at Sigurdarstadir to drive away the cows from Odds- stadir [the next farm to the west]. It was as if Joe saw it all in his sleep, although it had happened a year before, for he smiled as he said : " Well, well, the way Mrs. Gudrun bustles

1 Mrs. Gudrun did not remember her name, but she thought it was Ingibjorg Arnadottir, now living at Seydisfjordur.— Ag. Bj.

68 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APK.-MAT,

about. There she is running after the cows, and there the needle-case falls out of her pocket, as she holds up her skirts." He then said that the sea took the needle-case, but that it had now drifted on shore again, and was lying by a stone which stood just below some old walls on the gravel plains. I found the needle-case at once according to this description, but there was a rent in the lid, which was screwed on, and the end of it had fallen out. But I have had the lid mended and the end filled up with cork. More than a year had passed from the time I lost the needle-case until I found it again.

Joe denies any knowledge of this incident, and says : " This is either a fib invented by Mrs. Gudrun or somebody has asked me in my sleep and then run away without telling me anything about it."

I have myself seen Mrs. Gudran's needle-case, which is just as described above, and am personally convinced of the truth of her story, as she is a most trustworthy person. Still, I have met with the greatest difficulties in trying to get this story verified. I have sought all the way from Husavik to Seydisfjdrdur for the woman Ingibjorg Arnadottir, who — Mrs. Gudrun thought — was the servant who had questioned Joe. At last I found her at Seydisfjordur. But she said she knew nothing about this, and that it could not have been she who questioned Joe, for she had gone straight from Raufarhofn to Seydisfjordur and had never stayed on the Langanes. But she told me about two other women, who had been her fellow-servants at Mrs. Gudrun's, Salgerd Sigurdardottir, who is probably dead now, and Gudrun Bald- vinsdottir from Fagranes on the Langanes. She is the one most likely to know something about this, and if she does and I can find out where she lives, I shall soon procure her evidence. But this will take some time.

X. JON SKINNI'S TRUNK.

(a) Doc. theol. S. P. Sivertsen recorded this story in 1903 as told to him by Johann Gunnlaugsson, bailiff at Thorshofn :

Jon " Skinni " Jonsson, shoemaker at Thorshofn, lost a trunk off one of the coasting steamers. Joe dreamt he saw the trunk in a place which he described minutely, although he said he had never been there. He also described the trunk, how it

An Icelandic Seer.

looked and what was in it. Under the locker he said there was a clock, covered over by a pillow-case. The trunk itself was painted yellow. All his description was correct. The description he gave of the place fitted a storehouse at Seydisfjordur, in which the trunk was subsequently found.

When Mr. S. P. Sivertsen asked Joe himself about this, he remembered Jon Skinni's trunk, and said that Jon had thanked him for helping him to find it, and had said he Avould certainly never have got it without his help.

Jon Skinni died shortly after 1900.

(6) The following corroborative evidence has been received from J. J. Dahlmann :

REYKJAVIK, April 14, 1914.

From the year 1892 to 1900 I lived at Seydisfjordur. In the summer of 1898 I travelled to Thorshofn, where I made the Acquaintance of a man named J6n J6nsson, generally called " Skinni," as he was from a place called Skinnastadur. This man complained that his wife had lost a trunk which she had had with her on board the S.S. H6lar. He said that her initials and the name of the town of Thorshofn had been inscribed on the trunk with blue crayon. He also told me that he had consulted Dreaming Joe [then living at the farm of 'Assel] and asked him to try to look for the trunk in a dream. Dreaming Joe Avas by that time well known for his dream visions. Now Joe tried to find the trunk and said that he had seen it among different things, in a certain house, the walls of which were only about two feet high, and which had a sheet-iron roof. Just below the house he said there was a pier ; he also said the house was standing in a firth which he described quite minutely. Joe was quite unacquainted with the firths on the east coast for he had never been there ; but still he said he was pretty sure that the firth he now saw was Seydisfjordur. I also recognized the description as being that of Seydisfjordur, and the house which Joe had mentioned as being the storehouse of the United Steamship €ompany.

Jon Skinni now asked me to inquire about this trunk at Seydis- fjordur. I wrote his description of the trunk in my pocket-book, and among other things he told me that nearest the lid there were stockings and other articles of dress. The note-book with the description is still in my possession, although some of the words

70 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APR. -MAT,

are so faded that they are quite illegible. But what is still discernible is thus :

" A.J. Thorshom

Oakpainted . . . with a black stripe . . . brass tacks on the lid ... dovetailed, with an ivory keyplate."

AVhen I came to Seydisfjordur I asked the United Steamship Company's agent, Consul Stefan Jonsson, about this. He said that it was not very probable that the trunk was still at the Com- pany's storehouse, but gave me permission to go in there and look for it. I went in and looked for the trunk for some time. At last I found it in a corner, under a heap of all kinds of goods. This trunk corresponded exactly to the description I had of Skinni's trunk, except that there was no inscription visible. I then went back to the Consul, St. J6nsson, and told him that I had found the trunk in the storehouse, and described it to him. He then said that the trunk I have found belonged to a carpenter up in the country, and that it was to be sent along to him at the earliest opportunity. Thereupon I wrote to J6n Skinni, telling him the result of my search.

AVhen I came again to Thorshofn the following summer (1899) I asked J6n Skinni whether he had got his trunk, to which he replied that he had. He told me that on the receipt of my letter, he had written to the steamship company's agent at Seydisfjordur, and told him what were the contents of his trunk, and sent him the key, so that he could open it. It then appeared that the trunk was the one that his wife had lost, and it was sent to him to Thorshofn. The blue inscription had faded off.

J6N J. DAHLMANN.

I have myself seen Mr. Dahlmann's note-book, containing the fragments of the description, cited above. The copy is correct, but there is no date to this memorandum.

The storehouse at Seydisfjordur in which Joe is said to have seen Jon Skinni's trunk, is quite unique. A house called " Liverpool," belonging to a mercantile firm, was once swept off its foundation by an avalanche. The foundation, which is about two feet high, was later furnished with rafters and covered with a sheet-iron roof, and used by the steamship company as a storehouse in and about 1898.

[Professor Bjarnason sent us two photographs of the store-

19ir»- An Icelandic Seer. 71

house, showing the very low-pitched roof which distinguishes it from neighbouring storehouses. H. DE G. V.]

I spoke to Consul St. Th. Jonsson at Seydisfjordur, but he had only a vague recollection of this incident. He had Jon Skinni's letter searched for, but it was not to be found. The Consul promised me to ask the man who had then had on hand the expedition of goods at the storehouse about this, in case he should remember it, but I have not yet heard from him concerning this.

The merchant, Mr. Pall Oddgeirsson, Westman islands, has procured for me the following statement of Jon Skinni's widow, Mrs. Anna Jonathansdottir, and their daughter Gud- bjorg :

VESTMANNEYJAR, September 19, 19H.

Jon Jonsson from Skinnastad, who lost the trunk, asked Dream- ing Joe to try to dream about it. The result was as follows : Joe said that the trunk was in a storehouse at Seydisfjordur [which had formerly been swept away by an avalanche]. He described the trunk thus : " Oak painted — yellow — with a bone keyplate, and no inscription, but large chalk marks on the bottom," but Mrs. Anna does not remember what marks he said they were. In the trunk he said there was a small clock and a chessboard, and these things, he said, were lying under the locker. The key was sent to Seydisfjordur, and a trunk exactly corresponding to the one Joe dreamt of was found in the store- house above mentioned, and the above-mentioned articles were found under the locker. Mrs. Anna and her daughter both assert that this is irrefutably true.

XI. PREDICTS THE ARRIVAL OF A STEAMER.

(a) Doc. theol. S. P. Sivertsen recorded this story, in 1903, as told to him by Joe himself:

In the autumn of 1901, many people from Seydisfjordur were waiting for the S.S. Mjolnir at Thorshofn. Among others there were Kristjan Jonsson, ; shipowner from Gunn61fsvik, and his servant Gisli. They were getting tired of waiting, as a whole week had passed from the time at which the ship was expected. Kristjan then sent Gisli to Joe and begged him to allow Gisli to ask him in his sleep about the ship. Gisli slept with Joe that night, and asked him about the ship. Joe said it would

72 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APR.-MAY.

arrive the following day, and, if that did not come true, it would not be of any use for them to wait any longer. But this came true, for Mjolnir arrived that day.

(6) On July 25, 1914, this story was told to me by Mr. Kristjan Jonsson, shipowner at Gunnolfsvik, thus :

In the year 1901 I went to Thorshofn in order to catch a steamer there, by which I intended to take my workpeople to Seydisfjordur. The Mjolnir was expected to touch at Thorshofn, although it was not bound to do so, as Thorshofn was not in- cluded in its route. I had fourteen people with me, and it was therefore very important for me to get some information concerning the ship. When I had been waiting for five days,

1 began to feel uneasy and thought that perhaps the ship had sailed by on its way east. I then decided to send one of my fishermen, Gisli 'Olafsson Frejdendal to 'Assel, where Joe lived, with a message asking him to find out for me where the Mjolnir was now. Gisli stayed with Joe overnight, but came to Thors- hofn between 9 and 10 o'clock in the morning, telling me not to worry, for the Mjolnir would arrive at Thorshofn at about

2 o'clock that same day. Joe had seen it in the night, sailing past a low land. He said there had been a man standing on the bridge, who resembled me somewhat, and wore his beard the same way as I did. This description agreed with that of the captain Endresen. The rest also proved true. The ship arrived at Thorshofn about the middle of the day. I then went on board and asked the captain whose watch it had been at midnight, to which he replied : " It was I who was then on the bridge." " Where were you then ? " I asked. " I was then sailing past the island of Flatey." And thus this all agreed

with what Joe had said.

KRISTJAN J6NSSON.

(c) Evidence of Gudm. Finnbogason, Ph.D. :

REYKJAVIK, September 9, 1914.

I was a passenger on board the Mjolnir in the autumn of 1901, when the above incident took place. I remember that the ship was about a week behind its appointed time. I went ashore in the first boat together with Thorsteinn Skaflason from Seydisfjordur and some others. Th. Skaflason and I went straight up to Snabjorn Arnljotsson's house, where we had breakfast. I remember that Mr. Sn. Arnljotsson told us when we came that

An Icelandic Seer. T:{

he had known that the Mjolnir would come that day, as Joe had seen it passing a flat island in the night , I think he said at 3 o'clock, and we concluded that it was the island of Hrwey.1 This is all I remember concerning this.

GUDM. FlNNBOGASON, Ph.D.

I have not yet received any answer to my letter from the other witness, Editor Th. Skaflason, Seydisfjordur.

I have neither been able to find Gisli 0. Frejdendal nor the captain mentioned in this story.

XII. THE MISSING PURSE AT THORSHOFN. (a) Statement by Adalsteinn Jdnasson, farmer at Hvammur.

HVAMMUR, July 21, 1914.

It was in the butchering season, in the end of September or the beginning of October, 1913, that I employed the farmer Vigfus Josefsson of Kiida to slaughter sheep for me. Early in the day he took off his jacket and laid it on the wall, and in his jacket- pocket was a purse containing 17 crowns (Danish) and 10 ore. About four o'clock in the afternoon he paid a man 1 cr. out of his purse, and putting the purse back in the pocket he laid the jacket in the same place. In the evening when he was going to take his jacket, it lay flapping on the wall, and the purse was gone. Vigfus came home and complained to us of his loss, and we went out with a lantern and searched for the purse. But we could not find it. That same evening I applied to Joe. He said he would try to dream about the purse, although he thought it was not of much use and that it would be better for me to try to ask him in his sleep. Joe himself had been absent at the time of the disappearance of the purse, as he had been sent to search for some horses.2 As I lived in another house, I asked Joe if he would not rather try to dream about the purse. In the night Joe dreamt about the purse so distinctly, that I could from what he told me give an accurate description of it to the owner, which he said was quite right. Joe said at once after this first

1 It is more probable that the ship was sailing past Flatey.— Ag. Bj.

2 Asked when he had gone to fetch the horses, Joe replied that he had gone before 4 o'clock and did not return before the sheep slaughtering WM over and the men were carrying home the meat. — Ag. Bj.

74 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APR. -MAY,

night that the purse would be found. He said he had dreamt that he saw a man take the purse out of the jacket pocket and hide it in a pile of clods under the western wall of the so-called "ice-depot." Joe had gone there pretty early in the morning, and it seemed to him as if one of the clods had been displaced* but he did not find the purse. The next night Joe dreamt of the purse again, and when I asked him about it in the morning, he said he had dreamt something similar to what he had dreamt the night before, and the purse would be found. I went home that day, in order to start off for the mountains to gather the sheep, and I asked Joe to come and bring me the purse, if it should be found. In the afternoon of October 9 I came back from the mountains, and then Joe had just arrived. He brought me the purse, from which nothing had been taken. He then told me that he had dreamt of the purse in a new place the third (or fourth) night. And that time he had dreamt of it outside an ice-house, which is just by the ice-depot. I believe he told me that he dreamt of it there under a slab x of stone. He had gone in the morning and found it under the slab of stone. I then kept the purse for about a fortnight, and returned it to the bailiff, Hjortur at 'Aland, in compliance to the owner's request.

ANDALSTEINN JONASSON.

That same day [July 21, 1914], I visited the bailiff, Hjortur at 'Aland, and he told me that he had received the purse and returned it to the owner, Vigfus at Kuda.

On July 25 I was at Thorshofn, and Joe showed me the places where he had dreamt of the purse. The pile of clods was still outside the " ice-depot." I also saw the ice-house, but the so-called " Ked Shed " had been moved off its founda- tion and put on another. Nor did I see any stone slab to the north of the old foundation. But it might easily have been removed or thrown away, while the shed was being moved. Joe took no witnesses with him when he was looking for the purse.

1 On being asked, Joe told me that he dreamt of the purse outside the ice-house the second night. Then a night passed in which he either did not dream of the purse at all or at least very indistinctly. The fourth night he said he dreamt that the purse was lying under a large slab of stone beyond the so-called " Red Shed," but not, as above stated, beyond the ice-house. There he dreamt of it the second night. He found it after the fourth night under the stone. — Ag. Bj.

i('i.\ An Icelandic Seer. 75

(6) The Evidence of Vigfus of Kit,!".

KtiDA, September 17, 1914.

I, the undersigned, hereby testify that the puree which I lost out of my jacket-pocket, September 30, 1913, waa found by Johannes J6nsson at Thorshofn, containing just what had been in it when it was lost.

VlGFtfS JOSEFSSON.

This last story, if true in every detail, shows that Joe has been in full possession of his remarkable gift as late as in the autumn of 1913. Since that he has not, as far as I know, dreamt anything remarkable, nor has he been asked about anything in his sleep, until in the summer of 1914, when I tried to ask him about several things for three nights, at Vopnafjordur, but without any positive result, as will be seen in the part I give below of the protocol then made.

EXPERIMENTS WITH DREAMING JOE.

[Professor Bjarnason first gives an account of an experiment which was carried out in 1903 by a group of investigators, to try whether Joe could perceive clairvoyantly some names written on slips of paper enclosed in sealed envelopes. Special conditions were devised to eliminate thought-transference. The result of the experiment was not recorded in detail, but so far as can be ascertained, Joe failed to read any of the slips. As regards clairvoyance, therefore, the conclusion to be drawn from this experiment is negative. In 1914 Professor Bjarnason tried some experiments with Joe himself. On two successive nights, July 27 and 28, 1914, he arranged with a friend in Reykjavik, Mr. 0., that the latter should perform some con- spicuous and unusual action, whilst Professor Bjarnason, who was staying with Joe at Vopnafjordur, should question him in his sleep and endeavour to obtain some account of what Mr. 0. was doing at Reykjavik. In this case also the result of the experiment was negative. On the first night Professor Bjarnason found it impossible to question Joe, because his sleep was so light that he constantly woke. This habit of waking whenever he is addressed has for some time been a serious difficulty in the way of testing Joe's powers. Professor Bjarnason ascribes it chiefly to the fact that Joe suffers much from rheumatism, which makes him restless at night.

76 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APR. -MAY, 1915.

On the second night Joe slept more deeply and it was possible to question him, but the answers he gave were vague and showed no connexion with the subject of the experiment. Towards the end of the night he had a dream about a town. But his description of it, though not wholly incorrect as applied to Reykjavik, was not sufficiently accurate to be evidential. The third experiment on July 29, 1914, was also unsuccessful.

H. DE G. V.]

Before parting from Joe, I asked him to try to dream about different things, but especially about a gold brooch which my wife had lost some months before, and no one knew what had become of it. I also asked him to try whether he could not " appear " to me either asleep or awake. Up to the present time this has been quite without any result. And Joe writes to me in a letter dated September 24, 1914 :

" I have been very unsuccessful with those dreams. I have done what is in my power to try to dream something of significance, but without success. For this I blame the rheumatism which is just going to do away with me in the night, so that I can hardly ever get a good sound sleep. While this is the case, there is not much to expect from my dreams."

Taking everything into consideration, my impression of Dreaming Joe is this : For many years, especially between 20 and 30 years of age, he has been gifted with travelling clairvoyance in a high degree, but since his marriage this has gone on decreasing, and at present it is impossible to affirm whether it still exists or not. Still this gift seems to have distinctly revealed itself as late as in the autumn of 1913, and perhaps it may yet manifest itself.

[To be concluded.]

NOTICE.

An Associate of the Society wishes to dispose of some books bearing on Psychical Research, including a complete set of the Society's Journal. A list will be sent on application to

H. V. READE, Esq., 32 Palace Gardens Terrace, Kensington, London, W.

No. CCCXX.— VOL. XVII. jDNt |fl,5

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS.

PAOI

An Icelandic Seer. Further Comments on Professor Bjarnason's Report. By

Helen de O. Verrall, 78

Dr. Hyslop on the History of Marthe Beraud. By H. de O. Verrall, 82

NOTICE OF MEETING.

A General Meeting of the Society

WILL BE HELD AT THE HOUSE OK

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE

(in the Robert Barnes Hall), i WIMPOLE STREET, LONDON, W.

(Entrance in Henrietta Street),

On FRIDA Y, JULY gth, 1915, at 5 p.m.

WHEN

A Presidential Address

WILL BE DELIVERED HY

PROFESSOR GILBERT MURRAY, LL.D., LITT.D.

N.B.— Members and Associates will be admitted on signing their names at the door. Visitors will be admitted on the production of an invitation card signed by a Member or Associate. Each Member or Associate is allowed to invite ONE friend.

78 Journal of Society for Psychical Research.

AN ICELANDIC SEER. FURTHER COMMENTS ON PROFESSOR BJARNASOX S REPORT.

BY HELEN DE G. VERRALL. (Continued from the preceding number of the JOURNAL.)

PROFESSOR BJARNASON concludes his report on Dreaming Joe by expressing the opinion that " for many years, especially between 20 and 30 years of age, he has been gifted with travel- ling clairvoyance in a high degree.'* Now Professor Bjarnason has the advantage of a first-hand acquaintance with the case, he has visited most of the places to which his report refers and has cross-examined many of the witnesses. His opinion therefore must carry considerable weight. Nevertheless it may be doubted whether, as the case now stands, the evidence will support his conclusion, for the absence of contemporary records makes it impossible to obtain such detailed knowledge of the circum- stances as might have excluded other hypotheses. Clairvoyance, or telaesthesia, is " a perception of concealed material objects or distant scenes," to be distinguished from telepathy, " a per- ception of or communion with the thoughts and emotions of other minds." It is clear that great precision of evidence will be needed before we can determine whether a phenomenon should be ascribed to telaesthesia rather than telepathy, to say nothing of other possible contributory causes, such as sub- conscious observation and memory.

In order to show how these difficulties apply to the present case, it is worth while to consider a few of the stories in detail, especially the story of " The Missing Purse at Thorshofn " (see Journal, April-May, 1915, p. 73), which is much more recent than any other recorded instance of success on the part of Dreaming Joe.

In the first place, it will be apparent that the story depends for its interest entirely on Joe's good faith. There is evidence to show that he did not take the purse himself or actually see it taken, because he was absent from the farm at the time of the theft. But there is nothing but his own word to prove

An Icelandic Seer. 79

that he did not find the purse by some normal means, since he "took no witnesses with him when he was looking for the purse." Professor Bjarnason has expressed his strong con- viction of Joe's complete honesty and trustworthiness, a con- viction which appears to be shared by all those who have come into contact with him, and is borne out by all the evidence which Professor Bjarnason has been able to collect. I think, therefore, that we may with some confidence dismiss the hypothesis of conscious and deliberate fraud, and we may assume that in the main Joe's account of his experience in this case is correct, namely that he had some dream-impression in regard to the whereabouts of the lost purse, and having made search in accordance with this impression, eventually found the purse in a position corresponding more or less closely with his dream. The question remains — how far do these facts make it necessary to assume some abnormal power on the part of the dreamer ? It is hardly possible to give a complete and definite answer to this question on the available evidence. We are not told at all precisely the relative positions of the place from which the purse was stolen and the place at which it was found, but it may be that Joe's knowledge of the topography of the farm and of the habits of those who frequented it might lead him to conclude, either consciously or subconsciously, that the purse was likely to be hidden near the ice-depot. Then, again, it should be noted that he did not at once dream of the purse in the right place. He dreamt that it was "in a pile of clods under the western wall of the so-called ' ice- depot,' " and having ascertained next day that the purse was not under the clods, he thereby narrowed the field of search. If it is true that he described the purse accurately, never having seen it before, the evidence for powers of a clairvoyant or telepathic nature is strengthened. But no details of this incident are given, nor any proof that he may not have seen the purse at some time. It should be noted that on an earlier occasion, when he was asked to find a lost purse, Joe objected that he did not know what the purse looked like, and a description of it was therefore given him. (See Journal, April- May, 1915, p. 64.)

In several other stories also there are points in the evidence which suggest that subconscious observation and memory may

80 Jownal of Society /or Psychical Research. JUNK,

have contributed to the result. The case of Little Vigfus's Purse may be quoted as an example. (See Journal, April-May, 1915, p. 63.) In the first place, it is impossible to be certain that Joe had not seen the purse lying behind the stove in the north-room in a normal way, although very probably the incident had made no impression on his conscious mind ; in the second place, it will be noted that in his description of the place where the money would be found, Joe said that a bit of the rag containing it " might be seen sticking out of the hole." Mrs. Gudrun says that this description was correct, because, on making a careful search, she saw the rag sticking out. But the objection at once occurs that what was visible to Mrs. Gudriin was visible to others, and what certainty have we that Joe had not noticed the rag himself and inferred sub- consciously that something had been concealed in the wall ? Such an explanation may not appear probable, but these flaws in the evidence must be entirely removed (in a way that it is not now possible to remove them) before we can admit that the case affords a proof, or even a strong probability, for the hypothesis of clairvoyance.

The story affording the strongest prima facie support for this hypothesis is that of The Needlecase (see Journal, April-May, 1915, j). 67), but the evidence would be much strengthened by obtaining the testimony of the servant who is said to have questioned Joe. It is to be hoped that this may yet be done.

In addition to the fact that the evidence in favour of clair- voyance is inconclusive, there is a certain amount of negative evidence against it. Allusion has already been made to the failure of the experiment in 1903. (See Journal, April-May, 1915, p. 75.) Moreover, amongst the incidents which have been omitted from the published report there are three cases in which Joe was asked to find dead bodies, the position of which was not known to any living person, but in each case he failed. Such cases are especially favourable for obtaining proof of clairvoyance, since telepathy from any living mind is ex hypothesi excluded. The fact that in each of these three instances Joe failed to locate the body is evidence, so far as it goes, against his possessing clairvoyant powers. A brief report of one of these incidents is printed below as a specimen :

1915- -471 Icelandic Seer. 81

THE SHEPHERD'S BODY. (Statement by Gudm. Vilhjdlmsson, fanner at Sydra-Ldn.)

July 24, 1914.

One Sunday in the spring of 1897 we had an awful northerly snowstorm. In the morning the shepherd at Eldjarnsstadir started off for the sheep-cot, at some distance from the farm-house, at the usual time in the morning, but he did not return in the evening. At about noon the next day the storm abated, and men from the neighbouring farms went to search for him. The search was continued for several days without success. Then Joe was asked to try to dream where the man was. He said that he saw the man, and he was buried under a thick heap of snow beside a big hill in the land of Hvammsstadir, which is about an hour's walk to the south of Eldjarnsstadir. Joe said, moreover, that he had been alive in the snow for three days. People thought Joe's account very probable, but as there is in this place which Joe described such a great number of hills all resembling each other, it is only possible for those who are thoroughly acquainted with the place to discern them from each other. Therefore no attempts were made to dig for the body, and the search was given up for the time. About a month or so later a shepherd from Eldjarnsstadir came upon the corpse lying on a level field about half an hour's walk to the east of Eldjarnsstadir. Thus all that Joe had said about this proved sheer nonsense.

GUDM. VILHJALMSSON.

CONCLUSION.

My own impression, after reading the whole of Professor Bjarnason's clear and careful record,1 is that we have in Dreaming Joe a genuine case of sensory automatism, spon- taneous in its origin and taking the form of visions seen in sleep, or in a condition between sleeping and waking. These visions can be influenced by the waking volition of the dreamer or by questions put to him in sleep. There is little doubt, I think, that in these circumstances knowledge is displayed which the dreamer does not consciously possess, and as regards the source of this knowledge, an explanation may perhaps be found in sub-conscious observation and memory, or in

1 About a third of the report has been printed here, the remaining stories being of the same general type.

82 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JINK,

thought-transference. In some cases the evidence suggests powers of a clairvoyant kind, but owing to lapse of time the records are not sufficiently precise or detailed to support any certain conclusion on this point. We are however much indebted to Professor Bjarnason for bringing an interesting case to our notice, and for the care and trouble he has taken in collecting and sifting all available testimony.

DR. HYSLOP ON THE HISTORY OF MARTHE BY H. DE G. VEBKALL.

THE Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research for January, 1915, contains a criticism by Dr. Hyslop of my article on The History of Marthe Beraud, published in Proc. S.P.R., Vol. XXVII., p. 333 ff. On several points I am glad to find that Dr. Hyslop and I are in agreement, but he puts forward two objections which I will try to answer.

(a) Dr. Hyslop complains that in considering the hypothesis of fraud I make no attempt to determine the fundamental question of whether the medium is hysterical. According to his opinion, we have no right to use the word " fraud " in a case of hysteria. " Fraud," he says, " is a state of mind. It is not a mode of action. Fraud is a conscious attempt to deceive and assumes normal mental conditions."

When Dr. Hyslop says that fraud is conscious, he means presumably that it is " potentially memorable," according to the definition given by Mr. Myers in Human Personality, and, therefore, that before imputing fraud we must ascertain that there is no dissociation of consciousness. This proposition will be generally admitted, if our object be to make a psychological analysis of the medium's condition, or to estimate her moral responsibility for her actions. But Dr. Hyslop does not appear to take into account the fact that in writing the history of Marthe Beraud I was primarily concerned to determine the objective physical nature of certain observed phenomena, rather than to discuss the psychological peculiarities of the medium in whose presence they occur. The question which I tried to answer was not so much, " What is Marthe Beraud's state of mind when these phenomena occur ? " as "In what do the

1915. Dr. Hyslop on the History of Marthe B6raud. 83

phenomena themselves consist ? What actually happens ? " It seems to me that we are not likely to give a clear answer to either of these questions, unless we recognise that they are distinct one from another.

We recognise the distinction clearly enough in other fields of enquiry. Suppose, for example, that a solicitor appropriates to his own use the securities entrusted to him, his clients will assuredly accuse him of fraud, and he cannot escape the charge by declaring that he suffered from a dissociation of consciousness and thought the securities were his own. The question of whether he is responsible for his actions has nothing whatever to do with the loss to his clients, although it may affect our moral judgement of the man himself. Similarly in the case of Marthe Beraud, we have first to consider whether there is any- thing deceptive about her phenomena, before considering the mental or moral part which she plays in their production.

Now, various observers of these phenomena have put forward the theory that in order to explain them we must have recourse to an unknown physical law, such, for instance, as Dr. von Schrenck-Notzing's theory of " ideoplasma," and, taken at their face value, the phenomena do appear to require some hypothesis of this kind. My main endeavour therefore was to analyse the evidence for and against this hypothesis — the evidence, in fact, for and against the hypothesis of a supernormal agency in the case.

I will not quarrel with Dr. Hyslop over the use of a particular word, but if the actual character of a phenomenon is concealed so skilfully, and the appearance of another character is given so exactly, as to suggest, almost beyond doubt, that these two circumstances are purposive, we are justified, I think, in saying that there is simulation, just as we speak of simulation in the case of the protective colouring of certain insects, without imply- ing any moral judgment. In the case of Marthe BSraud, as I said in my report, there seems evidence that the simulation, if not conscious, is sometimes deliberate, in the sense that pre- parations are made beforehand with a view to producing a desired effect.

Briefly, I think that Dr. Hyslop confuses the issue by throwing so much emphasis on the psychological aspect of the problem. I maintain that in such cases it is legitimate, and indeed neces-

84 Journal of Society for Psychical Research JUNK, 1915.

sary, before we turn to questions of psychology, to determine, if we can, the objective physical nature of the phenomena concerned.

(6) The second criticism which Dr. Hyslop puts forward is that whereas I reject Dr. von Schrenck-Notzing's theory of " ideoplasma," I suggest that the medium may have some abnormal power of bodily secretion. " Now I should like to know," he says, " what difference one can conceive, or is obliged to set up, between ' ideoplasty ' and an ' abnormal power of bodily secretion.' '

Admitting that one is not " obliged to set up " any difference between ideoplasty and bodily secretion, since Dr. von Schrenck- Notzing's ideoplastic creations are ex hypothesi secreted from the medium's body, I yet maintain that between Dr. von Schrenck- Notzing's theory and mine there is a marked difference of degree, if not of kind. For Dr. von Schrenck-Notzing suggests, e.g., that by some process of thought the medium is able to create from her body a material object having the appearance of a patched and torn, but recognisable portrait taken from an illustrated paper (see Proc., Vol. XXVII., p. 362 ff.). But the processes of bodily secretion, as we know them, present no phenomenon in the least analogous to this. When I suggested that the medium might possess some abnormal power of secre- tion, I had in view secretions analogous to those which exist in normal cases, but presenting some unusual feature. I referred, as an instance of my meaning, to Dr. Kafka's report, in which he suggests that a liquid secretion of some kind issued from the medium's breasts. We know that even in normal cases secreta of various kinds, e.g. the sweat, may be induced or modified by suggestion, and the theory which I tentatively put forward was that in Marthe B6raud — an abnormal case — the secreta have been modified or increased in various ways to a very unusual degree. I should, on this hypothesis, accept Dr. Hyslop's statement as to " the ideas, conscious or uncon- scious, of the medium being presumably active in causing the secretion of the substance necessary to simulate materialisation," but I should modify this statement by suggesting that this process of simulation (it will be noted that Dr. Hyslop himself admits the term here) is frequently assisted by methods in which bodily secretions play no part.

No. CCCXXI.-VoL. XVII. .1,IA, ,,„.-.

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS.

I-AUK

A Poltergeist Case, ---85

Alleged Visions on the Battlefield, - 95

Contribution to the Library, ... - 95

Supplementary Library Catalogue, 96

The Rooms of the Society at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., will be closed during August and September, re-opening on Friday, October 1st.

The next number of the Journal will be issued in October.

A POLTERGEIST CASE.

THE following case was sent to us by a Member of the Society, here called Mrs. Hazell. For reasons that will be understood by the reader, pseudonyms are substituted for the names and addresses of all the persons concerned, which are given in the original documents now in our possession.

The incidents were of the usual poltergeist type, the dis- turbances centring round a child in ill-health at the time. Their chief interest lies in the rational treatment of the case, which resulted in the entire disappearance of the phenomena a week after their inception. During that time there were indications of developments conforming to type, e.g. raps and vibrations in the bed where the child was lying and, according to the evidence of the servant (as stated 'by Mrs. Hazell), the opening of cupboard doors. It will be noted that the servant, who was much alarmed by the disturbances and suggested that they were due to a supernatural agency, was frequently with the child.

The witnesses are all educated persons : Mr. Hazell, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Shaw are masters in a public school, and Mr. Lambert is a solicitor.

86 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, 1915.

Mrs. Hazell writes :

April 18, 1915.

I wonder if the enclosed experience is interesting enough for record by the S.P.R. ? I send it just as I wrote it on March 19. ... I have leave from Mr. and Mrs. [Jackson] to send it you, on condition that, if published, names of places and people should be altered, and that they should not be " worried." They are naturally anxious, and so am I, that their little daughter [Beatrice] should forget all about it as soon as possible. . . . [Beatrice] is a very nice little girl, and they naturally want to check this development, due to her state of health, as speedily as possible. When I left on April 10 nothing further had happened.

The account enclosed is as follows :

March 19, 1915.

On Monday, March 8, 1915, in the afternoon; Mrs. W. Jackson called on us with her two children, Beatrice, aged fourteen, and Marie, aged about five, to tell us of a remarkable noise which had suddenly begun to make itself heard in their house in the evening, for the first time on the previous Saturday, March 6. She described it as a sort of loud and rather prolonged grunt, some- thing like the noise that might be made by a pig or some other animal if it wasn't feeling quite well, and it sounded apparently all over the house in various rooms, upstairs and down, and on the stairs, etc. It had occurred again on Sunday evening. They were all very puzzled and beginning to be even a little alarmed, and their servant was already distinctly frightened by the mysterious sound. Would we come over this evening and see if we could hear it and could suggest an explanation.

We agreed to go over about nine o'clock, but as we were sitting at dinner soon after eight, we got a message from Mrs. Jackson to the effect that the noise had started again about half-past six and had been going on at intervals ever since, and would we come at once, if we could, as it might stop later on. So we finished our dinner hurriedly and answered the summons. For about a quarter of an hour after we got to the house we heard nothing. Mrs. Jackson and my husband and myself were all gathered together in the drawing-room, with the doors open, and Beatrice was hovering about near us, sometimes in the room with us and sometimes outside. As the noise had now apparently ceased downstairs, Mrs. Jackson and I went to the landing

JULY, 1915. A Poltergeist Case. 87

upstairs, leaving my husband to smoke and listen in the drawing- room. We stood about for some minutes listening, all in vain ; when suddenly came a hail from my husband below — " There it is. I heard it then ; did you hear it ? " — " No, where was it ? " He indicated the direction of the sound (I forget exactly where he said it seemed to come from), and said he had been standing alone in the doorway between the dining-room and drawing-room when he heard it.

In a few minutes it occurred again, and that time we all heard it. Mrs. Jackson and I were still standing on the landing upstairs, and the sound seemed to come from the passage below. It was quite loud and unmistakable. Beatrice was at that time some- where downstairs. Soon we heard the sound again, twice, and then it seemed to me to issue from a bedroom behind us, in which little Marie lay in her cot, listening also for the sound and evidently rather excited, but apparently not alarmed. She also heard it, and said it seemed to her also to be in her room, but her mother said it sounded to her as if it came from upstairs, just outside the child's open bedroom door.

I forget how many times we heard it that evening — a good many times altogether, and every time it was exceedingly difficult to locate the sound. Beatrice was never in sight when we heard it, though she flitted about downstairs and up at intervals, or called up to us, or down to us, to ask us if we had heard it. Even after she had gone upstairs to her bath, and when we were downstairs, we heard it once or twice.

By this time Mr. Jackson had come in and corroborated all his wife had told us.

We suggested all the possibilities we could think of : (1) escaping air from some old gas pipe (it is an old house, which has been much altered at various times) ; (2) water in a waste-pipe ; (3) practical joking by the servant ; (4) a noise made by their next- door neighbours. As to (1), they did not think it likely, but admitted that the sounds never came till after the gas was lighted, so they eventually agreed to test that question the next night by not lighting the gas. As to (2), there appeared to be no con nection with any water arrangements, as the sounds seemed to go on quite independently of the use of the bathroom or other pipes. But the bath-water is heated by a geyser, so they would test that too the next night by not heating the water for the bath. As to (3), they had had the servant for 2£ years and nothing

88 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, 1915.

had ever happened before, and she was obviously frightened and inclined to attribute the noise to some supernatural agency — asking Beatrice, for instance, whether her grandmother was quite well, and thus hinting at a possible explanation of the sound. As to (4), the walls of the house were thick, and they never heard any sound at all from their neighbours.

After Beatrice had gone upstairs to bed, we asked Mr. and Mrs. Jackson to tell us when and where they had first heard the sound. They agreed that it was on Saturday evening when they were sitting in the drawing-room and Beatrice was in the passage just outside, with the door half-open between them. Suddenly the sound occurred, and Beatrice exclaimed in a startled voice, " Mummy, did you hear that ? What is it ? " " Why, yes. You did it yourself, Beattie," they both replied. " No, I didn't, really. I don't know what it was." That was the beginning, and both evidently thought that the sound proceeded from Beatrice, but were afterwards shaken in their conviction by the child's denials, and by the odd way in which the sound seemed to travel all over the house. Mr. Jackson, however, said that for some time at first he thought it was Beatrice playing a practical joke, but he had given up that theory now. Both were evidently utterly puzzled, and Mrs. Jackson was perturbed both for the sake of the children and for the effect on the servant, who was already frightened and would be sure to give notice presently if the noise went on. Another woman who was in the house as charwoman was also alarmed.

We could do no more that night, so we went home, after having urged them to try the effect of doing without the gas and bath-water the next night. Mrs. Jackson, by the way, had admitted earlier in the evening that the noise was beginning to get on her nerves, too, a little, because she thought now that it sounded " human," not like an animal, or a noise made by a gas or water-pipe. Secretly we agreed with her, but we did not say so. On the way home we agreed that Beatrice must be at the bottom of the trouble, and suggested that it might be a hysterical manifestation of some sort, knowing that such things were possible, and also that Beatrice has been lately in a highly nervous state of health, and has been in medical hands for it. We agreed further that we would not propound this theory at present to any one else, but would await events and the result of experiments with the gas and water, etc. I said that if it really was Beatrice,

UI-Y- I01i">- A Poltergeist Case. 89

presently there would most likely occur further, and possibly different, manifestations.

I forgot to add above that we, of course, asked both Mr. and Mrs. Jackson if it was possible that the noise came from outsi«l<- anywhere, or could be caused by rats or mice. They said tli»-\ had searched outside the first night and found nothing, that they were not troubled by rats or mice, and that in any case the sound, whatever it was, was inside the house. Of that they were sure, and for that matter, so were we.

The next day, Tuesday, March 9, we heard nothing, and purposely did not go down to inquire, because we thought, if it were Beatrice's doing, it was better not to show too much excitement about it.

On Wednesday morning (10th) I called to try and find Mrs. Jackson at a time when I thought Beatrice would probably be out, but I found no one at home, except the servant, of whom I asked no questions. That afternoon, when I was out for a walk with a friend . . . who had arrived at tea-time to stay with us, we met Mr. Jackson, and asked him for news. He said they had tried experimenting the night before with both gas and water, and the noise had gone on just the same, and they were as far from an explanation of it as ever. He added that they had asked Mr. Shaw, the science master here, to come down after nine o'clock this (Wednesday) evening to see if he could throw any light on the subject. I took the opportunity of suggesting,

" Ask Dr. B ; perhaps he could help," and Mr. Jackson went

off saying, yes, it might be a good thing to do so. I knew that Dr. B— - had been attending Beatrice lately. I also sent a message to Mrs. Jackson by her husband to the effect that I would take her and the two little girls in to sleep in our house for a few nights, if she liked to let me know in good time the next day. Thursday passed (the llth), and Mrs. Jackson sent no message,' so I concluded she did not want to come, and that perhaps Mr. Shaw had suggested some solution. We heard nothing more that day, but on Friday afternoon (the 12th) Mrs. Jackson again called on us at tea-time, this time alone. Mrs. Jackson had tea with us, and said she had come again about the noises, because she was now getting seriously perturbed. Mr. Shaw had spent part of Wednesday evening with them and had heard the noises, and suggested that they might be due to a waste-pipe, and asked them to get the plumber to come in and make some alteration to the " trap " arrangements of the pipe. So they called

00 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, 1916.

in Harding, who refused to alter the pipe, saying it was perfectly all right, and that if he made the desired alteration it would only make the pipe dangerous and let sewer-gas into the house.

While he was in the house he heard the noise, and thought it proceeded from Marie, Mrs. Jackson's little girl, and said so. Mrs. Jackson said no. she was sure it was not, and Harding stayed for some time on the stairs, listening for the noise again.

1 cannot remember whether Mrs. Jackson said he did hear it again or not, but she went on to say that she and Mr. Jackson were now coming to the conclusion that the noises had something to do with Beatrice. We asked why, and she told us that not only were the old noises continuing, but there were fresh developments. After Beatrice had gone to bed on Thursday night, her mother ran upstairs to look at her in bed and see that she was sleeping quietly, as she often does. She found her apparently asleep, but restless. Suddenly, as she stood looking down at her, a clicking sound, like that made by a person snapping his fingers, appeared to come from the bedstead. At first Mrs. Jackson thought she must be imagining it, but it occurred again, and she put her hands on the bedstead and felt it vibrating. She sat down for some time by the bed determined to wait and watch, and make sure about it. The noise occurred again, Beatrice apparently asleep and motionless, and she again felt the bedstead vibrating and heard it clicking, even while she held one of Beatrice's hands in her own. Then she knocked on the floor as a signal to Mr. Jackson, and he came up and heard the sound and felt the bed vibrating too. They roused Beatrice with some difficulty out of an apparently heavy sleep, and after she woke up she too heard the sound and asked them if they heard it.

Besides this bed -clicking noise, Mrs. Jackson said they had heard at least once (I am not sure if she said oftener) a loud knocking noise, and she rapped hard four times on the table to show us what it was like. Also the same evening, after Beatrice was in bed, they had heard a loud noise, I think she said twice, like some one hitting the partition wall on the stairs very hard with the open hand. The servant was by this time so terrified that she would not sleep alone, and Beatrice had had at first to sleep with her, and now the servant was sleeping out, having refused to sleep in the house any longer. The noises were getting on all their nerves, and Mrs Jackson said she was getting very worried about it, and did not know what to do for the best.

JULY, 1015. A Poltertje/ist Case. !»!

Now, at last, as she had said herself that the sounds appeared to be connected with Beatrice, I told her something of what I have read of such occurrences and urged her to tell Dr. B — about it, because if it was Beatrice doing it, it was due to her state of health and ought to be checked at once. It was quite a new idea to her that a child, or any person, could do such things and be apparently unaware that she was doing them, and she promised to see Dr. B — - and get him to come round that night to their house. It was too late, we agreed, for her to bring the children to us that evening, and I also wanted her to consult Dr. B — - first and see if he thought it wise, so I said I would take them in on Saturday for the week-end, or a few days, if necessary, and she went away.

On Saturday, the 13th, I went soon after breakfast to see Mrs. Jackson and to ask her if they wanted to come. She told me she was in a state of great indecision as to what she ought to do ; that Dr. B — had been to their house on Friday night for a short time, but had heard no noises; and had promised to return later, but had not done so ; so she concluded he had been prevented. He agreed that Beatrice might be causing the sounds, and said that if it turned out to be so, it would be a good thing to take her up to London to see a specialist. In the mean time he saw no objection to their all coming over to stay with me. So I said I would go and get ready for them, and asked what I should tell our servants to explain their sudden arrival. This led to a further discussion of all the little difficult iea of the situation, and eventually Mrs. Jackson decided that it would be better to take the children away somewhere out of the place,

and we thought of . That seemed a good idea, and she Mid

she would go that afternoon and see if Mrs. W— - could take them in. In the course of this conversation Mrs. Jackson said, " I don't know if I was wise, but I told Beatrice that I thought she was making these noises herself." Beatrice said, " How could I, Mother ? " and Mrs. Jackson explained that it is possible for people to make such noises and not know that they did it, which apparently surprised Beatrice.

After this we heard no more till Monday, the 15th, when I met Beatrice in the street, and she told me that they were all

three going to that afternoon for a week. I congratulated her,

and said it would be nice, and sent my love to her mother and said no more, and Beatrice did not volunteer a word about the noises.

92 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, 1915.

On Monday night, after they had gone, Ernest (my husband) and Mr. Lambert went down to see Mr. Jackson and to inquire how things were going on. The house was perfectly quiet, but Mr. Jackson said it had been so since Saturday. The noises had ceased on Saturday and had not recurred. On Saturday evening he and Mrs. Jackson had kept Beatrice with them all the time till she went to bed, and nothing had happened, and when she was sent up to bed, Mrs. Jackson had said, " Now, Beattie— no noises, mind ! " and there had not been any.

Mr. Jackson also described to Ernest and Mr. Lambert the loud noises and raps they had heard, and gave them a fuller description of what happened about the bed-clicking. He said that he felt the vibration of the bed very distinctly even when he lifted it up in his hands off its two end-feet. After they roused Beatrice they moved her into another bed in her mother's room, and when she was asleep again that bed started the same clicking and vibrating. Mr. Jackson himself took the original bed to pieces to see if he could find any screw or wire loose anywhere, then, finding it all right, put it together again and slept in the bed himself, and it was quite quiet.

I forgot to add that, when I was talking to Mrs. Jackson on Saturday morning, she described how she had sent Beatrice and the maid to do the bedrooms together, because the maid was afraid to go alone, and that Beatrice also helped her in the kitchen for the same reason. After both had been upstairs together for a while, both declared that when they came back to the kitchen they found all the cupboard doors open which they had left shut when they went upstairs. Mrs. Jackson said they must have left them open, but they declared they did not. This, I think, happened on Friday evening, or it might have been Thursday. It was not later.

On Tuesday, the 16th, we heard no more, but on Wednesday, the 17th, I met Mrs. Jackson at S — - station, and she said all had been quiet at - - and there had been no disturbance of any kind.

One more thing I forgot to add. I asked Mrs. Jackson again if she were quite sure the noises could not have been made by the servant or by the charwoman, and she disposed of that by saying that they had occurred when they were out of the house, as well as when they were in it.

[Signed] M. HAZELL.

ri, I'.M:-. A Polferc/fiiat (,W.

To this account Mr. Ernest Hazell added the following note :

March 19, 1915.

This is perfectly accurate as far as I know. It omits, however, one curious fact told to me by Mr. Jackson. When Beatrice was sleeping on a bed in her mother's room, that bed also began to produce the clicking sound. When Mr. Jackson first entered the room the sound was apparently coming from the head of the bed. When he moved there, the sound also moved and seemed to come from the foot of the bed. He then moved there, when the sound at once came only from the head of the bed. I think he tested this two or three times, the result always being the same, i.e. the sound always came from that part of the bed from which he was furthest off.

[Signed] E. HAZELL.

The child's father and Mr. Lambert also endorse Mrs. Hazell 's account as follows :

May 11, 1915.

This is an accurate account of what Mr. Jackson told me when I went to see him with Mr. Hazell.

[Signed] J. J. LAMBERT

May 24, 1915.

Found quite correct in every way.

[Signed] W. K. JACKSON.

Mr. T. A. Shaw makes the following statement, written on May 24, 1915, as to the noises in Mr. Jackson's house :

Present m house, Wednesday, March [10th], 9.30 p.m.-ll p.m.

9.30-10 p.m., in drawing-room with doors open. Heard unusual noise twice, best described as a sort of grunt. As the sound came through open door, it was difficult to locate exactly.

10-10.30 p.m. Stood upstairs at junction of two passages ; heard similar noise again ; this proceeded from passage at end of which was bedroom occupied by the child Beatrice Jackson, the door being open. Immediately the sound ceased, the child half wakened up, but was pacified by mother.

10.30-11, in drawing-room ; heard similar sound again, not so violent and very difficult to locate.

Carefully examined water-pipes, gas-meter, drain -pipes, etc., and came to conclusion that it was impossible for sound to have proceeded from them.

94 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, 1915.

Mrs. T. A. Shaw writes :

May 25, 1915.

I went to Mrs. Jackson's at 8.30 the same evening as my husband, and heard the noises three times before he came. One of these times it was most distinct and prolonged, and seemed to be just outside the drawing-room door. Beatrice was upstairs, quite away from us, but she called down, " Did you hear that, Mother ? " It was so loud and certainly sounded in a different part of the house from where she was. The other two were fainter, but distinct, but Beatrice was downstairs then and nearer to where we heard them.

And later :

May 26, 1915.

I forgot to add that I stayed on at Mrs. Jackson's after my husband came, and agree with all he has said.

Mrs. Jackson has kindly added the following statement :

May 25, 1915.

Mrs. Hazell's account of what happened in our house and what I told her is quite correct.

It has occurred to me that possibly a few remarks about the child herself might help towards an explanation of things.

I should like to state that neither my husband nor myself connected the noises with B. up to the very last night, and to this day we have no definite proof of her having caused them. I still find it difficult to believe that she could have made those weird sounds ; indeed, but for what occurred on the last night, I think I should refuse to connect her with them.

Mrs. Hazell has related how, on that night, I roused B. and sent her to my room, because her bed seemed to be ticking in a strange way and I wanted to try and find out what caused this. I was just outside my room when I heard a loud, distinct thumping on the wall (it is made of canvas and laths just there). I went straight into the room, to find B. apparently fast asleep. When roused, she denied having made the noise, but said she had heard it. I mention this in detail again, because it was the first intimation we had that the child was, subconsciously, "play- ing tricks " on us. There was no possibility of any other person or thing having caused this noise, only my husband and self and the two children being in the house at the time From that moment we realised that B.'s nervous system must be seriously

JULY, 1915. A Poltergeist Case.

affected, and that it was possible that she might have been at the bottom of everything. Nothing further happened, and there the matter rests.

I may add that B. is a lively girl, normal in every way, and of average intelligence, though not gifted. For the last two years .she has not been able to bear any mental strain, and was obliged to leave school last November owing to a complete nervous break- down, accompanied by nightmares of a violent character. Her general health, however, soon improved at home and, except for these occurrences in March, she seemed in normal health.

GERTRUDE JACKSON.

ALLEGED VISIONS ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

A LARGE number of enquiries have reached us as to the authenticity of the alleged visions of angels, etc., seen on the battlefields in France, and in many cases the enquirers have sent us copies of accounts that have appeared in a number of newspapers, parish magazines, etc.

Practically all these accounts are identical, beginning " Last Sunday I met Miss M., daughter of the well-known Canon M., and she told me she knew two officers, both of whom had themselves seen the angels. ..."

On first receiving the account, we wrote to Miss M., asking if she could put us into communication with these officers. She replied, " I cannot give you the names of the men referred to in your letter of May 26 [1915], as the story I heard was quite anonymous and I do not know who they were."

It thus appears that the account was repeated and circulated on purely hearsay evidence ; and there is reason for believing that it was founded on the story of visionary archers led by St. George, which was invented by a journalist, Mr. Arthur Machen, and published in the Evening News.

If, however, any of our readers can obtain first-hand accounts from the witnesses of any actual apparitions, we should be very glad to receive them.

CONTRIBUTION TO THE LIBRARY OF THE SOCIETY.

WE are greatly indebted to Mr. H. V. Reade, an Associate of the Society, for a gift of books, some of which are rare and

96 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JOLT, 1915.

valuable, to the Library. The books are included and specified in the Supplementary Catalogue printed below.

SUPPLEMENTARY LIBRARY CATALOGUE.

Books added to thf Library since the last list, JOURNAL, April, 1914.

[R] *Agrippa (Henry Cornelius), De Vanitate artium et scientiarum. [n.d.] Alexandre-Bisson (Juliette), Les Phenomenes dits de Mat6rialisation.

Paris, 1914.

[R] *Artemidorus. De Soraniorum Interpretatione. 1544.

*Bell (Hesketh J.), Obeah. Witchcraft in the West Indies. London, 1893.

^Bennetts (Rev. H. J. T.), Visions of the Unseen. London, 1914.

tBergson (Professor Henri), Dreams. Translated from the French by

Edwin E. Slosson. London, 1914.

tBruce (H. Addington), Adventurings in the Psychical. Boston, 1914.

tCarrington (Hereward), Problems of Psychical Research. London, 1914.

[R]*Casaubon (Meric, D.D.), A Treatise proving Spirits, Witches and

Supernormal Operations. London, 1672.

*Dee (Dr. John), The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee. Edited by J. Orchard

llalliwell, F.R.S. London, 1842.

tFreud (Dr. Sigmund), The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. Translated

by A. A. Brill, M.D. London, 1914.

**Hartmann (Eduard von), Spiritism. Translated by C. C. Massey.

London [n.d.]

*Hutchmson (Francis, D.D.), An Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft.

2nd edition. London, 1720.

*Jennings (Hargrave), The Rosicrucians. 2 Vols. London, 1887.

[R]*Jurieu (Pierre), The Reflections of Monsieur Jurieu upon the Strange

and Miraculous Exstasies of Isabel Vincent. London, 1689.

Maeterlinck (Maurice), Our Eternity. Translated by Alexander Teixeira

de Mattos. London, 1913.

t The Unknown Guest. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de

Mattos. London, 1914.

f Prince (Morton, M.D.), The Unconscious. New York, 1914.

Schrenck-Notzing (Dr. Freiherr von), Der Kampf urn die Materialisations-

Phanomene. Munich, 1914.

Seybert Commission on Spiritualism (Report of). Philadelphia, 1887.

Spiritual Healing. Report of a Clerical and Medical Committee of Inquiry

into Spiritual, Faith and Mental Healing. London, 1914.

tStanton (Horace C., D.D.), Telepathy of the Celestial World.

New York, 1913. [R] *Truesdell (John W.), The Bottom Facts concerning Spiritualism.

New York, 1884. .

Turr6 (R.), Les Origines de la Connaissance. Paris, 1914.

[R]*Wieri (Joannis), De Praestigiis Daemonum. Basle, 1577.

•Presented by H. V. Rcade, Esq. tPresented by the Publisher.

** Presented by Mrs. H. Sidgwick. [R] indicates for reference only.

Nos. CCCXXII-IIL— VOL. XVII. OCTOBEE-NOVKMBKH, 1915.

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS.

PAOK

New Members and Associates, 98

Meeting of the Council, 98

General Meeting, 99

" A Thinking Dog," 99

NOTICE OF MEETING.

A Private Meeting of the Society

FOR

MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES ONLY

WILL BE HELD IN

THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, ON THE FIRST FLOOR OF 20 HANOVER SQUARE, LONDON, W.

On MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22nd, 1915, at 5 p.m.

WHEN A PAPER ENTITLED

" Some Recent Cases of Premonition v

WILL BE READ BY

THE REV. M. A. BAYFIELD.

N.B.— No Tickets of Admission are issued for this Meeting. Members and Associates will be asked to sign their names on entering.

98 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. OCT. -Nov.

[Owing to the fact that public interest is now so largely centred upon the war, it has proved unusually difficult to obtain material for the Journal. Hence the delay in its appearance and the smallness of the present number. Moreover, a case which we had hoped to print now has had to be held over for further investigation.']

NEW MEMBEKS AND ASSOCIATES.

Names of Members are printed in Black Type. Names of Associates are printed in SMALL CAPITALS.

Buist, Mrs., Swalcliffe Lea, Banbury, Oxfordshire.

Hamilton and Brandon, The Duchess of, Hamilton Palace,

Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Montague, Mrs., Penton, Crediton, Devon. BOGARRDE, L. VAN DBN, c/o Eastern Extension Telegraph Company's

Station, Singapore, Straits Settlements. DUFF, J. R. K., 100 Sunningfields, Hendon, London, N.W. GRKY, ERNEST H., 261 Essex Road, Islington, London, N. HlLLSMlTH, MRS. MoNTFORD, Ragged Place, South Dan bury, New

Hampshire, U.S.A.

LYALL, MRS., 6 York Street Chambers, Bryanston Square, London, W. SWEENEY, H. J. P., 16 Cromwell Avenue, Highgate, London, N.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

THE 135th Meeting of the Council was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Friday, July 9th, 1915, at 6 p.m. ; the President, PROFESSOR GILBERT MURRAY, in the chair. There were also present : Mr. W. W. Baggally, the Right Hon. G. W. Balfour, Sir W. F. Barrett, Rev. M. A. Bayfield, Sir William Crookes, The Hon. Everard Feilding, Sir Oliver Lodge, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Mr. St. G. Lane Fox Pitt, Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, Mr. Sydney C. Scott, Mrs. Henry Sidg- wick, and Dr. C. Lloyd Tuckey ; also Miss Alice Johnson, Research Officer, and Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

1915- Meeting of the Council. 99

The Minutes of last Meeting of the Council were read and signed as correct. Three new Members and six new

Associates were elected. Their names and addresses are given above.

The monthly accounts for March, April, May, and June were presented and taken as read.

GENERAL MEETING.

THE 145th General Meeting of the Society was held in the Robert Barnes Hall of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W., on Friday, July 9th, 1915, at 5 p.m., the President, PROFESSOR GILBERT MURRAY, in the chair.

THE PRESIDENT delivered an address, which will be published later in the Proceedings.

A "THINKING DOG."

[WE have received from Mr. J. A. Frostick, of Christchurch, New Zealand, an Associate of this Society, an interesting account of a blind dog which is said to answer questions intelligently by barking. The feats of this dog recall those of the " think- ing horses " of Elberfeld (one of which, it will be remembered, was also blind), and of the " thinking dog " of Mannheim.

It will be seen that in the case here reported, the evidence is open to the same objections as were raised in the earlier cases : the animal usually gives his answer to a question by repeating some simple action, such as stamping the foot or barking a certain number of times. If, therefore, we could suppose that a signal were given him when he should stop, no remark- able degree of intelligence would be required for his perfor- mance, but only keen powers of observation. We need not bring the bona fides of the experimenters in question by supposing that the signal is given consciously, since there is abundant evidence— for example, in muscle-reading experi- ments— that slight indications unconsciously given can be readily perceived.

100 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. OCT. -Nov.

In the case of the Elberfeld horses, it was said that the animals could answer questions the nature of which was not known to any person present. That is not alleged in the present case ; in fact, there is evidence to the contrary. As the case stands at present, therefore, the dog's performance can be explained by supposing that he responds to some kind of indication unconsciously given. Since he is blind, this indication is probably auditory — perhaps a slight change of breathing — and it may be that the dog's blindness makes his task easier by saving him from visual distractions. We have written to Mr. Frostick suggesting that some further experiments should be tried to test this hypothesis. But since communication with New Zealand is a lengthy process, we have decided to print this preliminary report while awaiting further developments. In addition to Mr. Frostick's report, we also publish some extracts from an article which appeared in a New Zealand paper, The Lyttelton Times, giving an account of a public performance by the dog. It should be said that his owners have never exhibited him for money except for a charitable purpose.

Members of the Society will recollect that a paper on the Elberfeld horses was read at a meeting in 1913, and a short report of it was published in the Journal, Vol. XVI., p. 98 if. A short account of the Mannheim dog, by Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, also appeared in the Journal, Vol. XVI., p. 244 if. Any further investigation into either of these cases is at present precluded by the war. ED.]

LETTER FROM MR. J. A. FROSTICK.

June 16, 1915.

AT the request of one of our Members, Mr. Richard Thorp, of Napier, N.Z., I herewith send you particulars of the powers possessed by a most remarkable dog, owned by Mr. William Smith McGibbon, Kilmore St., of this city.

Accompanied by my daughter, I visited the house of Mr. McGibbon on Saturday evening last, June 12bh.

The dog is a small black and tan terrier, between five and six years old. It was- found by its present owner about five years ago in a semi-starved condition and was taken in

1915. A "Thinking Dog" 101

and cared for. Nothing remarkable was noticed for about a year, when it gradually went blind, and has been for years quite sightless.

It always had the habit of begging for food, but after it went blind it would bark for a piece — always one bark. One day the owner said, " Bark twice, Darkey, and you shall have two pieces," which he immediately did. This was considered remarkable, because it was repeated on several occasions and under different conditions. It was then dis- covered that the dog apparently possessed almost human intelligence, answering questions by a succession of short, sharp and decisive barks.

The dog sits on a chair, is very quiet, and somewhat shy- sometimes a little difficult to get started with his work, especially when strangers are present. Occasionally he takes a dislike to individuals, and if so, will not work at all, but this happens very seldom.

Mr. McGibbon finds it best to ask a few questions that the dog has answered before. It appears to get the dog quiet and confident :

" How many feet have you ? " - (4)

" How many eyes ? " - (2)

" How many ears ? " - (2)

All these he answered without hesitation, but when asked " How many tails ? " he always gives two barks.

These and other similar questions were answered instantly in my presence :

Divide 12 by 3 4 barks.

Count 12 - 12 „

Take 2 from 12 - 10 „

Divide 100 by 25 4 „

Divide 1000 by 100 - 10 „

How many sixpences in half a crown ? 5 barks.

If you spent one sixpence out of half a crown, how many sixpenny pieces would you bring back ? 4 barks.

How many roods in one acre ? How many furlongs in one mile ? How many ounces in one pound avoirdupois ? How many troy ounces ? How many Ibs. in one stone ? What is the day of the month ? What is the month of the

102 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. OCT. -Nov.

year ? What is the year over 1900 ? Every answer was promptly and correctly given.

Then I was permitted to frame the questions :

How many letters in Frostick ? 8 barks.

What is the time by Mr. Frostick's watch, nearest hour ? 9 barks.

Is the minute hand before 9 or past 9 ? 4 barks.

How much past ? 3 barks. This was quite correct. My watch was exactly 9.3. It was not the correct time, my watch being two minutes fast of town time.

I then asked him, " What is my age over 50 ?" He gave 8 barks, which is correct.

The next question : If you wrote down one million in figures, how many naughts would you use ? (6.)

Up to this point every answer (except as to the number of tails) was correct, but at this stage the dog commenced to get a little restless and excited, and made quite a number of mistakes.

How many gas-brackets in the room ? (4.) The number was 3.

What is the age of this lady visitor over 25 ? (3.) It should have been 6.

How many coins in my pocket over 18 ? (6.) It should have been 8.

How many buttons on the lady's boots ? (20.) It should have been 22.

At this stage it was agreed to give the dog a rest.

After about ten minutes we started again, with most re- markable icsults. I took from my pocket a bank-note, which Mr. McGibbon did not handle, neither could he see the face of it:

Darkey, Mr. Frostick has a bank-note. What is it worth in pounds sterling ? (1.)

Spell one. (3.)

What is the number of the note, starting with the unit figures ? The dog gave the barks, 6. 8. 10. 7. 5, which was exactly right.

The next question was : add 4 to 6 and take off 8. (2.)

The next question : Can you tell us how many letters are required to spell the name of the maker of Mr. Frostick's watch ? (4.) DENT is the maker.

A " Thinking Dog." 103

How many figures are there on the works of the watch ? (7.) This was not quite correct, but it reads : No. 61152. This totals 7. When asked what are the figures, the dog remained perfectly silent. I then opened ' the works and looked at the number, when the dog at once gave barks in the following order, commencing at the unit figure : 61162. He was wrong with the second figure, but when I looked at it I thought it was 6.

This ended my questions.

The owner asked the dog a few more usual questions, such as GOODBYE. (7 barks.) But, says Mr. McGibbon, GOOD BYE is two words ; separate them. (4, long pause, 3.) GOOD-NIGHT was answered in the same way, and this ended the questions.

Mr. McGibbon says if he concentrates his thoughts the dog can answer any question, if the answer be known to Mr. McGibbon.

Mrs. McGibbon, Senr., can also get the dog to work, but they have found that if Mr. McGibbon says, " Don't answer that question, Darkey," no one can get him to do so.

The whole exhibition was remarkable, but the most significant incident in my opinion was the watch. I knew the maker's name was DENT ; I also knew that there were two letters and five figures, indicating the maker's number, but I did not know the number. The 4 barks for the name and the 7 barks for the number were instantly given, but no response as to the figures until I opened the case and read them, when he seemed agitated and could scarcely get the barks out quickly enough.

I leave the theory for the Society to explain, but the facts are exactly as stated.

To show you that public interest is being aroused, I send you a copy of a local newspaper published last week. . . .

EXTRACTS FROM ARTICLE IN THE Lyttelton Times, June 12, 1915.

. . . Darkie was lifted by his master on to a small table, in good view, and petted and soothed away from his natural shyness. . . . We were informed by the master that Darkie's remarkable gift of intuition or understanding, or whatever it might

104 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. Ocr.-Nov. 1915.

be called, was discovered quite by accident in the family to which the little dog belongs ; and that the gift had only been cultivated since that remarkable discovery. Then Darkie was put through his paces. . . . Darkie answers his master's questions by a series of short, sharp barks, very detached and distinct. The first questions were simple, and led gradually up to more difficult ones.

" Now, Darkie, count three."

" Bow ! wow ! wow ! "

" Four." The answer was correct. From that various numbers were mentioned, some by the master, and some by members of the audience. In every case the answers were right, and then the master proceeded to give Darkie small sums to do, such as :

" Six and four."

" Divide that by five."

" Twice eight. How much more is that than ten ? " " Correct." " Now give me the square root of sixteen."

" Bow ! wow ! wow ! wow ! " says Darkie.

" Spell good-night." " Bow ! wow ! wow ! wow ! wow ! wow ! wow ! wow ! wow !

" But you gave me that all in one word," says the master. " Now put the hyphen in the right place."

Darkie gives his little short barks over again, pausing after the fourth one.

Now comes a test where the dog has no words to guide him.

" I have put three coins on the table," says the master to the blind dog. " Tell me how many shillings they make." Darkie barks five times. Sure enough, the three coins were a florin, a sixpence and half-a-crown.

A gentleman in the audience also tries this test. " I have three coins here," he says. " How much do they make in shil- lings ? " Darkie barks twice, and the coins prove to be a shilling and two sixpences. Another gentleman asks the date on a coin in his hand. " How many more years than 1900 ? " Darkie gives five yaps. The date is 1905. . . .

In perhaps one case out of ten or twenty, Darkie went wrong in his answers. But when his master would say, " You are quite wrong, Darkie," he almost invariably gave the correct answer a second time. ... So quickly did he reply in some instances, that the questions were scarcely out of the interrogators' mouths before the reply was forthcoming. . . .

No. CCCXXIV.-VoL. XVII. DKCKMBER, 191.",

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research

CONTENTS.

PAOE

New Members and Associates, 195

Meeting of the Council, --.- 10$

Private Meeting, 10g

An Enquiry concerning " The Angels at Mons," 105

Case, ... us

Correspondence, 128

NEW MEMBEES AND ASSOCIATES.

Names of Members are printed in Black Type. Names of Associates are printed in SMALL CAPITALS.

Lawson, James S., 58 Howitt Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Mendon$a, Manuel Santos De, Goldenhill, Stoke-on-Trent. CAMPBELL, C. F., 525 Seymour Street, Vancouver, British Columbia. DAWES, MRS. FRANK, HA Portland Place, London, W. DEAN, FRANK, 1 Langham Street, Portland Place, London, W. EVANS, MAURICE S., Hillcrest, Berea Ridge, Durban, S. Africa. GLIDDEN, WALTER S., 13 Centre Street, Bath, Maine, U.S.A. GREEN, MRS., Northcot, Chesham Bois, Bucks. JOHNSON, Miss F. C., 26 York Street Chambers, Bryanston Square,

London, W.

MORIER, MRS., 65 Hamilton Terrace, London, N.W. MORTON, Miss MARY, Acland Hall, The College, Bingley, Yorks. PFAU, ALBERT R., Junior, Mankato, Minnesota, U.S.A. POLLARD, J. ELLERY, L.R.C.P., etc., 7 Esme Road,

Birmingham. WAGNER, W. QUINN, P.O. Box 27, Johannesburg, S.

ONTARIO

106 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. DEC., 1915.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

THE 136th Meeting of the Council was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Monday, November 22nd, 1915, at 4 p.m. ; the RIGHT HON. G. W. BALFOUR in the chair. There were also present : Mr. W. W. Baggally, Sir W. F. Barrett, Rev. M. A. Bayfield, Captain E. N. Bennett, the Hon. Everard Feilding, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Mr. Sydney C. Scott, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, Mr. H. Arthur Smith, and Mrs. A. W. Verrall ; also Miss Alice Johnson, Research Officer, and Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Minutes of the last Meeting of the Council were read and signed as correct. Two new Members and twelve new Associ- ates were elected. Their names and addresses are given above.

The monthly accounts for July, August, September, and October were presented and taken as read.

PRIVATE MEETING FOR MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES.

THE 52nd Private Meeting of the Society for Members and Associates only was held in the Council Chamber at 20 Han- over Square, London, W., on Monday, November 22nd, 1915, at 5 p.m. ; the HON. EVERARD FEILDING in the chair.

The REV. M. A. BAYFIELD read a paper on " Some Recent Cases of Premonition," which it is hoped will be printed later.

AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING " THE ANGELS AT MONS." BY MRS. W. H. SALTER (H. DE G. VERRALL).

[In the following report the names of the various people con- cerned have usually been omitted or else they have been replaced by pseudonyms or initials. In one or two instances this has been done because correspondents asked that their names should be withheld, and in other cases the identity of the writer being a matter of no moment for the purpose we had in view, we have not asked permission to reveal it. We take this opportunity of thank- ing all those who have assisted us in our enquiry, and especially the Editor of "The All Saints' Clifton Parish Magazine." — ED.] VERY widespread interest has been aroused by the stories current during the past year of " visions " seen by British

DKC., 1915. An Enquit^y concerning " the Angela at Mom." 107

soldiers during the retreat from Mons. Many enquiries have reached us as to whether we have received any first-hand evidence of these visions, and it seems worth while to go into the question at some length, not only with a view to deter- mining, so far as is possible, what is the truth of the matter, but also because the whole history of the case throws an interesting light on the value of human testimony and the growth of rumour. These points are of particular interest to those concerned in psychical research, because it is upon human testimony that their conclusions must to a great extent be founded.

The tide of rumour was at its height in May and June of this year, and of the reports which reached us about that time a large number can be directly traced to an article which first appeared in The All Saints' Clifton Parish Magazine for May, 1915, and was there reprinted in July.

This article ran as follows :

Last Sunday I met Miss M., daughter of the well-known Canon M., and she told me she knew two officers both of whom had themselves seen the angels who saved our left wing from the Germans, when they came right upon them during the retreat from Mons.

They expected annihilation, as they were almost helpless, when to their amazement they stood like dazed men, never so much as touched their guns, nor stirred till we had turned round 'and escaped by some cross-roads. One of Miss M.'s friends, who was not a religious man, told her that he saw a troop of angels between us and the enemy. He has been a changed man ever since. The other man she met in London. She asked him if he had heard the wonderful stories of angels. He said he had seen them himself and under the following circumstances.

While he and his company were retreating, they heard the German cavalry tearing after them. They saw a place where they thought a stand might be made with sure hope of safety ; but, before they could reach it, the German cavalry were upon them. They therefore turned round and faced the enemy, expecting nothing but instant death, when to their wonder they saw between them and the enemy a whole troop of angels. The German horses turned round terrified and regularly stampeded. The men tugged at their bridles, while the poor beasts tore away in every direction from our men.

A2

108 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. DEC., 1915.

This officer swore he saw the angels, which the horses saw plainly enough. This gave them time to reach the little fort, or whatever it was, and save themselves.

We received reports almost exactly identical with the above from several other sources. It is worth noting that these statements are ascribed to various authors, but taking into account the fact that, save for a word here and there, all the statements are verbally identical, we are justified in assuming that they all originate from one source, probably the All Saints' Magazine.

In each case the story is told on the authority of Miss M., who is said to have known personally the officers concerned. Accordingly we wrote to Miss M. to ask whether she could corroborate these stories, and received the following reply :

May 28, 1915.

I cannot give you the names of the men referred to in your letter of May 26, as the story I heard was quite anonymous, and I do not know who they were.

It will be seen, therefore, that these reports, based on the authority of Miss M., break down at a crucial point. They prove to be no more than rumours which it is impossible to trace to their original source. There is also another suggestive point to note in this connexion.

The Vicar of All Saints' Parish, Clifton, when he sent us the statement, which had appeared in his parish magazine and is printed above, sent with it another report, attributed to a certain Miss E. W., as follows :

A Hospital Nurse, who has been attending to a wounded British Soldier, said to him the other day : " Do you believe in God ? " He answered: " I do now, but I used not to. But ever since the Battle of Mons my opinions have changed." Proceeding, he said : " We had a terrible time and at last a company of us was hemmed into a large chalk pit. We were quite powerless and heard the German cavalry approaching. Suddenly I looked up and encircling the top of the pit was a ring of shining Angels. As the cavalry rushed up the horses saw them and there was a general stampede. Our lives were saved and the Germans were put to confusion."

Seven soldiers including officers saw the Angels. The soldier

DEC., 1915. An Enquiry concerning " the Angels at Mons." 109

gave the names and addresses and the nurse wrote and had the story authenticated, one of the officers writing : " It's all perfectly true, but it is too sacred to put in a paper, so it must not be published."

This story was told me by Miss [Leonard], of .

E.W.

We have also received through a member of the Society, Mrs. S., the following statement, which was sent to her by a friend :

A hospital Nurse who has been attending to a wounded British Soldier said to him the other day : " Do you believe in God ? " He answered : "I do now, but I used not to, but ever since the Battle of Mons my opinions have changed. We had a terrible time and at last a company of us was hemmed into a large chalk pit. We were quite powerless and heard the German cavalry approaching. Suddenly I looked up and encircling the top of the pit was a ring of shining Angels. As the Cavalry rushed up the horses saw them and there was a general stampede. Our lives were saved and the Germans put to confusion. Seven soldiers including an officer saw the Angels."

The Soldier gave the names and addresses and the Nurse wrote to them and the story was authenticated ; one of the officers writing says : "Its all perfectly true but it's too sacred to put in a paper." One of the officers was a friend of Miss M., Canon M.'s daughter ; he was not a religious man before, but has been a changed man ever since.

If this last statement is compared with Miss E. W.'s report and the report in the All Saints' Parish Magazine, it will be seen to be a combination of the two. The first paragraph and the first half of the second are verbally identical with Miss E. W.'s statement, but whereas Miss E. W. gives Miss Leonard as her authority, in the account sent by Mrs. S. Miss M. appears again as the source of the story.

One of the officers was a friend of Miss M., Canon M.'s daughter; he was not a religious man before, but has been a changed man ever since.

There can be little doubt that this sentence is from the same source as one which occurred in the All Saints' Magazine :

One of Miss M.'s friends, who was not a religious man, told her

110 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. DKC,, 1915.

that he saw a troop of angels between us and the enemy. He has been a changed man ever since.

It has already been shown that Miss M. denies having any authority in this matter. As regards Miss Leonard, one of our members wrote to ask whether she could substantiate the story attributed to her. He was referred by Miss Leonard to another lady, to whom he also wrote ; but so far he has received no reply.

One other piece of alleged evidence in support of the " Angels of Mons " may be briefly dismissed. In the Daily Mail for August 24, 1915, there appeared a communication from Mr. G. S. Hazlehurst stating that a certain Private Robert Cleaver, 1st Cheshire Regiment, had signed an affidavit in his presence to the effect that he " personally was at Mons and saw the Vision of Angels with [his] own eyes." Speaking of his interview with Private Cleaver, Mr. Hazlehurst said :

When I saw Private Cleaver, who struck me as being a very sound, intelligent man, he at once volunteered his statement and had no objection to signing an affidavit before me that he had seen the Angels of Mons.

He said that things were at the blackest with our troops, and if it had not been for the supernatural intervention they would have been annihilated. The men were in retreat, and lying down behind small tufts of grass for cover. Suddenly the vision came between them and the German cavalry.

He described it as a " flash "... The cavalry horses rushed in all directions and were disorganised.

In the Daily Mail for September 2, 1915, there appeared a further communication from Mr. Hazlehurst to the effect that in consequence of a rumour that Private Cleaver was not present at the battle of Mons, he had written to the head- quarters at Salisbury for information as to his movements, and received the following reply :

Records Office, Cheshire Regiment. . . . (10515 R. Cleaver.) . . .

With regard to your enquiries concerning the above man, the following are the particulars concerning him. He mobilised at Chester on August 22, 1914. He was posted out to the 1st Battalion, Expeditionary Force, France, with a draft on September 6, 1914. He returned to England on December 14, sick.

DEC., 1915. An Enquiry concerning " the Angela at Mons" 111

Mr. Hazlehurst concludes :

The battle of Mons was in August, 1914, and readers will draw their own conclusions. Information sworn on oath is usually regarded as sufficiently trustworthy for publication, but apparently not in this case. . . .

So far, therefore, as concerns Private Cleaver and the other evidence which has been considered up to this point, the legend of the Angels at Mons remains insufficiently corroborated, and the suggestion has even been made that it owes its origin entirely to a story by Mr. Arthur Machen, called The Bowmen, which first appeared in the Evening News of- September 29, 1914, and, as its author himself affirms, was purely fictitious. Subsequently The Bowmen was published in book form, and in his preface to the first edition Mr. Machen supports the con- tention that the source from which the legend of the " Angels of Mons " sprang is no other than his own tale. In his preface, however, to the second edition he says that, in con- sequence of further evidence which has been brought to his notice, he has modified this opinion. Apart from this evidence, — which will be considered in due course, — one would have expected that, had Mr. Machen's story been the sole origin of the legend, the various versions of it that have been current would have borne clearer traces of their origin. Those versions which have been quoted above bear hardly any resemblance to Mr. Machen's tale beyond the fact that the central incident in each case is a supernatural intervention on behalf of the British army. Shortly after the publication of The Bowmen in book form, Mr. Harold Begbie published a pamphlet entitled On the Side of the Angels, in which he set out to refute the assertion that Mr. Machen was solely responsible for the reports concerning the Angels at Mons. Mr. Begbie's object is to prove " not that Angels appeared at Mons, but that before Mr. Machen had written his fiction British soldiers in France believed that Angels had appeared to them." We may there- fore expect to find, as we in fact do, that Mr. Begbie's evidence is not such as to throw any clear light on the precise nature of the experiences which he relates. That is not primarily his purpose, and the reports which he has collected are in some cases given at second hand, and in others have been described by the percipients only after an interval of

112 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. DEC., 1915.

many months since the date of the experience, so that due allowance must be made for inaccuracy of memory, the force of suggestion, and other common sources of error. We have, however, tried to get further particulars in all cases which seemed likely to prove interesting, but the . result has hitherto been small. In one way or another many possible witnesses have passed out of reach, and other witnesses do not feel themselves able to assist us. It may, however, be of interest to quote and discuss some of the best accredited reports, together with such additional information as we have been able to obtain about them.

In the Daily Mail of August 12, 1915, there appeared a report of an interview with a wounded lance-corporal, whose name was not given. His statement — quoted also by Mr. Begbie — was as follows :

I was with my battalion in the retreat from Mons on or about August 28. The German cavalry were expected to make a charge, and we were waiting to fire and scatter them. . . .

The weather was very hot and clear, and between eight and nine o'clock in the evening I was standing with a party of nine other men on duty, and some distance on either side there were parties of ten on guard. ... An officer suddenly came up to us in a state of great anxiety and asked us if we had seen anything startling. . . . He hurried away from my ten to the next party of ten. At the time we thought that the officer must be expecting a surprise attack.

Immediately afterwards the officer came back, and taking me and some others a few yards away showed us the sky. I could see quite plainly in mid-air a strange light which seemed to be quite distinctly outlined and was not a reflection of the moon, nor were there any clouds in the neighbourhood. The light became brighter and I could see distinctly three shapes, one in the centre having what looked like outspread wings ; the other two were not so large, but were quite plainly distinct from the centre one. They appeared to have a long loose-hanging garment of a golden tint, and they were above the German line facing us.

We stood watching them for about three quarters of an hour. All the men with me saw them, and other men came up from other groups who also told us they had seen the same thing. . . .

I remember the day because it was a day of terrible anxiety

DBO., 1915. An Enquiry concerning " the Angels at Mon*." 113

for us. That morning the Munsters had a bad time on our right, and so had the Scots Guards. We managed to get to the wood. . . . Later on the Uhlans attacked us and we drove them back with heavy loss. It was after this engagement, when we were dog-tired, that the vision appeared to us.

We wrote to the Lady Superintendent of the hospital at which the man had been treated, to whom he was said to have told his experience before it was published, and asked her whether she could put us into communication with him. She replied on October 28, 1915 :

The man about whom you enquire has left here and has failed to answer my letter and postcard. I do not therefore know his present whereabouts. When I hear from him again I will write to you.

We have heard nothing further, and up to the present, therefore, the report, having reached us only at second hand, does not conform to the standard of evidence which any scientific enquiry demands. But assuming for the moment that this report gives an accurate account of the lance-corporal's experience, it would be a weak scaffolding upon which to build up a theory of supernatural intervention.

It appears that, having had their attention directed to it by an officer " in a state of great anxiety," the lance-corporal and some of his companions saw a light in the sky, divided into three parts, of which the central part resembled a figure with outstretched wings. We are not told how, or by whom, this resemblance was first observed, and nothing is easier than to interpret a vague cloudlike shape according to one's fancy. The lance-corporal tells us that there were no clouds in the sky that night, but tells us nothing about smoke. It seems on the face of it not improbable that a bank of smoke, which was in some way lit up, might have been hanging "above the German line," and it has to be remembered that men who are " dog-tired," who have just repulsed one hostile attack and are momentarily expecting another, are not likely to be in a state conducing to accurate observation. The lance-corporal told the Lady Superintendent at the hospital that "under the feet of the three figures was a bright star and that when the figures disappeared, the star remained." It was in fact a

114 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. DEC., 1915.

" real " star, and perhaps constituted the point de reptre of the illusion.

It is interesting to compare with the lance-corporal's state- ment the following report in the Liverpool Courier (October 25, 1915) of a sermon by the Rev. C. M. Chavasse :

He had never yet got first-hand evidence on the subject, but he had been told by a general, a brigadier, who was far from super- stitious, that a captain and subaltern serving under him were certain they saw something at Mons. They were men who would never dream of seeing angels, but they said they saw something, some bright pulsating light, which came between the little company of Englishmen and a troop of charging Uhlans on their horses, which frightened the horses so that they scattered and bolted, while a little further along, where the British line was broken, the German troops refused to advance, saying that they saw so many English troops there, although there was not a man to oppose them.

Mr. Begbie also quotes several incidents reported by Miss Phyllis Campbell in an article in the August number of the Occult Review. Miss Campbell was working at a hospital in France during the early part of the war, and she says that several of her patients told her of the " visions " they had seen on the battlefield. We wrote some time ago to Miss Campbell asking whether she could give us any further information or put us in touch with the soldiers to whom these experiences had come, but we have not yet heard from her. In any event, it does not seem likely that we should now be able to get any first-hand knowledge of these cases, and without this we cannot judge them.

We have communicated with several other people whom Mr. Begbie quotes as having first-hand information on the subject of these visions.

One writes that he is " not able to help us " ; another refers us to a friend as the chief source of his information. We have written to this friend, but received no reply. A third correspondent writes that she is

not in the least concerned as to the proofs. ... I do not really think it is the smallest use trying to bring these things home to roost. They are revealed by God for individual need and are not intended to become the talk and speculation of the market-place.

DEC., 1915. An Enquiry concerning " the Angels at Mons." 115

Two other incidents remain which are worth relating. In September of this year Mr. Machen received a letter from a lieutenant-colonel at the Front, which was published in the Evening News of September 14, 1915. The colonel's statement was as follows :

On August 26, 1914, was fought the battle of Le Gateau. We came into action at dawn, and fought till dusk. We were heavily shelled by the German artillery during the day, and in common with the rest of our division had a bad time of it.

Our division however retired in good order. We were on the march all night of the 26th and on the 27th with only about two hours' rest.

The brigade to which I belonged was rearguard to the division, and during the 27th we took up a great many different positions to cover the retirement of the rest of the division, so that we had very hard work and by the night of the 27th we were all abso- lutely worn out with fatigue — both bodily and mental fatigue.

No doubt we also suffered to a certain extent from shock ; but the retirement still continued in excellent order, and I feel sure that our mental faculties were still ... in good working con- dition.

On the night of the 27th I was riding along in the column with two other officers. We had been talking and doing our best to keep from falling asleep on our horses.

As we rode along I became conscious of the fact that, in the fields on both sides of the road along which we were marching, I could see a very large body of horsemen.

These horsemen had the appearance of squadrons of cavalry, and they seemed to be riding across the fields and going in the same direction as we were going, and keeping level with us. ...

I did not say a word about it at first, but I watched them for about twenty minutes. The other two officers had stopped talking.

At last one of them asked me if I saw anything in the fields. I then told him what I had seen. The third officer then con- fessed that he too had been watching these horsemen for the past twenty minutes.

So convinced were we that they were real cavalry that, at the next halt, one of the officers took a party of men out to recon- noitre, and found no one there- The night then grew darker, and we saw no more.

116 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. DEC., 1915.

The same phenomenon was seen by many men in our column. Of course, we were all dog-tired and overtaxed, but it is an extraordinary thing that the same phenomenon should be witnessed by so many different people.

I myself am absolutely convinced that I saw these horsemen ; and I feel sure that they did not exist only in my imagination. . . .

It is interesting to compare with this statement a letter from Lance-Corporal A. Johnstone, late of the Royal Engineers, which was published in the Evening News of August 11, 1915, as follows :

We had almost reached the end of the retreat, and, after marching a whole day and night with but one half-hour's rest in between, we found ourselves on the outskirts of Langy, near Paris, just at dawn, and as the day broke we saw in front of us large bodies of cavalry, all formed up into squadrons — fine, big men, on massive chargers.

I remember turning to my chums in the ranks and saying : " Thank God ! We are not far off Paris now. Look at the French cavalry."

They, too, saw them quite plainly, but on getting closer, to our surprise the horsemen vanished and gave place to banks of white mist, with clumps of trees and bushes dimly showing through them. . . .

When I tell you that hardened soldiers who had been through many a campaign were marching quite mechanically along the road and babbling all sorts of nonsense in sheer delirium, you can well believe we were in a fit state to take a row of beanstalks for all the saints in the Calendar.

It will be seen that the colonel's experience and that of Lance-Corporal Johnstone have much in common, but whereas the latter finds the explanation in an illusion of the senses, due mainly to physical fatigue, the former is convinced that the horsemen did not exist only in his imagination. Although it is not possible to prove that the colonel was mistaken, it will, I think, be generally held that the weight of probability is against him, especially in view of his admission that he and his companions were " absolutely worn out with fatigue — both bodily and mental," and that some effort had been necessary "to keep from falling asleep on [their] horses."

DEC., 1915. An Enquiry concerning "the Angels at Monti." \ 17

In addition to the enquiries to which reference has been made above, we have also written to a considerable number of people who had been mentioned to us as possessing first-hand information on the subject of these " visions," but in no case have we succeeded in obtaining satisfactory evidence. Some- times our letters have been unanswered, sometimes it has transpired on enquiry that a story purporting to be at first- hand was in reality only at second or even at third-hand. The following is a typical case. Miss R. wrote to the secretary as follows :

The day after I saw you I ... saw Mrs. B. When talking of the story of Mons, she said she had met a lady who told her she knew a man who had seen the vision. I asked her to send me his name.

Mrs. B., on being asked for the name of the man, replied :

... I have been told the name of one man who saw it [the vision], but it was given me under strict secrecy, so I may not tell it ; and then, again, it is not first-hand, for I did not hear it from him. . . .

Another correspondent, in reporting to us his unsuccessful efforts to track down a story, writes that " somehow, first-hand knowledge seems to be purposely withheld," and we have certainly found it very elusive, whether " purposely " so or not.

Summing up the evidence at our disposal, the following conclusions may be drawn :

(a) Many of the stories which have been current during the past year concerning " visions " on the battlefield prove on investigation to be founded on mere rumour and cannot be traced to any authoritative source.

(6) After we have discounted these rumours, we are left with a small residue of evidence, which seems to indicate that a certain number of men who took part in the retreat from Mons honestly believe themselves to have had at that time supernormal experiences of a remarkable character. The best piece of evidence of this kind is the statement of the colonel who wrote to Mr. Machen (see p. 115).

(c) When, however, we turn to the question of what grounds there are for assuming that these experiences were in fact supernormal, it must be admitted that these grounds are

118 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. DEC., 1915.

slight. In the last of the three narratives printed above, the author himself, Lance-Corporal A. Johnstone, puts forward the view that he and his friends were subject to a sensory illusion due to extreme fatigue. When we remember that this con- dition of fatigue was also present in the other two cases, it seems not unlikely that the same explanation will account for them. The best piece of evidence, as I have said, is that of the lieutenant-colonel, and it may be that we have here a case of collective hallucination rather than illusion. But whether this is so, and whether the hallucination, assuming that it occurred, was purely subjective or due to any external cause, we have not evidence to show, nor does it seem likely that we shall now be able to obtain such evidence.

In the main, therefore, the result of our enquiry is negative, at least as regards the question of whether any apparitions were seen on the battlefield, either at Mons or elsewhere. Of first-hand testimony we have received none at all, and of testimony at second-hand none that would justify us in assum- ing the occurrence of any supernormal phenomenon. For we cannot make this assumption, until we have established at least a strong probability that the observed effects are such as only a supernormal phenomenon could produce, and in the present instance, as I have tried to show, all our efforts to obtain the detailed evidence upon which an enquiry of this kind must be based have proved unavailing.

CASE.

L. 1203. COLLECTIVE HALLUCINATION.

THE following case, which appears to be one of collective hallucination, was originally brought to our notice by Mr. E. P. Larken, who has been for some years an Associate of this Society. Mr. Larken wrote to us on July 23 of this year telling us that he had received an account of her ex- perience from one of the percipients, Miss Ernestine Anne, and suggesting that we should obtain further information from her. We wrote accordingly to Miss Anne, who sent us in reply a detailed account of her experience and corro- borative statements from the three persons who shared it, her father, mother, and brother.

DEC., 1915.

Case.

119

Since the experience occurred on July 6, 1913, the four statements which we print below were all made about two years after the event, but Miss Anne also sent us a short paper written in September, 1913, that is, two months after the event, for an Essay Club, and in all essential particulars corresponding to the later account which we print here, because its form is better suited to our present purpose.

Miss Anne's account is as follows :

July 28, 1915.

I visited the ruined Abbey of Jumieges on the first Sunday of July in 1913 [July 6]. I was accompanied by my father, mother and youngest brother. We arrived at the ruin about 3 p.m., and we proceeded at once to inspect the imposing-looking ruin of the monastic church, called " 1'Eglise Notre Dame." It is the largest and most impressive example of Norman ecclesiastical architecture I have ever seen. It was built cruciform, and the right-hand " arm " of the cross joined on to another much smaller church, which was used as the parish church and goes by the name of " 1'Eglise St. Pierre." The walls of this latter church stand more or less intact, but only the nave of the monastic

Choir

Notre Dame Church -»

St. Peter's s- Church

Notre Dame Church -*•

Tower Tower

JUMIEGES CHURCHES. I.

ittered , Stonet,.

' X '

Nave

« •

, f-t

U L

St. Peter's t- Church

Tower Tower

JUMI&GKS CB17RCHEH. II.

church remains ; and a small number of scattered stones mark the place where the choir was once. Trees and shrubs cover the spot where the presbytery once stood. After we had spent some time in the Notre Dame ruin, we walked on into the Church of " St. Pierre." We had been there about ten minutes admiring this exquisite fourteenth century Gothic ruin, and I then wandered away a short distance from my companions ; I suddenly became aware of the sound of a large number of men's voices which seemed to come from the open space on our left where the

120 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. DEC., 1915.

few scattered stones marked the site of where the monastic choir had been. The singing was very soft ; the air was quite familiar ; I remember saying to myself twice : "I am imagining this ! I am imagining this ! " and then the music " left " my attention as I heard my father exclaim : u Why, there are the monks singing ! " I heard no more singing after that, so I really only heard it for a few seconds. I was so struck with the strangeness of the thing that I determined to pretend I had heard nothing, until I learnt from my companions if their experience had been the same as my own. I found this was the case, and we agreed that the voices were chanting " Vespers " — that is to say, they were chanting a psalm in Latin. We tried to think of possible " natural " explanations, but the present parish church was a kilometre and a half from there — so the caretaker told us — besides which, if the sound had come from there, we should have heard it for longer than a few seconds. It was a very fine day, and I do not remember that there was any wind. We spent about half an hour longer near the ruins without hearing anything else in such an extraordinary way. I wrote an account of this shortly after it took place, which has helped me to remember the facts very well indeed.

ERNESTINE ANNE.

We have also received the following corroborative accounts :

BURGHWALLIS HALL, ASKERN, NR. DONCASTER, July 28, 1915.

One Sunday afternoon about the beginning of July, 1913, a party of us motored out from Rouen to view the ruins of the old Benedictine abbey at Jumieges.

On arriving at our destination we found the small village near by (and in fact the whole countryside) absolutely deserted, the entire population having gone to a Grand Kegatta Fete which was being held at a town on the banks of the Seine three or four miles away.

Not a soul was to be seen about, beyond the concierge at the lodge at the entrance of the grounds in which the ruins stand. We wandered around a bit and presently entered what might have been the chancel of the church in happier days. Now there was nothing but bare walls, with the blue sky of the heavens for a roof. We had not been there many seconds before I became aware of the beautiful singing which appeared

DEC.. 1915. Case. 121

to come from quite close to where we stood, and about half- way up the ruined, blackened wall facing us.

It was as a choir chanting the psalms at Vespers in exquisite harmony and softly. I could almost distinguish the very words of the Latin.

I exclaimed : " Hullo, the monks are singing ! " taking it quite as a matter of course, and forgetting that I was not actually in a church but only standing amidst the ruins of what had once been one. Then somebody else in our party said some- thing, and the singing stopped — very gently and very softly — as it had begun. Immediately after, we explored all around, but there was no one about. Everything was deserted and ourselves the only people near the place. The chanting, whilst it lasted, was very superior to anything that I have ever heard in any church, especially in France. ERNKST L g

July 28, 1915.

It was on a Sunday in July in 1913. We motored over to Jumieges. It was a lovely hot, clear summer's day.

We went into the ruins of the abbey by the west entrance, and passed right up the great church from nave into choir — then turned off into the ruins of the parish church of St. Peter's, which adjoins the abbey.

We were all four standing a few paces apart, looking at the wonderful ruin, wlien I heard — very distinctly — men's voices singing in the choir. When I think of it, I can hear them now — trained melodious voices, singing in harmony, the different voices wonderfully balanced and trained. It seemed somehow quite natural ; it had not yet dawned on me that it was super- natural. I remained for some seconds held. The sounds were just those of a choir singing under a vast vaulted roof.

Then my husband said : " There are the monks singing ! " Even then it seemed nothing very strange. I think it was because we felt it was so strange that we spoke so little about it, though we must have uttered exclamations of astonishment and ex- changed experiences — as we have done since.

I may add that no human singing in the neighbourhood could have conveyed the impression of what I heard, which was the harmonies at the end of a plain chant, sung by a well-balanced, perfectly trained choir echoing through a vast vaulted roof.

EDITH ANNK.

122 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. DEC., 1915.

July 30, 1915.

It was a Sunday in July, 1913, that I visited the ruins of the abbey of Jumieges, with my mother, father and sister.

We entered the ruins by the west doorway, and proceeded up the church in the direction of the choir. On reaching the sanctuary, or rather what little remains of it, after spending some time looking at the ruins, we turned through the south wall into the smaller parish church of St. Pierre, which is alongside the monastic church.

We left the parish church, after examining it, by the west door, and were standing in the garth outside. I remember that I was looking into some ancient graves that had fallen in. I suddenly became aware of the sound of chanting — as of a choir of monks. One of the party exclaimed : " There are the monks singing."

There were no other persons in the ruins or grounds save the members of our party.

There was no evidence of any church near by which could have originated the sounds.

The singing only lasted about thirty seconds or a minute, and as we spent a considerable time afterwards in the ruins and the grounds, we should have heard any subsequent sounds had there

1)6611 an7- E. EDWARD ANNE.

It is evident that the interpretation to be placed upon the percipients' experience depends upon the question of whether any chanting, such as was heard, is likely to have been actually taking place at the time within a sufficiently short distance to be audible. The time of day at which the ex- perience occurred — 3.30 p.m. on a Sunday — rather favours this hypothesis, since it is a likely hour for the chanting of Vespers. But we have still to consider by whom the Office might have been chanted, and where. As regards the present Parish Church of Jumieges, Miss Anne states, on the authority of the caretaker at the ruins, that it was nearly a mile away, a distance at which it is hardly possible to suppose that singing would be audible, especially on a day when there was no wind to carry the sound. It is said, however, in La Grande Encyclo- pe"die (published in 1887) that the " capitular hall " and various other accessory buildings at Jumieges are still almost intact,

DKO., 1915. Case. I -2:1

and that " a community of Benedictine monks has recently acquired all these buildings for the purpose of re-establishing an abbey in them."

In reply to an enquiry as to whether it had been ascertained that no monks were in residence at Jumieges in July, 1913,

Miss Anne writes :

November 12, 1915.

The caretaker at Jumieges certainly said nothing about there being a Benedictine Community living at Jumieges, and I think she would have done, had this been the case, when we questioned her. She said the whole place belongs to the people who own the chdteau which is built of stones from the ruin. . . .

I think myself there can be no Benedictine Community there, as all the French Benedictine monks that I know of, were turned out of France ten years ago, and also the English Benedictine Communities, so I think if there had been a French one at Jumieges, they would have gone too. . . .

As the evidence, therefore, stands at present, it appears unlikely that any chanting such as the percipients heard, should have been actually taking place at the time, but this point cannot be considered clearly established, and the fact that the sounds were heard by all the four members of the party is, so far as it goes, a reason for supposing that these sounds were not hallucinatory in character, but due to normal physical causes. If any of our members have information as to whether (a) there were any monks resident at Jumiegee Abbey in July, 1913, or (6) there is in the immediate neigh- bourhood of the Abbey any ecclesiastical building in which chanting is likely to take place, we should be much obliged if they would communicate with us.

CORRESPONDENCE.

WE have received from Dr. F. C. S. Schiller the following letter concerning the report on " A Thinking Dog " which was printed in the preceding number of the Journal, October- November, 1915 :

To the Editor of the Journal.

It is perhaps worth pointing out that, according to the interesting account given in the Journal of last October, the performances

124 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. DEC., 1915.

of the New Zealand dog " Darkle " differ very materially from those of the Mannheim dog " Rolf." In the lattej case the experiments made were designed to bring out the dog's capacity to think independently, and there was no suggestion that the animal had supernormal powers of cognition. Nor were questions involving any supernormal powers of perception put to him. But " Darkie " appears frequently to have been asked questions which could not be answered by the normal powers of any intelligence, and it is definitely suggested that he answered by tapping telepathically the knowledge of his master, who, " if he concentrates his thoughts," enables the dog to answer any question known to him (p. 103). Indeed even more than this is involved in questions asking the dog to tell the time by a particular watch (which was wrong), and the numbers on a bank- note and a watch, which were presumably unknown to the inquirer : this would require a sort of clairvoyance, though the conditions of the experiments are not very clearly stated. Of course, M. Maeterlinck's theory that dogs are " psychics " who have access to a cosmic reservoir of all knowledge, would obtain support from the experiments if the animal's knowledge were found both to go beyond that possessed by any human mind, and to be such that its own sense perception could not account for it ; but until it is made clear that the conditions exclude both this and telepathic transfer from a human mind, this ex- planation can hardly be entertained. Indeed, as the record stands, it can hardly be said that the most obvious interpretation of all, that of unconscious signalling, is excluded, though no doubt it is rendered more difficult by the fact that " Darkie, '*" like the Elberfeld horse " Berto," is blind.

F. C. S. SCHILLER.

Nos. CCCXXV.-VI.-VoL. XVII. JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1916.

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS.

PAOB

Notice of Meeting, 125

Some Recent Cases of Premonition and Telepathy, 126

Note on a Current Periodical, 147

NOTICE OF MEETING.

A General Meeting of the Society

WILL BE HELD IN

THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, ON THE FIRST FLOOR OF 20 HANOVER SQUARE, LONDON, W.

On WEDNESDA V, FEBRUARY 23, 1916, at 5 p.m.

WHKN A PAl'ER ON

A Series of Experiments in " Guessing BY MRS. A. W. VERRALL

Will, HE REAP.

.B. Members and Associates will be admitted on signing their Names

at the door. Visitors will be admitted on the production of an invitation card signed by a Member or Associate. Each Member or Associate ii alloived to invite ONK friend.

126 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN. -FEB.

SOME RECENT CASES OF PREMONITION AND TELEPATHY.1

BY THE REV. M. A. BAYFIELD.

SINCE a few of the experiences which form the subject of this paper are without corroboration, it seems desirable to begin with a word or two about the lady to whom they occurred, lest you should regard these uncorroborated incidents — or, indeed, the main narrative — with any suspicion. Of course, as our experience has taught us, it is only prudent, in the case of any one not well known to us, to receive unsupported statements on the subjects with which the Society is concerned with a certain amount of reserve; but in the present case you will, I think, agree with me that the incidents which are confirmed by the testimony of others lend full credibility to those which are not so supported.

This lady, who belongs to a family well known in North Devon — her maiden name was Chichester — has been known to me from her childhood and to my wife from her birth ; indeed, our families are connected by marriage. Of the truthfulness of her statements we have no doubt, and I have myself carefully cross-examined her on each of the incidents that are now to be brought before you. I ought further to state that those accounts which are in my own language, and which form the majority, were written down from information given in con- versation several weeks before I received the confirmations of other persons concerned. That is to say, my account of any particular incident is really her own independent account, not a story put together by me upon a comparison of the whole evidence. She signed each account separately when I had written it, and has since read and signed the whole paper as correct. Similarly, her written accounts were given to me before I received the corroborations. From childhood, as she tells me, she has had experiences similar to those recorded here, but until the occurrence of one tragic incident which I shall have to relate, attached no particular importance to them. The recent experiences were first brought to my own notice a few months ago. I at once urged her to make

'This paper was read before the Society on November 22, 1915.

1916. Recent Gases of Premonition and Telepathy. 127

contemporary notes of all such premonitory impressions, but although she fortunately did so in two subsequent cases, in three others the good intention was forgotten.

In 1910 Miss Chichester married Lieut. George Harley Pownall, R.N., and they went to live at Harwich, where he was in command of a submarine. She tells me that when they were engaged she felt convinced — it seems to have been a settled conviction and more than a mere fear — that he would not live long ; but admits that she considered the submarine service a dangerous one even in time of peace. We may see reason to think that this opinion was perhaps not the sole cause of the presentiment. Lieut. Pownall was of a robust constitution and his health was excellent.

One day while they were at Harwich she saw, or thought she saw, through a window that looked on the street, her husband come up on his bicycle, get off, and approach the house. She then heard the door open and shut, and the sound of his footsteps in the hall. As he did not come into the room, she went out but found no one. This was in the afternoon. Lieut. Pownall, who had not been near the house at that time, returned about an hour later.1

In 1913 Lieut. -Commander Pownall (he had been promoted in 1911) was appointed First Lieutenant of the Egmont, depot- ship of the submarines at Malta, with command of the Sub- marine Flotilla there. Mrs. Pownall went out with him.

In August 1914, after the outbreak of the war, Mr. R. E. Knox, R.N.,2 who was on the staff of Admiral Garden, Admiral Superintendent of the Dockyard, said in Mrs. Pownall's pre- sence, " Anyhow we [meaning the Admiral and his staff] shall not leave Malta, for the Admiral has just received an extension of his appointment "—or words to that effect.3 A few days later, about August 12, on coming down to breakfast Mrs.

1 Some ten or eleven years ago, when away on a visit, Miss Chichester had a visual hallucination of her mother, who, being then at home, had endeavoured (without any previous arrangement) to make herself visible to her daughter. She had previously had a similar hallucination of her mother, but without intention on the latter's part.

2 Not the real name or initials.

•There was, I believe, no formal "extension"; it would be more correct to say that it became known that the Admiral was not to be relieved M had been expected.

128 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN. -FEB.

Pownall said she had dreamed on the previous night that Admiral Garden was going to have command of a fleet at sea, but nowhere near England. This was said to her husband and Mr. Knox, and later to Captain L. T. Esmond.1 Since it was then common knowledge that the Admiral was not to be relieved, her friends naturally dismissed the dream as absurd. Some five weeks after this (I am betraying no secret, for the fact was at once publicly known) Admiral Garden was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, then at the Dardanelles.

This is corroborated by Mr. Knox as follows :

October, 1915.

In August 1914 I was [on the staff of] Admiral Garden. I remember that towards the end of the month8 I said to Mrs. Pownall that the Admiral and his staff would be fixtures at Malta during the war, as the appointment of the Admiral who was to relieve him had been cancelled. I remember also that a few days later Mrs. Pownall said she had dreamed that Admiral Garden was in command of a Fleet at sea. Lieut.-Commander Pownall, Captain [Esmond], and I regarded it as extremely improbable that he would leave Malta Dockyard.

(Signed) R. E. KNOX

Captain Esmond writes from Malta on October 23, 1915 :

Mrs. Pownall told me in August 1914 that she had dreamed that Admiral Garden was to have a command at sea, but nowhere near England. This was generally regarded as improbable, in view of the fact that the Admiral had only recently received an extension of the appointment he then held at Malta.

Some time after the outbreak of the war, but before Sep- tember 7 of last year, the question of the dispatch of sub- marines from Malta to the Dardanelles was discussed among Mrs. Pownall's friends. It is natural to surmise that the discussion began after August 10, and that it arose from the fact that the Goeben and Breslau had on that day succeeded in reaching Constantinople. The naval officers were of opinion

1 Not the real name or initials.

2 Since sending this statement Mr. Knox has written that he cannot clearly recall what time in August the incident happened. Mrs. Pownall fixes the date as being a few days after August 8, on which day she and her husband moved into the house in which the dream occurred.

1916. Recent Cases of Premonition and Telepathy. 129

that the submarines would remain at Malta for the defence of the island. Mrs. Pownall, however, constantly affirmed to her husband and others that the submarine flotilla would be sent to the Dardanelles and that he would go with them. She will, I am sure, not quarrel with me if I say that her grasp of naval strategy is not such that this conviction, opposed as it was to expert opinion, is likely to have been based on reflec- tion and judgment. The declaration of war against Turkey, it will be remembered, was not made until November 5, 1914. The premonition is corroborated by Mr. Knox as follows :

• November 1, 1915.

I remember Mrs. George Pownall saying in August 1914 that the Malta submarines would be sent to the Dardanelles. We all considered this most improbable.

(Signed) It. E. KNOX.

Captain Esmond writes under date October 23, 1915 :

Before the Submarine Flotilla left Malta for the Dardanelles it was the general opinion in Naval circles that it would not be so employed, being required for the defence of the island. I remem- ber that Mrs. George Pownall nevertheless affirmed more than once that the submarines would be sent to the Dardanelles. This took place.

On September 7, 1914, Mrs. Pownall saw her husband pass across the harbour in his skiff. She had frequently seen him do so, but on this occasion she said to herself, " He is going to the Admiral to receive orders for the dispatch of the submarines to the Dardanelles." This was in fact the case, and the flotilla left Malta next day. Lieut. -Commander Pownall made the voyage in the Hindustani, a collier, which was afterwards renamed the Hindukush and became the submarine depot-ship at the Dardanelles. He remained on this ship until he was transferred to a transport on some day between the 17th and 25th of April, 1915.

When her husband parted from her, Mrs. Pownall felt absolutely sure she would never see him again,1 and from that day onwards she always felt peculiarly depressed on Sundays, and mentioned the fact in letters to her husband many times. On Sunday, April 25, 1915, he was killed by a bursting shell

1 Her own words are : " I had not a shadow of doubt about it."

130 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. .1. \\.-FKB.

while in charge of a boat taking part in the first landing on Gallipoli. He was wounded in the early morning and died at 10.30 a.m.

On that same afternoon at Malta Captain Esmond called on Mrs. Pownall and delivered a letter written to her by her husband, whose letters were sent that way by private arrange- ment— probably for greater safety or more rapid delivery. After giving her the letter Captain Esmond left Mrs. Pownall in the drawing-room, saying he was very tired and would go into the smoking-room and have a nap. She proceeded to read the letter, which was dated the 17th of April, and when about half through was seized with an overpowering conviction that the landing had taken place and that her husband had been killed. The conviction was so strong that she felt impelled to go and tell Captain Esmond at once, but refrained from disturbing him. I have naturally not been able to ask to see this letter, but Mrs. Pownall assures me that it contained nothing about naval matters beyond the statement that her husband was going on to a transport.

It should be explained that the officer in command of a submarine flotilla does not live on a submarine, but on what is called a depot-ship, which may be any ship that is suitable for the purpose. Lieut.-Commander Pownall, as I have said, had up to the time of writing been on the collier Hindubutk. When Mrs. Pownall read that he was going on to a transport, she wondered why this was, but her only conclusion was that for some reason he was to be temporarily transferred from his submarine duties. No doubt the removal to a transport might suggest duties in connexion with the troops, and as I have recently learned, this was in fact the explanation, for the naval officers who superintended the landing were all placed together on an empty transport in order to make the necessary arrange- ments. Mr. Knox, however, writes to me that a naval officer would not necessarily infer from the change even a relinquish- ment of the submarine duties ; "it might only mean that a transport was being used as a Submarine Parent instead of the collier which had hitherto been used." We shall see that the transference did not suggest to Captain Esmond any partici- pation in the lauding. He had peculiar facilities for knowing all that was to be known, and shortly before this had told

191(5. Recent Cases of Premonition and Telepathy. 131

Mrs. Pownall that the landing would not take place for some little time.

Together with the letter from her husband, Captain Esmond had brought to Mrs. Pownall a letter from Mr. Knox, who also was at the Dardanelles. She does not remember which she opened first. Mr. Knox's letter has been destroyed, and he has no recollection of its contents. Mrs. Pownall, however, is sure that it contained no reference to the landing of the troops ; and we may take it for certain that, even if anyone had known the precise day of the landing more than a week before, Mr. Knox would not have divulged so vital a secret, and also that he would certainly not have said a word about Lieut. -Com- mander Pownall's taking part in the operation, even if he had then any expectation of his doing so. Before Mr. Knox left, Mrs. Pownall had obtained from him a promise that he would send to Captain Esmond a telegram with the news of her husband's death whenever it should happen ; she says she did this because she was sure he would be killed. This telegram, as we shall see, Mr. Knox sent.

To continue the story. When after about an hour Captain Esmond retuined to the drawing-room, Mrs. Pownall told him she was sure the troops had landed and that her husband had been killed. He leplied that he did not believe it for a moment ; firstly, because he did not think the landing would take place for a day or two, and, secondly, because whenever it took place, it was most unlikely that Lieut. -Commander Pownall would have any part in ib. Apparently nothing that he could say produced any effect, and she replied that she was sure she was right. So sure was she, that she asked him to promise that he would himself bring her the news when it came, and he said he would certainly do so if the need should arise.

I now give Captain Esmond's account of this interview, written from Malta ; it confirms Mrs. Pownall's account with extraordinary particularity.

On Sunday April 25th 1915, the day on which Lieut. Coindr Pownall was killed, I took to Mrs. Pownall at her house a letter written from her husband to her and sent under cover to me. After giving her the letter I went into the smoking-room and slept for an hour. On my return to the drawing-room Mrs. Pownall told me she was sure her husband had taken part in the

l')2 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN. -FEB.

landing and been killed. I was not aware that the landing had taken place, and did not expect the attempt to be made for 2 or 3 days. That Lieut. Comdr Pownall would land seemed to me improbable, as he was O.C. Submarines. However, I had heard that he had received some appointment other than that of O.C. Submarines. In reply to Mrs. Pownall's statements I said that it was of course possible, but that in view of the fact that 10 beachmasters had been appointed by the Admiralty, whom I had seen passing through only 3 or 4 days previously, I did not think for a moment that a valuable submarine officer would be taken as a beachmaster. This was my honest belief.

Mrs. Pownall then asked me to bring her the official news of her husband's death, and I said I would be sure to do so, if it came. When the news actually arrived I was unavoidably pre- vented from fulfilling this promise. As far as I am aware, the only news Mrs. Pownall received of her husband's death was a private telegram from Mr. [Knox . . .] to me. When I received it [this was on the Wednesday after the death] H. E. the Gover- nor was expected and I could not leave my office, and my tele- gram was communicated to Mrs. Pownall by Mrs. Limpus, wife of the Admiral Superintendent. On my arrival at 2.0 p.m. (2 hours after receiving the telegram) Mrs. Pownall was quite calm, and told me that as soon as she saw Mrs. Limpus she knew she had come to tell her her husband was dead. She was expecting the news hourly.

Captain Esmond appends the following note to his accounts of the three incidents in which he was concerned :

October 23, 1915.

The facts I have related above are absolutely true and I am prepared to swear to them, if necessary.

(Signed) L. T. ESMOND, Captain, . . .

Some account of Lieut. -Commander Pownall himself is desir- able for a complete appreciation of this incident, and it will be most convenient to give it at this point. He was an excep- tionally talented and able naval officer, and so far as it can be said of any one man in a service that contains so many men of great ability, there can be no doubt that his death is a serious loss to the Navy. Not only was he a master of his particular business, but he also possessed considerable literary and other gifts, and was a most agreeable and interesting

luifi. Recent Cases of Premonition and Telepathy. 133

companion. His appointment at Malta is evidence of the estimate which the Admiralty had formed of his abilities.

You have no doubt been wondering how an officer so valuable for his proper and most important duties came to be engaged in one of the landing parties. One asks with some indignation and a bitter literalness, Que diable allail-il faire dans cette gatire ? No authoritative explanation is likely to be obtainable, and we can only suppose that it was a case of sheer necessity. Similar things have happened before, and will, I imagine, happen again. It is small comfort for those who mourn for him, though it says much for our Naval Service, that, as is shown by our later submaiine successes in Turkish waters, his command has evidently passed into no less able hands.

I have said thus much of this officer — and I would also remind you of Captain Esmond's opinion on the matter and of Mr. Knox's remark on the removal to the transport — in order that it may be clearly seen how little reason, humanly speak- ing, Mrs. Pownall had for supposing her husband would be in any special danger at the Dardanelles, and how she was least of all justified by any ordinary calculation of probabilities in her conviction that he had died as one of a landing party.

We have now to return to Malta. Mrs. Pownall spent the earlier part of the evening of April 25 (the day of the death and of her impression concerning it) alone in the house ; she had allowed her maids to go out, and there are no children. She was sometimes on the first floor and sometimes on the second, but on whichever floor she might be, she heard from time to time footsteps on the floor below ; the impression was of human footsteps, but she did not otherwise distinguish them. She went down three times to search, but found no one. Becoming uneasy, she went out and induced a friend, Mme. Davie, to come and spend the evening with her. She did not mention the footsteps to her, nor her conviction of her husband's death, but Mme. Davie also heard footsteps and also searched twice for an explanation in vain. A letter has been written to the lady, asking for her confirmation on this point, but no answer has been received. Mrs. Pownall thinks she must have left Malta.

In London on this same night a dream was dreamed which only perversity, as it seems to me, could dissociate from Mrs.

134 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN.-FKH.

Pownall's distress at her husband's death, of which she had become so strangely convinced. Before relating the dream I should state that the " John " who appears in it is a brother of Mrs. Pownall who died in Sumatra in September, 1914. In view of the experiences accumulated in this paper, it is some- what remarkable that Mrs. Pownall had no premonition of her brother's death nor any telepathic impression of any kind in connexion with it, although he was her favourite brother and there was a strong mutual affection between them. The dream occurred to a sister of Mrs. Pownall, Mrs. Grenfell White, and the following is her account of it, with her husband's con- firmation.

November 6, 1915.

On a Sunday night last April I dreamt that I saw Vera [Mrs. George Pownall] crying dreadfully, and I saw John very plainly, and he said to Vera, ' I wish I could speak to you, but I can't.' When I woke up I said to my husband, ' I know something has happened to George ' ; and I then went on to urge him very strongly to remember what I was going to tell him, and in particular to remember that I had told him before we had any knowledge that my forebodings were true. I then told him my dream, and my insistence made him remember the circumstances clearly. We afterwards learned that George was in fact killed on that Sunday. I had not previously dreamt about John since his death in September 1914.

(Signed; THOMASINE GRENFELL WHITK.

155 Sloane St., London.

November 6, 1915. The above is a true account of what occurred.

(Signed) W. GRENFELL WHITE.

On the following day, Monday, April 26, although Mrs. Pownall's impression of her husband's death was less painfully vivid, the conviction was as strong as ever, and she proceeded to tear up papers and letters and do other things which she would not otherwise have done, in view of an early return to England. She actually told her maid that she would have no further need of her services.

On the next night, Tuesday, somewhere about midnight she suddenly woke up in bed, and after a few minutes heard footsteps in the street below. Her first thought was that it

1916. Recent Cases of Premonition and Telepathy. 135

was Captain Esmond bringing her the news as he had promised, and she felt relieved when the steps went past the house. This feeling, however, was followed by the thought, " He will not come ; Mrs. Limpus [wife of Admiral Limpus] will bring me the news."

On the Wednesday morning Mrs. Pownall went out into the town, and on her return at 1 o'clock found Mrs. Limpus waiting for her with a telegram confirming all this sad fore- knowledge. The telegram ran as follows : " Pownall killed 25th beach party. [Knox.] " Soon after this she received a note from Captain Esmond saying he was very sorry that he had been unavoidably prevented from fulfilling his promise to bring the news himself. As you will remember from his statement, he also called at 2 o'clock.

Mrs. Pownall left for England on Monday, May 3, 1915, and there was a curious premonition in connexion with her de- parture. The boats, which go weekly, normally come into Malta and leave again after a stay of a few hours. Mrs. Pownall had expected to leave on Tuesday, May 4, but Captain Esmond had told her that the boat had been delayed and would not come till the Thursday. On waking on Monday morning at about 7.30 she felt convinced that the boat would leave at 11 o'clock that day, and at once got up and made preparations to start. She usually got up between 9 and 10, after breakfasting in bed. At 9.30 she received a note from Captain Esmond telling her that the boat would leave at 11 that day, and she started by it at that hour. In peace time the boat was accustomed to leave in the afternoon, but after the outbreak of the war, according to Mrs. Pownall 's recol- lection, the hour varied. I do not know at what hour the boat came in on the morning in question, but I can think of no normal means by which Mrs. Pownall, lying in bed in her house, could become aware of its arrival, or indeed of the arrival of any ship. Captain Esmond writes to me that he cannot remember anything in connexion with this incident beyond the broad fact that "the boat arrived two or three days before she was expected and upset all the arrangements." This, however, is fortunately all the corroboration we require.

On reaching England, Mrs. Pownall went to her parents in Devonshire, and stayed with them for about ten days. At

136 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN.-FKB.

this time she had not been informed whether her husband had been wounded in the head or in the body, nor whether he had or had not died instantaneously ; but she told her mother, while on this visit, that she was sure he had been shot in the back and had not died at once. Her mother has only a vague recollection of this, but Mrs. Pownall is positive on all three points. Some time in June she received a letter, dated May 31, from the Chaplain on board the transport, informing her that Lieut.-Commander Pownall had been wounded in the back and had lingered a few hours. She had not written to any one for information on the point, and this was the first that had reached her. Before receiving this letter, Mrs. Pownall had received two others from the Dardanelles, one from an officer and one from an able seaman, but neither made any reference to the locality of the wound.

The next three experiences I give in Mrs. Pownall's own words. She made no contemporary notes, but says that her recollection is clear.

October, 1915.

In July 1915 I was staying at Eastbourne with Miss Bayfield, who was driving a motor ambulance in the neighbourhood. Mr. [R. E. Knox] was also there on leave, expecting a fresh appoint- ment. One day I told him he would get his appointment on such and such a day, naming a day of the week four days ahead. I remember counting the days as they went by. He obtained his

appointment on the day I named.

(Signed) VKRA POWNALL.

Mr. Knox has sent the following confirmation of this, and fortunately has been able to supply the dates :

In July 1915 I was on leave at Eastbourne and was expecting an appointment. On Friday 30th July Mrs. Pownall told me I should be appointed on the following Tuesday, which proved true.

(Signed) R. E. KNOX.

I now come to another little incident, which may readily be accepted, though from the nature of the case corroboration is impossible.

October, 1915.

One morning in October 1915 my copy of the Times had been brought up to me as usual while I was in bed, and was lying near me where the maid had placed it, folded as it always is,

1916. Recent Cases of Premonition and Telepathy. I:, 7

with the front page outside. I had not myself touched it. Juat as I was about to take it up I had the impression that I should find among the casualties the name of Major Ash, of the Middle- sex Kegiment, as either killed or wounded. On opening the paper and looking down the casualty lists I found his name among the wounded. I did not know Major Ash well, having only met him at Malta two or three times, and I had no particular interest in him, though I knew Mrs. Ash fairly well while we were both at Malta. I had had a letter from her some three months before this. I had not been thinking of Major or Mrs. Ash, and I did not know whether he was on the Western Front or at the Darda- nelles, or indeed where he was. (Signed) VERA POWNALL.

The next incident also occurred last month. I should state that my daughter has for the last two months been tem- porarily living with Mrs. Pownall in London. I give the story as written down at their dictation, beginning with Mrs. Pownall's account :

At about 7.15 p.m. on October 12, 1915, at my flat in London, I made the following note on the back of a tradesman's bill : — ' I feel that there will be a Zep. raid to-night or to-morrow at 9.45 p.m. V. Pownall. Oct. 12.' For the rest of that day the matter was entirely absent from my mind. On October 13 Miss Bayfield and Mr. [J. Knox, Mr. R. E. Knox's] brother, dined with me at the flat at 7.15. During dinner I found it strangely difficult to collect and control my thoughts, and seemed to myself to be in a state of suppressed excitement and expectancy, but I was expecting nothing in particular. I did not think of Zeppelins, and I had entirely forgotten the memorandum written on the previous evening. No thought of Zeppelins occurred to me until we were standing outside in the street at about 5 minutes past 8, when Miss Bayfield said, ' What a lovely night for Zeppelins ! The night was clear and still. Even then I did not think of my note. When we heard the first bomb dropped on London that evening we were in a theatre ; I at once remembered my memo- randum and looked at my watch, which gave the time as 9.40. My watch loses about 5 minutes each day, and I regulate it every morning at about 9.30 by the clock on the Great Central Hotel, which I can see from my windows. I do not remember that I was ever before in the condition described.

(Signed) VERA POWNALL.

138 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN. -FEB.

My daughter, who has known Mrs. Pownall intimately for some years, and spent the winter of 1913 with her at Malta, describes what happened as follows :

I have read the foregoing statement, and testify that it is correct so far as concerns myself. During dinner I noticed that Vera seemed extraordinarily distraite and preoccupied. More than once she did not reply when we spoke to her, and she seemed to pay imperfect attention to what was going on. Also she talked little. All this was quite unusual with her, especially at dinner and when entertaining guests. I said to her something to the following effect, ' What is the matter with you ? I never knew you so vague ! ' She replied, ' I feel something is going to happen. [' When I said this I did not think of Zeppelins.' Vera Pownall.] I said, ' What ? ' She answered that she did not know. I then said, ' To whom ? ' and she said, * To all of us.' I said, ' When ? ' and she replied ' Oh, soon ' [meaning, as Mrs. Pownall has ex- plained, within a day or so]. Then she apologised for being ' so vague,' and we all laughed about it.

After dinner we were going to a theatre. When Mrs. Pownall and I were putting on our things I said to her, ' Is it going to happen to you or me ? ', and she replied, ' Oh no ; we are all in it.' Either now or earlier I said to her, ' Is it something awful ? ', and she answered, ' No.'

While we were at the theatre we heard the bombs, and at the sound of the first or second Vera said to me, ' I wrote that down yesterday and put it in my dressing-table drawer.' When we got home she at once went to her bedroom and immediately brought back and showed me the paper attached to this statement.

(Signed) CYRILLE BAYFIKLD.

Mrs. Pownall adds :

I have read Miss Bayfield's statement and declare that it is correct.

(Signed) VERA POWNALL.

The original of the memorandum mentioned has been identi- fied by Miss Bayfield, and is in the Society's possession, together with the originals of the statements of Captain Esmond, Mr. Knox, and Commander Reinold, furnished in corroboration of other incidents. I may add that the news- papers of October 12, 1915, so far as I am aware, contained no warning of a Zeppelin raid, and the last previous raid —

litiii. Recent Cases of Premonition and Telepathy. !:;'.»

the only one that had then been made on London — took place more than a month before, on September 8.

The last case which I have to bring before you occurred ten days ago. The following is Mrs. Pownall's account of it :

November 13th, 1915.

Yesterday morning, when I began to read the paper, I had it fixed in my mind that I should see " British Submarine Lost ", and I hunted through the paper expecting to see something about it, but found nothing. A Commander from the Admiralty came to luncheon, and at lunch I said to Cyrille and him, " Did I dream it or did I see in yesterday's or to-day's paper that a British submarine had been lost ? Was it in any paper ? " The Commander said, " No," and also Cyrille. This morning, shortly after 12 o'clock, I saw a poster, " British Submarine Lost. Official." We bought a Pall Mall and found it was true.

(Signed) VKRA POWNALL. Miss Bayfield writes :

November 13th, 1915.

I have read Mrs. George Pownall's statement about the British submarine, the loss of which was first reported in to-day's evening papers, and certify that it is a true statement in every detail.

(Signed) CYRILLE BAYFIELD.

Commander B. E. Remold, R.N., writes :

November 17th, 1915.

On Friday last, November 12, I lunched with Mrs. George Pownall and Miss Bayfield at 2m Hyde Park Mansions, and I remember that at lunch Mrs. Pownall said something to the following effect : — " Did I dream it or did I see it in yesterday's or to-day's paper that a British submarine had been lost ? " I also remember that Miss Bayfield and I replied that there had been no such announcement in the papers.

(Signed) B. E. REINOLD, Comr.R.N.

This brings me to the end of my story, but if you are not already wearied, I should like to add a few remarks on some of the incidents — offering, perhaps, by the way, a few targets for the discussion which I hope will follow.

A resolute critic, unconvinced even of telepathy, might dismiss this somewhat remarkable series of predictions as merely so many examples of chance coincidence, accounting

140 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN. -FEB.

perhaps for their number by a reference to the extraordinary runs on the red or the black at Monte Carlo, and to other similar phenomena. I must confess that such a view would seem to me to be a fresh illustration of the surprising credulity of the incredulous, who, rather than accept a new truth which conflicts with their prepossessions, are ready to believe the incredible. The simplicity which would believe that we have here to do with nothing but chance, would appear to be capable of believing anything. This explanation, then, I unhesitatingly dismiss, and seek further afield.

Several of the incidents are obviously explicable by telepathy between the living, and may be considered to strengthen the evidence foi1 it — perhaps to extend our conception of it. Three others — Admiral Garden's appointment, the dispatch of the submarines, and the Zeppelin raid — may be so explained, if we make certain assumptions ; but of the premonition of the visit of Mrs. Limpus and some points of detail in other cases telepathy seems to me to offer no explanation at all.

To take first the hallucination at Harwich, we may suppose that Lieut. -Commander Pownall, being compelled to leave his newly married wife alone for most of the day, was always desirous of returning home as soon as his duties permitted. He might often, consciously or unconsciously, while in the midst of his work picture himself so returning. On this particular afternoon a thought of the kind — perhaps a " high- explosive " one, so to speak, caused by an apparent chance of an early return afterwards found to be no chance — may have caught Mrs. Pownall at a favourable moment, and the visual hallucination was the result. One only wonders why hallu- cinations of this kind do not occur more often.

Telepathy will explain the dream about Admiral Garden's appointment, if we make a wild and quite gratuitous assump- tion. The dream, you remember, occurred about August 12, 1914. Now, the Goeben and Breslau reached Constantinople on August 10, and their escape caused much irritation in this country. At the Admiralty and in Government circles the irritation was no doubt acute. It is conceivable — I do not venture to say that it is more than conceivable — that someone then in high office, whose name I forbear even to guess, under the stimulus of this irritating disappointment, flashed out a

I9i« Recent Gases of Premonition and Telepathy. 141

very highly explosive thought the impact of which was felt as far as Malta— the thought being something like this, " X. must be recalled, and Garden must have the Mediterranean command ! " Whether the thought was justifiable or not of course I do not discuss, and it does not matter ; nor does it matter that the change (which, as we know, was actually made) did not take place till more than five weeks after the date of the dream. This audacious suggestion is, of course, a mere fancy, but it is the best I can myself make in the interests of telepathy. On its merits I attach small value to it, and I have reasons for believing it to be improbable. I am not at liberty to impart these reasons, but those of you who have friends in naval circles will perhaps be able to obtain infor- mation from which you can foim your own opinion on the matter.

Similarly, the dispatch of the submarines could be explained by telepathy from the Admiralty, if the step was decided upon there at a sufficiently early date. Perhaps we may some day be allowed to learn how this was ; but in view of the fact that the flotilla was ordered to leave at some twenty-four hours' notice, it does not seem likely that the matter was discussed and decided in London more than a day or two before. Otherwise one would have expected longer notice to be given.

The incidents of the steamer, the wounding of Major Ash, and the loss of the British submarine obviously suggest a telepathic explanation, since in each case some one knew the facts before they reached Mrs. Pownall. With regard to Mr. Knox's appointment also, it is possible that somebody at the Admiralty thought the thought, " in 3 days' time we shall send Mr. Knox notice of his appointment." All the same, both the thought itself and the transference of just that thought on a trivial matter are not easy to explain. As to Mrs. Grenfell White's dream, which is veridical on the only point that we can test — Mrs. Pownall's distress, telepathy, while it accounts for the knowledge of her grief, does not account for the presence of the brother. Nor does it account for the mysterious footsteps heard in the house at Malta the same evening, which in view of the dream, it does not seem merely fanciful to connect with him — unless we are to connect

142 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN. -FEB.

them with the husband. I do not mean that a spirit's foot- steps may be audible ; but I can imagine that if my sub- liminal consciousness receives the impression of a spirit's presence or influence (I do not know what word to use), the impression might emerge in the vague form of an hallucination of the sound of footsteps.1

With regard to the Zeppelin raid, we may say, if we like, that Mrs. Pownall obtained her information from the Germans in Belgium who were planning it. At first blush that may seem easy ; but we must remember that the only rapport between them is a violent mutual repulsion, and the pro- duction of rapport by repulsion seems unlikely. Moreover, as these Germans presumably thought in German and Mrs. Pownall's knowledge of that language is extremely slight and (as I have proved by experiment) quite insufficient to under- stand such a message as might be presumed,2 one must ask how it came to be so conveniently translated in transit. Or can such a thought (all the concepts which it embraces being familiar to the receiver) be transmitted from mind to mind, without the employment of language ? I am disposed to think that this may be so, although, so far as I am aware, we have no recorded example of telepathy between people who do not understand each other's language. Even so, however, not all our difficulties are removed. How are we to explain Mrs. Pownall's precise knowledge of the hour of the raid ? On the telepathic hypothesis, the enemy proposed to himself to drop his first bomb on London at 9.45 ; but if he did, we know enough of aerial navigation to be able to say that he was

1 It was suggested by a speaker at the meeting that the hearing of foot- steps may have been the result of expectation, but the suggestion seems altogether gratuitous. Why should there be any such expectation ? Mrs. Pownall had never before had this hallucination, though she had frequently been alone in the house in the evening, and convinced as she was of her husband's death, one would suppose that the last thing she would expect would be to hear his footsteps ; moreover, she did not distinguish them as a man's footsteps. It may be added that Lieut. -Commander Pownall had never lived in this house ; Mrs. Pownall moved into it after he left Malta. Mme Davie had not been told about the footsteps before sho thought she heard them herself, so that in her case it is equally difficult to imagine why she should expect to hear them.

2 In the following sentence, " Ein Viertel vor zehn, werden wir Uber London ankommen," the only word translated was Uber.

1910. Recent Cases of Premonition and Telepathy.

highly unlikely to keep to his time-table with such astonishing precision. In this case, therefore, telepathy cannot, I think, be lightly allowed to have the last word.1

The knowledge of her husband's death may well have been apprehended by Mrs. Pownall telepathically ; the impression may have been subliminally received at the moment of death, to emerge in some mysterious way through the handling of the letter. There is, however, one point in this painful episode which telepathy does not wholly explain.

Mrs. Pownall appears to have known for many months that her husband would be killed at bhe Dardanelles, and also, as I incline to think, that it would be on a Sunday. At any rate, she was possessed by an unshakable conviction on the former point, and the conviction was justified by the event. She did not, I believe, consciously expect that he would die on a Sunday, but her remarkable depressions on Sundays look like the formless emergence of a subliminal impression to that effect.2 The depressions were peculiarly distressing and usually culminated in weeping. They began , when she woke in the

1 An article in the Observer of October 3 contained the following para- graph :

" Sunset coming earlier, the hours of the possible arrival of German airships over London is put forward, and this month we may expect them as early as 10 p.m. In November, December, and January, they might in certain conditions get here before 9.30 p.m. ; and, other things being equal, they will be a trifle less particular about the amount and direction of the wind during the winter, for they will have a greater duration of dark hours for the job." Mrs. Pownall takes the Observer and it must therefore be presumed that she read this article ; but even so we are not much helped. The impression was not received until 10 days later, and " as early as 10 p.m." does not suggest 9.45.

2 Dr. Wingfield once told me of a patient, a young lady, who for a long time had refused to go out of the house for fear that something dreadful would happen to her, she knew not what. Suspecting this vague fear to be the emergence of something more definite in the subliminal, he hypnotised her and told her to dream of the thing she was afraid of. On waking her, he bade her make notes of her dreams and bring the notes to him. She brought notes of some half-dozen, of which he selected one. The dream was of an incident in a story she had read when a child : a girl, whose friemU wished to get hold of her money, had been taken out and driven off to a lunatic asylum. Put into the trance again, the patient now confessed that the fear that this might happen to herself was the cause of her unwillingness to go out of doors. With this knowledge the cure was simple and wa» immediately effected.

144 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN. -FEB.

morning, passed off towards midday, and returned about tea-time. Nothing at all like them occurred on other days, and during the week, but for the one great trouble, Mrs. Pownall preserved her normal cheerfulness. Of course, there are countless instances of people saying that they are " con- vinced " they will never again see someone dear to them, but they do not mean more than that they greatly fear it will be so. Mrs. Pownall's other veridical predictions seem to forbid us to regard the present case as one of mere foreboding, and she herself absolutely refuses to regard it as such. Every prediction of the future must be considered on its merits and in its own setting, and having regard to all the circumstances, I cannot persuade myself that we have not here a case of actual foreknowledge. With every desire to show common sense, I am unable to accept accidental coincidence as a satisfactory explanation of the facts. But if it is a case of foreknowledge, how are we to account for it ? I can imagine three possible views, and someone may suggest a fourth or more.

Firstly, we may suppose the information to have been conveyed by a spirit who had knowledge of the future. Secondly, we may suppose that the mind can of itself, and on its own initiative, travel into a world of thought where there is 110 past or future — where all that is, all that has been, all that is to be, is equally known and knowable. Thirdly, there is a supposition which those who find it difficult to believe that we on earth ever come into contact with a spirit world, would perhaps prefer to either of these two. We may suppose that a man in perfect health may by some mysterious means come to have, consciously or subliminally, a foreknowledge of the very day of his death many months before it takes place — and that, although his death is to be a violent one, and not due to some disease whose rudimentary existence the subliminal may be supposed to be capable of noting, while it is also able to forecast and to time with accuracy its fatal development. We may suppose that Lieut. -Commander Pownall had this fore- knowledge and was unable to prevent the communication of it telepathically to his wife. This idea is not to be hastily rejected ; but it must be admitted that it transcends normal experience quite as outrageously as does the idea of communi-

*916. Recent Cases of Premonition and Telepathy. 145

cation with a spirit world, or that of our ability to penetrate into a world of thought such as I have suggested ; moreover, it lacks at present any substantial support. It is, however, the explanation offered by Professor Flournoy of a case of foreknowledge of death from disease described in his book Esprits et Mediums. That case, which is very well attested, is so remarkable that I gave a summary of it in a review of the book in Vol. XXV. of the Proceedings. Since it may be thought to lend some support to this last theory, I will give a bare outline of the story here. For convenience, I accord the dates to the Russian calendar, which is twelve days behind ours. A certain Mme Buscarlet of Geneva, after acting for three years as governess to the two little daughters of M. and Mme Moratief at Kasan in Russia, returned to Geneva in August, 1883. At Kasan she became acquainted with a Mme Nitchinof and a Mile Olga Popo'i. Mrae Nitchinof was headmistress of the Institut Imperial at Kasan, a school which Mme Moratief's daughters began to attend after Mme Buscarlet's departure, and she and her husband were intimate friends of the Moratiefs. On December 10 (our 22nd) Mme Buscarlet wrote a letter to Mme Moratief, but did not post it till the 12th, and it reached Kasan on the 20th. Professor Flournoy saw both the letter and the envelope with the Geneva and Kasan postmarks. After about a page of Christmas greetings, the letter goes on as follows. It is written in French, but I translate, omitting all that is not essential.

Last night I had an absurd dream. . . . You and I were on a country road, when there passed in front of us a carriage from which came a voice calling you. When we got to the carriage we saw Mile Olga Popoi lying stretched across it inside, dressed in white and wearing a cap trimmed with yellow ribbons. [Mme Buscarlet told Professor Flournoy that the cap also was white, and that she had seen the body of a lady invested for burial in this manner in Russia.] She said to you, ' I have called you in order to tell you that Mme Nitchinof leaves the Institute on the 17th.5 The carriage then drove on. How ludicrous dreams are sometimes.

After this the letter turns to other subjects.

In a letter written in reply and dated Kasan, December 20 (the day on which Mme Buscarlet's letter arrived), M. Moratief

146 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN. -FEB.

wrote to Mme Buscarlet that he and his wife had dined at Mme Nitchinof's house on the 13th, which was four days after the dream. After dinner Mme Nitchinof felt unwell, but a doctor who arrived immediately diagnosed nothing more than an ordinary slight sore- throat (une simple et Ug&re angine). On the 14th and 15th the doctors, three in number, failed to find anything alarming, and only on the morning of the 16th was the illness recognised as scarlet fever. At 5 p.m. on that day the patient could hardly speak, and at 11.45 the same night she died. For fear of infection, the body was removed from the school to a neighbouring chapel at 2 a.m. on the 17th. Thus Mme Nitchinof did indeed " leave the Institute " on the 17th. Mile Olga Popoi's intrusion into the dream is unex- plained.

There remains one final puzzle. If Mrs. Pownall had ex- pected that official news of her husband's death would be sent to Admiral Limpus, she might naturally suppose that it would be brought on to her by Mrs. Limpus. Questioned on this point Mrs. Pownall wrote : " I could not possibly have expected Admiral or Mrs. Limpus to bring me the news. Official news of the death of a Naval officer always comes straight from the Admiralty to the wife or nearest relative. About a fortnight after George was killed I had a letter from the Admiralty telling me of his death. I arranged with Mr. [Knox] that, should anything happen to George, he was to send a telegram to Captain [Esmond]." Now, Mr. Knox's private telegram to Captain Esmond arrived in Malta at noon on the Wednesday, and until a few minutes after that no one on earth could know by any normal means, nor even by telepathy, that the news would be brought to Mrs. Pownall by Mrs. Limpus. Her intervention was the outcome of an accident which did not happen till noon on that day. How, then, could Mrs. Pownall know of it twelve hours before ?

The following considerations, which I present because they occurred to me and might be thought to touch the point, really afford no solution of the mystery. In asking Captain Esmond to " bring her the official news " Mrs. Pownall seems to have had some dim notion that it might be officially telegraphed to Malta direct from the Dardanelles, though on a moment's reflection she would have remembered that head-

1916. Recent Gases of Premonition and Telepathy. 147

quarters authorities communicate casualties only to the Admir- alty or the War Office. She was well aware of this. Such a telegram, if sent— though passing, as did all official telegrams, through Captain Esmond's hands— would have been addressed, she thinks, to Admiral Limpus. She tells me she never thought of this until I questioned her on the point ; her only thought was that Captain Esmond was always the first recipient of official news, and she had forgotten for the moment her arrangement with Mr. Knox. Moreover, even if it had occurred to her that an official telegram from the Dardanelles would be addressed to the Admiral, she would not have thought of Mrs. Limpus as a possible messenger ; she would have felt sure that Captain Esmond, when forwarding the telegram to the Admiral, would at the same time inform him that he had promised to break the news to her himself, if it should come.

NOTE.

November 22, 1915.

I have read Mr. Bayfield's paper, and declare that it faith- fully describes my experiences and the facts connected with

them- (Signed) VERA POWNALL.

NOTE ON A CURRENT PERIODICAL.

THE Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research for November, 1915, contains a report by Dr. Hyslop on some sittings with Mrs. Chenoweth, at which interesting results were obtained. The sittings were held under the following circumstances.

A lady of whom Dr. Hyslop knew nothing wrote to him from Germany asking if he could recommend a " psychic " to her, as she had recently lost her husband and wished, if possible, to get into communication with him. Dr. Hyslop knew of no psychic in Germany, and the lady, Mrs. Tausch, was unable to come to America, but she sent an article which had belonged to her husband, and her sister, then living in Boston, had some sittings with Mrs. Chenoweth on her behalf. Mrs. Tausch 's husband had been professor in a small Western University in America, and had returned to his old home in Germany shortly before his death.

Dr. Hyslop made all the arrangements for the sittings himself, and imposed, he says, the usual conditions, that is to say, he did not tell the sitter, Mrs. Tausch's sister, the name of the medium to whom he was proposing to take her, and Mrs.

148 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JAN. -FEB. 1916.

Chenoweth, who had been given no information in regard to the sitter, was entranced before the latter entered the room.

At the beginning of the first sitting a sign was made which in Mrs. Chenoweth's automatic writing habitually represents Professor William James, and in reply to an enquiry it was so interpreted here. Subsequently Jennie P., one of Mrs. Chenoweth's habitual " controls," enquired whether the spirit who wished to communicate was associated with any one called William. Dr. Hyslop asked her whether she meant William James, and she said she did not know. Later on again, when Professor Tausch himself was purporting to communicate, the following dialogue took place :

I wish to prove to them all that I was not a fool to be interested in this belief of spirit ... I also had some records I had been much interested in. (Yes, do you mean they were your own ?). No.

(Whose?).

Others. My personal experience was limited. (Yes, do you know whose records they were?). Yes, J. had some.

(Let me be sure what the J. is for.) My friend James.

Commenting on this, Dr. Hyslop says :

Now Professor James was a friend of the communicator, and Mrs. Tausch wrote in response to my cn<|uirics ilmt Professor .James had given tlirin records to read and they had done so. Of course I knew nothing of this fact, and indeed nothing of the man and his life.

Previously to her question about the " man named William," Jennie P., on being asked what the communicator's work had been, said that it was " philosophical " and " he philosophized about everything." He had in fact been a professor of philosophy.

Several other small incidents and peculiarities were correctly described, and in " the subliminal stage of the recovery " the letters T h T were given. They were interpreted by the " subliminal " as Theodore, the name of a previous communicator. Dr. Hyslop made no comment on this beyond saying that the name Theodore had no relevance. At the second sitting " without any help " the name Tausch was given, variously, but never quite correctly spelt. It should be noted that Tausch was not the aitter's name, and assuming, as Dr. Hyslop implies, that care was taken not to mention the name in the medium's presence, this is a good piece of evidence for knowledge supernormally acquired.

In conclusion, Dr. Hyslop points out that the interest of the case lies especially in the fact that the communicator made several correct and distinctive statements about himself for the verification of which it was necessary to apply to Mrs. Tausch in Gfermany, as the facts were unknown either to Dr. Hyslop or to the sitter.

It would be interesting to see the complete record of these two sittings, and perhaps Dr. Hyslop will give us this opportunity later. H. de G. S.

No. OCCXXVII.-VOL. XVII. „,„.„. ,„,„

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS.

I'AOB

New Members and Associates, 149

Annual General Meeting of Members, 150

Meetings of the Council,

General Meeting,

Report of the Council for the year 1915, 152

Account of Receipts and Expenditure for 1915, 158

Endowment Fund for Psychical Research, Account for 1915, 159

A Note on " Some Recent Experiments in Telepathy," - 100

Note on a Current Periodical, 162

NEW MEMBEES AND ASSOCIATES.

Names of Members are printed in Black Type. Names of Associates are printed in SMALL CAPITALS.

Aspinall, Mrs. John, New Hall, Harlow, Essex.

Baddeley, Colonel C. E., c/o Miss Baddeley, Cathedral House,

Gloucester.

Benton, W. E., 18 Emanuel Avenue, Acton, London, W.

Peters, William E., Sylvadene, Cumberland Road, Bromley, Kent.

Wilson, W. E., 45 Maiden Road, Kentish Town, London, N.W.

BARRETT, LADY, M.D., 31 Devonshire Place, London, W.

BUTLER, FREDERICK W., 1627 Silver Street, Jacksonville, Florida,

U.S.A.

CHARLES, CLIFFORD P., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., Bancroft, Hitchin. CORNISH, J. EASTON, The Water Works, Alexandria, Egypt. DUFF, The LADY JULIET, 16 Upper Brook Street, London, W. FAULDER, MRS., 37 Rutland Court, Knightsbridge, London, S.W. GREW, J. C., c/o American Embassy, 4 Grosvenor Gardens, London, S.W. HARRIMAN, T. G., M.D., 2291 East Ocean Avenue, Long Beach,

Calif., U.S.A.

HARTLEY, ALFRED, 3 Macaulay Road, Clapham Common, London, S.W. HOME, Miss GEORGINA, 17 Kildare Gardens, London, W. LOCHORE, The REV. GEORGE, The Manse, Waihi, New Zealand.

150 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MARCH, 1916.

MATBAR, H. P., Petit Mansion, Sleater Road, Bombay, India. SECRETARY, Selskabet for Psykisk Forskning, Copenhagen. SIMMONS, JUDGE DANIEL A., Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A. STEVENSON, A. CREERY, 83 Camperdown Koad, Scotstoun, Glasgow, W. THORNLEY, Miss FLORENCE J., 36 Downleaze, Stoke Bishop, Bristol. WALL, PERRY G., Tampa, Florida, U.S.A. WESTON, Miss LENA E., Shipbourne Grange, Nr. Tonbridge, Kent.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF MEMBERS.

THE Annual General Meeting of Members of the Society was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Thursday, January 27th, 1916, at 5 p.m. ; MR. H. ARTHUR SMITH in the chair. There were also present : Mr. W. W. Baggally, Sir W. F. Barrett, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Mr. St. G. Lane Fox Pitt, Mr. Sydney C. Scott, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick (and, by proxy : The Right Hon. Gerald W. Balfour, the Rev. M. A. Bayfield, Captain E. N. Bennett, Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr. T. W. Mitchell, and Dr. F. C. S. Schiller) ; also Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Report of the Council for the year 1915 was read, and is printed below. The audited account of income and expendi- ture for the year 1915 was presented and taken as read, and is also printed below.

The Chairman announced that the six retiring Members of the Council offered themselves for re-election. No other nomi- nations having been received, the following were declared to be duly elected Members of the Council : Mr. W. W. Baggally, Mr. St. G. Lane Fox Pitt, Lord Rayleigh, Mr. Sydney C. Scott, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, Dr. C. Lloyd Tuckey.

MEETINGS OF THE COUNCIL.

THE 137th Meeting of the Council was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Thursday, January 27th, 1916, at 4.30 p.m. ; MR. H. ARTHUR SMITH in the chair. There were also present : Sir W. F. Barrett, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Mr. St. G. Lane Fox Pitt, and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick ; also Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Report of the Council was considered for the year 1915.

MARCH, 1916. Meetings of the Council. 151

The 138th Meeting of the Council was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Thursday, January 27th, 1916, im- mediately after the Annual General Meeting ; MR. H. ARTHUR SMITH in the chair. There were also present : Mr. W. W. Baggally, the Right Hon. Gerald W. Balfour, Sir W. F. Barrett, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Mr. St. G. Lane Fox Pitt, Mr. Sydney C. Scott, and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick ; also Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Minutes of the last Meeting of the Council were read and signed as correct.

The proceedings of the Annual General Meeting were reported.

Professor Gilbert Murray, LL.D., was re-elected President of the Society for the year 1916.

Mr. H. Arthur Smith was re-elected Hon. Treasurer ; Mrs. Henry Sidgwick and the Hon. Everard Feilding, Hon. Secre- taries ; and Mr. Arthur Miall, Auditor, for the current year.

The following were co-opted as Members of the Council for the year 1916 : the Rev. M. A. Bayfield, Mr. G. Lowes Dickinson, Professor L. P. Jacks, Sir Lawrence Jones, Dr. T. W. Mitchell, Mr. A. F. Shand, Dr. V. J. Woolley, and Dr. M. B. Wright.

Committees were elected as follows :

Committee of Reference and Publication : The Right Hon. Gerald W. Balfour, Miss Jane Barlow, Sir William F. Barrett, Sir William Crookes, the Hon. Everard Feilding, Dr. W. Leaf, Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr. T. W. Mitchell, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Lord Rayleigh, Mrs. H. Sidgwick, and Mrs. A. W. Verrall.

Library Committee : The Hon. Everard Feilding, Dr. T. W. Mitchell, Mr. J. G. Piddington, and Dr. C. Lloyd Tuckey.

House and Finance Committee : Mr. W. W. Baggally, the Hon. Everard Feilding, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Mr. Sydney C. Scott, and Mr. H. Arthur Smith.

Corresponding Members and Honorary Associates were elected for the year 1916, the names of Miss H. A. Dallas and Mr. J. Arthur Hill being added to the list of Honorary Associates.

Three new Members and thirteen new Associates were elected. Their names and addresses are given above.

The 139th Meeting of the Council was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Wednesday, February 23rd, 1916, at

152 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MARCH, 1916.

4 p.m. ; MR. H. ARTHUR SMITH in the chair. There were also present : Mr. W. W. Baggally, Sir W. F. Barrett, Rev. M. A. Bayfield, Captain E. N. Bennett, Sir Lawrence J. Jones, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Mr. Sydney C. Scott, and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick ; also Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Minutes of the last Meeting of the Council were read and signed as correct.

Two new Members and five new Associates were elected. Their names and addresses are given above.

GENERAL MEETING.

THE 146th General Meeting of the Society was held in the Council Chamber, at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Wednesday, February 23rd, 1916, at 5 p.m. ; SIR LAWRENCE J. JONES in the chair.

MRS. W. H. SALTER read a paper by Mrs. A. W. Verrall on A Series of Experiments in " Guessing," which will be published later in the Proceedings.

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR THE YEAR 1915.

DURING the past year, as might be expected, the Society has again felt the effect of the war, and we have to report a further decrease in membership.

In the course of the year 7 new Members were elected, and 2 Associates became Members ; 34 new Associates were elected, and 8 Members became Associates. On the other hand, the total loss in numbers, from resignations, deaths and other causes, was 24 Members and 113 Associates, making a net decrease of 96.

This decrease in membership is due to a diminution in the number of candidates for election rather than to an increase in the number of resignations ; for whereas in 1915 the number of elections was 41 (including 7 Members), the average number for the five years preceding the war, 1909-1913, was 122 (including 21 Members), and on the other hand the number of resignations in 1915 was only 98, as against an average of 63 for the years 1909-1913. We think that under the present circumstances, it is a matter for congratulation that the increase in the number of resignations is not larger,

MARCH, lyiu. Report of Council far the Year 1915. 153

and we are glad to record that many members, when writing to resign, have expressed their appreciation of the Society's work and their hope of rejoining later.

The total membership is now 1116, the numbers being distributed as follows : Members, 263 (including 27 Honorary and Corresponding Members); Associates, 853 (including 11 Honorary Associates).

We drew attention last year to the marked falling off in the sale of publications which took place after the outbreak of war, and the sale in this country continues to be much below the average. The amount realised during 1915 by the sale of publications to members at the Rooms of the Society was £19 10s. 6d., whereas the average annual receipts for the five years 1909-1913 were £46 lls. Id. ; and the amount realised in 1915 through our London agent by the sale of publications to persons who are not members of the Society was £39 6s. 6d., whereas the average for the five years preceding the war was £82 Os. 7d. In each case it will be seen that the receipts last year were less than half the average. On the other hand, the amount realised in 1915 by the sale of publications in America was £16 13s. lid. the average for the years 1909-1913 being £19 10s. 6d. It will be seen that the decrease in this case is far less marked, and this strengthens the probability that the decrease in the other sales is due to the war, since this would naturally have less effect in America than in England.

The decrease in our membership and in the sale of publica- tions, together with the discontinuance of all subscriptions from hostile countries, has inevitably caused a considerable diminution in the income of the Society, and we propose, if necessary, to meet this diminution by using part of the income from the Endowment Fund. This income now amounts to about £280 per annum, and the intention had been that it should be allowed to accumulate longer.

It is not only financially that the Society has been affected by the war. Its activities have been to some extent restricted by the fact that many of those upon whose co-operation we usually reckon are now engaged in war-work. Thus, Mr. Feilding is engaged on Government work, Dr. M'Dougall is in charge of the Neurological Section of the Royal Victoria

154 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MARCH, 1916.

Hospital, Netley, and Dr. Woolley is working in a military hospital at Tooting. The majority, in fact, of our medical members are now working in war-hospitals. Amongst the cases which have come under their observation are some which throw an interesting light on the problems of psycho- therapeutics, cases, for example, of " shell-shock," so that although the energies of these members are at present diverted from psychical research, we hope that our Medical Branch may reap the benefit of their experiences when the war is over.

The deflection of public interest into other channels has been shown by a decrease in the enquiries and correspondence received by the Secretary, and by the smaller number of readers in the Library.

The number of well-evidenced spontaneous cases which we receive from or through our members continues, we think, to be disappointing. One might perhaps have expected that the war, with its large tale of casualties and with the in- creased emotional tension accompanying it, would have pro- duced a number of interesting experiences, and indeed the important paper read by Mr. Bayfield at the meeting on November 22nd, does deal with those of one percipient. But on the whole, evidence of apparitions at the time of death or wounding has been conspicuous by its absence. Such cases have doubtless occurred, but practically none of those which have reached us have come up on investigation to the standard of evidence required. There was, for instance, one where the parents of a soldier reported that they had dreamt of him, and his sister that she had seen a vision of him, on the night he was killed. But no first-hand evidence of their having mentioned their experiences before they knew of the death was forthcoming. Another case reporting that a vision of a son by his mother had occurred at the time of his death, turned out to have no foundation whatever. In a third case (not, however, a war case) which looked promising, leave to publish even anonymously has been refused on religious grounds.

We have enquired, so far as was possible, into two matters connected with the war which seemed likely to be of some interest to the Society.

MARCH, 1916. Report of the Council far the Year 1915. 155

(a) In the Journal for December, 1914, we inserted a notice asking for first-hand information concerning the alleged passing of Russian troops through this country in August, 1914. We entered into this enquiry with the idea that if the reports about these troops should prove entirely without foundation, the case would be psychologically interesting as a remarkable instance of the speed with which a false rumour may spread. We did not receive a large number of replies to our enquiry, but the most probable conclusion to be drawn from those that were sent us is that these rumours, like many others, were composed of a large superstructure of fancy built on a small basis of fact.

There seems to be little doubt that Russian soldiers were actually seen in this country during August, 1914, and this can be accounted for by the fact that a certain number of Russian staff-officers were in England at the time, accompanied by their orderlies. The belief that these Russian troops were very numerous was encouraged by the accidental circumstance that just at that date large numbers of Territorials were being moved from the north of Scotland southwards, which accounts for the numerous reports of troop trains thundering all night through junctions. This is the explanation of the " Russian myth " which was quoted in the Times of April 29th, 1915, on the authority of Mr. H. B. Steele, Hon. Secre- tary of the Press Representatives' Committee at the Press * Bureau.

From several statements which have reached us it seems likely that the " materialising " energy of these Russian ghosts was further increased by the fact that during this same month of August, 1914, a substantial body of Russian reservists passed through this country on their way home from America. These men, of course, were not in uniform, but their nationality was likely to become known in any places through which they passed, and so the tale of " Russian troops in England " grew yet more.

The psychological moral to be drawn from this incident is that human testimony is of very little scientific value, unless it is of a definite character and given at first-hand — a con- clusion often suggested by our investigations and still further reinforced by another recent enquiry.

156 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MARCH, 1916.

(6) In the early part of last year stories began to be widely prevalent concerning the alleged " visions of angels " on the battlefields in France and Belgium. In the July Journal we printed a notice asking our readers to send us, if they could, first-hand accounts of these supposed apparitions.

The correspondence which resulted from this request was voluminous, and a report upon it appeared in the December Journal. The result of the enquiry was in the main negative. We were unable to obtain any satisfactory evidence at first- hand, and it became apparent that in weighing such evidence as was available, a large allowance must be made for exaggera- tion and inaccuracy.

Attention has sometimes been drawn to the fact that much of the best evidence for experimental telepathy was obtained in the early days of the Society, and that there has been a falling off in this respect in recent years. As the remedy for this would be that more people should interest themselves in the subject and try experiments, a notice was printed in the Journal for February saying that the Society was anxious to try some further experiments in telepathy and inviting members and their friends to offer themselves as subjects. Ten members responded to this invitation, with seven of whom experiments were conducted in the course of the spring on over thirty occasions. The number of •experiments which took place on each occasion ranged from about three to six, and two, or sometimes three persons took part in each experiment.

The conditions of these experiments varied ; usually both the agent and the percipient were at the Rooms of the Society, but in one instance only the agent was there, the percipient being at a distance. In three cases the percipients were hypnotised, or at least an attempt was made to hypnotise them ; with the other four percipients hypnotism was not employed. No attempt was made on any occasion to hypno- tise the agent. The subjects chosen for transmission included, (a) visual images of various kinds, diagrams, pictures, etc., and (b) action.

Except in the case of one percipient, these experiments must he reckoned as failures, that is to say, the degree of success was never beyond what might be accounted for by chance-

MARCH, 1916. Report of the Councillor the Year 19 1 :>. I .17

coincidence. As regards the one exception, it should be noted that only a very small measure of success was obtained as long as the series of experiments was conducted under condition* similar to those which obtained in the other series. Subse- quently, however, it was arranged that the percipient, Mrs. Stuart Wilson, should try some experiments with Mrs. Salter1 in connection with Mrs. Salter's automatic writing. Interesting results followed, and it is hoped that a report upon them will be published later.

Some of our members are inclined to complain that so much attention is now devoted to the study of automatic writing, and we may therefore observe that this circumstance is not wholly due to the perversity of investigators.

In the present case it was not the intention of those who arranged these experiments that they should be in any way concerned with automatic writing, but the fact remains that until this element was introduced the result of the experiments was of very little interest.

In the Lent Term, 1915, Mrs. Salter gave a course of lectures on psychical research to third-year students in psycho- logy at King's College, University of London. Considerable interest was shown in the subject, and Mrs. Salter was asked to repeat the course in the following October Term. This, however, she was unable to do on account of her marriage.

An interesting Presidential Address was delivered in July by Professor Gilbert Murray, and we hope to publish it later, together with a detailed report on some experiments in thought- transference carried out by Professor Murray himself, upon which the conclusions suggested in his address were largely based.

We have to record with regret the death, as a result of the sinking of the Lusitania, of Mr. E. W. Friend, who was for a time Assistant Secretary to the American Society for Psychical Research, and had already published several in- teresting articles in the American Journal. Mr. Friend was intending to devote himself to psychical research, and since he was well qualified for this work, his loss is serious.

xThe Assistant Research Officer, Miss H. de G. Verrall, was married in the course of the year and is now Mrs. W. H. Salter. For the present, how- ever, she is continuing her work for the Society.

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160 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MARCH, 1916.

Two Parts of Proceedings have been published during the year ; a short Part (No. LXX.) in May, 1915, containing a report on some experiments in thought-transference and some further discussion of automatic scripts, and a complete Volume (Part LXXI.) in December, 1915, containing a report by Mrs. Sidgwick on the psychology of Mrs. Piper's trance- phenomena.

Four meetings of the Society were held during the year.

The dates and subjects of the papers read were as follows :

* January 29th. " Cross-Correspondences of a Gallic

Type," by Mr. J. G. Piddington. (To appear later

in the Proceedings.}

March 23rd. " An Icelandic ' Seer,' ' by Miss Helen de G. Verrall. (Printed in the Journals for April- June, 1915.)

*July 9th. " Presidential Address," by Professor Gilbert Murray. (To appear in the next Part of the Pro- ceedings.}

November 22nd. " Some Recent Cases of Premoni- tion and Telepathy," by the Rev. M. A. Bayfield. (Printed in the Journal for January and February, 1916.)

A NOTE ON "SOME RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN TELEPATHY."

BY JAMES H. HYSLOP.

THE experiments by the Misses Tipping and Miss Verrall in Part LXX. of the Proceedings will usually be adjudged, accord- ing to the title, either for or against the claims made. Those familiar with experiments already published and also accepting the hypothesis will not raise objections. But men like Dr. Ivor Tuckett will make a wholesale denial probably and sceptics generally will probably not accept their evidential nature. But the present reviewer accepts them as very good evidence for the supernormal, while desiring to call attention to what seems to him to be the fact that they do not decide between telepathy and another interpretation of them, namely, clairvoyance. It seems to the present

* Those marker! with an asterisk were General Meetings.

, I9io. Note on Some Recent Experiments in Telepathy. 161

writer that the phenomena can better be referred to clair- voyance than to telepathy, meaning by that term the per- ception of physical objects supernormally and independently of mind-reading or telepathy. He may be wrong in so regard- ing them, but it is worth while calling attention to the possibility that the fact may be evidence of the supernormal without deciding the issue between two types of it.

The ground for suspecting clairvoyance in the case is that in nearly all cases the knowledge of the percipient was rather of the physical objects in the environment of the agent than always the special object thought of, though usually the object thought of was also evidently in the mind of the percipient. But in two cases the intended thought of the agent was not received. This is noticeable especially in experi- ments 4 and 14. In the first of these two the intention was to communicate the idea of War, and the physical object placed before the agent was a map of Bulgaria. Something square and dark was " seen " by the percipient, but no hint of the idea of war. In the fourteenth experiment the object thought of was a Madonna and Child, and the picture was on the wall of the room where the agent was sitting. But what the percipient " saw " was a coin which might be inter- preted as an obscure perception of the face and halo.

In the other instances, at least all but one, the objects mentioned by the percipient could have been perceptively " seen " and not telepathically " perceived." If the experi- ments had not been conducted with emphasis on external objects, the coincidence between telepathic and clairvoyant perception could not have been observed. It seems to the present writer that obscure perception of the objects instead of telepathic access to the agent's mind is just as possible an interpretation as the telepathic one.

To decide the issue in such cases something should be intently thought of that is not associated with the objects before the agent, and if those thoughts are obtained, the objection from clairvoyance would not apply. It seems that motions and physical objects are, or were regarded as more or less necessary to success, and the experiments were con- ducted under that view. This makes no difference when you are testing the hypothesis of the supernormal, but in deciding

162 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MARCH, 1916.

the question between telepathy and clairvoyance, we should have to see that the thought to be conveyed had no natural or necessary connection with the objects and the motions performed. I do not deny the possibility of giving the pheno- mena a telepathic interpretation, but it is just as possible to give them a clairvoyant interpretation. It may be im- possible to experiment in these instances without resorting to methods that threaten these two separate interpretations with a conflict, but it might be well to try a series in the manner suggested. I do not think the issue of the super- normal is involved ; for I think the coincidences are hardly due to chance. But the interpretation of them may be debated.

JAMES H. HYSLOP.

[The December number of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research contains a more detailed review by Dr. Hyslop of these same experiments. In this review he also takes into account some earlier experiments by the Misses Tipping — not published in our Proceedings — which he considers as strengthening the evidence for telepathy against clairvoyance.

It should be noted in connexion with Dr. Hyslop's argument that telepathy can only be eliminated as a possible cause by eliminating the agent altogether. Experiments on these lines have been tried, but with scant success, and the burden of proof lies therefore with the advocates of clair- voyance. H. DE G. S.]

NOTE ON A CURRENT PERIODICAL.

Archives de Psychologic, Nos. 57-58, May, 1915, is a double number of 224 pp. devoted to a masterly study of ' A Modern Mystic ' by Prof. Flournoy, which is of the greatest importance and interest to all those who are concerned with religion, psychical research and individual psychology. It is naturally impossible to summarize the detail of so elaborate a study in this Journal, but some idea may be given of its contents. The mystic in question is the principal of a flourishing girls' school in French Switzerland, intelligent and educated, energetic, healthy though hard-worked, and very religious. Nevertheless she had inherited from her

MARCH, 19K5. Note on a Current Peiriodi«i/

mother's side a certain neuropathic tendency which had been developed in consequence of her personal experiences into painful obsessions, to be relieved of which she had appealed to Prof. Flournoy in December, 1910. He treated her (at first) by hyp- notism and suggestion, and the revelations contained in his study are an eloquent proof of how completely he won her confidence. The narrative consists largely of confidential and contemporaneous reports of her experiences to her spiritual director which were written without any suspicion that they would ever be published. In the autumn of 1912 the ' mystical ' developments of Mile ' Cecile Ve"'s ' psychic life began by her feeling conscious from time to time of the presence of an invisible Friend or Helper who sympathized with her troubles. Prof. Flournoy compares him to the ' Leopold ' of ' Helene Smith,' but the religious model and inspiration of the phenomenon are obvious. After being consoled by this spiritual visitor for six months, in March, 1913, ' Mile Ye",' being then 50 years of age, had her first taste of the mystical experience of ecstasy. Her description of it certainly accords very remarkably with those which Roman Catholic mystics have ren- dered classical, and the confirmation of them by one holding very definitely Protestant views seems valuable testimony to the objec- tive reality of the experience, even though it is perhaps unfor- tunate that ' Mile Ye" ' appears to have been already acquainted with the famous account of mysticism in James's Varieties of Religious Experience. At any rate, it is important to note that though she was irresistibly impressed with her experiences, she never became incapable of a certain critical reserve, perhaps because they did not accord with her spiritual tastes. The God she desired was a personal being ; the ' divine ' she encountered seemed the irruption of something wholly impersonal, and ' beyond good and evil ' in the Nietzschean phrase she unconsciously adopted, a manifestation of power, not of love. Moreover, part of the price paid for contact with it was the total extinction of personal being ; the rest was made up of anticipatory fears and hesitations and physical pains and distresses that followed upon the ecstasy. All these drawbacks of the mystical experience are described with the utmost vividness and candour, so that the critical reader, who has not the experience but only descriptions of it to go upon, cannot but feel that the question of the moral value of mysticism will sooner or later have to be raised. And this whether the phenomenon is regarded as merely subjective

164 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MARCH, 1916.

and psychological or as attesting a reality that transcends the mystic's personality. After all the experience may have to be regarded as emanating from something diabolical rather than divine, if its consequences turn out to be predominantly bad. Or possibly, if moral interpretations are ruled out, the ' mystical ' experience may tell us what death feels like. However this may be, it should be noted that between the 2nd March, 1913, and the 31st July, 1914, ' Mile Ve ' had 31 ecstasies. Then the war came and upset her school, and imposed on her fresh demands of social service, thus switching off her energies from preoccupation with the state of her soul. Few will contend that this suppression of ' Mile Ve's ' mystical experience is either a justification or a condemnation of the war ; but it is a curious fact. At any rate, we may feel that the subsequent incidents of ' Mile V6's ' spiritual career are sure to be of interest to psychologists, and psychical researchers will doubtless note also that in Prof. Flournoy's opinion her endowment is distinctly ' mediumistic,' and that she might have developed into a good ' medium ' if her religious convictions had not given her a strong prejudice against spiritism.

F. C. S. SCHILLER.

No. CCCXX VIII.— VOL. XVII. APRIL, 1016.

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTBN7TS.

PAOB

In Memorial!)— Edwin William Friend, 166

Correspondence, 170

Review, 174

NOTICE OF MEETING.

A Private Meeting of the Society

FOR

MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES ONLY

WILL BE HELD IN

THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, ON THE FIRST FLOOR OF 20 HANOVER SQUARE, LONDON, W.

On FRIDA Y, APRIL \^th, 1916, at 4 p.m.

WHEN A PAPER ON

" A New Automatist '

WILL BE READ BY

MRS. W. H. SALTER.

.B. No Tickets of Admission are issued for this Meeting. Members

and Associates will be admitted on signing their names at the door.

166 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APHIL, 1916.

IN MEMORIAM— EDWIN WILLIAM FRIEND. BORN Ji7NE 15, 1886— DIED MAY 7, 1915.

IN this period of flux, when we of America are perhaps sun- dered more completely from old ideals than you of Europe and even less advanced towards new, a pioneer is a precious man to us. When that man is a scholar trained, his value is more than doubled, and his loss the greater. When Edwin Friend went down with the Lmitania his loss was more than a personal matter, for he was one of the few who combine keen mind with deep moral purpose and bold aspiration in philo- sophical research. Like many a young thinker he felt the stress and strain of our industrialized society, saw the pro- gressive disintegration of our applied philosophies of life, and deeply deplored the almost universal tendency to materialism. Unlike most, however, he refused to stop at barren discontent, but spent his whole energy in looking for the promise of a cure.

For this reason there was in his interest in psychical research a determination, unmixed with lax mysticism, to plumb those depths of our existence that science has so far left uncharted. Friend's method and his true value can only be understood when considered in the light of his training and development.

Born in Indianapolis, in the Middle West, he grew up among " practical " people, pioneers and the children of pioneers who had no bent for speculation, no great interest in education. His own father, far from supporting him in his desire to learn, discouraged him from any ambition but the accepted business career. But it chanced that he and two or three companions, drawn by a common interest or curiosity for knowledge, began to study and experiment in the exact sciences with results which carried them far beyond the ordinary preparatory school work. Thus at thirteen or fourteen a group was formed so intimately bound by a spirit of research that through the later years of high-school and university life it persisted.

Young Friend was most active in his studies of physics, chemistry, biology, geology and the like. But the breadth of his point of view and the idealism of the boy are well shown in a paper he wrote when barely fourteen, in which he de-

APRIL, 1916. In Memoriam — Edwin William Friend. 1 67

scribes the student of to-day, the investigator in new fields, as a modern knight-errant, giving his life to a glorious journey through science, exploring for the good of mankind. Though it is written in the florid vocabulary of a youngster who has read almost too much of the world classics, the devotion to an ideal which dominated his later life is already revealed. The boy shows the aspirations of the man.

He had already become interested in modern languages before he entered Harvard University, and this interest carried him, before he left, into a deep study of Greek, Latin and Sanscrit. He acquired languages with facility, for he grasped so completely the spirit of each that its construction and syntax seemed natural and easy. French and German he mastered thoroughly enough to pass as a native in either country, while he read Italian, Russian, Swedish and Flemish without difficulty. This linguistic preparation, which would have been a life work for many men, was merely the background and the tool of an impelling interest in philosophy and psycho- logy. This greater interest of his which we have seen fore- shadowed by the childish essays of years before was matured by the lectures of such men as Royce and James, and possibly even more by wide reading coupled with a constant intellectual intercourse with friends. The early Indianapolis group, far from breaking down, was a dominating influence of his univer- sity career, for these friends had gone on with him to Harvard. These men lived together, studied and talked, kept their differentiating interests bound by a common breadth of view, and, through a realization of the larger unity of their lives, made their discussions training-schools of thought.

In 1908 Friend received his Bachelor's degree, in 1909 his Master's degree, and in the autumn of 1910 he left for Berlin on a travelling fellowship in philosophy. Knowing the language already almost perfectly, he met no barrier in his effort to feel the contact of German thought. The lectures, and, even more, the exchange of ideas with German students — for his very presence bred deep discussion — were doubtless important in giving him a new angle in his point of view, but he conceived a distaste for what he felt to be the growing materialism of modern Germany. Like many other foreign students there who escape the lure of material perfection, he was repelled by the

168 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APRIL, 1916.

national philosophy of the relation of the individual to the state.

At the end of this year he returned to the United States to teach Latin and Greek at Princeton University. There ho remained two years, making warm friends particularly among his students. His ability to breed interest in a subject from his own deep interest, to make the past vital to the present, proved him an admirable teacher. He was increasingly con- scious, however, that not even his deep sympathy for the classics could reconcile him to the teaching of mere language. For this reason he accepted gladly the opportunity which offered itself to him two years later, to go to Harvard as assistant in philosophy. There the time was passed in teaching and in further study on his own part.

This slight sketch of Edwin Friend's early career has, perhaps, given a fairly definite indication of what the man's interests were to become. Grounded early in science, the real tendency of his mind was to speculation. The vague idealism of the fourteen-year-old boy had become passionate interest in philosophy in the young man. But, just as he had felt science to be knight-errantry in the service of mankind, so he deemed philosophy a means and living truth the end. During his college course he had come upon Myers's great book on the survival of human personality, and this was probably the turning-point in his life, the event that formed him. He eagerly consumed the two volumes, and, fired with enthusiasm, read long passages to his group of friends, leading tli'Mii in long discussions which were to result in moulding once for all his life purpose.

Through the rest of his university work, through his years at Berlin and Princeton, his deep interest in psychical research never flagged. James had said to him, at one time, that he considered psychical research the most important scientific investigation of the twentieth century, and this judgement Friend took to himself. When in the spring of 1914 he was asked to become the assistant secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research, he accepted the offer, and took up the double task of editing the Journal and of investigation.

Not the least of Friend's qualifications for this work was his range of interests. His omnivorous reading, which he had

APRIL, 1916. In Memoriam — Edwin 'William Friend. !<;!»

carried on from his first school-days, and of late years in three or four languages, had given him the breadth of background necessary to a man who would face the world with an un- popular new hypothesis. This, with his philosophical training and his inherent feeling for logic and method, led him to organize in his mind the scattered phenomena of the great field of psychic research. He died too soon to have made more than the merest beginnings of this synthesis, but those who have talked with him or who have read his few articles are aware of a fluency of idea, striking in logic and coherence.

In the actual routine of his work, if one may speak of the routine of such a subject, was the sympathetic application of modern critical methods of investigation. His wife, whom he married in the early summer of 1914, had previously done some automatic writing, though with negligible results. She now developed into an automatist of considerable power, and it was largely through her work that his researches were pursued.

The material thus obtained was largely of philosophic nature. Friend felt keenly the significance of the more specific evi- dential matter which goes to make up the scientific proof of survival. He realized, however, that in the case under his observation, development of the automatist could best be furthered by careful consideration on his part of the material which offered itself. Thus, thoroughly alive to the manifold difficulties which beset such work, he gave much time and thought to discussion in the sittings of the ethical implications of survival, and its relation to our philosophic conceptions. It was his hope to carry his work eventually to the point of evidence, but not alone to the evidence shown by detailed allusion to obscure fact. He felt that in the last analysis the only evidence which can carry utter conviction to thinking men is that which shows development as well as continuing identity of the purported communicator. He felt also that proof of this kind can only be made clear by the application of pragmatic tests to those precepts advocated in communi- cations.

Myers, James, and Hodgson, aided by certain individuals who, as in the Piper case, signed themselves with Latin pseudonyms, wrote through Mrs. Friend. We cannot here

170 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APRIL, 1916.

adequately analyse or attempt to evaluate the results, as the record covers a period of over eight months' constant work. In style, however, in intellectual grasp, and in philosophic content they are vividly characteristic.

This work of research, which was carried on with his editing of the Journal, was interrupted last May by his departure for Europe. There had been some internal disagreement in the society which culminated in Friend's resignation. A group of those interested felt that it would be worth while to form a sub-society centering at Boston, and it was to gain the co- operation of the English S.P.R. that Friend left for England. Miss Pope of Farmington, who sailed on the Lusitania on the same errand, brought details of his death. Friend had faced the crisis with all the strength of his belief. He refused to board a lifeboat while there were yet women and children to be saved, and had secured life-belts for Miss Pope and for her maid. Then with steady, cheering words he led the way to the side, bade them follow after him, and leapt from the fast sinking ship into the sea.

Though he was scarcely twenty-eight, and had begun his life-work less than a year before, he had clearly shown his metal. With added experience and maturity, with the accumu- lation of data, and with the aid of fellow investigators, he could not have failed, clear of mind and of purpose as he was, to exert a very great influence on the movement towards psychical research and on modern thought. He was more than a student, more than a pioneer, he was a philosopher.

NORMAN PARKER.

CORRESPONDENCE.

"INFLUENCES" AND SURVIVAL. (To the Editor of the S.P.R. JOURNAL.)

February 1st, 1916.

THE chapter on " influences," in Mrs. Sidgwick's admirable "Study of the Psychology of Mrs. Piper's Trance Phenomena," is of special interest to me. This part of the subject has been rather neglected, I think ; and it seems worth while to draw attention to it, and to consider certain important bearings that it may have on the question of survival.

APRIL, 1916. Correspondence. 171

Mrs. Sidgwick refers, with characteristic caution, to the "sup- posed " influence of these rapport-objects, and remarks that " one's first impression naturally is that all this must be nonsense" (Proceedings, Vol. XXVIIL, pp. 305-306), going on to say, however, that some effect does seem to be produced. This, to me, is both amusing and instructive ; amusing because it seems so timorous about something that I am quite sure of, instructive because it illustrates once more how greatly we are at the mercy of our own personal experience in investigation. Mrs. Sidgwick accepts tele- pathy with ease, and, as it seems to me, invokes it rashly ; while she hesitates about the efficacy of " influences." I, on the other hand, am convinced of the latter — rashly so, as it will no doubt seem to her ; while I have doubts about any very extensive telepathy. The explanation lies, I suppose, in our different experiences.

My own experiences with a local trance-medium, plus knowledge of the experiences of intimate friends of mine with the same person, leave me in no doubt of the supernormality of some of the knowledge shown ; and I am fairly sure that the hypothesis of telepathy from the sitter's normal consciousness is insufficient. I am also inclined to rule out, in some cases, the supposition of telepathy from the sitter's subliminal consciousness, there being no evidence to suggest that the knowledge in question was there. E.g. when a sitter received a correct diagnosis from a lock of hair without knowing, so far as I know or can reasonably infer, anything about the distant person's ailment. It remains, therefore, to decide whether the rapport-object actually carries the infor- mation in some unknown way, or whether it estabb'shes a tele- pathic rapport between the control and the distant patient. And this point I have never yet been able to decide finally, though I now lean to the telepathic-rapport theory rather than to psycho- metry. One thing however seems indicated, — that the telepathy extends to the patient's subliminal, if it is telepathy at all ; for in two striking cases known to me, the control's diagnosis was in complete disagreement with what the patient and (so far as was known) everybody else believed, yet the control turned out to be right. Of course this idea of telepathy from a subliminal is more or less hazardous, and some may favour the psychometric notion ; but on the whole there seems more evidence in favour of the former. And, though in the two cases the knowledge was not possessed by any normal mind — though indeed it might exist as a

172 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APRIL, 1916.

guess — we are at least justified in supposing that a patient's subliminal knows a good deal more about his bodily state than his normal consciousness does ; for it knows how to produce blisters, stigmata, and how to effect various remedial changes, in some hypnotised subjects.

On the whole, then, I incline to think that a rapport-object serves as a link between mind and mind and not as an actual carrier of information. But it is very desirable that the question should be further cleared up. If psychometry of the sort claimed in old books like Denton's Soul of Things and new books like Hooper's Spirit Psychometry is a real fact, much of the Piper evidence becomes valueless so far as it is supposed to point to survival ; for in many cases an " influence " was presented, and on the psychometry hypothesis this object could or might convey any amount of information about its former owner, whether that owner was still in existence on the other side, or not. If on the other hand psychometry is disproved or rendered improbable, the Piper evidence for survival remains as good — broadly speaking — as Dr. Hodgson thought it ; the " influences " being regarded as links between the control and the now discarnate owner of the object.

Concerning presentation of " influences " of dead people, my experience has not been wide, but I have just lately had a fair amount. A few months ago there died a dear friend of mine with whom I had for years had a compact that the one to go first should try to communicate and give evidence of identity. She sent me sealed envelopes containing test-words, also a number of worn gloves, etc., which she herself wrapped up carefully in oiled silk (the best " insulator," Hodgson long ago told me) during the last weeks of her illness. I presented one of these to a psychic friend — not a professional medium — who gets automatic writing, a few days after my friend died. She was said to be " sleeping " mostly, and no evidence was forthcoming. Three days later the glove was presented to a professional trance-medium, by a sitter who — it was purposely arranged — knew nothing about the dead person except that she was a friend of mine and a woman. Some few details were obtained, such as that death had taken place recently in " the prime of her life " and that the disease was of a certain character (all correct) and the first two letters of the surname were correctly given. But there was nothing evidential in the way of a definite message, although my friend purported to be presents — i.e., was said by the control to be so. About the

APRIL, 1916. Correspondence. 1 73

same time I sent another glove to a very good normal clairvoyant near here, who is well known to me, and he got correct detail* about the illness, but felt that the person was " not yet awake." He kept the glove, at my request, and tried on many occasions to " get something " from it, but without further success. On Jan. 19 I had a personal sitting with him, and he handled both the glove and a small silver box which had belonged to the same person ; but he got nothing except an impression of flowers (she sent me more flowers during my own illness than anybody else, so this is slightly evidential) although he proceeded to give me a large amount of evidential matter about other deceased people whom — so far as I know and believe — he had never heard of. Now, if psychometry were a fact, should I not have had evidential facts given me at once, from the handling of the glove, much more extensively than was the case ? If on the other hand it serves only as a telepathic link, naturally I shall not get much evidence until the mind of the owner wakes up from the recupera- tive sleep which is supposed to follow death. It may of course be said that the two mediums failed to get much evidence because of their belief in this post-mortem sleep ; but this will not do, for one of them was told nothing about the date of the death — it might have been years ago — and the other could not have been thus influenced on Jan. 19, for he believes that people generally " wake up " within a few days of death, and he knew that my friend died over two months before the sitting.

But if my friend was entirely unconscious and unable to com- municate, how came it that both mediums, though failing to get any real message, nevertheless got evidential details about the disease from which she suffered, and one or two other things ? Perhaps, after all, an " influence " bears some psychical traces of the owner, which can be perceived by sensitives without any assisting activity of that owner's mind ; while for any message involving initiative, the awakened mind is of course required. But, if so, we are back nearly at the old difficulty ; for, until we know the extent of the possibility of these psychical traces, it will be impossible to infer with safety the activity of the supposed discarnate mind.

And there, for me, the matter rests at present, unsatisfactorily enough. The two things I am sure of, are, that " influences " really help in the production of supernormal phenomena of the class indicated, and that this side of the subject deserves more

1 74 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APRIL, 1916.

attention than it has hitherto received. Perhaps one thing remains to be said, in case it is asked how I know that the information would not be forthcoming just the same, without any object being presented. The answer is : Because when an object is presented, the supernormal things said are specially relevant thereto ; whereas, when no object is presented at all — as in most of my own sittings — though I usually receive evidence of various sorts, it has no perceptible relation to what I am expecting or thinking about. Some of the soi-disant spirits of my Jan. 19 sitting were people I had not thought of for months, until the medium gave the name, with accompanying detail. I think this justifies me in believing that the efficacy of " influences " is due to something more than the medium's self-suggestion, though of course I do not claim that it " proves " it. I think none of us claims that anything " proves " anything in psychical research !

J. ARTHUR HILL.

Clarcmont, Thornton,

Bradford.

REVIEW.

THE YOGA-SYSTEM OF PATANJALJ, OR THE ANCIENT HINDU DOC- TRINE OF CONCENTRATION or MIND, embracing the Mnemonic Rules, called Yoga-Sutras, of Patanjali; the Comment, called Yoga-Bhdshya, attributed to Veda-Vydsa, and the Explanation, called Tattva-Vilic^iradl, of Vdchaspati-Mi$ra. Translated from the original Sanskrit by JAMES HAUGHTON WOODS. (Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 17.)

FOR many centuries past, travellers returning from India have brought back with them marvellous tales of holy men whom they had seen practising ingenious and terrible forms of self-torture. These sadhus or yogis, as they were called, would bury themselves in the ground, leaving but their heads emerging ; sway head downwards over a slow fire, or suspend themselves from trees by hooks thrust into the muscles of their backs ; crouch, naked, in the full heat of noon, between four sacrificial fires ; or, with eyes dazed by glare and madness, stare unceasingly at the blazing circle of the sun. Thus Yoga has come, in the minds of many people, to mean a system of brutalizing austerities, fitter for madmen than for saints.

Yoga, however, is more than this — more, and less. First of all, it is a complete system of philosophy. And, secondly, it is the

,, i»iG. Review. 175

ancient system of disciplining the mind, whereby the Hindus, and, following them, the Buddhists, sought to bring the consciousness into that state which they call Samadhi, and which apparently corresponds to the highest " degrees of orison " and " infused contemplation " of the Western mystic. It is a text-book of this science of menticulture that Professor Woods has translated for us, in the seventeenth volume of the Harvard Oriental Series.

Max Miiller distinguished four kinds of Yoga-processes, viz. Hatha Yoga (physical training), Laya Yoga (concentration), Raja or " Royal " Yoga (breathing exercises), and Mantra Yoga (repe- tition of sacred sentences or Mantra).

A better classification, however, would seem to be that given by Swami Abhedananda, viz. Bhakti Yoga (union by love, that is, devotion to a particular god or aspect of the Deity), Karma Yoga (union by works or good deeds), Jnana Yoga (union by knowledge), with Raja Yoga (mind discipline and concentration, sometimes also called union by will), and its essential preliminary Hatha Yoga.

The man or woman, then — for there are yoginis as well as yogis — who wishes to attain Samadhi, must first renounce the world and go far away from the haunts of men. The Swatmararn Swami, a modern writer on Yoga, recommends a small cell " situated in a place free from rocks, water and fire; of the extent of a bow's length, and in a fertile country ruled over by a virtuous king." Here the aspirant must study the Vedas and put himself under the care of a spiritual director or Guru. First, he must practise the eighty-four chief Asanas Or fixed postures of meditation, and learn to remain in any one of them for hours together, motionless. Some, as for example the " padma-asana " or lotus posture, have alluring names, but most of them would be impossible to a European. Mr. R. W. Frazer, in Indian Thought Past and Present, sarcastically describes a few of the " simpler and milder practices," one of which Asanas is to be maintained, he says, for twelve years, if the Yogi would gain magic powers of body and mind.

Pranayama, or regulating of the breath, is an important part of the recluse's training. So, too, Pratyahara, or the banishing of intruding thoughts. But the chief business is the repetition of the Mantra ; " Om," " Om tat sat Om," and the great Gayatri Mantra being the most usual. Similarly, Mohammedan mystics repeat the Beautiful Names of God and the formula " La illahe ill' Allah."

176 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. APRIL, 1916.

Professor Duncan Macdonald in Religious Attitude and Life in Islam gives an excellent account, drawn from Sufi sources, of the method in which a sacred sentence is to be used. The Hindus hold that something of the religious consciousness of the Guru passes to his Chela with the giving of the Mantra. Finally, the seeker will practise the concentration of his attention on some religious symbol, as, for example, one of the five Tattwas, whose immediate meanings are Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit ; or on some one idea ; and learn " The restraint," as Patanjali puts it, of the " fluctuations of the mind stuff " (chitti).

So, then, the Yogi, by austerities, by physical training, by repetition of holy words, and by the concentration of his mind on some one symbol or idea, passes through the three stages of consciousness known as Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. Fully to explain these terms would take the writing of volumes. They are usually translated as Concentration, Meditation and — no, there is no usual translation of Samadhi. Hindu writers distinguish many different kinds of Samadhi, and, according to Kern, one Maha- yanist writer gives as many as 108.

In the science of Yoga, Patanjali holds much the same place that St. Thomas Aquinas does in Scholastic Theology. Practically all subsequent teaching has his Yoga-siitras, or mnemonic sen- tences, as its text. Voluminous commentaries have been written on the Sutras, though the majority of the teaching has always been oral, and a great part of it secret. Two translations of the Sutras, as far as I know, already exist in English, that of Swami Vivekananda, with its naive and charming comments, and the well-known one of Rajendra Lala Mitra. There was room, how- ever, for Professor Woods' scholarly and accurate rendering. It is the earnest hope of the present writer that the inclusion of this volume in The Harvard Oriental Series may call attention to the wide field of possible research into Hindu psychology and spiritual exercises, to which the study of Patanjali forms so attractive a prelude.

Professor Woods has enriched his book with a full bibliography and with a valuable introduction on the authorship of the Sutras, their date and those of the Commentary and Explanation. In the translation itself the chapters on supernormal powers, such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, levitation, etc., will possibly be of most interest to the members of the S.P.R., but the whole volume demands the serious attention of all students of Comparative Religion and of Religious Psychology. AELFRIDA TILLYARD.

No. CCCXXIX.-Voi, XVII. N,AV |91<-

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS.

New Members and Associates '^'7;

Meeting of the Council, 177

Private Meeting, ! 7S

Dramatic Dreams, 173

Notice of Current Periodicals, . . . .' f jgs

NEW MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES.

Names of Members are printed in Black Type. Names of Associates are printed in SMALL CAPITALS.

Girdlestone, F. Kenneth, Rosendale, Iffley, Oxford.

Gregson, G. E., 12 Hesketh Road, Southport.

MACKENZIE, JAMES, 21st Protection Coy., Royal Defence Corps,

Drill Hall, Newport, Monmouthshire. WEBB, MRS. CURTIS, 48 The Manor House, Marylebone Road,

London, N.W.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

THE 140th Meeting of the Council was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Friday, April 14th, 1916, at 6 p.m. ; SIR WILLIAM BARRETT in the chair. There were also present : Mr. W. W. Baggally, Mr. St. G. L. Fox Pitt, Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick ; also Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Minutes of the last Meeting of the Council were read and signed as correct.

Two new Members and two new Associates were elected. Their names and addresses are given above.

The monthly Accounts for January-February, and March, 1916, were presented and taken as read.

178 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAY, 1916.

PRIVATE MEETING FOR MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES.

THE 53rd Private Meeting of the Society for Members and Associates only was held in the Council Chamber at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Friday, April 14th, 1916, at 4 p.m. ; SIR LAWRENCE JONES in the chair.

MRS. W. H. SALTER read a paper on "A New Automatist," which it is hoped will be published later with additional material on the same subject.

DRAMATIC DREAMS: AN UNEXPLORED FIELD FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH.

BY L. P. JACKS.

THE whole subject of dreams is virtually an unexplored terri- tory waiting for the psychologist who will make it his province in a thoroughly serious spirit. I say this after reading as much of the literature of dreams as I could lay my hands on, including the work of Freud.

I have frequently expressed this opinion to friends of mine who take an active part in the work of Psychical Research. I would not say that abnormal or supernormal phenomena like automatic writing, or cross-correspondences, or haunted houses, have received more attention than they deserve : but I do say that the phenomena of dreams, which are a normal experience, have received far less attention than they deserve. In current psychology, as distinguished from Psychical Research, the neglect of them is disgraceful and astonishing. They are treated as a negligible side-show ; or as belonging to some realm of nonsense which it is beneath the dignity of the psychologist to consider.

I think it a pity also that Psychical Research, when it has taken up the subject of dreams, has concentrated so much of its thought on the question of the " veridical " character of a certain limited class. This, no doubt, is a point of great

MAT. 1916. Dru/inif,,- Dreania 17«j

interest and worthy of due consideration. But veridical dreams are exceptional, at all event*, and not one whit more " mysterious " than many other classes which are quite com- mon, and which hardly receive an allusion in the literature of the subject. Moreover, while so little is understood of the psychology of common dreams, it seems futile to expect much light on the nature of the " queer " ones.

In order to limit the subject I will here call attention to only one class of common dreams, which, for want of a better adjective, I call "dramatic."

By a dramatic dream I mean one in which more than one person play distinct and yet interdependent parts, whether as actors or as speakers, and in which the action leads on to an issue or crisis unforeseen by any of the parties to its develop- ment. To make this clearer I will quote an actual case.

In my dream I am walking in an unfamiliar country and realize that I have lost my way. Presently I meet a stranger whose appearance greatly puzzles me, for he is clothed in a sun helmet and white ducks. The feeling of being puzzled, the knowledge that I do not know the person before me is, be it observed, an integral part of the dream. I then ask him to tell me the way home and wait for hie reply, wondering what it will be ; the waiting and the wondering being also integral parts of the dream. To my surprise and horror — all elements of the dream — he answers that I may give up all hope of finding my way home, for I am in China, and the nearest city is Shanghai.

The problem that now arises is, who is the author of this stranger and of the part he plays, and of the effect that part has upon me ? Who constructed this man in white ducks, who put that reply in his mouth, who invented my surprise and horror when I heard it ? Where did it all come from ?

The common answer is, of course, that the mind of the dreamer does the whole thing. At some time or another I had been reading about China and people in white ducks ; I had also had the experience of losing my way, and out of the medley of images stored in the brain my mind conslntcto these groupings and works them up, in virtue of some mysterious hanky-panky, into the scene described. In short, the dream is simply the invention of the dreamer.

180 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAY, 1916.

A little consideration is enough to show that this kind of explanation, into whatsoever details it may be worked out, is sheer nonsense.

The explanation involves three agents. The dreamer and two dream personalities ; one of whom seems to be the original dreamer himself " I ", and the other a second and distinct individual (the man in white ducks). These two last and all that they say or do are supposed to be the invention of the first, i.e. the dreamer invents a dream-image of himself and another dream-image of somebody else.

Up to that point the explanation presents no difficulties on the surface (though there are plenty in the depths). The constructive imagination of the novelist or dramatist seems to present a perfect analogy. Psychologically the dreamer is only doing what Defoe did when he constructed the character of Robinson Crusoe (introduced in the story as " I ") and of Man Friday, and " set them going " in definite dramatic situations.

But, unfortunately, this analogy stops at the very point which most challenges an explanation. For the dream includes not only the presence, actions and conversations of the persons concerned, but the whole series of psychological reactions caused by the acts done and the things said. Now, some of these are of such a kind that they cannot be accounted for in the way supposed. One of them, for example, was my intense surprise on learning that I was in China. But if my own mind had invented the notion that I was in China, it would not have been surprised on hearing another person say that I was there. The dream-person was surprised and intensely so. The surprise was not acted ; it was the real thing. Moreover, there was the moment when he was waiting for the reply of his interlocutor, wondering what it would be — a perfectly definite psychological state. But such a state could not occur if the fact were that I had the reply up my own sleeve all the time. I have myself written a good many stories, and readily admit that when a writer puts a remark in the mouth of one speaker he doesn't always know what reply he will invent for the other speaker. But he does know that he has to invent the reply, whatever it may be ; and when it comes he recognizes it at once as his own invention. Between such a case and that of the dream the dirTerence is quite distinct, and no analogy is

MAY, 1916. Dramatic Dreams. I s |

possible. I grant also that in the highest artistic invention the creator may become so completely identified with what he is creating as to be ignorant that he is creating it, and to feel some of the surprise at the result which he would have felt had he been a mere spectator of the process. But hcr«- the artist and the dreamer become one, and the process, instead of explaining what takes place in dreams, is itself tin- thing to be explained. And even in this case there is an important difference. When the work is done, the great artist has plenty of evidence that his own mind did it. However " rapt " Beethoven may have been in composing the Ninth Symphony, and however surprised he may have been at the result, he was afterwards fully aware of his own responsibility for its creation and under no danger of attributing it to Bach. But this is the very point on which evidence is lacking in the case of the dream — the very point in dispute. Here the principal evidence is my surprise on learning that " I " was in China, and this evidence, so far as it goes, indicates that the information was a piece of genuine news. For the mind cannot prepare surprises for itself any more than a man can play chess with himself.

My point is, then, that however far we may be able to go in explaining the situation of a dramatic dream by attributing it to the mind of the dreamer, the explanation breaks down utterly when we come to the psychological reactions, which are just as much a part of the dream as is the situation from which they issue.

By way of emphasizing the point, I will cite another instance of a dramatic dream. In this case I dreamt that I was fight- ing a duel with rapiers with a man whom I seemed, in my dream, to know quite well, but who was and is a perfect stranger to my waking life. The personality of my antagonist and the surroundings were extraordinarily distinct, and are clearly remembered now after an interval of four years. I have never handled a rapier in my life, but in my dream I found myself skilled in its use. Nevertheless, I was full of anxiety as to the issue, and terribly afraid that I might lose my life. I offered at the outset to shake hands with my opponent, and asked in what I had offended him. ''You will find that out in another world," he answered, " for I am going

182 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAY, 1916.

to send you to heaven." I remember being surprised at his answer, for I expected he would say " hell." Then the duel began ; and a more " real " duel was never fought. My antagonist's thrusts and parries were all his own ; they baffled me every moment. He changed his tactics incessantly, and I was intensely on my guard, for I could see that his purpose was to take me unawares. I felt all the tension of fighting for my life, and made a desperate resolve that I would kill my foe. After a time he seemed to weaken, and I made sure that I should win. Then he suddenly sprang to one side and, with a thrust I was too late to parry, he slit my cheek from mouth to ear, and a moment afterwards plunged his rapier through my body. I believe I awoke at the same moment.

I do not offer this as a " wonderful " dream, but as a sample of a large class of dreams which has never been thoroughly studied. The suggestion I make is this : even allowing — what is very difficult to allow — that the mind of the dreamer accounts for the part played in this dream by one of the actors involved (myself), it certainly does not account for the part played by the other. Nor does it account for the psychological reactions on either side.

Compare with this the duel of Hamlet and Laertes as imagined by Shakespeare. Here the mind of Shakespeare is in control. To each of the imaged personalities he assigns his part and combines them both to a foreseen result. They do and say what the imagination of their creator makes them do and say. And the creator knows perfectly well that he is creating. In the dream the consciously creating mind is entirely absent and consciousness transferred to the personalities created.

The dream-personalities, then, have a genuine experience — at least one of them (myself) has it, and the other (my antagonist) appears to have it also. Each has a mind of his own which determines his actions in relation to the similarly determined actions of the other. One of them remembers his experience and can report it afterwards. They appear to be independent of any third mind which is pulling the strings.

Lastly, compare the dream-duel with any " actual " duel of history. Are there any tests of the " reality " of the one which are not equally satisfied by the other ?

MAY, 1916. Dramatic Dream*. 1 x:>,

It may be said there are many. For example, my present body bears no trace of the wounds received in the dream-duel. But this objection holds only if we assume that my present body and my dream body, which was pierced by a rapier, are the same body. Why make that assumption ? The dream-body (or its owner) certainly felt the wounds, and bore plain traces of them.

Again, my antagonist cannot be found or called as a witness. This assuredly leaves my evidence without his corroboration, but does not affect its value as far. as it goes. It is a diffi- culty, but not a fatal one. For the fact that my antagonist cannot be found is no proof that he never existed.

My own conclusion is that the dream-duel actually occurred in the same sense that any duel, or any event, actually occurs. I would not go the length of saying that it occurred to me : but it occurred to somebody. Whatever difficulties may beset this conclusion — and they are mainly difficulties of exposition — they are less, in my opinion, than! those which attach to any other hypothesis or explanation.

In saying this I do not overlook the circumstance that the conclusion lacks corroborative evidence, whether of my " anta- gonist " or anybody else. The strength of the conclusion lies in the fact (as it seems to me) that the dream cannot be interpreted in any other way.

The main difficulty ot exposition is, that the pronoun " I " has to be used throughout in a double function ; first, to indicate the person here and now narrating his dream, and secondly, to indicate the dream-personality whose experiences are narrated. A single] pronoun being used for both, they appear to be the same identical " I." But to assume their identity is to beg the most important of the questions at issue.

NOTICE OF CURRENT PERIODICALS.

Archives de Psychologic, No. 60, Dec. 1915, contains some reflections by Prof. H. Delacroix on the interesting and important case of the ' Modern Mystic ' studied by Prof. Flournoy in No. 58. (Cf. this Journal for March.) While disclaiming the ambition of discussing either mystical sensuality or the mysticism of sensuality,

184 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. MAY, 1916.

he concludes with a suggestion that the mystic ecstasy may be a purified equivalent or sublimation of the profoundest life of the instincts. The number contains also a detailed account by Prof. Flournoy of the strange case of ' Eva C.,' alias Marthe Beraud, in the shape of a review of Madame Bisson's Phenomknes de materialisation (Paris, Alcan, 1914), one of the chief, and the most accessible, of the books reviewed in Miss Verrall's ' History of Marthe Beraud ' in Proceedings, Part LXIX. Prof. Flournoy pleads for a suspense of judgment, and Prof. Claparede, who appends a postscript to the review, states that he was, in January 1914, present at two sittings which presented striking spectacles, though, as he could not experiment freely, he hesitates to come to a conclusion. p Q g g

No. OCCXXX.-Voi.. XVII. jVKKf |9I6

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS. War Prophecies, - . . ..

WAR PROPHECIES. BY F. C. S. SCHILLER.

IT was psychologically to be expected that the terrific strain of the most terrible of wars should produce widespread emo- tional disturbance in the populations subjected to it, and that this, again, should lead to an apparent recrudescence of many primitive beliefs and practices. For though to a cursory inspection these might seem to have become extinct, they remained deeply ingrained in human nature and had only been driven underground ; they would, therefore, be sure to be brought to the surface again by any spiritual convulsion. So it was just as natural that the allies should circulate stories of supernatural interventions on behalf of their just cause as that the Germans should revert to the magical practice of hammer- ing nails into images. The alleged war-prophecies plainly belong to the same stratum of beliefs and make their appeal to the same condition of war-neurosis, and the ordinary sociolo- gist would not hesitate to dismiss them as unworthy of scientific attention. But our Society exists for the express purpose of raking over the rubbish-heaps of orthodox science, and must not shrink from the search for truth in unlikely places. I need not apologize, therefore, for putting on record the results of examining a number of prophecies about the war which have been in circulation.

The material placed in my hands by the office of the S.P.R. is, unfortunately, far from complete. It is composed only of matter published in this country and in France, and so throws

186 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JUNK, 1916.

no light on the doings of the interpreters of prophecy else- where. It did not, moreover, enable me to trace all the documents referred to, and to verify such assertions as seemed verifiable. The researches necessary for this purpose would have been arduous or impossible under present circumstances ; still it might have been our duty to undertake them, if the evidential quality of the material had been such as to con- stitute even a prima facie probability that the results of such research would be anything but negative. As a matter of fact, it must be confessed that the evidence was so bad that it did not seem to warrant further investigation. The bulk of it is just irresponsible, unauthenticated, unverifiable, and often anonymous, hearsay. Still one should not, even so, assert dogmatically that the evidence, where it has not been possible to test it, must be as bad as where it has been tested ; only it seems fair to say that the burden of proof rests on those who believe it to be better. They may be required to give definite verifiable references for the authenticity of the pro- phecies alleged ; until this is done, their inherent improba- bility, their anonymity, and vagueness suffice to condemn them.

I will proceed to criticize some of the more verifiable cases. (1) The best known perhaps is that about some arithmetical

coincidences in the life of William, the first German Emperor. It has the merit of having certainly been in existence before 1914, though it was probably not invented until 1888. The story goes that in 1849 Prince William of Prussia " was wandering incognito in the Rhine Provinces attended only by an aide-de-camp," l and wae accosted by a gipsy (at Mainz), who hailed him as ' Imperial Majesty.' " Not a little amused— for at that moment his chance of succeeding even to the throne of Prussia seemed slight — the Prince asked " when he would be emperor, whereupon the gipsy took the date of the year and added to it the figures 1+8+4+9, thus producing 1871 (right). A further inquiry as to how long the Prince would reign was similarly answered by 1871+1+8+7+1 = 1888 (right again), and finally the end of the German Empire was

I 1 quote from Mr. Ralph Shirley's pamphlet on Prophecies and Omens of the Great War, 3rd ed. 1915 (p. 11 foil.), a work the uncritical character of which is not redeemed by the fact that its author plainly shows how little belief he himself has in the prophecies he retails.

JUNE, 1916. War Prophfldt*. 187

piophesied for 1888 + 1+848+8 = 1913. Now even in 1914 it had to be explained that the Kaiser craftily put off the beginning of the war in order to defeat (at any rate) the prophetic gipsy : by 1916 even the most credulous must have become sceptical about the correctness of the terminal date.

But this is by no means the sole flaw in the story. It is not historically true that the future emperor had no expecta- tion of becoming King of Prussia : in 1849 he was heir pre- sumptive, and his brother's marriage had remained childless for twenty-five years. Nor can the alleged prophecy have been made to him in exile ; for though he retired from Berlin in March 1848, he was back again in June, and took his seat in the National Assembly, while in 1849 he was commanding the army which put down the popular risings in South Germany.1 Clearly, then, two out of the four dates in the story are demonstrably wrong. If a prophecy was made to him in exile, it must have been in 1848, not in 1849. But if we take this year as our starting point, the dates for the establishment of the German Empire and its first emperor's death go wrong. 1848+1+8+4+8 = 1869, and 1869+1+8+6+9 = 1893. The interpreters of prophecy may explain this by saying that the Franco-German War should have come in 1869, and that the emperor should have lived to be 96 ; indeed, they had better say this, for if they persevere they will be rewarded by a final gleam of success. For 1893+1+8+9+3=1914, which is (or may be) right. But with this mode of calculation again two (at least) of the four dates are wrong.

(2) A more antique, and even more unfortunate, appeal to prophecy is presented by the Prophecy of Lehnin, which has now been translated into English for the first time, with notes, by ' Sepharial,' and is published as a sixpenny pamphlet by W. Foul-sham & Co. (an ominous name !). This prophecy " prefiguring the rise and fall of the Prussian despotism of Germany," as the title-page avers, is ascribed to a certain Arminius, Prior of the monastery of Lehnin in Brandenburg about 1240, and so is very much of a ' chestnut.' It is composed of a hundred (shockingly bad) Latin verses, and professes to foretell the fortunes of Brandenburg, the rise of the Hohenzollerns, their conversion to the Lutheran heresy, and

>Cf. Enryc. Brit. «.r.

188 Journal of Society for Psychical Rfiftearch. JUNE, 191C.

their downfall, in a thoroughly monkish spirit. It is predicted that with the eleventh of these heretical rulers the dynasty will end, Germany will recover her peace, prosperity and king,1 and that the monastery of Lehnin will be restored to its pristine splendour. In view of this conclusion it would seem to demand some audacity to interpret the prophecy as heralding the overthrow of Germany. However, neither ' Sepharial ' nor Mr. Shirley are abashed. They also boldly assert the authenticity of the prophecy's alleged date, although it appears to be a matter of common knowledge among the learned that it was never printed before 1723, and cannot be traced back beyond 1693. Brockhaus's Encyclopedia says curtly that its authenticity has been convincingly disproved, that it was probably concocted by Canon Andreas Fromm about 1684, and that since that date all its ' prophecies ' have gone very wide of the mark.

The most insuperable objection to the claims of this prophecy also appears to be arithmetical. As before, the interpreters come to grief over a simple sum in addition. For the fact is that the eleventh Protestant Hohenzollern has come and gone some time ago : his name was Frederick William III., and he died in 1840 ! It follows that William II. cannot be the eleventh Protestant Hohenzollern to rule over Brandenburg. He is, in fact, the fifteenth. This unfortunate discrepancy has not altogether escaped Mr. Shirley (I.e. p. 57), who considers it a " curiously exact " fulfilment of prophecy that the Catho- lics should have " had their disabilities removed during the reign of Frederick IV., who, though the twelfth in succession, represents the eleventh generation, Joachim II. succeeding his brother Joachim I." All these assertions are incorrect, and even if they were not, would not help Mr. Shirley. For on his own showing Frederick William IV. was the twelfth Hohen- zollern. How, then, can William II. be the eleventh and be identified with his own great-grandfather, Frederick William III.?

Mr. Shirley's interpretation of the final catastrophe is no less curious. The prophecy rims

" Tandem sceptra gerit qui stemmatis ultimus erit (sic !) Israel infandum scelus audet morte piandum."

1 Not kings, as in ' Sepharial's ' translation.

JUNK. 1910. War Prophecies.

This should mean that the last Hohenzollern will be mur- dered by a Jew. But Mr. Shirley interprets " presumably from the point of view of the Prior of Lehnin ' Israel ' is a name adopted for the Christian community in Brandenburg " !

(3) An article by Prof. William Gregory in BlackuxxxTs Magazine for May 1850 records a number ol popular prophecies which he found current in the Lower Rhine country, and which seemed to him to agree in presaging a great war with a terrific final battle of the Birch-Tree, near Werl, in Westphalia. These legends have now apparently wandered up the Rhine and yielded the material which has been vamped up into what Mr. Shirley reports as " the Prophecy of Mayence," so called after an (imaginary) convent of St. Hildegard near this city, (I.e. pp. 13-15) and dates at 1854. He gives away the French origin of its present form by leaving the word for birch-tree untranslated, as a French place-name in the middle of Germany. There are, of course, other differ- ences also. In Prof. Gregory's material the war was conceived as being between the north and the east (Russia, Prussia) against the south and the west (Austria, France) which accorded well enough with the circumstances of 1849-50 ; in the ' prophecy ' of Mayence the political combinations have been brought up to date. Both versions agree in having a strong Catholic bias.

M. de Vesme, the editor of the Annales des Sciences Psy- chiqiies, who has subjected War Prophecies to some excellent criticism and very damaging research in his issues for Oct. 1915 and Feb. 1916, throws some light on these discrepancies. It appears that in 1909 (i.e. during the first Austro-Servian crisis), the Message* d' Alsace Lorraine printed a tale by an ex-organist, M. Jecker (now dead) who professed to have read this prophecy in 1866 in an old book (without a title-page) which he found in the house of a village priest (whose hrirs destroyed his literary remains). He learnt it by heart (!) and told it to 500 persons between the years 1866 and 1870, not one of whom is now producible. In 1912, after tho Agadir crisis and the death of M. Jecker, the Messager pub- lished some additions, which are chiefly interesting as pmlirting that three wars would be waged to restore the Bourbon monarchy in France. In 1914 another and extensively fukwl

190 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JUNK, 1916.

version was issued. In this the clerical and Legitimist passages were cut out, including the picturesque detail that the ' young prince of the old blood of the Caps ' (Capets) should mount his white horse from the left side because his right leg was lame. The number of the Allies was increased from four (? France, Russia, England, Serbia) to seven, and the ending was greatly altered, the promised restoration of the Pope's Temporal Power having become extremely mal & propos. It is evident that every editor who publishes a ' prophecy ' considers it his duty to bring his material up to date.

(4) A French Catholic origin may similarly be ascribed to the prophecy of ' Brother John ' which appeared in the Paris Figaro, and is wholly unauthenticated.1 The same bias runs through the Almanacks of Mme de Th6bes, to which we may noxt turn. Mme de Thebes is a professional prophetess of Parisian fame who combines clairvoyance with astrological skill, and has a reputation which impresses the editor of the Occult Review. He thinks that " her predictions in the issues for 1912 and 1913 were not a little remarkable." He has, however, finally to admit that " the Parisian seeress seems to have anticipated that the struggle would begin a year before it actually took place " (Prophecies and Omens, p. 41).

Now the facts about ' Mme de Th&bes ' (as gathered from an examination of her Almanacks for 1912, 1914 and 1915) appear to be these. Like all ' prophets ' she is fond of predicting wars and catastrophes, and after the 1911 crisis it would have been remarkable if she had refrained from doing so, especially as political circles in Paris, with which she appears to be more or less in touch (probably on their feminine side), seem to have been far more conscious of the critical condition of European peace than those in London. Her prophecies, however, are mostly couched in vague general terms, and she often ' hedges.' Moreover, the claims to a ' fulfilment ' of her previous pre- dictions which she annually makes are frequently very 'thin.'

1 Mr. Shirley's comment on its provenance is " Monsieur Peladan states that the Latin book " (in which his father is said to have found it) " is lost and that his translation only exists in the handwriting of a clerk who copied it. He has not even produced this somewhat inadequate evidence in confirmation of his bona fides " (I.e. p. 24). But it was M. de Vesme who interviewed M. Peladan, and forced him to own that " unfortunately I possess no proof of the authenticity of this document." Verb. Sap.

JUNE, 1916. War Prophecies. 191

She also makes a considerable number of egregious blunders. For example, both in the 1911 and 1912 issues she predict .-d the outbreak of the Great War in 1913 (p. 28 and p. 25), and the downfall of Germany and the disappearance of her emperor (p. 36 and pp. 37, 44). In the 1912 issue she predicts also an earthquake and a scarcity of milk in France (pp. 25-6), an attack by Italy on France (p. 36), the success of the Duchess of Hohenberg's l plans (p. 37), a civil war in Belgium (predicted also in 1909), which might well set Europe ablaze, a multitude of violent deaths and a possible collapse of mon- archy in England, and revolutions in Japan. The 1914 issue contains inter alia the following obvious failures : the French army on the frontiers by the 20th March, 1914, the discovery of great mineral wealth in Western France and its trans- formation into an industrial district (p. 53), again a war with Italy (p. 54), the extinction of the Belgian monarchy and the subjection of Belgium (p. 58), external and internal war in England, with the greatest danger of a complete overthrow (p. 59). On the other hand, the prediction of a new Pope (p. 54) would be a palpable hit, if it had not been known how precarious the health of Pius X. had been getting. The issue for 1915 predicts a (victorious) end to the war by June 1915 (p. 37), a revolution in Germany and the Kaiser's dis- appearance (p. 53), the death of the ' sinister old man,' the Emperor of Austria (a very probable prediction, seeing how often the newspapers have prepared the public mind for it !) (p. 54), the destruction of Turkey (p. 65), and an apology to Belgium for having suspected the court and the Flemings of siding with Germany. There are no clear successes in this issue at all ; for it was obvious that " valiant Servia is not at an end of its warlike destiny " and probable enough that Bulgaria would be involved (side not stated).

These specimens will probably suffice to show what clair- voyance and astrology,, can do inj the way of prediction. A glance at the efforts of astrology pure, simple and unaided may fitly conclude our study. For only an utterly hard- hearted Psychical Researcher will refrain from shedding a sympathetic tear over the downfall of poor * Old Moore.'

1 The consort of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, who was murdered with

him at Serajevo.

192 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JUNK, 1010.

That this worthy's Almanack for 1914 should have failed to read the doom of European civilization in the stars may be excused perhaps by human frailty and the feebleness of man's vision ; but one would have expected him to make ample amends at any rate in 1915, and to give quite as authentic an account of it as the leading newspapers. To our astonish- ment, however, we find nothing at all that can be interpreted as a recognition by the astral powers of the troubles of the terrestrial — merely conventional remarks that at such and such a time " the safety of the Tsar will give grave reason for anxiety to his best friends " in the police ! It is rumoured that the explanation is simple. Old Moore's " genuine Foul- sham edition " for 1915 had gone to press before the end of July 1914 ! It will not do for a prophet, however, to be more than a year behind the times. So in 1916 Old Moore does discover the war. In fact he is full of it, full also of disasters, victories, defeats, strikes and revolutions, all illus- trated with the most lurid woodcuts. In the end he leaves the war going strong on the 31st of December. I grieve to say ' Old Moore ' is rather a pessimist, who ought to be suppressed for prejudicing recruiting. But what can one expect for one penny ? Let those who desire to be cheered, and are willing to spend sixpence on the lore of the stars, betake themselves to Zadkiel's Almanack for 1916, and believe (if they can) that the war will be brought to a victorious conclusion in March.

In view of all this material, it certainly does not become easier to believe that the human race is growing in enlighten- ment and increasing in critical intelligence. We still have no reply to traffickers in omens and dealers in prophecy better than that which Homer of old put into the mouth of Hector—

ef? oiwvos apio-To? a/uivvefrOui Trepl

1 Iliad, 12. 143. " One omen is best, to defend one's fatherland."

No. CCCXXXL— VOL. XVII. JULY, 1918.

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS.

PAOB

Obituary Notice, 198

New Members and Associates, 194

Meeting of the Council, 194

Private Meeting, • 194

Psychology of Mrs. Piper's Trance, - 186

An Authentic Prophecy?- - - 19»

Dreams and Psychology, 201

Case, 204

Notes on Current Periodicals, •- 807

The Booms of the Society at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., will be closed during August and September, re-opening on Monday, October 2nd.

The next number of the Journal will be issued in October.

OBITUARY.

MRS. A. W. VERRALL.

WE regret to have to announce the death on July 2nd at her residence in Cambridge of Mrs. A. W. Verrall in her fifty-ninth year, after several months of illness. She joined the Society for Psychical Research in January 1889, and had been a member of the Council since 1901. She was one of the most active workers in the Society, and while herself an automatist, was a keen, critical and indefatigable investigator to whom much of the progress made in recent years is due. A fuller notice of her life and of her work in Psychical Research will be published in the next number of the Proceedings.

194 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, line.

NEW MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES.

Names of Members are pi'inted in Black Type. Nantes of Associates are jninted in SMALL CAPITALS.

Eckstein, Mrs., 18 Park Lane, London, W.

Patton, Mrs., Stoke Court, near Taunton.

DARBYSHIRE, REV. H. S., St. Margaret's Vicarage, Methley, Leeds.

HAGGER, REV. J. 0., The Manse, Waterfoot, Manchester.

RAWLINSON, REV. G. C., 20 Holbein House, London, S.W.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

THE 141st Meeting of the Council was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Friday, June 23rd, 1916, at 3.15 p.m. ; MR. H. ARTHUR SMITH in the chair. There were also present : Mr. \\. \V. Baggally, Sir William Barrett, Rev. M. A. Bay- field, Mr. E. N. Bennett, Sir Lawrence Jones, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Mr. St. G. L. Fox Pitt, and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick ; also, Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Minutes of the last Meeting of the Council were read and signed as correct.

Two new Members and three new Associates were elected. Their names and addresses are given above.

The Monthly Accounts for April and May, 1916, were presented and taken as read.

PRIVATE MEETING FOR MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES.

THE 54th Private Meeting of the Society for Members and Associates only was held in the Council Chamber at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Friday, June 23rd, 1916, at 4 p.m. ; SIR WILLIAM BARRETT in the chair.

SIB OLIVER LODGE read a paper on " Recent Evidence about Prevision and Survival," which will be published in the next Part of the Proceedings. This Part will, it is hoped, be ready for circulation in October.

JULY, 1916. Psychology of Mrs. Pipers Trance. 195

PSYCHOLOGY OF MRS. PIPER'S TRANCE. BY F. C. CONSTABLE.

IN considering this subject Mrs. Sidgwick's point of view is so neutral, and she keeps so remarkably free from all pre- judice arising from the personal equation, that her opinion must have great weight. The following paragraph appears to me to express a sound theory, so perhaps I may be for- given for paraphrazing it in some measure :

" Of course, communication with the dead, when it occurs, must imply a real communicator in the background, but the point is that this does not necessitate either the dramatic communicator or the control being other than phases or elements of Mrs. Piper, nor does it exclude the possibility that the dramatic communicator is a fiction, or a dream, or a hallucination of the control, each of which things it appears sometimes to be. That it is with phases or elements — centres of consciousness — of Mrs. Piper, and not with entities independent of her, that the sitter is in direct communication, seems to me for the reasons given to be the hypothesis which best fits the facts so far as we know them : that under which they most readily fall into an intelligible order and are most easily interpreted. And it is also a hypothesis against which no valid arguments have, so far as I have seen, been adduced." (p. 320.)

I agree fully with what is above stated. Indeed, I would go further, — I suggest that where there is a real communica- tion from the dead, the real communicator must always find his greatest stumbling-block to communication in the always present fact of the dramatic communicator.

Now we are all self-conscious subjects, embodied or un- embodied. Self-consciousness is a thing in itself, for us. The common bond of union between us is in Consciousness, and from this bond there is constant, timeless, communion. But communication infers mental operation in time.

The evidence for telepathy between the living is found in thought-transference ; there is sympathy or rapport between the mental operations of the agent and percipient. (Note. It is shown in ' Personality and Telepathy ' that there is no direct transference of ideas ; the direct bond is in com-

196 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, 1916.

munion, there is emergence of like or associated ideas.) But in telepathy between the living and the dead this cannot be. Imagination — as Kant says, deep buried in the soul of man — still exists for the dead, but the inhibition of imagin- ation by the brain for the production of thought is impossible for the dead : the dead have no brains, as instruments for thought. There are but the brains of the living for use, and so, in any particular case, the brain of the living must be used by the dead for communication with the living. Mark the distinction made between communion (which transcends ideas) and communication.

Mrs. Piper falls into hypnosis under the impression that another personality is to take possession of her organism. She does not fall into that deep state where there is not only full inhibition of all external sensuous effects, but full inhibition of personal mental operation. (Note. But a few contimious records of communication from George Pelham suggest this state.) There is still, for her, some mental operation, and she is still open, in some measure, to external sensuous effects.

Mentally, she is affected by her impression that the person- ality which has been brought to her attention is to take possession of her organism ; she, desiring such possession, naturally dramatizes this personality. I write ' naturally ' because human experience informs us of what takes place. We all of us, embodied, live in dramatization. I am I ; I offer to the world but a dramatized self; each one of us knows he is not that self published to the world. If you who read try to worry out what you yourself are you will find you exist in dreams : you exist in your own dreams, which have little or nothing to do with yourself as a mere actor manifest on the world's stage. The pleasures of love exist largely in self-revelation to another — the one enjoys admitting another behind the scenes, where he or she is dressing up for appearance before the footlights.

If we say that the communicator suggested to and desired by Mrs. Piper is — to take one instance — Julius Caesar, we encounter no difficulty in explanation of what takes place. Mrs. Piper dramatizes Julius Caesar. No matter whether the dramatization be successful or not the mental process

JULY. 1916. Psychology of Mrs. Piper's Trance. 1<J7

is akin to that of Shakespeare dramatizing Hamlet, or Cer- vantes Don Quixote. We have nothing before us but a dramatized communicator.

It is when a dramatic communicator like George Pelharu comes on the scene that our difficulties in explanation begin. That George Pelham is dramatized as a communicator is, I think, clear from the fact that, ordinarily, when there is manifest consecutive mental operation on Mrs. Piper's part as shown by her speech or writing, then G. P. is dramatized. But, sometimes, the dramatic communicator G. P. appears to give us communications not from the actor dressed up by Mrs. Piper but from himself. It is true that when he gives these communications he gives them through himself as an actor, as dressed up, but the communica- tions would appear to be from himself undramatized. We have some analogy from Shakespeare : Thackeray gives us a very clear character of Shakespeare himself, though we know little or nothing of Shakespeare's life, apart from his characterizations of philosophers, warriors, cowards, clowns, and women. Sterne, in the pulpit, is said to have once revealed himself by taking off his periwig and throwing it in the face of the congregation.

Now if G. P. could, without impediment, use Mrs. Piper's brain, he could himself communicate directly with us. But he does not do this : the information we get from him is usually 'scrappy and imperfect.' (p. 320.)

If Mrs. Sidgwick's theory be sound, this scrappiness and imperfection are accounted for. For, by that theory, G. P. finds impediment to direct communication not only from Mrs. Piper's partial personal mental activity and partial open- ness to external sensuous affections, but from her natural dramatization of G. P. as a communicator. G. P. has to 4 seize ' moments of blankness on Mrs. Piper's part in mental activity and openness to sensuous affections, for direct com- munication. The very scrappiness and imperfections of direct information from G. P. are what, by the theory, we should expect — what we should expect, that is, if G. P. be a real communicator.

But I must be a little critical. The position of those of us who are outsiders is to be pitied. The best evidence

198 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, 1916.

for direct communication is denied us. For instance, Mrs. Sidgwick refers to a ' dramatic incident.' On turning to the account of this dramatic incident (Vol. XIII.. p. 321), we find that it consists of statements of private matters made privately to a Mr. Howard by G. P., through Mrs. Piper, which fully convinced Mr. Howard that G. P. himself had been communicating with him. But neither we — nor Hodgson himself — are told what was communicated. The above is not the only instance existing. I think we must not quarrel with this concealment of private matters, for the concealment is on its face natural and reasonable. Even personally I admit myself particeps criminis. For the strongest instance I have ever had of communication with the dead gave me information that no one else living will ever be made aware of. But all such instances do not constitute evidence of any kind, unless we fall back, unreasonably, on the accept- ance of authority for belief and confuse belief with evidence.

Again, when direct information gets through from a real communicator, I think it should, naturally, be marked as diiferent in some way from information beginning and ending with the dramatized communicator ; how marked it is difficult to define. But as to this I may use analogy. Like other human beings I dream, and in the twenty-five thousand days and nights of my passing life have probably dreamt, by day and night, millions of dreams. All have past from immediate memory : all but three. These three exist always present to me in time — three instances of communion with the dead, two of them followed by the emergence of definite ideas. The three were markedly different in impression from their millions of fellows.

Possibly there is some evidence of this difference in the Piper records. There are a few abnormal and excited ' rushes ' at her waking stages which appear to give direct communication. And, where the communication is direct and continuous, the record, perhaps, appears marked by an absence of personal mental activity on Mrs. Piper's part.

All communications revealing what personal existence is after disembodiment must, I think, be referred to as begin- ning and ending with dramatized communicators.

Thought being correlated to movement of the material brain exists in inhibition of imagination, and we can imagine

JULY, 1916. Psychology of Mrs. Piper's Trance. 1 M'j

that the disembodied may be able to use the brains of the embodied for the inhibition of their imagination. But we cannot imagine any inhibition of imagination opening to us the wonders of free imagination. They may be able to come to us on our limited plane, but we can rise to them on their relatively limitless plane only in extasy, where we are free from the limits of thoughts and ideas. The child playing with its earthly toys is apt to picture for itself a future life where toys are innumerable and unbreakable.

AN AUTHENTIC PROPHECY?

SINCE writing the criticism of War Prophecies in the June Journal, I have had my attention called to a Serbian prophecy which has some pretensions to authenticity, and certainly has several points of interest. Not only is it claimed that it has been extensively fulfilled already, but some of its fulfilment is demonstrably posterior to the prediction ; also it still concerns the future. Moreover, it was made the subject of a contem- poraneous official record, and has had considerable political influence. The story as gathered from two versions in M. Chedo- mille Mijatovich's A Royal Tragedy, published in London in 1906, and from a private paper contributed by him to the records of the S.P.R. in July, 1903, and if one ignores minor dis- crepancies, runs as follows :

On the 29th (or 28th) of May, 1868, a peasant named Mata, from the neighbouring village of Kremna, began to cry aloud in the principal street of Ujitza, a town in western Serbia, that the then Prince of Serbia, Michael Obrenovich, was being horribly murdered and ' slashed with yatagans.' He was arrested by the police as causing public alarm, but in the evening a telegram arrived announcing the correctness of his vision. The Prefect of Ujitza then interrogated Mata further, and found that he had no connexion with the assassins, but had had other visions about the future of Serbia, and put his predictions on record. The document containing them was sent to Belgrade and kept in the Secret Archives, but M. Mijatovich, though he professes to have watched the fulfilment of its predictions from 1875, when he first heard of it, and was told in 1880 by Milan G. Milityevich that he had a copy, and in 1889 by Nicola Christich, then Prime Minister, that he had read the original document,

200 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, 1916.

does not himself claim ever to have seen it. Anyhow, the prophecies of Mata are said to have predicted the events of the reigns of Milan and Alexander with great exactitude, including the latter's murder and the extinction of the Obrenovich line. The evidential value of these reports it will be possible to judge only when the authentic text of the ' protocol ' is published ; but this is not likely to happen, as the Serbians probably destroyed all their secret archives before evacuating Belgrade. We are only concerned evidentially, therefore, with those parts of the story which referred to events subsequent to 1903.

These predict (1) the succession of the Karageorgeviches, whose rule, however, is to be short, ' 2 or 3 years,' ' about 3 years,' 'not for long,' in the various versions given by M. Mijatovich; (2) a foreign conquest leading to great suffering among the people, BO that they will envy the dead in the churchyards. This will last ' a few ' years or ' many.' (3) Then there will arise a saviour among the people who will deliver them from their oppressors and unite all Serbians happily in one state. (4) This liberator is to be in some sense a descendant of the Obrenoviches, ' as though an oak tree, after being cut down, should suddenly send up a shoot from its roots at some distance from the original tree.'

Now it is evident that so far only the second of these pre- dictions can be said to have been fulfilled, and that not very remarkably. For in 1868 the position of Serbia was precarious enough to make a foreign conquest seem quite a possible eventua- lity. However, Mata would be more likely to think of the Turks than of the Austrians and Bulgarians.

The first point cannot be said to have come true literally, for the Karageorgevich rule would have lasted a dozen years, even if it were not destined to be restored. The third point merely expresses commonplaces of patriotic aspiration everywhere.

The fourth point is certainly remarkably definite, and its fulfilment would go far to place Mata's clairvoyance beyond cavil. At the same time, it is highly improbable, though not wholly impossible. For although the house of Obrenovich is apparently extinct, it is understood that through the female line its claims have passed to a grandson of King Nicholas of Monte- negro, while the son of King Milan and Mme. Artemise Christich is still alive. While therefore its further fulfilment seems im- probable, it is perhaps permissible to keep an eye on the Black Prophecy of Mata of Kremna. F. C. S. SCHILLER.

JULY, 1916. Dreams and Psychology. 201

DREAMS AND PSYCHOLOGY.

THE opinions expressed in Dr. Jacks's charming little paper in the May Journal on Dramatic Dreams so entirely accord with beliefs I have cherished (with very little social encouragement) for very many years, that I cannot refrain from seconding his appeal on behalf of the dream life, which is so considerable a portion of the totality of human experience. In particular, I would echo his complaint about the neglect of dreams by pro- fessional psychologists. Here we have hundreds, even thousands, of highly selected, trained and endowed men who have been spending their whole time on researches which are only very remotely connected with the problems of concrete minds, and have so far been singularly barren of applications, and they leave utterly unrecorded, uninvesti gated and untouched insistent phenomena which could easily be experimented with and about which almost nothing is definitely known ! We are all dreamers, and yet we have never tried to conquer this region of experience, to discover the best methods of dreaming and of regulating its apparent madness. There ought surely to be a Society for the serious and scientific study of dreams, which would co-operate with the S.P.R. The present is not, however, an auspicious time for inaugurating such a Society ; so I will content myself with suggesting to Dr. Jacks that he ought to change the nomenclature he has used for the several characters that enter into the problem of the dream. He distinguishes, quite rightly, between the dream- personality which has the experience and the ' I ' which narrates the dream when awake. But he calls the latter ' the dreamer,' and this is surely wrong. The ' dreamer ' should be the person- age who actually has the dream, and not he who subsequently recalls it, often imperfectly, and reflects upon it. Moreover, Dr. Jacks appears to think (p. 183) that the chief problem about the dream is to explain the relations of these two personalities. But this is surely relatively easy. That the 'dreamer' is a 'second- ary personality ' of the waking ' self ' is attested both by the differences and by the discontinuities of memory between them, coupled with the fact that the waking self can ' appropriate ' the dream-experience. The source of the dream, however, is a real mystery. Dr. Jacks well shows that neither the dreamer nor the waking self can claim to create the dream and to con- struct its plot. The obvious inference is that there exists a

202 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, 1916.

third party, whom I have called the maker of the dream, and (tentatively) identified with the ' Sally ' of the Beauchamp Case. My terminological proposal, therefore, put forward most recently in the review of Dr. Morton Prince's Unconscious (in Proceed- ings, Pt. LXX. pp. 504-6), * is to distinguish, — (1) the normal waking self, who is not identical with the dreamer though he may be affected by ' dreams ' he remembers, or even (teste Freud) forgets;

(2) the dreamer, for whom the dream is real and usually forms the real world ; (3) the maker of dreams, who victimizes the dreamer. I trust that Dr. Jacks will assent to this classification, and did not mean to play upon me the common philosophic trick which consists in taking a technical term which another philosopher is labouring to fix, and ruining it by promptly using it in a second sense liable to be confused with the first. For to agree upon common terms for what we wish to investigate is the first step towards a solution of the problem of dreams.

F. C. S. SCHILLER.

NOTE BY DR. JACKS.

I HAVE read Dr. Schiller's note and appreciate his point. In reply I have to say that I find it extremely difficult to choose a nomenclature, or indeed any form of expression, which does not beg the question involved in the identification of the dream- personalities. I know of no problem in philosophy in which it is at once so vitally essential and yet so difficult to free theory from the misleading of language. Let me try to be more explicit. Smith dreams he is fighting a duel. Here, I think, four per- sonalities are distinguished in ordinary speech. (1) Smith1( who remembers and narrates the dream, (2) Smith2, asleep and dream- ing, (3) Smith3, fighting the dream-duel, (4) Smith's antagonist — to whom, oddly enough, corresponding personalities to (1), (2),

(3) do . not appear to be attached.

Dr. Schiller contends that I err in calling Smithj the ' dreamer,' and I admit the justice of his correction. But when he insists that Smith2 (or is it Smith3 ?) is the dreamer I fail to follow him. The fact is exhausted when you say Smith3 fought the duel which is remembered by Smith ; when you expand this and say Smith3 dreamed that he fought the duel you go beyond the fact and commit yourself to a theory ; indeed, you beg the question. For the question to my mind is precisely this — was 1 Cf . also Humanism, 2nd ed., pp. 266-7.

JULY, wir,. Note by Dr. Jack*. _>.,;;

the duel a real duel (in the sense that any historical duel ii real) or was it an unreal event, an event that never hapjx-ned, an event concocted or made up by a peculiar mental procot which goes on when the body is asleep ?

It is almost impossible to use ordinary language which does not adopt the second of these alternatives, thereby clouding the whole issue with a foregone conclusion. We say ' Smith dreamed that he was fighting a duel,' and this implies at once that Smith performed a mental process — his mind did something or other — of which the duel was the product. But what evidence have we that Smith's mind did (i.e. concocted) anything at all ? The evidence, so far as it goes, simply records that a duel was fought by two men, neither of whom appears to have been Smith, and that Smith when he was awake could narrate the experience of one of them. How Smith got access to that experience as though it had been his own is precisely what we do not know. To say that Smith dreamed the experience is not to solve the problem but to restate it There it seems to me that Dr. Schiller, like myself in the instance for which he properly corrects me, goes beyond the evidence by introducing the 'dreamer.' To solve the mystery it may be necessary to get rid of this personality altogether. I do not pin myself to this solution but I do say that if the inquiry is dominated from the outset by the conception of a ' dreamer ' and a special process of mental concoction called ' dreaming ' we are going beyond the facts. What if there is no such process at all, and no such person ? Psychology has already got rid of a good many fictitious * mental processes.' What if ' dreaming ' is one more of the

same class ?

Among the various personalities concerned in the dream under discussion I may say that the one about which I am most curious is (4)— the antagonist. He was a very lively gentleman whom I would recognize among a thousand if I were to meet him to-morrow. Who, in heaven's name, was he ? Dr. Schiller's theory leaves him wholly unidentified. And what an i uteri-sting light would be thrown on the matter if it should turn out that at the very time that ' I ' dreamed ' I ' was figh' ' him,' somebody else dreamed that * he ' was fighting ' m,-.' When the matter comes to be fully investigated it may b« found that in dreams also there are such things as crc correspondences.

204 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, 1916.

CASE.

L. 1204. COINCIDENTAL HALLUCINATION.

THE following case of a coincidental hallucination was first brought to our notice by a paragraph in the daily press on June 6, 1916, in which it was stated that :

The sister of Seaman George William Malpress, of Peterborough, one of the men who went down with the ' Queen Mary,' had a realistic dream last Wednesday [the day the ' Queen Mary ' was lost]. She was lying ill in bed when she thought that her brother came to her bedside, and although she spoke to him repeatedly he would not answer. He appeared quite well and happy.

Subsequently, in reply to enquiries, we received the following account from the percipient, Mrs. Baxter :

56 New Rd., Peterboro', June 19, 1916.

... in reference to my dream — as it was published in the papers, but it was not a dream, it was a vision. I was very ill at the time. It was the afternoon of the day of the battle that I saw my brother. I was taken worse and thought I was going to die. I was with my brother on his ship and he was so happy and singing, and then it changed and he was at home on leave. I thought I repeatedly spoke to him each time but he did not speak to me. I knew I was ill, and thought he would not speak because I was disfigured. I asked my mother if he had gone back and she said he had not been home. I said I knew he had, it seemed so real. I was very much upset because he would not speak to me. I did not hear of the sinking of the ' Queen Mary ' until a week after, as I was too ill for my mother to tell me. ... It would be just about the time when the ship went down that I saw my brother, as it was late in the afternoon on Wednesday, May 31.

F. BAXTER.

On June 29, 1916, the Secretary went to Peterborough and called upon Mrs. Baxter and her mother, Mrs. Malpress, who kindly answered all the questions she put to them. Their evidence, as noted and summarised by the Secretary at the time, and confirmed by their signatures, was as follows :

On May 31 Mrs. Baxter was suffering from erysipelas, and had been ill from the previous Friday. About 5 o'clock in the after-

, 1916. Ca*e.

noon she "felt something snap inside her, and part of herself seemed to have gone out of her; she thought she was dying." Then she seemed to be on a ship, or very near it; she could see the sailors moving about, and heard them singing ; they were very happy. She spoke to her brother on the ship ; he wouldn't answer. She called for a scarf he had given her, so that she could hide her face, as she was disfigured. Then the scene changed, she was at home, her brother was at home, she spoke to him, but he wouldn't answer. She cried, thinking it was because she was disfigured. The vision went. She was still very upset because he wouldn't speak to her. She asked her mother if her brother had gone back.

She had never had a vision, or a dream, of this kind before.

(Signed) FLORENCE ETHEL BAXTER. June 29, 1916.

Mrs. Malpress said that her daughter had been "lightheaded on and off" during her illness, but that at the time of the vision she seemed "listless and blank." She continued:

When she had this kind of blank feeling come over her, I went down to find some one to fetch the doctor as I thought she was dying. When I went up again she was crying, and seemed very upset. I asked her what was the matter. She said Will had been to see her, and he wouldn't speak to her. The following morning I said, " How did Will look ? " " Just as usual," she said ; " I thought he was here home on leave. He was in his uniform, and very bright and happy."

(Signed) HANNAH MALPRESS. June 29, 1916.

The news of the Naval Battle, including the announcement of the loss of H.M.S. ' Queen Mary,' was published on Saturday morning, June 3, 1916. In the casualty list, which appeared a few days later (our reference is the Daily Telegraph, June 8) the name of G. W. Malpress, A.B., was included in the crew of the ' Queen Mary.'

It is stated in Admiral Sir John Jellicoe's despatch on the battle, published in the press, July 7, 1916, that the action began at 3.48 p.m. (Greenwich mean time) on May 31 ; and in the vaiious reports by observers, that the * Queen Mary ' sank soon afterwards. In an article in the Daily Telegraph on

200 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, I9ie

June 6, Mr. Hurd, indicating approximately the course which the battle took, says :

Quite early in the action the ' Queen Mary,' by an unfortunate mischance, or good German gunnery, was hit, and sank in a few minutes. ... It should be emphasised that this misfortune occurred almost immediately after the action opened.

Thus, it will be observed that the coincidence in time between the hallucination, which occurred about 5 p.m., summer time, and the death of Seaman Gr. W. Malpress, which occurred soon after 4.48, summer time, was very close.

It is chiefly owing to this coincidence in time that we print the case, contrary to our practice of excluding hallucinations occurring during illness where delirium is present. The evidence is further strengthened by the following considerations : (1) the hallucination seems to have been the only one which assumed definite form during the illness ; (2) it was certainly the only one described by the percipient during this time ; and (3) it was unique in her experience.

These points will be apparent from the evidence on the medical aspect of the case, kindly contributed, in answer to our enquiries, by Dr. H. Latham, of Peterborough, who was attending the percipient. The questions which were put to him are given below in square brackets :

July 3, 1916.

[How long was the percipient delirious, and was the delirium intermittent ?]

From Monday night, May 29, until the end of the week. Yes ; she appeared to ramble and say " queer things " (the mother's report to me) only at night. In the morning or afternoon when I saw her she seemed clear in her mind.

[Was this particular hallucination described to you before the news of the Naval Battle on May 31 was known to the public ?]

I cannot fix the day, but I can say positively that I was told of it, both by Mrs. Malpress and Mrs. Baxter, long before the latter had any information of the Naval Battle or the death of young Malpress. Mrs. Baxter did not know anything about the Naval Battle, etc., until a full week after it had occurred, as I gave strict orders that she was not to be told. About a week after the Battle, say Wednesday, June 7, she picked up a paper

JULY, 191K.

._,,,-

within her reach and saw the list of offices* or men on the ' Queen Mary.' It was many days before this that 1 wan in- formed of the vision, both by the mother and Mrs. Baxter.

Later, Dr. Latham wrote as follows :

July 15, 1916.

My distinct impression is that the hallucination was mentioned to Mrs. Malpress before the Naval Battle was known of. But I really cannot fix the date when it was told to me. All I can say is that, when I was told of the hallucination, I questioned Mrs. Baxter, and she told me quite simply that she had Men her brother on the deck of his ship, that he looked quite as usual, but never spoke a word. She told me this many days before she knew of the B&ttle, but I cannot fix the date.

[Were any other hallucinations described to you during the illness ? And have you heard of any experiences of the same kind that Mrs. Baxter ever had ?]

No, only that she said such " queer things."

I am quite sure that neither Mrs. Malpress nor Mrs. Baxter have ever had any other previous experience of the kind. They took no interest in the subject when I was first informed of it, which was early, and long before anything appeared in the papers.

(Signed) H. LATHAM, M.B. (Edin.), f

NOTES ON CURRENT PERIODICALS.

The Unpopular Review. When Mr. Henry Holt, the well- known publisher and the author of the very elaborate summary of the results of Psychical Research entitled On the Cosmic Rela- tions, started The Unpopular Review in Jan. 1914, one of the unduly unpopular subjects he determined to popularize was Psychical Research. His Review has ever since had articles bearing on this topic in almost every number. At first tln-e were only abstracts, speculations and expositions of work already done, by the Editor, Mr. H. A. Bruce and Prof. W. R. Newbold ; latterly, however, fresh evidence has been presented. The July 1915 number, for example, has an account by Mr. K. W Friend of automatic writings, obtained through his wife, which purported to come from William James. Mr. Friend, as readers of the obituary note in this Journal for April 1916 will ivuM-mlnT. was a promising American scholar who was proposing to A- his life to Psychical Research, but was one of the many victims

208 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. JULY, 1916.

of the Lusitania's disaster. In printing Mr. Friend's notes the Editor admits that they are not evidential, i.e. that they do not contain information about James which was unknown to the automatist, but both he and Mr. Friend thought that the part of James was well acted and that many of the answers were characteristic of his manner. It should be noted, however, that though she had never met James and was not a trained philosopher, Mrs. Friend had read a good deal in his books, and also a little Bergson. It seems to me also that though the remark " I could tear up some of my Psychology, but not a damn word of Pragmatism " sounds authentic, the other passages quoted as characteristic are quite unconvincing. For example, the reply to the question ' What do you think now of the moral equivalent of war ?' ' There is no moral equivalent to a pro- ceeding so barbarous,' seems entirely oblivious of the whole point and argument of James's splendid essay with this title. Again, I grieve to say, that Mrs. Friend's ' James ' has, in spite of the asseveration quoted above, somewhat forgotten his prag- matism. " When a spirit unhampered by material mechanism calls to his being a thought, it calls to him the whole meaning of the subject in its true universal relation " (p. 184) is certainly not a pragmatic sentiment. It is Platonic. The doctrine that perceptions are ' separated ' into conceptions for practical use is distinctively Bergsonian. On the whole, therefore, it will be safer to return a verdict of ' not proven.'

The number for Jan. 1916 contains a report on the case of " Patience Worth." She first communicated through a ouija board controlled by Mrs. J. H. Curran of St. Louis in July 1913, and her records already amount to five large volumes of type- script. Mr. Holt, who has examined these and the manu- script of a then forthcoming book by Mr. C. S. Yost, the editor of the St. Louis Globe- Democrat, declares that " very little of this matter is the frequent trash of involuntary writing. Nearly all of it is to be taken seriously as literature. Much of it is literature of a high order." Certainly ' Patience Worth ' writes delightfully sententious and pungent Elizabethan (or Jacobean) English, and extemporizes abundant blank verse which has strong claims to be ranked as poetry. The contrast between her language and the colloquial American of the sitters is very striking and is consistently sustained. But of course it is not evidential. ' Patience Worth ' has, it seems, made no attempt to authenticate herself as a historical character. She has, there- fore, so far to be treated as a ' secondary personality ' of Mrs. Curran. But she bids fair to enrich the records of automatism and enlarge our knowledge of what secondary personality really is and of what it is capable. Mr. Yost's book on the case has now been published, and is included in the Library of the

S-RR- F. C. S. S.

No. CCCXXXH.— Vui.. XVII. O.T,.I.MC, 1910.

JOURNAL

OK THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS.

turn

Notice of Meeting, -

Cases, tlO

NOTICE OF MEETING.

i

A Private Meeting of the Society

WILL BE HELD IN

THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, ON THE FIRST FLOOR OF 20 HANOVER SQUARE, LONDON, W.

On THURSDA Y, NOVEMBER 9///, 1916, at 4 A'"

WHEN A PAPER BNTITLKU

" The Ear of Dionysius,"

WILL BK READ BY

THE RIGHT HON. G. W. BALFOUR.

N B —No Tickets of Admission are issued for this Meeting. and Associates will be admitted on signing their names at the

210 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. OCT., 1916.

NOTICE.

Owing to unavoidable delay the next Part of the PROCEEDINGS, which it was ho])ed would be published in October, will not appear till November. The next number of the JOURNAL will be issued in December, and will be a double number.

CASES. L. 1205. I.

THE following case of what appears to be a telepathic dream was brought to our notice by an associate of the Society, Mr. Ben Davies, who is personally acquainted with the per- cipient, Mrs. Phillips, of 2lA Dean Road, Cricklewood, N.W.

Mrs. Phillips's original statement was as follows :

June 5, 1916.

On the morning of Thursday, June 1st, I looked at my watch and found it was 5.30 a.m. I went to Bleep again, and had the following dream :

I went to the window and drew aside the blind ; in the distance (on my right) I saw a number (9 or 12) of luminous objects flying in an aimless way in a circle. Nearer was a smaller group. On looking closer I saw they were dead heads with small wings on the side of the head (something like the head of Hypnos at the British Museum) and when the face was turned away the back view was that of a Union Jack. I saw the colours distinctly.

One of the nearer group came wafting toward me, not using the wings, and as it came I could distinguish the features. It was a man's dead face, the eyes were closed and [it] was unknown to me. It came close to my window and knocked up against the glass. I heard the sound and can still remember it. I tapped the pane several times to try and make it go away, and then I woke up. SYBIL M. PHILLIPS.

Mrs. Phillips's statement was corroborated by her husband and two neighbours, as follows :

(a) 2lA Dean Road, Cricklewood, N.W. [June 5, 1916.]

My wife related her dream, as contained in the foregoing statement, to me on Thursday afternoon, June 1st. No rumours of the naval engagement of the previous evening were known by either of us at that time.1 B. E. PHILLIPS.

1 The news [of the battle of Jutland was first published in the evening papers of Friday, June 2, 1916,

OCT., iiM.;. Cases. 211

(6) Bedford House, York Place, W. [Received June 9, 1916.] Mrs. Phillips told me the foregoing dream on the morning of Thursday, June 1st. M. STURGEON.

(c) 6 Hawke Road, Upper Norwood. [Received June 9, 1916.] Mrs. Phillips told me this dream on the morning of Thursday last- MARION U. EWKN.

We also received a statement from Mr. Davies to the effect that on the morning of Saturday, June 3, 1916, when the news had come of the naval battle, a neighbour to whom Mrs. Phillips had previously related the dream came to her and suggested that it should be interpreted as referring to this battle. On June 9, 1916, we therefore wrote to Mrs. Phillips to ask the following questions :

(i) Was the neighbour referred to in Mr. Davies's statement one of those whose corroboration we had received ?

(ii) Did Mrs. Phillips often dream ? If so, had she ever before had any veridical dreams ? Was there anything specially vivid about her dream on June 1, 1916 ?

To these enquiries Mrs. Phillips replied as follows :

2U Dean Road, Cricklewood, N.W. Sunday, [June 11, 1916]. 1 cannot say that I have ever had a dream before which was so vivid and impressed me so much. I dream very often, almost every night, but these dreams are of a scrappy and in- consequent nature ; often I cannot recall them. You may judge how much this dream impressed me by the fact that I told it to so many people. I think the fact that I didn't connect this dream with the naval battle immediately was because I was so engrossed with the battle itself, but of course as soon as Mrs. Ewen suggested the connection in the morning (I heard the news on Friday night) I knew of course that it was some- thing of the kind you suggest. Although 1 cannot claim to have had any other dream which exhibited supernormal know- ledge, it may interest you to know that my mother has had many such dreams. For instance, when my husband had sun- stroke in India, we found she (here in England) had dreamed on or about the same date that he was so hot she could not come near to him. Perhaps these qualities are hereditary.

S. M. PHILLIPS.

212 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. OCT., 1916.

Mrs. Ewen's corroboration of the dream was received first on June 9, 1916 (see above), but we also received the following statement from her :

6 Hawke Road, Upper Norwood, June 25. 1916. Mrs. Phillips told her dream to me on the Thursday morning [June 1, 1916], and I was under the impression that she told me that the dead face had a sailor's cap on. Mrs. Phillips is quite certain that she did not say so, and I possess a rather vivid imagination. I must have pictured this in my mind. I asked Mrs. Phillips at the time if she had any friends in the Navy, for I was convinced that it had to do with that. 1 cannot explain this at all. MARION EVVEN.

The weak point about Mrs. Phillips 's dream, if we are to interpret it as relating to the naval battle of May 31, 1916, is that there is nothing distinctively naval about it ; for a Union Jack might evidently be associated with any one who had died in the defence of this country, on land as well as on sea. It may be slightly in favour of a naval interpretation that Mrs. Phillips should have seen heads only without bodies, for this peculiarity of her vision has no obvious association with the idea of corpses on a field of battle, whereas any one, picturing to themselves a sinking ship, is likely to think of the drowning men in the water with only their heads visible. This perhaps accounts for the fact that Mrs. Ewen, when she heard the dream, seems at once to have associated it in her own mind with some naval event.

II.

L. 1206.

We have also received lately through Sir Lawrence Jones another record of a dream, apparently telepathic, the dreamer being his sister, Mrs. Fuller- Maitland. Her record of the dream (contained in a letter to Sir L. Jones) is as follows :

Wood Rising, Rye, Sussex, April 25, 1916.

Edward [Mr. Fuller-Maitland] has a picture in [the] R.A. We heard on Saturday morning it was in. On Friday afternoon [April 21, 1916] I was very tired and went to lie down about 3.30. I fell asleep for a few minutes, and as I woke up I had a distinct vision of the big room in the R.A. and Edward's

OCT., I'.'i.,. Cases.

picture hanging on the left of the door as you go in from the second room. I came down and said to E., "Your putm. i- in and is hung in the big room high up on the left of the door. The next morning he got his in-notice, and yesterday he went up for varnishing day and found his picture in the big room on the left of the door high up 1 I saw the room as plainly as possible, and it was quite empty, two or three men in it and no red velvet sofas. Mr. Powles says they judge the pictim-.-* in that room and that probably the sofas are removed.1

Sir Lawrence Jones corroborates Mrs. Fuller-Maitland's statement, as follows :

39 Harrington Gardens, S.W., June 2, 1916.

The picture is hung on the right of the door from Room No. 2, as you enter, but on the left as you look at [it] from the big room itself. My sister says that she seemed to be standing at the end of the room and that the picture seemed to her about a third of the way down the wall. This is about correct.

LAWKENCE J. JOM s

We also wrote to Mr. Fuller-Maitland asking for a corro- borative statement, and received the following reply :

Wood Rising, Rye, Sussex, June 10, 1916.

I am sending, as you request, an independent account of my wife's veridical dream. On Good Friday afternoon [April 21, 1916] my wife told me that she had just had a vision of my larger picture (I sent another which was also kept back but not hung) hung on the right of the door of the large room, as you enter, and rather high up. I asked her to put her impres- sions down in writing, which unfortunately she did not do, but she told Mr. Powles in my presence. It was, as I told her at the time, extremely unlikely that 1 should be hung in tin- coveted large room, if hung at all, especially as the picture is relatively small.

The following morning I received my varnishing ticket, and on Monday went straight to the place she mentioned, where I saw my picture. EDWAI:I> FuhLEK-MAlTLAM-.

On June 5, 1916, we wrote to Mrs. Fuller-Maitland asking the following questions :

(a) Whether any other picture of Mr. Fuller-Maitland's had, on a previous occasion, been hung in or near the place which figured in her dream.

1It has been ascertained that this conjecture is right.

214 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. OCT., 1916

(6) If she expected that the picture (to which the dream related) would be hung. Mrs. Fuller-Maitland replied as follows :

Wood Rising, Rye, Sussex, June 10, 1916.

In answer to your questions about my dream on Good Friday, (a) My husband has never before had a picture hung in the big room at the R.A. (6) I did not expect the picture to be hung, though I knew it had a chance. Accepted pictures are so con- stantly crowded out that till the varnishing ticket actually arrives one can never feel the least certain.

GERTRUDE J. FULLER-MAITLAND.

The following corroborative statement was also received from Mr. Powles, who is a member of the Society :

The Highlands, Rye, Sussex, June 11, 1916.

I do not remember the exact date, but I clearly remember that it was some days before the result of the hanging at the R.A. was known to outsiders, that Mrs. Fuller-Maitland told me of a vivid dream she had had, in which she saw her husband's picture placed rather high up on the south wall of Room III. — not quite in the middle, but rather nearer the entrance from Room II.

Less clearly I seem to remember that she told me it had originally been placed farther down on the right of that wall.

L. C. POWLES.

The value of this case depends to a considerable extent on the question of how exactly the position of the picture in Mrs. Fuller-Maitland's dream corresponded with its actual position on the wall of the room at the Royal Academy. It will be seen that there is an apparent discrepancy between the statements made by Mr. and Mrs. Fuller-Maitland as to the position of the picture in the dream. Mrs. Fuller- Maitland in her letter to Sir L. Jones says that she saw it " hanging on the left of the door as you go in from the 2nd room " ; Mr. Fuller-Maitland says that in his wife's dream the picture was " on the right of the door of the large room as you enter." Sir Lawrence Jones explains this discrepancy (see above) and says that Mrs. Fuller-Maitland imagined herself standing "at the end of the room," facing the picture, we may suppose. Looked at from that position, the

OCT., 1916. Cases.

picture is correctly described as being "on the left of t In- door " leading from Room II. into Room III.

Mrs. Fuller-Maitland's original statement that the j.i. was "on the left of the door as you go in from the 2nd room " was not accurate, but Sir L. Jones's interpret of her words is confirmed by Mr. Powles's statement that "she saw her husband's picture placed rather high up on the South Wall of Room III., not quite in the middle, but rather nearer the entrance from Room II."

ROOM II.

S*L

S. Wall Picture

ROOM III.

Door-

The above plan (which is a rough sketch, not drawn to scale) makes it clear that a picture in the position described by Mr. Powles must be on the left of the door from Room II. from the point of view of a spectator facing this door.

In view, however, of the fact that no written record was made of the dream until after its confirmation, it will be wiser in weighing the allowance that must be made for chance- coincidence to assume only that Mrs. Fuller-Mail him! was correct as to the wall upon which the picture was hung. Now there are eight rooms at the Royal Academy in which a picture of the size of Mr. Fuller-Maitland's might be placed and four walls to each room. Moreover, the picture having been accepted as doubtful, the chances were about even whether it would be hung or not ; for of accepted pictures about half are crowded out. This would make the odds 63 to 1 against Mrs. Fuller-Maitland being correct in her statement that the picture would be hung on a particular wall. Probably, however, the odds may be reckoned as higher than this, first

216 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. OCT., 1916.

because Mr. Fuller-Maitland had another picture accepted as doubtful, about which Mrs. Fuller-Maitland might have dreamt, and it was not likely that both pictures would be hung on the same wall of Room III. ; and secondly, because there is reason to think that Mrs. Fuller-Maitland was approxi- mately right as to the position of the picture on the wall.1

As to what cause — other than chance — is likely to have been operative, it should be noted that the picture had almost certainly been hung at the time of Mrs. Fuller-Maitland's dream. Its position was therefore known to several people, and Mrs. Fuller-Maitland's impression may have been tele- pathically derived.

1 1 went to the Royal Academy on July 28. I chose a picture which I judged to occupy the position described by Mrs. Fuller-Maitland, but on referring to the catalogue I found that the picture of her dream was about 10 feet further to the right, immediately next to the door between Room II. and Room HI.— H. DK G. S.

No. CCCXXXlJL-VoL. XVII. NOVBMBKR-DECIMBBB, 1916.

JOURNAL

OF THE

Society for Psychical Research.

CONTENTS.

Now Members and Associates, 217

Meeting of Council, 218

Private Meeting, 819

Changes in the Staff, 219

The British College of Psychic Science, 219

A First Kxpcriment in Suggestion, 220

Cases, 230

Review, 288

NEW MEMBEES AND ASSOCIATES.

Names of Members are printed in Black Type. Names of Associates are printed in SMALL CAPITALS.

Champion de Ciespigny, Mrs. Philip, Artillery Mansions, Westminster, London, S.W.

Hall, Miss M. Radclyffe, 22 Cadogan Court, Draycott Avenue,

Chelsea, London, S.W.

King, W. A. D., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., 1 Bishop's Place, Paignton,

Devon.

Lorimer, Miss Emilia S., 45 Marston Street, Oxford. Metcalfe, W. John, Dean Court, Pyrford, Nr. Woking, Surrey. Salmon, Mrs. Spencer, Crockham Hill Place, Edenbridge, Kent. Selborne, The Earl of, K.G., Blackmoor, Liss, Hants. Stobart, Mrs. St. Clair, 7 Turner's Wood, Hampstead Garden

Suburb, London, N.W.

Troubridge, Mrs., 13 Eoyal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London, S.W, Waller-Sawyer, Mrs., Moystown House, Belinont, King's Co.

Ireland.

BADDELEY, Miss FLORENCE A., Cathedral House, Gloucester. KELLY, Miss ELEANOR B., Sea Craig, Bognor, Sussex. LODGE, STEPHEN B., 16 Bankburn Road, Tue Brook, Liverpool. MACKENZIE, Miss MAUD R. R., 27 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London, S.W

218 Journal of Society for Psychical Research^ NOV. -DEO., 1916.

OXENHAM, MRS., 3 Baring Crescent, Exeter, SALTKR, W. H., 2 Campden Hill Gardens, London, W. SCHAUFFLER, ROBERT H., 3 Spruce Street, Boston, Mass., U.S.A. SRINIVASA RAGHAVACHARIAR, V., Chittoor, Chittoor District, Madras Presidency, India.

MEETING OF THE COUNCIL.

THE 142nd Meeting of the Council was held at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Wednesday, October 25th, 1916, at 4 p.m. ; THE RIGHT HON. GERALD W. BALFOUR in the chair. There were also present : Mr. W. W. Baggally, Sir W. F. Barrett, Mr. E. N. Bennett, Sir Lawrence Jones, Mr. J. G. Piddington, Mr. St. G. Lane Fox Pitt, Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, Mr. Sydney C. Scott, Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, and Mr. H. Arthur Smith ; also, Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary.

The Minutes of the last Meeting of the Council were read and signed as correct.

Ten new Members and eight new Associates were elected. Their names and addresses are given above.

The monthly Accounts for June, July, August and September, 1916, were presented and taken as read.

The Council desire to put on record their sense of the great loss the Society has sustained in the death of Mrs. Verrall, especially as a scientific worker, but also as a valued member of the Council.

They also desire to express their appreciation of the generous legacy of £500 bequeathed to the Society under Mrs. Verrall's will.

A letter was read from Miss Alice Johnson resigning the post of Research Officer and Editor to the Society, on account of continued bad health.

It was resolved : " That Miss Johnson's resignation be accepted with much regret ; and that the Council place on record their high appreciation of the services she has rendered the Society first as Secretary and later as Editor and Research Officer, and in particular their recognition of the success with which she has maintained the high standard of accuracy of the Society's Proceedings and Journal."

Further resolutions were unanimously carried that Miss

Nov. -DEC., 1916. Mcetin;/ of (lie Society. 219

Johnson be asked to accept a retiring pension, and that she

be elected an Honorary Member of the Society.

Mrs. Salter was appointed Editor and Hon. Research OfhY'-r Miss Newton was appointed Librarian, in addition to IMT

present office of Secretary !

The Council filled the vacant place among their elected

Members, caused by the death of Mrs. Verrall, by appointing

to it Professor Gilbert Murray, hithertoTa co-opted Member.

PRIVATE MEETING FOR MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES.

THE 55th Private Meeting of the Society for Members and Associates only was held in the Council Chamber at 20 Hanover Square, London, W., on Thursday, November 9th, 1916, at 4 p.m., SIR LAWRENCE JONES in the chair.

THE RIGHT HON. GERALD W. BALFOUR read a paper entitled " The Ear of Dionysius," which will be published later in the Proceedings.

CHANGES IN THE STAFF OF THE SOCIETY.

MEMBERS of the Society will learn with very great regret that Miss Alice Johnson, who has been out of health for more than a year, has resigned her appointment as Research Officer and Editor. The Council have appointed, as Editor and Honorary Research Officer, Mrs. Salter, to whom all editorial communications should therefore be addressed.

It is suggested that any one wishing to see Mrs. Salter should, if possible, write beforehand to make an appointment.

The Secretary, Miss Isabel Newton, has been appointed Secretary and Librarian.

THE BRITISH COLLEGE OF PSYCHIC SCIENCE.

Also called THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OP PSYCHIC SCIENCE.

Editorial Note. We have had many enquiries lately from Members and Associates concerning the Society which ib is proposed to establish under one or other of the above

220 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. NOV. -DEC., 1016.

titles. For this reason, and at the particular suggestion of some Members of our Council, we take this opportunity of stating that the Society for Psychical Research has not had any connexion with either the National Institute or the British College cf Psychic Science.

We understand that Sir William Barrett, Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr. Abraham Wallace, and Mr. J. Arthur Hill do not wish their names to be used in connexion with the proposed Institu- tion.

A FIRST EXPERIMENT IN SUGGESTION.1 BY F. KENNETH GIRDLESTONE.

[The author of this paper is a Member of this Society. The names of the patient and of the doctors who attended the case have been given to us, but are withheld here by request. — ED.]

BEING interested in Psychology, I very naturally accepted a proposal made by one of our military doctors that I should visit a patient of his who had been found wandering in our town and who had been brought by the police to the hospital, where he was found to be suffering from complete loss of memory : the memory of events both near and remote was obliterated from his mind, and his power of recognition was gone ; he no longer knew his wife, when she visited him, nor could he identify himself. He had not lost the power of speech, but I understand that before I saw him he made known his wants by other signs ; indeed, he continued acting thus until the lost, or rather dormant, powers of which I have spoken gradually, and at first almost imperceptibly, returned.

When I first saw him I was unaware of the length of time he had been in hospital. I learnt later that he had been there some three weeks, and that he had remained for that period in a dazed kind of condition, his facial expression being at times that of a man bewildered by an insoluble problem.

My knowledge of the doctor's patient, whom I will call

1 The method adopted for inducing hypnosis was acquired by the writer's actual experience of treatment by fully qualified medical men.

Nov. -DEC., 1916. A First Experiment in Suggestion. -J2I

my pupil for reasons that will soon become obvious, wa» scanty. His history as far as I knew it was that by trade he was a fitter, that he had an accident in which he injured his right arm seventeen years since, that he was for a short time in the Police Force, had joined the - — shire Regiment at the outbreak of the war, had been discharged as medically unfit after a month's service, had ze-enlisted in the R.A.M.C., had been in France for about five months, where he was wounded in the same arm that had been previously injured in the accident, and that he had left his depot on his return from the Front and had been found as I have already de- scribed. I also knew that he was a married man with two children, and it was not long before I learnt that his age, according to a medical report hanging beside his bed, was six and forty.

I first hypnotised my pupil (January 28, 1916) in a little room which I was assured would be free from noise. I asked him to lie in an easy chair, or it may be that I pointed to it. Anyhow he readily did so, and upon my resting the palm of my hand across his forehead and suggesting rest, etc., he fell into a doze. He was awakened from this by reason of some one suddenly bursting open the door. My pupil immediately moved his left arm upwards, resting his head in the palm of bis left hand, and began mumbling something about a wall 4000 feet high and later about " Dr. Jordan . . . of Brumagum . . . little fellow." To my question as to whether he had ever heard of Dr. Jordan he replied slowly that he'd heard the name.

The next day (January 29) Ke seemed for a moment to recognize me, but upon my taking a chair beside his bed (I never used the small room again, as I found that it was used for stores which might be wanted at any moment) he suddenly named all the days of the week in French several times. I now began instructing him as if he were a child. I brought with me a child's ABC, the letters being large capitals, coloured, and each having beside it an animal, also coloured, its name beginning with the letter alongside of which it lay. He soon began copying these letters. With his right hand he generally copied them correctly, with his left, where possible, they were reversed, so that E became

A2

222 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. Nov. -DEC., 1916,

»3, D G, etc. There was also a strong inclination to begin drawing his letters from right to left instead of vice versa. But when once the proper method was pointed out to him the inclination grew less and less. After some days it disappeared and only recurred on two noteworthy occasions, of which I shall speak in due course. He seemed unable to copy any letters beyond K. I managed to get him to repeat their names so far and then thought I would find out if he were able to appreciate numbers, He had the greatest difficulty in numbering my five fingers, but he found it easier to count the letters of the alphabet, not because the alphabet would be easier to count, but because once again familiar with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, they would probably flow more easily a second time. And such was the case ; for upon my saying A, B, etc., he articulated 1, 2, etc. When I reached G, however, he was unable to continue, so I did so for him, saying G. 7, H. 8, I. 9, J. 10. He instantly broke in : " number in Police Force," when he heard me say ten. He then began talking about a bath, and I asked him what water was. To answer this required a lot of thought. At length he replied slowly yet decidedly, " Something that makes you dry." There was then a very long pause, during which he was no doubt trying to correct himself, for his next utterance was, " Not dry but wet." This made me think that not only was there an inclination to invert letters, when copying, but one also to invert ideas. It must be remarked that he talked with great caution, both now and for some time, as if trying his best to correct these inverted ideas. When milk was brought to him, and I pointed to it, he called it du lait. He asked me the number of days in the week and the number of weeks in the year, to which queries I replied respectively 7 and 52. He then asked me the number of days in a year, and I naturally replied 365. Almost before the words had left my lips, he quietly but decidedly told me how many he considered the correct number, namely 364. This number stood out clearly before him, he said. The result of 7 multiplied by 52 had flashed to his mind.

The third day (January 30) I again hypnotised him, and I may mention in passing that he always appeared to lose

NOV.-DKC., 1016. A First Experiment in ^ <>n. 223

what for the sake of convenience I will call ordinary con- sciousness when under hypnosis, although when awake he seemed to be living in a dream. Nevertheless most of his questions were quite sensible ones. For instance, he asked where Calcutta was and how much it would cost to get there, but was well satisfied when I showed him two florins, three coppers, and a shilling. His train of thought had no doubt suddenly changed, and instead of the coins answering his question, they brought to him the idea of moulding, for he proceeded to show me how to make them. He then asked me what compasses are, at the same time trying to draw imaginary circles, his thumb being the centre, his first finger describing the circumference. " Can you measure to 1/1000 inch ? " was another of his questions.

On the next day, Monday, January 31, I again hypnotised him. This I continued to do daily, at first merely suggesting rest and quiet, and then that the memory should gradually return. On the Tuesday he asked me what I did. I said, "Writing." fle then noticed the armlet I was wearing and was able to distinguish the colours and to name them. When I showed him a yellow colour, he was unable to say what it was, but he struck a match, blew it out, and then asked me where the flame had gone. " Like life," he remarked, " goes out " ; this before I had time to frame an explanation. His power of philosophical speculation did not seem to have been impaired, perhaps it was even stimulated.

On the Wednesday a hazy notion as to what time is became noticeable in his remarks.

" I saw a lady this morning who told me you were her son. I don't believe it, she looks so young." (My mother had visited him the previous afternoon. She is vivacious and has a youthful figure.)

On Thursday he showed some resistance to rest, but he yielded after a little persuasion. He did a Jig-Saw puzzle and moulded coins, etc., in Plasticine. He now knew all the capitals with the exception of Z.

On the following day (February 4) I gave him a child's copy book, which he told me he would study after I had gone. I also began teaching him the small letters printing, and gave him a book with pictures of raa

ONTARIO

224 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. NOV. -DEC., 1916.

in it. I wrote to his wife, and told my pupil that I had written to "Maggie" in answer to a letter she had sent him. I gave him typewritten extracts from this letter so that he could copy the letters.

The letter referred to is from bury. My pupil tells

me (Saturday, February 5), that he will go there when they let him out, as somebody might know him there. In answer to my question whether time seems longer when I am absent he replies, " Yes." He now recognizes the lady who visits him three times a week (my mother). By signal he asks me to bring him some cigarettes. He can now read most of the small printed letters. He has done some copying, and is always ready to show me how he progresses. Writing comes more naturally with his left hand ; with the right he draws the letters as if copying pictures. On the next day, Sunday, I show him a box. He draws a rectangle and writes BOX on it at my suggestion. I get him to do the same with many other objects, always making him spell the word ; then I pronounce it and he repeats it. He writes alternately with the right and left hand, with one until tired, then with the other. I have forgotten to say that after my first experi- ment I always visited him in the ward where there are some forty patients.

I will now let my notes, as taken day by day, speak for themselves :

Monday, February 7. Points to word " eggs " in copy-book, says he had them for breakfast (correct). " Have anything else ? " I enquire. " Bread and butter," he replies (correct). Asks if malarial fever is near Singapore. Gives account of how he will live with " that girl." (Has already told me that having no work and no money it would be wrong to have a wife yet.) Says he won't give her any money when he gets some, but will feed her. Parcel arrives by post from his wife. Writes a post- card of thanks at my dictation. Can only pronounce small words. Can't send love because he hasn't any.

Tuesday, February 8. Has copied the days of the week and put a cross through Sunday and Monday. Proceeds to cross out Tuesday, as now that I have come another day has gone. Says he cannot draw a box I show him because it is solid and the paper is flat. He draws it, making the sides contiguous

NOV.-DKC., 191C. A First Experiment in ,s'////</< -'/on. 225

with the top ; there is no knowledge of perspective. Writes

faster, chiefly using his left hand.

Wednesday, February 9. When I move the hands of my watch, he tells me they must be on different shafts, otherwise they would move at the same speed. Readily understands the relation between the movements of the two hands. I tell him the little hand moves one space to the big hand's ten. "Wrong," he says. When I say 1 to 12, he says I am right. He draws shafts, pulleys, and all kinds of engines, explaining them minutely- I give him a very difficult puzzle involving the placing together of six pieces of wood so as to make a Maltese cross. He does it with ease. I give him a calendar from which he can tear off each day as it passes.

Thursday, February 10. I have not hypnotised him for two days, but now do so. When awake he asks the following ques- tions :

" What's the place where (he raises his hand about 3 feet from the floor, evidently meaning children) go ... the bell rings . . . there's a blackboard ? "

" School," I reply.

He says they are not all that height (lowers and raises his hand) and one is bigger than all (the master).

" Was it before I came here that I went there . . . and have I been here ever since ? "

I answer his questions and tell him his memory is returning and that he will soon remember what he did between leaving school and coming here. He asks about Maggie, and says that if she recognizes him, he'll go back with her when she comes. He is beginning to read short words aloud.

Friday, February 11. I hypnotise him. When awake he asks me if when " they " (children) are ten they work in cotton mills. I say it's rather young to do so, but he insists that they can go to school half a day and work the rest. He writes several words without my dictating them, and when I draw a hammer and other tools he is able to spell them phonetically, likewise a number of words, both English and French, such as W ensday and Bon swar, not taught him pictorially or otherwise by me.

Saturday, February 12. I hypnotise him. When awake he asks what a specialist is, and mentions Queen's Hospital and Dr. Jordan Lloyd who has a black beard. (This I now know

226 Journal of Society for Psychical Research, NOV. -DEC., IOIG.

is the doctor who saw him seventeen years ago at the said Hospital.) He asks what excitement is, and says he was told he mustn't have any. He points at the figure 10 on box and says he had that number on his neck. " When you were a police- man," I say. I show him a map of England and point out his home, - — bury, and other places. He puts his finger on Wolverhampton, spells it, and says he has been there. He can spell equally well when names are inverted.

Sunday, February 13. He shows me the following names he has written down : JAMES A. JOHNSON, FRANK GIBSON,1 LOWER HOPTON ROAD, MIRFIELD. He tells me both these live at Mirfield, that the former is himself (in reality a brother), the latter his sister (in reality his brother-in-law and his address). He writes down in my presence treboR. I tell him he has written one of his own names backwards. He then writes ROBERT (3) JOHN(l) JOHNSON1 (2), in the order indicated by the numbers, his own name. I do not try to hypnotise him.

Monday, February 15. I hypnotise him. On his awaking I ask :

" Have you had any rest ? "

" No," he answers.

" Would you like to go to sleep ? "

" I've too much to think of."

He then asks, " If I had a brother and he was 4 years younger than me and was born in '74, when was I born ? "

I answer, " In '70."

" What is an apprentice ? "

I tell him, and he then slowly unfolds his history.

" I was apprenticed to an engineer from '84 to '92. Went to Mirfield, worked in Locomotive Department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway for three years. (He writes down '92-'95.) Then went to Bombay, Calcutta, Singapore, etc., working for the East India Government Railway. Had malarial fever. Came back to Mirfield, joined Police Force at Dewsbury. In 1901 (numbers always written down) was invalided out with pension of 10s. a week. I have a wife, but the pension is sent to her

mother. In March, 1902, I went to Asylum as attendant

for six months. In 1900 when a policeman I was smashed up in a riot, and was for twelve months in hospital. (He then told me a secret which I promised not to divulge.) I was

1 Pseudonyms.

NOV.-DEC., HUG. A First Experiment on. HI

married in November, 1903 ... I joined the shire 11-

I was a good shot. One of the doctors at the depot recognized me and I was discharged. I'll bet my missus has the Discharge ... no, here it is." (He produced it.)

Interspersed with and following this narrative, Pte. Johnson gave me a mass of information concerning machinery with whirh his mind seemed flooded. This I leave unrecorded, only adding that he also told me that at one time he was a foreman with twenty-two men under him in an engineering workshop, and that his mother died when he was young.

He is unable to tell me anything about himself or anyone else, or about any events, since his re-enlistment in 1914.

I have seen my pupil daily since the above note was written, but I have been unable to hypnotise him until to-day, a week since. The memory of the past eighteen months is very gradually coming back to his mind, for he has mentioned one or two places in France where he has been, and has even been able to describe one. I have got corroboration of bis state- ments and I find him substantially correct. He now writes with his right hand only, and writes a good hand. He reads fluently. Of writing with his left hand he has no recollection, nor can he remember writing in the copy books. He is quite unable to tell me the days of the week in French, nor does he understand my meaning when I wish him " bon soir."

January-February, 1916.

Medical notes on the case by the doctor in charge, taken at the patient's bedside.

Disease — Loss of Memory, (old) Dislocation of Head of Radius

1210.

-6. 1. 16. Brought up to Hospital by the police, who found him wandering about having lost his memory. He can remembrr nothing of his past life, not even where he came from or was going to. Has deformity in the region of the head of the radius — enlargement of the head of the bone with a slight creaking in passive movement. There is some slight limitation of flexion, extension and supination.

X ray shows— Old dislocation of head of radius forwards with osteoarthritic changes in the head, and the formation of a fossa in the external epicondylar ridge.

228 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. NOV.-DEC., IOIG.

10. 1. 16. His memory of the last few days is exceedingly dim.

He does not remember coming into Hospital.

11. 1. 16. He tells me that he has been to a cricket match

while it was dark. He has been trying to think who has been playing. Dr. (consulting neurologist) has

examined him at my request and reports — " I have twice examined Pte. Johnson and find him suffering from complete loss of memory both recent and remote. He cannot remember his own name and where he comes from ; memory in fact for past events is completely gone with the exception that he informs me that he dreams that he is or was a Police Officer and that he was pensioned for injuries to the head (this may be a partial memory and may be correct). He has three scars on the scalp, one on forehead and one on left eyebrow. His expression is anxious. Pupils are active to all reactions. Tongue protruded straight, but has slight fine tremor. Tendon reflexes appear normal. No Babuiski. No sensory changes.

The loss of memory probably may be due either to epilepsy or old injury to head.

The man complains of parietal and occipital headache. He ia to be kept under observation."

19. 1. 16. Cannot be up long, as he gets giddy.

24. 1. 16. His wife has come and gives the following report : They have been married 12 years. Some 3-5 years before the marriage Johnson had a very serious injury to his bead (and dislocation of his elbow). This laid him up for a long time and he had to be invalided out cf the Police Force in which he then was. He became a fitter in a machine shop. He was employed thus until the war broke out

in Aug., 1914. He joined the shires on the third day

of the war, but in September, 1914, he was discharged as * medically unfit.' After about a fortnight he re-enlisted, this time in the R.A.M.C. in Birmingham. He was sent to Aldershot, and in April, 1915, he was sent to France. He was sent home in October, 1915, with an injury to his right elbow (the sits of the old dislocation) which Mrs. Johnson thinks was a shell injury. He was in a hospital in the north for a month, then had ten days' furlough, then back to Aldershot, but on January 1st came home again. His wife found out he had no pass and no leave, so she

NOV.-DEC., I'.IK;. A Fi,-st A'.,/,,-, •;„„„/ ;„ .-

persuaded him to go back and saw him off at Snow Hill on the 5th. During this time at home his wife noticed that he seemed ' queer altogether.'

He broke his right forearm 12 years ago. This seemed to upset his head again and he was laid up for six months, three months in hospital, and for three months afterwards his head was queer. Apart from his accidents his head has seemed all right during the 12 years of married lift-, except for sleeplessness, for which he took veronal.

25. 1. 16. Dr. examined this man again yesterday in con- junction with his wife's story. There is still almost complete loss of recent as well as remote memory. The dreams he mentioned of having been in the Police Force and invalided out of it have proved a product of memory. A question he asked as to shaft revolutions and size of pulleys was in relation to his past work.

There was on one occasion a false memory. He stated that be had spent the night at a cricket match.

There is a history (from his wife) that if he took any alcohol his memory became dazed.

27. 1. 16. Has some weakness over right side of body, especially arm. Exaggerated right elbow jerk, right wrist jerk and both knees jerk.

Said was in Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, under Jordan Lloyd.

Under suggestion and partial hypnosis gave some memories and did some calculation. Recommend Wassermann iodides and continued suggestion.

29. 1. 16. Wassermann negative.

2. 2. 16. Memory for recent events is coming back. He re- members his visitor of yesterday and what she said. Iodides discontinued as produced headaches.

11. 2. 16. Distinct improvement in memory and in subjective feeling. He remembers something of school and thinks that at one time he did half a day's schooling and worked half a day in a cotton-mill.

14. 2. 16. He now remembers his past life, his wife and children and everything but the last eighteen months.

16. 2. 16. Progress maintained. No clear recovery of last eighteen months' memory.

230 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. NOV. -DEC., 1916.

21. 2. 16. General condition very good. No improvement in lost patch of memory.

Recommending for invaliding. 27. 2. 16. Has been discharged. To go home on the 30th.

CASES. I.

L. 1207. APPARITION OF THE DYING.

THE following interesting case of an apparition seen at the time of a sudden, critical illness, resulting in death, has been sent to us through Sir George Beilby, a member of this Society, to whom we are much indebted for the care with which all available evidence has been collected.

The percipient's experience took place on April 4, 1913, and her account of it, which we print below, was given in a letter to Sir George Beilby, written three years and a half later, as follows :

October 4, 1916.

I will write out the incident which, if you remember, I told you by word of mouth in Glasgow last June — the incident of my " sight " or vision of my brother in Australia shortly after he must have fallen into the unconsciousness which lasted till his death some days later.

It was if I remember rightly on the Friday evening [April 4, 1913], and, — which will fix the date, — I had been attending a Committee Meeting called on that evening to help the election of the Rev. Joseph Johnson, minister of the Park Avenue Con- gregational Church, Ashton-on-Mersey, to the Knutsford Board of Guardians. The election was to take place on the following day. We had an animated meeting, and with my thoughts full of this I left before its close, and (alone) turned out into the brightly lighted and bustling thoroughfare of School Road, Sale.

I had walked but a few paces when I was staggered by seeing, as in a cinema show, reflected in the air in front of me a clear-cut picture of my brother in Australia, lying with the unmistakeably helpless look of a dead or unconscious man who had just fallen. I saw his pose, his clothes, and even his thick curling hair as if in life before me.

Mechanically I must have continued walking as no one appeared to notice me ; but I felt my brother was dying or dead, or that

NOV.-DKC., liin;. <ftst

something tragic was happening to him, and I began at praying for him in an agony of supplication. The picture faded, and I hurried on out of the light of the shops and into the darkness of Washway Road.

Suddenly, when halfway along the road, the picture shone ««ut again before my eyes, this time against the dark sky. I saw the prone helpless figure, the colouring of clothes and hair, then as before it faded quickly away, and I did not see it again. I think it was between 8 and 9.30 p.m., or about then, that I left the meeting. I remember that my sister had not been very well, and that she was in bed. When I reached home I ran up to her room and broke down in telling her what I had just seen, saying I was "sure something had happened to Edgar." I remember she tried to soothe me by saying I was simply overtired — that I should get away to bed and " would see things would be all right in the morning." I tried to believe this would be so, but all the Saturday and Sunday following I kept thinking of my brother and praying constantly for him. On the Monday morning the post brought a nice kind letter from him written from Hobart from our cousin's home there, enclosing a belated birthday gift for our small nephew, dated 4th March. We were so glad to have the letter, and my sister said : " Now you see Edgar is all right."

On the Thursday morning (i.e. April 10, 1913), my sister being still confined to bed, I sent up the letters to her, then suddenly I heard her cry out, and I rushed upstairs to find her sitting up with a scared look holding out the (enclosed) letter from Mr. Huie, C.A., from Edinburgh, stating that he had just received a " cablegram from Melbourne " announcing " the death on April 7th of our brother Mr. J. Edgar Paterson.

The next news we had was when our sister-in-law's letter (enclosed) arrived telling us how Edgar, when travelling home from New Zealand to Melbourne, had suddenly fallen down unconscious on the ship when nearing Melbourne, had been carried ashore at Melbourne unconscious, and placed in Hospital there (on the Saturday, April 5th, 1913), where he had lingered without regaining consciousness till the Monday, April 7th, when

he slipped quietly away.

MARY M. PATERSON.

We have received the following corroborative statement from Miss Paterson's sister, Mrs. George Francis, to whom,

232 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. NOV.-DEC., 1916.

as related above, she described her experience on the evening of April 4, 1913, before she knew anything of her brother's illness :

October 29«A, 1916.

This is to certify that what my sister, Mary M. Paterson has written re Friday, April 4th, 1913, and her experience then regarding her sight of our brother, is just what she told me on her return from the Election Meeting.

I perfectly remember the occurrences she describes in her accom- panying letter to Sir George Beilby. EMILY FRANCIS.

According to Miss Paterson's clear recollection, confirmed by Mrs. Francis, her experience took place when she was on her way home from an election meeting held on behalf of the Rev. Joseph Johnson. As to the date of this meeting Mr. Johnson wrote to Miss Paterson as follows :

August 23, 1916.

We were glad to have your letter. Mrs. Johnson, R ,

and myself remember the account of your brother's vision ; and when we get back I think I can verify that date about the

Election Committee. I know it was in April. . . .

J. JOHNSON.

(Note by Mr. Johnson, received by Miss Paterson,

October 28, 1916.) Election, April 5, 1913. J. JOHNSON.

The meeting which Miss Paterson had attended took place on the day preceding the election, and we have therefore good evidence for the conclusion that Miss Paterson saw the apparition of her brother, as described by her, on Friday, April 4, 1913, between 8 p.m. and 9.30 p.m.

With regard to the time and circumstances of Mr. Edgar Paterson's death, we have received the following evidence :

(Letter to Mrs. Francis from Messrs. Huie and Ramage.

C.A.)

EDINBURGH, April 9, 1913.

I greatly regret to intimate to you that I have been informed by cable from Melbourne that Mr. Edgar Paterson died suddenly there on 7th inst. I annex a copy of the cable.

Perhaps you will be so good as to inform Miss Paterson.

DAVID HUIE.

NOV.-DEC., i-.tKi. Cases. L':;:;

(Copy of Cablegram.) Melbourne on 8th 12.30 p.m.

Huie Edin.gh.

J. Edgar Paterson died suddenly Melbourne seventh. Notify sisters

(Extracts from Letters written by Mr. Paterson 8 widow Australia to Mrs. Francis and Miss Paterson.)

1- April 15, [1913].

. . . Since I wrote you last week a friend of mine has called who was on the steamer with Edgar. He says he was the life of the boat, as he always was, and on Thursday night [April 3, 1913] he was quite bright and seemed quite well, but on Friday morning when he was getting up he broke a blood-vessel, caused by a complication of liver and kidney troubles. . . . Two doctors stayed with him constantly from when he took ill on Friday, 4th inst., until he was removed to the Hospital, 5th inst. . . .

2. May U [1913].

. . . How funny Mary for you to have had that experience or presentiment about Edgar on the Friday night, for that waa the day he took ill. ... Lily says he must have been thinking of you at the time. . . .

3. June 24, 1913.

. . . One of my brothers-in-law saw the Captain of the steamer Edgar was on. He took ill between 10 and 11 on Friday morning and was up and dressed. He went unconscious at once. Two doctors, who were on the steamer as passengers, stayed with him constantly, then a specialist was called on the steamer when it arrived in Melbourne on April 5th, and an ambulance took him to the Hospital and they wired me. . . .

GEORGIE PATERSOX.

It is established by the evidence given above that Mr. J. Edgar Paterson was taken ill quite suddenly on board ship, when on his way to Melbourne, between 10 and 11 a.m. on Friday, April 4, 1913 (Victoria time), that he became uncon- scious at once and died in hospital in Melbourne on April 7, 1913. By Greenwich mean time, therefore, he was taken ill between midnight and 1 a.m. (approximately) on April 4, 1913,1 and he had been unconscious about twenty hours when

f, 1 " Standard time " in Victoria is ten hours in advance of Greenwich mean time.

234 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. Nov. -DEC., 1010.

Miss Paterson saw the apparition of him between 7 p.m. and 9.30 p.m. on that day.

Upon the evidence of this and the many other recorded cases of a similar kind most investigators will be ready to assume that " between deaths and apparitions of the dying person a connexion exists which is not due to chance alone." 1 In the present instance, the sudden and unexpected nature of Mr. Paterson's illness precludes the idea that anxiety on his behalf in Miss Paterson's mind could have been a contri- butory cause of her experience. Another peculiarity worth noting is the great distance which intervened between the dying man and his sister, almost the greatest distance terres- trially possible. We thus find it again cogently demonstrated that whatever the means of communication in such cases may be, it is one which distance does not invalidate.

In Human Personality, Vol. I., p. 245 if., Myers discusses at some length whether apparitions of this kind can always be explained by " telepathy pure and simple," or whether we must not in some cases assume an actual " modification of space " caused by what he calls a " psychorrhagic " faculty on the part of the agent ; for the details of the argument readers must turn to Myers's book. In the particular instance under discussion it seems likely that the cause of Miss Paberson's vision was a telepathic impression received by her mind from the mind of her brother and externalised by the same mental mechanism which can externalise, as an hallucination, sugges- tions given in hypnotic trance.

As to whether this impression was received at the moment of the hallucination, or whether it had been received earlier — perhaps at the first moment of Mr. Paterson's seizure — and had lain dormant in the percipient's mind, waiting an opportunity to rise into consciousness, we have no means of determining. One point may be noted : Miss Paterson has said that she saw the figure of her brother lying prone with his clothes on, and

1 Since Mr. Paterson did not die until two days after Miss Paterson's vision, the case cannot be reckoned as a " death-coincidence " according to the definition given in the Report on the Census of Hallucinations, Proc., S.P.B., Vol. X., p. 208, but this circumstance has only a statistical import and does not detract from the psychical interest of the case.

Nov. -DEC., 191G. ft,,, j; ;,

it appears, as stated by Mrs. J. Edgar Paterson in ln-r l.-i June 24, 1913 (see above), that Mr. Patereon was "up and dressed" when he was taken ill, so that in its main features Miss Paterson's vision seems to have reproduced a scene which actually occurred. The scene is depicted rather as it might appear to a spectator than from the standpoint of Mr. Paterson himself, from whom it is suggested that the impression came. But this should perhaps be explained by supposing that the actual mise en sc&ne in such a case is provided by the drama- tising instinct of the percipient's mind.

Miss Paterson informs us that, so far as she is aware, she has never had any other similar experience.

II.

L. 1208.

WE have received the following case of what seems to be a telepathic impression from Mr. L. C. Powles, a member of the Society. The percipient is Mr. James W. Sharpe, late Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Mr. Powles 's statement of the case is as follows :

The Highlands, Rye, Sussex, July 2, 1916-

On Aug. 4, 1913, I had been invited by a friend, Miss B., living in the neighbouring town, some three miles off, to meet Mr. James W. Sharpe. On the afternoon of that day, therefore, I rode over to her house, leaving my wife, who was not well enough to accompany me, resting by herself. ,

At tea-time we talked, I think, entirely upon psychical matters, and I remember asking Mr. Sharpe if he saw ' auras ' round people, and, if so, what he saw round me. At first he saw nothing, but later he said : " You asked me to tell you ; I do now see something." He saw two things behind me. (I now refer to my notes made the same evening on my return.) " One, a dark, not inimical,1 half -human creature, with knotted hands placed upon my shoulders." This he said was " symbolical of illness near at hand — a warning."

Then appeared the " faint slight figure of a young woman with oval face, etc." (here follow some details which very \\vll apply to my wife's appearance). She "tried to avert the illness."

When I came home towards six o'clock my wife told ms she

1 For comment on this word, sec below.

236 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. NOV. -DEC., 1916.

had been very anxious about my being out in the cold wind ; also — and this is the important part of the case — she had been quite obsessed by a somewhat grotesque story of a man dressed up as a gorilla who comes up behind the master of the house and strangles him with his hands.

L. C. POWLES.

We have also received a statement from Mrs. Powles, as follows :

July 2, 1916.

1 remember perfectly my husband going over to tea on Aug. 4, 1913, at our friend's house, Miss B.'s, and my being unable to go with him that day.

I was anxious about him, as he had only recently recovered from pneumonia, and there was a very cold wind. To pass the time and divert my thoughts I took up the Strand Magazine, and became absorbed in a very horrible story of a man disguised as a gorilla who came behind his enemy and broke his neck with his powerful hands.

I have always had a great horror of gorillas from childhood, and far-fetched as it was, I was made very nervous and oppressed by the story and longed for my husband's return. Immediately he came, I told him. of the story and the absurdly nervous state it had left me in. This interested him extremely, and he then told me something of Mr. Sharpe's vision. He did not at the time describe it quite fully for fear of alarming me, and par- ticularly did not mention that Mr. Sharpe thought it might be a Health- warning. ISABEL G. POWLES.

It will be observed that these two statements were written on July 2, 1916, nearly three years after the occurrence of the incident to which they refer. Mr. Powles's statement, however, is based on notes made within a few hours of this incident, and we have been able to obtain further corroborative evidence in the form of a statement by Miss B.1 who was present when the percipient, Mr. Sharpe, described his impres- sions, and also a letter written by Mr. Powles to Miss B. on the day after the incident occurred.

Miss B.'s statement, contained in a letter to Mr. Powles,

1 This lady's name and address are known to us, but are withheld here at her request

NOV. -DEO., 1916. Cases.

which was written in reply to his enquiry wln-ther she roni.-rn bered Mr. Sharpe's ' vision,'— is as follnv

July 'J7. L9U

Certainly I remember Mr. Sharpe's "vision" on tho It', ..f August, 1913, and that you wrote to me on the following day giving me what you felt to be an explanation of it.

I remember that Mr. Sharpe said he seemed to see a non-human creature with his knotted hands on your shoulders, and that is the expression you used in your letter of the 5th of Auj.'ii>t. 1913, ... I remember that Mr. Sharpe said it might be a health- warning, and that he also said he saw a young, oval-faced woman trying — as you say — to avert this monster's apparently evil intent. I enclose your letter to me of the 5th of August, 1913 (which I happened to keep), which gives the account of how Mrs. Powlea read the story in the Strand Magazine. M. B.

Letter from Mr. Powles to Miss B.

The Highlands, Rye, Sussex, August 5, 1913.

With regard to the visions Mr. Sharp[e] saw behind me yester- day ...

My wife was thinking much about my health — hoping I was not getting tired or sitting in draughts, but — and this is still more curious — she was also reading in the " Strand " for July a horrible story about a man dressed as a gorilla who comes behind the master of the house and breaks his neck with his hands in the dark. This story quite oppressed her and miizht easily account for the " dark, non-human, creature behind mo with his knotted hands on my shoulder." ... L. C. IVwi.iv

Mr. Powles has informed us that in reply to an enquiry addressed to Mr. Sharpe, asking whether he remembered the incident described above, Mr. Sharpe wrote that

he does not remember the actual vision, but that by " inimical " (see above, p. 235) he meant a symbolical Health warning or warning of trouble to come, but not actively hostile.

The " health-warning " — Mr. Powles tells us — " has not proved to be veridical, as I have not been ill at all since. and no disaster has happened."

Since Mr. Sharpe does not clearly remember his "vision" and the details of it are well attested by the evidence of Miss B. and by Mr. Powles 's letter of August 5, 1913, we

238 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. Nov. -DEC., 1916.

have not thought it necessary to get any further statement from Mr. Sharpe. It should be noted, however, that he himself interprets the vision as a symbolic and presumably subjective representation of an impression concerning Mr. Powles's health ; but the coincidence between the form assumed by this sym- bolic image and Mrs. Powles's mental pre-occupation at the time, and her fears about her husband, is curious, and suggests a telepathic origin for the vision.

KEVIEW.

The Quest for Dean Bridgman Conner. By Anthony J. Philpott. W. Heinemann, London.

Those who have read my paper on the psychology of Mrs. Piper's Trance Phenomena in Proceedings, Vol. XXVIII., may possibly remember that more than once, but especially on p. 112, the futile search in Mexico for a boy officially reported dead, but believed by his relatives to be still alive, is referred to. Mr. Philpott's book gives a lively and interesting account of the case by one of those who conducted the search and concluded with good reason that the boy, or rather young man, was really dead. I read the book with interest, because I had previously seen no written record of the case. My knowledge of it was confined to unannotated references to it in some of Mrs. Piper's sittings, and rather vague recollections of what Hodgson had told me about it and especially about the failure of Mrs. Piper's part in it. The case is an instructive one, as showing how little confidence can be placed in the statements of mediums pressed into a quest of this kind, and it may be worth giving a brief account of the story as related by Mr. Philpott.

Conner was a young citizen of the United States who went to the city of Mexico to work as electrician in a theatre, but was shortly after going there taken ill with typhoid fever and removed to the American hospital, where he died in the spring of 1895. An official account of his death and burial was sent by the American Consul- General to -his father in Vermont. A few months later his father had a vivid dream in which his son appeared to him and said he was not dead, but alive, and held a captive in Mexico. This confirmed certain vague doubts and suspicions entertained, for reasons too long to enter into here, by the young man's friends. Through the advice of the Kev.

NOV.-DKC., i«.M r,. >ew.

M. J. Savage, they consulted Hodgson, uud through him Mrs. Piper. Mrs. Piper's controls confirmed the view that Conner was alive. "She claimed," says Mr. Philpott, "that he had been taken from the hospital at night by the ' South road ' and was being held for ransom or some other dark purpose." The controls affirmed that the body of another patient who had died was dressed in his clothes and buried as Conner.

Thus fortified in their suspicions, Conner's friends decided that a Mr. Dodge, who knew him well, should go to Mexico to look for him. Mr. Dodge was not reassured by his enquiries, but ultimately having obtained leave to have the body, which had now been buried for about a year, exhumed, he " was pretty well convinced at the time that " it was that of Conner. Mrs. Piper's controls continued to assert, on the contrary, that he had been taken along a South road, — to a country house said Phinuit, to Tuxedo said G.P. Unfortunately, when Mr. Dodge returned home, experts in Vermont concluded that teeth and hair taken from the skull of the buried body were not those of Conner. The grounds on which they formed this conclusion were judged by Mr. Philpott, who discussed the matter with them later, to be insufficient ; but their opinions naturally carried great weight at the time, and were held to confirm in general the statements of Mrs. Piper's controls.

Mrs. Piper was ill and unable to give sittings during a great part of 1896. When she resumed in October of that year Mr. Dodge had more than one sitting with her, in the course of which she gave a lurid account of Conner's condition at or near Puebla (Puebla being now substituted for Tuxedo) in some sort of lunatic asylum described with some detail. Mr. Dodge and a friend started again in search, and while they were searching directions given in the Piper trance were telegraphed to them. The controls professed exact knowledge of their whereabouts as well as of that of Conner, and described them sometimes as near or actually in the building where he was confined, and so forth ; but the indications given were always incorrect or inadequate, and they returned puzzled and disappointed.

In the meanwhile the newspapers — or rather a newspaper, the Boston Globe— took the matter up, and early in 1897, after Mr- Dodge's return, sent Mr. Philpott to carry on the quest. Mr. Philpott ultimately satisfied himself that the descriptions given were misleading; that it was impossible that Conner could be

240 Journal of Society for Psychical Research. NOV. -DEC., 1916.

in confinement as described without the knowledge of the Mexican authorities, by whom at that time the reins of government were firmly held ; and, moreover, that there could have been no motive for kidnapping him. He also found the nurse, previously lost sight of, who had actually seen Conner die, and, in fine, practically set the whole question at rest.

As to Mrs. Piper, what apparently happened was that the enquiry set her subliminal imagination to work. She got some things right according to the ideas of Mr. Dodge — perhaps in part by thought-transference from him, and once started on the wrong line embroidered on it further. According to Mr. Philpott there was at least one remarkable incident, which he attributes to thought-transference. A certain landscape view as seen from a particular identifiable spot at Puebla was described by the controls vividly and accurately. This was after the second return of Mr. Dodge, who had seen the view, and in his presence. The correspondence of the description with the original was verified by Mr. Philpott. Certainly, as related, this would seem to have been a remarkable instance of telepathy from the sitter. I do not remember hearing from Hcdgson that anything so striking had occurred. Perhaps he had not heard of the impression it produced on Mr. Philpott.

Mr. Philpott's story of his quest is well and interestingly told, and gives the impression of sincerity. His discussion of psychical research, however, is somewhat shallow, and combines a too ready credulity with a want of understanding of the attitude of those engaged in work on the subject. In particular, I think he misunderstands the attitude of Hodgson. This is not unnatural, for Hodgson, who had a great dislike to anything concerning Mrs. Piper getting into the newspapers, and therefore disapproved of Mr. Philpott's mission, evidently avoided seeing him or giving him a chance of sitting with Mrs. Piper before he went, and probably did not readily accept his account of his quest after- wards. Prejudice thus apparently exhibited by Hodgson may well have engendered prejudice on Mr. Philpott's side, and at any rate deprived him of the opportunity of judging Hodgson and his methods and beliefs at first hand. Mr. Philpott, I am glad to observe, implies that they made it up later, and in the end I do not think they substantially differed about the case.

ELEANOR MILDRED SIDGWICK.

BF Jociety for Psychical Research,

1011 London 364 Journal

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