Frank Podmore

“ That is, it is proved beyond all possibility of doubt that in this particular series of experiments the success attained was due to some definite and uniform cause. In other words, if it can be conclusively shown that the percipient could not have obtained knowledge of the numbers by the ordinary processes of sensation, due allowance being made for the hyperaesthesia, especially of hearing, frequently met with in hypnotised subjects, the results point unmistakably to the existence of some hitherto unrecognised mode of communication. ”

“ The main object of the experiments was to determine the fact of the transmission of ideas and sensations by other than the ordinary sensory channels; and for this purpose a form of experiment was chosen which made it possible effectually to eliminate the operation of chance coincidence as an explanation of the results. The effectiveness of the precautions taken to prevent information passing between agent and percipient by normal means will be discussed later. In the main series of experiments a set of small wooden counters used in a game called Lotto, were employed. ”

“ Smith himself hypnotised Whybrew, as usual. . During the experiment he sat by him, but did not speak to him at all after he knew the subject—a man with a barrow of fish—given him by Mrs. Sidgwick. Miss Johnson, not knowing what the subject was, carried on the conversation with Whybrew. He said: "It's the shape of a man. Yes, there's a man there. Don't know him. He looks like a bloke that sells strawberries." Miss Johnson asked: "Are there strawberries there?" ”

“ But 146 trials during the same period with Miss B. and Mr. Smith in the same room showed 26 complete successes. Clearly therefore the slight difference in conditions materially affected the results. In view of the startling results obtained over much greater distances in some later experiments, and in the cases of spontaneous telepathy to be quoted hereafter, it is difficult to understand how a slight increase in distance, or the interposition of such obstacles as ceilings and doors, could really prejudice the physical process of transmission. ”

“ The subject of the picture would be selected by one of the experimenters and communicated in writing to Mr. Smith who would then visualise the idea suggested. The other experimenter, who would as a rule be left in ignorance of the subject chosen, would sit by the percipient and, if necessary, question him on what he saw. One of the most successful percipients was P., the young man already referred to. Two illustrations may be quoted. The first experiment was made on July 9, 1891.
No. 1
P.'s eyes were not opened and he was told that what he would see would be a magic-lantern picture. ”

“ Sidgwick suggests, to be sought in the psychological conditions. On the one hand, the parties to the experiments, because of the novel conditions, were probably not so sanguine of success. On the other hand, the greater tediousness of experiments conducted under such conditions would be likely to operate unfavourably. It must be recorded that in nearly four hundred trials with the same percipient, Miss B., the agent being in another house, or separated from the percipient by two closed doors and a passage, practically no success was obtained. ”

“ The actual number of successes obtained under the conditions last named with the best percipient, P., was only 8 out of 139 trials—a number much greater than the probable number if chance alone operated, but proportionately much smaller than the number obtained when the same agent and percipient were together in one room, without any obstacle intervening. [3] With the other percipient, T., only one success was obtained in 79 trials. ”

“ Smith inside a small box, in such a position that it was impossible for the subject, even if his eyes had been open, which was generally not the case, to see it. Mr. Smith—who in the course of the long series of experiments occupied various positions with relation to the subject, sometimes in front, sometimes behind or at the side [1] —would look intently at the number, and the percipient would state his impression. The total number of trials under these conditions with two percipients, young men name P. and T., was 617. ”

“ The amount of correspondence seems on the whole much beyond what would be produced by mere association of ideas. It should be added that, with one exception, the whole of the drawings made by the percipient on each occasion are reproduced. The exception is the experiment marked 10. The original diagram, as shown, was a Maltese cross
which the agent notes that he used on January 5th and 6th, 1894. The percipient made on January 5th, at 9.30 p.m., four drawings, of which the one most like a Maltese cross is reproduced as R. 10, a. ”

“ Later experiments, however, by Mrs. Sidgwick and Miss Johnson have shown that the close proximity of the agent is not an essential condition. The results can be reproduced at a distance of twenty-five feet, or when a thick screen of glass is interposed. It is more in accordance with analogy therefore to ascribe the results, like the others dealt with in this chapter, to an affection of the central rather than the local nervous system. [15]
↑ The position in each experiment is in indicated in the published report. ”

“ Professor Lehmann himself has since admitted the force of Sidgwick's counter-argument, and agrees that his theory is not yet established (see his letter to Professor W. James, quoted in the Journal, S. P. R., 1899, p. 115) . In any case it must be admitted that it would be extremely difficult to explain by a combination of unconscious whispering and hyperaesthesia of hearing the results quoted below, in which agent and percipient were in different rooms, with door or ceiling intervening ↑ Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. ”

“ There is a clear representation of a hill with scarped cliff-like outlines to the right, and at the foot three upright parallel lines, with oblique lines above them; lines representing a flat surface to the left. ”

“ As already stated we have reproduced many of the effects ascribed by the earlier mesmerists to "community of sensation" between the operator and subject. Amongst other remarkable effects which may be ascribed to telepathy, are the inhibition of speaking on the part of the hypnotised subject by the silent will of the experimenter, and the production of sleep at a distance. The classic experiments of this character in recent times are those conducted by Professor Pierre Janet, Dr. ”

“ To these she appends the note: "always come back to the same thing. Probably he has sent nothing." Finally, on one corner of the sheet, she draws a Greek key pattern, marked "afterwards." [11]
The two ladies who conducted the experiments next to be quoted have had considerable success in previous similar trials. It is to be noted that in the first of the two cases quoted the transferred impression, if indeed it may be claimed as "transferred," was wholly auditory—to wit, fragments of the word "candlestick" and the sound of a train. ”