Part 4 (1/2)
Of even greater significance was the discovery that it frequently happened also that instead of getting the e which the experimenter had consciously atteet other ideas merely latent in the experi he had been doing, etc Or the recipient e several hours after the experi it, for example, in a dream
The obvious conclusion was that telepathy must be a function not of a person's ordinary consciousness, but of what psychologists call the subconsciousness, thus accounting for the difficulty of invariably obtaining satisfactory results in telepathic experiht of these discoveries, then, the belief has been gaining ground that ghosts--real ghosts--are at es ih the subtle power of telepathy, and apprehended in the form of hallucinations of the various senses, just as any ordinary telepathic e may be apprehended
A person is stricken with a h soreat crisis likely to terminate in death
Consciously or subconsciously, he thinks of loved ones far away, and is seized with a longing to get into touch with them oncehi space, by what s its way to the conditions arise--as in some moment of mental relaxation--is projected into their consciousness before, at the time of, or after the sender's death, and is seen, or heard, itGhost, or the phantase of the sender himself
If, however, conditions are such as to prevent thefrom the recipient's subconsciousness into his field of conscious vision, it may, on occasion, as telepathic experiments have proved, be retransmitted to a third party, and by him be apprehended; as, for example, the Drummer of Cortachy, in the two instances cited above, was heard not by ers
More than this, evidence has been accu to make it certain that in hosts, but that they are merely products of the seer's own subconsciousness This was first clearly indicated by the results of an interesting ”census of hallucinations,” originated soy, and simultaneously carried on--principally by members of the Society for Psychical Research--in the United States, England, France, Germany, and other countries To thousands of persons the question was put:
”Have you ever, when believing yourself to be co touched by a living being or inani a voice, which impression, so far as you could discover, was not due to any external physical cause?”
Of the 27,339 replies received to this question[9] no fewer than 3,266 were in the affirhost stories” siiven above; many testified to apparitions not of dead persons but of living friends; and in addition to this, the replies offact that there often were ”ghosts” of inanimate objects--of hats and chairs and tables as well as of hus
[9] The detailed report of the results of this census will be found in the _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol x, pp 25-422
One respondent, Mrs Savile Lu a calisthenic lesson, she and another young woman ”distinctly saw a chair over which we felt we must fall, and called out to each other to avoid it But no chair was there”
The Reverend G Lyon Turner, professor of philosophy at the Lancashi+re Independent College, Manchester, England, woke up one e chandelier of soround-glass globes at the end of each arm He knew that when he went to bed no chandelier had been there, and naturally feared that soht
”I moved my head,” he said, ”to see whether the phantom moved, too But no, it remained fixed; and the objects behind and beyond it became more or less completely visible as I moved, exactly as would have been the case had it been a real chandelier So I woke ”
Even lishone to bed, and was--at least, this was my impression at the time--quite awake The door of e which half-illuht taps on the passage outside These taps were not sufficiently loud for a human footstep; on the other hand, the volu-stick
I fully re two top-boots trot rapidly across the room and vanish into the opposite wall The illusion was astonishi+ngly vivid, and I can recall the details to this day I have never had a waking dream since, and have never experienced ambulant top-boots except on this occasion”
Whence the origin of these odd apparitions? The reply ofmore than the weird externalization of ideas latent in thethem Indeed, in the case of Mr Turner there is absolute proof that this was the case, for that gentleman afterwards identified the phanto froe chapel in which he daily said prayers Furtheriven in subsequent chapters--that often the ideas thus externalized relate to things once seen or heard but long since forgotten; it s seen or heard in a wholly unconscious, or, rather, subconscious, way And as with ideas of things, so with ideas of persons
In this connection, as illuiven an experience narrated to ist, or ist
A patient of his ca in a condition of extreht she had seen a ghost
”I woke up,” said she, ”and saw at the foot of radually faded away” Shethe apparition, but in the nized a relative of his, ho in the hall when the patient last visited hiraphs, and, before she departed, asked her to look thehost!”
”Yes,” was Doctor Prince's reply, ”and you saw your ghost in this house when you were here only a few days ago I was talking to her as you came in”
”But,” objected the patient, ”I certainly did not see her, for I noticed somebody ith you, and I purposely turned away as I passed, lest I should seem rude”
”All the sa conscious of it--saw her, as it were, out of the corner of your eye One fleeting glance would be enough to give you the host”