Part 4 (2/2)

Undoubtedly Doctor Prince was right, and undoubtedly this dual law of subconscious perception and hosts cited in this chapter Even the strange haunting of the Petit Trianon, as experienced by Miss Morison and Miss Lamont, may be said to find its explanation here

It is true that both Miss Morison and Miss Lamont profess to have known little about the history of the Petit Trianon previous to their visit to Versailles But their detailed report of the haunting contains state that, subconsciously at any rate, they e of the place Miss Morison adreat enthusiasm for Marie Antoinette, and had read not a little about her, including an article descriptive of her summer home; while Miss Laly e person regarding the life story of Queen Marie Besides which, and nificant, there was published, just before they went to Versailles, an illustrated ardens of the Petit Trianon, with so, too, that the two ladies were not haunted in exactly the sa certain people and scenes that were not visible to the other On the theory of a supernatural manifestation this would be hard to explain, but the difficulty vanishes if we recognize that the subconscious knowledge of the Trianon possessed by each must necessarily have differed

The problem remains to account for the fact, as distinct fro Why should Miss Morison and Miss La all the thousands of visitors to the Petit Trianon, alone have had such an experience? To this, assuredly, there is no answer if one is going to stick to the old-fashi+oned notion of ghosts and attribute to them objective reality But the answer is very simple on the modern scientific hypothesis

Miss Morison and Miss Laist would say, were haunted for the reason that, being of exceptionally romantic, impressionable temperaments, the ideas associated in their minds with the Petit Trianon, appealed to thee the into a state of ”psychical dissociation,” during which their subconsciousness obtained complete control over the upper consciousness, and flooded them with its latent memories of all that they had ever read or heard about the place and its historic residents

In other words, they were as two persons ”drea awake”

The sahostly vision seen on the lawn by Mrs M Nor do we need to go beyond the hypothesis of subconscious perception to account for the experiences of Lady Eardley and the guest at the Boston hotel In the latter case it is necessary to assu more than that the lady who saw the apparition at the elevator entrance perceived her danger without being aware of it, and subconsciously developed the hallucination that enabled her to avoid it

As to the Eardley case, it is a well-established es, cause organic changes too slight to be noticed by the sufferer's upper consciousness, but plainly perceptible to his subconsciousness which, through symbolical dreams or hallucinations, so that all is not well

I inning in the suhth the details were not always the saht viciously at my throat I did not then know as uely that ”it htrippe, necessitating treatment by a throat specialist, who speedily discovered in e With its removal the recurrent dream of the cat instantly ceased to trouble me

Lady Eardley's case was, doubtless, quite si was conveyed to her upper consciousness, not in dream, but as an auditory hallucination And, in the sotry, it seeyman had advised the child's father to place her under ht have been averted

In the Langtry case, however, there must have been operative also a telepathic factor And since the telepathic explanation of ghosts is still the subject offarther, to state exactly what is known to-day regarding telepathy

CHAPTER II

WHY I BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY

So near New York, I had a curious dream that made a deep impression on me In this dreaer boy entered and announced that I anted up-stairs There I found in a large room a family hom I had been inti of thehted to see them But I was struck with the absence of one of the sons, Archie, who, as a youngster of about e, had been one of my closest friends

To one,”

a stateueness, seemed in the dream a wholly adequate and satisfactory reply When I awoke, however, with the drea that, as I said toserious must have happened to Archie Tisdale” The sequel proved that this feeling was amply justified

For it developed that, at about the time ofuntil, proain,in a green lane that led to the shore of a beautiful Canadian lake, I had an experience which si on a rail fence, taking in the glories of the fading sunset It was one of those evenings and one of those scenes of which poets delight to sing, and as I gazed across the lake at the changing hues on the distant hills, slowly turning froaveso coe of youth

Suddenly I was roused by hearing my name called, in a tone so faint, albeit perfectly audible, that for a moment I could fancy the call came from beyond the lake The next instant, however, I realized that it hat, with e of to-day, I should ter from within me rather than froot the impression that it was connected in so lady in who lady, in fact, who afterwards becaht to disination So insistent did it at last become that I returned to the house and hastily scribbled a note, stating what I had heard--or, rather, thought I had heard--and expressing the hope that all ell

My letter had to go to a distant city, and it was therefore several days before an answer could arrive I well remember how, in the interval, I fretted and worried But by return ely, the writer added that late in the afternoon of the day on which I heard the hallucinatory call, she had been overcoht to be in a serious condition

Once again I heard the sa of ht of a Fourth of July celebration, when I was lounging in a ha the last of the fireworks on the American side I was quite alone, as the friends ho had retired an hour or more before; and, for that matter, it was not their custom to address me by my first name

Yet I heard ly from across the water, precisely as in my previous experience

As in that experience, also, I instinctively associated the calling with my absent sweetheart, and wrote to her at once Two days later, our letters crossing, I received word that on the night of the Fourth she had taken an overdose of headache powder, with consequences that ht have been serious had not medical assistance been promptly obtained