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Telepathy : Of the
various branches of psychic phenomena there is none which
engages more serious attention at the present day than
telepathy or thought transference. The idea of
inter-communication between brain and brain, by other
means than that of the ordinary sense-channels, is a
theory deserving of the most careful consideration, not
only in its simple aspect as a claimant for recognition as
an important scientific fact, but also because there is
practically no department of psychic phenomena on which it
has not some bearing. To take one instance—a few decades
ago the so-called " rationalist" view of ghosts was simply
that supernatural phenomena did not exist, but now a
telepathic explanation is offered, more or less
tentatively, by an ever-increasing body of intelligent
opinion. There are those who, while admitting the
genuineness of psychic phenomena are yet satisfied that
pure psychology provides a field sufficiently wide for
their researches, and who are loath to extend its
boundaries to include an unknown spirit-world where
research becomes a hundred-fold more difficult. To such
students the theory of telepathy affords an obvious way of
escape from that element of the supernatural to which they
are opposed, since it is generally agreed that in seeking
an explanation of thought transference it is a physical
process which must be looked for. In the words of Sir
William Crookes : "It is known that the action of thought
is accompanied by certain molecular movements in the
brain, and here we have physical vibrations capable from
their extreme minuteness of acting direct on individual
molecules, while their rapidity approaches that of the
internal and external movements of the atoms themselves."
There is therefore nothing to render the theory of
thought-vibrations impossible, or even improbable, though
the difficulty of proving it has yet to be overcome. We
have, however, to contend with the fact that in many cases
on record the most vivid impressions have been transmitted
from a distance, thus showing that the distinctness of the
impression does not necessarily decrease in proportion as
the distance becomes greater. In this case we must either
conclude that there are other factors to be taken into
account, such as the varying intensity of the impression,
and the varying degress of sensitiveness in the
percipient, or we must conclude, as some authorities have
done, that telepathic communication goes direct from one
mind to another, irrespective of distance, just as thought
can travel to the oppostie side of the globe with as much
ease as it can pass to the next room. Other authorities
claim that the transmission of thought is on a different
plane from any
physical process, though, as the action of thought itself
has a physical basis, it is difficult to understand why a
supernatural explanation should be thought necessary in
the case of telepathy. In the former connection it may be
remarked that trivial circumstances can be transmitted to
a percipient near at hand, while as a rule only the more
intense and violent impressions are received from a
distance. The question whether the telepathic principle is
diffusive, and spreads equally in all directions, or
whether it can be projected directly toward one
individual, is still a vexed one. If it be in the form of
ethereal vibrations, it would certainly seem easier to
regard it as diffusive. On the other hand, practical
experience has shown that in many instances, even when
acting from a distance, it affects only one or two
individuals. However, this might be explained naturally
enough by the assumption that each transmitter requires a
special receiver—i.e., a mind in sympathy with itself. But
as yet no explanation is forthcoming, and the most that
can be done is to suspend judgment for the present,
knowing that only the possibility, or, at most, the
likelihood, of such a mode of communication has been
proved, and that of its machinery nothing can be said
beyond the vaguest surmise.
The theory of thought transference is no new one. Like
gravitation, it is a daughter of the hoary science of
astrology, but while gravitation is a full-grown fact,
universally accepted of science, telepathy, in its
scientific aspect, is as yet an infant, and a weakling at
that. However, it is not difficult to understand how both
should spring from astrology, nor to trace the connection
between them. The wise men of ancient days supposed the
stars to radiate an invisible influence which held them
together in their course, and which affected men and
events on our planet, receiving in their turns some subtle
emanation from the earth and its inhabitants. From this
idea it was but a step to assume that a radiant influence,
whether magnetic or otherwise, passed from one human being
to another. The doctrine of astral influence was shared by
Paracelsus and his alchem-istic successors until the epoch
of Sir Isaac Newton, whose discovery of the law of
gravitation brought the age of astrology to a close. To
the conception of magnetic influence colour was lent by
the practices of Mesmer, and his followers, who ascribed
to the " magnetic fluid " the phenomena of hypnosis. The
analogy between the mysterious and inexplicable force
binding worlds together and the subtle influence joining
mind with mind is sufficiently obvious, but the difficulty
is that while gravitation may be readily demonstrated, and
never fails to give certain definite results, experiments
in telepathy reveal the phenomena only in the most
spasmodic fashion and cannot be depended upon to succeed
even under the most favourable conditions. Nevertheless
such systematized experiments as have been conducted from
time to time have more than justified the interest which
has been displayed in telepathy. Science, which had so
long held herself aloof from hypnosis, was not desirous of
repeating her error in a new connection. In 1882 the
Society for Psychical Research (q. v.) came into being,
numbering among its members some of the most distinguished
men in the country. It had for its object the elucidation
of the so-called " supernatural " phenomena which were
exciting so much popular interest and curiosity; and
foremost among these was the phenomenon of thought
transference, or, as it has since been christened,
telepathy. Viewing their subject in a purely scientific
light, trained in the handling of evidence, and resolved
to pursue truth with open and unbiassed minds, they did
much to bring the study of psychic phenomena into a purer
and more dignified atmosphere. They recognized the
untrustworthiness of human nature in general, and the
prevalence of fraud even where no object was to be gained
but the gratification of a perverted vanity, and their
experiments were conducted under the most rigid
conditions, with every precaution taken against conscious
or unconscious deception. Among the most valuable evidence
obtained from experimental thought transference was that
gleaned by Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick (q.v.) from their
experiments at Brighton in 1889-91. In this series the
percipients—clerks and shop assistants—were hypnotized.
Sometimes they were asked to visualize, on a blank card,
an image or picture chosen by the agent. At other times
the agent would choose one of a bundle of cards numbered
from 10 to 90, and the percipient was required to state
the number on the picked card, which was done correctly in
a surprising number of cases. We find, curiously enough,
that the results varied in proportion as the agent and
percipient were near or far apart, and were materially
affected by the intervention of a door, or even a curtain,
between the two, but this was ascribed to a lack of
confidence on the part of the percipient, or to such
physical causes as fatigue or ennui, rather than to the
limited scope of the telepathic principle. On the whole we
are justified in thinking that chance alone would not
account for the number of correct replies given by the
hypnotised subject.
Towards the end of the century a criticism was levelled at
these experiments by Messrs. Hansen and Lehmann, of
Copenhagen, whose belief it was that the phenomenon known
as " subconscious whispering," together with
hypersesthesia on the part of the percipient, would
suffice to produce the results obtained by the Sidgwicks.
This suggested explanation, while it does not cover the
entire ground has some right to our consideration. If
hypnotism reveals so marvellous a refinement of the
perceptions, may not some elements of hyperaesthesia
linger in the sub-consciousness of the normal individual ?
If dreams contain in the experience of almost everyone,
such curious examples of deduction, may not the mental
under-current follow in waking moments a process of
reasoning of which the higher consciousness knows nothing
? It may, and it does. That " other self," which is never
quite so much in the background as we imagine, sees and
hears a thousand things of which we are unconscious, and
which come to the surface in dreams, it may be long
afterwards ; and there is no reason to suppose that it
might not see and hear indications too slight to be
perceived in a grosser sphere of consciousness, and thus
account for some cases of " thought transference." On the
other hand, we'have evidences of telepathy acting at a
distance where sub-conscious whispering and hyperaesthesia
are obviously out of the question. Though hyperaesthesia
may be advanced as a plausible explanation in some—or,
indeed, in many—instances of telepathy, it cannot be
accepted as a complete explanation unless it covers all
cases, and that it certainly does not. So we must look
elsewhere for the explanation, though it is not without
reluctance that we quit a theory so admirably adapted to
known conditions that it scarcely requires a stretching of
established physiological laws to make telepathy fit as
naturally as wireless telegraphy into the scheme of
things.
As has been earlier mentioned, practically every branch of
psychic phenomena would be vitally affected by the
scientific proof of telepathy. Coincident dreams might, in
the majority of cases, be easily explained away.
The-visions of the crystal-gazer, the trance-utterances of
the medium, could be accounted for in the same manner,
together with the occasional apparitions visiting the
normal individual. Apparitions of the dead, however, do
not so readily submit themselves to a telepathic
explanation. If they are genuine apparitions, and not
meaningless hallucinations, we must either admit that the
impulse directing the impression comes from the surviving
spirit of the
deceased agent, or that it was transmitted while he was
yet alive. In the latter case we are confronted with a
difficulty—how to account for the time which may elapse
between the death of the agent and the appearance of the
vision. To bridge the gap thus formed Mr. Podmore (q.v.),
in his work on Telepathic Hallucinations, has produced his
theory of latent impressions, which successfully overcomes
the difficulty. According to Mr. -Podmore, impressions
transmitted from one mind to another may remain latent for
a considerable time awaiting a favourable opportunity for
development. Thus the apparition of one who been dead for
some time may result from an impression transmitted during
his lifetime, which the percipient has retained, until a
chance combination of ideas brings it into the upper
stratum of consciousness in the form of a hallucination.
Obviously the theory of latent impressions may bear on
other phenomena than that of apparitions, and serve to
fill in gaps which might otherwise remain blank.
It is interesting to compare the tone of criticisms
pronounced on telepathy in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century with that which characterises later
utterances on the subject. Science is no longer ashamed to
pursue her researches in psychic phenomena; thought
transference no longer appears to intellectual people as a
doubtful by-path of psychology, and the change argues that
at least a fair attempt will be made to reach the truth of
the matter.
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