Telepathy: Its Theory, Facts, and Proof

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV THE ENGLISH EXPERIMENTS By reference to the preceding chapter you will see that the third class of phenomena of Thoughttransference, according to the classification adopted by the English Society for Psychical Research, comprises cases in which "some number, word or card is guessed without any apparent communication between the operator and subject," so far as the ordinary senses are concerned. The experiments of the Society were eventually confined to this class of phenomena. It was recognized that if it were possible to establish the existence of this class of phenomena, in which the operation of the ordinary senses was inhibited, then there would be laid the foundation for a rational scientific belief in the reality of Thought-transference. Voluntary or involuntary transmission of information by means of the five senses being rendered impossible, it will be seen that the only element of danger was that of collusion or trickery. This latter contingency was fully recognized by the Society and its committee took steps to guard against the danger. It was ruled that experiments conducted before a general audience were always open to the danger of collusion and trickery, and that, therefore, results obtained therein lacked true scientific value. Accordingly, the experiments of the committee were conducted before a limited number of persons, the individuals being persons familiar with scientific methods and having no personal interest in the results. One of the early series of experiments by the committee was that commonly known as "The Creery Experiments." The subjects were the four children of the REV. A. M. CREERY, B. A., of Derbyshire, England. Mr. Creery had experimented with his children for a period of several years, beginning with the famil...