Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-09-15
MYSTERY.
THOUGHT TRAESFERESCE AND
IT'S UAAWOUKTABnITIES.
Curious Mental Phenomena, the
Study OF Which May Throw New
Light on Psychology.

the Fortnightly Review for AaIcn.l
There appeared in the Rjnetcenth Cen
'.9y in the course of last year an article,
written by us in conjunction with Professor
Barrett, on Thought Reading or, as we
GOV prefer to cnIl 1t, thought-transierence
the communication of ideas otherwise
taan through the recognized organs of
sense. That article has been much more
fsyorabIy received than we expected; and
it has proved starting point for many
t,-onising series Of experiments. 1t natu-
rally also called forth certain objections.
These objections, so far as they seem to
need a reply, will be dealt with in the sec
oad part of the proceedings Of the Society
for Psvchical Research in which also will
be recorded a considerable number Of fur
Their observations. We propose in the
present paper to enter upon a wider dis
cuseion of the subject for which the mate
rial amassed by ourselves and others. pri-
narily on behalf of the aboye-named soci-
ETY., has now attained an amply sufficient
volume. In thought transference, 50 far
es We have hitherto dealt with it, both
parties Whom, for convenience sake, we
will cali the agent and the percipient) are
supposed to be in q normal state and we
ksve few cases which appear to differ
from our previous experiments in thought
transference only in the facts that She
transference of the impression was not ac-
eompGnicd by any definite exercise OF Will,
and that the transferred image seemed
Bi0re objective. Such a case is the follow
ING, given us by J. c. Keulenians, of
? Iountford Terrace, Barnsbury Square
q scientific draughtsman-Tith whom one
o. us is personally acquainted:
One morning, not long ago, while en-
gagged with some very easy work, / saw in
my minds eye little wicker basket, con-
tanning five eggs-tHo very clean, of a
more than usually elongated oval and Of
yelloHish hue; one very round, plain
white, but smudged all over with dirt; the
remaining two bore no peculiar marks. /
asked myself what that insignificant but
sudden image could mean. never think
.! similar objects Bat that basket re-
nlained fixed in my mind, and occupied it
for some moments. About two hours later
! went into another room for lunch. was
>. once struck with the remarkable SINH
breakfast table and those two very long
ones had seen in my Imagination Why
do you keep looking at those eggs 50 care
tulyY asked my wife; and it caused her
great establishment to learn from me how
many eggs mad been sent by her mother
half an hour before She then brought w
the remaining three; there was the one
with the dirt on it, and the basket, the
ssme i had seen. On further inquiry
found the eggs had been kept together by
my mothcr-in-law, that she had placed
them in the basket, and thought Of send
ing them 70 me; and, TO u%e her own
words, did, Of course, think Of you at
that moment She did this at 10 in the
morn;ng, which (as know from nv regu-
lar habitsl must have been just the time Of
my impression"
The following account, given Us by a
personal friend Of our own (whose name
aud address we are at liberty to mention
privately, differs from ordinary thought
transterence, not only in the vividness Of
the impression, but in the fact that one at
least Of the percipients was asleep:
Cd One Sunday night last winter, at !
\. NJ, I wished strongly to communicate
the idea Of my presence to two friends,
who resided about three miles from the
house where was stavinq When | next
saw them. few DAYS afterwards. I ex-
pras.lv RETAINED from mentioning nv
experiment; but in the course of CONVEX
salion one Of them said, You would not
believe what a strange NIGHT we spent last
SUNDAY and then re,ounted that both the
friends had believed themselves to see nv
figure standing in their room. The ex-
perienae was vivid enough to wake them
completely. and they both looked at their
watches and found it to be exactly
o'clock" Zone Of thcao friends has sun
plied independent testimony to this cir
cem..3nce
Tni. circumstance affords natural tran
sjtion 70 the next class Of cases where the
percipient is in that rarcr and deeper state
OF siumhar known A. the mcsmerir