St. Landry democrat., 1885-10-10
OPELOUsAs, La. SATURDAY, OCTOBER TO- 1885,
TeIepatlnys

Is there SIKH sense asks the Tor
onto Mail, ana then goes on to say that
some months ago an article appeared
in that paper respecting the poWer-Oe
it clairvoyance or, as the early mlssl0na-
ries cOntended, uiabOlism-by which
the Indians of the plains are almost IN
simultaneously made acquainted wlth
events occurring at points far too dls-
rant to admit OF the belief that they
acquire the information from runners
or by means of signal fires. COntlnu-
ing this discussion, the Chicago Rellglc0-
Philosophical journal says:
In India this extraordinary faculty is
known as the secret mail, and European
residents have long attempted to solve
the mystery of it, but without much
success. The theory of telepathy, OF
communications or impressions being
conveyed from one mindtO another by
molecular action or some such force,
appears to find favor with the Mails
correspondent. 1t is accepted by many
European scientists of note. and mas
recently been the subject OF several pa
pers in the Nineteenth Century. 1t
may be well to explain, for the benefit
of those interested in this new branch
of metaphysical research, what the
Indian of the Northwest really believes
about the so-caIled visions he sees.
usually after undergoing a ten or
twelve days fast. In tho first place
he holds that one spirit, as he terms the
mind, can establish communication
with another by channels other than
the two senses of seeing and hearing:
Then he says that when this line OF
communication has been established,
the mind of the receiver conveys to the
eye OF the receiver, or throws upon the
retina of his eye, a picture or vision OF
the subject matter of the cOmmunlca-
ton from the sender Thus, an Indian
whom we shall call A is just being
drowned in the Bow River at Calgary.
His spirit, by this unknown process,
opens communication with the spirit OF
B, his brother, who at that moment IS
500 miles away at Fort Qu'Appelle, BIS
spirit being in proper condition to re-
ceive the message. Forthwith the mes
sage is depicted upon BIS sense OF sight,
and he sees a representation OF the
drowning of A-of the upsetting OF the
canoe, of his struggles for life, OF his
final disappearance, OF his wet gar
ments and death-struck face. The re-
ceiver B does not, be it noted, actually
behold the drowning, but merely the
| image or representation OF it as cast
upon the retina by some occult system
of photography, che instrument being,
he knows not what, but the message
| transmitted from the spirit OF A being
the primary cause as well as the subject
of the vision. Holding this belief, the
| Indian sOrcerer or medicine man is able
| to place implicit faith in some OF the
| ghost stories told by white men, and
| to account for them on grounds which,
| if telepathy be a fact, are scientific.
rFII.yc MI 70 man Hh nunrS scores
have done, that he saw a friend stand
ing by his bedside in the night with
dripping clothes and pallid face, this
friend having been drowned In mid
ocean at or about that precise moment,
Lis at once asked if he is weak enough to
suppose that the friend, existing as a
disembOdied spirit, could possibly make
his way from the ether world to that
bedroom in those wet clothes; also 1T
he could possibly do so without being
observed by others. This rude ques-
tion has disposed of many vision OF
the kind, the person who saw it being
driven to conclude that it was a delu-
sion. He argues that it is easier to be-
lieve that it was delusion, than to be-
| lieve that drowned man or his names
could perform such an exploit; ergo, q
delusiOn it was. But medicine men
would say that he did not see either the
drowned man or his ghost; that, in
fact, there was no such figure in the
room but that the drowned friend had
flashed to him the fact of his death and
the circumstances attending it, and that
| the subject matter of this communica-
tiOn had been thrown upon his sense of
sight. 1t was not necessary, therefore,
that the spirit of the person drowned
should have come from the other world
in wet clothes or at all. or that it should
saws saws I9o in conclusion r n that: Whatever ever
modern science may think of the poor
Indians theory, it certainly affords a
more plausible explanation DIT appear
ances after death, admitting that they
are possible, than any our superior civil
4 lizatiOn has been able to INVENT
! Excitement In Texas.