Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1908-02-06
DREAMS And CRIME.
A Psychologist Explanation for
Moral Lapses.
Cases of Persons Who Have Dreamed
Out shady Crimes. and How They
We're acknowledgements
ance of the Dead.

read with much interest the news
paper account Of the dream Of the sis
ter Of recently murdered girl says
tins correspondent of tho London Ma /.
who continues: .lany. no doubt
snccrcd at the narrative ard gave lit
IT," credcncc to it. while praising the
creative ina gination of tho narrator.
But tho number Of occurrences which
hav" taken place from the most am
Gent timcS to tho present in this COM
ncction give moro and more weight
to tine theory that at times such ah-
normal incidents do occur. In tho Nun
Priests Tale Of Chauccr an account
is given of tho revelation Of q murder
by the spirit of tho murdered man.
AMI hence comes the expression hor-
rowed from our ancient poet. Murder
will out" 'Chaucer in this case Is quot
ed from Cicero.
It will no doubt be remembered that
some time ago a murder occurred in
Northwest Canada, ana the brother of
the murdered man was stated to have
had a dream in which he saw the muir
der, and travelling over to Canada
identihed the suspected man as the
murderer. In fact and fiction ghosts
are represented usually as tho spirits
of those have died. a violent death.
The exceptions to this statement are so
| insignificant that they may almost bc
neglected.
NJ. Adolphe d'Assior, in his work on
Posthumous Humanity. gives. among
others which may be added to the
above. this interesting example Two
college friends. Bczurl and Desfontaine
had sworn to each other that tho FIRST
I
give him news about himself" Tho
! following year tho shade Of Dcsfon-
tainc appeared to Bezuel and said: "
agreed with you that if | died first
should como and toll You. was
drowned in the Cacn River and tho
day before Yesterday in company with
Such-and-S Such" and he related the cir
cumstances of his death He also gave
certain commissions to Bczucl. then badc
him farewell and disappeared
Tho case is very well authenticated
In addition. Bczual set to work to verify
| the circumstance Of his death. and
found them exactly as described.
What conclusion are we to come 10
in such cases
Spirtualists will at one" say thai
they show that spirits can and do
the Garth. Those. however, who have
not spiritualistic bias explain the
matter differently They pcture 70
themselves the feelings and thoughts
of the murdered man during his futile
struggles with the murderer. He is
alone and helpless. Prominently
among his thoughts surgcs up an in
tense desire to acquaint the world with
the circumstances of the crime. The
idea strikes him of reproducing the
| scene until its meaning is understood
and the murderer brought TO justice
So we get haunted house. and people
; with strong nerves may nightly wit
ness the reproduction of the tragedy.
| Can the mind OF man create such
phantasms" After weighing the evidence
| it seems that We must answer in the
affirmative. II each person examines his
| own experience and the experiences Of
others he will no doubt find plenty of
matter with which To work. Take. for
| example. persons suffering from deliri-
UNI. They see objects which arc unseen
by people in normal health. Either their
| minds create these objects, or else these
| oh jects really exist. II the first alterna
| tive is taken then the latter theory, or.
as we may call 1t. the telepathc theory.
gains prominence. Thus, Emily Dim
mock, struggling in the grasp OF her
murderer. her mind wildly agitatcd pro-
jects her phantasm, projects her
thoughts through space seeking a re-
| ceiver which would be sympathetic. The
message is not picked up by other
minds they are not tuned" to her. Her
sister, however, receives the message. it
seems, twice. And then occurs IL re
markahlo -fact-as soon as tho object is
accomplished the abnormal conditions
cease. one more striking incident is the
fact that this mauifcstat on took place
at the time Of the murder and after.
1t may be obicctcd however. that reo-
Pile under abnormal conditions. such as
dclirium may create phantasms for
their own mind, but can they impos"
them on other minds II seems SO.
Most people after the striking incidents
| of late Years agree that SuCh Il thing as
telcpathy rX.stS. TclepathN consists in
|