Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-06-07
THE TIME SENSE
BY H. Addington Bruce

j
n TOT long ago, in his oddly-named "A Hind
NJ in Richmond Park the late w. H.
Hudson discussed the possibility that
human beings possess special senses of facul-
ties-the sense of direction, the telepathic
sense etc-once commonly used, but now
used only on exceptional occasions or by ex-
ceptional individuals.
Complete as Hudson's list of such special
senses seemed, it had some omissions, 1t
made no mention, for example, of a possible
sense for judging the passage of time, as we
are reminded with the publication of another
book, Dr. T. w. Mitchells Medical Psycholo-
gy and Psychical Research"
That time sense is more than posi-
bility, DR.. Mitchell has no doubt. He cites the
well-known fact that there are some people
who, lacking watch or clock, can "guess" the
time of day with remarkable accuracy. He re-
calls, too, the equally well-known fact that
other people, going to sleep with determine
| ton to wake at a certain hour, do wake pre-
cisely at that hour.
And, not on theoretical grounds, but on ex-
, perimental evidence, he attributes the ability
to guess time and the ability to wake as
planned to an unconscious, or rather subcon-
scious, watching of the flight of time. Thus
DR.. Mitchell incidentally brings confederation
to the. belief that even in deep sleep, some
part of us may be alertIy awake
The evidence on which he rests his case is
derived from hypnotic experiments by various
English and French investigators, including
DR., Mitchell. In these experiments hypnotized
persons were told to perform a certain act
after the lapse of different periods of time.
Disappointed they were unable to tell what
command had been given them during the
hypnotic trance That is, they showed the
usual loss of conscious memory for hypnotic
suggestions. Yet they carried out the COM
mand given them when the appointed time
came to carry it out,
For example, to quote some of the expert
mental findings:
ION Tuesday, December "a, at $40 p. m,
Miss D. was told, during hypnosis, that she
was to make cross on a piece of paper in T.
200 minutes. This fell due to be fulfilled
Sunday December 20.
when it was fulfilled Miss D. was teaching
Sunday school class, when she suddenly felt
an impulse to make cross and mark the
time. 1t was only after doing so that she
looked at the clock which was behind her.
Her estimation of the time was correct.
"On June s, at 4:30 p. M, a similar sug-
gestion was given to be fulfilled in 1000
minutes. This suggestion fell due on January
Is, at 1920 p. m.
"When it was fulfilled Miss D. had been
hypnotiZed in DR.. Bramwell's room for an
hour, and had had had no opportunity of con-
sulting the clock. Exactly at 1920 without
waking or opening her eyes, she said she had
to make cross and put down the time"
Even more extraordinary results are re-
ported in the many pages devoted to detailing
the time sense experiments. They make in
tensely interesting reading, as all into whose
hands DR.. Mitchell's book comes will agree
Nor, considering the trustw of the
eXperimenters and the precautions taken by
them, can there well be disagreement from
DR.. Mitchells conclusions:
"In the true interpretation of somnarl-
bules we have to deal with power which, in
the present state of knowledge, can only be
described as supernormal'
But is the sense CT faculty for estimating
time rudimentary faculty in process of de-
velopment? Or is it vestigial facuIty-rhat
is, one which, like the sense of direction. has
been increasingly lost with mans proeress
from the primitive? This is itself an interest
ing problem, and problem of some practical
importance
Copyright, 1929
Why does the man in the moon practice
economy? Because everything up there is so