Apparitions and thought-transference: an examination of the evidence for telepathy

Resumé, the proof apparent--The proof presumptive--The alleged influence of magnets and metals--The alleged marvels of spiritualism--Usage of the word telepathy--On various theories of telepathy--Difficulties of a physical explanation--Value of theory as a guide to investigation--Is telepathy a rudimentary or a vestigial faculty?--Our ignorance stands in the way of a conclusive answer--Imperative need for more facts.

PREFACE.

The following pages aim at presenting in brief compass a selection of the evidence upon which the hypothesis of thought-transference, or telepathy, is based. It is now more than twelve years since the Society for Psychical Research was founded, and nearly eight since the publication of Phantasms of the Living. Both in the periodical Proceedings of the Society and in the pages of Edmund Gurney's book,[1] a large mass of evidence has been laid before the public. But the papers included in the Proceedings are interspersed with other matter, some of it too technical for the taste of the general reader; whilst the two volumes of Phantasms of the Living, which have for some time been out of print, were too costly for the purse of some, and too bulky for the patience of others. The attention which, notwithstanding these drawbacks, that work excited on its first appearance, the friendly reception which it met with in many quarters, and the fact that a considerable edition has been disposed of, encouraged the hope that a book on somewhat similar lines, but on a smaller scale, might be of service to those--and their number has probably increased within the last few years--who take a genuine interest in this inquiry. Accordingly in the autumn of 1892 I obtained permission from the Council of the Society for Psychical Research to make full use, in the compilation of the present work, not merely of the evidence already published by us, but of the not inconsiderable mass of unpublished records in the possession of the Society.

It will be seen that the present book has little claim to novelty of design; but it is not merely an abridged edition of the larger work referred to. On the one hand it has a somewhat wider scope, and includes accounts of telepathic clairvoyance and other phenomena which did not enter into the scheme of Mr. Gurney's book. On the other hand, the bulk of the illustrative cases here quoted have been taken from more recent records; and, in particular, certain branches of the experimental work have assumed a quite new importance within the last few years. Thus the experiments conducted by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick at Brighton have strengthened the demonstration of thought-transference, and have gone far to solve one or two of the problems connected with the subject; and the evidence for the experimental production of telepathic effects at a distance has been greatly enlarged by the work of MM. Janet and Gibert,[2] Richet, Gibotteau, Schrenck-Notzing, and in this country by Mr. Kirk and others.[3] It may be added that some of the criticisms called forth by Phantasms of the Living, and our own further researches, have led us to modify our estimate of the evidence in some directions, and to strengthen generally the precautions taken against the unconscious warping of testimony.