PSYCHIC PHENOMENA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

PSYCHIC PHENOMENA.

SPONTANEOUS TELEPATHY. IN TIMES OF CRISIS. OBSESSIONS OF DANGER. By MARGUERITE W. CROOKES, M.A. No. 2. One widespread misconception in regard to psychic happenings is that they occur only to so-called "mediums" or sensitives. On the contrary, some of the most striking and significant phenomena recorded have befallen persons not in the least psychically inclined, who previously regarded the whole subject with indifference, if not active dislike.

If we consider the numerous wellattested cases on record of spontaneous telepathy, we see that the agent (the sender of the message) is usually passing through a crisis—death, illness, anxiety, accident —while the percipient (the receiver of the message) is in a normal and often mentally quiescent condition.

Our first case id highly characteristic. It is vouched for by Loinbroso, the great alienist, and befell his friend Professor De Sanctis. The professor writes: "One evening he (my brother) was going to the Costanzi Theatre. I was beginning to read when I was v suddenly seized with terror. I remained obsessed by the thought that the theatre was on fire and my brother in danger. I put the light out, but, growing more and more disturbed, I lit it again, and decided to await my brother's return before I went to sleep. At 12.30 I heard the door open, and what was my astonishment when my brother told mc about the panic that had been caused by the outbreak of a fire, which had coincided with the hour of my anxiety." I

Here Is another, more complex, case, which concerns a man who was "an utter sceptic in the true sense of the word-' The Rev. P. H. Newman writes: "In 1854 I was up at Oxford keeping my last term. 1 had a singularly clear and vivid dream. I dreamed I was staying with the family of the lady who subsequently became my wife. On arriving in the hall I perceived that my fiancee was only then near the top of the staircase. I rushed upstairs overtook her on the top step, and passed my two arms round her waist under the arms from behind. On this I woke, and a clock struck ten almost immediately afterwards. So strong was the impression of my dream that I wrote a detailed account of it next morning to my fiancee. Crossing my letter, not in answer to it, I received a letter: 'Were you thinking of me very specially last night about ten? For as I was going upstairs to bed I distinctly heard your footsteps on the stair and felt you put your arms round my waist.'" Mr. Newman adds: "Mrs. Newman never had any fancy of either myself or anyone else being present on any other occasion." It is worth noting that years after (1871) Mr. and Mrs. Newman carried out a long series of telepathy experiments, in which they were remarkably successful. (Proceedings S.P.R., Volume 3.) A Voice in the Night In the following case the percipient received the message while asleep. As we shall see, the mental passivity associated with sleep, the hypnotic condition, and the mediumistic trance, seem to favour the receipt of psychic impacts. The agent, the Right Hon. Sir John Drummond Hay, K.C.8., G.C.M.G-, for many years H.M. Minister in Morocco, writes: "In 1897 my son, Robert Drummond Hay, resided at Mogador with his family. I had lately received good accounts of my son and his family. I was in perfect health. About lam. I was awoke whilst sleeping soundly (at Tangier) by hearing distinctly the voice of my daughter-in-law: 'Oh, I wish that papa only knew that Robert is ill!'" 'Sir John sat up and looked round, then lay down, grateful it was only a hallucination. "I had scarcely closed my eyes when I heard the same words and the same voice." He awakened his wife, told her his dream, then rose and noted it in his diary. Next morning he told his daughter, saying he felt anxious, although he "did not believe in dreams." A few days later a letter came from the daughter-in-law stating that Robert had typhoid fever, and had been delirious in the night. Much struck, Sir John wrote telling of his dream. "She replied that in her distress at seeing her husband so

dangerously ill, and from being alone in a strange land, she liad made use of the precise words that startled me from sleep, and had repeated them. As it may be of interest to you to receive a corroboration from the persons I have mentioned, they also affirm the accuracy of all I have related. Signed: J. H Drummond Hay, Annette Drummond Hay, Euphemia Drummond Hay, Alicia Drummond Hay." The Final Message. It has been said that the agent in these occurrences is usually passing through a state of crisis. It is not surprising, then, that many of our most striking cases concern the moment of death. As Myers says: "The moment of death is in time, the central point of a cluster of abnormal experiences occurring | to percipients at a distance, of which some precede and some follow the moment of death. The appearance of a phantasm is usually at the moment of or closely following the death of the person concerned. We find that in almost all cases where a phantasm apparently veridical (i.e., 'truth telling') has preceeded the agent's death, the death was the result of disease, not of accident. Thus a phantasm might correspond with a crisis or period of extremity progress of the disease." As a result of the elaborate "Census of Hallucinations"

carried out by the Society of Psychical Research, their experts were able to state "between deaths and the apparitions of . dying persons, a connection exists that is not due to chance alone. x Thls we hold to be a proved fact."

Here is a ease carefully investigated by the S.P.R., Mrs. Anne Paquet woke on October 24, 1889, feeling depressed, although she had slept well and had no dreams. The depression continued. During the morning she made herself a cup of tea. "As I turned round my brother Edmund —or his exact image— stood before me. The apparation was in the act of falling forward away from me, seemingly impelled by two ropes, or a loop of rope drawing aganst his legs. The vision lasted but a moment disappearing over a low railing or bulwark. I dropped the tea and exclaimed: 'JVIy God, Ed. is drowned.'" Her husband received a telegram at 10.30 telling of the fatality, and fearing to break the news at once he said, on his return: "Ed. is sick in hospital." His wife replied: "Ed. is drowned—l saw him go overboard!" She described the accident and her brother's clothing. It transpired after that the"- young man had been accidently thrown overboard by bein<» caught in a tow line. The accident was as described by the sister. I

A somewhat similar case, carefully authenticated by the S.P.R. concerns a certain Mrs. Palliser. Mr. Clarke, head of

a well-known business firm at Hull, had befriended the widow and assisted her son to sea. One day she visited him, saying, "Mat's dead! I saw him drowned. I saw him going on board. The plank he walked on slipped to one side, and he fell overboard between the ship and the quay and was drowned." The widow begged Mr. Clarke to write to the agent in New York and make inquiries. This he did. After some weeks' delay the letter arrived. The widow was sent for, and in the presence of Mr. Clarke'3 son she repeated her description of the accident and declared that the letter would contain such a description of the ton's death. The letter stated that the boy had been drowned the night of the mother's vision, "owing to the fact that a plank slipped and he fell overboard between the quay and the wharf." Mr. Clarke adds: "My son and half a dozen young men can verify this if needful." It is worth noting in both these cases that death was due to unforeseen accident, whereas natural anxiety would have been more likely, to suggest a vision of a storm qi-Sre at sea or some more orthodox maritime peril.

The cases quoted constitute only a small portion of the evidence collected en behalf of spontaneous telepathy. Many of the most striking cases are, unfortunately, too long and complicated' for quotation in a short article. An immense amount of material has already been compiled, but more is needed. The writer, who is collecting such material on behalf of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, London, would be glad to hear of similar authentic experiences from any of hei* readers who care to communicate them.