How to thought-read / A manual of instruction in the strange and mystic in daily life, psychic phenomena, including hypnotic, mesmeric, and psychic states, mind and muscle reading, thought transference, psychometry, clairvoyance, and phenomenal spiritualism

by F.A.S. Ph.D. James Coates

THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE FROM THE DEAD (?) TO THE LIVING IN DREAM.

Related by Mr. Myers, page 208, Proceedings S.P.R., July, 1892:—

“About March, 1857, Mrs. Mennier, in England, dreamt that she saw her brother, whose whereabouts she did not know, standing headless at the foot of the bed with his head lying in a coffin by his side. The dream was at once mentioned. It afterwards appeared that at about the time the head of the brother seen, Mr. Wellington, was actually cut off by the Chinese at Sarawak.” On this case, Mr. Gurney remarks—“This dream, if it is to be telepathically explained, must apparently have been due to the last flash of thought in the brother’s consciousness. It may seem strange that a definite picture of his mode of death should present itself to a man in the instant of receiving an unexpected and fatal blow; but, as Hobbes said, ‘Thought is quick.’ The coffin, at any rate, may be taken as an item of death-imagery supplied by the dreamer’s mind.”

“We have now, however,” says Mr. Myers, “seen a letter from Sir James Brookes (Rajah of Sarawak), and an extract from the Straits Times of March 21st, 1857, in the (London) Times for April 29th, 1857, which makes it, I think, quite conceivable that the dream was a reflection of knowledge acquired after death, and the head on the coffin had a distinct meaning.” Sir James Brookes says:—“Poor Wellington’s remains were consumed [by the Chinese]; his head, borne off in triumph, alone attesting his previous murder.” The Straits Times says:—“The head was given up on the following day. The head, therefore, and the head alone, must have been buried by Mr. Wellington’s friends; and its appearance in the dream on the coffin, with a headless body standing beside it, is a coincidence even more significant than the facts which Mr. Gurney had before him when he wrote.”

The transmission of thought from a spirit discarnate to one incarnate, whose body was asleep, should not be esteemed impossible. Abundant instances, equally well substantiated, might be recorded did space permit.