ORIGINAL
REPRODUCTION
In the autumn of 1891 Sir Oliver Lodge was staying for a fortnight in the house of Herr von Lyro at Portschach am See, Carinthia. While there he found that the two adult daughters of his host were adepts in the so-called "willing game." The speed and accuracy with which the willed action was performed left little doubt in his mind that there was some genuine thought-transference power. He obtained permission to make a series of test experiments, the two sisters acting as agent and percipient alternately. He hoped gradually to secure the phenomena without contact of any kind. But unfortunately contact seemed essential, though of the slightest description, for instance through the backs of the knuckles. Sir Oliver Lodge says: "It was interesting and new to me to see how clearly the effect seemed to depend on contact, and how abruptly it ceased when contact was broken. While guessing through a pack of cards, for instance, rapidly and continuously, I sometimes allowed contact, and sometimes stopped it; and the guesses changed, from frequently correct to quite wild, directly the knuckles or finger tips, or any part of the skin of the two hands ceased to touch. It was almost like breaking an electric circuit."
As Sir Oliver Lodge remarks, it is obvious how strongly this suggests the idea of a code, and that therefore this flaw prevents these experiments from having any value as tests, or as establishing de novo the existence of the genuine power. But apart from the moral conviction that unfair practices were extremely unlikely, Sir Oliver Lodge says that there was a sufficient amount of internal evidence derived from the facts themselves to satisfy him that no code was used. As examples, two from a series of twelve drawings are given.
ORIGINAL
REPRODUCTION
