We may now pass to experiments in the transference of simple impressions of the same kind as those dealt with in Chapters II. and III. The following is a record of a series of trials in the transference of auditory impressions:
No. 33.—From MISS X.
Miss X. is a lady resident in London, who is known personally to the present writer and other members of the S.P.R. She has experienced all her life frequent interchange of telepathic impressions with some of her friends. At the request of Mr. F. W. H. Myers, Miss X. and a friend D., also living in London, throughout the year 1888, with the exception of three months during which they were living in the same house, kept diaries in which any incident or feeling which might seem to be telepathically connected with the other was recorded. The ladies during a great part of the time saw each other constantly, and compared notes of their experience. In D.'s diary for the year there are thirty-five entries of the kind, of which twenty are believed to have been recorded before it was known whether or not there was any actual event to correspond with the impression. Of the twenty entries fourteen refer to hearing music played by Miss X., and two to reading books at, as D. believed, her telepathic instigation.
The entries in D.'s diary are given in italics. The degree of correspondence with the entries in Miss X.'s diary is indicated in the words included between brackets.[66]
(1) Jan. 6th. Tried several books ... finally took to "Villette."
(From Miss X.'s diary it appears that she willed D. to read The Professor, also by Charlotte Brontë.)
(2) Jan. 23rd. Sonnets, E.B.B. 10.30 P.M.
(In Miss X.'s diary, written at about 10 P.M., appears the entry, "Sonnets viii.-ix., E.B.B.")
(3) March 6th. Hellers, 7.30. (i.e., D. had an impression of hearing Miss X. playing. Miss X. states that she was actually playing Hellers at the time, but there is no note in her diary of the fact.)
(4) March 7th. Beethoven waltzes, 10. (Correct—recorded in X.'s diary after seeing D.'s entry.)
(5) March 8th. No practice. (i.e., X., contrary to her custom, was not playing at this hour: correct.)
(6) March 9th. Music 7.30-8. (Correct.)
(7) March 10th. ?Music 9.30-10 A.M. (Correct. Miss X. had told D. that she would be out at that hour, and had subsequently changed her plans, so that the music was unexpected to D., hence the note of interrogation.)
(8) March 13th. 7.40. Music. (Correct.)
(9) March 14th. 9.30 A.M. [Music.] Evening of same day. Nothing but organs and bands, popular airs and Mikado. ?Flash of Henselt 9 (P.M.)
(10) March 15th. 9-10. ?Faint Henselt. (Miss X. writes:—"I remember that when D. showed me these entries I was specially interested. I was practising at the time some music of Henselt's she had never heard, and was playing this on all five occasions. D. notes it on the first three vaguely as 'Music,' something which she did not recognise. On the 14th I played it over to her, and afterwards she recognised it imperfectly. I was practising it for her, knowing she would like it, so that she was much in my mind at the time.")
The following entries were made whilst D. and X. were in different and distant counties:—
(11) August 15th. Hellers, 9.10-25. (Correct.)
(12) August 17th. Slumber Song, 7.35-50. (Correct. D. wrote of her two experiences, and X. read the letter aloud to her hostess, who remembered that X. had actually played the music named above at the time referred to.)
(13) September 14th. Hallé, 9 A.M. (Incorrect. X. was not playing.)
(14) November 18th. Chopin Dead March, War March Athalie, 7.15-8 P.M.
(15) November 25th. Lieder, 7.30.
(16) November 26th. Lied, never gets finished. 5.15-20.
(Miss X. writes:—"On each of the above three occasions D. asked me next day what I had played and found she was right. My playing of the Lied on November 26th was interrupted by the arrival of visitors, and the unfinished air naturally haunted me. D. writes:—On the day in question H. and I were together. I said to her that I could hear you [Miss X.] playing—a Lied we both associated with you—but that you never got beyond a certain part, which seemed to be repeated. H. replied, 'It is strange you should say that. I can't hear her, but I have been seeing her at the piano for some minutes.' H. corroborates this.")
It will thus be seen that in these 16 cases there were only two instances (1 and 13) in which D.'s impression failed to correspond with the facts. The remaining four entries (out of 20 recorded beforehand) relate to impressions which also appear to have corresponded with the event, but the degree of correspondence is more difficult to estimate.
In Miss X.'s own diary there are 55 entries during this period, of which 27 were made before the event was known. Of these 3 are failures, and in two other cases it is doubtful whether the impression was actually telepathic, or whether the coincidence should not be attributed to accident. In the other 22 cases of correspondence, presumably telepathic, Miss X. was sometimes the agent, sometimes the percipient. The impressions relate to events of various kinds, such as meeting particular persons, receiving letters, and playing music. Of the veridical impressions four were visual and one was a dream.[67]
No. 34.—From M. J. CH. ROUX.