These results are quite in keeping with some that have lately been obtained in California. In a recent communication which I have received from Mr. Vincent Jones, Vice-President of the California Psychical Research Society,—under whose auspices the experiment was undertaken—he says:—
"Then we tried thought-photography. I bought some ordinary plates, which were opened in the dark-room of an X-ray laboratory. The plate was inclosed within an envelope of opaque black paper and this in another envelope. It was then suspended about twelve inches in front of the eyes of the sitting experimenter....
"This experimenter first wrote down on a slip of paper the thing he was going to concentrate on, folded it and handed it to a committee. Then he sat and concentrated for ten minutes. The plate was then developed, and contained the image, clear and strong and unmistakable, of a cross. This proved to be the subject handed to the committee." (See Fig. 3.)
In view of the remarkable character of this experiment—as well as its importance, and taking into account the apparently excellent conditions under which the test was made, I wrote to Mr. Jones, asking him to be kind enough to secure, if possible, the statements of any additional witnesses who might have been present on this occasion, and he sent me, in response to this request, the following affidavit, signed by five of the witnesses who were present at the time:
California Psychical Research Society,
San Francisco, Calif., Nov. 3, 1920.
Dr. Hereward Carrington.
504 West 111th St.
New York City.
Dear Dr. Carrington.
Enclosed is the print I promised you of the "Thought Photograph" taken by a Committee composed in part of members of the Council of the California Psychical Research Society, in May, 1919. The conditions were as follows: I purchased at Hirsch & Kaye, opticians and photo-supplies, a box of one dozen ordinary rapid Seed plates. I took the box unopened to the Committee meeting, which was held at the X-Ray Laboratory of Preston & Huppert in this city. Mr. Henry Huppert, Dr. Frank Collins, Dr. Cecil Nixon and myself went into the dark room, where Mr. Huppert opened the box of plates, took one at random from the centre of the package, enclosed it inside an opaque black envelope, and this again inside another yellow envelope and sealed it. This was taken outside and suspended about 12 inches in front of our subject, who was seated and had previously written down what he would concentrate upon, and handed the memo to Dr. Collins. The subject drew a rough outline of the object of his concentration, gazed fixedly upon it for about 5 minutes, then put it aside and for ten minutes concentrated upon the plate without touching the same. The plate was immediately taken into the dark room and developed, and the image of the cross developed at once, clear and strong. One of the Committee was in the room with the subject during the whole time, and there was no opportunity for any tampering with the plate. The object developed proved to be the one previously written down and handed to Dr. Collins.
Yours very truly,
Vincent Jones,
Frank T. Collins, D.O.,
J. C. Anthony, M.D.,
Cecil E. Nixon, D.O.S.,
Henry K. Huppert.
Thought Photograph (3)