Probably the very words which were to be used later were used then, a sort of sub-conscious memory being created.
Apparitions of a misty nature are described by Podmore in his chapter on "Haunted Houses."[33] Miss Langton saw a misty phantom, and Lizzie the housemaid saw a cloud and afterwards got a cramp, less persistent than the butler's, as she began to scream.[34] The upper housemaid saw a woman whose legs she did not notice,[35] as was the case with Mr. Godfrey's friend to whom he appeared hypnotically.
[Footnote 33: "Studies," pp. 315, 326.]
[Footnote 34: "Haunting of B—— House," p. 167.]
[Footnote 35: Ibid., pp. 205, 207.]
The fact that the dog that appeared to Miss Freer was a spaniel like
Major S.'s, shows familiarity with the house on the part of the gang.
That they moved about early near the house is shown by Mr. C. hearing the caw of the rooks at 5.35 on March 6; they would not start cawing so early unless disturbed. There is thus abundant evidence (1) that rascals were at work; (2) accounting for certain of the phenomena observed; (3) pointing out their resemblance to cases of experimental hallucinations or thought transfer; (4) that such hypnotic operations could be traced by due vigilance. No. 2 is based in part on the writer's experience.
If the roads and neighbourhood had been patrolled, and exposure to possible hypnotists avoided, the phenomena would have ceased. The gentleman who wrote to the Times made a point or two that were too petty to notice, and was probably disagreeable to Miss Freer, but detective work would have been useful. The gentleman's connection with a class of men, the mad doctors whom the late Sir William Gull so rightly despised, and whose observations have been so unscientific, may perhaps have unduly prejudiced Miss Freer against him. Yet people have listened to a Maudsley against an Esher, and gone to the other extreme. Perhaps Miss Freer will reconsider her opinion, that hypnotism is for doctors only to study.
To wind up with a statement of what the writer believes to have been the object of the rascals about B——; ordinary thought-transfer probably precedes audible speech by hypnotic influence.
The many people who hear their names called, and find that no death or other striking occurrence coincides in time with this, are perhaps being experimented on by hypnotists, who somehow or other, perhaps by community of feeling, have hit upon the precise moment of a state of subconscious expectation that makes transfer of an actual word easier.