Other senses besides that of sight may receive the telepathic impression. In the following cases the sense of hearing was so impressed. The first account is from Commander T. W. Aylesbury, late of the Indian Navy. It is from Mr. Gurney’s collection in Phantasms of the Living.
“The writer when thirteen years of age was capsized in a boat when landing on the Island of Bally, east of Java, and was nearly drowned. On coming to the surface after being repeatedly submerged, the boy called out for his mother. This amused the boat’s crew, who spoke of it afterwards and jeered him a good deal about it. Months after, on arrival in England, the boy went to his home, and while telling his mother of his narrow escape he said, ‘While I was under the water I saw you all sitting in this room; you were working on something white. I saw you all—mother, Emily, Eliza, and Ellen.’ His mother at once said, ‘Why, yes, and I heard you cry out for me, and I sent Emily to look out of the window, for I remarked that something had happened to that poor boy.’ The time, owing to the difference in longitude, corresponded with the time when the voice was heard.”
Commander Aylesbury adds in another letter:
“I saw their features (my mother’s and sisters’), the room and the furniture, and particularly the old-fashioned Venetian blinds. My eldest sister was seated next to my mother.”
The following is an extract from a letter written to Commander Aylesbury by one of his sisters and forwarded to Mr. Gurney, in 1883:—
“I distinctly remember the incident you mention in your letter (the voice calling ‘Mother’); it made such an impression upon my mind I shall never forget it. We were all sitting quietly at work one evening; it was about nine o’clock. I think it must have been late in the summer, as we had left the street door open. We first heard a faint cry of ‘Mother’; we all looked up and said to one another, ‘Did you hear that? some one cried out “Mother.”’ We had scarcely finished speaking when the voice again called ‘Mother’ twice in quick succession, the last cry a frightened, agonizing cry. We all started up and mother said to me, ‘Go to the door and see what is the matter.’ I ran directly into the street and stood some few minutes, but all was silent, and not a person to be seen; it was a lovely evening, not a breath of air. Mother was sadly upset about it. I remember she paced the room and feared something had happened to you. She wrote down the date the next day, and when you came home and told us how nearly you had been drowned, and the time of day, father said it would be about the time nine o’clock would be with us. I know the date and the time corresponded.”
In the next case three of the senses—sight, hearing, and touch were concerned. It is from Mr. Gurney’s collection.
“From Mr. Algeron Joy, 20 Walton Place, S. W.
“Aug. 16th, 1883.
“About 1862 I was walking in a country lane near Cardiff by myself, when I was overtaken by two young colliers who suddenly attacked me. One of them gave me a violent blow on the eye which knocked me down, half-stunned. I distinctly remembered afterwards all that I had been thinking about, both immediately prior to the attack and for some time after it.