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Genuine Mediumship or The Invisible Powers by Swami Bhakta Vishita

III THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE

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Telepathic Phenomena.

The second general class of phenomena in the general category of Voluntary Transmission of Mental Vibrations is that known as "Telepathic Phenomena." In a sense, of course, all phases of Thought Transmission, and particularly that of Voluntary Thought Transmission, may be considered as forms of Telepathy; but for the purpose of classification and distinction we have in this book classed as Telepathic Phenomena merely those forms and phases of Thought Transference in which there is an agreement between the telepathic sender and the telepathic receiver, and in which the experiments are conducted more or less along the lines of scientific investigation.

Scientific Investigators.

Scientific observers, for a number of years past, have been conducting careful series of experiments in Telepathy, and many volumes of the reports of such investigations have been published by various psychic research societies. Among the eminent scientists who have devoted much attention to this subject are the following: Professor Henry Sidgewick, of Cambridge University; Professor Balfour Stewart, of the Royal Society of England; Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour, the eminent English statesman and scientist; Professor William James, the eminent American psychologist; Sir William Crookes, the great English chemist, physicist, who invented the celebrated "Crookes' Tubes," without which the discovery of the X-Rays, Radio Activity, etc., would have been impossible; Frederick W. H. Myers, the celebrated investigator of Psychic Phenomena; and Sir Oliver Lodge, the eminent English scientist. All these men are of the highest international standing and reputation, and their acceptance of the phenomena of Telepathy places the same on a firm scientific basis.

How Experiments Are Conducted.

The scientific experiments involving Telepathy, which have been conducted by numerous societies for psychical research and other bodies, have ranged from quite simple tests to those very complex. In all of these experiments there has been one person called the "sender," and another called the "receiver"--or names corresponding to these. The sender fixes in his mind a strong impression of the name or picture to be transmitted, and then makes a positive effort of the will to transmit the same to the receiver. The receiver assumes a passive receptive mental attitude, and then reports the word or image that comes into his mind. The more complex tests embody these same simple features.

Some of the early reports of the Society for Psychical Research, of London, England, show results most amazing to those who have not made a personal investigation of these matters. In some of the tests, the receiver correctly reported seventeen cards in succession, the said cards having been shown the sender, but kept out of sight of the receiver, and no possible communication between the two being allowed. In tests of naming small objects held by the sender, the receiver correctly named five out of six. In one complicated test, in which various objects, names, etc., were transmitted, the report shows a successful report of 202 out of a possible 382. Such results, of course, took the results entirely out of the operation of the law of averages. Other successful experiments showed a high percentage of results obtained from the reproduction by the sender of geometrical and other figures and designs exhibited to the sender.

Private Experiments.

But, after all, the most convincing evidences of Telepathy are those which most of us have met with in our own experience. There are but few intelligent, observing persons who have not, at some time in their life, had experiences of this kind, in which the thoughts of others were perceived plainly by themselves. Many persons have established such a close rapport condition between themselves and friends or relatives that instances of remarkable thought-transmission between them are quite common and ordinary.