A
nother series of experiments conducted by theEnglish committee which has attracted the attention
ofinvestigators,isthatknownasthe“Blackburn‑Smith
experiments.”Theseexperimentswereconductedbeforethe
committeeunderthedirectionoftwoofitsmembers,Messrs.
F.W.H.MyersandEdmundGurney.Mr.G.A.Smithwasthe
percipientandMr.DouglassBlackburnwastherecipient.The
placeoftheexperimentswasBrighton,England.
Therecipient,Mr.Smith,wasblindfolded,andsatwithhis
back toward the percipient, Mr. Blackburn. Every precaution
againstfraudwasobserved.Inordertoshutouttheonlysense
possiblyavailabletotherecipient,thatofhearing,hisearswere
coveredwithheavybandages;andincertainexperimentshis
ears were filled with putty which was in turn covered by a
thickbandage,overthiswasdrawnabolstercase,andthenhis
entireheadandbodywascoveredbyablanket.Moreoverthe
committeegroupeditselfaroundMr.Blackburn,thepercipient,
so as to prevent his attempting to communicate with the
recipientinanyway,Mr.Blackburnbeingalsorequiredtosit
perfectlystillandquietsometwofeetbehindtherecipient.The
resultswereobtainedunderthesestrictandrigidrequirements.
Thenames,figures,etc.,weregivenbythecommittee,oneata
timebeforeeachexperiment,toMr.Blackburn,thepercipient,
whothenclosedhiseyesandconcentratedhisminduponMr.
Smiththepercipient,whoshortlyafternamedtheobject,etc.,
thoughtof,orelsedrewwithapencilthefigureselected.
Thefollowingistherecordoftheresultsobtained:
Color Selected. ……… Answer.
Gold……… Gilt(colorofpictureframe.) LightWood ……… DarkBrown,Slaty.
Crimson ……… FieryLooking,Red.
Black……… Black OxfordBlue ……… Yellow,Gray,Blue.
White ……… Green,White.
Orange………ReddishBrown.
Black……… Iamtired.Iseenothing.
• • •
Names Chosen. ……… Answer.
Barnard ………Harland,Barnard.
Bellairs……… Humphreys,BenNevis,Benaris.
Johnson ……… Jobson,Johnson.
RegentStreet……… RembrantStreet,RegentStreet.
QueenAnne ……… Queechy,Queen Wissenschaft……… Wissie,Wissenaft.
Then followed a series of experiments in which pain was
inflictedonthebodyofMr.Blackburn,thepercipient,andMr.
Smith,therecipient,toldwhatpartofhisownbodyfeltthe
pain.
Part of Body. ……… Answer.
LeftUpperArm ……… LeftUpperArm.
LobeofRightEar………LobeofRightEar.
MoreEnglishExperiments
HaironTopofHead ……… HaironTopofHead.
LeftKnee……… LeftKnee.
Thenfollowedaseriesofremarkableexperimentsinwhich
geometricalandsimilarfigureswerevisualizedbythepercipient,
and reproduced by the recipient, the reproduction, however,
usuallybeinginreverseorderandupsidedown.Outofaseries
of37drawingssubmitted,only8wereconsideredtobefailures.
Infourcasestherecipientfailedtoseeanything,andinfour
casesthereproductionwassoimperfectthatitwasClassedas
afailure.Theoriginaldrawingsandthereproductionsthereof
are given in the Society’s reports, and must be seen to be
appreciated.
In the committee’s report, the results obtained are
summarizedasfollows:
“Thusgivingeveryexperimentwhenthechancesagainstsuccesswere
beyond50to1,wefindupwardof40percentcorrectlyanswered….
Purechancewouldhavegivencertainlylessthanfrom1to2percent.
As the chance of hitting, by pure guesswork, on a fictitious name,
inventedbyoneofus,wouldbeatleastonetomanythousands,and
asnoneofthechanceswaslessthan1to50,wemayroughlysaythat
ifpureguessworkonlywereconcerned,weshouldnothavehadmore
thanonequiterightinonehundredtrials;whereasourexperiments
showedwehad,iffirstresponsesonlybeallowed,onequiterightin4
1‑3trials.Intheseresultswehavenotincludedtherecentexperiments
on the reproduction of drawings. Here, obviously, an incalculable
number of trials might be made before pure guesswork would hit
uponaresemblanceasnearasthatobtainedinalmosteverycaseby
Mr.G.A.Smith.”
Inadditiontomanyseriesofexperiments,similartothose
recordedaboveandintheprecedingchapter,theSocietyfor
PsychicalResearchgatheredalargevolumeoftestimonyfrom
various sources, in which reputable persons related cases of
involuntary telepathy which had come under their personal
observation and in their own experience. It is impossible to
reproducetheseaccountsatlength,butthefollowingmaybe
quotedasafairrepresentativecase:
“ThelateBishopofWilberforcewasinhislibraryatCuddeson,with
three or four of his clergy with him at the same table. The Bishop
suddenlyraisedhishandtohisheadandexclaimed:‘Iamcertainthat
somethinghashappenedtooneofmysons.’Itafterwardtranspired
that just at that time his eldest son’s foot was badly crushed by an
accident on board his ship, the son being at sea. The Bishop thus
recordsthecaseinalettertoMissNoel,datedMarch4,1847:‘Itis
curiousthatatthetimeoftheaccidentIwassopossessedwiththe
depressingconsciousnessofsomeevilhavingbefallenmyson,Herbert,
thatatthelast,onthethirddayafterthe13th,IwrotedownthatI
was quite unable to shake off the impression that something had
happenedtohim,andnotedthisdownforremembrance.’”
TheSocietyalsoreportsuponanumberofinterestingcases
ofvoluntarytelepathyatadistance,butfromthenatureofthe
casetheseexperimentscouldnotbeconductedunderthesame
stricttestconditions,andtheresultslackthepositivequality
possessed by the class of experiments we have mentioned. I
omitaspecialreferencetothese“long‑distance”experiments
inthischapter,moreparticularlybecauseIintendcallingyour
attentiontoawellknownseriesofsuchexperimentsconducted
by Prof. S. W. Weltmer, of Nevada, Missouri, and his son, Mr.
Ernest Weltmer, which is generally known as “The Weltmer
Experiment,”andwhichhasattractedmarkedattentionfrom
investigatorsofthesubjectbothinthiscountryandinEurope:
InofferingtheresultoftheEnglishexperimentsImakeno
attempttoproveanyspecialhypothesis,ortheory,butmerely
desire to lay the facts before you that you may intelligently
determineforyourselfwhether“theproofsofTelepathy”are
MoreEnglishExperiments
worthy of careful consideration and account. Northcote W.
Thomashaswellsaid,inhisworkon“ThoughtTransference”:
“Nothing is more difficult than to sum up the net result of
experiments so diverse in their nature and outcome as the various
seriesdescribedabove.Withtheexceptionofthecardseries,noneof
tosumupthemiscellaneousexperimentsherepublished…asitis,a priori,certainthatnoargumentbaseduponthemislikelytoaffect
any one’s convictions. Those who are satisfied that telepathy ‘and
allthatnonsense’isimpossible,willnotbemoved,evenifanangel
on the subject of these experiments for themselves. If I venture to
expressmyownconvictiononthesubject,itisthatmuchmoreeffort,
andparticularly,muchmoresystematiceffort,isneededbeforewecan
safely assert that telepathy is a proved fact. (By this I mean proved
bydirectexperiment.Whenwetakeintoaccountcrystalgazingand
thespontaneouscases,theweightofevidenceinfavoroftelepathyis
considerablygreater).Noinquirycanlayclaimtobescientificwhich
expressesItsresultsingeneraltermswhenitcangivetheminprecise.
terms….TheSocietyforPsychicalResearchwasformedtoinvestigate
telepathy as well as spiritualism. At present all its energies seem to
be directed towards inquiries into trance mediumship, automatic
writing,andthelike,totheexclusionoftheworkwhichshouldreally
formthefoundationofthewholestructureofPsychicalScience,the
establishmentofthetheoryoftelepathy,iftrue,anditsformulation
in the most definite terms possible…. For if thought transference is
evertobeproved,itmustbebyshowingthatitisafacultycommon
to the human race and not absolutely limited to a few individuals.
Reasonably or unreasonably, if thought transference cannot, with
sufficient patience and sufficiently delicate methods of analysis, be
demonstrated on the corpus vile, or rather the anima vilis, of the
ordinaryman,itwillforthemassofscientificmenremainatanyrate
ontheborderland,ifnotinthelimboofsuperstitionsanddelusions.If
ahundred,orfivehundred,orfivethousand,personswerepreparedto
try,underproperconditions,experimentsofthesortdescribedhere,
leavingthediscussionandanalysistoexperts,itmightbepossible,if
nottodemonstratethought‑transferencefromtheresults,atanyrate
tosaymoredefinitelythanwecanatpresent,whethertheordinary
personshowsanytracesofsuchafaculty,”