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Book: "The Survival of Man"

Author: Sir Oliver Lodge FRS

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- Section Two -

Experimental Telepathy of Thought-Transference

Chapter 4

Further Experiments in Telepathy

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          THE next experience of any importance which I had in this kind of experimental telepathy took place during a visit to Carinthia, the Austrian province beyond Tyrol - with some English friends during the summer of 1892, and is thus described in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. vii., page 374.

While staying for a fortnight in the house of Herr von Lyro, at Portschach am See, Carinthia, I found that his two adult daughters were adepts in the so-called "willing-game", and were accustomed to entertain their friends by the speed and certainty with which they could perform actions decided on by the company; the operator being led either by one or by two others, and preferring to be led by someone to whom she was accustomed. Another lady staying in the house was said to be able to do things equally well, but not without nervous prostration.

On the evening when I witnessed the occurrences nothing done could be regarded as conclusive against muscle-reading, though the speed and accuracy with which the willed action was performed exceeded any muscle-reading that I had previously seen, and left me little doubt but that there was some genuine thought-transference power.

Accordingly I obtained permission to experiment in a more satisfactory manner, and on several occasions tested the power of the two sisters, using one as agent and the other as percipient alternately. Once or twice a stranger was asked to act as agent, but without success.

The operations were conducted in an ordinary simple manner. One of the sisters was placed behind a drawing board erected by me on a temporary sort of easel, while the other sat in front of the same board; and the objects or drawings to be guessed were placed on a ledge in front of the board, in full view of the one and completely hidden from the other.

Naturally I attended to the absence of mirrors and all such obvious physical complications. The percipient preferred to be blindfolded, but no precaution was taken with reference to this blindfolding, since we know that it is unsafe to put any trust in bandaging of eyes (journal, i. 84). Agent and percipient were within reach of one another and usually held each other's hands across a small table. The kind and amount of contact was under control, and was sometimes broken altogether, as is subsequently related.

The ladies were interested in the subject, and were perfectly willing to try any change of conditions that I suggested, and my hope was gradually to secure the phenomenon without contact of any kind, as I had done in the previous case reported; but unfortunately in the present instance contact seemed essential to the transfer. Very slight contact was sufficient, for instance, through the backs of the knuckles; but directly the hands were separated, even though but a quarter of an inch, the phenomena ceased, - reappearing again directly contact was established. I tried whether I could bridge over the gap effectively with my own, or another lady's hand; but that did not do. I also once tried both sisters blindfolded, and holding each other by one band while two other persons completed the chain and tried to act as agents. After a time the sisters were asked to draw, simultaneously and independently, what they had "seen"; but though the two drawings were close imitations of each other, they in this case bore no likeness to the object on which the agents had been gazing. My impression, therefore, is that there is some kind of close sympathetic connection between the sisters, so that an idea may, as it were, reverberate between their minds when their hands touch, but that they are only faintly, if at all, susceptible to the influence of outside persons.
Whether the importance of contact in this case depends upon the fact that it is the condition to which they have always been accustomed, or whether it is a really effective aid, I am not sure.

So far as my own observation went, it was interesting and new to me to see how clearly the effect seemed to depend on contact, and how abruptly it ceased when contact was broken. While guessing through a pack of cards, for instance, rapidly and continuously, I sometimes allowed contact and sometimes stopped it; and the guesses changed, from frequently correct to quite wild, directly the knuckles or fingertips, or any part of the skin of the two hands, ceased to touch. It was almost like breaking an electric circuit. At the same time, partial contact seemed less effective thorough hand grasp.

It is perfectly obvious how strongly this dependence on contact suggests the idea of a code; and I have to admit at once that this flaw prevents this series of observations from having any value as a test case, or as establishing de novo the existence of the genuine power. My record only appeals to those who, on other grounds, have accepted the general possibility of thought-transference, and who, therefore, need not feel unduly strained when asked to credit my assertion that unfair practices were extremely unlikely; and that, apart from this moral conviction, there was a sufficient amount of internal evidence derived from the facts themselves to satisfy me that no code was used. The internal evidence of which I am thinking was: (1) the occasionally successful reproduction of nameless drawings; (2) the occasional failure to get any clue to an object or drawing with a perfectly simple and easily telegraphed name; (3) the speed with which the guesses were often made.

I wish, however, to say that none of the evidence which I can offer against a prearranged code in this case is scientifically and impersonally conclusive, nor could it be accepted as of sufficient weight by a sceptic on the whole subject. It is only because, with full opportunity of forming a judgment, and in the light of my former experience, I am myself satisfied that what I observed was an instance of genuine sympathetic or syntonic communication, and because such cases seem at the present time to be rather rare, that I make this brief report on the circumstances.

I detected no well-marked difference between the powers of the two sisters, and it will be understood that one of them was acting as agent and the other as percipient in each case. Sometimes the parents of the girls were present, but often only one or two friends of my own, who were good enough to invite the young ladies to their sitting-room for the purpose of experiment; though such experiments are, when carefully performed confessedly rather tedious and dull.

In the early willing-game experiments, such things were done as taking a particular ring from one person's hand and putting it on another's; selecting a definite piece of music from a pile, taking it to the piano, and beginning to play it. The last item (the beginning to play) I did not happen to witness, but I was told of it by several persons as more than could be accounted for by muscle-reading. A sceptic, however, could of course object that imperfect bandaging would enable a title to be read.

One of the things I suggested was aimed at excluding the operation of unconscious muscular guidance as far as possible, and it consisted in desiring that the lady while standing in the middle of the room should kick off her shoes without touching them and begin to sing a specified song. Success, however, was only partial. After one or two attempts to wander about the room as usual, she did shuffle a shoe off, but though she did not actually touch her feet she stooped so that the held hand came very near them. She then stood some little time uncertain what to do next, and at last broke silence by saying "Shall I sing?"

The first attempt at the more careful experiments was not at all successful, but novelty of conditions may fairly be held responsible for that. On the second and subsequent evenings success was much more frequent: on the whole, I think, more frequent than failure, certainly far beyond chance. I proceed to give a fairly complete account of the whole series. 

The first object was a teapot; but there was no result.

The first drawing was the outline of a box with a flag at one corner; but that produced no impression.

Next, for simplicity, I explained that the object this time was a letter (Buchstabe), on which it was correctly guessed E. Another letter, M, was given quite wrong. A childish back-view outline of a cat was given oval like an egg; some other things were unperceived.

On the second evening I began by saying that the object was a colour; on which red was instantly and correctly stated.

A blue object which followed was guessed wrong.

An outline figure of a horse was correctly named. So was the letter B I then drew a square with a diagonal cross, and a round ring or spot just above the intersection, the whole looking something like the back of an envelope. After a certain interval of silence (perhaps two minutes) the lady said she was ready to draw what she had "seen," and drew the thing almost exactly, except that the spot was put right on the centre of the cross instead of above it, and a superfluous faint vertical stroke was added. Its possible resemblance to an envelope was not detected, nor did the reproduction suggest the idea: it was drawn as, and looked like, a nameless geometrical figure.

The reproductions were nearly always much smaller in size than the originals. The agent did not look on while the reproduction was being made. It is best for no one to look on while the percipient draws, to avoid the possibility of unconscious indications. The original drawings were always made by me, sometimes before, sometimes during, the sitting. These conditions were all satisfactory.

On the third evening I began with a pack of cards, running through them quickly; with 2 reporters, one recording the card held up, the other recording the guess made, without knowing whether it was right or wrong. I held up the cards one after the other and gave no indication whether the guesses were right or wrong. The suit was not attempted, so that the chances of error were, I suppose, 12 to 1.

On comparing the two lists afterwards, out of 16 guesses only 6 were wrong. Full contact was allowed during this series. The lists are reproduced below.
The card guessing is obviously not of the slightest use unless bona-fides be certain, but, given that, it affords the readiest method of studying the effect of varied conditions, interposed obstacles, and such like. The whole pack was always used and I simply cut it at random and held up the bottom card. About to or 12 cards could be got through in a minute.

The following is the list of the first card series. Full contact allowed:-

Thus, out of the sixteen trials, 10 were correct and 6 were wrong.

Whatever may be the cause of this amount of success, chance is entirely out of the question, since the probability of so many successes as ten in sixteen trials, when the individual probability each time is one-thirteenth, is too small to be taken into account.

The theory of such a calculation is given in Todhunter's Algebra, articles 740 and 741 ; but as exactness in such a case is rather tedious and unnecessary, we may overestimate the total probability by calculating it as follows 16/10x16 (1/13)10 thus leaving out the factor (12/13)6. This factor would be necessary to give the chance of ten successes exactly ; but that is needlessly narrow, since there is no particular point in the exact number of 10. The chance of ten at least is more like what we have to express.

So an over-estimate of probability is that is to 8008/1310 say, there is less than one chance in ten million that such a result would occur at perfect random, i.e. without any special cause.

Some guesses were made, both with cards and objects, on another evening, without contact, but none were successful. With contact there was success again.

I then went back to simple drawings; with the result that a cross was reproduced as a cross; a figure like 4 petals was reproduced in two ways, one of them being a vague 5-petalled figure.

An object consisting of an ivory pocket measure, standing on end like an inverted V, was drawn fairly well as to general aspect.

A sinuous line was reproduced as a number of sinuous lines. A triangle or wedge, point downward, was reproduced imperfectly.

On other evenings other simple diagrams wore tried, such as a face, reproduced as 3 rounds with dots and cross; and a figure like an k with an extra long cross stroke, which could be easily signalled as an A, but which was reproduced correctly as a geometrical diagram with the long stroke prominent.

A circle with 3 radii was reproduced as a circle with roughly inscribed triangle.
The number 3145 was reproduced orally and very quickly m 3146; 715 also quickly as " 714, no 715", The written word hund was reproduced correctly, but with a capital initial letter.

And being told that they had previously thus reproduced a word in an unknown language (not unknown character), viz., Hungarian, I tried the Greek letters ****; this, however, was considered too puzzling and was only reproduced as Uaso.

A French high-heeled shoe, of crockery, set up as object was drawn by the percipient very fairly correct, and said to be something like a boot, and a protuberance was tacked on where the heel was.

A white plaster cast of a child's hand, next tried, failed to give any impression. An unlighted candle in candlestick was unsuccessful, and it was objected that there was too much glare of light. Subsequently the percipient said she had seen the general outline of a candlestick but did not think of its being the thing. A teapot and a cup both failed, and two of the drawings did not succeed in stimulating any colourable imitation.

Lastly, another set of card trials were made, with the object of testing the effect of various kinds of contact: a card series being quick and easy to run through.

The record of this series is more complete than that of another varying contact below, - but it did not strike me as so instructive at the time; and as it came toward the end of an evening there was probably some fatigue.
The last two entries represent attempts to get the suit as well; but as the particulars are given in stages there is no particular advantage in thus naming a card completely, and it takes a longer time.

On another evening the amount of contact was varied, but I omitted to call out to the reporter the position of the hands with reference to each other. One hand of each person lay on a table, and I sometimes made them touch, sometimes separated them, all the time going on with the card series. My impression at the time was (as expressed above) that pronounced failure began directly I broke contact, but that mere knuckle contact was sufficient to permit some amount of success. [When successes are frequent in the following list, fairly complete contact may be assumed. At other times I broke and united the two hands as I chose, for my own edification, and was struck with the singular efficiency of contact.]

I can only give the record as it stands. I believe we began without any contact, but very soon made the hands touch intermittently.

Second Card Series. Varying amount of contact: sometimes none.

Where are drawn it is because I called out some change in the contact; but I made other changes whose occurrence is not recorded.

The only use to be made of the record of this series, therefore, is to treat it as a whole and to observe that out of 39 trials 16 were correct and 23 wrong.

On this occasion there was one reporter who wrote down both what he saw and what he heard ; and the operation was so rapid that he had sometimes barely time to do the writing. Towards the end of a series, fatigue on the part of either agent or percipient generally seemed to spoil the conditions.

It is manifest that these experiments should not be conducted too long consecutively, nor repeated without sufficient interval; but if common sense is used there is nothing deleterious in the attempt, and if more persons tried, probably the power would be found more widely distributed than is at present suspected.

I wish to express gratitude to the Fraulein von Lyro and their parents, for the courtesy with which they acquiesced in lily request for opportunities of experiment, and for the willingness with which they submitted to dull and irksome conditions, in order to enable me to give as good evidence as possible.

Experiments at a Distance

For more recent experiments, and for experiments conducted over a considerable intervening distance, I must refer to the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. xxi., where an account is given of the notable and careful series of observations made by two lady members of the Society, Miss Miles and Miss Ramsden. These ladies, while at their respective homes, or staying in country houses and other places at a distance from each other, endeavoured to transmit an impression of scenes and occupations from one to the other. They kept a careful record both of what they tried to send, and of what was received. And when these records are compared, the correspondence is seen to be beyond and above anything that might be due to chance.

Collusion might rationally be urged as an explanation, by strangers; but that is not an explanation that can be accepted by those who know all the facts.

When Miss Miles and Miss Ramsden began their experiments in 1905. Miss Miles was living in London, and Miss Ramsden in Buckinghamshire, and the arrangement was that Miss Miles should play the part of agent Miss Ramsden that of percipient, the times of the experiment being fixed beforehand. Miss Miles noted, at the time of each experiment, in a book kept for the purpose, the idea or image which she wished to convey; while Miss Ramsden wrote down each day the impressions that had come into her mind, and sent the record to Miss Miles before knowing what she had attempted on her side. Miss Miles then pasted this record into her book opposite her own notes, and in some cases added a further note explanatory of her circumstances at the time; since to these it was found that Miss Ramsden's impressions often corresponded. Whenever it was possible Miss Miles obtained confirmatory evidence from other persons as to the circumstances that had not been noted at the time, and the corroboration of these persons was written in her book. All the original records of these experiments have been submitted to the Editor of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, and have passed that very critical ordeal.

In the second series of experiments, in October and November 1906, Miss Miles, the agent, was staying first near Bristol and afterwards near Malmesbury in Wiltshire; while Miss Ramsden, the percipient, was living all the time near Kingussie, Inverness-shire, and therefore at a distance of about 400 miles from the agent. During the last three days of the experiments, "Miss Miles, unknown to Miss Ramsden, was in London.

The general plan of action was that Miss Ramsden should think of Miss Miles regularly at 7 p.m. on every day that an experiment was to be tried, and should write her impressions on a postcard or letter card, which was posted almost always on the next morning to Miss Miles. These postcards or letter cards were kept by Miss Miles and pasted into her notebook, so that the postmarks on them show the time of despatch. And copies of many of these postcards were sent also at the same time to Professor Barrett, who had advised concerning the method of experiment.

Miss Miles on her side had no fixed time for thinking of Miss Ramsden, but thought of her more or less during the whole day, and in the evening noted briefly what ideas had been most prominently before her mind during the day, and which she wished to convey, or thought might have been conveyed, to Miss Ramsden. These notes were made generally on a postcard, which was, as a rule, posted to Miss Ramsden next day. The postcards were afterwards returned to Miss Miles to be placed with her records,-so that here also the postmarks show the date of despatch of the information to Miss Ramsden.

Out of a total of fifteen days' experiments, the idea that Miss Miles was attempting to convey, as recorded on her postcards, appeared on six occasions in a complete or partial form among Miss Ramsden's impressions on the same date. But it also happened that almost every day some of Miss Ramsden's impressions represented, pretty closely, something that Miss Miles had been seeing or talking about on the same day. In other words;- while the agent only succeeded occasionally in transferring the ideas deliberately chosen by her for the purpose, the percipient seemed often to have some sort of supernormal knowledge of her friend's surroundings, irrespective of what that friend had specially wished her to see.

When this happened, Miss Miles at once made careful notes of the event or topic to which Miss Ramsden's statement seemed to refer, and also obtained corroborations from her friends on the spot. Further, when Miss Ramsden gave descriptions of scenes which seemed to Miss Miles like the places where she was staying, she got picture postcards of them, or photographed them, to show how far the descriptions really corresponded.

The actual record is given in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. xxi., together with illustrations, but it must suffice here to quote the critical and judicial opinion of the Editor, which is thus given :-

"After studying all the records, it appears to us that while some of the coincidences of thought between the, two experimenters are probably accidental, the total amount of correspondence is more than can be thus accounted for and points distinctly to the action of telepathy between them."

The importance of the record is due to the distance intervening between agent and percipient in this case - distance which seemed to make any physical method of communication unlikely, and to suggest-what otherwise suggested itself as most probable even when the experiments were in the same room - a true interaction or intercommunion between mind and mind.

Chapters

Contents / Preface / Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16 / Chapter 1 7 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19 / Chapter 20 / Chapter 21 / Chapter 22 / Chapter 23 / Chapter 24 / Chapter 25

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