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An Amazing Experiment

Publisher: Lectures Universal Ltd
Published: 1936
Pages: 128

Part 4: Criticism and Discussion

 - Charles Drayton Thomas -

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         ON THE publication of this narrative in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research I received various questions and criticisms which it may be of interest to put on record here. Others who have similar thoughts may find my replies helpful in forming their own conclusions.

A friend specially interested in psychology wrote:

"Can it be maintained that the facts were not in the knowledge of some living person, such as the little playfellow? Yet I note that 1: such a person could not, under the circumstances, be very well regarded as an active agent for telepathy, 2: there was no reason for that person to select the pipes as an explanation of Bobbie catching diphtheria, and then to present it telepathically to the medium's entranced mind. This incident of the pipes, therefore, is of unusual value to students."

My reply was as follows:

Your question resolves itself into this: was anything given which was not within the knowledge of someone or other? Obviously it is seldom that one is likely to meet with such a situation but something closely akin to it has been achieved occasionally in my newspaper tests as, where I was told that, in a certain spot of to-morrow's Times (not yet arranged by the publishers!) would be found an item connecting with such-and-such an incident in my father's life. Few living would know of that incident, and none would know that a relevant name or statement was going to appear in the indicated column on the morrow. But someone knew, one who was aware of both facts and who ingeniously wove them into one.

There we find what you need to disprove the necessity of the hypothesis you suggest, namely, telepathy from minds on earth.

As to the pipes problem, while Jack of the Gang had doubtless shared Bobbie's memories of the Heights, he had no inkling of the possibility that Bobbie's trouble might be traced to water. Not from his mind, therefore, could the statements have originated which we have found so likely to be the true explanation of the child's death.

It is probably the fact that most of the evidential items given were more or less in the memory of Bobbie's people. Were it otherwise their selection would have been useless as evidence! The items not within their memory, or Jack's, would include the specifically stated period, which agrees with the formation of the Gang, i.e., nine weeks before the death 38). As no one suspected any connection between the two events, it is extremely unlikely that anyone would have calculated the length of that interval.

See also the unsuspected connection between pipes and infection 38).

In those instances the minds of the persons you suggest as having been possible telepathic agents were neither "open books" to be read supernormally, nor were they playing an active part as agents in "telepathic broadcasting".

The writer continued:

"It is highly remarkable that your father should succeed in conveying, through the medium, elaborate arguments and explanations such as you quote, whereas the messages, odd names and facts of an evidential nature, such as were supplied in a fragmentary fashion by Bobbie Newlove, are comparatively speaking so incoherent. May it not be that the stumbling and rather incoherent mixed up passages, containing evidential matter, represent the genuine communications - whether from living or deceased persons; whereas the facile, logical and more elaborated passages represent the work of the sensitive's own secondary personality or subliminal self? Note, however, that telepathic, clairvoyant, and even spiritistic evidence, might well become included within such facile disqusitions, though in modified and embroidered form."

To the above I answered:

I note your suggestion that evidential facts given with difficulty contrast strongly with the easy flow of general disquisition. Yes, but I think the communicators' explanation the most probable one. They say that evidence requires specific words, whereas the general talk does not, because one can always paraphrase or substitute words. The difficulty with specific words is familiar to us in daily life; we forget the name, the one word, even the idea which struck us while listening to conversation and which we resolved to voice when a pause occurred. I even may forget my dream unless writing it down on waking, or rehearsing it before rising. The unaccustomed condition of Communicators during a sitting is probably favourable to similar forgetting.

Further, I have been impressed by the logic and the keen intelligence revealed in replies to the questions I sometimes ask. This does not emanate from the medium's mind as I know it in her waking life, but from a much more subtle intellect.

In a final letter my friend said:

"Apart from these special scientific doubts and cautions, I find myself in complete agreement with your interpretation of the case and your general comments. I personally find the spiritistic explanation to be the most satisfactory and convincing one in cases of this kind, and your faithful adherence to it is most welcome and consoling. I only venture to raise these doubts and queries from the point of view of Psychical Research as a branch of Science and Logic.

"I am perfectly willing and only too glad to accept what you say, from various angles, about the value of the 'pipes' as evidence for survival. Any other explanation would appear to be curiously roundabout and complex. I am merely endeavouring to leave no stone unturned; for it is only after all possible criticisms and queries have been made that an hypothesis grows to the full stature of an accredited theory. And we cannot, I feel, be too careful in avoiding unconscious personal bias (from which none is free) in the interpretation of results of this sort.

"Personally, I have ample faith in these things but one must not let creeds of any sort enter into scientific inquiries and truth-seeking as such, as I am sure you would also agree. For that reason, I am all the more willing to accept your personal and generalized impression of the case."

Replying to this I wrote:

I quite agree with your position that we should leave "no stone unturned" when forming conclusions about cases like that of Bobbie Newlove. Also that personal bias must be taken into account. Personally I welcome all criticism, and suggested alternative hypotheses, as affording mental exercise of a highly interesting kind. My own bias is, I suppose, derived from or based upon the mass of experience and conclusions gradually formed during many years of personal investigation. When considering fresh cases I have all that in the background of my mind; yet it is, I feel, practicable to consider each case as if it were the very first that one had met with. It is only when alternative and equally balanced conclusions offer, that one falls back upon accumulated impressions.

The most far-fetched criticism of all came from a man who tells me that he has no belief in a Creator or in existence after death. He is consequently at pains to discredit everything which points to messages from those who have terminated life on earth. Faced with this Bobbie Newlove series of verified messages he is reduced to asserting that it all happened by chance! He points out that striking coincidences frequently come about fortuitously and, as he entirely rejects telepathy, he feels obliged to suppose that a series of lucky hits is all that this narrative contains. He confesses, however, that the emergence of the name Bentley is, under the circumstances, very striking, but hazards the supposition that the medium's attention might have been recently attracted by a Bentley car!

A little examination shows how absurd it is to attribute these messages to chance. The walk by the stile (40-46) is described in several connected items; and this linking of so many details greatly reduces the probability of its resulting from chance guessing. Again, the reference to a photograph with boards 34) and cap 35) passes far beyond chance, especially when we notice that the costume had been worn only shortly before the child's death and that he had jotted down a reference to it in his pocket diary.

Especially noteworthy is the knowledge shown of the locality around Bobbie's home, and the road leading to the Heights where he played. If the remarks (96, 97, 98) are compared with the Plan B, it will be seen how accurate they were. The same may be said, with even more emphasis, of the boy's further description of a route from his home to the Heights (117, 118, 119, 120, 121), which may be checked by comparison with Plan C.

Such accuracy passes very far beyond anything attributable to chance.

A University professor sent the following suggestions:

"You lectured in Nelson ten years ago; and though your memory of the place is now doubtless very vague, I think we must assume that the whole of your experience there, remembered or forgotten, may exist in your subconscious mind as a record possibly accessible to Feda's thought-reading powers. Hence it seems relevant to try to find out how much you saw of the town, whether you stayed a night and if so whereabouts, whether you had a meal and if so where, where was the lecture-room situated, etc. If you can't recall these things, the people who organized your lecture might. I am thinking of your submerged memories both as a possible source of names like 'Bentley', and as a possible point de repere or starting point for topographical clairvoyance."

My answer to this was in the following terms:

You ask me to try and recollect all that happened during my visit to Nelson ten years back. My diary shows that I was at Blackpool on March 2nd, 1925, and the next day at Nelson. I recall the journey clearly on account of having spent part of the 3rd at Blackburn with a man not met before or since. I left him during the afternoon and took train to Burnley, thence travelling to Nelson by tram. My diary records the address at which 1 stayed the night; it was in Railway Street.

After tea I was taken down the hill into what seemed the centre of the town. The hall was somewhere there. After the lecture I was marched straight uphill again, and so to supper and bed. I left next morning before breakfast, walking direct to the station.

I saw nothing of the town but what might be seen from the tram, or the train, the long street uphill, and the busy central bit of Nelson where the hall was situated.

There was no conversation about the locality. I certainly heard nothing of Bentley Street or of Hibson Road (in which is Bobbie's home). Both these are separated from Railway Street by densely crowded blocks of small dwellings.

Neither my conscious nor subconscious memories contained anything relevant to Bobbie's statements except trams, railway station and hilly locality.

Referring further to the locality, note that it was not until after the sitting of February 16th, 1933, in which the name Bentley occurred, that I learnt (from the sketch sent by Mr. Hatch) the whereabouts in Nelson of Bobbie's home, and noticed that it was on the same side of the railway track as the street where I had stayed ten years before. But much topographical information had been given before I was aware of this.

My critic further asked:

"Have we any assurance that the medium herself is unacquainted with Nelson? Of course, you couldn't ask her this while the experiment was in progress, and a sceptic would think it little use asking her now that it is published; but possibly you took an opportunity to introduce the inquiry casually in the interval between completion and publication?"

In my reply as to the medium's knowledge of Nelson, I said:

Had this been extensive it could not have affected the messages, since she never had the least clue that Nelson was of interest to me. I casually inquired afterwards if she had visited this and that town, naming several and including Nelson in the list. She said of Nelson, as she says of many others I mention, that she once stayed a night there while touring with a company, but had no opportunity to see the place or surroundings, being all the time fully occupied.

Another critic, finding the emergence of local names difficult to explain away, made the following desperate attempt. He wrote:

"I understand that Mr. Thomas had visited Nelson in some year previous to the sittings. May not the names Bentley Street and Catlow have been casually mentioned in his presence - for instance, by two persons in conversation together within his hearing? Now, if the medium uttered names which sounded in some respect like Bentley and Catlow, it seems not impossible that the dormant subconscious associations in Mr. Thomas's mind might provoke an auditory illusion which would lead him to imagine that the words he heard were Bentley and Catlow. Such illusions are very common among people with normal hearing."

The inference which the above idea is intended to suggest is that the evidential value of those two names is suspect. But what are the facts? Those names were not taken down by me, but by the expert stenographer who had, at the date of that sitting accompanied me to these sittings for exactly four years. It was she who set down the names as she heard them pronounced, and they meant no more to her than they did to me.

Determined resolve never to believe in the possibility of intercourse with the departed leads to the rejection of sober and verifiable facts in favour of easy but misleading speculations which lead nowhere.

Another correspondent asked if I had not undervalued the possibilities of mind-reading, and the faculty of certain mediums to avail themselves of the unconsciousness of the sitter as bridge to the thoughts of distant and unknown persons. He suggested that Bobbie's friend jack might have been the source of telepathic information.

I replied to the above that I was not at all impressed by the hypothesis of mind-reading, especially when applied to cases where the persons, whose minds or memories are supposed to be tapped, are distant and unknown to the medium. One need not deny the possibility, but there is not a single creditably recorded instance known to me where information produced at a sitting was demonstrably derived by that method. Neither have we any instance where a medium's clairvoyant activity can be shown to have obtained information comparable in accuracy and amount to that found in the Newlove case.

There is no evidence that mediums can tap the memory of people at a distance and who are unknown to them.

Such vague hypotheses as the above may appeal to novices as worth some consideration, but I am the more confident in disregarding them as having any bearing upon the Newlove case, because I have repeatedly observed instances where information was given during trance under conditions which definitely excluded telepathy from any mind on earth. Some of these instances have been described in my book, Life Beyond Death with Evidence (Chaps. xi and xiii), and the following are further examples:

A Place Where Activities Merged

Among the earliest book tests I received through Mrs. Leonard was one of peculiar interest because it so strongly hinted the identity of the Communicator. It brought together facts which were unknown in their entirety to any single mind on earth and included some which were personal to my father and to me. The whereabouts of the book was described with precision. It was further said that on the back of an adjoining volume was a word looking like A-sh-ill-ee. In pronouncing this Feda warned me that she gave the sound as she caught it. On returning home I found that the book standing next to the one indicated had the name Ashley on its back. Feda's A-sh-ill-ee is phonetically quite good for Ashley.

Following several tests from this book, I was told to look near the beginning.

FEDA: One of the opening scenes almost describes a place where you and he have lived together; it is near the start of a chapter and near the beginning of the book.

On page seven was described the house of a doctor facing a village green: 

"The little green with its intersecting paths and seats was so quaintly peaceful; and across it on the opposite side were a few old houses, and the red-brick church and schools and the vicarage... It was rather an old-world corner."

My father and I had lived together in but one place boasting a green, and this was Toddington in Bedfordshire. There lived a doctor in an old looking house facing the green. It was quaintly peaceful, as we often remarked. Here and there around it were ancient houses. The church was at one corner, while school and vicarage were a little way beyond the green. It was indeed quite an "old-world corner". The above description is the more remarkable as not a trace of it would apply to any other locality in which my father and I had lived together.

At the sitting next following there was a further reference to this place, but taken from another book, for the finding of which explicit directions were given.

"About a third down the page there is a description, contained in several lines, say four to six for the gist of it, of a place where you and he were together. In that place your activities were merged into one, in a way that was not always possible when he was on the earth; this refers to one of the times when this was possible. You will recognize it by certain circumstances attendant on the time he speaks of, these are literally referred to here."

The following items are extracted from the designated page, occurring more or less a third the way down as stated: 

"One walked as it were a little above the country ... wagons crawling over the country roads; one could hear their axles complaining a mile away, coming nearer ... and the people, little clumps ... turning aside to go to their own villages."

All this is perfectly accurate of Toddington as we knew it in 1900-1. My father lived there with me for six months and volunteered to take a considerable share of my work, preaching in the villages, attending meetings and helping in visiting. Only once before had such a sharing of our work been possible, but at Toddington it was much more complete and for a longer period. The description in the above extracts is very characteristic of the neighbourhood. Many of our walks were on high ground with far-reaching views; in the still air of the unfrequented locality carts could be heard, especially towards evening, grinding along the roads a mile or more away; there were one or two villages quite near and a certain amount of coming and going among the villagers.

These two descriptions, so perfectly applicable to a place where my father and I had worked together, could only have been selected by one acquainted with our location and work in those six months of 1900-1; for at no other period of my life would there have been any relevancy thereto.

The former book containing the reference to the village green was one which I had never read; the latter book I had read fifteen years previously, but retained no conscious recollection of the description which proved to fit the Toddington neighbourhood. It is not a case of collusion; for none of the people in our house, except myself, had ever been to Toddington or knew about its green, while no one outside our house would be likely to know the position of these books upon our shelves, even had they divined the relevancy to Toddington of these two descriptions. It cannot be an instance of telepathy from my subconscious mind, since I had not read the book containing the description of the green. The medium had never been to our house.

It is of special interest to remark that there was no reference to the one outstanding subject, charged with intense emotion, connected in my mind with memories of Toddington. When I think of Toddington this it is which invariably overshadows all else. Now that doesn't emerge in the test which it should assuredly do had my subconscious activity been the creator. The finding of these descriptions so highly apposite does not look like chance coincidence; for I have never noticed similarly appropriate references in any of my reading, and it should not be overlooked that the descriptions of the whereabouts of these book passages were quite precise.

Grant that my father was communicating, and that he recollected the place and the circumstances of his work there, then all is explained save the method by which the selected passages are observed between the covers of closed books.

Forty Years Before

My notes, posted the same evening and now in the possession of the Society for Psychical Research, show that on February 18th, 1921, at 6.30p.m., I received the following message, which, was to be verified from the Times next morning:

"About half-way down column I of the first page is the name of one whom you and your sister knew very well when quite young."

That would take us back more than forty years. How many names would satisfy the conditions of this test? Not many, owing to the fact that coupled with the above came a second portion. Feda prefaced it by remarking that, since many people might say that the presence there of the right name was a mere coincidence, he would add that:

"Close to it is a name indicating the place where we used to see this person."

The chances are now narrowed; in a definite spot has to appear to-morrow a name familiar to my sister and to me more than forty years ago, and close to it, also, must be seen the name of the town where such a person resided.

Stephen Goodwin was one of the chief supporters of our church when my father lived at Leek. I recollect him well, and my sister, although too young at that time, made his acquaintance some years afterwards during visits to that town, and formed a close friendship with his niece.

Mr. Goodwin was especially interesting to me on account of the fine magic-lantern which he occasionally exhibited and which I lost no opportunity of seeing. He owned a silk mill and would personally show us round when we took our visitors to see it. He had sons who attended my school; one of whom was killed while playing near machinery in the mill, and his tragic death made a great impression on my youthful mind; another son helped me operate my own small lantern. In short, Stephen Goodwin was an outstanding figure in my recollections of Leek, as my father would certainly remember.

On looking at the Times for the next day, February 19th, 1921, I noticed the name Goodwin in large type, and this was within two inches of half-way down the first column, the exact position described. It may have been a mere coincidence, or it may have been noticed by the Communicator, but in a different notice on the line above, and placed immediately over the name Goodwin, was Stephen. Thus the name (or names), as well as the position in the column, fit exactly, but the test is enormously strengthened and, as it seems to me, placed beyond any suggestion of chance coincidence, by the presence, only three inches distant, of the name Leek.

In this instance it is difficult to imagine how a medium's knowledge of our connection with Leek could play any part in devising such a test. For even on the groundless supposition that she could be aware of our interest in the name Goodwin, can anyone suggest normal means whereby she might know that the name Leek would appear in close proximity with it? The problem is rendered more complicated by the fact that Leek and Goodwin are in different columns, although so close together.

This and other tests of a similar character which were successfully verified seem to me to offer irrefutable evidence of super-normal ability to ascertain knowledge of names which are to appear in to-morrow's Press, and, more difficult still, to forecast in what approximate position these names will be found. Were this all, I might be left in some uncertainty as to whether such results might not be accounted for by some unusually high degree of clairvoyant ability in the medium. But any such uncertainty is removed by the consideration that numbers of these tests reveal the intimate knowledge of olden happenings which was possessed by my father, and which he would be aware I should be able to verify, either by my own recollections, my mother's assistance, or his private papers.

Victoria

On January 16, 1920, I was asked to examine the Daily Telegraph for the following day, and to notice on the first page near the top of the second column, the name of the place where I was born. Feda added:

"Your father says he is not sure if it is given as a place name, but the name is there."

Next day, five lines from the top of that column, was the following advertisement in which "Victoria" might be either a personal or a place name. Victoria - Send by return. Most anxious second Message. I had always thought of my birthplace as Taunton, never as Victoria, but recollected having heard the latter name used in connection with Taunton. So I wrote to my mother asking for articulars. She replied that at the time of my birth they were living dose by the Wesleyan church of which my father had charge in Taunton, that it was always called Victoria to distinguish it from another church at the further end of the town; and she added finally that his church was situated in Victoria Street, and that the house where I was born was close by in Victoria Terrace. Comparatively few persons now living would remember that I was born at Taunton, fewer still would be aware that I was born at Victoria. Yet this is just the kind of fact which my father could not possibly forget. I may add that this advertisement had not appeared in the Telegraph of the previous day.

On August 13th of the same year, 1920, among a number of tests for the next day's Times, the following was to be looked for a little way down column 2 of the first page.

"A little lower than the foregoing is the name of one of the first places where they lived after his marriage. Your father likes these tests which go back some time and require thinking out."

Three inches lower than the test which had preceded it, and in the parallel column, was the word "Victoria", the name of the locality in which my father first lived after marriage and also of his church there.

Here we find the same recollection as in the previous case where it was connected with my birthplace.

Ray

The following may serve to illustrate my father's knowledge of and interest in my work.

December 20, 1921. In giving this test, Feda said:

"In the Times to-morrow, about half-way down column 1, see the name of a man very recently passed over, about whom you have been talking lately."

I distinctly remember thinking about this particular test while returning to London from the sitting. It was impossible to recall any name which would meet the case. For I had not, to my knowledge, been speaking of any who were recently deceased, nor could I think of any recent death which had especially attracted my notice. My mind was therefore blank as to the name which might appear in this exactly designated position in the morrow's Times.

That evening, while taking an appointment at the Mission, I heard of the death of a Mr. Ray, whom I had visited in hospital at his special request. He was a member of the Mission, and I had from time to time discussed his chances of recovery with my colleague, who was his regular visitor. These talks had taken place in our private room and were known only to ourselves. In view of this I concluded that the name of Ray, if found in the given position next day, would be an incontrovertible proof of knowledge coming from another mind than my own.

When the Times arrived next morning it showed the name Ray in an advertisement placed less than two inches below the half-way crease in column 1 on the first page!

Scrutiny of the previous day's issue showed that this advertisement had not been there before; the test was right for the day stated, and for no other day would it have been correct.

This incident, together with very many of similar character, indicated that my father was able to follow, with some closeness, my work at the Mission. To some minds this might seem more easy to credit than that he should be able to investigate in the Times printing works the preparation for the morrow's edition. Yet, the latter achievement has been demonstrated by scores of accurate newspaper tests. That fact is beyond dispute, although a full understanding of the powers employed is probably beyond the reach of our imagination.

At my next sitting it occurred to me that it would be interesting to ascertain whether my father could transmit the name Ray through Feda; for I was interested in the fact that names so frequently presented a difficulty, and this seemed an opportunity for ascertaining where the difficulty lay. So I asked:

"About the name in the Times of one recently passed over and which I found there; can my father recollect it?"

"He can," replied Feda. I said to her:

"I do not wish to spend time about it if you cannot get it from him easily, but perhaps he can tell you how many letters are in the name."

Feda then repeated my question and appeared to be watching intently, while counting thus:

"One-two-three. One-two-three-there must be more than three. Nobody has only three letters in their name. One-two-three. One-two-three--"

All this was said very softly, as if not meant for me to hear. I then said: 

"Has he given you the number, Feda?"

She replied: "He does not get beyond three. He keeps sticking at three. One, two, three."

And beyond this Feda seemed unable to ascertain the communicator's meaning.

I was left with the impression that Feda felt she had failed to give the answer required, and that she supposed my father was unable to tell her the correct number of letters in the name. Had she been reading my mind it should have been easy for her at least to realize that three was the number of which I was thinking, even if she could not read there the name of Ray.

Such instances as the foregoing demonstrate that neither my own mind nor the minds of other persons could have supplied the information so ingeniously put together for the purpose of these experiments. Their avowed purpose was to show that telepathy from human minds was not the origin of these messages.

Readers may wish to know whether Bobbie Newlove has said anything of his present life and surroundings, of his occupations and outlook. He has; but instead of including such material, which in the nature of things is not capable of present verification, it seemed better to restrict this book to statements which could be checked and weighed. Bobbie's account of his doings is in substantial agreement with descriptions given to others and which I have published in my booklet Beyond Life's Sunset (Lectures Universal Ltd., 161, Cheapside, London, E.C.2). A further collection of experiences is being issued by the same publishers early in 1937, under title, Dawn in the Beyond.

Numbers of correspondents write asking me to do for them what I did for the applicants at Nelson. Much as I should have wished to accede to these requests, their number makes it impossible. I therefore respectfully ask that, instead of writing to me, appeals should be sent to one or other of the Societies listed below. Their Secretaries will willingly suggest the best means at disposal, and give information by which those who wish to do so can take sittings personally with reputable and experienced sensitives.

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