Journal of the Society for Psychical Research
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JOURNAL OF THE Society for Psychical Research VOLS. XXV-XXVI 1929-1930 For Private Circulation among Members and Associates only THE SOCIETY'S ROOMS 31 TAVISTOCK SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.x - All rights reserved I CONTENTS " A Case of " Travelling Clairvoyance 4 Annual Report of the Council for 1928 9 - 27 A Reply to Count Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo ; by Dr E. Mattiesen Annual General Meeting of Members 43 Extraordinary General Meeting of Members 45 Accounts of Receipts and Expenditure for 1928 - - - - - 46 A Request to our Readers for Information 49 " " - - Life Beyond Death with Evidence ; by A. W. Trethewy 50 Extraordinary General Meeting of the Society ----- 63 An Apparently Premonitory Apparition 66 Information received at a Sitting concerning Matters unknown to the ^ Sitter - 81 ) The Scripts of Cleophas ; by the Rev. Canon H. Bickersteth Ottley, M. A. 89 j An Alleged Premonition of Death 102 ^ A Veridical Dream ---------- 104 A Series of Premonitory Visions - - - - - - - 120 Two Hallucinatory Bilocations of the Self - - - - - - 126 - - - - - Dowsing in Bombay ; by Theodore Besterman 129 Loan of the Society's Seance Room 141 Institut Metapsychique International - - - - - - - 1 42 Telepathy at a Distance - - - - - - - - - 143 The Supply of Books and Information - - - - - - 156 Paintings of Hypnagogic Visions - - - - - - - 157 A Case of Telepathy 157 - - Non- Veridical Cross-Correspondences ; by H. F. Saltmarsh 159 The Change in the Law of New York relating to Spiritualism by ; Blewett Lee "- 173 An Auditory Premonition --------- 1 Note concerning the Hacking Case ; by J. Arthur HUl and Mrs E. M. Sidgwick 4 - Notes on the Psychology of Nonsense Names ; by H. F. Saltmarsh 5 ', • ",; iv ;, ; ; ,, :Contenis :\ Annual Report (and Accounts) of the Council for the Year 1929 - 19 Another Case of , -, - - - 25 Telepathy .-; , . ; r A Sitting with Mme Kahl by I. C. Groridahl - - - - 43 ; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Resignation 45 Annual General Meeting of Members 60 The Misplaced Tombstone Case by E. Brackenbury - - - 64 ; - - Note on the Mediumship of Mrs Mason ; by S. R. W. Wilson 74 A Submerged revived in a by Sir Lawrence J. Jones - 76 Memory Dream ; A Deferred Impression during a Trance Sitting 90 The Case of a Damaged Gravestone ....... 93 A Phantasm of the Dead conveying Information unknown to the Per- - - . - cipient ; by Count Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo 95 - - Some Investigations into Poltergeists ; by Dr V. J. Woolley 104 . - - - The Recent Congress at Athens ; by W. H. Salter 107 In Defence of D. D. Home by Hereward Carrington - - - 109 ; Case of a Presentiment acted on 117 Apparition of a Friend at the Moment of her Death - - - - 133 Notes a Sitting with Brittain Ernest S. Thomas - - 135 on Mrs ; by " " The Aetiology of a Psychical Legend ; by Dr Walter Franklin Prince 148 National Laboratory of Psychical Research .... - 157 New Members . 1,26,42,62,101,119,140,156,172, 17, 41, 57, 89, 103, 147 Meetmgs of the Council - - - 1,26,42,62,101,119,140,156,172, 17, 41, 57, 89, 103, 116 Meetings of the Society . - . 2, 26, 43, 45, 63, 64, 102, 172, 18, 60, 103, 116 Obituaries 64, 146, 41, 59, 116 Correspondence ----- 17,59,73,136,145,162,175, 8, 68, 76, 98, 112, 119, 137, 159 Reviews 15, 32, 69, 92, 147, 164, 9, 32, 52, 71, 81, 99, 122, 141 Notes on Periodicals - - 18, 34, 76, 97, 108, 130, 148, 165, 180, 15, 38, 54, 82, 100, 126, 144, 162 Notices 24, 25, 41, 61, 100, 119, 120, 139, 140, 141. 142, 154, 155, 171, 173, 19, 41, 73, 90, 102, 103, 114, 115, 116, 131, 132, 133 Errata 60, 100, 118, 170, 146, 162 No. 451.—Vol. XXV. Janttaey, 1929. JOURNAL OF THE Society for Psychical Research NEW MEMBERS. Elected December 5tli, 1928. Fonnereau, N. C, 53 CaJogan Street, London, S.W. 3. Gordon-Tucker, Lt. -Colonel E. F., 6 Staverton Road, Oxford. Hill, Miss Marianne, Claremont, Thornton, Bradford. Lester, Mrs., AVhaleboue House, High Road, Chadwell Heath. Palmer, John W. 6., 13 New Road, Brighton. Stephen, Dr Karin, 50 Gordon Square, London, W.C. 1. Elected December llth, 1928. Dickson, Mrs., Little Bridgen, Bexley, Kent. Hinks, Fred L., 1216 6th Avenue Soutli, Fort Dodge, Iowa, U.S.A. Mulroney, John E., -215 South 7th Street, Fort Dodge, Iowa, U.vS.A. MEETINGS OF THE COUNCIL. The 252nd Meeting of the Council was held at 31 Tavistock Square, London, W.C, on Wednesday, December 5th, 1928, at 2.30 p.m. ; Mr. W. R. Bousfield in the chair. There were also present : IMr. E. N. Bennett, ]\Ir. Theodore Besterman, Miss Ina Jephson, Dame Edith Lyttelton, Dr. T. W. Mitchell, Mr. W. H. Salter, Mrs. W. H. Salter, Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, Mr. S. G. Soal, and Dr. V. J. WooUey also, Miss Isabel ; Newton, Secretary. The IMinutes of the last Meeting of the Coimcil were read and signed as correct. 2 Journal of Society for Psychical Research Jandaky, 1929 Six new Members were elected. Their names and addresses are given above. The Report of the Coimcil for the year 1928 was considered and approved as amended. Miss Ina Jephson was appointed a member of the House and Finance Committee. The Monthly Accounts for October and November, 1928, were presented and taken as read. It was decided to hold the Annual General Meeting on Thursday, January 31st, 1929. The 253rd Meeting of the Council was held at 31 Tavistock Square, London, W.C., on Tuesday, December 11th, 1928, at 5.30 p.m., The President in the chair. There were also present : Mr. Theodore Besterman, Mr. W. R. Bousfield, Miss Ina Jephson, Mr. W. H. Salter, Mr. Sydney C. Scott, and Dr. V. J. WooUey also. Miss Isabel Newton, Secretary. ; The Minutes of the last Meeting of the Council were read and signed as correct. Three new Members were elected. Their names and addresses are given above. CONVERSAZIONE. A Conversazione was held for Members and Associates in the house of the Society on Wednesday, December 5th, 1928, from 4 until 6 p.m. Tea was served from 4 until 4.45 p.m. After tea Dr. WooUey gave an account of some recent sittings he had attended in Baron v. Schrenck-Notzing's laboratory. Dr. Woolley began by explaining that, in response to a suggestion made by Miss May Walker, Baron von Schrenck- Notzing had very kindly allowed four representatives of the Society, Mrs. Brackenbury, Miss WaUier, Professor Dodds and himself, to be present at the sittings held in his laboratory during last September. They had hoped to take part in his investigation of the medium Oskar S., but, as reported in the Zeitschrift fur Parapsychologie for October, this medium was exposed as fraudulent by Baron von Schrenck-Notzing on Januaet, 1929 Conversazione S September 1st, and these hopes were therefore disappointed. A number of sittings were held with the two Schneider brothers, Willi and Rudi, under a system of control devised by Baron von Schrenck-Notzing, which has for its object the replacement as far as possible of the human element by certain electrical devices. The present method has been in use since last June, and consists in the wearing by the medium and by the one controller of metal wire mittens, which close two independent electric circuits when the controller holds the medium's hands. Similarly made socks cover the medium's feet and close two other circuits when placed in contact with two metal plates on the floor. Each circuit when closed lights up a numbered lamp placed above the " cabinet." In addition to this the floor of the cabinet is wholly covered by a board, which when trodden on lights up a fifth lamp by the side of the others. The last precaution has only recently been introduced to answer the suggestion that phenomena might be due to the presence of a confederate concealed in the cabinet. It was pointed out that this apparatus proves to all the sitters that each of the medium's mittens is in contact with one of the controller's mittens, and that the fact that they are mittens and not gloves enables the controller to feel the medium's hands as well. Further, the medium's mittens are sewn to his coat sleeves so that he cannot take them ofl^. The arrangement excludes effectively the fraudulent use of the meditu2i"s hands. It does not, and probably no mechanical control coidd, exclude deliberate fraud by the controller, a theoretical possibility of which there was no question in these sittings. Dr. WooUey gave a short description of some of the pheno- mena seen in the Willi sittings, the most interesting being what appeared to be bulging-out movements of the curtain forming the front of the cabinet behind him, and concluded by expressing the thanks of the Society to Miss Walker for having arranged for the sittings, and especially to Baron von Schrenck-Notzing for his great kindness in allowing the Society's representatives to take part in them. 4 Journal of Society for Psychical Research Jandaey, 1929 CASE. " L. 1287. A Case of " Travelling Clairvoyance. We print below a case of the type usually known as " travel- ling clairvoyance." Other examples of the same kind of experience will be found in Myers's Human Personality, vol. i. " pp. 553-59, and Mrs. Sidgwick's paper On the Evidence for Clairvoyance," Proc. S.P.R., Vol. 7, pp. 30-99. The case has come to us through Lord Charles Hope, a Member of this Society, who is personally acquainted with the percipient, Monsieur David, a Frenchman living in London. Monsieur David's original account of his three experiences was enclosed with a letter from Lord Charles Hope to Mrs.