A PRIZE FOR TELEPATHY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14829, 21 November 1913, Page 14

A PRIZE FOR TELEPATHY.

OFFERED FOR PROOFS

A prize of £1000 offered over two years ago for satisfactory proofs of thought-transference is still unclaimed. The donor, who remains hidden under the signature of ; 'A Business Man," contributes to "Bedrock" (Lordon), an article entitled ''The Truth about Telepathy," embodying some of his experiences in connexion with this offer. In a recent article in the same review, Sir Oliver Lodge, Principal of Manchester "University, and a prominent member of the Society for Physical liesearch, alludes to the proposed reward in the following words:— ''The business man takes another line and offers a thousand pounds for proofs which will convince him. 'Ho has, of course, no intention of parting with the money, and is quite satisfied that ho can resist any temptation to be convinced. . . . A thousand-pound note is a weird argument in Science. . . . . To all wagens of this kind 1 trust that those connected with tho SJ*.lt. will always turn a deaf and contemptuous ear." To this, "A Business Man" makes reply as follows: — ,- I do not know what evidence there may be of 'wagers'; but let mc ask, in all * seriousness, what are the reasons for making the defamatory statements which I have put in- italics? They certainly are" not true, if intended to refer to a case I have in mind; and they are" unworthy of the Man of Science to whom, in all good faith, liberal payment was offered for particulars suT>nosed to bo available-, but which he failed to supply. He had often declared that, to him, telepathy is 'perfectly clear and certain'; and nobody ought to doubt the sincerity of Sir Oliver Lodge's belief; but, requiring facts and not beliefs, I waded through volumes of 'records' to which he had referred mc. and worked back to his first experiment with a square and a cross as described by him in a letter to tho editor of 'Nature,' dated Juno 12th, 1884. Being unable to find anything but, statements that would not bear to be looked into carefully, or accounts of phenomena that had occurred under conditions in which trickery was always possible, I pressed Sir Oliver Lodge for definite information, and finally got from him this gom: 'I am surprised that you imagine that incontrovertible evidence can be obtained at all in an inductive problem.' "After writing to many others, I caused tho following advertisement to be inserted in 'The Times' for several days in August, 1911: — " 'TELEPATHY. " 'The sum of £1000 has, during the past six months, been offered privately to the leading authorities and writers of repute on this subject for satisfactory proofs of so-called thought-transference, but not one single case could be found; and it has now been decided to advertise publicly for tho particulars required. Persons applying to the undersigned are requested to name their own terms for evidence that will stand cross-examination, and to state whether or not their communications are to be treated as confidential. Matthew Jarvis, Solicitor, 4 Finsbury Square, London, JS-C "There is no suggestion of 'wagers' in the above —only a plain statement of fact and a request that persons shall name their own terras; but, though the replies were too numerous to acknowledge the receipt of separately, no evidence could be obtained. Tho advertisement was copied into many foreign and colonial newspapers, so that dupes all over tho world were put on their guard against believing something that might not bo true. "Remembering that Sir Oliver Lodge had specially vouched for the movements of a chair in the moonlight, on one occasion when no had tried to control a female medium for hours at a stretch, I next proceeded to arrange for tho payment of £5000 to any one who could perform or prove a case of levitation; and, on my informing Sir Oliver Lodge of this, he wrote: 'To mc these offers of money seem quite preposterous and never likely to obtain anything at all.' So I took this as an indication that he was again unable to produce any proof. But, supposing I offered him a large fee for writing a book on some mental incursion into the realms of the unverifiable. would there be,-in such an offer, anything objectionable to which a deaf and contemptuous ear should be over turned; or would it bo readily accepted by the Man of Science acting for the time being a business man? ... ... "I can give an amusing instance or how some members of the S. P. It. can bo brought 'to heel,' for when I approached Sir W. F. Barrett (whom I take this opportunity of again thanking for his kind promise of help), he was very keen to assist mc in finding a case of telepathy; and he was good enough to offer to call upbn mc the next time he came over to England from Dublin. He made no objection to being paid £1000 for proofs, and his letters show that he was genuinely anxious to bo of use in the matter; but, after seeing Sir Oliver Lodge in London, Sir W. F. Barrett wrote to mc: 'I could not undertake to prove the results of a long and difficult investigation to order or for a pecuniary offer.' "Mv reply was to point out that I had not aslced for any long investigation, but that I merely wanted one single case of telepathy, which he, as its father or discoverer, thirty or more years ago, ought to have no difficulty in finding for mc. I never got one, however, nor did I have any better luck with Sir William Crookes" who was too busy with other scientific work to help mc. . . .

"I have no desire to advertise myself; and my name need not appear, though it is known to Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, and many others who aro interested in this matter; but I shall be happy to place at their disposal all the information I have collected and to assist, as a business man, in getting at the facts. These, so far as they go, certainly confirm the statement of Sir Ray Lankester. on page €6 of the April number of 'Bedrock , ; '1 say that Sir Oliver Lodge and his associates have not (in answer to the question "Does telepathy exist ?'') given any demonstration of "its existence, nor even any evidence which makes its existence probable.'"