GHOST HUNTERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1123, 19 July 1883, Page 1

GHOST HUNTERS.

The members of the Society for Psychical Research continue their in • teresting investigations, and have just published a volume of “ Proceedings,” wherein they modestly deprecate criti cism. As they say, truly enough, many of their stories savor of the ridiculous, and there is positively nothing sensation or blood-curdling. They approach the question in a scientific and crit'en* spirit, and admit nothing that is not authenticated by the names of the narrators. One of the most singular tales in the volume is the i.o.wwaig : “ My mother married at a very earK age without the consent of her parents. My grandmother vowed she would never see lur daughter again. A few months after her marriage ray mother was awakened at 2 a.in. hy a loud knocking at the door. To her great surprise her husband did' not awake. My mother spoke to my tbther, but as he did not wake, she got up, opened the window, and looked mb, when, to her amazenvuit, she saw her mother in full C ourt dress, standing on the step and looking at her. My mother called to lo r, but my grandmother, frowning and shaking her head, disappeared. At this moment her husband woke, and my mother told him what had happened. He went to the window, but saw nothing. My mother was sure that my grandmother, even at that late hour, I had come to forgive her, and entreatei

my father to let her in. lie went down ami opened the door, hut nobody was there. He assured my mother she had been dreaming, ami she at last believed itivas so. The next morning the servants were questioned, but they had heard nothing, and the matter was dismissed till the evening, when my parents heard that my gnm dim her had been, in ftdl Court dn-.s, to a ball the night before; that IVedng unw.ll she retimisd In nv, ami, aft r an hour’s illness, bad died ;it 2 a.mf She had

not mentioned my nmiherV name diving her short illness.” One of the most curmii' •• i-ses of apparitions I have ever heard of was the case of a family in wnidi die fathei had married a second time, and the second wife, who told the story, said that for some years the figure of the first wife was constantly appearing in her finmr Imme, and at last seemed to he p. r manently established there, moving indeed with the family when they changed houses. At last the apparition gradually faded away. Amongst the most interesting things in the volume is the chapter on “Thought Transf-renee,” and the iow r possessed by some persons of drawing blindfold figures or diagrams simi ar to those previously sketched by the “agent” and

transferred to the “percipient” by simple pressure of (lie band. The sketclus so made are most extraordinary, more like a child’s attempt to make a cow or a horse, and boar something of the same resemblance to ■the original nevertheless tiie effect of the transferred thought is di.'tinctl) manl'est. A sin-

gular case is mentioned in the book of a family whose members bad a kii A of vision of blood lufoie ibnr cos Hbn-

eV'T any accident !iaop> ne i 10 aa *' -r and distant member,of tJie faintly. An instance is given wln n tin* moiln r <m* morning at breakfast suddenly < j xel»innd “0, I see blood ; I am sin-e sometbing

Ids linpiteiK'vi to , namiivi lit-r mui.’ On writing to him about it, In*, in i is reply, said that at the particular time in question lie was shaving, and whil.-t endeavouring to sharpen his raz >r on tha hack of his hand, he cut himself so severely that lie nearly fainted from loss of blood. I once met with a curious instance of thought transference, told me by a friend, A gentleman and his wife were in bed together } the former reading by the light of a lamp, and the latter asleep. After a time, the wife woke up and mentioned that she had a very curious dream, and on her relation of it, it proved to be a garb r d account of the very story the husband was reading at the time. There is, I believe, very little doubt now of toe possibility of this very curious mental condition, but, of course, it is only met with in rare c»ses, and must be part of a peculiar temperament. I wish the Sock ty every success in their efforts to solve the most diffieu't problem of this or anv ago.—Exchange correspondent.