Clairvoyance.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1797, 12 January 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Clairvoyance.

Almost every physician, during the course of his professional life, hears stories regarding clairvoyance. Some individual ha 3 had a vision or dreamed a dream whioh is subsequently found to have represented, most marvellously, actual objects or persona that were afc the time far away. An organization in London has been investigating the alleged phenomena of this olass, endeavoring to apply soientifio methods, to their study. The Nineteenth Century and the Mortnightly Review have at different times published some of the results of this work. Quite recently the latter journal has pubblished an article by Mr. Edmund Gurney and Mr. Frederick W. M. Myers, claiming very positively that the mind may at certain times be capable of receiving impressions through other channels than those of the various senses; in other words, that the so-called clairvoyance is an actual physiological fact. As an example of the class of phenomena alleged to be real, we append the following : "One Sunday night last winter, at 1 a.m., I wished strongly to communicate the idea of my presence to two Iriends, who resided about three miles from the house where I was staying. . When I next saw them, a few days afterward, I expressly refrained from mentioning my experiment ; but in the course of conversation one ot them said, • You Tvould not believe what a strange night we spent last Sunday,' and then recounted that both the friends had believed themselves to see my figure standing in their room. The experience was vivid enough to wake them completely, and they both looked at their watches, and found it to be exaotly ono o'clock.' (One of these friends has supplied independent testimony to this circumstance.)" We have ventured to furnish our readers this account of the work of these gentlemen because of the strong endorsement that has been given to it, and because of its important physiological and pathological fcignificance. If it could be proved that the mind can perceive through other agencies than the senses, it would establish a fact which would antagonize the present physiological theories (based upon evolution) of the development of theM senses; for it is bow believed that thej were developed in order to enable the animal to adapt himself to his invironment. They were made by the environment primarily, rather than for it, and in the history of animal evolution there are absolutely no data which enable us to account for the development of a supersensual perceptive power. — Medical Record.