Saturday, January 16, 2010

I will now give an example which is 70 years old. It will show the value that even remote evidence may


From Phantasms of the Living by Edmund Gurney, Frederic Myers, and Frank Podmore, Chapter V "Specimens of the Various Types of Spontaneous Telepathy."

I will now give an example which is 70 years old. It will show the value that even remote evidence may have, if proper care is exercised at the time; and it points the moral which must be enforced ad nauseam, as to the importance of an immediate written record on the percipient's part. The account was received from Mrs. Browne, of 58, Porchester Terrace, W. On May 29th, 1884, Mr. Podmore wrote : —

"May 29th, 1884.

"I called to-day on Mrs. Browne, and saw (1) a document in the handwriting of her mother, Mrs. Carslake (now dead), which purported to be a copy of a memorandum made by Mrs. Browne's father, the late Captain John Carslake, of Sidmouth. Appended to this was (2) a note. also in Mrs. Carslake's handwriting, and signed by her; and (3) a copy also in Mrs. Carslake's handwriting, of a letter from the Rev. E. B r, of Hidmouth. "Mrs. Browne told me that, as far as she knows, the originals of (1) and (3) are no longer in existence. "Document (4) is a note from Mrs. Browne herself. "The Middleburg referred to is apparently the town of that name in the Netherlands."

(1)
"Thursday, July the 6th, 1815. — On returning to-day from Middleburg with Captain T., I was strongly impressed with the idea that between 2 and 3 I saw my uncle John cross the road, a few paces before me, and pass into a lane on the left leading to a mill, called Oily Moulin, and that when he arrived at the edge of the great road, he looked round and beckoned to me.

"Query. — As he has long been dangerously ill, may not this be considered as an omen of his having died about this time"

"John Carslake."

(2)

"He had not been thinking of his uncle, but talking with Captain T. about a sale where they had been; he was quite silent afterwards, and would not tell the reason. On going on board, he went to his cabin and wrote the time he saw his uncle, and wrote to Mr. B.

"T. Carslake."

(3)

"Long, in all probability, before this can reach you, you will have been informed that, precisely at the minute in which his apparition crossed your path in the neighbourhood of Middleburg, your dear and venerable uncle expired. I think it proves, beyond all contradiction, that his last and affectionate thoughts were fixed on you. The fact you have stated is the strongest of the kind, in which I could place such full confidence in the parties, that I ever knew. — E. B."