Miss Caroline B. Morse, of Northfield, Vermont.

From Phantasms of the Living by Edmund Gurney, Frederic Myers, and Frank Podmore, Chapter VI "Transference of Ideas and Mental Pictures."


Miss Caroline B. Morse, of Northfield, Vermont.

"April, 1884.

"I early became conscious of a peculiar sensitiveness to the undertones — the unuttered thoughts — of others. Later, this tendency developed into an occasional lightning-like reading of facts that apparently came to me through none of the ordinary sensory channels, and which always, whatever their nature, gave me a shock of surprise. As an instance: About 13 years ago I went with an uncle to a jeweller's shop to see a wonderful clock. I had never met the proprietor of the shop; he was known to my uncle, who introduced him as he came forward and stood with us before the clock. At that instant came a sensation as if every nerve in my body had been struck. The affable jeweller had extended his hand, but with a shudder, that only habitual self-control repressed, I said within myself: 'I cannot touch your hand - there is blood upon it — you are a murderer.' Outwardly, I merely bowed and looked at the clock, as if nothing could interest me so much, thus ignoring the proffered hand. Several weeks after, I learned that the jeweller and a companion, when young men, had been accused of and tried for the murder of a pedlar. They escaped conviction through the garbled testimony of the chief witness, who at the preliminary hearing had made a clear statement strongly against them."

"Caroline B. Morse."