Telepathy - John D. Quackenbos

University of Northern Iowa

Is Telepathy, or Psychic Transmission, a Fact or a Delusion? Author(s): John D. Quackenbos Source: The North American Review, Vol. 196, No. 682 (Sep., 1912), pp. 373-382 Published by: University of Northern Iowa Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25119840 . Accessed: 22/03/2013 15:29 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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IS TELEPATHY, OR PSYCHIC TRANS MISSION, A FACT OR A DELUSION? BY

It

JOHN

D.

QTJACKENBOS,

admitted

is commonly

M.D.

that in the realm

of psychic

we are only of discovery at the threshold research far beyond wonders will the coming disclose century

yet

The

disclosed.

scientific

investigation

of

spirit,

that any

the

has for so long been discussed of which only from now is and regarded by viewpoints, religious metaphysical as practicable, in the face not only advanced thinkers but, as imperative. of a steadily Transcen interest, growing are no longer as hallucina dental looked upon experiences to be everywhere tions. Ultra-normal is believed faculty in the human inherent and we are to look for personality; new of those of it along many lines, notably expressions broad In and intercommunication. its telepathy spiritual im est sense, the action of spirit at a distance, telepathy, a or mental between intercourse plies potential psychic human in or out of the body. Of such communica beings with discarnate tion with the dead of incarnate spirits seance of is as the there friends the machinery through no And still evidence. the faculty yet convincing telepathic course to be in actual is believed of science of by leaders even to to be and men, among evolutionary, development

nature

out into the universe wherever that is, to extend to sentient be telepathically beings responsive on vibrations. this receive transmitted agents Percipient from the tran in turn be reciprocally impressed planet may

be cosmic there may

scendental world

through the medium

of similar vibrations

admonition, inspira feeling, sympathy, thought, conveying no barrier to communication between tion. Distance implies selfs. subliminal nature of animal and is characteristic action Telepathic

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THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

374

of brute communication. Birds methods certain explains of earth the medium information receive and beasts through are sensitive and animals birds Certain vibrations. game and are approached earth to the faintest only by tremor, without and the hunter who jarring carefully slowly steps also of the vibrations The nature the surface of the ground. which the from a notion of the direction danger conveys on their as much ap and wild is coming, game depend When as upon detection of this by the ear. prehension com the subtle movements to cosmic it comes vibrations,

municated

to the earth's

crust by the tides or the pull of

are the ferce naturae, especially nervous poise, sleep, appetite, mysteriously and migration. and possibly procreation insects and other moths have Recent proved experiments as so transference of thought to be capable far-reaching a of with miles fellows their to impress away knowledge a that whalers to known well is It their whereabouts. con to a has struck cetacean instantly power harpoon by to a spouting of an enemy of the presence vey intelligence animals, bodies, as affected

heavenly

school a half-mile

distant,

to

so that the individuals

composing

the surface. below angler it immediately Every disappear a glimpse of in a pool has caught that if one trout is aware so that his his of presence, him all are instantly apprised one knows, What in vain. lures are offered attractive most of an at the same moment interchange all know through female that the noticed Aristotle par states. subconscious

tridge

is affected

by a distant male

bird through what he

direction. cock's Corbin Austin purchased ago, the late years twenty in New land wood and farm acres of thousand twenty-five as Moun Blue known the estate, stocked and Hampshire described Some

as

a breeze

tain Park, with

from

the

elk and deer.

In 1897 it was predicted

that

would food is venison, of pumas, the presence and vicinity, the park in are conspicuously

natural whose the extinct carnivores, Not to the region. return long after, in or mountain reported lions, was wild-cat and the black bear, lynx, and of cognition power evidence mysterious By what to-day. be this from a vanished region, did the great century cat, Park Mountain Blue in deer of of the presence come aware the uncon action of telepathic the exercise if not through for their fear of of subtle waves, radiation perhaps scious

traditional

enemies,

from the community

of four thousand

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IS TELEPATHY A FACT OR A DELUSION? 375 in the Alle to fugitive the deer tribe panthers areas and Adirondack the in of Green remote ghanies to relate, the presence of this mountains? large Strange to the surrounding has attracted of cervidce country body like the otter, of Virginia deer and other numbers animals, their usual creatures manifest of these None extinct. long seems a sense of security to pervade the whole fear of man; new-comers. A for of of instance, otters, family community the boat their home under the summer of 1906 made during Mink often play among at Lake house of a friend Sunapee. of on the writer's the chairs Beavers, forgetful piazza. on streams. dams secluded construct and trees fell man, none with of their and pastures the roads Deer parade nerve waves as the if from natural undulating shyness animals

of or

of ideas in Corbin safety Park, conveying community some the in vibration set elastic cosmic medium, through nerve in of the recipient wild fauna extremities sensitive as to be translated of into the massive such a way feeling Num transmitters. in the unconscious indwelling security be of such intercommunication instances berless spiritual and men animals themselves and between tween animals are on record. has been written in the publications Much these research societies of psychic regarding perceptions a more intimate between of brutes, relationship suggesting than has been hitherto members of the animal kingdom the lower animals the besides existence among understood, in faculties of (like supernormal precognition, psychic in that may be elicited and so forth) of direction, stincts man by suggestion in hypnosis. of com this inscrutable If brutes power possess telepathic seem it for their benefit, and exercise it cannot munication human marvelous that it exists among beings. have For barbarous of both ages, peoples hemispheres of this trans themselves of availed supernormal faculty and acquiring information knowledge. Polynesian, mitting and American medicine-men Indian Australian, African, " servers and still gaze into crystals, and sight-stones," or in stare water and into of blood, slabs, drops polished

order

to bring within

range

intuitive

knowledge

to see telepathically subconsciousness, a at distance and unknown occurring is the only conveyance explanation Telepathic to a friend of the writer's information given in the events

or

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existing

of visions to the seer. of accurate more than

THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

376

the loss of on ago, by a Chinaman, concerning years forty verified hundred miles afterward of his away, eight ships as to time, place, asked how and detail. When to the letter

he knew of the disaster,

the Chinese

said that

percipient

room in news dark he went into a certain he desired when action If there was and sat down. Canton any important sta it was to his mind communicated by agents occurring,

tioned at distant points. British officers are authority for the statement that during the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857 information

was in advance received the uprising by natives regarding news conventional the to transmit of the time required by on the part of sensitiveness channels. Similar telepathic ex in seers observers been has noted negro by English of knowledge of the transmission by unknown planation means in different of Africa. parts

admits

the

of

such harmonious

Psychology possibility " differ that the principle in articulating correspondence or different of states of con ent consciousnesses aggregates The Church and interpenetrate." combine sciousness may of the Communion in its doctrine intercourse soul teaches of Saints mystically members

that all the members united of the

ship in common.

in Christ with Church invisible,

But

of the Church visible one

are

with the another fellow spiritual having and

this does not imply the possibility

of

it unites with the dead, communication conscious although in what Professor and discarnate incarnate all beings Myers " a splendid and intellectual life." of moral universe called the condi to Professor James, psychological According

tion of our being touched by spiritual of a subconscious possession and to an invisible admission our

yields

access

to them.

region, unknown

consists

agencies in our world,

in

of privilege alone which

In sleep life, in hypnosis,

the door

is the present wide Such is always sometimes open. ajar, to be a prop is held which of interaction, telepathic theory even essence all of of the of of the the spirit minds, erty downward. brute which goeth to an confined The of the writer been have experiments of the transmission of thought, perception, investigation terrestrial to a study of the control and space, through one mind another at a distance. affects process by which with of ten thousand In a series hypnotized experiences patients ficially

(that induced),

is, patients he has

put to realized

natural sleep a responsiveness,

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sleep on

arti the

IS TELEPATHY A FACT OR A DELUSION? 377 as many as have been into brought personalities ear unheard to appeals appeals by the objective to project inherent and spontaneously exploit healing intellectual force. power, ethico-spiritual endowment,

of part rapport,

The

fact

that minds

contact

through can tenant,

straints

of matter, Were

brought

into hypnotic of

the

or sleeping

the

bodies approximation physical con they exchange ideas, feelings, knowledge, the that minds victions, suggests aspirations, possibility in and to all purposes discarnate temporarily separated or natural in thus at to minds liberty sleep hypnosis traverse the world and them its purlieus throw may selves into one another's with communicate may thoughts, or the trammels out reference to space and con limitations to be mutually and impressed, exalted, means the of communica such energized. establishing tion comprehended and under absent treatment for control, certain sicknesses and states would be possible and in every we have scientific. while to admit that the laws way Now, are unknown, of telepathic transmission and that telepathy so extensively advertised the cure for has no of disease recent of the author incon value, experiments that it does exist human that prove among testably beings, as certain, it is a fact of nature as to quote Flammarion, or of the dog-star a the existence of Paris, of oxygen, whose while undreamed scope, long unrecognized faculty it as facile what Emerson among stamps of, yet princeps " as the immense of man." designates possibilities That is in each one of us an inner there immaterial being not under constraint to obey conditions imposed by our but of perceiving and acting physical organisms, capable means its is known to A own, by peculiarly psychologists. commercial

perishable

body is not indispensable

or of this inner being, its own independent The body. physical in spite exercised of, are organism. They

spiritual existence powers rather of the

to the life and action

which preserves personality, even in the absence of the are often of this personality than by aid of, the material of clairvoyance nature (space

is annulled), obscure the vision prescience (time does not the future), and allied the mind-reading, phenomena of laws the like movement physical suspension spontaneous of heavy bodies and various abnormal physical phenomena in which human-like manifests itself purposive, intelligence as a direct cause. these Self-projection along supernormal of

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THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

378

lines is facilitated when

state,

by the induction

the mind

is measurably

the inherent faculty

impediments, more

of hypnosis.

In this

of all physical

divested

of the spirit utters

itself

offer no obstructions, matter space becomes sublimed. power perceptive infinitely let me recall the case of Anna Fortwanger, I experimented several peasant girl with whom and clairaudient wonderful years ago and whose clairvoyant This all who were at the seances. powers present impressed Time

freely. is penetrable, In proof, the German

and

girl, when hypnotized

by a friend and directed

to describe

to the unknown both places absolutely doings in and trials the at five pres separate subject hypnotizer, ac ence of reputable with marvelous witnesses responded cause to im Anna to But curacy. Fortwanger attempts or to expression at a distance, press persons impelling were or and to enter into their thoughts feelings, action, different

and

result. case now

without The possesses entranced describe distance lesions year-old teriology ton, was

woman who is that of a Belgian presented a when at to diseases distance power diagnose and to go to a designated and commanded patient a at On several the bodily conditions. occasions, exactness with she has defined of miles, startling The twelve of which she could have known nothing. son of Dr. F. N. Brett, Professor of Bac lately and Surgeons at Bos in the College of Physicians so that when vision with X-ray hypnotized gifted

" look right

by his father he could

the

human body," seeing see objects would through this boy located tumors, valvular lesions, wounds, was always approximated vision at recent my

A

short subject

subject,

the one

range. is as follows:

is not

who

as

as

organs readily In dozens of instances in gun-shot bullets bodies, foreign so forth. Brett But Leon and to the patient. It was X-ray in the case of The modus operandi

is present

physician

into and through

internal a window.

whom we will we

a professional,

call Dr. A. will

The as

designate

Madame B, and the lady who hypnotizes Madame B (the sister of a New York physician) as Miss C. Madame B is hypnotized,

or

put

into

a quasi-cataleptic

state,

and

then

directed to go to the patient, look into his body, and de scribe the nature of his trouble. This she does in detail, pointing out conditions of which Dr. A, Miss C, and her own

objective

self

could

not

have

had

the

slightest

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knowl

IS TELEPATHY A FACT OR A DELUSION? 379 In one instance in which I followed her statements edge. the telephone she diagnosed five miles while away through an obscure case in my the cause office and told correctly assumes of the lesion. the symptoms and She sensations she discovers, and on several occasions has suffered acutely for hours from pains and perceptions similar to those of the Her becomes sensitive in the region in person patient. so that Dr. A is able to locate, which the subject is affected, her the trouble in a remote through sensations, patient seen. whom he has never She has stated to facts contrary the preconceptions of those about her, and to the diagnoses of attending in one case perceiving physicians, impending so which affected her mind that Miss C insanity, seriously was to treatment. discontinue obliged In her B trance Madame to the affected sends person " a what she calls the medium current," healing through of which spirally undulating physio-psychic vibrations, the mysterious How far her treatment carry message. will to be seen. succeed remains I have known to sleep

be induced

(not a new effect

of the projection

of psychic

and force) her efforts.

sudden to result from permanent improvement of cancer In a case of the liver which she she was, to relieve. She diagnosed, naturally, helpless when realizes death is imminent. B Madame also enters into the mental and emotional states of remote and them in her trance, persons reproduces an impression sometimes and acting it out for retaining hours. She declares that her spirit the per visits actually sons and places to which it is directed, them reaching the of medium etheric that accentuated through vibration; not does her action and passion. At perception explain the emphatic command of the operator, when she is com a given with con subliminal outside the primary mingled

she can impel that subliminal to influence its sciousness, earth life, and so bring about a desirable change in mental of feeling, mistaken in the subject beliefs, It will thus be seen that the transfigur in the patient, resides and is only awakened and ing power B. After a sev to exploited by Madame person ministering eral times and so becoming she can psychically acquainted, entrance herself and apply treatment the aid of an without

motions, under

attitudes treatment.

intermediary.

But the most wonderful

exhibition

of her gift is the prac

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THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

380 tical

liberation of her personality and its invasion of the soul

ism,

it is directed other

by me,

person offered

gestions

so

from its material of another being

organ to whom

to be in turn bodily usurped

that I am enabled, through to Madame the B, to reach

by that

dynamic correlated

sug per

sonality and compel in it the action I desire, provided such action be right. Madame B not only feels and acts the part of

the

ably,

person possessed

and mental

in rapport, but she is that person unmistak of his knowledge, character traits, feelings,

attitudes;

her

he

talks

through

her

lips,

and

suffers

her

brain. organs, bodily through through energizes A remote is with thus face to face and me, subject brought to effect I am enabled his salutary changes against objective will and consent to the commingled subliminal by appeal means re selves. If this unparagoned of enforced attention a spiritual is from that then sults every facility lasting, man and woman in the world is accessible this through method to corralling by this subliminal channel; susceptible of approach; to apprehension of the wrongness of coercible for action when and motives positions, incentives, they are to right view and changeable and moral action. can be done. seen harm I have the controlling per an uncongenial resent with profanity sonality suggestion as malign There is no such and blows. thing telepathic The malicious influence animal magnetism. per intelligent

wrong; No

cipient

is brought

into adjustment

with

the law of right,

he is constrained and acts, not because by that the action because he realizes suggested or ethical. He cannot be sary, expedient, with moral inconsistent principle, anything

injured through telepathic physically who wish him ill (witchcraft). Hitherto,

in response

the relief of the willing of drink practices,

reached

to many

and

impressions varied

dupes of delusion

of and drug habitues, who have obstinately

the

but the agent, neces is wise, to do impelled nor can he be

applications

for

and infatuation,

of pursuers thrust aside

out to help them, psychology

by those

soul-killing hand the

has had no hope

of the

to

subliminal conscious through impression Now, common of in the manner recovery sense, described, states of and control be forced normal may manly relations, their and even them without upon objective acquiescence, wills. How like intermediaries their many very against or how far education be in the world, B there may Madame offer. ness

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IS TELEPATHY A FACT OR A DELUSION? 381 we can in the production of such intermediaries, conjecture. of the procedure feature is the peculiar separation a Madame B's of oper personality which, segment the same talks to ating independently through organism, me me how from the standpoint of an onlooker, directs to and even what to suggest to its entranced fellow. proceed, It was that bade me treat her as I would this segment treat

may only A from

count

the distant subject, suggesting through her subliminal mys teriously interblended with that of the subject, and thus the way as the most to what must be regarded pointed made in the field of abnormal psy important discovery yet tells me when to awaken This segment chology. always B. Madame of my command to emerge On the utterance from her trance she is thrown into a distressing convulsion, same to me and calls this to through alternating segment the violence of the spasm. After her mitigate resuming for a time she suffers from and confusion objective life, exhaustion.

Madame

B

does not understand

how

this

is all done;

neither does the profoundest the philosopher comprehend transmission of gravity force of the means space, through a matter its conveyance of speculation. And being wholly the destinies of millions of suns and yet this force governs In she refers to vibra systems. explanation constantly translate tions To her into spirally moving. description are scientific these vibrations of language, varying ampli and wave-lengths, own tudes to use her (heights) and, strike her waves inner self like the of expression, against " " the sea. in a person's She has to be in order vibration

to enter into his feelings

and apprehend

his bodily

condi

the rare gift of being able to convert ; and she possesses into values. She knows supersensuous perceptions physical what she and she per physically perceives psychically, sense the operation of the recognized ceives without organs. tion

She speaks of space as being filled with vibrations,

waves, center, of matter.

spirally undulating just as ether waves

physio-psychic

from every are emitted

(Bozzano explains vibration which,

telepathy expanding

spheric

or conscious unit from every portion as due to an initial concentrically

in

all directions, reaches the brain of the percipient, bringing with it the agent's thought.) She has the power to intercept the vibrations that link her to the person she is in search

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382

THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

of. Some monious.

she characterizes she discovers Thus

mind with which

as harmonious, the quality

that distinguishes

individuality

inhar in the

thought

and gives utterance human has an being

pain each

experiences trance. As

of

as

If at the time it be im

she is in rapport.

or vicious, moral she in her to disapproval

some

him

from his fellows,

no

or emotional so states matter how his mental may vary, are to Madame B different from vibrations each person's she This how those of any and all other explains beings. in space. To her, her subject is able to recognize thoughts have a substance; and she sees them in motion, always spiral. and does But the to read claims the future She predict. undetermined. is value she may of the prescience possess yet a much more marvelous Are we on the eve of discovering a in man will force which of psychic develop application as him to all science make superior consciousness, spiritual natural with that adjustment effect at present interpreted, the door to mil disease and unlock will banish law which a number of be em selected Let lennial persons perfection? of communica and utilize for purposes to intercept powered from the vibrations tion they wish radiating personalities for uplift and general and impressions to communicate with,

betterment might

be given without

the objective

knowledge

in this way well-wishers or consent. A few thousand might a moral revolution. world-wide about further, And, bring when force which, ill-understood the same applied psychic

by a limited

number

tipped veloped,

of specially

and

moved pianos, as well, and houses

tables move

individuals,

gifted

has

when de may possibly, the cast mountain literally

into the sea (the Greek word pistis, in the passage Matthew xvii :20 and Mark xi :23, translated faith, implies in its root such a knowledge of and confidence in certain divine truths as

to produce

good

works).

Faith

without

such works

is a

sham.

All

this

treatment

into a defense of to be construed is not as commonly and unscientifically practised,

know

the subjects them,

and

the

suggestion. and marginal and this level mane thereto.

that an attempt

is making

absent where

to influence

are entirely to auto due if effected, cures, a psychic level extra implies essentially that of than conscious every-day life, higher or in states is obtained ger only in hypnosis

It

John

D.

Quackenbos.

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