5o8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ascertained fact. Still, the relation between these phenomena and 

 those of automatism in particular is so close that no student of 

 the one group can ignore the other. 



Alleged supernormal phenomena may be regarded as belonging 

 to two classes psychical and physical. The latter class embraces 

 all alleged interferences with the known laws of the physical 

 world. They may be dismissed from consideration here, not 

 merely because they are not relevant, but because nearly every 

 case so far reported has dissolved into fraud or malobservation 

 upon closer examination, and the few which remain intact can 

 not, in consequence, be regarded as proving anything. 



By psychical phenomena I mean mental occurrences which 

 either give true indications of events unknown to the percipient, 

 or seem in some way to coincide with and suggest such events, 

 ov, in the case of impulses, seem to betray a knowledge of fact 

 which was not possessed by the subject of the experience. These, 

 again, may be subdivided into several groups. In the telepathic 

 group the circumstances are such as to suggest a species of men- 

 tal induction, one mind reflecting the thoughts of another. Thus 

 a friend of mine was walking down a country road near German- 

 town, Pa., on a hot summer's day. Suddenly he found himself 

 thinking, " Where can I find a doctor, where can I find a doctor ?" 

 He laughed at the absurdity as if he wanted one but, to be sure, 



if he did, where could one be found ? Dr. Y was dead, and 



the only other he knew of was Dr. Z , at Jenkintown. A few 



moments later he reached a crossroad, along which a man and 

 boy were driving rapidly. As they met my friend, the man 

 reined in the horse, leaned out, and said, " Can you tell me, sir, 

 where I can find the nearest doctor ? " 



Nine times in the course of my own life I have had what is 

 called a "presentiment." Eight times I wrote it down at once 

 before learning whether it was true or false, and the ninth time I 

 spoke of it. Three of these were false, one was partly true and 

 partly false, one was not verified, but probably false. All these 

 related to subjects much in my thoughts, and were probably sug- 

 gested by circumstances. Four were true, of which one might 

 have been suggested by circumstances. The other three were not 

 only true and not apparently suggested by circumstances, but 

 were among the most agitating experiences of my life. One 

 drove me, in spite of the resistance of my reason, to take a jour- 

 ney which seemed the act of a lunatic, and proved the wisest 

 thing I could do. Another impelled me to write a letter to a per- 

 son three hundred and fifty miles away, to whom I had written 

 a few hours before, but who happened to be in great trouble at 

 the moment I felt the impulse. The third gave me absolute as- 

 surance that the very thing was about to happen which I believed 



