38 MENTAL THERAPEUTICS. 



The London Society for Psychical Research, in their published 

 volume entitled " Phantasms of the Living," reports a large number of 

 most carefully investigated instances of unmistakable telepathic com- 

 munication. One Sunday evening in November, the writer states, 

 having been reading of the great power of the human will, I resolved 

 with the whole force of my being to make my form visible in the front 

 room of a house at 22 Hogarth street, Kensington, London, where two 

 ladies of my acquaintance slept. I had not mentioned my intention to 

 make the experiment to any one. The time when I had determined to 

 appear was 1 o'clock A. M. With this on my mind I fell asleep and 

 woke next morning unconscious of anything having happened. Three 

 days later I called on the ladies, when the elder one told me, without 

 my having alluded to the subject, that she had been much terrified on 

 Sunday night by perceiving me standing at her bedside and that she 

 screamed and awoke her sister who also saw me. When I asked her 

 what time it was when this occurred, she replied: " About 1 o,clock 

 in the morning." 



Many people would have imagined that these ladies saw a ghost 

 or a spirit. But that by no means follows. What they saw was due 

 to a mental picture caused by the strong willing of the individual just 

 before he went to sleep. It was simply a telepathic communication to 

 the ladies' minds. Innumerable instances of a similar nature are re- 

 corded. 



Emanuel Swedenborg, the founder of the Swedenborgian church, 

 was remarkably gifted with telepathic and clairvoyant powers. On 

 July 19, 1754, returning from a visit to England, he landed at Gotten- 

 burg, stopping with a friend. At 5 p. M. he rushed into the drawing 

 room, pale with dismay, and announced that fire had just broken out 

 in Stockholm and was burning fiercely; thajt he feared for the safety of 

 his home and family. A little later he sorrowfully stated that the 

 home of a dear friend had just been reduced to ashes. At 8 o'clock 

 he joyfully exclaimed that the fire was under control before it reached 

 his house. The news, of course, soon spread through the town, but 

 very few believed it, for Stockholm was 170 miles away, and there 

 were no telegraphs in those days. Two days later the royal courier 

 arrived and brought the news of the fire, which had occurred at the 

 very hour when Swedenborg said he saw it. He was then seventy-two 

 years of age. Twelve years later he was again in England, and sent 

 word to Wesley, the founder of Methodism, that he wished to make 

 his acquaintance. Wesley sent word that he was about to start on a 

 journey, but on his return in six months he would be glad to meet the 

 great Swede. Swedenborg sent back the reply that it would then be too 

 late as the 29th of March next was the date of his death. He died 

 on March 29 following. 



Equally plentiful are instances where patients were treated suc- 

 cessfully by telepathic suggestion, even though vast distances apart. 

 The instances are most numerous among relatives or close friends, or 

 those who are en rapport with one another. Rheumatism, neuralgia, 



