Psychic Science 577 



those who are out for unprejudiced truth is to accept the demon- 

 strated fact and see if they can devise some line of explanation 

 better than the telepathic one. For because telepathy of some 

 kind is a plausible explanation, it does not follow that it is the 

 true one in every case. Our aim is not to rest satisfied with 

 what may superficially seem probable, but to ascertain what is 

 true. 



As an example of a phantasm of the living, we may take 

 the case of a mother with a sailor son at work in the Pacific. She 

 dreams or has a vision of him standing by her bedside in dripping 

 clothes, accepts the omen, and subsequently mourns him as dead. 

 Six months later he turns up alive and well; but, gradually, in 

 response to inquiries, admits that he had run the risk of being 

 drowned, for he had fallen from a mast into the water, and had 

 only with difficulty been rescued. And it is maintained that the 

 date of the accident agrees well enough with the phantasmal 

 appearance. 



Mrs. Arthur Severn being awakened by an imaginary blow 

 on the mouth, at the same time as her husband sailing on Lake 

 Coniston before breakfast is struck in the mouth by the swing 

 round of the tiller, is a well-authenticated case of spontaneous 

 and unconscious telepathy. 







Visions or Apparitions of the Dead 



A further step may have ultimately to be taken. Not only 

 are phantasms of the living experienced, we find also clear records 

 of phantoms of the dead. The two classes merge into one an- 

 other, for the moment of death may be uncertain, and some lati- 

 tude for delayed impression must be allowed; but undoubtedly 

 appearances of dead people have occurred, and whether these 

 also are to be attributed to a telepathic impression, received from 

 a discarnate agent, remains an open question. On the whole 



