Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/139

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On Hallucinations in General
119

vers told me that she had seen, in a sort of flash, Mrs. Fleetwood start up in bed, rest on her elbow, and look towards her. She had not been clearly aware of her own attitude in Mrs. Fleetwood's room, although she seemed aware of her position, which corresponded to the place towards which Mrs. Fleetwood gazed. Miss Danvers had never previously made notes of an experiment, and had not seen the importance of writing down this point at once, nor had she felt confident that Mrs. Fleetwood really saw her. Mrs. Fleetwood also sent me a letter of Miss Danvers to herself, dated June 18th, in which, among various other matters, Miss Danvers asks, "Have I appeared to you at all? I tried last night, but you may not have been alone." There is, of course, therefore, no proof that Miss Danvers's sense of invasion of the room was more than subjective.

In a later experiment Miss Danvers claims to have seen in Mrs. Fleetwood's room the third volume of Marcella, which she regards as a proof that she, on her side, acquired supernormal knowledge of Mrs. Fleetwood's surroundings. Mr. Godfrey also, it will be remembered, believed that he had received a reflex impression from the percipient. It is possible that in every case of telepathic action the influence is reciprocal. If it were so, the fact would in many cases necessarily escape observation; since in some of the most striking instances the agent was on his deathbed, or was passing through some other crisis, in the stress of which the comparatively feeble telepathic message would be likely to pass unregarded. There are, at any rate, very few well attested cases in which there is evidence, beyond the narrator's own belief to that effect, for a reciprocal affection. We have two cases, however,