Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/140

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120
On Hallucinations in General

in which the narrator had an unusually vivid dream of being at home; in the first case unexplained footsteps were simultaneously heard in the house by five persons and recognised as resembling those of the dreamer. In the second case, the figure of the dreamer was actually seen and heard in the house.[1] In a third case the narrator awoke under the impression that she was a child again in the old home and called on her sister, "Jessie, Jessie."

The cry awoke her husband who testifies to the fact. That same night her sister—300 or 400 miles away—was awakened by hearing her name twice called in the sister's voice.[2] In another case the husband, absent from home on a journey, willed himself to his wife's bedside and seemed to himself to be standing there. His figure was actually seen at the time by his wife at her bedside.[3]

In none of these cases, as said, is there clear evidence of reciprocity; but they certainly indicate that one of the conditions of telepathic affection at a distance may be a clear realisation on the agent's part of the percipient's surroundings. In the following case a reciprocal hallucination was produced, but there was no recognition of the fact at the time by either percipient; nor was there any emotional disturbance or exceptional crisis to account for the coincidence. The occurrence was investigated by Mr. A. W. Orr of Didsbury, who enclosed the two following accounts on July 26, 1905.

  1. Journal, S. P. R., December, 1898.
  2. Ibid, June, 1895.
  3. Ibid