Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/144

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CHAPTER VI
TELEPATHIC HALLUCINATIONS

IN the following pages a few specimen cases will be cited to illustrate the questions dealt with in the last chapter. In the selection of these examples I have not, however, confined myself to the material brought together by the census, but have drawn also upon the records accumulated by the Society since 1894. In view, however, of the deterioration in the quality of the evidence effected by the lapse of time, as shown in the last chapter, I have endeavoured to select narratives where the record was comparatively recent; in one case only of those cited in the present chapter does the interval between record and event exceed ten years; in most of the examples the account, if not actually written before the event was known, is dated only a few days later.

In the first case we have to deal with an auditory hallucination. The coincidence in this case may appear very trivial. But it is to be noted that the percipient at the time connected her experience with the presumed agent. Further, it made sufficient impression upon her to lead her to mention it in a letter. The correspondence has fortunately

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