Telepathy (Theory, Facts & Proof). William Walker Atkinson
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PERSONS who are interested in the phenomena of Telepathy, and who accept the proofs offered by its advocates, seem to regard these phenomena as quite ordinary and as fully in accord with the more familiar manifestations of Nature’s forces. We frequently hear Telepathy compared to the manifestation of electricity, particularly in the phase of wireless telegraphy. But the matter is not so simple as this—it cannot be lightly dismissed or placed in any ordinary category. It is, scientifically, sui generis—in a class by itself; unique; peculiar. While we shall not attempt to put forward any special hypothesis at this point, we invite you to consider the following statement from the lips of an eminent English statesman, himself an earnest investigator of Telepathy. After reading his statement, you will begin to appreciate the full nature of the problem confronting those who, while admitting the proofs of Telepathy, would seek to account for the same by scientific principles.
The Right Honorable A. J. Balfour (afterward Prime Minister of England) in an address delivered in 1894, while he was the President of the Society for Psychical Research, said in relation to Telepathy:
“Now I will give you a case of what I mean by a scientifically extraordinary event, which, as you will at once perceive, may be one which at first sight, and to many observers, may appear almost commonplace and familiar. I have constantly met people who will tell you, with no apparent consciousness that they are saying anything more out of the way than an observation about the weather, that by an exercise of their will they can make anybody at a little distance turn round and look at them. Now such a fact (if fact it be) is far more scientifically extraordinary than would be the destruction of this globe by some celestial catastrophe. How profoundly mistaken then are they who think that this exercise of will-power, as they call it, is the most natural thing in the world, something that everybody would have expected, something which hardly deserves scientific notice or requires scientific explanation. In reality it is a profound mystery, if it be true, or if anything like it be true, and no event, however startling, which easily finds its appropriate niche in the structure of the physical sciences ought to excite half as much intellectual curiosity as this dull and at first sight commonplace phenomenon.
“Now do not suppose that I want you to believe that every gentleman or lady who chooses to suppose himself or herself exceptionally endowed with this so-called will-power is other than the dupe of an ill-regulated fancy. There is, however, quite apart from the testimony, a vast mass of evidence in favor of what we now call Telepathy, and to Telepathy the observations I have been making do in my opinion most strictly apply. For, consider: In every case of Telepathy you have an example of real or apparent action at a distance. Examples of real or apparent action at a distance are, of course, very common. Gravitation is such an example. We are not aware at the present time of any mechanism, if I may use the phrase, which can transmit gravitational influence from one gravitating body to another. Nevertheless, scientific men do not rest content with that view. I recollect it used to be maintained by the late Mr. John Mill that there was no ground for regarding with any special wonder the phenomenon of action at a distance. I do not dogmatize upon the point, but I do say emphatically that I do not think you will find a first-class physicist who is prepared to admit that gravity is not a phenomenon which still wants an explanation. He is not ready, in other words, to accept action at a distance as an ultimate fact, though he has not even got the first clue to the real nature of the links by which the attracting bodies mutually act upon one another.
“But though gravitation and telepathy are alike in this, that we are quite ignorant of the means by which in either case distant bodies influence one another, it would be a great mistake to suppose that the two modes of operation are equally mysterious. In the case of Telepathy there is not merely the difficulty of conjecturing the nature of the mechanism which operates between the agent and the percipient, between the man who influences and the man who is influenced; but the whole character of the phenomena refuses to fit in with any of our accepted ideas as to the mode in which force may be exercised from one portion of space to another. Is this telepathic action an ordinary case of action from a center of disturbance? Is it equally diffused in all directions? Is it like the light of a candle, or the light of the sun, which radiates equally into space in every direction at the same time? If it is, it must obey the law—at least, we should expect it to obey the law—of all other forces which so act through a non-absorbing medium, and its effects must diminish inversely as the square of the distance. It must, so to speak, get beaten out thinner and thinner the further it gets removed from its original source. But is this so? Is it even credible that the mere thoughts, or, if you please, the neural changes corresponding to these thoughts, of any individual, could have in them the energy to produce sensible effects equally in all directions; for distances which do not, as far as our investigations go, appear to have any necessary limit? It is, I think, incredible, and in any case there is no evidence whatever that this actual diffusion ever takes place. The will power, whenever the will is used, or the thoughts, in cases where the will is not used, have an effect, as a rule, only upon one or two individuals at most. There is no appearance of general diffusion. There is no indication of any disturbance equal to equal distances from its origin, and radiating from it alike in every direction.
“But if we are to reject this idea, which is the first which ordinary analogies would suggest, what are we to put in its place? Are we to suppose that there is some means by which telepathic energy can be directed through space from the agent to the patient, from the man who influences to the man who is influenced? If we are to believe this, as apparently we must, we are face to face not only with a fact extraordinary in itself, but with a kind of fact which does not fit in with anything we know at present in the region either of physics or physiology. It is true, no doubt, that we do know plenty of cases where energy is directed along a given line, like water in a pipe, or like electrical energy along the course of a wire. But then in such cases there is always some material guide existing between the two termini, between the place from which the energy comes and the place toward which the energy goes. Is there any such material guide in the case of Telepathy? It seems absolutely impossible. There is no sign of it. We cannot even form to ourselves any notion of its character, and yet, if we are to take what appears to be the obvious lesson of the observed facts, we are forced to the conclusion that in some shape or other it exists. For to suppose that the telepathic agent shoots out his influence toward a particular object, as you shoot a bullet out of a gun, or water out of a hose, which appears to be the only other alternative, involves us seemingly in greater difficulties still.
"Here, then, we are face to face with what I call a scientifically extraordinary phenomenon, as distinguished from a dramatically extraordinary one. Anyone who has endeavored to wade through the mass of evidence collected by our Society on the subject will be prepared to admit that it is not exciting or interesting in itself, that it does not arouse a foolish wonder, or appeal unduly to any craving for the marvellous. But dull as these experiments may seem, dull indeed as they often are, their dullness is really one of their great advantages. It effectually excludes some perturbing influences that might otherwise affect the cool analysis of the experimental data; and in consequence it makes those investigations, in my judgment, the best starting point from which to reconsider, should it be necessary, our general view, I will not say of the material universe, but of the universe of phenomena in space…. Even if we cannot entertain any confident hope of discovering what laws these half-seen phenomena obey, at all events it will be some gain to have shown, not as a matter of speculation or conjecture, but as a matter of ascertained fact, that there are things in Heaven and earth not hitherto dreamed of in our scientific philosophy."
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