One of the interesting series of experiments conducted by members of the
English Society was that of the family of the Rev. A.M. Creery, of
Derbyshire, England. This investigation was made upon hearing the report
of the Rev. Mr. Creery regarding a number of experiments he had
conducted with his four children. He reported that he had begun by
practicing a variation of what is generally known as the "willing game",
in which one of the party leaves the room, and the company selects some
object to be hidden, after which the person is recalled to the room when
the company concentrates its mind upon the hidden object, and the seeker
eventually finds it by means of Mind Reading. The reverend gentleman
said in his report to the Society:
"We began by selecting the simplest objects in the room; then chose
names of towns, people, dates, cards out of a pack, lines from different
poems, etc., any thing or series of ideas that those present could keep
before the mind steadily. The children seldom made a mistake. I have
seen seventeen cards chosen by myself, named right in succession without
any mistake. We soon found that a great deal depended upon the
steadiness with which the ideas were kept before the minds of the
thinkers, and upon the energy with which they willed the ideas to pass.
I may say that this faculty is not confined to the members of one
family; it is much more general than we imagine. To verify this
conclusion I invited two of a neighbor's children to join us in our
experiment, and very excellent results we secured from them."
The Society then began a series of careful investigations extending over
a period of one year. The utmost care was taken to obviate the chance
of fraud, collusion, mistakes, or outside influences. The experiments
were conducted partly in Mr. Creery's house and partly in rooms selected
by the members of the investigating committee. Having selected at random
one of the children, the child would be taken from the room and
accompanied by a member of the committee would wait out of sight or
hearing of the room. The remainder of the committee would then select a
card from a pack, or else write down a name or number which occurred to
them at the moment. The following verbatim report of what followed will
give you an idea of the results generally obtained. The report goes on
to say:
"On re-entering the room the little girl would usually stand with her
face to the wall, placed thus by us. But sometimes she would stand with
her eyes directed toward the ground for a period of silence varying from
a few seconds to a minute, till she called out to us some number, card
or what it might be." The report states that in the case of giving the
names of objects chosen, the child scored six cases out of fourteen. In
the case of naming of small objects held in the hands of members of the
committee, she scored _five out of six_. In the case of naming cards she
scored six out of thirteen. In the case of stating fictitious names
chosen by the committee she scored, at a first trial, five out of ten.
One of the experiments is reported as follows:
"One of the children was sent into an adjoining room, the door of which
was closed. The committee then thought of some object in the house and
wrote the name down on paper. The strictest silence was observed. We
then all silently thought of the name of the thing selected. In a few
seconds the door of the adjoining room opened, and the child would
appear _generally with the object selected_. No one was allowed to leave
the room after the object had been fixed upon; no communication with the
child was conceivable, as her place was often changed. Further, the only
instructions given to the child were to fetch some object in the house
that we would fix upon and would keep in mind to the exclusion of all
other ideas. In this way we wrote down, among other things, a
hairbrush--it was brought; an orange--it was brought; a wine-glass--it
was brought; an apple--it was brought," etc., etc.
The report to the Society sums up the following results: Three hundred
and eighty-two trials were made in the series. In the test of naming the
chosen letters of the alphabet, cards, and numbers of two figures, the
chances against the girl were 21 to 1, 51 to 1, and 89 to 1,
respectively. In the case of stating chosen surnames the odds against
her were very much in excess of the figures just named. In the cases of
the experiments of naming chosen cards it was calculated that a mere
"guesser," according to the law of probability, would be able to
correctly name _but seven and one-third_ out of a total of the three
hundred and eighty-two trials. The actual results obtained by the child
were as follows: On the first attempt, _one hundred and twenty-seven_;
on the second attempt, fifty-six additional; and on the third attempt,
_nineteen additional_--making a grand total of two hundred and two
successes _out of a possible three hundred and eighty-two_! On one
occasion _five cards straight running_ were successfully named on a
first trial. The mathematical chances of a mere "guess" doing this feat,
under the Law of Average, or Probabilities, are estimated at over _a
million to one against the chance_. And this was not merely an isolated,
exceptional case, for there were other "long runs"; for instance, there
were two cases in which runs of _eight straight consecutive successes_
were scored, once with names, and once with cards. In the case of the
eight consecutive cards it has been figured that the chances against the
girl would figure up at least 140,000,000 to 1, according to the Law of
Average and Probabilities. To understand just what this means it may
help you if you will think that the feat was like picking out one chosen
man in a population of one hundred and forty millions, nearly double
the population of the United States. And yet there are people who would
dismiss matters like this with the remark, "mere coincidence"!
The interest in the Creery children attracted the notice of Prof.
Balfour Stewart, LL.D., and Fellow of the Royal Society. This
distinguished gentleman testifies as follows:
"In the first instance, when I was present, the thought-reader was
outside a door. The object or thing thought of was written on paper and
silently handed to the company in the room. The thought-reader was then
called in, and in the course of perhaps a minute the answer was given.
Definite objects in the room, for instance, were first thought of, and
in the majority of cases the answers were correct. These numbers were
thought of and the answers were generally right, but, of course, there
were some cases of error. The names of towns were thought of, and a good
many of these were right. Then fancy names were thought of. I was asked
to think of certain fancy names and mark them down and hand them around
to the company. I then thought of, and wrote on paper, 'Bluebeard,' 'Tom
Thumb,' 'Cinderella,' and the answers were all correct."
Subsequent experiments with the Creery children, at the house of the
well known investigator, Mr. F.W.H. Myers, at Cambridge, England,
proved equally successful. The children, and their ages, were as
follows: Mary, 17; Alice, 15; Maud, 13. The percentage of successes
obtained at Mr. Myers' house tallied very well with those obtained
elsewhere. One remarkable result was obtained, though, that had not been
obtained before. On one occasion the child was asked to name the "suit"
of cards chosen one after another. That is, of course, the child was
asked to name which suit, "hearts," "diamonds," "clubs" or "spades,"
were shown of the card drawn and seen by the committee, and then thought
of. On this occasion the child scored a run of _fourteen straight
running, consecutive successes_. The chances against this success were
4,782,969 to 1.
We will close by mentioning another remarkable series of experiments
conducted by the same Society. The Mind Reader was M.G.A. Smith, of
England. Among other startling feats successfully performed by Mr.
Smith, that of the reproduction of Geometrical Figures was perhaps the
most remarkable. In this feat Mr. Smith sat blindfolded, in a room
belonging to the committee, with a pad of paper before him and a member
of the committee on each side of him. A selected member of the committee
then would go outside of the room, and behind a closed door would draw
some geometrical figure at random. Returning to the room the figure
would be shown to the committee, and also to Mr. Douglas Blackburn, who
acted as the Transmitter for Mr. Smith, the latter being known as the
Receiver. The Transmitter, with closed eyes, now took his position
immediately back of Mr. Smith, but at a distance of two feet from him,
no contact being allowed, this precaution being taken to obviate charges
of confederacy, etc. The Transmitter would then concentrate his mind
intently for a few minutes, and in a short time Mr. Smith would receive
the impression of the mental image in the mind of the Transmitter, and
would begin to attempt to reproduce it on paper. In the series of
experiments running over a period of four days thirty-seven drawings
were made, of which only eight were considered unsuccessful.
_Twenty-nine successes out of a possible thirty-seven, remember._
The committee reports that it took all the precaution to guard against
secret signals, etc., and that confederacy, fraud, collusion, or similar
methods were out of the question. The eight cases of failure consisted
of four cases in which Mr. Smith received no impression, and therefore
could not reproduce the drawing; and four cases in which the drawing was
so vague and imperfect as to be called a total failure. Some of the
figures were grotesque, unusual, and complicated, but all were
reproduced in a more or less perfect manner. The drawing was made
deliberately and without hesitation, and as if Smith had actually seen
the figure shown to the Transmitter a few moments before. On one
occasion, in order to be doubly guarded against collusion, they closed
Mr. Smith's ears with putty, tied a bandage around his eyes and ears,
pulled a bolster-case over his head, and then covered him all over with
a blanket which completely enveloped his body and head. _And under these
extraordinary conditions he reproduced the figures with his usual
success._
We could proceed relating case after case, experiment after experiment,
conducted by these scientific bodies of learned and careful men. But the
story would be no more convincing than that related above. And, after
all, there is a method of satisfying yourself that is far more
conclusive than the reading of any results of experiments of others--and
that is to learn to perform the feats of Mind Reading yourself. By means
of a very little practice you will be able to reproduce many of the
demonstrations of the public performers, as well as the experiments of
the scientific societies, and then when you have realized that you can
do these things you will need no further proof of the reality of the
science of Mind Reading.