Burns

My sister-in-law tells me that the occasion which I mentioned to you is absolutely the only one on which she has seen any vision of the kind. We learn from Mr. 's widow that the room in which he died fairly corresponded with the above description, aud that the hour of death was 3.30 a.m. * «*/ These latter narratives might suggest a sort of incipient clairvoyance} But in the present state of our knowledge, it would be rash to ascribe any phenomenon to independent clairvoyance, which could by any possibility be regarded as telepathic ; for the simple reason that the phenomena on record which (if correctly reported) must beyond doubt have been due to independent clairvoyance, are extremely rare in comparison with those which, if correctly reported, can be accounted for by thought-transference. Thus in the last example — granting the possibility of deferred impressions — there is no difficulty in connecting the idea of the room, and even the idea of actual death, with the perceptions and thoughts of the dying man. It would be inconvenient, however, to refuse the term clairvoyance to cases where telepathic action reaches such a pitch that the percipient seems actually to be using the senses of some person or persons at the distant scene. And it will perhaps suffice to save confusion, if I note at once the difference between clairvoyance of this extreme telepathic type (which is still fairly 1 As regards the appearance of the agent's own figure in the scene, see the remarks on some parallel dream-cases, Chap, viii., Part ii., end of § 5. vi.] AND OF MENTAL PICTURES. 267 within the scope of this book), and any supposed extension, for which no conditioning agency can be assigned, of the percipient's own senses. Among the cases to be here quoted, none perhaps strains the hypothesis of a conditioning agency more than the following. It is from a Fellow of the College of Physicians, who fears professional injury if he were supposed to defend opinions at variance with general scientific belief, and does not therefore allow his name to appear. He is candid enough to admit that if every one argued as he does, progress would be impossible. May 20th, 1884. (66) Twenty years ago [abroad] I had a patient, wife of a parson. She had a peculiar kind of delirium which did not belong to her disease, and perplexed me. The house in which she lived was closed at midnight, that is. the outer door had no bell. One night I saw her at 9. When I came home I said to my wife, ' I don't understand that case ; I wis