T E L E P A T H Y
Jon Sonall
The United Press under date line of January 24, 1947 carried a statement by Dr. Phillips Thomas, for years an electrical engineer for Westinghouse, that when he retires he will devote his entire time to seeking an answer to telepathy in the unexplored frequency band between ultra-short radar waves and the longest waves of light. This statement by a reputable scientist is significant because it is made publicly, and because if an apparatus could be devised to react to 'thought waves' at a distance, telepathy would enter a new phase and be seriously studied.
Such a machine would actually be an encephalograph without the wires, and the resulting action would, I presume, be in the form of charted waves, which require interpretation. Thus, nothing but emotions would really be recorded; what the thought was would be as dark as ever.
Now, if communication with the disembodied on other planes be a fact in nature, it is a mental process, and nearly always in form of speech - of definite words mentally spoken. But this is exactly what our communication here consists in, with the added feature of the air vibrations of sound. Hence a machine that could record telepathic messages here, should be able to record them the 'other side' as well. Yet if the result is a charted brain wave, how will its origin be determined?
In this connection I wish to call attention to the amazing number of references in psychic literature of the past 50 years to a coming electrical machine which will break down the barriers of the etheric realm and conclusively convince the earth plane that the dead live. One seldom reads a book that does not mention this. What seems to be the mind of Marconi has thru this writer been attempting to transmit diagrams for such a device. If we of this plane can hear the etheric people, telepathically, easier than we can heal our fellows, there is doubtless some good cause, and experimenters may some day stumble upon the proper device while working with telemental apparatus for earth folk.
Radio broadcasting as we know it transfers sound waves into electrical impulses and then back into sound waves. In the etheric world the sense of hearing exists tho its nature has not been established. Therefore it would seem possible to transmit their sound thru the ultra short wave medium into our sound, only if we have considerable cooperation from their side. If their sound is entirely mental, perhaps the problem is simpler. Simpler? Well, theoretically, if we can transfer any electrical impulse into sound, as we can now, then the point of origin of the impulse makes no difference. A sufficiently sensitive amplitude of the right wave length should do the trick.
(Jon Sonall continues from this point with reflections on the subject of telepathy, which are "purely ideas gained thru study and experiment." We are obliged to condense this part of the article, and Mr. Sonall is not responsible for our forms of expression.)
(1) Mental communication by words, in addition to (other) symbols, impressions and emotions, is possible. This art has always been in existence, and in both conscious and unconscious use.
(2) It is likely that the telepathic art will become more general as the race develops, and if so, vast social changes will follow, since greed will lose its screen of deception.
(3) Conscious use of telepathy requires some degree of mind control, or attention control.
(4) The "way it works" is a mystery, but, like electricity and other natural forces, telepathy can be used without understanding its how and why.
As to means and methods: At first comfortable and quiet surroundings are necessary. The characteristic attitude for reception is one of mental alertness, awareness or expectancy - a listening attitude. A degree of 'attunement' should exist between the experimenters; however, one may 'tune in' on some one else without the subject's knowledge. If a 'key note' of any kind can be found between two individuals, the work is facilitated. There may be sensations at the temples, between the eyes, or at the solar plexus. The words of a verbal message are said to be formed in the 'inner throat', and may also be received there, rather than by the 'inner ear.'
Visualization of the other party will help. Desire to speak to him, and try to feel that you and he are together (in either place, or within something else).
Other powers may accompany telemental skill. It is likely that the automatic writing process can be used between here-living individuals... The alertness referred to, really means a one-pointed concentration in sending, and a one-pointed blank expectancy in receiving... In trying to receive pictures or symbols, look for gray lines against the black background of closed eyes or dark room.
------------------------
Ca et la, a few unorganized comments by the Editor on Mr. Sonall's very thoughtful article: We do not differ with the writer, but, as he would agree, only a stall part of the story is yet known to us. Conditions for sending and receiving, for instance. Not long ago RR printed an account of experiments between Mr. Mark Probert and his brother, in which the objects, ideas and images concentrated on were not gotten thru, while at the same time the peripheral consciousness unquestionably transmitted (objects, sounds, persons in the room etc.). This phenomenon appears to us to be of very great importance, the no one else seems to pay any attention to it - this side Holland, at any rate, where a Dutch spiritualist paper took note of it. Some occult Orders, however, are said to teach that telepathy is achieved, not by concentration, but by casual marginal attention, with a sense of projection from the region of the heart. These teachings may be correct, and also may be reconcilable with the usual method of attention and expectancy. But if it is marginal material which is constantly being transmitted, our study of the subject will have to make a different or modified approach.
With all due diffidence, we call attention to the assertions of the trance control Lo Sun Yat (a very learned personality, whatever identity you ascribe to him), that purely verbal messages, not accompanied by mental images or emotions, cannot be transmitted telepathically; they have to be 'carried' by messenger spirits, who do not, of course, fly off thru space, but have the ability to extend consciousness - which is all that space travel means in any case. Forms, images, symbols, pictures can be transmitted by our own unaided efforts, according to Lo Sun Yat.
The space-time problem is of course enormously complex, but one aspect of it at least can be presented very simply. "You are where your consciousness is" - and if you have the power to transfer all of your consciousness, or awareness, into the next room, or to Tibet or the moon, then that is where you are - for if not, where else? Now, such a change does not involve any passage thru space and time, that is, any consciousness of lapse of time or of passing thru space. Travelling, in the desire body (astral body), is simply a matter of desire and will, and of a change of awareness. And there is no real distinction between consciousness and its 'vehicle' or body; both exist, but in perfect oneness. So at any rate it is explained by the spirit folk, who ought to know what they are talking about in this instance at any rate. The messenger spirit, therefore, carries the telepathic message in this fashion, and with lightning rapidity.
In the present state of psycho-theory, no one knows just how to distinguish between telepathy and clairvoyance, if the latter term be understood to include precognition. Space (distance) apparently has no more effect upon telepathic reception than it does on the vision of the clairvoyant; no "energy" in the scientific usage of the word seems to be involved. This seems to fit in with the idea that both phenomena consist in a change in the focus of attention; space as a physical or mathematical entity does not enter the problem at all. But we cannot be sure that this applies to all forms of telepathy - tho the basis of the distinction drawn by Lo Sun Yat is by no means clear.
The relation of telepathy to the PK effect is also obscure. If the fall of dice can be affected by mental means when close at hand, the same effect perhaps can be obtained at any distance. This "energy" should be sufficient to affect delicate instruments - in which case we would have a new and universal means of communication. It is likely that all experienced investigators agree that the phenomena classed under telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinetic effects exist, but beyond this we are only fumbling and groping for an understanding of them... All we have tried to do here is to set down certain ideas that seem to us to be relevant to the problems involved.
___ . ___ . ___ . ___ . ___ . ___ . ___
Hyslop was not averse to the possibility that spirits may furnish the explanation of telepathy between the living. He says that Myers saw this implication at the very outset, and quotes on this point that in the experiments of Miss Miles and Miss Ramsden in long distance telepathy only part of the story was told. Miss Miles ... could always tell when her telepathy was successful by the raps she heard. Rape are not telepathic phenomena and carry an entirely different suggestion... In communications thru Mrs. Smead, Podmore purported to come thru and said telepathy was always a message carried by spirits and that they could do it instantly. Myers also made a curious allusion thru Mrs. Chenoweth, saying that telepathy all depended on the "carrier." Hyslop asked for an explanation, and the answer was, "Telepathy is always a message carried by spirits." In communications purporting to come from the spirit of Mrs. Verrall, we find: "I am not sure of the passage of thought thru space... I had some striking instances of what seemed telepathy tapping a reservoir of thought direct; but there were other instances when the thought was transposed or translated, and the interposition of another mind was unquestionably true" ... If the content of a telepathic message indicates future events, clairvoyance should be suspected at work ......
(Nandor Fodor, Encyc. of
Occultism, Art, Telepathy.)