Moreover, I have never obtained a positive result in my other experiments in clairvoyance, although my investigations were frequently made with that object, especially during the earlier years of my researches. When the ordinary sources of error - I shall deal with these together later on - were avoided, the experiments gave none but negative results. As a rule, so little mention is made of scientific conditions in the reports other authors have published of the positive results they say they have obtained, that we cannot consider such reports proofs of the assertions they contain. Or careful investigation shows that the results have been artfully interpreted, and we know that by the exercise of a little ingenuity anything can be proved. In any case, artful interpretation, chance, fraud, signs made by spectators, and similar sources of error, play such an important part in the reports hitherto made, that at present we are perfectly justified in considering clairvoyance a product of fraud and self-delusion. Clairvoyantes who cause such a sensation among the "faithful," hardly ever submit to scientific investigation.

We must here include, for example, the "seeress" Frau Ferriem, of Berlin. I was invited to experiment with her in November 1904, and I at once expressed my readiness to do so under scientific conditions. I had hardly accepted the offer when I received the following communication: - "The seeress is for the present prevented from placing herself at your disposal, but I have no doubt that she will do so later on." At the same time an invitation to the seeress's lectures was promised me; but the promise was not fulfilled. As the seeress had been silent for more than a year, I reminded her in December 1905 of her promise, and I received the following reply: - "Unfortunately, the seeress is at present still unable to be at your service. In consequence of the protracted illness of one of the members of her family, her head is, in a manner, full of trouble which prevents her bringing the necessary interest to bear on the experiments in question, at present." I was promised a further communication in a few months, but I have never received it.

Clairvoyantes and their followers behave in exactly the same way as spiritist mediums; they promise to submit to be experimented on under strict conditions; but when it comes to Hie Rhodus, hie salta, a convenient attack of migraine sets in, or some member of the family meets with an accident, and so forth.

Another Berlin clairvoyante also beat a retreat at the very moment in which she ought to have proved her powers. This was the case of a lady who was apparently of a very religious disposition, and who was supposed to be able to see forms so clearly in visions that she could at once draw them and then write down a description of them in her diary. It turned out that the lady invariable met the person who had appeared to her on the same day or shortly after. Her drawings and descriptions were usually so accurate that her husband could at once recognize the person from them. One night I went to a lecture at which I was to meet this lady. After the lecture was over I was introduced to her, and directly she heard my name she declared that she had known that morning that she would meet me in the evening. Also she had written a description of my personal appearance in her diary. I begged her to allow me to have a look at her diary, and she promised to do so. But when we (the lecturer and I) asked her to let us drive home with her at once - precautions appeared necessary in the interest of truth - the lady first of all explained that her house was some way off, and when we persisted in our request her confidence abated considerably and she gradually admitted that although she had seen me quite distinctly in a vision, on this occasion she had not written down anything about it.

It is obvious that falsification of memory and a habit of romancing played an extraordinarily great part in this lady's case.

The following case shows how easily simple things may be misinterpreted and expanded into something wonderful, how easily a perfectly straightforward process may be turned into an act of clairvoyance, and on the other hand how simply this can be explained. One day a married woman was missed from a village in North Germany. About three days later her son said he had dreamed that his mother had been murdered at a spot lying between the villages A. and B. The boy mentioned his dream to several people, who related it farther. A search was made for the body, and it was found at a short distance from the high road running from A. to B. - i.e., where the boy had seen it in his dream. The authorities who were conducting the investigation now sent to tell me the facts of the case and to ask my advice, particularly with respect to the boy's dream. The official who called on me, explained in a very matter of fact way that the authorities considered the affair incredible and very remarkable. As they wished their investigations to be as complete as possible, they were anxious to have the advice of an expert, and therefore sent to me for my opinion. The details of the case that came out were extremely interesting.

In the first place, it was discovered that the boy had given different accounts of his dream. Thus, he said he had also seen the murderers in his dream, but the description he gave of them, even as to their number, varied at each recital. He also gave different versions of the way in which his mother was murdered, and the only thing he adhered to was, that in a dream he had seen his mother murdered at a spot between the places A. and B. But this riddle admitted of a very simple solution: the day before he had the dream, the boy had heard people say that the woman could only have been murdered between A. and B. The investigation, therefore, proved conclusively that it was known that people were on their way to look for the body between A. and B. the day before he had the dream. All the other details of the dream proved false, and the boy gave a contradictory account of them in each successive statement. In spite of this, the story was at once spread about that the boy had had the power of clairvoyance in his dream, and the authorities ought to follow the matter up in the direction indicated.