421 G. From the Journal S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 140. The following statement of experiences by Miss Luke was sent to us by Dr. R. Osgood Mason, of New York, author of Telepathy and the Subliminal Self. Dr. Mason wrote on January 9th, 1896, concerning Miss Luke: "I have two or three recent dreams or night visions and their fulfilment, of which she told me only a few days since, and which can be dated and substantiated." The statement was finally sent apparently in September 1896.

Miss Mary Luke, 202 Hudson Street, New York City, the percipient in the following cases of veridical dreams, has been very well known to me for more than fifteen years, I having been the attending physician in the family during that time. Her own health, however, has been almost perfect; she is free from all hysterical or nervous symptoms; in fact, I have hardly had occasion to prescribe for her during this whole period. She is a busy, energetic, self-reliant, but very kind-hearted woman, now nearly forty years of age, though looking at least ten years younger. She is unmarried.

She has from childhood been an inveterate somnambulist, walking almost every night, until two years ago when I hypnotised her and suggested that she should not again leave her bed in her sleep. The effect was prompt and decided. She has never since that time walked nor even left her bed while asleep.

She is exceedingly impressionable, and seldom fails to receive definite and true ideas and impressions regarding people who come into her presence or with whom she sits - a faculty which she often exercises, but never for any remuneration. On one occasion a few years ago she varied from this rule, for charity. Being on a visit in a distant country village where she was quite unknown, during a church fair she was asked to occupy the gipsy tent and tell fortunes, a character for which her personal appearance as well as her peculiar psychical endowment especially fitted her. The first day she had the usual share of patronage, but on the second day - the accuracy of her delineations having become the talk of the town - there was a constant stream of visitors to her tent, and more than 300 dollars were realised for the charity.

She has had a large number of veridical dreams, but she was so ridiculed by her family on account of them that she seldom told them, especially not before their fulfilment, so they are not available for the Society for Psychical Research.

Within the past two years, however, since I have known something of her psychic experiences, the dream here related occurred, and fortunately [it was] related before the events were known....

I will give it substantially in her own language, as I took it down while she related it. I will premise that she occupies a three-storey and basement house. Her sister, Mrs. S., with her family, occupies the third floor; she rents the second floor to lodgers, and uses the first floor and basement for her own business. The second floor front, over her parlour, was occupied by a man and his wife, named L., who had been with her six months; they seemed very pleasant people, and she had no occasion to mistrust their honesty. The back room on the same floor was occupied by Mr. B., who had been her tenant for six years.

She says: -

On Wednesday, August 28th, 1895, I had been absent all day; I came in late in the evening and went directly to bed. I noticed nothing out of the way excepting that I missed a small and rather pretty alarm clock from the parlour mantel; I supposed, however, that my lodger Mr. B. had taken it, as he sometimes did if he wished to be aroused at a particular hour, and I thought no more about it.

That night I dreamed or rather seemed to see Mr. and Mrs. L.'s room in great disorder; Mr. and Mrs. L. were gone and everything belonging to them, and also everything of mine which was valuable was gone, and the house was robbed of valuables generally. The scene of the room was very vivid and exact.

In the morning I went directly up to my sister's apartment and asked her, "When have you seen Mrs. L. ? " She replied, " She was up here with me at three o'clock yesterday afternoon; she brought up some refreshments and was particularly agreeable." I said at once, " I dreamed last night that she had gone and had robbed the house of its valuables, and had left the room in great disorder." My sister had not seen either of them nor heard any sound in their room after three o'clock. My sister, who had always been inclined to laugh at my dreams, exclaimed, "Your dreams are so queer, M., I cannot help feeling anxious." I went down to my own apartment on the first floor and listened for sounds of people moving overhead, but all was silent. I then went up to their room and rapped repeatedly, but got no reply. I then used my duplicate key and opened the door. The room was unoccupied and in great disorder; all their own property, together with everything of value belonging to me, had disappeared, and the room presented the exact appearance in every respect that I had seen in my dream.

An examination of the house directly afterwards showed that they had taken all my jewellery and trinkets, and the little clock which I had missed the evening before. They had also taken a suit of new clothes and an umbrella from the room of their neighbour B. on the same floor.

Miss Luke adds: -

This is a perfectly correct account of my dream and its fulfilment.

Mary Luke.

Mrs. Stalungs' Statement.

202 Hudson Street, New York, September -7th, 1896.

My sister Mary, known in Dr. Mason's statement as M. L., came upstairs on Thursday morning, August 29th, 1895, and said to me, "When have you seen Mrs. L. ? " I said, " Not since three o'clock yesterday. She was up here then, brought some refreshments, and was very agreeable." Mary then said, " I dreamed last night that she had gone and had stripped the house of everything valuable. I saw the room empty and in disorder - everything valuable was taken away, both hers and mine. I have not heard a sound from them overhead this morning." I said, "Your dreams are so queer, Mary, I can't help feeling anxious." She went downstairs, and soon after went into the room and found it empty; everything valuable was taken. Afterwards it was found that she had taken my sister's jewellery and trinkets, and also a suit of clothes and an umbrella from a lodger on the same floor. Henrietta Stallings.

In reply to inquiries, Dr. Mason wrote: -

New York, October 4th, 1896. My dear Dr. Hodgson, - ... Regarding tracing the robbery, Miss Luke went to the office of the detective force, where she was treated so indifferently because there was "nothing in it" for them, that she surprised them by giving them a piece of her mind and walked out. Afterwards, fearing she would make the matter public, they sent two or three times offering to take the matter up, but she would have nothing more to do with them....

R. Osgood Mason.