§ 1. The advance-guard of cases in the last chapter has afforded a glance at the whole range of the phenomena. But I must now start on a methodical plan, and take the narratives in groups according to their subject-matter. The groups will follow the same order as the preceding specimens; but though theoretically the best, this order has the practical disadvantage that it puts the weakest classes first. Of the two great divisions, the externalised impressions are by far the most remarkable in themselves, and by far the most conclusive as evidence; but as they constitute the extreme examples of telepathic action, they are logically led up to through the non-externalised group, which presents more obvious analogies with the experimental basis of our inquiry. I must, therefore, beg the reader who may be disappointed by much of the evidence in this and the two following chapters, to note that it, is no way presented as conclusive; and that though it is well worthy of attention if the case for spontaneous telepathy is once made out, it is only when we come to the "borderland" examples of Chapter IX ("Borderland" Cases). that the strength of the case begins rapidly to accumulate.

The great point which connects many of the more inward impressions of spontaneous telepathy with the experimental cases is this - that what enters the percipient's mind is the exact reproduction of the agent's thought at the moment. It is to this class of direct transferences, especially between persons who are in close association with one another, that popular belief most readily inclines - as a rule, without any sufficient grounds. Nothing is commoner than to hear instances of sympathetic flashes between members of the same household - cases where one person suddenly makes the very remark that another was about to make -adduced as evidence of some sort of supersensuous communication. But it is tolerably evident that a number of such "odd coincidences " are sure to occur in a perfectly normal way. Minds which are in habitual contact with one another will constantly react in the same way, even to the most trifling influences of the moment; and the sudden word which proves them to have done so would have nothing startling in it, if the whole train of association that led up to it could be exposed to view.

Moreover, physical signs which would be imperceptible to a stranger, may be easily and half-automatically interpreted by a familiar associate; and thus what looks sometimes like divination may perfectly well be due to unconscious inference. It is very rarely that conditions of this sort can be with certainty excluded. Still, experimental thought-transference would certainly prepare us to encounter the phenomenon occasionally in ordinary social and domestic life; and one or two examples may be given which have a strong prima facie air of being genuine specimens.

One frequent form of the alleged transferences is that of tunes. It is matter of very common observation that one person begins humming the very tune that is running in some one else's head. This admits, as a rule, of a perfectly simple explanation. It is easy to suppose that some special tune has been a good deal "in the air" of a house, half unconsciously hummed or whistled, as tunes often are, and that thus the coincidence is an accident which may very readily occur. At the same time, if the telepathic faculty exists tunes should apparently be a form of "thought" well calculated for transference. With many people the imagining of a tune is the sort of idea which comes nearest to the vividness of actual sensation. And, moreover, it contains not only the representation of sensory experience, but also a distinct motor element - an impulse to reproduction. A person with a musical ear can silently reproduce a tune, with such an inward force as almost produces the illusion of driving it into objective existence. Such an incident as the following therefore, where there is no question of a family knowledge of the tune, or of its having been in any way in the air, is of decided interest; though, of course, the actual force of any single case of the sort is very small.

We received the account from Sir Lepel Griffin, K.C.S.I.

" 53A, Pall Mall.

"February 14th, 1884.