Here again we find the advantage of the generic word "telepathy" - for it would clearly be inaccurate to call a phenomenon "thought-transference" where what is transferred does not make its appearance, on the percipient's side, as thought or any other form of conscious perception.

We have in our collection several examples of this motor form of experimental telepathy; where a mental question on the part of some one present has been answered in writing, with a planchette1 or a simple pencil, without any consciousness of either the question or the answer on the part of the person whose hand was automatically acting. But the following group of cases is decidedly the most remarkable that has come under our notice.

The Rev. P. H. Newnham, Vicar of Maker, Devonport, has had many indications of spontaneous transference of thought from himself to his wife;1 and at one period of his life, in 1871, he carried out a long and systematic series of experiments, which were of the motor type that we are now considering - he writing down a question, and the planchette under his wife's hands replying to it. He recorded the results, day by day, in a private diary, which he has kindly placed at our disposal. From this diary I quote the following extracts: -

My wife always sat at a small low table, in a low chair, leaning backwards. I sat about eight feet distant, at a rather high table, and with my back towards her while writing down the questions. It was absolutely impossible that any gesture or play of features, on my part, could have been visible or intelligible to her. As a rule she kept her eyes shut; but never became in the slightest degree hypnotic, or even naturally drowsy.

1A planchette has two advantages over a simple pencil. It is very much more easily moved to write; and it is very much easier to make with it the movements necessary for the formation of letters without realising what the letters are.

2See e.g., the cases quoted in chap. v., §§ 2 and 8.

Under these conditions we carried on experiments for about eight months, and I have 309 questions and answers recorded in my note-book, spread over this time. But the experiments were found very exhaustive of nerve power, and as my wife's health was delicate, and the fact of thought-transmission had been abundantly proved, we thought it best to abandon the pursuit.

I may mention that the planchette began to move instantly, with my wife. The answer was often half written before I had completed the question.

On first finding that it would write easily, I asked three simple questions which were known to the operator;l then three others, unknown to her, relating to my own private concerns. All six having been instantly answered in a manner to show complete intelligence, I proceeded to ask: -

7.2 Write down the lowest temperature here this winter. A. 8.

Now, this reply at once arrested my interest. The actual lowest temperature had been 76°, so that 8 was the nearest whole degree; but my wife said at once that, if she had been asked the question, she would have written 7 and not 8; as she had forgotten the decimal, but remembered my having said that the temperature had been down to 7 something.

I simply quote this, as a good instance, at the very outset, of perfect transmission of thought, coupled with a perfectly independent reply; the answer being correct in itself, but different from the impression on the conscious intelligence of both parties.8

Naturally our first desire was to see if we could obtain any information concerning the nature of the intelligence which was operating through the planchette, and of the method by which it produced the written results. We repeated questions on this subject again and again, and I will copy down the principal questions and answers in the connection.

January 29th

13. Is it the operator's brain, or some external force, that moves the planchette? Answer "brain" or "force." A. Will.

14. Is it the will of a living person, or of an immaterial spirit, distinct from that person? Answer "person" or "spirit." A. Wife.

15. Give first the wife's Christian name; then, my favourite name for her. (This was accurately done).

27. What is your own name? A. Only you.

28. We are not quite sure of the meaning of the answer. Explain. A. Wife.

1Mr. Newnham uses this word where we should use "subject" or "percipient".

2The numbers prefixed to the questions are those in the note-book.

3It will be borne in mind throughout that Mrs. Newnham had, at the time when the answer was produced, no conscious knowledge of the question which her husband had written down.

Failing to get more than this, at the outset, we turned to the same thought after question 114; when, having been closely pressed on another subject, we received the curt reply - "Told all I know".

February 18th

117. Who are you that writes, and has told all you know? A. Wife.

118. But does no one tell wife what to write? If so, who? A. Spirit.

119. Whose spirit? A. Wife's brain.

120. But how does wife's brain know (certain) secrets? A. Wife's spirit unconsciously guides.

121. But how does wife's spirit know things it has never been told? A. No external influence.

122. But by what internal influence does it know (these) secrets? A. You cannot know.

March 15th

132. Who, then, makes the impressions upon her? A. Many strange things.

133. What sort of strange things?

A. Things beyond your knowledge.

134. Do, then, things beyond our knowledge make impressions upon wife? A. Influences which no man understands or knows.

136. Are these influences which we cannot understand external to wife? A. External - invisible.

137. Does a spirit, or do spirits, exercise those influences? A. No, never (written very large and emphatically).

138. Then from whom, or from whence, do the external influences come? A. Yes; you will never know.

139. What do you mean by writing "yes" in the last answer? A. That I really meant never.

April 10th

192. But by what means are my thoughts conveyed to her brain? A. Electro-biology.

193. What is electro-biology? A. No one knows.

194. But do not you know?

A. No. Wife does not know.