625 B. The following cases are extracted from Miss A. Goodrich-Freer's paper on "Recent Experiments in Crystal Vision" (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v., 1889, pp. 505-519). Miss Goodrich-Freer classifies her visions under three heads, as follows: -

1. After-images or recrudescent memories, often rising thus and thus only from the sub-conscious strata to which they had sunk.

2. Objectivations of ideas or images; (a) consciously or (b) unconsciously in the mind of the percipient.

3. Visions, possibly telepathic or clairvoyant, implying acquirement of knowledge by supernormal means.

I quote first two examples of recrudescent memories: -

I had been occupied with accounts; I opened a drawer to take out my banking-book. My hand came in contact with the crystal, and I welcomed the suggestion of a change of occupation. However, figures were still uppermost, and the crystal had nothing more attractive to show me than the combination 7694. Dismissing this as probably the number of the cab I had driven in that day or a chance grouping of the figures with which I had been occupied, I laid aside the crystal and took up my banking-book, which I had certainly not seen for some months, and found, to my surprise, that the number on the cover was 7694. Had I wished to recall the figures I should, without doubt, have failed, and could not even have guessed at the number of digits or the value of the first figure....

To quote again from my note-book.... I had carelessly destroyed a letter without preserving the address of my correspondent. I knew the county, and searching in a map recognised the name of the town, one unfamiliar to me, but which I was sure I should know when I saw it. But I had no clue to the name of house or street, till at last it struck me to test the value of the crystal as a means of recalling forgotten knowledge. A very short inspection supplied me with "H. House "1 in grey letters on a white ground, and having nothing better to suggest from any other source, I risked posting my letter to the address so strangely supplied. A day or two brought me an answer, headed H. House in grey letters on a white ground.

The next is a possibly telepathic case: -

On Monday evening, February II, I took up the crystal, with the deliberate intention of seeing in it a figure, which happened to occupy my thoughts at the moment, but I found the field pre-occupied by a small bunch of daffodils - a prim little posy, not larger than might be formed by two or three fine heads. This presented itself in various positions, in spite of my hurry to be rid of it, for I rashly concluded my vision to be a consequence of my having the day before seen, on a friend's dinner-table, the first daffodils of the season. The resemblance was not complete, for those I had seen were loosely arranged and intermixed with ferns and ivy, whereas my crystal-vision had no foliage, and was a compact little bunch. It was not till Thursday, 14th, that I received, as a wholly unexpected "Valentine," a painting, on a blue satin ground, of a bunch of daffodils, corresponding exactly with my crystal picture, and learnt that the artist had spent some hours on Monday, previous to my vision, in making studies of the flowers in various positions.

The following are other cases in Miss Goodrich-Freer's experience, taken from Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 49.

In some cases... I have actually tried my best to see or hear something, but failed; and then the crystal has shown me that something within me has been able to see or hear at longer range than I knew.2

From a letter, written July 1, 1891, I take the following account: "I looked across the room this morning to a distant table, where I expected to see a book I wanted. It was not there, but my eye was caught by another book which I saw was strange to me. I tried, but could not read the title at that distance (I have since proved that, even now I know it, this is impossible); and turned away to resume my writing. On my blank paper - as in a crystal-scene - I read ' The Valley of Lilies,' which I found to be the title of the book. I have no recollection of ever seeing the book before, certainly not in this house, though it may have caught my eye in a shop." On July 2 I add: "The book was brought into the house in my absence, and placed [by a relative] on her special table, on which my things are never put, and which, therefore, I should not necessarily glance at on entering the room, as at my own table, for cards or letters. I did not enter the room till after lunch, and, so far as I know, went straight to my own seat, not passing her table, which is in the opposite corner. The book is of rather peculiar appearance - an imitation of wood.

If I had consciously seen it in a shop I should probably have bought it, for it purports to be by my favourite à Kempis".

1 The entire word - one I know in no other connection - was supplied.

2 I may here remind the reader of the large group of ill-understood phenomena at present grouped together under the name of Dynamogeny (Fere, Rev. Phil., xx., 364, etc.). These are cases where either muscular power, as tested by grip of the dynamometer, or the acuteness of some one sense, is increased by a stimulus to some other sense. Thus the Viennese aurist Urbantschisch (James's Psychology, ii., p. 29; Pflüger's Archiv., xlii., p. 154) finds that " a tuning fork sounded close to the ear will sometimes increase acuteness of vision so that letters can be read at a greater distance. Conversely sounds became audible when lights were exhibited to the eye." Similarly Fere finds that in healthy subjects lost after-images can be recalled by the application of a tuning-fork in vibration to the top of the head (Pathologie des Emotions, p. 29). So with hysterical subjects red light quickens perceptions of taste and smell. And in many healthy subjects an increased acuteness of vision and other senses may be produced by hypnotic suggestion.

It is the subliminal self, in my terminology, which has to supply this extra acuteness; and the crystal-vision is merely another way of getting at this reserve of power. - f_F. W. H. M].

I give another instance in which a similar slight extension of the power of hearing seems to be involved: -

In August 1891 we went for a few weeks to a small country place, where we had taken a house for the autumn, and which I had never visited before, except once for a single day. One day a kindly neighbour called to offer us the use of his garden during his own absence from home. As he left the house he looked up in passing the window, and said something, of which neither I nor a girl who was staying with me could catch a single word.

The same evening I saw in the crystal a picture of some extraordinarily tall and bushy sweet-peas trained over wire fencing - a picture to which I could assign no meaning. The next day we met our friend's housekeeper, who referred to the invitation, and added, "Mr. P. says he hopes you heard his warning not to lose yourselves among the sweet-peas! " On visiting the garden, I found the fencing covered exactly as the crystal had shown, the sweet-peas, of which Mr. P. was justly so proud, having been arranged to intercept a view of the railway.