625 C. The following case is extracted from Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. pp. 499-515.

In this case, crystal-vision has formed but a small part of a long and complex group of phenomena centring in a lady who wishes to be known as Miss A. I have been intimately acquainted with Miss A. and her family for some years, and have personally witnessed many of these phenomena. I add to her account, between square brackets, some notes made by the Countess of Radnor, the friend in whose presence many of the phenomena occurred and who has revised the account, and some unsigned notes of my own.

1. Health

I do not know if my health affects the crystal-seeing; I am so seldom ill that I have not tried. If I have a headache I never look in the crystal; but I should imagine I should see equally well anyway.

2. Visualising Power, &c

I see in the crystal much more distinctly than I could ever imagine things. I am a very bad visualiser; and when I think of people I do so much more by the sound of their voice than by their faces or figures. I don't think I ever imagined a group in motion in my life. I am very short-sighted, and seldom wear glasses; consequently, I rarely get a clear picture of any room or scene. But when I look in the crystal I see everything as clearly as though I had strong glasses on. I cannot be sure whether either my short sight or my visualising power is better in dreams than in waking hours; but I think both are better. Certainly, however, I never see in dreams any scene at all comparable in clearness to what I see in the crystal.

I have no artistic gift, although I have received a few lessons in drawing and painting. I have automatically drawn flowers, figures, a snake, etc, much better than I can draw by conscious effort....

3. Visions Apart From Crystal Or Other Speculum

I have sometimes, generally as the result of effort, seen hallucinatory figures - all of them, I believe, in some sense veridical, never mere subjective hallucinations, - standing or sitting in the room. And I have, once at least, seen the room itself alter. I saw a large modern room change into the likeness (as shown afterwards by independent record) of what it was 200 years ago; and I saw persons in it who apparently belonged to that date.

[The history of the room was known to Lady Radnor, who attests: " Miss A. has, without looking into anything, described a room, whose history was unknown to her, as I have reason to believe that it was 200 years ago. It was the Long Parlour at Longford, which in 1670 was used as the chapel. - H. M. Radnor." Other visions of this kind will be dealt with later].

4. First Discovery Of The Power

-It is now some years since I first began to look in the crystal. I had already written automatically, but knew nothing of crystal-vision. I happened one day to be lunching with some friends who talked on the subject, and said that they believed that a glass of clear water acted in the same manner. Two or three of us looked in glasses of water, and after a little while I seemed to see at the bottom of my glass a small gold key. This was so distinct that I looked on the tablecloth, thinking that there must be a real key there. There was none, and nothing to explain what I saw.

5. Speculum And Mode Of Gazing

We bought a glass ball, and I gradually began to see a good deal in it. I have since seen in several crystals, in a moonstone in a bracelet, etc. [I have known her see things in a polished table. - H. M. Radnor.] It does not seem to matter much what the smooth surface is; but I have sometimes fancied that the scenes were brighter if seen in a real crystal. Occasionally I see things in a mirror, or even without any clear surface, as though I were in the midst of them.

I either take the crystal into a dark corner of the room, or wrap it up in black with only a little bit uncovered, or if it is small I hold it inside my hand and look right into it. I can see equally well in the dark. After a minute or two I seem to see a very bright light in it, which disappears after a few seconds, and then the surface appears cloudy and thick. This mist clears away, and I see sometimes views, sometimes faces, sometimes letters, and all kinds of things in it. They only last for a few seconds or sometimes minutes, and between each new picture I see the same light and then mist. I cannot look in the crystal for long, as it makes my eyes water with the brightness of the light and gives me a feeling as if a band were tied round my head; but if I only look a little while it does not hurt me at all. The crystal seems to become a globe of light. If a sunlit scene appears, the light may continue, or it may disappear before the figure shows itself. [Her eyes often stream with tears from "the brightness of the light." - H. M. Radnor.] I am in a perfectly normal condition when I look; not sleepy, nor in a trance, nor unconscious of my surroundings.

6. Magnification, &c

I have tried the magnifying glass. The results are just the same as without it; only the glass being on the top, I suppose I see in it instead of in the crystal....

7. Verbal Messages In The Crystal

When I see writing in the crystal I see it only one letter at a time; and when the letters are put down they are found to be words spelt backwards.

[Each letter in turn seems to fill the crystal; and the letters succeed each other so rapidly that it is hard to take them down from Miss A.'s dictation. The words may come to explain a picture, or may form a message by themselves. The backward spelling is probably adopted in order to prevent Miss A.'s supraliminal intelligence from guessing at, and thereby disturbing, the message which is being given].

Fourteen cases are given in detail, seven of which I quote, as follows: -

B. Second Contemporaneous Scene

In one case I saw and described Mr. B. (a well-known writer), whom I knew slightly, as hunting for a paper in the drawers of a writing-table. He used a particular pen, which I described, and with his hands ruffled his hair till it stood up in a kind of halo. A lady came in and pointed to his hair and laughed. Lord Radnor inquired of Mr. B., and all this was found to be correct. He was writing with a pen unusual to him (silver instead of quill, or vice versa), and was looking for a paper which he wanted to send by post. His sister (I did not know that she lived with him, and had never seen her) entered the room, and pointed laughing to his hair, just as I had seen.

[Confirmed. - H. M. Radnor].

The four next cases are recounted by Sir Joseph Barnby, the well-known musician, and I give two of them. Case C is probably exactly contemporaneous, and case F seems precognitive.