Mr. Guthriés Experiments

Full records of these experiments were published in the Proceedings S.P.R., vol. i. pp. 263-283; vol. ii. pp. 1-5,. 24-42, 189-200; vol. iii. pp. 424-452. The account here quoted is a briefer one, which was given by Gurney in Phantasms of the Living, vol. L pp. 36-58.

In [this] series of experiments... there were two percipients, and a considerable group of agents, each of whom, when alone with one or other of the percipients, was successful in transferring his impression....

We owe these remarkable experiments to the sagacity and energy of Mr. Malcolm Guthrie, J.P., of Liverpool. At the beginning of 1883, Mr. Guthrie happened to read an article on thought-transference in a magazine, and though completely sceptical, he determined to make some trials on his own account. He was then at the head of an establishment which gives employment to many hundreds of persons; and he was informed by a relative who occupied a position of responsibility in this establishment that she had witnessed remarkable results in some casual trials made by a group of his employées after business hours. He at once took the matter into his own hands, and went steadily, but cautiously, to work. He restricted the practice of the novel accomplishment to weekly meetings; and he arranged with his friend, Mr. James Birchall, the hon. secretary of the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society, that the latter should make a full and complete record of every experiment made. Mr. Guthrie thus describes the proceedings: -

1 Besides the experiments here given, see those of Herr Max Dessoir (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iv. p. 111, and vol. v. p. 355); Herr Anton Schmoll and M. Etienne Mabire (ibid. vol. iv. p. 324, and vol. v. p. 169); Mr. J. W. Smith (ibid. vol. ii. p. 207); Professor Oliver Lodge (ibid. vol. vii. p. 374); Dr. A. Blair Thaw (ibid. vol. viii. p. 422); Dr. von Schrenck-Notzing (ibid. vol. vii. p. 3); Professor Richet (ibid. vol. v. p. 18). See also Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. pp. 32-34, and vol. ii. pp. 653 - 654.

"I have had the advantage of studying a series of experiments ab ovo. I have witnessed the genuine surprise which the operators and the ' subjects' have alike exhibited at their increasing successes, and at the results of our excursions into novel lines of experiment. The affair has not been the discovery of the possession of special powers, first made and then worked up by the parties themselves for gain or glory. The experimenters in this case were disposed to pass the matter over altogether as one of no moment, and only put themselves at my disposal in regard to experiments in order to oblige me. The experiments have all been devised and conducted by myself and Mr. Birchall, without any previous intimation of their nature, and could not possibly have been foreseen. In fact they have been to the young ladies a succession of surprises. No set of experiments of a similar nature has ever been more completely known from its origin, or more completely under the control of the scientific observer".

[In] the earlier experiments, the ideas transferred were of colours, geometrical figures, cards, and visible objects of all sorts, which the percipient was to name... -1 The reproduction of diagrams was introduced in October 1883, and in that and the following month about 150 trials were made. The whole series has been carefully mounted and preserved by Mr. Guthrie. No one could look through them without perceiving that the hypothesis of chance or guesswork is out of the question; that in most instances some idea, and in many a complete idea, of the original must, by whatever means, have been present in the mind of the person who made the reproduction. In Mr. Guthriés words: -

"It is difficult to classify them. A great number of them are decided successes; another large number give part of the drawing; others exhibit the general idea, and others again manifest a kind of composition of form. Others, such as the drawings of flowers, have been described and named, but have been too difficult to draw. A good many are perfect failures. The drawings generally run in lots. A number of successful copies will be produced very quickly, and again a number of failures - indicating, I think, faultiness on the part of the agent, or growing fatigue on the part of the ' subject.' Every experiment, whether successful or a failure, is given in the order of trial, with the conditions, name of 'subject' and agent, and any remarks made by the ' subject ' specified at the bottom. Some of the reproductions exhibit the curious phenomenon of inversion. These drawings must speak for themselves. The principal facts to be borne in mind regarding them are that they have been executed through the instrumentality, as agents, of persons of unquestioned probity, and that the responsibility for them is spread over a considerable group of such persons; while the conditions to be observed were so simple - for they amounted really to nothing more than taking care that the original should not be seen by the 'subject' - that it is extremely difficult to suppose them to have been eluded".

1 There is one point of novelty which is thus described by Mr. Guthrie: "We tried also the perception of motion, and found that the movements of objects exhibited could be discerned. The idea was suggested by an experiment tried with a card, which in order that all present should see, I moved about, and was informed by the percipient that it was a card, but she could not tell which one because it seemed to be moving about. On a subsequent occasion, in order to test this perception of motion, I bought a toy monkey, which worked up and down on a stick by means of a string drawing the arms and legs together. The answer was: ' I see red and yellow, and it is darker at one end than the other. It is like a flag moving about - it is moving.... Now it is opening and shutting like a pair of scissors.