668 C. The following case is quoted from an article by Dr. R. Hodgson in the Forum for March 1900. He writes: -

Dr. G., a cultured lady, an M.D., some of whose experiences as percipient have been recorded in the Proceedings of the American S.P.R., drew my attention some time ago to an account which she had given in The Herald of Health, of an experience where she herself was the agent, and a friend of hers, whom I shall call Mrs. C, the percipient. According to the account, which I abridge, Dr. G. arranged, early in October of 1885, to try voluntarily to appear or cause a vision of herself to appear to Mrs. C. at a distance. Soon afterwards Dr. G. went to a city 500 miles from where Mrs. C. was living, and at intervals endeavoured (vainly) to go to her friend mentally; but no written communication took place between them, nor had any hour been fixed for the experiment.

1 Mr. Kirk enclosed the piece of blotting-paper with the note.

"... One night I went to bed in a high fever consequent upon a sudden but slight indisposition. My mind was idly but nervously occupied by a great number of topics. Among other things I thought of a certain reception which I had to attend in a few days, of having no dress suitable for the occasion, but of one which I had at home and wished for. And then I wandered, by association of ideas, to think of a certain evening company which I had attended with the friend with whom I wished to try my experiment in telepathy. I thought of this idly, without volition, but as in fever the mind seems to cling to idle thoughts with great persistence, so these thoughts kept repeating themselves. I became weary of their persistence, yet could not escape them. I finally began to wonder why I could not appear to my friend, but did not try - only kept thinking of it.

" Suddenly my body became slightly numb, my head felt light, my breathing became slow and loud, as when one goes to sleep. I had often been in a similar state. When I came out of it I lit the candle and looked at my watch. The next day I thought of the experience of the night as meaningless, and was ashamed of having considered a change of breathing as anything more than a premonition of going to sleep.

"A few days after this experience I received a letter from my friend, forwarded from where she supposed I was, in which she stated that I had appeared to her on a certain evening, giving the time; that I wore a dress she had never seen before, but which she perfectly described; that I stood with my back to her and remained but a moment or two.

"As I had not written to her of my efforts to appear to her, and as the opportunities of two months for guess-work or deception had elapsed, I felt that my proof was as positive as I could desire. Not proof, however, of the outgoing of an astral body. Had I appeared to my friend as I was at the moment, in bed in my night-dress, the case would have simply paralleled many of which we have read; but my appearance in a dress that was 200 miles away, and which had never been seen by the percipient, forms proof of the best theory that has yet been propounded by students of telepathy...".

I have received a corroborative account from the lady who had this vision, and her original letter has also been kindly forwarded to me for my inspection. It reads thus: -

New York, November 21st, 1885.

"Dear------, Did you come to me last evening, Friday, November 20th ?

Somebody did, near ten o'clock. She wore a blue velvet dress, handsomely draped, with white cuffs at the wrist. But I only saw the figure. The face was not revealed to me. I had gone to bed and put out the light. It was with the interior sight I saw. It was gone in an instant. - Yours, ___"