Phantasms of the Living: Chapter IV, General Criticism of the Evidence for Spontaneous Telepathy

This thread will be dedicated to the discussion of Chapter IV, of Phantasms of the Living (Volume I) by Edmund Gurney, Frederic W.H. Myers and Frank Podmore.

The idea of this thread is to have an informative (perhaps philosophical) and invective free discussion regarding the contents of Chapter IV in Phantasms of the Living.

I have made this first post as a place holder for the discussion to follow. Note that the discussion will be open to those who actually take the time and effort to read chapter IV of Phantasms, although the primary original participants for the discussion will be myself (Bertha Huse) and (Arouet).

My Best,
Bertha
 
Last edited:
A favorite quote from Phantasms by FWH Myers, which I'd like to share, although it is not from Chapter IV, so I have added it here for general interest:

"We must suppose that some people have a way of dating their letters in indifference to the calendar, or making entries in their diaries on the wrong page and never discovering the error; and that whole families have been struck by the collective hallucination that one of their members has made a particular remark, the substance of which has never entered that member's head; and that it is a recognised custom to write mournful letters about bereavements which have never occurred..."

Frederic WH Myers


My Best,
Bertha
 
Last edited:
"By far the most usual way of handling phenomena so novel that they would make for a serious rearrangement of our preconceptions is to ignore them altogether, or to abuse those who bear witness to them."

~William James
 
Last edited:
Here are the entire 2 volumes, with hyper linked table of contents on the left margin...
http://www.esalen.org/ctr-archive/book-phantasms.html#readme

This file (pl_ctr.html) contains the full text of Phantasms of the Living, by Edmund Gurney, Frederic W. H. Myers, and Frank Podmore. It is the unabridged two-volume set published in 1886—the second printing, with "Additions and Corrections"—professionally captured as digital text and internally hyperlinked. The only changes to the text are in the Table of Contents, which has been expanded to reflect the advantages of an electronic edition; the addition of internal links between the text and "Additions and Corrections"; the insertion of translations; and, in the case of characters missing on account of broken or uneven type, their unremarked insertion if they are present in the first printing.

Chapter 4 is here:
http://www.esalen.org/ctr-archive/book-phantasms.html#i-c4
 
One idea to form some kind of structure to the discussion, is that we review the chapter section by section (since clear sections are provided in the Chapter). Chapter IV delves into a number of psychological facts, historical facts and stated approaches - and covers quite a bit of territory with critical analysis.

It might be easier to methodically review the work section by section - noting statements and points made by the authors that we can both agree upon, and then noting areas that we have disagreement over, which we can then discuss immediately or table for further discussion once the initial review of the Chapter is complete.

My Best,
Bertha
 
Last edited:
Back
Top