Thoughtforms
From New Age Village
Thoughtforms, their existence is definitely claimed by occult science and there is interesting evidence to consider it an important experimental problem of psychical research. The alternative which Sir William Barrett suggested that the operator may so stimulate the mind of the subject that he is able to see the thought-shape, in the former's mind, is not very far from what Sinnett claims in the Occult World: "An adept is able to project into and materialize in the visible world the forms that his imagination has constructed out of inert cosmic matter in the visible world. He does not create anything new, but only utilizes and manipulates materials which Nature has in store around him."
Prof. Hyslop in his Psychical Research and Resurrection quotes a curious communication from a private source. The communicator while commenting on the peculiarities of his spiritual life stated that he "sometimes saw, for instance, a man reading a book, but when he approached to talk with him he found it was only a thought." Prof. Hyslop, however, does not agree with the thought-form theory and suggests that the instance is a case of veridical, or subjective hallucination in the spiritual life. James T. Fields in a lecture on Fiction and its eminent authors, said: "Dickens was at one time so taken possession of by the characters of whom he was writing that they followed him everywhere and would never let him be alone for a moment. He told me that when he was writing The Old Curiosity Shop the creatures of his imagination haunted him so that they would neither let him sleep or eat in peace." G. H. Lewes wrote in the Fortnightly Review: "Dickens once declared to me that every word he said by his characters was distinctly heard by him."
Vincent Turvey writes in The Beginnings of Seership of a discussion that took place between him and a man of the Christian Evidence Society on psychic matters. The man insisted that Turvey's psychic gifts were from the devil and prayed that the devils should leave him. "On lying down in the afternoon in order to rest and meditate, I suddenly saw three or four devils in the room-typical orthodox fiends. Men with goats' legs, cloven hoofs, little horns just over their ears, curly hair like a negro's 'wool,' tails and clawlike hands. In color they were entirely brown, like ordinary brown paper. I candidly profess that I was a bit shaken ... I pulled myself together and rose into the higher state of consciousness. In this state I was able to see not only their fronts, but also their backs. To my utter astonishment they were all hollow at the back, like embossed leather, or the ordinary papier mache mask. Then my guardians caused me to make a sign, say a word, or think a sentence -what I do not know; but directly it was done or said, these forms disintegrated or dissolved and vanished."
Thoughtforms are often perceived in the hypnotic state. Dr. Lindsay Johnson, the celebrated English ophthalmic surgeon, described in the May 21, 1921, issue of Light an experiment of Professor Koenig, of Berlin, in a Paris hospital at which he assisted. A peasant woman was hypnotized. She was suggested to see an imaginary picture on a plain sheet of paper. She saw it perfectly. Twenty identical sheets of paper were taken, a picture was suggested for each and a record was kept of the pictures and tiny identification marks on the back of each sheet. Dr. Johnson added five more sheets, shuffled them and handed them back one after the other to the subject. She described the suggested picture in every case, but saw nothing on Dr. Johnson's sheets.
Dr. Naum Kotic, of Wiesbaden, made similar experiments with a 14-years-old girl, Sophie, and drew the following inference: "Thought is a radiant energy. This energy has physical and psychic properties. It may be called psycho-physical. Originating in the brain, it passes to the extremities of the body. It is transmitted through air with some difficulty, more easily through a metallic conductor and can be fixed on paper." (Richet, Thirty Years of Psychical Research, p. 191).
It is interesting to compare Prof. Koenig's and Dr. Kotik's experiments with the experience of Warcollier. One evening, partially waking, he saw a large quadrangular corded package in a yellow packing paper on a chair. He inquired what was the package. There was no package on the chair, but it had been there some time before as described. If a package can impress a chair it is no more improbable that thoughts may similarly impress a sheet of paper.
Dr. Baraduc informed the Academie de Medecine in May, 1896, that he succeeded in photographing thought. He experimented with many people. The subjects placed their hands on a photographic plate in the dark room and were asked to think intently of the object they wished to impress upon the plate. Many curious markings were obtained, some of them representing the features of persons and the outline of things.
Dr. Baraduc also contended that thought photography is possible from a distance. He quotes the case of Dr. Istrati who promised M. Hasdeu, a friend of his, to appear on a photographic plate at Bucarest, on August 4, 1893, while he slept in Campana. The distance is 300 kilometers. Dr. Istrati willed, before closing his eyes, that his image should impress the plate with which his friend went to bed. The result was achieved. The plate showed a luminous spot in the midst of which the profile of a man could be traced.
Commandant Darget, of Tours, obtained several good thought photographs. His procedure is to gaze attentively at a simple object for a few moments in order to engrave it firmly on the mind, then go into the dark room and (1) place a photographic plate with the glass side against the forehead for a quarter of an hour, mentally picturing the object decided upon and strongly desiring to make an impression on the plate; (2) Place the hand on a plate (or hold the plate in the hand) for a quarter of an hour, operating as before; (3) Put the plate into a developing bath, placing the fingers of one hand on the edge of the plate for ten minutes. There should always be the desire to imprint on the plate the picture of the object which is very strongly thought of. (Joire: Psychical and Supernormal Phenomena p. 380).
An interesting case is quoted by James Coates from the November, 1895 issue of the Amateur Photographer. W. Inglis Rogers, the experimenter, gazed for a minute at a postage stamp and then went into the dark room and gazed at a sensitive plate for twenty minutes. When the plate was developed two images of postage stamps were plainly visible.
Dr. T. Fukurai, Professor of Kohyassan University, carried out important experiments with Mrs. Ikuko Nagao. If the medium concentrated on Japanese alphabetical symbols they were found printed on photographic plates.
Dr. W. F. Prince reported in the Journal A.S.P.R., April, 1925, the case of the Japanese artist Mikaye. Microscopic symbols were projected by some capillary action from the tip of his brush filled with fluid pigment. The artist simply held the brush downwards whilst he made a mental image of the intended symbol to a large scale.
In his researches with Mlle. Tomczyk Dr. Ochorowicz was deeply puzzled to find that in several of his radiographs the medium's ring appeared on the finger of her etheric hand. This seemed to indicate to him: (1) That there is a kind of link between the organism and the object it wears; (2) That the occult notion that material objects have an astral body is not limited to living bodies. The ring, however, did not always appear on the radiographs. Dr. Ochorowicz tried to find out whether objects frequently worn by the sensitive were more easily produced on the plate than others. He chose a thimble which she rarely used. The medium suggested that he should himself retain the thimble on the finger of his left hand, holding her with his right hand. "Perhaps," she added, "the thimble will pass from your body on to my finger." The experiment appeared absurd, but he was willing. He took a plate from his box, marked it, and laid it on the medium's knees. She was seated on his right; with -his right hand he held up her left hand about sixteen inches above the plate, the thimble being on the middle finger of his left hand, which he kept behind his left knee. A red lamp was burning at a distance of about three feet. After a minute had elapsed the medium said that she felt a sort of tingling in the direction of her forearm, where their hands met. She exclaimed: "Oh, how strange. Something is being placed on the tip of my finger ... I do not know if it is the thimble; I feel something keeps pressing the end of my finger." When the plate was developed it showed the hand of the medium, and on the middle finger was what he called, jokingly, "the soul of her thimble." Dr. Ochorowicz asked in some bewilderment: was the image a double of the thimble, or was it a photograph of the idea of the thimble? A close examination of the photograph and comparison with the thimble showed-that the two corresponded exactly, the one "was a true copy of the other, precise in details and in dimension." This exactness supports the idea of a direct impression from some object rather than a thought-image merely. The finger supporting the thimble is the palest of all the fingers, probably, as Dr. Ochorowicz suggests, because the light by which the radiograph was taken, proceeds from it. He leaned to the conclusion that an etheric hand wearing an etheric thimble produced the image, and that mental desire gave the direction to the light which was necessary in order to make the details of the thimble visible on the plate. When, however, he proceeded to test his conclusion a strange thing happened. Unknown to the medium he held in his left hand an Austrian five-crown piece. Presently she exclaimed: I see behind you a white round object ... it is the moon." "At the same instant," writes Dr. Ochorowicz, "I saw a faint but distinct light pass near my left hand, which held the coin; it was not round, nor a flash, it was like a little meteor, like a thin ray, lighting up the space round my hand on the side away from the medium." When the plate was developed it showed an image of a full moon." The moon floats on the background of a less luminous cloud, and is of a rather different form from that in the preceding experiments." He considered it evident that this time a photograph of thought was obtained though the experiment renders probable the existence of a quasi-physical intermediary as the image represents rather the medium's conception of something which existed outside her mind. The image of the moon was once obtained previous to this experiment. On the night of September 7th, 1911, the medium was much impressed by the superb sight of the starry heavens, and particularly by the full moon, which she looked at for some time with admiration. On the following day instead of the little hand, which was desired, a full moon appeared on the plate against a background of white cloud. The cinematograph representations of the eclipse of the moon on April 17th, 1912, show the image of the moon slightly flattened in the direction of the axis of rotation. This characteristic appears in the radiograph of September 7th. The impression was double and it looks as if the cloud had not been duplicated.
In that case the moon alone must have moved. How can we conceiveasks Dr. Ochorowicz---of this apparent movement of a mental image?
Many of the psychic extras obtained by spirit photographers may be the thoughts of the sitters. Carrington's curious experiences with Mrs. Deane certainly point into this direction. The experiments of Frederick Bligh Bond, with the same medium, one is tempted to say, are tantamount to proofs. He prepared a diagram of four squares by three and made, in one of the twelve squares, a cross of two diagonal lines and drew a small circle over the crossed lines. Having deposited this diagram with the Principal of the British College for Psychic Science he went to meet Mrs. Deane, drew upon a blackboard a similar diagram and asked for a perfect circle over the center of the two, intersecting lines. The camera was filled by him and he did the development himself, Mrs. Deane simply placing her hand during the exposures on the camera top.
The first plate showed the diagram alone, the second a sort of localized fog over the square in question, the third a circular spot of intense blackness, exactly over the intersection. In a second trial Bligh Bond hung upon the, wall of the studio a small picture frame and asked that an image, the exact character of which he did not specify, might be recorded on the space within the frame. The idea was to preclude any successful pre-exposure of a plate for the purpose of fraud. He obtained a cloud of small size which on the first two plates was not quite rightly centered, but was well within the center of the third plate. Mr. Warrick, a manufacturing chemist, repeated the experiments but used no camera, only sheets of paper which he had specially sensitized. By impressing upon Mrs. Deane the exact nature of the image he wanted, and placing the paper beneath Mrs. Deane's hands or feet, he obtained circles, squares, triangles, or images more complex, i.e., a three-legged stool. Bligh Bond believes that his part in the success was dependent upon a power of mental visualization which, as a professional architect and designer of geometric forms he had special opportunities to cultivate.
Back to Spiritualism | Paranormal
