Newspaper Tests

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Newspaper Tests

Ingenious experiments devised by séance-room communicators to exclude telepathy as an explanation of hypothesized spirit communication. Rev. C. Drayton Thomas in Some Recent Evidence for Survival (1922) published many remarkable instances as recorded in sittings with the medium Gladys Osborne Leonard.

The method of the communicators was to give in the afternoon names and dates that were to be published the next day in certain columns of The Times, or, if so requested, in coming issues of magazines. The information so obtained was immediately posted to the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), London. The results when verified were so much more striking since neither the editor nor the compositor in the offices of The Times could tell at the hour when the communication was made what text would occupy the column mentioned in the next edition.

The following tests were given on February 13, 1920:

"The first page of the paper, in column two and near the top the name of a minister with whom your father was friendly at Leek. (Perks was found, a name which verified from an old diary.)

"Lower in this column, say one quarter down, appears his name, your own, your mother's and that of an aunt; all four within the space of two inches. (John and Charles were correctly found, then came the name Emile Souret which presumably suggested Emily and Sarah, his aunt and mother.)

"Near these the word 'Grange.' (It was not found.)

"In column one, not quite half-way down, is a name which is your mother's maiden name or one very like it. (The maiden name was 'Dore,' the name found 'Dorothea.')

"Somewhat above that is named a place where your mother passed some years of her girlhood. (Hants. Correct. Shirley, where she spent her girlhood, being in Hampshire, for which 'Hants.' is the recognized abbreviation.)

"Close to the foregoing is a name, which suggests an action one might make with the body in jumping. (Cummock, a bad pun: come knock.)

"Towards the bottom of the column is named a place where you went to school. (Lincolnshire. Correct.)

"There is a word close by which looks to your father like Cheadle. (Not found.)

"Higher in column one, say two-thirds down, is a name suggesting ammunition. (Found the ecclesiastical title Canon.) Between that and the teacher's name is a place-name, French, looking like three words hyphened into one. (Braine-le-Chateau.)

"About the middle of this page, the middle both down and across, is a mistake in print; it cannot be right. Some wrong letters inserted or something left out, some kind of mistake just there. (The word 'page' printed imperfectly: 'Paae.')"

Out of the items in this test, two entirely failed, the others forecast at 3 P.M. the day previous to the publication of the paper were correct. At 6 P.M. a copy of this test was posted to the SPR. Inquiries at The Times revealed the fact that in some cases the particular notices referred to might have already been set up in type at the time of the sitting, in other cases they were probably not set up and in any case their ultimate position on the page could not be normally known until late in the afternoon.

By the spirit of his father the following explanation was furnished to Thomas:

"These tests have been devised by others in a more advanced sphere than mine, and I have caught their ideas. I am not yet aware exactly how one obtains these tests, and have wondered whether the higher guides exert some influence whereby a suitable advertisement comes into position on the convenient date. I am able to sense what appears to me to be sheets and slips of paper with names and various information upon them. I notice suitable items and, afterwards, visualise a duplicate of the page with these items falling into their places. At first I was unable to do this. It seems to me that it is an ability which throws some light upon foretelling, a visualising of what is to be, but based upon that which already is. Sometimes I see further detail upon visualising which I had not sensed from the letters. I think there is an etheric foreshadowing of things about to be done. It would probably be impossible to get anything very far ahead, but only within a certain number of hours, and I cannot say how many. I scarcely think it would be possible to get a test for the day after the morrow, or, even if possible, that it could result in more than a jumble of the morrow's with a few of the day following. I think they should impress people more than book tests. It becomes clear that telepathy cannot explain; you find in the paper that for which you seek, but given in a form which you did not expect and about which you could, in the nature of the case, have known nothing. Two sets of memory are combined to produce them, my memories of long ago, and my memory of what I found this morning about preparations for the Press."

(See also Book Tests ; Chair Test ; Prediction ; Prevision )