Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men | Page 3

Bute in August 1892, and in 1893 met a lady who had
been governess at B---- about twelve years before, and who reported
that the house was haunted then.
A noise like the continual explosion of petards, another like the falling
of a large animal against his bedroom door, another noise like spirit
raps, and shrieks were heard by Father H.; no one else then heard them.
Father H. heard them for eight nights, and not on the ninth. As a priest,
he was probably a good deal alone, and had to walk over to a cottage
behind a belt of wood to the eastward, where the retreat of the nuns he
attended to was held.
According to the average experience of Miss Freer's party, he would
only have been attacked on about two days. The last day his tormentor
left--doubtless to avoid a journey with Father H. and subsequent

recognition. How these sounds are produced is easily understood. If the
doctrine of a very light stream of electricity be admitted, the pressure
on the ear readily causes raps--there is a slight buzzing sound if the
pressure on the ear be relaxed at a distance at first, later there is pain;
the flap is from an intermitted pressure. It is a thud if the pressure be
more acute, and the pattering, which is almost identical to the effect
produced by a drop of water rolling on the inside of a sensitive ear,
occurs when there is a double or treble intermission. In some cases
where the victim is strong, the consonants can be worked off to his
hearing.
Add to this a slight effect on the eye, and Miss Campbell's doubtfully
pronounced word "candle" becomes clear enough. An initial starts a
word there is some reason to believe. Mr. Osgood Mason dwells upon
community of sensation, and it is doubtless this that renders the
direction of aim so exact; but when the subject of tickled faces is
considered, we shall see that it does not insure complete accuracy, any
more than that exists in volley firing, which with inferior shots is more
telling than independent firing, and yet is not perfect.
The reason why more audile phenomena are perceived at night is that
the percipient is tolerably still. Father H. and other people heard these
sounds more when in bed after daylight. If loud clangs, &c., were heard
by night by the garrison under Miss Freer's command, it was that the
attacking hypnotists did not have the chances they had with Father H.
of hypnotising their victims; and here again, where action on the ear
and eye is concerned, talking with a friend, or indeed any one, is a great
safeguard. The tympanum is stirred, the eye moves--the mere
irregularity of the breath is an aid. Another reason will be given later.
Miss Campbell, whose case--one of experimental thought
transference--has been twice referred to, was an intimate friend of Miss
Despard, who effected the transfers. Her case differs from his; he
expected nothing (at least consciously), and perceived nothing except
ugly sounds, until he got a feeling that some one was glad that he left,
and that he himself would not like to pass another night there. Perhaps
this last feeling was a deceptive transfer; they did not like the stout
priest bluffing them. Later he was willing to go to the house at B----

again.
Miss Campbell got a word, imperfect perhaps, but a better-developed
effort developed better results. It is worth remarking that in another
experimental transfer of thought, where the percipient was not warned,
when Mr. Godfrey's apparition was seen by a lady friend, she heard a
curious sound like birds in the ivy. It is by no means unlikely that this
was the result of his first trying to attract her attention.[7]
[Footnote 7: Podmore's "Studies," p. 250.]
The eye impression moving to the ear in a new and strange way, there
is perhaps a stirring and dragging of the cartilages.
That Mr. Godfrey's friend appeared in response and spoke to him, and
referred back to some joint conversation, is curious.
It must be said here that the speech coming from within is extremely
indicative of a real transferred or hypnotic speech, and its coming from
within facilitates surprise where it is used fraudulently or criminally. A
certain amount of collateral trickery would enhance this. It is easily
confounded with the victim's own thoughts.
The appearance of a person to another does not seem to be as difficult
as the causing another person to appear to a third person. In this case
the second person should apparently be hypnotised, and willed to
appear to the third. The third person must know the second person.[8]
[Footnote 8: Osgood Mason, "Telepathy," &c., chap. x.]
The apparition to Miss Ducane is