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The beginnings of Seership – Vincent Turvey

I shall use the word " Phone-voyance " when otherwise it would be necessary to say " whilst conversing with Mr. Jones, through the National Telephone Company's system of electrical installation for the conveyance of sound between two or more given points connected by that system, I made use of Telesthesia in order to perceive that he was a tall, dark man, and conveyed that information to him by means of the instrument installed in my hall, via the Exchange, and he, by means of a similar instrument affixed to the writing-table in his study, was enabled to hear what I said and to reply that my statement was correct."

In plain, long-distance Clairvoyance I appear to see through a tunnel which is cut through all intervening physical objects, such as towns, forests and mountains. This tunnel seems to terminate just inside Mr. Brown's study, for instance, and I can only see what is actually there, and am not able to walk about the house, or use any other faculty but that of sight.

In fact, it is almost like extended physical sight on a flat earth void of obstacles. (This tunnel also applies to time as well as to space.)

In Mental-body-travelling the “I" appears to leave the "Me," and to fly through space at a velocity which renders the view of the country over which “I" pass very indistinct and blurred. The "I" appears to be about two miles above the earth, and can only barely distinguish water from land, or forest from city; and only then if the tracts perceived be fairly large in area. Small rivers or villages would not be distinguishable. When "I" arrive at, say Mr. Brown's house in Bedford, “I” am not only able to see into one room, but am able to walk about the house, see the contents of various rooms and boxes, touch the curtain, and feel that it is made of velvet, move a table or bed, smell an escape of gas, diagnose a disease, look into the "surroundings" of Mr. Brown, and, in a few cases, “I" have been visible.

"I" also hear parts of conversations; and, on several occasions, "I" have controlled a medium, and introduced myself through his organism to people present, and have carried on a conversation with them.

When, in addition to hearing and seeing, with the "mental" body, "I" also move matter, "I" seem to make use of the medium's "psychic force, "which “I" appears to draw from his wrists or knees as a sort of red sticky matter (part of his "energy" or "vitality" body?). At any rate, that is what appeared to happen when on one occasion “l" lifted a bed with two people in it, and spoke to one of them in the "direct" voice, Physically I dare not attempt to lift a small child, for I have not the strength to do it. [Note:  *I have a letter from one of the individuals who was in the bed and who heard me speak in the “direct" voice; but I do not print the letter, as it was not checked by the signatories of the Voucher, and therefore cannot honestly be included in this book.]

In Phone-voyance there seems to be a marked difference from both these forms of clairvoyance-in fact, several differences. Firstly there is a physical connection with the place or house "at a distance"; secondly, I can talk through the telephone to the man “at a distance"; thirdly, the description is given to the person "at a distance" Whereas, of course, in long - distance Clairvoyance and Mental-body-travelling none of these things apply. I mention this because it is a point which makes the so-called explanation, "Telepathy," more difficult to accept than it would be if the man were actually in the room with me.

And, further, the reader will notice that I often describe that which the listener at the other end of the telephone wire does not know, i.e. for instance, what "his daughter was doing in the room above him, "and” a book held by another person behind him," etc., thus putting "Telepathy" still further out of court.

Now, as to my sensations when using Phone- voyance. These are sometimes one thing and sometimes another. But in most cases I seem to "see" through a halo, or aura, of bright heliotrope, or pale violet-coloured fire, the flashes or sparks of which do not appear to cover all the window, so to speak, but to leave the centre clear and colourless, and in that centre appears the person or object that is “seen”.

Another extraordinary thing is that occasionally a part of my mentality seems to ooze out of me, and to run along the line for a little distance, say a yard or two; and as “I" go, so little pieces of the copper wire which lay together, A--B, seem to turn over to B-A, i.e. to reverse their position as if on a hinge. These pieces appear to be about four inches in length.

At other times Phone-voyance seems to be very like Mental-body-travelling, because “l" appears to be in the room at the one end of the line, and, by a sort of living cord, to communicate with "Me" at the other end, and to make "Me" speak about that which “I" sees. [Note:  *This cord appears whenever the “I” leaves the “Me” It seems to .join one body to the other from the solar plexus to the back of the neck. It is very like a spider's cord; but in colour it is silver tinged with heliotrope, and it extends and contracts in the same way as does elastic cord.]

I first became aware of the faculty of Phone- voyance in the year 1905. It was a phenomenon about which I had never even dreamed, much less expected to witness. The letters produced in Chapter V. show by the dates thereof that I have used the faculty intermittently for a period of three years, i.e. from 1905 to 1908. However, as I find that Phone-voyance is a great strain on the brain, and as I believe that its too frequent use would lead to very serious injury, I have made it a fixed rule never to try experiments for the merely idly curious, and only to use the faculty when it comes of its own accord, so to speak, I think the evidence produced in Chapter V. is sufficient to prove that the faculty exists, and that proof is the object which I had in view whilst accumulating the evidence.

Now, not only is the manner, or method, of "seeing" different from that of long-distance Clairvoyance, but the things seen are not so limited nor so restricted; for not only do I "see" what is actually there, but I also see things "habitually worn" by my listener, or by his friend in the room, although they be not there with him at the time. Then, again, I see people in the room above my listener-“spirits” known to the listener-and "spirits" known to the man in the room with him, but not known to himself. And, lastly, I have seen a picture of a young lady known to the listener, but who was miles away from him; and I was able to say that she was not dead and yet not actually with him in the physical body.

ln passing, I may add that so far as I have experimented with Phone-voyance all my attempts have been more or less successful. This, however, I leave my readers to judge for themselves. I shall only say that I have laid the whole series before them, and not merely the selected few. In fact, this statement applies practically to the whole of this book. The signed evidence which I possess shows that out of one hundred and sixty descriptions given in public one hundred and forty-four were recognized as correct; that out of (about) three hundred in private 96 per cent were correct; and that of prophecies thirty out of thirty-seven were fulfilled. I do not produce all the evidence which I possess, because of the similarity of the incidents to those already chronicled.