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rule, surprisingly incurious about their own powers. They
know, and are apparently content to know, very little about
them.
Mr. Vincent Turvey is an exception. Though a
professional medium in the sense of putting his powers at the
disposal of those who need them, he has never taken so much
as a penny for the use of his gift, and he won the warm
friendship of such discerning seekers as Arthur Conan Doyle
and W. T. Stead.
He calls his gift clairvoyance, which of course it is, in
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certain phases of its operation; and, though he does not speak
of projection, the description of his outings could be covered
by no other term.
"In order," he writes, "to avoid using such a phrase as
'My spirit went to London while I remained in Bournemouth',
which is a somewhat too definite statement, and also makes the
'spirit', which is the real 'I', appear to be secondary to the
body I have decided to use 'I' in inverted commas to denote
that part of my consciousness, or 'being', which appears to
function at a distance from the body, and to use 'Me' with a
capital M and in inverted commas to denote the body which
remains at home and is apparently fully conscious, normal and
in no way entranced."
His "I" is, of course, the Etheric Double, but his psychic
gift enables him to communicate with the part of him left
behind, which remains conscious and receptive. We have seen
how, with the ordinary projectionist, the physical body, though
apparently unconscious, can transmit urgent messages to the
distant Double by means of the Cord; and in Mr. Turvey's case
the transmission works both ways.
Mr. Turvey dislikes being called a medium, because, as
he points out: "(1) A medium is one who is or has been
entranced or 'controlled'. I have never been entranced. (2) A
medium is (generally) one who has 'developed' his gifts by
sitting in 'circles', etc. I was born with my faculties. (3) A
medium is functioned through (or functions) by becoming
mentally 'passive'. I function by mental activity."
Of course there are mediums as outside Mr. Turvey's
category as he is himself but his points are worth noting. His
gift is used in three ways which he describes as: Long-distance
clairvoyance, Mental-body-travelling, and Phone-voyance. It is
the first two which specially concern us.
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"In plain long-distance clairvoyance," he explains, "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.) "
It is difficult to account for the restrictions, for which the
composition of the Double may be responsible. The tunnel is a
very common figure with projectionists, and, as had been
suggested, may have in flight a symbolic meaning.
"In Mental-body-travelling," writes Mr. Turvey, "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, say, at 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."
Here we have a perfect description of Etheric flight.
When Mr. Turvey's Double was capable of physical exertion
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(he once lifted a bed with two people in it, though incapable,
when in the body, of lifting a small child), he was, of course,
drawing on someone else's psychic force, which may also, on
occasion, have rendered him visible.
Phone-voyance, the technique of which is not quite clear,
enables him to see the surroundings of the person to whom he
is speaking over the wire, and to describe people and
happenings beyond his listener's ken or knowledge; but
otherwise, and often, it differs little from Mental-body-
travelling.
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