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Vasiliev, Professor L L - Experiments in mental suggestion – Experiments between Vasiliev and his wife ‘T B’
Identifier
024864
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Vasiliev dismissed these results because he believed it was wife who was the subject and he the experimenter, but it would seem to us, she is in control and sending messages to him.
A description of the experience
Experiments in mental suggestion – Professor L L Vasiliev
On December 24, 1932 between 11 and 12 p.m carried out the following experiments. Sender: the author; percipient: his wife, T. B.
The percipient, while lying on her back, is given the instructions to make herself quite passive and say whatever comes into her mind. The sender, sitting behind her head, has on his knees a notebook and draws in it the visual pictures which are being mentally suggested.
Experiment l. The sender draws a pair of scissors. The percipient's verbal response: "I am plunging into something - a uniform with buttons and a cap-a bow tie."
Question by the sender: ".What is this tie you are talking about?"
Answer: "Your tie" (tied in a bow "butterfly'' type). Percipient, immediately: 'And now, about scissors."
Question: "How did the word 'scissors' come into your mind?"
Answer: "I found myself mentally pronouncing the word 'scissors'; it just came to me."
When a certain time had elapsed after the experiment, the percipient recalled that she had recently read a book on telepathy in which, amongst a number of other experiments, there was a description of a successful instance of thought transference, the object of which was an open pair of scissors. This, as well as the sender's tie which resembled an open pair of scissors, could have suggested the correct solution to the percipient.
Experiment 2. Experimental conditions: as above. Instruction: "I am thinking of a two figure number. Tell me even if you see a one figure number."
(I thought of the number 25.) Within 30 to 50 seconds the percipient says: "the number 25 keeps recurring over and over again."
To the question "How did you come to think of the number 25?"
she replied: "The thought of 25 appeared immediately after the beginning of the experiment, but it seemed inconvenient to say it right away. It is my favourite number." (The sender either did not know this or had forgotten it.) It should also be added that this was the 24th of December, the eve of the 25th.
These circumstances reduce the significance of the experimental results, so convincing at first, to nil. The sender could subconsciously have selected the number 25 because tomorrow was December 25th. The percipient could have picked on this number either for the same reason or because it was her "favourite number."