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Thoughts through Space – Sir Hubert Wilkins and Harold M Sherman

I had promised Sherman that I would endeavour to keep thought transference appointments at 11.30 pm Eastern Standard time, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. I would have to arrange my sittings at various times at night in my location to fit in with Sherman's time.

The first of our "appointments" was interfered with by unpredictable circumstances. At the time arranged for, I was at a dinner given in my honor by the Manitoba League of Aviators, and was in the middle of a speech when the time came to "contact" Sherman.

I could not consciously and concentratedly give my whole attention to review in detail-for Sherman’s benefit-the happenings of the day. But I have found it possible, after giving many lectures, to deliver my talk and hold the attention of the public while at the same time occupying some other part of my mind with an entirely different matter.

So, even as I was speaking to the group present at the dinner, I had Sherman and the day’s events in mind. I did not know until many days later that on the night of the dinner was to happen the first of an astounding series of "coincidences" in relation to my actual experiences and Sherman's impression of what I had experienced.

Sherman, seated in his room in New York, with his mind blanketed from other thoughts, received impressions which enabled him to write down an almost complete record of the things which had "strongly'' engaged my attention throughout the day, and of my actual surroundings and actions at the time he was trying to receive impressions of, or stimulations from my thoughts.

Sherman was in no special position to know just what I might be doing or what I might say. AII he knew of my actions was that I was on my way to the Arctic, and he had no means of knowing anything about the conditions I might experience. Yet, some days later, upon receiving his report, I was particularly impressed. Sherman reported on October 25th:

"Trip satisfactory so far. Equipment not ready. See you break away from others. You will be late in starting. Equipment not complete. Something mechanical not arrived. You are one man short. One man has slight cold. You in company heavy-set man. You have hard time keeping appointment. Impression as if you say 'Wilkins now signing off!"'

Following this he got the impression that I left the room to join three men, then that there were more than three-quite a group.

Actually, the detail of what happened, which I had in mind to review or "transfer"-if I had been entirely free at the time-was as follows:

I was pleased with the performance of the Lockheed airplane. I had expected to find equipment which I had forwarded in packing cases to Winnipeg to be uncased and ready for carrying in the airplane, but because the staff realized that, as there was no immediate prospect of snow at Winnipeg, we would have to ship the material farther north, they had left it in the cases. I had talked with Wilson, the radio engineer, and he had strongly advised making every effort to obtain the radio direction-indicators, and, furthermore, he had given me some information which seemed to make that possible. This would involve the services of another man. To obtain this extra equipment would mean some delay. I had heard that Cheeseman, suffering from a cold, could not join the expedition for a few days. I had tried to get out of the appointment for dinner, because I wanted to leave for Montreal, but as arrangements had been made to broadcast part of my speech throughout all Canada and the rest of it over the local station, I had been persuaded to stay. The two men on either side of me at the dinner were short and heavily built, but I had not given this much attention. It was arranged that after I had spoken for thirty minutes I would come to the end of a definite section of my speech. At this point the radio announcer would say, "'Wilkins now signing off," and my voice would be cut from the National Network, although I would continue to be heard over the local station. This break in my speech naturally caused me some intense thought, and I was mentally, waiting to hear the words, "Wilkins signing off" and wondering if they would come in the middle of a sentence-which might happen if the timing was not perfect.

As soon as I left the banquet hall, I hurried to my own room to keep an appointment I had made with three men. They had been in my room for only a few minutes when, much to my annoyance, a group of about fifteen uninvited guests arrived, and I could not complete the business with the three I had invited.