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Proceedings of the SPR - Visions in the crystal ball 

A young girl tells how, looking in the mirror, she was obsessed with an image that was always the same; a house with big black walls on which a tuft of white jasmine shone. She claimed she had never seen a house like this in the city where she had been for a long time.

A person placed in front of the glass ball sees a number 3.244 appear on it. Why this number rather than another?

But this is the mystery.

Miss X... sees a newspaper article appearing in the glass ball, manages to read the announcement of the death of a friend of hers. She recounts this fact: the people present are amazed. A few hours later, the news is officially confirmed and one is tempted to admit a miraculous prediction.

However, on closer examination, each of these cases receives a purely natural explanation.

Indeed, according to a survey of members of the Psychic Society, it was found that there was a house in London that had all the features of the one described by the first subject and that the latter had seen. She had missed it by thinking of something else.

As for the history of the number, it was shown that, during the day, the person had changed a banknote and that this number was the same as the banknote number. It is quite likely that this number had been seen, but it had not left any conscious memories.

Finally, we come to this singular revelation of the death of a friend: the poor seer must have lost some of her illusion when an issue of a newspaper was found in the house hung in front of the fireplace, as a folding screen. However, on the visible side, the article in question was displayed in words, with the same characters, the same outline as it had been put on in the crystal.

It was therefore the externalization of a visual memory that had been unconsciously recorded.