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What did Mary Lurancy produce in the way of veridical proof that made this case so outstanding?
First of all, she was uncomfortable in the Vennum home and was allowed to go and live with Mary
Roff's parents. Once there, she indicated that she knew everything and every person that Mary had
known during her lifetime. She recognized family friends and called them by name - people whom
Lurancy had never heard of. She remembered countless major and minor incidents that had happened
in Mary's childhood, many years before Lurancy had ever been born. She was able to accurately
identify incidents that had occurred in connection with Mary's belongings. One day, going through a
box of Mary's possessions that had been brought down from the attic, she exclaimed in delight over
the recovery of a lace collar she had tatted.
In the course of time Mary's married sister Minerva came for a visit. The real Lurancy scarecely knew
Minerva, but in the guise of Mary Roff she embraced her warmly and addressed her as "Nervie,"
which had been Mary's pet name for her sister.
During the four-month interval she spent some time in Minerva's home, and the sister confirmed that
scarcely a day went by that she did not present some veridical proof of knowledge of Mary's
childhood. She knew all about the family pets and how and where they had died, about family
excursions and celebrations and holidays. All of these things had happened long before Lurancy was
born, and it was quite impossible that she could have learned them from her parents, because the
Vennums and the Roffs were only distantly acquainted and had had no mutual friends or other social
contacts.
After nearly four months, Mary inexplicably decided to return to the spirit world, and Lurancy's soul
was restored to her body intact. She professed no recollection of what had happened during the
interval of her "occupation" - but she was once again her usually sunny self, the evil spirit had been
banished forever.
The Vennums and the Roffs subsequently struck up a warm friendship, drawn together by the
daughters they curiously "shared." From time to time, Mary would come back and re-inhabit Lurancy's
body briefly so that she might visit with her family.
Professor Ducasse, who thoroughly investigated the case, felt that there could be no doubt about its
authenticity. "The only way," he said, "to avoid the conclusion that the Mary Roff personality was
really the departed spirit whom it pretended to be, is to have recourse to the method of orthodoxy
whose maxim is: "When you cannot explain all the facts according to accepted principles, then explain
those you can and ignore the rest; or else deny them, distort them, or invent some that would help."
Some facts turn out to be too stubborn to be disposed of plausibly by that method, and the present one
would appear to be one of them.
28 - Precognition
Let us hypothesize a man who states unequivocally that there can be no such thing as foreknowledge
of the future.
Let us visualize him as a sturdy, hard-working, God-fearing Rotarian WASP with all the down-to-
earth virtues. He pays his income tax on time, with a minimum of griping. He deplores the Hippie
movement, wears ties, sends his kids to college and maintains a bank balance.
He is square-but a solid square.
Now suppose we say to him "Mr. Wasp Q. Square, there is a kind of nutty professor from Utrecht
University in Holland, a Dr. W.H.C. Tenhaeff, who is going to bring his protégé to town. This
protégé, one Gerard Croiset, is going to give you a detailed description of who is going to sit in the
third seat west of the center aisle, Row 26, during the convocation at the Shrine convention next
Friday."
"Whatsamatter, you crazy or something?" asks Mr. Square.
In time, Dr. Tenhaeff arrives in town with Croiset, his Wonder Man, in tow to repeat one of the tests
he has been conducting hundreds of times, over and over, during the past 20 years, with absolutely
predictable results.
He takes Croiset to the Shrine auditorium, and here the Dutch psychic pauses in deep thought for a
moment in front of Seat 3, Row 26, then announces that the occupant, next Friday, will be a heavy-set
man in his fifties wearing a brown safari jacket over a beige sweat shirt; that he will have a scar on his
chin and will be wearing a Band-Aid over a small cut on his left forefinger. He will also be carrying
two morning newspapers.
Square, of course, thinks this is all a lot of nonsense. He has been to Shrine conventions before, and
he knows the seats are filled on a haphazard basis. However, he will go along with the gag. Mr.
Square arrives a half-hour ahead of time so he is able to nail down the seat behind Seat 3, Row 26.
Some ten minutes later he sees Mr. Oscar M. Chance come in. Mr. Chance is wearing a brown safari
jacket over a beige sweat shirt. He is carrying two newspapers. He looks over the seating area, starts
forward, then changes his mind and eases back toward Row 26. He climbs over the knees of the
people in Seats 1 and 2, and settles himself uneasily in Seat 3.
He raises his left hand to smooth his thinning hair, and Square notes that there is a Band-Aid on the
forefinger.
When last heard of, Square was in Tibet, pursuing his advanced studies on the mediumistic techniques
of the Lamas for the Society of Psychical Research. He has changed his name to Golden Hawk, and
he converses regularly via automatic writing, with the spirit of Frederick W.H. Myers.
This little parable illustrates the reluctance of many people to accept precognition as an established
fact, and their amazement and enthusiasm once it has been demonstrated to them personally in a
veridical context.
It is a fact that every major event in world history has been specifically foretold, before its occurrence,
with ample documentation.
The great Pestilence of 1665, and the Great Fire of London in 1666, followed by the plague, were
foretold in 1661 by George Fox, the Younger. The Irish Rebellion; the French Revolution, with the
beheading of the King and Queen; The American Revolution; the American Civil War; and the
assassination of the Archduke Franz-Ferdinand at Sarajevo which precipitated World War One-all
were clearly predicted.
Going back further, we hear a seer named Moses prophesying that a fierce nation, swift as the eagle
flies, would be brought against the Jews from the end of the earth!
And progressing forward in time to our own century, we see that the assassination of every president [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]