Reading Envelopes

Reading Envelopes

Reading contents of envelopes is nothing really new. This has been done for centuries by a number of individuals who were so inclined. This is a very difficult thing to test as there are so many chances that the reader might have been successful of some form of trickery to disclose the contents of the envelope.

Richet a well known French psychic researcher (during the mid 19th century used the following as a type of test:

A message will be written by one person who does not divulge its contents to anyone, but who seals it in several thickness of opaque envelopes and gives the package to another person who takes it to the experimenter who in turn gives it to the sensitive after the sensitive's eyes have been elaborately bandaged. The sensitive 'S kept under close observation, but, if the experiment is successful, nevertheless correctly gives the message concealed within the packet. Alternatively, a sensitive may be allowed to feel with the finger tips a number of differently colored sheets of paper, placed in such a position that he cannot see them. He is then asked to name the colors. In order to exclude any tactile impressions which he might otherwise receive, the sheets of paper are placed under another sheet of some transparent substance.

During one of the tests the following incident occurred:

The French researcher, Richet, conducted a series of experiments with a blindfolded sensitive. On one occasion she described the package as containing a picture of a soldier in uniform. When the package was opened, it was found not to contain any such picture, but instead a sketch of a picture-frame. Subsequent inquiry of the person who had made up the package revealed that she had sketched the picture frame surrounding the portrait of a soldier in uniform. What the sensitive had done was to describe the portrait which the person making up the package had not sketched, but at which she was looking while sketching the frame surrounding the portrait.

The bottom line of Richet is that unless the sitter, or one of the workers had committed collusion with the sitter, or that Professor Richet had counterfeited the tests, then the ability MUST be due to some form of psi ability that is not of yet understood.

Such incidents as these are extremely puzzling and show the elusive nature of the subject into which we are seeking to research. In this case the sensitive was clearly not "seeing" the contents of the package. She was not exhibiting clairvoyance in the sense in which that word is usually used. Perhaps the incident should be categorized as a case of precognition, in that what she 'saw' was something which had once been in the mind of the person who made up the package. It should be categorized as an example of abnormal awareness, not brought about by any normal means.