Evidence for clairvoyance is extremely abundant, and much of it consists of very long and detailed written reports presented by credible witnesses, quite of a few of whom were scientists, professors or doctors. Some extremely strong cases are discussed here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Another very strong case I have not previously discussed is the report presented in an 1881 edition of The Journal of Psychological Medicine on page 37. The report (which you can read here) is entitled "Transference of Special Sense," and is authored by J. G. Davey M.D. of Bristol, England. Dr. Davey states right off the bat that the case is "one in which the phenomena of clairvoyance are plainly demonstrated." Although Dr. Davey describes himself as a materialist, he still reports observing paranomal phenomena.
Dr. Davey describes Mrs. Croad's remarkable medical history as follows:
"Born in 1840, she is said to have passed through the greater part of childhood with fair health. On the occurrence of puberty she had attacks from time to time of syncope — very probably of the hysterical kind. At the early age of 19 she married. Five years afterwards she had a fall, when the spine was said to be injured. To this accident succeeded epilepsy, attacks of which occurred almost daily during four months. It was at this time, or near to it, that she lost a child — it was scalded to death. The shock then sustained by her appears to have been unusually severe and protracted. The lower extremities gave signs of great weakness, and became, at length, powerless or paralytic ; whilst, as a consequence or attendant on a chronic gastric affection, she is said to have lost 'all power to partake of or digest solid food.' Her condition in 1866 is described as pitiable in the extreme. The frequent fits, the lost motive power, and the impairment of the general health led to her becoming 'bedridden.' So she has remained to this time (1880), a period of fourteen years. In 1870, it is stated, ' she became totally blind ' ; in the following year deaf, and in 1874 speechless. The paralysis, which was limited to the lower extremities, involved, in 1879, the upper limbs ; but at this time the loss of sensation and motion is limited to the left arm, the fingers and thumb of the left hand being but partially affected. The right hand and arm have recovered their once-lost functions."
After noting that he spent months testing Mrs. Croad, Davey tells us that the blind Mrs. Croad was able to read by touching material with her fingers. This is the well-documented phenomenon of "transposition of the senses," which has been reported by very many witnesses in the West, in Russia and in China, over many years (as you can read about by reading my posts here, here, here, here, here and here). Davey states this:
"The various tests referred to were witnessed by them in my presence, and with the effect of assuring us that she (Mrs. Croad) was and is enabled to perceive, through the aid only of touch, the various objects, both large and small, on any given card or photograph. After an experience extending over some nine or ten weeks, during which the ' tests ' were many times repeated, and, now and then, in the presence of several medical and non-medical (ladies and gentlemen) friends, there remained (I believe) not the least doubt of this ' transference of sense ' from the eyes of Mrs. Croad to her fingers and the palm of her right hand."
I can guess what skeptics of the paranormal are now thinking. They are thinking "they didn't make the blindfolds tight enough," or "the blindfolds were not thick enough" or "she looked through the bottom crack of a blindfold." The statement below by Dr. Davey rules out such objections (which are pretty silly given the blindness of Mrs. Croad):
"It need not to be supposed that I and others were content to believe in Mrs. Croad's blindness and to take no specific precautions against any possible trick or deception — far from this. On solicitation, she very kindly assented to be blindfolded, after a very decided fashion ; and so blindfolded that neither deception on her part nor prejudice nor false judgment on ours were — either the one or the other — possible. The blindfolding was accomplished thus: a pad of cotton wool being placed on each orbit ; the face was then covered by a large and thickly-folded neckerchief; this was tied securely at the back part of the head, and — even more than this — more cotton wool was pushed up towards the eyes, on either side of the nose. Not content, however, the aid of two fingers of a bystander were called into requisition, and with these a continued pressure was kept up, during the 'testing' outside and over the neckerchief and wool and above the closed eyes. At this stage of the proceedings the room was, on two different occasions, very thoroughly darkened. Under such circumstances it was the testing commenced, and continued to the end ; the result being, as theretofore, in the highest degree, conclusive and satisfactory."
Dr. Davey then mentions an ability of Mrs. Croad to see inside letters:
"Further, Mrs. Croad is said to have the additional power to detect as it were by sympathy, or by a community of ideas and feeling, any letter written by a friend of hers and put into her hands by a third party. This I know, on receiving a letter some weeks since from Dr. Maclean, of Swindon, I took it forthwith to her. On receiving it from me she exclaimed, ' Oh, from my dear Doctor Maclean.' "
A paranormal ability to detect the contents of sealed envelopes or enclosed boxes has been reported very many times by observers of clairvoyants. Clairvoyants such as Alexis Didier demonstrated such an ability before a host of witnesses in public exhibitions. There are many reports of such an ability occurring in China. I asked only one person from China (not a student of the paranormal) whether she had ever heard of such an ability, and she promptly replied that a relative of hers had such an ability when young.
Dr. Davey then mentions a claim about Mrs. Croad that he had difficulty believing (although, as I will note later, it matches an ability well-demonstrated in another very similar clairvoyant). Davey states this:
"It is said also by those near and dear to her that such is Mrs. Croad's prevision that she has been known to have foretold my own visits to her ; what I mean is, that on my approach to the house she occupies and when at a distance from it, and unseen by anyone about her — in fact, not within sight— she has said, ' Dr. Davey is coming ; he will be here directly.' I confess to a difficulty in either believing or comprehending this. If such prevision or prescience is really within the capacity of the human organism, we, of all others, have much to learn in respect to the nervous system in man and animals. However, I learn by letter from my friend Dr. Maclean, that in the early part of his medical career he had a patient of the hysterical type who displayed a like lucidity."
Mrs. Croad's daughter was often around during some of these tests, but Dr. Davey states that Mrs. Croad performed just as well when her daughter was absent. We read this statement by Dr. Davey:
"It has been suggested that Miss Croad did, in some strange way, convey to her mother during the testing a knowledge of the cards &c., the objects represented on them, their colours, &c. Well, the suggestion was acted on : the same testing, on being again and again repeated, and in the absence of Miss Croad from the room occupied by her mother, proved altogether and conclusively in favour of Mrs. Croad. The same evidence of the same ' transference of special sense ' from the eyes to the digits [fingers] was always forthcoming. We are bound, then, to conclude that the 'transference' was, or is, altogether independent of any kind of influence imparted by Miss Croad to her mother, and that the existence of the same in Mrs. Croad is due to what is called ' clairvoyance.' "
Dr. Davey then describes an apparent case of mind reading performed by Mrs. Croad:
"As a further illustration of Mrs. Croad's peculiar and clairvoyant gifts, it should be stated that at my second interview with Mrs. Croad, and in the presence of Dr. Andrews and others, certain of my own personal and private convictions on a particular subject became, as it would seem, in a strange and exceptional manner, known to Mrs. Croad. She asked me if I would allow her to tell me a secret in my own life history, and would I be offended if she wrote it on her slate. I replied ' No.' That written on the slate was and is a fact, than which nothing could or can be more truthful and to the point. Dr. Andrews is prepared to verify this ; the others present on this occasion were but little known to me."
The case of Mrs. Croad bears a strong resemblance to the even more astonishing case of Mollie Fancher, who lived in Brooklyn, New York about the same time as Mrs. Croad. Like Mrs. Croad, Mollie Fancher had a very bad vision problem. Fancher was described at various times as either blind or very nearly blind. Mollie had suffered terrible injuries even worse than Mrs. Croad's, including a fall from a streetcar. Both Mrs. Croad and Mollie Fancher were bedridden, and Mollie stayed bedridden for decades. Witnesses very often reported that Mollie Fancher would announce who had arrived at her door, before she could even see who had entered (something also reported of Mrs. Croad). Both Mollie Fancher and Mrs. Croad passed with flying colors the most stringent tests of clairvoyance while securely blindfolded. Both Mollie Fancher and Mrs. Croad went in and out of trances. Both Mollie Fancher and Mrs. Croad had long periods of time in which they seemed to neither eat nor drink, with such an abstinence occurring for much longer periods with Mollie Fancher.
A newspaper called the Brooklyn Eagle published an account of Mollie Fancher which stated this:
"When in the quiet condition of rigidity, the patient is in a trance. Her eyes closed, the ears are dead to sound, the muscles cease to act, respiration is hardly perceptible, and once or twice a state of ecsstacy indicative of mental unsteadiness has resulted. These seasons last for four days, or two hours each. When in this condition, she is powerfully clairvoyant in her faculties. She can tell the time by several watches variously set to deceive her, read unopened letters, decipher the contents of a slate, and repeat what 'Mrs. Grundy says,' by serving up the gossip of the neighborhood. She appears to possess the faculty of second sight to a remarkable degree."
The Mollie Fancher case is described in my post here, and in the long book here.
Similar to the cases above is the case of Eliza Hamilton. A book gives these details:
"She had been in hospital for four months, on her return home frequently passed into the trance state, and on awakening described various people and places she had visited, and objects seen. These descriptions have been invariably verified subsequently....She often describes events which are about to happen, and these are always fulfilled exactly as she predicts. 'Her father' says Mr. Hudson Tuttle, 'read in her presence a letter he had received from a friend in Leeds, speaking of the loss of his daughter, about whose fate he was very unhappy, as she had disappeared nearly a month before, and left no trace. Eliza went into the trance state, and cried out, 'Rejoice! I have found the lost girl ! She is happy in the angel world.' She said the girl had fallen into the dark water where dyers washed their cloths; that her friends could not have found her had they sought her there, but now the body had floated a few miles, and would be found in the River Aire. The body was found as described. Now, knowing that her eyes were closed, that she could not hear, that her bodily senses were in profound lethargy, how are we to account for the intensity and keenness of sight? Her mental powers were exceedingly exalted, and scarcely a question could be asked her but she correctly answered. ' "
In 1876 the president of a Psychological Society reported on a case in his own family reminding us of the claim above that Mrs. Croad could tell when Dr. Davey was about to arrive while he was still out of her sight. He stated this:
"Matilda C , aged fifteen, had fits of a cataleptic character, which attacked her at irregular intervals, and seized her at unexpected times. At such times she became insensible, and had to be carried to a couch : at first she was rigid, but the flexure of the limbs was afterwards partially restored ; her power of speech was lost, and she could express her feelings only by actions. While in this state she had a supersensuous power of perception. She was conscious of her father's approach before any of her senses had been affected in the ordinary way ; she could feel his influence when he was at least a quarter of a mile from the house. The insensible form upon the sofa gave notice of his approach with unfailing certainty a quarter of an hour or more before he arrived. If he (Mr. Cox) opened a book containing pictures, she could see those pictures, although she was in another part of the room, and would throw herself into the attitudes of the persons represented in any engraving at which he might be looking at the time. Even had her eyes been open she could not have seen those pictures in the ordinary way. This state lasted for more than a year, and experiments were tried many times during that period, so that the facts were proved conclusively, beyond all manner of doubt. It had been objected, that she perhaps knew the book and guessed at the pictures ; consequently he tried her with books and pictures borrowed from strangers ; moreover, in a volume containing thirty pictures, she never once made a mistake as to the particular picture at which he was looking. He found by experiment that she saw his mental impressions, and not the pictures themselves, for she could only see as much of any engraving as he saw himself. Sometimes she wished for something not in the room, and if her attendant, who went to fetch it, touched the wrong thing, she showed signs of displeasure and annoyance. This experiment was repeatedly tried. She did not see the object itself, but the impression on the mind of the attendant, for when the latter was blindfolded there was no perception on the part of the patient. While in this abnormal state the patient was graceful in all her actions, and more than commonly intelligent ; she could play games of cards with skill with her eyes closed, whilst in her normal state she could not play a game at cards at all."
A similar account of a female being able to tell when an unseen visitor was about to arrive is told by Mary Dana Shindler in an 1889 book:
"An aunt of ours was very ill with fever, and her only brother, commanding a packet ship between Havana and Charleston, was daily expected; but we feared he would arrive too late to see his sister in earth-life. One morning while we were watching at her bedside, she suddenly sat up, clapped her hands, and exclaimed joyfully, ' Brother William has come!' We all thought her mind wandering; but in about ten minutes he arrived at her house, and from that moment she began to recover. She could not tell us how she discovered that he had arrived, but only said, 'I knew it; I heard, and felt him.' "
It is remarkable how similar are accounts like this, which show up in the accounts of quite a few different writers from different countries. Here is another example of an apparently clairvoyant detection of the arrival of an unseen visitor, one occurring in nineteenth century Brussels, Belgium, involving a hypnotized person named Marie:
"She very quickly fell into a somnambulistic state, and while in that condition suddenly exclaimed: 'Hallo, that’s funny, here are my two cousins coming to visit me; they are just now coming up to the front- door'. And indeed, Marie had hardly finished speaking when Lafontaine heard the front-door bell ringing. This fact of spontaneous clairvoyance (lucidité à distance is the term used by Lafontaine) had greatly perplexed him and in fact he was completely dumbfounded. After a while Marie requested him to awaken her. When she awoke from her somnambulistic condition she was greatly astonished to find her two cousins, who had come all the way from Nivelles (a little Belgian town 18 miles from Brussels) on a surprise visit."
On page 317 of the 1898 book Glimpses of the Unseen by B. J. Austin, we read a similar account involving another clairvoyant, a female in a land (Scotland) famous for sometimes yielding those with the second sight:
"On another occasion she informed the members of the family at breakfast that I was on my way from Edinburgh to the works adjacent to her home, and that I had on a gray check tweed suit. I had not had time to inform her father of my intended visit to the works, but, sure enough, within three hours or so I arrived in a dog-cart at the works, dressed as she had described."
On the same page we have a description that reminds me of the famous account of Swedenborg in the eighteenth century describing in accurate detail a fire that was happening three hundred miles away (Immanuel Kant's original account of this is contained here). We read this:
"Then she commenced the relation of a fire which was taking place. It was in Newcastle. 'Oh ! there are two men killed ! ' she cried. Again, she proceeded to recite to Mr. S. the contents of some letters she extracted from his pocket, though he did not remove the envelopes....Now, one of the foregoing is the fact that the newspapers of the following Monday contains an account of a fire that took place at Newcastle on Saturday night, and detailed the fact that ' two men were killed' at it. Again, there was actually no apparent connecting link between the personalities of anyone present and the town of Newcastle."
An important point concerning hypnosis is that for about eighty years stubborn mainstream scientists told us incorrectly that there was nothing to it (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary). Between about 1780 and 1860 a host of mainstream scientists told us that hypnotism (previously called Mesmerism, artificial somnambulism or animal magnetism) was nothing but fraud and error. Then at some point in the nineteenth century (roughly about 1860) mainstream professors began to admit the reality and medical importance of hypnotism under a new name of "hypnotism." When pondering the evidence for clairvoyance, we should remember how an extremely important anomalous human reality (hypnotism) was denied for about eighty long years (roughly 1780 to 1860) by mainstream scientists despite abundant evidence for the reality of that phenomenon, and also suspect that something similar is happening impeding the mainstream's acceptance of the overwhelming evidence for clairvoyance.
My recent science fiction story Planet of the Blind (which you can read here) imagines a planet (perhaps a future Earth) on which almost everyone is blind, except for a very small group of scorned misfits that can still see. On such a planet, those who claim to have vision are treated as people reporting the paranormal, and the schools deny that anyone can see, claiming that all reports of a vision ability are delusions. The blind narrator of the story gets completely convincing evidence that vision is a real ability, but he refuses to accept it. Maybe those who deny clairvoyance are like such a narrator. And maybe clairvoyance at its greatest can allow perception as superior to vision as vision is superior to hearing.
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