LESSON X.

Clairvoyance of distant scenes.

Let us now consider the phenomena of the second class of clairvoyance, namely, Clairvoyance in Space.

In space clairvoyance the clairvoyant person senses scenes and events removed in space from the observer—­that is to say, scenes and events situated outside of the range of the physical vision of the clairvoyant.  In this class also is included certain phenomena in which the clairvoyant vision is able to discern things that may be concealed or obscured by intervening material objects.  Some of the many different forms and phases of space clairvoyance are illustrated by the following examples, all taken from the best sources.

Bushnell relates the following well-known case of space clairvoyance:  “Capt.  Yount, of Napa Valley, California, one midwinter’s night had a dream in which he saw what appeared to be a company of emigrants arrested by the snows of the mountains, and perishing rapidly by cold and hunger.  He noted the very cast of the scenery, marked by a huge, perpendicular front of white-rock cliff; he saw the men cutting off what appeared to be tree-tops rising out of deep gulfs of snow; he distinguished the very features of the persons, and their look of peculiar distress.  He awoke profoundly impressed by the distinctness and apparent reality of the dream.  He at length fell asleep, and dreamed exactly the same dream over again.  In the morning he could not expel it from his mind.  Falling in shortly after with an old hunter comrade, he told his story, and was only the more deeply impressed by him recognizing without hesitation the scenery of the dream.  This comrade came over the Sierra by the Carson Valley Pass, and declared that a spot in the Pass exactly answered his description.

“By this the unsophistical patriarch was decided.  He immediately collected a company of men, with mules and blankets and all necessary provisions.  The neighbors were laughing meantime at his credulity.  ‘No matter,’ he said, ’I am able to do this, and I will, for I verily believe that the fact is according to my dream.’  The men were sent into the mountains one hundred and fifty miles distant, direct to the Carson Valley Pass.  And there they found the company exactly in the condition of the dream, and brought in the remnant alive.”

In connection with this case, some leading, occultists are of the opinion that the thought-waves from the minds of the distressed lost persons reached Capt.  Yount in his sleep, and awakened his subconscious attention.  Having natural clairvoyant power, though previously unaware of it, he naturally directed his astral vision to the source of the mental currents, and perceived clairvoyantly the scene described in the story.  Not having any acquaintance with any of the lost party, it was only by reason of the mental currents of distress so sent out that his attention was attracted.  This is a very interesting case, because several psychic factors are involved in it, as I have just said.