CRYSTAL BALLS AND CRYSTAL GAZING 209
identical with that she had first received.45
The visual impression had been stirred up and "externalized" itself
when she gazed upon the crystal. We believe that this explains the
larger number of such visions, and that the rest are only inexplicable
because the scryer has forgotten the source of the impression that is
projected on the surface of the crystal.
It
is true that both Miss Goodrich-Freer and many other crystal-gazers
note instances in which the vision appears to represent something the
scryer does not and cannot know. However, even in these cases, when
carefully examined, there is little difficulty in finding an
explanation. Coincidence accounts for much, and imagination for more,
since it is not the vision itself, but the memory of the vision, that
is later brought into comparison with actual facts. We all know how
exceedingly hard it is to repeat, after a short lapse of time, all the
circumstances and details of any occurrence. There is a natural growth
and modification of mental impressions, due to association of ideas,
and where there exists the least wish to make the prophecy accord with
the event, or the vision with the coincident happening, this growth and
modification will be in the direction of agreement. This takes place
quite unconsciously, and the informant will be fully persuaded that all
the circumstances are related exactly as they occurred.
The
attempt to identify either persons or scenes observed by the scryer
with real persons and real scenes unknown to him, must always be open
to the objection that the one who makes the identification has no
photographic impression upon which to base his judgment, but merely
the words of the scryer. When we remember
" Proc. of the Sac. for Psych. Research, vol. v, p. 507. 14
