In 1947 a young American girl who had earlier been in Germany and had driven a certain road frequently with a friend in the Army of Occupation, was visiting her friend's mother in England. It was a certain Wednesday afternoon and she says:

"I was on edge all afternoon and kept telling his mother something had happened to Allen. A day or two later I had a letter from him, asking if I had been to Germany and what clothes I had worn on Wednesday.

"It seems that he and two other soldiers that day were taking a prisoner to jail about fifteen miles away. They had to drive along this certain road where we had driven together before. It was wooded on one side, with laneways cutting through, not visible from the road. Suddenly a girl stepped in front of their car, waving her hands to stop them.

"Just then a trailer broke away from its truck and crashed down the lane. Had they gone on, they would have collided and probably been killed. I know this sounds fantastic but the girl was me. And the clothes I wore on Wednesday were the same as those she had on. Allen told me I stood in front of the car, urgently waving my arms to stop them. The German driver, who didn't know me, pulled up. He was giving off about 'silly women.' The two companions, who did know me personally, both recognized me, Gerry calling out, 'Look at Pat,' and Allen saying, 'I thought she was in England.'

"The girl disappeared as suddenly as she appeared. Gerry and Allen got out to see where I had gone to. They said I was so real they actually searched the woods.

"I was at Gerry's wedding a few months later, and he confirmed Allen's story word for word."

In such cases the point is clear that the person seen had very little, if anything, to do with the experience. Even if as in this case the girl in England was worrying about the man in Germany, she was unaware of his specific danger and had no idea of actually being in his vicinity.

--Louisa E. Rhine

EDITOR'S NOTE

Rhine's argument is flawed. "The person seen had little to do with the experience"? Well, if Allen had been alone (like Norman on Guam) then a life-saving 'ghost' could plausibly be a projection of Allen's unconscious sense of danger--though I'm not sure if 'unconscious projection of ESP' could survive Occam's razor any better than 'ghost'. Both trail so much baggage!

But Allen wasn't alone. Why would both Allen and Gerry project the same figure? Why would the driver, who'd never even met her? And why see her as she is in the present, not as she looked when they last met? Further, if Allen and Gerry just projected Pat's image, why did Pat simultaneously feel so alarmed for Allen? She sensed danger even if her conscious didn't know the details.

To me, "Pat's Warning" suggests the unconscious can be a busy bee indeed, scouting for both honey and danger a long way from the hive. If ESP exists--and the alternative here is to claim that three simultaneous, identical hallucinations just happened to save three lives--the simplest explanation I see is that Pat's unconscious knew more than percolated through to the conscious--knew enough to act, and did. Hastily, messily, leaving everyone confused... but alive to be confused.

The implication? We can act as guardian angels without full conscious knowledge.

--Chris Wayan

SOURCE: Hidden Channels of the Mind by Louisa E. Rhine, 1961, p. 63. Account untitled, author's name witheld; title & byline added to aid searching & indexing.

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