Fifty Years a Medium – Chapter 4, 2/12 by Estelle Roberts

But what about psychometry? In this the medium sees nothing and hears nothing. There is no mental picture which she can look at and describe in detail, and no distant voice to penetrate her consciousness with verbal messages. Then how do the vibrations of the object she is holding communicate their message to her?

As far as I am concerned the answer is inexplicable because there is no physical counterpart from which to make a comparison. I can only say that as soon as I take the proffered object in hand I know its message. I can’t tell you how I know, I can only say I know.

The observant reader will doubtless note that when describing psychometry experiences elsewhere in this book, I sometimes contradict what I have just said by using the words “I got a picture of” or “I heard him say.” In fact, I did neither, but I find myself forced to use such expressions because I can think of no other way to express what I want to say.

What is popularly known as “feminine intuition” is perhaps the nearest parallel I can offer. Much humour is regularly extracted from this subject, and some of it may be justified. Nevertheless, intuition does play its part in the lives of all of us, regardless of sex. Many people have at sometime had an unmistakable hunch which has come unbidden into their thoughts.

Suddenly they know that such and such a thing has happened or is about to happen. It is not a matter for speculation but of certainty. Without any facts to go on, without even having been conscious of thinking about the subject, they are miraculously provided with the answer.

Questioned on it, they will tell you that they knew “intuitively,” which is their way of explaining that they do not know how they knew, or why they knew, but only that they knew. And in the majority of cases their hunches are proved absolutely right.

This sudden “feeling” – whether you call it instinctive or intuitive does not matter – cannot be accounted for by reasoning or logic. It is as though the mind has been momentarily swept clean of all the other thoughts and ideas that normally clutter its surface, leaving it responsive and susceptible to some latent force that is waiting to impress itself.