Fifty Years a Medium – Chapter 4, 8/12 by Estelle Roberts

As the doctor himself was quick to acknowledge, at the time of the séance he had known of the suicide, but none of the details, which I had supplied. He had been astonished to have them confirmed in every particular by his Canadian correspondent. He asked if there were some way by which we might convince his Canadian friend of Red Cloud’s existence. I suggested an experiment.

At my request the doctor wrote to the widow asking her to choose some object connected with her husband and post it to him in England. The object was to be placed in a rigid box so as not to reveal its contents by shape or feel, and it was to be wrapped and sealed in such a way that it could not be opened without breaking the seals. When the parcel arrived at the doctor’s address he was to bring it unopened to me.

These instructions were carried out. When the doctor next called at my house he carried the mystery parcel. It measured in inches about eight by six by two. Judging by the way it was heavily sealed the widow was taking no chances.

“Have you any idea what this box contains?” I asked the doctor. “None whatsoever,” was his emphatic reply.
As I held the box in my two hands, I knew at once what it contained.

“Inside this package there is a photograph of the dead man,” I said. “It was originally a picture of two people standing side by side, but it has been cut in half so that only one portrait remains – that of the dead man.”
With the seals still unbroken the parcel was returned to Canada together with my description of its contents, which I learned, was correct in every detail.

Of course it might be argued that the widow and I were in unconscious telepathic communication; distance, it may even be argued, is no hindrance. But as this women and I did not know each other, had never corresponded, and the date and the hour of our experiment had not been disclosed to her, it is hardly a theory that can be seriously entertained.