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Budapest, October 5, 1909
VII., Erzsébet-körút 54
Dear Professor!
Already on the first day upon my return I was so inundated with work that I can only now finish this letter, which I began on the train1
As a postscript to my story I can add the following:
Before she (Frau Seidler)2 named one of the city names (Vienna, Hamburg), she acted very strained, as though she had far to go. At Vienna the first thing she said was: “The letter (yours) leads me into a city where I already was; first I see the railway station”—“Yes, that is Vienna.”
At our departure she said to me: “Recommend me, Doctor,” even though I didn't introduce myself as “Doctor.” She had evidently read the salutation in your letter to me
When I try to explain what I saw and heard I must admit that I am incapable of doing so.—
Reading through the cloth, i.e., with a blindfold, could be sleight of hand. But guessing the occupation of Prof. Phillips [sic]3 as well as the strange statements about your personality are certainly not. I said nothing that could have helped her do this; I hardly spoke at all—she didn't even let me say a word. The card that she received (and perhaps read, cleverly and unbeknownst to me) says so little that her many pertinent remarks about your interests and intellectual tendencies are certainly striking.
Now, if I assume that she really possesses uncommon abilities, then this could perhaps be explained as a kind of “mind reading,” as reading my thoughts.
The intensive self-analysis that I undertook immediately after the séance