The following account is an extract from the periodical 'The Arena' - Volume III published at Boston. Mass. in the USA during 1891. [499] [517]

'Mr. Algernon Joy, an engineer employed on the Penarth Docks, at Cardiff, South Wales, was walking in a country lane near the town, absorbed in a calculation connected with the Docks, when he was attacked and knocked down by two young colliers. His thoughts were then immediately directed to the possible cause of the attack, to the possibility of identifying the men, and to informing the police.

He is positive that for about half an hour previous to the attack and for an hour or two after it, there was no connection whatever, direct or indirect, between his thoughts and a friend in London. Yet at almost the precise moment of the assault, this friend recognized Mr. Joy's footsteps in the street, behind him, then turned and saw Mr. Joy "as distinctly as ever he saw him in his life," saw he looked distressed, asked what was the matter, and received the answer, "Go home, old fellow, I've been hurt."

All this was communicated in a letter from the friend which crossed one from Mr. Joy, giving an account of the accident.*

In this case, whether the "double" was an audible and visual veridical hallucination, or a objective phantasm, it could not have been produced without some adequate cause. To assert that Mr. Joy was himself the unconscious cause cannot be looked upon as an explanation, or as in any way helping us to a comprehension of how such things can happen. We imperatively need a producing agent, some intellectual being having both the will and the power to produce such a veridical phantasm.'

* Phantasms of the Living, Vol. II., p. 524 - Gurney, Edmund, 1847-1888. Phantasms of the Living. [1st ed.] London: Rooms of the Society for psychical research; Trübner and Co., 1886. [1046] [499]

Visual Cases - August 16th, 1883  - From Mr. Algernon Joy, 20, Wilton Place, S.W.

'About 1862, I was walking in a country lane near Cardiff by myself, when I was overtaken by two young colliers, who suddenly attacked me. One of them gave me a violent blow on the eye, which knocked me down, half stunned. I distinctly remembered afterwards all that I had been thinking about, both immediately prior to the attack, and for some time after it. Up to the moment of the attack, and for some time previously, I was absorbed in a calculation, connected with the Penarth Docks, then in construction, on which I was employed. My train of thought was interrupted for a moment by the sound of footsteps behind me. I looked back, and saw the two young men, but thought no more of them, and immediately returned to my calculations. On receiving the blow, I began speculating on their object, what they were going to do next, how I could best defend myself, or escape from them ; and when they ran away, and I had picked myself up, I thought of trying to identify them, and of denouncing them at the police-station, to which I proceeded, after following them till I lost sight of them. In short I am positive that for about half an hour previous to the attack, and for an hour or two after it, there was no connection whatever, direct or indirect, between my thoughts and a person at that moment in London, and whom I will call 'A.' Two days afterwards, I received a letter from 'A,' written on the day after the assault , asking me what I had been doing and thinking about at half-past 4 p.m., on the day previous to that on which he was writing. He continued : 'I had just passed your club, and was thinking of you, when I recognised your footstep behind me. You laid your hand heavily on my shoulder. I turned, and saw you as distinctly as I ever saw you in my life. You looked distressed, and, in answer to my greeting and inquiry, “What 's the matter?" you said, “Go home, old fellow, I've been hurt. You will get a letter from me in the morning telling you all about it.” You then vanished instantaneously.'

“The assault took place as near half-past 4 as possible, certainly between 4.15 and 4.45. I wrote an account of it to 'A' on the following day, so that our letters crossed, he receiving mine, not the next morning, as my double had promised, but on the succeeding one, at about the same time as I received his. 'A’ solemnly assured me that he knew no one in or near Cardiff, and that my account was the only one that he received of the incident. From my intimate personal knowledge of him, I am certain that he is incapable of uttering an untruth. But there are reasons why I cannot give his name, even in confidence.'

“Algernon Joy."

[Mr. Joy having received an account of the phantasm written before the news of his accident reached the percipient, his evidence is on a par with first-hand (Vol. I., p. 148 ).] - Phantasms of the Living - Vol. II [1046] [499] 1886.