One afternoon in the early 1900s, a college student named Hugh Callaway proposed a curious experiment. Calloway invited two of his college mates, Elkington and Slade, to join him later that night at a park they often frequented, Southhampton Commons. However, this late-night journey would not involve stealing out of the dorm rooms and sneaking across campus to the appointed spot. Instead, Callaway wanted his college mates to meet him at the park — in their dreams.

Callaway was better known to the world as Oliver Fox, the pen name that this science and engineering student often used when writing for esoteric journals such as the Occult Review. One of Callaway's favorite topics was astral projection, an out-of-body technique whereby an individual projects a second "body of light" to traverse the physical realm as well as vast and dream-like astral vistas.

Fox's experiment, which used the state of dreaming as a stepping stone into an astrally projected state, was, for the most part, a success. The next morning, Elkington told of dreaming about meeting on the Commons. He remembered conversing with Callaway, but the two of them waited around to no avail for their third companion, Slade, to show up. Calloway also recalled the night-time meeting with Elkington on the Commons, and he also noted the absence of Slade. Slade, for his part, considered the experiment a failure as he recalled no dreams at all that night. Since both of his cohorts independently noted that he was a no-show, it seems that the failure lay with him.