Clairvoyance Illustrated.
Clairvoyance may be briefly classified as far and near, direct
and indirect, objective and subjective. I propose to give a few
well-authenticated cases to illustrate these phases in this chapter.
FAR AND DIRECT CLAIRVOYANCE
is possibly the highest and purest combination. The sensitive is able
to state facts not within the range of the knowledge of those present.
Thus when Swedenborg described to the Queen and her friends, when at a
distance of several hundred miles from the conflagration, the burning
of her palace at Christiania, no one present could possibly know of the
fire or the incidents connected therewith. Hence no thought-reading,
brain-picking, much less guess-work or coincidence, could account
for the exactness of details given by the seer. Clairvoyance in this
case was not only far and direct, but objective. That is, the matter
recorded was connected with the physical or objective plane.
CLAIRVOYANCE AN AID TO SCIENCE.
“Chicago, as is well-known, is one of the most go-ahead cities in the
world. Like Jonah’s gourd it appeared to spring up in a night. Its
population rapidly increased, and water soon became a _sine qua non_,
both as regards use and luxury. Science was at fault; for geologists
had pronounced that there could be no water beneath such a strata. Top
water was all that could be looked for, and presently a water company
was formed to supply this impure kind of liquid.
“There happened to live at this time in Chicago a person named Abraham
James, a simple-minded man, of Quaker descent, uneducated, and in fact,
quite an ignorant person. It was discovered by a Mrs. Caroline Jordon
that James was a natural clairvoyant, in fact a medium, and that he
had declared when put into the trance condition that both water and
petroleum, in large quantities, would be found in a certain tract of
land in the neighbourhood of the city. For a long time no attention
was paid to his statements. At length two gentlemen from Maine, called
Whitehead and Scott, coming to Chicago on business, and hearing what
had been said by Abraham James, had him taken to the land where he
said water could be had in immense quantities by boring for. Being
entranced, James at once pointed out the very spot. He told them that
he not only saw the water, but could trace its source from the Rocky
Mountains, 2000 miles away, to the spot on which they stood, and
could sketch out on maps the strata and caverns through which it ran.
Negotiations were at once entered into for the purchase of the land,
and the work of boring was commenced. This was in February, 1864, and
the process went on daily till November, when, having reached a depth
of 711 feet, water was struck, and flowed up at once at the rate of
600,000 gallons every 24 hours.
“The borings showed the following kinds of strata passed through by the
drill, and this was spiritually seen and described by the clairvoyant
as practical proofs to the senses of other people. First the drill
passed through alluvium soil, 100 feet; limestone, saturated with oil,
35 feet, which would burn as well as any coal; Joliet marble, 100
feet; conglomerate strata of sand and flint, mixed with iron pyrites
and traces of copper, 125 feet; rock (shale) saturated with petroleum,
the sediment coming up like putty, thick and greasy, 156 feet; galena
limestone was next reached at a depth of 530 feet; a bed of limestone,
containing flint and sulphuret of iron was bored through, the depth
being 639 feet, and being very hard, the work went on slowly. At this
point there appeared a constant commotion arising from the escape
of gas, the water suddenly falling from 30 to 60 feet, and then as
suddenly rising to the surface, carrying with it chippings from the
drill, and other matters. The work still went on; when at the depth of
711 feet the arch of the rock was penetrated, and the water suddenly
burst forth from a bore 4½ in. at the bottom, of a temperature of 58°
F., clear as crystal, pure as diamond, and perfectly free from every
kind of animal and vegetable matter, and which, for drinking purposes
and health, is much better adapted than any water yet known, and will
turn out to be the poor man’s friend for all time to come.
“Here, then, is a huge fact for the faithless: the fact brought to
light by dynamic or invisible agency, and which no power of negation
can gainsay. Natural science said, No water could be found; but
psychology said--False, for I will point out the spot where it will
flow in splendid streams as long as the earth spins on its axis. Since
1864 the artesian well of Chicago has poured forth water at the rate
of a million and a half gallons daily; and what is economic, to say
nothing of Yankee shrewdness, it is conveyed into ponds or reservoirs
which in winter freeze, producing 40,000 tons of ice for sale, and
which might be quadrupled at any time.”[B] This is a case of far and
near, direct and objective clairvoyance. This historical incident
proves the value and reality of psychic vision.
Indirect clairvoyance is the power of discerning what may be more or
less in the minds of those present, including absent or forgotten
thoughts and incidents. Thus, when a clairvoyant describes a place with
accuracy, recognised by some one present to be correct, and also gives
details partly known and unknown, but afterwards found to be correct,
this mixture of phases may be recognised as indirect.
SUBJECTIVE CLAIRVOYANCE
is that phase which enables the sensitive to perceive things and
ideas on the spiritual or subjective plane. The late Rev. Stainton
Moses, well known in literary circles as “M.A., Oxon,” once asked the
following pertinent questions:--“Is there conceivably a mass of life
all round us of which most of us have no cognisance? One gifted lady
I know sees clairvoyantly the spirit-life of all organised things,
of a tree or plant for example. I have heard her describe what her
interior faculties perceive. Is it a fact that spirit, underlying
everything, can be so perceived by the awakened faculties?” I should
say yes. If this lady’s clairvoyance has been of a high order in other
respects--why not in this? This type of psychic vision is of the
subjective order.
There are necessarily an infinite variety of phases, pure and mixed,
which the investigator will meet in practice. These phases may be
called _far_, such as seeing objects, etc., at a distance--prevoyance,
predicting events; retrovoyance, reading the past; introvoyance,
seeing internally, or examining bodies, as in disease; external
introvoyance, seeing into lockets, packets, letters, safes, and
discovering hidden, known or forgotten, or lost objects. Lastly, there
is pseudo-clairvoyance. For one case of direct there are hundreds
of well authenticated cases of indirect clairvoyance, and again for
one of the latter there are thousands of pseudo-clairvoyance, which
are the outcome of states similar to hypnosis, and are nothing more
than an incongruous medley of suggested ideas and fancies. Thus a
strong and positive willed person can impinge his ideas through
the thought-atmosphere of the sensitive and distort or deflect the
psychic vision, and render abortive any attempts to get beyond the
circle of the dominating influence. Again, the sensitive may enter
a realm of fancy--a veritable dreamland of coherent and incoherent
ideation, either the product of the sensitive’s own condition, or of
suggestion--accidental, spontaneous, and determined--in the sensitive’s
surroundings. Of course any classification of the numerous phases of
clairvoyance must be purely arbitrary.
DIRECT AND OBJECTIVE CLAIRVOYANCE--LOST GOODS RESTORED.
This instance of far vision is taken from “A Tangled Yarn,” page 173,
“Leaves from Captain James Payn’s Log,” which was published recently
by C. H. Kelly. As I knew Captain Hudson, of Swansea, personally, and
heard from his own lips the following incident, I have much pleasure
in introducing it here as a further illustration of the _Cui bono_ of
clairvoyance:--
“The _Theodore_ got into Liverpool the same day as the _Bland_. She was
a larger ship than ours but had a similar cargo. The day that I went
to the owners to report ‘all right,’ I met with Captain Morton in a
terrible stew because he was thirty bales of cotton short, a loss equal
to the whole of his own wages and the mate’s into the bargain. He was
so fretted over it that his wife in desperation recommended him to get
the advice of a Captain Hudson, who had a young female friend clever as
a clairvoyant. We were both sceptical in the matter of clairvoyance. At
first Morton didn’t wish to meddle, he said, with ‘a parcel of modern
witchcraft,’ and that sort of thing; but he at last yielded to his
wife’s urgency and consented to go. There was first of all a half-crown
fee to Captain Hudson, and then the way was clear for an interview with
the young clairvoyant. I was present to ‘see fair.’ When the girl had
been put into the clairvoyant state Morton was instructed to take her
right hand in his right hand and ask her any questions he wished. The
replies were in substance as follows:--She went back mentally to the
port whence the _Theodore_ had sailed, retracing with her hand as she
in words also described the course of the ship from Liverpool across
the Atlantic, through the West Indian group, etc., back to New Orleans.
At length she said, ‘Yes, this is the place where the cotton was lost;
it’s put on board a big black ship with a red mark round it.’ Then she
began to trace with her hand and describe the homeward course of the
vessel, but after re-crossing the Atlantic, instead of coming up the
Irish Channel for Liverpool, she turned along the English Channel as
though bound for the coast of France; and then stretching out her hand
she exclaimed, ‘Oh, here’s the cotton; but what funny people they are;
they don’t talk English.’ Captain Morton said at once, ‘I see; it’s
the _Brunswick_, Captain Thomas,’ an American ship that lay alongside
of him at New Orleans and was taking in her cargo of cotton while the
_Theodore_ was loading, and was bound for Havre de Grace. Captain
Morton, satisfied with his clairvoyant’s information, went home and
wrote immediately to Captain Thomas, inquiring for his lost cargo.
In due course he got an answer that the cotton was certainly there,
that it had been taken off the wharf in mistake, and that it was about
to be sold for whomsoever it might concern; but that if he (Captain
Morton) would remit a certain amount to cover freight and expenses
the bales should be forwarded to him at once. He did so, and in due
time received the cotton, subject only to the expenses of transit from
Havre to Liverpool. Such are the facts; I do not profess to offer any
explanation.”
CLAIRVOYANCE AN AID TO THE PHYSICIAN.
I am indebted to Dr. George Wyld for this case, which also exhibits
the value of clairvoyance. Dr. Wyld had the good fortune to make the
acquaintance of a Mrs. D----, a lady in private life who was endowed
with the gift of natural clairvoyance. Dr. Wyld told this lady of “a
friend who had for years suffered intense agony for hours every night
in his back and chest, and that latterly he had been obliged to sit up
all night in a chair, and his legs began to swell.”
“This gentleman had regularly for three years been under many of the
leading physicians of London. Some said that there must be some obscure
heart affection, others said it was neuralgia, one said it was gout,
and the last consulted said it was malignant caries of the spine.”
Dr. Wyld’s friend called upon him by appointment, and met Mrs. D----.
This lady merely looked at him. When he had retired from the room Mrs.
D---- made the following statement of his case to the doctor:--“I have
seen what the disease is; I saw it as distinctly as if the body were
transparent. There is a tumour behind the heart, about the size of a
walnut; it is of a dirty colour; and it jumps and looks as if it would
burst. Nothing can do him any good but entire rest.”
“I at once saw,” says Dr. Wyld, what she meant, and sat down to write
to my friend’s medical attendant as follows:--
“I believe I have discovered the nature of Mr.----’s disease. He has
an aneurism on the descending aorta, about the size of a walnut. It
is this which causes the slight displacement which has been observed
in the heart, and the pressure of the tumour against the intercostal
nerves is the cause of the agony in the back, and the peripheral pains
in the front of the chest. You are going to-morrow to see Sir ---- in
consultation; show him this diagnosis, and let me know what he says.”
“Next the patient had the consultation, and Mrs. D----’s diagnosis
was confirmed; and the doctors agreed with Mrs. D---- the only thing
to be done was to take entire rest. The treatment was duly followed
up, with successful results.” Dr. Wyld thoughtfully adds--“It is true
that the diagnosis cannot be absolutely confirmed during life, but as
the profession unanimously pronounce the disease to be aneurism, the
diagnosis may be accepted as correct. This diagnosis has probably saved
the gentleman’s life, as before Mrs. D---- saw him he was allowed to
shoot over Scotch moors, and to ride, drive, and play billiards.”
The use of clairvoyance in the diagnosis of disease is by no means
as rare as the majority of physicians and the general public would
naturally assume. I have had many opportunities of witnessing the
accuracy of diagnosis and the excellence of the methods of treatment
advised by clairvoyants. In my own personal experience I have had much
evidence of correctness of clairvoyance in diagnosis, and subsequent
success in treatment. It is a phase most desirable to cultivate if
possible, and all allied conditions connected therewith.
TRAVELLING CLAIRVOYANCE.
As a public entertainer at one time, giving demonstrations of mesmeric
phenomena, I have had naturally many opportunities of seeing different
types of clairvoyance. During a course of entertainments given by
me in Rothesay, 1881, I was able to introduce clairvoyance to public
notice by the most difficult method, that of public experiments.
M. C., the clairvoyante, was a native of Newcastle-on-Tyne. All her
clairvoyant experiments were satisfactory. Her husband was also a
clairvoyant, but not so striking for public exhibition. M. C. seemed
to possess all phases. One or two experiments out of many will be
interesting not only as illustrative of clairvoyance, but because what
I relate can be easily ratified.
M. C. arrived in Rothesay for the first time about four hours
previously to taking her seat upon the platform, in the New Public
Halls. It was neither possible nor probable she could have obtained the
information she possessed by other than psychic means. The clairvoyant
was mesmerised and blindfolded before the audience. After some
experiments in objective clairvoyance were given, such as describing
a watch, telling the time, and the number, by having the watch held
silently over her forehead, she gave several experiments in travelling
clairvoyance. Many visitors in the hall--for Rothesay is a well known
and fashionable seaside resort--sent up requests to the platform, and
desired the clairvoyante should visit their homes in Kent, Cornwall,
Island of Jersey, in the Isle of Man, Glasgow, and other places. Her
visits and descriptions were in all instances extremely satisfactory.
How far thought-transference and objective clairvoyance commingled and
entered into her descriptions it would be difficult to say, but the
results were simply marvellous.
Test case, by the late Dr. Maddever, M.D., M.R.C.S., and Dr. John
Maddever, his son. These medical gentlemen resided in Rothesay,
and were present in the hall. Dr. Maddever desired me to send the
clairvoyante into a certain room in his house and that she should
describe it.
All the directions the clairvoyante obtained were, “to go out of the
hall, down the front steps; when out turn to the right and proceed
onward till she came to an iron-railed gate, on which was a small brass
plate, bearing the name of ‘Dr. Maddever,’ she was to open the gate, go
up to the hall-door, enter, pass the first door to the left, and turn
round a passage to the left and enter the first door to which she came,
and describe what she saw.”
Sitting still upon the platform in silence for a minute or two, she
suddenly exclaimed:--“I am at the gate--at the door--now in the hall--I
have found the room, and I am now inside, and stand with my back to the
door.” She then proceeded to describe the room, the book-cases which
surrounded it, their peculiar structure; the mantel-piece, the form of
the clock, the time, and the appearance of the ornaments. The table in
the centre of the room, its form, the colour and style of the cloth
upon it, books, albums, and papers thereon, the flower vase support in
the window, and a number of other particulars.
At the conclusion Dr. Maddever arose in the audience and said:--“Ladies
and gentlemen, Professor Coates is a stranger to me, I only know of him
by report. The young lady on the platform I do not know. I have not
seen either till this evening, and they have never been in my house.
The experiment we have had is most remarkable, and should be of deep
and profound interest to all. The young lady has described the room, as
far as I can remember, most correctly--in fact very much better than I
could have done myself.” This statement was received with applause.
After one or two instances of travelling clairvoyance, a young
gentleman rose in the body of the hall and desired I should send the
sensitive to a house or villa not far from the juncture of Marine Place
and Ardbeg Road.
The directions given to the clairvoyante were briefly to the effect,
she was to leave the place, on reaching the front street she was to
turn to her left and keep on past the Post Office, Esplanade, past the
Skeoch Woods, etc., till she came to the house. She nodded her head in
compliance, and presently announced she “had found the house.” Then she
shivered and appeared to draw back, and said “I won’t go in.”
Some persons in the audience laughed, and one (I think it was the
young gentleman who asked that she might be sent) said: “The whole
thing is a swindle.” Now, considering there was not a single flaw in
the experiments that night, surprise after surprise being given, and
the audience had risen in enthusiasm, this opinion was not favourably
received.
I asked the gentleman “to have patience.” I had no doubt but we would
know soon enough the reasons. “Whatever they were I would try and
ascertain them.”
With much hesitancy she declared that “the house was not one any
respectable female would enter, and she would not.” When I repeated
this statement to the audience, there was what the newspapers call
“sensation.” The sensation was intensified when one of the Rothesay
Magistrates, Bailie Molloy, the then senior Bailie of the Royal Burgh,
declared “the young woman was right, perfectly right, this was a house
which had been inadvertently let to persons of ill-fame, and he, for
one, had recently had the facts of the case placed before him, and he
was most anxious that these people should be put out, and they would
be, as soon as the proper steps could be taken.”
The young gentleman retired somewhat discomfited, and the excitement
produced by these and other experiments brought crowded houses during
my professional stay.
When my “mesmeric exposition” was concluded, the two medical gentlemen
referred to, were good enough to introduce themselves, and invited me
to call next day to see the room. I accepted the invitation during
the following day and saw how truly correct and vivid her description
had been. In the first experiment the sensitive described the state of
the doctor’s library, pointing out what had not been recollected by
either of the medical men, and I believe the other case comes under the
heading of direct and objective clairvoyance. Dr. Maddever’s house was
about a quarter of a mile, and the other house about a mile and a half
from the hall.
The persistent and reliable clairvoyance evinced by this sensitive
was induced. She was a mesmeric subject, and when such subjects are
properly treated they make the very best clairvoyants.
PSYCHIC VISION POSSESSED BY THE PHYSICALLY BLIND.
Mrs. Croad resided at Redland, Bristol. My attention was called to
her case about fifteen years ago by Dr. J. G. Davey, of Bristol.
Unfortunately circumstances at the time prevented a personal visit and
report. Her psychic gifts and wonderful supersensitivity have been
amply testified to, by most reliable witnesses, such as Dr. Davey, Hy.
G. Atkinson, F.G.S., and others.
Clairvoyance in Mrs. Croad’s case was and is (for I believe the lady is
still living) a singular admixture of subtle sense transference so well
known to mesmerists of the old school, and spontaneous psychic vision.
Thought-transference and indirect clairvoyance, more or less induced,
by intense voluntary concentration.
Mrs. Croad is deaf, dumb, and paralysed, and stone blind. She can
see and hear, read with powers “denied to ordinary mortals,” and
discern pictures and writings in the dark. She is aware of her
daughter’s thoughts when the latter touches her, and becomes at once
acquainted with what her daughter wishes to communicate. She possesses
supersensitivity of touch, and discerns colour by their degrees of
heat, roughness or smoothness. She can also identify photographs and
pictures in the same way. From time to time she has exhibited the
highest phases of clairvoyance. Reports have been made in this case
by medical experts in the _Journal of Psychological Medicine_, and
other magazines and journals several years ago. The most recent was
contributed by the Rev. Taliesin Dans, The Cottage, Claptons, to _The
Review of Reviews_ in January, 1891.
THE SPIRITUALISTIC AND PRACTICAL CHARACTER OF CLAIRVOYANCE
might be further illustrated by the well known case of Miss Eliza
Hamilton, who became paralysed in her limbs and right arm, through
severe injury to the spine. She had been in hospital for four months,
on her return home frequently passed into the trance state, and
on awakening described various people and places she had visited,
and objects seen. These descriptions have been invariably verified
subsequently. “She also at times,” says her physician, “speaks of
having been in the company of persons with whom she was acquainted in
this world, but who have passed away; and she tells her friends that
they have become more beautiful, and have cut off their infirmities
with which they were afflicted while here. She often describes events
which _are about to happen_, and these are always fulfilled exactly as
she predicts.”
“Her father,” says Mr. Hudson Tuttle, “read in her presence a letter
he had received from a friend in Leeds, speaking of the loss of his
daughter, about whose fate he was very unhappy, as she had disappeared
nearly a month before, and left no trace. Eliza went into the trance
state, and cried out, ‘Rejoice! I have found the lost girl! She is
happy in the angel world.’ She said the girl had fallen into the dark
water where dyers washed their cloths; that her friends could not have
found her had they sought her there, _but_ now the body had floated a
few miles, and would be found in the River Aire. The body was found as
described.
“Now, knowing that her eyes were closed, that she could not hear, that
her bodily senses were in profound lethargy, how are we to account for
the intensity and keenness of sight? Her mental powers were exceedingly
exalted, and scarcely a question could be asked her but she correctly
answered.
“In this case the independence of the mind of the physical body are
shown in every instance of clairvoyance, is proven beyond cavil or
doubt. If it is demonstrated that the mind sees without the aid of
eyes, hears when the ears are deaf, feels when the nerves of sensation
are at rest, it follows that it is independent of these outward
avenues, and has other channels of communication with the external
world essentially its own.”
CLAIRVOYANCE FROM DISEASE.
Miss Mollie Fancher, of Brooklyn Heights, fell off a tramway car when
eighteen years of age, experienced very severe injuries to head and
spine, her body being dragged a distance, through her dress catching on
the step of the car. She became paralysed, lost all her senses, except
touch. She gradually recovered hearing, taste, and ability to talk
in time. She was also blind for nine years. Drs. Speir and Ormiston
were her physicians, men of skill and marked probity. These, with a
veritable host of medical men--ministers of the Gospel, educationists
and specialists--have borne testimony to her remarkable endowments,
from which we take two extracts. Mr. Charles Ewart, Principal of the
Brooklyn Heights Seminary, where she was under special care, writes:--
“For many days together she has been to all appearances dead. The
slightest pulse could not be detected; there was no evidence of
respiration. Her limbs were as cold as ice, and had there not been
some warmth about her heart, she would have been buried. When I first
saw her she had but one sense--that of touch. By running her fingers
over the printed page, she could read with equal facility in light or
darkness. The most delicate work is done by her in the night.... Her
power of clairvoyance, or second sight, is marvellously developed.
_Distance imposes no barriers_, without the slightest error she
dictates the contents of sealed letters which have never been in her
hands. She discriminates in darkness the most delicate shades of
colour. She writes with extraordinary rapidity.”
Mr. Henry M. Parkhurst, the astronomer (residing at 173 Gates Avenue,
Brooklyn, N.Y.), writes:--
“From the waste-basket of a New York gentleman acquaintance he
fished an unimportant business letter, without reading it, tore it
into ribbons, and tore the ribbons into squares. He shook the pieces
well together, put them into an envelope, and sealed it. This he
subsequently handed to Miss Fancher. The blind girl took the envelope
in her hand, and passed her hand over it several times, called for
paper and pencil, and wrote it verbatim. The seal of the letter had
not been broken. Mr. Parkhurst himself opened it, pasted the contents
together, and compared the two. Miss Fancher’s was a literal copy of
the original.”
MESMERIC CLAIRVOYANCE AND SPIRITUALISM.
“A few evenings ago I called upon Mr. and Mrs. Loomis, 2 Vernon
Place, Bloomsbury, and after we had chatted for a short time in the
drawing-room with the door closed and nobody else present, I asked if
they would try a mesmeric experiment for me. They willingly agreed,
and Mr. Loomis, by passes, threw his wife into a mesmeric state, as he
often does, and an intelligence, which claimed to be the spirit of her
mother, spoke through her lips. Until this moment I had said nothing to
any living soul about the nature of my contemplated experiment, but I
then asked the unseen intelligence if it could then and there go to the
house of Mrs. Macdougall Gregory, 21 Green Street, Grosvenor Square,
London, and move a heavy physical object in her presence. The reply
was, I do not know, I will try. About three minutes afterwards, at 8.40
p.m., the intelligence said that Mrs. Gregory was in her drawing-room
with a friend, and added, ‘I have made Mrs. Gregory feel a prickly
sensation in her arm from the elbow down to the hand, as if some person
had squeezed the arm, and she has spoken about it to her friend.’
“I took a note in writing of this statement at the time it was made. A
few minutes later I left Mr. and Mrs. Loomis, and without telling them
my intention to do so, went straight to the house of Mrs. Gregory about
a mile and a half off. I had selected Mrs. Gregory for this experiment
because she is not afraid to publish her name in connection with
psychic truths, and her word carries weight, especially in Scotland,
where she and her family are well-known. She is the widow of Professor
Gregory, of Edinburgh University, and is a lineal descendant of the
Lord of the Isles. I then for the first time told Mrs. Gregory of the
experiment. She replied that between half-past eight and nine o’clock
that evening she was playing the piano, and suddenly turned round to
her friend, Miss Yauewicz, of Upper Norwood, saying, ‘I don’t know what
is the matter with me, I feel quite stupid, and have such a pain in
my right arm that I cannot go on playing.’ Miss Yauewicz, who was no
believer in spiritualism or any of the marvels of psychology, felt a
lively interest when she was informed of the experiment. She told me
that she clearly remembered Mrs. Gregory’s statement that she could not
go on playing because of the pain in her right arm.”[C]
Mrs. Loomis was a remarkable clairvoyante, whom I accidently became
acquainted with in Liverpool many years ago, shortly after her arrival
from America. I introduced the lady and her husband, Mr. Daniel Loomis,
to Mr. Harrison, then editor of _The Spiritualist_. The Guion steamer,
_Idaho_, in which they came from New York, was wrecked off the Irish
Coast, and all they possessed in this world was lost with the vessel.
Mrs. Loomis predicted the disaster, where it was likely to take place;
that all hands would be saved, but all they had lost. Upon the arrival
of the officers of the vessel in Liverpool, they presented Mrs. Loomis,
at the Bee Hotel, John Street, Liverpool, with a basket of flowers,
purse, and testimonial, in recognition of her gift, and heroic conduct
during and after the disaster. I may add I knew Mr. Harrison as a most
careful investigator and a man of scientific tastes and ability.
I select the following case of a mesmeric sensitive controlled by
a disembodied spirit, from the writings of Mr. Epes Sargent, author
of “Planchette on the Despair of Science,” etc., as appropriately
illustrative of this form of clairvoyance:--
“One of the daughters of my valued correspondent, the late William
Howett, was a mesmeric sensitive. Howett told Professor W. D. Gunning,
whose words (slightly abridged) I here use, that, on one occasion his
daughter, being entranced, wrote a communication signed with the name
of her brother, supposed to be in Australia. The import was, that he
had been drowned a few days before in a lake. Dates and details were
given. The parents could only wait, as there was no trans-oceanic
telegraph. Months passed, and at last a letter came from a nephew in
Melbourne, bearing the tidings that their son had been drowned on such
a day, in such a lake, under such and such circumstances. Date, place,
and all the essential details were the same as those given months
before through the daughter. Mr. Howett believed that the freed spirit
of his son influenced the sister to write; and I know of no explanation
more rational that this.”
CLAIRVOYANCE DUE TO SPIRITUAL CONTROL.
Such cases as the above are the most difficult of all to prove. What I
contend for is, if it is demonstrated we can control a fellow-being,
throw him or her into a trance state--in which the phenomena of the
psychic state are evolved--and seeing such state is induced largely
by the control of spirit over spirit in the body, why may not a
disembodied spirit control, direct, or influence a suitable sensitive
or medium in the body? If not, why not? There is abundant evidence of
such controls.
Seeing objects concealed in boxes and letters, or reading books and
mottoes, etc., appears to some clairvoyants to be more difficult than
diagnosing disease, or seeing objects at a distance. The why and
wherefore seems at first difficult to explain.
The deliberate concealment of objects for the purpose of testing
clairvoyance is often the result of a spirit of virulent suspicion,
disbelief, and what is worse, _an earnest desire for failure_, so that
the parties may rejoice on the discomfiture of the clairvoyants. With
such people failure is a source of pleasure. Nevertheless, seeming
impossibilities have been triumphed over. Long lost wills have been
found, and places of the accidental or intentional hiding discovered.
In more than one case deliberate fraud has been exposed, and the guilty
parties brought to acknowledge the truth of the sensitive’s revelations.
THE FUGITIVE NATURE OF CLAIRVOYANCE.
“The chief feature,” said Alexis Didier, “of the somnambulistic
lucidity is its variability. While the conjurer or juggler, at all
moments in the day and before all spectators, will invariably succeed,
the somnambulist, endowed with the marvellous power of clairvoyance,
will not be lucid with all interviewers and at all moments of the
day; for the faculty of lucidity being a crisis painful and abnormal,
there may be atmospheric influences or invincible antipathies at work
opposing its production, and which seem to paralyse all supersensual
manifestation. Intuition, clairvoyance, lucidity, are faculties which
the somnambulist gets from the nature of his temperament, and which
are rarely developed in force.” Further, he adds, “the somnambulistic
lucidity varies in a way to make one despair; success is continually
followed by failure; in a word, error succeeds a truth; but when one
analyses the causes of this no right-minded person will bring up the
charge of Charlatanism, since the faculty is subject to influences
independent of the will and the consciousness of the clairvoyant.”
Alexis Didier, like his brother Adolphe, was a natural clairvoyant,
and excelled in direct and objective clairvoyance, phases of the most
striking and convincing character.
Clairvoyance can be cultivated by the aid of mesmerism and by the
introspection process. By the first, the sensitive can be materially
assisted by the experience and help of the operator. By the second,
something like natural clairvoyance can be induced. Either processes
are more or less suitable to subdue the activity of the senses, and
give greater range to the psychic powers. General instructions are
of little use. Personal advice is best. The operator then knows with
whom he has to do, their special temperament and character, what are
the best processes to adopt to cultivate their gift, and how far such
sensitives and students are themselves likely to be suitable for
clairvoyant experiments. I have found the “Mirror Disc” useful in
inducing favourable conditions in the normal state for the development
of clairvoyance, and recommend its use.