DR. McPHERSON'S STATEMENT
DR. JAMES HYSLOP.
_My Dear Sir:_--After reading the account which I am mailing to you
under separate cover, will you kindly forward it to the American Branch
of the Society of Psychical Research? As you will observe, it is a
verbatim report of a "séance."
For your personal information, I beg to make the following supplementary
statement.
At the residence of Peter Grimm,--I should say the _late_ Peter
Grimm--(the well-known horticulturist of Grimm Manor, N. Y.) certain
phenomena occurred this evening which would clearly indicate the Return
of Peter Grimm, ten days after his decease. At my first free moment
after the manifestation, I jotted down in shorthand the exact dialogue,
etc., which I have since transcribed into the enclosed report.
While Peter Grimm was invisible to all, three people were present
besides myself; including the "recipient," a child of eight, who had
been ill, but was almost normal at the time.
No spelling out of signals nor automatic writing was employed, but word
of mouth.
I made a compact with Peter Grimm while he was in the flesh that
whichever one of us should go first was to return and give the other
some sign. And I propose, by the enclosed report, to show positive proof
that Peter Grimm kept his compact and that I assisted in the carrying
out of his instructions.
Let me introduce myself and briefly recount the circumstances which led
up to the séance, as well as my own state of mind concerning
manifestations:
I am a practising physician in the town of Grimm Manor, a suburb of New
York City, settled at the time of the Dutch occupation of Manhattan, and
named after the family, the Grimms, which first owned the farm that is
now the town site.
I have always been greatly interested in Spiritualism. I have read
nearly all that has been written on this subject and have known,
personally, most all the so-called mediums. I have attended séances in
this country and abroad and have by turns been convinced that they were
genuine or frauds.
Up to the time when the events which I am about to narrate began to
occur, I had been unable to come to a definite decision, as far as my
own belief was concerned, as to whether or not the spirits of the dead
could communicate with the living. At one time I would be led to believe
they could, but then the exposure of some well-known medium as a
trickster would change my opinion and I would again find myself puzzling
vainly over the answer to this problem.
You doubtless remember the furore which was created in Spiritualistic
circles by the announcement of an English physician that, in accordance
with a compact, a friend had communicated with him after death.
This idea fascinated me. There is an old Japanese myth to the effect
that if a dying man resolves to do a certain act the body will, after
death, perform that act. It seemed to me that if a man could die and
return to earth in spirit it must be as the result of a resolution to
return made just before death and constituting the ruling passion at the
time of death itself. I determined that I would put this theory to the
test.
We of this materialistic world of barter and sale give little time to
the consideration of the Hereafter. There are occasions with most of us
when the unanswerable Why and Whence obtrudes itself on our vision, but
it is a fleeting impression which vanishes with the rising of the sun on
the day's work. The wonder and mystery of life may come home to us at
the birth of a child or the death of a loved one, but we soon cease to
marvel at the miracle of the former and a new joy banishes grief.
For, we say, what avails it, this search after the Land of the
Hereafter, if there be such a place? No one has ever come back to tell
us that there is; or what it is and where. It is all a matter of
conjecture in which we are following round the circle trod by man since
the world began.
One man believes that there is a Hereafter, a spirit land in which the
Soul, stripped of all evil, reaches a state of perfection and divine
happiness which justifies the stupendous feat of the Creation and the
travail of those who are bound to the treadmill of life.
Another believes, pointing for proof to the dead branches from which new
leaves spring, that life is endless, and that the soul, leaving the
worn-out shell, takes up its dwelling in another form. Another with
scorn tells us that all life is a joke and we are the butts of the
cruel will of an Omnipotent power. And still another says:
"Any and all beliefs in this matter are good, for none can be proved.
Let each believe that which gives him the most happiness, so long as it
be noble and sweet and true."
And with this last I hold. So that if it bring peace and love and
contentment into the heart of man, woman, or child to believe that the
spirit of a loved one, who has solved the Problem mortal cannot solve,
can return to earth and communicate by some sign or token with those who
were its companions when it inhabited a human house, I say it is wrong
to scoff and rail at this belief.
There has now come to me the proof that such a belief does bring peace
and love and contentment, that it does cast out evil. With regard to the
Psychological aspects of the circumstances which are related in the
enclosed transcript, I express no opinion. I have never before had the
feeling that a person dead so far as mortal existence was concerned was
endeavouring to communicate with me. The debates and wrangles which go
on continually between those who affirm and deny the possibility of
spirit messages have always impressed me, but beyond a theory, I had no
knowledge as to the right or wrong of it. However, I was strongly
inclined to believe.
The fact that on many occasions so-called rappings, table liftings,
writings, and other supposed spirit manifestations have been shown to be
the result of mere human trickery does not necessarily prove that such
demonstrations may not be the efforts of an immortal soul to make its
presence known.
I say this because I want it understood that I have not allowed any
prejudice, favourable or otherwise, to creep into the report that I send
herewith. I go no further than to say that if my report helps to prove
that the spirit of one we have loved and revered can come back and bring
peace and love and happiness to mortals who are in dire need, if it can
banish blighting evil from their lives; then life, for all its burdens,
is not lived in vain.
Among my dearest friends was Peter Grimm, direct descendant of the
founders of the village, who still occupied the old Manor House and was
engaged in horticulture. Grimm's tulips were known throughout the
country and his business was a large one.
There lived with him Kathrien, whom he had adopted at my suggestion
(made at a time when he seemed to be getting morose and verging on
becoming a recluse) that he needed a child in the house; Frederik, his
nephew and heir; James Hartmann, his secretary, and Willem, the son of
Anne Marie, the daughter of Marta, the housekeeper.
Anne Marie had left home in disgrace and had sent Willem to her mother
after his father had deserted her. Who this man was had never been
revealed, and the whereabouts of Anne Marie herself were unknown at the
time I am writing of.
At those times when I leaned toward the conviction that communication
between earth and spirit land was possible, I was prone to think that if
it could be, it must be between a spirit and a mortal who in life
typified in their affection for each other the highest type of pure
love. If any mortal, I thought, could receive a spirit message, it must
be one whose heart and soul are spotless, whose love is as that of a
little child before it has grown to manhood and plucked at the leaves of
the Tree of Knowledge.
In the day Kathrien entered his home there was born in Peter Grimm a
great love for mankind, but especially for children. Not but that he
had always been kindly and charitable to those who deserved his aid, but
where before his life had been given up to his business, to making the
brown earth do his will, he now devoted his chief thought to making
Kathrien happy. This love for children was increased when Willem came to
him, and I think the most perfect affection that ever existed among
three persons was that which these three bore to each other.
Peter came to me recently to be treated for a cold which, while severe,
was not in itself dangerous. But in examining him I found that his heart
was in such a condition that a strong emotion, such as intense joy,
anger, or fear might cause instant death.
I determined, on discovering this, to ask him to enter into a compact
with me that whichever of us should die first should, after death,
communicate with the survivor. While I was not sure (although a strong
bond of affection existed between us) that I was a person fitted to
receive such a communication, I was convinced that either Kathrien or
Willem would understand a message sent to me from the spirit land by
Peter, and, if the thing were possible, that he, if he could not reach
me directly, would do so through one or the other of them.
I made the mistake of telling Colonel Lawton of Peter's condition. I
might have known that he would tell his wife. She told Mrs. Batholommey,
the wife of the rector.
When I suggested the compact to Peter Grimm, he pooh-poohed the whole
idea, laughed at me, told me to get such nonsense out of my head.
But I stuck to it. I told him of the incident of the English doctor and
his friend, of the great service that would be done to humanity and
science if he or I could prove that signals could be exchanged between a
land inhabited by the souls of the dead and this mortal earth. At last
he consented.
The rector and his wife called after we had finished our argument, and
Mrs. Batholommey as much as told Peter during the course of the
conversation that he was doomed. Then poor little Willem blabbed the
truth. He had overheard us discussing the matter. Peter reiterated that
he would make the compact with me.
We shook hands on it, we sealed it with a touch of our glasses filled
with Peter Grimm's famous plum brandy.
There was a circus in town, one of those travelling country affairs, and
the parade had passed by the house. Peter gave Willem money to buy
tickets.
That was the last I saw or heard in this life of mortal Peter Grimm,
standing there with a smile on his face.
I had been absent but a few minutes when I heard Kathrien crying my
name. I ran back to the house. Peter Grimm was dead.
Ten days later came the séance described in my enclosure. Later in the
evening I went to Willem's room and had a quiet little talk with him. He
was calm again and spoke freely of what seemed to him an utterly natural
experience. And from that conversation I believe I confirmed still
further what was already established as a fact, so far as I was
concerned. Peter Grimm had kept his compact with me. He had returned!
I wanted to talk with Willem at a time when he was in a normal condition
and not in the thrall of fear. I found him without fever, though weaker
than he had been for several days. I assured him that he had nothing to
fear from Frederik, that all of us were his friends, and that no harm
could come to him.
"Now tell me, Willem," I said, "all about your seeing Uncle Peter this
evening."
"I awoke very thirsty and went downstairs for a drink," the boy told me
in effect. "The ice pitcher felt so cool that I rested my cheek against
it and then I drank some more water. Then I heard some one calling me.
"'Willem, Willem,' a voice said, 'can you hear me? Is there no one in
this house that can hear me?'
"I couldn't make out at first who it was. Then I heard it again:
"'Willem, Willem,' it said, 'you _must_ hear me.'
"Then I looked around and saw Mynheer Peter's hat on the rack, and I
knew he must have come back. But I couldn't see him.
"'Where are you, Mynheer Peter?' I asked him.
"'You cannot see me, Willem, but I am here. I want you to tell them all
I am here.'
"That's as near as I can remember it. We talked a while longer. Then he
said something like:
"'Go over and look on the table, Willem.'
"I went to the table and saw some torn pieces of paper.
"'Put them together, Willem,' said Mynheer Grimm.
"When I had got it all pasted together I saw it was my mother, Anne
Marie; and then you and Miss Kathrien came down.
"Uncle Peter was standing over there about in the middle of the room. I
could tell from his voice, but I couldn't see him.
"'Tell them about the man who made Anne Marie cry,' Mynheer Peter told
me. And he kept saying, 'Hurry, Willem, before it is too late; he is
coming. Hurry, Willem, hurry,' and just before Mr. Frederik came in
Mynheer Peter said, 'Tell them now, Willem; _he_ is listening at the
door.'
"Before you came down I asked Mynheer Peter to take me back with him
when he went and he said he would."
Now, mind you, Willem knew nothing of the compact Peter and I had made.
Peter Grimm had said he would return, if he could. I believe he did so.
My studies of the so-called "Occult" have done my reputation in this
narrow provincial town much harm. I have been sneered at as a
"spiritualist," a "spook hunter," an "agnostic." I am none of the three.
I am a seeker after Truth; even while fully aware of the impossibility
of absolutely finding that elusive quality. Nor do my researches in any
way conflict with revealed religion, nor in the simple Bible faith that
has ever been mine and that shall forever sustain me.
Having thus set forth my personal position in the matter--perhaps
tediously and to an undue length,--I beg to call your attention to my
report.
Very truly yours,
ANDREW MCPHERSON, M.D.