POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS
We have now to consider a very different class of spiritistic
manifestations, the so-called "physical phenomena," which are
historically among the earliest on record, and at the same time are far
more spectacular and sensational than the phenomena produced by the
automatic speakers and writers. They include such weird occurrences as
the appearance in the séance room of ghostly forms alleged to be spirits
"materialized" by the power of the medium; the lifting of the latter
from the floor by an invisible force; the touching, pinching, and
striking of the sitters by unseen hands, and the movement of small
articles of furniture as though alive.
Occasionally, when the medium is particularly gifted, still more
striking happenings take place. Thus, at a séance with Eusapia Paladino,
attended by such eminent scientists as Professors Lombroso, Bianchi,
Tamburini, Vizioli, and Ascensi, men whose veracity is beyond question,
it is recorded by Lombroso[25] that:
[25] "After Death--What?" pp. 57-58.
"We saw a great curtain, which separated our room from an alcove
adjoining, and which was more than three feet distant from the medium,
suddenly move out toward me, envelop me, and wrap me close. Nor was I
able to free myself from it except with great difficulty.
"A dish of flour had been put in the little alcove room, at a distance
of more than four and a half feet from the medium, who, in her trance,
had thought, or, at any rate, spoken, of sprinkling some of the flour in
our faces. When light was made, it was found that the dish was bottom
side up, with the flour under it. This was dry, to be sure, but
coagulated, like gelatine. This circumstance seems to me doubly
irreconcilable--first, with the laws of chemistry, and, second, with
the power of movement of the medium, who had not only been bound as to
her feet, but had her hands held tight by our hands.
"When the lights had been turned on, and we were all ready to go, a
great wardrobe that stood in the alcove room, about six and a half feet
away from us, was seen advancing slowly towards us. It seemed like a
huge pachyderm that was proceeding in leisurely fashion to attack us."
Other investigators, men of equally high character, report marvels no
less amazing. On one occasion, Eusapia Paladino is credited with having
created an invisible man, a being which the sitters could distinctly
feel, although they could not see it, and which, annoyed by their
inquisitive prodding, finally turned on one of them and bit him in
the thumb. For this we have the authority of Professors Morselli and
Barzini, the latter being the investigator whose thumb was bitten.
Again, two English noblemen, Lords Dunraven and Crawford, affirm that
they several times saw another medium, the late D. D. Home, floating
through the air; once at a height of more than seventy feet above the
ground; and that the same medium, by some "spiritual" agency, was
elongated in full view of them, so that they beheld his stature visibly
increase, to decrease again to normal height only when he came out of
the trance condition.[26]
[26] A detailed account of Home's performances will be found
in my book, "Historic Ghosts and Ghost-Hunters," pp. 143-170.
Unfortunately, the "spirits" that perform these uncanny feats have a
strong liking for darkness, a circumstance which has led to wholesale,
and repeatedly substantiated, accusations of fraud. In fact, there is
no other department of spiritism to which the taint of fraud has so
thoroughly attached itself. It is obvious that any clever charlatan, by
persuading his sitters that darkness is necessary for the development of
occult phenomena, can produce most mystifying effects, and the records
of scientific investigations, to say nothing of the records of our
police courts, abound in evidence that swindlers have not been slow in
availing themselves of this opportunity to prey on the credulous and
superstitious. The lengths to which bogus mediums will sometimes go, and
the extreme gullibility which renders their operations ridiculously easy
and highly profitable, are amusingly illustrated by a story told by Mr.
Hereward Carrington, an investigator who has done much to make the
public acquainted with the ways of fraudulent "psychics."
One of these, according to Mr. Carrington, had among his patrons an
elderly business man, the head of a large concern that manufactured
farming implements. After several months of intercourse, during which
the medium deftly led him on from marvel to marvel, until at last there
was no "phenomenon" too incredible for him to swallow, he was informed
that at the next séance he would have the unique experience of
conversing with the spirit of a deceased inhabitant of the planet
Jupiter.
Sure enough, after the lights had been carefully turned low, he was
accosted by a tall, shadowy figure, which announced itself as a spirit
from Jupiter, and which, speaking excellent English, proceeded to
describe the conditions of life in that far-off sphere. The Jupiterians,
it appeared, were a poor, ignorant lot, scarcely removed from barbarism;
they were greatly in need of civilization, and any one who should help
in civilizing them would be generously rewarded in the future life.
"I should be glad to do all in my power," the business man eagerly
volunteered, "but I'm afraid there's nothing I could do."
"Yes, indeed, there is. I understand that you make farm implements and
machinery. Well, they haven't as much as a spade on Jupiter. If you
would send a few tools there, it would be a great step toward civilizing
them."
"But how in the world could I get anything to them?"
"That is quite simple," the "spirit" glibly explained. "Just send the
things to the medium here, and he will dematerialize them and ship them
to Jupiter, where they will be rematerialized."
Instead of seeing in this a daring attempt to fleece him, the victim
joyfully acquiesced, and sent a number of spades, plows, harrows, etc.,
to the medium, who promptly disposed of them, not to the people of
Jupiter, but to a dealer in such articles. Other séances followed, the
spirit from Jupiter again appearing and describing in picturesque
language the beneficent consequences of the welcome presents. This meant
more gifts, which steadily increased in number and value, until the
confederate who had been playing the part of the dead Jupiterian finally
became frightened.
"Look here," he told the medium, "this has got to stop. It was all
very well when you were satisfied with plows, and rakes, and little
things like that, but now that you have got him giving you horses and
harvesters there's bound to be trouble. He's sure to find out in the
end, and some fine morning we'll wake up on the inside of a jail."
"Oh, don't worry," said the medium. "He'll never find out anything."
"I'm not so certain of that. At any rate, you'll have to get somebody
to take my place."
One word led to another, and ended in a violent quarrel. The
confederate, vowing vengeance, called on the business man, and told him
how he had been duped. He was met with the astonishing reply:
"I don't believe a word you say."
"You don't?" he cried. "Didn't you send the medium, only yesterday, a
horse and cart to be dematerialized?"
"Yes."
"Well, if you wish to know where they are, come with me. He has them in
a stable near his house, waiting to find a buyer."
Together they went to the stable, where the confederate pointed out the
horse and cart that had been given to the medium. In particular, he
identified the cart by the number painted on it.
"Come, now," said he, "you can't deny that's your cart, can you?"
"Why," was the answer, "it does indeed look like my cart. But I know it
isn't."
"How do you know it isn't?"
"Because"--in a tone of solemn conviction--"I know that by this time my
cart is on Jupiter."
In another case, drawn to my attention by a lawyer friend, the victim
was a well-to-do Boston merchant, who had become interested in
spiritism shortly after the death of his wife, to whom he had been
devotedly attached, and with whose spirit he hoped to be brought into
communication. A medium, learning this, determined to profit from his
grief and longing, and hired a young woman to pose as the spirit of the
dead wife. He was then told that before long it would be possible to
"materialize" his wife from the spirit world with such substantiality
that he would be able to clasp her in his arms.
When the appointed time came, a slender form, draped in gauze, emerged
from the mediumistic cabinet into the darkened séance room, and saluted
him with a joyful cry of "Husband!" There was not light enough to see
the "spirit's" face, but he did not for an instant doubt that he was
really gazing at his wife, and rose to embrace her. At once the figure
vanished, and after the lights were turned up the medium explained that
there would have to be a good many "materializations" before the spirit
form would be solid enough for him to touch it.
This meant, of course, numerous séances, for which the deluded husband
paid handsomely. It also helped to blind him to the true state of
affairs, and increased his infatuation to such an extent that when at
length the "spirit" submitted to his caresses, it did not seem at all
incongruous to find that he was pressing to his breast a flesh-and-blood
woman.
The medium now resolved on a bold stroke. Acting under her instruction,
the "spirit" bitterly complained one evening that she did not possess
any jewelry.
"What!" her "husband" exclaimed. "Do you mean to say that they wear
jewelry in the other world?"
"Oh, yes. But nothing to compare with what I had while on earth. What
have you done with mine?"
"I have it all--every piece--put away in a little box."
"Good. Then if you will bring it to-morrow night, I can take it with me
when I leave you. The medium, you know, can dematerialize it for us."
"I will bring it. Rest assured of that."
Alas for husbandly devotion! The séance at which he turned over the
jewelry to the affectionate "spirit" of his wife was the last at which
he held communion with her. When he next called, he was told that the
medium had been unexpectedly summoned out of town. She never came back.
These two episodes are typical rather than exceptional instances of the
sort of thing that has been going on for years in connection with the
physical phenomena of spiritism. Its continuance has been made possible
largely by a widespread belief, entertained not by the ignorant and
superstitious merely, but by men of distinction in the intellectual and
scientific world, that, notwithstanding the prevalence of fraud, there
are at least some physical phenomena which must be accounted genuine.
Men like the Italian savants already named, the English naturalist,
Alfred Russel Wallace; the great chemist, Sir William Crookes; the
French astronomer, Camille Flammarion, and many others who might be
mentioned, are satisfied that they have witnessed in the séance
room occurrences out of all accord with natural laws, and not to be
attributed to fraud.
In support of this view, emphasis is laid on the fact that, leaving
out of consideration all mediums who employ their powers as a means of
livelihood, physical phenomena of the most bizarre sort have been
manifested through men and women in private life, who cannot possibly
have a pecuniary motive for deception, and whose character is beyond
reproach.
One of the most celebrated of physical mediums, in fact, was a clergyman
of the Church of England, the Reverend W. Stainton Moses, a gentleman
respected and warmly esteemed by all who knew him.[27]
[27] An excellent study of the mediumship of Stainton Moses
is contained in Frank Podmore's "Modern Spiritualism," vol.
ii, pp. 276-288.
As a further argument in behalf of the authenticity of certain of the
phenomena, attention is also called to the interesting circumstance
that, long before spiritism and spiritistic mediums were heard of,
similar marvels--including seemingly spontaneous movements of furniture,
and the occurrence of mysterious raps, knockings, and other noises--were
frequently reported by thoroughly reputable witnesses.
To mention only a few cases,[28] as long ago as 1661 there was an
outbreak of this kind at the home of a wealthy Englishman named
Mompesson, an invisible ghost for months disturbing the peace of the
Mompesson family by beating on a drum, banging at doors, tugging at
bedclothes, and hurling household articles about in a most destructive
manner. The affair made so much stir that a royal commission was sent
to inquire into it, but signally failed to lay the ghost. For nearly a
year, in 1716-1717, the Reverend Samuel Wesley, father of the founder of
Methodism, was tormented in like fashion at his rectory in Lincolnshire.
In 1753 a Russian monastery was invaded by an equally malicious and
equally invisible "spirit," which for months amused itself by ringing
the monastery bells at unseemly hours. Nine years later all London
was thrilled by the celebrated Cock Lane ghost, which produced spirit
rappings with as much éclat as the most up-to-date, medium-invoked
visitant from "the other side." In none of these instances did
contemporary investigators find a wholly satisfactory explanation for
the singular phenomena involved.
[28] Studied in detail in my book, "Historic Ghosts and
Ghost-Hunters."
Nevertheless, it may confidently be affirmed that, instead of
strengthening the case for the physical phenomena of spiritism, the
doings of the poltergeists--as these tricky ghosts are called by
psychical researchers--considerably weaken it. For during recent years
a number of poltergeist hauntings have been looked into by members of
the Society for Psychical Research, and whenever the conditions have
been such as to permit a thorough investigation, it has been found
that, so far from being spiritual entities, poltergeists are invariably
compounded of deceit, credulity, and delusion. Even more important, from
the standpoint of getting at the true inwardness of physical mediumship,
the discovery has been made that fraud has frequently been practised in
poltergeist cases without any apparent motive.
Again I will give an instance from actual occurrence, in order to make
my meaning perfectly clear. Word was one day received at the London
offices of the Society for Psychical Research that a ghost had taken
possession of a farmhouse in Shropshire, and was making life miserable
for the lawful occupants, a family named Hampson and their two
maidservants, Priscilla Evans and Emma Davies. Nobody saw the ghost,
but it made its presence felt in true poltergeist style.
It had announced its advent, about four o'clock one fine afternoon, by
lifting a saucepan from the kitchen fire and throwing it across the
room, picking red-hot coals out of the fire and scattering them over the
floor, and by causing a lamp globe to fly miraculously through the air.
This last prank, naturally enough, so frightened the Hampsons and their
servants that they fled from the house, and summoned aid from the
nearest neighbors, among them a Mr. Lea, who, in the report that reached
the Society for Psychical Research,[29] declared that when he approached
the Hampson homestead, it seemed as if all the upstairs rooms were on
fire, "as there was such a light in the windows."
[29] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_,
vol. xii, pp. 58-67.
Reënforced, the Hampsons made bold to enter the house again, but the
poltergeist had seemingly formed a strong dislike to them, for the
report added:
"As things were continuing to jump about the kitchen in a manner which
was altogether inexplicable, and many were getting damaged, Hampson
decided to remove everything out of the apartment. He accordingly took
down a barometer from the wall, when something struck him on the leg,
and a loaf of bread, which was on the table, was thrown by some
invisible means, and hit him on the back. A volume of 'Pilgrim's
Progress' was thrown, or jumped, through the window, and a large,
ornamental sea-shell went through in similar fashion.
"In the parlor a sewing machine was thrown about and damaged. The nurse
girl was nursing the baby by the fire when some fire leaped from the
grate, and the child's hair was singed and its arms burned. The girl was
so alarmed that she set off to a neighbor's, and on the way there her
clothes took fire, and had to be torn from her body. During the evening,
while the girl was at the neighbor's, a plate, which she touched while
having her supper, was repeatedly thrown on the floor, and the pieces
were picked up by some unseen agency, and put in the center of the
table."
On the girl's return to the Hampson place the manifestations broke out
anew. Mr. and Mrs. Lea were strongly of the opinion that they were the
work of the devil; the Hampsons, however, inclined to the view that the
blame lay at the door of some evil spirit that was especially desirous
of tormenting the nurse girl, Emma Davies, it being noticed that things
quieted down whenever she was out of the house. On this theory they
sent her to her home in a neighboring village, where the poltergeist
continued to annoy her. In the presence of a police officer, watching
her closely to detect evidence of fraud, it wrenched the buttons from
her dress and ripped out the stitches of her apron. While the village
schoolmistress and some twenty other people looked on, it twice drew off
her shoes and tossed them to the opposite side of the room; and it was
said to have afterward lifted her bodily from the floor, and held her
suspended in mid-air.
Clearly, this was a case calling for investigation, and the Society for
Psychical Research at once commissioned one of its expert detectives
of the supernatural, Mr. F. S. Hughes, to proceed to the scene of the
disturbances. But before he arrived, the mystery was solved. The girl,
it seems, had been made so nervous and excited by the unwelcome
attentions of the poltergeist that it was thought best to place her in a
physician's care, and she was accordingly taken to a sanitarium and kept
in strict seclusion, under the constant observation of the physician's
housekeeper, Miss Turner, a shrewd, level-headed woman. For three days,
the poltergeist continued to plague her. Then it suddenly took its
departure, under the following circumstances, narrated by Mr. Hughes in
his official report:
"On Tuesday morning Miss Turner was in an upper room at the back of
the house, and the servant of the establishment and Emma Davies were
outside, Emma having her back to the house, and unaware that she was
observed. Miss Turner noticed that she had a piece of brick in her hand,
held behind her back. This she threw to a distance by a turn of the
wrist, and, while doing so, screamed to attract the attention of the
servant, who, of course, turning round, saw the brick in the air, and
was very much frightened. Emma Davies, looking round, saw that she had
been seen by Miss Turner, and, apparently imagining that she had been
found out, was very anxious to return home that night.
"Miss Turner took no notice of the occurrence at the time, but the next
morning she asked the girl if she had been playing tricks, and the girl
confessed that she had, and went through some of the performances very
skillfully, according to Miss Turner's account. Later on in the day
she repeated these in the presence of the doctor, Miss Turner, and two
reporters from London."
Obviously, trickster though she was, the girl had no rational motive for
her conduct. It had already cost her a good position, and rendered it
most unlikely that she would easily get another. And, in fact, this same
absence of motive is conspicuous in nearly all the poltergeist cases
exposed by the Society for Psychical Research, and by independent
investigators. It is also noteworthy that when discovery is made,
the active agent is usually found to be a boy or girl, man or woman,
constitutionally or temporarily in an abnormal nervous condition.
In this particular case, for instance, the girl, Emma Davies, on the
testimony of her mother, was subject to "fits." In another case,
investigated by the Society, the poltergeist was definitely identified
with a little deformed girl, twelve years old, of decidedly abnormal
characteristics. In a third case, investigated by Mr. Frank Podmore,
another member of the Society and a specialist on poltergeists, a
confession of fraud was elicited from a neurotic boy of fifteen--a
confession only partial, it is true, but in one sense more illuminating
than any full confession would have been. The case is so instructive,
both for its revelation of the almost incredible credulity of many
devotees of spiritism, and for the light it throws on the problems of
physical mediumship, that I quote it, condensed, from Mr. Podmore's
detailed review of his investigation.[30]
[30] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_,
vol. xii, pp. 101-103.
"In the autumn of 1894," he states, "Mrs. B., a lady living in a
provincial town, gave me an account of certain curious incidents which
had recently taken place in her house. The occupants of the house--an
old one--consisted, besides Mrs. B. and her family, of a widow lady,
Mrs. D., and her two children, a girl of about twenty, C. D., and a boy
of fifteen, E. D.
"Mrs. B., C. D., and E. D. had been in the habit of trying experiments
with planchette in the evening. Planchette had given them to understand
that the house was haunted by four spirits, a wicked marquis, a wicked
monk, a lay desperado, and a virtuous and beautiful young lady. These
spirits wrote, through planchette, of treasure concealed in the house,
of a hidden chamber, and many other matters. Among other proofs were the
following:
"One evening after dark, Mrs. B., in accordance with directions received
through planchette, went with C. D. and E. D. to an old oak tree in the
garden, and, standing with the girl and boy on either side, holding a
hand of each, she distinctly heard a stone strike the garden roller a
few feet off. The phenomenon was repeated twice; and her companions
solemnly assured her that they had no part in the performance.
"On another occasion, sitting in a bedroom in the dark, with only E. D.
in the room, Mrs. B. was struck by a stone on the temple, heard objects
thrown about the room, felt an arm put through hers, and so on. Some of
these phenomena occurred when she was alone in the room--but with the
door, I gathered, not shut.
"Mrs. B. one morning placed a white chrysanthemum bouquet on the boughs
of the oak tree. It disappeared shortly afterward, and on the next
morning two other small bouquets were found there. Mrs. B. asked for
whom these were intended, and went away, leaving pencil and paper. On
her return she found the paper torn in half, and the initials of her
own Christian name, and that of C. D., written on the two halves
respectively, with a bouquet on each half.
"About this time a secret chamber was discovered with the skeleton of a
cat crouching in act to spring, and the skeleton of a woman. Asked more
particularly about the latter, Mrs. B. said: 'Well, at least a skull
and some bones--but it was a woman's skull.'
"A few days after receiving this account, I went down by invitation to
the house. I saw Mrs. D. and her two children, and received from them
ungrudging corroboration of Mrs. B.'s marvelous story. In E. D.'s
company I penetrated the secret chamber, and found there the mummified
skeleton of what might have been a cat--but nothing else. In removing
the stains left by this exploit, I contrived a tête-à-tête interview
with E. D., and asked him: 'How much did you do of all these things?'
He replied: 'Oh, not much. I only did a few little things.'
"Pressed on particular points, he admitted having thrown _one_ stone at
the garden roller, and having also thrown a trouser button against the
wall when sitting alone in the bedroom with Mrs. B. He denied having
produced the other phenomena on those occasions. Asked as to the
bouquets, he said he had not placed them on the tree. Pressed a little
more, he said: 'If I did it, it must have been without knowing it.'
This without any suggestion from me as to possible somnambulism, or
unconscious action. He assured me that his sister had had no hand in
this matter. I could not get any more out of him, as he was shortly
after called away.
"I subsequently learned from his mother that E. D. was so nervous and
delicate that he slept in her room at night; that he was not allowed to
do much mental work; that he was subject to attacks of somnambulism; and
had, indeed, fallen into a semiconscious state only a few days before,
during a lesson in carpentry."
Probably the whole affair originated in a moment of mischief, and was
carried on and elaborated because of an uncontrollable, and perhaps not
entirely conscious, desire on the part of the abnormally conditioned lad
to mystify the too easily imposed upon elderly lady.
In point of fact, the investigations of the Society for Psychical
Research make it certain that in nine cases out of ten a poltergeist is
a by-product of hysteria, using the term in its strictest medical sense.
As is well known, one of the distinctive symptoms of hysteria is a
tendency to indulge in all manner of lies and deceptions, coupled often
with almost diabolical cleverness in giving these lies and deceptions
a color of reality. Impulse to such trickery may arise from a great
variety of motives; frequently, it would seem, from nothing more than an
abnormal craving for notoriety and admiration. Certainly, the hysterical
young people run to earth by the poltergeist hunters of the Society
for Psychical Research did not engage in their hoaxings because they
expected to make money out of them.
The bearing of all this on the physical phenomena of spiritism is surely
self-evident. It shows, for one thing, that the money motive is not
the only motive inciting mediums to fraud; that when a neurotic or
hysterical condition is present, the best of characters is no guarantee
against duplicity; and that under such circumstances the detection of
fraud is exceedingly difficult, particularly in the case of witnesses
predisposed to regard the phenomena as genuine. If hysterical children
can, as they have often done, carry on a course of deception mystifying
a whole community, it is manifest that mediums of similar hysterical
tendencies, working under cover of darkness or in a dim light, can more
or less readily deceive the most expert observers; and, moreover,
that they may be only partially, if at all, conscious of their own
frauds.[31]
[31] I am inclined, for example, to believe that there
is a large element of hysteria in the mediumship of the
discredited Eusapia Paladino, once the marvel of two
continents.
Further, in estimating the nature of the phenomena produced at the
séances of physical mediums, it is imperative to take into account
the innumerable possibilities of mal-observation on the part of the
spectators. Experience has shown that comparatively few people, no
matter how honest, are trustworthy witnesses even when conditions for
observation are of the best.
For proof of this, one does not need to look beyond the courtroom, where
every day perfectly honest people give the most contradictory accounts
of some simple occurrence. If it is thus difficult to see correctly what
goes on in the broad light of day, it surely is far more difficult to be
certain of exactly what is happening in a room where there is darkness
rather than light. Besides which, the imaginative faculty may be
excited to such an extent that the sitters at a séance may not only be
misled into making inaccurate reports of what really occurred, but they
may even, and with absolute sincerity, testify to phenomena which did
not occur at all.
A friend of mine, now a physician in Maryland, used to amuse himself in
his student days by playing medium at table-tipping séances. He would
cause the table to rap out messages to various acquaintances of his,
none of whom were spiritists, but several of whom became intensely
interested, owing to their inability to fathom the source of the
communications they received, my friend managing things so skillfully
that they did not suspect him of hoaxing them.
One evening the table announced the presence of the "spirit" of a little
child, the daughter of a lady well known to most of the sitters. They
were not aware, however, that my friend was intimately acquainted with
the little one's life history, and when, utilizing this knowledge,
he proceeded to make the table rap communications of a most personal
character, there was considerable excitement. Suddenly a lady present,
not a relative of the dead child, uttered a piercing scream, and
fainted.
When she was revived, she declared, with emphatic assurance, that she
had seen the head of a child emerge from the center of the table.
Equally indicative of the part imagination plays in constructing
spiritistic phenomena is an experience of my own with a New York medium.
His specialty was materialization, but at the séance in question he did
not attempt to develop "spirit forms" by any of the methods in vogue
among materializers. Instead, the gas having been lowered until the room
was almost in total darkness, he went into a "trance," and, seated at
the séance table, with his head resting on his hands, declaimed in a
singsong voice:
"The spirits are coming. I can feel them approaching. You will be able
to see them soon. They are almost here. Here is one now, on my left.
Can't you see it? And here comes another, and another. They are crowding
around me, so anxious to communicate with you. Can't you see them? I
can't hold them long; they will be gone soon. Oh, can't you see them?"
There were, perhaps, a dozen people present, including myself and a
fellow investigator, who had accompanied me. Of the others, three
responded to the hypnotic suggestiveness of the medium's words and
manner, and solemnly declared that they could see a "spirit" hovering
about him. One lady, whose integrity I could not doubt, insisted that
she saw two "spirits," which she identified as her dead husband and
brother.
Undoubtedly, therefore, it is proper to assume that when, in the
instances cited at the beginning of this chapter, Professor Lombroso,
sitting with Eusapia Paladino, saw a huge wardrobe advance to attack
him; and when Lords Crawford and Dunraven saw the medium Home floating
through the air, hallucination rather than "spirit action" is the
correct explanation. At all events, in view of the known fallibility of
the human senses; the manifold opportunities for fraud open to mediums;
and the fact that, with the single exception of Home, every medium
subjected to scientific investigation has been caught practising fraud
at one time or another, it seems extremely rash to accept as genuine
any of the phenomena of physical mediumship.
Still, it would be incorrect to say that the time devoted by psychical
researchers to the investigation of these phenomena has been time
wasted. They have performed a necessary police duty for society, and
their labors, as we shall see, have been productive of psychological
discoveries of great practical importance.