That electricity, or magnetism (a form of the same thing), is the agent
of the production of these phenomena, is a theory which, perhaps, has
more advocates among the masses than any other. It is the theory urged
by Mr. Headley with a great amount of confidence in his article already
referred to; and with his arguments, as those of an able and, in some
sense, _representative_ writer on this subject, we shall be principally
occupied for a few paragraphs.
When this theory is offered in seriousness as a final solution of the
mystery in question, we are tempted to ask, Who is electricity? what
is his mental and moral _status_? and how and where did he get his
education? Or if by "electricity" is here simply meant the subtile,
imponderable, and _impersonal_ fluid commonly known by that name,
then let us ask, Who is at the other end of the wire?--for there must
evidently be a _who_ as well as a _what_ in the case. But when the
advocates of the electrical theory are brought to their strict
definitions, they are compelled to admit that this agent is nothing more
than a medium of the power and intelligence that are manifested. Now
a medium, which signifies simply a _middle_, distinctly implies two
opposite ends or extremes, and as applied in this case, one of those
ends or extremes must be the source, and the other the recipient of the
power or influence that is transmitted through the medium or middle; and
it is an axiom of common sense that no medium can be a perfect medium
which has anything to do with the origination or qualification of that
which is intended simply to flow through it, or which is not absolutely
free from action except as it is acted upon. That there are so-called
mediums which refract, pervert, falsify, or totally obliterate the
characteristics of that which was intended to be transmitted through
them, is not to be denied; but these are by no means perfect or reliable
mediums, either in physical or psychic matters.
If the little instrument in question, therefore, is, through the medium
of electricity or any other agency, brought under perfect control and
then driven to write a communication, the force that drives and the
intelligence that directs it can not be attributed to the medium itself,
but to something behind and beyond it which must embrace _in itself_ all
the active powers and qualifications to produce the effect. Now let us
see where Mr. Headley gets the active powers and qualifications to
produce the phenomena manifested by his Planchette. He shall speak for
himself:
"That a spirit, good or bad, has anything to do with this piece
of board and the tips of children's fingers, is too absurd a
supposition to be entertained for a moment. We are driven,
therefore, to the conclusion that what is written (by honest
operators) has its origin either in the minds of those whose hands
are on the instrument, or else it results from communication with
other minds through another channel than the outward senses. At all
events, on this hypothesis I have been able to explain most of the
phenomena I have witnessed. I had, with others, laughed at the
stories told about Planchette, when a lady visiting my family from
the city brought, as the latest novelty, one for my daughter.
Experiments were of course made with it, with very little success,
till a young lady came to visit us from the West, whose efforts
with those of my son wrought a marvelous change. She was modest and
retiring, with a rich brown complexion, large swimming eyes, dark as
midnight, and a dreamy expression of countenance, and altogether a
temperament that is usually found to possess great magnetic power.
My son, on the contrary, is fair, full of animal life, and enjoying
everything with the keenest relish. In short, they were as opposite
in all respects as two beings could well be. As the phenomena
produced by electricity are well known to arise from opposite poles,
or differently charged bodies, they would naturally be adapted to
the trial of Planchette."
Mr. H. now finds the mysterious agency, "electricity," completely
unchained, and under the hands of this couple Planchette becomes "very
active." Indifferent to its performances at first, he was induced to
give it more serious attention by the correct answers given to a couple
of questions asked in a joking manner by his wife, concerning some love
affairs of his before they were married, and which were known to none
present except himself and wife. Of course these answers, being in
his wife's mind when she asked the question, were supposed to be
"communicated through the agency of electricity or magnetism to the
two operators," and the mystery was thus summarily disposed of. But an
interest being thus for the first time aroused in Mr. H.'s mind, he
proceeds to inquire a little further into the peculiarities of this new
phenomenon, and proceeds as follows:
"Seeing that Planchette was so familiarly acquainted with my lady
friends, I asked it point blank: 'Where is Mary C----?' This was a
friend of my early youth and later manhood, who had always seemed
to me rather a relative than an acquaintance. To my surprise it
answered, 'Nobody knows.'
I supposed I knew, because for twenty years she had lived on the
Hudson River in summer, and in New York in the winter.
'Is she happy?' I asked. 'Better be dead,' was the reply.
'Why?' 'Unhappy' was written out at once.
'What makes her unhappy?' 'Won't tell.'
'Is she in fault, or others?' 'Partly herself.'
I now pushed questions in all shapes, but they were evaded. At last
I asked, 'How many brothers has she?'
'One,' was the response. 'That,' said I, 'is false;' but not having
heard from the family for several years, I asked again, 'How many
_did_ she have?' '_Three._' 'Where are the other two?' I continued.
'Dead.'
'What is the name of the living one?' 'John.' I could not recollect
that either of them bore this name, but afterward remembered it was
that of the eldest. Now I had no means of ascertaining whether this
was all true, but convinced it was not, I began to ask ridiculous
and vexatious questions, when the answers showed excessive
irritation, and finally it wrote '_Devil_.' I then said: 'Who are
you?' 'Brother of the Devil.'
'What is your occupation?' 'Tending fires.'
'What are you going to do with me?' 'Broil you.'
'What for?' 'Wicked.'
Now while I was excessively amused at all this, I noticed that the
two young operators were greatly agitated, and begged me to stop.
I saw at a glance that the very superstitious feeling that I
was endeavoring to ridicule away, was creeping over them, and I
desisted.... Another day I asked where a certain gentleman was who
failed years ago, taking in his fall a considerable amount of my own
funds. I said 'Where is Mr. Green?' 'In Brazil.'
'Will he ever pay me anything?' 'Yes.'
'When?' 'Next year.'
'How much.' 'Ten thousand dollars.'
Neither of the operators knew anything about this affair, and the
answer, 'Brazil,' was so out of the way and unexpected, that all
were surprised. Whether the man was there or not, I could not tell,
nor did I know if he ever had been there--indeed, the last time I
heard from him he was in New York."
Now, observing that no conscious or intelligent agency in shaping these
answers is assigned to the young persons whose hands were upon the
board, and who, it appears, did not know anything of the persons
concerning whom the inquiries were made, it would, perhaps, as we desire
nothing but a true philosophy on this matter, be worth while to look a
little critically at the answers and statements that were given, and the
further explanations propounded by Mr. H. For convenience, they may be
classified as follows:
1. Answers that were substantially in the interrogator's own mind when
he asked the questions. Such were the answers to the questions: "How
many brothers _did_ she [Mary C----] have?" "Where did she _formerly_
live?" He tells us that "the pencil slowly wrote out in reply:
'_Catkill_,' leaving out the _s_;" and adds: "of course, this place was
in my mind, though neither of the young people knew anything about the
lady or her residence."
2. Answers which he does not know were in his mind, but supposes they
must have been. Thus, in his own language, while commenting on the
answers to questions respecting Mary C---- and her brothers: "Nor can
I account for the answer '_Unhappy_,' _unless unconsciously to myself_
there passed through my mind that vague fear so common to us all when
we inquire about friends of whom we have not heard for years. The death
of the two brothers baffled all conjecture _unless I remembered_ that
during the war I saw the death of a young man of the same name, and I
wondered at the time if it was one of these brothers--whether they had
joined the army." (The Italics our own.) So also of Planchette's answers
to the questions respecting Mr. Green, locating him in Brazil, and
saying that he intended to pay him (Mr. H.) ten thousand dollars next
year, while Mr. G. had last been reported to Mr. H. as being in New
York, and the latter did not know that he had ever been in Brazil.
But Mr. H., after thinking over a certain conversation which he had
previously had with Mr. Green respecting a business journey he had made
to "_South America_," remarks: "Brazil doubtless often occurred to
me--in fact, I was conscious on reflection that I had more frequently
located him in that country than in any other. So when the question was
put, it would involuntarily flash over me _without my being conscious of
it_, 'I wonder if he has gone back to South America, and if his venture
is in Brazil?' _Magnetism caught up the flashing thought and put it
on paper._" (Italics our own.) Such is his hypothesis to explain an
hypothesis!
3. Answers which he not only knows he had not in his mind when the
questions were asked, but which were directly _contrary_ to his mind or
opinion. Such were answers to several of the questions occurring in the
conversation about Mary C----, as, "better be dead;" "unhappy;" fault
"partly herself;" has "_one_" brother; which latter statement was so
directly contrary to his mind that he even pronounced it "false," until
he thought to inquire, "How many _did_ she have?"
4. Answers which were not only not in his mind, but which he directly
pronounces "_false_" and thus dismisses them. Such, for instance, is
the answer "Nobody knows," to the question "Where is Mary C----?" "That
this," says he, "was false, is evident on the very face of it."
With this analysis of the leading phenomena cited by Mr. H. before us,
lot us look at the wonderful things which "electricity and magnetism"
are made to accomplish.
I do not dispute that there is such a power of the human mind as that
known as clairvoyance. I have had too many proofs of this to doubt it.
But I have had equally positive proofs that the development of its
phenomena is dependent upon certain necessary conditions, among
which are, that the agent of them, in order to be able to reveal the
secret thoughts of another, must possess by nature peculiar nervous
susceptibilities, enabling his psychic emanations, so to speak, to
sympathetically coalesce with those of the person whose thoughts and
internal mental states are to be the subject of investigation. But this
sympathetic coalescence can not take place where there is the slightest
psychic repulsion or antagonism to the clairvoyant on the part of the
interrogating party. Moreover, even when all these conditions are
present, nothing can be correctly read from the mind of the questioner
unless there is on his mind a _clear and distinct definition_ of the
matters of which he seeks to be told.
But even in class No. 1 of the above series we find that "electricity,"
hitherto believed to be only an imponderable and impersonal fluid, has,
upon Mr. H.'s theory, been able to accomplish the revealment of secret
thoughts entirely independent of all these conditions. It is distinctly
stated that those young persons whose hands were on the Planchette knew
nothing whatever of the matters which formed the several subjects of
inquiry; and for aught that is stated to the contrary, they appear
to have been perfectly awake and in their normal state. In addition
to this, it is to be observed that Mr. Headley here appears in the
assumed character of a captious, contentious, and somewhat irritating
questioner, which, whether he intended it or not, was entirely the
opposite of that harmonious and sympathetic interflow of mental states
known in other cases to be necessary to a successful clairvoyant
diagnosis of inward thoughts. And yet "electricity" overleaps all these
obstacles, seizes facts that occurred many years previous, some of which
were known only to Mr. H. and wife, others only to Mr. H. himself, and
instantly flashes forth the appropriate answer! Here is science! If
there were no other phenomena connected with Planchette, this alone
might well challenge the attention of philosophers!
But if this is wonderful, what shall we think of the achievements of
this same "electricity" and "magnetism" in revealing facts of the second
class--facts which the questioner himself did not and does not now
_know_ were in his mind, but only _supposes they must have been_? Think
of a diffused element of nature, which, from the dawn of creation had
been blind and dead, and only passively obedient to certain laws of
equilibrium, suddenly assuming intelligence and volition, burrowing into
a man's brains, rummaging among ten thousand thoughts, emotions, and
experiences stored up in the archives of his memory, and finally coming
to the mere fossil of a (_supposed_) experience from which the last
vestige of memory-life had departed, and seizing this incident, it moves
the little board with an intelligent volition, and lo, the fact stands
revealed.
And again, what of that spicy colloquy in which Planchette writes the
words "devil," "devil's brother," "stir fires," "broil you," etc.? Oh,
Mr. H. tells us, "That was owing to the irritation of the mediums,
their horror and fright, their superstition, and their repugnance to
the questions that were being asked." Curious, is it not? to see
"electricity" seizing hold of this irritation, that horror, the other
fright, and such and such a superstition, repugnance, and disgust,
and, carefully arranging these mental emotions, building them up by a
mysterious mason-work into a distinctly defined and sharply pronounced
individuality, with a peculiar moral and intellectual character of its
own, differing more from each and all of the parties present in the
flesh than any one of the latter differed from another! And this
individuality, too, putting forth a volition which was not _their_
volition, moving the Planchette which _they_ did not move, making
and arranging letters which _they_ did not make and arrange, writing
intelligent words and sentences which _they_ did not write, and then
causing this creation to assume the name and character of a regularly
built "devil"--a character which appears to have been so far from these
young persons' minds that they were unwilling to look it in the face,
and were sorely afraid of it! Surely, if "electricity" can do all this,
then "electricity" itself is the "devil," and the less mankind have to
do with it the better.
But more wonderful still. It appears that "electricity" can give
answers, of which not even the slightest elements previously existed in
the mind of the questioner or any of the company, and which were even
diametrically _contrary_ to his mind; as in the answers of class No. 3.
Here "electricity" swings loose, and, becoming completely independent,
commences business on its "own hook." Not only so, but it even goes so
far beyond the sphere of Mr. H.'s mind as to _fib_ a little, giving at
least two answers which this writer pronounced "false," as noted in
class No. 4--thus giving a still more signal display of its independent
powers of invention--naughty invention though it was.
Seriously, had not friend Headley better employ his fine talents
in giving us another clever book or two about "Washington and his
Generals," and leave Mr. Planchette, and that more wonderful personage,
Mr. Electricity, to take care of themselves? We are obliged here to part
company with Mr. H., and pass on for the purpose of having a few words
under this same head with the reverend author of "Planchette, or
Spirit-Rapping Made Easy," in the _Ladies' Repository_.
I find it difficult to get at the idea of this writer, if indeed he
himself has any definite idea on the subject. By the title of his
article, however, and several expressions that occur in the body of it,
he seems to associate the performances of the Planchette with a somewhat
extensive class of phenomena, in which spirit-rappings, table-tippings,
etc., are included. He says:
"Twelve years ago I took pains to study the matter, and at that time
I came to conclusions that are every day being proved to be true. I
was soon satisfied that as regarded 'trance mediums,' the cause was
due to one-third trickery, one-third partial insanity or monomania,
and the remainder animal magnetism. I have since learned that opium
and hashish (Indian hemp) played an important part. It was proved
that young ladies purchased written speeches which they delivered
under the influence of hashish."
He then goes on to speak of galvanism, magnetism, electricity, animal
magnetism, and the odylic force; but, so far as we can see, without
proving any necessary connection between these forces or either of them,
and the subject which he aims to elucidate. Quoting a former article of
his, he continues:
"The magnetizer of whom I spoke [an exposer of rappings] threw
himself into magnetic connection with the table, and _willed_ it
to move hither and thither. The will in this case seemed to be a
powerful battery, putting its subject into life. Now I suggest
that this power be applied to machinery. We will get us a large
propelling wheel, to which we will connect our machinery. We will
then engage a company of mediums who shall get into _rapport_ with
one wheel, and stand willing the wheel on in its evolutions.... If a
table may be made to spin around the room, why may not a wheel be
made to turn as well?"
The writer certainly deserves credit for this sage suggestion, and a
patent for his machine; but whether he will succeed in making it operate
satisfactorily without calling into requisition the "monomania," the
"hashish," and the "opium," remains to be seen. He then goes on to
describe Planchette, and afterward continues:
"The mysterious little creature is called Planchette, and is
no humbug. And it conforms to all the customs of the old-time
tipping-tables. The operator magnetizes Planchette, and by a
mysterious will-power causes it to answer questions. Before giving
illustrations, we may as well state the laws that seem to govern it.
_First._ It will always answer correctly, _if the operator knows the
answer_. _Second._ While it will answer other questions, in all the
experiments I have ever engaged in, it has never answered correctly.
_Third._ If a person standing by, who has strong magnetic powers,
asks a question, Planchette will answer. But _in all cases_, in our
experiments, some ruling mind must have knowledge of what the answer
should be, if a correct answer is returned."
In reply to the above, we assert, _First_. That the "operator" does not
"magnetize" the board at all, nor does he exercise any "will power"
over it, causing it to answer questions; and if he did thus cause it to
answer only those questions whose answers are already in his mind, what
marvel is there in it, more than there is in my pen being caused by my
will-power to trace these words and sentences? _Secondly._ If by his
_second_ and _third_ specifications of the supposed "laws" which govern
Planchette, he means to imply that it will not tell, _often_ tell,
and tell with remarkable correctness, things that were never known
or dreamed of by the operator, the questioner, or any one present in
visible form, then he simply mistakes, as can be testified by thousands,
in the most positive manner. But the great essential question is, not
so much whether answers given under such and such circumstances can
be _correct_, as whether answers and communications _can be given at
all_, which have no origin in the minds of the persons engaged in
the experiment, and which must hence be referred to some outside
intelligence?
The writer under review, after all, acknowledges his incompetency to
unravel this subject, by saying:
"There are mysteries in Planchette. No one is ready to explain the
mysterious connection between the mind and the little machine, but
there can no longer be any doubt that these curious phenomena,
table-tipping and all, are produced by magnetism and electricity....
It is useless to ignore these things, or to laugh at them. It were
better to account for them, and subject the influence to the power
of man.... When some scientific man will condescend to toy with
Planchette, we shall have the curtain drawn aside behind which the
spirits have operated these years, and this calamitous
spirit-rapping mania will destroy no longer."
One might almost regret that this latter thought did not occur to the
writer before he commenced his article, in which case, by a little
patient waiting for this ideal and very condescending "scientific
man," we might have been spared this diatribe of jumbled electricity,
magnetism, will-power, opium, hashish, monomania, and driving wheels.