MRS PIPER'S TRANCE UTTERANCES
Almost alone amongst mediums of note, Mrs Piper of Boston has never
resorted to physical phenomena, her powers being entirely confined to
trance manifestations. No single medium, not even Helene Smith, has been
subjected to such close and continuous observation by expert scientific
observers. In 1885, this lady's case was first investigated by Professor
William James, of Harvard (brother of the famous novelist). Two years
later Dr Hodgson and other members of the Society for Psychical Research
began their observation of her trance utterances. This course of
observation has continued for twenty years, and nearly all Mrs Piper's
utterances have been placed on record. The late Dr Hodgson was
indefatigable in his labours to test the genuineness of the phenomena.
He spared no pains, and died, I believe, convinced that all means of
accounting for them had been exhausted.
There is so much evidence concerning Mrs Piper, who, two years ago came
to England at the invitation of the Society for Psychical Research, and
was subjected to numerous tests, that I hesitate how best to typify its
purport. Most striking is a letter to Professor James in the Society's
"Proceedings" from a well-known professor, Shaler of Harvard, who
attended a _seance_, with a very open mind indeed, on 25th May 1894, at
Professor James's house in Cambridge (Boston).
Professor Shaler was disposed to favour neither the medium nor even the
telepathic theory. He writes:
"MY DEAR JAMES,--At the sitting with Mrs Piper on May 25th I
made the following notes:--
"As you remember, I came to the meeting with my wife; when Mrs
Piper entered the trance state Mrs Shaler took her hand. After
a few irrelevant words, my wife handed Mrs Piper an engraved
seal, which she knew, though I did not, had belonged to her
brother, a gentleman from Richmond, Virginia, who died about a
year ago. At once Mrs Piper began to make statements clearly
relating to the deceased, and in the course of the following
hour she showed a somewhat intimate acquaintance with his
affairs, those of his immediate family, and those of the family
in Hartford, Conn., with which the Richmond family had had
close social relations.
"The statements made by Mrs Piper, in my opinion, entirely
exclude the hypothesis that they were the results of
conjectures, directed by the answers made by my wife. I took no
part in the questioning, but observed very closely all that was
done.
"On the supposition that the medium had made very careful
preparation for her sittings in Cambridge, it would have been
possible for her to have gathered all the information which she
rendered by means of agents in the two cities, though I must
confess that it would have been rather difficult to have done
the work.
"The only distinctly suspicious features were that certain
familiar baptismal names were properly given, while those of an
unusual sort could not be extracted, and also that one or two
names were given correctly as regards the ceremony of baptism
or the directory, but utterly wrong from the point of view of
family usage. Thus the name of a sister-in-law of mine, a
sister of my wife's, was given as Jane, which is true by the
record, but in forty years' experience of an intimate sort I
never knew her to be called Jane--in fact, I did not at first
recognise who was meant.
"While I am disposed to hold to the hypothesis that the
performance is one that is founded on some kind of deceit, I
must confess that close observation of the medium made on me
the impression that she was honest. Seeing her under any other
conditions, I should not hesitate to trust my instinctive sense
as to the truthfulness of the woman.
"I venture also to note, though with some hesitancy, the fact
that the ghost of the ancient Frenchman who never existed, but
who purports to control Mrs Piper, though he speaks with a
first-rate stage French accent, does not, so far as I can find,
make the characteristic blunders in the order of his English
words which we find in actual life. Whatever the medium is, I
am convinced that this 'influence' is a preposterous scoundrel.
"I think I did not put strongly enough the peculiar kind of
knowledge that the medium seems to have concerning my wife's
brother's affairs. Certain of the facts, as, for instance,
those relating to the failure to find his will after his sudden
death, were very neatly and dramatically rendered. They had the
real-life quality. So, too, the name of a man who was to have
married my wife's brother's daughter, but who died a month
before the time fixed for the wedding, was correctly given,
both as regards surname and Christian name, though the
Christian name was not remembered by my wife or me.
"I cannot determine how probable it is that the medium, knowing
she was to have a sitting with you in Cambridge, or rather a
number of them, took pains to prepare for the tests by
carefully working up the family history of your friends. If she
had done this for thirty or so persons, I think she could,
though with some difficulty, have gained just the kind of
knowledge which she rendered. She would probably have forgotten
that my wife's brother's given name was Legh, and that of his
mother Gabriella, while she remembered that of Mary and
Charles, and also that of a son in Cambridge, who is called
Waller. So, too, the fact that all trouble on account of the
missing will was within a fortnight after the death of Mr Page
cleared away by the action of the children was unknown. The
deceased is represented as still troubled, though he purported
to see just what was going on in his family.
"I have given you a mixture of observations and criticisms; let
me say that I have no firm mind about the matter. I am
curiously and yet absolutely uninterested in it, for the reason
that I don't see how I can exclude the hypothesis of fraud,
and until that can be excluded no advance can be made.
"When I took the medium's hand, I had my usual experience with
them--a few preposterous compliments concerning the clearness
of my understanding, and nothing more."
Among those who have made a careful study at first hand of Mrs Piper's
clairvoyance besides Dr Hodgson and Professor James are Sir Oliver
Lodge, the late Frederic Myers, Mrs Sidgwick, Walter Leaf, Professor
Romaine Newbold, and Professor J. H. Hyslop, and all of these have
recorded their conviction that the results are not explicable by fraud
or misrepresentation.
Another account which sheds light on what occurs at Mrs Piper's seances
is furnished by Professor Estlin Carpenter, Oxford. It is dated 14th
December 1894:
"DEAR PROFESSOR JAMES,--I had a sitting yesterday with Mrs
Piper at your house, and was greatly interested with the
results obtained, as they were entirely unexpected by me.
Various persons were named and described whom we could not
identify (my wife was present); but the names of my father and
mother were correctly given, with several details which were in
no way present to my mind at the time. The illness from which
my father was suffering at the time of his death was
identified, but not the accident which took him from us. A
penknife which I happened to have with me was rightly referred
to its place on the desk in his study, and after considerable
hesitation Mrs Piper wrote out the word _organ_ when I asked
concerning other objects in the room. She added spontaneously a
very remarkable item about which I was in no way thinking--viz.
that on Sunday afternoons or evenings (her phrase was
'twilight') we were accustomed to sing there together. She
stated correctly that my mother was older than my father, but
died after him; and she connected her death with my return from
Switzerland in a manner that wholly surprised me, the fact
being that her last illness began two or three days after my
arrival home from Lucerne. She gave the initials of my wife's
name rightly, and addressed words to her from her father,
whose first name, George, was correct. She also desired me, in
my father's name, not to be anxious about some family matters
(which have only recently come to my knowledge), though their
nature was not specified. Finally, though I should have
mentioned this first, as it was at the outset of the interview,
she told me that I was about to start on a voyage, and
described the vessel in general terms, though she could not
give its name or tell me the place where it was going. I saw
enough to convince me that Mrs Piper possesses some very
extraordinary powers, but I have no theory at all as to their
nature or mode of exercise."
Another who visited Mrs Piper was the famous French author, M. Paul
Bourget, who was astonished at what he heard. He happened to have on his
watch-chain a small seal which had been given him by a painter, long
since dead, under the saddest circumstances, of whom it was impossible
the medium could ever have heard; yet no sooner had she touched the
object than she related to him the circumstance. One could quote case
after case in the Society's reports, but in all the time Mrs Piper has
been under such rigid scrutiny not one suspicious instance or one
pointing to normal acquisition of facts has been discovered.
Some have boldly hazarded the conjecture that Mrs Piper worked up the
_dossiers_ of her sitters beforehand; inasmuch as she could easily
obtain her facts in many ways; by reading private letters, for instance,
or information derived from other mediums, or by employing private
inquiry agents. These things are said to be habitually done by
professional clairvoyants, by either going themselves or sending an
agent in the capacity of, say, a book canvasser, to some town or
district, and get all the information they can, to return some months
later and give clairvoyant sittings. There is a belief, and it is
possibly correct, that there is an organisation which gives and
exchanges information thus obtained by the members of the Society.
Perhaps this may account for the extraordinary good fortune of some
spiritualists in obtaining "tests." Some sitters who went to Mrs Piper
had visited other mediums previously. But one may be sure that all
precautions were taken to ensure against her knowing the names of the
sitters, so that she could not use any information, even if she had
obtained any, in this way. Those best qualified to judge are convinced
that her knowledge was not gained in this way, partly because of the
precautions used and partly by reason of the information itself.
As has been said, Mrs Piper was under the close scrutiny of Dr Hodgson
for many years, and nothing of the kind has ever come to light. Also Dr
Hodgson arranged beforehand her sittings for more than ten years, never
telling her the names of the sitters, who in almost every instance were
unknown to her by sight, and were without distinction introduced under
the name of "Smith." She made so many correct statements at many
individual sittings, and the proportion of successful sittings is so
high, that it is very difficult to attribute fraud to her. About dates
she appears to be very vague. She prefers to give Christian names to
surnames, and of the former those in common use rather than those out of
the way. As her descriptions of houses or places are generally failures,
she seldom attempts them. Mrs Piper seems to be weakest, indeed, just
where the so-called medium is most successful. Her strongest points are
describing diseases, the character of the sitter, his idiosyncrasies,
and the character of his friends, their sympathies, loves, hates, and
relationships in general, unimportant incidents in their past histories,
and so on. To retain such information in the memory is very difficult,
and to obtain it by general means well-nigh impossible.
Many of the personalities or "controls" of Mrs Piper speak, write, and
act in a way extraordinarily in consonance with those characters as they
were on earth. In other words, her "controls" have well-differentiated
identities. Each has a different manner, a different voice, different
acts, different ways of looking at things; in fact, has a different
character. For example, there is the spirit of G. P., a young journalist
and author who died suddenly in February 1892. A few weeks later his
spirit possessed Mrs Piper's organism, and although he was unknown to
Mrs Piper in life, yet for years since then he has carried on numerous
prolonged conversations with his friends, including Dr Hodgson, and
supplied numerous proofs of his knowledge of the concerns of the
deceased G. P. G. P.'s personal effects, MSS., etc., are referred to, as
well as private conversations of the past, and, moreover, he suddenly
recognises amongst those attending Mrs Piper's _seances_ those whom he
knew during life. Dr Hodgson was unable to find any instance when such
recognition has been incorrectly given. But G. P. is only one of several
trance personations speaking through Mrs Piper's organism and recognised
by friends.
After a contemplation of Mrs Piper's trance utterances alone we are
inevitably faced by a choice of three conclusions: either (1) fraud (and
fraud I hold here to be absolutely inadmissible); or (2) the possession
of some supernormal power of apprehension; or (3) communication with
the spirits of deceased persons.
Dr Hodgson was driven by sheer force of logic to accept the third of
these hypotheses. Others who have studied the phenomena have followed.
Dr J. H. Hyslop has published a record of the sittings held with Mrs
Piper in 1898 and 1899. His report contains the verbatim record of
seventeen sittings, and no pains have been spared to make the record
complete. It has exhaustive commentaries and accounts of experiments
intended to elucidate the supposed difficulties of trance communication.
Professor Hyslop finally arrives at the conclusion, after an extensive
investigation, during which no item of the evidence has failed to be
weighed and no possible source of error would seem to have escaped
consideration, that spirit communication is the only explanation which
fits all the facts, and he altogether rejects telepathy as being
inadequate.
* * * * *
I hope that those who have so far followed me in this brief inquiry into
the mysteries of occult phenomena will recognise the impartiality with
which I have endeavoured to conduct it. I said in the beginning that I
set out with a light heart as well as an open mind. I had no idea of the
extent of the territory, I knew little of its voluminous literature, of
the extraordinary ramifications of occultism, of the labours of the many
learned men who have spent their whole lives in seeking to separate fact
from superstition. My mind was light because, frankly, I believed--with
a sort of inherent, temperamental belief--that, however much the
testimony concerning coincident dreams, hallucinations, mediumistic
manifestations, materialisation, and clairvoyance might mystify, it was
all capable of normal explanation--there was nothing supernatural about
it. And so throughout the inquiry I sought to show how, chiefly,
telepathy was a working hypothesis in most of the manifestations, while
for the physical ones, such as table rapping, levitations, and the rest,
an unknown extension of human muscular power might possibly exist to
solve the mystery. So far I strode forward with some confidence. But
now the time has come when my confidence deserts me. Telepathy breaks
down. It is a key which by no amount of wriggling will turn the lock.
"It is not," as one leading inquirer has said, "that telepathy is
insufficient: it is superfluous." If the existence of disembodied
spirits is proved, then all the other phenomena are also proved.
If the case of Mrs Piper--under rigid surveillance for years--has
convinced some of the profoundest intellects of the day--men who began
by being sceptical--that disembodied spirits are responsible for her
utterances, it would certainly tend to convince me. But I carefully
guarded myself from conviction until I had read the evidence--even to a
_resume_ of this medium's utterances last year in London under the
auspices of the Society for Psychical Research--and I assert with
confidence that no metaphysical theory has ever been formulated that
will account for these manifestations save one--the survival of the
human personality after death. Once Mrs Piper is admitted as genuine,
then it follows that the spiritistic manifestations which have puzzled
mankind, not merely for generations or during the modern cult of
spiritism, but ever since primitive times, become, as it were,
emancipated.
"It does seem to me," said Mr Balfour, in his famous Society for
Psychical Research address, "that there is at least strong ground for
supposing that outside the world, as we have, from the point of science,
been in the habit of conceiving it, there does lie a region, not open
indeed to experimental observation in the same way as the more familiar
regions of the material world are open to it, but still with regard to
which some experimental information may be laboriously gleaned; and even
if we cannot entertain any confident hope of discovering what laws these
half-seen phenomena obey, at all events it will be some gain to have
shown, not as a matter of speculation or conjecture, but as a matter of
ascertained fact, that there are things in heaven and earth not hitherto
dreamed of in our scientific philosophy."
AFTERWORD
_And so our little tour into the occult is ended and we return into the
glare of common things--things which we know and can touch and find a
practical use for. If only a little of this light we hold so cheap were
to illumine the tenebrous fastnesses we have just left, then, perhaps
we, in our dull worldly way, might be able to assimilate the mystic to
the common, the unseen to the seen, the unknown to the known. But we are
not vouchsafed this white light; yet, even in the shadows to which our
eyes have grown accustomed, we have heard enough to make us wonder and
maybe make us doubtful when some voice, even such a voice as Matthew
Arnold's, cries out to us: "Miracles are touched by Ithuriel's
spear"--"Miracles do not happen."_
_True, miracles do not happen: but there are events of frequent
occurrence in this age, as in all ages of which we have a record, which
are miraculous in the sense of their being supernormal--for which
science offers no consistent explanation. Is not hypnotism a miracle? Is
not telepathy a miracle? Is not the divining rod a miracle? Would Sir
William Ramsay or Sir James Crichton-Browne throw these manifestations
into the limbo of humbug and charlatanism? And supposing they, and such
as they, continue incredulous--is not incredulity a fixed quantity in
any society? Were men ever unanimous in their impressions--in their
prepossessions, in the chromatic quality with which they steep every
surrounding fact before they allow their critical faculties to be
focussed upon it?_
_It may be objected by the reader that I who have led him on this little
tour into the wilderness of the occult have myself seen no ghosts. Where
are my own experiences? Where the relation of my own personal contact
with hypnotists, telepathists, mediums, mysteries? Would not that have
been of interest? It may be so: if the phenomena appertaining to those
in their best and most convincing quality were always to appear on a
casual summons and if I were confided in by the public at large as a
sane, unprejudiced witness._
_Granted that I have seen no ghosts, I have at least done this: I have
met the men--better men--who have. That at the beginning was the real
purpose of my brief itinerary. I designed less a tour into the occult
itself than an examination of witnesses for the occult whom I met on
the literary bypaths of occultism. This I hope I have done, not
satisfactorily--very hurriedly--yet honestly, and wanting like a
returned traveller to tell folks more ignorant than myself of what I had
heard of wonders which each man must, in the last resort, see for
himself and meditate upon for himself._
_The blind leading the blind--yea--but--he who hath ears let him hear!_
_One word more. I should like to see a census of all the minds which
embrace a belief in the truth of supernormal phenomena. It would
astonish the sceptic. It would reveal to him that the attitude of
society at large towards spiritualism and the other world is not the
attitude of any but a fraction of the component parts of society--not
even the evenly balanced attitude of Huxley towards God Almighty. We
should see something quite different; something even distinct and apart
from religion. We should see men, often without any religion at all
properly speaking, breaking out into the ejaculation of Hamlet to
Horatio and refusing to believe that certain occurrences in their
experience are to be explained away by chance or delusion. And even in
religious men the conviction seems to me secular rather than arising
from orthodox faith._
_"Far be it from me," wrote Emerson, "the impatience which cannot brook
the supernatural, the vast: far be it from me the lust of explaining
away all which appeals to the imagination and the great presentiments
which haunt us. Willingly I, too, say Hail! to the unknown artful powers
which transcend the ken of the understanding." Amen!_
_Only yesterday I picked up a book, a sort of literary autobiography, by
the author of "Sherlock Holmes," to find the following passage:--_
_"I do not think the hypothesis of coincidence can cover the facts. It
is one of several incidents in my life which have convinced me of
spiritual interposition--of the promptings of some beneficent force
outside ourselves which tries to help us where it can."_
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In the present volume psychic matters are treated from a more
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no claim to be other than a truthful record of personal
experiences. CONTENTS--SOME OBJECTIONS TO SPIRIT RETURN--SOME
INSTANCES OF SPIRIT RETURN--A MOTHER'S GUARDIANSHIP IN AMERICA--A
CURIOUS ILLUSTRATION OF SPIRIT METHODS--BIBLICAL
INCIDENTS--CLAIRVOYANCE--CLAIRAUDIENCE--RE-INCARNATION--AUTOMATIC
WRITING--MATERIALISATION--HOW THE DEAD DEPART--GUARDIAN
CHILDREN--APPENDIX
End of Project Gutenberg's Occultism and Common-Sense, by Beckles Willson