OF

The Seybert Commission for Investigating Modern Spiritualism.

_To the Trustees of The University of Pennsylvania:_

'The Seybert Commission for Investigating Modern Spiritualism'

respectfully present the following Preliminary Report, and request that

the Commission be continued, on the following grounds:

The Commission is composed of men whose days are already filled with

duties which cannot be laid aside, and who are able, therefore, to

devote but a small portion of their time to these investigations. They

are conscious that your honorable body look to them for a due

performance of their task, and the only assurance which they can offer

of their earnestness and zeal is in thus presenting to you, from time to

time, such fragmentary Reports as the following, whereby they trust that

successive steps in their progress may be marked. It is no small matter

to be able to record any progress in a subject of so wide and deep an

interest as the present. It is not too much to say that the farther our

investigations extend the more imperative appears the demand for these

investigations. The belief in so-called Spiritualism is certainly not

decreasing. It has from the first assumed a religious tone, and now

claims to be ranked among the denominational Faiths of the day.

From the outset your Commission have been deeply impressed with the

seriousness of their undertaking, and have fully recognized that men

eminent in intelligence and attainments yield to Spiritualism an entire

credence, and who can fail to stand aside in tender reverence when

crushed and bleeding hearts are seen to seek it for consolation and for

hope? They beg that nothing which they may say may be interpreted as

indicating indifference or levity. Wherever fraud in Spiritualism be

found, that it is, and not whatever of truth there may be therein, which

is denounced, and all Spiritualists who love the truth will join with us

in condemnation of it.

The admission of evidence concerning the so-called Spiritual

manifestations has been duly weighed. There is apparent force in the

argument that our national histories are founded, accepted and trusted

on evidence by no means as direct as that by which, it is claimed, the

proofs of Spiritual miracles are accompanied. But it must be remembered

that the facts of profane history are vouched for by evidence which is

in accord with our present experience; they are in harmony with all that

is now going on in the light of day (that history repeats itself has

grown into a commonplace), and we are justified in accepting them on

testimony, however indirect, which is nevertheless at one with the

ordinary course of events. But the phenomena of Spiritualism have no

such support; they are commonly regarded as in contravention of the

ordinary experience of mankind (in that they are abnormal and

extraordinary lies their very attractiveness to many people), and no

indirect testimony concerning them can be admitted without the most

thorough, the most searching scrutiny. We doubt if any thoughtful

Spiritualist could be found to maintain that we should unquestioningly

accept all the so-called 'facts' with which their annals teem. To sift

the evidence of merely half a dozen would require incalculable labor.

Wherefore we decided that, as we shall be held responsible for our

conclusions, we must form those conclusions solely on our own

observations; without at all imputing untrustworthiness to the testimony

of others we can really vouch only for facts which we have ourselves

observed.

The late Mr. Henry Seybert during his lifetime was known as an

enthusiastic believer in Modern Spiritualism, and shortly before his

death presented to The University of Pennsylvania a sum of money

sufficient to found a chair of Philosophy, and to the gift added a

condition that the University should appoint a Commission to investigate

'all systems of Morals, Religion, or Philosophy which assume to

represent the Truth, and particularly of Modern Spiritualism.'

A Commission was accordingly appointed, composed as follows: Dr. William

Pepper, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Dr. George A. Koenig, Professor Robert Ellis

Thompson, Professor George S. Fullerton and Dr. Horace Howard Furness;

to whom were afterwards added Mr. Coleman Sellers, Dr. James W. White,

Dr. Calvin B. Knerr and Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. Of this Commission Dr.

Pepper, as Provost of The University, was, _ex-officio_, Chairman, Dr.

Furness, Acting Chairman, and Professor Fullerton, Secretary.

As a befitting preliminary, at one of our earliest meetings each member

in turn expressed his entire freedom from all prejudices against the

subject to be investigated, and his readiness to accept any conclusion

warranted by facts; one of our number, the Acting Chairman, so far from

being unprejudiced confessed to a leaning in favor of the substantial

truth of Spiritualism.

We deemed ourselves fortunate at the outset in having as a counselor

the late Mr. Thos. R. Hazard, a personal friend of Mr. Seybert, and

widely known throughout the land as an uncompromising Spiritualist.

By the advice of Mr. Hazard we addressed ourselves first to the

investigation of Independent Slate Writing, and through his aid a séance

for this purpose was arranged with a noted Medium, Mrs. S.E. Patterson.

This mode of manifesting Spiritualistic power, as far as it has come

under our observation, is, concisely stated, the writing on the

concealed surface of a slate which is in contact with a Medium. In the

present instance, between two slates fastened together by a hinge on one

side and a screw on the other, there was placed a small fragment of

slate pencil; when this fragment is bitten off by the Medium, it

receives, so Mr. Hazard assured us, additional Spiritualistic power. As

soon as a Spirit has finished writing its communication with the pencil

on the inner surface of the slates, the completion of the task is made

known by the appearance of the slate pencil on the outside, upon the

slates. The slates are always held in concealment under the table, and

never has this remarkable passage of the pencil through the solid

substance of the slate been witnessed by any one, not even by the Medium

herself, in all the years during which this wonderful phenomenon has

been a matter of daily, almost hourly, experience.

Our first séance was held in the evening at the Medium's own home. The

slates were screwed together with the bit of slate pencil enclosed, and

held by the Medium between her open palms, in her lap, under the table.

After waiting an hour and a half without the least response on the

slates from the Spirits, the attempt was abandoned for that evening much

to the disappointment, not only of us all, but to the chagrin of Mr.

Hazard, who could not understand 'what the deuce was in it, seeing that

the Medium was one of the very best in the world, and on the preceding

evening, when he was all alone with her, the messages from the spirit of

Henry Seybert came thick and fast.'

No better success attended our second séance with this Medium, although

we waited patiently an hour and twenty minutes, while the slates were in

the Medium's lap.

By the advice of the Medium, in order to eliminate any possible

antagonism, we divided our numbers, and only one or two of us at a time

sat with her. On one occasion writing did appear on the slates, after

the slates had been held by both hands of the Medium for a long time in

concealment under the table, but to neither of the two sitters did the

screw appear to be by any means as tightly fastened after the writing as

before; nor did the writing of two or three illegible words seem beyond

the resources of very humble legerdemain; in fact, no legerdemain was

needed, after a surreptitious loosening of the screw which, considering

the state of the frame of the slate, could have been readily effected.

From some cause or other the atmosphere of Philadelphia is not favorable

to this mode of Spiritual manifestation. With the exception of the

Medium just alluded to, not a single Professional Independent Slate

Writing Medium was known to us at that time in this city, nor is there

one resident here even at this present writing, as far as we know.

We were, therefore, obliged to send for one to New York. With this

Medium, Dr. Henry Slade, we had a number of sittings, and, however

wonderful may have been the manifestations of his Mediumship in the

past, or elsewhere, we were forced to the conclusion that the character

of those which passed under our observation was fraudulent throughout.

There was really no need of any elaborate method of investigation; close

observation was all that was required.

At the risk of appearing inconsequent by mentioning that first which in

point of time came last, we must premise that in our investigations

with this Medium we early discovered the character of the writing to be

twofold, and the difference between the two styles to be striking. In

one case the communication written on the slate by the Spirits was

general in its tone, legible in its chirography, and usually covered

much of the surface of the slate, punctuation being attended to, the

_i's_ dotted, and the _t's_ crossed. In the second, when the

communication was in answer to a question addressed to a Spirit the

writing was clumsy, rude, scarcely legible, abrupt in terms, and

sometimes very vague in substance. In short, one bore the marks of

deliberation and the other of haste. This difference we found to be due

to the different conditions under which the communications were written.

The long messages are prepared by the Medium before the séance. The

short ones, answers to questions asked during the séance, are written

under the table with what skill practice can confer.

With this knowledge, it is clear that the investigator has to deal with

a simple question of legerdemain. The slate, with its message already

written, must in some way be substituted for one which the sitter knows

to be clean. The short answers must be written under trying

circumstances, out of sight, under the table, with all motions of the

arm or hand concealed. It is useless to attempt to limit the methods

whereby these two objects may be attained. All that we can do is to

describe the processes which we distinctly saw this Medium adopt.

In its simplest form (and one which any person can try with astonishing

results upon an artless, unsuspicious sitter), a slate, on which, before

the sitter's visit, a message has been written, is lying face downward

on the table when the séance begins. There are other slates on an

adjoining table within easy reach of the Medium. In order that the

Medium may be brought into Spiritual relationship with the sitters,

contact with the Medium is necessary, and the sitters are therefore

requested to place their hands, palms downward, in the middle of the

table; on these hands the Medium places his own and the séance begins.

Before long, the presence of Spiritual power becomes manifest by raps on

the table, or by vibratory movements of the table, more or less violent,

and by spasmodic jerkings or twitching of the Medium's arms or body.

When sufficient Spiritual power has been generated, the Medium takes up

the slate, and, still controlling with his left hand the hands of his

sitters, places on it a minute fragment of slate pencil. No offer is

made to show both sides (the prepared message is on the hidden side),

the side in full view is perfectly clean, and it is on that side that

the Spirits are to write with the slate pencil; there is no need of

showing the other side. With his right hand the Medium holds the slate

under the edge of the table, barely concealing it thereunder, and

drawing it forth every few seconds to see if any writing has appeared.

After waiting in vain for five or ten minutes, the Medium's patience

becomes exhausted, and he reaches for another slate from the table close

behind him, and, ostentatiously washing both sides of it, lays it on the

table in front of him (still controlling with his left hand the hands of

his sitters), and removes the pencil from the first slate to the second,

and on top of the second so places the first slate that the prepared

message is underneath, on the inside and next to the other slate. The

trick is done. All that now remains for the Medium to do is to hold the

two slates under the table for awhile, or rest them on the shoulder

close to the ear of the sitter on the Medium's right, and, by scratching

with the finger nail on the frame of the slate, to imitate the writing

by the Spirits with the enclosed pencil. When there are two or more

sitters it is only the one on the right of the Medium who is privileged

to hear the writing. To apply the slate to the ear of any other would

disclose the way in which the sound of the writing is counterfeited. To

him, therefore, who sits on the Medium's left, so that the Medium's

hand, while holding the slates on the shoulder of the sitter on the

right, is sharply outlined against the light, the motions of the

Medium's fingers while the sound of writing is imitated by him may be

distinctly seen.

By such elementary tricks of legerdemain as these are guileless, honest

folk deceived.

Dr. Slade prefers to have only two sitters at a time, one on his right

and one opposite. The fourth side of the table he prefers to have

unoccupied; his manipulations of the slate can be from that side more

readily observed; moreover, strange Spiritual antics may be there

manifested, such as upsetting chairs which happen to be there, making

slates appear above the edge of the table, etc. These manifestations are

executed by the Medium's foot, which, on one occasion, was distinctly

seen before it had time to get back into its slipper by one of our

number, who stooped very quickly to pick up a slate which had

accidentally fallen to the floor while the Spirits were trying to put it

into the lap of one of the sitters.

At the first two séances an ordinary wooden table was used belonging to

the hotel where Dr. Slade lodged. At the third séance a similar but

larger table was used, somewhat the worse for wear, and the joints of

its leaves were far from fitting close. Every crack, however, and every

chink had been carefully filled up with paper to prevent, so the Medium

said, 'the electricity from flowing through.'

The method of producing the long message which opened the séance has

been described above. Whenever we received other long messages, written

with some care and more or less filling the side of the slate, the

agency employed was adroit substitution, generally effected when the

Medium supposed that the attention of his sitters was engrossed with an

answer just received to a question addressed to the Spirits. Prepared

slates resting against the leg of the table behind him were substituted

for those which but a moment before he had ostentatiously washed on

both sides and laid on the table in front of him. The handwriting of

these long messages bore an unmistakable similarity to the Medium's own.

When a question is written on the slate by a sitter, equal dexterity to

that used in substituting the prepared slate, or even greater, is

demanded of the Medium, in reading the question and in writing the

answer.

The question is written by the sitter out of sight of the Medium, to

whom the slate, face downward, is handed over and a piece of pencil

placed on it.

The task now before the Medium is first to secure the fragment of pencil

and to hold it while the slate is surreptitiously turned over and the

question read, then the slate is turned back again and the answer

written.

Every step in the process we have distinctly seen. In order to seize the

fragment of pencil without awakening suspicion, while holding the slate

under the table, the slate is constantly brought out to see whether or

not the Spirits have written an answer. By this manoeuvre a double end

is attained: First, it creates an atmosphere of expectation, and the

sitters grow accustomed to a good deal of motion in the Medium's arm

that holds the slate; and secondly, by these repeated motions the pencil

(which, having been cut out from a slate pencil enclosed in wood, is

square, and does not roll about awkwardly), is moved by the successive

jerks toward the hand which holds the slate, and is gradually brought up

to within grasping distance. The forefinger is then passed over the

frame of the slate, and it and the thumb seize and hold the pencil, and

under cover of some violent convulsive spasms the slate is turned over

and the question read. At this point it is that the Medium shows his

nerve: it is the critical instant, the only one when his eyes are not

fastened on his visitors. On one occasion, when the question was written

somewhat illegibly in a back hand, with a very light stroke, and close

to the upper edge of the slate, the Medium had to look at it three

several times before he could make it out.

After reading the question, it may be noticed that Dr. Slade winks three

or four times rapidly; this may have been partly to veil from his

visitors the fact that he had been looking intently downward, and partly

through mental abstraction in devising an answer. He evidently breathes

freer when this crisis is past.

Convulsive spasms attend the reversing of the slate, which is then

generally held between his knees; only once did we note that he placed

it _on_ his knees, and once we believed that he supported it by pressing

it against the leg of the table. The answer is written without looking

at the slate, in a coarse, large, sprawling hand, at times scarcely

legible. While writing he keeps his eyes steadily fixed on his visitors,

and generally rests a minute or two after it is finished. Presently the

slate is held near the edge of the table and close up to it, and a

tremulous motion imparted to it suggests that Spiritual power is then at

work and that the writing is in progress.

Dr. Slade performed several little tricks which he imputed to Spiritual

agency, but which were almost puerile in the simplicity of their

legerdemain, and which have been repeated with perfect success by one of

our number; such as tossing a slate pencil on and sometimes over the

table from a slate held apparently under the table, or the playing of an

accordion when held with one hand under the table. This Medium's fingers

are unusually long and strong, and the accordion, being quite small and

with only four bellows folds, can be readily manipulated with but one

hand, and when under the table is held by the keys.

Two compasses, which we placed on the table during one séance, remained

unaffected by Dr. Slade's presence.

At our last séance with him we noticed two slates which were not with

the other slates on the small table behind him, but were on the floor

resting against the leg of that table, and within easy reach of his hand

as he sat at the larger table. As we had previously seen prepared slates

similarly placed we kept a sharp watch on these slates. Unfortunately,

it was too sharp. Dr. Slade caught the look that was directed at them.

That detected glance was sufficient to prevent the Spirits from sending

us the messages which they had so carefully prepared. The slates were

not produced during the séance, but when it was over one of our number

managed to strike them with his foot so as to displace them and reveal

the writing. None of us present that day will be likely to forget the

hurried way in which these slates were seized by the Medium and washed.

We think it worthy to be recorded that, in reply to a question, Dr.

Slade said that Professor Zoellner watched him closely only during the

first three or four sittings, but that afterwards Professor Zoellner let

him do just as he pleased, fully and unreservedly submitting to all the

conditions demanded by the Spirits.

We received from Dr. Slade a written expression of his satisfaction with

our treatment of him, which had been throughout, so he said, entirely

fair and courteous, and of his willingness at any time hereafter to sit

with us again, should we desire it and his engagements permit.

It is a source of regret that, in our investigations, we have received

no aid from unprofessional Mediums; and in dealing with professional

Mediums we have been continually distracted by the conflicting estimates

in which these Mediums are held among the Spiritualists themselves.

There are very, very few professional Mediums, as far as our experience

goes, who are accepted by all Spiritualists as free from the reproach of

fraud. Indeed one Medium with whom, by the advice of Mr. Hazard, we had

a séance, and for whom Mr. Hazard vouched as one of the best of his

class, we have seen denounced as a 'liar and a thief.' In the

earnestness of our zeal we advertised in the local secular press, and in

the leading Spiritualist Journals both East and West, for Independent

Slate Writing Mediums, and to this widespread appeal there came but

three replies, and of these, two were so remote that the promise of

performance held out by the respondents did not, in our opinion, justify

so large an outlay of money for traveling expenses as a journey across

the Continent involved. This noteworthy reluctance on the part of

Mediums to come before us cannot be due to any harsh or antagonistic

treatment received at our hands by any Medium. All Mediums have been

treated by us with uniform courtesy, and with every endeavor to

acquiesce in the 'conditions' imposed or suggested by the Spirits. And

yet a well-known Medium in New York, Mrs. Thayer, to whom the Acting

Chairman was unknown, and with whom he was at the time having a séance,

vehemently asserted that no member of the 'Seybert Commission' should

ever have a séance with her, that the whole Commission, one and all,

were 'old scoundrels and should never darken her doors,' etc., etc., and

confessed that the foundation of her belief was the warning (sent to her

by an eminent Medium whose séances the Commission had attended) that she

should have nothing to do with 'the Seybert men, that they would do her

no good.' Even in instances where Mediums have expressed their

willingness to appear before us, we have been embarrassed by demands for

compensation which we could not but deem extortionate and, practically,

prohibitory; as in the case of Mr. Keeler, the Spiritual Photographer,

whose terms will be found in the Appendix, and in that of Dr. Henry

Rogers, whose terms were five hundred dollars if he should be successful

before us, and the half of that sum if he failed.

Although the number of Mediums whose manifestations we have been able to

examine has been thus restricted, we feel ourselves justified in giving

as a result of our examination of Independent Slate Writing that,

whether the agency be Spiritual or Material, its mode of manifestation

almost wholly precludes any satisfactory investigation.

There are not wanting eminent expounders of the Spiritualistic Faith who

assert that this is as it should be, and that if in the attempt to apply

the laws of the material world to Spiritual manifestations we are

baffled, the fault lies in us, and not in the Mediums. If this be so, we

must accept our fate and enlarge the adage that 'poets are born, not

made,' and include Spiritualists.

Yet, as a rule, Mediums assert that they invite investigation. Our

experience has been, as we have just said, that as soon as an

investigation, worthy of the name, begins, all manifestations of

Spiritualist power cease.

The bare statement of the conditions whereunder the Mediums maintain

that the manifestations of Independent Slate Writing are alone possible,

involves the extreme difficulty, we might almost say the impossibility,

of any genuine or rational investigation. Even the very spirit of

investigation, or of incredulity, seems to exercise a chilling effect

and prevents a successful manifestation. Indeed Mr. Hazard once told us

that the true spirit in which to approach the study of Spiritualism is

'an entire willingness to be deceived.' In Independent Slate Writing, in

our experience, there is a period, of longer or shorter duration, when

the slate is concealed. During this period the investigator's eye must

not watch it. When the slate is held under the table, knees and feet

and clothing exert no deleterious effect, but the gaze of a human eye is

fatal to all Spiritual manifestation; although to one of our number, on

three occasions, a pocket mirror, carefully adjusted, unknown to the

Medium, gave back the reflection of fingers, which were clearly not

Spiritual, opening the slates and writing the answer.

There is really no step in the bare process of producing this writing,

as we have observed it, which might not be accomplished by trickery or

by legerdemain. Of course, therefore, we were sincerely anxious to

disprove in these experiments the presence of those discreditable

elements, not only for the credit of human nature, but for the sake of

the great scientific interest involved. We are perfectly ready to accept

any fact of Spiritual power; and so far from flinching from an open

avowal of our belief in this revelation of a novel force in Nature, we

would welcome it. But no one, not a Spiritualist, we should suppose, can

demand of us that we should accept profound mysteries with our eyes

tight shut, and our hands fast closed, and with every avenue to our

reasoning faculties insurmountably barred. Yet this is precisely what is

demanded of us by Mediums in regard to Independent Slate Writing. We

must sign a dispensation to forego the exercise of common sense, and

accept as 'fact' what they choose so to term. Few assertions by departed

Spirits are more hacknied than, 'This is a great truth,' and yet in an

honest endeavor to prove that it is a 'great truth;' and not a great

lie, the sincere and earnest seeker is at every turn baffled and

thwarted.

To eliminate from our investigations every element of distrust, or

hostility, or suspicion, or chilling antagonism, we entrusted to Mr.

Hazard's friend, Mrs. Patterson, vouched for by him as one of the very

best Mediums in the country, two carefully closed and sealed slates,

enclosing, of course, the required piece of slate-pencil, with the

earnest entreaty that the Spirits should write therein even if it were

but the merest mark, sign, or scratch, therewith we would be content,

and be ready to accept Independent Slate Writing with its train of

consequences. The Medium was fully impressed with the importance of the

trial, and with the fame which would thereby accrue from such a

wholesale conversion as that of the united Seybert Commission.

Every Medium, it would appear, is under the special tutelage of a

departed Spirit; this Spirit is termed the 'Medium's control.' In the

present case, when the slates were delivered to Mrs. Patterson, her

'control,' one 'Thomas Lister,' at once promised that Spirit hands

should shortly write within the sealed-up space. But no writing came

that day nor the next, nor the next, although the Medium protested that

every attention should be bestowed on the refractory slates. In vain was

the Medium again and again adjured to put forth every power. At the end

of six months the slates were received again, without any writing,

according to the confession of the Medium.

So anxious, however, was our Acting Chairman that the experiment should

prove successful, that, undeterred by this failure, he carefully sealed

up a second slate, and placed it in the hands of the same Medium, with

renewed adjurations to put forth all her Spiritualistic strength. At the

end of a fortnight or more, after redoubled exertions of Mediumistic

power, to which was added the combined Spiritualistic power of the

Medium's entire family circle, the exciting announcement was made to us

that the fragment of slate pencil within the slates could no longer be

heard to rattle, and that presumably the Spirits had written a message

for us.

Each Medium, generally, has some peculiar mode of manifesting

Spiritualistic power; it is a peculiarity of this Medium, as has been

before stated, that the completion of the Spirit message within the

slates is indicated not by raps, as is frequently the case with other

Mediums, but by the sudden and marvelous appearance on the top of the

slate of the little fragment of pencil, which had been securely fastened

up within. The fact, therefore, that the pencil was no longer inside of

our slates was presumptive evidence that the Medium's control had been

true to his word, and had written us a message. The slates were received

from the Medium most carefully, and a meeting of the Commission hastily

called. It is scarcely worth while to enter here at length on the

details of that session, of the careful scrutiny to which the slates

were subjected, of the unmutilated seals, of the untouched screws, etc.,

etc.; but it is worth while to record the feeling of grave

responsibility, almost akin to solemnity, with which we all approached

what, for aught we knew, might prove to be a revelation of a power as

wonderful as any with which, as yet, we had ever been brought into

acquaintance. Just before we opened the slates it was noticed that at

one corner, owing to the flexibility of the wooden frames, it was quite

possible to stretch the slates far enough apart to permit the insertion

of the blade of a knife, and an examination of the edges at this point

revealed only too plainly discolored abrasions. When the slates were

finally opened, not a stroke of writing nor a scratch was to be found,

but at the suspected corner were the discolored marks, visible to this

day, of the knife which had been inserted to extract the pencil, which,

in its enforced outward passage, had left behind, in its scratches on

the wood, a tell-tale trail of dust which the microscope revealed to be

of the same substance as the pencil. The Spirits had not taken even the

precaution to wipe the broad knife clean from rust or dirt. The slates

are preserved in our sad museum of specimens of misdirected ingenuity.

We are continually confronted with statements wherein the narrator

claims a Spiritual solution as the only possible one of the enigma

involved in the phenomena, as he observed them.

To all such statements we have, first, the plain and ready answer, that

we do not attempt to pass judgment on manifestations which we ourselves

have not observed. All that we can vouch for is the result of our own

observation. More cannot be demanded of us.

Secondly, experience has shown us that with every possible desire on the

part of Spiritualists to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing

but the truth, concerning marvelous phenomena, it is extremely difficult

to do so. Be it distinctly understood that we do not for an instant

impute wilful perversion of the truth. All that we mean is that, for two

reasons, it is likely that the marvels of Spiritualism will be, by

believers in them, incorrectly and insufficiently reported.

The first reason is to be found in the mental condition of the observer;

if he be excited or deeply moved his account cannot but be affected, and

essential details will surely be distorted.

For a second reason, note how hard it is to give a truthful account of

any common, everyday occurrence. The difficulty is increased a

hundred-fold, when what we would tell, partakes of the wonderful. Who

can truthfully describe a juggler's trick? Who would hesitate to affirm

that a watch, which never left the eye-sight for an instant, was broken

by the juggler on an anvil; or that a handkerchief was burned before our

eyes? We all know the juggler does not break the watch, and does not

burn the handkerchief. We watched most closely the juggler's right hand,

while the trick was done with his left. The one minute circumstance has

been omitted that would have converted the trick into no-trick. It is

likely to be the same in the accounts of most of the wonderful phenomena

of Spiritualism.

For these two reasons, we laid down for ourselves at the start that in

cases demanding close observation we would endeavor to have as many

members as possible of the Commission present at every séance. In

dealing with phenomena, where all ordinary methods of investigation are

excluded, we perceived clearly that our best resource lay in having the

largest possible number of observers.

In dismissing this subject of Independent Slate Writing, we repeat, what

we think Spiritualists will generally grant, that this phenomenon can be

performed by legerdemain. The burden of proof that it is not so

performed rests with the Mediums. This proof the Mediums will neither

offer themselves, nor permit others to obtain. Investigators, therefore,

are forced to bring to bear their own powers of close observation,

sharpened and educated by experience. Be it remembered that what we have

here stated applies solely to the process whereby the communication is

written on the slate; with the substance of the communication, whether

pertinent answers to questions or dreary platitudes, we are not now

dealing. Whether these answers be ascribed to Spirits, or to what is

termed clairvoyance, they would be none the less true or false if

delivered orally by the Medium; all that we are sure of is that the

writing down of these communications, be their substance what it may, is

performed in a manner so closely resembling fraud as to be

indistinguishable from it. It would be a mere matter of opinion that all

Independent Slate Writing is fraudulent; what is not a matter of opinion

is the conviction, which we have unanimously reached as a Commission, of

its non-spiritual character in every instance that has come before us.

An eminent professional juggler performed, in the presence of three of

our Commission, some Independent Slate Writing far more remarkable than

any which we have witnessed with Mediums. In broad daylight, a slate

perfectly clean on both sides was, with a small fragment of slate

pencil, held under a leaf of a small ordinary table around which we were

seated; the fingers of the juggler's right hand pressed the slate tight

against the underside of the leaf, while the thumb completed the

pressure, and remained in full view while clasping the leaf of the

table. Our eyes never for a fraction of a second lost sight of that

thumb; it never moved; and yet in a few minutes the slate was produced,

covered on both sides with writing. Messages were there, and still are

there, for we preserved the slate, written in French, Spanish, Dutch,

Chinese, Japanese, Gujerati, and ending with 'Ich bin ein Geist, und

liebe mein Lagerbier.' We were utterly baffled. For one of our number

the juggler subsequently repeated the trick and revealed its every

detail.

We request your honorable body to note that this Report is preliminary

and that we do not consider our investigations in this department as

finally closed, but hold ourselves ready to continue them whenever

favorable circumstances arise.

To the subject of 'Spirit-rappings' we have devoted some time and

attention, but our investigations have not been sufficiently extensive

to warrant us at present in offering any positive conclusions. The

difficulty attending the investigation of this mode of Spiritualistic

manifestation is increased by the fact, familiar to physiologists, that

sounds of varying intensity may be produced in almost any portion of the

human body by voluntary muscular action. To determine the exact location

of this muscular activity is at times a matter of delicacy.

What we can say, thus far, with assurance is that, in the cases which

have come under our observation, the theory of the purely physiological

origin of the sounds has been sustained by the fact that the Mediums

were invariably, and confessedly, cognizant of the rappings whenever

they occurred, and could at once detect any spurious rappings, however

exact and indistinguishable to all other ears might be the imitation.

For the details of the investigation which guided us to this conclusion

we refer to the Appendix.

There are among Mediums certain Specialists, whose alleged Spiritual

manifestations we have endeavoured to investigate, not always

successfully, as, for instance, in the case of Mr. W.M. Keeler, through

whose Mediumship 'Spiritual Photographs' are produced. The 'conditions'

which this Medium demanded would have made any attempt at investigation

a mere waste of time, and his terms of remuneration were, in addition,

as we have before mentioned, prohibitory and suggestive of unwillingness

to come before the Commission. In these days of 'Composite Photography'

it is worse than childish to claim a Spiritual source for results which

can be obtained at any time by any tyro in the art. Mr. Keeler's letter

will be found in the Appendix.

We were more successful in procuring a séance with Mr. Keeler's brother,

whose Mediumship manifests itself by the materialization of a right hand

behind a low screen, in front of which the Medium sits, with his face

alone visible, his entire person being concealed by black muslin. The

screen is stretched across a corner of a room to about the height of the

back of the Medium's head, as he sits in front of it. The lights are

lowered, and in a few minutes various instruments, musical and

otherwise, which had been previously placed on a small table in the

corner enclosed by the screen, are heard to sound, a drum is beaten, a

guitar is played, etc. The music is interspersed with flashes of hand

darting and waving above the screen to the right of the Medium. The

hand, when shaken, was found to be a right one. As a proof that the hand

is Spiritual and not that of the Medium, the latter requests one of the

visitors at the séance to sit beside him on his right, and also to be

covered to the chin with the same black muslin under which all the

Medium, except his head, is concealed. This visitor's bare left forearm

is grasped by the Medium, as he says, with both his hands, and this

pressure of the Medium's two hands on the visitor's arm is never

relaxed, as the visitor readily testifies. The proof seems, therefore,

conclusive that the hand which plays the instruments behind the screen

is not the Medium's, and hence must be a materialized Spirit. The trick

is simple and highly deceptive, as any one can prove for himself by

requesting a blindfolded friend to bare the left arm to the elbow, then

let the experimenter grasp this bared arm, near the wrist, with the

third and fourth fingers of his left hand, closing them around it

tightly, and as he does so, asking the owner of the arm to note that

this is his left hand, then let the experimenter, without relaxing this

hold, stretch the remaining fingers and thumb up the arm as far as he

can, and while clasping it with his thumb and forefinger, remark that

this second pressure comes from his other hand. The conviction is

complete in the mind of the blindfolded friend that he feels the grasp

of two hands, whereas only the left hand of the experimenter has grasped

his arm, and the right hand is free to beat a drum or play a zither.

After this test, which is patent to all, we can dismiss the theory of a

Spiritual origin of the hand behind Mr. Keeler's screen. To forestall

the discovery by Mr. Keeler's companion of this trick, and to prevent

its detection by simply feeling with his free right hand after the

suppositious hands of the Medium, which are grasping his left forearm,

a second visitor is requested to share the discomfort of the muslin

envelope, and to sit on the right of the first visitor and to hold the

latter's truant right hand with his left hand, while his right is

exposed to view outside the curtain. Again we refer to the Appendix for

the minutes of our meeting.

We had a séance also with Messrs. Rothermel and Powell, of whom the

former is the Medium, the latter, acting mainly as a reservoir of

psychic force, guides and directs the séance. In this case the Medium's

Spiritual manifestations, as well as his material arrangements, are

similar to those of Mr. Keeler, except that instead of having a visitor

whose arm may be grasped, Mr. Rothermel's hands are fastened in his lap

by bands of tape passed around his legs and sewed to his clothes. After

the black curtain had hid the hands from our sight we were not again

allowed to examine them except in the most hurried and superficial way,

but, even in the brief inspection which was permitted, a glance was

sufficient to show that the tape had been tampered with. The close of

the séance was announced by the sound of clipping scissors, and by Mr.

Rothermel's exclamation, while still concealed, that the Spirits were

cutting him loose. We had no means of knowing whether the tape was cut

at the beginning of the séance or not. When the muslin envelope was

removed, Mr. Rothermel's hands were certainly free. The bands were cut,

and we had no difficulty in believing that the hands which were

dexterous enough to play the zither with very remarkable skill, under

such conditions, behind the curtain, were deft enough to sever the

cords.

Our séances with Mrs. Maud E. Lord were acknowledged by the Medium

herself to be altogether unsatisfactory. This is much to be regretted.

Mrs. Lord is one of the few professional Mediums whose excellence is

acknowledged by all Spiritualists alike, and who, in her attitude

towards the Commission, displayed every desire to aid a full and

complete investigation into the manifestations peculiar to her

Mediumship, and furthermore, without remuneration.

In conclusion, we beg to express our regret that thus far we have not

been cheered in our investigations by the discovery of a single novel

fact; but, undeterred by this discouragement, we trust with your

permission to continue them with what thoroughness our future

opportunities may allow, and with minds as sincerely and honestly open,

as heretofore, to conviction.

We desire to call especial attention to Professor Fullerton's Report in

the Appendix of his interviews with Professors Fechner, Scheibner and

Weber, the surviving colleagues of Professor Zoellner in his experiments

with Dr. Henry Slade.

And also to an investigation of the power of Mediums to answer the

questions contained in 'Sealed Envelopes.'

WILLIAM PEPPER,

JOSEPH LEIDY,

GEORGE A. KOENIG,

GEORGE S. FULLERTON,

ROBT. ELLIS THOMPSON,

HORACE HOWARD FURNESS,

COLEMAN SELLERS,

JAMES W. WHITE,

CALVIN B. KNERR,

S. WEIR MITCHELL.

_University of Pennsylvania_,

May, 1887.