Mr. Furness: By--what? Isolating you from the table?
The Medium: Yes.
Mr. Furness (applying his right hand, by her permission, to the Medium's
head): Are you ever conscious of any vibration in your bones?
The Medium: No; but sometimes it causes an exhaustion, that is, under
circumstances when the raps do not come freely.
Mr. Furness: The freer the raps come, the better for you?
The Medium: Yes; the freer the better--the less exhaustion.
Mr. Sellers: But do you feel now, to-night, any untoward influence
operating against you?
The Medium: No, not to-night, for it takes quite a little while before
we feel those things.
Mr. Furness: Do these raps always have that vibratory
sound--tr-rut--tr-rut--tr-rut?
The Medium: Sometimes they vary.
Mr. Furness: As a general rule I have heard them sound so.
The Medium: Every rap has a different sound. For instance, when the
Spirit of Mr. Seybert rapped, if the sound was a good one, you would
have noticed that his rap was different from that of another. Every one
is entirely different from another.
Mr. Furness: Do you suppose that the present conditions are such that
you can throw the raps to a part of the room other than that in which
you are?
The Medium: I do not pretend to do that, but I will try to do it.
Mr. Furness and Dr. Leidy station themselves in the corner of the room,
diagonally, and most remote from the pine table, at which their
associates remain seated, with their hands upon the table, and 'their
minds intent on having the raps produced at the corner indicated,' as
requested by the Medium, who also remains at the table. The Medium asks,
'Will the Spirit rap at the other side of the room,' and, after twelve
seconds, and again after forty-three seconds, repeats the inquiry. No
response is received. The experiment is repeated with Mr. Furness and
Dr. Koenig at the corner, but with a like negative result.
At this point the attention of the Committee was again directed to the
attempted production of the rappings with the Medium standing upon the
glass tumblers. The lady proceeded to the space between the side-board
and the wall where the last preceding test had been made, and there the
tumblers were again arranged. The Medium resumed her position upon them,
with Doctors Leidy and Koenig, and Messrs. Sellers and Furness facing
her.
The Medium: Will the Spirit rap here?
Twenty-three seconds elapse.
Dr. Leidy: Is any Spirit present?
An interval of thirty-nine seconds here followed, when the attention of
the Committee was momentarily diverted by an inquiry addressed to Mr.
Furness by Mr. Sellers, viz.: Whether a glass plate of sufficient
strength to bear the weight of the Medium was procurable. At this moment
the Medium suddenly exclaimed: 'I heard a rap. You said, "Get a glass,"
and there was a rap.'[A]
[Footnote A: No one but the Medium heard this rap.--G.S.F.]
The Medium (repeating for the information of Mr. Furness): Somebody
proposed a glass and there were three raps.
Dr. Koenig inquires of the Medium whether the meaning intended to be
conveyed by the sounds is that the Spirits desire to have the glass
plate procured.
The Medium: I do not know. I know there were raps. (Turning to Mr.
Sellers, the Medium adds): They may have been made by your heel on the
floor but certainly there were sounds.
Mr. Fullerton: Then it was not the regular triple rap?
The Medium: I could not tell.
Just before calling attention to the alleged rap or raps the Medium
grasped with her right hand the woodwork of the side-board as if for
support. It was then that she stated she heard the sounds. They were
apparently not heard by any one but the Medium.
Mr. Sellers (addressing the Spirit): Will you repeat the raps we heard
just now, assuming that there were some?
Ten minutes elapse without a response.
The Medium: There is no use of my standing longer, for when they come at
all they come right away.
Mr. Sellers (after scrutinizing the position of one of the feet of the
Medium, remarks): The edge of the heel of the shoe rests on the back
tumbler. (Assuming a stooping posture for a more prolonged scrutiny, he
adds): We will see whether the raps will be produced now.
The Medium now proposes that all members of the Committee shall stand up
and join hands.
Mr. Sellers and his associates accordingly stand, facing the Medium,
with hands joined. Changes in their positions were made by some of the
gentlemen from time to time, as suggested by the Medium, Mr. Pepper and
Dr. Koenig being the first to exchange places. This occurred after a
silence of thirty seconds without any response.
The Medium: Now, Mr. Seybert, if your Spirit is here, will you have the
kindness--I knew Mr. Seybert well in life--to rap?
Fifteen seconds elapse.
The Medium: No, he does not seem to respond.
At the suggestion of Mr. Sellers, all the gentlemen approach the Medium
for the purpose of inducing some acknowledgment by the Spirit, and
inquiries similar to those already stated are repeated without result.
The Committee then temporarily abandon this test.
All present (except the Stenographer) having been seated at the large
circular table in the centre of the room, Mr. Pepper addressed the
Spirit of Mr. Seybert, as follows: 'Harry, will you communicate with me
as you promised to do?'
(Three raps--given slowly and deliberately--are heard.)
Mr. Sellers: Will you communicate with Mr. Pepper by raps or by
writing? (No response.) Will you communicate by raps?
The Medium (to Mr. Sellers): Well, my hand does feel like writing. Will
you give me a piece of paper?--and maybe they will give me some
directions.
Mr. Fullerton (to the Medium): How does your hand feel when affected in
that way?
The Medium: It is a peculiar feeling, like that from taking hold of
electrical instruments. I do not know but that you might possibly feel
it in my hand.
The lady here extended her right hand upon the table toward Mr.
Fullerton. The latter placed his left hand upon the extended hand of the
Medium, and subsequently remarked that the pulsation of her wrist was a
little above the ordinary rate.
The Medium, ostensibly under Spirit influence, with lead pencil in hand
proceeded to write two communications from the Spirit of the late Henry
Seybert. The first of these covered two pages of paper of the size of
ordinary foolscap. The Medium wrote in large characters, with remarkable
rapidity, and in a direction from the right to the left, or the reverse
of ordinary handwriting. The writing, consequently, could be read only
from the reverse side of the paper and by being held up so as to permit
the gas-light to pass through it.
The communications, as deciphered by Mr. Sellers, with the aid of Mr.
Fullerton and the Medium, were as follows: "You must not expect that I
can satisfy you beyond all doubt in so short a time as you have yet had.
I want to give you all in my power, and will do so if you will give me a
chance. You must commence right in the first place or you shall all be
disappointed for a much longer time. _Princiipis Obsta Sero Medicina
Paratum._
Henry Seybert.
"Mend the fault in time or we will all be puzzled.