heartily, stating that the hand and arm belonged to an old English
sailor, whom she spoke of as "the Captain." She said, further, that he
had been standing with her watching the tying-up process from their
sphere, and laughing at Mr. X--'s vain attempt to prevent the production
of the phenomena. The Captain had very much wished to materialize fully,
so as to surprise Mr. X-- as he stepped back from the sensitive; but,
finding that he could only get sufficient "power" to produce a hand and
arm, he was in a bad temper. And this was evidently the case, for during
the ten minutes that the girl remained talking to us we could now and
then hear the gruff voice of the Captain rolling out language which can
only be described as "forcible and free."
The experiment lasted for nearly an hour, and at its conclusion Mr. X--
examined the sensitive, and once again reported that every seal and knot
were just as he had left them at the commencement of the experiment.
EXPERIMENT NO. 4
Place--_My House in London. Sensitive D, male, aged about 34._
On numerous occasions this sensitive has been seen by all present, in
gaslight shaded by red paper, seated on his chair in a state of deep
trance, and was heard to be breathing heavily, whilst two materialized
entities stood beside him; or with one beside him, and the other
standing five to eight feet away from him and close to the sitters.
Again, two female entities were seen simultaneously when this male
sensitive was experimenting with us, one of them inside the half-circle
formed by the sixteen sitters, and talking to them in a low sweet voice,
at a distance of about eight feet from the sensitive; whilst the other
female entity passed through or over the sitters, and, walking about the
room outside the half-circle formed by the sitters, came up behind two
of them, and not only spoke audibly to them, but also held a short
conversation with the entity inside the ring, both speaking almost
instantaneously.
THE PHANTOM ARMIES SEEN IN FRANCE[17]
BY HEREWARD CARRINGTON
[Footnote 17: By permission of the author.]
History abounds in cases showing the apparent intrusion of spiritual
help in time of trouble, and in the annals of military history these
accounts are not lacking. On several occasions the Crusaders thought
that they saw angelic hosts fighting for them--phantom horsemen charging
the enemy, when their own utter destruction seemed imminent. In the wars
between the English and the Scotch, several such cases were cited, and
the Napoleonic wars also furnished examples. But the most striking
evidence of this character--because the newest--and supported,
apparently, by a good deal of first-hand and sincere testimony, is that
afforded by the Phantom Armies seen in France during the retreat of the
British army from Mons--the field of Agincourt. Cut off by overwhelming
numbers, and all but annihilated, the British army fought desperately,
but the 80,000 were opposed by 300,000 Germans, backed by a terrific
fire of artillery, and were indeed in a critical position. They were
only saved, as we know, by the heroism of a small force of men--a
rear-guard--who were practically wiped out in consequence. At the most
critical moment came what appeared to be angelic assistance. The tide of
battle seemed to be stemmed by supernatural means. In a letter written
by a soldier who actually witnessed these startling events, quoted by
the Hon. Mrs. St. John Mildmay (_North American Review_, August, 1915),
the following graphic account is given. Our soldier writes:
"The men joked at the shells and found many funny names for them, and
had bets about them, and greeted them with music-hall songs, as they
screamed in this terrific cannonade. The climax seemed to have been
reached, but 'a seven-times heated hell' of the enemy's onslaught fell
upon them, rending brother from brother. At that very moment, they saw
from their trenches a tremendous host moving against their lines. Five
hundred of the thousand (who had been detailed to fight the rear-guard
action) remained, and as far as they could see the German infantry was
pressing on against them, column by column, a gray world of men--10,000
of them, as it appeared afterwards. There was no hope at all. Some of
them shook hands. One man improvised a new version of the battle song
Tipperary, ending 'and we shan't get there!' And all went on firing
steadily. The enemy dropped line after line, while the few machine guns
did their best. Every one knew it was of no use. The dead gray bodies
lay in companies and battalions, but others came on and on, swarming and
advancing from beyond and beyond.
"'World without end. Amen!' said one of the British soldiers, with some
irreverence, as he took aim and fired. Then he remembered a vegetarian
restaurant in London, where he had once or twice eaten queer dishes of
cutlets made of lentils and nuts that pretended to be steaks. On all the
plates in this restaurant a figure of St. George was painted in blue
with the motto, _Adsit Anglis Sanctus Georgius_ (May St. George be a
present help to England). The soldier happened to know 'Latin and other
useless things,' so now, as he fired at the gray advancing mass, 300
yards away, he uttered the pious vegetarian motto. He went on firing to
the end, till at last Bill on his right had to clout him cheerfully on
the head to make him stop, pointing out as he did so that the King's
ammunition cost money and was not lightly to be wasted. For, as the
Latin scholar uttered his invocation, he felt something between a
shudder and an electric shock pass through his body. The roar of the
battle died down in his ears to a gentle murmur, and instead of it, he
says, he heard a great voice louder than a thunder peal, crying 'Array!
Array!' His heart grew hot as a burning coal, then it grew cold as ice
within him, for it seemed to him a tumult of voices answered to the
summons. He heard or seemed to hear thousands shouting:
"'St. George! St. George!
"'Ha! Messire, Ha! Sweet Saint, grant us good deliverance!
"'St. George for Merrie England!
"'Harow! Harow! Monseigneur St. George, succour us, Ha! St.
George! A low bow, and a strong bow, Knight of Heaven, aid us!'
"As the soldier heard these voices, he saw before him, beyond the
trench, a long line of shapes with a shining about them. They were like
men who drew the bow, and with another shout their cloud of arrows flew
singing through the air toward the German host. The other men in the
trenches were firing all the while. They had no hope, but they aimed
just as if they had been shooting at Bisley.
"Suddenly one of these lifted up his voice in plain English. 'Gawd help
us!' he bellowed to the man next him, 'but we're bloomin' marvels! Look
at those gray gentlemen! Look at them! They 're not going down in dozens
or hundreds--it's _thousands_ it is! Look, look! There's a regiment gone
while I'm talking to ye!'
"'Shut it,' the other soldier bellowed, taking aim. 'What are ye talkin'
about?' But he gulped with astonishment even as he spoke, for indeed the
gray men were falling by the thousands. The English could hear the
guttural scream of their revolvers as they shot, and line after line
crashed to the earth. All the while the Latin-bred soldier heard the cry
'Harow, Harow! Monseigneur! Dear Saint! Quick to our aid! St. George
help us!'
"The singing arrows darkened the air, the hordes melted before them.
'More machine guns,' Bill yelled to Tom. 'Don't hear them,' Tom yelled
back, 'but thank God, anyway, that they have got it in the neck!'
"In fact, there were ten thousand dead German soldiers left before that
salient of the English army, and consequently--_no Sedan_. In Germany
the General Staff decided that the English must have employed turpenite
shells, as no wounds were discernible on the bodies of the dead
soldiers. But the man who knew what nuts tasted like when they called
themselves steak, knew also that St. George had brought his Agincourt
Bowmen to help the English."
Such accounts have been confirmed by others. Thus, Miss Phyllis
Campbell, writing in _The Occult Review_ (October, 1915), says:
"I tremble, now that it is safely past, to look back on the terrible
week that brought the Allies to Vitry-le-Francois. We had not had our
clothes off for the whole of that week, because no sooner had we reached
home, too weary to undress, or to eat, and fallen on our beds, than the
'chug-chug' of the commandant's car would sound into the silence of the
deserted street, and the horn would imperatively summon us back to
duty--because, in addition to our duties as _ambulancier auxiliare_, we
were interpreters to the post, now at this moment diminished to half a
dozen.
"Returning at 4:30 in the morning, we stood on the end of the platform,
watching the train crawl through the blue-green mist of the forest into
the clearing, and draw up with the first wounded from Vitry-le-Francois.
It was packed with dead and dying and badly wounded. For a time we
forgot our weariness in a race against time--removing the dead and
dying, and attending to those in need. I was bandaging a man's shattered
arm with the _majeur_ instructing me, while he stitched a horrible gap
in his head, when Madame de A--, the heroic president of the post, came
and replaced me. 'There is an English in the fifth wagon,' she said. 'He
wants something--I think a holy picture!'
"The idea of an English soldier wanting a holy picture struck me, even
in that atmosphere of blood and misery, as something to smile at--but I
hurried away. 'The English' was a Lancashire Fusilier. He was propped in
a corner, his left arm tied-up in a peasant woman's handkerchief, and
his head newly bandaged. He should have been in a state of collapse from
loss of blood, for his tattered uniform was soaked and caked in blood,
and his face paper-white under the dirt of conflict. He looked at me
with bright, courageous eyes and asked for a picture or a medal (he
didn't care which) of St. George. I asked him if he was a Catholic.
'No,' he was Wesleyan Methodist, and he wanted a picture or a medal of
St. George, _because he had seen him on a white horse_, leading the
British at Vitry-le-Francois, when the Allies turned.
"There was an F. R. A. man, wounded in the leg, sitting beside him on
the floor; he saw my look of amazement, and hastened in: 'It's true,
sister,' he said. 'We all saw it. First there was a sort of yellow
mist-like, sort of risin' before the Germans as they came on the top of
the hill--come on like a solid wall, they did--springing out of the
earth just solid--no end to 'em! I just give up. No use fighting the
whole German race, thinks I; it's all up with _us_. The next minute
comes this funny cloud of light, and when it clears off, there's a tall
man with yellow hair in golden armor, on a white horse, holding his
sword up, and his mouth open as if he was saying: "Come on, boys! I'll
put the kybosh on the devils!" Sort of "This is my picnic" expression.
Then, before you could say "knife," the Germans had turned, and we were
after them, fighting like ninety ..."
"Where was this?" I asked. But neither of them could tell. They had
marched, fighting a rear-guard action, from Mons, till St. George had
appeared through the haze of light, and turned the enemy. They both
_knew_ it was St. George. Hadn't they seen him with a sword on every
'quid' they'd ever seen? The Frenchies had seen him too--ask them; but
they said it was St. Michael...."
Much additional testimony of a like nature might be given--and has been
collected by students of psychical research. If the spiritual world ever
intervenes in matters mundane, it assuredly did so on this occasion. And
it could hardly have chosen a more opportune time. Could the aspiring
thoughts of the dead and dying, and those still living and fighting for
their country, have drawn "St. George" to earth, to aid in again
redeeming his country from a foreign foe? Could a simple "hallucination"
have been so widespread and so prevalent? Or might there not have been
some spiritual energy behind the visions thus seen--stimulating them,
and inspiring and encouraging the stricken soldiers? We cannot say. We
only know what the soldiers themselves say; and we also know the
undoubted effects upon the enemy. For on both occasions were the Germans
repulsed with terrible slaughter. Perhaps the vision of St. George led
our soldiers into closer touch and _rapport_ with the consciousness of
some high intelligence--or the veil separating the two worlds was
rent--as so often appears to be the case in apparitions and visions of
this character.
THE PORTAL OF THE UNKNOWN
BY ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, "THE SEER"
When the hour of her death arrived, I was fortunately in a proper state
of mind and body to produce the superior (clairvoyant) condition; but,
previous to throwing my spirit into that condition, I sought the most
convenient and favorable position, that I might be allowed to make the
observations entirely unnoticed and undisturbed. Thus situated and
conditioned, I proceeded to observe and investigate the mysterious
processes of dying, and to learn what it is for an individual human
spirit to undergo the changes consequent upon physical death or external
dissolution. They were these:
I saw that the physical organization could no longer subserve the
diversified purposes or requirements of the spiritual principle. But the
various internal organs of the body appeared to resist the withdrawal of
the animating soul. The body and the soul, like two friends, strongly
resisted the various circumstances which rendered their eternal
separation imperative and absolute. These internal conflicts gave rise
to manifestations of what seemed to be, to the material senses, the most
thrilling and painful sensations; but I was unspeakably thankful and
delighted when I perceived and realized the fact that those physical
manifestations were indications, not of pain or unhappiness, but simply
that the spirit was eternally dissolving its co-partnership with the
material organism.
Now the head of the body became suddenly enveloped in a fine, soft,
mellow, luminous atmosphere; and, as instantly, I saw the cerebrum and
the cerebellum expand their most interior portions; I saw them
discontinue their appropriate galvanic functions; and then I saw that
they became highly charged with the vital electricity and vital
magnetism which permeate subordinate systems and structures. That is to
say, the brain, as a whole, suddenly declared itself to be tenfold more
positive, over the lesser proportions of the body, than it ever was
during the period of health. This phenomenon invariably precedes
physical dissolution.
Now the process of dying, or the spirit's departure from the body, was
fully commenced. The brain began to attract the elements of electricity,
of magnetism, of motion, of life, and of sensation, into its various and
numerous departments. The head became intensely brilliant; and I
particularly remarked that just in the same proportion as the
extremities of the organism grow dark and cold, the brain appears light
and glowing.
Now I saw, in the mellow, spiritual atmosphere which emanated from and
encircled her head, the indistinct outlines of the formation of
_another_ head. This new head unfolded more and more distinctly, and so
indescribably compact and intensely brilliant did it become, that I
could neither see through it, nor gaze upon it as steadily as I desired.
While this spiritual head was being eliminated and organized from out
of and above the material head, I saw that the surrounding aromal
atmosphere which had emanated from the material head was in great
commotion; but, as the new head became more distinct and perfect, this
brilliant atmosphere gradually disappeared. This taught me that those
aromal elements, which were, in the beginning of the metamorphosis,
attracted from the system into the brain, and thence eliminated in the
form of an atmosphere, were indissolubly united in accordance with the
divine principle of affinity in the universe, which pervades and
destinates every particle of matter, and developed the spiritual head
which I beheld.
In the identical manner in which the spiritual head was eliminated and
unchangeably organized, I saw, unfolding in their natural progressive
order, the harmonious development of the neck, the shoulders, the breast
and the entire spiritual organization. It appeared from this, even to an
unequivocal demonstration, that the innumerable particles of what might
be termed unparticled matter which constitute the man's spiritual
principle, are constitutionally endowed with certain elective
affinities, analogous to an immortal friendship. The innate tendencies
which the elements and essences of her soul manifested by uniting and
organizing themselves, were the efficient and imminent causes which
unfolded and perfected her spiritual organization. The defects and
deformities of her physical body were, in the spiritual body which I saw
thus developed, almost completely removed. In other words, it seemed
that those hereditary obstructions and influences were now removed,
which originally arrested the full and proper development of her
physical constitution; and, therefore, that her spiritual constitution,
being elevated above those obstructions, was enabled to unfold and
perfect itself, in accordance with the universal tendencies of all
created things.
While this spiritual formation was going on, which was perfectly visible
to my spiritual perceptions, the material body manifested, to the outer
vision of observing individuals in the room, many symptoms of uneasiness
and pain; but the indications were totally deceptive; they were wholly
caused by the departure of the vital or spiritual forces from the
extremities and viscera into the brain, and thence into the ascending
organism.
The spirit arose at right angles over the head or brain of the deserted
body. But immediately previous to the final dissolution of the
relationship which had for so many years subsisted between the two, the
spiritual and material bodies, I saw--playing energetically between the
feet of the elevated spiritual body and the head of the prostrate
physical body--a bright stream or current of vital electricity. And here
I perceived what I had never before obtained a knowledge of, that a
small portion of this vital electrical element returned to the deserted
body immediately subsequent to the separation of the umbilical thread;
and that that portion of this element which passed back into the earthly
organism instantly diffused itself through the entire structure, and
thus prevented immediate decomposition.
As soon as the spirit, whose departing hour I thus watched, was wholly
disengaged from the tenacious physical body, I directed my attention to
the movements and emotions of the former; and I saw her begin to
breathe the most interior or spiritual portions of the surrounding
terrestrial atmosphere. At first it seemed with difficulty that she
could breathe the new medium; but in a few seconds she inhaled and
exhaled the spiritual elements of nature with the greatest possible ease
and delight. And now I saw that she was in possession of exterior and
physical proportions, which were identical, in every possible
particular--improved and beautified--with those proportions which
characterized her earthly organization. Indeed, so much like her former
self was she that, had her friends beheld her as I did, they certainly
would have exclaimed--as we often do upon the sudden return of a
long-absent friend, who leaves us and returns in health--'Why, how well
you look! How improved you are!' Such was the nature--most beautifying
in their extent--of the improvements that were wrought upon her.
I saw her continue to conform and accustom herself to the new elements
and elevating sensations which belong to the inner life. I did not
particularly notice the workings and emotions of her newly-awakening and
fast-unfolding spirit, except that I was careful to remark her
philosophical tranquillity throughout the entire process, and her
non-participation with the different members of her family in their
unrestrained bewailing of her departure from the earth, to unfold in
Love and Wisdom throughout eternal spheres. She understood at a glance
that they could only gaze upon the cold and lifeless form, which she had
but just deserted; and she readily comprehended the fact that it was
owing to a want of true knowledge upon their parts that they thus
vehemently regretted her merely physical death.
The period required to accomplish the entire change which I saw was not
far from two hours and a half; but this furnished no rule as to the time
required for every spirit to elevate and reorganize itself above the
head of the outer form. Without changing my position or spiritual
perceptions I continued to observe the movements of her new-born spirit.
As soon as she became accustomed to her new elements which surrounded
her, she descended from her elevated position, which was immediately
over the body, by an effort of the will-power, and directly passed out
of the door of the bedroom in which she had lain, in the material form,
prostrated with disease for several weeks. It being in a summer month,
the doors were all open, and her egress from the house was attended with
no obstruction. I saw her pass through the adjoining room, out of the
door, and step from the house into the atmosphere! I was overwhelmed
with delight and astonishment when, for the first time, I realized the
universal truth that the spiritual organization can tread the
atmosphere, which is impossible while in the coarser earthly form--so
much more refined is man's spiritual constitution. She walked in the
atmosphere as easily, and in the same manner, as we tread the earth and
ascend an eminence. Immediately upon her emergement from the house, she
was joined by two friendly spirits from the spiritual country, and after
tenderly recognizing and communing with each other, the three, in the
most graceful manner, began ascending obliquely through the ethereal
envelopment of her globe. They walked so naturally and fraternally
together that I could scarcely realize the fact that they trod the
air--they seemed to be walking upon the side of a glorious but familiar
mountain. I continued to gaze upon them until the distance shut them
from my view,--whereupon I returned to my external and ordinary
condition.
* * * * *
This account of the facts--of what actually happened at death--is
confirmed by numerous other witnesses, who agree as to the main
details.
THE SUPERNORMAL: EXPERIENCES
BY ST. JOHN B. SEYMOUR
When Mrs. Seymour was a little girl she resided in Dublin; amongst the
members of the family was her paternal grandmother. This old lady was
not as kind as she might have been to her granddaughter, and
consequently the latter was somewhat afraid of her. In process of time
the grandmother died. Mrs. Seymour, who was then about eight years of
age, had to pass the door of the room where the death occurred in order
to reach her own bedroom, which was a flight higher up. Past this door
the child used to fly in terror with all possible speed. On one
occasion, however, as she was preparing to make the usual rush past, she
distinctly felt a hand placed on her shoulder, and became conscious of a
voice saying, "Don't be afraid, Mary!" From that day on the child never
had the least feeling of fear, and always walked quietly past the door.
The Rev. D. B. Knox sends a curious personal experience, which was
shared by him with three other people. He writes as follows: "Not very
long ago my wife and I were preparing to retire for the night. A niece,
who was in the house, was in her bedroom and the door was open. The maid
had just gone to her room. All four of us distinctly heard the heavy
step of a man walking along the corridor, apparently in the direction of
the bathroom. We searched the whole house immediately, but no one was
discovered. Nothing untoward happened except the death of the maid's
mother about a fortnight later. It was a detached house, so that the
noise could not have been made by the neighbors."