HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS
LEE'S LIBRARY OF OCCULT SCIENCE
HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS; Or XIX Century Witchcraft
By Henry R. Evans.
PRACTICAL PALMISTRY; Or Hand Reading Made Easy
By Comte C. de Saint-Germain.
HERRMANN THE MAGICIAN; His Life; His Secrets
By H. J. Burlingame.
All profusely illustrated. Bound in Holliston cloth, burnished red top,
uncut edges.
EACH, $1.00
[Illustration: SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH.
[Taken by the Author.]]
Hours With the Ghosts
OR NINETEENTH CENTURY WITCHCRAFT
ILLUSTRATED INVESTIGATIONS
INTO THE
Phenomena of Spiritualism and Theosophy
BY HENRY RIDGELY EVANS
The first duty we owe to the world is Truth--all
the Truth--nothing but the Truth.--"_Ancient Wisdom._"
CHICAGO
LAIRD & LEE, PUBLISHERS
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and
ninety-seven. BY WILLIAM H. LEE, In the office of the Librarian of
Congress, at Washington.
TO MY WIFE
"It is no proof of wisdom to refuse to examine certain phenomena because
we think it certain that they are impossible, as if our knowledge of the
universe were already completed."--_Prof. Lodge._
"The most ardent Spiritist should welcome a searching inquiry into the
potential faculties of spirits still in the flesh. Until we know more of
_these_, those other phenomena to which he appeals must remain
unintelligible because isolated, and are likely to be obstinately
disbelieved because they are impossible to understand."--_F. W. H. Myers:
"Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," Part XVIII, April,
1891._
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Author's Preface 11
INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT 13
PART FIRST: =Spiritualism= 18
_I. Divisions of the Subject_ 18
_II. Subjective Phenomena_ 23
1. Telepathy 23
2. Table Tilting. Muscle Reading 40
_III. Physical Phenomena_ 46
1. Psychography or Slate-writing 46
2. The Master of the Mediums: D. D. Home 93
3. Rope Tying and Holding Mediums; Materializations 135
The Davenport Brothers 135
Annie Eva Fay 149
Charles Slade 154
Pierre L. O. A. Keeler 160
Eusapia Paladino 175
F. W. Tabor 182
4. Spirit Photography 188
5. Thought Photography 197
6. Apparitions of the Dead 201
_IV. Conclusions_ 207
PART SECOND: =Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists= 210
_I. The Priestess_ 213
_II. What is Theosophy?_ 237
_III. Madame Blavatsky's Confession_ 250
_IV. The Writings of Madame Blavatsky_ 265
_V. The Life and Death of a Famous Theosophist_ 268
_VI. The Mantle of Madame Blavatsky_ 272
_VII. The Theosophical Temple_ 287
_VIII. Conclusion_ 290
List of Authorities 298
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
Fig. 1. Spirit Photograph, by the author Frontispiece
Fig. 2. Portrait of Dr. Henry Slade 47
Fig. 3. The Holding of the Slate 51
Fig. 4. Slate No. 1 65
Fig. 5. Slate No. 2 71
Fig. 6. Slate No. 3 77
Fig. 7. Home at the Tuileries 97
Fig. 8. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1 116
Fig. 9. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1 119
Fig. 10. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1 120
Fig. 11. Crookes' Apparatus No. 1 121
Fig. 12, 13, 14, 15. Crookes' Diagrams 124-125
Fig. 16. Crookes' Apparatus No. 2 126
Fig. 17. Crookes' Apparatus No. 2 127
Fig. 18, 19, 20. Crookes' Diagrams 128-130
Fig. 21. Hammond's Apparatus 133
Fig. 22. The Davenport's in their Cabinet 139
Fig. 23. Trick Tie and in Cabinet Work 143
Fig. 24. Charles Slade's Poster 158-159
Fig. 25. Pierre Keeler's Cabinet Seance 162
Fig. 26. Pierre Keeler's Cabinet Curtain 163
Fig. 27. Portrait of Eusapia Paladino 176
Fig. 28. Eusapia before the Scientists 177
Fig. 29. Spirit Photograph, by the author 191
Fig. 30. Spirit Photograph, by pretended medium 195
Fig. 31. Sigel's Original Picture of Fig. 30 199
Fig. 32. Portrait of Madame Blavatsky 215
Fig. 33. Mahatma Letter 221
Fig. 34. Mahatma Envelope 225
Fig. 35. Portrait of Col. H. S. Olcott 233
Fig. 36. Oath of Secrecy of the Charter Members of the
Theosophical Society 235
Fig. 37. Portrait of W. Q. Judge 241
Fig. 38. Portrait of Mrs. Annie Besant 273
Fig. 39. Portrait of Mrs. Tingley 285
Fig. 40. Autograph of Madame Blavatsky 293
PREFACE.
_There are two great schools of thought in the world--materialistic and
spiritualistic. With one, MATTER is all in all, the ultimate substratum;
mind is merely the result of organized matter; everything is translated
into terms of force, motion and the like. With the other, SPIRIT or mind
is the ultimate substance--God; matter is the visible expression of this
invisible and eternal Consciousness._
_Materialism is a barren, dreary, comfortless belief, and, in the opinion
of the author, is without philosophical foundation. This is an age of
scientific materialism, although of late years that materialism has been
rather on the wane among thinking men. In an age of such ultra
materialism, therefore, it is not strange that there should come a great
reaction on the part of spiritually minded people. This reaction takes the
form of an increased vitality of dogmatic religion, or else culminates in
the formation of Spiritualistic or Theosophic societies for the
prosecution of occult phenomena. Spiritualists are now numbered by the
million. Persons calling themselves mediums present certain phenomena,
physical and psychical, and call public attention to them, as an evidence
of life beyond the grave, and the possibility of spiritual communication
between this world and the next._
_The author has had sittings with many famous mediums of this country and
Europe, but has seen little to convince him of the fact of spirit
communication. The slate tests and so-called materializations have
invariably been frauds. Some experiments along the line of automatic
writing and psychometry, however, have demonstrated to the writer the
truth of telepathy or thought-transference. The theory of telepathy
explains many of the marvels ascribed to spirit intervention in things
mundane._
_In this work the author has endeavored to give an accurate account of the
lives and adventures of celebrated mediums and occultists, which will
prove of interest to the reader. The rise and growth of the Theosophical
cult in this country and Europe is of historical interest. Theosophy
pretends to a deeper metaphysics than Spiritualism, and numbers its
adherents by the thousands; it is, therefore, intensely interesting to
study it in its origin, its founder and its present leaders._
_THE AUTHOR._
HOURS WITH THE GHOSTS.
INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT.
"If a man die, shall he live again?"--this is the question of the ages,
the Sphinx riddle that Humanity has been trying to solve since time began.
The great minds of antiquity, Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle
were firm in their belief in the immortality of the soul. The writings of
Plato are luminous on the subject. The Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, as
practiced in Egypt, and those of Eleusis, in Greece, taught the doctrine
of the immortality of the individual being. The Divine Master of Arcane
knowledge, Christ, proclaimed the same. In latter times, we have had such
metaphysical and scientific thinkers as Leibnitz, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel
and Schleiermacher advocating individual existence beyond the grave.
It is a strange fact that the more materialistic the age, the deeper the
interest in spiritual questions. The vitality and persistence of the
belief in the reality of the spiritual world is evidence of that hunger
for the ideal, for God, of which the Psalmist speaks--"As the heart
panteth after water brooks so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!" Through
the passing centuries, we have come into a larger, nobler conception of
the Universal Life, and our relations to that Life, in which we live,
move, and have our being. Granting the existence of an "Eternal and
Infinite Spirit, the Intellectual Organizer of the mathematical laws which
the physical forces obey," and conceiving ourselves as individualized
points of life in the Greater Life, we are constrained to believe that we
bear within us the undying spark of divinity and immortality. Evolution
points to eternal life as the final goal of self-conscious spirit, else
this mighty earth-travail, the long ages of struggle to produce man are
utterly without meaning. Speaking of a future life, John Fiske, a leading
American exponent of the doctrine of evolution, says ("The Destiny of
Man"): "The doctrine of evolution does not allow us to take the atheistic
view of the position of man. It is true that modern astronomy shows us
giant balls of vapor condensing into fiery suns, cooling down into
planets fit for the support of life, and at last growing cold and rigid in
death, like the moon. And there are indications of a time when systems of
dead planets shall fall in upon their central ember that was once a sun,
and the whole lifeless mass, thus regaining heat, shall expand into a
nebulous cloud like that with which we started, that the work of
condensation and evolution may begin over again. These Titanic events must
doubtless seem to our limited vision like an endless and aimless series of
cosmical changes. From the first dawning of life we see all things working
together toward one mighty goal, the evolution of the most exalted
spiritual qualities which characterize Humanity. The body is cast aside
and returns to the dust of which it was made. The earth, so marvelously
wrought to man's uses, will also be cast aside. So small is the value
which Nature sets upon the perishable forms of matter! The question, then,
is reduced to this: Are man's highest spiritual qualities, into the
production of which all this creative energy has gone, to disappear with
the rest? Are we to regard the Creator's work as like that of a child, who
builds houses out of blocks, just for the pleasure of knocking them down?
For aught that science can tell us, it may be so, but I can see no good
reason for believing any such thing."
A scientific demonstration of immortality is declared to be an
impossibility. But why go to science for such a demonstration? The
question belongs to the domain of philosophy and religion. Science deals
with physical forces and their relations; collects and inventories facts.
Its mission is not to establish a universal metaphysic of things; that is
philosophy's prerogative. All occult thinkers declare that life is from
within, out. In other words life, or a spiritual principle, precedes
organization. Science proceeds to investigate the phenomena of the
universe in the opposite way from without, in; and pronounces life to be
"a fortuitous collocation of atoms." Still, science has been the
torch-bearer of the ages and has stripped the fungi of superstition from
the tree of life. It has revealed to us the great laws of nature, though
it has not explained them. We know that light, heat, and electricity are
modes of motion; more than that we know not. Science is largely
responsible for the materialistic philosophy in vogue to-day--a philosophy
that sees no reason in the universe. A powerful wave of spiritual thought
has set in, as if to counteract the ultra rationalism of the age. In the
vanguard of the new order of things are Spiritualism and Theosophy.
Spiritualism enters the list, and declares that the immortality of the
soul is a demonstrable fact. It throws down the gauntlet of defiance to
skepticism, saying: "Come, I will show you that there is an existence
beyond the grave. Death is not a wall, but a door through which we pass
into eternal life." Theosophy, too, has its occult phenomena to prove the
indestructibility of soul-force. Both Spiritualism and Theosophy contain
germs of truth, but both are tinctured with superstition. I purpose, if
possible, to sift the wheat from the chaff. In investigating the phenomena
of Spiritualism and Theosophy I will use the scientific as well as the
philosophic method. Each will act, I hope, as corrective of the other.
PART FIRST.
SPIRITUALISM.
I. DIVISIONS OF THE SUBJECT.
Belief in the evocation of the spirits of the dead is as old as Humanity.
At one period of the world's history it was called Thaumaturgy, at another
Necromancy and Witchcraft, in these latter years, Spiritualism. It is new
wine in old bottles. On March 31, 1847, at Hydeville, Wayne County, New
York, occurred the celebrated "knockings," the beginning of modern
Spiritualism. The mediums were two little girls, Kate and Margaretta Fox,
whose fame spread over three continents. It is claimed by impartial
investigators that the rappings produced in the presence of the Fox
sisters were occasioned by natural means. Voluntary disjointings of the
muscles of the knee, or to use a medical term "the repeated displacement
of the tendon of the _peroneus longus_ muscle in the sheath in which it
slides behind the outer _malleolus_" will produce certain extraordinary
sounds, particularly when the knee is brought in contact with a table or
chair. Snapping the toes in rapid succession will cause similar noises.
The above was the explanation given of the "Hydeville and Rochester
Knockings", by Professors Flint, Lee and Coventry, of Buffalo, who
subjected the Fox sisters to numerous examinations, and this explanation
was confirmed many years after (in 1888) by the published confession of
Mrs. Kane, _nee_ Margaretta Fox. Spiritualism became the rage and
professional mediums went about giving séances to large and interested
audiences. This particular creed is still professed by a recognized
semi-religious body in America and in Europe. The American mediums reaped
a rich harvest in the Old World. The pioneer was Mrs. Hayden, a Boston
medium, who went to England in 1852, and the table-turning mania spread
like wild fire within a few months.
Broadly speaking, the phenomena of modern Spiritualism may be divided into
two classes: (1) Physical, (2) Subjective. Of the first, the
"Encyclopaedia Britannica", in its brief but able review of the subject,
says: "Those which, if correctly observed and due neither to conscious or
unconscious trickery nor to hallucination on the part of the observers,
exhibit a force hitherto unknown to science, acting in the physical world
otherwise than through the brain or muscles of the medium." The earliest
of these phenomena were the mysterious rappings and movements of
furniture without apparent physical cause. Following these came the
ringing of bells, playing on musical instruments, strange lights seen
hovering about the séance-room, materializations of hands, faces and
forms, "direct writing and drawing" declared to be done without human
intervention, spirit photography, levitation, unfastening of ropes and
bandages, elongation of the medium's body, handling fire with impunity,
etc.
Of the second class, or Subjective Phenomena, we have "table-tilting and
turning with contact; writing, drawing, etc., by means of the medium's
hand; entrancement, trance-speaking, and impersonation by the medium of
deceased persons, seeing spirits and visions and hearing phantom voices."
From a general scientific point of view there are three ways of accounting
for the physical phenomena of spiritualism: (1) Hallucination on the part
of the observers; (2) Conjuring; (3) A force latent in the human
personality capable of moving heavy objects without muscular contact, and
of causing "Percussive Sounds" on table-tops, and raps upon walls and
floors.
Hallucination has unquestionably played a part in the séance-room, but
here again the statement of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" is worthy of
consideration: "Sensory hallucination of several persons together who are
not in a hypnotic state is a rare phenomenon, and therefore not a probable
explanation." In my opinion, conjuring will account for seven-eighths of
the so-called phenomena of professional mediums. For the balance of
one-eighth, neither hallucination nor legerdemain are satisfactory
explanation. Hundreds of credible witnesses have borne testimony to the
fact of table-turning and tilting and the movements of heavy objects
without muscular contact. That such a force exists is now beyond cavil,
call it what you will, magnetic, nervous, or psychic. Count Agenor de
Gasparin, in 1854, conducted a series of elaborate experiments in
table-turning and tilting, in the presence of his family and a number of
skeptical witnesses, and was highly successful. The experiments were made
in the full light of day. The members of the circle joined hands and
concentrated their minds upon the object to be moved. The Count published
a work on the subject "Des Tables Tournantes," in which he stated that the
movements of the table were due to a mental or nervous force emanating
from the human personality. This psychic energy has been investigated by
Professor Crookes and Professor Lodge, of London, and by Doctor Elliott
Coues, of Washington, D. C., who calls it "Telekinesis." The existence of
this force sufficiently explains such phenomena of the séance-room as are
not attributable to hallucination and conjuring, thus removing the
necessity for the hypothesis of spirit intervention. In explanation of
table-turning by "contact," I quote what J. N. Maskelyne says in "The
Supernatural":
"Faraday proved to a demonstration that table-turning was simply the
result of an unconscious muscular action on the part of the sitters. He
constructed a little apparatus to be placed beneath the hands of those
pressing upon the table, which had a pointer to indicate any pressure to
one side or the other. After a time, of course, the arms of the sitters
become tired and they unconsciously press more or less to the right or
left. In Faraday's experiments, it always proved that this pressure was
exerted in the direction in which the table was expected to move, and the
tell-tale pointer showed it at once. There, then, we have the explanation:
expectancy and unconscious muscular action."
II. SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA.
1. Telepathy.
The subjective phenomena of Spiritualism--trance speaking, automatic
writing, etc.,--have engaged the attention of some of the best scientific
minds of Europe and America, as studies of abnormal or supernormal
psychological conditions.
If there are any facts to sustain the spiritual hypothesis, these facts
exist in subjective manifestations. The following statement will be
conceded by any impartial investigator: A medium, or psychic, in a state
of partial or complete hypnosis frequently gives information transcending
his conscious knowledge of a subject. There can be but two hypotheses for
the phenomena--(1) The intelligence exhibited by the medium is
"ultra-mundane," in other words, is the effect of spirit control, or, (2)
it is the result of the conscious or unconscious exercise of psychic
powers on the part of the medium.
It is well known that persons under hypnotic influence exhibit remarkable
intelligence, notwithstanding the fact that the ordinary consciousness is
held in abeyance. The extraordinary results obtained by hypnotizers point
to another phase of consciousness, which is none other than the subjective
or "subliminal" self. Mediums sometimes induce hypnosis by
self-suggestion, and while in that state, the subconscious mind is in a
highly receptive and exalted condition. Mental suggestions or concepts
pass from the mind of the sitter consciously or unconsciously to the mind
of the medium, and are given back in the form of communications from the
invisible world, ostensibly through spirit control. It is not absolutely
necessary that the medium be in the hypnotic condition to obtain
information, but the hypnotic state seems to be productive of the best
results. The medium is usually honest in his belief in the reality of such
ultra-mundane control, but he is ignorant of the true psychology of the
case--thought transference.
The English Society for Psychical Research and its American branch have of
late years popularized "telepathy", or thought transference. A series of
elaborate investigations were made by Messrs. Edmund Gurney, F. W. H.
Myers, and Frank Podmore, accounts of which are contained in the
proceedings of the Society. Among the European investigators may be
mentioned Messrs. Janet and Gibert, Richet, Gibotteau, and
Schrenck-Notzing. Podmore has lately summarized the results of these
studies in an interesting volume, "Apparitions and Thought-transference,
an Examination of the Evidence for Telepathy." Thought Transference or
Telepathy (from _tele_--at a distance, and _pathos_--feeling) he describes
as "a communication between mind and mind other than through the known
channels of the senses." A mass of evidence is adduced to prove the
possibility of this communication. In summing up his book he says: "The
experimental evidence has shown that a simple sensation or idea may be
transferred from one mind to another, and that this transference may take
place alike in the normal state and in the hypnotic trance.
* * The personal influence of the operator in hypnotism may perhaps be
regarded as a proof presumptive of telepathy." The experiments show that
mental concepts or ideas may be transferred to a distance.
Podmore advances the following theory in explanation of the phenomena of
telepathy:
"If we leave fluids and radiant nerve-energy on one side, we find
practically only one mode suggested for the telepathic transference--viz.,
that the physical changes which are the accompaniments of thought or
sensation in the agent are transmitted from the brain as undulations in
the intervening medium, and thus excite corresponding changes in some
other brain, without any other portion of the organism being necessarily
implicated in the transmission. This hypothesis has found its most
philosophical champion in Dr. Ochorowicz, who has devoted several chapters
of his book "De la Suggestion mentale," to the discussion of the various
theories on the subject. He begins by recalling the reciprocal
convertibility of all physical forces with which we are acquainted, and
especially draws attention to what he calls the law of reversibility, a
law which he illustrates by a description of the photophone. The
photophone is an instrument in which a mirror is made to vibrate to the
human voice. The mirror reflects a ray of light, which, vibrating in its
turn, falls upon a plate of selenium, modifying its electric conductivity.
The intermittent current so produced is transmitted through a telephone,
and the original articulate sound is reproduced. Now in hypnotized
subjects--and M. Ochorowicz does not in this connection treat of
thought-transference between persons in the normal state--the equilibrium
of the nervous system, he sees reason to believe, is profoundly affected.
The nerve-energy liberated in this state, he points out, 'cannot pass
beyond' the subject's brain 'without being transformed. Nevertheless,
like any other force, it cannot remain isolated; like any other force it
escapes, but in disguise. Orthodox science allows it only one way out, the
motor nerves. These are the holes in the dark lantern through which the
rays of light escape. * * * Thought remains in the brain, just as the
chemical energy of the galvanic battery remains in the cells, but each is
represented outside by its correlative energy, which in the case of the
battery is called the electric current, but for which in the other we have
as yet no name. In any case there is some correlative energy--for the
currents of the motor nerves do not and cannot constitute the only dynamic
equivalent of cerebral energy--to represent all the complex movements of
the cerebral mechanism.'"
The above hypothesis may, or may not, afford a clue to the mysterious
phenomena of telepathy, but it will doubtless satisfy to some extent those
thinkers who demand physical explanations of the known and unknown laws of
the universe. The president of the Society for Psychical Research (1894,)
A. J. Balfour, in an address on the relation of the work of the Society to
the general course of modern scientific investigation, is more cautious
than the writers already quoted. He says:
"Is this telepathic action an ordinary case of action from a center of
disturbance? Is it equally diffused in all directions? Is it like the
light of a candle or the light of the sun which radiates equally into
space in every direction at the same time? If it is, it must obey the
law--at least, we should expect it to obey the law--of all other forces
which so act through a non-absorbing medium, and its effects must diminish
inversely as the square of the distance. It must, so to speak, get beaten
out thinner and thinner the further it gets removed from its original
source. But is this so? Is it even credible that the mere thoughts, or, if
you please, the neural changes corresponding to these thoughts, of any
individual could have in them the energy to produce sensible effects
equally in all directions, for distances which do not, as far as our
investigations go, appear to have any necessary limit? It is, I think,
incredible; and in any case there is no evidence whatever that this equal
diffusion actually takes place. The will power, whenever will is used, or
the thoughts, in cases where will is not used, have an effect, as a rule,
only upon one or two individuals at most. There is no appearance of
general diffusion. There is no indication of any disturbance equal at
equal distances from its origin and radiating from it alike in every
direction.
"But if we are to reject this idea, which is the first which ordinary
analogies would suggest, what are we to put in its place? Are we to
suppose that there is some means by which telepathic energy can be
directed through space from the agent to the patient, from the man who
influences to the man who is influenced? If we are to believe this, as
apparently we must, we are face to face not only with a fact extraordinary
in itself, but with a kind of fact which does not fit in with anything we
know at present in the region either of physics or of physiology. It is
true, no doubt, that we do know plenty of cases where energy is directed
along a given line, like water in a pipe, or like electrical energy along
the course of a wire. But then in such cases there is always some material
guide existing between the two termini, between the place from which the
energy comes and the place to which the energy goes. Is there any such
material guide in the case of telepathy? It seems absolutely impossible.
There is no sign of it. We can not even form to ourselves any notion of
its character, and yet, if we are to take what appears to be the obvious
lesson of the observed facts, we are forced to the conclusion that in some
shape or other it exists."
Telepathy once conceded, we have a satisfactory explanation of that class
of cases in modern Spiritualism on the subjective side of the question.
There is no need of the hypothesis of "disembodied spirits".
Some years ago, I instituted a series of experiments with a number of
celebrated spirit mediums in the line of thought transference, and was
eminently successful in obtaining satisfactory results, especially with
Miss Maggie Gaule, of Baltimore, one of the most famous of the latter day
psychics.
Case A.
About three years prior to my sitting with Miss Gaule, a relative by
marriage died of cancer of the throat at the Garfield Hospital,
Washington, D. C. He was a retired army officer, with the brevet of
General, and lived part of the time at Chambersburg, Penn., and the rest
of the time at the National Capital. He led a very quiet and unassuming
life, and outside of army circles knew but few people. He was a
magnificent specimen of physical manhood, six feet tall, with splendid
chest and arms. His hair and beard were of a reddish color. His usual
street dress was a sort of compromise with an army undress uniform,
military cut frock-coat, frogged and braided top-coat, and a Sherman hat.
Without these accessories, anyone would have recognized the military man
in his walk and bearing. He and his wife thought a great deal of my
mother, and frequently stopped me on the street to inquire, "How is Mary?"
I went to Miss Gaule's house with the thought of General M-- fixed in my
mind and the circumstances surrounding his decease. The medium greeted me
in a cordial manner. I sat at one end of the room in the shadow, and she
near the window in a large armchair. "You wish for messages from the
dead," she remarked abruptly. "One moment, let me think." She sank back in
the chair, closed her eyes, and remained in deep thought for a minute or
so, occasionally passing her hand across her forehead. "I see," she said,
"standing behind you, a tall, large man with reddish hair and beard. He is
garbed in the uniform of an officer--I do not know whether of the army or
navy. He points to his throat. Says he died of a throat trouble. He looks
at you and calls "Mary,--how is Mary?" "What is his name?" I inquired,
fixing my mind on the words David M--. "I will ask", replied the medium.
There was a long pause. "He speaks so faintly I can scarcely hear him. The
first letter begins with D, and then comes a--I can't get it. I can't hear
it." With that she opened her eyes.
The surprising feature about the above case was the alleged spirit
communication, "Mary--how is Mary?" I did not have this in my mind at the
time; in fact I had completely forgotten this form of salutation on the
part of Gen. M--, when we had met in the old days. It is just this sort of
thing that makes spirit-converts.
However, the cases of unconscious telepathy cited in the "Reports of the
Society for Psychical Research," are sufficient, I think, to prove the
existence of this phase of the phenomena.
T. J. Hudson, in his work entitled "A scientific demonstration of the
future life", says: * * "When a psychic transmits a message to his client
containing information which is in his (the psychic's) possession, it can
not reasonably be attributed to the agency of disembodied spirits. * *
When the message contains facts known to some one in his immediate
presence and with whom he is _en rapport_, the agency of spirits of the
dead cannot be presumed. Every investigator will doubtless admit that
sub-conscious memory may enter as a factor in the case, and that the
sub-conscious intelligence--or, to use the favorite terminology employed
by Mr. Myers to designate the subjective mind, the 'sublimal
consciousness'--of the psychic or that of his client may retain and use
facts which the conscious, or objective mind may have entirely forgotten."
But suppose the medium relates facts that were never in the possession of
the sitter, what are we to say then? Considerable controversy has been
waged over this question, and the hypothesis of telepathy is scouted.
Minot J. Savage has come to the conclusion that such cases stretch the
telepathic theory too far; there can be but one plausible explanation--a
communication from a disembodied spirit, operating through the mind of the
medium. For the sake of lucidity, let us take an example: A has a relative
B who dies in a foreign land under peculiar circumstances, _unknown to A_.
A attends a séance of a psychic, C, and the latter relates the
circumstances of B's death. A afterwards investigates the statements of
the medium, and finds them correct. Can telepathy account for C's
knowledge? I think it can. The telepathic communication was recorded in
A's sub-conscious mind, he being _en rapport_ with B. A unconsciously
yields the points recorded in his sub-conscious mind to the psychic, C,
who by reason of his peculiar powers raises them to the level of conscious
thought, and gives them back in the form of a message from the dead.
Case B.
On another occasion, I went with my friend Mr. S. C., of Virginia, to
visit Miss Gaule. Mr. S. C. had a young son who had recently passed the
examination for admission to the U. S. Naval Academy, and the boy had
accompanied his father to Baltimore to interview the military tailors on
the subject of uniforms, etc. Miss Gaule in her semi-trance state made the
following statement: "I see a young man busy with books and papers. He has
successfully passed an examination, and says something about a uniform.
Perhaps he is going to a military college."
Here again we have excellent evidence of the proof of telepathy.
The spelling of names is one of the surprising things in these
experiments. On one occasion my wife had a sitting with Miss Gaule, and
the psychic correctly spelled out the names of Mrs. Evans' brothers--John,
Robert, and Dudley, the latter a family name and rather unusual, and
described the family as living in the West.
The following example of Telepathy occurred between the writer and a
younger brother.
Case C.
In the fall of 1890, I was travelling from Washington to Baltimore, by the
B. & P. R. R. As the train approached Jackson Grove, a campmeeting
ground, deserted at that time of the year, the engine whistle blew
vigorously and the bell was rung continuously, which was something
unusual, as the cars ordinarily did not stop at this isolated station, but
whirled past. Then the engine slowed down and the train came to a
standstill.
"What is the matter?" exclaimed the passengers.
"My God, look there!" shouted an excited passenger, leaning out of the
coach window, and pointing to the dilapidated platform of the station. I
looked out and beheld a decapitated human head, standing almost upright in
a pool of blood. With the other male passengers I rushed out of the car.
The head was that of an old man with very white hair and beard. We found
the body down an embankment at some little distance from the place of the
accident. The deceased was recognized as the owner of the Grove, a farmer
living in the vicinity. According to the statement of the engineer, the
old man was walking on the track; the warning signals were given, but
proved of no avail. Being somewhat deaf, he did not realize his danger. He
attempted to step off the track, but the brass railing that runs along the
side of the locomotive decapitated him like the knife of a guillotine.
When I reached Baltimore about 7 o'clock, P. M., I hurried down to the
office of the "Baltimore News" and wrote out an account of the tragic
affair. My work at the office kept me until a late hour of the night, and
I went home to bed at about 1 o'clock, A. M. My brother, who slept in an
adjoining room, had retired to bed and the door between our apartments was
closed. The next morning, Sunday, I rose at 9 o'clock, and went down to
breakfast. The family had assembled, and I was just in time to hear my
brother relate the following: "I had a most peculiar dream last night. I
thought I was on my way to Mt. Washington (he was in the habit of making
frequent visits to this suburb of Baltimore on the Northern Central R. R.)
We ran down an old man and decapitated him. I was looking out of the
window and saw the head standing in a pool of blood. The hair and beard
were snow white. We found the body not far off, and it proved to be a
farmer residing in the neighborhood of Mt. Washington."
"You will find the counterpart of that dream in the morning paper", I
remarked seriously. "I reported the accident." My father called for the
paper, and proceeded to hunt its columns for the item, saying, "You
undoubtedly transferred the impression to your brother."
Case D.
This is another striking evidence of telepathic communication, in which I
was one of the agents. L-- was a reporter on a Baltimore paper, and his
apartments were the rendezvous of a coterie of Bohemian actors,
journalists, and _litterati_, among whom was X--, a student at the
Johns-Hopkins University, and a poet of rare excellence. Poets have a
proverbial reputation for being eccentric in personal appearance; in X
this eccentricity took the form of an unclipped beard that stood out in
all directions, giving him a savage, anarchistic look. He vowed never
under any circumstances to shave or cut this hirsute appendage.
L-- came to me one day, and laughingly remarked: "I am being tortured by a
mental obsession. X's beard annoys me; haunts my waking and sleeping
hours. I must do something about it. Listen! He is coming down to my
rooms, Saturday evening, to do some literary work, and spend the night
with me. We shall have supper together, and I want you to be present. Now
I propose that we drug his coffee with some harmless soporific, and when
he is sound asleep, tie him, and shave off his beard. Will you help me? I
can provide you with a lounge to sleep on, but you must promise not to go
to sleep until after the tragedy."
I agreed to assist him in his practical joke, and we parted, solemnly
vowing that our project should be kept secret.
This was on Tuesday, and no communication was had with X, until Saturday
morning, when L-- and I met him on Charles street.
"Don't forget to-night," exclaimed L-- "I have invited E to join us in our
Epicurean feast."
"I will be there," said X. "By the way, let me relate a curious dream I
had last night. I dreamt I came down to your rooms, and had supper. E--was
present. You fellows gave me something to drink which contained a drug,
and I fell asleep on the bed. After that you tied my hands, and shaved off
my beard. When I awoke I was terribly mad. I burst the cords that fastened
my wrists together, and springing to my feet, cut L--severely with the
razor."
"That settles the matter", said L--, "his beard is safe from me". When we
told X of our conspiracy to relieve him of his poetic hirsute appendage,
he evinced the greatest astonishment. As will be seen, every particular of
the practical joke had been transferred to his mind, the drugging of the
coffee, the tying, and the shaving.
Telepathy is a logical explanation of many of the ghostly visitations of
which the Society for Psychical Research has collected such a mass of
data. For example: A dies, let us say in India and B, a near relative or
friend, residing in England, sees a vision of A in a dream or in the
waking state. A clasps his hands, and seems to utter the words, "I am
dying". When the news comes of A's death, the time of the occurrence
coincides with the seeing of the vision. The spiritualist's theory is that
the ghost of A was an actual entity. One of the difficulties in the way of
such an hypothesis is the clothing of the deceased--_can that, too, be
disembodied?_ Thought transference (conscious or unconscious), I think, is
the only rational explanation of such phantasms. The vision seen by the
percipient is not an objective but a subjective thing--a hallucination
produced by the unknown force called telepathy. The vision need not
coincide exactly with the date of the death of the transmitter but may
make its appearance years afterwards, remaining latent in the subjective
mind of the percipient. It may, as is frequently the case, be revealed by
a medium in a séance. Many thoughtful writers combat the telepathic
explanation of phantasms of the dead, claiming that when such are seen
long after the death of persons, they afford indubitable evidence of the
reality of spirit visitation. The reader is referred to the proceedings
of the Society for Psychical Research for a detailed discussion of the
_pros_ and _cons_ of this most interesting subject.
Many of the so-called materializations of the séance-room may be accounted
for by hallucinations superinduced by telepathic suggestions from the mind
of the medium or sitters. But, in my opinion, the greater number of these
manifestations of spirit power are the result of trickery pure and
simple--theatrical beards and wigs, muslin and gossamer robes, etc., being
the paraphernalia used to impersonate the shades of the departed, the
imaginations of the sitters doing the rest.
2. Table-Tilting--Muscle Reading.
In regard to Table-Tilting with contact, I have given Faraday's
conclusions on the subject,--unconscious muscular action on the part of
the sitter or sitters. In the case of Automatic Writing (particularly with
the planchette), unconscious muscular action is the proper explanation for
the movements of the apparatus. "Professor Augusto Tamburini, of Italy,
author of 'Spiritismo e Telepatia', a cautious investigator of psychical
problems," says a reviewer in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
Research (Volume IX, p. 226), "accepts the verdict of all competent
observers that imposture is inadmissible as a general explanation, and
endorses the view that the muscular action which causes the movements of
the table or the pencil is produced by the subliminal consciousness. He
explains the definite and varying characters of the supposed authors of
the messages as the result of self-suggestion. As by hypnotic or
post-hypnotic suggestion a subject may be made to think he is Napoleon or
a chimney sweep, so, by self-suggestion, the subliminal consciousness may
be made to think that he is X and Y, and to tilt or wrap messages in the
character of X and Y."
Professor Tamburini's explanation fails to account for the innumerable
well authenticated cases where facts are obtained not within the conscious
knowledge of the planchette writer or table-tilter. If telepathy does not
enter into these cases, what does?
There are many exhibitions, of thought transference by public psychics,
that are thought transference in name only. One must be on one's guard
against these pretenders to occult powers. I refer to men like our late
compatriot, Washington Irving Bishop--"muscle-reader" _par excellence_
whose fame extended throughout the civilized world.
Muscle-Reading is performed in the following manner: Let us take, for
example, the reading of the figures on a bank-note. The subject gazes
intently at the figures on a note, and fixes them in his mind. The
muscle-reader, blindfolded or not, takes a crayon in his right hand, and
lightly clasps the hand or wrist of the subject with his left. He then
writes on a blackboard the correct figures on the note. This is one of the
most difficult feats in the repertoire of the muscle-reader, and was
excelled in by Bishop and Stuart Cumberland. Charles Gatchell, an
authority on the subject, says that the above named men were the only
muscle-readers who have ever accomplished the feat. Geometrical designs
can also be reproduced on a blackboard. The finding of objects hidden in
an adjoining room, or upon the person of a spectator in a public hall, or
at a distance, are also accomplished by skillful muscle readers, either by
clasping the hand of the subject, or one end of a short wire held by him.
Says Gatchell, in the "_Forum_" for April, 1891: "Success in
muscle-reading depends upon the powers of the principal and upon the
susceptibility of the subject. The latter must be capable of mental
concentration; he must exert no muscular self-control; he must obey his
every impulse. Under these conditions, the phenomena are in accordance
with known laws of physiology. On the part of the principal,
muscle-reading consists of an acute perception of the slight action of
another's muscles. On the part of the subject, it involves a nervous
impulse, accompanied by muscular action. The mind of the subject is in a
state of tension or expectancy. A sudden release from this state excites,
momentarily, an increased activity in the cells of the cerebral cortex.
Since the ideational centres, as is usually held, correspond to the motor
centres, the nervous action causes a motor impulse to be transmitted to
the muscles. * * In making his way to the location of a hidden object, the
subject usually does not lead the muscle-reader, but the muscle-reader
leads the subject. That is to say, so long as the muscle-reader moves in
the right direction, the subject gives no indication, but passively moves
with him. The muscle-reader perceives nothing unusual. But, the subject's
mind being intently fixed on a certain course, the instant that the
muscle-reader deviates from that course there is a slight, involuntary
tremor, or muscular thrill, on the part of the subject, due to the sudden
interruption of his previous state of mental tension. The muscle-reader,
almost unconsciously, takes note of the delicate signal, and alters his
course to the proper one, again leading his willing subject. In a word, he
follows the line of the least resistance. In other cases the conditions
are reversed; the subject unwittingly leads the principal.
"The discovery of a bank-note number requires a slightly different
explanation. The conditions are these: The subject is intently thinking of
a certain figure. His mind is in a state of expectant attention. He is
waiting for but one thing in the world to happen--for another to give
audible expression to the name of that which he has in mind. The instant
that the conditions are fulfilled, the mind of the subject is released
from its state of tension, and the accompanying nervous action causes a
slight muscular tremor, which is perceived by the acute senses of the
muscle-reader. This explanation applies, also, to the pointing out of one
pin among many, or of a letter or a figure on a chart. The conditions
involved in the tracing of a figure on a blackboard or other surface are
of a like order, although this is a severer test of a muscle-reader's
powers. So long as the muscle-reader moves the crayon in the right
direction, he is permitted to do so; but when he deviates from the proper
course, the subject, whose hand or wrist he clasps, involuntarily
indicates the fact by the usual slight muscular tremor. This, of course,
is done involuntarily; but if he is fulfilling the conditions demanded of
all subjects, absolute concentration of attention and absence of muscular
control--he unconsciously obeys his impulse. A billiard player does the
same when he follows the driven ball with his cue, as if by sheer force of
will he could induce it to alter its course. The ivory is uninfluenced;
the human ball obeys."
III. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA.
1. Psychography, or Slate-Writing.
One of the most interesting phases of modern mediumship, on the physical
side, is psychography, or slate-writing. After an investigation extending
over ten years, I am of the opinion that the majority of slate-writing
feats are the results of conjuring. The process generally used is the
following.
The medium takes two slates, binds them together, after first having
deposited a small bit of chalk or slate pencil between their surfaces, and
either holds them in his hands, or lays them on the table. Soon the
scratching of the pencil is heard, and when the cords are removed a spirit
message is found upon the surface of one of the slates. I will endeavor to
explain the "modus operandi" of these startling experiments.
Some years ago, the most famous of the slate-writing mediums was Dr. Henry
Slade, of New York, with whom I had several sittings. I was unable to
penetrate the mystery of his performance, until the summer of 1889, when
light was thrown upon the subject by the conjurer C-- whom I met in
Baltimore.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. DR. HENRY SLADE.]
"Do you know the medium Slade?" I asked him.
"Yes," said he, "and he is a conjurer like myself. I've had sittings with
him. Come to my rooms to-night, and I will explain the secret workings of
the medium's slate-writing. But first I will treat you to a regular
séance."
On my way to C's home I tried to put myself in the frame of mind of a
genuine seeker after transcendental knowledge. I recalled all the stories
of mysterious rappings and ghostly visitations I had read or heard of. It
was just the night for such eerie musings. Black clouds were scurrying
across the face of the moon like so many mediaeval witches mounted on the
proverbial broomsticks _en route_ for a mad sabbat in some lonely
churchyard. The prestidigitateur's _pension_ was a great, lumbering,
gloomy old house, in an old quarter of Baltimore. The windows were tightly
closed and only the feeble glimmer of gaslight was emitted through the
cracks of the shutters. I rang the bell and Mr. C's stage-assistant, a
pale-faced young man, came to the door, relieved me of my light overcoat
and hat, and ushered me upstairs into the conjurer's sitting-room.