wet-collodion process, on new glass plates which were cut for us by a
glass merchant. The plates were carefully cleansed and finally washed
and rubbed by myself with spirits of wine. We never used a plate twice
in such experiments. What is worth doing at all is worth doing well and
carefully. We obtained some pictures which would have been of interest
had we possessed more knowledge of the subject, but we aimed too high
and were not satisfied with slow progress. In fact we wanted a clear and
good likeness of one of our relatives, so several plates were broken
and put in the dust-bin which, in the light thrown on the subject by
later experience, we should have prized. One plate of that period was
kept because it had a shadowy image of the medium, although he was not
within the field of view when the plate was exposed. Unfortunately, the
photograph was not intensified; for when I was washing it at the tap,
the water got between the plate and the collodion, and away went the
film, but, although torn, I managed to spread part of it on the glass
again. The following statement was made by one of our unseen friends with
respect to that picture. Our questions were put through the medium, and
the answers were given by automatic writing.
QUESTION: We have here a photograph upon which there exists so much
diversity of opinion that we want to know what it is?
ANSWER: It is yourself, distinctly enough, but as we see your next
question we will proceed to explain how it came about that such
impression was produced on the plate.
THE MEDIUM: Stop a moment—do you mean that it is my body or my spirit?
ANSWER: We mean your spirit-aura. Your body could not be taken without
your being either directly in front of the camera or reflected into its
focus. Perhaps it will be better to explain some of the peculiarities
attending this phase, as it involves many points of interest. You were
standing in front of the camera for about a quarter of an hour before the
picture was taken or the plate prepared. In obedience to a suggestion,
you were awaiting the approach of the spirit who told you he could be
photographed, and, in order to retain your passivity, you remained
standing where you were. When you saw him seated you went to prepare
the plate, but not without leaving your emanation behind, which, on the
plate being exposed, was duly photographed. The proof is easy. Again
stand in the same position for, say, ten minutes, then leave the room,
and let a good clairvoyant be introduced and questioned as to what he
sees, when he will immediately describe you as supplying the place you
have vacated, with all the accessories pertaining thereto. But although
he could at all times see this, your emanation could not at all times be
impressed on the plate. Returning to another matter: Man does not enjoy
only one image of himself, but six, embracing three individualities,
viz., body, soul, and spirit; and three emanations proceeding therefrom,
respectively, body-odyle, spirit-aura, and soul-essence. These must on
no account be confounded with each other, as is too often the case.
Respecting the last—soul and soul-essence—as it is more remote, being
seldom brought into play outside the human tenement (unless under
peculiar circumstances), we do not intend speaking of it in connexion
with the present topic; so direct your attention more particularly to
the remaining four, partly in explanation of their attributes, and
partly in reference to photography. First, then, the body is most
easily impressed upon the plate, requiring fewer vibrations than its
odylic form, after which, in order, come spirit, spirit-aura, soul and
soul-essence, the last requiring millions of vibrations, which, although
costing more effort, takes no more time, in many cases. It depends on
the sphere of the spirit. You may form an idea of this by taking into
account the incredible power of motion which spirits possess. Now, the
odylic emanation may be projected by the will from the material body,
but the spirit cannot itself be so projected; it must be, as it were,
allowed to flow forth of its own accord. Similarly, the spirit, when
thus free to move, can project its aura in like manner. In both these
cases the emanation, by its velocity, becomes from necessary friction
respectively electrified, or magnetic and spiritualised; that is to say,
the emanations become endowed with a certain amount of vital energy,
life-force, or, in fact, of existence. The mere life-force does not imply
intelligence also, but it does when the emanation is spiritualised. Man’s
_will_ is from his spirit; hence, the will can project the odyle, but
not the spirit, for when the spirit is absent the will is absent, dormant
in reality (as the soul never interferes with the will), and the trance
state results. It is quite possible for the spirit, under favourable
conditions, to project its aura at the same time as the projection of the
odyle. The two emanations coming into contact would form a union of the
life-element with the thinking principle. We do not mean with thought,
but with thought-material—thought being supplied only by the spirit, the
ideas or germs of thought being suggested by the soul and elaborated by
the spirit. Without this constant emanation, or fluid impulse (viz.,
the soul-essence) to urge it, the spirit would not think; it would be
inactive, the soul-essence being its vivifying impulse to activity. Now,
when the odyle and aura have coalesced, a new body, complete in all its
functions, is not therefore the result, but merely a body-elementary,
_i.e._, imbued with life-force, and furnished with thought-material,
minus thought. This, then, is the eidolon, image, you occasionally hear
of. Still, you must not suppose it to be severed from the parent body; by
no means: it is linked to it by attraction, gravitation, and affinity,
or that element of which you can form ideas for practical purposes, but
of which you do not understand the nature. But, you may say, there are
instances of eidolons speaking; now, if it has not thought, how can it
speak rationally? Let us explain: thoughts are produced by vibrations
of their materials, and vibration is produced by the soul-essence
through the spirit, the soul being the prime reservoir of motion
(intellectually). Now, suppose the eidolon to be questioned by the person
to whom it appeared, this question being the result of thought, vibration
would communicate the motion to the intellectual materials of the
eidolon, and this vibration would be instantly felt by the parent body,
and an answer returned accordingly.
In reference to the suggestion that spirit manifestations may be the
work of eidolons, the reply was: “As departed spirits do exist, and
can communicate with mortals—of which there is abundant proof—there is
no need to suppose a state of things which does not exist in order to
account for what does.”
An explanation was also given as to how eidolons are formed, but that
does not concern our present subject.
* * * * *
Some investigators seem to think that the same spirit forms ought not
to appear on plates with different people, and that if they do so the
circumstance warrants suspicion, if it is not even a proof of fraud.
This is an entire mistake, and a mistake which can only be made by those
who have not investigated the matter in a practical manner for any
considerable length of time. Apply the same reasoning to materialisation,
or to direct spirit writing, and see what it will lead to. Mr. E. A. D.
Opie, of Adelaide, in a lecture on “Spirit Photography,” delivered on
July 1st, 1891, before the Adelaide Spiritualistic Association, made
this remark: “It is necessary to accept all second-hand reports of this
phase of Spiritualism with more than usual reserve, as, in one instance
at least, I have discovered, on comparing reports of the obtaining of
the same picture by different people.” Mr. Opie in these words probably
expresses an opinion held by many others, held in London as well as in
Adelaide. And what are we to infer from it? That if two sitters get on
their plates a picture of the same spirit form, it will be a proof of
fraud? Not at all. Of course, if the pictures have been produced by
a dishonest operator, they may be fraudulent. That is not a thing to
dispute. But the fact is that there are in existence a number of genuine
spirit photographs in which the same abnormal images are found with
various sitters. Most of these have differences in size, in attitude, and
in spirit drapery on the forms, but the likenesses are identical. Some
of them have been taken in different places, with different cameras, with
plates purchased in different cities and used by careful investigators.
Mr. Opie’s lecture was published in Adelaide as a pamphlet of twenty-two
pages; it is the result of much reading, and it is but fair to Mr. Opie
to note that he had no practical acquaintance with the subject.
* * * * *
Mr. Parkes gave some séances in 1875 in Mr. Burns’s rooms, 15 Southampton
Row. On one occasion three sitters got spirit forms on three plates. At
the same meeting I requested that I might be photographed. A clairvoyante
sitting near me said I ought to get something good, for she could see a
number of spirits near me. When the plate was developed there were eleven
spirit forms on it.
* * * * *
Several spirit photographs of children have been obtained. One of these
is the interesting one of “Edina’s” little boy, a full account of which
is in Mr. Robertson’s paper in this volume. Another child’s portrait was
got _unexpectedly_ at a test séance in April, 1892. The arrangements and
operations were under my superintendence. I invited a lady (Mrs. J. N.
Anderson) to take a place near the sitter in order to try whether her
mediumistic power would aid the experiment. I was vexed at not getting
the special result I wanted, but soon I had cause for gladness in the joy
which the portrait obtained brought to the hearts of the child’s father
and mother. To the notes of the séance, which were signed by all present,
I added the following words as a postscript: “The child’s dress exhibits
what was not known to any person outside of Mr. Anderson’s family.” That
test is of a kind to impress a mother’s mind. Previous to the child’s
departure he was lying cold in bed, when his mother took from a drawer a
night-dress of one of her older boys, and put it on the ailing child.
This night-dress had a certain kind of frill round the neck-band; and
that night-dress, with its frill and long sleeves, is represented in the
photograph. There was no picture in existence from which the photograph
could have been copied; and the likeness is not only attested by the
parents, but by friends of the family, and by Mr. James Robertson,
president of the Glasgow Society, who had often seen the boy.
Some one may ask, how was the photograph of the child obtained, seeing he
was too young to come unaided to stand before the camera, or to impress
his image on the prepared plate without the camera? An interesting
question, no doubt. To it I reply, “I do not know: I am stating facts,
not trying to explain them.”
* * * * *
In the _Review of Reviews_ for April, 1893, Mr. Stead suggested that
additional experiments should be tried to obtain psychic pictures without
the agency of light or the camera. An opportunity occurred in July to try
the experiment with a lady who is not known to Spiritualistic or occult
circles—albeit she is a good medium and clairvoyant. A dry plate from my
packet of unused plates was placed in a mahogany slide. The lady then
held the slide between the palms of her hands. She was under continuous
and close observation in a well-lighted room, and one end of the slide
was held by myself. On putting the plate in the developer, the picture
of a child appeared on it. The plate was not tampered with by any one,
nor was there any opportunity given to do so, nor was it exposed to light
until after it was developed and fixed. A reproduction of the picture is
given herewith (see page 145).
[Illustration: PSYCHIC PICTURE OBTAINED WITHOUT A CAMERA.]
Mr. Stainton Moses, at a meeting of the London Spiritualist Alliance,
advised those who intended to experiment in photography to employ a
stereoscopic camera. He considered that the genuineness of spirit
photographs so obtained could not be called in question. This opinion
has also been held by other investigators. In June, 1892, some spirit
photographs were submitted to an eminent scientific gentleman, together
with copies of the notes, detailing fully the conditions under which
the pictures were obtained, and giving the names and addresses of all
those who were present at the experiments. The opinion of the gentleman
was expressed in writing as follows, viz.:—“You have adopted all the
precautions I can think of as being necessary. The only one thing else
I can think of is the employment of a binocular camera. That is the
_final Court of Appeal_, and a spirit photograph taken by it can leave
no room for cavil.” To those who endorse this opinion I may state I
have eight photographs taken with binocular cameras, all obtained under
test conditions, and all having abnormal figures which are perfectly
stereoscopic _per se_, as well as in relation to the sitters. Halves
of two of these photographs accompany these miscellanea.[15] They were
obtained on the 21st October, 1893, on dry plates purchased from Mr.
Doublet, and the whole of the manipulations, so far as not done by
myself, were under my close and continuous observation.
[Illustration: PART OF A STEREOSCOPIC PAIR OF SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPH OBTAINED
BY A LADY OCTOBER 21 1893.]
* * * * *
The results of Mr. Taylor’s investigations are a prophecy and a lesson.
A prophecy of the coming time when photographs of our friends, who have
passed from earth-life, may be obtainable by the co-operation with us
of spirits who desire to help us, and who will find opportunities and
conditions to enable them to do so. When Mr. Stead’s proposal for a
spiritual bureau becomes an accomplished fact, we may hope, and may
reasonably expect, that spirit photography will be a department of it.
Many strange events, which, fifty years ago, seemed as unlikely, are now
of frequent occurrence. Mr. Taylor’s experiments are a lesson, as well as
a prophecy. A lesson to the materialistic spirit of the age, to guide
by new paths to old truths. The materialism of to-day is dogmatic and
active; it claims science as its handmaid, it boasts that it has sounded
the universe and found in it nothing but the material husks of existence,
that all spiritual beings are nonentities—the product of diseased
brains—of superstitious minds; its scholars have explored space from star
to star and have learned that there is no God; that man passes at death
into cold oblivion, into blank nothingness. To use the language of its
leading teachers:—“Unprejudiced philosophy is _compelled_ to reject the
idea of an individual immortality, and of a personal continuance after
death. With the decay and dissolution of its material substratum, through
which alone it has acquired a conscious existence and become a person,
and upon which it was dependent, _the spirit must cease to exist_!”
Again:—“Experience and daily observation teach us _that the spirit
perishes_ with its material substratum; that _man dies_.”
And:—“There never has been, _and never will be_, a real apparition, which
could make us believe or assume that the soul of a deceased individual
continues to exist: it is dead, never to return.”
And once more:—“Spirits and ghosts are only seen by diseased or
superstitious individuals.”
[Illustration: _Mrs. Green, of Heywood (medium), and the same spirit form
as on the preceding plate, but in a different attitude, and with the
birds and flowers reversed. Stereoscopic photographs obtained October 21,
1893._]
Undoubtedly these views are quite honestly arrived at and held by many.
By some through early training. By some in the rebound from bigoted and
God-dishonouring creeds. By others again in painful perplexity of mind,
while trying to solve the problem of existence. But a universe without a
Deity, and man without a soul, present little to boast of in the shape of
the consolation they can bring to suffering humanity.
Every opinion a man holds must to some extent influence his life, and the
knowledge that a man will live after death ought very considerably to
affect his entire character.
We know there is no such thing as death, that what we call by that name
is really a birth into a higher sphere—or state of existence—an entrance
into a holier and happier region, in whose precincts “we will be enabled
through untold ages to cultivate our intellects, perfect our moral
characters, and enjoy to the full extent of our capabilities all that is
pure, good, true, and godly.
“There is no death: what seems so is transition.
This life of mortal breath
Is but the suburb of the life elysian,
Whose portal we call death.”
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Spirit form. Part of a Stereoscopic pair. The sitter (who
does not wish his portrait to appear) has obtained spirit photographs
with his own camera and plates, when no other medium but himself was
present, and all manipulations were done by himself._]
Some persons admit the reality of supermundane photography, but say it
is the work of the Devil. How long is this old myth—this theological
superstition—to be flaunted in the face of investigators? how long
to be set as a bugbear—a “bogey-man”—not merely to frighten naughty
children, but to scare grown men and women, to bar mental progress, and
to stereotype from age to age distorted views of God, and of spiritual
law and truth?
Some thoughts expressed by “Imperator” to Mr. Stainton Moses, relating
to this imaginary prince of evil, are so excellent that no apology
is required for appending a few of them: “Cease to be perplexed by
thoughts of an imagined Devil. For the honest, pure, and truthful soul
there is no Devil nor Prince of Evil such as theology has feigned. Evil
comes not nigh him, the adversaries flee from his presence, and the
powers of evil are powerless before him. He is guarded around by angel
guards, ministered to by bright spirits, who watch over him and direct
his footsteps. For him there waits a career of progressive increase in
knowledge, and in all that elevates and ennobles the intelligence. He
need fear no Devil, unless he creates one for himself. His affinity
for good draws around him influences for good. He is fenced around by
guardians; nor can he, save by voluntary surrender, fall a victim to the
foe.”[16]
* * * * *
In narrating his experiments, Mr. Taylor confined himself to a
statement of facts; he did not set forth the spiritualistic hypothesis,
nor did he say that any other would account for the results. Some
members of the Association before whom he read his paper were angry
because Spiritualists claimed the results as an argument in support
of Spiritualism. But why be angry? Any explanation must cover the
whole ground. And the explanation offered by Spiritualists is the only
one which covers the whole ground. After all, the facts are only one
department of the wonders of modern Spiritualism. What is the good of
the latter? is asked by those who have not come within the range of its
beneficent teachings. The good of it? It has freed the mind from the
bondage of dogma, it has swept away the fear of death and the gloom of
the grave, it has purified the affections, it has brought much-needed
consolation in some of the hours of earth’s bitterest sorrows, it has
brought us into communion with those we love and whom we are wont to call
dead—given us the knowledge that they live, and given us a reason which
appeals to our personal experience that as they live in a higher state of
existence, we also shall live after the change we call death.
[Illustration: _From a Photograph taken April 29, 1892. Two Stereoscopic
photographs of this form were obtained with different sitters, May 2,
1892._]
Our grandest triumphs of science are but trifles compared with what
is before us to be realised in the higher life. Yet men and women of
education and refinement can content themselves with referring the most
mysterious spirit phenomena to conjuring and delusion, and can descend
to the inanity of trying to shelve the whole matter by attacking the
characters of those whom they ought rather to thank—to bless as the
instruments through whom the death-blow must be given to the doctrine
which denies the existence of the spirit world, and of our after-life.
At the Photographic Congress held at the World’s Fair, Judge Bradwell,
of Chicago, was chairman of the opening meeting. In his introductory
remarks, after summarising the work done by photographers, he said: “I
have no doubt there are those within the sound of my voice who will live
to see the time when photographic reproductions will be sent from country
to country as quickly as are telegraphic messages to-day. In conclusion,
may I not ask, who shall say that the camera, adjusted by the hand that
feels, and focussed by the sensitive eye that sees beyond, with the aid
of the intensely sensitive dry plates, _shall not bring to light and view
the forms of our departed friends, and solve the problem of immortality
and life_?”
JUDGE BRADWELL IS ANSWERED. THE VEIL IS LIFTED.
FOOTNOTES
[1] In a recent patent case the judge referred to Mr. Taylor as “the
eminent witness.”
[2] Published at the office of _The Two Worlds_, Corporation Street,
Manchester. Price 6_d._
[3] Reprinted from the _British Journal of Photography_, March 17th, 1893.
[4] On taking the chair, Mr. Brown said he did not know why they had
chosen him to preside that evening, unless it was because he knew nothing
whatever of the subject.
[5] This sensible proposal has been entirely set aside by subsequent
insinuations of the Association, directed against those who were
witnesses to the experiments, and by the passing a resolution of such a
character as to lead to dissension within the Association.
[6] See note, page 50.
[7] _The Practical Photographer._ Monthly, 1_d._ Double number containing
copies of Photographic Views, &c., on fine plate paper, 2_d._ Published
by Percy Lund & Co., Memorial Hall, Ludgate Circus, E.C.; also by L. N.
Fowler, and by John Heywood.
[8] The _Review of Reviews_, monthly, 6_d._ 125 Fleet Street, London;
Editorial Office, Mowbray House, Norfolk Street, Strand, W.C.
[9] This experiment has since been tried with a different medium, and
_successful results_ obtained. The plates used were Ilford make, special
rapid, and were purchased from Mr. Doublet, Moorgate Street.
[10] The _Medium and Daybreak_, weekly, 1½_d._ James Burne, 15
Southampton Row, W.C.
[11] _Light_, weekly, 2_d._ Published at 2 Duke Street, Adelphi, London,
W.C.
[12] _The Two Worlds_, weekly 1_d._, published by _The Two Worlds_
Publishing Company, Limited, 73A Corporation Street, Manchester.
[13] Reprinted from the _Daily Graphic_, June 23rd, 1892, by permission
of the Rev. Mr. Haweis and of the Editor.
[14] Published by James Burns, 15 Southampton Row.
[15] See pages 149 and 153.
[16] _Spirit Teachings_, page 98.