A CHAPTER OF GHOSTLY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Spiritualism began in 1848 with the humble and entirely fraudulent
phenomena of raps. Within three years there were hundreds of mediums in
the United States, and a dollar per sitter was the customary fee for
assisting at one of the services of the new religion. It soon became
widely known that raps could be produced by very earthly means, and in
any case the rivalry of mediums was bound to develop new "phenomena." As
in all other professions, originality paid; and as the wonderful
discovery was quickly made that darkness favoured the intensity and
variety of the phenomena, the spirit power began to break upon humanity
in a bewildering variety of forms. In this chapter we will examine a
number of these accomplishments which our departed fellows have learned
on the Elysian fields.
D. D. Home is still the classical exponent of some of these
accomplishments. Indeed, there is one of his phenomena which no medium
of our time has the courage to reproduce, and, since this phenomenon is
expressly endorsed by Sir William Barrett in his recent work, _On the
Threshold of the Unseen_ (1917), we shall be accused of timidity and
unfairness if we omit to consider it. It is said that on several
well-authenticated occasions--so Sir W. Barrett assures the public--Home
took burning coals in his hands, thrust his hands into the blazing fire,
or even put his face among the live coals. What is the evidence which
Sir W. Barrett, knowing that the general public has no leisure to
investigate these things, endorses as satisfactory?
The reader who has patience enough to consider these extraordinary
claims in detail will find the evidence collected and examined in Mr.
Podmore's _Newer Spiritualism_ (chapters i and ii). It is just as weak
and unsatisfactory as the evidence for Home's levitations, which we have
already examined. The first witness is a lady, Mrs. Hall, who had the
advantage of a profound belief that Home could do anything whatever, and
that the idea of fraud was worse than preposterous in connection with so
holy a man. Home's demure expression and constant utterances of piety
and virtue, which seem to Mr. Podmore "inconceivably nauseous," made a
deep impression on Mrs. Hall and the other ladies whom Home used
generally to have next to him when he was performing his wonders. Now,
this lady tells us that on July 5, 1869, he took a large live coal from
the fire, put it on her husband's head, and drew his white hair over it.
He left it there for four or five minutes, and then gave it to Mrs. Hall
to hold. She says that it was "still red in parts," but she was not
burned.
It would follow that Home was so charged with supernatural power that he
could communicate a large measure of it to Mr. Hall's head or Mrs.
Hall's hands--a feat unique in the history of Spiritualism. We need not
go so far. There is nothing in Mrs. Hall's narrative to prevent us from
supposing that Home put some non-conducting substance on her husband's
head _before_ he put the coal on it. Any person can pick a live coal out
of the fire if a part of it (as is common) is _not_ alive. Some can go
further. I can stick my finger-tips in my live pipe without being
burned. Some smokers can pick up a small live coal and light their pipes
with it. Probably all the coals which Daniel picked from the fire were
"dead" in parts. It is clear that this particular coal was not glowing,
as Mrs. Hall states that her husband's white hair showed "silvery"
against it. If the coal had glowed, the hair would show _black_ against
it. Probably Home lifted up the hair round, and not on, it; and after
five minutes part of it would be cool enough to lay on Mrs. Hall's hand.
Sir William Crookes is the next witness: a great scientist, but--we
cannot forget it--the man who was easily duped by a girl of seventeen.
He says that he accompanied Home to the fire, and saw him put his hands
in it. That is anything but the scientific way to give evidence. We want
an exact description of the state of the fire, the light, etc. But
notice this next sentence: "He very deliberately pulled the lumps of hot
coal off, one at a time, with his right hand, and touched _one_ which
was bright red." So the "lumps" among which he had put his hands were
_not_ bright red; and we are left free to suppose that the _one_ which
he touched was not bright red all over. Home then took out a
handkerchief, waved it about in the air, and folded it on his hand. He
next took out a coal which was "red in one part" and laid it on the
handkerchief without burning it. The story smacks of charlatanry from
beginning to end. Crookes ought at least to have known better than to
suppose that a handkerchief "gathered power" by being waved about. It
more probably gathered a piece of asbestos from Home's pocket.
The other pretty stories of Home's fire-tricks may be read in Podmore.
Juggling with fire is an ancient practice. It is very common among
savages. Daniel Home, with his select and private audience, had
excellent conditions for doing it. In bad light he did even more
wonderful things than those I have quoted; that is to say, if we take
the record literally, which we may decline to do. Crookes, like some
other investigating professors, was short-sighted. No wonder that Daniel
loved him.
Let us pass on to the musical accomplishments of the spirits; and here
again the gifted Daniel was one of the pioneer mediums. He induced the
spirits to play an accordion while he held it with one hand; and his
hand held it by the end farthest removed from the keys. Unfortunately,
the spirits laid down the condition that he must hold it out of sight,
underneath the table, and our interest is damped. We know something from
other mediums of the ways of doing this. While you are putting the
accordion under the table you change your hand from the back end to the
key end of the accordion. Then you can get the bellows to play by
pushing it against something or using a hook at the end of a strong
thread or catgut. It is well to remember that Home was a good musician.
Possibly he played a mouth-organ while the professor was looking
intently at the accordion.
But Home was put to a severe test, we are told. Sir W. Crookes made a
cage (like a waste-paper basket) to go under the table, and Home was
told to let the accordion hang in this. He could certainly not now use
his second hand or his feet, yet it "played." But, as Mr. Podmore, most
ingenious of critics, points out, no one saw the _keys_ move. The music
may have come from a musical box in Home's pocket, or placed by him on
the floor. The degree of light or darkness is not stated. The opening
and shutting of the accordion could be done by hooks, or loops of black
silk. So with the crowning miracle, when Home withdrew his hand, and the
accordion was seen suspended in the air, moving about in the cage (under
the dark table). It was probably hooked on to the table.
Before we pass on to other ghostly musicians, let us notice another feat
of Home's which Sir William Crookes records here. He placed a board with
one end on the table and the other on a spring balance. It was so shaped
(with feet at each end) that an enormous pressure would have to be
exerted on it at the table-end if the balance were to be appreciably
altered. Yet a light touch of Home's fingers caused the scale to
register six pounds. Podmore points out that this experiment had been
gradually reached. Home knew the conditions, and had made his
preparations. The light was poor, and a loop of strong silk thread at
the far end of the board, pulled from some part of his person, would not
be noticed. We shall see far more remarkable feats than this.
A pretty variation of musical mediumship was next introduced by Mrs.
Annie Eva Fay, another American fraud with whom Sir W. Crookes made
solemn scientific experiments. Florrie Cook was a chicken in comparison
with Annie Fay, and she triumphantly passed all the professor's tests.
She came to London in 1874, and everybody soon went to see and hear the
"fascinating American blonde" at the Hanover Square Rooms.
Mrs. Fay's most characteristic séance was when she sat in the middle of
a circle of sitters, a bell and a guitar beside her. Her husband,
"Colonel" Fay, was in the circle, but, as they held each other's hands,
it was presumed that he could do nothing to help her if he wished. Mrs.
Fay then began to clap her hands. The lights were extinguished, and,
although Mrs. Fay continued to clap her hands loudly, so that you could
be sure she was not using them, the bell was rung, the tambourine
played, the sitters' beards were pulled, and so on. This was easy. When
the gas was put out, Mrs. Fay no longer slapped her left hand against
her right, but against her forehead or cheek--perhaps slapped the
Colonel's face for a variation--and had the right hand free for
business. No doubt the Colonel also released a hand, as we have seen
Eusapia Palladino do, and joined the band.
When this trick was realized, Mrs. Fay used to allow herself to be bound
with tapes to a stake erected on the stage. A few minutes after the
lights were put out the band began its ghostly, but not very impressive,
music. Sometimes a pail was put beside her, and it was raised by
invisible hands (in the dark) on to her head. When the light was
restored Mrs. Fay was discovered still bound to the stake, the knots and
seals intact. By an accident at one of her performances Mr. Podmore was
enabled to see how she did it, and the secret has long been known. The
tapes supplied had to be fastened in such a way that she could with
great speed slip them up her slender arms and get into a working
position. Maskelyne also exposed her, and trade fell off so badly that
she made him an offer, by letter, to go on his stage and, for payment,
show how all the tricks were done. She had by that time converted
hundreds to Spiritualism.
There were various other forms of the musical performance. One medium
used to sit in sight of the audience with a sitter holding his hands. A
cloth was then put over them both, from the neck downward, the lights
extinguished, and the usual band began. He had released one hand, by the
familiar trick, and reached behind him for the instruments.
The medium, Bastian, also played instruments in the dark. At Arnheim,
where he was edifying the Dutch Spiritualists, he was suspected, and it
was arranged to ignite some inflammable cotton by an electric current
from the next room. The next time a ghostly hand played the guitar above
the heads of the sitters, the signal was given, and the flash lit the
room. The guitar fell hastily to the table, and Bastian's hand retreated
rapidly to its right place. His English Spiritualist admirers accepted
his explanation that it was a "materialized" hand that was seen
shrinking back into his body. One medium strummed his guitar with a long
pencil which he took with his teeth out of his inner coat-pocket and
held with his teeth. Others had telescopic rods or "lazy tongs" hidden
about them, and used these in the dark.
The binding of mediums with cords or tapes is a "precaution against
fraud" which was thoroughly exposed fifty years ago. Many of Sir A. C.
Doyle's own admirers were pained when he announced to the world his
belief in the genuineness of the performance of two Welsh colliers, the
Thomas brothers. Their "manifestations" were prehistoric. More than
fifty years ago spectators were invited to tie up the mediums, and as
long ago as 1883 Mr. Maskelyne was exhibiting the trick. The Davenport
brothers, the latest American marvels, had toured England. Most people
will remember how they were held up at Liverpool by some one tying the
rope in knots with which they were not familiar. The spirits failed
entirely to play the tambourine when the tying-up was properly done, and
the instrument was put out of reach of the medium's mouth. As usual, it
had been said for months that fraud was "absolutely excluded."
Later mediums found the solution of this difficulty. The medium kept a
sharp knife-blade within reach of his teeth, and, when knots proved too
stubborn, he cut the rope and freed himself. He had a spare rope in his
clothes and fastened himself--or was bound by a confederate--before the
lights went up. People thought that they could prevent this by sealing
the knots. It was useless. The medium had chewing gum of the same colour
as sealing-wax, and the seals were imitated with this. These desperate
shifts are, however, rarely necessary. While he is being tied the medium
catches a loop of the rope with his thumb, and this gives him plenty of
slack to use. I have seen a medium laced tight into a leather arm-case,
and get out behind the curtain in three minutes. He had caught a loop of
the lace with his thumb, and the rest was tooth work.
It was therefore little wonder that when the Thomas brothers were
brought from the valleys of South Wales to London their ancient miracles
would not work. A recent convert to Spiritualism, Mr. S. A. Moseley,
describes their work on their native heath (or hearth) with the same awe
and simplicity as Sir A. C. Doyle had done. Many of us knew the history
of Spiritualism, and smiled. They were brought to London by the _Daily
Express_ in 1919, and here, where sceptics abounded and the need of
convincing evidence was at its most acute, "White Eagle" (the Red Indian
spirit who controls Will Thomas) and all his band of merry men were
powerless. Will Thomas was properly bound, the tambourine and castanets
were put out of reach, and his brother was isolated. All that
happened--the throwing of a badge-button and a pair of braces to the
audience--is within the range of possibilities of the human mouth.
Let us now turn to another bright and classical page in the history of
Spiritualism: the experiments of Professor Zöllner with the medium
Slade. Sir A. C. Doyle granted in the Debate, with an air of generosity,
that Slade "cheated occasionally," but he insisted that Slade's
phenomena in the house of Professor Zöllner were genuine. Now, as long
as Sir A. C. Doyle does this kind of thing, as long as he assures his
readers that he will not build on any medium who has been convicted of
fraud and then builds on such a medium, as long as he tells his readers
(who will not check the facts) that a medium who was exposed over and
over again merely "cheated occasionally," it is no use for him to assert
that he is trying to purge Spiritualism of fraud. Slade was a cynical
impostor from beginning to end of his career.
I will show in the next chapter but one how Slade confessed his
habitual fraud as early as 1872, how he was exposed and arrested in
London in 1876, and how he was exposed again in Canada in 1882 and in
the United States in 1884. A word about the last occasion will suffice
for my purpose here. Henry Seybert, a Spiritualist, left a large sum of
money to the University of Pennsylvania on the condition that the
University authorities would appoint a commission to examine into (among
other things) the claims of Spiritualism. They did; and it was the most
unlucky inspiration the ghosts of the dead ever conveyed. Very few
mediums would face the professors, and those who did were shown to be
all frauds. Slade was one of these, and the Pennsylvania professors,
wondering how any trained man could be taken in by so palpable a fraud,
sent a representative to Leipsic to investigate the experiences of
Professor Zöllner and the three other German professors who had endorsed
Slade. The gist of his report was that of the four professors one
(Zöllner) was in an early stage of insanity (he died shortly
afterwards), one (Fechner) was nearly blind, the third (Weber) was
seventy-four years old, and the fourth (Scheibner) was very
short-sighted, yet did _not_ (as Sir A. C. Doyle says) entirely endorse
the phenomena!
I have not been able to discover evidence that Zöllner's mind was really
deranged, but he certainly approached the inquiry with a theory of a
fourth dimension of space, and was most eager to get his theory
confirmed by the experiments. The key to the whole situation is,
therefore, lack of sharp control. Slade had been conjuring for years,
and was an expert in substitution. He had a purblind audience, and he
astutely guided the professor until the conditions of the experiment
suited him. He knew beforehand, as a rule, what apparatus Zöllner would
use, and he duplicated his wooden rings, thongs, etc. An excellent study
of his tricks in detail will be found in Carrington's _Physical
Phenomena of Spiritualism_. Sir A. C. Doyle speaks of the shattering of
a screen in Slade's presence as an indisputably superhuman feat. But
before the séance no one had thought of looking to see if the screen had
been taken to pieces and lightly tied together by a black thread which
Slade could pull asunder at will!
Slade was a very bad selection by Sir A. C. Doyle. No prominent medium
was ever so frequently exposed as he. In addition to the exposures I
have mentioned, Dr. Hyslop, Mrs. Sidgwick, and other leading
Spiritualists riddled his pretensions to supernormal power. In the end
he took to drink and died in an asylum. Yet Sir A. C. Doyle assures his
followers, in his _Vital Message_, that he never builds on a discredited
medium.
Let us turn now to Stainton Moses, the snow-white medium. Moses was a
neuropathic clergyman who in 1872 left the Church and became a teacher.
About the same time he discovered mediumistic powers. He died ultimately
of Bright's disease, brought on by drink. His audience, as I said
before, consisted only of a few intimate friends who never doubted his
saintliness or thought for a moment of fraud. He worked always in the
dark, or in a very bad light; and his doings are mainly described by his
trustful friend and host, Mrs. Speer. This would dispense any serious
student from troubling about his phenomena; but let us see if they throw
any light on his character. Mr. Carrington says that the things
reported are unbelievable, yet that we cannot think of fraud in
connection with Moses. Podmore also tries hard not to accuse him of
_conscious_ fraud, and hints that he was irresponsible. The reader may
choose to think otherwise.
The spirits performed every variety of phenomena through Stainton Moses.
Like Home, and only a few of the quite holiest mediums, he was
occasionally lifted off the ground; or, which is, of course, the same
thing, he said that he was. Raps were common when he was about.
Automatic writing of the most elevating (and most inaccurate)
description flowed from his pencil. Lights floated about the room; and
once or twice he dropped and broke a bottle of phosphorus in the dark.
Musical sounds were repeatedly heard, as in the case of the Rev. Dr.
Monck, who had a little musical box in his trousers. The sitters were
sprayed with scent. The objects on the dressing-table in his room were
arranged by invisible hands in the form of a cross. Wonderful messages
about recently deceased persons were sent through him; and the details
could later be found in the papers. In fine, he was a remarkably good
medium for "apports"--that is to say, the bringing into the circle by
the spirits of flowers and other objects. Statuettes, jewels, books, and
all kinds of things (provided they were in the house and could be
secreted about the person) were "apported."
The evidence for these things is particularly poor, but I am a liberal
man. I do not doubt them. Each one of them, separately, was done by
other mediums. It is the rich variety that characterizes Moses. Let him
sleep in peace. The credulity and admiration of his friends seem to have
made him lose the last particle of sense of honour in these matters.
These things are common elementary conjuring from beginning to end.
Apports are a familiar ghostly accomplishment, and the way they are done
is familiar. Mme. Blavatsky was wonderful at apports. Who would ever
dream of proposing to search Mme. Blavatsky? And who would now be so
simple as to think of spirits when the medium was not searched? The
person of Mme. Blavatsky was as sacred from such search as the person of
the Rev. Stainton Moses or of the charming and guileless Florrie Cook.
Indeed, it is only in recent times that a real search of the medium has
been demanded, and the accounts of weird and wonderful objects
"apported" under other conditions merit only a smile. Mrs. Guppy,
secured from search by her virtue and the esteem of Dr. Russel Wallace,
went so far as to apport live eels. Eusapia Palladino one day "apported"
a branch of azaleas in Flammarion's house; and he afterwards found an
azalea plant, which it exactly fitted, in her bedroom. Another day her
spirits showered marguerites on the table; and the marguerites were
missed from a pot in the corridor. Anna Rothe, the Princess Karadja's
pet medium, was secretly watched, and was caught bringing bouquets from
her petticoats and oranges out of her ample bosom; and the spirits did
not save her from a year in gaol. She had a whole flower-shop under her
skirts when she was seized.
But we will not run over the whole silly chronicle of "apports." Two
recent instances will suffice. One is the Turin lady, Linda Gazerra, of
whom I have spoken on an earlier page. She was too virtuous to strip,
and let down her hair, even in the presence of a lady. So Dr. Imoda, a
scientific man who consented to accept her on these terms, was fooled
for three years (1908-11). She had live birds caged in the large mass of
her hair (natural and artificial), and all sorts of things in her
_lingerie_.
About the same time, an Australian medium, Bailey, made a sensational
name throughout the Spiritualist world by his "apports." The spirits
brought silks from the Indies (until the brutal customs official claimed
the tariff), live birds, and all sorts of things. He was taken so
seriously in the Spiritualist world that Professor Reichel, a rich
French inquirer, brought him to France for investigation. Sure enough,
although he was searched, the spirits brought into the room two little
birds "from India." But his long hesitations and evasions had aroused
suspicion, and on inquiry it was proved that he had bought the birds,
which were quite French, at a local shop in Grenoble. How had he
smuggled them into the room? I give the answer (as it is given by Count
Rochas, his host) with reluctance, but it is absolutely necessary to
know these things if you want to understand some of the more difficult
mediumistic performances. The birds were concealed in the unpleasant end
of his alimentary canal. Professor Reichel gave him his return fare and
urged him to go quickly; and the Australian Spiritualists received him
with open arms, and listened sympathetically to his stories of French
brutality.
Of "apports," therefore, we say the same as of "materializations." The
medium shall be stripped naked, have all his or her body-openings
muzzled, be sewn in prepared garments, and placed in a prepared and
carefully searched room. When Spiritualists announce the appearance of
an eel or a pigeon or a bouquet, or even a copy of _Light_, under those
conditions, we will begin to consider the question of apports.
Luminous phenomena "are easily simulated," says Dr. Maxwell. Most people
will agree to this candid verdict of so experienced and so sympathetic
an investigator. Tons of phosphorus have been used in the service of
religion since 1848. It has taken the place of incense. The saintly
Moses twice had a nasty mess with his bottle of phosphorus. Herne was
one night tracing a pious message in luminous characters (with a damp
match) when there was a crackle and flash; the match had "struck." The
movement abounds in incidents which are, in a double sense, "luminous."
Certain sulphides may be used instead of phosphorus, and in modern times
electricity is an excellent means of producing lights at a distance.
Chemicals of the pyrotechnic sort are also useful. One must remember
that behind the thousands of mediums, whose fertile brains are
constantly elaborating new methods of evading control, are manufacturers
and scientific experts who supply them with chemicals and apparatus. One
often hears Spiritualists laugh at this suggestion as a wild theory of
their opponents. Any impartial person will acknowledge that it is more
probable than improbable. But positive proof has been given over and
over again.
Quite recently Mr. Sidney Hamilton described in _Pearson's Weekly_
(February 28, 1920) an "illustrated printed catalogue of forty pages"
which he had with great difficulty secured. It was the secret catalogue
of a firm which supplies apparatus to mediums. The outfit includes "a
self-playing guitar," a telescopic aluminium trumpet (for direct voice),
magic tables, luminous objects, and even "a fully materialized female
form (with face that convinces) ... floats about the room and disappears
... Price £10." For eight shillings this firm supplies the secret how to
turn one's vest inside out, without changing coat, while one is bound,
and the knots sealed, in the cabinet. For two pounds ten you get an
apparatus which will levitate a table so effectively that "two or three
persons cannot hold the table down." In short, there is, and has been
for decades, a trade supply of apparatus and instructions for producing
the whole range of "physical phenomena," and any person who pays serious
attention to such things is not very particular whether he is deceived
or not.
I may close the chapter with a case of spirit sculpture, which is
recorded by Truesdell in his _Bottom Facts of Spiritualism_. By this
trick, he says, Mrs. Mary Hardy converted one of those professors whose
names adorn the Spiritualist list. A pail of warm water, with several
inches of paraffin floating on its surface, was weighed and put under
the table. After a time a hand moulded most accurately in wax was found
on the floor beside the pail, and it was found that the weight of the
contents of the pail had decreased by precisely the weight of the hand.
A convincing test, surely! But the professor had forgotten to allow for
the evaporation of the warm water. The hand had been made in advance, by
moulding the soft paraffin on the medium's hand, and hidden under Mrs.
Hardy's skirt. It was transferred by her toes to the floor under the
table.