V' 
 

THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
Books on Psychical Research and 
 the New Psychology. 
 
 After Death—What ? Spiritistic Phenomena and their 
 Interpretation. By Cesare Lombroso, late Alienist Professor of 
 Psychiatry in the University of Turin, Author of “The Female 
 Offender,” “ The Man of Genius,” &c. Second Impression. 
 Illustrated. Demy 8vo, cloth, 10 /- net. 
 
 Psychotherapy. By Hugo Munsterberg, M.D., Ph.D., 
 Litt.D., LL.D., Professor of Psychology in Harvard University. 
 Large crown 8vo, cloth, 8/6 net. 
 
 Modern Light on Immortality. Being an Original 
 Excursion into Historical Research and Scientific Discovery 
 pointing to a New Solution of the Problem. By Henry Frank. 
 Large crown 8vo, cloth, 7/6 net. 
 
 Psychology and Crime. By Hugo MOnsterberg, Pro¬ 
 fessor of Psychology in Harvard University. Crown 8vo, cloth, 
 5 - net. 
 
 Both Sides of the Veil. A Personal Experience. By 
 Anne Manning Robbins. With a Letter from Professor 
 William James. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3/6 net. 
 
 Psychotherapeutics. A Symposium. By Morton 
 Prince, M.D., and others. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3/6 net. 
 
 Modern Belief in Immortality. By Newman Smyth, 
 D.D., author of “Through Science to Faith," “Passing Pro¬ 
 testantism and Coming Catholicism,” &c. Crown 8vo, cloth, 
 3/6 net. 
 
 The Christian Religion as a Healing Power. By 
 Elwood Worcester, D.D., and Samuel McComb, D.D., 
 Emmanuel Church, Boston. Crown 8vo, cloth, 8/6 net. 
 
 London; T. FISHER UNWIN. 
 
THE 
 
 NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK PODMORE 
 
 AUTHOR OF " MESMERISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE,” ETC., ET€. 
 
 FISHER 
 
 UNWIN 
 
 LONDON : ADELPHI TERRACE 
 LEIPSIC: INSELSTRASSE zo 
 1910 
 
(All rights reserved.) 
 
CHAP. 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 / ' - 
 
 / . ■ ■ 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 INTRODUCTION ...... 
 
 THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM : DANIEL DUNGLAS HOME 
 LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL . 
 
 EUSAPIA PALLADINO . . . . . 
 
 EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. . 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 
 THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 
 THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. THOMPSON 
 SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE . 
 
 THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE . 
 
 CONCLUSION . . . . 
 
 INDEX . . . . . 
 
 S 
 
 PAGE 
 
 7 
 
 31 
 
 55 
 87 
 114 
 
 145 
 
 164 
 
 184 
 
 199 
 
 225 
 
 255 
 
 277 
 
 298 
 
 318 
 
 C' o O' ‘V r. 
 C* <J o 0 O 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/newerspiritualis01podm 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The belief in intercourse with the spirits of the dead 
 may be said to begin in modern times with Sweden¬ 
 borg. Prior to his time, indeed, alchemists and 
 magicians believed themselves to have opened up com¬ 
 munication with the world of spirits ; but the entities 
 with whom they came into contact were conceived of 
 as creatures of the elements, or spiritual beings parasitic 
 on mankind. Again, throughout the Middle Ages the 
 faithful found in witchcraft, in epileptic attacks, and 
 in various epidemic visitations amongst religious com¬ 
 munities, irrefragable proof of spirit-intervention. But 
 the spirits concerned in such intervention seem rarely, 
 if ever, to have had a human origin assigned to them ; 
 they were regarded, not as the souls of dead men and 
 women, but as Divine emissaries or as ministers of 
 the powers of darkness. 
 
 The Swedish seer in his trances, however, professed 
 to speak with the mighty dead of all ages. And 
 though the belief in such intercourse as a practical 
 possibility appears to have died out amongst his 
 followers, they bore witness at any rate to the fact 
 that the gates of heaven and hell had once, in modern 
 times, been opened to a mortal visitor, Swedenborg’s 
 revelations had, moreover, a far-reaching influence out¬ 
 side the narrow circle of his professed disciples. 
 Trances of like character to his own were found to 
 
 7 
 
 o c 3 3 Q r: 
 O O 0 J 
 
8 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 occur in connection with the practice of animal 
 magnetism ; and in the first half of the nineteenth 
 century “ magnetic ” clairvoyants in every civilised 
 country claimed to hold converse with those who had 
 passed beyond the barrier of death, and to reveal the 
 secrets of the spiritual world. The claims of the 
 clairvoyants, and the ready credence afforded to their 
 revelations, were equally the direct outcome of the 
 teachings of the Swedish seer. As the practice of 
 mesmerism spread, it was found that the liability to 
 fall into trances, and with it the power of holding 
 communication with the spirit world, was not a 
 privilege confined, as the Swedenborgians would have 
 it, to a few chosen souls, or even necessarily associated 
 with any marked pre-eminence in moral or intellectual 
 endowment. In the United States, at all events, 
 towards the middle of last century, the nascent 
 spiritualism showed signs of becoming a thoroughly 
 democratic movement. 
 
 An accidental circumstance set fire to the train thus 
 prepared ; and the new movement overran, like a 
 flame, the whole continent of America. Bewitched 
 children land magnetic clairvoyants had always been 
 prone to enhance the effect of convulsions and trances 
 by marvels of a more material kind—there would be 
 vomiting of pins, throwing of gravel, or surreptitious 
 introduction of flowers and sacred relics, according to 
 the taste of the performer and the demands of the 
 environment. An exhibition of a like kind broke out 
 in 1848 in the village of Hydesville, New York. Two 
 little girls produced raps on their wooden bedstead— 
 in the first instance, doubtless, by the time-honoured 
 method of scratching it with their toes. Later, more 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 9 
 
 subtle methods were introduced ; others took up the 
 pastime and refined upon it. Dark stances were held, 
 and musical instruments flew about the room ; the 
 spirits spoke and wrote, and even showed themselves 
 in bodily form. The movement spread to Europe in 
 the early fifties ; and by 1870 there was scarcely a 
 town of any importance in the civilised world which 
 did not boast its regular circle of “ inquirers,” whilst 
 upwards of a hundred periodicals devoted themselves 
 to chronicling the doings of the spiritual world, as 
 revealed in the sdance-room and in ‘‘ inspirational ” 
 lectures. The movement remained at its zenith for 
 a few years, and then rapidly declined. Those, indeed, 
 who had once been convinced remained for the most 
 part convinced believers still. But the faith of such 
 as were still in their novitiate was seriously checked 
 by the constant exposure of fraud at materialisation 
 seances, in spirit photography, and other marvels of 
 the kind. And the decline of the belief was hastened 
 by the increased attention given by medical men and 
 others to the obscure mental states from which the 
 belief in the first instance had its rise. Men saw that 
 the outpourings of the entranced subject and the 
 revelations of the crystal and of planchette could 
 reasonably be classed with other manifestations of 
 automatism and unconscious cerebration ; and that to 
 invoke spiritual agency would, in most cases, be as 
 rational as to ascribe the ravings of delirium to 
 demoniac possession, or the journeyings of the sleep¬ 
 walker to angelic guidance. 
 
 In the decade of 1880 to 1890 the belief in inter¬ 
 course with spirits of the dead seemed rapidly 
 approaching its euthanasia. The renewed vigour of 
 
10 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 the movement during the last twenty years is derived 
 mainly from three sources : the trance revelations of 
 the American medium, Mrs. Piper ; the physical mani¬ 
 festations of the Italian medium, Eusapia Palladino ; 
 and the labours in interpreting and correlating these 
 and other manifestations undertaken for many years 
 by the late Frederic iW,. H. Myers, the results of which 
 were gathered together in the two massive volumes 
 of his “ Human Personality.” * 
 
 In this, his posthumous work, Myers does not indeed 
 disdain whatever support may be derived from the 
 trance utterances and the physical phenomena. But 
 in both directions the evidence has been so multi¬ 
 plied since his death that it will be necessary to devote 
 the bulk of this book to its discussion. Myers’ peculiar 
 contribution to the subject may be, considered more 
 briefly, not, indeed, as being less important, but 
 because the nine years which have elapsed have 
 brought nothing to strengthen his position. Briefly, 
 Myers essayed to lift the whole problem of man’s 
 immortality to a higher level, and propounded an 
 argument of far wider scope, whose cogency we are 
 hardly yet in a position accurately to estimate. 
 
 To the older philosophers the mind of man seemed 
 a thing apart—a clear-cut, indissoluble unity, whose 
 permanence and identity admitted neither doubt nor 
 degree. To the newer experimental psychology the 
 unity of consciousness is a mere illusion ; it is even 
 as the “ elementary ” nature of air, earth, and water, 
 the unreasoned judgment of ignorance. The laboratory 
 and the alienist’s clinique show that consciousness in 
 
 1 “ Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily 
 Death.” London : Longman & Co., 1903. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 11 
 
 the last analysis is but the casual and transitory co¬ 
 ordination of countless ill-defined and variable 
 elements. Consciousness, in fact, is but the imperfect 
 reflection in the psychical world of the whole activity 
 of the cerebro-spinal nervous system ; and that system 
 is itself a collection of separate nerve-centres, which 
 represent the multiform activities of the whole 
 organism. Consciousness, then, is but the reflection 
 of a reflection ; it represents all the innumerable doings 
 and sufferings of each part of the body, much as, to 
 employ Ribot’s simile, a map represents the features 
 of a countryside. To found an argument for the 
 survival of the soul on the supposed unity and indis¬ 
 solubility of this shifting aggregation must seem 
 indeed the building of a house upon the sand. 
 
 Now, the peculiar contribution of Myers to modern 
 psychology lies here. He accepts to the full the results 
 of recent research. He recognises that human con¬ 
 sciousness, as we know it, is a highly composite and 
 unstable thing, having neither completeness nor 
 essential unity. Consciousness is, to employ his own 
 simile, a selection, like the visible spectrum, acci¬ 
 dental, interrupted, and variable, from a much larger 
 potential whole. But at this point Myers’ views 
 diverge from those of the recognised schools. To 
 him the surface consciousness, the only thing which 
 we know as consciousness in ordinary life, is com¬ 
 paratively unimportant. “ I award no primacy,” he 
 writes, “ to my ordinary waking self, except that, 
 among many potential selves, this one has shown itself 
 the fittest to meet the needs of common life.” It 
 is the hidden life which counts—the self which the 
 struggle of the market-place and the senate has thrust 
 
12 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 back into the darkness, or has not yet called into 
 conscious activity. 
 
 “ There is in each of us," he proclaims, “ an abiding, 
 psychical entity far more extensive than he knows—an indi¬ 
 viduality which can never express itself completely through 
 any corporeal manifestation. . . . All this (unexpressed) 
 psychical action is unconscious, all is included in an actual 
 and potential memory below the threshold of our habitual 
 consciousness.” 
 
 The subliminal consciousness, he supposes, may 
 embrace a far wider range, both of physiological and 
 of psychical activity, than is open to normal personality. 
 The invisible spectrum of consciousness stretches in¬ 
 definitely in either direction, extending on the one side 
 to physiological processes which have long dropped 
 out of human knowledge, on the other to supernormal 
 faculties, of which only stray hints have reached ,us 
 in our present stage of evolution. Conformably with 
 this view, a stream of consciousness flows like an under¬ 
 ground river within ust, sleep is no longer to be regarded 
 as the mere abeyance of waking activities, but as a 
 phase of personality with characteristics definitely its 
 own ; crystal vision, the hypnotic trance, hysteria, and 
 allied states open a door into the hidden life ; and 
 the improvisations of genius are outbursts of subter¬ 
 ranean forces. 
 
 Now, this theory claims to be founded on induction 
 from observed facts. There are indications, however, 
 that in its author’s mind the conception owed less 
 to induction than to analogy. There is a class ,of 
 hystero-epileptic patients to be found in the Paris 
 hospitals, whose remarkable symptoms have been de¬ 
 scribed by Charcot, Jules Voisin, Bourru, and especially 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 13 
 
 by, Pierre Janet. A typical, case is that of Lucie, 
 sometime a patient of Professor Janet. This unhappy 
 young woman had a terrible fright at the age of nine, 
 which brought on a series of severe epileptic attacks. 
 At the time when she first came under observation in 
 the hospital she was almost completely ansesthetic. She 
 had no sense of touch and no muscular sense. She 
 would “ lose her legs in bed,” as she herself described 
 it, and could only walk by looking at the ground and 
 at her limbs. She was very deaf ; and her .sight,, 
 her piost serviceable sense, was extremely defective. 
 Lastly, the memory of a great part of her past life 
 was a blank : she had no recollection of her child¬ 
 hood before the age of nine. But when thrown into 
 the deepest stage of the hypnotic trance a marked 
 change would be observed. She could now feel her 
 limbs, and walk without looking at her feet or the 
 floor. Her powers of vision would become practically 
 normal. Concurrently with this enfranchisement of the 
 senses was observed a corresponding enlargement of 
 the memory. She would not only be conscious of all 
 lier life as a hospital patient, but she could remember 
 also the first nine years of her childhood, and give a 
 clear account of the terrible fright which brought on 
 her calamity.* 
 
 Now, close observation brings to light some curious 
 facts about the condition of these hystero-epileptics. 
 It would be a grave mistake to suppose that their 
 anaesthesia is merely feigned. But it is certainly less 
 profound than the anaesthesia which results from disease 
 or from actual severance of the nerves. It can occa- 
 
 ' P,. Janet, “ L’Automatisme Psychologique,” pp. 104, 
 105. 
 
14 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 sionally be restored by directing the patient’s special 
 attention to the anaesthetic limb. And it is noteworthy, 
 Janet points out, that hystero-anaesthetic subjects are 
 not liable to get their limbs burnt or otherwise injured, 
 as is the case with patients, e.g., in the later stages 
 of leprosy. Again, a patient in whom the visual field 
 is hysterically restricted will not see ordinary objects 
 held outside the hysteric limits of vision ; but he can 
 be sent into convulsions if any object of special signifi- 
 'cance for him be held outside those limits, but within 
 the normal visual field. The real self, then, of these 
 hysterics is still active below the surface, and is still 
 able to keep watch and ward over the vagaries of 
 the starved consciousness. 
 
 To Myers the fate of these poor hystero-epileptics 
 seems profoundly significant. 
 
 “ Might not,” he asks, “ all the hysteric tale be told, 
 mutato nomine, of the whole race of mortal men? What 
 assurance have we that from some point of higher vision 
 we men are not as these shrunken and shadowed souls?” 
 (i. p. 67 .) 
 
 In that larger potential consciousness which, as we 
 have warrant for inferring, surrounds the narrowed 
 personality which suffices for our common everyday 
 life, he believed himself to discern traces of faculties 
 too large for merely terrestrial needs, and signs of 
 a guiding power wise with more than human foresight. 
 This, in effect, is Myers’ case. There need be no fear, 
 he proclaims, lest the soul of man should be disinte¬ 
 grated with the disintegration of the body ; because 
 it exhibits 
 
 ” traces of faculty which this material or planetary life 
 could not have called into being, and whose exercise even 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 15 
 
 here and now involves and necessitates the existence of 
 a spiritual world” (i. p. 11). 
 
 The argument may be admitted to have cogency 
 if the premises can be established. But what in fact 
 is this so-called ‘‘ subliminal self,” and what are its 
 chief properties? Certain pathologic cases—F 61 ida X., 
 whose history has been recorded by Dr. Azam, Mary 
 Reynolds, chronicled by Dr. iWilliam James, the three 
 “ Misses Beauchamp,” of Morton Prince, &c .—show 
 that there may exist, below the personality presented to 
 us in ordinary life, another personality, larger, freer, 
 and saner. In subjects who have been frequently 
 hypnotised the personality which is evoked by the 
 operator in the trance will often prove more intel¬ 
 ligent and alert than the waking self, and may show 
 keener and more exalted powers of sensation. The 
 hypnotic memory, too, is, as a rule, wider than the 
 waking memory. Again, we have evidence in the many 
 striking manifestations of the “ post-hypnotic promise ” 
 that this hidden personality may exercise just such 
 a potent influence on the subject’s waking hours as 
 the hidden personality of the hystero-ansesthetic is pre¬ 
 sumed to exercise ; and the source of the influence 
 will be as completely hidden from the normal self 
 in the one case as in the other. It is a commonl- 
 place for the student of hypnotism that, within limits, 
 it is possible to guide a waking subject’s thoughts 
 and actions in blind obedience to a programme laid 
 down for him in a previous state of trance. He will 
 go the predestined journey, or make the pre-ordained 
 fatuous remark, and will not even suspect that his 
 thought ^and action have any other source than his 
 own free choice or the inspiration of the moment. 
 
16 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 You may even pervert his present perceptions or his 
 memory of the past. Such an one, in fulfilment of a 
 forgotten compact, \vill swear that his dwarf Japanese 
 maples are fig-trees, or will claim a past acquaintance, 
 substantiated by full details of time and place, with 
 a perfect stranger. 
 
 But the secondary personality in the case of 
 F^lida X. and the “ Misses Beauchamp ” is obviously the 
 product of pathologic conditions, whilst in the hypnotic 
 subject it seems probable that it is simply the result 
 of training. Apart from these special cases, and from 
 a few sporadic instances of latent fa;culty emerging 
 in dreams, or through planchette and the crystal, there 
 is scanty support for the assumption of a hidden 
 personality in man. There is little evidence, in other 
 words, that, in normal persons, there is below ,the 
 surface any sequence of memories or separate form 
 of consciousness, so far organised or so stable as to 
 deserve the name of a secondary personality ; and 
 there is still less evidence of interference with the 
 operations of the work-a-day self by any such sub¬ 
 terranean agencies. 
 
 To put it briefly, the manifestations of the secondary 
 consciousness, automatism, the subliminal self, or what¬ 
 ever else we choose to call it, so far as at present 
 ascertained, can be adequately explained up to a certain 
 point in terms of physiology. .We are apparently con¬ 
 cerned, in most cases, merely with the functioning of 
 lower cerebral centres, or the revivification of dormant 
 tracts of cerebral tissue ; possibly, in such cases as 
 F 61 ida X. and Ansel Bourne, with the setting up and 
 removal of inhibitory processes. Most of the facts 
 find a sufficient explanation in physiological terms— 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 17 
 
 except the fact of consciousness itself. But no con¬ 
 clusive results can be looked for by approaching the 
 problem exclusively from this side. For the physical 
 explanation is, of course, largely conjectural, and is 
 apt to fail us just when we need it most. Moreover, 
 it is Myers’ contention that the subterranean conscious¬ 
 ness contains psychical facts which are not also brain 
 facts—that is, psychical facts which have no correlates 
 in rwhat we know as the material world '; and it is 
 easier to appraise the evidence for the existence of 
 such psychical facts than to attempt to prove or dis¬ 
 prove the existence of any cerebral processes corre¬ 
 sponding with them. That is the point to which we 
 must now address our argument. 
 
 Argument in this region may, no doubt, be helped 
 by analogy. But the analogy must not be pressed 
 too much in detail. From this point of view Myers’ 
 own metaphor of the spectrum needs discreet handling. 
 The spectrum as we know it is but a segment of a 
 long series of waves, differing each from the other 
 only in amplitude. Between the first visible red ray, 
 or the last visible violet, and the nearest ray outside 
 the spectrum in each case, the physical difference is 
 expressible only in infinitesimal fractions of wave 
 length. There is nothing in external nature corre¬ 
 sponding with the difference, for the human observer, 
 between light and darkness. Light is merely the result 
 of the adaptation—the accidental adaptation, it may 
 be said—of certain wave lengths to the structure of 
 the human retina. Now, this metaphor of the spectrum 
 carries with it, almost inevitably, the implication that 
 the surface consciousness bears the same kind of 
 relation to the potential consciousness that the visible 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 spectrum does to the whole gamut of ethereal vibra¬ 
 tions—that, in other words, our actual consciousness 
 is an arbitrary selection, not corresponding with any 
 fundamental difference in the psychical elements of 
 which it is composed. The metaphor here ceases to 
 be a mere metaphor, and has leaped into the place 
 of a theory. If we are to argue by analogy, it is 
 safer to vary the illustration as much as possible, in 
 order to avoid the chance of being so misled. 
 
 The human mind, then, may be compared with a 
 house, of which consciousness serves as the reception- 
 room. At the stage of evolution which our hypo¬ 
 thetical dwelling has reached the single primitive apart¬ 
 ment, which served for eating, sleeping, and living 
 in, has disappeared, and separate rooms have been 
 assigned for these several functions. The furniture 
 of the kitchen and bedroom are useful, indispensable 
 indeed ; but they are no longer displayed for social 
 purposes. In such a house search in the attics or 
 the lumber-room might bring to light now and again 
 curious and antiquated things, some of them even 
 now good enough for the drawing-room. But groping 
 in the dust-bin after jewels would be likely to prove 
 unprofitable. And few houses contain a secret treasure- 
 chamber. The metq,phor is a homely one ; but it 
 will serve to suggest another aspect of the case. It 
 is to the kitchen and the dust-bin, more often than 
 to the treasure-chamber, that expeditions into the sub¬ 
 conscious lead the investigator. For what do we find 
 when we pass out from the reception-room of con¬ 
 sciousness? At the outset all parties are agreed. In 
 sleep, in the hypnotic trance, and in other sub-conscious 
 conditions we find much that is fragmentary and 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 19 
 
 chaotic—lapsed and rejected impressions which repre¬ 
 sent the mere debris of the waking life. We find 
 also definite enlargements of faculty. There is often 
 an exaltation of some particular sense ; there is very 
 generally a marked heightening of the pictorial 
 imagination, amounting frequently to genuine halluci¬ 
 nation. Further, the patient in the hypnotic trance 
 frequently acquires new powers over the organism. 
 The most familiar example of this is the condition of 
 insensibility to pain. But the organism can be influ¬ 
 enced in many other ways. The digestion and other 
 organic functions can be stimulated ; the circulation 
 can be directed and controlled, so that inflammations 
 may be reduced, or, in pathologic cases, sham tumours 
 and even stigmata may be formed. In particular, the 
 skin can be readily affected ; some of the most con¬ 
 spicuous triumphs of suggestion have consisted in the 
 cure of obstinate skin diseases. 
 
 In all this it is permissible to conjecture that we 
 are reverting to a more primitive stage of conscious¬ 
 ness, that we are regaining partial control over organic 
 processes which have long since escaped from the 
 guidance of civilised man. We have, in fact, pene¬ 
 trated to the kitchens. But there are other remarkable 
 powers occasionally associated with these sub-conscious 
 states, which are of more doubtful interpretation. 
 There is a curious power of what can best be described 
 as “ spatial memory,” an illustration of which was 
 quoted by Huxley some thirty years since, in a famous 
 article on Human Automatism. Huxley cited the case 
 of a soldier who had suffered some injury to the brain, 
 which induced occasional accesses of automatism. In 
 the automatic state he would write from dictation, 
 
20 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 without looking at the paper, and would be able to 
 correct what he had written, crossing the t’s and 
 dotting the i’s with perfect accuracy, though a sheet 
 of cardboard were interposed between his eyes and 
 the writing. Similar observations have been made on 
 hypnotic subjects by William James and others. The 
 power is possibly to be explained as a special develop¬ 
 ment of the muscular sense. 
 
 Again, there is a remarkable faculty of estimating 
 with laccuracy the lapse of time possessed by piany 
 hypnotic subjects. This may possibly be due in simpler 
 cases to a quickened perception in the trance state of 
 some organic rhythm. But such an explanation will 
 hardly apply to the remarkable observations recorded 
 by Dr. J. Milne Bramwell. Dr. Bramwell made a 
 number of experiments in giving a post-hypnotic 
 suggestion to be fulfilled after a considerable interval 
 —the interval being expressed in minutes, so as to 
 involve subliminal processes of calculation. Thus, to 
 take a single instance. Miss A. was told in the 
 hypnotic trance that, at the expiration of 11,470 
 minutes, wherever she might happen to' be, she should 
 make a cross on a piece of paper and note down the 
 exact time at which she did it. Miss A. had noi 
 recollection in the waking state of any such sugges¬ 
 tion being giventj nor was she even conscious, either 
 in the hypnotic or the normal state, of ever having 
 made the somewhat prolonged calculation required to 
 find out the actual time. Yet, out of fifty-five experi¬ 
 ments made with this one subject, forty-five were 
 completely successful.^ 
 
 I An account of the experiments will be found in Dr. 
 Bramwell’s “ Hypnotism ” (1903), pp. 119—34. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 21 
 
 It is difificult to suppose that this curious power is 
 merely the remains of a lost faculty, crowded out in 
 the struggle for life. Still more remarkable is the 
 case of the calculating boys, dealt with pretty fully 
 by Mr. Myers.• The power of extracting cube roots 
 and calculating logarithms at sight can at no period 
 have been a common endowment of the race. By 
 what strange freak of evolution does it then from time 
 to time make its appearance in children and unlettered 
 peasants? The fact should, at any rate, warn us that 
 we are not yet in a position to dogmatise on the 
 nature of sub-conscious mentation. 
 
 So far we have cited phenomena which, if not yet 
 sufficiently familiar to be included in scientific systems, 
 are yet coming to be tacitly accepted. But we now 
 approach yet more dubious matters. It is on the sup¬ 
 posed existence of a group of transcendental faculties 
 —telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and the like— 
 that Myers in the last analysis based his belief in the 
 soul’s immortality. It is hardly necessary to say that 
 these faculties have not yet been admitted to the rights 
 of citizenship in the republic of science, though one 
 of them has filed a petition of naturalisation. Let us 
 examine first the claims of this aspirant, telepathy. 
 
 Obviously there are two questions to be answered in 
 this connection. First, can one mind act upon another 
 without the intervention of the senses ? and, second, does 
 such a power, if it exists, point to a transcendental ex¬ 
 planation? Myers was quite clear on both points. Tele¬ 
 pathy does exist, and it is transcendental in its nature. 
 
 “ Believe though we may in the ultimate continuity of all 
 existence and operation, there is still a vast and sudden 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 79, seq. 
 
22 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 separation—unbridgeable at present by any hypothesis of 
 ethereal vibrations or the like—between the smallest act 
 of telepathic transmission and all that we have previously 
 known concerning matter and motion ... we have here 
 for mortal minds the Rubicon between the mechanical and 
 the spiritual conceptions of the Universe ” (i. 24). 
 
 Now, the main evidence for the operation of this 
 presumed faculty, of telepathy consists of experiments 
 in which the two parties to the transfer, the agent 
 and the percipient, were in the same room, or, at any 
 rate, within a few yards of each other. Many series 
 of successful experiments in the transference of ideas 
 and sensations have been conducted under these con¬ 
 ditions. The classic experiments of the kind are those 
 carried on in 1889 and 1890 by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, 
 with the assistance of the late Professor Sidgwick 
 and others. Some thousands of trials were made, and 
 a high degree of success was obtained in transferring 
 simple images, such as numerals, or even more com¬ 
 plicated pictures, from the mind of the agents. But 
 it was found that a slight increase in the distance 
 exercised a marked effect on the result. 
 
 These results accord with the experience of other 
 investigators. There have been a few isolated instances, 
 and a few short series of experiments, in which it is 
 claimed that definite ideas of numbers, objects, or 
 pictures have been telepathically transferred between 
 agent and percipient when separated by distances vary¬ 
 ing from hundreds of yards to hundreds of miles. 
 But when we remember the habitual inaccuracy of 
 untrained investigators, and the various sources of error 
 in experiments of this kind, together with the practical 
 certainty that the successes reported, even if recorded 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 23 
 
 with perfect accuracy, bear but an infinitesimal pro¬ 
 portion to the unrecorded failures, it is impossible to 
 assign much weight to these sporadic instances of 
 “ thought-transference at a distance.” The only 
 series of experiments at a distance comparable—by 
 reason of the competence of the observers, the care 
 with which the trials were conducted, and the precision 
 of the results—with the Brighton experiments of Mrs. 
 Sidgwick are the experiments carried on at Havre in 
 1885 and 1886 by Dr. Gibert and Professor Janet. 
 The subject was Madame B.—better known to the 
 world at large through her later experiences as 
 “ E^onie ’’ ; the distance varied from a quarter of a 
 mile to a mile ; the effect aimed at was the induction 
 of the hypnotic trance. A fair amount of success 
 was obtained ; and the results certainly go some way 
 to prove that telepathic influence can, under favourable 
 circumstances, operate over a considerable interval of 
 space. But, even if we admit that the result was not 
 due to unconscious expectation on the part of the per¬ 
 cipient, we have still something very different from 
 the transfer at close quarters of a complex visual or 
 auditory image. 
 
 In some recent experiments undertaken by Miss 
 Clarissa Miles and Miss Gwendolen Ramsden the agent 
 and percipient were separated by a much greater 
 distance, varying from twenty to three hundred miles 
 or more ; and there appears to be evidence of the 
 transmission of such complex images as portions of 
 a building and real scenes. The experiments were 
 conducted and recorded with care, each lady writing 
 down her experience on a postcard despatched on the 
 day of the experiment. And the correspondence 
 
24 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 between the impressions of the two parties was in 
 many cases fairly precise Moreover, as shown 
 in a later chapter, there are some instances 
 of “ cross-correspondence ” between the scripts of 
 various automatists, which appear to involve telepathy 
 over a distance measured by thousands of miles. But 
 this recent evidence, however good of its kind, is hardly 
 yet sufficient in bulk wholly to overthrow, though it 
 may be admitted to weaken, the presumption derived 
 from the Brighton experiments. In his recent work, 
 “ The Survival of Man ”—the only authoritative pro¬ 
 nouncement on the evidence as a whole since Myers’ 
 book—Sir Oliver Lodge recognises that the experi¬ 
 mental evidence is not yet sufficient to substantiate 
 the non-physical nature of telepathy.® 
 
 Arguing from experimental results alone, then, we 
 are not yet justified in claiming a transcendental origin 
 for telepathy, even if we admit it as a fact in nature. 
 There are presumed to be molecular disturbances in 
 brain-tissue corresponding with each act of thought ; 
 there may be ethereal vibrations set up by these various 
 changes, which may bring about corresponding changes 
 in brains somehow attuned. The prejudicial effect 
 on the results of even a slight increase of distance 
 suggests a physical explanation on some such lines 
 as these. It would be quite in harmony with a physical 
 explanation that, whilst the shallow and strictly 
 localised vibrations corresponding with an image 
 summoned up ad hoc [(a playing-card or number pr 
 
 • See the accounts of these recent experiments in Pro¬ 
 ceedings S.P.R., vol, xxi. pp. 60, seg. ; and Journal S P-R- 
 for June, 1908. 
 
 2 Op. cit., p. 116. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 25 
 
 diagram) should be rapidly extinguished as the distance 
 increases, the more massive and deep-seated vibra¬ 
 tions corresponding with the agent’s conception of his 
 own personality should make their influence more 
 widely felt. And there, if we had only the experimental 
 evidence, the matter would end. 
 
 But another large class of phenomena has been 
 subsumed under the category of telepathy, a class of 
 which the common stories of apparitions at the time 
 of death may be taken as the type. The distance here 
 appears to be immaterial ; the percipient and the dying 
 man may be separated by the whole diameter of the 
 earth. Now, “we may be justifled—speaking for myself, 
 I think we are justifled—in attempting to correlate 
 these phenomena with those. But we are bound to 
 recognise, in the first place, that we are dealing with 
 evidence of a very different quality. The evidence 
 for thought-transference at close quarters is experi¬ 
 mental ; and the experiments have been conducted by 
 such competent investigators as Mrs. Sidgwick, Edmund 
 Gurney, Professor ,W. F. Barrett, Sir Oliver Bodge, 
 Pierre Janet, Charles Richet, and others of like calibre. 
 Yet, even so, it is still a claimant for scientific recog¬ 
 nition. But the evidence for apparitions at death 
 depends upon observation, and upon the observation 
 of untrained, often of ignorant and credulous, witnesses ; 
 there are very few contemporary records, and the 
 evidence is subject to all the defects of observation, 
 memory, and narration in persons unused to observe 
 or describe with accuracy. Moreover, the emotions 
 are so deeply engaged that accurate accounts are in 
 many cases hardly to be looked for. .Whilst, there¬ 
 fore, the attempt to correlate the two classes of pheno- 
 
26 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 mena is perhaps legitimate, we can hardly be justified 
 in making the spontaneous phenomena the basis of a 
 theory of telepathy. 
 
 On the naturalistic view, the apparitions of the dying, 
 if they really do occur, and are not altogether to be 
 explained by unconscious perversion of testimony, are 
 simply telepathically induced hallucinations. What is 
 transferred from the mind of the dying man to the 
 percipient is, on this view, just a vague, massive feeling 
 of the agent’s personality—that and nothing more. The 
 vibrations started by this feeling (for it has in it, ex 
 hypothesi, more of emotional than of intellectual 
 quality), impinging on the percipient’s brain, give rise 
 to the idea of his friend, which is thereupon clothed 
 in hallucinatory form. Briefly, the apparition seen is 
 purely subjective ; it is only the impulse which caused 
 it to be projected which can claim a source external 
 to the percipient’s mind. If it is thought inconceivable 
 that a primitive massive feeling of that kind should 
 have power to penetrate to so: great a distance-, the 
 alternative is, not to subvert our theory of telepathy, 
 but to leave apparitions of the dying on one side. 
 Considered by themselves, they hardly carry weight 
 enough to count ; it is only because of their pre¬ 
 sumed kinship with the manifestations of experimental 
 telepathy that they have any claim to be heard at all. 
 
 Myers’ ovra procedure is the precise reverse of that 
 above indicated. In building up his theory he starts 
 with the more sensational and more dubious phenomena, 
 and works backwards to those which are simpler and 
 better attested. Consider the following passage : 
 
 “ In this world of vibrations it may seem at first the 
 simplest plan to invoke a vibration the more. But in the 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 27 
 
 case of telepathy the analogy which suggests this explana¬ 
 tion, the obvious likeness between the picture emitted (so 
 to say) by the agent and the picture received by the 
 percipient—as when I fix my mind on the two of diamonds, 
 and he sees a mental picture of that card—goes but a very 
 short way. One has very soon to begin assuming that the 
 percipient’s mind modifies the picture despatched from the 
 agent ; until the likeness between the two pictures becomes 
 quite a symbolical affair. We have seen that there is a 
 continuous transition from experimental to spontaneous tele¬ 
 pathy ; from our transferred picture of a card to monition 
 of a friend’s death at a distance. Mere monitions may 
 indeed be pictures of the dying friend ; but they are seldom 
 such pictures as the decedent’s brain seems likely to project 
 in the form in which they reach the percipient. Mr. L. 
 —to take a well-known case in our collection—dies of heart 
 disease when in the act of lying down undressed in bed. 
 At or about the same moment Mr. N. J. S. sees Mr. L. 
 standing beside him with a cheerful air, dressed for walking 
 and with a cane in his hand. One does not see how a 
 system of undulations could have transmuted the physical 
 facts in this way ” (i. 245). 
 
 How the vision of Mr. L\ is to be explained on 
 the naturalistic view I have already indicated. Myers’ 
 own explanation is, by the plain man, hardly to be 
 distinguished from the primitive conception of a ghost, 
 as a thing tangible and having form and parts prtd 
 magnitude ; though he himself would, I believe, have 
 repudiated the comparison. He supposed, at any rate, 
 that persons whose apparitions are thus rendered 
 visible have a “ psychorrhagic diathesis ”—that is, are 
 so constituted that some portion of the soul or psyche 
 may actually leave the body at moments of crisis, may 
 travel through space, and may make its presence visible 
 at a distant spot. In his own words : 
 
 “ I still believe—and more confidently than in 1886— 
 that a psychical invasion does take place ; that a 
 
28 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 phantasmo-genetic centre is actually established in the per¬ 
 cipient’s surroundings ; that some movement bearing some 
 relation to space as we know it is actually accomplished ; 
 and some presence is transferred, and may or may not be 
 discerned by the invaded person ” (i. 247). 
 
 This theory, as said, is founded on the least 
 authentic part of the evidence at hand. But, in fact, 
 out of a dubious and sensational class of phenomena, 
 Myers chose precisely the most sensational and most 
 dubious instances to form the foundation-stones of his 
 edifice. Apparitions at death, such as the case just 
 quoted—the momentary vision by a solitary percipient 
 of a dying man dressed as his friend w^as accustomed 
 to see him—belong to a fairly well established type. 
 Stories of this kind are sufficiently numerous and con¬ 
 gruent to command attention. It is not, however, on 
 such as these that the transcendental theory is based ; 
 but rather on sporadic cases of apparitions seen by 
 several persons at once ; of apparitions seen, not by 
 friends, but by uninterested strangers standing near ; 
 of the dying man and his friend reciprocally visiting 
 and seeing the other. If the whole class barely wins 
 recognition, what weight is to be attached to such 
 outlying and aberrant types, supported as they com¬ 
 monly are by evidence imperfect, scanty, and remote 
 in date? However honest the narrators, it is impossible 
 to attach much credence to details, especially to 
 melodramatic details, in narratives of this kind. 
 
 But if apparitions of the dying, and other kindred 
 phenomena, are only worth considering because of their 
 possible connection with experimental thought-trans¬ 
 ference, what is to be said of clairvoyance, precogni¬ 
 tion, retrocognition, and the other transcendental modes 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 29 
 
 of pefception? The evidence in these cases is very 
 much weaker. It is less in quantity ; it is inferior 
 in the accuracy of the records—there are only one or 
 two cases of prophecy, for instance, noted down before 
 the event ; the testimonies quoted are frequently vague 
 and often of ancient date ; and there is no experi¬ 
 mental evidence to support the claim. The last 
 statement, indeed, requires some qualification. There 
 is a good deal of testimony, in the works of the early 
 mesmerists, for what is called “ clairvoyance at close 
 quarters ”—the vision of objects enclosed in boxes, or 
 placed behind screens, and so on. It has been the 
 lot of the present writer to examine all the best avail¬ 
 able records of this kind ; to weigh the evidence, and 
 to find it in every case wanting. Sometimes the results 
 might be explained by thought-transference ; more 
 commonly they are, as in certain recent experiments 
 at which I have assisted, attributable to fraud on the 
 part of the percipient, or to a misconception (common 
 enough in the hypnotic trance) of the source frorb 
 which he obtained his information. In the classic case 
 of Major Buckley’s clairvoyants • there can be very 
 little doubt that the procedure was deliberately 
 fraudulent. So in the case of X -f Y = Z, quoted in 
 the same volume, there are the strongest grounds for, 
 attributing the alleged clairvoyance to trickery on the 
 part of a pathological secondary personality.2 
 
 In short, Myers’ argument is sound, and may ulti¬ 
 mately prove fruitful. But the data are at present 
 wholly insufficient, and hardly any fresh evidence of 
 these hypothetical powers of the imprisoned soul has 
 
 « Quoted by Myers, vol. i. 557, sei/., from the Zoist. 
 
 2 See a brief account of this case below. Book II. chap. i. 
 
30 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 been adduced since his death.^ In these lofty regions, 
 where we almost lose sight of terrestrial analogies, 
 we have no right to use the word “ impossible,” 
 perhaps not even the word ‘‘ improbable.” Let us 
 admit that it is wholly a question of evidence. But, 
 so far as the evidence at present goes, clairvoyance 
 and precognition are mere chimeras, and telepathy may 
 be no more than a vestigial faculty, to remind us, like 
 the prehensile powers of the newly-born infant, of a 
 time when man was in the making. 
 
 Myers’ great synthesis, therefore, remains alike in 
 its strength and weakness untouched since his death. 
 Within the last nine years, in fact, psychical research 
 has turned its energies in other directions—to the 
 physical phenomena, chiefly of Eusapia Palladino, and 
 to the trance revelations of Mrs. Piper and the sub¬ 
 conscious writings of a band of automatists, most of 
 whom owe their interest in the subject directly to the 
 influence of Myers himself. 
 
 • In his recent book, Sir Oliver Lodge devotes two 
 chapters to the evidence for clairvoyance and prevision. 
 But only one of the examples cited is new ; and most of 
 the cases grouped under Clairvoyance are explicable by 
 telepathy, or perhaps by even more familiar causes. 
 
The Newer Spiritualism 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM : DANIEL DUNGLAS HOME 
 
 The movement of modern spiritualism is by no means 
 dying out. The last decade, in fact, has been in some 
 respects more fruitful than any similar period in the 
 past, and has presented us with an entirely new set 
 of problems, of which the most confident critic can 
 scarcely yet claim to have found the solution. The 
 last ten years have been fruitful in two directions. 
 On the one hand, the belief in the physical phenomena 
 has received a powerful impetus from the feats of the 
 Italian medium Eusapia Palladino, who has won over 
 many scientific men to her allegiance. On the other 
 hand, there has been an altogether new and striking 
 development in the trance messages received through 
 Mrs. Piper and the writings of a new group of auto- 
 matists, ladies of culture, who have themselves taken 
 a leading part in investigating the remarkable messages 
 written by their unconscious hands. 
 
 Now, the ordinary unlearned spiritualist bases his 
 
 31 
 
32 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 belief in a spirit world on these two heterogeneous 
 groups of facts, the movement of tables and tambour¬ 
 ines in the dark and the messages received through 
 automatic writing or in trance. And, in fact, hetero¬ 
 geneous though they may seem, the unlearned 
 spiritualist is no doubt right in refusing to dissociate 
 the two classes of phenomenon. For they are con¬ 
 stantly associated in rerum naiura. This, in fact, is 
 the justification for their treatment side by side in 
 the present book. For the chief interest in the recent 
 automatic writings lies for most persons in the hope 
 which they hold out of bringing us into touch with a 
 world beyond the grave ; whilst few even of those 
 who believe in the genuineness of Eusapia’s feats are 
 now disposed to attribute them to the a'gency of spirits 
 disincarnate. But it is an historical fact that the 
 physical and the psychical manifestations have always 
 been closely associated together ; that the peculiar 
 physiological or psychical temperament which has pre¬ 
 disposed its possessor to automatic utterance has also 
 commonly predisposed him to move tables and play 
 on musical instruments in the dark. In the attempt, 
 therefore, to decipher the secret of these, it would 
 seem, still unexplained automatic messages, it is 
 essential that the student should first make himself 
 conversant with the so-called physical phenomena of 
 spiritualism. In the following chapters, in order to 
 attain something of the proper perspective, the dis¬ 
 cussion of Eusapia Palladino’s recent feats is prefaced 
 by a brief summary of the most important achievements 
 of physical mediumship in the past. For this purpose 
 I have selected the career of Daniel Dunglas Honie, 
 No well-informed spiritualist will deny that in Home 
 
THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 33 
 
 the case is presented at its best. No medium ever 
 performed more remarkable feats or before witnesses 
 so distinguished and so competent. Further, Home 
 stands alone amongst physical mediums in that he was 
 never exposed in fraudulent practices. 
 
 Daniel Dunglas Hume, or Home, as he later 
 preferred to spell his name, was, according to his 
 own account, born in Edinburgh in 1833. In one 
 of his autobiographical writings he claims descent 
 from the tenth Earl of Home ; but no proof is 
 offered for the statement. At an early period 
 of his life he was taken to America by an aunt, 
 and lived with' her until 1850. From that date 
 onwards he practised as a spirit medium, at first in 
 America, later mainly in England and on the Continent. 
 It does not appear that he ever accepted a definite 
 money payment for his stances. He was a man, from 
 the testimony of all who knew him, of great personal 
 charm. Mr. lOn Perdicaris, who knew him well in the 
 early part of his career both in America and in this 
 country, has described him to me as “ very vain of 
 his personal appearance, with a quite innocent and not 
 unpleasing vanity. Always pleasing manners—very 
 affectionate towards all—men, women, and children 
 alike.” Speaking at a meeting of the Society for 
 Psychical Research in 1894, Sir W. Crookes said : “ Tq 
 those who knew him Home was one of the most lovable 
 of men, and his perfect genuineness and uprightness 
 were beyond suspicion.” • 
 
 His chief characteristics seem to have been a child¬ 
 like spontaneity, gaiety, and frankness, and an over¬ 
 flowing warmth of affection for those around him. 
 
 ' Journal S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 345. 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 These qualities, together with the exercise of his 
 wonderful powers, secured him throughout his life the 
 friendship and patronage of many persons of wealth 
 and social distinction. He lived in their houses and 
 enjoyed their hospitality ; a circle of American friends 
 subscribed money to send him to Europe ; in this 
 country he lived with and on his spiritualist admirers ; 
 when funds were low he gave public recitations, and 
 his friends took tickets, or set up a studio, and his 
 friends gave him commissions ; he married succes¬ 
 sively two ladies with private fortunes. Mr. Perdicaris 
 provided at one period for the education of his youn;g 
 son ; at another time a salaried position as secretary 
 to a spiritualist society was founded for him by some 
 wealthy patrons. 
 
 Home’s life seems after childhood to have been 
 almost uniquely successful in the kind of success at 
 which he aimed. But there was one failure. Mrs. 
 Lyon was a wealthy widow who, in default of a natural 
 heir, professed her desire to adopt Daniel Home. As 
 earnest of greater benefactions to follow she pre¬ 
 sented him with the sum of £40,000, besides various 
 gifts, and Home in turn took the name of his adopted 
 parent. A few months later Mrs. Lyon changed her 
 intentions and desired to revoke her gifts. She 
 obtained a verdict in her favour, and the money had 
 to be returned. In giving judgment the Court appears 
 to have felt that, though no definite charge of fraud 
 or illicit influence could be proved against Home, there 
 was in the circumstances a strong presumption that Mrs. 
 Lyon’s gifts were not “ acts of pure volition uninfluenced.” 
 
 In this country Home gave stances to many persons 
 of distinction, amongst them Lord Brougham, Sir David 
 
THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 35 
 
 Brewster, Robert Owen, Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, T. A. 
 Trollope, and Dr, Garth Wilkinson. But the chief 
 English witnesses to his phenomena were, as will be 
 seen. Sir William Crookes, Lord Adare (the present 
 Earl of Dunraven), the Master of Lindsay (the present 
 Earl of Crawford), and Mr. H. D, Jencken. Home 
 was also a frequent visitor to the Continent ; he per¬ 
 formed on more than one occasion before the Emperor 
 and Empress at the Tuileries, before the Czar of 
 Russia, and many other royal and noble personages. 
 He first paid this country a brief visit in 1855; but 
 his most remarkable manifestations were given during 
 his more prolonged residence here from i860 to 1872 
 or thereabouts. 
 
 After the latter year, having shortly before married 
 his second wife, he retired into private life, broke 
 with most of his old friends, and finally died in 1886. 
 
 This brief sketch of Home’s life and character jis 
 necessary to a proper understanding of the phenomena 
 produced in his presence and through his agency. 
 During the period of his youth, when Home practised 
 as a spirit medium in America—from 1850 to 1855— 
 there were many other mediums producing apparently 
 similar phenomena and with apparently almost equal 
 success. If Home excelled them at all in public esti¬ 
 mation, it appears to have been due more to his social 
 qualities than to any other superiority of endowment. 
 The Fox Girls, Gordon, Cooley, Abby Warner, E. S. 
 Fowler, and other practitioners of that date could move 
 tables in the dark no less persuasively ; could dis¬ 
 course sounds to the ear of faith not less entrancing 
 on divers instruments of music ; could to the eye of 
 faith display spirit hands and faces not less convincing. 
 
36 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 It was on his second visit to this country, as already 
 said, that his powers appear to have reached their 
 maximum development. Mr. W. M. Wilkinson, a well- 
 known solicitor, gives an account of a typical stance 
 at that period : 
 
 “ . . . There were eight of us, all well known to me, and 
 some of them known wherever the English language is 
 spoken. We were in the drawing-room of a house in 
 Cornwall Terrace, Regent’s Park, and we sat round a large 
 loo-table and commenced talking. Curiously enough, one 
 having said that Professor Faraday was coming on the 
 following Monday to a stance, and speculating as to his 
 guardian spirit not allowing him to be easily convinced, 
 there were at once very loud knocks on the table in affirma¬ 
 tion of that proposition. I was sitting next to my wife, on 
 her right hand, and immediately afterwards I felt my left 
 leg gently touched, in a position where it was impossible 
 for Mr. Home to have reached it. There then began ,a 
 gentle but deep vibration of the table, chairs, and floor, 
 till all the room was shaking violently, during which the 
 table rose about ten inches, the trembling continuing all the 
 time. The table began to rise on the opposite side to where 
 Mr. Home was sitting, and it was clearly out of his power 
 to have so raised it. Mr. Home’s chair Was quietly moved 
 back, away from the table, about three feet ; and, whilst 
 there, the dresses of my wife and the lady next to her were 
 both pulled, and so strongly that I could see them dragging 
 down. I also felt my wife’s dress whilst being so pulled, 
 and there was a wonderful force expended in the act. At 
 this time Mr. Home was fully six feet off, and both from the 
 distance and from his being in full view, I could see that 
 it was done by no force of his. Mr. Home now held the 
 accordion in his right hand beside his chair, and it at once 
 began to play. He held it by the bottom, the keys being 
 on the top, and they were therefore out of his reach. It was 
 impossible that he could touch them. I carefully examined 
 the instrument, opening the slide beneath the keys, and I 
 found it to be a common instrument, with only the usual 
 mechanism of the keys. There was nothing inside it. 
 
THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 37 
 
 I looked steadily at it, and at the hand and fingers with 
 which he held it. There it was, being pulled up and down, 
 and discoursing sweet sounds, whilst his hand was stationary 
 and his fingers motionless. I could see above and beneath 
 the instrument, and there was no visible cause for its motion, 
 nor for the opening and shutting of the keys which caused 
 the music. When it ceased, my wife asked if it could not 
 be played in her hand, and immediately the instrument 
 emitted three sounds, which we took to mean that it would 
 have much pleasure in trying. It was accordingly given to 
 her, and, whilst she was holding it, she said she felt one 
 of her fingers being touched. Immediately afterwards the 
 table was raised about a foot steadily from the floor. As 
 there was no sound from the accordion in her hands, she 
 returned it to Mr. Home, but it was taken from his hand 
 immediately and given back to her, and, whilst in her right 
 hand, it began to play. She felt it distinctly lifted up and 
 drawn forcibly down, and she did not and could not touch 
 the keys, which, however, must necessarily be opened to 
 make a sound. In Mr. Home’s hands a beautiful tune was 
 now played, during which we heard what has been so often 
 described—the full notes gradually decreasing till they died 
 away into the thinnest streaks of sound. By three quickly 
 repeated notes it was promised that the instrument should 
 play the tune of the other evening, representing ‘ The Two 
 Lives,’ the one in this life, the other in that which follows. 
 The first, or this world’s life, was represented by discords, 
 grating painfully on the ear, and which I thought did but 
 scant justice to a world which, though capable of improve¬ 
 ment, still has some rich harmonies within its depths. In 
 mercy to our ears, the first life did not last long, and was 
 then succeeded by the second, which was made up of beau¬ 
 tiful, soft, angel music, such as I had never heard. It 
 played for several minutes, swelling into rich sounds, of 
 which the sweetness was enchanting to the ear, and gradually 
 changed into the dear tune of ‘ Home, sweet home.’ . . . 
 
 “ But now the table rises again a clear foot from the 
 floor, and there stands, not quietly, but strongly undulating, 
 still so that I was able to make the following note on my 
 paper resting on the table, whilst at its full height : ‘ Table 
 rose a foot. Count 10. I wrote this whilst up and undulat¬ 
 ing.’ It then gently descended to the floor again. We now 
 
38 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 changed places according to directions, and a gentleman 
 became my right-hand neighbour, who, in a minute after, 
 said that he saw a hand which he believed to be his son’s. 
 
 I did not see it, nor did I see three fingers which my 
 wife shortly after saw ; but, in answer to a question, I had 
 three taps on my knee as from a hand, still with no such 
 distinctness as to make me sure what it was. At this 
 time, several at once said they saw a light, cloudy appearance 
 dart across the room, but, being behind me, I saw nothing 
 of it. I 
 
 “ In one corner of the room, near where we were sitting, 
 was a shrine with several Indian idols of bronze. Suddenly 
 there was a commotion among them, and a crash, and a 
 large one was thrown down, and brought with some violence 
 and noise under the table. There it appeared as if it was 
 in the hands of some vigorous power ; and presently we 
 heard a jingling of some metallic substance against it, which 
 afterwards proved to be a metal ornamental canopy, which 
 had been unscrewed from the back of the idol, and with 
 which questions were now answered by knocking them to¬ 
 gether. In like manner, loud knocks were made in answer 
 to questions, by rattling the idol against the floor. A 
 remark was made as to the want of respect thus indicated, 
 and at once a number of jubilant raps were produced by 
 again knocking the two parts of the idol together. Two or 
 three times the idol appeared, pushing up inside of the 
 table-cloth, and twice it made its appearance naked above 
 the table, and gently reached the ground again. Some 
 flowers were brought from the shrine, and placed in the 
 hand of each person present. Our present consisted of a 
 rose and several pinks. I felt the rose placed in my hand 
 under the table, all other hands being, visible and on the 
 table. 
 
 “ Several times during the evening we all perceived a 
 cool air pervading the table, and which it was impossible 
 not to notice. The accordion was now placed on the floor, 
 and all hands on the table, when it was heard to sound 
 clearly several times, but no tune was played. It then 
 tried to get from the floor to the table, but was not able 
 to accomplish the whole journey, and fell gently back to the 
 floor. The table was now again raised clear from the 
 ground, both my feet being on its pediment, and pressing 
 
THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 39 
 
 heavily downwards the whole time. The resistance and 
 upward, steady movement of the table were strangely curious, 
 as was its careful, quiet descent, my feet still pressing on 
 it, and yet it reached the ground without noise. There was 
 nov/ a general rattle among the idols, and several loud 
 knocks, and then came an end of a very interesting evening, 
 during which I had seen and heard what was sufficient to 
 convince me that those are wrong who deny the possibility 
 of these phenomena.” « , 
 
 This account is typical in all respects. This order 
 of phenomena was almost invariably observed at a 
 mixed seance. First came raps and knocks, then 
 vibrations of the table and room, levitation of the 
 table, touches on the hands and dress of the sitters 
 under the table, self-playing of the accordion—even 
 the tunes showed little variation. After the simpler 
 phenomena would follow, if the circumstances were 
 favourable, visible hands and arms, luminous appear¬ 
 ances, variously described as clouds, or hands, or even 
 heads, movements of various articles of furniture from 
 distant parts of the room up to the table in the vicinity 
 of the medium, a general distribution of flowers. 
 Sometimes, when the sitters were tried and trust¬ 
 worthy, still more remarkable phenomena occurred. 
 The polished table would be inclined at an angle of 
 450 or more, and all the articles on it—candlesticks, 
 paper, pencil—would retain their place ; or the person 
 of the medium would be elongated ; or he would be 
 carried bodily through the air above the heads of the 
 sitters, occasionally touching them as he passed ; or, 
 finally, he would plunge his hands into the fire, and 
 walk about the room carrying a piece of flaming coal. 
 
 We will consider the more striking phenomena later. 
 
 ‘ Spiritual Magazine, 1861, pp. 359—62. 
 
40 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 For the present let us again turn to Mr. Wilkinson’s 
 account. It is typical also of the mental attitude of 
 the sitters. It will be observed that Mr. Wilkinson 
 does not give the date and place of the sitting, or 
 the names of his fellow-witnesses, nor does he give 
 any details as to the general arrangements. He does 
 not tell us the relative position of the sitters ; he 
 does not say whether hands were held round the circle ; 
 he rarely mentions where the medium’s hands and feet 
 were ; he does not give the distance of the medium’s 
 chair from the objects moved. Above all, he does not 
 say how the room was lighted. 
 
 From the accounts of seances by other observers 
 we can gather, piecemeal, what were the usual arrange¬ 
 ments. Home selected—though careful to conceal the 
 selection—the sitters who sat next to him. His hands 
 and feet were not, as a rule, held or controlled in 
 any way. Nor, as a rule, do the sitters seem to have 
 joined hands round the table. The light during the 
 first part of the sitting, when the phenomena took 
 place beneath the table, was, as a^ rule, fairly good— 
 gaslight or several candles. Before the appearance 
 of hands, the movement of distant objects, and the 
 higher phenomena generally, the lights were generally 
 extinguished ; the room would then be lighted by fire¬ 
 light only, and very frequently the fire would be 
 screened, or damped down, and the shutters opened. 
 
 That there was little light in the room during the 
 latter part of the stance under consideration may be 
 inferred from the fact that a light, cloudy appear¬ 
 ance was seen to move across the room. The light 
 was probably turned out when the change of seats 
 was made. It would seem, further, that no precau- 
 
THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 41 
 
 tions were taken against trickery. This omission arose 
 directly from the mental attitude of the sitters. Mr. 
 Wilkinson, in this respect also typical, prefaces his 
 account with the following remarks : 
 
 “ I had several times seen, both in London and Paris, 
 direct writing by invisible power, on paper placed beyond 
 mortal contact, and I was well convinced also of the alleged 
 power of mediums to float in the air, by having had one 
 come down on my chest, as well as having on other occa¬ 
 sions had hold of his hand, whilst he floated about the room. 
 I did not therefore, on this evening, care to disturb myself 
 and others by taking those precautions which would have 
 been necessary if I were the President of the Royal Society, 
 and were about to make a conclusive report to that illustrious 
 body of inquirers into physics. I did not doubt, but I sat, 
 and saw, and heard, and felt, and made notes.” 
 
 Arid in the middle of the stance, after the playing 
 of “ Home, sweet home,” he breaks off his account 
 to comment : 
 
 ‘‘ What more appropriate and happy view of the second 
 life could be given in musical sounds than this of its being 
 home ; and what a sweet sermon on the relative value 
 of the two lives I I believe it was received more solemnly, 
 and yet more thankfully, by all who were present, from 
 our knowing of the sickness ‘ even unto death ’ of one of 
 the party, the youngest and the happiest in her bright 
 longings for this second life. It would be almost blasphemy 
 to ask in her presence what is the good of spiritualism. 
 Such a question would not occur to a good man, and could 
 not be asked by a wise one. The mere man of science, who 
 measures human souls by mathematics, would be out of 
 place in such a scene, and had I not been too happily 
 engaged with my own thoughts, I should have felt glad 
 that we were troubled with none such.” 
 
 This attitude towards the subject is to us of the 
 present generation hardly conceivable. But it was the 
 
42 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 general attitude of the inquirers in the decade 1860- 
 1870. A great wave of exalted emotion, partly re¬ 
 ligious, partly arising from the personal affections, 
 swept through the sdance-room; ; the gospel of 
 spiritualism carried men away from their, footing on 
 the solid earth. The whole psychological environment 
 was such as we now associate with a revival meeting. 
 This result was due primarily, not to the puerile feats 
 which we have just considered, but to the messages 
 of love and consolation purporting to come from the 
 dead. Fifty years ago little was known of subcon¬ 
 scious mental action, and all such messages coming 
 through automatic writing, or from the lips of entranced 
 mediums, were apt to be taken at their face yalue, 
 as genuine voices from a world beyond the grave. 
 Often, very often, there was no trickery at all in the 
 matter. The seeker became the prey of his own fond 
 imaginings, the dupe of the self below the threshold. 
 The impressions thus produced in private were 
 strengthened tenfold by the outpourings of the seance- 
 room. Cunningly phrased spirit messages were part 
 of the stock-in-trade of all the tribe. But Home out- 
 topped them all to such an extent that we are often' 
 compelled to wonder whether he really could, on 
 occasion, read the minds of his sitters, as Mrs. Piper 
 appears to do now. Of course Home, moving in his 
 ordinary life as an intimate friend of the persons to 
 whom he gave his seances, had exceptional opportunities 
 of acquiring useful information. But the knowledge 
 which his trance messages appear occasionally to show 
 of the private affairs of his sitters is certainly 
 very remarkable. Unfortunately, the problem cannot 
 now be solved—we have not the whole data before us. 
 
THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 43 
 
 But Home in particular enhanced the effect of these 
 intimate personal messages by the display of what 
 passed for, and perhaps was—for who can read the 
 riddle of another’s mind?—genuine religious feeling. 
 Amongst intimate friends the physical marvels of his 
 seances were constantly interspersed with sermons. 
 
 He published in the Spiritual Magazine an account 
 of a beautiful vision of heaven and purple-tinted clouds 
 which had been vouchsafed to him. The late Lord 
 Dunraven was profoundly impressed by Home’s rever¬ 
 ential attitude to the name of Christ, and describes 
 some of Home’s trance utterances as very touching and 
 beautiful. Home’s “ control ” frequently gave, through 
 his mouth, spiritual counsel and exhortations to his 
 young friends. The names of God, the angels, heaven 
 were continually on his lips when sitting in the darkened 
 seance-room. Here is an extract from a letter written 
 in 1855 by Home himself to the Hartford Times 
 (U.S.A.), in which he describes the effect produced by 
 a seance on Mr. T. A. Trollope : 
 
 “ When at length the light did beam upon his soul, and 
 the chords of his spirit vibrated in unison with the celestial 
 harmonies that ushered in the birth of faith through the 
 shadows of his old unbelief, the result was too much for his 
 stoicism, and the tears of holy joy coursed down his manly 
 cheeks. It was an impressive scene, and an occasion of 
 deep interest. There are many such in the life of a spirit 
 medium.” 
 
 The reader will perhaps think that the thing here is 
 a little overdone. But the letter was written at the 
 outset of the medium’s career, for the benefit of a 
 comparatively uncultured audience. His later utter¬ 
 ances reflected the polish of the social circles in which 
 he moved. 
 
44 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 Set down in cold print the business must seem 
 inconceivably nauseous. And to some contempo¬ 
 raries, as to Robert Browning, for instance, it so 
 appeared at the time. But Browning was a rare ex¬ 
 ception, or Home’s enemies were mostly inarticulate. 
 And if Home were merely playing a part, he played 
 it as no man ever played before. Alexander of 
 Abonoteichos Was not worthy to black his boots ; 
 Cagliostro, the Count St. Germain, and Madame 
 Blavatsky seem but ’prentice hands. He was an artist, 
 in the common phrase, to the tips of those delicate, 
 all too capable fingers. Passionately fond qf music, 
 and a passable performer, an admirable reciter of 
 poetry—he earned his living, as already said, for some 
 time by giving public readings—a sculptor—at least, 
 he set up a studio, and his friends bought his busts— 
 and a charming social companion, Home won and re¬ 
 tained the personal affection and esteem of all those 
 with whom he came into intimate relations, from Lord 
 Adare and Sir William Crookes to Mr. Cox, of Cox’s 
 Hotel, in Jermyn Street. 
 
 Under the circumstances it is not to be wondered 
 at that Home was never convicted of trickery. He 
 could, of course, in his capacity as distinguished guest, 
 not only select his sitters, but appoint their place at 
 the table, and the ladies who were usually chosen to 
 sit on either side of him would as soon have suspected 
 their own husbands or sons. In any case, there was at 
 this time little risk of public exposure. The time of 
 dirty muslin, spirit lamps, and false beards had not 
 yet come. The practitioners of the period used little 
 apparatus, preferring to rely for their effects on their 
 own deftness of hand and foot, helped by the imagina- 
 
THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 45 
 
 tion of their clients. Home was certainly no exception 
 to this rule. With two possible exceptions, to be dis¬ 
 cussed later, it would seem that he used no adventitious 
 aids in any of his feats. 
 
 Robert Browning was convinced that Home was an 
 impostor, and gave characteristic expression to his con¬ 
 viction. But there is no direct evidence that he ever 
 proved that Home cheated, though he formed a decided 
 opinion, after witnessing a single performance, “ that 
 the whole display of hands, spirit utterances, &C., was 
 a cheat and imposture.” * 
 
 The only direct evidence of imposture which I have 
 come across is in a letter from Mr. Merrifield, who 
 wrote in August, 1855, an account, from which the 
 following extract is taken, of a sitting held with Home 
 the previous month. New moon occurred on July 14, 
 1855, and, as the moon had already set, the date of 
 the sitting would probably be not later than the i8th, 
 a time when the last faint traces of daylight would 
 still be lingering in the sky even at eleven p.m. There 
 had been a sitting earlier in the evening, at which 
 the usual phenomena—movements of table, playing of 
 accordion, and plucking of dresses—had occurred ; 
 
 “ . . . Just as we were on the point of taking our leave, 
 the medium professed his willingness to give us another 
 sitting. Accordingly, we took our places at the side of the 
 table, the medium occupying the extreme right, and a 
 constant associate of his sitting opposite to him. I sat 
 nearly half-way between them, and therefore facing the 
 windows. The table was circular, and the semicircle nearest 
 the window was unoccupied. The lights were removed, and 
 very soon the operations began. It was about eleven 
 
 ‘ See letter from Robert Browning, published in the Times 
 of November 28, 1902. 
 
46 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 o’clock ; the moon had set, but the night was starlight, 
 and we could well see the outline of the windows and 
 distinguish, though not with accuracy of outline, the form 
 of any large object intervening before them. The medium 
 sat as low as possible in his low seat. His hands and arms 
 were under the table. He talked freely, encouraging con¬ 
 versation, and seeming uneasy when it flagged. After a 
 few preliminary raps somebody exclaimed that the ‘ spirit 
 hand ’ had appeared, and the next moment an object, 
 resembling a child’s hand with a long, wide sleeve attached 
 to it, appeared before the light. This occurred several 
 times. The object appeared mainly at one or other of two 
 separate distances from the medium. One of these distances 
 was just that of his foot, the other that of his outstretched 
 hand ; and when the object receded or approached, I noticed 
 that the medium’s body or shoulder sank or rose in his 
 chair accordingly. This was pretty conclusive to myself 
 and the friend who accompanied me ; but afterwards, upon 
 the invitation of one of the dupes present, the ‘ spirit hand ’ 
 rose so high that we saw the whole connection between the 
 medium’s shoulder and arm, and the ‘ spirit hand ’ dressed 
 out on the end of his own.” > 
 
 No doubt Mr. Merrifield saw what really took place. 
 But his account in itself carries no more weight than 
 that of the rest of the spectators, who “ saw ” spirit 
 hands. It is valuable, however, as showing that Home 
 did not succeed in hoodwinking all his sitters. 
 
 But Home’s manifestations did not altogether escape 
 the challenge of science. More than fifteen years 
 after the seance last recorded Sir Wi. Crookes under¬ 
 took a prolonged investigation of the subject of 
 spiritualism. Notes of some stances with Home were 
 published in the Proceedings of the Society for 
 Psychical Research in 1889.2 The circle, which met 
 round a table, was formed of Sir Wi. Crookes and his 
 
 > Journal S.P.R., May, 1903, pp. 77, 78. 
 
 2 Proceedings S.P.R. vol. vi. pp. 98—127. 
 
THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 47 
 
 personal friends. ,With the exception of two partial 
 levitations of the medium, and the fire-test, to which 
 reference will be made later, the phenomena observed 
 were the ordinary feats—levitation of the table, self¬ 
 playing of accordion, luminous hands, &c .—and the 
 conditions, except for the higher qualifications of the 
 observers, were similar to those already described. It 
 is difficult to feel sure that trickery if practised would 
 have been detected, especially as Sir Wl. Crookes him¬ 
 self was never permitted to sit next to the medium, 
 and as his attention was further distracted by having 
 to take notes. A few movements of objects are, how¬ 
 ever, recorded which are difficult to explain, unless 
 we suppose that a thread was employed. 
 
 Thus, on June 21, 1871, the light being appa¬ 
 rently sufficient, but not more than sufficient, to admit 
 of the indicator of the spring balance being read, a 
 message was spelled out by the table : 
 
 “ Hands off the table, and all joined.” We therefore sat 
 as directed. 
 
 “ Just in front of Mr. Home, and on the table,-was a thin 
 wooden lath 23J inches long, 1| inches wide, and f inch 
 thick, covered with white paper. It was plainly visible to us 
 all, and was one foot from the edge of the table. Presently 
 the end of the lath, pointing towards Mr. Walter Crookes, 
 rose up in the air to the height of about ten inches. The 
 other end then rose up to a height of about five inches, 
 and the lath then floated about for more than a minute 
 in this position suspended in the air, with no visible means 
 of support. It moved sideways and waved gently up and 
 down, just like a piece of wood on the top of small waves 
 of the sea. The lower end then gently sank till it touched 
 the table, and the other end followed. 
 
 ‘‘ Whilst we were speaking about this wonderful exhibition 
 of force, the lath began to move again, and, rising up as 
 it did at first, it waved about in a somewhat similar manner. 
 
48 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 The startling novelty of the movement having now worn 
 off, we were all enabled to follow its motions with more 
 accuracy. Mr. Home was sitting away from the table, at 
 least three feet from the lath, all this time ; he was 
 apparently quite motionless, and his hands were tightly 
 grasped, his right by Mrs. Walter Crookes and his left by 
 Mrs. William Crookes. Any movement by his feet was 
 impossible, as, owing to the large cage being under the 
 table, his legs were not able to be put beneath, but were 
 visible to those on each side of him. All the others had 
 hold of hands.” 
 
 The sitters had changed their seats immediately before 
 this performance, which would have given Home the 
 opportunity for attaching a thread ; the dim light and 
 the injunction to join hands removed any risk of detec¬ 
 tion during the performance ; and the immediate 
 breaking up of the stance at the conclusion of the 
 movement would have afforded Home the opportunity 
 to remove the thread. 
 
 But Sir W. Crookes was not contented with |mere 
 observation under conditions which were so clearly 
 favourable to fraud. In July, 1871, he published in 
 the Quarterly Journal of Science an account * of an 
 investigation carried out under more rigorous condi¬ 
 tions at his own house, with Sir Wiilliam Huggins, 
 Serjeant Cox, Mr. Walter Crookes, and Mr. Williams, 
 chemical assistant, as the witnesses. 
 
 Sir William Crookes had prepared for the occasion 
 a cylinder, about two feet in diameter, constructed of 
 upright laths fastened at either end to a wooden hoop', 
 and crossed by horizontal strands of insulated copper 
 wire. The wire was then tied together by vertical! 
 lines of string, knotted at the points of junction, the 
 
 > Afterwards reprinted with other articles, under the title 
 ‘‘ Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism,” 1874. 
 
THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 49 
 
 whole forming a network with meshes about two inches 
 by one. The cylinder, which was one foot ten inches 
 high, would just fit under the dining-table, but would 
 not allow of the insertion of a hand. A new accordion 
 had been purchased for the occasion. Home sat at 
 the table, with his feet on either side of the wire 
 cylinder, which was placed under the table. Sir iWi. 
 Crookes sat on his left hand, and another observer 
 on his right, each with a foot on one of Home’s feet. 
 One of Home’s hands was placed on the table, in 
 full view, with the other he grasped the accordion by 
 the bottom, leaving the keyed end to hang downwards. 
 The cage was partly withdrawn from under the 
 table, to permit of the insertion of Home’s hand, still 
 holding the accordion the cage was then pushed under 
 the table as far as Home’s arm would permit it to go. 
 Under these conditions the accordion was seen to move, 
 and then played at first a few notes, and afterwards a 
 simple air. The assistant, who went under the table 
 for the purpose, reported that under these conditions 
 he could see the instrument expanding and contracting. 
 Home then removed his hand altogether from the 
 accordion, and left it suspended, with no apparent 
 attachment, in the cage under the table, no person 
 being near it, and Home’s hand being held by the 
 person next to him. The instrument under these con¬ 
 ditions continued to play, and Sir William and two 
 others saw it “ floating about ” inside the cage with 
 no visible support. Home then again grasped the 
 accordion, and while it was playing in his hand Sir 
 William grasped Home’s arm below the elbow, and 
 felt no movement of muscles. 
 
 It seems clear that,, even if the observers had relaxed 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 their control, the cylindrical wire cage must have 
 effectually prevented the co-operation of Home’s feet, 
 or his free hand, in this experiment and at first 
 reading the thing ipay well seem inexplicable by fraud. 
 But [(i) though the room is said to have been lighted 
 by gas the degree of illumination is not stated, nor 
 the position of the table and the investigators, and of 
 Home himself, with reference to the source of light ; 
 (2) the accordion was seen to be expanding and con¬ 
 tracting when Home’s hand held it. It is reported 
 only as floating about (? swaying) when Home’s hand 
 was altogether removed ; and the accordion, as will 
 be seen, played only in the partial obscurity afforded 
 by the table. I know, indeed, of no instance in which 
 it is recorded as playing in a good light. All that 
 is described here is consistent with the supposition 
 that the accordion never played at all, but that the 
 sounds heard proceeded from an automatic instrument 
 concealed about Home’s person, actuated by pressure. 
 There is evidence that Madame Blavatsky used an 
 instrument of this kind to produce her “ astral bells.” 
 I am not aware of any good evidence that the keys 
 were ever seen to move ; and any conjurer in a light 
 of his own choosing could make the instrument con¬ 
 tract and expand, whilst he held it, by a loop of 
 strong thread. If Home contrived—as we see that 
 he did contrive—to put his hand again on the accordion 
 before it was removed from the cage, there would be 
 no risk that the attachment which he had presumably 
 fixed underneath the table to support the accordion 
 would be detected. The risk was extremely small in 
 any case. Home, an honoured guest, displaying his 
 maryellous powers for the satisfaction of some persopal 
 
THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 51 
 
 friends, was easily master of the situation. It is 
 argued that there could have been “ no machinery, 
 apparatus, or contrivance of any sort ” secreted about 
 Home’s person, because. Sir W. Crookes having called 
 at Home’s apartments to fetch him for the experiments, 
 the medium actually changed his dress in Sir William’s 
 presence. But what was there to prevent Home’s 
 slipping into the pocket of his overcoat a small musical 
 box, a loop of black silk, and a hook with a sharp 
 end? No further “ apparatus ” would be required. 
 
 Another experiment made on the same occasion and 
 before the same observers presents us at first sight 
 with a more difficult problem. The apparatus employed 
 is thus described : 
 
 “ In another part of the room an apparatus was fitted 
 up for experimenting on the alteration in the weight of 
 a body. It consisted of a mahogany board 36 inches long 
 by inches wide and 1 inch thick. At each end a strip of 
 mahogany 1^ inches wide was screwed on, forming feet. 
 One end of the board rested on a firm table, whilst the 
 other end was supported by a spring balance hanging from 
 a substantial tripod stand. The balance was fitted with 
 a self-registering index, in such a manner that it would 
 record the maximum weight indicated by the pointer. The 
 apparatus was adjusted so that the mahogany board was 
 horizontal, its foot resting flat on the support. In this 
 position its weight was 3 lbs., as marked by the pointer of 
 the balance. 
 
 “ Before Mr. Home entered the room the apparatus had 
 been arranged in position, and he had not even the object 
 of some parts explained before sitting down.” > 
 
 • But if this particular piece of apparatus was new to 
 Mr. Home, the general plan of the experiments was not, 
 for Sir William tells us, in another part of his article 
 (p. 17), that he had ” for some time past been making 
 similar experiments ” with Home. 
 
52 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 When, after the experiments with an accordion, 
 attention was turned to the apparatus, Mr. Home 
 placed his fingers lightly upon the extreme end of the 
 mahogany board farthest from the balance. Dr. 
 Huggins and Sir W. Crookes sitting one on each side 
 and watching ; under these conditions the index of 
 the balance moved several times, the greatest down- 
 M'^ard pull registered being 6 lbs. It was particularly 
 noticed. Sir Wi. Crookes tells us, that Home’s fingers 
 were not at any time advanced more than inches from 
 the extreme end of the board—that is, not outside the 
 point of support—so that it was physically impossible 
 for lany pressure of his fingers to have produced the 
 downward movements of the board shown by the index. 
 Moreover, “ his feet as well as his hands were closely 
 guarded by all in the room.” 
 
 Sir William Crookes then stood on one foot on the 
 end of the board where Home’s fingers had rested, and 
 the (Whole weight of his body (140 lbs.) so applied 
 only depressed the index i| to 2 lbs. when he jerked it 
 up and down. It would seem, then, that Home’s fingers 
 exerted thrice the force of the whole of Sir William’s 
 body, and that without perceptible effort on his part. 
 
 The publication of these results provoked pro¬ 
 longed and acrimonious discussion in the scientific 
 world, the echoes of which have hardly yet died down. 
 But none of the scientific critics pointed to the real 
 weakness of the evidence. The weakness consists in 
 this : that Home, a practised conjurer, as the past 
 record of himself and his fellows entitles us to assume, 
 dictated the conditions of the experiment. He did 
 this, not in any crude or obvious way, but simply by 
 declining to allow the capricious force of which he was 
 
THE OLDER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 53 
 
 master to operate until the conditions were to his 
 liking, or, in Sir William’s own words : 
 
 “ the experiments I have tried have been very numerous, 
 but owing to our imperfect knowledge of the conditions 
 which favour or oppose the manifestations of this force, to 
 the apparently capricious manner in which it is exerted, 
 and to the fact that Mr. Home himself is subject to 
 unaccountable ebbs and flows of the force, it has but 
 seldom happened that a result obtained on one occasion 
 could be subsequently confirmed and tested with apparatus 
 specially contrived for the purpose.” ' 
 
 Put shortly, this means that Home, by the simple 
 device of doing nothing when the conditions were un¬ 
 favourable, could ensure that the light (gas—the degree 
 of illumination not stated) was such and so placed, the 
 apparatus so contrived, and the sitters so disposed as 
 to suit his purpose ; further, that in the actual experi¬ 
 ment the attention of the sitters—all of whom, as we 
 are expressly told, guarded his feet and hands—should 
 be concentrated on the wrong points. That, of 
 course, is part of the conjurer’s art, and Home had 
 this inestimable advantage over the ordinary conjurer, 
 that he could fail as often as he chose without discredit. 
 
 No doubt Home arranged that the light should be 
 lowered, and that the apparatus should be in shadow. 
 In some further experiments with the same apparatus 
 made a few weeks later, the circle being at Sir 
 William Crookes’ house, we are told that at the first 
 trial the light was by Home’s order lowered to such 
 a point “ that there was scarcely light enough to see 
 the board and index move.” 2 The movement was 
 
 ' “ Researches in Spiritualism,” p. 110. 
 
 2 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 110. It was a little 
 later in the same stance, after the light had been increased, 
 that the movements of the lath occurred. 
 
54 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 probably effected by means of a loop of black silk, 
 which would be invisible in the obscurity, passed over 
 the distal end of the board and attached at the other 
 end to some part of Home’s person. The curious 
 movements of the lath already referred to, and the 
 seldom attested, and therefore probably risky, pheno¬ 
 menon of the inclined table with its self-supporting 
 candlesticks, were possibly worked by similar means. 
 A thread or hair, as we shall see later, is known to bei 
 used by other mediums, and its use involves little risk 
 of detection if the attention of the witnesses, as would 
 certainly have been the case in the balance experiment, 
 can be diverted from' the point of attachment. 
 
 It seems possible, then, to explain the great bulk 
 of the marvels recorded of Home by a combination of 
 trickery on the one side and unconscious misinterpreta¬ 
 tion on the other. But it is not easy to understand 
 how the investigators of a generation ago could have 
 been deceived, and repeatedly deceived, by devices so 
 crude as those here suggested ; and if we find ourselves 
 unable to accept their testimony, we are guided to 
 an adverse decision, not so much perhaps by the defects 
 which have beeh demonstrated in the particular evidence 
 here presented as by our realisation of the psychological 
 environment in which these feats were performed, and 
 by the general presumption against the operation of 
 the supposed new physical energy which inevitably 
 follows from an analysis of the cognate evidence accu- 
 piulated down to the present day. Even so, there 
 remain a few manifestations witnessed in Home’s 
 presence which the hypothesis of simple trickery does 
 not seem to fit. The chief of these marvels—levita¬ 
 tion, elongation, and the fire ordeal—will be dealt with 
 in the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 
 
 The feats described in the last chapter, with a 
 single exception, were part of the ordinary reper¬ 
 tory of the spirit medium then atid latef. Home 
 was perhaps more successful in rapping, moving 
 tables, exhibiting spirit hands, and distributing 
 flowers than Mrs. Marshall or any of his American 
 colleagues who thronged to our hospitable island 
 at this time, but only as one conjurer is more 
 successful than another. These feats required no 
 apparatus and involved, in the peculiar psychological 
 environment, little risk of miscarriage or exposure. 
 The one manifestation which appears to have been 
 peculiar to Home has been described above at some 
 length, and the explanation suggested. Other mediums 
 performed, in the dark, on musical instruments of many 
 kinds. Home appears to have been the only prac¬ 
 titioner of the period who could play—or. could produce 
 the impression of playing—an accordion held by one 
 hand with the keys downward, and that with tho room 
 sufficiently lighted for the outlines of the instrument 
 and the supporting hand to be seen. 
 
 But the phenomena now to be considered stand on 
 a different footing. Home, indeed, was not the only 
 medium of the period to be levitated, and other 
 instances of elongation and the fire-test are on record. 
 
 5S 
 
56 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 But if we may judge by the accounts that have come 
 down to us, Home certainly carried these feats to a 
 greater pitch of perfection than his rivals, and ex¬ 
 hibited them with greater frequency and with a happier 
 audacity. In none of these performances, again, does 
 the explanation lie so near the surface as in the petty 
 chicanery already described. We cannot attempt to 
 explain the records of levitation and the fire-test with¬ 
 out taking into account the psychological conditions ; 
 and let us suppose the spectators to be as suggestible 
 as we will, a few of the incidents reported still remain 
 unexplained—though logic, it need hardly be said, does 
 not require us therefore to conclude them inexplicable. 
 
 Home’s levitations were of two kinds, the partial 
 and the complete. Of the partial levitations, in which 
 he was seen elevated at most a foot or two above the 
 ground, we have but few records. It was a less effec¬ 
 tive manifestation, and would be more likely on that 
 account to escape record. Here is one description 
 quoted from an account dated January, i86i, by Mr. 
 John Jones, whose name is familiar in the literature 
 of the period as one of the most recklessly credulous 
 believers. The incident took place in a drawing-room, 
 lighted originally by a good fire and three gas-burners. 
 After the ordinary display of minor phenomena, the 
 account proceeds : 
 
 “Two of the three gas lights were now put out, and the 
 fire, burning brightly, gave a subdued light in the room. 
 Mr. Home then became cataleptic in his hands and arms ; 
 he was raised from his seat till he stood upright, and then 
 he rose vertically till he was a foot above the floor, his head 
 level with the chandelier ; this was repeated twice, but he 
 did not rise higher.” ’ 
 
 ’ Spiritual Magazine, 1861, p. 69. 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 57 
 
 Home rarely permitted so much light during a per¬ 
 formance of this kind ; but no doubt he knew with 
 whom he had to deal. It will be observed that Mr. 
 Jones gives no details as to Home’s position or 
 his own. 
 
 Sir William Crookes, in a speech delivered at a 
 meeting of the Society for Psychical Research in 1894,^ 
 thus describes some of the levitations of Home which 
 he had witnessed : 
 
 “ On another occasion I was invited to come to him, 
 when he rose eighteen inches off the ground, and I passed 
 my hands under his feet, round him, and over his head 
 when he was in the air. 
 
 “ On several occasions Home and the chair on which he 
 was sitting at the table rose off the ground. It was generally 
 done very deliberately, and Home sometimes tucked up his 
 feet on the chair, and held up his hands in view of all of 
 us. On such an occasion I have got down and seen and 
 felt that all four legs were off the ground at the same 
 time, Home’s feet being on the chair.” 
 
 Sir William on this occasion was apparently speak¬ 
 ing from memory. His published notes of stances 
 with Home 2 include no case in which he had the oppor¬ 
 tunity of observing the phenomenon of levitation under 
 such favourable conditions. He records only two 
 instances at which he was present ; 
 
 On July 30, 1871, shortly after the gas had been 
 turned out and spirit lamps [i.e., lamps burning spirit] 
 substituted : 
 
 ‘‘ Mr. Home walked to the open space in the room between 
 Mr. I.’s chair and the sideboard, and stood there quite 
 upright and quiet. He then said, ‘ I’m rising. I’m rising,’ 
 
 ' Journal S.P.R., November, 1894, p. 342. 
 2 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. 
 
58 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 when we all saw him rise from the ground slowly to a 
 height of about six inches, remain there for about ten 
 seconds, and then slowly descend. From my position I could 
 not see his feet, but I distinctly saw his head, projected 
 against the opposite wall, rise up, and Mr. Walter .Crookes, 
 who was sitting near where Mr. Home was, said that his 
 feet were in the air. There was no stool or other thing 
 near which could have aided him. Moreover, the movement 
 was a continuous glide upwards.” 
 
 On April 21, 1872, after some playing Of the 
 accordion, 
 
 a message was given : 
 
 “ Try less light.” 
 
 The handkerchief moved about along the floor, visible to all. 
 
 Mr. Home nearly disappeared under the table in a curious 
 attitude ; then he was (still in his chair) wheeled out from 
 under the table still in the same attitude, his feet out 
 in front off the ground. He was then sitting almost hori¬ 
 zontally, his shoulders resting on his chair. 
 
 He asked Mrs. Wr. Crookes to remove the chair from 
 under him, as it was not supporting him. He was then seen 
 to be sitting in the air, supported by nothing visible. 
 
 Then Mr. Home rested the extreme top of his head on 
 a chair, and his feet on the sofa. He said he felt supported 
 in the middle very comfortably. The chair then moved away 
 of its own accord, and Mr. Home rested flat over the floor 
 behind Mrs. Wr. Crookes. 
 
 On the first occasion the performance took place 
 on the opposite side of the room from where Sir 
 William Crookes was sitting, and he was separated 
 from the medium by the whole length of the dining¬ 
 room. On the second occasion the circle sat at a 
 round table, Mrs. D. between Sif William and the 
 medium. Mrs. Walter Crookes, behind whom the levita¬ 
 tion took place, was seated on the farther side. On 
 each occasion the light had been lowered shortly before 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 59 
 
 the performance. Sir William Crookes, it will be re¬ 
 membered, doubled the part of observer and note- 
 taker. Under these conditions the feat can hardly 
 be considered an impressive one. 
 
 Of the complete levitation of the medium we have 
 numerous accounts. The phenomenon is, in fact, one of 
 the most fully attested of all spiritualist marvels. As 
 already said, it was not peculiar to Home. So early 
 as 1851—three years after the outbreak of the Rochester 
 rappings—we hear of an American medium called 
 Gordon being taken up in the air by spirit hands. 
 From Mr. Isaac Rehn, President of the Harmonial 
 Society of Philadelphia, we have an account, written 
 in 1855, of a similar performance, with the same 
 medium. The incident is said to have taken place 
 “ some two years since.” 
 
 ‘‘ About the same time a company of persons, whose 
 names, as far as I can recollect, I shall mention, were 
 seated around two tables, joined together, in order to furnish 
 room sufficient to seat the party. The house in which I 
 then lived had two parlours, with folding doors. The two 
 tables referred to occupied the entire length of the front 
 parlour, leaving barely room enough for the chairs at the 
 front end of the room ; the other end of the table extended 
 quite to the folding doors, leaving, of course, no passage 
 on either end. It so happened that I was seated at the 
 end of the table projecting into the doorway. The medium, 
 Mr. Gordon, was seated about midway of the tables, on the 
 left, the other seats being occupied by the rest of the 
 company, '■''ti'll 
 
 “ After a variety of manifestations had occurred, the 
 medium was raised from his seat by an invisible power, 
 and, after some apparent resistance on his part, was carried 
 through the doorway between the parlours, directly over my 
 head, and his head being bumped along the ceiling, he 
 passed to the farther end of the back room, in which there 
 was no one beside himself. 
 
60 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 “ Although all the individuals present had not equally 
 good opportunity of ascertaining the facts in this case, 
 the room having been somewhat darkened, still, his transit 
 over the end of the table at which I was seated, and the 
 utter impossibility of the medium passing out in other way 
 than over our heads, his continued conversation while thus 
 suspended, and his position, as indicated by the sound, with 
 other facts in the case, leave no reasonable doubt of the 
 performance of the feat.” i 
 
 Mr. Rehn’s admission that the room was “ some¬ 
 what darkened ” is probably a severe under-statement 
 of the case ; for it will be noted that he does not 
 venture to appeal to the sense of sight for verification 
 of the miracle. 
 
 About the same time D. D. Hume (as he then 
 preferred to spell his name) was the protagonist of 
 a similar performance. 
 
 ” Suddenly, and without any expectation on the part of 
 the company, the medium, Mr. Hume, was taken up in the 
 air. I had hold of his hand at the time, and I felt of his 
 feet—they were lifted a foot from the floor. He palpitated 
 from head to foot with the contending emotions of joy and 
 fear, which choked his utterance. Again and again he was 
 taken from the floor, and the third time he was carried to 
 the ceiling of the apartment, with which his hands and feet 
 came in gentle contact. I felt the distance from the soles 
 of his boots to the floor, and it was nearly three feet. 
 Others touched his feet to satisfy themselves.” 
 
 The writer of this account does not think it neces¬ 
 sary to mention a fact, which we learn from a fuller 
 record of the same seance given elsewhere,^ that some 
 time previously to the supreme manifestation the com- 
 
 > Quoted by Hare, ‘‘ The Spirit Manifestations,” pp. 291, 
 292. 
 
 2 Quoted in Spicer’s ‘‘ Sights and Sounds,” pp. 129 
 and 268. 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 61 
 
 pany had adjourned to a darkened room, ostensibly that 
 they might see the “ spiritual flashes of light said 
 to have been vouchsafed to other investigators.” They 
 saw apparently nothing, but they heard plenty of raps, 
 and some of them felt Mr. Hume’s boots. 
 
 One of the earliest descriptions of the feat in this 
 country is to be found in an anonymous, but care¬ 
 fully written, account which appeared in the Spiritual 
 Magazine for June, i860. The writer records that 
 towards the end of the seance the lights, by direction 
 of the raps, were put out. It was then found that 
 the light issuing from the unshuttered window was 
 sufficient to enable those present ‘‘ to faintly see each 
 other.” After this the window blinds were partly pulled 
 down by an invisible hand, so as still further to deepen 
 the obscurity. The usual distribution of flowers then 
 took place. 
 
 ”... After a pause, Mr. Home said he felt as if he 
 were about to be lifted up ; he moved from the table, and 
 shortly he said, ‘ I am rising ’—but we could not see him— 
 ‘ they have put me on my back.’ I asked, ‘ Will you kindly 
 bring him, as much as possible, towards the window, so 
 that we may see him ? ’ And at once he was floated, with 
 his feet horizontally into the light of the window, so that 
 we all saw his feet and a part of his legs resting or floating 
 on the air like a feather, about six feet from the ground, 
 and three feet above the height of the table. He was 
 then floated into the dark, and he exclaimed, ‘ They have 
 turned me round, and I am coming towards you ! ’ I then 
 saw his head and face, the same height as before, and as 
 if floating on air instead of water. He then floated back, 
 and came down and walked up to and sat on the edge of 
 the table we were at, when the table began to rise with him 
 on it. He asked a lady to sit on the table, and perhaps the 
 spirits would take them both up ; the table moved a little 
 and then was still.” 
 
62 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 The writer then, at Mr. Home’s request, sat down 
 beside him on the ottoman. 
 
 “ . . . He took my hands, and in about a minute, and 
 without any muscular action, he gently floated away from 
 me and was lost in the darkness. He kept talking to let us 
 know where he was. We heard his voice in various parts 
 of the farther end of the room, as if near the ceiling. He 
 then cried out, ‘ Oh, they have brought me a cushion to sit 
 upon—I am sitting on it—they are taking it away.’ Just 
 then the tassel of the cushion of another ottoman in the 
 room struck me on my hair and forehead as if coming from 
 the ceiling, and the cushion was deposited at my feet 
 on the floor, falling as if a snowflake. I then saw the 
 shadow of his body on the mirror as he floated along near 
 the ceiling. He said, ‘ I wish I had a pencil to make a 
 mark on the ceiling. I have made a cross with my nail.’ 
 He came down near the door, and after a pause he was again 
 taken up ; but I did not see him, but heard his voice, as if 
 near the ceiling. Again he came down, and shortly returned 
 to the table we were at ; and the sounds on the table bade 
 us ‘ Good night.’ ” 
 
 A more highly decorated description of the same 
 feat pn another occasion is contained in an article 
 which appeared in the Cornhill Magazine for August, 
 i860, the writer being Robert Bell, the well-known 
 dramatist and critic. All the lights on this occasion 
 had been extinguished by the direction of the spirits, 
 and the room was illuminated only by occasional 
 flickers of a dying fire and by the faint grey light 
 which came through the unshuttered window. At this 
 stage, the writer says, 
 
 “ we could see, but scarcely distinguish, our hands upon the 
 table. A festoon of dull, gleaming forms round the circle 
 represented what we knew to be our hands. An occasional 
 ray from the window now and then revealed the hazy 
 surface of the white sheets [sc. of paper] and the misty 
 bulk of the accordion.” 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 63 
 
 But even this gloom was not sufficiently profound 
 for the spiritual requirements, and presently the window 
 blind was drawn down by an invisible hand, “ and the 
 rooiji was thrown into deeper darkness than before.” 
 Then the manifestations began. Hands were felt, and 
 a bell was rung. 
 
 ‘‘ Mr. Home was seated next the window. Through the 
 semi-darkness his head was dimly visible against the cur¬ 
 tains, and his hands might be seen in a faint white heap 
 before him. Presently he said, in a quiet voice, ‘ My chair 
 is moving—I am off the ground—don’t notice me—talk of 
 something else,’ or words to that effect. It was very 
 difficult to restrain the curiosity, not unmixed with a more 
 serious feeling, which these few words awakened ; but we 
 talked, incoherently enough, upon some indifferent topic. 
 I was sitting nearly opposite Mr. Home, and I saw his hands 
 disappear from the table, and his head vanish into the deep 
 shadow beyond. In a moment or two more he spoke again. 
 This time his voice was in the air above our heads. He 
 had risen from his chair to a height of four or five feet 
 from the ground. As he ascended higher he described his 
 position, which at first was perpendicular, and afterwards 
 became horizontal. He said he felt as if he had been 
 turned in the gentlest manner, as a child is turned in the 
 arms of a nurse. In a moment or two more, he told us 
 that he was going to pass across the window, against the 
 grey, silvery light of which he would be visible. We watched 
 in profound stillness, and saw his figure pass from one side 
 of the window to the other, feet foremost, lying horizontally 
 in the air. He spoke to us as he passed, and told us that 
 he would turn the reverse way, and recross the window, 
 which he did. His own tranquil confidence in the safety of 
 what seemed from below a situation of the most novel peril 
 gave confidence to everybody else ; but, with the strongest 
 nerves, it was impossible not to be conscious of a certain 
 sensation of fear and awe. He hovered round the circle 
 for several minutes, and passed, this time perpendicularly, 
 over our heads. I heard his voice behind me in the air, 
 and felt something lightly brush my chair. It was his 
 foot, which he gave me leave to touch. Turning to the spot 
 
64 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 where it was on the top of the chair, I placed my hand 
 gently upon it, when he uttered a cry of pain, and the foot 
 was withdrawn quickly, with a palpable shudder. It was 
 evidently not resting on the chair, but floating ; and it 
 sprang from the touch as a bird would. He now passed 
 over to the farthest extremity of the room, and we could 
 judge by his voice of the altitude and distance he had 
 attained. He had reached the ceiling, .upon which he made 
 a slight mark, and soon afterwards descended and resumed 
 his place at the table. An incident which occurred during 
 this aerial passage, and imparted a strange solemnity to it, 
 was that the accordion, which we supposed to be on the 
 ground under the window close to us, played a strain of 
 wild pathos in the air from the most distant corner of the 
 rootn.” 
 
 W. M. Wilkinson, as we have seen in the last 
 chapter, was convinced of the “ alleged power of 
 mediums to float in the air ” on the ground that one 
 had come down on his chest, and that he had held the 
 hand of another. 
 
 In neither of these last quoted cases, again, it will 
 be noted, is there any *serious appeal to the sense 
 of sight. The most that could be seen, in the care¬ 
 fully regulated gloom, is a dim silhouette representing 
 Home’s person, or part of his person, outlined against 
 the grey square of the window. But it probably was 
 not a square. The second account mentions the 
 curtains. But neither writer thinks it worth while to 
 tell ,us how far the curtains shrouded the window. 
 We are by no means called upon from these incom¬ 
 plete ,accounts to assume that the whole of Home’s 
 person was seen at once floating horizontally in the 
 air. From the first account, indeed, it seems quite 
 clear that this was not the case, and Robert Bell’s 
 phrase, “ we saw his figure pass,” probably represents 
 more of inference than of observation. We can solve 
 
LEVITATION AND THE EIRE ORDEAL 65 
 
 the problem without supposing, as one contemporary 
 newspaper critic suggested, that Home brought a 
 balloon with him into the seance-room. 
 
 But the most famous levitation is that which 
 occurred in December, 1868, at 5, Buckingham Gate, 
 in the presence of the Master of Lindsay (the present 
 Lord Crawford), Lord Adare (the present Earl of 
 Dunraven), and Captain Wynne. It was not the first 
 feat of the kind which the two former gentlemen had 
 witnessed. In his evidence before the Dialectical 
 Society on July 6, 1869, Lord Lindsay thus describes 
 a prior incident of this kind : 
 
 “ Home on one occasion was sitting next me ; in a few 
 minutes he said, ‘ Keep quiet ; I am going up.’ His foot 
 then came and touched my shoulder ; I then felt something 
 like velvet touch my cheek, and on looking up was surprised 
 to find that he had carried with him an arm-chair, which 
 he held out in his hand, and then floated round the room, 
 pushing the pictures out of their place as he passed round 
 the walls. They were far beyond the reach of a person 
 standing on the ground. The light was sufficient to enable 
 me to see clearly.” » 
 
 If, however, we turn to the contemporary account 
 of what is apparently the same seance, given in Lord 
 Adare’s “ Experiences in Spiritualism,” we find that 
 the room was ” nearly dark.” No artificial light is 
 mentioned ; the date of the sdance is not given ; it 
 appears to have taken place some time in November 
 or December, but there is no mention of a fire. The 
 window blind was drawn down. At an earlier stage 
 of the proceedings Home had also drawn the 
 curtains across the window ; and there is no mention 
 
 ‘ “ Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the 
 Dialectical Society,” p. 214. 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 of their being drawn back again. Lord Adare’s con¬ 
 temporary account of the incident at no point speaks 
 of seeing Home ; in fact, from the stress laid upon 
 contact with Home’s feet, &c., it would seem manifest 
 that he, at any rate, could not see clearly. 
 
 Rather than believe the miracle I prefer to believe 
 that Lord Lindsay was mistaken, and that in 
 describing the incident half a year later he based on 
 the sense of sight a conviction which at the time he 
 had based wholly on the senses of hearing and touch. 
 It is hardly necessary to point out that this is a not 
 imcommon form of memory illusion. 
 
 The more famous incident took place in December 
 of the same year, 1868, a week or two later than the 
 case just recorded. Mrs. Home ^ gives the date as the 
 16th of the month. But this date appears to be 
 founded on a misreading of Lord Adare’s account (the 
 only account known to the present writer in which any 
 date is given). His record is headed “Seance at 
 5, Buckingham Gate, .Wednesday, December i6th.’’ 
 But the report of the seance commences “ On .Sunday 
 last,’’ i e., December 13th. The exact date is a matter 
 of some interest, for a reason which will appear later .2 
 The fullest account is that of the Master of Lindsay. 
 In his evidence before the Dialectical Society he is 
 reported as saying : 
 
 “ I saw the levitations in Victoria Street when Home 
 floated out of the window. He first went into a trance, and 
 walked about uneasily ; he then went into the hall. While 
 he was away I heard a voice whisper in my ear, ‘ He will 
 go out of one window and in at another.’ I was alarmed 
 
 J “ Life of D. D. Home,’’ p. 299. 
 
 2 See Miss Johnson’s remarks on this point, Proceedings 
 S P R-, vol. xxi. p. 492. 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 67 
 
 and shocked at the idea of so dangerous an experiment. 
 
 I told the company what I had heard, and we then waited 
 for Home’s return. Shortly after he entered the room. I 
 heard the window go upj but I could not see it, for I sat 
 with my back to it. I, however, saw his shadow on the 
 opposite wall ; he went out of the window in a horizontal 
 position, and I saw him outside the other window (that in 
 the next room) floating in the air. It was eighty-five feet 
 from the ground.” « 
 
 In a letter written two years later he writes : 
 
 “ I was sitting with Mr. Home and Lord Adare, and a 
 cousin of his. During the sitting Mr. Home went into 
 a trance, and in that state was carried out of the window 
 in the room next to where we were, and was brought in at 
 our window. The distance between the windows was about 
 7 feet 6 inches, and there was not the slightest foot¬ 
 hold between them, nor was there more than a twelve-inch 
 projection to each window, which served as a ledge to put 
 flowers on. We heard the window in the next room lifted 
 up, and almost immediately after we saw Home floating 
 in the air outside our window. The moon was shining full 
 into the room ; my back was to the light, and I saw the 
 shadow on the wall of the window-sill, and Home’s feet 
 about six inches above it. He remained in this position 
 for a few seconds, then raised the window and glided into 
 the room, feet foremost, and sat down.” 
 
 Lord A'dare’s account of this incident is as follows : 
 
 “ We heard Home go into the next room, heard the 
 window thrown up, and presently Home appeared, standing 
 upright outside our window ; he opened the window and 
 walked in quite coolly.” 
 
 Lord Adare’s account appears to have been written 
 a few days after the incident. In February, 1877, 
 the third witness, Captain Wynne, gives his testimony, 
 in a letter to Home, as follows : “ The fact of your 
 
 « Report, p. 214. 
 
68 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 having gone out of one window and in at another I 
 can swear to.” 
 
 Here we have three separate accounts of what 
 purports to be the most stupendous marvel of modern 
 times. Let us examine each account separately. Lord 
 Lindsay was the chief spokesman, WJiat did he see 
 and hear? He heard a sound which suggested to him 
 that a window in the next room was being lifted up. 
 Subsequently, sitting with his back to the window, he 
 saw on the wall a shadow which he interpreted as 
 that of Home ‘‘ floating ” outside the window, opening 
 the window, and gliding into the room feet foremost. 
 Even if the outside illumination had been good, and 
 the shadows on the wall quite sharply defined. Lord 
 Lindsay’s testimony would amount to very little. 
 
 The shadows, we are given to understand, were 
 cast by the moon, and Lord Lindsay could not of 
 course determine from the shadow on which side of the 
 window Home was standing. At most, he could testify 
 that there was a space between Home’s feet and the 
 window-sill. But were the shadows sharply defined? 
 On reference to the almanack, it will be found that the 
 moon was new on December 13, 1868. A three-days- 
 old moon Xon the improbable assumption that the date 
 quoted by Mrs. Home was correct) would not have 
 afforded much light • a new moon is, of course, 
 invisible. The only light which came through the 
 window, it would seemj was that of the stars and the 
 diffused light from the streets of London, eighty-five 
 feet below.* Did this light enable Lord Lindsay to 
 see anything at all? 
 
 * Lord Adare states that the room was on the third floor. 
 Some one has blundered. Perhaps 85 is a misprint for 35 . 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 69 
 
 But we have two other first-hand accounts. What do 
 the other witnesses say? Captain Wynne, eight years 
 afterwards, says he can swear to the fact. Lord Adare 
 says : “ We heard the window open, and presently 
 
 Home appeared . . . outside the window.” Appeared 
 to whom? Lord Adare tells what he heard. Why 
 does he not tell us what he saw? Is it not a little 
 curious that two of the witnesses to this stupendous 
 marvel should be content to give so meagre an account, 
 without any details, and couched in such ambiguous 
 language? And is it not still more curious that the 
 task of describing the details should have been under¬ 
 taken by the one member of the party who from his 
 position could see nothing? If Lord Adare had really 
 seen the whole drama, is it likely he would have left 
 it to be told practically at second-hand? A comparison 
 of the three accounts, and the ambiguous wording of 
 the testimony given by Lord Adare and Captain Wynne, 
 suggest that possibly none of the witnesses had their 
 faces turned directly towards the window, and that 
 Lord Lindsay was the only qne of the three who made 
 the attempt to distinguish between what he saw and 
 what he inferred. For Lord Adare is not generally 
 chary of detail. He records much more fully an inci¬ 
 dent which took place immediately after, an incident 
 of which he was the only spectator : 
 
 At Home’s request he had shut the window in the 
 next room. On his return to the seance-room 
 
 “ I remarked that the window was not raised a foot, and 
 that I could not think how he [Home ] had managed 'to 
 squeeze through. He arose and said, ‘ Come and see.’ 
 I went with him ; he told me to open the window as it was 
 before. I did so ; he told me to stand a little distance 
 off ; he then went through the open space, head first, quite 
 
70 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 rapidly, his body being nearly horizontal and apparently 
 rigid. He came in again feet foremost, and we returned 
 to the other room. It was so dark I could not see clearly 
 how he was supported outside. He did not appear to grasp, 
 or rest upon, the balustrade, but rather to be swung out 
 and in. Outside each window is a small balcony or ledge 
 nineteen inches deep apparently, nineteen inches wide], 
 
 bounded by stone balustrades eighteen inches high.” 
 
 What really took place was probably somewhat ps 
 follows : Home had found in the three young Imen 
 specially suggestible witnesses. Of Captain Wynne, 
 indeed, we know little. But both Lord Lindsay and 
 Lord Adare had frequently seen in Home’s presence 
 shadowy forms and lights, some of which, at any rate, 
 were unquestionably hallucinatory. Home had pro¬ 
 phesied to the former gentleman, who was quartered 
 at the Tower, that he would have curious manifesta¬ 
 tions there from some of the dreadful spirits whoi 
 haunted the place. The prophecy was made on 
 November 20, 1868. A few days later, at the 
 beginning of the next recorded seance with Home, 
 Lord Lindsay reports that “ he had had strong mani¬ 
 festations that evening when alone.” ^ In the course 
 of the same seance occurred what seems to have been 
 a rehearsal of the miracle of December 13th : 
 
 ” The room was nearly dark. We had physical manifesta¬ 
 tions. Home went into a trance ; he walked about the room 
 for some time, arranging the light and talking to himself ; 
 he then opened the window, drawing the curtain, so that we 
 could see nothing but his head, and got outside the window. 
 This frightened us, and Lindsay wanted to stop him, but 
 did not. Presently he came back, and told us that we had 
 no faith whatever or we would not have been alarmed for 
 his safety.” 2 _ 
 
 ■ ‘‘ Experiences,” p. 77. 
 
 2 Lord Adare, in ” Experiences,” p. 77. 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 71 
 
 Later in the same sitting occurred the levitation 
 already referred to, in which Home brushed against 
 the pictures. The record of this seance '(of which, as 
 already said, the date is not given) immediately 
 precedes the record of the stance of December 13th. 
 
 It will be seen that Home on this occasion seems 
 to have begun preparing the minds of his sitters for 
 what they were to witness later. At the stance of 
 December 13th the same process was continued. Lord 
 Lindsay at the beginning of the sitting “ saw two spirits 
 on the sofa, and others in different places.” Various 
 deceased acquaintances—Adah Menken, little Dannie 
 Cox, and E.—held impressive communications through 
 the medium’s voice with those present. E.’s repentant 
 tears were so hot as to leave a red mark on Lord! 
 Adare’s hand—an incident curiously suggestive of a 
 mesmeric experiment. 
 
 ‘‘ Home then got up and walked about the room. He 
 was both elongated and raised in the air. He spoke in 
 a whisper, as though the spirits were arranging something. 
 He then said to us, ‘ Do not be afraid, and on no account 
 leave your places ’ ; and he went out into the passage. 
 Lindsay suddenly said, ‘ Oh, good heavens ! I know what he 
 is going to do ; it is too fearful.’ 
 
 ‘‘ Adare ; ‘ What is it? ’ 
 
 “ Lindsay : ‘ I cannot tell you ; it is too horrible ! Adah 
 [the spirit of the deceased actress Adah Menken ] says that 
 I must tell you ; he is going out of the window in the 
 other room, and coming in at this window.’ ” * 
 
 Immediately after these words there follow the three 
 lines descriptive of the levitation already quoted from 
 Lord Adare’s record. 
 
 What, no doubt, happened was that Home, having 
 
 > P. 82 . 
 
72 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 noisily opened the window in the next room, slipped 
 back under cover of the darkness into the stance- 
 room, got behind the curtains, opened the window, and 
 stepped on to the window-ledge. 
 
 Was ever drama so slenderly staged? Did ever 
 dramatist more cunningly excite the pity and terror 
 of his audience? Did ever audience lend themselves 
 more greedily to the melodramatic illusion? Did ever 
 miracle receive such casual attestation? » 
 
 The phenomenon of the elongation of various parts 
 of Home’s person, and of his whole body, is frequently 
 described in the years 1867-70. Some accounts 
 of the phenomenon certainly suggest that the appear¬ 
 ance of elongation may have been produced by quite 
 normal means, and imply less ingenuity on the part of 
 the medium than simplicity on the part of the 
 spectators. In a case of elongation of the hand 
 observed by Mr. H. D. Jencken in 1869 a tracing 
 is given of the right hand in its normal position, and 
 as elongated, the two outlines overlapping. The extra 
 elongation, in this case, of the thumb and index finger 
 is rather less than an inch ; in the remaining fingers 
 it slightly exceeds an inch. To secure that the hand 
 did not move the observer held his pencil pressed 
 against the trapezium bone of the wrist, i.e.y at the 
 point where the thumb joins the wrist. No other pre¬ 
 cautions are said to have been taken. So small a 
 difference in length would easily be produced if Home 
 at the outset had slightly flexed his fingers—the hand 
 
 * See the criticism of this famous seance by Miss Alice 
 Johnson {Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxi. pp. 490 — 97 ), to 
 whom I gladly acknowledge my indebtedness for the correc¬ 
 tion in the date of the stance, which had hitherto escaped 
 my observation, and for some additional points in the case. 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 73 
 
 rested palm downwards—so that they did not lie flat 
 on the paper throughout their length, and afterwards 
 extended them to their full length, at the same 
 time rotating the whole hand on the trapezium as a: 
 pivot. The tracing shows that, in fact, such a slight 
 rotation did take place, and in the direction required, 
 viz., to the left.* 
 
 The phenomenon on this occasion is said to have 
 taken place in a well-lighted room. Generally, how¬ 
 ever, the lights had been lowered before the manifesta¬ 
 tion took place, and the room was in partial obscurity. 
 General Boldero witnessed an incident of the kind on 
 February 4, 1870. His account was written on the 
 following day. After the seance, which took place in 
 a private house in Edinburgh, had been proceeding 
 for some time. Home summoned two ladies and General 
 Boldero to leave the circle and accompany him. They 
 went with him to the library— 
 
 “ The library opened on to the landing, where there was 
 a bright gaslight, but the room itself had no light. ... In 
 a few minutes Home went off into a trance. He got up and 
 walked about a little, and then came to me and took me by 
 the hand, saying, t Will you look at Dan’s feet and see that 
 he does not move them off the ground, and tell the others 
 to look at his head.’ I watched, and saw his whole body 
 elongated as much as nine inches or a foot. I went and 
 felt his feet, and found thefn on the ground. I must tell 
 you that he was standing where the light of the gas on 
 the landing fell upon him. It was an extraordinary sight. 
 He then said, ‘ Come here,’ so I went back to him. He 
 was still of prolonged stature. He took both my hands, 
 and placed them on each side of his waist, above the hips ; 
 there was a vacuum between his waistcoat and trousers. 
 
 ‘ Feel Dan, that you may be satisfied ’ ; and surely enough 
 
 “ Human Nature,” vol. iii. p. 140. 
 
74 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 he came back to his own size, and I could feel the flesh 
 shrink. He again was elongated, and I could feel his flesh 
 stretch and again shrink.” i 
 
 Here, if we take into account the nature of the 
 light, and the fact that the three witnesses had been 
 specially selected, no doubt for their suggestibility, we 
 shall scarcely find the incident as impressive as it 
 appeared to General Boldero. It is to be noted that 
 General Boldero did not feel the feet until he had 
 seen the elongation. There is no proof, therefore, 
 that the feet were flat on the ground when the elonga¬ 
 tion reached the extreme limit of nine inches or 
 more. 
 
 When H. D. Jencken was witness of an elongation 
 by the light of a candle held in Home’s hand he 
 estimated the increase in height at four inches only.^ 
 
 The Master of Lindsay was again fortunate in 
 witnessing an elongation of considerable extent by the 
 light of a candle. In his evidence before the 
 Dialectical Society he states : 
 
 “ On another occasion I saw Mr. Home, in a trance, 
 elongated eleven inches. I measured him standing up 
 against the wall, and marked the place. Not being satisfied 
 with that, I put him in the middle of the room and placed 
 a candle in front of him, so as to throw a shadow on the 
 wall, which I also marked. When he awoke I measured 
 him again in his natural size, both directly and by the 
 shadow, and the results were equal. I can swear that he 
 was not off the ground or standing on tiptoe, as I had full 
 view of his feet ; and, moreover, a gentleman present had 
 one of his feet placed over Home’s insteps, one hand on his 
 shoulder, and the other on his side where the false ribs 
 come near the hip-bone.” 
 
 ' Journal S.P.R., July, 1889, p. 125. 
 2 “ Human Nature,” vol. ii. p. 611. 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 75 
 
 Later, in answer to questions, Lord Lindsay supple¬ 
 mented his evidence as follows : 
 
 “ The top of the hip-bone and the short ribs separate. 
 In Home they were unusually close together. There was no 
 separation of the vertebras of the spine ; nor were the 
 elongations at all like those resulting from expanding the 
 chest with air ; the shoulders did not move. Home looked 
 as if he was pulled up by the neck ; the muscles seemed 
 in a state of tension. He stood firmly upright in the middle 
 of the room, and before the elongation commenced, I placed 
 my foot on his instep. I will swear he never moved his 
 heels from the ground. When Home was elongated against 
 the wall. Lord Adare placed his foot on Home’s instep, and I 
 marked the place on the wall. I once saw him elongated 
 horizontally on the ground ; Lord Adare was present. 
 Home seemed to grow at both ends, and pushed myself and 
 Adare away.” 
 
 I cannot identify in Lord Adare’s ‘‘ Experiences ” 
 any reference to the particular occasion referred to 
 by Lord Lindsay. But Mr. Hawkins Simpson has given 
 an account of an elongation at which he assisted Lord 
 Lindsay in testing the phenomenon.* If this was the 
 occasion referred to in the first of the extracts, the 
 accounts of the two witnesses differ in material points. 
 
 Several professional mediums, Herne, Morse, Peters, 
 are said also to have exhibited elongation of the body. 
 We have, as said, no contemporary account of the 
 manifestation in the case of Home which can be relied 
 on as giving an accurate description of what took place. 
 For Lord Lindsay’s account was written some time 
 after the incidents, and Lord Adare’s contemporary notes 
 are, on this particular phenomenon, so meagre as to 
 be of little value in elucidating the subject. Where, 
 as in the two cases already cited from H. D. Jencken, 
 
 ‘ Printed in Journal S.P.R. for July, 1889, p. 123. 
 
76 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 the light was good and the incident contemporaneously 
 recorded, no supernormal explanation would seem to 
 be required. The effect produced on the observers 
 is certainly remarkable, and the illusion, if illusion it 
 were, not easy to understand. But we have not the 
 necessary data for attempting an explanation. We can 
 only note that the phenomenon was vouchsafed to none 
 but a few specially selected witnesses. 
 
 Perhaps the most puzzling of all Home’s feats was 
 the fire-test. The evidence for this is fairly abundant, 
 and of good quality. In many cases, no doubt, we 
 can see how the results may have been effected by 
 normal means. Thus, to take an oft-quoted case, Mrs. 
 S. C. Hall, on July 5 , 1869 , gives the following account 
 of an incident which took place at a seance “ several 
 weeks ” previously. The seance was held in a back 
 drawing-room ; a fire was blazing in the large front 
 room. Home went into the front roqm. He poked 
 the fire, 
 
 “ held his hand over the fire for some time, and finally 
 drew out of the fire, with his hand, a huge lump of live, 
 burning coal, so large that he held it in both hands, as he 
 came from the fireplace in the large room into the smaller 
 room, where, seated round the round table, we were all 
 watching his movements. Mr. Hall was seated nearly oppo¬ 
 site to where I sat, and I saw Mr. Home, after standing 
 for about half a minute ' at the back of Mr. Hall’s chair, 
 deliberately place the lump of burning coal on his head. 
 I have often since wondered that I was not frightened. But 
 I was not ; I had perfect faith that he would not be injured. 
 Some one said, ‘Is it not hot?’ Mr. Hall answered, 
 ‘ Warm, but not hot.’ Mr. Home had moved a little away, 
 but returned, still in the trance. He smiled, and seemed 
 quite pleased, and then proceeded to draw up Mr. Hall’s 
 
 * Italics not in the original. 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 77 
 
 white hair over the red coal. The white hair had the 
 appearance of silver threads, over the red coal. Mr. Home 
 drew the hair into a sort of pyramid, the coal still showing 
 red beneath the hair ; then, after, I think, four or five 
 minutes,^ Mr. Home pushed the hair back, and, taking the 
 coal off Mr. Hall’s head, he said, addressing Mrs. Y., ‘Will 
 you have it ? ’ She drew back, and I heard him murmur, 
 ‘ Little faith.’ Two or three attempted to touch it, but it 
 burnt their fingers. I said, ‘ Daniel, bring it to me ; I do 
 not fear to take it.’ It was not red all over, but it was 
 still red in parts. I put out my right hand, but he mur¬ 
 mured, ‘ No, not that ; the other hand'.’ . . . He then placed 
 it in my left hand. I felt it warm, yet when I stooped down 
 to examine the coal, my face felt the heat so much that 
 I was obliged to withdraw it.” 2 
 
 The account is several weeks old, and has probably, 
 not lost in the telling. Yet, even as it stands, we can 
 see that any conjurer could have done as much. The 
 conjurer would have provided himself with a piece 
 of slag from the furnaces, a large cinder, or some other 
 good non-conductor, on which he would place the live 
 coal. He would wait—half a minute or so—until the 
 heat had sufficiently moderated before placing the cold 
 cinder and its burden on Mr. Hall’s head. That the 
 white hair was seen as white is sufficient proof that 
 the coal was not really, glowing red. Had that been 
 the case, any object that intercepted the glow would 
 have appeared black. The conjurer would then wait 
 four or five minutes, by which time the original lump 
 of coal would probably have cooled sufficiently to be 
 held in the hand without serious inconvenience. The 
 prepared cinder or slag would then be withdrawn, as 
 we may infer from the fact that Mrs. Hall held with- 
 
 ' Italics not in the original. 
 
 2 “ Experiences in Spiritualism,” by Lord Adare, p. 178. 
 
78 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 out difficulty in one hand what Home had held in two. 
 The two or three who were “ burnt ” were probably 
 burnt in their own imagination. 
 
 Sir William Crookes has recorded three instances of 
 the fire test. The first account is extracted from a 
 contemporary letter to Mrs. Honywood, describing a 
 seance which took place on April 28 , 1871 : 
 
 “ At Mr. Home’s request, whilst he was entranced, I went 
 with him to the fireplace in the back drawing-room. He 
 said, ‘ We want you to notice particularly what Dan is 
 doing.’ Accordingly, I stood close to the fire and stooped 
 down to it, when he put his hands in. 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. He then 
 said : ‘ The power is not strong on Dan’s hand, as we have 
 been influencing the handkerchief most. It is more difficult 
 to influence an inanimate body like that than living flesh, 
 so, as the circumstances were favourable, we thought we 
 would show you that we could prevent a red-hot coal from 
 burning a handkerchief. We will collect more power on the 
 handkerchief and repeat it before you. Now 1 ’ ” 
 
 “ Mr. Home then waved the handkerchief about in the air 
 two or three times, held it above his head, and then folded 
 it up and laid it on his hand like a cushion ; putting his 
 other hand into the fire, he took out a large lump of cinder, 
 red-hot at the lower part, and placed the red part on the 
 handkerchief. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have 
 been in a blaze. In about half a minute he took it off the 
 handkerchief with his hand, saying, ‘ As the power is not 
 strong, if we leave the coal longer it will burn.’ He then 
 put it on his hand and brought it to the table in the front 
 room, where all but myself had remained seated.” > 
 
 Again, a conjurer could do as much with a pre¬ 
 pared handkerchief. The waving of the handkerchief 
 in the air may have been the opportunity for substitu¬ 
 tion, if—what is not expressly stated—the handkerchief 
 ostensibly to be used had been previously inspected. 
 
 I Proceedings SiP^.R., vol. vi. pp. 103, 104. 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 79 
 
 The next case can be explained in the same way. 
 The account of the test is extracted from the detailed 
 notes of a seance which took place on May 9 , 1871 . 
 At the beginning of the sitting the room was lit by a 
 wood fire, somewhat dull, and by four candles. During 
 the fire test two of the candles were put out. After 
 passing his fingers slowly through a candle-flame, Home 
 took up 
 
 “ a fine cambric handkerchief belonging to Miss Douglas, 
 folded it up on his right hand, and went to the fire. Here 
 he threw off the bandage from his eyes, and, by means of 
 the tongs, lifted a piece of red-hot charcoal from the centre, 
 and deposited it on the folded cambric ; bringing it across 
 the room, he told us to put out the candle which was on 
 the table, knelt down close to Mrs. W. F., and spoke to her 
 about it in a low voice. Occasionally he fanned the coal 
 to a white heat with his breath. Coming a little farther 
 round the room, he spoke to Miss Douglas, saying, ‘ We 
 shall have to burn a very small hole in the handkerchief. 
 We have a reason for this, which you do not see.” Presently 
 he took the coal back to the fire and handed the handkerchief 
 to Miss Douglas. A small hole, about half an inch in 
 diameter, was burnt in the centre, and there were two small 
 points near it, but it was not even singed anywhere else. 
 (I took the handkerchief away with me, and, on testing it 
 in my laboratory, found that it had not undergone the 
 slightest chemical preparation which could have rendered 
 it fire-proof.) ” 
 
 The candle on the table had been blown out, by 
 Home’s desire, before he reached it, and we cannot 
 share Sir W. Crookes’ confidence that the handker¬ 
 chief on which, in the carefully prepared obscurity. 
 Miss Douglas saw the hot charcoal resting, was the 
 same handkerchief which he afterwards tested in his 
 laboratory. The re-substitution and the burning of 
 the original handkerchief could have been effected 
 when Home took the coal back to the fire. 
 
80 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 But the last instance described by Sir William 
 Crookes, which took place immediately after the 
 incident just given, seems, if accurately recorded, 
 beyond the possibilities of the conjurer’s art. 
 
 “ Mr. Home again went to the fire, and, after stirring the 
 hot coal about with his hand, took out a red-hot piece nearly 
 as big as an orange, and, putting it on his right hand, 
 covered it over with his left hand so as to almost completely 
 enclose it, and then blew into the small furnace thus extem¬ 
 porised until the lump of charcoal was nearly white-hot, 
 and then drew my attention to the lambent flame which was 
 flickering over the coal and licking round his fingers ; he 
 fell on his knees, looked up in a reverent manner, held up 
 the coal in front, and said: ‘ Is not God good? Are not 
 His laws wonderful?’” 
 
 Again, Lord Adare describes " a case in which Home, 
 “ kneeling down, placed his face right among the 
 burning coals, moving it about as though bathing it 
 in water.” Mrs. Honywood and Lord Lindsay, in a 
 joint communication to the Dialectical Society,^ describe 
 an occasion in which Home took a chimney from a 
 lighted lamp and thrust it into the red-hot coals, leaving 
 it there for four or five minutes. To test the heat he 
 then asked his hostess to apply a match to it—the 
 match instantly ignited. Home then thrust the 
 chimney into his mouth, applying his tongue to it. 
 Other descriptions almost equally marvellous will be 
 found in the literature of the period. 
 
 It is not easy to see how simple trickery could 
 explain some of the phenomena attested, such as the 
 last incident quoted from Sir Wt. Crookes’ contempo¬ 
 rary notes, or the elongation of Home’s person by 
 
 ■ ” Experiences,” p. 68. 
 
 2 ‘‘ Report of the Dialectical Society,” p. 361. 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 81 
 
 candlelight as described by the Master of Lindsay. 
 iWe almost seem to be driven, as Mr. Feilding and 
 his colleagues have suggested in their report on 
 Eusapia’s manifestations, to accept the alternatives of 
 a new force or a collective hallucination. 
 
 But “ hallucination ” has an alarming sound to 
 modern ears. Its original meaning is simply wander¬ 
 ing in mind, or dreaminess, what would technically 
 be called slight dissociation of consciousness. Sup¬ 
 pose, then, we substitute for “ hallucination ” a word 
 charged with less portentous significance, and say that 
 the choice lies between a new force and some form 
 of sense-deception. As regards the first alternative, it 
 may perhaps be admitted that a force which was 
 capable of depressing a balance, playing an accordion, 
 distributing flowers, and unscrewing the canopy of an 
 oriental idol, might conceivably be capable of carrying 
 a slenderly built man round the room. But it is a 
 little difficult to suppose that the same force could 
 stretch his bodily frame to the extent of a foot ,or 
 so, or could render not only his own skin but that 
 of his elected witnesses immune alike to the pain and 
 to the physical effects of fire. And if we add all 
 the other phenomena vouched for by competent 
 witnesses, including Sir W. Crookes himself, raps, 
 spirit lights, even semi-material mimicries of the com¬ 
 plete human form, we must suppose—that is, if we 
 allow ourselves to be guided by terrestrial analogies 
 at all—that we have to deal, not with one new force, 
 but with many. We are surely not justified in doing 
 more than casting a glance at such a possibility before 
 we have, at any rate, attempted to find a cheapef 
 solution elsewhere. 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 Now, hallucination has, as said, an alarming sound. 
 It suggests a blue dog, or the thronging apparitions 
 which burdened the life of Nicolai and the half- 
 mythical Mrs. A’. But, in fact, we are all of us con¬ 
 stantly experiencing minor hallucinations of one kind 
 or another. .What we see is not simply a reflection in 
 the brain of the picture painted on the retina. That 
 is merely the raw material which the brain has to 
 work up. The act of seeing is an intellectual process, 
 involving memory, comparison, reflection, and judg¬ 
 ment. Of course, in ordinary circumstances, and under 
 favourable conditions, the intellectual factor is re¬ 
 duced to a minimum, and the brain has little chance 
 of making a mistake—a hallucination, in fact. But 
 the intellectual or creative element is always there, 
 and shows itself when necessary. Two common 
 instances of sense-deception will illustrate its action. 
 It must have occurred to most of us occasionally to 
 see a simple geometrical pattern, on wall-papers, tiles, 
 or in a book on geometry, which could be interpreted 
 by the eye in two different ways as the representation 
 of two different solid objects. The brain chooses one 
 of two interpretations—that is, in the act of inter¬ 
 preting it adds to the data of sense. Here is another, 
 probably less familiar, illustration. Prick a small hole 
 in a postcard and look through it at a: lighted lamp. 
 You will see the lamp in its ordinary position. Now 
 between the eye and the pinhole insert a pin, head 
 upwards. You will see the monstrous image of 
 a pin /lead downwards. In fact, the image of the 
 lamp coming through the pinhole is inverted but the 
 brain knows that lighted lamps don’t occur upside down^ 
 and automatically corrects the image. But the image 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 83 
 
 of the pin is painted on the retina in the opposite 
 direction to that of the lamp, and the same intel¬ 
 lectual process which presented to our perception the 
 topsy-turvy lamp right side up necessarily presents the 
 upright pin topsy-turvy. 
 
 •When the data derived from the retina are scanty, 
 as in a bad light, the brain has a good deal of work 
 to do to fill in the picture, and frequently fills it in 
 incorrectly. We are all familiar with occasional mis¬ 
 carriages in this process of construction on too slender, 
 a basis— e.g., in walking through a w’ood on a dark 
 night. But sometimes the senses are presented with 
 data which are intentionally misleading. A conjurer 
 takes a ball in his hand and makes the motion of 
 throwing it across the stage. Almost simultaneously 
 is heard the sound as of the ball falling into a metal 
 bowl. How many brains correctly, interpret the sensory 
 data? I 
 
 Now, in all the cases before us we have these two 
 conditions favouring sense-deception—an imperfect 
 light and the intention on the part of the performer 
 to mislead. But in Home’s case, as is shown in the 
 last chapter, and in most cases of so-called spirit 
 manifestations, we have another factor, probably more 
 favourable than either of them—exaltation of the 
 emotions, especially the religious emotions. How 
 
 > Some further experiments on the psychology of con¬ 
 juring are much to be desired. Professor Jastrow (“ Fact 
 and Fable in Psychology ”) has a suggestive chapter on the 
 subject. He quotes an experiment made by Mr. Triplett, 
 in which, after several actual throws, the performer made 
 the gesture of throwing a ball into the air, but actually 
 kept it in his hands. Out of 165 children, 78 described 
 how they had seen the ball go up and disappear. 
 
84 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 powerful may be the effect of stimulating the religious 
 feelings can be seen in the innumerable miraculous 
 visions in the annals of the Church. A modern instance 
 will be found in the apparitions at Knock a genera¬ 
 tion ago. Another instance occurred at Remiremont, 
 in the Vosges, in 1907 . Owing to the risk of a riot 
 between the clerical and anti-clerical parties, the civic 
 authorities had thought it necessary to prohibit a 
 specially important religious procession in honour of 
 the local Madonna. A few days later, on May 26 th, 
 occurred a fall of large oval hailstones, in which more 
 than a hundred devout Catholics, men, women, and 
 children, declared on oath that they had recognised 
 images of the Madonna.^ 
 
 The last illustration furnishes, no doubt, an extreme 
 instance of what may fairly be called hallucination, 
 and suggests, what would naturally be inferred from 
 other considerations, that of the three factors indi¬ 
 cated as favourable, viz., insufficiency and uncertainty 
 of sensory data, deliberate false suggestion, and 
 emotional exaltation, the last is by far the most potent 
 in inducing sense-deception. 
 
 We find a possible illustration in an allied field. 
 We have numerous accounts of what are called Polter¬ 
 geist phenomena, in which naughty little girls surrep¬ 
 titiously throw stones, crockery, and miscellaneous 
 articles. Now, many of the witnesses in these cases 
 report that the things seemed to glide or hover through 
 the air—moving much more slowly than if they were 
 actually thrown. Now, we know in many cases, and we 
 
 * An account of the incident will be found in the 'Catholic 
 paper La Croix. The matter was investigated by M. Sage 
 in September, 1908. See his report in Proceedings S.p.R., 
 vol. xxi. p. 405. 
 
LEVITATION AND THE FIRE ORDEAL 85 
 
 may fairly infer in all cases, that the articles yrere 
 really thrown. We have seen the little girls in the 
 act of throwing them ; we have received confessions 
 that they have thrown them. This peculiar appear¬ 
 ance of moving slowly is consistent with the suppo¬ 
 sition that, in the excitement of the moment—and many 
 of the witnesses believed themselves to be seeing some¬ 
 thing supernatural—there was a slight dissociation of 
 consciousness, dreaminess, on the part of the spectators. 
 From observations on the gradual disintegration of 
 consciousness under anaesthetics we learn that one of 
 the first effects noticed is a disturbance of the kinses- 
 thetic sense, in consequence of which muscular move¬ 
 ments seem of much longer duration than they actually 
 are. We judge, of course, of the speed of external 
 movement mainly by the sensation of movement in 
 our own eye muscles in following the object from point 
 to point. A man in the early stages of chloroform or 
 haschisch intoxication would see a stone or a saucer 
 moving slowly through the air.i 
 
 Now, let us apply this modified theory of collective 
 sense-deception to Home’s performances. Personally 
 I find no difficulty whatever in explaining the whole 
 of the recorded feats of levitation, whether of Home, 
 Gordon, Eusapia, or Stainton Moses, as simply instances 
 of rather crude sense-deception in which the sensory 
 data played an extremely small part. All the favouring 
 conditions are present—a dim light, subtle suggestion 
 on the part of the medium, and a considerable degree 
 of emotional exaltation. But I find it more difficult 
 
 * See Elmer E. Jones’s article in the Psychological 
 Review (Baltimore, U.S.A.) for January, 1909 ; and Ernest 
 Dunbar, in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xix. p. 69, “ The 
 Action of Drugs on Consciousness.” 
 
86 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 to apply the explanation to the phenomenon of elonga¬ 
 tion. I cannot readily represent to my imagination the 
 mental processes by which two intelligent men holding 
 a lighted candle and taking special steps to correct 
 their measurements—even though these steps appear 
 to me not specially well devised—could have supposed 
 Home’s body to be abnormally lengthened, when he 
 was really, let us say, only standing on tiptoe and 
 stretching himself. But it must be remembered that 
 this manifestation was vouchsafed to very few witnesses, 
 and that two of these witnesses—the Master of Lindsay 
 and Lord Adare—were highly suggestible, and had fre¬ 
 quently seen in Home’s presence figures which can 
 hardly have been anything but hallucinations. 
 
 The difficulty is quite as great with the red-hot 
 coal performance. Some of the instances, indeed, as 
 shown, can be explained by simple sleight of hand. 
 And there are many parallels, or seeming parallels, to 
 be found in magical and religious ceremonies all the 
 world over ; the marvel depending, so far as the 
 reports of travellers will enable one to judge, partly 
 on endurance, partly on preparation of the skin by 
 drugs, most of all, perhaps, on skilfully staged illusion, 
 But the testimony to Home’s feats is abundant ; and 
 it is difficult to see how Sir W. Crookes, if in full 
 possession of his normal senses, could be mistaken 
 in describing the flames licking Home’s fingers. 
 
 iWe don’t quite see how some of the things were 
 done, and we leave the subject with an almost pain¬ 
 ful sense of bewilderment. But to say that because 
 we cannot understand some of the feats, therefore they 
 must have been due to spirits or psychic force, is 
 merely an opiate for the uneasiness of suspended 
 judgment, a refuge from the trouble of thinking. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 Concurrently with the retirement of Home into 
 private life shortly after his second marriage in 1871 , 
 the character of the spiritualist movement underwent 
 a subtle change. Home, as I have endeavoured to 
 show, relied for his success mainly upon the psycho¬ 
 logical atmosphere which he himself created. But he 
 found no worthy successor. Future performers were 
 for the most part of much coarser type, and less gifted 
 by nature. Whilst still employing the appeal to the 
 emotions and affections of the sitters, now somewhat 
 staled by frequent repetition, they relied mostly on 
 mechanical effects ; and the sitters—as the enthu¬ 
 siasm of the first two decades, the age of Robert 
 Chambers, William Howitt, the De Morgans, and the 
 Wilkinsons, died out—insisted on holding the medium’s 
 hands and introducing other precautions against fraud. 
 From 1870 to 1890 circles were mostly held in almost 
 complete darkness ; the sitters would hold the medium’s 
 hands and each other’s ; or if, as was frequently the 
 case from this point onwards, the medium sat in a 
 “ cabinet,” for materialisations, two of the sitters would 
 be appointed to tie him to his chair and take other 
 measures to prevent fraud. The supreme manifesta¬ 
 tion of this period was the materialisation, under such 
 
 87 
 
88 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 conditions, of the human form. But this was also 
 the era of slate-writing and spirit photography. The 
 annals of spiritualism, hitherto happily vacant, were 
 now diversified by frequent exposures of fraud—the 
 exhibition of stuffed spirit hands, mediums masque¬ 
 rading in dirty muslin and false beards, spirit lights 
 of phosphorised oil, trick slates, and doubly exposed 
 photographs. The whole subject fell into increasing 
 disrepute.. Professor and Mrs. H. Sidgwick, F.W. H. 
 Myers, and Edmund Gurney, who had in the early part 
 of this period made experiments with several mediums, 
 reached the broad conclusion that the phenomena de¬ 
 generated precisely in the ratio in which the precau¬ 
 tions against trickery were rendered more effective, 
 until sometimes a point was reached at which, the 
 safeguards being absolute, the manifestations ceased 
 altogether. On the foundation of the Society for 
 Psychical Research in 1882 the first President, Henry 
 Sidgwick, laid it down that the Society could not 
 encourage ,fraud by experimenting further with pro¬ 
 fessional mediums, but proposed to invite the co¬ 
 operation of private persons gifted with similar powers. 
 To this appeal there was practically no response. 
 Beyond the valuable exposure—through the labours 
 chiefly of Dr. Hodgson, Mrs. Sidgwick, and Mr. S, J, 
 Davey—of the methods employed in spirit slate-writing, 
 no effective work was done by the Society in this field. 
 In short, the whole subject seemed likely to die out 
 like a candle flame, leaving a malodorous memory 
 behind it. Then, in 1892, Eusapia Palladino appeared 
 on the scene. Eusapia—for by universal con¬ 
 sent the gifted Neapolitan, she, too, an artist, has 
 been assigned a place amongst her immortal fellow- 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 89 
 
 countrymen who are known through the ages by their 
 Christian names alone—Eusapia, then, is an Italian 
 peasant woman, who from her early youth has been 
 possessed of mediumistic powers. 
 
 In the autumn of 1892 a committee, amongst whom; 
 were M. Schiaparelli, Director of the Astronomical 
 Observatory at Milan, Professor Gerosa, Professor 
 Brofferio, and M. Aksakof, held a series of sittings 
 at Milan with Eusapia. Professor L'ombroso and Pro¬ 
 fessor C. Richet were present at some of the meetings, 
 and a statement by the latter of his own observations 
 was published, together with the formal report of the 
 Committee, in the January-February number, 1893, of 
 the Annales des Sciences Psychiques, The pheno¬ 
 mena observed were of a familiar kind : tilting and 
 levitation of tables and other movements of furniture, 
 alteration of the weight of the medium in the balance, 
 raps, and the appearance and contact of hands in the 
 dark, or in semi-obscurity. That the reports of the 
 Milan Committee were held to deserve more respectful 
 consideration than the innumerable other accounts of 
 similar manifestations was due mainly to the high 
 scientific standing of the witnesses, and the obvious 
 care and freedom from prepossession with which their 
 observations were for the most part made and recorded. 
 
 The phenomena most frequently observed, and which 
 presented, apparently, the best opportunity for ex¬ 
 cluding fraud, since they took place in a fairly good 
 light, were the levitation of the table and the alteration 
 of the medium’s weight in the balance. The table 
 was a common kitchen-table, with four legs, 3 feet 
 8 inches long, by 2 feet 4 inches wide, and 
 weighing about 17 lbs. Professor Richet, who had 
 
90 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 witnessed the levitation of the table on several 
 occasions, described it as follows : 
 
 “ Eusapia, seated at one end of the table, gave her right 
 hand to one of the investigators, and her left hand to 
 another. Usually in the experiments at which I assisted, 
 M. Schiaparelli held her right hand, and I held her left. 
 The other persons stood more or less aloof, so that the two 
 table legs at the end farthest from Eusapia could be seen, 
 and the two at her end of the table, and between which she 
 had placed her legs, knees, and feet, were visible all, or 
 almost all, the time. 
 
 “ After various movements, during which there were 
 partial liftings, now of one foot, now of another, the table 
 was suddenly lifted up, all four feet being raised slightly 
 from the ground, from about three to five inches. But in 
 several instances (when there was little or no light) it 
 seemed to me that the table legs were lifted off the ground 
 to a height of from eight to ten inches. This only lasted 
 for a short time, difficult to estimate, but v/hich I take to 
 have been about one or two seconds. Nevertheless, on one 
 occasion, at the second stance, the table appeared to me to 
 be raised from the ground for about three seconds, with 
 a sort of swaying, rocking motion in the air. The room 
 was lighted during the experiments.” 
 
 The light in some cases was sufficiently good to 
 allow of photographs being taken. A' copy of one 
 photograph, appended to Professor Richet’s article, 
 shows the table suspended horizontally some inches 
 above the floor, whilst Eusapia’s hands were held, pn 
 the surface of the table, by Professors Richet and 
 Lombroso respectively, the former having his other 
 hand pressed on the medium’s knees, and his left foot 
 in contact with one of her feet. Two other members 
 of the Committee were watching the proceedings at 
 a little distance from the table. 
 
 I have described this feat in detail, not in accord- 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 91 
 
 ance with my own estimate of its importance, but 
 because these levitations of the table have filled p: 
 large part in all subsequent investigations of Eusapia’s 
 phenomena. 
 
 In fact, though the light was often fairly good during 
 this particular feat, the degree of illumination was 
 nevertheless always prescribed by the medium. And 
 under the conditions described, Eusapia sitting close 
 to the table, her legs under it and part of her dress 
 in actual contact with it, it seems practically impos¬ 
 sible to prevent trickery. Feet, knees, or hands can 
 all be used on occasion, even when all the limbs are 
 supposed to be under observation ; and there are 
 mechanical appliances— e.g., a hook, attached by a 
 black tape to a band passing over her shoulders under 
 her dress—which can be employed even in a fairly 
 good light. In fact, nothing short of complete isola¬ 
 tion of Eusapia from the table could effectually pre¬ 
 vent fraud. The Milan Committee observed that the 
 levitation of the table appears to have been generally 
 preceded by a puffing out (gonfler) of Eusapia’s dress 
 until it touched and partially covered one foot of the 
 table ; and that when contact of the dress with the 
 table was prevented the experiment failed. Further, 
 the experiment also failed when Eusapia and the ex¬ 
 perimenters stood upright ; and she refused to try the 
 experiment sitting at one of the longer sides of the 
 table or with a pasteboard screen placed round her 
 dress. 
 
 The experiments with the balance, also made in a 
 good light, were equally puzzling and equally incon¬ 
 clusive. First an ordinary platform weighing machine 
 was used, and a diminution in weight amounting to 
 
92 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 17 lbs. was observed. Richet and Schiaparelli, who 
 were watching closely, reported : 
 
 “iWe are certain that she threw nothing away (if she 
 had thrown anything away she would have had to recover 
 it in order to restore her original weight), and equally, 
 certain that she derived no support from any neighbouring 
 object. And, finally, the movement was sufficiently slow 
 —it occupied from twelve to twenty seconds—to make jt 
 impossible to attribute it to a jump or quick movement of 
 any kind. Nevertheless, the observation did not appear to 
 us conclusive. In brief, in the ordinary weighing machine, 
 constructed on the principle of the steelyard, the weight 
 varies (although it is true within very narrow limits) with 
 the position of the centre of gravity. By changing his 
 position on the platform, especially when, as was the case 
 here, the machine is not a very good one, the person being 
 weighed can appreciably vary his weight.” 
 
 The Committee therefore devised a more accurate 
 balance, in which the platform was suspended by all 
 four corners. A’ slight diminution in weight was 
 observed, but only when part of Eusapia’s dress touched 
 the floor. iWhen this contact was prevented the balance 
 remained steady. 
 
 The phenomena observed in the dark were incon¬ 
 clusive for another reason. To prevent fraud the 
 medium’s hands were held by her neighbours on either 
 side. But, in Professor Richet’s words, 
 
 ” During the experiments, Eusapia generally has the right 
 and left hands held differently. On one side her whole 
 hand is firmly held ; on the other side, instead of having 
 her hand held by the person next her, she merely places 
 her hand on his, but touches his hand with all five fingers, 
 so that he can feel quite distinctly whether it is the right 
 or the left hand with which he is in contact. 
 
 “ This is what follows : At the moment when the mani¬ 
 festations are about to begin, the hand which is not being 
 held, but which is lightly placed on the hand of the person 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 93 
 
 on that side (for the sake of simplicity we will suppose 
 that it is Eusapia’s right hand, though it is, in fact, sometimes 
 the right, sometimes the left)—the right hand, then, becomes 
 very unsteady, and begins to move about so rapidly that 
 it is impossible to follow its movements ; it shifts about 
 every moment, and for the mere fraction of a second it 
 is not felt at all ; then it is felt again, and one could swear 
 it is still the right hand.” 
 
 In short, whilst the majority of the Committee were 
 satisfied that some at least of the phenomena could 
 not have been produced by trickery, Professor Richet, 
 though much impressed by what he had witnessed, 
 preferred to reserve his judgment. 
 
 Some two years later Professor Richet found oppor¬ 
 tunity for continuing the investigation at his own house 
 on the lie Roubaud, in the Mediterranean, and later 
 at Carqueiranne. He invited, amongst others. Sir 
 Oliver Lodge and F. Wi. H. Myers to co-operate with 
 him. Professor and Mrs* H. Sidgwick also attended 
 some of the later sittings at Carqueiranne. The sittings 
 were held in “ semi-darkness ” ; the circle sitting 
 round the table, in accordance with the almost in¬ 
 variable procedure in a stance with Eusapia, and the 
 two observers on either side of the medium controlling 
 her hands and feet and head. Professor Richet, Sir 
 Oliver Lodge, and Mr. Myers were convinced that some 
 at least of the things done were due to supernormal 
 agency. Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick, who were 
 present only during the latter part of this investigation, 
 when the phenomena appear to have been less striking, 
 were impressed, but not wholly convinced. Amongst 
 the phenomena for which Sir Oliver Lodge specially 
 vouched “ as being the most easily and securely, 
 observed, and as being amply sufficient in themselves 
 
94 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 to establish a scientifically unrecognised truth,” were 
 the movements of a distant chair, visible in the moon¬ 
 light, bulging of curtain, sounding of notes of untouched 
 piano and accordion, movement and uplifting of a' 
 heavy table, and other purposive movements of appar¬ 
 ently distant objects ; graspings and pattings of his 
 hand, arm, and back, whilst the he^id, hands, and feet 
 of the medium were under complete control and 
 nowhere near the place touched. Further, the rude 
 outline of a large face was seen against the back¬ 
 ground of the window ; little lights like glow-worms 
 were seen to flit about ; some scent like verbena 
 appeared on the medium’s hands, and blue marks were 
 made on the under surface of a table previously 
 examined and found clean, and on part of Richet’s 
 shirtfront under his waistcoat. On another occasion, 
 after the seance, Eusapia took Professor Richet’s 
 finger and drew it along a clean sheet of paper. 
 The finger-nail was seen to leave a thick blue mark 
 on the clean white paper, as if made by a blue pencil. 
 This experiment took place in full candlelight, and was 
 repeated several times, the movements of the finger 
 being closely watched by the investigators. It should 
 be added that the observers severally recorded their 
 conviction that Eusapia’s hands and feet were under 
 adequate control throughout the stances, and that a 
 note-taker was stationed in the verandah outside the 
 room, who took down contemporary notes dictated to 
 him from within. 
 
 Now, there is a time-honoured device, exposed in 
 the seventies by Moncure Conway, and afterwards by 
 Maskelyne and others, by which mediums at dark 
 seances succeed in freeing themselves from the control 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 95 
 
 of the sitter. It may be described briefly as the art 
 of making one hand ^(or one foot) do duty for two. 
 Thus, if the hand is to be freed, the medium will 
 contrive that one at least of his neighbours shall have 
 control only of a part of his hand. During the stance, 
 by a series of convulsive movements, such as are 
 commonly observed in the case of Eusapia, and, 
 indeed, in mediums generally, before the outburst of 
 the physical manifestations, he will bring his two 
 hands into close proximity on the table, and then, p.t 
 a favourable moment, will withdraw one hand, leaving 
 the other in contact at the same time with the hand 
 of each of his neighbours, who will each, of course, 
 believe that they are touching a different hand. Some 
 device of the kind, it may be inferred from the descrip¬ 
 tion already quoted from Professor Richet, Eusapia 
 had employed at the Milan investigation. The investi¬ 
 gators of the lie Roubaud were not ignorant of ,this 
 danger. Both hands and both feet of the medium 
 were held or controlled, the hands, as a rule, being 
 touched by the hands of one or more of the sitters, the 
 feet controlled either by the hands or feet of an in¬ 
 vestigator, or by a piece of mechanism devised for the 
 purpose. Moreover, the investigators reported that they 
 frequently took occasion to assure themselves, before 
 or after the occurrence of a manifestation, that the 
 sitters detailed to guard the several parts of the 
 medium’s person were not neglecting their duty. 
 
 Nevertheless, when Sir Oliver Lodge’s report and 
 the detailed notes of the 1894 sittings reached D'r. 
 Hodgson, then resident in Boston, he pointed out that 
 the precautions described did not exclude trickery of 
 the kind indicated ; in place of explicit descriptions 
 
96 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 of the method of holding, the contemporary notes fur¬ 
 nished for the most part bare statements to the effect 
 that Eusapia’s hands, feet, and head were held by the 
 sitters. A precise realisation of the nature of the 
 trickery to be guarded against would have elicited 
 from the sitters a correspondingly precise statement 
 of the measures taken to prevent it. That such a 
 precise statement was not forthcoming afforded in 
 itself, he contended, a prima facie presumption that 
 the danger was not fully realised. 
 
 Dr. Hodgson proceeded to analyse the descriptions 
 given of the chief feats, and suggested explanations of 
 some which had puzzled the investigators at the time. 
 In his view all that had been described could be 
 accounted for on the assumption that Eusapia; could 
 get a hand or foot free. 
 
 F. Wi. H. Myers, Sir O. Lodge, and Professor Richet 
 each replied at length to Hodgson’s criticisms. Each 
 severally mentioned that they were fully aware of the 
 danger referred to, and that, in fact, though it had 
 not been thought necessary to make continual state¬ 
 ments to that effect in the notes, the hands and feet 
 were so held as to make fraud of the kind suggested 
 impossible. Richet’s assertions on this point were the 
 most emphatic, and as coming from an investigator 
 who had himself been the first to draw attention to the 
 unsatisfactory nature of the control usually permitted, 
 are, no doubt, entitled to considerable weight. He 
 pointed out that he had previously attended fifteen 
 seances with Eusapia in Milan and Rome, and that forty 
 stances had been held under his direction at Car- 
 queiranne and in the tie Roubaud, extending over ^ 
 period of three months. 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 97 
 
 “ Pendant ces trois mois, d6jk prepare par les experiences 
 faites k Rome et k Milan, je n’ai pas song^ k autre chose 
 quA ce point trfes special, et cependant tres important, de 
 bien tenir la main, a manifere a ne pas laisser cette main se 
 liberer, prendre des objets, et me toucher au dos, au nez, au 
 front. . . . Eh bien I sans me croire plus habile et plus 
 perspicace qu’il ne convient, il me semble que cette constant 
 preoccupation, cette idee fixe, doit un peu me garantir du 
 reproche d’avoir conclu a la leg^re. II me semble qu’apres 
 trois mois d’exercice et de meditations on pent arriver a la 
 certitude qu’on tient bien une main humaine.” ‘ 
 
 And really to impute negligence on this point to 
 Richet and his fellow-investigators would almost seem 
 equivalent to imputing imbecility. 
 
 Not unnaturally, neither M. Richet nor Sir Oliver 
 Lodge were at all shaken in their convictions by 
 Hodgson’s arguments. But F. W. H. Myers, if not 
 shaken, was at least impressed by their weight. A 
 further series of sittings was accordingly arranged for 
 the following summer at Myers’ house at Cambridge. 
 As the attitude of the investigators at these sittings 
 has been seriously, though, of course, unintentionally, 
 misrepresented by many believers in Eusapia, I will 
 quote the result in Myers’ own words. Myers, at any 
 rate, will not be accused of leanings towards in¬ 
 credulity ; and Hodgson, it should be pointed out, 
 was not summoned from America to join the circle 
 until the Cambridge investigators had already satis¬ 
 fied themselves that fraud was being habitually 
 practised. In communicating the results to the Society 
 for Psychical Research Myers said : 
 
 “ I cannot doubt that we observed much conscious and 
 deliberate fraud, of a kind which must have needed long 
 
 ‘ Journal S.R.R., vol. vii. p. 68. 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 practice to bring it to its present level of skill. Nor can 
 I find any excuse for her fraud (assuming that such excuse 
 would be valid) in the attitude of mind of the persons, 
 several of them distinguished in the world of science, who 
 assisted in this inquiry. Their attitude was a fair and open 
 one ; in all cases they showed patience, and in several 
 cases the impression first made on their minds was distinctly 
 favourable. With growing experience, however, and careful 
 observation of the precise conditions permitted or refused to 
 us, the existence of some fraud became clear ; and fraud 
 was attempted when the tests were as good as we were 
 allowed to make them, quite as indisputably as on the few 
 occasions when our holding was intentionally left inadequate 
 in order to trace more exactly the modus operandi. More¬ 
 over, the fraud occurred both in the medium’s waking state 
 and during her real or alleged trance. 
 
 “ I do not think there is adequate reason to suppose that 
 any of the phenomena at Cambridge were genuine.” > 
 
 In fact, the tricks were effected in the manner 
 already indicated by, Hodgson, by the surreptitious 
 freeing from control of a foot or hand. Sometimes 
 the head seems to have been employed. 
 
 The effect of this experience was to weaken, though 
 not wholly to destroy, the impression produced on 
 Myers by the phenomena witnessed in the preceding 
 summer. Sir Oliver Lodge retained his conviction un¬ 
 shaken, and so did Richet and the other continental 
 investigators. A few years later, after witnessing some 
 more of Eusapia’s performances in Paris, Myers re¬ 
 turned to his original allegiance, and formally avowed 
 his renewed belief in the supernormal character of 
 Eusapia’s mediumship.^ 
 
 After the exposure of systematic fraud in 1895 the 
 Council of the Society for Psychical Research felt that 
 
 ' Journal S.P.R., vol. vii. p. 133. 
 
 2 Letter to Light, February 18, 1899. 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 99 
 
 they would not be justified, either on ethical or scientific 
 grounds, in prolonging the investigation. But from 
 that date onward Eusapia’s performances have been 
 almost continuously exhibited before various groups of 
 foreign investigators, chiefly French and Italian. 
 
 It would be futile to notice most of the reports 
 printed. Eusapia’s feats show little variation. Levita¬ 
 tions of tables and movements of small objects— 
 within the radius of three or four feet—remain still 
 the most frequent and best attested phenomena. But 
 of late years there seems to have been a tendency 
 for hands, heads, and luminous appearances to show 
 themselves more frequently through the curtains. 
 Several impressions in clay have been obtained of what 
 purport to be faces, hands, and feet ; but in all cases 
 the impressions are indistinct and blurred. Eusapia 
 herself has been levitated on to the table. With some 
 specially favoured investigators Eusapia also gives 
 materialisation seances, retiring for the purpose to the 
 cabinet—an angle of the room screened off by a black 
 curtain, which is habitually made use of in her later 
 performances—and being there tied hand and foot to 
 a couch. Dr. Venzano records having witnessed at 
 such a seance no fewer than six different figures—a 
 man, four women, and a child ; a woman and child 
 appearing simultaneously.* 
 
 Many persons of scientific distinction, especially 
 within the last three or four years, have investigated 
 the phenomena and publicly proclaimed their conviction 
 of their genuineness. Among the more distinguished 
 of the converts are Professor Morselli, Camille Flam- 
 marion, and the late Professor Lombroso. The later 
 
 * Annals of Rsychical Science, September, 1907 . 
 
100 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 investigators have not been contented with simple 
 observation, but have employed self-registering instru¬ 
 ments to record the movements of tables and other 
 objects ; they have frequently been permitted to take 
 photographs of the table during levitation, and have 
 endeavoured to impose other scientific tests. In the 
 early part of 1907 Doctors Herlitzka, Charles poa, 
 and Aggazzotti, assistants of Professor Mosso, the 
 eminent physiologist, held some sittings with Eusapia 
 in Turin. The observers saw phenomena—including 
 the breaking up of a small table before their eyes, 
 and the impression, by radio-activity, of four finger 
 marks on a sensitised plate wrapped in black paper— 
 which they regarded as unquestionably supernormal. 
 They inferred that some kind of energy capable of 
 acting on matter at a distance radiates from the nervous 
 system of the medium. But the tests which they had 
 specially prepared in order to render physical inter¬ 
 vention on the part of Eusapia impossible unfortunately 
 miscarried. At the first sitting a clockwork cylinder, 
 covered with blackened paper, was placed inside d 
 bell-glass, secured from interference by sealed tapes. 
 The object of the test was to obtain a vertical mark 
 on the cylinder ; and the key of the electric circuit 
 through which this end could be accomplished was 
 enclosed in a securely fastened and sealed cardboard 
 box. In the event the sealed tapes were torn ,off 
 from the bell-glass ; the lid of the cardboard box was 
 forcibly removed, and the key then depressed. The 
 test was thus rendered useless. Eusapia explained, 
 however, that if woven material instead of ca:rdboard 
 had been used to protect the key, it could have been 
 moved without interference with the apparatus. Acting 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 101 
 
 on the hint the experimenters prepared for the next 
 seance a new apparatus. Inside the cabinet was 
 placed a manometer—a U-shaped tube of mercury with 
 a floating pointer which would automatically register 
 any movements of the mercury on a scale. The tube 
 was in connection with a vessel full of water, ^nd 
 closed with a rubber capsule. Pressure on the capsule 
 would, of course, force up the mercury in the tube. 
 The vessel of water was enclosed in a wooden box, 
 the sides of which rose high above the capsule. The 
 top of the capsule was blackened. In place of a lid 
 the box was covered with cloth, so as to prevent 
 pressure on the capsule by normal means. At the 
 close of the stance the mercury was found to have 
 risen ; but the cloth covering was torn. The experi¬ 
 menters still attach weight to the result of the 
 experiment, on the ground that the wooden box was 
 outside the cabinet, so that no one could have 
 approached it without being seen. They add : “ We 
 do not know why the stuff which had covered the 
 wooden box was torn. Certainly Eusapia did not 
 understand the importance which would have attached 
 to the experiment, if it had remained intact.” ^ 
 
 A further series of investigations was conducted in 
 the same year by Professor Philippe Bottazzi, Director 
 of the Physiological Institute at the University of 
 Naples, assisted by six brother professors and one 
 or two other gentlemen. No trouble was spared to 
 test the phenomena and ascertain the conditions. At 
 the beginning of each sitting the barometric pressure, 
 the temperature, and the atmospheric saturation were 
 recorded. Several pieces of apparatus—a letter 
 
 > Annals of Psychical Science, May, 1907. 
 
102 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 balance, an electrical metronome, a commutator, a 
 rubber ball in connection with a manometer—were 
 placed on a table in the cabinet behind Eusapia, in 
 connection with automatic registering machinery in 
 another room ; and in the course of the stance several 
 movements were registered of which the tracings 
 are published. Other inexplicable phenomena were 
 observed, such as a mandoline moving about by itself 
 on the table, whilst Eusapia’s hands lay in her lap. 
 But again the only really conclusive test failed. A 
 telegraph key had been securely enclosed in a wire 
 cage, and this Eusapia and her spirit control “ John ” 
 were unable to move.^ 
 
 The most elaborate investigation of Eusapia’s 
 phenomena undertaken by continental experimenters is 
 that conducted by the Institut G6n^ral Psychologique 
 of Paris. Forty-three sittings in all were held in three 
 successive years, 1905, 1906, 1907. Of the investi¬ 
 gators the best known were M. and Madame Curie. 
 The circle seems to have included several other com¬ 
 petent physicists, and the apparatus employed in the 
 inquiry was as well devised as it was, unfortunately, 
 for the most part unproductive. The general arrange¬ 
 ments were those usually made at seances with Eusapia. 
 Part of the room in which the stance was held was 
 partitioned off by a pair of black curtains. Inside 
 this “ cabinet ” was placed a light stool '(weighing 
 between three and four pounds), one or two musical 
 instruments, a saucer full of clay, and a few objects 
 covered with lamp-black, &c. In front of the curtains 
 was placed a table, thirty-three inches long by twenty 
 
 • 'Annals of 'Psychical Science, October and December, 
 1907. 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 103 
 
 inches wide. The table was placed with one end (i.e., 
 one of the shorter sides) parallel with the curtains. 
 At this end Eusapia sat, with her back to the curtains. 
 The investigators sat round the table, linking hands, 
 those on either side of the medium undertaking the 
 control of her hands and feet. The room in which the 
 stance was held was illuminated at one time by gas, 
 at another by oil lamps or electric light, arrange¬ 
 ments being made in each case to lower the light to 
 the required degree of obscurity in accordance with 
 the medium’s request. 
 
 More critical than most of their predecessors, the 
 Committee dwell at considerable length upon the ex¬ 
 tremely unsatisfactory nature of the control generally 
 and the conditions of illumination. 
 
 Moreover, they point out that the controllers are 
 also, from their position, the chief observers, for 
 Eusapia will rarely tolerate an isolated observer 
 near the scene of action. Thus their attention 
 is kept constantly on the strain, and constantly 
 liable to be diverted by the occurrence of un¬ 
 expected phenomena—unexpected alike in the time 
 of their occurrence, their nature, and their position. 
 Further, Eusapia frequently requests the investigators 
 to talk, a request which, whether designedly or not, 
 has the effect of still further distracting the attention 
 of the controllers. The most perfect control would 
 be that Eusapia’s feet should be held by the hands of 
 a controller under the table, and that her hands should 
 be held on the table, each grasped fully, so that the 
 thumbs could be identified. But Eusapia rarely permits 
 one of the investigators to be under the table. Her 
 feet are generally controlled by being placed over or 
 
104 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 under the feet of the controller-observer on either 
 side. Unfortunately, the Committee found that she 
 suffered from a painful corn on the right foot, so 
 that this foot had generally to be placed on the left 
 foot of her neighbour instead of under it. 
 
 As to her hands, she practically insists on the 
 method of control already described ; one hand may, 
 as a rule, be clasped, but the other must lie free, 
 resting wholly or partly on the hand of her neighbour. 
 This preference of hers is due, as would appear from 
 her statement to the Committee of the Institute to 
 cutaneous hyperaesthesia, which makes it difficult for 
 her to tolerate pressure on the hand for long together.' 
 It is not stated whether she has an equally good reason 
 for constantly placing her hands together in her lap, 
 thus removing them into still deeper obscurity, or for 
 occasionally enveloping one of them in the curtain, so 
 that the controller’s hand is no longer in direct contact 
 with hers. 
 
 Again, one of the invariable concomitants of the mani¬ 
 festations is the incessant agitation of Eusapia’s limbs 
 —sometimes she swings her leg, which her neighbour 
 has to control. Much more frequently, however, it is 
 her hands which are in almost continual motion. All 
 these conditions and peculiarities are not, of course, 
 incompatible with innocence. But they certainly facili¬ 
 tate fraud, and fraud of the kind which Eusapia is 
 known habitually to practise—the substitution of hands. 
 A conspicuous instance of this kind occurred in the 
 course of these stances. This is what happened : 
 
 “ L’obscurity avait et6 rapidement demand^e : on avait 
 dteint toutes les lumiferes et Ton avait entr’ouvert les rideaux- 
 
 Report, p. 517, &c. 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 105 
 
 tentures d’une fenetre pour 6clairer un peu, par le rayonne- 
 ment du gaz de la rue, la Salle des Seances. M. Courtier 
 controlait la droite d’Eusapia, en tournant le dos k la 
 fenetre ; M. de Mech controlait la gauche. Eusapia libera, 
 par son proc4d6 ordinaire, sa main droite. 
 
 “ M. de Mech gardant volontairement le silence, elle 
 appuya fortement sa main gauche sur la main gauche de 
 M. Courtier, et replia sans doute d’une mani^re fort habile 
 son petit doigt gauche introduit entre I’annulaire et I’auricu- 
 laire de M. Courtier, de mani^re a lui donner I’illusion 
 pendant quelques instants qu’il contrdlait toujours le pouce 
 droit. 
 
 “ A ce meme moment, M. Courtier voyait un bras blanc 
 soulever de son cot^ le rideau et I’^carter. Une tete 
 apparaissait brusquement et se penchait vers lui en poussant 
 un gemissement. M. de Mech voyait k ce meme instant la 
 silhouette d’Eusapia se detacher sur la bande de lumiere 
 venant de la rue et s’incliner vers M. Courtier. 
 
 “ Qui plus est, M. Courtier se sentit pris aux 6paules par 
 deux bras, pendant qu’une tete, sous le rideau cette fois, 
 s’appuyait contre la sienne. Eusapia venait de se lib^rer 
 des deux controles, et ses mouvements avaient ^td si rapides 
 qu’apres I’impression du choc, M. Courtier retrouvait sur 
 sa main gauche la main droite d’Eusapia ” (pp. 524, 525). 
 
 The investigators loyally complied with the condi¬ 
 tions imposed, but sought in various ways to devise 
 tests which should still be valid. The really valuable 
 part of their report is the history of the successive 
 rejections or evasions of their tests by Eusapia. At 
 one time they suggested that the sleeves of the medium 
 should be sewn to the sleeves of the controllers’ coats 
 by tapes four inches long. She accepted this method 
 of control on three occasions only—one in each year— 
 and then refused to have anything more to do with it, 
 giving as her reason that she had seen lunatics fastened 
 together in this manner in an asylum, and that the 
 recollection was unbearable. 
 
106 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 One of the most frequent phenomena was the 
 “ levitation ” of the stance table. The Committee put 
 each leg of the table into a separate electric circuit, 
 and succeeded by this means in proving that all four 
 legs did actually leave the ground, and that Eusapia’s 
 foot was not placed under any of them. By means 
 of a thread and pulley they proved that the apparent 
 movements of the little stool—which would advance 
 and retreat on the floor in a puzzling fashion—really 
 took place as they appeared to do. Further, Eusapia 
 permitted the employment of photographic apparatus 
 on the condition that she gave the signal for the 
 camera. Three of the photographs here reproduced, 
 taken from a position facing the medium, show the 
 little ‘tool against the background of the dark curtain, 
 apparently suspended in the air over the medium. But 
 a fourth photograph, taken simultaneously on the last 
 occasion from the side, shows that the stool was actually 
 supported, in quite normal fashion, by Eusapia’s head. 
 Unfortunately, Eusapia saw this last photograph, and 
 the cameras, which henceforth lay in wait to right 
 and left, were baulked of their prey, for the little 
 stool was levitated no more. 
 
 But the Committee obtained another solid result by 
 the use of scientific apparatus. They placed Eusapia 
 upon the platform of a weighing machine. Now, Eusapia: 
 tolerates human “ control ”—she understands men and 
 women ; but she has a rooted antipathy to scientific 
 apparatus of any kind. Apparently in order to avoid 
 hurting her feelings, the Committee employed a novel 
 kind of balance, somewhat less delicate, it is true, than 
 the ordinary platform weighing machine, but still 
 adequate for their purpose. Between two innocent- 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 107 
 
 looking planks of wood they placed a coiled rubber 
 tube, with one end closed. Eusapia’s chair and feet 
 rested on the upper plank, the free end of the tube 
 was connected with a manometer which recorded the 
 pressure. At a later seance we are told that Eusapia 
 showed impatience at finding herself seated on a 
 balance, and in the course of the stance the rubber 
 tube was forcibly stretched and broken. But before 
 the tube was broken it had been repeatedly proved 
 that when the table was “ levitated ” the balance indi¬ 
 cated a corresponding increase in weight ; a similar 
 result followed on the levitation of the small stool. 
 When the table tilted on the two legs nearest to 
 Eusapia the balance again showed an increase of 
 weight. When the two legs nearest to Eusapia rose 
 in the air, and the table rested on the two further legs, 
 a diminution of pressure was recorded. But let not 
 the uncritical reader too hastily conclude that Eusapia 
 herself lifted the table in the one case and pushed it 
 in the other. The results are, no doubt, consistent with 
 that supposition. But no one could have anticipated 
 that the weight of the table would be annihilated ; 
 that would be a miracle indeed. It must appear some¬ 
 where. All that the records prove is that the new 
 force emanates from and is dependent on Eusapia’s 
 organism "^(p. 441). 
 
 The Committee then turned their attention to 
 Eusapia’s person. They tested her memory, her 
 reasoning powers, her keenness of sight, and her 
 visual and auditory reactions generally ; they measured 
 her rate of respiration and tested her hyperaesthesia ; 
 they employed the dynamometer, the sphygmograph, the 
 pneumograph, and Hallion and Comte’s plethismo- 
 
108 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 graphic tube ; they took her temperature ; they made 
 uroscopic analyses ; they applied thermoscopes and 
 galvanometers ; they made a chemical analysis of the 
 air in the stance-room, and M. Curie took some trouble 
 to draw off the air behind the curtain to see whether 
 it was ionised. And after all these labours, the results 
 of which are to be seen in many pages of curves and 
 tables, they found that Eusapia is just like everybody 
 else. 
 
 But if the Committee did not find what they sought, 
 they did find something else. They tested Eusapia’s 
 alleged power of affecting the balance without touching 
 it. At first a small machine, like a letter weigher, 
 designed by M. Yourievitch, was employed. It was 
 surrounded with a wooden frame, with linen or wooden 
 panels to fit in the frame, so as to prevent the use 
 of a hair or other fraudulent device. Eusapia tried 
 it with the wooden covering and failed ; tried it with 
 the linen covering and failed ; tried it with the frame 
 alone and failed. All the protecting apparatus was 
 then removed. Eusapia put her hands on either side 
 of the scale and it went down, and the onlookers could 
 not find out how it was done. Nothing daunted, M. 
 Yourievitch then procured a more delicate balance 
 f(pese-cocon) and surrounded it with a panelled glass 
 lantern. M. Yourievitch further isolated the balance 
 on a cake of wax, and put it in connection with a 
 charged electroscope, so that if Eusapia touched the 
 balance the fraud would be instantly detected. No 
 result. All the glass panels were then removed except 
 the one next Eusapia. Still no result. The last panel 
 was then taken away, a handkerchief being placed 
 over Eusapia’s mouth to prevent her breath affecting 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 109 
 
 the sensitive balance. She stretched out her hands as 
 before, and once more the scale moved ; but the 
 electroscope was not discharged. Twice more the same 
 results followed. Then—in consequence of some 
 suspicious movements observed by Madame Curie and 
 another member of the Committee—the light was raised 
 [(our first intimation that the previous experiments took 
 place in partial obscurity), and an arch of thick wire 
 was placed in front of the balance. The balance moved 
 no more, and Eusapia said she was tired. 
 
 Now, Madame Curie and her colleagues had 
 suspected from the position of Eusapia’s hands that 
 she might have effected the movement by means of a 
 fine thread, and, in fact, on experimenting afterwards, 
 it was found that the scale could be depressed by 
 means of a hair without discharging the electroscope. 
 After this experience M. Youri^vitch coated the scale 
 with lamp-black, on which even the pressure of a hair 
 would leave a mark—and the balance moved no more. 
 
 They then tried again with the other balance, re¬ 
 placing the metallic scale by a disc of paper in a. 
 wooden frame. If a pin were used, the paper would 
 be pierced ; if a hair, it would crackle. In fact, the 
 balance moved once, when Eusapia’s hands were held 
 —but the paper crackled ! 
 
 On another occasion Eusapia asked that her hands 
 might be held, and in this position she placed [her 
 hands on either side of the leaf of an indiarubber 
 plant, and the leaf was seen to move. Unfortunately 
 for her she had forgotten her usual precaution;; an 
 isolated observer saw the hair between her hands 
 (p. 521). She was detected on another occasion 
 moving the balance by the same means. 
 
110 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 The results with the balance being at best ambiguous, 
 the Committee devised another test experiment ; this 
 time with a manometer. A U-shaped tube filled with 
 a coloured liquid was connected by one limb with the 
 ordinary automatic apparatus for registering move¬ 
 ments on a cylinder. The other limb communicated 
 through a rubber tube with three small rubber bladders. 
 On these bladders rested a small plate, so that any 
 pressure exercised on the plate would depress the level 
 of the fluid in the nearer limb of the tube and cause 
 it to rise in the other. To prevent direct pressure 
 the entire surface of the plate was covered with lamp¬ 
 black. The experiment was conducted in a subdued 
 light, and Eusapia procured a still deeper obscurity 
 by asking M. Yourievitch to place the curtain over her¬ 
 self and the apparatus. Eusapia then approached her 
 hand to the plate. There followed slight oscillations 
 in the liquid, the largest to the extent of about two- 
 fifths of an inch. Eusapia then cried out that she had 
 accidentally touched the plate. When examined in q 
 good light the blackened surface was found to show 
 slight marks, marks which M. Perrin imitated by 
 touching the surface slightly with a nail (human). 
 Some time later at the same meeting M. Courtier, 
 seated by Eusapia’s side at the table, saw a tiny nail 
 [(metallic), about a quarter of an inch long, fall on the 
 table near Eusapia’s left hand. It had not come from 
 the ceiling, and it appeared probable that it came 
 from Eusapia’s person. This nail also, it was found, 
 left traces on the blackened surface similar to those 
 found there after the experiment. The Committee 
 cautiously conclude : “ L’exp^rience est restde 
 
 cependant fort douteuse ” (p. 523). 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 111 
 
 There are other “ very doubtful ” incidents—a strong 
 smell of phosphorus in the cabinet indicating appar¬ 
 ently a “ spirit light ” that failed ; an occasion when 
 during a strong upward pressure of the table M. de 
 Fleurieres, putting his hand down, found Eusapia’s knee 
 pressing against the lower rim of the table ; prints in 
 the clay placed in the cabinet of a hand strongly re¬ 
 sembling Eusapia’s, the hand covered with a stuff found 
 under the microscope to resemble a fragment of stuff 
 afterwards accidentally dropped by her, and so on. 
 
 Let us pass on to the verdict of the Committed^ 
 They conclude that the fraud which was apparently 
 practised is readily explicable by the circumstances. 
 Eusapia is growing old ; she receives gifts, at any 
 rate, if not always formal payment for the display 
 of her powers. She would not wish to disappoint her 
 clients. Hence a strong temptation to resort to fraud 
 when the genuine power fails, as it probably does at 
 times with her failing physical strength. There is a 
 general opinion, they find, that Eusapia’s phenomena 
 are growing much less striking and abundant as the 
 years go on. The opinion, perhaps, is scarcely justi¬ 
 fied. Eighteen years ago, at Milan, in a circle of 
 scientific investigators, Eusapia gave a show certainly 
 no better than her recent performances at the Institut. 
 On the other hand, in quite recent years Maxwell, 
 Venzano, Lombroso, and other go-as-you-please in¬ 
 vestigators have got all the phenomena they wanted. 
 
 The Committee hesitate, however, to conclude that 
 fraud is the final explanation, because they have 
 witnessed, under conditions which seemed to them such 
 as to exclude fraud, movements of the table and stool 
 and other phenomena which they could not explain. 
 
112 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 They point out that the actual movements of the objects 
 are substantiated by the automatic recording instru¬ 
 ments above referred to ; there is no room, therefore, 
 here for the hypothesis of collective hallucination, and 
 they see no sufficient reason to adopt it as the ex¬ 
 planation of the other phenomena—lights, the appear¬ 
 ance of hands, &c.—in the case of which no automatic 
 record was possible. They point out that the preva¬ 
 lent conception of matter aims at expressing it in terms 
 of electric charges. If Eusapia does influence matter 
 in some novel way, no doubt she influences it by 
 affecting the ether, which is the vehicle of light and 
 electricity, and, indeed, of all physical forces which 
 we know, since gravity itself is, it would seem probable, 
 ultimately explicable as a want of equilibrium between 
 positive and negative electricity. Put in that way, 
 Eusapia’s presumed powers present no difficulty—it is 
 but pne marvel the more in a world which teems 
 with marvels and electricity. It is, perhaps, unfortunate 
 that the only proof Eusapia has yet given of her mastery 
 over the electric forces is that on one or two occasions 
 she has succeeded in discharging an electroscope, with¬ 
 out anybody being able to find out how it was done. 
 
 The Report of the Committee of the Instiiui 
 has certainly thrown fresh light on the problem of 
 Eusapia and her performances. They have shown that 
 the table is really moved—that so far, at any rate, the 
 hypothesis of hallucination will not explain the pheno¬ 
 mena ; they have shown, further, that the table is 
 really moved by a force residing in Eusapia, and that 
 this force conforms to the laws of the conservation of 
 energy. They have shown that, apart from these 
 dubious phenomena, Eusapia presents nothing excep- 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO 
 
 113 
 
 tional in her relations to the physical world, the world 
 in which electricity plays so large a part ; and they 
 have added some further demonstrations of Eusapia’s 
 readiness to cheat when she can. 
 
 The great defect of their report is that whilst they 
 cannot explain some of the things seen and done, they 
 have not given us a chance of explaining them. They 
 do not publish the shorthand notes of the stances. 
 They tell us, to take an instance, that on such an 
 occasion the table was raised with all four feet off 
 the ground ; that the controller to the left was M. A’., 
 to the right M. B. .We want to know what went before 
 the movement ; how the hands and feet were held or 
 otherwise controlled ; where the curtain was ; above 
 all, the nature of the illumination. Without these and 
 other details the report is worthless. We see that on 
 this particular occasion the Committee believe that the 
 control was adequate ; but then we know that it qs 
 Eusapia’s art to induce this belief-—and we know or 
 suspect that in many previous cases the belief has been 
 ill-founded. On the positive side this report does not 
 advance the matter at all. Such a condensed descrip¬ 
 tion is of just so much value as the ordinary observer’s 
 account of a conjuring trick. It tells us only that the 
 witnesses didn’t see through the trick ; but it doesn’t 
 tell us how it was done. 
 
 8 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 
 
 The Society for Psychical Research last autumn 
 appointed a Committee pf three to inquire into the 
 performances pf Eusapia. Mr. Hereward Carrington 
 is an amateur conjurer, who has for several years 
 made a special study of the tricks of American 
 mediums. His book, “ The Physical Phenomena pf 
 Spiritualism,” is the standard authority on these fraudu¬ 
 lent performances. The Hon. Everard Feilding and 
 Mr. Baggally have also to their credit years of 
 practical experience in the same field. Mr. Baggally, 
 again, is a practical conjurer, and Mr. Feilding’s 
 humorous exposures of the tricks of British and foreign 
 mediums are familiar to all members of the Society 
 for Psychical Research. 
 
 On the ground of personal qualifications and prac¬ 
 tical experience a more competent Committee could, 
 since the death of Dr. Hodgson, scarcely have been 
 selected. Nor is it easy to indicate any, point in which 
 the conduct of the seances, the methods of control, or 
 the means of recording fell short of the requirements. 
 The Committee’s Report is published as Part LIX. 
 pf the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical 
 Research, 
 
 The sittings, eleven in all, were held in November 
 
 114 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 115 
 
 and December, 1908, in a room tenanted by one of 
 the Committee on the fifth floor of the Hotel Victoria 
 at Naples. The room was prepared for the sittings 
 by stretching across one corner a pair of black curtains, 
 the triangular space so enclosed measuring 2 feet 
 8 inches from the angle of the walls to the middle 
 of the curtains. Within the recess so curtained off 
 were placed a small round table and several cheap 
 musical instruments—bell, toy trumpet, tambourine, &c. 
 In front of the curtains and with its longer sides at 
 right angles to them' was placed a' plain wooden table, 
 2 feet 11 inches long by i foot 7 inches broad. 
 During the sdance Eusapia would sit at the narrow 
 end of the table with her back to the curtains, 
 the back of her chair being from a foot to eighteen 
 inches distant from them. One of the investigators sat 
 on either side, \ 
 
 “ holding or held by her hand, with his foot under or on 
 her foot, his leg generally pressing against the whole length 
 of hers ; often with his free hand across her knees, and 
 very frequently with his two feet encircling her foot.” 
 
 Sometimes the hands and feet were tied, but generally 
 the control by direct contact was preferred. 
 
 It is to be understood, of course, that in investi¬ 
 gating phenomena of this kind depending, whatever 
 view we may take of them, on obscure psychological 
 and possibly physical conditions, the investigators 
 impose their own conditions at their own risk. It is 
 more profitable to follow the medium’s lead, and to 
 adapt the procedure accordingly. If the Committee 
 had begun by putting the medium in an iron cage, 
 they might have ended with nothing for their money. 
 
116 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 In accordance with the principle above referred to, 
 of following the medium’s lead rather than insisting 
 on imposing conditions on her, the Committee had 
 provided several electric lights, lanterns, &c., of vary¬ 
 ing power. The lights were frequently changed by 
 the Committee in the intervals between the stances 
 in their endeavours to find a light which, whilst suf¬ 
 ficient to enable the observers to see clearly, would 
 not interfere with the progress of the phenomena. 
 Moreover, the degree of illumination was repeatedly 
 varied during the seance itself at the request of the 
 medium or her spirit-control. It is not easy, to arrive 
 at a clear idea of the amount of light in every case. 
 But it is stated that the strongest light allowed by 
 the medium enabled the Committee to read 
 “ Baedeker ” at the seance table ; and the feeblest 
 light was apparently sufficient, with one or two possible 
 exceptions, to enable the observers on either side to 
 see the outline of the medium’s form. 
 
 A stenographer had been engaged who attended 
 throughout the seances, his table being generally placed 
 in the adjoining room, with the door open. When an 
 incident occurred each sitter in turn dictated his 
 account of it, and then each in turn stated the nature 
 of the control exercised over Eusapia’s hands and feet. 
 The stenographer’s notes would be written out on the 
 following day, generally in presence of the Committee. 
 Any remarks added after the sitting by any member 
 of the Committee were put in parentheses and dated 
 to distinguish them from the contemporaneous record. 
 
 Under these conditions the following phenomena 
 were observed : movements and “ levitations ” of the 
 table ; movements, especially bulgings, of the medium’s 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 117 
 
 dress ; extensive movements of the curtains ; move¬ 
 ments of objects behind the curtains ; transportations 
 of objects from behind the curtains ; touches and 
 grasps, as of hands, on various parts of the sitters’ 
 persons ; raps and thumps ; small lights ; objects 
 bearing some resemblance to hands and heads, 
 appearing generally from behind the curtains, &'c. 
 
 Such are the facts attested. And here, for the first 
 time perhaps in the history of modern spiritualism, we 
 seem to find the issue put fairly and squarely before us. 
 It is difficult for any man who reads the Committee’s 
 report to dismiss the whole business as mere vulgar 
 cheating. It is difficult, because, with one exception, 
 which will be discussed later, we cannot point to any¬ 
 thing which the investigators ought to have done which 
 has been left undone. Given the necessity for leaving 
 the medium free and unrestrained that the flow of 
 manifestations might not be impeded, all precautions 
 possible have been taken, and all restrictions possible 
 have been imposed. The record, it need hardly be 
 said, is unimpeachable ; it is at first hand from all 
 the witnesses, and as nearly synchronous with the inci¬ 
 dents as the time conditions will allow. The dilemma 
 with which the Committee confronts us must, it would 
 almost seem, be accepted as inevitable : either there 
 was a display of some hitherto unrecognised force or 
 the witnesses were hallucinated. 
 
 Let us consider the alternatives. Suppose we infer 
 from these baffling occurrences the existence of a new 
 force. It is not, ex hypothesi, a question of simple 
 mechanical attraction and repulsion, capable of moving 
 the table and other small objects to and fro ; our 
 hypothetical force can already be so delicately con- 
 
118 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 trolled and directed that it will carry articles of vary¬ 
 ing weight through the air and deposit them without 
 shock on a spot selected—a bell on the medium’s 
 head. 
 
 But the same—or is it another?—force can also make 
 raps and bangs on the furniture, can cause luminous 
 appearances, can create substantial bodies, mimicking 
 on occasion human hands and heads ; and these 
 substantial phantoms are capable of purposive move¬ 
 ments—the mimic hands can stroke and pinch and 
 carry. 
 
 iWhat manner of force is this that can produce such 
 multifarious effects? and what are we to say of the 
 ignorant peasant-woman who, untaught and unaided, 
 has obtained so complete a mastery of the secrets pf 
 nature? If the new force is admitted, Mr. Feilding 
 is surely justified in pointing out its significance for 
 science and philosophy, perhaps even for theology : 
 
 “ The force, if we are driven, as I am confident we are, 
 to presuppose one other than mere conjuring, must either 
 reside in the medium herself and be of the nature of an 
 extension of human faculty beyond what is generally recog¬ 
 nised ; or must be a force having its origin in something 
 apparently intelligent and external to her, operating either 
 directly from itself or indirectly through or in conjunction 
 with some special attribute of her organism. The pheno¬ 
 mena, then—in themselves preposterous, futile, and lacking 
 in any quality of the smallest ethical, religious, or spiritual 
 value—are nevertheless symptomatic of something which, 
 put at its lowest by choosing the first hypothesis, must, as 
 it filters gradually into our common knowledge, most pro¬ 
 foundly modify the whole of our philosophy of human 
 faculty ; but which, if that hypothesis is found insufficient, 
 may ultimately be judged to require an interpretation involv¬ 
 ing not only that modification, but a still wider one, namely, 
 our knowledge of the relations between mankind and an 
 intelligent sphere external to it.” 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 119 
 
 But suppose, desiring to economise the marvellous, 
 we reject that horn of the dilemma on which the Com¬ 
 mittee have chosen to impale themselves for a cheaper 
 solution of the problem. What is the smallest draft 
 on the unknown that we must be prepared to make 
 on the assumption of collective hallucination? It will 
 be observed by the attentive reader of the report that 
 the feats described were not in themselves of a 
 marvellous or even recherche kind. And again, things 
 did not, as a rule, happen outside of a moderate 
 radius—say, three feet—from Eusapia’s person. In a 
 word, if Eusapia could have freed an arm or even on 
 occasion a leg, she could have done everything. More¬ 
 over, with the possible exception of the lights, which 
 only appeared on one or two occasions, and may have 
 been themselves hallucinatory—though this is unlikely 
 — she could have done all that was done without 
 extraneous apparatus of any kind, beyond, at most, a 
 few black threads and her own handkerchief. 
 
 Now, it is clear that this hypothesis pf collective 
 hallucination is very much in the air ; and, indeed, 
 for reasons which will appear presently, it is only put 
 forward provisionally. But it is, at any rate, in better 
 case than the hypothesis of a new force. That rests 
 on the sole foundation of sixty years of fraudulent 
 mediumship, chequered by a few baffling and hitherto 
 unexplained feats like those now under review. It has 
 no analogy and no support from outside. 
 
 As regards the nature of the hallucination to be 
 assumed, the Committee point out that the objects 
 moved were found in their new position at the end of 
 the sitting. In any case, we should not be justified 
 in assuming that the movements of furniture, and the 
 
120 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 things seen, heard, and felt, were other than objective. 
 Indeed, the so-called heads, as the Committee them¬ 
 selves point out, bore on some occasions a suspicious 
 resemblance to hands variously disguised, and there 
 was no feature in any one of the reported appari¬ 
 tions pointing to an extraneous origin. On the 
 hypothesis of hallucination, then, Eusapia herself moved 
 the table, pinched the sitters, and put her hand behind 
 the curtain or dressed it up in a handkerchief to simu¬ 
 late a phantom head. Arid she was able on the 
 hypothesis to do these things because the hands of 
 the witnesses who were supposed to control her limbs 
 could not be trusted to report what they had felt, 
 nor their eyes to report what they had seen. So far 
 we find ourselves in agreement with the Committee. 
 This, they argue, is the form which the hypothesis of hal¬ 
 lucination would naturally assume for serious criticism. 
 
 But there is one point in their presentation of the 
 case to which exception must be taken. On the 
 hypothesis of hallucination, they say : 
 
 “ We should have to assume not only that each of us 
 was subject to hallucinations both of touch and of what 
 appeared to us perfectly clear vision, but that we were 
 concurrently and concordantly hallucinated. When, for 
 example, at 1.0 a.m. in Stance XL, B. reports that he is 
 holding both the medium’s thumbs in different hands, and 
 F., from the farther end of the opposite side of the table, 
 shortly afterwards spontaneously reports a change of B.’s 
 control, and says that, visibly to him, B. is now holding 
 both her thumbs in his right hand, we must assume, first, 
 that B. was hallucinated when he reported that he held 
 both her thumbs in separate hands ; and, secondly, that F. 
 was hallucinated when he reported the change of the thumbs 
 to B.’s right hand, and that both remained concordantly 
 hallucinated during the continued touches on B.’s left hand 
 by a hand within the curtain.” 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 121 
 
 It may be that on this particular occasion we have 
 to assume “ a concurrent and concordant ” hallucina¬ 
 tion of the kind described ; but it is worth pointing out 
 that the foot control was not verified until the 
 phenomenon had been proceeding for seven minutes, 
 and that after attention had been once called to the 
 foot there was an unproductive period of twelve 
 minutes, enlivened by only one brief repetition of the 
 phenomenon. Further, the curtain which had blown 
 out over the table would have formed a convenient 
 screen for the right foot. But in any case the incident 
 is not typical. iWe may search far through the record 
 before we find another instance as pertinent even as 
 this one to the theory of collective hallucination. In 
 nearly every case, perhaps in every case, a much simpler 
 form of sense-deception would appear to be indicated. 
 
 Thus, to take an illustration from Seance V. 
 ’(December 2, 1908), Mr. Baggally and Mr. Feilding 
 sat at the right and left hand of the medium respec¬ 
 tively. At 11.5 p.m. it is reported that the medium 
 had backed her chair, so as almost to touch the small 
 table, which had been placed at the beginning of the 
 sitting, as usual, in the triangular recess behind the 
 curtain. At 11.8 p.m. Mr. Baggally reports that 
 the little table struck him under the shoulder and fell 
 on the right of the medium. The light was Light IV. 
 (a new 150-volt ruby glass lamp, enabling Mr. 
 Carrington, who sat at the end of one side of the 
 table remote from the medium, to see clearly the 
 medium’s face, and to distinguish eyes, ears, and nose, 
 at a distance of about four feet). At ii.io p.m. Mr. 
 Baggally reports : “I am holding her right hand with 
 my left hand, and her right foot is on my left foot, and 
 I am feeling the whole length of her leg.” 
 
122 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 11.22 p.m. B.—The small table is moving. 
 
 F.—She squeezed my right hand at the time with 
 her left hand, on her lap. Her left foot quite 
 clearly on my right. 
 
 B.—Same control of foot as before. 
 
 B.—The small table rises and touches my elbow. 
 
 B.—I am perfectly certain that her whole right 
 hand is on my left hand on the table, and I can feel 
 the whole length of her leg. 
 
 B.—The small table is again moving ; same control. 
 
 F.—My right hand was on her two knees, and 
 her left hand in mine and visible, and close to me ; 
 legs both firmly between B.’s and mine, and I have 
 felt their position with my hand. 
 
 11.25 p.m. The small table is rising again. 
 
 11.26 p.m. The small table is levitated right on to the 
 
 stance table, through the curtains, between B. and medium. 
 It rose to a height of 2i feet from the floor, and is now 
 resting on the sdance table. 
 
 [The small table which had been in the cabinet was levi¬ 
 tated from behind the right curtain, between it and the door 
 (the door was to the extreme right of the medium, i.e., 
 behind B.), and came over the medium’s right arm and my 
 left arm, the legs resting on my arm and the medium’s. 
 
 It seemed to make successive efforts to get well on to the 
 
 sdance table. B., Dec. 3/08.] 
 
 B.—My control is perfect ; the same as before. 
 
 F.—Her left hand is right over this side of the 
 table and visible. Her head close to me and visible. 
 My right hand on both her knees as before. 
 
 Here, at any rate, the feat of moving the table 
 would have presented small difficulty to a woman with 
 any practice in such feats if, under cover of the 
 obscurity, she could have got a hand or foot free. 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 123 
 
 It will be observed, however, that the movement was 
 not a sudden one, but was accomplished in several 
 stages, and occupied four minutes from start to finish. 
 The difficulty would seem to lie in supposing that 
 Messrs. Baggally and Feilding, expert observers, who 
 were perfectly aware that Eusapia would release her 
 hands and feet if she could, and were on the watch 
 for precisely that form of trickery, could have 
 been deceived, not once, but repeatedly, in their 
 assertion as to the position of Eusapia’s limbs. But 
 it would not appear, on close scrutiny, that Mr. 
 Feilding had really any say in the matter. It is not 
 stated this time that both hands were visible. The 
 reason is to be sought two or three pages back jri 
 the report. At 10.57 p.m. B. reports : “The curtain 
 is blown over my head ” ; at 10.58 he reports ; “ The 
 curtain is still over my hand.” 
 
 At 11.10 it is explained that the curtain is still 
 over B.’s arm. 
 
 As nothing more is said, we must assume that the 
 curtain was over B.’s arm during the progress of the 
 levitation, and that Eusapia’s right hand was therefore 
 invisible. Moreover, it will be seen from B.’s notes 
 of the following day that the “ force ” which moved 
 the table used the curtain as a shield. 
 
 The problem, then, in this particular case is simpli¬ 
 fied. .We have to suppose that only Mr. Baggally’s 
 senses were deceived—indeed, as Eusapia’s hand was 
 presumably under the curtain, and her leg under the 
 table, we are not justified in using the plural—we have 
 to suppose merely an illusion of the sense of touch. 
 
 Dr. Hodgson’s most valuable legacy to the world 
 consists in his exhaustive analysis of the processes of 
 
124 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 deception employed by the slate-writing medium, 
 Eglinton—or, to put it more accurately, the processes 
 of self-deception habitually set in motion by Eglinton’s 
 clients. Dr. Hodgson was assisted in his work by 
 the late Mr. S. J. Davey, who set himself to learn 
 Eglinton’s tricks, and to reproduce them, with improve¬ 
 ments, before unsuspecting sitters. The main secret 
 of success, alike with Eglinton and with Davey, con¬ 
 sisted in their ability, at the critical moment, to divert 
 the sitter’s attention in such a manner that he should 
 himself be unaware of the momentary lapse. It is 
 true that these earlier victims had not, for the most 
 part, any special training in conjuring feats, and did 
 not know exactly what tricks to expect ; and the ques¬ 
 tion of hallucination or dissociation was not raised. 
 The unrealised breaks in attention were in some cases 
 very remarkable. A sitter who had brought to the 
 seance slates completely wrapped in paper and tied up, 
 in order to prevent their being tampered with, would 
 sit by unsuspectingly whilst Davey unfastened the 
 slates, wrote upon the inner surface, and made them 
 into a parcel again. Another, when told to concen¬ 
 trate his attention on a particular slate, on which 
 writing was to be produced, would allow Davey to 
 remove the slate from before his eyes and substitute 
 another, and at the end of the sitting would be pre¬ 
 pared to swear that he had never moved his gaze 
 from the spot. It is permissible to suggest that in 
 this curious skill exercised by Davey and Eglinton 
 we find the first rudiments of the supreme art of which 
 Eusapia, ex hypothesi, is an exponent. Moreover, as 
 already shown, it is by the use of similar devices that 
 Eusapia has admittedly performed many marvels in 
 the past. 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 125 
 
 Let us put the hypothesis of simple sense-deception 
 to the proof, and see how far it will explain the records. 
 
 The first three sittings, at which only Mr. Feilding 
 and Mr. Carrington were present, exhibited little of 
 interest—raps, levitations, movements of table, curtain, 
 and small objects, and a few touches. The most im¬ 
 portant manifestation was the transportation of the 
 small table from behind the curtain on to the stance 
 table in Stance II. At her own request each of 
 Eusapia’s ankles had been tied to the nearest leg of 
 her chair by means of a rope passed round her ankle 
 and tied, then attached to the leg and rung of the 
 chair, leaving her a play of about four inches. At 
 11.30 p.m., the electric light in the s6ance-room having 
 been turned out some time previously, leaving the room 
 to be illuminated solely by the light coming through 
 the partly open door of the adjacent room in which 
 the stenographer sat, the door was still further closed, 
 and the light was now no longer sufficient for the 
 stenographer to see the head of the sitters. C. was 
 seated on the left and F. on the right. 
 
 11.30 p.m. C.—The left curtain has blown right out 
 on to the table. 
 
 C.—My right hand was under the table firmly 
 holding the medium’s left hand. 
 
 F.—I have hold of her right hand continuously 
 in her lap. 
 
 11.34 p.m. F.—The medium kicks with her right foot 
 violently on mine. 
 
 C.—She kicks me with her left foot also. Her left hand 
 raises my right hand towards the curtain. 
 
 Objects in the cabinet rattle on the table inside the 
 curtain. 
 
126 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 11.35 p.m. F.—'Medium asks me to put my left arm on 
 her shoulder. Her right arm is round my neck. 
 
 11.36 p.m. C.—With her left hand medium is holding 
 my right hand on the table. 
 
 11.37 p.m. The objects in the cabinet have fallen over 
 on the table inside it. 
 
 ,C. — She grasped my right hand firmly in her left 
 hand at the time this was going on, and pressed on 
 my right foot with her left. 
 
 F.—I was holding her right hand on the table with 
 my left, and the tips of both her feet under the table 
 with my right hand. 
 
 C.—My left hand was holding her head and I was 
 holding her left hand in my right. 
 
 11.42 p.m. The small table in the cabinet has been 
 lifted up on to the stance table, behind the curtain, several 
 objects remaining upon the top. 
 
 F.—I could see that her head was motionless. 
 
 ,C. —My right hand was held in her left hand on 
 the stance table. Her left foot was on my right. 
 
 F.—Her right hand was in my left hand. I was 
 holding both her toes in my right hand. 
 
 C.—The small table from the cabinet is pushing against 
 me with considerable force, the objects being still on it. 
 
 [The table was pushed out on to the stance table at an 
 angle of about 45 degrees, still covered by the left-hand 
 curtain, which thus prevented the objects from falling off. 
 The four feet of the table were about two feet from the 
 ground, and the table remained in this position for at least 
 one minute, pressing strongly against my hand which had 
 been raised from the table still holding the medium’s, and 
 apparently making efforts to climb on to the stance table. 
 C., Nov. 24/08.] [After which it fell back to the ground. 
 F., Feb. 6/09.] 
 
 C.—My right arm is under the curtain, my hand 
 being held by the medium’s left hand. The curtain 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 127 
 
 has remained on the stance table, covering our two 
 arms, with several small objects inside, these having 
 fallen off the top of the small table. 
 
 The light, it will be seen, had been expressly lowered 
 for j:his performance. There is no difficulty in sup¬ 
 posing that Eusapia knew how to free herself from 
 the leg fastenings which had been put on at her own 
 request. Any conjurer could do as much. The precise 
 moment of freedom was probably marked by the 
 violent kicks recorded and the simultaneous movement 
 of the left arm. She then leaned her body to the 
 right, no doubt to give herself the necessary purchase 
 for imoving the table with her left foot. Eater, she 
 appears to have inclined her head to the left. Five 
 minutes later the little table was lifted up. Her head 
 is now apparently not inclined to either side. The 
 whole of these movements are consistent with the sup¬ 
 position that Eusapia freed her left leg and used jt 
 to move the table, the left curtain being employed 
 at once to conceal the movement and to assist in pre¬ 
 serving the balance of the suspended table. The chief 
 objection to this hypothesis is that Mr. Feilding 
 claimed to be holding the tips of both feet—perhaps 
 one shoe was empty. 
 
 The incident last quoted cannot therefore be held 
 as a good test case. The doubts of the committee, 
 indeed, were not dispelled until a later seance. Let 
 us consider another case of transportatioix—the most 
 striking manifestation of the kind in the whole series, 
 in which it would seem clear that the result could not 
 be explained by the use of the foot alone. 
 
 At Stance VIII., held on December loth, some 
 visitors were invited to attend. One of -them, Mr. 
 
128 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 Ryan, was for a great part of the sitting in control 
 of the left hand and foot. The diagram below repre¬ 
 sents the arrangement of the sitters at the timp of 
 the phenomenon now to be described. 
 
 Mr. Feilding, it will be seen, was in control of the 
 right side, and Mr. Carrington was standing behind 
 him. The light during the progress of ,the manifesta¬ 
 tion was Light III., which is described "^(p. 465) a’s 
 “ = 110 volts, 10 candles, ruby, shaded with one thick¬ 
 ness of thin tissue cream-coloured paper, and one 
 thickness of a white silk handkerchief hung over it, 
 so that the whole handkerchief is illumined with a red 
 glow.” 
 
 12.22 a.m. B.—A white thing appeared between the 
 curtains over her head. 
 
 R.—I saw nothing. 
 
 F.—I saw it. 
 
 F.—Her right hand holding mine on the edge 
 of the table. I am sure it is the whole of it, I 
 am feeling her thumb. 
 
 R.—Something lifts the clay and puts it on the table. 
 
 F.—The medium blew three or four times while it hap¬ 
 pened. The clay came gently out from the side of the 
 curtain near the window, between the medium and R., over 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 129 
 
 her left shoulder, on to the table and on to the top of her 
 right hand and mine. 
 
 R.—The block of clay passed my eye, coming from over 
 my shoulder, and slid down my right arm and passed over 
 to the opposite side of the table. 
 
 R.—My right hand was lying perfectly flat on 
 the middle of the table, and her left hand was 
 stroking my wrist; her left foot between my two 
 feet. 
 
 F.—Her right hand was continuously in mine. 
 My left hand on her head. 
 
 The following are the notes upon the incident made 
 later by Mr. Carrington and Mr. Feilding ; 
 
 I was in an exceptionally good position, standing behind 
 F., for seeing one of the phenomena, viz., the trans¬ 
 portation of the clay from the cabinet to the stance table, 
 shortly after 12.22 a.m., and, as I happened to be closely 
 watching the curtain at the time, I saw the movements of 
 the board and clay very clearly. The clay appeared first 
 at the opening on the extreme left, next to the white 
 window curtains, and at a distance of at least three feet 
 from the medium’s chair. It must have been moved to 
 that point, 2, from its former position on the small table 
 in the cabinet, 1. [It was transported from 2 to the right 
 shoulder of R. H. C., June 30/09] and then slid gently 
 down on to the table, until it rested at the point 3. I saw 
 a white, opaque substance, about two inches broad and six 
 inches long, apparently carrying this clay, which came across 
 the medium’s left arm, her left hand being on R.’s right. 
 The movement of the clay was peculiar. It travelled slowly 
 as though carried through the air, and was most certainly 
 not thrown. It would have been an utter impossibility for 
 the medium to have placed the clay in the position in which 
 I first saw it, 2 (even supposing that she had her left 
 hand free), and then to have moved it on to the stance 
 table. Had she done so, the left-hand curtain, behind which 
 her left arm must have been thrust, would have been 
 crumpled together and carried forward some considerable 
 distance over her arm. Such, however, was not the case. I 
 clearly saw that the left-hand curtain did not move, and 
 
 9 
 
130 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 I am consequently quite sure that her left arm and hand 
 did not and could not have transported the clay from the 
 left opening of the cabinet curtain to the stance table. 
 
 H. ,C., Dec. 15, 1908. 
 
 I find I wrote no contemporary note to this stance. My 
 recollection is, however, perfectly clear as to the trans¬ 
 portation of the clay. Eusapia’s two hands were both 
 visible, her left on R.’s right near the middle of the table, 
 her right hand under my right about a foot distant from 
 her left. I did not see the board on which was the clay 
 till it arrived on R.’s right shoulder, nor did I notice the 
 white opaque substance referred to by C. I saw the board 
 and clay, however, slide slowly down R.’s right arm, alight 
 on the table by his hand, move across the table and come 
 on to the top of my own right hand near my. side of the 
 table. I am absolutely certain that neither of Eusapia’s 
 hands carried them. 
 
 E. F., April 14, 1909. 
 
 Mr. Carrington’s note, it will be seen, was not made 
 until five days after the incident. Mr. Feilding’s state¬ 
 ment, made four months later, that he saw Eusapia’s 
 left hand resting on R.’s right in the middle of the 
 table, could in any case be worthy of little credence. 
 Moreover, it is in conflict with R.’s contemporary state¬ 
 ment that the medium’s left hand was stroking his 
 wrist. How long had the hand been stroking his 
 wrist? Was the stroking going on all the time? And 
 how does he know that it was a hand, and a left hand, 
 all the time? He doesn’t say that he saw the medium’s 
 hand, nor does Mr. Carrington, writing five days later. 
 That clear vision seems only to have been vouchsafed 
 to Mr. Feilding, and he didn’t think it worth mention¬ 
 ing until four months afterwards.* There is nothing 
 in the contemporary statements to forbid the supposi- 
 
 * In his article in McClure’s Magazine, reprinted in the 
 Journal of the American S.P.R., Mr. Carrington, in a 
 
BUS APIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 131 
 
 tion that whilst Eusapia’s right hand was held by F., 
 who was feeling the thumb “ on the edge of the table,” 
 she employed a finger or two of the same hand to 
 stroke R.’s wrist, being unable to reach his hand, which 
 was flat on the table, and thus had the left hand free 
 to move the clay. 
 
 But criticism of isolated manifestation is unprofit¬ 
 able. This particular feat has indeed been selected 
 for consideration because the Committee themselves 
 directed attention to it in their Summary ’(P* 33 ^)‘ 
 Let us take a broader view, and consider the stances 
 as a whole. Broadly speaking, the manifestations fall 
 into two classes. In the one may be placed levita¬ 
 tions of table, movements of objects within and with¬ 
 out the cabinet, bulging of dress of curtain, grasps 
 of invisible hands. Now, all these things could be 
 done if Eusapia had the free use of a foot, sometimes 
 even of a knee, her head, or some other part of her 
 person. It is impossible in the given conditions— 
 conditions of Eusapia’s own choosing—effectively to 
 check the controller’s statements that such freedom 
 was not permitted. But the rarer and what may be 
 called the ” higher ” phenomena—transportation of 
 objects from the cabinet to the top of the table, lights, 
 the appearance of visible hands and heads—would re- 
 
 similar fashion, amplifies at a later date the contemporary 
 notes. In relating that he felt his arm gripped by a hand, 
 he says in the magazine article : ” I was holding both of 
 Eusapia’s hands in mine. ... Her feet, knees, and head 
 were also visible.” But from the shorthand notes (Report, 
 p. 518 ) it appears that one of Eusapia’s hands was under 
 the curtain, and nothing is said about the feet and knees 
 being visible. Perhaps Mr. Carrington means that he would 
 have seen them if he had looked under the table. 
 
132 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 quire in most cases the use of a hand, and it is not 
 only easier to control the hands, but easier to check 
 the controller’s statements that the hands were effec¬ 
 tively controlled. If, as seems occasionally to have 
 happened, a foot is used in these feats, extensive move¬ 
 ments of Eusapia’s body will be observed. 
 
 At the first three stances Mr. Carrington and Mr. 
 Feilding were in sole control. 
 
 During these three stances the only “ higher ” 
 phenomena were the transportation of the table in 
 Stance II., already described, and the appearance of 
 a black head emerging from the curtain [(p. 370). 
 This solitary apparition was seen at a moment when 
 Mr. Feilding had released the medium’s right hand 
 and was kneeling down to cut the rope by which her 
 feet were confined. 
 
 At Stance IV. two strangers. Professor Bottazzi and 
 Professor Galeotti, were in control for part of the 
 time. During the period of their control two white 
 things shot out from the cabinet (p. 408). After 
 Mr. Feilding resumed control the white things appeared 
 no more. 
 
 Seances V., ,VI., VII.—Mr. Baggally, who had 
 now come over from England, was in control of 
 Eusapia’s right hand throughout these three stances, 
 except for two brief and unproductive * periods at the 
 beginning of Stances V. and VII., during which Mr. 
 Carrington controlled. Mr. Carrington was on each 
 occasion displaced by direction of the medium to make 
 room for Mr. Baggally. 
 
 During these three stances the “ higher phenomena ” 
 were abundant. 
 
 « Unproductive, that is, of “ higher ’’ phenomena. 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 133 
 
 Stance VIII.—Mr. Ryan in control of the left side. 
 Higher phenomena abundant. 
 
 Stance IX.—Mr. Carrington in control of right, Mr. 
 Baggally left. No higher phenomena. 
 
 Stance X.—A failure. 
 
 Stance XI.—A visitor, Mrs. Hutton, continuously in 
 control of left hand. Higher phenomena abundant. 
 
 There were, therefore, only five completely repre¬ 
 sentative stances. We should not be surprised to find 
 that at two of these, VIII. and XI., the most striking 
 phenomena—appearance of heads, hands, transportation 
 of objects from cabinet—took place on the side con¬ 
 trolled by the stranger, on these two occasions the 
 left side. But a similar preference for one side is 
 at least equally conspicuous in the three remaining 
 stances, V., VI., VII., the side preferred being the 
 right side, which was controlled by Mr. Baggally. 
 
 We find that the whole of the higher phenomena at 
 these three stances, V., VI., VII., occurred within reach 
 of the limbs controlled by Mr. Baggally, and could 
 be explained on the assumption that Mr. Baggally 
 was mistaken in supposing that at the time of the 
 particular feat he was in actual contact with the right 
 hand and right foot of the medium. The actual limb 
 used—at any rate, for the special feats under con¬ 
 sideration—at these three seances was, it would seem 
 probable in most cases, the right hand. There are 
 the following grounds for thinking that Mr. Baggally 
 may have been mistaken in his conviction : 
 
 I. Throughout these three seances Eusapia’s right 
 hand, with few exceptions, is reported as resting qn 
 or under Mr. Baggally’s left hand, whereas Eusapia’s 
 left hand is generally reported as lying in or being 
 
134 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 held by the hand of the other controller, Mr. Fell ding 
 or Mr. Carrington. 
 
 2. On many occasions in these three stances it is 
 reported that the right-hand curtain has blown over 
 Mr. Baggally so as to cover his arm and hand, or, 
 again, it is reported that he is holding the hand pf 
 the medium through the curtain or under the curtain. 
 It is clear that in the hands of a practised conjurer— 
 and such we must assume Eusapia to be—the use of a 
 curtain would considerably facilitate the freeing of a 
 hand ; e.g., when the controller’s hand had been to 
 some extent numbed by continuous pressure, the folds 
 of the curtain might be made, for a time, to do duty 
 for a hand detached for special service. It is surely 
 extremely significant that during these three stances 
 neither of Mr. Baggally’s colleagues was on any 
 single occasion embarrassed in this manner. This use 
 of the curtain was reserved for Mr. Baggally, 
 
 3, The medium is reported as occasionally releasing 
 one hand momentarily and replacing it. This 
 manoeuvre is not exclusively reserved for the hand 
 held by B. In Stance V., for instance, on at least 
 two occasions she released herself from F.’s grasp 
 [(see 10.44I and 11.37 p.m.). But no results of 
 importance followed on these occasions. In the case 
 of B., however, the manoeuvre is employed to some 
 purpose [(see VI,, 12.4, 12.30 ; VII., 10.59 p.m.). 
 On each of these occasions, after control is resumed, 
 it is found that both of Eusapia’s hands are on her 
 knees, the right hand lying on Mr. Baggally’s, the 
 left hand held by the other controller. Now, these 
 are precisely Eusapia’s usual preliminaries to sub¬ 
 stitution of hands. She is known to practise this trick 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 135 
 
 whenever circumstances allow it. Several instances 
 were detected during the course of these stances (twice 
 in Stance III., and again in X., 12.11; XI., 10.30). 
 There is nothing in the contemporary report of Mr. 
 Baggally’s utterances to forbid the supposition that 
 the device was successfully employed by Eusapia on 
 these three occasions. On none of these occasions 
 does he make mention of the thumb, or show any signs 
 of being alive to the danger of substitution, and on 
 each of the three occasions the release of the hand 
 was followed shortly by the appearance from behind 
 the curtains of a “ head ” or nondescript object. 
 Again, at Stance VI., 11.40, the release of the right 
 hand is followed, as usual, by the appearance from] 
 between the curtains of a nondescript object, but the 
 right hand this time is found on the table under the 
 curtain . 
 
 But the special applicability of these remarks will 
 be made plainer by an actual extract from the record. 
 
 I will begin with an incident which Mr. Baggally 
 has specially challenged me to explain.^ 
 
 Stance V., 11.38.—B. controls on right, F. on left. 
 C., standing beside F., leans over table and feels a 
 hand under the curtain about two feet above medium’s 
 head. iWhat is this hand? and how did it come there? 
 
 Let us see what had preceded its appearance. 
 
 At 11.30 C. had reported ; “ The curtain ” , (which 
 curtain is not specified) “ is blown right out against 
 me as I am leaning over the table.” 
 
 • Journal S.P.R., February, 1910 . I have chosen this 
 incident because it is the first on the list ; but all the other 
 cases cited by Mr. Baggally seem to me explicable by 
 similar methods. 
 
136 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 At 11.36 F. reported : “ She is leaning back in my 
 arms, my right hand on her two knees and her left 
 hand on the corner of the table.” 
 
 B.—‘‘ Her right hand on my left hand on the table. 
 She swings her right foot backwards and forwards 
 continuously, and I follow it with my left foot.” 
 
 At 11.37 F. reports : “I have hold of her left hand 
 again.” 
 
 B. makes no report. 
 
 Immediately after the touch at 11.38 F. reports: 
 “ Her head is lying on my shoulder, her left hand 
 continues in piine.” 
 
 B. makes no report. 
 
 C. reports another push. 
 
 F. again reports his control. B. makes no report. 
 
 C. reports a third push. B. then, and not till then, 
 reports that her right foot is still swinging backwards 
 and forwards followed by his foot. 
 
 I take it that the three pushes were caused by 
 Eusapia’s right foot, lifted up under cover of the 
 curtain and of B.’s prolonged lapse of attention, and 
 that Eusapia’s curious position in F.’s arms was de¬ 
 signed to give her the necessary fulcrum for the move¬ 
 ment. A similar attitude, as we have just seen, was 
 reported in connection with the transportation of the 
 small table in Stance II. 
 
 Now let us turn to the last part of Seance VIL, 
 the third of three consecutive successful stances in 
 which, as will be seen from the summary prefixed by 
 the Committee to their report, the phenomena seem 
 to have reached; a maximum of intensity and frequency. 
 
 Seance VII.—At 10.54 p.m. the medium asks to be 
 allowed to touch the curtain, presumably with the hand. 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 137 
 
 but which hand is not stated. Three minutes later, at 
 10.57 p.m., a white thing comes out from between the 
 curtains. 
 
 F. reports that he is holding left hand, feeling 
 thumb. B. feels the fingers of the right hand resting 
 on his. Both hands are in the medium’s lap. 
 
 10.58 another white thing appears. F.’s control as 
 before. B. reports: “Her right hand on my left 
 hand, both on pay knee.” 
 
 At 10.59 medium momentarily releases her right 
 hand from B.’s control. .Within the next few minutes 
 there follow several thumps on the table, a partial 
 levitation, a black thing shoots about feet towards 
 B.’s head ; the table in the cabinet is shaken. 
 
 F. reports that throughout these phenomena he is 
 holding the medium’s left hand in his right on her 
 lap ; B., first, that the medium’s right hand rests on 
 his left hand on her right knee ; next, that he holds 
 the right hand in his left hand on her lap ; lastly, 
 that her right hand is on his left hand on her knee.' 
 
 At 11.17 p.m. F. is touched on his left hand, which 
 is on the back of the medium’s neck. 
 
 Both Eusapia’s hands are now reported to be on 
 the table ; but B. reports : “She has her right hand 
 in my left resting on the table, under the curtain.” 
 
 11.20 p.m. C.—A bell from the cabinet is lifted from 
 the small table in the cabinet, through the curtain, and put 
 upon the medium’s head and remains there. 
 
 ' B.’s statement is not very clear. At 10.58 he had 
 reported, “ Her right hand on my left hand, both on my 
 knee.’’ At 10.59 he reports that the hand has been momen¬ 
 tarily released, and adds, “ Both hands are now again on 
 her right knee.” If he is correctly reported, Eusapia has 
 effected an important change in position without the 
 controller realising that any change has occurred. 
 
138 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 F.—I heard the bell, which had been on the table in the 
 cabinet, begin to ring, and then it suddenly appeared out¬ 
 side the curtain and came over the medium’s head, and it 
 hung there and went on ringing. , She told me it was tied to 
 her head. I felt with my fingers, and felt something like 
 muslin tying it to her hair. As I was looking at it I 
 suddenly saw a white thing, which I thought was the 
 medium’s right hand, come to untie the bell, ring it hard, 
 and throw it on to the stance table. This was within one 
 foot of my nose. I could see the medium’s face perfectly. 
 
 B. —I saw the bell come out and lie on the medium’s 
 head, and also saw it thrown from her head on to the 
 table. 
 
 C. —I saw the hand coming to untie the bell, and heard 
 the bell ringing above her head ; also saw the hand throw 
 it out on the table. 
 
 [I also saw this hand distinctly lift, ring, and throw the 
 bell, but thought it was F. or medium’s hand. M. (the 
 stenographer), Dec. 8/08.] 
 
 [B.—I did not see the hand. Dec. 8/08.] 
 
 F.—Her left hand was visibly in my right all the 
 time on the table. 
 
 B.—During the whole of this phenomenon her 
 right hand was resting on my left hand on the 
 table and her right foot on my left foot. 
 
 F.—I had got the whole of her left hand on the 
 table visibly in my right on my corner of the table, 
 so that it is perfectly clear that there cannot be 
 any question of substitution. 
 
 B. does not say whether the hand he held, or 
 believed himself to hold, was still enveloped in the 
 curtain. That it was so may perhaps be inferred from 
 the fact that F. mentioned that Eusapia’s left hand 
 was visible on the table, but does not say the same 
 of Eusapia’s right hand. Nevertheless, as we learn 
 from the notes written the next day, the light at the 
 time was sufficiently good for the stenographer, distant 
 six feet from the medium, to see the hand which was 
 busied with the bell on the medium’s head. 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 139 
 
 A't 11.26, 11.30, 11.32, and 11.36 a white object 
 is reported issuing from the curtains. At 11.36 a 
 brilliant light is seen by F. and the stenographer. 
 B.’s reports are : At 11.30, “ control of foot and hand 
 exactly the same as before.” At 11.32, ‘‘My control 
 also quite complete. I confirm with my hand that her 
 foot is really on mine.” 
 
 11.37 p.m. F.—Now another light has come out, this 
 time on the medium’s lap. 
 
 F.—Her left hand is on the table in mine. 
 
 {It will be observed that B.'s control is not stated.} 
 
 [I asked if the lights might be shown to the others, who 
 had not yet seen them owing to the position of the curtain. 
 F., Dec. 8/08. ] 
 
 11.42 p.m. Five tilts of the stance table, apparently 
 without contact, ask for less light. 
 
 F.—My hand on her lap with hers. 
 
 B.—My hand on hers ; control of feet also the 
 same. 
 
 11.45 p.m. 
 
 Light IV. 
 
 B.—Both C. and I saw a brilliant light inside the cabinet 
 about 2^ feet from medium, inside the right-hand curtain. 
 
 B.—Her right hand was on my left hand, but 
 she had lifted her foot and placed it on the bar of 
 her chair. I have verified this fact with my hand. 
 
 F.—Her hand in mine on this side of the table, 
 and her left foot was on mine. 
 
 It will be observed that B. does not state whether 
 Eusapia’s hand is on the table or in her lap, nor 
 whether it is still under the curtain. 
 
 11.54 p.m. Something touches B.’s jacket; again 
 something presses through the curtain against B.’s face. 
 F. holds Eusapia’s hand in her lap. B. reports : ‘‘ My 
 
140 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 control as before, except that she has now taken her 
 right foot from the chair and is now pressing my left 
 foot with it.” 11.58 to 12 . 1 . B. again feels a touch 
 and a pressure through the curtain, and hears a sound 
 like the clicking of nails. 
 
 12 . 1 . F. reports control the same. 
 
 B.—‘‘ The control the same as before of both hands 
 and feet. Her right hand on the table during the last 
 phenomena ”—from which it may nO' doubt be in¬ 
 ferred that her right hand had previously been in her 
 lap—an important fact which B. had not stated. 
 
 12 . 5 - 2 - a.m. F.—I saw a thing exactly like the head 
 of a ninepin or a small wooden head. It stayed out about 
 three seconds. 
 
 B. —I saw this object come out too. 
 
 [It came from the farthest side of the right curtain, past 
 B.’s head, rather slowly, towards F., above the level of our 
 heads, and then went back again. B. and F., Dec. 8/08.] 
 
 F.—It is certainly not the medium’s left hand, 
 which is motionless on this corner of the table. 
 
 B.—And it is certainly not the right hand, because 
 I had control of it all the time. My foot control is 
 the same. 
 
 12.9 a.m. B.—I saw a hand distinctly come out of the 
 (extreme right of the) curtain ; it grasped my left shoulder, 
 and I felt its thumb and four fingers. My control is the 
 same as before. 
 
 C. —I saw the white hand, which seemed to me to remain 
 out about three seconds. 
 
 F.—I was complaining to the medium that the head which 
 came out was not large enough to be a man’s head. 
 She said that she had not seen it. While we were talking 
 it came out again. This time it appeared to me to be larger, 
 and it waggled about for quite a time between B. and me. 
 
 F.—I had her left hand absolutely in my left 
 hand, and her left foot on my right foot, and my 
 right hand across both knees. 
 
 B.—My control is the same as before. 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.B. 141 
 
 Again, B. does not tell us the nature of his control, 
 nor the position of Eusapia’s right hand. 
 
 The above extracts give a fair sample of the pheno¬ 
 mena and of the control. They have not been selected 
 with a view to placing the case in an unfavourable 
 light. It is true that the lapses of attention and 
 defects of control appear to have culminated in this 
 stance. But so did the phenomena. 
 
 Thus the case stands. The Committee are certainly 
 not inferior in general capacity to any previous investi¬ 
 gators, and their practical experience is probably un¬ 
 rivalled. The record is as nearly as possible perfect. 
 No other record of the physical phenomena of 
 spiritualism, it may be said, is of any value beside 
 it. And yet the record, as we have seen, is at critical 
 moments incomplete, and at almost every point leaves 
 obvious loopholes for trickery. So far from being 
 required to assume the concurrent and concordant 
 hallucination of sight and touch in two independent 
 observers, the events of the three most important 
 stances can be readily explained if we assume, what 
 the record itself seems to indicate, that a single 
 person was hallucinated—if the Committee prefer the 
 word—and a single sense, the sense of touch. ,We 
 cannot blame the individual members of the Com¬ 
 mittee. Rather we must recognise that the task which 
 they set themselves to perform is probably beyond 
 human powers. In no other field of human activity 
 is the strained and unremitting exercise of every sense 
 faculty for several consecutive hours demanded by the 
 circumstances. Where these three gentlemen have 
 failed, we others would, no doubt, fail more con¬ 
 spicuously and more disastrously. 
 
142 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 There is one way, and only one way, in which ,the 
 operation of a new force in this dubious region can 
 be substantiated to the satisfaction of sober-minded 
 men. iWhen Sir W. Crookes was about to undertake 
 a similar investigation he indicated the principles which 
 should guide scientific research in this field. 
 
 “ The spiritualist tells of flowers with the fresh dew on 
 them, of fruit, and living objects being carried through 
 closed windows and even solid brick walls. The scientific 
 investigator naturally asks that an additional weight (if 
 it be only the thousandth part of a grain) be deposited on 
 one pan of his balance when the case is locked. And the 
 chemist asks for the thousandth of a grain of arsenic to be 
 carried through the sides of a glass tube in which pure 
 water is hermetically sealed.” > 
 
 Only by such means—only, that is, by the produc¬ 
 tion of effects which are not merely measured and 
 recorded by instruments of precision, but which dis¬ 
 pense at all points with the necessity for supervision 
 by fallible human senses—can the reality of the hypo¬ 
 thetical new force be established. More than a genera¬ 
 tion has passed since Sir W. Crookes wrote the words 
 above quoted, but the desired proof is not forthcoming. 
 No doubt he has tried to procure evidence of the 
 kind required. We know that Zollner tried—and failed. 
 We know that every attempt hitherto made to obtain 
 such an automatically guaranteed record has failed. 
 Attempts have actually been made, as we have seen, 
 to obtain such evidence in the case of Eusapia, but 
 they, too, have failed. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to point out that the con¬ 
 viction of Messrs. Baggally, Carrington, and Feilding 
 that their senses were not deceived is quite irrelevant 
 
 > ‘‘ Researches in Spiritualism,” by Sir William Crookes, 
 F.R.S. London, 1874. 
 
EUSAPIA PALLADINO AND THE S.P.R. 143 
 
 to the issue. If a man knows that he is deceived, the 
 deception is ipso facta incomplete. In any case the 
 matter is not to be decided by argument, but by ex¬ 
 periment. Uet renewed and again renewed attempts 
 be made to procure physical effects under automatic 
 check, and automatically recorded, and until success 
 has been obtained, let us leave Eusapia in a decent 
 obscurity. The mere fact that throughout its existence 
 of more than sixty years modern spiritualism has no 
 single piece of evidence of the kind to offer is in 
 itself of extreme significance. If test experiments of 
 the kind indicated have not been frequently tried—as 
 we know they have been tried occasionally—so much 
 the worse for the qualifications of the investigators. 
 If they have been repeatedly tried, and have failed, 
 so much the worse for the phenomena. 
 
 Since the above chapter was completed news of an 
 interesting exposure of Eusapia’s methods comes from 
 America. At a sitting held on December i8th a young 
 man under cover of the darkness crept half into the 
 cabinet behind Eusapia. It was too dark to see any¬ 
 thing, but, warned by a slight movement of the small 
 table '(preparatory, no doubt, to its transportation), he 
 put out his hand and grasped a human foot, unshod, 
 by the instep. Eusapia at the same moment screamed 
 out that her foot had been touched. The interesting 
 point about the incident is that Professor Miinsterberg, 
 the well-known psychologist, was controlling on the 
 left side—it was a left foot that was seized—and con¬ 
 tinuously felt the pressure of her left foot, as he 
 supposed, on his. What he felt was, no doubt, the 
 empty shoe.* 
 
 > See Miinsterberg’s article in the Metropolitan Magazine, 
 February, 1910 , and Journal S.P.R., April, 1910 . 
 
144 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 At subsequent stances she was watched from a con¬ 
 cealed window in the cabinet, or an observer was 
 secreted in a bureau provided with a peephole. 
 Expert observers, like Mr. W. S. Davis, of New York, 
 were able while seated at her side to satisfy themselves 
 that substitution of hand and foot was habitually 
 practised. But the most complete demonstration pf 
 her methods was obtained at some stances held in 
 April last at the house of Professor Lord, of Columibia 
 University. Whilst Eusapia’s attention was momentarily 
 diverted two extra sitters were introduced, who placed 
 themselves flat on the floor, with their eyes only a 
 few inches from Eusapia’s feet. These observers were 
 able to prove that at this particular stance the whole 
 of the movements of the table, the bulging of the 
 curtain, and the movements of objects in the cabinet 
 were produced by Eusapia’s free foot. She was 
 enabled to free a foot because owing to the narrow¬ 
 ness of the table the feet of the controllers were 
 necessarily very close together, and it was an easy 
 matter for Eusapia to make one foot do duty for two. 
 The whole process of gradual substitution was seen 
 by the concealed observers.^ 
 
 The result of these American observations is to con¬ 
 firm the view taken in the foregoing pages, that the 
 whole of Eusapia’s performances can be explained by 
 the time-honoured device of substitution of foot or 
 hand. 
 
 But it does not appear that Mr. Carrington’s faith 
 in Eusapia’s supernormal powers is seriously shaken. 
 How should it be?. i | 
 
 I See article in Collier^s Weekly (N.Y.), May 14 , 1910 ; 
 and the New York Times, May 12th and subsequent dates. 
 
BOOK II 
 
 I 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 The problem considered in the preceding book was a 
 comparatively simple one. Either the phenomena 
 described were mere conjuring tricks, eked out by mis¬ 
 representation and illusion, or they are a proof of 
 some supernormal agency. There is no middle course. 
 That on the former alternative the authors of the 
 conjuring tricks were not wholly responsible for the 
 fraud involved is a conceivable hypothesis. But it 
 is one with which, in this particular field, we are not 
 directly concerned, since it can have no bearing upon 
 the nature of the phenomena. 
 
 But in the region which we are now about to enter 
 the problems presented to us are much more complex ; 
 so complex, indeed, that there seems little likelihood 
 of a final solution being attained in this generation. 
 And the question of fraud, apart altogether from 
 ethical considerations, assumes considerable import¬ 
 ance. I should, perhaps, state at the outset, as 
 emphatically as possible, that it seems to me incredible 
 that fraud should be the sole explanation of the 
 revelations made in trance and automatic writing. No 
 one who has made a careful study of the records, and 
 
 10 W5 
 
146 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 is sufficiently free from prepossession to enable him 
 to form an honest opinion, will believe that any 
 imaginable exercise of fraudulent ingenuity, supple¬ 
 mented by whatever opportuneness of coincidence and 
 laxness on the part of the investigators, could con¬ 
 ceivably explain the whole of these (communications. 
 And the more intimately they are studied the more the 
 conviction grows that we must assume supernormal 
 agency of one kind or another. In what follows, then, 
 I shall take it for granted that fraud is not the 
 complete explanation,. 
 
 But that fraud—or what would in ordinary circum¬ 
 stances be called fraud—plays some part in the results 
 I do not doubt. The word is not happily chosen ; 
 play-acting or make-believe would more nearly express, 
 in typical cases, the meaning to be conveyed. But the 
 nature of the problem will become clearer as the 
 discussion proceeds. 
 
 To understand the full significance of anything we 
 must trace it to its roots ; we must make ourselves 
 acquainted with its history. The most conspicuous 
 example in modern times of trance revelations is (to 
 be found in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. 
 But Swedenborg’s seership was an isolated phenomenon. 
 He had no immediate successors. For practical 
 purposes trance speaking and trance writing are co¬ 
 eval with mesmerism and the induced trance. 
 Towards the end of the eighteenth century in the 
 records of the Societies of Harmony, which were 
 founded in France to carry on the work of Mesmer, 
 we find accounts of mediums who spoke in the trance 
 words which were recognised by the bystanders as 
 proceeding from an intelligence not that of the 
 
THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 147 
 
 speaker. Throughout the first half of the nineteenth 
 century trance speakers of this kind were common in 
 Germany. The physicians—enthusiastic magnetists— 
 who observed them believed that their entranced 
 patients were possessed or inspired by spirits, and in 
 that conviction cherished all their utterances with 
 scrupulous care. There is no reason to suppose that 
 there was any pretence about the trance, or about 
 the impersonation of spirit controls, the descrip¬ 
 tions of journeys to the moon, the planets, or heaven 
 itself. All that is now part of the recognised phantasy 
 of the dream consciousness. 
 
 But in some of the best-known cases the trance 
 utterances were accompanied by what passed for tele¬ 
 pathic or clairvoyant visions, and in one noted case, 
 the famous Seeress of Prevorst, by various physical 
 phenomena. I have tried in vain to find in the records 
 of these German somnambules any telepathic or 
 clairvoyant incidents resting on fairly good evidence. 
 They may have been genuine, but it is suspicious that 
 the accidents and other happenings seen by the clair¬ 
 voyants in the trance mostly concerned members of 
 their own families. The physical phenomena in the 
 case of the Seeress of Prevorst—throwing of gravel 
 and occasionally candlesticks and boots—must, in 
 accordance with the presumption already referred to, 
 be taken as prim& facie evidence of fraud. 
 
 But a trance medium is, ex hypothesi, in an 
 abnormal condition ; and there are other indications 
 that the dissociation of consciousness frequently in¬ 
 volves impaired moral control. In using the word 
 “ fraud,” therefore, in this connection we do not neces¬ 
 sarily imply a higher degree of moral responsibility 
 
148 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 than when we pass judgment ori the play-acting pf 
 a child. Conjuring tricks and sham telepathy seem 
 to be merely part of the automatic romance.* 
 
 It is easy to recognise the probability of such an 
 explanation in the case of Frau Hauffe and other 
 German somnambules—sickly neurotics whose psychical 
 instability was accompanied by, or perhaps rather based 
 upon, serious physical deficiencies and anomalies. It 
 is more difficult to apply the same measure to the 
 case of a highly educated and apparently normal and 
 healthy Englishman. Stainton Moses was aJ graduate 
 of Oxford, for some years a clergyman of the Church 
 of England, and English Master in University College 
 School. In the prime of his life he developed into 
 a spirit medium of the most advanced kind. He wrote 
 “ inspirational ” discourses and books, and delivered 
 messages purporting to come from the dead. Most 
 of his clairvoyant revelations can be shown to be re¬ 
 productions of recent obituary notices in the news¬ 
 papers and other published material. The few 
 instances which have not yet been traced to such 
 readily accessible sources cannot be certainly relied 
 upon as indicating supernormal faculty.2 But Stain- 
 ton Moses was also a physical medium. In his 
 presence brass candlesticks, Parian statuettes, flowers, 
 and seed pearls were brought into the darkened 
 seance-room ; delicious scents oozed from the medium’s 
 head ; pencils wrote of themselves ; spirit lights floated 
 around ; the strains of exquisite spirit music would be 
 
 > For a full discussion of the psychology of mediumship 
 see M. Flournoy’s “ Des Indes k la Planete Mars.” 
 
 2 See an analysis, by the writer, of these trance revela¬ 
 tions in “ Studies in Psychical Research,” pp. 125—33. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 149 
 
 heard ; sometimes the medium would be levitated in 
 the darkness. 
 
 Stainton Moses worked under conditions entirely 
 favourable to trickery, in complete darkness, unbound, 
 without tests or precautions of any kind, and in the 
 midst of a circle of confiding friends—and the pheno¬ 
 mena were generally reported by himself. ,We should 
 laugh at such “ evidence ” in the case of a profes¬ 
 sional medium. If it is still thought by some persons 
 worthy of consideration in the case of Stainton Moses, 
 it is because of the difficulty of reconciling the elabo¬ 
 rate and systematic trickery involved with the character 
 of an English gentleman, for some time a clergyman 
 of the Established Church. 
 
 The question resolves itself into the weighing of 
 two improbabilities. But until Eusapia, or some other, 
 has moved the smoke-blackened balance, or depressed 
 the covered manometer, we must assume that the 
 candlesticks and the spirit lights were brought into 
 the stance-room in Moses’ pockets, and that the re¬ 
 ported levitations were due to cunning suggestion 
 acting in a dark room on a trustful audience. Let it 
 be noted, however, that Stainton Moses’ life was given 
 up to the propaganda of a new faith : and if our view 
 of his physical phenomena is correct, he enforced the 
 lesson of inspirational sermons by means of parlour 
 conjuring tricks parading as miracles. The thing in 
 a sane man is incredible. On either hypothesis we 
 have to assume abnormality. Either Stainton Moses 
 was gifted with abnormal powers as a physical 
 medium, or he presented some extraordinary psycho¬ 
 logical abnormality which could reconcile inspired 
 sermons and parlour conjuring tricks. 
 
150 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 The case of Stainton Moses may throw some light 
 on, and in turn be illuminated by, the case of another 
 clergyman, who appears to have excited the admira¬ 
 tion of his friends by many feats of pseudo¬ 
 clairvoyance. 
 
 The Rev. C. B. Sanders was a Presbyterian minister 
 living in Alabama. He was bom in 1831, the seventh 
 child of his parents. From 1854 to 1876 he was 
 subject to severe nervous attacks, attended with con¬ 
 siderable pain and the apparent opening of the main 
 sutures in the skull. !(This phenomenon, though 
 described by several lay witnesses, is not attested by 
 his medical attendant, who gives otherwise a full 
 description of the case.) During these attacks a 
 secondary personality, accompanied by a complete 
 change of consciousness, developed itself. This 
 secondary personality assumed the title of X + Y = Z. 
 The thoughts and doings of X + Y = Z were 
 hidden from the waking Mr. Sanders, whilst 
 X + Y = Z had complete ktiowledge of his primary 
 personality. X + Y = Z soon showed himself gifted 
 with remarkable powers. Some of his feats— e.g., 
 shooting ducks at night, which were invisible to his 
 companions—could probably be explained by hyper- 
 assthesia of vision ; others—the habitual writing of 
 letters and sermons with his hand and the paper 
 entirely concealed by the bedclothes—appear to point 
 to a special exaltation of the muscular sense. But 
 X + Y = Z also gave numerous demonstrations of 
 what appears to have been genuine telepathy. On 
 several occasions he told of a death or an accident 
 occurring in the circle of his acquaintance hours or 
 days before the news reached the town where he lived. 
 
THE NATURE OP THE PROBLEM 
 
 151 
 
 Two of thfee cases, out of many, are died by Mr. 
 Myers '(“Human Personality,” Vol. II., pp. 566-9). 
 The witnesses to these events are beyond suspicion, 
 the evidence is clearly given, and from the nature of 
 some of the Cases it seems improbable that there could 
 have been any mistake or misrepresentation. More¬ 
 over, the published instances, themselves selected, as 
 we are told, out of much larger numbers, are fairly 
 numerous. It seems difficult to question that Mr. 
 Sanders, in his secondary state, was gifted not only 
 with remarkable extensions of the ordinary sensory 
 faculties, but also with the new mode of perception 
 which has been named telepathy. But there are some 
 marvellous occurrences recorded which cannot be ex¬ 
 plained either by telepathy or by any extension of 
 the known senses. They are concerned with the find¬ 
 ing of money or jewellery. There are twelve cases 
 of the kind recorded in the book.* 
 
 Thus, on one occasion Mr. Sanders was driving in 
 a carriage with two ladies. He went into a trance and 
 got out of the carriage, attended by one of the ladies, 
 who writes : 1 
 
 “ He got out with his eyes still closed, for I watched 
 this closely, and, counting aloud sixteen steps, stooped down, 
 caught hold of the hook of a rather heavy gold watch- 
 chain, and drew it out of the sand, which fell from the 
 chain as he drew it up. My eye followed his hand as it 
 stooped, and there was nothing visible to me till he drew 
 the chain out of the sand” (p. 97). 
 
 Three other instances occurred in daylight ; in the 
 remaining eight cases the discovery was made at night. 
 
 I ‘‘X + Y = Z; or, the Sleeping Preacher of North 
 Alabama,” by Rev. G. W. Mitchell. New York, 1876 . 
 
152 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 Thus, about eleven o’clock one night X + Y = Z said 
 he saw a nickel in the lot, went out at once, walking 
 very fast, attended by the company, and was seen to 
 pick a nickel off the ground. In four other cases Mr, 
 Sanders found respectively a dollar, a ten-dollar bill, 
 a five-dollar bill, and one old dollar. In all these 
 cases he picked up the articles himself—at night. In 
 three cases he led his friends out at night, and indi¬ 
 cated a plot of ground on which a coin would be 
 found. In three cases only out of twelve does it appear 
 that the object “ found ” had ever been lost ; and yet 
 one would scarcely suppose that the soil of a rural 
 township in America would be so thickly sown with 
 casual currency.* ! 
 
 The clairvoyance of X -f Y = Z was exclusively 
 directed to finding “ lost ” objects of this kind, always 
 jewels or money or other small articles of value, and 
 generally in the dark. In no one of the twelve recorded 
 instances is there any serious difficulty in the suppo¬ 
 sition that X + Y = Z had himself placed the article 
 where it was eventually found. There can be no 
 reasonable doubt that this was in fact the case. For 
 there is no evidence worth considering for “ clair¬ 
 voyance ” of this kind. There are also several 
 analogous incidents in X + Y = Z’s experiences of 
 apparently manufactured telepathy. 
 
 In short, we have here the case of a man who passed 
 a considerable part of his adult life in a state of 
 abnormal consciousness, and in that state appears to 
 have given proof of genuine supernormal powers, and 
 
 I In each of the three cases referred to it seems possible, 
 or even probable, that X + Y = Z was responsible for the 
 loss as well as the recovery of the article. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 153 
 
 unquestionably supplemented his genuine gifts by 
 trickery of an obvious, even childlike kind. That his 
 trickery escaped detection—or even suspicion—was, of 
 course, due to the high character of the waking Mr. 
 Sanders, whom his friends knew. 
 
 The whole subject is too novel and obscure to 
 permit us to express a decided opinion. But it seems 
 probable that his friends were justified, and that Mr. 
 Sanders in his normal condition was not responsible 
 —certainly not fully responsible—for the puerile 
 chicanery of his other self. 
 
 Yet another illustration of an apparent mixture of 
 genuine supernormal faculty with what might be inter¬ 
 preted as trickery will perhaps throw further light 
 upon the problem. In the case to be quoted the nature 
 of .the “ trickery ” proves it to have been automatic. 
 Alexis Didier was a well-known professional clair¬ 
 voyant of the middle decades of last century. His 
 feats were attested by Elliotson, Townshend, Newn- 
 ham, and many other mesmerists and magnetists of 
 this country and in France. The most remarkable 
 things told of him are the reading of words or descrip¬ 
 tions of articles in closed packets and the descriptions 
 of distant scenes. Many of these feats are so pre¬ 
 cisely recorded and so well authenticated that it is 
 difficult to doubt their genuineness. They stand pn 
 the same evidential level as many of the similar inci¬ 
 dents recorded in the Proceedings of the S.P.R.' 
 
 There can be little doubt that Alexis was gifted 
 
 * See especially the cases described in the Zoist, vol. ii. 
 p. 517, vol. vi. p. 418, vol. ix. p. 403, vol. xi. p. 75 
 (Adolphe Didier), and the numerous instances recorded in 
 Dr. Lee’s “ Animal Magnetism,” 1866. 
 
154 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 with genuine telepathic powers of a remarkable kind. 
 But his performances also included feats such as play¬ 
 ing cards face downwards and reading with eyes band- 
 agedj which resembled closely the ordinary trick per¬ 
 formances of pseudo-clairvoyants. For a long time I 
 found these questionable performances an insuperable 
 bar to accepting the testimony, otherwise difficult to set 
 aside, for his exercise of telepathy. But recently I haVei 
 come across an interesting proof that Alexis was really 
 in an abnormal state of consciousness during these 
 dubious performances, and that, though his success was 
 no doubt due to the exercise of his normal senses, 
 he was probably not himself conscious of any deception 
 in the matter. 
 
 One of the most puzzling of Alexis’ feats was the 
 reading in a closed book. The performance was 
 witnessed by the celebrated conjurer Houdin, who paid 
 Alexis two visits, and went away completely baffled. 
 The feat was generally performed as follows : a; book 
 would be handed to Alexis, who would himself open 
 it, holding it upright with the edges of the pages 
 towards him, and rapidly turning the leaves over until 
 he reached a particular page, and opened the book flat. 
 A particular part of the open page would then be 
 chosen, sometimes by Alexis, sometimes apparently 
 by the spectators, and Alexis would then read a few 
 words which would be subsequently found at a corre¬ 
 sponding place some pages below. It is clear that, 
 under the conditions described, we can never eliminate 
 the possibility that Alexis, in rapidly turning the open 
 leaves, caught a glimpse of words and sentences in 
 some part of the book, and that he simply reproduced 
 what he had seen. That so simple an explanation did 
 
THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 155 
 
 not suggest itself to Houdin and other skilled obseryers 
 would seem to indicate that Alexis’ powers of vision 
 were preternormally acute—acute to a degree probably 
 in excess of what deliberate training would produce. 
 
 That Alexis was not in a normal condition—that 
 he was, in fact, acting automatically at the time—is 
 proved by one little detail, a detail seemingly so in¬ 
 significant that it escaped the notice, or at least the 
 record, of almost all the contemporary observers. 
 Alexis did not, as a rule—at any rate in his later 
 sittings—speak the words at all. He preferred to write 
 them.' In this one point lies the proof that [Alexis 
 was an automatist and not simply a conjurer. 
 
 A man in full possession of his normal faculties, 
 consciously striving to reproduce an elusive memory, 
 
 ' The accounts given by Elliotson and others of the 
 stances with Alexis in 1844 are much condensed. They 
 were mostly too much preoccupied with the marvellous side 
 of the programme to record small—and to them insignifi¬ 
 cant—details. And even Sir John Forbes and other critical 
 witnesses do not mention the circumstance. It is, however, 
 stated on two occasions in the reports of 1844 that Alexis 
 wrote the words, and he may have done so generally. But 
 Dr. Lee, who gives a detailed account of thirteen stances 
 with Alexis in 1849 (“ Animal Magnetism,” 1866), specially 
 mentions the writing. In eleven out of nineteen trials of 
 reading several pages in advance, the words—in each case 
 several words—are recorded as having been written down ; 
 in three cases the report leaves it uncertain whether they 
 were written or spoken ; in five instances they were spoken. 
 But in four out of the five spoken tests the test was 
 offered by Alexis, instead of being chosen by the spectators, 
 and consisted of a single word only, e.g., “ Here is a 
 curious word under my pencil.” It is clear, therefore, that 
 Alexis preferred writing, unless he was quite sure of his 
 accuracy. In the nineteen cases there were only three 
 failures : one written, one spoken, one indeterminate. 
 
156 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 would naturally speak rather than write, as involvingi 
 less effort : the mere act of writing would tend to 
 distract him. And a conjurer would unquestionably 
 prefer speech to writing : liter a scripta manet —it js 
 much easier to confuse the issues and disguise a bad 
 shot when it is a question of spoken words only. But 
 just as inevitably as the normal man would prefer 
 speech to writing, the automatist would prefer writing 
 to speech. Automatic writing is much commoner than 
 automatic speech ; it involves much slighter dissocia¬ 
 tion of consciousness, and is apparently a much more 
 delicate and reliable method for interpreting the faint 
 echoes of subconscious perception. It seems practi¬ 
 cally certain, then, that Alexis was an automatic writer, 
 and that his feats of clairvoyance were so far genuine 
 that they involved no conscious deception on his part. 
 
 These historical parallels suggest that we should 
 never be justified, in the case of a trance automatist, 
 in excluding a normal explanation—even though this 
 should involve apparent dishonesty—for any revelations 
 given by automatic writing or speech. In the case 
 just quoted it seems probable that the dishonesty was 
 only apparent. Alexis may well have been quite un¬ 
 conscious of the channel through which he derived his 
 information. It is possible that we may be justified 
 in taking an equally charitable view of the perform¬ 
 ances of X + Y = Z, and that the right hand of Mr. 
 Stainton Moses may not have known what the left hand 
 was doing. 
 
 In this connection it should be recorded thaf most 
 clairvoyants qf note since 1848 have at one time or 
 another exhibited physical phenomena, if only to the 
 extent of rapping and movements of the table, as part 
 
THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 157 
 
 of their mediumistic gifts. This is true not only of 
 the professional mediums, but of some of the chief 
 private clairvoyants and ^.utomatists, who have placed 
 their services gratuitously at the disposal of the Society 
 for Psychical Research, and whose powers of super¬ 
 normal perception seem beyond question. Sometimes 
 the physical phenomena, as in the case of Mrs. 
 Thompson, considered in Chapter III., have been re¬ 
 corded without the name of the medium ; generally 
 they have taken place only in the family circle, or 
 amongst intimate friends, and have escaped public 
 record. But the fact remains that prior to 1902 there 
 are few automatists of importance who do not voyage 
 in the same boat with Home and Eusapia Palladino.’ 
 For, as the case stands, it may fairly be claimed that 
 the occurrence of physical phenomena is primd facie 
 evidence of—I had almost written fraud, but the word 
 does not fit the facts—the production of things which 
 are not what they seem. 
 
 Now, there are several indications in the trance 
 utterances of Mrs. Thompson, and some in those of 
 Mrs. Piper, of a process for which fraud would seem 
 too harsh a name. Make-believe, or economy of the 
 supernormal, would better fit the facts. Dr. Richard 
 Hodgson, who observed some suspicious circumstances 
 in the case of six sittings with the former lady, formed 
 
 • It should be explained that the remarks in the text 
 apply chiefly to automatists who pass into a trance or 
 other abnormal state. Where there is only slight dissocia¬ 
 tion, as in the case of Mrs. Verrall and other more recently 
 developed automatists who appear to retain their normal 
 consciousness during the act of automatic writing, past 
 experience does not, so far as I know, furnish grounds for 
 anticipating these suspicious developments. 
 
158 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 an altogether unfavourable opinion of her powers. The 
 circumstances remain suspicious, but those who have 
 given most study to the subject do not endorse Dr. 
 Hodgson’s opinion. Briefly, Dr. Hodgson found that 
 the names and other correct information given at these 
 six stances could have been derived from some letters 
 placed in Mrs. Thompson’s hand, or otherwise acces¬ 
 sible to her during the seance, and that most of the 
 incorrect information betrayed erroneous, but plausible, 
 deductions from passages in those letters. I see no 
 difficulty in agreeing with Dr. Hodgson that Mrs. 
 Thompson had probably read the letters. But his con¬ 
 clusion that therefore Mrs. Thompson is untrustworthy 
 seems to me to go beyond the warrant of the facts.* 
 Miss Johnson, in the same volume (p. 163) records an 
 instance in which Mrs. Thompson apparently derived 
 some information from an address written on a post¬ 
 card which had been handed to her inside an ppen 
 envelope. Miss Johnson’s impression, however, was 
 that Mrs. Thompson was not conscious of having seen 
 the address, and did not realise the source of her 
 knowledge. On this supposition she would be in the 
 same position as Alexis Didier.2 
 
 Mrs. Verrall notes that the only letter which was 
 satisfactorily read in the course of twenty-two sittings 
 with Mrs. Thompson happened to have been left jn 
 
 * Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xvii. pp. 138 — 61 . 
 
 2 .We know from Mrs. Verrall’s observations, and from 
 the experiments with a magnet made by Messrs. Jastrow 
 and Nuttall, that when the sensory indications are extremely 
 faint, the percipient cannot always determine through which 
 particular channel he gains his information, and may repre¬ 
 sent it to himself through inappropriate sensory images. 
 Thus, Messrs. Jastrow and Nuttall occasionally knew whether 
 
THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 159 
 
 a cupboard in her writing-fable for a period of three- 
 quarters of an hour when Mrs. Thompson was alone 
 in the house with the servants.’ Again, after the first 
 sitting with Miss Jane Harrison, when Mrs. Thompson 
 had probably learnt the identity of her sitter, seven 
 correct names were given, all of which could have 
 been found in “ Who’s Who.”2 Again, Mrs. Thompson 
 in the trance gave the name, age, and place of burial 
 of a lady dead half a; century before, correctly indi¬ 
 cated her relationship to a former acquaintance, and 
 stated that the death had come after great suffering. 
 Precisely these five details were found recorded in an 
 old diary unearthed in a cupboard in Mr. Thompson’s 
 house. Mrs. Thompson herself found and showed the 
 diary to Mr. Piddington, at the same time stating that 
 she had never seen it before .3 In all these cases it 
 may be assumed, without casting reflections on Mrs. 
 Thompson’s honesty, that the knowledge displayed in 
 the trance came from normal sources. 
 
 There are comparatively few instances in which there 
 is reason to suppose that Mrs. Piper may have owed her 
 information to analogous sources. Much stricter pre¬ 
 cautions have been taken, as a rule, in her case, to close 
 all normal avenues. And it has not been the practice 
 
 the current was “ on ” or " off ” without realising that their 
 knowledge was derived from very faint sounds {Pro¬ 
 ceedings of the American S.P.R., pp. 322—6 ; old series). 
 Mrs. Verrall saw the images of cards in which she had 
 only felt the surfaces with her thumbs {Pjoceedings S.P.R., 
 vol. xi. p. 176 ). 
 
 ’ Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xvii. p. 205 . 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 209 . 
 
 3 Ibid., vol. xviii. ppu 268 , 269 . See also p. 284 for 
 another case of information obtained from a letter. 
 
160 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 so frequently as with Mrs. Thompson to hand letters 
 to Mrs. Piper. But there are a few recorded instances 
 which seem to suggest recourse to outside sources. 
 These instances appear to have been more frequent in 
 her early stances. Thus, when the Rev. Robert West 
 professed to communicate through her he gave his full 
 name, the place of his burial, and the text on his 
 tombstone. A’ lad called Guernsey, who had been 
 drowned in Lake Pepin some years previously, fur¬ 
 nished some particulars of the accident ; the spirit of 
 Gracie X. was accurately described in the dress (in 
 which she was portrayed in a life-size statue on her 
 tombstone. In all these cases many correct particu¬ 
 lars were given, including names of persons and of 
 places—of which Mrs. Piper, as a rule, is somewhat 
 grudging—which could have been obtained from news¬ 
 papers and cemeteries, but the information was con¬ 
 fused and inaccurate, suggesting rather imperfect re¬ 
 miniscences of information casually acquired than the 
 deliberate getting up of a case.* I am not aware that 
 many cases of this kind have been observed of recent 
 years. 
 
 But a curious incident occurred at one of Professor 
 Hyslop’s seances, which is strongly suggestive. Pro¬ 
 fessor Hyslop had an uncle, James McClellan, whose 
 father was named John. James McClellan purported 
 to communicate through Mrs. Piper, talked of John 
 McClellan, and mentioned his going to the war and 
 losing a finger there. These two statements were not 
 true of John McClellan, the father of James. But they 
 were true of another John McClellan, no connection of 
 Professor Hyslop’s, who had lived within a few miles 
 
 * Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. pp. 35—43. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 161 
 
 of John, the father of James ; and this other John 
 McClellan is mentioned in the published history of 
 the county.* 
 
 Amongst recent communications from the entranced 
 Mrs. Piper the attempts at translating the Latin 
 message—to be discussed later—point most strongly 
 to what may be called illegitimate sources of informa¬ 
 tion. As will be seen, the translations given in the 
 trance are difficult to reconcile either with the theory 
 of communication from the dead or that of telepathy 
 from the living. Another suspicious incident is the 
 mistranslation of mori.'^ 
 
 To sum up. The presumption of honesty based 
 upon the character and conduct of waking life 
 counts for nothing in the case of a medium who 
 is liable to pass into spontaneous trances. For 
 the upper consciousness, the primary personality, 
 the real self, the man or woman whom we know 
 and regard as ai friend, who lives a sane and 
 :healthy life amongst men and women like him¬ 
 self, who does his day’s work and fulfils his social 
 duties—this familiar person is not responsible for the 
 words spoken by his mouth or for the writing pro¬ 
 duced by his hand in the trance. iWriting and speech 
 alike are the work of some other intelligence. In 
 most cases that other intelligence is unquestionably 
 of the same substance as the primary consciousness— 
 it is either a maimed and mutilated form of it or an 
 allotropic modification of it. 
 
 Nevertheless, in this secondary self—or personified 
 subconsciousness—which we have learnt to know pot 
 
 * Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xvi. pp. 110, 470, 535. 
 
 2 See below. Chapter V., the Sevens incident. 
 
 11 
 
162 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 merely through the revelations of the stance-room, but 
 from the careful studies of many French, German, and 
 American physicians, we have to deal with a being of 
 marked characteristics, which display a curious uni¬ 
 formity, notwithstanding the numerous diversities 
 between the primary selves of the subjects. To begin 
 with, the trance personality is commonly non-moral, 
 in the sense that many children and some savages 
 are non-moral. It knows little of the respect felt 
 by the civilised adult for the thing that is, and still 
 less for the thing that ought to be. It has few scruples. 
 It shows little desire, perhaps has little aptitude, for 
 distinguishing between fact and fiction-i; it has a child¬ 
 like zest for make-believe, a childlike spontaneity of 
 dramatic faculty, and uses whatever material it can 
 find, or invent, to support its self-suggested phan¬ 
 tasies. It presents us, in a word, with the supreme 
 example of art for art’s sake. Its motive force, again, 
 seems to be a childlike vanity which will not permit 
 it to say, “ I don’t know,” but prefers any kind of 
 disingenuous evasion to a pldin confession of ignorance. 
 Again, this dream self which wakens when the true self 
 is asleep has some of its faculties very much alive. 
 It frequently shows an abnormal cunning in fishing for 
 information, and marvellous ingenuity in piecing 
 together the scraps so gained. To this must be added 
 that in many cases we have in the utterances of the 
 secondary self proof, which it is almost impossible to 
 gainsay, of a faculty by which this uncanny monster 
 can on occasion read the secret thoughts of those who 
 consult her as an oracle. 
 
 It is not merely possible, then, that a trance medium 
 will, when opportunity serves, avail himself of any 
 
THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 163 
 
 normal means to achieve the end aimed at by the 
 entranced intelligence ; historical precedents indicate 
 that it is probable that he will do so. And the lives 
 of Stainton Moses and X + Y = Z show us that an 
 automatist may habitually employ what in other circum¬ 
 stances would be called dishonest methods in order to 
 impress his friends with a belief in his marvellous 
 powers ; may all the time escape detection in making 
 the necessary preparations ; and may thus continue to 
 enjoy, and possibly to deserve, an unblemished repu¬ 
 tation in his normal life. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 
 
 Mrs. Piper, as already indicated, is a trance medium, 
 who has lived for many years in Boston, U.S.A. The 
 main outlines of her psychical history are as 
 follows : In 1884, as a young woman, she con¬ 
 sulted for some ailment a professional clairvoyant 
 named Dr. Cocke. At her second visit to Dr. 
 Cocke Mrs. Piper herself became entranced, and was 
 thereafter controlled by a large number of “ spirits ” 
 —an Indian girl named Chlorine, Mrs. Siddons, 
 Bach, Longfellow, Commodore Vanderbilt, Loretta 
 Ponchini, and a French doctor named Phinuit. In 
 the following year, when Mrs. Piper first came under 
 the observation of Professor James and other members 
 of the Society for Psychical Research, Phinuit had 
 obtained almost exclusive control, a position he re¬ 
 tained until 1896, when, as will hereafter be related, 
 he was ousted by a band of superior spirits .under 
 the guidance of Imperator. Since 1885 Mrs. Piper 
 has been under the almost continuous observation and 
 supervision of members of the Society for Psychical 
 Research. Dr. Hodgson assumed entire charge of her 
 sittings until his death in December, 1905. Since 
 that date the arrangements generally have been in the 
 hands of the English or American Societies for 
 Psychical Research. Mrs. Piper visited this country 
 
 164 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 165 
 
 in 1889-90, and gave numerous sittings, under the 
 direction of F. W. H. Myers, Sir O. Lodge, and Dr. 
 Walter Leaf. The general character of her trance 
 utterances is too well known to call for detailed 
 description. 
 
 The following account of two seances, not conspicu¬ 
 ously better than many other stances at this period, 
 will give a fair idea of their nature. Mrs. A., the 
 sitter in the first case, was on a brief visit at Cambridge 
 to her sister, Mrs. B. The brother, whose “ funny 
 arm ” is described, is a literary man, distinguished 
 rather than well known, and it is improbable that Mrs. 
 Piper had ever heard of him, and practically impossible 
 that by normal means she should have known of his 
 relationship to the sister, whose visit was both incognito 
 and impromptu. 
 
 Mrs. A. had come to call at Mr. Myers’ house on 
 the morning of November 24, 1888. She was intro¬ 
 duced to Mrs. Piper and taken upstairs to sit in a few 
 minutes. It is therefore in the highest degree im¬ 
 probable that Mrs. Piper could have had any oppor¬ 
 tunity of learning anything about her beforehand. She 
 was, of course introduced under another name than 
 her jown. The following notes were taken by Mr. 
 Myers : 
 
 I see a sister ... in the body. She has not been well ; 
 has changed her surroundings. 
 
 [The name given was an approach to the right name of 
 one sister, which was afterwards given correctly. It is, 
 however, not correct to say that the sister in question 
 has “changed her surroundings.”] 
 
 I see Jessie Poder [?]. [Not recognised.] 
 
 You have three sisters and two brothers in the body ; an 
 elderly gentleman in the spirit, your father. [Right.] 
 
 One of your brothers has a funny arm, the right arm 
 
166 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 paralysed ; very funny [points to a place a little above 
 the elbow on inside of arm]. That is sore; it is lame. 
 It is on the cord and hurts him, troubles him a good deal. 
 I think I could help him. It has been coming some time. 
 He can’t use his arm ; it aches. He is a smart fellow 
 and could do a great deal of good if he could use his 
 arm. Show me some article belonging to him. The lump 
 keeps growing. He is a nice fellow and has done a great 
 deal of good. He will do more if he can use his arm. 
 I can’t see the future about that. 
 
 [This is a correct description of Mrs. A.’s eldest brother, 
 who suffers from writer’s cramp, which seriously hinders 
 him in his profession. There is a lump on the arm which 
 gives him pain ; but it is significant that it is, in fact, 
 below the elbow, not above it. But Mrs. A. at the time 
 believed it to be above the elbow, as it was described to 
 her. ] 
 
 A spirit (Joseph) comes near to you ; an uncle on the 
 father’s side. [Not recognised.] 
 
 Timothy is the nearest spirit you have got to you ; 
 some call him Tim ; he is your father. Timothy was 
 your grandfather also. Your father tells me about S. W. 
 Stay, I can’t get that, I must wait. Your mother had 
 trouble in the stomach ; she is in the spirit-world. Your 
 father had trouble in heart and head. Myers’ father passed 
 away from disease to the heart. 
 
 [Except the allusion to “ S. W.,” which is not recog¬ 
 nisable, the above is all true, if the “ trouble in heart 
 and head ” be taken to refer to Mr. Myers’ father, as seems 
 to be intended.] 
 
 I see Laurie, Lausia. [Not recognised.] 
 
 You have a brother Jim, James, in the body. He is so 
 funny ; it is hard to get at him. He is kind of stubborn, 
 self-willed. A little quiet influence manages him, but he is 
 wilful if pushed. He comes with the same influence as 
 your father. 
 
 [This is a true description of Mrs. A.’s second brother. 
 Mr. Myers now asked what ^the father Timothy was interested 
 in ; what kind of things he did in earth life, or cared 
 for now.] 
 
 He is interested in the Bible—a clergyman. He used to 
 preach. He has a Bible with him, he goes on reading and 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 167 
 
 advancing. He is living with your mother just the same 
 as on earth. He has been in the spirit-world longer than 
 she has. Your mother is a little nervous. I can’t get her 
 to come near. Your father has a solemn, graceful manner, 
 as he had on earth. He had trouble with his throat— 
 irritation [points to bronchial tubes]. The boys used to 
 call him Tim at college. 
 
 [The above statements are all correct, so far as they can 
 be verified.] 
 
 Howell, a friend of his, has passed over. [Not known.] 
 
 This is the first time your father has spoken to you since 
 he passed out. You may hear footsteps. You do a great 
 deal of work. Sometimes you get a little blue and 
 depressed. You exercise your body. Do you like that 
 picture of your father in the hall ? [here confused as to 
 whether oil or crayon; not photograph]. He has a high 
 collar and a garb partly white ; white in front, round neck, 
 like a high collar, and dark waistcoat. He has a prominent 
 nose, his eyes very clear and grey, bluish grey ; a good-sized 
 man. [Here confused talk as to colour of eyes. Dr. P. says 
 he is not good at colours, and shuffles about.] Brownish 
 grey, hazel ; your eyes are lighter than his. He has 
 a firm expression round the mouth, a determined expression. 
 
 [The account of the portrait is not very satisfactory ; 
 but it is true that there is a large oil portrait of him in 
 Mrs. A.’s sisters’ house in ecclesiastical garb, something 
 as stated. His eyes were brown.] 
 
 Then followed immediately the names of five persons 
 and a description of a sixth, none of which were recog¬ 
 nised. No other incorrect names were given. After 
 this the name of the mother and the names of two 
 sisters were correctly given. The sitter’s own name 
 was given nearly, but not quite, correctly, and she was 
 identified as the daughter of her mother, but not as 
 being present. Some description of the grandchildren 
 was given, partially correct, but showing some con¬ 
 fusion. Other statements about illness, &'c., of other 
 members of the family were partly true and partly 
 false.* 
 
 * Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. pp. 581 — 3 . 
 
168 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 It will be seen that there were several names un¬ 
 recognised and some untrue, irrelevant, confused, or, 
 unverified statements, but the names of the brother, 
 father, grandfather, and mother were all given correctly 
 and without any fishing or ambiguity, and were assigned 
 definitely to their proper owners, living or dead. The 
 names of the sisters and the sitter’s own name were 
 given after some hesitation and inefiectual attempts ; 
 but the number of definite, true statements puts the 
 question of chance guessing wholly out of court. 
 
 In the next case also the sitter, Mr. Harlowi Gale, 
 was a stranger, introduced anonymously and unex¬ 
 pectedly, and in a way which made it certain that 
 information could not have been got up beforehand 
 about him. The sitting took place at Professor 
 Sidgwick’s house at Cambridge, on January 22, 1890. 
 Mrs. Sidgwick was present and took full notes, from 
 which the following account is summarised : 
 
 The sitting was chiefly occupied with a description 
 of different members of Mr. Gale’s family, which he 
 recognised as strikingly accurate. The following are 
 the most important points : 
 
 What is that thing your father wears over his shoulders? 
 He looks quite important in it. He wears it because of 
 his throat. He is in a different place from here. 
 
 [Mr. Gale says that the most noticeable point in his 
 father’s appearance is a white silk handkerchief which he 
 wears because of a sensitiveness of his throat. He lives 
 in Minnesota.] 
 
 lYour father is a queer genius—dreamy. He does not do 
 much ; he leaves that to some one else. He has an office, 
 a desk, books, &c. His peculiarities strike me very much. 
 
 [Mr. Gale says that this is all right, as far as it goes.] 
 
 William, a brother. He is small, a bright little fellow, 
 dark eyes, clear complexion, a pretty fellow, smart as a 
 cricket. 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 169 
 
 [Mr. Gale says that this is a correct account of his 
 brother William, a boy of sixteen ; except that he is some 
 5 ft. 7 in. in height, whereas the medium indicated with her 
 hand a height of not more than 4 ft. ] 
 
 You have got a sister. She sings and plays two different 
 instruments ; one with keys and one with strings—par¬ 
 ticularly the one with keys. She is a little younger than 
 you, probably ; but her age is difficult to tell from her 
 appearance. She is older than William. 
 
 [Mr. Gale has a sister younger than himself and older 
 than his brother William. She sings and plays the piano 
 well, but does not play any stringed instrument.] 
 
 There is a minister in your family, an uncle, in the 
 spirit. Tall, fine physique ; wears spectacles ; with a high 
 forehead ; something like you. He is your father’s brother. 
 He died some little time ago—away from you across the 
 water. He died suddenly. [Asked what denomination he 
 belonged to, Dr. P. could not tell.] He used to wear a cape 
 —a long coat thing. He was not Episcopal, but like a 
 Methodist—that sort of doctrine. 
 
 [Mr. Gale had an uncle, his father’s brother, who was 
 a Baptist missionary in Minnesota. The description of him 
 is accurate, except that he would not be considered a tall 
 man. He died suddenly fifteen years ago while travelling 
 in Palestine. He never wore a cape at home, but had one 
 made before leaving for his trip to Palestine, to wear on 
 his overcoat.] 
 
 There are five of you. [After some counting and a little 
 help from Mr. Gale, Dr. P. said that there were five not 
 counting the mother—three boys and a girl, father and 
 mother. Right.] 
 
 Dr. P. then attempted to get the name of the second 
 brother, trying George, Geord, Jordan, Jorge, but finally 
 giving it up. The brother’s second name is Griggs, but he 
 is never called by it. Dr. P. went on : 
 
 He gets round about the boys as well as any one. He’s 
 got many friends ; they all like him. He is very happy- 
 go-lucky—musical—he can do everything, whistle, sing, and 
 dance. He is not far away. He has lots of letters and 
 friends. Girls like him very much. He is studying to be 
 a lawyer or doctor, or something of that sort. He gets 
 into different costumes and acts. Do they call him Jack? 
 John? They call him Pete ; they call him everything. 
 
170 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 [None of these names were right, though he is called 
 by many names. Nor is he studying for a profession. In 
 other respects the statements are accurate. This brother 
 is the only one of Mr. Gale’s family who is not far away, 
 in America. The name of Will Adams was given as that 
 of a friend ; but the brother has only the slightest 
 acquaintance with a man of that name.] 
 
 A correct description was given of Mr. Gale’s mother. 
 She was said to look very young for her age. “ She and 
 William are more like one another than the rest of the 
 family. She is small and rather dark.” These and other 
 traits given are said by Mr. Gale to be strikingly correct. 
 
 The name Edward was then tried, and applied to brother, 
 father, and uncle, all wrongly. 
 
 When your mother went away it did her a great deal 
 of good ; she had a cold on her chest. She has been 
 staying with an elderly gentleman. 
 
 [Mr. Gale’s mother took a trip for her health last spring, 
 and returned greatly improved. But nothing is known of 
 the elderly gentleman.] 
 
 Your grandfather on your mother’s side was lame. [Asked 
 “All his life?”] No; but that one time. You don’t 
 remember that, but your mother will tell you. 
 
 [Mr. Gale finds that his maternal grandfather was lame 
 from a stroke of paralysis for some ten months. He 
 remembers nothing of this, as he did not see his grandfather 
 during this time.] 
 
 Edward : is he your uncle or your cousin? I don’t like 
 him, and I don’t know that any one did. He don’t seem 
 to get on, somehow. 
 
 [Mr. Gale recognises this as a cousin.] 
 
 The name of Alice was given, and finally said to belong 
 to Edward’s sister. This was right ; but she was wrongly 
 said to be musical. After this the statements made were 
 mostly wrong. The name of Williams was given: “ It 
 
 was your uncle, I think ; a relative connected by marriage. 
 I think on the mother’s side.” 
 
 [Mr. Gale remarks : “I have a second cousin on my 
 mother’s side named Williams, whom we always call “ aunt,” 
 however. She has been a widow many years, and I never 
 saw her husband.”] * 
 
 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. pp. 642 — 3 . 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 171 
 
 In commenting on this sitting Mrs. Sidgwick 
 writes ; 
 
 “ During all the earlier part of it, Phinuit gave the 
 impression of really knowing what he was talking about. 
 He described Mr. Gale’s father and mother as if he had 
 them before him, in a bad light, perhaps, or rather far off, 
 so that he could not make them out with absolute distinct¬ 
 ness, but still as if he was trying to describe what he saw, 
 not at all as if he were guessing.” ‘ 
 
 The significant point in these early sittings is that 
 the information given about the sitter’s living friends 
 seems, generally speaking, to have been as vivid, as 
 copious, and as accurate as the information given about 
 the dead, and that there is no means, as a rule, of 
 discriminating between them either as regards sub¬ 
 stance or source—that is, the statements about the dead 
 and the living alike are given as if they proceeded 
 directly from Phinuit’s own knowledge. Sometimes, 
 on the other hand, where the dead are concerned the 
 utterances are put into their mouths, but there is rarely 
 any indication that this is more than a traditional 
 dramatic device. 
 
 The result of these early stances was to leave all 
 those who had carefully studied the matter profoundly 
 convinced that Mrs. Piper was gifted, at the lowest, 
 with some supernormal faculty of acquiring information. 
 
 Shortly after her return to America an arrange¬ 
 ment was made under which Dr. Hodgson took entire 
 charge of her seances, himself making all appointments 
 and arrangements, undertaking or providing for a full 
 report of what took place, and introducing all sitters 
 
 ‘ Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 618 . 
 
172 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 under assumed names. A year or two later a change 
 took place in the conditions. “ Phinuit ” still assumed 
 control from the spiritual side, but whereas in the 
 seances held in this country the communications had 
 been made almost exclusively by voice, the entranced 
 Mrs. Piper would now by preference write her com¬ 
 munications, the voice still being used occasionally, 
 especially during the prolonged process of emerging 
 from the trance at the end of the sittings. 
 
 There had been during Mrs. Piper’s stay in this 
 country several instances in which deceased friends of 
 the sitter had purported to speak, sometimes directly 
 through the medium’s organism, sometimes through the 
 intervention of Phinuit. But the circumstances had 
 not admitted of any prolonged display of these im¬ 
 personations, and there are many details in these 
 early seances which point strongly to some form pf 
 thought transference as the sole and sufficient explana¬ 
 tion of the phenomena.! 
 
 But in 1892 opportunity occurred to put the question 
 of spirit control to a more searching test. 
 
 George Pelham (the name is assumed) was a young 
 American lawyer and author, well known to Richard 
 Hodgson, who in February, 1892, died suddenly as 
 the result of an accident in New York.2 Hodgson 
 and he had had long talks on philosophic subjects and 
 had discussed the possibility of a future life, which 
 to Pelham seemed incredible and inconceivable. Four 
 
 1 See Mr. J. T. Clarke’s stance, Proceedings S.P.R-, 
 vol. vi. pp. 569—74. On the other side, see Sir Oliver 
 Lodge’s report, pp. 458—64. 
 
 2 The account which follows is taken from Hodgson’s 
 report in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiii. pp. 284—582. 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 173 
 
 years before his death he had had a' single sitting with 
 Mrs. Piper, but his name had been carefully concealed 
 from the medium, and there is no reason to suppose 
 that she knew of the existence of such a person. Mrs. 
 Piper, it should be added, resided in the suburbs of 
 Boston ; Pelham, who had lived for many years in 
 Boston, had passed the last three years of his life in 
 New York. ^ 
 
 Between four and five weeks after George Pelham’s 
 death, on March 22, 1892, a friend of his, John Hart 
 ’(assumed name) was having a sitting with Mrs. Piper. 
 In the middle of the seance Phinuit, who purported 
 to be controlling, said ; “ There is another George 
 
 who wants to speak to you—how many Georges are 
 there about you, anyway? ” 
 
 The “ other George ” purported to be George 
 Pelham. He gave his full name correctly, also the 
 full name of the sitter '(presumably unknown to Mrs. 
 Piper) and the names—Christian and surname—of 
 several of George Pelham’s most intimate friends. He 
 recognised as his own a stud which the sitter was 
 wearing, saying, “ That’s mine. Father gave you that. 
 [No.] .Well, then, father and mother together. 
 Mother took them. Gave them to father, and father 
 gave them to you.” This was, in fact, correct : the; 
 stepmother had taken them from the dead body. 
 George Pelham mentioned two intimate friends, James 
 and Mary Howard, and gave a message to Katharine 
 (their daughter) : “ Tell her ; she’ll know. I will 
 
 solve the problems, Katharine.” On this Mr. Howard 
 later explained that Pelham, when he had last stayed 
 with them, had had frequent talks with Katharine, a 
 girl of fifteen, on the great problems of existence. 
 
174 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 and had promised her, in almost the words of his 
 spirit message, that some time he would solve them. 
 George Pelham referred by name to Meredith and 
 Rogers, two other friends, with appropriate messages. 
 
 At the first sitting with Mr. Howard, on April loth, 
 G. P. greeted him with entirely natural familiarity, 
 and made relevant remarks about Rogers and his de¬ 
 ceased daughter, Martha, and two other friends, 
 Berwick and Orenberg. Mr. Howard states of this 
 stance that “all the references to persons, incidents, 
 characters, &c., so far as they are known to living 
 persons, are correct.” 
 
 Mr. Howard, though much impressed, remained for 
 a time unconvinced. At a sitting some months later, 
 however, in December of the same year, he reminded 
 G. P. of the many summers and winters which they 
 had spent together in G. P.’s lifetime, and asked for 
 some convincing proof, something known to him and 
 G. P. alone, to show that the communicating intelli¬ 
 gence was really what it claimed to be. Then, jas 
 Hodgson, who acted as notetaker, described the scene, 
 whilst Mrs. Piper’s body lay inert and apparently life¬ 
 less, the right hand impatiently and fiercely wrote in 
 answer to Mr. Howard’s request. 
 
 “ Several statements were read by me, and assented to 
 by Mr. Howard, and then was written ‘ private,’ and the 
 hand gently pushed me away. I retired to the other side 
 of the room, and Mr. Howard took my place close to the 
 hand where he could read the writing. He did not, pf 
 course, read it aloud, and it was too private for my perusal. 
 The hand, as it reached the end of each sheet, tore it off 
 from the block book, and thrust it wildly at Mr. Howard, 
 and then continued writing. The circumstances narrated, 
 Mr. Howard informed me, contained precisely the kind of 
 test for which he had asked, and he said that he was 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 175 
 
 ‘ perfectly satisfied, perfectly.’ After this incident there 
 was some further conversation, with references to the past 
 that seemed specially natural as coming from G. P.” 
 
 An extract from the second sitting with Mr. Howard 
 will give some idea of the nature of the impersonation. 
 
 Second. November 28, 1892. 
 
 Present : Mr. and Mrs. Howard, and (part of the time) 
 their eldest daughter Katharine, R. H., and Reporter. 
 
 Phinuit : He [G. P.] has been to see his father, and he 
 has seen, he has taken a book and carried it to have it 
 printed. [His father had collected his poems and had 
 them printed in a small volume, which appeared just before 
 the first sitting of this series.] 
 
 During the early part of the sitting, Katharine entered 
 the room and sat down in a remote corner. Almost imme¬ 
 diately Phinuit said, “He wants to see who is Katrine.” 
 Katharine comes over, and G. P. takes control of the voice, 
 and personal greetings follow. . . . Recognition of dress, 
 also of shawl, which was asked for, and which was placed 
 over Mrs. Piper’s shoulders. 
 
 “What is if takes me to Paris?” The shawl had been 
 worn in Paris frequently during a year, but there is no 
 reason to suppose that G. P. living was aware of this. 
 
 G. P. inquired what had been done with a special picture 
 which he had owned. 
 
 Mrs. H.: That got torn up after you passed out, but 
 here is a picture that I don’t know whether you will recog¬ 
 nise, but you used to know the place. [G. P. puts picture 
 on top of the head.] . . . 
 
 G. P. : What is this? This is your summer house. 
 
 Mrs. H. : Yes, you have got it right. 
 
 G. P. : But I have forgotten the name of the town. 
 
 Mrs. H. : Don’t you remember D-? 
 
 G. P. : Oh, the little brick house and the little vine, 
 grape-vine, some call them. Yes, I remember it all ; it 
 comes back as distinctly as the daylight. . . . Where is 
 the little out-house? [All correct. The little brick hen¬ 
 house that, like the house itself, was solidly built of brick 
 
176 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 jusl did not come into the picture, but came to the very, 
 edge of it, so it was natural for George to ask where it 
 was. The grape-vine that covered the whole house up to 
 the roof was a striking feature of it.—K.] . . . 
 
 Mrs. H. : There is the painting [handing another pic¬ 
 ture ]. 
 
 G. P. : No, I have no recollection of that. 
 
 Mrs. H. : No, I painted it when you were not there, 
 you never saw that. 
 
 G. P. ; It is not fresh to me at all ; but this [fingering 
 the photo of the house] is very clear. Katharine. 
 
 Mrs. H. : She remembers that too. 
 
 G. P. : She was a little thing. Then you bought a place 
 
 at some ville [Katharine’s age when we left D-- was six, 
 
 nearly seven. We first bought the place at X-ville in 
 
 1886 ]. Further references to personal incidents at D-. 
 
 “Katharine, how is the violin?” [She plays the violin.] 
 ... To hear you playing it is horrible, horrible. . . , 
 
 Mrs. H. : But don’t you see she likes her music because 
 it is the best she has? 
 
 G. P. : No, but that is what I used to say, that it is 
 horrible. [George was always more or less annoyed by 
 hearing Katharine practise when she was beginning the 
 violin as a little child.—K.] 
 
 G. P. : [A basket put into G. P.’s hands which he had 
 given as a Christmas present.] That is mine. Where is 
 my lamp arrangement? I was very fond of that, you know. 
 [He had also expressly got a small light shade that could 
 be moved round the shade of an ordinary lamp to cut off 
 the light from the eye, and he had used this much when 
 living. He had made other references to this in previous 
 sittings.] . . . 
 
 Mrs. H. I want you to see that [handing a paper ']. 
 
 G. P. : You wrote that to me this morning. [It was a 
 ipoem on death written that morning with G. P. in mind, 
 but no reference to G. P. in it.] . . . 
 
 « It must be assumed that these papers may have come 
 within the field of vision of Mrs. Piper, but my conviction 
 is that the trance personalities do not obtain any informa¬ 
 tion by the ordinary process of vision. [Note by R. 
 Hodgson. ] 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 177 
 
 [Another paper handed.*] That is a letter. That is 
 mine . That is my own, but that was written a long time 
 ago. [Correct. A letter of his written many years 
 before.] . . . 
 
 Give my regards to James Peirce. Tell him I could not 
 speak to him, but I will again, and when you dine with him, 
 think of me. 
 
 [George occasionally dined at the house of James Peirce 
 in company with Mr. Howard.] 
 
 Mr. H. : George, do you know who this is from? [hand¬ 
 ing an unopened newspaper * enclosed in a wrapper as if 
 just received in the mail]. 
 
 After saying, “Where is John Hart?” G. P. correctly 
 stated that the newspaper came from Orenberg ; then to 
 Mr. Howard he said, “ Get the long pipe and smoke.” 
 [Mr. Howard was in the habit of smoking a long pipe in 
 the evening. ] 
 
 Partially coming out of the trance, Mrs. Piper 
 described a gentleman with a beard and a high fore¬ 
 head. She then became re-entranced, and on finally 
 emerging from the trance some time later she picked 
 out from nine photographs of men an excellent like¬ 
 ness of G. P. as being the man she had seen .2 
 
 It will be seen that the impersonation was natural 
 and lifelike, and that the intelligence manifesting in 
 the trance showed apparent knowledge of the country 
 house which his friends had left six years before, and 
 of the early childhood of their daughter. Nothing is 
 indeed stated which was not within the present con¬ 
 sciousness of the sitters, but its presentment must 
 be admitted to be dramatically true to life, and jio. 
 misstatements appear to have been made. 
 
 Some interesting experiments were made to test the 
 control’s power of seeing things on earth. G. P. was 
 
 * See Note on previous page. 
 
 2 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiii. pp. 414 — 18 . 
 
 12 
 
178 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 asked to watch and report his father’s movements. 
 He correctly stated that his father had taken a photo¬ 
 graph of his '(G. P.’s) to the artist to have it copied. 
 In fact, the negative had been accidentally broken. 
 Another experiment on the same lines produced more 
 interesting results. G. P. was asked at the sitting 
 of April 28, 1892, to visit Mrs. Howard and report 
 what she was doing. Mrs. Howard meanwhile had 
 arranged with Dr. Hodgson to do various fantastic 
 things as a test. Later in the seance G. P. purported 
 to come back to report through Phinuit : 
 
 She’s writing, and taken some violets and put them in 
 a book. And it looks as if she’s writing that to my 
 mother. . . . Who’s Tyson . . . Davis. ... I saw her 
 [Mrs. Howard] sitting in the chair, sitting before a little 
 desk or table. Took little book, opened it, wrote letter he 
 thinks to his mother. Saw her take a little bag and put 
 some things in it belonging to him, placed the photograph 
 beside her on the desk. That’s hers. Sent a letter to 
 TASON (Tyson?) TYSON. 
 
 She hunted a little while for her picture, sketching. He’s 
 certain that the letter is to his mother. She took onie 
 of George’s books and turned it over, and said : “ George, 
 are you here? Do you see that? ” These were the very 
 words. Then she turned and went up a short flight of 
 stairs. Took some things from a drawer, came back again, 
 sat down to the desk, and then finished the letter." 
 
 Dr. Hodgson sent a copy of this report to Mrs. 
 Howard who replied as follows : 
 
 “ Dear Mr. Hodgson, —I did none of those things to- 
 
 I The extract quoted contains all that passed at the stance 
 on the test in question ; the portions omitted refer to the con¬ 
 cerns of the sitter, and to some questions asked by Hodgson. 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 179 
 
 day, but all of them yesterday afternoon and the evening 
 before I 
 
 “ Yesterday afternoon I wrote a note to Mrs. Tyson 
 declining an invitation to lunch ; this I did at a little 
 table. Later I wrote to his mother at a desk, and seeing 
 George’s violets by me in their envelope, gave them to my 
 daughter to put in my drawer, not ‘ into a book.’ This is 
 the only inaccuracy of detail. The day before I also wrote 
 to his mother, putting his photograph before me on the table 
 while I was writing—two of his photos, in fact, one from 
 another photo and one from a portrait I had painted of 
 him ; these I afterwards put into his mother’s letter. Did 
 ‘ hunt for my picture,’ my painting of him. Also wondered 
 in my mind what they had done with the photo of jne 
 painting, and received letter from Mrs. Pelham saying they 
 had burned it. What he says about the book is also true, 
 though I can’t tell at precisely what time I did it, as I 'was 
 alone at the time. In all other matters my memory ,is 
 corroborated by my daughter, who took the note to Mrs. 
 T.’s, and saw me put photo before me on the desk. She 
 now says that I only put one before me on the desk, and 
 went and got the other just before putting it in envelope. 
 It was only a minute on the table. 
 
 “ While writing to his mother I did ‘ go and take things 
 from a drawer, came back again, sat down to the desk, and 
 then finished the letter.’ This was the letter written at 
 the desk, not the one written at a table. 
 
 9|( sH ^ ^ ^ 
 
 “ PS.—I don’t know whether I made it quite clear that 
 I sat thinking, wondering where the photo of me while 
 painting could be, and I think that in the first of the two 
 letters I wrote to his mother, I told her he had asked 
 for it. I know I thought of doing so. 
 
 " I seldom write to Mrs. Tyson, and this note is almost 
 the only one I have written her this winter—have not 
 written to her for weeks, perhaps months, before this. It 
 is certainly strange that he should seem to know so much 
 of my doings. I feel as if he must have seen them.” 
 
 The correspondence, it will, no doubt, be admitted, 
 is far too detailed here to be attributed to lucky guess- 
 
180 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 ing. The facts came clearly from Mrs. Howard’s 
 memory—whether they were conveyed thence by a spirit 
 disembodied, or by a spirit still in the flesh. The 
 fact that the other sitter was a friend of the Howards 
 as well as of G. P. himself may have some bearing 
 upon the case, but it can scarcely be supposed that 
 the knowledge was derived directly from his mind. 
 
 The impersonation, if it were an impersonation and 
 not the actual G. P. manifesting through Mrs. Piper’s 
 organism, was consistently and dramatically sustained. 
 Out of some 150 persons who had sittings with Mrs. 
 Piper between the date of G. P.’s death and the date 
 of Hodgson’s report on the subject, five years later, 
 there were thirty friends or acquaintances of G. P. 
 in life. All of them were recognised, and all, a fact 
 on which Dr. Hodgson laid much stress in discussing 
 the matter with me orally, greeted with appropriate 
 shades of welcome. There was only one case of 
 failure to recognise, and in that case the sitter, in 
 the course of the nine years which had elapsed since 
 she had seen G. P. in the flesh, had grown from p, 
 girl to a woman. Once G. P. claimed—the exact 
 words were : “ Who is this? I have met her before 
 to have seen a sitter who did not remember ever to 
 have met G. P. in the flesh. But it is admittedly 
 not improbable that they may have met, or at least 
 that G. P. may have seen her (p. 327). 
 
 Some of G. P.’s most intimate friends were con¬ 
 vinced that they were actually in communication with 
 the deceased G. P. ; nearly all were impressed by 
 the realistic nature of the impersonation. 
 
 To set against this strong presumptive proof of 
 identity there are several circumstances in the records 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 181 
 
 which point to another source for the communica¬ 
 tions. Thus on one occasion G. P. is reported as 
 saying : 
 
 I wish you could convince my father and make him 
 come here. [Can’t you tell us something he or your 
 mother has done?] I saw her brush my clothes and put 
 them away. I was by her side as she did it. I saw her 
 take my sleeve buttons from a small box and give them 
 to my father. I saw him send them to John Hart. I saw 
 her putting papers, &c., into a tin box. 
 
 The fact that the studs or sleeve-links had been taken 
 from the dead body by the (step) mother had already 
 been stated in the trance. But, in fact, G. P.’s clothes 
 had been brushed and put away, not by the step¬ 
 mother, but by “ the man who had valeted George.” 
 The mistake would seem to indicate that in this 
 instance, at any rate, the communication proceeded from 
 Mrs. Piper’s own intelligence. Further, G. P., in this, 
 it may be said, resembling all the other Piper 
 personalities, is frequently unable to give names when 
 specially asked for them, although, as has been shown, 
 he voluntarily gave in the earliest sittings a large 
 number of names, all those of friends and intimates. 
 The failure to respond to a challenge ought not to be 
 regarded as in itself suspicious. .What is suspicious 
 is the manner in which the challenge is evaded. 
 
 Two test questions were put to G. P. at the sitting 
 of March 30, 1892 : 
 
 I. What was the nature of the society formed by 
 you and some other young people? 2. What were 
 the names of the members? G. P. made two attempts 
 —both incorrect—at the object of the society, and 
 succeeded only in giving the Christian name of one of 
 
182 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 the members. At a later sitting he returned to the 
 subject, and gave the full name (known apparently 
 to the sitter) of this one member, but excused himself 
 in the following terms from giving the other two 
 names : 
 
 I answered part of that question [the part he answered 
 was correct], but did not give the names of the other two 
 people because it would be no test, because I told her 
 [the sitter] the names of the other two in life, and, as she 
 knows them, if I was to give the names in her presence, 
 they would say it was thought-transference. No, I shall 
 reserve the two names to tell Hodgson some time when he 
 is alone with me, because he does not know them. [All 
 true. ] 
 
 But the names subsequently given to Hodgson were 
 incorrect. 
 
 The five years from 1891 to 1895 formed a very 
 fruitful period in Mrs. Piper’s mediumship. The case 
 of G. P. has been selected for comment because the 
 materials for forming a judgment are the most 
 abundant, and the impersonation itself was perhaps the 
 most striking and the best sustained. But there were 
 other impersonations hardly inferior in lifelike qualities. 
 The selected records—mainly of first sittings only— 
 cover nearly two hundred octavo pages. During the 
 whole period. Dr. Hodgson tells us, so far as his 
 knowledge went, “ there are not more than six !(first) 
 sittings that can be classed as complete failures.” > 
 
 ' The reason for publishing the accounts of first sittings 
 only is that at each successive stance the medium has more 
 and more opportunities for acquiring by normal means know¬ 
 ledge of the sitter and his affairs. As every sitter was 
 introduced under a pseudonym, generally Smith, the only 
 chance of obtaining information by such means at a first 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. PIPER 183 
 
 The results are very impressive ; and many of those 
 who have studied the records hold that they establish at 
 least a prima facie case for the belief in the possi¬ 
 bility of communication with our departed friends. 
 
 But this highly productive period came to an end 
 in 1896. Early in that year Mrs. Piper underwent an 
 operation—the second—and in the autumn a fresh band 
 of spirits purported to assume the control of her 
 organism. The new controls forbade indiscriminate 
 experiments with what they described as “a battered 
 and worn-out machine ” ; and, in fact, the number of 
 stances has, under the advice of these controls, been 
 severely restricted since that date, and the privilege 
 of a sitting has no longer been afforded with the same 
 freedom as formerly even to serious inquirers. Of 
 the results under these changed conditions we shall 
 have to speak in a later chapter. 
 
 sitting would be by various processes of “ fishing,” or 
 skilful inferences from unguarded admissions in the course 
 of the stance, and the report of the proceedings, of course, 
 shows how far such methods were actually employed. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS, THOMPSON 
 
 Mrs. Thompson, a lady who for some years was good 
 enough to place her services freely at the disposal of 
 the Society for Psychical Research for the purposes 
 of the inquiry, is, or was, for she has now ceased to 
 give sittings, a trance medium. In her earlier seances, 
 however, the spirit communications were interspersed 
 with physical phenomena which appear to have been 
 of the ordinary type.* 
 
 Mrs. Thompson’s early sittings were held in 1897 
 and 1898, generally at the house of Mr. F. iWi. 
 iThurstan, M.A., a gentleman who at that time had 
 charge of two Indian pupils. The regular circle con¬ 
 sisted of Mr. and Mrs. Thompson and Mr. Thurstan, 
 but two or three visitors who were known to be sympa¬ 
 thetic to the medium were present at most of the 
 sittings. The sittings took place generally in a double 
 room, with curtains drawn over the opening of the 
 
 » During the lifetime of the late Mr. Thompson, Mrs. 
 Thompson’s connection with physical phenomena was, in 
 deference to his wishes, suppressed ; and in the accounts 
 published in the Spiritualist newspaper Light during 1897 
 and 1898 the medium is referred to as Mrs. T. As the 
 reasons for secrecy no longer exist, Mrs. Thompson has 
 been good enough to grant permission for the facts to be 
 made public. 
 
 184 
 
THE MEDIUMSHTP OF MRS. THOMPSON 18.5 
 
 two apartments, the space behind the curtain being 
 without artificial light of any kind. The circle sat 
 in the other room, the “ usual conditions ” being that 
 the light was “ subdued to a point at which we could 
 just distinguish our figures as we sat opposite to each 
 other.” The medium under these conditions would 
 be controlled by her daughter Nelly, who had died in 
 infancy, her sister, and her mother, also by relatives 
 of ,the various sitters and occasionally by strangers. 
 “ Peter Pindar,” for instance, came on one occasion 
 and gave his proper name, the dates and localities 
 of his birth and death. Originally one Peter Wharton 
 and some associate spirits took charge of the medium’s 
 trance, but on October 17, 1897, it was announced that 
 Peter had left and that the band had been reinforced 
 by seven new spirits. Four of the newcomers—Esther, 
 Charles Wade, Annie,- and another whose signature 
 could not be deciphered—wrote their names in the 
 course of the seance by “ direct ” writing. 
 
 The physical phenomena were of a familiar type— 
 raps and knocks, the blowing out of a curtain as if 
 by wind, spirit lights, movements of a tambourine, a 
 lamp shade, a toy trumpet, chairs, and tables. Once 
 a heavy table is reported as moving continuously for 
 some minutes whilst the medium was eight feet away. 
 On several occasions the table was levitated. Once 
 the medium is described as being elongated to the 
 extent of six inches. 
 
 There were several instances of materialisation. On 
 January i, 1898, a sitting was held at Mrs. Thompson’s 
 own house, the sitters being Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, 
 their little daughter Rosie, Mr. Thurstan, and two 
 friends, Mr. and Mrs. A. A pair of light curtains 
 
186 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 were hung so as to cut off a corner of the room. 
 Mrs. Thompson sat in the opening of the curtains 
 facing the company, who sat round in a horseshoe, 
 Mr. Thurstan next the curtain on the medium’s right, 
 Mr. Thompson in the corresponding position on the 
 left. The lamp was turned out, and the circle ^at 
 “in a dim light in which we could just distinguish 
 one another.” Then, to quote Mr. Thurstan’s report: 
 
 “ While we were singing Clare controlled Mrs. T., and 
 joined in the hymn, at the end of which she whispered to 
 me in the direct voice to place my hand behind the curtain 
 at the opening by the wall on my side, and I found a lily- 
 of-the-valley leaf and flower placed in it ; and, soon after¬ 
 wards, a number of additional lilies were flung out for the 
 rest. There were none of these flowers in the house at the 
 time. While we sang, once more my hand, remaining behind 
 the curtain, was fondled by ‘ Clare,’ and a soft, gauzy, 
 scented, white drapery was flung over my head and seen by 
 the others on my side of the room. Then Mrs. T. felt 
 ‘ Clare,’ who also passed over to the other side and touched 
 Mr. T. with her fingers and her drapery. As her power 
 increased, her voice also gained strength and timbre; and, 
 in a direct voice, loud but sweet, and with a mannerism 
 of utterance noticeably distinct from that of Mrs. T., she 
 said that if Mrs. A. and Mr. A. would change places with 
 me and Mr. T. she would touch them. This was done, and 
 Rosie also had her turn ; and then Mr. T. and I resumed 
 our chairs. All this while Mrs. T. was in full consciousness, 
 but she kept exclaiming that she felt ‘ all hollow ’ ; and 
 another thing she noticed was that whenever ‘ Clare’s ’ 
 fingers touched any one she distinctly felt a pricking sensa¬ 
 tion in her body, very similar to her experiences when she 
 had been placed once on an insulating stool and charged 
 with electricity, and persons had touched her to make sparks 
 come from her. 
 
 “ After this, some beautiful spirit lights were seen behind 
 the curtains, which were of a diaphanous art muslin. They 
 floated to the top of the curtains some nine feet above the 
 ground, Mrs. T. all the while remaining seated. Then, while 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. THOMPSON 187 
 
 my sister ‘ Clare ’ was still touching my hand and talking to 
 me, ‘ Nellie’s ’ voice was suddenly heard by her father’s side, 
 saying, ‘ I am here ’ ; and both father and mother were in 
 raptures to feel the touch of the vanished hand of their 
 little daughter caressing them. Simultaneously ‘ Clare ’ 
 was speaking to me on a private matter ; and, finally asking 
 me to bend forward my head towards her, she flung her 
 drapery round my neck and laid her palms on my head as if 
 to bless me. All of us agreed that the touch of the fingers 
 felt warm and life-like ; the whole air was also filled with 
 a subtle, strange perfume.” 
 
 It would seem that the materialised figures were not 
 seen, but only heard and felt. This is clear, not only 
 from the account above quoted, but from the corrobora¬ 
 tive testimony of Mr. and Mrs. A'., who write as 
 follows : • 
 
 “ My wife says that once, when she was holding Mrs. 
 T.’s hands and kneeling just in front of her, she felt at 
 the same time touches of ‘ Clare’s ’ hands and soft drapery 
 fall over her head and neck. I also noticed the presence 
 of more than one visitant at the same time ; for while 
 I was talking with one whose direct voice I heard, I felt 
 several touches on my hand and knees from another simul¬ 
 taneously, and also noticed a spirit light moving about at 
 the same time.” 
 
 W. A. 
 
 Sheffield. E. A. 
 
 At another materialisation stance held three weeks 
 later under the same conditions two or three 
 materialised figures were seen, but apparently by Mrs. 
 Thompson only, the sitters again only heard and felt. 
 The materialisations were not therefore so striking as 
 some which have been afforded by other mediums. 
 On the other hand, the apports, which were numerous, 
 left no doubt of their objectivity. Thus, again to 
 quote an illustration from Mr. Thurstan’s report : 
 
188 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 “ When Mr. and Mrs. T. were spending the day with 
 me at Eton last Sunday, and we were seated chatting round 
 the fire, about 3 p.m., suddenly Mr. T. noticed a banana 
 lying on the floor between my chair and that of Mrs. T., 
 who objected to its having been found so suspiciously close 
 to her. Presently, when Mrs. T. had her purse in her hand, 
 counting her money in case it should be spirited away, and 
 Mr. T. was bending over her, helping her, and I was at the 
 piano in the far end of the room, down fell two pistachio 
 nuts with considerable force just past me, as if they had 
 fallen from the ceiling straight above me. While my two 
 Indian charges, in another corner of the room, were laughing 
 at this incident, down came another shower of three more 
 pistachio nuts and two walnuts at their feet. We were then 
 told that if we sat at the table and raised the table-cover, 
 by placing a cardboard box under it, we should get some 
 white grapes brought. So we five sat as directed in full 
 light, with our hands on the cloth ; and, after half an hour, 
 during which ‘ Mr. Giles ’ manifested by raps and gave 
 Mr. T. an important direction relating to his business, we 
 were told that the grapes had come. I raised the cloth 
 and found them in the centre of the dining-table, five of 
 them in a bunch, fresh and uncrushed. I asked ‘ Nellie,' 
 who came to explain matters, how it was that they knew 
 that while I had most other kinds of fruit in the house 
 I had no pistachios or walnuts, bananas or white grapes. 
 She said the friends had come the day before, when I was 
 buying fruit, to impress me not to buy those particular 
 kinds. This little detail I mention ... as showing that 
 the phenomenon, apparently occurring so extempore, was 
 really the result of careful rehearsing and pre-arrangement.” 
 
 On another occasion Mr. Thompson was holding 
 both Mrs. Thompson’s hands as a test, to see whether 
 the Hindoo sowar, who occasionally controlled, could 
 under these conditions make his characteristic tinkling 
 noises. Mr, Thurstan was seated at her side watch¬ 
 ing her hands. After waiting some minutes without 
 result, “ suddenly at the back of her chair we heard 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. THOMPSON 189 
 
 something drop heavily out of the air, falling first 
 on the top of the back and then slipping to the seat 
 behind her.” It proved to be a florin, and Mr. Thurstan 
 tells us that Mrs. Thompson tied it in a corner pf 
 her handkerchief, intending to give it to a poor woman, 
 and found next day that the knot was still there, but 
 the coin had vanished. 
 
 The above extracts give a fair impression of the 
 physical phenomena produced in Mrs. Thompson’s 
 presence. She ceased, I believe, to sit for physical 
 phenomena shortly after making, in 1898, the acquaint¬ 
 ance of Mr. F. Wj. H. Myers, and thereafter, as already 
 said, gave her services to the S. P. R. as a ,tran,ce 
 medium. 
 
 Mrs. Thompson’s trances are much lighter than those 
 of Mrs. Piper, and appear to be scarcely distinguish¬ 
 able from the state of normal wakefulness. Unlike 
 Mrs. Piper, too, she has occasional flashes of what 
 purports to be supernormal perception outside the 
 seance-room, and sometimes in what appears to be a 
 normal condition. 
 
 Thus, on May 8, 1894, Mrs. Thompson paid a visit 
 to 3. dentist named Reeve, and whilst seated in the 
 chair was observed by the dentist to have fallen into 
 a kind of trance, in which she was apparently insensible 
 to the pain of the operation. In this trance she saw 
 the vision of a girl named Annie Reeve, an old school¬ 
 fellow. She mentioned the incident to Mr. Reeve next 
 day, .and he then told her that Annie Reeye was aj 
 cousin, but a stranger to him until the previous day. 
 He had actually seen her for the first time in his 
 life ,an hour after Mrs. Thompson’s departure. At 
 Mr. Reeve’s request Mrs. Thompson described the dress 
 
190 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 worn by the vision, which corresponded accurately with 
 the reality.I 
 
 On another occasion Mrs. Thompson, this time in 
 a pormal condition, saw a message in a crystal con¬ 
 taining an unquestionable, if somewhat muddled, 
 reference to an acquaintance of Mr. Piddington’s.^ 
 
 Mr. Piddington cites two or three other instances 
 of supernormal perception in a normal condition. 
 
 Thus Mrs. Thompson writes : 
 
 “ May 24 , 1900 . 
 
 “ On Monday, March 7 , 1900 , about 7.30 in the evening, 
 I happened to be sitting quite alone in the dining-room, and 
 thinking of the possibility of my subliminal communicating 
 with that of another person—no one in particular. I was 
 not for one moment unconscious. All at once I felt some 
 one was standing near, and quietly opened my eyes, and 
 was very surprised to see—clairvoyantly, of course—Mr. 
 J. G. Piddington. I was very keen to try the experiment, 
 so at once spoke to him aloud. He looked so material and 
 lifelike I did not feel in the least alarmed. 
 
 “ I commenced : 
 
 “ ‘ Please tell me of something I may afterwards verify 
 to prove I am really speaking of you.’ 
 
 “ J. G. P.— ‘ I have had a beastly row with-’ [naming 
 
 a specified person.] 
 
 “ R. T.—‘What about?’ JNo answer to this.] 
 
 “ J. C. P.—‘ He says he did not intend to annoy me, but 
 I said he had been very successful in doing so, whether he 
 intended or not.’ 
 
 “ After saying that he disappeared.” 
 
 Mr. Piddington explains that all the details are 
 
 » Proceedings S.R.R., vol. xviii. pp. 108 — 10 . The 
 episode sufficiently impressed Mr. Reeve to induce him to 
 write a full account of it the same day. Of course, Mrs. 
 Thompson may have caught a glimpse of Miss Reeve in 
 the street on her way to the dentist. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 103 . 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. THOMPSON 191 
 
 correct, even to the exact words used by him. The 
 quarrel had been conducted by correspondence ; Mr. 
 Piddington’s final remark had been addressed to Mrs. 
 Piddington at breakfast, and he regards it as highly 
 improbable that Mrs. Thompson could have known of 
 the quarrel, and impossible that she should have heard 
 of the remark.I 
 
 In another instance Mrs. Thompson on leaving the 
 rooms of the Society for Psychical Research one after¬ 
 noon, and when in full possession of her normal senses, 
 made an unmistakable reference to a curious and 
 altogether unusual incident connected with the purchase 
 of Mr. Piddington’s coat, which was hanging on the 
 door .2 
 
 As in the parallel case of Mrs. Piper, it rarely 
 happens that the spirit professing to communicate 
 through the entranced Mrs. Thompson is allowed to 
 
 ' Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xviii. p. 183. 
 
 2 It will be noted that of the four incidents quoted the 
 first is readily susceptible of a normal explanation. The 
 other three are concerned with one particular person. Mr. 
 Piddington was, at the time of the first incident, unknown 
 personally to Mrs. Thompson, but she may very well have 
 known his name as a friend of Mr. Myers. The other two in¬ 
 cidents occurred when Mr. Piddington was Honorary Secre¬ 
 tary to the Society, and had much to do with the arrange¬ 
 ments of the stances with Mrs. Thompson, and naturally 
 saw a great deal of that lady. This would no doubt facili¬ 
 tate telepathy between them. It would also in various ways 
 facilitate leakage of information through normal channels. 
 The incidents, to my thinking, are worth little as evidence for 
 supernormal faculty ; they are quoted here as having some 
 bearing upon the question discussed in Chapter I. of the 
 present book. I should perhaps add that the supernormal 
 source of much of the information given at Mrs. Thompson’s 
 stances seems to me to be almost beyond dispute. 
 
192 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 take direct possession of the medium’s organism. The 
 usual control is “ Nelly,” whose acquaintance we have 
 already made at the stances with Mr. Thurstan’s circle. 
 
 Nelly is assisted in her task by Mrs. Cartwright,” 
 a lady who kept a girls’ school at which Mts. 
 Thompson was educated. A Mr. D. also occasionally 
 assists in the control. Some further account of these 
 trance personalities will be given in a later chapter. 
 
 Two instances of successful stances with Mrs. 
 Thompson may be cited. Mr. J. O. Wilson * had two 
 interviews in January, 1900. The lady to whom he 
 had been engaged. Miss Clegg ^(assumed name), had 
 been killed a few months previously as the result of 
 a bicycle accident. At the time of the sittings Mr. 
 J. O. Wilson was staying with Miss Clegg’s family, 
 and occupying the room described by Nelly which 
 had been Miss Clegg’s. A girl cousin who had been 
 devoted to Miss Clegg was staying in the house at 
 the same time. Throughout the first stance the girl 
 cousin and Miss Clegg would appear to be referred to 
 indiscriminately, but Mr. Wilson and Mr. Piddington 
 state that there was no actual confusion in the refer¬ 
 ences. It remains to add that Mr. Wilson was but 
 slightly acquainted with Mr. Piddington, and had no 
 connection of any kind with Mrs. Thompson, who did 
 not even know his name. 
 
 Mr. Wilson handed to Mrs. Thompson at the 
 beginning of the seance a stocking which had belonged 
 to the deceased lady. After one or two inconclusive 
 remarks, the trance intelligence, ‘‘ Nelly,” proceeds : 
 
 I The name is assumed, as Mr. Wilson is unwilling to 
 give his real name for fear of causing pain to the relatives 
 of Miss “ Clegg.” 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. THOMPSON 193 
 
 The feeling is of live influence. Please tell me if it 
 is of a dead influence. 
 
 [J. G. P. says “ dead,” on receiving information from 
 J. O. W.] 
 
 I can see a girl with hair down her back, darker than 
 mother’s [i.e., Mrs. Thompson’s], but not black, not pushed 
 back, but a cutting over the forehead like a fringe. 
 
 [This is a very good description of a girl cousin of the 
 deceased lady. ] 
 
 ***** 
 
 Is it too ordinary to say blue dress with white braid 
 on? Sort of sailor dress. 
 
 [All this fits well for the deceased lady’s cousin, who at 
 the time was wearing a kind of sailor dress trimmed with 
 white braid.] 
 
 Oh, dear I something like something coming. There is 
 something in an envelope I ought to have belonging to the 
 lady. The girl in blue and the lady connected with the 
 stocking are not the same person. 
 
 ***** 
 
 I’ve got it in my head that this stocking has been round 
 somebody’s throat. [Nothing known of this.] 
 
 There’s an envelope—long in shape—with stamped 
 monogram or something on the back. It’s got G. at the 
 back. [The lady is not known to have used envelopes 
 stamped writh a G., but G. is the initial letter of her iChristian 
 name.] There’s a rather old-fashioned bookcase with 
 glass doors. [R.]* The envelope is there. [The 
 envelopes would have been kept in the bookcase.] This 
 [i.e., the stocking] has been taken off the lady before she 
 died. [R.] It hasn’t a laundry association [R.], but 
 was taken off when the lady was not very ill. [“ When 
 she was not ill at all ” would be correct.] There was an 
 old lady with white hair in the room when the stocking 
 was taken off—not quite white hair, but streaked. [Prob¬ 
 ably wrong.] There is a chest of drawers in the room 
 with a white cover on. Old-fashioned cover—do you call it 
 Marcella? White, with a pattern all over and a looped 
 fringe. 
 
 « In this and subsequent extracts [R.] = Right. 
 
 13 
 
194 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 [All references to the bookcase are good ; description 
 quite accurate. The room opens into a bathroom—in the 
 bathroom is a chest of drawers with a white fringed cover. 
 This room where the bookcase stands is perhaps the most 
 intimate association that could have been named.] 
 
 She wore a twisted brooch. It was like as if it formed 
 a name or figures. 
 
 [A glove is given to Mrs. T., who keeps stocking.] 
 
 J. G. P.—Can you see the name or figures? 
 
 Nelly.—It’s like Gertrude. No, it isn’t Gertrude. Ger¬ 
 trude was a very great friend of the blue dress girl. 
 
 [The lady had a brooch of decorative scroll-work, but 
 none forming a name or figures. But a sister of Miss 
 Clegg states that the description immediately suggested to 
 her this brooch, and that at first sight the scroll-work looks 
 like a name. The lady’s name was Gertrude, though Nelly 
 does not say so, but merely says, “ Gertrude was a very 
 great friend of the blue dress girl,” which was true.] 
 
 ± ^ 
 
 ‘‘ I associate this glove with a sailor dress, and with the 
 house where the funny bookcase is. [R.] The bookcase 
 nearly comes to the top of the house—I mean, of the room. 
 It’s like old-fashioned mahogany, red coloured. [Quite 
 correct.] 
 
 ‘‘ There is some trouble about an examination with the 
 girl in the blue dress.” 
 
 [J. O. W. had been going over work with the girl for an 
 approaching examination, and he writes that the girl was 
 also “ very anxious ” about an examination which her brother 
 was going in for in a few months’ time.] 
 
 [Mrs. T. holds J. O. W.’s hand.] ‘‘The blue girl is a 
 relation of the other lady.” [R.—cousin.] ‘‘The girl with 
 the blue dress came home with a lot of examination papers 
 [true of three months later ] and broke something, and there 
 was a fuss about it. [W.] The lady’s brother wears 
 glasses. [R.] He is alive. [R.] She has got a Margaret 
 —belonging to that lady.” [R.—a cousin, as intimate as 
 a sister would be, who used to live with her.] 
 
 ‘‘ In that room there’s one of those chairs that makes a 
 noise when you sit down on it : an old creaky chair.” [A 
 very definite and apt reference.] ‘‘ She has got a dead baby 
 with her.” 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. THOMPSON 195 
 
 [J. O. W. was doubtful of this at first, having forgotten 
 that the lady had two sisters who died, one as quite a baby.] 
 
 “ I’ve got one of mother’s dead babies at our house. 
 Mother doesn’t think it was a little live boy—but it was.” 
 
 For the sake of brevity I have omitted many of 
 the more indefinite statements, some true, some false, 
 and some doubtful. But the number and nature of 
 the true statements given above seem beyond the 
 possible scope of chance. No incorrect names were 
 given ; and the two names actually given were precisely 
 appropriate. 
 
 Dr. van Eeden had several sittings with Mrs. 
 Thompson in the winter of 1899 and in June, 1900. 
 Dr. van Eeden speaks English well, but would no 
 doubt be recognised as a foreigner, and as his interest 
 in the subject was well known, it cannot be safely 
 assumed that Mrs. Thompson was unaware of the 
 identity of her visitor. Much detailed and correct 
 information was given about himself, his relations, and 
 surroundings generally in his native country, Holland. 
 But the most striking and dramatic communication re¬ 
 ferred to a young man who had committed suicide ; 
 he had first cut his throat, and had, later, shot himself. 
 Van Eeden brought with him to England an article 
 of clothing that had belonged to this young man. 
 Nobody in the world,, he tells us, knew that he had 
 done so.I The parcel containing the clothing was in¬ 
 troduced at a stance held on June 2nd, Lady X. and 
 Dr. van Eeden being the only sitters. 
 
 “ Nelly,” on taking the parcel, says : 
 
 ” I am frightened. I feel as if I want to run away.” 
 
 ' Proceedings S-P.R-, vol. xvii. p. 78. 
 
196 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 (To van E.) “That lady won’t be cross.” (To Lady X.) 
 “ Don’t go away. I feel rather frightened. What’s Marfa, 
 Martha? She’s got a lot of people belonging to her.” 
 
 Van E.—“ That’s my wife.” 
 
 Nelly.—“ She was not very well. It is better now. She 
 went to lie down [doubtful]. Old gentleman sends his love 
 to Martha. He says : ‘ My love, Martha.’ 
 
 “ This ” (pointing to parcel) “ is a much younger gentle¬ 
 man. Very studified, fond of study ” [R.]. 
 
 Van E.—“ Why were you frightened?” 
 
 Nelly.—“ Because something seemed like a shock to me. 
 He’s not a rich gentleman. If he lived a bit longer he 
 would have had more. He wanted to make some ” [R.]. 
 
 Van E.—“ How do you know? ” 
 
 Nelly.—“ Mrs. Cartwright tells me.” 
 
 Van E.—“ Ask her why you were frightened.” 
 
 Nelly.—“ She says because I was afraid of making 
 faults.” 
 
 [Obviously wrong.] 
 
 “ Gentleman used to have headache at the back of his 
 head. He used to take tablets to make his headache go 
 better ” [doubtful]. 
 
 [There were interpolated here some references, unidenti¬ 
 fied, to a “stout William.”] 
 
 Van E.—“ You have not told me the principal thing about 
 this man ” (parcel). 
 
 Nelly.—“The principal thing is his sudden death [R.]. 
 I can tell you better when she (Lady X.) is not there. 
 It frightens me. Everybody was frightened, seeming to 
 say, ‘ Oh, dear I good gracious ! ’ . . . 
 
 “ This gentleman could shoot. He was rather an out- 
 of-doors man. What a funny hat he used to wear. Round 
 with a cord around. He had a velvet jacket. You have a 
 velvet jacket too, but not real velvet, and like trousers [R.]. 
 But that gentleman had real velvet jacket.” [References to 
 dress doubtful.] “ I can’t see any blood about this gentle¬ 
 man, but a horrible sore place : somebody wiped it all up. 
 It looks black ” [the bullet wound probably]. “ I am 
 happy because that man is happy now. He was in a state 
 of muddle. And when he realised what he had done, he 
 said it is better to make amends and be happy.” 
 
 Asked how he made amends, Nelly replied : “ When any 
 
THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. THOMPSON 197 
 
 people want to kill themselves—he stops their hands 
 from cutting their throats—He’s got such a horror 
 that anybody would do the same thing.” (Then to van 
 Eeden) : ‘‘You don’t seem to have any whiskers. I don’t 
 see your head properly. Some one covers up your head. 
 He covers up your head to show you how his own head 
 was covered up. Oh, dear ! isn’t it funny 1 You must not 
 
 cut off your head when you die.” [The suicide’s head was 
 
 covered up when he was found dead.] 
 
 At a stance held three days later Nelly asked again 
 for the parcel, and then continued : 
 
 ‘‘ This person [of the parcel ] talks foreign language 
 
 [R.]. Has got something about the throat” \i.e., the 
 
 wound resulting from the unsuccessful attempt at suicide], 
 ‘‘ talks not very distinctly [R.]. He can talk English a bit, 
 but not many [R.]. He is standing before a desk with 
 white knobs on it [doubtful]. He was very disappointed 
 and got depressed and got a headache. Worried much [R. ]. 
 
 ‘‘ Very friendly, and used to go about a good deal with 
 a tall, fair man, fair complexion.” [He was intimate with 
 a tall, fair man, who in turn committed suicide two days 
 after him. ] ‘‘ They had a good quarrel.” [Probably right. ] 
 
 ‘‘ I don’t like that fair man. I don’t believe in him, don’t 
 trust him. It was a shock to him [parcel man] to find this 
 out about his friend” [doubtful]. 
 
 At the sitting of June 7th the young suicide himself 
 purported to take control of Mrs. Thompson’s organism. 
 She spoke hoarsely, and complained on waking of a 
 taste like chloroform in her throat. Van Eeden states 
 that the wound in the throat had been dressed with 
 iodoform. He adds that ‘‘ during a few minutes!— 
 though a few minutes only—I felt absolutely as if I 
 were speaking to my friend himself. I spoke Dutch, 
 and got immediate and correct answers. The expres¬ 
 sion of satisfaction and gratification in face and gesture, 
 when we seemed to understand each other, was too* 
 
198 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 true ,and vivid to be acted ” (p. 82). It should be 
 explained that van Eeden’s questions in Dutch were 
 apparently understood, since relevant answers were re¬ 
 turned, but in English. Many Dutch names and some 
 appropriate Dutch words were, however, given. 
 
 It is extremely difficult to apply statistical methods 
 to such discursive and indefinite accounts as the 
 records of trance seances. Mrs. Verrall, however, who 
 had no fewer than 22 sittings with Mrs. Thompson, 
 has made the attempt. She finds that out of 238 
 definite statements referring to things present or past,* 
 33 were false, 64 were unidentified or have not yet 
 been verified, 141—or 59 per cent.—were recognised 
 as true. 
 
 Mrs. Verrall explains that she has only reckoned in 
 this enumeration fairly definite statements, such as that 
 the sitter had a brother and two sisters living, or that 
 a lawyer called Stephens or Stevens was intimate in 
 a certain house, &c. Of the 141 true statements, ,51 
 were such as could have been ascertained from normal 
 sources— e.g., the “ Peerage,” “ Who’s Who,” and 
 other public records. This leaves 90 cases in which 
 the information could not apparently have been obtained 
 by any normal means. It will be admitted that the 
 number is far too great to be accounted for by lucky 
 chance,2 There seems, indeed, little doubt that Mrs. 
 Thompson must be placed in the same category as Mrs, 
 Piper, and that the explanation that will eventually 
 be found to fit the facts in the one case mu'st be 
 applied to the other also. 
 
 * A few predictions were made, but the results were of 
 no value. 
 
 2 Some of Mrs. Verrall’s true incidents will be discussed 
 in .Chapter VII. below. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 Of the four men who were instrumental in founding 
 the Society for Psychical Research in 1882—Henry 
 Sidgwick, Edmund Gurney, F. .W. H. Myers, and Pro¬ 
 fessor :W. F. Barrett—the last named only remains 
 with us, More recently we have lost Richard Hodgson, 
 the only member of the Society who has been enabled 
 to devote his whole life to the work of investigation, 
 and whose knowledge both of the physical phenomena 
 of Spiritualism and of the trance communications 
 through Mrs. Piper was unrivalled. On any theory 
 of the subject we should expect to receive innumerable 
 communications through mediums purporting to come 
 from the spirits of these leaders of psychical research, 
 and as a matter of fact messages have been received, 
 especially since the death of F. Wi. H. Myers, from 
 many different sources. But it is, of course, peculiarly 
 difficult in the case of persons so well known, land 
 so well known to the workers in this particular field, 
 to find the kind of proof that is desired. When the 
 spirit purporting to communicate is that of the unknown 
 relation of a sitter whose name is concealed, as 
 has been the case in some of the most strikingly suc¬ 
 cessful of Mrs. Piper’s stances, any definite statement 
 of facts which are beyond the scope of cunning guess¬ 
 work may be regarded as prima facie evidence of 
 
 199 
 
200 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 some supernormal faculty of perception, even if only 
 of telepathy from the mind of the sitter. But we 
 must, of course, assume, in the cases now to be con¬ 
 sidered, that the main facts of the lives, the chief 
 personal relationships, the published works, and the 
 mental antecedents generally of the communicators are 
 known to the trance intelligence. The region unknown 
 to the medium is very much narrowed, and the oppor¬ 
 tunities for test questions proportionately reduced. 
 That in the circumstances there is anything in the 
 communications that can be offered as evidence for 
 the identity of these special communicators is the more 
 noteworthy. In the first two cases, it may be said, 
 the evidence amounts to little more than an occasional 
 dramatic appropriateness of speech, or a resemblance 
 in writing. But in the case of Myers and Hodgson 
 some of the communications are more definite and 
 much more impressive. 
 
 Edmund Gurney died in the summer of 1888. 
 Shortly after his death communications were received 
 through automatic writing by a lady who was at that 
 time, I believe, personally unacquainted with any of 
 the leading members of the Society for Psychical 
 Research, but who immediately afterwards joined the 
 Society, and took an active part in its work, contributing 
 papers to its Proceedings. In the course of the follow¬ 
 ing year communications which purported to come front 
 Gurney were received through Mrs. Piper at a sitting 
 with Professor James. Professor James comnients on 
 these communications : 
 
 " It was bad enough, and I confess that the human being 
 in me was so much stronger than the man of science, that 
 I was too disgusted with P.hinuit’s tiresome twaddle even to 
 
SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 201 
 
 note it down. When later the phenomena developed into 
 pretended direct speech from Gurney himself, I regretted 
 this, for a completer record would have been useful. I can 
 now merely say that neither then nor at any other time was 
 there, to my mind, the slightest inner verisimilitude in the 
 impersonation.” • 
 
 During the experiments with Mrs. Piper in this 
 country in the winter of 1889-90 the Gurney con¬ 
 trol held several conversations with Sir Oliver Dodge. 
 Correct references, as Sir Oliver tells us, were made 
 to private matters personally unknown to him. The 
 fact, (however, that the same matters had been pre¬ 
 viously mentioned in the trance to other sitters who 
 were conversant with the facts deprives their intro¬ 
 duction at the seances with Sir Oliver Lodge of its 
 chief value as a proof of spirit identity. The whole 
 manner of the impersonation, however, seems to have 
 been remarkably lifelike. The Gurney control spon¬ 
 taneously recalled having once taken tea with Lady 
 Lodge and having met Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Thompson.2 
 On the other hand, he professed no recognition of 
 Sir Oliver Lodge’s sister, who attended one of the 
 sittings, and whom, as a matter of fact, Edmund Gurney 
 had never met. But there were things in the substance 
 of the communications wholly unlike the real Edmund 
 Gurney. Asked for his opinion on the physical pheno¬ 
 mena of Spiritualism, the control said that they were 
 “ mostly fraud, the rest electricity ” I and that some 
 of the Indian juggling tricks were due to “a veil. 
 Lodge, an etherial veil between the thing and the 
 
 ' Proceedings S.PiR., vol. vi. p. 656. 
 
 2 This Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have no connection with 
 the Mrs. Thompson whose mediumship is discussed in the 
 previous chapter. 
 
202 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 spectator . . . it’s done through ether, it’s a gap in 
 ether (?).” * These utterances are clearly diagnostic 
 of the intelligence of the trance medium rather than of 
 the author of “ Phantasms of the Living,” 
 
 Again, on his introduction to Miss Lodge, the Gurney, 
 control remarked : “ Glad to see you. I wrote a little 
 book on ‘ The Power of Sound.’ Did you ever read 
 it? You might by chance be interested in it.” 
 
 A more uncharacteristic utterance could hardly have 
 been invented. 
 
 To some other difficult points in the impersonation 
 reference will be made in the next chapter. 
 
 “ Edmund Gurney ” again communicates occasionally 
 through Mrs. Verrall, and has assumed the general 
 direction of the automatic communications made 
 through another automatist, Mrs. Forbes (assumed 
 name). The impersonations through these two ladies 
 —both of whom knew Edmund Gurney in the flesh— 
 are of a neutral character, and cannot be said to offer 
 any evidence one way or the other. The Gurney con¬ 
 trol who communicates through Mrs. Holland (assumed 
 name) is of another type. His constant exhortations 
 addressed to the automatist are marked by an im¬ 
 patience and brusquerie, verging on actual discourtesy, 
 which are quite irreconcilable with the demeanour of 
 the Edmund Gurney whom his friends knew. Mrs. 
 Holland, it should be added, did not know him 
 personally. 
 
 Communications purporting to come from Professor 
 Sidgwick have been received, amongst others, through 
 Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Verrall. Professor Sidgwick 
 died in the summer of 1900, and in December of 
 j Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiii. p. 156 . 
 
SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 203 
 
 that year his sister, Mrs. Benson, had several sittings 
 with Mrs. Thompson. No reference at any of these 
 was made to Professor Sidgwick ; but at a sitting 
 held on January ii, 1901, at which Mrs. Benson 
 was not present, the Sidgwick control spoke through 
 Mrs. Thompson. Mr. Piddington, who was present, 
 tells us that the voice, manner, and style of utterance 
 were extraordinarily lifelike, and that he “ felt that 
 [he] was indeed speaking with and hearing the voice 
 of the man whom [he] had known.” * At a later date 
 several sentences were written by the control. The 
 first script was written in Mr. Piddington’s presence ; 
 the remaining three while Mrs. Thompson was alone. 
 They bear a very striking, and indeed quite unmis¬ 
 takable, resemblance to the writing of Mr. Henry 
 Sidgwick. Mrs. Thompson states that she had never 
 seen his writing. But, of course, there may have been 
 opportunities for her to see it unconsciously, and we 
 cannot therefore assume her ignorance of the writing.2 
 The substance of the communications contained 
 nothing of an evidential nature ; and some of the 
 remarks credited to the Sidgwick control impress one 
 strongly as appropriate to the mind of the medium 
 rather than to the mind purporting to communicate. 
 Such is the sentence addressed to Mr. Piddington, 
 put into the mouth of the Sidgwick control : ‘‘ You 
 always thought me old and shabby, but I am shabbier 
 now ” ; 3 or the remark reported by the Myers con¬ 
 trol of the Sidgwick control : “ He says, ‘ Myers, now 
 
 * Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xviii. pp. 236—7. 
 
 2 Reproductions of the control writing, with some speci¬ 
 mens of Mr. Sidgwick’s own writing for comparison, are 
 given in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xviii. 
 
 3 Ibid., vol. xviii. p. 237. 
 
204 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 we are together, you convince me that I am sending 
 my messages and that she is not getting them from' 
 us some way ’ ’V; or, again, the statement made by 
 another control about Myers himself : “ Do you know 
 he feels like the note-taker, not like the spirit that 
 has to speak ” '—^all these rather cheap witticisms seem 
 to point immediately to the “ Nelly ” control of 
 Mrs. Thompson as their source. 
 
 The Sidgwick communications through Mrs. Verrall’s 
 hand are naturally more in character, as coming from 
 one who knew him well in life. But they contain little 
 that can be regarded as throwing light upon the identity 
 of the communicator. Several remarks were made 
 about an old MS. connected with children, and on 
 reference to Mrs. Sidgwick it was found that she 
 had recently come across a play, written in 1856 for 
 some children, one of whom was a friend of Henry 
 Sidgwick’s.2 
 
 On the other hand, repeated references were made 
 to three letters of which Mrs. Sidgwick knows nothing ; 
 and the control failed to answer a test question. Mrs. 
 Verrall was asked to request the control to state the 
 text which (as stated in the “ Memoir,” then not yet 
 published) represented the dominant thought in the 
 last part of Dr. Sidgwick’s life. Many attempts were 
 made, but all incorrect .3 
 
 Communications purporting to come from the late 
 F. W. H. Myers, who died on January 17, 1901, have 
 been received through many automatists. The only 
 cases, however, which it will be necessary to consider 
 
 ' Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiii. pp. 201—202. 
 
 2 Ibid., vol. XX. p. 279 . 
 
 3 Ibid., vpl. XX. pp. 296 — 7 . 
 
SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 205 
 
 in the present connection are those made through Mrs. 
 Piper, Mrs. Verrall, and Mrs. Holland, which have 
 offered some opportunities for testing the genuineness 
 of the impersonation. 
 
 As regards Mrs. Holland, I see no reason to ques¬ 
 tion that the “ Myers,” who shares with “ Gurney ” 
 the general direction of this lady’s automatic writing, 
 is the creature of her own subconscious intelligence, 
 owing nothing to any external inspiration. Miss Alice 
 Johnson, who has edited Mrs. Holland’s script,i has 
 pointed out many instances in which these automatic 
 impersonations have clearly owed characteristic details 
 to information recently acquired by the normal self 
 from books and newspaper articles. The most striking 
 proof of the artificial character of this personality is 
 afforded by the following incident*: In October, 1905, 
 Mrs. Holland read in the Spectator a review of Max¬ 
 well’s book dealing with the physical phenomena pf 
 Spiritualism. The book had a preface written by Sir 
 Oliver Lodge. In the same month Sir Oliver Lodge 
 described at a meeting of the Society some phenomena 
 which he had witnessed, at Dr. Maxwell’s invitation, 
 at Bordeaux. Mr. Feilding also was at this time 
 planning to attend some stances with Eusapia Palla- 
 dino in Paris, and had discussed the phenomena 
 with Miss Johnson. 
 
 Mrs. Holland’s script of November and December 
 was full of impressive and repeated warnings purport¬ 
 ing to come from Myers against fraudulent spiritual¬ 
 istic manifestations. Thus : “ The phenomena that will 
 shortly be introduced are utterly misleading . . . the 
 old familiar trickery.” Again, after a reference to 
 > Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxi. 
 
206 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 Eusapia Palladino by name : “ The trance condition 
 is partially genuine ; the manifestations are simply 
 fraudulent.” Definite statements are then made as to 
 the use by Eusapia of feet, toes, and lazy-tongs, and 
 the message is written : “ The kind of ridicule this 
 
 would bring would be the killing type. Has [s/c] we 
 endured so long—done so much, endured so much, 
 hoped so much, only to come to an end in the course 
 
 of the year now coming-It is a very sad thought 
 
 to me.” The last sentence is obviously intended to fore¬ 
 shadow the probable collapse of the Society for 
 Psychical Research through the discredit brought on 
 it by its attitude towards physical mediums, and 
 Eusapia in particular.' 
 
 Now, the living Myers, as already shown, had some 
 years before his death formally recanted his suspicions 
 and announced his conviction of the genuineness pf 
 Eusapia’s phenomena. That his attitude towards the 
 whole subject had not changed in his lifetime is suffi¬ 
 ciently proved by the views expressed in his book on 
 ‘‘ Human Personality.” The apprehensions shown in 
 Mrs. Plolland’s script are, therefore, entirely foreign to 
 the views held by F. W. H. Myers when alive. If he had 
 changed them since his death, he would, no doubt— 
 since the problem affects the authenticity of the con¬ 
 trols, not only, of Mrs. Holland, but of Mrs. Thompson 
 and Mrs. Piper as well—have thought it necessary 
 to explain the change through these or other sources. 
 The circumstance, again, points immediately to Mrs. 
 Holland’s subconscious mind as the sole source of these 
 messages. i 
 
 Mrs. Verrall developed the faculty of automatic 
 
 ‘ Proceedings S.R.R., vol. xxi. pp. 273 — 8 . 
 
SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 207 
 
 writing shortly after Myers’ death, and amongst ,the 
 communications received from him were some that pur¬ 
 ported to reveal the contents of a sealed letter which 
 Myers had written in 1891 for the express purpose 
 of such a test, and had left in the care of Sir Oliver 
 Lodge. The sealed letter was opened on December 13, 
 1904, but it was found that the contents bore no re¬ 
 semblance to the statements made in Mrs. Verrall’s 
 script. 
 
 In January, 1907, Mrs. Sidgwick propounded to the 
 Piper-Myers a test question of which she alone knew 
 the answer. In order as far as possible to exclude 
 the operation of telepathy, the question was put by 
 Mrs. Verrall, Mrs. Sidgwick herself not interviewing 
 Mrs. Piper until later. Briefly, at one of Myers’ last 
 meetings with Professor Henry Sidgwick, he had called 
 Mrs. Sidgwick aside and urged her to induce Mr. Arthur 
 Sidgwick to write a Memoir of his brother.i Other 
 matters were also referred to. The Piper-Myers was 
 asked to state the subject of the conversation. Mrs. 
 Verrall knew only that the conversation had taken place 
 out of doors in the porch. In the presence of Mrs. 
 Verrall and Mr. Piddington the Piper-Myers, through 
 the hand of the entranced Mrs. Piper, stated correctly 
 that the conversation had taken place out of doors, 
 though he gave the locality incorrectly as near some 
 shrubbery. After some vague and general remarks 
 natural to the circumstances, the following definite 
 statements were made about the subject of the con¬ 
 versation : That it referred to Professor Sidgwick’s 
 
 • The Memoir was afterwards written by Mrs. H. Sidg¬ 
 wick and Mr. Arthur Sidgwick jointly, and had been 
 published before the test had been propounded. 
 
208 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 writing a letter [(for the purpose of a test) ; that it 
 related to the posthumous publication of some book 
 of his ; that it referred to “a certain document ” ; 
 to some “ matter pertaining to the College to “a 
 library matter ”—later expanded into the Gurney 
 Memorial Library. After this Mrs. Sidgwick herself 
 attended the stances with Mrs. Piper. Reference was 
 again made on February 13th to the Library and to 
 the document. On February 20th the Library was 
 again referred to. On March 20th the Myers’ control 
 wrote : “I recall very clearly speaking with you about 
 a will.” Later in the same sitting the message came : 
 
 ‘‘ Let me ask if you remember . . . my advising you, 
 to see about—see [illegible scrawl here] about his life.” 
 
 E. M. S.—” My advising you to see? ” 
 
 [Rector communicating. ] 
 
 “ I can’t tell you just what the word is. It sounds like 
 R-e-v-n-u-a of his life.” 
 
 E. M. S.—“ R-e-u-n-u-a—is that it? ” 
 
 [Myers communicating. ] 
 
 ” Yes, it was to write it.” 
 
 Mrs. Sidgwick then acknowledged the correctness 
 of the statement so far, but pointed out that some¬ 
 thing else had been said in the conversation referred to. 
 
 The Piper-Myers returned to the question at later 
 stances, but still harped on the point of having asked 
 Mrs. Sidgwick to write the Life, and made various 
 guesses at the further question asked. 
 
 Then on April 2nd, after having stated ^correctly) 
 that Myers wanted the Life written, but was too busy 
 to undertake it himself, the trance intelligence con¬ 
 tinued : 
 
 ” Now, dear friend, let me refer again to the book. 
 
 I remember I asked you to try, and do you remember copy- 
 
SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 209 
 
 right, and bring out the work that it should not fall into 
 other hands. I felt it was your work alone, and the exact 
 words I pointed were, I believe, like this—I had [?] unless 
 you take certain [ ? ] on this point they would lose their 
 value. Am I not correct? ” 
 
 E. M. S.—“ I do not think you referred to copyright.” 
 
 Control.—” I do not intend to say copyright, only 
 copies. Rector does not understand my point. I will 
 explain. Do you remember my suggesting to you about 
 views [?] photographs which I thought would be necessary? 
 and I think I suggested Arthur. Do you remember about 
 Arthur and what I said about his giving anything [ ? ] to 
 assist assisting you? ” 
 
 At the next sitting there was a further reference to 
 “Arthur”—/.^., Mr. Arthur Sidgwick. 
 
 It will be seen that only one piece of correct in¬ 
 formation, and that known to Mrs. Verrall, was given 
 before Mrs. Sidgwick came to the seances. After she 
 came and after several incorrect guesses had been made, 
 and the field thus narrowed down, the answer—correct 
 so far as it went—was given that the conversation 
 related to the writing of a Life of Professor Sidgwick. 
 But Mr. Arthur Sidgwick only came in as assisting 
 Mrs. Sidgwick, which, in fact, he had done. 
 
 Mrs. Sidgwick thinks that the statements made by 
 the trance intelligence were not such as Mrs. Piper 
 would have been likely, to guess, and that on the whole 
 they seem to indicate some supernormal source of 
 information. But it leaves the question open as 
 between telepathy and communication from the dead.' 
 
 Several other opportunities for testing the Piper- 
 Myers occurred in the course of Mrs. Piper’s visit to 
 this country in 1906-07. Two of them, the Greek 
 sentence selected by Mrs. Verrall and the Latin 
 
 ' Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxii. pp. 417 — 44 . 
 
 14 
 
210 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 message, are involved with the general question of 
 cross-correspondences, and can most conveniently be 
 dealt with in the next chapter, to which the reader is 
 referred. Another case, which furnished the most 
 striking test in the whole series, the Lethe incident, 
 is discussed in Chapter VI. But at the seance of 
 January 23, 1907, at which the question about the 
 Greek phrase was put to the Myers control by Mr. 
 Piddington, the question was also asked : “ Which ode 
 of Horace entered deeply into your inner life? ” The 
 answer desired was a reference to Odes I. 28, the 
 Archytas Ode, which Myers had himself described in 
 a letter written in 1884 in the words quoted in the 
 question. Several references to Horace and many to 
 poems were made at subsequent sittings ; but a 
 definite reply was not given until April 17th. Mrs. 
 Sidgwick then reminded the Piper-Myers of his promise, 
 and he answered : “I recall the question and I had 
 the ‘Ode to Nature ’ on my mind, but as I thought I 
 loved another ode better I did not reply until I could 
 say it more clearly. Do you remember immortality? ” ' 
 It happens that Myers’ posthumous “ Fragments of 
 Prose and Poetry ” include an “ Ode to Nature ” and 
 a poem on “ Immortality .” Both contain some 
 similarities of thought and expression, too marked, 
 it would seem, to be accidental, with two well- 
 known odes of Horace (Odes HI. 4 and I. 28, the 
 Archytas Ode). Mrs. Piper states (pp, 109-10) that 
 she had not at this date seen the “ Fragments.” Her 
 knowledge of the book, however, in this connection 
 is immaterial, since her reading of it would not have 
 enabled her to connect any passage in it with Horace. 
 
 ' Proceedings SP.R.x vol. xxii. p. 398 . 
 
SOMES RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 211 
 
 But Mrs. Verrall, who suggested the question, had 
 seen the ‘‘Fragments ” two or three years before, and 
 had at that time (October, 1904) read the poem on 
 “ Immortality.” It does not ^appear that she consciously 
 connected the poem with the Archytas Ode, nor that 
 she read the “ Ode to Nature.” Had she done so, 
 she could hardly have failed to recognise the Horatian 
 allusions in it. In the circumstances it would not 
 be reasonable, in view of the frequent telepathic inter¬ 
 changes which appear to have taken place between 
 Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Piper, to exclude the possibility 
 that the knowledge of the titles of the two poems 
 shown by the latter may have been derived from the 
 mind, if even the unconscious mind, of the former.* 
 
 Richard Hodgson was born in Melbourne. He left 
 Australia to come to this country in 1878, and lived 
 here until 1887, when he went to America to act as 
 Secretary to the American Branch of the Society for 
 Psychical Research, remaining there, with brief 
 intervals, until his death in December, 1905. 
 
 iWhat appears to have been the earliest communica¬ 
 tion from a Hodgson control in this country came 
 through Mrs. Holland.2 Though Mrs. Holland had 
 produced automatic writing occasionally for some years 
 previously, her systematic pursuit of the practice dates 
 only from September, 1903. Almost from the outset 
 her automatism purported to be controlled by Edmund 
 
 ' See Mr. Piddington’s further discussion of the incident 
 in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiv. pp. 150—69. I do not 
 find that his argument, ingenious, subtle, and scholarly 
 though it is, carries much weight to my own mind. But 
 this is a question to be decided almost entirely by the 
 personal equation. Let the reader judge for himself. 
 
 2 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxi. p. 304. 
 
212 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 Gurney or F. W. H. Myers. But, as already said, 
 there is nothing either in the substance of the com¬ 
 munications or the manner of them which should lead 
 us to attribute them to any other agency than the 
 subliminal consciousness of the writer. 
 
 Mrs. Holland is generally awake or in apparent 
 possession of her normal faculties while practising 
 automatic writing. In February, 1905, she had found 
 a tendency to drowsiness during the process which 
 she had successfully resisted. Early in the following 
 year she found the drowsiness coming again, and in 
 sending to Miss Johnson some script, written on 
 February 9, 1906, she stated that she had felt yery 
 sleepy. It should be mentioned that Mrs. Holland 
 had a few days previously seen a newspaper para¬ 
 graph giving the fact of Dr. Hodgson’s death, but 
 without details. The writing was as follows : 
 
 Friday, Feb. 9 , 1906 . 9 p.m. 
 
 “Sjdibse Ipehtp o—only one letter farther on. 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 8 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 19 
 
 15 
 
 14 
 
 “ They are not haphazard figures ; read them as letters. 
 
 “ The shortness of breath was the worst part of the 
 illness—worse even than the exhaustion. 
 
 “ K. 57. (A Christian name)—grey paper. 
 
 [Then come references, unidentified, to some document.] 
 “ It is a wide prospect from the window. A gold watch- 
 chain with a horse-shoe shaped cigar-cutter attached to it— 
 an old seal, not his own initials—a white-handled knife 
 ink-stained. 
 
SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 213 
 
 “ Nitrate of amyl—probably too late even if it had been 
 thought of—a corpse needs no shoes.” ' 
 
 The reference to Richard Hodgson, whom Mrs. 
 Holland had never met, is clear. S j d i b s e 
 I p e h t p o are “ only one letter farther on,” and 
 the two columns of figures give the numerical order 
 in the alphabet of the letters forming the two names. 
 Hodgson died suddenly of heart failure whilst playing 
 at hand-ball, so that the reference to illness and short¬ 
 ness of breath are inaccurate. He wore a gold watch- 
 chain, with cigar-cutter attached—but it was not horse¬ 
 shoe shaped. An old broken seal was found amongst 
 his possessions, but there were no initials on it. Nitrite 
 of amyl is used for heart failure. There are, however, 
 three points which specially connect the script with 
 Hodgson. 
 
 1. The device of giving a name by means of conun¬ 
 drums is extremely characteristic. Hodgson was 
 extraordinarily fond of anagrams and puzzles of lall 
 kinds. It appears, however, that Mrs. Holland had 
 as a child played at a secret language by using letters 
 of the alphabet in the same way, though she cannot 
 recall ever having used numbers for the purpose. 
 
 2. The suppressed Christian name was that of a 
 lady, dead so far back as 1879, who had played a 
 large part in Hodgson’s life. The name had been 
 mentioned at a sitting with Mrs. Piper, but never pub¬ 
 lished, and it seems impossible that Mrs. Holland 
 should have known of it by normal means .2 
 
 * Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxi. p. 304 . 
 
 2 The name, however, is a fairly common one, and the 
 actual termination ” sie ” had been published in the Pro¬ 
 ceedings S.P.R.. But Mrs. Holland had not read the Pro¬ 
 ceedings. 
 
214 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 ^3- K. 57. 
 
 'A copy of the script was sent to Mr. Piddington, 
 at the time in Boston, helping to arrange Dr. Hodgson’s 
 papers. On the same morning that he received it Mr. 
 
 Piddington 
 
 found 
 
 in a notebook of 
 
 Hodgson’s the 
 
 following entries 
 
 
 
 R. 
 
 H. 
 
 R. H. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 K. 6 Mr. 
 
 (or Mrs.) p- 
 
 
 4 
 
 K. 52 
 
 8 
 
 
 6 
 
 K. 8 
 
 14 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 4 
 
 K. 36 
 
 7 
 
 
 52 
 
 K. 6 
 
 7 
 
 K. 
 
 11 
 
 K. 7 
 
 10 
 
 K. 
 
 52 
 
 K. 52 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 K. 13 
 
 
 K. 
 
 30 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 No explanation of the figures is forthcoming. But 
 they present a curious resemblance to the K. 57 and 
 lines of figures in Mrs, Holland’s script. 
 
 One or two other references to Hodgson, but of 
 little evidential value, are found in Mrs. Holland’s 
 script. 
 
 Naturally, however, the Hodgson control has been 
 most active in Mrs. Piper’s trance, sharing, in this 
 country at any rate, with the Myers control the bulk 
 of the work of communicating. The Piper-Hodgson 
 in this country, however, has given no satisfactory 
 proofs of identity. Sir Oliver Lodge, whose testimony 
 to the Gurney control has been already quoted, finds 
 very little feeling of reality in connection with' the 
 Myers and Hodgson controls. “They seemed in my 
 case,’’ he writes, “ rather shadowy and, so to speak, 
 
SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 215 
 
 uninteresting communicators.” > Four intimate friends 
 of Hodgson’s were introduced at various times i(of 
 course, under assumed names), and had in all twelve 
 sittings with the entranced Mrs. Piper. But no satis¬ 
 factory evidence even for recognition was forthcoming, 
 though some of the sittings were by no means unpro¬ 
 ductive in other respects .2 
 
 In marked contrast the Piper-Hodgson in America 
 seems to have been one of the most lifelike and 
 dramatic impersonations of the whole series given 
 through Mrs. Piper, and many true and relevant state¬ 
 ments were made of an intimate kind such as could 
 scarcely have proceeded from Mrs. Piper herself. Of 
 course Hodgson was well known to Mrs. Piper in her 
 normal state, and had, further, been present at her 
 trance sittings for many years, and was on intimate 
 terms, so to speak, with her controls. There were 
 thus several channels through which it is possible some 
 of the information given might have reached Mrs. 
 Piper, and, in fact, as will be shown, two or three 
 incidents which at first sight seemed of an almost crucial 
 character were robbed of their chief evidential value 
 by the later discovery that some of the facts had at 
 one time been within the knowledge of the trance 
 intelligence. But when all deductions are made, the 
 impersonation remains a very remarkable one. 
 
 The Hodgson control first appeared at a sitting held 
 on December 28, 1905, eight days after his death. 
 The sitter. Miss Theodate Pope, had been a friend of 
 his. Rector (the controlling spirit) 3 described 
 
 ' Proceedings SiP.R., vol. xxiii. p. 282 . 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 123 . 
 
 3 For some account of Rector see Chapter VII. 
 
216 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 Hodgson as holding a ring and showing it to the sitter, 
 and then wrote “Margaret a 11 B. L.” 
 
 At the next sitting, early in January, the Piper- 
 Hodgson gave eight lines of rhythmical and passably 
 melodious verse, which he claimed as original. 
 Hodgson in his lifetime had been an omnivorous 
 reader and an enthusiastic lover of poetry. 
 
 On January i6th, at another sitting with Miss Pope, 
 the Hodgson control wrote : 
 
 Give ring to Margaret back to Margaret. ; 
 
 Miss P.—Who is Margaret? 
 
 I was with her in the summer. 
 
 [Hodgson had spent two summers at the house of Miss 
 Margaret Bancroft.] 
 
 On January 24th the actual donor of the ring, Mrs. 
 Lyman '(assumed name), whose Christian name is not 
 Margaret, had her first sitting. As soon as the 
 Hodgson control came on the scene he wrote : 
 
 The ring. You gave it me on my fiftieth birthday. 
 When they asked I didn’t want to say you gave 
 it me, I didn’t want to say that. . . . Two palm- 
 leaves joining each other—Greek. [Here followed 
 illegible word. The palms truly described the ring, 
 which Mrs. Piper probably had seen ; but it bore 
 no Greek inscription, nor was the symbol on it a 
 Greek cross.] You gave it me-- 
 
 Mrs. L.—Yes, Dick, where is it now? 
 
 They have got it. They took it off my finger 
 after I was gone. 
 
 Mrs. L.—No, they didn’t find it on your finger. 
 
 Pocket, it was in my pocket. I’ll find it you shall 
 have it. 
 
 On January 29th Mrs. L. had another sitting. The 
 Hodgson control wrote : 
 
SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 217 
 
 I have been trying to make clear about that ring. 
 It is on my mind all the time. I thought if I could 
 get Margaret B. to get it for me, I would get it 
 to you through her, then no one would understand. 
 I could not tell Miss Pope about you. 
 
 Mrs. L.—Did you think Margaret B. gave it to you? 
 
 Oh dear no ! not at all. 
 
 Mrs. Lyman asked for the motto on the ring to be 
 given, but the control replied : “ All will be clear to 
 me in time. Do not ask me test questions now.” 
 
 On March 5th the Hodgson control was again ques¬ 
 tioned as to the whereabouts of the ring, which had 
 not been found. He replied, first, that a man had 
 taken it from his finger ; next, twice, that he could 
 recall putting it in his waistcoat pocket before 
 beginning to play ball. ^(As already stated, he died 
 whilst playing a game of hand-ball.) On May i6th 
 he stated that he saw it taken from his locker by a; 
 man, of whom he gave a description ; he further de¬ 
 scribed the house where the man lived. As a matter 
 of fact the ring was ultimately found in the pocket 
 of Hodgson’s waistcoat, which had remained at the 
 house of a personal friend, Mr. Dorr. The descrip¬ 
 tion of the man was but little like that of Mr. Dorr, 
 and the description of the house did not accord with 
 the facts. 
 
 The interpretation of this incident, as Professor 
 James has pointed out, is ambiguous. It is consistent 
 either with the theory of fishing and general cunning 
 on the part of the trance intelligence playing a new 
 part, or with the theory of a living Hodgson, still 
 half-mazed by the great change and without full control 
 of his reason or his memories. 
 
218 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 The Nigger Talk Incident. 
 
 On February 27, 1906, at a sitting with Professor 
 Hyslop, the following dialogue took place : 
 
 R. H.—I wonder if you recall what I said I would do 
 if I should return first? 
 
 Hyslop.—I do not remember exactly. 
 
 Remember that I told Myers that we would talk 
 nigger -talk—Myers—talk nigger -talk ? 
 
 Hyslop.—No, you must have told that to some one else. 
 
 Ah yes, James. I remember it was James, yes, 
 Will James. He will understand. 
 
 In fact, Professor James recalled that he had more 
 than once remarked to Hodgson that the pompous 
 “ sacerdotal verbiage ” of the Imperator Group could 
 by tactful suggestion be turned into nigger minstrel 
 talk. The incident seemed at first a very striking one. 
 But it was eventually discovered that Hodgson in his 
 lifetime had made use of the same phrase—nigger-talk 
 —in speaking to the Myers control of Mrs. Piper. So 
 that the incident, however dramatically appropriate, 
 cannot be held as otherwise significant. 
 
 Another series of communications, at first sight 
 extremely impressive, proved on investigation to lose 
 much of their value for similar reasons. 
 
 At a sitting held on May 2, 1906, the Hodgson 
 control asked Mr. Piddington to look among his 
 papers for some letters from Chicago written by a 
 Miss Huldah Densmore j^(surname a pseudonym), 
 adding that he would be much distressed if they fell 
 into other hands. 
 
 The letters could not be found, and at a later sitting, 
 in reply to a question from Mr. Dorr, who knew ,a 
 family named Densmore : “Is she a sister of Mary, 
 
SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 219 
 
 Jenny, and Ella? ” the control replied : “ Ella is the 
 one, Huldah we used to call her.” 
 
 At another sitting, being asked whether she was the 
 same person as Ella, the control replied that she was 
 not Ella, but another sister (in fact, she was Ella), 
 and that he had proposed marriage to her. 
 
 Miss Ella Hannah Densmore admitted that, in fact, 
 Hodgson had proposed to her some years since. It 
 appears that the only friends to whom Hodgson had 
 mentioned the circumstance were Professor Newbold 
 and Mrs. Thaw, neither of whom had been present at 
 the sittings when the matter was referred to,' and the 
 episode had pot been even suspected by Hodgson’s 
 other friends. Further investigation, however, showed 
 that Hodgson at the time of his disappointment had 
 consulted Mrs. Piper’s trance controls, so that the 
 circumstances were known to them. 
 
 Later, when Professor James asked the Hodgson 
 control why he gave the lady’s name as Huldah, he 
 replied : “I used that name instead of the right 
 Christian name to avoid compromising—it was a very 
 delicate matter.” 
 
 It will be remembered that he had given the surname 
 correctly. 
 
 On the other hand, the Hodgson control gave to 
 Mr. Dorr and to Miss Margaret Bancroft, |at whose 
 country houses he had often been a summer guest, 
 many correct details about persons and incidents con¬ 
 nected with these two places. Mrs. Piper had not 
 been to either house, and the details mentioned are 
 the kind of trivial intimate things which Hodgson, 
 
 ' At later sittings the Hodgson control spontaneously 
 indicated these two friends as knowing about the matter. 
 
220 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 always reticent, as Professor James points out, would 
 be most unlikely to have mentioned to her. But the 
 incidents, so far as they could be verified, were within 
 the knowledge, if not always within the immediate con¬ 
 sciousness, of the sitter. 
 
 The following are some of the most striking cases 
 quoted in Professor James’s report : 
 
 1. At a time of some pecuniary embarrassment a 
 friend had unsolicited sent Hodgson some money. In 
 writing to thank him Hodgson had 
 
 cited the story of a starving couple who were overheard 
 by an atheist who was passing the house to pray aloud 
 to God for food. The atheist climbed the roof and dropped 
 some bread down the chimney, and heard them thank God 
 for the miracle. He then went to the door and revealed 
 himself as its author. The old woman replied to him ; 
 “ Well, the Lord sent it, even if the devil brought it.” 
 
 At this friend’s sitting of January 30th, R. H. suddenly 
 says : 
 
 Do you remember a story I told you and how 
 you laughed, about the man and woman praying. 
 
 Sitter.—Oh, and the devil was in it. Of course I do. 
 
 Yes, the devil, they told him it was the Lord who 
 sent it if the devil brought it. . . . About the 
 food that was given to them. ... I want you to 
 know who is speaking. 
 
 The sitter feels quite certain that no one but himself 
 knew of the correspondence, and regards the incident as 
 a good test of R. H.’s continued presence. Others will 
 either favour this interpretation of it or explain it by 
 reading of the sitter’s mind, or treat it as a chance coinci¬ 
 dence, according to their several prepossessions. I myself, 
 [says Professor James, ] feel morally certain that the waking 
 Mrs. Piper was ignorant of the incident and of the corre¬ 
 spondence. 
 
 2. At a sitting on May 21, 1906, Professor James 
 asked the Hodgson control whether he could recall 
 
SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 221 
 
 any incident about playing with children at the Putnam 
 camp. The control replied : 
 
 Do you remember—what is that name, Elizabeth 
 Putnam? She came in and I was sitting in a chair 
 before the fire, reading, and she came in and put 
 her hands, crept up behind me, put her hands over 
 my eyes, and said, “ Who is it? ” And do you re¬ 
 member what my answer was? 
 
 W. J.—Let me see if you remember it as I do. 
 
 I said, “ Well, it feels like Elizabeth Putnam, but 
 it sounds like- 
 
 W. J.—I know who you mean. [R. H. quite startled 
 me here, because what he said reminded me of an incident 
 which I well remembered. One day at breakfast little 
 Martha Putnam (as I recall the fact) had climbed on 
 Hodgson’s back, sitting on his shoulders, and clasped her 
 hands over his eyes, saying, “ Who am I ? ” To which 
 R. H., laughing, had responded, “It sounds like Martha, 
 but it feels like Henry Bowditch ’’—the said H. B. weighing 
 nearly 200 lbs. I find that no one but myself, of those 
 who probably were present, remembers this incident.— 
 W. J.] 
 
 Do you realise how difficult that is? 
 
 W. J.—It is, evidently ; yet you were just on the point 
 of saying it. Is it a man or a woman? 
 
 A man. 
 
 W. J.—Have you any message for that man now? 
 
 Dr.—not Putnam—Dr. Bowditch I 
 
 W. J.—That is it—Bowditch. 
 
 “ Sounds like Dr. Bowditch.” 
 
 3. At another time Mrs. James asked the control 
 whether he could remember what happened one night 
 when he was arguing with her sister : 
 
 “ I had hardly said ‘ remember,’ ” she notes, “ in asking 
 this question, when the medium’s arm was stretched out 
 and the fist shaken threateningly.” Then these words 
 came : 
 
222 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 R- H-—Yes, I did this in her face. I couldn’t help it. 
 She was so impossible to move. It was wrong of me, but 
 I couldn’t help it. 
 
 [I myself well remember this fist-shaking incident, and 
 how we others laughed over it after Hodgson had taken 
 his leave. What had made him so angry was my sister-in- 
 law’s defence of some slate-writing she had seen in 
 California.—W. J.] 
 
 On January 30, 1906, within six weeks of the death, 
 Mrs. M. had a sitting. Mrs. M. said : 
 
 Do you remember our last talk together, at N., 
 and how, in coming home, we talked about ,the 
 work ? 
 
 (R. H.)—Yes, yes. 
 
 Mrs. M.—And I said if we had a hundred thousand 
 dollars- 
 
 Buying Billy 1 I 
 
 Mrs. M.—Yes, Dick, that was it—“ buying Billy.” 
 
 Buying only Billy? 
 
 Mrs. M.—Oh, no—I wanted Schiller too. How well you 
 remember I 
 
 Mrs. M., before R. H.’s death, had had dreams of 
 extending the American Branch’s operations by getting an 
 endowment, and possibly inducing Professor Newbold (Billy) 
 and Dr. Schiller to co-operate in work. She naturally 
 regards this veridical recall, by the control, of a private 
 conversation she had had with Hodgson as very evidential 
 of his survival. 
 
 Taken as a whole, the correspondences are so 
 numerous and precise, and the possibility of leakage 
 to Mrs. Piper through normal channels in many cases 
 so effectually excluded, that it is impossible to doubt 
 that we have here proof of a supernormal agency of 
 some kind—either telepathy by the trance intelligence 
 from the sitter or some kind of communication with 
 the dead. 
 
SOME RECENT COMMUNICATORS 
 
 223 
 
 The ring, the nigger-talk, and the Huldah Densmore 
 incident seem to be adequately accounted for by tele¬ 
 pathy, eked out now by cunning conjecture, now by 
 unconscious reminiscences. 
 
 Nor are the probabilities greatly strained by the 
 application of the same explanation to most of the 
 other successful sittings, if we assume that telepathy 
 can draw upon the stores of the unconscious mind. 
 But the four incidents last quoted must give us 
 pause. It is not merely that the information given 
 is correct, and such as could scarcely have been within 
 the normal knowledge of Mrs. Piper ; the manner of 
 its introduction is so like Hodgson and so unlike 
 anything that we can attribute to the medium’s mind. 
 
 But these dramatically true incidents are diluted with 
 a very large amount of inferior matter. The Hodgson 
 control makes many incorrect statements, and endea¬ 
 vours to conceal his mistakes by apparently disingenuous 
 evasions. We have already had occasion to note two 
 instances of this—the mention of Margaret in con¬ 
 nection with the ring, and the curious statement that 
 Miss Densmore’s Christian name was inaccurately given 
 out of delicacy, notwithstanding the fact that the true 
 surname was given from the outset. It is noteworthy, 
 too, that no test questions are answered. Hodgson 
 left behind him many private papers written in cipher. 
 The key to the cipher is unknown to any one now 
 living. The Hodgson control has promised to reveal it, 
 but he has not yet done so. He was unable to give 
 the solution to two charades of his own composi¬ 
 tion [(p. 54). iWhen asked to give the names of some 
 of Professor Newbold’s deceased relatives, whom the 
 control professed to kiiow, the trance intelligence imme- 
 
224 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 diately changed the subject '^(p. 76). When asked to 
 give the contents of any sealed letters written in his 
 lifetime for the express purpose of being read by him 
 after death the two sentences were given : “ There 
 
 is no death ” and “ out of life into life eternal” 
 (p. 102). Whatever Hodgson may have written, it 
 was surely not quite so commonplace as that. 
 
 Hodgson, as already stated, had passed his child¬ 
 hood and youth in Melbourne. This circumstance 
 afforded a good opportunity for a test, seeing that 
 incidents of his early years would be known to no 
 one in America. He made many statements about his 
 childhood, some true, some false, many unverified. His 
 sister, to whom all the messages were sent, wrote : 
 “ To my mind there is nothing striking in any of the 
 statements.” She propounded in turn three test ques¬ 
 tions, to which the trance intelligence gave no reply. 
 Moreover, the Piper-Hodgson, when questioned by 9. 
 sitter, could not remember the name of his schoolmaster 
 in Melbourne. We have seen already that the Piper- 
 Hodgson failed in England even to recognise ^ome 
 of his intimate friends. 
 
 If we could suppose that sometimes the real Hodgson 
 communicated through the medium’s hand, and that 
 sometimes, more often, when he was inaccessible, the 
 medium’s secondary personality played the part as best 
 it could, these difficulties would, no doubt, be lessened. 
 
 It may be justifiable, as a guide to further investiga¬ 
 tion, provisionally to entertain such an hypothesis ; but 
 it seems hardly necessary to say that at this stage, at 
 any rate, it cannot be seriously defended. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 It will be seen that the problem of proving the 
 authenticity of the alleged communications from the 
 dead is by no means a simple one. For how are we 
 to get behind the secondary personality of the medium? 
 iWe cannot rely, as evidence for personal identity, on 
 a repetition of characteristic gestures, the choice of 
 a word, or the turn of a phrase. iWe are forced to 
 remember at every step that we have to deal with an 
 actor whose mimicry is as subtle as it is unscrupulous. 
 Again, we cannot base our faith on the relation of 
 intimate details known to no one but ourselves and 
 the dead, for we can place no certain limits on the 
 mysterious agency of telepathy. The only evidence that 
 can satisfy us of the survival of an active and individual 
 intelligence is evidence of the present activity of such 
 an intelligence. Within the last few years some 
 grounds have appeared for hoping that traces of such 
 intelligent action had been found. 
 
 Several indications of what appeared to be a reci¬ 
 procal influence with other automatists were noted somel 
 years back in connection with Mrs. Thompson. Thus, 
 on several occasions in the early months of 1900 there 
 appeared to be some correspondence between the 
 dreams of Dr. van Eeden in Holland and Nelly’s 
 
 statements about him. The most striking case is as 
 
 15 226 
 
226 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 follows : Mr. Piddington records that stances were 
 held with Mrs. Thompson on January loth, 12th, i6th, 
 and 18th. No reference was made to Dr. van Eeden 
 on the first three occasions, but on the i8th Nelly 
 said, in reply to a question, that she had not seen 
 Dr. van Eeden, but that he had called her twice, and 
 that her spirit friend Elsie had said to her : “ Old 
 
 Whiskers in the bed is calling you.” 
 
 Now, it appears from Dr. van Eeden’s diary that on 
 the night of the 15th he had before going to jbed 
 resolved to dream of Nelly—he has the power of in¬ 
 ducing dreams on a subject chosen by himself—and 
 as a test to give her the name Walden. In the event 
 he found himself calling out in his dream, “ Elsie, 
 Elsie 1 ” then, remembering that this was wrong, he 
 changed it lo ‘‘ Nelly, Nelly.” It is, of course, not 
 impossible that Dr. van Eeden may have known the 
 name of Nelly’s spirit associate, though it was new 
 to Mr. Piddington. But the coincidence is certainly 
 curious. I 
 
 Other correspondences occurred between Mrs. 
 Thompson’s utterances and those of Miss Rawson 
 (vol. xviii. pp. 206 and 295) and Mrs. Scott (ibid., 
 p. 302). 
 
 In recording these correspondences Mr. Piddington 
 writes : ' 
 
 “ The resemblances quoted above are far from complete ; 
 they are suggestive, rather than indicative, of supernormal 
 agency, yet I cannot ascribe them to chance. If they are 
 not supernormal I would attribute them to the minds of both 
 automatists having developed from similar data in their 
 common possession similar phantasies concordant with the 
 
 I Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xvii. p. 113. 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 227 
 
 general trend of ideas that run through spiritualistic mani¬ 
 festations. But at least I claim for them serious study, for 
 should we be fortunate enough (and I am rather sanguine 
 that we may be) to multiply analogous and more clinching 
 instances of the same phenomenon, it would open up one 
 of the most promising lines for observation, and even 
 perhaps for experimentation.” ' 
 
 These words, published in 1903, have now received 
 abundant fulfilment. Since 1901 especially several 
 members of the S. P. R.—Mrs. Verrall, Mrs. Holland, 
 Mrs. Forbes, and others—have practised automatic 
 writing with success. The scripts, independently pro¬ 
 duced by these ladies in different parts of the world, 
 have been regularly sent to the office of the Society 
 and carefully collated. It was soon found that these 
 writings showed traces of reciprocal influence, coinci¬ 
 dences of thought and expression, too numerous and 
 too precise to be ascribed wholly to the chance associa¬ 
 tion of ideas. Mrs. Holland’s script, for instance, con¬ 
 tained several veridical references to Mrs. Verrall’s 
 occupations and surroundings, even before she had 
 made that lady’s acquaintance. 
 
 It is impossible fairly to estimate the value of these 
 cross-correspondences without a close study of the 
 nature and development of the automatic script. Our 
 space will pot, however, admit of more than a brief 
 description of the phenomenon in the case of Mrs. 
 Holland. This lady had occasionally since 1893 
 written automatic poetry, and her hand had on three 
 or four occasions been impelled to write letters to an 
 acquaintance purporting to be dictated by a deceased 
 friend. Some at least of the messages so sent through 
 her hand appear to have been recognised as containing 
 ‘ Proceedings S.P..R., vol. xvii. p. 307 . 
 
228 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 references to matters known only to the recipient of 
 the letter and to the deceased communicator. In the 
 course of 1903 Mrs. Holland read Myers’ “Human 
 Personality,” and from that date onward her automatic 
 writing came fluently under the ostensible direction of 
 Myers and Gurney. The messages contained, how¬ 
 ever, little of an evidential nature, and Miss Johnson 
 has traced stage by stage how the impersonations grew 
 more definite as Mrs. Holland’s opportunities for 
 acquiring knowledge from normal sources increased. 
 Her first vision of the two controls, for instance, came 
 shortly after she had glanced through Myers’ post¬ 
 humous “ Fragments of Prose and Poetry,” which con¬ 
 tains photographs of himself, Gurney, and Sidgwick. 
 It is noteworthy that even after having seen his portrait 
 Mrs. Holland’s vision of Professor Sidgwick was in¬ 
 correct in two important particulars. Many other 
 references in Mrs. Holland’s automatic writing to 
 matters connected with prominent workers in psychical 
 research were apparently inspired by articles in the 
 newspapers and other outside sources. Intermixed with 
 these were apparent instances of telepathy, chiefly con¬ 
 cerned with Mrs. Verrall. Some of these veridical 
 references occurred at a time when Mrs. Holland knew 
 nothing of Mrs. Verrall beyond the fact that her name 
 is mentioned in Myers’ “ Human Personality.” Later, 
 Miss Johnson arranged that the two ladies should sit 
 on fixed days for experiment, neither being told the 
 name of her partner in the experiment. Indications 
 of reciprocal influence appeared in each script. The 
 experiments were continued after the ladies had become 
 acquainted with each other. To give an idea of these 
 apparently telepathic references I will quote the rele- 
 
CEOSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 229 
 
 vant passages of the script of March 2i, 1906. Mrs. 
 Holland on that day was wearing a ring belonging 
 to Mrs. Verrall, who at the time was staying with 
 Mrs. Forbes. Mrs. Holland did not know Mrs. Forbes, 
 and did not know that Mrs. Verrall was staying with 
 her. Omitting three paragraphs referring to matters 
 within Mrs. Holland’s normal knowledge, the script 
 runs : 
 
 1. They have all been trying in turn, but some of them 
 are not serious. Margaret [Mrs. Verrall] and Helen [Miss 
 Verrall] are.—M. saw a real place that last time, but she has 
 never seen the place itself, and did not describe it very 
 clearly. 
 
 2. Two windows in the room, one very much smaller than 
 the other.—Yes, you can see the river. 
 
 3. The honeysuckle is all rjght, but the Jap passion-flower 
 died in the frost. 
 
 4 . Frank paid a heavy price.—Daisy? 
 
 [Here the script broke into verse, which had no reference 
 to Mrs. Verrall and her surroundings.] 
 
 5. [Drawing of a dagger.] There is gold inlay on the 
 blade—the hilt is very worn. It’s in the hall—he forgets 
 where it came from—but its story is clearly impressed upon 
 it. Get it pschometrised [sfc], E. P. even would not fail. 
 
 6. Button—button—whose got the button? Look under 
 the carpet. The 0 went out of doors, and she won’t find 
 it again. 
 
 7. F [?] a pair of scales. 
 
 Then follows the figure of a horoscope with the 
 symbol of Cancer (incorrectly drawn), Venus, the Sun 
 and Moon. Then another figure which apparently 
 represents a further attempt to draw a horoscope, and 
 a reference to an amphora on the mantelpiece. 
 
 There are several possibly, or probably, veridical 
 references in this script. 
 
230 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 1. On the same day Mrs. Verrall’s script contained allu¬ 
 sions to “ Massiliotes terragencC olives old and hoary— 
 Posilippo, a terrace there—blue sea beyond the marble 
 balustrade.” Mrs. Verrall had never seen Posilippo. 
 
 2 . There are two windows in Mrs. Forbes’ drawing-room, 
 one a large bow, the other a small one—there is a stream 
 in the garden which can be seen from one of these windows. 
 It was in this room that Mrs. Forbes and Mrs. Verrall did 
 planchette writing together. 
 
 3. Mrs. Forbes writes (April 8, 1906) : ” There is 
 honeysuckle outside the window on the house, and there was 
 a Pirus Japonica, but all except a small shoot has died. 
 No passion-flowers.” 
 
 4. ‘‘ Frank ” is Mr. Forbes’ name ; but the statements 
 made seem to have no relevance. 
 
 5. On this day, March 21st, Mrs. Forbes had brought into 
 the room to show Mrs. Verrall an inlaid dagger, part of it 
 much worn. 
 
 6 . Possibly refers to a game Mrs. Forbes and Mrs. 
 Verrall used to play with a dog—hiding things for him to 
 find. 
 
 7. Many years ago Mr. Forbes used to be much 
 interested in drawing nativities. 
 
 It will be seen that, speaking generally, the verifi¬ 
 able references in this script are of a fairly simple 
 and straightforward kind, and this comparative 
 simplicity may be said to be characteristic of Mrs. 
 Holland. Her writing shows fluency, and is frequently 
 embellished with poetic imagery or actual quotations 
 in verse. To a reader it gives the impression of 
 flowing without impediment. It deals little in riddles. 
 
 Mrs. .VerralTs utterances, on the other hand, are 
 extremely difficult of interpretation. It is not merely 
 that a large part of them is written in Latin or, less' 
 commonly, Greek, but that the Latin and Greek 
 sentences themselves frequently contain new coinages, 
 and are nearly always of ambiguous application. Her 
 English utterances are hardly less broken, allusive. 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 231 
 
 and enigmatic. The cross-correspondences with other 
 automatists are most numerous and most striking in 
 Mrs. Verrall’s script. Two early examples may be 
 given. In December, 1900, Mrs. Verrall had made the 
 acquaintance of the lady known as Mrs. Forbes ^(the 
 name is assumed), and their respective scripts during 
 the next three or four months contain two or three 
 vague and not specially striking allusions to each other. 
 On April 16, 1901, Mrs. Verrall had a letter from 
 Mrs. Forbes, but did not see her or hear from her 
 again until October of that year. In the interval, 
 however, her script contained an unmistakable allusion, 
 not recognised until later, to Mrs. Forbes’ concerns. 
 Mrs. Forbes had lost a son, Talbot, in the Boer iWar, 
 and this son was one of the chief controls purporting 
 to communicate through her hand. On August 28, 
 1901, Mrs. Verrall’s hand wrote : 
 
 Signa sigillo. Conifer a arbos in horto iam insita omina 
 sibimet ostendit —‘‘ Sign with the seal. The fir-tree that has 
 already been planted in the garden gives its own portent.” 
 
 ” The script,” Mrs. Verrall writes, “ was signed with a 
 scrawl and three drawings representing a sword, a sus¬ 
 pended bugle, and a pair of scissors ; thus : 
 
 “ A suspended bugle surmounted by a crown is the badge 
 of the regiment to which Talbot Forbes belonged. Mrs. 
 Forbes has in her garden four or five small fir-trees grown 
 
232 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 from seed sent to her from abroad by her son ; these are 
 called by her ‘ Talbot’s trees.’ This fact was entirely 
 unknown to me. On August 28th Mrs. Forbes’ script con¬ 
 tained the statement, purporting to come from her son, 
 that he was looking for a ‘ sensitive ’ who wrote automatic¬ 
 ally, in order that he might obtain corroboration for her 
 own writing, and it concluded with the remark that he must 
 now leave her in order to join E. G. in controlling the 
 sensitive. The hour of her writing on August 28th does 
 not appear, but as she usually writes early in the day, and 
 as mine of the same date was 10.30 p.m., it is probable 
 that hers preceded mine. 
 
 “ It thus appears that on a certain day Talbot Forbes in 
 Mrs. Forbes’ script declared that he was seeking, and 
 implied that he had found, another automatic writer through 
 whom to communicate with her. On the same day a 
 statement was made in my script about fir-trees planted 
 in a garden which had a meaning for Mrs. Forbes, and a 
 special connection with her automatic experiments, and the 
 signature of this script, to which attention had been directed, 
 represented partially the badge of Talbot Forbes’ regiment, 
 together with a sword. As bearing on the question whether 
 such a combination is likely to have been accidental, I may 
 say that on no other occasion has a bugle appeared in the 
 script, nor has there been any other reference to a planted 
 fir-tree.” 
 
 The connection between the two writings and the 
 significance of the drawings were only brought to 
 light accidentally, owing to Mrs. Forbes, in talking to 
 Mrs. Verrall about her son one day in the following 
 November, happening to describe the regimental badge. 
 Mrs. Verrall then remembered the drawings, which 
 had puzzled her at the time. The nail from which 
 the bugle is hung is clearly indicated in the original.i 
 
 Another striking correspondence occurred a few 
 months later between the automatic utterance of Mrs. 
 Verrall and Mrs. Piper. 
 
 « Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xx. p. 222. 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 233 
 
 Oa January 31, 1902, Mrs. Verrall, when about to 
 accompany Sir Oliver Lodge and Mr. Piddington to a 
 meeting, was seized with a sudden desire to write, and with¬ 
 drew for the purpose. The writing produced was as follows : 
 
 Panopticon afpaipuT artrdXXti avvdkyfia fivariKW, ri ovk ididtsi’T J 
 volatile ferrum—pro telo impinget.” 
 
 The writing was shown to Dr. Verrall on the following 
 day, but neither he nor Mrs. Verrall could interpret ^its 
 significance. The first word, Panopticon, though not an 
 actual Greek word, is derived from the Greek, and pre¬ 
 sumably means “ all-seeing.” The third word in the 
 sentence is rare ; the fourth, though correctly formed, is 
 not found in any extant Greek writing. The whole sentence 
 appears to mean, “ The all-seeing of the sphere fosters 
 a mystic joint-reception. Why did you not give it? The 
 flying iron [“ iron ” used for ‘‘ weapon ”] will hit.” Volatile 
 ferrum (literally, “the flying iron”) is used by Virgil for 
 a spear, and Mrs. Verrall recorded in her notebook that the 
 word was probably meant to be translated “ spear.” 
 
 The first five words, taken by themselves, suggest 
 an attempt to describe, in dog-Greek, the practice of 
 c'rystal-gazing, in which Mrs. Verrall had at one time 
 made experiments. But another interpretation was 
 suggested when a letter was received from Dr. 
 Hodgson. For it appeared that on January 28th, three 
 days before this incident. Dr. Hodgson had held a 
 sitting in Boston with Mrs. Piper, at which an allusion 
 was made by the control to Mrs. Verrall’s daughter, 
 Hodgson asked if the control could make Miss Helen 
 Verrall see him {i.e., the control) holding a spear in his 
 hand. The control asked, through the automatic writ¬ 
 ing, “ Why a sphere? ” and Hodgson repeated “ spear” 
 At the next sitting, on February 4th, the control 
 claimed that he had made himself visible to Miss 
 Verrall with a “ sphear ” ^(so spelt in the trance 
 writing).! 
 
 ‘ Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xx. p. 214. 
 
234 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 It is certainly difficult to avoid the conclusion that 
 Mrs. Verrall’s script of January 31st—a date inter¬ 
 mediate between these two seances—with its curious 
 enigmatical allusions to “ sphere ” and “ spear,” had 
 reference to this transatlantic experiment. 
 
 .When Mrs. Holland described, in the extract quoted 
 above, the occupations and surroundings of Mrs. 
 Verrall and Mrs. Forbes, she did so in language which 
 suggests that her mind was in some fashion reflecting, 
 however dimly and imperfectly, the thoughts of her 
 fellow-experimenters. But in the two cases last cited 
 there is evidence of a further process. Mrs. Verrall’s 
 script does not simply reproduce images within the 
 mind of another automatist. There are indications 
 that some intelligence has worked over the simple 
 telepathic data, and transformed them so that the 
 message conveyed is not intelligible at first reading. 
 But though not intelligible at once, the message is 
 absolutely unambiguous as soon as the key to the riddle 
 is found. These enigmatic utterances cannot therefore 
 rightly be compared with the ordinary trance ambigui¬ 
 ties which simply leave the utterances open to more 
 than one interpretation. A' still more striking instance 
 of this apparently intentional obscurity occurred in a 
 correspondence between the script of Mrs. Verrall and 
 Mrs. Holland in March, 1906, shortly before the 
 simple case of correspondence already quoted. On 
 March 2, 1906, Mrs. Verrall’s hand wrote automatically 
 two Latin sentences as follows : 
 
 ‘‘Non tali auxilio invenies quod velis non tali auxilio nec 
 defensoribus istis.’* * 
 
 ♦ * * * ¥ 
 
 ‘ ‘‘Not with such help will you find what you want ; not 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 235 
 
 “ Primus inter pares ipse non nominis immemor. Cum eo 
 frater etsi non sanguine animo consanguineus ii ambo tibi 
 per aliam vocem mittent—post aliquot dies bene quod dicam 
 comprehendere potes—usque ad illud vale.” ■ 
 
 To Mrs. Verrall’s mind these sentences appeared 
 to have no connection, and suggested no application. 
 To Dr. Verrall, however, who was consulted at the 
 time, the two passages, by a kind of trapeze flight of 
 association, suggested Raphael’s picture of Attila 
 before the gates of Rome confronted by Pope Leo 
 and by the vision in the sky of St. Peter and St. 
 Paul. Dr. Verrall did not mention his idea, but Mrs. 
 Verrall’s script during the next two sittings seemed 
 to convey hints of the same scene in the phrases : 
 “ Pagan and Pope and Reformer . . . Crux signifi- 
 cationem habit. Crucifer qui olim fertur . . . Leonis 
 pelle sumpto claviger . . . ask your husband, he knows 
 it well.” On March 7th Mrs. Holland, in the midst 
 of a mass of correct allusions to Mrs. Verrall and her 
 surroundings and occupations at the moment, wrote 
 the following significant phrase : ‘‘ Ave Roma immor- 
 talis. How could I make it any clearer without giving 
 her the clue? ”2 
 
 In view of the numerous verified correspondences 
 between Mrs. Verrall and Mrs, Holland, some of them 
 contained in the same piece of script as the Ave Roma 
 
 with such help, nor with those defenders of yours.” The 
 sentence is partly quoted from a well-known line in the 
 “ .^Eneid ” (ii. 521 ). 
 
 ' ‘‘ First among his peers, himself not unmindful of his 
 name : with him a brother related in feeling though not in 
 blood. Both these will send a word to you through another 
 woman. After some days you will easily understand what 
 I say—till then farewell.” 
 
 ® Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxi. pp. 297—303. 
 
236 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 message, it is difficult to explain the incident as the 
 mere random result of a similar association of ideas ; 
 but if the two sets of utterances have something more 
 than an accidental relation, it is clear that simple tele¬ 
 pathy will not explain the facts. In the two previous 
 cases cited from Mrs. Verrall’s script the riddles 
 puzzled Mrs. Verrall, but their meaning became clear 
 when the connection of the script with the other 
 automatist was known. But in the present case Mrs. 
 Holland knew no more of the matter than Mrs. Verrall, 
 and the mere juxtaposition of the two scripts would 
 not, and did not, explain the riddle. There are 
 indications that is, of the operation of a third 
 intelligence not that of either of the automatists. 
 
 But further, the intelligence which guided Mrs. 
 Holland’s hand seems clearly to indicate that it was 
 giving an answer to a riddle in the phrase : “ How 
 
 could I make it any clearer without giving her the 
 clue? ” And scattered thi'ough Mrs. Verrall’s script 
 at this period, generally in immediate connection with 
 these enigmatic “ cross-correspondences,” occur other 
 phrases of similar import, urging the writer to wait 
 for the solution of the words she has not understood, 
 to piece together and compare the different writings.* 
 Here is one of the plainest of these exhortations, 
 
 ’ These passages occur almost exclusively in Mrs. Verrall’s 
 script. There are a few vague references in the scripts 
 of Mrs. Holland and Mrs. Forbes to co-operation between 
 sensitives. But the only unmistakable reference outside 
 Mrs. Verrall’s script to these cross-correspondences is the 
 sentence quoted from Mrs. Holland in connection with 
 Ave Roma. It should be added, however, as I learn from 
 Miss Johnson, that Mrs. Verrall herself attached no im¬ 
 portance to these phrases until long afterwards, when their 
 possible significance was pointed out by Miss Johnson. 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 237 
 
 addressed to Mrs. Verrall by the intelligence which 
 guides her hand : 
 
 “ Sit regularly and wait. I want something quite 
 different tried. You are not to guess, and you will prob¬ 
 ably not understand what you write. But keep it all and 
 say nothing about it yet. Then at Christmas or perhaps 
 before you can compare your own words with another’s, and 
 the truth will be manifest.” 
 
 These frequent references, in conjunction with the 
 actual illustrations of the process described, suggested 
 to Miss Johnson, who edited Mrs. Holland’s script, 
 ” that one and the same intelligence, or group of 
 intelligences, were responsible both for the cross- 
 correspondences and the contemporary comments upon 
 them ”—in other words, that they formed part of a 
 scheme of communication designed by those beyond 
 the gulf. 
 
 With a view to elucidate the significance of these 
 ‘‘ cross-correspondences,” it was arranged to bring 
 Mrs. Piper over to this country, and seventy-four 
 trance sittings were held with her between Novem¬ 
 ber lo, 1906, and June 2, 1907. Mrs. Verrall and 
 Mrs. Holland also sat at intervals during the same 
 period for the purpose of obtaining automatic writing. 
 Mrs. Holland, it should be added, knew nothing about 
 the sittings with Mrs. Piper and was throughout the 
 period resident in India. From one point of view 
 the experiments may be claimed to have been com¬ 
 pletely successful. The masterly collation and analysis 
 of the three sets of scripts (including also a few 
 automatic writings by Miss Verrall) undertaken by Mr. 
 Piddington reveal coincidences of thought and expres¬ 
 sion too numerous and too detailed to be accounted 
 
238 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 for by chance. Whatever interpretation may ulti¬ 
 mately be given to these curious writings, we are 
 forced to recognise something extraordinary to be 
 explained. It may ultimately be proved that there is 
 no indication of post-mortem agency, but to prove 
 that it is necessary to assume the action of living 
 minds upon one another of an unprecedented kind. 
 From every point of view, then, these remarkable 
 records are worthy of careful study. A' few pimple 
 cases may be quoted. 
 
 1. Between ii a.m. and noon on March 11, 1907, 
 Mrs. Verrall wrote automatically as follows : 
 
 “ With violet buds their heads were crowned 
 violaceas odores 
 
 Violet and olive leaf purple and hoary 
 The city of the violet and olive crown.” 
 
 4: ^ Nt * 
 
 An hour or two later on the same day Mrs. Piper 
 on coming out of the trance said “Dr. Hodgson said 
 ‘ violets ’ ”—the usual formula for indicating that a 
 cross-correspondence had been attempted. 
 
 2. On April 3, 1907, Mrs. Verrall wrote : 
 
 Write three words—something about their serried ranks,— 
 the avenging flame—the troop triumphant— 
 no, not quite that. 
 
 flaming swords—no 
 flammantia moenia mundi 
 But wings or feathered wings come in somewhere 
 ‘ And with twain he covered his face ’ 
 
 Try pinions of desire 
 The wings of Icarus 
 
 [Drawing of a wing ] 
 
 long pointed rainbow wings. But you keep going round the 
 ideas instead of giving three plain words 
 
 LOST PARADISE REGAINED 
 Of man’s first Disobedience—no that is something else 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 239 
 
 a fluttering faint desire. Triumphant hosts in long array 
 the wings point upwards behind the marshalled hosts. 
 
 It is a picture can you not see it ? with sweeping 
 stationary wings, not used in flight, but making a great 
 aureole behind the central group. The hosts of heaven 
 [Scribbles ] 
 
 No I cant get it at all 
 Leave it to-day 
 
 his flame clad messengers 
 
 [Drawing of winged figure of angel ] 
 
 that is better 
 
 F W H M has sent the message through—at 
 last I 
 
 Five days later in Mrs. Piper’s trance the “ Myers 
 control ” claimed to have given Anget as a cross- 
 correspondence to Mrs. Verrall. 
 
 3. On April 16, 1907, Mrs. Holland, in India, 
 wrote as follows : 
 
 “ Maurice. Morris. Mors. 
 
 “ And with that the shadow of death fell upon him and 
 his soul departed out of his limbs.” 
 
 * 
 
 (signed with the initials of a dead man).* 
 
 On the following day, in the intermediate stage 
 between the trance and waking, Mrs. Piper said 
 Sanatos and Tanatos (interpreted at the time as 
 Thanatos —the Greek for “Death”). 
 
 On the 23rd and again on the 30th of the same 
 month she ejaculated Thanatos —on the last occasion 
 repeating it twice. 
 
 On April 29th—the day preceding the last appear- 
 
 ■ For some further details of this script see Miss 
 Johnson’s note on the case in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiv. 
 
 p. 221. 
 
240 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 ance of the word in Mrs. Piper’s utterances—Mrs. 
 Verrall had written the following : 
 
 Warmed both hands before the Fire of Life. 
 
 It fails and I am ready to depart. 
 
 A 
 
 Manibus date lilia plenis 
 
 [Sign apparently representing the ace of clubs 
 The river Nile A 
 Daisy 
 
 Come away Come away 
 
 Pallida mors aequo pede pauperum 
 tabernas regumque turres 
 put in pulsat 
 Another time will help 
 Goodbye. 
 
 But you have got the word plainly written 
 all along in your own writing. Look back. 
 
 The four quotations—from Landor, Virgil, Shake¬ 
 speare, and Horace—all refer to death. The ace of 
 clubs was one of the two fatal cards in Stevenson’s 
 Suicides’ Club. The Greek letter A {Delta) had for 
 Mrs. Verrall a special association with death. The 
 whole script thus completes a triple cross-corre¬ 
 spondence. 
 
 4. On April 8, 1907, at 7 a.m. ’(Greenwich time), 
 Mrs. Holland, in India, wrote : 
 
 “ The constellation of Orion. . . . 
 
 “ Do you remember that exquisite sky when the afterglow 
 made the East as beautiful and as richly coloured as the 
 West-” 
 
 On the same day, at about i p.m., Mrs. Piper ejacu¬ 
 lated in the waking stage of the trance, “ Light in 
 West.” 1 
 
 At about 3 p.m. on the same day Mrs. Verrall wrote : 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 241 
 
 “ The words were from Maud but you did not under¬ 
 stand. Rosy is the east and so on. 
 
 “ You will find that you have written a message for Mr. 
 Piddington which you did not understand but he did. Tell 
 him that.” 
 
 The actual words in “ Maud ” are : 
 
 ‘‘ Rosy is the West,” 
 
 preceded by : 
 
 ” Blush from West to East, 
 
 Blush from East to West, 
 
 Till the West is East. 
 
 Blush it thro’ the West.” 
 
 These are but four instances out of many. Mr. 
 Piddington discusses the successful cross-corre¬ 
 spondences under twenty-three heads, but some of the 
 heads include several verbal coincidences such as those 
 given above. 
 
 Two conclusions are forced upon us by an impartial 
 study of the report : 
 
 1. That the coincidences cannot be explained by 
 mere chance association of ideas. They indicate un¬ 
 mistakably the action of some external intelligence on 
 the minds of the automatists. 
 
 2. That the enigmatic form of the phrasing is due, 
 not to aimless groping after an elusive idea, but to 
 design. Take the second case, for instance. The word 
 “ Angel ” is suggested throughout Mrs. Verrall’s script. 
 But it is nowhere expressly written ; the nearest 
 approach to it comes at the end, where the word 
 “ Messenger ”—the literal translation of the Greek 
 ^Angelos —is given, followed by the drawing of a 
 winged human figure. 
 
 16 
 
242 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 So in the third case. Mrs. Verrall’s whole script 
 suggests death, but, again, the word seems to be 
 deliberately avoided. The Shakespearean quotation is 
 even broken off immediately before the significant word 
 is reached. 
 
 In both these cases there seems to be design : the 
 question to be determined is, whose design? These 
 cases—and they are, with some qualifications to be 
 considered later, fair samples of the evidence printed 
 in Mr. Piddington’s report—can scarcely be claimed 
 as illustrating the type of cross-correspondence desired 
 as evidence of design on the part of a disembodied 
 spirit. In the Ave Roma Immortalis incident the allu¬ 
 sions in Mrs. Verrall’s script were so artfully veiled 
 that they remained for the writer herself an unsolved 
 enigma to the last. But a child could guess the riddle 
 in these others. It looks rather as if Mrs. Verrall’s 
 dream consciousness was aware that the central idea 
 must be concealed in allusive imagery, and was doing 
 its dreamlike best to fulfil the requirement. That, in 
 fact, the imagery was, in some cases at least, supplied 
 from the writer’s own mind we have clear evidence. 
 It will be remembered that an equilateral triangle ap¬ 
 peared twice in the script of April 29, 1907, and that 
 on the second occasion it was prefaced by the words 
 “ The river Nile,” as if to show unmistakably that 
 it was intended for the Greek letter Delta (A). Na^v, 
 Delta has no general association with death, but it 
 happens to be closely associated in Mrs. Verrall’s mind 
 with the idea of death, from a mistaken notion, con¬ 
 ceived in childhood, that the letter Delta was engraved 
 on the voting tablets used to condemn. The imagery 
 in this case, then, could have proceeded from no other 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 243 
 
 source than the writer’s own mind. The introduction 
 in the same script of Manibus date lilia plenis, a 
 quotation from the passage in the Sixth “ ^neid ” 
 where Anchises foretells the early death of Marcellus, 
 is also—as Mr. Piddington points out—probably to be 
 explained by the fact that on the day before the script 
 was written Mrs. Verrall had come across Dante’s trans¬ 
 lation of the passage in “ Purgatorio,” canto xxx. 
 
 There is one other case which is still more 
 significant in this connection. 
 
 On February 19, 1907, Mr. Piddington suggested 
 to the entranced Mrs. Piper “ Giant and Dwarf ” as 
 the subject of a cross-correspondence experiment with 
 Mrs. Verrall. Mrs. Piper’s control accepted the 
 suggestion, and said he would go off at once to execute 
 it. Later, the controls repeatedly claimed to have been 
 successful in transferring Dwarf. Mrs. Verrall, who 
 was not told of the date of the experiment, twice 
 searched the whole of the script written during a 
 period of some months. On the first occasion she 
 failed to find any allusion to Dwarf. On the second 
 occasion, still in ignorance of the date, she found in 
 the script of February 19th, written a few hours only 
 after the suggestion had been given to Mrs. Piper, 
 an allusion to Dwarf which had escaped her original 
 scrutiny. The allusion is contained in the words : 
 
 “ A long feather, 
 
 Ask about the feather, 
 
 Up the mountain—no, that is 
 Owl’s feather ; not what I want.” 
 
 “ Up the mountain ” and “ owl’s feather ” suggested 
 to Mrs. Verrall a poem, very familiar to her, by William' 
 Allingham, telling of little men, wee folk, or, in other 
 
244 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 words, fairies. The coincidence in time is here go 
 close that it seems probable that Mrs. Verrall’s script 
 is actually connected with the Dwarf of the experi¬ 
 ment ; and it would seem at first sight that we have 
 found here a cross-correspondence of the kind 
 desired : an allusion artfully concealed even from 
 the automatist herself. But if there were, indeed, 
 design in this instance, it was not the design of ^ 
 directing intelligence external to the minds of the two 
 automatists. For what the Piper controls repeatedly 
 claimed to have impressed on Mrs. Verrall was not 
 the idea of Dwarf, but the actual letters of the word— 
 D W R F. So that the allusive imagery in this case 
 also was supplied by the mind of the automatist. 
 
 One more case may be quoted as throwing isome 
 light on the genesis of these curious cross-corre¬ 
 spondences. On January i6, 1907, Mrs. Piper’s 
 
 controls claimed to have given “ Steeple ” as the 
 subject of a test message through the hand of Mrs. 
 Thompson and of Mrs. Verrall. Mr. Piddington, at 
 the moment when the entranced Mrs. Piper wrote this 
 statement, was under the impression that he had re¬ 
 ceived a letter a few days previously informing him 
 that the word “ Steeple ” had occurred in the writings 
 of Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Holland. Subsequent inquiry 
 proved that he was mistaken : no such letter had been 
 written, and the word had not occurred in the scripts 
 of any other automatist. Nevertheless, so firm had 
 been the impression in Mr!. Piddington’s mind that 
 on January 14th, two days before the Piper sitting, 
 he had told Mrs. Verrall of the discovery of the word 
 “ Steeple ” as a cross-correspondence in her script. 
 The fact is attested by a letter written by Mrs. Verrall 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 245 
 
 in ignorance of the claim made by the Piper 
 controls. 
 
 Here, then, we have a clear case in which the Piper 
 controls received an impression (telepathically, it must 
 be presumed) from Mr. Piddington’s mind, but inter¬ 
 preted it as a case of successful experiment with two 
 of the other automatists. 
 
 The experiments cited would seem to point to the 
 conclusion that the coincidences demonstrated are due 
 to the direct action of the mind of one automatist on 
 the mind of another, or possibly to such action through 
 the intermediary of the other experimenters. The 
 allusive and enigmatic phrasing in which the test 
 words are concealed is rarely found in Mrs. Piper’s 
 utterances, and is most conspicuous in the script of 
 Mrs. Verrall. It has been proved that in some cases, 
 at any rate, this characteristic indirectness of phrasing 
 is due to the efforts of the subconscious personality 
 apparently aiming to produce the kind of evidence 
 required. 
 
 Before, however, dismissing these records as fur¬ 
 nishing yet one more illustration of the readiness pf 
 our mysterious inner self to meet any demands that 
 may be made upon its dramatic powers, we must con¬ 
 sider ,the evidence a little more closely. There are 
 a few cases of cross-correspondence which do not so 
 readily lend themselves to analysis. In these cases 
 we have to deal, not with the coincidence of a single 
 word or a single idea, but with a series of partial and 
 allusive coincidences, suggesting that the minds of two 
 or three automatists are developing the same train of 
 associations, and reciprocally influencing each other’s 
 thoughts in so doing. The triple coincidence quoted 
 
246 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 under heading 4 forms part of a long series of similar 
 partial coincidences between the scripts of Mrs. Verrall, 
 Mrs. Holland, and Mrs. Piper. In this, as in the 
 other cases, the coincidences appear chiefly in the form 
 of literary allusions, the authors principally drawn upon 
 being Tennyson, Browning, Dante, and F. W. H. 
 Myers. To most it will seem probable, if telepathy is 
 admitted as a vera causa, that these coincidences are 
 due to random telepathic reverberations from one mind 
 to another. There is certainly no such clear indication 
 as in the Ave Roma Imntprtalis incident of the action 
 of a directive intelligence other than those of the auto- 
 matists themselves. But the details are complicated : 
 some of the links of association are extremely subtle 
 and elusive, and the appreciation of the whole bearing 
 of the evidence is extraordinarily difficult. For in deal¬ 
 ing with ambiguous, allusive, and semi-coherent utter¬ 
 ances of this kind it is almost inevitable that the 
 interpretation should be guided by the unconscious bias 
 of the reader. A conspicuous example of the tendency 
 is afforded by the Shakespeare-Bacon cryptograms. 
 Space will not permit of more than a single illustra¬ 
 tion of these difficulties being quoted. I will choose 
 for the purpose the Latin message and its suggested 
 connection with a previous cross-correspondence— 
 Hope, Star, and Browning. To test the hypothesis 
 that they had to deal with discarnate intelligences who 
 had already designed the plan of cross-correspondence 
 as a means of proving their personal identity, the 
 following message was drawn up by the experimenters ; 
 
 “ iWe are aware of the scheme of cross-correspondences 
 which you are transmitting through various mediums, and 
 we hope that you will go on with them. Try also to give 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 247 
 
 to A and B two different messages, between which no 
 connection is discernible. Then as soon as possible give 
 to C a third message which will reveal the hidden 
 connection.” 
 
 For the purpose of transmission to Mrs. Piper’s 
 controls the message was translated into Latin as 
 follows : 
 
 ‘‘ Diversis internuntiis quod invicem inter se respondentia 
 jamdudum committis, id nec fallit nos consilium, et 
 vehementer probamus. 
 
 ‘‘ Unum accesserit gratissimum nobis, si, cum duobus 
 quibusdam ea tradideris, inter quae nullus appareat nexus, 
 postea quam primum rem per tertium aliquem ita perficias, 
 ut latens illud in prioribus explicetur.” 
 
 The Latin, it will be seen, is so worded that a person 
 ignorant of the language or a lower-form schoolboy 
 armed with a dictionary would be unlikely to arrive 
 at the meaning of the whole passage. The message 
 was repeatedly dictated word by word at several succes¬ 
 sive stances to the entranced Mrs. Piper. The dictation 
 began on December 17, 1906, and was not completed 
 until January 2, 1907. On January i6th, a fortnight 
 after the completion of the dictation, and before a 
 translation had been attempted, Mr. Piddington tells 
 us that he impressed on the Piper-Myers the import¬ 
 ance of cross-correspondence messages, and expressed 
 the opinion that it was “ more important to get them 
 than for you spirits to give facts about your past lives.” 
 To that the Piper-Myers replied by asking why so 
 much importance was attached to cross-correspon¬ 
 dences : for, said he, ‘‘ if you establish telepathic 
 messages, you will doubtless attribute all such to 
 thoughts from those living in the mortal body.” The 
 answer shows conclusively that the Piper-Myers had 
 
248 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 not grasped the plan of complex cross-correspondences 
 which the Verrall-Myers, according to the hypothesis, 
 had been actively elaborating for some years pre¬ 
 viously ; and further, that the Piper-Myers, at that 
 date, January i6, 1907, had not yet succeeded in trans¬ 
 lating the Latin message. 
 
 The first attempt to translate the Latin message was 
 made on February 20th, more than a month later. 
 “It is with reference,” the Piper-Myers says, “ to my 
 being a messenger and my, handing through to you 
 coherent . . . messages.” 
 
 A few days later, on February 27th, the Piper-Myers 
 writes : “I feel a little perturbed over your message 
 to me when you said I [failed] in replying sufficiently 
 to convince you, &c., altho’ I, as intermediary, had 
 long since united my ideas.” Later in the same sitting 
 he makes it clear that this passage was intended for 
 a translation of the Latin message : for he now gives 
 the translation as follows : 
 
 “ Although you as intermediary have long since united 
 mutually ideas. You have or do not reply or respond 
 sufficiently to our questions as to convince us of your 
 existence.” 
 
 These replies show unmistakable knowledge of the 
 meaning of some of the individual Latin words, and 
 equally unmistakable ignorance of the meaning of the 
 passage as a whole. There is, it will be seen, no 
 reference to cross-correspondences. 
 
 Later the trance intelligence, after attempting to con¬ 
 nect the message with a “ poem ” or “ poems,” and 
 with individual experiments already made, seems 
 definitely to have connected it with the idea of cross- 
 correspondence in general, as, indeed, under the 
 circumstances it or they could hardly fail to do. 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 249 
 
 But even then the reference is to cross-correspond¬ 
 ences of the simple kind. On March 6th the trance 
 intelligence, after repeating in almost identical words 
 the “ translation ” above quoted, adds to it : “ Now if 
 you give a clear message through Mrs. V. and repro¬ 
 duce it here, it will do more to convince or it 
 will . . . greatly help to convince the world of your 
 continued existence—this was the idea as I received 
 it.” Finally, pn May 27th, the Piper-Myers gives as 
 the translation the following : 
 
 “ You have long since been trying to assimilate ideas, 
 but I wish you to give through Mrs. Verrall proof of the 
 survival of bodily death in such a way as to make it 
 conclusive ” ; and then adds, ‘‘ He mentioned my own 
 words in it, viz., the Survival of Bodily Death ” [words 
 which formed part of the title of Myers’ last work]. 
 
 It would appear, then, from the reception of this 
 Latin message that Mrs. Piper’s trance intelligence, 
 though it had somehow learnt the meaning of some of 
 the words in the first clause, and succeeded in putting 
 them together so as to make sense, was unable, after 
 repeated efforts continued for nearly four months, to 
 construe the passage as a whole and is reduced to 
 guesswork. It hardly required any supernormal faculty 
 for the trance intelligence, after repeated attempts, to 
 guess no nearer the truth than it succeeded in doing. 
 
 If this were a complete account of the matter, it 
 would, no doubt, be recognised by all that the recep¬ 
 tion of the Latin message had proved fatal to the 
 claims of the trance intelligence, at any rate, on this 
 particular occasion. But the experimenters do not 
 admit that the foregoing statement is a complete 
 account of the matter. Mr. Piddington, in his original 
 
250 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 “report, claims that the Latin message was adequately, 
 answered, not by the translations above quoted, but 
 by repeated references to an actual cross-correspond¬ 
 ence, which almost, but not quite, fulfils the require¬ 
 ments. Miss Johnson, in criticising the foregoing 
 summary of the Latin message incident, repeats the 
 claim : 
 
 “ Mr. Podmore," she says, “ has omitted to take into 
 account the important fact that though the Piper-Myers 
 failed to show any real comprehension in the abstract of 
 the plan of cross-correspondences, he pointed out—and main¬ 
 tained his point in the face of every discouragement— 
 that ‘ Browning, Hope, and Star ’ was an instance of the 
 kind required.” > 
 
 ‘‘ Browning, Hope, and Star ” is a brief description 
 of an extremely complex, allusive, and enigmatic cross- 
 correspondence, in which Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Verrall, 
 and Miss Verrall all took part. The relative scripts 
 were written in the period between January 23rd and 
 February 17th—shortly after the Latin message had 
 been dictated. The first attempt at translation, as 
 already said, took place on February 20th. In the 
 interval, on February i ith, though not in any con¬ 
 nection with the Latin message, the control sponta¬ 
 neously referred to Evangelical, Browning, Hope, and 
 Star. Immediately after the second reference to the 
 three words last quoted, Mr. Piddington, in taking 
 leave of the control, asked him to reply to the Latin 
 message at the next sitting '(Report, p. 320). 
 
 In the course of the next few days Mr. Piddington 
 read the scripts of Mrs. and Miss Verrall, in which 
 the cross-correspondence ‘‘ Hope, Star, and Browning ” 
 
 * Broceedings S.R.R., vol. xxiv. p. 262 , note. 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 251 
 
 occurred, and, in his own words, before February 20th : 
 “ I had become impressed, I may even say obsessed, 
 with the idea that Mrs. Verrall’s script of January 28th, 
 which had on February i ith been described in the 
 trance by the Piper-Myers as ‘ Hope, Star, and 
 Browning,’ was an attempt by the Verrall-Myers to 
 give, by means of indirect allusions to stanza vii. of 
 ‘ Abt Vogler,’ an intelligent answer to the Latin 
 message” '(p. 330). 
 
 Note Mr. Piddington’s very candid account of the 
 state of mind in which he approached the stances of 
 February 20th and subsequent dates. 
 
 On February 20th there occurred the first attempt 
 at translation. On February 27th occurred the two 
 other attempts above quoted. In the interval between 
 these two later attempts the control remarked : “I 
 believe ... I have sufficiently replied to your various 
 questions to convince the ordinary scientific mind 
 . . .” Mr. Piddington, referring to this statement, 
 said later in the stance to the control ; ‘‘You say you 
 have replied—tell me in what messages your reply is 
 given.” The control, in answer, refers successively, 
 to ‘‘ the poems,” “ halcyon days,” ‘‘ evangelic,” 
 ” shrub,” ‘‘ syringa,” ‘‘ the poems and cross-correspond¬ 
 ence messages.” Mr. Piddington then asks, ‘‘,What 
 poems?” The control replies, ‘‘My own. Browning 
 . . Horace.” At the control’s request Mr. Pidding¬ 
 
 ton Repeats the last utterance, and the control con¬ 
 tinues ; ‘‘ Yes, chiefly Browning’s lines as given 
 
 through Mrs. Verrall and another, which I referred 
 to before.” 
 
 Mr. Piddington then tells the control : ‘‘I want 
 
 to say that you have, I believe, given an answer worthy 
 
252 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 of your intelligence—not to-day I mean, but some time 
 back—but the interpretation must not be mine. You 
 must explain your answer [through Mrs. Piper]. You 
 could do it in two words.” 
 
 The control replies, ‘‘ Hope, Star.” Mr. Pidding- 
 ton. —^^Well? Yes? The control. —‘‘ Browning.” Mr. 
 Piddington then tells the control : “In telling me that 
 Browning, Hope, and Star contains your answer to 
 the Latin message you have given an answer which 
 to me is both intelligible and clear.” ^ 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that after the last 
 explicit statement by Mr. Piddington no later reference 
 to the connection of the Latin message with “ Hope, 
 Star, and Browning ” could possess much evidential 
 value. But, in fact, it does not appear that, despite 
 the strong hint given, the trance intelligence did 
 advance much farther in connecting the two ideas. 
 
 It is, then, on the conversation above summarised 
 that Mr. Piddington has based his contention that the 
 control showed a comprehension of the purport of the 
 Latin message. And presumably Miss Johnson relies 
 upon the same incidents to support her statement that 
 “ the Piper-Myers pointed out—and maintained his 
 point in the face of every discouragement—that 
 ‘ Browning, Hope, and Star ’ was an instance of the 
 kind required.” 
 
 In my view we should not even be justified in 
 regarding the connection—casual and insignificant as 
 
 ' The account of the whole conversation is much abbre¬ 
 viated ; but if the reader will refer to the original {Pro^ 
 ceedings S.P.R., vol. xxii. pp. 320—31) he will, I think, 
 find that nothing which has any bearing upon the present 
 question has been omitted. 
 
CROSS-CORRESPONDENCES 
 
 253 
 
 that connection seems to be—of the Latin message with 
 “ Hope, Star, and Browning ” as spontaneous on the 
 part of the trance intelligence. The control suggested 
 several things. Mr. Piddington, on its repetition, 
 selects the word “ poems,” and asks, “ What poems? ” 
 The control names three poets, and asks Mr. Pidding¬ 
 ton to repeat the sentence after him. After listening 
 to Mr. Piddington the control selects Browning. But 
 “ Browning ” had already been connected with ” Hope 
 and Star ” at a previous stance. The evidence, as it 
 stands, is not such as would be accepted in a telepathic 
 experiment. 
 
 But another question arises from the record. How 
 did the trance intelligence learn the meaning of the 
 individual Latin words in the first clause? There are 
 two possible sources—telepathy or a dictionary. Now, 
 apart from other objections to the hypothesis, it seems 
 improbable that telepathy should give just what a 
 dictionary would give and no more. The experimenters 
 would not think of “ messenger ” and “ intermediary ” 
 as the translation of internuntiis, nor of ‘‘ coherent ” 
 as the translation of invicem inter se respondentia, 
 nor would they have translated fallit nos consilium 
 as “ failed to convince.” To recognise, however, that 
 the knowledge shown by the entranced Mrs. Piper 
 was perhaps derived from a dictionary does not imply 
 bad faith on the part of the Mrs. Piper whom her 
 friends know and esteem in the waking state.' Nor 
 does it seriously invalidate the evidence in the other 
 cases, since no dictionary could have told Mrs. Piper 
 
 ' For a similar incident, suggesting possible reference to 
 a dictionary, see the mistranslation of mori {Proceedings 
 S.P.R., vol. xxiv. p. 223 ). 
 
254 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 what Mrs. Verrall was writing in Cambridge or Mrs. 
 Holland in India. 
 
 It would appear, then, from the four months’ trial 
 of the Latin message that the trance personality which 
 the experimenters call Myers-P., or the Piper-Myers, 
 had not even at the end of the sittings grasped the scheme 
 of complex cross-correspondences : was so far from 
 grasping it, indeed, that not even the numerous hints 
 given in the course of the dialogue succeeded in con¬ 
 veying that idea. From this it would seem to follow, 
 not merely that the Piper-Myers is an intelligence of 
 distinctly inferior capacity, but that it is not identical 
 with the intelligence, claiming to emanate from the 
 same discarnate source, which has for years past been 
 elaborating, through Mrs. Verrall’s hand, a scheme of 
 complex cross-correspondences. 
 
 But this conclusion, even if put forward in a less 
 tentative form, would not, of course, end the matter. 
 Some parts of the records, as already indicated, are not 
 easy to interpret. In the present chapter only a few 
 of the simpler and less ambiguous cases of cross- 
 correspondence have been dealt with. The space at 
 my disposal would not permit of an adequate sum¬ 
 mary of the more complex cases. For these the reader 
 must study the Report itself. But so far as my 
 analysis of these cases has gone I cannot find any 
 coincidences of thought and expression of which the 
 natural association of ideas in minds preoccupied with 
 the same themes, aided by occasional telepathic inter¬ 
 action amongst the automatists themselves, would not 
 appear to furnish a sufficient explanation. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE 
 
 The latest publication of the Society for Psychical 
 Research « contains papers by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, 
 Mrs. Verrall, Miss Johnson, and Mr. Piddington de¬ 
 scribing the most recent cross-correspondences. The 
 results add considerably to the strength of the case 
 for supernormal faculty of some kind. Their bearing 
 on the more difficult question at issue, the source of 
 the supernormal knowledge shown by the automatists, 
 is of an equivocal nature. There is one case, at least, 
 which may be held to furnish perhaps the clearest 
 and most direct evidence yet obtained for the 
 Spiritualist hypothesis. Another case, in which the 
 coincidences are equally striking, may be set against this 
 as pointing, with perhaps even greater emphasis, to a 
 naturalistic interpretation of the whole series of cross- 
 correspondences. 
 
 The Lethe Incident. 
 
 After Mrs. Piper’s visit to this country in the winter 
 of 1906-07, she returned to America, and in the 
 spring of the following year, 1908, Mr. G. B. Dorr 
 arranged to have a series of sittings with her. Mr. 
 Dorr’s object was twofold t (a) to obtain cross-corre- 
 > Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiv. part lx. 
 
 25S 
 
256 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 spondences with the English group of automatists, 
 who were ignorant of the fact that any such experi¬ 
 ments were being made ; '{b) to attempt to revive the 
 literary memories of the Piper-Myers, and thus test 
 his claim to identity. Both experiments met with 
 success. Some interesting correspondences were 
 obtained, chiefly with the script of Miss Verrall. 
 With one exception, however, they add little to our 
 previous knowledge. The success obtained in the 
 other direction was, howeveir, of a most striking kind ; 
 and the results constitute, perhaps, the strongest 
 evidence yet obtained for the identity of any com¬ 
 municator. Briefly, the Piper-Myers, after his memory 
 had been stimulated by a few trite classical quota¬ 
 tions, by the recital of some verse translations from 
 classical writers, and one or two extracts from his 
 own autobiography bearing upon his classical studies, 
 showed an intelligent, and in many particulars intimate, 
 knowledge of some of the classical poets, especially 
 of Ovid and Virgil—a knowledge which far exceeded 
 that possessed by his interlocutor, Mr. Dorr. Before 
 proceeding to discuss the possible explanations of the 
 knowledge shown I will quote at length a single 
 illustration. 
 
 Towards the end of the sitting held on March 23, 
 1908, Mr. Dorr asked the Piper-Myers : “What does 
 the word LETHE suggest to you? ” adding that 
 the word related to the old mythology, that it was a 
 water, and was situated in Hades. 
 
 The trance intelligence in the course of the same 
 sitting, amongst many irrelevant classical allusions, 
 wrote: “Do you remember 'cave'?” In the waking 
 stage, again in the midst of many irrelevant allusions, 
 
THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE 
 
 257 
 
 some to contemporary cross-correspondence experiments, 
 Mrs. Piper muttered an indistinct word, recorded by Mr. 
 Dorr las “ pavia,” and a little later said : 
 
 “ Pharaoh’s daughter came out of the water. Warm sunlit 
 love. 
 
 Lime leaf heart sword arrow 
 
 I shot an arrow through the air 
 
 And it fell I know not where.” 
 
 Mrs. Piper then described a vision of “a lady who 
 had no clothes on,” who held in her hand 
 
 ‘‘ a hoop and two pointed things—and she pulled a string 
 and she pointed it straight at me, and I thought it would 
 hit me in the eye . . . and there was only half of the 
 hoop there.” » 
 
 This ended the stance of March 23rd. 
 
 All this conveyed nothing to Mr. Dorr’s mind, and 
 he supposed the woman archer to represent Diana. 
 
 At the sitting of the following day the control, pur¬ 
 porting to be Hodgson, said that Myers was disturbed 
 because he felt that Mr. Dorr had not understood 
 the replies about Lethe, and added ; 
 
 I wrote in reply to your last inquiry Cave Lethe. 
 
 G. B. D.—I asked him \i.e., Myers] whether the word 
 Lethe recalled anything to him. 
 
 He replied Cave Banks Shore. 
 
 G. B. D.—But these last two [/.e., “Banks Shore”] 
 were not written until after I had told him it was a water. 
 
 > It should be explained that, for the sake of clearness, 
 I have selected in my account of the Lethe incident only 
 the most indubitably relevant passages. There is a good 
 deal of irrelevant matter, and some minor points, which, 
 as explained by Mr. Piddington, go some way towards 
 enhancing the value of the coincidence. But space will 
 not admit of an exhaustive setting out of the incident. 
 
 17 
 
258 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 lYes, but he drew the form—a picture of Iris with 
 an arrow. 
 
 G. B. D.—But he spoke of winds. 
 
 Yes, clouds arrow Iris Cave Mor M O R Latin 
 for sleep Morpheus .Cave. Sticks in my mind can’t 
 you help me? 
 
 G. B. D.—Good. I understand what you are after now. 
 But can’t you make it clearer what there was peculiar about 
 the waters of Lethe? 
 
 Yes, I suppose you think I am affected in the 
 same way but I am not. 
 
 From the la,st sentence it is clear that the trance 
 intelligence was familiar with the ordinary associa¬ 
 tions of Lethe, and that he, apparently with intention, 
 refrained from giving them. 
 
 The control then repeated “ Cave,” “ I R I S,” and 
 “CLOUDS,” and when asked for more details about 
 Lethe gave “ Flowery Banks,” and explained that the 
 woman shooting was meant for Iris. 
 
 In the waking stage of this second sitting the first 
 word whispered was again recorded as “ pavia,” but 
 again it was impossible to hear it distinctly. 
 
 Mrs. Piper then said : “ Mr. Myers is writing on 
 the wall ” ; and said, first, C, and then, after a 
 pause, Y X. 
 
 At the sitting of March 30th Mr. Dorr, in accord¬ 
 ance with his custom, asked the control, now writing 
 through Mrs. Piper’s hand, for further light on the 
 enigmatic utterances of the waking stage at the previous 
 sitting. C-y-x was explained as “chariot.” Asked 
 to spell the word, the control wrote Cynx, C Y N X, 
 and assented to the suggestion that it was a Greek 
 word. In reply to a question about the word recorded 
 as pavia, the hand wrote Pomona. Later in the sitting 
 Mr. Dorr said : “ I see no connection between Iris 
 
 and Lethe.” 
 
THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE 
 
 259 
 
 To which the control replied ; “No, only Iris shot 
 an arrow into the clouds and caused a rainbow. It 
 brought it to my mind simply.” 
 
 In the waking stage on April 6th again came 
 C Y X ; and in the sitting of April 7th the hand ex¬ 
 plained CYX as SCYX, CSYX. Finally, in the 
 waking stage of the same sitting Mrs. Piper said : 
 " Mr. Myers says, ' No poppies ever grew on Elysian 
 shores.’ ” 
 
 Mr. Dorr found all these remarks irrelevant to the 
 topic of Lethe. Mrs. Verrall and Mr. Gerald Balfour, 
 who some months later read through the scripts, equally 
 failed to find anything coherent or intelligible in them. 
 The clue was eventually discovered through the industry 
 and acumen of Mr. Piddington, who searched the 
 classics until he found, in the Eleventh Book of 
 Ovid’s “ Metamorphoses,” hitherto unknown to him, 
 the source of the various allusions. 
 
 Briefly, the story told by Ovid is as follows : 
 
 C E Y X, King of Trachin, was drowned at sea, and 
 Juno sent IRIS, goddess of the Rainbow, to Somnus 
 '(SLEEP) to bid him carry the news in a dream 
 to Alcyone, Ceyx’s queen. Iris prints her B O iWi upon 
 the sky, and glides down to the CAVE of Sleep, 
 which was surrounded and hidden by dark 
 CLOUDS. F rom the foot of the rock flows fhe 
 river of LETHE, and on its BANKS are 
 POPPIES and innumerable FLOWERS,' from 
 whose juice Night distils Sleep. Finally, Somnus sends 
 his son MORPHEUS to impersonate in a dream 
 the dead Ceyx. 
 
 In the above extract I have emphasised by capital 
 * ” Innumerasque herbee.” 
 
260 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 letters the points of correspondence between Ovid’s 
 story and the trance utterances. The only doubtful 
 point is the identification of the indistinctly articu¬ 
 lated word “ pavia ” with papavera, the Latin for 
 poppies. 
 
 There can be no question that the intelligence which 
 answered the question about Lethe knew this story 
 from Ovid ; and it is a plausible inference that it 
 deliberately chose this particular legend, rather than the 
 more familiar stories about Lethe, with the intention of 
 giving a more conclusive test. In the course of the 
 same sittings spontaneous reference was made to three 
 other legends included in the Tenth and Eleventh books 
 of the “ Metamorphoses,” the whole story being given 
 in one case—that of Hyacinthus, slain by a discus 
 
 thrown by the hand of Apollo, from whose blood 
 
 sprang up a purple lily. The trance intelligence 
 
 showed also a scholarly grasp of the subject of the 
 
 first book of the “ .^neid,” and made references, which 
 seem to imply accurate knowledge, to passages in the 
 Second and Sixth Books. Further, after an English 
 translation of lines 160-83 of tho “Agamemnon” 
 of yEschylus had been read aloud by Mr. Dorr, Mrs. 
 Piper in the waking stage of the same sitting whispered 
 “ Agamemnon ” ; i and at a later sitting stated that 
 “ Achylus ”—afterwards corrected to “ ^schylus ”— 
 “ wrote three plays ”—&n obvious reference to the 
 famous Trilogy. 
 
 The first thing to be noted is that the knowledge 
 shown went far beyond that of the sitter. Mr. Dorr 
 
 * The part of the chorus quoted does not include the 
 word “ Agamemnon,’’ or, indeed, give any possible clue 
 to the subject of the play. 
 
THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE 
 
 261 
 
 Has explained that he dropped Latin and Greek after 
 his second year at Harvard, and that he has read no 
 Greek since “and scarcely any Latin—none for a long 
 time.” He had read at school the first three or four 
 books of the yEneid, but no Ovid.i 
 
 If we cross the Atlantic, we find that neither Mrs. 
 nor Miss Verrall, two classical scholars who are known 
 to have influenced Mrs. Piper’s trance intelligence, 
 though, of course, familiar with the “ ^Eneid ” and 
 the “ Agamemnon,” had ever read the Tenth and 
 Eleventh Books of the “ Metamorphoses ” ; nor, as 
 already said, had Mr. Piddington. 
 
 On the other hand, the love and homage which 
 Frederic Myers paid to Virgil are well known ; and 
 Ovid figures in a list of five classical poets whose 
 poetry, as he tells us in his Autobiography, he was 
 in the habit of inwardly reciting between the ages of 
 ten and sixteen.2 
 
 Mr. Piddington adduces other reasons, based on a 
 study of his poetry, for supposing that Myers was 
 familiar in particular with the Tenth and Eleventh 
 Books of the “ Metamorphoses.” It may, no doubt, fairly 
 be assumed that all the knowledge shown by the trance 
 intelligence had been combined in the mind of Frederic 
 Myers ; and we know of no living mind in Mrs. Piper’s 
 environment—even if we allow that environment to 
 stretch across the Atlantic—from which all the infor¬ 
 mation could have been derived telepathically. The 
 result of the Horace-Ode question already referred to, 
 and some of the previous cross-correspondences in 
 which the Verrall-Myers and the Holland-Myers ex- 
 
 ’ Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiv. p. 42, note. 
 
 2 “ Fragments of Prose and Poetry,” p. 17. 
 
262 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 hibited characteristically allusive methods of revealing 
 knowledge similar to those employed in this case by 
 the Piper-Myers, all seem to point in the same direc¬ 
 tion. It must, I think, be admitted on all hands that the 
 method of answering the Lethe question was well 
 devised ; that this is precisely the kind of evidence 
 demanded for the proof of spirit-identity ; and that, 
 though no single case can, of course, be conclusive, 
 yet that if evidence of this kind were multiplied the 
 presumption in favour of the reality of spirit com¬ 
 munication might at length become irresistible. 
 
 Taken by itself, however, the new evidence can 
 hardly be claimed as strong enough appreciably to 
 weaken the presumption against the authenticity of 
 these spirit messages derived from the whole experi¬ 
 ence of the past, and there are in the present case 
 two special features difficult to reconcile with the 
 {hypothesis. 
 
 I, It will have been noticed that the bulk of the 
 communications received from Mrs. Piper are written 
 through her hand in the trance, and purport to be 
 dictated by some discarnate intelligence. But in the 
 prolonged process of emerging from the trance (what 
 is called ‘‘ the waking stage ”) Mrs. Piper gives many 
 important pieces of information uiua voce —the names 
 CYX and Agamemnon were thus given in the case 
 of the American sittings—and gives them, as a rule, 
 in propria persona. Now, it frequently happens that 
 the intelligence which guides the hand in writing is 
 unable to explain the words uttered in the waking 
 stage. Thus, in the present series, to take a few 
 instances, the hand gave ridiculous explanations of 
 CYX and of “ pavia,” explained an apparent allusion to 
 Orpheus and Eurydice by the word “ Venus,” and said 
 
THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE 
 
 263 
 
 that the words “ a lily came up from the blood ” 
 referred to Prometheus ! 
 
 But all the successful allusions, whether written or 
 spoken, are counted, for the purpose of the corre¬ 
 spondence, as proceeding from the same intelligence ; 
 and, indeed, some of the utterances in the waking stage 
 are prefaced with the remark “ Mr. Myers says.” It 
 is extremely difficult to reconcile this ignorance or 
 forgetfulness with the identity of the spirit purport¬ 
 ing to communicate alike by hand and voice. In 
 this connection we note the curious fact that the trance 
 intelligence seems to be unaware of its mental pro¬ 
 cesses. According to the views above put forward 
 Iris was introduced at the first sitting as a prominent 
 feature in the Ovid story, which was itself intended 
 to furnish a complete, but enigmatic, answer to the 
 question about Lethe. But note that Iris is intro¬ 
 duced at the first sitting through the intermediary of 
 “ arrow,” which is itself apparently suggested by the 
 otherwise meaningless “ sword.” Again, at the sitting 
 of March 30th, when Mr. Dorr says, ‘‘ I see no con¬ 
 nection between Iris and Lethe,” the reply is : ‘‘ No, 
 only Iris shot an arrow into the clouds, and caused 
 a rainbow. ... It brought it to my mind simply.” 
 
 Are we to suppose that discarnate intelligences also 
 are liable to dissociation of consciousness? 
 
 2. The other point is this. The name written Ceyx 
 is a dissyllable and not only so, but both vowels are 
 long—Ce-yx (pronounce Kay-eeks). But it would seem 
 that both the hand and voice in their efforts to recall 
 the exact word represent it as a monosyllable. On 
 its first appearance, in the waking stage, the word is 
 spelt viva voce C (pause) Y X, and the pronunciation 
 
264 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 is not attempted. But the hand makes three shots— 
 C Y N X, S C Y X, C S Y X, and the voice on April 6th 
 spells it C Y X. Now, this misconception, improbable 
 in a scholar who was familiar with the original poem' 
 where the word occurs repeatedly, would be, one must 
 think, impossible to a scholar who was also a poet, 
 for whom the sound of a word must be of primary 
 importance. But the mistake would be perfectly natural 
 in the case of one who was not a scholar, and who 
 made the acquaintance of the word only in a prose 
 translation.! 
 
 But these considerations are not, of course, con¬ 
 clusive against the spirit hypothesis, and no other 
 solution which can be suggested fits the facts 
 conspicuously better, if, indeed, as well. 
 
 The theory that Mrs. Piper should have deliberately 
 got up the information is, in my judgment, untenable 
 as a complete explanation of the facts. .We Could 
 scarcely, for instance, explain the Agamemnon inci¬ 
 dent, and many others, by previous knowledge on her 
 part. So in the Lethe case, “ Cave,” “ pavia,” and 
 “ Iris ” were indicated at the same sitting at which 
 the test was sprung upon her. That Mrs. Piper’s 
 reading should have included Ovid’s ‘‘ Metamorphoses ” 
 would be a most surprising chance ; that she should 
 also know the “ Agamemnon ” so well as to recognise 
 the translation of part of a chorus would seem to be 
 practically out of the question. 
 
 ! The trance intelligence appears to be aware of its own 
 deficiency in this respect. At the sitting of March 30th, 
 after giving the meaning of C Y X as “ Chariot,” the hand 
 wrote “ Pronounce the word for me.” It should be men¬ 
 tioned, as Mr. Piddington has pointed out to me, that the 
 name “ Ceyx ” is a monosyllable in Homer (‘‘ Odyssey,’’ 
 XV. 479). 
 
THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE 
 
 265 
 
 Moreover, Mrs. Piper’s known history during the 
 past twenty-five years affords a strong presumption 
 against any deliberate deception of the kind-; and, once 
 more, the curious ignorance, in the trance, of utter¬ 
 ances made in the waking stage is hardly compatible 
 with the deliberate getting up of a subject. 
 
 That the information given should be due to un¬ 
 conscious reminiscence on Mrs. Piper’s part is again 
 negatived by the wide range and precision of the 
 knowledge displayed. Men and women of moderate 
 education are presumably not more inclined in America 
 than in the corresponding social class in England to 
 read Virgil and ^Eschylus for the amusement of their 
 leisure hours. Mr. Dorr has searched Mrs. Piper’s 
 library, and found no trace of classical culture, even 
 in the shape of English translations or stories from 
 the classic writers. 
 
 There remains the possibility that the classical 
 knowledge shown was derived, by telepathy, from the 
 mind of the sitter. This theory has the advantage 
 that it is entirely consistent with the two features most 
 difficult to explain on the hypothesis of spirit com¬ 
 munication. If the knowledge shown in the Lethe 
 incident came from Mr. Dorr’s mind, the treatment 
 of Ceyx as a monosyllable would be accounted for on 
 the assumption that Mr. Dorr had read the story in 
 English as a boy. Further, the division between the 
 memories of the two stages of trance is a perfectly 
 natural and, indeed, common feature, if we regard 
 Mrs. Piper’s trance as simply a case of spontaneous 
 dissociation of consciousness, comparable to numerous 
 other cases of “ secondary personality ” which have been 
 described of recent years. In these cases the several 
 
266 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 stages of dissociation are marked either by mutually 
 exclusive memories or by what may be called con¬ 
 centric memories. 
 
 Again, there is some possible evidence for this 
 theory, apart from the general presumption in its 
 favour derived from the study of Mrs. Piper’s trance 
 phenomena at large. Mr. Dorr had successful sittings, 
 referred to in a previous chapter, with the Piper- 
 Hodgson, and received many accounts of incidents 
 which, so far as they were identified, could have been 
 derived from his own memory. In the present series 
 of sittings some of the correct answers, especially the 
 Agamemnon and .^schylus case, could have been 
 derived from his thoughts at the moment. 
 
 And finally, Mr. Piddington’s indefatigable industry 
 has established that the four Ovidian stories to which the 
 most detailed references were made in connection with 
 the Lethe incident, viz., the legends of Ceyx and Alcyone, 
 Orpheus and Eurydice, Pygmalion and Hyacinthus, 
 are all contained in a book—Bulfinch’s “ Age of 
 Fable ”—which Mr. Dorr had actually read as a boy, 
 though he now retains little recollection of these 
 classical legends.i 
 
 On the other hand, Mr. Piddington’s conjectural 
 emendation of papavera for “ pavia,” which is too 
 
 ' On learning that the Cave of Sleep story was contained 
 in Bulfinch’s “ Age of Fable,” Mr. Dorr obtained a copy 
 of the book, and, after looking it through, wrote as follows ; 
 
 “ The book seems little familiar in its stories to me now— 
 unlike other books that interested me more when I was 
 a child, and whose every incident still comes back to me 
 as I turn the pages over. The one part of it that I 
 remember well is the Norse stories at the end. I doubt 
 my ever having read the others wholly through, for much 
 seems new to me.” 
 
THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE 
 
 267 
 
 probable to be lightly dismissed, can scarcely be 
 fitted in with this theory. Moreover, the four Ovidian 
 stories, which are quoted by the trance intelligence 
 in close chronological sequence, are all found in close 
 connection in the original, viz., in the Tenth and 
 Eleventh Books of the “ Metamorphoses ” ; whereas 
 in Bulfinch’s book they are scattered through 
 chapters yiii., ix., and xxiv. Further, Mr. Dorr can 
 recall having read only the first three or four books 
 of the “ .(Eneid,” whereas there are one or two refer¬ 
 ences which seem to imply intimate familiarity with 
 passages in the Sixth Book. 
 
 Mr. Dorr’s own opinion on the subject—“ My experi¬ 
 ence with the Piper trance does not lead me to believe 
 that the trance consciousness is able to tap my mind 
 for facts or thoughts ... [I think that] it rarely if 
 ever gets subliminal impressions from my mind ”— 
 is also entitled to some weight." And, finally, we 
 have to remember that Mr. Dorr found many of the 
 allusions at the time unintelligible, and that others 
 which were in accordance with the legends appeared 
 to him incorrect. If all these stores of classical learn¬ 
 ing really came from Mr. Dorr’s mind, we have to 
 credit him with a capacious forgetfulness, if the phrase 
 may be allowed, hardly less remarkable in its way than 
 the powers of telepathic assimilation which we must 
 ascribe to the trance intelligence. 
 
 The explanation, then, must be admitted to involve 
 many and serious improbabilities. But I feel that the 
 improbabilities involved in any of the suggested 
 alternatives are at least equally serious. The wisest 
 counsel, if also the most difficult to follow, is to hold 
 our judgment in suspense. 
 
 ‘ “ Proceedings S.P.R-, vol. xxiv. p. 42, footnote. 
 
268 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 The Sevens Incident. 
 
 The correspondences are contained in the script of 
 six different automatic writers. 
 
 1. On April 20, 1908, Mrs. Verrall’s script re¬ 
 ferred to “ the seven hills ” of Rome. Rome, it should 
 be noted, was founded, according to tradition, on 
 April 21 St. 
 
 On April 27th her script consisted exclusively of 
 three groups of apparently meaningless figures. The 
 figures 3, 7, 6—and no others—were common to all 
 three groups. 
 
 On May 8th the script produced a poem, in the 
 metre of Myers’ “ St. Paul,” describing Virgil as a 
 forerunner of Christianity. The poem was obviously 
 inspired by the “ Purgatorio,” of which Mrs. Verrall 
 had been reading the last four or five cantos. In 
 the poem occur the following lines, which may 
 perhaps be interpreted as referring to Dante’s vision 
 of Jacob’s Ladder in the “ Paradiso ” : 
 
 “He knew the night, he only hoped the morrow, 
 Longed for the beauty of the flying feet. 
 
 Blest are the messengers that bring the tidings 
 Lovely their feet are, lovely is their face. 
 
 Borne far aloft on oarage of their high wings 
 Glorious shining in majestic grace.” 
 
 2. On April 21 St, April 27th, May 4th, and May 8th 
 the following piece of mediseval doggerel—a motto of 
 the Tavern Club in Boston, of which Hodgson jiad 
 been a member—was repeated by Mr. Dorr to Mrs. 
 Piper . 
 
THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE 
 
 269 
 
 “ Meum est propositum in Taberna mori 
 Et vinum appositum sitienti ori 
 Ut dicant cum venerint Angelorum chori 
 Deus sit propitius isti potatori.” * 
 
 On the last occasion a fairly correct translation was 
 given by the trance intelligence : propositum was, 
 however, translated “habit” and mori “ custom.” ^ 
 
 In the waking stage of the same sitting Mrs. Piper 
 said : “ Habit. . . . iWe are Seven. I said Clock. 
 
 Tick, tick, tick. Stairs. . . . Angel Band. Toast, 
 my toast to you. . . 
 
 Asked at the next sitting to explain “ We are Seven,” 
 the hand wrote : “ That is Wordsworth, but we were 
 Seven in the distance as a matter of fact.” And later, 
 “ Seven of us—7—Seven.” No explanation was given 
 of “ Clock.” 
 
 3. On April 29th Miss Verrall wrote: “The 
 figure 3 that seems wanted.” 
 
 On May 4th : “ 8 eight.” 
 
 On May i ith her script ran as follows : 
 
 A branching tree not a real tree but emblematical. Scrolls 
 in place of leaves. 
 
 Jacob’s ladder and the angels upon it. What does that 
 mean— 
 
 A spinning top many colours but as it spins they are 
 blended into one. 
 
 • Translation : “ It is my intention to die at the Inn and 
 to have wine served to my thirsty lips, so that the bands of 
 angels may say when they come, ‘ May God be propitious to 
 this drinker.’ ’’ 
 
 2 As if from mos, moris. Mr. Dorr made the same 
 mistake, so that the mistranslation may have been derived 
 from his mind. But compare the mistranslations in the 
 Latin message (above, p. 248 f.). 
 
270 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 Mark the simile. 
 
 A leaf that hangs down like that and a flower 
 small and white I think and a sweet scent it is 
 a shrub—foreign—^not English—Sciola a name 
 like that. 
 
 The seven branched candlestick it is an image 
 —the seven churches but these not churches seven 
 candles united in one light and seven colours 
 in the rainbow too. 
 
 Many mystic sevens 
 all will serve 
 We are seven 
 
 Who (?) F. W. H. Myers.. 
 
 4. On February 14th Mrs. Verrall had sent to. another 
 automatist, Mrs. Frith, the following question: “Can 
 R. H. [Hodgson] say what are his associations with 
 the words : 
 
 “ ‘ Climb the Mount of Blessing ’? ” 
 
 On June i ith Mrs. Frith produced a piece of 
 automatic poetry, apparently in answer to this 
 question. The last stanza ran : 
 
 There may I rest, may rest in sight of heaven, 
 Pisgah is scaled, the fair and dewy lawn 
 Invites my footsteps till the mystic seven 
 Lights [sic] up the golden candlestick of dawn. 
 
 These lines obviously allude to the “ Purgatorio,” 
 cantos xxviii. and xxix. But Mrs. Frith states that 
 she has read no Dante and did not recognise the 
 allusion. 
 
 5. On July 14th Mrs. Holland had a singular dream, 
 of which she sent the account to Miss Johnson : 
 
 July 15 , 1908 . 
 
 Last night I dreamt that I was in a large bare room— 
 rather like a studio. 
 
 Some one showed me an old note book—or diary—in 
 which was written in a small neat hand : 
 
THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE 
 
 271 
 
 “ Since in 1872 a dear friend chose as a sign by which 
 to communicate to me the figure 6 , I, in my turn, will try, 
 in the time to come, to send the figure 6 ,—simply the sign 
 of 6 .” 
 
 On July 23 rd, when at sea, she wrote automatically 
 a script, of which I quote the first few lines : 
 
 Thursday, July 23, 1908. At sea. 
 
 There should be three at least in accord and if possible 
 Seven— 
 
 The Lady and the learned lady and the maiden of the 
 crystal and the scribe and the professed scribe—and the two 
 new comers—what could be better than that? 
 
 The seven persons referred to in the script are appa¬ 
 rently Mrs. Forbes, Mrs. Verrall, Miss Verrall, Mrs. 
 Holland, Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Frith, and Mrs. Home. 
 
 6 . On July 24 th Mrs. R. Home, a member of the 
 Society, in the presence of Colonel Taylor and Miss H., 
 under the influence of a “ Myers control,” spoke 
 automatically as follows ; 
 
 Seven times seven and seventy-seven 
 Send the burden of my words to others. 
 
 [Miss H.—To whom shall we send?] 
 
 Souls that labour for your earthly wisdom 
 Send no names. 
 
 All these automatisms, as it will be seen, occurred 
 in the spring and early summer of 1908 , and the one 
 idea that runs through them all is the number Seven. 
 The jdea of numbers is also emphasised in two or 
 three of the scripts^ there are unmistakable Dante 
 allusions in the scripts of Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Frith, 
 probably also in Miss • Verrall’s. There is also a 
 possible Dante allusion '(oniitted for want of space) 
 in Mrs. Holland’s script. So far it might be sup- 
 
272 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRIT^UALISM 
 
 posed to be a simple case of cross-correspondence in 
 which Mrs. Verrall, as appears to have been the case 
 in previous instances, played the leading part. It was 
 Mr. Piddington, however, who furnished the clue to 
 the mystery in this case. 
 
 On July 13 , 1904 , Mr. Piddington had written a 
 “ posthumous ” letter, for the purpose of a test, that 
 it might be read after his death. The contents 
 of the letter he communicated to no one. The letter* 
 itself was duly sealed and deposited at the rooms of 
 the Society. After learning of the occurrence of these 
 cross-correspondences Mr. Piddington, in Miss John¬ 
 son’s presence, opened the letter. It read as 
 follows : 
 
 t 
 
 "July 13, 1904. 
 
 “ If ever I am a spirit, andl if I can communicate, I shall 
 endeavour to remember to transmit in some form or other 
 the number Seven. 
 
 “As it seems to me not improbable that it may be difficult 
 to transmit an exact word or idea, it may be that, unable to 
 transmit the simple word seven in writing or as a written 
 number, 7, I should try to communicate such things as : 
 
 ‘ The seven lamps of architecture,’ ‘ The seven sleepers of 
 Ephesus,’ ‘ Unto seventy times seven,’ ‘ We are seven,’ and 
 so forth. 
 
 “ The reason why I select the word seven is because seven 
 has been a kind of tic with me ever since my early 
 boyhood.’’ > 
 
 It seems hardly possible to doubt that the idea of 
 Seven which runs through all the automatists’ utter¬ 
 ances was derived ultimately from Mr. Piddington’s 
 
 I To save space I quote only the first three paragraphs 
 of the letter. The remainder of the letter has no further 
 direct bearing on the question. There is no allusion to 
 Dante. 
 
THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE 
 
 273 
 
 mind. The inferelnce is strengthened by the occurrence 
 of figures in two or three of these scripts, and is 
 practically clinched by Mrs. Holland’s singular dream 
 which, except in the substitution of 6 for 7 , is a precise 
 reflection from the “ posthumous ” letter. 
 
 But Mr. Piddington tells us that he was not think¬ 
 ing specially of his letter during the three months 
 over which the cross-correspondence extended, though 
 few days of his life passed without his thinking of 
 that subject. It would appear, then, as if some other 
 factor were needed to reinforce Mr. Piddington’s un¬ 
 conscious telepathy. That other factor must be sought 
 in Mrs. Verrall’s agency. We find traces of her influ¬ 
 ence in the Dante allusions. An attempt, then, may 
 be made, of course, provisionally and in very crude 
 fashion, to sketch the mental processes which seem 
 to (be involved. Mr. Piddington had for years been 
 repeating Seven for all the world—that is, all the world 
 within the range of his telepathic influence—to hear. 
 His is a voice crying in the wilderness, however, until 
 it happens that Mrs. Verrall reads the “ Divine Comedy,” 
 and the idea of Seven, already latent in her mind, is 
 reinforced by a series of Dante images. Mrs. Verrall, 
 then, apparently a much more powerful telepathic agent 
 than Mr. Piddington, swells the stream of telepathic 
 influence, and the effects, in the five remaining auto- 
 matists, rise to the surface of the dream consciousness. 
 The particular form which the transmitted idea assumes 
 in each particular case is determined partly, perhaps, 
 by the relative susceptibility of the subject to the two 
 streams of telepathic influence. But it is in the main, 
 no doubt, a result of the normal association of ideas. 
 Thus Mrs. Piper says “ Angel Band ” because Mrs. 
 
 18 
 
274 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 Verrall after reading Dante has been trying to say 
 “ Angels ” to her, and the words “ Angelorum chori ” 
 happened to occur in the Latin doggerel. Mr. Pidding- 
 ton’s Seven gets itself fixed by recalling Wordsworth’s 
 “ We are Seven.” The words of Longfellow’s ” Old 
 Clock on the Stairs,” floating casually through Mrs. 
 Piper’s mind, are arrested by their accidental co¬ 
 incidence with the unusual word tic which occurs twice 
 in Mr. Piddington’s letter. (This particular coincidence 
 may, however, be due to mere chance.) Miss Verrall 
 embodies the transmitted idea Seven in illustrations 
 borrowed primarily from a child’s toy, Bentham’s 
 “ British Flora ”—a book quite familiar to her—and 
 the Book of Revelation. But it happens that all 
 the images which her automatic self selects have Dante 
 associations, and may have owed their selection from 
 a Crowd of other images floating through her mind to 
 this circumstance. Miss Verrall, again, had read no 
 Dante previously to this experiment. 
 
 On some such lines as these we may provisionally 
 sketch out an explanation of this strange series of 
 coincidences. The only hypothetical element involved 
 is the action of telepathy itself. It must not, however, 
 be overlooked that the hypothesis of telepathy is 
 founded on actual experiments, and that there is little 
 direct experimental evidence for the complicated pro¬ 
 cedure here supposed. The experimental evidence, 
 however, generally speaking, indicates that telepathic 
 influences, whatever their nature, act most freely in 
 the sphere of the automatic or dream consciousness. 
 And we find a rough experimental parallel to the kind 
 of double influence here presupposed in some experi¬ 
 ments made nearly a generation ago by Professor 
 
THE MOST RECENT EVIDENCE 
 
 275 
 
 Richet, and, unfortunately, never repeated. Those who 
 took part in the experiments, it should be explained, 
 were all M. Richet’s personal friends. Three of 
 the experimenters, one or more among them being 
 “ mediums ” or automatists—that is, persons whose un¬ 
 conscious muscular action had been proved capable 
 of tilting a table—^were seated at a table. Behind their 
 backs, at a second table, was seated an “ operator,” 
 who incessantly let his pencil travel backwards and 
 forwards along a printed alphabet. The alphabet was 
 further concealed from the mediums by a screen. 
 Whenever the table tilted a bell rang, and the letter 
 indicated by the pencil at that moment was recorded. 
 Under these conditions M. Richet himself, standing 
 apart both from table and operator, would think of 
 a word, or select a word in the dictionary, and his 
 thought would be spelled out by the table letter by 
 letter.' 
 
 In this curious experiment we have to assume a 
 double telepathic process of some kind. The simplest 
 explanation js that the “ mediums ” were influenced 
 
 ' Revue Philo so phique, December, 1844, pp. 649 ff. An 
 account of the experiments will also be found in Pro¬ 
 ceedings S.P.R., vol. ii. pp. 247 ff. The results attained 
 were altogether beyond chance. The only possible explana¬ 
 tion by normal means that occurs to me is that M. Richet 
 may have watched the alphabet, and that the unconscious 
 variations in his breathing may have given a hint when 
 the right letter was reached. This explanation was sug¬ 
 gested by M. Gomalez (see Journal S.P.R. for September, 
 1885). M. Richet, in his account of the experiments, 
 unfortunately does not expressly say that he refrained 
 from watching the alphabet. But it cannot be thought 
 probable that he neglected so obvious a precaution. It is 
 much to be desired, however, that further experiments should 
 be conducted on similar lines. 
 
276 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 both by Richet and by the “ operator.” Alternatively 
 the operator may have received Richet’s thought tele- 
 pathically, and have telepathically influenced the 
 mediums to tilt. In either explanation we seem to 
 find a rudimentary form of the more complex process 
 demonstrated in these recent cross-correspondences. 
 
 But whatever the explanation of this particular series 
 of coincidences, I can see no evidence whatever to 
 justify the assumption, even provisionally, of a direct¬ 
 ing intelligence other than those of the automatists 
 concerned.! It would appear, on the contrary, |that 
 this case has important bearings upon the interpreta¬ 
 tion pf the evidence as a whole. Not only does it 
 vindicate, in the least equivocal fashion, the .action 
 of telepathy from the living, but it further invalidates 
 by anticipation all the evidence for the agency of the 
 dead which might have been derived from “ post¬ 
 humous ” letters, and has thus deprived us of what 
 would have seemed an important, though not, of 
 course, a crucial, test. 
 
 ! See, however, Miss Johnson’s comments on the case, 
 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiv. pp. 255—63. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE 
 
 Hitherto little has been said of what may be called 
 the machinery of the trance communications. But it 
 is not possible to estimate the significance of those 
 communications without a careful consideration of the 
 form in which they are delivered. Mrs. Piper’s 
 mediumship, as already stated, originated in some 
 visits paid by her in 1884 to a professional medium, 
 Mr. J. R. Cocke. At her second visit she fell into trance 
 and was controlled by an Indian girl who gave the name 
 Chlorine. Thereafter Mrs. Piper was inspired by many 
 of the famous dead—Mrs. Siddons, Sebastian Bach, 
 Longfellow, Commodore Vanderbilt, and an Italian 
 artist, Loretta Ponchini. Mrs. Siddons recited a scene 
 from “ Macbeth ” ; Longfellow gave some verses of 
 his own composition ; and Loretta Ponchini made some 
 drawings. Sebastian Bach at first assumed the general 
 direction of the trance, but afterwards gave way to 
 Phinuit, who purported to be identical with the spirit 
 of the same name (pronounced Finne), who had con¬ 
 trolled Mr. Cocke.I Phinuit was in control for ithe 
 greater part of the time during Mrs. Piper’s first visit 
 to this country, occasionally giving way to other spirits 
 related to the sitters ; and he remained in control, I 
 
 ' Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. pp. 46, 47. 
 
 277 
 
278 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 believe^ until 1892 , when he was ousted by George 
 Pelham. G. P. in the winter of 1896-7 gave place 
 in turn to Imperator and his band of spirits. 
 
 Mrs. Thompson was controlled chiefly by the spirit 
 of a daughter Nelly, who died in infancy some years 
 since, and by Mrs. Cartwright, the lady who kept the 
 school at which Mrs. Thompson was educated. Nelly, 
 as already stated, first appeared at the physical 
 stances held in 1897 and 1898 . 
 
 Obviously the question whether these controls (are 
 what they assume to be has some bearing upon the 
 interpretation of the later evidence. Now, in most 
 cases where the dissociation of consciousness is pro¬ 
 nounced or habitual, as in spirit mediumship and other 
 forms of spontaneous automatism, in deep hypnotic 
 trance, in cases of secondary personality, &c., we find 
 that the new consciousness is apt to assume a new 
 name. Into the psycho-physiological explanation of 
 this peculiarity we need not now enter. Suffice it to 
 say that the change in the consciousness is presumably 
 in all cases conditioned by physiological changes 
 which sometimes, as when local anassthesise or dis¬ 
 turbances of muscular control occur, are of a fairly 
 obvious kind. Even the hand of an automatic writer, 
 who is otherwise apparently normal, is frequently found 
 to be insensitive to pain whilst in the act of writing. 
 There can be no question in most cases that the 
 assumption of a new name is merely, so to speak, a 
 kind of illegitimate inference drawn by the transformed 
 consciousness,; it feels itself a new creature, and de¬ 
 mands, therefore, a new name. Nobody would main¬ 
 tain that the Mrs. Piper of twenty-five years ago was 
 really controlled by Chlorine or Sebastian Bach. 
 
THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE 279 
 
 Indian maidens have always been fashionable in 
 'American spiritualist circles. So have been the names 
 of the mighty dead. There is no reason to doubt that 
 these earlier impersonations, at any rate, were wholly 
 the creations of the medium’s dream consciousness. In 
 persons of some mental instability such dreams may 
 even take possession of the waking organism. Con¬ 
 tinental observers have described many cases of the 
 kind amongst persons certainly not to be classed as 
 insane. I have myself come across a case which is 
 perhaps worth quoting as having some analogy with the 
 impersonations of the dead given by Mrs. Piper and 
 Mrs. Thompson. In the case to be cited, however, 
 the man impersonated was alive. I received the 
 account of the episode from the young woman herself, 
 whom I will call A. B., and from her brother. The 
 account is taken from my notes made at the time : 
 
 Miss A. B., a young woman of about thirty, experienced 
 a sudden and demonstrative attachment for a man, C. D., 
 living in the same neighbourhood. The affair attracted 
 some unpleasant notoriety, and the young man, who had 
 apparently acted a rather passive part throughout, abruptly 
 discontinued the acquaintance. Miss A. B. continued, how¬ 
 ever, to cherish the belief that the man had been influenced 
 by the malice of her enemies, and that he was still pro¬ 
 foundly attached to her. A few weeks after the breach 
 she felt one evening a curious feeling in the throat, as of 
 choking—the prelude probably, under ordinary circum¬ 
 stances, to an attack of hysteria. This feeling was 
 succeeded by involuntary movements of the hands and a 
 fit of long-continued and apparently causeless sobbing. 
 Then, in presence of a member of her family, she became, 
 in her own belief, possessed by the spirit of C. D., per¬ 
 sonating his words and gestures and speaking in his 
 character. After this date she continually held conversation, 
 as she believes, with O. D.’s spirit ; “ he ” sometimes 
 
 speaking aloud through her mouth, sometimes conversing 
 
280 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 with her in the inner voice. Occasionally “ he ” wrote 
 messages through her hand, and I have the testimony of 
 a member of her family that the writing so produced 
 resembled that of C. D. Occasionally also A. B. had 
 visions, in which she claimed to see C. D. and what he was 
 doing at the moment. At other times she professed to hear 
 him speaking or to understand by some inner sympathy his 
 feelings and thoughts. 
 
 A significant feature in this case is that A. B.’s 
 dream had imposed not merely on herself, but on her 
 brother, who related the facts to me, and also 
 apparently on one other member of her family. 
 
 But the classic case of spirit possession in modern 
 times is that recorded by Professor Flournoy in his 
 book “ Des Indes a la Planete Mars ” ; 
 
 Miss Hdlene Smith (the name is fictitious) was born 
 about 1863. Her parents are well educated and healthy ; 
 Hdlene herself as a child was quiet and dreamy, and had 
 occasional visions, but was, on the whole, not specially 
 remarkable. She is, to all outward appearance, at the 
 present time healthy even to robustness. From the age 
 of fifteen she has been employed in a large shop in Geneva, 
 and holds a position of some responsibility. It is in 1892 
 that her real history begins. In that year she was per¬ 
 suaded by some friends to join a Spiritualist circle. She 
 soon proved to be a medium ; she saw visions and heard 
 voices. Moreover, there were movements of the table, 
 and “ apports ” of flowers and shells traceable to her 
 mediumship. In the course of two or three years her 
 mediumship developed on the normal lines. She passed at 
 every seance into a state of trance, in which she had 
 clairvoyant visions and delivered messages purporting to 
 proceed from deceased friends of the sitters. She was 
 from time to time controlled by spirits of the famous dead. 
 Some of her earliest trances were under the guidance and 
 inspiration of Victor Hugo. Within a few months, however, 
 the spirit of the poet—too late, indeed, for his own reputa¬ 
 tion, for he had already perpetrated some verses—was 
 
THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE 281 
 
 expelled by a more masterful demon, who called himself 
 Leopold. The new comer was at first somewhat reticent 
 on his own past, and, when urgently questioned, was apt 
 to take refuge in moral platitudes. Later, however, he 
 revealed himself as Giuseppe Balsamo, Count Cagliostro. 
 It then appeared that in Helene herself was reincarnated the 
 hapless Queen Marie Antoinette, and that others of the 
 mortals present represented Mirabeau, Philip of Orleans, 
 and the Princess de Lamballe. Cagliostro, “ ce cher 
 sorcier,” attended only in his discarnate state. Of the 
 high courtly functions then held in nineteenth-century 
 Geneva, with all their ghostly memories of past splendours 
 and tragedies, there is no space to speak. But from M. 
 Flournoy’s spirited description it is clear that the rein¬ 
 carnated queen was lacking neither in wit, grace, nor 
 dignity. 
 
 At times Helene’s memory in the trance went back to a 
 still remoter past. As Simandini, daughter of an Arab 
 sheikh in the fifteenth century, she had been courted by 
 the princely Sivrouka, lord of the fortress of Tchandraguiri, 
 in the province of Kanara, Hindustan. She had enjoyed 
 as his wife many years of married happiness, adorned by 
 the chaste but passionate devotion of the Fakir Kanga, and 
 had finally proved her fidelity by expiring, in wifely fashion, 
 amid the flames of her lord’s funeral pyre. All the scenes 
 of this forgotten history were enacted in lifelike tableau 
 before M. Flournoy and his friends, and duly interpreted 
 for their benefit by the serviceable Leopold-Cagliostro. It 
 should be added that the entranced medium, in her role of 
 a princess of the Orient, wrote a sentence or two in passable 
 Arabic and spoke a few words of Hindustani. 
 
 It is Helene’s extra-planetary experiences, however, which 
 have excited most attention, and which furnished to the 
 attendants at her circle the most convincing proofs of her 
 dealings with the spiritual world. In November, 1894, the 
 spirit of the entranced medium was wafted—not without 
 threatenings of sea-sickness—through the cosmic void, to 
 arrive eventually on the planet Mars. Thereafter, night 
 after night, she described to the listening circle the people 
 of our neighbour planet—their food, dress, and ways of 
 life. At times she drew pictures of the inhabitants—human 
 and animal—of their houses, bridges, and other edifices, 
 
282 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 and of the surrounding landscape. Later she both spoke 
 and wrote freely in the Martian language. From the 
 writings reproduced in M. Flournoy’s book it is clear that 
 the characters of the Martian script are unlike any in use 
 on earth, and that the words (of which a translation is 
 furnished) bear no resemblance, superficially at least, to any 
 known tongue. The spirits—for several dwellers upon Mars 
 used Helene’s organism to speak and write through—de¬ 
 livered themselves with freedom and fluency, and were con¬ 
 sistent in their usage both of the spoken and the written 
 words. In fact, Martian, as used by the entranced H61fene, 
 has many of the characteristics of a genuine language ; 
 and it is not surprising that some of the onlookers, who 
 may have hesitated over the authenticity of the other revela¬ 
 tions, were apparently convinced that these Martian 
 utterances were beyond the common order of nature. 
 
 M. Flournoy, in his masterly analysis of the case, 
 shows that the whole of these marvellously consistent and 
 lifelike impersonations, with the incorporation in the 
 case |Of the Royal cycle of much authentic history, 
 and the invention in the Martian cycle of an entirely 
 new language, were simply the developed products of 
 the medium’s childish daydreams. Bit by bit he traces 
 all the elements in the several romances to incidents 
 in Helene’s history, and gives the date at which each 
 cycle was originated ; the Martian cycle, for instance, 
 originated in early childhood when the medium knew 
 no other language but her own ; for the Martian 
 language, marvellous work of art though it is, is 
 obviously modelled exclusively on French. 
 
 Now, Phinuit appears to be a creation of the same 
 order as Simandini and Leopold-Balsamo-Cagliostro. 
 He was transferred, as we have seen, from a pro¬ 
 fessional medium to Mrs. Piper. W.e first make his 
 acquaintance in the questionable company of Chlorine 
 and Mrs. Siddons. He claims to have been a doctor. 
 
THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE 283 
 
 but does not know the names of the Latin or French 
 drugs which he prescribes, and cannot recognise com¬ 
 mon medicinal herbs when shown to him. He claims 
 to have been a Frenchman, though his knowledge of 
 French is apparently limited to a few common phrases 
 and a slight accent, which frequently proved service¬ 
 able in the old days in disguising a bad shot at ^ 
 proper name. His ignorance of French he has qx- 
 plained as being due to his having passed the later 
 years of his life at Metz, where there were many 
 English residents. He has given his full name, with 
 particulars of his life and education at Paris, but no 
 trace of any person of his name can be found. On 
 being more closely questioned he betrayed some un¬ 
 certainty whether he had been born at Metz or 
 Marseilles, and finally came to the conclusion that his 
 name was not Phinuit at all, but Jean Alaen Scliville, 
 and that he had never had any connection with Dr. 
 Cocke.I , 
 
 But it is to be observed that the other controls 
 endorse Phinuit’s claim to a substantial existence. 
 Thus the Gurney control talked much to Sir Oliver 
 Lodge in 1889 about him: 
 
 “ Dr. Phinuit is a peculiar type of man ... he is 
 eccentric and quaint, but good-hearted. I wouldn’t do 
 the things he does for anything ; he lowers himself some¬ 
 times ; it is a great pity. ... A high type of man couldn’t 
 do the work he does ; but he is a good-hearted old fellow 
 . . . a shrewd doctor, he knows his own business 
 thoroughly.” 2 
 
 ‘ See Dr. Hodgson’s account of the Phinuit impersona¬ 
 tion, Proceedings S.P..R., vol. viii. pp. 50, seq. 
 
 2 Ibid., vol. xxiii. 153, 158. 
 
284 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 The case of Imperator presents further difficulties. 
 Imperator—“ Impersonator,” as Professor Hyslop, or, 
 perhaps. Professor Hyslop’s printer, has felicitously 
 christened him •—is one of a band of lofty spirits. 
 Rector, Prudens, and Mentor being amongst the other 
 members, who purported to control the late Stainton 
 Moses. Now, Stainton Moses, as we have already 
 seen, was a physical medium, and as Imperator and 
 his company can hardly be acquitted of connivance 
 with their medium’s doings, the admission of their 
 claims to substantiality would still further complicate 
 Mrs. Piper’s case by involving it with the whole 
 question ,of these presumably deceptive phenomena. 
 
 But even those who place most faith in the trance 
 communications generally find it difficult to believe 
 that Imperator and Rector are what they assume to 
 be, especially since they are unable to give the real 
 names of the persons whom the Imperator and Rector 
 of Stainton Moses claimed to represent .2 Thus Sir 
 Oliver Lodge writes : “I conjecture, however, that 
 whatever relationship may exist between these 
 personages and the corresponding ones of Stainton 
 Moses there is little or no identity.” 3 
 
 But, again, just as Phinuit’s claim was endorsed by 
 the Gurney control, so Imperator and Rector are recog¬ 
 nised as real personages by the Hodgson and Myers 
 controls. There is another point referred to by Sir 
 Oliver Lodge which probably has some bearing on 
 
 * Journal of the American S.P.R., March, 1907, p. 136. 
 
 2 The names were known only to two or three intimate 
 friends of Stainton Moses. 
 
 3 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiii. p. 235. Professor W. 
 James’s view is that they are all probably dream creations 
 of Mrs. Piper (ibid., p. 3). 
 
THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE 285 
 
 the question. In Mrs. Piper’s earlier trances there 
 purported to be direct changes of control. Phinuit 
 would get out and Gurney would get in ; and these 
 changes of control were marked by appropriate drama. 
 Now, even in the latest trances there are, occasionally, 
 apparent changes of control accompanying the appear¬ 
 ance of different communicators, but the communicators 
 expressly state that in the latest trances Rector always 
 controls the medium’s organism. “ So it would appear 
 that the change of control claims to be now usually 
 dramatic rather than real.” > 
 
 Of Mrs. Thompson’s trance dramatisations it is not 
 necessary to say much. “ The characteristics of the 
 respective personalities,” writes Mrs. Verrall, “are not 
 very marked : all bear strong resemblances to that 
 of Mrs. Thompson herself. The actual voice is hardly 
 to be distinguished from hers. The words and phrases, 
 so far as they are in any way distinctive, are such as 
 she herself uses in the normal state.” 2 Mrs. Verrall 
 recognises, however, that the several impersonations 
 produce on the sitter the impression of individuality 
 and independent existence. 
 
 From the nature of the case little opportunity can 
 be afforded for testing the genuineness of the Nelly 
 personality, nor has any attempt, so far as I am aware, 
 been made to test the impersonation in the other cases. 
 iWe have seen already under what circumstances and 
 in what company Nelly made her first appearance. 
 The band of spirits who, under the leadership of Peter 
 
 ■ Sir Oliver Lodge, in Proceedings S.P..R., vol. xxiii. 
 
 p. 161. 
 
 2 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xvii. p. 90 ; vol. xviii. pp. 206 
 and 266. 
 
286 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 , Wharton, controlled Mrs. Thompson’s early trances 
 belong, no doubt, to the same family as the band 
 which appeared early in Mrs. Piper’s career and ulti¬ 
 mately gave way to Phinuit ; but Mrs. Siddons and 
 her associates were innocent of spirit lights, apports, 
 and materialisations. To do her justice, Nelly is not 
 ashamed of her past ; she admits having knocked and 
 shaken g table “ before she knew Mr. Myers,” and 
 she has expressed her intention of materialising 
 herself some day.i 
 
 It would not, then, appear that there are any ex¬ 
 ternal characteristics by which we can discriminate 
 between impersonations representing themselves as 
 our deceased friends and such other figures of the 
 medium’s trance as Phinuit and Imperator ; nor can 
 we again distinguish, except by their greater consis¬ 
 tency and permanence, between Phinuit and Imperator, 
 and such transient creations as Mrs. Siddons, Loretta 
 Ponchini, and the Indian maiden Chlorine ; and these 
 last figures link Mrs. Piper with the ordinary medium 
 and her band of spirit controls—Shelley, Benjamin 
 Franklin, the Duke of Kent, Aristotle, Apollos Munn, 
 Bacon, Swedenborg, Moses, Paul, and names more 
 sacred than these. 
 
 And there are other indications that the trance com¬ 
 munications through these later mediums are all of the 
 same fundamental kinship. The trance machinery is 
 the same, and the curious evasiveness, or, to use a 
 less invidious term, suggestibility, is the same. At 
 moments when the “ light ” is good we have flashes 
 of emphatic unambiguous utterance, often thoroughly 
 characteristic of the supposed speaker. But when the 
 
 ' Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xviii. pp. 266—7. 
 
THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE 287 
 
 conditions are unfavourable the whole manner of the 
 communication is hesitating, tentative, and strongly 
 suggestive of fishing. Phinuit’s fishing and his am¬ 
 biguous pronunciation of proper names, a procedure 
 so constantly repeated that it can hardly have been 
 fortuitous, were notorious during his tenure of office. 
 Professor Shaler, who had a fairly successful seance 
 in 1894 , calls him a “preposterous scoundrel.”' 
 
 Now that the communications through Mrs. Piper 
 are nearly all written instead of being delivered orally, 
 opportunities of this particular kind are necessarily 
 more restricted, but they still occur ; for though the 
 writing can, by those who are conversant with it, be 
 deciphered without serious risk of ambiguity, it is by 
 no means easy to read, and this leaves it open to the 
 incautious sitter in his attempts at interpretation to 
 give a hint of the answer desired. Thus, at one of 
 Miss Bancroft’s sittings the Hodgson control writes : 
 
 “ Don’t you remember how I had to laugh at you laugh 
 on that boat about that boat ” 
 
 The last word was deciphered by the sitter as 
 “ hat,” and she therefore replied, “ Whose hat blew 
 off? ” The control wrote : “ My hat. Do you jiot 
 
 remember the day it blew off? ” and then pro¬ 
 ceeded to connect the incident of the hat blowing off 
 with a fishing party. But Miss Bancroft can remember 
 nothing definite about a hat, and the whole incident was 
 apparently suggested by her misreading of the word .2 
 
 Again, at a later sitting. Professor Newbold, in 
 asking the Hodgson control to recall the incidents of 
 a day spent at the seaside, adds : 
 
 * Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiii. p. 524. 
 
 * Ibid., vol. xxiii. pp. 49—50. 
 
288 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 After that what did we do ? 
 
 R. H.—We went and got some—let me think— 
 
 W. R. N.—I can’t read that, Dick. 
 
 R- H.—A drink—drink. I asked you to have cigar. 
 Cigar—and something else. [P. 63.] 
 
 Now, the cigar was correct, but the drink was not ; 
 and the word appears to have been suggested by the 
 sitter’s attempts to decipher the word “ think.” 
 
 There are several instances of the same kind in the 
 prolonged series of sittings which Professor Hyslop 
 had with Mrs. Piper in 1898 - 99 . Consider this extract 
 from the first sitting : 
 
 Professor Hyslop.—What is the last sentence? 
 
 Control.—I am with her. 
 
 Professor H.—With whom? 
 
 Control.—Yes, I have A—A . [Last word unde¬ 
 
 cipherable ; possibly either Alice or Annie.] 
 
 Professor H.—Is it Alice? 
 
 Control.—Alice. 
 
 Professor H.—Alice who ? 
 
 Control.—I do not say Alice, I say Annie. 
 
 It need hardly be said that “ Annie ” had a meaning 
 for the sitter, while Alice had none.* 
 
 Again, in another part of the same record we read 
 that the word “ mother ” was written five times, but 
 “ a close re-examination of the automatic writing indi¬ 
 cates that the first of these words looks like mother ; 
 the others look like brother” ’’(P* 316 ). 
 
 On another occasion the sitter asks : “ Who passed 
 out soon after you? ” The answer given is : “ Mother 
 [query brother] is here also” '(p. 331 ). 
 
 Again, at another sitting the control (assumed to 
 be Professor Hyslop’s father) asks : ” Do you mean 
 
 * Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xvi. p. 607. 
 
THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE 289 
 
 F.? ” Professor Hyslop replies : “ Yes, father, I mean 
 F. if you can tell the rest.” The control replies : 
 “I can remember very well. FRAD” (p. 338 ). 
 
 In commenting on this Professor Hyslop renaarks 
 that the symbol printed as D bore in the original 
 writing a strong resemblance to N K. The brother’s 
 name, in fact, was ” Frank ” ; but the ingenious port¬ 
 manteau word framed by the spirit would apparently 
 have stood equally well for Fred. 
 
 But the difficulty in interpreting the writing is only 
 one and quite a minor source of uncertainty in the 
 trance utterance. The whole machinery of communica¬ 
 tion, as interpreted to us by the controls, is directly 
 productive of ambiguities of many kinds. The com¬ 
 municating “ spirits ” do not, at any rate in recent 
 years, profess to assume direct control over Mrs. 
 Piper’s organism. They used to dictate what they 
 wanted to say to Phinuit or G. P. ; they now dictate 
 to Rector. This procedure, whether it really repre¬ 
 sents any psychical fact or is merely part of the 
 machinery of the medium’s trance, at any rate affords 
 a cloak for many mistakes and an excuse for many 
 ambiguities, to be interpreted according to the sitter’s 
 prepossessions. The Piper-Myers found a plausible 
 excuse for his difficulty in interpreting the Latin 
 message on the ground that Rector knew no Latin. 
 Again, when he had learned that ” copyright ” was 
 an incorrect answer, he explained that he did not 
 intend to say “ copyright,” but ‘‘ copies.” Through¬ 
 out these stances Rector’s difficulty in hearing and 
 interpreting is a constant feature. But we can scarcely 
 regard Rector as anything but a symbolic figure 
 invented iby the medium’s subconscious imagination. 
 
 19 
 
290 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 In other ways, too, the machinery of the trance 
 communications is, unfortunately, if not designedly, 
 ambiguous. With all automatists alike the communica¬ 
 tions tend to be fragmentary and incoherent ; they 
 are also generally indirect in form, tentative, and 
 ambiguous in their application. At even the most con¬ 
 spicuously successful sdances with Mrs. Piper the 
 precisely definite statements admitting of but one 
 interpretation are comparatively few. Personal 
 messages are apt to bear no label either of origin 
 or destination ; names and allusions are thrown out 
 haphazard to be taken up and identified as the sitter 
 wills. Thus, to take one or two illustrations out of 
 many. Professor Hyslop explains that at one period 
 of his first sitting with Mrs. Piper he, at the .time, 
 supposed himself to be communicating with his 
 brother’s spirit, but later saw reason, purely from 
 internal evidence, to suppose that his father, not his 
 brother, was the communicator.! In other words, he 
 found a head to fit the cap. 
 
 Or, to take another case, at Mr. Hyslop’s second 
 sitting the control announces that there is a little girl’s 
 spirit trying to find her mother. He then proceeds : 
 “ Who is Ruth? ” Hyslop replies : “ I do not know 
 Ruth.” 
 
 Control.—“ Not to thee, friend, but to thee ” {i.e., 
 Hodgson, who was also present at the sitting). 
 
 Another illustration of the same procedure will be 
 found in the introduction of the name “ Margaret ” 
 without context at the sitting of December 28 , 1905 , 
 when Hodgson’s ring was mentioned. If Margaret 
 had happened to be the name of the lady who had 
 given the ring, this would have been regarded as a 
 
 ! Proceedings S.P.R , vol. xvi. pp. 22 , 307, 361. 
 
THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE 291 
 
 remarkably good test. As it is> the name having 
 been introduced without definite context, it does not 
 create the impression of a failure. 
 
 If we were dealing with the ordinary professional 
 clairvoyant who describes before a roomful of her 
 clients the apparition of a sweet-faced widow lady, 
 or an old gentleman with silver hair, or some other 
 typical figure, we should say that the conditions were 
 cunningly devised to insure that her clairvoyant de¬ 
 scriptions should never fail to find a billet somewhere. 
 But really these ambiguous messages dealt in by the 
 entranced Mrs. Piper widen the scope of chance co¬ 
 incidence in much the same way, though, no doubt, to 
 a less extent. Obviously the cap is more likely to prove 
 a good fit if it is not aimed at any particular head. 
 
 In short, where the context is not given the imagina¬ 
 tion of the sitter has to supply it, and the process 
 bears a very close analogy to the corresponding 
 process in the material world of building up a per¬ 
 ception out of faint and inadequate sensory data. The 
 result may be a visual image corresponding to the 
 half-guessed reality, or it may be altogether wide of 
 the mark—an illusion, in short. But the mental pro¬ 
 cess is much the same, and it is often impossible to 
 say just where the line which divides reality from 
 illusion is overstepped. That it is sometimes over¬ 
 stepped will be clear to the reader who summons up 
 the courage to study Professor Hyslop’s monumental 
 report already referred to. Here are two specimens 
 of his interpretation of ambiguous utterances : Pro¬ 
 fessor Hyslop’s father purporting to communicate re¬ 
 ferred to a visit, in company with his son, to the 
 mountains and then a trip to the lake after leaving 
 
292 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 the camp. The statement is admitted to be false in 
 every particular ; but Professor Hyslop and his father 
 did once go together to a town called Champaign 
 (generally pronounced Shampane, and so pronounced, 
 according to the widow, by Mr. Hyslop senior, though 
 Professor Hyslop thinks that he often called it 
 Campaign). After this they went to Chicago, and 
 naturally visited the lake-shore whilst in the city. 
 Professor Hyslop accordingly suggests a possible 
 reconstruction of the trance statement as follows : 
 
 [Mr. Hyslop senior is supposed to be dictating to Rector, 
 who is writing through Mrs. Piper’s hand.] “ I am thinking 
 of the time when I went into [father says Illinois. Rector 
 does not understand this, and asks if he means hilly. 
 Father says “ No 1 Prairies.” Rector does not understand. 
 Father says “ No mountains.” Rector understands this as 
 ‘‘ No I mountains ! ” and continues] the mountains for a 
 change with him and the trip we had to the lake after we 
 left [father says Champaign. Rector understands Camp, 
 and continues] the Camp.” i 
 
 Or, to take another illustration : The Hyslop control 
 is asked if he remembers Samuel Cooper ; the reply 
 is that he was an old friend in the .West, jand that 
 they used to have long talks on philosophical subjects. 
 Of Samuel Cooper, an old neighbour of Mr. Hyslop’s, 
 the statement is false. But there was a Dr. Joseph 
 Cooper, whom Mr. Hyslop knew, and with whom he 
 may Jiave conversed or corresponded on theological 
 questions in 1858 . It is true that Joseph is not the 
 same name as Samuel, that theology is not precisely 
 philosophy, and that Dr. Cooper did not live west of 
 Mr. Hyslop, but, unfortunately, east. There was, how¬ 
 ever, a Cooper Memorial College founded after his 
 ‘ Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xvi. p. 409. 
 
THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE 293 
 
 death, of which Mr. Hyslop may have been thinking, 
 or the mention of talks on philosophy may have been 
 intended to apply to correspondence on theology with 
 Professor Hyslop’s uncle. “ The misunderstanding 
 would probably be Rector’s ” (p. 500 ). On the whole. 
 Professor Hyslop thinks the incident “ has consider¬ 
 able interest and importance” (p. 410 ). 
 
 These are, no doubt, extreme instances, and it 
 is not intended to suggest that any of the inter¬ 
 pretations of these fragmentary utterances suggested 
 in the present reports fall so flagrantly wide of the 
 mark. But there are many passages where I have 
 felt, in reading through page after page, as if I were 
 battling my way through cobwebs. One cannot say 
 that there is nothing in the argument, because one 
 cannot get near enough to it to grasp it, to measure 
 its strength and its weakness. At no particular point, it 
 may be, can one assert with confidence—this inference 
 is quite unjustifiable, or tliat interpretation is wholly 
 supplied by the editor’s imagination. If an editor has to 
 deal with fragmentary and incoherent utterances, which 
 are yet presumed to have a meaning, he is clearly 
 entitled to introduce order and coherence if he can. 
 And the process inevitably requires the use of a sympa¬ 
 thetic imagination. How are we to decide at what point 
 his imagination becomes too sympathetic? Let the 
 reader who cares to pursue the subject study the accounts 
 of the Light in the West and the Star, Hope, and 
 Browning cases : or the chain of reasoning by which 
 “ Plotinus ” is associated with Homer’s “ Iliad.” ' 
 
 More significant even than these possibly unde- 
 
 • Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxii. pp. 59—77, 130—6, 
 241—81, and elsewhere. 
 
294 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 signed ambiguities of utterance are the evasive and 
 disingenuous explanations frequently given. We have 
 seen that Phinuit explained his present ignorance pf 
 French on the plea that he, a Frenchman, had passed 
 the later years of his life in Metz amongst the English 
 residents there. So the G. P. control evaded the test 
 of giving two proper names on the plea that if he 
 gave them then in the presence of a sitter who knew 
 them it would be attributed to telepathy, and later 
 gave them incorrectly. So the Hodgson control offered 
 a ridiculous and palpably false explanation of the mis¬ 
 take made in giving “ Huldah ” for Hannah. In an 
 analogous case, also through Mrs. Piper, a lady who 
 was known to her friends as Kitty gave her name in 
 the first instance as Kate. When at length she gave 
 the right name she was asked why she called herself 
 Kate before, and answered : “ Because I did it for 
 
 Rector’s understanding.” i 
 
 So, again, the Hodgson control, asked by Pro¬ 
 fessor Newbold as a test to recall a particular con¬ 
 versation about his (the sitter’s) work, replied : “ Oh, 
 yes, I recall you said you would like to give it up.” 
 Professor Newbold replied : ” No, I did not say that.” 
 And the trance writing continued, as if to finish pn 
 uncompleted sentence : ” Not for anything 1 ” 
 
 Thus the case stands. The automatic utterances, 
 and especially the trance utterances, show all the 
 characteristics of automatic utterance generally, inco¬ 
 herence, vagueness, ambiguity, evasiveness. The 
 whole elaborate machinery of control has the effect, 
 whether designed with that end or not, of increasing 
 the uncertainty of interpretation and affording a cloak 
 ‘ Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiii. pp. 272—3. 
 
THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE 295 
 
 for mistakes. The latest controls are connected by 
 many binding links with those who have gone before. 
 They vouch for them, and are vouched for in turn. 
 Dr. Hodgson, I believe, continued to regard Phinuit’s 
 substantial existence as an open question, but Phinuit 
 was always very human. It is more difficult to take 
 seriously the claims of Imperator, with his sacerdotal 
 verbiage, his lofty pretensions of sanctity, and his 
 signature of the cross. As we have seen. Sir Oliver 
 Lodge regards them as dubious. 
 
 Professor .William James, in his report on the 
 Hodgson control, has a striking passage on the inter¬ 
 pretation of the phenomena in the light of history ; 
 
 “ I myself can perfectly well imagine spirit-agency, and 
 find my mind vaccillating about it curiously. When I take 
 the phenomena piecemeal, the notion that Mrs. Piper’s 
 subliminal self should keep her sitters apart as expertly 
 as it does, remembering its past dealings with each of 
 them so well, not mixing their communications more, and 
 all the while humbugging them so profusely, is quite com¬ 
 patible with what we know of the dream-life of hypnotised 
 subjects. Their consciousness, narrowed to one suggested 
 kind of operation, shows remarkable skill in that opera¬ 
 tion. If we suppose Mrs. Piper’s dream-life once for all 
 to have had the notion suggested to it that it must per¬ 
 sonate spirits to sitters, the fair degree of virtuosity it 
 shows need not, I think, surprise us. But I find that when 
 I ascend from the details to the whole meaning of the 
 phenomenon, and especially when I connect the Piper case 
 with all the other cases I know of automatic writing and 
 mediumship, and with the whole record of spirit-possession 
 in human history, the notion that such an immense current 
 of experience, complex in so many ways, should spell out 
 absolutely nothing but the word ‘ humbug ’ acquires a 
 character of unlikeliness. The notion that so many men 
 and women, in all other respects honest enough, should 
 have this preposterous monkeying self annexed to their 
 personality seems to me so weird that the spirit theory 
 
296 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 immediately takes on a more probable appearance. The 
 spirits, if spirits there be, must indeed work under incredible 
 complications and falsifications, but at least if they are 
 present some honesty is left in a whole department of the 
 universe which otherwise is run by pure deception. The 
 more I realise the quantitative massiveness of the pheno¬ 
 menon and its complexity, the more incredible it seems to me 
 that in a world all of whose vaster features we are in the 
 habit of considering to be sincere at least, however brutal, 
 this feature should be wholly constituted of insincerity.” 
 
 It is with reluctance that I venture to express an 
 opinion opposed to that of Professor James. There 
 is no living man whose utterances on this subject carry 
 greater weight. But the lesson which I have learned 
 from history is precisely the reverse. Some eight or 
 nine years ago, in reviewing the whole course of the 
 spiritualistic movement, I wrote that “ Mrs. Piper would 
 be a much more convincing apparition if she could 
 have come to us out of the blue, instead of trailing 
 behind her a nebulous ancestry of magnetic somnam- 
 bules, witch-ridden children, and ecstatic nuns.” ^ A 
 large amount of evidence for and against the 
 spiritualist theory has been accumulated in the inter¬ 
 vening years, but the essential features of the problem 
 remain unchanged. We have still to deal with the 
 same protean figures—vengeful human ghosts, familiar 
 spirits of Shaman or wizard, angels from the abyss, 
 devils released from Jewish or mediseval hells, oracles 
 of Olympian deities, spirits of angels and prophets, 
 spirits of earth, air, and fire, spirits of the damned, 
 spirits on furlough from purgatory, spirits floating in 
 a Swedenborgian limbo, ghosts of fleas and archangels, 
 decaying astral shells, spirits of the seven celestial 
 spheres, spirits clothed in luminiferous ether—they have 
 * “ Modern Spiritualism,” vol. ii. p. 361. 
 
THE STAGE SETTING OF THE TRANCE 297 
 
 been with us since the first syllable of recorded time, 
 and generation after generation they have shaped them¬ 
 selves to suit the changing fashion of the hour, the 
 hidden or hinted fears and hopes of those who put 
 their trust in them. To dismiss the whole matter as 
 fraud would be not only uncharitable, but a blunder ; 
 it would be to misinterpret the essential nature of the 
 phenomenon. Whatever sham or make-believe there 
 may be in these still—after so many millenniums— 
 undeciphered messages, we may be sure that the blame, 
 if blame is appropriate at all, does not lie wholly on 
 the spirit- or devil-possessed. From Pythian priestess 
 to modern clairvoyant she has been an almost passive 
 instrument to be played upon by minds other than her 
 own, by the hopes and fears of the whole race of man. 
 
 Mr. Piddington’s scholarly commentary has not 
 exhausted the significance of the legend of Ceyx and 
 Alcyone. The central incident in the legend is the 
 despatch of Morpheus, the god of dreams, to carry 
 the news of Ceyx’s death to the widowed queen. 
 Morpheus fulfils his mission by assuming the form of 
 the drowned man, and, that he may secure credence for 
 his message, he assures the dreaming Alcyone that it 
 is indeed her husband’s spirit which is addressing her, 
 and backs up his claim by mimicking the voice and the 
 very gestures of the dead king : 
 
 “ Non hasc tibi nuntiat auctor 
 Ambiguus ; non ista vagis rumoribus audis ; 
 
 Ipse ego fata tibi prassens mea naufragus edo. 
 
 :|c * * * * 
 
 Adjicit his vocem Morpheus, quam conjugis ilia 
 Crederet esse sui. Fletus quoque fundere veros 
 Visus erat ; gestumque manus Ceycis habebant.' 
 
 > Ovid’s “ Metamorphoses,” xi. 666—73. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 In view of what has been said in the last chapter ^t 
 must be recognised that there is a very strong prima 
 facie presumption that all the personalities claiming to 
 communicate through Mrs. Piper and other automatists 
 proceed from the same manufactory as Mrs. Siddons 
 and Loretta Ponchini. If a man came to us with p, 
 letter from a fellow-countryman languishing in a 
 Spanish prison and offered, on our providing the small 
 sum needed for the release of the prisoner, to give 
 us a share in the hidden treasure known to his friend 
 alone, we might, through mistaken clemency or m’ere 
 inertia, be content with showing him to the door. But 
 if he should approach us for the second time with a 
 similar tale, varying only the locality and the inci¬ 
 dents, we should unquestionably call in the police. 
 We are offered a heavier bribe than Spanish gold, and 
 though we ought not to lose sight of the enormous 
 improbabilities involved in the claim, yet the moment¬ 
 ous issues at stake may, no doubt, be held to justify 
 a suspension of judgment until the further investiga¬ 
 tions which are still proceeding have shed fresh light 
 upon the problem. 
 
 In fact, the investigators themselves now recognise 
 that the primitive theory of possession, the theory 
 advocated in a modified form by Dr. Hodgson i and 
 
 I In his report on the Piper communications prior to 1898. 
 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiii. 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 299 
 
 still held by most Spiritualists, can no longer be 
 defended. They have substituted for it a theory of 
 telepathic interaction between the mind of the auto- 
 matist and other minds, of the living or of the dead. 
 The result is a compound, in which the different 
 elements can only be separated by patient analysis. 
 Thus, to quote Miss Johnson : 
 
 “ I will then compare the script to chemical com¬ 
 pounds of two or more elements which are found in 
 different proportions in the various compounds. Thus, 
 if we call the automatists P. and V., and the hypo¬ 
 thetical external intelligence X., we may get in the 
 one script such compounds as PX, or P 2 X, or PX 2 , 
 and in the other VX, &c. ; or we may get in either 
 of them such compounds as PVX, P 2 V 3 X, &c. We 
 may also get such compounds as PV, or PY 2 ,; or we 
 get the elements P and V by, themselves. The one 
 element that we never get alone is X.” " 
 
 But the propounders of this theory do not seem to 
 realise the full implications of their admission. We can¬ 
 not simply drop the theory of possession as if the facts 
 on which it was originally based had never existed, and 
 then proceed to balance the successes against the failures, 
 as in a telepathic experiment. If these impersona¬ 
 tions, as is now admitted, are not what they pretend 
 to be, they are shams, and we are faced with a gigantic 
 system of make-believe. In a telepathic experiment, 
 if we found the percipient continually trying to cheat, 
 we should drop his acquaintance, and betake our¬ 
 selves to an honest man. That course is not open to us 
 
 ' Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiv. p. 262. Mr. Piddington, 
 in a letter to me, expresses his general agreement with 
 this view. 
 
300 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 here, because the automatist without reproach has not 
 yet been found. All alike, it would seem, are 
 engaged day in, day out, in weaving their dream 
 romances. But, again, in a telepathic experiment the 
 particular form of deception here encountered would 
 not affect the result. In a telepathic experiment we 
 are concerned only with excluding the action of the 
 subject’s normal senses. If, under such conditions, 
 he -correctly names the concealed card, the result may 
 be due to reading our thoughts, it may be due to 
 communion with the world soul, or to the direct inter¬ 
 position of the Deity. In any event, we have agreed 
 provisionally to call the result telepathy. But in the 
 cases before us we have to decide between one 
 of two unknown causes, and all the sympathies of the 
 automatist have been proved to be actively engaged on 
 one side. That fact surely ought to be kept pro¬ 
 minently before us in every attempt to interpret these 
 baffling utterances. Buf I see no proof in these reports 
 that there is any adequate recognition of it, or any 
 realisation of the extreme improbability involved in 
 the assumption that one out of ten thousand lay 
 figures, in outward appearance indistinguishable from 
 all the other lay figures, should for a passing moment 
 be endowed with life, and should then again sink back 
 amongst the crowd of lifeless mockeries ; for that, and 
 nothing less, seems to be the implication in some of 
 the arguments put forward. Take the following case : 
 
 On July 13, 1904, at 11.15 a.m., the same day, 
 and possibly the same hour, in which Mr. Piddington 
 wrote the posthumous letter referred to in Chapter VI. 
 in connection with the Sevens case, Mrs. Verrall pro¬ 
 duced the following script : 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 301 
 
 [After some nonsense Latin and Greek words.] 
 
 But that is not right—it is something contemporary that 
 you are to record—note the hour—in London half the 
 message has come. 
 
 I have long told you of the contents of the envelope— 
 Myers’ sealed envelope left with Lodge. [Here follows a 
 statement as to the contents of this envelope, quoted in 
 full in Mrs. Verrall’s report on her script, Proceedings 
 S.P.R., vol. XX. pp. 424—5 ; also a similar statement 
 about a sealed envelope left by Professor Sidgwick. The 
 script continues : ] 
 
 I don’t know what you want more—why can’t you act on 
 this ? You ask more and more tests and it is hard to 
 see why. 
 
 Helen could probably give the contents of the envelope 
 too if you want confirmation. Tell her to write down a 
 reference and see what she puts. We will try to give it 
 her to-day. Some one will speak of it to her—will that 
 do for you, O skeptics I Surely Piddington will see that this 
 is enough and should be acted upon. F. W. H. M. 
 
 The whole message, it will be seen, an unusually 
 coherent one, purports to be inspired by the Myers 
 control. The first paragraph appears to refer to Mr. 
 Piddington’s contemporary letter, of which Mrs. Verrall 
 could have had no knowledge by normal means. The 
 latter part of the script professes to give the substance 
 of a posthumous letter written by Myers himself. The 
 statements made in this part of the script proved, when 
 the letter was opened, to be entirely wide of the mark." 
 This part, then, presumably belonged to the lay 
 figure. But Miss Johnson, in commenting on the 
 passage, thinks that the phraseology of the first part 
 of the message can hardly have come from Mr. 
 Piddington’s mind, and that it rather suggests the 
 operation of another intelligence {i.e., the Myers con¬ 
 trol).^ But if Mrs. Verrall’s dream-self can so skil- 
 * See above, p. 207. 
 
 2 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiv. p. 256. 
 
302 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 fully work up the raw material originating in her own 
 mind so as to fit into her dream romance, why should 
 it be supposed incapable of working up raw material 
 presumably received from the outside? 
 
 The theory can only fairly be tested by careful and, 
 so far as possible, dispassionate study of the utter¬ 
 ances as a whole. The automatists unquestionably 
 show that they possess information which could not 
 have reached their consciousness by normal means, and 
 it is in tracing this information to its source that the 
 main interest of the inquiry and the main burden of 
 proof will be found. .Whether the faculty of super¬ 
 normal perception constitutes a real difference between 
 Mrs. Piper and the majority of her predecessors it is 
 difficult to say. Clairvoyant powers have been widely 
 claimed for other mediums and magnetic sensitives, 
 but the imperfection of the records prevents us, as 
 a rule, from testing the claim. There is, however, 
 one conspicuous exception, and it is a peculiarly in¬ 
 structive one. One Alphonse Cahagnet, a French 
 cabinet-maker in the middle years of last century, 
 had a magnetic hypnotic) subject, Adele, who 
 
 granted interviews much after the fashion of Mrs. 
 Piper’s early seances. Strangers would be introduced 
 to Ad^le in the trance, and she would profess to see 
 their dead friends and would give copious informa¬ 
 tion about their personal appearance, dress, character, 
 disposition, and the disease from which they died. The 
 information given rarely went beyond this, but within 
 these limits it seems to have been remarkably accurate. 
 Cahagnet published notes of the stances, signed in 
 each case by the sitter.* On two or three occasions 
 
 ' “ Arcanes de la vie future devoil^s.” 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 303 
 
 as a ,special test Adele gave a correct description of 
 a person unknown to her interlocutor. But striking 
 though these results were, there are clear indications 
 in many cases that Adele obtained her information 
 from no other source than the mind of the sitter. 
 Thus, M. du Potet, a well-known writer on animal 
 magnetism, received a very vivid and detailed descrip¬ 
 tion of an old friend of his : “ Je croyais,” he testi¬ 
 fies, “ le voir moi-meme, tant le tableau en dtait 
 saisissant.” But on further inquiry M. du Potet found 
 that all the correct details could have come from his 
 own mind, whilst other details given of which he was 
 ignorant turned out to be incorrect. A more striking 
 proof of the real source of these messages is afforded 
 in two other cases. Twice Adele was consulted as to 
 the whereabouts of men who had disappeared. In 
 each case she professed to find the man alive, and, 
 after giving many accurate particulars of his appear¬ 
 ance and disposition, she went on to converse with 
 him ; but there is a curious similarity of detail 
 between the two accounts. Both men profess to have 
 written home, but the letters must have miscarried. 
 Neither can write now, because they are far from the 
 sea, in the interior. Both have suffered much ; both 
 have been prisoners ; both protest that their relations 
 will see them before they die ; neither, however, is in 
 a hurry to come back ; and neither is willing to 
 discover the jiame of his present place of abiding. 
 Ad^le, in fact, committed herself to the statement that 
 these far countries “ have no names.” As nothing 
 more was ever published on the subject we may, 
 perhaps, assume that the missing men were not heard 
 of again. Must we also q.ssume that Adele’s power 
 
304 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 of communicating with the spirits of the living was 
 restricted to persons who had gone away to distant 
 climes to escape their relations? If Adele was really 
 able to communicate with the living at a distance, 
 it can hardly be doubted that Cahagnet in the course 
 of his many years’ experiments would have furnished 
 us with some further evidence of such a power. But 
 if these narratives are not what they seem to be, what 
 are we to say of the other narratives in the book, 
 which are cast in the same dramatic form, and contain 
 similar details harmonising with the expectations or 
 memories of the interlocutors? If those are not 
 authentic messages from the distant living, we require 
 some further warrant for the assumption that these 
 are authentic messages from the dead. Thought trans¬ 
 ference, so far as we can judge, seems a sufficient 
 explanation, and the only consistent explanation, of 
 these, the only cases of trance communication re¬ 
 sembling Mrs. Piper’s of which we have adequate 
 records before the present generation. 
 
 If we compare the early and later seances of Mrs. 
 Piper, we shall find that there has been a marked 
 change in their character. The dramatic develop¬ 
 ments of the later stances have been sufficiently indi¬ 
 cated in Chapters II. and IV. But when Mrs. Piper 
 first came to this country little opportunity was 
 afforded for the gradual development of a trance 
 personality. A large number of sitters were intro¬ 
 duced ; Phinuit would, as a rule, be the sole control, 
 and would pour out for the visitor’s benefit a miscel¬ 
 laneous budget of information about his friends and 
 relations, living or dead. In the case of the living, 
 Phinuit simply described what he saw, as in the two 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 305 
 
 typical stances quoted in Chapter 11 . There was, as 
 a rule, no pretence that the information came to him 
 from any other source. When, however, the informa¬ 
 tion related to the dead, it was frequently, but by no 
 means invariably, given as coming directly from them. 
 But neither the nature of the communications nor the 
 manner of delivery afforded, as a rule, any evidence 
 of the authenticity of the impersonation. In most of 
 these early cases, certainly, the circumstances suggest 
 that the impersonation of the dead was merely a conven¬ 
 tional dramatic device, inspired generally by the beliefs 
 or hopes of the sitter. The change in the character 
 of the recent sittings and the remarkable and lifelike 
 development of some of the trance personalities is, no 
 doubt, consistent with the hypothesis of spirit control. 
 But it would not be safe to build much upon such an 
 argument. At the earlier sittings the main object 
 aimed at was a rough survey of the field in order to 
 ascertain its value. As soon as definite proof of 
 supernormal powers of perception had been obtained, 
 those who had charge of the seances naturally turned 
 their attention to the more vital problems of the source 
 of those powers and the nature of the trance personali¬ 
 ties. They sought, in fact, to obtain evidence for the 
 identity of the supposed spirit communicators, and in this 
 region, above all others, demand tends to create supply. 
 
 The only test that we can apply to these earlier 
 sittings lies in the substance of the communications 
 themselves. The great bulk of the information given 
 was, of course, within the knowledge of the sitter, and, 
 apart from its dramatic form, there is no ground for 
 assuming any other source than telepathy from his 
 mind. But there are thirty-eight cases enumerated 
 
 20 
 
306 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 by Sir Oliver Lodge in the stances of 1889—90 of 
 information furnished by the trance intelligence which 
 was not within the conscious knowledge of the sitter 
 at the time.* 
 
 Of the 38 cases there are five—27, 37, 78, and two 
 incidents in Mr. J. T. Clarke’s sitting—in which the 
 sitter explains that the facts stated had at one time 
 been known to him. It must be assumed, therefore, 
 that Phinuit was simply reproducing latent knowledge 
 telepathically acquired. Of the remaining 33 cases, 
 12 only related to the concerns of the dead. 
 
 Of the twenty-one instances relating to the living, 
 some five or six may probably be accounted for by 
 latent knowledge. Four are concerned with experi¬ 
 ments in jwhich the trance intelligence more or less 
 correctly described the actions of persons at a distance. 
 In most of the remaining cases the reproduction pf 
 latent knowledge or mere guesswork on the part pf 
 the trance intelligence seem alike improbable, though, 
 no doubt, some allowance must be made for chance 
 coincidence. To take two of the most striking cases : 
 Mr. Deronco, a German gentleman then resident in 
 
 * The list given in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. pp. 649— 
 50, reckons 40 cases. For the present purpose two of 
 these have been excluded—sitting 40, the private affairs 
 of Edmund Gurney, because we know from Sir Oliver 
 Lodge’s later explanation that the matters communicated 
 had come out at a previous sitting, and were therefore 
 known to the trance intelligence {Proceedings S.P.R. 
 vol. xxiii. p. 141) ; and sitting 47, the cuts on the watch, 
 because it is not quite clear either that the cuts were 
 intentionally made or that, if made intentionally, they were 
 made as stated by the trance intelligence, since the owner 
 was probably blind before he owned the watch. The inci¬ 
 dent can, it seems to me, hardly be used as evidence in 
 this connection. 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 307 
 
 Cambridge and known to Mr. Myers, was informed 
 that his brother in Germany was painting a picture. 
 Asked if there were many figures, Phinuit said : “I 
 see one head ; it is side face.” From subsequent 
 inquiry it appeared that Mr. Deronco’s brother “ was 
 at that moment painting and that the picture was a 
 portrait of Manfred, a single figure in profile.” * In 
 another case the information is put into the mouth 
 of Sir Oliver Lodge’s deceased Aunt Anne, who said 
 that Charley, “ her Charley,” had eaten ‘‘ the bird, 
 the chicken, and made himself sick. He has had a 
 trouble with stomach . . . some kind of bird. . . . 
 IQuite sick.” A subsequent letter from Sir Oliver’s 
 cousin gave the news that Charley in Manitoba had 
 shot a prairie hen in the close season, “ so We 
 had to hide ih-j it was hung for about a fortnight, 
 and a few days before Christmas we ate it, Charley 
 eating most ; the bird didn’t make him ill, but he was 
 ill at the time” (pp. 518 , 520 ). 
 
 Of twelve instances directly connected with the dead, 
 several which relate to trivial circumstances may, 
 perhaps, be explained as due to the reproduction of 
 latent memories. There are two episodes, however, 
 one consisting of four evidential points (reckoned as 
 four cases in the above enumeration) in which the 
 agency of the dead is strongly suggested. The first 
 episode is that of Dr. Rich, who purported to take 
 control for a few minutes at a seance at which the 
 sitter, Mr. Thompson, had a very slight acquaintance 
 
 * Proceedings S.R.R., vol. vi. p. 628. The coincidence 
 is the more striking because it would not appear that Mr. 
 Deronco’s brother was a professional artist—Phinuit had 
 already described him in the same sitting as ‘‘ writing a 
 good deal,” and this information is stated to be correct. 
 
308 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 with him. He sent messages to his father, then Post¬ 
 master of Liverpool and known both to the sitter 
 and to Sir O, Lodge, who was also present, and 
 correctly stated—what was unknown to the sitters— 
 that Mr. Rich, senior, occasionally suffered from slight 
 dizziness. The whole episode seems to have been 
 entirely characteristic and lifelike. The other episode 
 is the appearance of Sir Oliver Lodge’s uncle Jerry, 
 who correctly described four incidents unknown to the 
 sitter : (i) A fight in which his (living) brother Frank 
 had fought with another boy ; ( 2 ) swimming the creek, 
 a feat in which the same brother Frank had shared ; 
 ( 3 ) the gift of a snake-skin to another living brother, 
 Robert ; ( 4 ) and playing in “ Smith’s field ” with the 
 same brother Robert. 
 
 Sir Oliver Lodge is confident that he had never 
 heard of these incidents from any of these uncles, so 
 that if his recollection on this point may be trusted, 
 the hypothesis of latent memory of the sitter must be 
 excluded. But it will be seen that all the incidents 
 related were, or had been, within living memories, and 
 that one or other of the living brothers was concerned 
 as a principal in all four instances. If “ Dr. Phinuit ” 
 could see what Mr. Deronco’s brother was doing in 
 Germany, it seems not impossible that he could also 
 see what Sir O. Lodge’s Uncle Frank was thinking 
 about in Cornwall. In the other case the sitter had 
 some knowledge both of Dr. Rich and his father. 
 
 Again, in the stances with G. P. several pieces of 
 information were given which were not known to the 
 sitter at the moment— e.g., the statement that the studs 
 had been taken from the dead body by the (step-) 
 mother, that his father had taken his photograph to 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 309 
 
 be copied, the message to Katherine Howard, and the 
 accurate account of Mrs. Howard’s doings on the 
 previous day. This last, it will be remembered, was 
 given in answer to a request to G. P. to see what 
 Mrs. Howard was doing at the moment, and the nature 
 of the information given clearly shows that it came from 
 Mrs. Howard’s mind. There is surely no justification 
 for the assumption that G. P. acted as intermediary 
 in tapping Mrs. Howard’s memories. 
 
 If we turn to the other automatists we shall find 
 many indications of the operation of simple telepathy 
 in the records now under consideration. The frequent 
 allusions in Mrs. Holland’s script to Mrs. Verrall’s 
 surroundings and occupations do not seem to call for 
 any other explanation.' Many of the cross-correspond¬ 
 ences discussed in Chapter V., as shown, point to tele¬ 
 pathy between the automatists. Mr. Wilson, who had 
 two successful sittings with Mrs. Thompson (cited in 
 Chapter HI.), formed the opinion that the correct 
 statements given were probably not derived from the 
 dead, but arose simply as reflections in Mrs. 
 Thompson’s mind of his own thoughts and interests 
 at the time of the sitting .2 
 
 Mrs. Benson, again, who had several sittings with 
 Mrs. Thompson, found nothing to suggest communica¬ 
 tion with the dead ; but many incidents which pointed 
 
 • Miss Johnson considers that the reading of the Selwyn 
 text {Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxi. pp. 235, 252—3) 
 
 suggests the agency of Myers, because it was a definite 
 piece of association between him and Mrs. Verrall. But 
 this very fact would tend to make it prominent in Mrs. 
 Verrall’s “ automatic ” mind, which, ex hypothesi, impressed 
 Mrs. Holland. 
 
 2 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xvii. p. 129. 
 
310 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 to reading of the mind of herself and her daughter, 
 who was not present at the sittings. Thus, on one 
 occasion Mrs. Thompson, on Mrs. Benson’s arrival at 
 the seance-room, mentioned that she [(Mrs. Benson) 
 had an engagement at 4 . 30 . The engagement had 
 been made at lunch immediately before. On another 
 occasion she correctly described Mrs. Benson’s daughter, 
 as looking at her money and thinking about a wedding 
 present.! 
 
 Mrs. Verrall relates nine instances with the same 
 automatist of facts being communicated which were un¬ 
 known to the sitter .2 Four of these cases clearly point 
 to telepathy from the living,. Thus, on two occasions 
 Mrs. Thompson gave to Mrs. Verrall particulars, un¬ 
 known to her, of presents which Miss Verrall, then 
 away from home, had received. On another occasion 
 Mrs. Thompson told Miss Verrall, in Mrs. Verrall’s 
 absence, that some one called Margaret (Mrs. Verrall’s 
 name) would give her a trinket to wear on her watch- 
 chain if she asked for it. Mrs. Verrall had actually 
 marked in a shop catalogue a pendant which she pro¬ 
 posed to give her daughterl as a Christmas present .3 
 In the fourth case some correct details were given 
 about a locket sent to Mrs. Verrall by her sister. In 
 none of these four cases, as Mrs. Verrall points out, 
 was there any reason to suppose “ that any dead 
 person knew the facts or was interested in them. Nor 
 did Nelly claim to have become possessed of the 
 information through any other means than her own.” 
 
 ' Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xviii. pp. 278—9. 
 
 2 A tenth instance is referred to but not described, as 
 being too private to quote. 
 
 3 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xvii. pp. 175—6. 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 311 
 
 iThe other five incidents related to the family of 
 Mr. A’., who, with his wife, had two sittings. The 
 information given concerned the habits of an old lady, 
 still living, and of Mrs. A.’s deceased mother. All 
 the facts stated, though not known to Mr. A., were 
 in .the knowledge of his sisters, with one exception. 
 This one exception was as follows : It was stated that 
 Mr. A.’s mother had kept a receipt-book, and that it 
 contained not only cookery receipts but a receipt for 
 pomatum ; the daughter knew of the book, but pot 
 of the receipt for pomatum. It was eventually found, 
 after some searching, in the middle of the book.* 
 Even here the hypothesis of latent memory on the 
 part of Mr, A.’s sister cannot be excluded. 
 
 The analysis of these cases where information un¬ 
 known to the sitter was given by the trance intelli¬ 
 gence scarcely adds strength to the hypothesis of spirit 
 communication. In every case the information given 
 was, or may have been, within the knowledge of some 
 living mind. In many cases all the circumstances point 
 to some form of telepathy between the distant agent 
 and the trance intelligence, mediated, as it would seem 
 in all cases, by the presence of a common acquaint¬ 
 ance in the person of the sitter. It is true that we 
 have little or no experimental evidence for telepathy, 
 of this complicated form, but neither have we experi¬ 
 mental ,evidence for the action of the spirits of the 
 dead. That a disembodied spirit should be able to 
 read the mind of a living person at a distance ican 
 only seem more probable because we know nothing 
 about disembodied spirits, and our fancy is free to 
 dower them with any powers we choose, whereas we do 
 
 ’ Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xvii. pp. 177—^83. 
 
312 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 know, or think we know, the limitations of our poor 
 human faculties. 
 
 The trance personalities, then, have never told us 
 anything which was not possibly, scarcely anything 
 which was not probably, within the knowledge of some 
 living person. None of the “ posthumous ” letters have 
 yet been read. Twice only have the messages re¬ 
 ceived through the automatists been held to justify 
 the opening of a posthumous letter, and in each case 
 the automatist’s version has proved wholly wide of 
 the mark.I Nor has the Hodgson control yet revealed 
 the secret of his cipher. 
 
 These facts do not, of course, constitute an insuper¬ 
 able objection to the hypothesis of spirit communica¬ 
 tion. The hypothetical conditions of communication 
 between the other world and this by means of a kind 
 of partial reincarnation may, as suggested by Hodgson 
 long ago, be such as to confuse and impair the intel¬ 
 ligence of the spirit wishing to communicate ; or, if 
 we discard even this modified form of the possession 
 theory, our terrestrial experience is sufficient to show 
 that telepathy is a very uncertain means of communica¬ 
 tion. Evidence derived from dramatic verisimilitude 
 should, no doubt, be largely discounted, since the 
 dream-self is unquestionably a first-rate actor ; but, 
 when all allowances are made, it is difficult not to 
 feel impressed by some of the utterances of the 
 Hodgson control, especially the “ Buying Billy ” inci¬ 
 dent, the little drama of shaking the fist at Mrs. James, 
 and the Putnam-Bowditch episode. The Hodgson 
 
 * One of these cases has already been cited in 
 Chapter III. The other case, which occurred some years 
 ago, is described in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 657, 
 and vol. viii. p. 69, seq. 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 313 
 
 cipher message to Mrs. Holland also carries some 
 weight. In the case of the Myers control the reminis¬ 
 cences of the “ yEneid ” and the “ Lethe ” incident ' 
 seem to me most significant. There is, too, the curious 
 fact that Mrs. Piper has occasionally recognised photo¬ 
 graphs of the supposed control. She selected a photo¬ 
 graph of G. P. out of several others, and on a later 
 occasion, after a series of communications purporting 
 to come from one Joseph Marble, in the waking stage 
 of the trance she picked out his photograph from 
 among several others, with the exclamation “ That is 
 the man I saw I ” 2 
 
 Now, Mrs. Piper had only once seen G. P., at a 
 single sitting held four years before his death, and 
 then did not know his name ; and Mr. Marble she 
 had never seen at all. Of course, again, the incident 
 is explicable on the assumption that the sitters con¬ 
 ceived the visual image of the deceased with suffi¬ 
 cient vividness to impress it on Mrs. Piper’s mindly 
 and for telepathy in this form we have some direct 
 experimental proof. 
 
 Another line of argument which has much im¬ 
 pressed me personally, and which seems calculated to 
 help forward the solution of the problem, is that out¬ 
 lined by Hodgson in his report of 1898.3 The argu¬ 
 ment may be roughly summarised as follows : If all 
 the successful messages are the result of telepathy, 
 between the sitter and the medium, we should expect 
 to find that the hits group themselves round particular 
 sitters. As a matter of fact, speaking from an inti- 
 
 ‘ See Chapter VI. 
 
 2 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xxiii. p. 278. 
 
 3 Ibid., vol. xiii. ; see especially pp. 391—395. 
 
314 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 mate and unrivalled knowledge of all the communica¬ 
 tions recorded up to that date, Hodgson claimed that 
 the true messages tended to group themselves, not 
 round particular sitters, but round particular com¬ 
 municators and classes of communicators. He found 
 that persons who had committed suicide, or who had 
 died after suffering from prolonged bodily weakness 
 or extreme mental disturbance, showed themselves weak 
 and confused communicators. On the other hand, he 
 found that the best communicators were some young 
 children recently deceased, and two or three adults, 
 notably G. P., who died by an accident in the prime 
 of a healthy and vigorous life. Hodgson puts forward 
 this theory tentatively, and indicates it as a promising 
 line for further investigation. Some recent observa¬ 
 tions certainly tend to confirm his view. Of the com¬ 
 municators of the last few years none has produced 
 so vivid an impression of a living personality behind 
 the veil as Richard Hodgson himself. Next to him 
 comes F. W. H. Myers, but in this case the impression 
 is produced less by. his personal than by his intellectual 
 qualities. 
 
 The facts here are undoubted. But, perhaps, we 
 should expect such a result on any theory. Richard 
 Hodgson in his lifetime was a strongly coloured, many- 
 sided personality, with a lot of loose energy to spend 
 in various by-products, and a genius for friendship. 
 Such a man was calculated to impress a vivid image 
 of himself and all his sayings and doings, likes and 
 dislikes, upon the memory, of his friends, and if tele¬ 
 pathy requires, as it appears to do, a certain degree 
 of emotional temperature, that very fact should make 
 them good sitters. Successes would still group them- 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 315 
 
 selves round the man who had an abundant life, just 
 because his life had abounded. George Pelham would 
 seem to have been a man of much the same make as 
 Hodgson—a man of many keen interests and warm 
 friendships. Myers, even more than the personal 
 regard which he inspired, left a deep intellectual im¬ 
 press on all who came in contact with him. For 
 similar reasons suicides and persons who died gfter 
 lingering illness or mental disturbance would be un¬ 
 likely to leave vivid and productive memories behind 
 them. 
 
 The most promising line of inquiry, however, at 
 the present time would seem to consist in the possible 
 indications of a directing and organising intelligence 
 to be found by careful comparison of the scripts of 
 several automatists. I have dealt with the argument, 
 so far as the present state of the evidence and jny 
 own understanding of it would permit, in the chapter 
 on cross-correspondences, and in the discussion, at the 
 beginning of the present chapter, on the interpretation 
 to be put on the allusion apparently contained in Mrs. 
 Verrall’s script to Mr. Piddington’s posthumous letter. 
 The evidence so far presented will not, it seems, admit 
 of a positive conclusion. But even whilst the investi¬ 
 gation is still incomplete it is clear that the results 
 so far attained are worth all the labour that has been 
 spent upon them. If a final verdict must be deferred 
 until further investigation shall have enlightened our 
 ignorance, and shall enable us to give a decisive 
 answer to the question whether these dark sayings pro¬ 
 ceed from the dead or the living, we need not wait to 
 recognise that even now there are other, if perhaps 
 less momentous, issues involved which concern our 
 immediate interests. In the history of mankind there 
 
316 
 
 THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 
 
 have been many crusades which, missing what seemed 
 the highest good, have yet won something worth the 
 pains, not for those who took part in them, but for 
 the later generations which have entered into the fruit 
 of their labours. Out of the long and tedious search, 
 renewed generation after generation, for the philo¬ 
 sopher’s stone and the elixir of life, has come the 
 wonder-working science of modern chemistry. The 
 seekers in the present case may have been fooled by 
 visionary gold, but at least they have been digging 
 a very fruitful vineyard. These enigmatic utterances 
 have been recorded with all the precision demanded in 
 a scientific inquiry. The conditions and circumstances 
 are set down with scrupulous candour and care. The 
 exhaustive editorial comment places the reader in as 
 favourable a position to estimate their significance as 
 the experimenters themselves. No person who care¬ 
 fully studies the records would think it possible to 
 attribute all these numerous and well-attested coinci¬ 
 dences to fraudulent design or the mere chance 
 association of ideas. If we reject, for the present, 
 at any rate, the explanation suggested by many of 
 the utterances themselves, that of communication from 
 the dead, we must seek for some other cause adequate 
 to the effects. There remains only the agency which 
 has been provisionally named telepathy, but which no 
 one has yet ventured to define in other than negative 
 terms, as communication apart from the recognised 
 sensory channels. The establishment of such a faculty, 
 if only as the vestige of a primitive mode of sensi¬ 
 bility, now superseded by articulate speech, would 
 surely be a result worth all the labour spent in the 
 vineyard : a fruitage which would go far to compen¬ 
 sate for the loss of that, perhaps visionary, gold. 
 
NOTE 
 
 The Introductory chapter is based on an article which 
 was published in the Independent Review in May, 1904 ; 
 and part of the chapter on Cross-Correspondences has 
 already appeared in the Fortnightly Review of September, 
 1909. I have to acknowledge the courtesy which permits 
 republication. 
 
 F. P. 
 
 317 
 
INDEX 
 
 Accordion-playing by Home, 
 36-7, 49, 51 
 
 Adare, Lord, 35, 65 f, 75, 80, 86 
 “ Agamemnon,” 260, 266 
 American investigation of Eusapia, 
 
 143-4 
 
 “ Angel ” cross - correspondence, 
 238-9 
 
 Animal magnetism, 8, 146-7, 153 
 Apparitions at death, 25-8 
 “Automatism, Human,” 19 
 
 Baggally, Mr. W., ii4f. 
 
 Balance, Sir W. Crookes’s experi¬ 
 ments with, 51-4 
 Balfour, Rt. Hon. Gerald, 259 
 Barrett, Professor W. F., 25, 199 
 Bell, Robert, account of levitation, 
 62-4 
 
 Benson, Mrs., 203, 309-10 
 Boldero, General, account of 
 elongation, 73-4 
 Bottazzi, Professor, loi, 132 
 Bourne, Ansel, 16 
 Bramwell, Dr. J. M., 20 
 Brougham, Lord, 34 
 “ Browning, Hope, and Star” cross¬ 
 correspondence, 246, 250-3, 293 
 Browning, Robert, on Home, 
 
 44-S 
 
 Buckley, Major, his experiments in 
 clairvoyance, 29 
 
 Cahagnet, Alphonse, 302-4 
 Carrington, Mr. Hereward, 114! 
 Charcot, 12 
 Clairvoyance, 29, 150 f 
 Clarke, Mr. J. T., his sitting with 
 Mrs. Piper, 306 
 
 Consciousness, Subliminal, 10 f, 
 146 f 
 
 Crawford, Earl of. See “ Lindsay ” 
 Crookes, Sir W., 33, 35, 142 
 
 Crookes, Sir W., his account of 
 fire-test, 78-80 
 
 Crookes, Sir W., his investigation 
 of D. D. Home, 46 f 
 Crystal vision, 9-12 
 Curie, M. and Mme., 102, 108-9 
 
 Dante, allusions in automatic 
 script, 268 f 
 Davey, S. J., 88, 124 
 Davis, Mr. W. S., 144 
 “ Death ” cross - correspondence, 
 239-40, 242-3 
 Dialectical Society, 65, 66 
 Didier, Alexis, 153 f 
 Dorr, Mr. G. B., 217, 219, 255!, 
 268-91 
 
 Dunraven, Earl of, 43. See also 
 “ Adare, Lord ” 
 
 “ Dwarf ” cross - correspondence, 
 
 243-4 
 
 Eeden, Dr. Van, his seances with 
 Mrs. Thompson, 195-8, 225-6 
 Eglinton, W., spirit medium, 124 
 Elliotson, Dr., 153 
 Eusapia Palladino, 10, 30, 31, 85, 
 87 f, 205-6 
 
 Experiments in thought-transfer¬ 
 ence, 22-4, 275-6 
 
 Feilding, Hon. E., 81, ii4f, 205 
 Felida, X., 15, 16 
 Flammarion, Camille, 99 
 Flournoy, Professor, 280-2 
 Forbes, Mrs., 202, 227, 229, 231-2 
 Fraud in automatic state, 145-163 
 Frith, Mrs., 270 
 
 Gale, Mr. Harlow, his sitting with 
 Mrs. Piper, 168-171 
 Gibert, Dr., 23 
 
 Gordon, an American medium, 
 
 35. 59. 85 
 
 318 
 
INDEX 
 
 319 
 
 Gurney, Edmund, 25, 88, 199-202, 
 215, 228, 283 
 
 Hall, Mrs. S. C., description of, 
 fire-test, 76-7 
 
 Hallucination, collective, 81-6, 
 112, ii9f 
 Herlitzka, Dr., 100 
 Hodgson, Richard, 88,95-6,123-4, 
 
 157, 164, I7if, 199, 211-24, 238, 
 29S> 298, 313 f 
 
 Holland, Mrs., 202, 205-6, 211-4, 
 227-30, 234 f, 270-1 
 Home, D. D., 31-86, 87 
 Home, D. D., his spirit messages, 
 
 42-3 
 
 Home, D. D., evidence of impos¬ 
 ture of, 45-6 
 Home, Mrs. D. D., 66 
 Home, Mrs. R., 27 
 " Horace Ode” test, 210-11 
 Houdin, Robert, and Didier, 154 
 Huggins, Sir W., 48, 52 
 Hume, D. D. See “ Home ” 
 Huxley, Thomas, 19 
 Hyslop, Professor, 160, 218, 288-9 
 290, 291-3 
 
 Hystero-epilepsy, 12-16 
 
 Imperator, 284, 286, 295 
 Information unknown to sitter 
 given through medium, 305- ii 
 Institut Psychologique of Paris, 
 investigation of Eusapia by, 102 f 
 
 James, Professor William, 15, 20, 
 164, 200, 217, 218, 220-2, 295-6 
 Janet, Pierre, 13, 23, 25 
 Jastrow, Professor, 83 n 
 Jencken, H. D., 35, 72, 74 
 Johnson, Miss Alice, 66 n, 72 n, 
 
 158, 205, 228, 237, 250, 255, 299, 
 301 
 
 Jones, John, account of levitation, 
 
 56 
 
 Latin message, the, 246 f 
 Leaf, Dr. Walter, 165 
 
 “ Lethe ” test question, 255-67 
 “ Light in West ” cross-corres¬ 
 pondence, 240-1, 293 
 Lindsay, Master of, 35, 65 f, 74-5, 
 80, 86 
 
 Lodge, Sir Oliver, 24, 25, 30 n, 93, 
 96, 97-8, 165, 17211, 201, 205, 
 
 214, 284, 295, 306 f 
 Lombroso, Professor, 89, 99, iii 
 Lucie, a patient of, P. Janet’s, 13 
 
 Maxwell, Dr., iii, 205 
 Mech, M. de, detects Eusapia 
 cheating, 104-5 
 
 Merrifield, Mr., on D. D. Home, 
 
 45-6 
 
 Mesmerism. See “ Animal Magnet¬ 
 ism ” 
 
 Miles, Miss, and Miss Ramsden, 
 their experiments in thought- 
 transference, 23-4 
 Morselli, Professor, 99 
 Moses, Stainton, 85, 148-50, 156, 
 163, 284 
 
 Miinsterberg, Professor, 143 
 Myers, F. W. H., 7-30, 88, 93, 96, 
 97-8, 151, 165, 189, 199, 204-11, 
 
 215, 228, 255-67 
 
 “Nelly,” Mrs. Thompson’s con¬ 
 trol, 185, 192, 225-6, 278, 285-6 
 Newbold, Professor, 287-8, 294 
 “ Nigger talk ” incident, 218 
 
 Palladino, Eusapia. See “ Eusapia 
 Palladino ” 
 
 Pelham, George, 172 f, 278, 294, 
 
 3H-S 
 
 Perdicaris, Mr. Ion, his testimony 
 to Home, 33 
 
 Phinuit, 164, 171-2,200,277,282-5, 
 287, 289, 295, 304 
 Photographs recognised by Mrs. 
 Piper, 313 
 
 Physical phenomena associated 
 with trance condition, 31-2,147, 
 
 156-7 
 
 Physical phenomena of Mrs. 
 Thompson, 184-9 
 
320 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Piddington, Mr. J. G., 159, 190 f, 
 203, 21 in, 214, 226-7, 244-5, 
 25o-3> 255, 259, 261, 297, 299 n 
 Piddington, Mr. J. G., his “ post¬ 
 humous ” letter, 272 f, 300 
 Piper, Mrs., 10, 30, 31, 42, 157, 
 160-1, 164-83, 233, 237 f 
 Piper, Mrs., her early history, 164, 
 277 
 
 Poltergeists and hallucinations, 
 
 84-5 
 
 Possession theory of spirit inter¬ 
 course now given up, 298 f 
 Posthumous letters, 207, 272 f, 300, 
 301 
 
 Post-hypnotic promise, 15 
 Prevorst, Seeress of, 147 
 Prince, Dr. Morton, 15 
 Psychical Research, Society for, 
 88, 98, 114, 164, 184 
 
 Rector, 289, 292-3, 294. See also 
 “ Imperator ” 
 
 Remiremont, miraculous hailstorm 
 at, 84 
 
 Ribot, T., II 
 
 Richet, Professor C., 25, 89 f, 96 
 Richet, Professor C., his experi¬ 
 ments in telepathy, 274-6 
 Ring-incident, with Hodgson 
 control, 215-7, 290 
 “ Roma Immortalis ” cross-corres¬ 
 pondence, 234-6, 242 
 Ryan, Mr., 128 f 
 
 Sanders, Rev. C. B. See X+Y=Z 
 Schiaparelli, Professor, 89, 90-2 
 “ Sevens ” cross-correspondence, 
 268-74 
 
 Shaler, Professor, 287 
 Sidgwick, Mr. Arthur, 209 
 Sidgwick, Mrs. Henry, 22, 25, 88, 
 93, 171, 207 f, 255 
 Sidgwick, Professor H., 22, 88, 93, 
 199, 202-4, 207 f, 228 
 
 Simpson, Mr. Hawkins, 75 
 Smith, Helene, subject of Professor 
 Flournoy, 280-2 
 
 “ Steeple ” cross-correspondence, 
 244 
 
 Substitution of hands, 94 f 
 Swedenborg, 7, 8, 146 
 
 Telepathy as explanation of 
 trance-communications, 305 f 
 Thompson, Mrs., 157 f, 184-98, 
 202-4, 225-6, 278 
 Thompson, Mrs., her physical 
 phenomena, 184-9 
 Thompson, Mrs., supernormal 
 perception in normal state, 
 189-91 
 
 Thompson, Mr. Isaac, 201 
 Thought - transference, experi¬ 
 mental, 22-24, 274-6 
 Trance-personalities. See “ Im¬ 
 perator,” “ Nelly,” “ Pelham,” 
 “ Phinuit,” “ Rector,” “ Myers,” 
 etc. 
 
 Trollope, T. A., 35,43 
 
 Venzano, Dr., 99, iii 
 Verrall, Mrs., 157 n, 158, 198, 202, 
 204, 206-7, 227 f 
 Verrall, Dr., 233, 235 
 Verrall, Miss Helen, 233, 250, 
 269-70 
 
 “ Violets,” cross-correspondence, 
 238 
 
 Voisin, Jules, 12 
 
 Wilkinson, W. M., account of a 
 Seance with Home, 36-39, 41, 
 64 
 
 Witchcraft, 7 
 Wynne, Captain, 65, 67 f 
 
 X4-Y=Z 151^3 
 
 Yourievitch, 108, no 
 
 Zollner, Professor, 142 
 
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