INTUITIVE EVIDENCEOF THEEXISTENCE OF SPIRITS.
122.Thefirst fruit of my attention to the phenomena of table turning, was the following letter. I trust I shall not be considered as self-complacent, when I allege it to be an exemplification ofwise ignorance, which is about equivalent to folly. The wisest man who speaks in ignorance, speaks foolishly to the ears of those who perceive his ignorance. The great mass of men of science appear in this light to spiritualists when they argue against Spiritualism. Men who are onlynominallyKnow Nothings have proved a formidable party in politics; unfortunately, Spiritualism has, in its most active opponents,realKnow Nothings, who will not admit any fact of a spiritual origin, unless such as they have been educated to believe. In that case, many have powers of intellectual deglutition rivalling those of the anaconda in the physical way.[5]
Letter in reply to an Inquiry respecting the influence of Electricity in Table Turning.Philadelphia, July 27, 1853.123. “Dear Sir: I am of opinion that it is utterly impossible for six or eight, or any number of persons, seated around a table, to produce an electric current. Moreover, I am confident that if by any adequate means an electrical current were created, however forcible, it could not be productive of table turning. A dry wooden table is almost a non-conductor, but if forming a link necessary to complete a circuit between the sky and earth, it might possibly be shattered by a stroke of lightning; but if the power of all the galvanic apparatus ever made was to be collected in one current, there would be no power tomoveor otherwise affect such a table.124. “Frictional electricity, such as produced by electric machines, must first be accumulated and then discharged, in order to produce any striking effect. It is intransituthat its power is seen and felt.125. “Insulated conductors, whether inanimate, or in the form of animals, may be electrified by the most powerful means, without being injured or seriously incommoded. Before a spark of lightning passes, every object on the terrestrial surface, for a great distance around, is subjected to a portion of the requisite previous accumulation. Yet it is only those objects which are made the medium of discharge that are sensibly affected.126. “Powerful galvanic accumulation can only be produced by those appropriate arrangements which concentrate upon a comparatively small filament of particles their peculiar polarizing power; but nothing seems to me more inconsistent with experience than to suppose a table moved by any possible form or mode of galvanic reaction. It was ascertained by Gaziot that one of the most powerful galvanic batteries ever made could not give a sparkbeforecontact to a conductor presented to it, at the smallest distance which could be made by a delicate micrometer. If there is any law which is pre-eminent for its invariability, it is, thatinanimatematter cannot,per se, change its state as respects motion or rest. Were this law liable to any variation, we should be proportionably liable to perish; since in that case the revolutions and rotations of our planet and its satellite might undergo perturbations by which the ocean might inundate the land, or the too great proximity or remoteness of the sun cause us to be scorched or frozen. If the globe did not carry the Pacific more steadily than the most competent person could carry a basin of water, we should be drowned by the overflow of the land. I recommend to your attention, and that of others interested in this hallucination, Faraday’s observations and experiments, recently published in some of our respectable newspapers. I entirely concur in the conclusions of that distinguished experimental expounder of Nature’s riddles.Robert Hare.”
Philadelphia, July 27, 1853.
123. “Dear Sir: I am of opinion that it is utterly impossible for six or eight, or any number of persons, seated around a table, to produce an electric current. Moreover, I am confident that if by any adequate means an electrical current were created, however forcible, it could not be productive of table turning. A dry wooden table is almost a non-conductor, but if forming a link necessary to complete a circuit between the sky and earth, it might possibly be shattered by a stroke of lightning; but if the power of all the galvanic apparatus ever made was to be collected in one current, there would be no power tomoveor otherwise affect such a table.
124. “Frictional electricity, such as produced by electric machines, must first be accumulated and then discharged, in order to produce any striking effect. It is intransituthat its power is seen and felt.
125. “Insulated conductors, whether inanimate, or in the form of animals, may be electrified by the most powerful means, without being injured or seriously incommoded. Before a spark of lightning passes, every object on the terrestrial surface, for a great distance around, is subjected to a portion of the requisite previous accumulation. Yet it is only those objects which are made the medium of discharge that are sensibly affected.
126. “Powerful galvanic accumulation can only be produced by those appropriate arrangements which concentrate upon a comparatively small filament of particles their peculiar polarizing power; but nothing seems to me more inconsistent with experience than to suppose a table moved by any possible form or mode of galvanic reaction. It was ascertained by Gaziot that one of the most powerful galvanic batteries ever made could not give a sparkbeforecontact to a conductor presented to it, at the smallest distance which could be made by a delicate micrometer. If there is any law which is pre-eminent for its invariability, it is, thatinanimatematter cannot,per se, change its state as respects motion or rest. Were this law liable to any variation, we should be proportionably liable to perish; since in that case the revolutions and rotations of our planet and its satellite might undergo perturbations by which the ocean might inundate the land, or the too great proximity or remoteness of the sun cause us to be scorched or frozen. If the globe did not carry the Pacific more steadily than the most competent person could carry a basin of water, we should be drowned by the overflow of the land. I recommend to your attention, and that of others interested in this hallucination, Faraday’s observations and experiments, recently published in some of our respectable newspapers. I entirely concur in the conclusions of that distinguished experimental expounder of Nature’s riddles.
Robert Hare.”
127. This publication drew forth the following remonstrance in the subjoined letter, which does great credit to the correctness of the author’s observation and sagacity. It contributed, together with a personal invitation from Dr. Comstock to attend a circle, to induce the investigation upon which I entered immediately afterward.
Southwick, Mass., Nov. 17, 1853.128. “Dear Sir: I had the pleasure of a slight acquaintance with you, something less than twenty years ago, when I exhibited telescopes in Philadelphia. You will, I trust, excuse the liberty I take in writing to you now. I have seen your letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer upon table moving. I never believed it was caused by electricity or galvanism, but is it not as likely to be these, as muscular force? You agree with Professor Faraday that the table is moved by the hands that are on it. Now I know, as certainly as I can know any thing, that this is not true in general, if it is in any instance. There is as much evidence that tables sometimes move without any person near them, as that they sometimes move with hands on them. I cannot in this case doubt the evidence of my senses. I have seen tables move, and heard tunes beat on them, when no person was within several feet of them. This fact is proof positive that the force or power is not muscular.129. “If any further evidence was necessary to set aside Professor Faraday’s explanation, it is found in abundance in the great variety of other facts taking place through the country, such as musical instruments being played upon without any hands touching them, and a great variety of other heavy articles being moved without any visible cause. If tables never moved except when hands were on them, the case would be different; but as they do move, both with and without hands, it is plain that the true cause remains yet to be discovered.130. “I wish, sir, that you had leisure and opportunity to witness some other phases of this matter, which seem not yet to have fallen under your notice, and I think you would be satisfied that there is less ‘hallucination’ and ‘self-deception’ about it, than you have imagined. The intelligence connected with these movements has not been accounted for.131. “If these things can be accounted for on scientific principles, would it not be a great acquisition to science, to discover what those principles are? If, however, science cannot discover them, the public are deeply interested in knowing the fact. It is certainly of great importance that these strange things that are taking place everywhere should be explained. It is affecting the churches seriously; whether for good or for evil is uncertain until the truth is known. No cause has yet been assigned that does not imply a greater absurdity than even to believe, as many do, that it is caused by spirits either good or bad, or both.132. “I have examined this matter for the last three years with as much carefulness as possible, and am not satisfied. If the force is not muscular, as it is certain that it is not, I wish science to try again.“Yours, respectfully,Amasa Holcombe.”
Southwick, Mass., Nov. 17, 1853.
128. “Dear Sir: I had the pleasure of a slight acquaintance with you, something less than twenty years ago, when I exhibited telescopes in Philadelphia. You will, I trust, excuse the liberty I take in writing to you now. I have seen your letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer upon table moving. I never believed it was caused by electricity or galvanism, but is it not as likely to be these, as muscular force? You agree with Professor Faraday that the table is moved by the hands that are on it. Now I know, as certainly as I can know any thing, that this is not true in general, if it is in any instance. There is as much evidence that tables sometimes move without any person near them, as that they sometimes move with hands on them. I cannot in this case doubt the evidence of my senses. I have seen tables move, and heard tunes beat on them, when no person was within several feet of them. This fact is proof positive that the force or power is not muscular.
129. “If any further evidence was necessary to set aside Professor Faraday’s explanation, it is found in abundance in the great variety of other facts taking place through the country, such as musical instruments being played upon without any hands touching them, and a great variety of other heavy articles being moved without any visible cause. If tables never moved except when hands were on them, the case would be different; but as they do move, both with and without hands, it is plain that the true cause remains yet to be discovered.
130. “I wish, sir, that you had leisure and opportunity to witness some other phases of this matter, which seem not yet to have fallen under your notice, and I think you would be satisfied that there is less ‘hallucination’ and ‘self-deception’ about it, than you have imagined. The intelligence connected with these movements has not been accounted for.
131. “If these things can be accounted for on scientific principles, would it not be a great acquisition to science, to discover what those principles are? If, however, science cannot discover them, the public are deeply interested in knowing the fact. It is certainly of great importance that these strange things that are taking place everywhere should be explained. It is affecting the churches seriously; whether for good or for evil is uncertain until the truth is known. No cause has yet been assigned that does not imply a greater absurdity than even to believe, as many do, that it is caused by spirits either good or bad, or both.
132. “I have examined this matter for the last three years with as much carefulness as possible, and am not satisfied. If the force is not muscular, as it is certain that it is not, I wish science to try again.
“Yours, respectfully,Amasa Holcombe.”
133. It will be perceived that the letter alluded to by Mr. Holcombe, written in reply to some inquiries respecting my opinion of the cause of table turning, was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, in July, 1853. This letter will show that I was at that time utterly incredulous of any cause of the phenomena excepting unconscious muscular action on the part of the persons with whom the phenomena were associated. The inferences of Faraday, tending to the same conclusion, I thoroughly sanctioned.
134. As no allusion to spirits as the cause had been made by this Herculean investigator in the letter which drew forth mine, they were notcontemplated in my view of the subject. Had I ever heard spiritual agency assigned as a cause, so great was my disbelief of any such agency, that it would have made no impression on my memory.
135. Though present on several occasions when table turning was the subject of discussion, it was not, within my hearing, attributed to spiritual agency. In common with almost all educated persons of the nineteenth century, I had been brought up deaf to any testimony which claimed assistance from supernatural causes, such as ghosts, magic, or witchcraft.
136. Subsequently to my publication corroborating the inferences of Faraday, having, in obedience to solicitations already cited, consented to visit circles in which spiritual manifestations were alleged to be made, I was conducted to a private house at which meetings for spiritual inquiry were occasionally held.
137. Seated at a table with half a dozen persons, a hymn was sung with religious zeal and solemnity. Soon afterward tappings were distinctly heard as if made beneath and against the table, which, from the perfect stillness of every one of the party, could not be attributed to any one among them. Apparently, the sounds were such as could only be made with some hard instrument, or with the ends of fingers aided by the nails.
138. I learned that simple queries were answered by means of these manifestations; one tap being considered as equivalent to a negative; two, to doubtful; and three, to an affirmative. With the greatestapparent sincerity, questions were put and answers taken and recorded, as if all concerned considered them as coming from a rational though invisible agent.
139. Subsequently, two media sat down at a small table, (drawer removed,) which, upon careful examination, I found to present to my inspection nothing but the surface of a bare board, on the under side as well as upon the upper. Yet the taps were heard as before, seemingly against the table. Even assuming the people by whom I was surrounded, to be capable of deception, and the feat to be due to jugglery, it was still inexplicable. But manifestly I was in a company of worthy people, who were themselves under a deception if these sounds did not proceed from spiritual agency.
140. On a subsequent occasion, at the same house, I heard similar tapping on a partition between two parlours. I opened the door between the parlours, and passed to that adjoining the one in which I had been sitting. Nothing could be seen which could account for the sounds.
141. The medium to whose presence these manifestations were due, then held a flute against the panel of the door, and invited me to listen. On putting my ear near to the flute, tapping was quite audible. On the ensuing evening, I carried with me a sealed glass tube, a hollow tube of the same material, and a brass rod. These being successively held againstthe door panel, similarly to the holding of the flute, the rapping was again heard.[6]
142. I have much reason to confide in the disinterestedness of the medium through whose assistance these facts were observed. She would not allow me even to make a present to her child; and her sitting for me was deemed prejudicial to her comfort and health, so that by the advice of her physician it was finally discontinued. Her parents believed the manifestations obtained through her influence to be caused by spirits.
143. Sitting at another mansion, in company with an able lawyer, (an unbeliever in Spiritualism,) as well as an accomplished female medium and two other persons, sounds were heard like those above mentioned. The lawyer alluded to, though from his profession accustomed to distrust and to scrutinize evidence, admitted that he found it utterly impossible to account for these sounds by any visible agency.
144. In order to make my narrative of the evidence upon the subject of rapping continuous, I would state that during the evening of my first visit to the circle of spiritualists, as above mentioned, while grasping with my utmost energy a table at which I was seated, two female media, by merely placing their hands upon the surface of the table on the opposite side, caused it to move to and fro, in despite of my utmost exertions.
145. Visiting another circle under the influence of another medium, I found thattiltinga table was substituted for the sounds as a means of manifestation. As one rap signifies no, two, doubtful, and three, affirmative, so is it with the motions, or tippings, as they are usually called.
146. Passing the fingers over the letters upon an alphabetic pasteboard, like those to assist children in learning their letters, when it comes over the required letter, its selection is indicated either by a tapping or tilting. By this process, when the medium’s eyes were directed to the ceiling, as independently observed by the legal friend above mentioned, as well as myself, the following communication was given:
147. “Light is dawning on the mind of your friend; soon he will speak trumpet-tongued to the scientific world, and add a new link to that chain of evidence on which our hope of man’s salvation is founded.”
148. The lawyer declared that he was utterly unable to conceive how, by the human means apparently employed, such sentences could be elaborated. Legerdemain on the part of the person who took down the manifestation was the only way to get rid of this evidence without resorting to the agency of some invisible intelligent being, who, by operating upon the tables, at once exercised physical force and mental power.
149. But assigning the result to legerdemain was altogether opposed to my knowledge of his character. This gentleman, and the circle to which he belonged, spent about three hours, twice or thrice a week, in getting communications through the alphabet, by the process to which the lines above mentioned were due. This would not have taken place, hadtheynot had implicit confidence, that the information thus obtained proceeded from spirits.
150. Subsequently, I contrived an apparatus which, if spirits were actually concerned in the phenomena, would enable them to manifest their physical and intellectual power independently of control by any medium. (See Engraving and description,Plate I.)
151. Upon a pasteboard disk, more than a foot in diameter, the letters cut out from an alphabet card were nailed around the circumference, as much as possible deranged from the usual alphabetic order. About the centre a small pulley was secured of two and a half inches diameter, fitting on an axletree, which passed through the legs of the table, about six inches from the top. Two weights were provided—one of about eight pounds, the other about two pounds. These were attached one to each end of a cord wound about the pulley, and placed upon the floor immediately under it. Upon the table a screen of sheet zinc was fastened, behind which the medium was to be seated, so that she could not see the letters on the disk. A stationary vertical wire, attached to the axle, served for an index.
152. On tilting the table, the cord would be unwound from the pulley on the side of the larger weight, being wound up simultaneously to an equivalent extent on the side of the small weight, causing the pulley and disk to rotate about the axle. Restoring the table to its normal position, the smaller weight being allowed to act unresisted upon the cord and pulley, the rotation would be reversed. Of course, any person actuating the table and seeing the letters, could cause the disk so to rotate as to bring any letter under the index; but shouldthe letters be concealed from the operator, no letter required could be brought under the index at will.
153. Hence it was so contrived that neither the medium seated at the table behind the screen, nor any other person so seated, could, by tilting the table, bring any letter of the alphabet under the index, nor spell out any word requested.
154. These arrangements being made, an accomplished lady, capable of serving in the required capacity, was so kind as to assist me by taking her seat behind the screen, while I took my seat in front of the disk.
155. I then said, “If there be any spirit present, please to indicate the affirmative by causing the letter Y to come under the index.” Forthwith this letter was brought under the index.
156. “Will the spirit do us the favour to give the initials of his name?” The letters R H were successively brought under the index. “My honoured father?” said I. The letter Y was again brought under the index.
157. “Will my father do me the favour to bring the letters under the index successively in alphabetical order?” Immediately the disk began to revolve so as to produce the desired result. After it had proceeded as far as the middle of the alphabet, I requested that “the name of Washington should be spelt out by the same process.” This feat was accordingly performed, as well as others of a like nature.
158. The company consisted of but few persons besides the medium, who now urged that I could no longer refuse to come over to their belief. Under these circumstances the following communication was made by the revolving of the disk: “Oh, my son, listen to reason!”
159. I urged that the experiment was of immense importance, if considered as proving a spirit to be present, and to have actuated the apparatus; affording thus precise experimental proof of the immortality of the soul: that a matter of such moment should not be considered as conclusively decided until every possible additional means of verification should be employed.
160. This led my companions to accuse me of extreme incredulity. The medium said she “should not deem it worth while to sit for me again,” and one of the gentlemen sat himself down by the fireside, declaring me “to be insusceptible of conviction, and that he would now give me up.”
161. Nevertheless, the medium, relenting, gave me another sitting at her own dwelling a few days afterward; when I had improved the apparatus by employing two stationary weights by which the cord actuating the pulley, as in the drill-bow process, was made to pull it round by a horizontal motion of the table supported on castors, instead of the tilting motion.
162. The results confirmed those previously received, my father reporting himself again. He said that my mother and sister were with him, but not my brother. I inquired “if they were happy.” The disk revolved so as to bring the letter Y under the index, signifying the affirmation.
163. On the following week, I took my apparatus to the house of a spiritualist, where a circle was to meet. The apparatus being duly arranged, a lady whom I had never before noticed, and by whom my apparatus was seen for the first time, sat down at my table behind the screen. The spirit of an uncle who had left this life was invoked by this medium. Her invocation being successful, the spirit spelt his name out in full; other names were spelt out at request.
164. Although the requisite letters were ultimately found, there was evidently some difficulty, as if there was some groping for them with an imperfect light. This has been explained since by my father’s spirit. He alleges that preferably the eyes of the medium would be employed, but that, although with difficulty, he used mine as a substitute.
165. But although, with a view to convince the skeptical, spirits willoccasionally give manifestations when the vision or muscular control of the medium is nullified, it is more difficult for them to operate in this way; moreover, it is more difficult for some spirits than for others.
166. Those spirits by whom I obtained my test manifestations were interested in my success. Others have refused to aid me in like manner. One who has assisted me with much zeal, has communicated that he would work my apparatus when arranged for a test; but, that as it caused much more exertion, and, of course, retardation, he advised that the test arrangement should not be interposed when it could be avoided.
167.[7]The table, at this stage of my inquiry, was not more than thirty inches in length. I had improved the construction in the following way:
168. Two of the legs were furnished with castors, through holes duly bored. Through perforations in the other two legs a rod was introduced, serving as an axle to two wheels of about five inches diameter. One of these wheels was grooved, so as to carry a band which extended around the pulley of the disk. Hence, pushing the table nine inches horizontally by the necessary rotation of the supporting wheels, caused the disk to make a complete revolution. It was while the table was of the size above mentioned, that I first saw the violent action to which they might be subjected without any corresponding or commensurate visible cause. The hand of the medium being laid on the table at about half-way between the centre and the nearest edge, it moved as if it were animated, jumping like a restive horse.
169. Having my apparatus thus prepared, a medium sat at my table, the screen intercepting her view of the disk. No manifestation took place through the disk, though other indications of the presence of spirits were given. Hence, inducing the medium to sit at an ordinary table, I inquired if any change could be made which would enable them to communicate through my apparatus? The reply through the alphabetic card was, “Let the medium see the letters.” At first it struck me that this would make the experiment abortive, as it would remove the condition by which alone independency of interference by the medium was secured. However, it soon occurred that by means of a metallic plate, made quite true, and some brass balls, like billiard balls, with which I was provided, I could neutralize the power of the medium to move the table, so that she could not influence the selection of the letters, though permitted to see them.
170. Accordingly, as soon almost as the medium placed her hands on the plate resting on the ball, and without any other communication with the table, the disk began to revolve in such a way as to bring the letters under the index in due alphabetic order. Afterward various names werespelled, and communications were made. At subsequent sittings, the grandfather and brother of the medium manifested their presence successively by spelling their names on the disk. My father, by means of this apparatus, gave me the name of an uncle who was killed by the Arabs nearly seventy years ago. In order that, without any possibility of contact with the legs, the medium might sit at the table, the length was subsequently extended to six feet, being so made as to separate into three parts, for convenience in carrying from one place to another. It is under this modification that it is represented inPlate 2accompanied by a description, with the medium sitting as when employed in obtaining some of the manifestations herein mentioned. On the left may be seen the wheels and axle. The front wheel may be distinguished, with its groove securing the band which embraces it, together with the pulley on the disk.
171. The disk represented in this figure differs from the one represented above, (employed in my first investigations,) in having the alphabet in the usual order. But they are so made as that one can be made to replace the other, when requisite.
172. On one side of the long table,Plate 2, a board or tray on castors is represented. This was used sometimes as a support for the hands of the medium, by its being interposed between them and the table. On one occasion, where the hands of the medium were supported by the plate and ball upon this tray, it was moved briskly to and fro upon the table, the hands of the medium and the ball and plate accompanying the motion.
173. On various subsequent occasions I have had this experiment of putting the hands of the medium on a plate and balls repeated, and with the same result. The interposition of the plate and balls makes it much more difficult for spirits to move a table than when the hands are directly applied. In the latter case, the spirits actuate the hands primarily, and the table or apparatus secondarily; but when the hands are incapacitated from influencing the motion, the spirit has to assail the inanimate matter directly, assisted only by an emanation from the medium. In this attack upon ponderable matter, the spirits of the second sphere are the most capable; but even with their assistance, the condition of the medium must be very favourable to render success possible.
174. I next resorted to an apparatus like the plaything called a see-saw, excepting that the fulcrum, instead of being under the middle of the board, was situated at one-fourth of the whole length from one end. There was one foot on one side of the fulcrum, and three feet on the other. The disk and its axle was transferred from the table,Plate I, near to the longer end of this seesaw-like apparatus. The cord attached to two weights was employed as above described, so that as the disk was made to rise or fall with the vibration of the board by the action of the cord, a revolution took place, bringing the letters successively under the index, as already explained to have resulted from the movements of the table.
175. The disk being situated edgewise to the medium, the letters could not be seen. Under these circumstances, the hands of the medium were placed upon the surface of the smaller portion of the board outside of the fulcrum. The disk revolved to and fro, so as to bring the letters under the index in due alphabetic order. Moreover, while this process was under way, to render the result more unquestionable, I interposed a screen between the disk, and the eyes of the medium, without causing any arrestation of the process.[8]
176. Afterward upon the table supported on wheels or castors, and moving the disk by a band, I used a tray on castors to support the hand of the medium.
177. When the hands of the medium, or those of any other operator, were placed upon this tray, it was impossible to move the table by means of it, because much less force would make it move on its castors than would move the table. Sometimes the tray would be moved backward and forward with rapidity, the table remaining quite still. Yet, on urging that the table should be moved, this desideratum would be conceded, and the tray would become stationary, relatively, to the table. On one occasion, when an intelligent spirit was manifesting, I interposed a brass ball (Plate I.) and plate between the tray and the hands of the medium, and then requested that the tray might be moved. My request was obeyed; the tray moved repeatedly about a foot to and fro, accompanied by the hand of the medium, the ball remaining at rest, relatively, to the tray.
178. Having my apparatus at the residence of the lady by whom it had been actuated in the third trial above mentioned, (172)this lady sitting at the table as a medium, my sister reported herself. As a test question, I inquired “What was the name of a partner in business, of my father, who, when he had left the city with the Americans during the Revolutionary war, came out with the British, and took care of the joint property?” The disk revolved successively to letters correctly indicating the name to be Warren. I then inquired the name of the partner of my English grandfather, who died in London more than seventy years ago. The true name was given by the same process.
179. The medium and all present were strangers to my family, and I had never heard either name mentioned, except by my father. Even my younger brother did not remember that of my father’s partner.
180. Subsequently, in the presence of a medium utterly unacquainted with my family, to whom I was first introduced in December, 1853, and who had only within two years previously removed to our city from Maine, I inquired of my father the name of an English cousin who had married an admiral. The name was spelled out. In like manner the maiden name of an English brother’s wife was given—an unusual name, Clargess.
181. The principle of my apparatus for spiritual manifestations has been employed on a smaller scale by Mr. Isaac T. Pease, of Thompsonville, Connecticut, substituting the reaction of a spring for that of a weight, and making the index revolve instead of the disk. (Plate I.)
182. By the modification which I made for the employment of this smaller instrument communication was greatly facilitated. I had subsequently a copious interchange of ideas with my father, brother, and sister, and other friendly spirits. (See engraving and description,Plate I, Fig. 2.)
183. At the house of a spiritualist who had been holding circles for more than a year, I had confirmatory evidence of the intelligence by which spirit rapping is regulated. I was allowed to subject the table employed to a strict scrutiny, removing the drawer to obtain a more thorough inspection. This table was nevertheless repeatedly agitated with an energy which could not be ascribed to the hands placed quietly upon its surface by a circle of persons perfectly quiescent. Often at this circle, and at others during the chanting of hymns, have I seen a table thus situated keeping time by its vibratory movements with a sympathetic tremour.
184. The spirit friend of a medium present, who called herself Amanda Ford, used on request to make a sound like that of the hammering by blacksmiths, designated as “ten-pounds-ten.” This sound would be shifted to that of sawing or sweeping. Doubtless, these manifestations might be imitated by certain ventriloquists; but I had not the smallest reason to suspect ventriloquism, and Amanda gave me the following unquestionable proofs of her spiritual existence:
185. Taking up the alphabetic card, and holding it up near my face, in a feeble light, with the back toward the medium, so as not to be inspected by any one else, I asked Amanda, as I should pass my fingers over the letters, to indicate those necessary for spelling out her name, by the usual manifestation. The name was in this way correctly spelt out.
186. In the next place, at the same time and under the same circumstances, I asked her then to spell the name of Washington. Passing my fingers over the letters of the alphabet, not regularly but zigzag, and stopping a short time at the letters adjoining the right ones, that much-revered name was correctly spelt out, with one single error, the omission of the G.
187. Suspicion that the rapping or tapping could arise from any mechanism concealed in the table, was precluded when they were made under my own tables, fitted up with my own hands.
188. It was at the same mansion, where the above-mentioned manifestations were observed, that I first saw a table continue in motion when every person had withdrawn to about the distance of a foot; so that no one touched it; and while thus agitated on our host saying, “Move the table toward Dr. Hare,” it moved toward me and back again. At the same premises, when between the hands of each of two media and a small table a plate upon a brass ball was interposed, without any other communication with it, the table was violently overset, so as to have its legs uppermost. Yet while thus upside down, it continued to vibrate, a single finger of a medium girl, about twelve years of age, being the sole means of human contact therewith. This I ascertained, with the greatest care, by kneeling on the floor and causing the finger of the medium, by the tip of which alone her touch was effected, to be situated between me and the light of a lamp.
189. In the observations above stated, respecting the movements of the tablewhen untouched, I was aided by the presence of my friend Joseph Hazard, Esq., of Narragansett, Rhode Island, who occupied a seat opposite to mine on the other side of the table; so that while he saw all clear on one side, I saw all clear on the other. In my narrative I have adverted to two recent instances in which severally, in the presence only of the medium and myself, the table moved, as I could judge, about eight inches, being at the same time untouched by either of us.
190. Next in importance to the movements of tables which take place without any contact, are those in which the table rises under the hands of the medium laid gently upon it. On one occasion I saw a large circular table, supported by three massive claws on castors, overset several times by the influence of three ladies, who were media. In order to have this experiment performed with as much precision as circumstances would permit, I seated myself on one side of the table, so as to be equidistant from two of the three claws by which it was supported. The intermediate medium, was directly opposite the third claw, while the others stood one on each side of her. My relative position was such, that as they were standing upright before me, I could look at their persons partially below as well as above the table. These arrangements having been made, the three media laid their hands on the table a little beyond the margin, so that they could not apply their thumbs below the edge and thus assist the table to raise. Under these circumstances I was enabled to watch the media above as well as below the table, by casting my eyes upward and downward alternately, they being all on their feet, and standing upright.It was under these conditions, that the table, in three successive trials, came over toward me and went back to its normal position.
191. It did not slam down quickly, when on arriving at such a position, as to make it impossible for the ladies to resist its farther descent; but descended gently, rising slowly in recovering its usual upright position.
192. I called one morning at the dwelling of a medium to whom allusion has been made more than once in my narrative. I sat down at a table with the medium, her father, and a gentleman who accompanied me. I inquired if any of my spirit friends were present; the table tilted negatively. “Will the spirit give its initials through the alphabetic card?” In reply the letters M C were indicated. My companion, whose attention had been withdrawn, on hearing the result, said: “They are the initials of my daughter’s name;” exclaiming, “Maria, are you here?”
193. The table tilted in the affirmative, vivaciously, as if the daughter’s heart were in the movement.
194. Maria proving to be a sprightly spirit, a lively conversation ensued. I inquired if she could not work my apparatus; she answered through the card, “It is impossible for a spirit to work your apparatus; I am very sorry.” I replied that evidently it was not impossible, since it had been actuated by spirits successfully several times. “You mean to say,” I added, “that it is difficult.” To this she replied affirmatively by three tilts of the table.
195. As through the influence of the medium, who sat at the table with us, communications had been received through my apparatus several times, the alphabet arranged from a state of disarrangement, and names spelt out by the revolution of the disk, it cannot be imagined that the medium could have influenced the alphabetical communications in this instance, since the medium, even if prone to deception, would have perceived it ridiculous to allege it impossible to work an apparatus which had on several occasions under her influence, proved the opposite to be true, in the presence of her father as well as myself.
196. It has been already mentioned in the narrative (164.) that my spirit father, and spirit friend W. W., had alleged that they worked my apparatus with great difficulty when under test conditions, from their great desire to make me a convert to Spiritualism. It was, therefore, quite consistent that a spirit, who had no such powerful motive, should have preferred to find an apology for not actuating my apparatus, rather than to have studied, or sought for the means of surmounting the obstacles.
197. As all the manifestations, observed on this occasion, were by the tilting or partial lifting of the table, I urged the spirit to aid me in obtaining a test that these manifestations came not from the medium, but from herself, a spirit. I immediately procured from a basket which I had previously brought to the premises, a brass ball, turned truly spherical, like a billiard ball, and a plate of zinc which had been ground quite true. Iplaced the ball on the table, the plate on the ball, and the hands of the medium on the plate. She had no other communication with the table than that which was thus established. Pressing on the ball when situated between perpendicular lines falling inside of all the legs of the table, would of course only press it downward more firmly on its feet.
198. Things being thus arranged, I solicited Maria to repeat the upward jerks which she had employed in the communication which she had been making. Her father joined his solicitation to mine, pointing out that my object was to obtain evidence, which would satisfy the scientific world that such manifestations were due to the agency of spirits.
199. After a little delay the table rose under the ball, the plate, and the hands of the medium, with greater force than had been displayed in any of the foregoing movements.
200. Subsequently, being in company with Maria’s father, at the dwelling of a spiritualist, and sitting with a medium at the table supporting an apparatus for alphabetical communications, the spirit of Maria, who seems to follow her worthy father with much filial affection, reported herself. I inquired whether she remembered our previous meeting, and what means I resorted to as a test. She replied, “You used a plate and ball to support the hands of the medium, which I knocked away.”
201. While receiving communications from my spirit sister, the table tilting toward the medium, so as to cause the cord actuating the index, by being through a string tied to a weight on the floor, alternately to be withdrawn and returned, consequently, winding off and on the pulley which turned the index, I suggested that the relative position of the medium should be reversed, so that she should be on the same side with the apparatus. By this change the table would have to rise under the hands of the medium. The proposed modification was successfully carried out.
202. I asked my sister how a spirit could work an apparatus with the medium’s hands on the upper surface of the table; the reply was, that the presence of the hands of the medium enabled the spirit to act in opposition to them.
203. Under this head comes the experiment in which a board was supported so as to turn on a fulcrum, one foot of the board being on one side of the fulcrum, and three feet on the other, the longer end suspended on a spring balance. When a medium, eleven years old, placed his hands on the short end, that end rose while the other, of course, went down; in some instances, showing an increase of downward pressure on the balance, equivalent to seven pounds.
204. This experiment was subsequently repeated at my laboratory, in the presence of John M. Kennedy, Esq. Having a basin of water on the board, the boy’s hands being merely immersed in the water, and not touching the parietes of the containing vessel; the balance was affected as in the experiment above described, although not to so great an extent.
205. In one case, Mr. Kennedy satisfied himself, that the medium did not touch the vessel, by placing his own hands below those of the medium.
206. My much-esteemed friend, Prof. Henry, having treated this result as incredible, I was induced to repeat it with the greatest precision and precaution, as represented inPlate 3. The board, as already described, being about four feet in length, is supported by a rod as a fulcrum at about one foot from one end, and, of course, three feet from the other; a glass vase, about nine inches in diameter and five inches in height, having a knob to hold it by when inverted, had this knob inserted in a hole made in the board, six inches nearly from the fulcrum. Thus, the vase rested on the board, the mouth upward. A wire-gauze cage, such as is used to keep flies from sugar, was so arranged by well-known means, as to slide up or down on two iron rods, one on each side of the trestle supporting the fulcrum. By these arrangements it was so adjusted as to descend into the vase until within an inch and a half of the bottom, while the inferiority of its dimensions prevented it from coming elsewhere within an inch of the parietes of the vase. Water was poured into the vase so as to rise into the cage till within about an inch and a half of the brim.
207. A well-known medium (Gordon) was induced to plunge his hands, clasped together, to the bottom of the cage, holding them perfectly still. As soon as these conditions were attained, the apparatus being untouched by any one excepting the medium as described, I invoked the aid of my spirit friends. A downward force was repeatedly exerted upon the end of the board appended to the balance equal to three pounds’ weight nearly.
208. It will be perceived that in this manifestation, the medium had no means of communication with the board, beside the water. It was not until he became quite still, that the invocation was made. Nevertheless, he did not appear to be subjected to any reacting force. Yet, the distance of the hook of the balance from the fulcrum on which the board turned, was six times as great as the cage in which the hands were situated. Consequently, a force of 3 × 6 = 18 pounds must have been exerted. The board would probably have been depressed much more, but that the water had been spilled by any farther inclination of the vase.
209. This experiment has since been repeated again and again, but on a smaller scale, when, not only the downward force was exercised,but the spelling of words wasaccomplished.
210. On one occasion, when no result ensued, it appeared to arise from the water being so cold as to chill the medium, because, on warming it up to a comfortable temperature, the desired manifestations were obtained.
211. At the same time and place, after the manifestation by means of the spring balances above described (207) had been accomplished, I requested my spirit friends to repeat that which has been above mentioned,as performed by putting the hands of a medium upon a plate and ball supported by a tea-table. (pari passu.)
212. Accordingly, the attending medium being placed under exactly the same circumstances and conditions, a similar violent tilting ensued.
213. Dr. Child, together with the same medium and myself, placed our finger ends all reciprocally in contact, and about a quarter of an inch above a tea-table. After an interval of about two minutes, the table rose, and was tossed from the legs on one side to those on the other forcibly.
214. During a visit to New York, I entered the apartment where one of the Misses Fox was sitting. There were more than half a dozen persons present. On my entrance, I inquired, “Does any one here recognise me, so as to know my name?” No person answered that I was known. As soon, however, as I inquired, my spirit sister announced herself, and indicated my name.
215. During a visit made to Boston last autumn, on sitting with a medium, my sister addressed me in the following way, by spelling the words out upon the disk apparatus just described: