Part 5 (2/2)
OPINIONS AND THEORIES.
The credulous have their weak points, but the belief of unbelievers surpa.s.ses all credulity.
There is no position a man can a.s.sume so weak as that of extreme skepticism in the face of fair evidence.
Heat, light, electricity, and force are common things. We accept them as matters of everyday life; our familiarity with them prevents surprise. In our attempts to discover or learn what they are we have utterly failed. All that we have found is how they act under certain conditions. They are the elements necessary to the existence of physical life, and by cultivating their acquaintance we have made friends with them. They walk beside us, lending a helping hand in everything; still they are our masters--we know them not. For the moment we comprehend a thing we are greater than the thing we comprehend: it is behind us, not in front.
Those who are seeking to know how these spirit-forms are created will seek in vain, for there is no language by which the process can be conveyed to our understanding. When it is said that they come out of invisible s.p.a.ce, and depart in the same way, all is said that can be in explanation of their advent among us.
OPINIONS AND THEORIES.
CHAPTER I.
A GLANCE BEHIND THE CURTAIN.
The nature of man is, to a certain extent, dual. The brain is divided into two parts; there are two sets of nerves crossing each other, so that an injury received on the left side of the brain affects the right side of the body, and _vice versa_. While the duplicated organs are capable of separate action, anatomically suggesting two distinct beings, they are united so as to form a complete union of both. There is, however, a preponderance of brain or will-force in the left side of the head, giving a more complete control over the right side of the body, and, in some instances, a manifestation of character, which would indicate that each side of the brain might act in alternation, and somewhat independently of the other.
The force which the brain exerts over its own organism and that of others is not understood. Could it be explained, all the phenomena of the material and spiritual would, probably, lie within reach. A person with a strong will may possess a magnetic power enabling him to throw another, of a peculiar temperament, into a trance, in which that person is physically insensible to everything except what comes through the sensibility of the magnetizer.
The material bodies are brought _en rapport_ with each other, or under the law of individual control, and the magnetizer can direct the physical movements of the other very much as he would his own, leaving the spirit of the entranced person free to act, for the time being, independently of its own body. If it has the strength or power to control other sensitives, it may manifest itself in remote places, either clairvoyantly or by materialization more or less tangible. It can, however, do this much more perfectly in close proximity to its own body. Such a materialization is a counterpart of the entranced person; is, in fact, the spirit of that person clothed in a body not strictly its own, but composed of material largely drawn from it. The existence of this phenomenon has been more or less known through all ages, and is probably the origin of that mythical story of the creation of woman, where the Lord is said to have caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam.
Among all nations, traditions of what is known as ”the double” exist.
Though often cla.s.sed as a vulgar superst.i.tion, it nevertheless finds expression in the works of some of the best intellects. It plays an important part in the progress and development of all physical seances, since it is the first indication of true materialization. Furthermore, the substance composing this counterpart is, to a certain extent, the nucleus around which all spirits materializing are developed or clothed.
The form appears to issue from the left side, but in reality it comes from the whole circ.u.mference of the body, in a rapidly-moving luminous vapor, which quickly consolidates into a separate individualized form, complete in its organization, and capable, for the time, of physical and mental action. Such manifestations are what is understood to be the production of living forms by means of living matter given off from the body of the medium. The process is more or less affected by the surroundings, and is ever the result of more intelligent beings cooperating with the spirit of the entranced person.
The spirit occupying this temporary body can, when proper relations have been established with it, surrender it into the control of other spirits, the same as it surrendered its other body into the control of the magnetizer, and from its peculiar structure they can contract, expand, or change it to suit his or her requirements. So long as it remains in the possession of the spirit of the entranced person, the likeness to it is maintained; but the moment it pa.s.ses into the possession of another, the resemblance will depend entirely upon the strength of the control, and the knowledge the spirit has in shaping the form like to that borne in earth-life. From these conditions materialization may broaden into more complex forms, always depending upon the currents of magnetic thought, and that central will-force that sweeps into its vortex all atoms necessary to its use.
Until the spirits acquire more than ordinary strength by frequent manifestations, or by favorable surroundings, this will probably be found to be the usual way in which they make themselves visible to us.
These conditions necessitate more or less resemblance to the medium, both in form and intonations of voice.
I have seen hundreds and thousands of materialized forms; have seen, in a few instances, personation, where the medium was taken possession of, brought out, and controlled as in trance-mediums.h.i.+p; I have seen what appeared to be the double of the medium, so thoroughly like, that I should have testified that it was the medium had I not seen it dematerialize, or been taken into the cabinet by the form and found the entranced medium there; but I have never seen a single instance of transfiguration, unless the double of the medium be considered as such.
The fact that Mrs. Fairchild stands outside, by the cabinet, during the seance, in full view of the audience; that at the Berry Sisters', and at Mrs. Sawyer's, the spirits lead the medium out of the cabinet; that at Mrs. Fay's the forms often take the visitors into the cabinet and show them not only the medium but the materialized control,--are things which the skeptic will find very hard to explain. If they are not evidence of the existence of these phenomena, it is difficult to understand what evidence is.
To a sensitive person, with even a limited experience, the character of a seance is easily determined. There is always in the true materialized forms a decided lack of some of the elements that make up the magnetism of what we call real life; something not easily described, but readily perceived by a person thus const.i.tuted. To such a one, neither a confederate nor a personation by the medium can pa.s.s undetected.
CHAPTER II.
EXPOSURES OF MEDIUMS.
<script>