Part 11 (1/2)

Later scripts were characterized by evencorrespondences, and--which is not without interest--on ainst placing faith in Eusapia Paladino For instance, on Deceh Mrs Holland: ”There h of their kind--I concede the raps--poltergeist merely--but the luminous appearances--the sounds of a se upon the table--trickery--trickery” And the Gurney control added: ”Her feet are very important--Next ti hers--Let her fix her thoughts on the feet and prevent the least ators have since discovered, Eusapia's feet are indeed important

These first experiments were followed by others, in which, besides Mrs

Holland and Mrs Verrall, all four of the other estive cross-correspondences were secured

Besides which, having been induced by the results of the Verrall-Holland experiments to study more closely earlier scripts stored in the Society's archives, Miss Johnson discovered what seemed to be similar cross-correspondences that occurred before any experiive only one or two illustrations August 28, 1901, Mrs Forbes wrote ato come from her dead son Talbot, to the effect that he had to leave her in order to control another ”sensitive,” and through her obtain corroboration of Mrs

Forbes's own auto On the same day Mrs Verrall wrote in Latin of a fir tree planted in a garden, and the script was signed with a sword and a suspended bugle The latter was part of the badge of the regied, and Mrs Forbes had in her garden sorown fro to Miss Johnson, were unknown to Mrs Verrall

In another case Mrs Forbes wrote, on Noveless to herself, to a passage in a book which Mrs Verrall had been reading on those days; and the references also applied appropriately to an obscure sentence in Mrs Verrall's own script of November 26

But undoubtedly the most impressive cross-correspondences were obtained in a series of experi fro concordant automatism between Mrs Holland, in India, and Mrs Piper, Mrs Verrall, and Miss Verrall, in England A full report on this series is given in the October, 1908, issue of the Society's _Proceedings_ The plan folloas to suggest to the controls of Mrs Piper--in her case the alleged ”spirits” of Myers, Sidgwick, and Hodgson--that they transmit to one or e There weresuccesses

January 16, 1907, the Myers control promised that it would, as a proof of its identity, cause Mrs Holland and Mrs Verrall to sign a piece of autole draithin a circle A circle with a triangle inside it actually appeared in Mrs Verrall's script of January 28, while a script froures, including a circle with a triangle outside it February 6 the sah Mrs Verrall, to a ”library ation showed that half an hour earlier Mrs Verrall, writing at her houn a script in which the word ”library” occurred three ti the period of the experi or in Mrs Piper's trance stateain, on February 11, announced that it had given ”hope, star, and Browning” to Mrs Verrall, and her script showed that this was correct February 12 the Hodgson control declared it had been trying to impress the word ”arrow” on Mrs Verrall Her script for the previous day, when received at the Society's offices in London, proved to be decorated with a drawing of three arrows

It is the iven only the ment of the evidence in hand--that has recently persuadedpsychical researchers, notably Sir Oliver Lodge, that scientific proof of spirit communication has veritably been obtained For myself, I must frankly say, however, that I cannot accept this view of the case Fraud, I admit, is out of the question as an explanatory hypothesis Nor does it seem possible to explain away the evidence on the theory of , ”lucky hits,” etc But there rewhatever in the evidence presented incompatible with the view that the cross-correspondences in question resulted froht transference between the automatists themselves

CHAPTER V

POLTERGEISTS AND MEDIUMS

We have now to consider a very different class of spiritistic manifestations, the so-called ”physical pheno the earliest on record, and at the same time are far more spectacular and sensational than the phenomena produced by the automatic speakers and writers They include such weird occurrences as the appearance in the seance rooed to be spirits ” of the latter fro, and striking of the sitters by unseen hands, and the h alive

Occasionally, when the s take place Thus, at a seance with Eusapia Paladino, attended by such eminent scientists as Professors Lombroso, Bianchi, Tamburini, Vizioli, and Ascensi, men whose veracity is beyond question, it is recorded by Lombroso[25] that:

[25] ”After Death--What?” pp 57-58

”We saw a great curtain, which separated our roo, and which was more than three feet distant from the medium, suddenly move out toward me, envelop me, and wrap reat difficulty

”A dish of flour had been put in the little alcove room, at a distance of more than four and a half feet froht, or, at any rate, spoken, of sprinkling soht was made, it was found that the dish was bottom side up, with the flour under it This was dry, to be sure, but coagulated, like gelatine This circumstance seems to me doubly irreconcilable--first, with the laws of chemistry, and, second, with the power of movement of the medium, who had not only been bound as to her feet, but had her hands held tight by our hands

”When the lights had been turned on, and ere all ready to go, a great wardrobe that stood in the alcove roo slowly towards us It see in leisurely fashi+on to attack us”

Other investigators,On one occasion, Eusapia Paladino is credited with having created an invisible h they could not see it, and which, annoyed by their inquisitive prodding, finally turned on one of them and bit him in the thumb For this we have the authority of Professors Morselli and Barzini, the latter being the investigator whose thulish noblemen, Lords Dunraven and Crawford, affirm that they several tih the air; once at a height of round; and that the saated in full view of them, so that they beheld his stature visibly increase, to decrease again to norht only when he came out of the trance condition[26]

[26] A detailed account of Home's performances will be found in my book, ”Historic Ghosts and Ghost-Hunters,” pp 143-170

Unfortunately, the ”spirits” that perfor for darkness, a circumstance which has led to wholesale, and repeatedly substantiated, accusations of fraud In fact, there is no other departhly attached itself It is obvious that any clever charlatan, by persuading his sitters that darkness is necessary for the develop effects, and the records of scientific investigations, to say nothing of the records of our police courts, abound in evidence that swindlers have not been slow in availing themselves of this opportunity to prey on the credulous and superstitious The lengths to which bogus ullibility which renders their operations ridiculously easy and highly profitable, are aly illustrated by a story told by Mr

Hereward Carrington, an investigator who has done much to make the public acquainted with the ways of fraudulent ”psychics”

One of these, according to Mr Carrington, had ae concern thati which the medium deftly led him on from marvel to marvel, until at last there was no ”phenomenon” too incredible for him to s, he was informed that at the next seance he would have the unique experience of conversing with the spirit of a deceased inhabitant of the planet Jupiter