Part 12 (1/2)
was termed--thought she would be able to 'materialise' herself so far as to present the whole form, if we arranged the corner cupboard so as to admit of her doing so. Accordingly we opened the door, and from it suspended a rug or two opening in the centre, after the fas.h.i.+on of a Bedouin Arab's tent; formed a semicircle; sat and sang Longfellow's 'Footsteps of Angels.'
Therein occurs the pa.s.sage, 'Then the forms of the departed enter at the open door.' And, lo and behold! though we had left Miss B. tied and sealed to her chair and clad in an ordinary black dress somewhat voluminous as to the skirts, a tall, female figure, draped cla.s.sically in white, with bare arms and feet, did enter at the open door, or rather down the centre from between the two rugs, and stood statuelike before us, spoke a few words, and retired; after which we entered the Bedouin tent and found pretty Miss B. with her dress as before, knots and seals secure, and her boots on! This was Form No. 1, the first I had ever seen. It looked as material as myself; and on a subsequent occasion--for I have seen it several times--we took four very good photographic portraits of it by magnesium light. The difficulty I still felt, with the form as with the faces, was that it seemed so thoroughly material and flesh-and-blood-like.”
It is not my intention to speak of the mult.i.tude of early materialisations. As Mr Podmore points out, at these manifestations practically no precautions were taken against trickery. There was nothing, so far as can be discovered, to throw any hindrance in the way of the medium, if she chose, impersonating the spirit by exhibiting a mask through the opening of the curtain or by dressing herself up and walking about the room. Nor were there any collateral circ.u.mstances to justify belief in the genuineness of the manifestations.
Nevertheless, Miss Cook's claims attracted the attention of Sir William Crookes. He attended several _seances_--one, once, at the house of Mr Luxmoor, when ”Katie” was standing before him in the room. He had distinctly heard from behind the curtain the sobbing and moaning habitually made by Miss Cook during such _seances_. At another _seance_, held at his own house, 12th March 1874, ”Katie,” robed in white, came to the opening of the curtain and summoned him to the a.s.sistance of her medium. The man of science instantly obeyed the call, and found Miss Cook, attired in her ordinary black velvet dress, p.r.o.ne on the sofa. On another occasion he declares he saw two forms together in a good light; more than this, he actually procured a photograph of ”Katie.” But of this I will speak later, when I come to discuss spirit photography.
One of the most noted materialising mediums of to-day is Charles Miller, of San Francisco, of whom a certain Professor Reichel has recently written a lengthy account.
Miller's _seances_ are described as very conclusive. At the first one, after Miller had retired into the cabinet, ”the curtain was pulled aside, showing the medium asleep, and six fully developed phantoms standing beside him. Two spoke German to friends from their native land,” and one discussed matters of a private nature with Professor Reichel. Similar occurrences were many times repeated, and dematerialisations were often ”made before the curtain, in full view of the sitters” and ”in ample light to observe everything.” Professor Reichel says:
”In the _seances_ with Mr Miller I heard the spirits speak in English, French, and German, but I have been a.s.sured repeatedly that in a _seance_ of seventy-five persons, representing many of the various nationalities in San Francisco, twenty-seven languages were spoken by materialised spirits, addressing different sitters.”
Equally good results were obtained in a room taken at the Palace Hotel, for a special testsetting, the results of which were communicated to Colonel de Rochas, and again when Mr Miller visited the Professor at Los Angeles. The following incidents are of special interest, as throwing light on the forces made use of in the production of the phenomena, and in reference to allegations of fraud or personation:--
”A sitting took place at noon. Before it began, and while Miller was standing in front of the cabinet, I heard 'Betsy's'
voice whisper: 'Go out for a moment into the sun with the professor.' Accordingly I took Mr Miller by the arm, and together we went out into the suns.h.i.+ne. After a few moments we returned, and at the moment we entered the dark room the writer, as well as everyone else present, saw Mr Miller completely strewn with a s.h.i.+ning, white, glittering, snowlike ma.s.s, that entirely covered his dark cheviot suit. This singular occurrence had been witnessed repeatedly--even when the medium had not previously been in the sun. At such times it appeared gradually after the room had been darkened.”
This snowlike ma.s.s the author regards as ”the white element of magnetism, which the phantoms use in their development.” He also says:
”In another _seance_ held by Miller, 'Betsy' told me that she would show me something that often happened in _seances_ with other materialisation mediums--namely, that the medium himself frequently appeared disguised as a spirit. She asked me to come to the curtain, where she told me that the medium himself would come out draped in white muslin, and the muslin would then suddenly disappear. This was verified. When the medium came out in his disguise, I grasped him by the hand, and like a flash of lightning the white veiling vanished.”
Reichel quotes Kiesewetter to the effect that in these cases ”there is a kind of pseudo-materialisation, in which the medium, in hypnosis, walks in a somnambulistic condition, playing the part of the spirit, in which case the mysterious vanis.h.i.+ng of the spiritual veilings points to an incipient magical activity on the part of the _psyche_.”
Large numbers of Miller's materialisations were photographed, showing, besides the fully materialised forms, ”several spirits who could not be seen with the physical eyes, one of whom was immediately recognised.”
The experiments of Sir William Crookes and others by Mr Cromwell Varley, with various mediums, supply us with the best proof we have that medium and spirit possess separate ident.i.ties. Of course there were, and are still, numerous so-called exposures of mediums in the act of materialisation. On other occasions the materialised form has been seized and found to be the medium himself.
A typical incident of this kind was the exposure of the mediums William and Rita, which took place in Amsterdam, under circ.u.mstances which made it difficult for the most hardened believer to lay all the blame upon the spirits. The incident took place in the rooms of a spiritualist; the members of the circle were spiritualists; and it was aggrieved and indignant spiritualists who made the facts public. Suspicion had been aroused; one of the sitters clutched at the spirit form of ”Charlie,”
and grasped Rita by the coat collar. Up to this point, no doubt, the spiritualist theories already referred to were elastic enough to cover the facts. But when the mediums were searched there were found in their pockets or hidden in various parts of their clothing--on Rita a nearly new beard, six handkerchiefs, a.s.sorted, and a small, round scent bottle, containing phosphorised oil, bearing a resemblance all too convincing to ”Charlie's” spirit lamp; on Williams a dirty black beard, with brown silk ribbon, and several yards of very dirty muslin--the simple ingredients which represented the spiritual make-up of the repentant pirate, John King--together with another bottle of phosphorised oil, a bottle of scent, and other ”properties.”
But we have not to deal here with the obviously fraudulent features of modern spiritualism. Years ago Mr H. W. Harrison summed up the position.
He pointed out that there were two cla.s.ses of so-called materialisations: (1) forms with flexible features, commonly bearing a strong resemblance to the medium, which move and speak. These are the forms which come out when the medium is in the cabinet; (2) Forms with features which are inflexible and masklike (the epithet is not Mr Harrison's) and which do not move about or speak. Such inflexible faces are seen chiefly when the medium is held by the sitters, or is in full view of the circle. Mr Harrison then continues: ”We have patiently watched for years for a living, flexible face, in a good light, which face bore no resemblance to that of the medium, and was not produced on his or her own premises. Hitherto this search has been prosecuted without success. Mr A. R. Wallace and Mr Crookes have witnessed a great number of form manifestations, without once recording that off the premises of the medium they have seen a living, flexible, materialised spirit-form bearing no resemblance to the sensitive. Neither has Mr Varley made any such record.”
The presumption must be one of fraud, especially when conditions are laid down which serve to prevent full investigation. I have before me the printed conditions of a North London Spiritualistic society:
”As a member of the society you must bear in mind that you will be bound _in honour_ to accept all the rules laid down by our Spirit controls, and by the leader of the meeting, as to the conditions under which the meetings are held, such as the darkened room, the holding of hands so as to form a strongly magnetic ring in front of the medium, etc.--and it is interesting to note that the great Mesmer, when he was conducting his experiments in magnetism more than one hundred years ago, had discovered the advantage of 'a circle' formed in this way, for he writes: 'The power of magnetism is augmented by establis.h.i.+ng a direct communication between several persons.
This can be done in two ways: the more simple is to form a chain, with a certain number of persons made to hold each other's hands; it can also be done by means of the 'baquet' (a mechanical contrivance invented by himself).”
”No one should ever attempt to touch a spirit unless invited to do so by the spirits themselves, and the circle, once formed, must never be broken by unloosing of hands. If this becomes _really_ necessary at any time, permission should first be asked, when the controlling spirit will give instructions as to how it is to be carried out.”
I cannot forbear from quoting further the following pa.s.sage addressed to members of the society:--
”You will greatly a.s.sist us in obtaining good results if you will kindly use a little discretion in the matter of your food, especially on the day of the meeting, when fish, vegetables, fruit (especially bananas), and light food of that description are most helpful, but meat, wine, beer, or spirits (wine and spirits especially) should be carefully avoided; and we find that it is better to make a good meal in the middle of the day, a substantial tea at 5.30, and supper after the meeting, as by following this plan the members of the circle are able to give off more of the spiritual _aura_ which is used by the controls in building up the forms which appear to us, each member of the circle contributing his or her share unconsciously.
”The use of non-actinic light, such as that obtained from a small dark lantern, is defended on the grounds that the actinic rays coming from the violet end of the spectrum are so rapid in their movements that they immediately break up any combination of matter produced under such circ.u.mstances. Any form of light, except the red, or perhaps the yellow, rays would have this effect. That is one reason why the cabinet is employed, because that would shut off any form of light from the medium whilst the forms are building up; although on several occasions, from time to time, when the form has thus been built up fully, we have been able to use a red light strong enough to illuminate the whole of the room.”