,,psychical ,,research999999 ,,mrs ,,piper ,,the ,,society ,,for ,,psychical ,,research ,translated ,slightly ,abridged from the ,french of ,m4 ,sage ,by ,noralie ,robertson ,with a ,preface by ,sir ,oliver ,lodge ,scott-,thaw ,co4 ,new ,york #aijd ,,publisher',s ,,note ,it is obvious that such a body of men1 pledged to impartial investigation1 as the ,society for ,psychical ,research could not officially stand sponsor to the speculative comments of ,m4 ,sage1 however admittedly clear-sighted and philosophical that ,french critic may be4 ,but the publication of this translation has been actually desired and encouraged by many individuals in the ,society1 it has been revised throughout by a member of their ,council1 and it is introduced to the general reader by their ,president4 ,the ,society1 indeed1 is prepared to accept ,m4 ,sage's volume as a faithful and convenient resume of experiments conducted under its own auspices1 and so far as it contains statements of fact1 these statements are quoted from authoritative sources4 ,for the comments1 deductions or criticisms therein contained1 the acute intellect of ,m4 ,sage is alone responsible4 ,it remains only to state in detail the principles on which the original text has been slightly abridged by the translator4 ,no facts or comments have been left out that bear directly on the main subject of the book1 the omissions are wholly of matters which might be regarded as superfluous for the understanding of the case of ,mrs ,piper4 ,occasionally paragraphs have been condensed1 a tendency to vague theorising has been checked throughout1 and certain irrelevant matter has been altogether omitted4 ,such omissions are confined1 indeed1 to single sentences or paragraphs1 with only the exception of a somewhat technical discussion of the ,cartesian philosophy in ,chapter ,,xvii4 ,it had at first been intended to omit the whole of ,chapter ,,xi41 as containing only fanciful and non-evidential matter2 but statements of this kind form an integral part of the communications1 and so1 on the whole1 it was thought fairer to retain ,m4 ,sage's chapter on the subject1 especially as it may be found of popular interest4 ,the original appendix has been incorporated1 after modifications1 in ,chapter ,,xii41 since the incident here discussed was in progress as ,m4 ,sage wrote and has since been closed4 ,his conjectures as to its possible development are naturally omitted4 ,finally all references to the ,proceedings 7or printed reports7 of the ,society itself have been carefully verified4 ,in every case the words of the reports themselves are given in preference to any re-rendering of ,m4 ,sage's translations4 ,,contents ,,page ,preface by ,sir ,oliver ,lodge xi ,objects of the ,society xix ,chapter ,i #a ,mrs ,piper's mediumship--,is mediumship a neurosis8 ,chapter ,,ii #g ,dr ,richard ,hodgson--,description of the trance--,mrs ,piper not a good hypnotic subject4 ,chapter ,,iii #ac ,early trances--,careful first observations by ,professor ,william ,james of ,harvard ,university1 ,massachusetts1 ,u4,s4,a4 ,chapter ,,iv #bj ,the hypothesis of fraud--,the hypothesis of muscle-reading--,influence4 ,chapter ,v #bg ,a sitting with ,mrs ,piper--,the hypothesis of thought-transference--,incidents4 ,chapter ,,vi #ci ,phinuit--,his probable origin--,his character--,what he says of himself--,his ,french--,his medical diagnosis--,is he merely a secondary personality of ,mrs ,piper8 ,chapter ,,vii #eb ,miss ,hannah ,wild's letter--,the first text given by ,phinuit--,mrs ,blodgett's sitting--,thought-reading explains the case4 ,chapter ,,viii #fe ,communications from persons having suffered in their mental faculties--,unexpected communications from unknown persons--,the respect due to the communicators--,predictions--,communicat ions from children4 ,chapter ,,ix #gg ,further consideration of the difficulties of the problem--,george ,pelham--,development of the automatic writing4 ,chapter ,x #hg ,how ,george ,pelham has proved his identity--,he recognises his friends and alludes to their opinions--,he recognises objects which have belonged to him--,asks that certain things should be done for him--,very rarely makes an erroneous statement4 ,chapter ,,xi #ii ,george ,pelham's philosophy--,the nature of the soul--,the first moments after death--,life in the next world--,george ,pelham contradicts ,stainton ,moses--,space and time in the next world--,how spirits see us--,means of communication4 ,chapter ,,xii #aag ,william ,stainton ,moses--,what ,george ,pelham thinks of him--,how ,imperator and his assistants have replaced ,phinuit4 ,chapter ,,xiii #abf ,professor ,hyslop and the journalists--,the so-called confession of ,mrs ,piper--,precautions taken by ,professor ,hyslop during his experiments--,impressions of the sittings4 ,chapter ,,xiv #acd ,the communications of ,mr ,robert ,hyslop--,peculiar expressions--,incidents4 ,chapter ,,xv #adg ,the influence again--,other incidents--,statistics4 ,chapter ,,xvi #aed ,examination of the telepathic hypothesis--,some arguments which render its acceptance difficult4 ,chapter ,,xvii #afa ,some considerations which strongly support the spiritualistic hypothesis--,consciousness and character remain unchanged--,dramatic play--,errors and confusions4 ,chapter ,,xviii #afi ,difficulties and objections--,the identity of ,imperator--,vision at a distance--,triviality of the messages--,spiritualist philosophy--,life in the other world4 ,chapter ,,xix #agf ,the medium's return to normal life--,speeches made while the medium seems to hover between the two worlds4 ,chapter ,,xx #ahb ,encouraging results obtained--,the problem must be solved4 ,,preface ,,by ,,the ,president of the ,society for ,psychical ,research ,one of the facts which by general consent in the present stage of psychological science require study is the nature1 and if possible the cause1 of a special lucidity1 a sensitiveness of perception1 or accessibility to ideas appearing to arrive through channels other than usual organs of sense1 which is sometimes met with among simple people#a in a rudimentary form1 and in a more developed form in certain exceptional individuals4 ,this lucidity may perhaps be regarded as a modification or an exaggeration of the clearness of apprehension occasionally experienced by ordinary persons while immersed in a brown study1 or while in the act of waking out of sleep1 or when self-consciousness is for a time happily suspended4 ,in men of genius the phenomenon occurs in the most dignified form at present known to us1 and with them also it accompanies a lapse of ordinary consciousness1 at least to the extent that circumstances of time and place and daily life become insignificant and trivial1 or even temporarily non-existent2 but the notable thing is that a few persons1 not of genius at all1 are liable to an access of something not altogether dissimilar1 and exhibit a kind of lucidity or clairvoyant perceptivity1 which1 though doubtless of a lower grade1 is of a well-defined and readily-investigated type1 during that state of complete lapse of consciousness known to us as a specific variety of trance4 ,not that all trance patients are lucid1 any more than all brown studies result in brilliant ideas2 nor should it be claimed that some measure of lucidity1 even of the ultra-normal kind now under consideration1 cannot exist without complete bodily trance4 ,the phenomenon called automatic writing is an instance to the contrary1--when a hand liberated from ordinary conscious control is found1 automatically as it were1 to be writing sentences1 sometimes beyond the knowledge of the person to whom the hand belongs4 ,some approach to unconsciousness1 however1 either general or local1 seems essential to the access of the state1 and such conditions as ordinarily induce reverie or sleep are suitable for bringing it on2 no one1 for instance1 would expect to experience it while urgently occupied in affairs4 ,whether it is desirable to give way to so unpractical an attitude1 and to encourage the influx of ideas through non-sensory channels1 is another question which need not now concern us4 ,it suffices for us that the phenomenon exists1 and that it occasionally though very rarely takes on so well marked and persistent a form as to lend itself to experimental investigation4 ,it is true that in these cases nothing of exceptional and world-compelling merit is produced2 the substance of the communication is often1 though not always1 commonplace1 and the form sometimes grotesque4 ,it is true also that a complete record of a conversation held under these circumstances--perhaps a full record of a commonplace conversation held under any circumstances--readily lends itself to cheap ridicule2 nevertheless1 the evidence of intimate knowledge thus displayed becomes often of extreme interest to the few persons for whom the disjointed utterances have a personal meaning1 although to the outsider they must appear dull1 unless he is of opinion that they help him to interpret the more obscure workings of the human mind1 or unless he thinks it possible that the nature and meaning of inspiration in general may become better understood by a study of this1 its lowest1 but at the same time its most definite and controllable1 form4 ,undoubtedly information is attainable under these conditions from sources unknown1 undoubtedly the entranced or semi-conscious body or part of a body has become a vehicle or medium for ostensible messages from other intelligences1 or for impersonations2 but the cause of the lucidity so exhibited1 the nature of the channel by which the information is obtained1 and the source of the information itself1 are questions which1 although they are apt to be treated glibly by a superficial critic1 to whom they appear the most salient feature and the easiest of explanation1 are really the most difficult of all4 ,it was to study such questions as this that a special society--the ,society for ,psychical ,research--was founded some twenty-two years ago4 ,perhaps the most remarkable1 and certainly the most thorough1 of all the investigations made under the auspices of this ,society has been the case of the ,american lady1 ,mrs ,piper2 which1 begun in #ahhg1 has continued ever since1 with only such intervals as were necessitated by the circumstances of the case4 ,she was already known to the ,professor of ,psychology at ,harvard and to some other ,american savants1 but she was brought to the notice of the leaders of the ,english ,society by ,dr ,richard ,hodgson1 who has been for some years1 and is still1 acting as its representative in ,america1 and ,secretary of its ,american ,branch4 ,a complete record of the whole investigation has not yet been published1 but large portions of it have appeared from time to time in the ,proceedings of the ,society4 ,it is not to be supposed that the case is unique by any means2 on the contrary1 it may in some senses be regarded as typical1 but its features are exceptionally well-marked1 and the record has been more carefully and continuously kept than that of any other case4 ,accordingly1 some emphasis has been given to it1 and a general vague notion concerning the case has diffused itself among educated persons beyond the limits of the ,society4 ,and indeed it is one of really general interest1 since the hypothesis of fraud is entirely inapplicable to it1 and in the opinion of the most sceptical critics who have made an adequate study of the case1 no explanation more commonplace than that of telepathy will bear examination4 ,other critics--and these are they who have gone into the matter most thoroughly--find the hypothesis of telepathy to be insufficient1 and hold that some further explanation is necessary4 ,opinions differ as to what that further explanation may be1 and so far as ,i know it has not been scientifically formulated as yet4 ,to me it appears probable that no one explanation will fit all the facts1 and that the subject is not yet ripe for theory4 ,working hypotheses must be made1 must be tested1 and in all probability must be rejected1 but our main duty at the present stage is the careful examination and record of facts4 ,the working hypothesis most widely prevalent among the general public1 whether for the purpose of scoffing or for a foundation of belief1 is some crude form of the idea that the persistent intelligence of persons who have severed their connection with matter is willing1 and occasionally even anxious1 to take up temporarily the broken thread1 and so to operate as to transmit1 through any channel which may be open1 to us who are still associated with planetary matter1 messages which shall serve as a sign of their continued existence and affection2 and that the biological organism or part of an organism of a living but unconscious or semi-conscious person is an instrument which may1 though with difficulty1 be utilised to that end4 ,it is easy to express this hypothesis in such a way that it is repugnant to common sense4 ,it may be possible hereafter to formulate it so that it shall correspond in some measure with the truth4 ,but even though it should turn out that intelligences can exist apart from the surface of planets and the usual material concomitants1 it by no means follows that they must all at some period have been incarnate on the earth4 ,the recognition of modes of existence differing greatly from our own1 if it can ever be properly effected1 will have an illuminating bearing on many fundamental problems of life and death2 but this is not the place to attempt to discuss such a question1 even if the time were ripe for the discussion at all4 ,the ,society for ,psychical ,research1 though it has now for some time studied this among other questions1 has arrived at no sort of agreement concerning it2 the only fact on which its members are generally agreed is as to the reality of some kind of telepathy1 an apparently direct influence between mind and mind2 and telepathy is no doubt an important fact1 but it by no means follows that it is a master-key capable of furnishing the solution of every variety of psychical problem4 ,the chief work of the ,society has not been the construction of theories2 it has accumulated and sifted a mass of evidence dealing with ultra-normal human faculty1 it has published much material and criticism in its ,proceedings1 has printed more in its private ,journal1 and its members have written books4 ,to these accessible sources of information students can be referred4 ,but it is necessary to get some inkling of a subject before becoming a student of it--people have not time to read a tithe of what is printed2 and inasmuch as many erroneous notions and misconceptions are prevalent1 even among educated persons1 concerning the method and motives of the ,society1 as well as concerning its ascertained results1 it occurred to the ,council that perhaps a more popular account of the outline of some of the facts1 with abridged examples or illustrations of some of the details1 might be of service in spreading the rudiments of a wider knowledge concerning at least one branch of a subject which must certainly be of interest to the human race when it is rightly apprehended4 ,a popular statement was perhaps the more desirable since a number of insignificant bodies have recently sprung up1 showing considerable energy in the business of advertisement1 assuming colourable imitations of our ,society's designation1 but having very different objects--unscientific always1 sometimes frankly pecuniary--so that it was quite likely that a certain amount of confusion might occur4 ,the idea of the ,council1 in the first instance1 was to have a short popular account or summary of the ,piper case specially written by one of their own members2 but it was brought to their notice that a ,french writer had already issued a small book of a character not very different from that contemplated1 and had steered his way cleverly through the intricacies of a subject bristling with difficulty below the surface and choked with detail throughout2 so it was thought best to utilise the skilful work of the ,french writer1 and simply see to it that a faithful translation was made1 only introducing changes in the direction of still further abbreviation occasionally4 ,this is the book for which ,i consented1 though ,i admit with some misgivings1 to write a preface when it was ready to appear2 and now that ,i see it in its ,english dress ,i find my misgivings justified4 ,the author speaks deprecatingly of his purpose in writing it1 describing it as un modeste ouvrage de vulgarisation1 and thereby disarms criticism1 for1 considered from this point of view1 it is successful2 but ,i must guard not only myself but all other members of the ,council of the ,s4,p4,r4 from any endorsement of the sentiments and comments which ,m4 ,sage scatters somewhat liberally through his pages4 ,taken as they were intended in the original1 they were not out of keeping2 they seemed to harmonise with the general tone and formed part of a consistent artistic scheme4 ,translated they appear less appropriate1 but to omit them altogether would be to give the book a different character1 and probably to spoil it4 ,as it stands1 it is readable1 more readable than a profounder treatise would be4 ,let it pass1 therefore1 as conveying to readers who have neither time nor inclination to enter upon a detailed study some conception of the most remarkable modern instance of the phenomenon to which ,i began by referring--a phenomenon of which a better1 but by no means yet a complete or final1 treatment can be studied in the work of ,mr ,myers called ,human ,personality and its ,survival of ,bodily ,death4 ,,oliver ,,lodge4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,under the name ,second ,sight1 for instance4 ,,objects ,,of ,,the ,,society ,the ,society for ,psychical ,research was founded at the beginning of #ahhb1 for the purpose of making an organised and systematic attempt to investigate various sorts of debatable phenomena which are prima facie inexplicable on any generally recognised hypothesis4 ,from the recorded testimony of many competent witnesses1 past and present1 including observations recently made by scientific men of eminence in various countries1 there appeared to be1 amidst much illusion and deception1 an important body of facts to which this description would apply1 and which therefore1 if incontestably established1 would be of the very highest interest4 ,the task of examining such residual phenomena had often been undertaken by individual effort1 but never hitherto by a scientific society organised on a sufficiently broad basis4 ,the following are the principal departments of work which the ,society at present undertakes3-- #a4 ,an examination of the nature and extent of any influence which may be exerted by one mind upon another1 otherwise than through the recognised sensory channels4 #b4 ,the study of hypnotism and mesmerism2 and an inquiry into the alleged phenomena of clairvoyance4 #c4 ,a careful investigation of any reports1 resting on testimony sufficiently strong and not too remote1 of apparitions coinciding with some external event 7as for instance a death7 or giving information previously unknown to the percipient1 or being seen by two or more persons independently of each other4 #d4 ,an inquiry into various alleged phenomena apparently inexplicable by known laws of nature1 and commonly referred by ,spiritualists to the agency of extra-human intelligences4 #e4 ,the collection and collation of existing materials bearing on the history of these subjects4 ,the aim of the ,society is to approach these various problems without prejudice or prepossession of any kind1 and in the same spirit of exact and unimpassioned inquiry which has enabled ,science to solve so many problems1 once not less obscure nor less hotly debated4 ,the founders of the ,society have always fully recognised the exceptional difficulties which surround this branch of research2 but they nevertheless believe that by patient and systematic effort some results of permanent value may be attained4 ,investigating ,committees 7with the exception of the ,committee for ,experiments7 are not appointed by the ,council2 but any group of ,members and ,associates may become an investigating ,committee2 and every such ,committee will1 it is hoped1 appoint an ,honorary ,secretary1 and through him report its proceedings to the ,council from time to time4 ,the ,council1 if it accepts a report so made for presentation to the ,society1 will be prepared to consider favourably any application on the part of the ,committee for funds to assist in defraying the expenses of special experimental investigation4 ,the ,council will also be glad to receive reports of investigation from individual ,members or ,associates1 or from persons unconnected with the ,society4#b ,any such report1 or any other communication relating to the work of the ,society1 should be addressed to ,miss ,alice ,johnson 7as ,editor of the ,proceedings and ,journal71 #bj ,hanover ,square1 ,london1 ,w41 or to ,j4 ,g4 ,piddington1 ,esq41 #hg ,sloane ,street1 ,london1 ,s4,w42 or in ,america to ,dr ,richard ,hodgson1 #e ,boylston ,place1 ,boston1 ,mass4 ,meetings of the ,society1 for the reading and discussion of papers1 are held periodically2 and the papers then produced1 with other matter1 are1 as a general rule1 afterwards published in the ,proceedings4 ,the ,proceedings of the ,society may be obtained directly from the ,secretary1 #bj ,hanover ,square1 ,london1 ,w41 or from the ,secretary of the ,american ,branch1 or from any bookseller1 through ,mr ,r4 ,brimley ,johnson1 #d ,adam ,street1 ,adelphi1 ,london1 ,w4,c4 ,a ,monthly ,journal 7from ,october to ,july inclusive7 is also issued to ,members and ,associates4 ,the ,journal contains evidence freshly received in different branches of the inquiry1 which is thus rendered available for consideration1 and for discussion by correspondence1 before selections from it are put forward in a more public manner4 ,the ,council1 in inviting the adhesion of ,members1 think it desirable to quote a preliminary ,note1 which appeared on the first page of the ,constitution of the original ,society1 and which still holds good4 ,note4--,to prevent misconception1 it is here expressly stated that ,membership of the ,society does not imply the acceptance of any particular explanation of the phenomena investigated1 nor any belief as to the operation1 in the physical world1 of forces other than those recognised by ,physical ,science4 ,conditions of ,membership4 ,the conditions of ,membership are thus defined in ,articles #aa-ah3-- ,the ,society shall consist of3 7a7 ,members1 who shall subscribe two guineas annually1 or make a single payment of twenty guineas1 7b7 ,associates1 who shall subscribe one guinea annually1 or make a single payment of ten guineas4 ,all ,members and ,associates of the ,society shall be elected by the ,council4 ,every candidate for admission shall be required to give such references as shall be approved by the ,council1 and shall be proposed in writing by two or more ,members or ,associates4 ,all subscriptions shall become payable immediately upon election1 and subsequently on the first day of ,january in each year4 ,in the case of any ,member or ,associate elected on or after the #ast ,october1 his subscription shall be accepted as for the next following year4 ,article #bb provides that if any ,member or ,associate desire to resign1 he shall give written notice thereof to the ,secretary4 ,he shall1 however1 be liable for all subscriptions which shall then remain unpaid4 ,ladies are eligible either as ,members or ,associates4 ,privileges of ,membership4 ,articles #ai and #bj provide that ,members and ,associates are eligible to any of the offices of the ,society1 and are entitled to the free receipt both of the ,proceedings and of the ,journal1 to the use of ,library books in the ,society's rooms1 and to attend all the ,general ,meetings of the ,society1 to which they are also allowed to invite friends4 ,they are further entitled to purchase the ,proceedings of the ,society issued previous to their joining it1--and also additional copies of any ,part or ,volume1--at half their published price4 ,members have the additional privileges of borrowing books from the ,library1 and of voting in the election of the ,council1 and at all meetings of the ,society4 ,a contents sheet of the whole series of ,proceedings may be had on application to the ,secretary1 #bj ,hanover ,square1 ,london1 ,w4 ,,footnotes3 #b ,any reports or papers which may be printed in the ,proceedings will become the ,society's property2 but author or authors will be entitled to receive #ej copies of any such report or paper gratis1 and additional copies1 if required1 at a small charge4 ,mrs ,piper and the ,society for ,psychical ,research ,,chapter ,i ,mrs ,piper's mediumship--,is mediumship a neurosis8 ,mrs ,piper is what the spiritualists call a medium1 and what the ,english psychologists call an automatist1 which is to say1 a person who appears at times to lend her organism to beings imperceptible to our senses1 in order to enable them to manifest themselves to us4 ,i say that it appears to be thus1 not that it is so4 ,it is difficult for many reasons to admit the existence of these problematical beings4 ,we shall deny it or remain sceptical till the day comes when the evidence proves too strong for us4 ,mrs ,piper's mediumship is one of the most perfect which has ever been discovered4 ,in any case1 it is the one which has been the most perseveringly1 lengthily and carefully studied by highly competent men4 ,members of the ,society for ,psychical ,research have studied the phenomena presented by ,mrs ,piper during fifteen consecutive years4 ,they have taken all the precautions necessitated by the strangeness of the case1 the circumstances1 and the surrounding scepticism2 they have faced and minutely weighed all hypotheses4 ,in future the most orthodox psychologists will be unable to ignore these phenomena when constructing their systems2 they will be compelled to examine them and find an explanation for them1 which their preconceived ideas will sometimes render it difficult to do4 ,praise and warm gratitude are due to the men who have studied the case of ,mrs ,piper4 ,but we owe no less to ,mrs ,piper1 who has lent herself to the investigations with perfect good faith and pliability4 ,none of those who have had any continued intercourse with her have a shadow of doubt of her sincerity4 ,she has not taken the view that she was exercising a new kind of priesthood2 she has understood that she was an interesting anomaly for science1 and she has allowed science to study her4 ,a vulgar soul would not have done this4 ,her example1 and also that of ,mlle4 ,smith1 of whom ,professor ,flournoy has lately written1#c deserve to be followed4 ,if the strange phenomena of mediumship have not yet been sufficiently studied by as many persons as could be wished1 scientific men are chiefly to blame for the fact4 ,many of them regard with disfavour facts which upset painfully-erected systems on which they have relied for years4 ,but the mediums are also to blame1 for their vanity is sometimes great1 and their sincerity frequently doubtful4 ,mrs ,piper is ,american4 ,her husband is employed in a large shop in ,boston4 ,although of a home-loving disposition1 ,mrs ,piper has travelled2 she has several times consented to leave her ordinary surroundings in order to prevent all suspicion of fraud2 she has given sittings in ,new ,york and other places1 and has paid a three months' visit to ,england4 ,her education does not appear to have been carried very far4 ,she has doubtless read much1 like all ,american women1 but without method1 and probably very superficially4 ,her language is commonplace1 sometimes even trivial1 but the records do not give me the impression that she is really trivial-minded2 language may be trivial when ideas are not4 ,on the whole1 ,mrs ,piper's personality is attractive4 ,the point which naturally interests the man of science1 and particularly the doctor1 is the state of health and the morbid heredity of ,mrs ,piper4 ,we have very insufficient information about these4 ,i can find no circumstantial report on this important matter anywhere4 ,mrs ,piper was rather seriously ill in #ahij2 a doctor attended her for several consecutive months2 this gentleman was also present at a sitting she gave on the #dth ,december of this same year1 #ahij4 ,it is evident that he was in a position to study ,mrs ,piper closely4 ,dr ,hodgson asked him for a report1 which would have been appended to the other documents4 ,but this doctor had the wisdom of the serpent4 ,he promised1 but changed his mind1 and absolutely refused to furnish any report whatever4 ,dr ,hodgson asked the subject a series of questions with the object of ascertaining the state of health of her immediate ancestors1 particularly from the neuropathic point of view4 ,she belongs to a family which appears to have been very healthy and not in any way subject to nervous maladies4 ,mrs ,piper's own general state of health is even more interesting to our inquiry than that of her ancestors1 since most doctors persist in seeing in mediumship a neurosis1 sister or cousin to hysteria or epilepsy4 ,it is undeniable that many mediums present some physiological peculiarity or other4 ,eusapia ,paladino1 for example1 has a depression of the left parietal bone4 ,but1 on the other hand1 ,mlle4 ,smith of ,geneva1 who has been studied by ,professor ,flournoy1 seems to enjoy health as good as anybody's--even flourishing health4 ,perhaps1 if a thorough search were made1 some defect might be discovered1 but the person who should not betray some inherited peculiarity probably could not be found4 ,as far as ,mrs ,piper is concerned1 she seems to have enjoyed irreproachable health till towards #ahhb or #ahhc4 ,the exact date is not stated4 ,about that time she suffered from a tumour1 caused by a blow from a sledge1 and she feared cancer4 ,this illness brought about the discovery of her mediumship4 ,up to this time absolutely nothing abnormal had occurred to her4 ,her husband's parents had had1 in #ahhd1 a sitting with a medium which had much impressed them4 ,they frequently advised their daughter-in-law to take the advice of some medium who gave medical consultations4 ,to please them1 she went to a blind medium named ,j4 ,r4 ,cocke1 and there she had her first loss of consciousness or trance4 ,but we shall return to this4 ,it is to be concluded that the prescription of the medium had no more influence on the disease than those of ordinary doctors1 for this tumour continued to make ,mrs ,piper's health rather precarious for a long time4 ,she only decided in #ahic to undergo a surgical operation--laparotomy4 ,no complications resulted from it1 and her convalescence was rapid4 ,however1 in #ahie1 the after-effect of this operation was a serious hernia1 which necessitated a second operation in ,february #ahif4 ,she only recovered thoroughly in ,october of the same year4 ,many persons will be disposed to believe that ,mrs ,piper's tumour is the explanation of her mediumship1 particularly as the mediumship only appeared after the tumour4 ,it is rather difficult to prove them wrong4 ,there is1 however1 a fact which seems to indicate that they would be mistaken4 ,when ,mrs ,piper is ill1 her mediumship decreases or becomes less lucid2 she only furnishes incoherent1 fragmentary1 or quite false communications4 ,the syncope or trance1 which is easy when she is well1 becomes difficult or even impossible when she is ill4 ,her health has been good since her last operation1 the syncopes are easy1 and the communications obtained in this state have acquired a degree of coherence and plausibility which was previously wanting4 ,if1 then1 ,mrs ,piper's mediumship was the result of illness1 it is strange that her recovery should have favoured the development and perfecting of this same mediumship4 ,there appears to be a contradiction here4 ,i am not competent regarding the question1 but1 on examining the facts1 ,i can hardly believe that mediumship is a mere neurosis4 ,after all1 are there not famous men of science who declare that genius itself is only a neurosis8 ,in their eyes the bandit is only a sick man2 but the genius also is only a sick man4 ,if it is true that the best and worst in humanity are only opposite faces of the same medal1 we should be tempted to think mankind even more pitiable than we have hitherto believed4 ,,footnotes3 #c ,des ,indes a la ,planete ,mars2 etude sur un cas de somnambulisme1 by ,th4 ,flournoy4 ,pub4 ,alcan1 ,paris4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,dr ,richard ,hodgson--,description of the trance--,mrs ,piper not a good hypnotic subject4 ,before proceeding further1 ,i must ask my readers' permission to introduce ,dr ,hodgson1 the man who has studied ,mrs ,piper's case with the greatest care and with the most perseverance4 ,dr ,richard ,hodgson went to ,america expressly to observe this medium1 and during some fifteen years he has1 so to say1 hardly lost sight of her for a moment4 ,all the persons who have had sittings for a long time past have passed through his hands2 he introduces them by assumed names1 and takes all possible precautions that ,mrs ,piper1 in her normal state1 shall not obtain any information about them4 ,these precautions are now superfluous4 ,mrs ,piper has never had recourse to fraud1 and everyone is thoroughly convinced of the fact4 ,but the slightest relaxation of supervision would lay the most decisive experiments open to suspicion4 ,dr ,hodgson is one of the earliest workers for the ,society for ,psychical ,research4 ,he has been a terrible enemy to fraud all his life4 ,at the time of the formation of the ,society1 ,mme4 ,blavatsky1 foundress of the ,theosophical ,society1 was making herself much talked about4 ,the most extraordinary phenomena were supposed to have occurred at the ,theosophical ,society's headquarters in ,india4 ,dr ,hodgson was sent there to study them impartially4 ,he quickly made the discovery that the whole affair was charlatanry and sleight-of-hand4 ,on his return to ,england he wrote a report--which has not killed ,theosophy1 because even new-born religions have strong vitality--but which has discredited this doctrine for ever in the eyes of thoughtful people4 ,after this master stroke1 ,dr ,hodgson continued to hunt down fraudulent mediums4 ,he learned all their tricks1 and acquired a conjurer's skill4 ,it was he again who discovered the unconscious#d frauds of ,eusapia ,paladino during the sittings which this ,italian medium gave at ,cambridge4 ,when such a man1 after long study of ,mrs ,piper's phenomena1 affirms their validity1 we may believe him4 ,he is not credulous1 nor an enthusiast1 nor a mystic4 ,i have written of him somewhat at length1 because1 by force of circumstances1 his name will often appear in these pages4 ,to return to ,mrs ,piper and the phenomena which specially interest us4 ,mrs ,piper falls into trance spontaneously1 without the intervention of any magnetiser4 ,i shall explain later1 at length1 what must be understood by trance4 ,professor ,charles ,richet was one of the persons who had a sitting with our medium while she was staying at ,cambridge4 ,he describes the trance in these terms3-- ,she is obliged to hold someone's hand in order to go into a trance4 ,she holds the hand several minutes1 silently1 in half-darkness4 ,after some time--from five to fifteen minutes--she is seized with slight spasmodic convulsions1 which increase1 and terminate in a very slight epileptiform attack4 ,passing out of this1 she falls into a state of stupor1 with somewhat stertorous breathing2 this lasts about a minute or two2 then1 all at once1 she comes out of the stupor with a burst of words4 ,her voice is changed2 she is no longer ,mrs ,piper1 but another personage1 ,dr ,phinuit1 who speaks in a loud1 masculine voice in a mingling of negro patois1 ,french1 and ,american dialect4 ,sir ,oliver ,lodge1 ,f4,r4,s41 well-known among ,english men of science1 and at the time ,professor of ,physics at ,liverpool1 describes the opening of the trance in very nearly the same words as ,professor ,richet in the remarkable report which he published in #ahij on the sittings he had with ,mrs ,piper4 ,he also notices the slight epileptiform attack1 although he adds that he is not pretending to speak medically4#e ,the ,phinuit personality1 of which ,professor ,richet speaks in the passage above quoted1 is what the ,spiritualists call a control4 ,by control is meant the mysterious being who is supposed to have temporarily taken possession of the organism of the medium4 ,are these controls only secondary personalities1 or are they1 as they themselves declare1 disincarnated human spirits1 spirits of dead men who come back to communicate with us by using an entranced organism as a machine8 ,in either case they must have a name4 ,phinuit has been one of ,mrs ,piper's principal controls1 but he is far from having been the only one4 ,on the contrary1 they have been legion1 and1 what is strange1 these controls appear to be personalities as distinct from each other as possible1 each with his own style of language1 his belief1 his opinions1 his tricks of speech or manner4 ,mrs ,piper's trance has changed its aspect a little with the development and perfecting of her mediumship4 ,formerly the controls communicated only by using her voice2 then some of them began to write4 ,in some of the sittings one personality communicated through the voice1 while another1 entirely different1 and speaking of utterly different matters1 communicated simultaneously in writing4 ,for some years now the controls have only communicated in writing1 and have used the right hand only4 ,the right arm of the medium is in lively movement1 while the rest of her body lies inert1 leaning forward upon cushions4 ,in a long report which has just appeared1#f ,mr ,james ,hyslop1 ,professor of ,logic and ,ethics at the ,university of ,columbia1 in the ,state of ,new ,york1 describes the beginning of the trance in detail as it now takes place4 ,at the first sitting he had with ,mrs ,piper he seated himself more than a yard from her1 in a position which enabled him to observe attentively all that happened4 ,the medium remained quietly seated in an armchair for three or four minutes4 ,then her head shook and her right eyebrow twitched2 all this time she was trimming her nails4 ,she then leant forward on the cushions which had been placed on the table for her head to rest upon1 and closed and rubbed her eyes2 her face was slightly congested for some instants4 ,she opened her eyes again1 and the ocular globes were visible1 slightly upturned2 she blew her nose1 and began to attend to her nails again4 ,her gaze became slightly fixed4 ,her face once more changed2 the redness disappeared1 and she grew slightly pale4 ,the muscles relaxed1 the mouth was a little drawn on one side1 and the stare became more fixed4 ,finally her mouth opened and the trance came on gently1 like a fainting fit1 without struggle4 ,then ,dr ,hodgson arranged her head on the cushions with her right cheek on her left hand1 so that her face was turned to the left1 and she was unable to see her right hand1 which soon began to write automatically4 ,during the trance the sensibility of ,mrs ,piper's organism to exterior excitation is much blunted4 ,if her arm is pricked1 even severely1 it is withdrawn but slowly2 if a bottle of ammonia is put to her nostrils1 and care is taken that it is inhaled1 her head does not betray sensation by the least movement4 ,one day1 if ,i am not mistaken1 ,dr ,hodgson put a lighted match to her arm1 and asked ,phinuit if he felt it4#g ,yes1 replied ,phinuit1 but not much1 you know4 ,what is it8 ,something cold1 isn't it8 ,these and numerous other experiments show that if sensibility is not abolished1 it is at least very much blunted4 ,it might be concluded from the above that ,mrs ,piper would be an excellent hypnotic subject4 ,she is nothing of the kind4 ,without being precisely refractory to hypnotism1 she is only an indifferently good hypnotic subject4 ,professor ,william ,james of ,harvard has made experiments to elucidate this point4 ,his two first attempts to hypnotise ,mrs ,piper were entirely fruitless4 ,between the second and third1 ,professor ,william ,james asked ,phinuit1 during a mediumistic trance1 to be kind enough to help him to make the subject hypnotisable4 ,phinuit promised2 in fact1 he always promises all that is asked4 ,at the third attempt ,mrs ,piper fell slightly asleep1 but only at the fifth sitting was there a real hypnotic sleep1 accompanied by the usual automatic and muscular phenomena4 ,but it was impossible to obtain anything more4 ,hypnosis and trance1 in ,mrs ,piper1 have no points of resemblance4 ,in the trance1 muscular mobility is extreme4 ,in hypnosis1 just the contrary is the case4 ,if she is ordered during hypnosis to remember what she has said or done1 she remembers4 ,during the trance1 the control has more than once been asked to arrange that ,mrs ,piper should recall1 on waking1 what she had said2 but this has never succeeded4 ,during the mediumistic trance she seems to read the deepest recesses of the souls of those present like a book4 ,during hypnosis there is no trace of this thought-reading4 ,in short1 the mediumistic trance and the hypnotic sleep are not one and the same thing4 ,whatever may be the real nature of the difference1 this difference is so great that it strikes the least attentive observer at once4 ,,footnotes3 #d ,in the opinion of the chief witnesses of the ,cambridge sittings the frauds of ,eusapia ,paladino were not unconscious4 ,mr ,myers said1 in the report to the ,society immediately after the sittings3--,i cannot doubt that we observed much conscious and deliberate fraud1 of a kind which must have needed long practice to bring it to its present level of skill4--,journal of ,society for ,psychical ,research for #ahie1 p4 #acc1 ,trans4 #e ,proc4 of the ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 vi4 p4 #ddd4 #f ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xvi4 #g ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 viii4 p4 #e4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,early trances--,careful first observations by ,professor ,william ,james of ,harvard ,university1 ,massachusetts1 ,u4,s4,a4 ,i have already explained on what occasion ,mrs ,piper had her first trance4 ,suffering from a traumatic tumour1 she had gone to ask advice of a blind medium named ,cocke4 ,this medium gave medical consultations1 but he also asserted that he had the power of developing latent mediumship4 ,at this first sitting ,mrs ,piper felt very strange thrills1 and thought she was going to faint4 ,at the following sitting ,mr ,cocke put his hands on her head4 ,she felt at once that she was on the point of losing consciousness4 ,she saw a flood of light1 as well as unrecognised human faces1 and a hand which fluttered before her face4 ,she does not remember what happened afterwards4 ,but when she woke she was told that a young ,indian girl named ,chlorine had manifested through her organism1 and had given a remarkable proof of survival after death to a person who happened to be present4 ,mrs ,piper was therefore really a medium4 ,her personal friends immediately began to arrange sittings with her4 ,little by little strangers were admitted to this private circle4 ,various self-styled spirits communicated by her means in the earlier days4 ,phinuit1 who later took almost sole possession of ,mrs ,piper's organism1 was far from being alone at first2 his place was disputed4 ,the first controls1 if they themselves are to be believed1 were the actress ,mrs ,siddons1 the musician ,john ,sebastian ,bach1 the poet ,longfellow1 ,commodore ,vanderbilt the multi-millionaire1 and a young ,italian girl named ,loretta ,ponchini4 ,at the outset ,dr ,phinuit1 when he appeared1 confined himself to diagnosing and giving medical advice4 ,he thought everything else beneath him4 ,at last1 one evening1 ,john ,sebastian ,bach announced that he and all his companions were about to concentrate their power on ,dr ,phinuit1 and make him the principal control4 ,naturally we do not know what they did1 but it is certain that from that time ,dr ,phinuit became so much the principal control that he had almost sole possession of ,mrs ,piper's organism for years4 ,as we shall see1 he ceased to confine himself to giving medical consultations4 ,he willingly replied to all questions addressed to him1 and he even talked readily on all sorts of subjects without being questioned at all4 ,the first person of educated intelligence who had an opportunity to examine and study1 although somewhat summarily1 ,mrs ,piper's trance phenomena1 was ,professor ,william ,james of ,harvard ,university4 ,in #ahhf he made a brief report of them1 which he published in the ,proceedings of the ,american ,society for ,psychical ,research4 ,professor ,james did not at first recognise all the importance of the ,piper case4 ,no shorthand report of the sittings was made1 and he did not even take complete notes4 ,however1 he assured himself that fraud had nothing to do with the phenomena1 but without taking all the minute precautions which others have since taken4 ,he satisfied himself that here was an interesting mystery1 and says so in his report1 but he left the charge of looking for the key to others4 ,but ,i shall give an account of the sittings of ,professor ,james1 in the first place because it would be improper to neglect even the superficial studies of a man of such eminence1 and secondly1 because they will give my readers a clear idea of the phenomena4#h ,professor ,james made ,mrs ,piper's acquaintance in the autumn of #ahhe in the following way4 ,his mother-in-law1 ,mrs ,gibbens1 had heard a friend speak of ,mrs ,piper1 and as she had never seen a medium1 she asked for a sitting out of curiosity4 ,mrs ,gibbens1 who went sceptical1 returned rather impressed4 ,she had heard a number of private details which she believed were unknown outside her family4 ,on the day following ,professor ,james's sister-in-law went in her turn to see ,mrs ,piper1 and obtained even better results than her mother4 ,for example1 the inquirer had placed a letter in ,italian on the medium's forehead4 ,it must be observed that ,mrs ,piper is entirely ignorant of that language4 ,nevertheless1 ,phinuit gave a number of perfectly correct details about the writer of the letter4 ,the mystery became interesting1 as the young ,italian who had written it was only known to two people in the whole ,united ,states4 ,later on1 at other sittings1 ,phinuit gave the exact name of this young man1 which he had been unable to do at first4 ,professor ,james's attitude when these facts were related to him can be imagined4 ,he did what most of us do1 or have done4 ,he played the esprit fort1 joked his relatives about their credulity1 and thought that women were decidedly deficient in critical spirit4 ,his curiosity was none the less awakened4 ,some days after1 in the company of his wife1 and having taken all possible precautions that ,mrs ,piper should not know his name or intentions beforehand1 he went and asked her for a sitting4 ,intimate details1 principally about ,mrs ,james's family1 were repeated4 ,others even more circumstantial were given4 ,what was the least easily obtained was just what could have been learned with the greatest facility if ,mrs ,piper had acquired these details fraudulently or by normal means1 namely1 proper names4 ,professor ,james was the first to notice a fact which a large number of observers have since remarked4 ,the impression that the names are shouted to ,phinuit by a spirit is unavoidable4 ,phinuit1 who is to transmit them1 hears imperfectly1 doubtless on account of his position1 which all the controls describe as very uncomfortable and painful--the organism of the medium seems to plunge the controls into a semi-somnolence4 ,thus ,phinuit mangles the names he repeats4 ,it appears that the communicating spirit is conscious of this and corrects4 ,phinuit repeats the name thus several times1 and very often only succeeds in giving it exactly after several attempts4 ,it even sometimes happens that a name cannot be given all at a sitting1 but then it is generally given at a subsequent one4 ,thus1 at this first sitting of ,professor ,james1 the name of his father-in-law1 ,gibbens1 was first given as ,niblin1 and then as ,giblin4 ,professor ,james had lost a child a year before4 ,he was mentioned1 and his name1 ,herman1 was given as ,herrin4 ,but the details which accompanied the enunciation of the name prevented mistake1 on the part of the sitters1 about the person intended4 ,professor ,james brought away from this first sitting the conclusion that unless ,mrs ,piper1 by some chance inexplicable to him1 knew his own and his wife's families intimately1 she must be possessed of supernormal powers4 ,in short1 his first scepticism was shaken1 and he had twelve further sittings with ,mrs ,piper in the course of the winter4 ,moreover1 he obtained circumstantial details from relatives and friends who likewise had sittings4 ,the following are some examples of ,phinuit's clairvoyance4#i ,professor ,james's mother-in-law had1 on her return from ,europe1 lost her bank-book4 ,at a sitting held soon afterwards ,phinuit was asked if he could help her to find it4 ,he told her exactly where it was1 and there it was found4 ,at another sitting1 ,phinuit said to ,professor ,james1 who this time was not accompanied by ,mrs ,james1 ,your child has a boy named ,robert ,f4 as a playfellow in our world4 ,the ,fs4 were cousins of ,mrs ,james1 who lived in a distant town4 ,on returning home ,professor ,james said to his wife1 ,your cousins the ,fs4 have lost a child1 haven't they8 ,but ,phinuit made a mistake about the sex2 he said it was a boy4 ,mrs ,james confirmed the perfect exactness of ,phinuit's information2 her husband had been wrong4 ,at the second sitting which ,mrs ,gibbens had she was told among other things that one of her daughters1 mentioned by name1 had at the time a bad pain in her back1 to which she was by no means subject4 ,the detail was found to be exact4 ,on another occasion ,phinuit announced to ,mrs ,james and her brother1 before the arrival of any telegram1 the death of their aunt1 which had just occurred in ,new ,york4 ,it is true that this death was momentarily expected4 ,at another sitting ,phinuit said to ,professor ,james1 ,you have just killed a grey and white cat with ether4 ,the wretched animal spun round and round a long time before dying4 ,this was quite true4 ,phinuit1 again1 told ,mrs ,james that her aunt in ,new ,york1 the one whose death he had announced1 had written her a letter warning her against all kinds of mediums4 ,and he sketched the old lady's character1 not very respectfully1 in a most amusing way4 ,i quote these examples to give an idea of the kind of information furnished by ,mrs ,piper's controls4 ,but it must not be believed that this is all4 ,the controls do not need to be entreated to speak4 ,phinuit is particularly loquacious1 and he often talks for an hour on end4 ,his remarks are frequently incoherent1 and often also obviously false4 ,but1 at the very least1 in the good sittings1 truthfulness and exactitude much preponderate1 whatever may be the source from which ,phinuit obtains his facts2 whether he gets them from disincarnated spirits1 as he asserts2 whether he reads them in the consciousness or sub-consciousness of the sitter1 or whether they are furnished him by what he calls the influence which the persons to whom the objects presented to him belonged have left upon them4 ,i have forgotten to say that ,phinuit asks to have brought to him objects of some sort which have belonged to the persons about whom he is consulted4 ,he feels the objects1 and says at once1 ,i feel the influence of such-a-one2 he is dead or he is alive2 such a thing has happened to him4 ,detail follows on detail1 for the most part exact4 ,as ,i have already said when speaking of ,professor ,james1 ,phinuit showed intimate knowledge of ,mrs ,james's family4 ,now1 there were no members of the family in the neighbourhood2 some were dead1 others in ,california1 and others in the ,state of ,maine4 ,what ,i have said will suffice to give the reader a first idea of the general features of the phenomena4 ,i shall be able in future1 while reporting the facts1 to examine as ,i proceed the hypotheses which they suggest4 ,,footnotes3 #h ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 vi4 p4 #fea4 #i ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 vi4 p4 #feg4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,the hypothesis of fraud--,the hypothesis of muscle reading--,influence4 ,when phenomena of this nature are related1 the first hypothesis that occurs to the reader's mind is that of fraud4 ,the medium is an impostor4 ,his trick may be ingenious and carefully dissimulated1 but it is certainly merely a trick4 ,therefore1 in order to pursue these studies with any good results1 this hypothesis must be disposed of once for all4 ,now this is not easy4 ,most men are so made that they have a high opinion of their own perspicuity1 but a very unfavourable one generally of that of other men4 ,they always believe that if they had been there they could have quickly discovered the imposture4 ,consequently1 no precaution must be omitted2 all safeguards must be employed1 and it will be seen that the observers of ,mrs ,piper's phenomena have not neglected to do this4 ,professor ,james concealed the identity of as many as he could of the sitters whom he introduced to ,mrs ,piper4 ,personally1 he was soon convinced that fraud had nothing to do with the phenomena4 ,but the point was to convince others4 ,it occured to a member of the ,society for ,psychical ,research that it would be a good plan to cause ,mrs ,piper to be followed by detectives when she went out1 and not only herself1 but all the other members of her family4 ,a singular idea1 in my opinion4 ,however1 if detectives had not been employed1 many people would even to-day believe that it would be possible to clear up the ,piper mystery in a very short time1 in the most natural way in the world4 ,this is why ,dr ,hodgson1 on his arrival in ,america1 set detectives on the tracks of ,mr and ,mrs ,piper4 ,absolutely nothing was discovered2 ,mr and ,mrs ,piper asked nobody indiscreet questions1 made no suspicious journeys1 did not visit cemeteries to read the names on graves4 ,finally1 ,mrs ,piper1 whose correspondence is at all times limited1 received no letters from ,intelligence ,agencies4 ,later on1 the method taken to make sure of her good faith was revealed to ,mrs ,piper4 ,she was not at all offended2 on the contrary1 she saw how absolutely legitimate was the precaution4 ,this is another proof of her uprightness and intelligence4 ,again1 the idea that ,mrs ,piper could obtain the information she gives by means of inquiries made abroad is a priori absurd to anyone who has studied the phenomena with any care4 ,her sitters1 whom she received under assumed names1 to the number of several hundreds1 came from all points of the ,united ,states1 from ,england1 and even from other parts of ,europe4 ,the greater number passed through the hands of ,professor ,james and ,dr ,hodgson1 and all necessary precautions were taken that ,mrs ,piper should see them for the first time only a few moments before the commencement of the trance4 ,indeed1 they were often only introduced after the trance had begun4 ,these precautions have never injured the results4 ,the sittings1 at least those which were not spoilt by the medium's state of health1 have always been marked by a large number of perfectly accurate details4 ,if ,mrs ,piper obtained the information through spies in her employment1 these spies would be obliged to send her private details about all the families in the ,united ,states and ,europe1 since she hardly ever knows to whom she will give a sitting the next day4 ,dr ,hodgson arranges for her4 ,formerly ,professor ,james did this1 at least in a large number of cases4 ,now the scientific honesty of ,dr ,hodgson or ,professor ,james 7,i mention this only for foreign readers who may not be acquainted with the reputation of these two gentlemen7 can no more be suspected than that of a ,charcot1 a ,berthelot1 or a ,pasteur4 ,then1 what interest could they have in deceiving us8 ,these experiments had cost them considerable sums1 not to speak of time and trouble2 they have never profited by them4 ,again1 ,mrs ,piper is without fortune4 ,she would not have the means to pay such a police as she would need4 ,she is paid for her sittings1 it is true2 she gains about two hundred pounds a year1 but such a police service would cost her thousands4 ,but there was an excellent way of putting the hypothesis of fraud out of question2 it was to take ,mrs ,piper out of her habitual environment1 to a country where she knew nobody4 ,this was done4 ,certain members of the ,society for ,psychical ,research invited her to ,england1 to give sittings in their houses4 ,she consented without any difficulty4 ,she arrived in ,england on #aith ,november #ahhi1 on the ,cunard ,company's steamer ,scythia4 ,frederic ,myers1 whose recent loss is deplored by psychology1 should have gone to the docks and have taken her to his house at ,cambridge4 ,but at the last moment he was called to ,edinburgh1 and asked his friend1 ,professor ,oliver ,lodge1 of whom we have already spoken1 to receive ,mrs ,piper in his stead4 ,professor ,lodge installed her in an hotel with her two little girls who came with her4 ,the same evening ,mr ,myers arrived1 and took her to his house next day4 ,experiments at ,cambridge began at once4 ,this is what ,mr ,myers says about them3--#aj ,i am convinced that ,mrs ,piper1 on her arrival in ,england1 brought with her a very slender knowledge of ,english affairs or ,english people4 ,the servant who attended on her and on her two young children was chosen by myself1 and was a young woman from a country village whom ,i had full reason to believe both trustworthy and also quite ignorant of my own or my friends' affairs4 ,for the most part ,i had myself not determined upon the persons whom ,i would invite to sit with her4 ,i chose these sitters in great measure by chance2 several of them were not resident in ,cambridge1 and except in one or two cases1 where anonymity would have been hard to preserve1 ,i brought them to her under false names1 sometimes introducing them only when the trance had already begun4 ,professor ,oliver ,lodge in his turn invited ,mrs ,piper to come and give sittings at his home in ,liverpool4 ,she went1 and remained from #ahth ,december to #bgth ,december #ahhi4 ,during this time she gave at least two sittings a day1 which fatigued her much4 ,professor ,lodge gave up for the time all other work to study her4 ,he enumerates at length all the precautions he took to prevent fraud4 ,he also declares that ,mrs ,piper1 who was perfectly aware of the watch kept upon her1 never showed the least displeasure1 and thought it quite natural4 ,he wondered whether1 by chance1 she might not have among her luggage some book containing biographies of men of the day1 and asked permission to look through her trunks4 ,she consented with the best possible grace4 ,but ,professor ,lodge found nothing suspicious4 ,mrs ,piper also handed over to be read the greater number of the letters she received2 they were not numerous2 about three a week4 ,the servants in the house were all new2 they knew nothing of the family's private affairs1 and thus could not inform the medium about them4 ,besides1 ,mrs ,piper never tried to question them4 ,mrs ,lodge1 who was very sceptical at first1 kept guard over her own speech1 so as not to give any scraps of information4 ,the family ,bible 7on the first pages of which1 according to custom1 memorable events are recorded7 and the photographic albums were locked away4 ,professor ,lodge1 like the others1 presented most of his sitters under false names4 ,finally1 he affirms that ,mrs ,piper's attitude never justified the least suspicion2 she was dignified1 reserved1 and not in any way indiscreet4 ,in short1 during the fifteen years the experiments have continued1 all the suggestions made by sceptical and sometimes violent objectors have been kept in view1 that the fraud might be discovered1 if fraud there were4 ,all has been in vain4 ,the explanation of the phenomena must consequently be sought elsewhere4 ,as for the trance itself1 all those who have seen it agree in saying that it is genuine and in no way feigned4 ,the hypothesis of fraud being disposed of1 recourse has been had to another1 which it has also become necessary to abandon--that of the reading of muscular movements4 ,it appears that the thought-readers who exhibit themselves on the platform accomplish their wonderful feats by interpreting1 with remarkable intelligence1 sharpened by long practice1 the unconscious movements of the persons whose wrists they are holding4 ,now it is true that formerly ,mrs ,piper became entranced while holding both hands1 or at least one hand1 of the sitter4 ,she kept their hands in hers during most of the trance4 ,but ,professor ,lodge says this was far from being always the case4 ,she often dropped the sitter's hands and lost contact with them for half an hour at a time4 ,phinuit1 or some other control1 nevertheless continued to furnish exact information4 ,shall we say that while he was holding hands he had laid in a provision of knowledge for the whole half-hour8 ,seriously we cannot4 ,but as this objection had often been made1 the sitters endeavoured to avoid contact with the medium4 ,for a long time ,mrs ,piper has fallen into the trance without holding anyone's hand4 ,her whole body reposes1 plunged in a deep sleep1 except the right hand1 which writes with giddy rapidity and only rarely endeavours to touch the persons present4 ,professor ,hyslop1 in the report which has just appeared1#aa affirms that he avoided the slightest contact with the medium with all possible care1 and yet we shall see farther on how exact were the facts he obtained1 since he believes that he has established the identity of his dead father without the possibility of a doubt4 ,therefore the hypothesis of thought-reading by means of muscular indications must also be put aside4 ,finally1 ,phinuit affirms that the objects presented to him1 and which he touches1 furnish him with information about their former possessors1 thanks to the influence such persons have left on the articles2 and in a multitude of cases we should be almost forced to admit that it may be so4 ,but here we are already plunged into depths of mystery4 ,what can this influence be8 ,we know nothing about it4 ,must we believe in it8 ,must we believe ,phinuit when he says that he obtains his information sometimes from the influence left upon the objects1 sometimes directly from the mouths of the disembodied spirits8 ,before reaching that point1 other hypotheses must be examined4 ,,footnotes3 #aj ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 vi4 p4 #dch4 #aa ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xvi4 ,,chapter ,v ,a sitting with ,mrs ,piper--,the hypothesis of thought-transference--,incidents4 ,the reader may not be displeased to have a specimen of these strange conversations between human beings and the invisible beings1 who assert that they are the disincarnated spirits of those who day by day quit this world of woe4 ,it will not be difficult to give the reader a specimen of them4 ,at least one half of the fourteen or fifteen hundred pages dedicated to the ,piper case in the ,proceedings of the ,society for ,psychical ,research are composed of reports of sittings1 either taken down in shorthand or given in great detail4 ,in some of these reports even the most insignificant exclamations of those present are noted4 ,i have chosen the #dgth of the sittings which took place in ,england1 not because it is peculiarly interesting1 but because ,professor ,lodge's published report of it is not too long1 and ,i have no room for more extended developments4 ,the account of this sitting will perhaps disappoint some readers4 ,what6 they will say1 is that all that spirits who return from the other world have to say to us8 ,they talk as we do4 ,they speak of the same things4 ,they are not spirits4 ,this conclusion would perhaps be too hasty4 ,i do not assert that they are spirits or that they return from another world4 ,i know nothing about it4 ,but if this other world existed we should expect that there would not be an abyss between it and our own4 ,nature makes no leaps4 ,that is surely a true principle in1 and for1 all worlds4 ,we have a means1 although an imperfect one1 of endeavouring to discover if the communicators are really returning spirits4 ,it is to ask them to prove their identity by relating as large a number of facts as possible concerning their life upon earth4 ,the investigators of the ,piper case have for fifteen years devoted themselves to this task1 apparently easy1 in reality difficult and ungrateful4 ,in the earlier experiments in the ,piper case the conversation almost always takes place between the sitters and ,dr ,phinuit4 ,dr ,phinuit does not willingly give up his post1 though he does so sometimes4 ,when he is giving information which he says he has received from other spirits he sometimes talks in the third person2 sometimes1 on the contrary1 he reports word for word in the first person4 ,this detail must not be forgotten in reading the reports4 ,the following is a report of the #dgth sitting in ,england4 ,the sitters are ,professor ,oliver ,lodge and his brother ,alfred ,lodge4 ,the latter takes notes4 ,the phrases between parentheses are remarks made by ,professor ,lodge after the sitting4#ab ,phinuit4--,captain1#ac do you know that as ,i came#ad ,i met the medium going out1 and she's crying4 ,why is that8 ,o4 ,l4--,well1 the fact is she's separated from her children for a few days and she is feeling rather low about it4 ,phinuit4--,how are you1 ,alfred8 ,i've your mother's influence strong4 7,pause47 ,by ,george6 that's ,aunt ,anne's ring 7feeling ring ,i had put on my hand just before sitting7 given over to you4 ,and ,olly dear1#ae that's one of the last things ,i ever gave you4 ,it was one of the last things ,i said to you in the body when ,i gave it you for ,mary4 ,i said1 ',for her1 through you4' ,this is precisely accurate4 ,o4 ,l4--,yes1 ,i remember perfectly4 ,phinuit4--,i tell you ,i know it1 ,i shall never forget it4 ,keep it in memory of me1 for ,i am not dead4 ,each spirit is not so dim 787 that it cannot recollect its belongings in the body4 ,they attract us if there has been anything special about them4 ,i tell you1 my boy1 ,i can see it just as plain as if ,i were in the body4 ,it was the last thing ,i gave you1 for her1 through you1 always in remembrance of me4 7,further conversation and advice ending1 ,convince yourself1#af and let others do the same4 ,we are all liable to mistakes1 but you can see for yourself4 ,there's a gentleman wants to speak to you47 ,mr ,e4#ag--,lodge1 how are you8 ,i tell you ,i'm living1 not dead4 ,that's me4 ,you know me1 don't you8 ,o4 ,l4--,yes1 delighted to see you again4 ,mr ,e4--,don't give it up1#ah ,lodge4 ,cling to it4 ,it's the best thing you have4 ,it's coarse in the beginning1 but it can be ground down fine4 ,you'll know best and correct 7874 ,it can only come through a trance4 ,you have to put her in a trance4 ,you've got to do it that way to make yourself known4 ,o4 ,l4--,is it bad for the medium8 ,mr ,e4--,it's the only way1 ,lodge4 ,in one sense it's bad1 but in another it's good4 ,it's her work4 ,if ,i take possession of the medium's body and she goes out1 then ,i can use her organism to tell the world important truths4 ,there is an infinite power above us4 ,lodge1 believe it fully4 ,infinite over all1 most marvellous4 ,one can tell a medium1 she's like a ball of light4 ,you look as dark and material as possible1 but we find two or three lights shining4 ,it's like a series of rooms with candles at one end4 ,must use analogy to express it4 ,when you need a light you use it1 when you have finished you put it out4 ,they are like transparent windows to see through4 ,lodge1 it's a puzzle4 ,it's a puzzle to us here in a way1 though we understand it better than you4 ,i work at it hard4 ,i do4 ,i'd give anything ,i possess to find out4 ,i don't care for material things now1 our interest is much greater4 ,i'm studying hard how to communicate2 it's not easy4 ,but it's only a matter of a short time before ,i shall be able to tell the world all sorts of things through one medium or another4 ,and so on for some time4 ,lodge1 keep up your courage1 there's a quantity to hope for yet4 ,hold it up for a time4 ,don't be in a hurry4 ,get facts2 no matter what they call you1 go on investigating4 ,test to fullest4 ,assure yourself1 then publish4 ,it will be all right in the end--no question about it4 ,it's true4 ,o4 ,l4--,you have seen my ,uncle ,jerry1 haven't you8#ai ,mr ,e4--,yes1 ,i met him a little while ago--a very clever man--had an interesting talk with him4 ,o4 ,l4--,what sort of person is this ,dr ,phinuit8 ,mr ,e4--,dr ,phinuit is a peculiar type of man4 ,he goes about continually1 and is thrown in with everybody4 ,he is eccentric and quaint1 but good-hearted4 ,i wouldn't do the things he does for anything4 ,he lowers himself sometimes--it's a great pity4 ,he has very curious ideas about things and people2 he receives a great deal about people from themselves 7871 and he gets expressions and phrases that one doesn't care for--vulgar phrases he picks up by meeting uncanny people through the medium4 ,these things tickle him1 and he goes about repeating them4 ,he has to interview a great number of people1 and has no easy berth of it4 ,a high type of man couldn't do the work he does4 ,but he is a good-hearted old fellow4 ,good-bye1 ,lodge6 ,here's the doctor coming4 ,o4 ,l4--,good-bye1 ,e46 ,glad to have had a chat with you4 ,doctors voice reappears4#bj ,phinuit4--,this ring belongs to your aunt4 ,your ,uncle ,jerry tells me to ask4444 ,by the way1 do you know ,mr ,e4's been here2 did you hear him8 ,o4 ,l4--,yes1 ,i've had a long talk with him4 ,phinuit4--,wants you to ask ,uncle ,bob about his cane4 ,he whittled it out himself4 ,it has a crooked handle with ivory on the top4 ,bob has it1 and has cut initials in it4 ,there is a stick1 but description inaccurate4 ,he has the skin also1 and the ring4 ,and he remembers ,bob killing the cat and tying its tail to the fence to see him kick before he died4 ,he and ,bob and a lot of the fellows all together in ,smith's field1 ,i think he said4 ,bob knew ,smith4 ,and the way they played tit-tat-too on the window pane on ,all ,hallows' ,eve1 and they got caught that night too4 7,at ,barking1 where my uncles lived as children1 there is a field called ,smith's field1 but my ,uncle does not remember the cat incident47 ,aunt ,anne wants to know about her sealskin cloak4 ,who was it went to ,finland1 or ,norway8 ,o4 ,l4--,don't know4 ,phinuit4--,do you know ,mr ,clark--a tall1 dark man1 in the body8#ba ,o4 ,l4--,i think so4 ,phinuit4--,his brother wants to send his love to him4 ,your ,uncle ,jerry1 do you know1 has been talking to ,mr ,e4 ,they have become very friendly4 ,e4 has been explaining things to him4 ,uncle ,jerry says he will tell all the facts1 and all about families near1 and so on1 that he can recall4 ,he says if you will remember all this and tell his brother1 he will know4 ,if he doesn't fully understand he must come and see me himself1 and ,i will tell him4 ,how's ,mary8#bb ,o4 ,l4--,middling2 not very well4 ,phinuit4--,glad she's going away4 ,she was1 to the ,continent2 but ,mrs ,piper knew it4 ,william#bc is glad4 ,his wife used to be very distressed about him4 ,you remember his big chair where he used to sit and think8 ,o4 ,l4--,yes1 very well4 ,phinuit4--,he often goes and sits there now4#bd ,takes it easy1 he says4 ,he used to sit opposite a window sometimes with his head in his hands1 and think and think and think4 7,this was at his office47 ,he has grown younger in looks1 and much happier4 ,it was ,alec that fell through a hole in the boat1 ,alexander ,marshall1 her first father4#be 7,correct1 as before47 ,where's ,thompson8 ,the one that lost the purse8 ,o4 ,l4--,yes1 ,i know4 ,phinuit4--,well1 ,i met his brother1 and he sent love to all--to sister ,fanny1 he told me especially4 ,he tried to say it just as he was going out1 but had no time--was too weak4 ,o4 ,l4--,oh1 yes1 we just heard him4 ,phinuit4--,oh1 you did8 ,that's all right4 ,she's an angel2 he has seen her to-day4 ,tell ,ike ,i'm very grateful to him4 ,tell ,ike the girls will come out all right4 ,ted's mother and4444 ,and how's ,susie8 ,give ,susie my love4 ,o4 ,l4--,i couldn't find that ,mr ,stevenson you gave me a message to4 ,what's his name8 ,phinuit4--,what6 little ,minnie ,stevenson8 ,don't you know his name is ,henry8 ,yes1 ,henry ,stevenson4 ,mother in spirit too1 not far away4#bf ,give me that watch4 7,trying to open it47 ,here1 open it4 ,take it out of its case4 ,jerry says he took his knife once and made some little marks with it up here1 up here near the handle1 near the ring1 some little cuts in the watch4 ,look at it afterwards in a good light and you will see them4 7,there is a little engraved landscape in the place described1 but some of the sky-lines have been cut unnecessarily deep1 ,i think1 apparently out of mischief or idleness4 ,certainly ,i knew nothing of this1 and had never had the watch out of its case before4--,o4 ,j4 ,l47 ,this example shows the kind of information given4 ,much of it is true2 other assertions are unverifiable1 which does not prove that they are untrue2 others contain both truth and errors2 finally1 there are certainly some which are entirely untrue4 ,for this reason these transcendental conversations very much resemble the conversations of incarnated human beings4 ,errare humanum est4 ,and it would appear that the heavy corpse we drag about with us is not alone to blame when we sacrifice to ,error4 ,but1 since the hypothesis of fraud and of unconscious muscular movement may not be invoked1 where shall we find the source of the mass of exact information ,mrs ,piper gives us8 ,the simplest hypothesis1 after those we have been obliged to set aside1 consists in believing that the medium obtains her information from the minds of those present4 ,she must be able to read their souls1 as others read in a book2 thought-transference must take place between her and them4 ,with these data1 she would be supposed to construct marionettes so perfect1 so life-like1 that a large number of sitters leave the sittings persuaded that they have communicated with their dead relatives4 ,if this were true1 the fact alone would be a miracle4 ,no genius1 neither the divine ,homer1 nor the calm ,tacitus1 nor ,shakespeare1 would have been a creator of men to compare with ,mrs ,piper4 ,even were it thus1 science would never have met with a subject more worthy of its attention than this woman4 ,but the greater number of those who have had sittings with ,mrs ,piper affirm that the information furnished was not in their consciousness4 ,if they themselves furnished it1 the medium must have taken it1 not from their consciousness1 but from their subconsciousness1 from the most hidden depths of their souls1 from that abyss in which lie buried1 far out of our reach1 facts which have occupied our minds for a moment even very superficially1 and have left therein1 it appears1 indelible traces4 ,thus the mystery grows deeper and deeper4 ,but this is not all4 ,at every moment ,mrs ,piper gives the sitters details which they maintain that they never could have known4 ,consequently she must read them instantaneously in the minds of persons1 sometimes very far distant1 who do know them4 ,this is the telepathic hypothesis1 upon which for the moment we will not insist1 for we shall be obliged to study it carefully later on4 ,professor ,lodge has made a list1 necessarily incomplete1 of incidents mentioned by the medium in the ,english sittings which the sitters had entirely forgotten1 or which they had every reason to suppose they had never known1 or which it was impossible they should ever have known4 ,this list contains forty-two such incidents4 ,to give my readers some idea of their nature1 ,i will quote four or five of them4 ,i will take these incidents from the history of the ,lodge family1 in order to avoid introducing new personages unnecessarily4 ,at the #afth sitting1#bg on ,november #cj1 #ahhi1 ,phinuit tells ,professor ,lodge that one of his sons has something wrong in the calf of his leg4 ,now at the time the child was merely complaining of pain in his heel when he walked4 ,the doctor consulted had pronounced it rheumatism1 and this was vaguely running in ,dr ,lodge's mind4 ,however1 some time after the sitting1 in ,may #ahij1 the pain localised itself in the calf4 ,now there could be no auto-suggestion in this case1 for ,professor ,lodge tells us he had said nothing to his son4 ,at the #ddth sitting1#bh ,professor ,lodge asked his ,uncle ,jerry1 who is supposed to be communicating1 ,do you remember anything when you were young8 ,phinuit 7for him7 replies at once1 ,yes1 ,i pretty nigh got drowned4 ,tried to swim the creek1 and we fellows all of us got into a little boat4 ,we got tipped over4 ,he will remember it4 ,ask ,bob if he remembers that about swimming the creek2 he ought to remember it4 ,uncle ,robert1 consulted1 remembers the incident perfectly1 but gives different details4 ,this sort of confusion about the details of a distant event1 the partial memory1 occurs often to all of us4 ,thus disincarnated beings would seem to resemble incarnate ones on this point also4 ,apparently it was not the boat which upset1 but the two young ,lodges1 ,jerry and ,robert1 on getting out of it1 began some horse-play on the bank1 and fell into the stream4 ,they were obliged to swim1 fully dressed and against a strong current1 which was carrying them under a mill-wheel4 ,at the #dfth sitting1#bi ,phinuit reports that the last visit the father of ,professor ,lodge paid was to this ,uncle ,robert1 and that he didn't feel very well4 ,professor ,lodge knew nothing of this fact1 or1 if he had once known it1 had so completely forgotten it that he was obliged to apply to one of his cousins to know if it was true4 ,the cousin replied in confirmation of the fact4 ,at the #hbnd sitting1#cj ,uncle ,jerry1 speaking of his brother ,frank1 who is still living1 expresses himself thus about an event of their childhood1-- ,yes1 certainly6 ,frank was full of life2 he crawled under the thatch once and hid4 ,what a lot of mischief he was capable of doing4 ,he would do anything2 go without shirt1 swop hats1 anything4 ,there was a family near named ,rodney4 ,he pounded one of their boys named ,john4 ,frank got the best of it1 and the boy ran2 how he ran6 ,his father threatened ,frank1 but he escaped2 he always escaped4 ,he could crawl through a smaller hole than another4 ,he could shin up a tree quick as a monkey4 ,what a boy he was6 ,i remember his fishing4 ,i remember that boy wading up to his middle4 ,i thought he'd catch his death of cold2 but he never did4 ,this ,uncle ,frank was aged about #hj1 and was living in ,cornwall3 the general description is characteristic4 ,professor ,lodge wrote to him to ask if the above details were correct4 ,he replied1 giving exact details3 ,i recollect very well my fight with a boy in the corn field4 ,it took place when ,i was ten years old1 and ,i suppose a bit of a boy-bully4 ,on the #bith ,november#ca ,professor ,henry ,sidgwick1 of ,cambridge1 had a sitting with ,mrs ,piper4 ,it was arranged that ,mrs ,sidgwick1 who stayed at home1 should do something specially marked during the sitting4 ,mrs ,piper was to be asked to describe it1 to prove her power of seeing at a distance4 ,phinuit1 when questioned1 replied1 ,she is sitting in a large chair1 she is talking to another lady1 and she is wearing something on her head4 ,these details were perfectly correct4 ,mrs ,sidgwick was sitting in a large chair1 talking to ,miss ,alice ,johnson1 and she had a blue handkerchief on her head4 ,however1 ,phinuit was wrong about the description of the room in which this happened4 ,,footnotes3 #ab ,for detailed report of these sittings see ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 vi4 #ac ,at the first sitting in ,liverpool there was some talk of a sea captain4 ,phinuit1 who was rather fond of nicknames1 jocularly attached the epithet ,captain to ,professor ,lodge4 #ad ,i4e41 ,as ,i entered the medium's organism4 #ae ,here ,phinuit is supposed to be reporting in the first person words of ,aunt ,anne1 treated as if present4 #af ,of a future life4 #ag ,phinuit seems to have left1 and ,mr ,e4 takes his place4 ,this ,mr ,e4 was an intimate friend of ,professor ,lodge2 he had appeared at a preceding sitting and had offered proofs of his identity1 which were verified later4 ,professor ,lodge recognised his mode of address4 ,phinuit1 we remember1 always addressed ,professor ,lodge as ,captain4 #ah ,the investigation into psychic matters4 #ai ,in accordance with a statement previously made by ,phinuit4 #bj ,these changes in the medium's voice are very surprising4 ,if there is fraud in the case1 ,mrs ,piper must be the most accomplished actress who has hitherto appeared4 #ba ,i4e41 still living4 #bb ,mrs ,lodge4 #bc ,mrs ,lodge's step-father4 #bd ,these assertions1 that spirits return to the places they have lived in1 and unknown to us1 do what they were accustomed to do1 are very odd4 ,but the literature of the subject is full of such accounts4 #be ,mrs ,lodge's father4 ,phinuit had alluded to this accident in a previous sitting1 but without being able to explain if it had happened to ,mrs ,lodge's father or her step-father4 #bf ,in these communications the self-styled spirits always affirm that the dead get farther and farther by degrees from our universe1 in accordance with time1 and their own progress4 ,the ,stevenson episode1 referred to above1 is described on page #ga4 #bg ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 vi4 p4 #dfg4 #bh ,ibid4 p4 #ejc4 #bi ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 vi4 p4 #ead4 #cj ,ibid41 p4 #edi4 #ca ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 p4 #fbg4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,phinuit--,his probable origin--,his character--,what he says of himself--,his ,french--,his medical diagnosis--,is he merely a secondary personality of ,mrs ,piper8 ,an interesting question arises at the point we have reached--,what is ,phinuit8 ,whence his name8 ,whence does he come8 ,should we believe that he is a disincarnated human spirit1 as he himself obstinately affirms1 or must we think him a secondary personality of ,mrs ,piper8 ,if he is a spirit1 that spirit is not endowed with a love of truth1 as we shall see1 and on this point he too much resembles many of ourselves4 ,in any case we may notice in passing the obstinacy of these controls in wishing to pass for disincarnated spirits2 the fact is at least worthy of attention4 ,i am willing to allow that this may be a suggestion imposed by the medium on her secondary personalities2 but ,i ask myself why this suggestion can never be annulled4 ,numerous efforts have been made1 above all in the case of ,phinuit2 they have ended only in provoking jests from the disincarnated doctor1 who absolutely insists on remaining a spirit4 ,however this may be1 we will here endeavour to discover the origin of this control4 ,it will not have been forgotten that ,mrs ,piper's mediumship blossomed forth1 if ,i may thus express myself1 during the sittings she had with the blind medium ,j4 ,r4 ,cocke4 ,now this medium was then1 and has1 ,i believe1 always since been1 controlled by a certain doctor called ,albert ,g4 ,finnett1 a ,french doctor of the old school which produced ,sangrado4 ,this old barber-surgeon1 as his medium calls him1 is very modest4 ,he says that he is nobody particular2 ,i hope he does not mean to say that he resembles ,jules ,verne's ,captain ,nemo4 ,there is a considerable resemblance between this name ,finnett and the ,english pronunciation of ,phinuit4 ,therefore we may well inquire whether the medium ,cocke1 when developing ,mrs ,piper's mediumship1 may not also have made her a present of his control4 ,dr ,hodgson has questioned ,phinuit on this point several times4 ,but ,phinuit asserts that he does not know what is meant1 and that ,mrs ,piper's is the first human organism through which he has manifested4 ,i will not try to settle the question4 ,if ,phinuit has not varied about his own name1 he has certainly varied in its orthography4 ,till #ahhg1 whenever he consented to sign his name1 he signed ,phinnuit1 with two n's4 ,dr ,hodgson accuses himself of being the originator of the orthographic variation4 ,he carelessly took the habit of writing ,phinuit with one n1 and gave this orthography to his friends4 ,mrs ,piper1 in the normal state1 often had occasion to see the name thus written4 ,and so1 in the first half of #ahhh1 ,phinuit also began to write his name with one n4 ,dr ,hodgson only discovered the mistake later on looking over his notes4 ,the reader will perhaps be astonished that ,i speak of the ,phinuit personality as if it were already established that the hypothetical doctor were really a spirit2 that is to say1 a personality as distinct from that of the medium as the reader and ,i are from one another4 ,i must hold this point in reserve4 ,the investigators of the ,piper case1 finding as decided a difference between the controls and the subject in a normal state as exists between individuals of flesh and blood1 have adopted the language of these controls for convenience' sake1 while warning us that1 in so doing1 they have no intention of prejudging their nature4 ,i do1 and shall continue to do1 the same4 ,there is no impropriety in this so long as it is well understood4 ,to return to ,phinuit's character4 ,this doctor in the ,beyond is not a bad fellow2 on the contrary1 he is very obliging1 and his chief desire is to please everybody4 ,he repeats all he is asked to repeat1 makes all the gestures suggested to him by the communicators in order that they may be recognised2 even those of a little child4 ,in his rather deep voice he sings to a weeping mother the nursery song or the lullaby which she sang to her sick child1 if the song will serve as a proof of identity4 ,i find at least one such case in ,dr ,hodgson's report4 ,the couplet sung was probably well-known to ,mrs ,piper2 it is a common one4 ,but as this song had often been sung during her last illness by the child who was communicating1 and as it was the last she sang upon earth1 the coincidence is at least surprising4 ,probably ,mrs ,piper took the air and the words from the source whence she takes so many other details--a source unknown to us4 ,however1 if ,dr ,phinuit is good-hearted1 he is also occasionally deplorably trivial4 ,his language is rarely elevated1 and his expressions are almost always vulgar4 ,on occasion he does not dislike a joke or a touch of humour4 ,thus we have seen that he mischievously persisted in addressing ,professor ,lodge as ,captain4 ,on another occasion he is a long time in finding a person's name--,theodora4 ,then he adds1 mockingly1 ,hum6 it is a fine name once one has got hold of it4 ,this does not prevent ,phinuit from altering ,theodora into ,theosophy1 and calling the person in question ,theosophy6 ,i could easily give other examples of ,phinuit's wit4 ,but on this point ,i must remark that the word ,theosophy astonishes me in ,phinuit's mouth1 even when he is making a joking use of it4 ,evidently ,mrs ,piper knows the name and the thing well4 ,but at the time when ,dr ,phinuit attended his contemporaries in flesh and blood1 there was1 ,i believe1 no question of ,theosophy1 nor of its foundress1 ,madame ,blavatsky4 ,there was indeed a sect of ,theosophists at the end of the eighteenth century1 but it was very obscure4 ,dr ,phinuit is1 besides1 very proud of his exploits4 ,he likes to make people believe that he knows and sees everything4 ,indeed1 perhaps it is because he likes to seem not to be ignorant of anything that he sometimes asserts so many controverted facts4 ,and this is to be deplored2 for how much more useful service he would render if his facts were not doubtful6 ,unluckily1 this is far from being the case4 ,phinuit occasionally seems to tell falsehoods deliberately4 ,this has been made evident when he has been asked to prove his identity by giving details of his terrestrial life4 ,in ,december #ahhi1cb he replies to ,professor ,alfred ,lodge1 the brother of ,professor ,oliver ,lodge1-- ,i have been from thirty to thirty-five years in spirit1 ,i think4 ,i died when ,i was seventy1 of leprosy2 very disagreeable4 ,i had been to ,australia and ,switzerland4 ,my wife's name was ,mary ,latimer4 ,i had a sister ,josephine4 ,john was my father's name4 ,i studied medicine at ,metz1 where ,i took my degree at thirty years old1 married at thirty-five4 ,look up the town of ----1 also the ,hotel ,dieu in ,paris4 ,i was born at ,marseilles1 am a ,southern ,french gentleman4 ,find out a woman named ,carey4 ,irish4 ,mother ,irish2 father ,french4 ,i had compassion on her in the hospital4 ,my name is ,john ,phinuit ,schlevelle 7or ,clavelle71 but ,i was always called ,dr ,phinuit4 ,do you know ,dr ,clinton ,perry8 ,find him at ,dupuytren1 and this woman at the ,hotel ,dieu4 ,there's a street named ,dupuytren1 a great street for doctors4444 ,this is my business now1 to communicate with those in the body1 and make them believe our existence4 ,i think a bad choice was made of ,dr ,phinuit to fill this part4 ,the information he here gives us about himself does not bear marks of absolute sincerity4 ,we might say he was an ,englishman or ,american trying to pass himself off for a ,frenchman to his fellow-countrymen1 and having a very small acquaintance with ,france and ,french affairs4 ,and if he had even stopped there6 ,but no4 ,he has often contradicted himself4 ,he tells ,dr ,hodgson#cc that his name is ,jean ,phinuit ,scliville4 ,he could not tell the date of his birth or death4 ,but1 on comparing the facts he gives1 we might conclude that he was born in #agij1 and that he died in #ahfj4 ,he tells ,dr ,hodgson that he studied medicine in ,paris1 at a college called ,merciana or ,meerschaum1 he does not know exactly which4 ,he adds that he also studied medicine at ,metz in ,germany4 ,it is no longer he who had a sister named ,josephine2 it is his wife4 ,josephine1 he says1 was a sweetheart of mine at first1 but ,i went back on her1 and married ,marie after all4 ,this ,marie ,latimer is supposed to have been thirty when she married ,dr ,phinuit1 and to have died at fifty4 ,he asks ,dr ,hodgson1 ,do you know where the ,hospital of ,god is 7,hospital de ,dieu78 ,yes1 it is at ,paris4 ,do you remember old ,dyruputia 7,dupuytren78 ,he was the head of the hospital1 and there is a street named for him4 ,phinuit asserts that he went to ,london1 and from ,london to ,belgium1 and travelled a great deal1 when his health broke down4 ,in the above-quoted passage1 ,phinuit asserts that he had set himself to prove the existence of spirits4 ,if he had set himself the contrary task he would have been more likely to succeed1 when he gives us such information as the above4 ,if we went no further1 we should need to ask ourselves how serious men can have concerned themselves during so long a period with such idle stories4 ,happily1 as we shall see later1 others have succeeded in establishing their identity better than ,phinuit has done4 ,phinuit himself1 even if he tells the most foolish stories when he speaks of himself1 reveals profoundly intimate and hidden secrets when he speaks of others4 ,truly1 it is correctly said that these phenomena are disconcerting4 ,but they are none the less interesting to science when their authenticity and the sincerity of the medium are beyond discussion1 as in the present case4 ,i will therefore go on examining the ,phinuit personality2 it will be the reverse side of the medal4 ,an ,american doctor1 whom ,dr ,hodgson designates by the initials ,c4 ,f4 ,w41 has a sitting with ,mrs ,piper on ,may #ag1 #ahhi4 ,here is a fragment of the dialogue between him and ,phinuit4#cd ,c4 ,f4 ,w4--,what medical men were prominent in ,paris in your time8 ,phinuit4--,bouvier and ,dupuytren1 who was at ,hotel ,dieu4 ,c4 ,f4 ,w4--,was ,dupuytren alive when you passed out8 ,phinuit4--,no2 he passed out before me2 ,i passed out twenty or thirty years ago4 ,c4 ,f4 ,w4--,what influence has my mind on what you tell me8 ,phinuit4--,i get nothing from your mind2 ,i can't read your mind any more than ,i can see through a stone wall4 7,phinuit added that he saw the people of whom he spoke objectively1 and that it was they who gave him his information47 ,c4 ,f4 ,w4--,have you any relatives living in ,marseilles8 ,phinuit4--,i had a brother who died there two or three years ago4 ,a little later on1 at the same sitting1 ,phinuit says1 ,many people think ,i am the medium2 that is all bosh4 ,well1 so much the better4 ,but if ,phinuit is not ,mrs ,piper1 neither does he appear to be a ,frenchman4 ,a further proof of this is that he is incapable of keeping up a conversation in ,french4 ,he speaks ,english with a pronounced cafe-concert ,french accent1 it is true1 but that is not a proof4 ,he likes to count in ,french1 and sometimes he pronounces two or three consecutive words more or less correctly4 ,but who would venture to maintain that ,mrs ,piper's sub-consciousness has not received them in some way2 it would be all the more likely1 because at one time our medium had a governess for her children who spoke ,french fluently4 ,however1 ,dr ,c4 ,f4 ,w41 quoted above1 says that ,phinuit understood all that he said to him in ,french1 which ,mrs ,piper in her normal state could not have done4 ,on the other hand1 ,professor ,william ,james says that ,phinuit does not understand his ,french4 ,whom shall we believe8 ,one thing is certain1 ,french or not1 ,phinuit does not speak ,french4 ,dr ,hodgson asked him why this was4 ,phinuit1 who is never at a loss1 explained as follows3--,he had been a long time in practice at ,metz1 and as there are a great many ,english there he had ended by forgetting his ,french4 ,this is just such a piece of childishness as the secondary personalities invent4#ce ,dr ,hodgson pointed out the absurdity of the explanation to ,phinuit1 and added1 ,as you are obliged to express your thoughts through the organism of the medium1 and as she does not know ,french1 it would be more plausible if you said that it would be impossible to express your thoughts in ,french by means of ,mrs ,piper4 ,phinuit found the explanation magnificent1 and some days after served it up whole to another inquisitive person who questioned him4 ,as ,dr ,hodgson continued to tease him about his name1 he ended by admitting1 or believing1 that his name was not ,phinuit at all4 ,it was the medium ,cocke who insisted that my name was ,phinuit one day at a sitting4 ,i said1 ',all right1 call me ,phinuit if you like1 one name is as good to me as another4' ,but you see1 ,hodgson1 my name is ,scliville1 ,i am ,dr ,john ,scliville4 ,but1 when ,i think about it1 ,i had another name between ,john and ,scliville4 ,phinuit did think about it1 and at another sitting he said he had remembered4 ,his name now was ,jean ,alaen ,scliville4 ,alaen1 as we see1 is unmistakably ,french4 ,in short1 these are wretched inventions1 quite as wretched and much less poetic than the ,martian romance1 due to the subconsciousness of ,mlle4 ,smith4 ,does ,phinuit better justify the title of doctor which he assumes8 ,on this point opinions are less divided4 ,his diagnosis is often surprisingly exact1 even in cases where the patient does not himself know what his illness is4 ,as long ago as #ahij1 ,professor ,oliver ,lodge expresses himself as follows with regard to ,phinuit's medical knowledge4 ,the opinion of a man of science like ,professor ,lodge is of great weight1 though he is a physicist and not a doctor4 ,admitting1 however1 that ',dr ,phinuit' is probably a mere name for ,mrs ,piper's secondary consciousness1 one cannot help being struck by the singular correctness of his medical diagnosis4 ,in fact1 the medical statements1 coinciding as they do with truth just as well as those of a regular physician1 but given without any ordinary examination1 and sometimes without even seeing the patient1 must be held as part of the evidence establishing a strong prima facie case for the existence of some abnormal means of acquiring information4#cf ,dr ,c4 ,w4 ,f41 of whom we have spoken above1 asks ,phinuit to describe his physical state for him1 and ,phinuit describes it perfectly4 ,but here1 evidently1 seeing that ,c4 ,w4 ,f4 was a doctor1 and must have known about himself1 we may only be concerned with thought-transference4 ,being curious1 ,dr ,c4 ,w4 ,f4 asked ,phinuit how many years he had to live4 ,phinuit replied by counting on his fingers in ,french up to eleven4 ,this happened in #ahhi4 ,if the prophecy was fulfilled1 ,dr ,c4 ,w4 ,f4 must have gone to rejoin his colleague in the other world4 ,it would be interesting to know whether this is the case4 ,in general1 the other doctors who have had sittings with ,mrs ,piper find more fault with ,dr ,phinuit's prescriptions than with his diagnosis4 ,they blame the prescriptions as being more those of a herbalist than a doctor4 ,this would not be a great reproach4 ,if a ,dr ,phinuit has really existed1 he must have practised fifty or sixty years ago1 and must have studied at the beginning of the last century4 ,therapeutics of that epoch differed considerably from those of the present day4 ,for this reason ,dr ,c4 ,w4 ,f4 asks whether ,dr ,phinuit's medical knowledge really exceeds what ,mrs ,piper might have read in a manual of domestic medicine4 ,as far as the diagnosis is concerned1 his knowledge assuredly exceeds this4 ,dr ,c4 ,w4 ,f4 reports a fact which1 though it would not prove ,dr ,phinuit's medical ignorance1 would once more prove his ignorance of ,french1 and even of the ,latin of botanists4 ,dr ,f4 asked1#cg ,have you ever prescribed chiendent or ,triticum repens8 using both the ,french and ,latin names4 ,phinuit seemed much surprised1 and said1 ,what is the ,english of that8 ,it is certain that a ,french doctor1 and1 above all1 a doctor in the beginning of the last century1 must know chiendent1 and even ,triticum repens4 ,mrs ,piper told ,dr ,hodgson that ,phinuit had often been shown medicinal plants1 and had been asked their names1 and that he had never made a mistake4 ,dr ,hodgson procured specimens of three medicinal plants from one of his friends4 ,he himself remained entirely ignorant of their names and uses4 ,phinuit carefully examined the plants1 and was unable to indicate their names or their uses4 ,but neither would this incident prove much4 ,the living practitioners who could not be caught in this way must be rare4 ,i will give two or three of ,phinuit's diagnoses as examples4 ,i will choose those which have been given to ,dr ,hodgson about himself1 as my readers now know him well4 ,at one of the first sittings#ch ,dr ,hodgson had with ,mrs ,piper1 ,phinuit pronounced the following judgment on his physical constitution1 ,you are an old bach 7bachelor71 and will live to be a hundred4 ,and he added that ,dr ,hodgson had at the time a slight inflammation of the nasal membranes1 though there was no external sign to guide him4 ,on another occasion ,dr ,hodgson asked him a question about a pain he had had but which he no longer felt4 ,phinuit was evasive at first1 saying1 ,i have told you already that you are perfectly well4 ,he then passed his hand over ,dr ,hodgson's left shoulder1 placed his finger under the left shoulder-blade scapula1 on the exact spot where the pain had been1 and said it must have been caused by a draught1 which was probably true4 ,another time1 ,dr ,hodgson complained of a pain1 without explaining where4 ,phinuit instantaneously put his finger on the painful spot1 below the chest4 ,he said at first that the pain was caused by indigestion1 but then corrected himself spontaneously and said it was caused by a muscle strained in some unusual exercise4 ,dr ,hodgson had not thought of this explanation2 but it was true that1 two days before1 when going to bed1 and after some weeks' interruption1 he had exercised himself with bending his body backwards and forwards4 ,the pain appeared next day4 ,phinuit ordered applications of cold water on the painful spot1 and friction with the hand4 ,naturally there exist other diagnoses more complicated and extraordinary than those ,i have quoted4 ,in terminating this study of ,phinuit1 ,i must return to the eternal question--,is ,phinuit a different personality from ,mrs ,piper1 or is he only a secondary personality8 ,none of those who have studied the question closely have ventured to decide it categorically4 ,there is no so clearly defined distinction between the normal personality and the secondary personalities which have so far been studied as there is between ,mrs ,piper and ,phinuit4 ,in fact1 the medium and her control have not the same character1 nor the same turn of mind1 nor the same information1 nor the same manner of speech4 ,it is not so with normal and secondary personalities4 ,our personality may split into fragments1 which1 at a cursory glance1 may appear to be so many different personalities4 ,but when these fragments are closely studied numerous points of contact are found4 ,when suggestion is added to this segregation1 the separation between the normal and secondary personalities is even more emphatic4 ,but then there are traces of automatism present which are not to be found in ,phinuit4 ,he seems to be as much master of his mental faculties and of his will as you or ,i4 ,finally1 if we consider that many of ,mrs ,piper's controls carry the love of truth further than ,phinuit1 that they have succeeded in proving their identity in the eyes of their intimates1 who were none the less sceptics to begin with2 if we consider the ,george ,pelham and ,hyslop cases1 among others1 which we shall fully discuss a little further on1 we shall be almost tempted to let ,phinuit benefit by the doubt about his colleagues1 and to believe that he is really a consciousness different from that of ,mrs ,piper4 ,,footnotes3 #cb ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 vi4 p4 #ebj4 #cc ,ibid41 vol4 viii4 p4 #ej4 #cd ,proc4 of the ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 viii4 p4 #ih4 #ce ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 part xxi4 vol4 viii4 p #ea4 #cf ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 vi4 p4 #ddi4 #cg ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 viii4 p4 #ea4 #ch ,ibid4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,miss ,hannah ,wild's letter--,the first text given by ,phinuit--,mrs ,blodgett's sitting--,thought-reading explains the case4 ,there is a case of which ,i shall speak with some detail in this chapter1 for three reasons3--7#a7 ,the good faith of the experimenters being unquestioned1 if the experiment had succeeded we should certainly have had a first step towards proof of a future life4 ,experiments of this kind must be arranged if the desired end is to be attained4 ,even if only one out of ten were successful1 we should have established a method of procedure1 and should certainly in time discover the truth4 7#b7 ,this example will once again show the reader the character of ,phinuit1 who hesitates at no invention1 and risks being caught in the act of imposture sooner than own to his ignorance or incapacity4 7#c7 ,the reader will find in it examples of the untrue assertions which are found in all the bad sittings4 ,this dishonesty of ,phinuit certainly complicates the problem singularly4 ,but ,i wish to present it as it actually is1 with its dark and bright sides4 ,science must endeavour to explain both4#ci ,miss ,hannah ,wild died on ,july #bh1 #ahhf4 ,she was a strong ,baptist1 and remained so to her last moments4 ,about a year before her death a ,boston spiritualist paper published a message supposed to have come from her dead mother4 ,miss ,hannah ,wild was much struck by it4 ,her sister advised her to try the following experiment4 ,miss ,hannah ,wild should write a letter whose contents she alone knew1 and when she died1 she should return1 if not prevented by circumstances stronger than her will1 and communicate the contents of the letter to her sister through some medium4 ,the letter would only be opened when some message bearing all the marks of authenticity should arrive4 ,this was done4 ,hannah ,wild wrote the letter1 sealed it and enclosed it in a tin box4 ,it was understood that no mortal hand was to touch it4 ,when giving it to her sister she said1 ,if ,i can come back it will be like ringing the ,city ,hall bell6 ,mrs ,blodgett1 ,hannah ,wild's sister1 adds1 ,hands have never touched that letter2 it was in my husband's safe4 ,when ,i sent it to ,professor ,james ,i took it out with scissors4 ,mrs ,blodgett having1 in the last half of #ahhf1 seen ,professor ,james's name in a journal concerned with ,psychical ,research wrote to him and told him the above circumstances4 ,in consequence he tried to get the letter read through ,mrs ,piper4 ,he sent her1 not the letter1 of course1 but a glove which ,miss ,hannah ,wild had worn on the day she wrote the letter1 and the lining of her hat4 ,mr ,j4 ,w4 ,piper1 ,mrs ,piper's father-in-law1 acted as sitter4 ,phinuit took his time1 and tried for the contents of the letter during several sittings4 ,the result was a long dramatic elucubration1 which reminds us involuntarily of certain of ,mlle4 ,smith's subliminal productions4 ,i will give three paragraphs of it4 ,the remarks between parentheses are ,mrs ,blodgett's2 the reader will appreciate the facts by the light the remarks throw upon them4 ,however1 it may not be useless to remark that ,phinuit found ,miss ,hannah ,wild's exact name1 which had been carefully hidden from him4 #a4 ,dear ,sister1--,in the bottom of my trunk in the attic with my clothes ,i have placed a little money and some jewels1 given to me1 as you know1 by mother1 and given to her by grandfather1 who has now passed away4 ,bessie1 ,i now give to you2 they are all ,i have1 ,i wish ,i could have more4 ,it has grieved me not a little not to have given the ,society something1 but as you know1 sister1 ,i am unable to do so4 ,if it be possible ,i will give them my presence in spirit4 7,sister left no trunk4 ,never lived in any house with an attic4 ,mother never gave her any jewels4 ,mother's father died in #ahce4 ,mother died in #ahhj1 and gave all her jewels to me4 ,these jewels had previously been given to mother by myself4 ,sister left money1 and could have given the ,society some had she chosen to do so47 #b4 ,the table-cover which ,i worked one year ago ,i want you to give sister ,ellen1 ,john's wife4 ,the reason ,i did not dispose of them before will be a satisfactory proof of spirit return4 ,my dearest sister1 should you ever marry1 as ,i think you will1 take the money and use it as you think best1 to buy a wedding outfit4 7,she never worked a table-cover4 ,i worked one and gave her4 ,brother ,john died when five years old4 ,there is no one by the name of ,ellen connected with the family4 ,she did think ,i would marry1 but knew that ,i had plenty of money to buy an outfit47 #c4 ,do not dress in mourning for me1 for if it be true the spirit can return ,i want to see you dressed in light1 not black4 ,not for me now1 my dear sister ,bessie4 ,try to be cheerful and happy through your married life1 and when you hear from me--this for you a copy1 'remember sister ,hannah is not dead1 only passed out of the body4' ,i will give you a beautiful description of our life there and of my darling mother if ,i see her4 7,hannah always wore black1 and often said it would be wicked for me to take it off1 for my child always said1 ,mamma1 you will always wear black for me1 and ,i have worn black for twenty years1 ever since my child died47 ,and so forth4 ,phinuit's elucubrations were six good manuscript pages long4 ,except ,hannah ,wild's name everything was wrong4 ,and yet ,mr ,j4 ,w4 ,piper affirms that during all the sittings he had the feeling that he was talking to the spirit of ,miss ,hannah ,wild4 ,phinuit was asked for a description of the communicator2 all the details were false4 ,after this it is unnecessary to say that the letter ,miss ,hannah ,wild had written before her death1 when opened by ,professor ,james1 after receiving the ,phinuit letter1 differed totally from that document4 ,so far the ,blodgett-,wild case is on the whole commonplace4 ,phinuit lied when he pretended to communicate with ,hannah ,wild's spirit2 for there is no more reason here than elsewhere to suppose conscious fraud on ,mrs ,piper's part4 ,but this is the point at which the case becomes interesting1 and where it may perhaps throw some light on ,phinuit's manner of procuring information1 and on the character of ,phinuit himself4 ,if we judged only from this case1 it would seem that ,phinuit was merely a secondary personality of ,mrs ,piper1 possessing the extraordinary power of reading people's minds unhindered by distance4 ,but let us say at once that a number of other cases render the problem much more complex4 ,the conclusion to be drawn from what follows is1 that if ,phinuit is really what he asserts that he is1 he does not draw his information only from disincarnated spirits1 whom he is supposed to perceive objectively2 he also reads the minds of the living1 and with the information he finds there he creates personages1 apparently life-like1 and bearing a strong resemblance to deceased persons4 ,on the #cjth of ,may #ahhhdj ,mrs ,blodgett in person had a sitting with ,mrs ,piper4 ,the time was fixed by ,dr ,hodgson1 who took care1 as usual1 not to name the future sitter1 and not to give any hint of her identity4 ,in my eyes this sitting is remarkable4 ,mrs ,blodgett1 with great good sense1 sums it up thus3 ,all the details which were in my mind ,phinuit gave exactly4 ,on all the points of which ,i was ignorant he gave false replies1 or said nothing4 ,during the whole sitting ,phinuit asserted that he was literally repeating the words of ,miss ,hannah ,wild1 present4 ,i shall quote the most typical incidents4 ,the remarks between parentheses are taken from ,mrs ,blodgett's comments4 ,hannah ,wild4#da--;,bessie1 ,betsie ,blodgett1 my sister4 ,how glad ,i am to see you6 ,i am ,anna1 ,hannah1 your sister1 ,hannah ,wild4 ,how's father and all the folks8 ,oh1 ,i am so glad to see you6 7,all this time ,mrs ,piper kept on slapping me with her hand just like sister4 ,when she died my name was not ,blodgett but ,bessie ,barr47 ,h4 ,w4--,saw you once before in that audience4 ,threw a message at you4 7,four weeks after sister's death1 ,john ,slater1 a medium1 said1 pointing to me amongst a large audience1 ,there is a lady here who wants to have you know she is here4 ,she says she will tell you what is in that paper soon47 ,h4 ,w4--,how's the ,society1 ,lucy ,stone and all of them8 7,lucy ,stone is the editor of the ,woman's ,journal1 and wrote a piece about sister when she died47 ,h4 ,w4--,my photo in that bag4 ,mrs ,blodgett had brought a bag containing several things which had belonged to her sister4 ,mrs ,piper tried to open it1 but could not4 ,it seems that ,miss ,hannah ,wild1 living1 could only open the bag with difficulty4 ,mrs ,blodgett opened it4 ,the so-called ,hannah ,wild threw the objects out pell-mell1 saying1 ,picture of mine in here4 ,this was so4 ,now this photograph was the only thing in the bag which ,mrs ,blodgett did not know was there2 she had slipped her sister's will into an envelope in which the photograph already was1 but she had not consciously noticed it was there4 ,her subconsciousness had probably been more perspicacious1 and it is from that ,phinuit had probably drawn the detail2 at least unless he has the power of seeing certain things through opaque bodies4 ,h4 ,w4--7,takes her will1 which she had shaken out of the envelope containing the photograph47 ,this is to you4 ,i wrote it and gave it to you4 ,that was my feelings at the time ,i wrote it4 ,you did not think as ,i did4 ,you made me feel sad sometimes4 ,but you did take good care of me4 ,i always felt there was something that would never part us4 ,do just as ,i told you to4 ,you remember about my dress8 ,where's my comb8 ,you remember all about my money8 ,i told you what to do with that4 ,that ain't written in this paper4 ,i told you that on my death-bed4 7,all this is correct1 except that ,i know nothing about a comb4 ,the will disposed of her books and dresses and all her things1 except her money47 ,h4 ,w4--,how is ,alice8 ,mrs ,b4--,what ,alice8 ,h4 ,w4--,the little girl that's a namesake4 7,our living sister ,alice had a child named ,alice ,olivia1 and ,hannah always called her ,alice3 it was our mother's name4 ,the others called her ,ollie4 ,hannah did not like this1 and did all she could to make us know that she did not want the ,alice dropped47 ,h4 ,w4--,mother is here4 ,where's doctor8 ,where's brother8 7,my husband is a doctor2 ,hannah knew him4 ,we have one brother living named ,joseph1 who travels most of the time47 ,hannah ,wild takes a gold chain wrapped in silk4 ,mrs ,blodgett says1 ,hannah1 tell me whose and what is that8 ,h4 ,w4--7,feeling tassel at end of chain7 ,my mother's chain4 7,the chain was a long chain of mother's4 ,it was cut in two after she died4 ,hannah had worn one half4 ,the half which ,i took to the sitting had not been worn since mother's death1 and it had a tassel on the end1 different from the half ,hannah had worn47 ,h4 ,w4--,who's ,sarah8 ,mrs ,b4--,sarah ,grover8 ,h4 ,w4--,no1 ,sarah ,obb--,hodg-- 7,the medium's hand points to ,mr ,hodgson1 and the voice says it belongs to him47 ,then ,hannah ,wild adds1 ,sarah ,hodson4 7,sarah ,hodson was a friend of sister's at ,waterbury1 ,connecticut4 ,i had thought of her the night before when ,i met ,mr ,hodgson1 as she also came from ,london1 ,england47 ,h4 ,w4--,where is my big silk handkerchief8 ,mrs ,b4--,i gave it to ,clara4 ,you told me to4 ,h4 ,w4--,where is my thimble8 ,mrs ,b4--,i don't know4 ,h4 ,w4--,i saw you put it into this bag4 7,the handkerchief was a large silk one given to sister by a lady who lived with us for years1 and it came from ,england4 ,i did not know ,i had put ,hannah's thimble in the bag1 but found on return to the hotel that it was there on the bed1 with the rest of the things ,i had taken out of the bag before starting for the sitting47 ,mrs ,b4--,can you tell me1 sister1 how many brothers you have in spirit life8 ,h4 ,w4--,one1 two1 three4 7,i asked her how many brothers1 because ,william had only been dead since ,march #bg in the same year 7#ahhh74 ,three was correct47 ,mrs ,b4--,can you tell me where that letter is now that you wrote8 ,h4 ,w4--,it is at home1 in tin box4 ,mrs ,b4--,can't you tell me more about it8 ,h4 ,w4--,i have told you4 ,it would be like ringing church bells if ,i could come back4 7,the letter was in the bag wrapped up in rubber cloth4 ,sister did say when we put the letter in tin box1 ,it would be like ringing the ,city ,hall bell if ,i can come back47 ,h4 ,w4--,where's ,william and doctor8 ,mrs ,b4--,hannah1 you tell me where ,william is4 ,h4 ,w4--,he is here4 ,i found him4 ,mrs ,b4--,how long has he been8 ,h4 ,w4--,weeks4 ,you know all about it4 ,he sticks to you all the time every day4 ,william wants to know how you like that lot4 ,mrs ,b4--,what lot8 ,h4 ,w4--,you ought to know4 ,you bought it to bury him in4 ,william is better out of the world than in it4 ,he was a strange fellow4 ,he don't like that lot4 ,do you8 ,mrs ,b4--,no4 7,i had bought him a lot in ,woodlawn ,cemetery1 ,n4,y4 ,his wife wanted him buried there4 ,we wanted to take him to our home and bury him by mother4 ,brother was very proud1 and we thought the lot was not as nice as he would like47 ,at the end of the sitting the so-called ,hannah ,wild said that she must go because it was church time1 and she would not miss it4 ,mrs ,blodgett remarks that this is also characteristic of her sister4 ,it was ,decoration ,day1 and the living ,hannah ,wild would certainly not have missed it4 ,this last incident is odd2 but there are many analogous ones in the literature of the subject and in ,mrs ,piper's sittings4 ,often the communicator will not allow that he is dead1 or has passed into another world2 if he is asked what he is doing1 he appears surprised1 and affirms that he is carrying on his usual occupation2 if he is a doctor1 he asserts that he continues to visit his patients4 ,phinuit is often asked to describe the people of whom he speaks4 ,he pictures them as they were on earth1 in their customary dress1 and he affirms that he so sees them4 ,at the end of one sitting ,professor ,hyslop's father exclaims1 ,give me my hat6 ,now this was an order he often gave in his lifetime when he rose painfully from his invalid chair to accompany a visitor to the gate4 ,i repeat1 these incidents are odd and embarrassing for the spiritistic hypothesis4 ,it is difficult to admit that the other world1 if it exists1 should be a servile copy of this4 ,should we suppose that the bewilderment caused by death is so great in certain individuals that it is some time before they perceive the change in their environment8 ,it is difficult to admit this4 ,should we suppose these speeches are automatisms of the communicator1 rendered half unconscious towards the end of the sitting by the heavy atmosphere of the medium's organism8 ,but1 when the communication is not direct1 when an intermediary is speaking through the organism1 what should we think8 ,are these traits thrown in intentionally by the communicator1 the better to prove his identity8 ,no doubt these incidents are very embarrassing to the spiritistic hypothesis4 ,on the other hand1 if we allow that the self-styled communicators are created by the entranced ,mrs ,piper from the elements she finds here and there in the minds of living persons1 these incidents are quite natural2 it would be surprising not to meet with them4 ,i mention the difficulty in passing2 it will not fall to my lot to solve it4 ,however this may be1 ,mrs ,blodgett left the sitting convinced that she had been conversing with her own consciousness externalised1 and not with the spirit of her sister4 ,but if it had not been for the previous incident of the letter1 which had invited distrust1 and if ,mrs ,blodgett had had less judgment1 she would probably have left the sitting convinced that she had been talking to her defunct sister4 ,many spiritualists must commit like errors every day4 ,this shows what circumspection is needed in such studies as these4 ,mrs ,blodgett asked ,dr ,hodgson to have some sittings for her1 to try again to obtain the text of the famous letter4#db ,at the sitting of ,august #a1 #ahhh1 ,dr ,hodgson gave ,phinuit a lock of ,hannah ,wild's hair4 ,phinuit began by saying it was not her hair2 he then recognised his mistake1 but said that someone else must have touched it4 ,then he gave a new version of the letter4 ,this letter is concerned with an incident in ,hannah's former life1 he affirmed4 ,then he dictated1 ,it's something about ,hannah's early history1 that letter is4 ,at one time ,i met a person whom ,i loved4 ,a circumstance in our affection changed my whole life4 ,had it not been for this one thing ,i should have been married and happy4 ,consequently ,i went into religious work1 and did all the good ,i could4 ,whoever reads this letter after ,i am gone will know why ,i remained ,hannah ,wild4444 ,mrs ,blodgett's comment on this text is very interesting4 ,she says1 ,this is not what my sister wrote on her deathbed1 but it is perfectly true4 ,it was the great grief of sister's life4 ,how could ,phinuit guess this by simply touching a lock of hair8 ,can it be that our feelings1 our sorrows and joys1 leave a persistent vibration on the objects we touch1 which sensitives can perceive after even a long interval8 ,numerous and well-observed facts would almost compel us to believe so4 ,it would seem as if the vibrations of the soul imprinted themselves on matter as sound waves are recorded on the cylinder of a phonograph4 ,certain subjects1 in an abnormal state1 would be able to recover them4 ,there is1 after all1 nothing in this repugnant to science4 ,this abnormal state1 which allows sensitives to apprehend past vibrations1 is perhaps only a partial abandonment of the body by the spirit4 ,in that case it would be easier to understand that those who1 like ,phinuit1 have entirely quitted their bodies1 those who are in another world1 can read these vibrations as easily as we can read a book4 ,but if this is so1 why does not ,phinuit own it8 ,it would be marvel enough to satisfy his vanity4 ,it would not1 in any event1 prevent his obtaining information directly from disincarnated beings4 ,but he ought to state precisely in each case from what source he derives his knowledge4 ,he does nothing of the kind1 and thus renders it almost impossible for us to believe in his individuality4 ,at this same sitting ,phinuit asserted that he would give the letter word for word if he had a longer lock of hair4 ,so ,mrs ,blodgett sent a longer lock1 which was given to him on ,october #c1 #ahhh4 ,the text he gave was as incorrect as the preceding ones4 ,a last effort was made in #ahhi1 again without result4 ,miss ,hannah ,wild has not come back from the other world to tell us what she wrote on her death-bed4 ,i will end with another example which demonstrates ,phinuit's cleverness in reading people's minds even at a distance4 ,on ,june #c1 #ahia1dc ,mrs ,blodgett wrote a letter to ,phinuit4 ,dr ,hodgson read it to him at a sitting on the #aeth of the same month4 ,this drew from ,phinuit the following statement1 which had nothing to do with the contents of the letter3 ,she's been reading a funny book--a life of somebody4 ,she called on an old friend of ,hannah's--somebody ,i told her to go and see4 ,mrs ,blodgett has a friend named ,severance4 ,mrs ,blodgett writes on ,june #ag1 ,really ,phinuit is doing wonderfully well as far as thought-transference goes4 ,saturday night1 ,june #ac1 ,i gave a talk to the ,young ,women's ,rooms about ,helen ,gardener's new book1 ,is this your ,son1 my ,lord8 7,on the7 #adth ,i did not go to see the friend in body1 but ,i know my mind went1 and ,i wrote him the letter to ask him what ,phinuit told me to do when there4 ,mrs ,blodgett adds3--,i had a friend named ,severance1 but sister ,hannah had never heard of him4 ,,footnotes3 #ci ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 viii4 p4 #fi4 #dj ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 viii4 p4 #ge4 #da ,phinuit is speaking1 but as he is supposed to be repeating ,miss ,hannah ,wild's words literally1 it is easier to speak as if she were speaking directly4 #db ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 viii4 p4 #gh4 #dc ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 viii4 p4 #hc4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,communications from persons having suffered in their mental faculties--,unexpected communications from unknown persons--,the respect due to the communicators--,predictions--,communicat ions from children4 ,the ,blodgett-,hannah ,wild case is1 ,i repeat1 of a kind to throw discredit on the spiritualist hypothesis4 ,if it and analogous cases alone were considered1 it would be needful to ask why earnest men1 after long hesitation1 have finally given the preference to this hypothesis4 ,but psychic phenomena1 and mediumistic phenomena in particular1 are infinitely various2 they present a multitude of aspects1 and it would not be wise to consider them separately4 ,in this ,hannah ,wild case everything seems to support the telepathic hypothesis4 ,by this must be understood1 not only the reading of thoughts in the consciousness1 and even in the subconsciousness1 of the persons present1 but also in that of absent persons1 however far off they may be4 ,and what ,phinuit calls the influence must be added4 ,this mysterious influence might be the traces of vibrations left on objects by our thoughts and feelings4 ,evidently this hypothesis plunges us into mystery1 at least as much as does the spiritualist hypothesis4 ,nevertheless1 we should be obliged to give it the preference1 if it were sufficiently supported1 because it is1 after all1 more in touch with our present conceptions than its rival4 ,even the incident of the medium who1 designating ,mrs ,blodgett amidst a numerous audience1 said to her1 ,there is a lady here who wants to speak to you2 she will soon give you the contents of the paper1 can easily be explained by telepathy4 ,mrs ,blodgett was in the presence of a medium4 ,now some medium was to reveal to her the mysterious text of her sister's letter4 ,that was enough to bring the recollection of the letter into the foreground of her consciousness1 where the medium may have read it telepathically4 ,but again1 there are an infinite number of other cases which telepathy does not explain at all1 or only insufficiently4 ,i shall try to show this by repeating some of the arguments put forward by ,dr ,hodgson in his remarkable report in #ahih1 and in the chapter entitled ,indications that the ',spirit' ,hypothesis is ,true4#dd ,the most important of these arguments is founded upon the communications of persons whose mental faculties had been impaired by illness for a more or less long period before their deaths4 ,a long series of concordant observations inspired ,dr ,hodgson with this argument4 ,it is as follows3--,if we had to do with telepathy1 the communications should be most clear and abundant in the cases where the memories of the dead are most clear and abundant in the minds of the living4 ,but experience shows that this is not so4 ,when the self-styled communicator has suffered from mental illness before his death1 the communications repeat the trouble feature by feature2 they are full of confusion and incoherence4 ,this confusion and incoherence is all the graver1 as the mental trouble preceding death was graver4 ,it disappears slowly1 but sometimes traces of it appear years after4 ,telepathy does not explain this4 ,if there is madness in the mind of the dead person1 there is none in the minds of the living who remember him4 ,on the other hand1 if we introduce the spiritualist hypothesis1 the fact is quite admissible1 either because the mental trouble may only slowly disappear1 or because 7and the controls assert this7 the mere fact of the disincarnated spirits plunging again into the atmosphere of a human organism temporarily reproduces the trouble4 ,besides1 there is always more or less incoherence in the communications made very shortly after death1 even when the communicator has kept his full mental faculties up to his last moments4 ,but if the communicator were really what he says he is1 we should expect this1 for three reasons--the violent shock of disincarnation must trouble the mind2 the arrival in an entirely new environment1 where he must at first be unable to distinguish much1 should trouble him still more2 and lastly1 these first attempts at communication may be impeded by his want of skill in using the strange organism2 he would require a sort of apprenticeship4 ,but when no mental trouble has preceded death1 the incoherence of the first communications does not last4 ,they soon become as clear as the imperfection of the means which the dead man has to use permits4 ,in the ,george ,pelham case1 which we shall examine later on1 the first communications were also incoherent4 ,yet ,george ,pelham was soon to become one of the most clear and lucid1 if not the most clear and lucid1 of all the dead persons who have claimed to manifest through ,mrs ,piper's organism4 ,but ,george ,pelham died suddenly by an accident1 and his intellectual faculties1 which1 moreover1 were above the average1 had never been injured4 ,this is1 ,i repeat1 what experience seems to show4 ,but doubtless many more observations are needed before we can affirm that it is really proved4 ,however1 unless ,dr ,hodgson and his colleagues are mistaken1 these facts are contrary to what we should expect on the telepathic theory4 ,i will quote some examples4 ,dr ,hodgson tried to obtain communications from one of his friends1 designated by the initial ,a41 more than a year after the latter's death4 ,he spent six sittings over it1 but the result was meagre4 ,he obtained some names1 and with difficulty some mention of certain incidents of ,a4's life4 ,some of the incidents were even unknown to ,dr ,hodgson at the time1 but all was full of incoherence and confusion4 ,finally he gave it up on the advice of ,george ,pelham1 who said that ,a4's spirit would not be clear for some time yet4 ,this ,a4 had suffered from violent headaches and nervous exhaustion for some years before his death1 though the troubles had not amounted to insanity4 ,now1 just at the time when ,a4 was incapable of manifesting clearly1 other spirits were manifesting with all desirable lucidity in identical circumstances4 ,another case quoted by ,dr ,hodgson is that of a ,mr ,b4 who had committed suicide in a fit of insanity4 ,he was not personally known to ,dr ,hodgson4 ,during several years ,mr ,b4's communications were extremely confused1 even about matters with which ,dr ,hodgson was well acquainted4 ,a third communicator1 an intimate friend of ,dr ,hodgson's1 had also committed suicide4 ,about a year after his death he still seemed to be ignorant of events which he had known well in his lifetime and which were quite clear in the inquirer's mind4 ,more than seven years after his death he wrote through the medium's hand1 ,my head was not clear1 and is not yet1 when ,i speak to you4 ,on ,december #g1de #ahic1 ,m4 ,paul ,bourget1 of the ,academie ,francaise1 and his wife1 had a sitting with ,mrs ,piper4 ,m4 ,paul ,bourget much wished to communicate with an artist who had committed suicide at ,venice by throwing herself out of a gondola4 ,there exists no written report of this sitting1 and consequently we do not know exactly what it was worth4 ,but on ,december #aadf ,m4 ,bourget had another sitting1 and this time ,dr ,hodgson accompanied him and took notes4 ,the artist seemed to make desperate efforts to communicate and to write herself1 but she could only produce two or three ,french words1 amongst which apparently was the exclamation1 ,mon ,dieu6 ,nevertheless her ,christian name was given and the place where she had killed herself1 ,venice1 and the syllable ,bou1 the beginning of ,bourget1 was often repeated4 ,why were the results so poor8 ,m4 and ,mme4 ,bourget knew this person well1 and their minds were full of reminiscences on which the medium had only to draw4 ,however1 some people might reason as follows4 ,objects having been used by the persons with whom it is desired to communicate are nearly always given to ,mrs ,piper4 ,if the medium obtains her information not only from the minds of the living1 but likewise from the influence1 that is1 from the vibrations which our thoughts and feelings may have left recorded on these objects1 the imperfections of the earlier communications of persons whose minds have been disturbed might be explained by the theory that the influence left by an insane person would be neither so clear nor so easy to read as that left by a sane one4 ,but then why should the communicators grow clear with time8 ,why should they become lucid at the time when they ought to be still more confused1 if the telepathic hypothesis is the correct one8 ,but this interpretation falls to the ground entirely when we take into account the numerous communicators who are unknown1 or almost unknown1 to the sitters1 of whom absolutely nobody is thinking1 and who come in the middle of a sitting to send a message to their surviving relatives4 ,mrs ,piper cannot have produced these communications by means of the influence left on objects1 unless we suppose that the presence of these objects is not necessary and that any influence may strike the medium from any point of the compass at the moment when she least expects it4 ,that would perhaps be stretching the hypothesis beyond allowable limits4 ,and these cases are1 ,i repeat1 numerous and very interesting4 ,i quote three for my readers' edification4 ,during the #dfth#dg of the ,english sittings with ,messrs ,oliver and ,alfred ,lodge as sitters1 ,phinuit suddenly exclaimed1-- ,oh1 dear1 there is something very bad about this4 ,here's a little child called ,stevenson--two of them--one named ,mannie 7,minnie87 wants to send her love to her father in the body and the mother in the body--she had sore throat and passed out4 ,he is very bad and has gone away very unhappy4 ,she's clinging to me and begging me to tell you that she's little ,mannie ,stevenson1 and that her father's almost dead with grief1 he sits crying1 crying dreadful1 and he's gone away very unhappy4 ,tell him she's not dead1 but sends her love to him2 and tell him not to cry4 ,professor ,lodge4--,can she send her name any better8 ,phinuit4--,oh1 they called her ,pet1 and when she was ill they called her ,birdie4 ,and tell mamma too1 do4 ,professor ,l4--,well1 ,i will if ,i can4 ,professor ,lodge could not discover the ,stevenson family1 which was a pity1 for two reasons2 first1 that a message from beyond the tomb might have restored the despairing parents to a little hope and calm2 and secondly1 because cavillers could not have attributed the incident to the medium's cunning1 which they would not fail to do if other incidents of the same nature did not make this interpretation almost inadmissible4 ,at the #deth ,english sitting1#dh when ,messrs ,oliver and ,alfred ,lodge and ,mr and ,mrs ,thompson were the sitters1 ,phinuit suddenly said1-- ,do you know ,richard ,rich1 ,mr ,rich8 ,mrs ,thompson4--,not well2 ,i knew a ,dr ,rich4 ,phinuit4--,that's him2 he's passed out4 ,he sends kindest regards to his father4 ,and ,phinuit began directly to speak of something else4 ,at the #hcrd sitting1 when ,mr and ,mrs ,thompson were again present1 ,phinuit said all at once1-- ,here's ,dr ,rich2 upon which ,dr ,rich proceeds to speak4 ,dr ,rich4--,it is very kind of this gentleman 7i4e41 ,dr ,phinuit7 to let me speak to you4 ,mr ,thompson1 ,i want you to give a message to father4 ,mr ,thompson4--,i will give it4 ,dr ,r4--,thank you a thousand times2 it is very good of you4 ,you see ,i passed out rather suddenly4 ,father was very much troubled about it1 and he is troubled yet4 ,he hasn't got over it4 ,tell him that ,i am alive--that ,i send my love to him4 ,where are my glasses 7the medium passes her hands over her eyes78 ,i used to wear glasses 7true74 ,i think he has them1 and some of my books4 ,there was a little black case ,i had2 ,i think he has that too4 ,i don't want that lost4 ,sometimes he is bothered about a dizzy feeling in his head--nervous about it--but it is of no consequence4 ,mr ,t4--,what does your father do8 7,the medium took up a card and appeared to write on it1 and pretended to put stamp in corner47 ,dr ,r4--,he attends to this sort of thing4 ,mr ,thompson1 if you will give this message ,i will help you in many ways4 ,i can and ,i will4 ,professor ,lodge remarks about this incident1 ,mr ,rich1 senior1 is head of ,liverpool ,post ,office4 ,his son1 ,dr ,rich1 was almost a stranger to ,mr ,thompson1 and quite a stranger to me4 ,the father was much distressed by his son's death1 we find4 ,mr ,thompson has since been to see him and given him the message4 ,he 7,mr ,rich1 senior7 considers the episode very extraordinary and inexplicable1 except by fraud of some kind4 ,the phrase1 ',thank you a thousand times1' he asserts to be characteristic1 and he admits a recent slight dizziness4 ,mr ,rich did not know what his son means by a black case4 ,the only person who could give any information about it was at the time in ,germany4 ,but it was reported that ,dr ,rich talked constantly about a black case when he was on his deathbed4 ,no doubt ,mr and ,mrs ,thompson knew ,dr ,rich1 having met him once4 ,but they were quite ignorant of all the details here given4 ,whence did the medium take them8 ,not from the influence left on some object1 because there was no such object at the sitting4 ,at a sitting on the #bhth ,november #ahib1di at the house of ,mr ,howard1 when those present were ,mr and ,mrs ,howard1 their daughter ,katherine1 and ,dr ,hodgson1 ,phinuit suddenly asked1-- ,who is ,farnan8 ,mr ,howard4--,vernon8 ,phinuit4--,i don't know how you pronounce it4 ,it is ,f-a-r-n-s-w-o-r-t-h4 7,phinuit spelt it47 ,dr ,hodgson4--,what about it8 ,phinuit4--,he wants to see you4 ,dr ,h4--,he wants to see me8 ,phinuit4--,not you1 but this lady4 ,mrs ,h4--,well1 what does he want to say to me8 ,is it a woman or a man8 ,phinuit4--,it is a gentleman2 and do you remember your ,aunt ,ellen8 ,mrs ,h4--,yes2 which ,aunt ,ellen8 ,phinuit4--,she has got this gentleman4 7,i4e41 this man was in her service47 ,further on1 ,phinuit adds1 ,that gentleman wanted to send his love to her1 and to be remembered to you--so that you may know he is here1 and it is a test4 ,these little things sometimes interrupt me greatly and when ,i go to explain it to you1 you can't understand it4 ,but sometimes when ,i am talking to you1 ,i am suddenly interrupted by somebody who don't realise what they are doing1 and then ,i give you what they say as near as ,i can1 you understand that1 and it is very difficult sometimes for me to discern it and place it in the right place4 ,mrs ,howard asked her ,aunt ,ellen if she had known anyone named ,farnsworth1 without telling her more4 ,phinuit was right3 a gardener named ,farnsworth had worked for her uncle and then for her grandfather thirty-five or forty years before4 ,mrs ,howard had never heard of him4 ,incidents like those ,i have just related are evidently difficult to explain on the telepathic theory4 ,but a more complete refutation of the telepathic hypothesis would be to get a certain number of fulfilled predictions4 ,the medium could not read events which have not yet occurred1 either in the minds of the living or in the influence left on objects4 ,phinuit has often tried his hand at predictions2 ,i will quote one4 ,at ,m4 ,bourget's second sitting1#ej in #ahic1 a ,mrs ,pitman appeared1 who had lived a long time in ,france and spoke ,french well1 and who offered to help the artist with whom ,m4 ,bourget wished to talk in her efforts to communicate4 ,in #ahhh1 ,mrs ,pitman1 who was a member of the ,american ,society for ,psychical ,research1 had had two sittings with ,mrs ,piper4 ,among other things1 ,phinuit said to her1 ,you are going to be very sick2 you will go to ,paris2 you will be very sick3 you will have great weakness in the stomach and head4 ,a sandy complexioned gentleman will attend you while you are ill beyond the sea4 ,in consequence of this1 ,mrs ,pitman asked ,phinuit what the end of the illness would be4 ,phinuit made evasive replies4 ,mrs ,pitman asked ,dr ,hodgson's intervention2 he insisted in his turn1 and ,phinuit got out of it by saying1 ,after she gets over the sickness she will be all right4 ,mrs ,pitman replied that there was nothing the matter with her stomach2 she contradicted ,phinuit on every point1 and he appeared much annoyed4 ,but ,mrs ,pitman soon fell ill4 ,she was attended by a ,dr ,herbert1 who was very fair2 he diagnosed inflammation of the stomach4 ,then ,mrs ,pitman began to believe in ,phinuit's prediction2 but interpreting his last words wrongly1 she believed she should recover4 ,dr ,charcott attended her at ,paris for a nervous illness4 ,she suffered from weakness in the head1 and her mental faculties were impaired4 ,in short1 she died4 ,again1 other communications which do not fit in with the telepathic theory are those from very young children4 ,when they communicate a short time after death1 they reproduce their childish gestures1 they repeat the few words they had begun to stammer2 they ask by gestures for the toys they liked4 ,all these details are evidently to be found in the minds of the parents4 ,but when these children communicate long years after their death1 it is as if they had grown in the other world2 they only rarely allude to the impressions of their babyhood1 even when these impressions remain vivid in the minds of the father and mother4 ,george ,pelham was one day acting as intermediary for a child who had been dead many years4 ,the mother naturally spoke of him as a child1 and ,george ,pelham remonstrated1 ,roland is a gentleman2 he is not a little boy4#ea ,,footnotes3 #dd ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #cgj4 #de ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #did4 #df ,ibid41 p4 #die4 #dg ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 vi4 p4 #ead4 #dh ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 vi4 p4 #eji4 #di ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #daf4 #ej ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #dif4 #ea ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #eab4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,further consideration of the difficulties of the problem--,george ,pelham--,development of the automatic writing4 ,phinuit's empire remained uncontested till the month of ,march #ahib4 ,he sometimes yielded his place to other controls1 but rarely through a whole sitting4 ,however1 in ,march #ahib1 a new communicator appeared1 who imposed his collaboration on ,phinuit1 with the latter's consent or without it4 ,this newcomer called himself ,george ,pelham1#eb and asserted that he was the disincarnated spirit of a young man of thirty-two1 who had been killed four or five weeks before by a horse accident4 ,however that may be1 this new control had more culture1 more moral elevation1 and a greater love of truth than the so-called ,french doctor4 ,the latter benefited by the companionship2 he tried to be more truthful1 and seemed to make fewer appeals to his imagination2 in short1 all the sittings improved1 even those in which ,phinuit appeared alone4 ,the newcomer did everything in his power to establish his identity4 ,his success is still a matter open to discussion1 in the view of some persons1 and their doubts at least prove that1 in order to solve this greatest of all problems1 it is not enough that the communicators should give us numerous details which would seem at a first glance to establish their identity1 though the few cases in which identity appears to be proved furnish us with a strong presumption in favour of survival after death4 ,if ,george ,pelham is what he says he is1 future generations will owe him profound gratitude2 he has done all that he could1 under circumstances which are1 it appears1 very unfavourable1 although we are not in a position to understand the difficulties4 ,it is not always easy to prove identity1 even between the living4 ,imagine a man in ,england1 at the end of a telegraph or telephone wire2 imagine that a certain number of his friends at the other end of the wire1 in ,france1 refuse to believe him when he says he is ,so-and-so1 and say1 ,please prove your identity4 ,the unfortunate man will be in difficulties4 ,he will say1 ,do you remember our being together in such a place8 ,the reply will be1 ,nonsense2 somebody has told you of that incident1 and it does not in the least prove that you are the person you say you are4 ,and so on1 and so on4 ,one fact is incontestable1 however2 there is somebody at the end of the wire4 ,the telepathic theory asserts that1 in spite of appearances1 there is no one at the end of the wire1 or1 at least1 that no one is there but the medium1 temporarily endowed with powers as mysterious as they are extraordinary4 ,but to return to ,george ,pelham4 ,pelham is not his exact name4 ,the last syllable has been slightly modified1 from motives of discretion4 ,he belonged to a good family in the ,united ,states1 which counts ,benjamin ,franklin amongst its ancestors4 ,he had studied law1 but when his studies were finished he gave himself up exclusively to literature and philosophy4 ,he had published two works1 which brought him much praise from competent judges4 ,he had lived for a long time in ,boston or its neighbourhood4 ,the last three years of his life were passed in ,new ,york4 ,in ,february #ahib he fell from his horse and was killed on the spot4 ,he had interested himself in ,psychical ,research1 though very sceptical about the matter4 ,he was a member of the ,american ,society1 and later of the ,american ,branch of the ,society for ,psychical ,research4 ,dr ,hodgson knew him very well1 and liked to talk to him on account of the soundness of his judgment and the liveliness of his intelligence4 ,but neither time nor circumstances had allowed ties of affection or real friendship to be established between them4 ,two years before ,george ,pelham's death1 he and ,dr ,hodgson had a long discussion regarding a future life4 ,george ,pelham maintained that it was not only improbable1 but also inconceivable4 ,dr ,hodgson maintained that it was at least conceivable4 ,after much exchange of argument1 ,george ,pelham ended by allowing so much1 and finished the conversation by saying that1 if he should die before ,dr ,hodgson1 and should find himself still existing1 he would make things lively in the effort to reveal the fact4 ,george ,pelham1 more fortunate than many others who1 before or after him1 have made the same promise1 seems to have kept his word4 ,that many others have been unable to do so proves nothing4 ,the means of communication are still definitely rare2 ,mrs ,piper is an almost unique medium of her kind up to the present day4 ,it may be that the great majority of the inhabitants of the other world are in the same position as the great majority in this1 and are ignorant of the possibility of communication4 ,even if those who promise to return know of this possibility1 the difficulty of recognising their friends must be great1 since they do not seem to perceive matter4 ,their friends who are still in the body should1 it appears1 call them by thinking intently of them1 by presenting to good mediums articles which belonged to the dead1 and to which a strong emotional memory is attached1 and by asking the controls of these mediums to look for them4 ,when these precautions are not taken1 the survivors are wrong to blame their friends' failure to keep their word1 or to conclude that all is ended with the death of the body4 ,george ,pelham may have been enabled to manifest himself by particularly favourable circumstances4 ,he knew of ,mrs ,piper's existence1 although1 most probably1 ,mrs ,piper did not know him4 ,in #ahhh the ,american ,society for ,psychical ,research had nominated a commission for the investigation of mediumistic phenomena2 this commission asked ,mrs ,piper for a series of sittings4 ,i do not know whether ,george ,pelham was a member of the commission1 but he was present at one of the sittings4 ,the names of all the sitters were carefully kept private1 and nothing happened of a nature to draw the attention of the medium to ,george ,pelham1 who in all probability passed unnoticed4 ,dr ,hodgson thinks he can affirm that ,mrs ,piper only quite recently learned that ,george ,pelham had been present at one of her sittings4 ,the name of ,george ,pelham must have been revealed to her considerably later on1 for1 in her normal state1 she is quite ignorant of what she has said in her trance state2 she learns it1 as do all those who are interested in these questions1 by reading the ,proceedings of the ,society for ,psychical ,research except when ,dr ,hodgson thinks proper to tell her anything4 ,with the appearance of ,george ,pelham there arose a new method of communication--the method of automatic writing4 ,it was only on ,march #ab1 #ahib1ec that it was granted to ,dr ,hodgson to be present for the first time when this writing was produced2 although it had occurred on rare occasions before4 ,phinuit was serving as intermediary for a communicator who called herself ,annie ,d4 ,towards the end of the sitting ,mrs ,piper's arm rose slowly till the hand was over the top of her head4 ,the arm remained rigid in this position1 but the hand trembled very rapidly4 ,phinuit exclaimed1 ,she's taken my hand away1 and added1 she wants to write4 ,dr ,hodgson put a pencil between ,mrs ,piper's fingers and a block-book on her head4 ,hold the hand1 said ,phinuit4 ,dr ,hodgson grasped the wrist and stopped the trembling4 ,then the hand wrote1 ,i am ,annie ,d4 ,i am not dead but living1 and some other words2 then ,phinuit murmured1 ,give me back my hand4 ,the arm remained contracted and in the same position for a short time1 but finally1 slowly1 and as though with much difficulty1 it moved down to the side4 ,during the following sittings the writing was produced in the same inconvenient position4 ,but on ,april #bi1 #ahib1 ,dr ,hodgson arranged a table so that ,mrs ,piper's right arm could rest comfortably on it2 then1 seizing the arm and commanding with all his power1 ,you must try to write on the table1 he succeeded1 by using not a little force1 in getting the arm down4 ,since then the writing has been produced with the arm resting more or less on the table4 ,when a control takes possession of the arm to write1 it is seized with violent spasmodic convulsions4 ,the block-books1 writing-books1 pencils1 and everything on the table are thrown in confusion on to the floor4 ,sometimes considerable force must be employed to keep the arm still4 ,then a pencil is placed between the fingers1 and the writing begins4 ,sometimes1 but rarely1 the writing is interrupted by a spasm2 the hand is firmly closed and the wrist bent1 but after a few seconds the spasm disappears1 and the writing begins again4 ,on most occasions1 since the automatic writing has become easy1 two controls have manifested simultaneously--one by means of the voice1 the other by writing2 ,phinuit continuing to use the voice1 according to his former custom4 ,george ,pelham1 although he also uses the voice occasionally1 prefers writing4 ,on the #bdth ,february #ahid a control wrote1 ,there is no reason why various spiritual minds cannot express their thoughts at the same time1 through the same organism4 ,this is really what happens4 ,the voice may keep up a conversation with a sitter while the hand keeps up another in writing with someone else on a wholly different subject4 ,if the sitter who is talking with the hand allows his attention to be distracted by what the voice says1 the hand recalls his attention by its movements4 ,when anyone is speaking to the hand control1 it is necessary to speak to the hand1 and close to the hand1 or there is a risk of not being understood4 ,in short1 one must behave as if the hand were a complete and independent being4 ,observation of this phenomenon suggested to ,dr ,hodgson that by using the left hand he could perhaps obtain three communications on three different subjects4 ,he tried and succeeded1 although imperfectly2 no doubt because1 in the normal state1 the left hand is not used to writing4 ,formerly ,phinuit used to protest when the hand was seized1 and asked at once that it should be returned to him1 as we have seen above4 ,since the automatic writing has been developed the hand may be used by one control without the fact being perceived by the control who is using the voice4 ,one day ,phinuit was talking with a sitter about his relations1 when the hand suddenly1 and so to say surreptitiously1 wrote for ,dr ,hodgson a communication supposed to come from an intimate friend1 and treating of a subject altogether different from those of which the voice was speaking4 ,dr ,hodgson adds that it was precisely as if a caller should enter a room where two strangers to him were conversing1 but a friend of his also present1 and whisper a special message into the ear of the friend without disturbing the conversation4#ed ,phinuit seems to prefer not to notice what the hand is doing4 ,he talks as long as he has an interlocutor1 but1 when the messages given through the hand distract the attention of this interlocutor1 ,phinuit often says1 ,i'll help him4 ,what does he mean by this8 ,it is a mystery4 ,but if it is wished to continue the conversation with him1 the ear must be addressed directly he is ready to resume4 ,all this does not interrupt the writing2 the head and the hand do not interfere with one another4 ,the observers of these strange phenomena1 especially ,dr ,hodgson1 maintain that the controls write without consciousness that they are writing1 as1 no doubt1 they speak without consciousness that they are speaking4 ,according to what they say1 these controls perceive in the body of the medium two principal masses of the mysterious fluid1 the unknown energy which appears like light to them1 and which they call the light4 ,one of these masses is in the head1 the other in the hand4 ,the controls think in this light1 and their thoughts are transmitted to us automatically through the organism4 ,the automatic writing differs according to the controls4 ,they do not always succeed in reproducing the characteristics of their handwriting when alive4 ,george ,pelham has tried to do so at least once1 and did not succeed4 ,but this should not surprise us2 we do not work as well with other people's tools as with our own4 ,in any case this difference in the handwriting is a presumption the more in favour of the difference of individuality4 ,the writing often looks like that on a lithographic stone1 and can only be read when reflected in a glass2 this writing1 which is called mirror-writing1 is produced as rapidly as ordinary writing1 though ,mrs ,piper1 in her normal state1 would be unable to write in this way4 ,this mirror-writing has been often observed in subjects who write automatically2 the cause for it is still to be found4 ,on other occasions words are written backwards4 ,thus for hospital1 latipsoh will be obtained4 ,with certain mediums not only words but whole sentences are thus written4 ,to read them1 they must be begun at the last letter and read backwards to the first4 ,syllables are also often misplaced in ,mrs ,piper's automatic writing2 thus hospital may be written hostipal4 ,i remind the reader that ,i am referring to facts well attested by competent men1 about which there can be no question of fraud4 ,there exist detailed minutes of many of the sittings1 copied from stenographic notes4 ,an attempt was made to introduce a phonograph4 ,phinuit jokingly felt the mouth with his hands and asked1 ,what is this thing with a tube8 ,the attempt to explain its use to him was unsuccessful4 ,however1 the phonograph recorded the sitting fairly well1 but the experiment was not repeated--why1 ,i do not know1 for the intonations of the controls would have been an interesting study4 ,i have often used expressions of affirmation in this chapter1 and the reader might therefore conclude that the existence of spirits is no longer a hypothesis in my eyes1 but a reality4 ,i have already warned him1 and warn him again1 that ,i speak thus only for convenience' sake1 and that the existence of spirits is still as hypothetical to me as to anyone else4 ,,footnotes3 #eb ,not the real name4 ,see p4 #gh1 ,trans4 #ec ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #bia4 #ed ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #bid4 ,,chapter ,x ,how ,george ,pelham has proved his identity--,he recognises his friends and alludes to their opinions--,he recognises objects which have belonged to him--,asks that certain things should be done for him--,very rarely makes an erroneous statement4 ,some of my readers must have asked themselves what the returning ,george ,pelham can have said to make grave and intelligent men think he has proved his identity4 ,i shall try to give them some idea by relating such incidents as ,i can report without entering into too slight or complete details4 ,i cannot relate everything1 in the first place for want of space1 and secondly1 because ,i should be tiresome--a thing to be avoided in a popular work like the present4 ,when ,dr ,hodgson wrote the report which appeared in #ahih1 ,george ,pelham1 who1 like ,phinuit1 is always ready to act as intermediary 7though employing writing instead of speech7 had had occasion to see one hundred and fifty sitters1 among whom thirty were old friends of his4 ,he recognised the whole thirty1 and never mistook a stranger for a friend4 ,he not only addressed them all by name but took with each of them the tone he had been accustomed to take4 ,we do not speak in the same way to all our friends4 ,the tone of our conversation differs according to the character and the age of the person we address1 and according to the degree of esteem or affection we have for him4 ,these shades of manner are typical1 though instinctive1 and therefore are difficult to reproduce artificially4 ,george ,pelham1 then1 addressed the thirty friends whom he had the opportunity of meeting through the medium in the tone which he was in the habit of taking formerly with each one of them4 ,the incidents ,i shall quote are only examples2 ,i have said why ,i cannot recapitulate all that has been published about these sittings4#ee ,besides1 the sitters1 for reasons easy to imagine1 have declined to permit the publication of all that was most private1 and consequently most convincing1 in the sittings4 ,from the beginning ,george ,pelham asks to see his father4 ,he says that he wishes to talk to him about private affairs1 and also that he should like to convince him1 if possible1 of his existence in a new world4 ,mr ,pelham was at once informed1 and though he was very sceptical both by nature and education1 he1 with his second wife1 ,george ,pelham's step-mother1 visited ,mrs ,piper at once4 ,they were introduced under false names4 ,quite at the beginning of the sitting ,george ,pelham wrote1 ,hullo1 father and mother1 ,i am ,george6 ,the communications which followed were altogether what ,mr ,pelham1 senior1 would have expected from his living son4 ,at one of the earliest sittings he asks after one of his friends1 a young writer1 and urges that he should edit one of his1 ,george ,pelham's1 unpublished papers4 ,while ,george ,pelham was living in ,boston he was connected by bonds of strong affection with the ,howard family4 ,he lived with them often and for long periods4 ,he and ,james ,howard often discussed serious philosophical problems together4 ,at the first sitting ,george ,pelham insistently asked for the ,howards4#ef ,tell ,jim ,i want to see him4 ,he will hardly believe me1 believe that ,i am here4 ,i want him to know where ,i am4 ,o good fellow6 ,he welcomes ,mr and ,mrs ,howard in a characteristic way3 ,jim1 is that you8 ,speak to me1 quick4 ,i am not dead4 ,don't think me dead4 ,i'm awfully glad to see you4 ,can't you see me8 ,don't you hear me8 ,give my love to my father1 and tell him ,i want to see him4 ,i am happy here1 and more so since ,i find ,i can communicate with you4 ,i pity those people who can't speak4 ,a ,mr ,vance has a sitting4 ,george ,pelham had known him4 ,at first the communicator does not appear to notice him1 being occupied in giving messages to ,dr ,hodgson4 ,but presently ,george ,pelham recognises him1 and says1 ,how is your son8 ,i want to see him some time4 ,george1 where did you know my son8 ,in studies in college4 ,george1 where did you stay with us8 ,country1 peculiar house1 trees around1 porch that projects at the front4 ,vine at the side4 ,porch at the front1 and swing on the other side4 ,all this was correct4#eg ,miss ,helen ,vance and ,george ,pelham had belonged at the same time to a society formed for mutual aid in the art of writing4 ,she came to a sitting some time after it had begun4 ,mrs ,piper1 in her normal state1 had never met her4 ,nevertheless1 ,george ,pelham asks her at once1 ,how is the society getting on8 ,a little later on1 the following dialogue takes place between ,miss ,vance and ,george ,pelham3 ,now1 whom do you have to correct your writings8 ,we correct one another's4 ,but do they give satisfaction8 ,yes4 ,what1 in their corrections8 ,yes1 but not as much as you2 your corrections were better than theirs4 ,well1 that is what ,i am trying to get out of you4 ,in other words1 ,george1 you wanted a compliment from me4 ,oh1 bosh1 you know me better than that4 ,miss ,warner had two sittings with ,mrs ,piper#eh five years after ,george ,pelham's death4 ,he had known her when she was quite a child1 but he had not seen her for three years before he died1 and in eight years a child becomes a tall young girl4 ,consequently1 at the first sitting1 ,george ,pelham did not recognise ,miss ,warner at all4 ,at the second sitting he admitted this and said1 ,i do not think ,i ever knew you very well4 ,very little4 ,you used to come and see my mother4 ,i heard of you1 ,i suppose4 ,i saw you several times4 ,you used to come with ,mr ,rogers4 ,yes1 ,i remembered about ,mr ,rogers when ,i saw you before4 ,yes1 you spoke of him4 ,yes1 but ,i cannot seem to place you4 ,i long to place all my friends1 and could do so before ,i had been gone so long4 ,you see1 ,i am farther away--every day ,i get further away from you4 ,i do not recall your face2 you must have changed4 ,at this moment ,dr ,hodgson said1 ,do you remember ,mrs ,warner8 ,of course1 oh1 very well4 ,for pity's sake1 are you her little daughter8 ,yes4 ,by ,jove6 how you have grown6 ,i thought so much of your mother1 a charming woman4 ,george ,pelham not only recognises his friends1#ei as we have just seen2 he also remembers their opinions1 their occupations1 their habits4 ,james ,howard is an author4 ,he asks him1 ,why don't you write on this subject8 7the future life74 ,rogers writes also4 ,he asks1 ,what is ,rogers writing now8 ,a novel4 ,i don't mean that4 ,isn't he writing something about me8 ,yes1 he is preparing a memoir of you4 ,that is kind of him4 ,one is pleased not to be forgotten4 ,he was always very good to me when ,i was alive4 ,he remembers the opinions of his father1 and the discussions they had upon philosophical questions4 ,i should like to convince my father1 he says2 but it will be hard4 ,my mother will be easier4 ,he says to ,james ,howard1 ,do you remember how we used to ask each other for books of certain kinds1 about certain books1 where they were1 and you always knew just where to find them4 ,formerly1 when ,james ,howard and ,george ,pelham were talking together in the evening1 the first-named habitually smoked a long pipe4 ,at a sitting held in the library where these conversations used to take place1 ,george ,pelham said to ,mr ,howard1 ,get the long pipe and smoke4 ,katharine is one of ,james ,howard's daughters1 who plays the violin4 ,formerly her practising used to greatly annoy ,george ,pelham1 who lived with the ,howards4 ,he said to her at a sitting1 ,katharine1 how is the violin8 ,to hear you playing is horrible1 horrible4 ,mrs ,howard replies1 ,yes1 ,george1 but don't you see she likes her music because it is the best she has4 ,no1 but that is what ,i used to say4 ,marte is a pseudonym adopted by ,dr ,hodgson to designate a well-known ,american writer4 ,he is a monist1 a partisan of ,darwinism1 convinced that the death of the body is for us the end of all4 ,at a sitting ,george ,pelham said to him1 ,evolution is all right in the real life1 as ,darwin says1 but it goes on evoluting in the ideal life1 which fact he1 of course1 knew nothing of until he came here4 ,george ,pelham also recognises objects which have belonged to him1 principally those which have some remembered emotional association4 ,john ,hart1 at the first sitting at which ,george ,pelham appeared1 gave some sleeve-links he was wearing1 and asked1 ,who gave them to me8 ,that's mine4 ,i sent that to you4 ,when8 ,before ,i came here4 ,that's mine4 ,mother gave you that4 ,no6 ,well1 father then1 father and mother together4 ,you got those after ,i passed out4 ,mother took them1 gave them to father1 and father gave them to you4 ,i want you to keep them4 ,i will them to you4 ,all this is correct4 ,at another sitting ,mrs ,howard gives a photograph4 ,she placed it on the top of the medium's head4 ,do you recognise this8 ,yes1 it is your summer house2 but ,i have forgotten the name of the town4 ,don't you remember ,d48 ,oh1 the little brick house and the vine1 grape-vine some call it4 ,yes1 ,i remember it all2 it comes back as distinctly as the daylight4 ,where is the little outhouse8 ,all this is correct4 ,the outhouse which ,george ,pelham was surprised not to see was a henhouse left just out of the photograph4 ,at another sitting ,mrs ,howard put a book on the medium's head4 ,we must not forget that the medium's eyes are shut1 and the ocular globes upturned4 ,do you recognise this book8 ,oh1 yes1 it is my ,french ,lyrics4 ,needless to add that this was correct4 ,george ,pelham asks for information on the subjects which interested him in life4 ,he asks to have things done for him4 ,at the first sitting he said to the sitter1 ,john ,hart1 ,go up to my room1 where ,i write4 ,i left things all mixed up4 ,i wish you'd go up and straighten them out for me4 ,lots of names1 lots of letters4 ,you answer them for me4 ,evelyn is another of ,mr4 ,howard's daughters4 ,george ,pelham had given her a book1 and had written her name in it4 ,he asks her if she remembers it4 ,he has not forgotten his former speeches either4 ,he was fond of ,evelyn1 but this did not prevent his constantly teasing her4 ,thus she is weak in mathematics4 ,at one sitting ,george ,pelham says to her1 ,i won't tantalise ,evelyn now2 ,i used to torment her a great deal1 but she will forgive me1 ,i know4 ,which does not prevent his adding directly after1 ,evelyn is a girl that can always tell how much two and two is4 ,you have just learned1 haven't you8 ,you are not a great one for mathematics1 are you8 ,but he adds quickly1 ,now be good1 ,evelyn4 ,it doesn't matter so much about your lessons2 being good is the most important point of all4 ,james ,howard had asked ,george ,pelham several questions to which the latter had not replied1 asserting that he had forgotten4 ,on this account ,james ,howard still doubted ,george ,pelham's identity4 ,one day the former said1 ,george1 tell me something that you and ,i alone know4 ,i ask you1 because several things ,i have asked you you have failed to get hold of4 ,we spent a great many summers and winters together and talked on a great many things and had a great many views in common1 went through a great many experiences together4 ,tell me something now that you remember4 ,the hand at once began to write eagerly3 the occurrences related were so private that they cannot be published4 ,at a given moment the hand wrote ,private4 ,dr ,hodgson then left the room4 ,on his return ,james ,howard told him that he had obtained all the proof he could desire1 and that he was perfectly satisfied1 perfectly4 ,at the first sitting at which ,george ,pelham appeared1 when ,john ,hart was the sitter1 ,george spoke suddenly of ,katharine1 ,james ,howard's daughter1 and he said something which at the time had no meaning for ,john ,hart4 ,tell her1 she'll know4 ,i will solve the problems1 ,katharine4 ,when ,john ,hart reported these words to the ,howards they were more struck than by anything else4 ,during ,george ,pelham's last stay with them he had talked frequently with ,katharine upon deep philosophical questions1 such as ,time1 ,space1 ,eternity1 and had pointed out to her how unsatisfactory the commonly-accepted solutions were4 ,then he had added the words of the communication almost textually1 ,i will solve those problems some day1 ,katharine4 ,remark that at this time the ,howards had never yet seen ,mrs ,piper1 that ,john ,hart knew absolutely nothing of these conversations1 and that ,dr ,hodgson1 who took notes at the sitting1 did not at the time know the ,howards or of the conversations4 ,george ,pelham had received a good classical education4 ,he was a ,humanist4 ,consequently a rather large number of ,latin expressions are found in his language2 usual1 no doubt1 with people of his education1 but with which ,mrs ,piper is not acquainted in her normal state4 ,phinuit1 who cannot have been a good ,latinist1 does not employ them either4 ,observation of this fact inspired ,professor ,newbold#fj with the idea of asking ,george ,pelham to translate a short fragment of ,greek1 and he proposed the first words which occurred to him2 the beginning of the ,paternoster3 ,greek3 ,pater hemon ho en tois ouranois4 ,george ,pelham made some attempts1 and finally translated ,our ,father is in heaven4 ,professor ,newbold then proposed a longer phrase1 which he composed himself on the spot for the occasion3 ,greek3 ,ouk esti thanatos2 hai gar ton thneton psychai zoen zosin athanaton1 aidion1 makarion4 ,this means1 ,there is no death2 the souls of mortals really live an immortal eternal happy life4 ,george ,pelham called to his aid ,stainton ,moses1 who in his lifetime passed for a good ,hellenist4 ,both together only succeeded in understanding the first proposition1 ,there is no death4 ,these experiments1 at all events1 prove that ,mrs ,piper in the trance state can understand a little ,greek1 though in her normal state she does not even know the letters4 ,again1 ,george ,pelham and ,stainton ,moses may have known ,greek tolerably well and have forgotten it3 it is an accident which has happened to many of us4 ,with regard to this translation of ,greek1 we might form another hypothesis4 ,we might suppose that the spirits of ,george ,pelham and ,stainton ,moses--if there are spirits--perceiving thought directly1 and not its material expression1 have partly understood what ,professor ,newbold wanted to say1 without knowing in what language it was expressed4 ,if they did not understand wholly and completely1 it would be because a thought expressed in a foreign language has in our minds a certain vagueness4 ,we might go further2 we might suppose that ,mrs ,piper's subconsciousness perceives the thought directly1 independently of the form in which it is expressed4 ,mrs ,piper has often pronounced words and short sentences in foreign languages4 ,phinuit likes to say1 ,bonjour1 comment vous portez vous8 ,au revoir6 and to count in ,french4 ,mme4 ,elisa1 an ,italian1 the dead sister of ,mrs ,howard1 succeeded in writing or pronouncing some short sentences in more or less odd ,italian4 ,i find also at a sitting where the communicator was supposed to be a young ,hawaian three or four words of ,hawaian very appropriate to the circumstances4 ,mrs ,piper is ignorant of all this in her normal state4 ,i have just said that spirits--if there are spirits--perceive thought directly4 ,they themselves tell us this4 ,on the other hand1 they do not perceive matter1 which is non-existent to them4 ,this brings me to a new feature of the sittings1 principally of those with ,george ,pelham4 ,if this feature does not increase the proofs of identity1 it is at least an evidence of the abnormal powers of the medium4#fa ,george ,pelham is asked to go and see what a certain person is doing at a given time and to come back and relate it4 ,he goes1 and partially succeeds4 ,this is what appears to happen3 if the act is strongly conceived in the mind of the person he is watching1 he perceives it clearly2 if it is nearly automatic1 he perceives it vaguely2 if it is wholly automatic1 he does not perceive it at all4 ,he often says that actions have occurred which have only been planned and not executed1 at other times he reports past actions as present4 ,this is because spirits have not1 it appears1 a clear notion of time4 ,i have unfortunately neither time nor space to give examples of this4 ,can we say that the communicator ,george ,pelham has never made a partially or wholly erroneous assertion8 ,no4 ,but the number of such assertions is very small1 which was not the case when ,phinuit reigned alone4 ,here is one such assertion1 at which there has been much cavilling2 people have insisted on seeing in it the stamp of ,mrs ,piper and her social environment1 and not at all the stamp of the aristocratic ,george ,pelham4 ,george ,pelham is asked1 ,could you not tell us something which your mother has done8 ,he replies1#fb ,i saw her brush my clothes and put them away4 ,i was by her side as she did it4 ,i saw her take my sleeve buttons from a small box and give them to my father4 ,i saw her put some papers in a tin box4 ,when ,mrs ,pelham is questioned by letter1 she replies1 ,george's clothes were brushed and put away1 not by me1 but by the man who had valeted him4 ,and the hasty conclusion is1 ,mrs ,piper on this occasion thought herself among her own class4 ,she forgot that ,mrs ,pelham did not brush and put away clothes herself4 ,this is perhaps a too hasty triumph4 ,the most highly-bred women may occasionally brush and put away clothing4 ,now suppose that what ,i have said above about the way in which spirits perceive our actions should be true4 ,george ,pelham may have seen the project of the action in his step-mother's mind1 and not its execution by the valet4 ,it may be objected that he ought to have supposed she would not do it herself4 ,why8 ,i do not see it4 ,perhaps he knew that his step-mother was capable1 occasionally1 of putting away clothes herself4 ,george ,pelham is often asked questions which he cannot answer4 ,but he does not at all pretend to have forgotten nothing4 ,if there is another world1 spirits do not go there to ruminate on what has happened in our incomplete life4 ,they go there to be carried away in the vortex of a higher and greater activity4 ,if1 therefore1 they sometimes forget1 it is not astonishing4 ,nevertheless1 they seem to forget less than we do4 ,,footnotes3 #ee ,those readers who are interested in this question are recommended to read ,dr ,hodgson's ,report1 ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii41 ,trans4 #ef ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #cjj4 #eg ,ibid41 p4 #deh4 #eh ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 p4 #cbd4 #ei ,for reports of these sittings see ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 viii4 pp4 #dac-dda4 #fj ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiv4 p4 #df4 #fa ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #cbi4 #fb ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #cjc4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,george ,pelham's philosophy--,the nature of the soul--,the first moments after death--,life in the next world--,george ,pelham contradicts ,stainton ,moses--,space and time in the next world--,how spirits see us--,means of communication4 ,the communicator1 ,george ,pelham1 did not confine himself to obtaining recognition from his friends2 he talked a great deal of philosophy with them1 especially with ,dr ,hodgson4 ,indeed1 if he had not done so1 the omission might have created a doubt as to his identity1 for in his lifetime he was fond of such discussions4 ,but for the present ,dr ,hodgson has kept back these speculations from the other side of the grave1 thinking quite rightly that no value would attach to them until unmistakable evidence had been produced for the existence of another world4 ,still there are to be found among the reports of the sittings some fragments of these philosophic theories1 and they form an interesting subject of study4 ,the philosophy may be only that of ,mrs ,piper4 ,but it may on the other hand be the philosophy of the discarnate ,george ,pelham1 and for that reason it is not unworthy of examination4 ,supposing1 however1 that the assertions made are actually those of an inhabitant of the other world who in this world was intelligent1 honest and cultivated1 the question still arises whether we must regard them as expressing ,absolute ,truth4 ,surely not2 if another world exists beyond this one1 its inhabitants have mounted one step--but one step only--above us on the infinite ladder of existence4 ,they do not see the ,eternal face to face4 ,it is quite possible that they may be able to see clearly truths of which we have no glimpse1 but we are not bound to believe more than we like of what they tell us4 ,if the existence of the discarnate ,george ,pelham is established1 a new light is undoubtedly thrown on the old problem as to the nature of the soul1 a problem as old as the world itself4 ,the disciples of ,plato's ,socrates tried to interpret it by the charming analogy of the lyre and its harmony2 asking whether man may not be compared to a lyre and his soul to its harmony1 a harmony which ceases to exist when the instrument is broken4 ,using more modern terms1 we may ask whether the soul is the resultant of the forces of the bodily organism1 or whether it is the indestructible and mysterious motor which produces the action of that organism4 ,george ,pelham declares that the soul is in truth the motor1 and that the body is merely a machine used temporarily by the soul to act upon the obscure world of matter4 ,he speaks to this effect3 ,thought exists outside matter and is in no way dependent upon matter4 ,the destruction of the body does not have as its consequence the destruction of thought4 ,after the dissolution of the body the ,ego continues its existence1 but it then perceives thought directly1 is much more free1 and can express itself much more clearly than when it was stifled by matter4 ,the soul and thought are one2 thought is the inseparable attribute of the ,ego or individual soul4 ,on its arrival in this world the soul is ready to register innumerable new thoughts2 it is a tabula rasa upon which nothing has been inscribed4 ,this is a noble thought1 if true1 and one that wonderfully widens our narrow outlook4 ,but1 as ,i have said1 ,i reserve my right of critical examination4 ,elsewhere ,george ,pelham says1 ,we have an astral facsimile--the words are his--of our physical body1 a facsimile which persists after the dissolution of the physical body4 ,this would seem to be the astral body of the ,theosophists4 ,but the term facsimile is perplexing1 as ,i have always believed that the particular form which ,humanity actually has was entirely determined by the laws of our physical universe1 that it was an adaptation to its surroundings1 and that if a modification1 however slight1 were made in1 for instance1 the laws of gravity1 the human shape would undergo a corresponding variation4 ,sir ,william ,crookes has lately made some interesting observations on this subject4 ,but to this question ,i will return again4 ,now1 the physics of the next world must be very different from the physics of this world1 seeing that the next world is not material1 or at least that its matter is excessively subtle4 ,how then should the shape we men have in this world persist in the next8 ,now1 if we have an astral body which accompanies our ,ego in the next world1 and if that astral body consists of a fluid similar to what we suppose ether to be1 or identical with that ether1 this fluid must be matter in some form1 though matter obviously subject to quite other laws than those of our world of palpable substance4 ,moreover1 there is no proof that the soul is not the resultant of the organic forces of this astral body4 ,if this astral body1 as is probable1 in its turn suffers disintegration1 there is no proof that the soul survives this second disaggregation4 ,if all these suppositions were proved1 the old problem concerning the nature of the soul would have been carried back a stage1 but it would not have been solved4 ,but1 as things are1 this is1 perhaps1 to carry speculation too far4 ,let us curb our ambition and ask ,george ,pelham what are the sensations felt immediately after death4 ,everything was dark1 he says2 by degrees consciousness returned and he awoke to a new life4 ,i could not distinguish anything at first4#fc ,darkest hours just before dawn1 you know that1 ,jim4 ,i was puzzled1 confused4 ,this is probable enough4 ,if things are thus1 death must be a sort of birth into another world1 and it is easy to understand that the soul which has been just born into that new world cannot see or comprehend much in it till some time after such birth4 ,james ,howard remarked to ,george ,pelham that he must have been surprised to find himself still living1 to which ,george ,pelham replied1 ,perfectly so4 ,greatly surprised4 ,i did not believe in a future life4 ,it was beyond my reasoning powers4 ,now it is as clear to me as daylight4 ,elsewhere he says that when he found that he actually lived again he jumped for joy4 ,this joy is comprehensible enough2 those of us who are resigned to the prospect of annihilation are few4 ,the thought that death is annihilation makes us1 against all principles of logic1 shiver to the very marrow4 ,such a feeling perhaps points to a revolt of the soul within that knows itself immortal and cannot without a shiver of fear face the idea of non-existence1 an idea in opposition to its very nature4 ,with the impressions of ,george ,pelham may be compared those of another communicator called ,frederick ,atkin ,morton1 who had passed into the next world in quite a different way4 ,this ,morton had lately started a newspaper2 anxiety1 overwork1 and perhaps other causes made him lose his reason4 ,his insanity lasted but a short time2 in one of its attacks he shot himself in the head and was killed on the spot4 ,the first time that he tried to communicate1 his remarks showed great incoherence2--no matter for surprise if ,dr ,hodgson's observations on this subject are recalled4 ,but his thoughts soon became clear1 and at the second sitting his communications were definite enough4 ,this is how he relates to his brother ,dick his impressions about his own death4 ,he does not speak of suicide1 an action which he probably committed without full consciousness of what he was doing1 but at the end of the sitting ,mrs ,piper's hand wrote the word ,pistol4 ,death had been due to a pistol shot4#fd ,when on ,sunday1 he says1 ,i began to lose my mental equilibrium1 then suddenly ,i realised nothing and nobody4 ,in answer to the question as to what his next experience was he goes on3 ,i found ,i was in this world4 ,i did not know for the moment where ,i was only ,i felt strange and freer2 my head was light in weight1 also my body 444 my thoughts began to clear when ,i observed ,i had departed from my material body4 ,ever since then ,i have been trying to reach you1 ,dick4 ,i saw a light and many faces beckoning me on and trying to comfort me1 showing and assuring me ,i should soon be all right1 and almost instantly ,i found ,i was4 ,then ,i called for you and tried to tell you all about where and how ,i was1 and1 with one exception1 this is the only chance ,i have had4 ,now you see ,i am taking advantage of the opportunity4 ,after the question of how a man passes into the next world1 the most interesting one to us is how he feels when he gets there4 ,generally speaking1 the reports are satisfactory4 ,one of ,professor ,hyslop's uncles1 though he seems to have had a happy life here1 says to his nephew1 among other things1#fe ,i would not return for all ,i ever owned--music1 flowers1 walks1 drives1 pleasures of all kinds1 books and everything4 ,another communicator1 ,john ,hart1 the first sitter to whom ,george ,pelham appeared1 said on his own first appearance1 ,our world is the abode of ,peace and ,plenty4 ,if this is the case1 what a pleasant surprise awaits us1 for in this world we have not much experience of ,peace and ,plenty4 ,but ,i fear that ,john ,hart has exaggerated2 every day the ,reaper's sickle casts from this world into the other such elements of discord1 not to reckon those who must long ago have been there1 that ,i wonder what means are taken to prevent their creating a disturbance4 ,however this may be1 if when we leave this world we pass into another1 let us hope that the new world will be a better place than the old one1 or else we shall have every reason to regret that death is not annihilation4 ,but ,george ,pelham1 in his turn1 assures us that we do not lose by the change4 ,he died1 it will be remembered1 at the age of thirty-two4 ,when ,dr ,hodgson asked him whether he had not gone too soon1 he replied with emphasis1 ,no1 ,hodgson1 no1 not too soon4 ,if1 however1 spirits are happy1 more or less happy1 according to the spiritualists1 as they are more or less developed--and there seems nothing inadmissible in this theory--we must suppose that their happiness is not purely contemplative4 ,one could soon have enough of such happiness as that4 ,they are active2 they are1 as we are1 occupied1 though we cannot understand wherein their occupation consists4 ,that this is so is affirmed and reaffirmed in the sittings1 and we might assume it1 even if the spirits did not assert it4 ,george ,pelham says to his friend1 ,james ,howard1 that he will have an occupation soon4#ff ,the first time that ,i read this statement1 in a review which only reproduced a short fragment and in no way gave the real effect of these sittings1 ,i remember that the impression produced on me was very disagreeable4 ,how unsophisticated1 ,i thought1 must these so-called investigators be not to see that such a phrase as that cannot come from a spirit2 it bears too clearly the stamp of earth6 ,since then reflection has made me admit that spirits might very well also have their occupations2 the next world1 if it exists1 must be a sphere of fresh activity4 ,work is the universal law4 ,when ,george ,pelham was asked in what consisted the occupations of spirits1 he replied that they were like the noblest occupations of men1 and consisted in helping others to advance4 ,this reply will doubtless not satisfy those who are actuated only by an idle curiosity1 but it contains a profound philosophic truth4 ,if our varied occupations upon earth are regarded from a somewhat superior point of view1 it will be seen that their ultimate end is nothing else than the perfection of mankind4 ,those of us who have evolved furthest realise this1 and the rest do not2 the case must be the same in the next world1 though ,george ,pelham does not say so4 ,all our efforts and exertions are regarded with indifference by nature who has no use for them1 but the necessities of life make men feel that they are brothers1 and oblige them to polish one another1 like the stones of the beach rolled to and fro by the waves and rounded and polished by rubbing one against another4 ,willingly or not1 consciously or unconsciously1 we force one another to advance and to improve in all respects4 ,the world has been1 ,i think with justice1 compared to a crucible in which souls are purified by pain and work and prepared for higher ends4 ,i should not like to go as far as ,schopenhauer and say that it is a mere penal settlement4 ,a celebrated ,english medium1 ,william ,stainton ,moses1 in a book well known to spiritualist readers1 ,spirit ,teachings1 developed1 or rather allowed his spirit-guides to develop1 the theory that souls leave this earth taking with them all their desires and all their evil passions4 ,having no body in the next world to enable them to gratify these desires they are subjected to a veritable punishment of ,tantalus4 ,thereupon they endeavour to satisfy their material passions at least1 if ,i may so say1 vicariously2 they urge on incarnate men1 all unaware1 to abandon themselves to these vices and passions4 ,they incite the gambler to play1 the drunkard to drink2 in a word1 they push1 as far as in them lies1 every vicious man to the bottom of the abyss created by his own vice2 crime and debauchery intoxicate them and fill them with joy4 ,further developed and noble souls1 in spite of all their efforts1 are unable to conjure away the influence of the undeveloped and evil souls4 ,in a word1 we have here the old fable of demons and angels arranged to suit the doctrines of modern spiritualism4 ,it is indeed the old fable with a difference2 demons desire the perdition of man from jealousy1 because being themselves eternally condemned they wish to drag down with them as many souls as possible2 the evil souls of ,stainton ,moses desire the perdition of man to gratify their own bad inclinations4 ,demons are spirits1 wicked indeed1 but yet spirits1 whereas the evil souls of ,stainton ,moses are only miserable ghosts driven mad by love of matter4 ,certainly everything is possible1 as ,professor ,flournoy says1 but this theory is somewhat astonishing1 for it seems to make the inhabitants of the next world gravitate round our miserable earth1 and is like the old astronomical theory that placed our little globe in the centre of the universe4 ,if there be another world1 it is hard to believe that its inhabitants spend the greater part of their time in attending to us1 some of them to harm us and the rest to do us good4 ,professor ,william ,romaine ,newbold1 in a sitting which took place on ,june #ai1 #ahie1 asked ,george ,pelham what we ought to think of this theory of ,stainton ,moses4#fg ,professor ,newbold4--,does the soul carry with it into its new life all its passions and animal appetites8 ,george ,pelham4--,oh1 no1 indeed1 not at all4 ,why1 my good friend and scholar1 you would have this world of ours a decidedly material one if it were so4 ,professor ,newbold4--,the writings of ,stainton ,moses claimed that the soul carried with it all its passions and appetites1 and was very slowly purified of them4 ,george ,pelham4--,it is all untrue4 ,professor ,newbold4--,and that the souls of the bad hover over the earth goading sinners on to their own destruction4 ,george ,pelham4--,not so4 ,not at all so4 ,i claim to understand this1 and it is emphatically not so4 ,sinners are sinners only in one life4 ,the result of this denial of ,moses's doctrine was that ,george ,pelham was asked to find ,stainton ,moses and beg him to come himself and communicate4 ,here is a fragment of conversation between ,professor ,newbold and the discarnate ,stainton ,moses4 ,professor ,newbold4--,you taught that evil spirits tempt sinners to their own destruction8 ,w4 ,s4 ,moses4--,i have found out differently since ,i came over here4 ,this particular statement given me by my friends as their medium when ,i was in the body is not true4#fh ,professor ,newbold4--,your second statement was that the soul carries its passions and appetites with it4 ,w4 ,s4 ,moses4--,material passions4 ,untrue4 ,it is not so4 ,i believed that we had every desire after reaching this life as when in the body1 but ,i find that we leave all such behind2 in other words1 evil thoughts die with the body4 ,so on this point the teaching of ,george ,pelham differs from that of ,stainton ,moses4 ,but1 says ,professor ,newbold1 for the most part they agree pretty well4 ,now when we reach this other world it is certain that we shall at first be completely at a loss there1 as all that we here regard as indispensable conditions of existence will there be lacking4 ,spirits say that they do not perceive matter which is for them as if non-existent1 whereas here present-day science asserts that outside matter moved by force there is nothing4 ,it would be strange if the science of to-morrow were to prove that matter is only a sort of temporary illusion of mind4 ,here we conceive nothing outside space and time1 whereas spirits seem to have but confused notions of space and time4 ,such1 in the first place1 is the view which they constantly assert2 and1 in the next place1 if they are asked1 for example1 how long it is since they died they are generally unable to say4 ,in their communications again1 they often relate as occurring in the present actions that have taken place long ago4 ,i have said already that ,george ,pelham has often been asked to go and see what certain absent persons are doing and to return and report it2 he has generally been successful1 but he has sometimes made the curious mistake of taking the past for the present4 ,here is an illustration4 ,he is told to go and see what ,mrs ,howard1 absent at the time1 was doing2 he returns and reports4 ,dr ,hodgson writes to ask ,mrs ,howard what she was doing at the time of the sitting1 and hears from her in reply that she did none of the things reported on the day of the sitting1 but that she had done them all in the course of the afternoon and evening of the preceding day4#fi ,it seems likely that ,george ,pelham had read the thoughts of ,mrs ,howard1 and in his inability to appreciate time had taken the past for the present4 ,the same sort of thing seems to occur in the case of space4 ,phinuit1 to oblige ,professor ,newbold1 goes to find ,stainton ,moses4 ,phinuit says that he inhabits a great sphere1 and that ,stainton ,moses lives in a very distant part of this sphere4 ,but in spite of this he brings him back almost at once4 ,when the medium is presented with objects likely to attract the so-called spirits with whom the sitters are anxious to communicate1 these spirits for the most part arrive at once1 no matter where they may have died2 ,john ,hart1 who died at ,naples1 communicates two days afterwards at ,boston4 ,but it is hardly to be presumed that the spirits are there waiting for us4 ,if their appearance can be hastened or delayed by sympathy or antipathy1 on the other hand what we call distance seems not to disturb them in the least2 and yet we are perpetually finding in the communications such phrases as1 ,every day ,i am getting further from you1 ,now ,i am very far away from you4 ,but such phrases are probably not to be interpreted literally4 ,the spirits go further from us as they make progress in the spiritual world and doubtless also as the things of this world occupy less and less place in their recollections4 ,the spirits see us but they do not see our bodies1 since they do not perceive matter4 ,they see the spirit within us but it appears to them more or less obscure1 as long as it is within the body4 ,it is by the spiritual part of your being that ,i see you1 says ,george ,pelham1 that ,i am able to follow you and to tell you from time to time what you are doing4 ,and what do they think of our life upon earth8 ,here is a quotation from ,george ,pelham which will tell us3#gj ,remember we always shall have our friends in the dream life1 i4e41 your life so to speak1 which will attract us for ever and ever1 and so long as we have any friends sleeping in the material world2 you to us are more like as we understand sleep1 you look shut up as one in prison4 ,professor ,hyslop had a sister who died as a very young child2 she sends a short message to her brother saying that he dreams while she lives and that she sends him her love4 ,our life then would seem to be but a sleep accompanied by dreams which are sometimes terrible nightmares4 ,if this be so we can but hope for dawn and waking1 and wish soon to hear the crowing of the cock which will put to flight the phantoms of the night4 ,happy should we be if we had a certainty that it would be so6 ,this reminds me of a fine passage in a ,spanish poet1 which ,i cannot refrain from quoting3 ,to live is to dream2 experience teaches that man dreams what he is till the moment of awakening4 ,the king dreams that he is a king and passes his days in the error1 giving orders and disposing of life and property4 ,the rich man dreams the wealth that is the cause of his anxiety2 the poor man dreams the poverty and need from which he suffers4 ,i too dream that ,i am here laden with chains1 and in by-gone days ,i dreamt that ,i was happy4 ,our dreams are but dreams within a dream4 ,so our world may be compared with the cave of which ,plato speaks in the ,seventh ,book of the ,republic4 ,in the conversation between ,dr ,hodgson and ,george ,pelham1 when ,george ,pelham promised that if he were the first to die and if he found that he had another life he would do all that he could to prove its existence1 they referred to the old ,platonic myth4 ,in the communications of the so-called ,george ,pelham allusion was made to the allegory1 and that justifies me in briefly recalling it4 ,plato imagines prisoners who from their birth have been enchained in a dark cave in such a way that they are not able either to move or to turn their heads1 and can only look straight in front of them4 ,behind and above the captives a great fire burns1 and between the fire and the captives men pass to and fro carrying in their hands vessels1 statues1 images of animals and plants1 and many other objects4 ,the shadows of these men and of the objects that they carry are thrown upon that wall of the cavern which is opposite to the captives1 who thus know nothing of the external world but these shadows which they take to be realities1 and they spend their time discussing the shadows1 naming them and classifying them4 ,one of the captives is carried off from the gloomy place and transported into the external world4 ,at first the light dazzles him and he can distinguish nothing4 ,but by degrees1 as time goes on1 his sight adapts itself to its surroundings and he learns to look upon the stars and moon1 and the sun itself4 ,when he has been brought back into the cave and again sits beside his companions1 he takes part in their discussions and tries to make them understand that what they take for realities are only shadows4 ,but they1 confident in the results of their lengthy reflections on the subject1 laugh him to scorn4 ,the same thing would happen to a soul which had dwelt for a time in the world of spirit and had been brought back into the world of matter4 ,when ,plato's captive is brought back into the cave1 his eyes1 no longer used to half-darkness1 can distinguish nothing for some time2 if he is questioned about the shadows of the passing objects he does not see them1 and his answers are full of confusion4 ,perhaps something like this happens to the discarnate spirits who try to manifest themselves to us by borrowing the organism of a medium4 ,such at least is the suggestion of ,george ,pelham2 in that way he would explain the incoherence1 the confusion1 the false statements made by many of the communicating spirits3#ga ,for us to get into communication with you1 we have to enter into your sphere1 as one like yourself asleep4 ,this is just why we make mistakes as you call them1 or get confused and muddled so to put it4 ,i am not less intelligent now4 ,but there are many difficulties4 ,i am far clearer on all points than ,i was1 shut up in the body4 ',don't view me with a critic's eye1 but pass my imperfections by4' ,george ,pelham also tells us how we may summon the spirits of those with whom we desire to communicate4 ,the thoughts of his friends reach him2 if he is to come and make himself manifest his friends must think of him4 ,he adds that1 so far from the communications being injurious to the communicating spirits or the sitters1 they are positively to be desired4 ,on one occasion ,dr ,hodgson asked what became of the medium during the trance4#gb ,george ,pelham4--,she passes out as your ethereal goes out when you sleep4 ,dr ,hodgson4--,well1 do you see that there is a conflict1 because the brain substance is1 so to speak1 saturated with her tendencies of thought8 ,george ,pelham4--,no1 not that1 but the solid substance called brain--it is difficult to control it simply because it is material2 her mind leaves the brain empty as it were1 and ,i myself1 or other spiritual mind or thought1 take the empty brain1 and there is where and when the conflict arises4 ,all this is very unintelligible in the present condition of our knowledge4 ,but here is another passage even less intelligible and one which in its naivete almost suggests that the speaker is playing with us4 ,george ,pelham says to his friend ,james ,howard at the first sitting at which ,james ,howard was present3#gc ,your voice1 ,jim1 ,i can distinguish with your accent and articulation1 but it sounds like a big brass drum4 ,mine would sound to you like the faintest whisper4 ,j4 ,howard4--,our conversation1 then1 is something like telephoning8 ,george ,pelham4--,yes4 ,j4 ,howard4--,by long-distance telephone4 ,george ,pelham laughs4 ,understand who may6 ,are these only analogies8 ,one does not know what to think4 ,another difficult thing to understand is the weakness which the spirits complain that they feel1 especially towards the end of the sittings4 ,george ,pelham actually says that we must not demand from spirits just what they have not got1 namely1 strength4 ,if the spirits mean that the medium's light grows weak and no longer provides them with the unknown something that they require in order to communicate1 why do they not express themselves more clearly8 ,it will perhaps be thought that ,i have dwelt a little too long on what ,i have called the philosophy of ,george ,pelham4 ,i have thought it best to do so1 and there is no harm done so long as ,i leave it to my readers to believe as much as they like4 ,,footnotes3 #fc ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #cja4 #fd ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiv4 p4 #ah4 #fe ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xvi4 p4 #cae4 #ff ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #cja4 #fg ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiv4 p4 #cf4 #fh ,in another sitting ,w4 ,s4 ,moses says that1 as he held this view very strongly in life1 he felt sure that he had been told it by his spirit-guides4 #fi ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 pp4 #cje1 #cjf4 #gj ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #cfb4 #ga ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 pp4 #cfb1 #cfc4 #gb ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #dcd4 #gc ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #cja4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,william ,stainton ,moses--,what ,george ,pelham thinks of him--,how ,imperator and his assistants have replaced ,phinuit4 ,for those of my readers who are unacquainted with spiritualist literature1 and in order to facilitate the understanding of what follows1 ,i must give a short sketch of the life of the ,english medium1 ,william ,stainton ,moses4 ,he was born in #ahci1 and died in #ahib4 ,he studied at ,oxford1 and was then curate at ,maughold1 near ,ramsey1 in the ,isle of ,man4 ,his great kindness made him beloved by all his parishioners there4 ,when an epidemic of smallpox drove even the doctors away1 he remained faithfully at his post1 caring for bodies and comforting souls4 ,but he had precarious health1 and was overworked at ,maughold4 ,he obtained another curacy1 where there was less work1 at ,saint ,george's1 ,douglas1 also in the ,isle of ,man4 ,it was at ,douglas that the friendship1 broken only by death1 was formed between him and ,dr ,stanhope ,speer4 ,a throat-affection soon after prevented his preaching1 and he left the service of the ,church to give himself up to teaching4 ,he went to ,london1 where he became tutor to the son of ,dr ,stanhope ,speer1 who was living there4 ,finally1 at the beginning of #ahga1 he obtained a mastership in ,university ,college ,school1 and there he remained till #ahhi4 ,till #ahgb ,william ,stainton ,moses knew nothing of spiritualism4 ,if he had vaguely heard of it1 he had no doubt hastened to condemn the new superstition which carried off sheep from his flock4 ,however1 in #ahgb1 ,mrs ,speer1 being ill and confined to her room1 read ,dale ,owen's book1 ,the ,debatable ,land4 ,the book interested her1 and she asked ,stainton ,moses to read it4 ,he did so1 but only to please his friend's wife4 ,nevertheless he became curious to know how much truth there might be in the matter4 ,he visited mediums1 and took ,dr ,speer with him1 and both were soon convinced that here was a new force4 ,it was at the time when spiritualistic phenomena were attracting much attention in the ,united ,states and ,england1 and when learned bodies were appealed to from all sides to put an end to these phantasmagoria4 ,it was the period when the materialised apparition of ,katie ,king appeared and talked to numerous spectators who came from widely separated places4 ,sir ,william ,crookes could see her and photograph her as much as he pleased2 heedless of his environment1 he published what seemed to him the truth4 ,thereupon the man whose brain had till then been considered one of the most lucid and best organised which humanity has produced1 lost considerably in the opinion of his contemporaries4 ,but no doubt the future will avenge him4 ,the ,speer family and ,stainton ,moses now began to hold sittings by themselves4 ,stainton ,moses#gd at once showed himself to be an extraordinarily powerful medium4 ,neither he nor anybody else had suspected this mediumship till now4 ,many other mediumships have been revealed in the same way1 suddenly1 by experiment4 ,this shows that faculties1 valuable for the study of these disturbing problems1 may exist in some of us who least expect it4 ,the physical phenomena which occurred in the presence of ,stainton ,moses were numerous and varied4 ,these phenomena cannot be due to the subconsciousness of ,stainton ,moses1 and they seem to point to external intervention more clearly than do the communications he has left us4 ,the best known of these communications is entitled ,spirit ,teachings4 ,it is a long dialogue between self-styled disincarnated spirits and ,stainton ,moses4 ,stainton ,moses also wrote automatically without being entranced4 ,spirit ,teachings1 among other things1 was obtained in this way4 ,the medium is still saturated with his theological education2 he discusses1 he cavils1 and his spirit-guides show him the absurdity of a great part of his beliefs4 ,we know that his robust faith began to be shaken by doubt about the time when his mediumship revealed itself4 ,if we left the above-mentioned phenomena out of consideration1 we might not unreasonably be tempted to see in these dialogues only a doubling of personality2 on one hand the personality of the clergyman defending his doctrines foot by foot1 on the other hand the personality of the reasoning man formulating his own objections to them4 ,the self-styled spirit-guides of ,stainton ,moses formed a united group obeying one chief1 who called himself ,imperator4 ,rector1 ,doctor1 ,prudens1 were his subordinates4 ,naturally1 they asserted they were the souls of men who had lived on earth2 the above names were borrowed for the circumstance2 their real names were revealed to ,stainton ,moses1 who wrote them in one of his note-books1 but always refused to publish them4 ,i beg the reader to observe this detail1 which will become important later4 ,stainton ,moses had the temperament of an apostle but not at all that of a man of science4 ,the contents of the messages interested him much more than their origin4 ,the former clergyman liked better to discuss a doubtful text than patiently to accumulate facts while guarding himself in all possible ways against fraud4 ,certainly he was scrupulously honourable2 no conscious falsehood ever passed his lips1 but his temperament makes his interpretations doubtful1 and with reason4 ,he was one of the first members of the ,society for ,psychical ,research1 but the methods which the ,society adopted from the beginning were not of a kind to please him2 for his part1 he believed that abundant proofs already existed1 and he saw no use in minutely examining a large number of small facts4 ,dr ,speer's son1 whom ,stainton ,moses had taught1 praises his judgment1 his modesty1 his inexhaustible charity4 ,modest he really was1 and it never occurred to him to be vain of the miraculous phenomena which occurred in his presence2 he never thought of making a venal use of his mediumship4 ,although he published his communications1 he hardly ever published reports of his phenomena4 ,it was ,frederic ,myers who published these from the note-books of the ,speer family and of ,stainton ,moses himself4 ,the notes are in agreement1 although they were made separately1 and without any idea of publication4 ,the son of ,dr ,speer asserts that ,stainton ,moses never refused a discussion1 and never despised an opponent4 ,but1 on the other hand1 ,frederic ,myers1 who knew him well1 assures us that he bore contradiction badly1 and was quickly irritated by it4 ,the manner in which he retired from the ,society for ,psychical ,research tends to prove that it is ,myers who is right4 ,the son of ,dr ,speer1 in his gratitude to his former master1 must have deceived himself4 ,i will now explain the reason of this long preamble about ,stainton ,moses4 ,at a sitting which took place on ,june #ai1 #ahie1 ,professor ,newbold1 conversing with ,george ,pelham1 obtained from him the enunciation of doctrines which contradicted those given by ,stainton ,moses in ,spirit ,teachings4 ,professor ,newbold#ge then asked1-- ,do you know of ,stainton ,moses8 ,george ,pelham4--,no1 not very much4 ,why8 ,professor ,newbold4--,did you ever know of him or know what he did8 ,g4 ,p4--,i only have an idea from having met him here4 ,professor ,n4--,can you tell me what he said8 ,g4 ,p4--,no1 only that he was ,w4 ,stainton ,moses4 ,i found him for ,e4#gf and ,hodgson4 ,professor ,n4--,did you tell ,hodgson this8 ,g4 ,p4--,i do not think so4 ,at the sitting on the next day1 ,professor ,newbold returns to the charge4 ,can you bring ,stainton ,moses here8 ,g4 ,p4--,i will do my best4 ,professor ,n4--,is he far advanced8 ,g4 ,p4--,oh1 no1 ,i should say not4 ,he will have to think for a while yet4 ,professor ,n4--,what do you mean8 ,g4 ,p4--,well1 have you forgotten all ,i told you before8 ,professor ,n4--,you mean about progression by repentance8 ,g4 ,p4--,certainly ,i do4 ,professor ,n4--,was not he good8 ,g4 ,p4--,yes1 but not perfect by any means4 ,professor ,n4--,was he a true medium8 ,g4 ,p4--,true1 yes1 very true2 his 'light' was very true1 yet he made a great many mistakes and deceived himself4 ,phinuit1 sent to find ,stainton ,moses1 ends by bringing him4 ,george ,pelham warns the sitter against the confusions and incoherences of ,stainton ,moses's communications4 ,when he arrives1 says ,george ,pelham1 ,i will wake him up4 ,professor ,n4--,is he asleep8 ,g4 ,p4--,oh1 ,billie1 you are stupid1 ,i fear1 at times4 ,i do not mean wake him up in a material sense4 ,professor ,n4--,nor did ,i4 ,g4 ,p4--,well1 then1 old man1 don't be wasting light4 ,professor ,n4--,i'm not wasting light1 but ,i am obliged to find out what you mean4 ,g4 ,p4--,well1 this is what ,i wish also4 ,professor ,n4--,stainton ,moses has been nearly three years in the spirit4444 ,do you mean to say that he is not yet free from confusion8 ,these explanatory passages would be of great value if we were sure that we were not dealing with a secondary personality of ,mrs ,piper4 ,later still1 ,george ,pelham returns to the probable mental confusion of ,stainton ,moses1 and to the necessity for taking certain precautions in order to obtain clear communications4 ,he was quite right4 ,these sittings1 in which ,stainton ,moses was the self-styled communicator1 are exactly those which make the spiritualist hypothesis most difficult to accept4 ,all the exact information given existed already in the minds of those present2 all the rest was untrue4 ,stainton ,moses had an excellent chance of proving his identity4 ,we have said that he had written down the real names of his spirit-guides or controls in one of his note-books4 ,at the time these sittings were taking place in ,america1 ,frederic ,myers1 in ,england1 was studying these note-books in order to publish so much of them as he thought fit4 ,he knew these names1 but ,i believe he was the only person in the world who knew them4 ,stainton ,moses was told1 ,give us the names of your spirit-guides2 it will be a splendid proof4 ,mr ,myers knows them1 but we do not4 ,we will send them to him1 and if they are correct we shall no longer be able to have a reasonable doubt of your identity4 ,the self-styled ,stainton ,moses seemed perfectly to understand what was asked of him2 he gave the names1 and every one of them was wrong4 ,in ,october #ahif ,dr ,hodgson made ,george ,pelham understand the necessity of obtaining exact information from ,stainton ,moses1 in order that the problem1 which seemed to interest ,george ,pelham as much as it did ,dr ,hodgson1 might be solved4 ,stainton ,moses then said that he would ask the help of his former spirit-guides4 ,the latter communicated directly several times1 in ,november and ,december #ahif and in ,january #ahig4 ,but finally they demanded that the light of the medium should be put at their exclusive disposal4 ,imperator explained that these unconsidered experiments with all sorts of spirits--more or less undeveloped and disturbed--as communicators1 had made ,mrs ,piper as a medium into a machine worn out1 and incapable of being really useful4 ,he1 ,imperator1 and his friends would be able to restore her in time4 ,but they must have the right to keep away such communicators as they should judge likely to injure her again4 ,dr ,hodgson explained the importance of trying this experiment to ,mrs ,piper in her normal state4 ,mrs ,piper1 docile as usual1 consented4 ,the last appearance of ,phinuit occurred on ,january #bf1 #ahig4 ,phinuit had formerly said1 ,they find fault with me1 they won't understand that ,i do all ,i can1 but when they do not hear my voice any longer they will regret me4 ,however1 he is not regretted4 ,whoever the controls ,imperator1 ,rector1 ,doctor and ,prudens may be1 since they have controlled the communications1 these have acquired a coherence1 clearness and exactness unknown before2 errors are rare1 and evident falsehood unknown4 ,besides1 ,mrs ,piper enters the trance differently4 ,formerly there was more or less painful struggle2 she had violent convulsions and spasmodic movements2 at present she enters the trance quietly1 as if she were falling asleep4 ,if1 in truth1 ,mrs ,piper entranced is merely an automaton1 a machine1 of which use is made to communicate between two worlds1 it is perfectly evident that1 on this side as well as the other1 it is well to have honourable and experienced experimenters4 ,phinuit was not perhaps wanting in experience1 but he was assuredly wanting in honesty2 or possibly he did not perceive the extreme importance of veracity in these matters2 he did not lie for the pleasure of lying1 but he did not hesitate to lie1 if needs were1 to escape from some difficulty4 ,the new report of ,professor ,hyslop1 which ,i am about briefly to analyse1 will show us the new phase of ,mrs ,piper's mediumship4 ,the results are already good4 ,imperator asserts nevertheless that the machine still needs repair1 and that he will obtain still more wonderful results by-and-by4 ,,footnotes3 #gd ,for an account of the mediumship of ,w4 ,stainton ,moses the reader is referred to ,mr ,f4 ,w4 ,h4 ,myers's articles in the ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 ix4 p4 #bde1 and vol4 xi4 p4 #bd4 #ge ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiv4 p4 #cf4 #gf ,another communicator4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,professor ,hyslop and the journalists--,the so-called confession of ,mrs ,piper--,precautions taken by ,professor ,hyslop during his experiments--,impressions of the sittings4 ,the last report#gg we possess of the phenomena accompanying ,mrs ,piper's trance is that of ,professor ,james ,hervey ,hyslop1 of ,columbia ,university1 ,new ,york4 ,this report appeared in ,november #aija4 ,the minutes of the sittings1 the notes1 the remarks of the sitter1 the discussion of hypotheses1 the account of experiments made at the ,university in order to throw light on certain points1 all together make a report of #fej pages of close reading4 ,it refers1 notwithstanding1 only to sixteen sittings1 of which the first took place on ,december #bc1 #ahih4 ,but the smallest incidents and the slightest arguments are scrupulously weighed4 ,it is1 in short1 a work of considerable extent4 ,professor ,hyslop has an absolutely sincere and very lucid mind4 ,it is a pleasure to follow him through this mass of facts and arguments2 everything is scrupulously classified1 and the whole is illuminated by a high intelligence4 ,professor ,hyslop occupies with good right an eminent place amongst the thinkers of the ,united ,states4 ,besides his classes1 he gives numerous lectures1 which are well attended4 ,the report he has published has been long waited for4 ,as he is a man of mark and has long occupied himself with ,psychical ,research1 the inquisitive journalists on the other side of the ,atlantic quickly found out that he had been experimenting with ,mrs ,piper4 ,he was interviewed2 he was prudent1 and contented himself with recommending the reporters to study the preceding reports published upon the same case4 ,but reporters are not so easily contented2 they have to satisfy an exacting master in the public1 which wants to know everything1 and which would cease to purchase any paper simple enough to say1 ,i have done all ,i could to get information on this point for you1 but ,i have failed4 ,the public will have none of such honesty as that1 though if a falsehood is offered1 it is not angry2 in the first place1 because at the moment it does not recognise the falsehood1 and in the second1 because by the time it finds out it is busy over something else4 ,consequently1 as they must live1 journalists find themselves sometimes obliged to invent4 ,so the reporters put into ,professor ,hyslop's mouth the following sensational words1 ,in a year ,i shall be able to demonstrate the immortality of the soul scientifically4 ,these words were reproduced by the greater number of the ,american papers and by a large number of ,english ones4 ,specialist publications in ,france in their turn commented on them4 ,it will be understood with what eagerness the report was expected after this by all men interested in psychical studies4 ,they have not been disappointed4 ,professor ,hyslop is too modest for such unbounded pretension2 he knows that the great problem will not be solved at one stroke1 nor by one man4 ,i do not claim1 he says1 to demonstrate anything scientifically1 not even the facts ,i offer4 ,this phrase does not at all resemble the declaration put into his mouth4 ,but if he has not definitively and scientifically proved the immortality of the soul1 he has approached the problem very nearly and thrown a vivid light on more than one point4 ,in any case the journalists have advertised him thoroughly1 perhaps without intending it4 ,speaking of journalists1 ,i must relate another quite recent incident1 which is interesting to us1 as it concerns ,mrs ,piper personally4 ,one of the editors of the ,new ,york ,herald interviewed ,mrs ,piper and on ,october #bj1 #aija1 published an article somewhat speciously entitled1 ,the ,confessions of ,mrs ,leonora ,piper4 ,in this article it was stated that ,mrs ,piper intended to give up the work she had been doing for the ,s4,p4,r4 in order to devote herself to other and more congenial pursuits1 that it was on account of her own desire to understand the phenomena that she first allowed her trances to be investigated and placed herself in the hands of scientific men1 with the understanding that she should submit to any tests they chose to apply1 and that now1 after fourteen years' work1 the subject not being yet cleared up1 she felt disinclined for further investigation4 ,her own view of the phenomena was expressed in this article as follows3--,the theory of telepathy strongly appeals to me as the most plausible and genuinely scientific solution of the problem4444 ,i do not believe that spirits of the dead have spoken through me when ,i have been in the trance state4444 ,it may be that they have1 but ,i do not affirm it4444 ,i never heard of anything being said by myself during a trance which might not have been latent in my own mind or in the mind of the person in charge of the sitting1 or in the mind of the person trying to get communication with someone in another state of existence1 or of some companion present with such a person1 or in the mind of some absent person alive somewhere else in the world4 ,in the ,boston ,advertiser of ,october #be1 #aija1 there appeared a statement dictated by ,mrs ,piper to a representative of the paper1 saying that she had made no such statement as that published in the ,new ,york ,herald to the effect that spirits of the departed do not control her1 and later in the ,boston ,journal for ,october #bi1 #aija1 there appeared an account of interviews with ,dr ,hodgson and ,mrs ,piper1 in which ,mrs ,piper stated that though she had said something to the effect that she would never hold another sitting with ,mr ,hodgson1 and that she would die first to a ,new ,york ,herald reporter the summer before1 when she gave the original interview1 she now intended1 regardless of whatever may have been said1 to go on with the present arrangement with ,dr ,hodgson and the ,society as formerly4 ,she still held and expressed the view that the manifestations are not spiritualistic1 and felt that the telepathic theory is more probable than the spiritualistic hypothesis4 ,it will be seen that in none of these reports is there any justification for the somewhat sensational use of the word ,confessions in the original article4 ,mrs ,piper made no statements1 as the use of that word suggests1 concerning the source of her knowledge2 she expressed her preference for one of two hypothetical explanations of the origin of that knowledge4 ,no question was raised in the original article as to ,mrs ,piper's honesty or as to the genuineness of her trance phenomena2 on the contrary she is represented by the reporter of the ,new ,york ,herald as holding a view of those phenomena which asserts that they are not fraudulent4 ,she expresses her personal preference for the telepathic hypothesis rather than the spiritualist hypothesis as an explanation of them2 on this point it should be remembered that the medium is not in a more favourable position for forming an opinion than those who sit with her1 since she does not remember what passes while she is in trance1 and is therefore dependent for her knowledge on the reports of the sitters4 ,the allegation of the ,new ,york ,herald as to her intention to discontinue the sittings was unfounded2 after a suspension of some months owing to the state of her health1 she gave a sitting to ,dr ,hodgson on ,october #ba1 the day after the article in the ,herald appeared1 and it was then arranged to resume the sittings after a further interval of three months4 ,this has been done1 and ,mrs ,piper gave sittings to ,dr ,hodgson all through the spring of last year1 and is still doing so through the winter of #aijb-aijc4 ,the reader will excuse this digression on a subject which made some stir at the time1 and is interesting as throwing light on the medium's own attitude towards her trance phenomena4 ,to return to ,professor ,hyslop's report4 ,professor ,hyslop told only his wife and ,dr ,hodgson of his intention to have sittings with ,mrs ,piper4 ,the days were fixed1 not with ,mrs ,piper in the normal state1 but with ,imperator1 the chief of the present controls1 while she was in trance4 ,now we must never forget that ,mrs ,piper has no recollection of what happens during the trance4 ,professor ,hyslop's name was not given to ,imperator2 ,dr ,hodgson called him the four times friend1 because ,professor ,hyslop had at first asked for four sittings4 ,i should not call this a transparent pseudonym4 ,professor ,hyslop had once been present at one of ,mrs ,piper's sittings1 and his name had been pronounced4 ,although there seemed to be small chance of her recognising him1 as the sitting had taken place six years before1 and ,professor ,hyslop did not then wear a beard as he now does1 he put on a mask while he was in a closed carriage at some distance from ,mrs ,piper's house4 ,he kept on his mask during the first two sittings1 and then the precaution became useless1 because his father's name was pronounced by ,mrs ,piper at the end of the second4 ,dr ,hodgson presented him as ,mr ,smith1 which name is given to all new sitters4 ,professor ,hyslop never spoke before ,mrs ,piper in her normal state1 except twice to utter short sentences1 and he took pains to change his voice as much as possible4 ,he avoided all contact with the medium throughout all the sitting4 ,most of the facts were obtained from the communicators without previous questioning4 ,when ,professor ,hyslop was obliged to ask a question1 he did so in such a way that it did not contain a suggestion of the answer4 ,to prevent ,mrs ,piper's seeing him during the sitting1 he kept always behind her right shoulder1 the easiest position too for reading the writing4 ,but when we recollect that ,mrs ,piper's head is always buried in pillows during the trance1 we shall think this a superfluous precaution4 ,as ,i have said in the preceding chapter1 ,phinuit no longer manifests4 ,this is what now appears to take place on the other side4 ,rector places himself in the machine1 and it is he who produces the automatic writing4 ,this ,rector seems to have had much experience of these phenomena4 ,the communicator comes close to ,rector and speaks to him1 in whatever manner spirits may speak4 ,imperator remains outside the machine1 and prevents the approach of all those likely to injure it1 or who have nothing to do with the sitter4 ,besides1 before he allows a communicator to enter the machine1 he gives him advice as to what he should do1 and helps him to arrange and clear up his ideas4 ,imperator's two other helpers1 ,doctor and ,prudens1 appear but rarely4 ,george ,pelham appears sometimes1 when his services are needed4 ,the communicators were few in number during ,professor ,hyslop's sixteen sittings4 ,they were1 his father1 ,robert ,hyslop1 who gave much the most important communications2 his uncle1 ,carruthers2 his cousin1 ,robert ,harvey ,mac,clellan2 his brother ,charles1 who died in #ahfd1 aged four years and a half2 his sister ,annie1 who also died in #ahfd1 aged three years2 his uncle1 ,james ,mac,clellan2 and lastly1 another ,mac,clellan named ,john4 ,professor ,hyslop's father1 ,robert ,hyslop1 is the communicator who takes up the greater part of the sittings4 ,but he cannot remain long in the machine1 he complains of having his ideas confused1 of suffocating or getting weak2 for example1 he says1 ,i am getting weak1 ,james1 ,i am going away for a moment2 wait for me4 ,during these absences ,imperator sends another member of the family in his place so that the light may not be wasted4 ,it would thus seem that the weakness which the spirits complain of is only a feeling they have when they have been in contact with the machine for a certain time2 ,imperator says that then they are like a sick and delirious man4 ,this explains the words of ,george ,pelham1 ,you must not ask of us just what we have not got--strength4 ,but it is indispensable to say that the former communicators did not explain enough about this weakness2 and they were not sufficiently well inspired to go out when they felt it coming on4 ,dr ,hodgson at last1 having often remarked this semi-delirium of the communicators towards the end of a sitting1 when the light was failing1 succeeded in suggesting to them to go away when they felt themselves getting weak4 ,the possibility of this suggestion is interesting to those who prefer the hypothesis of telepathy4 ,,footnotes3 #gg ,professor ,hyslop's report is contained in ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xvi4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,the communications of ,mr ,robert ,hyslop--,peculiar expressions--,incidents4 ,after we have read the report of ,professor ,hyslop1 weighed the slightest facts with him1 discussed the arguments for and against with him1 we cannot be surprised at his having ended by adhering to the spiritualist hypothesis2 in other words1 we cannot be surprised that1 in spite of his previous prejudice1 he should have ended by exclaiming1 ,i have been talking with my father1 my brother1 my uncles4 ,whatever supernormal powers we may be pleased to attribute to ,mrs ,piper's secondary personalities1 it would be difficult to make me believe that these secondary personalities could have thus completely reconstituted the mental personality of my dead relatives4 ,to admit this would involve me in too many improbabilities4 ,i prefer to believe that ,i have been talking to my dead relatives in person2 it is simpler4 ,this is the conclusion at which ,professor ,hyslop has arrived1 and he takes the reader with him1 in spite of himself4 ,as may be imagined1 ,i do not pretend to do the same in a hurried sketch like the present4 ,here1 as was the case with ,george ,pelham1 the incidents quoted are only examples selected from a great number2 some important detail of the said incidents may even be accidentally omitted4 ,if the forgotten detail lays the incident open to some great objection1 the reader must blame me only for it1 and turn to ,professor ,hyslop's book for himself4#gh ,professor ,hyslop's father1 ,mr ,robert ,hyslop1 was a private person in the strictest sense of the word2 he never did anything to attract public attention to him2 he did not write in the papers1 and never1 or hardly ever1 lived in towns4 ,he was born in #ahba1 and lived on his farm in ,ohio till #ahhi1 when he went into a neighbouring ,state4 ,he returned to his old home in ,august #ahif1 ill with a sort of cancer of the larynx4 ,the old home then belonged to his brother-in-law1 ,james ,carruthers1 and he died there on the #bith of the same month4 ,in #ahfj he had contracted a spinal affection1 the result of over-exertion1 and this had degenerated1 some years later1 into locomotor ataxy2 he lost by degrees the use of one of his legs and used a crutch2 there was afterwards an improvement1 but he could never walk without a stick4 ,in #ahgf he had a slight attack of apoplexy1 which affected his hearing1 one ear being quite deaf4 ,three years before his death he further had the misfortune to lose his voice1 probably from paralysis of the larynx4 ,a year before his death a fresh affliction was added to all the others2 he thought it was catarrh1 but it was probably cancer of the larynx2 and it was accompanied by frequent spasms which threatened his life4 ,in short1 for thirty-five years at least1 ,mr ,robert ,hyslop was an invalid4 ,his life was by necessity passed indoors1 or at least on his farm4 ,this life was necessarily without events calculated to attract a stranger's notice4 ,there was consequently very little possibility that the medium could obtain information about him by normal means4 ,but when an obscure man like ,mr ,robert ,hyslop returns from the ,beyond to establish his identity by relating a number of small facts1 too slight and unimportant to have been observed outside his intimate circle1 such a man furnishes us with a much stronger presumption in favour of a future life than a personage in public life could do4 ,even if the latter only reported incidents of his private life1 it would be easier to suppose that the medium had been able to procure them4 ,during nearly all his life1 but principally during the last twenty years1 the thoughts of ,mr ,robert ,hyslop turned on a small number of subjects--his solicitude for his family2 the administration of his farm1 which gave him much care2 the fulfilment of his religious duties1 in which he never failed2 and lastly1 political events1 which much interested him1 because they naturally reacted upon his private affairs4 ,consequently the greater part of the facts ,i shall quote belonged to one or other of these four categories of his preoccupations4 ,but1 to begin with1 it will be useful to speak of a point which characterises an individual as clearly as his features do--,i mean his speech4 ,each of us has his own language1 his familiar expressions2 each of us expresses himself in his own way under given circumstances4 ,when ,buffon said the style is the man1 he expressed an absolute truth4 ,when somebody talks to us by telephone1 without giving his name1 we say1 without a shade of hesitation1 ,it is ,so-and-so4 ,i know him by his style4 ,i repeat that everybody has this individuality of expression2 it is1 however1 less marked in educated people4 ,but men only slightly cultivated use stereotyped expressions1 above all when they are growing old2 the language of some of them is almost entirely composed of aphorisms and proverbs4 ,if ,mr ,robert ,hyslop did not altogether belong to this class1 he yet1 his son tells us1 used particular expressions1 and always the same in analogous cases2 some of them indeed were altogether peculiar to him4 ,now1 when he communicates through ,mrs ,piper1 he uses the same language that he used when alive4 ,professor ,hyslop has incessantly occasion to remark1 ,this expression is quite like my father2 he would have used it when he was alive in such a case4 ,there is even a passage of the communications so characteristic in this way that it is nearly too much so2 it would almost suggest fraud4 ,i will reproduce one of these passages4#gi ,keep quiet1 don't worry about anything1 as ,i used to say4 ,it does not pay4 ,you are not the strongest man1 you know1 and health is important for you4 ,cheer up now and be quite yourself4 ,remember it does not pay1 and life is too short there for you to spend it in worrying4 ,what you cannot have1 be content without1 but do not worry1 and not for me4 ,devoted you were to me always1 and ,i have nothing to complain of except your uneasy temperament1 and that ,i will certainly help4 ,when a father has repeated the same advice in the same terms hundreds of times in his life1 and when1 after his death1 he repeats it again through an intermediary1 it must certainly be difficult to say1 ,that is not he2 it is not my father4 ,i should much like to give the reader the greatest possible number of these small facts1 which convince us almost in spite of ourselves4 ,but it is impossible to do so without surrounding them with commentaries indispensable to bring out all their importance4 ,thus1 ,mr ,robert had a horse named ,tom1 an old and faithful servant4 ,it had grown too old to work1 but he would not kill it4 ,he pensioned it1 so to speak1 and left it to die a natural death on the farm4 ,at one sitting he asks1 ,where is ,tom8 and as ,james ,hyslop did not understand what ,tom he was speaking of1 the communicator added1 ,tom1 the horse1 what has become of him8 ,mr ,robert ,hyslop wrote with quill pens1 which he trimmed himself2 he had often trimmed them for his son ,james4 ,he recalls this detail about the quill pens at one of the sittings4 ,he was very bald1 and had complained of feeling his head cold during the night4 ,his wife made him a black cap which he wore once4 ,at one of the sittings he spoke of this cap4 ,james ,hyslop1 who had been away from home a long time1 had never heard of any black cap4 ,but he wrote to his step-mother1 who corroborated the statement4 ,at another sitting the communicator1 ,robert ,hyslop1 said that there were always two bottles on his desk1 one round and one square4 ,professor ,hyslop was ignorant of this detail1 as of the preceding4 ,his step-mother1 when questioned1 had difficulty in remembering this1 but his brother recalled it at once2 the round bottle held ink and the square one contained gum4 ,another time ,robert ,hyslop asks1 ,do you remember the penknife ,i cut my nails with8 ,no1 father1 not very well4 ,the little penknife with the brown handle4 ,i had it in my vest and then coat pocket4 ,you certainly must remember it8 ,was this after you went west8 ,yes4 ,professor ,hyslop was unaware of the existence of this penknife4 ,he wrote separately to his step-mother1 brother and sister1 asking them if their father had possessed a brown-handled penknife with which he cut his nails1 without telling them why he wanted this information4 ,all three replied1 ,yes1 we have it still4 ,but it appears that ,mr ,robert ,hyslop did not keep the knife either in his coat or waistcoat pockets1 but in his trousers pocket4 ,these little facts will suffice as examples4 ,i will go on to more important ones4 ,mr ,robert ,hyslop had a son who had caused him much anxiety all his life4 ,he had often talked of these anxieties to his favourite son ,james1 and had died carrying them with him into the grave4 ,he speaks of them repeatedly during the sittings exactly as he did in life4 ,don't you remember1 ,james1 that we often talked of your brother and the trouble he gave us8 ,don't worry about it any more1 all will go well now1 and if ,i know that you do not worry ,i shall be all right4 ,he remembers all the members of his family and names them correctly1 except for two odd mistakes of which ,i shall speak later4 ,he alludes to incidents in the lives1 and traits in the characters of each of them4 ,he sends them expressions of affection1 ,have ,i forgotten anybody1 ,james1 my son8 ,i should not like to forget anybody4 ,he specially asks after his youngest child1 ,henrietta2 he wants to know if she has succeeded in her examinations1 and he expresses delight when he hears that1 on the whole1 life promises well for her4 ,mr ,robert ,hyslop was an orthodox ,calvinist2 he belonged to the small1 very strict sect of ,associate ,presbyterians and refused to join the ,united ,presbyterian ,church in #aheh4 ,he was extremely rigid in religious matters4 ,when he caused his son ,james to be educated1 he hoped the latter would become a minister1 though he left him free choice4 ,when he saw his son modify his religious beliefs he was very much pained4 ,by degrees1 however1 he became resigned4 ,it is easy to understand from all this that religious preoccupations were in the foreground in his mind4 ,he often talked of religion to his family1 he read the ,bible and numerous commentaries on it1 and sometimes1 rather than allow his family to go to the church of a less orthodox sect1 he himself preached to them at home4 ,consequently1 if he had not alluded to his former religious life during the sittings1 the omission might have caused a grave doubt of his identity4 ,but this is not the case2 he constantly alludes to his ancient religious ideas4 ,at one of the first sittings he says1 for example1 ,do you remember what my feeling was about this life8 ,well1 ,i was not so far wrong after all4 ,i felt sure that there would be some knowledge of this life but you were doubtful1 remember you had your own ideas1 which were only yours1 ,james4 ,this last phrase1 ,you have your own ideas1 ,professor ,hyslop remarks1 had been often repeated to him by his father in his lifetime4 ,he meant that ,i was the only one of his children who was sceptical1 and this was true4 ,robert ,hyslop's former religious ideas were the cause of a strange incident4 ,one day ,dr ,hodgson said to him1 ,mr ,hyslop1 you ought to look for my father and make friends with him4 ,he had religious ideas like yours4 ,i think you would understand each other very well1 and ,i should be pleased4 ,at a following sitting the communicator said to ,dr ,hodgson1 ,i have met your father2 we talked1 and we liked each other very much1 but he was not very orthodox when he was alive4 ,dr ,hodgson's father was really a ,wesleyan--that is to say1 he belonged to a very liberal sect4 ,but in another place ,robert ,hyslop adds1 ,orthodoxy does not matter here2 ,i should have changed my mind about many things if ,i had known4 ,in another sitting he says to his son1 alluding to the telepathic hypothesis1 ,let that thought theory alone4 ,i made theories all my life1 and what good did it do me8 ,it only filled my mind with doubts4 ,in short1 it appears that ,robert ,hyslop1 the rigid ,calvinist1 has greatly modified his views since he has been disincarnated4 ,at the last visit ,professor ,hyslop paid to his father1 in ,january or ,february #ahie1 a long conversation took place between them on religious and philosophical subjects4 ,professor ,hyslop spoke of his psychical studies4 ,the possibility of communication between the two worlds was discussed at length1 and ,swedenborg and his works were mentioned4 ,during the sittings ,robert ,hyslop constantly returns to this conversation1 which had made a profound impression on him2 much more profound than would have been expected1 considering his religious views4 ,he recalls the points which were discussed by him and his son one after another1 and adds1 ,you remember ,i promised to come back to you after ,i had left the body1 and ,i have been trying to find an opportunity ever since4 ,now1 no such promise had been made explicitly4 ,but ,james ,hyslop had written to his father on his deathbed1 ,father1 when all is over1 you will try to come back to me4 ,robert ,hyslop must from that moment have resolved to return if possible2 and he must have believed he had told his son so1 which was not the case4 ,when he was living in ,ohio1 ,mr ,robert ,hyslop had a neighbour named ,samuel ,cooper4 ,one day ,cooper's dogs killed some sheep belonging to ,robert ,hyslop4 ,an estrangement followed1 which lasted several years4 ,at one of the sittings in which ,dr ,hodgson represented ,professor ,hyslop1 he asked a question which the latter had sent him in writing4 ,professor ,hyslop hoped the question would turn his father's attention to the incidents of his life in ,ohio4 ,the question was1 ,do you remember ,samuel ,cooper1 and can you say anything about him8 ,the communicator replied1 ,james refers to the old friend ,i had in the ,west4 ,i remember the visits we used to make to each other well1 and the long talks we had concerning philosophical topics4 ,at another sitting1 when ,dr ,hodgson was again alone1 he returned to the same idea4 ,i had a friend named ,cooper who was of a philosophical turn of mind and for whom ,i had great respect1 with whom ,i had some friendly discussion and correspondence4 ,i had some of his letters 444 you will find them4 ,another time1 when ,professor ,hyslop was present1 he said1 ,i am trying to remember ,cooper's school4 ,the next day he returns to the point1 ,you asked me1 ,james1 what ,i knew about ,cooper4 ,did you think ,i was no longer friend of his8 ,i had kept some of his letters2 and ,i think they were with you4 ,in all this there was not a trace of ,samuel ,cooper1 and ,professor ,hyslop did not know what to think4 ,he therefore put a direct question in order to bring his father back to the point he had in mind4 ,i wanted to know if you remembered anything about the dogs killing sheep8 ,oh1 ,i should think ,i did 444 but ,i had forgotten all about it4 ,that was what we had the discussion about4444 ,yes1 very well1 ,james1 but just what you asked me this for ,i could not quite make out as he was no relation of mine 444 if ,i could have recalled what you were getting at ,i would have tried to tell you4 ,he is here1 but ,i see him seldom4 ,this episode is interesting4 ,all that ,robert ,hyslop said at first about ,cooper has nothing to do with ,samuel ,cooper1 but is entirely true of an old friend of his1 ,dr ,joseph ,cooper4 ,robert ,hyslop had really had many philosophical discussions with him1 and they had corresponded4 ,professor ,hyslop had perhaps heard his name1 but did not know that he was an old friend of his father4 ,it was his step-mother who told him this1 in the course of an inquiry he made amongst his relatives to clear up doubtful incidents in the sittings4 ,we see that disincarnated beings are capable of misunderstanding as well as ourselves4 ,but the following is the most dramatic incident4 ,professor ,hyslop1 remembering that his father had thought his last illness catarrh1 while he himself believed it to be cancer of the larynx1 asked the communicator a question aimed at bringing up the word catarrh4 ,he asked1 ,do you know what the trouble was when you passed out8 ,the double meaning of the word trouble caused a curious misunderstanding1 which the telepathic hypothesis will find it difficult to explain4 ,the communicator replied in distress1 ,no1 ,i did not realise that we had the least trouble1 ,james1 ever4 ,i thought we were always most congenial to each other4 ,i do not remember any trouble--tell me what it was about8 ,you do not mean with me1 do you8 ,father1 you misunderstand me4 ,i mean with the sickness4 ,oh1 yes1 ,i hear--,i know now4 ,yes1 my stomach4 ,yes1 was there anything else the matter8 ,yes1 stomach1 liver and head--difficult to breathe4 ,my heart1 ,james1 made me suffer4 ,don't you remember what a trouble ,i had to breathe8 ,i think it was my heart which made me suffer the most--my heart and my lungs4 ,tightness of the chest--my heart failed me2 but at last ,i went to sleep4 ,a little further on he says1 ,do you know1 the last thing ,i recall is your speaking to me4 ,and you were the last to do so4 ,i remember seeing your face2 but ,i was too weak to answer4 ,this dialogue at first disconcerted ,professor ,hyslop4 ,he had tried to make his father tell the name of the malady from which the latter thought he suffered--catarrh4 ,it was only when he read over the notes of the sitting1 a little later1 that he perceived all at once that his father had been describing the last hours of his life in the terms habitual to him4 ,professor ,hyslop had been mistaken again4 ,the doctor had noticed pain in the stomach at #g a4m4 ,the heart action began to decline at #i4cj2 this was shortly followed by terrible difficulty in breathing1 and death followed4 ,when his father's eyelids fell1 ,james ,hyslop said1 ,he is gone1 and he was the last to speak4 ,this last incident seems to indicate that consciousness in the dying lasts much longer than is believed4 ,soon after ,professor ,hyslop asked his father if he remembered some special medicine he had sent him from ,new ,york4 ,the communicator had much trouble in remembering the very strange name of this medicine1 but ended by giving it1 though incorrectly spelled4 ,during the first fifteen sittings ,professor ,hyslop had asked as few questions as possible1 and when he was obliged to do so1 he had so expressed them that they should not contain the answer4 ,but at the #afth sitting he abandoned this reserve intentionally4 ,he wished to see what the result would be if he took the same tone with the communicator as is taken with a friend in flesh and blood4 ,professor ,hyslop says1 ,the result was that ,i talked with my disincarnated father with as much ease as if ,i were talking with him living1 through the telephone4 ,we understood each other at a hint1 as in an ordinary conversation4 ,they spoke of everything--of a fence which ,robert ,hyslop was thinking of repairing when he died2 of the taxes he had left unpaid2 of the cares two of his children had caused him1 one of whom had never given him much satisfaction1 while the other was an invalid2 of the election of ,president ,m',kinley and of many other things4 ,can it be said that there were no inexact statements made by the communicator during all these sittings8 ,there are some1 but very few4 ,i shall speak of them in the following chapter4 ,in any case1 there is no trace of a single intentional untruth in the whole sixteen sittings4 ,,footnotes3 #gh ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xvi4 ,in what follows here there is no attempt to give the actual words of ,professor ,hyslop's communicators4 ,trans4 #gi ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xvi4 p4 #dj4 ,,chapter ,,xv ,the influence again--,other incidents--,statistics4 ,at this point ,i must return to a fact which is surprising on any hypothesis we may prefer3 the utility of presenting to the medium objects which have belonged to the person from whom we wish to obtain the supposed communications4 ,phinuit used to say that he found the influence of the dead persons on these objects1 and the influence was all the stronger if the object had been worn or carried long1 and if it had passed through few hands2 different successive influences seem to weaken one another4 ,i have said that we are totally ignorant of the nature of this influence1 but ,i have also said that it might not improbably be supposed to consist of vibrations left by our thoughts and feelings upon material objects4 ,however this may be1 ,phinuit seemed to read this influence1 and draw from it the greater part of the information he gave4 ,generally1 in spite of his affirmations to the contrary1 he did not appear to be in direct relation with the communicators at all4 ,since the disappearance of the ,phinuit regime and the appearance of that of ,imperator1 the presentation of small objects is still of use2 but it must be remarked that it has never been indispensable1 and that communicators often appear without having been attracted by any influence4 ,but under the present system the information received appears to be much less read from the influence2 there is much more sense of the real presence of the communicators4 ,of what use1 then1 are the small objects given to the medium8 ,neither the controls nor the communicators have explained1 which is a pity4 ,under the new system managed by ,imperator and his helpers such small articles seem chiefly useful for holding the communicator1 for preventing his going away1 and for maintaining a certain cohesion in his thoughts4 ,rector constantly repeats1 ,give me something to keep him and clear up his ideas4 ,the communicator would apparently need a point de repere in order to remain at the desired place1 and this point de repere would be furnished him by some object he has often used1 the influence left on which he seems to perceive more clearly than anything else4 ,according to ,george ,pelham1 we may also suppose that the communicator somehow perceives the mind of the sitter1 but this mind is imprisoned in matter1 and greatly clouded by it2 the communicator only recognises the mind of the sitter when it is functioning actively1 if ,i may thus express it2 when the sitter is thinking1 and1 above all1 thinking of the communicator4 ,this is why1 when the communicator perceives that his ideas are becoming confused1 he constantly says reproachfully to the sitter1 ,oh6 why don't you speak8 ,say something to me1 help me4 ,you want me to work for you1 but you will not do anything for me4 ,the dead cousin of ,professor ,hyslop1 ,robert ,mac,clellan1 says to him1 for example1 ,speak to me1 for ,heaven's sake4 ,help me to reach you4 ,analogous passages are very numerous4 ,i return to ,professor ,hyslop's report4 ,the most important communicator after his father during the sittings was his uncle ,carruthers1 whose name1 however1 was always mangled by ,rector1 and given as ,clarke or ,charles4 ,this uncle had died only twenty days before the first sitting4#hj ,at his first communication he inquires anxiously about his wife ,eliza1 ,robert ,hyslop's sister1 whom his death had left desolate4 ,it is ,i1 ,james1 he says to the inquirer4 ,give my love to ,eliza2 tell her not to get discouraged1 she will be better soon4 ,i see her often in despair4 ,professor ,hyslop asks1 ,do you know why she grieves8 ,yes1 because ,i left her2 but ,i did not really leave her4 ,i wish ,i could tell you all ,i would like 444 you would not think ,i had left entirely4 ,will you comfort her8 ,she ought not to be left lonely4 ,yes1 ,i will comfort her4 ,i am so glad6 ,at that time ,professor ,hyslop did not guess that his aunt was so completely alone and in such deep despair4 ,he only found this out on inquiry4 ,i will quote another incident of ,uncle ,carruthers' communications1 because on account of its stamp of vivid realism it is one of those which the telepathic hypothesis does not explain satisfactorily4 ,mr ,carruthers suddenly perceives the presence of ,dr ,hodgson and says1 ,you are not ,robert ,hyslop's son1 are you8 ,you are not ,george4#ha ,dr ,hodgson replies1 ,no1 ,i am not ,george4 ,no1 ,james1 ,i know you very well1 but this one 7speaking again to ,dr ,hodgson71 ,did you know the boys8 ,did you know me8 ,i shall only quote one more incident of these interesting sittings4 ,the communicator this time is ,professor ,hyslop's brother ,charles1 who died in #ahfd aged four and a half4 ,robert ,hyslop's last child had been born long after ,charles's death4 ,james1 ,i am your brother ,charles4 ,i am happy4 ,give my love to my new sister ,henrietta4 ,tell her ,i shall know her some day4 ,our father often talks of her4 ,a little further comes this curious phrase1 ,our father would much like you to have his pictures1 if you are still in the body1 ,james4 ,i have said there were some inexact statements1 but they are very few4 ,i will quote two concerning proper names4 ,the family name of ,uncle ,carruthers could never be given properly4 ,he was always called ,uncle ,charles or ,clarke4 ,the error is probably attributable to ,rector1 to whom the name ,carruthers was not familiar4 ,the other mistake is odder still1 though it may also be attributed to ,rector4 ,robert ,hyslop's second wife was named ,margaret1 familiarly called ,maggie4 ,now1 although it was impossible to misunderstand when ,robert ,hyslop was talking of his wife1 this name ,maggie never came correctly4 ,professor ,hyslop waited a long time without rectifying the mistake2 he waited for the communicator to perceive it and correct it himself1 but this spontaneous correction was not made4 ,at last he wanted the matter cleared up1 and ,dr ,hodgson explained that the name of ,professor ,hyslop's step-mother had not been given4 ,rector1 failing to understand1 gave up his place to ,george ,pelham1 who began by administering a tolerably sharp scolding to the sitters4 ,well1 why do you not come out and say1 ,give me my step-mother's name1 and not confuse him about anything except what you really want8 ,by ,jove6 ,i remember how you confused me1 and ,i don't want any more of it4 ,i am going to find out1 and if your step-mother has a name you shall have it4 ,george ,pelham went out of the machine and returned shortly1 saying1 ,i do not see any reason for anxiety about ,margaret4 ,margaret was really the name asked for1 but one would have expected to obtain it in its more habitual form1 ,maggie4 ,however1 it is easy to understand that ,robert ,hyslop should not have given the familiar name of his wife to a stranger like ,george ,pelham4 ,while ,professor ,hyslop was preparing his report1 a number of his friends who knew of his researches asked him what proportion of truth and error he had met with in these manifestations4 ,this frequently-repeated question suggested to him the idea of making tables in which this proportion should be made clear at a glance4 ,this kind of statistics would be important for the class of persons who think themselves stronger-minded than the rest1 and who tell you1 ,i only believe in the eloquence of figures4 ,such people do not realise that battalions of figures are like battalions of men1 not always so strong as is supposed4 ,however1 ,professor ,hyslop took all the incidents or statements made by the communicators and classed them according to the amount of truth or error they contained4 ,he then divided the incidents into factors4 ,i will give an example which will help me to define later on what ,professor ,hyslop means by incident and factor#hb3 ,my ,aunt ,susan visited my brother4 ,this is an incident1 or statement of a complete fact4 ,this incident is composed of four factors which are not necessarily connected with one another4 ,the first is my aunt1 the second the name ,susan1 the third the visit1 the fourth my brother4 ,therefore an incident may be defined as a name1 a conception or a combination of conceptions forming an independent fact2 it may be again a combination of possibly independent facts forming a single whole in the mind of the communicator4 ,the factors would be the facts1 names1 actions1 or events which do not necessarily suggest each other1 or which are not necessarily suggested by a given name or fact4 ,naturally1 in tables constructed on these lines1 the facts cannot be classified according to their importance as proofs2 they can only be reckoned as true or false4 ,thus incidents which have only a restricted value as proofs are on a level with others which are in themselves very valuable as proofs4 ,this is really the weak point of these statistics4 ,the proofs need to be examined one by one1 and not as a whole4 ,however1 the tables have one advantage2 the greatest sceptic1 after a glance at them1 can no longer invoke chance1 the great ,deus ex machina of the ignorant and indolent4 ,professor ,hyslop has constructed a table for each sitting1 and a table of the sittings as a whole4 ,i cannot reproduce these tables for the readers1 who would require the notes of the sittings to understand them4 ,i shall only give the definite results4 ,thus1 out of #bje incidents1 #aeb are classed as true1 #cg as indeterminate1 and only #af as false4 ,out of the #ibg factors composing these incidents1 #gag are classed as true1 #afg as indeterminate1 and #dc as false4#hc ,it should be said that ,professor ,hyslop has perhaps overestimated the number of false and unverifiable incidents4 ,many incidents or factors classed as false or unverifiable have been later found to be exact4 ,and besides1 the incidents of a transcendental and consequently unverifiable nature might have been omitted from these tables4 ,but in this case again it has been thought better to give the false and doubtful facts full play4 ,the reader must draw from these results whatever conclusion seems to him the most correct4 ,,footnotes3 #hj ,see ,professor ,hyslop's ,report1 ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xvi4 p4 #ij1 etc41 for ,carruthers4 #ha ,name of one of ,professor ,hyslop's brothers4 #hb ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xvi4 p4 #aae4 #hc ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xvi4 p4 #aba4 ,,chapter ,,xvi ,examination of the telepathic hypothesis--,some arguments which render its acceptance difficult4 ,i have mentioned in passing what should be understood by the word telepathy4 ,i shall repeat my explanation2 it is necessary that the reader should have it well in mind1 as in this chapter ,i am about to examine the telepathic hypothesis and endeavour to find out if it will cover the facts which we are studying4 ,by telepathy is here meant1 not only the power of obtaining information from the consciousness and subconsciousness of the sitters on the part of the secondary personalities of ,mrs ,piper1 but also their power to read the consciousness and subconsciousness of persons somewhere or anywhere else on earth1 no matter where1 distance in no way increasing the difficulty of this reading4 ,this is evidently among hypotheses a wide and far-reaching one1 and yet1 if we reject the spiritualistic hypothesis1 there is no other which will cover all the facts4 ,the following arguments here briefly indicated are1 with others1 developed at length in ,professor ,hyslop's book4 ,i shall not again go over those which circumstances have necessitated my explaining with sufficient clearness before in the course of this work4 ,to begin with1 what is the origin of this telepathic hypothesis8 ,is it justified by the facts of experimental or spontaneous observation among psychologists8 ,certainly not2 if we only reckoned the experiments and observations of official psychology1 the hypothesis of telepathy1 as we understand it1 would be almost unfounded4 ,this hypothesis is in reality founded on our ignorance2 we may admit it temporarily1 because we are ignorant of the latent powers of the human mind1 and because we have every reason to think these latent powers great and numerous4 ,i think that the first wide use of it was made in the famous book by ,gurney1 ,myers1 and ,podmore1 ,phantasms of the ,living4 ,the telepathic hypothesis might very well be admitted as an explanation of the facts recorded in that book1 although the spiritualistic hypothesis would explain them as well1 or even better4 ,but when we are considering other facts1 such as those of ,mrs ,piper's trance1 for example1 the telepathic hypothesis1 in order to explain them1 must be stretched beyond permitted limits4 ,in the first place1 with regard to reading the consciousness of those present1 it would seem that1 if we were dealing with telepathy1 the so-called communicator ought generally to bring out the facts of which the sitters have been thinking most intently4 ,but this hardly ever happens2 in ,professor ,hyslop's sittings it never happens4 ,certainly many of the incidents related were in the consciousness of the sitters1 but the latter were not thinking about them till the communicator recalled them4 ,for the same way1 if we were dealing with telepathy1 it is to be supposed that the communicators would be the persons whom the sitters expect4 ,now this is far from being the case4 ,in the fifteen years during which ,mrs ,piper's mediumship has been studied1 a great number of communicators have appeared about whom nobody was thinking4 ,professor ,hyslop1 among others1 says that he has met with several communicators whom he did not in the least expect4 ,others whom he expected did not appear4 ,it is a fact worthy of remark that in ,professor ,hyslop's sittings only those persons appeared who were capable of telling something of a nature to prove their identity2 the others seem to have been systematically put aside by ,imperator1 even when information concerning them was abundant in the consciousness and subconsciousness of the sitter4 ,it would seem that1 if we were dealing with telepathy1 the self-styled communicators would most easily utter the least remote ideas of the sitters' minds2 the nearest1 most vivid ideas ought to appear first4 ,now this is far from being the case4 ,it seems to make no difference to the communicator whether the idea is familiar or otherwise to the minds of the living4 ,when it is a question of facts entirely unknown to the sitters and known only to persons living at a great distance1 this distance might be expected to affect telepathic mind-reading2 nothing in nature authorises us to neglect this law of distance4 ,we can only conceive the telepathic process as a propulsion of waves through space2 these waves should decrease with distance2 the contrary is absolutely inconceivable4 ,now this does not happen2 if the fact exists only in the consciousness of a person who is at the time at the far ends of the earth1 it makes no difference in the precision of the details4 ,if an analogy should be made between telepathy--as we must conceive it1 to explain the phenomena--and wireless telegraphy1 ,mrs ,piper entranced must be regarded as a mere coherer of the telepathic waves4 ,but this analogy is non-existent2 wireless telegraphy is far from being unaffected by distance1 and besides1 when the coherer functions1 it is because another instrument is emitting particular waves4 ,when a fact known only to a distant person is reported1 as in ,mrs ,piper's phenomena1 it rarely happens that the distant person was actively thinking of the fact1 which was lying unnoticed in the lowest strata of his consciousness4 ,when the experimenter makes his inquiries at the conclusion of the sitting1 it is often found that a definite effort on the part of the absent person is required before the fact is recalled to memory4 ,it would be well to reflect before we grant to telepathy a power of omniscience1 independent of all known laws4 ,another well-observed fact1 opposed to the telepathic theory1 is the selection made amongst incidents by the communicator4 ,if we were dealing with telepathy1 the secondary personalities of the medium would sometimes be mistaken1 make blunders1 record facts which the so-called communicator could never have known1 but which the sitter alone knows well4 ,now this never happens4 ,the reported facts are always common to at least two consciousnesses1 that of the communicator and that of the sitter1 or that of the communicator and that of a distant person4 ,the inaccuracies prove nothing against this argument2 if they are wilful falsehoods they simply prove that the communicator is a liar1 and not that he is a secondary personality of ,mrs ,piper4 ,if the reported facts are unverifiable1 this does not prove that they are inexact4 ,if the telepathic theory expresses the truth1 we must grant an almost infinite power to telepathy4 ,this supposition is indispensable to account for the facts4 ,then how shall we understand the errors and confusions of the communicators8 ,how can an infinite power seem at times so limited1 so finite1 when the conditions remain unchanged8 ,on the other hand1 the lapses of memory and confusions are quite explicable on the spiritualistic theory2 we cannot reasonably think that a change so great as death should not induce some disturbance of mind1 at least temporarily1 or should not greatly weaken certain groups of memories which1 in the new surroundings1 have no longer any practical use4 ,a change of communicators has always been frequent1 but was especially so in ,professor ,hyslop's sittings4 ,mr ,robert ,hyslop constantly says to his son1 ,james1 ,i am getting weak2 wait for me1 ,i am coming back4 ,and then another communicator appears on the spot4 ,the telepathic hypothesis cannot explain this fact2 it would seem quite natural that the communicator should be always the same4 ,to explain it1 another hypothesis--that of suggestion on the part of the sitter--must be added to the telepathic hypothesis4 ,but the spiritualistic hypothesis1 on the other hand1 explains this perfectly well1 even though we may be compelled to reckon with the complications which the admission of the existence of another world may introduce4 ,the existence of the self-styled intermediaries between sitter and communicator is another fact which does not fit in with the telepathic theory4 ,formerly ,phinuit was the most common intermediary2 then ,george ,pelham collaborated with him2 in ,professor ,hyslop's sittings1 and1 ,i believe1 in all subsequent sittings since the installation of the ,imperator regime1 the intermediary is ,rector4 ,it is he who presides at the functioning of the machine1 because he is particularly competent--so say the communicators4 ,these intermediaries have very defined and life-like characters4 ,phinuit1 ,george ,pelham and ,rector are as unlike each other as possible4 ,what1 on the telepathic hypothesis1 has had the power to create them8 ,mrs ,piper's secondary personalities should have incarnated the communicator without intermediary4 ,in order to understand this ephemeral reconstitution of a consciousness which has for ever vanished1 we should have to allow that the scattered elements of this consciousness had temporarily grouped themselves around the point de repere formed by the secondary personality of ,mrs ,piper4 ,we should then see how difficult it is to explain the presence of these intermediaries4 ,but if1 on the other hand1 we accept the spiritualistic hypothesis as well founded1 we must admit that these intermediaries account for their presence very plausibly4 ,here is another argument1 which1 ,i think1 is very strong1 against the hypothesis of telepathy4 ,subjects in the hypnotic state1 and the secondary personalities which appear in this hypnotic state1 according to the precise and decisive experiments made by modern science1 have an extremely definite notion of time4 ,if you tell a hypnotised subject to perform an action in a year1 at such an hour and minute1 he will never fail1 so to speak1 although when he is awakened there remains in his memory no trace of the order4 ,now the communicators1 in the phenomena we are studying1 have an extremely vague notion of time1 because1 they say1 time is not a concept of the world in which they live4 ,how is it that telepathy1 which can do so much1 owns itself incapable1 or nearly so1 of determining the moment when an action has been performed8 ,what prevents it from reading the idea of time1 as well as any other idea1 in the minds of the persons present1 since the notion of time is as clear and precise in them at least as any other notion8 ,to conclude1 ,i should say that we are entirely ignorant of the point where the powers of telepathy begin and end4 ,what ,i have just said makes the telepathic hypothesis an unlikely explanation2 but1 as ,boileau said long ago1 ,le vrai peut quelque fois n'etre pas vraisemblable--,truth may sometimes be unlikely4 ,,chapter ,,xvii ,some considerations which strongly support the spiritualistic hypothesis--,consciousness and character remain unchanged--,dramatic play--,errors and confusions4 ,the unity of character and consciousness in the communicators is one of the reasons which most strongly support the spiritualistic hypothesis4 ,if we were dealing with ,mrs ,piper's secondary personalities1 the first difficulty would be found in their great number4 ,i do not know the exact number of communicators who have asserted their appearance by means of her organism4 ,but several hundreds may be found in the ,reports of the ,society for ,psychical ,research1 and they are certainly far from being all mentioned4 ,now each communicator has kept the same character throughout1 to such an extent that1 with a little practice1 it is possible to recognise the communicator at the first sentence he utters1 if he has already communicated4 ,some of the communicators only appear at long intervals1 but nevertheless they remain unchanged4 ,but1 on the telepathic hypothesis1 it is not easy to understand that a self-styled communicator1 a merely ephemeral consciousness reconstituted out of the scattered recollections of the sitters1 should be thus reconstituted only at long intervals1 suddenly1 often without apparent cause1 and always with the same characteristics4 ,this unity of consciousness and character is particularly evident in the controls--that is1 in such of the communicators as have appeared uninterruptedly for years1 on account of their acting as intermediaries for others1 and helping them with their experience4 ,if it cannot reasonably be admitted that the occasional communicators are only secondary personalities of the medium1 the impossibility must be extended to the controls4 ,either all the communicators are1 without exception1 secondary personalities1 or none of them are2 for all give the same impression of intense life-likeness and reality4 ,if they are indeed secondary personalities1 science has hitherto studied none like them4 ,i have already sketched ,phinuit's character1 which has remained consistently the same during twelve years4 ,the reader should also have a sufficiently clear notion of ,george ,pelham's individuality1 which is also consistent2 even now1 when ,george ,pelham appears1 we find him unchanged4 ,the individualities of the present controls are even more marked1 and not less consistent4 ,none of those who1 up to the present time1 have communicated through ,mrs ,piper have in the least resembled ,imperator and his assistants4 ,the principal traits of ,imperator's character are a profound and sincere religious sentiment1 much gravity and seriousness1 great benevolence1 an infinite pity for man incarnate on account of the miseries of this life of darkness and chaos2 and with this1 an imperious temper1 so that he does well to call himself ,imperator2 he commands1 and will be obeyed1 but he wills only the right4 ,the other spirits who gravitate around him--,rector1 ,doctor1 ,prudens1 and ,george ,pelham--pay him profound respect4 ,this character of ,imperator is quite the same as we find in the works of ,stainton ,moses4 ,those who decline to accept the spiritualist hypothesis on any terms may say that ,mrs ,piper has drawn the character from this source4 ,she must at least know the book we have mentioned--,spirit ,teachings4 ,when the effort to communicate with ,stainton ,moses was made1 and nothing was obtained but incoherence and falsehood1 ,dr ,hodgson1 wishing to discover what influence the normal ,mrs ,piper's knowledge of ,stainton ,moses's works might have upon the secondary personality calling itself ,stainton ,moses 7if we are dealing with secondary personalities71 took her a copy of ,spirit ,teachings4 ,she read it1 or it is to be concluded she did so1 but there was no result1 and no effect upon the communicator who called himself ,stainton ,moses4 ,nevertheless1 ,i repeat1 it may be asserted with some probability that ,mrs ,piper took the character of ,imperator from this source4 ,but then1 from whence did she take the other characters8 ,imperator and his friends speak in a distinctive biblical style4 ,generally1 at the beginning of the sittings1 ,imperator either utters a prayer himself or dictates one to ,rector1 who reproduces it4 ,here is a specimen4 ,holy ,father1 we are with ,thee in all ,thy ways1 and to ,thee we come in all things4 ,we ask ,thee to give us ,thy tender love and care4 ,bestow ,thy blessings upon this ,thy fellow-creature4 ,help him to be all that ,thou dost ask him4 ,teach him to walk in the path of righteousness and truth4 ,he needs ,thy loving care4 ,teach him in all things to do ,thy holy will 444 and we leave all else in ,thy hands4 ,without ,thy care we are indeed bereft4 ,watch over and guide his footsteps and lead him into truth and light4 ,father1 we beseech ,thee so to open the blinded eyes of mortals that they may know more of ,thee and ,thy tender love and care4 ,among the phrases which ring familiarly to ,english ears we notice one peculiarity1 and one that constantly recurs4 ,imperator calls ,god ,father1 and yet1 when he commends man to ,god1 he calls him ,god's fellow-creature1 ,his neighbour1 and not ,his creature4 ,evidently ,imperator's idea of ,god differs from ours2 it would seem that he thinks us an emanation from the ,divine1 eternal as the ,divine itself4 ,many readers may not be inclined to attach much value to ,imperator's prayers4 ,they will take them for one of the diabolical inventions of which secondary personalities are capable4 ,evidently1 if we take them apart from the rest1 this is the most plausible explanation2 but the character and ideas of ,imperator must be considered as a whole4 ,i can assure my readers that there is nothing diabolical about him4 ,if ,stainton ,moses and ,mrs ,piper have created him1 they have created a masterpiece2 ,imperator inspires respect in the most sceptical4 ,there is another aspect of the phenomena which telepathy does not explain2 the dramatic play4 ,the personages at the other end of the wire act1 as far as we can judge1 with all the appropriateness and distinctive characteristics of reality4 ,there are incidents of this dramatic play1 which telepathy cannot explain1 in nearly all the sittings4 ,i have given some of them in passing1 and will now give some more examples4 ,at ,m4 ,bourget's second sitting ,mrs ,pitman1 whom ,i have mentioned before1 suddenly appears1 and speaks nearly as follows3#hd ,monsieur1 ,i come to offer you my help4 ,i lived in ,france and spoke ,french fairly well when ,i was living4 ,tell me what you want1 and ,i can perhaps help you to communicate with this lady4 ,in order to understand the appropriateness of this intervention we must remember that ,george ,pelham1 who was acting as intermediary1 had complained at the beginning of the sitting that the communicating spirit spoke ,french and that he did not understand her4 ,one day ,george ,pelham is asked for information about ,phinuit1 and is about to give it4 ,but ,phinuit1 who is manifesting through the voice while ,george ,pelham is doing so in writing1 perceives this and cries1 ,you had better shut up about me6 ,and the spectators witnessed a sort of struggle between the head and the hand4 ,then ,george ,pelham writes1 ,all right1 it is settled2 we will say no more about it4 ,during a sitting in which the sitter's wife gave proofs of identity of a very private nature to her husband she said1 ,i tell you this1 but don't let that gentleman hear4 ,that gentleman could not be ,dr ,hodgson1 who had left the room2 it was the invisible ,george ,pelham who was habitually present at the sittings at this period4 ,on ,april #cj1 #ahid1 ,mr ,james ,mitchell has a sitting4#he ,phinuit begins by giving him appropriate advice about his health4 ,he ends by saying1 ,you worry1 too4 ,then he adds1 ,there's a voice ,i hear as plainly as you would a bell rung1 and she says1 ',that's right1 doctor1 tell him not to worry1 because he always did so--my dear husband--,i want him to enjoy his remaining days in the body4 ,tell him ,i am ,margaret ,mitchell1 and ,i will be with him to the end of eternity1 spiritually4' ,the communicators often ask one or more of those present to go out of the room1 and they give one or other of the following reasons1 according to circumstances4 ,the first is that very private information is about to be given4 ,i have quoted an example in speaking of ,george ,pelham1 when ,james ,howard asked him to tell something which only they two knew4 ,george ,pelham1 preparing to do so1 begins by asking ,dr ,hodgson to leave the room4 ,how oddly discreet for secondary personalities6 ,on other occasions certain persons are asked to go out temporarily1 because1 say the controls1 ,you have relations and friends who want very much to communicate with you1 and they prevent all communication by their insistence and their efforts4 ,on a certain occasion ,professor ,hyslop rises and goes to the other end of the room1 passing ,mrs ,piper1 upon which ,george ,pelham1 apparently offended1 writes1 ,he has passed in front of ,imperator6 ,why does he do that8 ,it would need a volume to recount all the little analogous incidents which telepathy does not explain4 ,these will do as examples4 ,will it be said that these small dramas resemble the creations of the same kind which occur in delirium or dreams8 ,but in the first place1 in delirium and dreams1 the spectator does not realise1 as he does here1 the presence of persons who have given many details tending to prove their identity4 ,again1 the real cause of these creations of dream and delirium is unknown to us4 ,we might assert1 without being fanciful1 that sickness is only their opportunity and not their cause4 ,lastly1 a third group of facts1 which strongly militates in favour of the spiritualist hypothesis1 consists of the mistakes and confusions4 ,this would probably not be the opinion of a superficial observer2 many take these errors and confusions as a reason for entirely rejecting the spiritualist hypothesis2 generally because they have a strange notion of a spirit1 without any analogy in nature4 ,deceived by absurd and antiquated theological teaching1 they imagine that the most pitiable drunkard1 for example1 becomes a being of ideal beauty and omniscience from the day he is disincarnated4 ,it cannot be so4 ,our spirits1 if we have them1 must progress slowly4 ,when they leap into the great unknown they do not at the same time leap into perfection2 they were finite and limited1 and do not become immediately infinite4 ,disincarnated man1 like incarnated man1 has lapses of intelligence1 memory and morality4 ,the existence of these lapses very well explains the greater part of the mistakes in the communications4 ,i have no room to develop this idea1 but the reader can do it easily4 ,i will only quote one example of lapse of memory4 ,mr ,robert ,hyslop said he had a penknife with a brown handle1 which he carried first in his waistcoat pocket and afterwards in his coat4 ,on inquiry1 it was discovered that he was mistaken1 and that he really carried it in his trousers pocket4 ,what man living has not made a hundred such mistakes8 ,in order to explain the phenomena we are studying by the telepathic hypothesis1 we must suppose that telepathy has infinite power with which no obstacle can interfere4 ,then why does it make mistakes8 ,and why does it make just the mistakes that an imperfect1 finite spirit would make8 ,must we suppose that ,dame ,telepathy is a mere incarnation of the demon of fraud and deceit8 ,,footnotes3 #hd ,evidently addressing ,george ,pelham4 #he ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xiii4 p4 #eai4 ,,chapter ,,xviii ,difficulties and objections--,the identity of ,imperator--,vision at a distance--,triviality of the messages--,spiritualist ,philosophy--,life in the other world4 ,up till now ,i have said a great deal of evil of telepathy4 ,i believe that ,i have demonstrated1 not that the theory is false1 but that it is an unlikely explanation of the facts4 ,shall we say1 then1 that the spiritualistic hypothesis1 the only reasonable one after the dismissal of telepathy1 can be accepted without difficulty and without objections8 ,not at all4 ,many objections1 more or less serious1 are still made to the spiritualistic hypothesis4 ,to my mind there is only one that is serious2 ,i will speak of it in conclusion4 ,many of the others are raised by persons who have a merely superficial acquaintance with the problem2 their arguments are more polemical than scientific4 ,to begin with1 some of them want to know why the controls1 ,imperator1 ,doctor1 ,rector1 ,prudens1 conceal themselves under these pseudonyms4 ,if they are1 as they say1 disincarnated spirits1 who formerly lived in bodies1 why do they not say who they were8 ,does not their silence on this point indicate that they are only secondary personalities of the medium8 ,this objection is not very serious4 ,in the first place1 the controls told ,stainton ,moses their names4 ,if they do not wish these names revealed1 it is without doubt for excellent reasons1 which it is not difficult to imagine4 ,there is every indication that these controls belonged to a generation considerably remote from ours2 their language1 the turn of their minds1 and some of their assertions1 all point to this4 ,if they were well-known men1 and had revealed their names1 the critics would merely see a reason the more for crying fraud4 ,they would say1 ,the medium has read all that1 and repeats it to us in hypnosis4 ,if1 on the other hand1 they were obscure persons1 and had given information about their lives1 the information would be unverifiable4 ,and then the sceptics would cry on the spot1 ,folly2 these are the inventions of the medium's secondary personality4 ,the controls may have still other reasons for not revealing themselves to us4 ,this life1 when once it has been left behind1 may seem to the spirit to be a more or less painful nightmare4 ,there is nothing astonishing in the fact that he does not care to recall to others the part he played in this nightmare1 even if the part were a distinguished one4 ,we ourselves know nothing but this life2 we do not admit that there is any other4 ,therefore we all wish to shine in it like meteors1 if possible4 ,possibly disincarnated spirits1 seeing things from a higher point of view1 think otherwise4 ,in short1 the controls1 ,imperator1 ,rector1 ,doctor and ,prudens1 may refrain from speaking of their former life simply because they are wise4 ,would it not have been wiser of ,phinuit to hold his tongue than to tell us a mass of improbabilities8 ,amongst those who study these phenomena there are many who see in the triviality of the greater part of the messages a strong presumption against the spiritualist hypothesis4 ,some of these messages are signed1 it is true1 by illustrious names--though that is not the case with ,mrs ,piper4 ,but this regrettable fact may be variously explained4 ,in the first place1 there may be rogues1 charlatans and fools on both sides1 since it is probable that the soul passes from this world to the other just as it is1 and that1 if it progresses at all1 it progresses slowly4 ,how many individuals see in spiritualism only a means of putting forward their wretched personalities or of exploiting their contemporaries6 ,such persons would not shrink from representing their lucubrations as communications from the next world2 they would sign them with the most august of names if to do so would further their designs4 ,finally1 it is not even necessary to suppose that these messages are due to dishonesty2 the number of mystifiers may be at least as great on the other side as on this2 a sort of law of affinity which seems to rule the world of spirits may cause these lower beings to be attracted by uncultured mediums1 while the great spirits are repelled by them4 ,it would be these larvae of the other world who give the messages which disconcert when they do not scandalise us4 ,but the man of science should not be rebuffed by these messages which1 in spite of their contents1 are important1 if they result in irresistible proof of the fact that there exist outside of us and around us intelligent beings resembling ourselves4 ,but when we are dealing with developed spirits1 who have begun by giving proofs of their identity1 it is not true that the messages are always trivial4 ,they often contain ideas of much breadth of view and elevation4 ,the form is generally defective1 but those who have studied ,mrs ,piper's phenomena will be indulgent to the form1 and sometimes even to the matter4 ,the spirit in contact with the medium's organism suffers1 as ,i have said several times1 from a kind of delirium2 besides which the organism only responds to his efforts imperfectly4 ,my dear friends1 says ,george ,pelham1 do not look at me too critically2 to try to transmit your thoughts through the organism of a medium is like trying to crawl through a hollow log4 ,in short1 the difficulties are enormous4 ,it may very well be that great spirits have really been the authors of very poor messages4 ,it has happened to each of us to make poetical or other compositions in our dreams which we have thought admirable2 we say in delight1 ,what a pity ,i shall not be able to remember that when ,i wake6 ,but sometimes we do remember1 and then we smile with contempt at what had delighted us during sleep4 ,now the communicators constantly repeat that they are dreaming while they are in the atmosphere of the medium4 ,everything seems so clear to me1 says ,robert ,hyslop to his son1 and when ,i try to tell you1 ,james1 ,i cannot4 ,these considerations prove that we must not hasten to conclude1 with ,professor ,flournoy1 that if there is a future life it is one of wretched degeneration1 one more misery added to all the others which overwhelm us in this miserable universe4 ,no2 as ,professor ,james says1 in this world we live only at the surface of our being2 if death is not annihilation1 then it is an awakening4 ,it does not follow that the life of the other world is not higher and more intense than this1 because communication with it is difficult4 ,another serious objection to the spiritualist hypothesis is the philosophy with which certain too eager persons have connected it4 ,spiritualism1 which should at present be but the mere beginning of a science1 is1 according to them1 already a philosophy for which the universe holds no secrets4 ,how should such puny creatures as ourselves hope to solve the problems of the universe by a priori reasoning8 ,all that we can reasonably hope1 is to wrench from nature some of the secrets nearest to us1 surrounding ourselves with a thousand precautions in order not grossly to deceive ourselves4 ,i rank the spiritualistic philosophy with other philosophies4 ,perhaps some of its dicta proceed from spirits1 if spirits exist1 but the system as a whole most surely does not4 ,but then1 it will be said1 the people who have elaborated this philosophy must have been impostors4 ,no1 not inevitably2 ,i will even venture to say that imposture is unlikely4 ,the key to the mystery may be found in other characteristics of humanity4 ,the most formidable obstacle to the admission of the spiritualist hypothesis is in the messages which tend to represent the other world1 in which1 it appears1 matter is not perceived1 and space and time are unknown1 as being all the same a servile copy of this1 or a sketch of it4 ,if ,phinuit or another control is asked to describe a communicator1 the description is generally given with exactness1 and is the same there as it was here2 sometimes the communicator even goes so far as to wear the same clothes1 made of the same material4 ,but these descriptions are without importance1 as it may be replied that the communicators or controls give these details purely to prove identity4 ,however1 ,i know of no message in which the communicator has been frank enough to say1 ,of course you may suppose that the form ,i have here is not the same as ,i had in your world4 ,or again1 ,the idea of form differs totally in our world and in yours2 ,i cannot make you understand what that idea is here1 so it is of no use to question me4 ,unfortunately neither communicators nor controls speak thus2 they all say or allow it to be supposed that the human form is the same in both worlds4 ,but when action and events in that world are represented as being the same as in this1 then our credulity cries out in remonstrance4 ,that a deceased doctor should tell us that he continues to visit his patients1 a painter that he continues to daub canvas1 is more than we can admit4 ,but1 it may be explained1 the doctor and the painter are temporarily delirious2 they do not know what they are saying4 ,unfortunately these passages are too numerous to be always attributed to delirium4 ,certain communicators say1 with all the gravity in the world1 and when they seem in full possession of themselves1 that they breathe1 live in houses1 listen to lectures1 and that a deceased child is beginning to learn to read4 ,this is an enormous difficulty1 ,i repeat4 ,i point it out without trying to solve it2 ,i am unable to offer a plausible explanation4 ,professor ,hyslop has tried1 but ,i do not think he has succeeded4 ,,chapter ,,xix ,the medium's return to normal life--,speeches made while the medium seems to hover between the two worlds4 ,in ,mrs ,piper's case1 the moments which precede the actual quitting of the trance offer1 at least at present1 a special interest4 ,i think it well therefore to dwell on this point a little4 ,to avoid endless circumlocutions1 ,i shall speak as if the spiritualistic hypothesis were proved4 ,indeed1 whatever the future fate of this hypothesis may be1 and in spite of the serious objection spoken of in the last chapter1 it is1 ,i believe1 the only one that can be reasonably adopted for the moment4 ,when the sitting is over and the automatic writing has ceased1 ,mrs ,piper begins to return gradually to her normal state4 ,she then utters with more or less distinctness some apparently disconnected phrases which it is sometimes difficult to catch4 ,she is like a person talking in sleep4 ,dr ,hodgson and ,professor ,hyslop have collected as many of these broken sentences as they could1 keeping them separately under a different heading from the record of the rest of the sitting proper4 ,at the end1 ,mrs ,piper often asks this odd question1 ,did you hear my head snap8 ,and after her head is supposed to have snapped she looks round her in apparent astonishment and alarm1 and then all is over1 she no longer remembers what she has said or written during the trance4 ,we shall see that these scraps of phrase are less incoherent than they seem1 and that it is worth while to collect them4 ,very often when numerous unsuccessful efforts have been made to recall a proper name during the sitting1 ,mrs ,piper pronounces it when coming out of the trance2 when she is re-entering her body1 the communicator or communicators repeat the name to her insistently1 and make great efforts to cause her to remember and pronounce it as she comes out of the trance4 ,i have already quoted an example of this4 ,m4 ,paul ,bourget asked the name of the town in which the artist he was communicating with had killed herself4 ,the name did not come1 but ,mrs ,piper pronounced it as she was leaving the trance--,venice4 ,mr ,robert ,hyslop's name was given in the same way the first time1 but accompanied by very significant scraps of speech as follows4 ,mrs ,piper first tried to pronounce the name1 then she said ,hyslop1 and went on1-- ,i am he4#hf ,tell him ,i am his father4 ,i--,good-bye1 sir4 ,i shouldn't take him away that way4 ,oh1 dear4 ,do you see the man with the cross#hg shut out everybody8 ,did you see the light8 ,what made the man's hair all fall off8 ,dr ,hodgson asks1 ,what man8 ,mrs ,piper4--,that elderly gentleman that was trying to tell me something1 but it wouldn't come4 ,at a first glance this passage seems mere incoherence1 but all the portions of sentences have a very clear meaning when they are examined together with the events of the sitting4 ,they are1 as it seems1 commissions with which the medium is charged as she is returning into her organism1 or they are observations made among themselves by the spirits present1 which the medium automatically repeats1 or they are the observations and questions of the medium herself4 ,all that ,mrs ,piper says on coming out of the trance belongs to one of these three categories4 ,in the passage quoted1 the words1 ,i am he4 ,tell him that ,i am his father1 are a commission with which the medium is charged by ,mr ,robert ,hyslop4 ,mrs ,piper takes leave of ,robert ,hyslop with the formula1 ,good-bye1 sir4 ,the phrases which follow1 ,oh1 dear4 ,i shouldn't take him away that way4 ,do you see the man with the cross shut out everybody8 are the remarks of spirits repeated automatically1 or ,mrs ,piper's own remarks on ,imperator1 who1 seeing the light exhausted1 imperiously sends off everybody1 including ,mr ,robert ,hyslop himself1 in spite of his desire to remain with his son4 ,imperator must even have used some force1 to justify the observation1 ,i should not take him away that way4 ,the final phrases are always ,mrs ,piper's own questions and remarks3 ,when she says1 ,did you see the light8 she alludes without doubt to the light of the other world1 invisible to us4 ,the other sentences are clear enough1 when we remember that ,mr ,robert ,hyslop was entirely bald4 ,there are utterances like these1 only apparently incoherent on coming out of all the trances2 but they vary in length4 ,the last words1 if ,i am not mistaken1 always come from ,mrs ,piper herself1 which is logically to be expected1 since she gradually loses the memory of the world she has just quitted1 up to the definite moment of waking1 marked by the so-called snap in her head4 ,these speeches on coming out of trance constitute1 in our eyes1 one more argument against the hypothesis of telepathy and secondary personalities1 because there is no trace of simulation4 ,to suppose simulation would be to accord to telepathy too much skill in the arts of deceit4 ,these speeches bring into the foreground the question3 ,what becomes of the medium's spirit during the trance1 if there is a spirit8 ,the controls say that it leaves the organism and remains in the company of the group of communicating spirits4 ,but then1 it will be said1 if she lives for the time being in the other world1 why does she not relate her impressions when she wakes8 ,we must not forget that for spirits our life is a sleep1 and that we are only conscious of what we acquire through the medium of our five senses4 ,when the spirit is again plunged into the prison of the body1 after having left it for a time1 it goes to sleep once more and forgets all2 it recommences living the fragmentary life which is all that the five senses permit4 ,the complete absence of memory in the medium when awake is no more astonishing than the same phenomenon in a subject coming out of hypnosis1 during which he may have talked1 and even done much4 ,besides1 during the short instants when ,mrs ,piper is as if suspended between two worlds1 she still has a vague recollection of what she has just heard2 the fragments of sentences she utters bear sufficient witness to this4 ,she rarely fails to shed a few tears1 and to say1 ,i want to stop here1 ,i don't want to go back to the dark world6 ,here is a characteristic passage1 as an example4 ,mrs ,piper1 coming out of the trance1 begins to weep and murmur1 ,i do not want to go back to the darkness4444 ,oh1 it is1 it is1 it must be the window 444 but ,i want to know4444 ,i want to know where they are all gone#hh4444 ,it is funny 444 ,i forgot that ,i was alive4444 ,yes1 ,mr ,hodgson1 ,i forgot4444 ,i was going to tell you something1 but ,i have forgotten what it was4444 ,you see1 when my head snaps1 ,i forget what ,i was going to say4444 ,it must be night4 ,oh1 dear6 ,i feel so weak4444 ,is that my handkerchief8 ,on other occasions she uses an odd figure of speech4 ,you see ,rector turns round a dark board and says that's your world--and he turns round the other side and that's light1 and he says that's his world4 ,i don't want to go back to the dark world4 ,another time she says1 quite at the end1 ,is that my body8 how it pricks6 ,it appears that ,imperator1 before sending her back to the dark world1 prays for her1 and she sometimes repeats fragments of the prayers automatically4 ,is that a blessing8 ,say it4#hi ,father be and abide with thee for evermore4 ,servus ,dei--,i don't know4 ,i have all these to look out for4 ,i leave thee well4 ,go and do the duties before thee4 ,blessings on thy head4 ,the light shall cease4 ,why do you say that8 ,are you going8 ,good-bye4 ,i want to go along the same path with you4 ,hear the whistle8 7,this was an earthly whistle1 which those present also heard47 ,,footnotes3 #hf ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xvi4 p4 #cbb4 #hg ,that is to say1 ,imperator1 who always signalises his presence by making a cross on the paper1 or1 with his hand1 in the air4 #hh ,the spirits in whose company she has been4 #hi ,proc4 of ,s4,p4,r41 vol4 xvi4 p4 #cif4 ,,chapter ,,xx ,encouraging results obtained--,the problem must be solved4 ,and now1 can there be a conclusion to this work8 ,it does not allow of any conclusion4 ,the most ,i can do in terminating is to record certain facts4 ,dr ,hodgson1 ,professor ,hyslop and others1 who1 though unprejudiced1 began these studies as sceptical as anyone1 have ended1 after long years of hesitation1 by giving their adhesion to the spiritualist hypothesis4 ,but1 as they are careful to point out1 they accept this hypothesis conditionally1 and not definitely4 ,new experiments and new facts may turn their minds in quite another direction4 ,should we follow them8 ,should we each admit conditionally the spiritualist hypothesis8 ,not at all2 it is not thus that knowledge is attained4 ,whoever believes that he has excellent reasons for preferring any other hypothesis should remain unshakable in his convictions till the time when new facts may oblige him to abandon them4 ,science does not ask that we should prefer this or the other explanation2 it only asks that we should study the facts unprejudiced1 that we should be sincere1 and not shut our eyes childishly to the evidence4 ,if a future life is to be1 ,i will not say proved1 but admitted by a majority1 a great number of experimenters1 or1 if you please1 observers1 working independently of one another in all quarters of the globe1 must reach identical conclusions4 ,again1 it must be possible for any intelligent man willing to make the effort1 and retracing the path followed by the first observers1 to arrive at the same conclusions4 ,the magister dixit is out of date4 ,teachers in the present day must show their disciples the path of truth1 and not try to impose upon them what they themselves regard as truth4 ,modern science knows no infallible ,pope1 speaking ex cathedra4 ,further1 we must not confine ourselves to the study of one side of mediumship only4 ,the phenomena produced in the presence of mediums are various4 ,all the phenomena classified as psychical must be carefully considered and thoroughly investigated4 ,the grain must be separated from the chaff2 it must be decided which among these phenomena appear to be due to spirits1 which1 according to the evidence1 are due to incarnated minds1 and finally1 which 7if there are such7 have only ordinary physical causes4 ,the new workmen who are entering the field of science have before them a long task of clearing the ground1 but the ground seems to be of unexampled fertility2 with a very little goodwill we shall reap such a harvest as has never been seen4 ,no doubt1 though mediums able to produce certain second-rate phenomena are not rare1 good mediums are not easy to discover2 they are less rare1 however1 than the bones of ,anthropopithecus erectus4 ,when a good medium is discovered it is not necessary to call a committee together and put the value he may have for science to the vote4 ,if the other world exists1 it appears that no missing link exists between it and our own4 ,thus the general conclusion to be drawn from the work described in this little book1 and from the other work of the ,society for ,psychical ,research1 is that devotion to these studies is far from being fruitless4 ,even official science might turn in this direction1 if only in order to defend the doctrines dear to it4 ,it will come to that1 without doubt1 but will it be soon8 ,humanity is but poor stuff1 though the monists do not hesitate to hold it up to us as the highest expression in our corner of space of the consciousness of their great god ,pan4 ,the great majority of human units is composed of minds in first childhood1 eager only for childish things4 ,by slightly modifying ,plato's allegory it is easy to arrive at an understanding of the state of humanity at the present time4 ,imagine very imperfect1 very undeveloped beings1 possessing1 however1 an infinity of latent potentialities2 imagine them born in a dark cavern where they swarm pell-mell1 passing their time chiefly in devouring one another4 ,every moment this cavern is entered1 and a certain number of these poor beings are taken out of it and carried into the light of day1 that they may enjoy a higher life1 and admire the beauties of nature4 ,those remaining in the cavern weep for their companions and think that they have for ever vanished4 ,but in the vault of the cavern there are fissures through which a little light filters4 ,a few inquisitive beings1 a little more developed than their brothers1 climb up to these fissures2 they look out1 and believe that signs are made to them from outside4 ,they say to themselves1 ,those who are making signs to us are perhaps the companions who are constantly being carried off from amongst us2 in that case they cannot be dead2 they must be continuing to live up there4 ,and they call to their brothers below1 ,come and see2 it looks as if our companions who go up yonder every day are making signs to us4 ,we are not sure2 but if we unite our efforts and intelligences perhaps we shall end by being certain4 ,do you suppose that the swarms on the ground of the cave will run8 ,they have quite other things to do4 ,they do not stone the importunate seekers1 but they look on them askance and heap annoyances upon them4 ,but we will drop allegory2 and merely say how deplorable it is that psychical studies do not inspire more enthusiasm4 ,the doctors at first declared that mediumship was a form of neurosis4 ,nothing is less certain2 ,i will even say that nothing is less probable4 ,educated people of independent social position when by chance they discover that they possess mediumistic gifts hide them carefully1 instead of offering them spontaneously for study2 they do not wish to be supposed to be diseased2 nobody likes to proclaim his defects in public4 ,this is why well-known mediums are nearly all recruited from the lower classes and the poor2 they are obliged to make merchandise of their gifts2 they are paid to produce phenomena1 and1 when these do not occur spontaneously1 they cheat4 ,mediums should be sought for in the class of educated people who are not obliged to work for their daily bread4 ,there are as many or more in this class as in any other if we would only look for them4 ,what should such mediums fear8 ,do not ,mlle4 ,smith and ,mrs ,piper1 when they allow competent persons to study their mediumship1 render more valuable services to society than do so many social encumbrances1 so many flies on the wheel who deafen us with their buzzing8 ,have they any reason to be ashamed8 ,finally1 in order to attain to any result in these studies1 money is needed--why not say so8 ,interesting subjects must be paid when they need payment1 and competent investigators must be paid when they need a salary4 ,if a thousandth part of the sum devoted in a year to the art of killing were devoted to the solution of this problem1 before ten years were over we should have settled the question1 and humanity could boast an unexampled victory4 ,in ,america and all the ,anglo-,saxon countries many persons1 as noble as they are generous1 give for science1 for universal instruction1 for founding universities and colleges4 ,may they be blessed6 ,they make a noble use of their money4 ,but it is regrettable that as much money as is needed can be found for the search after--let us say--the ,anthropopithecus erectus1 and that it cannot be found for ,psychical ,research4 ,if ,i am not mistaken1 a prize has been offered to whoever can find the means of communicating with the planet ,mars4 ,if this communication were ever established1 ,i do not see how humanity would benefit by it1 beyond the satisfaction of its curiosity2 which is1 however1 a noble and legitimate curiosity4 ,but how much more helpful and interesting it would be to communicate with the world beyond the grave1 if such a world there be1 the world whither we are all bound4 ,perhaps some time mankind will realise this fact4 ,edinburgh ,colston and ,coy4 ,limited ,printers