Legend
< Spiritualism (continued from page 10-124) >
seances amongst ourselves. Many of these failed absolutely: at some we received faint raps and movements of tables, which we believed ourselves not to have been produced in any ordinary way. Some of the communications spelled out by raps or tilts were coherent, though none were of a nature to be worth recording as evidence. Some other phenomena were once observed which I will speak of directly. My acquaintance rapidly spread through Spiritualistic society. I went in many public and semi-public seances of professed mediums. Not to speak of raps and movements of objects in the dark, which are not in the least impressive at the houses of professional mediums, I saw on two or three occasions some partial “materialisations” which were very extraordinary. They happened in this way:—Four or five of us, he., of the family group above referred to, were sitting in the dark on one occasion at the rooms of the well-known medium Williams, no other stranger being present. We saw what are called “spirit lights” flitting about. These lights appeared like little sparks, which travelled through a short course, and then disappeared as a rule. Suddenly one of them, instead of disappearing, paused in mid air above the table and our heads, and expanded into a little luminous cloud, which at once assumed the appearance of a face. Expanding downwards, there came shoulders, covered with some sort of white garment. The head was covered with a white turban. The face became perfectly distinct and self-luminous. When I saw it nothing was visible below the shoulders, but the head and shoulders moved about without any reference to what was underneath; that is to say, being at one moment at the further side of the room, at the next it would advance to within a foot or so of me, and remain suspended above the table. At another seance of a similar kind, which my wife and other members of our family attended, but at which, I regret to say, I was not present, the same face appeared in the same way, and the materialisation went a step further. Arms and hands developed. The “spirit,” said to be “John King,” shook hands with my wife, and spoke to her and others. Of course, if this had taken place at our own house the phenomenon would have presented itself to our minds irresistibly as what it professed to be; but occurring at a professional medium’s house, one’s suspicions go hunting round and round the circumstances in search of some possible explanation on the assumption of imposture. However, I have never been able to work on any theory of that kind. The effect could not have been produced by any magic lantern apparatus, nor by the simple machinery of “Pepper’s Ghost,” which has impressed your not very scientific though ever-delightful London correspondent. For myself, I may remark that natural science has always been my hobby from a boy, and its ordinary resources, as applied to conjuring, are very familar to me. No optical effects of the conjurer’s kind will bear looking at all round—as we looked at what was said to be “John King” while he remained over the table, descending low down on to it, too, so that the head was no more than two feet above the surface of the table. And a collateral fact that has impressed rue is this: once at one of our quite private seances, with no medium or stranger present, we saw little sparks in the air, just like the more vivid spirit lights of Williams’s seance, though in our private case, for want, as a Spiritualist would say, of sufficient mediumship, they did not develop into visible faces.
Again, on one occasion when Williams was present at a private house where I attended a seance, the “John King” face appeared just as I saw it at Williams’s lodgings. That is a striking fact to me, because at the house in question Williams could have had no apparatus.
In the midst of my researches I was introduced to a lady, whose name I think I may mention here, because she has become so very celebrated in connection with this subject—I moan Mrs. Guppy. Mrs. Guppy, since re-married, was at that time a widow of ample private means, living at Kensington, and suivie by hunters after Spiritualism to that degree that though she used to hold stances about three evenings a week, one had to get permission to attend these some time in advance. People had no conscience about begging- to be allowed to come. However, during my stay in London, Mrs. Guppy kindly invited me on three occasions. It would take columns to describe all that occurred. Mrs. Guppy has been described as the “Empress of Physical Mediums,” and all the physical phenomena so often referred to in writings on this subject occur in her presence in myriads. Such a Castle of Enchantment as I found that comfortable house in Kensington to be, I can hardly expect your readers to realise. Mrs. Guppy’s guests would assemble in the drawing-room about eight or nine o’clock, and when all were there, we used to go up to an almost empty room on the upper floor whore the seances were held. The phenomena in the habit of occurring would have been ruination in a drawing-room with much furniture and ornaments about. Two or three gentlemen would sometimes go up first to look about the room, and Mrs. Guppy, I remember, sent me up in this way in advance of the rest on the first evening I was present. The room was of moderate size, with one window and one door. A. jet of gas turned over the mantelpiece; a bare round table with a hole in the middle, and a dozen or so of common cane chairs, constituted all the furniture. The window shutter was in one large solid piece of wood, going over the whole window, and fastened into its place with long iron screws. I assisted to put it up on the evening of which I speak. Then the party all came up, about fifteen in number; some sat round the table, some stood about. While these arrangements were being made, loud raps, as loud as might have been made with a small hammer, were clattering all round the room, on walls, floor, and ceiling. Trifles of that sort wore not much noticed at Mrs. Guppy’s. Then the gas was turned out and the door shut. I may mention that the door was fastened in a more effectual manner than by holts or bars. If it was opened an inch light streamed in from the hall below. There could never be any doubt as to whether it was shut or open. Well, closed in as we were by four bare walls and that huge shutter, darkness was no sooner established than we heard a swishing through the room. I felt drops of water on my face, and felt myself brushed <... continues on page 10-126 >
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