< Retrospect of the Session of Fortnightly Spiritualistic Discussion Meetings, 1877-1878 (continued from page 7-163) >
open to any one interested in the broad questions with which Spiritualism deals—and with what subjects on which the spirit of man engages does it not deal?—to ventilate his theory, if he has one, he to listen to other people, if he is fortunate enough to be destitute of baggage, and to amuse himself by exploding the word-balloon of his instructor.
We have believed that the fullest and frankest, expression of opinion, the widest range of speculation, and the most audacious attempts to explore the most recondite mysteries are compatible with that decorous divergence of thought and language which should characterise a public meeting. Hay, more. We have believed that we do well to ventilate every phase of thought; to encourage all to bring their theories, opinions, observations, speculations to that best of all possible touchstones—open and unreserved discussion.
We have observed, in the page of history, that a fallacy is long lived in proportion to the care with which it is secluded from public discussion. We see, in the course of our own daily experience, that there is nothing so good as the free air of open discussion for blowing away fogs. And so we have desired to let this blessed air of heaven have free course.
Mysteries there are, we do not doubt, which are all unsuited to the diffuse and necessarily shallow discussion which is all they can expect here. But, then, they can afford to wait, and the student will approach them at an advantage when they have, had their preliminary sifting in public.
And for the most of those questions which are being increasingly forced on our attention day by day, we entertain no doubt whatever that to encourage observers who have had various means of observation, and who bring to the investigation various types of mind to record their facts and opinions, can be productive of nothing but good.
In this belief we have not only encouraged the fullest range of discussion, but we have even striven to find advocates, or, if not such, then critics, of views which are not universally received and believed amongst us. We have not always succeeded; but we may at any rate boast that we have covered a wide area during our past session.
have engaged a considerable share of our attention, as indeed is most deserving. Nothing more astounding has been recorded within the whole range of phenomena, no one of which lacks its element of the marvellous, than those phenomena which were recorded by Mr. Colley, after a long course of personal investigation, at our meeting on November 12, 1877. The new departure here was the production of the forms under the eye of the observer without the perplexing conditions usually insisted on—a cabinet and total darkness, or the still more deceptive glimmer of light which so frequently makes observation impossible. Mr. Colley’s experience I was able to confirm in a far inferior degree in a subsequent paper read November 30th, 1877. In a very much inferior degree, because I had not had his facilities for repeated observation, though I had seen what I recorded under circumstances which were to me satisfactory.
I had already (May 18, 1877) read a paper on the same subject before this Association, and had ventured to specify some desideranda. Most of these have now become accomplished facts, and the phenomena, testified to by Mr. Colley and myself, have since been repeated on several occasions, and in the presence of other observers, especially Mr. Ads head, Mr. Wedgwood, and Mr. Cranstoun.
Not only this; but similar phenomena, differing in degree only and not in kind, have been obtained with other mediums, and in the presence of other observers. I would especially instance the records which have been printed in The Spiritualist during the past year of phenomena observed in the presence of Mr. Eglinton, and the conclusive evidence published by Mr. Wedgwood (May 31st ult.) respecting Mr. Haxby. There we have a case, squaring with many others recorded both in this country and in America, of the production in a private house of forms robed in abundant white drapery after the medium had been entirely clothed in dark material. These cases* again and again recorded by observers above suspicion, and of proved competence, in various places, and in the presence of various mediums, both in this and in other countries, lift the phenomenon of form manifestation into the region of proven truth.
No doubt remains possible as to the fact; but as to the explanation of that fact, as to the methods by which these astonishing results are produced, there is a very large scope for speculation: so vast, indeed, that the imagination is paralysed, and those who think deepest feel that they have least to say. It is easy to promulgate theories, to weave ingenious explanations which do duty until some fact unluckily explodes them. But, when all this has been done, the explanation still remains to seek.
It has been reserved for the committee under whose auspices these meetings are held, to take the first practical step towards the scientific solution of the problem,
They have demonstrated, by a series of experiments with a medium seated in a suspended cabinet which was connected with a weighing machine, that the body of the medium loses weight when the form is manifested, and regains it when the manifestations cease. Many of us no doubt have heard the explanations given as to the emanations from the body of the medium being used, and have questioned the manifesting spirits without any particular access of light to the mind on these problems. Many, like myself, must have been unable to comprehend how a medium could be deprived of a portion of his material substance, and restored, after such disintegration, to his normal condition.
That some such process is carried out is, however, apparent from the experiments alluded to by Mr. Harrison in his paper read on the occasion of our last meeting (June 3). These experiments are published at length in The Spiritualist of May 3rd, where also may be found a complete account of the methods adopted and results obtained. The broad result elaborated by Mr. W. H. Harrison shows that when the most powerful form manifestations are in process the medium is reduced in weight to about five-and-thirty pounds from more than a hundred and fifty pounds; and further, that this borrowed materiality is restored in one observed case, by instalments of about 40 pounds each, at the end of the seance^ when the forms disappear. It will, of course, be necessary to repeat these experiments over and over again before it is safe to draw minute deductions from them. The new, and far more accurate, apparatus which the generosity of Mr. Blackburn is furnishing us with, renders that a possible achievement in the future. For the present we may claim to have demonstrated that a process to which the term materialisation may properly be applied takes place in certain observed cases, and that the appearances which have so puzzled us are, in some cases, what they pretend to be—viz. bodies structured from the medium, at least in part: intimately connected with his physical organism, and mysteriously dependent on it for their existence on the plane of matter.
This is no light gain: for surely, what with evidence making for transformation or transfiguration of the medium, what with illusory conditions, and bewildering statements, and insufficient observations, and generalisations of the hop-skip-and-jump character, never was any subject so beset with difficulty as this.
Is it too much to hope that for the time to come we may have only exact facts recorded, and that our friends will distinguish between them and deductions from them?
So much for the light thrown on these form manifestations, It remains for us in our next session to push on the exploration still further into the border-land of the unknown, and to endeavour to solve the pressing problem of presenting these phenomena under circumstances which render observation easy and scientifically accurate. At present there is much difficulty in securing opportunity for observation; and, when it is secured, in getting fair means for careful investigation. I hope that some of our friends who devote themselves to this work, with facilities which all do not possess, will investigate with a view to recording their facts precisely in the form of a paper for our next session.
On the 11th of February of this year Dr. Carter Blake gave us an elaborate description of the phenomena which are observed in the case of Louise Lateau, and a very careful summary of the investigations made by four scientific experts. It seems pretty clear that Louise is one of those abnormal creatures whom doctors call hysterical, and that, whether a self-deceiver or an impostor, her claim to having supported a three years and a-half fast is quite unworthy of <... continues on page 7-166 >