Variations in the Weight of a Medium During Manifestation
It having been suggested that I should briefly state the main points of the experiments given by me in great detail, with diagrams, in The Spiritualist of May 8, 1878, I have much pleasure in so doing.
The British National Association of Spiritualists some time since appointed a committee to prosecute original research in relation to spiritual phenomena, and allotted it a room on its premises at 38, Great Russell-street, London, in which to conduct its operations. The Association at the same time gave the Research Committee the use of all the appliances it possessed upon the establishment, and a few months ago the committee began its work in connection with research by attempting to ascertain continuously the variations, if any, in the weight of a medium during the occurrence of powerful physical manifestations. The Research Committee consists of Mr. Desmond Fitz-Gerald, Member of the Society of Telegraphic Engineers, Chairman; Mr. C. F. Varlev, F.R.S., C.E.; Mr. D. H. Wilson, M.A., LL.M. (Cantab)7 Mr. W. H. Coffin; Mr. C. C. Massey, Barrister-at-Law; the Rev. W. Stainton-Moses, M.A. (Oxon); Mr. Dawson Rogers; Mr. J. W. Gray, C.E.; Mr. E. T. Bennett; Mr. F. Barrett; Mr. T. H. Edmands; the Rev. W. W. Newbould, M.A. (Cantab); Mr. Charles Blackburn, of Didsbury; Mr. George C. load; Captain John James; Mr. F. W. Percival, M.A. (Oxon); Mr. H. Wihall; Mr. George King; Mr. G. F. Green; Dr. Carter-Blake, Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy at Westminster Hospital; and myself. The medium through whom the valuable results hereinafter recorded have been obtained is Mr. C. E. Williams.
A cabinet was mounted on a weighing machine, in order that, as the weight of the medium in the cabinet varied during manifestations, those variations might be recorded. The record was made automatically upon a band of paper round a vertical drum (Fig. 1), revolving by clockwork in the direction denoted by the arrow. The pencil W moves up and down in accordance with the variations in the weight upon the machine, and as the cylinder is also in motion, zigzag lines upon the paper are the result. The line A B represents the weight of the cabinet, the line B D that of the medium, or an indicated weight of 153 lbs.; his actual weight may be a few pounds more or less, but such variation being a constant does not affect the scientific value of the results. As the seance goes on, the weight of the medium falls, and is subject to considerable fluctuations.
Fig. 1.
The following diagram (Fig. 2) shows broadly the general results deducible from the few seances already held under the conditions just stated. In this cut the line N N represents sixty minutes of time, and the line
Fig. 2.
W N the 153 lbs. weight of the medium. During a materialisation seance his weight gradually falls to between 30 lbs. and 35 lbs. between B and D, and towards the close of the stance his weight is recovered in three sudden instalments, represented between D and E.
During the common manifestations of a dark seance, such as the floating and playing of musical instruments, the weight of the medium does not sink so much as during a materialisation stance; it sinks only to K K (Fig. 2), instead of to B D.
The lines K K and the lines B D are not of the same nature. K K (Fig. 2) is of the nature represented by A B (Fig. 3), and B B (Fig. 2) of the nature represented by D E (Fig. 3). During a strong dark stance the body of a powerful physical medium is of but about half its normal
Fig. 3.
weight, and subject to momentary fluctuations of several pounds each.
During the only strong materialisation stance held with Mr. Williams while he was on the weighing apparatus, his body gradually sank to less than one-fourth its normal weight, and lay as a motionless mass in the cabinet. When the spirits returned to this mass to “take on more of the mortal,” it slowly increased in weight, as represented at F (Fig. 3), but fell suddenly when they left it again, as represented at H. Each time they left it, it was a pound or two less in weight than before, as indicated by the dotted lines (Fig. 3).
The study of the original diagrams suggests that a medium and two spirits, by equally sharing the matter of the medium’s body, can produce lively physical effects at a dark seance, almost the same as if each spirit were clothed with the normal complement of matter of the body of a human being. I have seen something analogous to this in chemical actions, when for experimental purposes covering glass with a film of pure bright silver, by precipitating the metal from one of its ammoniacal solutions. The results were apparently nearly the same, whether the same quantity of solution contained two, four, six, or eight parts of silver. The film of silver on the glass was marvellously thin.
The recorded results are far more important than any scientific discovery which has been recorded in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society during the present generation, and the reason why the results are not in the pages of that publication are, that when Mr. Crookes first brought some of the phenomenal facts of Spiritualism before the Royal Society, the Council treated him and the facts just as it treated Benjamin Franklin when he announced to the Society his discovery of lightning conductors.
New and improved self-recording apparatus, to be presented to the Research Committee by Mr. Charles Blackburn, is in course of construction, and some interesting additional results are expected before long.
38, Great Russell-street, London.
Editor's notes
Sources
London Spiritualist, No. 299, May 17, 1878, p. 235