The Passage of Matter Through Matter
For some years past evidence has been obtained by observers at spirit circles, that solid matter sometimes passes through solid matter under the influence of spirit power; and permanent proof appears to have been obtained by this fact at a seance in London last Saturday, as recorded on another page. At that stance a ring of solid ivory was linked into a ring of solid wood-, without disruption of either so far as close examination in daylight has revealed, and the rings will doubtless be submitted in Leipzig to observation under the microscope during the present week. Meanwhile, we take a common-sense view of what is but a variation of a manifestation long common, and provisionally accept the reality of the fact.
Then arises the question—What is the philosophy of the manifestation? How is it to be explained? One step on the road to a solution may perhaps be found in the evidence given for many years past at spirit circles, of the occasional duplication of material forms. One wine glass was once put beneath a table at a stance recorded by Mr. A. R. Wallace, who immediately heard the rattling and clinking together in every way of two. Mr. Crookes once held Miss Cook, and saw standing near her the double of herself as a spirit form. We once held Mr. Williams at a seance, and saw floating high above him a living double in appearance of himself, robed in white drapery. A light was once struck at a Davenport seance, and the medium was seen duplicated, clothes and all. During the recent experiments made by the Research Committee of the British National Association of Spiritualists, while Mr. Williams was on a weighing machine with self-recording apparatus attached, the double in appearance of himself, clothes and all, was busy about the room, and the weight of Mr. Williams varied in an extraordinary way, accompanied probably by complementary changes in the spectral form. Our idea is that there was no “miracle” in a physical sense, that the laws of the conservation of energy and the indestructibility of matter were not broken, but that there was a kind of see-saw action between the two forms, the one increasing in weight as the other diminished; and this theory furnishes the key to some facts which are now perplexing American Spiritualists, as set forth more particularly in articles on Mrs. Pickering and Mr. Harry Bastian, in The Religio-Philosophical Journal of Chicago.
To return to the ring test. We think it probable that a “ghost ring” abstracted from one solid ring, began to form inside the other; that as that ring increased in materiality and weight, the other correspondingly diminished, till there was an impalpable imperceptible “ghost-ring” outside, which finally was absorbed in the duplicate, after which the interlinking was complete. As a practical matter of fact, there is strong evidence that such actions in connection with solid substances go on commonly at spirit circles; but if anybody asks how such duplications and recombinations are effected, a problem is presented which at present we will not attempt to solve.
In admitting the fact of the occasional duplication of solid objects, with complementary changes in weight between the two forms, it is plain that some of the almost recognised assumptions at the root of elementary physics and chemistry must be thrown aside. These new facts do not harmonise with the fundamental theory of the infinitely rigid and solid atoms of Dalton, nor with the vortex atoms or wirbelbewegung theory of Helmholtz; they point rather to the conclusion either that the conventional atom is formed by an underlying infinity of unknown phenomena, or that in some such theory as that of Bishop Berkeley the solution of some of the problems connected with the physical universe will be found, to the complete overthrow of the scientific Materialist.
Whatever the explanation may be, the fact of the occasional duplication of form, not only of particular human beings, but of solid objects near them, is gradually making itself clear to many observers. This fact is altogether opposed to the experience of those who are experimentally acquainted with molecular physics, and with the nature of chemical reactions, which physical phenomena would consequently seem to be but of a surface nature, governed by underlying psychic laws, of which at present we are almost entirely ignorant, although they are unexpectedly potent in their observed effects.
A Permanent "Miracle" for Public Examination
Solid objects have not unfrequently been passed through other solid objects at stances, but the evidence of the fact has hitherto been limited to the weight of the testimony of the witnesses. One of the best of the well-authenticated cases occurred with the Hon. Alexandre Aksakof, of St. Petersburg, during his last visit to London to investigate spiritual phenomena. A thick welded iron ring, eight or nine inches in diameter, was u threaded” on his arm by spirits, while he held the hand of Mr. Williams, the medium. As this was done in the dark, he took off the ring when a light was struck; then by permission of the spirits grasped the hand of Mr. Williams again, tied the wrists of the joined hands together in a secure way with tape, then put out the light, and asked the spirits to thread the ring on his arm once more. This they did. M. Aksakof next took the ring off his arm in the light, and asked Mr. Williams if he might keep it; permission to retain the ring as evidence of its homogeneousness was given, and it was taken by M. Aksakof to St. Petersburg.
For some three or four years past various Spiritualists have occasionally taken solid rings, turned out of different kinds of wood, to stances, in the hope of getting them interlinked, because the accomplishment of such a feat being beyond the power of man, the rings themselves would be permanent evidence of the reality of the manifestation, and no error arising in human testimony could affect the result. But the manifestation was not obtained, and this raised the hypothesis whether it was not a matter of necessity that one of the substances used in the presentation of the phenomenon should be, like the human arm, a portion of a living organism.
But more recently, as published in the Daily Telegraph, the Quarterly Journal of Science, and The Spiritualist, Herr Zollner, Professor of Astronomy at Leipzig University, obtained in broad daylight four knots upon an endless cord in the presence of Henry Slade, whose hands were in sight all the time. The knots were of such a nature that no mortal could have made them without having free ends of the cord to pass through the preparatory loops. The knots cannot now be untied without first cutting the cord. In this experiment solid matter was passed through solid matter, no portion of which belonged to a living organism.
Since then Professor Zollner has obtained more remarkable results still, which, however, we are not at liberty to publish, in deference to his expressed desire that they shall first be made known in the second volume of his book now in the press.
But last Saturday a result which crowns all was obtained in London, a ring of solid natural ivory being linked by spirits into a ring of wood.
Mr. Julius Gillis, of Wassili Ostrow, 1st Line No. 36, St. Petersburg, having recently been convinced of the reality of spiritual phenomena by Henry Slade, has since been travelling in Europe to see all the additional manifestations he could. He recently came to London from Leipzig, where he had attended some of Professor Zollner’s stances, and he placed himself in communication with a well-known Spiritualist, Herr Christian Reimers, of 47, Mornington-road, N.W. Mr. Reimers then kindly gave time and attention, and introduced him to various mediums and their stances. Mr. Gillis 'brought some solid rings to the stances with him; one of them was of ivory, the others made in unbroken pieces of various woods, and he wanted any two of these interlinked. This feat was not accomplished at the earlier seances, although he witnessed other manifestations of a remarkable kind. But last Saturday morning, at a dark seance at which the four mediums—Mr. Williams, Mr. Rita, Mr. Herne, and Mrs. Herne, were present, in addition to the two investigators—Mr. Gillis and Herr Reimers, the ring of ivory, which Mr. Gillis had brought with him from the Continent, was linked into a ring of wood.
At 1.15 p.m., after the seance was over, the two witnesses brought the interlinked rings to Mr. Harrison at The Spiritualist office. Inspection in strong daylight failed to show <... continues on page 7-218 >
Editor's notes
Sources
London Spiritualist, No. 310, August 2, 1878, p. 49
London Spiritualist, No. 310, August 2, 1878, p. 54