Quotes:Slade, Dr. Henry

Zirkoff, Boris

Slade, Dr. Henry. American medium principally known in connection with his slate-writing, and familiar to the mediumistic circles in Michigan as early as 1860. It was not, however, until his selection by the Blavatsky-Olcott committee that he first came to prominence. Information as to his birth and early life is lacking; he died in a private hospital in Michigan, in September, 1905.

Suspicions of fraud expressed by some of the observers at his seances have never been substantiated. On the other hand considerable testimony exists in corroboration of the genuineness of Slade’s mediumistic phenomena. In his paper, “The Possibility of Mal-Observation in Relation to Evidence of the Phenomena of Spiritualism,” read at a General Meeting of the Society for Psychical Research, July 5, 1886, C. C. Massey recounts a phenomenon produced by Slade in New York and witnessed by him in company with Col. Olcott, on the 14th of October. 1885. The phenomenon consisted in a chair, found to be free of all attachments, being raised and moved about, at Massey’s request, while the medium at a distance remained immobile and simultaneously observed. In the words of Massey: “No mediumistic phenomenon that I have witnessed has made stronger or more lasting impression upon me than this one” [Proceedings, S.P.R., Vol. IV, p. 81). Among those who came to acknowledge the reality of phenomena exhibited in Slade’s presence were Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, Serjeant Edward W. Cox, Dr. C. Carter Blake, Dr. George Wyld, Miss Kislingbury (in 1876, Secretary to the British National Association of Spiritualists), Prof. Zollner and his colleagues Fechner, Weber and Scheibner. In Russia, Grand Duke Constantine, Prof. Butlerov and A. N. Aksakov were among those converted to belief by experiments with Slade.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 1, pp. 524-525

Slade, Dr. Henry (?-1905). See Vol. I, p. 525, for information.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 3, p. 530

Slade, Dr. Henry (?-1905). See Vol. I, p. 525, for biogr. data.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 4, p. 665