HPB-SB-1-80: Difference between revisions

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<center>Oct. 22, 1875. The Spiritualist.</center>

From a critical examination of many reports in American newspapers, of marvellous appearances of materialised spirits, through the mediumship of the Eddy brothers, we long since found out and published that the accounts were mostly of an exaggerated nature, made by enthusiastic persons not recognised by the public as good witnesses, and that the chief fact suppressed in such reports was the feeble amount of light at the ''seances''—so feeble that the features of the “ recognised ” spirits could not be seen by anybody, except an old Mrs. Cleveland and a Mr. Pritchard, who were allowed to approach near enough to see the faces, and who gave the rest of the company their testimony as to the features. Of course this testimony may have been reliable, but at the same time the two witnesses may have belonged to a class of enthusiastic souls who sometimes attend ''seances'', who would readily recognise pocket handkerchiefs as the veritable faces of their departed grandmothers, or who pass so freely under mesmeric influence as to see miraculous things beyond the range ofordinary eyesight. On rare occasions, when some witness known to Spiritualists attended the ''seances'', such as Dr. Ditson, and Miss Lizzie Ooten, a tone of disappointment characterised their accounts, and they usually honestly recorded the fact of the small amount of light; still, as they only attended one or two ''seances'', their reports were not worth much ; at least a dozen ''seances'' should be attended to get accurate ideas of the average nature of the manifestations through any medium. "Why do not American Spiritualists, who have such good mediums, engage good witnesses to observe the manifestations ? If gentlemen whose testimony carries weight on both sides of the Atlantic, such as Mr. Epes Sargent, Dr. Crowell, and Colonel Olcott, gave their valuable time and recorded most of the facts witnessed at ''seances'', on what a very superior footing to the prosent American Spiritualism would stand.

Postscript.—I have said tho Eddys are not test mediums, but I should qualify this statement as to Horatio, whoso light circles ought to give satisfaction to any close observer. I referred to Williams’s materialisation circles.

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{{Style S-HPB SB. HPB note|“An English Barrister” is our friend C.C. Massey. {{Style S-HPB SB. Lost|J.R.E.}}|center}}

SB-01-080-source-2.png|The Spiritualist, Oct. 22, 1875, p.200.

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