< New Discoveries in Spiritualism (continued from page 10-73) >
lifting and dropping the back legs of the chair in the cabinet.
At 89 minutes a light was struck; the medium was heard as if waking from a trance, and at 91 minutes he stepped from the cabinet.
A preliminary diagram, with an imperfection in it, obtained with Mr. Haxby on Monday, September 29th, is roughly represented by the sketch, Fig. 5. I give it because the forms came out with much regularity, and it seems, by the “curve” the depressions give, to indicate that in the middle of a stance in which spirits keep steadily at work all the time, they can take much more matter from the medium in the middle of a seance than at the beginning or the end. In this diagram A is the curious depression already mentioned, and amounting to 20 lbs. at the maximum. At B, the weight in cabinet was 54 lbs.; out of it, 75 lbs.; form out, 1 1/2 minute; it walked across the room and touched Mr. Joad. At. C, the weight in cabinet had a maximum of 50 lbs.; out, 79. lbs.; duration, 2 minutes. At D, 49 lbs. in cabinet, 80 out, duration 5 minutes. At E, 28 lbs. in cabinet, 101 lbs. out of cabinet, duration 2 1/2 minutes. At F, only 10 lbs. in cabinet, 119 out, duration 4 minutes. At G, 39 lbs. in the cabinet, 90 lbs. out, duration 4 minutes. At H, 43 lbs. in the cabinet, 86 lbs. out; duration, including irregularities, 4 1/2 minutes. At K, a jarring noise in cabinet; the lifting and dropping of the medium in his chair might have caused it, and this may perhaps explain a similar mark on the diagram previously described. At L, 81 lbs. in the cabinet, 48 lbs. out, duration 2 minutes. The controlling power remarked that an Indian spirit named Rattlesnake wanted to come, but he was so strong that he would probably leave nothing of the medium in the cabinet.
What would occur if anybody seized one of these forms? There would probably be a sudden union of the weights inside and outside the cabinet, the lesser weight flying to the greater. When the two weights are of about equal amount the strain upon the nervous system of the medium would probably be fearful, endangering life perhaps.
This article is already of too great length to permit indulging in comment this week on the facts revealed, but it has been a. great, satisfaction to all the experimentalists to know that the. great expense which Mr. Blackburn has incurred, in constructing machinery to prosecute the researches herein recorded has not been without its reward. Of the discoveries now in progress who can see the end? and who can foretell their'. future 'value to the world?
<Untitled> (Mr. C. E. Williams has returned...)
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The Self-recorded Diagram
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<Untitled> (At the Council...)
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Editor's notes