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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Some Facts About Materialisation|12-179}} | {{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Some Facts About Materialisation|12-179}} | ||
... | {{Style P-No indent|of a lady present appeared, bearing his own light. It seemed like a radiant globe of glass, held up near to his chin. It lighted his face perfectly. He came up to me and looked into my eyes in such sharp fashion that I begged him go over to his wife on the other side of the room, which he did. On this occasion the Spirit, J.B. Ferguson, who promised to materialise, did not put in an appearance.}} | ||
We somehow got another séance, and I have seldom seen such power manifested. It was not worms dealing with matter, but those who had somehow, by practice on matter or otherwise, got great skill in manifestation. | |||
Mr. Ferguson was well-known to me in his earth-life. He was a very powerful man, more than six feet high, and very broad in the chest. Before he appeared, “Joey,” one of Willie Eglinton's familiar Spirits, materialised, and asked for some pins. We had hung two shawls in a corner to screen Willie from us, and they had fallen apart. “Joey” took a box of pins and pinned the shawls carefully together. Then he put the box back on the mantel-shelf from which one of us had taken it, saying, “A place for everything and everything in its place. I like to see things tidy.” He was very friendly with me. I had never seen him before, but he came to me and kissed the hair on the top of my head. Not long afterwards he adopted me as his mamma, and I should now be as much surprised if he called me anything but mamma as if one of my own children should do so. At first he used sometimes to say “Mrs. Nichols,” but on one occasion, after calling me by my name, he stopped and said “mamma” as many as twenty times, and never since has he called me anything but mamma. | |||
After “Joey” had pinned the shawls together, Mr. Ferguson appeared—never in life more natural—every motion his own. He moved a very heavy mahogany centre table to a distance from us, and then drew an arm-chair, which was also very heavy, up before me, and seated himself and took my hand. He seemed unable to speak. I asked for one most dear to me. I said, “Is she here?” He rose and went back to the place where Willie Eglinton was seated, and I heard three raps. Instantly he disappeared and the one appeared for whom I had inquired. She came and knelt before me, took my hand and kissed it. The remainder of the phenomena of this evening I cannot now write. | |||
Mr. Ferguson had told me in advance of phenomena that we are now familiar with. Ira Davenport’s double had appeared when they were at Glasgow and convinced Spiritualists that they were being misled. They plainly saw Ira at liberty when he was bound in his chair. The “coat trick” as it was called, ''i.e''., the removal of the coat when the medium was bound, was disbelieved at first by Spiritualists, just as the appearance and communication from living persons was disbelieved twenty-five years since. I remember some leading Spiritualists in New York being quite out of patience with me for believing that living persons could be present at our séances and communicate. But how could I disbelieve when I could see the form of a friend living at a distance, and get a communication by raps? I insisted on these facts. Spiritualists got angry and said it was not possible, just as non-Spiritualists get angry now at the ordinary phenomena. Mr. Ferguson told me years ago that when they blackened the hands of the Davenport Brothers, and bound them in the cabinet, blackened hands were thrust out of the apertures in the cabinet, and yet the brothers were found securely bound. On one occasion Willie Eglinton had a similar experience. A musical instrument was blackened. Hands were formed and dealt with it, and the black was found on his hands, though he had been securely held every moment. One of his guides assured me that the black was transferred to his hands when the material they had used to make hands was restored to him. | |||
One thing I would like “M.A. (Oxon.)” to deal with. How much matter is used in the shadowy form that I see beside the table when it is lifted, or that caresses a friend or relative in the circle, and which no one sees but a clairvoyant? | |||
Another question: Is there so much matter and so much spirit belonging to our system of worlds, and our planet; or is there a definite amount of matter, and an indefinite amount of spirit, the last quite separable from, and in no certain way related to, the matter of our globe? | |||
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|M. S. G. Nichols.}} | |||
32, Fopstone-road, Earl's Court. | |||
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... | <center>''To the Editor of'' {{Style S-Small capitals| “Light”}}</center> | ||
{{Style S-Small capitals| Sir,}}—I have read your paper for some weeks, and although I find in it many matters of interest, I am compelled to say that there is little that is new with reference to the so-called science of Spiritualism. Table tilting and rapping are doubtless very amusing, but surely we have had them ''ad nauseam'', and really the instruction contained in pantomimic furniture is, I think, so infinitesimal that we might be spared the infliction of, as it were, verbatim accounts of household goods attacked in a painful form with St. Vitus’s Dance. I am not writing in a jesting or sceptical spirit. Far from it, as my signature will shew, but I certainly think that the latter day shadows are deteriorating considerably from those of earlier times. | |||
My own experience, and it is a large one, tells me most distinctly that Spirits of any mental calibre worth mentioning utterly decline to perform any dramatic tricks whatsoever, and they say that those of lower power are unable to do so. I am quite able to believe them. I believe, or to be correct, I know, that those who have passed that shadowy line which divides Time from Eternity are capable of impressing ''certain'' individuals on certain subjects, but it does not always follow that those impressions are correct. I know that man in spirit, as man in body, is liable to error, and also to lie. A case in point. When I was in Japan some forty-seven years ago, I was informed by a Japanese medium who had given me a truthful description of my home in Germany, that on a certain date mentioned I should receive certain private intelligence that I was then anxiously expecting. The intelligence never came; was never sent. It may seem sufficiently easy to account for this by casting suspicion upon my informant. That, however, I had no reason to do, owing to the fact that I knew him to be, like Cæsar’s wife, above suspicion. | |||
I would ask any one of your readers to favour me with some undoubted proof, that this power which is, is not a latent force produced by their own organisms. I am satisfied personally that the power is Spiritual, but I have no sound reason to adduce to account for that satisfaction. | |||
When a very young man, I made the acquaintance at Tortuska of a Brahmin, who, for some unexplained reason, had lost caste. This man lived for study, and studied for life. He was able by his studies to inform me of many things which really transpired in accordance with his statement. He had an idea of the possibility of extending the existence of his body for an indefinite period. An idea only, I should imagine, but one that he was capable of making me then think almost a probability. His name was Ahjtea. It is possible that some of your readers may have known him.—Yours truly, | |||
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|Otto von Teuldsdroch.}} | |||
{{HPB-SB-item | {{HPB-SB-item | ||
Latest revision as of 06:00, 16 November 2025
< Some Facts About Materialisation (continued from page 12-179) >
of a lady present appeared, bearing his own light. It seemed like a radiant globe of glass, held up near to his chin. It lighted his face perfectly. He came up to me and looked into my eyes in such sharp fashion that I begged him go over to his wife on the other side of the room, which he did. On this occasion the Spirit, J.B. Ferguson, who promised to materialise, did not put in an appearance.
We somehow got another séance, and I have seldom seen such power manifested. It was not worms dealing with matter, but those who had somehow, by practice on matter or otherwise, got great skill in manifestation.
Mr. Ferguson was well-known to me in his earth-life. He was a very powerful man, more than six feet high, and very broad in the chest. Before he appeared, “Joey,” one of Willie Eglinton's familiar Spirits, materialised, and asked for some pins. We had hung two shawls in a corner to screen Willie from us, and they had fallen apart. “Joey” took a box of pins and pinned the shawls carefully together. Then he put the box back on the mantel-shelf from which one of us had taken it, saying, “A place for everything and everything in its place. I like to see things tidy.” He was very friendly with me. I had never seen him before, but he came to me and kissed the hair on the top of my head. Not long afterwards he adopted me as his mamma, and I should now be as much surprised if he called me anything but mamma as if one of my own children should do so. At first he used sometimes to say “Mrs. Nichols,” but on one occasion, after calling me by my name, he stopped and said “mamma” as many as twenty times, and never since has he called me anything but mamma.
After “Joey” had pinned the shawls together, Mr. Ferguson appeared—never in life more natural—every motion his own. He moved a very heavy mahogany centre table to a distance from us, and then drew an arm-chair, which was also very heavy, up before me, and seated himself and took my hand. He seemed unable to speak. I asked for one most dear to me. I said, “Is she here?” He rose and went back to the place where Willie Eglinton was seated, and I heard three raps. Instantly he disappeared and the one appeared for whom I had inquired. She came and knelt before me, took my hand and kissed it. The remainder of the phenomena of this evening I cannot now write.
Mr. Ferguson had told me in advance of phenomena that we are now familiar with. Ira Davenport’s double had appeared when they were at Glasgow and convinced Spiritualists that they were being misled. They plainly saw Ira at liberty when he was bound in his chair. The “coat trick” as it was called, i.e., the removal of the coat when the medium was bound, was disbelieved at first by Spiritualists, just as the appearance and communication from living persons was disbelieved twenty-five years since. I remember some leading Spiritualists in New York being quite out of patience with me for believing that living persons could be present at our séances and communicate. But how could I disbelieve when I could see the form of a friend living at a distance, and get a communication by raps? I insisted on these facts. Spiritualists got angry and said it was not possible, just as non-Spiritualists get angry now at the ordinary phenomena. Mr. Ferguson told me years ago that when they blackened the hands of the Davenport Brothers, and bound them in the cabinet, blackened hands were thrust out of the apertures in the cabinet, and yet the brothers were found securely bound. On one occasion Willie Eglinton had a similar experience. A musical instrument was blackened. Hands were formed and dealt with it, and the black was found on his hands, though he had been securely held every moment. One of his guides assured me that the black was transferred to his hands when the material they had used to make hands was restored to him.
One thing I would like “M.A. (Oxon.)” to deal with. How much matter is used in the shadowy form that I see beside the table when it is lifted, or that caresses a friend or relative in the circle, and which no one sees but a clairvoyant?
Another question: Is there so much matter and so much spirit belonging to our system of worlds, and our planet; or is there a definite amount of matter, and an indefinite amount of spirit, the last quite separable from, and in no certain way related to, the matter of our globe?
32, Fopstone-road, Earl's Court.
A Request for "More Light!"
Sir,—I have read your paper for some weeks, and although I find in it many matters of interest, I am compelled to say that there is little that is new with reference to the so-called science of Spiritualism. Table tilting and rapping are doubtless very amusing, but surely we have had them ad nauseam, and really the instruction contained in pantomimic furniture is, I think, so infinitesimal that we might be spared the infliction of, as it were, verbatim accounts of household goods attacked in a painful form with St. Vitus’s Dance. I am not writing in a jesting or sceptical spirit. Far from it, as my signature will shew, but I certainly think that the latter day shadows are deteriorating considerably from those of earlier times.
My own experience, and it is a large one, tells me most distinctly that Spirits of any mental calibre worth mentioning utterly decline to perform any dramatic tricks whatsoever, and they say that those of lower power are unable to do so. I am quite able to believe them. I believe, or to be correct, I know, that those who have passed that shadowy line which divides Time from Eternity are capable of impressing certain individuals on certain subjects, but it does not always follow that those impressions are correct. I know that man in spirit, as man in body, is liable to error, and also to lie. A case in point. When I was in Japan some forty-seven years ago, I was informed by a Japanese medium who had given me a truthful description of my home in Germany, that on a certain date mentioned I should receive certain private intelligence that I was then anxiously expecting. The intelligence never came; was never sent. It may seem sufficiently easy to account for this by casting suspicion upon my informant. That, however, I had no reason to do, owing to the fact that I knew him to be, like Cæsar’s wife, above suspicion.
I would ask any one of your readers to favour me with some undoubted proof, that this power which is, is not a latent force produced by their own organisms. I am satisfied personally that the power is Spiritual, but I have no sound reason to adduce to account for that satisfaction.
When a very young man, I made the acquaintance at Tortuska of a Brahmin, who, for some unexplained reason, had lost caste. This man lived for study, and studied for life. He was able by his studies to inform me of many things which really transpired in accordance with his statement. He had an idea of the possibility of extending the existence of his body for an indefinite period. An idea only, I should imagine, but one that he was capable of making me then think almost a probability. His name was Ahjtea. It is possible that some of your readers may have known him.—Yours truly,
<Untitled> (Colonel Olcott, the President...)
...
Editor's notes
Sources
-
Light, v. 2, No. 61, March 4, 1882, p. 105