< Cabinet Seances (continued from page 10-211) >
almost always obtained their materialisations in open circles, off their own premises, and while their hands were held by the sitters next them. Under such conditions they are frequently able to obtain half-length materialised forms, which possess a power of flotation.
Recently a tendency has been evinced here and there in London and the provinces to return to some extent to cabinet seances, and with correspondingly evil results, for complaints are again flowing in to us in a private way as to the harm done to mediums and to the movement by cabinet manifestations, which, as a rule, convince new inquirers that what they see is imposture, and not unfrequently violently shake the confidence of those Spiritualists whose experience is limited.
There is reason for supposing that in the majority of cases, although not in all, the forms are nothing but the mediums in a state of trance, demonstrably freed from bonds by spirit power whenever the character of the medium has been protected from obloquy by himself and his friends, by the use at the beginning of the seance of bonds from which he cannot free himself by normal means. Lor scientific purposes, and in the presence only of Spiritualists who understand the subject, there is no harm in cabinet seances, which even then are useless unless held under stringent test conditions; but they should never, even in a small way, be brought before new inquirers, who should be introduced only to phenomena of a more convincing character, so easily obtainable through the same mediums.
At least five out of every six of the public troubles to Spiritualism in America have been due to cabinet seances; and after the way in which they were condemned for general purposes when the subject was fully considered in England, it is to be hoped that the apparent temporary revival of them may be checked. If attempted to be used for proselytising purposes they usually succeed in planting a rooted antipathy to Spiritualism in the minds of new inquirers, and sooner or later get the mediums and those who present them into trouble.
No words of warning could be plainer than those just quoted. Again, in The Spiritualist of Dec. 19th, 1879, only four weeks ago, we quoted an American case of the seizing of a medium dressed as a spirit, and put the following preface to it in large type:—
Cabinet stances, except when held under stringent test conditions, and preferably for purposes of scientific research, have long been condemned in England by those who know most about them, because of the injury they otherwise do to the medium, to the observers, and to the movement. Nine out of every ten of the greater public troubles which have afflicted Spiritualism in America have originated in cabinet seances, and if such had been condemned years ago in that country the movement would have now been in a much better position there. Good mediums can obtain excellent materialisation phenomena while they are held hand and foot in an open circle, off their own premises; so why should a cabinet be called into use? The following paragraph is going the rounds of the newspapers, and plenty more will follow, in relation to persons who tolerate cabinet seances; such seances drive away from Spiritualism at least ten out of every eleven sincere inquirers. They are of no use except to persons who know much about spiritual manifestations.
Under the old regime, at 38, Great Russell-street, form manifestations in public were discouraged, and the sale of tickets for seances to persons not Spiritualists was not permitted; but the system of management has been altered in several ways of late, and this week the whole movement is reaping some of the fruits thereof.
Form manifestations have been investigated for many years, and the general facts presented appear to be that at first spirit hands and heads are materialised, as at dark seances, while the mediums are held hand and foot, but that in cabinets the process is carried a stage farther, and full-length forms are produced. There seems to be no infraction of the law of the conservation of energy, and no creation of new matter; both the matter and the energy in these forms probably come from the mediums, as indicated by the circumstance that the forms are more or less the duplicates of those of the mediums in external appearance, whatever may be the internal governing power, and that the vital energy of the medium is gradually exhausted by a materialisation seance. There being apparently no miracle in the shape of the creation of new matter, as materialized spirit hands, heads, and bodies grow heavier it follows that those of the mediums grow lighter, until at last there may be no medium at all inside the sealed tapes, however securely they had been applied, and nothing but a medium in a state of trance is then in the freed form. At the beginning of a seance this process is usually slow, occupying ten or twenty minutes; in the middle, when the “power” is at its highest, it takes place with marvellous rapidity. After a break in the middle of a seance, we have sometimes seen Mrs. Corner taped up in her chair and the knots sealed in a most scientific manner by one or other of the investigators, yet, during the very brief act of closing the door of the cabinet, the inquirer has been grasped by a long naked arm and hand coming from an aperture over the door of the cabinet high above Mrs. Corner’s head. That hand and arm must have formed in one or two seconds, the time occupied in shutting the medium from view in closing the door. This would indicate that the interchange of matter between a medium in bonds and a form materialising outside them may take place with amazing rapidity, and as a new living being cannot be created by grasping one of these forms, there must then be sudden union of the forms inside and outside the cabinet. Thus, grasping one of the forms, and finding it to be the medium, proves nothing. On the other hand, if tests are badly applied, there may sometimes be imposture on the part of the mediums; and, which we believe to be much more common, there may sometimes be imposture on the part of the spirits, who perhaps find it easier to roll drapery round an entranced medium than to produce a genuine materialisation; the lower the spirit the greater is its direct control over common matter, and thus, although there are plenty of good spirits, some of the others are not at all above committing an act like that just described. It is very difficult to bring home proof of imposture against a medium who possesses genuine powers, because mediums are mesmeric sensitives, and at times as unconscious what their bodies are doing, as a boy on the platform of a mesmerist who is made to gnaw a raw cabbage, because the lecturer tells him that it is an apple. Were this not so there would have been occasional prosecutions of fraudulent mediums by Spiritualists, a line of action which would greatly benefit the movement; but as two or more intelligences can use the organism of a medium, the difficulty is to fix the moral responsibility of any particular act upon any particular individual.
Mrs. Corner has an old-established good character among Spiritualists, which will tell greatly in her favour among those who form opinions of the case now under notice. It would be interesting to know how she was tied last Friday, what was the condition of the tapes after the seance, and what became of the white drapery. Perhaps Mr. E. D. Rogers, who was chairman on the occasion, can give the public some official information on this point.
These cabinet stances should be abandoned, except for purposes of scientific research among persons who understand the subject. They repel new investigators from the movement; they injure the reputations of the mediums; and have done infinite harm to Spiritualism in America, where, perhaps, more than a dozen such cases have been witnessed as that of last Friday.
After the foregoing comments had been put into type, we received the following letter, which was posted on Wednesday to The Times and other newspapers. The greater portion of it was proposed for adoption at the Council meeting last Tuesday by Mr. Stainton-Moses. A few alterations were made by the Council, after which the issuing of it to the press was authorised. During a part of the Council meeting Sir George Sitwell and Mr. Yon Buch were present by invitation:—