Legend
Powerful Spiritual Manifestations in India
The following narrative, dated June 23rd, 1879, written in the Indian hill district, comes from a thoroughly trustworthy source, but the writer, like many other Spiritualists in private life, does not wish any name or address to be published. The appended narrative consists of the closing part of a letter written to a friend in England:—
My young brother goes to school. We always ride here. There is only one carriage (and that belongs to —) in the whole place. Then I go out calling from twelve to two, always on horseback, with a nigger groom following on foot. Lunch at two (we always have some one to lunch), and then about five we go out riding again till eight. We have a jolly house, and altogether twenty-five servants, who cost my governor 200 rupees a month, which is just £20. We have about nine horses. The ladies go about either on horseback or in janpans, which are like comfortable armchairs, carried by from six to eight niggers.
Now listen. You must know, to begin with, that my young brother, who is just twelve, is about the most powerful medium, I suppose, that could be found anywhere. I will explain. About a year ago my mother noticed that things followed my brother (such as a cushion, and every imaginable thing), but nothing, as in your case, was broken. Well, then, my brother tried table turning; it answered wonderfully. Then he, one day, took a pencil and paper and wrote and asked questions; it (the spirit) answered them. It rarely writes two hands alike, and so fast that a child of his age could not do it on his own account. It recorded instances of my grandmother's death; how my mother attended her; the medicines she gave her (she died, you know, before I was born). My brother was entirely ignorant of it. We always make him write with his eyes shut. He (my brother) has seen my grandmother’s spirit and described it accurately to my mother. The spirit sends, him notes which he finds on his table, and sent my mother a piece of her mother’s hair done up in a note; in fact, in a word, it does exactly what my brother wishes or asks. I also am a medium, but not so powerful as my brother. If I go into a cupboard I can get raps, and they increase in boldness as I ask for them. Now I will tell you what happened to my brother, solemnly, as a fact. He and I had a stance the other day together—we went up into my room. He sat down, find the spirit he invoked was a playful one. I got into the cupboard, and, on his asking, it hurled my hat-box, brushes, and match-box, and various other things at the cupboard. It then told us to go into another room and blindfold ourselves. We did: things were thrown at us. It then put oatmeal down our necks, on our faces; and when we returned to my room, the table we use for writing to the spirits on was covered with it too.
My brother stood in the room. A hat was put on his head (by the spirit); he took it off, and it was filled with all sorts of rubbish. Three times was this done with different hats. I have seen him raised up in the air, and carried the whole length of the room and put on a sofa.
Sometimes, taking off his coat, all sorts of things tumble out. It dresses him up in the most fantastic garbs, in a second, in my presence. If he comes out for a walk he finds stones in his hat and up his sleeve. My brother, through its agency, has done a thing never done before—written the contents of an unopened letter. I know how firmly you believe, or I should not have told you.
I will now tell you something more remarkable. I have seen it (I swear on my honour), when he has got into a cupboard and shut the doors, take off his boots, and then they have come out through the roof of the cupboard.
I have seen my hat-box go through a shot window, and remain on the verandah without breaking it.
We have wished about your affair, and it (the spirit) says you are a medium. Now follow carefully my advice. Sit down by yourself, unless you can get another medium, and believer a table; ask it to move. If it does, three raps mean “Yes,” one means “No.” Ask ty to spell out something by the alphabet. Begin at A, and go through the whole alphabet. When it raps stop, and begin again, and it will spell out words. Practice this by yourself, and don’t be discouraged, but go on for weeks, and, if you are a medium, your power must come. That is what I do, and it has promised that in a month it will write for me. We have pages on pages of foolscap it has written for my brother. You are at liberty to send this to The Spiritualist newspaper, if you like.
When I sit at a table sometimes bread comes rolling down my back on to my plate. Oh, I forgot to mention my brother sees fairies. They get all his books together off his table, place them in an exact square on the floor, and dance round them. My brother often has nosegays brought him by spirits, and it (the spirit) actually took a small card from my brother’s desk, who is in England, and brought it to my mother here, and told her she was only to keep it twenty minutes and send it back. It will only do things in the presence of my father, mother, and myself. With any one else in the room nothing happens. Now, be sure and follow my instructions, and you will learn much, or I am mistaken. Lord—firmly believes in it, and he has seen things follow my brother. You know I am not given to exaggeration, and all this I swear solemnly is true. There is one remarkable thing about it. It throws something at my brother and me (a lemon, for instance), it hits us both exactly in the same place, at the same instant. It drew my brother a picture the other day of heaven and hell. It made six degrees of heaven, and one of hell.
It sometimes writes backwards fast; sideways it prints and illuminates its letters, a thing my brother never could do. And what is more, he sometimes places a pencil and paper under the table _ and goes away. We come back and find something written on it. Be sure and bear this in mind, the more you practise the more power you get. My power has increased wonderfully in the seven days I have been here. I practise every day.—Your affectionate friend, —.
P.S.—Be sure, in writing to the paper, no names are mentioned, as my mother does not wish it. No one knows of it but ourselves.
Asserted Evidences of Astrology
Sir,—The following curiously exact fulfilment of an astrological forecast, in my own experience, I submit is worthy of notice. In April last my nativity, -with the "directions” for several years, was computed by Zadkiel, and in that month I received his judgments. One of them bade me beware of “rheumatism, sciatica, or feverish cold” during the ensuing July (last month). I had never suffered from either rheumatism or sciatica in my life. A fortnight ago, when on circuit at Exeter, I got up one morning with what I supposed to be a stiff neck. In a few hours it developed into unmistakably rheumatic pains in the joints of the neck and one shoulder, and this, my first experience of rheumatism, has lasted without intermission, though with occasional alleviation, up to the present time. Concurrently, I have suffered reverses and disappointments also appropriate to the same “direction.”
Temple, Aug. 2nd.
<Untitled> (Sir,—In The Spiritualist)
Sir,—In The Spiritualist of the 14th March last, you reprint from the Pall Mall Gazette a curious and interesting notice of - the old French astrologer Nostradamus. Many of his prophetic quatrains are quoted, several of which are considered to have a direct application to events in our own times. The article concludes with observing that Nostradamus plainly predicts that England will about the present time “be the scene of a great social revolution, and that the Prince of Wales, much regretted by his mother, will fall fighting against the socialists and a foreign foe.” The prophecy runs thus:—
Le prince Anglais, Mars a son coeur de ciel, |
But is not this prediction much more strikingly applicable to and fulfilled by the fate of the unfortunate Prince Louis Napo-<... continues on page 8-317 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ Powerful Spiritual Manifestations in India by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 363, August 8, 1879, p. 63
- ↑ Asserted Evidences of Astrology by Massey C. C., London Spiritualist, No. 363, August 8, 1879, p. 71
- ↑ Sir,—In The Spiritualist by W., London Spiritualist, No. 363, August 8, 1879, p. 71
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 363, August 8, 1879, p. 63
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London Spiritualist, No. 363, August 8, 1879, p. 71