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vol. title: vol. period: 1879-1880 pages in vol.: 577 |
< A few experiences of a veteran (continued from page 10-538) >
With my mind full of this idea, through reading in the Spiritualist that John King was in the habit of coming to a new medium, Mr. C. Husk, with a voice remarkably like that with which he speaks through another medium, I thought it would be an excellent thing to seek a seance with Mr. Husk, to see if John King, who had seen and known me formerly with three mediums, would know me by his own power of recognition as a man in the flesh would, the new medium being a stranger to me.
As to regarding my own spirit as being in any respect the operator, or in any way the factor of so striking an individuality as is that of John King, I scouted the idea as preposterous altogether, and not to be taken into account for one single moment. I had heard John King speak first with the Marshalls, and neither through them nor the two subsequent mediums had I ever noticed any difference either in the tone of his voice or in his marked idiosyncrasy. All I wanted was to find out whether he would know me by sight without a prompter.
With regard to the tone of John King’s voice, it is interesting to compare the opinion of others with one’s own. The late Mr. Benjamin Coleman wrote in the Spiritual Magazine, as far back as in January, 1868, “John King’s voice is precisely the same in tone—is in fact, the very same voice,” whether Mr. Marshall or his mother is the medium, and he tried them separately. Mr. Coleman expressed his surprise at this. But John King answered, “Oh, Marshall and his mother are the same, you know.” Mr. Coleman also said in the Spiritual Magazine of October, 1867, speaking of the voices of John King and Kate, “They appear to be the same voices as those I have twice heard in the presence of the Davenports, the tone and articulation, however, being clearer and more natural then when I heard them before.” All spirits find difficulty in speaking with the direct voice when they first begin, but to get the same tone from a man’s organism as from a woman’s, is of itself a strong mark of a spirit’s identity. In order to carry out my object, I obtained an introduction during the present summer, to Mrs. Woodforde, whom I had then the pleasure of seeing for the first time, and asked permission to attend her seance on the following Tuesday; I also asked her to be so good as not to mention my name to Mr. Husk until the seance was over, giving my reason for the request. To this Mrs. Woodforde kindly agreed, but added, “Why not seek out Mr. Husk at once, as he is to hold a seance this evening in lieu of Mr. Williams, who is out of London.” Nothing could have better suited my purpose, so I went early to 61, Lamb’s Conduit Street, and begged my old friend Mrs. Andrews (Mr. Williams’s landlady), not to mention my name to Mr. Husk, giving her the reason why. When Mr. Husk arrived, just before the seance, I was not introduced to him; but hoping to have met a complete stranger, I was disappointed in seeing, in Mr. Husk, the nearly blind gentleman whom I had met at Mr. Williams’s on the three last occasions, when I had attended Mr. Williams’s seances, namely, twice in 1877, and once in 1878. Those however who knew Mr. Husk’s affliction will not be likely to suppose that he could have known me by sight.
When John King came to the seance he addressed others on going round the circle; but when he came to me, he exclaimed in a much louder voice than before: “Ah! Why, you are my old friend whom I used to visit in——” naming a particular part of a county where I used to live, but which I had left more than six years.
Be it remembered the words were not, “I have met you at seances in London,” but they were addressed to one whom he “used to visit” many miles from London. Now, that these visits did occur I am as confident as I am of my own existence; visits not of my own seeking, but spontaneous visits of the spirit during my hours of sleep, brought about by my having met him at seances and from other causes, and elicited by my own powers of clairaudience.
At the first seance with the Marshalls, at which I ever met John King, on December 17th, 1867, having been already clairaudient for several years, and knowing the power of spirits to travel a long way in a very short space of time, I said to the spirit, John King, “You will speak to me sometimes, will you not?” meaning that he should speak to me when at home, spontaneously. His answer was, “I will speak to your heart.” I did not at that time understand the full meaning of that expression, but I did afterwards most assuredly from experience. That experience was, I believe, afforded partly to show me different phases of clairaudience and the spirit’s power to wake me from sleep, by a voice audible alone to myself, either with small or no perceptible change at all of the heart’s pulsation; or, on the contrary, with violent beatings of the heart. Their power to make the hearing appear to be from the chest; their power to <... continues on page 10-540 >