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{{Style S-HPB SB. HPB note|{{Style S-HPB SB. Lost|The fun begins}} in England|center}}
{{Style S-HPB SB. HPB note|{{Style S-HPB SB. Lost|The fun begins}} in England|center}}
{{Style P-HPB SB. Title wanted|Colonel Olcott on Psychological Phenomena.}}
{{Style P-HPB SB. Title|Colonel Olcott on Psychological Phenomena.}}
...
Sir, — Mr. C. C. Massey makes an important omission in his account of our ''séance'' with Dr. H. Slade, in this city, on the evening of October 14th, which I beg to supply. He describes the direct writing obtained when the medium and I held the slate under the edge of the table, and when the pencil was laid upon the table and the slate covered it over, and no one touched it. But we made one other experiment which I regarded as peculiarly satisfactory. I placed the pencil between Mr. Massey’s two new slates, and held them in my own hand, at my right side—away from Dr. Slade and next to Mr. Massey—and the writing was obtained as easily as before. As I have no mediumistic power whatever, and as under the circumstances deception was impossible, it is a fair inference that the force exerted ''by or through'' Slade can operate for the production of written messages independently of his personal contact with the thing to be written upon.
I have had the same phenomenon occur in the presence of other persons similarly endowed; as, for instance, where pencil writing has come upon the under-side of a card upon whose face I was scribbling at the time, and inside a note-book placed in my bosom to try the experiment. I have also, in more than twenty cases, found the familiar writing of a certain spirit friend inside letters delivered to me by the postman, upon my opening the envelopes—the letters coming from correspondents in various parts of the world, and some from persons who knew nothing and cared less about Spiritualistic phenomena.
In Lane’s ''Modern Egyptian'' you will find an account of the experience which two visitors had with a famous sheikh, part of which bears upon this question. One of them desired an answer to a sealed letter, which he handed the sheikh and which was addressed to his own father, then living in a place far distant from the locality when the ''seance'' was occurring. The sheikh placed the letter behind one of the cushions of his divan, and shortly after turning down the cushion the visitor found his own letter gone and another addressed to himself, in his father’s familiar handwriting, replying to his questions and giving him unsought information about things that moment transpiring at home.
Once this happened to me. I wrote a letter to a dear friend of mine who resided several thousand miles away from here—in India. I laid it, sealed, upon the mantel-shelf, where I could have it under my eye the whole time. In about an hour I looked and found my own envelope with unbroken seal, my own note inside, and ''inside that'', and upon a sheet of coloured paper unlike anything in my own possession, and unlike anything that I ever saw letters written upon in America, ''teas a reply from my correspondent'', in his own handwriting.
I might multiply stories of personal experience like this, but these will suffice to illustrate my point, viz.: That there are certain subtle forces, which can be controlled by will-power to produce written communications, even at great distances. Now, what are these forces, and how does will-power control them? Can any Spiritualist, with only such knowledge as he has obtained in circles or through mediums, explain? They can give vague theories, but only theories. It is not pretended that the writing is done, like ordinary writing, by a spirit’s tracing the characters with ink or pencil. I have heard them say it is a chemical effect; but how produced, pray? Some time since I sat with the President of the Photographic Section of the American Institute, to witness the slate writing of a certain Doctor Cozine, which is far more wonderful than Slade’s. The communications came upon the slate in bright blue and red colours, and no pencil or crayon was used by us, and I held one end of the slate myself. In my own experience I have seen the writing in pastil, ink, lead-pencil, and slate pencil, to say nothing of the direct paintings of figures, flowers, and other objects on paper and satin; how are these done?
Another point I wish to call attention to. In your issue of the 26th ultimo, I read some very sensible talk by Mr. Jencken (as, indeed, {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|1-111}}