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| + | “I’VE HAD A DEAL OF TROUBLE BUT THIS REPAYS ME FOR IT!" |
| + | <hr> |
| + | THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION. |
| + | Another disgrace for science.—the st. Petersburg |
| + | PROFESSORS IMITATE THOSE OF HARVARD AND LONDON. |
| + | A. AKSAKOFF’S NOBLE PROTEST.<hr> |
| + | To the Editor of The Spiritual Scientist: |
| + | Dear Sir.—In advices just received from St. Petersburg, lam requested to |
| + | translate and forward to the Scientist for publication, the protest of the Honora- |
| + | ble Alexander Aksakoff, Imperial Counsellor of State, against the course of the |
| + | professors of the university respecting the spiritualistic investigation. The docu- |
| + | ment appears, in Russian, in the “Vedomostji,” the official journal of St. Peters- |
| + | burgh.- This generous, high-minded, courageous gentleman has done the possible, |
| + | and even the impossible, in order to open the spiritual eyes of those incurable |
| + | moles who fear the daylight of truth as the burglar fears the policeman’ “bull’s |
| + | eye.” |
| + | The heart felt thanks and gratitude of every Spiritualist ought to be forwarded |
| + | to this noble defender of the cause, who regretted neither his time, trouble or |
| + | money to help the propagation of the truth. H. P. Blavatsky. |
| + | New York, April 19, 1876. |
| + | <hr> |
| + | TO THE COMMISSION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY OF PHYSI- |
| + | CAL SCIENCES OF THE ST. PETERSBURG UNIVERSITY, FOR |
| + | TliE INVESTIGATION OF MEDIUMISTIC MANIFESTATIONS. |
| + | According to my promise to the Commission to help them |
| + | in extending their invitations to mediums, I have neglected |
| + | no effort to the accomplishment of the said purpose. Nev- |
| + | ertheless but few mediums have shown any desire to come to |
| + | Russia, and those who did were unsuitable for a preliminary |
| + | examination, as their mediumistical powers were not of a |
| + | nature to afford any chance to investigate physical phenom- |
| + | ena. Finally, and for reasons previously detailed to the |
| + | commission, I concluded to bring with rhe from England the |
| + | P*o Petty boys. The mediumistic powers of these boys |
| + | pjpved too weak, not only for them to be tested by a com- |
| + | OVittee but even at private seances in my own house. Having |
| + | obtained no manifestations worthy of any attention at all—as |
| + | already published by me—at the committee’s investigation, |
| + | filer four seances 1 declined to waste any more of its time in |
| + | investigating the Petty boys. |
| + | Immediately after that, on the 15th of December last, |
| + | Professor Mendeleyeff delivered his lecture on Spiritism. |
| + | The haste exhibited by him on this occasion, the precipitancy |
| + | with which the failures of the four seances were reviewed, |
| + | when the Scientific Commission had lust adopted a resolution |
| + | to make not less than forty experimental examinations, did |
| + | not agree, in my opinion, with'the impartial and serious char- |
| + | acter which we have the right to expect in a truly scientific |
| + | investigation. This lecture did not appear in print, ar\d it was |
| + | therefore impossible to either reply to its errors cr to point |
| + | <hr> |
| + | out its one-sidedness. But in what was declared by M. Men- |
| + | deleyeff the attitude of the commission toward the object of |
| + | their examination was very clearly defined. Prof. Mendel- |
| + | eveff—at whose suggestion the commission was organized, |
| + | and under whose direction it acted—openly avowed himself |
| + | an enemy of Spiritualism. The commission, acting in unity |
| + | with M. Mendeleyeff, was evidently anxious that the results |
| + | of its further investigations should prove as fruitless as the |
| + | results of the first four seances with the Petty boys. The |
| + | difficulties in the way of obtaining an impartial examination |
| + | multiplied ten-fold ; and for my part I felt fully that it would |
| + | be useless for me to attempt any further assistance to the |
| + | commission. But as I had already taken steps to invite here |
| + | othei mediums, and had succeeded in inducing a lady to- |
| + | come—who is possessed of remarkable mediumistic powers, |
| + | and perfectly answers the requirements of the commission’s |
| + | investigation—I decided upon proceeding further. I hoped |
| + | that I might be mistaken as to the predispositions of the |
| + | commission. Furthermore, I desired to ascertain how it |
| + | would conduct its investigations when it had to do with a true |
| + | medium in the full acceptation of this word, and one more- |
| + | over who was not professional. This lady was totally inde- |
| + | pendent as to her social and financial position, and had con- |
| + | sented to take part in such an unpopular position merely for |
| + | the sake of promoting the scientific object ostensibly in view. |
| + | I had the honor of introducing this medium to the commis- |
| + | sion in the person of Mrs. C. From the very beginning of |
| + | the seances, the physical manifestations which characterize |
| + | this lady’s mediumship,—namely, loud raps, movements and |
| + | levitations of the table,—occurred with great strength. Of |
| + | the experimental seances, we had in this second series four— |
| + | on the nth, 25th, 27th and 29th of January; The seance at |
| + | which the medium, by reason of sickness, could not attend |
| + | was, although the commission had been notified twenty-four |
| + | hours beforehand, counted by its members as one of the forty |
| + | which it had bound itself to hold. |
| + | During the experiments of this second member series, we |
| + | learned the following :— |
| + | |
| + | 1. The commission failed to act up to its resolution of May |
| + | the 9th, 1875, that immediately after each seance a report |
| + | should be written out and signed by the witnesses on both |
| + | sides. Instead of that, the reports were filed several days |
| + | later, and not in the presence of witnesses, but were present- |
| + | ed to them for signature when already prepared by the com- |
| + | mission, and when they could not be altered in any particular. |
| + | |
| + | 2. The plan itself of these reports underwent a thorough |
| + | change. The commission saw fit to accept the private tes- |
| + | timony of persons not belonging to the commission, but who |
| + | may be said to have been present at the seances, since they |
| + | had been eve-dropping and peeping through the key-holes. |
| + | Such uncalled-for and personal testimony, based on subjec- |
| + | tive impressions, either amounts to nothing at a scientific |
| + | investigation and therefore is inadmissible, or if the contrary |
| + | then the commission itself was useless, for it was organized, |
| + | we must suppose, for the very reason of replacing such per- |
| + | sonal and subjective evidence with unanimous and impersonal |
| + | experiment. |
| + | |
| + | 3. Having found room for personal evidence of its own |
| + | choosing, the commission nevertheless rejected my offer to |
| + | select a lady of their acquaintance for the purpose of examin- |
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