Chapter II: Part 2

Similar phenomena have occurred hundreds of times since, in many houses and under various conditions. Sometimes the flowers have been in vast quantities, heaped upon the table. Often flowers or fruits asked for are brought. A friend of mine asked for a sunflower, and one six feet high fell upon the table, having a large mass of earth about its roots. One of the most striking tests was at Florence, with Mr. T. Adolphus Trollope, Mrs. Trollope, Miss Blagden, and Colonel Harvey. The room was searched by the gentlemen; Mrs. Guppy was undressed and redressed by Mrs. Trollope, every article of her clothing being examined. Mr. and Mrs. Guppy were both firmly held while at the table. In about ten minutes all the party exclaimed that they smelt flowers, and, on lighting a candle, both Mrs. Guppy’s and Mr. Trollope’s arms were found covered with jonquils, which filled the room with their odor. Mr. Guppy and Mr. Trollope both relate this in substantially the same terms. (“Dialectical Society’s Report on Spiritualism,” pp. 277 and 372.)

Surely these are phenomena about which there can be no mistake. What theories have ever been proposed by our scientific teachers which even attempt to account for them? Delusion it cannot be, for the flowers are real and can be preserved, and imposture under the conditions described is even less credible. If the gentlemen who came forward to enlighten the public on the subject of “so-called spiritual manifestations” do not know of the various classes of phenomena that have now been indicated, and the weight of the testimony in support of them, they are palpably unqualified for the task they have undertaken. That they do know of them, but keep back their knowledge, while putting forward trivialities easy to laugh at or expose, is a supposition I cannot for a moment entertain. Before leaving this part of the subject, it is well to note the fact of the marked individuality of each medium. They are not copies of each other, but each one develops a characteristic set of phenomena—a fact highly suggestive of some unconscious occult power in the individual, and wholly opposed to the idea of either imposture or delusion, both of which almost invariably copy preëxisting models.

_Investigations by some Notable Skeptics._—In giving some account of how a few of the more important converts to Spiritualism became convinced, we are of course limited to those who have given their experiences to the public. I will first take the case of the eminent American lawyer, the Hon. J. W. Edmonds, commonly called Judge Edmonds; and it may be as well to let English skeptics know what he is thought of by his countrymen. When he first became a Spiritualist he was greatly abused; and it was even declared that he consulted the spirits on his judicial decisions. To defend himself, he published an “Appeal to the Public,” giving a full account of the inquiries which resulted in his conversion. In noticing this, the New York Evening Mirror said: “John W. Edmonds, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of this District, is an able lawyer, an industrious judge and a good citizen. For the last eight years occupying without interruption the highest judicial stations, whatever may be his faults no one can justly accuse him of a lack of ability, industry, honesty or fearlessness. No one can doubt his general saneness, or can believe for a moment that the ordinary operations of his mind are not as rapid, accurate and reliable as ever. Both by the practitioners and suitors at his bar he is recognized as the head, in fact and in merit, of the Supreme Court for this District.” A few years later he published a series of letters on Spiritualism in the New York Tribune; and in the first of these he gives a compact summary of his mode of investigation, from which the following passages are extracted. It must be remembered that at the time he commenced the inquiry he was in the prime and vigor of intellectual life, being fifty-two years of age:

“It was in January, 1851, that I first began my investigations, and it
was not until April, 1853, that I became a firm believer in the
reality of spiritual intercourse. During twenty-three months of those
twenty-seven, I witnessed several hundred manifestations in various
forms. I kept very minute and careful records of many of them. My
practice was, whenever I attended a circle, to keep in pencil a
memorandum of all that took place, so far as I could, and, as soon as
I returned home, to write out a full account of what I had witnessed.
I did all this with as much minuteness and particularity as I had ever
kept any record of a trial before me in court. In this way, during
that period, I preserved the record of nearly two hundred interviews,
running through some one thousand six hundred pages of manuscript. I
had these interviews with many different mediums, and under an
infinite variety of circumstances. No two interviews were alike. There
was always something new, or something different from what had
previously occurred; and it very seldom happened that only the same
persons were present. The manifestations were of almost every known
form, physical or mental; sometimes only one, and sometimes both
combined.

“I resorted to every expedient I could devise to detect imposture and
to guard against delusion. I felt in myself, and saw in others, how
exciting was the idea that we were actually communing with the dead;
and I labored to prevent any undue bias of my judgment. I was at times
critical and captious to an unreasonable extreme; and when my belief
was challenged, as it was over and over again, I refused to yield,
except to evidence that would leave no possible room for cavil.

“I was severely exacting in my demands, and this would frequently
happen. I would go to a circle with some doubt on my mind as to the
manifestations at the previous circle, and something would happen
aimed directly at that doubt, and completely overthrowing it as it
then seemed, so that I had no longer any reason to doubt. But I would
go home and write out carefully my minutes of the evening, cogitate
over them for several days, compare them with previous records, and
finally find some loophole—some possibility that it might have been
something else than spiritual influence, and I would go to the next
circle with a new doubt, and a new set of queries.

“I look back sometimes now, with a smile, at the ingenuity I wasted in
devising ways and means to avoid the possibility of deception.

“It was a remarkable feature of my investigations that every
conceivable objection I could raise was, first or last, met and
answered.”

The following extracts are from the “Appeal”:

“I have seen a mahogany table, having a centre leg, and with a lamp
burning upon it, lifted from the floor at least a foot, in spite of
the efforts of those present, and shaken backward and forward as one
would shake a goblet in his hand, and the lamp retain its place,
though its glass pendants rang again.

“I have known a mahogany chair thrown on its side and moved swiftly
back and forth on the floor, no one touching it, through a room where
there were at least a dozen people sitting, yet no one was touched;
and it was repeatedly stopped within a few inches of me, when it was
coming with a violence which, if not arrested, must have broken my
legs.”

Having satisfied himself of the reality of the physical phenomena, he came to the question of whence comes the intelligence that was so remarkably connected with them. He says:

“Preparatory to meeting a circle, I have sat down alone in my room,
and carefully prepared a series of questions to be propounded, and I
have been surprised to find my questions answered, and in the precise
order in which I wrote them, without my even taking my memorandum out
of my pocket, and when not a person present knew that I had prepared
questions, much less what they were. My most secret thoughts, those
which I have never uttered to mortal man or woman, have been freely
spoken to as if I had uttered them; and I have been admonished that my
every thought was known to, and could be disclosed by, the
intelligence which was thus manifesting itself.

“Still the question occurred, ‘May not all this have been, by some
mysterious operation, the mere reflex of the mind of some one
present?’ The answer was, that facts were communicated which were
unknown then, but afterwards found to be true; like this, for
instance: when I was absent last winter in Central America, my friends
in town heard of my whereabouts and of the state of my health several
times; and on my return, by comparing their information with the
entries in my journal, it was found to be invariably correct. So
thoughts have been uttered on subjects not then in my mind and utterly
at variance with my own notions. This has often happened to me and to
others, so as fully to establish the fact that it was not our minds
that gave forth or affected the communication.”

These few extracts sufficiently show that the writer was aware of the possible sources of error in such an inquiry; and the details given in the letters prove that he was constantly on his guard against them. He himself and his daughter became mediums; so that he afterwards obtained personal confirmation of many of the phenomena by himself alone. But all the phenomena referred to in the letters and “Appeal” occurred to him in the presence of others, who testified to them as well, and thus removed the possibility that the phenomena were subjective.

We have yet to add a notice of what will be perhaps, to many persons, the most startling and convincing of all the Judge’s experiences. His own daughter became a medium for speaking foreign languages of which she was totally ignorant. He says: “She knows no language but her own, and a little smattering of boarding-school French; yet she has spoken in nine or ten different tongues, often for an hour at a time, with the ease and fluency of a native. It is not unfrequent that foreigners converse with their spirit-friends through her in their own language.” One of these cases must be given:

“One evening, when some twelve or fifteen persons were in my parlor,
Mr. E. D. Green, an artist of this city, was shown in, accompanied by
a gentleman whom he introduced as Mr. Evangelides, of Greece. Ere long
a spirit spoke to him through Laura, in English, and said so many
things to him that he identified him as a friend who had died at his
house a few years before, but of whom none of us had ever heard.
Occasionally, through Laura, the spirit would speak a word or a
sentence in Greek, until Mr. E. inquired if he could be understood if
he spoke Greek? The residue of the conversation for more than an hour
was, on his part, entirely in Greek, and on hers sometimes in Greek
and sometimes in English. At times Laura would not understand what was
the idea conveyed either by her or him. At other times she would
understand him, though he spoke in Greek, and herself while uttering
Greek words.”

Several other cases are mentioned, and it is stated that this lady has spoken Spanish, French, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Latin, Hungarian and Indian; and other languages which were unknown to any person present.

This is by no means an isolated case, but it is given as being on most unexceptionable authority. A man must know whether his own daughter has learnt, so as to speak fluently, eight languages besides her own, or not. Those who carry on the conversation must know whether the language is spoken or not; and in several cases—as the Latin, Spanish, and Indian—the Judge himself understood the language. And the phenomenon is connected with Spiritualism by the speaking being in the name of, and purporting to come from, some deceased person, and the subject matter being characteristic of that person. Such a case as this, which has been published sixteen years, ought to have been noticed and explained by those who profess to enlighten the public on the subject of Spiritualism.

Our next example is one of the most recent, but at the same time one of the most useful, converts to the truths of Spiritualism. Dr. George Sexton, M. D., M. A., L. L. D., was for many years the coadjutor of Mr. Bradlaugh, and one of the most earnest and energetic of the secularist teachers. The celebrated Robert Owen first called his attention to the subject of Spiritualism about twenty years ago. He read books, he saw a good deal of the ordinary physical manifestations, but he always “suspected that the mediums played tricks, and that the whole affair was nothing but clever conjuring by means of concealed machinery.” He gave several lectures against Spiritualism in the usual style of non-believers, dwelling much on the absurdity and triviality of the phenomena, and ridiculing the idea that they were the work of spirits. Then came another old friend and fellow-secularist, Mr. Turley, who, after investigating the subject for the purpose of exposing it, became a firm believer. Dr. Sexton laughed at this conversion, yet it made a deep impression on his mind. Ten years passed away, and his next important investigation was with the Davenport brothers; and it will be well for those who sneer at these much-abused young men to take note of the following account of Dr. Sexton’s proceedings with them, and especially of the fact that they cheerfully submitted to every test the doctor suggested. He tells us (in his lecture, “How I became a Spiritualist,”) that he visited them again and again, trying in vain to find out the trick. Then, he says—

“My partner—Dr. Barker—and I invited the Brothers to our houses, and,
in order to guard against anything like trickery, we requested them
not to bring any ropes, instruments, or other apparatus; all these we
ourselves had determined to supply. Moreover, as there were four of
them, viz., the two Brothers Davenport, Mr. Fay, and Dr. Ferguson, we
suspected that the two who were not tied might really do all that was
done. We therefore requested only two to come. They unhesitatingly
complied with all these requests.

“We formed a circle, consisting entirely of members of our own
families and a few private friends, with the one bare exception of
Mrs. Fay. In the circle we all joined hands, and as Mrs. Fay sat at
one end she had one of her hands free, while I had hold of the other.
Thinking that she might be able to assist with the hand that was thus
free, I asked, as a favor, that I might be allowed to hold both her
hands—a proposition which she at once agreed to. Now, without entering
here at all into what took place, suffice it to say that we bound the
mediums with our own ropes, placed their feet upon sheets of writing
paper, and drew lines around their boots, so that if they moved their
feet it should be impossible for them to place them again in the same
position; we laid pence on their toes, sealed the ropes, and in every
way took precautions against their moving. On the occasion to which I
now refer, Mr. Bradlaugh and Mr. Charles Watts were present; and when
Mr. Fay’s coat had been taken off, the ropes still remaining on his
hands, Mr. Bradlaugh requested that his coat might be placed on Mr.
Fay, which was immediately done, the ropes still remaining fastened.
We got, on this occasion, all the phenomena that usually occurred in
the presence of these extraordinary men, particulars of which I shall
probably give on another occasion. Dr. Barker became a believer in
Spiritualism from the time that the Brothers visited at his house. I
did not see that any proof had been given that disembodied spirits had
any hand in producing the phenomena; but I was convinced that no
tricks had been played, and that, therefore, these extraordinary
physical manifestations were the result of some occult force in Nature
which I had no means of explaining in the present state of my
knowledge. All the physical phenomena that I had seen now became clear
to me; they were not accomplished by trickery, as I had formerly
supposed, but were the result of some undiscovered law of Nature,
which it was the business of the man of science to use his utmost
endeavors to discover.”

While he was maintaining this ground, Spiritualists often asked him how he explained the intelligence that was manifested; and he invariably replied that he had not yet seen proofs of any intelligence other than what might be that of the medium or of some other persons present in the circle, adding, that as soon as he did see proofs of such intelligence he should become a Spiritualist. In this position he stood for many years, till he naturally believed he should never see cause to change his opinion. He continued the inquiry, however, and in 1865 began to hold séances at home; but it was years before any mental phenomena occurred which were absolutely conclusive, although they were often of so startling a nature as would have satisfied any one less skeptical. At length, after fifteen years of enlightened skepticism—a skepticism not founded upon ignorance, but which refused to go one step beyond what the facts so diligently pursued absolutely demonstrated—the needful evidence came:

“The proofs that I did ultimately receive are, many of them, of a
character that I cannot describe minutely to a public audience, nor
indeed have I time to do so. Suffice it to say, that I got in my own
house, in the absence of all mediums other than those members of my
own family and intimate private friends in whom mediumistic powers
became developed, evidence of an irresistible character that the
communications came from deceased friends and relatives. Intelligence
was again and again displayed which could not possibly have had any
other origin than that which it professed to have. Facts were named
known to no one in the circle, and left to be verified afterwards. The
identity of the spirits communicating was proved in a hundred
different ways. Our dear departed ones made themselves palpable both
to feeling and to sight; and the doctrine of spirit-communion was
proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. I soon found myself in the
position of Dr. Fenwick in Lord Lytton’s ‘Strange Story.’ ‘Do you
believe,’ asked the female attendant of Margrave, ‘in that which you
seek?’ ‘I have no belief,’ was the answer. ‘True science has none;
true science questions all things, and takes nothing on credit. It
knows but three states of mind—denial, conviction, and the vast
interval between the two, which is not belief, but the suspension of
judgment.’ This describes exactly the phases through which my mind has
passed.”

Since Dr. Sexton has become a Spiritualist he has been as energetic an advocate for its truths as he had been before for the negations of secularism. His experience and ability as a lecturer, with his long schooling in every form of manifestation, render him one of the most valuable promulgators of its teachings. He has also done excellent service in exposing the pretensions of those conjurers who profess to expose Spiritualism. This he does in the most practical way, not only by explaining how the professed imitations of spiritual manifestations are performed, but by actually performing them before his audience; and at the same time pointing out the important differences between what these people do and what occurs at good séances. Any one who wishes to comprehend how Dr. Lynn, Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook, and Herr Dobler perform some of their most curious feats have only to read his lecture, entitled, “Spirit Mediums and Conjurers,” before going to witness their entertainments. We can hardly believe that the man who does this, and who during fifteen years of observation and experiment held out against the spiritual theory, is one of those who, as Lord Amberley tells us, “fall a victim to the most patent frauds, and are imposed upon by jugglery of the most vulgar order”; or who, as viewed from Prof. Tyndall’s high scientific standpoint, are in a frame of mind before which science is utterly powerless—“dupes beyond the reach of proof, who like to believe and do not like to be undeceived.” These be brave words; but we leave our readers to judge whether they come with a very good grace from men who have the most slender and inadequate knowledge of the subject they are criticising, and no knowledge at all of the long-continued and conscientious investigations of many who are included in their wholesale animadversions.

Yet one more witness to these marvelous phenomena we must bring before our readers—a trained and experienced physicist, who has experimented in his own laboratory, and has applied tests and measurements of the most rigid and conclusive character. When Mr. Crookes—the discoverer of the metal thallium, and a Fellow of the Royal Society—first announced that he was going to investigate so-called spiritual phenomena, many public writers were all approval; for the complaint had long been that men of science were not permitted by mediums to inquire too scrupulously into the facts. One expressed “profound satisfaction that the subject was about to be investigated by a man so well qualified”; another was “gratified to learn that the matter is now receiving the attention of cool and clear headed men of recognized position in science”; while a third declared that “no one could doubt Mr. Crookes’s ability to conduct the investigation with rigid philosophical impartiality.” But these expressions were evidently insincere, and were only meant to apply in case the result was in accordance with the writers’ notions of what it ought to be. Of course, a “scientific investigation” would explode the whole thing. Had not Faraday exploded table-turning? They hailed Mr. Crookes as the Daniel come to judgment—as the prophet who would curse their enemy, Spiritualism, by detecting imposture and illusion. But when the judge, after a patient trial lasting several years, decided against them, and their accepted prophet blessed the hated thing as an undoubted truth, their tone changed; and they began to suspect the judge’s ability, and to pick holes in the evidence on which he founded his judgment.

In Mr. Crookes’s latest paper, published in the Quarterly Journal of Science for January last, we are informed that he has pursued the inquiry for four years; and besides attending séances elsewhere, has had the opportunity of making numerous experiments in his own house with the two remarkable mediums already referred to, Mr. D. D. Home and Miss Kate Fox. These experiments were almost exclusively made in the light, under conditions of his own arranging, and with his own friends as witnesses. Such phenomena as percussive sounds; alteration of the weight of bodies; the rising of heavy bodies in the air without contact by any one; the levitation of human beings; luminous appearances of various kinds; the appearance of hands which lift small objects, yet are not the hands of any one present; direct writing, by a luminous detached hand or by the pencil alone; phantom forms and faces; and various mental phenomena—have all been tested so variously and so repeatedly that Mr. Crookes is thoroughly satisfied of their objective reality. These phenomena are given in outline in the paper above referred to, and they will be detailed in full in a volume now preparing. I will not, therefore, weary my readers by repeating them here, but will remark, that these experiments have a weight as evidence vastly greater than would be due to them as resting on the testimony of any man of science, however distinguished, because they are, in almost every case, confirmations of what previous witnesses in immense numbers have testified to, in various places, and under various conditions, during the last twenty years. In every other experimental inquiry, without exception, confirmation of the facts of an earlier observer is held to add so greatly to their value, that no one treats them with the same incredulity with which he might have received them the first time they were announced. And when the confirmation has been repeated by three or four independent observers under favorable conditions, and there is nothing but theory or negative evidence against them, the facts are admitted—at least provisionally, and until disproved by a greater weight of evidence or by discovering the exact source of the fallacy of preceding observers.

But here, a totally different—a most unreasonable and a most unphilosophical—course is pursued. Each fresh observation, confirming previous evidence, is treated as though it were now put forth for the _first_ time; and fresh confirmation is asked of it. And when this fresh and independent confirmation comes, yet more confirmation is asked for, and so on without end. This is a very clever way to ignore and stifle a new truth; but the facts of Spiritualism are ubiquitous in their occurrence and of so indisputable a nature, as to compel conviction in every earnest inquirer. It thus happens that although every fresh convert requires a large proportion of the series of demonstrative facts to be reproduced before he will give his assent to them, the number of such converts has gone on steadily increasing for a quarter of a century. Clergymen of all sects, literary men and lawyers, physicians in large numbers, men of science not a few, secularists, philosophical skeptics, pure materialists, all have become converts through the overwhelming logic of the phenomena which Spiritualism has brought before them. And what have we _per contra_? Neither science nor philosophy, neither skepticism nor religion, has ever yet in this quarter of a century made one single convert from the ranks of Spiritualism! This being the case, and fully appreciating the amount of candor and fairness, and knowledge of the subject, that has been exhibited by their opponents, is it to be wondered at that a large proportion of Spiritualists are now profoundly indifferent to the opinion of men of science, and would not go one step out of their way to convince them? They say, that the movement is going on quite fast enough; that it is spreading by its own inherent force of truth, and slowly permeating all classes of society. It has thriven in spite of abuse and persecution, ridicule and argument, and will continue to thrive whether endorsed by great names or not. Men of science, like all others, are welcome to enter its ranks; but they must satisfy themselves by their own persevering researches, not expect to have its proofs laid before them. Their rejection of its truths is their own loss, but cannot in the slightest degree affect the progress of Spiritualism. The attacks and criticisms of the press are borne good-humoredly, and seldom excite other feelings than pity for the willful ignorance and contempt for the overwhelming presumption of their writers. Such are the sentiments that are continually expressed by Spiritualists; and it is as well, perhaps, that the outer world, to whom the literature of the movement is as much unknown as the Vedas, should be made acquainted with them.

_Investigation by the Dialectical Committee._—There are many other investigators who ought to be noticed in any complete sketch of the subject, but we have now only space to allude briefly to the “Report of the Committee of the Dialectical Society.” Of this committee, consisting of thirty-three acting members, only eight were, at the commencement, believers in the reality of the phenomena, while not more than four accepted the spiritual theory. During the course of the inquiry at least twelve of the complete skeptics became convinced of the reality of many of the physical phenomena through attending the experimental sub-committees, and almost wholly by means of the mediumship of members of the committee. At least three members who were previously skeptics pursued their investigations outside the committee meetings, and in consequence have become thorough Spiritualists. My own observation as a member of the committee and of the largest and most active sub-committee, enables me to state that the degree of conviction produced in the minds of the various members was, allowing for marked differences of character, approximately proportionate to the amount of time and care bestowed on the investigation. This fact, which is what occurs in all investigations into these phenomena, is a characteristic result of the examination into any natural phenomena. The examination into an imposture or delusion has, invariably, exactly opposite results: those who have slender experience being deceived, while those who perseveringly continue the inquiry inevitably find out the source of the deception or the delusion. If this were not so, the discovery of truth and the detection of error would be alike impossible. The result of this inquiry on the members of the committee themselves is, therefore, of more importance than the actual phenomena they witnessed, since these were far less striking than many of the facts already mentioned. But they are also of importance as confirming, by a body of intelligent and unprejudiced men, the results obtained by previous individual inquirers.

Before leaving this report, I must call attention to the evidence it furnishes of the state of opinion among men of education in France. M. Camille Flammarion, the well-known astronomer, sent a communication to the committee which deserves special consideration. Besides declaring his own acceptance of the objective reality of the phenomena after ten years of investigation, he makes the following statement:

“My learned teacher and friend, M. Babinet, of the Institute, who has
endeavored, with M. E. Liais (now Director of the Observatory of
Brazil), and several others of my colleagues of the Observatory of
Paris, to ascertain their nature and cause, is not fully convinced of
the intervention of spirits in their production; though this
hypothesis, by which alone certain categories of these phenomena would
seem to be explicable, has been adopted by many of our most esteemed
_savants_, among others by Dr. Hœffle, the learned author of the
‘History of Chemistry,’ and the ‘General Encyclopædia’; and by the
diligent laborer in the field of astronomic discovery whose death we
have recently had to deplore, M. Hermann Goldschmidt, the discoverer
of fourteen planets.”

It thus appears that in France, as well as in America and in this country, men of science of no mean rank have investigated these phenomena and have found them to be realities; while some of the most eminent hold the spiritual theory to be the only one that will explain them.

This seems the proper place to notice the astounding assertion of certain writers, that there is not “a particle of evidence” to support the spiritual theory; that those who accept it betray “hopeless inability to discriminate between adequate and inadequate proof of facts”; that the theory is “formed apart from facts”; and that those who accept it are so unable to reason as to “jump to the conclusion” that it must be spirits that move tables, merely because they do not know how else they can be moved. The preceding account of how converts to Spiritualism have been made is a sufficient answer to all this ignorant assertion. The spiritual theory, as a rule, has only been adopted as a last resource, when all other theories have hopelessly broken down; and when fact after fact, phenomenon after phenomenon, has presented itself, giving direct proof that the so-called dead are still alive. The spiritual theory is the logical outcome of the whole of the facts. Those who deny it, in every instance with which I am acquainted, either from ignorance or disbelief, leave half the facts out of view. Take the one case (out of many almost equally conclusive) of Mr. Livermore, who, during five years, on hundreds of occasions, saw, felt and heard the movements of the figure of his dead wife in absolute, unmistakable, living form—a form which could move objects, and which repeatedly wrote to him in her own handwriting and her own language, on cards which remained after the figure had disappeared; a form which was equally visible and tangible to two friends; which appeared in his own house, in a room absolutely secured, with the presence of only a young girl, the medium. Had these three men “not a particle of evidence” for the spiritual theory? Is it, in fact, possible to conceive or suggest any more complete proof? The facts must be got rid of before you can abolish the theory; and simple denial or disbelief does not get rid of facts testified during a space of five years by three witnesses, all men in responsible positions, and carrying on their affairs during the whole period in a manner to win the respect and confidence of their fellow-citizens.[3]

Footnote 3:

The objection will here inevitably be made: “These wonderful things
always happen in America. When they occur in England it will be time
enough to inquire into them.” Singularly enough, after this article
was in the press the final test was obtained, which demonstrated the
occurrence of similar phenomena in London. A short statement may,
therefore, be interesting for those who cannot digest American
evidence. For some years a young lady, Miss Florence Cook, has
exhibited remarkable mediumship, which latterly culminated in the
production of an entire female form purporting to be spiritual, and
which appeared barefooted and in white flowing robes while she lay
entranced, in dark clothing and securely bound, in a cabinet or
adjacent room. Notwithstanding that tests of an apparently conclusive
character were employed, many visitors, Spiritualists as well as
skeptics, got the impression that all was not as it should be; owing,
in part, to the resemblance of the supposed spirit to Miss Cook, and
also to the fact that the two could not be seen at the same time. Some
supposed that Miss C. was an impostor, who managed to conceal a white
robe about her (although she was often searched), and who, although
she was securely tied with tapes and sealed, was able to get out of
her bonds, dress and undress herself, and get into them again, all in
the dark, and in so complete and skillful a manner as to defy
detection. Others thought that the spirit released her, provided her
with a white dress, and sent her forth to personate a ghost. The
belief that there was something wrong led one gentleman—an ardent
Spiritualist—to seize the supposed spirit and endeavor to hold it, in
the hope that some other person would open the cabinet-door and see if
Miss Cook was really there. This was, unfortunately, not done; but the
great resemblance of the being he seized to Miss Cook, its perfect
solidity, and the vigorous struggles it made to escape from him,
convinced this gentleman that it was Miss Cook herself, although the
rest of the company, a few minutes afterwards, found her bound and
sealed just as she had been left an hour before. To determine the
question conclusively, experiments have been made within the last few
weeks by two scientific men. Mr. C. F. Varley, F. R. S., the eminent
electrician, made use of a galvanic battery and cable-testing
apparatus, and passed a current through Miss Cook’s body (by fastening
sovereigns soldered to wires to her arms). The apparatus was so
delicate that any movement whatever was instantly indicated, while it
was impossible for the young lady to dress and act as a ghost without
breaking the circuit. Yet under these conditions the spirit-form did
appear, exhibited its arms, spoke, wrote, and touched several persons;
and this happened, be it remembered, not in the medium’s own house,
but in that of a private gentleman in the West End of London. For
nearly an hour the circuit was never broken, and at the conclusion
Miss Cook was found in a deep trance. Since this remarkable experiment
Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S., has obtained, if possible, still more
satisfactory evidence. He contrived a phosphorus lamp, and, armed with
this, was allowed to go into the dark room accompanied by the spirit,
and there saw and felt Miss Cook, dressed in black velvet, lying in a
trance on the floor, while the spirit-form, in white robes, stood
close beside her. During the evening this spirit-form had been for
nearly an hour walking and talking with the company; and Mr. Crookes,
by permission, clasped the figure in his arms, and found it to be,
apparently, a real living woman, just as the skeptical gentleman had
done. Yet this figure is not that of Miss Cook, nor of any other human
being, since it appeared and disappeared in Mr. Crookes’s own house as
completely as in that of the medium herself. The full statements of
Messrs. Varley and Crookes, with a mass of interesting detail on the
subject, appeared in the “Spiritualist” newspaper in March and April
last; and they serve to show that whatever marvels occur in America
can be reproduced here, and that men of science are not precluded from
investigating these phenomena with scientific instruments and by
scientific methods. In the concluding part of this paper we shall be
able to show that another class of manifestation which originated in
America—that of the so-called spirit photographs—has been first
critically examined and completely demonstrated in our own country.

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHS.

We now approach a subject which cannot be omitted in any impartial sketch of the evidences of Spiritualism, since it is that which furnishes perhaps the most unassailable demonstration it is possible to obtain, of the objective reality of spiritual forms, and also of the truthful nature of the evidence furnished by seers when they describe figures visible to themselves alone. It has been already indicated—and it is a fact, of which the records of Spiritualism furnish ample proof—that different individuals possess the power of seeing such forms and figures in very variable degrees. Thus, it often happens at a séance, that some will see distinct lights of which they will describe the form, appearance and position, while others see nothing at all. If only one or two persons see the lights, the rest will naturally impute it to their imagination; but there are cases in which only one or two of those present are unable to see them. There are also cases in which all see them, but in very different degrees of distinctness; yet that they see the same objects is proved by their all agreeing as to the position and the movement of the lights. Again, what some see as merely luminous clouds, others will see as distinct human forms, either partial or entire. In other cases all present see the form—whether hand, face, or entire figure—with equal distinctness. Again, the objective reality of these appearances is sometimes proved by their being touched, or by their being seen to move objects—in some cases heard to speak, in others seen to write, by several persons at one and the same time; the figure seen or the writing produced being sometimes unmistakably recognizable as that of some deceased friend. A volume could easily be filled with records of this class of appearances, authenticated by place, date, and names of witnesses; and a considerable selection is to be found in the works of Mr. Robert Dale Owen.

Now, at this point, an inquirer, who had not pre-judged the question, and who did not believe his own knowledge of the universe to be so complete as to justify him in rejecting all evidence for facts which he had hitherto considered to be in the highest degree improbable, might fairly say, “Your evidence for the appearance of visible, tangible, spiritual forms, is very strong; but I should like to have them submitted to a crucial test, which would quite settle the question of the possibility of their being due to a coincident delusion of several senses of several persons at the same time; and, if satisfactory, would demonstrate their objective reality in a way nothing else can do. If they really reflect or emit light which makes them visible to human eyes, _they can be photographed_. Photograph them, and you will have an unanswerable proof that your human witnesses are trustworthy.” Two years ago we could only have replied to this very proper suggestion, that we believed it had been done and could be again done, but that we had no satisfactory evidence to offer. Now, however, we are in a position to state, not only that it has been frequently done, but that the evidence is of such a nature as to satisfy any one who will take the trouble carefully to examine it. This evidence we will now lay before our readers, and we venture to think they will acknowledge it to be most remarkable.

Before doing so it may be as well to clear away a popular misconception. Mr. Lewes advised the Dialectical Committee to distinguish carefully between “facts and inferences from facts.” This is especially necessary in the case of what are called spirit photographs. The figures which occur in these, when not produced by any human agency, may be of “spiritual” origin, without being figures “of spirits.” There is much evidence to show that they are, in some cases, forms produced by invisible intelligences, but distinct from them. In other cases the intelligence appears to clothe itself with matter capable of being perceived by us; but even then it does not follow that the form produced is the actual image of the spiritual form. It may be but a reproduction of the former mortal form with its terrestrial accompaniments, _for purposes of recognition_.

Most persons have heard of these “ghost-pictures,” and how easily they can be made to order by any photographer, and are therefore disposed to think they can be of no use as evidence. But a little consideration will show them that the means by which sham ghosts can be manufactured being so well known to all photographers, it becomes easy to apply tests or arrange conditions so as to prevent imposition. The following are some of the more obvious:

1. If a person with a knowledge of photography takes his own glass plates, examines the camera used and all the accessories, and watches the whole process of taking a picture, then, if any definite form appears on the negative besides the sitter, it is a proof that some object was present capable of reflecting or emitting the actinic rays, although invisible to those present. 2. If an unmistakable likeness appears of a deceased person totally unknown to the photographer. 3. If figures appear on the negative having a definite relation to the figure of the sitter, who chooses his own position, attitude and accompaniments, it is a proof that invisible figures were really there. 4. If a figure appears draped in white, and partly behind the dark body of the sitter without in the least showing through, it is a proof that the white figure was there at the same time, because the dark parts of the negative are transparent, and any white picture in any way superposed would show through. 5. Even should none of these tests be applied, yet if a medium, quite independent of the photographer, sees and describes a figure during the sitting and an exactly corresponding figure appears on the plate, it is a proof that such a figure was there.

Every one of these tests have now been successfully applied in our own country, as the following outline of the facts will show:

The accounts of spirit-photography in several parts of the United States caused many Spiritualists in this country to make experiments; but for a long time without success. Mr. and Mrs. Guppy, who are both amateur photographers, tried at their own house, and failed. In March, 1872, they went one day to Mr. Hudson’s, a photographer living near them (not a Spiritualist), to get some _cartes de visite_ of Mrs. Guppy. After the sitting the idea suddenly struck Mr. Guppy that he would try for a spirit-photograph. He sat down, told Mrs. G. to go behind the background, and had a picture taken. There came out behind him a large, indefinite, oval white patch, somewhat resembling the outline of a draped figure. Mrs. Guppy, behind the background, was dressed in black.

This is the first spirit-photograph taken in England, and it’s perhaps more satisfactory on account of the suddenness of the impulse under which it was taken, and the great white patch which no impostor would have attempted to produce, and which, taken by itself, utterly spoils the picture. A few days afterwards, Mr. and Mrs. Guppy and their little boy went without any notice. Mrs. Guppy sat on the ground holding the boy on a stool. Her husband stood behind looking on. The picture thus produced is most remarkable. A tall female figure, finely draped in white, gauzy robes, stands directly behind and above the sitters, looking down on them and holding its open hands over their heads, as if giving a benediction. The face is somewhat Eastern, and, with the hands, is beautifully defined. The white robes pass behind the sitters’ dark figures without in the least showing through. A second picture was then taken as soon as a plate could be prepared; and it was fortunate it was so, for it resulted in a most remarkable test. Mrs. Guppy again knelt with the boy; but this time she did not stoop so much, and her head was higher. The same white figure comes out equally well defined, but _it has changed its position in a manner exactly corresponding to the slight change of Mrs. Guppy’s position_. The hands were before on a level; now one is raised considerably higher than the other, so as to keep it about the same distance from Mrs. Guppy’s head as it was before. The folds of the drapery all correspondingly differ, and the head is slightly turned. Here, then, one of two things is absolutely certain. Either there was a living, intelligent, but invisible being present, or Mr. and Mrs. Guppy, the photographer, and some fourth person, planned a wicked imposture, and have maintained it ever since. Knowing Mr. and Mrs. Guppy so well as I do, I feel an absolute conviction that they are as incapable of an imposture of this kind as any earnest inquirer after truth in the department of natural science.

The report of these pictures soon spread. Spiritualists in great numbers came to try for similar results, with varying degrees of success; till after a time rumor of imposture arose, and it is now firmly believed by many, from suspicious appearances on the pictures and from other circumstances, that a large number of shams have been produced. It is certainly not to be wondered at if it be so. The photographer, remember, was not a Spiritualist, and was utterly puzzled at the pictures above described. Scores of persons came to him, and he saw that they were satisfied if they got a second figure with themselves, and dissatisfied if they did not. He _may_ have made arrangements by which to satisfy everybody. One thing is clear: that if there has been imposture, it was at once detected by Spiritualists themselves; if not, then Spiritualists have been quick in noticing what appeared to indicate it. Those, however, who most strongly assert imposture, allow that a large number of genuine pictures have been taken. But, true or not, the cry of imposture did good, since it showed the necessity for tests and for independent confirmation of the facts.

The test of clearly recognizable likenesses of deceased friends has often been obtained. Mr. William Howitt, who went without previous notice, obtained likenesses of two sons, many years dead, and of the very existence of one of which even the friend who accompanied Mr. Howitt was ignorant. The likenesses were instantly recognized by Mrs. Howitt; and Mr. Howitt declares them to be “perfect and unmistakable.” (Spiritual Magazine, Oct., 1872.) Dr. Thomson, of Clifton, obtained a photograph of himself, accompanied by that of a lady he did not know. He sent it to his uncle in Scotland, simply asking if he recognized a resemblance to any of the family deceased. The reply was that it was the likeness of Dr. Thomson’s own mother, who died at his birth; and there being no picture of her in existence, he had no idea what she was like. The uncle very naturally remarked, that he “could not understand how it was done.” (Spiritual Magazine, Oct., 1873.) Many other instances of recognition have occurred, but I will only add my personal testimony. A few weeks back I myself went to the same photographer’s for the first time, and obtained a most unmistakable likeness of a deceased relative. We will now pass to a better class of evidence, the private experiments of amateurs.

Mr. Thomas Slater, an old-established optician in the Euston Road, and an amateur photographer, took with him to Mr. Hudson’s a new camera of his own manufacture and his own glasses, saw everything done, and obtained a portrait with a second figure on it. He then began experimenting in his own private house, and during last summer obtained some remarkable results. The first of his successes contains two heads by the side of a portrait of his sister. One of these heads is unmistakably the late Lord Brougham’s; the other, much less distinct, is recognized by Mr. Slater as that of Robert Owen, whom he knew intimately up to the time of his death. He has since obtained several excellent pictures of the same class. One in particular shows a female in black and white flowing robes, standing by the side of Mr. Slater. In another the head and bust appears, leaning over his shoulder. The faces of these two are much alike, and other members of the family recognize them as likenesses of Mr. Slater’s mother, who died when he was an infant. In another a pretty child-figure, also draped, stands beside Mr. Slater’s little boy. Now, whether these figures are correctly identified or not, is not the essential point. The fact that _any_ figures, so clear and unmistakably human in appearance as these, should appear on plates taken in his own private studio by an experienced optician and amateur photographer, who makes all his apparatus himself, and with no one present but the members of his own family, is the real marvel. In one case a second figure appeared on a plate with himself, taken by Mr. Slater when he was absolutely alone—by the simple process of occupying the sitter’s chair after uncapping the camera. He and his family being themselves mediums, they require no extraneous assistance; and this may perhaps be the reason why he has succeeded so well. One of the most extraordinary pictures obtained by Mr. Slater is a full-length portrait of his sister, in which there is no second figure, but the sitter appears covered all over with a kind of transparent lace drapery, which on examination is seen to be wholly made up of shaded circles of different sizes, quite unlike any material fabric I have seen or heard of.

Mr. Slater has himself shown me all these pictures and explained the conditions under which they were produced. That they are not impostures is certain; and as the first independent confirmations of what had been previously obtained only through professional photographers, their value is inestimable.

A less successful but not perhaps on that account less satisfactory confirmation has been obtained by another amateur, who, after eighteen months of experiment, obtained a partial success. Mr. R. Williams, M. A., Ph. D., of Hayward’s Heath, succeeded last summer in obtaining three photographs, each with part of a human form besides the sitter, one having the features distinctly marked. Subsequently another was obtained, with a well-formed figure of a man standing at the side of the sitter, but while being developed, this figure faded away entirely. Mr. Williams assures me (in a letter) that in these experiments there was “no room for trick or for the production of these figures by any known means.”

The editor of the British Journal of Photography has made experiments at Mr. Hudson’s studio, taking his own collodion and new plates, and doing everything himself, yet there were “abnormal appearances” on the pictures, although no distinct figures.

We now come to the valuable and conclusive experiments of Mr. John Beattie, of Clifton, a retired photographer of twenty years’ experience, and of whom the above-mentioned editor says: “Every one who knows Mr. Beattie will give him credit for being a thoughtful, skillful, and intelligent photographer, one of the last men in the world to be easily deceived, at least in matters relating to photography, and one quite incapable of deceiving others.”