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exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Gambier Bolton

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Excerpts from Bolton's book "Ghosts In Solid Form" featuring the details of the strict fraud-prevention controls instituted by Crookes and others who investigated direct-materialization mediumship.

FOREWORD

As scientists in many parts of the world today are turning their serious attention to the question of the origin and the (possible) continuity of Life, I feel that the time has now arrived when a text-book on the subject of the phenomena, known to investigators as Materialisations, should be issued to the public, in order to assist inquirers, both scientists and laymen, in their endeavour to solve these vitally important matters; as, in my opinion, it is by no means improbable that in Materialisations we may find the clue which will eventually enable us to solve the question, asked by each cradle, "Whence?" and by each coffin, "Whither?"

This text-book contains, in plain and simple language the results of a series of experiments carried out during a period of seven years. With the exception of a few conducted by that master scientist Sir William Crookes, President of the Royal Society, London, and referred to in Chapter III. (to which mine were in the nature of a sequel), all were carried out in my presence; and the reports on these experiments have been collated from the official records kept by my three research societies in London.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER   PAGE

I CONDITIONS—1
II. PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FRAUD—15
III. TESTS—35
IV. QUESTIONS ANSWERED—69
APPENDIX—115

CHAPTER I
CONDITIONS

"A single grain of solid fact is worth ten tons of theory."

"The more I think of it, the more I find this conclusion impressed upon me, that the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to SEE something and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To SEE clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one."—JOHN RUSKIN.

WORKING HYPOTHESIS

That under certain known and reasonable conditions of temperature, light, etc., entities, existing In a sphere outside our own, have been demonstrated again and again to manifest themselves on earth in temporary bodies materialised from an, at present, undiscovered source, through the agency of certain persons of both sexes, termed Sensitives, and can be so demonstrated to any person who will provide the conditions proved to be necessary for such a demonstration.

LOOKING back to the seven years of my life which I devoted to a careful and critical investigation of the claim made, not only by both Occidental and Oriental mystics, but by well-known men of science like Sir William Crookes, Professor Alfred Russel Wallace, and others—that it was possible under certain clearly defined conditions to produce, apparently out of nothing, fully formed bodies, inhabited by (presumably) human entities from another sphere—the wonder of it still enthralls me; the apparent impossibility of so great an upheaval of such laws of Nature as we are at present acquainted with, being proved clearly to be possible, will remain to the end as "the wonder of wonders" in a by no means uneventful life.

For, as compared with this, that greatest of Nature’s mysteries, the procreation of a human infant—by either the normal or mechanical impregnation of an ovum—its months of fetal growth and development in the uterus, and its birth into the world in a helpless and enfeebled condition, amazing as they are to all physiological students,—sinks into comparative insignificance when compared with the nearly instantaneous production of a fully developed human body, with all its organs functioning properly; a body inhabited temporarily by a thinking, reasoning entity, who can see, hear, taste, smell and touch: a body which can be handled, weighed, measured, and photographed.

When these claims were first brought to my notice I realised at once that I was face to face with a problem which would require the very closest investigation; and I then and there decided to give up work of all kinds, and to devote years, if necessary, to a critical examination of these claims; to investigate the matter calmly and dispassionately, and, in Sir John Herschel’s memorable words, "to stand or fall by the result of a direct appeal to facts in the first instance, and of strict logical deduction from them afterwards."

And, as I have said, the result has been that the apparently impossible has been proved to be possible; and I accept them whole-heartedly, admitting that our working hypothesis has been proved beyond any possibility of doubt, and that these materialised entities can manifest themselves today to any person who will provide the conditions necessary for such a demonstration.

Who they are, what they are, whence they come, and whither they go, each investigator must determine for himself; but of their actual existence in a sphere just outside our own, there can no longer be any room for doubt. As a busy man, theories have little or no attraction for me. What I demand, and what other busy men and women demand, in an investigation of this kind is, that there should be a reasonable possibility of getting hold of facts, good solid facts which can be demonstrated as such, to any open-minded inquirer, otherwise it would be useless to commence such an investigation. And we have now got these facts, and can prove them on purely scientific lines.

The meaning of the word Materialisation, so far at least as it concerns our investigation, I understand to be this: the taking on by an entity from a sphere outside our own, an entity representing a man, woman, or child (or even a beast or bird), of a temporary body built up from material drawn partially from the inhabitants of earth, consolidated through the agency of certain persons of both sexes, termed Sensitives, and moulded by the entity into a semblance of the body which (it alleges) it inhabited during its existence on earth. In other words, a materialisation is the appearance of an entity in bodily, tangible form (i.e. one which we can touch), thus differing from an astralisation, etherealisation, or apparition, which is, of course, one which cannot be touched, although it may be clearly visible to anyone possessing only normal sight.

Let me, then, endeavour to describe to the best of my ability, and in very simple language, how I believe these materialisations to be produced, and the conditions which I have proved to be necessary in order that the finest results may be obtained.

I will deal first with the question of as without conditions of some kind no materialisation can be produced, any more than a scientific experiment—such as mixing various chemicals together, in order to produce a certain result—can be carried out successfully without proper conditions being provided by the experimenter. What, then, do we mean by this word "conditions"?

Take a homely example. The baker mixes exactly the right quantities of flour, salt, and yeast with water, and then places the "dough" which he has made in an oven heated to just the right temperature, and produces a loaf of bread. Why? Because the conditions were good ones. Had he omitted the flour, the yeast, or the water, or had he used an oven over or under heated, he could not have produced an eatable loaf of bread, because the conditions made it impossible.

This is what is meant by the terms, "Good conditions," "Bad conditions," "Breaking conditions."

The conditions, then, under which I have been able to prove to many hundreds of inquirers that it is possible for materialised entities to appear on earth, in solid tangible form, are these :

First, Light of suitable wave-length (i.e. suitable colour), and let me say here, once and for all, that I have proved conclusively for myself that provided that one is experimenting with a Sensitive who has been trained to sit always in the light.

On two occasions I have witnessed materialisations in daylight; and neither of Sir William Crookes’ Sensitives—D. P. Home or Florrie Cook (Mrs. Corner)—would ever sit in darkness: the latter, with whom I carried out a long series of experiments, invariably stipulating that a good light should be used during the whole time that the experiment lasted, as she was terrified at the mere thought of darkness.

I find that sunlight, electric light, gas, colza oil, and paraffin are all apt to check the production of the phenomena unless filtered through canary-yellow, orange, or red linen or paper—just as they are filtered for photographic purposes—owing to the violent action of the actinic (blue) rays which they contain (the rays from the violet end of the spectrum), which are said to work at about six hundred billions of vibrations per second. But if the light is filtered, in the way that I have described, the production of the phenomena will commence at once, the vibrations of the Interfering rays being reduced; it is said, to about four hundred billions per second or less.

In dealing with materialisations we are apt to overlook the fact that we are investigating forces or modes of energy far more delicate than electricity, for instance. Heat, electricity, and light, as Sir William Crookes tells us are all closely related: we know the awful power of heat and electricity, but are only too apt to forget—especially if it suits our purpose to do so—that light too has enormous dynamic potency; its vibrations being said to travel In space at the incredible speed of twelve million miles a minute¹; and it is therefore only reasonable to assume that the power of these vibrations may be sufficient to interfere seriously with the more subtle forces, such as those which we are now investigating.

Secondly, we require suitable heat vibrations, and I find that those given off in a room either warmed or chilled to sixty-three degrees are the very best possible; anything either much above this, or, more especially, much below this, tending to weaken the results and to check the phenomena.

Thirdly, we require suitable musical vibrations, and, after carrying out a long series of experiments with musical instruments of all kinds, I find that the vibrations given off by the reed organ—termed "harmonium" or "American organ,"—or by the concertina, are the most suitable, the peculiar quality of the vibrations given off by the reeds in these instruments proving to be the most suitable ones for use during the production of the phenomena; although on one or two occasions I have obtained good results without musical vibrations of any kind, but this is rare.

Fourthly, we require the presence of a specially organised man or woman, termed one from whom it is alleged a portion of the matter used by the entity in the building up of its temporary body can be drawn, with but little chance of injury to their health. This point is one of vital importance, we are told, for it has been proved by means of a self-registering weighing-machine on which he was seated, and to which he was securely fastened with an electrical apparatus secretly hidden beneath the seat, which would at once ring a bell in an anteroom if he endeavoured to rise from his seat during the experiment, that the actual loss in weight to the Sensitive, when a fully materialised entity was standing in our midst, was no less than sixty-five pounds!

Before employing any person, then, as a Sensitive for these delicate, not to say dangerous, experiments, he or she should be medically examined, in the interests of both the investigator and the Sensitive, and should their health prove to be in any way below par, they should not be permitted to take part in the experiment until their health is fully restored.

I have been permitted to examine the Sensitive at the moment when an entity, clad in a fully-formed temporary body, was walking amongst the experimenters; and the distorted features, the shriveled-up limbs and contorted trunk of the Sensitive at that moment proclaimed the danger connected with the production of this special form of phenomena far louder than any words of mine could do.

Needless to say, Sensitives for materialisations are extremely rare, not more than two or three being found today amidst the teeming millions who inhabit the British Islands; although a few are to be found on the European continent, and several in North America, where the climatic conditions are said to be more favourable for the development of such persons.

Now, what constitutes a Sensitive, and why are they necessary?

Sensitives through whom physical phenomena (including materialisations) can be produced have been described, firstly, as persons in whom certain forces are stored up, either far in excess of the amount possessed by the normal man or woman, or else differing in quality from the forces stored up by the normal man or woman; and secondly, as persons who are able to attract from those in close proximity to them—provided that the conditions are favorable—still more of the force, which thus becomes centred in them for the time being. In other words, a Sensitive for physical phenomena is said to be for the force which is used in the production of physical phenomena—including materialisations—although it is by no means improbable that such highly developed Sensitives as those required for this special purpose may be found to possess extra nerve-centres as compared with those possessed by normal human beings. But whether this hypothesis be eventually proved or not, there seems to be but very little doubt that "whatever the force may be which constitutes the difference between a Sensitive and a non-Sensitive, it is certainly of a mental or magnetic character, i.e. a combination of the subtle elements of mind and magnetism, and therefore of a psychological, and not of a purely physical character."

But why is a Sensitive necessary? you ask. Think of a telephone for a moment. You wish to communicate with a person who is holding only the end of the wire in his hand, the result being that he cannot hear a single word.

Why is this? Because he has forgotten to fit a "receiver" at his end of the wire, a "receiver" in which the vibrations set up by your voice may be centralised, focused; a "receiver" which he can place to his ear, and in doing so will at once hear your voice distinctly; but without this your message to him is lost.

And it is said that this is exactly the use of the Sensitives during our experiments, for they act as "receivers" in which the forces employed in the production of the phenomena may be centralised, focused: their varying degrees of sensitiveness enabling them to be used by the entities in other spheres for the successful production of such phenomena, we are told.

And lastly, we require about twelve to sixteen earnest and really sympathetic men and women—persons trained on scientific lines for choice—all in the best of health: men and women who, whilst strictly on their guard against anything in the shape of fraud, are still so much in sympathy with the person who is acting as the Sensitive that they are all the time sending out kindly thoughts towards him; for if, as has been said, "thoughts are things," it is possible that hostile thoughts would be sufficient not only to enfeeble, but actually to check demonstrations of physical phenomena of all kinds in the presence of such specially organised, highly developed individuals as the Sensitives through whom materialisations can be produced.

I shall refer to these men and women as THE SITTERS.

We generally select an equal number so far as sex is concerned; and in addition, we endeavour to obtain an equal number of persons possessing either positive or negative temperaments. In this way we form the Sitters into a powerful human battery, the combined force given off by them (if the battery is properly arranged, and the individual members of that battery are in good health) proving of enormous assistance during our experiments. If in ill-health, we find that a man or woman is useless to us: for we can no more expect to obtain the necessary power from such an individual, than we can expect to produce an electric spark from a discharged accumulator, or pick up needles with a demagnetised piece of steel.

We are told to remember always that "all manifestations of natural laws are the results of natural conditions."

Minor details too, we find, must be thought out most carefully if we are to provide what we may term ideal conditions.

The chairs should be made of wood throughout; those known as Austrian bentwood chairs, having perforated seats, being proved to be the best for the purpose.

The Sitters should bathe and then change their clothing—the ladies into white dresses, and the men into dark suits—two hours before the time fixed for the experiment, and should then at once partake of a light meal—meat and alcohol being strictly forbidden—so that the strain upon their constitutions during the experiment may not interfere with their health.

Trivial as such matters must appear to the man in the street, we are told they must all be carried out most carefully, in order that the finest conditions possible may be obtained; the one great object of the Sitters being to give off all the power—and the best kind of power—that they are capable of producing, in order that sufficient suitable material may be gathered together from the Sensitive and themselves, with which a temporary body may be formed for the use of any entity wishing to materialise in their presence.

CHAPTER II
PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FRAUD

"Nothing is too wonderful to be true."—FARADAY.

We are now ready to see what happens at a typical experimental meeting for these materialisations, at hundreds of which I have assisted, and having the services of no less than six Sensitives placed at my disposal for purpose. I will endeavour to describe it; I should consider to be an ideal one, held under ideal (test) conditions.

Our imaginary test meeting is to be carried out—as it was on one occasion in London—In an entirely empty house, which none of us have ever entered before, a house which we will hire for this special event. By doing this we may feel sure that all possibility of fraud, so tar as the use of secret trap-doors, large mirrors, and other undesirable things of that description are concerned, can be successfully thwarted.

I would ask you to bear in mind that we are about to take part in A PURELY SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT; and, whether I weary you with my descriptions or not, I intend to take just as elaborate precautions against trickery, so far as the room in which this imaginary meeting is to take place is concerned, as if I were at work getting a room ready for an actual test meeting; for I intend to leave no possible loop-hole for fraud, otherwise our time will be wasted.

And I am going to take equally elaborate precautions to prevent trickery on the part of those attending this meeting, either as Sitters or Sensitive, treating one and all alike, however harsh this treatment may seem to be. But in a matter of such gravity I can trust no one, but must assume that every person attending the meeting is capable of assisting in the production of fraudulent phenomena—Sitters and Sensitive alike—and I shall take such preliminary precautions as will render trickery absolutely impossible by anyone present at this imaginary meeting.

Harsh as it may seem, it is the only possible attitude for an open-minded investigator to assume in a matter of such vital importance as this; one which strikes down to the very roots of our existence as human beings, the origin and the—possible—continuity of life; to the very roots of our social and legal systems; to the very roots of our various religions.¹ For we must bear in mind that, during this experiment, we are to deal with a certain alleged fact, the possibility of entities from another sphere returning to earth in visible, tangible bodies; reasoning, thinking entities who are able to tell us of their life in other spheres; who proclaim the falsity of much that we regard as sacred—and we must therefore demand the most stringent tests that human ingenuity can devise, in order that we may be able to prove the truth or the falsity of the alleged fact. No other course is possible, in my opinion, for the investigator who is entering for the first time upon this little-known field of research.

Such vast numbers of persons, such incredible numbers, attended the experimental meetings which I instituted in London for the examination of this alleged fact—persons from all parts of Great Britain; all parts of Europe, Canada, and the Americas; from far-off Japan, China, Burmah, India, Africa, Australia, and other portions of the world; persons in all stations of life, from those closely and intimately connected with the royal family; members of the royal household; distinguished soldiers like Field-Marshal Lord Wolseley, General Carrington, General Sir Alfred Turner, General Gordon and Colonel Valentine Gordon—both relatives of the great General Gordon—and numerous other officers of the highest rank; distinguished sailors like my friend Vice-Admiral Usborne Moore—a painstaking and highly critical investigator, who witnessed his first materialisations at these meetings;¹ great physicians from Harley Street, London, and elsewhere, including the distinguished head of the Army Medical Department, Surgeon-General Fawcett; members of the diplomatic services from nearly every civilised nation on earth; officials from the Treasury, the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Colonial Office, and the War Office; members of the House of Lords, members of the House of Commons—of all the many known shades of political opinion; great journalists like W. T. Stead, and many others from different parts of the world; great writers like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, John Oliver Hobbes (Mrs Craigie), Florence Marryat, and many others; great scientists like Signor Marconi; celebrated ecclesiastics of almost every degree, and holding innumerable creeds and dogmas (some of them carefully disguised as laymen, and passing under assumed names); well-known actors and actresses; well-known musicians, singers, artists, and architects; men and women of all kinds, each in his or her own way what the world terms "celebrities," with many hundreds of others who make no claim to that title—such an incredible number of persons attended our experimental meetings in London that it is quite possible that out of that vast number you yourself may have attended one or more of them, and may be thinking that at the meetings to which you were admitted the conditions were not nearly so elaborately thought out, the tests were not nearly so stringent, as those which I am about to impose upon the Sitters and the Sensitive at the imaginary one in which we are now about to take part.

That is quite possible; for at the ordinary experimental meetings held by my three societies, the conditions imposed were widely different to those insisted upon at our test meetings—such as those held with Florrie Cook (Mrs. Corner), which were strictly confined not only to members, but to specially selected members.

I would ask you to remember too that I am not describing the conditions imposed or the results obtained at any particular meeting at which I was present; but rather the conditions which I consider should be provided, and the precautions against trickery which I consider ought to be taken in a really scientifically carried out experiment for materialisations.

Having all met together at an appointed hour in the hall of the empty house which we have hired for the night—all, that is, with the exception of the Sensitive, who is not permitted to enter the house until half an hour later—it is put to the vote as to which room shall be used for this meeting; and as soon as that is settled, we all walk up to, and into, it together, and find ourselves in a large and lofty room on the second floor absolutely empty.

Looking out of the window we see that there is a sheer drop of (say) fifty feet to the street below, and, as there are no houses anywhere in its immediate proximity, we are satisfied that it is altogether impossible for any person to either enter or leave the room by the window.

Turning our attention to the room itself, we see that there are four bare walls, with a gas-bracket fitted into one of them, a ceiling, a fireplace, and a solid floor. These must be critically examined first by an expert, and next the means of entrance to and exit from the room—the door, window, and fireplace.

I have purposely included amongst the Sitters a well-known London doctor, an equally well-known London architect—both extremely sceptical, as they actually were at one time, as to the possibility of obtaining results unless fraud was introduced—and also two persons who have developed to a high degree their powers of second-sight (clairvoyance or clear-seeing), and shall make great use of them all during the meeting, as I frequently did when experimenting in London.

We hand the key of the room to you, and all, with the exception of the architect and yourself, then leave the room, it being your duty to watch the architect carefully whilst he carries out a critical professional examination of the empty room. He will then draw up a report, which you will both sign, saying that in your opinion the room is not "prepared" in any way, but is in a perfectly normal state.

You then unlock the door and hand out the signed report; and we at once pass in to you seventeen chairs, a large photographic lamp (with a piece of india-rubber tubing, for you to attach from the lamp to the gas-bracket as fitted in the wall of the room), a strong wooden cover which fits tightly into the fireplace (with long screws and a screwdriver to enable you to fasten it securely in position), a piece of dark-coloured cloth or baize for you to nail up over the window (with a hammer and nails) so as to exclude all actinic light, and we push in a small harmonium and a music-stool.

Directly these are handed to you, you lock the door, and the architect joins with you in a close examination of each article; and when you are both satisfied that none of the articles are "prepared" in any way, you draw up a second report, which you both sign, stating that nothing whatever is, or can possibly be, concealed in them. You then both come out of the room, locking the door behind you and keeping the key in your possession.

Having thus dealt with the room, and every article inside the room in which our experiment is to be conducted, we now proceed to deal with each person who intends to be present during the experiment—the doctor, the architect, you yourself, and I myself, with the remainder of the Sitters, men and women alike, one and all being treated in exactly the same way, however harsh it may seem, for in a matter of such importance as this we can trust no one.

The doctor takes each Sitter alone into an adjoining room. Every article of clothing is removed in each case and the doctor then makes a careful examination to see that the person has nothing in his or her possession concealed about their bodies, or in their clothing, which could be used in assisting to produce fraudulent phenomena. At the conclusion of this searching examination, the Sitter is permitted to dress, and you then show him (or her) into the empty room, you yourself unlocking the door to admit them and locking it after them.

The Sensitive now arrives at the house, and is met by the doctor, who takes him into the adjoining room and at once carries out a searching examination of the Sensitive’s body. His clothes are taken away from him, and, at the conclusion of the search, he is lent a complete outfit for the evening, in case he should have secret pockets in his own clothing. If the Sensitive is a woman she is treated in exactly the same way; and, after her clothing has been taken away from her, she is lent, not only a black dress, but a complete set of black underclothing for use during the experiment, even her white pocket-handkerchief being taken from her before she enters the room, so that she cannot possibly masquerade as an entity clad in white draperies.

When the search is over, and the change of clothing has been completed, you unlock the door, and the Sensitive is admitted to the room for the first time.

All are now in the room with the exception of the doctor; and it is then put to the vote as to who shall pass out and carefully examine the doctor, and only this Sitter is permitted to go out of the room. On the completion of the examination, the doctor and the Sitter return to the room, and the door is finally locked and bolted, you retaining the key during the whole evening.

The large gas-lamp on the mantelpiece has of course been lit previous to this, and the flame is now turned up fully. The Sensitive takes his seat on a chair placed in a corner of the room furthest away from the door, the window, and the fireplace; the Sitters placing their sixteen chairs in a half-circle round him, so that he can only escape from his chair into the room by climbing over the Sitters.

The architect is then given strips of gummed paper and a stylographic pen. He and you paste these strips round the door, the window, and the fireplace, writing on the strips of paper any word or words selected by yourselves and known only to you, so that, in the event of their being tampered with, you would be able to see at once that the paper had been broken.

One of the Sitters, who is a musician, takes his seat temporarily at the harmonium, and commences to play suitable music, and we are ready to start our experiment; the general feeling of all those in the room being that every possible precaution against trickery has been taken, and that if any results of any kind whatever should follow they will undoubtedly be genuine.

The Sitters having been allotted their seats, so that a person of a positive and a person of a negative temperament shall be seated together, we now join hands, and form ourselves into what we are told is a powerful human battery; the two persons sitting at the two ends of the half-circle having of course each one hand free: and from the free hands of these two persons, it is said, the power developed and given off by this human battery passes into the Sensitive at each of his sides.

Sitting quietly in our chairs and talking gently amongst ourselves, we soon feel a cool breeze blowing across our hands. In another two minutes this will have so increased in volume that it may with truth be described as a strong wind.

On looking at the Sensitive now, we see that he is rapidly passing into a state of trance—his head is drooping on one side, his arms and hands hang downwards loosely, his body being in a limp real trance condition, and just in the right state for use by any entity desiring to work through him, we are told.

I have only experimented with one Sensitive who did not pass into trance, but, seated amongst the Sitters, he remained in a perfectly normal condition during the whole of the experiment; watching the materialised forms building up beside him, and talking to and with them during the process. I shall refer to him shortly.¹

We now set our clairvoyants to work, and the statements made by one must be confirmed in every detail by the statements of the other as to what is occurring at the moment, or no notice is taken of their remarks.

Both now report that they see a thin white mist or 'vapour'² coming from the left side of the Sensitive, if a man (or from the pelvis, if a woman), which passes into the Sitter at the end of the half-circle nearest to the Sensitive’s left side. It then passes, they state, from Sitter No. 1 to Sitter No. 2, and so on, until it has gone through the whole of the sixteen Sitters, passing finally from the last one (No. 16) at the end of the half-circle nearest to the Sensitive’s right side, and disappears into his right side.

We assume from this that the nerve force, magnetic power—call it what YOU will—necessary for the formation of one of these temporary bodies starts from the Sensitive, passes through each Sitter, drawing from each as much more force or power as he or she is capable of giving off at the moment, returning to the Sensitive greatly increased in its amount and ready for use in the next process. This, then, we will term the first of the three stages in the evolution of an entity clad in a temporary body:

THE VAPOUR STAGE

In a few moments our clairvoyantes both report that the force or power is issuing from the side of the Sensitive, if a man (or from the pelvis, if a woman), in the form of a white, soft, dough-like substance,’ which on one occasion I was permitted to touch. I could perceive no smell given off by it; it felt cold and clammy, and appeared to have the consistency of heavy dough at the moment that I touched it.

This mass of dough-like substance is said to be the material used by the entities—one by one as a rule—who wish to build up a temporary body. It seems to rest on the floor, somewhere near the right side of the Sensitive, until required for use: its bulk depending apparently upon the amount of power given off by the Sitters from time to time during the experiment.

This we will term the second of the three stages of the evolution of an entity clad in a temporary body:

THE SOLID, BUT SHAPELESS STAGE

We are told that the entity wishing to show himself to us passes into this shapeless mass of dough-like substance, which at once increases in bulk, and commences to pulsate and move up and down, swaying from side to side as it grows in height, the motive power being evidently underneath.

The entity then quickly sets to work to mould the mass into something resembling a human body, commencing with the head. The rest of the upper portion of the body soon follows, and the heart and pulse can now be felt to be beating quite regularly and normally, differing in this respect from those of the Sensitive, who, if tested at this time, will be found with both heart and pulse-beats considerably above the normal. The legs and feet come last, and then the entity is able to leave the near neighbourhood of the Sensitive and to walk amongst the Sitters, THE THIRD AND LAST STAGE of its evolution being now complete.

Although occasionally the entity will appear clad in an exact copy of the clothing which he states that he wore when on earth—especially if it should happen to be something a little out of the common, such as a military or naval uniform—they are draped as a rule in flowing white garments of a wonderfully soft texture, and this too I have been permitted to handle.

Our clairvoyantes both affirm that at all times during the materialisation a thin band of, presumably, the dough-like substance can be plainly seen issuing from the side of the Sensitive, if a man (or from the pelvis, if a woman), and joined on to the centre of the body inhabited by the entity—just like the umbilical cord attached to a human infant at birth,—and we are instructed that this band cannot be stretched beyond a certain radius, say ten to fifteen feet, without doing harm to the Sensitive and to the entity: although cases are on record where materialisations have been seen at a distance of nearly sixty feet from the Sensitive, on occasions when the conditions were unusually favourable.

On handling different portions of the materialised body now, the flesh is found to be both warm and firm. The bodies are well proportioned, those of the females—for they take on sex conditions during the process—having beautiful figures; and hands, arms, legs, and feet quite perfect in their modeling: but, in my opinion, the body, head, and limbs of every materialisation of either sex or any age which I have scrutinised at close quarters carefully, or have been permitted to handle, have appeared to be at least one-third smaller in size (except as regards actual height) than those possessed by beings on earth of the same sex and age.

Not only have we witnessed materialisations of aged entities of both sexes, showing all the characteristics of old age, for the purpose of identification by the Sitters, as they tell us—but we have seen materialised infants also; and on one occasion two still-born children appeared in our midst simultaneously, one of them showing distinct traces on its little face of a hideous deformity which it possessed at the time of his premature birth—a deformity known only to the mother, who happened to be present that evening as one of the Sitters.

We are told that, for the purpose of identification, the entity will return to earth in an exact counterpart of the body which he alleges that he occupied at the time of his death, and in order that he may be recognised by his relatives and friends who happen to be present. Thus, the one who left the earth as an infant will appear in his materialised body as an infant, although he may have been dead for twenty or thirty years. The aged man or woman will appear with bent body, wrinkled face, and snow-white hair, walking amongst us with difficulty, and just as they allege they did before their death, although that may have occurred twenty years before. The one who had lost a limb during his earth-life will return minus that limb; the one who was disfigured by accident or disease will return bearing distinct traces of that disfigurement, for the purpose of identification only.

But as soon as the identification has been established successfully, all this changes instantly: the disfigurement disappears: the four limbs will be seen, and both the infant and the aged will from henceforth show themselves to us in the very prime of life—the young growing upwards and the aged downwards, as we say, and, as they one and all state emphatically, just as they really look and feel in the sphere in which they now exist.

While inhabiting these temporary bodies, they state that they take on, not only sex conditions, but earth conditions temporarily too: for they appear to feel pain if their bodies are injured m any way; complain of the cold if the temperature of the room is allowed to fall much below sixty degrees, or of the heat if the temperature is allowed to rise above seventy degrees; seem to be depressed during a thunderstorm, when our atmosphere is overcharged with electricity; and appear bright and happy in a warm room when the world outside is in the grip of a hard frost, and also on bright, starry nights.

And not only this, but they take on strongly marked characteristics of the numerous races on earth temporarily too: the materialised entities of the white races differing quite as markedly from those of the yellow or brown races, as do these from the black races; and in speaking to us each one will communicate in the particular language only which is characteristic of his race on earth.

Five, six, and even seven totally different languages have been employed during a single experimental meeting through a Sensitive who had never in his life been out of England, and who was proved conclusively to know no other language than English:

the latter number, we were told, being in honour of a ship’s doctor who was present on one occasion, and who—although the fact was quite unknown to any of us at the time—proved to be an expert linguist, for he conversed that evening with different entities in English, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and in the language of one of the hill-tribes of India.

On another occasion, when I was the only European present at an afternoon experimental meeting held in London by eight Parsees of both sexes from Bombay, during the whole of the time—two and a quarter hours—which the meeting lasted the entities and the Parsee Sitters carried on their conversation in Hindustani; two entities simultaneously and one of the Parsee men engaging in a heated controversy, which lasted for nearly three minutes, over the disposal of the bodies of their dead: the entities insisting on cremation only, as opposed to allowing the bodies to be eaten by vultures—the noise which they made during this discussion being almost deafening. The Sensitive, it was proved conclusively, knew no other language than English, and had only once been out of the British Islands, when he paid a short visit to France.

CHAPTER III
TESTS

"Sit down before a fact as a little child: be prepared to give up every preconceived notion: follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing."—THOMAS HUXLEY

The tests given to me and to my fellow investigators through the six Sensitives who so ably assisted us during our seven years of experimental work in this little-known field of research—the tests have been so numerous, and were of such a varied character, that I find it somewhat difficult to know which to select out of the hundreds which were recorded in our books officially and elsewhere, the ones which will prove of the greatest interest to inquirers; but I have made extracts from ten of these records, and these, with a few taken from Sir William Crookes’ reports on the experiments conducted in his presence, will, in my opinion, be sufficient to prove that we who have witnessed these marvels are neither hallucinated, insane, nor liars when we solemnly affirm that we have both seen and handled the materialised bodies built up for temporary use by entities from another sphere:

all the statements made here being true in every detail, to the best of my knowledge and belief.

EXPERIMENT No. 1

Place—Lyndhurst, New Forest, Hampshire. Sensitive A, male, aged about 46.

As an example of a simple but exceedingly severe test, I would first record one given to me and a fellow-investigator on the outskirts of the New Forest; one for which no special preparation of any kind whatever had been made.

The Sensitive, a nearly blind man, was taken by us on a dark night to a spot totally unknown to him, as he had only just arrived from London by train, and was led into a large traveling caravan [British term, a “house on wheels,” a recreational vehicle], one which he had never been near before, as it had only recently left the builder’s hands.

During the day I had made a critical examination of the interior of the caravan, and had satisfied myself that no one was or could possibly be concealed in it. I then locked the door, and kept the key in my pocket until the moment when, on the arrival of the Sensitive, I unlocked the door and we all passed into the caravan together. I then locked and bolted the door behind us.

As I have already said, no preparation of any kind had been made for the experiment. It was merely the result of a desire to see if anything could be produced, through this Sensitive, under extremely difficult conditions—conditions which we considered as so utterly bad as to make failure a certainty.

We did not even possess a chair of any kind for the Sensitive or ourselves to sit upon, so we placed for his use a board on top of the iron cooking-range which was fixed in the kitchen portion of the caravan, whilst we sat upon the two couches which were used as beds in the living-portion of the caravan. There was no music, no powerful "human battery" in the shape of a number of picked Sitters; in fact, the conditions were just about as bad as they could possibly be, and yet, within ten minutes of my locking the door behind us, the figure of a tall man stood before us, a man so tall that he was compelled to bow his head as he passed under the six-foot (high) partition which separated the two sections of the caravan.

He said, "I am Colonel__ who was ‘killed’, as you say, at the battle of __ in Egypt. For many years during my earth-life I was deeply interested in materialisations, and spent the last night of my life in England experimenting with this very Sensitive; and it is a great pleasure to me to be able to return to you—strangers though you both are to me—through him. To prove to you that I am not the Sensitive masquerading before you, will you please come here and stand close to me, and so settle the matter for yourself?"

I at once rose and stood beside him, almost touching him. I then discovered that not only were his features and his coloring totally different to those of the Sensitive, but that he towered above me, standing, as nearly as I could judge, six foot two or three inches, and was certainly four inches taller than either the Sensitive or myself.

Whilst thus standing beside him, and at a distance of about eight feet from the Sensitive, we could both hear the unfortunate man moving uneasily on his hard seat on the kitchen-range, sighing and moaning as if in pain.

The entity remained with us for about three minutes, and his place was then taken by a slightly built young man, standing about five feet nine inches, one claiming to be a recently deceased member of the royal family. He talked with us in a soft and pleasing voice, finally whispering a private message to my companion, asking him to deliver it to his mother, Queen.

EXPERIMENT No. 2

Place—Peckham Rye, London, S.E. Sensitive A, male, aged about 46.

An almost equally hopeless task was set this Sensitive by the owner of the caravan and myself when we experimented with him at midday on a brilliant morning in July, with sunlight streaming into the room round the edges of the drawn down window-blinds, and round the top, sides, and bottom of the heavy window-curtains, which we had pinned together in a vain attempt to keep out the sunlight during the experiment.

And yet, once again, and in spite of the conditions which we regarded as utterly hopeless, the figure of a man appeared in less than ten minutes, materialised from head to foot, as he proved to us by showing us his lower limbs. He left the side of the Sensitive, walked out into the room and stood between us, talking to us in a deep rich voice for nearly three minutes. As he stood beside us we could hear the Sensitive, twelve feet away, moving uneasily on his chair and groaning slightly.

Five minutes after he disappeared the same (alleged) recently deceased member of the royal family walked out to us and held a short private conversation with my companion, and sent another message to his mother, Queen.

EXPERIMENT No. 3

Place—West Hampstead, London, N.W. Sensitive B, female, aged about 49.

Persons of middle age or older who happened to be in England a few years ago at the time that two lawsuits were brought against a celebrated conjurer by the clever young man who had succeeded in exposing one of his most mystifying tricks, will well remember the sensation caused by the giving of both verdicts against the conjurer; and the young man—to whom I shall refer—as Mr X.—at once became famous as the man who had beaten one of the cleverest conjurers of the day.

A friend of mine, who had been present on several occasions when Sir William Crookes’ Sensitive—Florrie Cook (Mrs. Corner), referred to above as Sensitive B—had produced materialisations in gaslight at my house in London, asked her to visit his house at West Hampstead one evening to meet several friends of his, and to see if it were possible for any entity to materialise in my friend’s own drawing-room.

She at once accepted his invitation to sit there under strict test conditions; and talking the matter over with some of his friends a day or two before the one chosen for the experiment, he told me that they had arranged to have the Sensitive securely tied to her chair, to have strong iron rings fastened to the floor-boards, through which ropes would be passed, these ropes to be securely fastened to the Sensitive’s legs; all knots of every size and kind to be sealed, so as to prevent any attempt on her part to leave her chair and to masquerade as a materialised entity.

One of his friends happened to know the celebrated Mr. X., and as he had so recently succeeded in beating so notable a conjurer, he was invited to be present and to take entire charge of the tying up, the binding and sealing arrangements, in order to render the escape of the Sensitive from her chair an impossibility.

When I joined the party in the drawing-room, Mr. X., to whom I was introduced, was busily engaged in tying the Sensitive up with his own ropes and tapes, sealing every knot with special sealing-wax and with a seal provided by our host. The room was a large one, and a portion at one end had been cleared of all furniture, and in the centre of this space only the Sensitive seated upon her chair, and Mr. X. busily at work, were to be seen; and the latter, after another fifteen minutes of real hard labor, was asked by our host if he was thoroughly satisfied that the Sensitive was fastened to her chair securely. He replied that so securely was she fastened, that if she could produce phenomena of any kind whatever under such conditions, he would at once admit their genuineness.

The Sensitive was all this time in a perfectly normal state, and not flurried in any way, her one anxiety being lest we should lower the lights, as she was so terrified at the thought of darkness.

Mr. X., after stepping backwards to have a final look at the result of his labors, then walked close to the spot where the Sensitive was sitting in gaslight, and put one hand up towards the top of the curtain, and was in the act of drawing this round her to keep the direct rays of the gaslight from falling upon her, when a large brown arm and hand suddenly appeared, the hand being clapped heavily upon Mr. X’s shoulder, whilst a gruff masculine voice asked him in loud tones, "Are you really satisfied?"

I have witnessed some strange happenings in connection with my investigation of occult matters, but to my dying day I shall never forget the look of blank astonishment on Mr. X’s face at that moment.

Quickly recovering himself, however, he at once examined the Sensitive—a little woman, far below the average height, having small hands and feet, as we could all see quite clearly—and declared that every seal and every knot was unbroken, and just as he had left them not sixty seconds before.

Amongst other entities who materialised that evening was a young girl of about eighteen years of age, who stated that when she left her earth-body she had been a dancer at a café in Algiers.

She came from the spot where the Sensitive was seated, laughing heartily, stating that the hand and arm belonged to an old English sailor, whom she spoke of as "the Captain." She said, further, that he had been standing with her watching the tying-up process from their sphere, and laughing at Mr. X’s vain attempt to prevent the production of the phenomena. The Captain had very much wished to materialise fully, so as to surprise Mr. X. as he stepped back from the Sensitive; but finding that he could only get sufficient "power" to produce a hand and arm, he was in a bad temper. And this was evidently the case, for during the ten minutes that the girl remained talking to us we could now and then hear the gruff voice of the Captain rolling out language which can only be described as "forcible and free."

The experiment lasted for nearly an hour, and at its conclusion Mr. X. examined the Sensitive, and once again reported that every seal and knot were just as he had left them at the commencement of the experiment.

EXPERIMENT No. 4

Place—my house in London. Sensitive D, male, aged about 34.

On numerous occasions this Sensitive has been seen by all present, in gaslight shaded by red paper, seated on his chair in a state of deep trance, and was heard to be breathing heavily, whilst two materialised entities stood beside him; or with one beside him, and the other standing five to eight feet away from him and close to the Sitters.

Again, two female entities were seen simultaneously when this (male) Sensitive was experimenting with us, one of them inside the half-circle formed by the sixteen Sitters, and talking to them in a low sweet voice, at a distance of about eight feet from the Sensitive; whilst the other female entity passed through or over the Sitters, and walking about the room outside the half-circle formed by the Sitters, came up behind two of them, and not only spoke audibly to them, but also held a short conversation with the entity inside the ring, both speaking almost instantaneously.

EXPERIMENT No. 5

Place—my house in London. Sensitive D, male, aged about 34.

One of the two female entities referred to in Experiment No. 4, a tall and particularly graceful woman, apparently about twenty-five years of age, was walking amongst the Sitters, talking to them, and showing them her beautifully modeled hands, the fingers being unusually long and tapering.

Stopping in front of one of the male Sitters (Mr. D.), whose thoughts at that moment she must have clearly read, she asked him to lend her his gold signet-ring. He admitted afterwards, that in spite of all that he saw for himself that night, he still half believed that the male Sensitive had escaped from his chair, and was masquerading cleverly as the female entity.

With considerable difficulty Mr. D. took the ring off his little finger, and she then held up both her hands, and in the presence of the fifteen other Sitters, she dropped his ring quite easily over, not only each of her eight fingers, but over both thumbs as well. He then put the ring into his waistcoat pocket, and at the conclusion of the experiment, we stood round him whilst he tested the ring on the hands of the Sensitive, and he was altogether unable to pass it over the second joint of any of his fingers on either hand, and could not get it on to his thumbs at all.

EXPERIMENT No. 6

Place—the Psychological Society, London. Sensitive C, male, aged about 50.

This Sensitive is the one to whom I referred on page 27, the man who would not sit apart from the circle formed by the Sitters, but insisted on sitting amongst them, two of them holding his hands firmly with their own during the whole time that we were experimenting with him. He did not pass into a state of trance, but was perfectly normal during the experiment, and when a materialised form appeared he would speak to the entity inhabiting the form as it moved about the room, and the entity would reply in a clear voice, which was distinctly audible, not only to the fourteen or sixteen Sitters in the room, but to two observers who were stationed outside the door of the room, whose notes, made at the time, proved conclusively that we were none of us hallucinated during the experiment.

On the occasion to which I now refer, the organist was absent owing to illness, so the harmonium was closed, and a circle bf Sitters was formed at a distance of twenty feet away from the instrument; and there the Sensitive sat, firmly held by the two officials in charge of him for that night—the president and vice-president of the society.

In about ten minutes a tall and slim man appeared in our midst, who after passing mysteriously either through or over the circle formed by the Sitters, walked slowly to the harmonium, raised the cover, and pushed it back. He then seated himself on the music-stool, and drawing out some of the stops, played half a dozen perfectly harmonious chords upon the instrument, using both hands, and apparently working the pedals with both feet.

The music was distinctly heard, not only by the fourteen Sitters present in the room, but also by the two observers stationed outside the room; the Sensitive being held securely during the whole time that the experiment lasted, at a distance of nearly twenty feet away from the entity seated upon the music-stool.

Half an hour later, one of the entities suggested that a little music would help to make the conditions better. So I left my seat, went to the harmonium and was in the act of playing a voluntary, when the Sensitive, nearly twenty feet away, said, "Look behind you, please." I turned my head, and there almost touching me, stood the same tall and slender figure of a man; and gazing closely into his face, I at once perceived that his features were of a distinctly different type to those of the Sensitive, whilst his height exceeded that of the Sensitive by nearly three inches. He said, "We thank you, friend, for your kind help: the vibrations given off by this instrument are of very great assistance to us during these delicate experiments."

EXPERIMENT No. 7

Place—Whitehall, London. S. W. Sensitive D, male, aged about 34.

Two young men, to whom I shall refer as Mr. T. and Mr. W., who had often experimented with this Sensitive at my house in London, asked him if he would attend at their "office" one evening to see if any results could be obtained there; and he at once accepted their offer, and they were good enough to invite me to join their party of friends.

Today those two young men are holding high positions in the State, but they had never allowed the fact to leak out that they were in any way connected with the Government or its Services, and from their reference to the "office" we all assumed that they were engaged in business in London.

They asked me to bring the Sensitive to an address which they gave me, and on driving to this address with him, I saw that it was a narrow street leading out of that busy thoroughfare, Whitehall (London); and on stopping the cab, I was greatly surprised to find that we were drawn up at (apparently) the side entrance to a very large building, the front of which evidently faced Whitehall.

Before I had time to say a word to the Sensitive, or to draw his attention to what I had seen of the building, Mr. T. and Mr. W. hurried down the steps leading to it and ushered us into a splendid entrance-hall, up a palatial staircase, and into a very large and lofty room, beautifully decorated and furnished in sumptuous style with massive writing-desks, large chairs and settees upholstered in scarlet leather, whilst on the floor was a carpet into which our boots sank luxuriously. Two ladies were waiting for us near the handsomely carved fireplace, and we were then informed that no other persons had been invited: so closing and locking the doors, we took our seats round the Sensitive in one corner of the palatial room and awaited results.

Now, in this instance again, little or no special preparation had been made for the experiment, and, in spite of the splendor of the place and its contents, I told them that I doubted if we should get anything whatever in the way of results under such adverse conditions.

The Sensitive quickly passed into a state of trance, and, in less than fifteen minutes of our taking our seats, the figure of a tall and elderly man appeared, who stooped slightly as he walked. He moved towards Mr. T. and Mr. W., who recognised him instantly; the ladies too both recognised him; but as no name was mentioned by them, I concluded that the entity was probably a relative or personal friend of theirs.

After standing before them for nearly two minutes, he suddenly turned and walked up to within eighteen inches of the spot where I was seated. I knew him at a glance, and said, "Why, it is Lord ___ whom I so often saw in 1881." He at once bowed his head and smiled at me in quite a friendly way, but although his lips moved distinctly, I did not hear what he said.

Mr. T. was the first to speak aloud. He said, "This is more than wonderful. The place in which we are sitting is the __ __(London), and this is Lord __’s own room. We decided to sit here as a test, without telling you or the Sensitive the place we had selected, in order that we might see whether it was possible for Lord __ to return to the room which he so dearly loved, the one in which so many of his greatest diplomatic triumphs were carried to a successful issue." They then told me for the first time that they were both in the Service.

Two or three other entities appeared; and a small wild animal from India, to which I shall refer shortly, also materialised, in spite of my imploring the entities not to let him do so, or at least to keep him in check in such a palatial apartment. But this the entities declared themselves incapable of doing¹ and the little animal scampered into the room, climbed on to the gorgeous writing-desk nearest to us, and rushed across it, scattering official papers, pens, and pencils in wild confusion.

How we all escaped the headsman’s block on Tower Hill, or imprisonment for life, for our escapade in a Government building, and in one of the most sacred rooms in that building, remains an unsolved mystery to me to this day!

EXPERIMENT No. 8

Place—Wilton Crescent, London, S. W. Sensitive D, male, aged about 34.

Whilst this (male) Sensitive was seated in a corner of the room, and wedged in there tightly by the ring of Sitters grouped round him—Sitter No.1 being not more than three feet from him—a female entity appeared, who at once walked out amongst the Sitters and stood talking to them for more than five minutes. When at a distance of about eight feet from the Sensitive, one of the legs of the wooden chair on which he was seated suddenly gave way, and he fell forward into my arms, as I happened to be the Sitter No. 1 and nearest to him. He was in deep trance, breathing heavily and groaning slightly.

Contrary to our expectations, the entity was not nearly so startled as were the Sitters, her first thought being for him. She stood perfectly still at the spot where she had been at the moment of the accident, and directly we had propped up the chair temporarily, and had placed the unconscious Sensitive upon the seat once more, she walked slowly towards him and then de-materialised, as she often used to do, passing to all appearances through the floor.

This was always an interesting portion of the experiment to watch. The feet and ankles would first disappear; then slowly the legs, up to the hips, would sink downwards; next the body up to the neck; followed—after a few words of farewell—by the face, the top of the head remaining for about thirty seconds on the surface of the floor, the dazzling white of the drapery, in which the head had been draped during the appearance of the entity in our midst, showing plainly above the dark-coloured carpet. The dematerialisation lasted for about a minute and a quarter from first to last, and was clearly visible, by artificial light, to all present on every occasion.

EXPERIMENT No. 9

Place—Eaton Square, London, S. W. Sensitive D, male, aged about 34.

Materialisations of both beasts and birds sometimes appeared during our experiments with this Sensitive, the largest and most startling being that of a seal, which appeared on one occasion when Field-Marshal Lord Wolseley was present.

The first time that this occurred was in a private house in Eaton Square, which the Sensitive had never entered before, the owner of the house being a complete stranger to him at the time.

During the experimental meeting we suddenly heard a remarkable voice calling out some absurd remarks in loud tones, finishing off with a shrill whistle. "Why, that must be our old parrot," said the lady of the house. "He lived in this room for many years, and would constantly repeat those very words." This was at once confirmed by her daughter, and also by the lady’s governess, who were present as Sitters.

As this was the first occasion on which I had ever even heard of such a thing as the materialisation of a beast or bird, I was completely nonplussed for the moment, I confess; but one of the entities explained the matter to us,¹ and after that evening we occasionally witnessed materialisations of some of the badly-named "lower orders" of creation.

Both scientific and lay critics, who up to this stage of our investigation had merely termed us hallucinated cranks (just as they had termed Sir William Crookes), now stated boldly that we were either descendants of Ananias and Sapphira or else as mad as March hares. But the results of the next experiment which I will record disposed of these criticisms finally, for I was able to prove the truth of my assertions by ocular demonstration to many of our would-be critics.

A small wild animal from India—the at-one-time pet of a lady present on the occasion to which I shall now refer, an animal which had been "dead" for three years or more, and had never been seen or heard of by the Sensitive, and was known to only one other Sitter—suddenly ran out from the spot where the Sensitive was sitting, breathing heavily and in a state of deep trance, the little creature uttering exactly the same cry which it had always used as a sign of pleasure during its earth-life. The entities told us not to be alarmed at its appearance, as it would take on its old conditions, and would be quite harmless.

It had shown itself altogether on about ten different occasions, staying in the room for not more than two minutes at a time, and then disappearing just as suddenly as it had arrived upon the scene. But on this occasion, the lady who had owned it during its life called it to her by its pet name, and it then proceeded to climb slowly up on to her lap.

Resting there quietly for about half a minute, it then attempted to return, but in doing so caught one of its legs in the lace with which the lady’s skirt was covered. It struggled violently, and at last got itself free, but not until it had torn the lace for nearly three inches, as was afterwards discovered. At the conclusion of the experiment, a medical man (Dr A. C.) who was present asked everyone to remain in their seats whilst he made a careful inspection of the torn lace. He reported that there were five green-colored hairs hanging in the torn lace, which had evidently become detached from the little animal’s leg during its struggles. The lady at once identified the color and the texture of the hairs, and this was confirmed by the other Sitter—himself a naturalist—who had frequently seen and handled the animal during its earth-life.

The five hairs were carefully collected, placed in tissue paper, and then shut up in a light-tight and damp-proof box. They were shown to several scientific and other investigators in London; but after a few days they commenced to dwindle in size, and finally disappeared entirely, owing, we assume, to the action of the actinic rays given off by the daylight and the gaslight when they were being inspected by inquirers.

It was those five little green hairs which settled the sneers of our would-be critics finally.

Permission has been given occasionally by the entities to cut off with scissors a portion of the drapery so generally worn by them when making use of a materialised body; and if carefully preserved in a suitable box, it has been found possible to keep it for a short time, provided that the drapery was examined only in a non-actinic light. But in spite of the box being locked up in a safe, the material has always decreased in size, eventually disappearing entirely, and in consequence of this, I do not believe that it has ever been possible to make a scientific examination of it.

EXPERIMENT No. 10

Place—my house in London. Sensitive B, female, aged about 49.

The results of this experiment were, so far as I am personally concerned, the most wonderful, and at the same time the most convincing of all the tests which I have obtained.

Experimenting with a picked set of Sitters in my own room (with Sir William Crookes’ Sensitive), the French dancing-girl was standing fully materialised from head to foot, barely six feet away from me, three or four feet away from the Sensitive, and directly opposite the gas-bracket; the flame being turned up to its full height, the light being only slightly shaded with a piece of yellow paper, in order that the direct rays from the gas might be somewhat softened before falling upon her, as otherwise her features would soon begin to melt and to run, exactly in the way that soft wax will melt in the presence of heat—an extremely painful and unpleasant sight to witness, as I know by experience.

She had been talking to us for five minutes, and showing us as usual her hands and arms, feet and legs, as she was evidently extremely proud of their beautiful modeling—when she turned to me and asked me to leave my seat and come and stand beside her. I did this, and she at once moved up quite close to me and rested her little head upon my right shoulder. I noticed that, although her features appeared to be smaller than those of a normal young woman of her age on earth, she was considerably taller than the Sensitive, then a rather short and stout woman of nearly fifty, and the mother of two grown-up daughters. Her complexion was beautifully fair, whilst that of the Sensitive was very dark, the hair in each case following the general coloring. Her ears were unpierced, while the Sensitive always wore earrings. These things satisfied me that the entity and the Sensitive were two absolutely separate beings. But not content with this, I, for the first and only time during the seven years which I

devoted to this investigation, broke conditions: but the desire to settle the great problem once and for all so overmastered me that I very gently passed my right arm completely round the entity, and found that I was clasping the thin waist of a young girl, which felt both warm and firm to the touch through the white drapery with which it was covered; the measurement certainly not exceeding fifteen to sixteen inches, whereas the waist measurement of the Sensitive that night was twenty-four inches.

In this way, then, I received my final test, a test so absolutely convincing that I never asked for another one; and although I continued my investigations for several years longer, and with five other Sensitives, no entity ever gave me such a test as this, nor did I consider it necessary to ask them for another one.

But our red-letter evening was not yet over by any means, for instead of displaying anger at my breaking conditions so deliberately, the entity merely smiled at the Sitters as I held her firmly in my grasp for half a minute or more, and did not attempt to take her head from my shoulder until I had released her from my grasp. I then apologised to her for what I had done, and thanking her for giving me so wonderful a test, I returned to my seat.

She then invited a lady to take her stand beside her, singling out one who up to that moment had always candidly admitted that she regarded this special Sensitive as a fraud.

The lady left her seat, and stood close to the entity, who at once rested her head upon the lady’s shoulder, permitting her to place her arm round the girl’s waist; and a very charming picture they made, the lady being dressed in a modern evening costume, the girlish form of the entity being clad in flowing robes of dazzling whiteness. They stood like this for nearly a minute, when we heard the entity ask the lady to turn her head round, and to look at the spot where the Sensitive was sitting in deep trance, only about four feet away.

She did this, and stated that she could see the Sensitive distinctly, her head drooping upon her chest, her arms and hands hanging loosely at her sides, and her body clothed in black velvet; for she always insisted on wearing not only a black dress during our experiments with her, but black underclothing throughout, even giving to us her pocket-handkerchief just before she passed into trance, so that no one could ever accuse her of masquerading as a materialised entity clad in white robes.

Sir William Crookes carried out a series of experiments with this Sensitive, Florrie Cook, before her marriage to Mr. Corner, and she lived in the house of Sir William and Lady Crookes, in London, for some years, I believe.

Needless to say, the experiments which he conducted were always carried out under the very strictest test conditions which a man of such world-wide renown as a scientist could devise; and it was owing to the splendid training which she obtained under Sir William Crookes that she was able to produce, during my experiments with her, long after her marriage, such wonderful materialisations in strong light, and after submitting willingly to a searching examination of her clothes and body by a qualified medical man. Instead of shrinking from tests, she was always glad to think that we were endeavoring to obtain them through her; and when we had succeeded, no one was more thoroughly gratified to hear of our good fortune than Mrs. Corner herself. All honor to her memory.

During Sir William Crookes’ experiments with her, an entity, calling herself "Katie," permitted him not only to cut off portions of the white drapery in which she always appeared, and a long lock of hair from her head, but permitted him to hold her in his arms and to make a scientific examination of her materialised body.

He writes in the public press: "Having seen so much of Katie lately when she has been illuminated by the electric light, I am able to add to the points of difference between her and the Sensitive which I mentioned in a former article. I have the most absolute certainty that the Sensitive and Katie are two separate individuals so far as their bodies are concerned. Katie’s neck was bare last night, the skin was perfectly smooth both to touch and sight, whilst on the Sensitive’s neck is a large blister, which under similar circumstances is distinctly visible and rough to the touch. Katie’s complexion is very fair, while that of the Sensitive is very dark. Last night, with bare feet and not ‘tip-toeing,’ Katie was four and a half inches taller than the Sensitive. The Sensitive’s hair is so dark a brown as almost to appear black. A lock of Katie’s hair, which is now before me, and which she allowed me to cut from her luxurious tresses, having first traced it up to the scalp and satisfied myself that it actually grew there, is a rich golden auburn."

In another published report he states that he timed Katie’s pulse on one occasion. It beat steadily at seventy-five, whilst on timing the Sensitive’s pulse he found that it was going at its usual rate of ninety. He applied his ear to Katie’s chest and could hear a heart beating steadily inside, and pulsating even more steadily than the Sensitive’s heart. Katie’s lungs too he tested, and found them to be sounder than those of the Sensitive, who at that time was under medical treatment for a severe cough.

Katie, on one occasion, walked about the room fully materialised for nearly two hours, conversing familiarly with the Sitters present. Asking him to come to her, she took Sir William Crookes’ arm, and walked about the room with him arm in arm, the impression conveyed to his mind being that he was escorting a living woman instead of an entity from another sphere, so perfect was the materialisation.

He states that on the occasion on which the greatest test of all was given to him, Katie asked him to leave the other Sitters and to come with her to the spot where the Sensitive was lying in a state of deep trance. He found her crouching on the floor dressed in black velvet, as she had been when the experiment commenced, and to all appearance perfectly senseless. He looked round, and saw Katie standing close to the Sensitive: she was robed, as always, in flowing white drapery. He then took hold of the Sensitive’s hands, and kneeling down, carefully examined Katie so as to satisfy himself that it was actually her, and was not a phantasm or an hallucination. Katie did not speak during the examination, but only moved her head and smiled.

Three separate times did he carefully and critically examine the Sensitive crouching on the floor before him, to make certain that the hand which he held in his was that of a living woman; and three separate times did he examine Katie, "with steadfast scrutiny," as he so well says, until he had no doubt whatever as to her objective reality: the reality of her presence beside him.

At last the Sensitive moved slightly, and Katie instantly motioned him to go away. He moved a short distance from the Sensitive, and then ceased to see Katie, but he did not leave the spot until the Sensitive woke up.

Thus we see that Sir William Crookes handled both the entity and the Sensitive simultaneously, three separate times.

So careful was he as to little details that he actually arranged for a friend who could write shorthand to be close to him during this test, in order that he might take down word for word everything that he reported at the moment during the test.

He not only photographed Katie and the Sensitive together, but after asking permission, he clasped the materialised entity in his arms and found, as I did, that he was holding as solid a being as the Sensitive herself.

As President of the British Association he boldly declared before all the world that, after more than a quarter of a century, there was no statement which he had made upon this subject that he wished to retract or to alter in the light of later experience.

As President of the Royal Society he stands today as one of the great leaders of the world of science, and this in spite of the persecution that he endured for years, on account of his candid declaration of the proved existence of these entities in materialised bodies, at the hands of men of whom it has been well said they were not worthy to untie his shoe-laces. The high position to which he has attained is a sufficient guarantee of his clearness and accuracy as an observer, his wide experience as a scientific investigator, the soundness of his judgment, and above all, the probity of his character, which in a matter of this kind is of the very first importance.

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In the face of solid facts, such as I have recorded here, is it any wonder that I and those who assisted me in my investigations, supported as we are by the evidence of Sir William Crookes, Professor Alfred Russel Wallace, and other master scientists, should declare positively that we have both seen and handled entities from another sphere, who have taken upon themselves materialised bodies temporarily: seeing with their eyes: hearing with their ears: speaking and singing with their lips, just as you or I, or any other normal human being, can do?

It would be rank cowardice on my part were I to keep silence any longer as to the results which I obtained during the seven years which I devoted to a critical investigation of this, the most wonderful of all the phenomena offered for our investigation by these entities from another sphere, and I intend to keep silence no longer, come what may.

I am fully aware of the consequences of making statements such as those recorded here, for scientific and lay critics alike poured whole volumes of abuse upon Sir William Crookes’ head for daring to make public the results of his experiments in materialisations; and I have not the slightest doubt but that the same narrow-minded, pettifogging, carping spirit will be found amongst those today who cannot believe the facts which I have related here: facts which are proven up to the hilt: facts which no amount of argument, no amount of quibbling or distortion can ever move a single hair’s-breadth.

For scientists to scoff at the idea of entities from another sphere taking on temporary bodies, and working under certain clearly defined conditions, is merely to display childish and willful ignorance: and until they take the trouble to investigate these matters for themselves, and to listen to what the entities have to tell us concerning their life in the spheres in which they dwell, they are not entitled to pronounce an off-hand judgment, still less an injurious judgment, on the labors of those who, perhaps with fewer qualifications, but certainly with an equal desire of getting at the truth, have cheerfully undertaken the cost and the labor of the investigation, which they themselves have willfully neglected.

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HYPNOTISM

The suggestion has frequently been made in the Press and elsewhere, that we were all hypnotized during our experiments. The reply to this suggestion is, that collective hypnotism is proved conclusively to be impossible.

By incessant practice on the same individuals only, I find that I can obtain control over (say) three to five out of twelve really good subjects. In our case, however, the sixteen sitters were changed at practically every experiment, so that it would have been impossible to have induced the hypnotic condition in more than one or two simultaneously.

Hypnotism in any shape or form should be strictly forbidden in connection with such delicate experiments as those under consideration; and to deliberately place a Sensitive under hypnotic influence at the commencement of an experimental meeting, instead of permitting him to pass voluntarily into genuine trance, is simply courting disaster so far as results are concerned.

This has been proved conclusively in France and Germany recently, where on passing a Sensitive for materialisations into the hypnotic sleep, the forms issuing from the Sensitive in many instances so strongly resembled illustrations in current numbers of local newspapers—which had been seen by the operator or some of the experimenters (or both), and had deeply impressed themselves upon the brains (and minds)¹ of those present—that whilst more advanced investigators at once discern the cause of the trouble, the vast majority, in a state of utter bewilderment through their inexperience, put the results down to fraud on the part of the entirely innocent Sensitive...