A defence of modern spiritualismWallace, Alfred Russel
Religion
A defence of modern spiritualism
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Spiritualism
Mr. Beattie has been so good as to send me for examination a complete
set of these most extraordinary photographs, thirty-two in number, and
has furnished me with any particulars I desired. I have described them
as correctly as I am able; and Dr. Thomson has authorized me to use his
name as confirming Mr. Beattie’s account of the conditions under which
they appeared. These experiments were not made without labor and
perseverance. Sometimes twenty consecutive pictures produced absolutely
nothing unusual. Hundreds have been taken, and more than half have been
complete failures. But the successes have been well worth the labor.
They demonstrate the fact that what a medium or sensitive sees (even
where no one else sees anything) may often have an objective existence.
They teach us that perhaps the bookseller, Nicolai, of Berlin—whose case
has been quoted _ad nauseam_ as the type of a “spectral illusion”—saw
real beings after all; and that, had photography been then discovered
and properly applied, we might now have the portraits of the invisible
men and women who crowded his room. They give us hints of a process by
which the figures seen at séances may have to be gradually formed or
developed, and enable us better to understand the statements repeatedly
made by the communicating intelligences, that it is very difficult to
produce definite, visible and tangible forms, and that it can only be
done under a rare combination of favorable conditions.
We find, then, that three amateur photographers, working independently
in different parts of England, separately confirm the fact of
spirit-photography—already demonstrated to the satisfaction of many who
had tested it through professional photographers. The experiments of Mr.
Beattie and Dr. Thomson are alone absolutely conclusive; and, taken in
connection with those of Mr. Slater and Dr. Williams, and the test
photographs, like those of Mrs. Guppy, establish as a scientific fact
the objective existence of invisible human forms and definite invisible
actinic images. Before leaving the photographic phenomena we have to
notice two curious points in connection with them. The actinic action of
the spirit-forms is peculiar, and much more rapid than that of the light
reflected from ordinary material forms; for the figures start out the
moment the developing fluid touches them, while the figure of the sitter
appears much later. Mr. Beattie noticed this throughout his experiments,
and I was myself much struck with it when watching the development of
three pictures recently taken at Mr. Hudson’s. The second figure, though
by no means bright, always came out long before any other part of the
picture. The other singular thing is, the copious drapery in which these
forms are almost always enveloped, so as to show only just what is
necessary for recognition of the face and figure. The explanation given
of this is, that the human form is more difficult to materialize than
drapery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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