Ghosts I Have Seen, and Other Psychic ExperiencesTweedale, Violet
Religion
Ghosts I Have Seen, and Other Psychic Experiences
Tweedale, Violet
Ghosts; Parapsychology
I went one summer morning to see an old man who lived in the Marylebone
Road. I was shown up into a sunny little room on the first floor. It had
neither carpet, curtains nor window blind, and it looked on the street.
The furniture consisted of a plain, uncovered deal table in the middle
of a clean planked floor, and eight plain uncovered deal chairs were
ranged round the walls. The room was utterly destitute of ornament,
there was not even a clock, and I was the only occupant.
Soon the old man entered, a very ordinary looking person, and civilly
asked what I wanted.
I said that I understood he was possessed of psychic powers, and I would
like to see an exhibition of them.
He smiled and answered, "My fee is two-and-six for a quarter of an
hour. Choose your own phenomenon, and I'll see what I can do."
I was puzzled at first, and looked round the bare walls for inspiration.
There was not even a photograph or picture. Then suddenly I thought of
something rather silly.
"Please make those four chairs opposite to us cross the floor and mount
on to the table," I said.
The old man drew his chair quite close to mine, "Then give me your
hand." I removed my glove and did as he asked.
He looked, not at the chairs, but into my face, and I at once warned
him.
"I am no good as a subject for hypnotism, so it is useless to try."
He laughed and answered, "I am not a hypnotist, but I see you have
power. You may as well lend me some. You are young, and I am old."
At that second my attention was distracted by a grating sound, and I
forgot all about my companion. I saw the four chairs leave the wall and
advance towards the table, in exactly the position, and tilted forward,
they would be in if a human hand was dragging them across the floor.
There appeared to be four invisible hands at the work. Then, one by one,
they were neatly balanced, one on the top of the other, on the table.
When the manifestation was complete I remembered the old man, and looked
round at him. He was watching the business, as keenly interested as I
was.
"Good boys! good boys," I heard him murmur.
"How is it done?" I asked him.
He shrugged. "The Petris (spirits) do it. I don't."
"Then ask 'the Petris' to put the chairs neatly back again."
"The Petris" performed this feat very expeditiously, and I paid
two-and-sixpence and departed. There was no loophole here for fraud, not
a wire, or string, or any human manipulation, and I was not hypnotized.
I never have been. For that sort of test I had seen enough.
Shortly after I witnessed a materialization in broad daylight. I was
free to move about the room, and stand by the medium as she lay bound
and deeply entranced. I was free to make any examinations I pleased,
whilst others present conversed with the spirit, and I left the house
absolutely convinced of the genuineness of that phenomenon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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