Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth Century Witchcraft: Illustrated Investigations into the Phenomena of Spiritualism and TheosophyEvans, Henry Ridgely
Religion
Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth Century Witchcraft: Illustrated Investigations into the Phenomena of Spiritualism and Theosophy
Evans, Henry Ridgely
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna), 1831-1891; Spiritualism; Theosophy
"Under pretence of 'magnetising' the pellets prepared by the sitter, or
folding them more tightly, she substitutes a pellet of her own for one of
the sitter's. Reading the sitter's pellet below the table, she writes the
answer on one of her own slates, a pile of which, out of the sitter's
view, she keeps on a chair by her side. She then takes a second slate,
places it on the table, and sponges and dries both sides, after which she
takes the first slate, and turning the side upon which she has written
towards herself, rubs it in several places with a dry cloth or the ends of
her fingers as though cleaning it. She then places it, writing downward,
on the other slate on the table, and sponges and dries the upper surface
of it. She then pretends to take one of the pellets on the table and put
it between the two slates. What she does, however, is to bring the pellet
up from below the table, take another of the sitter's pellets on the table
into her hand, and place the pellet which she has brought up from below
the table between the slates, keeping in her hand the pellet just taken
from the top of the table. The final step is to place a rubber band round
both slates, in doing which she turns both slates over together. She
professes to get the writing without the use of any chalk or pencil. Some
of her slates are prepared beforehand with messages or drawings. More
interesting, perhaps, because of its boldness, is her method of producing
writing on the sitter's own slates. Under the pretence of 'magnetising'
these she cleans them several times, rubs them with her hands, stands them
up on end together, and while they are in this position between herself
and the sitter she writes with one hand on the slate-side nearest to
herself, holding the slates erect with the other hand. Later on, she lays
both slates together flat on the table again, the writing being on the
undermost surface. She then sponges the upper surface of the top slate,
turns it over, and sponges its other surface. She next withdraws the
bottom slate, places it on top and sponges its top surface, keeping its
under surface carefully concealed. The final step, the reversal, is made,
as in the other case, with the help of the rubber band. Mrs. Gillett has
probably other methods, also. Those which I have described were all that I
witnessed at my single sitting with her."
My friend, Dr. L. M. Taylor, of Washington, D. C., an investigator of
Spiritualistic phenomena, and skeptical like myself of the objective
phases of the subject, has had many sittings with Keeler for independent
slate-writing. One séance in particular he is fond of relating:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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