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
Of the second class, or Subjective Phenomena, we have "table-tilting and
turning with contact; writing, drawing, etc., by means of the medium's
hand; entrancement, trance-speaking, and impersonation by the medium of
deceased persons, seeing spirits and visions and hearing phantom voices."
From a general scientific point of view there are three ways of accounting
for the physical phenomena of spiritualism: (1) Hallucination on the part
of the observers; (2) Conjuring; (3) A force latent in the human
personality capable of moving heavy objects without muscular contact, and
of causing "Percussive Sounds" on table-tops, and raps upon walls and
floors.
Hallucination has unquestionably played a part in the séance-room, but
here again the statement of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" is worthy of
consideration: "Sensory hallucination of several persons together who are
not in a hypnotic state is a rare phenomenon, and therefore not a probable
explanation." In my opinion, conjuring will account for seven-eighths of
the so-called phenomena of professional mediums. For the balance of
one-eighth, neither hallucination nor legerdemain are satisfactory
explanation. Hundreds of credible witnesses have borne testimony to the
fact of table-turning and tilting and the movements of heavy objects
without muscular contact. That such a force exists is now beyond cavil,
call it what you will, magnetic, nervous, or psychic. Count Agenor de
Gasparin, in 1854, conducted a series of elaborate experiments in
table-turning and tilting, in the presence of his family and a number of
skeptical witnesses, and was highly successful. The experiments were made
in the full light of day. The members of the circle joined hands and
concentrated their minds upon the object to be moved. The Count published
a work on the subject "Des Tables Tournantes," in which he stated that the
movements of the table were due to a mental or nervous force emanating
from the human personality. This psychic energy has been investigated by
Professor Crookes and Professor Lodge, of London, and by Doctor Elliott
Coues, of Washington, D. C., who calls it "Telekinesis." The existence of
this force sufficiently explains such phenomena of the séance-room as are
not attributable to hallucination and conjuring, thus removing the
necessity for the hypothesis of spirit intervention. In explanation of
table-turning by "contact," I quote what J. N. Maskelyne says in "The
Supernatural":
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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