Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Materialized Apparitions _If Not Beings from Another Life What Are They_ BY EDWARD A. BRACKETT AUTHOR OF "THE WORLD WE LIVE IN", "MY HOUSE," ETC. [Illustration: ARTI et VERITATI] BOSTON RICHARD G. BADGER The Gorham Press 1908 _Copyright_ 1885, _by E. A. Brackett_ _All Rights Reserved_ _The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A._ To abandon these spiritual phenomena to credulity, is to commit a treason against human reason. Nevertheless, we see them always rejected and always reappearing. They date not their advent from yesterday. VICTOR HUGO. PREFACE. Written at intervals from the pressure of business, and at times that should have been devoted to recreation, these pages make no claim to artistic arrangement or literary merit. If they enable any one to arrive at a clearer and better appreciation of the wonderful phenomena of which they treat, they will have accomplished all that was intended. WINCHESTER, MASS. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION, PAGE 9 Part I. MATERIALIZATION AND DEMATERIALIZATION OF FORMS AND OBJECTS. CHAPTER. PAGE. I. MY FIRST SEANCE, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 17 II. PERSONIFICATION BY THE MEDIUM, OR MATERIALIZED FORMS 30 III. MATERIALIZATION AND DEMATERIALIZATION OF OBJECTS 36 IV. MATERIALIZATION AND DEMATERIALIZATION UNDER TEST CONDITIONS 51 V. AN UNEXPECTED SEANCE 60 VI. SEANCE WITH MRS. CARRIE M. SAWYER 68 VII. SEANCES WITH MRS. FAIRCHILD 79 VIII. SEANCE WITH MISS HELEN BERRY AT ONSET 88 IX. SEANCE AT THE BERRY SISTERS' IN BOSTON 99 X. MATERIALIZED FORMS--HOW SHALL WE MEET THEM? 109 Part II. OPINIONS AND THEORIES. I. A GLANCE BEHIND THE CURTAIN 123 II. EXPOSURES OF MEDIUMS 131 III. PUBLIC SEANCES 140 IV. THE ATTITUDE OF SCIENTISTS 146 V. PUBLIC OPINION 153 VI. CONCLUSION 164 ILLUSTRATIONS. DIAGRAM OF MRS. FAY'S SEANCE-ROOM 29 DIAGRAM OF THE MISSES BERRY'S SEANCE-ROOM 100 INTRODUCTION.