Materialized apparitions : $b if not beings from another life, what are theyBrackett, Edward Augustus
Religion
Materialized apparitions : $b if not beings from another life, what are they
Brackett, Edward Augustus
Apparitions; Spiritualism
While little Maud was standing at the curtain talking, there was a
remarkable show of hands and arms above her head. Sometimes six of them
would be moving back and forth outside the curtain at once. About eight
feet from the cabinet, and directly in front of me, so near that I could
have touched it without moving from my seat, appeared a very delicate
little hand and arm. Like a bird that hovers around some object that it
dare not approach too closely, this hand and arm dallied and played
before me for several minutes, visible to all present. On the left side
of the room, more than six feet from the cabinet door, a form
materialized in full view, and came forward and shook hands with a lady
on my right.
While engrossed in these things, I had almost forgotten that my
principal object in being there was to study the form of Bertha as
compared with her appearance at other places. I was aroused from my
meditations by an involuntary shock that almost always warns me of what
is coming. Turning quickly around, I saw what appeared to be Bertha,
gliding from the cabinet. She passed rapidly to the left side of the
room, moving the centre-table and coming directly to me. Throwing her
arms around my neck, she greeted me with, "I love you," and then, with a
frightened expression and half hysterical laugh, she retreated to the
cabinet. This was totally unlike Bertha, who, in her perfectly confiding
and childlike bearing toward me, never felt it necessary to express her
feelings in any such bold declaration. Knowing that there are phantoms
that can take on almost any form they choose, the outward resemblance of
these beings has no weight with me, in the absence of mental
characteristics.
At a seance held by Mrs. Sawyer, Sept. 29, there were present
twenty-five persons, most of whom received more or less attention from
the spirits. Little Maud was very lively and full of witty, playful
remarks. Near the close of the seance, she asked me to come into the
cabinet and try to quiet the medium, who was exhausted in consequence of
having watched with a sick friend the previous night. On entering the
cabinet, I found that Mrs. Sawyer was not entranced, and took hold of
both her hands, endeavoring to give her all the mesmeric strength I
could.
While thus situated, conversing freely with the medium and little Maud
(who was evidently pleased to have me there), a spirit materialized and
went out among the audience. After it returned, another materialized,
and taking my left hand while Mrs. Sawyer held my right, we all three
walked out into the room, some distance from the cabinet, in full view
of all present. This was a new experience for me. To suppose that the
twenty-five honest, intelligent persons who witnessed this were
deceived, or that the appearance of the form was due to a confederate,
is simply absurd. I know it materialized in the cabinet, within reach of
where I sat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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