Mrs. Piper & the Society for Psychical ResearchSage, Michael
Religion
Mrs. Piper & the Society for Psychical Research
Sage, Michael
Mediums -- Practice -- Great Britain; Parapsychology -- Investigation -- Great Britain; Piper, Leonora, 1859-1950; Spiritualism
Many readers may not be inclined to attach much value to Imperator's
prayers. They will take them for one of the diabolical inventions of
which secondary personalities are capable. Evidently, if we take them
apart from the rest, this is the most plausible explanation; but the
character and ideas of Imperator must be considered as a whole. I can
assure my readers that there is nothing diabolical about him. If
Stainton Moses and Mrs Piper have created him, they have created a
masterpiece; Imperator inspires respect in the most sceptical.
There is another aspect of the phenomena which telepathy does not
explain; the dramatic play. The personages at the other end of the wire
act, as far as we can judge, with all the appropriateness and
distinctive characteristics of reality. There are incidents of this
dramatic play, which telepathy cannot explain, in nearly all the
sittings. I have given some of them in passing, and will now give some
more examples. At M. Bourget's second sitting Mrs Pitman, whom I have
mentioned before, suddenly appears, and speaks nearly as follows:[84]
"Monsieur, I come to offer you my help. I lived in France and spoke
French fairly well when I was living. Tell me what you want, and I can
perhaps help you to communicate with this lady." In order to understand
the appropriateness of this intervention we must remember that George
Pelham, who was acting as intermediary, had complained at the beginning
of the sitting that the communicating spirit spoke French and that he
did not understand her.
One day George Pelham is asked for information about Phinuit, and is
about to give it. But Phinuit, who is manifesting through the voice
while George Pelham is doing so in writing, perceives this and cries,
"You had better shut up about me!" And the spectators witnessed a sort
of struggle between the head and the hand. Then George Pelham writes,
"All right, it is settled; we will say no more about it."
During a sitting in which the sitter's wife gave proofs of identity of a
very private nature to her husband she said, "I tell you this, but don't
let that gentleman hear." "That gentleman" could not be Dr Hodgson, who
had left the room; it was the invisible George Pelham who was habitually
present at the sittings at this period.
On April 30, 1894, Mr James Mitchell has a sitting.[85] Phinuit begins
by giving him appropriate advice about his health. He ends by saying,
"You worry, too." Then he adds, "There's a voice I hear as plainly as
you would a bell rung, and she says, 'That's right, doctor, tell him not
to worry, because he always did so--my dear husband--I want him to enjoy
his remaining days in the body. Tell him I am Margaret Mitchell, and I
will be with him to the end of eternity, spiritually.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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