Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism: In Accordance with the Request of the Late Henry SeybertUniversity of Pennsylvania. Seybert Commission for Investigating Modern Spiritualism
Religion
Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism: In Accordance with the Request of the Late Henry Seybert
University of Pennsylvania. Seybert Commission for Investigating Modern Spiritualism
Parapsychology -- Investigation; Spiritualism
In a few days the envelopes were returned with the following brief note:
'Dear Furness: Send you what came to your P K the 2d gave no response my
terms are $3 for each trial--warrant nothing.
Respectfully,
J.V.M.'
The Spiritual communication enclosed reads as follows:
'I Bress de Lord for deh one mor to talk to de people of my ole home I
been thar lots o tim since I com here--but o Lord de Massy--they no see
_Winne_ cos she be ded and she jus no ded at tall--now--as to dot Col
gal--_Hed_ I could not say--sure--but I think it Dinah Melish--she who
lov de Lord too. I think it seem Dina top not. Will see Dina som time
and then i ask her--do you no Minister Du Cachet well he here--and want
the [there here follows in the original a rude drawing of a decanter and
wine glass. In this scandalous allusion there is no trace, it will be
observed, of phonetic spelling in the proper name] just de same. I Bress
de Lor I don't want it.
March 13, '85.
Cornelia Winnie.'
An examination of the envelope marked No. 1, by cutting it open at the
edges, revealed the same story of fraud: three of the seals had been cut
out, and replaced.
An examination of No. 2, in the same way, readily disclosed the reason
why the Spirits had failed to answer, although the question assuredly
presented no greater difficulties than in No. 1. An attempt had been
made to start two of the seals, but meeting with unexpected resistance
in the silk stitches, and finding that further effort would end in
tearing the envelope in a very palpable and mundane fashion, the Spirits
had grown disheartened and taciturn.
We shall meet this Medium again, but for the present we will leave him,
after pausing for a minute over his business card, which, after stating
his terms in prosaic dollars and cents, thus apostrophizes his
clientele:
"From the bright stars,
And viewless air
Sweet Spirit, if thy home be there,
Answer me.--Answer me."
Happily my experience enables me to remove all doubt as to the locality
of the Spirit's 'home,' and to state with positiveness its exact
location. But like the German philologist's example of the remarkable
incongruity in English between spelling and pronunciation, that what was
written 'Boz' was pronounced 'Charles Dickens,' so I cheerfully add to
this list of incongruities that what is written 'bright stars' is
pronounced 'Boston,' and 'viewless air' is pronounced 'Dartmouth
Street.'
I next turned my attention to Mr. R.W. Flint in New York. From him I
received the following circular in answer to my inquiries:
"DEAR
I am controlled by one spirit, purporting to be my guide who is the
scribe for the spirits, delivering (in his own hand-writing) what
is dictated to him by the spirit of communicating.
I am in a normal (not trance) state, but unconscious of the
composition.
My hand is moved to write from right to left (backwards),
independent of my will.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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