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
The Medium: No; but sometimes it causes an exhaustion, that is, under
circumstances when the raps do not come freely.
Mr. Furness: The freer the raps come, the better for you?
The Medium: Yes; the freer the better--the less exhaustion.
Mr. Sellers: But do you feel now, to-night, any untoward influence
operating against you?
The Medium: No, not to-night, for it takes quite a little while before
we feel those things.
Mr. Furness: Do these raps always have that vibratory
sound--tr-rut--tr-rut--tr-rut?
The Medium: Sometimes they vary.
Mr. Furness: As a general rule I have heard them sound so.
The Medium: Every rap has a different sound. For instance, when the
Spirit of Mr. Seybert rapped, if the sound was a good one, you would
have noticed that his rap was different from that of another. Every one
is entirely different from another.
Mr. Furness: Do you suppose that the present conditions are such that
you can throw the raps to a part of the room other than that in which
you are?
The Medium: I do not pretend to do that, but I will try to do it.
Mr. Furness and Dr. Leidy station themselves in the corner of the room,
diagonally, and most remote from the pine table, at which their
associates remain seated, with their hands upon the table, and 'their
minds intent on having the raps produced at the corner indicated,' as
requested by the Medium, who also remains at the table. The Medium asks,
'Will the Spirit rap at the other side of the room,' and, after twelve
seconds, and again after forty-three seconds, repeats the inquiry. No
response is received. The experiment is repeated with Mr. Furness and
Dr. Koenig at the corner, but with a like negative result.
At this point the attention of the Committee was again directed to the
attempted production of the rappings with the Medium standing upon the
glass tumblers. The lady proceeded to the space between the side-board
and the wall where the last preceding test had been made, and there the
tumblers were again arranged. The Medium resumed her position upon them,
with Doctors Leidy and Koenig, and Messrs. Sellers and Furness facing
her.
The Medium: Will the Spirit rap here?
Twenty-three seconds elapse.
Dr. Leidy: Is any Spirit present?
An interval of thirty-nine seconds here followed, when the attention of
the Committee was momentarily diverted by an inquiry addressed to Mr.
Furness by Mr. Sellers, viz.: Whether a glass plate of sufficient
strength to bear the weight of the Medium was procurable. At this moment
the Medium suddenly exclaimed: 'I heard a rap. You said, "Get a glass,"
and there was a rap.'[A]
[Footnote A: No one but the Medium heard this rap.--G.S.F.]
The Medium (repeating for the information of Mr. Furness): Somebody
proposed a glass and there were three raps.
Dr. Koenig inquires of the Medium whether the meaning intended to be
conveyed by the sounds is that the Spirits desire to have the glass
plate procured.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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