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
After some time Spirits began to show themselves one by one between the
curtains, and to whisper. Mrs. Thayer stepped forward and interpreted
for them, calling up persons in the circle to receive communications.
The forms were very indistinct from the circle, and apparently not very
distinct to those called up, as they expressed some dissatisfaction. One
man called up to speak with his daughter (one of the better forms)
remarked that he "saw her putty good, but not very." One or two of the
forms stepped out in front of the curtains (one was dressed as a man,
one purported to be Mary, Queen of Scots), but they did not advance to
the circle, and the light was so dim that they could not be seen at all
clearly. Only on one or two occasions two forms appeared at once, and
then not in front of the curtains, but one on each side of one of the
curtains--this curtain being pulled together, as though some one were
reaching around behind it. The appearance could very readily have been
made by the Medium's appearing between the two curtains, and holding up
a bit of drapery at the side of one of them. The audience was evidently
an uncritical one. When a Spirit called for her husband, Mrs. Thayer,
the interpreter, asked, "Has anyone here a wife on the other side?" An
old man present stated that his had died two years before. He asked if
the Spirit's name were _May_. When he came back to his seat, I heard him
remark to his neighbor that that "must have been her, but she had more
flesh on than when I knew her." No examination was made before or after
the séance of either room or Medium, and no tests of any sort were
applied. The séance lasted about an hour and a-half.
GEO. S. FULLERTON,
_Secretary_.
(Copied and arranged from notes made in the car on the way home from
this séance--Saturday evening, March 26th, 1887.)
N.B.--I have neglected to state (though it is mentioned in my notes)
that the séance was commenced by an "invocation" from Mrs. Coleman, who
sat near the curtains. It was in no wise remarkable.
G.S.F.
* * * * *
DR. LEIDY.
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