The Law of Psychic Phenomena: A working hypothesis for the systematic study of hypnotism, spiritism, mental therapeutics, etc.Hudson, Thomson Jay
Philosophy
The Law of Psychic Phenomena: A working hypothesis for the systematic study of hypnotism, spiritism, mental therapeutics, etc.
Hudson, Thomson Jay
Parapsychology
The contents of every letter written by the sitter were evidently
known to the intelligence which wrote the replies, for every letter
received an appropriate answer, save one, which will be noted further
on. The answer to each letter was addressed to the name signed to the
corresponding letter, and each answer was signed with the name of the
person to whom the corresponding letter was addressed.
Six letters were written by the sitter, as before stated. Three of
them were written to deceased friends of the sitter, and were couched
in such general terms that the replies did not require any specific
knowledge on the part of the intelligence which wrote the replies.
Two of the letters were written to living persons, and they were also
couched in general terms, requiring no specific knowledge to enable an
appropriate reply to be framed.
Each of these five letters received a reply which assumed that its
writer was a denizen of the spirit-land. There was no difference in
their replies so far as that was concerned.
The sixth letter was addressed to a deceased relative, and was as
follows, omitting names:--
DEAR A.B.,--Whom did you desire to have appointed administrator of
your estate? (Signed) C.D.
To this letter the only reply was from the medium's "control," who
reported as follows:--
"A.B. is here, but cannot communicate to-day."
The conclusions which are inevitable may be summed as follows:--
1. The slate-writing was done without physical contact with the
pencil, either by the medium or any one else. It all occurred in broad
daylight. The slates were not handled by the medium, except to wash
them and to place his hands upon them (in all cases but one) while the
writing was going on. The slates were not for an instant out of sight
of the sitter during the whole séance, nor were they out of his custody
during that time, after they were washed by the medium. They were then
carefully inspected by the sitter, the pencil was placed between them
by the sitter, they were tied together by the sitter, and opened by him
after the writing was finished. In short, there was no chance for fraud
or legerdemain, and there was none.
2. The power which moved the pencil, being clearly not physical, must
have been occult. This occult power was either that of disembodied
spirits, or that of the medium. Did it proceed from disembodied
spirits? Let us see. The replies to the five letters emanated from
the same source; that is to say, if the replies to any of them were
from disembodied spirits, they were all from disembodied spirits. They
were clearly not all from disembodied spirits, for two of the letters
were addressed to living persons, and the replies were of the same
character as the others. The logical conclusion is inevitable that none
of the replies were from disembodied spirits. To put it in the simple
form of a syllogism, we have the following:--
The replies to the five letters were all from the same source.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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