The Lock and Key Library: The Most Interesting Stories of All Nations: Real Life
Science
The Lock and Key Library: The Most Interesting Stories of All Nations: Real Life
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction; Parapsychology
I made my way to the "materializing seance," at which my friends
hoped to materialize. I was admitted to the seance room and found
about twenty persons already assembled. I was seated in the front
row of chairs. The cabinet used was a closet about six feet long
and four feet wide. The ceiling of both the room and the cabinet
was of wood. After a thorough examination had been made of the
cabinet by all those who cared to do so, the sitters were
rearranged to suit the medium. There were present now thirty-five
persons. The seance room was very large. The door had been taken
off the closet that served as a cabinet, and in its stead were hung
heavy curtains. The floor of the room was carpeted with a dark
carpet, as was the cabinet. The light was furnished by a lamp
placed in a box that was fastened to the wall some eight feet from
the floor. This box had a sliding lid in front, controlled by a
cord passing into the cabinet. By this means the "spirits" could
regulate the light to suit themselves, without any movement on the
part of any of those in the seance room being necessary. When
everything was in readiness the medium entered the cabinet, seated
himself and was tied, and so secured to his chair that it was
impossible that he could have any use of himself. He was most
thoroughly secured to his chair, and his chair nailed fast to the
floor by passing leather straps over the rounds in the side and
nailing the ends to the floor. After it was shown to the sitters
that he was utterly helpless, the curtain was drawn. The manager
now placed an ordinary kitchen table in front of the door of the
cabinet, so that it stood away from it about two feet. The table
contained no drawer. On the table was laid writing materials, a
guitar, and small bell. The manager seated himself close to one
side of the cabinet entrance, and started a large Swiss music box.
Before it had finished the first air the lamp was shut entirely
off, making the room inky dark.
An illuminated hand and arm was now seen to come from behind the
curtain, and played an accompaniment to the music box on the
guitar. We could see plainly the movements of the hand, arm, and
fingers, as it manipulated the strings of the instrument. It did
not appear necessary to finger the strings on the keyboard,
although the air was in a key that made it impossible to tune the
guitar so that an accompaniment could be performed WITHOUT
fingering. However, but one hand was visible, and it was picking
the strings. After the tune was finished, the hand left the in-
strument, and moved out into the room to the front of the table,
and from the sound we knew it was writing on the tablet that had
been placed there. The arm was of bluish light and appeared to end
just above the elbow, and to have no connection with the body. It
finished writing and seemed to float into the cabinet near the top.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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