The Problems of Psychical Research: Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the SupernormalCarrington, Hereward
Science
The Problems of Psychical Research: Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the Supernormal
Carrington, Hereward
Parapsychology
"My sister 'Eva' materialized for me. I suggested 'Eva' and she 'came.'
I never had a sister Eva, so she was a little out of place. However, she
'came' as a little girl about ten years old, with a hooked nose, bright
black eyes, and a fringe of false hair over her forehead. Her doll-like
appearance was very manifest. After she de-materialized, I was on the
point of walking back to my chair, but was told to wait. I returned to
the curtains of the cabinet, and my mother announced herself present,
'who had died from consumption.' The curtains were pulled aside, and I
put my face close to the opening, since it was so dark I could see
nothing. And there, in the dim twilight of that seance room, I beheld
one of the most ghastly, most truly terrifying faces I have ever seen.
It was white and drawn, and almost shiny in its glossy, ashen hue. The
eyes were wide open and staring--fixed. The head and face were encircled
in white; and altogether the face was one of the most appalling I have
ever beheld, and it would have required a great deal of fortitude, for
the moment, to look steadfastly at that terrifying face--in that quiet,
still room, in response to the spirit's demand: 'Look at me!' The
distance between our faces was not more than six inches; and after the
first shock, I regarded the face intently. I was spurred by curiosity
and excitement, and prompted yet further by the spirit form, who grasped
my wrist, through the curtain, and drew me yet closer--until I was
nearly in the cabinet itself. I remembered that my mother had not died
from consumption, and that the present face in nowise resembled hers,
and my feeling of terror lasted but an instant; but it was there at the
time, I confess. I regarded the face intently, and it was gradually
withdrawn into the shadow of the cabinet, and the curtains pulled over
it. _I am certain that, had I been in an excited and unbalanced frame of
mind at that instant, I should have sworn that the face melted away as I
looked at it._ But my mental balance was by that time regained, and I
could analyse what was before me. I can quite easily see how it is that
persons can swear to the melting away of a face before their eyes, after
my own experience. The appearances clearly indicated that, and it was
only my alertness to the possibility of deception in this direction,
which prevented my testifying to the same effect." (See my _Personal
Experiences in Spiritualism_, pp. 31-32.)
[36] _Annals of Psychical Science_, April 1908, pp. 181-91.
[37] _Ibid._, April-June 1909, pp. 285-305.
[38] Flammarion: _Mysterious Psychic Forces_; Morselli: _Psicologia e
Spiritismo_; De Fontenay: _A Propos d'Eusapia Paladino_; De Rochas:
_L'Exteriorization de la Motricite_, etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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