The Spirit LandEmmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Religion
The Spirit Land
Emmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Spiritualism
We have not room to mention all the facts in her case; but will add a
few of the most remarkable. "She was very susceptible to _electrical
influences_, and, what is almost incredible, _she had a preternatural
feeling_ or _consciousness of human writing_. Various minerals seemed
to have a specific effect, when brought in contact with her. _Glass and
rock crystal_ had a powerful effect in waking her from the somnambulic
state, or in exciting the force within her organism. This fact, and
others of this character in abundance, point to the peculiar tendency
of this force, in some cases of disease, to act outwardly from the
nerve centres upon glass ware, window glass, &c. "We have known a
child, eight years old," says Mr. Rogers, "who seldom, at one period,
took hold of a glass dish without its soon bursting to pieces." In the
case of Frederica, a rock crystal, placed on the pit of her stomach,
and allowed to remain there for some time, would produce a deep state
of catalepsy. She was affected in the same manner by silicious sand and
gravel, or even by standing some time near a glass window. If she
chanced to seat herself on a sandstone beach, she was apt to become
cataleptic; and once, having been for some time missed, she was at
length found at the top of the house, seated on a heap of sand, so
rigid, that she was unable to move away from it. Whenever she was
placed in a bath by her medical attendants, it was with a great deal of
labor they could immerse her body beneath the surface. Her specific
gravity seemed to be more like cork, or a bladder of air, than that of
muscle, nerve, and bone. Something seemed to pervade her body, or to
act upon it, so entirely opposite to the centripetal action of the
earth, as to counteract this law of force in the most marked manner.
This fact suggested to Dr. Kerner a curious experiment, which resulted
in the development of another important phenomenon. He had concluded,
that as all these phenomena had taken place more or less in conjunction
with those usually termed _magnetic_ or _mesmeric_, there might be some
relation of the forces in both, or indeed they might be identical. To
test this matter, he at one time placed his fingers against hers, when
he found at once there existed a mutual attraction, as between two
magnets; and now, by extending his hand upward, _he raised her clear
from the ground; thus she was suspended, as a magnet suspends a piece
of iron_, or _another magnet, simply by a polar force_. This was
repeated several times, and afterwards his wife did quite the same
thing."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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