m^mmm. -mmm§ ■ ■■■■•■ ■■:■-'.■:' '.■;;■■: ;-;-i" ■-...'..: ■. — . ;„: Glass J3EZ£3/_ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/bookofpsychicsocOOshaf BOOK OF THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY A STUDY OF THE UNSEEN POWERS THAT SURROUND HUMAN LIFE Based on Fixed Natural Laws EDITED BY EDMUND SHAFTESBURY AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIETY PUBLISHED BY RALSTON COMPANY WASHINGTON, D. C. 1907 [LIBRARY of CONGRESS Two Copies Rsceived DEC 20 1907 Oopyrie»l entry CLASS A, XXc. Wo. COPY Bv & ^0 \ Copyright, 1907 BY RALSTON COMPANY All Rights Reserved Befcication. To the hundreds of men and women who have pursued the study of Shaftesbury philos- ophy, the thousands who have ascended the heights by the aid of Universal Magnetism, and the hundreds of thousands who are now engaged in the lesser courses of training along these lines, this new work is Hffectionatel^ DefcicateD, A PERSONAL NOTE. BY SHAFTESBURY. So rapid have been the strides of discovery in the past few years along the lines of the present work that un- stinted praise awaits the men who have done faithful serv- ice in the rich fields of investigation. In view of this fact the one man who happens to be chosen to place in his own words the account of the labors that have been performed, is likely to be credited with much more of the success than he deserves. If it were true that he had done all the work, or half of it, or a large minority of it, he might be willing to take a liberal share of the good will of his readers. The fact is, it has required the aid of hundreds of the most persevering investigators to bring about the truth. Many of them have been men of great learning and re- search. Others have been duly equipped for keen observa- tion and the sifting of a mass of details in the effort to find the germ of actuality. Even the legal fraternity has had a liberal hand in the quasi cross-examination of witnesses, and many an affidavit has been fractured by this process. In view of these facts the so-called author of the present book is merely an editor. In some of the conclusions he did not concur at first, and acquiesced in them only after the proofs left no doubt whatever of their accuracy. But at this writing there is a harmony of opinion. The most energetic defenders of the new views are men of the deepest research and profoundest thought, whose reputa- tions are a guaranty of their high standing in the scientific world. A PERSONAL NOTE 5 Many of the statements made in this book are the direct assertions of others. All the laws were shaped by the pens of others and have been modified in but few instances. The conclusions were reached by all our members without discussion prior to their acceptance, showing the effect of the methods of proof. Because of the foregoing facts, the so-called author has not allowed his name to go forth as the writer of this vol- ume; as it would be manifestly unfair to take credit that belongs more to others than to himself. In placing these facts before the public there is not the least intention to evade responsibility. The president, the committee and the rank and file of the Psychic Society are unanimous in taking on themselves the full measure of duty and obligation to the world. Edmund Shaftesbury. September, 1907. STATEMENT BY THE COMMITTEE. Inasmuch as the chapters of the present book are the product of many men and many minds, it is but fair to state that they are placed in connected form by Edmund Shaftesbury, who, while adopting the ideas of others, has given them the power of his own style. In the account of the means whereby we secured proof and facts, much is said by us of the inspiration that came from the works of this well known author. The public already knows of the immense systems that he sent out years ago; and we can state here and now that if it had not been for the light that came to us and our Society from those systems, very little real progress would have been accomplished in the system which is now completed. No mortal man has possessed a keener insight into natu- ral laws than Shaftesbury. He has reached facts in a bound that plodding scientists would not have discovered in years. For every fact he has had a law, a natural process, and a logical order of proof. In the extent of his works which are the most stupendous and far-reaching in the world to-day, he has compassed thousands upon thousands of facts without an error. This accuracy stamps him as the most valuable of all investigators of the present epoch, and makes it easy to follow where he leads. Respectfully submitted by THE COMMITTEE. THE PERFECTED ORGANIZATION. It is important that the following terms should be thor- oughly understood : THE SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY. This is purely a literary name for the persons who are owners of this present volume. A Reader in the Shaftesbury Society is the literary name of the person who ow T ns this volume for his or her exclusive use. THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY. 1. The Shaftesbury Society is the first step in the Psychic Society. This does not mean that a Reader in the Shaftes- bury Society belongs to the Psychic Society, but that any such Reader may, if he so desires, proceed with his researches and thus enter the latter organization ; for the laws of uni- versal life are so many and so boundless in their scope that they require an immense amount of thought and attention. 2. The Psychic Society admits Readers on their applica- tion into Membership in three classes : A. — Reader-Members. ~) TM „ „ B.- Student-Members. psYCmc SOC IETY. C — investigators. J 3. For brevity of terms any owner of this volume is known as a Reader; while the Members of the Psychic Society are known as Reader-Members, Students, and Investigators. NOTICE. No communication will receive attention unless addressed a? follows : RALSTON COMPANY 1327 to 1329 15th St., WASHINGTON, D. C. PLAN. 1. The universe is all physical; or it is part physical and part something else. 2. As the proofs are abundant that something besides the physical exists, that which is not physical is necessarily psychic. 3. A human being is born of earth and his five senses are built of earth, being developed by his contact with earthly experiences. 4. He has only his five senses with which to acquire knowledge, unless he is able to derive information from some other source. 5. As no other source exists outside the physical except the psychic, it is necessary for man to search within the latter in order to know more than his physical senses can teach him. 6. The conditions that hold unseen sway over each human life, are all psychic, for the reason that they are not physical. 7. Any attempt to secure knowledge of such conditions by the aid of the physical senses will always lead to mys- tery, error and superstition. 8. If knowledge cannot be obtained by the aid of psychic agencies, then it will never come, as far as such conditions are concerned. 9. Conclusive proof having been secured that the psychic senses occasionally break through the physical senses, much valuable information is now at hand from this source. 10. All other methods of information are confined wholly within the realm of the psychic world. 11. It therefore follows that there are two divisions to the study of the unseen powers that surround human life; one is devoted to a consideration of proofs furnished by physical glimpses, and the other the direct evidence fur- nished by psychic processes. FIRST DIVISION OF THE BOOK OF THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF THE PROOFS FURNISHED BY THE PHYSICAL SENSES CHAPTER I. THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY. /ts/f^t^i^t . s.,, | v |,|^vlvlvKr.l.lvl.lvl.l.l.lvl.|.. I. • - lv Ivl . I yiv 4 , . . I . . . .TlT. . .~i~l" ,ANY YEARS AGO at an informal meeting of a body of college professors the conversation turned upon the subject of the unseen powers that surround humanity. All present agreed that there were such powers, but no one seemed certain of their nature or means of controlling life, if in fact such was their office. On no subject of general interest was there so little exact opinion. It was the custom of the conservative person to say, " I do not know," to all inquiries bearing upon the rela- tionship of the supernatural with the natural. For the past fifty years or more it has been regarded as a mark of wisdom to refrain from having a fixed opinion in these matters; and the token of a careless thinker to even suggest a solution of psychic phenomena. Societies have been formed by men who at the start were unanimous in their belief that all claims of genuine psychic demonstrations are either fraudulent or made in honest mistake. The remarkable fact about such men is their subsequent conversion to a belief in the existence of telep- athy and soul existence ; but not in spiritualism. In more than two thousand cases, men of the highest learning and intelligence have passed from a state of denial of these things into a clearly established belief in them. A question that was put to a large number of men of solid sense and keen powers of study in this line of re- search, revealed the fact that every one of them entered their societies with a determination to find proof that there 12 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY was no such thing as a psychic world, and that the five senses were the only means of communication with other beings on earth or elsewhere; but every one of these men found proofs so abundant and convincing to the contrary, that not one failed to accept the facts. Yet there was no one of their number who accepted the claim that ghosts or spirits existed on earth. One member framed the opinion or verdict of scores of others in the following words: " We had no belief in telepathy at the beginning of our investigations. We had no belief in manifestations of soul life after death. We looked upon spiritualism as a fraud in all its phases. Since making years of investigation we have agreed that telepathy is a true faculty, extending to all parts of the earth and beyond ; that every human body possesses a soul that is separate and distinct from all its ordinary faculties; but that continued spirit manifestations after death are impossible." Organizations that have carried on their work in dif- ferent parts of the world without knowledge of each other have arrived at the same conclusions. The Psychic Society for which this book is written was composed of men who were all disbelievers in psychic phe- nomena, and who had no opinion of soul life other than their religious tenets. They were conservative. They merely held the neutral ground of not knowing anything about the matters that had called forth decided views among the less learned classes of men and women. But with ample means at command they resolved to get at the facts. They differed from the English Society for Psychical Research and its American branch in the policy to reach a definite conclusion by higher methods, rather than deal with an endless number of typical cases that all led to one common conclusion. They were confident that the right kind of energy and persistence would sooner or later lead to facts that could THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 13 not admit of wrong views on these the greatest of all subjects. No society ever gave spiritualism a fairer trial. That all these men were converted from a non-belief in telepathy to become firm defenders of that power, and also from a non-belief in psychic life to an acceptance of the doctrines herein published, speaks plainly of their willingness to lay aside private opinions in the cause of a new science, and to look only to proofs that were convincing from every point of view. The work of the Psychic Society is divided into two great fields of results; and these are presented in this book in like manner. It should be borne in mind that the various organizations of learned investigators that have become famous in recent years, have devoted themselves to but one line of research. They have proceeded on the following plan : 1. They first took cognizance of reports of phenomena, and sought the names and addresses of all persons who might give testimony concerning them. 2. They then sent trustworthy men to sift all statements to their face value and report whether the supposed facts were true, probable, improbable or false. 3. They finally made a statement of the case. The bulky records of such societies are loaded with these results and nothing more, except sittings with mediums. Such methods do not bring complete satisfaction, for they leave the pith of the matter undecided. Our Psychic Society has gone to the farthest extreme in securing the means of reaching evidence. It believes that as there are subconscious faculties, these should be brought into the service of furnishing proof where other agencies are lacking. Based on this plan of action the present work will give to the world a new science the importance of which must outweigh all other studies in human estimation. M CHAPTER II. SOURCES OF HELP. i i ACTS THAT are associated with the deep- est problems of human experience, cannot be easily secured. Shaftesbury has stated many times that human life is cut off at two ex- tremes, its source and its exit. He has also said that two walls shut out the knowledge of the universe, the wall of darkness where the most powerful microscope ceases to impart informa- tion, and the wall of vastness where the most powerful telescope finds its limit. It is also another saying of Shaftesbury that knowledge that comes from the senses is the least of all wisdom, knowledge that comes from reasoning is always uncertain, but knowledge that comes from psychic evidence is always certain and reliable for it cannot admit of doubt or in- accuracy. There has been no age in the history of the world when seeming facts have been so unreliable as at this time. Peo- ple are beginning to find out how misleading the senses are when the nervous system is defective. A keen, clear judg- ment in a well balanced mind is necessary to determine what are facts. When these are secured, the next step is that which gives a due value to what they import. The third step is that which discovers the law at work in a given state of facts. The Psychic Society for thirty years has delved into the personal history of tens of thousands of individuals. They have had wonderful things to tell. Much of their infor- SOURCES OF HELP 15 mation has come from others and has been exaggerated in the repeating. This eliminated seventy per cent, of the testimony. What was left was so voluminous that a whole library could not contain it. It was the duty of the Society to get at the facts. How many people were honest in tell- ing their stories? Of those who did not intend to tell false things, only a comparative few were possessed of healthy and normal nervous systems. When the Psychic Society by a unanimous vote decided that ghosts did not and could not make sounds or ;>../ve or touch any material substance, the conclusion that is bound to be so important to the world was reached solely from an analytical investigation of thousands of cases that had on first sight been convincingly proved to the public mind. If the test cases, the leading incidents that had staggered the acute minds of others, were not true in fact, then there was nothing left on which to base the assertion that ghosts can produce sounds or move matter. On the other hand one of the Shaftesbury laws makes it clear why such super- natural transactions are impossible. Spiritualism has been wholly and finally demolished. It has not a peg to stand upon. Yet its leading, genuine claims are true. The fault is with its deductions. The occur- rences that it may honestly ascribe to spirits are operations of another class of laws, as is shown conclusively in this volume. While the sounds and physical demonstrations that have been charged to ghosts are now known not to come from such source, it is true that many psychic phenomena are occurring every day all over the earth. In proof of this fact we have had much help from the English Society for Psychical Research, and its American branch, both of which include men of the highest scholarship and fame in scien- tific circles. Those societies have been conservative in the extreme. Where they have found facts that are beyond the pale of dispute, they have refrained from drawing con- 16 ' THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY elusions. A conclusion is a deduction which declares that a thing is so because certain facts have been proved. This is equivalent to saying that one fact proves another fact. No more dangerous doctrine could be taught. The next generation of scientists will learn to draw the line between one set of facts and another. A man of great learning has written a book in which he has demonstrated the fact that the soul is immortal be- cause telepathy has been proved to be a genuine and even common method of communication between people who are separated by great distances. He says in short that the subconscious faculty is the mind of the soul, and that it is active after the soul leaves the body. There are many steps between such facts, if true, and the conclusion that the soul is immortal. Everywhere there is abundant proof that telepathy is a universal and omnipresent power. It not only includes thought transference but also takes in a much wider scope of operations. These facts have been shown over and over again by the English and American Societies for Psy- chical Research and are accepted as true by all educated men and women. Yet long before such proofs were secured by those asso- ciations of conservative investigators, Shaftesbury had pub- lished his system of explanation with the laws that govern all phases of telepathy. That work was then said to be a leap in the dark; but its entire system has been proved to be true even in the slightest details. To our Psychic Society it has been a tower of strength in arriving at the truth. Twenty years ago it had become apparent that eveiy orb in the sky was within lines of communication with all other orbs, and that a chainwork of influence held them together as one community. This influence was suspected by Shaftesbury to be magnetic, and belonged to the same class of powers as personal magnetism and universal mag- SOURCES OF HELP 17 netism. It was known that our solar system was held together by magnetic energy ; the moon to the earth, the satellites to the planets, and the planets to the sun. It was also known that our solar system was chained to the star worlds beyond by the same influence. Less than a quarter of a century ago, Shaftesbury pub- lished his first book of personal magnetism, taking the broad ground that it was an action that employed the waves of ether. He showed hypnotism to be its opposite. He made magnetism to be an ennobling, uplifting and fascinating power, helping to benefit all who used it and all who felt its charm ; just as a great leader thrills and enraptures his soldiers at the moment of conflict. Thus far two sources of help arose; telepathy and mag- netism. These came in addition to the facts that were proved by the physical senses. Six hundred thousand men and women of intelligence have studied and practiced the Shaftesbury method of magnetism, and have found it to be the mainstay of their lives. The system referred to was confined to the uses of the power between persons. So easily was it developed and so marked were its uses that it carried on its face conclusive proof of the existence of ether waves and a psychic world. It thus sustained the after claims of his great works on telepathy. These two fields of science were so valuable as sources of help to the Psychic Society that, without them, very little progress would have been possible in reaching the discoveries that have followed. A grander system was yet to be sent forth on its mission of light. It was known as Higher Magnetism, a work that has been superseded by two systems still greater. That work made its appearance eighteen years ago. It was copyrighted, and the volumes placed on file in the Library of Congress. This fact is important because the public are thus given the opportunity to go to those files and read the whole plan of the X-rays, which were not at that time 18 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY conceived in the brain of any man except Shaftesbury. It was by leaps in the application of universal laws that he learned of the process whereby solids could be looked into. So Shakespeare wrote of the circulation of the blood years before it was actually discovered. In the volume of Higher Magnetism, Shaftesbury gives an analysis of the ether waves, and sets forth the first accurate statement of their nature and processes. He thus made wireless telegraphy a simple fact, and this was many years before that discovery was made. The date of copyright of that wonderful book and the date of filing the book itself, being years before the discovery of the X-rays and of wireless telegraphy, will furnish ample proof of the priority of its existence. These are but two instances of the accuracy with which Shaftesbury has stated the gigantic laws of the universe. Inventors have found that book to be an inspiring help to their minds in their efforts to create something new in idea and yet true to natural laws. One inventor has told this committee that he has already reaped a fortune from the use of those ideas. Doctors have recently found that the soul has some sub- stance and that it can be weighed. They have also found that the soul actually passes out of the- body as an entirety, and moves rapidly through a certain course or path on earth before leaving its former locality. These are solemn facts, full of the deepest meaning; but they are all set forth with absolute accuracy of description in that book which was placed on file in the Library of Congress many years ago. It is needless to say that such a system must be a source of help to the Psychic Society, the value of which cannot be stated in words. But the power of magnetism proved to be so great that it led the way to the remotest corners of the universe. In every step of the way the proofs were abundant and con- vincing. The system already referred to was enlarged into SOURCES OF HELP 19 a giant volume known as Universal Magnetism, and later on a special branch of the subject appeared under the title of Advanced Magnetism. These two works sold for sev- enty-five dollars, and are owned by almost every leading thinker in America and England. French and German scientists have bought them, in many instances going to the expense of having written translations made for their private use at the cost of hundreds of dollars. The system of Universal Magnetism showed the exact relationship between distant influences throughout the sky and the psychic world as it exists on earth to-day. There is no instance where any student of that system has not fully accepted the laws and facts set forth in it; for it proves itself at every step of the way. What is called the greatest of the Shaftesbury works is that known as Universal Philosophy, or Our Existence. Its price, one hundred dollars, keeps it in a limited channel. It was written for private circulation among a few scien- tists; but a larger work is in preparation and may some day be published at his personal expense as a gift to his followers. Yet Our Existence contains one thousand les- sons covering every great law of creation and destiny. While it is largely argumentative, it has promulgated some gigantic truths that were never before hinted at in any philosophy. It never fails to convince an intelligent mind. The purpose of relating the foregoing facts is to show that our Psychic Society naturally built itself about Shaftes- bury. In fully thirty years of association, there has never yet been a statement or law set forth by him that has been inaccurate. With telepathy, the tongue of psychic communication, and magnetism, the chain that brings the whole universe together into one close community, it was a comparatively easy matter to evolve the laws and facts that are contained in this Book of the Psychic Society. This chapter is the direct contribution of the committee, 20 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY li- as the constant reference to the author made it essential that he should not deal with the sources of help by which this association has been enabled to carry on its work. It should be said in closing that he has permitted many of the foundation principles of those expensive works to be used in the second division of this volume in order that the general public who cannot afford the costly systems may have access to the greatest of all laws of earth or sky in the book now placed within the reach of every reader. 21 CHAPTER III. | INVESTIGATING STORIES. | I 1 n "i~r. ii " i~ rr.1 i .1" i -i i i it "1 1 1 1 ■ iTi 111 . 1 . 1 1 .. 1 . 1 . 1 1 1 1 . 1 .- 1 . 1 y URING A PERIOD extending fully thirty years, the Psychic Society has carried on a steady work of investigation into the claims made upon the public attention in these phe- nomena. Everything that had any basis what- ever for belief has been carefully looked into, and especially those accounts that seem on their face to be so well proved that they cannot admit of doubt, if the statements of interested persons are to be accepted without challange. Some of the stones have been built up with a wonderful degree of ingenuity; the purpose being to convince the minds of others by overwhelming evidence. Thousands of such cases have been sifted to mere nothing. There are Sunday papers in this country that publish ghost stories under the caption of TRUE ACCOUNTS. Each . story is accompanied by introductory proof of its truth. So cleverly are these narratives told, and so well authenticated are they made to appear that many thousands of people are undoubtedly converted to a belief in them. The injury done the mind is very great. The magazines are more cautious. They place before their readers the claims and opinions of various classes of people, and occasionally add some stories that are said to be vouched for by men and women of veracity. In view of the constant attempt to mislead the public, the Psychic Society certainly has had an important field of labor. It has been our one hope to arrive at the truth, re- 22 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY gardless of where it led us. As an example of the latest well-built ghost story, we will cite the account that ran for some days in the paper of a great city. The daily has been in existence for a year, and is in need of readers; although every live newspaper is seeking an increased circulation all the time. The house was well selected for the purpose. A family was said to have moved in and then to have vacated the house in a short time; spending two fearful nights there. Between the hours of one and three the ghosts appeared, partly as forms, but chiefly as noise-makers. Sledge-hammers that must have weighed a hundred pounds each were made to strike against doors, and trunks that contained not less than hundreds of pounds of metal went crashing from the top floor down into the empty cellar. Lights shone in all parts of the house when none in fact were burning. The strongest part of the story was the fact that a night policeman by name of S. N. Wade was made to state that he stood on the opposite side of the street and heard the crashing sounds within the house, and thought that some one was attempting to wreck the whole inside structure. He entered the building and saw ghostly lights. Interviews with him were published in which he confirmed the statements; but it was all done in the same newspaper. As a test of the influence which these accounts had on the public, many persons who had never before believed in such things, were convinced of the truth of the claims that ghosts did actually visit houses in the manner stated. Yet not one person went to the trouble to test the veracity of the newspaper. Crowds assembled daily and nightly about the house, and the circulation of the paper increased. The one part of the account that most impressed the public was the connection of the police officer, S. N. Wade, with the affair. We wrote to Major Richard Sylvester, Superintendent of Police. The reply came as follows: "September 18, 1907. ... I beg to state that the INVESTIGATING STORIES 23 Acting Captain of the Second Police Precinct informs the Department that Private S. N. Wade positively declares that there is no truth in the published article to which you called attention." Thus one of the most convincing and probable stories came to the usual end. From other standpoints of inquiry, we find that thousands of persons have not learned of its falsity, and that many have been thrown into a highly nervous state through the horrible details that w T ere invented in the telling of the affair in the paper. Almost endless harm has been done in many homes, and all for the sole purpose of increasing the circu- lation of a newspaper. This is merely a sample case. Being the latest we have investigated it is inserted in this book just before going to press. Other stories have been as well sustained in the narrat- ing, and some have been bolstered up by affidavits and many counter-statements. A few recent instances will be cited ; although they all bear the same earmarks as those told years ago. One of the most probable accounts of the appearance of a ghost in ordinary garb came from several persons in a small town, all of whom vouched for the truthfulness of the assertions. There was a house the first floor of which contained three rooms; a front room, a middle room, and a kitchen ell. From the back door of the ell a path led to the open country through a deep yard of trees. In the front of the house there was a public road, and old trees on both sides. There was an oil lamp on a high post under one of these trees; and, no matter how bright the sky at night, shadows were always abundant. On summer nights it was the custom to leave the doors and windows open. A family had recently moved out of the house without giving any reason at the time. Another family moved in. The second evening a scream came from 24 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY the kitchen, uttered by the Dutch cook. She declared that a man had walked through the kitchen and disappeared in the yard at the rear; yet three persons in the front rooms had not seen him. On another night, a man stood looking at the people in the room through an open window, his head being within two feet of the lady nearest him. She did not see him, but felt the heat of his face, as she called it; although two others saw him distinctly. Thinking he was a tramp, they screamed and ran out. Soon after this occurrence the same man was seen passing through the house, having entered the kitchen unseen by the cook, and walking between two persons in the middle room. One spoke to him, but declared that he vanished in the instant. Both ran to the door, but no one was in sight. Inquiry was made of the family that had moved out, and they said they left because of the same occurrences. They even stated that the man would move chairs as he passed, and would seem to vanish. So strong were the affidavits and so well sustained was the account from several sources, that a thorough investi- gation was made by others. It turned out that the man was insane, and exceedingly light of foot; entering a room noiselessly, and appearing to vanish rather than pass out. He was allowed his freedom until these facts were clearly proven, and then he was taken to an asylum. Not one case of physical demonstration has stood the test of a genuine investigation. By this we mean that the sounds made by supposed ghosts, if made at all, have their cause elsewhere; and that the physical visitations which involve violence have no basis in fact as far as the psychic world is concerned. 25 CHAPTER IV. -t -M - t t - t - T \- . t . . t , , i , t It T t " t ' t ■ t_t M - ! - I - t !_t t I !_^f -_f t 1 »_( ' 1-- 1 NATURE OF SOUNDS. 1 i . 1 avivh.i,i,i.i.i.i,j,i.i.i,M.i,i,i.i.i,i.i,ki,i>.i,Ki.Ki.i.i.i.i.i.i i,i,i.i,i ;i: HAT IS KNOWN as sound has no existence in itself. It is merely a creation of the sensi- tive nerves of the brain. The basis of all sound is air. The air may be still or it may ^ N be moving; but still air or moving air of itself does not furnish the basis of sound. If you will imagine a mass of gelatine very long, very wide and very thick, resting upon a large platform; and also imagine that one part of this mass is struck a blow that vibrates the whole jelly-like mass from end to end, you will obtain a fair idea of the manner in which air fur- nishes the basis of sound. If the gelatine could be extended for a long distance, a blow struck at one end would vibrate the mass to the other end ; in fact it might travel for miles if so large a distance were possible for the construction of this kind of a medium. But the gelatine itself does not move. It vibrates, and the waves of mass-motion reach as far as the mass extends. A wave of the ocean is a surface action. If you drop a pebble in still water, ripples will run out in all direc- tions; but the water itself will not move. A chip riding on its bosom would be found in the same place after the ripples ceased, as before they began. A body of water apparently quiet may be moving in one direction, and ripples made on its surface may be moving in the opposite direction ; showing that the mass may sustain vibrations independent of the direction in which the whole body may be moving. 26 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY This is true of sound in air. A strong wind may carry the air in one direction while the tones of the voice may be traveling in another, although the removal of the medium will also take away the vibrations of its mass. Water will carry the waves of sound ; but they are not like the waves of the ocean, nor the ripples on its face; being merely vibrations of the mass of the water itself. Solid wood will also transmit sound by vibration of its molecules. Everything is hollow and porous. In the structure of the densest solids, the molecules that make up the mass are held apart by laws similar to those that keep the sun and planets from coming together; and a tiny being small enough to stand upon the surface of one of these particles that compose the mass, would look out upon the other particles somewhat as we view the moon and sun. Such small proportions are almost inconceivable. As everything is hollow and porous it is easy to under- stand how heat, magnetism, sound and other activities can pass through them. If there were such things as ghosts with only an ether-body, it would have no difficulty what- ever in moving through a solid wall. What is solid to the eye is exceedingly porous in fact. Like water, the air is a mass; the difference being that it is more porous. It is composed chiefly of two gases; and the same is true of water; the former being made up of nitrogen and oxygen; while the latter consists of hydrogen and oxygen. Sound is a vibration of the molecules in any mass. We are most familiar with it in the atmosphere. These vibra- tions, coming against an electric current, as in the tele- phone, may be carried on wires to distant places, far beyond the range of the voice when employed in the air alone. Some authorities claim that sound is the vibration of the ether or inner medium which enters into all solids and passes beyond all physical bodies, even to the remotest parts NATURE OF SOUNDS 27 of the universe. This claim has been found not to be true. Light is ether vibration; but sound is the vibration of the molecules. The difference is important in determining some questions that follow later on in this book. But at the same time it is a fact that the vibrations of the molecules in the air may be transferred into the ether by the nervous action of the brain. We now approach the peculiar part of this subject; or the relation of the brain to sound. The first sentence of this chapter states that sound has no existence of itself. It makes no noise unless its vibra- tions act upon the nerve-centers of the brain. The noise it then makes is not actual. There must be a function in the nerves of the brain that translates or interprets the vibrations into what the mind accepts as sound. In the core of the brain, to use a common term, the gray matter of a series of cells is so acted upon by the vibrations of the air that they produce the result known as sound. Take a spoken word for example. The larynx of the throat holds in check a column of air that is passing out of the lungs. The vocal cords compress the column. Each cord or part of the larynx is so deli- cately hung that it trembles as the checked flow of air presses against it ; and this motion passes to the air itself, which goes out of the mouth still trembling or vibrating. The varying rapidity of the waves gives rise to the varying degrees of pitch. Having thus set up vibrations of air, the effect is like that made on a mass of gelatine ; the whole body of air vibrates in all directions, and as many persons can hear as are able to come within the range of the voice. Words are combinations of vibrations, or shapes into which they are compressed. There are vowels and consonants. Vow- els are round, flat or open, owing to whatever shapes are given to the escaping column of air. Consonants are in- terruptions of the out-going air; the column being cut off 28 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY by the interference of some part of the mouth, as the lips, teeth, point of tongue, middle of tongue, back of tongue, throat, etc. The brain is able to distinguish between a round and a flat column of air; or a different characteristic in the in- terruption of the sound ; and this ability is even effective after the vibrations have pressed through an electric cur- rent. A person whose brain had never heard a spoken word would not be able to tell the difference between vowels and consonants, or one vowel from another, or one conso- nant from another. Spoken words, therefore, are the re- sult of a brain that has been educated by experience. Every live, normal brain can hear what is called a sound. The waves that are set in motion by the vocal cords are taken up by the air, and strike against the drum of the ear. This drum is also capable of vibration. Its duty is to carry on the same waves of sound that come against it. But, having done this, the passage to the brain must take part in the transmission of the vibrations as far as the nerve of hearing. It is an electrical wire, and does merely telephone work up to that point where the brain-cells must interpret the waves into a shock on the core of that great organ. Let the drum of the ear be lacking and the loudest sounds will be dead silence. Let the nerve of hearing be paralyzed, and stillness will prevail even in the downward rush of Niagara. Let the brain-cells be deficient, and the explosion of cannon or the loudest peal of thunder will have no existence to the individual. 29 CHAPTER V. i ± GHOSTLY SOUNDS. ~i~i~i~t~t~i~t~t '„' -'„'„'„'. -'„'_'_'— V^'_'. .'„'_'., tVlvtvtvt OLLOWING the description given in the preceding chapter, it may be easily seen how delicate a tissue of the brain is charged with the duty of creating sound. The waves that fill the mass of air are quiet and unobtrusive. The storm-tossed ocean is destructive in its violence, but has nothing of the power on the brain that is possessed by the silent and unseen vibrations that pass from a distant cannon and find meaning in the thought-centers. The billows may wreck a mighty ship ; while the explosive sound will not even be heard if the brain is not able to give it existence upon its sensitive tissue. Motion is all about us. Much of it appeals solely to the eye. The silent growth of leaves and giant trees is a tremendous process in nature; but not one sound is made in its activity, because the brain is not aroused to interpret such a process. Unseen, unassuming, unfelt, the slight vibrations of air-masses, and not the air itself, reach the delicate nerve-centers and there are so enlarged that what was dead stillness outside, becomes the living impression known as sound. It is the sheer creation of the brain itself. The nerves that are employed to make this creation are surrounded by pulsing functions, rushing streams of blood and chemical changes that are necessary to the life of the brain ; but, not being waves of the right kind, there is no noise to this machinery of the vital government. 3 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY A normal brain hears few if any sounds that are not the direct result of air-vibrations. But let the nerves get out of order, let there be the slightest inflammation of the tissue in the sound-centers, and other creations are brought into existence than those that are transmitted by air waves. In nearly all kinds of fever there is excitement along the nerve of hearing, and congestion or pressure in the cells where sound is created. Noises result, and they are called strange. "Who is ringing that bell?" is asked by the fever- racked patient, when all is still. "Will you have that pounding stopped?" is also a re- quest from another similar source. The murderer who slew the traveling merchant one win- ter's night, heard the sleigh-bells of his victim until he sought peace by confession. The cries of those who have suffered at the hands of others have haunted the guilty parties for years afterward. " I have never for one day been free from the piercing shrieks of the man I killed," said a criminal to a member of the Psychic Society. Criminology abounds in such confessions. A woman left alone in a house by night may allow her thoughts to run to the possible dangers of her position. She may know that the doors and windows are securely bolted, and thus feel safe from all physical dangers; but soon her mind will run to the other channel, the super- natural. Stillness is so profound that the settling of the house itself, which seems to never end, produces sounds that could not possibly be heard in the day time, but that now are enlarged by the excited nerve-centers of her brain until each creak is a sledge-hammer blow. A leaf against the pane that rattles with such minuteness of motion as to be hardly as active as a breath on the rose, now is mag- nified into knocks by icy fingers. Tap, tap, tap, knock, knock, knock, the ghostly hand plays its weird tattoo on the glass, and the woman shrinks into the farthest corner GHOSTLY SOUNDS 31 of the room, expecting to see the window open and the white form enter. One case that attracted attention was that of a man who had to work by night and sleep by day. He remained alone in an old building. One evening he took up his work with an aching head which did not get better as the hours wore away. Then he rested for a while. The throbs of pain in his head were translated to him as the sounds of foot- steps in the hallways of the building. These came to his door, and a loud knock followed. " Come in," he said rather feebly. The knocking grew louder, and he now hurried to the door to find it unlocked, as he supposed, but the hallway empty. Somewhat alarmed, but of a strong resisting mind for such a belief as that a ghost were the cause of the sounds, he returned to his room after securely locking the door. He fell into a dose, but had his eyes open half the time, and soon saw the door open, but no form appear. He arose, went to the door and found it closed and locked. He afterwards admitted that this erratic vision was due to the excited state of his brain; but he could not under- stand the sounds. On a subsequent night, when he was free from the head- ache, he heard what he supposed were faint sounds, as of someone walking in bare feet on the hallway floor. He was now sensitive and nervous, and listened. In a short time the sounds changed to those of heavy steps in big boots in an empty room directly over his head. This was more than he could endure, and he called in an officer. The two men searched the building from end to end with- out result. On the next night he had a friend remain with him for the purpose of securing proof of the condition of things; but, as no sounds had been heard up to three o'clock, the friend went away. The man now being alone at once 32 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY grew nervous and the sounds began. Footsteps were heard passing from the basement to the third floor, then back again, sometimes running, sometimes stamping, and finally ended at his door. Silence that was horrible ensued for what seemed minutes, then came a vigorous pounding at the door only a few feet away from him. He vacated the house the next day and moved into one that was occupied. No sounds were ever heard there, except one rainy night in winter when he imagined that he was back again in the old building, and footsteps were audible. As he listened he caught the rhythmic action of his own heart-beats corresponding with the blows made by falling feet, and he soon was satisfied that the noises were due wholly to an excited state of the sensitive tissue of the brain. Fear produces excitement, and excitement produces an abnormal activity of the brain. In a nerve-center that is charged with the duty of creat- ing sounds out of the silent vibrations of the air, any other creation is possible when inflammation, congestion, pressure or excitement may be present. It has been the most frequent of all investigations of the Psychic Society, to follow out the claims of people who have been alarmed by ghostly sounds; and not in one in- stance has there been any evidence that is conclusive to prove that spirits are the cause of such manifestations. This fact is so clearly in evidence to-day that it can be laid down as an axiom that ghosts make no sound whatever, even if they make themselves known at all. 33 CHAPTER VI. v|j' ,_M - ., ~ , - t ■ , - I - t >_t_' I " I !_• -I -I • " t_> • ■ I ' l - I I ' l ■ I ' ' " t " • " 1 ■ 1 I ■ I ' ■ I "I ' t I -_1 ' t " I » t ~ 1/ GHOSTiLY VIOLENCE. I I WO CLASSES of cases are to be considered under this general subject. By violence is meant the laying on of hands, or the rough physical demonstrations that attend the so- called visitations of the spirits. The first class is that in which the person who is visited is not in any way a party to a mediumistic influ- ence. The second class is that in which persons or things are roughly handled while a supposed medium is manipu- lating the spirits. .In dealing with the first class, we have the same condi- tions that arise when ghostly sounds are produced ; and these have been disposed of in another part of this book. But the process is different. There are three kinds of contact with the brain of a human being in the uses of the senses most often involved in the manifestations: 1. Physical contact, or the sense of touch. 2. Vibrations of air-masses, or the sense of hearing. 3. Vibrations of the ether, or the sense of sight. All three must reach the brain, or they will fail. If the nerves are paralyzed that connect the surface of the body with the head, the sense of touch fails ; but it is none the less active. It thus differs from the sense of hearing and sight. To a blind person there is no light. To a deaf person there is no sound. But a blow dealt one who has lost the sense of feeling may, if violent, do injury. Such a person 3 34 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY can be pushed from a window and killed. He may be burned and suffer harm and even lose his life, while not feeling pain. The sense of touch is more necessary than that of hear- ing or sight; for the lack of it takes away part of the life of the body, and is sure to lessen the term of duration on earth. On the other hand the over-sensitive state of the body in the use of the sense of touch, is productive of many dis- agreeable experiences. One who is nervous suffers most from this cause. The surface of the body deceives the mind at times by sensations that are due to a defective supply of nervous power at the skin. " I felt the touch of a cold hand on my neck," is the statement of a nervous woman. But the cause of that feeling was an abnormal condition of the body at that part. " Every day or two a cold hand crawls down my back," says a woman who is likewise afflicted with a defective sup- ply of nervous vitality. A common case occurred recently. A man insisted that some one was poking a finger into the upper arm just below the shoulder. He would turn suddenly as if to catch the guilty party. But the fact was that he had on a stiff coat which bent inward at the place affected, and caused a pres- sure to come against the flesh whenever he moved. In another similar case a woman who insisted that she was being visited by spirits because a pressure was felt on the wrist when no person was in the room, was shown that the touch came from the wrinkling of clothing which brought a pressure to bear upon her arm. The degree of power was so slight that a normal individual would never feel it; but the super-sensitive nerves magnified it greatly. The opening of a door must be ascribed to physical action or the sense of touch. There are ghost stories unlimited GHOSTLY VIOLENCE 35 in number and apparently sustained by conclusive proofs in which doors and windows are opened, and impossible feats accomplished with material matter. But these are merely " stories." Not one has ever been entitled to be- lief. They have been thoroughly investigated, without re- sult. A child cried to its mother in the night that some one had lifted it out of bed and laid it on the floor. The mother regarded this as a sign that the child would soon die. But she was shown other ways of accounting for the occurrence, and the child lived. The whole incident was founded on a dream that seemed to be a waking transaction to the mind of the child. Many persons claim that they have been visited at night by violent ghosts. One of the usual tricks is to tear the clothing from the bed. In no case that has been reported of this kind has the ghost been seen during the act of taking the clothing off. Yet we have received hundreds of affi- davits to the effect that some agency had, in the dark, removed the bedclothes, and even entered into a struggle with the occupant of the bed, always winning in the tug of war. In every such instance one person has had the experi- ence; never two in the same room or the same bed. This fact leaves the question of veracity open to doubt; for what occurs in the night to a nervous person may be charged to a highly excited nervous system, or to a state of half-wake- fulness, or a dream. Many dreams seem to be as real as the transactions of the day. In a list of more than one thousand reported cases of physical violence, not one has been based on the claim that injury was done to the individual. When force has been employed, it has done no harm of any kind. Some state that furniture has been broken, legs wrenched from strong tables, chairs demolished, pictured thrown to the floor, and crockery and china ruined by strange visitations; but there 36 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY is not a single instance where two or more persons were witnesses of such deeds. In the very nature of the testi- mony bearing on these subjects, the word of one individual cannot be taken ; for all men and women, and even children, who are thus visited, are highly nervous before they pass through the experiences named. Under the subject of self-hypnotism, suggestion may arise from a passing thought, and the whole affair may occur in a cataleptic state. In proof of this assertion, over two hun- dred of the persons who made affidavits to the events stated, were found to be nervously diseased along cataleptic lines. There is a stage of this malady that admits of full con- sciousness of the mind, while the occurrences are due to the fault named. If two persons who w T ere subject to the malady were to witness the same event, it would undoubt- edly be ascribable to suggestion from one in which both concurred. No human being, placed in such a situation, is able to tell the truth from the seeming facts, if he is the subject of the visitation, as it is termed. The explanation is apparent on its face in every such case. Yet honest men and women have sworn to a state of facts that carried conviction to the unwary mind. The proof was unassail- able, as it appeared. Strict fairness requires us to state that every genuine medium or clairvoyant is a cataleptic. It is also true that every person who can be hypnotized, may be developed into a medium or clairvoyant, with more or less power to in- terpret the subconscious activities of the minds of other persons. But this takes us too close to the other depart- ments of this work. The laws of psychic life that apply to such cases will be found fully presented and explained in other pages. This statement is made here to show the many chances for error in accepting proof, even when under oath and offered by persons who are sincere and honest. " I know," and " I am absolutely sure," are terms that fall with ease GHOSTLY VIOLENCE 37 from such lips, while their conclusions are wholly wrong. A clergyman of national reputation, and one who is uni- versally respected, said: "I certainly believe what I see with my own eyes, hear with my own ears, and feel with my own hands." He had a combination that was impreg- nable in his opinion ; yet he finally admitted that he did not know how to interpret the senses that had supplied him with the apparent facts. Most of the things that are seen and heard under certain conditions are untrustworthy; and what is felt may be also a creation of the morbid mind of a nervous person. More troublesome to the investigator are the acts of violence that occur under the direction or leadership of a genuine medium. The latter term must not be accepted with the belief that we have discovered genuine mediums. Most of those who claim to be such, are frauds straight and simple. Many who are genuine have very limited powers, and are totally unable to communicate with spirits. But they can arouse a certain kind of violent action. They produce knocks that are heard by several persons in the same group. They cause tables to move, and chairs to be lifted up by invisible agencies. The fraud enters when they claim to possess powers to communicate with the dead. They have no such gift, nor has one human being that ever lived been given the power to bring the dead before the living, even in sound and action, in writing, or otherwise. There the fraud begins. Perhaps they may think in all honesty that they have such powers. A part of a gift may give rise to a belief that the whole faculty is present. Nevertheless there are mediums who are able to cause physical violence. We once owned a table that had been broken by such an agency, and it was made of genuine mahogany more than a hundred years old. The mere breaking of it did not prove that a spirit had taken part in 38 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY the transaction. It was the work of the subconscious fac- ulties, overcoming gravity and doing exactly what would occur in any successful attempt to annul that fundamental law of nature. It cannot be denied that gravity or the earth's attraction may be suspended. It has been proved that the psychical realm is one in which there is no law of gravity. Hence it is not at all wonderful that objects can be made to move about and show a defiance of this great force. Each of these conditions will be fully explained in turn as the present work progresses. 39 CHAPTER VII. iKSVSt^WM ^.t --M '"'■' ■'"'' ^ ' ^1£JSJ~J£J-^* M ' "■* ^"I^A|,".|a,a,a.,/. , a.» /■« . , ^| a r A.TAI At Af.AT.A f a f AfATAJ/W 1 PRE-MORTEM COMPACTS. 1 ;.» i. l .i... 1 ...i.i.i.ui.i.,.i.i. iTiTi . i v i , i v i v t iVvi .i i.i.i.r.r.i»i,i,i /IVtN/IS/IV I .1 - l", I .I",".", I .. I v I ulvl » l.l.lvl .1 v I - I n, l . I y I v I Jl v I . I . I ^ Ivl.l v I - IV I V I VI VtVI VI Si\ LARGE MAJORITY of the people who think they believe in spiritualism, do not do so in fact. They are not deceived, but have made the wrong connections. The most in- telligent of their number admit that much of the work of mediums is fraudulent, but they know that some is genuine; and they rightly cling to the axiom that one truth is sufficient no matter how much falsehood it travels with. A dollar's worth of gold in a ton of earth is worth a dollar, no matter how little the dirt is worth. This is the situation with the so-called science of spirit- ualism. There is a ton of fraud, and a mite of truth. But the truth, no matter how firmly established, is not the kind of proof th.at must be required to make clear the fact that human beings are able to hold communications with the spirits of the dead. This chapter will be devoted to the latest and best known results obtained from a perfectly fair and impartial inves- tigation of the claims made in behalf of such doctrines. What is stated herein is not only the truth, but is con- curred in by all qualified experts who have gone into the analysis of the subject to the fullest extent. Opinions and theories are given no standing. If there is not a clear line of proof, and a psychic law to sustain it, the matter is left undecided. DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM 55 Spiritualism has always relied upon physical manifesta- tions. There is a constant suggestion of what is to occur. Per- sons who are present, being nervous and more or less ex- cited, fall under the influence of this suggestive power. The familiar mask seems to them to be the exact face of father, mother, sister, brother or friend, looking out of the spirit world upon them. Luminous phenomena have recently been produced by Dr. J. Maxwell of Bordeaux, France, that seem to baffle all attempts at explanation except on the theory of being ethereal bodies ; but they have not been as thoroughly inves- tigated as they will be in the near future. If they should be pronounced free from fraud and deception, they will merely take rank as additional proofs of the assertions made in the latter part of this book. Prof. Charles Richet has recorded an extraordinary case of materialization that was obtained under open conditions where fraud was seemingly impossible. Sir William Crookes gave personal testimony of physical manifestations, but his case comes under the conditions described in the chapter concerning ghostly violence. One class of cases seems to be free from the possibility of fraud. The medium will cause a cloud to issue from the side of the body, and a spirit will appear in the cloud. Yet in October, 1906, a showman by name of Maskelyne at St. George's Hall, London, reproduced the whole phenomena, and admitted that it was done by trickery. Editor William T. Stead of London announced to the world that he had found in a Mrs. Mellon, an English medium, the only person of undoubted materializing fac- ulty and undoubted character in the United Kingdom. Shortly after a seance held at Melbourne, Australia, a skep- tical individual in the audience seized the materialized spirit, and found it to be Mrs. Mellon herself. The investigating skeptic was assaulted by several persons present, but he held 56 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY on to the spirit, and thus the only medium of materializing faculty and character in the United Kingdom was caught red-handed. In addition to gauze masks, there are robes so thin and light that they can be folded and concealed in the hollow metal heel of the shoe worn by the medium, or the con- cealed hollow belt that is fastened to the inside of a skirt, or in hollow legs of chairs, or seats. One robe that con- tained yards of cloth, was folded small enough to be shut up in a watch case. A dozen masks may be so attached to the clothing as to seem a part of it. All is gauze, light and flimsy. They are dipped in phosphorous paint thinned with turpentine, and then perfumed and dried. Different heights of spirits are shown by various tricks. A child was portrayed by a stooping attitude in one case assisted by a proper mask; and in another instance by hold- ing out a mask with a small robe dangling from it. The excited person in the audience who imagined the child to be the spirit of one whom she had lost a year before, sprang to embrace it, and found only the mask and the gauze held by the extended hand of the medium. The tied hands and legs of mediums that are so quickly released are manipulated in the well known manner em- ployed by the Davenports, who were assisted by the Ma- gician Kellar, who has reproduced about every manifesta- tion ascribed to mediums. The cabinets often contain hollow doors, or hollow base- boards in which many things may be hidden. In one series of seances in which the medium remained tied all the time, and in full view of those present, seven others assisted by coming down through a trap door in the ceiling above, entering the cabinet, one after the other. One of them was dressed wholly in black, with a black mask over his face, but the right arm was coated with luminous paint. He walked among the people, writing messages with the arm, which seemed to float in space, as the DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM 57 body was almost invisible. He thrust these messages in the pockets of persons and gave other evidences of being a real spirit. One of the most convincing manifestations of recent years is that in which a ball of light gradually enlarges and pro- duces a full size spirit. Many persons have been converted to a belief in the spirit doctrine by such a display. But the method has been exposed. The person who acted the part of the ball of light was a woman who was let down from a room above into the cabinet. She was clad in white with a black mask. She thrust a rounded foot under the curtain of the cabinet and the light being concentrated on this white object made it shine like a ball. Then she gradually thrust the lower part of her dress under the curtain until her crouched form look like an enlarged ball of white. Finally she stood erect and laid aside the black mask, making it appear as if her head was the last part of the body to grow into place. The process was reversed, until she had again shrunk to the small white ball and wholly disappeared. Hereward Carrington, a member of the famous English Society for Psychical Research, and also of the independent American Branch and a member of the Council of the American Institute for Psychical Research, has devoted many years to an almost unbroken series of investigations, and sums up his knowledge in the following statement: 1. He started out in cold skepticism, expecting to find everything psychic to be fraudulent. 2. He now believes thoroughly in telepathy. 3. He now believes thoroughly that some trance mani- festations, some clairvoyance, some premonitions, most hyp- notic phenomena, alterations of personality, and subcon- scious mental activities are absolutely proved beyond cavil or doubt of any kind. He says also that it is possible that genuine materializa- tion exists as a fact in nature. To use his own words: " There must be some force in the world as yet unknown." 58 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY It is an indisputable fact that all the manifestations of mediums have been reproduced by magicians; and that mediums are either themselves magicians or employ that profession to aid them. The Psychic Society had in its employ a man not over thirty years of age, who was at the same time in the em- ploy of mediums. The latter were converting skeptics by the scores every year to a belief in spiritualism, on the ground that their manifestations and materializations could not possibly be the work of human agencies, and must there- fore be accepted as the product of spirit powers. The world of advanced investigation has come to the conclusion that the reasoning faculties are not endowed with the ability to draw conclusions from any supernatural phenomena, for the latter are not in the same realm as the mind. A person whose experience has been confined to one world cannot, without a taste of another world, pass judg- ment on the operations thereof. The reasoning powers are not qualified to settle the claims of any religion; and the age of reason is an era wholly deprived of any right to sit as arbitrator over a world that it cannot even enter, to say nothing of its helplessness to become a ruler of the same. Of all the erring faculties, the process of reason is the weakest and most unreliable. The same proofs and the same chain of reasoning can be made to lead to exactly op- posite conclusions in the hands of skilful thinkers. Take the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Courts of highest appeal in the various States, as examples of this faulty operation of the human mind. The same state of facts will lead by the soundest kind of rea- soning to results that are in violent conflict all along the line. A short time ago a body of able lawyers and keenest minded business men who had won gigantic fortunes, spent three weeks in dissecting the decisions of the highest court in a great State on criminal cases; and as hair-splitting DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM 59 followed hair-splitting, and discrepancy followed discrep- ancy, they saw nothing but ridicule in their analysis of those decisions that are famous all over the world for their microscopic technicalities. A business man said: "If the business of the nation were to be conducted on the same mental methods as the business of the courts must be under those decisions, every man of sound sense would go out of the commercial world into one of dreams. I never realized that high courts could split hairs so fine. I always sup- posed that the rulings of the courts were made for the purpose of simplifying the effort to get at the facts and do justice." Yet the peculiarity is that those decisions are founded on what seems on its face to be good reasoning. The logic is invincible. They read nicely as they progress toward their conclusions. But it is when those conclusions are taken and held up to the admitted facts that the mind re- ceives a shock from which it cannot easily recover. The highest tribunal in the land, the United States Supreme Court, has reversed itself many times on facts that are identical, but that have occurred at different peri- ods in the political history of the nation ; showing the bias of a court that should be free from all such influences. Yet the reasoning is perfect, and must stand as a model to the end of time of the manner in which the same sign-post can guide the mind on the same road in two directions at the same time, one diametrically opposite the other. Thus we see the infallibility of reason to draw conclu- sions from a proved state of facts. Take the same conditions in the study of spiritualism. Suppose it is proved that actual knocking is heard, and that the knocks respond to questions that are asked; thereby securing replies to almost any line of inquiry that may be made. One person says that this is proof that a spirit did the knocking. But the fact is that there is no connection between a spirit and the manifestation. There 60 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY are twenty better explanations of the knocking than that. Now suppose that the slate-writing were true, despite the fact that it has been proved to be a clever trick. The slate is made to write the words: "I am John Smith. I died eight years ago. I have been in the spirit world ever since." Suppose all that were actually written with- out fraud upon a slate. Does it prove that the assertions are true? There are a score of explanations for such writ- ing, better than the theory that a spirit produced the words. One man says: " It must be true for it says so. A spirit would not lie. If it would not lie, then what is written is the work of a spirit, because it says so." Here the reasoning is wholly faulty. The mind has the wrong connections. A young man tells his sweetheart that she is the first girl that he ever loved. She carries the state- ment in triumph to her mother, who asks her why she be- lieves it to be true, and she replies : " I am sure that I am the only girl he ever loved because he told me so." When we come to the study of psychic telepathy, we will see the source of all the so-called communications with departed spirits. As to the methods of writing on the inside surface of slates that are securely tied together, we will state that such writing is being done to-day by mixing iron filings with chalk and mucilage, slipping a small lump of the same between the slates, and then using on the finger outside a magnet that will cause the lump to write. Another method is to control the tying of the slates so that a long piece of thin wire can be slipped between them, and move a tiny bit of chalk over the surface. The first qualifications of a medium seem to be that he must possess the agility of a magician, perform slight of hand with ease, and be a genius at invention or imitation. There are scores of fakirs over the world who can do amaz- ing things that cannot be accounted for by the first thought except on the thory of the supernatural. DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM 61 In closing this chapter, we wish to mention one kind of manifestation that seems most puzzling. It has been sufficiently proved to be now accepted as a fact. It is the vibration that will sometimes concentrate on a given spot especially in the dark hours of night, when a person is alone. In one case a man heard it in his room at the top of his door, and a family overhead was awakened by it. He got a chair and stood close to the spot where the vi- brations were occurring, and saw the trembling of the door. This manifestation was repeated for one hundred nights and then ceased, never to return. Mr. Carrington, to whom we have referred, and whose testimony is regarded by his scientific brethren as fully reliable, says: " In considering the evidence in favor of and against ' raps ' I find that there is a certain weight of evidence in favor of their genuine character. But the principal rea- son that I believe that raps are sometimes genuine is that I myself have obtained them in my own apartment, where I live alone — no other person being present at the time. For four or five weeks rappings would begin in my room about IO o'clock and continue until I went to sleep and would increase in violence at the time I went to bed. They did not sound like creaks of the furniture, but like knocks made through thick cloth and upon woodwork. One night when they were louder than usual and keeping me awake I got out of bed and located them on my mantel-piece, where I could feel their vibrations. It was a queer sensa- tion to feel them coming at the very spot I was intently watching. An unexplainable feeling of apprehension would often come just before such raps would be heard there and in other parts of the room. Several other per- sons distinctly heard them on various occasions. One night I received them by concentrating my attention while await- ing a communication. Once I placed upon my couch a package of papers, fastened together with rubber bands. Instantly there was a loud, quick snap, just as if the 62 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY band had been lifted and allowed to fly back. During the time the raps were loudest I would feel a distinct pres- ence in the room or in the hallway, and once during these ap- parent hauntings a person occupying a flat on the same floor with me and having no inkling of my experiences, suddenly felt this presence, unsuggested. These raps have now ceased and 1 am well pleased that they have." That such phenomena are the result of a power within the human body will be seen later on in our work. But, in the absence of such proof, no one is justified in ascribing the cause to spirits. The dead depart for one of two purposes: either to take flight from this earth and all its scenes, or else to pass again through the experiences of earthly existence. In the pages of the second division of this volume, these facts will be clearly shown. But the dead, after the spirit has freed itself from the body and its environments, are forever helpless as far as any communication with the living is concerned. It is to show this utter helplessness on the part of the departed souls, that this book is written; or, at least, that is one of its great purposes. Facts are facts. They are more than recorded statements; they are actual living things. Let every person who feels willing to know the truth, lay aside all preconceived beliefs and come into close study of the subject for the sole end of learning the facts, no more and no less. To close the mind against any other belief than the one which has been nurtured until it has become a second nature, will not advance any man or woman along the royal highway of knowledge. Let us have the truth. Many persons who thought they believed in spiritualism will see, before this book is closed, that they have uncon- sciously had faith in the true thing under another name. 63 CHAPTER X. . '..':.' :.'.:.' ~k | THE SOUL IN PASSAGE. 1 ^ i OME THINGS are so well known that they afford no room for doubt, and very little for discussion. While it is quite well estab- lished that the spirits of the dead do not live on and maintain communications with the liv- ing, it is a proved fact that the soul in its flight makes its presence known at times and places, on its way out from the environments of earth. Each individual case does not exert an influence on the mind and belief of the general public ; but when the authentic instances are collected, they make an amazing mass of testimony that cannot fail to settle a question that should not be in doubt even in this era of speculative thought. If any Psychic Society were to devote itself to this one phase of the study of such phenomena, it would have but one verdict to report. Its chief work has been assigned to the investigation of ghosts, or the spirits that live on, as it has been claimed, long after death. The departure of the soul is manifested, if at all, to those who are interested in the individual from which it has gone forth. This being true, it follows that its mani- festations are confined to a close relationship or friendship. Such ties are sacred, and the experiences are rarely ever paraded before the public. They are both the most con- vincing and the most obscure of proofs. In the beginning of this account let the distinction be un- derstood between the ghosts and sprits of the dead, remain- ing in communication for months and years after life has 64 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY ceased in the body, and the passage of the soul in its flight from earth. There is a vast gulf between the two classes of cases. In the first class it has been shown that there is no proof of and no possibility for any ghost or spirit to continue in communication with the living. Every psychic law is against it, and not one tangible fact of any kind has been sustained that proves it. On the other hand the soul in its passage makes itself known in various ways for a brief period, and then is gone forever. Its fate is given many chapters of consideration in the second division of this treatise. There is no field of psychic investigation where so much is known of so small a stage of the existence of the soul. By the use of the word much the idea to be conveyed is that there is an overwhelming mass of testimony on this brief span of spirit life. Not every person has had evidence of the passing of the soul. It is possible that not more than one person in a hun- dred, if as many, can state with certainty that manifestations of this kind have occurred. But the total number of per- sons who can so testify is, nevertheless, very great. Mem- bers of investigating committees have not in the beginning of their work directed their attention to the claims of those who have had evidence of the flight of the soul; but they soon find that such evidence is the most abundant of any that bears upon these problems. The result is that they soon learn to take for granted the fact that the soul does pass out of the body in a way that can be understood by all classes of people. Scientists who had no opinions on the subject before they came across this line of testimony, are quickly converted to a fixed belief in the fact. What transactions have convinced them? A man who was at work in 1906 in his place of business at the hour of ten o'clock in the morning, with the bright sun shining in the room, saw the form of his wife enter- THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 65 ing at the door. She came directly to him, but said noth- ing. He supposed that she had come for money with which to do some shopping, and he pulled forth two bills to give to her. But she had gone. Three others in the room saw him take out the money, and noted the look of alarm on his face when he was about to hand it to her. " That was my wife," he said. They told him that no one had been there. But he ran to the door and called loudly to her. In distress he put on his hat and coat to go to his home, when a messenger brought the news that his wife had been killed by an auto- mobile as she was about to pass in at the gate to her home. The car had left the road in making a sudden turn at a speed of a steam locomotive, and, dashing on the sidewalk, had crushed out the life of the woman. She had been dead not more than two minutes when the vision entered the husband's office. This kind of an occurrence is common. It seems that the spirit is helpless to speak. It cannot be accounted for on the theory of the subconscious power of the person visited, for the process is the reverse of that. A woman was walking along a public highway on a bright afternoon and saw her sister running hard towards her. As they met, the sister stopped, held out her hand which was very white, looked with eyes that were large, full and melting, into the eyes of the woman, and was no more. Two passers-by noted the fact that the woman had stopped, and that she was evidently in trouble. They ad- dressed her when they saw that she was faint. But it was clearly established that she showed no signs of being faint until after she had stopped. She told her story to them and took their addresses, and they received hers, as it was the desire of all to know what the vision portended. That night a telegram came from a city four hundred miles away, telling of the death of the sister that had occurred at about the moment of the vision. 5 66 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY The time is important as it shows the rapidity with which a soul may move. Another fact is important. The woman who saw the vision was east of the sister's home. In view of the uni- versal fact that the spirits move in an easterly direction, it is well to note the relationship between this point of the compass and the other operations of nature. A physician who had lived all his life in New York and most of it in New York City, and who held prominent po- sitions in medical organizations, lost his wife. She had a sister living in Brooklyn, east of New York. At the hour of her death, according to letters written to the author by the doctor, the passage of some unusual vitality made its course through the city, giving evidence at the homes of several dear frinds, and finally appearing to a living sister across the bridge. Investigation proved that every detail of the account was true. A man died in the city of Washington, D. C, and his form appeared in London, then in Paris, then in Rome, and finally in Calcutta, India, all in a space of ten hours. The vision was so distinct in each case that the time was noted, as some accident was feared. They all compared notes afterward, and the time was adjusted to that at Washington, showing a lapse of ten hours from the time of the death there before the final appearance at Calcutta. There was a lapse of but thirty minutes from the demise to the vision in London ; then a lapse of three hours be- tween the presence in London and that in Paris. Two hours and ten minutes afterward the vision appeared in Rome, and a little more than four hours later it was in Calcutta. These different periods in time indicate that the spirit had the power to remain in one place for a while. If this is so, where is its abode, and how does it busy itself? An officer of the English army died while visiting a dis- tant relative in Berlin. Almost nineteen hours later his THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 67 presence was distinctly seen by three fellow officers in Lon- don. On its face this shows that the spirit moved in a westerly direction. But a letter from Bombay, India, ar- rived in due course of time, stating that the vision was seen in that city. The date and hour were fixed beyond doubt, and they proved conclusively that the spirit had moved in an easterly direction, having been in Bombay within four hours after death, and thence showing itself in London fifteen hours after that time. The course must, therefore, have been easterly, and the spirit nearly traversed the earth. A man in Washington, D. C, whose nephew was in office in the same city, received a telegram from his sister asking if anything had happened to the young man, who was her son. The despatch said nothing further. It arrived over the wires at 9 132 in the morning. It left New Haven at 8:13 the same afternoon. A letter was mailed soon after the telegram was sent, saying that the mother while dressing in her bedroom that morning looked out the window and saw her son coming across the lawn. He staggered and fell to the ground. Calling to another person in the house she told him to hurry out and help the young man as he had come home sick and was lying on the grass. When she looked out again he was not there, but she supposed that he had arisen and found his way into the house. A search resulted in nothing but deep mystery. The mother at once surmised that the sight she saw was a vision of her son, and she sent the telegram to Washington for information. The man who received it called as soon as possible at the boarding place of his nephew. They said that the young man had not been seen that morning. Search was made and he was found in his room still in bed. Physi- cians were summoned who stated that his death had oc- curred early that morning. The mother fixed the time of seeing the vision as about ten minutes past seven, as she arose promptly at seven and had but partly dressed. In this instance the spirit moved in a northerly direction, 68 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY but to the east. It is not possible to assert that had the death occurred in Connecticut, and the mother been in Washington, the spirit would have taken flight around the whole world in order to have made the visit at Washington ; but the chances are that it would have done that or not appeared at all. In all the cases investigated there is nothing to indicate that such a flight would not be taken. Another army officer died in Lyons, France, and his spirit appeared in Manchester, England, within seven hours. In that period of time, it was seen in Egypt and also in China, but in successive passage, showing that it did not manifest itself simultaneously at any two places, but maintained a journey. All authentic accounts of the passage of the soul have con- formed to this habit of traveling in an easterly direction, deviating to the north or south at will, but not reversing the direction. There are over three hundred verified cases of visions of persons who have died in India appearing in England. In most of them there have been no middle stations or stop- ping places between India and England, and the first thought would be, if considered at all, that the flight had been westerly. But in a few cases there have been inter- vening visions of the same spirit, and these prove that the flight was easterly all the way. This warrants the asser- tion that all the other journeys have conformed to the natural law of an easterly flight. The earth revolves on its axis in an easterly direction. This makes the sun seem to rise in the east and set in the west. The earth makes its ^annual course around the sun in an easterly direction. This fact is shown by the stars and constellations all rising in the eastern sky. The moon revolves around the earth in an easterly direction. She is seen in the west as a crescent; but night after night she travels more and more away from the west, going to her eastern home. THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 69 The sun throws off its light and fire in an easterly di- rection and the planets move on their orbits also in an east- erly course. The solar system is making its journey in the same harmonious way around the other systems of the sky. All life is directly derived from the sun. All vitality springs from that giant orb. Whatever has come to man on earth, whether in substance or in psychic character, has been donated by the sun. All the light and heat of the earth is borrowed. There is harmony in the heavens. Suns, planets, satellites and star-dust all move in one stream of flight, trending to the east; and in their sweep the soul is very likely engulfed. Ether is the universal atmosphere of the entire sky; and, as the soul is ethereal, it probably has the power to assume inconceivable speed in its passage. In ninety-five per cent, of the cases investigated, the parties involved have been blood relations or husband and wife. In the other five per cent, they have been close friends. In no case has there been a manifestation from the spirit of a stranger or a mere acquaintance or ordinary friend. Two men who were closely associated in study were seperated by the death of one, and his spirit came in a very distinct manner to the survivor. This occurred one minute after death. Three women in a small village were allied in church work for many years, and had become fast friends. One of them died at a hospital to which she had been carried in her last sickness. The two others were at their homes nine miles away, each alone in her room, the houses being about two hundred yards apart. When their friend had gone to the hospital, they were assured that she would get well and be about in a few weeks. The demise occurred at fourteen minutes past nine. One of the survivors sat in her room winding her watch, which was afterwards found to be three minutes fast. As she held the watch in her hand the spirit of the dead woman, or the form itself as though living, entered and stood before the surprised be- 7 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY holder. The watch stopped at eighteen minutes past nine, or one minute after the death. " How did you get here? " she asked. No reply came, but still the woman saw the face and form, and the well known dress ; and, as she sprang for- ward to greet her, the vision receded, not by steps, but by a gliding motion, and left the room at the wall. Calling another person in the house, the frightened woman told what had happened, and decided to call at once on the other friend, who lived about six hundred feet away. It seems that the latter had begun preparations for re- tiring, and was alone in her room, seated on the edge of the bed. She turned to place something on the pillow when she felt the touch of a warm hand on her arm. She ut- tered a scream that was heard by others in the house, who ran to her. Before they came, however, she saw the arm, then the head and upper half of the body of the woman who had died, and the vision ended in less than four sec- onds. The time was two minutes later than that of the manifestation at the house of the other woman, or three minutes after the death nine miles away. Here were facts enough, with witnesses enough to make a clear case. But when the first woman reached the house of the second and found all in commotion, the entire village knew of it, although as yet there had been no news of the result at the hospital. Everybody seemed to feel certain that the invalid had died, and this fact was confirmed the next day. Case after case might be cited along the same line. One great law seems to run through them all, and that is the close proximity of time between the death and the manifestation. There is not a single instance of a manifestation more than fifty hours after the death, and but one in our records as late as that. In this case the spirit visited a home four THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 71 times. It was the husband of a woman who had no chil- dren and was living in her own house with two sisters. The man had died in a railroad wreck. He had been badly injured, and his head was bandaged after he was pulled from the car. In the effort to save other sufferers, he was placed along the bank near the track, and left there for hours, when he died. The wreck occurred at a few minutes past six in the evening, and he passed away before ten o'clock the same night. The wife lived in Newark, New Jersey, and the hus- band died in the State of Illinois. Making due allowance for the difference in time, the first vision appeared ten minutes after the demise. The wife was terribly fright- ened when it passed out of the room, for she had thought her husband had actually returned sooner than he was ex- pected, and she rose to greet him, calling him by name. Her voice was distinctly heard by her two sisters; then her scream followed and brought them to her assistance. " He has been killed ! He has been killed ! I just saw him! His face was white!" These were her ejaculations as she tried to explain to her sisters what she had seen. The wife refused to go to bed that night. Her sister sat up with her. At about three o'clock in the morning the form of the man was seen, this time with the bandage about his head. One of the sisters also saw the face, and the other sister saw the general outline, although dimly. He seemed to appear directly to the wife. He tried to speak, but could not. He raised his hand and placed it to his head, and closed his eyes, then opened them again. The women were paralyzed with fear, and could not speak. The vision then passed away. Two days afterwards, the man came in a clear white vision with a radiant face and bright features, and stood by her side. He lifted his hand and pointed upward, and vanished. At just fifty hours after the time of the death, as the evi- 72 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY dence afterward showed, he came once more into the pres- ence of the three women, and again pointed upward. Com- ing somewhat closer he extended both hands to the wife, and raised them, adding a gesture of beckoning as though asking her to follow him. Then his body floated away, and, as she declared, in an upward direction. The final visit was witnessed almost wholly by all the three sisters. At this time two other relatives were in the house, as the news had come of the accident; and they heard the commotion that followed. The widow expected soon to die and follow him; but has lived on for many years. She had no belief in spiritual- ism prior to the death of her husband ; but afterward, as he did not again appear to her, she sought the aid of mediums, but without avail. In this case the evidence was trustworthy. It should be noted as a constant fact that the manifesta- tions of the passing soul do not occur by the aid of mediums ; while almost all communications with the spirits of the dead, as claimed, are wholly through the agency of mediums. This fact alone helps to settle the much discussed question of the genuineness of the seances. This peculiar phase of the phenomena will be found uni- formly present in every case that has been investigated by the committees of other psychical societies. The communi- cations with the dead require the aid of mediums; but the manifestations of the departing spirit are made to the rela- tives or friends direct. Thus the honesty of the latter and the unreliability of the former can at once be assumed. The facts that have been established are as follows: 1. The spirit of the person who has recently died does in fact leave the body. 2. It takes passage at once. 3. It may linger about its old haunts or be delayed in transit in other places; but never more than a day or two. 4. It journeys in an easterly direction. THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 73 5. It appears only to those who are related or otherwise dear in association or friendship. 6. It rarely speaks or makes a sound, although there are claimed instances of the use of words. 7. It is seen but briefly, rarely more than a second or two of time being the duration of its visit. 8. Its purpose seems to be a desire to see some one that it has loved in life, and to pass on. 9. The deduction can be safely drawn that the departing spirit does in fact come into the presence of those it has loved in life, and sees them while in most cases it is not seen. 10. When it is seen by a living person the latter is un- doubtedly acutely developed in the subconscious faculty. But there is rarely if ever any appearance to those who pro- fess to believe in spiritualism. 11. It may be assumed that the soul visits in a small space of time many places where it has lived and many per- sons it has known. The use of words is rare in such phenomena. Some have claimed to have heard the well known voice; but we have not found an instance of the combination of sight and sound. The spoken words are connected with dreams rather than with waking hours. The psychic law states that the soul does not employ the language of the human voice of flesh ; and this law has been made in order to prevent the openness of knowledge that would follow if it were possible for the mind of a person to know the thoughts of all other persons. If you knew everything that was in the minds of other people, and they knew all that was in your mind, life on earth would be suddenly transformed into a paradise of per- fection, for wrong would cease in the instant. Sin and crime cannot exist in openness of knowledge. It is because nature intends that a free mind and a volun- tary virtue shall be developed in the life of every human 74 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY being, that a wall is built up between the conscious and the subconscious minds, and the language of one shall not be the language of the other. This being true, it follows that the spirit must be de- prived of the speech of humanity. Sounds, vibrations and various kinds of physical demon- strations have attended the flight of the soul; but never long after the death of the body. In a few cases other senses have been employed. A woman who was exceedingly fond of one kind of rose relates a very strong manifestation that involved the use of the sense of smell. Her husband was more than a thou- sand miles away, and was killed in an accident. He had been in the habit of bringing her bouquets of the roses that pleased her so much. During his absence she had not had them, nor had one been in the house. One evening she turned sharply about in her chair and inquired who had brought those beautiful roses into the room. " I was just about to ask you that question," was the statement of the person addressed. They were indeed very fragrant, but could not be found. The wife declared that she knew they were somewhere in the room, and a search was made, but the intensity grew more and more, while not a sign of a flower could be found. At length they traced the odor to a certain place on the dresser where a small photograph of the husband was standing in a metal frame. There was no mistaking the fragrance and the variety of rose from which it seemed to emanate. There was no ces- sation that evening of the odor; nor the next day. Think- ing that it might be some form of deception in which the senses of two persons were duped, the wife called in ten friends the next day, one at a time, and said nothing to any of them on the subject in mind. As each entered the house the fragrance was at once noticed, and generally commented upon, as it filled the house, although its intensity was con- THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 75 fined to one place. She even had the visitors go to the room and locate the place where it seemed to be strongest, and not one failed to do so. When a suggestion was made that it boded ill, the wife laughed down the idea. At noon of the next day the odor ceased as suddenly as if it had not existed at all. Not the remotest trace remained. In a few minutes a telegram ar- rived telling of the fatal accident and the time when it oc- curred. This was found to coincide with the time when the fragrance of the roses was noticed. So rare is such a case that this would have been disposed of with little credence were it not for the fact that it cre- ated such a stir and involved so many persons. Although the fact of the passage of the soul is well es- tablished and is believed by even the skeptics in all the psychical societies of the world, the further investigation of cases should be continued without limit, as too much testi- mony cannot be had on the subject. We hope that all members of the Psychic Society will participate in furnish- ing authentic accounts of such phenomena, provided per- sonal knowledge and not hearsay is made the basis of all statements. It should be the duty of the member to sift by the most rigid methods all stories of such manifestations, and enter into a personal investigation of the happenings. Much depends on the degree of development of a person in the use of the subconscious faculty, in his or her power to receive manifestations. It has been stated by a keen ob- server that, when more people are able to employ that faculty, then more evidence will be forthcoming on this subject; for, with subconscious eyes, everything in the uni- verse can be seen with absolute clearness. The truth is wanted at all times. If the Psychic Society can be the means of stimulating the determination to secure the truth and nothing but the truth, half the mysteries of life will have been driven away. When spirits are supposed to hold communications with 76 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY the living, it is done as has been stated through the agency of mediums; and here the subconscious faculty of the medi- ums are employed, if they are genuine. About one in a thousand is reliable. But no medium professes to know what occurs during the trance. The natural voice speaks, and natural agencies write or otherwise carry on the com- munication. This is a translation of the psychic into the ordinary, with the mind of the medium a blank, although that mind receives the messages. Such a combination is both inconvenient and unsavory. On the other hand, the clear mind of the person visited receives the communication or witnesses the vision ; thus tak- ing away the argument that the manifestation are subcon- scious impressions made by the dying person on the mind of the recipient, and not the actual spirit on its journey. Here is the pivotal point in this study. To settle all doubt every member of the Psychic Society should aid us in following out all evidence to the farthest extreme, for it means much to every living person. Some clearly presented facts have been secured which make it positive to our minds that the soul does in reality take its flight. There is evidence of a progressive condi- tion. The man who was hurt and so appeared, and whose head was bandaged as was shown in his second appearance, and who afterwards showed his face radiant and out of pain, certainly proved that the soul was progressive. If this is true, then the subconscious impression was proof of the existence of the soul. A person who is alive can make a subconscious impression on any other person at any distance. But after death such power ceases. This law is well established. The vision of a person hurt or in trouble, which is so common as to attract little wonder now-a-days, is a pre- monition in the form of a subconscious picture or impression. It can only be made by the living on the living. Never has THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 77 there been an instance of a dead person impressing a living being, except under the laws of the passage of the soul. All impressions after death must come from the vitality that has left the body, and that is the immortal part of it. To discuss this subject thoroughly would invite into this work another volume several times the size of this book. Any reader who is anxious to go more deeply into it, is re- ferred to the higher systems that deal with the laws and their proofs in a most convincing manner. In closing this chapter we again repeat that the skeptics who are connected with the various psychical societies have been converted absolutely to the belief in the fact that there is a spirit in the human body, which separates from it at the moment of death, and takes its journey over the world and out into space, never again to return. This view is in accord with all the highest forms of re- ligion throughout the earth. On the other hand the be- liever in spiritualism, or the continuous power of the dead to communicate with the living, is regarded as the enemy of the church and the adherent to a false religion. These views have been submitted to the leading men in all the great denominations, and they are heartily endorsed. It is a satisfaction to be in harmony with the leading thought of the best minds on earth to-day. The conclusions reached after the examination of thou- sands of cases on this branch of the work of the Psychic Society, were all agreed to without in any way seeking light from the advanced systems of study on the same subject, to which reference is made in the latter part of this volume. Thus two roads that pass through entirely different realms, converge and come together at the end. Thus double proof of the existence and habits of the soul is secured. The third great highway of satisfying evidence on the same subject is found in the religions of the civilized world. These have not been consulted in the investigations, for the Society desired to prove its way by the fixed laws of life. 78 CHAPTERXI. <| /ivivMvivi»ivi»ivi/i,i ^wi„iviv i^i.i.-i.i.i. i~ „ i~iT>TiTi Ti vVTiTTTiTi ~ ~i~i^